Apple Roses

I made Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs today so while that was cooking thought I would make some Apple Roses. I saw a post for these the other day and they looked fun.

They're quite easy to make, although I messed up a little at first because I didn't read through the full instructions.

Ingredients:
- Puff Pastry (one sheet)
- 2 apples
- 1/2 lemon
- water
- jam (whichever flavour you'd like. original recipe called for apricot, I used peach).
- cinnamon

Defrost your puff pastry. Once defrosted, roll it out flat into a big rectangle. Cut into 6 equal rectangles (approximately 9 inches long and 2 inches tall). Preheat the oven to 375. Halve the apples and core them. Thinly slice apple into half rounds. Put into a microwave safe bowl with about 1 cup of cold water and the juice of half a lemon. Microwave for 3 minutes. In another bowl add 3 tablespoons of jam and 2 table spoons of water. Microwave for about 1 minute - this is to make the jam easier to spread.

Spread the jam along each of the strips of puff pastry. Layer apple halves (skin side out) along the top half of the pastry. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Fold the bottom of the pastry up over the bottom of the apples so the tops are still exposed. Then carefully roll along to make the rose. Place in a greased muffin tin. Cook for 40-45 minutes until the pastry is cooked (make sure to check the middle). Around the 30 minute mark the apple will look like it is cooked (and it is probably is), but you've got to give the extra time for the pasty to bake. You can move it to the lower rack if it looks like the apples are cooking too much.

Sprinkled with icing sugar and served with vanilla ice cream.

Mozzarella Stuffed Meatballs In The Slow Cooker

 

Serves 4-5 Ingredients:
1 pound ground beef
1 pound hot Italian sausage
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
2 eggs
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
Low moisture mozzarella 
Sauce: 
1 1/2 cans of tomato Passata (tomato puree) 
1/2 a white onion, chopped
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
3 fresh thyme sprigs
salt & pepper


The recipe asks for "low moisture mozzarella cheese". I wasn't entirely sure what that meant, but picked a firm mozzarella cheese (that comes in a ball). Cut the cheese into 3/4 inch cubes cubes. Store in refrigerator while preparing the meat.

In a large mixing bowl combine all ingredients except for the mozzarella cheese. Mix gently and be careful not to over mix. Roll meat mixture into golf ball sized balls (mine were a little bigger than a golf ball). Squish a mozzarella cube into the centre of each ball and pull the edges of the meat ball around it until it’s a new ball again.

Pour half a bottle of passata in the bottom of the slow cooker. Add chopped onion and smashed garlic. Arrange as many meatballs as you can on the bottom layer. Cover with more sauce. Layer next meatballs. Cover with remaining sauce so the meatballs are just submerged. Toss in thyme sprigs and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper.  Cook on high for 2 and half to 3 hours depending on size of meatballs.

I cooked some spaghetti to al dente and tossed it with some of the sauce from the slow cooker. Added the meatballs on top and topped with fresh parsley and fresh parmesan. YUM!!

Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash

Leaving the cottage after Thanksgiving weekend my mom forced upon my sister and I an acorn squash and apples we didn't use for Thanksgiving dinner. On the drive home, I stumbled upon a recipe for Sausage and Apple Stuffed Acorn Squash. How terribly convenient that I found the recipe because I had no idea what to do with the Acorn Squash and all of the apples I had. I showed it to my sister and we decide that would be our get-together meal of the week.

When we made the below recipe, we used turkey sausage in order to be a little healthier. Plus turkey sausage is pretty delicious. However, I would not suggest using turkey sausage for this recipe after making it. Turkey sausage does not brown or crumble quite as well as Italian pork sausage so I find it did not work great for this recipe. Also using spicy Italian sausage would give this recipe a nice little kick of flavour. It was still great with the turkey sausage, I just think it would have been far better with spicy Italian sausage!  We used one large acorn squash and there was plenty of stuffing left over.





