With my recent strawberry picking exploits I ended up with a lot of berries. I didn’t want to make jam so I needed some ideas. I thought about doing some sort of strawberry rhubarb combo but that didn’t happen. As per usual I took to the interwebs to see what [...]]]>

With my recent strawberry picking exploits I ended up with a lot of berries. I didn’t want to make jam so I needed some ideas. I thought about doing some sort of strawberry rhubarb combo but that didn’t happen. As per usual I took to the interwebs to see what my options could be.

I settled on this Martha Stewart recipe for a Strawberry Cake.  The ingredient list is beyond simple and there is nothing special about the technique at all.  Right up my alley!

One thing to note about this recipe is that the 1lb of berries isn’t a hard and fast rule.  My berries were on the smaller side so 1lb ended up being WAY too many berries for this cake.

The cake ended up being OK but nothing to write home about.  It was almost too simple and didn’t have any degree of indulgence to it.  It’s the kind of cake that you’d serve with tea after a nice lunch or when you have company over and need a simple bite.  Don’t get me wrong, the cake was technically good in terms of moistness, flavour etc. It just didn’t deliver on hitting the spot that I needed it to hit.  I think if I were making this again I would consider adding in some poppy seeds or something for a little extra kick.

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One of my favourite things is a fancy homemade breakfast on the weekends.  Sure I enjoy going out for brunch but I can’t help but find it a bit overrated.  I love restaurants that do unique things with their brunch menu but for the most part I feel like I can [...]]]>

One of my favourite things is a fancy homemade breakfast on the weekends.  Sure I enjoy going out for brunch but I can’t help but find it a bit overrated.  I love restaurants that do unique things with their brunch menu but for the most part I feel like I can just make brunch foods myself.  I’m a whiz at pancakes and how hard is it to scramble eggs and cook some bacon?  PLUS most brunch places don’t give you baked beans with your eggs AND they make you choose between bacon and sausage.  Where is the justice in that?

Just the other day I was craving brunch foods and oddly enough was craving baked eggs.  For those who know me eggs for the most part freak me out a bit.  I’m very particular about eggs.  I can only even consider eating them when I want to and I can love a particular preparation one day and be repulsed by it another.  It’s odd, I know, but it’s just the way things go.  Baked eggs aren’t really something I come across on many menus nor are they something I’ve ever really made.  I cannot even begin to guess where this craving came from.

My balcony garden has been coming in nicely and I’ve been eyeing my various greens wondering what to do with them. I thought it would be a great idea to incorporate some of my kale, collards and Swiss chard into my baked eggs.  Also, since I have a ton of herbs at my fingertips I decided to add a few handfuls to the mix as well.

I did some searching online for a source recipe for baked eggs with greens but there was a lot of variety.  Some recipes incorporated the greens raw, others cooked, others cooked with cream.  Some recipes used herbs, others did not.  Some recipes added cheese, others not so much. Decisions, decisions.  I decided to add my own touch to make a baked eggs dish perfectly suited for me.

I grabbed a few handfuls of the greens, chopped them and then sauteed them briefly.  I added some cream and a bit of salt and pepper and allowed them to cook down.  I then piled the greens into the bottom of my casserole dish and topped them with garlic that my homie Joel planted last fall .  I made two holes for the eggs and put an egg in each hole.  I seasoned the eggs lightly with salt and pepper and then topped the with a mix of Gruyere with the chopped herbs.

I honestly don’t know why anyone would eat eggs any other way.  The flavour from the greens was so robust and I loved the variety in taste and texture.  The eggs weren’t too eggy and were really enhanced by the nuttiness of the Gruyere and the subtle flavours from the herbs.  I ate this with some sausages and English muffin but honestly this didn’t need any accompaniments.  This dish could easily work without the greens or by incorporating another vegetable/fruit like tomatoes or chopped zucchini.

This recipe came together in my head so there aren’t measurements.  It’s likely hard to screw up so use your imagination.

