Whish together the sour cream, mayonnaise, salt, dill, garlic, chilli oil and lemon juice. Arrange the other ingredients on a large plate or platter. Drizzle with the dressing. Serve.
Keyword Avocado, Egg, Ham, Salad, Salad Dressing, Vegetables
And now for the details…
Yep, it’s another fairly simple recipe I’m putting forward today. But I couldn’t help it; we had so much ham leftover after our New Years Eve party that I needed to find a number of uses for it. This recipe actually only put a small dent in the leftovers. I am making this ham and bean soup tonight in an effort to use up even more. And we still have some left. Seriously. That’s too many hams. Although it does remind me of Robert Kelly’s (ew, no, not THAT Robert Kelly, I’m talking comedian Robert Kelly) skit about his love of food… “ham, just give me ham” (the whole thing is hilarious, but skip ahead to 4:40 for the quote).
I got a bit liberal with the different ingredients in this salad. Feel free to mix and match the toppings depending on what you have on hand. I did really enjoy the texture combination I had here, but it’s not prescriptive. Typical chef’s salad has some combination of meat, cheese, egg and veggie assortment.
Start with roasting the walnuts so you have them mostly cooled and ready for the last step. Place the walnuts on a small pan and spread them out so they are in a single layer. Place in a 350ºF/175ºC oven for 5-8 minutes until they smell toasty. Let them sit to cool once done.
Next up: the dressing. I made a chipotle ranch-style dressing. Again… because, well, these were the ingredients I happened to have on hand. A good ol’ “let’s clean out the refrigerator” kind of recipe.
Mix together the sour cream, mayonnaise, salt, dill, garlic, lemon juice, and chilli oil. I used Huipi Chil mango-chipotle salsa for my chilli flavour, but if you want the same flavour and don’t have a chipotle chilli oil available, use 1/2 tsp of dried chipotle powder instead. If you prefer a less viscous dressing, you could use buttermilk instead of sour cream.
Next, we need to cook the eggs. I prefer a soft boiled egg, but the traditional chefs salad seems to be a hard boiled egg. Go with you preference. I went into detail on how to do a soft boiled egg in my Rainbow Vegetable Bowl recipe, but long story short: boil water, add eggs, simmer 6-7 minutes, ice bath, peel.
Finally, we assemble the salad. Arrange the rest of the ingredients on a large plate, with the arugula serving as your base.
Drizzle the dressing over the salad, and gently crumble the walnuts with your hands over the salad. The walnuts are serving as the crunch for this salad, eliminating the need for croutons, while giving us an added bite and richness.
Sauté the pork on medium-high heat until browned. Add the chopped kimchi, reserving the kimchi liquid, and stir regularly until kimchi is heated fully. Add the water and broth. Add the soy sauce, mirin, gochujang, and kimchi liquid. Stir and cook until the stew starts to simmer. Stir in the shredded garlic. Add the mushroom and the green onions, stirring to mix. Lay the tofu across the top of the stew, spooning some of the stew over the tofu to coat. Cover the soup and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the mushrooms and tofu are cooked through. Spoon the stew into bowls and drop about 1 tsp of butter on the top of each bowl. Serve with a side bowl of cooked white rice.
Keyword Kimchi, Pork, Stew, Tofu
And now for the details…
I know what you must be thinking… ummm… Emily, I didn’t realize you were Korean…? No, no I am not. And what do I know about authentic Korean cooking? Not much at all, except that what Korean food I have eaten is delicious and I will do what I can to recreate it. Particularly this stew. This stew was love at first bite when I tried it at Ogam Chicken. It has all the things you could hope for in a stew. The flavour is a mouth-watering combination of salty, umami-rich, spicy, and tangy. With the little chunks of pork, kimchi, and tofu, this stew is also quite hearty. Pair it with a bowl of white rice and it is pure magic.
