It can be really tricky to recreate the things you love from restaurants. If you’re super talented, you might just wing it and make up a recipe. Then there are people like me who just keep trying new recipes, like a sucker, and getting frustrated when it doesn’t turn out right.
Indian eggplant dishes have given me the most frustration.
For some reason, I have multiple bags of barley. I’m not really sure why… I think I bought more because I thought I was running out. That makes sense. But I ended up with lots of barley, and I really only use it in one dish.
So I came up with another dish.
My mom and I disagree on how to prepare squash.
Over the years, every time I’d tell her I had made a curried squash soup, or a stuffed pumpkin, or anything involving spices, she would tell me I was crazy. Obviously (to her), the best preparation for squash is to bake until soft, and then mash with butter, salt and pepper. Simple and delicious!
We obviously have different motives, in addition to different tastes. So what happens when we need a dish that will satisfy us both?
I chose a recipe that retains the spirit of the ‘natural squash’ by not overwhelming it with spices. A simple addition of some Herbes de Provence (a favourite of Mom’s AND mine), along with the s&p, are all it needs… because, for those who need a punch, there is Danish blue cheese!
I’m obsessed with Danish blue cheese this year. I’m not sure how it took me so long… I’ve liked Gorgonzola for a long time, and enjoy the odd nip of Stilton, but never went out of my way to buy a chunk of Danish blue. I ate some at Thanksgiving and realized I’d been missing out… and have had some in my fridge at all times since.
Back to the recipe… the squash is roasted in one-inch chunks. I was excited to play with the Mezzaluna my Mom has that cuts in a ridged pattern (see pic two above for a glimpse of the tool itself). Yeah, I like to snoop through other peoples’ kitchen stuff.
The pecans give the dish a fun crunch, and they get nice and toasty in the oven. The cheese gives it a crazy kick. The squash is creamy and mild, mellowing out the whole dish and bringing all of the different flavours and textures together.
Of course, I topped the whole thing with slices of green onion, like I usually do.
I’ve tried this kind of dish before – I’ve winged it, I’ve followed some recipes. I seem to have found a combination of ingredients and steps that do what I need. As you’ll see in the recipe recap, my variation on the dish follows the variations of a number of others. No doubt the original dish was a variation. This is a fairly classic combination of ingredients, done in a way that everyone can enjoy!
Recipe after the jump!
Continue reading Roasted Butternut Squash with Pecans, and Blue Cheese
I carefully reviewed the instructions…
“…stir until fairly smooth – consistency similar to puppy poop…”
Puppy poop? Sadly, I tried to envision what that could mean, having never closely examined it before. I asked J if puppy poop was like how people refer to baby poop.
This was going to be an interesting recipe.
I grew up eating spätzle, prepared by my Oma and Opa and by my dad. I never really thought about it, I knew it was a German dish and just accepted that it was what it was. It wasn’t until I started thinking about recipes that I thought to look up spätzle, and I found that there are many regional variations on the dish. The way my family makes it seems to be the less popular version, but it always reminds me of my childhood.
Every time I’ve gotten spätzle at a restaurant, it looked very different to the version I was used to. It was more of a squiggly chubby noodle shape, instead of the near-dumpling shape I always enjoyed. This page on the German Food Guide offers some insight to the dish, some of the different ways people shape it, some different recipes, and other neat facts about how it’s made. There’s even a way to make it with beer! (I might need to try that next)
We usually had it topped with a simple butter and breadcrumb sauce, but my dad would sometimes experiment with other kinds of sauces or other ingredients in the batter. I vaguely remember having carrot spätzle at least once…
Back to the puppy poop (just when you got it out of your head)… I wanted to post a family recipe, rather than finding inspiration on other sites or in cookbooks. I emailed my dad for the recipe, knowing that he didn’t have it written down. He wrote it the way he thinks, and as I read it I could picture him mixing together the ingredients the way he’s done since I was a kid. And I laughed out loud at the comparison of the batter consistency to puppy poop.
It was perfect.
Recipe after the jump!
