Asian Coleslaw Recipe

It's always nice when you work with colleagues who have healthy habits and good recipes. Trang has given me two more to try. The first is an Asian coleslaw and the other is a chewy chocolate chip cookie.

Here's the slaw recipe: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/asian-coleslaw/detail.aspx?scale=5&ismetric=0

I'm always on the hunt for a good dressing that integrates peanut butter. She substitutes the three tablespoons of vegetable oil with one vegetable oil and two tablespoons of water to cut down on the fat. She says it's makes it a little runnier, but still tasty.

Ingredients:

3 tablespoons rice wine vinegar 3 tablespoons vegetable oil 2 tablespoons and 1-1/2 teaspoons creamy peanut butter 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons soy sauce 1 tablespoon and 1-1/2 teaspoons brown sugar 1 tablespoon minced fresh ginger root

2-1/4 teaspoons minced garlic 2-1/2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage 1 cup thinly sliced red cabbage 1 cup shredded napa cabbage 1 red bell peppers, thinly sliced 1 carrots, julienned 3 green onions, chopped 1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

You have scaled this recipe's ingredients to yield a new amount (5). The directions below still refer to the original recipe yield (10).

1.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the rice vinegar, oil, peanut butter, soy sauce, brown sugar, ginger, and garlic.

2.

In a large bowl, mix the green cabbage, red cabbage, napa cabbage, red bell peppers, carrots, green onions, and cilantro. Toss with the peanut butter mixture just before serving. Update December 23, 2012: I meant to write my review of this when I made it a few weeks ago. OHMIGOD it's delicious! I am a stickler for keeping to an original recipe so it took me a couple days to collect all the ingredients, but the dressing was ridiculously good. I always find myself in stores looking for a good peanut butter satay sauce and nothing ever lives up. But this? Totally hits the spot for the sweet and salty combination. It would be great with satays and salads.

Japanese Cucumber salad

The other day I decided to have a Japanese themed night. In addition to sushi, I thought it'd be nice to have a nice light salad so I attempted to make sunomono. Now, my friend Vania had given me a recipe (handed to her from her nutritionist friend Tina) and of course I filed it away, didn't document it and lo and behold, couldn't find it when I needed it. I googled "sunomono recipe" and ended up using this: http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-make-sunomono but it wasn't what I was looking for.

Anyway, I still have to try Tina's recipe, but here it is (now documented electronically so I can find it when I need it!)

Japanese Cucumber Salad:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 Tbsp sugar
- dissolve sugar over heat
- pour over cucumbers and chill
Don't forget to boil some vermicelli and wakame and if you're looking for a final kick, a slice of lemon and some prawns.

Caesar Salad Dressing

I'm on the hunt for a good Caesar salad dressing recipe. So far, memorable dressings have included Mike's homemade dressing (but he never parted with the recipe) and the dressing at Santali's Greek restaurant in New Westminster. Also homemade but the owner won't give the recipe out either.

Tomorrow I'm going to attempt my first homemade caesar salad dressing. I think the secret to making one similar to the one I had at Santali's is anchovy. So, I'm going to try this recipe I found on the food network:
link: http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/Salad/Vegetables/recipe.html?dishid=5594

Ingredients
Roasted Garlic

* 1 head roasted garlic (see below)
* 1 tablespoon vegetable oil (15 mL)

Dressing

* 2 cloves garlic
* 2 anchovy fillet
* 2 tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed (25 mL)
* 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard (2 mL)
* 1 tablespoon lemon juice(15 mL)
* 1/4 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (1 mL)
* 1/4 cup (50 mL) vegetable oil
* 2 tablespoons low fat mayonnaise (25 mL)
* 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper (1 mL)
* 1 head romaine lettuce, outer leaves removed
* 1/4 cup freshly grated or shaved parmesan (50 mL)


Directions
Roasted Garlic

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F (190 C).
2. Slice stem end off garlic. Place on a sheet of aluminum foil. Drizzle with the oil. Wrap garlic and place on a baking sheet. Bake for 35-45 minutes or until softened. This can be done ahead up to one day ahead. Let cool.

Dressing

1. In the bowl of a food processor, pulse roasted garlic, raw garlic, anchovy, and capers.
2. Process until finely minced. Add Dijon mustard, lemon juice and Worcestershire sauce. With motor running, slowly drizzle in vegetable oil and finish with mayonnaise to achieve a creamy consistency.
3. Season with black pepper and salt if needed, to taste.
4. In a large bowl, tear lettuce into bite size pieces, Add dressing, croutons, and cheese to the bowl, and toss well.

Wish me luck!

Zesty Lemon Potato Salad

The other night while having a SYTYCD marathon, we did a potluck dinner at Janine's house. I brought grilled vegetables and a crab appetizer and Janine made chili salmon and a zesty mint limeade. I can't tell what was better: the show or the food!

The potato salad was just right for a hot summer's night and the dill and lemon just added that lift that a boring potato salad is always desperately in need of. The mint limeade was a little tart but a perfect non-alcoholic accompaniment to a summer's night dinner.

Here's the recipe for the zesty lemon potato salad (thanks Victoria!)

Ingredients:
600g of fingerling potatoes (sliced),
50g shredded rocket (arugula) leaves

Dressing:
2 tbsp chopped preserved lemon rind,
1 tbsp wholegrain mustard,
1/2 cup whole egg mayonnaise,
2 tbsp lemon juice,
sea salt and cracked pepper.

Place the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water and cook until tender (usually about 8 minutes). Drain and rinse under running water. toss the potato with the rocket.

