Today is my last day of work before an (unfortunately unpaid) four month summer vacation; an occasion which, I think, merits a cake. This strawberry shortcake torte actually made its appearance as dessert after Easter dinner, and it disappeared pretty darn quickly. Really though, what’s not to like? Lemon-scented sponge cake topped with marshmallowy meringue, layered with whipped cream and fresh strawberries….
Fettuccine Alfredo with Smoked Sockeye Salmon
Some fun things have been happening behind the scenes here on my little piece of the internet, one of which is that I’ve started a stint as a guest blogger for SeaChange Canadian Gifts. SeaChange is a company based on Salt Spring Island, BC, where I grew up, and they are known for their delicious smoked salmon products (among other quintessentially Canadian edibles). I’m really excited to be working with them and using their products to develop recipes, the first of which is this Fettuccine Alfredo with Smoked Sockeye Salmon. Head over to the SeaChange blog for the full post and recipe!
Roasted Mushroom Pesto for Pizza
One of the truly great taste combinations is mushrooms and cheese, so it is a no-brainer to put them together on a pizza. What is not a no-brainer is making mushroom pesto to put on the pizza instead of tomato sauce. That is brilliant. Another brilliant thing is to roast the mushrooms in the oven before making them into pesto. How have I never roasted mushrooms before? The smells coming out of the oven while they were roasting were just incredible….
Almond Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies
Third post containing chocolate in a row, my goodness! Actually I’m surprised it hasn’t happened sooner…
Have you made those peanut butter cookies that are just peanut butter, egg, and sugar? These almond butter cookies are like that, but better. Chewy, crisp, and buttery (but made without butter or flour), they also have maple syrup, chocolate chips and chunks of toasted almonds. Yum. They were so good and so easy!…
Chocolate Hot Cross Buns
Once again, the start of spring and the approach of Easter mean that it’s hot cross bun season. I had pretty good success last year making hot cross buns, so I gave them another try – but this time I added chocolate, because almost anything is better when you add chocolate. Prior to this, I had never actually had a chocolate hot cross bun, but I have seen them in bakeries and heard wonderful things about them (apparently they are very popular in Australia). There doesn’t seem to be a huge amount of recipes available on the internet, so I decided to come up with my own. I added cocoa powder and chocolate chips (plus dried cherries and apricots) to my existing hot cross bun recipe, along with a healthy dose of cinnamon and cardamom, with which I have recently become enamoured and which happens to go very well with chocolate. And for the cross on top, white chocolate….
The Pioneer Woman’s Chocolate Pots de Crème
Aka, The Easiest Dessert Ever.
When I was at home suffering from the plague last week, I had a major craving for chocolate, specifically something rich and creamy and easy. These chocolate pots de crème satisfy all of those criteria: throw some chocolate chips and eggs in a blender, blend with some steaming hot coffee, chill, and eat. Couldn’t be simpler, or more decadent! I topped them with a little coconut cream (I didn’t have any whipping cream) and they were totally delicious. It’s a good thing I only discovered these recently, or I would have been making them once a week. Very dangerous.
Technically, I don’t think you can call these “true” pots de crème, because they don’t actually contain any cream, nor are they baked in a water bath. However, the flavour and texture are pretty much right on. The hot coffee serves to cook the eggs and imparts a little bit of coffee flavour, but mostly it just intensifies the chocolate flavour. I think you could use hot milk or cream instead of coffee and change up the dark chocolate chips for milk or white chocolate, and add whatever flavours you want (I added a pinch of cinnamon). I intend to do lots of experimenting with this one – it got rave reviews from everyone who tried it, and was waaaay too good not to make again soon! So if you need a quick chocolate fix, here you go: you can thank me later.
Chocolate Pots de Crème
Adapted from the Pioneer Woman. Makes 4 servings.
In a blender jar, combine:
6 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
2 eggs
a small pinch of salt
1 tbsp or so of liqueur (I used French vanilla Kahlua)
Put the lid on and blend to combine.
Pour in 1/2 cup very hot coffee and blend, blend, blend. You are supposed to pour the coffee in through the hole in the lid while the blender is going, but I’m not very good at reading instructions and just dumped the coffee in all at once, then put the lid back on and blended. It worked fine.
At this point you can also add a pinch of cinnamon or a dash of vanilla if you feel so inclined.
Pour the blended mixture into 4 small vessels of about 1/2 cup capacity.
Chill them in the fridge for a few hours until cold and set. Top with lightly sweetened whipped cream (or coconut cream) and devour.
