The Cast-Iron Darling

Chilled Soba with Ginger-Jasmine Poached Sole

2011-06-12T20:04:00.001-04:00

I don't know about you, but it's a little hot around here these days. Also, I'm done teaching my summer class and my dissertation is starting at me. Guess that means it's time to cook something!

My old room-mate, Lea, introduced me to cold soba on a hot day. (She has a blog, too!) And it's probably been that long since I had them, since my favourite noodle book, Noodle, advocates making your own dashi and I can't be bothered. It's not that I'm not one to leap at the chance to do things "the right way" or make stuff from scratch; it's just that there's something about "high heat and humidity warning"that doesn't groove with simmering fish stock in a small apartment. But then another friend of mine opened my eyes to the fact that there is, in fact, ready-made soba dipping sauce. I don't know why this didn't cross my mind earlier.

Anyways, boring story short, I give you soba-something, loosely based on the chilled soba recipe from Noodle, with jasmine-ginger-poached sole, of my own invention, and chilled cucumber salad.

You need:

For noodles:
4 bundles of soba noodles
water to boil
soba dipping sauce (or make your own!)
3 green onions, sliced thinly

For fish:
4 fillets of sole, or other white fish
enough water to cover in a shallow pan
1 jasmine tea bag
6-8 slices of fresh ginger
1 green onion, sliced
1 tsp sesame oil

For salad:
1 large cucumber
rice vinegar
mirin
salt

1. Cook your noodles according to the package directions, then drain and rinse well, until the noodles are cool. Then chill them in the fridge to keep cool. I tossed mine with a bit of sesame oil for good measure.

2. Put all the fish ingredients except the fish in a shallow frying pan, large enough to hold all your fish without overlapping. Let this simmer for 15 minutes, to let the flavours develop.

3. Meanwhile, slice your cucumber thinly. Mix rice vinegar, mirin and salt in the bottom of a medium bowl, and adjust the amounts to taste. Then toss the cucumber in the dressing and put in the fridge to keep cool.

4. Add the fish to the simmering liquid and cook for 15 minutes, never letting the bubbles get big. When the fist flakes easily with a fork, remove it carefully.

Serve the noodles and fish separately, side by side, or stack the fish on top of the chilled noodles; your noodles won't be as cold this way, but the presentation is nicer.

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In which there is GARLIC

2011-05-10T21:57:00.000-04:00

You know when you leave something for a while and intend to come back really soon and then it's Reading Week and you go out of town and then it's finals time and you're busy with marking and exams and then when you finally get back to it it's been four months and it's May already? Yeah. That happened to me one time, too.

ANYWAYS enough about me. Let's have some food.

I swear one time I had this recipe for some kind of Italian bread stew but I looked for it tonight, because that's what I felt like eating, and all I could find were recipes for Italian bread SALAD or Italian bread SOUP and I didn't want either of those. So I just wung it. (Wung is the past tense of wing, in case you didn't know.) Actually, I'm kind of in the process of winging it right now, so if you ever see this, it means I was successful. If not, then I guess you're not reading this right now. Who knows, maybe after four months no one is reading it anyways!

If you feel like eating my made-up recipe for Italian bread STEW, then you need the following:

3 cups of cubed stale bread
1 large tin of diced tomatoes
1.5 c cooked white beans
1 diced onion
1-5 cloves of garlic, minced (I used 5 because I'm on Team Buffy)
[Optional: some diced prosciutto, which I used because it was in my freezer and I felt like it]
1 diced carrot
two bay leaves
fresh or dried basil to taste. I added about 3 TBS fresh chopped that I had frozen from the summer!
a sprig of fresh rosemary or a bit of dried rosemary
olive oil
garlic salt (if you are so inclined)
salt and pepper
some lovely minced parsley

1. Start by heating a glug of olive oil in a deep-ish pan. Sautee your onions and your prosciutto, if you're using it. Then add the garlic and cook until it's fragrant.

2. Add the rest of the ingredients (down to where it says olive oil) and cover and cook for 10 more minutes on medium and then on low for another 30 minutes.

3. In the last 10 minutes, heat some more olive oil in another pan. Toast the breadcrumbs in the olive oil, tossing with garlic salt to taste. GARLIC! I would recommend watching the breadcrumbs closely as some of mine got a bit overly toasted and had to be eaten before their time.

4. Taste the stew for seasonings and adjust if you need to. When your breadcrumbs are all toasty and garlicky, serve the stew in bowls and top with a heap of breadcrumbs! And parsley! You could even sprinkle some parmesan cheese on there if you were really feeling decadent!

VERDICT: DELICIOUS. Hence my posting of it here.

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Cheat-Loaf

2011-01-10T11:13:00.000-05:00

This loaf, despite being completely vegetarian, has all the familiar comforting taste of a genuine meatloaf, especially when you add the slightly sweet, rich, ketchupy glaze part way through the cooking. And, unlike a regular meatloaf, this one has NINE GRAMS of fiber per slice. NINE. So if your New Year's Resolutions involve eating healthier, this recipe is for you. (Even if you don't have New Year's Resolutions that involve food, sometimes it's a good idea to take a break from meat once in a while. It's cheaper, for one thing, and it's better for you and the environment.)

Part of the secret to how good, and how like a traditional meatloaf this one tastes is because of two secret ingredients. That's right, not one, but two secret ingredients. The first is steak sauce. The original recipe called for A-1 sauce, but we prefer HP so that's what I used, and lots of it. The second, very surprising, secret ingredient is finely chopped dates. I know. But they add a sweet, sticky texture that actually mimics meat surprisingly well. I wouldn't leave them out if I were you.

I'll warn you, though, that it's not as quick a meal to throw together as an actual meat-meat-loaf. If you add up the times on the page of the original recipe, even they have underestimated by at least 20 minutes by their own count. I would say allow 30 minutes for prep, but using the food-processor for everything will speed stuff up. I had to cook my rice as well as my lentils, so that also added time to the recipe, despite my renowned talent for multi-tasking.

I don't want to scare you off, though, because the results are amazing.

So! Now that I've rambled sufficiently, here is the recipe, which I've altered slightly from the original. It makes one large loaf, which we managed to cut into 9 slices. We ate the leftovers the next night and they were equally tasty.

You need:

A food processor (you will save yourself a lot of headache, trust me.)
1 cup dry brown lentils
2 medium carrots, grated or shredded
1 cup finely diced dates (I did mine in the food processor)
1 medium onion, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tablespoon cumin
2 tablespoons soy sauce
3 tablespoons HP sauce
1/2 cup ground or very finely minced pecans (did 'em in the good ole food processor)
1 1/2 cups cooked brown rice
1/2 cup dry bread crumbs
3 large eggs

Sauce for Topping Loaf:
1/2 cup ketchup
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar

First, note that you can do all your chopping in the food processor. You might as well, because you need it anyway to get the lentils the right texture, so if it's already got to be out, you may as well take advantage of it. Do the pecans first, then do the onion, celery, and carrot, and lastly the dates, because they are sticky and you want to minimize the cleaning effort.

1. Cook your lentils in plenty of boiling water for about 20 minutes, or until they're very soft but not yet mush. Drain them really well and set aside to drain more.

2. Meanwhile, sautee the onion, carrot, celery, and dates in the butter over medium high heat for 6-8 minutes, until things are getting soft (like the onions) and there isn't a lot of liquid. You should stir a lot to make sure all the liquid gets a chance to evaporate. Add the garlic, cumin, soy sauce, and HP sauce and cook for another minute.

3. Pulse the lentils in the food processor until they're smooth. Put them in a big bowl. Pulse the cooked vegetables in the food processor until they're smooth. Add them to the lentils in the big bowl. Mix all this well and make sure it's cool enough to not cook eggs.

4. Add the rest of the ingredients for the loaf to the bowl and mix well. Make a sling with tin foil and put it in the bottom of a loaf pan. Grease the bottom and sides of the pan for easy removal. Spoon in your loaf mixture and cook for 20 minutes at 375ºF.

5. While it's cooking, add the sauce ingredients to a small saucepan and cook on low for 5 minutes, until thickened. After your loaf has cooked for its 20 minutes, take it out and slather it with the sauce. Then put the loaf back in the oven for another 20 minutes.

6. Let it cool for about 10 minutes, then slice and serve as you would normally serve meatloaf! In our house, that means with lots of ketchup.

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Grandma's Ginger Crisps

2010-12-07T17:03:00.000-05:00

This is my grandma when she was around 20:

These are her cookies, which she makes every year for Christmas; every year my dad probably eats half of them. Every year I eat the other half. Not really. But I would if I had no decency. I have just enough decency.

These cookies don't have the "snap" that ginger snaps have; the cloves and cinnamon even out the ginger. The end result is a crispy, slightly chewy in the middle cookie that tastes exactly like Christmas. They are also really good on a rainy or snowy afternoon with a cup of tea, any time of the season. Now that I have acquired this highly guarded secret recipe, I can make them for snowy afternoons if I want to!

You need:

3/4 c shortening
1 c white sugar, plus a bit extra
1 egg
1/4 c molasses
2 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp ground ginger

1. Cream the shortening and 1 cup of sugar; add the egg and molasses and mix until creamy.

2. Mix the dry ingredients together and add the dry to the wet and mix until you get something that looks like cookie dough.

3. Lightly grease a couple of baking sheets, or line them with parchment paper. Make 1.5 tbs balls of dough and roll in some white sugar. Place the dough balls about 1.5" apart on the baking sheet. Press each ball down gently with a fork.

4. Bake for 10-12 minutes (watch them after 10 minutes!) in a 375ºF oven. Let cool, then devour them all and share them with no one. No no. I didn't mean that. I mean wrap them up and give them to friends and family in the spirit of the season.

Spinach and Pesto Pasta Bake

2010-11-29T20:28:00.002-05:00

Sorry I don't update that often. I'm kind of hoping to make some progress on this PhD so this semester has largely seen me staying at the library until it gets really dark outside, then coming home to desperate crock-pot experiments based wishful thinking and miscellaneous pantry items. I don't deem it appropriate nor healthy to post those because then one of you poor souls might actually try to recreate it and hold me responsible.

This one is good though. I can vouch for it -- recommend it, even. It's pretty quick to make (good if you are in the throes of PhD studies), and it has spinach in it, which not only is tasty but also makes you strong. Also cheese!

(Serves 2 hungry people or 4 not very hungry people. I guess it would serve three medium-hungry people)

3 cups dry small pasta, like macaroni
1/4 c heavy cream
2 tbs flour
2 tbs basil pesto
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup grated sharp cheese
1 medium onion in thin slices
2 cups fresh spinach, roughly chopped
2 tbs butter
1/4-1/2 c milk

1. In a cast-iron pan on medium, melt 1 tbs of the butter and saute the onions and garlic until the onions are translucent. Meanwhile, cook your pasta.

2. Turn the heat to low and add the flour to the pan and cook for a minute, then add the cream and the pesto. Stir until combined and cook for 5 minutes, until thickened.

3. Add the spinach and 1/4 c milk and cook until the spinach is wilted and everything looks nice and saucy. Season with salt and pepper.

4. Put the other tbs of butter in a small casserole dish and pour the cooked, drained pasta into it to melt the butter and coat the pasta. This not only greases the casserole, but also keeps the pasta from clumping. Then add the pasta to the pan with the spinach mixture and stir to combine. At this point, if the sauce is too thick, add the rest of the milk and adjust the salt if you need to.

5. Pour the whole shebang back into the casserole dish and top with the grated cheese. Bake in a preheated oven (375 should do it) for 10 minutes, then broil for 2 or 3 more minutes, until the cheesey top is just starting to brown. Do let it cool a bit before digging in.

Savoury French Lentil Stew

2010-10-31T22:20:00.002-04:00

I admit that this is not the prettiest dish. It wasn't a joy to photograph, let me tell you. But what it lacked in aesthetics it more than made up for in flavour!

It's also so seriously easy to make, largely because of my little friend, the slow cooker. You could also do this in a pot and it would still be really easy and probably just as tasty, too! But these days I just have so much going on that by the time I get home around 6 the thought of *starting* dinner makes me want to eat cookies. So my slow cooker is my friend right now. What strategies do you all use to cope with busy days and hot dinners?

This dish could be vegetarian really easily; I used beef stock because it added a depth of flavour and a richness, but vegetable stock would make this a perfect, hearty vegetarian meal.

You need (Serves 4):

3 quart slow cooker
1 tbs olive oil
1 cup French/Puy lentils, rinsed and picked over*
2 large carrots, cut in coins
3 medium potatoes, in large dice
1 medium onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 sprig of rosemary
1 bay leaf
4 cups beef stock or veggie stock
salt and pepper to taste

To make this in the slow cooker, put all the ingredients in the slow cooker and turn to low. Cook 8-10 hours. Done!

To make this on the stove, heat the oil in a large pot and saute the onions and the garlic until translucent. Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer until the lentils are cooked and the potatoes are soft. Done!

*Because of the long cooking time, Puy or French lentils are important because they hold their shape better than regular brown lentils, but if you don't mind mush then sub other lentils if you like.

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Chili Hand Pies

2010-10-04T17:35:00.001-04:00

Or, what to do with leftover chili!

Hand pies are great because they are tiny pies. Everything is better if it is in miniature and/or in pie-form. The hand pie is superior to the regular pie in that the pie crust-to-filling ratio is greater than the traditional pot-pie, for example. This is also a great way to take chili on a picnic or to work/school for lunch, if your life is dull like mine and you don't go on picnics. It is a no mess, no cutlery way to both transport and eat delicious chili, or for that matter, any other stew-like filling.

The pastry, the recipe for which is from here, was delicious. It held together great even with the sloppy filling and was flaky as well as flavourful.

You need:

2 1/4 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
1 teaspoon sugar
1/2 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch cubes
1 egg, slightly beaten
1/3 cup ice cold water
1.5 cups leftover chili

These instructions are from the above link; She said it so well and I followed them exactly, so here we are:

1. In a food processor fitted with the blade attachment, pulse together the flour, salt, and sugar. Add in the butter, and pulse a few times until the mixture is crumbly and resembles coarse meal. Combine the egg and water in a container (remove all ice pieces). While the processor is running, pour the water/egg mixture in and pulse until mixture just comes together.

2. Pour mixture out onto a floured board and knead a few times to bring all the ingredients together. Dough can be rolled out immediately, or it can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated for up to 2 days.

OK now back to me.

3. Roll out the dough on a lightly floured surface until it is about 18" by 22" and 1/8" thick.

4. Use a knife to cut the dough in half, then each half into thirds so you have six pieces of dough. If they aren't all perfectly square it is fine. Mine weren't all perfectly square and they baked up nicely!

5. Spoon 1/4 cup of chili or filling of your own imagination into one side of the dough, then wet the edges with dampened fingertips and fold over the empty half to cover the filled half. Using a fork, crimp the edges to seal the dough pocket. Poke holes in the top and repeat with the other five pies.

6. Place the pies on a baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes at 425ºF. If you like, brush the tops with a beaten egg prior to baking -- that is how I made mine all shiny like that.

To reheat, ideally a toaster oven would be used, but I didn't have one this afternoon at school and used a microwave; it was still delicious.

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Onion Focaccia

2010-09-19T14:29:00.001-04:00

I'm not usually a focaccia fan, but this is a focaccia to write home about. Or at least share semi-anonymously with people on the internet. I think it's usually because I find focaccia really dry and this one is not, because it has DELICIOUS ONIONS baked into it as well as the traditional olive oil and salt, which also grace the top of the bread. I think I'm on an onion kick these days, what with the caramelized onion burgers from a while back.

This recipe is from a Williams-Sonoma cookbook called Bread, which is actually really good. Probably because the recipes are by Beth Hensperger. It has basic yeast breads as well as quick breads without yeast and special breads like challah and focaccia. Every recipe I've tried so far has been great. And actually, if you are going to start making bread, this is a good recipe to start with. It's pretty straight-forward.

So here, for your enjoyment, is the recipe:

You need:

1 TBS yeast
1 TBS sugar
1.5 c warm water
1/2 c good olive oil plus some for greasing and topping
1.5 TBS table salt
4-4.5 c flour
1 medium (not gigantic) yellow onion, chopped
2 sprigs of fresh rosemary
Coarse sea salt for sprinkling

1. Proof the yeast by sprinkling it over the warm water and the sugar and let it sit for 10 minutes. It should get foamy.

2. Slowly mix in the flour, the salt, and half the olive oil a bit at a time, then mix in the onion. You should end up with a really soft shaggy dough that is slightly sticky -- you don't have to add all the flour if you don't need it but do be sure to knead the bread for at least 10 minutes.

3. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover it. Let it rise for 20 minutes.

4. Line a heavy-rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper and brush the paper with oil. Then turn out the dough onto the sheet and press it into shape with your fingers. It should be about an inch thick all the way around. Cover it with oiled plastic wrap and let it rise again for about an hour.

5. Make nice deep indentations in the bread with your fingers, almost to the bottom of the pan. Drizzle the top with the rest of the olive oil (1/4 c) and let rise again, covered, for another 30 minutes while you preheat the oven to 425ºF.

6. Sprinkle the top of the bread with sea salt and rosemary leaves and bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until the top is nicely golden. Let it cool a bit, then slice into it and devour with gusto. It's delicious when dipped in olive oil and balsamic, but it also makes a nice sandwich bread, for a change.

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Grilling Things

2010-08-24T21:26:00.000-04:00

This time, for real! Remember a long time ago I made some burgers? And remember how I complained about having to make them inside because there was snow everywhere and I couldn't get to my barbecue? Now it's summer.

It's been summer for quite some time now, actually, and we've been using the grill a lot. We've grilled the standard burgers, but we've also branched out and tried pizzas on the grill, both rather successfully if I do say so myself. So here is the first of two posts about grilling!

First, burgers. You can pretty much do burgers with anything ground - beans, beef, turkey, chicken - as long as you bind it and flavour it well. These are beef burgers, but they have a special twist - caramelized onions. The onions are mixed into the burgers themselves, not just plopped on top like an afterthought. And the onions are not just boring old normal caramelized - they are caramelized in bacon fat. Mmmmm...

For 6 burgers, you need:

1.5 lbs ground beef
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 tsp white sugar
6 slices of bacon, cut in half
1.5 cups breadcrumbs
1 egg
1 tsp powdered mustard
1 TBS Worcestershire sauce
1 TBS HP sauce
1 TBS finely minced chives
1 tsp finely minced basil
1/2 tsp cinnamon (trust me, it's good)

1. In a skillet, preferably cast iron, cook the bacon slowly over low heat until it is crispy and the fat is rendered. Remove the bacon and drain it on paper towels. Pour out all but 1 TBS of the fat and saute the onions over low with the sugar until they are golden brown and translucent - this takes a long time - like an hour - but it is worth it. Let the onions cool down until they are room temperature.

2. In a large bowl, mix all the ingredients together including the onions but not the bacon - that's for putting on your burgers later. I find your hands work best for this - just remember to take off any rings before you get all up in the beefiness. If you find that the mixture is too loose, add some more breadcrumbs.

3. With a plate at the ready, form the mixture into 6 patties. Make sure they are of even thickness so the edges don't get dry while the insides stay raw.

4. Heat up your grill and slap those patties on there. After flipping them once, you can top the patties with a couple of slices of cheese and those bacon slices you cooked a while back. Or you can brush them with barbecue sauce, or both! Top as you like - we had fresh tomatoes from the garden, lettuce, and the other customary accoutrements of burger-eating, like ketchup, mayo and mustard. There may have even been some pickles involved.

Summer Bounty

2010-08-05T23:16:00.001-04:00

This isn't a recipe at all. It is merely an opportunity to brag/blog (brlag?) about what I came home to after my lovely holiday in BC.

These are all things my boyfriend and I grew in pots on our back patio. Everything but the tomatoes and basil are from seed, which we haphazardly sprinkled over our dollar-store soil. We've got sugar snap peas, beets, tomatoes (two kinds!), basil, thyme, a lone green bean, and lovely rainbow swiss chard!

Now that we're back I can't wait to eat all the garden goodies and maybe even share some more recipes with everyone.

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Pulled "Char Siu" with Scallion Pancakes

2010-07-11T23:38:00.001-04:00

Well hello there... long time no see! Life kind of got away from me for a bit. Taught a summer course, sister moved to a different continent, tried (it's an ongoing battle) to write about my dissertation topic...

But enough about me: on to the food.

This is a slow cooker recipe. This is because it was actually three billion degrees here (five billion with the humidex) and I could not bear to turn on the stove, let alone the oven. We tried once, and it ended in tears. Tears and pizza, but tears none the less. If you don't have a slow cooker, just stick it in the oven on low for a few hours (have fun with the heat!) and it'll be fine.

These "Chinese Tacos", as they are now called in my house, have been so popular that we have made them twice in the past month -- something that doesn't happen that often, actually.

You need:
A slow cooker: mine was a wee little 1.5 litre one; 3 litres would do fine also
2 pounds of pork, the cheaper the better. Shoulder works really well.
1/4 c soy sauce
1/4 c hoisin sauce
2 tsps 5 spice powder
2 tsps minced ginger
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tsp sriracha chili sauce (optional)
1 tsp dark sesame oil

1. Put everything in the slow cooker (or covered baking dish) and stir it around so it gets all mixy. Mmmm mixy.
2. Turn the slow cooker on low for 8 hours. Go away.
3. Come back later. The pork will be all nice and shredable now. Take it out and shred it in a bowl, or shred it in the crock - your choice. If you shred it in a bowl, when it is all shreddy put it back in to soak up all the juices. YUM!
4. Serve with the scallion pancakes you find below, and maybe some Goose Island IPA you'd been saving from your trip to Chicago a while back.

Scallion Pancakes (makes 12):

3 c all purpose flour
2 tsp salt
6 green onions/scallions, white and light green parts only, finely sliced
2 tsp baking powder
2 TBS vegetable oil
1 TBS dark sesame oil
1 c water

1. Mix the dry ingredients together, except for 1 cup of the flour. Make a well in the centre and stir in the wet ingredients. Add in the scallions.

