Archive for December, 2009
Can it really have been TWO years already? Two years since I started writing this blog, on a New Years’ Day when W was two and sat on the countertop peeling garlic cloves for my soup, and Lou didn’t even exist. Looking back over the past twelve months I can’t compose any sort of impressive retrospective – I didn’t make any people, run any marathons, make the New York Times best-seller list or appear on Oprah, but my dad survived a heart attack, my sister and her kids moved in across the street, I visited Vancouver, the Okanagan, Tofino, Vegas and Toronto (where I shoved a ham up a turkey on national TV) and on the career front I was asked to join the team of bloggers on Good Bite, and I landed a position as the new food editor of Parents Canada magazine. The book thing is hovering in purgatory, so I can’t say I’ve pulled that off. Other than that we mostly ate a lot, and I got to hang out here. It was a good year.
Yesterday I saw 2009 out the door in the best way possible – as a guest on Breakfast TV for Dave Kelly’s very last show. I can’t think of a happier place to be than puttering in the BT kitchen, feeding guests as they came to share with the audience things that they know or have learned – a great gathering of people and their thoughts on life, and a suitable goodbye (from the morning show, anyway – he has started a production company with his brother, so we’ll be seeing more of him I’m sure) for one of the very best people I know.
I made scones using the last of the eggnog (just swap eggnog for the milk or cream in your favourite recipe), and served them with mandarin jam. I made espresso brownies (to justify eating them before 9am) and bread pudding from extra loaves of crusty French bread and stollen. But the very best part was the poutine bar – wedge fries roasted until golden and crisp in the oven, a pitcher of gravy, white cheese curds (from Springbank Cheese – you can also buy them at Say Cheese in the Crossroads Market) and a slow cooker full of pulled pork to load on top-yes, pulled pork poutine. Come to mama.
My only mistake was deciding to bring homemade butterscotch sauce (did you know? Butterscotch is the new chocolate) to serve warm as fondue with sliced apples and bananas and those little one-bite cream puffs, which are the very best addition to a fondue party I know of, and which I ate approximately a dozen of, dipped in butterscotch, before 9am. I have my New Years’ resolutions cut out for me. #1: wean self off cream puffs and caramel. Also whipped cream, bread, butter and Toblerones. (The mistake part of it was that there was little distinction between the jug of gravy and bubbling butterscotch, so when Dave broke his 10 year French fry dry streak -the outcome of a successful decade-old resolution- he had his dipped in butterscotch.)
Everyone in the blogosphere seems to be summing up 2009 with their best recipes, and who am I to stay off that wagon? Flipping through food memories is as good a way as any to reminisce about a year gone by. Eat up, and thank you for being here. I wish everyone the very best for the coming year.
EATING 2009! A few of our favourites (in alphabetical order):
Bacon & Egg Salad Sandwiches
Bacon Pecan Brittle
Blueberry Galette
Boeuf Bourguignon
Browned Butter & Rosemary Shortbread
Brussels Sprout Slaw with Grainy Mustard Vinaigrette & Maple Pecans
Butter Turkey (or Chicken) with Spinach
Cheryl’s Baba’s Peroghy Dough
Creamy Coconut Cake
Digestive Cookie Oven S’Mores
Forage Buttermilk Biscuits
Goat Cheese Truffles (on a Big Salad or not)
Homemade Churros
Jam Without a Recipe
Lemony Parsley Hummus
Mac & Cheese with Bacon & Chard
Maple-Rosemary Ribs
Nanking Cherry Jelly
Pretzel Rolls & Soft Pretzel Buns
Pumpkin Stout Gingerbread with Cream Cheese Frosting
Roasted Tomato Tarte Tatin with Goat Cheese
Rosemary Raisin Pecan Crisps
Sunken Chocolate Cake with Berry Fool
Sweet Potato Aloo Gobi
Two Bite Brownies (with less fat!)
Vietnamese Chicken Satay & Fried Rice
Yogurt (homemade!)
December 31 2009 | leftovers | 37 Comments »
My Mom made this for what is certain to be her annual Christmas ladies’ lunch a couple weeks ago; I loved its similarity to tourtière, the classic version of which I’m not particularly enamoured with, but I also love that it comes from the Fairmont le Château Frontenac in Montréal Quebec City. They make it with skinless, boneless chicken thighs and lidded with a flakey lard pastry crust, but it turned out to be the perfect use of leftover turkey and the vats of stock I’ve been freezing over the past couple days. (I throw the carcass back in the oven in its roasting pan and cook it again until it’s deep brown all over for a richer, darker stock.) I also typically wind up with extra pastry and puff pastry in my freezer after the holidays; unrolling a piece of puff overtop couldn’t be easier, or more impressive-looking, if you’re into that sort of thing.
Wouldn’t this make a lovely New Year’s Eve or Day dish? I thought so too. I may make another to freeze (without its pastry top – without the eggs it’s a perfect candidate for freezing) to thaw, cover and bake for an instant meal a month or so down the road, when snow and cold have lost their lustre and we need something quick and warming for dinner in the dark.
