Cooking with Nettles

Yesterday I mentioned how I just recently learned that ‘stinging nettles’ and ‘nettles’ are the same thing!  Sometimes I wonder if I get out enough.

Last Summer I spent the majority of our dog walks trying to avoid those stinging nettles that have near taken over the loop where we walk on the weekends.  Little did I know we could have been picking those bad boys and bringing them home for dinner.  It’s a field full of free greens!

For those of you that are wondering…nettles do indeed sting!  You have to cook them to get rid of the sting so make sure you are armed with good rubber gloves right from the time you go picking, through the cleaning process, and even until you are done cooking.  No one wants an itchy, irritated cook.

But once you’ve boiled or steamed away the sting go ahead and work with these in the same way you might work with spinach, chard or kale.  I didn’t love them just steamed but mixed into the sauce of our chicken paprika they were pretty good!  I’ve heard tell of nettles making a wonderful quiche addition, or a fabulous pesto, and of course they are wildly popular for making a nutrient rich tea. 

As soon as I had this nettle epiphany my mind raced back to Heidi Fink’s blog.  I knew I had seen a nettle recipe there around this time last year and immediately went looking for it.  Sure enough, there it was.

Wild Nettle-kopita! 

I armed myself with a fresh bag of wild stinging nettle tops (don’t bother with the leaves and stalk when picking…it’s just more work to deal with when prepping and the flavour is really in the tender top bits anyway), some baby spinach, leeks, feta and filo pastry.  I got the TV onto the latest Canucks playoff game and got to work.

Aside from dirtying more dishes than I would like, these came together rather easily.  I appreciated that Heidi gives really detailed instructions, including tips to keep your filo from drying out and driving you crazy.  :)  The only changes I made were to use regular feta instead of sheep’s milk and I couldn’t get my hands on fresh thyme so I used dried.

I set up my rolling station on my dining table, used a pizza cutter to make the filo strips, and discovered that browned butter works as a delicious (albeit accidental) glue for these sturdy yet delicate pies.

I am super pleased with how these turned out!  They are big, toasty, and full of healthy, green deliciousness.  My original plan was to serve a couple with a nice fresh tomato and feta salad, but honestly once they cooled I just stood at the counter and snacked away on one.  And then another.

They reheat perfectly in the oven, freeze nicely, and clock in at only around 275 calories each according to MyFitnessPal.  Even if you don’t have wild nettles in your neck of the woods, making these with all spinach or a mix of your other favourite greens would be a good idea.

ρήμ. απολαμβάνω, χαίρομαι (Enjoy!)

Those Rhubarb Things

Step one:  Head over and find this recipe at Chef Heidi’s blog.

Step two:  Get your hands on some farm fresh local rhubarb.

Step three:  Make time for some kitchen therapy.

Step four:  Inhale the amazing baking aroma of sugar & spice & everything nice.

Step five:  Revel in the creamy tart deliciousness.

You are welcome.

Spicy Thai-Style Noodles

My trip to Chinatown yesterday was instigated by my desire to make one of the recipes I learned from Heidi Fink at the Truly Thai at Home cooking class Tiffaney and I took last month.

After blogging about it I couldn’t put off making something delicious any longer!  I checked with Heidi and she was happy to let me share this recipe with you, so I thought I’d better make it and test it out! :)

• Spicy Thai-Style Noodles with Tofu
  • Created by Chef Heidi Fink
  • www.chefheidifink.com

Ingredients (don’t let the long list freak you out!):

• 1/2 lb medium tofu
• 1 tsp toasted sesame oil
• 1/8 tsp salt

• 4 oz dried rice stick noodles, size medium (about 1/4 of a noodle package)

• 2 1/2 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp water
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 1/2 tsp Hoisin sauce
• 3 tbsp palm sugar (a little over half of a disk) (can use brown sugar if palm sugar unavailable)
• 2 tsp Sambal Oelek

• 1 1/2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 3 cloves garlic, peeled and minced
• 2 scallions (green onions), sliced thinly on the diagonal
• 1/2 red bell pepper, seeded and sliced thin
• 1/2 cup snow peas, each pod sliced in half lengthwise
• 2 cups fresh bean sprouts, rinsed and drained well
• 1/4 cup roasted unsalted peanuts, chopped
• 1/2 cup fresh cilantro, coarsely chopped
• 1/4 cup fresh mint, chopped
• 3-4 tbsp freshly squeezed lime juice (2 limes)

If you don’t know what something on the above list is, leave me a comment and I will try to explain.  Aside from the palm sugar I have seen all of these items in the regular grocery stores.

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F degrees. Chop the tofu into small cubes (I patted it dry with paper towel first), place on a parchment-lined baking sheet, drizzle with the sesame oil and sprinkle with the salt. (I tossed lightly by hand). Bakes for 20-25 minutes, until tofu is sizzling and light gold in spots. Remove from the oven and set aside.

Soak the rice noodles in hot tap water for 20-30 minutes until pliable but not mushy.  Drain and set aside.

In a small pot, combine the fish sauce, water, soy sauce, Hoisin sauce, and palm sugar. Heat over medium heat, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves, about 3-5 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in Sambal Oelek, and set aside.

Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add oil and swirl to coast bottom of pan.  Add the garlic, stir once, and immediately add the scallions, red pepper and snow peas. Stir fry for about 3 minutes, until vegetables are softened a bit and garlic is fragrant.

Add the sauce, bring to a boil, then stir in the noodles. Cook for 3 minutes, stirring and tossing constantly until noodles are tender.  If pan gets too dry add a tablespoon or two of water and continue cooking until noodles are tender and silky.

