Archive for September, 2010
You guys, I’ve been holding out on you again. I’ve been making this for a month, and it’s Mike’s new favourite thing to eat, and the only reason I haven’t been sharing the love is because most (OK all) of the times I’ve made it I’ve been on TV (this is what I was doing in Winnipeg, Saskatoon, Vancouver… playing with pig across Western Canada). Every time I make it elicits groans and eye-rolling (in a good way) among camera crews, hosts and all who crawl out of the woodwork when there’s food to be had. It’s really just delicious, and amazingly simple to make. From start to finish it took me under 15 minutes. I served it with boiled new potatoes and the last of the greens still clinging to life in the garden. I’m not sure what I’ll do when I can no longer walk out there with the salad bowl, fill it and bring it back to the table.
So – what’s a pork tenderloin fillet, you ask? It’s something I’m amazed no one came up with eons ago – a halved (crosswise) pork tenderloin that’s been butterflied, so that it resembles a chicken breast in size, shape and thickness, making it faster and easier to cook, on account of it being thinner and far more even. (Pork tenderloins tend to taper on both ends, making them uneven to cook – the ends are well done by the time the middle is cooked through – not that I ever minded, really, but some might.) Anyway, it’s a nice neat little package of meat to cook on the stove top and is just enough for two or three. To make this particular dish, you heat a bit of oil and a bit of butter (one to handle the heat, the other to add flavour) and cook the tenderloin fillet, dousing it in freshly ground pepper and fresh thyme. Then you set it aside, toss a sliced apple into the pan and swirl it around, softening and caramelizing it while loosening up all the browned bits in the bottom of the pan, and then you add a squirt of grainy mustard, a dribble of maple syrup and a splash of cream and wow – it morphs, with those little browned bits, into the most amazing sauce you may have ever had (assuming you’ve never been to Paris, of course) which you then pour over the pork and bring to the table. For years I’ve been making this more labour-intensive version of maple pork tenderloin with apples, and I can’t believe how much more streamlined this is.
It’s a Maple Leaf recipe that was originally intended for a large pork roast, which it’s awkward to cook in real time on TV, and besides – I wanted to show off this new fillet. Maple Leaf is also running a food blogger-inspired pork recipe contest – food bloggers from across Canada are posting their pork recipes with photos. There are 22 recipes posted now, including Slow Cooker Five-Spice Pork, Pork Tenderloin with Spiced Quinoa, Jack Daniels Pork Medallions and Honey Garlic Fried Pork Back Ribs- all of which are now poised at the top of my must-make list. You can go vote on your favourite and they’ll give you a coupon for 50% off Prime Pork – a pretty sweet deal on some mighty fine meat.
Maple Pork Tenderloin Fillet with Caramelized Apples
This recipe is easily doubled; just cook two fillets in the pan and double the sauce ingredients – you can use two apples or just one if you don’t want too much.
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 package Maple Leaf Prime tenderloin fillet
Freshly ground pepper
1 Tbsp. fresh thyme leaves
1 tart apple, cored and sliced
1-2 tsp. grainy mustard
2-3 Tbsp. maple syrup
1/2 cup half & half or coffee cream
In a heavy skillet, heat the oil and butter over medium-high heat. Sprinkle the pork tenderloin filet generously with pepper and thyme and cook for 3-5 minutes on each side, until golden and just cooked through (the middle should reach 160F). Transfer to a plate and set aside.
Sauté the apples in the pan for a few minutes, until starting to soften and turn golden. Add the mustard, maple syrup and cream and cook, stirring, until the mixture is well blended, comes to a simmer and thickens. Pour the apples and sauce over the pork and serve immediately. Serves 2-3.
September 21 2010 | pork | 16 Comments »
We had a sort of impromptu Thanksgiving dinner tonight… I came into the possession of a turducken (for a story in next week’s Swerve) and with CSA veg piling up it seemed to make sense to have a bit of a feast today. We wound up with a houseful of a dozen or so. Those chilly fall days when I get to putter around and make a turkey dinner are some of the best of the year. Turns out I was about ready for it. (So was my groaning fridge.)
A turducken, in case you haven’t heard of it, is a Frankensteined turkey, partially deboned (but with legs and wings intact, in order to maintain that Norman Rockwell visual appeal) and stuffed with a fully deboned chicken and duck. This one also happens to contain Spolumbo’s sausage.
