Archive for March, 2010
I may have shared this tidbit with you already: when I was in grade 3, I told my class that when I grew up I wanted to be the food editor of Canadian Living magazine. I even read my Mom’s subscription. I began my career as a food nerd early.
The food editor at the time (and still today), Elizabeth Baird was one of relatively few food writers of the eighties and the only I knew, and I wanted to be her. (8 year olds, unless they happen to have been born into a food-writing family, tend to not know of food writers, let alone idolize them like their friends might Avril Lavigne. And it wasn’t just a phase; as a teenager, I wanted to dye my hair silvery-white and get bangs.
There were other food writers of her time – Rose Reisman, Rose Murray, Anne Lindsay – they were the faces and voices of Canadian cuisine, and I thought of them as pioneers, trendsetters – the ones dialing in the menus and trends of our Canadian kitchens. I still have old copies of the magazine, and their books are still some of the most weathered on my shelves; the ones I learned to cook from, they made me feel like an adult when I moved away from home and (eventually) the novelty of Hamburger Helper and Eggos wore off.
Yesterday, a copy of Anne Lindsay’s new tome, Lighthearted at Home, the very best of Anne Lindsay, arrived at my door. It’s like an encyclopedia, or a phone book – a large volume containing every possible kind of recipe one might ever need – the best of her cooking career, in a single volume. Flipping through, I was instantly sucked into the nostalgia of the baking section – Elizabeth Baird’s Chocolate Angel Food Cake, Best-Ever Date Squares (known in my grandma’s day, and referenced here, as Matrimonial Slice) and Raisin Cupcakes with Lemon Icing, the same recipe I recall transcribing into a notebook a couple decades ago; raisins soaked in boiling water and then drained, reserving some of the liquid for the cakes – the recipe comes from her mother-in-law, Olive Lindsay. I can’t possibly not make them. W, who loves raisins almost above all else (all superheroes excluded, of course) might become ecstatic at the notion of turning them into an actual cupcake.
But I liked the look of her Easy Cranberry-Chocolate Cookies – made with oat bran, wheat germ and whole wheat flour, they seemed potentially tweedy-crispy, rather than heavy… they turned out crisp-edged and nutty, with the rough texture of an oatmeal cookie and none of the heavy doughiness you might expect from something so loaded down with grains.
Out of oat bran, I used barley flour, and a little less of it – about half a cup. I turned the butter down to half a cup, added a tablespoon of vanilla instead of water, added some chunky toasted walnuts and fewer dried cranberries.
Grainy Cranberry-Walnut-Chocolate Chip Cookies
adapted from Lighthearted at Home, by Anne Lindsay
1/2 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. vanilla
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 cup oat bran or 1/2 cup barley flour
1/4 cup wheat germ
1 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cup chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup chopped toasted walnuts
Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, beat the butter and brown sugar until fluffy. Beat in the egg and vanilla. Add the flour, oat bran, wheat germ, baking powder, baking soda and salt and stir until the batter starts to come together; add the chocolate chips, cranberries and walnuts and stir or beat on low speed just until the batter is combined.
Drop the dough in large spoonfuls onto a cookie sheet that has been sprayed with nonstick spray or lined with parchment; flatten each cookie a little with your hand or the back of a fork. Bake for 12-14 minutes, until just set around the edges but still soft in the middle. Transfer to a wire rack to cool. Makes 2 dozen cookies.
For dinner we ate very mediocre frozen thin-crust chicken and spinach pizza while W had a bath, having slid through a pile of newly-thawed dog poo (ah, spring), and then went to watch Where the Wild Things Are at the Lantern in Inglewood. A bag of cookies came with us, warm from the oven.
And guess what! Being as it’s Friday, I have a copy for you. 500 recipes, almost as many pages – it’s a whole lotta cookbook. If you have a cookie recipe that makes you the most happy, I’d love to hear it. (And share links, if you like!) Otherwise, I always love to hear what you ate/made for dinner last night.
(I do a random draw on Tuesdays, and am happy to ship it anywhere it needs to go!)
March 06 2010 | cookies & squares | 91 Comments »
Confession: I’ve never made a sausage roll. Shocking, I know. (I had never made sausage before this week either, but that’s a whole other story.) Besides the obvious deterrent of the sausage-puff pastry double whammy, they always seemed heavy and greasy and far too eighties (but not in a faddish-yes that’s a word-sort of way) and why would I bother putting forth the effort? (Not that I seem to have a problem downing cheese, meat and bread with a side salad of crispy chicken skin and donuts for dessert.)
But then I was challenged to pull out the grinder attachment Mike bought me for my KitchenAid three Christmases ago and use it to make sausage from scratch, and being too lazy to head out to the butcher and pick up some pig intestine casings, I figured I’d much rather wrap the finished sausage in pastry. Good call.
But wait – I didn’t even use the grinder to make this. I had some nice ground Alberta lamb in the freezer, and squished in my add-ins as if I was making a meatloaf, and in very few minutes I was the proud momma of a batch of lamb sausage. Which I could have shaped into little patties and pan-fried, or rolled into balls and roasted, or extruded into casings. I went ahead and thawed some puff pastry – which is so charmingly rustic and forgiving, it looks fabulous no matter what you do to it – and made sausage rolls.
All you do is cut the rolled-out puff pastry into strips, make a long pile of meat on top,
pull up the pastry around it, pinch it closed, turn it seam-down and brush it with a little egg…
and cut the roll into whatever size lengths you fancy, then bake for about 20 minutes, or until puffed and golden. Beautiful. You could do these with any kind of sausage, but I loved the lamb-orange zest combo. They’d do well bite-sized, and you can freeze them ahead for partying later.