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Last year I was pretty obsessed with Rhubarb.  I think it was because I was at the farmers market every weekend and was so on top of what was local and in season.  I made a great Rhubarb Strawberry Pudding Cake and a Country Rhubarb Cake and was pretty [...]]]>

Last year I was pretty obsessed with Rhubarb.  I think it was because I was at the farmers market every weekend and was so on top of what was local and in season.  I made a great Rhubarb Strawberry Pudding Cake and a Country Rhubarb Cake and was pretty much in heaven.  This year I haven’t been going to the market as much so I almost missed rhubarb season!  Since rhubarb season is so short (and delicious) I immediately started plotting out what my next move would be.  I headed to the farmer’s market but there was not a stalk of rhubarb in site.  I then went over to my beloved Fiesta Farms and they had a ton of the stuff. I was golden.

I wasn’t quite sure what to make with the rhubarb at first. I thought maybe I’d do a repeat from last year but then I got the idea of doing a pie. Then the idea of a pie turned into a tart. I considered doing some sort of apple/rhubarb tart but then while at the market got swayed by the scent of strawberries. I must admit, in the last few years I’ve become a bit of a snob about only eating in-season, Ontario strawberries… they are so good compared to the imported stuff and they actually taste like berries. But the berries I saw over the weekend from California smelled pretty darn impressive and tasted that way too. So now I was back on the strawberry/rhubarb train…

I tried my usual outlets for recipe finding but didn’t quite find what I was looking for the.  Most appealing recipe was this one from Epicurious. Sure, there were no strawberries, but that could be easily adjusted.  After reading through the comments I made a bunch of changes including reducing the amount of sugar and making some adjustments to the streusel topping.  Incidentally, I didn’t have any lemon for the filling so I used lime and it added a nice brightness to it.

Holy moly was this good!  The more and more I bake I still get impressed when I take something out of the oven that looks like it came from a bakeshop.  And is it just me or are tarts so much more impressive than pies?  This smelled amazing while baking and looked great out of the oven.  The results were great.  I loved the rhubarb/strawberry filling and the crunchy streusel added a nice contrast in texture.

If you’re able to score some rhubarb I would catapult this to the top of you “to make” list.

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My quest to “make things with chorizo” continues.  The most recent Charcutepalooza Challenge was all about making sausage meat and I went the chorizo route. As mentioned in that post, I made chorizo tacos but of course have another pound or two of chorizo to use up so I’ve been [...]]]>

My quest to “make things with chorizo” continues.  The most recent Charcutepalooza Challenge was all about making sausage meat and I went the chorizo route. As mentioned in that post, I made chorizo tacos but of course have another pound or two of chorizo to use up so I’ve been on the hunt for other chorizo-related recipes.

On a recent visit to Rick Bayless’ Xoco in Chicago I noticed a torta on the menu with chorizo, poblanos, cheese and tomatillo salsa that sounded pretty delish. I instead opted for a different and also delicious taco but I didn’t forget about the chorizo one.

Of course my fave Mexican chef, Rick Bayless, has a recipe for Chorizo subs/tortas in Everyday Mexican. This was one of those recipes that had me at hello. A sandwich filled with black beans, chorizo, cheese and avocado? Sign me up!

I was a bit nervous that this sandwich might be on the dry side but it wasn’t at all. The chorizo/bean mixture is a bit on the sloppy side which gave everything the right amount of moisture. To add some extra kick to my tortilla I used some of my leftover Roasted Tomatillo Salsa from my tacos which really worked well with everything here. In terms of cheese I ended up using a fresh cheese that I had made. I was initially going to use it as paneer but got sidetracked so I used it in my torta! It worked just fine.

This is the kind of sandwich that you eat in your house rather than packing it in your lunch (unless you’re like me and package all components of your sandwich separately and assemble at work right before eating). I found it totally messy in a very delicious way. The flavours all work really well together. I love how the beans and chorizo combine to make this meaty, beany paste. The creaminess of the avocado does a nice job of cutting through some of the saltiness o the cheese. And since I’m a fan of heat, the El Yucateco hot sauce and my tomatillo salsa added a great kick.

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Last month’s Charcutepalooza Challenge was all about making sausages (sans casings). I decided to make chorizo because I love to get my Mexican cooking on. Of course when I think of Mexican food I think of Rick Bayless so I turned to him for some inspiration.

