Archive for January, 2010
I have no recipe on offer today. I did slip into the kitchen last night to make a sweet potato and chard gratin – I needed vegetables, but also comfort in the form of warm food and bubbly cheese. Mike offered to order pizza, but I needed a few minutes at the kitchen counter to decompress after a day of meetings and work. And I love this stuff. The three of us – Mike, my sister and I – gathered around the dining room table with our laptops (or in Mike’s case: hockey on TV), a baking dish of this and a bottle of wine; Ali worked on her masters’ application and I hammered away at Blog Aid details while trying to pull together an article for Swerve that is just not coming together in the kick-ass way I wanted it to, dammit.
Today and tonight was another flurry of work, and since most of it took place on the computer, we tossed a few racks of ribs in to cook for a few hours, boiled some potatoes to roughly mash with their skins, roasted some broccoli and wedges of spaghetti squash to feed the crew of 6 here over the dinner hour, half kids and the other half grown-ups working on the Blog Aid cookbook.
Which, I’m excited to report, is in its almost-final stages of completion! It has been a tremendous amount of work, mostly on the part of Cathryn, a wonderful friend and human being who has plodded away for much of last week and then night and day all this weekend (literally: yesterday she didn’t leave the kitchen table of her cozy house in Sunnyside from 8am until 3am Sunday morning), dropping and organizing the copy and photos into a beautiful layout. Cathryn is one of the most generous, kind, giving people I know. She supports me in everything I do, if even by email because we don’t see nearly enough of each other.
And when I ask her to do stuff like this, stuff that takes over her life for awhile, she dives right in. Her selfless willingness to share her time, creativity and expertise with those who need it is inspiring. She does so much for so many, even travelling to Africa to help the sick. I’m so grateful she’s pouring herself into this project, pulling it into something we can all set on our kitchen shelves to become well-worn with use feeding our friends and families. (If you’re ever looking for someone to do a logo, poster, or any kind of graphic design, let me know and I’ll pass on her contact info. She’s truly fantastic to work with.)
So here’s the gist: We’re lucky enough to have the support of two companies: West Canadian Graphics in Calgary and Blurb in San Francisco (it’s too bad technology allowed for productive conference calls and a one-on-one meeting wasn’t required in San Fran); both are overseeing the production of the book, which will actually be available for order online THIS WEEK. SOON. It’s a POD (print-on-demand) system, meaning the file is uploaded and then books are printed and shipped as they’re ordered, which means this is all happening in real time and books will arrive in about 8 days. (This could possibly be the fastest compilation cookbook project in history; under a month from conception to finished books!) The proceeds from book sales will go straight to Haitian relief via the Red Cross and Doctors without Borders, and get this: both West Canadian AND Blurb are matching the dollar amount of the proceeds raised up to $10,000. And of course until February 12th, the Canadian government will match that.
If you do the math, it’s a pretty great deal in terms of raising money for Haiti, and you get a spanking new cookbook in the mail to boot.
Some of my very favourite eaters are contributors:
Chef Michael Smith, Dana McCauley, Emily Richards, Catharine from Weelicious, Cheryl from Backseat Gourmet, Jeannette of Everybody Likes Sandwiches, Nishta from Blue Jean Gourmet, Lauren of Celiac Teen, Charmian from Christie’s Corner, Shaina from Food for my Family, Marisa of Food in Jars, Shauna and Danny from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, Lauren from Healthy Delicious, Alice from Savory Sweet Life, Tara from Seven Spoons, Jess of Sweet Amandine, Helen from Tartelette, Gail from The Pink Peppercorn, Pierre of Kitchen Scraps, Tim from Lottie and Doof, Tea from Tea & Cookies, Jamie from My Baking Addiction, Lori from Recipe Girl, Melissa from The Traveler’s Lunchbox, Brooke of Tongue-n-Cheeky and Aimee of Under the High Chair.
Really, looking at that lineup I can’t believe we rounded up such a fabulous, generous and talented crew of people, all so eager to help.
And the recipes? Fab. All with beautiful full-colour photographs. I’m still pinching myself. Soups and granolas and baking and preserves and curries and pastries and breakfast and ice cream and dinner ideas. And plenty of gluten-free recipes.
We’ll have two versions; a paperback and hardcover. As I type this, Cathryn is sitting beside me arranging photos and text and lining stuff up and all that designerly stuff. It’s all just so thrilling and a little nervewracking as it comes to the point where it’s time to actually sell books. I’m desperately hoping people aren’t suffering from donor fatigue.
