Mint, Asparagus and Potato Ravioli

These days I’m trying hard to be proactive in my food choices – for the most part this means planning ahead, consciously choosing ingredients that can be sourced locally and following or creating flavourful, veggie filled recipes.

Dinner from last night was definitely one that’ll be repeated… we picked up some locally grown potatoes and asparagus at our farmers market over the weekend. I was scratching my head,  wondering how to combine them in something more interesting than your usual roast potatoes and plain old asparagus, when lo and behold I stumbled over this gem of a recipe in one of our Jamie Oliver books.

I haven’t included the basic pasta recipe – that’s for an upcoming post – but it is something I make often. Once you know how and if you have the right equipment (a kitchen aid and pasta attachment!), its so worth the extra twenty minutes.

This was a super easy dinner to put together, even though it sounds and looks way more complicated than it is! Give it a try, I promise you won’t regret it.

I halved the recipe as I was only cooking for two, but you could make the whole thing and freeze them for another night – which in retrospect is what I should have done 🙂

 

Ravioli of Minted Asparagus with Potatoes & Mascarpone

Ingredients

• 225g potatoes, peeled
• 680g asparagus, bases trimmed
• 1 clove of garlic, finely chopped
• olive oil
• salt and pepper
• 1 good handful of mint, leaves picked and chopped
• fresh pasta
• 2 knobs of butter
• 2 heaped tablespoons of mascarpone cheese
• grated parmesan cheese

Method

1. Cook potatoes in salted boiling water until tender and drain.
2. Remove tips of asparagus and set aside.
3. Finely slice the asparagus stalks and fry with the garlic in a little olive oil until tender, placing a lid on the pan.
4. Remove from the heat, add the potato and mash together. Season and add half the chopped mint.
5. Fill your ravioli with a heaped teaspoon of filling (I’ll write more about this in a later post) and cook in salted boiling water with the asparagus tips for 3-4 minutes.
6. Drain and toss the ravioli and asparagus tips with the butter, mascarpone, parmesan and the rest of the mint.
7. Serve and enjoy!

Lost Keys and Stir Fried Veggies

Since it seems like spring has finally arrived, I was super excited to take this little guy to the park.

After a good run around, we headed home… only for me to realize half way there that my keys weren’t in my pocket. Momentary panic ensued, to be followed by a thorough search of the park.

When they didn’t turn up despite me and my furry companions best efforts, I headed back to my house.

Luckily, I’d left the door on my roof patio open earlier that morning.

So I was forced to awkwardly knock on my neighbours door (we’d never spoken) and ask him in a non-burglary way if I could jump from his roof to mine.

Needless to say, I felt pretty ninja.

And in keeping with my ninja-esque skills, combined with the beautiful realization that spring has finally sprung, I decided to create a colourful veggie stir-fry for dinner.

Keep in mind that you can really play with this recipe, totally depending on your taste and what you prefer (and what you have in your kitchen). You might have guessed that Jamie Oliver’s white wine vinegar isn’t exactly authentic, but it’s all I had 🙂

I went with a bunch of veggies (peppers, snow peas, mixed greens, garlic, shredded carrot, baby corn) and topped it off with some baked crispy chicken, spring onions and sesame seeds.

 

The great thing about stir fry’s is being able to literally throw in whatever you have on hand, so experiment and figure out what you like! Other veggies that I love to use are broccoli, cauliflower and bak choi.

 

Stir Fry Sauce

Ingredients

• 2 tbsp brown sugar
• 2 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1 tbsp hot sauce or chilli sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp sesame oil
• 3/4 tsp corn starch

 

Directions

• Stir all the ingredients together in a bowl and add to your vegetables as you stir fry them in a wok.

 

 

Yam & Quinoa Croquettes

So, full disclaimer… these are delicious and super more-ish. Luckily, following the recipe (with some minor adjustments) that I found over at the wonderful eats well with others blog, you’ll end up with enough of these bad boys to feed an army.

Which is great news, if like me,  you’re cooking for a man with a seemingly endless appetite 🙂

Seriously though, I think I ended up making a total of about 20 croquettes. So I suggest you do what I did and freeze those leftover suckers for a lazy day meal.

My main adjustment was using a yam instead of a sweet potato, mainly due to what I had available, but I gotta say.. I do love the vibrant orange colour of a yam vs sweet potato.

I also used a pablano pepper instead of a jalapeño, resulting in a slightly less spicy, but still super flavourful croquette.

Mine ended up being really gooey once I’d mixed everything up, but once I’d chilled them in the fridge they retained their shape pretty well, with only minor casualties in the frying pan.

