Seafood quinoa salad

I've been trying to wean my parents off white rice for awhile now (it's tough when you're Asian). They don't like brown rice, and my mother isn't a fan of anything whole wheat. Enter quinoa. I love quinoa, but I needed to find a way to make it somewhat rice like. My solution? Warm seafood quinoa salad, cooked in a saffron broth.

The result? Clean plates and request for seconds. What more can a cook want?

Serves 4-5 people

Ingredients for broth
- 4 cups of chicken stock
- 2 cups of water
- 1 cup of diced white onions
- 1/2 bulb of garlic (diced)
- 3 lobster tails
- 1 piece of salmon (approximately 1/2 pound)

Ingredients for the salad
- 1.5 cups of quinoa
- 0.5 cups of diced white onions
- 1 cup of fresh parsley (roughly chopped)
- 10 cherry tomatoes (halved)
- 1 sweet green pepper (chopped)

Directions for broth
- Bring the chicken stock and water to a boil.
- Add onions and garlic - letting it simmer for about 30 minutes.
- Add the lobster tails - they'll cook very quickly, so keep an eye on them.
- Remove the lobster tails from the broth.
- Separate the lobster meat from the shell.
- Add the shells back to the broth and let it simmer for another 30 minutes.
- Chop up the lobster meat and set aside.
- Bring the broth back to a boil - place the salmon on a strainer or a ladle and then submerge it in the bubbling broth.
- Use a fork and flake the salmon to check if it's cooked - if it's pink and flaky, remove it from the broth. Set aside.
- Reduce the heat to low.

Directions for quinoa
- Bring about 3 cups of broth to a boil
- Add the quinoa and the onions
- Wait for the mixture to boil
- Reduce the heat to medium and cook the quinoa until the liquid evaporates (approximately 12 minutes)
- Remove the quinoa from the heat and fluff it.
- Let the quinoa sit (with the lid on) for about 15 minutes.

Directions for the salad
- After the quinoa has sat for 15 minutes, add the fresh ingredients (pepper, tomatoes, and parsley).
- Add the chopped lobster and the salmon.
- Using a wooden spoon, mix everything together (the salmon should flake apart).
- Enjoy.

(I also added cooked corn - sliced off the cob).

The flip side of food

Calling myself the Hungry Dumpling implies I love food. I do. I truly love and adore food.  But my relationship with food is not without a downside. The reality is food creates energy, and when that energy isn't used up, it turns into fat. Not good.

Enter exercise.

I hate exercising. I hate exercising as much as I love food. But exercising is a must when food is involved. I write a lot about what what I eat, where I eat it and the types of things I make, but I have never written about the exercise I do so that I can continue my relationship with food.

For every blog post I write about, hours of exercise must take place to burn those calories eaten. Biking (stationary or otherwise), running, ugly power walks, and weights (occasionally).  

And when I'm not writing about something I've eaten, it's because I've been eating other foods. Like salads (minimal dressing) 6 or 7 times a week, or vegetables with a little bit of protein. As much as I'd love to sit and enjoy delicious food all the time, it's extremely important to me to have a balanced diet the rest of the time. (Not to say healthy food isn't exciting - I do enjoy the awesome salads from Longo's, but it's just not the same.)

Without exercise and a balanced diet, I wouldn't be able to eat the foods I enjoy - at least not in the long run. And that's the point of food, isn't it?  To enjoy it well into old age.

Even dumplings are worried about getting too round.

Karoon Resturant

I'm a huge fan of trying new things, so a friend and I decided to try Iranian food for the first time (well, for me it was). We went to Karoon Restaurant in Richmond Hill, Ontario.

The experience was...interesting...

We arrived shortly before 7:00 p.m. on a long weekend.  It occurred to us that we were really early, as the restaurant was nearly empty (an Iranian friend later confirmed dinners don't usually get started until later in the evening). We were quickly seated at a table for 2. Unfortunately, there was a dirty spoon in my place setting.  We pointed this out to the server, who very quickly replaced all the plates and utensils on the entire table (I'm not sure if this is a good or bad thing).

The server arrived with the equivalent of fresh bread to get us started while we looked over the menu. Warm pita bread was served in a basket alongside a plate of onions, radish, cucumber, parsley and goat's cheese. Who knew something so simple could be so delicious? My friend and I quickly constructed mini pita sandwiches and devoured them. 

Encouraged by this, we looked at the menu, anxiously trying to decide on our mains. We asked the server what was most popular, and he recommended the combination platter for 2.  We ordered the platter with two skewers of kabob koobideh (skewered ground beef), 1 skewer of lamb chop kabob, and 1 skewer of chicken thigh kabob. Two plates of saffron rice would accompany the platter.

After a 20 minute wait, our server returned with an iceberg lettuce salad with cucumber, tomatoes, and some sort of store-bought dressing. Perhaps because our main course was running late? Two bites of this room temperature salad was more than enough. 

Our main course finally arrived around the 35 minute mark.  The arrangement on the plate was a pleasure to look at - it looked like dinner was going to be worth the wait, and the salad was just a blip on the screen. 

The portions were EXTREMELY generous. The taste?  It depended on what you ate.  The chicken and lamb, though nicely seasoned were burnt and dry. The koobideh however, was amazing. Well-seasoned and moist, it went deliciously well with a mouthful of saffron rice. The platter was also accompanied by two grilled tomatoes...which turned out to be even better then the koobideh - ripe and juicy, and charred just enough to give a deliciously smoky flavour.

