Grill pan | Grilled Scallops

I own one of those large panini press style “healthy” table top grills, which I occasionally bring out for things like pork medallions, slabs of chicken, shellfish. Occasionally would be the key word here, let’s just say it’s a bit of hassle to clean up. So, a more handy stove top grill pan has been on my wish list for quite some time. I recently bought one and I love it. I can use it to grill bread, make sandwiches, or for things like this:

Grill pan. With shrimp in it.

Or grilling scallops… HMMMMMMMMMM:
 

Grilled scallops

When I grill scallops, I buy fresh, large sea scallops, and don’t add anything to them except for a tiny bit of salt and pepper. The scallops will release their own scallopy juices and, combined with the dark color and aroma you can only get from a grill, taste totally awesome. With this grill pan, I don’t have to wait for sunny weather to enjoy my scallops! This time, I added a bit of color using some chopped red bell peppers, and green onions and lemon balm that came from my garden. I wish I had more of this to go on top, more like a tapenade, because it looked so pretty like that, and it wasn’t so strong tasting that it stole the show from the scallops at all.

La Boheme Crepes @ Kitsilano Farmer’s Market

 

La Forestiere

This is what I came for! Well, mostly, anyway, and the produce too. More about this later…

Summer weekends means farmer’s markets. I went to the one in Kits the past weekend. It was pretty small, compared to both Steveston and Ladner, but it had more produce in terms of quantity and variety… It could be just the particular vendors present, or the time of the season (even 2 weeks could mean the end of a certain produce). 

Kitsilano Farmer's Market

 
There were a lot of different types of fresh vegetables and a lot of apricots and many different kinds of cherries. Lineups were long for most of the veggie places, especially this one tomato stand. The only bread place for this bread fanatic was A Bread Apart, who, for 3 markets in a row, had out that fruity cranberry loaf. I found squash blossoms again, and I got some but they were a bit more expensive (50 cents each) than the farm that sold them at the Steveston market (6 for 50 cents). The ones with the zucchini attached were for a buck each. Yikes.
 

Apricots

 

Greens

 

Of course, the best, BEST thing about this Kits Farmer’s Market is La Boheme Creperie:
 

La Boheme

They make these awesome buckwheat crepes in their little purple van, in many many savoury and sweet varieties. The one I tried and pictured above was the Forestiere – a cheese, mushroom and spinach crepe. It was sooooo good, and the lineups get a little long here too. Basically everybody I saw at the market was having their giant crepes. I think they also visit the Trout Lake farmer’s market, anyway, definitely check them out, they are awesome.

Lima bean “humous”

 

lima bean "humous"

 

If you can make humous out of chickpeas, you can make it from any other bean. I haven’t attempted the edamame puree that has been rather popular with foodies, though I probably should since there are always bags of edamame in the freezer. I like to snack on them as is though. So I resorted to killing some other beans. I tried making a lima bean puree (since I couldn’t see making a snack of of lima beans). 

This is a low-fat version, though I guess you could always add a spoonful of olive oil to help the pureeing process. I found a bit of water was enough, but the texture is for sure a bit more coarse without oil. I used this as a spread on crackers and it was OK. It didn’t lack flavor but I think it was slightly on the bland side, then again, adding more stuff to it would definitely make it too complex. I think this would be best suited for crackers that are flavored.

 

Lima Bean “Humous”

1 can lima beans

2 cloves garlic

1t cumin

1/2t salt

 

Blend all in food processor. Serve immediately or refrigerate in air tight container (should last a few days).

Quick Strawberry Yogurt Parfait

 

Strawberry Yogurt Parfait

It is summer! And strawberries!

I think of parfaits as breakfast food, typically because all its ingredients (yogurt, granola, fruit) are associated with breakfast. But this was a nice, super quick dessert on a hot night. I love yogurty desserts like this: crunchy granola, sweet fruit, cold gooey yogurt. It is so healthy, yet desserty at the same time! Of course, if you wanted to indulge you could sub the yogurt with ice cream. And you can layer it with whatever fruit or granola or cereal you desire. Though berries are the best choice. I just happened to have some fresh local strawberries from W&A Farms on hand, and some yogurt and granola. Just layer, and repeat. 