I served mine with a caesar salad, which paired really well. I found it nice to have something creamy to offset the earthy-ness of the croquettes. Extremely delicious and  nutritious, these  will definitely end up on my menu again 🙂

(recipe slightly adapted from eats well with others)

Ingredients

• 12 oz yam
• 2 cups water
• 1 cup uncooked quinoa, rinsed
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 2 tsp olive oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 1 pablano pepper, seeded and finely chopped
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp dried oregano
• 1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
• 2 garlic cloves, minced
• 1/2 cup low fat cottage cheese, drained
• 1/2 cup finely shredded extra-sharp cheddar cheese
• 1 large egg, lightly beaten
• 1 cup panko
• cooking spray

Instructions

1. Pierce the yam with a fork and place on a paper towel in the microwave.  Microwave on high for 5 minutes or until the fork pierces the yam flesh easily, turning it after 3 minutes.  Wrap in a towel and let stand for 5 minutes. Peel and mash.
2. Bring 2 cups water to a boil in a saucepan.  Add the quinoa and salt.  Reduce the heat and simmer, covered, for 15 minutes. Drain.
3. Heat a large skillet over medium high heat.  Add 2 tsp oil to pan and swirl to coat.  Add the onions, cilantro and pablano to the pan. Saute for 1 minute.  Add the cumin oregano, black pepper and garlic. Saute for 1 minute. Combine the yam, quinoa, onion mixture, cottage cheese and cheddar cheese in a bowl, mixing well.  Let stand 5 minutes. Stir in the egg.
4. Shape the yam mixture into 15 patties.  Carefully dredge them in the panko. Place on a baking sheet. Cover and chill for 10 minutes.
5. Heat a skillet over medium heat. Coat the pan with cooking spray. Add 5 patties to the pan. Cook 2 minutes on each side or until golden brown.  Keep warm. Repeat with remaining patties.

 

 

Recipe Card Wednesday: Chickpea Burgers with Tahini Sauce

So tasty 🙂

What to do With a Bag of Almonds?

I’ve had a bag of chopped almonds sitting in my kitchen for about a month and a half now. Every single time I open that cupboard, they catch my eye, nestled in their Zip-Lock bag between my organic vanilla and baking powder. So I finally decided to do something with them. I went searching and I found this little gem of a recipe over at the flourishing foodie

Mine didn’t come out looking quite as pretty as hers, but after a long day and some serious hours spent in the kitchen beforehand making pork chops, I couldn’t have been happier with the tasty little treats. I also chose to dust mine with some vanilla bean icing sugar. I also ended up using raspberry jam instead of strawberry – worked just as well.

Next time I won’t be so lazy and I’ll get my Canon 5D out to take pictures with, instead of using my iPhone.

 

strawberry almond thumbprint cookies

(makes 18 – 20 cookies)
(recipe adapted from Herriott Grace)

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes

Ingredients
3/4 cup almonds, chopped
1 egg, separated
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
1/2 cup white granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
pinch of salt
1/2 cup strawberry jam

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 350 F.

2. Chop the almonds and set to the side. Separate the egg white and yolk and set to the side.

3. In a med-large bowl, cream the butter and sugar until pale yellow with a hand mixer or stand mixer with the paddle attachment.

4. Add the vanilla and egg yolk and cream until light and fluffy. Add the flour and salt and mix until all ingredients come together.

5. With a small ice cream scoop #100, measure out 20 small balls. Roll them between your hands to form a uniform ball ~ 20.

6. Dip them into the beaten egg white and then roll them in the chopped almonds. With the bottom of a cup, flatten into disks. With the end of a wooden spoon, create small indents on the top of the cookies. Drop a tsp or more of the jam into the indent.

7. Place onto a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for 20 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack.

Welcome to the foxy baker…

Welcome to the foxy baker. My name is Eliza (a.k.a the foxy baker) – I’m a 25 year old video editor who spends an unhealthy amount of time in front of a computer screen. In order to maintain functioning legs and to prevent my brain from turning to mush, I spend as much of my free time as I can creating tasty treats (and usually making a complete mess in the process) in the kitchen or turning whatever I can get my hands on into little works of art.

I’ve taken the plunge into the blogging universe (with some trepidation) for a variety of reasons:

1. To share my baking creations with other taste enthusiasts.

2. To motivate myself to keep trying new things in the kitchen (and out of the kitchen)

3. To meet others, like me, who are amateur cooks and crafters, in order to share what works and what dosen’t.

4. To finally meet someone who can tell me what to do with the inordinate amount of vanilla bean infused icing sugar I have in my kitchen. Seriously. If anyone out there reads this and knows of some good recipes that call for vanilla bean infused icing sugar, let me know what they are. There’s a cookie in it for you.

the foxy baker