How to Make Awesome Marinara Sauce

Use fresh tomatoes in season, otherwise canned tomatoes work well.

Marinara, aka tomato sauce, is a multi-purpose sauce used for pastas, pizza or other such yummy delicacies as chicken or veal parmesan or, my personal favourite, meatball sandwiches.

I always have some on hand, mainly because I hate the premade jarred varieties, which tend to taste metallic and just plain yucky. I prefer a sweet, tangy tomato sauce, and this recipe fits the bill.

Fresh tomatoes are all well and good when they’re in season. But for convenience, I use either a jar of strained tomatoes with nothing added but a bit of salt and some basil. Or a good quality can of whole tomatoes, which tend to be better quality than their diced or crushed counterparts.

This makes enough for a lightly sauced pasta, with enough left over for pizza. If I’m not planning to make a pizza within a few days, I store the leftovers in the freezer.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp. olive oil
1 shallot, finely diced
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 jar of strained tomatoes or a can of whole tomatoes, juices drained
1 tsp. granulated sugar
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh basil

Step 1

Add oil to a pot over medium meat. Once oil is heated, add the shallot and cook for a few minutes, stirring it to avoid burning. Add the minced garlic, and stir it in, allowing it to heat for 20 seconds or so. 

Step 2

Add the tomatoes, sugar, salt and pepper, and bring it to a slow simmer. If you're using the whole tomatoes, crush them with clean hands before adding, or you can use a potato masher once you add it all together if you don't mind a chunky sauce. Allow it to simmer for a half hour or so. Add your finely chopped basil once you’ve removed it from the heat.

Tips
If you decide to go the fresh tomato route, cut them in half and add them with the garlic. Don't remove the jelly, seeds or skin to start, as these components hold the most flavour. Instead, after they've broken down and reduced adequately, strain the sauce through a food mill or sieve to remove the seeds and skin.

Going the fresh tomato route, if you want to reduce cooking time, halve the tomatoes and predry them in a warm oven beforehand. Because tomatoes are watery, if you don't reduce the sauce's water content, it'll separate into thick and thin portions.

Quinoa: A Primer

Quinoa means "mother grain."

Quinoa, also referred to as vegetable caviar or Inca rice, is a grain native to the Andes Mountains of Bolivia, Chile and Peru. Despite being a relatively new addition to the North American diet, the people of the Andes have consumed it for over 5,000 years.

Quinoa, it seems, is all the rage these days. It’s being touted as a wonder grain all over the media for its high protein and amino acid content. And if that’s not enough, when compared to wheat, barley and corn, its official rivals, quinoa is lower in sodium, and higher in calcium, copper, iron, magnesium, manganese, phosphorus, potassium and zinc, and it’s gluten-free to boot!

Quinoa is used for flour, soups, breakfast cereals and alcohol. Most of the quinoa sold in the US is in grain form that needs to be cooked. Despite its prevalence in the media, however, many of us are stumped as to what to do with it. Its very exoticness (yup, that’s a word) makes it intimidating. Well, fear the grain no more, here’s a basic primer.

To Cook:

Before cooking, you’ll want to rinse it. Cover 1 cup of quinoa in a bowl and add enough water to cover it. Gently rub the grains in your hands to remove the saponin, a bitter outer coating. Drain it into a fine mesh strainer, then repeat if desired. Most quinoa is pre-rinsed, but it doesn’t hurt to do it a few more times.

To cook quinoa, bring two cups of water to a boil. Stir in the rinsed quinoa, reduce heat and simmer, covered for about 15 minutes, or until all the water has been absorbed. Let it sit for at least five minutes, then fluff it with a fork.

One cup of cooked quinoa contains 155 calories, 30 g carbs, 3 g fat, 5.5 g protein and 3 g fiber. 
  

Mix it with any combination of veggies, dried fruit and vinaigrette you like to make a salad. Or, like rice, you can pile a delicious stir-fry on top and eat it that way. The possibilities are endless.

