Torty Bites: Fall Appetizers

Now, I love Tortiere more than just aboot anything, I've already blogged one recipe for it; but I have found that sometimes the pastry can be a little...heavy. Not MINE, of course, but in general, it's a hearty dish with potato and lotsa meat, and yeah, I thought maybe if I broke it up into smaller pieces and used some delish phyllo pastry it might make a fun bite. I also used the pork / extra lean beef blend that I liked so much in that recipe above, but mixed it up somewhat.

These are a great appy idea for a fall party; prep 'em and bake 'em just as people are walking up. Then stuff in your face, because MY BOB these are delicious!! No sharesies for the Torty Bites! Jk, this makes 36, you'd better. I think I am liking small bites and mini quiches so much these days because you can have a taste of something without committing to eating an entire serving of anything. Check it oot!

You will need:

I medium red potato, peeled (sigh) and chopped
1/2 lb medium ground pork
1/2 lb extra lean ground beef
1 medium onion, chopped fine(ly)
1 celery stalk, minced
3 garlic cloves (or less, not everyone is married)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp thyme
1/2 tsp sage
1/4 tsp ground cloves
Pepper. Lots of pepper
2 tsp Worcestershire sauce
Bitta nutmeg
1/2 cup beef stock
3 sheets phyllo pastry


Prep!! Preheat your oven to 350 degrees Fahrenheit, take your phyllo pastry out of the freezer. About three hours ago. Awesome! But for reals, you will need to let the pastry thaw for about three hours, so take it out, and then two hours later start preheating your oven.

Peel and chop your potato, dump in a small pot full of water and bring to a boil. Get that sucker going right away while you do the rest of your prep, like...chop your onion and celery finely and mince your garlic.

Heat a large saucepan (not non-stick: sticky) over medium-ish heat and add the meat mixture; season lightly with salt and pepper. That sounds disgusting. But totally isn't! After a couple of minutes, when it's breakable-upable with a flat-ended wooden spoon, add the onion and celery.

After about 5 minutes, when the meat is mostly cooked through and the onions are translucent and the celery is...green, add in the garlic and cook for one more minute.

Keep breaking up the meat into smaller and smaller chunks, we don't want any meatballs in these here bites. Add in the thyme, sage, salt, pepper, ground cloves, bitta nutmeg, Worcestershire sauce and stir to coat.

Looks...exactly the same. But smells different! Honest!

Check your potato, if cooked through, drain and dump into the pot. Add in the beef stalk and squish the potato while swirling around the sauce until there are no big chunks of potato or liquid left. Then taste and adjust seasoning as required. How about pepper? There's always room for pepper. And nutmeg.

 

Set aside to cool slightly and work on your phyllo dough. You should be aware, if you aren't already, that phyllo dough is as tasty as it is a pain in the behind to work with. You have to be very careful not to tear it, and any freezer burn at all will make the sheets cling to each other like Bachelor contestants at a mixer with Regulars.

You want to lay out three sheets and spray each of them individually with oil. Normally, you would use butter to brush the sheets with, but I'm not looking to use all my dang calories in one place, y'all. Mama needs her SmartPop. Anyway, I like to lay them out on a cutting board, spray and flip, then fold in half and cut into 6 pieces. Cut along the back spine and voila! You have 36 pieces to use.

Push the oiled sheets gently into the holes of a well sprayed mini muffin tin, leaving bunches on the outside.

Fill each well with meat mixture; I like to use a tablespoon-sized cookie scoop, but a spoon would just as well. Bake at 350 for 10 minutes, until the edges of the pastry are just browed.

Leave in the tray for 2 minutes to cool, then pop out onto a wire rack and enjoy! They're best hot, so serve immediately or just get them in your face. There is no judgement here, only lub. They come to 22 calories each, so that's not even bad at all!

Closer...

All up in it's grill!

Thursday: Grilled BBQ Chicken Wings

So excited! Sun! Rumour has it it will be short-lived, therefore am seizing the day, carpe chicken wing and all of that. I wrestled with making these, because fitting chicken wings into a healthy lifestyle can be a little tricky. Small crunchy amazingly greasy handfuls of joy with more calories than a decent-sized pizza. However, I am a big fan of using what I have and what I found in the freezer is these chicken wings and there we are. Since I am not intending to stop eating properly, I'm going to try and integrate these bad boys. With salad, lots and LOTS of salad.

These wings are sweet and a little spicy and a whole lot of amazing.

You will need:

3-4 lbs chicken wings, tips removed

2 c ketchup

1/4 c olive oil

1/4 c orange juice

1/4 c Chipotle pepper sauce

4 cloves garlic, pressed

1 tsp lime juice

1 tsp salt

Dump everything in a large plastic freezer bag, preferably something good quality. No-one wants this all over the inside of their fridge.

Squeeze out all the air and seal. Mush it around until all the wings are coated in sauce. Massage it a little through the bag. Go on, give it a grope.

Thrown in the fridge, let marinate for at least 6 hours. Reserve the marinade for basting while grilling.

I made 2.5 lbs, halved the recipe and ended up with chicken wings with a calorie count of 85 per. Say you had three, threw in a salad with some light goat cheese, that's not too bad, right? You probably wouldn`t want to do it ALL the time as that is not the best use of that many calories, but here and again, give it a whirl.

