Walnut Dip

This savoury and very satisfying dip comes to you from Weight Watchers.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups fat-free plain Greek yogurt
• 1 cup finely chopped walnuts
• 3 Tbsp lemon juice
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 1 Tbsp of fresh dill chopped
• 1 Tbsp olive oil
• 4 teaspoons of sea salt
• 1 teaspoon paprika 

Methods: Mix everything together. Store it in the refrigerator until use. Dip away.

Apple Skillet Cake with Salted Caramel Frosting from the New York Times Cooking column. It's the "best cake ever".

I made this cake to take to a luncheon at my cousin's home. Her husband, who is a cake aficionado, declared it "best cake ever". My husband raved about the salt on the frosting.

I admit to changing up the original recipe ever so slightly. I did not use a skillet, so it took quite a bit longer to bake than the recipe stated. And, I used my sister's recipe for a brown sugar frosting rather than the frosting made with caramel candies as suggested by the NY Times. Below you see the un-iced cake. I somehow missed photographing the iced cake. 

Ingredients for the caramel apples:

• 4 Tbsp unsalted butter
• 2 large baking apples, peeled cored and chopped into 1/2 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon sea salt

Ingredients for the cake:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter plus more for the pan
• 1 & 1/3 cup of brown sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 1 & 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 1 & 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

Ingredients for the frosting: 

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/2 cup brown sugar 
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla 
• 2-3 cups of icing sugar
• several pinches of sea salt

Methods:

The apples:

In a saute pan, melt 4 tablespoons of butter over medium heat, then add the apples , brown sugar and salt,. Cook stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves and the apples soften slightly. This will take 4-5 minutes. Let cool to room temperature.

The cake: 

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Grease a 10 -inch oven proof skillet with butter. Cream the butter and brown sugar until light and fluffy, then add the eggs one at a time and beat well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Mix the dry ingredients together in a medium bowl (flour salt, baking powder and spices), then add the dry mixture to the wet mixture and mix until just combined.

With a rubber spatula, gently fold the apples and all of their caramelized liquid into the batter. Pour the batter into the prepared skillet and bake it until the surface is a golden brown  for 30-35 minutes.

Allow the cake to cool. Note, if you use something other than a skillet to contain the cake, the baking time may vary.

The Frosting:

Melt the butter in a pot on the stove over a medium heat, then add the brown sugar, syrup, salt and milk. Remove from the heat and add the vanilla. Beat in 2-3 cups of icing sugar depending on how stiff you want your icing to be and the nature of your icing sugar. While the icing is still warm, pour it over the cooled cake. When the icing has set, sprinkle some sea salt on top before serving.

Banana Cake

Before we get into the swing of Christmas baking, I have decided to post a recipe that is iconic in our family. If a future anthropologist were to describe our defining characteristics, her report would read something like... "a family of large-headed people who liked to bake their over-ripe fruit in a cake". Anyway, here it is.

Ingredients:

• 1 and 1/4 cups of granulated sugar
• 1/2 cup of butter at room temperature
• 2 eggs
• 1 cup mashed bananas
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 4 tablespoons of milk
• 1 and 3/4 cups of flour
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Methods: 
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Cream the butter and sugar together and then add all the other ingredients and mix until combined. (I suppose that you really should mix the dry ingredients together and add them in increments). Pour batter into a buttered, parchment paper-lined cake pan and bake until a toothpick stuck in the centre of the cake comes out clean. Depending on the size of your cake pan/depth of the cake, this will take in the range of 30-40 minutes. Cool and ice with whatever type of icing you prefer. We use a brown sugar icing but chocolate is nice as well.

Brown Sugar Icing:
Melt in a pot on the stove about 1/2 cup of butter and 1/2 cup of brown sugar, plus 1/4 cup of corn syrup or maple syrup. Then stir in 1/4 teaspoon salt and 1/2 cup of milk. Remove from the heat. Add 1 teaspoon of vanilla, then beat in 2-3 cups of icing sugar. While the icing is still warm , pour over the cooled cake.

Nigella Lawson's Tarragon Chicken

Here is another easy and delicious recipe from Britain's domestic goddess of yore, Nigella Lawson. I should caution that while it is easy, this dish will be delicious only to those who enjoy the flavour of tarragon.

Ingredients:

• one 3- to 4-pound chicken
• ¾  cup chopped fresh tarragon
• juice and grated zest of 1 lemon
• ½  cup olive oil
•  Malden salt or other flaky sea salt

Methods: 
Butterfly the chicken by placing it breast-side down and, using kitchen shears, cutting along both sides of backbone and through small rib bones. Place the chicken in a large ziplock bag, and add 1/2 cup tarragon, the lemon juice and zest, and olive oil. Ensure that the chicken is well-coated and refrigerate it for at least 1/2 hour and up to 24 hours.