It’s easy enough to cook – all you do is unwrap it and stick it in the oven – it bakes on low heat (225F) for 7-8 hours (about the same as a slow cooker – you could probably cram one in), which forced me to run across the street to bake the things I mixed up without thinking about the oven being occupied. I had to cover the legs with foil as they browned much more quickly than the rest of the bird. To carve it, you halve it lengthwise and then just sort of hack/slice it up – far easier than the usual awkward dance I do with a whole turkey and carving knife. (A new Calgary company makes these, and they’re available at Co-op stores.)
W helped me shuck the corn, which it turns out has far less appeal when it’s cold and rainy outside – it looks as if some blonde just got her hair cut in my kitchen. I made a big pot of vichyssoise (leek and potato soup – it’s called vichyssoise when it’s served chilled, but we ate it hot, sipped out of mugs) using leeks, potent garlic, sweet little spring onions and thin-skinned white potatoes so fresh and juicy they cracked like apples when I cut into them – skin and all. (Then chicken stock, fresh thyme, simmered and then pureed with a splash of cream at the end.) I didn’t use a recipe, but I posted one a couple years ago if you need it. We had pink and purple potatoes, boiled and roughly mashed, leftover wheat berry and barley salad with chickpeas (left over from last week’s food photo extravaganza) and steamed green and yellow beans and carrots from the farm. And a big salad.
And real creamed corn – it’s what you make when summer turns to fall, you’re a bit done with the whole on-the-cob thing, and you have a nice cast iron skillet to cook it in. To get the kernels off the cob, hold it upright in the middle of a bundt or angel food cake pan, and cut/scrape them off down the sides, letting them fall into the pan.
Real Creamed Corn
1 Tbsp. canola or olive oil
1 Tbsp. butter
1 small sweet onion or 4 green onions, finely chopped
6 ears fresh corn, husked
1/2 cup cream – heavy, 18% coffee cream or half & half
In a large, heavy skillet, heat the oil and butter over medium-high heat. When the foaming subsides, add the onion and cook for a few minutes, until soft. Meanwhile, scrape the kernels off the cobs of corn, scraping away any milk at the base as well. (You can do this by holding the cob upright in the middle of a Bundt or angel cake pan and scraping down the sides, or merely holding it in a wide bowl or pan.)
Add the corn to the hot pan and cook until tender and if you like, starting to brown. Add the cream and cook for a minute or two, until thickened. Season with salt and pepper and serve immediately.
For dessert on Thanksgiving we kind of fell into the tradition of upside-down pear gingerbread rather than pie – partly because my Dad has always been cautious of his fat intake, and partly because I made it once when I was a teenager and everyone loved it. Sometimes we make a pie too, but we always have this. With an enormous bag of peaches on the counter, I figured since peaches and ginger were a pretty compatible pair, peaches and gingerbread might be even better. Bingo. I think I like it better than with pears.
Upside-Down Peach Gingerbread
One of the biggest selling points of an upside-down cake is the fact that it needs no decorating. When you invert the cake the fruit slices end up on top, making it look gratifyingly complete with no need for frosting.
Topping:
2 Tbsp. butter
1/3 cup packed brown sugar
2 Tbsp. maple or golden syrup
1-2 ripe but firm peaches, pears or tart apples, sliced
Gingerbread:
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1 large egg
1/4 cup dark molasses
1 Tbsp. grated fresh ginger, or 1 tsp. powdered ginger
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tsp. baking soda
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1/4 tsp. allspice (optional)
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 cup buttermilk or sour milk
Preheat the oven to 350°F and spray a 9″ round cake pan with nonstick spray. Put the butter (for the topping) in the pan and put it into the oven for a few minutes to melt. Take it out and stir in the brown sugar and syrup. It won’t really be smooth – don’t worry about it. Arrange the peach slices on top, placing them tightly together – they shrink a bit as they cook.
To make the gingerbread batter, beat the butter and brown sugar in a medium bowl until well blended. Add the egg, molasses, and ginger and beat until thoroughly combined.
In a small bowl, stir together the flour, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Add half the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and stir by hand or on the lowest speed of an electric mixer just until the batter is combined. Add the buttermilk in the same way, then the remaining dry ingredients. Pour the batter over the sliced peaches.
