Thursday 26 July 2012

Dessert Pierogies: Schwarzwälder KirschPieroggen -- Black Forest Pierogies

Black Forest Pierogies

Friends, I have been continuing in my efforts to make mozzarella using culture, but I have come to the conclusion that the culture I am trying to use must be dead.  The ph of my whey just will not change.  Nevertheless, my most recent failure left me with a ton of fresh ricotta and that, just the day before we were to have a dozen family members over for dinner.  What does one do with half a kilo of fresh ricotta?  Why, make cannoli, obviously.  Except, I didn't have cannoli rollers.  So I did the next best thing, I made pierogies stuffed with a cannoli-style filling and I fried them crispy.

But while I was making the pierogies, didn't a murder of crows settle down over my parent's cherry orchard and start to lunch on the fruit?  Fresh cherries, I thinks, they will go mighty fine with my pierogies.  So cannoli-filling in pierogies I marry with cherry compote, whipping cream, and dark chocolate in an unholy alliance that brings together all the best of cannoli, all the best of Poland, and black forest cake: Schwarzwälder KirschPieroggen.  


Pierogi/Cannoli Filling

Zest of 2 lemons
400g of ricotta (homemade, but the equivalent of 2 containers of strained ricotta)
1/2 cup coarsely chopped dark chocolate
2 tbsps maple sugar (granulated)

Mix together, set aside.

Pierogi Dough


4 cups flour, plus extra for rolling dough
1 tsp salt
2 eggs
2 tbsp melted lard or oil (obviously I used lard)
1 cup hot water

Put your water on the boil.  Mix together the flour and salt.  Whip the egg together with the fat until emulsified.  Add the egg to the flour mixture and work in well.  Add water slowly, incorporating it slowly until you've a fine non-sticky ball of pastry.  Let sit 30 mins to relax.  

Roll, cut circles, stuff, fold into half-moons.  Don't forget to pinch and crimp the edges.  Just pressing them together is a good way to lose your filling.

Set them aside on parchment paper until you're ready to fry or boil them.
  

Cherries about to be lit on FIRE

Cherry Compote

2 cups fresh picked maraschino cherries
2 tbsp drambuie
6 tbsp kirsch
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp wild strawberry jam
2 tsp cornstarch

Flambe the cherries over a high-heat, add the sugar once the flames have subsided.  Mix in that wild strawberry jam, add cornstarch, whisk rapidly over a high heat for 5 mins and reduce to simmer for 5 more minutes.  

Finish with whipping and coarse chopped dark chocolate

Sunday 15 July 2012

Pizzas with Fresh Mozzarella

Prosciutto Arugula Pizza going in

Asparagus Prosciutto coming out

Grilled Portuguese Sardines


Sardines: The hot dogs of the ocean. Thanks ocean.

Sardines, what could be simpler and more delicious?  Salt them with a coarse salt (6 to a small handful).  Let them sit for to cure for a few hours, shake off some of the salt and grill them over a bbq.  Easy, right?  Don't put olive on them when they're over the coals, not unless you like the taste of burnt oil.  When they're well crisped over the coals, toss the olive oil on them, squeeze some lemon over them.  Coarse sea salt.  I love it.   Infinitely better than Portuguese Chicken.  Being from the coast?  Lord, it's the life.  Just brilliant, simple food.

The Whey of Cheese: Fresh Mozzarella (take 1)



Making Mozzarella


It has been 1 year since I've had a cheese press, necessary bacteria, plastic and cloth cheese clothing-- all of the trappings of a cheese-maker in training.  Honestly?  I've done very poorly at it.  Every. Single. Batch. Has. Failed.  It's been pretty depressing, so I haven't written about it.  Ashamed?  Maybe a bit.  Frustrated?  You betcha.  

Honestly though, it's not always easy to balance the acidity and temperature and figure out how to cure it all.  I'm not even trying to make a complicated cheese, but the easiest: mozzarella.  I blamed the stove, I blamed my mood, I blamed everything I possibly could.  Fact is, this cheese making, well it's a bit of a science and I'm used to fiddling and adjusting, which is not the proper approach when a few degrees centigrade can ruin your whole batch.  To-date the most frustrating part has been that I haven't really understood why the cheese failed.  So I will blog it, in an attempt to adopt a more scientific approach.  

Today I decided that I would cheap out a bit.  I'd make it easy.  I did the easy mozza recipe: milk, rennet, citric acid.  Normally-speaking, using citric acid is an anathema: the acid comes from the lactic acid produced by the bacteria, it's deep in the whey.  I opted out because I thought previous problems I had were culture-related acidity issues.  Today I knew the acidity would be correct and I could practice stretching the cheese.  What did I learn?  I learned that some of the other cheeses I made, they probably would have made the cut, but I didn't know what I was looking for.

The problems today resulted from never having used citric acid before and I think I added it too late.  I dropped the acid in around 90F and the milk went to curdle immediately before rennet was in.  So, it curdled, but the rennet couldn't coagulate half the batch.  Now, it could be that this was too little rennet, liquid was too warm, too little curing time, but the standing hypothesis shall be timing.


Here's what I did today:


12 liters of milk (3 gallons)
3/4 tsp rennet (not quite to top)
1.5 tbsps citric acid


I heated the milk to 90F (30C) and added the rennet and the acid.  It curdled, immediately.  After 30 minutes of the solution curing, I checked the temp and it had risen to 100F, which is far too hot for cheese at this early stage of the curing.  