I may have ruined the effect by putting some structure to it, but I thought it might be easier to follow with some measurements and instructions.
I’ve never really been a big fan of sandwiches. I think it’s because I find that the bread gets in the way of the filling. My mom said that as a kid, we’d go out for burgers and she’d only have to get one for my sister and I to share – I would eat the meat, and she would eat the bun. Weird.
We don’t even have a loaf of bread on hand regularly. It just doesn’t get eaten fast enough.
On the odd weekend, however, I’m really in the mood for a grilled cheese or tuna melt. After a morning at the farmer’s market, we love to come home and throw together something special.
The bread has gotten better, too! Now that J bakes bread, we sometimes plan for our weekend sammiches and he bakes up a fresh loaf.
I like to put all sorts of crazy junk in my tuna melts. Usually, I assess what we have on hand and try to find something crunchy, something spicy. My favourite ‘something crunchy’ has to be chunks of Granny Smith apple. The tartness is amazing with the other flavours. Apple slices also make a great side, along with some crunchy dills.
Another important part to this process, for me, is the selection of the perfect mustard. I don’t remember ever making a tuna melt without mustard, and we always have a selection of interesting mustards to choose from (mostly from Kozlik’s, at St. Lawrence market). I like to use really grainy mustard in the mix, usually with names like ‘Double C’. So much fun!
The main thing to take away — the recipe below is just an example. It was what I made on a particular day, with what I had on hand and what I felt like eating. Feel free to substitute – add thinly sliced veggies, olives, different cheese, omit the mustard (what!?!)… just don’t add anything that will make it too wet and sloppy.
Grilled to perfection on a grill pan with a panini press. Would be just as yummy done in a frying pan.
Recipe after the jump!
What the heck is a cassoulet? I had heard the word before, but wasn’t too sure what it was before it became the Daring Cooks’ challenge for January.
Cassoulet is a particular kind of white bean stew that originated in France. It’s become one of those dishes that ignite debates over who made it first, and what recipe is authentic. Sorry to offend, folks, but mine isn’t especially “authentic”, being vegetarian. There is usually a lot of meat involved.
One of the things that you see in many cassoulet recipes is duck confit. One of the requirements of the challenge was to make some kind of confit, and again there were some veggie options. I had to look up what a confit was, exactly, since I’ve always heard it associated with duck. Basically, ‘confit’ is used to describe a few things, in particular a method of preserving food by cooking it in a fat. In the case of meats, they are usually cooked in their own fats. For things like garlic, it is cooked in oil.
I made garlic confit.
So what exactly does one use garlic confit for? You can use it much the same way you might use a baked garlic – the cooking process mellows out the flavours, and gives it a creamy spreadable texture. This makes it (and the oil it’s cooked and stored in) easy to use in dips, soups, sauces… just about anything. Being a big lover of garlic, I thought this would be a fun thing to try making.
That done, I had to decide how to retain the spirit of a cassoulet without the meat. I opted to make the seitan sausages from last month’s challenge, and use them in the stew. I also added some smoked paprika to add some depth to the flavour.
I’m pretty sure it didn’t taste like a real cassoulet, but it was really good!
Our January 2011 Challenge comes from Jenni of The Gingered Whisk and Lisa from Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. They have challenged the Daring Cooks to learn how to make a confit and use it within the traditional French dish of Cassoulet. They have chosen a traditional recipe from Anthony Bourdain and Michael Ruhlman.
Recipes after the jump!
Continue reading Daring Confit & Cassoulet
This is another in a series of recipes I made to try and use up some apples I had rolling off of my kitchen counter.
Why did I buy so many apples, you ask? Because I’m crazy! First, I bought a bag of MacIntosh apples, and then I heard that Cortlands were good, so I bought a bag of those… and then I bought a bag of my favourite kind, Granny Smith.
I am an applepotamus.
This adorable dish is great for weekend brunch. It sounds like a weird combination to some people – apple and cheddar really isn’t that odd of a pairing! At the same time, it is hard to decide whether this tastes more like a savoury dish or a dessert.
Although sweet from the apple, the dough is not especially sweet, so it’s perfectly fine for a main course!
