Archive for October, 2008
I love Halloween. I’m sure in part because it’s the day after my birthday and the two went together growing up, and undoubtedly because of the surplus of candy, and because the day after, everything turns all Christmassy. October-December is my favorite quarter.
W went out as Super Elephant, his own creation combining his new Superman PJs and a borrowed elephant suit. On neighbours’ doorsteps, he did this combo of Superman theme song, arms raised out front, and then elephant noise. This was all new to us.
For dinner beforehand, what’s more appropriate than gory, meaty ribs? I wish I had planned it that way; it would have been cereal had I not precooked two racks of ribs yesterday for BT and CBC this morning, and forgot to bring them to CBC. So while the day turned to twilight, the most exciting hour of my childhood (besides Christmas eve); the hour of almost unbearable anticipation waiting for it to get dark so that we could go out, during which we put final touches on our costumes and makeup and lit our pumpkins and sat at the table restless while our Mom fed us a proper dinner, I cut the cold rack into individual ribs and threw them into a pot with some ginger, garlic, soy, rice vinegar and sugar and simmered them while cooking some rice and peas. (These ribs would do well in the CrockPot too!)
Sticky Ginger-Soy Ribs
Put a rack or two of side or back pork ribs on a rimmed baking sheet and cover with foil; bake at 300F for 2 1/2-3 hours. This part can be done up to two days in advance; wrap them in the foil and refrigerate.
Sauté a couple cloves of crushed garlic and about 1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger in a drizzle of oil in a fairly large pot – one that will accommodate the ribs. For about 2 racks of ribs’ worth of sauce, add 3/4 cup packed brown sugar, 3/4 cup rice vinegar and 1/2 cup soy sauce to the garlic and ginger. After baking the ribs in the foil, let them cool slightly, cut them into individual ribs, then add them to the pot. Simmer for about 20 minutes, so that the ribs absorb some of the sauce and heat through. If you want to thicken the sauce a bit, dissolve equal amounts of cornstarch and cold water and add it to the sauce; cook until it bubbles and thickens. Serve the ribs and sauce over steamed rice.
Today’s free stuff comes courtesy of Lou, who was bored/upset when we went out for a few hours the other day after FedEx delivered our Christmas shipment of the new One Smart Cookie. (For those of you who don’t know this was my very first cookbook, all low fat and reduced-fat cookies, squares, brownies and biscotti Lou personalized about a case and a half of them, distributing them throughout the front foyer, hallway and living room. A few were indistinguishable as books and had to go into the recycling bin, but the rest just have minor chews or scratches that range from obvious to barely noticeable but nonetheless unsaleable. (They are worth about $25 apiece; expensive chew toys.)
So rather than draw one name this time, I’m going to draw 20. This is the new, revised edition of One Smart Cookie, slightly licked/chewed. What did you have for dinner last night?
Print Post
October 31 2008 | pork and slow cooker | 115 Comments »
So yes, it’s my birthday today. Thanks for all the well wishes! My plan, dull as it may sound, was to 1) sleep in, and 2) spend as much of it as possible on the couch flipping through the latest Saveur and boxes of back issues of Gourmet, Food & Wine, Cooking Light and Martha Stewart that C purged her garage of and brought over yesterday (Mike was thrilled, let me tell you). I kind of slept in, if you count waking up 17 times burritoed (much worse than sandwiched) between a writhing toddler and sweaty husband and then slipping in and out of consciousness as W screamed and the dog barked and they made pancakes downstairs. I did manage an hour or so of couch time, and the better half of a movie tonight, before I remembered I promised to make brain cakes, not ghostcakes. guh.
And no, I didn’t have to cook dinner! My Mom and Dad took me to Farm, Janice Beaton’s new charcuterie on 17th Avenue, around the corner from Caffè Beano. I charged the batteries for my camera and then left it at home, so I can’t show you the beautiful goat cheese fritter set beside a spinach salad with roasted beets, or the bubbly penne and cheese or chopping boards of meats, cheeses, bread and wonderfully spiced pickles; it’s a menu geared toward sharing but a change from tapas. And since I was all caked out, a birthday crème brulée (made by someone other than me) was just fine, thank you.
