My family congregated again for Easter at my place. I invited my new boyfriend A and so we had a few vegetarian options. Posts for the new recipes will follow in the next few days!
The Menu * Mock Chopped Liver (Pea Spread) * Parker's Split Pea Soup - no bacon this time! * Baked Ham - this year I bought a spiral cut ham to ease the carving * Spinach Pie * Potato Gratin - we made sure to fully cook the potatoes this year! * BBQ'd asparagus * Pecan Maple Pie with Maple Whipped Cream
For New Year's Eve, I didn't have any plans so I ended up at my sister's for a small gathering. She and her fiancé D decided to forgo making a whole dinner and simply had a wine & cheese. Good idea! We were all fully stuffed with bread and cheese, and a few other small bites.
Paillot de chèvre and Saint-André.
L picked four cheeses: paillot de chèvre (a Québec goat cheese), Saint-André(a French cheese), Oka L'Artisan (anotherQuébec cheese) and a Brie. The paillot de chèvre is named as such because paille (straw) was used to transport cheese throughout the province in the old days. Saint-André is a high-fat cheese from Normandy. Finally, Oka is a Canadian cheese named after the town of Oka in Québec; L'Artisan is a hard cheese with holes.
Oka and Brie.
My sister reserved a few slices of the goat cheese to serve on top of slices of bread, topped with walnut and a drizzle of honey. Le paillot de chèvre passed my friend MC's sign of good cheese, by displaying two compositions, a creamier version in the centre. My sister also made swedish meatballs and her friend M made a tasty spinach dip.
Goat cheese with walnuts and honey.
We did not limit ourselves to bread and cheese but also had a few accompaniments. My sister L made two dips: sun-dried tomato dip with crudités and also the pan-fried onion dip with chips. We also had kielbasa that I brought from Staropolskie with sweet gerkhins. She also made my favourite Swedish meatball recipe and her friend M brought a spinach dip.
Other accompaniments.
Finally, after we rang in 2010, we had chocolate cupcakes with champagne. Happy belated New Year to all my readers!
So the first post on my Christmas baked treats is one I have been waiting to make for a long time, ever since I visited Olson Foods at Ravine this summer with my sister & co. For a quick summary, my sister bought one chocolate crinkle that we divided in four and slowly savoured. Luckily, Anna Olson has the recipe on foodtv.ca for us to replicate! I thought it would be a perfect start to my Christmas baked goods!
Chocolate Crinkles - Makes about 40 From Anna Olson. When my sister excitedly made these cookies for the first time, she thought the recipe was wrong and it did not have enough flour, causing the batter to be very runny. I learned later that she did not chill the batter for the requisite 4 hours. So yes, DO plan 4 hours (or overnight as I did) to chill the batter! The batter is still very sticky to work with - think making truffles (to come!). I needed to grease my hands with oil to shape the balls. I would even add that by the third batch, the batter had warmed and softened up, making it very hard to roll. I would consider separating the batter into two bowls, or putting the bowl back in the fridge in between batches.
* ½ cup unsalted butter * 10 oz bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped * 4 eggs, room temperature * 1-½ cups sugar * 2 tsp vanilla extract * 1 tsp instant espresso powder or coffee extract * ½ cup all purpose flour * ½ tsp baking powder * ¼ tsp salt * 1-2 tbsp oil * ⅔ cup icing sugar
Melt the chocolate and butter in a bowl, over a pot of simmering water and set aside. Whip eggs with sugar, vanilla and espresso powder with electric beaters, until pale and thick, about 5 minutes. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking powder and salt. Whisk melted chocolate into egg mixture until incorporated. Whisk in flour mixture. Cover batter with plastic and chill for at least 4 hours before baking (or overnight). Preheat oven to 325 F. Grease the palm of your hands with some oil - this will help the cookie dough from sticking and creating a sticky mess! Spoon cookie dough by tablespoonfuls and roll gently to shape into a ball. Roll cookie in icing sugar and place on a parchment-lined cookie sheet, leaving 2 inches between cookies. Bake for 18-20 minutes. To test doneness, lift a cookie off the tray – if it comes off cleanly, then cookies are done. Tada!
