Korena in the Kitchen

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Comfort in Pastry Form

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After almost two weeks of time off over the holidays, it was really hard to contemplate going back to work, so on my last day off, to make myself feel better about it, I made the most comforting thing I could think of: apple pie. My mum had given me a bag of apples from her friend’s tree when I visited my parents over Christmas, and while some of them were past their prime and some of them were slightly splotchy, the majority of them were just right for a pie.

This recipe is the one that introduced me to my no-fail, super-easy pie crust, so it has a special place in my heart. It’s from Canadian Living, and I always feel “extra Canadian” when I use one of their recipes – I know, weird, but it’s a good feeling and that’s what I was going for. While there is really nothing exciting or different about apple pie in general nor this one in particular, this iteration happens to be my favorite. In fact, it might be my favorite because it’s not exciting or different – it’s familiar and homey, which is why I wanted to share it. I like the methodical nature of making this pie: stirring together the pie crust, peeling the apples, fluting the edge, and knowing exactly what comes next. There is comfort in that routine. And using apples grown by a friend of my mother rather than anonymous grocery store fruit made me feel even better. This was a feel good pie, and I hope makes you feel good, too. Now before I get any sappier, here’s how you make it!

My Favorite Apple Pie

Adapted from Canadian Living

Flaky Pastry

In a large bowl, cream together:

1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened

1/2 cup less 1 tbsp shortening

(or any combination of the above (or all butter), totaling 1 cup less 1 tbsp)

Add:

2 1/4 cups all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

Stir into the butter mixture until ragged. The idea is to smear the flour into the butter – this will help make it flaky – but don’t over-mix.

Pour in:

1/2 cup ice cold water

Stir until a loose dough forms. Turn the dough into a floured surface, divide in half, and form each half into a flat circle. Wrap in plastic and chill for at least 1 hour or until firm.

Preheat the oven to 425˚F. On a floured surface, roll out one of the chilled pastry discs to fit a 9″ pie plate. Press the pastry into the pie plate.

Filling

Peel and slice enough apples to make 8 cups (I used about 17 smallish apples). In a bowl, combine the apples with:

2 tbsp lemon juice

1/2 cup brown sugar

3 tbsp all purpose flour

1 tsp cinnamon

1/8 tsp allspice (optional)

Pour the apple mixture into the pastry-lined pie plate, then moisten the edge of the pastry. Roll out the second piece of pastry, drape it over the apples, and press it around the edges to seal. Trim the pastry, leaving about 3/4 inch overhang, then fold the overhang underneath itself and flute the edge. Brush the pastry with egg wash (1 egg yolk mixed with 1 tbsp water), sprinkle it with coarse sugar, and cut a few steam vents. Bake in the bottom third of the 425˚F oven for 15 minutes, then reduce the heat to 350˚F and bake for 40 minutes longer, or until the pastry is deep golden and the filling is bubbling. Cool on a rack. If you want the pie to slice cleanly, wait until it is completely cool before cutting. If you’re not afraid of a little pie juice, cut yourself a slice while it’s still a bit warm and eat it with vanilla ice cream. So comforting!

Crusty No-Knead Bread… in 5 Minutes a Day!

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I bought the book Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day a few years ago after seeing a post on Steamy Kitchen about the caramel pecan cinnamon rolls that come from the book. I made the rolls and immediately knew I had to have the book, they were so good. The premise of the recipes in the book is to stir up a batch of very wet (high hydration) dough which you store in the fridge and then pull off a chunk to bake as desired. The wet dough plus the long rising and fermentation time develops the gluten in the dough without the need for kneading (heh!) and results in a delicious bread with a chewy crust and airy interior (which I’m still working to perfect) that literally only takes about five minutes of active time – the rest is just… rest. I have been making this bread exclusively for about two and a half months now, and we have not bought any bread in that time – just a lot of flour!

Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day gives recipes for dozens of different bread doughs, ranging from peasant breads to multigrain breads to flatbreads and pizzas to breads enriched with butter, honey and eggs (such as challah and brioche, great for making caramel pecan rolls!), all of which can be varied with different flavours and additions (herbs, spices, dried fruit, cheese, olives, etc) to create pretty much whatever you can dream up. This recipe is for the basic Master Dough, which is a lean dough (just flour, water, yeast and salt) that can be baked into boules (as shown), baguettes, couronnes (like a giant bagel), or even used as pizza crust. It makes great sandwiches when it is fresh, and wonderful toast when it is a day or so old. One batch of dough makes enough for four small one pound loaves, which each last me and Nate about two days.

Bread often gets put in the black books of healthy eating, but not all bread is created equal. Floppy white grocery store bread that travels to the store in a bag and lasts two weeks without getting stale or mouldy is totally inferior to crusty, fresh-baked, open-crumbed artisan bread – not just aesthetically but also as a food source. I recently learned that the longer it takes for bread to rise and ferment, the better it is for you. This is because the yeasts and bacteria in the bread actually break down and partially digest the carbs and sugars, and the longer they have to do this, the easier the bread is to digest. This is especially true if the bread contains whole grains, which become more nutritionally available to your body with a long fermentation time (otherwise they’re just fiber). Artisan bread, with its long production time (usually several hours, and sometimes days!), is therefore easier to digest and more nutritious than bagged grocery store bread, which is made so expediently that the yeast doesn’t have time to break anything down, and is also pumped so full of additives and preservatives that it can’t break down, period.

Another thing I learned is that the crust plays an important role. A chewy, crunchy bread crust forces you to actually chew your food (mechanical digestion), and also stimulates saliva, which starts breaking down the nutrients (chemical digestion), making the job of your stomach much easier – again, being hard to digest is one reason many people avoid bread. Soft, floppy, crustless bread that you don’t even have to chew is definitely going to sit in your stomach and make you feel ill, so don’t even bother with it: go straight for the crusty, delicious artisan bread and do your stomach and your taste buds a favour!

(I apologize for spending the last two paragraphs talking about digestion – I know it’s not the most appetizing thing to read about on a food blog, but I thought it was cool, so… yeah ;). )

Anyway, here is the recipe. Definitely try it, and also check out the Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day website, where the book’s authors post all kinds of awesome tips, tricks, videos, and additional recipes for their breads :).

No-Knead Crusty Artisan Bread

This is my adapted version of the Master Recipe from Artisan Bread in 5 Minutes a Day. I use a reduced amount of salt, a mixture of all purpose and whole wheat flours, and have increased the amount of water to get the moisture level right (see notes below). I also bake the dough on parchment paper, rather than using a pizza peel to transfer the loaf to and from the pizza stone in the oven. You will need a large bowl or container (4-6 quarts in size) with a lid in which to mix and store the dough, and preferably a pizza stone (aka a baking stone) on which to bake the bread (but there are other ways to bake it too – see notes below). The dough can be stored for up to 2 weeks in the fridge – the longer it is stored, the more of a sourdough flavour it gets. Makes about 4 lbs of dough – enough for 4 x 1 lb loaves.

In a large (4-6 quart) bowl or container with a lid, mix together:

3 1/3 cups warm water (this is the amount that works for me with higher protein Canadian all-purpose flour – your experience may vary)

1 tbsp coarse sea salt

1 1/2 tbsp granulated yeast – instant, regular, whatever

Don’t worry if it doesn’t all dissolve nicely.

In a slightly smaller bowl, combine:

5 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour (unbleached is important!)

1 cup whole wheat flour

(or 6 1/2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour only)

Measure the flour by “scooping and sweeping”, like so:

Dump the flour into the water mixture and stir it briskly until it is evenly moistened. You can get in there with your hands if you need to – just resist the urge to knead! The resulting dough should be very wet and sticky. Put the lid on the bowl/container – you don’t want an air-tight seal, but you do want the dough covered completely so it doesn’t dry out (I usually put a jar of peanut butter on top of the bowl to keep the lid down!). Leave the dough to rise at room temperature for 2 hours or until the top starts to flatten out and deflate a little bit, after which it will look something like this: All those bubbles are going to make your bread lovely and airy, so don’t squish it down, whatever you do. Place the covered container in the fridge and refrigerate for at least a few hours – the dough can be baked with after the first 2 hour rise but is much easier to handle after being chilled. Store in the fridge up to 2 weeks.

