Jumping Jiminy crickets...

Last night with some friends, my husband and I went our for dinner to our mutually favourite restaurant, Vij's. If any one is familiar with Vij's they may know where this post is going. A little over a year ago Vikram Vij added something to the menu that caused a bit of a stir, crickets. 


I have heard that it was his wife Meeru Dhalwala that was behind this push, she wanted to introduce a dish that would utilize a local sustainable alternative protein. She points out in a June 08 article for the Vancouver Sun, that crickets are similar to prawns and lobsters sharing the distinction of arthropods.- Who knew? 


The crickets are roasted and ground into a flour that is  then used to make spicy indian styled flatbread called a paranta. The paranta is paired with a tomato-cumin chutney, and celeriac salad. The moisture and acid from the tomatoes and crisp texture of the celeriac add a nice contrast to the flakey crunch of the bread. 


The fist time I had this dish I was dining alone. It arrived with  a side of roasted crickets that stared apathetically away from me as I ate (maybe they were trying not to be noticed). I devoured the bread, ladled on the chutney and salad but couldn't get over the ick factor enough try a whole cricket.  I tried logic: I ate the bread the bread was good ergo the crickets would be good. My meal eventually ended and the crickets were still on the table. I suspect that this was the case for many diners, enjoying the bread but not wanting to look at what they were eating, so the crickets all but forgotten were left in the kitchen until requested.


Last night was the second time I ordered spicy parantha,  as it is an appetizer it makes a good sharing dish and armed with a couple of other brave souls we decided to bite the bullet and try a  whole cricket. When it arrived, it was without the tiny arthropods, if I hadn't had this dish once before I wouldn't have thought to ask about them. Without hesitation the server brought  a tiny mound of roasted crickets trapped in a ceramic dish,  my table mates and I  all looked to one another for courage. Sensing hesitation I picked out a nicely darken specimen  and popped it into my mouth. I was....surprisingly underwhelmed. It was crunchy from the roasting and slightly grassy but had no other discernible attributes.


If you like Indian styled cuisine Vij's is guaranteed to never disappoint and the spicy paranta  with or without the whole roasted crickets lives up to those expectations. 


Vij's


1480 W.11th Ave
Vancouver BC
694.736.6664


drawing by me.

A combined effort

Saturday night we still had some Pizza dough left over from the previous nights festivities. As in last week's attempt, the dough with the higher proportion of whole wheat did not rise in time for the main event- Luckily, to not disappoint my guests I knew that this was a distinct possibility, my daughter and I made a back up dough using less whole wheat flour. The "just in case" dough saved my butt and my guests not disappointed. 


But what to do with the remaining dough? After one too many glasses of wine my husband and I forgot about the dough rising in the back, it was left out over night. The next morning in a panic barely roused from bed I ran to check its progress. I was expecting the worst, a doughy gooey mess uncontainable by the bowl.  What I found was a nicely risen dough and that is when my husband and I hatched our plan. I gently punched it down and left it until later.


Ever since we got our latest and last issue of Gourmet Magazine my husband had been eyeing a particular Pizza Patate (p36)   a recipe by Jim Lahey and the author of my bread- The Revolutionary No-Work, No-Knead Method. We didn't need to use Lahey's particular dough recipe but my husband was just as eager to do the "potato pizza" part.The results were spectacular. The high whole wheat dough was perfect for this dish and due to the extra long ferment and rise, had a well developed crumb. I may even be as bold as to say that the whole wheat component may even be better suited to this dish as it gave a rich nutty flavour that was harmonious with the crispy potatoes and sweet onions; then again I will have to try a side by side.


As well as being an ideal autumn comfort meal, it is also a predominately local one. The potatoes are from one of the years last farmer's market, rosemary from our backyard and the whole wheat flour from the Urban Grains CSA.


Photo by me.

Planning

The babies requested chicken for dinner so I searched for a recipe that I thought would be appropriate - Soy Braised Chicken Thighs and off to the grocery store we went. Where we got a chicken primer from the butcher on different cuts, organic vs not, size and cooking methods. I told him what I intended to do and he talked me through it, including holding up different pieces so that the babies could choose what cuts they wanted.... Home we went with various other ingredients and they went down for a nap. They knew that we were cooking chicken for dinner and that we had picked it out so when daddy called after nap and said lets go out for dinner, I put it to the babies they responded with an emphatic "no". They were excited to cook the chook and it was already part of the plan.