I may have missed king crab season, but I was determined that B.C. spot prawn season didn’t pass me by.

Spot prawns are local to B.C. and their season is a mere 8 weeks. Restaurants take advantage of this season and you will see them on many menus. Forget the usual rubbery ebi at your sushi joint and have sashimi spot prawns instead for a sweet and succulent treat. The best part about these little guys is that they are sustainable.

The Chef’s Table Society held their 6th annual spot prawn festival. $12 gets you a plate where you get 3 prawns and all the fixings. Vikram Vij was serving the prawns and reminded everybody to eat the prawn heads. Sounds gross, but it really is tasty.

The prawns have a sweetness to it and a salty ocean taste. R thinks they taste a bit like lobster meat. They’re pretty juicy, so the big napkins that were handed out came in handy.

False Creek Fisherman’s wharf boats sell them starting at noon daily for $12/pound (note: they are now selling for $14/pound). You’ll want to get there early as the line gets quite long. When you buy live spot prawns, you only have about 4 hours before they start getting mushy. To keep them longer, you will need to get over your squeamishness and remove their heads…while they are still alive. If that makes you feel faint, you can buy them frozen. Just be sure it’s just the tails so you don’t get mushy ones. You can purchase spot prawns at Lobsterman, Longliner, Salmon Shop on Granville Island.

Tips for attending the festival:
- Buy the pre-sale tickets online. Once the pre-sale tickets are finished, there are reserved tickets available the day of at the festival. But the line up is long, so it’s better to save yourself the hassle.
- Arrive early. A good 20-30 minutes before it starts will ensure a shorter wait and you won’t have to worry if they’re running low on anything.
- Take transit. With so many people at the festival along with the usual Granville Island crowd, parking would have been a nightmare.

One of the biggest misconceptions people have about me is that I must eat really well and make fabulous intricate dinners because I have a food blog. My passion for food is high, but laziness and lack of time and energy will usually win out. People will ask me eagerly, “What did you eat for dinner?” and I shamefully answer “Toast.”

I’ve been searching for easy to put together meals and this mushroom and black bean tortilla casserole are mostly made from pantry staples. This is a “throw random ingredients together” recipe where you can fool around with what’s kicking around in your kitchen and still turn out with something decent.

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I was not someone who cooked back in the day, I was a frozen food junkie. I never thought I would enjoy cooking.

One day I came across the Food Network and saw Rachael Ray cooking. People either hate her or love her and I was unabashedly in the latter. I loved how she made things look so easy and her catch phrases like “Yummo” and “EVOO”. Even if you don’t like her, you have to admit she makes cooking accessible to people like (the former) me.

I have her first two books, 30-Minute Meals and Cooking ‘Round the Clock. I’ve made several dishes out of each and back then I was pleased with the results. Would I still find them “repeat worthy” or would I find them lacking?

I remember the first time R and I made the Blackened Chicken Pizza. We didn’t know how to stretch out the dough and it took forever getting it right (Rachael Ray’s meals were never 30 minutes for me). I remember that the pizza was good enough for me to make a mental note to make again. I never did make it again (since 2004!).

Making the pizza again I used my own pizza dough recipe and made my own grill seasoning by mixing up some thyme, garlic granules, smoked paprika, salt and pepper. I’d add onion powder if I had any in my pantry.

I have to say this recipe is still repeat worthy. The seasoning gave the chicken a burst of flavour and despite all the cheese I threw on there, it didn’t feel heavy as the tomato salsa lightened things up. I toned down the spice as anything remotely hot will make me break out into a sweat. Not the look I go for when I take my meals into work.

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I had agreed with my friend that we would do an Easter dinner together. I would make a fabulous dessert and there would be a grand turkey with all the fixings. The Easter dinner turned into a fondue party and the fabulous dessert? Well I just moved to a new place and didn’t have a mixer and most of my baking equipment available.

I lamented to R that I probably wouldn’t be able to bake anything.

