Roasted Potato With Rosemary

Remember the BC Nugget potato salad that I’d posted earlier? Well, they were so tasty and so I decided to roast some this time. These nugget potatoes are only available from May to July, so do try them before they disappear from your grocer’s produce section. These roast potatoes are scrumptious, crispy on the outside with tender flesh inside, and with lots of aroma from the roasted rosemary. Sounds good, right?



Roasted Potato With Rosemary
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

1 kg (about 2.2 lbs) BC Nugget Potatoes, or any small variety potato, washed
4 - 5 Sprigs Rosemary
2 Sprigs Thyme
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
Sea Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 400˚F/205˚C.

Boil the potatoes with 1 tsp of salt until just tender. Drain and cut the potatoes into halved or leave whole if smaller.

Arrange the potatoes in a baking tray with rosemary and thyme. Then drizzle the olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Bake the potatoes for about 40 to 50 minutes or until the potatoes turn crispy and the flesh are tender.

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Stuffed Bell Peppers

Try these great tasting stuffed bell peppers as your next appetizer. They are so easy to prepare - stuffed with a beef mixture, topped with some cheese, and baked in the oven until the cheese is lightly brown in color. They will come out looking great and tastes delicious. The recipe here is for 10 servings as an appetizer, or 4/5 servings as a meal by itself. Have a good weekend.


Stuffed Bell Peppers
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

10 Medium Bell Peppers
220 g Monterey Jack Cheese, grated
1 Tbsp Olive Oil
Sea Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Beef Mixtures
400 g Ground Beef
8 Sun-dried Tomatoes in oil, chopped
4 cloves Garlic, finely chopped
1 Large Yellow Onion, finely chopped
2 tsp Dried Parsley
1 Cup Fresh Basil Leaves, torn
1 Can (28 Fl oz) Whole Tomato, crushed and drained
2 Tbsp Tomato Paste
1 Tbsp Chili Flakes
3 Tbsp Olive Oil
Sea salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method

Prepare the beef mixtures: In a large saucepan, heat the olive oil over a medium heat. Add the onion, garlic and sauté until translucent, for about 10 minutes.

Add the ground beef and cook until the meat is no longer pink in color. Then add the sun-dried tomato, chili flakes, parsley, and give it a quick stir. Mix in the can tomatoes, tomato paste, and basil leaves and cook for another 10 minutes. Season the beef mixtures with salt and pepper. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Preheat oven to 205˚C/400˚F.

Clean the peppers, sliced the top off (reserved), discard the cores and dry with paper towels.

Brush the peppers with olive oil on the outsides. Fill the beef mixture in to the peppers and top with the cheeses. Lightly oil a baking tray, place peppers and the reserved top besides them. Roast for about 25 minutes or until the cheese have melted and light brown in color. Remove from the oven. Let it cool slightly before serving.

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Roasted Carrot Soup

My kids’ just love munching fresh carrots, and carrot juice is one of their favorite drinks. However, they just dislike eating any cooked carrots, period. So, when I wanted to make this delicious roasted carrot soup, I honestly thought I’d end up having it all myself. The soup was so delicious and savory, they finished it all instead! Success at last, got them to eat some form of cooked carrots I guess! ☺


Roasted Carrot Soup
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

1 kg Carrots, peeled, cut into smaller chunks (about 1 1/2 inch)
1 Yellow Onion, halved, quartered
1 Small (200 g) Sweet Potato, cut into smaller chunks (about 1 1/2 inch)
3 Cloves Garlic, whole
5 Cups Chicken Stock
1/4 tsp Ground Ginger
1/4 tsp Ground Nutmeg
2 Tbsp Olive Oil
Sea Salt to taste
Freshly Ground Black Pepper

Method

Preheat the oven to 180˚C /350˚F.

Arrange the carrots, onions, sweet potato and garlic in a baking tray. Mix in the olive oil and sprinkle some sea salt and freshly ground black pepper.

Roast the carrot mixtures for about 45 minutes to an hour. Remove the carrot mixtures from the oven. Peel the skin from the garlic.

Mix in the carrot mixtures into a large saucepan. Add the chicken stock, ground ginger, nutmeg and bring it to a boil and lower the heat and simmer for about 15 to 20 minutes. Allow the mixture to cool slightly, and then puree the mixture.

Return the soup to saucepan and simmer over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Stir and adjust the seasoning with salt and pepper.

