dinner with Julie

Day 303: Beef Stu, Garlicky Cheese Biscuits and Blood & Gutscakes

When new babies arrive I get the urge to bring over food. (And when it’s #3, there really is no better thing to bring.) The occasion of a brand new person and no sleep calls for casseroles and pots of soup and stew and quick breads; things that are easily reheatable and edible with one hand. 

So beef stew, done in the slow cooker with some beef I had in the freezer and the last of a bottle of leftover wine. With it, garlicky cheese biscuits. Remember those cinnamon sticky biscuits I made about 250 days ago? Leave out the cinnamon and sugar, and instead brush the dough with melted butter and garlic, and sprinkle with parmesan cheese. Roll, cut and bake. You could turn any cinnamon bun recipe into cheesy, garlicky buns instead.

Beef Stu

1 lb. beef stew meat, flank steak or chuck, trimmed of fat and cut into cubes
olive or canola oil
1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, crushed
a few glugs of red wine (optional)
1 can beef, vegetable or chicken broth
1 can diced or stewed tomatoes, undrained (any size - optional)
1 tsp. thyme
1 bay leaf
2 potatoes, cubed (unpeeled)
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
1/2 cup frozen peas
1-2 cups mushrooms, quartered

In a large saucepan or Dutch oven, heat about a drizzle of oil over medium-high heat and brown the beef in batches. Remove the meat from the pan and set aside.

Add a bit more oil and cook the onions for a few minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and cook for another minute. Add the wine, broth and tomatoes with their juice, scraping the bottom of the pot to loosen any flavorful browned bits that have stuck to the bottom. At this point you could transfer the lot to a slow cooker, or return the beef to the pot. Add the thyme and bay leaves and bring to a simmer; turn the heat down to low, cover the pot, and let it simmer for about an hour. (Or turn the slow cooker down to low and set it for 4-6 hours.) Add the potatoes and carrots after an hour and cook the stew uncovered for another hour (or add the carrots and potatoes after a couple hours in the slow cooker). Add the peas for the last 10 minutes, and quickly saute the mushrooms in a skillet until browned and stir into the stew at the very end, so they don’t get too mushy. Fish out the bay leaves, season with salt and pepper, and serve it hot.

Blood & Gutscakes

a batch of vanilla (or any flavour) cupcakes
a batch of lemon pie filling, tinted green
raspberry or cherry jam or pie filling
frosting and sprinkles

Bake cupcakes as you normally would, cool and then cut a chunk out of the top like an inverted cone. Remove the excess cake from the cone, leaving a flat lid (kind of like a pumpkin) and hollow out a bit of the cake inside. Put a small spoonful of jam and a spoonful of lemon filling inside, swirling them a bit as you do. Top with the lid and frost with whatever frosting you like.

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October 29 2008 | beef and cake and one dish and stews & braises | 10 Comments »

Day 302: Green Hair with Bloody Eyeballs and Toenail Clippings, and Crème Caramel

At least that’s what the boys had for dinner - leftovers from the show this morning (I’m not sure why it all wasn’t gobbled up?)

Green Hair with Bloody Eyeballs and Toenail Clippings

spaghetti
green or blue food colouring
ground beef or bison, egg and breadcrumbs (or any meatball mixture)
green pimento-stuffed olives
whatever tomato sauce you like on your spaghetti
whole chunk of Parmesan cheese

Bring a large pot of water to a boil and add several drops of green or blue food colouring. Boil spaghetti according to package directions.

Blend ground beef, egg, breadcrumbs or whatever you typically add to your meatball mix; shape into balls around a olive, positioning it so that it looks like an eyeball. Bake on a rimmed baking sheet at 350F for 15-20 minutes, until cooked, or cook them in a hot skillet with a little canola or olive oil until cooked through. Warm the spaghetti sauce at the same time.

Carve half moon shapes out of Parmesan cheese so that they look like toenails. Serve green spaghetti topped with eyeballs, tomato sauce and toenail clippings.

I was out the door at 5 (with a few granola-nut clusters, a banana and a coffee) to teach a 2 1/2 hour crème brûlée class tonight - we also covered panna cotta, crème caramel and flan. It had the potential to be one of the biggest natural disasters in Julie history, but actually worked out OK, considering. (I can hold my own, but I’m certain I’m not the most qualified pastry chef in the city to teach this subject.) I have made crème brûlée quite a bit, and tons of panna cotta, but hadn’t made crème caramel in at least a decade and have never felt the urge to make a flan. I was actually glad to be forced into it - it’s nice to to something completely different. This version is baked in coffee cups, although the photo is one that was baked in a small ramekin - we didn’t have enough cups to bake 30 samples in with enough leftover for coffee and tea, too.

