Hot Pickle and Cheese Cracker Dip

Although I'm not exactly sure, I believe this recipe was ripped out of an issue of Bon Appetit magazine. Don't quote me on that. I'm at a cottage and easy recipes are a requirement for dinner parties. This one was a snap to make. I used cheddar goldfish rather than Cheez-It crackers on top, because that's what I had in the cupboard. And to be honest, I followed the recipe only vaguely. 

Ingredients:

• 3 Tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 garlic clove finely chopped
• 1 tsp crushed red pepper flakes
• 4 oz. cream chees
• 4 oz. sour cream ( I used a thick plain yogurt)
• 1 cup dill relish
• 1 oz. Parmesan finely grated
• 1/4 cup chopped dill
• 1 Tablespoon finely grated lemon zest
• 1 Tablespoon fresh lemon juice
• 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• kosher salt to taste
• 1 and 1/2 cups cheesy crackers ( I used cheddar goldfish)

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Heat the oil in a small skillet over low heat and add the garlic and red pepper flakes. Cook for about 2 minutes (but do not brown), then place the mixture in a medium sized bowl. 

Stir in all of the remaining ingredients except for the crackers. Place the mixture in a 1 quart baking dish and smooth the surface. Smash the cheese crackers and scatter them over the top of the dip.

The recipe says to bake until warmed through, about 10 minutes. I've made this dip twice now and it has taken significantly longer than 10 minutes to warm, so use your best judgement on how long to keep it in the oven.

Almond Rhubarb Coffee Cake

My friend Julie made this delicious moist coffee cake using rhubarb from her garden. Nothing says an Ontario summer is on its way like something made with fresh rhubarb.

Ingredients: 

• 2 ½ cups all-purpose flour 
• 1 teaspoon salt 
•  1teaspoon baking soda 
•  1 ½ cups packed brown sugar
•  ⅔ cup vegetable oil 
•  1 large egg 
•  1 teaspoon vanilla extract
•  1 cup milk 
•  1 ½ cups rhubarb, chopped 
•  ½ cup sliced almonds 

 Streusel Topping: 

•  ⅓ cup white sugar 
•  1 tablespoon butter, melted
•  ¼ cup sliced almonds 

Methods: 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). 

Grease two 9-inch round cake pans.  

Combine the flour, salt, and baking soda together in a medium bowl. Beat the brown sugar, oil, egg, and vanilla with an electric mixer in a large bowl until smooth. Add the flour mixture and milk, alternately, and combine. Stir in the rhubarb and 1/2 cup almonds until incorporated. Pour the batter into the prepared pans. 

To make the struesel, mix the white sugar and melted butter together with a fork in a small bowl, then stir in 1/4 cup almonds and sprinkle over the batter. 

Bake in the preheated oven until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, 30 to 35 minutes.

Original recipe from www.allrecipes.com

Orzo with Spinach and Feta from the New York Times

 

My friend Julie made this one-pan wonder. It's delicious, filling, and looks like spring on a plate. I suspect that you could up the 'spring' factor further by adding a handful or two of chopped asparagus as you stir in the stock.

Ingredients:

• 2 tablespoons unsalted butter
• 4 large scallions, trimmed and thinly sliced
• 2 large garlic cloves, minced
• 8 cups of baby spinach leaves, chopped coarsely
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 3/4 cups low sodium chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 cup orzo
• 1 teaspoon finely grated lemon zest
• 3/4 cup crumbled feta plus more for garnish
• 1/2 cup thawed frozen peas
• 1 cup chopped fresh dill, or parsley or cilantro

Methods:

Heat a 10-inch skillet and melt the butter. Stir in about 3/4 of the scallions, saving the remainder for garnish. Add the garlic and cook until softened, about 3 minutes.

Stir in the spinach and 1/2 teaspoon of salt and continue to cook for about 5 minutes until the spinach has wilted .

Stir in the stock and bring to a simmer. Then stir in the orzo, lemon zest and remaining 1/2 teaspoon of kosher salt. Cover and simmer over medium low heat until most of the liquid is absorbed.  This will take 10 to 14 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Finally, stir in the cheese, peas and dill, cover the pan and cook for another minute. Sprinkle with more cheese and the reserved scallions to serve.

