Category: Food

Magical Frangipane Tart with Raspberries and White Chocolate

1 Comment

Raspberry White Chocolate Frangipane Tart

Print Recipe
Prep Time 30 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour
Cooling Time 30 minutes
Total Time 2 hours
Course Dessert
Servings 1 tart (10″ round)

Ingredients
  

Crust

  • 2 cups flour (all-purpose)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp kosher salt
  • 3/4 cups butter (cold)
  • 1 egg yolk

Frangipane

  • 1/2 cup butter (room temperature)
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 cup almond flour
  • 3 eggs
  • 1 Tbsp flour
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 1/4 tsp almond extract

Assembly

  • 30 g white chocolate (1 oz, cut in chunks)
  • 115 g fresh raspberries (4 oz)

Instructions
 

Crust

  • Using a pastry cutter or food processor, mix together the flour, sugar, salt and butter, until the butter is cut into very small pieces. Add the egg yolk and vanilla, and mix by hand until the pastry starts to form up. Place the dough into a 10" tart tin with a loose base, pressing into the tin until a crust has been formed, and poke holes with a toothpick or skewer. Place in the fridge for an hour. Place pie weights onto the crust, and bake at 375ºF/190ºC for 20 minutes, then remove the weights and bake again for 5-10 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool.

Frangipane

  • Cream butter and sugar together. Alternate adding parts of the almond flour with each egg. Mix in vanilla, almond extract and all-purpose flour.

Assembly

  • Pour frangipane into cooled crust. Arrange raspberries and white chocolate into the frangipane. Bake at 350ºF/175ºC for 45-50 minutes. Cool, then serve.
Keyword Almond, Butter, Frangipane, Raspberry, Tart

And now for the details…

Hello folks, sorry it has been awhile. What better way to make a comeback than with a delicious dessert whose scent of butter, sugar, and vanilla fills your house when baking. And then wafts its way to your nostrils while sitting on the counter, waiting to be eaten?

Although I have called this a Frangipane tart, what we are making here is probably more aptly called a Bakewell tart. There are plenty of other styles of Frangipane tarts that make use of a much different style of crust. The Bakewell uses a shortbread dough as the base. Typically, slivered almonds are used on top, and icing sugar is sprinkled over the entire tart. In our case, we are filling the tart with raspberries and white chocolate instead. The final product is like having a nice, thick piece of shortbread cookie with a creamy, slightly chewy filling on top, dotted with tart but sweet raspberries and little pieces of white chocolate.

Let’s get to making, shall we?

Although there are several steps to this tart, the good news is that each individual step is not so terribly long, and it’s really the waiting while baking that is the hardest part.

Let’s start with the crust. Unlike other baking endeavours, the joy of this crust is that I don’t need to wait for the butter to soften! Since I am apparently inept in thinking ahead, this is great for me, since I use the cold butter to make the crust, AND it’s a reminder to put out the half cup of butter to soften for making the frangipane later (hint, hint, nudge, nudge, take out that other butter now…)

You have a couple of options here. You can make the crust in a food processor, but because my food processor lives in our basement when not in use because of lack of kitchen space, I get super lazy and find alternatives to hauling it upstairs… in this case, I used a pastry cutter. If you have neither of these things, you can go old school and use knives, or even your fingers. Whatever you’re using, add the flour, sugar, salt and butter together first, and either give it a few zips with the food processor, or dig in with the pastry cutter, until the butter is cut into small-ish pieces, about pea-sized. For this particular recipe, I used kosher salt, and a decent amount of it. I did this on purpose, since I knew that between the raspberries, white chocolate, and frangipane, the overall tart was going to be very much on the sweet side, and the salty bites you are going to get with the kosher salt in the crust will provide a nice contrasting flavour, rather than just a whole lot of sweet.

Once the first four ingredients have been cut together, add the vanilla and egg yolk. For this, I got right in there with my hands. Mix them together until the pastry just starts to form up. It will still be pretty shaggy, but take the entire thing and pour it into your tart tin. In this case, we are going to use a 10″ tart tin, with a loose base. That loose base will allow us to easily remove the tart once it’s baked and leave that beautiful, fluted look to the crust. Not to mention that thanks to that fluted look, we get more surface area of the crust that bakes, resulting in those crunchy, buttery bites when eating the crust… Oh no… I’m drooling and we haven’t even gotten past the crust yet. This wait is going to be excruciating.

Anyhoo… now that the dough is in the tart tin, press it into a crust in the tin, including up against the sides. Try using both thumbs at the top corner of the tin, to get the edges pushed together. Was mine perfectly even at the end? Not even close. But… my end goal is taste, not looks, so I wasn’t too fussed. Poke holes into the bottom of the crust with either a toothpick or a skewer. This will help the base bake a bit more consistently, as well as help reduce the likelihood of it puffing up when we blind bake it.

Before we bake, place the crust in the refrigerator for about an hour. Then, preheat your oven to 375ºF/190ºC. Line the crust with aluminum foil, and place either some pie weights, or dried beans, to weigh it down so the crust does not puff up while baking. Place in the oven and bake for 20 minutes, then remove it from the oven, take out the aluminum foil with the weights/beans, and put the crust back in the oven for another 5-10 minutes, or until the whole thing is golden brown.

Once it is baked, take out the crust and let it cool completely. You can even do this the day before, and let it sit until you are ready to make the rest of the tart.

Next is our frangipane. A friend of mine likened it to marzipan, and it does have some similarities. The base for both are ground almonds, and combine that with the sweetness and almond extract flavouring, and they are quite close. But frangipane is more of a pastry cream, made with almond flour, butter, eggs, and sugar, while marzipan is more of a candy, using almond flour, confectioner’s (icing) sugar and egg whites or corn syrup.