Today, I did not achieve a clean break on the curd, not even close.  And, that clean break is an essential step in curd development..  I was ready to toss the whole batch, had my hands on the handles, but when I reached down a bit further in the pot, I discovered that some of the curd had developed deeper down in the cheese (which is partially why I think it might be attributable to quantities.  I heated the curd, however, in the microwave (god forbid, right?  But, I had to try something).  I heated in in 30 second intervals, allowing the curd to divest itself of excess whey that was part of the coagulation problem.  After multiple heatings and kneadings, the curd began to stretch and I was able to knead it until it formed shiny elastic balls of mozzarella.  Stretchiness was a problem in previous batched, and is attributable to a lack or overabundance of acidity (issues I could not have identified earlier without the PH meter) or, I suspect, that I was not aware of how much kneading might be necessary.

Stretching the cheese, however, was an entirely new adventure (one that I thought previously would be the most difficult part of the process).  Once the cheese was hot enough it became malleable.  Today I learned that losing some of the whey makes it easier to stretch the cheese.  So, lesson #2: wear rubber gloves.  $#!t is hot.  Press the ball up through an open fist, letting it balloon out the top and pinch it closed on the back end.  If you pinched off a tiny piece, just bust it up and put it into the next ball.  Float them in a brine immediately after shaping.  If you place them on the counter, they will flatten out.

Today, it stretched enough from the microwave with the cheap-arse citric acid method.  Hot-water and bacterial culture methods to come later this summer.  

Caprese: Tomatoes and Basil from the Garden, hand-made Mozzarella, Olive Oil


Sunday 8 July 2012

Sour Fish Curry

The greatest endorsement for this dish comes from my daughter, who had already consumed a full dinner and clamored for a second dinner of curry and rice.  Not bad, old boy, I says to myself.  You know it's good when a stuffed 1 year old is screaming for your curry like it was ice cream.  Right?  



Serves 4-6


1 large onion, thinly sliced
2 tsps chopped ginger
4 cloves garlic, chopped
1 golf-ball-sized chunk of tamarind (2 tbsps-ish)
1/2 cup tomato sauce (preferably a good homemade sauce)
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp turmeric
2-4 red birds-eye chilies, sliced (to taste)
1 can coconut 
2 tbsps chopped coriander (leaves and stems)
2 tbsps Vietnamese basil
1 sprig tarragon

2 fillets of turbot

butter (preferably ghee)

Garnish with lime, roasted cashews, julienned fresh ginger, Vietnamese basil

Dry roast your cumin and coriander separately in a pan on the stove and grind them in a mortar and pestle. 

Sweat the onion on a low medium heat in butter, in a covered pan, until it softens.  Toss in the spices, the garlic, the chilies, and the ginger, crank the heat up to high, and keep the mess in motion with a spoon; non-stop stirring it until the onion carmelize.

Pulverize the tamarind with a hand blender into the coconut milk and add it to the carmelized onions as well as the tomato sauce.  When the sauce is aboil, reduce to a medium and let simmer.  The sauce will be finished when it is a uniformly thick consistency, it should all hold together. 

Separately fry the fish in a high heat, also in butter, brown it off on either side -- don't worry about it breaking up, I usually cube it with the spatula.  Slip it to the sauce when the sauce it along with the herbs (saving some for the garnish).  

Garnish. Serve with rice.

Part of me wants to add fish sauce (and maybe even sesame oil) to this dish and make it more of an Indonesian massaman curry.

Monday 2 July 2012

Spanish-Inspired Clam Rice; Arroz con Almejas

Soccer Soccer Soccer

Every time I watch a soccer game, I'm taken back to the weeks Mer and I spent in Madrid during the last world cup tournament.  We watched every single game with friendly strangers from all over Europe.  Oh, and we ate.  Boy, did we eat (I gained 15lbs).

So?  Euro Cup this weekend right?  Spain won again.  And, as I did in Spain, I watched this weekend's game on a terrace drinking beer and eating olives.

So when grocery time rolled around today, I was overwhelmed with nostalgia and my pregnant wife was craving seafood, which gave me an idea; a vision.  This was the vision:


It was our first day in Madrid and we went to Mercado San Miguel in search of breakfast.  What we found was this lovely clam rice dish that was the Spanish version of risotto.  We also found the motherload of cured hams, shrimp, oysters, and every manner of delicious creature, but that's a story for another day.

My version of this dish is hardly Spanish, because I can't imagine clams without dashi and miso.  Still, the flavour was similar to the dish we had in Spain, it's just that the dashi is swapped in instead of fumet and sake  is there instead of white wine; it's just a bit more subtle; a bit sweeter; earthier; truer to the clam.



Spanish-Inspired Clam Rice


Serves 2 (the recipe scales well)


1/2 White Onion (the sweeter the better); about 1 cup, chopped small
6 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup canaroli rice (arborio or even sushi rice will substitute)
1/4 cup cooking sake
1.5 tsps shiro miso
1.5 cups dashi
Butter

Clam Broth
1/2 cup dashi
12 clams

Finish with
3 tbsps cream
2 tbsps fresh chopped herbs (I went parsley, thyme, oregano; heavier on the parsley)
Dabs of Butter

First, add the clams and the dashi to a pot and heat until the clams open, set aside.

Sweat the onions and the garlic until soft.  Mix in the rice, sake, and miso, stirring until the miso is fully incorporated.  Add the dashi, clams and broth, cover and cook until the rice is a bit chewy.  

Finish with cream and herbs

Mercado San Miguel


Saturday 30 June 2012

Fig Salad



A simple delicious fig salad that is assembled in minutes:

Young Spinach, Figs, Prosciutto, torn Basil leaves (Thai, preferably), Fresh Mozzarella, and Clover (preferably in bloom), fresh ground black pepper

The dressing: fresh oregano, mint, thyme, and parsley in olive oil, with maple syrup, soured with verjus (you could use a white balsamic or even white wine vinegar) and seasoned with chunky sea salt.  I prefer verjus because it is fresh and simple, it's not harsh, and it smacks of summer with all its fruitiness

Thursday 21 June 2012

Greek Frappes

The Greek Frappe is the King of iced coffees. 



