Archive for November, 2011
I’m home.
Sorry I’ve been MIA – I just spent 10 days at the Fairmont Jasper Park Lodge for their oh-so-awesome annual Christmas in November event. Hanging with the most amazing Anna Olson and her equally amazing husband, Michael. And of course Michael Smith and his new family. And Karl Lohnes, and so many others.. not least of all the 300+ guests who came up for a good time in each of the three packages – one last weekend, one midweek, and one this past long weekend, including Monday. It was, as it always is, a total blast. It included 13 cooking demos, buffets, fancy meals, wine & martinis, breakfast pastries with coffee served out of silver urns, forest walks, wine & martinis, warm cookies, turndown service, enormous stone fireplaces, wine & martinis, gala dinners with live bands and dancing and conga lines (I led one that gathered over a hundred the other night!) and singing Christmas carols and an outdoor swimming pool under the stars. And when it snowed, there were snowball fights in the pool. And Santa came too – the real one. He didn’t go in the pool though.
Each November I have a hard time with re-entry into normal life. For one, my whole bedroom is sadly sub-par. And I always come home to all that Halloween candy that came home days before we left. Tonight, after a particularly long haul home, I was cooking within 20 minutes – not because I missed it, but because I have to go do CBC in the morning. I made mulligatawny. I put chickpeas in it.
Speaking of beans – I don’t think I’ve really, officially announced that our book is out! It is. It’s here! And it’s already sold out. Yes it is! Thanks for all your lovely comments about it – you guys always make my days.
Stores do have stock – Chapters and independent booksellers and even Costco, I hear – but that’s all there is is what’s out there, and the second printing isn’t expected until January. Which is great, of course – it means it’s already a best-seller! (In Canada, that means 5000 sold.) It unfortunately also means I don’t even have any copies myself. I did manage to get my hands on one copy – the JPL had bought 400 to give away to the midweek package attendees – and I snagged one. To give to one of you, of course. Throw your hat into the ring here. Comment away.
Also? I keep forgetting we have a book launch planned for this Wednesday. It seems like it’s so far away – mid-November! That’s ages from now! Except that it’s not. So if you’re in the ‘hood and in the mood for a drink and some beany snacks, Sue and I will be at the Cookbook Company Cooks, 722 – 11th Ave SW, this Wednesday the 16th at 6:30.
So. The mulligatawny. I sent Mike out for a roasted chicken as soon as we walked in the door – starting with a roasted chicken seems to add more flavour from the start than if you began the process with a raw chicken. Adding chiles, ginger, garlic and curry helps with the sniffles. Chickpeas boost protein and fibre. Cilantro is just yum. Unless you hate it.
Mulligatawny Soup
from Spilling the Beans!
1 small roasted chicken (a deli rotisserie chicken works well)
1 onion
canola or olive oil, for cooking
2 carrots, peeled and chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
1 fresh jalapeño pepper, seeded and finely chopped
3 garlic cloves, crushed or chopped
1 Tbsp grated fresh ginger
1 Tbsp curry paste or powder
1 tsp cumin
1-2 cups cooked chickpeas (half to a full 19 oz can, rinsed and drained)
1 tsp salt
1 14 oz (398 mL) can coconut milk (optional)
1 tart apple (such as granny Smith), finely chopped
steamed rice, for serving with
chopped cilantro and/or chopped salted peanuts, for garnish (optional)
Pull the meat off the roasted chicken, eat the crispy skin and put the carcass and bones into a saucepan. Set the meat aside and just barely cover the carcass with water. Peel the onion and add the outer layers of skin to the pan. Bring to a simmer and cook for about half an hour. Strain into a bowl or pot and set aside. You should have 4-6 cups of stock.
Meanwhile, chop the onion and sauté it in a drizzle of oil in a large soup pot set over medium-high heat. Add the carrots, celery, jalapeño, garlic and ginger and cook for a few minutes, until soft. Add the curry paste, cumin and chickpeas and cook for another minute or two.
Add the chicken stock, salt and chopped chicken and bring to a simmer. Cook for about ten minutes, then add the coconut milk and apple and heat through.
