Peruvian Juanes in Celebration of St.John's Day...

How much do I love learning about other cultural food specialties around the world with a similar offering like my Chinese background. Over the years, I've appreciated hearing about and trying dumplings from different heritages. For starters, there's Chinese dumplings, then there's Japanese gyozas, Polish and Russian perogies, Italian gnocchi, which in itself offer a multitude of varieties, fillings, wrapping and cooking technique depending on region and specialty, and so the different countries' dumpling list goes on... 

When I posted my recipe on making Zong Zi (bamboo leaves wrapped rice dumplings) for Chinese Dragon Boat Festival, I happily learned there are many other leaves-wrapped hearty meal-in-itself dumplings made in other parts of the world.  Last year, my friend Sandra Mukidza shared her Luwombos recipe (mashed bananas and meat wrapped in banana leaves)- a Kenyan specialty, and this time while posting my second attempt at Zong Zi on Facebook, lovely Chef Jesica Winitzky and Food Revolution Ambassador Peru introduced to me her country's rice dumpling wrapped in bijao leaves-- Juanes. Really cool because it sounds like the Mandarin word zong in zong zi and in fact, the Cantonese pronunciation which is how I say it is more similar Joung :).  She tells me these are eaten as part of an important celebration for St.John's Day in the Peruvian Jungle on June 24th. Juan = John thus Juane:)

Jesica's family does not celebrate this tradition, however juane is delicious anytime of year, and she recently made them at home for a Slow Food lunch. She is also a regional leader championing Slow Food International in Lima, Peru.

Photo Credit: Chef Jesica Winitzky

The festivities start the night of the 23rd and St. John's Day is the 24th and in the Jungle / Amazon it is a very important feast with the main day or the Juane day-- the 24th! But the party starts before and carries on for days usually trying to get the weekend! Here is a link that shows how it is celebrated throughout the Peruvian jungle. 

Intrigued, I tried to call around my multi-cultural home in Toronto with a few Peruvian shops and well-noted restaurants around this time, but was told that this is very specialty food mostly eaten in the jungle back home and not usually made and sold here. Shucks! I suppose I will have to try make them one day (Jesica's recipes to come) with a few substitutes.

Jesica Winitzky, Lima Peru

Photo Credit: Flickr

Jesica's recipe for Juanes is filled with rice, coloured and flavoured with fresh turmeric, a special kind of capsicum pepper, garlic, herbs from the Amazon and filled with chicken (Jesica uses duck), a piece of hard boiled egg, also beaten egg as a binder, and whole black olives. They are wrapped in bijao leaves and then boiled. The way it is wrapped resembles the head of St. John the Baptist given to Salome... (Ha-- Jesica says she knows that sounds awful!).  

A special hot sauce (more like a hot salsa) to accompany this dish is a must, called Ají de Cocona which is made with a special tiny and extremely hot pepper but super aromatic, only found in the Amazon called Charapita pepper. It is also concocted with a jungle fruit called Cocona peeled and diced in concassé, lime juice, diced onion, sachaculantro and salt.

Here is a youtube recipe of how to make Juanes. It is actually quite easy to make and the ingredients not too complicated except by a couple of things: The Bijao leaves which you can replace with banana leaves and the Sachaculantro (jungle cilantro) which can be omitted or add a bit more bay leaves or up the other ingredients. 

Jesica's recipes for Juanes and special hot sauce to come.

It's a BBQ Funday Sunday...

We just love getting together with my bestie and her family! Our kids play so well together, the adults get to catch up usually over some light cooking and wine-drinking (the hubs), and the food spread is never short of fantastic! Can't think of a better way to enjoy a beautiful Sunday than a BBQ cook-out with some delectable sides and desserts to tie it all in and of course, over great conversations with great friends! 

I love ma' steak medium-rare but even better with a beer or one of these Somersby Ciders!

I baked up my bestie's favourite-- Quick and easy Cassava Cake (a popular Southeast Asian dessert) with just three ingredients!! There is nothing to master except thawing frozen grated cassava, dumping, stirring with coconut and condensed milks then baking. Voila!! it perfectly balanced sweetness, just the way us Asians like it-- not too sweet.

