Juan Colorado Leftovers

I'm not a big fan of leftovers in their original form so I tend to trick them out in different recipes.

This week I made two dishes; one from left over scallop fajitas and one from leftover beef enchiladas from our local Mexican place, Juan Colorado.

Scallops with Gnocchi in a Wine Veloute Sauce

Makes 2 servings

20 homemade gnocchi

6 scallops

1/2 c mix of onions,peppers, mushrooms from fajitas

2 tbs olive oil

2 tbs flour

1 c unoaked Chardonnay

1/2 c milk

1/c grated Trader Joes white semi-hard cheese with potatoes

salt

pepper

fresh chiffonade of basil

Boil salted water in large pot. Add gnocchi cook until they float to the top of the water.

In small saucepan heat oil, add flour and stir until bubbling and frothy. Add milk slowly, then add wine slowly stir until thickened into a sauce. Add pepper mix, cheese and scallops until heated through. Toss gnocchi in sauce, plate and add basil on top.

Enchilada Panakoeken

Serves 4

Leftover beef enchilada, black beans, rice and salsa

4 eggs

1/2 c flour

4 tbs olive oil

1/4 tsp chili powder

Heat oil and chili powder in a cake pan in a 425 F oven for 4 minutes.

Meanwhile mix the other ingredients together in a bowl.

Pour into hot pan, return to over and bake for 20 minutes.

Cool, cut into wedges and serve with yoghurt chili sauce.

1/2 c no fat yoghurt

1 tbs pico pico hot sauce

2 tbs fresh oregano

Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's

Here at Taste we are very, very fond of Trader Joe's. When I was living in Canada, I didn't buy shoes or clothes when I visited the USA, I bought Trader Joe's staples and declared mango salsa and eggplant tapenade at the border. My husband, who has a sweet tooth, can't go very long without Gingeroo cookies, or a little box of something chocolate.

Of course, as a wine writer, TJ's has a killer selection of reasonably priced wines with a focus on the regional store's local wines.

It's no wonder that my husband spotted a Trader Joe's cookbook at the library, and brought it home for me.

So this morning , over Trader Joe's coffee, I took a look at Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's, by Deana Gunn and Wona Miniati. Colorful, easy to read recipes and filled with pictures and wine suggestions, this book had me perusing my TJ pantry items for cooking projects.

Cooking With All Things Trader Joe's is pretty enough to leave on your coffee table and easy enough to get anyone cooking. And that's the beauty of Trader Joe's; quality products at fair prices that can spice up your cooking life without a lot of work.

And now Gunn and Miniati have made it even easier!

Have I made olive tapenade by hand? Yes. But I save time by buying Trader Joe's products; throwing tasty meals together in record time. For instance on page 10 of this book, only a few recipes in, I was stopped by the Apricot Baked Brie recipe. Simple, elegant and fast! The authors suggested, "a big, creamy and oaked Chardonnay, like Toasted Head, which stands up to the richness of the Brie, and has complimentary notes of nectarine and apricot." My kind of pairing note!

I am so taken by the photography, I wanted to know who food stylist was: the authors are! They made the recipes in their home kitchens with real food. As they say in the introduction, "No mashed potatoes covered in motor oil posing as ice cream....and yes, we ate it all after each photo was taken!" So if they can make food so pretty, I can too and so can you.

If you are a Trader Joe's regular this book will help you make the best use of their products. Are you a TJ newbie? Use this book to familiarize yourself with the versatility of TJ products. If you want to learn more about food and wine pairing this is a good introduction. And if you are unlucky enough not to live near a Trader Joe's, these recipes aren't so TJ specific that you can't substitute ingredients.

When my husband and I moved back to the USA, we were happy to discover that Trader Joe's wasn't more than 10 minutes away.

You can buy the book directly from the authors' site or at Amazon.com.

Festive Ale a Winter's Tale

In the deep mid-winter snow lay all about

 Ale is sleeping deeply, waiting for a spout

Micro brews near Montreal 

add some seasonings of the seasons

cloves and spice are very pleasing.

A Festive Ale  throughout a gale

Is just what rev's the revelers, 

one and all.

I'm not much of a poet but good beer is something to be poetic about.  I like Belgian beer, so this Trader Joe's festive Vintage Ale 2008 hits all the right notes, for me.  Dark and sinewy hopps with floral shadings, and spicey notes to tickle the nose.  The head is a beautifully creamy mass of dense bubbles:  Certainly better than the sparkling wine I had on New Year's Eve.  

This Ale is made in Quebec, near Montreal, by Unibroue.  Unibroue makes a wide range of beers, but the focus is on Belgian-style beer such as Maudite (The Damned), Le Fin de Monde (End of the World) and Don Dieu (Gift of God).  Okay, that's hard to live up to if you are a brewer. You are either damned or blessed by god, and if you don't get it right, well, it is the end of the world.  Which brings me to another beer I like, Dead Guys, by Oregon's Rogue Brewery.  Creative names.

The Trader Joe's Vintage Ale is more in keeping with their happy-go-lucky outlook.  Most of Unibroue's beer is bottle, like some wine, on the lees, which means on the yeast sediment.  In beer this helps it age and also gives the beer a cloudy appearance, which enhances the flavours.

The Unibroue site is worth a visit, the way they recommend tasting beer rival the wine course methodology I'm used to. 

 "Pour the beer delicately and move the glass progressively away from the bottle while it fills up, in order to create a proper head of foam, the head must be 3 to 4 centimeters on average," Unibroue instructs.

Good advice!  I won't tell them my last glass of Vintage Ale, poured into a wine glass, spilled over and went up my nose, I had 3 to 4 inches of foam.

I do agree that good beer does deserve to be treated in the same manner as good wine, with attention to detail and respect.  What are you tasting, smelling and savouring?

I was at Trader Joe's this week and they still had a few bottles,  750 ml for $4.99.  Good price and winter isn't over yet.