Zosia's Reviews
15 recipe(s) reviewed. Showing 1 to 15Sort by: Title 
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Rebar: Modern Food Cookbook
By Audrey Alsterburg, Wanda Urbanowicz
Big Ideas Publishing - 2001
Chai : page 239
I enjoy a cup of chai tea from time to time but have never attempted to make it before – this recipe seemed easy enough and I had all of the ingredients on hand.
A cinnamon stick, cloves, cardamom, fresh ginger and peppercorns are first simmered slowly – the fragrance of this mixture is heavenly; black tea is then steeped in this spiced water with milk and honey as the final additions.
It tasted as heavenly as it smelled.
The recipe made quite a bit so I refrigerated the strained tea….. all I had to do was reheat it with added milk and honey to enjoy a cup when the mood struck.
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Chimayó Chile Popcorn : page 58
Popcorn as a starter? Why not…..that’s how Rebar restaurant serves it.
It takes only minutes to make: melted butter is combined with minced garlic, Chimayó chile (I used mild and chipotle chile powders instead) and dried sage (oregano would be excellent also) and tossed with warm, freshly popped popcorn.
This spiced popcorn made a fun start to a casual meal but would make a delicious snack as well.
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This starts as a fairly basic recipe for broccoli soup that includes sauteed aromatics, (onion, garlic), a large bunch of broccoli (with some florets set aside for garnish), a potato for thickening and stock. Red pepper flakes and fresh thyme add even more flavour.
What I like most about the soup, however, is the addition of spinach - it boosts both the green colour and the nutrient content of the soup. The recipe calls for fresh but I have used frozen with the excess water squeezed out. Once it's pureed, you can't detect it - only the cook knows it's there:). I would recommend this addition to any broccoli soup recipe.
The almond, romano cheese and parsley pesto is a nice touch but I often just add the grated cheese as garnish instead.
Easy and delicious!
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Falafel Burger : page 106
This was a really delicious burger flavoured with Middle Eastern spices that wasn’t too dense or dry, though I did have to adjust the recipe a little to achieve that texture.
The recipe called for canned chick peas but didn’t address the liquid in the can….should it be included or discarded? I used chick peas I had cooked and frozen without water and used the food processor to break them down and mix them with the other ingredients that included toasted bulghur (which I toasted in the same fry pan I later used to cook the onions and then the burgers instead of turning on the oven unnecessarily). Fresh breadcrumbs were supposed to act as the binder, but didn’t work without having any liquid to absorb so the mixture was quite dry. A few tablespoons of water helped but I had to resort to adding an egg before I was able to form patties. Sautéed in a little olive oil, the burgers developed a crispy golden crust; the interior was moist but not mushy.
I made a half recipe, though I added the full amount of spices, which produced 6 large burgers. Instead of the creamy, tahini based taratour sauce that’s suggested, I opted to serve them with a cucumber-tomato-herb salsa that was recommended.
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Lemon Ricotta Cakes : page 81
These are fantastic fluffy pancakes that use both the juice and rind of the lemon for a fresh lemon flavour.
The batter is easy to put together and though there may be a few extra steps involved – zesting and juicing lemons etc – it can be made in the time it takes to heat the griddle. The pancakes grow tremendously once they start to cook (thanks to the leavening provided by baking powder, soda and whipped egg whites) which makes them a little fragile and tricky to flip. I find that they’re also prone to browning quickly so cook them at a slightly lower temperature than I use for other pancakes. The recipe says it serves 3-4 …….my yield is usually 24-26 pancakes which usually serves 6-8.
Perfect with just a dusting of powdered sugar….
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Finally, a baked spring roll recipe that works: the filling is moist, flavourful and fresh tasting and the pastry, crisp. The dipping sauce is another story; I reduced the rating because of it.
There are quite a few little preparatory steps to this recipe that involve waiting time - nothing that’s too taxing until you get to the rolling but you do need to plan accordingly. While the tofu is marinating and then baking/cooling, and the dried shiitake mushrooms are being reconstituted, the recipe has you salt the raw napa cabbage, carrots and bean sprouts and let sit for 1 or more hours to draw off the excess moisture. I did all of this the night before so all I had to do was drain the vegetables, combine them with the other filling ingredients, and form the rolls.
I used filo pastry since I planned to freeze them uncooked and bake from a frozen state and wasn’t sure if this would work with spring roll wrappers. I used 2 layers of filo, lightly misted with oil, and cut each sheet into 4 rectangles to approximate the thickness and size of spring roll wrappers. The yield was 40 rolls and baking time was 18 min at 400F.
The mango dipping sauce, which starts with a purchased mango chutney, was too acidic and overwhelmed the flavour of the spring roll…..I think it would be fine with half the amount of rice wine vinegar and lime juice and with this fix, would be a delicious alternative to plum sauce.
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Pudding Cake Lemony and Sweet : page 220
Light and lemony, this soufflé-like cake with its creamy pudding layer was the perfect balance of sweet and tart.
It took just minutes to blend the ingredients to make a lemon custard, whip the egg whites and fold these components together. I followed the authors’ suggestion to add berries to the bottom of the ramekin, using fresh raspberries.
After baking in the oven in a bain marie, you're instructed to allow them to cool. I served them while still slightly warm and they were fabulous. I would definitely serve these at a dinner party.
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Roasted Potato Pizza : page 200
This was a delicious Greek-themed vegetarian pizza that included artichokes, spinach, feta cheese and rosemary.
I used a semolina pizza dough as my base, hoping it would support the generous pizza toppings and substituted grilled zucchini for the roasted potatoes, one of the recipe’s suggested variations. Otherwise, I stuck to the recipe as written. I was a little concerned about the topping quantities, especially the mountain of fresh spinach, but everything cooked down perfectly and wasn’t wet (another concern of mine).