Eating kimchi jjigae in restaurants, you often get it served in a hot stone bowl called a dolsot. I do have a dolsot that I received as a gift. But alas, I still have not used it, as it does not work so well (i.e. at all) on an induction stove. I will need to get myself a hot plate to resolve this issue! Until then, a heavy bottomed pot will need to do the job.
Cooking with new ingredients is always both scary and exciting. There were a number of ingredients in this recipe that I had never used for cooking until I made this stew the first time.
Gochujang, which is a chilli paste, was a brand new ingredient for me the first time I made jjigae. I find it more earthy than spicy, although it definitely does provide some heat. It’s a deep, rich red and has an almost smoky yet sweet quality to it that really deepens the flavour of the dish.
Kimchi itself was something I had eaten on a number occasions, but had never cooked with at home. My favourite is baechu kimchi, which is made from the whole Napa cabbage. Luckily, it is usually the easiest to find in stores as well. Kimchi can be quite different brand-to-brand, and the store I get my ingredients from also does some fresh house-made kimchi as well. They will vary in the level of tartness, saltiness, and spiciness, which will change the way the stew ultimately tastes. Play around with the different kinds to find one you enjoy.
Let’s get to cooking.
Start by preparing your ingredients. Cut the green onions into 1″ pieces and set them aside. Take the kimchi out of its liquid, allowing most of the liquid to drain back into its container (set the liquid aside, we will be using that!), and chop the kimchi roughly to get some bite-sized pieced. Set the kimchi aside. Trim the mushrooms and set them aside. I use shimeji mushrooms because I enjoy them so much, but if you prefer white or brown button mushrooms, simply cut them into quarters or halves, depending on the size of the mushrooms (cut them into 1/8th’s if they are really big). Slice the tofu into 5-6mm (~1/4″) slices and set aside. Lastly, cut the pork belly into small, bite-sized slices.
We start by cooking the pork belly. Many recipes will call to add the pork belly to the broth once it is prepared, but I like cooking the pork first, getting a nice build up of the pork fat as it renders, and caramelizing the meat slightly. Add the pork belly to your pot with the heat set at medium-high. Sauté until the meat has cooked through almost completely and has started to brown. Stir this regularly, as I find the pork belly will try to stick to the bottom of the pot. If there is an large amount of fat pooling in the bottom of the pot, drain some, but keep the majority of the fat in the pot.
Once the pork belly is cooked through, add the kimchi to the pot, stirring regularly until any liquid that remained with the kimchi has cooked off and the kimchi is heated all the way through.
Next we start to add our liquid. Add the broth and the water, stirring while paying particular attention to the bottom of the pot to help stir in any of the caramelized pork that may have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Then, add the soy sauce, mirin and gochujang. Add a tablespoon or two of the kimchi liquid into the pot and allow everything to heat up until the stew starts to simmer.
Taste test the broth at this point to see if it is meeting your taste preference. Add more kimchi liquid if you want to increase the spiciness, saltiness and tartness of the broth. Now is also the point when you will add the shredded garlic to the stew. Lower the temperature to about medium or medium-low.
Next, add your mushrooms and green onions, and stir them into the broth. Then lay the tofu across the top, and spoon some of the broth over the tofu to coat it. I forgot to buy tofu the first time I made this for photos, so please excuse the, er, temporary costume (i.e. pot) change in this next photo.
Cover the pot an allow the stew to… well… stew… for about 8-10 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the tofu is heated through completely and everything is a nice, bubbly container of deliciousness.
Finally, we eat. Spoon the stew out into bowls, top with about 1 tsp of butter per bowl, and serve on its own or with a small bowl of cooked white rice.
Add cranberries, juice and zest to a saucepan. Stir well and place on medium-low heat. Add sugar and spices and cook until cranberries have popped and sauce has thickened to desired consistency.
Keyword Cranberries, Holiday Dinner, Sauce
And now for the details…
Long time no post, and this one is so easy, it seems like a good one to come back with. Timely, too, since Christmas is tomorrow and turkey needs it’s cranberry sidekick!