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Watermelon Ice Pops

Watermelons are in season now. The ones this time of the year are typically juicy and sweet, however, somehow I managed to cleverly select one that wasn’t sweet. Duh! My first thought was, no worries just turn them into popsicles. Well, that’s exactly what I did and everyone in the family enjoyed the watermelon popsicles. So, don’t discard any watermelon that is not as sweet as they ought to be, instead, make this watermelon popsicles.



Recipe adapted from Williams-Sonoma "Sweet Treats" by Carolyn Beth Weil

Watermelon Ice Pops
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

4 1/2 cups watermelon chunks
1/2 cup sugar
1 pinch of salt

Method

Seed the watermelon:
Put the watermelon chunks on a cutting board. If you see any black seeds in your watermelon chunks, use the point of a paring knife to carefully poke them out.

Prepare to puree:
In a blender container, combine the watermelon chunks, sugar and salt. (Salt might seem like a strange ingredient to add to a dessert, but it actually helps make the flavor of the watermelon more intense.)

Blend the mixture:
Cover the blender with the lid and hold it down while you blend on high speed until the mixture is liquid (some small chunks of melon are okay).

Freeze the pops:
Pour the mixture into a glass-measuring cup with a spout, and then divide the mixture evenly among 8 frozen fruit pop molds. Insert the sticks.

Freeze the ice pops for at least 8 hours or overnight.

Run the molds under warm water for 30 seconds to release the pops. Eat the pops right away! Makes 8 pops.

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Chinese Long Beans With Spicy Sambal

Chinese long beans, or also known as Yard long beans, are easily available at Vancouver’s Chinatown market. To my knowledge, the color of the long beans varies from dark green in the winter to pale green during the summer. I prefer the summer variety because they are plump and tastier. I bought some last weekend and cook them with spicy sambal. Anyway, I should stress that this dish is very spicy. So, if you plan to make it, do adjust the amount of the sambal paste according to the level of spiciness that you prefer.


Chinese Long Beans With Spicy Sambal
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

400g Long Beans, cut into 1 inch in length
120g Prawns, shelled
15 to 20 Dried Chilies, cut into smaller pieces
6 small Shallots, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 tsp Shrimp Paste, toasted
2 Candlenuts
1 Tbsp Sugar
4 Tbsp Peanut Oil
3 cloves Garlic, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 Tbsp Lime Juice
1 Tbsp Water
Sea Salt to taste

Method

To make the sambal, soak the dried chili pieces with boiling water until they are soften. Drain the chilies and make sure to get rid of the seeds. Then combine it with shallots, candlenuts, shrimp paste and blend until they become a paste.

Heat 3 Tbsp of Peanut oil and cook the sambal paste in a low heat. Cook until the sambal is fragrant, add sugar and sea salt to taste. Dish out the sambal and set aside.

In a wok with high heat, add the remaining 1 Tbsp oil and garlic. Cook briefly and add in the prawns and cook until they are pinkish in color.

Toss in the long beans and give it a quick stir. Then mix in the sambal and continue to cook for about 1 minute and add in the water and lime juice. Give it a quick stir and serve immediately.

Note: Discard some of the oil from the cooked sambal or else, the dish may be a bit too oily.

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Fried Eggs With Mushrooms And Yellow Chives

A local Asian grocer here was promoting organic mushrooms recently. They had a stand that was cooking up the mushrooms for customers to sample. As you would expect, I was enticed to pick up a few packets of the White Beech variety mushrooms. I like mushrooms, very versatile ingredient. Tastes great, whichever way you cook them, in my opinion. Anyway, I thought I’d cook these with eggs and Chinese yellow chives. Simple and just delicious! They are also good for a simple stir-fry, if you prefer that. If you want to learn more about White Beech mushrooms, then click here.



Fried Eggs With Mushrooms And Yellow Chives
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients

6 Large Eggs
100 g (1 Packet) White Beech Mushroom
20 g Yellow Chives, cut into 1 inch length
2 Scallions, sliced
1 Red Chili, sliced
Sea Salt
Freshly Ground Black Pepper
3 Tbsp Peanut Oil

Method

Beat the eggs together and season with salt and pepper to taste. Clean and trim the mushrooms.

Add peanut oil in a wok and heat over high flame until smoking. Pour in the egg mixture. As soon as the egg has formed a skin over the base of the wok, add the mushrooms. Then wait until the egg is half-cooked and mix everything together. Stir-fry gently until the egg and mushrooms are cooked. (Don't overcook the egg: it should remain light and fluffy.) Toss in the scallions, stir once or twice and then tip into a serving dish.

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