All crunchy from the grill

You can almost hear them...eat meeee!! Eat meeee!!

Vegetarian Wednesday: Curried Hummus and Tomato Lentil Soup

I have tried approximately 40-hundred hummus recipes, this is a combination of a few. I haven't been able to get a decently creamy spread, so I am upping the oil a little tiny bit and making sure my pureeing is nice and mushing. Also, who doesn't love lentils?? Not I! Wait, that's too many negatives, I can't work out whether I just said I liked them or not. I love them! We all should! Yay for vegetarian Wednesdays and the tornado that didn't come!

For the hummus, you will need:

1 tsp olive oil

1 small onion, grated

5 garlic cloves, crushed

1 Tbsp curry (see recipe below)

1/2 tsp cumin seeds

1/2 c water

3 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1 and a half lemons)

Salt

2 540 ml cans chickpeas, drained and rinsed
2 tsp extra-virgin olive oil (optional)

For the curry powder, you will need:

1/2 cinnamon stick
1 1/2 tsp chili flakes (use less if you are into milder curry. baby)
1 tsp green cardamom seeds (about a dozen pods worth)
6 cloves
1 tsp cumin seeds
1 Tbsp coriander seeds
2 tsp ground turmeric
1 tsp ground ginger

To extract the cardamom seeds, flatten them with a large knife by whacking them with the wide part.

Heat a small frying pan over medium heat and cook the whole spices (cardamom, cumin, cloves, coriander) until you can smell them, 30 seconds to a minute.

Let cool and dump everything else into a spice grinder. You COULD also use a mortar and pestle, give yourself a few more minutes for that. And a gold star.

Pulse a few times for the cinnamon stick, then add in the cooled whole spices and just keep pulsing until it looks blended.

Back to the hummus!

Heat oil in a non-stick saucepan over med-low heat. Cook the onion for 2 minutes. Add the garlic for 30 seconds. That's it! Add in the curry powder and cumin seeds, cook for another 30 seconds until you can smell 'em. 

Dump the garlic mixture and everything else into a food processor or blender, blend like crazy until it is all smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. This is where you can add a little extra water or perhaps 2 teaspoons of extra-virgin olive oil, until you are happy with the texture.

You are going to get about 3 cups, and a decent serving is about 1/4 c, which works out to about 82 calories. 

And now for the tomato soup. You will need:

1 tsp vegetable oil

1 onion, chopped finely

2 garlic cloves, crushed

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp ground coriander

1 lb tomatoes or I can 28 oz diced tomatoes

3/4 c split lentils

5 c chicken or vegetable stock

Salt, pepper

First off, if you are going to use fresh tomatoes, you will want to peel, dice and seed them in advance. To do that, bring a deep-ish pot of water to boil. Get a big bowl ready filled with lots of ice and some water. Remove the green stem and cut an "X" across the bottom of each tomato.

Using something amazingly useful like a spider (the non-gross leggy one) dip each tomato individually into the boiling water for 30 seconds to a minute, until you see the cut edges start to peel upwards.

Remove and immediately put into the bowl filled with ice water. Do them all; after they are all blanched the skin should just peel right off. In theory.

The tomato Polar Bear dip

Brr

They practically peel themselves

Cut the tomatoes across the middle:

And use a small spoon to scrape the seeds out inside the revealed tunnels. A sharp spoon, like a grapefruit spoon, is awesome for this, but you can also use a paring knife on any parts if they get unruly. Bye glutamates. Sigh. 

Somewhat de-seeded

Roughly chop and do the rest of your prep. Chop your onions, press your garlic, have a ball. If you are using canned tomatoes, then, um, open it. 

Heat the oil in a saucepan over medium heat; cook the onions until soft, about 5 minutes. Add in the garlic, cumin, coriander tomatoes and lentils, cook for another 4-5 minutes.

Add in the stock, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30-45 minutes until the lentils are tender. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

Remove from heat and let sit on a raised wire rack to cool slightly. Use a food processor or blender to process the soup until smooth. If you are going to use a blender, remove the center plastic plug in the blender lid and wrap tightly with a large kitchen towel. One that will hopefully not show tomato stains. This will vent the steam somewhat. You may also have to do the soup in batches. You can use an immersion blender if you like, but it will not be as smooth. A food processor can only take so much fluid, so keep an eye on your levels. This sounds like fun, doesn't it?? It will totally be worth it.

Pops right out

Using one of my bread towels

And a food processor, because, hey, there it was on the counter from the hummus

Return the soup to the same pot, rinsed out, and warm to eating temperature. I added some stock at the end to get it to the consistency I wanted; she was a leetle thick. I used fresh tomatoes (but I didn't seed them entirely because nutrients) and I came up with 4 servings at 140 calories each. Added in some homemade bread and butter and bam! Under 500 calories and veggie fantastic.

Enjoy!

Equipment Corner

A couple of quick notes; I never understood those adjustable measuring spoons until I did my first spice blend and realised how invaluable they are for lots of tiny dry ingredients. I also broke one of my garlic presses today, which I did not even know was possible; that one looked pretty sturdy and it will be my replacement.

I wanted to include a mortar and pestle, especially since I ended up using one today, but that is something you really want to be able to grope in person. You want one that feels good in the hand, has a nice and heavy pestle and is rough inside. No smooth interiors! Rough will help those spices break down much faster. And I'm out!