Lamb Sausage Rolls with Orange and Fennel
adapted from Canadian Living
1 lb (454 g) ground lamb
1 egg
1/4 cup fresh bread crumbs
1 shallot, minced (or 1/4 cup onion)
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 Tbsp. chopped fresh parsley
2 tsp. crushed fennel seeds
grated zest of an orange
1/2 tsp. ground coriander
salt & pepper
1 pkg (450 g) frozen puff pastry, thawed
beaten egg, for brushing tops (optional)
In large bowl, mix the lamb, egg, bread crumbs, onion, garlic, parsley, fennel seeds, orange zest, coriander, salt and pepper; set aside.
Divide pastry in half. On lightly floured surface, roll out each half into a 10″ square; cut each into 3 equal strips. Spoon the filling down the center of each strip, fold pastry over filling and press the edge to seal.
Arrange rolls, seam side down, on a rimmed cookie sheet. Cover and chill for about half an hour. Preheat the oven to 400F.
Cut each roll into 1″-2″ pieces. (Make-ahead: Layer between waxed paper in airtight container and freeze for up to 2 months.) Brush the tops with a little beaten egg and bake for 20 minutes, or until golden.
(They may need an extra 5-10 minutes if you bake them from frozen.)
March 04 2010 | appetizers and pork | 27 Comments »
I’m sorry I didn’t report immediately back about our dinner at CharCut last night – the truth is we passed a crime scene on the way to our car, then had a particularly unsettling experience immediately upon our arrival home (W was across the street, sleeping over), which necessitated calling the police, double checking for locked doors, and subsequently barely sleeping. I spent until the wee hours trying to mellow out by flipping through recipes, with not much fortitude left to upload photos and rave about the bone marrow gratin and mortadella and tiny Yorkshire puds with warm puddles of gravy we had for dinner. But I will now.
Mortadella: hand-mixed pork studded with pistachios and truffles – they stuff this inside a whole pig’s head, then slice it thinner than paper.
There was bone marrow gratin! (top) with garlic brioche toast, and a charcuterie platter with the aforementioned mortadella, house-cured meats (like shaved heritage duck ham with cave aged Gruyère) and sausage (Winters turkey chorizo with pickled saffron tomatoes):
and duck fat poutine with truffle gravy, a wee pot of Raclette with sweet, soft pull-apart brioche rolls, and the crispy chicken skin salad (it isn’t just crisp-roasted chicken skin stripped off the bird, but more intensely crispified by way of a light mahogany batter and additional frying) with tender baby romaine lettuce leaves and a peppery buttermilk dressing that reminded me of my Grandma in a way I still can’t decipher.
When we found ourselves with plates still covered with gravy and a dish of the buttermilk dressing (I could have eaten with a spoon) we requested a bit more bread and they brought a plate of wee Yorkshire puds and a little pot of chicken gravy to douse them in.
Also: Beer I Actually Liked (trust me: this is earth-shattering. I’m not a beer drinker. But I actually liked this stuff. Perhaps I’m just a beer snob?)
For dessert, chocolate chip cookies and a wee vanilla shake and a skillet of warm bombolone; Italian doughnuts filled with homemade (do I detect booze in there?) Nutella.
This morning: oatmeal for breakfast. Perhaps a run. (Or a waddle.)
March 03 2010 | eating out | 23 Comments »
Remember that cobbler we had for dessert last week at Forage? And how one of you requested the recipe? Well Wade came through for us, and I found this in my inbox:
Forage Saskatoon Berry Cobbler
Filling:
6 cups Saskatoon berries (Pearson’s at the Calgary Farmers Market has frozen berries)
1/2 cup water
1 cup sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon (we used Silk Road Vietnamese)
2 Tbsp. cornstarch
Place all in a saucepan on low heat and stir occasionally. Once the sugar has dissolved turn the heat up to medium and bring to a boil until the filling thickens. Remove from heat and pour into a casserole dish.
Topping:
1/4 cup butter (1/4 inch dice)
1 cup flour
2 cups sugar
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1 egg
1/4 cup half and half cream
Preheat the oven to 400F.
Put the butter in a food processor. Add the flour, sugar, and baking powder. Process to a fine crumb. Place in a bowl.
Whisk the egg and cream together. Pour into the flour and stir until just combined. Spoon onto the berry filling. Bake for 20-30 minutes until golden brown. Serve with ice cream.
Thanks Wade.
P.S. About those puddle cookies. I should have touched on the subject of sugar yesterday – specifically those 4 scary cups of it. I know, the sheer quantity made me think twice about making them too. However – I knew that powdered/icing/confectioners’ sugar (all the same thing) had less, well, sugar per cup than table sugar, on account of all that air. (Same principle as whipped butter having less butter per cup than the solid stuff.) But what I learned upon checking numbers is that cup for cup, powdered sugar -when aerated a bit -stirred or sifted and not terribly packed down- has pretty much half the calories and carbohydrates as regular granulated sugar.
1 cup granulated (plain old white) sugar: 774 calories / 200 g carbohydrates (200 g total sugars)
1 cup icing sugar: 389 calories / 99.8 g carbohydrates (97.8 g total sugars)
(source: USDA Nutrient Database)
Interesting, no?
So really, using 4 cups of icing sugar is actually equal to using 2 cups of white sugar. Which is still a lot, but not quite so shockingly high, and it is after all a cookie. A delicious, delicious cookie.
March 01 2010 | dessert | 17 Comments »
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