French Sushi

Hi guys!

Remember that time I started a blog, then failed to update it for...oh say, a year or so? As it turns out I have been Mastering (aha ahaha ahahaha I'm so funny) a whole lot of science since I posted last. I'm now nearing the end of my Masters and am successfully wasting time writing a thesis among many other time wasting things I find essential like watching Chuck, and desperately looking for news on The Hobbit production. Turns out I also have a penchant for, what I will call on this public access blog, choreography-based fitness and acrobatics so much so that when I'm not in the lab I am at the studio teaching students to fling themselves wildly around the studio equipment. Which means that when I am home between my two jobs, I am putting in time with the man who is my fiance-but-will-soon-cross-into-husband. So here I am, attempting to update my blog in a bid to not make it look so sad.

When I told my fella what I would blog about he said "Does that even count as a recipe?" To which I reply yes. Yes it does. No, this recipe doesn't call for long periods of simmering or careful addition of ingredients in just the right order but it's easy to make and terribly tasty so I say who cares!

Due to Andrew's rampant seafood allergy and my rampant seafood dislike, sushi is not really an option. But it's so terribly trendy looking, and you know what's like seaweed paper? Crepes. And you know what's like fish? Ham. It's a bit of a stretch but just hang in there with me, ok?


What you need
Crepes (from Canadian Living)
1 1/3c. flour
1/4 tsp salt
4 eggs
1 1/2c. milk
1/4c. melted butter

Filling
deli ham
mozzarella
asparagus

Putting it all together
Make the crepe batter by mixing the flour and salt in one bowl and 2 tbsp of the butter with the milk and eggs in a second bowl. Combine the two and strain (if you feel fancy) then let sit in the fridge for 1h. This way you get rid of a lot of the bubbles you just mixed in and you end up with a heavy, delicious batter.

Get yourself a crepe pan or any large-ish pan with a flat bottom and non-stick coating set to medium heat. Brush the pan with the exrta butter and pour in just enough batter to coat the bottom of the pan thinly. Let it cook until the edges are golden brown and the middle is set. Flip the crepe and cook on the other side for about 30sec. I hear some people don't even cook the other side, but I just do...for funsies. The crepes can be made ahead and refrigerated until ready for assembly.

In a pot of boiling water, cook the asparagus for about 4-6min depending on how crunchy you like them to be. Once cooked, immediately put them in ice water to cool so they keep their color and texture. This is called blanching. Also grate some cheese. I used mozza but really with so many cheeses to choose from, just go nuts!

To assemble, lay out a crepe and layer in 2-3 slices of ham. Sprinkle with cheese and add 3-4 stalks of asparagus. Roll up the crepe and sprinkle with extra cheese. Then pop it in an oven (at lets say 350F but who really cares?) until the cheese on top is melted and the crepe is crispy.

Then feel free to slice and pretend you're eating the best french sushi of your life!

Chicken Pot Pie

This is one of those recipes that are theoretically planned for "leftovers" but really you end up needing to plan what exactly the leftovers will be and how much will be left over in advance. With that warning out of the way, it's a really tasty recipe. Very hearty and great on cold winter nights....or any other time really!

What you need:

Pie Crust:

2 1/4 c. flour

2 tsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1 c. vegetable shortening

5-8 tbsp chilled cream

Filling:

3 tbsp butter

3 cloves garlic

~1/4 c. flour

1 1/2 c. milk

1/2 c. cream

2 carrots

peas

corn

~1 c. chicken leftovers

Putting it together:

The first step and the reason that this recipe takes so long to make is the pastry crust. Sure you could buy the frozen crusts but trust me, they are just not very good. To prep in advance, chop up the shortening and pop it in the freezer. Place the cream in the freezer for a few minutes as well. The colder all the ingredients are, the better the pie crust will be. It keeps the butter from

melting from the heat of your hands and the pockets of butter make a light and flaky crust! Which brings me to my aside; pie hands! The best days to make pie crusts are those days when your hands are just really cold.

Ok so carrying on... I get a little distracted when I talk about pasty. Mix the flour, salt and sugar in a bowl. Add in the shortening and cut it in until it reaches the consistency of oats. Pastry cutters are available in most grocery stores now but if you don't have one, a fork will do (but take much longer) or a food processor although you have to be careful not to over process the flour and shortening. Then, a few tbsp at a time, add in the cream and mix with a fork until the dough just holds together. Make two balls of the dough and pat them into disks handling them as little as possible. Now pop the dough into the fridge for at least a half hour. Or make it the night before to speed up the whole process!

The tricky part is now over and you can relax! The filling is pretty easy. Melt the butter in a pan and add in the garlic until fragrant (30sec or so). Add the flour to the pan and allow to cook out for a few minutes. Stir in the milk and cream and it should turn into a nice sauce. Just throw in the veggies and simmer for a few minutes until the sauce is thickened to your liking. It doesn't take long at all!

