I Love Credit Unions

I have been an exclusive credit union user for over 6 years now and I encourage everyone to switch all their money business to credit unions; stress free dealings, great rates, and you can use more ATMs than a bank without getting dinged, not to mention the good community deeds your business helps support.

And what is better than credit unioning is drinking yummy drinks from those lovely mugs with public service announcements. So what did I drink in those lately?

Hurry up and try this drink before blueberry season is over.

Simply fill the mug with one third blueberries and two thirds vanilla almond milk, process and drink - a great antidote for when you are craving those White Spot decadent creamy blueberry milkshakes and you know your body does not want all that fat.  

To make this next drink right, you need to use nothing but my favourite Shaktea organic cinnamon swirl rooibos tea.

Make the tea, add sweetened condensed milk and enjoy. This one is an antidote for those putting-you-over-the-edge heavy caffeinated Vietnamese coffees. Just as sweet, but tastier and have nicer colouring. 

You can also chill it (with the cream in it) and drink cold during this heat wave we are having.

Finally, the killer antidote to craving anything sweet.

Milk, blueberries, 1 Tbsp sweetened condensed milk and 1 Tbsp sugar beet syrup and prepare for a take-off to a heavenly sugar high.

Now that you are feeling the energy, call a credit union and become a member.

Click Here For Credit Unioning

 

Putting Jardin Celery to Good Use

When neighbourly fat cat starts napping on le jardin celery, you know it is time to chop them off.

But what to do with all that celery? Celery soup came to mind, something I have not made before. Thankfully, a follower claiming the title of soup natzee was available for advice. And one knows one has to listen to her advice.

This is how I applied the advice.

I picked up all the jardin celery, cleaned and chopped. I fried some onions, added the chopped celery, salt, pepper, and chicken broth. I let that simmer until almost half the broth was absorbed.

My request from the soup natzee was advice on a celery soup without using heavy cream. She had a great one.

The idea is to prepare a roux (flour and butter) and add milk to it to thicken it. It means cleaning two pots, but the effort is worth it.

Once celery was cooked, I food processed the content of pot on the right, added the milk-turned cream from pot on the left, heated slightly, sprinkled pepper and enjoyed. Simply delicious!

Aunt Jemima Atayef

I featured Atayef few days ago (see Ramadan Kareem). In that post I wrote "Please don't ask me for the recipe, I have no clue how to make them". A rescue team of bro's emailing recipe and Replacement Chef doing online research and offering to help making them produced this amazing platter of Atayef.

And I know at least half a dozen followers would love to attempt this, so here is the adventurous recipe and Atayef making journey. 

Ingredients for almost 3 dozens

3 cups flour, 1 tsp yeast, 1 tsp baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 2 Tbs sugar
Mix and add lots of water (approximately 1.5 cups water to each cup of flour). Whip into a batter that is watery enough, much thinner than pancake batter.

The Toughest Part

See this picture below? This is your final destination - round, brown on one side and bubbly and raw on the other.

Now I have a phobia towards making things like pancakes, crepes or omelettes. But Replacement Chef turned out to be a pro at this. Thinking like Aunt Jemima, heated up the grill, tested it with water, sprinkled a tiny bit of oil on it and threw on the batter. "The first one is always a throwaway tester", says RC. For me, it was drooling from the first sight. And they turned out perfectly.

So the trick is (a) drop the batter to form a circle (about 3.5-4 inches diameter); (b) do not spread the batter around; (c) watch as the bubbles form; (d) take it off as soon as there are no wetness showing around the bubbles and the bottom begins to smoke. The whole process takes less than a minute. 

Most importantly, DO NOT FLIP, only cook the one side. Put them on a kitchen linen or towel and let cool. Cover with towel until ready to stuff them.

Stuffing Option A - Walnuts

Crush walnuts in a mortar until they look like the picture on the left.

Add 2 Tbsp sugar to each cup of walnuts (you don't need much, 1 cup of walnuts can stuff close to a dozen). Add 1 tsp of orange blossom water and, if you like it more aromatic, a drop of rose water. Mix well.



Put the walnuts in the middle of the Atayef, roll it from both sides and, with your fingers, let the dough of each side stick to the other to close it tight. You are not done though...

Stuffing Option B - Ashta

Ashta is a cream heavily used in middle eastern desserts. It is available in stores as "Pok" or "Cream product". 

My bro's recipe suggested I use smooth Ricotta cheese instead, add 1 Tbs sugar for each 250g of cheese and mix with a drop of orange blossom water.




I used a mix of cream and cheese and it was heavenly. You stuff it as per the walnuts, but keep them open on one side, sprinkle with crushed pistachio and you are almost done.

The Final Touch (then you can eat them)

 

At this point, they are ready to eat, but only after you drizzle them with Quater (sugar syrup).

To make it bring to boil 2 cups of sugar with 3/4 cup of water. Let simmer for about 20 minutes. Add a sprinkle of lemon juice, orange blossom water and rose water. Simmer for another 3 minutes and let cool.

Drizzle over the Atayef and enjoy for breakfast, lunch or after dinner dessert. 

What NOT to do

Replacement Chef, driven by a non-middle eastern DNA and a creative mind, wanted to experiment with the filling - "Let's try yogurt and chopped cherries", says RC. Neither the texture nor the taste worked. Not even cats wanted them so we had to pass them on to the neighbour's cat.

Thank you Bro & Replacement Chef!