This sounds weird, but the apple and cheese melted together to make a sort of gravy inside the parcel. It was a tasty mix of sweet and salty, all oozy (but in a good way)!
Recipe after the jump!
Continue reading Cheddar Apple Bundles
I find that I’m trying to make excuses to turn on the oven these days. I may as well bake something while trying to heat the apartment.
That, and baking stuff always smells good and wins me brownie points with J. Luckily, he’s happy with a bowl of warm apple crisp.
I don’t know if apple crisp even counts as baking. The only reason I can pull it off is because it’s more like cooking than baking. Measurements don’t have to be precise, you can add other ingredients and it won’t destroy everything. It’s brilliant, and satisfying. It’s also a great way to use up all of the apples starting to pile up on my counter.
This time around, I used a mix of Cortland and Granny Smith apples. Granny Smith are my very favourite kind of apple for snacking on.
I also decided to throw in a handful of dried cranberries. These were a really great addition, because they are sweet and tart and take on the spiced apple juices really well.
This recipe is the result of years of trial and error with different recipes, different techniques, different spices. I think it has a lot to do with how much liquid you add to the cooking container. Previous recipes had me adding way too much water to the bottom, leaving a mushy mess of apple. I prefer the apple to be soft, but still able to keep its shape until it reaches my mouth.
I think I also prefer making these in their own individual ramekins, rather than in one big dish. It cooks faster, and looks cute.
Recipe after the jump!
Celebrating the start of a new year can be a cathartic experience. We feel as though some things can be left behind, along with the change in digits. The world starts over, and with that – for us in Canada – there is almost a glimmer of hope that the Winter will eventually end. The combination of the Winter Solstice and the New Year seem to bring hope for a new start.
That makes it a great holiday for us to celebrate. J and I don’t have our own Christmas traditions, and have always floundered for a day to choose for ourselves. This year, we made the decision to celebrate New Year’s Day. It’s a day to relax, tidy up from the parties of the night before, live in jammies and watch movies.
To this, we’re adding a special dinner for two.
This year’s special dish is something that I’ve made in various forms over the year – pasta with rapini. Full of lemony goodness and topped with lots of Parmigiano-Reggiano, this pasta takes a bit of the bite out of the bitter rapini. With florets that are sometimes mistaken for broccoli, rapini comes in bunches of leaves and buds that can be sautéed or steamed.
It is quite a bit more bitter than broccoli or spinach, and requires a proper combination of flavours to ensure it doesn’t overpower your meal. I find that sweet, lemony, buttery flavours really help to incorporate the rapini into the meal. I often serve it as a side to steamed crab, as the sweet crab meat and melted garlic butter take the edge off.
This pasta dish is best when made with al dente, chunkier hand-shaped pastas like orecchiette or cavatelli.
Continue reading Welcoming 2011 with Rapini and Sausage Pasta
For years and years – as far back as I can remember (all the way to last week?), we went out for brunch on Christmas Day. It was something I always looked forward to as a kid, and we usually went to the same place. Things changed, the places to go were limited, our little group dwindled, and we decided it was time for a change.
Last year, we decided to make brunch at home, “just us” (meaning my parents, sister and myself… and sometimes Grandma).
The key was that we didn’t really have time to make anything really involved or fancy – but it did have to be good. We decided to make a strata, only roughly following a recipe my mom found. It was our idea to add the drunken mushrooms.
We love drunken mushrooms. We love them so much that we decided to do it again this year.
The great thing about strata is that you can basically throw in anything you like. It’s a great way to use up some ingredients from the fridge – use up some ends of cheese, day old bread, veggies. Just layer it all into a baking dish, and pour some egg and milk mixture over top – kind of like a savoury french toast casserole. You could even make a sweet version – sans drunken mushrooms, of course!
Add a mimosa, and some tea in my Kermit & Piggy Christmas mug, and our new Christmas Day tradition is perfect!
How was your holiday? Any memorable meals?
Continue reading Holiday Brunch: Drunken Mushroom, Spinach and Gruyere Strata
