7 posts tagged “cooking”
The Friday evening spa treatment was a great lead-in to the rest of the weekend – a weekend of gourmet experimentation with Mom and George.
We try to do this every year – we gather together and use each other as guinea pigs to try out various recipes that we’ve found over the previous year. Generally these are recipes that we wouldn’t have time to make on our own and that require a level of skill not required in everyday cooking. Then we take the opportunity to critique the food and try to improve on the recipe so we can share it with others later in the year.
Junkii and I had planned out our menu and gone shopping for supplies earlier in the week, so on Saturday all we had to do was pop out to the Byward Market to pick up the last few ingredients before we settled in for the weekend get-together.
Mom and George took responsibility for the dinner on Saturday evening. Or rather, I made them take Saturday because I was going to need more prep time for the Beef Wellington planned for Sunday evening.
Saturday Evening Dinner
Course 1 - Crab Stuffed Mushroom Caps: Tasty little morsels, these – very similar to escargot in terms of flavor profile, but what’s not to like about that? The crab was canned by the people who caught it (friends on the East coast) and shipped straight to Ottawa – so it was very flavorful. Adding them to mushrooms fried in garlic butter and the broiling the whole thing with some cheese on top? Mmmmm.
Course 2 – Oyster Stew: I’m so happy I learned to shuck oysters about 3 weeks ago at my friend’s place. She had an oyster party and I learned to shuck and eat raw oysters. As a result, I was also able to help George get the oysters ready for this creamy, buttery soup. The only problem with this dish was the salt level, and it’s worth making again (and again and again) as long as we remember to use unsalted butter. That way we'll be able to adjust the salt level as needed. But the oysters were so big and tender. Just lovely.
Course 3 – Cranberry and Cabbage Stuffed Pork Loin with Cider Cream Sauce, Served with Green Beans Amandine and Thyme Roasted Potatoes: While slightly overcooked despite my efforts with the instant-read thermometer (sorry Mom!) this was delicious. The cranberry and cabbage stuffing worked really well with the pork, and the cream kept everything nice and moist. The side of beans with toasted almonds is a great side, but the addition of cherry tomatoes was a nice touch, adding a little more complexity to this dish.
Course 4 – Duo of Crème Brulées: While we had a hard time melting the brown sugar with Mom’s butane torch, the flavor of the custards didn’t suffer at all. One was flavoured with Grand Marnier, and the other with Brandy – and it was truly a challenge to figure out which one to eat last. Plus that course was served with Madeira, which none of us had ever tasted before. It’s not quite as complex as a good port, but it’s comparable for sure.
Course 5 – Cheese Platter: A classic way to end a meal – with a selection of cheese (old cheddar, Danish blue, and aged Comté) and a glass of aged Tawny Port. What more could we want?
Sunday we managed both breakfast and lunch. Mom whipped up a breakfast quiche with sausage, mushrooms, onion, and cheese. Nothing new, but always delicious. And for lunch, we had a high-end grilled cheese sandwich along with some leftover soup. The sandwich featured double-smoked cheddar, caramelized onion, and green apple, all grilled in a walnut bread.
Sunday Evening Dinner
Pre-dinner drink - Kiwi Smash Cocktail: Junkii whipped up a round of nice healthy cocktails featuring fresh kiwi, white cranberry juice, and vodka. What a great summer drink!
Course 1 - Comté Gougères with Red Pepper Dip: Another course from Junkii. We were both able to make some serious strides with our pastry making skills – in this case, little cheese flavoured bites that had the consistency of a profiterole, or maybe a Yorkshire pudding, but that tasted of aged comté cheese. The red pepper dip was a perfect accompaniment.
Course 2 - Grilled Scallop Prosciutto and Melon skewers: Neither of us was sure what to expect with this grilled dish - intended as an amuse-bouche - but it turned out to be one of the best of the evening. The melon and scallops complemented each other perfectly, and the prosciutto - on the grill just long enough to get a little crispy – added a tang of salt.
Course 3 - Pear and White Port Soup: I had it on good authority that this was a great recipe, and my friend’s opinion didn’t steer me wrong. This one was yummy, although Junkii didn’t like it quite as well as I did.
Course 4 - Beef Wellington with Red wine sauce, served with Wild Mushroom Risotto and Sautéed Red Swiss Chard: Apparently I don’t like Swiss chard. I’ve had it once before and found it bitter. I found the same again this time. I didn’t even eat it, it was that bad. It would have ruined my meal. But the rest of this course turned out just right. Junkii prepared the risotto and, while it had to sit a little too long in the pot because my Wellington took longer than expected, it was perfect when he was ready to serve it – creamy and delicious. The wellington was a chore to make, but the flavor in the finished product was amazing. And the puff pastry - made from scratch - turned out to be as flaky as can be. The part that took the longest was the sauce which had to reduce from about 15 cups(!) of liquid down to about 1 cup. In the end it was worth it though, and had really intense flavour.
