FFWD: Butter and Rum Crêpes, Plain and Fancy

February 21, 2014February 22, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 41 Comments

In the early years of my parents’ marriage, my mother went on a quest to find the perfect lemon meringue pie recipe. It was my father’s favourite dessert and he told her he hadn’t had a good slice since he’d moved away from home. He’d never found any that could measure up to his mother’s recipe.

We were living in Winnipeg at the time, surrounded by my mother’s family, and she thought he should have a taste of home, too. So, she asked all the nurses she worked with at the hospital. Some of them brought in pie for my father to try and others passed on their recipes to my mother. Each time he was presented with a new version, Dad said, “It’s good, but it’s not like Mom’s.” Then, she went to her aunts, famously prolific scratch cooks, for their recipes. He thought their lemon meringue pies were pretty good, but they still didn’t measure up to his mother’s.

Finally, my grandparents came out to visit and my mother took my grandmother aside to ask her for her recipe. She told her how many different recipes she’d tried, without success. Grandma replied,”Oh well, dear. I just use Shirriff’s.” That possibility hadn’t occurred to my mother.

So, shortly after that visit, there was one more pie for my father to try. He tried it and said delightedly,”This is it! This is just like Mom’s.” My mother pulled out the box to show him and that was the end of scratch lemon filling in their household for many years to come.

Until now. I’ve made Dorie’s lemon curd before, but not for my parents. One of the options that Dorie presents for this week’s assignment is a lemon curd filling. The crêpes themselves are flavoured with lemon and orange zest, along with rum and orange liqueur (I used Triple Sec). There’s also a buttery orange and lemon sauce that goes on top, so I thought, why not go the distance? It was a good choice. My crêpe-making technique needs a little work – thank goodness for folding, it hides a multitude of less-than-perfectly-round sins. The texture of the crêpes was spot-on, though, and the make-ahead filling and sauce make them the sort of dessert you can “just throw together” to impress.

This dessert was a big hit with my parents. My Dad even said the filling was just as good as Shirriff’s.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Butter and Rum Crêpes, Plain and Fancy

FFWD – Hélène’s All-White Salad

February 14, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 30 Comments

My salad for this week’s assignment wasn’t so much white as spring green, matching the turn of weather we’ve had this week. After a period of cold, damp weather that seeped into the bone, it now feels like time to put away heavy coats and sweaters until autumn rolls around.

It’s also that in-between time where there isn’t much produce that’s in season, save for a few brassicas and storage fruits and vegetables. So, salad featuring cabbage and apples is perfect for this time of year. With mushrooms for meatiness and celery for extra crunch, this salad made for a surprisingly filling dinner.

I wasn’t sure about the lemon-yogurt dressing – it was entirely too tart when I tasted it. The sweetness of the apples in the salad transform the taste, though. I think if I make it again, I’ll add in a shot of apple juice to make it a little more versatile.

Kevin skipped the dressing altogether and sprinkled some lemon juice on his, instead. He’s trying to work toward becoming vegan, or at least vegan-ish, so some French Fridays assignments may get put off until I have a meat-eating audience at hand, as last week’s Boeuf à la Ficelle did. Maybe I’ll do a game version of that one for my parents some time.

If you’re looking for a meatless meal that suits this season, you can find the recipe for this week’s dish here.

You can check out everyone else’s white-on-white greens here: Hélène’s All-White Salad

FFWD – Dressy Pasta “Risotto”

January 24, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 9 Comments

The rest of the Doristas rang in the New Year with this dish, but I’m only getting to it now. I didn’t fancy the idea of simmering gluten-free pasta in broth for twenty minutes or more, so I waited until I had an opportunity to make this for my parents. Even then, I had to modify the recipe – their reaction to heavy cream and mascarpone in the sauce was, “Are you trying to kill us?” I substituted milk and Greek yogurt instead. I stood firm on the Parmesan, though. My less-likely-to-kill-my-parents version worked out beautifully. It didn’t have the creamy ooziness of the original, but the flavour was there, especially because I added bacon to the mix. (This really couldn’t be called a light version, could it? Oh, well.) I used a little of the bacon fat to sauté the onions, then added the chopped bacon to the pasta at the end.

