Archive for November, 2011
I know, it’s just slaw. Or is it? Stick with me – there’s something shiny at the end.
Usually I just wing it when I make slaw. Which admittedly is not very often. Usually it’s the Ichiban noodle kind, with the cabbage part out of a bag. But this holiday slaw came into my inbox, along with a gift I get to pass on to you, and the combination of thinly sliced fennel, radishes and cabbage with a maple-cranberry dressing inspired me to actually make it. We ate it with roast chicken, and because it was already getting dark at 3:45 (!!) I managed to get exactly one usable photo.
Ironically, I left my food processor at JPL (d’oh!) and I miss it terribly. It would have come in handy to make this slaw. I do have a mandoline, but my fingertips are afraid of it – I don’t think I’ve touched the thing in years. So I sliced it the old-fashioned way, with a knife. But I thought about my food processor and how much I love it.
So guess what? I have a new free stuff for you. Hint: it’s shiny! It whirs! It makes recipes like holiday slaw so much easier to make! It will help with your holiday baking! It’s from KitchenAid!
Pop on over to the free stuff page to see…
Holiday Slaw
adapted with thanks to KitchenAid!
1/2 large green cabbage, cored
1 small fennel bulb, trimmed
8 large red radishes, trimmed
6 green onions, trimmed
1 red pepper, cored and thinly sliced
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white wine or rice vinegar
1/3 cup canola or olive oil
1/4 cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp lemon juice
1 Tbsp Dijon mustard
salt
Cut the cabbage into 5 or 6 wedges. Position the adjustable slicing disc in the work bowl and, using the thin setting on High speed, push the wedges through the feeding tube. Transfer to a large bowl. Switch to the coarse side of the reversible shredding disc. Cut the fennel into quarters. Push the fennel and radishes through the feed tube; add to the bowl.
Cut the green onion and green pepper into chunks. Use the multi-purpose metal blade to chop finely. Add to the cabbage mixture. Combine the cranberries, vinegar, oil, maple syrup, lemon juice, mustard and salt in a small saucepan set over medium heat; bring to a boil. Pour over the cabbage mixture and toss to coat. Chill for at least 1 hour or up to 4 days. Makes about 12 cups.
November 29 2011 | salads and veg | 13 Comments »
This week needed to end with a wee ramekin of baked rice pudding, and some red wine, and a good book. If I had it my way all Sunday nights would wind down like this.
The week culminated in a dinner party at the home of a couple who purchased me at a silent auction at a fundraiser a year or so ago, and so wanting to pull off a fun evening, I made curried sweet potato, carrot, ginger & red lentil soup, prawns in fenugreek cream, and enlisted their help (there was an element of teaching in the evening) in assembling a large batch of the Nenshi family samosas. For the main course: Vij’s chicken curry, chana masala, roasted cauliflower, curried peas and paneer, spiced beef short ribs, homemade naan and marinated green beans. For dessert, vanilla & ginger crème brûlée (great recipe, but I cut the sugar in half and it was plenty sweet) with Tonka bean shortbread. There were leftovers, and so my family came for dinner tonight.
Rather than replicate the crème brûlée (I couldn’t face another 10 egg whites in the freezer) I recalled a recipe for individual baked rice puddings I had wanted to try. The method could not be more simple – set out as many ramekins as you want rice puddings (if you set them on a baking sheet lined with a silpat mat, they won’t slip around) and get out a bag of short-grain rice, some sugar and milk or cream and your measuring spoons.
Put a heaping tablespoon of short-grain (Arborio) rice, two teaspoons of sugar and a half cup of milk or cream (half & half or heavy – it’s up to you) in each ramekin. I had infused my cream with ginger already, which is to say I put it into a saucepan with a few slices of fresh ginger and turned up the heat until it was steaming. You could do this if you like. If so, strain out the ginger or pick out the slices with your fingers. (Don’t burn yourself.) These ramekins? Two for $1.25 at Dollarama.
The recipe says to grate a little nutmeg over each after adding the milk. I like this. But if you plan to pull off the pudding skin, you’ll lose much of the nutmeg, too. Next time I’ll grate it over the rice and sugar before pouring over the milk or cream. You could add a bit of vanilla, as well as or instead of. Or use brown sugar for a more caramelly rice pud. Flavour them however you like, really.