Which isn’t to say I didn’t do any cooking – I had a lot to prep for CBC (7-8) and BT tomorrow morning (9 and 9:40). M and W helped make spider truffles, bloody gutscakes (x 45 as there will be a troop or two of Brownies at BT tomorrow) with marshmallow frosting piled high into ghosts (I used a frosting made out of boiled gelatin and sugar, beaten with icing sugar, which then sets into essentially a non-sticky marshmallow), meringue ghosts, and bacon caramel corn. (The meringue I use for pavlova also makes great ghosts; I spooned it into a plain plastic produce bag from the grocery store, snipped a big chunk off the corner and squeezed it out onto cookie sheets, then stuck mini chocolate chips in for eyes and baked them at 250°F for an hour or so.)
And because I had to top last years’ creation of bacon caramel corn, I made my grandma’s peanut brittle - with cooked and chopped crispy chunks of bacon stirred in instead of the nuts. After spreading it out on the cookie sheet I showered it with freshly ground black pepper while it was still molten. (I’ll post the recipe tomorrow; I have no doubt I’ll be making more sometime around tomorrow afternoon. It could be noted that the chunks of bacon makes it look a lot like scab brittle, which is pretty cool too.)
Spider Truffles
This is a pretty good basic truffle recipe, if you want to lose the spider part. Flavor your chocolate mixture with vanilla, peppermint extract, instant espresso powder, or some grated orange zest, if you like.
1 cup whipping cream or coffee cream
3 cups semisweet chocolate chips or 12 oz. good-quality chocolate, chopped
1 Tbsp. vanilla or peppermint extract, espresso powder, grated orange zest
1 pkg. black (or purple) shoestring licorice
tiny coloured candies, for eyes (optional)
cocoa, coarse black sugar or chocolate sprinkles, for coating
Bring cream to a boil in a heavy medium saucepan. Immediately remove from heat, add chocolate and gently whisk until melted and smooth. Whisk in extract. Pour into a bowl, cover and chill until firm, about 3 hours.
Line baking sheet with waxed paper. Drop mixture by rounded teaspoonfuls onto prepared baking sheet, roll into smooth balls, and refrigerate until firm. Roll the truffles in Dutch cocoa, black sugar or chocolate sprinkles to coat. Cut licorice into 2” pieces and press a few into each side of each truffle to make a spider. Press two candies into the front to make eyes.
Makes about 30 truffles.
And just in case you need it tomorrow:
Roasted Pumpkin Seeds
Make sure you wash and dry your seeds well if you want them crispy.
2 cups pumpkin seeds, washed and dried
a good drizzle (about 2 Tbsp.) canola or olive oil
1 tsp. coarse salt
1/2 tsp. each cayenne, curry powder, chili powder and cumin (optional)
In a medium bowl, toss the seeds with oil, salt and spices. Spread out in a single layer on a rimmed baking sheet. Roast at 375°F for 35-40 minutes, until crisp and golden.
Print Post
October 30 2008 | eating out and snacks | 9 Comments »
When new babies arrive I get the urge to bring over food. (And when it’s #3, there really is no better thing to bring.) The occasion of a brand new person and no sleep calls for casseroles and pots of soup and stew and quick breads; things that are easily reheatable and edible with one hand.
So beef stew, done in the slow cooker with some beef I had in the freezer and the last of a bottle of leftover wine. With it, garlicky cheese biscuits. Remember those cinnamon sticky biscuits I made about 250 days ago? Leave out the cinnamon and sugar, and instead brush the dough with melted butter and garlic, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Roll, cut and bake. You could turn any cinnamon bun recipe into cheesy, garlicky buns instead.
Beef Stu
1 lb. beef stew meat, flank steak or chuck, trimmed of fat and cut into cubes
olive or canola oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
a few glugs of red wine (optional)
1 can beef, vegetable or chicken broth
1 can diced or stewed tomatoes, undrained (any size – optional)
1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
2 potatoes, cubed (unpeeled)
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup frozen peas
1-2 cups mushrooms, quartered
In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat about a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and brown the beef in batches. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.
Add a bit more oil and cook the onions for a few minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the wine, broth and tomatoes with their juice, scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen any flavorful browned bits that have stuck to the bottom. At this point you could transfer the lot to a slow cooker, or return the beef to the pot. Add the thyme and bay leaves and bring to a simmer; turn the heat down to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for about an hour. (Or turn the slow cooker down to low and set it for 4-6 hours.) Add the potatoes and carrots after an hour and cook the stew uncovered for another hour (or add the carrots and potatoes after a couple hours in the slow cooker). Add the peas for the last 10 minutes, and quickly saute the mushrooms in a skillet until browned and stir into the stew at the very end, so they don’t get too mushy. Fish out the bay leaves, season with salt and pepper, and serve it hot.