Before we make the frangipane, preheat the oven to 350ºF/175ºC. To get the frangipane started, cream together the butter (remember that butter that we remembered take out and soften at the beginning??) and sugar until light yellow and fluffy. I would recommend doing this in a stand mixer or with a handheld mixer. Next, mix in your eggs one at a time, alternating with adding in the almond flour approximately a third at a time. Finally, mix in the regular flour, vanilla and almond extract. Pour the frangipane into your tart shell, and then add the raspberries and white chocolate directly into the frangipane. I tried to make it at artful-ish as I could, hopefully you can appreciate the effort! The frangipane is fairly thick, so you may have to push the fruit into it to get it to set. If your white chocolate is poking out a little bit, that’s okay too. The frangipane will puff up and mostly cover it as it cooks.

Depending on how well browned you got your crust when you blind baked it, you might need to place foil around the edge to protect them to keep them from getting burned. Place the tart in the oven and bake for 45-50 minutes, or until the frangipane has puffed and turned a golden brown. Remove from the oven and allow to cool. Then pop it out of the tin from the bottom, cut and serve!

Happy eating.

Cake Fit for the King (Banana Cake with PB Frosting and Candied Bacon)

Banana Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting and Candied Bacon

Print Recipe
Prep Time 1 hour
Cook Time 1 hour
Course Dessert
Servings 1 cake (2-layer)

Ingredients
  

Banana Cake

  • 5 bananas (peeled and mashed)
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup butter (room temperature)
  • 3 cups flour
  • 1 tsp ground nutmeg
  • 1 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 4 eggs
  • 2 tsps vanilla

Peanut Butter Frosting

  • 1 cup butter
  • 1/2 cup peanut butter
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 5 cups icing sugar
  • 3-5 Tbsps milk

Candied Bacon

  • 6 slices thick-cut bacon
  • 1/4-1/2 cup brown sugar

Instructions
 

Cake

  • Prepare two 9" round cake tins and preheat oven to 325ºF/165ºC. Cream butter and sugar together until fluffy. Mix in eggs, mashed bananas, nutmeg and vanilla. In a separate bowl, mix all the dry ingredients. Add the dry ingredients to the butter mixture and combine until just mixed (don't over-mix). Split between two two cake tins. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until cake is set. Let cool and remove from tins. 

Frosting

  • Whip butter and peanut butter together until fluffy. Add vanilla. Mix in icing sugar 1 cup at a time. Add milk and whip until fluffy and smooth.

Candied Bacon

  • Preheat oven to 375ºF/190ºC. Place a wire rack on top of a cookie sheet. Lay bacon out onto wire rack. Sprinkle bacon generously with half the sugar. Bake for 10 minutes. Take out, flip the bacon slices, sprinkle with the remaining sugar, bake for 10-15 minutes or until bacon starts to brown and the sugar has melted and caramelized. Remove from oven and allow to cool.

Assembly

  • Chop candied bacon into small pieces. Assemble cake layers with frosting, adding a third of the candied bacon between the layers. Finish frosting the cake, and sprinkle remaining bacon pieces on top. Serve.
Keyword Bacon, Banana, Cake, Frosting, Icing, Layer Cake, Peanut Butter

And now for the details…

With a bunch of ripe bananas that needed something done with them, and having reached my fill of banana muffins and loaves, I figured I needed to do something different. But I’d made a banana layer cake a few months ago with cream cheese icing and figured that was a little too… predictable. So when thinking of what goes well with banana, my mind immediately went to peanut butter! Which then got me thinking of the story I’d heard about Elvis Presley’s favourite sandwich: peanut butter, banana and bacon. Why not add candied bacon to this mix? And thus: the Cake Fit for The King was born.

I was originally going to call it the Elvis, and then after doing some quick eu-Googling, I found out there already is a cake named after Elvis, since it was a favourite of his. It involves yellow cake mix, crushed pineapple, cream cheese and a whole lotta sugar. It sounds horrible for you and pretty damned delicious, so it probably needs to be made at some point… but for now, here we are with the banana cake with PB frosting and candied bacon!

Lets start by making our cake. First step that I almost always forget about and delays my process almost always is letting the butter come to room temperature. I enjoy baking, but I don’t bake that often, and somehow I manage to miss this step every time… Ah well, I get it eventually. Make sure that butter has stayed out of the fridge at least overnight so it’s nice an pliable for making our batter.

Before we move on, preheat your oven to 325ºF/165ºC. Next, we start our cake batter by creaming the butter with our sugar until the mixture is fully mixed, and light and fluffy. Next, add your eggs, one at a time, mixing the previous in completely before adding the next. Finally, mix in the mashed bananas and vanilla. This is our “wet” mixture.

Next, we mix together our dry ingredients in a separate bowl: flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and nutmeg. I sifted everything together into the bowl, and then gave it a quick mix with a whisk.

Now it’s time to bring them together. Make a little well in the middle of the dry ingredients, then pour the wet ingredients into that well. Stir to combine until just mixed; try to avoid over-mixing. Then split the batter evenly between two prepared 9″ round cake tins. Like I said in my Lemon Bumbleberry Cake recipe, I learned to prepare the tins by buttering the tin, then laying a cut piece of waxed or parchment paper at the bottom of the tin, but you do you, and prepare the tins however you feel comfortable.

Next, of course, is to bake those cakes! Place the cakes into your preheated oven, and bake for 25-30 minutes, until the tops have turned golden brown and a toothpick comes out clean. Let the cakes cool and remove them from their tins (don’t forget to peel off the waxed or parchment paper if you used it!)

While the cakes are cooling, lets make that candied bacon! Increase the temperature of the oven to 375ºC/190ºC. Lay the bacon out on a wire rack placed over a cookie sheet. Sprinkle the bacon with half of the brown sugar, and then place in the oven for 10 minutes.

Once ten minutes is up, remove the bacon from the oven, turn the pieces over, and sprinkle the other sides with the remaining brown sugar, and place back in the oven. Bake for another 10 minutes, or until the bacon has caramelized and become crispy on the edges. Let them cool, then chop into little pieces.

