Archive for October, 2009
It’s Birthday Weekend – my sister’s yesterday and Mike’s today. I taught a hands-on low-fat baking class yesterday at the Cookbook Company yesterday afternoon, and last night a bunch of friends came over to watch the hockey game and say Happy Birthday to Mike. I got mini cupcakes from Crave, and made extra mini pavlovas while I was making them for my event last week. I made a quick batch of caramelized onion dip and spread two small baking dishes with a can of refried beans, covered them with a thin layer of salsa verde and grated Monterey Jack and baked them – voila – something scoopable for corn chips during the game. OK, I also made a quick batch of wings, but that was it.
This morning W and I did a coffee run and made crêpes for breakfast – not an easy task with a 4 year old who was up until almost midnight last night playing Transformers with the Big Boys. Everything was WRONG and THESE AREN’T REAL PANCAKES! and WE CAN’T COOK THE APPLES! and YOU CAN’T CUT MY PANCAKE FOR ME I CAN DO IT MYSELF! NOT THAT I’M GOING TO EAT IT ANYWAY BECAUSE IT’S NOT A REAL PANCAKE! (At which point he stormed up the stairs, sat on a step halfway up and growled, arms crossed across his chest, “STOP BEING HAPPY! YOU GUYS CAN’T BE HAPPY!”) And so we ate our crepes ourselves-much more peacefully-drizzled with Roger’s Golden Syrup.
Of course the apples and cream are totally optional – you could sauté pears instead, or bananas, or ditch the fruit and spread them with butter and sprinkle with sugar, cinnamon and a few drops of lemon juice. This is my typical standing-at-the-stove snack, which generally fills me up before I even make it to the main event. I feel like a big wad of dough sitting here at the computer – Julie the Hutt – after consuming far too many sugary crepe roll-ups.
Crêpes with Sautéed Apples and Whipped Cream
Crêpes:
1 1/4 cups milk
2 eggs
1 Tbsp. canola oil
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. sugar
pinch salt
extra oil, butter or nonstick spray for cooking with
Apples:
a drizzle of oil
a small blob of butter
3 tart apples, unpeeled and thinly sliced
a few spoonfuls of sugar, maple syrup or Roger’s Golden syrup
a sprinkle of cinnamon
1/2-1 cup heavy cream, whipped with a bit of syrup or sugar
Pulse all the ingredients in a blender until foamy or whisk until well blended and smooth; let the batter sit for half an hour. It should have the consistency of heavy cream.
When ready to cook, preheat a large skillet or griddle and brush it with butter or oil or spray it with nonstick spray. Pour about a quarter cup onto the skillet and tilt it around so that it runs into a circle. Cook until the top loses its gloss, which should only take a minute or two, then flip. The bottom should be golden. Cook the other side for about 30 seconds and then slide out onto a plate. Keep warm in a 250F oven while you cook the rest.
Meanwhile, heat the oil and butter in another skillet over medium heat. When the foam subsides, add the apples and cook for about 5 minutes, until soft and starting to turn golden around the edges. Add the sugar or syrup and a shake of cinnamon, cook for another minute, tossing to coat the apples well. Remove from the heat.
Fill crepes with the apple mixture, roll up and top with whipped cream. Serve warm.
Makes about 10 crepes.
One Year Ago: Chicken Strips with Honey Mustard
October 25 2009 | breakfast | 12 Comments »
My dining room is covered with a thin layer of Pepto-pink sugar. To blame: the cotton candy machine we rented for the sake of making a hundred or so tiny cotton candy sticks for the 200-ish ladies I was in charge of feeding dessert to last night.
The theme was red (cotton candy is a shade of red, right?), which is why my fingernails are a particularly bright shade of fire engine right now. It looks from my vantage point as if my great aunt Noreen is doing the typing for me.
You won’t be surprised to hear I’m recovering from a sugar hangover. I made espresso brownies (baked on a rimmed baking sheet then cut into rounds, stuck on a stick and drizzled with white chocolate-which was really just the glue for sparkly red sugar-of course the cut-outs made for plenty of scraps), mini pavlova, and candy apples.
Operating the cotton candy machine (a dream of mine, really, has become reality for the low, low price of $70, thanks to Radar’s Rentals) was fun, if not a bit of a risk to the digits, but it essentially blows wisps of cotton candy directly into your face, right where your mouth is. And when you’re spinning and pulling out gobs of it at a time, it’s hard to not redirect some of it to your mouth that way either. Because really, it’s hard to not regress to childhood in the presence of a cotton candy machine that you’re the boss of and not attempt to eat it all, or fill the bathtub with it, or pile it all into a mountain and then jump on it as if it were a pillowy cloud of pink leaves.
