Wild Leek Pesto – Hello Spring!

Posted on May 6, 2013 by Lily

With spring finally here, I feel awakened and ready to enjoy the sun, our glorious patios and of course, nature’s bounties that come with our farewell to old man winter.  I haven’t had the opportunity to go to a farmer’s market until this past Saturday, when I joined Morgan at Wychwood Barns hoping to find my holy trinity of spring goodness: ramps (aka wild leeks), peas and asparagus.  I didn’t see any of the latter two items but was content to bring home a bunch of ramps, along with these lovely sweet spring parsnips, selection of eggs including double yolk duck eggs and beef from Green Gate Farms.

Not in the mood to consume my wild leeks in a cooked manner, I decided to turn it into a pesto.  With pine nuts in the freezer (storing nuts this way effectively delays their propensity to go rancid by months), lemons and parmigian in the fridge and my trusty olive oil it took a mere 5 minutes to transform this symbol of spring into a delicious and versatile pesto.

I added it immediately to a chicken salad sandwich and will be using it every which way I can for the rest of the week.  You’ll notice in the recipe below that I only use about 1/4 cup of oil – I like my pestos to be very thick as I’d rather loosen them as needed when I actually use them.  This way the flavour stays as concentrated as possible.  I also decided not to add any garlic; the flavour of ramps can be quite intense and I found no need to further jeopardize my breath!

This should keep in your fridge for 1-2 weeks but it’s so delicious, I’m sure it won’t last very long.

Wild Leek/Ramp Pesto
Makes about 1 cup

1 bunch wild leeks/ramps (about 15-20 ramps)
1/2 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup grated parmigiano reggiano
juice of 1 lemon, divided in half
1/4 cup olive oil
pinch of salt

Method

Trim and discard roots of ramps. Wash ramps well as they tend to be quite dirty. Let dry for a few minutes.

Roughly chop and place into bowl of food processor. Add pine nuts, cheese and half of the lemon juice. Pulse until a rough puree forms. Scrape down the sides of the bowl. With the processor on, slowly pour in the oil until a smooth puree forms. Taste and decide if you’d like to add the remaining lemon juice, either to thin down the consistency and/or to brighten the flavour. Add a pinch of salt, pulse to combine and taste. Season more to taste if desired.

Store in an airtight container in the fridge for 1-2 weeks. You can pour a thin layer of olive oil on top to prevent the surface from oxidizing. Use in everything!

 

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Mexico, A Broken Toe, A Wedding and Endless Guac

Posted on April 28, 2013 by Lily

The past three weeks have been an absolute whirlwind. In that time I worked my first roof top party for 450 construction workers, spent a week in Mexico for a friend’s wedding, broke a toe while I was there and came back to find out a very good friend of mine was getting married this Sunday.  As in today.

Mexico was such a great time.  The weather was perfect and it was sooooo hot.  But in a good way.  We sunned (a bit too much for most of us) and slept and sunned and slept and in between ate to our hearts content.  By the way, I found it fascinating to watch others navigate the buffet at the resort.  My rule of thumb when travelling, especially to an all-inclusive is to only eat things that I think are local and prepared in a traditional style.  That meant avoiding things like the burgers, pizza, sushi, anything with mayo, cold cuts and anything that looked remotely suspect.  Yet I witnessed so many people going for those exact things, which I knew, just by looking, could not have tasted very good and frankly screamed “you may be on the toilet soon!”  Personally, I ate lots of grilled fish, items from the “Mexican Corner” (seriously, that’s how the resort labelled it), fruit and heaping piles of guacamole topped with pico di gallo.  There wasn’t one meal in those 7 days that didn’t include guac.  It was heaven.

Oh and of course the wedding was lovely.  Jenn, my good friend and the bride, was beautiful and the day went off without a hitch.  Our night ended with dancing by the pool followed by us jumping into the pool for a game of volleyball.

On the second last day of our trip, there was the option to participate in an adventure tour that included zip lining and scuba diving.  Wanting to live outside my comfort zone and deal with my extreme fear of heights, I signed up and surprisingly had a great time.  Until I broke my toe.  Sky cycling.  Yes, sky cycling: you, on a bike, hung on a cable, above the tree tops, leisurely cycling your way through the jungle.  Sounds lovely doesn’t it?  Sure it does, until you find yourself careening towards the person in front with no way of stopping! I thought I was going to kill the guy in front of me but he later told me he was more worried we would plummet to our death.  Oh, right, there was also that.  All I can is, when your guide says “here is your hand brake and it doesn’t work” meaning it as a joke but not giving you any indication that he’s joking, ask him again and try the brake yourself.