2. Knead the dough until it is smooth and elastic, about 5 minutes. Add the rest of the flour if you need it.

3. Let the dough rest for 30 minutes, covered with plastic wrap, then divide the dough into 12 pieces.

4. Form each piece into a ball, then flatten it and roll it out with a rolling pin on a lightly floured surface. Each dough piece should make an 8" circle when flat.

5. You can cook these in the frying pan with a bit of sesame oil over high heat for a minute or two on each side, but we did ours on the barbecue, because of that problem with the heat and the oven and the tears. A minute or two each side - til grilled and bubbly - worked really well.

6. Serve with the above pork recipe and the sliced green parts left over from the scallions!

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Spatchcocked Chicken: A Grotesque Step-by-Step

2010-05-13T15:21:00.001-04:00

The secret to delicious, perfectly cooked whole chicken is also a really fun word to say: Spatchcock. It either sounds like a sneeze or a foreign swear word. Or both. You do have to get a little down and dirty with your chicken, but look at the reward:

Look at all that delicious browned crispy chicken skin. Look at those roasted whole garlic cloves and red onions. Spy the roasty-toasty carrots hiding in the sides of the pan. You, too, can enjoy a roast chicken on a weeknight, and in about an hour from start to finish.

The secret is cutting out the backbone of the chicken and flattening it. This makes the chicken cook more quickly and more evenly, so you get a juicier breast without having underdone legs. That sounds like the cover of a glamour magazine. ANYWAYS. After you have spatchcocked your bird, the seasonings and accompanying vegetables are really up to you -- really, anything goes (within reason - I don't want any comments saying you tried it with chocolate sauce and marshmallow fluff and it didn't work and I'm a liar).

But if you want to make what I made, here's what you need:

One whole chicken
2 TBS olive oil
One red onion, cut into wedges
2 carrots, cut into sticks
One head of garlic, peeled but in whole cloves
1 lemon (or more if you like) cut in half
1 TBS honey
1 tsp coarse salt
Freshly ground pepper.

Your instructions and gruesome raw chicken photos are after the jump! But also some lovely roasty after shots - don't despair! Click here to keep reading.

1. Your first step is removing that chicken's backbone. It is really not very difficult and only a very little bit gross. You need a pair of moderately sharp kitchen shears for this part - if you use a knife, at your own risk. Grasp the chicken firmly with both hands... no just kidding. Kind of. Turn the chicken over so the breast side is down. Locate the backbone. This is usually smack in the middle. See where the nub is on the right hand side in this photo?

That be your backbone. So hold it with your one hand and start cutting on one side of it with the shears. You are cutting OUT the backbone, not cutting through it so be sure you are cutting to one side of the spine.

See? Holding that nub with one hand, cutting to the right of the spine with the other. Cut right through to the other end, the neck.

Your chicken is now able to open. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we need to still cut along the other side of the spine to completely remove that pesky backbone. So just cut along the other side, all the way to the end.

Ta da!

Backbone now removed, that chicken is now at your mercy. Your next step is to return the chicken to a less gruesome position where its innards are not exposed to the world like that. So flip it over. Much better.

Put the base of your hands at the top of the middle of the breast. You are about to break that chickens breast bone WITH YOUR BARE HANDS!!!!

All you have to do is give a good strong push and it will crack. This will make the chicken flat and easy to roast or barbecue.

If you are unclear about how this cutting and breaking thing works, there is a great tutorial on YouTube that I watched before attempting any of this.

Now back to the pretty part.

2. Heat the olive oil in a cast iron skillet big enough to hold your chicken - medium-high seemed to work for me. Preheat the oven to about 425ºF while the oil is heating. Put the chicken in the skillet skin-side down and brown for a few minutes - I would say about 3-4 minutes but no more.

3. Flip the chicken over so the browned skin is up and pile your vegetables around it. Brush the honey onto the browned skin and squeeze half the lemon on top. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. I may have added some thyme at this point but I can't remember. Chop up the other half of the lemon and add it to the veggies in the skillet.

4. Put the whole thing in the hot oven, uncovered, and let it roast. I think our chicken took about 40 minutes - I used a thermometer, but you can check if it's done by slicing the leg joint and seeing if the juices are clear.

Or you can just wait til it looks like this and smells like heaven:

Serve with some of the gravy in the bottom of the pan on top for a truly rewarding chicken experience.

Leftovers, including the carcass (and that backbone you cut out) can be made into other meals like pot pie, enchiladas, and your own home-made chicken stock! We got three whole meals for two plus 6 liters of stock out of this $6 chicken.

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Amazing Pita Bread

2010-05-07T18:24:00.001-04:00

I had a bit of a problem with this pita bread. The problem wasn't in the kneading or rising or baking -- it was getting it photographed. I even made another batch the very next day and still - the pieces kept disappearing before I could get a decent photo! But really, I should just take that as a sign that this is some mighty fine pita. Once again, The Fresh Loaf comes to the rescue.

I know I keep saying how all my bread recipes that I post on here are soooo easy, but they are. And this one is no exception. If you can make cookies, you can make bread. If you can play with playdough, you can make bread. It's just measuring, mixing, a wee bit of kneading, some patience, and a hot oven.

You need:

3 cups of flour
1 1/2 teaspoons of salt
1 Tablespoon of sugar or honey
2 teaspoons of yeast
1 1/4 to 1 1/2 cups water, roughly at room temperature
2 tablespoons of olive oil, vegetable oil, butter, or shortening. I used olive oil because it is delicious.

1. Mix the sugar in 1 1/4 c of the water and sprinkle the yeast on top. Let it sit for a few minutes until the yeast gets foamy.

2. Mix the flour and salt in a bowl together. When the yeast is ready, add the water-yeast-sugar mixture and the olive oil and mix. I used my KitchenAid so this was really easy. If the dough seems really dry, add the rest of the water.

3. When the dough is more or less cohesive and/or your wooden spoon revolts, start kneading. Knead for about 10 minutes then put the dough in a greased bowl and cover with plastic wrap or a clean dish towel and let it sit and rise for about 90 minutes.

4. After it has risen divide the dough into 8 even pieces and shape into balls. Let these rest another 20 minutes, again covered with something. At this point, turn on your oven to 400º and make sure your baking stone is in there, or if you don't have a baking stone, a baking pan flipped upside-down. My baking stone BROKE during a tragic Tarte-Tatin accident and I have yet to replace it.

5. After 20 minutes, lightly flour your work surface and roll out the dough into flat circles about 1/4 inch thick or a little thinner.

6. Bake them two at a time for about 3 minutes. They will get nice and puffy, making lovely pockets for you to stuff with delicious things later on.

These are great for stuffed pita sandwiches or you could try serving them with a delicious white bean dip!

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Salmon Tikka with Cucumber Yoghurt

2010-04-28T15:07:00.000-04:00

If you are looking for a way to become friends with fish, this might be a good recipe for you. If you are already a fish enthusiast, then you're in luck too. The Indian spices, though not terribly hot, are so delicious - I'm sure there is a way to do this completely from scratch but I followed directions and bought a jar of Patak's Tandoori paste - if I hadn't made my own naan bread, this would have been a very quick, less than 30 minute meal. This recipe serves two.

You need:
- 1.5 c plain yoghurt
- 1/4 c minced red onion
- 1/2 c chopped cucumber
- 1/2 tsp cumin
- 2 salmon fillets
- 3 TBS Patak's Tandoori paste
- 1 TBS oil
- 2 pieces of naan bread
- 1/4 c chopped fresh cilantro

First, prepare your yoghurt. This is a really nice, cool side that complements the spices on the fish really well. If you add some hot peppers to it, you will also get some bit. We are wimps though and don't abide by such things. Anyways, seed a half a cucumber, or a third if you have one of those giant long ones, and dice it finely. I left the skin on because I like it that way. Finely mince a about a quarter cup of red onion. Stir these, along with about a 1/2 tsp of ground cumin, into 1.5 cups of plain yoghurt. I used fat-free organic, but thick Greek style would be great too. Set this aside in the fridge.

If you are making your own naan, you want to start that well in advance, as the bread will have to rise etc. But if not, and you have purchased naan from your local Indian restaurant or from your grocery store, then you can move right on to the salmon portion of this dinner.

You need a couple of fillets of salmon - make sure the fish you are buying is sustainably fished in your part of the world. If you can't find salmon, red-fleshed trout works well too. Cut the fish into thirds lengthwise and leave the skin on. Brush the top and sides of each piece with the Tandoori paste - I used about 3 tablespoons total - maybe a little less. Don't put the brush back into the jar because you will get fishy things in your jar of paste and that is unsanitary.

At this point, bake your naan bread if you made your own, or start heating it up if you bought some. Heat up about a tablespoon of oil in a cast-iron pan, or other pan if you don't have a cast-iron one. But cast-iron is really the best. It should be on about medium or medium high depending on how hot your stove gets. Place the salmon pieces in the pan and cook for about 3 minutes on each side, until the salmon turns opaque.

Give each person a warm naan bread, dollop some of the yoghurt on it, top with the salmon, and with some chopped cilantro if you are into cilantro. If not, that is sad but not your fault. You can fold up the sides and munch on it like a taco, or use a sophisticated knife and fork. Either way, enjoy!

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Lazy Saturday

2010-04-10T15:02:00.000-04:00

If making that pasta was one of the more involved projects I've undertaken for this wee blog of mine, I think this post marks one of the simplest -- short of the soft-boiled eggs post, of course. Anyways pancakes.

I also wanted an excuse to show off my adorable plate and tea cup collection. My mom's friend Oona has these cups and I always loved them, so every Christmas and/or birthday, my mom scours eBay and antique stores for a piece for the collection and gives whatever she finds to me. I have four lunch (or pancake!) plates, about 8 tea cups and saucers, and few tiny tea plates for fancy sandwiches or cakes.

On a sunny Saturday they called out to be filled with sliced oranges, hot coffee, and steaming pancakes fresh from the pan.

Do you want to know my pancake recipe? I love this recipe because it is the perfect amount for two people. Four little pancakes each.

You need:
1/2 c flour
2 tsp wheat germ or flax (optional but healthy!)
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1 egg
1/2 c milk or butter milk
1.5 tsp plain yogurt or oil or apple sauce

You just put all the ingredients into a shaker bottle (mine was $1 from the dollar store!) and shake them up. Then just pour out a bit into a heated and lightly buttered cast-iron pan (my fav!) and you're good to go! You can obviously add whatever you like to your pancakes - blueberries, raspberries, chopped apple - but we like ours plain.

Happy Birthday, Cast-Iron Darling!

2010-03-24T12:21:00.002-04:00

That's right, my little blog is already one year old!

To celebrate, I wanted to do something special so I had my friend Jen over and we cooked up a feast! Plus, I tried my hand at something I had never attempted. It had been on my list for a while: make my own pasta. Without a pasta maker. Not because I'm a masochist; just because I don't own one. Although after reading this, it may seem like the former is also true.

I believe I followed Jamie Oliver's directions because he always seems to make things sound straightforward and tells me I don't have to worry. I halved the recipe because we were only two and the pasta was a side, not the main. We served it with a lovely braised pork butt and the carrot-celery ragout in which it cooked, and a delicious beet roesti, thanks to Mark Bittman - those recipes soon.

So!
300g flour
3 eggs

and away we go with this deceptively simple recipe! I wasn't so keen on getting my counter all eggy so I put the flour in my Kitchenaid, since Jamie says you can use a food processor and so I decided a Kitchenaid was close enough. Maybe this was my first mistake.

Actually, my first mistake was not using "Tipo 00" flour. I searched; I could not find any and I didn't feel like going all the way up to Little Italy. So I used all-purpose. Things.... did not go ideally. The dough really didn't want to stick together. It was not as straightforward as Jamie had promised! It seemed like the dough was too dry!

Finally I got it to stick together enough to attempt rolling. I hope you've been working out, because this is serious business. My arms were still sore three days later! Maybe I should do this more often... I digress. Jamie says you should roll it out until it's as thin as a CD. I was really tired so mine was more like a CD and a half. Maybe two CDs. It wasn't thin enough, anyways. But I was proud and happy and rolled up the thin dough and sliced it into thin strips and unrolled it onto the counter. Pasta! It looked like Real Pasta! I was happy.

When we cooked it up, it tasted SO GOOD. DELICIOUSLY GOOD. SO GOOD THAT TWO DAYS LATER I WANTED MORE. I still didn't have a pasta maker. I still don't, come to think of it.

This time, I went and bought some Semolina flour from the bulk store, thinking this would be nice -- isn't Semolina what Real Italians use to make pasta? This may be true, but I am not a Real Italian. I am not even a Fake Italian.

Half-way through making it, I began to think that I should not have approached the Semolina, and I really should not have tried to make pasta A SECOND TIME with only my non-buff arms to roll out the dough. Clearly home-made pasta is good, because nothing else would be able to drive me to these lengths to get it.

This time:

1 c. Semolina
1 c. all-purpose flour
pinch of salt
1 Tbs olive oil
3 eggs (I ended up using 4)

Making this pasta made me want to cry. It would not stay in a well-behaved ball. It crumbled if you even looked at it. It looked like a mound of cheese curds when at rest.

Proof: Cheese curds, or pasta dough? Impossible to tell.

I left it alone for 30 minutes and let it think about its bad behaviour. When I returned, it had repented. I squooged it into a ball and it stayed. It even allowed itself to be rolled out, with reluctance. My sister called. She was coming for dinner. She wanted to bring a friend. I eyed the take-out numbers on the fridge, made the sign of the cross, and agreed.

It looks impossible at this point that the dough will allow itself to be rolled as thin as a CD.

I don't think my wrists will ever be the same again. However difficult rolling out pasta made from regular flour was, Semolina is beyond the pale. I swore. I made promises I couldn't keep. I vowed vengeance on the pasta.

My poor, red, puffy hands.

It still took 40 minutes to roll out and cut all the pasta, and even then it was not to Jamie's requisite CD-thinness.

Two CDs are better than one, right?

I felt so proud though. The pain made me blind to beauty, as a new mother, fresh from labour, is to her mediocre newborn. My pasta was so beautiful. Perfect. Golden. Nothing could surpass it.

To accompany my beautiful pasta, I made a light sauce of toasted walnuts, minced garlic, and chopped beet greens.

About 3/4 c chopped walnuts, toasted in a dry pan over medium heat until fragrant. Move those to another dish, and heat 2-3 tbs olive oil and saute the garlic with a pinch or so of coarse salt. Add the beet stems, about a cup or more, and saute as well. At the end, throw in the chopped leaves, about 2 cups, and saute until wilted. Toss with the pasta and more olive oil and some pepper to taste.

It was very well received. The pasta was al dente in a way I had never tasted before. I guess that's the difference of having it fresh. The all-purpose flour pasta I had made the first time tasted more like the spaetzle I sometimes make; the Semolina tasted like Real Italian Pasta.

You know what, this pain-in-my-butt Semolina pasta was worth the agony. It was worth the trouble and the sore wrists and the red palms and the cursing. I would make it again in a second.

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Look up...

2010-03-11T12:19:00.001-05:00

Look waaaaaay up!* I've got a new banner! It has a little cast-iron skillet! And my name! And it's pink!

I thought it was time for a more personal look for my little corner of the internet, so my friend Megan Wolf, a graphic designer, kindly offered to design one for me!

So let's all say it together now, THANK YOU MEGAN! :D

*10 points to anyone who knows the reference.

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Peanut Butter-Chocolate Lava Pots

2010-03-09T12:54:00.000-05:00

Since that last post wasn't really a recipe so much as pretty pictures and links to techniques, here is a bonus recipe for you. It actually goes really well with the steak just posted. Actually it goes well with anything, because it is chocolate and peanut butter and it's melty and warm.

This recipe is adapted from Citrus and Candy, a site with lovely pictures and delicious recipes. The recipe there makes 10 and we are only two, so I halved it and fiddled a bit with the amounts. Note that any "leftovers" keep uncooked in the fridge at least for a couple of days and are just as nice as the ones cooked right away.

You need:
A kitchen scale (seriously - they are $12 and make you look like you mean serious buisiness)
150g chopped dark/milk chocolate. I used a combo.
80g peanut butter. I had smooth natural on hand. Don't know how it would work with the sweet kind.
10g chopped butter
3 eggs separated, yolks beaten.
100g icing sugar
50g flour

In a double boiler (so a metal bowl set atop simmering water in a pan on low) melt the chocolate with the butter and peanut butter. You could probably do this in the microwave too, but I always burn chocolate that way because it's so tricksy.

Cool the mixture and then stir in your beaten eggs. It needs to be cooled a bit because otherwise you will scramble your eggs and that is not very appetizing. If you are imptatient, you could turn your egg whites into soft peaks while you're waiting for it to cool, because you are going to have to do that anyways in the next step.

Beat your egg whites into soft peaks, and then whisk in the sugar.

GRADUALLY fold the whites into the chocolate mixture along with the flour. Pour into 4 greased ramekins and rest in the fridge for one hour.

Preheat your oven to as close to 338ºF as you can - 170ºC if you can do that. The recipe is in metric - sorry. Pop those ramekins into the oven for about 15 minutes. I had to watch mine and guess. They should look cooked on the outside but you still want them lava-like on the inside. When they start to cool, the middle should sink a bit. That's how you know they're ready to eat.

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Gold Medal Meal

2010-03-09T12:40:00.000-05:00

Technically this was our Valentine's Day dinner - we stayed at home and I cooked and M ran out to the tiny and excellent burger place on the corner to buy the best frites in the city and then we watched Alexandre Bilodeau win Canada's first gold medal on home soil at the Olympics.

Steak with shallot butter, green beans, and frites from Patati Patata

This was my first successful foray into cooking steak INSIDE. Mid-February is still winter here. (OR IT SHOULD BE!) At any rate, you can't get to a barbecue unless you are very determined and/or your barbecue is a lot closer to your back door than ours is. Also I think ours is broken. But as I discovered, inside steak is actually quite delicious - that's how they do them in restaurants, after all.

The trick is to try to replicate the serious heat a restaurant stove can kick out - a domestic stove just does not have the same kind of heat-producing capabilities. The other problem is that steak is expensive even at the grocery store. Thanks to the combination of two pieces of sage advice from two well-known stores of wisdom, YOU TOO CAN COOK DELICIOUS STEAK AT HOME. Just have one person on hand to wave a towel at the smoke detector - it gets a little smokey.

Tip number one, from The Steamy Kitchen: Salt your steak and let it sit in salt (a lot of salt - like a thick layer) for a while before you cook it. This draws moisture out of the steak so when you are cooking it, especially in a pan, it doesn't steam and get tough and nasty. This enables you to buy cheaper steaks and still have them be tender and lovely. Just rinse and dry the steak off thoroughly after it's been salted for a good amount of time.

Tip number two, from The Kitchn: Use a cast-iron pan and heat it up under the broiler until it is SCALDING scalding hot. Your broiler gets way hotter than your stove-top so use that to your advantage. Heat up the pan, then stick it on the stove on high and cook the steak in the scalding pan for thirty seconds a side. Then stick it back in the oven for two minutes.

There you go. Medium rare steak with a beautiful meaty crust on the outside and a juicy, tender centre.

I made shallot butter to serve on top, just like at a fancy restaurant! Mince a shallot finely and whip it into softened butter (not melted). Wrap the butter in saran wrap and shape into a log with your hands. Then chill until you're ready to use.

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Is it summer yet?

2010-02-15T19:51:00.001-05:00

Can I grill things outside? Can I have a burger? Please?

1. Not yet.
2. Not really.
3 & 4. Yes! Yes you may have a burger!

These are some scrumptious burgers from a truly scrumptious magazine. Did you know that the LCBO has a magazine? Did you know that you can get a subscription?* Both of these things are true. Along with some excellent drink recipes and ideas, the LCBO food magazine has some seriously tasty recipes. And gorgeous pictures to boot! This edition has a whole section on winter burgers, which was perfect because I really had a yearning for a good burger, but it is still far from grilling season.

These are anything but boring burgers. The Indian spices are a bit hit in this house, and this recipe was no exception. The chutney topping was also a nice touch. ENOUGH TALK! RECIPE!

You need (adapted from the LCBO Food&Drink Magazine):

1 large Granny Smith apple, peeled and grated.
1 small onion, minced
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 tbs curry powder
1 egg
1/2 c yogurt
1/2 tsp salt
1.5 c bread crumbs
1/3 c chopped coriander/cilantro leaves
1.5 lbs ground turkey (or chicken!)
butter and oil
some Major Grey chutney, or you can make your own
some yoghurt, to top
some sliced cucumber
some sliced red onion
naan, chapati, pita, or hamburger buns!

1. Sautee apple, onion, and garlic in 1 tbs of butter until the onions are soft and there isn't any liquid. Add the curry powder.

2. Mix egg, the 1/2 c of yoghurt, the breadcrumbs, cilantro, apple/onion mixture and the turkey with your hands! It won't kill you. It's just meat.

3. Form patties (not too thick! about 2 cm thick - I got 6 out of this batch). Heat your magical grill pan or cast iron pan with a bit of oil or butter over medium/medium low and grill/fry the patties until you get lovely grill marks (I love grill marks) and the centres are cooked through.

4. You are ready to assemble! Toast your bread product of choice and top your burger with cuke, red onion, yoghurt, and most importantly, chutney! YUM! Some spinach would also be delicious here, as the mag suggests.

*Dear LCBO: If you are reading this, and you like that I posted about your magazine and would like to say thank you, a large bottle of Forty Creek would make me really happy. Just sayin'!

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Traditional Lasagna

2010-02-04T17:09:00.001-05:00

I can't believe it's this late in the season and I only just made lasagna last week.

This is a recipe that I kind of cobbled together. The meat sauce is based on Emeril's Turkey Bolognese recipe, but I tweaked it. The bechamel is just a bechamel but I didn't used to make lasagna this way - I was formerly in the ricotta-mozzarella camp. I didn't used to like nutmeg in my savoury dishes but making Pastitsio converted me.

This recipe makes enough for 8 people to have one serving, so if you want leftovers it's good for 4 or 6. It's nice with a salad, I think. Our guests brought a lovely spinach, tomato, and boccincini salad, and we had home-made bread on the side.