So that’s the status of Blog Aid as of Sunday night, coming to you live from my dining room table. Thanks everyone, for all you do. Keep an eye out. It’s coming!
January 31 2010 | leftovers | 51 Comments »
I love it when I wind up making something completely off my radar, simply because circumstances dictate I use up a random collection of ingredients.
This morning I had my photo taken for next Friday’s Swerve magazine (!) and so I needed to appear 1) cleaned-up and presentable, and 2) like I was right into it in the kitchen. So I rummaged around pulling out bakerly things, like a wad of pastry from the depths of the freezer, and whipped egg whites and sugar into a bowl of meringue, thinking I could strike a Nigella-esque pose with it (I didn’t). When the photographer left, I had a well-crimped (albeit horribly overworked, as most props are) pie crust and a bowl of meringue. My laptop on the table, I quickly searched for a buttermilk pie recipe, thinking that a custardlike filling would be a) quick, and b) a good way to use up those yolks. A maple version came up. I decided to top it with meringue.
I was 20 minutes from having to leave town when it was chilled and ready to be topped; rushing into the kitchen and holding it in one outstretched arm while attempting to quickly take a photo of it in its naked glory, the pie flipped from my hand and landed upside-down on the table, all over all the stuff that was on it, and I let the expletives fly. It’s been a rough week. I lost it a little bit.
And then I scooped it all back up into the pie plate, smeared it with meringue and popped it in the oven. And was glad I did, because the stuff I licked off my fingers while scooping it back was delicious. I’m sure in some part of the world a pie like this has a name; and it falls under the same classification as pandowdies and slumps and Brown Betties. Whoopsie-pie, maybe.
Warning: 6 eggs will give you a helluva lot of meringue. You could do the mile-high thing (drama is always a nice quality in pie) or bake the remainder off as meringue cookies.
Maple Buttermilk Meringue Pie
inspired by this one
1 9″ pie shell
Filling:
2 cups buttermilk
2/3 cup maple syrup
6 large egg yolks
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp. maple sugar
1 tsp. vanilla
pinch salt
Meringue:
6 large egg whites
3/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 325°F. Whisk all the filling ingredients together until smooth; pour into the pie shell and bake for 1 hour, until set but still wobbly in the middle. Cool completely.
When you’re ready to finish the pie (it can be chilled for up to a day), preheat the oven to 400°F. Beat the egg whites with an electric mixer until foamy; gradually add the sugar and continue to beat until the mixture forms stiff peaks. Mound on top of the pie and swirl thickly with a spoon. Bake for about 10 minutes, or just until the meringue turns golden.
And now it’s technically Saturday – I got home from teaching an out-of-town class at midnight, and as I sat down to write this got a call from my sister across the street saying W was sick and feverish. So I ate a few forkfuls of pie, went and collected him, and am now lying next to a very hot, snotty and feverish bundle of joy.
But I’m determined to not miss Free Stuff Friday. Mostly because my friend Wade generously donated two gift certificates to his fine foodshop, Forage, which are each good for a dinner special of the day and a dessert. I’ve never eaten anything of his that wasn’t fabulous.
Which also acts as a perfect segue way to introduce my Brilliant Idea, something I alluded to ages ago when Blog Aid (which is finally coming to fruition this weekend! it is! I’ll keep you posted!) was just a spark. My idea: dinner together. Yes, as many of us who gather here as can make it. A Farm Table Dinner on Wednesday, February 24th, in the private Green Room at Forage. It’s a long, pale green room with an almost equally long dinner table that will accommodate 20 of us. All of the Green Room dinners feature a local producer, and this time it’s Buffalo Horn Ranch. Wade and his team cook and serve dinner family-style, and it’s all very cozy and delicious.
Here’s the deal: it’s $49 (I’m paying too!) which includes dinner, dessert, coffee/tea, and gratuity.
Doors open at 7:00 PM and dinner is served at 7:30 PM sharp.
Beer and wine service is extra and provided by Infuse catering.
You can call Wade and the fine folks at Forage to book your seat(s).
So.. what was for dinner last night? And what do you think – are enough of you interested in meeting in 3D and sitting down to a real dinner? Can we make a go of it?
January 30 2010 | dessert | 48 Comments »
Damn but I do love me a Nanaimo Bar.
