Strawberry Rhubarb Skillet Clafoutis

July 3, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 16 Comments

The move is over and we have settled into our temporary new home – temporary because (fingers crossed!) we have plans in the works for bigger, better things. I have not really taken the new kitchen for a spin yet, but I’m looking forward to it. It’s bigger and better laid-out than the kitchen in our last place, which was a galley-style layout that could only accommodate one person and had barely any usable counter space:

The kitchen on a good day (there was usually a dish rack taking up valuable real estate above the dishwasher).

Not that I’m knocking small kitchens – I know you can do a lot in them and I’ve survived in an even smaller one – but a little extra space is so nice. …

Daring Bakers: Battenberg Cake

June 27, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 63 Comments

Mandy of What The Fruitcake?! came to our rescue last minute to present us with the Battenberg Cake challenge! She highlighted Mary Berry’s techniques and recipes to allow us to create this unique little cake with ease.

Traditionally, a Battenberg cake is pink and white and covered in marzipan (and perfect for a tea party, I might add!). Nothing wrong with traditional, but when given the chance, it’s pretty fun to switch things up. Mandy gave us a recipe for the original pink-and-white cake as well as a walnut and coffee version with coffee buttercream, which sounded amazing, plus, as a substitute for marzipan, a recipe for something called “chocolate plastique”, which is chocolate mixed with corn syrup so that it can be molded or rolled out. Moldable chocolate? That had my name all over it.

…

Cedar Planked Salmon with Rosemary Smoke

June 21, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 2 Comments

I have another guest post up at the SeaChange blog: Cedar Planked Salmon with Rosemary Smoke. This is a perfect summer grilling recipe and a very exciting cooking method!

100% Sourdough Bagels

June 20, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 23 Comments

This month’s Sourdough Surprises project was bagels, yet another item that just so happened to be on my “summer to-make” list. The recipe comes from Susan at Wild Yeast, a fantastic blog and resource for all things concerning bread and the home of YeastSpotting, a weekly round-up of user-submitted blog posts featuring bread and yeast (to which this post has been submitted!).

You should really head over to read Susan’s original post of this recipe, because not only is it witty, it is also very informative. I’ve never made bagels before, but I do agree with many of her opinions, including the one that the only good bagel is a chewy bagel. This means kneading the heck out of the dough, and unless you have arms of steel and a lot of free time, you’re going to “knead” a stand-mixer. (Sorry, that was terrible.)…

Blue Hawaiian Pizza

June 16, 2012 By Korena in the Kitchen 13 Comments

We’re moving in almost exactly two weeks and so far I have managed to do very little in the way of packing. I have also managed to neglect this blog, so I wanted to quickly share this “Blue Hawaiian” pizza I made for dinner last night. No recipe needed – just make your traditional Hawaiian pizza with sauce, ham, and pineapple, plus the secret ingredient: crumbled blue cheese.

(Don’t forget the mozzarella.)

Nate and I both love this combination – definitely a grown-up twist on a kid favorite, especially if you like blue cheese.

I’ve discovered a really awesome pizza crust recipe and baking method which I will share here eventually… in the meantime, try this on your next pizza!

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. 🙂