Melting the chocolate and butter over simmering water.
Whipping the eggs, sugar and espresso powder.
Adding the chocolate mixture in.
The batter complete and chilled.
Shaping the cookies was a messy affair but worthwhile!
I was slow getting started Christmas baking but I'm finally done! I wanted to try all new recipes with expected results: some new favourite recipes added to my repertoire and some definite failures. I wasn't sure whether I should post recipes before or after Christmas, but I finally decided to start posting today.
If you're looking for Christmas recipes right away, take a look at last year's Christmas baked goods. Otherwise, this year's recipes will be posted in the next few days:
My failed recipe was a pistachio cranberry icebox cookie. I was attracted by the holiday colours from the pistachios and cranberries. Unfortunately, I tried to make it dairy-free and replaced the butter with vegetable shortening. I'm not sure if that's what went wrong but I had a hard time slicing the cookies without them crumbling. I may also have put too many cranberries and pistachios which made it hard to slice. The cookies didn't taste bad; they were just too unappealing!
A Thanksgiving meal wouldn't be complete without some squash! I spotted pretty squashes at the Farmer's Market and thought they would help dress my table. However, nothing should be left uneaten, so we cut it up and roasted it (more specifically, my sister L). Nothing better than decoration that doubles as food! I searched the internet and it seems these orange striped squashes are carnival squashes. They tasted awesome and I really liked the spotted peel!
Roasted Carnival Squash - Serves 6-8 My sister also suggested using maple syrup instead of brown sugar.
2 small carnival squash 2 tbsp oil 2 tbsp brown sugar salt, to taste freshly ground black pepper, to taste rosemary from 2 sprigs, chopped
Cut the squash in half and remove the seeds. Cut the squash in slices and place in a bowl. Add all of the remaining ingredients and mix until the slices are coated. Place the slices on a baking sheet, in one single layer. Bake at 375F for 30 minutes or until the squash is cooked and soft. Tada!
Tourtièreis a Québécois (French Canadian) meat pie traditionally served at Christmas. I'm not actually sure where I ate it but I remember having it regularly as a child. I'm guessing at daycare or else, it was store bought, because we definitely never made it at home. I have been craving tourtière since last year. My sister talked about making it for Christmas but she ended up making an Asian influenced meal instead. You need a crowd to make it since it is a whole pie and it is a colder weather dish; Thanksgiving seemed like the perfect opportunity. When I told my sister of my plans, she stated that I should make homemade ketchup to go along with it. She's a bossy one! The tourtière was quite easy to make and everyone enjoyed it. The ketchup was also easy but I thought rather labour intensive.
Homemade Ketchup - makes 1 cup From Jamie at Home. The original recipe requires putting the ketchup through a sieve twice. Once was enough for me - this was the step I thought labour and time intensive. I also skipped the cloves because I didn't have any. Add some if you like. My sister thought it was good because it tasted like... ketchup! So is this worthwhile if it tastes like the store-bought stuff? Well, if you're worried about ingredients (which are really not that bad, the weirdest one being liquid sugar), sure. If I made this again, I would add more chili to make it spicier and more interesting.
* ½ large red onion, peeled and roughly chopped * ¼ bulb of fennel, trimmed and roughly chopped * ½ stick of celery, trimmed and roughly chopped * olive oil * ½ thumb-sized piece of fresh ginger, peeled and roughly chopped * 1 clove of garlic, peeled and sliced * 1 fresh red chili, deseeded and finely chopped * ½ bunch of fresh basil, leaves picked, stalks chopped * 1-½ tsp coriander seeds * salt and pepper, to taste * 1 lb cherry or plum tomatoes, diced roughly * ¼ cup red wine vinegar * 2-½ tbsp brown sugar
Heat up the olive oil in a saucepan. Place all the vegetables, ginger, garlic, chili, basil stalks and coriander seeds into the pan. Season with salt and pepper. Cook gently over low heat for 10-15 min until the vegetables have softened, stirring every so often. Add the tomatoes and ¾ cups of cold water. Bring to boil and simmer gently until the sauce reduces by half. Add basil leaves, then purée sauce in a food processor. Push the sauce through a sieve with the back of a spoon. Place sauce into a clean pan and add vinegar and sugar. Turn on the heat and simmer until it reduces and thickens to consistency of tomato ketchup. At this point, adjust the seasoning to taste.