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Cornbread ...it's not Johnny Cake apparently

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Middle

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So, this recipe was taken from the back of a package of Bob's Red Mill cornmeal. I've always called cornbread Johnny Cake but the internet tells me I am incorrect in doing so. I was, however, not wrong in placing a pat of butter and a splash of Ontario maple syrup on the warm out-of-the-oven cornbread. Tomorrow, I'm planning on serving it to a friend with butter and jam.

I've taken a photo of my mixing bowl which I was inspired to purchase after binge-watching on Instagram a young women in Paris bake truly wonderful things in her tiny kitchen. She uses blue and white decorated antique bowls to mix up her extraordinary bakes.  

Ingredients:

• 1 cup of medium grind cornmeal
• 1 1/3 cup buttermilk (I used yogurt cut with water)
• 1 cup all purpose flour
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 2 eggs
• 1/4 cup melted butter, cooled

Methods:

Combine the cornmeal and buttermilk in a large bowl and let it sit for 10 minutes. 

Heat your oven to 375 degrees F. Grease an 8 x 8 inch baking pan.

Mix together the dry ingredients and add to the cornmeal mixture along with the eggs and butter. Mix until thoroughly combined and then spread in the pan and pop into the oven for 25 to 30 minutes until a toothpick comes out clean.

Green Onion Pancakes AKA Cong You Bing...very interesting.

This recipe was presented by Julie Van Rosendaal in a recent 'How We Eat' column in  Toronto's Globe and Mail. Apparently these green onion pancakes were popularized by restaurateur Siu To of Edmonton, who is credited with introducing cong you bing (a scallion pancake) to the city in 1979. Not sure when and how these are meant to be eaten. I believe they are supposed to be snack-like.They are definitely best when warm. Actually, I think they might be good served with my sister's yellow pea dip.

Ingredients: 

• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup warm water
• 2 tbsp butter or shortening
• 2 tbsp canola or vegetable oil
• 1 tsp sesame oil
• 1 bunch of green onions roughly chopped
• salt to taste

Methods:

Stir together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a bowl. Add the water and stir until the dough comes together. Knead for an indefinite period of time. The dough apparently is supposed to feel like your cheek. Cover the dough with a towel and let it rest for 30 minutes.

Melt the butter or shortening and combine it with the canola/vegetable oil and sesame oil in a small bowl.

Divide the dough into 4 equal pieces and roll out each piece as thin as you can get it. (I did not roll them sufficiently thinly). Brush the dough with the butter and oil mixture and sprinkle with a handful of chopped scallions.

Starting with a long side, roll the dough up then make a coil as you might a cinnamon roll.

Set the 4 coils aside to rest for about 20 minutes. 

Next, place each coil between 2 pieces of parchment paper and roll them out as thinly as you like. Heat a skillet over medium high heat with a drizzle of oil and cook one pancake at a time, covering the skillet with a lid for the first 2-3 minutes. Then reduce the heat to medium low and flip the pancake, cooking it uncovered for another 1-2 minutes.

This is what my coil of cong you bing looked like prior to flattening.

Chomeur. The early spring is maple syrup season in Ontario.

This maple syrup pudding puts people in a coma. It’s  known as pouding chomeaur, (literally unemployment pudding or poor man's pudding), which is somewhat ironic given that buying maple syrup these days is akin to purchasing liquid gold.

Chomeur is very like a cottage pudding with a buttery cake forming the top layer. The bottom layer is essentially syrup infused cake.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/3 cups of dark amber maple syrup

• 1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 3 tablespoons of unsalted, room temperature, butter

• 1 cup of all-purpose flour

• 2 teaspoons of baking powder

• ½ teaspoon salt

• a pinch of mace (unbelievably, I had some available)

• 1 large egg plus another egg yolk

• 1/3 cup buttermilk (or use plain yogurt cut with water)

• 2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

• 2/3 cup sugar

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Lightly butter an 8 inch square glass or ceramic baking dish.

In a medium saucepan, boil the maple syrup over a medium heat until it is reduced to 1 cup. This takes about

6 minutes. If you happen to let the syrup boil over, you're basically totally screwed. Whisk in 3 tablespoons of butter,

then place the syrup mixture into the bottom of your baking dish.

