Saviolo
Saviolo's JournalClassic Wedge Salad with Blue Cheese Dressing Recipe (video)
This week we're going a little old-school! This is a classic wedge salad updated a little. We're going with a blue cheese dressing for this one, but a nice homemade ranch dressing would work extremely well as well. The real joy in this salad is the extras you toss on top. We made some nice big bacon lardons, some slightly dehydrated cherry tomatoes, some quick-pickled red onion, and some crispy bacon-y little bread cubes (too small to be considered crouton, really!).
We do a very fancy restaurant sort of presentation of this, where everyone gets a quarter of a head of lettuce in the shape of a wedge on the plate, however, you can serve this as a more traditional salad and toss it in the dressing with your mix-ins if you'd prefer. The neat thing about the wedge is that if you've made the dressing runny enough, it will flow in to fill the gaps between all of the leaves of the lettuce wedge! This is why we recommend thinning it out with a little bit of buttermilk if you find it's just a little too thick.
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Homemade Cheese Bourekas Recipe (video)
This is another one of those recipes where there are a million different regional variations. It seems to be an Israeli dish at its base, but a version of it is served all around the Mediterranean and in parts of the Middle East. We do a fairly non-traditional cheese mix for this one. We replace the feta with a soft bloomy-rind goat cheese and the ricotta with a mascarpone. The basic point is that you can replace the cheeses with whatever blend you would prefer, or what you can easy get your hands on locally.
This version uses puff pastry, but there are other versions that use things like phyllo pastry, and these definitely bear a resemblance to the much sweeter cheese blintz. Do make sure you get as much air out from the inside as you can. As you can see, we had a bit of a blowout on a couple of them, probably because we didn't quite get enough of the air from the inside and it burst out when it was hot, letting the cheese escape with it!
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Easy Pan-seared Brussel Sprouts Recipe with Crispy Cheese (video)
A very easy one this week. We did a video about deep-fried brussels sprouts a few weeks ago, and they are delicious, but not everyone can easily deep fry something on a whim. This recipe uses basically the same ingredients, but doesn't require any deep frying, and is also delicious. We used cast iron for this, but you could do it in stainless steel as well, just make sure you've got a decent amount of neutral oil, so that nothing sticks. The sprouts don't have to be swimming in oil, but it should coat the entire bottom of the pan you're using.
We used a little bit of vinegar for the acid in this one, but you could just as easily use lemon juice. You definitely want something to cut the roundness of the seared sprouts and the cheese. You could also toss a few pepper flakes in there for a little colour and a little zip. For the cheese, you definitely want to use something like a grana padano or a parmesan cheese to get that nice crispy texture when it's done. They'll be soft in the pan until you remove them, and they'll crisp up as they cool.
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Apricot Thumbprint Cookies Recipe (video)
Sorry for missing last week! Time just got away from us and there was too much happening all at once, so we didn't get a chance to film and get a video made. But we're back! This time with some delicious thumbprint cookies. We used some of our homemade apricot jam for these, but there are lots of options. You could use strawberry or raspberry jam, whatever you like, really. Rolling them in the almond flour and sugar gives them a delightful texture, as well.
You do want to keep these to about the size indicated. Too much bigger, and they will be undercooked in the middle. We also recommend that you make the hole in the cookie immediately after rolling in the almond flour, because if they sit around with the almond flour/sugar mixture on the outside, they dry out pretty quickly, and are more likely to crack. They are very easy to freeze, but again, we recommend freezing them after you've made the hole, so they're ready to go when you want them! Just fill them up and bake them. A little longer baking time if you're baking from frozen, of course.
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Homemade Mujadara Recipe - Levantine Rice and Lentils (video)
This week is a delicious and filling Levantine rice and lentils dish called Mujadar (or Mujaddara). This is one of those dishes where there are so many regional variations that the sky is more or less the limit on what you can do, but this is the basic stripped-down version. So long as you use olive oil and no butter, this dish remains vegan, and it makes a huge amount. It's also quite versatile. One of my favourite things to do is to put this along with some cheese into a flour tortilla and heating it up in a pan until the tortilla is a little crispy.
We used brown lentils for this, but green are also fine. More traditional would be black "Beluga" lentils, which are actually a different plant from the green and brown varieties! The black lentils have a significantly different flavour, but are also delicious in this recipe, and you can treat them in exactly the same way as the green or brown. A little tomato product also goes nicely in this recipe, in the form of either chopped sundried tomatoes or even just a little bit of tomato paste added in to the rice and onions before you cover them with the lentils for the long cook.
