Asian-style Noodle-Vegetable Salad

I came across this interesting recipe on the Food Network for a quick Asian-style cold noodle-vegetable salad, and decided to make it as part of my contribution for our Christmas Eve meal. We increased the amount of basil and mint and cilantro, as my beautiful Bride likes veggies, and used the juice of half of a lime in the dressing, rather than the teaspoon it called for. You can use any kind of noodles in this dish, it's better to use a shorter noodle. I would think that this dish could work better hot, though it did taste pretty good. You can increase the amount of chilli if you like it spicy, this dish as it stands is not.

Asian Noodle-Vegetable Salad
Adapted from a recipe by Ellie Krieger
4 ounces soba noodles
1 large shallot, very thinly sliced
1-1/2 cups shredded carrot
1 red pepper, julienne
1/2 cup shredded fresh basil leaves
1/2 cup shredded fresh mint leaves
2 Tbsp chopped fresh cilantro leaves
Dressing:
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1 tsp light muscovado sugar
1 Tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp finely minced garlic
1/2 tsp chili flakes
1/2 tsp lime zest
juice from 1/2 lime
1/2 tsp fish sauce
Salt

Boil noodles according to package directions. Drain and cool.

In a medium bowl, combine noodles, shallot, carrot, red pepper and herbs.

Combine all dressing ingredients, season with salt to taste. Pour dressing over noodle mixture, and toss lightly.

New Tree Renew Black Currant

I came across these Belgian chocolate bars from New Tree and shortly thereafter read about them on a blog. This particular bar is an attempt to combine the antioxidant properties of black currant and dark chocolate, it seems an odd combination at the outset. Quite a few chocolatiers are bringing out heart-healthy versions of their products, with increased antioxidant properties (more than 2 glasses of red wine for this bar), following the report that dark chocolate is good for the heart, though I have since heard that the report may be overstated, and it depends on the chocolate and the chocolatier, if the "good" ingredients are in there. The 73% cacao content is in line with a lot of chocolatiers, and the ingredient listing is good, unsweetened chocolate, sugar, cocoa butter, cocoa powder, black currant with other natural flavour (I wonder if one of them is vanilla), grape extract (also known for its antioxidant properties).

How does it taste? Not bad, though I don't know that black currant really works well for me, and my beautiful Bride thought it tasted more like blueberries. I liked the bar enough to want to try other of their bars.

Food Should Taste Good Chocolate Tortilla Chips

I knew that I had to try this particular chocolate offering from Food Should Taste Good, which is the name of the Company, as well as their Brand Name, and their motto. It seems an odd combination, corn and chocolate, at first glance, and, opening the bag, it does smell odd, kind of a little burnt. The ingredient listing is very short for a corn chip, I'm used to lots of ingredients, there just stone ground white corn, non-hydrogenated canola oil, dutch cocoa powder (the dutch process makes cocoa powder darker), turbidano cane sugar (a more healthy sugar), sugarcane fiber and sea salt.

Overall, they taste pretty good, I just don't think I can get over the "burnt" smell, and I don't think corn and chocolate make a great combination, though I understand there are some mexican recipes with such.

Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes

I wanted to make a dessert for my family's Christmas Eve meal, actually I got a request to make one, and so I selected this one, found somewhere long ago on the 'Net. The original recipe called for the cupcakes to cook for 18-20 minutes, I found I needed about 32 minutes for it to be fully cooked through. For the cocoa, I used this powder I found called Ruddy Red, it was certainly reddish in colour, and made the cupcakes dark brown. They turned out moist and very chocolatey, a quite dense cupcake. My beautiful Bride decorated them quite wonderfully.

Dark Chocolate Buttermilk Cupcakes
1-3/4 cups all-purpose flour
1-1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoons baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 cups lowfat buttermilk
1/2 cup vegetable oil
2 large eggs
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract

Heat oven to 350F. Line two 12-count cupcake pans with paper liners.

In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt. Add buttermilk, oil, eggs and vanilla. Beat mixture on low speed until batter is moistened; scrape bowl well. Increase speed to medium and beat 1-1/2 minutes until smooth; scrape bowl well. Mix additional 30 seconds if needed.

Fill cupcake pans 2/3 full with batter and bake 30-33 minutes, just until tester inserted in center of cupcakes comes out clean.

Cool cupcakes in pan 2 minutes. Carefully remove from pans and cool on rack 1 hour before topping with your favorite frosting.

Baskin Robbins Hazelnut Dreams

I was in this mall on Wednesday, waiting for my beautiful Bride, and was suddenly struck with an urge to have a milkshake. Having passed a Baskin Robbins already, I looked at the offerings from Dairy Queen, on the other side of the mall, and, not liking the generic milkshake flavour offerings, I made the trek back to Baskin Robbins to see what flavours of milkshake they had to offer, as one can make a shake out of any of their flavours. And, what do I find, but this new ice cream, called Hazelnut Dreams, luxurious chocolate hazelnut ice cream swirled with a milk chocolate hazelnut ribbon and filled with hazelnut and chocolate pieces, according to the placard. Later I found out that it was December's Flavour of the Month, though I think that it will still be available after that. How did it taste? Very hazelnutty flavour when first sucking through the straw, that lasted throughout, and afterwards too, but I suspect it comes from an artificial hazelnut flavouring. There were very small almost candied hazelnut pieces, and much larger chocolate pieces. Overall, not bad, but could be a lot better, with larger hazelnut pieces.