So here is how you do it:

First, you make the meat sauce. You need:

1 tbs olive oil
1 large diced onion
3 finely diced carrots
2 lbs of ground meat; I used a combination of beef, veal, and pork because I am decadent, but turkey, beef, and/or chicken are great too.
2 cloves of garlic, finely minced
1 small tin of tomato paste
1/2 c dry vermouth or 3/4 c white wine
2 c chicken stock
1/2 c heavy cream
1/4 c parsley
1/4 c fresh basil, chopped or 2 tsp dried

1. Saute the meat in the oil over medium-high until it's not quite brown and broken up.

2. Add the onions and carrots and cook until the onions are soft. Add the garlic and cook until fragrant.

3. Add the vermouth and let it cook off a little, then add the tomato paste and stock. Let this all simmer for a while.

4. Then add the parsley, basil, and cream. Let this simmer away until the sauce is thickened and creamy. Adjust the seasonings if you need to. Set the pan aside and preheat your oven to 350º.

If you are using noodles that you need to boil first, do this. I use oven-ready ones, so there. Lightly grease a lasagna pan and set it ready. Now it's time to make the bechamel sauce.

You need:

4 tbs butter
4 tbs flour
2 c milk
1 tsp nutmeg

1. Melt the butter on medium low. Don't let it brown.

2. Add the flour and cook for 3-4 minutes. Gradually whisk in enough milk for a rather liquidy sauce, then gently boil it to thicken. If it is too thick, add more milk - you can always add more but you can never add less. Mix in your nutmeg at some point, too.

3. When the sauce is at the desired thickness, you are ready to assemble the lasagna. You should have at the ready:

1.5-2 c grated parmesan cheese. This is very important.

How to assemble a lasagna:

You need your bolognese sauce, your bechamel, your noodles, your greased pan, and your parmesan.

Put a layer of bolognese on the bottom of the pan. Then put a layer of noodles, followed by bechamel, followed by bolognese, followed by parmesan. Repeat these layers until you run out of space in your pan. Try to eyeball the right amounts so you don't end up skimping on anything. You need to end your layers with a bolognese-parmesan one. The parmesan will get nice and golden brown on top, which is pretty to look and and delicious to eat.

Cover loosely with tin foil and bake for 20 minutes. Then take the foil off and bake another 10. If you need to, broil for about 2 minutes at the very end to really get things nice and golden. Despite wanting to gobble the whole thing down like Garfield as soon as it comes out of the oven, it benefits from a "cooling off period" - this will enable you to not burn yourself on the one hand, and on the other hand, to remove slices of lasagna without them looking sloppy and shapeless.

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Fish Tacos

2010-01-26T10:04:00.006-05:00

I have reclaimed Mondays for the living. Everyone hates a Monday - even if you don't have an actual Monday to hate, you have to start back to work after a break at some point. No one is immune from Monday... UNTIL NOW.

Actually it's pretty simple. I plan something fun for Mondays. Usually my friend Emily and I go out for a cocktail and catch up. Last night my sister had just returned from out of town so we had family dinner. And because she is always raving about how awesome fish tacos are, and because I had never even tried them let alone made them, I decided that was what was on the menu.

Now as far as a Monday-night dinner party goes, the menu is pretty do-able. There is a fair amount of chopping and slicing but there's not a whole lot of actual cooking. Even with the Mexican chocolate cake I added, the whole thing took less than an hour from start to finish. Not including eating, of course. I can't guarantee that your Monday night dinner guests won't be so enamoured of you that they won't stay until midnight!

Fish Tacos (serves 4 or 5)

1 lb of white flaky fish.*

1/4 c canola oil

1 Tbs chili powder

1 tsp cumin

1/4 c diced cilantro leaves

the juice of 1 lime

8 tortillas, flour or corn

sour cream or plain yoghurt

cilantro leaves

sliced green onions

sliced red onions

shaved red cabbage

sliced avocado

lime wedges

lettuce

minced fresh hot peppers

salsa

1. In a baking dish, mix the lime juice, cumin, chili powder, oil, and 1/4 c cilantro leaves. Add the fish on top. Cover and refrigerate 20 minutes, flipping the fish over part way. If you have time to marinate it longer, feel free!

2. Meanwhile, do all your chopping. Put the toppings in little bowls on the table so your guests can top their own. Make sure you have a Simon to slice the avocado. Simons are avocado experts!

3. When everyone has a beer or a glass of wine, get that fish on the grill pan. Heat it up nice and hot, but not too hot - about medium-high - and grill for about 4 minutes a side or until it's cooked through and there are lovely grill marks.

4. While you're doing this, have your sister heat up the tortillas. Some people might use the conventional "damp towel in the oven" method, but we prefer to live on the wild side so she used the element on medium-low. We also got some lovely grill marks on the tortillas.

5. And you're done! Pile your tacos high and enjoy! Or stay tuned for spicy chocolate cake.

"Mexican" Chocolate Cake

This is actually a very VERY easy cake. It is so easy that after you make it a few times you will ha ve it memorized. That easy. It's from the Moosewood cookbook and it is in fact VEGAN although no one will be able to tell. It is moist and fluffy and delicious, and very adaptable, as we shall see.

You need:

1.5 c flour

1/3 c cocoa powder

1 teaspoon baking soda
½ teaspoon salt

1.5 tsp chili powder

1 Tbs cinnamon

1/2 tsp cumin

1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 cup sugar
½ cup vegetable oil
1 cup cold water

1 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons vinegar of some sort

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl, having preheated your oven to 350ºF. I did this while the fish was marinating and before I sliced and diced my veggies.

2. Add all the wet ingredients EXCEPT the vinegar and mix.

3. Making sure you have a greased cake pan at the ready, quickly fold in the vinegar. Pour directly and immediately into the greased cake pan and stick it in the oven for 30 minutes.

BAM. Easiest cake ever. We served ours with caramel sauce from a jar (!!!) but vanilla ice cream etc would be lovely. If you double the vanilla and leave out the spices, you will have a plain but equally delicious normal chocolate cake.

*Hey! If you are choosing fish for this recipe, DON'T USE COD. They are almost gone. And while you're at it, take a look at this list and see if you can find something sustainable. Thanks! :)

Beef Stew and Dumplings

2010-01-15T13:46:00.002-05:00

It's cold. Well, today it's not, but it has been. And I have a sneaking suspicion that it will be cold again soon. Here, then, to stick to your ribs and keep you cozy, is my own very very favourite recipe for beef stew, with my mom's awesome dumpling recipe.

You need:

Beef stew meat, in cubes. I guess about a pound or so?
1 tbs oil
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large chopped onion
1 bottle of yummy stout. We like St Ambroise Oatmeal Stout. Do yourself a favour and pick up a six pack - that way you won't feel left out when the stew gets a bottle.
2 c beef stock, if needed.
2 carrots, cut into "coins"
a few potatoes, cut into chunks
a small turnip or two, peeled and in chunks
1 celery stalk, diced
2 bay leaves
1-2 c frozen peas, depending on how much you like peas.

As you can see, this is a fairly vague and therefore forgiving recipe. It really doesn't matter (within reason, of course) how much of everything you put in, or if you leave somethings out. It will still be a delicious combination of meat and vegetables.

First, brown the beef over high heat in the oil. Add the onions, garlic, and celery and cook until the onions are translucent.

Add the beer and deglaze the pan. Add half the beef stock, and simmer for about half an hour. Toss in the bay leaves, too. Then add the carrots, potatoes, and turnips and add enough beef stock to just cover everything.

Let this all simmer for another 30 minutes, until all the veg is tender. Add the frozen peas now.

At this point, you are ready to make your dumplings.

For the delicious fluffy dumplings, you need:

1 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs oil
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 c (or a bit more) milk

Mix all the dry ingredients together, then add the milk and oil. Stir until just combined - no more, or you will have tough dumplings and those are no fun.

Drop by the tablespoonful to the boiling stew, then reduce the heat and cover. They'll be done in 12-15 minutes, and so will your stew! If, at this point, you find the stew too liquidy, you can thicken the gravy by adding a tablespoon of flour dissolved in some water, or some Veloutine or instant flour.

Serve with a bottle of the St Ambroise stout!

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NEW AND IMPROVED!

2010-01-05T16:26:00.004-05:00

Stop what you are doing right now and listen up: I HAVE PERFECTED MY SEEDY BREAD RECIPE. I know you all thought it was perfect before, but you didn't know that it could be made perfecter. Now you know!

The secret is buttermilk! This is officially my new favourite bread. It is just as soft as bought bread and sooo much tastier. And cheaper! And better for you! Buttermilk, contrary to what I thought until yesterday, is not fatty milk. It's milk with good bacteria in it! It tastes kind of like plain yoghurt. Who'd-a-thunk-it. Anyways, it makes a pretty delish loaf of bread. Apparently you can also use it in salad dressings.

So now that you have stopped what you were doing before, it's time to get out your flour, because you are making this bread right now. You will thank me.

You need:

5-6c all purpose flour
2 c Red River or Sunny Boy or equivalent cereal*
3 c buttermilk
4.5 tsp yeast
1/4 c sugar or honey or some combo of the two
1 Tbs salt
2/3 c water

Ok so the night before, mix up the buttermilk and the cereal and stick it in the fridge with plastic wrap over it.

Next morning, or afternoon, or whenever you happen to remember about it, take it out and warm it up in the microwave so it's baby-bottle temperature. While you're at it, get your 2/3 c water at about that temperature, too. Mix the sugar/honey with the water and add the yeast to it.

Put the cereal mush in a large bowl, unless you used a really large bowl to start, and start adding your flour a cup at a time. When you've added 2 cups, add the sugar/yeast mix and continue to add your flour until you can't mix it any more and it's time to knead.

Knead in the rest of the flour until you have a really soft elastic dough. It shouldn't be sticky, but it shouldn't be dry either. Err on the side of less flour - I used 5 cups.

Let the dough rise, covered, for 2 hours in a warm-ish place. Then shape it into two loaves and stick those in two greased loaf pans to rise again for another hour. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to 400ºF.

Bake them for 30 minutes, or until the bottoms sound hollow when you tap them and the tops are brown. Resist slicing open right away - make sure you wait until they have cooled!

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* If you can't find these cereals, use a combo of whole flax seeds, wheat bran, and cracked wheat - that should do the trick. These cereals are both made up of a mix of flax, rye, and wheat so use your imaginations!

Melting Shortbread

2010-01-02T02:19:00.003-05:00

Hello blog! I had a lovely holiday! I made lots of cookies and ate lots of yummy things and I took photos, too. First up is shortbread. I have been trying to come close to my Nana's shortbread for a few years - it was magically melty and somehow she managed never to let it brown.

My mom got her hands on an old collection of recipes from the olden days. It is a thick wad of loose pages clipped together and well-thumbed by many ladies. It has a bunch of shortbread recipes, all with the names of the women who made them famous attached. I have been working my way through them each Christmas. This year, while I don't think I have exactly replicated Nana's recipe, I found one that I think I am happy with - it has a good balance of flakiness and firmness and I managed to bake them at a low enough temperature that none of them got the least bit brown. Also nobody in my family seemed to be able to stop eating them - I ended up making three batches in a week!

So here you go: the recipe.

You need:

3 c flour
1/2 c cornstarch
1 c icing sugar
2 c (1 pound) room-temperature butter.

1. Cream together the butter and the sugar. I used my (clean and scrubbed) hands to do this - you can use your hands for the whole recipe - fewer dishes and more likely to closely resemble the methods of Mrs. Periwinkle of 1915 Saskatoon, right?

2. Add the flour and cornstarch and mix until the mixture is crumbly and fluffy.

3. Press the dough into an ungreased, rimmed baking sheet. This recipe fills half a 18 by 13 inch jelly roll pan so you could do a double recipe or use a smaller pan, which I didn't have. Prick the dough deeply with a fork all over.

4. Bake for an hour and twenty minutes (about) at 270ºF - I put the timer on for 20 minutes at a time and checked them. Don't let them start to brown or turn golden around the edges!

5. Use a pizza cutter or a really sharp knife to slice the cookies into fingers and let cool. The serve them up! They were very popular with Santa this year. :)

Best-Ever Banana Bread

2009-12-15T11:24:00.003-05:00

I'm serious. This actually is the best banana bread you will ever taste. Whichever minion of Martha's came up with it deserves a nice firm handshake and a cigar. Or something. Anyways, this is the moistest (moistest?) banana bread you will taste. It keeps really well, although I don't think you'll have to worry about that.

Martha's original recipe calls for sour cream - this is the only thing I changed. I don't keep sour cream in the house usually, so I always make this bread with plain yogurt - fat free, even! It always turns out AWESOME. If you have sour cream to get rid of, feel free to use it instead of the yogurt in the recipe below. You can also add 1/2 c chopped nuts in at the end if you feel the urge.

You need:

1/2 c butter, softened, plus some for your loaf pan
1 c white sugar
2 large eggs
1 1/2 c flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
2-3 very very ripe bananas, mashed thoroughly
1/2 c plain yogurt
1 tsp vanilla

1. Preheat your oven to 350ºF and butter a 9×5×3" loaf pan. Preparation is important! :)

2. Cream the butter and sugar until it's light and fluffy, then beat in your eggs. I used my KitchenAid for this; you can use a hand mixer or even your own arms plus wooden spoon!

3. In a different bowl, mix your dry ingredients, except the nuts, if you're using them. Add the dry mixture to the butter mixture and combine gently. Then add your bananas, the yogurt, and the vanilla. After you have mixed all this in, you can add your nuts. Or chocolate chips, for that matter.

4. Pour the batter into the greased loaf pan and bake for about an hour and ten minutes. A toothpick or knife should come out clean when it's done. After it cools in the pan for about 15 minutes, you can cool it on a rack, or just eat it. Warm banana bread is the best - that way if you put butter on it (mmmmm) it gets all melty (see below). :)

Beer-drinking Pretzels

2009-12-02T20:21:00.004-05:00

Salty, poofy, chewy, and delicious.

These are amazing dipped in mustard. And even better with a nice cold pint.

I found the recipe somewhere on a Fresh Loaf thread somewhere, but the direct link is here. These are super easy, so if you've been reluctant to approach yeast before, here is a good opportunity.

You need:

1 tbs yeast
1 1/4 c warm water
1/4 c brown sugar
4 c flour

coarse salt
melted butter (about 3 tbs)
1/2 c baking soda dissolved in 3 c water at a simmer

1. Dissolve the sugar in the warm water and add the yeast to proof it. The yeast should get foamy after about 5 minutes.

2. Add the flour and mix it gently. The dough should be sticky but well combined. Don't over-knead it or you'll get tough pretzels.

3. Let the dough rise in a covered, oiled bowl for about 20-30 minutes depending on how warm your house is.

4. Divide the dough into 10 equal pieces and shape into long ropes about 1" in diameter. Shape these into pretzel shapes and prepare some greased baking trays. Dip each pretzel into the water-baking soda mixture and submerge for about 20 seconds. Then place each onto the tray.

5. Bake at 450ºF for about 5 minutes or until the pretzels are golden and smell like heaven. Remove from the oven, brush with butter, and sprinkle with coarse salt. TRY to wait as long as you can before chowing down on them, but they are really really good warm.

I also think this would be a fun baking activity to involve kids in if you happen to have any around! Kids are really good at making dough ropes. :)

Spanish Tortilla

2009-11-25T20:54:00.005-05:00

When I was in Spain this summer I ate a lot of tortillas. They were our go-to when we were sick of fish in Cabo de Palos (didn't happen to me, but to other members of my family), when we didn't feel like eating heavy meat in Madrid, or when we wanted something to nosh on between lunch and dinner while drinking a lovely Alhambra beer. And now that winter is rapidly approaching, I think about sunny Spain a lot. Like, a REAL WHOLE LOT.

While I was in Spain I bought a Spanish cookbook, but I hadn't made use of it (other than looking through it and reminiscing) until tonight. A tortilla is a perfect light dinner and it only uses pantry staples so you don't have to go out to buy anything fancy. And, if you're like me, you will get to think about lying on beautiful beaches like this one while eating it:

Here's what you need:

1 kg potatoes (about 7 small ones), thinly (THINLY) sliced (don't bother peeling them)
2 medium onions, thinly sliced
8 eggs (I made mine with 6 but 8 would have been yummier)
plenty of olive oil and salt and pepper.

1. Heat about 4-5 tbs of olive oil in a cast-iron frying pan over medium-high. When the oil is hot but not smoking (that's too hot), throw in your potatoes and brown them for 5 minutes.

2. After 5 minutes, add the onions and reduce the heat. You want to cook the potatoes through without burning them. It might take up to 30 minutes. The potatoes should be soft.

3. Meanwhile, beat your eggs with a whisk. When the potatoes are cooked, let them cook in a strainer for a while (you get rid of a bit of oil that way, too) and then mix them in with the egg. Add a fair bit of salt and pepper.

4. With the cast-iron pan still on low, pour in the egg and potato mixture. There should still be oil coating the pan from when you were cooking the potatoes. Let the tortilla cook SLOWLY. You need to cook it until egg is almost entirely cooked through without the bottom burning. DO NOT STIR THE EGGS but DO curve over the edges of the tortilla with a spatula so that the edges end up rounded.

5. When it is just about cooked through so that there are almost no runny bits on top - now this is a bit tricky - take a place and place it on top of the pan. You are going to flip that tortilla. So, holding the plate steady on the pan with one hand, flip the tortilla out of the pan and onto the plate. Then slide it carefully back into the hot pan but on the other side. Got it?

6. Let the tortilla brown on that side, then slice and serve! You can add variations - zucchini, ham, cheese - but the potato version is classic. It's pretty tasty as cold leftovers too - they serve it cold in Spain.

Yorkshire Pudding!

2009-11-15T17:23:00.007-05:00

oh yeah, and roast beef, too. And gravy, and peas, and roasted carrots, and garlic mashed potatoes. But most importantly, YORKSHIRE PUDDING.

This was my first attempt at this grand and most favourite meal. I did overcook the meat, which I think is a common issue, but it was still so so tasty. I am currently enjoying cold roast beef sandwiches with mustard.

SO: Roast beef. I bought a "French Roast" for $7/kg. I made deep slits in the meat and inserted slivers of garlic into it. I guess I used about four cloves of garlic. I seasoned the outside with salt and pepper, and seared the outside in hot oil in a cast iron pan until the outside was browned.

Then I put it on a rack in a roasting pan surrounded by carrots and onions and tented it with foil. It went in the oven at 350 until my thermometer read 145 - according to everything I've read, that would have been medium-rare, but I guess next time I'll take it out sooner as it was closer to well-done.

While the meat was cooking, I chopped up a bunch of potatoes and threw them in a big pot of water with 6 or 7 whole garlic cloves. When the potatoes were soft, I drained them and mashed the potatoes and the garlic cloves with lots of butter, milk, garlic salt, and some ricotta cheese for creaminess. I kept the potato water to make gravy later.

The Yorkshire pudding recipe I got from Gordon Ramsay via Serious Eats. I had seen Gordon Ramsay lecture people about proper Yorkshire puddings so I figured he was the guy to go to for instructions on this matter.

So I stirred together a cup of flour with 1/2 tsp of salt and added 4 eggs and (in two goes) 1 1/4 c milk. I beat the mixture until it was smooth and then I just let it sit on the counter until it was ready.

About 15 minutes before I thought the roast would be ready, I turned up the temperature of the oven to 450 and poured 1 tsp of canola oil into each hole of a 12-hole muffin tray and preheated the oil in the tray. Then I divided the batter between the muffin holes - it should sizzle in the hot oil when you add it - and then stuck the tray back in the oven until the puddings are brown and puffy. I had taken out the roast by this time, of course.

While the roast is resting and the puddings are baking, you can cook your peas and make your gravy out of the drippings from the roast and your potato water.

Serve the puddings in a basket lined with paper towels, because they are a little greasy. But they are the perfect compliment to a roast dinner and go amazingly well with gravy.

Soupe à l'Oignon Gratinée

2009-11-11T20:17:00.003-05:00

... also known as French Onion Soup.

I've been making this for years, but kind of according to my own recipe, which was good. But tonight I took a look at Julia Child's, and I have to say she totally kicked my ass. I'm really not surprised though - the woman did write a few cookbooks, after all.

I used to use red wine to fill out the broth. Julia's uses vermouth and brandy - a distinct improvement. However, it did mean that I was stuck with some "superfluous" red wine. On a Wednesday, no less! :)

You need:

5 c thinly sliced yellow onions
3 tbs butter (oh Julia... )
1 tbs oil
1 tsp salt
1/4 tsp sugar
3 tbs flour
2 litres beef stock
1/2 c dry white vermouth or white wine
pepper to taste
3 tbs cognac
rounds of hard-toasted French bread
1.5 c grated Swiss or Parmesan cheese (I used cheddar but Julia says Swiss is best)

1. Melt the butter and oil over low heat (seriously - low) and sautee the onions for 15 minutes. They should get nice and translucent.

2. Raise the heat to moderate and stir in the salt and sugar. Cook for 30-40 minutes until the onions are nice and golden brown. This adds depth to the soup. YUM.

3. Add the flour and cook for 3 minutes. Then add the hot beef stock and vermouth while the pot is off the heat. Then simmer the soup for 40 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, toast your baguette slices. When the soup is done simmering, stir in the cognac (I used brandy).

5. Pour the soup into French Onion Soup bowls (I got mine for 99¢ at the Salvation Army!) or oven-proof individual bowls. Stir a bit of cheese into the soup. Float the toasted bread on top and top with more cheese. Julia says you're also supposed to stir grated raw onion into the soup but I opted not to do this. Still delicious!

6. Bake the soup in a preheated oven at 325º for 20 minutes, then broil for a few minutes until the melted cheese browns.

7. Let the hot soup sit a few minutes and enjoy!

Italian Wedding Soup

2009-11-02T19:26:00.003-05:00

You may have noticed that things are getting a little cozier around here - soups, pies, breads - they're going to get cozier, too! Winter is a-comin'! That's where this hearty meatball soup comes in. Usually, Italian wedding soup is made with small pasta, but I decided to use barley instead. It's a bit heartier than pasta and it's what I had on hand! It turned out really nicely - barley added a great texture to the soup.