I loved the method for this pasta. Simmering the macaroni in broth adds so much flavour and it’s nice to be able to get on with other things in the kitchen while it’s slowly absorbing the liquid. The milk and yogurt dressing didn’t look as creamy, but it tasted creamy and I enjoyed the lightness with which the sauce coated the pasta. Which is not to say that I’m not looking forward to trying the full version some time. I’ll just save it for a fancier occasion than a weeknight dinner. Besides, I like knowing that I can make a delicious version of decadent dishes with the sort of dairy that I generally have on hand.

If you want to try the full fat version (and then come back here to tell me what I’m missing), you can find the recipe here.

To see what the rest of the French Fridays crowd got up to this week, follow the link to Moules Marinière. Now that I’ve caught up on the first recipe of the month, I need to tackle this one – I’ve been looking forward to it for quite some time.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Dressy Pasta “Risotto”

FFWD – Christine’s Simple Party Soups

January 17, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 37 Comments

I think the best thing a young person can learn before they strike out on their own is how to make soup. Not just because you’ll always be able to feed yourself, even in the days when you might only have one pot to your name, but also because it’s a great way to learn how to balance flavours. Adding a little bit of this and a little bit of that until you get it right is the essence of soup-making and that knowledge will carry through when you move on to master more complicated recipes and techniques.

Some recipes, though, don’t give you the luxury of fixing your mistakes with another ingredient or two. They depend on the flavours developed by a minimum of ingredients in the correct proportion to one another. This week’s trio of soups fall into this category. They consist of stock (or water and bouillon cubes) and a single dominant vegetable, with a little salt and pepper to bring out the flavours. Red pepper, asparagus, and broccoli are the vegetables (though the latter two have a little zucchini in them, as well, which doesn’t seem to affect the dominant flavour of the soup). Additional seasoning is added only through the garnish, which is whipped cream with Piment d’Espelette, cardamom, and curry respectively.

I tried the soups plain and they definitely need the extra flavour boost from the cream and spices. I used Greek yogurt (and this time I checked the label), which worked just as well, I think.

These weren’t my favourite soups from this book, even with the yogurt and spices. I appreciated the intensity of the dominant flavour, but it didn’t make me want to sit down for a meal. Instead, I found myself wanting to freeze these in cubes, as I think they’d make a great flavour booster when my usual soups need a little something. So, I don’t think I’ll be making these again, but the leftovers may be showing up as guest stars in future soups. C’est la vie.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Christine’s Simple Party Soups

FFWD – Baked Apples Filled With Fruit and Nuts

January 10, 2014January 17, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 34 Comments

Pink Lady Apples filled with honeyed dates and cashews. A nice, simple recipe that needs only a little garnish to bring it to perfection. In my mind, Greek yogurt mixed with brown sugar sounded like a great accompaniment.

Unfortunately, I wasn’t paying enough attention at the grocery store and picked up a tub of zero-fat vanilla Greek yogurt instead of the plain, full-fat variety. The taste and texture weren’t what I was looking for, but the apples were delicious enough to make up for it.

A small rant: Manufacturers, please stop messing with things that are perfect as they are. Regular Greek yogurt might not be diet fodder and grab-and-go eaters might
be put off by its plainness, but it really is a perfect ingredient. Savory dishes or sweet, sauces or baked goods, all can benefit from the use of Greek yogurt. Why mess it up by pulling the richness and replacing it with artificial flavours?