Pre-heat your oven to 450 degrees F. and hope that it is clean. Otherwise, you will end up testing your smoke alarms. Place the chicken in a roasting pan, spread it flat, breast side up and roast until skin is crisp and golden, 35 to 45 minutes.

Sprinkle it with salt to taste, and cut into 8 serving pieces. Transfer to a platter, and garnish with remaining tarragon. Yummy.

Apple Butter....it's simply a matter of concentration

Apple butter is a bit of a misnomer ‘cuz there’s no butter in this low-sugar-added fruit spread, simply intense apple flavour. It’s basically very concentrated apple sauce. The more you cook it, the darker and thicker it becomes. There are a number of ways to make apple butter. In the end, it all boils down (no pun intended) to personal preference and the equipment you have available to work with.

 Ingredients:

• 4 pounds of a good saucing apple such as Cortland or McIntosh
• 1-2 cups of water
• brown sugar, cinnamon, cloves or allspice to taste (or none at all)
• cider vinegar or lemon juice to taste (or none at all)

Methods:
You can peel and core the apples but this is not a necessity. Apple cores contain pectin, which firms the ‘butter’, and there is a lot of flavor and colour in the apple peels, so you might want to leave them in the mix. You do have to quarter the apples, add a bit of water and start turning them into sauce by bringing them to a boil in a large pot on the stove, then turning the temperature down to simmer for about 20 minutes. Given the process of making fruit ‘butter’ is all about reduction, you have to begin with a lot of apples (and a little water) so use a large pot.

After the apples are sauced, you will want to ensure a smooth consistency to the end product. If you’ve made the sauce with unpeeled and un-cored apples, then you must use a food mill or sieve to get rid of the cooked skin and cores. If you’ve peeled and cored the apples prior to saucing them, then you can simply use a blender or immersible whizzer to ensure there are no lumps in your sauce.

Once the apple sauce is pureed, slowly reduce it using the same cooking pot on the stove over a low heat, stirring frequently. Or, if you have a slow cooker, use that for the reduction process. This is all about evaporation. You can add whatever small amount of seasoning (cinnamon, cloves or allspice) and sugar you wish to add. Alternatively, you can add nothing at all. Remember, apples contain fruit sugar and those natural sugars are condensed during the cooking process. By not adding more sugar, the final product will be lovely and tart. Some recipes add apple cider vinegar to the mix, others use a splash of fresh lemon juice. Pour the butter into hot, sterilized canning jars and seal with sterilized lids. If you plan to store the apple butter un-refrigerated, make sure to follow proper preserving procedures (i.e. a boiling water bath after bottling).

Pork with White Beans and Winter Greens

This one-pot supper of Italian-style pork and beans is adapted from a recipe provided by food columnist Lucy Waverman, when she actually acted as a food columnist. Recently, she has been relegated to more of  food trivia columnist. 

I'm sure that her more rigorous approach to re-hydrating dried cannellini beans would yield a more authentic dish. My approach (using canned white kidney beans) was way faster and still got rave reviews. I forgot to take a photo of the finished product. So, the photo you see above is taken from the Oct 24, 2015 edition of the Globe & Mail. It's all Lucy's.  

Ingredients:

• 1 tin of white kidney beans (very well rinsed and drained)
• 1 and 1/2 pounds of pork shoulder, cut in 1 inch cubes
• several sprigs of thyme or 1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
• 3 tbsp. olive oil
• 1 cup chopped onion
• 1 tbsp. chopped garlic
• 1 tbsp. slivered sage leaves (I used 3 sprigs of rosemary instead)
• 2 cups chicken stock
• lemon juice
• 6 cups thinly sliced kale (or other bitter greens)

Methods:
Season the pork with salt, pepper and thyme. Heat oil in large sauté pan or heavy pot over high heat and sear 1 minute per side or until browned. Remove to a plate and reserve. Reduce heat to medium and add onions. Cook for about 5 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and slivered sage ( or rosemary)  and continue to cook until the garlic is softened, about 1 more minute. Stir in the beans and pork. Add stock to the pot and return the mixture to a boil. Cover the pot and then reduce heat to a simmer for 45 minutes to an hour.

Add the sliced kale to the pot. Cover and cook for another 5 minutes or until the greens are wilted. Add salt and pepper to taste and a spritz of lemon juice.

Peanut Soup - Hearty Winter Fare

I was served peanut soup for the first time by my friend Judith, on the eve of a winter solstice past. She developed the recipe based on her memory of a peanut soup that she had eaten at a now-closed tearoom. The following is my version of this strangely delicious soup.

