Link Love – Happy Friday!

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Hello and happy Friday to all :) Hope you all had a wonderful work week. I am so looking forward to the weekend! It was one busy week, so I am looking forward to resting a little and catching up on things around home. Also, I am hoping to get out and enjoy some time outside. According to the weather forecast, it’s going to be beautiful & warm this weekend. So excited! We’ve been lucky with a relatively mild winter. But, I am very ready for spring. I think that is why I was drawn to flavours of lemon & pictures of bright green vegetables this week – seems to scream spring!

I am off to a potluck dinner tonight. I was asked to bring an appetizer, so I decided to make one of my favs – jalapeño popper dip. Yum!!!

Hope you enjoy my favourite links of the week. I was so intrigued by the lemon cake with black tea icing. What a fabulous idea! I am obsessed with tea, so a lemony cake with tea-infused icing sounds oh-so delicious. I am starting to collect quite the list of recipes to make using tea. Have you used tea in any of your cooking and baking?

Also, check out my favourite blog of the week: Good Things Grow. I guarantee you’ll love the recipes and drool over the lovely, bright food photography.

Have a fantastic weekend. I’ll be back on Sunday with a new cookie recipe! :)

Mexican Corn Chowder with Quinoa

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I love food of all kinds – Italian, Moroccan, Lebanese, Greek, Indian….I just love food in general. But, my weakness is undoubtidly Latin food. Whenever I crave something, you can bet it’s some sort of Latin fare. A lot of the food I make at home has a Latin influence. Hot peppers, sweet chilies, tomatoes, black beans, avocados, limes, tomatillos, cumin, corn, cilantro, and fresh oregano…mmm!
When I stumbled upon this recipe for Mexican corn chowder about a year ago, I HAD to make it immediately. It not only contains all of my favourite Mexican flavours, but it also has a healthy dose of vegetables and quinoa. Since I first made this a year ago, it has become a staple in our home. Even if the ingredient list is relatively long, it’s an easy recipe to throw together and tends to use ingredients you likely already have in your pantry. The key to this recipe is letting the chowder simmer on medium-low heat for at least 45 minutes to allow the flavours to really come together. And it’s fun to get creative with the toppings. One of my favourite toppings is chopped avocado with a little lime juice. Cilantro always freshens up this soup. And chopped peanuts make a nice garnish to this chowder. This chowder is sure to impress – the perfect combination of spicy, sweet, and savory. ¡Buen Apetito! :)
Ingredients
  • 2 tablespoons of vegetable or canola oil
  • 2 cloves of garlic; minced
  • 1 large yellow onion; diced
  • 1 yellow pepper; diced
  • 1 red pepper; diced
  • 2 stalks of celery; chopped
  • 2 carrots; peeled and chopped
  • 1/2 cup of uncooked quinoa; rinsed and drained
  • 1 small tin of green chilies
  • 1 teaspoon of ancho chile powder
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of dried mexican oregano
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of dried basil
  • 1 and 1/2 teaspoons of ground cumin
  • 1/2 teaspoon of ground sweet paprika
  • 1/2 pound of waxy red potatoes; cleaned and diced small
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of fresh or frozen corn kernels (thawed & drained if frozen)
  • 4 cups of vegetable broth
  • 2 plum tomatoes; seeded & diced small
  • 1/4 cup of heavy cream or soy creamer (or unsweetened non-dairy milk)
  • 1 tablespoon of red wine vinegar
  • juice of one lime
  • salt and pepper to taste
Garnish: chopped fresh cilantro, roasted chopped peanuts, diced red onion, diced green onion and/or chopped ripe avocado
Method
1. In a large soup pot, heat the oil over medium-heat and add the chopped onions. Sauté the onions for 5 minutes or until slightly softened. Add the yellow & red peppers, carrots, and celery and sauté for 8 minutes or until peppers are slightly softened. Add the garlic and sauté for 30 seconds.
2. Add the rinsed quinoa to the pot and toss with the sautéed vegetables. Toss for 3 to 4 minutes, or until the quinoa begins to turn slightly golden.
3. Add the ancho chile powder, oregano, basil, cumin and paprika and fry with the sautéed vegetables for 1 minute.
4. Add the four cups of vegetable broth then the potatoes, green chilies and corn. Increase the heat and bring the mixture to a gentle boil. Lower the heat to medium-low, cover and simmer for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally. Test the potatoes to ensure they are cooked through and ensure the quinoa is tender & translucent.
5. Stir in the tomatoes, cream/cream substitute, red wine vinegar and lime juice. Simmer for another 5 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.
Note: If soup is too thick, add 1/2 cup of water followed by 1/4 cup of cream/cream substitute until the desired consistency is reached. Remove from heat.
6. Allow the soup to rest off of the heat for 10 minutes and then serve. Garnish as desired.
Source: adapted from Viva Vegan by Terry Hope Romero