Rant aside, this is a recipe I’ll be making again. I think it would be lovely alongside a bread pudding for a warm winter dessert, or with some ice cream for some temperature contrast. Or with Greek yogurt, if you’ve checked the label before you left the store.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Baked Apples Filled with Fruit and Nuts

FFWD – Recipe Swap Onion “Carbonara” (A French Fridays Catch Up)

December 23, 2013May 5, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 10 Comments

It’s the eve of Christmas Eve and I’m getting ready for a day of massive baking tomorrow, as I’m on Team Dessert for the big family Christmas this year. (I won’t be making many cookies, though, since I was lucky enough to win this from the lovely fellows at Boys Own Bakery.)

Tonight, however, was about relaxing and catching up on last week’s French Fridays dish. Onion Carbonara has a long history, as Mary relates in her post. Unlike its originators, I wasn’t attracted by the economics of the dish, but by the promise that it was one of those gluten-free dishes that doesn’t pale by comparison to the original.

In this version, steamed onions replace spaghetti as the anchor of the dish. It’s billed as an appetizer or a side, but I made two-thirds of the recipe and we had it as our main course. The steamed onions were sweet and crunchy, setting off the rest of the components so nicely that I didn’t miss the pasta at all. I do think that I’d like this version over pasta, too, and a number of other Doristas did just that.

I hope that you are surviving the whirlwind of the holidays, whatever you celebrate, and that you have lots of opportunity to enjoy good food and company before the turning of the year.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Recipe Swap Onion “Carbonara”

FFWD – Sugar-Coated French Toast

December 6, 2013May 5, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 6 Comments

I’m a week behind, but that might not be such a bad thing. While everyone else has been struggling with these, I’ve been working my way through a mountain of homemade goat cheese.

I actually made these on Sunday last, but am just getting around to posting about them now. I wasn’t one of the industrious souls who used their own challah for this recipe, but I did stop in at East Village Bakery and picked up a brioche bun, on my way to Make It. It was meant for a burger, but once I sliced off the crown and the bottom crust, it was perfect for French toast. As a bonus, I got to munch on the scraps. I think I might use this sort of bun again, even when I’m making French toast for more than just myself. I loved the little rounds of toast I got – so pretty!

This recipe is a nice simple one, but has an extra step that finishes it perfectly. When you’re ready to cook the toast, you sprinkle a thin layer of sugar across the pan. Then, when you’re ready to flip it, you sprinkle another thin layer of sugar across the toast. You end up with a beautifully caramelized surface and a little extra sweetness, to boot. As you can see, it’s quite lovely, too.

Update: I had to come back and add this – I made a variation, rather than the straight-ahead recipe. (This is what happens when you wait almost a week to write about something.) Dorie’s recipe is flavoured only with vanilla, a typically French approach. I decided to do something a little different and picked up a bottle of Vancouver’s famed Avalon Dairy eggnog to use in place of the milk and cream. It was so good! It had extra eggy richness and I loved the subtleness of the eggnog spices in the French toast. I’d definitely recommend this, but make sure you get the good stuff.

I appreciated the treat, after having spent the afternoon exploring the unbelievably varied offerings of one of the best craft shows of the year. I even got to go for free, as Vancouver East Village was running a little contest and I won one of the passes. I love craft shows that include the making of products as well as the finished ones and Make It never disappoints. I especially loved the little craft table that Spool of Thread set up, with easy instructions and a range of materials for making pinwheel brooches. Here’s a collage of some of the cooler things I saw there this year:

I’m looking forward to more craft shows and treats through December. I hope this month brings you some of your favourite things, too. And I hope that those of you who just finished celebrating Hanukkah had a lovely and peaceful holiday.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Sugar-Coated French Toast

FFWD – Salty-Sweet Potato Far

November 26, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 16 Comments

I’m a little (okay, a lot) late with this week’s post (well, last week’s). I finally managed to make this Breton classic today. My version was gluten-free and wasn’t bad. I skipped the raisins, doubled down on the prunes, and added Emmentaler (after reading Mardi and Betsy’s exchange on the French Fridays site). The cheese was a good addition. I ate it with a salmon cake and some greens, but I think the leftovers are going to be treated in a more brunch-like fashion.

