Tarte Flambée

June 2, 2014 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Tarte flambée, also known as flammekueche in Alsatian or flammekuchen in German, is a regional specialty of Alsace in the eastern-most corner of France bordering Germany and Switzerland. It is essentially a pizza topped with bacon and thinly sliced onions, and as such is totally something I can get behind. I first came across it at a local bakery/vineyard – I can’t actually remember if we tried it, but it stuck in my mind nonetheless, and soon after when I saw a recipe for tarte flambée appear on the Homesick Texan blog (with jalapenos added to Texan-ify it) I knew that I would eventually be making it myself.

Tarte Flambée | Korena in the Kitchen …

The Canadian Food Experience Project: The Christmas Eve Potluck

December 9, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

The Canadian Food Experience Project began June 7, 2013. As we share our collective stories through our regional food experiences, we hope to bring global clarity to our Canadian culinary identity. Visit Valerie’s blog, A Canadian Foodie, on the 15th for a round-up of this month’s posts.

This month on the Canadian Food Experience Project, we are talking Canadian Christmas traditions. If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you’ll know that for me, Christmas means cookies, cookies, and more cookies. From a “Christmas tradition” stand-point, that topic has pretty much been covered… so I tried to think of something else to talk about. Christmas dinner? My Mum’s bacon-covered turkey and stuffing. Christmas dessert? Yule log. All already documented, and none particularly specific to the West Coast of BC or Salt Spring Island. I finally turned to Facebook and asked my friends: What food-related holiday/Christmas traditions do you celebrate with your family? Is there something specific to the West Coast/Salt Spring Island?

Predictably, I got a varied response – everything from the traditional Canadian fare of tourtiere and buttertarts to sushi to smoked salmon eggs benedict to stollen to a breakfast bake of bread, egg, bacon, sausage, and cheese called either “busy woman’s breakfast” or “wife saver” depending on which of my friends you ask – but one commonality was the number of people who mentioned a Christmas Eve gathering of family, friends, and food. Growing up on Salt Spring Island, potluck dinners were the preferred social gathering and were as abundant as gumboot-wearing hippie sheep farmers (ie, very abundant). As an only child with a fairly small extended family, our family Christmas on December 25 was (wonderful but) pretty quiet, whereas Christmas Eve was always a rockin’ potluck at our family friends’ house, with tons of food, kids, and Christmas carols. For the past five or more years, I’ve spent Christmas Eve at my friend Lynette’s family dinner, which includes several other families all contributing to the meal, resulting in some of the tastiest Christmas food ever – I still dream about the creamy, cheesy scalloped potatoes from a few years ago, and Ghislaine’s frozen chocolate orange mousse is to die for. My preferred potluck contribution is usually dessert, but one year I brought these bacon wrapped, almond stuffed apricots with balsamic syrup and Stilton as an appetizer, and they were pretty darn good – worth a spotlight on the blog, for sure. Plus, they are super easy to put together – no recipe needed – and they come on a stick, which makes them great finger food and perfect to take to your next holiday potluck.

To make, cut some slices of bacon in half and cook until not quite crispy – it still needs to be pliable. Stuff dried apricots with a whole almond (you should be able to find the opening in the apricot where the pit was removed), then wrap each in a half-slice of bacon and secure with a toothpick. Bake in a hot oven or broil a few inches away from the broiler element (watch the toothpicks so they don’t burn) until the bacon is crisp, turning them over once during cooking – this shouldn’t take more than 10 minutes. Put them on a plate, drizzle with crema di balsamico (make a homemade version by simmering some balsamic vinegar with a spoonful of honey until thickened), and sprinkle with crumbled Stilton or blue cheese. To eat, pile some Stilton on top, or spear some with the toothpick. These could easily be assembled ahead of time and then popped into the oven when guests arrive, or warmed up on site if you are taking them to a potluck.

What’s your favorite holiday potluck offering?

Leek and Bacon Quiche with Wholegrain Pastry

April 7, 2013 By Korena in the Kitchen 6 Comments

Leek & Bcaon Quiche with Whole Grain Crust Nate and I had a pretty quiet Easter weekend at home, so instead of a big Easter Sunday dinner, I made a quiche with leek and bacon, a dish of scalloped potatoes, and a green salad (and dessert, of course – that post is coming!). I was lucky enough to have dinner with my parents on Salt Spring on Good Friday, which included not only the traditional baked ham but also a huge pile of fresh crab, caught by a family friend. It was amazing, but after all that food I was quite happy to keep it lighter for the rest of the weekend.

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Asparagus and Bacon Omelette

June 9, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 5 Comments

In middle school Home Ec, in addition to scones and boxer shorts, we learned how to make omelettes. This, like the scones, is something that has stuck with me since then, and I’ve made so many omelettes following this method that I can now do it one-handed while taking pictures ;). Obviously this is great for breakfast, but it also makes a nice lunch or quick dinner when the fridge is bare (I ate a lot of omelettes in university!). Asparagus and bacon is what I happened to have on hand, but use whatever you want as a filling – sautéed mushrooms are really good. The only thing that you absolutely must have is cheese – at least in my opinion. Eggs and cheese just go so well together!