Ingredients:

• 1 tablespoon of oil
• 1 small onion, chopped
• 3/4 to 1 cup of peanut butter, depending on your taste
• 1 large tin of tomatoes ( 796 ml)
• 1 cup of water or vegetable broth
• 1/2 to 1 tsp. of ground cumin to taste
• 1/2 tsp. red pepper flakes or a pinch of cayenne pepper
• salt and pepper to taste

Methods:
Sauté the onion in the oil in a pot on top of the stove until it is translucent. Add the other ingredients to the pot stirring over a medium heat until the peanut butter has melted. Use a hand-held blender to whiz the ingredients until smooth. Alternatively, pour the soup into a blender to puree. Re-heat the soup and adjust the seasoning before serving.

I think that chopped green onions would be an appropriate garnish. Serve it with a hearty brown bread and lots of butter.

Easy Caviar Dip

This elegant recipe was taken from Fast Appetizers by Hugh Carpenter and Teri Sandison. As you can see in the photo, I used a pedestal bowl to contain the dip rather than the springform pan suggested in the recipe. Whatever serving dish that you have available will work. Great for a holiday open house because of its 'wow' factor. It tastes good too.

Ingredients:

• 2 to 3 tablespoons of mayonnaise
• 6 hard-boiled eggs, chopped
• 1 and 1/2 cups of finely chopped red onion
• 8 ounces of cream cheese at room temperature
• 2/3 cup of sour cream
• 4 ounce jar of black or red lumpfish caviar

Methods:

In a small bowl, mix the mayonnaise and the finely chopped eggs. Spread the mixture over the bottom of an 8 inch springform pan and layer the onion on top. Combine the cream cheese and sour cream and spread this mixture evenly over the onions. Sprinkle with the caviar and refrigerate. This recipe can certainly be made a day before it is served.

To serve, remove the sides of the spring form pan and transfer the bottom of the pan and the dip to a platter. Surround the layered dip with thinly sliced baguette or crackers of your choice.

Jam Buns - Parts 1 and 2

Honestly, I felt like a contestant on the great British Baking Show. 

My mother was a great cook and baker. Her banana cake, butter tarts, peanut butter cookies and pies were legendary. Though not British, she baked something called jam buns, a dessert which I have only been able to find referenced on British websites. These buns had a unique texture and taste, which my siblings and I loved. Unfortunately, the original recipe is nowhere to be found. 

The following reflects my first and second attempts to interpret a British recipe to reproduce my mother's jam buns. It was a technical challenge to produce a dozen jam buns that looked and tasted like those my mother made. In the end, I found the initial attempt (see Jam Buns - Part 1 at the bottom of this post) too sweet for my palate, and the texture of the bun was not quite right. Jam Buns - Part 2 coming up.

Jam Buns - Part 2

This time, I halved the sugar to 1/4 cup, increased the flour to 1.5 cups, added a 1/4 teaspoon of nutmeg, and replaced the milk with 2 beaten eggs. What resulted was very close to what I remember to be the jam buns of my childhood. I may have to tweak the recipe again, but for now, I think I killed this technical challenge. 

Jam Buns - Part 1

Ingredients:

• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp. baking powder
• 1/2 tsp. baking soda
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 3/8 cup margarine (presumably one could use butter)
• 6 tablespoons milk
• raspberry jam

Methods: Pre-heat your oven to 350 degrees F.
In a medium sized bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Add the margarine to the bowl and mix it into the flour using your fingers until the whole thing resembles a bowl of sand. Stir in the sugar and then gradually add the milk, until a soft dough has formed. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead it until it comes together. Roll the dough out to about a 1/2 cm. thickness and cut out rounds of dough sufficiently large to fit into the compartments on a tart/muffin tin. Once fitted into the tins, place a spoonful of jam onto each round of dough and fold the edges of the dough over the jam as you would when making a rustic tart.   

Whole Wheat Soda Bread

If someone were to ask me to name my favourite recipe, this would be it. I bake it more frequently than I bake anything else. My sister Penelope was the person who provided me with this recipe for a seriously delicious quick bread that does not require yeast.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups flour
• 1 ½ cups whole wheat flour
• ½ cup natural bran (this is available in the baking section of your grocery store and I suspect you can buy it in natural food stores as well)
• ¼ cup sugar
• 1 ½ teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 2 cups buttermilk
• ¼ cup vegetable oil

Methods: 
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F. Mix the dry ingredients together in a large bowl. Pour in the buttermilk and oil. Stir, but only until the dry ingredients have just been incorporated. Try not to over-mix. Shape the dough into a roundish ball while still in the mixing bowl, and then turn the dough out onto a cookie sheet covered in parchment. I made a single knife-slice (about 1/2 cm. deep) across the top of the unbaked loaf before placing it in the oven. Bake for 1 hour. Serve with lots of butter and jam. Everyone enjoys this bread.