Mango Spelt Shortbread Cookies

I had been meaning to make these shortbread cookies ever since I got this Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies magazine, you can see how long it's been. I also wanted to make something with the Philippines Mango and Calamansi Lemon powders that I had purchased some months ago, I thought this was the perfect matching. The cookies turned out quite tasty, the nuttiness of the spelt flour (reduce the amount to 1 cup if you use all-purpose flour) combined well with both the mango and the calamansi lemon (though 2 Tbsp of that might make it a little too sour for some tastes). This recipe originally was double the ingredients, save that it asked for 2 Tbsp of Chinese green tea powder, I just halved the rest of the ingredients, and kept the amount of powder the same. It worked out to make a quite tasty shortbread cookie, I think. I also used my new small Holiday cookie cutters, as you can see, they were not so easy to use, with small edges that the dough stuck in.

Mango Spelt Shortbread Cookies
Adapted from a recipe from Martha Stewart Holiday Cookies 2001
1-1/4 cups spelt flour
2 Tbsp mango powder (or Calamansi Lemon powder)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 pound (1 stick) unsalted butter, room temperature
1/4 cup confectioners' or granulated sugar

Sift flour, mango powder and salt in a small bowl; set aside.

Using an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream butter on medium speed until fluffy, 3 to 5 minutes. Add sugar; continue to beat until very light in colour and fluffy, occasionally scraping down the sides of the bowl with a spatula, about 2 minutes more.

Add flour mixture, combine on low, until flour is just incorporated.

Roll dough to 1/4-inch thickness on parchment paper. Chill dough in refrigerator or freezer until firm, about 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 170C/325F. Line baking sheets with parchment paper.

Cut shortbread dough with cookie cutters; place on parchment paper. Gather dough scraps together and re-roll to 1/4-inch thickness; cut with cookie cutters. Repeat as necessary.

Bake for 18-20 minutes, until just beginning to brown. Cool on wire racks.

Penta Water

This drinking water by the California company Bio-Hydration Research Lab, Inc. is purported to be ultra-pure, it goes through an 11-hour 13-step purification process, including reverse osmosis and deionization using oxygen. The claim is that the water is arsenic, fluoride, chromium 6, chlorine and MTBE (an additive for gasoline) free; all of these are potentially bad for your health, eliminating them from your diet is a good thing. I must say that the water did not taste wonderful, there was still the flavour of the plastic bottle present, but it did taste like very good water. I got this as a test sample, I don't know the actual price, though I imagine it would only be sold in Health Food stores for a premium price.

Smart Monkey Ginger Snap

This Organic raw food Vegan bar by Smart Monkey Foods I came across for sale in this Health Food store in Kensington Market, I was interested in it, as it had ginger as an ingredient, and it is a raw food bar, uncooked, with no refined sugar, wheat, gluten, soy dairy or GMO. The ingredient listing is short and good, dates, coconut, sunflower seeds, ginger and Celtic sea salt (sort of a dirty-looking salt, I use it myself for cooking). It tastes pretty good and not too expensive (they were on sale, 2 for $1, so it's likely they would be twice that at least).

Moritz Dark Icy Squares

Moritz Icy Squares have been around a long while, I noticed this year that they have come out with a dark version. Once upon a time, I used to like these sugary chocolate squares, they had kind of a cooling flavour. Long before I even examined the ingredient listing, who did?, I gave up eating these, I found them too expensive, there was less expensive and more interesting chocolate and candy to buy and eat. I notice that they have hazelnut paste as one of the ingredients, though it's not detectable. Give them a try if you really like them, and want more chocolate, or to experience the "icy" flavour, otherwise, pass.

How do they taste? They have the same "icy" feeling as the milk chocolate version, they just taste a little more chocolatey. I think they are still too sugary, and expensive, for my tastes, so I don't think I will buy these again.

Revillon Dark Chocolate with roasted Cocoa Beans

This offering from the French company Revillon Chocolatier is one of several like this, I have also seen a mint flavoured one, and a raspberry one. This one is straight dark chocolate sprinkled with roasted cocoa beans, they kind of look like long twigs to me. The ingredient listing looks good, cocoa mass, sugar, cocoa beans (4%), cocoa butter and soya lecithin (as an emulsifier). The cacao content is 58%.

How do they taste? Pretty good, they have a crispy bite, crunchy with the cocoa beans too. Still, I don't think I will buy these again, but perhaps something different from this chocolatier.