You need:

1 tbs olive oil
1 medium onion, finely diced
1 stalk of celery, finely diced
1 carrot, finely diced
2/3 c pot barley
8 c chicken stock
3 c fresh baby spinach, roughly chopped
20 home-made or store bought chicken or turkey meatballs

1. First, saute your onion, celery, and carrot in the olive oil. When the onions are translucent, add the stock and the barley and bring to a boil. Leave it at a vigorous simmer for 30 minutes or so - until the barley is cooked.

2. Add the meatballs and the spinach and boil until the meatballs are cooked (if you used fresh/raw) and the spinach is wilted.

Serve with yummy 60-minute dinner rolls: YES they only take 60 minutes!! AND they are fluffy and delicious! It's like magic. :)

I opted for a half recipe so what you see here makes 12 rolls, not 24 as in the original recipe. I'm sure this will work without a kitchenaid, but it's what I have!

You need:

1/4 c. milk
2 tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
1.5 tbs butter
3 1/3 tsp yeast
3/4 c lukewarm water
3 c flour

1. Melt the butter, milk, sugar, and salt in the microwave. Stir to make sure they are all dissolved.

2. In the bowl of your mixer, dissolve the yeast in the warm water. Then add the milk mixture to it and stir.

3. Add the flour a bit at a time, mixing all the while, until all the flour is added. Knead until you get a sticky but cohesive dough ball.

4. Let the dough rise for 15 minutes in an oiled covered bowl.

5. Shape the rolls into 12 portions and place in an oiled baking pan - 9 X 13 worked for me but muffin tins do the trick too. Let rise another 15 minutes.

6. Bake in a preheated oven at 425ºF for 12 minutes. The rolls should be deliciously golden at this point.

Yet another loaf!

2009-10-26T17:45:00.007-04:00

My usual, go-to bread is the french loaf, but I like to play around with different breads. My goal is to find a brown bread recipe that is just as soft and cushy as the bought loaves but without all those scary cushy-making chemicals.

I made this 100% whole wheat loaf a while ago, but it wasn't quite right - 100% whole wheat is a little intense for me. But neither was I interested in the 100% white loaf on which it was based. So I came to a delicious compromise:

2 c warm water
2/3 c sugar (yes it is a lot)
1.5 tbs yeast
1.5 tsp salt
1/4 c oil
3 c white flour
1 c oats
1 3/4 c wheat flour
1/4 c vital wheat gluten.

1. In a small bowl, mix water, sugar, and yeast together. Let the yeast foam - about 5 minutes.

2. In a large bowl, or the bowl of your mixer, mix all the flours and the salt and the oats.

3. Add the yeast mixture and the oil to the flour mixture and mix until combined. Then knead it until you get a cohesive dough that is smooth but not tough.

4. Let the dough rise, in a covered, greased bowl, for about an hour - until the dough has doubled.

5. Shape it into 2 loaves and let rest for about 30 minutes, or until the dough rises 1" above the greased loaf pans you put it into.

6. Bake at 350º for 30 minutes. Remember to let it cool before cutting! The gluten is still developing. :)

This loaf is as soft as store-bought but you can pronounce all the ingredients. It's really great for sandwiches and does really well in the toaster. It's slightly sweet tasting, so if you're not into that, you could omit some of the sugar, but if you don't add enough you won't get the squishy texture I was going for.

Chicken Pot Pie

2009-10-19T21:59:00.005-04:00

It's the season for savoury pies again! Get excited! Here to inaugurate the season is chicken pot pie.

This can be made really easily with left-over chicken or turkey - it might even be better that way - so it's a tried-and-true way to get rid of thanksgiving leftovers. Also, you can either make your own or buy your own pie crust, or you can buy puff pastry from the freezer of your grocery! Any way you choose to do it, pot pie is delish. :)

You need:

250-280g (or more) chicken/turkey meat (thigh is more flavourful; breast is lower in fat - a mix is nice!)
1 small onion, diced (if you don't use the leek, get a bigger onion)
1 medium leek (optional), diced
2 carrots, diced
3 medium potatoes (yukon gold are yummy!), diced
2 stalks of celery, diced
3 bay leaves
2 tbs butter
about 4 c chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
1/2 package frozen puff pastry, or enough pie dough to cover the top of a 9 x 13 casserole
2 tbs flour mixed in water

1. Melt the butter in a large stock pot over medium-high heat. If your chicken is raw, cube it and add it now and brown. Add onions, celery, carrot, and leek and saute until the onions are translucent.

2. Add the potatoes, bay leaves, and enough chicken stock to just cover everything (and your left-over chicken, if that's what you decided to use) and boil until the potatoes are just about cooked through. Season with salt and pepper, and thicken with flour if you need it. There should be a nice gravy.

3. Pour the chicken mixture into your baking dish. Roll out the puff pastry according to the package directions and put it on top of the dish; or roll out your pie crust according to your personal whims. :)

4. Bake in a preheated oven at 450ºF for 20 minutes, or until the crust is golden and puffy. Allow the pie to cool for 10 minutes, because otherwise you will burn your mouth.

DIG IN! I hope you have a nice crackling wood fire to curl up to while you dine. :)

Pho! A Daring Kitchen Challenge

2009-10-14T11:15:00.006-04:00

I had never ever before yesterday, as far as I know, had pho. And yesterday, I made my own! This was, as the title of this post implies, the October challenge for The Daring Kitchen, hosted by Jaden of the Steamy Kitchen.

Here's the challenge recipe:

For the Chicken Pho Broth:
2 tbsp. whole coriander seeds
4 whole cloves
2 whole star anise
2 quarts (2 liters/8 cups/64 fluid ounces) store-bought or homemade chicken stock
1 whole chicken breast (bone in or boneless)
½ onion
1 3-inch (7.5 cm) chunk of ginger, sliced and smashed with side of knife
1 to 2 tbsps. sugar
1 to 2 tbsps. fish sauce

1 lb. (500 grams/16 ounces) dried rice noodles (about ¼ inch/6 mm wide)

Accompaniments:

2 cups (200 grams/7 ounces) bean sprouts, washed and tails pinched off
Fresh cilantro (coriander) tops (leaves and tender stems)
½ cup (50 grams/approx. 2 ounces) shaved red onions
½ lime, cut into 4 wedges
Sriracha chili sauce
Hoisin sauce
Sliced fresh chili peppers of your choice

Directions:

To make the Chicken Pho Broth: heat a frying pan over medium heat. Add the coriander seeds, cloves and star anise and toast until fragrant, about 3-4 minutes. Immediately spoon out the spices to avoid burning.
In a large pot, add all the ingredients (including the toasted spices) and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat to medium-low and let simmer for 20 minutes, skimming the surface frequently.
Use tongs to remove the chicken breasts and shred the meat with your fingers, discarding the bone if you have used bone-in breasts.
Taste the broth and add more fish sauce or sugar, if needed. Strain the broth and discard the solids.
Prepare the noodles as per directions on the package.
Ladle the broth into bowls. Then divide the shredded chicken breast and the soft noodles evenly into each bowl.
Have the accompaniments spread out on the table. Each person can customize their own bowl with these ingredients.

Toasting the spices and the additional step of charring the ginger, which isn't in these instructions but can be found at Jaden's blog here, really brought out some amazing flavours. The soup was incredibly rich, even though I cheated and used bought-stock rather than my store of home-made.

I was nervous about cooking this because of all the toasting and charring, but actually, the whole thing didn't take very long, and it ended up being yet another recipe from The Daring Kitchen that will make it into the regular rotation. Adding a dollop of hoisin and some sriracha after it was all assembled really made the dish, as did the squeeze of lime juice. I just wish I had a bigger soup bowl!

Brown Sauce Noodles

2009-10-07T16:00:00.003-04:00

This recipe comes from a book I picked up years ago in the $10 bin at a bookstore. It's called Noodle, which is amusing to me, but it has paid for itself many times over in terms of how yummy these recipes are. One of the ones we come back to over and over again is this recipe for Brown Sauce noodles, which the book says is a translation of "Zha jiang mian."

The author of the book makes a silly joke about how the fight over who invented pasta extends now to who invented bolognese sauce, but he's on to something. The taste is anything but Italian, but the comfort and rich flavours are both there.

You need:

4 tbsp ground bean sauce*
1 tbs hoisin sauce
1/2 c chicken stock
1/2 tsp sugar
2 tbs canola oil
5 spring onions, white part, chopped
1 tbs minced garlic
500g ground turkey**
400g fresh Shanghai noodles***
1 cucumber, cut into long matchsticks
2 spring onions, green part, finely sliced****
1 c fresh bean sprouts, blanched

* The recipe actually calls for brown bean sauce, but I've never been able to find it and now I've stopped looking because ground bean sauce is really really delicious.

** The recipe actually calls for pork, but I usually use turkey just because.

*** Shanghai noodles are sold fresh in Asian grocery stores. They are thicker than spaghetti - more like udon but not quite the same.

**** If you don't want to slice the onions, because it is a pain, I assure you that you can still make the dish pretty with chopped green onion and it will taste identical. It's good practice for knife skills, though!

So here's what you do.

1. In a small bowl, mix the sauces, stock, and sugar.

2. Heat the oil in a non-stick pan and fry the spring onion (white parts) and the garlic for 20 seconds. Then add the turkey and stir until it browns. When the meat is cooked, add the sauce mixture and simmer on a lower heat for 5 minutes.

3. Meanwhile, cook your noodles in boiling water for 4-5 minutes. Drain and place in bowls.

4. Spoon sauce over noodles, then add a sheaf of cucumber strips, green onion strips, and bean sprouts. Enjoy!

Ginger Tofu Steaks

2009-09-23T11:58:00.004-04:00

Yes that's right - tofu. Don't knock it - it's the best flavour absorber out there!

This is my friend Leila's recipe that she handed down to me years ago. It's excellent and I urge you to try it. Not only will you like it a lot, you will also feel very pleased with yourself for eating healthy and yummy things for dinner. Or lunch!

Ginger Tofu Steaks

You need:

2 large garlic cloves, minced
1.5" knob of ginger, minced
1/2 tsp red pepper flakes
2 tbs sesame oil
4 tbs brown sugar
3 tbs soy sauce
1 package of firm or silken extra-firm tofu

1. In a small bowl, mix together all the ingredients but the tofu.

2. Drain the tofu and slice into 1/2" steaks. Lay them on a rimmed baking sheet and pierce with a fork.

3. Cover with the marinade and leave until you're ready to use, refrigerated - at least 30 minutes but longer is better!

4. Grill in a grill pan or bake at 350ºF for 15 minutes, or until the edges are golden. Basting with the sauce is a good idea.

I served this with soba noodles and steamed broccoli and a bit of soy sauce and mirin mixed together for extra sauciness.

Devil's Food Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting

2009-09-20T17:33:00.002-04:00

Before yesterday I had never made any type of caramel at all. This was a serious adventure for me and it turned out really really well! I got a cake at the end of it! :)

No, those are not shards of amber-coloured glass on top - those are shards of delicious crystal-clear caramel! It took me three tries to get it right, but I can now make caramel and I will tell you my story.

So there are three components to this cake. First, the cake itself. Then the salted-caramel frosting. And finally, the caramel shards on top. The cake recipe is from The Better Homes and Gardens Cookbook. I go there for my cake recipes because it is the high-end version of the church-ladies-auxiliary cookbook. When you want a good cake recipe, you trust Aunt Myrtle's Prize-Winning such and so to point you in the right direction.

From page 157 of my version, we read that we need:

3 eggs
2 1/4 c all-purpose flour
1/2 c unsweetend cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 c shortening (I used butter and nothing bad happened to me!)
1 3/4 c granulated sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 1/3 c cold water

1. First, take the eggs out of the fridge (duh) and let them come to room temperature for about 30 minutes. The book says this makes them fluff better. While you're waiting, grease and flour 2 round cake pans. I "floured" mine with cocoa powder because this is a chocolate cake.

2. In a medium bowl, stir the flour, cocoa, baking soda, and salt together. In a large mixing bowl, beat the shortening/butter with a hand mixer for about 30 seconds, then add the sugar and vanilla and beat well.

3. Add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each one. Then, add the flour mixture and the water alternately (so a bit at a time) and mix to combine after each addition.

4. Pour the batter into your pans and bake at 350º for about 30 minutes, until a knife comes out clean.

5. LET THE CAKES COOL ALL THE WAY BEFORE REMOVING THEM FROM THE PANS. Otherwise your cake will crumble and crack and you will be sad. When you've removed them from the pans, let them cool even more before frosting them.

OK now for the frosting. In Canada we call this icing. But whatever. I got my recipe from the website Offbeat Eating and so I direct you there for that.The only thing I changed was that I added more salt because it just didn't seem salty enough. But just taste it and judge for yourself. As s/he says, before you add the icing sugar, it should taste very strongly of caramel and be a bit too salty. Remember that the icing sugar will even out the salt flavour. Also, if I made this again (and I will!) I would use coarse salt instead of fine salt, so that each little salty surprise is wrapped up in the surrounding sweet icing. The icing went down very well - people loved it!

OK the last thing is the scariest part: making hard clear caramel. This took me three tries to get right and I just have to say it is a good thing that sugar is cheap. I have a book just on caramel and in that book it says there are two ways to make caramel - the authentic way, and the cheats way. As usual, I prefer the cheats way, and so I dissolved my sugar in a bit of water before heating it.

Here's what you do: First, get a piece of parchment paper and lay it flat on a baking sheet. Get a deep-sided pan that your pot will fit in and fill it half way with ice water. Then, in a cool pot, combine 1 c of sugar, 1/4 tsp lemon juice, and 1/4 c cold water. Make sure the sugar dissolves as much as possible before heating it over medium-high heat. Make sure you have a little pastry brush and a dish of warm water near by.

Bring the sugar mixture to a boil. Don't stir it, but do use the brush to dissolve any crystals of sugar that are clinging to the side of the pot. You do NOT want crystals - your liquid sugar, when it begins to boil, should be clear, not cloudy. If it's cloudy you have crystals and you have to start again.

When the edges of the sugar mixture start to get a little golden, give the pot a swirl to even out the cooking. Watch it so so carefully because you do not want to burn your precious caramel! When it's a medium amber colour, take the pot off the heat and put the bottom of the pot in the pan of ice water to stop it cooking. Working quickly, before the candy has time to harden, take a spoon and drizzle the caramel onto the parchment paper in a swirly pattern to make a beautiful spider-web of caramel, or pour out the candy onto the parchment to be shattered after it cools fully. The candy is really super hot at this point, so even though it looks delicious, if you try and taste it you will burn yourself quite badly and the thing that burned you will be stuck to your finger and/or tongue.

So then what you should do to assemble your cake is first trim the cake rounds so that they are flat on top and not domed. Use a serrated knife to carefully cut off the domed top of the cake. You can eat that part. :) Get out the serving plate you're going to serve the cake on and put a few scraps of parchment paper all around the edges so that they will come about 1" under the edge of the cake when you put it on. Put your first layer on the tray and plop about a third of the icing on it and smooth it out to the edges. Put your second layer on top, making sure the formerly domed and now cut side is down. Ice the sides of the cake with about a third of the icing. The parchment paper makes sure your serving plate doesn't get covered in icing while you're doing this! So clever! Last, use the rest of the icing for the top. You can decorate with the shards or with the spider-web of sugar - it's your call! You can even put some shards in a ziplock and smash them into gold dust and use that. Above all, enjoy!

Grilled Lemon Pork Chops

2009-09-16T22:36:00.003-04:00

This one is an easy one, but so good.

You need for the main:

two 4oz pork loin chops (or chicken, or turkey, etc.)
1/4 c lemon juice
1/4 c olive oil
1 tsp coarse salt
2 tsp dried oregano
copious fresh ground pepper

On the side:
2 cups of broccoli
a small spaghetti squash

1. The night before (or an hour before you want to eat, but longer is better), put the meat in a shallow dish or a ziplock bag and add the marinade ingredients (lemon juice, oil etc). Just let that sit in the fridge.

2. 40 minutes from when you want to eat, split your spaghetti squash in two lengthwise and clean out the seeds.

3. Arrange skin-side up on a baking tray and put into a preheated 350º oven for 30 minutes.

4. Cut up your broc so it's all ready for when you need it.

5. When your squash has 5 minutes left, preheat your grill. I just got a new grill pan and this was its inaugural use and I am very pleased with its performance!

6. When the grill or pan is hot, toss on your meat. It should sizzle - that way you'll get nice grill marks! At this point it's probably time to remove your squash and turn on the broc to steam. You can let the squash cool on the counter for a little while.

7. When you have nice grill marks on one side of the meat (this should only take 4 minutes or so), flip it and do the other side. When the other side is done, so should the meat be, but if you're cooking with pork you should just make a little cut and check: no pink for pig!

8. Cut up your squash, plate your dinner, and you're good to go! Easy!

Note: One spaghetti squash is a lot for two people. Unless you're cooking for more, you'll have leftovers. But fear not! You can freeze the flesh! Just take it off the skin, put it in a baggie and you're good to go. :)

Dosas with Chickpea Filling and Coconut Sauce

2009-09-14T13:33:00.007-04:00

This recipe was my first assignment in the Daring Cook's Challenge. Every month, a challenge is assigned and cooks and food bloggers all try their hands at what might be something completely new and unfamiliar.

This month, the challenge, assigned by Debyi of The Healthy Vegan Kitchen, was a wonderful vegan Indian dish composed of spelt flour pancakes (dosas), a chickpea curry, and a coconut and tomato sauce to finish. I admit that I grumbled about having to go out and buy soy milk, but the meal was delicious and will definitely become one of my go-to special dinners.

The amounts here will feed at least five hungry people (we were only three and have enough left over for lunch and dinner for two!), but the chickpea filling freezes well and the dosas are actually quite easy to make, so a little extra wouldn't go amiss.

First, for the Chickpea Filling, you need:

5 cloves garlic, crushed and minced.
1 medium onion, peeled and finely diced
1 largish carrot, peeled and finely diced
1 green pepper, finely diced (red, yellow or orange are fine too)
2 medium hot banana chilies, minced (I couldn't find any hot peppers so I omitted them. Still yum.)
2 TBSP ground cumin
1 TBSP dried oregano
1 TBSP coarse sea salt (remember that if you use fine, you should use less!)
1 TBSP turmeric
4 cups cooked or canned chick peas (about 2 cans)
½ cup (one small can) tomato paste

1.Heat 1 TBS canola oil in a large saucepan over medium to low heat. Saute the onion and the spices with the carrot until the onions are softened. Then add the garlic and peppers and continue to cook until soft, stirring occasionally.

2.Mash the chickpeas by hand, with a hand blender like I did, or in a food processor. They don't have to be completely mashed - I left a bunch (maybe a third) whole to make a better texture.

Add the chickpeas and tomato paste to the saucepan, stirring until heated through. At this point mine was a bit dry, so I added about 3/4 c water - you may wish to do this also.

Second, make your coconut sauce:

1 onion, peeled and finely diced
2 cloves garlic, smashed and minced
½ ground cumin
¾ tsp coarse sea salt
3 TBSP curry powder (mild or hot - whatever you like!)
3 TBSP spelt flour (you can use whole wheat flour if you can't find spelt)
3 cups vegetable broth (you can use chicken if you don't mind it no longer being vegan!)
2 cups coconut milk
3 large tomatoes, diced

1. Heat a little oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add the onion and garlic, cooking for 5 minutes, or until soft.

2. Add the spices, cooking for 1 minute more. Add the flour and cook for 1 additional minute.

3. Gradually stir in the vegetable broth to prevent lumps. Once the flour has been incorporated, add the coconut milk and tomatoes, stirring occasionally.

4. Let it simmer for half an hour.

At this point, you are ready to start your pancakes. For the Dosas, you need:

1 cup spelt flour (or whole wheat, or gluten free)
½ tsp regular salt
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp curry powder
½ cup soy milk (or almond, or rice, etc.)
¾ cup water
cooking spray, if needed (I needed.)

1. Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. Slowly add the soy milk and water, whisking until smooth.

2.Heat a nonstick skillet over medium heat. Spray your pan with a thin layer of cooking spray, if needed. It's important that the pan is hot enough - you will end up with sad pancakes if your pan is not hot. We had a few sad pancakes, but they were eaten anyways, so I guess they weren't that sad! :)

3.Ladle 2 tablespoons of batter into the center of your pan in a circular motion until it is a thin, round pancake. (If you have made crepes before, it is the same technique.) When bubbles appear on the surface and it no longer looks wet, flip it over and cook for a few seconds. Remove from heat and repeat with remaining batter. Makes 8 pancakes. (We ended up with about 12 pancakes, but they were on the smaller side.)

I arranged the pancakes on a plate and served the chickpeas and the coconut sauce separately so that people could assemble their own. The basic idea is that the chickpea filling goes inside the dosa like a burrito, and then the sauce either can go on top, enchilada style, or inside before you wrap it up. You could even dip, I suppose. Either way, this was a popular dinner in my house and I am very excited to have expanded my cooking skills! Look for another Daring Cook post next month at this time!

Back!

2009-09-09T17:53:00.004-04:00

Hello, dear readers!

I have returned from my travels and I have a recipe for you. I have a food-review to post shortly about all the delicious (and sometimes surprising) things I ate, but I'm still working on it.

For now, inspired by the Spanish tortillas I ate while in Spain, I have concocted a lunch or breakfast recipe that makes packing a lunch or grabbing something to eat in the morning pretty easy. You could easily make amendments to this recipe to include other types of cheese, sliced ham, red peppers, etc, or the traditional potato found in Spanish tortillas, so if you have success with variations, let me know! :)

Mini Tortillas con Queso (and Spinach) (Makes 12)

You need:

6 eggs
3 tbs chopped chives (or green onions)
1.5 c chopped baby spinach (or arugula)
3 oz sharp cheese, like cheddar, parmesan, or gruyere, grated.
2/3 c dairy - i used 10% cream but you could use milk or yogurt or something else.
a 12-cup muffin tin
cooking spray

1. Preheat your oven to 400ºF and spray the muffin tin with cooking spray, or grease it with butter. You could put muffin liners in, but I don't know how well the egg would come off the paper.