Parfaits are fun to make! You can dress it up pretty fancy Gourmet-cover-shot style, but I think it will turn out pretty decent looking even if you’re just throwing things together randomly and messily like I did here. Just find a pretty glass. You can’t really go wrong. Great for entertaining when time (and skill) are limiting! 😉

Steveston Series III: Cimona Cafe

If you are feeling like a casual, down-to-earth meal, and pretty generous-sized, value-for-money deals, this is the place to go. Cimona Cafe makes the kind of food you can probably make in your own kitchen, so don’t expect anything fancy, but the quality will not disappoint. This place is like a homey diner. It is in a second floor/elevated log house, with a patio where you can watch the Steveston hustle bustle on Bayview Street from above. They’re really friendly here, and it feels like it is a family owned and operated little cafe, but don’t count on super speedy service, and on weekends they tend to be quite busy during brunch/lunch and there tends to be lineups. Have a little patience.

Many healthy options are offered on the menu: whole wheat wraps and breads, low fat dressings, egg white omelets, vegetarian dishes. It’s a casual spot with casual food but there are a lot of more “exotic” options too, and for a good price – Veal. Lamb. Sole. Halibut. Salmon. I’ve come here for dinner which I have enjoyed, but definitely find that it’s an awesome lunch/brunch place. Probably because breakfast is served till 3pm.

W and I came here for lunch recently, so I figured I will throw this post into my Steveston Series. We grabbed a menu and luckily found a table outside in the patio, which was almost full, and had a nice, relaxing time watching the …er… action… on Bayview:

cimona view

Looking around I noticed that many people order the wraps here. W chose the chicken wrap with pineapple curry sauce. I tried a bit of it. It was pretty big and stuffed with tons of lettuce. The sauce was good too (you can choose from 3 different ones) – It wasn’t so heavy that W ate the whole thing (when usually she can only eat half a big wrap).

 

Cimona chicken wrap

 
 

I was feeling like a lighter lunch so I had the tzatziki and grilled pita:

Pita and Tzatziki

 

With a green salad:

 

Green salad

I thought this was a pretty big size for the “small” portion. Veggies were quite fresh and crisp. The pita bread I liked – it didn’t seem like crappy quality packaged pita thrown in a toaster (though I am not sure exactly what type it was). The tzatziki was pretty standard tasting, but not bad. Couldn’t tell if it was homemade. You can also get hummous if you wanted.

Overall, both W and I were happy with our lunch. I still have to try a lot of the other stuff on their menu so I am going to keep coming back (on days when I have time to spare and relax though)!

Oh, and I’m not sure if this is an “issue” for anyone, it is for me on thirsty days when I down literally gallons of pop, because I would go to restaurants and get refills until my server gives me funny looks and offers me a jug since they get so tired of coming back every few minutes to refill my glass. Since this place is a cafe/diner, the pop you order will come in a can, and you won’t get refills.

 

Cimona Cafe and Catering

#201-3791 Bayview Street, Steveston

604-275-3753

Asparagus dressed with Sole

Pretty, pretty. I love asparagus. I love Spring.

This is pretty simple. Bought some fresh sole fillets, wrap asparagus along with some sliced white mushrooms inside. S and P. Bake. Yummy.

It’s all in the yolk.

A buzz in health news headlines of the past few days has been this recent study, published in the April issue of the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, which found that eating more than 7 eggs per week causes increased risk of heart disease. This was a 20 year long study done on over 20 000 “Harvard-educated male physicians” who like to eat more than one egg a day. There are flaws in the study, and I am not about to do a critical review on it, but the authors did point out an important thing, which is that eating more saturated and trans fats does worse for your blood cholesterol than does actually eating more cholesterol. But obviously, eating more than 7 eggs a week does seem a bit much.

Another recent buzz may get a lot of people confused (or rolling their eyes at scientific research) – which is that eating more eggs can reduce the risk of breast cancer by 24 percent. The study was actually online before print in January and will be published in the June issue of the FASEB Journal. It is supported by previous findings that eating an egg a day or at least 6 eggs a week leads to a significant reduced risk of breast cancer. This is thanks to choline, present only in egg yolks (which also happens to be the cholesterol culprit. Ah, where is the happy medium?).

