French Onion Soup

Recipe from Gourmet Magazine.

I substituted dried thyme for fresh, and used Gruyeres on the toast. But I think an everyday white cheese would have been okay too. Also Gruyeres smells very strange when it melts.

Onion Confit

I want to eat this with everything right now. It is especially awesome with maple breakfast sausage.

The recipe is here - and as a bonus, it's stupid easy.

KALE!

Something strange is happening. I'm really into eating vegetables - stuff I would refuse to eat as a child. Roasted squash is now a delicious treat. And today, I had kale for dinner and it was tasty tasty - well, maybe it was the bacon - but still....

Here's what I did.

1. Fry some chopped bacon - the good thick cut extra smoky bacon.
2. Then chop some kale - I used 1/2 a bunch, about 4 cups chopped.
3. Put the kale in with the bacon.
4. Push the kale around and toss with the bacon fat until the kale starts to wilt.
5. Add some salt.
6. Add some white wine vinegar.

Soup for Dinner

I love having soup for dinner. I find it very comforting and low key. Smitten kitchen recently posted a recipe for meatball soup.

I decided that this soup would be the basis of my saturday night dinner. But then I started reading the recipe. There were no onions. I always start my soup making by softening onions in oil or butter. So I figured I would start the way I always start, and add some onions. Then usually I add some white wine and let it reduce before adding the stock. Since I had some wine kicking around in the fridge, I decided I should fit this in too.

My mom has recently been making a similar soup to this, minus the meatballs, with kale and white beans. It's very tasty - and I had a can of cannellini beans. So I decided escarole was out, and kale and white beans were in.

Happily, after all my tinkering, it turned out extremely tasty. It was hearty and warming, but the carrot and kale gave it a nice freshness. The meatballs are perhaps a little ugly, but their delicious garlickiness made up for it. Paul and I had this with some onion rye bread, and finished off the evening with some apple crumbles.

I found I had more meatballs than I really wanted to put in the soup so I have frozen the rest for later.

Kale and Meatball Soup

for the meatballs - enough for about 45 meat balls
1 lb ground chicken
2 cloves finely chopped garlic
1/4 cup breadcumbs (I made mine from a garlic pita I had in the freezer)
1/4 Parmesan cheese (I used the cheap stuff)
1 egg
2 tbsp water
salt and pepper

for the soup
8 cups chicken stock
1/2 cup white wine
1 tbsp olive oil
1 chopped onion
1 cup chopped peeled carrots
1 bay leaf
1/2 cup orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
4 cups coarsely chopped escarole (about 1/2 medium head)
14 oz can of cannelini beans

making the meatballs
1. Mix eggs and water in a medium sized bowl. Add the breadcrumbs, garlic, salt and pepper. Let sit about 5 mins.
2. Add ground chicken, mix well, without squishing or compressing things too much.
3. Form into 1 1/4 inch diameter balls. Let sit in the fridge at least 30 mins. (I made these in the morning.)

making the soup
1. Soften the onion in the olive oil over medium heat until the onion starts to get translucent, around 5-10 mins.
2. Add white wine and let reduce. Then add stock, bay leaf and carrots. Let simmer, covered, until the carrots are the softness you like to eat. For me, this takes about 15-20 mins.
3. Meanwhile, cook the orzo in a separate pot. Set aside.
4. Add the meatballs and beans and let simmer for 10 mins, stirring occasionally.
5. Add the kale, and cook for another 5-7 mins. Serve topped with more Parmesan cheese

Russian Grandmother's Apple Cake

I love other people's family recipes. No one is more blunt than your family. I still haven't lived down the corn starch ice-cream. So I figure for a recipe to have become a favourite and passed down, it must be something really special.

This is another recipe from Baking: From My Home to Yours. I've received other cookbooks, and other baking books since I've got this one. But I keep finding more things I want to make in this one.

This recipe also appealed to me because it is a non-traditional pie crust. Yes, even though it's called a cake, it's really a more of a pie. The technique for making the crust is a lot more like making a cookie. A delicious, delicious cookie.

I made this at a friend's cottage. You can see I had some awesome equipment to work with.

I also had an adorable tiny helper, complete with adorable tiny rolling pin.

I don't like to post baking recipes, because I almost never change them up. But I've done some googling, and the recipe is here. I made this a second time this weekend and I didn't use the raisins and I think I prefer it that way. I also used Northern Spies instead of Granny Smith. Both my father, who grew up on a farm, and the apple man at the St Lawrence market thought that Northern Spies would be best. As always, my Dad was right, the spies made a very nice pie.

Dinner Party Rice

I like having people over for dinner. But I am not particularly experienced at it and tend to find it ever so slightly stressful, which is why whenever I get overly worried I think to myself "What would Ina do?". Ina's entertaining advice is pretty straightforward. Make what you can ahead of time and make what you know. Her optional third rule for entertaining is use a lot of butter.