It’s been a week now since I’ve been home and work has just been so busy.  My stomach is also acting up, which I find often happens upon returning from a trip where the climate and food are completely different from home.  I find it rather odd that it happens after the trip ends and not during the trip.  Anyways, I’ve had a hard time eating, a first for me, and haven’t done any cooking really since I’ve been back.  I’m hoping this week I’ll get back into the swing of things.  But first, I have a wedding to go to!

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My Take on Chicken Cacciatore

Posted on April 9, 2013 by Lily

The last time I ordered chicken cacciatore I was 17, working as a receptionist at an electrical company during my semester off before university. Across the street from our offices was the standard cafe with its same rotating menu of daily specials and every Wednesday the guys in my office would look forward to the chicken cacciatore with such eagerness that one day I caved and went in on the lunch order.  Bland, dry and boring pretty much summed up my experience.

Since then I have avoided this often bastardized dish, both in restaurants and even at home.  However, work has been very influential in my cooking these days, and since we make this for one of our clients on a regular basis, I was inspired to drum up my own version.

Alla cacciatore simply means a meal prepared “hunter style”, which obviously screams hearty, robust and rustic.  I looked up a few recipes for inspiration and felt certain that the addition of earthy mushrooms was a must and while I was at Sanagan’s made a game time decision to also throw in an Italian sausage, a guarantee flavour enhancer that I hoped would give the dish a lot of depth.

In the end I achieved exactly what I had set out to do: create a chicken cacciatore that was the polar opposite of my first experience, one that would taste like it had simmered for hours, be super flavourful and rich without being heavy.  Still comforting enough for a cold day and light enough for the warmer days to come, which better be soon because I have had enough of winter!

Chicken Cacciatore with Mushrooms & Sausage
Serves 4

2 chicken legs, skin removed, portion into the drumstick and thigh
1/2-3/4 cup flour
2 tbsp grapeseed oil, divided
1 Italian sausage, mild or hot, cut into 4 pieces
1 1/2 cups sliced cremini mushrooms
1 medium onion, diced
1 yellow pepper, deseeded and diced
2 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
1/2 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup low-sodium or no-sodium chicken broth
1 1/2 canned diced tomatoes, with juices
2 tbsp caper
2 tbsp fresh oregano
fresh parsley, for garnish
salt and pepper

Method

Remove chicken from the fridge for at least 30 minutes prior to cooking.

Heat a large pot over medium heat. Place flour in a resealable bag, season with a pinch of salt and pepper. Season chicken with salt and pepper, throw it into the bag of flour, seal and give it a good shake. Add 1 tbsp of oil to pot; when hot, add pieces of chicken, making sure to shake off excess flour. Brown chicken for 3-4 minutes before turning over to brown the other side. When all pieces are done, remove from pot and set aside. Add sausage and brown quickly for 2-3 minutes on all sides. Remove from pot and set aside with the chicken.

If the bottom of the pot is quite dry, add the other tbsp of oil. Add mushrooms and saute, stirring frequently, until most of the moisture is gone, and mushrooms start to brown, about 5-6 minutes. Add onions, peppers and garlic. Saute until soft and vegetables starting becoming translucent.

Deglaze with white wine for about 1 minute, scraping up all the browned bits on the bottom of the pot and until most of the liquid has evaporated. Add tomatoes and juice, capers and oregano. Add back chicken, mushrooms and sausage. Add broth, just enough to barely cover everything – unless you want a soupier consistency then you can add a bit more. Try to push everything into the liquid, bring to a boil, then cover and simmer for about 15 minutes. Flip chicken and simmer for another 15 minutes. Season to taste if needed and serve with fresh parsley and a nice crusty piece of bread to soak up all the liquid.

To make the protein go further in this dish, I waited until the next day to shred the chicken –  this also makes for a super lazy-man version, allowing your hands to stay nice and clean, and reheating an absolute cinch.

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Homemade Marshmallows

Posted on April 1, 2013 by Lily

Marshmallows invoke a lot of memories for many people like sitting beside the campfire, making s’mores and trading ghost stories.  Personally, I’ve only had such an experience once, when I went camping with my grade 8 class and that was enough  - I am definitely not a camping kind of girl.

Marshmallows get their name from the marsh-mallow plant, whose sap was originally used to make the candy that we all know so well.  Apparently the sap has medicinal benefits such as soothing sore throats.  Can you imagine how easy it would be to give medicine to children if it came in the form of a marshmallow candy?  Nowadays, gelatin has replaced the sap making it just another tempting sweet treat on grocery shelves.

You can easily make your own at home with the help of a candy thermometer and a stand mixer, which is exactly what I did in order to make enough marshmallows as favours for Jenn’s wedding shower.