Serves 2-4
Ingredients:
- 2 medium (or one large) acorn squash
- 1 chopped white or spanish onion
- 2 chopped stalks of celery
1 tbps of olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
1 tsp fresh chopped rosemary
3 chopped cloves of garlic
1/2 lb spicy Italian Sausage
1 chopped apple
1 cup of Panko breadcrumbs
1/2 cup parmesan cheese

Directions:
Using a sharp knife cut off the very top and bottom of each squash to create a flat base on each side (being careful not to cut through the centre cavity). Slice the squash in half, scrape out seeds to create individual bowls for the stuffing. Drizzle each squash half with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and roast in a preheated oven at 400˚F (200˚C) for 40-50 minutes - or until fork tender. 

While squash is roasting - in a large fry pan over medium heat - heat oil and add onion, celery, salt, pepper, and rosemary. Cook until onions begin to soften. Add sausage. Break the sausage up until tiny pieces. Cook until sausage is browned on all sides. Add garlic and cook for a few more minutes. Add apple until slightly softened. Finally mix in bread crumbs and parmesan cheese just until incorporated. Remove from heat. 

Once Squash has finished roasting (when you can easily poke it with a fork) remove from oven and fill each with prepared stuffing mixture. Return to oven for 20 minutes - adding a sprinkle of parmesan cheese to the top for the final 5 minutes. 

Pork Meatballs with a Lemon Thyme Sauce ft Zoodles

There has been a serious lack of recipe sharing/blogging in my life recently... But that does not come with a lack of cooking! I don't like sharing photos of my food if they don't look perfect... even if they taste delicious! But I am in no way a food photographer so I think I have to get over that. Plus tonights dinner was delicious. I have a few other photos from dinners I've cooked up recently that I'll likely share in the coming week as well. My sister and I have decided, since I recently moved two blocks away from her, that we will now cook together once a week! So this should be exciting. 

Tonight the main star of the show was Pork Meatballs with a Lemon Thyme Sauce. They were incredibly flavourful. I recently got a Spiralizer for my birthday which turns vegetables into "noodles" so I made some zoodles to go with it. It was super delicious and very light! I stuck very close to the meatball recipe, but with some adjustments/method changes. 

This recipe serves 4. 

Meatballs:

1/2 cup milk1/4 cup breadcrumbs
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
1 garlic clove, diced
Extra-virgin olive oil
1 pound ground pork
1 egg, beaten
1/4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
4 tablespoons chopped fresh sage leaves (or 4 teaspoons of ground sage)
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh thyme
1/8 teaspoon cayenne pepper
Freshly ground black pepper & Salt (about 1/2 tsp of each)


Lemon Thyme Sauce:
1 1/2 cups chicken broth 
3/4 cup dry white wine
1/4 cup fresh squeezed lemon juice (from one lemon) 
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
Lemon Zest to garnish

Put the milk and breadcrumbs in a small bowl and mix with a fork. When the crumbs have softened (approximately 2-4 minutes) squeeze out the milk and discard it. I scooped it into a strainer with very small holes to do this. 

While the breadcrumbs are soaking, gently sauté the onion on low-medium heat in a little olive oil until it is soft but not colored. After the first couple of minutes, add the diced garlic and continue to sauté. Set it aside to cool. Make sure they're very finely diced. I didn't pay very much attention and regularly diced mine and there was a lot of onion I had to take out while making my meatballs cause they were sticking out of them.

Combine in a medium bowl the (drained) breadcrumbs, cooled onion, egg, Parmesan, sage, thyme, cayenne, black pepper, and 1 teaspoon salt. Mix ingredients together and then add the ground pork. Mix with hands. You don't want to over mix once the pork has been added or it will turn pasty. That is no good. 

Shape the mixture into walnut-sized balls. This can be done several hours  ahead or right before! 