I find Zuni Chicken is a good choice because you can prepare it the day or the morning before. Then an hour, or perhaps a half hour, before your guests arrive you put it in the oven.

My dinner party rice is a riff on the Zuni bread salad. I put in all the things from the bread salad so you get a similar taste - but making rice is less work than washing lettuce.

Dinner Party Rice
(for four)

3-4 tbsp raisins
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
1 shallot, chopped fine
2 cloves garlic, also chopped fine
1 tbsp oil, sometimes I used canola, or sometimes olive
2 tbsp toasted pine nuts
salt and pepper

Rice for four servings, I make about 1 cup of dry rice

1. The night or the morning before your friends are coming over, soak the raisins with the balsamic vinegar and about a tbsp of hot water. Cover and leave sitting at room temperature.
2. Maybe about 1/2 an hour before you expect your guests, fry up the shallot and garlic in the oil and start cooking the rice.
3. When your rice is cooked and your chicken is ready, add the shallots, the raisins and pine nuts. I also add some salt and pepper and this point, and then vinegar. Now, this is the sneaky bit, start adding some of the rendered chicken fat, about a tablespoon at a time, until you find the rice tastes deliciously chickeny.

And that's it.

Free buns

I stopped in at Cobs Bread on my way home from my parents yeterday. It's relatively new the neighbourhood and it had a big sign advertising hot cross buns.

I like hot cross buns - and I was pretty cold - so I thought I would get one. Now, here's where things get weird and well, quite frankly, fantastic. I ordered one, and they gave it to me. And then they wouldn't let me pay for it. They gave me a free bun. Best Wednesday ever.

And how was it? Totally delicious.

Mango Pudding

My favourite dim sum dessert is mango pudding. Now, it's not much of a contest since it's the only dessert with out red bean or tofu. (Not that I don't like red beans and tofu, but there is a time and a place for them.)


When the New York times had a recipe for mango pudding last week I knew I wanted to try it.

This pudding isn't quite the same as the dim sum one and I found the pudding on it's own insufficiently creamy. But with some plain yogurt on top it is quite delicious.

Osso Buco

I'm back. Due to some technical difficulties, I've had a bit of an internet vacation. But not a cooking vacation.

The first thing I want to tell you about is the osso buco I made. When I go to the St Lawrence Market each week, I am also interested in what is inexpensive. A couple weeks ago the beef shanks caught my eye. My mom suggested I could use it in osso buco. Now, my understanding is that veal shank is traditional in osso buco, but it's also about three times the price. I figured using the beef would be okay, and I would just cook it a little longer.
This meat cost about 8 dollars Canadian. Paul and I each ate two meals from it.

The internet seems to have two different kinds of osso buco recipes: those with canned tomotoes, and those without. I decided to make the kind with less tomatoes. I also noticed that most recipes have celery - but due to my long standing dislike of celery, I decided I could do without it too.

Now, sometimes when I decide to make something I have never had, I am disappointed. But this was much better than I was expecting. It was very easy and very hearty tasting. Perfect for a snowy day. I think this will be a winter staple for me now.


Osso Buco
(serves two, adapted from Everyday Italian)

1 beef shank (it will weight around one pound)
2 cloves garlic, slightly crushed with the side of the knife
1 sprig rosemarry
3-4 sprigs of thyme
1 bay leaf
3/4 cup chopped carrots (I like to cut these pretty small)
1 small chopped onion
1 tbsp tomato paste
1 tsp olive oil
1 cup white wine
1-2 cups chicken stock
salt and pepper

1. Season the beef with salt and pepper. Brown both sides in a hot dutch over with the oil, about 3-4 mins per side. Set aside on a plate.
2. Add carrots and onions to the dutch oven and cook until softened. Add tomato paste and cook an additional minent.
3. Add white wine, bring to a boil for 1-2 mins. (I like to do this to cook off some of the alcohol.)
4. Return beef to pot, add herbs and garlic(you could put them in some cheese cloth, but I don't bother). Add enough chicken stock to come up about 3/4 of the way up the beef.
5. Simer covered for about 3 hours.

This also reheats really well. I would store the beef and sauce separately, so that you can remove any fat from the sauce.

Goodbye 2007

Well, 2007 was a big year for me. I graduated, got a job and got a new camera. I also did a lot of cooking and baking in my small kitchen. Here are a few things that really stood out.

Paul gave me Dorrie Greenspan's "Baking: From My Home to Yours." This has been my most used cookbook this year.

My Summer of Ice-Cream, inspired by my ice-cream mentor Yannick.

I rediscovered rice, after I friend came by to teach me how to cook it. (While I technically learned to cook rice in the last days of last year, my rice cooking really took of in 2007).