A few years back, when I made marshmallows for the first time, I remember staring at the mixer in awe, watching this thick, glossy, white marshmallow cream come together.  Here’s basically what happens:

Step 1: Sprinkle gelatin over cold water in stand mixer.

Step 2: In a pot, bring to boil a mixture of light corn syrup (I don’t think you can use regular corn syrup because it affects the color but I’m not 100% sure about this), sugar and water until 240°F.  This is where the candy thermometer comes in handy.  It’s important to keep a close eye on it, as often times the temperature will stay steady for a few minutes and then suddenly shoot up.

Step 3: Slowly pour the super hot sugar mixture into the mixer with it going on low speed, and then turn it to high once all of it is incorporated.  Then you watch the magic happen! In 8-10 minutes you’ll have this sticky white cream that will have quadrupled or more, really, in volume.

Step 4: At this point, you can add vanilla extract and in my case add pink food colouring to match the bride’s colours.

Step 5: Now you must somehow get this mixture into a parchment and icing sugar lined pan, spreading it as evenly as possible.  I found that using my silicone spatula run under cold water and shaking off the excess moisture, helped the mixture from sticking as badly.  Spread as evenly as you can.  Sprinkle with icing sugar and now you have to wait for it to dry overnight before cutting.

This whole process probably takes less than 30 minutes.  When you’re to cut, you can use scissors, which I’ve heard is very easy to do, or in my case, use a knife sprinkled with icing sugar to minimize sticking.   I found it easiest to first cut strips, powder these strips with icing sugar, then cut 3-4 strips at a time into cubes which I then threw into a Ziploc bag filled with icing sugar to ensure each side of each square was well covered.

You can store these for 2 weeks or more in an airtight container, which is exactly what I did until I was ready to package them into jars.  I don’t want to toot my own horn but aren’t these pretty? 

As for the recipe I used, I can no longer find it but I’ve used this recipe from Alton Brown and I can tell you it worked just as well.  Just remember that if you are going to add color,  try to stick to pastel colors – it’s quite difficult to get a bright or saturated color and besides, you’d probably have to use a LOT of food coloring to achieve this.

These make great gifts or if you’d prefer to enjoy them yourself, I think they’d be quite happy in a big cup of hot chocolate :)

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Bacon Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on March 25, 2013 by Lily

When you have a friend who loves bacon as much my friend Jenn, it was a no brainer that in planning her bridal shower we (the bridesmaids) made sure it made an appearance somewhere amongst the food.  These bacon chocolate chip cookies were inspired by a paleo diet bacon cookie made with almond flour, a cookie that we occasionally make at work for those with a gluten intolerance.

My version is not gluten-free but incredibly simple to make, mainly because all I did was add crispy bacon to my favourite chocolate chip cookie recipe.  Yep, that’s it.

So obviously you’ll have to cook the bacon first.  I prefer to cook them in the oven, laid on top of a rack on top of a foil lined baking sheet.  This allows all the fat to drip off and makes them super crispy; plus clean up is a breeze.  I usually bake them at 375°F for 10-12 minutes, or until they’re nice and browned.  Once the strips are cooled, either crumble them with your hands or use a knife to chop them into small pieces.  For 2 batches of the above cookie recipe, I used about 12 or so strips, and still had 3 strips leftover in the package.

When you’re preparing your cookie batter, add all of the crumbled bacon when you add the chocolate chips.  Because I made these ahead of time, I froze the batter in already portioned out pieces.

Due to the added amount of oil/fat in these cookies, I baked them at a much lower temperature (325°F) and avoided the lower rack of my oven to avoid the bottoms from burning.  (Side note: the cookies went straight from freezer to oven, no defrosting required.  This can be applied to many cookie batters making it easy to have fresh baked cookies at any moment).  It’s probably best to test a batch of 3-4 cookies first to see how they behave; some of my cookies spread out a lot but most of them baked normally, albeit a bit longer, about 13 minutes.  To give an immediate visual cue to guests that these were not regular chocolate chip cookies, I cooked the remaining strips of bacon, cut them into 1/4 inch pieces and halfway through the cookie baking time, I took the trays out of the oven and gently nestled a piece or two of bacon into the center of each cookie and returned them to the oven.

The cookies were a hit with everyone, but most importantly, with the bride and a great conversation starter.  You don’t need to use my chocolate chip recipe and you can use your favourite bacon.  I’d love to try these with a thick cut double smoked bacon – oh just imagine…

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Leftover Heaven: Pasta Pancakes

Posted on March 20, 2013 by Lily

So remember all that pasta I made on Sunday? Well, it’s day 2 of eating leftovers and as much as I love leftovers, it’s always nice if I can find a way to jazz them up and create a somewhat new meal.