My favourite of Athenian street foods; well, at least the least fattening, which is probably not a good criteria for favourite.  You'll find this delightful treat on every corner, in every cafe in Athens.  And, and it's surprisingly simple.

Summer frappe-making is a tradition around my household and every year it's a surprise for the wife to see me carting around a can of Nescafe and not a bag of delicious fair trade coffee from Toi Moi & Cafe.

Frappes


2 tsps Nescafe
2 tsps Sugar (or to taste)
3-4 tbsps Water

Froth with a hand blender, whisk, or shaker until thick.  I prefer the blender, but I'm lazy.  Add crushed ice.  Add fresh cold water or evaporated milk poured down through the middle, which will settle at the bottom and grow in deliciousness as the foam melts into it.

Summer Food Pr0n - Korean




Dear Korean BBQ'd Turkey,

I couldn't wait to take a picture of you, I had to eat you and your tomato and cucumber sidekicks.  

Love,

Chef Jeff

P.S. You're still photogenic, don't worry.

Summer Food Pr0n - Italian

Deer Paparadelle and Arugula Salad

BBQ Pizza



Monday 18 June 2012

Eggless Strawberry Ice Cream


This version of strawberry ice cream is superbly delicious.  It may not be as creamy as the strawberry gelato that I've written about previously but it has 2 strong advantages over that recipe.  For one, it is mama-safe and it is so in 2 ways: first, my mother is allergic to eggs, secondly my wife is pregnant and has to avoid raw eggs.  Thirdly, it is baby-safe and my delightful daughter of but one year, already has an incredible penchant for ice cream.  

Ingredients

3 cups Quebec strawberries

1 cup 10% cream
1 cup sugar
2 tbsps fresh squeezed lemon juice
1.5 cups whipping cream

You have 2 choices: chunky strawberries or delicious cream.


Chunky 

If you like chunks of strawberry in your ice cream, crush the strawberries with the edge of a knife and combine the lemon juice sugar and the strawberries 4 hours beforehand, letting them macerate.  Drain the liquid off into the cream when you're ready to start, mix well, whisking it in vigourously to get some air  incorporated into the cream.  Make the ice cream as you would, according to the instructions for your ice cream maker.  Add the strawberries when the ice cream is close to complete, to keep them from getting overly squished.

Smooth

I prefer my ice cream smooth.  I add the cream, lemon juice, sugar, and strawberries to the blender and puree the whole lot of it.  A bit messier, but saves you having to wait for maceration.  If you're a real stickler for smooth, you can cheese cloth out the seeds, but I like a little bit of texture. Make the ice cream as you would, according to the instructions for your ice cream maker.  

Wednesday 13 June 2012

Lobster Season

A Lobster Guedille

When I was a child, the fishermen would come down in caravan passing by our  house early in the a.m., rumbling down the gravel road that ran adjacent to our property on their way down to the beach at the bottom of our hill.  The phone would start ringing, sometimes as early as 4:30 a.m. as the fisherfolk called to consult with my father before heading out to lay and check their traps.
At least once a week my father came home with a couple of lobsters each.  Every time there was a big storm, the neighborhood kids would walk along the beach, trawling for washed up traps, and we'd roast the big green suckers up by tossing them into bonfires right there on the side of the ocean, smashing their charred and steaming carcasses open with rocks and clawing out the flesh and jamming in our mouths, searing hot, sand and all.

We ate so much lobster at that time of year.  So much lobster every week in the summer, that by the time I came to Montreal, I could barely stand the look of it.  Lobster, you know, poor man's food; lobster, that made great fertilizer for the garden 100 years ago.

Lobster, we'd boil it, crack it, soak and slop it around in searing and heavily garlicked butter and slurp it down, day after day after day.  The leftovers were done up in lunches for the rest of the week, soused with mayonnaise, and squished into guedilles and sandwiches.

So, naturally, every lobster season, my inner Gaspesian awakens.  It's time to feast on the blessed bounty of blue bugs from the bay.  Now the best time to pick these suckers up are mid-way through the season.  The flesh is sweet after they've had a chance to fatten up from the lean winter months, but their shells are still thin from their molting.  The earlier one's are a bit leaner and less tasty; the later ones are less bang for your buck, with thicker shells.  Mid-season lobster, that's what I'm after, and it's right now.

This season I grabbed a big one, a 5.5 lb monster.  I dunno why, but the big ones, they're always glaring at me with a challenge in their eyes and I can't resist them.  They don't taste better, so much as the oodles of flesh they yield is so convenient.

Butchering the Lobster

So, that 5.5 lb monster, I butchered it while it was alive, I sliced it in half.  When you’re embarking on a project like this, whatever you do, don't boil it first, you'll ruin it.  All that awesome flavour will render into the boiling liquid and you'll just toss it.  Where's the point in that?  Save the shell of the torso for simmering in that dashi stock for the risotto.  I've got that one listed below.
In the meantime, halve the lobster.  Dismember it.  Save the torso for that stock and the innards for the tapenade.


Lobster Ceviche, blue corn chips, apple confit, brussel sprouts and cashews, green olive tapenade, red pepper salsa, radish slaw


Lobster tail
1 Tbsp Miso Glaze
Slap the miso glaze onto the lobster tails.  You won’t need it all, so save the rest for other dishes, like future eggplant dishes.  Grill the lobster tail on the BBQ and serve it with the following side dishes, alongside the ceviche.