Bake for about 40 minutes, until the top is springy to the touch. Let it stand for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the edge of the cake and invert it onto a plate while it’s still warm. If it cools too much and sticks to the pan, warm it in the oven again before you try to invert it. Don’t worry if any peach slices stick to the bottom of the pan – simply peel them out and place them back on top of the cake where they belong. Serves 8-12.
Sadie helped me make the cakes, and the ice cream too. This is about as simple as it gets – pure cream (it doesn’t need to be heavy – we used coffee cream) and honey, whirled in the ice cream machine. I made it because I didn’t feel like going to the corner store for whipping cream, but it turned out to be exactly the thing. Go ahead and call it frozen honey cream if you want to be all
shi shi la la (or Winnie-the-Pooh) about it. I love that all there is in this ice cream is cream and honey – no guar gum, carageneen or anything I can’t spell (or pronounce).
Honey Ice Cream
1/3 cup good-quality honey
2 cups 18% coffee cream (or 1 cup whipping cream and 1 cup 2% milk)
If the honey is solid or crystallized, microwave it for about 10 seconds to liquefy; stir into the cream and put in the refrigerator until chilled. Freeze in an ice cream machine according to the manufacturer’s directions. Makes about 3 cups.
September 19 2010 | dessert and veg | 19 Comments »
Hey y’all. I’m writing this from 35030 feet, trying to make it to Vancouver in time to tape Urban Rush – I was on an early flight, which just after taxiing out to the runway, as we were about to take off, had technical difficulties. They brought us back to the terminal and shuffled us onto another flight. There was much grumbling, but I personally am grateful that they took us off an airplane that was having mechanical problems. Call me crazy.
I also over the course of the morning left my credit card in the self check-in machine (didn’t discover this until going for my photo ID upon boarding), had my bag searched (the frying pan and tongs in one carry-on and loads of dishes and pork in the other may have raised an eyebrow?) and spilled coffee all over my papers in an attempt to maneuver myself and said baggage into the overhead compartment and my seat. I put the lass in class, yesiree. Now I have to pee and am firmly trapped in my seat, between passengers and drink carts, so I thought I’d distract myself with my laptop. (So far it’s not really working.) I’m also worrying about how I’m going to find cooking oil, maple syrup and cream between the airport and studio with approximately zero minutes to spare. Isn’t there a game show that goes something like this?
I don’t have much in the way of recipes to offer – since Sunday Sue and I have been shackled to the kitchen, cranking out bean dish after bean dish and attempting to photograph it using what little grey light was coming in through clouds and rainy windows. It was fun. But we’re sick of beans, and of grazing on same for days on end. There was also the dress rehearsal of Kooza – the show was unbelievable. I’m surprised that during the spinning wheel thing I didn’t actually have a heart attack and/or pass out. I can’t believe real human beings can do these things. They must do a lot of yoga. Mike and I felt rather lame hauling ourselves back up the 500+ stairs to the car when any of the performers could have hopped up them upside down on one hand.
So this week there has been a trip to Edmonton, and Feast of Fields! I took lots of pictures and then didn’t even share! And Kooza, and meet-the-teacher night, and a stint on Global, and lots and lots of beans, and suddenly it’s Friday and I’m en route to Vancouver just for the day. (I feel very Mary Tyler Moore on a business trip with my laptop.) Tonight Mike’s picking me up at the airport and we’re heading straight out for a night at the Banff Springs – our first overnighter without W! It’s too bad we’ll be wasting it sleeping. I’m very much looking forward to clean sheets and no early wake-up. There will also be some eating and drinking, but I think the deal is that I remain unplugged – if I bring my camera and open up the laptop in bed tonight, it will most likely result in divorce.
Sunday we’re making a turducken. I can’t wait to tell you about that.
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Fast forward- now 3 pm, at 40712 feet. I found oil, cream and maple syrup on the way downtown. I pulled off the show with Michael and Fiona. There were pirates in the green room, even. And then I went and almost missed my flight home. This was partly due to the fact that I thought I’d be out of the building by 1:15 and wasn’t until 1:40… But likely has more to do with stopping for gelato (I hadn’t eaten yet! I was starving! And walking right past it!) and the gelato girls plying me with sample spoonfuls of everything from fresh pear to (pure organic milk gelato), which tends to make one lose track of time. Then I found the subway and promptly got lost looking for the right train line. Who does Vancouver think it is, London?? It took twice as long to get to the airport as I thought, and they almost didn’t let me on the plane. At security my bags got gutted and swabbed again (this time they might have discovered some cumin) as I stood sweating and gasping for air, having attempted to run (have I told you about my plantar fasciitis yet? No? I’ll have to rectify that) carrying bags of dishes and plates and laptop and the enormous black raincoat I thought I’d need (it was sunny). Not feeling so Mary Tyler Moore now, wedged up against the window, with a body temperature of about a million degrees, sweat coursing down every crevice it can find, beside a very tall, boozy and very much in love couple. I’m trying to type without moving my elbows. Not that they’d probably notice.