I was first introduced to pasta pancakes when I was working at dish.  I watched our executive chef take the previous night’s spaghetti something-or-another, throw it into a wall, add one or two scrambled eggs and a few other things before frying it up as a giant pancake for a staff meal.  I thought it was the best thing since sliced bread.

Since then, I’ve attempted to do this without the addition of egg many times and each time it always fell apart so believe me, you need the egg to act as a binder.  I used this Mario Batali recipe as a guide with regards to how many eggs to use and to see what other things he likes to put in.

For my 2 serving pancake, I only used 1 egg and a few sprinkles of plain breadcrumbs.  Once you’ve tossed everything together very well, heat 1-2 tbsp of grapeseed oil on medium high in a pan large enough to hold your pancake(s).  I opted to create one large one but you can always create smaller nests.  Once the oil is hot, pour the pasta into the pan, creating a circular shape and making sure it is of even height (for even cooking).

Once you’re happy with the shape/height (don’t make it too thick or it will take a long time to heat through), don’t touch it and let it fry away for 4-5 minutes.  You can carefully lift up an edge to check if it’s browned enough.  Now comes the slightly tricky part.  To fry the other side, put a large enough plate over your pan:

Holding the plate in place with one hand, very carefully flip the pan with the other.  You should be able to lift the pan right off without anything sticking.  Ta da!

Now just slide it back into the pan (you may need to add a little bit more oil) and fry up the other side for another 5 minutes.

I felt so Italian eating this with my sautéed rapini loaded with tons of garlic and one or two dried chilies.  Drier pasta dishes that use longer pasta noodles are what I prefer to make these pancakes with but I’m sure you could try it with penne or something smaller.   However, it’s probably not a good idea to try this with a ragù type pasta.  To minimize your noodles from sticking to your pan, you can obviously use a non-stick vessel, or in my case, take out the noodles and egg from the fridge about 30 minutes prior to cooking – this brings them closer to room temp, reducing the shock when it hits the hot pan, which is what usually causes the sticking.

Anyhoo, I hope this helps you turn a tired leftover meal into something fun and new :)

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Screw It, I’m Having Pasta for Dinner

Posted on March 18, 2013 by Lily

You know, I started this year fairly committed to getting myself into tip top shape for my friend Jenn’s wedding which is now, only 4 weeks away.  As you may recall, I tried to change some of my eating habits including limiting and/or eliminating carbs from dinner meals.  This has been incredibly difficult for me, especially not having pasta at all, which I haven’t had in over 4 weeks.  Clearly I’m not as committed as I’d liked to have been because my muffin top is still, well, muffiny, and my triceps have not yet made an appearance (according to a harsh but accurate assessment by Morgan, they aren’t appearing because they don’t exist lol).   So I’m sure you can understand that when I was at the library the other day and came across this book, there was no choice but for me to take it out and make a dish from it PRONTO:

Like really, as if there was any chance I wouldn’t take this book out! The next day, I poured over every page, getting hungrier and hungrier with each recipe.  I finally decided on pappardelle alla bosciaolo from the Pasta on the Run section of the book because it incorporates one of my favourite ingredients: mushrooms!  I wish I had access to more specialty mushroom varieties but since this wasn’t the case, I used fresh shiitake and cremini mushrooms as well as the rest of the dried lobster mushrooms in my pantry.

The mushrooms are sautéed over 10-15 minutes until browned and crisp, with whole cloves of garlic and chopped rosemary.  Having no ragù on hand I opted to use passata di pomodoro (strained tomato sauce, much thicker than usual tomato sauce) but if you had a ragu to use, it would take this simple dish to another level.

My first choice of pasta had been pappardelle and although the author suggests bucatini as another option, my eye was drawn to this package of crinkly nests of reginelle.  Aren’t they beautiful?

In a dish like this where the sauce is not abundant, it is very important to follow the directions of reserving 1 cup of the pasta water and using it ‘loosen’ the sauce and create a creamy consistency with the pecorino romano as it melts.  It will really make a huge difference.

Although I found this a tad bit bland, adding a handful more cheese and seasoning it well with salt and pepper made it delicious.  I have so much leftover that I’ll be eating this for dinner for the rest of the week – yaaay pasta! 

P.S.  I was not able to find a link to the exact recipe but found this one that is similar, minus the zucchini.  Also, the salad in the background was pretty much this one from Bon Appetit without the pomegranate seeds and fennel fronds.  I would have never put pears, fennel and cucumber together and it was quite refreshing as a partner to the heavier pasta.  

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