To make the dressing, place the preserved lemon rind, mustard, mayonnaise, lemon juice, salt and pepper in a bowl and whisk to combine. to serve pour the dressing over the potatoes and rocket and toss gently. serves 4.

Note: we dropped the arugula from the recipe (thank God) because I find the green a little too bitter for my liking.

BBQ garlic mayo

I remember the first time I ever had flavoured mayo. I was at this cafe downtown with Mela and we had ordered yam fries and the side dressing was this BBQ mayo. When I asked the waitress what was in it, she was a bit elusive. She never said "mayo" but told us eggs. I thought that was weird.

This is my take on their sauce:
* 1/2 cup mayonnaise
* 1/4 cup BBQ sauce
* few cloves of garlic (I use anywhere between 3-4 because I'm a garlic freak)
* seasoning blend



Toss it all into a blender. I use the "party mixer" I bought last year. I think I'll write a whole post on its own for that one because it really sucks and I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.



I digress. The BBQ garlic mayo is simple, easy and we love using it on everything. Pizza's, pasta, fish, meat, fries... the list goes on!

Rating: 9 out of 10
Wouldn't change a thing.

Dijon Vinaigrette Dressing

Colleague at work had this dressing on her "Fresh Express" spinach salad the other day. I stole a leaf and it tasted good. I got the recipe below from www.cooks.com.
Will try it out to see how it tastes!


DIJON VINAIGRETTE DRESSING

1 clove garlic, minced (I use 2)
1 to 2 tsp. Dijon style mustard
Pinch of basil and/or oregano
Dash of white pepper
Dash of cayenne
A squeeze of lemon - no seeds please
1 to 2 tsp. honey
1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar
1/4 c. good olive oil

Put all ingredients in a small bowl except olive oil.
Prepare greens and vegetables.

When ready to dress salad, slowly add olive oil to other ingredients while whisking to incorporate oil in a suspension. Immediately pour over salad and toss. Sometimes I use a culinary herb blend instead of just basil.

January 31 update:
Made this to go with a spinach salad I had with my almond crusted fish. Eyeballed most of the measurements. The dijon mustard was disgusting. I bought a huge jar of it from Costco and maybe it's because it was a little old (ok a lot old) but I detested the taste. It would have been better with regular mustard. I recall not liking the dijon mustand even when it was new. It just has this... tang to it that's not pleasurable.
The ingredients were extremely similar to the dressing that Mela taught me to make, other than the change in type of mustard.
Future reminder: DO NOT BUY DIJON AGAIN!

Garlic dill dip

So, again I rave about the Cactus Club food. This time, it's about the sauce they serve with their yam fries. If you've never had this sauce, you have to have it at least once. It is soooo good.

We asked the waitress what they put in it and here's what we were able to gather: mayonnaise, garlic, fresh dill and lemon juice. That's it. I don't know what proportions of each but mmmm mmmm mmm! So yummy with the hot crispy yam fries.

Rating out of 10: 9
Try it again? ohhhh yeah.

Update Jan 26, 2008:
I tried making this at home. Didn't realize before I started that I didn't have enough mayonnaise. So 6 cloves of garlic later, have a super garlicky dressing/dip. Tastes awful. Will leave for husband to eat.

Low-Fat Caesar salad dressing from "Cook Yourself Thin"

I haven't made this yet, but wanted to write it down before I forget. I caught this new show last week called "Cook Yourself Thin". It's a UK show featuring this 4 girls who are quite slim, showing you how to eat foods that are lower in calories. It was quite easy to watch, actually. The foods they cooked were more on the English side, but they made it look simple and the show had a qualitative side to it since they showed how they measured caloric content, etc.

Anyway, one of the recipes was for a chicken caesar salad. Here is the recipe:

Healthy chicken caesar salad recipe

Serves 2
Ready in 30 minutes

Ingredients
The salad
2 boneless free-range chicken breasts, take the skin off for extra skinniness
Olive oil spray
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
2 slices of soya and linseed bread
3 little gem lettuces 6 fresh anchovy fillets (optional)

The dressing
1 small clove of garlic, peeled and grated
2 anchovy fillets in olive oil from a jar
Salt and ground white pepper
3 tablespoons 0% fat Greek yoghurt
A squeeze of lemon juice
20g freshly grated parmesan (with a microplane)

I'll probably skip the chicken breast bit but they made the dressing sound delish. If it's low fat, why not right? I love caesar salad!

Salad Dressings: Sweetened balsamic and garlic vinegrette

Another note to self: Never buy salad dressings again (unless it's ranch!)

Much like my obsession with bed sheets, I am constantly looking and buying salad dressings. I pass them while in the produce section of my supermarket and I can't help but salivate at some of the flavours they come up with. Like raspberry vinaigrette or Japanese Ginger or Asian Sesame. But it always ends up being a salad dressing gambling game. It might sound like heaven, but does it taste that way?

Currently in my fridge I have over 7 different types of salad dressing, the majority of which are fairly full having tried it once and deciding that I really didn't like it. But I can't throw something like that away and I can't donate it to the food bank because it's perishable. It's the salad dressing dilemma.

At the same time as this salad dressing obsession, I have also been creating my own dressings and I have to say: they are damn good. So why do I keep buying these other dressings? I don't know. I can see why I'd buy Ranch since I have no idea how to make that but all the other ones are reproducible I'm sure. You just need your basic oil, vinegar and seasonings and voila!

Mela gave me this recipe about a year and half ago and I still use it because it's really amazing:

1/4 cup oil
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/8 cup mustard (I personally like the liquid kind, not the ground dry kind)
1/4 cup honey
juice from 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

Mix it all up and toss over salad. It's YUM!

Make it again? Hell, I make it all the time.
Rating: 10 out of 10.