Blood & Gutscakes
a batch of vanilla (or any flavour) cupcakes
a batch of lemon pie filling, tinted green
raspberry or cherry jam or pie filling
frosting and sprinkles
Bake cupcakes as you normally would, cool and then cut a chunk out of the top like an inverted cone. Remove the excess cake from the cone, leaving a flat lid (kind of like a pumpkin) and hollow out a bit of the cake inside. Put a small spoonful of jam and a spoonful of lemon filling inside, swirling them a bit as you do. Top with the lid and frost with whatever frosting you like.
Print Post
October 29 2008 | beef and cake and one dish and slow cooker and stews & braises | 10 Comments »
At least that’s what the boys had for dinner – leftovers from the show this morning (I’m not sure why it all wasn’t gobbled up?)
Green Hair with Bloody Eyeballs and Toenail Clippings
spaghetti
green or blue food colouring
ground beef or bison, egg and breadcrumbs (or any meatball mixture)
green pimento-stuffed olives
whatever tomato sauce you like on your spaghetti
whole chunk of Parmesan cheese
Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add several drops of green or blue food colouring. Boil spaghetti according to package directions.
Blend ground beef, egg, breadcrumbs or whatever you typically add to your meatball mix; shape into balls around a olive, positioning it so that it looks like an eyeball. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet at 350F for 15-20 minutes, until cooked, or cook them in a hot skillet with a little canola or olive oil until cooked through. Warm the spaghetti sauce at the same time.
Carve half moon shapes out of Parmesan cheese so that they look like toenails. Serve green spaghetti topped with eyeballs, tomato sauce and toenail clippings.
I was out the door at 5 (with a few granola-nut clusters, a banana and a coffee) to teach a 2 1/2 hour crème brûlée class tonight – we also covered panna cotta, crème caramel and flan. It had the potential to be one of the biggest natural disasters in Julie history, but actually worked out OK, considering. (I can hold my own, but I’m certain I’m not the most qualified pastry chef in the city to teach this subject.) I have made crème brûlée quite a bit, and tons of panna cotta, but hadn’t made crème caramel in at least a decade and have never felt the urge to make a flan. I was actually glad to be forced into it – I rarely volunarily push myself beyond my comfort zone/area of interest. This version is baked in coffee cups, although the photo is one that was baked in a small ramekin – we didn’t have enough cups to bake 30 samples in with enough leftover for coffee and tea, too.
Also! I managed to practice a bit (having made a kajillion samples as well as pumpkin seed brittle in a couple different forms), read a bit more, and finally figured out a couple seemingly minor details that ironed out a few wrinkles in my caramel-making technique. Of all the times I have made caramel, and all the recipes I’ve read that involve some sort of caramel, I have never read these two snippets of information, which sort of brought everything into sharper focus:
1) when using the wet method (sugar plus water, not just sugar over heat) it’s essential to actually dissolve the sugar first as it comes to a boil to prevent crystallization after. Most recipes tell you this in not quite so many words, but (perhaps because I’ve done it for so long I’ve stopped paying close attention to the recipe) I’ve always assumed I could just start swirling the pan right away, since the sugar isn’t dissolved using the dry method, which involves no liquid but still works. When water is added the water eventually cooks off and the sugar kind of crystallizes as it melts but eventually gets where it’s going. I never realized the actual dissolving was so key – I mean, doesn’t sugar dissolve as it cooks anyway? Guess not. So - stir or whisk it as much as you want as it comes to a boil, making sure the sugar is completely dissolved. Then once it comes to a boil, don’t stir it – just swirl the pan around once in awhile.
2) when it comes to a boil, add a few drops of lemon juice. This will prevent crystallization. Genius! I’ve always brushed down the sides of the pan with a brush dipped in water, which tends to slow things down since it adds more water which must then be cooked off. Last night I did the full dissolve and then added a few drops of lemon juice and the caramel cooked beautifully, without a trace of crystallization around the edges. I didn’t even need the brush and water, which I had at the ready.
(Caramelizing sugar using the dry method involves simply heating plain sugar over medium heat until it starts to melt – it will go instantly dark – shake the pan around until it’s completely melted with no chunks swimming around. That’s it. You could do that instead for the caramel in the bottom of these cups or ramekins if you like, using a cup of sugar.)
While we’re on the subject – in case you didn’t know this – if you add liquid, such as cream, to caramel it will splatter like crazy, so be warned. This recipe just uses straight-up caramel.
