ricotta pie

I am actually a pretty horrible baker, for many reasons.  One, I like to add things to the recipe, which sometimes works but less so with baking.  Two, I always add things in the wrong order.  Three, I get so excited and always check on things a million times while they’re cooking.  Four, I really can’t resist sampling while I make treats, which definitely throws off the recipe.  Anyway, I don’t bake too often, but this recipe looked like it might turn out alright, and I tweaked it enough so that even if it didn’t work, it maybe would only sort of be my fault.

The original recipe is from Tessa Kiros’s Falling Cloudberries, which is a beautiful beautiful book, and is actually for a ricotta tart with a chocolate crust.  Because of my super basic baking skills, I didn’t feel up to making a crust from scratch.  I also kind of hate store bought crusts, so I decided (with help! best idea from Kristina!) to make a phyllo crust.

For the crust:

• a package of phyllo
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons melted butter

First off, because I was sort of making this up as I went, I’m not so sure about the measurements.  But you just grease a pan, with butter (or I guess a pie plate would be so pretty but I’m way better with straight lines), and then lay down a sheet of phyllo.  Mix the butter and honey together.  Using a pastry brush (one of the very few times I prefer silicon to a more natural material since it cleans so much better than a brush), spread on the butter honey mixture to cover the phyllo completely.  Add another sheet of phyllo, and repeat as much as you’d like.  I think I did about eight sheets but it’s really up to you.

For the tart

• 2 cups ricotta
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 1/2 cup superfine sugar
• 2 dozen cardamon seeds (really as many as you’d like)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

Preheat the oven to 375.  Whisk all the ingredients together and pour the filling into the pie plate.  Bake for 30 to 40 minutes until it looks set and a bit golden on top.  I can’t lie, this is a good dessert and a really amazing breakfast. The cardamon makes it taste like you are maybe having a chai instead of dessert for breakfast.  Next time I’m going to add cloves, too.

lamb salad

I suppose the notion of lamb salad is a bit much, but this is really so good.  Also, it’s an exciting way to eat carrots.  Don’t get me wrong, I am into carrots, but I am really really into shaved carrots, apparently.  Anyway, this salad is a whole meal, it’s filling but not too heavy, it comes via Jamie Oliver (swoon!), and it looks pretty (I think).  Basically, amazing.

• many carrots, peeled in long strips
• garam masala
• 1 pound ground lamb or lamb sausage
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds, toasted if you want
• a bunch of picked cilantro leaves
• a bunch of picked mint leaves
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 3 shallots, diced very finely
• zest and juice of 1 lemon
• 1 teaspoon grated ginger
• olive oil

Heat a large frying pan and and fry the ground lamb with as much garam masala as you want, depending on the spice level.  Stir the lamb and fry it until it’s crispy.  Once the lamb is cooked, remove it from the pan, but keep the rendered fat and lightly fry the shaved carrot.

For the dressing, dice the shallots as finely as possible, and add the lemon zest and juice, grated ginger, ground cumin and a bit of salt.  Add as much olive oil as you think you need, and then pour the dressing over the carrots.

Arrange everything on a plate with the mint and cilantro first, then the lamb, topped with the carrots and finally with the sesame seeds.

This is really lovely with naan or a bit of spicy yogurt.

 

black bean soup, again

I love beans.  I love this black bean soup recipe, from the Moosewood cookbook, that uses orange juice to make everything tangy and delicious. But when I saw a recipe for black bean soup on the Kitchn, that claimed to be the best ever, I had to try it. They are totally different soups, different textures, different flavours, and I’m really not sure which I prefer. This one is smokey and so not vegetarian, thanks to the ham hock. Also, I can’t lie: ham hock looks kind of gross. But you really don’t end up eating it, just stealing the porky, smokey flavour.

• 2 cups dried black beans, soaked overnight
• 1 onion, diced
• 1 red pepper, diced
• 5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 smoked ham hock
• 1/2 cup olive oil
• 1/2 cup white vinegar
• salt and pepper to taste

Soak the beans overnight, exciting if you’re me and this is the closest you ever get to science.  Drain the rehydrated beans and add enough water so that they are covered with an extra inch of water.  Add the onion and pepper, the minced garlic, the olive oil, pork hock and a bit of salt and pepper.  Bring everything to a boil, skim the froth off the top and then let it simmer for four or five hours.  Add more water if you think it needs it (I didn’t, because I wanted a very thick soup and because the hock was bigger than I expected and I was running out of space in my pot…), and just stir it when you think of it.  After it seems basically ready, add the vinegar and let it simmer for fifteen more minutes.  Pretty, pretty delicious.  I ate this as a soup on its own, which is a lot of beans, seriously, but it was thick so I brought some to family fajita night and we ate them as a dip for chips and possibly as a spread on fajitas, too.  Versatile beans!

end of summer

Basically, I am bad at the internet and didn’t really update my blog all summer.  This is partly because the summer was busy and semi-outdoorsy and not really spent on the interet.  That, and I really only ate one thing all summer.  I made these sandwiches probably five times a week, with slight variations.