Need help with the rest of turkey dinner? Fret not! Remember Mo’s the Turkey’s Grand Adventure? It can provide you with step by step instructions for a tasty turkey, starting with the brining of said turkey this evening!
Homemade cranberry sauce is super simple. Maybe not as simple as opening a can, but then again maybe it is, since you don’t have to attack it with a spoon to try and smoosh it down from a cylinder to try and make it look like something resembling sauce…
To start, simply toss the cranberries into a large-ish saucepan and place on the stove at medium-low heat.
Next, zest two oranges into the pot, then juice those same two oranges and add both zest and juice to the pot.
Stir in the sugar and spices, and let the sauce cook away, letting the cranberries cook and break down.
The great thing about cooking this sauce is that you do not need to keep constant watch. Let it simmer away, stirring occasionally, but it will cook for about 15-25 minutes as it slowly turns into a nice, thick sauce. As it cooks, the natural pectin in the cranberries will thicken up the sauce. If you want to cook it for longer but it is becoming too thick, add a little bit of water and let ‘er go.
In the end, you will have a nice thick sauce to have with delicious turkey!
In a large pan, cook the lardons over medium-high heat until browned and crispy. Strain and remove to plate lined with paper towels, set aside.
Put pan back on the heat, add the butter, oil, and garlic. Cook until butter is completely melted and garlic is slightly browned. Add sprouts and salt, toss to coat with butter/oil.
Cook until sprouts are cooked through and slightly browned. Add the syrup and cook until syrup starts to caramelize the Brussels sprouts. Add the chilli oil and bacon back into the pan. Cook for 60 seconds, stirring constantly. Serve.
Keyword Bacon, Brussel Sprouts, Maple Syrup, Vegetables
And now for the details…
This is one of my favourite side dishes. Crispy, sweet, and hot Brussel sprouts, that are rich and satisfying. This is saying a lot for me. I used to hate brussel sprouts. Remember my thoughts on cooked cabbage? (Reminder: smells like farts.) This extends to brussel sprouts. Especially if they have been steamed. Blech.
However, when I discovered pan fried brussel sprouts for the first time, I was shocked at the transformation of this veggie from a mushy, flatulent predicament, to a crispy, caramelized bundle of joy.
This recipe pulls together sweet, salty, spicy and rich. Is it still a vegetable dish? Oh sure. But are they just a vegetable when they’re browned, slightly crispy and oh so goooooood.
Let’s get started.
Prepare the brussel sprouts by washing them, trimming the ends, and cutting them in half. If any excess leaves come off when you trim the ends, dispose of those, especially if they are looking a little rough. Prepare the garlic by peeling it and cutting it into slices.
Before we start cooking the sprouts, we are going to cook the bacon. Cut the bacon into small slices, also known as lardons. Cook them on medium-high heat until they are browned and crispy. Set the bacon aside on a dish lined with paper towels. Drain off most of the bacon fat from the pan, but don’t worry about wiping it down.
Next, add the butter and oil to the pan, then add the garlic slices. Cook until the garlic has just started to brown, then add the brussel sprouts and season with salt to taste. Stir the sprouts regularly, allowing the sprouts to cook through and brown on the outsides.
Once the sprouts have cooked most of the way through, add the maple syrup and chilli oil to the pan. Stir, coating all the sprouts with the syrup, and allowing the syrup to start caramelizing and crisping up the sprouts.
Once the liquid has completely cooked down and the sprouts are your preferred level of brown and crispy, add the lardons back into the pan and cook for one more minute to heat everything through. Transfer to a dish and serve!
Wrap the potatoes in aluminum foil and place on preheated bbq or oven for 10 minutes on medium high heat. Place the kale and fennel in a bowl. Mix the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, juice, and shredded garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste. Once the potatoes have cooled enough to touch, cut into 3-4mm slices and add to the bowl. Toss the veggies with the dressing. Serve.
