And we’re back…

January 18, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 1 Comment

If you stopped by earlier today, you might wonder why my site went dark in support of the Stop SOPA/PIPA campaign. After all, this is a Canadian site. Unfortunately, the proposed legislation will have as big an impact here and across the world as it does in the United States. Michael Geist’s article on the problems posed by this legislation for Canadians can be found here:

Why Canadians Should Participate in the SOPA/PIPA Protest

Also, while it’s still up, check out The Oatmeal for a funny and informative protest page.

A Little Winter Reading and Some Blog Love

January 17, 2012May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 7 Comments

We’ve got snow on the ground in Vancouver and it doesn’t seem to be melting. There’s not very much of it by the standards of the rest of Canada and the northern U.S., but it almost qualifies as an emergency here. My partner and I have been using it as an excuse to hibernate a little. I am hoping to make it out to some of the hot chocolate festival and I’m trying to think of the snow as added incentive. In the meantime, I’m catching up on my reading, with The Emperor of All Maladies, Ragnarok, and a re-read of Paris 1919 on the stand right now.

I’m also trying to catch up on my rather neglected list of blog reading. I’ve been missing my fellow Doristas, especially. I now have some extra incentive in that regard, too. Cher of The not so exciting adventures of a dabbler… very kindly passed on the Liebster blog award to me. Her blog is one of my favourites, so it was an extra-nice surprise. Getting ready to pass it along has meant browsing the latest posts from some of my other favourites, another pleasure.

Here’s how it works:

1. Thank the person who nominated you and link back to them.
2. List your top five picks (who have less than 200 followers) and link to them, telling a bit about each one.
3. Leave a comment on their blogs to let them know you’ve nominated them.

I’ve picked five blogs that I always look forward to reading, but there are plenty of others, some of which you can find here.

When I need inspiration, I just have to look at Patty’s Food. Her photography, styling, and recipes are always beautiful. Her twists on our French Fridays assignments are always inspiring, too.

Elaine at California Living writes about her inspirations in food, art, and gardens. There’s always something to learn from her blog and her love of family, community, and beauty shine through in her posts.

I love making time to cook and bake with my mother, so I admire Tricia and Nana‘s approach to French Fridays. I also love the stories they share about their family traditions and adventures.

I’ve recommended Leslie Robinson’s blog, ¡Me Gusta!, before, but she’s also writing about history and genealogy at 104 Bridge Street. The family stories she’s shared so far are fascinating and tragic.

Tricia McDonald Ward’s photography site isn’t strictly a blog, but it has one. Her photos are gorgeous and often provide a window into the same East Van neighbourhood I like to write about.

FFWD – Potato Chip Tortilla

January 13, 2012May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 3 Comments

There’s something retro about using potato chips in a recipe, something very early-sixties-potluck about it. Back then, it would have been the topping on a casserole, but here it appears in a take on the Basque tortilla. There’s also something au courant about this recipe, too, particularly with the madness over Mad Men. Today, we’ve got a dish that would probably be described as convenience food, elevated.

I made it for brunch and everyone at the table was a little apprehensive about trying it. But, the potato chips sort of disappear into the eggs, leaving only a smoky potato flavour. There’s no milk or cheese in this dish, so the flavours of the other ingredients aren’t softened. The bite of the cayenne, the sweetness of the onion and garlic, and the freshness of the herbs complement the flavour of the potato (chips), with the richness of the eggs holding it all together.

I can’t say that I’d revisit this recipe soon; I’d much rather stick with real potatoes. I do think the mixed herbs are likely to find their way into the pan the next time I make the traditional version. I’ll also admit that the potato chips acquitted themselves very well.

I’m a little behind on French Fridays – the others posted about this a few weeks ago. You can find their posts on this recipe here: Potato Chip Tortilla.

It’s All About Love

January 4, 2012 ~ Teresa ~ 3 Comments

I saw this car window painting today and it got me thinking about the things that I celebrate in my community and the things that make me angry. At the risk of sounding reductionist, it really is all about love. The things we advocate for, fight over, and try to bring into being; those are the things that make our lives and communities worthwhile.

So, for a little beginning of the year perspective, tell me: what do you love, what’s worth fighting for, and what would you mourn if it disappeared?

(I know this is categorized as a Tuesday Topic. The holidays got me a little out of synch, it seems.)

FFWD – Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin

December 30, 2011 ~ Teresa ~ 17 Comments

Some words for December are sumptuous, indulgence, plenty. The words for January include abstemious, forgo, careful. In this culture, we’re encouraged to gorge ourselves in the darkness of the year, then diet as the light returns. Whether it’s food or shopping, consumption and shame are made into two sides of the same coin. It’s not a dichotomy I like very much.

So, with that in mind, I don’t present this week’s French Friday dish as an end-of-the-year indulgence, but as a dish that can carry you through the winter – warming you, nourishing you, and pleasing your palate.

It’s billed as a side dish, but I could be satisfied with only a portion of this dish on my plate.

I do think it’s a lovely dish for the last French Friday of the year, though. It’s delicious, pretty, and very French (though the cheese I used was Swiss).