Instead we filled little bags and wound small puffs around wooden coffee sticks for the cocktail party, made several cones for the neighbourhood kids (and yes, adults) and filled even more Halloween dollar-store bags to hand out next weekend. With the last of the pink sugar we made enough cotton candy to almost fill a garbage bag (can you imagine the cool auntie points I could score with that one?) to somehow put out on the coffee table during the hockey game tomorrow night.
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October 23 2009 | cookies & squares | 55 Comments »
I didn’t actually make this today-what I did make was somewhere in the vicinity of 400 desserts for a private event, but I’ll tell you about that later. What I do want to tell you about is a wonderful pumpkin bread pudding I made earlier this year, far before the onset of pumpkin season, for a little article in a small magazine. It was a story about some of my favourite food bloggers with kids, including Aimée Bourque of Under the High Chair, and because it was for a fall issue, I requested something seasonal from her. She sent me the recipe for her Pumpkin Spice Bread Pudding with Rummy Raisins.
What does this all have to do with today? Well, today I got a very sweet email from Aimée, politely pointing out that the baking instructions were missing from the recipe. Which should have been caught by the editors, but ultimately looks like my fault-I was doing all this while we were in Tofino on my old craptop, and this looks like a case of two different drafts on two different computers. In any case, I feel badly that the baking instructions were left out; although no one has emailed to point out the error -some may have figured out how to actually bake their bread pud and realized it’s not a weird form of soggy unbaked bread pudding sashimi she served her kids- here is the complete recipe.
I left out the tonka bean, thinking it’s something not many if you would have on hand. Being at the cabin I had access to only shakeable cinnamon (and no spice grinder) and it worked just fine-I skipped the allspice and the rum, and used a whack of leftover bread ends we had around-including raisin bread, which fit right in. Of course you don’t need to go buy brioche especially to make this (and if you do, please don’t just let it sit and go stale! Eat some while it’s fresh) but it is wonderful in a bread pud.
Thanks Aimée! And sorry.
Pumpkin Spice Bread Pudding with Rummy Raisins
thanks to Aimée Bourque of Under the High Chair for this recipe!
Unsalted butter, room temperature, for ramekins
½ cup sugar, for dissolving
1 cup golden raisins
1/3 cup rum
1/3 cup hot water
1 1/12 cups firm pumpkin puree
4 large eggs
1 ¼ cups granulated sugar
1 ½ cups milk
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 teaspoon ground ginger
½ inch fresh cinnamon stick
Three whole allspice
½ tonka bean (optional)
Pinch of salt
One 12-ounce, day-old loaf brioche cut into 3/4-inch cubes (or desired size)
Whipping cream, for serving
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Butter six 10-ounce ramekins or custard cups.
In a small, heavy bottomed pot, carefully dissolve 1/2 cup sugar and cook until golden, stirring occasionally. Divide evenly among ramekins to coat the bottom and allow to cool.
Place raisins in a small bowl, and cover with rum and the hot water; let soak until plump, about 20 minutes. Drain; set aside.
Combine cinnamon stick, whole allspice and tonka bean in a spice grinder and grind until fine.
In a large bowl, whisk together pumpkin, eggs, granulated sugar, milk, ginger, vanilla, spice mix, and salt. Toss in the bread cubes, and stir gently to evenly coat; let stand a few minutes.
Fold in the raisins. Divide among prepared dishes, pressing down slightly to make level. Bake until custard is set in the center and top is golden, about 40 minutes. If bread browns too quickly, cover loosely with aluminum foil.
Remove from oven and run a sharp knife around the edges; let cool slightly. To serve, un-mold onto plates; serve with sweetened whipped cream. It is entirely up to you if you wish to spike the cream or not!
One Year Ago: Grilled Cheese with Pulled Beef Short Ribs
October 22 2009 | leftovers | 14 Comments »
So hey, it turns out I can cook Vietnamese. Who knew?
There are some things that I have a ton of interest in eating, but none whatsoever in making. Vietnamese food falls into this category. So does Chinese food, Korean food; anything I feel like I have no authority to create. I mean besides the basics. I attempted homemade ginger beef once and for all the effort that went into it I’d rather call up the place down the street and slap down a 10 spot for them to do it for me.
Besides, the mystique is taken away when you make something yourself. Do you ever get that sense that everything you make tastes like slightly different versions of the same thing? You know what went in there, and you’re intimately familiar with the process that made it taste the way it does. I’d rather focus my energies elsewhere and leave some things up to the pros.
But then recently I had the occasion to try, and I’m so glad I was shoved out of my comfort zone. Because that’s how you learn – when you expand your horizons beyond what you already know. (Whether voluntarily or by force.)
Satay aren’t really out of my comfort zone – they’d be more accurately classified as a staple around here. But the marinade is different from my usual. I kind of winged it; using about a pound of skinless chicken thighs and cutting them across into half strips, half chunks, and then mashing them more closely together than my usual slightly graceful (if anything about me could be described as such) “S” shape. I liked it this way.