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, salt, mace and baking powder. In a second small bowl, whisk together 

the wet ingredients: the whole egg, additional egg yolk, the buttermilk and vanilla. 

In a large bowl, mix the remaining stick of butter with the sugar until creamed. Then, at a low speed, mix in the 

dry ingredients in two batches, alternating with the liquid ingredients to form a smooth batter. Evenly dollop heaping 

tablespoons of the batter on top of the maple syrup. Bake the pudding for 35 minutes or until the top is nicely 

browned and a toothpick inserted into the top comes out clean. Let it cool before eating or risk severe burns.

Bacon and Tomato Risotto by Canadian Chef Anna Olson

Risotto requires a lot of stirring. Although Anna Olsen seems less rigid about stirring in this recipe than other risotto recipe authors I've seen. I have often wondered about risotto prepared in restaurants and who is left stirring the pot there.

My guinea pig luncheon guests seemed to like this risotto. It is very red.The reason it looks slightly congealed in the photo below is because I forgot to take a photo at the time I served it up. This is a photo of the leftovers, post-refrigeration. It's congealed alright.

Ingredients:

• 6 slices of smoked bacon, diced
• 1 small onion, diced
• 1.5 cups of arborio rice
• 3 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 cup of dry white wine
• 4 cups of chicken stock
• 2 cups of tinned crushed tomatoes
• grated parmesan cheese to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

Methods: 

Cook the bacon until crisp in a large saucepan/skillet. Remove the bacon and leave 2 Tbsp. of bacon fat in the pan. Add the onions and cook for about 5 minutes until softened. Add the rice and stir for about 2 minutes until stirring in the garlic and white wine.  Stir continuously for about 2 minutes until the wine has been absorbed. Stir in about 1/3 of the stock, then stir occassionally until the stock has been absorbed. Then add the remaining stock in 2 further additions, stirring occasionally until absorbed. Add the crushed tomatoes ansd stir continuously until the liquid has been absorbed. Add the bacon and cheese, and season to taste with salt and pepper.

This photo shows my 'mise en place' for the risotto. 'Mise en place' is a French culinary term meaning 'putting in place'. It simply means that I had things measured and chopped and ready to go before my guests arrived for the lunch. I could then make the risotto fairly easily while we were all in the kitchen chatting with a glass of wine in hand.

Pear Frangipane Tart

Frangipane, an almond cream, is a staple in French baking and is a great base for fruit tarts. I used my usual lard-based crust for this pear tart, which I expect the French would frown on most ardently. They use butter of course.

Ingredients: 

• 3 thinly sliced Bosc pears (use whatever pears/fruit you like)
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1 and 1/3 cup ground almonds
• about 4 tablespoons of softened butter
• 2 eggs
• 1/2 teaspoon of almond extract
• a couple of tablespoons of jam thinned with water to a spreadable consistency (I used strawberry)
• 1 pie crust 

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F. 

Place your rolled pastry into a pie plate of your choice. I used a 10-inch pan with a removable bottom. Combine the sugar, almonds, butter, eggs and extract well then spread the mixture evenly over the pastry in the pan. Slice the pears thinly and fan out the slices as you place them on top of the almond filling. Brush the top of the filling with the thinned jam. 

I forgot to time the baking of this tart but basically continue baking until the pastry is golden brown and the filling is firm. A toothpick placed in the almond base should come out clean.

Two things to note:

I used whole ground almonds (with skin on) which means the frangipane is darker than it would be if made by the French. Also, they would no doubt blind-bake the pastry prior to adding the filling to bake. Let's describe my tart as rustic.

Lemon Pots de Creme

 

Again, from the Chez Piggy cookbook, a delicious refreshing dessert. Chez Piggy remains an iconic Kingston restaurant, founded in the late '70's by Rose Richardson and Zal Yanofsky. Zal was famously the lead guitarist and singer for the Lovin' Spoonful. My husband was once greeted by Zal at Chez Piggy's with an exuberant "Doug! Great to see you. Where've you been?" To which my husband replied, "I got married". 