“There is stuff all on our counters. I have no counterspace!”
“I’ve seen you bake in worse situations.” he said reassuringly.
“We have no groceries! I can’t make anything!”
“The grocery store is right beside us. As long as you don’t need quail eggs from South America, you’ll be fine.”

Ok, maybe I was making up excuses. The truth is, the place is such a mess and hardly room to do anything, I felt uninspired with no motivation.

I decided on a dead simple Nigella recipe (from Nigella Kitchen) that she describes as the kitchen equivalent of crack cocaine. After getting the ingredients at the grocery store where it’d look like I’d gone on a sugar binge (8 chocolate bars were in my shopping basket), I got home and went to work.

If you are looking for an easy recipe that’s no-bake, this is it. If you are looking for a dessert that can be put together in mere minutes, then this is it. It’s so easy that I can hardly classify as “making” it.

The ingredients are simple: butter, chocolate, salted peanuts, corn syrup and Crunchie bars. The longest part of this recipe is waiting for the chocolate to set (about 4 hours) and after that the next hardest part is crushing the Crunchie bars with your hands. If you crush them into bigger pieces, you’ll get more of that texture in your dessert.

Recipe here.

Notes:
- I used all milk chocolate and it tasted well-balanced. I don’t know if I’d go with a dark chocolate.
- I’d also make this in a rectangular pan and cut it into small slices as a whole slice is a bit too rich for most people.

I’m a little (okay…a lot) late to jump on the quinoa bandwagon. I wasn’t interested in eating healthier so this little superfood was never really on my radar as something to try.

My co-worker is a quinoa lover and kept urging me to try it. I caved into the peer pressure.

The first time I tried cooking it, I put in too much water. I still find it more finicky than rice to cook with all those little faux grains sticking everywhere.

I love The Kitchn’s quinoa, black bean and heirloom recipe. It’s become a weekly ritual for me to make this because it was just so simple and flavourful. I love using cherry tomatoes instead of cutting up heirlooms because of the tiny bursts of flavour you get once you bite down on them. If I don’t scarf the entire thing for dinner it makes for a great light but filling lunch.

How do you cook quinoa? I once tried it in the rice cooker to cook it ahead of time and it became mush. What is your favourite quinoa recipe?

Sarah is a wonderful person who I met during the Foodie Bake Off. She is known for her award-winning preserves and is the author of We Sure Can! Sarah answered all my newbie questions and was happy to answer a few more for me for this blog.

For someone new to canning, where is the easiest place to start? Jam, jelly, marmalade or pickling?

Probably the easiest are things like cranberry sauce, applesauce and gooseberry jam that require minimal prep and no added pectin, and that are certain to gel properly. Marmalade’s a bit fussier because it requires more chopping and you need to do it a few times before you begin to be able to predict how the peel will turn out. But they all require the same procedure for canning.

A lot of people are afraid to can with all the safety precautions involved. Do you recommend using recipes found online or should it come from a trusted source?
Beginners should use a recent (post 1990) cookbook or a recipe that conforms to the USDA standards found at the National Centre for Home Food Preserving site: http://nchfp.uga.edu/

If I want to use different sized jars than stated in the recipe (e.g. using 125mL jars instead of 250mL), do I need to adjust the processing times?
You’ll need longer processing for larger jars. The site above gives processing times for most standard types of preserves.

I love the idea of making a recipe my own. Can you safely change a recipe (e.g. add ingredients/spices) without compromising the acidity levels?

No, and yes. With sweet preserves, if you are certain that the pH of an ingredient is 4.6 or lower (lemons, oranges, strawberries, apples and many more), you can increase the quantity. More acidity is not a problem. However, if you increase the proportion of low-acid ingredients, or decrease the proportion of high-acid ones, you will compromise the safety. Flavourings (spices, essences) used in small amounts will not vary the acidity level to any significant extent, but always compare proportions in a new recipe to those in trusted sources.

With pickling, much of the acidity is likely to come from immersion in vinegar, so you can change the ingredients in a mixed-vegetable pickle (carrots, cauliflower, onions, beans, zucchini, garlic and so on), as long as the ingredients are fully immersed in vinegar that’s at least 5% acid (the label should indicate acidity level).