Miso Glaze Recipe
1 tablespoons mirin
1 tablespoons sake
2 tablespoons red miso
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
All of the ingredients in a sauce pan on a med-high heat for 5 minutes, until consistent.  You’re done.

Green olive tapenade
In this recipe, the bright green lobster goop, the tomalley, that is essentially the lobster liver, replaces the anchovies in a regular tapenade. 
Now, be careful, lobster tomalley can contain high levels of shellfish toxins, however, previous FDA warnings for Maine lobster have mostly been the result of red tides.
20 small green olives (1/4 cup chopped, lightly packed)
1/2 tbsp chopped capers
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
1/2 tsp lemon zest
1/4 lemon squeezed
1/2 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsps tomalley or to taste pan fry green shit in butter and olive oil.
This bit is easy.  Chop everything up finely and mix it together with that deliciously fried up green stuff.
Red Pepper Salsa
2 roasted red peppers
3 cloves roasted/bbqd garlic
1/2 tsp roasted whole cumin
1/2 tsp pomegranate molasses
1/2 tsp paprika (really a dried ground red pepper, making the sauce more red, more rich and earthy, which complements the lobster nicely)
salt to taste
Roast your red peppers on a grill or in the oven.  Roast your garlic: slice the top off the bulb, smear some butter on top and along with the red peppers at around 400F roast until it is soft and brown.  For cumin roasting, cook’er up in a pan on a medium heat until the colour goes a bit brown and the smoke wafts very lightly off, then grind it in a mortar and pestle.  Toss this all in with the peppers in a blender with the paprika and a sprinkle of salt and you have a lovely middle-eastern salsa for the lobster.
Brussel Sprouts and Cashews
1 tbsp butter
1/2 cup cashews
8 brussel sprouts
2 slices of well-smoked bacon, thick
4 sprigs thyme
Finely chop that bacon and render the fat out on a low heat, fire it up to a high heat when you add the brussel sprouts and let them brown nicely as the bacon crisps up.  The cashews  can’t brown, so put them in part way between crisping and browning of the sprouts.  The thyme, whole sprigs, throw them in with the cashews, you don’t want them burning.
Radish Slaw


8 radish
3 green onion
1 tbsp mayonnaise
6 slices of cucumber pickle
10 capers

Shred the radishes, finely chop the green onion, the cukes, and the capers.  Add in the mayo and you’re good.

Soy-Butter Glazed Eggplant
4 small eggplant
1 tbsp butter
2 tbsps soya sauce
1-2 green onions
Olive Oil
Slice your eggplants in half and brush them with olive oil. Reduce the butter and soya sauce for 5 minutes on a high heat and pour over the eggplant.  Finish the eggplant on the grill with the soya mixture and garnish with the green onion.

Lobster Ceviche
1/3 cup lime juice
1/2 lemon
1/4 tsp lemon zest
1 clove garlic, chopped
Leaves of 1 sprig thyme
1 green onion
1/4 cup of chopped chervil (about 4 sprigs)
1 tsp black salt
1 large claw
Toss all of these together and let them sit overnight.
Garnish with:
Baby spinach
handful grape tomatoes
2-4 roasted jalapeno
1 bulb Roasted garli
Handful of black beans
Handful of hominy
Half a bell pepper, julienned


Lobster Stock
The shells from the claws, all the little legs, the lungs,  and the remaining claw, simmer, do not boil, them in 4 cups of dashi for 30 mins.  Use the arms from the claws for the ceviche above.    
Dashi Recipe
1 large (6") piece of kombu
2 cups katsuobonito shavings
4 cups water
Making dashi is easy.  Let the kombu soak in the water for at least 1 hour.  Raise the temperature of the water until bubble begin to form and remove from the heat.  Add the bonito shavings and let sit for 30 mins.  The leftover stock, if any, can be used for miso soup, with some cubed tofu and green onion.

Risotto
1 pinch of saffron dissolved in a bit of the hot stock
3 shallots finely chopped
4 cloves garlic
1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
1 bay leaf (fresh)
1 cup of rice until the water runs clear through it
1 cup vermouth
1/2 lb lobster claw meat
1/4 cup parmesan
1/2 tsp white pepper
1 tbsp chervil, finely chopped
1 sprig of tarragon, finely chopped
Begin by softening the saffron into a few tablespoons of dashi and, I use a blender, but you can mash it in to the stock until dissolved
Add the olive oil to a pan and on a medium-low heat soften the onion, cook until very lightly browned and then add the garlic cook until softened.  Add the rice, arborio preferably.  Cook for a minute or two and add the bay leaf. 
Slowly add the liquid, letting it absorb until the rice is cooked.  Because this risotto is one of the liquidy risottos, timing is very very key.  You want the flavours to meld, but you do not want the rice to become soft.  Start with the vermouth, so that the alcohol evaporates, then the stock. 
Finish the risotto with the parmesan, white pepper, lobster claw meat, and the herbs.  Add the herbs and cheese first.
Sundaes, Yay!




 

Saturday 24 March 2012

Puttanesca with Fresh Anchovies



Literally, whore's pasta, it's easy and delightful, but you can't catch anything from it

Spaghetti Puttanesca with Fresh Anchovies

650g anchovies (~2 dozen)
4 tbsps olive oil
4 cloves garlic
2 red chilies
32 Gaeta Olives (Kalamata will do)
4 garlic chives
2 tbsp capers
1.5 cups halved grape tomatoes
6-10 sprigs parsley 
1.5 tsps black pepper

Garnish with fresh grape tomatoes and a grated pecorino cheese

Once you've cleaned your anchovies (see below), heat the oil to a high heat, being careful not to let that oil smoke.  Toss in the fish, garlic, and chilies.  Cook, tossing gently, until the garlic begins to brown.  Add in the capers, olives, and garlic chives and continue gently tossing for a few minutes on a high heat.  Add the tomatoes and cook until the liquid has evaporated.  Finish with the parsley and black pepper.  