Put a scoop of rice into each bowl and ladle the soup overtop. If you like, sprinkle with cilantro and/or chopped peanuts. Serves 6-8.
November 14 2011 | soup | 111 Comments »
Sorry if you’re suffering from squash overload. It is everywhere, sometimes overflowing their bins, but even the ugly, unidentifiable gourds really are so great for you, and worthy of our attention. Perhaps if I repackaged it on a pizza? with bacon and caramelized onions? Yes? Sold?
There really isn’t much of a recipe here, I’m afraid. Dice some squash – whatever kind you have – a small one or half a large one – toss in a drizzle of olive or canola oil and roast on a rimmed baking sheet at 400F for 20-30 minutes, stirring once or twice, until golden. Cook a few slices of bacon, set them aside and cook a thinly sliced onion in the drippings until it turns golden. Crumble the bacon.
Spread the roasted squash, caramelized onions and crumbled bacon over rolled-out pizza dough and scatter with mozzarella, Gouda, crumbled goat cheese or whatever cheese you like. Bake at 450F for 15-20 minutes, until bubbly and golden. Ta-da! The soft, sweet squash goes so well with the salty, smoky bacon. And melty cheese really does make anything better.
Basic Pizza Dough
1 cup lukewarm water
1 pkg. (or 2 tsp.) active dry yeast
1 tsp. sugar or honey
2 1/2 – 3 cups flour – all purpose, whole wheat, or any combination of the two (I usually use about 2 3/4 cups)
1 tsp. salt
a drizzle (1 tsp. – 1 Tbsp.) olive or canola oil
In a large bowl, stir together the water, yeast and sugar; set aside for 5 minutes, until it’s foamy. (If it doesn’t get foamy, either your water was too hot and killed the yeast or it was inactive to begin with – toss it and buy fresh yeast or try again!)
Add 2 1/2 cups of the flour, salt and oil and stir until the dough comes together. On a lightly floured surface, knead the dough for about 8 minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic, adding a little more flour if the dough is too sticky.
Place the dough in an oiled bowl and turn to coat all over. Cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap and set aside in a warm place for half an hour to an hour, until doubled in bulk. If you want you can let it rise more slowly in the refrigerator for up to 8 hours.
Roll the dough out into one or two pizzas. Spread the pizza dough with tomato sauce or paste, sprinkle with desired toppings and bake on a preheated pizza stone or cookie sheet at 450F for 15-20 minutes, until bubbly and golden.
Makes enough dough for 2 – 9” pizzas, or one big rectangular one.
November 09 2011 | vegetarian | 15 Comments »
I thought you might like a pie. I actually made this for the pie party, and then again for something else, I think, or maybe I just made a mental note to. Walnuts make delicious pies – why should pecans get all the attention? And besides, maple and walnuts are a perfect ice cream pairing. With a filling you stir together in approximately two minutes, nut pies are as easy to make as pies get, and strangely satisfying to make in the fall. Like I’m channeling my inner squirrel.
If you’re a hard-core nuts and caramel fanatic you could make this a double whammy and top a slice with a scoop of maple walnut or butter pecan ice cream.
Maple Walnut Pecan Pie
Pastry for a single crust pie
Filling:
1 cup packed brown sugar
3/4 cup pure maple syrup
1/2 cup golden syrup (such as Roger’s or Lyle’s)
3 large eggs
1/4 cup butter, softened
1/4 tsp. salt
1 cups pecan halves, toasted
1 cups walnut halves, toasted
Line a pie plate with pastry and crimp the edges. In a medium bowl, stir together the brown sugar, maple syrup, golden syrup, eggs, butter and salt. (Don’t worry about getting all the lumps of butter out.) Scatter the pecans and walnuts over the bottom of the shell and pour the mixture overtop. Set on a rimmed baking sheet and bake at 350F for 50-60 minutes, until set. Cool completely before cutting.
November 07 2011 | dessert | 14 Comments »
I have a baguette secret. And a browned butter secret. I’m sure they’re not secret to those who know about them already, but for those who don’t, I’ll totally share.