Once the cakes have cooled, it’s time to ice the cake! We’re making that peanut butter frosting next. Start by whipping the butter until its light and fluffy. Then, add your peanut butter and whip the two together until fully mixed and so fluffy you’re gonna die. Next, add the icing sugar in gradually, about 1 cup at a time, mixing the sugar in almost completely until you add the next cup. At this point, the icing will probably be a bit on the dry side. Add the milk to the mix, starting with 3 tablespoons. If you’re using unsalted butter, add a couple pinches of salt to the mix, and the vanilla. Whip these ingredients into the icing, and if you find the icing is still a bit too stiff, add more milk, one tablespoon at a time, until you have your desired consistency. As far as what peanut butter to use, I will leave that up to you. I used a natural, crunchy peanut butter, because I wanted the little bites of peanuts.

Finally, let’s assemble that cake! Place your cake on your serving dish, flat side down. If you want to get fancy, you could slice the puffed part off your cake to make it nice and flat, but to be honest, I’m a little lazy (not mention, what do you do with the cut piece of cake??) and leave the cutting part out and just assemble the cakes as-is. Put the frosting on top of the first layer, sprinkle with about half of the bacon pieces, then place the second layer down, flat-side-up. Because I didn’t cut off the puffed piece, you’ll need to use a little extra icing to fill the edges between the two layers, but are we really going to complain about a little extra icing? I sure won’t. Finish frosting the entire cake, and sprinkle with the candied bacon piece on top. Then it’s time to cut and serve!

Happy eating.

Creamy Pumpkin Macaroni and Cheese

2 Comments

Pumpkin Mac and Cheese

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Main Course, Side Dish

Ingredients
  

  • 2 Tbsps butter
  • 2 Tbsps flour
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
  • 2-4 cups whole milk
  • 1/2 cup chicken broth (or vegetable broth)
  • 1+1/4 cup pumpkin purée (NOT pumpkin pie filling)
  • 1 pinch ground nutmeg
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • 115 g cream cheese (4 oz)
  • 1/4 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
  • 2 cups dry macaroni
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts (chopped loosely)

Instructions
 

  • Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. Add the flour, and whisk to fully mix. Add the garlic, and continue to whisk until the garlic has turned fragrant and the flour as just started to turn golden brown. Add the milk in 1/2 cup portions at a time, whisking completely before adding the next amount. Add the milk until a cream sauce has formed, but not too thin. Cook until the sauce is thick enough to stick to the back of a wooden spoon. Whisk in the pumpkin, nutmeg and cinnamon, and salt and pepper to taste. Add the cream cheese and parmesan and stir until cheeses are completely melted and mixed into the sauce. Set a pot of heavily salted water to boiling. Cook the macaroni according to instructions. Drain the macaroni, then add to the pan with the sauce and mix well. Transfer to serving dish and sprinkle with hazelnuts. Serve.
Keyword Cheese, Cream Cheese, Macaroni, Pasta, Pumpkin, Sauce

And now for the details…

This dish could almost be viewed as an adult take on classic Mac and Cheese. Or, if you’re trying to hide fruits/veggies from your kids (or other members of your household… I do know some adults who aren’t fans of veg lol), you could tell them this is Mac and Cheese and not tell them about the pumpkin 😛 Although, if you are going to try and pull one over on your kids, be aware that the texture is a little less smooth than a typical Mac and Cheese because of the addition of the pumpkin, not to mention the addition of spices!

I came up with this recipe after I’d opened a large tin of pumpkin purée to bake muffins for my in-laws, then had a bunch of extra purée on my hands. I didn’t want to do more baking, so I figured, why not do a savoury take on pumpkin, and use it for a pasta sauce instead?

The cinnamon and nutmeg are subdued and delicate in the sauce, just a small addition to bring a teaser of pumpkin spice flavours. Then the addition of the cheeses brings this dish well into the savoury realm. The hazelnuts add a nice texture contrast, and I love their flavour up against the pumpkin cheesiness.

We are going to start out by making a béchamel, or white sauce. Melt the butter in a large pan over medium heat. As soon as the butter has melted, whisk the flour into the butter, and add the garlic. We are going to cook this, whisking constantly, until the garlic has become fragrant and the flour/butter has just started to turn a golden brown.

Next we will be adding the milk. We add the milk in small spurts, about 1/2 cup at a time, and whisking the milk in. The whisk is very important here! This will be hard if you try to using a different stirring utensil. The first couple of additions might worry you a bit. It will be very thick at first, almost paste-like. Fret not! Keep adding the milk a little bit at a time, whisking to fully mix each time, and soon you will have a nice, creamy sauce. Stop at about 2 cups, and see if you need to add any more. If the sauce is quite thick (think yogurt consistency), then you need to add some more milk. If it is closer to about syrup consistency, you’ve got it about right. We are going to cook the sauce for a bit longer after we’ve added all the milk, about 3-5 minutes, or until the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon. A good way to test it? Drop your wooden spoon in the sauce, then pull it out and run a finger along the back of the spoon. If the line you’ve drawn with your finger stays in place without the sauce running back through it, your white sauce is done cooking. Turn the temperature down to medium-low.

Now is about a good time to get your macaroni a-cookin’. Boil some heavily-salted water, add the macaroni, turn down the heat on the pot to medium, and cook according to the pasta package instructions.

As the pasta cooks, let’s get our sauce finished up. Add the pumpkin purée, nutmeg, cinnamon, cheeses, and broth. When adding cream cheese to a sauce, it’s fastest to break it up into small-dish pieces so that it with melt a little easier. Allow the sauce to heat up until the cream cheese is fully melted and the sauce just starts to bubble. By now, your macaroni should be almost done cooking. Steal 1/4 cup of pasta water and add it to the sauce before draining the pasta, mixing the water in. This is going to help the sauce stick a bit easier to the pasta.