2. With a whisk or a hand mixer, beat the eggs with the milk/cream until foamy.

3. Stir in the chives and spinach.

4. Using a 1/4c measuring cup, fill each muffin cup with the egg mixture.

5. Divide grated cheese among the cups and bake 15-20 minutes, until puffy and golden brown on top.

Mine deflated a lot after I took them out of the oven, but they're still really tasty!

These tortillas freeze really well, too. I just packed all of mine up in individual ziplocks and put them all in a big freezer bag. Just pop it in the toaster oven to warm it up the morning of, or at work/school if you have access a toaster oven. I imagine the microwave would work out OK too, but they might get a bit rubbery.

Hiatus

2009-07-31T16:02:00.002-04:00

Hello, dear readers!

Please, don't be alarmed: I will be away for a month.

I'm taking a trip with my family to Paris and Madrid, and while we will be eating lots of yummy food, I won't be cooking much of it! I may get a chance to post some photos of things we're eating. For now, here's a photo from my last visit to Paris - a bakery had made baguettes in the shape of the Eiffel Tower!! :)

So please enjoy your August and I'll see you back in September! If any of you have any must-eat advice for Madrid (or Paris, although we may have our dinners planned out) drop me a line!

Rainbow Stuffed Peppers

2009-07-25T16:10:00.003-04:00

How beautiful are peppers? So succulent, and perfect for the summer - and available in a rainbow of colours! These stuffed peppers are a great light supper - I think you'll like them. I made them with turkey and brown rice, so they're also pretty healthy - you don't have to tell anyone that, though - they'd never guess.

You need:

1 lb lean ground turkey
1 tbs olive oil
1 c uncooked brown rice + enough stock to cook the rice in - I used chicken stock.
4 peppers of any colour you like
1/2 a large onion, finely diced
1 stalk of celery, finely diced
1/4 c finely minced herbs - I used basil, rosemary, and chives because that's what's growing in my garden
1 medium tomato, chopped
2 tbs tomato sauce
6 tbs finely grated parmesan cheese.

1. Start by cooking your rice according to the directions. Instead of water, use stock to cook the rice - it'll give you a better flavour.

2. While the rice is cooking, sautee the onion, celery, and turkey in the olive oil.

3. Slice the peppers in half lengthwise and clean out, leaving the stems intact. You can fit more filling in if you leave them.

4. When the rice is cooked, mix it with the celery-onion-turkey mixture along with the tomatoes, the tomato sauce, and the fresh herbs.

5. Fill the peppers with the rice mixture and place the peppers into a rimmed baking dish or casserole dish. Top with 1 tbs of parmesan each. Carefully pour 1/4 c water into the casserole dish, being careful not to get the insides of the peppers wet.

6. Bake in an oven which has been preheated to 375ºF for 40 minutes, or until the peppers are soft and the cheese has browned. Let rest 5 minutes, then serve!

Sun-Dried Tomato Cream Sauce

2009-07-20T20:00:00.004-04:00

This was kind of an experiment. I didn't want to leave the house to shop, but I still wanted a delicious dinner. Armed with pantry ingredients, I ended up creating a pretty darn tasty sauce to serve over pasta.

You need (for 4 servings):

8 oz pasta of your choice (I used penne)
8 sun-dried tomatoes (not in oil - dry)
3 tbs olive oil
3 cloves of garlic
1 large chicken breast (mine was 12 oz)
1/4 c shredded basil leaves
freshly ground pepper
1 c water or chicken stock, divided
3 tbs cream cheese (optional)
freshly snipped chives (optional but lovely)

1. Soak the sun-dried tomatoes in 1/2 c water for about 30 minutes, or until they are soft.

2. Drain the tomatoes, reserving the soaking water. Place the tomatoes and the garlic and 1 tbs of olive oil (and a tbs of the soaking water if you need it) in a food processor and process until almost smooth (some chunks are good and tasty!).

3. In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 2 tbs olive oil over medium heat. When the pan is hot, brown the chicken on both sides and set aside. Pour the soaking water from the tomatoes into the pan and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan. Let simmer while you slice up your browned chicken breast into bite-sized slices. This would be a good time to start boiling your pasta water.

4. Return the chicken to the pan along with the tomato puree. Allow the chicken to cook through with the tomatoes. This would be a good time to cook your pasta. When the past is almost done lower the heat and add the cream cheese, if using, and the chives, pepper to taste, and the basil.

5. When the cream cheese has mixed in and your pasta is cooked, drain the pasta and toss it with the sauce. If it is too thick, add some liquid until you get the consistency you like. Pasta water is good for this, or stock. Serve with a sprig of basil on top, if you like!

Muttar Paneer and Dal

2009-07-18T22:56:00.003-04:00

I've been a little Cast-Iron Dormant of late - sorry about that. I won't bore you with excuses. Instead, accept this humble offering - three new recipes and accompanying pictures.

I've been wanting to make a nice dal in the crock pot for a while now, and finally decided today was the day to do it. But I decided I couldn't just have dal for dinner all by itself - that would be silly. Clearly I needed another curry to go along with it. And probably some naan bread, too. And so we called some folks and I made a vegetarian Indian feast - we had not only dal, but also muttar paneer, and naan bread.

The most fun part of today, the really new thing for me, was learning how to make paneer. I always try to order some paneer (or at least steal a bite of someone else's) when we go out for Indian, and I just assumed it was one of those really complicated things to make - that I'd have to buy rennet or a cow or something. Actually, it's pretty easy.

So here are the recipes, if you'd like to follow along. First, crock pot dal, as it's the one you need to start earliest (unless you don't use a crock pot to make it). It makes enough for dinner for four plus lots of leftovers, so if you have a smaller crock pot, feel free to halve the amounts.

You need:

3 c dry red lentils, rinsed and sorted
1 large onion, diced
2 cloves of garlic, minced
1 large knob of ginger, minced
1 bay leaf
1.5 tbs cumin
2 tsp cinnamon + 1 cinnamon stick
1 can coconut milk
1 c crushed tomatoes
3-4 c veggie or chicken stock
1.5 tbs garam masala
1 tbs tumeric
1 c plain yogurt, to add at the end if you want. We didn't but it would be good.

Just put everything except the yogurt in the crock, give it a stir, and turn it on low for about 6 hours, or until the lentils are cooked and everything smells nice. Easy. This one doesn't look so pretty when it's cooked, so no photos.

Next, making your own paneer. Paneer is a very mild and delicious non-melty Indian cheese. It kind of has the consistency of tofu, but not the flavour, which instead is mildly creamy. It only has two ingredients:

1 litre of whole milk
juice of 1 lime

You'll need to have some cheesecloth handy to make this, or a very fine seive. I found lots of great tutorials for how to make this online - this was the one I ended up following - very helpful, and lovely photos!

1. Bring the milk to a boil - a full boil. When it is boiling, add the lime juice and stir. The curds will separate from the whey, as you can see in this astonishingly unappetizing photo:

2. Using a slotted spoon, remove the curds and place in the cheesecloth bag to drain. You'll need to drain it for an hour or two. For the first hour I hung mine from a knob, letting the whey drain into a measuring cup below.

For the second hour I pressed it between a rack and a heavy casserole dish to make a firm cheese suitable for cutting and frying.

3. When the cheese is firm, remove the bag and cut it into little cubes. It's now ready to use.

My favourite ways to eat paneer are in saag paneer (with spinach) or in muttar paneer (with peas). Tonight was a peas night. I turned to Nigella for help.

You need:

20 oz (by weight) of frozen peas
your paneer that you just made
some oil for frying
1 onion, very finely diced
1 knob ginger, very finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, very finely diced
1/4 c crushed tomatoes or PLAIN tomato sauce
1.5 c veggie or chicken stock
2 tsp tumeric
2 tsp garam masala

1. Fry your paneer. Heat up a pan with some oil and then add the cubed paneer. Let it get brown on all sides, then remove it to a dish lined with paper towel to drain. They should look AMAZING. Resist popping them into your mouth like popcorn.

2. In the remaining oil, gently fry the onion, ginger, and garlic. Add the spices and fry again for a minute.

3. Add the frozen peas, the stock, and the tomato. Cover, and let simmer until the peas are soft.

4. Stir in the paneer pieces and heat through.

Serve with naan bread to your happy guests.

Mom's Amazing Seed Loaf

2009-07-03T18:18:00.005-04:00

My mom (hi Mom!) sent me this recipe for the most delicious (and healthy!) bread. It's basically a white loaf except for the hefty dose of Red River Cereal, which adds a nice big dose of fiber to every slice. I only made one modification, which was to add some lemon juice. It was an experiment that paid off, as I'd heard that lemon juice is an excellent dough conditioner, and yields a fluffier, tastier loaf.

You can shape it either in loaf tins or freestyle, as I did. The inside crumb is light and soft, despite being so good for you. This might be an excellent bread to use to introduce a reluctant seedy-bread eater to the fold.

You need:

6 c all-purpose flour
2 c Red River cereal (I imagine Sunny Boy would also work)
3 c boiling water
1 tbs sugar or honey
1 tbs salt
4.5 tsp yeast
3 tbs lemon juice
2 tbs butter, for brushing on after.

1. In a large mixing bowl, combine the cereal and the boiling water. Let sit 20 minutes, until the cereal has cooled and absorbed much of the water.

2. Add 2 cups of flour and mix, then add the sugar, salt, yeast, and lemon juice. Make sure the mixture is not hot (warm is ok) otherwise it'll kill your yeasty-beasties.

3. Add the remaining flour 1/2 cup at a time and knead for 10 minutes.

4. Place the dough in a greased bowl and cover. Let rise about 45 minutes.

5. Shape into two loaves and let rise again for 40 minutes. If you shape them freestyle, slash them with a sharp knife just before baking.

6. Bake for 35 minutes at 400ºF. When done, remove and brush with the butter. Your house will smell like heaven.

Edit: Here is a shot of the crumb:

Pastitsio!

2009-07-02T21:17:00.004-04:00

Pastitsio happens to be my oldest sister's favourite meal - with good reason: it's delicious! It's a Greek layered pasta dish made with meat sauce and Bechamel.The spicing of the meat distinguishes it from an Italian-style meat sauce and compliments the Bechamel.

This recipe is from an old Martha Stewart Living magazine - 2001, to be exact. It calls for ground lamb, which is so yummy if you can afford it, but if you can't, ground beef or turkey would do the trick - even veggie ground round might do it!

The recipe is found here, or you can read below; I've modified it only slightly, as I tend to like more spices than recipes tend to call for.

For the meat sauce:

2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
2 white onions, cut into 1/4-inch dice
2 pounds ground lamb (or beef/turkey)
2 teaspoons coarse salt
3 teaspoons ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
1/3 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup dry red wine
1 can (6 ounces) tomato paste
2 dried bay leaves
2 cups beef stock

For the Bechamel:

6 tablespoons unsalted butter
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
3 cups whole milk
1 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 teaspoons coarse salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1 pinch ground cayenne pepper

To assemble the dish:
butter for the baking dish, or cooking spray
1 pound cooked noodles, like Penne, Cavatappi, Rigatoni, or Ziti.

How to make it all work:
1. Make the meat sauce first. Saute the onions in olive oil over medium eat. Add the meat and the spices and cook until browned. Add the wine and cook until reduced, then add the tomato paste, the bay leaves, and the 2 cups of water. Simmer for 30 minutes and then cover and remove from heat. The smell of the cinnamon and nutmeg mixing with the onions and meat makes your whole house smell amazing! It is very difficult to not eat the sauce without waiting for the dish to be finished.

2. Next make the bechamel. Melt the butter over medium heat until it bubbles, and then add the flour and baking powder. Cook, stirring with a whisk, for about a minute. If it's lumpy at this stage, not to worry. When you whisk in the milk in the next step it'll smooth out nicely.

While still whisking, add the milk slowly. Whisk constantly until the sauce bubbles and thickens. Remove from heat, stir in the cheese and spices, and set aside, covered.

3. Now, preheat your oven to 375º and assemble your dish. Grease your baking dish (9-by-13 works well) with the butter or spray. Cook your pasta, if you haven't already done so - don't cook it as long as you would if you were eating it right away - very al dente is best. Drain the noodles and add them to the meat sauce; stir to combine. Pour the meat and pasta into the baking dish.

Then spread the Bechamel over top. Sprinkle with a bit more parmesan, if you have it, and bake until the top is golden, about 30-40 minutes. Let the dish settle for 10 minutes before you serve it.

Even my very picky nephews asked for seconds!

Pizza: New and Improved!

2009-06-23T19:13:00.005-04:00

GUESS WHAT!?

You can make really good pizza dough in about 2 hours. And you can do it in your own oven. Remember this recipe for ciabatta? If you halve it, it makes a perfect pizza dough crust for two. Note that you can make this dough by hand, but a kitchenaid-type device certainly makes things faster and easier.

To prove this to you, I invite you to imagine you are biting into the pizzas in the following photos:

We divided our pizza dough into two personal pizzas so we could have two types. One has red onions, red peppers, and mozzarella, and the other has spinach, cherry tomatoes, and mozzarella. We baked them at 500º on a pre-heated baking stone for about 15 minutes.

This dough is amazing and I urge you to try it. I imagine it would do well on the barbecue too, although this is an adventure I have yet to try.

Tilapia En Papillote

2009-06-21T21:43:00.005-04:00

En Papillote is a style of cooking that involves wrapping up your food in parchment paper and baking it in the oven. The moisture released from the food as it cooks effectively steams whatever it is you're cooking, keeping the dish moist and tender. Fish does really well en papillote because it cooks fast, and moist fish is delicious.

I did two versions of this dish - one in a Mediterranean style with olives and cherry tomatoes, and another just with lemon and garlic. They were both great! I think this would be a fun thing to serve as a "top your own fish" kind of thing - lots of various ingredients, and everyone chooses what to add to their little personal meal.

For one serving of the Mediterranean style, you need:

1 Tilapia or other (sustainably fished) white fish
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp butter
1/2 tsp oregano, dried
3 cherry tomatoes, halved
4 kalamata olives, pitted and quartered
2 tsp white wine, if you have it
salt and pepper
6 stalks of asparagus, tough ends removed

For one serving of the lemon style, you need:

1 Tilapia or other (sustainably fished) white fish
1 clove of garlic, minced
1 tsp butter
2 slices of lemon
2 tsp white wine, if you have it
salt and pepper
6 stalks of asparagus, tough ends removed

In both cases, you assemble the meal in the same way.

1. Cut out a piece of parchement 3 inches on each side larger than the fish. I did mine in a heart shape because that's what Martha says to do. To do this, get a large sheet of parchement and fold it down the middle. Cut half a heart shape. When you open it up, you have a full heart shape! Magic from grade three arts and crafts! :)

2. Spray in the parchment with cooking spray (I did not do this because I forgot - nothing bad happened!) Preheat your oven to 375º.

3. On one half of the parchment, next to the crease, assemble your asparagus and lay your fish on top of it. Season the fish, then dot the top with butter.

4. Top the fish with either the tomato/olive topping or simply the lemon, or any other topping your little heart desires!

5. This is the only tricky part. Starting from the top of the heart, next to the crease, fold the two halves together making long pleats in the paper. When you have folded the whole of both edges together and you've reached the bottom of the heart, twist the end together to seal.

6. Put the parchment packets on a baking sheet and bake for 15-20 minutes, until the packets are browned and puffy. The fish will be flakey and moist and the asparagus tender.

7. Snip open the parchment packets - watch out for steam! You can either serve them like that, or lift the whole meal out onto plates.

Enjoy!

The Perfect Soft-Boiled Egg

2009-06-19T21:48:00.004-04:00

The glorious anticipation of two soft-boiled eggs before you, as yet uncracked, is a beautiful thing.

I knew that somewhere on the internet, someone had the answer to perfectly done soft-boiled eggs. I've tried many different instructions, from starting the fridge-cold eggs in the water before boiling it, to various complicated timings based on egg weight all in the hopes of getting a perfectly firm white cradling a golden, runny yolk. I found the answer at The Kitchy Kitchen via Photograzing - Claire Thomas posted a beautiful entry on "Googy Eggs", what her father called soft-boiled eggs. I could not do any better with photos than those that are in that entry - take a look, just to appreciate the beauty of the egg.

Her answer is to boil water, then to reduce the heat to a simmer before carefully dropping the eggs in. 4 minutes exactly for a room-temp egg, and 6 for a fridge-cold one. Perfect every time. So simple, and so satisfying.

Serve with some lovely ciabatta for dipping!

Maple-Balsamic Pork Tenderloin

2009-06-12T17:00:00.004-04:00

This is my favourite way to eat pork - it is juicy, tender, and full of flavour. The recipe is fairly low-effort, too - just mix, marinate, and cook! Pork tenderloin was on sale at my grocery store, but I imagine it would work just as well with chops, maybe even ribs! The recipe is from Cooking Light Magazine from 2005 - my family has been making it since then, and it is delicious!!

The marinade also doubles as a lovely dressing for peppery or bitter greens, such as arugula or endive, and it works well as a marinade with dark-meat chicken or turkey, if you're not a fan of pork. I imagine even beef would be nice this way.

For the marinade:

1/2 c tomato juice
1/3 c balsamic vinegar
1/4 c maple syrup
1 tbs minced fresh rosemary
2 tsp Dijon mustard
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 garlic cloves, minced (or shallots - we had a guest with a garlic allergy and used that sub)
2 1/2 tbs olive oil

1. Combine everything but the oil and mix well. Then gradually mix in the oil and whisk until everything is combined. You can at this point refrigerate the dressing for up to five days, or you can use it immediately.

Look! I even have calorie counts etc because it's from a magazine! Per 1 tbs: 39 calories, 2.3g fat, 0.2g protein, 4.7g carb, 0.1g fiber, 118mg sodium

For the Tenderloins:

2 (3/4 lb) pork tenderloins
1/2 c (1/2 recipe) Maple-Balsamic dressing, divided
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp pepper

1. Butterfly the tenderloins - cutting them lengthwise but not all the way through, so they have a hinge and can lay open and flat. Marinate in a large plastic bag or a large dish, covered, in the fridge for 20 minutes or up to 8 hours. Make sure you turn the tenderloins every once in a while, so that all the meat gets a chance to soak up the flavours.

2. Now, here's the thing. Usually, you'd do this on the grill - it is AMAZING on the grill, and this was our plan. But we had terrible rainy weather when we were making this and so we roasted ours in the oven - still delicious! I'll tell you what to do either way.

3a. For GRILL: Heat grill to medium-high heat. Sprinkle meat iwht salt and pepper and grill 9 mins on each side or until the meat is cooked through (this is really important with pork!!)

3b. For OVEN: Heat oven to 375F. Roast uncovered for 30-40 minutes, or until pork is cooked through (this is really important!!).

4. For both methods: Place the remaining 1/4 c marinade/dressing in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Reduce and simmer until it thickens into a nice sauce.

5. Slice the meat, when it is cooked, into portions, and drizzle with the sauce you made. We served ours with roasted peppers, roasted asparagus, and roasted baby new potatoes.

And nutritionals for the pork: (3 oz serving) 176 cals, 6.2g fat, 24g protein, 4.8g carb, 74mg cholesterol, 1.6mg iron, 372mg sodium

Oatmeal-Potato Bread

2009-06-07T19:40:00.005-04:00

I have not been cooking as much as I would like. Well, I've been cooking my same amount, but it's not really anything to show off - shake n bake, plain pasta, pizza, etc. I'm trying to get a big project done, and while I would *love* to procrastinate by daydreaming about what meals I could cook, sometimes school comes first.

Enter the sandwich. A very important school-going staple; not to be trifled with. It requires decent bread that can stand up to the rigours of a back pack and tomatoes without falling apart.

I play around with sandwich loaves - I haven't yet found a whole wheat one that I'm entirely happy with. I've used this one, which is delicious but has so much sugar in it, and various others floating around online, or in my thousands of cooking and baking books. This recipe comes from Beth Hensperger's The Bread Bible and makes two good-sized loaves. I chose it because I had some left-over mashed potato waiting to be used up, and not enough time or energy to want to do a 24 hour whole wheat loaf as Peter Reinhart suggests. Maybe when these two are done.

Beth describes the bread as moist and slightly sweet, and very easy to make. She's right - mine rose beautifully even though my house is usually on the chilly side. When it was baking, the house smelled delicious and slightly nutty. I really wish you could photograph smell! When it was ready to cut, I discovered that the crumb is light and airy and makes perfect toast! It has a delicious flavour and a soft texture. This is a keeper of a recipe, at long last!

Look at the crumb in this shot! Representative of what is inside...

You need:

1 c mashed potato
2 tbs butter (unless your mashed potato already has butter in it, like mine did)
1 tbs yeast
1/2 c warm water
1 tbs sugar + 1 pinch
1.5 c warm milk (I was out so I used 3 tbs plain yogurt mixed in with enough water to make 1.5 c)
1 tbs salt (I did not add salt as my potatoes were already salted enough)
1.5 c rolled oats
5 c all purpose flour (I used 2 c whole wheat and 3 c white unbleached)

1. Dissolve the pinch of sugar in the 1/2 c warm water and sprinkle the yeast on top to dissolve. Let proof 10 minutes, until foamy.

2. In a mixing bowl or a stand mixer, put the potato, yeast mixture, the rest of the sugar, the milk, salt, oats, and 2 c of the flour. Beat until it's combined. Add the rest of the flour by the half-cup until you have a very moist dough that only just clears the sides of your dough. If you add too much flour to make a stiffer dough, the oats will suck up all the moisture and you'll end up with dry, terrible bread. When you're done kneading the dough should be smooth and springy.

3. Put the dough in an oiled bowl and cover. It'll rise for about 1.5 hours and get nice and puffy.

4. Tip the dough out onto your work surface, which you've floured so the dough doesn't stick. Divide it in two - you're making two loaves. Shape the dough into loaves by following this amazing tutorial on The Fresh Loaf. Put each loaf in a greased 9-by-5 loaf pan and let rise again, covered, for another 40 minutes.