The good news is, if you want your choline and are worried about cholesterol, or are vegan, whatever, choline can also be found in coffee, skim milk, cauliflower, liver, and wheat germ (egg yolks provide about 25% of the daily supply).

And depending on whether you are an egg-lover or egg-hater, you can use either of these studies to back you up when you are in an argument. This is why I love being a research scientist.

Oden 関東煮

On a visit to Tokyo’s Sensoji Temple during Hatsumode (first shrine visit of the new year), I once had this oden from one of many many food stands there. They were selling each item for a whopping 500Yen (you get to choose 5 items, making this dish of a daikon slice, 3 fish balls, a bundle of Konnyaku noodles, one wedge of black Konnyaku, an egg, and that smidgen of mustard about $25 bucks CAD.) You would of course know that at the local 24hr Family Mart, you can get the same thing 10 times cheaper, but heck, it’s one of the biggest and oldest temples in Japan during its busiest time of the year, so they have the right to rip off tourists and festival-goers alike.

Truth be told, oden (関東煮) is really a very modest Japanese one-pot hot pot easily made at home. It basically consists of a dashi broth as a base, and then pretty much whatever you want to throw into it. Typically this would be things like daikon, tofu, shitake mushrooms, eggs, konnyaku, and various surimi-based products such as fish balls, fish cakes, surimi rolls, etc. Everything is cooked in the broth for an hour or so, and then served right in the big pot it is cooked in. Oden makes for a very comforting and filling meal, and really warms you up in the winter.

You can make your own dashi, but I just use Ajinomoto’s Hon Dashi powder. I like to throw in napa cabbage because it takes care of the vegetables as well, and napa soaks up the broth nicely. In this particular oden there were also fish balls, hanpen (triangular-shaped fish cake), tofu, chikuwa (surimi tubes), kamaboko, imitation crab sticks, and crimini mushrooms. It was all cooked in a giant wok (one of the biggest in the kitchen), and it didn’t cost me 2500Yen. 😉

Oral Allergy Syndrome and Honeydew

I used to have a thing against melons, I really did. I hated melons of all sorts – watermelons, cantaloupes and honeydews were my 3 most-hated fruits. I found them to be rather flavorless, and I hated the sandy texture of watermelon aboveall. I went so far as to declare myself deathly allergic to melons so that I didn’t have to eat them. When I decided that my palate had to become less picky in order to become more picky (if you get that), I decided to try all kinds of fruits and vegetables, and discovered that I didn’t hate melons so much, afterall. 

Because my mother gets a serious itch in her throat every time she eats honeydew, I have never really had too much of this fruit, even after my new-found fondness for melons. Strangely (and luckily) this doesn’t happen with watermelons or cantaloupes. This kind of reaction is known as Oral Allergy Syndrome, or pollen-food allergy, where your immune system mistakes a certain food protein as pollen proteins, so that after you eat a certain food- typically raw fruit or vegetable – you get a burning sensation in your mouth and/or throat. OAS thus happens a lot in people who have hay fever, or some kind of pollen allergy. Melons are associated with sensitivity to ragweed or grass. (While some other veggies like carrots and celery are associated with mugwort allergy). Typically, these reactions are worse during pollen season.

 It’s hard to just buy a whole melon because I can’t finish it quickly enough. And I don’t buy pre-chopped fruit. Found this little half honeydew though, the other day, and it looked pretty fresh. Plus I have just been really wanting some honeydew. It was green, sweet, and delicious.

And not itchy. 🙂

Mushroom-Stuffed Ocean Perch

I bought a huge bag of mushrooms last week.  It’s a good thing that there is so much you can do with these fungi, and they taste so good. Or else sitting there and brushing all the crap off them would not have been worth it.

What did I do with these mushrooms? Chopped them up with some celery and stuffed them into a big fish. (And I only used half a bag. I should have stuffed two.) This turned out pretty nicely, because the tastier flavor of the stuffing really accents the fish (if you happen to find fish a little bland, I don’t really, but sometimes it also depends on the fish). Next time I think I’ll try a spicy stuffing.

