Six Months' Anniversary Contest

It is six months to the day with somerville kitchen growing in content, readership and following.  Page views have been increasing, on average, 33% every month. As of next week, guest correspondents are starting to appear on the blog. So thank you all for your support and following. A contest with somerville kitchen home made Lebanese dinner as prize is in order. Read on...

The Contest
I am looking for somerville kitchen business cards' designs submitted by you, the readers. The purpose of this card is to pass on to others face to face to help them remember the blog's address and visit it more often. It will have on it, at minimum, the blog's name, url and the Facebook profile name (somerville kitchen). The card will not have any personal information. It should be catchy, creative, striking, and aligned with the overall look and feel of the blog itself. It could be one sided or two, depending on your recommended design.

The Prize
The three short-listed designers will be invited, with a guest each, to a Lebanese dinner party at somerville kitchen. In line with the six months anniversary theme, the dinner will feature six Lebanese appetizers, a Lebanese stew with six vegetables, and a dessert spread of six Lebanese sweets. 

Deadline is end of February. The presentation of the design does not have to be graphic designer quality or printer ready, as long as the concept is clear and the creative elements (font, colours, layout, etc.) are all identified. 

Please let me know if you are participating. If you are out of town and you are a winner, feel free to fly over or send some locals you know on your behalf. Please email all entries to eshmun@shaw.ca. Good luck!

THE Banana Cake

Kitchen Tip
Never waste any bananas, even if they turn black. Just put them in a plastic bag and freeze them. 

Those frozen bananas came in very handy today when I wanted to have a sweet snack around for the weekend - Banana Cake.



I have had this cake's recipe since the 70's and I have no idea who gave it to me (was it you mom?). But it is simple, it works and all yours to try. Simply mix all ingredients and bake. You can also throw in nuts or chocolate chips at the end before baking.

2.25 cups flour                                    0.5 cup vegetable oil                  
1.25 cups sugar                                   1.5 cups mashed bananas
2.5 tsp baking powder                         2 eggs
0.5 tsp baking soda                             1.5 tsp vanilla
0.5 tsp salt                                          Nuts and/or chocolate chips optional

Bake in 375 oven for 40 - 45 minutes. Feed leftovers (if any) to birds, they love it!

新年快乐 快乐兔

No Chinese friend (hint hint) invited me for a Chinese New Year dinner celebration, but one dear Chinese friend suggested a bakery to check out in Chinatown. So between New Town Bakery (158 E. Pender St. in Vancouver) and Gain Wah (218 Keefer St. in Vancouver), I managed to put together a semblance of a feast.

A Chinese colleague used to bring those baked snacks to the office every year on this occasion so I could not resist buying some. And those New Town Bakery snacks were the best I have tasted.

However, other items from the bakery - egg rolls, steamed buns - were disappointing (the coconut buns were good though), but sure looked good on the table.

On the other hand, Gain Wah food was excellent as usual (see Gain Wah entry from last December). To celebrate the occasion somerville kitchen served chow mein with beef and black beans sauce, gai lan with chicken over rice and BBQ pork.

Now the most interesting learning about this Chinese New Year is that Year of the Rabbit is Year of the Cat in the Vietnamese culture. A great article on this at Northwest Asian Weekly.

Photo by Vivian Nguyen/NWAW

The Reef on Main

When a friend suggested we meet at the "Caribbean" restaurant on Main Street, I had no idea what she is talking about.

And then I realized it is The Reef - I have passed it so many times, never been there, so it's definitely time to try it.

A spread of tapas included:

Mission Tacos

Two crisp corn tacos with jerk chicken and all the toppings. Tasty and filling.

Jerked Wings

Baked (not fried as per the menu) wings. These were big wings and packed with meat. Very nice coating.

 

Chana

My favourite item - a warm chickpeas salad with West Indian flat bread (the bread was not very good though), fresh greens and Dahi (thickened yogurt). The spices on the chickpeas were excellent.

 

Jamaican Patty

Each culture has its own version of dough and meat so we could not resist trying the Caribbean version. Home made beef patty served with chutney. Yummy.

The Reef

4172 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

   www.thereefrestaurant.com

Springy February

It is February 1, and despite the freezing temperatures we still get at night, a Lebanese proverb says: February, no matter how loud it screams and kicks (referring to any February storms), it will always have the smell of summer in it.

In the proverb's spirit, I thought I will feature a summer story from le jardin. I had three sunflowers that were huge and as high as the house. Once they have had their days, I dried the flowers and extracted all the seeds.

The big question became what to do with the seeds. Roasting them, using a common sense recipe, was the most logical solution.

I spread the seeds in a pan, sprinkled them with oil and salt, mixed them around and roasted them.

Given that I have not made sunflower seeds before nor was I following a recipe, I had no benchmark for roasting. So I kept roasting them until they were crunchy and opened easily with my teeth.

Now I had a whole bunch of seeds, they were fun to eat and crunch, but there is a limit to how much one could eat in a month. 

The only interesting recipe I found was for a Pumpkin Seed Brittle. It looked easy, it worked well, but it tasted horrible. Was it because I did not take the shells off? Or was it because they were salted? Any thoughts anyone?


At least the cat enjoyed his flying to the heights of sunflowers along the way.

Paella Night

I have featured this book last year (see Iraqi Date Squares). It boasts (and delivers) over 365 recipes from 64 countries. I have had it for close to 30 years and use it regularly. 

One of my few favourite recipes from it is one for Paella. It is a no fuss, quick, simple and adjustable-to-taste recipe that always turns out good. 

The first choice is what meats to include. Tonight I opted for chicken, sausages and shrimp. The recipe calls for tomatoes, but I decided to skip that and replace it with green and red peppers.

I went slow on the saffron, skipped the wine in the broth, ensured having enough garlic and onions, and ignored the peas.

The outcome was a very fresh tasting Paella.
Did you know that the word Paella comes from the Old French and Latin for pan? Read more at Wikipedia - Paella.

Dining Iranian Style

The Iranian weekend adventure (see Shopping Iranian Style) continued with an authentic feast at Cazba - a restaurant described by my Iranian escort as the most authentic in the city. This was confirmed by a crowd that is 90% Iranian. 

 Cazba Restaurant

 132 West 16th Street

North Vancouver, BC

604-980-7373

The first serving though, Barley Soup, was returned to the kitchen because, according to my escort, it was oily and not done right. Ash Reshte was the replacement, a hearty soup of noodles, vegetables, beans and lentils. The food was uphill from there.

A green salad of lettuce, cucumber and tomatoes covered with a light mayonnaise sauce is the kind of salad every restaurant in Iran starts the meal with. 

The appetizer was Kishk-e Bademjan, which is simply deep fried eggplant, pureed, and covered with Kishk and fried mint.

Kishk is a middle eastern additive to food that varies from one country to another. The Lebanese version is yogurt and cracked wheat, while the Iranian version is similar to whey (learn more at wikipedia).

The meal progressed to a platter of freshly grilled meats served with broiled tomatoes and Iranian rice. I learned that I should mash the tomato in the rice, mixing it in it.

The meats included Koobideh (ground beef kebabs), Barg (tenderlized steak) and Jujeh (chicken kebabs). 

We were so stuffed that we could not face dessert right there and then. But after a stroll to Yaas Bazaar, we were ready and ordered strong Iranian tea with Iranian cream puffs - right on bottom shelf below (very similar to the typical one we find here, but the dough is fluffier) and a nicely flavoured rolled cake filled with cream and pistachios - left on bottom shelf below.

You will be greatly missed Masi!