Drain your pasta, then add it right into the pan with the sauce. Stir well until every piece of macaroni is fully coated. Do one final taste test here and add salt and pepper to taste. We waited until the last minute for this, since the pasta water, broth, and cheese will have added salty elements, and it’s best to wait until all those are melded before adding any more salt.

Pour everything into your serving dish of choice, and then sprinkle the pasta with the toasted hazelnuts, and serve.

Happy eating.

Radicchio-usly Easy Salad (with Bleu Cheese and Dijon Dressing)

2 Comments

Radicchio-usly Easy Salad with Bleu Cheese and Dijon Dressing

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Course Appetizer, Main Course, Salad, Side Dish

Ingredients
  

  • 1/2 head radicchio (core removed, cut into ribbons)
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 2-3 oz creamy bleu cheese (e.g. Saint Agur)
  • 1/4 cup toasted walnuts (chopped)

Instructions
 

  • Place the dijon and vinegar in the bottom of the salad's serving bowl. Whisk with a fork until fully blended. Continue whisking as you pour the olive oil into the mix. Add salt and pepper to taste. Add radicchio to the bowl and toss with the dressing until coated. Pull the bleu cheese apart with finger into bite-sized pieced and sprinkle over salad. Sprinkle with walnuts. Serve.
Keyword Bleu Cheese, Dijon Mustard, Radicchio, Salad, Salad Dressing

And now for the details…

Oh MAN I love this salad. It comes together so quick and easy, I’m almost ashamed to share it. Almost. But it is also one of my favourite salads, so combine the ease of preparation with the satisfying tastiness of this salad, and it would be an absolute shame not to share it.

This salad was inspired by a similar salad we had in Paris at the Bouillon Chartier. Theirs uses endives, but… endives are expensive! The bitter flavour from the endives is mimicked here with the radicchio instead. Mix that bitterness with the salty, creaminess of the bleu cheese, the tang of the dijon dressing, and the crunch of the walnuts, and it is a match made in heaven.

Radicchio can be very bitter. It’s often roasted or grilled to soften the bitterness, or only added sparingly along with other greens for salads. In this case, though, we are embracing and celebrating that bitter flavour in it’s full glory, and pairing it with the other ingredients to provide nice contrasts of flavours and textures.

Without further ado, let’s make this salad! We are going to make everything in the same bowl out of which we will be serving/eating. This is the glorious part about this salad, it comes together so quickly and doesn’t dirty many dishes. It is one of my favourite lunches right now, since I can throw it together quickly, which is something important right now while I am working from home and need something in a hurry.

Start by placing the mustard and vinegar into the bowl, and whisking it with a fork (the same fork you plan on eating with? Why of course!) until the two are fully mixed together.

Next slowly pour the olive oil in with the vinegar and mustard, whisking as you pour, until the dressing is fully mixed and a homogeneous mix. Add salt and pepper to your preferred taste, and mix well.

Cut the core out of the radicchio and discard, then cut the radicchio into small bite-sized ribbons. Add the cut radicchio to the bowl, and toss with the dressing until the radicchio is evenly coated.

Tear the bleu cheese into bite-sized chunks and add them to the salad. This is not a place to be skimpy; use nice, big pieces, and make sure the salad is rife with cheese! Finally, loosely crumbled the toasted walnuts over the salad, and then it’s time to eat!

Happy eating.

Grilled and Garlic-filled Eggplant (Aubergine) Bruschetta

1 Comment

Eggplant Bruschetta

Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Course Appetizer, Snack

Ingredients
  

  • 1 medium sized eggplant/aubergine
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and shredded)
  • 10 cherry tomatoes (cut into 1/8ths)
  • 1/4 cup basil (chopped)
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1/8 tsp smoked paprika
  • 1 tsp balsamic vinegar
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • Baguettes or crostini (to serve)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat the grill to medium-high heat (~400ºF/205ºC). Poke holes in eggplant skin, using a toothpick or skewer. Place eggplant on grill, and cook for 15-20 minutes, turning every few minutes, until eggplant skin has been blackened and eggplant is soft.
  • Remove eggplant to a strainer and allow to cool and any liquid to drain out while cooling.
  • Add the shredded garlic, tomatoes, basil, olive oil, and paprika to a bowl and stir.
  • Once the eggplant has cooled, remove and discard the skin. Cut the eggplant in quarters and place back int the strainer to drain for 5 more minutes. Slice the eggplant into small pieces, and add to the bowl with the tomato mixture. Stir, then season with salt and pepper to taste. Serve with pieces of baguette or crostini.
Keyword Aubergine, BBQ, Bruschetta, Eggplant, Grill

And now for the details…

Oh the eggplant. Also know as aubergine and brinjal in different parts of the globe, this piece of produce is used in a variety of ways, all over the world. Some of us know this “vegetable” (it is actually technically a berry) as the emoji symbol that represents… not… culinary activities… But despite its phallic representation in more recent media, I have a more romantic view of this produce. Not that kind of romance…

Eggplants have such a variety of possibilities when it comes to cooking. Because they are fairly flavourless, but absorb flavours so well, they have an ability to be incorporated into so many different dishes in many different ways. The can be the star of a dish and be served up, lightly dressed, all on their own, or they can be added into sauces, curries, dips, soups, stir fries, and the list goes on…

The fruit itself has such an unusual look and texture. The skin is such a deep, vibrant, shiny purple, and then by contrast, the flesh is a bright, stark, and matte white. Add in the bright green foliage, and the fruit presents its own, unique colour palette.

While it is beautiful to look at, raw eggplant is a bit unpleasant to consume. It’s astringent, and has a weird, spongy texture. However, once cooked, eggplant loses a lot of the tannin-like taste, and the texture instead becomes soft and silken. We are going to use that to add a different textural “bite” to the bruschetta topping in this recipe.

Let’s get to cooking.

Start by preheating your grill. Set it to medium-high heat, so that the temperature will sit around 400ºF/205ºC.