5. Preheat your oven to 425. Bake the loaves for 10 minutes at this heat, then at 350 for another 35-40. The loaves should sound hollow when you tap them on the bottom. Let them cool completely before cutting into them - I know it's hard, but the bread won't taste as good if you cut into it too early! Promise!

Chickpea Curry with Star Anise

2009-06-02T20:51:00.005-04:00

In my Christmas stocking this past December, Santa gave me a jar of Bruno's Favourite Curry Powder. It's from a small store called Bruno's Best in Vancouver (Santa always knows the best places to shop). Tonight I used it to make a variation on one of my standard, go-to meals, curry. The addition of whole star anise and cinnamon during the simmering of this curry add a real depth of flavour - not to mention, star anise is really one of the prettier spices!

You need:

3 whole star anise (mine were a gift from a friend who visted Malaysia but you should be able to get them at a normal grocery store)
1 large cinnamon stick
2-3 tbs curry powder (I used Bruno's favourite, of course)
1 tbs cumin, dried
1 big can diced tomatoes with juice
1 c chicken or veggie stock
2 c cooked chickpeas
1 diced red bell pepper
5 cloves minced garlic
2 diced medium onions
2 tbs apple or mango chutney

1. Heat up 2 tbs of canola oil in a big pan over medium heat. This is the one I use. I love it. When the oil is hot, add your onions and saute until they're translucent.

2. Add the ground spices, garlic, and red pepper and saute for a few minutes, until the spices are fragrant and the garlic starts to cook.

3. Add the tomatoes, stock, chickpeas, chutney, and the star anise and cinnamon. Let this simmer for about 20 minutes. It will reduce and the flavours of the cinnamon and star anise will slowly meld into the gravy, adding a nice depth to the curry.

4. Serve with jasmine or basmati rice, and perhaps some naan bread.

Risotto

2009-05-27T20:00:00.002-04:00

Making risotto is time consuming. It is time consuming in a way that chains you to the stove. That, in fact, is part of what makes it so special, and so rewarding. I don't mind at all being chained to the stove while cooking risotto, because the aromas wafting up from the simmering pot are almost as good as eating the dish itself: sizzling shallots, butter, gently simmering white wine... I never turn the vent fan on when I'm cooking this dish.

A basic risotto is very simple. Once the basic concept and pattern is established, it's pretty easy to shake things up a bit. You can vary the ingredients to make it more complicated, adding meat, seafood, various vegetables, or mushrooms, or by changing the type of broth or wine used to cook the rice. This here is a pretty basic recipe.

You need:

1.5 c Arborio rice
1.5 c white wine
2 c chicken or veggie stock
1/2 c finely chopped shallots (you can use onions if you must)
3 tablespoons of butter
1 c frozen peas
1/2 c grated Parmesan cheese

Note: you can use medium or short grain rice if you have to, but the Italian Arborio rice really works the best. Also, pick a white wine that you would drink. This is the general rule for cooking with wine. Plus, then you can drink some as you go! :)

What you do:

1. Melt 2 tbs of the butter over medium-low heat in a large saucepan and add the shallots. Cook for about 2 minutes, until they start to get soft. Add the rice and cook for about 3 more minutes, until the rice turns translucent around the edges.

2. Add 1/2 c of the wine and stir constantly (you will hear this a lot) until the liquid is all but absorbed.

3. Add the stock 1/2 c at a time, stirring constantly to absorb all the liquid before adding the next 1/2 c. This will take about 15 minutes.

4. If the stock is gone and your rice is still raw, it's time to add more wine. You should, of course, pour a glass for yourself! Just to make sure it's ok, you understand. Add as much wine as you need, 1/2 cup at a time, as above, until the rice is cooked through but still has a "bite" to it. It is important to add it very slowly because otherwise you might get rice soup and that is no fun.

5. After the stock is gone, add in your cup of peas. They will cook quickly in the wine and rice. When the rice is *almost* cooked and your liquid is almost absorbed, stir in the parmesan cheese and the last tbs of butter.

6. Serve in bowls. I topped mine with a handful of baby spinach leaves and arugula, which added a nice bite to contrast with the sweet peas and the tangy rice. Enjoy, obviously with a glass of wine.

Cheater's Ciabatta

2009-05-26T15:02:00.002-04:00

Normally, ciabatta, the delicious, porous, Italian bread, takes hours and hours of waiting. The gluten strands that make those nice, big, ready-for-butter holes take time to develop. You can cheat a bit, though.

The reason all those no-knead breads work is that if you give bread dough enough time, the gluten strands will develop on their own. They just need 18-24 hours to do so. Usually we knead bread to speed up the development of the gluten so that a loaf of French bread might only take 8-10 hours. It's kind of logical that if you leave a dough for a long time and don't have to knead it, you'd be able to knead the dough a lot and not have to wait, right?

This ciabatta recipe only takes 4-5 hours because you knead this dough within an inch of its life. Once again, The Fresh Loaf has come to the rescue and made last-minute fresh bread possible.

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You need:
500g bread flour (I used all-purpose and added a few tbs of vital wheat gluten - kind of an experiment)
475g water
15 g salt
2 tsp yeast

Directions (from the above link):

1. In Kitchen Aid style mixer: Mix all ingredients roughly till combined with paddle, let it rest for 10 minutes.

2. With the paddle , beat the living hell out of the batter; it will start out like pancake batter but in anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes it will set up and work like a very sticky dough. if it starts climbing too soon, then switch to the hook. You'll know it's done when it separates from the side of the bowl and starts to climb up your hook/paddle and just coming off the bottom of the bowl. I mean this literally about the climbing, i once didn't pay attention and it climbed up my paddle into the greasy inner workings of the mixer. It was not pretty! Anyway, it will definetely pass the windowpane test. (Note: See a great picture tutorial on what it's supposed to look like here.)

3. Place into a well oiled container and let it triple! it must triple! For me this took about 2.5 hours

4. Empty on to a floured counter, cut into 3 or 4 pieces. Spray with oil and dust with lots o' flour. Let them proof for about 45 minutes, which gives you enough time to crank that oven up to 500F.

5. After 45 minutes or so the loaves should be puffy and wobbly. Now it's iron fist, velvet glove time. Pick up and stretch into your final ciabatta shape (~10" oblong rectangle) and flip them upside down (this redistributes the bubbles, so you get even bubbles throughout), and onto parchment or a heavily floured peel. Try to do it in one motion and be gentle, it might look like you've ruined them completely, but the oven spring is immense on these things.

6. Bake at 500F , rotating 180 degrees half way through.

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The crumb in this bread is great - big and porous - and the crust is delicious - golden and chewy. I usually make a few loaves of french bread the long way every two weeks or so and freeze extra, but I think this way will enable me to have fresh bread every day if I wanted to!

I'm pretty sure I didn't stretch mine out enough - it looked so flat when I put it in the oven, but the recipe is right - big oven spring! I think "real" ciabatta is supposed to be a bit flatter.

Also, if you don't have a kitchen aid or something like that, you can, of course, beat the living daylights out of your dough by hand - it'll just take a bit longer and your arm may fall off.

Paprika-Braised Chicken with Chickpea Puree and Crispy Shallots

2009-05-22T15:37:00.005-04:00

Once again, Serious Eats saves the day.

This dish is very inexpensive to prepare and uses pantry staples to create something innovative and impressive. We were having company when we decided to make this, and it was a good choice, being economical enough to serve to a crowd, but at the same time not seeming like it.

For four eaters, you need (adapted from above link):

For the chicken
8 skin-on chicken pieces (thighs and drumsticks work best)
seasoned flour for dredging
4 tablespoons vegetable oil
4 oz salt pork, rind removed and finely diced (or pancetta!)
2 medium carrots, finely diced
2 medium onions, finely chopped
about 3.5 c. chicken stock (or two cans)
1 teaspoon paprika, preferably smoked
1 10oz package of frozen chopped spinach, thawed
4 tablespoons corn starch, dissolved in 1 tablespoon water
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the crispy shallots
2 large shallots, thinly sliced
Vegetable oil for deep-frying

For the puree
4 c cooked chickpeas (make your own! it's easy!)
1/2 cup water (I used chicken stock for extra yum)
2 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
1 teaspoon ground cumin
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

What to do (again, adapted from the above link):

1. Place the chickpeas, water, olive oil and ground cumin in a food processor or blender. Blend until texture is creamy and uniform, adding more water if necessary, 1 tablespoon at a time.

2. Place the shallots in a small saucepan and cover with vegetable oil. On low heat, bring oil to a simmer. Maintain a low, steady heat until shallots are golden brown, then remove with a slotted spoon and transfer to paper towels to drain.

3. Pat chicken dry and dredge in seasoned flour, dusting off excess. Heat vegetable oil in a large, heavy saucepan over moderate heat, until hot but not smoking. Place chicken pieces skin-side down in hot oil and sear 6-8 minutes, transferring to a plate once skin is golden brown.

4. Discard left-over oil and reduce heat to low. In the same saucepan, cook salt pork until crispy, about 4 minutes. Add carrots and onions, stirring to coat in rendered pork fat, and cook until onion is translucent.

5. Add chicken broth and paprika and deglaze pan by boiling and scraping up any brown bits, 1 minute. Return chicken to pan, skin-side up, along with any juices that have accumulated on plate. Cover, reduce heat and simmer for 20-25 minutes, until chicken is cooked through.

6. Add chopped spinach and simmer, uncovered, for 5 minutes. Pour in cornstarch-water mixture, stirring to distribute, and cook until sauce is thickened, about 1 minute. Season to taste.

7. While you're simmering, transfer the chickpea puree to a saucepan over low heat and heat through. Season to taste. Serve puree topped with the chicken, sprinkled with crispy shallots. Top with some of the thickened sauce. Delish!

White Bean Dip: Both Amazing and Easy

2009-05-20T22:10:00.006-04:00

I can't stop eating this dip. I'm already plotting to make more. It's creamy and flavourful and garlicky without being overpowering. It's also low-fat and low-carb, if you care about such things. It's very high-yum and high-protein and high-ly likely to be devoured before I can finish writing this post.

You need:

1.5 cups cooked white beans, like navy beans*
1 head of garlic
4 tbs olive oil
1/2 tsp coarse sea salt
1/4 cup finely diced red onion
2-3 tsps lemon juice

* Look, it's really really easy to cook your own dried beans from scratch and it's quite a bit cheaper. It takes about 4 hours and you don't have to stand there the whole time. Make a bunch and freeze them in baggies. If you don't believe there's a difference, take my word for it. If you always hated beans, try making your own. They are amazing. Cans are for jerks. <--- Please note, this is a rant. Do not take it too seriously. A bit seriously, but not too seriously.

1. Roast your garlic. Preheat your oven to 400ºF and slice off the very top of your head of garlic. Do not separate the individual cloves! Leave it whole! Place the whole head in a piece of aluminium foil and drizzle with 1 tbs of olive oil and a pinch of the sea salt. Wrap up the garlic head in the foil and put it in the oven for 30-35 minutes.

2. Put the rest of the ingredients in a food processor. When the garlic is done, let it cool, then squish all (yes all) the cloves out of their skins by squishing the head of garlic from the bottom. Add the garlic to the food processor, too. Mmm garlic.

3. Process/blend the dip until it's creamy. You may need to adjust the lemon juice or salt to your taste - this is just my taste. Serve with toasted pita or veggie dippers!

My absence

2009-05-19T15:35:00.011-04:00

I was away for five days, kicking up my heels on the east coast! I'll be back to cooking and baking soon, but for now, here are some photos to keep you drooling.

While we were in Halifax we had two really good meals. The first was at the brew-pub, The Split Crow. They stock local brew and cook a mean dinner. Friendly service, too! The photos below are from our meal there:

First, a delicious seafood chowder with lobster, haddock, and potatoes:

Please note the delicious lobster claw left whole in the chowder: mmmmmmmmmmm!

And then a plate of local-beer battered haddock with hand-cut chips, and a pint of India Pale Ale to wash it down.
Crispy batter, moist fish, delicious fries, and home-made tartar sauce. Malt vinegar may also have played a role.

The other delicious meal we had was at Little Fish, which is a little more upscale and a bit pricier, but very much worth it. They showcase Nova Scotian wines, which were actually quite tasty, at least the one we sampled! Again, great friendly service and fantastic food. Some of our party had whole lobster, but I had lobster-stuffed haddock with dauphinoise potatoes and fresh, local asparagus, which was perfectly cooked. The pan-fried haddock with capers was also delicious.

They also have an even more upscale dining room called The Five Fishermen, which we didn't get to try out because of an electrical outage.

EPIC RAINBOW CAKE OF NOM!

2009-05-09T14:59:00.005-04:00

The rainbow cake has been spreading through the foodblogosphere like butter on a hot roll since at least January - that's when I heard about it from The Omnomicon. I've been waiting for an opportunity to use my gel food colours, thinking of this cake, and thinking that perhaps my own birthday might be the occassion for their inaugural use. But then a party was announced and Roxy became the lucky recipient of a magical six-layer rainbow cake.

The idea is fairly simple but keeping a six-layer cake level and in one piece, especially when serving, is hard to execute. I am by no means a proficient cake-maker, but I like cake, and I feel like that is half the battle. It's not the half that makes your cake stand up straight, though, I discovered.

You need:

2 batches of the cake recipe of your choice! It should be a white cake so that the colours stand out well. You can even use two box mixes! But, if you do this, I recommend adding two boxes of vanilla pudding (dry) to the mix - you'll end up with a richer, more structurally sound cake.
red, yellow, green, and blue GEL food colours. I don't recommend using liquid food colours as you'll have to add too much and the cake consistency will change.
icing recipe of your choice - you will need a LOT of icing. More than you think. Again, feel free to use disgusting canned icing.
decorations of some sort! icing of various colours and/or a piping bag will do the trick.

1. Mix your batter according to the directions. Measure the volume of the batter and divide that number by 6 for your six layers. I ended up needing 1 and 1/3 c of batter per colour as I had 8 cups of batter total. Preheat your oven to the indicated temperature. Grease six 8" cake pans well.

2. Divide the batter into 6 glass or ceramic bowls. Plastic might take some of the colour from the food dye - I'd be careful. Add a few drops of gel food colouring to each bowl, according to the colour you want, and mix well. I needed three drops for red, 2 drops of yellow and one drop of red for orange, three drops of yellow for yellow, two drops for green, three drops for blue, and two drops of blue plus two drops of pink for purple.

3. Pour each colour of batter into a cake pan, and bake! Mine took 20 minutes to be done through.

4. Let the cake cool for a long time. The cake must be cool before you start assembling your cake or it will be fail cake. While you're waiting, make your icing. My recipe is a few tbs of butter, a bag of icing sugar, a tbs of vanilla, and enough milk to make it icingy.

5. Using a sharp cerated knife or cake leveller, level off the tops of the cakes. They must be flat or your cake will fall over. Put the purple layer on the tray you're going to serve it on. Tuck a few pieces of parchement paper underneath so that no icing will get on the serving tray. You'll tug them out later when you're done icing. Ice the top but not the sides of the purple layer. Stack the blue layer on top, and ice its top. Repeat with green, yellow, orange, and red.

6. When you get to red, pile lots of icing on the top and spread it evenly, pushing it over the edges. Then ice the sides. Now you can decorate the cake however you like - those icing scribblers they sell are useful for this, or you can put chocolate chips or sprinkles or whatever! I like to make mine as garish as possible. :)

7. Tug out the parchment pieces, and serve your beautiful cake to your adoring fans!

Herb-crusted White Fish

2009-05-08T11:11:00.006-04:00

This is sort of the antidote to the last post: fresh, healthy, and bursting with flavour. It was a bit labour intensive, since Quebec apparently does not believe in the selling of anchovy paste, and sells only the whole fillets - I ended up having to make my own.

The recipe is, once again, from Serious Eats' column, Dinner Tonight. It calls for three different fresh herbs, lovely red onions, and salty, tasty anchovies. All together, the taste is rich without being heavy, and the combination of fresh herbs brightens the flavour of the fish rather than overpowering it. I almost left out the mint because I'm not usually a big fan, but I'm really glad I kept it in. It really made the dish.

The only thing I changed from the recipe was the type of fish. Atlantic Cod stocks are very low. If you can, you should choose a more sustainable firm, white fish for this recipe. Here's a guide.

Here's the recipe, copied from Dinner Tonight:

1 medium or 1/2 of a large red onion
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar
12 to 16 ounces firm white fish fillet, cut in 3 to 4-ounce portions
1/2 teaspoon anchovy paste*
3 tablespoons dried breadcrumbs
3 or 4 sprigs fresh, flat-leaf parsley
8 to 10 fresh mint leaves
3 or 4 large fresh basil leaves
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
1/2 cup dry white wine or water
10 to 12 oil-cured black olives, cracked and pitted

*If you want to make your own anchovy paste, blend a tin of anchovies with 2 cloves of garlic, 1 tbs of wine vinegar and some of the oil from the can in a food processor until it is a paste. Easy.

Procedure

1. Preheat the oven to 400°F.

2. Cut the onion into quarters, then cut the quarters crosswise and separate the layers to create wide, square slices. In a sauté pan, heat 1 tablespoon of olive and add the onion. Season with salt and pepper, and sauté over low heat until the onion has wilted and started to turn translucent; be careful not to let it brown. Add the red wine vinegar to the pan and shake it briefly, then transfer everything to the bottom of a medium-sized baking dish.

3. Wipe the pan with a paper towel to clean it, then place it back over low heat and add the remaining tablespoon of olive oil. Add the anchovy paste and stir with a wooden spoon to dissolve the paste into the oil. Dump the breadcrumbs into the pan and stir to completely coat them with the oil. Transfer the breadcrumbs to a small bowl to cool slightly.

4. Wash the herbs, pat them dry, and finely chop them. Add them to the bowl with breadcrumbs, and season everything with a small pinch of salt and a few grinds of black pepper.

5. Lay the portioned fish on top of the onions and season with a bit more salt and pepper. Distribute the breadcrumb-herb mixture evenly on top of the fish. Add the white wine or water to the pan and scatter the olives around the dish.

6. Bake the fish for 15 to 20 minutes, depending on the thickness of the fish; it should be cooked through but still moist; check the pan after 10 minutes and add a bit more water or wine if necessary.

7. Serve immediately, with the some of the onions, olives and pan juices spooned alongside the fish.

Review: Campbell's Cream of Chicken Easy Cooking Sauce

2009-05-06T19:45:00.006-04:00

Campbell's has really been pushing these new "Easy Cooking Sauces" - their people shoved about 5 flyers with coupons through my door, and the grocery store was having a crazy sale on them all of last month. I got a carton for about 70 cents, I think.

Anyways, each carton comes with a little recipe to show you how to use the sauce. I got Mediterranean Chicken Rotini Bake on the back of mine.

Basically, you mix the sauce with spices and pasta, put some veggies on top, then chicken, cover with cheese, and bake for about an hour. As with all these ready-made soups and sauces, the sodium levels are through the roof. Each serving has 720mg, out of a daily max of 2300mg.

It's supposed to come out looking like this:

(photo from Campbells.ca)

You need:

1 carton (500mL) CAMPBELL'S Cream of Chicken Easy Cooking Sauce
2 cups uncooked whole wheat rotini
1/4 cup chopped fresh basil *
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 cups (1/2” / 1 cm dice) zucchini **
2 tbsp chopped pitted black olives
1 cup chopped plum tomatoes
4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts ***
1/2 cup shredded part-skim Mozzarella cheese
2 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
Additional chopped fresh basil for garnish

Directions

1. Combine cooking sauce, pasta, basil and garlic in shallow 2 qt (2 L) baking dish.
2. Spread evenly with vegetables. Top with chicken. Sprinkle with cheeses. Cover.
3. Bake at 400ºF (200ºC) for 50 minutes or until hot and bubbly. Remove cover and broil until cheese is golden and bubbly – about 3 minutes. Stir pasta, sprinkle with additional chopped fresh basil and let stand 5 minutes before serving.

* I used about twice this much basil, as I had some to get rid of.
** I didn't have enough zucchini so I made up the difference with some red and green peppers and a bit of brocolli
*** I think that a whole chicken breast is really a lot for one person, so for four people I used two and just cut each in half.

Verdict:

Meh. It was fine, but nothing to write a blog post about, or anything.

Even though I only cooked it for a total of 50 minutes, rather than the recommended 53, the zucchini were very mushy, and the chicken was quite dry. Despite the amount of sodium, the dish was not overly salty, which was good. As far as flavour, the sauce didn't disappoint; I tasted it before mixing it in with the pasta, and it was nice. But the end product was a bit bland and lacked something.

If I made this again, I would double the garlic, at least, and leave out the zucchini in favour of more peppers, which stood up a bit better to the long baking. I would also add a diced red onion.

Balsamic-Glazed Roast Chicken

2009-05-05T17:11:00.004-04:00

This recipe is from my dear friend over at The Pantry Collective. You should go visit her and see what yummy things she makes. I've been drooling over that and other recipes for a while, and I finally got the chance to make it! Verdict: Delicious!!

I didn't have some of what was needed, so I improvised a bit. You might notice some differences between her recipe and mine here. :)

You need:

a roasting chicken
1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 tbs honey
2 teaspoons coarse sea salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 tbs thyme
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp basil
2 tsp rosemary
1 large lemon, juiced and zested, quarters reserved
8 cloves of garlic, peeled
4 small beets, peeled and quartered
4 medium carrots, peeled and cut in large pieces
2 medium onions, quartered

1. Wash your chicken, inside and out, and preheat your oven to 500ºF. Pat the chicken dry.
2. Combine the rest of the ingredients, save the last four, in a small bowl and mix.
3. Arrange your chopped veggies in the bottom of a roasting pan. Plop the chicken down in the middle.
4. Stuff the chicken with some onion quarters, the lemon quarters, and all of the garlic. Pour the sauce over the chicken, being careful to cover all the surfaces.
5. Roast the entire pan, veg and all, lowering the temperature to 400 after you put the pan in.