The End of BBQ Season Is Near

Despite an approaching heat wave, some say the BBQ season is almost over. But somerville kitchen lives one day at a time and for now the sun is out, the nights are still longish, and a long weekend deserves a fun BBQ.

A couple of invitees, food experimentation and we had a fantastic meal and time.

We first started with Halloom Meshwi (grilled Halloom cheese pitas; formerly Halloom Sails). 

But tonight I added a taster of Labneh Meshwi. Described on the jar as soft unripened cheese, it is more like thickened yogurt balls pickled in olive oil. 

Memories of grandparents grilling pita loafs stuffed with Labneh came to mind as I spread the balls inside mini pitas and grilled them.

The Halloom & Labneh Meshwis were served with the infamous jardin pickled thyme. (perfect barter item - see September Is Barter Month).

For meat, a nice piece of beef from The Butcher on West 10th. Cut to be a roast, I sliced it into one inch pieces and threw it on the flames.

No marinade, and in less than 10 minutes, delicious mini steaks were served. I think my dad will really enjoy those (yalla...).

The meat was served with roasted potatoes and two salads, all from Kerrisdale Farmers Market.

The first salad was a simple green salad. Delicious tomatoes, cucumbers, radishes, jardin mint and jardin chives.

The dressing was a bit of salt, pepper, olive oil and white vinegar. Basic, fresh, summery and delicious.

The other salad was a 100%-invented somerville kitchen one. Wondering what those are? 

I rubbed a frying pan with garlic, added a bit of olive oil and browned chopped beet leaves to crunching (something I dreamed up the night before).

The salad was sliced boiled beets, covered with fresh English peas, sprinkled with goat cheese and the beet leaves crunchies, and dressed with olive oil, pepper and balsamic vinegar. A somerville kitchen original.


Happy Labour Day Everyone!

Kerrisdale Farmers Market - Worth the Trip

Look what I discovered today; the newest farmers' market in the city - Kerrisdale Farmers Market.

On Saturdays, 10 am and running till end of October. Definitely worth the trip, read on...




The Vegetable Grandma brings in all sorts of goodies from her garden. Too caring and sweet to rip anyone off - a bag of dozen beats, radishes, blueberries, English peas, and lots of potatoes for only $14.00.


The Microgreens Entrepreneur carries these delicious baby greens. Today's box of baby arugula and bok choi is $5.00 and can make a bowl of salad for 6.

Enthusiastic about his business, you cannot but buy his stuff (and it is worth it).





The Potato Lady was as well enthusiastic about her potatoes. Local, packed in labeled brown bags, she carried at least four different kinds of potatoes, patiently explaining which ones will roast well and which ones are best eaten boiled or steamed.




A picture is worth 1000 words, the Bakeress was more than happy to help me showcase her lovely cinnamon buns.


The Humble Farmer was the first table I saw and I am glad I returned there for the only non-perfect looking tomatoes and cucumbers in the place, but I am sure are the best tasting. Will let you know tomorrow.



And finally, the Okanagan Guy, who I bought his fruit from the Oak and 49th Farmers Market on Wednesday, was here today. He only carries cherries, peaches and apples and I bought all three on Wednesday and then again today.




No trip to Kerrisdale is complete without a stop (albeit outside the market) at sweet e's. Tempted with all the creamy sweets, I settled for the delicious, healthy chef's muffin choice of Blackberry Cherry Pecan. Yum!

The Blackberries

August was raspberry month (see details at The Raspberry Ritual). September is the blackberry month.

I love blackberries. And if they were not so invasive, they will be all over le jardin. But to keep them at bay, my jardin consultant advised that they are best encouraged to grow outside the garden, into the alley way.

A great solution, but...







...I now have an abundance of delicious blackberries that can easily become a nightly ritual. However, I also have an abundance of neighbours roaming the alley and picking them up on daily basis before I get to them.





So the solution was to let cats loose on the neighbours and assign him the task of protecting the blackberries. After all, cats cleaned up the jardin from all other animal intruders, why not the human ones?

Thank you cats, I can now enjoy a big bowl of delicious jardin blackberries.

Decisions Decisions

I hate making decisions about what to eat. So tonight I tried to keep it simple and have a BBQ, but then suddenly I was faced with one decision after another within the BBQ Plan.

Decision 1 - The Steak


You'd think BBQing a steak is mindless. But no, should I have BBQ sauce or something else? The Budweiser BBQ sauce is good (yes, they make those too), but I opted for trying my new barter gift from Saskatchewan (see yesterday's post) - Rip-Roarin Raspberry fruit spread.

An excellent decision - this spread is spicy, fruity, tasty and tangy all at the same time. I don't think it will last long. Thank you Saskatchewan lady, you know who you are!

Decision 2 - The Potatoes


Fresh new potatoes from a newly discovered Farmers Market on Oak and 49 (Every Wednesday pm, small but has all the fresh vegetables and no peripheral useless stuff). Given the freshness, it was decided that those should be steamed and drizzled with butter and lemon juice.

But what to add to them? Jardin chives or jardin fresh oregano? After a bit of deliberation, I went for a combination of both. Good decision!

Decision 3 - The Salad


The last of the jardin lettuce (will sure miss them). But should I add jardin cucumber and/or non-jardin tomatoe to them? Unfortunately, I should have stuck to the lettuce - those jardin cucumbers are definitely not a hit and no non-jardin tomatoe tastes like anything these days.

What would have been YOUR decisions on all of the above? Comment away...