Course 5 - White Pepper Praline Cheesecake: This dessert was to die for! Who knew that white pepper would go so well with cheesecake. And the maple wine that we served with it really brought out the peppery notes. This is now one of my favorite cheesecakes; and this was only Junkii's first attempt at making a cheesecake. Bravo!
Both nights were undeniable successes. And despite being a lot of food, we really limited our portions, and we took our time between courses so that we never felt overfull. We learned a lot this weekend and we’re already looking forward to our next get together.
What have I got myself into?!
This coming weekend, Junkii and I are joining my Mom and Step Dad for a gourmet cooking weekend. We all love to cook, so, as we do every year, we're gonna try out some high-end recipes and put our kitchen skills to the test. Two days of food and drink. What could be better? Diet be damned!
So what are we making? Well, loads of things, actually, but for me the whole meal is going to centre around an attempt at Beef Wellington.
I've been wanting to try BW since I started watching Hell's Kitchen years ago. It always looks so tasty on television. Tender beef wrapped in puff pastry: What's not to like? So when Cook's Illustrated listed their Welly recipe, I snatched it up and stuck it on my to-do list. Thing is, I added it to the list before I had a chance to read through it.
Well, last night I finally read it and it's a real doozy. It takes about 3 DAYS to make!
Just for a start, you've got to let the beef dry-age in the fridge for two days. But aside form the waiting, there are about four parts to the recipe, each of which take several hours of prep time - including a puff pastry wrap and a wine sauce that needs to reduce form a whole bottle of red down to about two cups. That's a lot of reducing.
While the final product looks and sounds delicious, the whole process is gonna take hours to make. And what's worse is that it all needs to come together just in time for dinner at the right time, with all the sides, following the soup course.
Now, in fairness, the Chef Ramsay version of Beef Wellington seems much simpler; it's readily available on the intertubes. But what the heck. May as well go all out if I'm gonna try this. I'm not promising perfection, but I do trust Cook's Illustrated to steer me on the right course.
I'll let you know how it turns out.
We love Cook's Illustrated. The magazine is simple in its design - relying on drawings and B&W photos - but what an encyclopedia!
We first learned about CI through their PBS show - America's Test Kitchen. The show is a simple how-to cooking show, but rather just just tell you what to do - they actually explain why you need to take a specific approach. They explain the science behind cooking, or at least what can go wrong if you try something a different way. It's more than just a new source of recipes - it's educational.
Well, CI is like the show, only it's in book form and waaaay more thorough. The editors really do a good job of telling you exactly what can go wrong with a given recipe. And the lessons work. So far, everything we've tried from them has been fool proof - Chinese pork, Rainy-Day BBQ pork chops on the stove top, Chicken Tikka Masala. They even have tricks for perfecting steak!
(For a thick steak, heat it in a slow oven until internal temp reaches 90 Fº then throw it on the grill for a few minutes to char it and finish cooking the inside. The 15-20 minutes of slow cooking helps break down proteins making for more tender meat, and you don't overcook the outside while trying to cook the inside).
They run you through every conceivable part of each recipe - from what cut of meat to choose (and why) to which can of tomatoes tastes best. What more could we want?
So we recently subscribed to the magazine. It hasn' arrived yet, but we also ordered the annual hardcover collected editions for both 2007 and 2008 (they were on 2 for 1, yay!) and they arrived last week, chock full of info!
So much to learn. So much great food to try.
Okay, here are the recipes you asked for from our cooking weekend.
Peach and Roasted Red Pepper Bruschetta
1 red pepper
2 peaches, diced
1 cup (250 mL) diced, seeded tomatoes (roma or grape)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tbsp (15 mL) red wine vinegar
2 tbsp (25 mL) chopped fresh basil
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1 baguette, sliced on the diagonal
1. Preheat grill to medium-high or broiler. Roast red pepper, turning often, until well blackened. Place in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Leave to cool.
2. Remove skin, stem and seeds from pepper. Finely chop the pepper and place in a medium bowl. Stir in peaches, tomatoes, garlic, vinegar and basil. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Marinate for 30 minutes before serving or cover and refrigerate for up to 8 hours.
3. Before serving, bring peach mixture to room temperature. Lightly toast baguette slices on both sides. Spoon peach mixture on top of toasts.