____
Midnight now, in the bathroom at the Banff Springs, with tub running so that Mike thinks I’m drawing a bath. Sitting on the toilet with my laptop. Just wanted to connect and post this, recipe or no, so you don’t think I’ve fallen off the earth. Right now I’m not quite sure I haven’t, but I’m certain a good sleep (!) and a good breakfast (!) will help. It won’t hurt!
Oops – I just realized it’s Free Stuff Friday and I don’t have any loot! I am doing a giveaway of a beautiful new gluten and dairy-free cookbook called Cooking for Isaiah: Gluten-Free & Dairy-Free Recipes for Easy, Delicious Meals by Silvana Nardone. You can enter over here.
September 17 2010 | leftovers | 29 Comments »
That’s what Pierre called it when we were charged with choosing one out of twenty entries at the Bowness Harvest Fair on Saturday morning. I tough job, but somebody’s gotta.
We tasted all of them. Some a few times. What amazes me in contests like this is how completely different everyone’s entry is. There was peach, crabapple, nanking cherry, raspberry, strawberry, saskatoon berry and blueberry, and I’m certain I’m forgetting some. (Come to think of it, there was no plum. What gives?) There was apple butter and peach butter and even one chutney. One sweet jelly was made with wine and was meant to be served with goat cheese. Another thick, runny strawberry jam was flavoured with fresh mint and black pepper.
Yet another was named for the Saturday afternoon it was made on. I loved this. I wanted it to win just by virtue of its hand-written label. But the jam inside – thick and pulpy (he too values the nanking cherry and wants to get as much off the pits as possible – yes, it was a man who made it) it wasn’t too sweet, and tasted like fruit. It was a runner-up.
But the best damn jam was the purest raspberry – there is nothing better, don’t you think? Just raspberries, a bit of lemon juice, sugar and pectin, I think. I’m hoping to get the recipe, but really, it’s all about the berries. And I hear this guy (another man! yes! men who make jam!) has a pretty sweet raspberry thicket behind his house. I have envy. I’ve managed to destroy my raspberries, and so far as I can tell, you can’t make jam out of chard.
For the rest of Saturday I cooked for a Great Gatsby-themed party – flapper pies, lemon cakes, pigs in pastry (a reference to the book – homemade sausage rolls), chicken satay with peanut sauce, pesto salmon bites, ham and sweet potato frittata, gruyère gougères. Today Sue arrived to work on our book – we go gangbusters on food photos this week. She came in time for Feast of Fields – such a great event if you ever have the chance to go. And we discovered a sure-fire cure for insomniacs: wine in the afternoon, then several hours of book editing.
So because it’s late and I don’t have a recipe to offer, here’s a recap of a post on jam-making from August of last summer. Because I’m newly inspired by all the wonderful homemade varieties out there, how many entrants were new at it, and how really un-scary jam making can be if you Just Do It. There isn’t much better than toast with your own jam.
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Although fruits have been preserved in sugar for thousands of years, people have only in recent decades developed a fear of jam-making. The common opinion has come to be that jam is difficult to make, difficult to set, and will take the better part of a day (or at least an afternoon) to procure. Not so. And although a jar of jam can be easily had at any corner store, it really is worth the effort to simmer some fruit yourself. To simplify the process, fruit + sugar = jam.
If you are among the nervous, take comfort in the fact that runny jam is perfectly acceptable; delicious, even. (I far prefer a loose jam to one that resembles stiff Jell-O.) If it’s exceedingly runny, you have yourself a lovely fruit syrup, one that will enliven pancakes, waffles, ice cream, fresh biscuits and angel food cake – just pretend that it’s exactly the way you intended it to be.