Keyword Kale, Potatoes, Salad Dressing
And now for the details…
Okay, so this dish was totally another one of those “what do I have in the fridge” moments to bring something together at the last minute. I was having a friend over for dinner, already had steak on the roster, but needed a veggie to go with it. The result? A garlicky, creamy salad that has a freshness hit from the fennel, the added bite of the potatoes and earthiness of Emmentaler cheese.
If you have no Emmentaler, fret not, readily available “Swiss cheese”, as we know it in North America, is actually based on Emmentaler cheese. Because, yep, you guessed it, Emmental is a region in Switzerland. (Fun fact: did you know that the holes in Swiss cheese are known as “eyes” and if the cheese has no eyes, it is considered “blind”?)
Let’s get to the cooking.
Before starting to assemble the salad, we need to cook the potatoes. I used the barbecue, since it was already on to cook the steaks for our meal. But you could always cook them in the oven, or even boil them, as alternatives. I cleaned the potatoes well, since I wanted to keep the skins on, and placed them in tin foil, then cooked them for about 10 minutes. They were just wee, so they didn’t need much time to cook through. Adjust your cooking time as you need, depending on what size of potatoes you are using.
Now prepare the rest of your veggies. Slice the fennel thinly, and chop the kale into bite-sized pieces. Allow the potatoes to cool after they have been cooked; if you add them hot to the salad, they will melt or cook the other ingredients and the results will be quite different.
Slice the potatoes into little medallions, and add all the veggies to your salad bowl.
Whisk together the mayonnaise, mustard, vinegar, lemon juice, and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste. I used my handy-dandy garlic grating plate to get a nice garlic paste going. If you do not have a garlic plate, grate the garlic with a fine grater right into the dressing bowl, trying to allow any garlic “juice” to make its way into the dressing. Next, grate the cheese, adding it to the bowl with the salad dressing.
Toss everything together gently, trying to avoid breaking the potatoes up into little pieces. Serve, and enjoy!
This dish was a family favourite. We were introduced to it by a family friend when I was young, and it quickly became a special dish in our household. We had it often enough, that after a bit of time my mom would not even bother pulling the recipe card out when making it, she had made it so often. We had a tradition in our household that on our birthdays, we would get to choose what we wanted for dinner. The amount of times that I would choose this dish as my birthday dinner are innumerable. Not… because of my age… but because… I liked it so much… I can’t remember how many times… Okay, I’m getting old. Regardless, this is a special dish in my heart, and any time I’m feeling homesick or want some comfort food, this is the dish I turn to.
It’s also a fairly quick and easy meal to come together. So even though it was a special dish, it was still something that could come together on a school/work night in a fairly short amount of time. Pair it up with a simple green salad, and you’ve got yourself a great meal!
Start everything off by mincing the shallot and sautéing it in a large pan on medium high heat with the olive oil just until the shallot has started to soften and turned translucent. Add the white wine to the pan, stirring to mix.
We are going to let the white wine reduce until the liquid has almost completely boiled off. Just a small amount of liquid should be left in the pan.
Next, add your chicken broth and clams. Yes, I am suggesting to drain the clams, and yes, this is an opportunity to use the clam juice to increase the “clamminess” of your dish. But to be honest, I actually find the clam juice a bit too salty (I know, it’s shocking, I’m calling something too salty, call the press) and not as rich in umami flavour as using chicken broth as your liquid source. It’s also important to use baby clams in this dish. I made the mistake once of not paying attention when buying the canned clams and ended up with whole clam pieces. The texture is just not the same as the small, juicy bites of baby clams.
Stir, bringing the sauce back up to a simmer, then add the oregano and hot sauce. Just a few dashes of the hot sauce, we are not trying to burn our faces off (I mean, unless that’s what you are looking for, then have at ‘er), just adding an extra layer of flavour to the dish. Now is also a good time to start cooking your pasta so it is ready around the time as your sauce.
Cut the cream cheese into smaller pieces. This will allow the cream cheese to melt faster, and meld into the sauce a bit faster. A quick note on cream cheese: you can use low fat cream cheese, but I would recommend the full fat. The low fat cream cheese does not melt as quickly, and it takes quite awhile before your sauce looks homogenous without a whole bunch of white chunks floating around.