All of the ingredients that went into the ketchup.
Putting it through a sieve was a pain.
Tourtière - Serves 6-8 As I mentioned above, this was very easy and quick to make. My sister's fiancé D made pie dough from scratch but you could just use store-bought pie dough.I think any mixture of ground meats can be used, but traditionally pork is used. I bought a tray of beef, veal and pork, and added more pork to it. Again, I didn't have cloves but the recipe did call for it.
* oil * 1 onion, diced very small * 1 garlic clove * 200 g ground beef * 200 g ground veal * 400 g ground pork * 1 potato, grated * ½ tsp ground cinnamon * ¼ tsp ground nutmeg * thyme leaves from 5-6 sprigs, or to taste * salt, to taste * ground pepper, to taste * 2 pie doughs, homemade or store-bought * 1 egg yolk * 1 tbsp milk
Heat up oil in a large pan. Cook onions and garlic until softened. Add all of the ground meat and all of the spices. Season with salt and pepper. Break the meat apart until cooked. When the meat is cooked and any liquid has evaporated, turn off the heat. Taste and adjust seasoning. Mix in the grated potato and let the mixture cool. Place one pie dough into a 9" pie pan. Add the meat mixture on top, using a fork to even out the surface. Roll the second pie dough on top and pinch the edges of the crust to seal. Cut some slits or a hole in the middle, to allow the meat to steam. Mix the milk and egg yolk together, and brush the top of the pie with it (oops, we forgot this step). Bake in the oven at 400F for 10 minutes. Decrease the temperature to 350F and bake for another 20 minutes. Tada!
Ok, ground meat does not look appealing but it tasted good, I swear!
Everyone really enjoyed this dish. My sister liked it even better than the turkey and had seconds! I can't wait for another occasion to make it again.
While we made gravy from the stuffed turkey breast, I thought having a cranberry sauce would be a nice addition. Some people just stuck to gravy; I topped my piece of turkey with gravy and added cranberry sauce on the side. It's so quick and easy to make your own cranberry sauce, so why not just make it at home? I liked this recipe because of the added flavours, but for a basic sauce, you just need cranberries and sugar.
Cranberry-Orange Sauce From Martha Stewart Living, November 2005. This is a third of the original recipe because I did not want any leftover sauce.Feel free to make more if you have more guests.
* 1 cups fresh cranberries * ⅓ cup sugar * ⅓ tbsp finely chopped peeled fresh ginger * ½ navel orange, peel and pith remove, flesh cut into segments with a sharp knife
Stir together cranberries, sugar and ginger in a medium saucepan. Cook over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally, until sugar has dissolved and cranberries begin to pop. Add 1 cup of waterand simmer, until thickened slightly. Remove from heat. Stir in orange. Let cool. Tada!
It's as easy as adding the ingredients into a saucepan!
I had been planning to make mushroom soup before Thanksgiving but never got around to it so I still had leftover mushrooms. In addition, we scored very inexpensive shiitake mushrooms during our visit to St. Jacobs Farmer's Market (we had our eye on the mushrooms and when we returned at the end of the day, the price had gone down!). Therefore, mushroom soup seemed like a perfect starter for our Thanksgiving meal. My sister's fiancé D doesn't like the texture of mushrooms so we figured we would purée it, drawing inspiration from our soup at La Foumangerie.
Mushroom Soup - Serves 8 I made this soup dairy free for my mom and it was very good. However, you could start off sautéing the mushrooms in butter and add cream at the end. I don't have exact measurements but you don't really need it...
* oil (or butter) * 4-5 cups assorted mushrooms, washed and sliced roughly (we had button, shiitake and oyster mushrooms) * salt, to taste * pepper, to taste * thyme leaves from 5-6 sprigs, or to taste * 1 cup white wine, or to taste * 2 cups vegetable broth or chicken broth
Sauté mushrooms in oil in a large pot. Season with salt and pepper. Add thyme leaves (you can also add the stalks but remember to remove them before puréing it). Once the mushrooms are cooked and softened, add the white wine. Bring to a boil and allow the wine to reduce. Add broth and bring to a boil again. Purée the soup in batches and return it to the pot (or use an immersion blender if you have one). If it's too thick, add some water or more broth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Garnish with thyme and sour cream. Tada!