To Make Quinoa Flour:

Wash the seeds, then place them in a heated skillet, stirring constantly until they’re dry. Let them cool, then process in a blender until it reaches the desired flour-like consistency. Two-thirds a cup of seeds will yield about 1 cup of flour. Store the flour in an airtight container in the freezer for up to four months. You can use the flour to replace part of regular flour in muffins, quick-breads, pancakes, etc.

The Sweet Potato

The sweet potato, often incorrectly referred to as the yam, is a nutritional super food. Not only is it fat free, one cup of sweet potato contains 65 percent of our daily vitamin C requirements. That same single-cup serving provides 26 percent of our required daily fibre, and has more beta carotene than carrots, so suck on that, Bugs Bunny.

This starchy tuber also contains vitamins A, B6, riboflavin, thiamine and niacin, not to mention a whole slew of minerals, including copper, calcium, iron, phosphorous, potassium, sodium, zinc, selenium and manganese.

All that nutritional goodness probably explains why it’s such a popular baby food, but we can’t discount how great it tastes. Babies don’t lie.

The orange-fleshed sweet potato is the most common variety, but there are also yellow- and white-fleshed ones, which tend to be more firm when cooked. These firmer types were considered the crème de la crème by fancy types at one time, but are more difficult to find, unless you’re in the deep South.

Sweet potatoes can be baked, boiled, broiled, fried, microwaved, canned or frozen. My kids like baked sweet potato fries tossed in a little oil, salt and paprika, but beware, they don’t crisp up like their russet cousins. Their flavour, however, is awes-mazing, as my kids would say.

If you really want to bring out their sweetness, bake them slowly at a low temperature. To minimize the sweetness, heat them through quickly by microwaving, boiling or steaming.

Select firm, unbruised potatoes, and store them in a cool, dry location – ideally between 55 and 60 F. Do not refrigerate, which will cause a hard core that can't be corrected through cooking. They won't keep as long as regular potatoes.

Brussels Sprouts, Friend or Foe?

Well...that depends on how you cook 'em.

Brussels sprouts belong to the cabbage family, and tend to get a bad rap. It's probably the smell, which is not unlike a teenager's feet after hours of basketball in wool socks. But if you use fresh sprouts and don’t overcook them, they’re like little balls of goodness.

First off, try to buy the freshest Brussels sprouts you can find. Avoid the large ones, as they tend to have the strongest flavour. Instead, opt for sprouts with a one- to one-and-a-half-inch diameter. Use them within a couple of days of their purchase.

Select firm, tender heads free of insects—okay, I guess that last bit should go without saying. Pick ones with stems that look freshly cut.

These hardy little cousins of the cabbage are actually high in protein, albeit an incomplete protein, lacking the full spectrum of amino acids. Serve them with some whole grains, and voila, there’s your complete protein.

Now for the cooking part: don’t, I repeat, don’t overcook them, or you’ll be left with the bloated, bitter, mushy mess of your nightmares, and that sulphery smell to boot.

Once they start losing their bright green hue, you’ve cooked them too long. They also lose a lot of their nutritional value at this point, so serve them bright green and beautiful.

If you’re cooking them whole, cut an X in the bottom of the stem for even cooking.

Personally, I like to “disassemble” the sprouts and sauté the leaves. I'm not a huge fan of the consistency of whole sprouts. Simply cut off the edge of the stem and peel away the leaves. Then sauté them in oil or butter with some garlic, salt and pepper, and you’re good to go.

In Keys to Good Cooking, food scientist Harold McGee suggests cutting the sprouts in half or pulling them apart and boiling them to rid them of their bitter flavour. The boiling leaches out the bitter compounds (and some of their nutritional value).

Lentil-Chick Pea Salad

This awesome salad is fresh, light and all kinds of wonderful. Plus, it's healthy, so you can justify indulging in some of that eggless chocolate mousse for dessert!