Let the sauce simmer for a bit as you stir the melting cream cheese in. At this point, your pasta should be fairly close to being done as well. Before draining the pasta, add about 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the sauce and allow it to continue to simmer until the sauce coats the back of a wooden spoon. The addition of the pasta water helps the sauce to thicken, and will help it adhere to the pasta. Give the sauce a final taste test and add salt and pepper to suit your tastes.
Once the sauce is ready, add the drained pasta to the pan, and stir to mix the sauce into the pasta. Transfer to a wide serving platter, and top with the parmesan and fresh ground pepper, then serve!
Peel and shred the veggies, either in a food processor, or using a grater.
Add the olive oil to the instant pot on Sauté setting. Add the onions, garlic and carrots, sautéing until the carrots start to soften. Add the rest of the ingredients, stirring well.
Set pot on Soup/Broth setting and cook on pressure for 10 minutes.
My family on both sides have always had a focus around food. Since I was a little girl, I remember all getting together for big family meals, cracking out some snack or recently baked good when someone would come to visit, and most importantly to me, often cooking or baking together. I must have been so annoying to my mom, grandmas and aunties, because from a young age “I help too” was a common phrase coming out of my mouth, quickly followed by the screech of the kitchen chair legs against the floor as I insistently dragged it over to the counter to stand higher and “help”.
One of the people I would insist regularly on “helping” was my Grandma on my dad’s side. Since my Grandma was Ukrainian, this resulted in me learning to make foods like perogies, periski, holupchi, or borscht. And as the weather turns cooler and root vegetables are readily available now that it is officially fall, my craving for borscht peaks at an all-time high. Even though this classifies as a soup, I feel as though borscht should be more of a stew. Hearty, rich, and hitting the spot on a cool fall day. The addition of the potatoes gives a nice thick broth, and the deep, earthiness and sweetness of the beets gets elevated with the herbaceousness of the dill and the zing of the tomato paste. Admittedly, my Grandma’s borscht was a bit more on the “soup” side of things, but the main thing I did pick up from her, and I hold tight to, was on her being quite adamant that borscht should not contain cabbage. Cooked cabbage… is not my cup of tea. Let’s be frank people, it smells like farts. And so, zero cabbage in this recipe. Is it un-Ukrainian? Possibly. But since I learned this from my Grandma, I’m going to claim a certain level of authenticity!
For this recipe, we are making it in the Instant Pot. You can always make this exact same recipe in a regular pot, it will just need to cook on the stove on medium-low heat for much longer (about 5 times as long).
Let’s start by prepping our veggies. I used a food processor to shred all my veggies. You can always use a hand grater instead. Peel the carrots, onion, and beets first. Then shred the carrots and onion. Remove them from the processor into the pot, and do the beets next. We are doing these all separately so we can sauté the other veggies without the beets, as a sort of mirepoix, without the celery. Mince your garlic and add it to the pot as well. Add a splash of olive oil, set the pot to “Sauté” (medium high on a pot on the stove), and cook the veggies, stirring occasionally, until the carrots start to soften and the garlic and onions are fragrant.
While those veggies are cooking, peel and diced your potatoes. Once they are ready, add the potatoes and beets to the pot, and the broth (chicken for Grandma’s, vegetable if you are going vegetarian with your borscht) and stir well, mixing everything all together.
Add the last few ingredients to the pot, give it one last stir to mix everything in, especially the tomato paste, and the cover your pot and set to “Soup/Broth” setting, with pressure on. If no Instant Pot, turn the temperature down to medium-low temperature. We are going to cook here for 10 minutes in the Instant Pot, or 50-60 minutes on the stove, stirring occasionally if on the stove.
Once the cooking time is done, give the borscht one last stir, then serve in bowls. You can serve just like this, or if you’d like to go the way I had it at Grandma’s, add a dollop of sour cream and stir it in before your first big, soul-warming bite.
