I have a four day weekend that stretches until tomorrow and after spending two days that included hanging out at the River Heights Farmers' Market and at a friends pool, I am ready to dive into my new cookbook- The French Market - and also to find a recipe that will incorporate one of the new pans I purchased a couple weeks ago.
I found a recipe for Eggplant and Fresh Herb Tabouleh as well as Goat Cheese and Rosemary Sables from the cookbook. I decided to try the Eggplant/ Tabouleh recipe when I found eggplant at the River Heights Famers' Market. The vendor, Stefan who runs the Blu Lagoon booth, explained to me how to cook eggplant (since I never have), and, when I explained to him the recipe I was planning to make, it turned out that he also had the fresh basil and mint that are also required ingredients. Score!
That left the tahini (I was out), whole wheat couscous and Harissa spice to find. Now for those who have indulged on tabouleh (I have not... yet) you must be thinking Harissa? In Tabouleh? But tabouleh is a salad! Why would you put a very hot spice in a salad!? My answer to you is... I am following the recipe. I don't know why! Clotilde Dusoulier, who is the author of this cookbook, and that's good enough for me.
M. and I picked up some groceries today and after not being able to find Harissa at Bulk Barn, I remembered that there was a middle eastern grocery store in Wolseley, off Maryland, that may have it. Well, when I asked (possibly the owner) for Harissa and I told him it was for tabouleh... well, did I ever open a can of worms. He flat out told me Harissa does not belong in tabouleh then proceeded to sell me a pre-made tabouleh mix. Still bought Harissa in a paste form, just to try it in the recipe. (They had probably a half dozen brands/consistencies of Harissa, so I'd like to think he knows what he's talking about.) Anyway, when we were paying for our items, we noticed that they had vegetarian roti's ready to go, so we also picked up a couple.
Our snack when we got home; vegetable roti's (M. took a bite before I snapped the pic), cucumbers, sliced apple, cheddar cheese and pickles.
After our snack, M. wanted to make our protein bars for the week. We switched up the protein powder we normally use from vanilla to chocolate. So, these protein bars are double chocolate protein bars! Click here for the recipe that I posted previously.
Once that was done, onto the prep work for tomorrow's supper. As per the tabouleh recipe I was following, we could prepare the eggplant the day. I was instructed to let it sit at room temperature with a thin coat of salt for at least an hour and then steam it. Once it was cooked, it had to be completely cooled. The plan is to do the prep work today and enjoy it tomorrow.
Eggplant hanging out before the steam.
The reason, as I learned, for the eggplant to be left alone for at least an hour with a thin coat of salt is to remove the bitterness.
Since this recipe would be our supper tomorrow night, M. wanted to make a tofu stirfry with kale, the rest of the tariyaki sauce we picked up in the States, peas and chopped up cashews over top a bed of quinoa. Yum!
After supper (and before Breaking Bad at 8pm... obsessed!) I wanted to make the pastry for the mini tartletts since they needed to sit in the fridge in disk form for a couple hours. It can stay in the fridge for up to two days. I might as well bake them tomorrow and make the vegan custard filling with raspberries tomorrow afternoon. Here are some pictures of the process of making the pastry...
Pan I will be using.
Ingredients required.
Dough being 'pulsed'.
After the pulsing action happened.
Dough in disk form covered by saran wrap.I wasn't really in the mood to make the Sable's tonight after spending over an hour and a half of my day doing dishes. Also, since the mixture for the Sable's only need to sit in the fridge for one hour after you make it, the Sable's can be prepared, baked and presented tomorrow at supper.
M. will come home from a long day at work with a feast awaiting him!
More details regarding each recipe will follow in the next post. I hope everyone had a lovely Sunday in the kitchen, too!
No comments:
Post a Comment