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Nutritious Oat Pancakes Recipe (video)
This is our adaptation of a Bon Appetit recipe from Carla. We've made a couple of changes (mostly to bump up the flavour of these), and we absolutely love the results. Now, these are not the light and fluffy pancakes you get at iHop or Denny's. They are very hearty and filling, but are still fluffy and very creamy inside. Part of this is because the chia seeds release a lot of mucilage, which is why you need to let them bloom in the buttermilk a little before you get started mixing everything together. This mucilage helps with the creamy texture in the middle of these delicious pancakes.
We add a whisper of cinnamon and some vanilla paste to this recipe which really bumps up the flavour and makes it more like a classic brunch food. With all of the fibre in these, they are incredibly satisfying and will keep you sated for a long time. We usually limit ourselves to two for a meal. They also keep very well in an airtight container. To bring them back, we just pop them in the toaster oven for a little while, and they get delightfully crispy.
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Daily Wire pundit at CPAC wants to "eradicate transgenderism" (CW: violent transphobia)
Michael Knowles, political commentator at Ben Shapiro's Daily Wire, says in front of (kind of sparse, honestly) crowds at CPAC that "there can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism. ...Transgenderism must be eradicated from public life entirely."
https://twitter.com/RightWingWatch/status/1632057198577606657
Obviously violently eliminationist rhetoric. But of course when news outlets reported the things that he said out loud in front of people for them to hear, he calls it libel:
https://twitter.com/michaeljknowles/status/1632122942380277763
And, of course, he is being roundly beaten up on Twitter for being a genocidal fascist about it:
https://twitter.com/BrynnTannehill/status/1632237428181221376
He thinks he gave himself wiggle room by saying "transgenderism" instead of "trans people" must be eradicated from public life, but no one's buying it. So, we get more violent rhetoric against trans people, more stochastic terrorism, more threats of actual violence against the trans community.
Sorry, Michael: Trans rights are human rights, and your genocidal tendencies are incompatible with existence in a just and fair society.
Homemade Caesar Salad Dressing Recipe from Scratch (video)
Making caesar salad dressing is very similar to making mayonnaise. Basically, you are emulsifying oil into egg yolk with the help of some mustard to help bind everything together. There are, obviously, a few other ingredients involved, as well! Anchovy paste is a frequent addition to the recipe, but it's not always easy to find it in stores, and not everyone likes it, so it's okay to leave out. We like it because it adds this delightful umami richness to the recipe that we quite enjoy.
We added a lot of lemon juice to ours, because we enjoy the dressing to be a little tart to combat the bitterness of whatever greens we're using. The croutons are very versatile, and you can make a lot of changes to that part of the recipe. Herbs are a delightful addition to the croutons, and a little bit of dried oregano, basil, or rosemary can be added before they are baked. Also, we let the croutons soak up all of the garlic bits, but the remaining garlic oil in the bowl was enough to infuse the dressing with a pronounced (but not overpowering) garlic aroma.
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Quick and Simple Vegan German Potato Salad-Inspired Recipe (video)
This week we got some really amazing purple potatoes from a local farmer, and we wanted to do this delightful potato salad inspired by a German potato salad. The biggest difference is that the German potato salad frequently or typically includes bacon, but this version is completely vegan. It's nice and zingy with the vinegar and grainy mustard, and you could even spice it up a little with either some cayenne sprinkled in, or even some pickled jalapenos diced finely and mixed in with everything.
The fresh herbs are really the key to this one. If you don't have all of the fresh herbs we use here, you can switch up the flavour profile with things like cilantro, basil, or chervil. Variations on this recipe are frequently served warm or even hot, but we find that this one is better if it's had time to chill for an hour or so in the fridge before serving. The hot version is a little different, and we'll probably make a video about that sometime in the future, because it is also delicious.
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Homemade Turkey Swedish Meatballs and Gravy Recipe (video)
We saw an ad recently telling couples to go to IKEA for a romantic meal at the IKEA diner. We always feel like making dinner yourself is a little more romantic, so here is a way you can make delicious turkey Swedish meatballs at home! The way this recipe works, they come out a little more like little patties instead of meatballs, but that's just semantics, really. These are fairly light in flavour, and you can definitely spice them up if you want to. Blitz up a dried pepper or add some cayenne to the spice mix if you want a little bit of heat.
The mixture comes out quite wet and sticky, so forming them into balls is a little challenging. Also, Swedish meatballs tend to have a little bit more of a bouncy or springy texture, so you need to work them slightly more than a typical Italian-style meatball, but less than one of those much firmer Chinese-style meatballs. The flavour profile for the Swedish variety is very simple, just allspice, nutmeg, and some parsley!
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Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Ottawa, Ontario
Home country: Canada
Current location: Toronto, Ontario
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:34 PM
Number of posts: 3,283