Mix together the peanut butter, chilli sauce, coconut milk and soy sauce, and set aside.
Add the shallots, garlic and carrots to a large pan with the oil and sauté on medium high heat until the shallows start to brown. Add the ginger and stir, then add the cabbage and brussel sprouts, stirring while cooking until the sprout and cabbage have just started to soften. Stir in the kale and red pepper, and cook until the kale has turned bright green.
Separate the veggies into two bowls. Top with the satay sauce and eggs, and serve.
Guilty admission: this recipe was created when I was trying to clean out our refrigerator. I had all these random bits of veg left over from other recipes that I had made and I needed to find something to do with them. Et voilà: a rainbow smorgasbord of sautéed veggies with a satay dressing and soft boiled eggs to top them off.
This recipe comes together fairly quickly, and so is a great option for a weekday meal. And since the main protein source is egg, it’s also appropriate for the non meat eaters out there! Have a vegan in the crowd? Swap out the eggs for pan fried tofu, and you are in business! The recipe also scales up an down quite easily, depending on the number in your crowd.
Start everything off my prepping your veggies and sauce. Once the cooking starts, this recipe comes together very quickly, so you want everything ready to go so you can just toss each element into the pan and plate immediately.
Slicing of your sprouts and cabbage could be done by hand or in a food processor, whichever is your preference. I like slicing by hand since it allows me more control and I prefer the veggies to be sliced thinner than the food processor will allow.
For the sauce, we simply whisk together the peanut butter, chilli sauce, coconut milk and soy sauce until they are fully mixed. I like using crunchy peanut butter for this so you get little bites of peanut in the dish after mixing the sauce into the veggies. I also added some sambal oelek for added spice, but if you prefer a milder flavour, you can omit it.
Next it’s on to cooking. Start with your soft boiled eggs. Bring a pot of water to a boil, carefully place the eggs inside (use a spoon or skimmer to help you do this to prevent dropping the eggs too fast and cracking the shells), then reduce the temperature to medium-low and cook the eggs for 6-7 minutes, depending on your preference of yolk smooshiness. Have an ice bath ready. While the eggs are cooking, we can start cooking the rest of the meal, but the moment the eggs are done, they should be removed from the hot water and placed in the ice bath.
Moving on to the veggies. Heat a large pan at medium-high heat with the oil, and add the ginger and garlic. Cook until just fragrant, then add your shallots and carrots. Stir, cooking until the shallots start to brown, then add the Brussel sprouts and cabbage. Stir, cooking just until the cabbage starts to soften, and add the kale and red pepper. One last stir and cook until the kale turns bright green and just starts to wilt, then remove from the heat and place into your bowls for serving.
Pour the satay sauce over the veggies, peel the eggs (yes, I definitely massacred them in this photo…), cut them in half and place on top, and you are ready to for dinner!
Whisk or sift together the flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium sized bowl. In a stand mixer, cream the butter, then gradually add the sugar, 1/3 cup at a time, then add the vanilla. Blend the eggs into the butter mixture, one at a time. Add the dry ingredients slowly, alternating with the milk, until fully mixed. Pour the batter into greased and papered cake tin(s). Bake at 350ºF/177ºC until toothpick comes out clean (30-35min for 6" cake tins). Cool fully.
Lemon Curd
Add all the ingredients except the butter in a saucepan and blend together. Place over low heat and cook, stirring continuously, until thickened, remove from heat. Add the butter slowly, stirring in completely. Cool.
Frosting
Place the egg whites and sugar in a stand mixer metal bowl, and place over a pot of simmering water. Cook until the temperature reaches 71ºC (160ºF). Remove from the heat, place on the stand mixer with a whisk attachment and whip until stiff peaks form. Beat in the salt, then add the butter 1 tablespoon at a time. Fold in the bumbleberry purée.
