Roasted Garlic and Rosemary Hummus

Spring is just around the corner…or at least that’s what they keep telling me. And just as the flowers, robins and bunnies begin to emerge, so does barbecue season. While steak doesn’t particularly excite me, I do love making the side dishes that compliment a stomach-stuffing buffet. So here is my quick and easy recipe for hummus. This dip is great served with raw vegetables, pitas or even spread on a burger (truthfully, I have a close carnivorous friend who enjoys lathering up his burger with all things chickpeas). As with all recipes, the fresher the ingredients, the tastier the final product. Feel free to modify as you wish. I enjoy the combo of garlic and rosemary, but substituting parsley, thyme, sun-dried tomatoes, etc. works just as well.


Ingredients:
2 cups chickpeas
1/4 cup tahini
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon tamari
3 large cloves of chopped or pressed garlic
1 1/2 tablespoons of finely chopped rosemary
Dash of cumin, cayenne pepper and fresh ground black pepper


Preparation:
First, roast the garlic and rosemary in a drop of olive oil in the oven (8 mins at 350 or until slightly brown). Stir every couple minutes.

After chickpeas have soaked overnight (use canned if so desired) drain and set in food processor. If you're feeling especially patient and meticulous, pop off the skins. It makes the hummus extra creamy.

Add the tahini, lemon juice, olive oil, tamari and mix. After about a minute, add the garlic, rosemary, cumin, and peppers. Mix again and proceed until smooth. Upon tasting, continue to add cumin or pepper at your discretion. Garnish with a sprinkle of cayenne pepper and a small branch of rosemary.

Bernard's Rants: Korean Rice Cake Soup

Korean Rice Cake Soup, Duk Guk (pronounced duck kook) in Korean, is a soup that is served on New Year's. It is eaten on the first day of the year (Sulnal) because the Duk (korean rice cake) originally appears as a long slender stick of white rice cake, symbolizing purity and long life. The rice cake is cut into round shapes to represent round and harmonious times in the new year.

Here's a recipe for the tasty Duk Guk...

Ingredients:

• One package of rice cake
• Beef flank steak, about 2 pounds
• Eggs (one or two, up to you), i like more though
• Pepper, salt, green onions, garlic
• Gim (salted seaweed leaves) (optional)
• Mandoo (Korean dumplings) (optional)
  

Preparation:

1. Soak the rice cake in water for an hour or two to soften it. Slice the rice cake into round shapes. I like the oval shapes, similar to Polska Kielbasa (cut diagonally through the cylinder).

2. Boil the flank steak in about six cups of water with two cloves of garlic. If you don't like the meat/soup fatty and you have time: cook for longer, chill, skim the fat off, and boil again.

3. You can either cook the egg separately (separate the yolk and cook the egg white) or just plop it in the soup right before serving. I like the egg placed in the soup right before serving. If you like, you can also prepare the Mandoo here. Boil one package.

4. Add the rice cakes slices to the boiling beef soup and continue boiling. When the slices are soft and light enough, they should float to the top. If you chose to serve with Mandoo, add the boiled Mandoo now.

5. The soup is almost ready to be served! Ladle out the soup into bowls. Depending on your guests' preferences, ask if they would like crumpled Gim and/or Green Onions. The Gim gives the soup a nice presentation and adds to the flavor with a fragrance of the sea.

Hope you enjoy!

Bernard's Rants: Clearly Canadian

Avril Lavigne, Shania Twain, Jim Carrey, Bryan Adams, Neil Young, Pamela Anderson, Barenaked Ladies. Who are they? Why, they are clearly canadians, of course! But, that's not what this article is about.

Do you remember the soft drink from the 90's, Clearly Canadian? It was perhaps the best stuff on earth. It had the feel of soda, but without all the bitter taste of phosphoric acid which you will find in all coke-based soft drinks. It was light and fruity with flavors like blackberry and cherry. But best of all, it was clear! Even Pepsi tried to ride the coattails of Clearly Canadian's popularity with Crystal Pepsi in the early 90's. But Crystal Pepsi faded away. Sadly, Clearly Canadian did.

It was right around the beginning of January 2006, that I noticed in my local gas station's fridge had a new but familiar soft-drink. It was Clearly Canadian! Maybe it had not left me after all! There they were, my two favorite Clearly Canadian flavors: blackberry and cherry. I quickly purchased one of each and drank them right then and there. I was hooked again. Crisp and clear refreshment - none of that nasty acidic aftertaste. I found myself making runs to the gas station just to buy the stuff. They didn't sell the bottles in bulk, so I had to purchase each one at a rate of $1.29 for a 14 oz bottle. Let's see 12 x $1.29 plus tax =... $16.44, but it was sooo worth it. After purchasing 12 everyday for an entire month, I started running to run out of money. It was then that I decided that I needed to start going Canadian in bulk.

I first tried my local supermarket - unfortunately they had no idea it was being sold again. I also tried other supermarkets from different chains, but got the same response. I then went to the big wholesalers like BJ's and Sam's club. Same story! I would not give up so easily though. I finally tried the Clearly Canadian website at clearly.ca. To my joy, I found out they had re-released other classic flavors like Raspberry, Strawberry, Pink Grapefruit and Blueberry. I had been noticing that Clearly Canadian seemed to taste even better than it did in the 90's. It tasted crisper and sweeter, but not too sweet. Further research on the website revealed that the original formula had aspartame as its main sugar substitute ingredient (the same sugar substitute used in many diet drinks like Diet Coke). This formula had most certainly been changed, adding to the enhancement of my recent purchases. To my disappointment, Clearly Canadian did not sell their product to individual consumers through the website. There was an option to request that the product be sold in certain locations - which I did immediately.

Sometime around the end of the summer, the Crystal Canadian formula was changed again. Instead of using the healthier sugar substitute, sucralose, the makers of Clearly Canadian switched to cane sugar. The result was a sweeter and stickier concoction that they claimed was "clearly" superior to other sodas. Unfortunately, my taste buds smelled a rat - it is just not the same anymore and I now regret not buying Clearly Canadian in bulk - like 100,000 gallons of it. That would be enough of for a life-time supply, right? I've tried writing letters to the company and all I get was a stupid form response saying "thank you for your interest in our product".

I am beginning to give up hope that the special wonder that was Clearly Canadian is gone forever. Until then, I'll just have to keep buying my individually packaged 14 oz bottles from the local gas station.