Easy, Inexpensive Party Nibbles

Over the holidays I was looking for some easy and relatively inexpensive ideas for nibbles for an informal evening get-together. I only had half an afternoon to prepare for the party, so speed was important. I also wanted to use somewhat local or seasonal ingredients. Here are a few of the things I settled on.

Homemade French Pâté
Although I regularly make my own veggie pâtés, I hadn't thought of making my own liver pâté until Mark Bittman included his recipe on his blog just before Christmas. Local or organic pâtés can be hard to come by or expensive, and Bittman claimed the recipe would be easy and delicious, so I gave it a try. It was! It also made about three cups of pâté, which was enough for the party with some left over to freeze. (I'll let you know how that turns out in another post!) I served the pâté alongside some crackers, crusty bread and a selection of cheeses. The organic livers were purchased from Boucherie Les Fermes St-Vincent, an organic butcher at Atwater market. For the non-liver-pâté eaters, I made my vegetable walnut pate.

Stuffed mushroom caps
These are always a hit and are really easy to prepare. I don't really have a fixed recipe for these. Basically, I chop up the stems of the mushrooms with about a teaspoon of marjoram, a good scoop of cream cheese, about 1/4 cup of dry bread crumbs, about 1/4 cup of Parmesan cheese, and some ground pepper. I mix everything together, stuff the mixture back into the caps, and then bake at 425F for about 10-12 minutes. If you're pressed for time, you can prepare them in advance and just pop them in the oven.

Horseradish sour cream dip
This dip is great for doing double duty for both chips and veggies. Again, I don't have an exact recipe, but here is the formula: Basically combine a 250 mL container of sour cream with about 5 teaspoons of horseradish (adjust the amount based on the strength of the horseradish), 2 or 3 cloves of minced garlic, a handful of chopped chives, and about a teaspoon of freshly ground pepper. Mix everything together and chill for a few hours before serving.

Vegan Chewy Chocolate Brownies

My friend over at A Season to Taste has been asking for this recipe. It's taken a while to post it though! I first got it from a cooking workshop we put together at Le Frigo Vert over ten years ago, and the brownies are truly amazing! They are soft, rich and chewy. And very easy!

Vegan Chewy Chocolate Brownies

1/2 cup flour
1 1/4 cup water
2 2/3 cups sugar
1 tsp salt
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup cocoa
2/3 cup vegetable oil
2 cups flour*
1 tsp baking powder
1 cup chopped nuts

Stir together the 1/2 cup flour and water in a saucepan over low heat until very thick. I use a whisk initially to stop it going lumpy. Then cool the mixture to room temperature. (This is important!)

Preheat oven to 350F. Grease a 9 x 13 pan. (I've used two 8 x 8 pans with success as well.)

In a large bowl combine the sugar, salt, vanilla, and cocoa. Add the cooled flour/water mixture. Stir together. Add the oil and mix well until smooth and the oil doesn't separate out of the batter. (This can take a while.)

Add the remaining flour, baking powder and chopped nuts. (*For a chewier brownie replace up to 1/2 cup of flour with ground almonds. Highly recommended!) Mix well until all ingredients are blended. The batter will be fairly thick.

Transfer batter to pan(s). Bake 25-35 minutes until firm and a knife inserted into the centre comes out 'clean.'

Enjoy!

Garlicky Lamb Stew

On Saturday, my friend had her annual celebration of garlic. It's a potluck party where every contribution to the feast must have garlic as an ingredient, including deserts. It's a fabulous evening and you wouldn't believe all the garlicky combinations that people come up with. Garlice cream anyone? It's actually delicious.

This year my contribution was a garlicky lamp stew made from local ingredients that are easy enough to find at this time of year. It was a big hit. Here is the recipe.

Slow-Cooker Garlicky Lamb Stew
1 kg local lamb or mutton (stewing cut)
ca. 1/2 cup flour
ca. 2 Tbs Epicure Tuscan Rub*
ca. 3 Tbs Champy sunflower oil
1-2 heads organic garlic (according to taste), crushed
1 bottle mild scotch ale, like LochNess
500 g organic red potatoes, cut
salt and pepper to taste

Combine flour and Tuscan Rub in a bowl. Cube lamb or mutton. Toss meat in flour mixture to coat it.

Heat oil in a heavy-bottom pan. Brown the coated meat over medium-high heat, in batches if necessary. Put the potatoes in the slow cooker on high. Add the meat, then add about half the garlic. Add the rest of the garlic to the remaining oil in the pan.

Reduce the heat for the pan to medium-low and stir-fry garlic for a few minutes, until soft. Add the scotch ale to the pan. Let it warm for about a minute and then pour the ale mixture over the meat and potatoes in the slow cooker.

Stir the mixture in the slow cooker. Make sure liquid covers the top of the meat and potatoes. If not, top up the slow cooker with boiling water.

Cover and simmer on low 2-4 hours, or until meat is tender, the potatoes are cooked, and the gravy is thick. Stir occasionally as the stew is simmering. Add more water if necessary. Season with salt and pepper towards the end of the cooking process.

Serve over a bed of greens, and with fresh crusty bread.

* I used this because it was what I had on hand. Originally I wanted to use rosemary, but when I looked in the cupboard I was out of it. I still think rosemary would work really well.

Harvest Brownies

Looking at a pile of beets I pulled from my garden recently, I was reminded about a childhood treat: red velvet cake. While some recipes for this classic cake use red food colouring, my mum's used beetroot. Perhaps it was her way of getting veggies into us, although you'd never know it. It made a fabulously rich and moist cake that looked and tasted fantastic.