Chicken, Sausage & Mushroom Pot Pie
Adapted from the December 2008 issue of Bon Appetit, from the Fairmont le Château Frontenac in Quebec City. Double to feed a larger crowd.
2 Tbsp. each canola or olive oil and butter, plus a little extra
12 oz. crimini (baby bella) or button mushrooms, sliced
1 large onion or 5 shallots, chopped
1 Tbsp. chopped fresh thyme or rosemary
1 lb. Italian sausages
2 cups shredded leftover turkey or 1-2 lbs. skinless boneless chicken thighs, cut into 1″ pieces
1/2 cup Madeira or white wine
2 Tbsp. all purpose flour
2 cups low-sodium chicken broth
1/4 cup chopped fresh Italian parsley
3 hard-boiled eggs, peeled and thickly sliced (optional)
1/2 pkg. frozen puff pastry dough, thawed, or pastry for a single-crust pie
To make the filling, heat the oil and butter in a large skillet set over medium-high heat. When the foam subsides, add the mushrooms, onions and thyme or rosemary; sauté until mushrooms brown, about 8 minutes. Add the sausage, squeezed out of their casings, and sauté until no longer pink, breaking up with spoon. Add turkey or chicken, season with salt and pepper and if it’s uncooked, sauté until chicken is opaque, about 5 minutes. Add Madeira or wine and cook, scraping up the browned bits on the bottom of the pan, for about 2 minutes.
Mix the flour with about a tablespoon of butter or oil and add it to the pan along with the broth; bring to a boil. (Alternatively: shake the flour over the meat, toss it around to coat, then pour in the broth.) Simmer until sauce thickens, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Stir in the parsley and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a baking dish and top with egg slices, if you like. (The pie can be made ahead to this point; cover and chill overnight and when it’s time to bake, cover with pastry first.)
When you’re ready to bake the pie, preheat the oven to 400°F. Roll out the puff pastry or regular pastry dough on a lightly floured surface until it’s about an inch bigger around than your baking dish; drape over the filling. You could leave it over the edge of the baking dish, or crimp it. Cut a few slits in the top and if you like, brush with some lightly beaten egg. Bake pie for 45 minutes, or until bubbly and golden. Let rest 15 minutes before serving.
One Year Ago: Slow Roast Beef on a Bun and Light Coconut Christmas Cake
December 28 2009 | chicken & turkey and freezable and leftovers and pork | 17 Comments »
Happy Christmas everyone, and sorry for the radio silence. I actually had a post almost finished on the evening of December 23rd when I went upstairs to read W a story. On my way back down, gravity got me good. (It’s been after me my whole life.) Thick, wooly socks + hundred-year-old wood stairs worn to a smooth sheen = me slamming down several of them in quick succession – WHAMMOWHAMMPWHAMMO – and winding up in a pile on the landing. You know that saying “the bigger they are, the harder they fall?” Truth. I made it to bed -barely- and spent a tearful, painful night waking up each time I moved. It appears now, three days and plenty of painkillers later, that I cracked/bent/fractured/otherwise maimed my tailbone, which is quite swollen. Wait, that could just be my butt.
And now my lower back is getting in on the action, trying to help compensate for it. So I’m bouncing back and forth between Robaxacet and Ibuprofen, and which one I currently have on board determines which pain comes out on top. I’ve become quite useless in the past 24 hours, but still managed to pull off a turkey dinner for 11, even if it was 2 hours late. (It also seems painkillers affect math skills, specifically when calculating pounds, kilos and hours in the oven.)
Which isn’t to say the past few days haven’t been completely fantastic, and I can’t wait to tell you about them. Also – my sister has officially moved in across the street, which is almost like our little family has sprouted four new members, and W suddenly has a sort of brother to spend every waking moment with (and whose Dad showed up on Christmas morning with a Wii – could life get any better?) and I have to fill you in on all that as well. But (besides the fact that I’ve been trying to stay off the computer for a few days) sitting at the computer is not the most comfortable thing for me to do right now. So I think I’ll pick up where I left off, and go watch Flight of the Conchords and/or curl up with Cleaving, both of which Santa left under the tree.
So this is how it went:
This holiday season, I’m thankful for cream, sugar and cute little dollar store jars.
I’ve fallen back on quick, cheap and easy (if you are what you eat, right?) caramel sauce on many a Christmas Eve eve, wanting to drop little packages of something delicious on my neighbours’ steps but running out of time to make the more elaborate things I wholeheartedly meant to. Tonight I was all set to make another batch of stollen, and found I was out of milk. So I decided to give up on stollen and make caramel sauce. (Or butterscotch. What’s in a name? That which we call a sauce by any other name would taste as sweet.)
SmittenKitchen planted the seed again with her ridiculously easy butterscotch sauce that is, in fact, ridiculously easy. I morphed it with an old standby recipe and made three batches in under half an hour. One was straight-up, another spiked with espresso (powder) and a third made with eggnog in place of the cream. (If eggnog isn’t your thing, think of caramel spiked with nutmeg.) And I think she’s right, by the way, in calling it butterscotch, which is defined thusly:
but·ter·scotch [buht-er-skoch]
n.