Three-Ingredient Cassava Cake

Recently for National Onion Rings Day- June 22nd, I was inspired to bake a whole onion blossom covered in panko and seasoning as a really fun appetizer to share along a creamy spicy sauce. Certainly different from the deep-fried kind but tastes light crispy, sweet and much more healthier! I made one for the get-together, but this time the large onion expanded more like a lotus flower than a blossom. So pretty and tasty!

Oven-Baked Onion Blossom

This is such a Vietnamese thing to do... guess what kind of seeds these are? Boiled/steamed for an hour or so, tastes so yummy just like roasted chestnuts... They are "hột mít" Jackfruit Seeds!! Eat everything from the fruit down to its core-- no waste-- YAY!

Cookin' up steaks, lamb chops and Korean kalbi beef short ribs!

Home-grilled meat dishes and some prepared side salad dishes!

Gotta' get some refreshing limeade!

WHOA-- a Beast of a Feast!

Dessert Tiiiiime!!.....

I don't eat gluten-free however, when my cousin Helen brought back a bunch of baked goodies (cupcakes, cookies, squares) from her pal Pete's Gluten Free in Ottawa, I was delighted to try and taste how yummy gluten-free can be. My image of cardboard-tasting crumbly gluten free products are gone. His date squares and 4-variety pack cupcakes were our family's fave (chocolate, carrot, red velvet and pumpkin spice), and I look forward to baking with their SMART flour (sorghum, millet, arrowroot, brown rice and tapioca)! So nutritious can be delicious! He also makes savoury items like gourmet pizza and homemade lasagna. YUM!

Pete's Gluten Free

Oven-Baked Onion Blossom...

Oh what fun!! When I came across National Onion Rings Day on June 22nd, I thought wow, there's a National Day for everything-- donuts, pies, now onion rings! Also enjoyed deeply in United Kingdom, Ireland, Australia and some parts of Asia, onion rings exact origin are unknown. Instead of home deep frying individual battered onion rings (which I love by the way) to avoid the oily mess and high calories, whole onion blossom came to mind, but a healthier and the oven-baked kind. Plus its so pretty to create and look at before digging into. I happily found an easy recipe on Gimme Some Oven, and off I went. The trick is to coat each cut separated onion petals with a bunch of seasoned panko. It is definitely different than deep-fried, but the panko made this blooming onion crispy light, flavourful, and a really fun appetizer to share with friends and family. Dipped in a creamy spicy sauce, and you're in fun-ion heaven :)!

Oven-Baked Blooming Onion (Adapted from http://www.gimmesomeoven.com/)

1 large Vidalia onion (or any yellow onion)
2/3 cup Panko breadcrumbs
1 Tbsp. Cajun or blackening seasoning

1/2 tsp. garlic powder
1/4 tsp. salt
1 egg

NOTE: Instead of Cajun seasoning, substitute in Italian seasonings or paprika/smoked paprika with salt and pepper. 

Spicy Dipping Sauce:

1/2 cup Greek yogurt (or mayo)
2 Tbsp. ketchup
2 tsp. horseradish sauce
1/4 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. smoked paprika
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/8 tsp. oregano

Dip Variations: ketchup, ketchup and mayo, ranch dip, honey mustard.

In a small bowl, whisk together the Panko, Cajun seasoning, garlic powder and salt until combined. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg.

I've had this special Cajun Spice blend from my great friend late Chef  Fred for years. Although the spices have muted 
(I doctored it with paprika, salt and pepper) I was happy to bring it out from my pantry 
to bring a little spicy spirit of my dear friend Fred into my onion blossom.

Preheat oven to 400 F. On a cutting board, use a knife to cut off the top (not the root) 1/4-inch of the onion until a few of the inside layers are exposed. Peel the outermost layer of the onion down to the root, but leave the root intact.

Lay the onion on the cutting board so that the flat side (that you just cut) is facing downward. Then use a knife to section the onion into 16ths, beginning with your knife 1/8-inch away from the root and cutting straight down. Once all cuts are complete, turn the onion over and set on a piece of parchment paper on a baking sheet. Then use your fingers to gently spread apart the petals. If any of your cuts did not go all the way through, you can use a paring knife to be sure that the entire onion is cut into 16ths.

Beginning with the lowest (bottom) layers of the onion, brush the top of each petal with the egg mixture until coated, then immediately sprinkle with the Panko mixture. Repeat until all petals are coated. (The panko won't totally "stick" when the egg is wet, but just press it on with your fingers.) It is kind of tedious, but worth it!