You have a cookbook out called We Sure Can! What can someone new expect out of the book? What’s a simple and easy recipe to make from it?

We Sure Can! documents the recent rebirth of interest in home canning and the online community of people who are doing it; it’s also an anthology of recipes from people in the US, Canada and the UK, so it provides a wide range of different approaches to similar recipes. Easy Victorian Style Raspberry Jam or Easy Peasy Cranberry Sauce.

Finally, one last question: Is there anything that you’re nervous trying?
Sure, almost anything new. But since I’m an Aries I tend to just charge ahead anyway and see what happens.

Thanks again Sarah for answering these questions!

During my canning research I found Food in Jars to be a great resource. Here are some helpful links from the site:

Air bubbles in finished products
How to check that your seal is good
How to get rid of canned goods gone bad

Looking for fancier labels? Tip Nut has a collection of jar labels.

Here are some ideas of what to do with your preserves:

I found this orange and vanilla marmalade mini cake recipe at Always Order Dessert via Sarah’s blog. It uses an entire jar of marmalade if you’re looking to cull your stash.
Nutty Jam Thumbprints from Once Upon a Chef
African Drumsticks from Adventures Africa Travel
What to do with marmalade? via Chowhound

I’ve only dabbled a bit in canning. A jam here and there and a batch of salsa. But I am mad for marmalade. I have made marmalade 3 weeks in a row. I think it’s the process of learning and trying to get it down pat that has led to this obsession. To be honest, I don’t even intend to eat all of what I made, I just like making it. If this obsession doesn’t stop soon, I will be a perfect candidate for Intervention and Hoarders.

The last time I had marmalade was so long ago I couldn’t remember the taste of it. I just thought it was a different name for jam. What makes it interesting is the chewy peels and that bit of bitterness that offsets the sweetness. There isn’t really a “right” way to make marmalade, it’s about preferences. I like cutting my peels as mere wisps while others prefer a chunky cut. I’d like a marmalade that’s soft and spreadable, some like a more firmer set. There are just so many variables involved that it makes my head spin.

I’m not going to lie. This is a process. Be prepared to put some good time in the kitchen for this. I can only handle making small batches, so if this is your first time, make a small batch before you over-commit to canning 24 jars.

The colour of your marmalade depends on your oranges. My first batch had a lovely deep hue which gave a darker tone compared to my second batch which wasn’t dark at all.

From left to right: 1st and 2nd batches of blood orange marmalade, seville orange marmalade for comparison

I recommend rolling the oranges around with firm pressure on the counter so that the peels will slip right off when you scoop out the fleshy fruit. I just dug my thumb in there:

The chopping of the peels is the most time consuming process for me as I like mine very thin. I place two peels on top of each other to speed up the work. Instead of squeezing it over a strainer, I took the lazy route and used my Hurom Slow Juicer.

The peels need to soften and has to be simmered for a couple of hours. My mixture had a sludgy grey look to it. Yum!

After the sugar is added (a lot of sugar) it turns to a more appetizing shade.

Once your mixture comes to 220F, it’s ready to pour into the jars. You can also put a dollop on a plate that’s been sitting in the freezer to check for doneness. If you push up on it and it wrinkles, it’s done. So far, my marmalades end up on the thicker side. I’m still trying to figure out how to get the perfect consistency.

You can find the Seville Orange Marmalade recipe on Sarah’s blog (I substituted blood oranges instead of the sevilles). Sarah was also kind enough to answer a few of my newbie questions which I’ll post up shortly.

Salted caramels make great gifts. You can churn them out fairly easily and they travel well. It was my recipe of choice for Christmas gifts last year as hundreds of cookies are a no go when you live so far away.

Doing a test run I learned that caramels are sticky and will stick to everything. Everything.

Leaving caramel on a cutting board without greasing it made a big sticky mess. Putting caramel aside on an unlined ungreased baking dish for just a few moments? Stuck like glue.