On Tuesday when I made cheddar & ale soup for CBC, I also made fresh baguettes that required under an hour from start to out of the oven – but what everyone couldn’t stop talking about was the browned butter to go with. That show on which I watched Michael make ale soup? He also made no-knead bread, with browned butter – made spreadable. Because really, browned butter makes everything better – cookies, brownies, popcorn – but bread? Freshly baked? Slathered with browned butter – whipped and creamy, not a melted puddle? Hell yes.
Here’s what you do: take a slab of butter. Melt half of it in a small saucepan on the stovetop. Once it’s melted, leave it there until it starts to turn nutty and golden – you’ll see the foam change colour.
Take it off the heat and let it cool a bit. Then whip it with the rest of the butter. Use beaters. It will be all lumpy at first, but will then turn soft and whipped and spreadable. And nutty and browned.
You’ll need freshly baked bread to go with it. Here’s a recipe my friend Brooke shared awhile ago – a quick baguette you mix and knead and bake all in under an hour. True story.
Quick French Baguettes
adapted from the amazing Brooke of Cheeky Kitchen
1 1/2 cups very warm water
1 pkg. yeast (or 2 1/4 tsp.)
2 Tbsp. sugar
3-4 cups flour
1 tsp. salt
Preheat the oven to 425F. Fill a shallow cake pan with water or ice and put it on the bottom rack, and make sure another rack is in the middle. In a large bowl, whisk together the warm water, yeast, and sugar. Set the bowl on top of your preheating oven for ten minutes. Add half the flour and the salt, then add more flour a half cup at a time until you have a soft dough. Knead it for a few minutes, until it’s smooth and elastic. (You can totally do this with the dough hook on your stand mixer, if you have one.)
Cut the dough into four pieces and roll each into a long, thin rope. Twist two together to make two baguettes and set them on a parchment lined baking sheet. Let it sit for another 15-30 minutes on top of your warm oven.
Bake on the middle rack of your oven for 15-20 minutes, until golden and crusty.
Makes 2 loaves.
November 03 2011 | bread | 18 Comments »
Ale soup was far from my radar. But then three things happened, in this order:
1) on my flight to (or from?) Vancouver last week I watched Michael Smith, whom I’m going to see in a few days in Jasper, make cheddar and ale soup on the little TV in front of me. It looked good, even though I’m not a beer fan. It reminded me of something we got once upon a time at a pub. That might have been the fantasy me in which I live in London with a rugby player.
2) I met a food writer from the Yukon for lunch yesterday. She brought me, among other things, halloumi cheese made by a blind goat herder, and a bottle of Whitehorse-brewed ale.
3) upon my return home I received an email request for all things warm and cheesy and loaded with carbs for CBC this morning. David asked specifically for cheddar and beer soup, please. He had never had it. All signs pointed to making this.
It was about as easy as it gets – saute the onion, celery and carrot in butter (Michael uses lots), shake some flour over top (mixing it with the veggies and fat prevents lumps) then adding ale, stock and cream and bringing it to a simmer to let it thicken. Then stir in a couple handfuls of grated cheese. Couldn’t possibly be easier. I do wish soup photographed a little better. Tastes better than it looks.
I’ll fill you in on the quick baguette secret tomorrow.
Michael Smith’s Cheddar & Ale Soup
adapted from Michael Smith!
1/2 cup butter (or half butter, half olive or canola oil)
1 large or 2 small onions, peeled and diced
2 celery stalks, diced
1 carrot, peeled and diced
1/4 cup flour
1 bottle dark beer
1 1/2 cups chicken stock
1 cup heavy 35% cream (or 18% coffee cream, or half & half)
2 cups grated old cheddar (or aged Gouda!)
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
a dash of Worcestershire sauce
In a medium pot, heat the butter over medium-high heat and sauté the onions until starting to turn golden. Add the celery and carrot and continue to sauté for a few minutes more. Shake the flour overtop and stir to coat the veggies. Add the beer, stock and cream and simmer until the soup has thickened, about five minutes more. Add the grated cheddar, salt and pepper and Worcestershire sauce and stir until smooth. Serves 4-6.
November 01 2011 | soup | 14 Comments »
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