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The salad is tomato, Bocconcini cheese,fresh basil, and Kalamata Olives. You can figure out how to put it together from the photos. What you need is the Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 cup white balsamic vinegar
1 clove crushed garlic
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 pinch salt
ground black pepper to taste
1. In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, white balsamic vinegar, garlic, and mustard powder. Season to taste with salt and black pepper. Stir in minced fresh herbs if desired.
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And for dessert... Shoofly Pie
1-1/4 cups (300 mL) whole wheat flour
1 cup (250 mL) all-purpose flour
3/4 cup (175 mL) granulated sugar
1/2 tsp (2 mL) baking soda
1 tsp (5 mL) cinnamon
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each of salt, allspice and ginger
1/8 tsp (0.5 mL) ground cloves
1/2 cup (125 mL) butter, softened
3/4 cup (175 mL) fancy molasses
1/2 cup (125 mL) boiling water
9-inch (23-cm) unbaked pie crust, homemade or purchased deep-dish
1. Preheat oven to 425ºF (220ºC).
2. Stir flours with sugar, baking soda and spices until well mixed. Cut in butter until well-combined and mixture appears crumbly. Stir molasses with water.
3. Sprinkle about one third of the flour mixture into the bottom of the pie shell. Drizzle with half of the molasses mixture. Then evenly sprinkle in another third of the crumbs and drizzle with remaining molasses mixture. Finally top with remaining crumbs; mixture will be heaped.
4. Place pie in centre of oven. Immediately reduce heat to 350ºF (180ºC).
5. Bake 35 to 40 minutes or until top is lightly browned and edges of filling are showing cracks. Cool on a rack. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or simply with a dusting of icing sugar overtop. Pie keeps well, loosely covered at room temperature, for a day or 2.
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Enjoy!
This weekend, we were supposed to get together with my Mom and Step Dad for a cooking weekend - a couple of days when we grab all the most interesting recipes we've found over the past year and try our hand preparing new and glorious meals. Dinners, Breakfasts, fancy desserts. It's a chance to flex some culinary muscle.
Well, we've decided to postpone it for now (although we'll probably still get together for at least one meal). None of us feels like being trapped in the kitchen given that it's supposed to be such a gorgeous long weekend.
Last weekend was my Step Father George's birthday though, and we did wind up having them over for a 4 course meal. The main course was blackened leg of lamb done on the barbecue and, while it was very tasty, it was a little too charred for its own good. It wound up looking pretty bad on the plate, so we refused to take photos. But the other courses all turned out spectacularly well.
The Hors D'oeuvre was a bruschetta with tomato, peach, and herbs. And a yummy little starter it was too!
The salad was a classic - bocconcini, tomato, and basil, but we had a fun idea for presentation, keeping the tomato more or less whole. And it gave a neat view when you cut into it crosswise.
Final course was a shoofly pie - a staple in dutch Pennsylvania. It's a sweet pie - made with molasses - but it's so much more than just sweet, like a sugar pie. It's got some great spices in it, and some really deep flavours. And it goes like gangbusters with vanilla ice cream.
After several years of cobbling together the replacement parts on our old BBQ, we decided this year to just go for it and get a new one. Isn't it purty? All shiny and stainless.
Works like a charm too. Last night we had chicken wings and they were oh so good.
It's gonna be a wonderful summer.
When it comes to these two cooking reality shows, honestly, there's no comparison. We watch both of them, but really, only one of the shows has any real merit.
Hell's Kitchen is pure trash. It's about backstabbing, dirty laundry, and cheap editing tactics to extend the show to a full hour. The chefs never create their own food, and they can barely cook the menu given to them. It just seems so contrived too - any time they start to get ahead, have chef Ramsay shout and swear at them to get them flustered so they'll mess up. It's a simple recipe, but thankfully, it's fun to watch. It's like junk food. We love it, but we know it's bad for us.
On the other hand, Top Chef is like a fine dining experience. There's a bit of drama, but the focus is really on the food - with 15 chefs who actually know what they're doing in a kitchen and who continue to stun us with their creativity as, week after week, they make new dishes from the most obscure ingredients. We don't get it in Canada until a few months after it airs in the US, but when we do, we like to savour it. We're only about 5 episodes into the new season - which is already on episode 10. But no rush. This is like a good wine, and it only comes around once a year.
Last week at Costco, we stumbled on the Top Chef Cookbook, which has some of the best recipes from the first three seasons, plus loads of info about a really great show and the contestants. Haven't tried anything for it yet, but you can bet we'll be using it the first chance we get to do some fancy cooking.