I might have skipped this month’s Daring Bakers challenge, citing an unusually overloaded week (multiple article assignments, an out-of-town class, Blog Aid, traffic reporting on CBC, miscellaneous meetings and tying up of loose ends, an unpleasant, expensive and far-too-drawn-out audit) if the assignment wasn’t Nanaimo bars. They’re just my thing. So I couldn’t let my comrades down.
I’m not sure at what point I fell so head over heels in love with Nanaimo bars. It was during my childhood, surely. I don’t recall anyone making them from scratch; it could be that they were the elusive store-bought chocolate treat that made them so appealing. (My parents could be described as granola-types, who bought Bran Buds and hardcore multi-grain bio-bread, made extra-lean ground beef burgers heavily subsidized with oat bran, and sent me to school with a big old carrot for recess snack instead of a much-coveted Fruit Roll-Up. Things changed as we grew up and they got a Costco card. It wore off on me though – I now adore all things grainy and put ground flax in everything.)
I have memories of Nanaimo bars on the Christmas party buffet table, and of me hiding underneath, reaching out from under the tablecloth to sneak more from the dwindling pyramid. (I loved it when my parents were distracted by the taking of coats to the upstairs bedroom and the filling of glasses as company arrived.) With their chocolate bookends and thick band of frosting spiked with Bird’s custard powder within (I’m the one who goes for the corner slice -loaded with icing roses- from a cheap grocery store cake, then finishes the ones politely left on plates too) how could you not love them? PLUS: they are Canadian. (Although I have seen them in cookbooks labeled New York Slice – probably for the benefit of those who have never heard of Nanaimo, BC, and wouldn’t know how to pronounce it, let alone spell it.) They were invented in a small town on Vancouver Island – a lovely place we take the ferry to from Horseshoe Bay on our way to Tofino, where we shop for groceries and gas up before crossing the island. They are no-bake treats of the very best ilk; generally I glaze over the no-bake section of a cookie book, but these are worth every calorie. And quick to make, really – if you don’t count the chilling of each layer, which you shouldn’t, because it’s not actual work.
Lauren, a Canadian (Calgarian, even) food blogger over at Celiac Teen (hi Lauren!) chose this one. Good pick. She went one further and offered up a gluten-free graham cracker recipe that I wish I could have tried – experimenting with gluten-free baking is on my to-do list – but I just couldn’t swing it this week. You can mosey over to her site and check them out, if you’re interested.
So here’s the text we have to include for the sake of the webcrawler who checks up on us to make sure we did our posts proper-like: The January 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Lauren of Celiac Teen. Lauren chose Gluten-Free Graham Wafers and Nanaimo Bars as the challenge for the month. The sources she based her recipe on are 101 Cookbooks and www.nanaimo.ca.
And here are my two cents: Baked goods need a little bit of salt, otherwise they taste flat. The original recipe called for unsalted butter (not always necessary – in this case not worth a special trip to the grocery store) but no salt – if you do use unsalted butter, add a pinch of salt. Otherwise go for salted.
The recipe calls for almonds, but you could swap pecans or walnuts, or ditch them altogether (add a bit more coconut) if you can’t use nuts.
Nanaimo Bars are notoriously high in fat. They’re tough to whittle down, but I managed to (after giving up once or twice) – I posted a lower-fat version on Canada Day 2008.
Nanaimo Bars
Bottom Layer:
1/2 cup butter
1/4 cup sugar
5 Tbsp. cocoa
1 large egg, beaten
1 1/4 cups graham crumbs
1/2 cup finely chopped almonds, pecans or walnuts
1 cup shredded coconut
Middle Layer:
1/2 cup butter, softened
2 Tbsp. cream or milk (plus a bit extra if needed)
2 Tbsp. custard powder (Such as Bird’s – available in the pudding section)
2 cups icing sugar
Top Layer:
4 oz. semi-sweet chocolate, chopped
2 Tbsp. butter
Bottom Layer: Melt the butter, sugar and cocoa in top of a double boiler. (Or if you promise to be gentle, you can do it on the stovetop in a regular pot over low heat.) Whisk in the egg and stir to cook and thicken. Remove from heat and stir in the crumbs, nuts and coconut. Press firmly into an ungreased 8″x8″ or 9″x9″ pan.