When you're getting ready to serve the pasta, reheat the sauce, and mix in your al dente pasta with the sauce adding half of your pecorino and tossing on a medium heat until your sauce is fully incorporated into the pasta.


Cleaning the Anchovies

Cut off their heads, slit open the belly and remove the guts.  Next, rip out the spine (preferably after making a clean incision along the spine the whole way down to the tail).  Rinse.  The small bones around the fins won't cause you any problems, but I did remove them from the one's I prepared for my 3-toothed daughter.


Served with: Blanc de Pomme (Casa Breton), a crisp dry cider that resembles a white wine

Japanese Cooking Techniques: Intro

Dear Readers,

To-date I have been posting what are, to me, stock recipes.  Basic every day recipes that I make to feed my family.  I feel as though this blog has not yet lived up to the spirit of my cooking, which is to explore a multitude of foreign food preparation techniques and couple them with local ingredients.  In short, I have been posting random recipes, instead of engaging in a greater discussion about local Quebec foods and cuisine.

I expect that as this new focus for the blog continues, I will continue to post, from time to time, the same lovely food pr0n and everyday kitchen recipes that I have been posting.  This exercise is meant to provide you with a focused investigation into a particular cuisine and help us understand how our local foods can be elevated through their use.

To that purpose, I will begin with a study of the use of Japanese techniques and how to couple them with local foods.  As part of this study, which I expect to continue over the course of several months, I hope to explore the subject of Japanese food in Quebec cuisine through articles on the following subjects:
  • Traditional and Modern Japanese Techniques and Cuisine
  • Reviews of the local Japanese food scene in Montreal
  • Using Quebec Ingredients to create Japanese-inspired dishes with local ingredients
    • We're going hard on this one, from local seafood and seaweeds to local rice, homemade vinegar, booze, and hard to find ingredients from regions that don't speak French, just patois.  Happily, Soy Bean is in rampant production in the townships, so it's more or less local
  • Knife techniques
  • Fish and Sea Vegetable exposés


Green Papaya Salad



The ultimate staple of Thai cuisine (or so many would have you believe): Green Papaya salad.  Like many Thai dishes, it is a balance of sweet and sour, redolent with the heady richness of shrimp, and accented with the heat of chili peppers.  

If you're a vegetarian who doesn't eat fish, it's still a lovely fragrant salad without shrimp.   


Green Papaya Salad

1/2 tsp coarse sea salt 
5 cloves garlic
4 red scuds/birds eye chilies 
1 tbsp dried shrimp
2 tbsps peanuts
12 grape tomatoes
20 green beans 
2 tbsp lime juice
1 tbsp tamarind + 1/4 cup boiling water
2.5 tbsps palm sugar (1/8 lb)
2 tbsps fish sauce
1/2 green small papaya ~2 cups shredded

The tamarind paste that I'm able to secure comes in a brick and it would be hard to fully incorporate into the salad.  I usually add it to 1/4 cup of boiling water in a tall wide glass, and when I'm ready to add it, I shock it into a slush with my hand blender.

Add the salt to the bottom of your mortar and pestle and use it to grind the garlic into a paste.  Next add in the scuds and shrimp, pounding them into a coarse paste.  Crush in the peanuts before adding in the tomatoes and green beans.  Beat the tomatoes and beans enough to bruise them heavily, but not so much that you mash them into a paste.  Add in the lime, tamarind, fish sauce, and palm sugar (make sure this is not too chunky, I usually pre-mash it with the mortar and pestle).  Sear off your shrimp in a pan and combine everything together in a bowl.

Serve immediately, these flavours do not need to blend.  Leftovers and long-standing salad will become wilted.


Help!  My mortar and pestle was a Christmas gift and I can barely smash up peppercorns in it!

If you're lacking a good mortar and pestle (as many of us are), your green papaya salad making ability will be greatly hampered.  The alternative is to finally chop the garlic, chilies, shrimp, and crush the peanuts.  Mix them with the lime juice, tamarind, palm sugar, and fish sauce and let stand for 15 minutes to allow the flavours to blend.  Smash the tomatoes and green beans in a bowl with whatever you have handy to that purpose.


Too Spicy, Not Spicy Enough?

As always, remove seeds to make things less spicy, leave them in to make it more spicy.  And you can always increase/decrease the quantity of peppers.

Limone Gelato (Meyer Lemons)





Meyer Lemons, that unusually delicious cross between a lemon and a Mandarin.  I like to do them up like a Limone Gelato


Meyer Lemon Gelato


1 cup Meyer Lemon juice (6-8 Meyer lemons)
1/2 cup Meyer Lemon peel (6-8 Meyer lemons); not zested, whole peels are good
1 cup Simple Syrup
3/4 cup whipping cream


Bring the first 3 ingredients to a boil and hold at a boil for 2 minutes.  Let cool.  Strain.  Whisk in the whipping cream.  Make into ice cream using the instructions on your ice cream maker.


Note:  Limone gelato is a particularly potent and flavourful gelato.  It makes a great palate cleanser and pairs well with many other fruit gelatos or sorbets.  On its own it is delectable, but I wouldn't scoop out a bowl of it the way I'd eat a whole bowl of ice cream.

Monday 19 March 2012

Mirin Marinated Mackerel

Serves 2-4

1 Mackerel (2-3 lbs), split as with fillets but with head on
1 cup mirin
1 tbsp red miso
2 drops hickory smoke optional
1 tsp sea salt

Mix all of the ingredients together and blend them well.  It's probably best to mash the miso up with a bit of mirin first, to avoid clumps that will take a lot of whisking or dirtying your blender to incorporate.  Splay your mackerel out, skin side down, and slop the marinade all over the top of it.