To cook, heat a skillet large enough to hold all the meatballs in one uncrowded layer. Add a little olive oil. When the skillet is heated, add the meatballs, shaking the pan to keep them from sticking. Using tongs to turn so they brown evenly, cook the meatballs until they are no longer pink in the centre and lightly browned on all sides. Remove from the pan to a plate and immediately make the sauce.

Deglaze the pan over medium heat with the chicken broth and wine. Simmer until reduced by at least a third. Add the lemon juice and thyme, then add the meatballs back in again as well. After about 5 minutes, this is when I added the zoodles and tossed them around in the sauce as we were ready to eat right away. The sauce should simmer for a total of at least 10 minutes, but up to half an hour, depending on when you're ready to eat. Serve meatballs and zoodles with the sauce poured over and garnished with lemon zest curls.

Zoodle Ravioli

Zoodle Ravioli with Tomato Sauce

I would say this is me being "healthy", but the amount of ricotta cheese definitely makes it lean on the unhealthy side... but at least there is no pasta noodles?! Right?!
The zoodles were  incredibly hard to do. This is likely due to the fact that I didn't have the right tools. I tried to use a regular vegetable peeler, but it wasn't making them wide enough. I opted for my cheese slicer which worked surprisingly well most of the time. I wasted a lot of zucchini trying to make them (i.e., pieces being too thin, not wide enough or too thick). By using 3 zucchinis, I made 12 raviolis (so 24 strips). I'll get better at it... maybe I'll get a cooking mandolin. I feel like you're supposed to use one of those.

Ingredients for the zoodles: 
- 3 zucchini
- 475 g (one container) of ricotta cheese
- 3 cloves of garlic
- 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil
- 1 cup of freshly grated parmesan

Preheat oven to 350. Lightly grease a baking tray. Prepare your zucchini strips by slicing vertically down the length of the zucchini. Put them aside. Prepare filling - mix the ricotta cheese, 3 cloves of chopped garlic, 1/4 cup chopped fresh basil and 1 cup of freshly grated parmesan.

Place 2 strips across each other at a 90 degree angle and put a scoop of ricotta cheese in the middle where they intersect. Fold the ends over and in and place the "ravioli" on the baking tray seam side down. Repeat until you run out of zoodles or filling. Lightly sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Bake for 20 minutes.  Top with tomato sauce and enjoy!

Tomato sauce I made tonight was very simple - onions, garlic, basil, red whine, strained tomatoes, hot pepper flakes, s&p.

Tandoori Chicken with Roasted Broccoli

I expected this to be spicier. I think it could have been spicier. I only used one red chilli in the marinade. I had asked my brother to try a raw one and his response after taking a bite was "ya, you'd die". So I was scared to put two in. But really after marniating and cooking for so long, peppers aren't quite as spicy as the raw thing! I guess it depends on the pepper... but this was fine. Live a little... put two in! It was pretty delicious though. Nice flavours. Enjoy!

Requires marinating over night (~12 hours)

Ingredients:
4 cloves of garlic
1-2 fresh red chillies
salt & pepper
1 large thumb-sized piece of ginger
1/2 a lemon, juiced
200g plain yogurt
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp ground coriander
1 heaped tsp paprika
12-15 bone-in chicken thighs & drumsticks (~1.5kg)
olive oil
broccoli
1 tbs garam masala
1/2 bunch of fresh coriander

Peel garlic and deseed chillies. Roughly chop and place in a pestle and mortar (or a small bowl if you don't have that). Bash the garlic and chilli into a rough paste with a good pinch of salt. Transfer to a large bowl. Finely grate ginger and add to bowl. Add lemon juice, yogurt, pepper, cinnamon, cumin, coriander and paprika. Mix well to combine. Add chicken and coat thoroughly. Cover with plastic wrap and put in the fridge for around 12 hours.

When you're ready to cook, remove the chicken from the fridge and allow to come up to room temperature. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Divide the chicken between two large pieces of aluminum foil, drizzle with olive oil and close up to make tin foil packets. Place on a baking tray and bake for 30 minutes.