Crispy Pork and Hot & Sour Rhubarb Sauce with Noodles
I usually think of rhubarb as a really great companion to strawberries in a pie or crisp, but its slightly acidic, slightly sweet flavour lends itself well to applications other than dessert. I have a freezer full of rhubarb from last year, and seeing as rhubarb season is almost upon us once again, I figured I had better use some of it up. Inspired by the rhubarb meatballs in Kate’s weekly meal plan at Venison for Dinner, I did a Google search for a sweet and sour sauce made with rhubarb and came across a recipe by Jamie Oliver for “My Favorite Hot and Sour Rhubarb with Crispy Pork and Noodles”. Being at home sick for a few days last week, I ended up watching a lot of Jamie on the Food Network, which cemented my gigantic crush on him and made me only too happy to try this recipe. Pieces of pork are baked in a sauce of pureed rhubarb, chilis, honey, and Asian flavours, then the pork is shallow-fried until crispy and served with the sauce over noodles, topped with what Jamie calls “interesting cresses”. I think what he means by this is micro greens, however my local grocery store isn’t so posh, so I ended up using bean sprouts and sunflower sprouts.
Look at those interesting cresses!
Jamie uses pork belly in his recipe, but I used pork shoulder instead (pork butt would work too). This was SO GOOD! The rhubarb sauce is tangy and flavourful, the pork is tender yet crisp, and the “interesting cresses” add a good dose of freshness and crunchy texture. It requires a bit of foresight to make because the pork takes at least an hour in the oven, but it’s definitely going on the “make again” list!
Crispy Pork and Hot & Sour Rhubarb Sauce with Noodles
Adapted from Jamie Oliver. Serves 2.
Preheat the oven to 350˚F. In an 8-inch square roasting pan, place:
500 grams boneless pork shoulder or butt, cut into 1 1/2-inch pieces
Sprinkle the pork with salt and pepper and set aside.
In a food processor, combine:
200 grams chopped rhubarb (fresh or frozen and thawed)
2 tbsp liquid honey
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic, roughly chopped
1/2-inch chunk of ginger, peeled and roughly chopped
1 fresh red chili, de-seeded and chopped, OR 1 tsp chili paste (such as sambal oelek)
heaping 1/2 tsp Chinese 5-spice powder
Process until smooth (or as Jamie says, “wazz it up!”).
Pour the rhubarb mixture over the pork and cover the pan with foil.
Pretty unattractive but delicious anyway!
Bake in a 350˚F oven for 60-90 minutes, until the pork is tender.
Remove the pork from the pan and scrape off as much rhubarb sauce as you can.
Place the rhubarb sauce in a pot and bring to a simmer to thicken if needed. Adjust the seasoning to taste – I added a little more honey and soy sauce and a dab of chili paste.
For the crispy pork, pour enough vegetable oil in the bottom of a wok or large pan to cover it 1/4-inch deep, and heat it over medium. When the oil is hot, add the pork pieces (I did this in two batches so as not to crowd the pan). Fry on both sides until brown and crispy, then set aside on paper towels to drain.
For the noodles, put a large pot of water on to boil while the oil heats. When you fry the pork, place about 175 grams of dry Asian egg noodles in the boiling water and cook until al dente.
To serve, divide the noodles between two bowls and spoon over the rhubarb sauce and crispy pork.
Top each bowl with:
a handful of “interesting cresses” such as bean sprouts and sunflower sprouts
sliced green onions (I forgot these)
seeded and chopped red chili
cilantro leaves
lime wedge
Mix it all up and dig in!
Daring Bakers: Dutch Crunch Rolls
Sara and Erica of Baking JDs were our March 2012 Daring Baker hostesses! Sara & Erica challenged us to make Dutch Crunch bread, a delicious sandwich bread with a unique, crunchy topping. Sara and Erica also challenged us to create a one of a kind sandwich with our bread!
Despite the fact that I was really hoping for a ridiculous, elaborate, sugary baking project for this month’s challenge, these Dutch Crunch Rolls are pretty fantastic. I had never heard of Dutch Crunch bread, but it turns out that it’s a San Francisco local specialty that originated in the Netherlands (hence the name). In Dutch, it’s called tijgerbrood, or “tiger bread” because of the way the topping cracks to look like tiger stripes (although there’s a growing consensus that it looks more like a giraffe’s spots!). “Dutch crunch” refers to the yeasted rice flour topping that is applied to the bread before baking, rather than to the bread itself, which can be any kind of soft-ish sandwich-style bread.