When you are ready to bake bread, take the dough out of the fridge and sprinkle a small part of the surface with flour so it doesn’t stick to your hands (you will notice that the dough has sunk quite a bit – this is fine because as long as you don’t press it down, all the bubbles are still intact!). Grab the floured dough and pull out about 1 lb of dough (the size of a grapefruit). I use scissors to cut off the chunk of dough. Try not to squash the dough too much, and don’t knead it! Pick it up in your hands, dust it with a little bit more flour and quickly shape it into a ball (or “boule”) by gently pulling the top of the dough and tucking it underneath. Try to do this by handling it as little as possible (this takes some practice) – it should take about 5 seconds tops. Place the ball of dough, tucked ends down, into a piece of parchment paper. Let it rest, uncovered, at room temperature for 40-90 minutes. With about 20 minutes left in the rest period, prepare the oven. Place a pizza stone on a central shelf, and on any other shelf that won’t interfere with the rising bread (below is good!), place a metal roasting pan. Heat the oven to 450˚F and let it preheat for at least 20 minutes (your pizza stone may take longer to heat up completely).When the oven is preheated and the dough is fully rested, dust the shaped boule with flour and slash it about 1/4″ deep with a serrated knife – this allows the bread to expand in the oven in a predictable fashion, rather than splitting open randomly. Depending on the age of the stored dough, at the end of the rest period it may not have changed much in size or shape (fresher dough) or it may have flattened out (older dough), but it should jiggle if you tug on the parchment paper. Place the dough and parchment paper on the preheated pizza stone, then pour a mug full of hot tap water into the roasting pan, and shut the door quickly to trap the steam. The steam helps make the crust crisp and brown. Bake for 30-45 minutes, until the bread is a very deep brown. You will notice that it has expanded quite a bit – this is called oven spring. Let the bread cool completely on a rack before slicing it. This bread only lasts 2-3 days in our house, so we keep it uncovered on the counter, sitting cut-side down on a cutting board. This way the crust stays crisp and the cut end doesn’t get stale.

Some notes:

Feel free to make a 1 1/2 – 2 lb loaf – just let it rest and bake longer.

The original recipe was developed using American flour, but Canadian flour is higher in protein (about 12% versus 8-9%) and therefore absorbs more water, so I use 1/3 cup more water than the original recipe calls for. It may take a few tries to play around with the amount of water that works for you – see this post for more information.

If you under-bake the bread, the crust will lose its crispness as it cools. It should be quite dark brown and caramelized-looking when it comes out of the oven. The crust will also lose its crispness if you cut into it while it’s still warm.

The more large air holes inside the bread (an “airy crumb”), the better. This can be achieved with a wetter dough to start with or a longer resting time. One tip is to shape the dough in the morning, then cover it lightly with plastic and let it rest all day in the fridge, then bake it in the evening. This ensures a good long rest and lots of air hole formation. See this post for more tips.

If you don’t have a pizza stone, you can bake this bread in a Dutch oven, which works really well. I’ve also just used a regular baking sheet and the bread came out fine, but a pizza stone gives it a better crust. My pizza stone is handmade of terracotta and was a Christmas present from my parents. I love it!

Sourdough Pancakes

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Happy New Year!!

The end of this month marks one year since I started this blog, and I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has visited and read my blog over the past year. I’ve had a ton of fun cooking and taking pictures and writing and I’m excited for another year of good food. Cheers! 😀

And now back to important matters at hand: Sourdough Pancakes!

As I now have a Tupperware container of sourdough starter living in my fridge, I’ve been looking for ways to use the excess that comes out of every feeding. I’ve made these pancakes twice now (on the list are also crumpets, English muffins, and obviously, bread) and they are delicious! Light and fluffy, they have a more complex flavour than regular pancakes, thanks to the fermentation of the yeasts in the starter. They are full of bubbles and have an almost lacy texture because of it.

These pancakes are very absorbent little sponges, so to give them something in addition to maple syrup to soak up without becoming sickly sweet, I made a quick strawberry-orange sauce: about 1 cup of frozen strawberries cooked with the juice of 2 mandarin oranges, a dash of water, and a few tablespoons of sugar. I boiled it until it thickened slightly, then pureed it in the blender and served it warm with the pancakes and maple syrup.

