Xmas splurge

Port from Karlo Estates, Prince Edward County

Revisiting Chocolate Pots

Chocolate Pots

Serves 4

 

1 C 18% cream (35% for firmer texture)

1 ½ 100 g bars good chocolate- min. 70%
2 yolks
1 ½ TBSP butter, cut in pieces
2 TSP ras-el-hanout spice

 

Bring cream just to boil and cool slightly.
Break in chocolate and incorporate.
Whisk in yolks.
Whisk in butter one piece at a time.
Stir in spice.

 

This nicely fills 4 espresso cups.
Chill thoroughly.

A smooth and decadent dessert.

 

Gifts From Away

Spicy Chicken Tikka

A Winter warmer—perfect for our current mix of rain and snow.

 

CHICKEN TIKKA

For 5 persons.

 

1 tsp Chinese five-spice

1 tsp cayenne

1 tsp black pepper

1 tsp turmeric

1 tsp cumin

2 tbsp minced ginger

1 tbsp ground mustard seed

4 garlic cloves, minced (I used Red Russian)

1 cup 3% yogurt

1 kg skinless, boneless chicken thighs

 

Combine above and marinate chicken for minimum 2 hours.

Grill 10 minutes or bake for 35 minutes at 350^o

 

 

 

 

Serve with a yogurt/mint/coriander/lemon dipping sauce.

 

Japanese Salsa

For 4 persons.

2/3 CUP  olive oil
1 TSP wasabi paste
handful parsley
handful arugula
juice of 1 lemon
1/4 CUP capers
1 TBSP fish sauce
2 cloves garlic, crushed

Whisk wasabi and olive oil.
Combine all in food processor.

Substitute wherever salsa is called for- potato, fish, or egg dishes.

Again with cumin? Curried parsnip soup.

 

Full cream, butter, and spices are essential, sustaining elements in our minus thirty temperatures.

What to do with the humble parsnip but apply cumin, coriander, cinnamon, cloves, and black pepper.

 

 

 

 

1 lb parsnip, chopped

1 large onion, chopped

2 oz butter

1 ½  tsp garam masala or to taste

5 C chicken stock

5 oz 35% cream

Black pepper & parprika to taste

 

 

Saute vegetables 5 mins.

Season.

Saute further 5 mins.

 

 

Add stock and simmer 40 mins.

Puree.

Add cream and heat.

Do not boil.

Season to taste.

 

Dust liberally with paprika.

 

 

Spicy Chicken a la Delia

 

 

4 lbs skinless/boneless chicken thighs.

2 cloves garlic-crushed(we used Russian for a little extra heat)
1 tsp ginger
2 tsp turmeric
½  tsp oil

¾ tsp whole cumin

1 tsp whole coriander
8 cardamom pods

1 tsp butter

½ tbsp. oil
2 onions, sliced
1 green pepper-roughly chopped (courtesy Frederick)
2 dried chilies-chopped
1 bay lead-crumbled

5 oz yogurt

2 oz hot water

Make paste with first four ingredients.
Coat chicken and let stand at least 2 hours.
Cook at 400F for 20 mins.

Saute cumin, coriander and cardamom in a dry fry pan for 2 mins.

Crush finely.  (the aroma!)

Saute onions and pepper. Add chilies and bay leaf. Add crushed spices. Add yogurt and water.

Pour all over chicken.

Bake for 40 mins at 350F

Chillled Red Pepper Soup

Perhaps you’re one of the fortunate few with a neighbour who grows vast quantities of peppers?  I have Frederick and his secret garden.  After preparing this dish I can state with absolute certainty that I will never buy commercially prepared soup again.   It’s never too late for a chilled soup. Lots of flavor!

 

Ottolenghi Chilled Red Pepper Soup

 

 

 

For 4 persons.