Also! I managed to practice a bit (having made a kajillion samples as well as pumpkin seed brittle in a couple different forms), read a bit more, and finally figured out a couple seemingly minor details that ironed out a few wrinkles in my caramel-making technique. Of all the times I have made caramel, and all the recipes I’ve read that involve some sort of caramel, I have never read these two snippets of information, which sort of brought everything into sharper focus:

1) when using the wet method (sugar plus water, not just sugar over heat) it’s essential to actually dissolve the sugar first as it comes to a boil to prevent crystallization after. Most recipes tell you this in not quite so many words, but (perhaps because I’ve done it for so long I’ve stopped paying close attention to the recipe) I’ve always assumed I could just start swirling the pan right away, since the sugar isn’t dissolved using the dry method, which involves no liquid but still works. When water is added the water eventually cooks off and the sugar kind of crystallizes as it melts but eventually gets where it’s going. I never realized the actual dissolving was so key - I mean, doesn’t sugar dissolve as it cooks anyway? Guess not. So - stir or whisk it as much as you want as it comes to a boil, making sure the sugar is completely dissolved. Then once it comes to a boil, don’t stir it - just swirl the pan around once in awhile.

2) when it comes to a boil, add a few drops of lemon juice. This will prevent crystallization. Genius! I’ve always brushed down the sides of the pan with a brush dipped in water, which tends to slow things down since it adds more water which must then be cooked off. Last night I did the full dissolve and then added a few drops of lemon juice and the caramel cooked beautifully, without a trace of crystallization around the edges. I didn’t even need the brush and water, which I had at the ready.

(Caramelizing sugar using the dry method involves simply heating plain sugar over medium heat until it starts to melt - it will go instantly dark - shake the pan around until it’s completely melted with no chunks swimming around. That’s it. You could do that instead for the caramel in the bottom of these cups or ramekins if you like, using a cup of sugar.)

While we’re on the subject - in case you didn’t know this - if you add liquid, such as cream, to caramel it will splatter like crazy, so be warned. This recipe just uses straight-up caramel.

Coffee Cup Crème Caramel

Adpted from Classic Home Desserts by Richard Sax

Caramel
1 ½ cups sugar
¼ cup cold water

Custard
3 cups 2% or whole milk
1 vanilla pod or 1 tsp. pure vanilla or vanilla bean paste
¾ cup sugar
3 large eggs
6 large egg yolks

Place 6 heavy coffee cups or ramekins into a roasting pan. In a heavy saucepan or skillet, cook the sugar and water over medium heat and stir just until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and bring to a boil. Cook, without stirring, for 8-10 minutes or until the syrup turns a dark amber colour. Immediately pour the caramel into the cups, swirling to coat the bottoms. Set aside.

Preheat the oven to 325°F and place the rack in the center position. If you’re using a vanilla bean, put the milk in a saucepan and with the tip of a knife, cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise. Scrape out the seeds and add them to the milk, and throw the pod in too. Bring to a simmer, then turn off the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes or so.

In a large bowl, whisk together the sugar, eggs and yolks; pull the vanilla pod out of the milk and slowly whisk the hot milk into the eggs. (Otherwise, whisk in the cold milk and vanilla extract or paste.) Pour about ¾ cup into each prepared mug or ramekin.

Place the roasting pan in the oven and pour enough hot water in to reach halfway up the sides of the cups. Bake for 30-40 minutes, until the custards are just set but still slightly wobbly in the middle. Remove from the water bath and cool to room temperature, then cover and chill until cold; at least 2 hours.

To serve, run a thin knife around the edge of the custard and invert onto a plate, allowing the liquid to run over top. Serves 6.

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October 28 2008 | dessert and pasta | 6 Comments »

Day 301: Chinese Food and Tomato Apple Cake

We have a new contender in the Battle of the Birthdays. (Or at least a newest member of our Scorpio party.) My brand-spanking new nephew, Charlie, was born just a few hours ago. So that covers October 24th, 25th, 27th and 30th in our immediate family. (Or semi-immediate, I suppose. And I’m thinking since the rest of us are a good few decades or so older, he won’t have to share a party or anything.)

