Tuesday, February 1, 2011

Rebar Night


The recipes I am using for tonight’s dinner are from one of my favorite cookbooks- Rebar. Rebar is a vegetarian restaurant in Victoria. I haven’t eaten there since I was a child but now that I have discovered the Rebar cookbook I am anxious to return. The recipes I am making tonight are Buckwheat Crepes with Portobello Mushrooms, Chard and Lemon-Tarragon Cream Sauce and for dessert, Chocolate Zucchini cupcakes.

Buckwheat Crepes 

I started making the crepes last night and realized this is (as the authors warn) a dish for special occasions since there are quite a few time-consuming steps involved in making these. Luckily, tonight is a special occasion since Thomas (in just over a month, Dr. Fritz ) was invited to attend two Assistant Professorship interviews this month! Although this recipe is time-consuming, the nice thing about it is that you can do most of the preparation work the night before. Last night I caramelized the onions, marinated and roasted the mushrooms, grated the cheese and made the crepes. Everything is in the fridge and when I get home from work I’ll just have to assemble the crepes and prepare the cream sauce while they bake.

Chocolate Zucchini Cupcakes

I’m a little apprehensive about these cupcakes. I have a lot of faith in Rebar main course dishes since I have yet to try one that wasn’t delicious, but I have less faith in their desserts. This apprehension is based on my experience at a party where I was served very dry and dense chocolate cake made from the Rebar cookbook recipe. I haven’t tried any of their baked goods since this experience, which might be a bit unfair since I don't know how fresh the cake was or if the woman who baked the cake missed any steps or ingredients. I suppose tonight will be the test.

3 comments:

  1. It was an amazing dinner. I admit I was skeptical about zucchini in a chocolate muffin, but it turned out to be very yummy, and that was just the desert of a fantastic meal ;).

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  2. Thanks Thomas! But you are being too nice! I don't recommend the chocolate zucchini cupcake recipe, as I feared the muffins were a bit dense and dry. The icing did save them, although I actually cut a whole cup of icing sugar from the recipe since I was afraid the icing would be far too sweet. I know I said this would be my last attempt with Rebar sweets but Mia tells me that the Peanut Butter Squares, with milk chocolate and oats are amazing (p 214 in Rebar). And looking at the recipe I'm guessing she is right, so I may have to try one more time:)

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