I kind of [...]]]>

Last month’s Charcutepalooza Challenge was all about making sausages (sans casings). I decided to make chorizo because I love to get my Mexican cooking on. Of course when I think of Mexican food I think of Rick Bayless so I turned to him for some inspiration.

I kind of knew that I wanted to make some chorizo tacos but wasn’t quite sure what was involved. Of course Rick has a recipe for chorizo tacos in Everyday Mexican. The recipe is actually for Chorizo, Potato, and Mushroom Tacos which sounded pretty good to me.

This recipe was beyond simple. You pretty much just sautée the chorizo, add the onions and mushroom, throw in the potatoes and you’re done.  The potatoes were the one sticking point, literally.  Maybe I didn’t have enough oil in my pan but I found that the shredded potatoes insisted on sticking… which made for a great mess.

I served the tacos on homemade tortillas with Bayless’ Roasted Tomatillo Salsa.  I also added my new favourite hot sauce, El Yucateco for some serious extra kick and some avocado for contrast in texture.

The success of this dish pretty much hinges on the quality of your chorizo. I felt it was good but kind of thought that my chorizo could’ve used a bit more oomph. I found it kind of strange how little the mushrooms and potatoes contributed to the dish. They definitely added body but little in the way of flavour. The cilantro was a nice addition to add a bit of brightness to the whole mix.

This is a great super simple taco dish that would definitely hold up to variations in either the toppings or what you throw in with the chorizo. Oh, and the Roasted Tomatillo Salsa is FANTASTIC. I wish I could keep this in my fridge all the time.

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Now grinding isn’t new to me. I broke out my grinder a few [...]]]>
For this month’s Charcutepalooza challenge we inch our way closer to making sausage by exploring the world of grinding. And yes, I feel slightly dirty typing the word “grinding” repeatedly (I’m secretly a 13 year-old boy).

Now grinding isn’t new to me. I broke out my grinder a few weeks ago to make some pretty darned kick ass burgers. BUT the idea of grinding to make sausage meat was new and totally interesting.

This month the apprentice challenge was to make breakfast sausage while the charcuterie challenge was to make either chorizo or merguez sausage meet. The first thing I made was breakfast sausage. I’m all about my breakfast meats so breakfast sausage was right up my alley. Truth be told I was kind of disappointed that we weren’t stuffing sausage casings this month because I always think sausage patties are a bit of a cop out but I forged ahead anyhow.

One of the first things that I had to do was acquire some fatback. I decided to head over to St. Lawrence Market to pick some up as they have like 5+ butchers. Oddly enough NONE of them had any fatback and almost everyone looked at me like I was crazy. One guy even tried to sell me pork belly! I was totally surprised. I ended up at my regular butcher and of course they had it and basically gave me about 3 lbs of the stuff for free (or a couple cents). After doing some research I realized that it probably wasn’t the best quality, I had to do quite a bit of trimming but it did the trick and was worth the price.

Just like last time I used the grinder attachment for my KitchenAid Stand Mixer. Truth be told, I don’t follow all of the rules when it comes to meat grinding. Sure, I freeze the parts and make sure my meat is just a little less than frozen but I’m not too careful about keeping things cold throughout the process. Most instructions say to grind the meat into a bowl set into a bowl of ice/ice water. I don’t bother with that. Mainly because I never have ice on hand and am pretty sure that I don’t have ice cube trays (although I could check…). I rationalize my decision by reminding myself that I’m usually grinding very small quantities so it’s over pretty quickly.

The sausage patties turned out VERY nicely. The meat was flavoured with sage, herbes de provence and parsley among other herbs. The texture was about right and wasn’t crumbly at all. I made some scrambled eggs and biscuits and it was a great Sunday breakfast.

Next up was chorizo making! I had to choose between merguez and chorizo and my heart immediately said chorizo. Sure, I’ve enjoyed merguez in the past but I could immediately think of tons of uses for chorizo. I knew right away that I was going to make some chorizo tacos! Making chorizo was a lot more involved than making breakfast sausages. There were peppers to toast and deseed, Onion to chop, annatto seeds to crush and a slurry to make.

