Lentil & wheat berry salad

I’ve been trying to think of ways to switch up some of my staple meals in an effort to be a bit more healthy and eat more veggies. This salad is one that my mother made over the holidays and it was a hit with everyone that tried it. As you may know, I love recipes that don’t really need to be followed precisely. Once I got a sense of the basic ingredients for the salad and dressing, I customized this recipe for what I had on hand and what I wanted to eat.

In the salad:

• 1 1/5 cups lentils 
• 1/2 cup cooked wheat berries
• 1/4 yellow pepper
• 1/4 cup broccoli 
• 1/2 zucchini 
• 2 stalks green onion
• 1/4 cup grape tomatoes

In the dressing: 

• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/8 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/4 tsp cumin
• 1/4 tsp curry powder
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon 

All of the above are pretty approximate, so definitely experiment and make the recipe suit your own tastes. As for the veggies, everything is finely chopped and the wheat berries are cooled before being mixed in. Once you get the contents all together, add the dressing, mix, and serve! 

On another note, I currently have a lovely loaf of whole wheat, seven grain, cranberry loaf rising and waiting for the oven. Another post will follow shortly!

Beef Wellington: A traditional English dish with a rather snooty-sounding name

[A guest post by my dear friend, Amit Ajwani]

Wellington shares its name with many famed things, one of them being a Duke. Adding to its snobby appeal, even its name is capitalized. This was a source of great segregation in the past.

“Mi lord, may’ive a bit more beef wellington please?”
“It is Beef Wellington, you fishwife. Make that mistake thrice and I shall have you killed.”

This sort of back and forth was common amongst the classes.

I typically shy away from costly and elaborate home-cooked meals for peasantry’s sake, so I never really knew what Beef Wellington was. I just knew that it was a classic and opulent English dish, and a likely candidate for one of the most sacred Christmas dinner traditions of all: oneupmanship.

In its essence, Beef Wellington is the finest cut of beef, the tenderloin, used for fillet mignon, seared in a hot pan and basted with English mustard, then wrapped in prosciutto (or foie gras, if you are an especially horrible person), a paste of tasty seasoned mushrooms called a duxelles, all rolled up in pastry, and baked as you would any baked thing.

Serving a Beef Wellington is nothing short of dramatic. You slice into what appears to be a dense loaf of bread, and it bleeds steamy pink meat juices. It’s magical, in an odd sort of way, like you’re a child again, experiencing wonder for the first time, combined with the feeling that something’s just been murdered.

“Mi lord, how’d the beef get in’ere?” an especially classless voice pipes up. “Issit witches agin? Mi lord, iffit’s witches, may be burns dem?” 

A pizza pizza pizza roundup

While scrolling through my blog reader today I noticed several posts on pizza, one of my favourite homemade meals. The reason I love it so much is for both its simplicity and potential complexity. You can keep your pizza simple and traditional – sauce, cheese, maybe some tomato or pepperoni – but, really, the possibilities are endless. Over the past few years, I’ve really become a fan of experimenting when cooking/baking, and pizza is far from an exception to this rule. Some of my favourite toppings to use with my classic dough recipe include: bocconcini, spinach, ricotta, sundried tomatoes, broccoli, salami, sausage, bacon, artichoke, proscuitto, pesto, goat cheese… And on, and on, and on. Here are some great recipes from many of my favourite blogs that go beyond the traditional (I had trouble choosing, so apologies for the long list). 

What are your favourite toppings?

Prosciutto Kale and Butternut Squash Pizza | Blueberry Dessert Pizza
by Spoon Fork Bacon

Cajun Pizza by A Couple Cooks

Buffalo Mozzarella, Artichoke, and Lemon Pizza by Technicolor Kitchen

Pesto Pizza with Fresh Arugula and Parmesan by Cookie+Kate

Roasted Eggplant and Za’atar Pizza by Sprouted Kitchen

Blue Cheese Pizza with Caramelized Onions, Bacon, and Honeyed Pears
by Adventures in Cooking

Breakfast Pizza | Lemony Zucchini and Goat Cheese Pizza by Smitten Kitchen

Hundreds of perogies

Ok, not hundreds, the plural, but close enough. I first made these with my friend, Amy, a few months ago. Seriously, I was taken aback by how much easier perogies are to make then I originally thought. When I was told what ingredients I needed to pick up because we’d be making 150 perogies… well, I went a little over board. New 10kg bag of potatoes, huge block of cheese, several onions…

As you’ll see below, however, the recipe for 150 perogies is not so intimidating. I’ve changed some of the quantities from the original recipe, just to get a slightly more manageable batch and to try to get a perfect balance between dough and filling. I did, to my surprise and delight, actually reach that happy medium and didn’t have to waste any of my ingredients. This modified recipe will get you ~125 perogies.

Here’s what you’ll need:

Dough:
5 cups all-purpose flour
2/3 cup cold, cubed butter
1 1/2 cup cold water
1 egg
1 tsp salt
3 tbs sour cream

Filling:
4 large potatoes
~ 300 grams sharp cheddar
1 large onion

Of course, you can get creative with the filling – garlic, chives, bacon, you name it!

Here’s how it’s done:

Mix together the flour and salt. Cut in the butter – a mixer is handy for this, but not essential. Mix together the water, egg, and sour cream. Make a well in the flour, pour in the water mixture, and mix into an elastic dough. Let sit, covered with a tea towel, for about 20 minutes or while you make the filling.

Peel and boil the potatoes. While the potatoes are cooking, chop and sauté the onion. Once the potatoes are cooked, mash them, then mash in the cheese and onion. Let cool to a handling temperature.

Take a potion of the dough, about a handful, and roll it out to at least 1/4 in. Cut out rounds using a circle cookie cutter or, as in my case, a wine glass. Pick up the round and even it/flatten it out a bit more with your hands. Take a 1 tsp amount of filling, place it in the middle of the round, and fold up the perogie. I usually pinch it closed, but some people use water to make a seal.

Repeat, repeat, repeat!

Lay flat to freeze, then they can be bagged up for a delicious meal another day. Do, of course, leave some aside for tonight. To cook, place in boiling water and cook until they float. For crispy perogies and some delicious sides, fry up the perogies with some onion, kielbasa, sauerkraut, you name it!