1 onion-chopped

3 tbsp oil
8 sage leaves-sliced

4 red peppers-chopped (we had Shepherd) Set aside ½ diced pepper.
2 bay leaves
2 tsp cumin
1tsp sugar
1 dried chili-chopped
2 cups stock

1 celery stalk

zest of ½ lemon
1 clove garlic-crushed

basil leaves-chopped

parsley-chopped

sour cream

 

Sauté onion, sage, and peppers for 10 mins.  Add peppers, bay, cumin, sugar, chili, and stock.

Simmer 15 mins.
Remove bay and puree soup. Cool.
Add remaining pepper, zest, and garlic.  Chill.
Serve with basil, parsley, and sour cream.

 

Garlic Custards

Garlic Custards

 

 

 

 

12 large cloves-unpeeled

water to cover

1 ¼ C whole milk

2 sprigs thyme or herb of choice

1 bay leaf

1 TSP salt

 

1 C 35 % cream

4 eggs-whisked

Ground pepper (to taste)

 

You will need a 2 Cup measure, whisk, blender, sieve, 6 small ramekins (4 large), a baking pan, and foil.

 

 

 

 

Boil cloves for 2 minutes.

Rinse, peel and cut in half.

Boil garlic, milk, herbs, and salt.

Simmer 25 minutes. 

Set oven to 325.

 

Remove bay leaf.

Puree remainder and filter through sieve.

 

Fill ramekins to three quarter mark.

Place in baking pan and add enough warm water to fill pan halfway.

 

 

 

Cover with foil and bake for 25 minutes.

 Serve warm or chilled.

 

 

CORNBREAD

Discovering teaspoon amounts of herbs and spices in the back of the cupboard and, once contained and labelled, undertook to make use of them.  Started with a recipe I’d been hoarding from 2001.
 

 

Cornbread w/ rosemary, cayenne & onion

 

1 TBSP butter

1 onion, chopped

1 C cornmeal

1 C flour

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp salt

½ tsp cayenne

3 TBSP rosemary

1 C buttermilk

2 eggs

½ C butter, melted

Melt butter & fry onion; cool.

Stir cornmeal, flour, powder, soda, salt, cayenne, rosemary, and cooled onion. 
Whisk buttermilk with eggs and cooled butter.
Combine with dry mix.

Bake 40 minutes.

 

Very flavourful and the cayenne adds a little bit of a kick.  Adjust to taste.

Man In Comfortable Shoes Bearing Crab Soup

 

Firstly, I’m shocked that you’ve opened a tin of crab meat for this dish.  Isn’t that running contrary to your manifesto or something?  First rule:  shun all things canned. Secondly, you’re wearing socks.  This is the first time in six years? Have you been replaced in the night with a more sensitive human being?

Mrs. F has taken up knitting.  Can you believe this?  After the endless scarves, she turned to socks. 

Shouldn’t homemade socks be purple or yellow & green stripey things?

Mrs. F has made twelve pairs of red socks for herself.  I told her I will wear only white.  She has made one pair and that was my lot.  And thank God because they itch like a bastard.

I think that was very generous of her.  Before we start we should raise a glass to Devon and Cornwall.  Things have been a little damp over there.   Our very dear friends are down in Cornwall.  You’d get on famously with them.  She made the best tomato sandwiches.   Of course that was back in the old days when tomatoes had taste.  How on earth do you stand travelling through Florida?  I don’t need to tell you what they do to tomatoes down there.  What do you do, smuggle a crate down with you?

You would say I martyr myself for the cause. 

I feel sorry for Mrs. F

She’s too busy mixing drinks to notice.

 

 

Devonshire Crab Soup

For 2 persons.

 

1 oz butter

1 onion

1 stalk celery

3 oz long grain rice

2 C milk

8 oz crab meat

1 C chicken stock

2 tsp fish sauce

2 TBSP brandy

5 oz 35% cream

Sauté onion and celery with butter. 

Add rice and milk.  Cook for 15 mins. Puree.

Add crab, stock, brandy and sauce.

Simmer, heating through. Add cream-don’t let it boil.

 

Bob's Your Uncle Meatballs

 

Turkey Meatballs (aka Bob’s Your Uncle), courtesy August Foodie Pen Pal.