So easy, no real recipe, just halve a bunch of grape tomatoes (oh! I miss them!) and fry them up in garlic and a bit of olive oil.  When they’re semi-cooked, i add a bit of really sharp old cheddar until it’s melty.  Super quick lunch, not really much to write about or photograph but it is seriously delicious.

pulled pork.

Dan thinks pulled pork is going to be this fall’s trendy meat. While this is admittedly a weird conversation to have, we had it and I agree. Pulled pork is everywhere. It is recession-friendly (read: cheap) but not depression (delicious, so much delicious!). Usually I am pro-pulled pork (hello, Lakeview, hello, fun parties where I didn’t expect a sandwich!), sometimes I am decidedly against it (pulled pork poutine, no thanks!). Anyway, my lovely dad got me an awesome Le Creuset French Oven birthday present from Good Egg, and I broke it in with some pulled pork.

See, hello, this oven is gorgeous! I really had no idea what I was doing, it was my first time making pulled pork, (though I’ve made pulled lamb, but it was in a slow cooker which for some reason I found less stressful…) and it was pretty fun. I’m now on a mission to try out many many varieties. I went with the Pan Chancho recipe, and it had a bit of a pan-Asian vibe to it, probably due to the many spices. It was good, I would definitely make it again, but not before trying out some other recipes…

For the spiced mixture:

• 1/2 tablespoon ground cumin
• 1 tablespoon garlic powder
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons sea salt
• 1 teaspoon black pepper

Rub down a 1 1/2 pound boned pork shoulder with the spice mixture, and wrap it in saran wrap and let it sit overnight (this is probably unnecessary, but someone told me this would be a good plan and I had no idea what I was doing so I went for it).  Pre-heat the oven to 325.  Heat some olive oil on the stove in the dutch oven and sear the pork until all the sides are browned.  Cover the seared pork about 3/4 of the way up with water, and bring it to a boil on the stove.  Once the water is boiling, put the meat in the oven and cook for as long as you can, until the meat is falling apart, maybe 2 or 3 hours.

Meanwhile, make some barbecue sauce:

• 1 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup beer
• 1/4 cup fancy molasses
• 2 tablespoons oyster sauce
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger
• 2 tablespoons chopped garlic
• 2 tablespoons chopped Thai chilis

Combine all the ingredients in a sauce pan and heat until everything thickens up, which takes about ten minutes.  Remove from the heat and set aside.

When the pork was ready, I pulled it all apart, getting rid of any excess fat.  Then, stir in as much sauce as you’d like.  I had people coming for dinner in a few hours, so I just kept it on low heat on top of the stove, adding sauce as I though necessary.  I didn’t make it too saucy, but I added some as a condiment.

wedding! tomatoes!

Emma and Tiff got married!  It was the best!  So fun, so pretty, so delicious, so wonderful!  Again, the best!  They are two of the most fun people ever to cook with, and they probably had the most fun making a gillion jars of tomato butter for wedding favours.  There are a few important things to know about tomato butter: 1) it’s delicious. 2) there is no butter involved. 3) it is especially delish with grilled cheese.  So good!

The recipe comes from the Pan Chancho cookbook, and is pretty easy.

• 3 whole cloves
• 3 allspice berries
• 4 black peppercorns
• 2 28 ounce cans of diced tomatoes (with juice!)
• 1/3 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 packed brown sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
• pinch cayenne
• 1 cm-long stick of cinnamon

Put the cloves, allspice, and peppercorns in a big tea ball, and put it, along with everything else in a saucepan.  Bring to a rolling boil, then reduce the heat and boil gently for 30 minutes.

Reduce the heat to low, and simmer stirring pretty often, for about an hour and a half.  Take out the cinnamon stick, then cook for another 3 to 3 and a half hours, until the mixture is thick and jammy.  Cool the butter, and put it in a pretty pretty mason jar.

Thanks Emma and Tiff for such a fun wedding!

fun birthday!

Oh man my birthday was basically three months ago but oh! it was fun. And, because I am the most delinquent blogger, three months lag time seems about right to commemorate the delicious, amazing French macarons that Ashley and Lindsay made for my birthday. Every year, Ashley and Lindsay make a delicious and rather elaborate cake for my birthday and it’s so nice and so fun and they really don’t have to but it is really the best!