Bake them at 325°F for an hour. I love that you could bake one of these, or two, or ten, it doesn’t matter. If you have a cake or loaf baking, you could tuck a few into the oven alongside. They will puff up, then sink back down. The edges of the ramekins will wind up coated with caramelized milk.
Once they settle back, they will be warm and thick and sweet – at this point, the recipe instructs pulling off the golden rice pudding skin. This is like the dessert equivalent of pulling the skin off a roasted chicken and eating it yourself.
Add about a tablespoon (feel free to free-pour) of cream to each ramekin and stir it in; this will loosen it up a bit and make it far creamier. At this point you could stir in a few raisins, if you’re that type. Eat it warm or chill it, or chill it and then brûlée it – sprinkle a layer of sugar over and torch it or run it under the broiler until it caramelizes, then chill until it’s hard enough to crack a spoon through. You could conceivably have a stash of these single-serving puddings in the fridge, and brûlée one or two each night as needed. Apply directly to face; repeat.
I love too that you don’t need a recipe for these; I can imagine years down the road making these little rice puddings on autopilot, tucking them into the oven (or toaster oven) when dessert is called for. Or breakfast. Or a warm and comforting after-school snack.
While I have your attention – I was thinking we should have another get-together. The mother of all cookie exchanges! What do you think? A cookie party to follow the pie party?
I’m thinking Saturday the 10th. Save the date! Or at least a couple hours in the afternoon.
November 27 2011 | dessert | 41 Comments »
I love my job. I really, really do. But most days are a Tasmanian devil-like whirling dervish of recipe testing and photographing, and usually what we wind up eating for dinner was left over from some show or had just been photographed for a magazine. Ironically as a food writer, I don’t often work with ingredients when they’re actually in season on account of the lead time. On Canada day this past July I was making gingerbread and mince tarts. Today I was working on Valentine’s day stuff.
Some days I just want to make dinner with no ulterior motives. Today I was working on a cocktail party story that involves meatballs, and so I took the opportunity to take a little detour and make pork meatball bánh mì – Vietnamese subs – that I’ve been wanting to try for about a year now. The recipe looks long but they’re simple to make – and in fact they could potentially be made ahead – the meatball part, anyway – which can be frozen for future sandwiches. I imagine some sort of miniature version would be pretty fab for a cocktail party. I may start packing them to take to lunch at my desk upstairs.
I skipped the spicy mayo, opting instead to spread on real mayo and add sriracha according to each taste. (I’ve a wimpier palate than Mike.) The baguette was pretty delicious, but a tad tough on the teeth; I may go for a softer roll next time. Or maybe not – I liked the chew, too. And it wasn’t too crumby; ideal for at-your-desk eating over a keyboard.
The meatballs made with fish sauce, garlic and fresh basil were divine. Totally. When our sandwiches were done I found myself nibbling at the meatballs, topped with a wad of pickled carrots. There must be salad potential here too. So yum.
Pork Meatball Bánh Mì
Adapted from Bon Appétit, January 2010
Meatballs:
1 lb. ground pork
1/4 cup finely chopped fresh basil
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1-2 green onions, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. fish sauce
2 tsp. sriracha or other hot chile sauce (or to taste)
1 Tbsp. brown sugar
salt & pepper
Sandwiches:
2 cups coarsely grated carrots
1/4 cup rice vinegar
1/4 cup sugar
4 10″ individual baguettes or four chunks of baguette
mayo
thinly sliced cucumber (use a vegetable peeler)
fresh cilantro
In a bowl, mix together the pork, basil, garlic, onions, fish sauce, sriracha, sugar and salt and pepper and mix it all up with your hands. Roll into 1″ balls and place on a rimmed baking sheet. Bake at 400F for 20 minutes, or until golden and cooked through.
Meanwhile, toss the grated carrot with the rice vinegar and sugar in a small bowl. Let sit until you’re ready to assemble your sandwiches.
To assemble, spread baguettes with mayo; top with a squirt of sriracha to taste, and stuff with pickled carrots, cucumber strips, meatballs and sprigs of fresh cilantro. Serves 4.
November 24 2011 | pork and sandwiches | 17 Comments »
I made dinner again. It was a chicken roasted in a pot. Again, something that seems simple and obvious and yet I was drawn in to the hominess of it – I fell for it like an afternoon advetorial, strapped into my WestJet seat and watching the Food Network on the back of the seat in front of me.