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White Chocolate Orange Thinsees
When I was growing up, my Mum and I baked a lot of cookies together, and one of my favorites was the Chocolate Thinsees from a cookbook called Golde’s Homemade Cookies. These were a dark chocolate cookie made of a soft batter and topped with chopped nuts, and during baking they spread out thin and became satisfyingly chewy, yet soft, with a texture almost more like cake than cookie. Sounds odd, but I loved them and as soon as I was old enough to use the oven by myself, I made them all the time – they were totally addictive.
A few weeks ago I had some mandarin oranges languishing in my fruit bowl, and I decided that orange-flavoured cookies would be the best way to use them up. I pulled out my copy of Golde’s cookbook, and came across the Chocolate Thinsees recipe. Chocolate and orange is a tried and true combination, but I didn’t have any of the semi-sweet chocolate that the recipe called for. I did, however, have some white chocolate, so I decided to make White Chocolate Orange Thinsees and top them with Brazil nuts. It was a good call.
These thin, crisp cookies are sort of like French tuiles, but with a chewier texture. They weren’t quite as cake-like as I remember, but they were just as addictive – they barely lasted a whole day, and by the time the last batch came out of the oven, I had already eaten so many that I have no idea how many I actually made. Golde suggests that these make a great tea cookie. I suggest that you make them immediately and just try to stop yourself from eating them by the handful!
White Chocolate Orange Thinsees
Adapted from Golde’s Homemade Cookies by Golde Hoffman Soloway
Preheat oven to 300˚F.
In the microwave or over a double boiler, melt:
2 oz white chocolate, roughly chopped
Set aside to cool slightly.
In a medium bowl, cream together:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, soft
2/3 cup brown sugar
1 tbsp orange zest
When light and fluffy, stir in the melted white chocolate, then add:
2 eggs
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
Mix until well blended, then stir in:
1/2 cup all purpose flour
dash salt
Mix well. The batter will be quite soft.
Drop the batter by teaspoonfuls on a baking sheet lined with a Silpat or parchment paper. The cookies will spread a lot in the oven, so leave a few inches of room between them – I found six per sheet to be plenty. Sprinkle the cookies with chopped nuts (about 3/4 cup total) – I used Brazil nuts.
Bake in the 300˚F oven for 15-18 minutes, until light brown at the edges and set in the middle. Let the cookies cool on the baking sheet for 2 minutes before removing them to a cooling rack with a thin spatula. If they have all run into each other to form one giant cookie, cut them apart with a sharp knife before removing them from the baking sheet.
I dare you not to eat them all in one day!
PS – It was brought to my attention that I’ve been nominated for the “Kreativ Blogger Award” by Sibella of Baking with Sibella. Thank you Sibella, I’m very flattered! However rather than listing seven things about myself and nominating seven other blogs, I would encourage you to visit Sibella’s lovely blog and check out her gorgeous baking – I’m especially taken with her Non Plus Ultra cookies.
Posh Mayonnaise
In general, one of the draws of cooking and baking at home is that whatever you make usually ends up being less expensive than if you’d bought it at the store. Unfortunately, this mayonnaise, made with avocado oil and Meyer lemons, turned out to be exactly the opposite of that: much much more expensive than any mayonnaise I would ever buy at the store.
Quite a while ago, I got it into my head to make mayonnaise with avocado oil and Meyer lemon after my uncle posted about it on his blog – it just sounded so good – and then when I finally got around to making it and discovered that a little bottle of avocado oil is fifteen dollars (!!), I was already committed. Sometimes I get overly gung-ho about a project.
Luckily, avocado oil is not a compulsory ingredient, and you could make this mayonnaise with any kind of mildly-flavoured vegetable oil. Next time I will probably use grape seed oil, and I anticipate that the results will be just as good. For that matter, any variety of lemon – Meyer or otherwise – would also work, but in this case, Meyer lemons add a nice light perfume to the mayonnaise. Regardless of the ingredients you use, homemade mayo is super easy to make and is great on a sandwich, wonderful for dipping roast potatoes, and makes awesome egg or chicken salad.
Homemade Mayonnaise
In a blender jar (immersion blender or otherwise), combine the following in order:
2 egg yolks
1 whole egg
1 tbsp fresh lemon juice (2 tbsp if using Meyer lemons)
1/2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 cup mildly-flavoured vegetable oil (avocado oil if you’re feeling extravagant)
1/4 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
Blend until thick and creamy.
Stir in:
1-2 tsp lemon zest (optional)
Store in an airtight jar in the fridge. Slather on anything you want to make more delicious.
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