There were double the people this Thanksgiving (six in total) compared to last year's, so not only did we double the amount of food but the amount of dishes also! My mom really liked last year's stuffed turkey breast, so we stuck with that recipe. I've been craving tourtière (Québécois meat pie) since last year, so figured this was the perfect occasion to make it.
The Thanksgiving menu is outlined below, with individual posts to follow in coming days:
My family congregated in Hamilton for Easter dinner. My sister suggested making a baked ham. I had no experience with baking a ham but I do enjoying eating it. We then created a menu around ham. I think all the food came out well. Unfortunately, the pictures came out poorly. Not sure if it's because I was feeling rushed, the poor lighting in my house or because I need work on my photography skills in general. You'll just have to imagine the pictures in focus!
The Menu * Pan-Fried Onion Dip * Parker's Split Pea Soup * Baked Ham with Orange-Mustard Glaze * Potato Gratin * Buttered Green Beans * Apple Pie
Pan-Fried Onion Dip My sister wanted to try making this onion dip from my Barefoot Contessa cookbook. The recipe is on foodtv. She bought kettle chips (no, we did not make our own chips like the book suggests...). The only con is that she made half a recipe which was definitely NOT enough. If you make this recipe, make the ENTIRE recipe!! Otherwise, it was delicious!!
Fried onions make this appetizer!
Parker's Split Pea Soup
I thought making split pea soup would go well with our menu and we turned again to Barefoot Contessa. In the recipe, Ina Garten writes that Steven Spielberg told her that it tastes just like his mother's. I guess this recipe tasted just like Steven Spielberg's mother's, with the addition of bacon! We were going to cut a piece from the ham and add it but forgot. The recipe does suggest first cooking half the split peas first, then adding the second half later. This gives a great texture, unlike mushy peas. Everyone really enjoyed this soup. Two for two for Barefoot Contessa!
Baked Ham with Orange-Mustard Glaze
I love ham. I would pick ham over a turkey or roast beef any day. At my previous employer, the cafeteria made ham once a month. We referred to it as "ham day". I was always first in line, asking for the brown bits (the best part - the glazed exterior! ). They would make three whole hams and sell out very quickly.
I have never bought or made ham so I went and bought a (8 lbs.) half fully cooked bone-in ham at the Farmer's Market for $3/lb just to find hams at the supermarket for $0.99/lb. That was upsetting. That said, our ham was delicious. My sister and I roughly followed Martha Stewart's Glazed Ham 101. Our glaze was made up of Dijon mustard, marmalade and garlic. We baked the ham with some improvising since I did not have a roasting pan!
The ham first has to be rinsed and baked for half an hour to melt some of the fat. Let's just say, my oven was pretty dirty afterward!
After the initial baking, you have to cut off the fat and apply the glaze.
Bake again - we actually broiled it a bit to get colour but forgot it, oops - and voilà (horrible picture!).
Potato Gratin
Again, we referred to Barefoot Contessa's potato-fennel gratin but made it without fennel. It was good but we did not cook it long enough (the potatoes were raw). This happened when we had too many things in the oven I think. Oopsy...
Potato Gratin.
Buttered Green Beans For a vegetable dish, we had green beans, with simple butter, salt and pepper. I usually eat my green beans with eggs. I enjoyed this so much I had it a few times the following week, until... I got sick of it!
Apple Pie My sister's boyfriend D volunteered for dessert and made an apple pie. He is an expert at making pies while I am... not! Which meant that when he asked for a pie dish, I could not produce one for him. I don't think I've ever baked a pie although I do like eating them! So I borrowed my friend T's deep cake pan and he made us a delicious apple pie. I do like most desserts with apple in them!
Making the pie dough.
The final product.
The pie had a very generous amount of apples which is the way I like it.
All in all, a great Easter weekend with great food. Thank you to my family for driving all the way here for the weekend!