You need 3/4 cup starter to make these, which is more than the extra I end up with after each feeding, so I put that extra starter in another Tupperware container and “save up” until I have enough. Right now I’m feeding my starter once a week, so it takes a few weeks for the “extra” starter to amount to 3/4 cup, but it seems perfectly happy to sit in the fridge in the interim. If it looks like it needs feeding (ie, lots of liquid “hootch” on top), then I’ll just add a small amount of flour and water (equal parts by weight) to keep it happy until I’m ready to use it.

Sourdough Pancakes

Recipe from Allrecipes.com. Makes 6-8 pancakes.

Preheat a large skillet over medium-low (4 out of 10) heat.

In a large measuring cup (or a medium bowl with a pouring spout), mix together:

3/4 cup sourdough starter

1 egg

2 tbsp water (can use more or less depending on the thickness of your starter)

2 tsp vegetable oil

(1 tsp vanilla would be a good addition too!)

In another small bowl, combine:

1/3 cup powdered milk

3/4 tsp salt

1 tsp baking soda

1-2 tbsp granulated sugar

Whisk the powdered milk mixture into the starter mixture until smooth (don’t worry about over-mixing like regular pancake batter). It should be a bit thinner than regular pancake batter and sort of foamy.

Grease the heated skillet with a bit of vegetable oil on a paper towel, then pour about 1/4 – 1/3 cup of the batter into the pan. The batter will spread out a bit, so I like to cook just one pancake at a time. The surface of the pancake will be covered in irregular-sized bubbles. Cook until the edges are slightly dry and the bottom is deeply golden, then flip using a thin spatula. Cook until the other side is just as deeply golden, about 30-45 seconds.

Serve warm with butter, syrup, etc…

Chocolate Hazelnut & Almond Yule Log

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What does your family eat for dessert at Christmas dinner? In my family, our Christmas dessert for years and years was the traditional steamed Christmas pudding, served a-flame; however a few Christmases ago, we all admitted to ourselves that the only thing we really liked about Christmas pudding (other than setting it on fire) was the hard sauce that came with it. So, it was time for a new Christmas dessert. And dessert, in my family, is generally my department.

I cast about the internet and searched through my cookbook and magazine collection for a replacement dessert, and over the past few years I’ve made a few different things. On year it was poached pears with gingerbread (it had potential, but the pears were undercooked), and for two years now I’ve made a Yule Log (sometimes called a Bûche de Noël) – a sponge cake rolled around some kind of filling and decorated to look like a chunk of wood. I like it because it’s traditional in the same way a Christmas pudding is traditional, but not stodgy and infinitely variable. I also like the acknowledgment, however slight, of a winter festival that doesn’t include a fat man dressed in red or a baby born in a manger.

I made this Yule Log to take to Nate’s parents for Christmas dinner this year. When I read the words “chocolate hazelnut spread” in the recipe, I was sold. I am a big fan of Nutella. BIG. And I’m a pretty big fan of this cake, as it turns out (we all were, actually!). It was light, creamy, and a great way to end a big turkey dinner. The almond sponge cake is subtly flavoured and nice and moist, and the whipped cream-Nutella filling is airy and creamy. And damn, are those marzipan mushrooms ever cute! (And totally optional if you don’t like cute food or marzipan ;).)

The only change I would make is to sprinkle on the sliced almonds just before serving, as they lost most of their crunch overnight in the fridge. Otherwise, it was really really good and I can think of a ton of ways to vary the flavours: chocolate sponge with whipped cream and cherries for a Black Forest Yule Log? Dulche de Leche instead of Nutella? Perhaps some citrus in the sponge cake?…

Too bad Christmas dessert only happens once a year! 😉

Chocolate Hazelnut & Almond Yule Log

Adapted ever-so-slightly from my trusted friend Martha. Serves 8-10.

Almond Sponge Cake

Preheat the oven to 350˚F and prepare a 10″ x 15″ jellyroll pan by spraying it with cooking spray, lining the bottom with parchment paper, and spraying the paper with more cooking spray. Set aside.