I hope 2011 brought you joy and that you’ve weathered its challenges, too. Here’s to 2012 – I hope it brings you sweetness and peace.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Cauliflower-Bacon Gratin

Sucre à la Crème

December 28, 2011December 12, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

I just returned from a lovely visit with a couple of friends this afternoon. I gave them each some sucre à la crème, as one is Québécoise and the other is Scottish and misses having tablet (a very similar confection). We talked about having a little get together so that I could teach them how to make it – it’s much easier than telling, especially since in my family’s tradition there are no candy thermometers involved. I spoke to my mother about it and as it happens, she’s been looking up resources on the internet since we made our last batch. The recipes vary widely and the methods are very different, too. In our family, we use heavy-bottomed soup pots when we make this candy, but most of the videos we found show smaller pots being used. The consistency varies a lot, too, especially when maple syrup or corn syrup are used.

Here are two videos that can give you an idea of how sucre à la crème is made, though the method is a little different than the one we use. They’re both in French, though Ricardo has English recipe resources out there, too. Madame Quintin is the perfect French-Canadian Mémère, don’t you think?

I might have to make a video of my mother making her version. Maybe in time for next Christmas.

A French Fridays Catch Up: Matafan and Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast

December 27, 2011May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 6 Comments

The week between Christmas and New Year’s Day is often one full of leftovers and small pleasures. One of my favourite things to do this week is the Globe and Mail’s holiday crossword. Amidst the year-end lists and celebrity tributes, it’s also a good week for reflection on what’s past and what’s to come.

One of the things I’ve enjoyed most this year has been participating in French Fridays and I’m looking forward to reading what the new year brings to all the group’s participants. I also have a bit of catching up to do with this month’s recipes. The two dishes I’m writing about today went together very well and might make a lovely New Year’s Eve supper.

Matafan are traditionally a mid-morning snack (or possibly even part of Second Breakfast, if you happen to be a Hobbit). Dorie describes them as “fluffy mashed potato pancakes” and they are exactly that. I used them as the starch at dinner when I served pork roast as the main. They soaked up the pan juices nicely and stood up well to the roast and its stuffing. The hardest part of making these for me was pushing the baked potato through a sieve, as we couldn’t locate my mother’s ricer. I only used one potato; my father had grown a variety that got quite big and I found one that was easily 1 1/2 pounds. Once I’d finished with the potato, the rest was easy. The batter takes four eggs in total, but two are separated and the whites are beaten stiffly and added after the whole eggs and yolk are incorporated. Riced potatoes and whipped egg whites bring the fluffiness to the batter.

As I cooked the matafan on the stove top, the pork roast was in the oven. The recipe calls for pork loin roast, but I used a shoulder and it seemed to work just as well. My knife skills have improved quite a bit since working through the recipes in Around My French Table, as anyone who participated in our spatchcocking adventure would agree. The meat is sliced almost through along its length and a stuffing of sauteed chard, garlic and onion, raisins (dried blueberries in my case), and red pepper flakes is placed inside, as though between the pages of a book. The whole thing is tied with kitchen twine and the pork is rubbed with olive oil, salt, crushed peppercorns, and crushed coriander seeds. It doesn’t take long to cook in a moderately hot oven – the resting time is nearly as long as the roasting time. It’s a tender roast that picks up the flavours of both the stuffing and the coating. It also looks lovely on the table. Unfortunately, my photo doesn’t do it justice. Sometimes, the hardest part of this group is taking decent photos before taking a dish to table. Sometimes, I just don’t want to keep dinner waiting. C’est la vie.

I hope that your reflections on the year that’s soon to end and the one that’s just around the corner are satisfying and full of hope in turn.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of these recipes here: Chard-Stuffed Pork Roast and Matafan

A Very Merry Christmas

December 25, 2011May 9, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 10 Comments

I hope you’re having a peaceful, happy day today.

I’d like to share the recipe for one of my favourite Christmas treats – sucre à la crème. When I was growing up, my mother and I would make trays and trays of desserts for the big family Christmas meal my parents used to host, along with their Boxing Day open house. Cookies, squares, cakes, and candies, but of them all, we looked forward to sucre à la crème the most, especially if we were lucky enough to have a batch from one of my mother’s aunts back in Manitoba.

My mother is French-Canadian, but her family comes from the francophone communities anchored by St. Boniface. Our Christmas meals have always reflected this and it just wouldn’t be the same if we didn’t have tourtière, boulettes, and sucre à la crème. We’ve even occasionally had a réveillon after Midnight Mass, with goose, then had an anglophone Christmas dinner with my father’s Irish family in the evening.