Refrigerate for minimum 1 hour.

Barbecue on a high heat, skin side down.  Mackerel is an oily fish, so you should get a way with it not sticking to the grill, if it's hot enough.

Enjoy mackerel, it's a sustainable fish.


Bones  Mackerel are easy to debone, other than the main skeleton, there will be bones around the fins and jutting out from the bottom part of the flesh nearest to the collar.  Otherwise, they have pin bones on the head half of each fillet, right in the center.  Find the pin bones with the edge of a knife and make an incision on either side of them, being sure to keep the knife close to them, to damage the surrounding flesh as little as possible.  

Sunday 18 March 2012

Green Borscht with Salmon

It's St. Patrick's weekend, and while I look quite dashing in my lovely orange sweater, I'm not averse to a bit of green and was feeling a bit celebratory.  Lacking a proper excuse to toss back a shot of vodka instead of Jameson, I made a soup that served both purposes: Green Borscht (with salmon, instead of beef, what with my lenten vegetarianism).


Green Borscht with Salmon

Soak 5-10 dried scallops in 1.5 cup of water for 45 mins (optional)

2 onions
2 cloves garlic
2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
Olive Oil, as necessary
1/2 (1.25 lbs) kilo salmon, large cubes, skin removed
2 cups yams (not sweet potato) or yellow potatoes
1.5 cups chopped fresh dill
1 tbsp black pepper
8 or 1/4 cup chopped Perilla leaves (optional; sorrel is a more traditional herb and an adequate substitute)
1/4 cup lemon balm (optional)
4 green onions

Garnish with boiled eggs, fresh dill, black pepper, sour cream
Serve hot with a cold vodka

Begin by soaking the scallops and putting water on to separately boil the yams and then begin the rest of your prep.  Sweat the onions, garlic, and ginger in a large soup pot, being careful not to let the brown.  Crank the heat to high and pop in the salmon, stirring infrequently to minimize breakage.  After 2 minutes, add the yams, and give a stir.  Let cook another 2 minutes and add in the liquid from the scallops.  Break the scallops up on a cutting board and toss those in as well.

Add the rest of the ingredients and simmer for 20 mins.  Like most soups, this one is better the day after, so I'd say that the final step would be to let sit overnight.



Help! I can't find dried scallops!  No doubt you cannot, but don't worry, they're optional for a reason.  Most Asian stores that carry dried goods will have dried scallops along with other dried seafood, have you tried there?  Note: Fresh scallops are not an adequate substitute.  In Montreal, you can find them in China town and sometimes at Kim Phat.  I got mine from another hole-in-the-wall Chinese market down in Brossard, next to an awesome Dim Sum place somewhere on Tascherau. They are by no means an easy find in Montreal.

Troubleshooting -- Broth is Too Sour:  It could be your court-bouillon was overly reduced or was simply too sour to start with.  Add a 1 tbsp of sugar and a tsp of salt to your broth before starting, or dissolved in water if your soup is already on the boil.

Saturday 17 March 2012

Vegetarian Stock #2: Court Bouillon

Court-Bouillon is a classic French stock, typically used for poaching as in a Nage, that is used for poaching seafood.  They are less complex than most other stocks, acidulated, and boiled for only a short period of time, typically around 45 minutes.

Court Bouillon

This recipe is for an Asian inspired Court Bouillon, through the inclusion of ginger and green onions

2 carrots
2 onions
1 inch peeled ginger (optional)
Random veggie cuttings (zucchini, green onion ends, fennel is especially good and traditionally added to court bouillon) (optional)
4 peeled cloves garlic
3 garlic chives (optional)
Bouquet garni - 5 sprigs thyme, 15 sprigs parsley, 2 fresh bay leaves
12 cups water (3 quarts; 3 liters)
1 tbsp black pepper
2 cups white wine (I use a very dry still cider)
1/2 cup of a high quality wine vinegar (for Asian-inspired sauces use a high quality rice vinegar)

Saute the vegetables in a bit of olive oil until soft and add the bouquet and water.  Keep at a gentle simmer for 30 mins.  Add the white wine and vinegar and continue simmering for 15-20 mins.

Vegetarian Stock #1: Mushroom Stock

As a vegetarian for 6 years, one craves umami.  Umami, that meat flavour of the Orient as its Japanese name supports, is the ubiquitous and elusive meat flavour we all crave (eventually, strangely isolated by them from seaweed as that terrifying white powder: MSG).   

I disagreed, as a vegetarian, with a large portion of the North American veggie population and never bought into that whole meat substitute craze that uses TVP and a slough of other concoctions to make everything from fake shrimp and chicken, to ground round, to Tofurkey.  Why eat meat when all I crave is Umami?

On the other hand, I loved rich soups and soups like French Onion soup or the Korean Kimchijjigae that were weighty in their meat flavour and light on the meat were perfect targets for my taste-buds.  But, how was I going to make a stock bolstered with enough Umami to make those delicious veggies taste good (like meat).

The Umami Stock for Vegetarians: Mushroom Stock

600g or 7 Portobello Mushrooms
500g or 3 good-sized yellows onions (skins on)
1.5 tbsp black pepper
2 sprigs of sage
4 sprigs oregano
5 sprigs thyme
2.5 stocks celery
2 carrots
2 fresh bay leaves (1 dried)
12 cups water
2 tbsps soya sauce

Dump it all in a pot and simmer for at least 1 hour.  Strain and let cool before bottling.