A syrup, sauce, candy, or flavoring made by melting butter and brown sugar together.
But I think caramel would technically be correct as well:
car·a·mel [kar-uh-muhl, -mel, kahr-muhl]
n.
A smooth chewy candy made with sugar, butter, cream or milk, and flavoring.
Either way it’s delicious. And easy. And cheap.
Caramel/Butterscotch Sauce
1/4 cup butter
1/2 cup packed light or dark brown sugar
1/2 cup whipping cream or eggnog
1/4-1/2 tsp. sea salt (or to taste)
1 tsp. vanilla
1 tsp. instant coffee or espresso (optional – if you want coffee caramel)
Whisk everything but the vanilla in a small pot set over medium heat. Bring to a gentle boil and simmer for about 5 minutes, whisking occasionally. Remove from heat and add the vanilla and espresso, if you’re using it.
Oh and by the way, I drew a number (using random.org) for the Anthony Bourdain tickets, and I’m really sorry if your name isn’t Katharine, because that means you didn’t win. But if your name is Katharine, congratulations! You’re going to see Mr. Bourdain on January 12th.
One Year Ago: BBQ Turkey Pizza and Hot Spiced Ginger Lemonade
December 26 2009 | dessert | 31 Comments »
I probably shouldn’t have done this; opened the door wide when those little chocolate wafer cookies layered with whipped cream came a-knocking. Remember those logs made with chocolate cookies spread with whipped cream, then stuck in the fridge for hours until the previously crisp cookies softened to something sliceable? Genius. I turned one into an easy Bûche de Noël (Yule Log) by spiking whipped cream with sugar and instant coffee to add a log-ish hue, but to be perfectly honest the coffee cream was almost better scooped straight from the bowl with a chocolate wafer. There was a lot of moaning going on, let me tell you. I’m sorry I missed the boat on photographing the finished product; I dragged a fork along the surface and it looked exactly like a little log you’d throw on the fire. Only don’t.
Chocolate Cookie Mocha Bûche de Noël
1 pkg. chocolate wafer cookies
1 1/2 cups whipping cream
2 Tbsp. sugar, divided
2 tsp. instant coffee or espresso, divided
chopped toasted hazelnuts and pistachios, for garnish (optional)
In a medium bowl, beat half the whipping cream, half the sugar and half the coffee until stiff. Line a long plate with a piece of plastic wrap and spread about a teaspoon onto each cookie, stacking about 6 at a time; once they are assembled start gluing each stack together with more cream to make a log. Wrap the plastic wrap around it and chill for at least 4 hours, or overnight.
When you’re ready to serve it, whip the remaining cream, sugar and coffee and spread over the outside of the log, dragging the tines of a fork down the length of it to simulate a log. If you like, slice a piece off the end at an angle and set it on the side, then add the whipped cream, just like a traditional Bûche de Noël. Sprinkle with nuts, if you’re using them.
Serves 8. (Or 2, if it’s just my sister and I.)
One Year Ago: Mincemeat Cake (and look how cute W was!)
December 22 2009 | cake | 25 Comments »
Now’s as good a time as any to tell you how simple it is to make a batch of truffles. At 4 sleeps until the Big Day, the last place you want to be is in a mall. If you have anyone left on your list, they will more than likely be thrilled with a batch of homemade chocolate truffles.
Here’s all you need to remember: 1 part cream to 3 parts chocolate – dark or semi-sweet is best.
Heat the cream, take it off the heat, add the chocolate and let it sit a few minutes. In less than five you can stir it until smooth, then pop it in the fridge. Once chilled, roll it into balls and roll the balls in cocoa, crushed candy canes, chopped nuts – you name it.
But the most fun part is the flavouring. As you heat the cream you can steep loose tea (a teaspoon or so of Earl Grey or spiced chai is nice), or ginger, or orange zest, or pepper… anything chunky can be scooped out or strained before you add the chocolate. Of course there’s always the option of adding extract (vanilla, peppermint) or swapping some of the cream for Bailey’s. Truffles are about as easy as it gets, which is a very good thing when you’ve spent the day painting Vanilla Custard over Ointment Pink (for real – that’s the name of the paint colour), the kitchen looks like someone picked it up and shook it, the kids need a hands-on project and Santa is coming very, very soon.
Simple Chocolate Truffles
Add flavourings other than extract as you bring cream to a simmer, then let it steep for a bit off the heat (you don’t want to cook the cream down too much) and strain it out, then rewarm it enough to melt the chocolate.
1 part cream
3 parts semi-sweet or dark chocolate (chopped or chips or nibs)
cocoa or finely chopped toasted nuts, for rolling
In a smallish saucepan, bring your cream to a simmer and then turn off the heat. If you’re using extract, add it now, then dump in the chocolate and let it sit for several minutes. Give it a stir until it’s smooth and chill until firm. Roll into balls and roll the balls in cocoa to coat. Store in the fridge, but serve at room temperature (chocolate should never be served cold).
One Year Ago: Edamame Walnut Dip and Laurie Colwin’s Happy Winter Fudge Cake
December 21 2009 | leftovers | 16 Comments »
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