Middle Layer: Cream the butter, cream and custard powder in a large bowl with an electric mixer; gradually add the icing sugar and beat until smooth and spreadable, adding a little extra sugar or cream if needed to achieve a frostinglike consistency.
Top Layer: Melt chocolate and butter over low heat. Cool. Once cool, pour over middle layer, spread evenly, and chill. Cut into squares.
Makes about 20 bars.
One Year Ago: Caramelized Onion Dip, then Shepherd’s Pie
January 27 2010 | cookies & squares | 53 Comments »
Have you seen Amélie? (If not, please do.) There’s a part at the beginning where they introduce her and her parents by describing first what they hate and then what they love. As good a litmus test as any, I think. Amélie loves dipping her hands deep into bags of beans and grains. She hates it when drivers in old movies don’t watch the road while they’re driving.
Amélie’s Dad hates clingy swimsuits and likes to take everything out of his toolbox, clean it, and then put everything back in. Likewise her Mom likes to take everything out of her purse, clean it, and put everything back in. (She hates it when her fingers and toes get all wrinkly in the tub.)
I imagine if I were to be described in this manner it would go something like:
She hates it when people eat black licorice within fifty yards of her.
She likes to take everything out of her freezer, clean it, and then put everything back in.
One day awhile ago I was doing just that, the emptying-out part, anyway, and exclaimed when I got to the back, “oh! we have chocolate gelato!”
Mike, without missing even one second, replied, “if I had a gelato shop I would call it Gepetto’s Gelato. And underneath the sign it would say in brackets (formerly Pinocchio’s Panini). And when people came in to ask what happened to Pinocchio’s Panini, I’d answer ‘let’s just say that little wooden boys shouldn’t work around hot ovens.’”
So that’s Mike.
Mike loves lemon. Lemon pies, lemon bars, lemon-cranberry muffins and loaves. So I chopped up some of those sweet preserved lemons and stirred them into lemon pound cake batter, made with half the butter and a little canola oil for good measure, and they melted right in. Oh the plans I have for these.
Double Lemon Pound Cake
If you like, brush still-warm pound cakes with a glaze made with equal amounts lemon juice and sugar, simmered until the sugar dissolves, or pour a little of the syrup from your preserves jar and use it to brush overtop.
1/2 cup butter, softened
1/4 cup canola oil
2 cup sugar
finely grated zest of a lemon
5 large eggs
juice of a lemon
3/4 cup milk
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. salt
4 sweet preserved lemon wedges (about 1 lemon), finely chopped (optional – fresh or frozen berries would also be great)
Preheat the oven to 350°F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter, oil, sugar and lemon zest for 2-3 minutes, until pale yellow and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each addition.
Stir the lemon juice into the milk and set aside for a few minutes to thicken. In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
Add about a third of the flour mixture, beating on low speed just until combined. Add half the milk in the same manner, then another third of the flour, the rest of the milk and the rest of the flour. Stir in the chopped lemon.
Divide the batter between two 8”x4” loaf pans that have been sprayed with nonstick spray. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until golden and tops are springy to the touch. Let cool for about 10 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool completely.
Makes 2 loaf cakes.
One Year Ago: Rosemary Raisin Pecan Crisps
January 25 2010 | leftovers | 26 Comments »
I roasted lemons! Cut organic ones into wedges, sprinkled them with sugar and blasted them until they turned soft and fleshy and oozed tart, caramelized juice. Then popped them into a jar, poured hot simple syrup (equal parts sugar and water, brought to a simmer) overtop and tucked in a vanilla bean (a rosemary sprig might have been a good idea too) for good measure.
So I just had to pop in and tell you about it, even though it’s far too dark to take a decent picture and Mike is patiently waiting for me to start a movie (One Week), because nothing excites me on Saturday night like applying heat to a citrus fruit in a way I hadn’t considered before. And I thought you might get a special little thrill out of it too.
My activity relates directly to an article I’m working on on preserved lemons, which I admit I never fully understood. I wish I could tell you how to make the chicken tagine we’ve eaten for two nights straight, plus lunch (it really is better the next day) but I have to hold out. But it occurred to me as I played with the salty, brined lemons that have their limits, that lemons could as easily be preserved as something sweet; or at least not so salty as to be prohibitive in the kitchen. Not so sweet as to be marmalade-ish, I have plans to thinly slice these into a pound cake tomorrow, and perhaps whirl them into something or other. I’ll keep you posted.
January 23 2010 | leftovers | 26 Comments »
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