Ingredients:

• 1.5 cups of 35% butterfat cream
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1 egg
• 4 egg yolks
• 1/2 cup lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. lemon zest

Methods: 

Preheat your oven to 325 degrees F. Gently warm the cream to body temperature in a saucepan, then pour it into a bowl and stir in the sugar until it dissolves. Beat the egg and egg yolks together, then whisk the eggs into the cream mixture. Stir in the lemon juice and zest. Pour the mixture into 4 oven proof custard cups and place the cups into a hot water bath. Bake for 45 minutes, then remove from the water bath and let cool. Refrigerate until serving.

Eccles Cakes

An Eccles cake is a small round (roundish) pie, similar to a turnover, filled with currants and raisins, made from flaky pastry and sometimes topped with brown sugar. It originated in Eccles, England. 

Recently, the receptionist at my physiotherapist's office upon overhearing a group of arthritis-stricken people talking about this pastry, ran breathlessly into the room to ask about a potential source. 

To be honest, there are a few things that should be left to old-timey bakeshops to produce. However, old-timey bakeshops are few and far between in my neck of the woods. So if needs must, you make your own Eccles cakes.  

And just to be clear, these things are not cake-like at all.

Ingredients:

• 6 tablespoons 

  unsalted butter

• 1 

  cinnamon stick

• 1 teaspoon 

  ground nutmeg

• 1/2 teaspoon 

  ground cloves

• zest from a lemon
• zest from an orange
• 2 cups 

  dried currants

• 1/2 cup 

  golden raisins

• 2 tablespoons 

  brandy

• 1/4 cup 

  fresh-squeezed lemon juice ( I just used the juice from 1 lemon)

• a package of puff pastry

• 1 egg beaten

• coarse sugar

Methods:

1. Melt the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. Add the spices and peel and fry until they are fragrant in the butter. Add the fruit, brandy, and juice. Simmer for ten or fifteen minutes, stirring occasionally. Cool and refrigerate overnight to let the flavours really meld.

1. Heat the oven to 375°F. Line a couple of baking sheets with parchment paper.  Roll the puff pastry to a thickness of about 1/8-inch.

2. Cut circles in the pastry. You will have to determine how large you want your Eccles cakes to be. A 4-inch circle will make a quite small finished product. I prefer bigger Eccles cakes. Put a dollop of filling in the center of each dough circle. 

   Fold in half, like a potsticker dumpling, and seal the edges with your fingers. Bring the two pointy edges up and fold them in the center, on the curved seam. Flatten out the pouch with your fingers, and roll it into a circle - just thin enough that the filling shows through the dough a little. Try not to let it leak out. Make two or three shallow slashes in the top. 

3. Brush each pastry with beaten egg, and sprinkle with sugar. 

4. Bake for about 20 minutes, or until golden brown and puffy. 

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Ross Lewis Soda Bread

This delicious bread recipe is adapted from a Lucy Waverman (formerly of the Globe & Mail) adaptation of an Irish recipe from Chapter One (a fancy Dublin restaurant). My adaptation of the recipe was a result of forgetting to add two of the ingredients, so it was really an error rather than a true adaptation. But do rolled oats really belong in soda bread, and who adds a single teaspoon of sugar to anything anyway?

A cool thing about this new recipe is that when you're putting some of the ingredients together it feels like you're participating in a crazy science experiment. You'll see what I mean, you mad scientist you.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 & 1/2 cup wheat barn
• 1/2 cup rolled oats (this is what I forgot to add)
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 teaspoon sugar (I forgot to add this too. Big deal.)
• 650 ml buttermilk (approximately 2 & 1/2 cups)
• 1 tablespoon molasses
• 4 teaspoons baking soda

Methods:

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees F. Grease a loaf pan and line it with parchment paper.

Combine all of the ingredients except the buttermilk, molasses and baking soda in a stand mixer fitted with a whisk attachment, if you have one. If not, use a hand mixer or a wooden spoon.

Heat the buttermilk with molasses in a pot until just warm. Stir in the baking soda (here's where the excitement happens), then add the buttermilk mixture to the dry ingredients and mix on a medium speed for 5 minutes. Increase the speed to high and mix for 2 minutes more.

Scrape the dough into the prepared pan and bake for 50 to 60 minutes or until the loaf is dark brown and hollow-sounding when tapped. Allow the bread to rest on a rack for 2 hours out of the pan.