Sucre à la crème is a sort of fudge, but it’s nothing like what you’d find in a candy store or market stand. It’s a simple affair of sugar and cream (obviously), versions of which pop up around the world. In Scotland, they’ve got tablet, in Mexico there’s dulce de leche, Italy has penuche, and India has burfi. There are probably tonnes of other examples, too.
The Québécois version uses maple sugar, but those trees are a little rarer on the Prairies, so my family’s recipes use mostly brown sugar. My mother’s aunts were famous for their versions, though my Tante Pauline’s was undisputedly the best, with my Tante Leona’s coming a close second. My mother and I went through their recipes for sucre à la crème recently and realized that they were all a little different and that the versions evolved over the years. When I was a teenager, I learned to make it with two cups of brown sugar, one cup of whipping cream, and a teaspoon of vanilla. When we were looking at the other recipes my mother has, this was what we found:

Tante Pauline’s Version

2 cups brown sugar (1/2 c white)
1 cup heavy whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla
walnuts

Sauce

1 cup brown sugar
1 cup whipping cream

Tante Leona’s Version

3 cups brown sugar
1 cup white sugar
2 cups whipping cream

Mom’s Version

2 cups brown sugar (1/2 c white)
1 1/4 cups whipping cream
1 tsp vanilla

In all cases, combine the sugar and whipping cream, whisk together until well-blended and cook over medium-low heat, stirring often, until the mixture sugars the spoon (a metal one is best) and forms a ball when dropped into a dish of cold water. Remove from heat and stir vigourously, adding the vanilla when the candy is just beginning to stiffen. When the scrapings are becoming solid, it’s time to pour the candy into a buttered square pan. Chill in the fridge for several hours or overnight, then cut into small squares. It keeps for a week in the fridge or several months in the freezer.

I lost my sucre à la crème making mojo for a few years; for some reason I just couldn’t get it to set. When I went to my mother’s house this year, we made three batches, using my mother’s recipe. All but one was perfect and the imperfect one wasn’t bad. I think what made the difference was the two of us working together, just as we did when I was a child.

What are your favourite holiday traditions?

FFWD – Crème Brûlée

December 24, 2011December 24, 2011 ~ Teresa ~ 8 Comments

It’s Christmas Eve, and if you celebrate Christmas, it’s a time for relaxing with family or friends…or last-minute panicking. I hope it’s the former for you. I’m a little last minute myself, only now writing a post for this week’s French Friday. I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to write about Crème Brûlée, though. My attempt wasn’t beautiful, but it was delicious.

Dorie’s version has a thin layer of jam at the bottom and is cooked at a low temperature. I’m not sure if the two things contributed to the problems many people had getting their brûlées to set, but after hearing on Twitter that this was a problem, I decided to cook mine at a higher temperature. This caused the jam to bubble up a bit, but my custards set well. The recipe calls for the oven to be set at 200° F, but I set it to 325° F and kept an eye on it. I left them in the refrigerator overnight, finishing them in the evening.

I don’t have a kitchen torch, so caramelized the brown sugar under the broiler, which worked well, though the crust was a little uneven. Next time, I’ll push the sugar through a strainer, so that it falls a little more evenly across the custard. I’m also not sure about resting the brûlées on a bed of ice – they were slipping and sliding under the broiler.

No matter, they tasted great.

Now, if you don’t mind, I’m off to join my partner for some more Modern Family and possibly even It’s a Wonderful Life. Have a great holiday.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Crème Brûlée

Moose Loaf

December 20, 2011May 9, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 2 Comments

It’s been a while since I’ve posted and I’ve been mostly neglecting the blogosphere for the past few weeks. I did manage to read Hank Shaw’s thoughtful post on hunting and it inspired me to share a recipe that I’ve been making for years. Though I don’t hunt myself, wild game has always been a part of my diet. My father started hunting as a young man and he’s passed on his skills to my brother, my nieces, and my nephews. When I buy meat, I try to choose organic, humanely raised meat as often as possible, but between the game my family provides and the meat from my parents’ hobby farm, I don’t have to shop for it very often.

Moose meat is one of my favourites, especially when it’s ground. It’s lovely wherever you’d use ground beef, and as I’ve said before, it’s not as scary a proposition as commercial ground beef can sometimes be.

Think of the recipe below as a starting point – I’ve varied it many times over the years. The last time, I used HP Sauce in the mix and then glazed the top with a little more before popping it in the oven. Sage, thyme, and summer savoury made lovely herbal additions to this particular loaf. The rice and milk are important (I used brown rice this time), because moose meat is very lean. The mixture might seem a little wet, but the excess moisture gets absorbed nicely by the rice and allows the loaf to have a nice jus when it’s just out of the oven. That jus will disappear, though, if you have any leftovers – the loaf will reabsorb it, keeping your next servings tender.

Moose Loaf

1 lb ground moose meat
1 cup cooked rice
1 small onion
1 cup milk
1 egg
3-5 tsps dried herbs
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce or 3 Tbsps HP Sauce
salt and pepper
a clove (or three) of garlic (optional)

Combine ingredients, place in a greased loaf pan, and cook at 325° F for 45 minutes to an hour.

I count myself lucky that I’ve had more than my share of humanely raised and wild meat. I think it’s helped me avoid the disconnect between food and its origins that is so ubiquitous in this culture. I know that not everyone has access to food from the sources I’ve had and that for many, ethical eating means vegetarian or vegan eating. I do believe that choosing to eat meat responsibly can be an ethically sound choice and Hank Shaw’s essay is a great explication of how that may be.