We are in the grip of perpetual darkness and rain and simple comfort food is the answer.  My August Foodie Pen Pal, Lindsay, sent a recipe for Turkey Pesto Meatballs.  I’ve never tackled meatballs from "scratch" but I had great success with this.  I say scratch but the only tricky bit was getting the jars opened.

 

My Yield:  24 meatballs

I substituted Pecorino for the parmesan.  (There’s enough parmesan in the pesto.)
Any sauce will do.
I skipped the salt, too.

 

Adapt at will.  Perhaps next time it will be homemade pesto, crumbs and sauce.  (Once my fingers thaw out that is.)

 

 

 

Wellington Boot Soup

My dear man, how did you know?

We are the only people that rake leaves.

Spinach soup?  That’s not very seasonal.

It was on sale.  Besides I’ve grown so many damn onions.  I like soup.  When I was younger, my family took soup at every meal. But back then, it was more like water soup.  We’ll see what we can do with crab. Speaking of the old country, fancy a drop of the old medicinal?

See you in ten.

 

 

Simple Spinach Soup

For 4 persons.

 

2 oz butter

1 onion, sliced

8 C spinach, torn

2 oz flour

1 C stock

2 C milk

2 TBSP 35% cream

1 TSP nutmeg

salt & pepper, to taste

 

 

Sautee onions in butter.  Don’t brown. 

 

Add spinach and cook further five minutes. 

 

Add flour and stir well.

Add stock and stir.

Add milk and bring to boil.

Add nutmeg and simmer 20 minutes.

Season to taste.

Puree.

Serve with fresh cream.

 

Celebration Soup

 



Parsnip, Potato & Onion w/ scallop, horseradish cream

 

For 2 persons

1/8 C 35 % cream
1/8 C 2% milk
1/4 C grated horseradish

Bring to boil, simmer, cool, whip.

1 TBSP butter
1/2 lb parsnip
1/4 C diced potato
1/4 C diced onion
2 C stock (I had pheasant stock leftover)  [Don't underestimate a pheasant.]

Sautee vegetables, add stock, simmer 25 minutes.  Puree.

2 scallops

Seer 3 mins per side.  Pat dry. 

Dress with whipped horseradish cream and chives.

 



Celebration Cocktail~Happy Thanksgiving

Frederick is back;  just in time for Thanksgiving. We dusted off a couple of glasses and sat down for the full story.  Mrs. F back in two days.

For two persons.

SHAKE & STRAIN:

1oz brandy, 1/2 oz lemon juice, 1/2 oz simple syrup, 1 oz guava & mango juice

TOP EACH FLUTE w/: 

3oz Brut rose or your choice of sparkling wine

Eat local!

fresh peas straight from Frederick's garden;
you can stop buying the Peruvian asparagus!

So that's where they went?

Sulking would be a more accurate description.  But four weeks of it?

Apparently she’d eaten all thirty pieces of his stuffed morels.  I wondered why things had gone quiet.

These were no ordinary morels.  Frederick had to cross international borders; meaning a passport renewal.  He hates having his picture taken.  The MOT close ups are the reason he doesn’t drive anymore.

The pleasure of tromping through woodland in search for the elusive fungus outweighs the inconvenience of a double chin.

You were wondering where the evidence was?  Mrs. F. knows.

Garlic and crab stuffed morels.  Thirty pieces of gland aching delight.

Who amongst us could resist?

What does that leave us with?  Zucchini. 
To be continued.

 

 

Asian Night

Asian Mary

Combine 1 TBSP salt, sesame seed and wasabi powder.

Rim glass with lime and dip in dry mix.