Carefully form a tent with aluminum foil over the baking sheet until the onion is completely enclosed. Bake for five minutes, then remove tent and bake for an additional 10-15 minutes until the onion is soft and the tips are lightly crisped.

Remove and serve with desired sauces-- whisk all ingredients together until combined. Serve immediately or refrigerate in a sealed container for up to one week.

Gorgeous, crispy tips and sweet! The more time you spend coating each petal, the crispier the results!

My kids loved the blossom! My youngest Matias is partial to onions, but was taken to it, plucking the petals off, dipping them and feeding it to us with a "yummy right?" Music to a momma's ears!

Cozy Casual Cooking on Father's Day!...

Father's Day went something like this.... When family cooks together, they stay together... 

Hope yours went awesome!

Asian-Style Vegetarian Quinoa Salad...

I will never tire of quinoa! I find myself reaching for this high-protein super grain over rice these days-- so healthy and versatile. There are countless ways to use quinoa, and my favourite is as a salad. My son's school anniversary party requested every parent to contribute a dish from their heritage. I had a big batch of prepared quinoa frozen in a tupperware and I thought how super it was to make it into a dish with an Asian-flair and to give me more freezer space again. With some thinly sliced Asian veggies and a salty-sweet-tart douse of sesame-soy vinaigrette, my quinoa salad was a hit at the party table with families of all backgrounds!

Asian-Style Vegetarian Quinoa Salad
Makes 10-12 servings (Half recipe to serve 4-6)

2 cups quinoa
1 carrot, peeled, and cut into strips (1-1/2")
2 handfuls snow peas, peeled, cooked and sliced into thin strips on an angle
1 bell pepper, seeded and cut into thin strips (1-1/2')-- I ended up not using pepper in the salad
2 green onions, sliced on an angle into thin strips
8 cups mixed greens
Vinaigrette:
1/2 cup rice vinegar
2 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 Tbsp. sesame oil
ground black pepper to taste

Dissolve sugar in vinegar, and mix with remaining vinaigrette ingredients. Adjust flavouring to desired taste. Set aside.

Prepare quinoa according to package directions and fluff when ready with a fork. Let cool slightly. Blanch snow peas by bring a small pot of water to a boil, placing peas to cook for 30 seconds, and removing the peas into a basin of cold water to cool and retain its colour and crunch! Cut and slice your vegetables into thin strips.

Place the greens into the serving vessel (in which case, mine was a foil container), toss with 1/3 of dressing. Place quinoa in a separate large bowl along with the cut vegetables and toss with remainder of dressing. Layer the quinoa mixture over the salad greens.

Pretty and a lovely flavour combo. of sesame, soy and rice vinegar, and crunch with a nod to Asia.

With so many flavours you can impart to nutritious high-protein, high-mineral quinoa, try some of my other family favourites with a cultural spin and hope one or more will be a winner with yours:

Mexican Quinoa with Cilantro and Pepitas-- If you love cilantro, give this tasty quinoa recipe with the addition of healthy pumpkin seeds a try with a Mexican flair!

Mexican Quinoa with Cilantro and Pepitas

Greek Dill Quinoa Salad-- A large fresh bed of both romaine and mixed greens topped with textured nutty grains of quinoa and a medley of crunchy colourful vegetables dressed with garlicky lemony dill.

Greek Dill Quinoa Salad

Black Bean Cumin Quinoa Salad-- my sister's famous quinoa recipe with loads of crunchy purple cabbage, veggies, and black beans with a predominant earthy cumin flavour for a nod to Mexico. 

Black Bean Cumin Quinoa Salad

Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa-- I absolutely love the Lebanese dish tabbouleh- a tapestry of a kitchen garden, with its aromas, its colours, its different textures and intermingling of multi-layered tastes. Instead of using traditional bulgur cracked wheat, which is nuttier, granular and grainy in texture, I am using quinoa as a substitute to give a wonderful twist to this delicious salad- a great way to enjoy a familiar favourite with another healthy grain!

Tabbouleh Salad with Quinoa

Simple Cranberry Quinoa Salad-- This recipe was contributed by my sweet niece in Montreal. Kathia has always been interested in cooking and cooking healthily. I love the sweet cranberries in this simple quinoa salad with cucumber and coloured bell pepper. 

Simple Cranberry Quinoa Salad