Thoughts and Pie

Hey everyone, long time no see! I’m sorry I left without a “back in 5” sign on the door. School has started again and I guess it’s been a little more demanding than I expected.

Although I haven’t been posting, it’s given me a little time to think over the philosophy of my blog. When I started posting, which I know wasn’t that long ago, I had a plan to share veggie food that came across my path and post it at least once a week. Somehow, it turned from a general food search to a recipe search type deal. (Maybe it’s because I haven’t really had the chance to go out for food all that much lately.) I guess I just wanted to let you know that although I will still be posting recipes, you can also expect to see some other veggie-related posts once in a while.

Also, I’ve decided to follow a policy of quality not quantity. I quite enjoy posting and doing so every week. However, I’ve found with my time constraints, that it becomes quite rushed, and overall not as fun to do…… so I’m not gonna.

Okay, back to business.

Everyone: I just got the best book in the world! Okay, well not really. But I’m super excited about it! It’s called Professional Chef and it’s a textbook put out by the CIA (link). It’s a little intimidating (like over 1000 pages), but I can’t wait to go through it! I’ve been cooking regularly over the past 3 years, so I’m still pretty new at the game. I can cook some pretty decent meals nowadays, but I find that I’m not quite up there when it comes to technique (I have no idea what I’m doing). I’ve always wanted to be able to cook sans recipe, and I think this book may help! Even though it does contain recipes (like 600 of ‘em), it also goes through various techniques, their purpose and what they hope to achieve. Eg. some topics include the different characteristics of regional cuisine, how to develop different flavours of tomato sauce, soup formulas, etc. The only thing about this book, which I wouldn’t necessarily say is a bad thing, is that I think I’m going to have to invest in a half-decent kitchen scale. The one I have (from Save-On) just isn’t going to cut it.

Anyway, if you’re looking for something more encyclopedic when it comes to cooking, this book may be worth considering. I also give it a pretty decent “veggie-friendly” rating because although it includes a topic on meat and many meat-filled recipes, this isn’t the sole focus on the book. Also, with this topic included, I hope to understand the flavouring process that goes into some meat dishes and translate it to a veggie alternative. (Wish me luck!)

Now, if you’re wondering why there’s a picture of a pie at the top of the page, no, the “A” doesn’t stand for Alberta Bean. It was actually a belated birthday present for my cousin (whose name also happens to begin with “A”). I’m actually quite proud of this pie, as it is the first pie I’ve ever made, and I DID IT FROM SCRATCH! (with the help of Professional Chef)

The pie crust was made with the help of the proportion guidance of my textbook and the filling recipe I found online. Let me know what you think!

-A

P.S. I also made baby pie. Cute, no?

Butternut Squash Soup from Easy Vegetarian (Ryland Peters & Small)

Warm soup for the cold winter.

This is dedicated to all my friends here in the frozen North.


There is nothing better than hot soup to warm you up after pushing your car out of a snowbank.


:-)


This recipe is from an Easy Vegetarian cookbook I finally decided to crack open. (See. Easy.)


I bought this book because it had a lot of familiar tastes in it and because all the ingredients seemed like they would not be too difficult to find. I don't know if any of you have ever flipped through some of the more fancy (or more vegan) cookbooks, but there are just some ingredients in there that I just don't know either what they are, or where I could possibly find them (other than on the internet).



Another thing I really liked about this book is that every single recipe has a picture accompaniment. I find that it's a lot easier to make something when you know what it's supposed to look like when you're finished. Big selling point for me.

So the soup I decided to make is a butternut squash curry soup. I'm not including the actual recipe because I'm not quite sure how this copyright thing works (can you copyright a recipe?), but I will post my pictures and you can decide for yourself if this book is something you might be interested in picking up.

This is actually the second time I've made this soup. The first time, I followed the directions exactly. The soup turned out a little thick, so I decided to use it as a pasta sauce instead (was yummy). This time I added more liquid so it is much more "soup-like". Also delicious.

The Cast:


Curry Powder, Coarse Salt, Ground Pepper


Butternut Squash, Medium Yellow Onion


Cashews


Cold Pressed Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Milk, Unsalted Butter

First chop squash like so


It comes with seedies like this


Take them out

Then you will have a treasure trove like this


Then chop your onion and melt the butter in olive oil




It WILL smell good.

Spice it up.




Then mix in your squash.


Cook it and chop your nuts while you're waiting.


Add the milk and water to the pot.


Whadd'ya think??


Let it cook for a while till it's all soft.


Then stir in the cashews.


Finally, blend it.






Soup!


Warm, thick and filling.

P.S. Hot chocolate is also good after braving the cold.