When you finally remember that this golden substance will glue itself to everything in sight, the process isn’t that bad.

The most time consuming task is wrapping. You’ll want to cut your pieces of wax paper all at once so you can streamline the process.

There is an addictive quality about these, only a slight amount of chewing is necessary before they melt away in your mouth.

I used the Fleur de Sel recipe from the Sugar Baby cook book. Have you been to Gesine’s Facebook page? When I was having trouble with the recipe, she was quick at responding with some trouble shooting tips.

Notes:

- I took it off the heat a bit earlier (245F) for a softer chew. I found that 257F makes the caramels harder, especially when the temperature continues to rise. An accurate thermometer is a must because it means the difference between “soft” and “syrup”
- I added the salt in with the caramel instead of reserving it for sprinkling on top. I think you can use regular sea salt for the cooking stage and then if you want a little extra, go all out and use the fleur de sel.

Lola’s was our brunch spot when R and I went to Seattle. I have never been a fan of side dishes, they’re pushed aside so I can focus on the main.

When I had to restrain myself from eating all of the smashed potatoes in order to finish my eggs benedict, I knew I had to re-create these at home. I was reeled in by the crisp potato skins which contrasted the soft insides. And the spices! There was nothing bland about it.

After Seattle, I immediately searched for this recipe and found one over at Return of the Yummy. Every weekend for weeks straight R would request Lola’s potatoes. He was just as hooked as I was. While there isn’t a lot of work involved, the wait for them to cook is the hardest part. Impatience leads to sogginess, so stay strong and wait it out. Size is also important. The bigger the potato, the less crisp it becomes.

Originally made with Greek spices, I’ve changed it up with an Indian flair (it goes well with the eggs with green herbs). You can play around with the flavours to suit what you’re serving it with.

Here’s a step-by-step how to:

Preheat the oven to 425F. Wash and dry the potatoes. Drying is necessary to make the skins crispy. Try to put them in a baking pan that gives them a bit of room. You’ll be smashing them later, so don’t overcrowd! Bake until tender.

Once they’re good and tender (I like to poke them with a knife. If it goes in easily, they’re done) remove and smash them with a mug. No need to go all Hulk Smash, just press down until you see the insides and they flatten out a bit.

Drizzle with olive oil. I put measurements in the printable recipe for the nervous chefs out there, but you can really just eyeball this.

Season with salt and pepper. You can be generous, but you’re seasoning the other side as well so don’t go overboard. Put it back in the oven and repeat with the other side.

Now you’re ready for the finishing touches. Add the spices and put back in the oven for a few more minutes.

Thanks, Lola for such a memorable brunch!

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Feeling the time crunch, I’ve needed to re-evaluate my meal strategies. Before I could spend a few hours in the kitchen on a weeknight, but I just don’t have the time and energy for that. I save my elaborate meals for the weekend when I can play in the kitchen all day.

People think that because I have a food blog and have an inclination to make elaborate meals, that daily dinners are a gourmet affair. The truth? When people ask what I had for dinner I feel slight shame and embarrassment when I respond with my usual stand-by meals: toast, crackers or cereal.

This spinach and chickpea dinner is for those who just don’t have enough time or effort in their day to cook something up. It relies on pantry staples like canned chickpeas and frozen spinach.

I was given a voucher for Cookin’ Greens to test out their flash frozen veggie products. I have never been a veggie person. I will buy fresh vegetables with good intentions of eating them and they end up rotting in my fridge. Having frozen veggies in my freezer offers me the convenience of using it when I can. They try to keep the product as fresh as possible by freezing it after 6 hours of harvesting it.

I threw the spinach in and it cooked up easily. You can use it straight from the freezer without thawing and I like how it doesn’t all come out in a big clump. I can’t really comment on the taste because it tastes like spinach (and it should).

I was able to cook this and still have time to go to my yoga class. To bump up the flavour a bit I would add a couple of more spices (maybe mustard seed?) and some diced tomatoes.

Recipe over at Real Simple here.