Eye for a Recipe

This refreshing salad from Canadian Living features a delicious miso dressing and soba noodles, which are made from buckwheat. This is a great vegetarian entrée and also goes well with grilled fish or chicken. I halved the dressing and used 175 g of noodles and still had six servings. This would also be good with spaghetti or linguine noodles. Because miso is quite salty, I did not add the ½ tsp of salt to the dressing.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

Use fresh lemon juice, real maple syrup and miso paste with no colour or preservatives added.

Miso paste flavours the dressing for this salad

Feel free to use whatever crunch vegetables you have on hand

Ginger-miso soba salad

Ingredients:

Miso Dressing

½ cup (125 ml) vegetable oil

¼ cup (60 ml) lemon juice

3 tablespoons (45 ml) white or yellow miso paste

2 tablespoons (30 ml) maple syrup

2 tablespoons (30 ml) grated fresh ginger

1 clove garlic, minced

½ teaspoon (2.5 ml) salt (optional)

¼ teaspoon (1 ml) cayenne pepper

Salad

225 g soba noodles

1 cup (250 ml) sugar snap peas, trimmed

1 cup (250 ml) bite-size broccoli florets

1 sweet red pepper, thinly sliced

Quarter red onion, thinly sliced

Quarter English cucumber, halved lengthwise and sliced crosswise

½ cup (125 ml) chopped fresh cilantro (with stems)

¼ cup (60 ml) natural (skin-on) almonds, toasted and chopped

Preparation:

Miso Dressing: In large bowl, whisk together oil, lemon juice, miso paste, maple syrup, ginger, garlic, salt (if using) and cayenne pepper. Set aside.

Salad: In saucepan of boiling water, cook noodles according to package instructions. Drain and rinse under cold water; drain well. Set aside.

Meanwhile, in separate saucepan of boiling salted water, cook snap peas and broccoli until tender-crisp, about 2 minutes. Drain and transfer to bowl of ice water to chill; drain well.

Thinly slice snap peas; place in large bowl. Add broccoli, red pepper, onion and cucumber; toss with half of the dressing. Add noodles and cilantro; gently toss with remaining dressing. Sprinkle with almonds. Serves 6.

From Canadian Living

Recently my friend Lisa and I attended a class at the President’s Choice Cooking School, which took place in the Loblaws store at Maple Leaf Gardens. Chef Guy Troendlin made these delicious lobster tails, topped with a tarragon cream sauce. I couldn’t wait to try them at home and was very happy with the results. Frozen lobster tails are on the small side, so plan on two per person.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

The first challenge was to find out if the frozen lobster tails at the Bloor Street Market, where we shop, contained any additives. They don’t! Be sure to use fresh tarragon, butter that has no colour and cream with no additives. I used a white wine from Frogpond Farm with a sulfite level below 10 parts per million.

Sear the lobster tails, cut side down

Drizzle seared lobster tails with oil, top with chopped tarragon, salt and pepper and then bake

Baked lobster tails with tarragon cream sauce

Ingredients:

Four frozen lobster tails, thawed

2 tbsp (30 ml) fresh tarragon, chopped

1 small shallot, peeled and sliced

1 clove garlic, minced

½ cup (125 ml) dry white wine

1 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp unsalted butter

½ cup (125 ml) whipping cream (35%)

Salt and pepper to taste

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 450 F (232 C).

Place tip of blade of a large, sharp knife in the middle of a lobster tail. Bring the knife down, cutting the lobster shell. Loosen the meat from the shell without removing it. The tail and the shell should stay connected. Repeat with remaining lobster tails.

Melt butter in frying pan over medium heat; do not let the butter brown. Place the lobster tails in the plan, cut side down, and sear them for about a minute. Remove from pan and place tails, cut side up, on foil-lined baking sheet and drizzle with olive oil, tarragon, salt and pepper. Bake in preheated oven for about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, in the same frying pan, sauté shallot until transparent (add more butter or oil if required). Add garlic and sauté for about 15 seconds. Add white wine and simmer until wine evaporates. Add cream, tarragon and season to taste with salt and pepper. Keep sauce warm.

Place two lobster tails on each dinner plate and top with sauce. Serves 2.

From Chef Guy Troendlin at the President’s Choice Cooking School

This delicious recipe from Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi has several steps, but the end result is well worth it. Hearty root vegetables are mashed with butter, maple syrup, spices and cooked lentils, then topped with shallots that have been braised in wine, stock and thyme. Cook’s Note: To make your own caster sugar, place regular white sugar in a spice grinder and process until it is very fine, about the consistency of icing sugar.

Avoiding Additives and Preservatives

I used a red wine from Frogpond Farm, which does not add sulfites to its wines. I also used Imagine stock and butter that contains only cream. Check your dry spices to make sure they don’t contain colour or anti-caking agents.

Brown shallots and then braise

Reduce braising sauce and add butter

Cook vegetables until tender

Le Puy lentils work best for this recipe because they hold their shape

Root Mash with Wine-Braised Shallots

Ingredients:

For the shallots

2 tbsp (30 ml) olive oil

1 1/3 lb (600 g) shallots, peeled

1 2/3 cups (400 ml) red wine

200 ml vegetable stock

2 bay leaves

1 tsp (5 ml) whole black peppercorns

4 sprigs fresh thyme

1 tbsp (15 ml) caster sugar

Salt

2 tbsp (30 g) butter

For the lentils and vegetables

1/3 cup (80 g) puy lentils

½ celery root (300 g), peeled and cut into chunks

2 carrots (300 g), peeled and cut into chunks

½ kabocha squash (300 g), or other type, peeled and cut into chunks

2 sweet potatoes (600 g), peeled and cut into chunks

5 tbsp (70 g) butter, diced

2 tbsp (30 ml) maple syrup

1½ tsp (7.5 ml) ground cumin

Salt and black pepper

Preparation:

Put the oil and shallots in a heavy pan and fry, stirring occasionally, for five minutes until well coloured. Add the wine, stock, bay, peppercorns, thyme, sugar and a ¾ tsp (3 ml) salt, cover and simmer for an hour. Remove the lid, raise the heat and boil until the liquid is reduced by half. Remove the shallots and keep them warm. Stir butter into sauce and set aside until ready to use.

Meanwhile, simmer the lentils in plenty of water until tender (about 25 minutes), drain and set aside.

Half fill a medium pan with water, bring to a boil, add the celery root and carrot and, after 10 minutes, the squash and sweet potato. Ten to 15 minutes later, they should be done.

Drain the veg, shaking off as much liquid as possible, and mash well with a potato masher. Mix in the butter, maple syrup, cumin and cooked lentils and season to taste with salt and pepper.

To serve, top the mash with shallots and pour sauce over the top. Serves 6.

From Plenty More by Yotam Ottolenghi