Ingredients
1 can lentils
1 can chick peas
2 large tomatoes
3 tbsp. fresh parsley, chopped
Red onion, chopped finely
2 tbsp. olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Step 1
Drain and rinse the lentils and chick peas in a colander. Cut the tomatoes into bite-sized pieces.

Step 2
Mix the lentils, chick peas, tomatoes, parsley, onion, olive oil and salt and pepper. That's it. Now you've got yourself a healthy, delicious salad. Enjoy!

Eggless Chocolate Mousse

I don't know about you, but I'm not big on raw eggs in my desserts. Sometimes it can't be avoided. For example, I wouldn't turn down a traditional chocolate mousse handed to me by anyone for anything...EVER. But when I make mousse, I prefer to make it simple: chocolate, heavy cream, sugar, vanilla and a touch of butter. Use the best quality chocolate you can.





Ingredients:
10 oz. heavy cream (35%)
2 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
5 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1 tsp. butter

Step 1
Break up chocolate into small pieces and place it in a double boiler. (Fill a pot with about an inch of water and turn it onto medium heat. Place a stainless steel bowl overtop, and you've got a double boiler). Make sure there is absolutely NO water in the chocolate bowl or nasty things will happen. Water and chocolate do not friends make.

Step 2
Pour the whipping cream in a mixer and set it on high. Whip it until it's nice and stiff (about 2 minutes), adding the vanilla and sugar about halfway through the process.

Step 3
Remove the bowl of chocolate from the double boiler once it's thoroughly melted. Add butter to the chocolate and mix well with a rubber spatula.

Step 4
Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate carefully until just incorporated. Garnish with shaved chocolate and whipped cream if you're so inclined.

How to Make Homemade Pancakes

Sounds too simple for a whole post, doesn't it? But still, people continue to buy pancake mixes in the store, even though making a flapjack from scratch is just as easy. Five ingredients, that's all. And, of course, you can customize them anyway you like. I personally like blueberry-banana pancakes.

This particular recipe makes a crepe-like pancake; the batter is quite thin, and the end result is flat and delicious.

Step 1
Mix 1 cup of flour, 1/2 tsp. baking powder, a pinch of salt and 1 tbsp. of sugar until just combined.
Add 1 cup of milk and two eggs and blend completely.

Step 2
Turn the burner on medium, and place the pan on the heat. Allow the pan to heat up for a few minutes, then add 1 tbsp. of butter.

Step 3
Once the butter is melted and spread around, spoon the batter in, the amount depending on the size of pancakes you're going for. Don't flip until the surface is covered in holes.

Tip:
Add 1/2 tsp. of vanilla to the batter for a delicious vanilla flavour.
Mash 1/2 a very ripe banana and blend it into the batter for banana pancakes.

Creamy Dip

I must admit, I used light versions of the first three ingredients, much to the chagrin of my chef husband who hates anything light.

Ingredients
8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature
1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup sour cream
4 green onions finely chopped
1 clove of garlic, minced
3 tbsp. of grated Parmesan cheese
3 tbsp. cheddar cheese
1 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper

Step 1
Place all the ingredients together in a bowl and blend thoroughly, preferably with an electric mixer.

That's it. Just one step.

Curried Cauliflower Soup

Ingredients

1 head cauliflower  (about 2 1/4 lb.) cut into florets
2 tbsp. canola oil
1 tsp. of salt
1 tbsp. butter
3 onions (sliced 1-inch thick)
1 1/2 tsp. curry powder
4 cups water
2 cups vegetable stock
2 tbsp. chopped fresh parsley

Step 1
Preheat oven to 450 F. On a baking sheet, toss cauliflower with oil and
salt. Spread out evenly, and roast until the florets turn brown, about 25
minutes

Step 2
In a medium pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add onions, and cook until soft, about 5 minutes.
Stir in the curry powder, roasted cauliflower, water and stock; cover and bring to a boil.
Once boiling, uncover, lower the heat, and simmer for five minutes.