So that sort of trumps my now very lame sounding heart attack of a day, but I wasn’t really going to bore you with that stuff anymore anyway. It does give the cake I made today a little more meaning, and makes more sense for me to post it. I realize this week has been a little cake-heavy with the birthdays and all, but I had to test this for the new edition of Grazing and now, with a brand-new person in the world, it seems a little bit more celebratory. What else could I make on a birth day? Although even though it was invented on his actual birthday, I’m sure Charlie would be less than thrilled to be served a Tomato-Apple Cake once he’s old enough to appreciate what cake is.

Typing this, I can see now that it might be a harder sell on the general public than I first anticipated as well. Perhaps I should change the name to Apple Spice Cake or some such. It’s loosely based on a traditional Jewish apple cake, but made with a can of tomato paste, which makes it moist, sweet and dense in the same sort of way pumpkin puree might. After all, tomatoes are fruit. Ever hear of tomato soup cake? Tomato Apple Cake sounds much better, I think.

Our actual dinner was at Mike’s Mom’s, who didn’t get a birthday turn with us over the weekend. We raced over there after I got back from making 100 or so samples of crème brulee, crème caramel and panna cotta (I still have 3 pumpkin flans to make plus blood & guts cupcakes for CBC in less than 8 hours) for a class I’m teaching tomorrow night. It was very basic Chinese food - chicken balls, ginger beef, fried rice and beef with mixed vegetables. (Mike’s sister picked it up from Safeway - she made sure she went early in the day so that she could get it when it was “freshly made”, and then took it home and kept it in the fridge all day to reheat at dinnertime - in their plastic containers - so that it would be very fresh. I didn’t think a photo was required.)

Tomato Apple Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
2 Tbsp. ground flax seed (optional)
1 Tbsp. baking powder
2 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 tsp. salt
4 tart apples, unpeeled and cut into large (1/2”-1”) chunks
1 Tbsp. lemon juice (or enough to keep them from turning brown)
2 large eggs
2 large egg whites
1/2 cup canola or olive oil
1 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup sugar
1 5.5 oz. (156 mL) can tomato paste
empty tomato paste can full of orange juice or water (about half a cup)
2 tsp. vanilla
1/2-1 cup chopped walnuts or pecans (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Spray a Bundt or tube pan well with nonstick spray.

In a large bowl, stir together the flours, flax seed, baking powder, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, toss the apple chunks with lemon juice, about 1/4 cup of the sugar and a bit of cinnamon; set aside.

In a third bowl, whisk together the eggs, egg whites, oil, brown sugar, sugar, tomato paste, orange juice and vanilla until smooth. Add to the dry ingredients and stir just until blended.

Pour a third of the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top. Scatter with a third of the apples (and half the nuts, if you’re using them), then repeat with another layer of batter and apples and nuts, and a final layer of batter, then apples. (Nuts are best kept inside the cake to keep them from burning.) Pour any juices that accumulated in the bottom of the apple bowl overtop.

Bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch. Cool the cake in the pan to lukewarm before inverting it onto a wire rack or plate.

Makes 1 cake; serves 24.

Per slice: 176 calories, 5.3 g total fat (0.5 g saturated fat, 2.9 g monounsaturated fat, 1.5 g polyunsaturated fat), 3 g protein, 30.2 g carbohydrate, 18 mg cholesterol, 2 g fiber. 26% calories from fat

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October 27 2008 | cake | 11 Comments »

Day 300: Butter Chicken, Coconut Rice, Curried Potatoes, Cauliflower and Grape Tomatoes, Naan and Crave Cupcakes

300!!

How can this be? And I haven’t even managed to sort all these recipes into an alphabetical and categorized database. (It’s getting to be a mighty large project, let me tell you. I have been working on it!)

Three hundred. Imagine what else I might have accomplished if I just committed myself to spend time every night on it, no matter how tired I was or what else I had going on. I guarantee there is nothing else I’ve done in my lifetime for 300 consecutive days, except maybe eat and breathe. And I suppose change diapers, but that wasn’t much of a challenge.

It was a celebratory day today too, which is sort of fitting. I wouldn’t have wanted to post grilled cheese and a double double on day 300, although that would have been fitting, too. It’s the week of the birthday trilogy: my sister, Mike and me. Mine is later this week, but we generally get the family together for dinner on the closest Sunday, which was today. It was at my sister’s house and a potluck. We made it Indian, hoping to trigger my other sister into labour (it might have worked), but mostly because I wanted an excuse to have butter chicken.