The secret to a fluffy omelette (according to my Home Ec teacher, anyway) is adding a bit of water to the eggs. As the eggs cook, the water turns to steam, causing the eggs to puff up. It’s important to have a hot, non-stick pan (well pre-heated over medium to medium-high heat, about 6 1/2 out of 10 if your stove dial has numbers) and to have all your ingredients ready and assembled, because the omelette cooks pretty fast. The ingredients in this recipe are simple and completely customizable: it’s the technique that really makes a good omelette. But if a bunch of 12 year old Home Ec students can do it, and I can do it with one hand while taking pictures, then no one has anything to worry about ;)…

Daring Bakers Challenge: Maple Syrup Mousse in an Edible Container

April 27, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 11 Comments

I recently joined an online cooking challenge group called the Daring Bakers (their website, the Daring Kitchen, is also home to the Daring Cooks). Every month members are challenged to make a certain recipe, showcasing their creativity and skills to interpret it. The members keep it a secret (no blog posts or online mention of the challenge) until the 27th of the month, when everyone posts a write-up on their blog, recounting their kitchen adventure with that month’s challenge recipe. April was my first Daring Bakers’ Challenge, and it was a good one!

The April 2011 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Evelyne of the blog Cheap Ethnic Eatz. Evelyne chose to challenge everyone to make a maple mousse in an edible container. Prizes are being awarded to the most creative edible container and filling, so vote on your favorite from April 27th to May 27th at http://thedaringkitchen.com!

I have to admit that I was a teensy bit disappointed because mousse isn’t exactly a challenging baking recipe, and the previous months’ challenges had definitely employed more advanced baking skills (including a Jaconde sponge/entremet and a yeasted meringue coffee cake, both of which I want to try out at some point!). However, the edible container part was intriguing, and gave me a chance to try two things that I have wanted to make for a long time: tuile cookie cups and chocolate cups using water balloons. I got over my initial disappointment pretty fast after that, because I love maple syrup (and coincidentally, I had just bought a litre of it for a relatively good price!) AND because Evelyne suggested incorporating bacon into the edible container – and who doesn’t love bacon? Plus the maple/bacon combination is just so delicious…

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Date and Bacon Scones from bon appétit magazine

March 8, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 1 Comment

Nate’s mum got me a subscription to bon appétit magazine for Christmas, and the March issue arrived last week. I went through and marked all the recipes I wanted to try, and on my second pass, I noticed a recipe that I had overlooked the first time: Bacon and Date Scones. Apparently the recipe comes from a restaurant in Venice, California, called Gjelina. I am a big fan of scones, salty-sweet combinations, and anything with bacon in it, so I knew I had to try these.

I took some inspiration from Heidi at 101 Cookbooks and modified the recipe a bit to use whole wheat pastry flour and raw cane sugar. The scones turned out well, but are very crumbly, I think because the whole wheat pastry flour has lower gluten than all purpose flour, so I’ve made a change to the recipe below to use half whole wheat pastry and half all purpose flour.

I wasn’t expecting these to be as sweet as they are, so I served them with soup. It worked alright, but they are better on their own, smeared with butter. The dates are sweet and almost caramelized, the bacon is salty and chewy, and the scones themselves are flaky. These are definitely a must-try!

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Snow and a Quiche

February 24, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen Leave a Comment

Yesterday we unexpectedly received rather a large amount of snow (we measured 21 centimeters at one point!), and in usual snowy Victoria fashion, the roads were terrible, life slowed to a halt, and neither Nate nor myself went to work. Instead, we spent the day on the couch watching season one of Mad Men, and I did some baking. Seeing as I had all day, I made a quiche, which I find inevitably ends up taking about three times as long as I think it will. I also tried to modify my usual fantastic, go-to banana bread recipe to be sugar-free, but it turned out to be not-so-fantastic sans sugar 🙁 Someday I’ll perfect the recipe and share it, but in the meantime, here’s my quiche recipe.

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Breakfast Pizza

February 20, 2011 By Korena in the Kitchen 3 Comments

Quite a while ago I stumbled across a recipe for a breakfast pizza topped with bacon, eggs, and cheese. Of course I can’t remember where I originally saw it, but I filed it away in my brain for later. I’ve been craving pizza lately, and as Nate and I went out for breakfast yesterday, I figured I would make something at home this morning, and breakfast pizza fit the bill.

The pizza dough recipe comes from my trusted friend Martha’s Everyday Food magazine. I mixed it up the night before and let it rise overnight in the fridge, rather than delaying breakfast by waiting for it to rise in the morning. Originally it was for grilled barbequed pizza, but I’ve figured out how to bake it very successfully in the oven. The trick is high heat (500˚ F) and baking the pizza on parchment paper rather than on a baking sheet (I’m sure a pizza stone would also work, but I don’t have one). As this makes a thin crust pizza, it’s best not to overload it with toppings – I adhere to the same principle of less is more for pizza as I do for burritos 😉

This recipe makes two 10-inch oval pizzas topped with two eggs each, enough for two pretty generous servings. If you are not so hungry, you could shape the dough into a slightly smaller circle (8 or 9 inches in diameter) and use only one egg in the centre of each pizza. The variations are pretty infinite: you could divide the dough into 3 or 4 pieces and make small little pizzas (5-6 inches in diameter, 1 egg each) to serve alongside fruit or hashbrowns or something, or you could make one giant pizza and top it with 4 or more eggs to feed a crowd (if you are going to double the recipe, I would still recommend making two pizzas, as it might start getting out of control size-wise). If you are in the habit of having guests for breakfast or feeding a large number of family members, this would be a good recipe to try because it’s ready all at once (unlike pancakes or waffles or omelettes which cook one or two at a time) and can be eaten with your hands….