When I went rooting around for a recipe for red velvet cake, I came across a few recipes for chocolate beetroot brownies. Now, I'm more of a brownie girl than a cake girl, so the brownie recipes got the try. As well, unlike the red velvet cake recipes, the beetroot only required grating, not cooking.

I like this recipe because it doesn't use a lot of sugar. The brownies are also rich, moist, and a deep dark red. (Perfect for a Hallowe'en table too!) I've found that if I use fresh beetroot from my garden that I don't need to peel them. I only need to scrub them. I suspect, however, that if you're using stored or conventionally-farmed beetroot that you're better off peeling since the skin is probably tough and bitter.

Chocolate Beetroot Brownies
(Adapted from La Tartine Gourmand)

• 4 oz fair-trade dark chocolate (at least 70%)*
• 7/8 cup unbleached flour
• 1 cup ground almonds
• 1/3 cup fair-trade sugar
• 1/2 cup butter, softened
• 4 eggs at room temperature
• 7 oz (200 g) shredded raw red beetroot
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Icing sugar** and cocoa for decoration

Set aside the butter and eggs so they are are at room temperature before you start mixing the ingredients. Meanwhile, peel and shred the beetroot. Combine the shredded beetroot in a bowl with the flour and ground almonds. Set aside. Also, melt the chocolate over hot water and then set it aside to cool.

Cream the butter then add the eggs. Beat well until well-blended and frothy. Add the sugar and mix well. Add the vanilla, the melted chocolate and the flour, almonds and beetroot. Mix well.

Oil a square cake pan and dust the bottom lightly with flour. Pour the brownie batter into it and bake in a preheated oven at 350F for about 30 to 35 minutes. Cool the brownies in the pan slightly before turning them out onto a cake rack. To serve, cut into squares and dust with cocoa and confectioner's sugar.

* To substitute cocoa for dark chocolate, combine 1/2 cup cocoa, 3 tbsp sugar and 3 tbsp oil or butter over a double boiler until smooth.

** I recently discovered fair-trade icing sugar at my local Loblaws. Look for it!

A Frugal Kitchen

A recent post on the travel blog Almost Fearless got me thinking again about frugality in the kitchen and the importance of a well-stocked pantry. These days many people rely on frozen family meals or packaged prepared ingredients. Yet with a few key ingredients always on hand in the pantry or freezer, I find I can create tasty, nutritious meals from scratch in about the same length of time that it would take to get a frozen pizza or lasagna to the table.

So what are my staples? Beyond fresh seasonal fruits and vegetables, my pantry relies heavily on dried beans and lentils, frozen soups and vegetables, canned/jarred sauces, rice, couscous, bulgar, pasta and potatoes. I always have eggs, cheese and yogurt in the fridge, as well as quickly-defrostable sustainable fish (usually salmon, tuna, mackerel, black cod, or scallops ) in the freezer. Baking supplies, like flour, are also always on hand.

Now, I must confess that I do have a couple of commercially-prepared food addictions. Perhaps it's the Brit in me, but I am totally addicted to Patak's curry pastes. They're easy to use, good quality, and spice up any meal in a matter of minutes. I also have a couple of canned curries that I regularly keep in my pantry. Canned beans and chickpeas are also present as practical back-ups to the dried variety, although I usually have soaked beans in the freezer.

So using these ingredients, what can I whip up in under 20 minutes? Here are a few suggestions for quick hot meals:

• Hearty vegetable and cheese fritatta
• Pasta and sauce
• Soup and scones
• Blackened salmon, rice and steamed veggies
• Stir-fry with farmed scallops
• Moroccan chick-pea soup
• Curried red lentil soup served with yogurt
• Quinoa chili

With a little bit of planning, like soaking beans or lentils, or leaving dough to rise:

• Chickpea curry and Naan-style bread
• Lentils and rice
• Cuban black beans
• Homemade pizza

Most of these things are quick and affordable to make, even with organic ingredients. If you're making and freezing (or canning) your own soups and sauces using local vegetable when in season, then a good portion of the meals can be local too.

Transforming Green Beans into Pâté

I've been debating with myself about whether I should include recipes on this blog. It wasn't part of my initial vision for this space, but I'm beginning to think that recipes with some of my favorite seasonal foods would be a nice fit. So on that vein...

It's the season for green beans. This recipe for a walnut and green bean pâté is one of my favorites. It's adapted from The Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. I was skeptical when I first saw it. Green beans and walnuts aren't the most obvious of combinations for a pâté, but once I whipped up a batch I was quickly won over. Katzen says it tastes like chopped liver. I tend to agree! It's excellent on crusty bread on in a sandwich. It is also a great on crackers or accompanying a cheese plate.

Vegetable Walnut Pâté
1 Tbs vegetable oil
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups green beans, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs
1/3 cup chopped walnuts
1 Tbs fresh lemon juice
1 Tbs mayonnaise
1 Tbs nutritional yeast
1/4 cup parsley, chopped
black pepper to taste

Heat the oil in skillet over medium heat and sauté the onions until they begin to brown (about 10 minutes). Add the chopped green beans and saute until tender and very slightly browned(another 10 minutes or so). Remove from heat.

When the beans and onions are cooled, combine them in a food processor with the rest of the ingredients and grind them into a paste. Chill and serve.

When I serve this as a pâté, I like to top it with fresh fried onions. Basically, slice up half an onion and fry the slices over medium-high heat until they're brown and crispy.

If you don't ahve nutritional yeast, you can skip it. It's harder to skip the parsley. Also don't overdo the mayonnaise or lemon juice.

Enjoy!