Add the tofu and 1 1/2 cups of the bean sprouts and cook about a minute more until sprouts are starting to wilt.  Transfer to a serving platter and sprinkle with the peanuts and herbs (seems like a lot but use them all!). Drizzle on the fresh lime juice, trying to cover the noodles evenly. Garnish with the remaining bean sprouts and serve immediately.

Heidi lists this as two portions…you could easily stretch to three…or even more if using as a side dish instead of the main event.  The noodles can also be refrigerated and eaten as a cool salad (which is exactly what I have planned for the leftovers!).

This seems like a lot of work but honestly if you are prepared with all of your ingredients out ahead of time and your veggies and herbs prepped it all comes together in just over 30 minutes.  Heidi’s instructions are very clear and I had no trouble following along.

Once that platter hit the table and the obligatory food porn was done I dished almost half of that deliciousness into a bowl and went to town!  Tasted just like the in-class version (maybe even a little better…tee hee)!  Now that I have the sauce staples in my cupboard I’ll be likely to make this on a regular basis.

Also, for you tofu non-believers…give it a chance!  It’s only $2 if you don’t like it and it’s easily picked out. :) You could also substitute chicken or shrimp if you are really anti-tofu or unable to eat soy products.

Enjoy!

Truly Thai at Home

I cannot believe it’s already been almost three weeks since Tiffaney and I spent the evening learning how to make some super delicious and interesting Thai food recipes with Chef Heidi Fink and a room full of other happy foodies!

Within weeks of returning to Victoria I happened upon mentions of Chef Heidi numerous times!  I think the first was a random tweet that led me to her blog which was featuring a fabulous Apricot Crunch recipe I bookmarked.  Then we encountered her at Feast of Fields where we tasted one of her signature Indian inspired dishes.  Later a friend told me that it’s Heidi that offers these great tours of Victoria’s Chinatown and after visiting her website a few times I wanted to sign up for every cooking class she offers!

(On a personal note: it turns out Heidi and I have real life friends in common.  We were at the same Halloween party and didn’t realize who she was. ha.)

A lot of you may remember that when I was looking for a place to live for my return to Victoria I really struggled and ended up actually finding a place without even being here.  Tiffaney was so amazingly instrumental in securing the apartment that I now own and call home.  She was my eyes and ears, she visited it with my realtor, she took a zillion photos, she did the walk through with the inspector.  And never asked for anything in return.

Knowing full well I could never repay her for all of her time and generosity I still wanted to give her a gift to let her know how grateful I am for her help.  When Heidi’s December email newsletter came out with the list of her upcoming class schedule I knew exactly what to do!  After a read through the list I settled on Truly Thai at Home (Basic) and signed both Tiffaney and myself up right away.  I presented her with the gift at Christmas time and we both impatiently waited for our class night to arrive at the end of January.

Finally the night came for us to pack up our trusty kitchen knives, don our cute aprons and head to cooking school!

All twenty students sat around a big table, family style, where Heidi started us off with a fun little Thai flavour snack.  You’ll have to take the class to see about that!  After showing us some of the interesting ingredients we would be using and learning about and giving us a demonstration on the Quick Weeknight Red Curry we were divided into teams of two and each team was given a recipe to work on. So fun!

Tiffaney and I chose to make the Thai-Style Stir-Fried Greens.

We were introduced to new-to-us ingredients that made the dish fun and extra delicious!  Salted soy beans…

(I know some of you are hoping for actual recipes but that would be like giving away Heidi’s trade secrets, so if you are local sign up for a class!  Otherwise, stay tuned for future posts where I actually cook and hopefully have some recipe love for you.)

Our second course was Thai-Style Shrimp Cakes topped with Hot and Sour Cucumber Relish.  You’re drooling already right?

The base of these cakes was shredded sweet potato and in traditional Thai style they incorporate dried shrimp instead of fresh.  At the end of the evening I chose this as my favourite dish.

Next up we tried the Tom Yam Gung (Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup)…

If you take anything away from this post…take “side stripe shrimp” with you.  These shrimp (purchased from a local fresh seafood shop) were meaty and amazing.  I don’t think I’ll ever look at plain old store bought shrimp and prawns the same way again.

The broth was made using the shrimp shells and a bouquet of aromatic deliciousness…lemongrass, galangal and keffir lime leaves to name a few.

The main event (if you will) was the Quick Weeknight Red Curry served over Jasmine Rice.  Because this is the basic class Heidi teaches us how turn store-bought red curry paste into something slightly more authentic by using a variety of fresh ingredients to jazz it up.  It’s all about cooking the curry paste so it becomes fragrant!

Something else…a can of coconut milk should not “slosh” when you shake it.  It should be pretty much a solid, and when you open it up it should have separated into thick coconut “cream” at the top of the can.  Who knew?

After all of that we were all getting fabulously full but we still had a round of Spicy Thai-Style Noodles with Tofu to get to!

This dish was prepped by two students but finished off by Heidi so it would be crisp and fresh when it hit the table. The key to this was the medium (not firm!) tofu baked with sesame oil, and the giant pile of fresh herbs and lime juice added at the end.

Of course no Thai meal would be complete without a dessert made from Fruit and Sticky Rice!  I am planning to become best friends forever with a large pot of Thai Sweet Rice combined with coconut milk and palm sugar.

Lord help me.  Since mangoes are currently out of season Heidi chose fresh golden kiwi to top our sweet rice.  Died.and.gone.to.heaven.

So who’s up for a trip to Chinatown this weekend?  I’m in need of multiple Asian necessities stat!  And apparently I’ll require about 23 dinner guests so I have reason to cook all of this delightful stuff.  Who’s in?!