In a large bowl, combine:

4 egg yolks (keep the whites – you’ll use them in a minute)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

Whisk until pale and thickened. Whisk in:

1/4 tsp almond extract

1/4 tsp vanilla

Add:

1/2 cup all purpose flour

Whisk until just combined – don’t over-mix. Set aside.

In a mixer bowl with the whisk attachment, combine:

4 egg whites

1/4 tsp salt

Beat until soft peaks form. Gradually add:

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Continue beating until stiff, glossy peaks form.

Whisk 1/3 of the egg whites into the egg yolk mixture to lighten it, then with a rubber spatula, carefully fold the rest of the egg whites into the batter – you want to combine it without completely deflating it.

Pour the batter onto the prepared pan and spread it out evenly.

Bake at 350˚F for 15-17 minutes, until lightly golden brown and the center of the cakes springs back when lightly pressed (I swear I took a picture of this stage, but my camera must have eaten it!). Immediately run a knife around the edge of the cake to loosen it from the pan, dust the cake with icing sugar, and invert it onto a sheet of parchment. Peel off the lining paper that is now on the top of the cake, and starting from the short end, roll the cake with the clean parchment paper into a cylinder. Let it cool completely, seam side down.

Meanwhile, prepare the filling and frosting.

Chocolate Hazelnut Filling & Whipped Cream Frosting

The whipped cream filling and frosting are stabilized with gelatin, which does not turn them into Jell-o, but rather prevents them from getting runny and also gives them a fluffy, mousse-like texture.

In a small saucepan, combine:

2 tbsp water

1 tsp unflavoured gelatin

Set aside to soften for a few minutes.

Meanwhile, in a medium bowl, mix together:

1/4 cup chocolate hazelnut spread, such as Nutella

1/4 cup whipping cream

Set aside.

Over low heat, warm up the gelatin mixture until it dissolves, then set aside to cool.

In a mixer bowl with the whisk attachment, combine:

2 cups whipping cream

1/4 cup granulated sugar

Beat until soft peaks form, then beat in the gelatin mixture all at once.

Fold a little more than half the whipped cream into the chocolate hazelnut mixture to make the filling. The remaining plain whipped cream is the frosting.

To Assemble

Unroll the cooled sponge cake and spread it with the chocolate hazelnut filling, leaving a 1/2 inch border at the edges. Roll it up again from the short end, this time without the parchment paper.

Transfer the cake roll carefully to a serving platter. I found it easiest to lift it onto the plate using the parchment paper, then carefully slide it off the parchment onto the platter. Protect the platter with strips of waxed paper tucked under the cake, then spread the outside of the cake with the plain whipped cream. Cover it lightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight. Just before serving, sprinkle with 1 cup toasted sliced almonds. Martha suggests slicing off the ends of the cake to reveal a cleaner cross-section of the inside of the roll, but I left it rustic. Decorate with marzipan mushrooms and rosemary foliage. Sprinkle with a light dusting of icing sugar “snow” and cut into slices to serve.

Marzipan Mushrooms

Roll a chunk of marzipan into a 3/4 inch ball. Cut about 1/3 off of the ball. Shape the large bit into a mushroom cap, and roll the smaller bit into a mushroom stem with a tapered point at one end. With the tip of a knife, bore a little hole in the underside of the mushroom cap; squish the tapered end of the mushroom stem into the hole to attach it (use a bit of water to make it sticky if necessary).

Place on a plate, dust very lightly with cocoa powder, and leave uncovered to harden a bit.

Store in an airtight container at room temperature. I used a little less than 100 grams (~3 oz) of marzipan to make about a dozen mushrooms.

Daring Bakers: letting nature do the work…

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Our Daring Bakers Host for December 2011 was Jessica of My Recipe Project and she showed us how fun it is to create Sour Dough bread in our own kitchens! She provided us with Sour Dough recipes from Bread Matters by AndrewWhitley as well as delicious recipes to use our Sour Dough bread in from Tonia George’s Things on Toast and Canteen’s Great British Food!

Well. This was QUITE the exhaustive challenge! Not only making bread, but actually cultivating the natural yeasty-beasties that turn it from flour-and-water-glop to bread, and then creating an edible to showcase said bread. See, exhaustive.