I admit I’m preoccupied with the thought of the crispy skin that comes on a roasted chicken. It’s kind of the best part. Then again, tossing a chicken into a pot (on top of a chopped salad of onions, carrots and celery) and baking it with the lid on ensures incredibly juicy meat – so if that’s what you’re after, this version is about as foolproof as it gets. You can peel off the rubbery, fleshy skin and feed it to the dog. I’d prefer to not share the “after” photo here; it’s not enticing.
So what Michael does is he returns the pot to the stove, sans chicken, and tosses in cherry tomatoes and spinach to wilt down in the juices along with the carrot and celery that have already cooked with the chicken. Good idea.
I admit Mike was a little more enamored with this part than I was – it seemed a little soupy to me, and so the next night I shredded the chicken and returned it to the pot and turned it into somewhat of a soupy chicken stew. It worked.
Which, reading the end of the recipe now, it turns out was the whole point to begin with.
Chicken Roasted in a Pot
adapted from Chef Michael Smith
a couple onions, peeled and chopped
a head of garlic, cloves separated and peeled
a couple celery stalks, chopped
a carrot, peeled and chopped
salt and freshly ground pepper
a few sprigs of fresh rosemary, tarragon, oregano or thyme – if you have them
a bay leaf or two
a whole chicken
a couple handfuls of spinach or chard, torn
a couple handfuls of cherry or grape tomatoes
Preheat the oven to 300°F.
Toss the onions, garlic, celery and carrot into the bottom of a heavy lidded pot and set the chicken on top. Sprinkle the lot with salt and pepper and toss in a few sprigs of rosemary or thyme or whatever fresh herbs you have, if you have them.
Cover with a tight-fitting lid and bake the chicken for 90 minutes or so, until the juices from the cavity run clear and the joints wiggle in their sockets. Remove the chicken and rest on a plate, covered with foil, for 15 minutes or so before slicing.
Meanwhile, set the pot over medium-high heat and bring the onion mixture to a simmer. Add the spinach and tomatoes and stir until the spinach has wilted and the tomatoes have heated through. Slice the chicken, removing all the meat. Toss the meat with the spinach and tomato mixture. Serve immediately.
November 23 2011 | chicken & turkey and one dish | 7 Comments »
I may be done with banana bread. For a little while, anyway. We just need a break from each other. I may just be tired of the avalanche of bananas each time I try to locate something in the freezer. And in the fall, I do love the idea of baking with squash and sweet potatoes. And I always get this sense that I’m somehow taking care of everybody when I have a loaf baking in the oven.
Let’s keep that illusion going.
This is – yes – more of a cake. It’s dense and moist, and crackly on top. Somehow baking it in a loaf pan makes it seem more suitable for breakfast and snacking, but if you baked it in layers and slathered it with cream cheese frosting, you’d have yourself a pretty substantial cake. I cut back on the sugar, but it’s still pretty sweet. I’m quite sure, however, that most coffee shop baking is loaded with the good stuff – butter, sugar, oil – ignorance is bliss, right?
Oh hey! You can totally make this with grated raw winter squash – like butternut or pumpkin – in place of the sweet potato, too.
Zucchini & Sweet Potato Loaf
adapted from Bon Appétit, November 1992
2 cups all purpose flour
2 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1 1/2 cups sugar
3/4 cup canola or mild vegetable oil (or half oil, half applesauce or pumpkin puree)
3 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups grated zucchini
1 1/2 cups grated peeled sweet potato
1 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
Preheat oven to 350°F and spray a 9×5-inch loaf pan with nonstick spray. In a large bowl, stir together the dry ingredients. In a medium bowl, stir together the sugar, oil, eggs and vanilla and add to the dry ingredients along with the zucchini and sweet potato. Add walnuts and stir just until combined.
Transfer batter to prepared pan. Bake for about 1 hour 20 minutes, until golden and the top is springy to the touch. Cool bread in pan on rack 15 minutes. Cut around bread to loosen. Turn out onto rack and cool completely. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Wrap in foil and let stand at room temperature.)
Makes 1 big, hefty loaf.
November 17 2011 | breakfast and cake | 4 Comments »
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