Roast Chicken with Black Bean Gravy

June 2, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 8 Comments

When I was a kid, roast chicken and gravy was my family’s favorite comfort food (I think it’s safe to say it still is) and it was always up to me to make the gravy. I don’t know how or where he got the idea, but on one occasion my Dad convinced me to put a handful of cured, salted Chinese black beans in the gravy. This was another case of a strange flavour combination working out much better than expected, because surprisingly, the gravy didn’t taste like Chinese take-out – it tasted like delicious chicken gravy with a good dose of salty umani flavour thanks to the black beans. After that successful case, almost any kind of gravy was subject to the addition of black beans, including Christmas turkey gravy (although my Mum was somewhat less enthusiastic about this than my Dad and I)….

Apple, Cilantro & Pecan Quesadillas

May 30, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Sometimes the weirdest-sounding combinations turn out to be much better than expected. I once had a pizza topped with cilantro pesto, apples, pecans, and smoked mozzarella, which I thought would be totally weird, but was actually very very good. The other day I happened to have corn tortillas, cheese, and cilantro in the fridge, an apple in the fruit bowl, and pecans in the baking cupboard, and I figured that a quesadilla is sort of like a Mexican pizza, right?…

Daring Bakers: Challah Back Y’all!

May 27, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 77 Comments

May’s Daring Bakers’ Challenge was pretty twisted – Ruth from The Crafts of Mommyhood challenged us to make challah! Using recipes from all over, and tips from “A Taste of Challah,” by Tamar Ansh, she encouraged us to bake beautifully braided breads.

After this challenge, I can’t say “challah” without thinking “holla!”. I had so much fun with this one!

I made three different kinds of challah: plain honey white challah, whole wheat challah filled with apples, cinnamon, and maple syrup, and sourdough challah. Even more fun than all the different varieties were the different braiding techniques that Ruth, our host, encouraged us to try. I went for a six-strand braid, a five-strand braid, and a four-strand braided round. If you’ve never shaped bread like this before, challah is a great way to start: the dough was really easy to work with and good for braiding….

Sourdough Danish Pastries, Part II

May 24, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 39 Comments

This is the second post in a series of three – click to read Part I and Part III.

As promised, here’s the follow-up to my last post on Danish pastries: how to shape and fill the Danishes. So fun!

I got really excited about the different Danish shapes I was going to make, so I tried a whole bunch of them. They were all pretty successful so I’m confident that I can pass along my skillz ;). I only used half the batch of dough to make these (I couldn’t justify making sixteen Danishes for only two of us) so I will be experimenting with the rest of the dough sometime soon… stay tuned for Part III! ;)…

Salad Lyonnaise with Candied Salmon

May 21, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

Just a quick note to say that I have another guest post on the SeaChange blog: Salad Lyonnaise with Candied Salmon. In addition to the candied salmon, there’s golden fried garlic, buttery toasted croutons, and a perfectly poached egg. I think it’s a good one – go check it out and let me know what you think. 🙂

Sourdough Danish Pastries

May 20, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 76 Comments

This is the first post in a series of three – click to read Part II and Part III.

In my last post, I was extolling the virtues of making something simple from scratch. Now I am going to extol the virtues of making something rather complicated from scratch: Danish pastries using sourdough starter. Yes, we are doing this!

At the end of April, I wrote a list of stuff I wanted to make for this blog over the summer, and Danish pastries was on it. I had my first taste of making laminated dough when the Daring Bakers made croissants a while back, and I wanted to try it again. But I was kind of putting it off because it’s a lot of butter and a lot of work: all that rolling and folding and rolling and folding and resting and waiting. Then, during the Daring Bakers reveal last month, I came across Sourdough Surprises, which is another baking group that a few Daring Bakers members have created to bake together once a month using their sourdough starters. And their recipe for May was sourdough Danishes! Well, it seemed like fate. I was in….

Bread, Butter & Jam

May 17, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

May 19 is Food Revolution Day. This is a “day of action” organized by the Jamie Oliver Foundation to promote better food and food education – essentially, to get more people engaged in the acts of growing, buying, cooking, and eating real food. Food enthusiasts are encouraged to take part by hosting Food Revolution events that focus on getting back to basics, learning healthy food habits, and understanding the importance of where food comes from (ie, grown on a farm and prepared at home from scratch versus industrially processed, individually wrapped, and sold ready-to-eat at the store). I am currently re-reading Michael Pollan’s The Omnivore’s Dilemma, which relates to these issues, and Food Revolution Day really struck a chord with me. I wanted to “host” something on my blog, but I wasn’t sure what….

Smoothie Packs and a Strawberry-Blueberry-Orange Smoothie

May 15, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 20 Comments

On weekends, I love a big breakfast of eggs benedict or something similar, but on weekdays, I try to go for something a little lighter. Enter: the smoothie. Mine usually includes frozen berries, orange, banana, plain yogurt, ground flax seeds, cinnamon, maple syrup or honey, water or almond milk, and (this is where it might get weird for you) kale leaves. This is results in a not-quite-green smoothie that tastes nothing like kale and everything like deliciousness, but still makes me feel like I’m eating a leafy green vegetable. Sometimes I’ll also add half an avocado (I know, weird again), which makes it super creamy and smooth….

Tortellini with Mushrooms, Spinach and Italian Sausage

May 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

I have a new blog crush… which is kind of an old blog crush, actually. I discovered Dinner with Julie when I first started this blog (the recipe for Rosemary Raisin Pecan Crisps, one of my very first posts, came from there) but somehow lost track of it in the onslaught of new food blog discoveries that followed. I’m happy to report that I rediscovered Julie’s blog and I want to make everything on it. I also want to host a pierogy bee (who’s in?)….

Lemon Meringue Birthday Cake

May 9, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 14 Comments

Recently Nate had a birthday, so naturally, I made a birthday cake. Last year I made him a lemon-tastic cake which didn’t quite turn out the way I wanted, so I gave it another go this year. I came across two amazing-sounding lemon cakes: one with black tea-flavoured Italian meringue frosting by Honey and Jam, and the Tartine lemon meringue cake (lemon butter, caramel, chiffon cake, and torched meringue) at The Way the Cookie Crumbles. I decided to use the cake and frosting recipe from the first, and the lemon cream and caramel fillings from the second. I also intended to torch the black tea meringue frosting, but I’ll get to that in a minute……