Once I made it I realized that it doesn’t really need to be half butter and cream (some recipes I found called for 3 cups of whipping cream and/or a cup of melted butter) and thus need not be relegated to multiple-birthday days. I further found you can do it in the slow cooker - at least until the adding of the cream. It wouldn’t have occurred to me, but I was cooking for 13 and needed it to be transportable and easily reheated, so I simmered the tomatoes, spices and chicken for a few hours this afternoon, took it over, plugged it in and stirred in some plain yogurt and the merest splash of cream while it was set on warm.

But my sister made these curried potatoes and cauliflower that were phenomenal; it was something she remembered seeing Jamie Oliver make on TV years ago, and she went ahead and winged it. This is how she relayed it to me:

Melt butter (as I was leaving she confessed that the quantity of butter likely had something to do with their awesomeness - 1/2 cup - it was a large batch, but still) and a bit of coconut milk (the last of the can, about 1/4 cup) and a big spoonful of curry paste (Jamie had made his own spice blend, of course) until it’s melted and the coconut cooks down to “sort of oily”; add diced potatoes and cauliflower florets and cook until they start to brown. Cover and keep on cooking. Add a half a pint of grape tomatoes and keep on cooking until everything is soft.

They cooked for quite awhile, and she used a large electric frying pan to free up the stovetop for the soup, rice and naan. Seriously, phenomenal. I feel as if I’m about to deliver quintuplets and still I can’t wait for leftovers tomorrow. Ironic that the veggies had more butter than the butter chicken, which actually had none, come to think of it.

Better Butter Chicken

This is also a great way to use up leftover roast chicken or turkey; chop and add it to the sauce instead of the chicken breasts.

canola or olive oil, for cooking
3-4 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or thighs
1 onion, finely chopped
1 Tbsp. grated ginger
3 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp. chili powder
1/4 tsp. cinnamon
1 19 oz. (540 mL) can diced tomatoes, undrained
1 can tomato paste
1-2 tsp. garam masala (optional)
1 cup plain yogurt
1/2 cup(ish) half and half (or whipping cream)
salt and pepper

steamed basmati rice, for serving with

In a large skillet set over medium-high heat, cook the chicken breasts in a drizzle of oil until browned on both sides. Set aside, or transfer to a slow cooker.

Add a little more oil to the skillet and cook the onion until starting to brown. Add the ginger and garlic and cook for another minute, then add the chili powder, turmeric and cinnamon and cook for another minute. Slice the chicken on a slight diagonal; don’t worry if it’s not cooked through.

Add the tomatoes and tomato paste and bring to a simmer; pour over the chicken in the slow cooker and set on low for 5-6 hours or high for 2, or return the chicken to the skillet, cover and simmer for 20-30 minutes, or until the sauce is thickened and the chicken is cooked through.

Turn the heat down to low and stir in the garam masala, yogurt and cream, if you’re using it. Season with salt and pepper, if it needs it.

Serve immediately, with rice.

Serves 6

And cupcakes from Crave, just because we could. Back when we lived in Vancouver 5 years ago I TOLD Mike we should move back to Calgary and open a cupcake shop. He wouldn’t go for it. W could have been heir to our cupcake fortune. Seriously, $47 for a dozen cupcakes and a dozen minis? It seems I was on the right track when I opened the Kooky Cupcake Company (my mom had to explain why spelling it with three Ks was not a good idea) with a $20 loan for ingredients and the One Egg Cake recipe from The Joy of Cooking when I was about 8. (A lot of the profits were eaten up.)

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October 26 2008 | chicken & turkey and veg | 21 Comments »

Day 299: Chicken Strips with Honey Mustard and Pasta at Antolini’s

It’s astounding how easy homemade chicken fingers are, and how much better they are than frozen chicken nuggets. Nigella has a recipe for ‘Ritzy Chicken’ that calls for crushed Ritz crackers to be used as a coating for chunks of chicken which are then shallow-fried in oil. I want them. Instead I used Panko (very crispy Japanese breadcrumbs) and a Ziploc bag of chicken strips I had frozen in buttermilk, which I took out and thawed in a bowl of warm water to pre-feed W before Mike and I went out for his birthday dinner. Being on an actual Saturday, we had to play the birthday card to secure a babysitter (Mom) and go out.

Marinating chicken in buttermilk tenderizes it, and the buttermilk can act as a vehicle for all sorts of spices if you want to go that route. Otherwise, pull it directly out of the buttermilk and dredge in crumbs, or beat an egg to dip plain chicken in before coating it. You don’t really need Panko either - crushed crackers or breadcrumbs work fine. I like to mix them with grated Parmesan or pecans.