Step 3
Scoop out 3 cups of cauliflower to a bowl, and set aside. Puree the soup using either a hand-held blender or a standing blender. Reheat if necessary. Ladle the soup into the bowls, and top with the reserved florets and
parsley.

Creamy Cole Slaw

Ingredients

4 cups finely shredded green cabbage

3 green onions thinly sliced

2 large carrots, finely shredded

2 apples, peeled and finely shredded

Dressing

1/3 cup light mayonnaise

1/3 cup light sour cream

1 tbsp. Dijon mustard

2 tbsp. cidar vinegar

1 tbsp. granulated sugar

½ tsp. each of salt and pepper

½ tsp. celery seeds

Step 1

Presalt the cabbage to extract moisture and diminish bitterness.

Step 2

Mix the cabbage, onions, carrots and apples in a large bowl.

Step 3

Mix the dressing ingredients in a small bowl with a whisk.

Step 4

Combine dressing and salad and chill until you’re ready to eat.

Spaghetti Squash “Pasta”

Ingredients

1 medium spaghetti squash.
2 tbsp. olive oil

1/2 cup of chopped red pepper

1 garlic clove, minced

1 can plum tomatoes

Salt and pepper to taste

1/4 tsp. of basil

1/2 cup of parmesan cheese

2 tbsp. of butter

Step 1

Poke several holes in the spaghetti squash with a fork. Place in the microwave and cook for 10-15 minutes.

Alternatively, place the piereced squash in a shallow baking pan and bake for about an hour in a 375F oven.

Step 2

Place a frying pan over medium heat and let it heat up. Add the olive oil, then the red pepper. Cook the red pepper for a few minutes, then add the minced garlic clove. Cook the garlic for about 30 second, stirring constantly so it doesn’t burn. Add the can of tomatoes and season with salt and pepper. Allow the mixture to simmer for a few minutes.

Step 3

Scrape out the squash with a fork. It should resemble spaghetti. Toss it with the butter.

Step 4

Turn off heat. Add the chopped basil and squash to the tomato sauce. Mix well and place in bowls. Add parmesan cheese.

How To Roast Beets

Beets are both yummy and messy (if we’re talking about the purple-skinned buggers). They have an earthy, delicious flavor, and are high in fiber, folate and vitamin A. Many home cooks are reluctant to prepare beets from raw because of the potential for nasty stains. Especially where kids are involved. If you’re brave enough to just deal with purple hands, beets are an amazing addition to salads, or just eaten on their own. You can also pickle them by putting them in the liquid from an empty jar of pickles. If you don’t want to deal with the mess, there are golden beets and candy-cane-striped beets, as well, that don’t stain and have a very similar taste. All beets look awesome on a plate, but candy cane ones are especially funky.

Step 1

Preheat the oven to 425 F. Trim off the ends of the beets, and scrub them thoroughly under cool, running water.

Step 2

Place the beets on a large piece of foil that’s been folded in half. Drizzle with water. Wrap the foil over and seal the package tightly.

Step 3

Place the package on a baking sheet and put it in the oven. Heat until tender, about an hour, depending on the size of the beets. You can test the tenderness by piercing them with a fork; if you meet little resistance, they’re done. Be careful not to burn your hand with steam when you unseal the package.

Step 4

Once the beets cool, peel them by hand. The skin should come off easily.

Tips

Try to find similarly sized beets so they’ll cook evenly.

Smaller beets are generally preferable as large ones tend to be woody and tough.

Good-quality beets are well-formed with a scantily haired root. If the body is crooked or the roots hairy, they’ve likely struggled to grow and might be tough.
Beets and beet greens should be stored in the refrigerator.

Try sauteing the green with garlic and olive oil for a healthy, delicious treat. Make them like you’d make spinach; they taste just like beets.

