Saturday, January 3rd, 2009 - Hummous and Soufflee

It snowed a storm today. It IS still coming down in flakes the size of golfballs. D is now in full cold mode so he refused to go out. We had planned on going to Commercial to stock up on our favourite veg and pasta goodness but he insisted nothing would be shovelled. It was true.

For breakfast, I had a pot of the cuban coffee and D had more of the Ritual Life Saver Cap. The shop is on Valencia near 24th in the Mission in San Francisco. The beans are roasted on site. The baked goods are amazing too and they have free wifi.

We heated up the leftover scones in the oven rather than the micro...mmmm sorry no photos but they were picture perfect even the next day.

After a couple of hours of watching the snow fall, I had to head out. I walked down to Granville island for stuff to make our Seafood Carribean Soufflee and Spanakopita. While down at the public market, D rings me because he is restless and decided to make hummous. It is yummo, easy as running a blender and adjusted a bit to make it easier for you.

Original recipie included having to boil your own chickpeas from dry. Yeah right.

HUMMMMMOUS..

1 14 oz can of chick peas
3 large garlic cloves or more if you fancy that sort of thing. Raw garlic is said to have rejuvenating powers.
1/4 C extra virgin olive oil plus some for drizzling. if you don't have oil that is tasty enough to use in a dressing then don't sub in cooking oil.
pinch of ground cumin (1/8t)
1/4 C tahini. like I said Apple Hill on 6th has at least 4-5 types including organic.
1/8 C lemon juice

Blend in a food processor until the consistency of lumpy pancake batter, .... do not over process.

Garnish with a sprinkling of paprika and parsley or dill... drizzle with olive oil. Serve with bread or chips..mmm










the Ikea bread from yesterday is depicted behind the hummous






D forgot to defrost the Phyllo, so I'll have to wait a few hours to make

Spanakopita

SERVES 15 , 15 spanakopitas
Ingredients

1 cup cooked fresh spinach (leaves only and well packed)
(this will be like 1-2 big bunches. It cooks down tremendously)
1 teaspoon olive oil
3 green onions or shallot, chopped
2 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped (I love dill, also like it on top. I am copying that from a place on Commercial)
4 tablespoons feta cheese, crumbled
2 eggs, beaten
salt, to taste
black pepper
1/4 cup butter (melted)
6 sheets phyllo pastry sheets
1 pinch grated nutmeg. (really adds a kick!)

1. You can either blanch the spinach or chiffonade it and cook it in the saute pan with the onions.
2. I used one enormous shallot. I don't know where TNT buys their Shallots but they're massive and you have buy them by the dozen. So I used one the size of a plum. Fry in a non stick on medium. Add the drained spinach or chiffonade and dill. Turn the heat up now and make sure the pan is dry. Set aside to cool.
3. Add the nutmeg and eggs. I had extra yolks from the macaroons from yesterday so I used one whole egg and two yolks.
4. Crumble the feta and stir in.

Defrost Phyllo and cover with a damp cloth. Work the rest quickly.

5. Take a sheet of fillo and cut in four strips. Butter with brush like you're painting the whole piece and layer two ontop of each other. Put a table spoon of filling at one end. Fold in a triangle to one corner of the strip like (I hate to use this analogy but like folding a flag). Keep folding all the way up the strip. Place on baking sheet and butter a little and then sprinkle paprika and some dill. Continue until all the filling is gone.
6. You can apparently refreeze the phyllo. I doubt this to be true but that's what the package says.
Bake for 15 minutes or until golden brown on the edges. It took us 18 minutes.

They turned out amazing.... now onto dinner. Souffleee....

Carribean Seafood Soufflee for Dinner

Ingredients
1/2 cup sweetened, flaked coconut
4 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/3 cup celery tops
1 clove garlic, minced
1/2 teaspoon curry powder (I grabbed the wrong ziplock and used Zanzibar pilau mix which had cardommon and pepper, i'll have to let you know later how it turns out)
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/2 teaspoon salt
ground black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/4 cups milk
4 egg yolks
1/2 pound crabmeat (I used a 230 ml can of salmon because crab is currently $40/kg which is obscene)
6 egg whites, stiffly beaten
1/4 teaspoon fresh lemon juice

D is a bit worried about the lack of guyere cheese. But that's the recipie.

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Butter a 8 cup souffle dish.
Toast coconut in a non-stick skillet over low heat. You can use a regular but make sure you don't burn the sugar in the coconut.
In a medium skillet, melt butter over low heat and add the celery, garlic, curry powder, thyme, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper - cook for 3 minutes. Stir in flour until smooth for about 1 minute.
Pour in milk and cook over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture comes to a boil and thickens. Set aside and cool slightly.
Whisk the egg yolks one at a time into the sauce. Stir in coconut and crab meat.
In medium bowl, beat egg whites and lemon juice with a mixer until stiff, but not dry.
Stir 1/4 of the whites into crab mixture. Quickly and gently fold in the remaining whites. Do not deflate the volume.
Transfer mixture to the souffle dish and place it on a rack at the bottom of the oven.
Bake for 35 minutes or until golden, puffed and still moist inside. I did it until 30 as instructed. The dead centre was the texture of pudding but cooked. The out edge was perfection. So I'd have left it in for a few more minutes. This was SOOOOO good.

We had it with a simple green salad tossed with balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Ymmmm

It won't rise up as crazy as a typical soufflee but it puffed up.