Before we place the eggplant on the grill, we are going to poke holes through the skin all over the eggplant. This will allow the heat to get into the eggplant a bit more thoroughly, and provide a means for the water trapped inside to escape while the eggplant is cooking. You can use a skewer, toothpick, or even a fork to do this. Try to get a fairly consistent pattern of holes all the way around the eggplant, and they can be spaced about 2cm apart.

We are going to place the eggplant on the grill, and cook it for 15-20 minutes, turning every couple minutes to get the char and cook consistent around the whole fruit. Timing will depend on your grill (and its temperature consistency) and the size of eggplant you are cooking. The goal is for the skin to partially char the entire way around, and for the flesh to have cooked all the way through. How do you tell if it is cooked all the way through? You can make a good assumption that once it has gone from being plump skin and is springy to the touch to shrivelled skin and feels squishy that you have reached your end point. The photo below shows the eggplant when it has first started cooking versus the halfway cooking point. While the skin is shrivelled in the photo on the right, the flesh was still a bit springy when pushed, and so the eggplant was not quite done cooking yet.

Once the eggplant is done, remove from the grill, and place in a wire mesh strainer and allow the liquid to drain from the eggplant as it cools. We are allowing this drainage to happen for a couple reasons, one being that we do not want to bruschetta to have all that liquid… it will turn our bread into a soggy mess. And the second reason is that the liquid has a lot of that astringent/bitter taste, and we want to to drain that off. Now, admittedly, from what I understand, eggplant nowadays are not nearly as bitter as they used to be, and the draining is not as necessary as it once was, but there’s still reason number 1, so just let that sucker drain.

And now you have an… *ahem* flaccid… eggplant… Our next step will be to remove the skin and cut the flesh into little pieces. Thanks to all that cooking, the skin should peel off very easily. Cut the top off, and then peel and discard the skin. Cut the eggplant flesh into four pieces, and place back into the strainer to drain for a few more minutes while you prepare the rest of the bruschetta.

Cut the tomatoes into small pieces. Roma or beefsteak tomatoes can be used instead of cherry tomatoes; I used the cherry tomatoes because they were what I had available. Regardless of what kind of tomato you used, it should be about 1/2-3/4 cup of tomato pieces once they’re all cut up. Place the tomatoes, basil, shredded garlic, smoked paprika, and olive oil into a bowl, and mix well.

Finally, bring the eggplant back to the cutting board, and cut it into small pieces, about 1cm in size. Mix the eggplant in with the other ingredients, and add salt and pepper to taste.

To serve, you can either split the topping between the bread or crostini and serve, or you can bring the bowl to the table and allow folks to scoop their preferred amount of topping onto their own bread or crostini. Technically, to be a true bruschetta, the bread should be toasted or grilled in some way, but I got super lazy with this one, and instead I just tore a few pieces of fresh, crispy baguette and in half, and scooped the bruschetta topping right onto the bread pieces and sprinkled with a little Maldon salt. It was delicious.

Happy eating.

Fresh Southwest Black Bean “Hummus”

Southwest Black Bean “Hummus”

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Course Appetizer, Snack

Ingredients
  

  • 500 ml canned black beans (14 oz)
  • 3 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped loosely)
  • 1/4 cup fresh cilantro (loosely chopped)
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1 lime (juiced)
  • 2-4 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1/2 tsp salt

Instructions
 

  • Drain and rinse beans. Place beans, garlic, cilantro, cumin and lime juice in food processor. Blend until a loose mix has formed. Add olive oil and salt, and blend for several minutes or until smooth. Serve with veggies, pitas, or taco chips.
Keyword Black Bean, Cilantro, Hummus, Southwest

And now for the details…

Hummus enthusiasts may be horrified at the name used for the non-chickpea concoction that is this recipe… I mean, can it truly be called hummus when it contains no chickpeas? Well, probably not, technically, since according to my interweb searching, the English translation for the word hummus is… chickpeas. Ha! Whoops.

But.. don’t hate me… I’m not the biggest fan of chickpeas. They have a slightly grainy texture, even when mushed down into hummus, and that’s just not my cup of tea. Using black beans instead of chickpeas results in a different texture; I find the texture is silkier, smoother. And since we’re going so far off-base with the main ingredient of this hummus, we’re going to go even further by changing the flavour profile by adding in some southwestern tastes.

To get started, drain and rinse the beans under some cold water, then add them to your food processor or blender. Don’t have a food processor or blender to use? There are options: you could use a potato masher, or a mortar/pestle, but if you are going to go with a manual version, finely chop both the cilantro and garlic before you add them.

Next, add the rest of the ingredients to the blender/food processor. Only add about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil to start, we’ll reserve the rest of the oil in case the mix is a little too dry and need more liquid to blend properly.

Give the blender a couple pulses to start breaking up the beans and to get a little mixing action happening. Then, open the food processor/blender up, scrape down anything that’s collected at the top, back into the mix, and repeat until you stop getting loose bits fling up to the top of the food processor/blender.

Once the loose bits are back in the mix, blend the hell out of it until you get a nice, smooth texture. I blended mine for about five minutes straight. You could do more or less, depending on what kind of texture you want out of the hummus once it’s done. Now is also the time we will check in to determine if more oil is needed. If you do try to blend this, and it’s not quite “sticking” or become dip-like, you probably need a tad more oil to blend and bind everything together.

Once you’ve blended it down to your dip texture of choice, scrape out of the food processor/blender and serve! Anything you want to save for later keeps quite well in a sealed food storage container in the fridge for about a week.

For serving, you could go the healthy route and serve it with veggies, but my favourite thing to eat it with is taco chips!!!

Happy eating.