Coffee Cup Crème Caramel
Adpted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax
Caramel
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup cold water
Custard
3 cups 2% or whole milk
1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp. pure vanilla or vanilla bean paste
¾ cup sugar
3 large eggs
6 large egg yolks
Place 6 heavy coffee cups or ramekins into a roasting pan. In a heavy saucepan or skillet, cook the sugar and water over medium heat and stir just until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, for 8-10 minutes or until the syrup turns a dark amber colour. Immediately pour the caramel into the cups, swirling to coat the bottoms. Set aside.
Preheat the oven to 325°F and place the rack in the center position. If you’re using a vanilla bean, put the milk in a saucepan and with the tip of a knife, cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and add them to the milk, and throw the pod in too. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes or so.
In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and yolks; pull the vanilla pod out of the milk and slowly whisk the hot milk into the eggs. (Otherwise, whisk in the cold milk and vanilla extract or paste.) Pour about ¾ cup into each prepared mug or ramekin.
Place the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough hot water in to reach halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the custards are just set but still slightly wobbly in the middle. Remove from the water bath and cool to room temperature, then cover and chill until cold; at least 2 hours.
To serve, run a thin knife around the edge of the custard and invert onto a plate, allowing the liquid to run over top. Serves 6.
Print Post
October 28 2008 | dessert and pasta | 8 Comments »
We have a new contender in the Battle of the Birthdays. (Or at least a newest member of our Scorpio party.) My brand-spanking new nephew, Charlie, was born just a few hours ago. So that covers October 24th, 25th, 27th and 30th in our immediate family. (Or semi-immediate, I suppose. And I’m thinking since the rest of us are a good few decades or so older, he won’t have to share a party or anything.)
So that sort of trumps my now very lame sounding heart attack of a day, but I wasn’t really going to bore you with that stuff anymore anyway. It does give the cake I made today a little more meaning, and makes more sense for me to post it. I realize this week has been a little cake-heavy with the birthdays and all, but I had to test this for the new edition of Grazing and now, with a brand-new person in the world, it seems a little bit more celebratory. What else could I make on a birth day? Although even though it was invented on his actual birthday, I’m sure Charlie would be less than thrilled to be served a Tomato-Apple Cake once he’s old enough to appreciate what cake is.
Typing this, I can see now that it might be a harder sell on the general public than I first anticipated as well. Perhaps I should change the name to Apple Spice Cake or some such. It’s loosely based on a traditional Jewish apple cake, but made with a can of tomato paste, which makes it moist, sweet and dense in the same sort of way pumpkin puree might. After all, tomatoes are fruit. Ever hear of tomato soup cake? Tomato Apple Cake sounds much better, I think.
Our actual dinner was at Mike’s Mom’s, who didn’t get a birthday turn with us over the weekend. We raced over there after I got back from making 100 or so samples of crème brulee, crème caramel and panna cotta (I still have 3 pumpkin flans to make plus blood & guts cupcakes for CBC in less than 8 hours) for a class I’m teaching tomorrow night. It was very basic Chinese food – chicken balls, ginger beef, fried rice and beef with mixed vegetables. (Mike’s sister picked it up from Safeway – she made sure she went early in the day so that she could get it when it was “freshly made”, and then took it home and kept it in the fridge all day to reheat at dinnertime - in their plastic containers - so that it would be very fresh. I didn’t think a photo was required.)
Tomato Apple Cake
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. ground flax seed (optional)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tart apples, unpeeled and cut into large (1/2”-1”) chunks
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (or enough to keep them from turning brown)
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup canola or olive oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 5.5 oz. (156 mL) can tomato paste
empty tomato paste can full of orange juice or water (about half a cup)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2-1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a Bundt or tube pan well with nonstick spray.
In a large bowl, stir together the flours, flax seed, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, toss the apple chunks with lemon juice, about 1/4 cup of the sugar and a bit of cinnamon; set aside.
In a third bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg whites, oil, brown sugar, sugar, tomato paste, orange juice and vanilla until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.
Pour a third of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Scatter with a third of the apples (and half the nuts, if you’re using them), then repeat with another layer of batter and apples and nuts, and a final layer of batter, then apples. (Nuts are best kept inside the cake to keep them from burning.) Pour any juices that accumulated in the bottom of the apple bowl overtop.
Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Cool the cake in the pan to lukewarm before inverting it onto a wire rack or plate.
Makes 1 cake; serves 24.
Per slice: 176 calories, 5.3 g total fat (0.5 g saturated fat, 2.9 g monounsaturated fat, 1.5 g polyunsaturated fat), 3 g protein, 30.2 g carbohydrate, 18 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber. 26% calories from fat
Print Post
October 27 2008 | cake | 14 Comments »
Next »