Carefully remove the tray from the oven. There is going to be some "juice" either on the pan or in the packets so be careful. Remove the foil packets from the tray. Open each one and with tongs put  the chicken directly onto the baking tray. Discard foil and any chicken juices. Cook for another 30 minutes or until the chicken is golden brown.

After you put the chicken in the oven for the second time, prepare the broccoli. Cut up into little bite sized florets. Sprinkle with garam masala and a drizzle of olive oil. At 20 minutes left on the chicken timer, add to the oven. Broccoli should be tender and slightly charred.

Serve with basmati rice and raita (mix 1/4 cup yogurt, 1/8 tsp cumin, 1/8 tsp coriander, some fresh coriander chopped, one green onion chopped.... you're also supposed to add cucumber, but I didn't have any).

Chili Con Carne

MM this was good. I severely burnt my mouth however because I was super excited and it was really really hot. So be careful. This is basically just chili... but with a little bit of mexican influence and on a whole other level.

Ingredients:
2 cloves of garlic
2-3 medium carrots
2-3 stick of celery
2 red peppers
olive oil
1 heaped tsp chili powder
1 heaped tsp ground cumin
1 heaped tsp ground cinnamon
salt & pepper
1 can of chickpeas
1 can of red kidney beans
1 can of tomatoes
1 lb ground beef
1 small bunch fresh coriander
2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar

Serve with basmati rice, yogurt, guacamole & lime wedge

Directions:
1. Peel and chop onions, garlic, carrots and celery into very small pieces. The original instructions said "finely chop", but that seemed like a lot of work so I just cut them all very small. No need to be exact, just chop away.
2. Halve red peppers, remove seeds and stock. Roughly chop into bite site pieces.
3. Heat a pot (or deep dish pan) on medium-high heat. Add in about 1 tbs of olive oil and all the chopped veggies. Stir occasionally. When the vegetable begin to soften (5 or so minutes), add chili powder, cumin, cinnamon, a good pinch of salt and pepper. Stir every 30 seconds or so for a few more minutes.
4. Once the vegetables have softened and gained a little bit of color, add the drained chickpeas, drained kidney beans and tomatoes and mix. (At this point I was ready to eat it because it looked and smelled delicious).
5. Add in the raw ground beef and break any larger chunks up with a wooden spoon. Mix around. Fill the empty can of tomatoes half full of water. Add to pot. Mix. Add finely chopped coriander stocks, and put leaves aside.
6. Add balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil and then reduce heat to low and simmer with a lid slightly askew for an hour. Stirring occasionally to make sure nothing is sticking to the bottom of the pot.
7. Serve a top Basmati rice, with a dollop of plain greek yogurt, guacamole and coriander leaves.

Guacamole
Don't know how to make guacamole? SUPER easy. I find guacamole is different (but the same) almost anywhere you try it. It is almost always the same ingredients, but they change up the amount they use. Some places it super lime-y, some places it spicy, some places its garlicy. It is really all about taste. What you'll need:

ripe avocado
lime juice
salt & pepper
purple onion, chopped
hot sauce (Valentina, tabasco, sriracha - whatever you like... but preferably mexican) -
garlic powder (or real garlic chopped... but I was lazy)

Halve avocado, carefully remove the pit from one side. Scoop out the insides of both halves into a bowl. Begin to mush with a fork (or masher). If the avocado is ripe enough, a fork should be just fine. Add lime juice. Continue to mash or stir. Add the rest of the ingredients. Mix. Tada!

As I mentioned, it is completely what you prefer which determines how much to put in. I like mine lime-y and garlic-y with a liiiiittle bit of a kick. Tonight I used 1/2 lime, 1/4 purple onion, 1/4 tsp Valentina hot sauce, 1/8th tsp garlic powder. Pinch of salt and pepper.