Overall dinner wasn't bad.  But it wasn't great either. (Oh...and for your convenience, a 15% gratuity is automatically added to your tab. Which is funny because it was a challenge to even find our server.)

Restaurant rating: Meh. Would go back if everything else was closed.

Comparing Eat Pray Love

I'm not a fan of self-help or inspirational books.  I tend to find the tone of these books too...inspirational, let's get together and sing kumbaya-ish. Not so with Eat Pray Love.  I happened to pick the book up about a month ago - it was on sale at my local bookstore, and I thought I might as well read it before the movie came out.

I opened the book and found that I couldn't put it down.  Eat Pray Love is funny, and while not exciting, kept me captivated the entire time. Elizabeth Gilbert really did a great job telling her story.  There are parts of her some of us can relate to - but one theme most can understand: the act of trying to find one's self on life's journey.  

Eat: Her trip to Italy is something that truly made me want to get on a plane, fly to Naples and eat pizza (oddly enough, I did have pizza and wine by my lonesome when I was reading that part of the book).  It's about indulgence and taking a little break from life to find yourself.

Pray: I'm mildly religious and not overly spiritual, so this part of the book was the toughest part for me.  But still, I read through it at a quick pace.  And while I'm not one to sit down and pray too often, I do talk to Buddha once in a while.  If anything, this part of the book encourages self-awareness.

Love: And this is where the book played to this little girl's dream - to have a prince charming sweep me off my feet.  But before that can happen, Gilbert had to learn to love herself.  A lesson that all of us needs to be reminded of occasionally.

Naturally, when the movie opened, I had to go watch it.  A girlfriend and I decided to take in the show tonight - opening night.  I read the reviews before going in, so was expecting the movie to be horrendous, plus I understand that there is no way a book can truly be translated onto film.  

After all, how can a person's inner feelings and thoughts be shown through action, when it takes a professional author like Gilbert over 350 pages to describe?

To be fair, the acting was good - I'm not a big Julia Roberts fan, but did enjoy her performance.  The problem, I think comes from this: Hollywood trying to take something that was already witty and charming and trying to make it even more witty and charming.  For example, the treatment of Gilbert's ex-husband.  For comedic factor, they turned him into a goof. Which isn't the person the book writes about.

There were also parts of the story that weren't explained or explored...i.e. the God-like voice in the beginning of the movie.  Or the fact that Gilbert suffered from depression and considered taking her own life.

The book deals with some very serious issues (depression, divorce and self-worth) - but the beauty of the book is that it wasn't preachy.

Character development also wasn't there.  Luca Spaghetti, for example, deserved more of exploration  (Come on, SPAGHETTI!).  And I can't even talk about Richard from Texas.

I think in the end, Eat Pray Love the movie is a beautiful story with a very weak script.  

I asked myself whether or not I would be this critical if I hadn't read the book.  I honestly don't know.  But what I do know is this: the movie will no doubt inspire many to pick up the book.  

And all of us could probably use a little bit more of Eat (though maybe a bit healthier), Pray (self-awareness) and Love (for ourselves, and for those around us) in our lives.

Another butter tart haven - Le Pain Quotidien

So maybe I lied when I said butter tarts are only for bad days.  They can be for good days too.  Maybe it's the type of butter tart I have on bad days.  On bad days, I like ooey gooey goodness - even if it's slightly too sweet.

On good days, I want small butter well...tarts?  Cue an example of a good day: my Big Brother and I went out to lunch and decided to have some dessert.  We stopped at Le Pain Quotidien for dessert.  And there, in the display window, was a somewhat Parisian version of a butter tart.

We both had one each and split a pot of green tea.

And boy, am I glad we each had our own.  The entire thing was lighter and much less sweet than other butter tarts I've had. Despite the fact that I know it was loaded with calories, it didn't taste like it was loaded with calories.

Now, the picture I posted with this entry doesn't do the tart justice.  I'm not in the habit of carrying a camera with me, so I had to rely on my Blackberry (and as much as I love this phone, the camera on it just isn't that great).  The tart shell was a golden brown, and the filling was actually not dark brown, but a sunny yellow colour - very different from a traditional butter tart.  And the taste?

Heaven on Earth.

And you know what?  It actually tasted buttery.  Silly, but I've never had a butter tart that tasted buttery.  The shell, yeah, but the filling?  Never.

Would I go back again for another butter tart?  Oh yeah.  Can I go back often?  Not if I'd like to fit in my pants.

(Le Pain Quotidien also serves an awesome sandwich and other baked goods.  It's a favourite lunch spot of mine.)

Restaurant rating: Definitely worth an extra hour or two at the gym.

Summer dinner

Inspired by the warm weather and summer fruits and vegetables, I decided to throw a party this past weekend.  I'm still recovering, so for now, here's a sampling of pictures. I'll post the recipes separately in the next few weeks.

Chilled cucumber and avocado soup

Sweet and savoury curry quinoa

Arugula salad

Grilled sirloin and garden tomatoes

Berries & cream with chocolate shavings

Found a new beer - Okanagan Springs

Short post today!  Found a new beer on a Saturday night adventure.  Hearty but not too heavy, perfectly round finish   Honestly, it's one of the best beers I've ever had.

http://www.okspring.com/