Beautiful Multicoloured Salmon and Tuna Poke Bowl

4 Comments

Tuna and Salmon Poke Bowl

Print Recipe
Prep Time 25 minutes
Total Time 25 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

Rice

  • 1 cup sushi rice (uncooked)
  • 1-2 Tbsps seasoned rice wine vinegar

Salmon

  • 60-110 g sushi grade salmon (cut into 1cm pieces)
  • 1/2 tsp chilli oil (can substitute with hot sauce, sambal olek, or sriracha)
  • 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice (approx 1/8 of a lemon)
  • 1/2 tsp seasoned rice wine vinegar

Tuna

  • 60-110 g sushi grade tuna (cut into 1cm pieces)
  • 1 tsp soy sauce
  • 1 tsp wasabi paste

Bowl

  • 3 mini english cucumbers (cut into bite-sized pieces)
  • 1/4 cup chopped savoy cabbage
  • 2 Tbsps fresh cilantro (chopped)
  • 1 Tbsp pickled ginger
  • 1/2 sheet roasted nori (cut into matchstick-sized pieces)
  • 1/2 cup edamame beans
  • salt (to taste)

Instructions
 

Rice

  • Cook the sushi rice according to package instructions. Once cooked, sprinkle 1-2 Tbsps rice wine vinegar, mixing in and fanning the rice to cool. Once cool, place in two serving bowls. 

Salmon

  • In a small mixing dish, mix 1/2 tsp chilli oil or hot sauce, 1/2 teaspoon vinegar and lemon juice, then toss the salmon in this mix, sprinkling with a pinch of salt. Place salmon on rice in bowls. (Stack over one part of the bowl, do not spread.)

Tuna

  • Mix wasabi and 1 teaspoon soy in a small mixing dish, then toss tuna pieces in this mix, spoon out into rice in bowls, next to the salmon, allowing excess soy to fall back into small dish. Discard excess soy.

Bowls

  • Arrange the rest of the ingredients around the fish on the rice: cabbage, cucumbers, ginger, nori, edamame, cilantro. Whisk together 2 tablespoons soy, 2 teaspoons vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, and 1/2 tsp chilli oil or hot sauce. Drizzle the bowls with the dressing. Serve.
Keyword Poke Bowl, Salmon, Tuna

And now for the details…

When I’ve got a protein craving (yes, I get cravings for protein… I am a bit of a protein-aholic), the protein I want most is raw tuna. And so when I was shopping yesterday and walked past the sushi section and saw a dish of tuna and salmon sashimi, I grabbed it, drooling a little, thinking what a delicious treat it would be once I got home. I ended up getting home closer to dinner time, though, and decided to turn the sashimi into the full meal deal, and make a poke bowl.

Poke bowl restaurants exploded in the 2010’s, and you can often find them all over the place. But admittedly, the bowls we get there and what I have created here is not super accurate to its origins. Poke originates from Hawaii, where you can find it everywhere, from poke shops to grocery stores to gas stations. But you won’t usually see the big, colourful bowls, permeated with vegetables and avocados. More frequently, the poke is dished out on its own, or onto rice, in to-go containers and served up with minimal accoutrements. And to be honest, it doesn’t need the accoutrements. Most of the poke we had in Hawaii is so delicious in its own right, it doesn’t need a bunch of stuff to go with it. Knocking my own bowl a little bit? I guess so. The additions I’ve put in do complement the poke, but they are added more to create a balanced meal, rather than be true to origin.

With that, let’s make that bowl!

Start out by cooking the rice. I have used sushi rice, but you could use any rice that suits your fancy. I’ve seen poke restaurants use brown rice, quinoa, or even cauliflower rice. Whichever you are using, follow the package directions to cook the rice. If you are using sushi rice, once it is cooked, sprinkle the rice with 1-2 tablespoons of the rice wine vinegar, carefully stirring the vinegar in, being careful to not break the rice apart. Place the rice in two serving bowls, spreading it so it covers the bottom of the bowl.

Next, we prepare the fish. We are going to use different marinades for each fish, so keep them separate. Cut the fish into small pieces, about 1cm in size. Putting the fish into the freezer for a couple minutes will help make them easier to cut.

First, the tuna: whisk together the wasabi paste and 1 teaspoon soy sauce. Add the tuna pieces, and toss until the tuna pieces are covered. Transfer immediately onto the rice bowl.

Next, the salmon: whisk 1/2 teaspoon chilli oil or hot sauce, 1/2 teaspoon rice wine vinegar, and the lemon juice. Add the salmon pieces and toss to coat. Add a dash of salt to taste, then place the salmon next to the tuna on the rice bowl.

Place the cucumber, cabbage and cilantro around the fish.

Next, whisk the 2 tablespoons soy sauce, 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar, olive oil, sesame oil, and 1/2 tsp chilli oil or hot sauce with a fork until well blended. Sprinkle the dressing over the bowls, getting it over the veggies and rice. Finally, place the edamame, ginger and nori, then serve!

(No pickled ginger in the house? No problem, neither did I! This recipe from the New York Times is a super fast, super easy way to put pickled ginger together, with only an hour resting time!)

Happy eating.

Brussel Sprout Caesar Salad (with Vegetarian Option)

3 Comments

Brussel Sprout Caesar Salad

Print Recipe
Prep Time 20 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Salad, Side Dish

Ingredients
  

  • 6 cups Brussel sprouts (sliced thin)
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and shredded)
  • 1 tsp anchovy paste (optional if vegetarian)
  • 1 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 2 Tbsps red wine vinegar
  • 1 tsp Worcestershire sauce (optional if vegetarian)
  • 1 Tbsp fresh lemon juice (about 1/4 lemon)
  • 4 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1/3 cup parmesan cheese (grated)
  • 3 slices prosciutto (optional if vegetarian)
  • 1 tsp capers, with brine, smashed into paste (if have omitted anchovy paste and Worcestershire)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 2 Tbsps parmesan cheese (for garnish)