Blueberry Almond Tart

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I love blueberries. I love them plain as a snack, I love them in my yogurt for breakfast and I love them in tarts & pies. I also love them added to salads. During the winter, it can be difficult to find fresh blueberries. Most of the winter I am forced to eat frozen organic blueberries. Still delicious, but not the same as fresh.

 A week or so ago, a sign of spring arrived as fresh blueberries were being sold at a local grocery store. I went a little over board and bought two huge containers full. I managed to eat my way through the first container fairly easily, but was struggling a little to eat the second container before the berries went bad. So, I decided to make a blueberry pie. Scanning my recipe books to find the perfect blueberry pie recipe, I found this blueberry tart. And I decided I HAD to try it. I love almond paste and I knew that almonds combined with blueberries is a winning combination. 

The tart was quite rich and full of delicious blueberry flavour. The crust was extremely easy to make. I love press-in dough crusts – so simple. I used raspberry jam as a glaze on top of the blueberries and quite liked it. If you’d like full-on blueberry flavour, I suggest using a blueberry jam as your glaze. 

Hope you all had a great weekend! :)

Topping Ingredients
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of fresh blueberries
  • 1/3 cup of seedless raspberry or blueberry jam
  • 1 tablespoon of icing sugar

Crust Ingredients
  • 1 and 1/2 cups of all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons of white granulated sugar
  • 4 teaspoons of cornstarch
  • pinch of salt
  • 3/4 cup of cold unsalted butter; cubed

Frangipane (almond filling) Ingredients
  • 2/3 cup of whole blanched almonds
  • 1/4 cup of white granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons of all-purpose flour
  • 2 tablespoons of butter; melted
  • 1 egg
  • 1/4 teaspoon of almond extract

Method

1. Set out a 9-inch (23 cm) tart pan with a removable bottom.

2. In a food processor, pulse the flour, sugar, cornstarch and salt. Add the butter and pulse until mixture clumps all together. With floured hands, press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the side of the tart pan. Cover and chill for an hour in the fridge. Preheat oven to 350’F.

Note: You can skip the food processor and simply cut in the butter with a pastry cutter or two forks until the dough clumps together.

3. Once the crust is chilled, prick the pastry at 1-inch intervals all over with a fork. Bake in the bottom third of the oven. Bake at 350’F until the crust is just starting to become golden (about 20 minutes). Once lightly golden, remove from oven and cool on a rack. Turn oven heat up to 375’F.

4. For the filling, finely chop the almonds in a food processor. Add the sugar and flour; pulse to combine. Add the butter, egg, and almond extract; pulse until smooth. Spread the filling evenly in the cooled tart shell.

5. Sprinkle the blueberries evenly over the filling. Bake in the bottom third of a 375’F oven for 25 minutes. Remove tart from oven and brush the top with 1/4 cup of the jam. Note: I microwaved the jam for 20 seconds to make more spreadable. Bake another 10 minutes (or until a cake tester inserted in the middle of the tart comes out clean). Let cool on a rack.

6. Re-melt the rest of the jam and brush over the berries. Dust the top of the tart with icing sugar. You can also garnish the tart with some sliced almonds.

Source: Canadian Living – The Complete Canadian Baking Book by Elizabeth Baird