Next up is assembly. Roll out one disk of dough and lay it in a pie pan, no buttering required! Pour in the filling. Roll out the second disk and lay it on top. Seal the edges however you want. Last step is to give the top of the pie an egg wash and poke some holes with a fork or knife so the steam can escape. Bake at 350F until golden brown (~30min).

Extra tips:

For handy clean up, bake the pie over a cookie sheet covered with foil. Sometimes the filling bubbles out if the crust isn't sealed completely.

Truthfully, this really can be a dish for leftovers. Vegetables you didn't finish can be thrown in. The best idea is to cook a full chicken earlier in the week and take the leftover meat from that for the pie. Other tasty add ins include onions and celery (best added with the butter in the beginning), pancetta (use the rendered fat for cooking the garlic), mushrooms....it's pretty open to interpretation.

Carrot Vichyssoise

It's been a pretty long time since I've posted. Not really for lack of cooking, but mostly out of laziness and incredible lack of free time. It turns out that a Masters degree require work! Who would have guessed that? But in the spirit of getting back in the game, I have several recipes and pictures on my computer that will be coming out in the next few days.

The first of my recipes needing to come out is a simple, elegant, easy, and above all tasty veggie soup dish that I love. Vichyssoise is just a fancy name for pureed soup with leeks and cream and stock, i.e. a soup. I highly recommend an immersion blender for this recipe because it helps achieve the velvety smooth texture that you just can't get with a blender when you're forced to blend it batches because the batch is too big and the blender is too small. Been there before. Also that way you risk having your soup explode out of the blender much like the Great Tomato Disaster of '05.

What You'll Need:

3-4 tbsp butter
2 leeks
4-6 carrots
chicken stock (or stock concentrate)
water
1c. milk
paprika
lemon juice

Putting It Together:

Let's start with the leeks. These belong in the same family as onions but have a milder flavour. Bigger isn't always better and the thinner leeks tend to be more tender. Take the leeks and cut off the roots and all the green leaving only the white portion. Slice it in half lengthwise and give it a good rinse under cold water. Leeks are grown in sandy soil and the whole sandy texture just doesn't go well with the soup. Once rinsed, cut them into rough chuncks about a half inch thick. While you're at it peel and chop the carrots into similar sized bits and set aside for later.

Now melt the butter in a pot and toss in the leeks. Season well with salt and pepper. Cook the leeks over medium heat until translucent. The idea is to soften the leeks but not caramelize and the salt helps the process along.

When the leeks look good and translucent (about 10min, but keep an eye on them!), add in the carrots and water/chicken stock. Because I'm cheap I but the concentrate so I toss in water and a few tbsp of the concentrate. With everything added, the temperature can be raised to a boil and left to cook.

The cooking time will depend on the size of the carrot pieces. But once tender (maybe 20min?) the soup is almost done. As a warning learnt over time, it can be great to cut big pieces if you want a late dinner but keep an eye on the pot! I've burnt a few soups by not checking the water level every so often.

Ok, the soup is now cooked and bot burnt and we're ready for the finishing touches. Remove the soup from the heat and while still hot, blend the whole mix with the milk added. The hotter the soup when you blend it, the smoother it will come. The last step is to add paprika and lemon juice to taste. Once it tastes the way you want it, you're ready to eat!

Some extra notes on the subject:

The soup goes great with some sliced baguette! Or other tasty dipping bread.

The same idea for the soup is pretty universal and can be used for any type of veggie soup you want. You can add tomatoes, celery, onions, etc. to the pot and call it veggie soup. Another good one is to start by fring bacon bits in the pot and use that oil to start the leeks (bacon bits removed), then add a few veggies and a lot of peas for a tasty pea soup topped with bacon. The possibilities are pretty much endless!

November's Cupcake Club Colaboration

For the past few months, whenever I would find myself in Indigo, I'd spend most of my time flipping through cupcake books, particularly the Martha Stewart Cupcake book (That or WWZ but since this is about cooking and not being a nerd...). A few weeks after the book staring started, I found a friend of mine who had also been eyeing the same book. And when we found out a mutual friend had the Martha Stewart book and would lend it to us, we started a cupcake club! It started something like this;

"OMG I LOVE CUPCAKES!!"
"ME TOO!!"
"OMG THIS ONE IS SOOOO CUUUUTTTEEEE!!!! EEEESJKHFSLHFS"
...and then our excitement went somewhere above the decibles audible to humans. We agreed to meet once a month to bake themed cupcakes and improve our baking/decorating skills. For our first meeting, we found a marble cupcake recipe with instructions to pipe pansies and sweet peas (a mother's day inspiration according to Martha).