Instructions
 

  • Slice the brussel sprouts thinly with a mandolin or sharp knife. Either in a blender, or a bowl with a whisk, mix the shredded garlic, anchovy paste, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire, and lemon juice (and capers, if you're going vegetarian). Whisk/blend until fully mixed, then slowly add the olive oil, mixing well as you add. Finally, mix in the parmesan cheese, and salt and pepper, to taste. Toss the sprouts with the dressing and set aside for 5-15 minutes. On a grill set to 350ºF/175ºC, or on a pan set to medium heat, cook the prosciutto pieces for approximately 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat, let cool, then cut into small pieces. Add the prosciutto to the salad and toss. Top with parmesan flakes and fresh ground pepper. Serve.
Keyword Brussel Sprouts, Caesar, Salad, Salad Dressing, Vegetables, Vegetarian

And now for the details…

In my last post, we had a juicy burger… this post is the accompaniment to that burger. What goes really well with burgers? Coleslaw. But I didn’t feel like coleslaw at the time, and I had brussel sprouts that needed to be used, so instead, the brussel sprout Caesar was born!

The texture in this salad is more similar to coleslaw, but unfortunately, it doesn’t quite keep as one, as we unfortunately found out. The next day, the brussel sprouts had that limp, almost soggy texture that lettuce gets when it’s sat in salad dressing for too long. Not my favourite. So eat this salad on the same day to avoid that!

We start out with prepping the brussel sprouts. Mine were a little forlorn by the time I pulled them out of the fridge to use, so I needed to trim the ends and remove some of the exterior leaves that had gone a bit yellow. I used a sharp knife to get the brussels nice and thin. If you have one, you could use a mandolin. There’s always the option to use a food processor too, but I find the slice on those is much thicker, and not the texture I was going for.

Next we make the salad dressing. Mix the anchovy paste, mustard, vinegar, Worcestershire, lemon juice and garlic cloves. If you’re making this salad vegetarian, skip the anchovy paste and Worcestershire, and instead add 1 teaspoon of capers with some of the brine, mashed into a paste. Whisk all the ingredients together until fully mixed. Alternatively, you can add all the ingredients to a blender and blend them together.

Once the ingredients have been well mixed, start slowly adding the olive oil, whisking constantly, to allow the dressing to become a homogeneous mix. The mustard acts as an emulsifier here, so it will help to ensure that the oil doesn’t start separating from the rest of the ingredients once the dressing sits.

Finally, we add the shredded parmesan cheese. If you ware whisking, give this a pretty vigorous mix to help break apart the parmesan a bit to get a slightly creamier texture to the dressing.

Wait until you have mixed in the cheese to add your salt and pepper, since the cheese, anchovy paste, and Worcestershire (or capers) are quite salty, so we want to wait until now to do a taste test, then add salt and pepper to your taste preferences, mixing well. Then, we add the dressing to the brussel sprouts.

Mix thoroughly, then set aside for 5-15 minutes to give the brussels some “soak time” in the dressing. While we are waiting, we can cook the prosciutto (obviously you’re going to skip this step if you’re going vegetarian). I cooked the prosciutto on the grill at medium heat (~350ºF/175ºC), since it was already going to cook the burgers, but you can use a pan on the stove heated to medium heat, and cook the prosciutto for about 3 minutes per side. Remove from the heat, then let the pieces cool, and cut them into small, bite-sized pieces. Sprinkle them and the parmesan flakes over the salad.

Give the salad one last toss, top with some more fresh ground pepper, then serve.

Happy eating.

Get Ready for Grilling! Juicy BBQ’ed Burger Recipe

5 Comments

Juicy Grilled Burgers

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Main Course

Ingredients
  

  • 700 g lean ground beef (1.5 lbs)
  • 1 egg
  • 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
  • 1/2 Tbsp dijon mustard
  • 1 shallot (peeled, finely minced)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 4-6 burger buns
  • burger fixings

Instructions
 

  • Mix the raw ground beef with the egg, Worcestershire, mustard, shallots, salt and pepper until fully mixed. Split the meat into 4-6 parts (6 will be 1/4 lb burgers, 4 will be 3/8 lb), forming into patties. Press a small indent into the middle of the patties with your thumb to avoid "puffing" of the middle. Place on a grill heated to ~400ºF/205ºC. Cook on each side for 7-9 minutes, flipping only once, until fully cooked in the middle. Serve immediately, with buns and fixings.
  • (Burger in photo: caramelized onions, peanut butter, bleu cheese, spicy mayo, onion jam, tomatoes)
Keyword BBQ, Beef, Burger, Grill, Ground Beef

And now for the details…

I’m not sure what the weather it is like in the part of the world you are in right now, but for us here in Calgary, Canada, spring is in the air, which also means its time to get back to grilling. There are a few brave souls who grill in the winter, but needing to shovel snow to access our grill is not something I’m interested in…

And what better food to kick your grilling into high gear than the hamburger? A nice big, juicy burger, topped with your fixings of choice? Yum.

In this recipe, I am using all lean ground beef. I have heard/read about adding in some fatty ground beef to up the juiciness factor, but to be honest, I am too lazy to get that specific. If you want to give it a try, please feel free to give the suggested 80% lean / 20% fatty method a whirl and let me know if the effort fo measuring/mixing is worth it in taste 😛

We start everything off by mixing the meat with the egg, Worcestershire sauce, dijon mustard, shallot and salt and pepper. I did not measure the S&P, that’s up to your preference. For ours, I used about 1/2 teaspoon of salt and the same of pepper. Keep in mind when you’re adding your salt that the Worcestershire is already fairly salty and we are adding a full tablespoon of it to the meat. Best method to mix all these ingredients? By hand. You could use a mixer or wooden spoon if touching raw meat grosses you out (I have a few friends who are anti-touching raw meat), but by hand allows you to get a good mix in without overworking the meat. Yes, it is possible to overwork ground beef. If you mix too much, it will actually cause the meat to compress, giving the patty a tougher, rubbery-like texture.