These macarons are wonderful on many levels:
1 – delicious (most important)
2 – very pretty (also very important)
3 – very impressive (everyone discussed how hard it is to make macarons, but surprise! these aren’t so hard, just impressive!)

For the macarons

• 1 cup icing sugar
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 2 egg whites
• 2 tablespoons granulated sugar
• 1 1/2 teaspoons meringue powder
• food colouring

For the filling

• 2/3 cup icing sugar
• 1/3 cup shelled pistachios
• pinch of cardamom
• 2 tablespoons of butter

Use a food processor to pulse the almonds and the icing sugar together, then sift them and set aside.  Beat the egg whites until foamy, then beat in the granulated sugar and the meringue powder until soft peaks form.  Add the food colouring.  Fold the almond mixture into the egg whites a third at a time.  Use a piping bag to pipe out 1-inch circles, pretty thin, onto a pan lined with parchment paper.  Let them sit for 15 minutes, then bake for 12-14 minutes at 325 degrees.

While everything is baking, pulse all the filling ingredients together in a food processor. Once the macarons have cooled, spread the filling on and make cute delicious macarons sandwiches.

These were delicious!  Birthdays are so wonderfully fun – I ate great great food for a whole week because I really am the luckiest ever.

tasteshifting

I am not very good at having a blog, I’m sorry.

Natalie’s birthday was a full two months ago, but I still haven’t written about it. Which is especially crazy because it was so so fun. She is a genius, and had a Miracle Berry Party. Miracle fruit is pretty much the most exciting thing, ever. Somehow, using science, it coats your tastebuds and makes sour things taste sweet, which is both fun and crazy.

Anyway, usually living in Canada is pretty fun, but if you are interested in shipping fruit across the border it is less fun. And, wayyyy back in June, miracle fruit was only available in the states. So, instead, Nat ordered miracle pills, because though the border is touch on fruit, they are surprisingly lenient on “miracle pills,” even if the only ingredients in said pills are “mysterious berry powder” and corn starch. Anyway, apparently you can get the berries in Toronto now, but this doesn’t really help the past.

We had tonnes of lemons and limes (so so many lemons and limes), and mustard, and chocolate, and pickles, and sour gummies, and tequila. Party!

I have never been to an LSD party, but I have read Go Ask Alice, and basically, a tasteshifting party is a lot like an LSD party.  At first, lots of people talk about whether the pills are going to work, then someone takes one, everyone looks at him or her expectantly, and then he or she tries a lemon, deems it “sweet” and then everyone takes their pill.  Then everyone spends the next half hour eating typically sour foods, commenting on how sweet they are (SO SWEET!  Like candied food! Except the chocolate, which just tasted like ultra sweet chocolate, and the tequila, which disappointingly just tasted like tequila.) and wondering if their tastebuds will ever get back to normal.  (Yes, they will.)

This was totally fun.  Best best party!  Happy, happy, very belated birthday, Natalie!

summer lunch!

Okay, basically my life is amazing BUT if I could change anything I would have a barbecue. And a puppy. Jason and Angus have both, and they invited me to lunch last week and it was the best ever. We made grilled veggie sandwiches with cheese and mustard and puppy Sebastian almost learned how to roll over and now it’s summer and no one cooks with recipes in the summer because finally food tastes good on its own!

Obviously this pretty picture was not taken by me, but rather by Jason!

iron chef: blt

Okay, I kind of took a month off the internet not due to being so busy, but really because I was getting over this year’s iron chef birthday loss. I am, I guess, a sore loser. Happy birthday, Lindsay, thanks for the cooking complex! (Joking, joking! Best birthday ever!) But! Seriously these sandwiches were so so good and I’m still kind of in shock that we didn’t win, but it may have had something to do with telling everyone else that there was no way they were ever going to beat us. Or something.

Anyway, apparently this BLT was a bit controversial. I don’t see it. I think it really goes without saying that a BLT is a sandwich, and this sandwich had bacon, lettuce and tomatoes, and thus is definitely a BLT. Other competitors felt it needed a carbohydrate, but I am pretty sure that would have been overkill. Whatever, friends! Also, it was pretty amazingly delicious.

And, cute! Totally cute! (Will took the picture, he is good at photography and making ice cream sandwiches!) Anyway, it is easy, and good, and is a pretty good party treat as they are not messy at all. We fried pancetta in rosemary until it was crispy, cooked halved grape tomatoes in balsamic vinegar at 350F for maybe 45 minutes, and put them both in an endive leaf, which held up surprisingly well.

I maintain that this IS a sandwich, and am pretty much unwilling to be proven wrong on this one. BLT!