born in the 70's: braised green cabbage / brown rice with mushrooms

I curse the Vancouver winters for the short amount of daylight. Many days, we don't even get to see the sun...just grey, grey, grey. The lack of natural light (along with our apartment's low-energy bulbs) makes my photos brown and looking at them right now makes me feel like I'm back in the 70's. Throw on the corduroy, cozy up in an afgan and settle into an evening of orange and brown. The seventies weren't so bad, really. My mom took yoga and made her own yogurt and even took a self defense class where she could bust up a 2x4 with a swift kick and a power yell.

I made this brown meal after our trip to Portland. Too much good IPA and a stop (or two) for a Reggie Deluxe and we were glad to be back to the healthy drizzle of Vancouver. Portland was all about excess and this meal is about scaling back while still meeting the oh-so-important comfort quotiant. I've made Orangette's braised cabbage a few times and it's delicious. Sweet and soft and a meal in it's own right. And even if you are a bit ho-hum on cabbage, the braised carrots alongside are so rich and yielding that you can't believe that you just got all excited for a carrot.

But I didn't think the husband would be all that happy with a hunk of cabbage on his plate, no matter how bejewelled the carrots were, so I made some brown rice. After a quick look on the computer to see what I could add to make the rice a tad more appealing, I stumbled upon this recipe. Kalyn uses farro, but subbing in the brown rice was a perfect choice. The balsamic added a nice sweetness and tang to the dish and the brown mushrooms just multiplied the earthiness factor to the max. I threw in some barely steamed broccoli for crunch and colour and put on a little Jackson C Frank on the hi-fi. If a meal could make you feel healthy, wealthy and wise, this could be it. Ahhh, much better.

brown rice with balsamic, thyme and mushrooms
(recipe adapted from Kalyn's Kitchen)
1.5 c brown rice
3 c vegetable broth
1 T olive oil
1/4 c diced red onion
3 cloves garlic, minced
1.5 c sliced brown or button mushrooms
1 T fresh thyme, chopped (stems removed)
1/4 c balsamic vinegar
salt & pepper

1. In a medium sized pot, bring the vegetable broth to a boil. Add brown rice, cover and turn heat down to medium. When all the broth has been absorbed, rice will be ready.

2. Meanwhile, heat olive in a large skillet. Saute onion, garlic and mushrooms and add in the thyme. When the mushrooms are soft and have released their juices, stir in the balsamic vinegar and season with salt and pepper. Add the brown rice into the mushroom mixture and mix until all the rice has been coated with the mushroom balsamic sauce. Serve.

braised green cabbage with onion, carrot and hot peppers
(adapted from Orangette)
1/2 green cabbage, cut into quarters with most of the woody core removed
1 onion, quartered
4 carrots, cut into 3 inch chunks
1 hot pepper, seeds removed and diced
1/4 c vegetable stock
2 T olive oil
salt & pepper

Preheat oven at 325F. In a large oven proof dish, place vegetables into an even layer and cover with stock and olive oil. Give everything a good sprinkle of salt and pepper and cover tightly with a lid or foil. Bake for 1 hour and turn vegetables over if necessary, adding water if dry. Bake for another hour and then serve.

fresh from the market

As I mentioned a couple of posts ago, last Saturday I visited out one of Vancouver's local farmer's markets and prepared a pretty delicious meal with my market fixin's. What I didn't mention was that I've started writing for the Food Network Canada blog, Food for Thought, and my piece on the Trout Lake farmer's market went up this morning. Check it out and leave a comment with your thoughts! And while you are there, check out the profiles of some of the other guest bloggers and maybe discover a new blog or two.


While at the market, I purchased a whole pound of baby portabella mushrooms. While a whole pound may seem like a lot, when mushrooms cook they lose much of their moisture and shrink considerably. I decided to make a hearty meal involving grilled steak, roasted rosemary potatoes, a green salad and of course those baby portabellas. This mushroom dish works perfectly as a topping for steak, but it would work equally well as a side dish or piled on top of polenta or crusty bread. And if you don't have portabella, cremini or even white button mushrooms would work equally well.


portabella mushrooms in a balsamic glaze
1 lb portabella mushrooms
3 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 T butter
2 T olive oil
salt & pepper
3 T balsamic vinegar
2 T soy sauce

Prepare mushrooms by removing stems, scrapping away the black gills and slicing mushrooms into 1/4 inch slices. In a large saucepan, heat up butter and olive oil over medium heat and saute garlic. Add mushrooms, salt and pepper and saute for about 15 minutes or until most of the mushroom liquid is evaporated. Add the balsamic vinegar and soy sauce and boil until the liquid reduces slightly. Serve.

birthday break

Thank you for all of your birthday wishes! Birthdays are the best and I'm excited for Birthday Week^TM to continue with picnics and cake to keep things festive!

Before I create any new picnic recipes, I'll just mention this fantastic dinner we ate last weekend. I had some chicken thighs in the fridge and a full bottle of really nice balsamic vinegar. It was a perfect match. Accolades were coming at me from every direction (well, at least to my right, since there were only 2 of us in the room) and there may have even been some plate-licking involved. I always seem to add rosemary to most things I roast...it's my favorite herb after all, and it certainly worked well in this dish too. Simple to put together and the results were outstanding enough that you could easily serve this to all your fancy friends. Throw in terms like "balsamic reduction" and well, you've staged yourself a successful coup.

balsamic chicken
6-8 skinless chicken thighs
1 T olive oil
1 small onion, sliced thinly
salt & pepper
1 T dried rosemary
1 c balsamic vinegar
6 cloves garlic, sliced

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees. In a 9x13 baking dish, toss around onion slices and olive oil. Add chicken to dish and sprinkle with salt, pepper and rosemary. Peek in on the chicken to make sure that the onions don't burn up.

2. In a small saucepan, bring the balsamic vinegar and garlic to a boil. Keep sauce boiling until it reduces into a nice thick, syrupy consistency. Turn off heat and set aside.

3. When chicken is cooked, about 45 minutes later, scrape up all the onion bits from the bottom of the dish to loosen all the yummy bits and then pour over balasamic vinegar sauce over the chicken. Set dish to broil for 2-3 minutes or until bubbly. Serve with sauce heaped over chicken.