Keyword Berries, Cake, Icing, Layer Cake, Lemon
And now for the details…
Cake is my favourite dessert. I can say that, because it’s such a wide variety of options that I get to include in this category. Ice cream cake? Of course. Coffee cake? Absolutely. Angel food cake? Yum. Layer cake? Without a doubt. Cheesecake? *drool* Pancake? You monster.
(Admission time: I hate pancakes. Yes, I am weird, I get it, what kind of person doesn’t like pancakes? Maybe I’m the monster here. And no, I’m sorry, the “but these pancakes” that you will want me to try, because they are “different” and I will “definitely like them”, will not make me change my mind. Are they moist, slightly soggy flaps of cooked batter meant to be drenched in butter and syrup? *shudder* nope, mind is made up here.)
Of all these different cake types, though, if I had to choose, a good layer cake is probably my most preferred type of cake. I am terrible at decorating them, but as long as the result is tasty cake, I’m will to look past the lopsided-ness or borderline looks-like-it-belongs-on-a-“cake fail”-post, and just enjoy the sweet, sweet tastiness.
The first part of a great cake is, of course, the cake itself. This cake is a butter cake, scented with a bit of lemon extract to amp up the lemony-ness. We start out by creaming our butter with the sugar until light and fluffy. Then add your eggs one-by-one, allowing the first one to completed mix in before adding the next. Then add in your vanilla and lemon extract.
Next step is to either whisk or sift the flour, salt, and baking powder together. Whisking or sifting will help to break apart chunks in the powder, getting a better mix when we add the dry ingredient to our wet ingredients.
Speaking of, let’s add our dry ingredients. We do this in steps, so add about 1/3 of the dry ingredient, then 1/3 of the milk. Continue alternating until you have added everything to the bowl.
Only mix until everything is mixed in, then STOP! Mixing for too long starts activating the gluten in our flour, and can result in a “chewy” or “rubbery” cake. We do have a heck of a lot of butter in our cake, which does help hinder the gluten formation, but mixing for too long will affect your final texture. You can also use cake or pastry flour to help keep a nice crumby texture to your cake, but I find I do not bake often enough to keep multiple flours in my pantry and I rely on good ol’ all-purpose.
The cake batter is now going to go into some prepared pans. Do this however you feel is best. The way I learned from my mom is to butter the pan first, paying particular attention to the sides of the pan, then cut some parchment or waxed paper to the size of the bottom of the pan, and line the bottom with the paper. For this recipe, the batter will fit nicely into two 9″ round pans.
Add the batter to the pans, splitting it somewhat evenly between the two prepared pans. This batter is fairly thick, so you will need to spread it out in the pan and smooth out the top.
Then place in the oven for 30-35 minutes, or until the cake springs back up from pushing lightly in the middle.
Coming up next is the lemon curd and bumbleberry purée. For the lemon curd, separate 5 eggs, setting the whites aside into a metal bowl to make the butter cream later. In a saucepan, whisk the yolks together with the sugar until pale yellow, then add the lemon juice and zest, mixing in completely. Place on LOW heat and stir for about 15-20 minutes, until the sauce has thickened fairly significantly, and coats the back of a wooden spoon. The low heat is very important, otherwise you may end up with scrambled eggs instead of lemon. Patience is key. (It’s worth it!!) Stay with the curd, and stir is continuously while it is on the heat. Next, add the butter about a tablespoon at a time, allowing it to melt and mix into the curd completely before adding the next amount. As you add the butter, the curd will thicken.
The curd after cooking, before adding the butter.
While the curd is cooking, you can be getting the bumbleberry purée ready at the same time. Are bumbleberries a real berry? Ummmm… well, I would love to believe this website because they sound like a magical berry from Utah! But.. bumbleberry is basically a mix of numerous different kinds of berries. In my mix, we are using blackberries, raspberries and blueberries (about 3 cups all together). Mix them together in a saucepan and add them at medium heat until they cook down and get jammy-looking. From here, you can strain them using a regular strainer, but I find a food mill is a great way to get rid of the pips and be left with a nice, non-grainy purée.