I had a feeling these would be good judging by all of the different flavours going in. I used 3 types of dried peppers (chipotle, guajillo, and anchos), Mexican oregano, annatto seeds, cinnamon, and a bunch of other goodness. The chorizo (sadly) didn’t require any fatback, it was all just porky goodness! The resulting sausage was pretty darned tasty. I’m no chorizo expert so I can’t compare it to others, but on it’s own it was pretty good. Oddly enough I thought that maybe it could’ve used a bit of extra pepper or something but I’m not complaining.

I made chorizo tacos with potatoes and mushrooms and even made a tomatillo salsa. They were a great, hearty meal. I’m looking forward to making some tortas with the rest of my chorizo and maybe some huevos rancheros too. I’ve got 3-6oz packets of chorizo in my fridge and I’m not afraid to use them!

For the recipes for the breakfast sausage and chorizo click here.  I’ll post about the tacos another day.

I’m hoping that next month’s Charcutepalooza involves some sausage casings…

So as part of the last round of Charcutepalooza I had the brilliant idea to go all out and make my own English muffins. I mean, I was making Canadian bacon and naturally I would use this as part of Eggs Benedict. I’ve already mastered an easy Hollandaise sauce, [...]]]>

So as part of the last round of Charcutepalooza I had the brilliant idea to go all out and make my own English muffins. I mean, I was making Canadian bacon and naturally I would use this as part of Eggs Benedict. I’ve already mastered an easy Hollandaise sauce, and my eggs were farm fresh, so why would I slum it and BUY English muffins? Exactly, I wouldn’t.

Truth be told, English muffins are not something I had ever really thought of making from scratch. I grew up eating supermarket English muffins (shout out to Dempsters!) and when I went off to university in New York I discovered the joys of Thomas’ English Muffins. Plus, I don’t think I’ve EVER had a homemade English muffin from a restaurant. I kind of just assumed that it wasn’t something people made from scratch and that they solely existed in a factory. Alas, this was my bad. The more I cook and learn about food the more I realize that few things (that I would eat anyway) are solely made in a factory.

I was on the site Closet Cooking a few weeks back and Kevin did a post on Homemade English Muffins and I was totally impressed.  I made a mental note to try these out sometimes.  A few weeks later when I decided to tackle making my own, I started looking at recipes.  I mainly wanted recipes that used things I already had in my cupboard which is why I eliminated the recipe on Kevin’s site because it had powdered milk on the ingredient list.  I didn’t feel like going to the store and truth be told I have no idea how common powdered milk is.  I ended up using this recipe from Wilde in the Kitchen. I liked it because the ingredients were simple and I didn’t need English muffin molds.

Making English muffins was as easy as making any simple bread-type things. You mix some ingredients together, knead them, let them rest, shape and let rise again. No big deal. My dough didn’t rise properly and needed a bit of extra loving to make that happen. I think this impacted the final product because these did not turn out well at all!

The English muffins were dense and pretty rock hard. They were not at all fluffy like the English muffins that I love. Le sigh. There were no nooks. There were no crannies. It was a sad, sad day.  I kind of blame my yeast.

I haven’t lost faith though, I know many people who have had success with the English muffin-making (even with this recipe) so I’ll have to give a few other recipes a shot and buy some new yeast.

Here’s a link to the recipe that I used: click here.

This month’s Charcutepalooza challenge was all about hot smoking. The apprentice challenge was to hot smoke salmon while the charcuterie challenge was to hot smoke either a pork loin or a pork shoulder.

When I first read smoked salmon I was super excited because I LOVE smoked salmon. After doing [...]]]>

This month’s Charcutepalooza challenge was all about hot smoking. The apprentice challenge was to hot smoke salmon while the charcuterie challenge was to hot smoke either a pork loin or a pork shoulder.

When I first read smoked salmon I was super excited because I LOVE smoked salmon. After doing some research I learned that the smoked salmon that I like is actually cold-smoked salmon. I didn’t even realize that hot-smoked salmon was a thing. Alas, you live and you learn. Interestingly enough on my last trip to Stratford one of the things that we ate was hot-smoked trout. I enjoyed the idea of it and it made me look forward to hot-smoking some salmon!