How to Make Vegetable Stock

Vegetable stock is a flavorful base liquid used for cooking fish, grains and pasta, as well as being a base for vegetarian soups and sauces. Avoid veggies with strong flavors like cabbage and its sulfrous relatives, Brussels sprouts, kale and cauliflower. Basically things that make you fart. You can include whatever veggies and herbs you like: carrots, onions and leeks contribute sweetness, celery, saltiness and mushrooms add savoriness. Tomatoes are sweet, tart and savory. Wine and vinegar add tartness along with other layers of aroma unique to the type.

Step 1

Rinse your vegetables under cool, running water. Cut them into small pieces and include the peelings.

Step 2

Saute the veggies briefly in butter or oil before adding the water.

Step 3

Add cold water to the pot, and bring it to a gentle simmer. Aim for about two parts water to one part vegetable, measuring by weight. One cup of water is a little more than a ½ lb.

Step 4

Add any wine or vinegar after you’ve been simmering the veggies for about 10 minutes. If you add it too early, it will interfere with vegetable softening and flavor extraction.

Step 5

Simmer the stock gently, careful not to boil, for another 30 to 40 minutes. If you simmer it too long, it will develop an unpleasant aroma.

Step 6

Strain the stock through a fine sieve or cheesecloth, careful not to press on the veggies, which causes cloudiness.

Step 7

Cool the stock quickly by placing the pot in ice, or pour it into smaller containers to speed the cooling process. Store in the refrigerator, or the freezer for longer-term storage.

How to Roast Green Beans

Green beans, aka snap beans or French beans are a great source of vitamins and minerals, as well as dietary fiber. They’re also easy to find year-round and relatively inexpensive. The green bean casserole, an invention of the Campbell’s Soup Company to boost sales of their cream of mushroom soup is a common side dish at Thanksgiving. The casserole combines green beans with the canned soup from concentrate and (gasp!) canned fried onions to produce an interesting, not-so-healthy side dish. Sure it looks appetizing, but why not try something simpler, healthier and more delicious?

Roasting turns the starches into sugar, and the results are both sweet and tender – much like myself. One note: they don’t look the same as your run-of-the-mill boiled beans. Rather than being bright and green, they’re a bit shrivelled and brown. Not to worry, the taste makes up where appearance lacks.

Last thing: my kids absolutely love these.

Step 1

Preheat oven to 425 F.

Step 2

Rinse green beans under cool, running water. Line them up and cut off the ends. In a bowl, toss the beans in 1 tbsp. of olive oil to coat. Season generously with salt and pepper.

Step 3

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper or aluminum foil. Place beans in a single layer on sheet.

Step 4

Roast the beans for 10 minutes. Remove the tray and redistribute the beans, shake ‘em up. Place back in the oven for another 5 minutes or so, or until they start to brown.

Veggie Burger

Veggie burgers aren’t just for those wacky vegetarians anymore. Even carnivores can appreciate a vegetarian version, provided it doesn’t taste like cardboard. These burgers are kick ass and much healthier than their beefy counterpart. Serve it on a toasted egg bun with a slice of old cheddar and lots of crunchy lettuce.

Ingredients
1 small onion, diced finely
1 garlic clove
1 tsp. of canola oil
½ cup chopped mushrooms
¼ cup of salsa
1 tbsp. soya sauce
½ tsp. chilli powder
1 cup canned kidney beans, rinsed
½ cup cooked brown rice
¼ cup shredded sweet potatoes
2 tsp. mustard

Step 1

Drain and mash kidney beans, set aside.

Step 2

Add canola oil to hot frying pan. Once oil is hot, reduce heat to medium and add chopped onion and mushrooms. When onion is translucent, add garlic. Stir constantly for about a minute to prevent garlic from burning.

Step 3

Mix cooked veggies with salsa, soya sauce, mashed beans, brown rice, sweet potatoes, mustard, chili powder, salt and pepper. Form into patties.

Step 4

Fry each patty in canola oil under sides are browned.

Add oil to fry pan, add ingredients except beans and cooked rice. Cook until onions are softened. Mix

with beans and cooked rice. Let cool, form into patties, fry until browned.