So that was a sort of late lunch pre-dinner for W. As for us, as usual I planned this all far too late and every restaurant I called was booked up unless we wanted to eat before 5 or after 9. Many hosts/esses sounded irritated that I would bother them with a call on a Saturday afternoon in regards to the very same evening. I figured considering our current economic climate people might not be eating out as much. Wrong.

Then I remembered Antolini’s, a wee Italian place in the old Arden Diner run by a family from Toronto who moved to Calgary a couple years ago when their three sons wanted a change. Despite the fact that it’s rated one of the top in Calgary, as well as one of the most inexpensive (on UrbanSpoon), despite the fact that the family has run their restaurant (in Toronto before here) for almost 30 years, all their pastas are handmade, as is the ricotta and bocconcini and tiramisu, we were the only ones in the place save for one other couple who came in halfway through our dinner. The father served us and was welcoming, sincere, attentive, friendly, generous. They brought a plate of homemade tomato bruschetta while we perused the menu. The salads arrived in about 5 minutes (one of the best Caesars I’ve had), and the pastas (mine was something or other stuffed with spinach and fresh ricotta, Mike always has to have the carbonara if it’s available - this was fettucine) arrived about 5 minutes after the salad plates were whisked away. Everytime he placed plates of food before us, he’d quietly say “it’s delicious“, as if to subtly plant the idea in our minds before we started eating. It always was. I wish I could give them a few decor tips and suggest that they serve fresh butter with their bread basket rather than little plastic packets of Becel, but the food was fantastic. It made me sad that while down the street people were clamouring to spend their money at JaroBlue or Farm or Eight, this lovely family patiently waited for someone to come in to what seemed like an extension of their home.

(We did walk down the street and take a peek into Farm after - it’s the new charcuterie owned by Janice Beaton down by Cafe Beano, where you can order cheese and meat samplers served on wooden slabs with fresh bread and condiments - but that’s another story.) Dessert was a little box of treats from Brûlée Patisserie in lieu of a cake, which we ate on the couches at Eau Claire market before our movie (Burn After Reading - OK.)

Chicken Strips with Honey Mustard

If you prefer, these can be cooked in a hot skillet with a little oil instead of baking them in the oven. 

3 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves, cut into strips (about 1 lb.)
1/2 cup buttermilk or 1 large egg
1 – 2 cups Panko (Japanese breadcrumbs), corn flake crumbs, dry breadcrumbs or finely crushed crackers
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
Salt & pepper to taste

Honey & mustard, for dipping

Preheat oven to 375 F.

Break the egg into a shallow dish and beat it a little with a fork. If you are using buttermilk, pour it over the chicken and refrigerate for an hour. Combine crumbs, any additions you like, and salt and pepper in another shallow dish.

Dip chicken strips into egg (or remove from buttermilk) and roll in crumbs to coat well. Place about an inch apart on a greased baking sheet. If you want, lightly spray the strips with cooking spray.

Bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden and cooked through. Mix equal amounts of honey and mustard for dipping.

Serves 4.

Per serving: 264 calories, 5.1 g total fat (2.1 g saturated fat, 1.5 g monounsaturated fat, 0.6 g polyunsaturated fat), 31.2 g protein, 20.9 g carbohydrate, 124.6 mg cholesterol, 0.6 g fiber. 18% calories from fat.

Curried Almond Chicken Fingers: coat chicken strips in a mixture of 1 1/2 cups crumbs, 1/2 cup finely chopped almonds, and 1 tsp. curry powder.

Pecan Crusted Chicken Fingers: coat chicken strips in a mixture of 3/4 cup finely chopped pecans, 1/2 cup corn flake or Panko crumbs, 2 tbsp. flour, salt & pepper.

Spicy Chicken Fingers: add 1 tsp. chili powder to the crumb mixture, and a few drops of Tabasco sauce to the buttermilk.

Crunchy Buffalo Chicken Fingers: dip chicken strips in low fat creamy ranch dressing spiked with a teaspoon of bottled hot pepper sauce, then roll in crumbs to coat.

Crispy Sesame Chicken Fingers: roll chicken strips in a mixture of half crumbs, half sesame seeds. Serve with sweet & sour or sweet garlic dipping sauce.

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October 25 2008 | appetizers and chicken & turkey and snacks | 10 Comments »