I marinated the salmon for about 12 hours in some maple syrup, kosher salt and a few seasonings, nothing fancy at all. I used my wok steamer which I don’t think I had turned up enough because I smoked the fish for about 30 minutes and it still wasn’t cooked. I ended up finishing it off in the oven.

The salmon was great albeit a bit salty. Totally my fault because I forgot to rinse off the marinade/cure prior to smoking. My bad. With that said, it was still delicious! The outside was nicely almost glazed while the inside was still moist. Since the fish wasn’t too thick the smoke flavour was present in every bite. I used hickory wood. I served the salmon on top of a hominy puree (mixed with cilantro and butter) and a raw fennel salad. It all worked really great together.

Next up was hot smoking some pork loin to make Canadian Bacon. Now THIS I was excited for, but then I wasn’t really. I’ve become quite a pro at soaking things in a cure and then smoking them. It was like making bacon but with a pork loin instead of pork belly. While I enjoyed the Canadian Bacon I wasn’t really over the moon about it, maybe because it’s not something that I regularly consume. I mean it was smoky and porky and the texture was good but I’d choose regular bacon over Canadian Bacon any day.

To make things a bit more interesting I decided to make eggs Benedict. I happened to have some farm fresh eggs from my last trip to Stratford that I thought would be perfect in a eggs Benedict. I used this recipe for my Hollandaise sauce which I find is super easy and delicious. It’s Hollandaise without all the fuss while still being pretty close to a regular Hollandaise. To take things to the next level I decided to make my own English muffins. My English muffin making will be a separate post but I must say they weren’t my fave! Luckily they didn’t ruin the eggs benedict.

I’m looking forward to seeing what the next Charcutepalooza challenge is…

Whenever I hear the word Babka I inevitably think of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine try to secure a chocolate babka. I remember watching that episode when it first aired, likely nearly 20 years ago (holy!), and not really knowing what a babka was to begin with. After watching [...]]]>

Whenever I hear the word Babka I inevitably think of the Seinfeld episode where Jerry and Elaine try to secure a chocolate babka. I remember watching that episode when it first aired, likely nearly 20 years ago (holy!), and not really knowing what a babka was to begin with. After watching the episode I admittedly was biased. I hoped my first babka would be a chocolate one and not the “lesser” cinnamon babka.

Years later while living in New York I finally got a chance to try a babka. At the time I worked for a well-known TV personality who was into food so we’d always get random food gifts sent to the office. One day I was absolutely delighted to find a babka and from Zabar’s nonetheless. AND it was chocolate. It was also pretty heavenly. For whatever reason I don’t think I ever had a babka again and it never occurred to me to make it myself.

For the uninitiated, a babka is an Eastern European yeast cake that is usually filled with a fruit filling or with a chocolate filling as per the Jewish tradition. The more Eastern European version is usually shaped kind of like a crown whereas the Jewish version is a long length of dough that has been twisted and baked in a loaf pan. The babka referred to on Seinfeld (and that I had from Zabar’s) is the Jewish variety.

On a recent weekend I was looking for a baking project. I wanted to make something fabulous but also wanted to try a new recipe. I pulled out my copy of Martha Stewart’s Baking Handbook and decided to make a babka. The recipe seemed pretty straightforward but new enough to me to make it exciting and keep me on my toes. I also happened to have most of what I needed on hand.

I’m not sure what it is these days but for some reason it’s a total crapshoot with me getting my dough to rise. I test my yeast and it proves to be active but then my dough never rises and it should. I think my kitchen might not be warm enough but of course I only remember this when I curse my dough. I ended up cheating a bit when I realized my dough wasn’t rising. I made a bit of a slurry with some more yeast and kneaded it into the dough. It made the dough a bit wetter but it worked! That was my only problem along the way. Well that and me trying not to eat all of the chocolate filling.

The results were BEYOND AMAZING. It was honestly something that didn’t seem homemade. The bread was buttery, substantial and yet still light. The filling was deliciously rich and chocolaty. And the streusel topping? Crunchy, sugary and delicious.

For the recipe click here.

The recipe makes three loaves but I only made one. I wish I had made all 3 and put the other two in the freezer because I would love to eat babka every day from here to eternity. I can’t say enough fabulous things about my babka so I will leave you with a video…