Will I finish it? Yes. Will I make it again? Probably not, unless it wows Kevin when he tries it tomorrow.

Next Tuesday, I’ll tell you about what December has in store for folks around here. But before that, I’ll see you for French (Toast) Friday.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Salty-Sweet Potato Far

FFWD: Hurry-Up-and-Wait Roast Chicken – A Catch Up

November 15, 2013November 15, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 12 Comments

This week’s recipe is Chestnut and Pear Soup, but that’s not what I have for you today. Instead, I’m going to tell you about a recipe the gang did earlier this month, a roast chicken with an unusual twist. I’ll also tell you a bit about what I was getting up to instead of sourcing chestnuts and making soup.

Hurry-Up-and-Wait Roast Chicken is cooked for about an hour on high heat, starting on one side and then flipped to the other mid-roast. I used carrots, potatoes, and a few cloves of garlic to prop up my bird and stuffed it with half an apple and half an onion. Along with a cup of white wine (courtesy of the Doristas who attended IFBC), there was about two cups of jus, even it was boiled and thickened a bit, while the bird was resting (on an angle) under a foil tent. This method makes for a tender, juicy bird and no leftovers. The vegetables were cooked perfectly, too. It was a perfect one pot meal.

Now for the reason I’m not going to be tackling this week’s recipe until Sunday. Post-harvest season has traditionally been a little lacklustre for some of the agricultural vendors of the Fraser Valley. So, the farmers have gotten creative. This Wednesday, my mother and I headed over to Krause Berry Farms for their customer appreciation night. It included bakery samples and wine tastings and a first look at this year’s Christmas food and craft offerings. Each year it seems the Krause family expands their retail complex, allowing the farm to offer their produce in new ways. Now, you can enjoy meals, cooking classes, wine tastings, and more throughout the summer, fall, and holiday seasons. It’s a survival strategy in a market with a narrow margin, but it’s also enriching the cultural landscape out in the Valley.

The next day, we visited Campbell’s Gold Honey Farm to pick out (and taste) some honey wines for upcoming holiday meals. They’re taking part in the Abbotsford Circle Farm Tour‘s Passport to Christmas, which offers substantial prize draws to visitors of six or more of the farms on the list. It’s a great way to promote off-season visits to farm retail outlets and allows for some great early Christmas shopping, too. I’ll be back to visit some more of the participants before Christmas, for sure.

I admire the way that farmers are finding ways to survive in this economic climate, while making the Valley a much more interesting place than I remember it being when I was growing up there. I also like the opportunity to see where all the local food I’m touting comes from. It’s grounding in the most literal of senses.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Hurry-Up-and-Wait Roast Chicken

FFWD: Compote de Pommes Two Ways

November 8, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 13 Comments

One thing I appreciate about these French Fridays is the way Dorie’s French take on familiar recipes forces me out of my flavouring habits. Usually, my apple sauce is full of warm apple pie flavours – cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cardamom. This compote de pommes relies on vanilla, instead, to bring out the flavour of the apple.

We’re well into autumn here, so much so that I’m going to have to pull out the rake this weekend and start on the fallen leaves, spreading them over the vegetable garden, once I finish its fall clean up. My flower garden is still going strong, though, especially the dahlias, which are continuing to bloom. Nothing feels urgent outside now. These tasks are simply waiting for me, unlike the weeds of spring and summer, who wait for no one.

Fall and winter cooking doesn’t feel urgent either, the worry that I’m not making the most of something before it’s gone just doesn’t apply to storage fruits and vegetables. The process of cooking slows down, too, with soups and stews and compotes like this one warming the kitchen and the belly.

I made enough of this compote to enjoy of ice cream (or rather, Coconut Bliss) tonight, with lots left over to stir into yogurt tomorrow morning. Next time, I think I’ll make a bigger batch. I haven’t made an applesauce cake in far too long.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this FFWD recipe here: Compote de Pommes Two Ways