To stuff a fish, you need a large, whole fish (2lbs or more) with medium-firm to firm flesh. To me for some reason that usually means something that is red … like a red snapper. Fish with delicate flesh like cod or tilapia are probably not be the best choices. These fresh, red ocean perches were on sale at T&T, so I bought one that was a little over 2 lbs. Now, if you or people you are feeding are finicky about whole fish (*sigh* Why), go ahead and buy thick fillets. But the effect isn’t quite the same, is it? Anyway, buy whole fish, and have your fish monger clean, scale, gut and cut it.  

 Recipe follows…

Breakfast cereals were created by doctors

The first breakfast cereal was created Dr. James Caleb Jackson in 1863; it was called Granula. Granula was made from heavy grains of Graham flour rolled into sheets, baked, dried, then broken into bits. This early version of today’s granola was dense and difficult to chew. Not exactly breakfast friendly.

Dr. John Harvey Kellogg ran a sanitarium for health and diet reform called Battle Creek. In 1895, he created a cereal called Granose (flakes made from wheat) as an easily chewable breakfast for his patients. Granose was a flop , because JH was not exactly business savvy.

But one of his patients – Charles William Post – was, and stole his idea. The first successfully marketed cereal was created by Post, a patient at the sanitarium who left to found his own cereal company. Post created the cereal beverage Postum (now sold by Kraft) in 1895 as a coffee substitute. Two years later he created the cereal Grape Nuts (which contains neither grapes or nuts. Grape sugar is the sweetener.)

John Harvey’s younger brother, Willie Keith Kellogg, was a book keeper at the sanitarium. He was the business savvy one who couldn’t stand by and watch his brother’s creation be stolen by Post. And so Willie Keith goes off and created his own cereal company in 1906, which eventually became the Kellogg’s Company as we know it today.

I love flaked cereal – it is a staple. It is a breakfast thing, and it is a snacky thing. But I am no fan of Kellogg’s stuff. Unfortunately, the world of marketing had WK turning the wholesome, healthy cereal that his brother created into something so frosted that kids are bouncing off walls after their morning dose. I’m sure that’s not the idea that John Harvey had in mind. And that is definitely not what I like in my bowl. Luckily, there are those who like to stick to the basic principles.

One of my favorite cereals is Nature’s Path Flax Plus. It’s a crunchy, thickish, flaked cereal – organic, very high in fibre (like, very), with 500mg of Omega-3 per serving. Like most bran flakes, it is only very slightly sweet (but it is sweeter and toastier than, say, very bland All Bran), so it goes well with dried fruits and stuff. I buy them in the giant jumbo 1kg version and go through it in a few days. But – if you have eaten this cereal quite religiously over the past while, you will no doubt know that they changed something in it a couple of months back (I’d say around the Fall of 2007): The flakes are now crunchier, a bit harder, and maybe a tad sweeter. There are more dark flecks on it. I also remember seeing one less ingredient (something like rice flour). And for those of you who are counting, you’ll notice that the calories per 3/4 cup serving has increased by — *gasp* — 10! Yikes! Better get off that couch to change the channel! Hahaha.

Anyway, it is a very minor change, and Flax Plus still has the same “personality”. But the difference to me is noticeable, it just tastes a little different. It’s as if your morning coffee was just a little over-roasted or something. I just wonder if anybody out there noticed the change, and likes it (or dislikes it). It’s still a great cereal, and if you’re looking for upping your fibre it’s better than stuff like All Bran, since this also has Flax in it. You can also get Flax Plus with raisins. 🙂

# 3 on my best cereal list (1 and 2 being Nature’s Path Spelt and Kamut.)

Super Size My Pineapple Bun – 4 Month Mark

Yeah yeah, you guys know the drill by now. These pictures were taken last week. The front of the bun looks pretty good still.

 

 The white mold at the back is slowly growing!