Sourdough bread begins with a “starter”, which is essentially a mixture of flour and water left long enough to get all bubbly and alive. Yes, alive – those little yeasties in the starter are living and need to be fed their own weight in flour and water in order to stay lively enough to make bread rise. When I began this challenge, I thought that making a starter involved catching wild yeast from the air (does that sound crazy?), but it turns out that the yeasts in question are actually on the grains that the flour is made from, and the flour-water mixture just wakes them up to they can do their yeasty thang. For this reason, whole, organic grains are best for making a starter: less processing equals more natural yeast in the flour, which means a more active and effective starter. You can turn a whole grain starter into a white flour starter (which is a little more versatile) by simply feeding it white flour after it has been established.…

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Christmas Baking 2011: Eggnog Macarons

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Merry Christmas! Here’s another way to enjoy some festive eggnog ;).

As I have previously mentioned, my first encounter with macarons was in Paris with my aunt when I was 18. I immediately fell in love, but I resigned myself to the fact that I would probably have to come back to Paris to ever taste them again, which would either be a) never, or b) a very very long time off. It never even occurred to me that I could make macarons at home – they seemed like some kind of impossibly complicated, intricate pastry that only the French could create – until I started noticing them popping up on food blogs a few years ago. However, it was also noted that the homemade macaron was a highly temperamental creation, and that the very techniques and methods that some people swore by were the same techniques and methods that others blamed for their macaron disasters.

Armed with the knowledge that macarons were possible in my own kitchen, I set out to scour the internet and learn as much as I could about making them. This may have been a mistake. Sometimes it’s better to go into things a bit blind, because you aren’t aware of every little thing that can go wrong and therfore totally paranoid about them. The whole process became overwhelming and a bit intimidating, so I put off making macarons for fear of failure.

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Christmas Baking 2011: White Chocolate Cranberry Almond Biscotti

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This past week has been a flurry of butter, sugar, flour, parchment paper, the whirring of the KitchenAid mixer, and the beeping of the oven timer. I’ve made five kinds of cookies, chocolate truffles, macarons, and stollen dough. I’ve been baking before work and after work, and when bedtime rolls around, my back and feet are killing me and I spend the night dreaming of cookies. But it’s all good. I love it. Baking cookies is what my Christmas is all about :). This biscotti recipe is one of my favorites to bake at Christmas, because it gets awesome reviews from whoever receives them – especially Lynette, who asks, “Are you making the biscotti?” every year ;).

I first discovered this biscotti (from the Baker’s Best Chocolate Cookbook) in “Cafeteria” class in grade 10 or 11 (essentially pre-cook’s training). They were SO GOOD that I asked my Mum for the cookbook just so I could have the recipe. The first time I tried them at home, I burned them. I remember having dozens of slightly charred biscotti in the freezer because my Mum wouldn’t let me throw them out after putting all that white chocolate and fruit and nuts in them. Sigh. But obviously, I didn’t let that burnt experience stop me from trying again ;).

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Leek, Swiss Chard & Prosciutto Quiche (and a non-shrinking tart crust!)

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The thing that always stumps me about quiche is the crust. The pastry crust for quiche needs to be par-baked before adding the filling, otherwise it won’t cook through and will be soggy (and nobody likes a soggy-bottomed quiche). My go-to pie crust has a tendency to shrink a lot when par-baked, and other pie crust recipes I’ve tried that are supposed to be “more suited” to par-baking come out with the texture of cardboard (just as bad as a soggy-bottomed crust).

So, I’ve been looking for a pastry crust that stays flaky and doesn’t shrink too much when par-baked, and I finally found one! Also, I discovered the secret to stopping the pastry from sliding down the sides of the pie plate while baking. Success!

Minimum shrinkage and maximum flakiness

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Ingredients Health Food Store & Apple Café

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I love grocery shopping. Browsing through the aisles, checking out new and different products, gaining inspiration by imagining what to make with all these interesting ingredients. I especially love exploring a new grocery store (yes, I said exploring!), particularly when it’s a specialty grocery store. To me, a health food store fits into that specialty category – aisles full of gluten-free this and 100% organic that, all natural cosmetic products and bulk sections to die for. I definitely have a soft spot for a good health food store.