The flavour was fabulous…though there was a fair bit of cheese (I used reduced fat), the zucchini with its lemon juice dressing, spinach and artichokes kept it tasting fresh and prevented it from being too heavy.
The semolina pizza dough was a good choice for this – it baked up crispy and golden. The recipe can be found here: http://leitesculinaria.com/79749/recipes-semolina-pizza-dough.html
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The use of roasted vegetables and tangy feta cheese, and the addition of capers, mint and lemon rind saves this dish from being just another cheesy pasta casserole.
The recipe includes the standard prep work of precooking pasta (I used whole wheat farfalle) and making a sauce. The sauce in this case is a mix of vegetables that resembles ratatouille: eggplant, zucchini, red peppers, onions and garlic. I thought the roasted mixture was a little dry so added a few roasted tomatoes I had stored in the freezer.
Once the ingredients are mixed together, they’re topped with herby breadcrumbs that crisp during baking.
The flavours of this dish are very nice and though there is a fair bit of cheese, it seems lighter than most of its type.
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Stir fried vegetables in pancake form or Asian latkes as my family called them.
The pancake base is a blend of egg, flour and the water used to rehydrate dried shiitake mushrooms. Added to that is a mix of stir fried vegetables, flavoured with garlic, ginger and hot chili flakes, that has been cooled and drained. The instructions are to julienne the vegetables, which I tried to do by hand.....I should have just shred everything in the food processor as this step was quite time consuming.
The pancakes were quite delicious served with the suggested salty-tangy soy-citrus glaze but did need to be served immediately after cooking while they were still crisp. (They didn’t re-heat well in the oven).
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Shiitake Brown Rice Pilaf : page 149
It's been a long time since I cooked brown rice using the absorption method as it usually results in gummy, even mushy rice, but the thought of the brown basmati absorbing all of the wonderful flavours of the dried mushroom soaking liquid convinced me to try it again with this recipe.
I couldn't find fresh shiitake, so used fresh crimini and dried porcini mushrooms. After soaking, the reconstituted mushrooms are sauteed with leeks and garlic before the rice and soaking liquid are added. The sauteed fresh mushrooms and some toasted pecans are stirred in at the end and the dish is garnished with sliced green onions.
The grains of rice were perfectly cooked, remained separate and were infused with the wonderful, earthy flavour of the mushrooms. The leeks were very soft and almost melted into the rice; I would prefer them with a little more texture so next time, will sautee them with the fresh mushrooms and add them at the end. Loved the crunch of the pecans.
Very hearty and satisfying and apart from having to pre-soak the dried mushrooms, took no linger than most brown rice recipes.
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Tomato Cream (Soup) with Fresh tarragon : page 120
Fresh tasting, intensely tomato-y and zesty with a kick from red chile flakes, this soup is nothing like the sweet milky variety that comes from a can.
This is probably one of the least involved recipes in the book. The method is very straightforward....saute aromatics, add canned tomatoes and stock, simmer, puree, add cream and fresh herbs and serve!
This is my and my vegetarian daughter's favourite cream of tomato soup; the rest of the family prefers the sweet, milky version from the can :)!
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Subtly flavoured with cinnamon, nutmeg and banana, no one guessed that this dish was made with coconut and soy milks and without eggs.
Blending the ingredients took only seconds and was the easy part of the recipe. I found it very challenging to cook properly. The authors warn that the French toast may stick….they didn’t mention just how easily it burns. Initially, the batter sits on the surface of the bread but it does eventually get absorbed during cooking. By the 3rd slice – I cooked them 1 at a time until I found what worked best – I discovered THE cooking method: med-low heat, misting the griddle with oil every time the bread slice was flipped and cooking each side twice.
The result was French toast with crispy edges and a custardy centre. We had them with just a little maple syrup but the suggested cinnamon-brandy pears sounds like a fabulous accompaniment.
I had difficulty rating this recipe…..flavour was exceptional but cooking was trying and I personally didn’t like how soft the centre was. 3 stars would be my choice but the texture didn’t bother anyone else so it gets 4.
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This salad, made of a colourful medley of vegetables served on wilted spinach, has the potential to be fantastic. Unfortunately, made as per the recipe, it didn’t quite get there: the plate was very brightly coloured but the flavour just didn’t have the zing to match.
The instructions for steaming the vegetables in stages, starting with the ones that take the longest to cook and finishing with the peppers and zucchini, worked well, resulting in tender-crisp veg.
The problem was the dressing, a vinaigrette described as east-meets-west. Sesame oil was the only ingredient that was “eastern” and I quite enjoyed it….you could taste it but it wasn’t overwhelming. The dressing, however, was too sweet, and added to a plate of vegetables that was quite sweet, that sweetness became the overwhelming flavour of the salad. I fixed it by adding more of the red wine vinegar, but less maple syrup at the start would have been better.
This recipe is definitely worth fixing and making again as you could use whatever vegetables you have on hand and it takes care of the need for a vegetable side and salad with 1 dish.
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Apparently these are considered the "house hotcake" of Rebar restaurant in Victoria, BC. I'm not surprised. They are light and fluffy despite the whole wheat flour and wheat germ and are tasty enough to eat without embellishments.
The recipe is a basic buttermilk pancake with part of the flour replaced with a whole grain alternative. They have very little added fat, and though either melted butter or oil can be used, I prefer to use butter to keep the pancakes tender. The batter is very thick and the hotcakes rise a lot while cooking so it's important to use only 1/4 -1/3 cup batter maximum per pancake.
The cookbook offers several ideas for "jazzing them up", all of which sound delicious, but I prefer to stick to the basic recipe and serve them with warm wild blueberry maple syrup (frozen berries simmered in maple syrup). This is a favourite weekend treat.
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