It shouldn't take more than about 90 minutes or so, although if you have included beets in your mixed veg, make sure you don't mistake beet juices for uncooked chicken juice, or vice versa. We ended up roasting ours for so long that the bones all fell away! However, despite our error, the chicken was so so juicy and delicious, and the vegetables retained their shapes. We ate it with steamed green beans and orzo. And plenty of wine.

Bonus: my sister holding the plate of chicken and veg. She is a brave lady for carrying that chicken while wearing a white silk blazer/vest.

Everybody Let's Get Sconed!

2009-05-01T20:13:00.003-04:00

The perfect scone is flaky and creamy, just held together by butter and magic. If I could get my hands on some clotted cream in this here town, I would be eating scones by the dozen, topped with cream and jam.

As it happens I only have butter, but I do have some home-made plum jam from the summer. So scones are allowed. They take about 30 minutes from start to finish, so if you're feeling lazy/pressed for time but still want a treat, this here's your answer.

Today I made two kinds: a plain, cream scone which is nice with tea and jam, and a chive scone for M because he likes oniony things and has a very tiny and furtive sweet tooth.

RECIPE THE FIRST: CREAM SCONES

2 c all purpose flour
1 tbs baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
2 tbs sugar
1/4 c + 1 tbs chilled butter, diced
1 c heavy cream

First, mix the first four ingredients well. Then cut in your butter until the mixture resembles crumbs. To cut in butter, you can use two knives or a pastry cutter and just slice through the flour and dough until it's mixed up.

Make a well in the centre and pour in your cream. Here's where things get a little tricky. Not too tricky though - don't give up! Mix the cream into the flour and butter mixture only enough so that you have a shaggy kind of dough. It doesn't have to be perfect, and in fact, should not look perfect unless you want rock hard scones. TOUCH THE DOUGH AS LITTLE AS POSSIBLE.

Press the dough into a sort of rectangle shape, and cut it into evenly-sized triangles. Mine were about 3" by 4.5" by 5". I'm not sure if that's even possible... Pythagorus? Alternately, you can cut them into rounds with a glass or a biscuit cutter, but you'll lose some dough this way. Don't try to reform it - that falls into the category of too much touching.

Lay the scones out on a baking sheet, ungreased, and put them into an oven which has been preheated to 400ºF. They'll be done after about 10 minutes - very lightly golden on the edges, and milky everywhere else. Also, your kitchen will smell like heaven.

RECIPE THE SECOND: CHIVE SCONES!

Basically it's the same as the above, but with 1 tbs less sugar (so only 1 tbs) and you add in about 3 tbs finely snipped fresh chives with the flour and salt etc before you cut in the butter.

These are seriously amazing. The chive flavour is delicate but definitely present. They would be awesome with some sharp cheddar in there too.

Spaghetti Aglio E Olio

2009-04-27T22:31:00.004-04:00

E red peppers e chives...

If you plan on kissing, make sure your kiss-ee eats this too. It's for garlic lovers!

You need (serves 2):

1/8 tsp red paper flakes
8 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
4 tbs olive oil
spaghetti for 2
2 tbs minced chives or 2 tbs chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
1/3 of a red pepper that needed to get used up (optional but yummy)

1. Heat the oil on very low in a large cast-iron skillet (big enough to toss the pasta in later). Add the garlic and let it cook.

2. Meanwhile boil your water with lots of salt. When it's boiling, add your pasta.

3. Pour yourself a glass of wine and chop up your chives and/or parsley and/or peppers.

4. Wait for the garlic to get a bit brown on the edges. Hopefully this will correspond with your pasta being almost done. At this point, toss in your peppers and parsley/parsley substitute and the red pepper flakes.

5. When your pasta is done to your liking, drain it and toss with the oil etc. Add salt and pepper to taste and enjoy!

Roasted Asparagus with Poached Eggs

2009-04-26T14:46:00.003-04:00

My memories of poached eggs are from when I was little and hated egg whites. I only liked the yolk, and I liked it runny. Perfection for me as a five year old was a mug full of cut up, buttered toast and a runny poached egg.

I am still convinced that the perfect proportion of yolk to white lies in the poached egg, where the distribution of the white is such that it minimizes its interference with the golden, buttery yolk. Many days I eat poached eggs on toast for breakfast, but sometimes I want something a little more mature, a little more sophisticated. Enter this meal:

You need:

1 bunch of asparagus (yay! It's asparagus season!)
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs parmesan cheese (optional but delicious)
2 eggs

1. Heat your oven to 400ºF with the rack in the middle. Line a baking pan with foil to make clean-up easy. Trim your asparagus by bending each spear until it snaps - that way you don't get any woody bits.

2. Put your asparagus in the baking pan and drizzle with the olive oil, tossing to coat. Sprinkle the cheese on top, if you're using it. If you're not, I'd sprinkle a bit of coarse sea salt on top.

3. Put the pan in the oven. Start a small pot of water on to boil. Poaching eggs works best if you have the water deep enough that the egg doesn't just sit on the bottom. The pot should be wide enough that you can swirl the water and eggs around with a bit of room to spare.

4. After about 12 minutes, the asparagus will be done. So before that point, after about 7 minutes and when your water is boiling, turn the pot down to medium high, swirl the water with a spoon so that it swirls in a circle, and break your eggs into this swirling, boiling water. The swirling makes sure that the whites wrap around the yolk, giving it that perfect ratio we discussed earlier.

5. Check on your asparagus. It may be done, and by done I mean roasty-toasty. You can take them out when they look fully cooked and the cheese is golden. At this point, check your eggs. I am never sure how long it takes for a poached egg to cook. I hover over the stove and lift it out after the white becomes opaque to poke it and see how it's doing. When the white is firm but before the yolk hardens, I pull it out. Remember that the egg will keep cooking for a bit after it's out of the water, so don't wait too long!

6. Arrange your asparagus on a plate and top with the eggs. Generously salt and pepper your plate and dig in! You might want to have a piece of toast standing by to mop up all that delicious yolk.

I had this for lunch, but I think it would be lovely for a quiet dinner on a weeknight, or in a smaller portion, it would work really well as a starter if you were having a fancy dinner party.

Montreal-Style Bagels

2009-04-21T22:53:00.007-04:00

I promised Annalise over at Knead to be Loaved a "bagel-off" when she posted her bagel recipe a while ago. Well, the fight is on! ;)

There are lots of bagel recipes floating around, but once you've tasted a fresh, warm bagel from Fairmount Bagels, none of those big, bready, more-dough-than-hole impostors will do. A real bagel should be dense and chewy! If your bagel has the texture of round bread with a hole in it, well, I'm afraid that is not a bagel! That is bread with a hole in it!

(Honestly, I'm not really this argumentative. But a bagel-off isn't really a bagel-off unless you make outlandish statements. Plus, bagels in this neck of the woods are one of those things where people have steadfast allegiances to Montreal-, New York-, or whatever-style bagels and will fight to the death defending their choice. There is even a heated battle within Montreal as to whether the best bagels come from Fairmount or St Viateur; it's fairly obvious where I stand on the matter.)

I have been trying to figure out the secret to the Fairmount bagel for a few years. I've asked people who work there, but the batches are so big even their tips are imprecise. I also lack the requisite Cavern of Fire in which the bagels are baked.

That's not to say that I haven't come pretty close to getting it right.

This is a work in progress of sorts, but I'll share what I've got going so far. If you manage any better, you let me know!

For the dough, you need:

1.5 c warm water
5 tbs sugar
3 tbs oil
2.25 tsp dry yeast
1 tbs beaten egg
1 tbs malt powder (maple syrup works too)
4.5-5c all purpose flour
5 tsp vital wheat gluten
1 tsp kosher salt

And for boiling you need:
lots of water and 1/3 c honey to boil

1. Stir together the 1.5c water, the sugar, oil, yeast, egg, and malt. When the yeast has dissolved and proofed, stir in the salt and one cup of the flour. Fold in 3 more cups of flour until a soft dough forms.

2. Knead in the remaining flour (as needed) and let the dough rest for 10 minutes, covered.

3. Divide the dough into 12 even pieces and shape. Roll each ball of dough out into a long snake about 1" in diameter. Shape into a ring and roll the ends together to join. Let the bagels rise for 30 minutes.

4. Meanwhile, preheat the oven and your baking stone (I really recommend a baking stone) to 425ºF and get about 6L of water and the honey on the boil.

5. Once the water is boiling, boil the bagels for about 1.5 minutes, turning once. Drain the bagels on a dish towl and place on a parchment paper-lined baking sheet. Sprinkly them with sesame seeds on both sides (or poppy seeds, or don't. It's your call.) I had to do mine in batches.

6. Either put the baking sheet in the oven or carefully place the bagels directly on the baking stone. Bake for 20 minutes, until golden, turning them once part way through.

Enjoy fresh out of the oven, toasted the next day with butter, cream cheese, or, as M likes them, with peanut butter. Trust me, you'll never go back.

Penne with Rosemary

2009-04-19T16:35:00.004-04:00

I wish this picture could express the amazing things that the rosemary did for the taste. This sauce had a really unexpected depth of flavour. It was rich and flavourful without being heavy - perfect for the oncoming spring. And because you add flour and milk at the last moment, the sauce coats each piece of pasta, so you can stretch a small amount of sauce (with a big taste) over a large amount of pasta. It's also an excellent pantry-dinner; I had all the things required already in the house (with some minor subs)!

I got the recipe from the Serious Eats column "Dinner Tonight", which is an excellent resource when you don't know what to make for dinner. Here's their recipe:

Spaghetti with Rosemary

- makes 4 servings -

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons fresh rosemary leaves, minced (I used 1 tbs dried)
1 garlic clove, chopped
1/2 red chile, chopped (I used about 1/4 tsp dried chili flakes)
9 ounces canned tomatoes with juice, chopped
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon milk
1 tablespoon water
12 ounces spaghetti (I used penne - no spaghetti in the house!)
Parmesan
Salt

Procedure

1. Pour the oil in a skillet and turn the heat to medium. Toss in the rosemary, garlic, and chile. Cook until fragrant, about two minutes. Pour in the chopped tomatoes. Bring to a boil, then reduce to a simmer, and cook for 30 minutes.

2. In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, water, and milk.

3. Bring a large pot of water to a boil for the spaghetti. Cook according to directions on the box.

4. When done simmering, season with the tomato sauce with salt, and then pour in the flour mixture. Mix together and then cook for 5 minutes.

5. Toss the drained spaghetti in with the rosemary sauce to coat. Serve with some grated parmesan.

OM NOM Parker House Rolls

2009-04-14T22:38:00.005-04:00

I am in love with Parker.....

.... House rolls! :D

I got this recipe from the Food Network years ago, who got it directly from the Omni Parker House Hotel, in Boston.

You need:

6 cups of all-purpose flour
1/2 c sugar
2 tsp salt
4.5 tsp yeast
1 c butter, softened
1 large egg

1. In a large bowl, combine 2 1/4 c flour, the sugar, salt, yeast, and half the butter. Mix while pouring in 2 cups of hot tap water.

2. Add the egg and beat. Mix in 3/4 more flour and continue beating. I'm using my KitchenAid for this. Stir in about 2 1/2 c more flour, or enough to make a soft dough.

3. Knead until smooth and elastic, working in more flour if you need it.

4. Put the dough into a greased bowl and cover. Let it rise for about 2 hours if your house is cold.

5. Punch down the dough and knead it into a smooth ball. Let it rest, covered, for 15 minutes.

6. Preheat your oven to 400ºF. Meanwhile, in each of two 9X13 roasting pans melt 1/4c of butter (so all the rest of the butter). This will grease the bottom of the pans.

7. Weigh your dough and divide that number by 40 because you are making 40 buns. Pluck off and weigh portions of the dough to make 40 even portions. Shape these into balls by folding them in on themselves and gently rolling to seal.

8. Put 20 rolls per pan, seam side down. Let the dough rise again, covered, for about an hour if your house is cold.

9. Bake rolls for about 15-20 minutes, until they're golden brown and smell heavenly. DEVOUR.

Roasted Trout with Sundried Tomato Marinade

2009-04-14T21:45:00.003-04:00

This was the fastest, easiest, most refreshing meal. It looks great, tastes great, and took under 25 minutes from start to end.

You need (serves 2):

A trout or salmon fillet about 2" thick and 5" by 6" in area
2 tbs miracle whip or yoghurt
2 tbs minced sun-dried tomatoes (I used dried, soaked them in hot water for 10 minutes, then minced them)
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper, plus more to taste
5 cloves of garlic, minced, divided
enough green beans for 2
3/4 c orzo
1 can chicken broth + 1 can water
1 tsp butter

You can serve this with things other than green beans and orzo - this is just what appealed to me.

1. Preheat oven to 375ºF.

2. In a small bowl, mix about half of the minced garlic, the miracle whip/yoghurt, the sun-dried tomatoes, and the pepper.

3. Wash and dry the fish and place on a foil-lined baking sheet. Smear the marinade over the fish and put the fish in the oven.

4. Put your broth on to boil and start trimming and washing your beans. When the broth boils, pour in the orzo.

5. When the orzo is almost done (about 15 minutes), put the beans in a saute pan with 1 tsp butter and the rest of the garlic. Saute on medium-high. By the time the beans are done, the orzo and the fish will be too! Make sure the fish is opaque throughout before serving.

Slow-Cooker Indian Butter Chicken

2009-04-07T20:01:00.004-04:00

I've owned a slow-cooker for about eight years now, and tonight marks its inaugural use. It's not that I scorned the crock-pot; it's just that first of all, I love the act of cooking. I love standing in front of the stove and watching the flavours and colours come together. Second of all, I'm never really sure what I want for dinner until it's 4pm and I don't want to work any more and my mind and web browser turn to cooking and food blogs.

But this morning, having woken up with a sore throat, I knew that by the time my meeting-filled day wrapped up, I was going to be ready for nothing more than a couch, a cozy meal, and maybe a beer. Thus inspired, I looked through the many recipes my generous friends have sent my way, but I also looked to this lady, whose crock-pot blog is the go-to online for slow-cooker recipes.

I have been trying for years with no success to cook something akin to the butter chicken I order when at Indian restaurants. I decided to give it one more try, using this recipe, but with some modifications.

You need (adapted from the above link):

A 3.5 litre crock pot (but I bet you anything you could do this stove-top too!)

2 large-ish chicken breasts
2 onions, sliced into half-moons
1 can of tomato paste
1 can of coconut milk
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1.5" knob of ginger, minced
2 whole cinnamon sticks
15-20 whole cardomom pods
2 tsps whole pepper corns (I used mixed: red, green, and black)
1 tsp grated nutmeg
2 whole star anise
1 tsp whole cumin seeds
1 tsp whole cloves
2 bay leaves
1 tbs curry powder
2 cubes of chicken/veggie/beef stock (cheating, cheating, yes, yes.)
4 tbs butter
1/2 c frozen peas
1/2 c chopped sweet pepper (I had a yellow one on hand)
1/2 c cooked chickpeas (because they were there)

1. Put into the crock-pot all ingredients but the last three. I put my whole spices in a cheesecloth bag tied at both ends and I recommend you do the same.

2. Cook on low 7 hours or high 3.5 hours. After that time, taste it to adjust the spices and add in the last three ingredients. Cook another hour on low or another 30 minutes on high.

HOW EASY WAS THAT, HMMM? Serve it with basmati rice and naan bread, a recipe for which you can find here.

"Bistro Chicken"

2009-04-06T20:53:00.003-04:00

If you love crispy, juicy, herbed chicken with the skin on, you need to try this. It's delicious in the oven, but even better in the summer on the barbecue.

You need:

8-10 skin-on chicken drumsticks and/or thighs
1 tsp coarse sea salt
1 tbs dried or 2 tbs fresh rosemary, crushed
2 tsps dried thyme
1 tsp fresh ground black pepper
2 tbs olive oil
zest of one lemon (optional)

Preheat your oven to 400ºF and line a baking sheet with foil, if you're doing this in the oven. Otherwise, heat up your grill.

Mix all the non-chicken ingredients in a small bowl.

With your fingers, carefully separate the skin from the meat on a piece of the chicken. Stuff the space under the skin with a small amount of the herb paste. Repeat with the other chicken pieces. You may need more paste than I gave amounts for - I really just eyeball it and make more if I need it. The olive oil makes the meat super juicy and the herbs permeate throughout.

Arrange the chicken on the barbecue or on your baking sheet and bake/grill until the chicken is cooked through and the skin is crispy and golden.

This goes well with mashed potatoes and veg in the winter, and with grilled corn on the cob and potato salad in the summer. So easy and versatile, and your dinner guests will think you are made of magic.

Seafood Chowder

2009-04-03T13:25:00.006-04:00

The craving for some sort of fish soup seems to be going around these days. I was thinking about fish chowder last week when I was going through some old food magazines, combing for ideas, and then The Omnomicon featured a fish chowder earlier this week. Then I was talking to a friend last night, and despite not really liking fish all that much, she admitted that she had been thinking about making a fish chowder! With the stars happily aligned, I went straight to the butcher.

A good chowder starts with bacon. I bought good bacon. My elderly Polish butcher told me this is the best bacon for soup. It was pretty good. And beautiful.

I also bought:

2 medium leeks (whites only, halved and thinly sliced)
2 bunches of green onions (whites only, thinly sliced)
3 medium white potatoes (peel on, in 1 cm cubes)
1 c frozen/fresh/canned corn kernels
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp thyme
1 small sweet red pepper (finely chopped)
6 c broth (fish or veggie or chicken)
1 can of crab meat
1 c heavy cream
2 filets of firm white fish (I used tilapia because it was on sale for some reason) cut into 1" chunks.

1. Heat up your dutch oven/stock pot and fry that bacon. Add the leeks part way through, and when the bacon is almost cooked, throw in the green onions. Now, my type of bacon didn't release its fat. Yours might, if you use regular bacon, so you may have to pour off some (but not all) before the next step.

2. Add your stock and potatoes along with the herbs and bring to a boil.

3. When the potatoes are soft, reduce the heat and add the crab (don't drain it!), the pepper, and the corn and cook until the pepper is softened. Then, when you're five minutes away from eating, add the fish and simmer until the fish is opaque throughout.

4. Heat up the cream in the microvave and stir it gently into the chowder.

I served this with a whole wheat variation on the french bread I made last week and it went over very well! This makes a big batch - enough to feed 6 or 8 for dinner - but it keeps in the fridge and it's even better on the second day.

Veggie Lasagne

2009-03-31T22:10:00.004-04:00

Warmer weather means that I have fewer hankerings for large pieces of meat and long-braised stews. But I'll always love cheese.

You need:

1 tin tomatoes, diced or crushed (depending on how chunky you want your sauce)
1 medium onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
1/2 c red wine (optional)
1/2 c stock of some sort... i used chicken
1 tbs olive oil
1 or 2 bay leaves
1 or two carrots, grated
1/2 a red or yellow pepper, thinly sliced into 2" pieces
1 smallish zucchini/courgette, thinly sliced
2 handfuls spinach or 1/2 pack frozen spinach, diced
2 handfuls fresh arugula (optional)
some lasagna noodles (i used oven-ready ones; if you aren't you'll have to boil them first)
250 ml cottage cheese (it is tradition in my family to use cottage cheese. please don't kill me!)
250 g grated mozzarella
4 tbs parmesan cheese

1. Saute the onion and garlic in the olive oil over medium heat.

2. Add the tomatoes, carrot, spinach, stock, and wine, if using. if you're not using the wine, add a bit more stock. I like to add grated carrot to the sauce because the sweetness of the carrot takes the edge off the acidity of the tomatoes, and you don't have to resort to sugar, as some do. The sauce will be delicious on its own, and if you chicken out at this point, you can always eat it over other pasta. It's a good default sauce.

3. Simmer until reduced a bit; I used this time to chop my other veggies.

4. In a casserole dish, layer sauce, then noodles, then cheese (some cottage, some mozza), then zucchini; then sauce, then noodles, then cheese, then peppers and arugula, if using; then sauce, then noodles, then sauce, then the rest of the mozza and all the parmesan.

5. Cover with a lid or tinfoil and bake in a 375ºF oven for 30-40 minutes; then uncover and bake another 15 minutes, until the cheese is toasty on top.

There is no "served" photo because I actually think it's impossible to make a lasagne stand up properly as they do on the box of noodles. :) But it was delicious and you'd never know there was no meat. :)

Spaghetti Primavera

2009-03-29T20:51:00.002-04:00

This is such an easy and healthy dinner.

That is, until I smothered it with parmesan cheese!

You need:

Enough pasta for 4 people (or two people, or one person etc. My amounts are for 4 because we like leftovers.)
Red bell pepper, quartered and thinly sliced
Zucchini, halved lengthwise and thinly sliced
3 cloves of garlic, minced
Half a red onion, quartered, then thinly sliced
1 cup arugula or baby spinach
3 tbs olive oil
salt and pepper

1. Put on a big pot of water and while you're waiting for it to boil, chop up your veggies.

2. Saute your onion and garlic in 1 tbs of the oil in a pan.

3. When water is boiling, put your pasta in that pot, and at the same time, put the red pepper and zucchini in with the onions and garlic.

4. When the pasta is cooked, drain it, then put it back in the pot with the other 2 tbs of olive oil. Add your veggies on top, and the arugula. Season to taste and toss to coat the pasta in the "sauce".

5. Drench in parmesan cheese, and eat up!

I served this with homemade bread and a caesar salad with pancetta. (The pancetta is really easy - all you do is separate out your pancetta slices and arrange them on a paper towel on a plate. Put it in the microwave for about 2 minutes. That pancetta will crisp up like nobody's business and you can put it on anything! Pasta, salads, in sandwiches...! YUM!)

No-Knead Bread

2009-03-29T20:13:00.005-04:00

Well, I bit the bullet and tried out Mark Bittman's famous no-knead bread. And I have to say, I think it's more trouble than it's worth, but that may just be my own circumstances.