And just this week I discoved both David Lebovitz's delicious brownies from "The Perfect Scoop" and the fun of the reverse lens macro.
All the best for 2008.

Mascarpone Ice-Cream

This ice-cream arose from a happy accident: I had some mascarpone that needed to be used up and I also was planning to bake a cake for Paul's birthday. The cake I baked was Grandmother's Very Creamy Chocolate Cake. (It was very good, very dense, very rich and most importantly, very easy.) However, the recipe suggested that it needed a creamy accompaniment....and I had this mascarpone to use up. I think you can see the obvious solution.


There is a mascarpone ice-cream recipe in The Perfect Scoop. But it's a custard based recipe, which can be a lot of work. Fresh from the success of last week's cinnamon molasses ice-cream I was ready to try the no custard technique again (i.e. the lazy way).

What really makes this recipe is the excellent vanilla paste that my brother gave me for my birthday. The flavour of this ice-cream is very similar to the filling in tiramisu, and I think it is one of my new favourites.

Mascarpone Ice-Cream

1 cup milk
3/4 cup sugar
1 cup mascarpone cheese
1 cup whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla

1. Dissolve sugar in milk.
2. Whisk in mascarpone, whipping cream and vanilla.
3. Freeze in your ice-cream maker according to directions.

Fishies for Paul

This year Paul's birthday falls on a Saturday. We went out with all his friends on his actual birthday, so I made him a birthday dinner the night before.


I wanted to keep things simple, because I wouldn't have a lot of time when I came home to cook. So I decided on a menu of rice, green beans and poached fish. I modified a poached fish recipe I tried earlier in the year to make this one. This was fast and kind of fancy tasting - sadly, it may have been a little lacking in the presentation category.

Poached Haddock

4 pieces haddock
1 stalk lemongrass, chopped into one 1 inch pieces, and squashed a bit
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 glass white wine
unsalted butter about a tablespoon

1. Add 1/2 tsp butter to a frying pan with a lid and soften the onions. Add the white wine and lemongrass and bring to a boil. (I reduced the liquid and this point quite a lot and added some water back in, but you could skip this.)
2. Add the fish and cover the pan with the lid. The fish probably won't be fully covered, I flipped mine over after about 3 mins.
3. Cook about 3 mins longer, until opaque all the way through.
4. Remove the fish from the pan to your serving dish and cover them with tin foil. Meanwhile, increase the heat under the pan and reduce the wine mixture by about 1/2. Add about a 1 tsp of butter, and heat until it starts bubbling again.
5. Remove bits of lemongrass from the sauce and serve.

Cinnamon Molesses Ice-Cream

Paul loves cinnamon ice-cream. So when our friend Yannick made some last weekend when I was over cooking with him and I saw how simple his recipe was I decided to try it myself.

The original recipe that Yannick made called for brown sugar - but my brown sugar was a little hard and sometimes I find it is a little tricky to get all the lumps out.

I took this recipe over to my parents house and we had it with pumpkin and apple pies. It worked well with both kinds of pie and is also nice on its own.

Cinnamon Molasses Ice-Cream
1 cup milk
3/4 cup white sugar
2 tbsp molasses
2 cups whipping cream
1.5 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla

1. Dissolve sugar and molasses in the milk.
2. Add cinnamon, vanilla and whipping cream and whisk - but don't whisk too much or you will incorporate a lot of air.
3. Freeze in your ice-cream maker.

St. Lawerence Market

The best part about going to the St. Lawerence Market is coming home and eating a huge sticky bun, and reading the newspaper.

A soup for Halloween

I planned on making this soup yesterday. I got started: I cooked the squash and fried the onions. But I got a headache and I lost my cooking mojo.

However, it worked out really well. Since everything was ready in the fridge I just mixed them in the soup pot together and let them simmer for 30 mins. Easy-peasy. And the colour is perfect for Halloween.

Creamy Butternut Squash Soup
(modified from this recipe)

1 butternut squash
2 cups chicken stock
1 onion, coarsely chopped
3 tbsp butter
1/2 cup heavy cream (you can replace with milk if you are being more healthy)
1/2 cup milk
vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 350F. Cut the squash in half and scoop out the seeds. Oil a baking sheet and put the squash cut side down. Cook for 30-40 mins until tender and let cool. (This can be done the night before.)
2. Melt butter in a large pot and add onions. Cook to translucent.
3. Add stock to onions. Scoop squash out of the skin and add to onions and stock. Simmer for 30-40 mins.
4. Puree and add salt and pepper to taste.
5. Add milk and cream, return to pot and bring to a simmer.

Hedgehog Potatoes

This is from "Super Natural Cooking", but you can read the recipe here.

These were really fun.

Seafood Stew

Environment Canada said it was going to be cool today - and it was. I wanted to make something for dinner that would be toasty, but not full on fall food. I'm not ready to start eating squash yet.