Next is time to form up your patty. You can divide the meat up into four or six roughly-even parts, depending on how big you want your burger patties to be (and how many people you’re serving!) Six parts will give you six quarter pounders. When you are forming the patties, it is the same as when we were mixing, don’t squeeze the hell of out of the meat when you’re forming the patty. Just use a light squish to make sure they stick together; it’s not an attempt to beat the Hydraulic Press Channel… Use your thumb, and press a little dimple or divot into the middle of the patty. This will help to keep the patty from “puffing” in the middle while its cooking, and result in a more even burger.

Next is grill time. Preheat your grill to medium heat, somewhere around 400ºF/205ºC. Place your patties on the grill, close it up, and let them cook for 7-9 minutes. Avoid the temptation to press the patties with your spatula/flipper, which presses/pushes the fat and juices out of the meat, resulting in a drier burger. Once the first 7-9 minutes are done, flip the patties and let them cook for another 7-9 minutes, or until the internal temperature registers at 160ºF/70ºC. I know some people are fans of a pink inside to their burgers, but I like them well-done. Really, unless you are grinding your own beef and have full control over the handling of the meat and sanitizing of the equipment, I don’t know that I would go with a pink inside.

Finally, assembly time. Tons of options here, you could have all the fixings ready, and leave it up to the folks eating, like a burger buffet, or you could preassemble and serve. While the typical fixings are ketchup, mustard, mayo, relish, lettuce, tomatoes, etc. might I suggest toppings a bit off-course? The toppings on ours were inspired from a burger I had in Ottawa, Canada a few years ago. They called it the “PB & J” burger, and I’ve been mildly obsessed with peanut butter on burgers ever since. In this burger, I used a caramelized onion jam for the “J”, and crumbled pieces of bleu cheese, but I’ve tried it with fig preserves, or with grape jelly, and both were also delicious. I would recommend adding the PB as soon as the burger comes off the grill. It get a little melty and oozy and is so good. I also used a little spicy aioli under the patty before placing it on the burger bun.

Top the burger off with some caramelized onions and tomatoes and you are ready to consume!

Happy eating.

Creamy Roasted Garlic Soup, the Perfect Appie

1 Comment

Roasted Garlic Soup

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Appetizer, Side Dish, Soup
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 6 garlic bulbs
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1 Tbsp butter
  • 1/2 shallot (peeled and minced, can use 1/4 small onion)
  • 1 small potato (peeled and cubed)
  • 4-5 cups chicken or vegetable broth
  • 2 Tbsps brandy
  • 1/4 cup white wine
  • 1 pinch dried tarragon
  • 1/2 cup sour cream
  • 1/2 cup shredded parmesan cheese
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 1/4 cup toasted hazelnuts (crushed into large pieces, for garnish)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 350ºC/175ºF Set garlic bulbs in aluminum foil or dish with a cover, drizzle with the olive oil. Place in oven and cook for approximately 1 hour. Allow to cool until easily handled. Remove cloves from skin. Melt butter in pot. Add shallots and cook until just softened. Add the potato and garlic, stirring. Add the broth, brandy, wine and tarragon. Bring the soup to a light simmer for 20 minutes. Either blend in pot with a handheld blender, or blend in regular blender in batches, until smooth. Return to pot, add the sour cream and parmesan, stirring in completely. Add salt and pepper to taste. Place in bowls, sprinkle the hazelnuts on top and serve.
Keyword Garlic, Parmesan, Potatoes, Roasted Garlic, Soup

And now for the details…

Hiya folks. Sorry for the huge delay between posting. I’ve ended up with a relapse of my concussion, and as a result have been trying to limit my screen time to reduce my symptoms. Since I do need to stare at a screen all day for my job, the blogging has taken a bit of a backseat of late. BUT! I think things are starting to turn, so I am going to be spending a bit more time putting together posts. I’ve had plenty of time to cook, so I’ve got a lot of content in backlog! I just need to get the stuff I have written down into posts!

With that, let’s talk about today’s recipe. A roasted garlic soup. This luscious, velvety bowl of deliciousness is so comforting and luxurious-feeling with ultimately fairly inexpensive ingredients (minus the booze and nuts). It plates really nicely too, so you can impress your dinner guests by serving this as a beautiful (and delicious) appetizer. Y’know… when we’re able to have dinner guests again (*silent tears*).

To get this recipe started.. we need to roast the garlic. This part is super simple, just place the garlic in some tin foil (or a covered oven-proof dish if you’re not wanting to use foil), drizzle it with the olive oil, seal the package up, and place it in a 350ºF/175ºC oven. If you want to make it easier to access the garlic later, you can cut tops off to expose the very top of the cloves before drizzling with the olive oil, but I don’t really find it all that easier. Bake the garlic for approximately an hour.

When the garlic is cooked, remove from the oven, open the package up and let the garlic cool until cool enough to handle. Then, remove those delicious little nuggets of roasted cloves from the skin and set them aside.

Next, melt the butter in a pot over medium heat, then add the shallot or onion, and stir until just softened. Add the potato, and stir until the potato is coated with the butter. Next, add the garlic, broth, brandy, wine and tarragon, stirring well. In the recipe I suggest adding a pinch of tarragon. For any cooking beginners, you may ask: how much is a pinch? Well, if you were to reach into your spice jar and pinch a small amount of the spice between your index finger and thumb? That’s about a pinch.

Bring the soup up to a light simmer, cover and cook for 20 minutes.

Next is how we get that nice, smooth texture. If you have one, you could use a hand blender to blend the soup right in the pot. I prefer to blend in a blender so the soup is soup-er smooth (yes I did that). If you have a smaller blender, you might have to do this in batches.

Once blended, return the soup to the pot, and add the sour cream and parmesan cheese until fully mixed. Can you use regular cream here? Absolutely. I just didn’t have any and going to get some just doesn’t seem like a necessary trip.

Finally, serve, topping with the hazelnut pieces, a drizzle of olive oil and some parmesan cheese, and serve.

Happy eating.