To get all scientific about it: the main components of jams and preserves are fruit, sugar, pectin and acid (such as lemon juice). Fruits vary in their pectin content, but typically under-ripe fruit (such as strawberries with white spots) contains more pectin and acid, both necessary elements for the jelling process. (Fruits higher in pectin include apples, currants, oranges and plums; middle-of-the road fruits include blueberries, raspberries, cherries and rhubarb; low-pectin fruits include apricots, peaches and strawberries.) Commercial pectin can always be used as extra insurance, but isn’t really necessary. Apples (with their seeds) and citrus peels are high in pectin – I’ll often add some to the pot (if I’m straining the mixture to make jelly) or wrap in cheesecloth to simmer, then pull out after the mixture has cooked.
When making jam, aim for 1 cup sugar to every 2-3 cups chopped fruit. This is not as much as it sounds – a great many recipes call for equal quantities of sugar and fruit, so feel free to use more. You’ll want to cook them together, rather than cook the fruit and then add the sugar, as the sugar helps pull water from the fruit but leaves the pectin. Add about a tablespoon of lemon juice per pound of low-acid fruit. (If you’re not sure if your fruit is low-acid or not, add it anyway.)
Bring the lot to a rolling boil and cook, skimming off any foam that rises to the surface, until it thickens and looks like loose jam. (Keep in mind it will firm up as it cools.) To test, either use a candy thermometer (it will set at around 220°F) or drop a spoonful on a small dish you’ve chilled in the freezer. If it sets up into something that resembles jam, and wrinkles on the surface when you push it with your finger, it’s done.
Sugar acts as a preservative in jam and jelly-making, so if you haven’t followed a precise formula and are nervous about properly sealing and processing it in jars, simply store small quantities of jam in the fridge for a week or two (keep a jar for your own family’s use) and freeze the rest – jam freezes beautifully.
Clear as jam?
September 12 2010 | preserves | 22 Comments »
I’m writing this while on hold with Visa. Trying to book a flight to Vancouver, I was at the very end asked to prove my identity on a pop-up Verified by Visa page, which prompted all the answers to the questions they had as I began to type them in, then told me I’m wrong – try again. Like there are alternative answers to my mother’s maiden name. So I’m on hold at 11 on a Friday night when I should be working on any number of stories I have due this weekend, or making mini flapper pies for a party I’m cooking for tomorrow night, or I don’t know – sleeping might be a good idea.
So yeah – potato pizza, hey? I never really got the double-carb-whammy concept, but with an abundance of beautiful, delicate-skinned potatoes from the farm (and an overflowing but not-yet-harvested potato condo in my back yard – can’t wait to show you!) I really was pushing for new ideas. And I need to carb load for my marathon pie-baking contest in the morning. (Honestly – Pierre and I are judging pie, jam and homemade wine at the Bowness Fair at 10 in the morning. (They’ll also have a produce swap, if you have too much of a good thing and not enough of another.)
So the pizza. I took a ball of dough out of the freezer, sliced the purple and white potatoes as thinly as I could (which was pretty thin, using my new kick-ass Japanese knife from Kevin’s shop) layered them, scattering between the layers with roughly chopped garlic and fresh rosemary, then drizzled the lot with some olive oil into which I squished another clove of garlic before starting this whole process.
Then scattered cheese over the top and baked it at 450F for 20 minutes, until golden. It was not at all as involved as it sounds. Having spent the past two days doing cooking demos at the Kerby Centre Expo I also had copious amounts of quinoa salad and salmon, which I spread with pesto and slid into the same hot oven for about 10 minutes. (What’s convenient about Hamburger Helper again?)
And I know, it’s Friday. And I have some Free Stuff for you! Honestly the Fridays keep blowing by and I keep on missing them. But I caught one! And I have something for you that I think is hilarious, that I bought at Kulinary Kids last week when W and I were hanging out and cooking with Chuck Hughes from Food Network Canada.
Check it out – self-shaking salt shakers. You pull the string and they shake on their own. I had to buy them. (It was hard to capture their shaking action on camera. Those are Mike’s hands, posing with them. Don’t you think he should be a hand model? Do you think there’s any money in that? Do you think it would go to his head?)
As always, I love hearing what you’re eating. And if you have any suggestions for new ways to use chard, potatoes and zucchini, that would be fab. I’ll do a random draw next Tuesday!
September 10 2010 | appetizers and vegetarian | 46 Comments »
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