Then I remembered I froze the leftover broth from the mussels I made earlier in the summer. So I decided to use in a fish stew.

I wanted to incorporate the idea from the minimalist using the shrimp shells to make a stock, not just for the flavour, but because Paul always complains when I leave the shells on. And I had just seen Ina make a fish stew on tv, and I wanted to use some of her ideas. But it turns out the shrimp shell stock was in her recipe too.

Ina used fennel in her recipe, but I am a liquorice hater, so I decided to leave that out. Since it's the end of summer, so I knew the market would be full of fresh tomatoes, so I decided to use fresh tomatoes instead of canned, and add a little tomato paste. Paul's mother found a really cute Polish tomato paste that came in a jar. I wish all tomato paste was packaged like this.

I served this with a nifty little baguette I got called a ficelle. It had a nice sour taste. I really liked this recipe. It seemed kind of fancy, but came together very fast. However, I had a bit of sticker shock on the price of fresh seafood. Next time, I might be temped to try using frozen. In any event, this was probably the most expensive meal I cooked all year, but it was worth it.

Fast Seafood Stew
(serves two)
1/2 lb shrimp, the kind with shells
1/2 lb Halibut, in 1 inch chunks
1 bay leaf
2 tbsp olive oil
2 tomatoes, chopped
1 onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic
2 tsp tomato paste

1. Peel shrimp and place shells in a large pot. Cover with water and add bay leaf, bring to a simmer. (Simmer until all the other vegetables have been cut up.) Strain stock from shells and reserve.
2. Fry onion in olive oil over medium heat. When they appear soften, maybe 5 mins, add garlic and cook on medium heat for another 2-3 mins. Add 1 cup stock, tomato paste and a big pinch of salt. Bring to a simmer.
3. Add tomato, shrimp and halibut. Cook covered for about 7 mins, or until the shrimp are almost opaque. Removed from heat and let sit for 5 mins.

Some new things

A few new additions to my kitchen
I can't wait to try these things out.

And a cookie that Paul baked. Totally delicious.

Family Golf

Every year my mother's family has a family golf tournament. It's just one of those wacky things my family does. While I am not that into golfing, the tournament does have two components I really enjoy: prizes and potluck.
And you can win a prize even if you don't golf. It's awesome. This year I got a "Coors Light Cold Case", and while it claims that it can hold 18 so called "silver bullets", I was more interested in the fact that it also big enough to hold a 9x13 pan.


My Uncle made this peach pie and it was totally awesome. I am hoping he will pass on the recipe.

This year the corn salad has been my go to potluck recipe, so I wanted to repost it in pot luck size. I've also changed it up a little, switching red onion for green onion (I like chopping red onion more), and adding pine nuts.

Super Jumbo Corn Salad
(for taking to potlucks)
1 kg bag peaches and cream frozen corn
2 red peppers
1 green pepper
1/2 red onion
handful of basil or parsley
1/4 toasted pine nuts

24 hours before:
Take corn out of freezer and put it in fridge.

The afternoon or night before:
1. Chop red onion, and peppers. I usually try and make corn kernel sized pieces.
2. Make the salad dressing.

Before you serve:
Chop basil. Drain corn. Combine everything and toss with dressing.

Corn Starch Ice-Cream

I hope you don't think I forgot about the summer of ice-cream. A few weeks ago the Times published an article about making corn starch ice-cream. As soon as it was post my ice-cream correspondent, Mr. Yummy-Baguette himself, Yannick, and I began a feverish correspondence on the subject.

Unfortunately, Yannick, is currently on the other side of the world, and thus, far from his ice-cream maker. So the burden of trying out this recipe has fallen to me.

I made this batch for my parents. You may recall that my parents are the owners of the ice-cream maker currently in my possession. I feel it is in my best interest to periodically provide them with home made ice-cream in the hopes that they let me keep the ice-cream maker. Sadly, my father tactfully said that he had enjoyed other ice-creams I had made more. I think it might be in my best interest to make up another batch for them pronto.

We ate this ice-cream with peaches, and the flavour was good. But texture of the ice-cream on it's on was off: a bit chewy and gritty.

Buttermilk Ice-Cream
adapted from the Minimalist, Mark Bittman

2 cups buttermilk
1.5 cups whipping cream
4 tbsp corn starch
3/4 cup sugar
pinch of salt
1 tsp vanilla

1. Heat buttermilk, 1 cup cream, sugar and salt until steaming, stirring occasionally.
2. Meanwhile, mix remaining 1/2 cup cream and corn starch until smooth and lump free.
3. Bring to a slight boil, and cook about another 5 mins until thick. (You don't have to be too precise here, because, well, it's going to be frozen.)
4. Freeze according to your ice-cream maker's directions.