Cranberry Apple Cinnamon Danish Swirls

November 26, 2018 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

When Dale Carnegie wrote his famous self-help book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People“, he listed six ways to get people to like you. I’m here to present you with a seventh way: make these cranberry apple cinnamon danishes and share them with whomever you are hoping to befriend.

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Oliebollen {Dutch Doughnuts}

January 9, 2017 By Korena in the Kitchen 7 Comments

Oliebollen | Korena in the Kitchen

Made from a yeasted dough filled with apples, raisins, and currants, these little deep fried balls of delicious known as Dutch oliebollen were the December Daring Kitchen challenge, and yes, as per usual, I’m several weeks behind. I’m actually a little sad to be posting this challenge, because it is the very last one: participation in the Daring Kitchen has been on the decline for the past few years, so the group is shutting down and it’s time to move on. Since joining the group in 2011, I have made so many delicious desserts and baked goods that I never ever would have tried on my own, from the Mawa cake to the Esterhazy torte, homemade phyllo pastry to ensaimadas, sfogliatelle ricci and lobster tail pastries to Armenian nutmeg cake and nazooks. Not the mention the Battenberg cake, povitica, and sourdough bread, which started a whole other sourdough journey. The Daring Kitchen was one of the main reasons I started this blog, so while I understand and support the reasons for ending the challenges, it’s a little bittersweet.

Oliebollen | Korena in the Kitchen

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Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples

November 14, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples | Korena in the Kitchen Now that fall is here, ’tis the season for everything pumpkin-pie-flavoured – but I have a confession to make: I don’t actually like pumpkin pie all that much. I make it every year for Thanksgiving because tradition, yo, but it’s probably my least favourite kind of pie. I’d much rather eat cheesecake, so this year for Thanksgiving (which in Canada was back in October), we ate both. I made this maple-flavoured beauty and topped it with thin slices of maple-cinnamon roasted apples. It was a big hit at our family dinner, and judging by how quickly the leftovers were eaten versus how long the remaining pumpkin pie languished in the fridge, it was the clear winner of that dessert battle.

Maple Cheesecake with Roasted Apples | Korena in the Kitchen …

A Visit to Merridale Estate Cidery

November 12, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 12 Comments

Back in September, when the sun was still shining warmly and the leaves were just starting to turn yellow, Lynette and I went to check out Merridale Estate Cidery. It’s been on our to-do list for a few years, and by convenient coincidence, I now live literally about ten minutes away from the property. Merridale makes traditional hard cider from apples grown on the premises, and in addition to cider, they have started making other types of spirits such as vodka and fortified ciders (but more about that later). They also run a fantastic bistro (open year round) and outdoor kitchen (open in the summer) that feature their products in many of the dishes, as well as lots of other local ingredients. We showed up on a Sunday for brunch and enjoyed our meal in a sun-drenched, covered patio area. Lynette had a chicken pasty and potato-leek soup:

I had a breakfast pizza topped with local chorizo and bacon and a poached egg. It was fantastic.

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Second Saturday: Cider Tasting at Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse

February 15, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Please excuse the bad quality of the photos – they were taken with my cell phone!

Second Saturday is a “club” consisting of my friends Lynette, Katheryn, Tangle, and I, where we go out somewhere for drinks and food every second Saturday of the month (hence the name).

This weekend I went on a Second Saturday outing to a cider tasting at Sea Cider Farm & Ciderhouse, a local cidery in Sidney. Tangle was unable to join us – she was busy doing a show with her puppetry troupe, Entangled Puppetry – so it was just Katheryn, Lynette, and myself.

Lynette managed to score a sweet deal on the cider tasting from Groupon.com, which included nine samples of cider, a platter of local cheese, meats, preserves, and bread to compliment the cider samples, hot buttered Rumrunner cider (yum!), and a bottle of your choice of cider. It was awesome, and would still be totally worth going even without the deal – the full flight of nine cider samples is only $16 regularly, and it was enough for all three of us to get a good taste of all nine. And it was delicious, of course!

Honey cured smoked salmon from Sointula, local cheddar and Natural Pastures Comox Camembert, Galloping Goose Co. sausage, blueberry cider preserve, black olive tapenade, bread from The Roost, and dark chocolate

The ciders we tasted can be found here, in order from driest to sweetest. The first two, Flagship and Wild English, were both “ultra dry” and champagne-like, and none of us were big fans – they didn’t have a lot of apple-y flavour (at least not to our uneducated palates!). Kings & Spies and Pippins were slightly sweeter, less dry, and had more cider taste. Katheryn liked Kings & Spies, and I liked Pippins, but again, not our favorites.

Cider is exciting!

Then we had the Bramble Bubbly, a seasonal cider made with apples and blackberries. This was Katheryn’s favorite, although she swore it tasted like cranberries rather than blackberries. I could taste (and smell) blackberry, but not so much the berries themselves as the blackberry canes – you know the smell of blackberry brambles in the hot summer sun? That was what the cider tasted like. Incredible!

Katheryn and the Bramble Bubbly

Next was the Rumrunner, which is aged in rum barrels. It was seriously delicious – it had sort of caramely toffee notes and just enough sweetness. It was the cider used to make the hot buttered cider – Rumrunner, mulling spices, and butter (recipe here). Awesome!! We all had this one down as a favorite, and Lynette ended up taking it home as her free bottle.

Hot buttered Rumrunner – cheers!

The sweetest ciders started with Cyser, fermented with honey. It had almost a buttery, nutty taste that was amazing. Another favorite all round! The last two were more apératif or liqueur-style ciders. Pommeau was 18% alcohol and tasted like apple scotch or whiskey – it had the smoky taste as well as the alcohol taste. I managed to sip it without making a (really bad) face, whereas Lynette and Katheryn both threw this one back, tequila style. Not one of our favorites. The final cider was Pomona, which was like a desert or ice wine. It was delicious and syrupy, and would have been fantastic over ice cream. Again, a favorite for all of us.

Cast iron chandeliers and vaulted ceiling in the tasting room

As I said above, this tasting would be a great way to spend an afternoon, even without the deal. The cider was delicious (and even when it wasn’t to our liking, it was interesting and fun), the food was yummy (and locally sourced), and the tasting room was beautiful: vaulted ceilings, big cast iron chandeliers, long rustic trestle tables, and windows looking out over the fields and water. I will definitely put this on my list of “things to do again”!