Nature’s Path Heritage Granola – Raspberry

I’ve been blog-lazy lately, yes. Haven’t been doing much in the kitchen either. I have however been doing a little cereal-exploration. Today’s feature is Nature’s Path’s Heritage Granola. I love Nature’s Path‘s cereals. They are organic, healthy, not sugary, and most use minimal ingredients without additives. And they taste great. I stock my pantry with boxes and boxes of their Flax Plus, Spelt, and Kamut flakes whenever they go on sale. Hm, stock would be an understatement. I go through a box in two days.

Granola is not my type of go-to cereal because it is on the sweet side, and has too much stuff in it sometimes. But then, sometimes that’s just what you need. I tried their Heritage granola with raspberries. It’s quite packed: oats, spelt flakes, quinoa, puffed rice, and uh… dried raspberries. You can never expect much from cereals that claim they have “fruit”, so I was not surprised to see the large raspberries on the box and got little red dots instead. Typical. It’s not bad, not too sugary either, and has a nice balance of different grains. This particular pack seemed quite crushed and powdery, but maybe it was just that box. I prefer Nature’s Path’s Ginger Zing granola though, because the ginger really comes through without being too much, and I like ginger.

Cucumber Cafe @ Sandman’s

I noticed this giant green sign that went up for Cucumber Cafe while driving down Highway 99 a little while ago, so I decided to try this place out. Cucumber Cafe is located at the Sandman Signature Resort on St. Edward’s Street in Richmond.

 

I came for brunch last weekend with YW and NF. We were seated right away; the staff were quite friendly. The restaurant is split into two large dining areas (one seems to be orange-themed while the other is green), with tables as well as pretty comfortable, raised booths. The place is lit with a lot of round white lantern things, and there’s a fake fireplace near where we were sitting.

YW had the Spicy corned beef panini, which was made with ciabatta. This was pretty good panini, and NF couldn’t stop picking at it.

 

NF had the Ultimate Club, which had chicken, bacon, and oven-dried roma tomatos. The tomatos were really yummy. NF whined about why the club is not three-tiered. 😉

A nice, light meal for me- I chose the Mediterranean veggie wrap, with warm, roasted veggies inside.  

Cucumber Cafe prides itself in its hand-cut fries, but perhaps due to New Year’s resolutions all of us had the salad instead. I’m sure the fries are good though. The meals also come with this little apple slaw which was pretty cute and a nice sweet treat.

They have all-day breakfast, which always scores in my book. There is just something nice about being able to order a crepe or eggs benedict for dinner. This is a great place for breakfast, lunch, or weekend brunch, but dinner options seems mainly limited to beef, burgers, and pasta. There isn’t a seafood selection (the only thing is fish and chips). The service was not bad, our waitress was friendly and prompt, though there seems to be another waiter there who is incapable of smiling.

–
Cucumber Cafe
10211 St Edwards Drive, Richmond (at the Sandman Signature Resort)

Supersize My Blueberry Loaf: Not even a month!!

Not the most welcoming sight at my desk on my first day back at work:

As you might recall, this was the blueberry loaf acquired December 10th and what it looked like then. Two different molds are present, most of them look like they sprung from the blueberries. I have no idea when they started growing, but from the size of them, I’d say at least a week ago. This sucky Blueberry Loaf didn’t even last a month! Why such a disappointing performance? Compared to the other two Supersize Me experiments (September’s pineapple bun, November’s croissant), this had the most simple home-made ingredients (white sugar, white flour, eggs, orange juice, milk, baking powder). No preservatives, and from that ingredients list 0 trans fat. Thus making it your healthiest (though probably least delicious) choice!

It was so gross I wondered why I got myself into this mess. (scientific curiousity.) The light green mold covered the back, which I was too grossed out to photograph because I was in too big of a hurry to rid my desk of this. I had to put on my gloves, take it out without breathing, wrap it up in saran, and chuck it in the biohazardous waste in the lab.

Blueberry Loaf from Langley Farm Market
Inception Date: Dec 11, 2007
Best before date: Dec 19, 2007
Date of first mold: unknown
Too Gross/Discard Date: Jan 7, 2007
Endurance: Less than 30 days.

Updates on the Pineapple bun and the Criossant to follow! Stay tuned!