So imagine my delight when I came across a brand new (2 weeks old!) health food store down by Capital Iron, called Ingredients Health Food Store & Apple Café. Despite the store’s newness, the staff were very knowledgeable about their products, and incredibly friendly on top of that. I spent a good thirty minutes in the store, perusing the grocery aisle (organic, gluten-free, vegan, sprouted grain, unprocessed, naturally sweetened products), cooler aisle (various soy and tofu products, nut butters and milks and more), produce section (organic/local) and bulk section (extensively gluten-free and very well priced). The bulk section was the most impressive: they had all the expected grains, dried beans, pulses, and fruit, as well as a ton of dried herbs, loose teas, coffee beans, and about four varieties of TCHO chocolate pieces (which I will definitely be back to purchase for the upcoming orgy of Christmas baking that will be taking place in my kitchen over the next few weeks). The store encourages people to bring in their own bulk containers to fill up right in the store, and they sell mason jars and other containers at cost to encourage people to use them instead of disposable bags.

I didn’t venture into the café part of the store, but a quick browse of the website shows that they make their own almond milk, specialize in organic, vegan, gluten free, and raw goodies, and serve Drumroaster Coffee (roasted in Cobble Hill).

Places like this make my inner Salt Spring hippy hippie do a happy dance, so I will be looking for any excuse to go shopping there. I would encourage anyone in town to check it out too: Ingredients Health Food Store & Apple Café, 2031 Store St., Victoria BC.

Black Bean Soup with Chipotle and Orange

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I’m a very enthusiastic fan of pretty much any Mexican-inspired food, especially if it involves smokey, spicy chipotle. Because this soup is both Mexican-ish and chipotle-enhanced, it has quickly become one of my favorites, and is frequently seen in the week-night meal rotation because it can be whipped together quickly with mostly just pantry items. It is flavoured not only with chipotle and orange, but also cumin, which may cause some people, upon entering the house while you’re making this, to announce, “It smells like B.O. in here!”. Cumin has that affect, sadly. Rest assured, however, that this soup does not taste like B.O.!

I was trying to be fancy for the blog and I was also feeding two carnivorous males, so I topped each bowl of soup with some crumbled cooked Chorizo sausage. It was nice but totally optional – I find this soup to be hearty enough with just a dollop of plain yogurt or sour cream and a sprinkling of cilantro, or even totally unadorned. Regardless of how dressed-up or dressed-down you decide to go, this is a great winter meal: warm and satisfying, with enough spice to bring your taste-buds out of hibernation – and did I mention easy?!

Black Bean Soup with Chipotle and Orange

Adapted from Hollyhock Cooks (thanks for sharing, Mum!). Makes about 6 servings. The recipe can be halved, but it tastes even better the next day so why not make the whole thing and enjoy the leftovers?

In a Dutch oven, heat 2 tbsp olive or vegetable oil over medium heat. Add:

2 cups finely chopped carrots (about 2 large carrots)

2 cups finely chopped onion (about 1 large onion)

2 cloves minced garlic

Sauté the vegetables for about 5 minutes, until starting to soften. Add:

1 tsp salt

2 tsp chipotle purée (or 1 chipotle chili in adobo sauce, finely minced)

2 tsp cumin

Stir and cook for 5 more minutes. Add:

2 x 540 ml cans black beans, rinsed (or 4 cups cooked)

4 cups water or stock (vegetable or chicken)

Stir, cover, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 30 minutes on low heat.

After 30 minutes, use an immersion blender to partially purée the soup to a still-chunky consistency (or transfer half of the soup to a blender and purée, then return to the pot). Stir in:

1 x 796 ml can diced tomatoes, drained (or 3 cups chopped fresh tomatoes)

1/2 cup fresh orange juice (concentrate will work too!)

Reheat the soup and season with salt and pepper. To serve, top with any/all/none of the following: a dollop of sour cream or plain yogurt, crumbled cooked Chorizo sausage, cilantro. I made cornmeal biscuits to serve with it, which were made from my Home Ec Scones recipe by using 1/3 cup cornmeal + 2/3 cup flour and adding a handful of grated cheddar.

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