What you need:

1 3/4c. cake flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/3 c. milk
1/3 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. unsalted butter
1 c. granulated sugar
3 eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1/3 c. cocoa powder
1/4 c. boiling water

Putting it together:


Start like most recipes; preheat the oven to 350F, line cupcake tins with liners. Combine the flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl and milk and cream in another. In yet a third bowl, cream the butter and sugar together. Creaming the butter and sugar takes a few minutes and results in a light an fluffy batter that will help leven the cupcakes. Then add in the eggs one at a time followed by the vanilla. Lastly, add the flour mix and milk mix to the butter alternating between the two.

Now that the vanilla batter is done, it's on to the chocolate batter! Measure out 1 c. of the vanilla batter into a new bowl. In another bowl (the 5th used! Yikes!), mix the boiling water and cocoa which helps bring out the chocolate flavour, then mix the reserved batter and cocoa mix together.

In the cupcake tin, alternate 1 tbsp vanilla batter and 1 tbsp chocolate batter, ending with a last dollop of vanilla batter. Try not to pass the 3/4 mark of fullness in the cupcake liner. Swirl the betters with a knife or skewer to create the marbles effect. Cook for 20min and allow to cool on a rack.

Icing tiiiiiime!!! For this recipe I tried a new icing; Swiss meringue buttercream. It has all the buttery flavour of a buttercream but with the addition of meringue which stabilizes the icing making it softer to eat but more supple to pipe with. Whisk 1 1/4 c. granulated sugar into 5 egg whites over a bain marie (a bowl over gently simmering water). Whisk over heat until the egg whites are warm and the sugar has completely disolved. Remove from heat and beat the egg whites until stiff peaks form and the mixture has cooled. Slowly beat in 1lb butter by the tablespoon and 1 tsp vanilla until the icing is smooth.

Then just ice the cupcakes and decorate at will! We found the panies to be deceptively hard to pipe but the sweet peas are fairly easy and beautiful. I also used some dried coconut shavings to make a third, easier flower that is equally pretty.

Additional Notes:

This makes about 16 cupcakes. It had a really soft crumb but was maybe a bit dry for my taste. But they rose nicely and were great canvases for some decorating practice.


And for your viewing pleasure, here's pictures of the icing process, followed by some of our finished products. First a tray by my friend filled with pretty flowers. Then a punnet square of sweet peas (yes, that was a heredity/Bio30 reference), and some coconut flowers.

Jaime Oliver Pasta

I found this recipe on one of my marathon Food Network viewings. It struck me because it seemed pretty healthy and also used a ton of garlic. And I do love a garlic-y dinner. This dinner does take a while to put together but it's relatively cheap and can feed a crowd.

What you need:

Filling:
1 head broccoli
1 head cauliflower
6-12 cloves garlic
1 tsp dry chili flakes
2 tbsp concentrated chicken broth
3 dashes worchestershire sauce
salt and pepper to taste

The rest:
1 pkg oven-ready cannelloni
750 ml (one jug) tomato juice
1 pkg creme fraiche
1/3c. grated parmesan
salt and pepper
extra grated parmesan and mozarella

Putting it together:

The first thing to do is to cut up the broccoli and cauliflower into florets and boil them. Any stalks or leaves left in are fine. Boil them for a good 20min. They should be mushy and falling apart.


In a pan, fry up the garlic and chili flakes with a bit of salt and pepper in olive oil for about 30sec or until they're fragrent. Spoon the soft broccoli and cauliflower in with a few ladels of water, and add the chicken broth concentrate, and worchestershire. Let the mix simmer until it's a good consistency for filling. The filling can always be mashed if it's too chunky. And salt and pepper to taste. Then let the mix cool until it can be handled.

In a separate bowl, mix the creme fraiche with the parmesan and salt and pepper. If it seems too thick, add a dash of milk. It should be about the consistency of...melted ice cream? lava? Something liquidy enough to be poured but still with some thickness...you get the idea.

Now for assembly time! pour a bit of tomato juice into the bottom of the casserole dish you use. Stuff the cannelloni with the cooled stuffing. Then top off the casserole dish with the rest of the tomato juice. The cannelloni should be covered. Then pour the creme fraiche on top and top it all with the grated cheese.

Cook the casserole at 350F for 30-45min or until the cheese is slightly browned on top.


Additional Notes:

Really not too much to add to this one. If you like spicy food you can always add more chili flakes to the filling. It's just really tasty. The cream mixes down into the tomato juice so you get these tasty layers of just juice, then a mix, then the cream...and with the spicy veggie filling it cuts the richness of the cream.

Oh and in the original recipe, it calls for 2 anchovies to be added when you fry up the garlic and chili flakes. Apparently you don't even taste anything fishy, it just adds some salty-ness... I just wasn't sold on fish in my dish so it got left out.