Fill highball with ice, 1 CUP tomato juice, 1 TBSP wasabi, 1 TSP Tabasco, ½ TSP Worcestershire; 1 oz lemon juice; garnish with sesame and a skewer of star fruit

(All recipes for 2 persons)

SOME OF THE THINGS YOU'LL NEED

Thai Wraps

Head lettuce leaves

1 garlic clove-minced
1 TBSP grated ginger
green chili sliced
1 shallots, sliced
¼ cup tofu, sliced
½ carrot, finely cut into strips
2 shitake mushrooms, sliced
1 egg
¼ cup red cabbage, shredded
1 spring onion
1 cup bean sprouts

1 TBSP lime juice

1 TBSP soy
1 TBSP fish sauce
1 TBSP oyster sauce

Fresh basil

¼ cup roasted peanuts, chopped

2 TBSP oil

 

Heat oil, add garlic, ginger, chili, shallots; fry one minute

Add tofu, carrot, mushroom, sauces; cook additional minute
Fry egg; add bean sprouts
Wrap in lettuce leaves; top with basil and peanuts

Cheat of the Week

 

Miso Soup & dumplings courtesy of T & T dumplings and Fuchu Miso
(We did chop a green onion so that’s something at least.)

 

Japanese Curry

 

And why is it Japanese?  On account of the turmeric.  This spice has been in the news a lot lately.  Fabulous health benefits.

6 chicken thighs

¼ CUP oil
½ CUP onion
¼ CUP grated apple-remove peel

1TBSP Japanese seasoning*

½ TBSP chopped garlic

½ TBSP chopped ginger

1 ½ TBSP flour

1 CUP chicken stock
2 CUP spinach
2 TBSP fresh coriander

Sear chicken & reserve.

Add onion, apple, seasoning, ginger & garlic.  Cook for 1 min.
Stir in flour, cook for 2 min.
Add stock in batches; bring to boil
Simmer 5 min; add chicken and cook 10 min.
Remove from heat.
Add spinach and coriander.
Serve with rice or noodles.

(Paired with Kronenbourg 1664-wheat beer w/ citrus and coriander.)

 

*Japanese seasoning

 

1TBSP turmeric
½ TBSP ground coriander
½ TBSP ground cumin
½ TSP ground cardamom
¼ TSP cinnamon
¼ TSP ground ginger
1/8 TSP fresh pepper
1/8 TSP cayenne
1/8 TSP ground cloves
1/8 TSP ground fennel

 

 

Easy Rice Pudding

 

¼ CUP basmati rice
4 CUPS milk
1/3 CUP sugar
Pinch of salt
1/4 TSP cinnamon
1/4 TSP ground cardamom
1/4 CUP broken pistachio

Cook rice, milk and sugar on low heat for 2 ½ hours

Add salt, cinnamon and cardamom
Top with nuts.

Editor's note:
This turned out very well and worth the over two hour wait.

 

 

Asparagus is not a noodle.

 

The fetal position is for babies, not vegetables.  Don't kill your asparagus.

Please try to aim for a cooking time of no more that 3 minutes.  Once cooked, your veg should resemble the spear in the lower half of the plate.  Taste and texture still intact.

Asparagus is not a noodle. 

In the garden, with flats on.

Nestled under the tree with the second half of the Fizz.  Perfect afternoon of shoulder weather.  The solo bass lines were quite hypnotic.  It had been steadily playing for the last hour which meant the kitchen was closed for the day. Music is welcome in the garden as long as it's the right kind of music.   I would throw Bach’s solo cello into the mix. There was a rustle in the shrubbery; I traded one chair for another and charged my glass.  We swapped notes on the canoe; in the same spot as before.  Some people erect fencing, others merely lean watercraft against a shed.

A chair was no match for my host and he sank down onto a puffy cushioned divan.



Everything looks so well manicured.  We've often wondered about that.

I like order with the vegetables and chaos with the flowers.  My wife is the opposite but she cannot cook. This is why she is not allowed anywhere near my kitchen.  I would never find anything.  Don't let her near yours. 

And the grass?

Chamomile.

Oh, like the book.

Book?

The Chamomile Lawn.

Never heard of it.  My wife tells me you cook.  Do you cook or merely think you can cook?

I like a complicated recipe.  It doesn't always like me.

Complicated is never worth the stress. Simple is good. People have no appreciation for the amount of work you’ve put into a dish.  Remind me to give you some asparagus before you go.  If you can handle the asparagus, we’ll see about mushrooms.