Vietnamese Chicken or Pork Satay
1-2 lb. skinless chicken thighs or pork tenderloin, cut into strips or chunks
2 Tbsp. honey or sugar
1 1/2 Tbsp. fish sauce
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
1 Tbsp. lime juice
2-3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp. Sriracha or a pinch of dried red chili flakes
Put the chicken or pork in a bowl or ziplock bag; stir together the rest of the ingredients and pour overtop. Marinate for at least an hour, or preferably overnight.
Soak bamboo skewers in water for at least 10 minutes to prevent them from burning, and thread the meat onto them, squishing the pieces together. Grill or broil for a few minutes per side, just until cooked through.
Fried rice is one of those things I tend to go about on my own. Even when I find a recipe I’m one to ignore it, thinking I know what I’m doing, and right here is a perfect example of something I make that always comes out tasting the same, with the occasional fluctuation depending on how heavy-handed I am with the soy sauce, or whether or not I opted to add curry paste.
But this. It elicited as many oohs and aahs as I’ve received for anything that has come out of my kitchen. The first time I made it, the recipient (who shall remain anonymous to protect his reputation as a mostly generous person) didn’t even share. I think it was the seasoning – the rice vinegar and sugar and fish sauce – but wow. It’s like fried rice that really means it.
Remember – you need leftover cold rice to make a good fried rice – the time in the fridge gives the grains a chance to separate, so that they won’t clump together and get all sticky in the pan.
Vietnamese Fried Rice
This is a bit of a spinoff of one I found on Epicurious
Seasoning:
2 Tbsp. sugar
2 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 Tbsp. rice vinegar
canola or mild olive oil, for cooking
5 cups cold long-grain rice
2 large eggs, lightly beaten with a fork
big pinch dried red chili flakes
1 small bunch of green onions, chopped
1-2 large carrots, coarsely grated
1-2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 cups bean sprouts (optional)
fresh cilantro and chopped salted peanuts, for garnish
In a small bowl stir together the sugar, fish sauce and vinegar.
In a large, heavy skillet, heat a slick of oil over medium-high heat. Add the rice and cook for a few minutes, until heated through. Push over to one side and pour in the eggs; stir-fry until the eggs are scrambled, allowing them to cook without mixing them into the rice completely (so that you end up with detectable bits of egg); add the chili flakes, then the green onions, carrots and garlic; cook for a few more minutes.
Pour over the fish sauce mixture, then add the bean sprouts and cook for a minute, tossing with tongs, just until heated through. Serve immediately, in shallow bowls topped with cilantro and peanuts. Serves 4.
One Year Ago: Meatloaf, (S)Mashed Potatoes and Peas
October 20 2009 | chicken & turkey and grains and on the grill and one dish and pork | 11 Comments »
I’ll admit it: I’m not a fan. Never have been, although taking a bite doesn’t make me as squeamish as it used to. It’s just that if I’m going to ingest the calories, I’d rather it be in the form of apple pie, or pecan, or anything chocolate. When I was a kid the flavour was too reminiscent of black licorice; although I’ve gotten over my aversion to molasses, I’m still not all that jazzed about pumpkin pie. Could be the lack of sentiment that everyone else seems to possess.
We cobbled together a turkey dinner, both of us having had the feeling that we missed out on Thanksgiving somehow – with us in Vancouver and she at home working, we both managed to technically eat some turkey within the vicinity of the actual day, but didn’t get to experience that warm kitchen full of people chopping and poking and stirring, the picking of the crispy bits of skin and stuffing spilling out from the bird, the overflowing table with lots of cranberry sauce (tonight I used frozen chopped rhubarb along with the cranberries-yum) and yes – even the pumpkin pie. (It’s probably a good thing I’m not a fan – after all that stuffing, it’s probably a good idea to lose the pie and just down a few spoonfuls of whipped cream straight up. Who needs a vehicle beyond a spoon?)
Pumpkin Pie
Pumpkin pie is one of the fastest and easiest kinds to make from scratch. I like to cut my trimmed scraps of pastry into tiny leaves, with “veins” made gently with the tip of a sharp knife, bake them separately on a cookie sheet and then lay them on top of the baked pie.
1 unbaked 9″ pie crust
1 14 oz. (398 mL) can pure pumpkin
3/4 cup half & half, evaporated 2% milk or whipping cream
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
3 large eggs
1 Tbsp. molasses (optional)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. ground ginger
1/4 tsp. ground allspice
Pinch nutmeg (optional)
Pinch salt
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, whisk everything until well blended and smooth. Pour into the crust.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the filling is set but still just a little wobbly in the middle and the crust is golden. If the crust is browning too quickly, cover the pie lightly with a sheet of foil as it bakes. Cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Serve the pie at room temperature with whipped cream, sweetened with a little sugar or maple syrup.
One Year Ago: Lentil Veg Curry and Banana Bread
October 18 2009 | dessert | 29 Comments »
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