The soup stock receives its Umami flavour from the mushrooms and the soya sauce, which is rounded out by the heavy herbs, sage and oregano.  Everything else is your stock recipe for stock.

When finished, the stock should be richly flavoured with no bitterness (or maybe a touch from the onion skins) and dark like Guinness.

Now, I was fortunate enough to pick up over a half-kilo of Portobello for $1.50 at a Mediterranean bulk fruit store in Montreal called Sami Fruits, but I have previously loaded up similar recipes with  a cup or two of dried Shiitake mushrooms from the local Asian grocer (also for around $1.50).

Saturday 3 March 2012

White Chocolate Crème Brûlée

Crème Brûlée

Serves 6-8

3 egg yolks
1 egg (or 2-3 more yolks)
1 tbsp sugar

50 grams of white chocolate
2 cups cream
1/8 tsp vanilla


Melt the chocolate in a double-boiler and slowly mix in the cream until it is fully incorporated with the chocolate.  Add the vanilla.  Keep on the double-boiler until the cream is hot.

Add the yolks and the egg to a wide metal bowl.  Whisk with the tbsp of sugar.  When the cream is hot you will begin tempering the yolks, by adding the hot liquid a bit at a time to the eggs, constantly whisking until it is all incorporated.  The goal of tempering the eggs is to form a custard without cooking the yolks. 

Add the custard to some ramekins that you have placed in a large deep dish filled with enough water to come 2/3rds of the way up the ramekin.  This is your bain marie.  

Place the custard in an oven pre-heated to 325F for 20-30 minutes (actually cooking time will depend on the ramekins used).  When the custard is cooked, it should not jiggle in the ramekin.  Actually, it should jiggle a tiny bit in the centre of the ramekin and, if it doesn't, it's probably a bit over cooked.

Let the custard cool to room temperature before refrigerating for anywhere between 1-6 hours.

Remove from the fridge and toss granulated sugar on top.  Shake the ramekin so that the sugar evenly distributes and let sit for 1 min.  After a minute shake off any excess sugar.

Use a kitchen torch in one first pass to melt the sugar.

In the 2nd pass with the torch, allow it to linger briefly in spots to slightly burn the sugar.  This is aesthetic, but also a key part of the flavour profile.

Garnish I used strawberries macerated in a 10 year balsamic vinegar and shaved dark chocolate.




Troubleshooting -- My custard looks like scrambled eggs:  You added the hot liquid too quickly

Troubleshooting -- My custard is super foamy:  You probably used the whole egg and not the additional yolks and then you probably whisked too hard.  You can always use the kitchen torch before the sugar is added to eliminate some of the bubbles, but be careful not to burn the eggs before they cook.






Eggplant Parmesan

When I was in Greece over a decade ago, I had this delicious version of Eggplant Parmesan that resembled nothing of the Italian casserole dish of the same name, but oh was it delicious.

Eggplant Parmesan

Serve 4 appetizer portions

1 large or medium eggplant
1 - 1.5 cups of fresh tomato sauce (or any good tomato sauce is a decent substitute)
Olive Oil
Parmesan and Provolone or Mozzarella

This recipe is not elaborate and it is too simple to require elaboration.

Slice the eggplant thinly and sprinkle liberally with salt.  In a couple of hours most of the liquid will have drained from the slices.  Squeeze out the remaining liquid and then rinse the slices under cold water to remove the excess salt.  Squeeze out as much as the remaining liquid as you can and you should be left with a couple of fistfuls of eggplant flesh.  Disentangle them as best as you are able, although it's alright if they're still clumped.

Toss them into a hot pan with olive oil and toss or stir them constantly until they're browning.  There is no need to fully brown the eggplant slices on each side, you expect them to be clumped.  The key is to achieve a  good enough carmelization to add a certain richness of flavour that eggplant achieves when browned.

Evenly divide the cooked eggplant into 4 ramekins.  Spoon enough tomato to almost cover the eggplant.  Cover with cheese and broil until the cheese is bubbled and brown.


Matane Shrimp and Spinach Fettucini

RJ and Anna came for a visit today and, seeing as how both Maria and Anna are Italian, I focused my vegetarian lunch around seafood (yes, no purist here) whipped up Italian style.  To be honest, one of the other reasons I went for shrimp pasta was because of a terrible shrimp pasta I had recently at le Bistro at Chateau Mont-Ste-Anne, where they saw fit to charge me $30 for 2 shrimp and a spoonful of cappellini.  Yes, quite literally one bite.  So, this is a bit of a fanculo to them.





Shrimp + Spinach Sauce

Serves 4-6

1/4 cup olive oil 
1 cup chopped shallots (4 large french shallots) or 2 med. onions
10 cloves (2/3rd bulb)
Zest of 1 lemon
1 cup of Matane shrimp (any shrimp would do, these are just sweeter and more delicious)
4 sprigs thyme
5 sprigs oregano
1/2 lb spinach, chopped

Juice of one lemon
2 tsps fish sauce
2 tbsps chopped chervil

Pecorino, capers, ground pepper to taste

Easily made, this is just a matter of sauteeing the shallots in olive oil until tender, then adding in the garlic and lemon zest and sauteeing for a few additional minutes, until the garlic has softened.  Add the shrimp, thyme, and oregano, toss and fry until there any liquid given off by the shrimp has been absorbed.  Add in the spinach, lemon juice, and fish sauce and reduce until the spinach is wilted and there is only a little liquid remaining and then add the chervil.  

Toss the sauce in a hot pan with the pasta and the pecorino, pepper, and capers, until the sauce is fully incorporated into the pasta.

Garnish with a bit of chervil, some cherry tomatoes, or cheese.  


