Archive for July, 2011
I planned all sorts of things for this summer’s trip to Tofino. Beaching! Sobo! Tacofino! Kayaking! Books! Long healthy runs on the beach (maybe)! A monster head cold was not part of the plan. It moved in, set up camp and is showing no signs of budging.
I have produced enormous quantities of phlegm and gone through boxes of Kleenex. At the beach, I’m the one with wads of damp Kleenex in the pockets of her fleece. Fortunately, my mom is here.
She’s making me poached eggs on toast, and ensuring I drink lots of water. But there’s only so much water I can muster, and so I started drinking her summer bevvy of choice, the one she brings out to the garden with her: a key lime, which are those little round ones the size of a large marble and come by the bag, squeezed over ice and then topped with green tea she steeps once in awhile and then pours into a pitcher in the fridge to chill. She rubs the cut halves of the limes over the rim for added flavour – like rimming a margarita – simultaneously scraping some of the pulp into the glass.
Damn, but it’s refreshing. And far tastier than water when you’re forced to chug a glass an hour. It’s tart, but clean – she doesn’t add sweetener, but you could stir in a spoonful of honey. This is what I do at night, when it’s hot green tea (or just hot water) and a squeeze of key lime in a mug by my bedside. I have been known to take this with a nap at 10am. This one, she’s a doozie.
Also, I decided it was as good an excuse as any to try this green tea infused gin I heard about at a tea tasting at Silk Road in Victoria last weekend – they handed out cards with recipes on it, and one of them was for Earl Green Gin & Tonics. Yes, please. Their Earl Green – tea of metamorphosis (appropriate, no?) is green tea with bergamot fruit essence, delivering the best of both tea worlds. You could, I’m sure, steep any loose tea you fancy would go in a g&t, and did you know you get more antioxidant benefits from the tea when you drink it with alcohol? It’s true.
Essentially what you do is steep leaves in gin – no need to heat it up – about 6 Tbsp. per 2 cups.
(I experimented with a smaller batch.)
Stir it in, let it sit for 20 minutes while you go to the ice cream shop, come back and strain it.
And that’s it – you have green tea-infused gin with which to make gin & tonics.
Hopefully without the phlegm.
July 29 2011 | beverages | 17 Comments »
I usually make up a big batch of granola to bring to Tofino. This year I didn’t get around to it, and instead picked up ingredients on the way to make some here. Still, I rifled through the drawers to see what nuts and seeds I could come up with to add to the mix. And came across an almost empty jar of Nutella. Hello. Hazelnuts and chocolate in granola? OK.
I tossed hot, just-baked granola with a big spoonful of Nutella, spread it out again and returned it to the oven for a bit – next time I’ll try stirring it directly into the honey-maple syrup mixture and add it from the get-go.
If you need a wordier recipe, I posted one over at the Family Kitchen.
July 28 2011 | Family Kitchen | 4 Comments »
I made this earlier in July – on the day my camera died. And so knowing how badly I’d surely want to photograph it, I stashed the dough and filling in the fridge overnight and assembled it the next day, using it for the trial run with my brand new camera. Which I’m not quite used to yet, and learning to use on a need-to-know basis.
This crostata was one of those things I saw and had to make – a raspberry and rhubarb crostata that was in fact more like an enormous cookie, only less sweet and with a grainy crust with the qualities of a smooth, sandy sable. That last part may have been me – I pushed the graininess a little further by using whole wheat pastry flour and oat flour, which dialed down the gluten and made the crust very tender, and a bit crumbly. Feel free to revert to the original – I won’t be offended.
The filling is cooked first, and chilled – it could conceivably be made in advance, along with the dough, and assembled when you need something to smell fantastic when you have friends coming over.
Rhubarb and Raspberry Crostata
(adapted from a recipe by Karen DeMasco / Bon Appetit by way of Lottie and Doof)
Crust:
1 cup whole wheat pastry flour (original: unbleached all-purpose flour)
1/2 cup oat flour (original: whole wheat flour)
1 Tbsp. sugar
1/4 tsp. salt (original: 1/2 tsp.)
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) chilled butter, cubed (original: unsalted)
1 large egg
1 Tbsp. whole milk
Filling:
1/4 cup cornstarch
4 cups chopped rhubarb (about 1 lb. or so)
1 cup fresh raspberries
2/3 cup sugar
1 large egg, lightly beaten
coarse sugar, for sprinkling (optional)
To make the crust, combine both flours, sugar, and salt in a processor; blend then add butter and pulse until the butter is reduced to pea-size pieces. Whisk egg and milk in a small bowl; add to the processor and pulse until moist clumps form. Gather the dough into a ball; flatten into a disk. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill for an hour. (Can be made 2 days ahead.)
To make the filling, dissolve cornstarch in 3 Tbsp. water in a small bowl; set aside. Combine rhubarb, raspberries, and sugar in a large heavy saucepan. Cook over medium heat, stirring often, until sugar dissolves and juices are released, about 4 minutes. Stir in the cornstarch mixture and bring to a boil (rhubarb will not be tender and slices will still be intact). Transfer to a bowl. Chill until cool, about 30 minutes.
Preheat the oven to 400° F. Roll out dough on floured parchment paper to a 12-inch round; mound filling in center of crust, leaving 1 1/2-inch border. Gently fold edges of dough over filling, folding as it naturally folds. Brush border with egg; sprinkle with coarse sugar. Slide parchment with crostata onto a large rimmed baking sheet and bake until crust is golden brown and filling is bubbly, about 45 minutes.
Let crostata cool on baking sheet on a rack. Transfer to a platter, cut into wedges, and serve with whipped cream or ice cream.
July 26 2011 | dessert | 3 Comments »
How totally cute are these? I got the idea from my friend Jan, who is a party planner and blog writer and mom, and comes up with great ideas like these. Not only did I not have to turn the oven on, I made a few dozen in under five minutes. You could just go the melted chocolate route, or do a ganache – really just warmed cream into which you stir chopped chocolate or chips until it melts. Totally dippable.
These will be on the menu for W’s 6th birthday next week, which we’ll be celebrating out here in Tofino with his cousins – a sprinkle dip will take care of our gluten-free needs, and likely be a hit with the others as well.
I posted more how-to photos over at the Family Kitchen.
July 25 2011 | Family Kitchen | 13 Comments »
It was fortunate that we were out here in Victoria this weekend, because it happens to be my uncle’s birthday. (Happy Birthday Uncle D!) And so my cousin (cousins? how does one refer to the husband of one’s cousin? second cousin? cousin in law? what does once -or twice- removed mean, anyway?) made dinner for everyone.
My second-cousin-in-law-by-marriage-once-removed grilled kebabs – chicken and beef – with peppers they buy from a grower on the island, down the road. I have no idea what they did to them, but they were fab. They pushed all the meat off the skewers onto a platter and passed it around the table.
There was a veggie-filled frittata, and rosemary-garlic roasted potatoes and approximately a half dozen salads – Greek and greens from the garden and one made with what I thought were wheat berries, but turned out to be rye berries – grown at an organic farm in Duncan as part of a CSA project they were involved in – they learned to prep, plant, grow and harvest. How cool is that?
It had chopped apples and dried cranberries and a simple vinaigrette. Da bomb.
If my birthday was in July, I’d totally want a raspberry custard pie, made with enormous raspberries just picked just down the road. I didn’t ask for the recipe, but a quick search came up with this ultra-simple recipe over at Martha Stewart. It’s definitely going on my summer-must-make list. Now if I could only grow my own raspberries that look and taste like these..
July 24 2011 | eating out | 9 Comments »
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