I had no container in which I could bake the bread. Baking the bread in a dutch oven or a cast-iron pot keeps the steam in with the bread, making the crust nice and chewy, like real French bread. So in the end, after shaping and resting the bread, I baked it directly on my baking stone, using a tray of ice cubes on the bottom shelf to create steam. The crust was nice and chewy but the crumb left something to be desired, even after having risen for 24 hours. The flavour was good, but wasn't very salty, and didn't have the lovely nutty texture a long rise usually gives.

If you want to make delicious French bread and have absolutely no time whatsoever to be at home and supervise, then for sure, go this way. You'll get rave reviews and people will still love you.

But, if you have a day when you're going to be home anyways, working or doing chores, or watch TV etc, then I suggest you follow this method. This bread is almost as easy, does not require a dutch oven (although I'm sure it would be nice baked in there, too!), and can be shaped into lovely baguettes which are useful for impressing boyfriends, guests, et al.

If you can't see the recipe, first of all you should join The Fresh Loaf because it's awesome, but I'll reproduce it here, too.

Poolish
1 cup flour
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast

Final Dough
1 pound flour (about 4 cups)
10-12 ounces water (by weight, not volume!)
1 teaspoon instant yeast
2 teaspoons salt
all of the poolish

Combine the ingredients for the poolish in a small bowl the night before baking. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and leave the poolish out at room temperature overnight.

The next day, prepare the final dough. Combine all the ingredients except for the poolish in a bowl and let it sit for 25 minutes. This develops the gluten in the bread and makes nice holes in the crumb. Then add the poolish in and mix them together until you have a VERY wet dough. Your hands will look like you put them in ... well, a lot of flour and water.

Knead the dough as best you can. Then put the dough in an oiled bowl, cover it, then leave it for 45-60 minutes. Come back and fold it ever 45 minutes to an hour, so about 6 times.

Shape the dough how ever you like and put the shaped loaves on parchment paper to rise. The Fresh Loaf has great shaping tutorials, not to mention more tips and tricks for French Bread. I usually make two oval loaves out of this amount of ingredients. Cover your loaves and let them rise for another 90 minutes. Meanwhile, preheat your oven to as hot as it can safely go. I usually set mine to 450-475, with my baking stone in right from the start.

Right before you're going to pop those loaves in, get the sharpest knife you have, or a razor blade, and make some slashes about 1/2" deep along the length of the bread. This will help the bread rise up and not split at the bottom. Bake for about 20 minutes. As you put the loaves in, put in a baking dish full of ice cubes. After 5 minutes, turn the temperature down to 450. The loaves should be brown and toasty on the top and sound hollow on the bottom when tapped.

Even though you're going to want to bite those loaves right out of the oven, resist. Leave them cool until they're mostly cold, and only then slice them. The gluten strands that make French bread so delicious continue to develop until the bread is cool. You'll end up with gummy crumb if you cut it too early.

See also: Naan Bread

Flourless chocolate Cake

2009-03-27T14:08:00.009-04:00

Unfortunately there is no photo of this one whole, because it was so tasty that it was devoured before I could get one. And by that I mean my hands were too full of cake to hold a camera.

My mom just called to convince me this post needed a photo, so I had to oblige by eating a piece of cake in the middle of the afternoon. It was really difficult, but I care about this blog. :)

If you're looking for a decadent, rich, and wheat-free dessert to impress non-dessert eaters and sweet-teeth alike, look no further!

You need:

4 (1 ounce) squares semisweet chocolate, chopped (I used 2 squares of chocolate and 2 oz of semi-sweet chocolate chips, because that's what I had)
1/2 cup butter
3/4 cup white sugar
1/2 cup cocoa powder
3 eggs, beaten
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 300 degrees F (150 degrees C). Grease an 8 inch round cake pan, and dust with cocoa powder.
In the top of a double boiler over lightly simmering water, melt chocolate and butter. Remove from heat, and stir in sugar, cocoa powder, eggs, and vanilla. Pour into prepared pan.
Bake in preheated oven for 30 minutes. Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and cool completely. Slices can also be reheated for 20 to 30 seconds in the microwave before serving.

Roasted Chickpeas with Garlic Salt

2009-03-27T14:01:00.008-04:00

All I can say is these are delicious and if you need an alternative to an unhealthy snack food, these are the ticket.

You need:
2 cups of cooked chickpeas
2 tbs olive oil or cooking oil
2-3 tbs of garlic salt (to taste)
Fresh ground pepper, to taste

1. Preheat your oven to 300F

2. Arrange chickpeas in a single layer in one or two rimmed baking sheets

3. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with garlic salt, then toss to coat evenly. Taste a chickpea (yum!) and see if it's garlicky enough for your liking. If you're replacing a bad snack food and don't care about your salt-intake, add lots. Yum yum.

4. Roast for about 60 minutes, then broil for another 10, but watch them. When they get brown and toasty, take them out and let them cool. They should be dry and crunchy when cooled. If they aren't, stick 'em back in.

These are nothing but delicious, but you will have terrible breath after, so be forewarned!

Coq au Vin

2009-03-26T15:30:00.011-04:00

When it's getting to be spring and you start to get a bit nostalgic for the wintery snows that left us only weeks ago, it's nice to get a day that is crispy and overcast because it justifies cooking something rich, hearty, warming, and cozifying.

I love all forms of chicken cooked in wine, and yet I've never made a proper Coq au Vin. Tonight a dear friend is coming, having just returned from overseas. I think she warrants something special; something special that involves bacon. Nothing warms a person's heart like one meat cooked in the fat of another meat. And chicken cooked in bacon and then simmered in a hearty red wine is pretty much the top of the cozy-dinner list.

Words cannot express how delicious, rich, and umami-fied this meal was. If you need a meaty, brothy, scrumptious fix, this is it. Trust me.

I'll say it right now: I don't like mushrooms and nothing anyone can do can induce me to cook with or eat them. Aside from that, and the fact that Provigo doesn't stock peeled, frozen pearl onions and I'm lazy, I'm not going to do any modifications to the classic Coq au Vin à la Julia Child. Sound good, Julia?

Recipe:
A half a pack of low-salt bacon, cut into rectangles about 1/4 inch across and 1 inch long. YUM BACON
6 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
pepper to taste
1/4 c cognac
3 c bold red wine
1-2 c chicken stock
2 tbs tomato paste
2 cloves mashed garlic
3 large carrots, sliced into 1/2" by 3" points
1/2 tsp thyme
2 bay leaves
2 onions, sliced into half-moons
1/2 lb sauteed mushrooms (I'm having none of it)
parsley for garnish

1. Sautee your bacon until it is very lightly browned. Julia wanted me to saute it in 2 tbs butter -- IMAGINE!!! Remove to a side dish. Use a dutch oven or fireproof casserole.

2. Brown the chicken in the hot fat. Season the chicken with salt and pepper and return bacon to the pot. Add the onions and the carrots. Cover, and cook slowly for 10 minutes, turning the chicken once.

3. Pour in cognac (I used brandy). OK and here is a direct quote from Mastering the Art of French Cooking: "Averting your face, ignite the cognac with a lighted match. Shake the casserole back and forth for several seconds until the flames subside." Uh... I'm not so sure I can do this. I'm not sure my landlord or my eyelashes would like it. I did not set my brandy on fire, but feel free to attempt this dangerous culinary feat at your own risk.

4. Pour in the wine (MOAR BOOZE) and add just enough stock to cover the chicken. Stir in the tomato paste, garlic, and herbs. Bring to a simmer and cover for 25-30 minutes, until the chicken is tender and the juices run clear. Skim off the fat. Julia says you should thicken the gravy with flour, but I found that I reduced it enough so that I didn't need to do this.

6. Then boil rapidly until the liquid is reduced to 2 1/4 cup. Discard bay leaf and remove from heat. Serve to your adoring guests!

I served it with roasted potatoes, and lots of wine although Julia also recommends buttered peas. Even though we were only three, and this recipe is supposed to serve 4-6, we polished off all of it and two bottles of wine. The bacon really made this meal, so use turkey bacon if you must, but don't omit it all together!

Naan Bread and Chicken Madras

2009-03-24T18:49:00.016-04:00

I love naan bread. I love Indian food. So does M.

I made a huge batch of delicious chicken madras the other day and froze some. Tonight we're busting it out for dinner #2, and because I can't seem to eat a dinner without working for it, I decided naan was in order. I made naan about two years ago with a yeast-based recipe, but the one I tried today is yeast-free and relies on baking powder for its puff.

Here's what you need (From BBC Food):

Ingredients
For the dough
250g/9oz plain flour
2 tsp sugar
½ tsp salt
½ tsp baking powder
110-130ml/3½-4½fl oz milk
2 tbsp vegetable oil, plus extra for greasing

1 tbsp butter, melted, to serve

Method
1. For the dough, sift the flour, sugar, salt and baking powder into a bowl. In another bowl, mix together the milk and oil.
2. Make a well in the centre of the flour mixture and pour in the liquid mixture. Slowly mix together the dough by working from the centre and incorporating the flour from the edges of the 'well', to make a smooth, soft dough. Knead well for 8-10 minutes, adding a little flour if the dough is too sticky.
3. Place the dough into an oiled bowl, cover with a damp tea-towel and leave in a warm place for at least an hour, until doubled in size. Then knock the dough back and form into five balls.
4. Preheat the grill to medium and place a heavy baking sheet on the upper shelf of the grill to heat.
5. Roll the dough balls out quite thinly, ideally in a teardrop shape, but really this is just aesthetic. Sprinkle over your chosen topping and press into the surface of the dough. Place the naans onto the hot baking sheet and grill for just 1-2 minutes, or until lightly browned. Brush with butter and serve hot.

My dough is currently sitting for its hour rest right now. A few minutes before dinner, I'll pop them on my baking stone for a few minutes and tell you how they turn out.

Edit: They turned out pretty good. I would cook them at hotter than the 400F I did this time, and for less time. Also, I would poke holes in them with a fork to release some of the air, as they got pretty puffy.

Here's my chicken madras recipe:

2 chicken breasts or equivalent amount of other boneless, skinless chicken, in cubes (Optional! You can use tofu, beef, just have chickpeas, etc!)
4tbs Patak's madras curry paste (yes, yes, it's cheating but it's tasty) or to taste.
2 medium onions, diced
1 green or red pepper, chopped
1.5 c chicken or veggie stock
1 large potato, skin on, diced
1 c chickpeas (optional)
2 c chopped fresh spinach (optional)
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
1 tbs oil

1. In a large cast-iron skillet or deep-sided pan, heat the oil on medium or medium high (medium for cast-iron, medium high for others). Add the chicken and brown on all sides.

2. Add the Patak's paste, the potato, and the onions and fry until onions are soft and everything is coated in paste.

3. Add the tomatoes and the broth, the pepper and the chickpeas, if using. Cover, reduce heat, and simmer until the liquid is reduced by half. Remember to check it every once in a while and scrape the bottom of the pan.

4. Add the spinach, stir, and serve with basmati rice (I cook mine with peas and butter), and the naan you made from the above recipe. I like yoghurt with mine, because I'm a spice wimp. :)

Grandma's Chicken-Rice Casserole

2009-03-24T17:48:00.002-04:00

This is a great, comforting, easy winter or fall dinner. You can make it with pork-chops if you prefer, but I'm a chicken kinda girl.

I'm sure this recipe is as old as tinned soup itself, but there's just something deliciously comforting about this meal.

Recipe:

1 can cream of mushroom soup
1 soup-can water
1 soup-can full of uncooked arborio or short-grain rice
as many chicken thighs as you like - i used 6 small boneless skinless thighs
1 tbs oil for frying
1 large raw onion, sliced finely (or more if you like - i used 1.5 because i like onion)
salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.

2. Trim the chicken if you like. Heat oil in the pan to medium/medium high. I use a Le Creuset so it's all in one pan from start to finish, but you can do what you like! A skillet and a casserole dish work just as well, but it's best if the casserole has a lid, or at least a good covering of foil.

3. Sear the chicken on one side until brown and a bit crispy, and then the other side - about 5 minutes per side. Set aside on a plate. While you're doing the chicken, slice up your onion into thin slices.

4. To the same pan, add your can of soup and your water. Reduce heat a bit and deglaze, scraping up the brown bits from the chicken.

5. If you're using the same dish for everything, like I did, pour the soup out into a measuring cup/mixing bowl so that your baking dish is empty. If you're using a different dish for the baking, get it out now.

6. Lay down 1/4 of the onions in your casserole and sprinkle 1/4 of the rice over top. Plop in the chicken pieces, cover with more onion and rice until you've used them up.

7. Pour the soup mixture over the contents, making sure that the rice is covered, especially at the edges. it is not possible for me to take a picture of this step without it looking gross, so I'll leave that one to the imagination.

8. Cover the casserole and stick that baby in the oven. Check it after 45 minutes and test the rice for done-ness. It may need 10 more minutes, it may not. You should have some liquid left over by the time the rice is done.

Serve hot with salad. This makes great leftovers, too, and freezes well.

(To be read aloud in a Julia Child voice)

2009-03-24T17:39:00.001-04:00

Here's another one from the archives: Peanut-butter M&M cookies, with grouchy commentary.

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I think we've all had a tough day today - I know I have.

So take some time for yourself this evening, and soothe that aching tummy and head by pouring yourself a glass of wine and settling down to some baking. Don't you love baking?

Tonight, since the IBS is acting up after a stressful day, I think we'll make something easy - both on the intellect *and* the gut. I think other sufferers out there will agree with me when I say that a good cure for the daily aches is a high-fat, high-chocolate treat that's fun to eat! (/sarcasm)

So, dear readers, I present you with dithie's not-so-famous-but-nonetheless-yummy no-fail peanut-butter m & m cookies, adapted from that down-to-earth baking blog, kraft.com.

Ingredients:
1 cup PB
1 cup butter*
1 cup white sugar
1 cup packed brown sugar
2.5 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
.5 tsp salt.
3-6 packets of peanut M & Ms

1. Pour yourself a large glass of wine and take three Midols. This step is crucial.
2. Preheat your oven to 350 F or 180 C.
3. Admire your KitchenAid mixer. It's important for it to feel appreciated before you begin.
4. Go to the deppanneur and get butter. I can't believe you forgot to get butter.
5. Soften the butter and cream it together with the PB and sugars.
6. Taste the batter. It's important to taste the batter at every stage.
7. Add in vanilla and eggs. Mix in well.
8. Pretend salmonella is a figment of your mother's imagination and taste the batter again. At this stage, it should be shiney and beyond delicious.
9. Walk to the pantry and knock over your recycling bin.
10. Avoiding the spilled cans and papers, reach for the flour and add it, with the other dry goods, into the delicious PB batter.
11. Taste the batter. Make sure it is delicious. If it is delicious, it is now time to add the M & Ms. If not, taste again until sure.
12. Form perfect little balls of dough with your hands and place them on oiled cookie sheets. Place them at awkward distances from each other, so that you are not sure if, when they bake, they will smoosh together into a Giant Cookie. This adds to the excitement, and is good for your tummy.
13. At this point, you may need to refill your wine glass. Don't worry, I'll wait.
14. Press the cookies down with forks.
15. Bake the cookies with the oven light on. Don't set the timer; just watch them until they look kind of golden, then take them out and look at them. Alternately, you may choose to watch a few minutes of an episode of Buffy. In that case, watch until they figure out that something bad is going to happen, and then take the cookies out. It should be about 10 minutes, depending on the season.
16. Instead of reusing the old pans, get out new cookie pans and put in another batch. This way, there are more dishes to do later.
17. After the pans are cool to the touch, try to find somewhere to cool the cookies. Good luck, because your counter space is probably limitied. I know mine is! Settle for various random surfaces.
17.5. You may have noticed that your cookies have, in fact, glommed into Giant Cookie. Do not let this distress you. Instead, simply mash apart the cookies with your spatula, and pretend that they look just as beautiful as you had imagined.
18. Attempt to eat a cookie and burn your tongue. Patience, patience!
19. At this point, the wine and the midol should have kicked in, and your tummy should feel slightly better. Once this has happened, return to your episode of Buffy, if watching.

* note the butter content: so far, 1:1 with sugar.

Braided Onion Loaf

2009-03-24T17:35:00.001-04:00

Here's a post from October, but this bread is yummy any time of year. You can also shape it into a couple of loaves instead of braiding it.

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Since it's Canadian thanksgiving this weekend, I made a festive loaf to take to dinner at boy's parents' this weekend.

The recipe is from The Fresh Loaf, which is an amazing resource. Anyways, here's the recipe, copy and pasted:

________________________________________________________________________________

Poolish:
1 cup all-purpose unbleached flour
1 cup water
1/4 teaspoon instant yeast
Dough:
Poolish
3-3 1/2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
1/2 cup milk
2 teaspoons instant yeast
2 tablespoons butter or shortening
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1 3/8 ounce package of onion soup mix
2 tablespoons grated Parmesan cheese
1 egg
Wash:
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

The night before, in a bowl, mix together the poolish until it form a batter. Cover with plastic wrap and set aside overnight.

The next morning, combine 2 cups of the flour, the yeast, the sugar, the onion soup mix. Mix in the poolish, the milk, one of the eggs, the butter, and the Parmesan cheese with a wooden spoon. Add more flour a quarter cup at a time until a proper dough forms, one that is dry enough that you can hand knead it yet moist enough that it is still tacky to the touch.

Pour the dough out of the bowl onto a clean work surface and knead the dough for approximately 10 minutes. Return the dough to a clean, greased bowl, cover with plastic, and allow to rise until doubled in size, approximately 90 minutes.

Remove the dough from the bowl and shape it however you like. I tried a braid this time. I'm not good enough that I want to give directions on how to do it yet (for that please see your cookbook).

Cover the loaf with a damp towel or greased plastic wrap and allow it to double in size again, approximately 45 minutes. While you are waiting, preheat the oven (and baking stone, if you have one) to 450.

Just before baking, glaze the loaf with the egg wash. Put it into the hot oven. After 5 minutes, reduce the temperature to 375 and bake for another 15 minutes. Rotate the loaf and bake until the loaf is done. Total baking time may vary based on shape. My loaf took about 45 minutes.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________

Mine didn't take that long. I had to put foil on top for the last few minutes to stop it from overbrowning. It's crazy long. It'll be an adventure taking it on the 2 hour bus ride tomorrow!

I'm afraid I can't really help much with how to braid four strands of dough either, but I found a wonderful (but a bit fast to follow) video tutorial. Generally, people don't seem to mind how "perfect" the braid is - it'll look beautiful even if you make a few slip-ups. And it tastes divine!

Happy thanksgiving, Canadians!

Peter Reinhart's Pizza Dough

2009-03-24T17:08:00.007-04:00

Peter Reinhart is a well-established baking god. When he tells you how to make pizza dough, that's how you make pizza dough. Don't argue; he's right.

This pizza dough is easy-peasy to make. If you have a mixer it takes about 15 minutes. If you don't, maybe another 5. Then you stick it in the freezer, and you have delicious, thin, crispy, New York street pizza any day of the week, presuming you can remember to take it out to thaw the night before.

I make this dough about once every two months. My boy will not have any other recipe - he firmly believes in the rightness of Peter Reinhart (that's why I love him).

You can find the directions and recipe here, or you can read what I have to say down below - your choice. Same-same.

You need:
4 1/2 c flour
1 3/4 tsp salt
1 tsp yeast
1/4 c olive oil
1 3/4 c chilled water

1. Stir up your flour, salt, and yeast in the bowl you're using. I'm using my KitchenAid mixer bowl.

2. Add your oil and your water and mix.

3. Knead until the dough is soft, smooth, and pliable, or mix on low for 5-7 minutes in your mixer. The dough should clear the sides of the bowl but not the bottom.

4. Cut the dough into 6 portions. They will look small but never fear. Mine divided up into just over 7 oz each on a kitchen scale this time.

5. Shape each piece into a ball and put into an oiled ziplock baggie.

6. OK now you have a choice. You can either slip all those baggies into a big freezer bag and keep them there until you want to use them, or you can put them in the fridge overnight and use them the next day. YOU MUST REST THAT DOUGH OVERNIGHT NO IFS ANDS OR BUTS! If you keep the dough in the fridge, it'll keep that way for up to three days. In the freezer, about three months. If you put it in the freezer, take it out the night before you want to use it and put it in the fridge overnight.

7. Regardless of what you did up in step 6, your dough should now be in the fridge on the day you want to use it. Two hours before dinner/lunch/pizzatime, take out that dough and put it on the counter.

8. Roll out or press the dough into disks about 1/2" thick and 5" across. Cover them up with saran or a dish towel and leave them for two hours.

9. After an hour and a quarter, come back and preheat your oven with your baking stone (you have a baking stone, right?) to as hot as it will safely go. I go with 500F because I like it like that.

10. Pick up your dough and smile with glee as you find that it is sooo stretchy and nice to shape. Stretch it into a thin round, about 9-12" across, and lay it on a sheet of parchment paper NOT WAX PAPER because that would be gross. Also, I'm assuming you know that I mean you to do all these things with each of the dough portions. One dough portion will feed two not-very-hungry people. I'd advise one per person. They're that good, bb.

11. Be fairly sparing on your toppings. This is thin-crust, people. I go with tomato sauce, light cheese, and spinach, usually.

12. Put your little darlings into the oven and bake for 5-8 minutes. You shold watch them - they're tricksy and burn quickly. Rest them for a few minutes, then eat!

Hi

2009-03-24T17:00:00.001-04:00

I've caved and started this thing, this means to destruction for my degree and my waist!

I have a KitchenAid mixer and limited counter-space. I have a deep and passionate love for butter. I am a firm believer that if people 100 years ago could make it themselves, then I can too, today. (One day I'll test this theory with pasta - I have no pasta-maker!)

I cook almost every day and bake almost every week. I bake all the bread my household consumes, and some that other households consume. Mine has only two members, so sometimes my frenzy exceeds our appetites!

I figure there's no real point in keeping this all to myself since the internet is here to facilitate the sharing of my kitchen space. I read a lot of cooking and food blogs, and I have no reason to believe that I can do it better, but I'd like a space to talk about cooking and eating and to show what I can do, however limited.