Last, but definitely not least, is our icing. I used a Swiss meringue buttercream for this recipe, but feel free to use the buttercream of your choice. I am still learning about buttercreams, and this website provides a fantastic comparison of buttercreams, and provides links to recipes for each. Does this recipe look familiar? It should!! Big thanks to Baker Bettie for providing such amazing information for us amateur bakers!
Start by mixing your egg whites with your sugar, and placing them over a water bath (remember that metal bowl we discussed for the egg whites? Place it on a pot filled with simmering water, making sure the bowl does not touch the water, and you’ve got your water bath!) Heat until they have reached a temperature of 71ºC (160ºF), then remove from the heat. Place them in your stand mixer, and using the whisk attachment, whisk until fluffy and they form stiff peaks.
Great! Ready for the butter? I am! It needs to be fully room temperature, but not too warm. Add the butter about 1-2 tablespoons at a time, allowing the previous addition to mix completely into the icing before adding the next bit. Then, add 1 cup of your purée to the mix (save the rest for decorating the cake later) and mix in thoroughly.
And finally? Assemble your cake! We are going to cut each layer in half, and in the middle of each cut half, place your lemon curd. The buttercream goes between the two layers. If you are able to do this while maintaining a nice, even set of layering, good for you! I am jealous! But most importantly, enjoy the berrylicious, tart, sweet, creamy, crumby, deliciousness!
.2-.25kgbeef steak(7-9oz; tenderloin, striploin, ribeye or sirloin)
2Tbspschilli powder
1tspchipotle powder
1Tbspcumin
1tspgarlic powder
1/2tspdried oregano
1tspsalt
1Tbspcornstarch
1/4cupmayonnaise
2Tbsps sriracha sauce(or hot sauce, masala chilli, or similar)
Instructions
Mix the spices and cornstarch together. Toss the steak pieces in the powder mixture until fully coated.
Heat the oil in medium-high heat pan until hot, add the steak bites. Turn regularly until desired level of doneness and outsides are browned. Remove from the pan and set aside.
Mix together the hot sauce and mayonnaise. Serve the steak bites with the hot mayonnaise.
Keyword Spices, Steak
And now for the details…
I must admit, I do not think I could become a vegetarian. Meat is just too delicious. I joke around that I am a protein-aholic. And yes, I realize I can find protein sources outside of meats and fish, but when really craving a filling, umami-rich, toothy bite, what could provide this better than a bite of savoury steak? The outside crisp, salty and spicy, the inside soft and juicy. I’m salivating just typing about it, and it’s 8am on a Saturday morning…
These steak bites come together quite quickly, and are great for either entertaining, or as a quick meat option for your evening meal. The best part is that because they are already cut down into smaller bites, they seem to go a longer way. With some veggies on the side, one steak was more than enough for both me and the hubby for dinner, which is usually our largest meal of the day.
To get started, let’s cut the steak into bite-sized chunks, about 1 to 2″ big. Mix all the spices and cornstarch together. I do this in a ziplock bag, in preparation of the next step. Next, add your precut steak pieces into the bag, close it up, and shake until all the steak bites are evenly coated with the powder mixture.
Heat the oil in a large pan over medium-high heat. Wait until the oil has gotten hot enough. You can test this by adding a couple of drops of water to the pan. When the water pops, the pan is ready for you steak bites. Add them to the pan in one layer, leaving a bit of spacing between the pieces. We are doing this so that we get a nice crispy outside on the bites, otherwise, they may start to steam instead, leaving us with a soggy, moist (yeah, I said it) outside. Turn the pieces regularly, until the insides are to your desired level of doneness (here is a handy guide for the temperatures to aim for), and the outsides are looking crisp and browned.
Remove the bites from the pan and let them sit to the side for a moment or two.
In a small bowl, mix together the mayonnaise and sriracha (or hot sauce of choice) until fully mixed. Serve the steak bites with the spicy mayonnaise for dipping.