Monday 27 February 2012

West Indian Chickpeas, Beet Greens, and Chapatis




Cooking vegetarian for lent has been bringing me back to my University years, when I spent 6 years as a vegetarian.  Dishes like these bring back glorious memories of those years, of whipping up fresh flat bread every day after class as I cut my teeth in the kitchen.  My friend from that era, Laura Gangoo, whose birthday it is today, she and her family were the first to introduce me to the delights of West Indian food.  


West Indian Chana Aloo (Chickpea and Potato)

Serves 4-6 (with side dishes)

1 tbsp butter (preferably clarified, like ghee)
1 large diced onion
1 tbsp chopped fresh ginger (1/2 inch piece)
1/2-2 habanero peppers (seeds removed; adjust for desired heat)
1 tsp cumin
1 tbsp garlic  (2-3 cloves)
4 sprigs thyme
1 tbsp dark sugar (jaggery, palm sugar, or regular brown sugar will do)

1/2 tsp black pepper
1.5 tsp curry powder (see below)
1 tsp roasted ground coriander (mine start whole then get ground)

2 small potatoes, cubed (1 cup chopped)
1 cup chickpeas (pre-cooked or rinsed from a can)

1.5 tbsp tamarind
1.5 cups water
2/3 tsp salt
1 tbsp lime juice

First, bake your potatoes (400F for 45 mins) or use leftover potatoes or boiled potatoes; dice them when cooled.

Drop the ghee in a hot medium-sized pot or a wok.  Once it is hot, but before it is smoking, toss in the diced onion, lower the heat to medium-low and cover the pot until the onions have softened.  Plug the ginger, cumin, and habanero into the pot and crank the heat back up to medium-high, stirring frequently.  As the ginger begins to soften, toss in the garlic and thyme for a few minutes, continuing to stir.  In a couple of minutes these 3 essential components (onions, garlic, ginger) of your mother sauce should be golden.  Add in the sugar and spices continue to cook for another 2 minutes.  Lower the heat to medium-low and add the potatoes and chickpeas and continue to cook for another couple of minutes.

Add in the water, tamarind, and salt and finish cooking until thickened (~10 mins).

Add in the lime juice just prior to serving. 


Curry Powder: You have a few choices here, you can use any Chana Masala spice mixture, you can take Garam Masala and toss in a tsp of tumeric, you can use a store-purchased Madras or other "curry powder" (although I do not recommend it), or you can do it this way:

1 tbsp Coriander seeds
1 tbsp Cumin seeds
1 tbsp Black Pepper
3 pods Black Cardamom
3 pods Green Cardamom
4 Cloves
1 stick Cinnamon (2-3 inch piece, preferably Indian Bark; not rolled)
1 Star Anise
1 Dried Bay Leaf
2 tsp Turmeric

Optional1/2 tsp Ajuwain (Bishop's weed; Caraway is a possible substitute)
2 tsps roasted White Poppy Seeds
1 tsp Amchur (dried mango powder)
1 tsp dried Pomegranate seeds

Roast spices individually and grind.  To be quite honest, I probably rarely use the same seasoning, but adjust depending on my mood that day -- you know, the way all the West Indian mom's I know make it, which is why they can never impart their secret recipes -- they can only ever show them [off] to you.  :D

Indian Chana Masala: My friend Ali Hassan has a great Indian Chana recipe on his blog Bland is Boring: Chana Masala. You'll notice the difference in the flavour profiles between Indian and West Indian cooking are the kinds of chilies used, the use of tomato sauce, and thyme.



Chapati

Yields 10+ chapati


Chapati is the simplest and therefore the fastest flatbread to make and became a quick staple for the pressed university student that I was.

2 cups whole wheat
2/3 tsp salt
3/4 cup water (+2 tbsps)
Butter, Olive Oil, or some other greasy substance

Mix the ingredients together in a food processor, mixer with a dough hook, or by hand (knead for at least 10 minutes by hand).

Roll it into a cylinder with parchment, plastic wrap, or just set it on the counter with a slightly damp tea towel to cover it.  The key is really to prevent it from drying out.  Let it sit for at least one hour.  Letting the dough relax after kneading is the only way to achieve a thin roll.

Slice off rounds of chapati and roll them as thinly as possible with a dusting of flour; roll only on one side.  Waggle them a bit to get off the excess flour.  Slap the rolled on side onto a hot to very hot and ungreased griddle.  When the dough bubbles, flip it to the other side and let it sit for a minute or so until brown spots begin to form.

Now is the tricky part.  If you have a gas stove, slide the chapati over the direct flame until it puffs up as fully as possible.  Flip it onto your stack of hot chapatis and paint on a bit of oil, butter, or similarly greasy goo.  

If you do not have a gas stove, I highly recommend a VERY hot pizza stone, in the oven, which should do the trick.  If you have neither, you're probably going to need to get some oil on the griddle and make sure the edges of the chapati are solid (purposefully squeeze them down a bit with your flat edged cooking implement of choice).

Frankly, when I made these as a student on my cast iron skillet, I could hardly wait for them to puff up.  I greased the bubbled bread and jammed its hot crust down my gullet, slathered with steaming legumes, as quickly as I could without choking.




Beet Greens, Italian Style

These?  These are just some beet greens.  I sauteed 1 onion and 2 cloves of garlic with some olive oil in my wok until they softened, and tossed in chopped beet greens. Stir until wilted and serve warm with a sprinkling of sea salt.


Other Side Dishes for this Meal included: Slice Mango and chopped coriander marinated in Lime Juice Chaat Masala and Habanero, Fresh Yogurt, Cucumber Slices with Sea Salt and Shiso Leaf.


You should probably also bust out some fresh habanero, habanero-based West Indian hot sauce, kuchela, lime pickle, or other spicy pickle or relish.