Fort Langley, Again

April 2, 2013April 2, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

Last week, I wandered around Fort Langley for an afternoon, while waiting for my mother to get her hair done. I took Roxy to Brae Island Park, then met my mother for lunch. It wasn’t as leisurely a stroll as we’d been expecting – there was a new television program filming up and down the main street. I’m pretty sure that Roxy’s barking ruined at least one of their takes…

What we thought was a new ice cream shop turned out to be a set for a new series called Cedar Cove, which was filming all around us as we looked for a place to have lunch.

I think I may have offended one of the actors, who was leaning against the glass of this sandwich shop, when I asked her to move a little out of the frame. You can see the crew in the reflection. It was a busy day in Fort Langley.

Say Cheese is tiny, but their sandwiches are good – we opted for the Butter Chicken, which wasn’t as Indian-spiced as we’d hoped, but enjoyable all the same.

The sandwiches, in all their glory.

We took a look down Gasoline Alley, which has small shops, including Cranberries, Naturally (famous for being included in the Oscars gift extravaganza last year). We stopped in at a new store, Mangia e Scappa, then popped in to watch the beans pour out of the roaster at Republica Coffee.

We walked away with two pizzas (one was a gluten-free treat for my partner) and a small sample of bread. Giulia, the owner, makes everything herself, even growing the herbs she uses.

There’s nothing like the smell of freshly roasted coffee beans.

The main drag.

The view from Brae Island Park

FFWD – Lemon-Steamed Spinach

March 29, 2013May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 14 Comments

Steamed spinach with olive oil and lemon zest – hardly a recipe, but it’s good to have a reminder of how lovely simply prepared vegetables can be. We had the spinach with the Chicken Breasts Diable from the beginning of the month. It was a good choice, along with celery root purée.

I did mine in a stand-alone steamer, which is one of my favourite kitchen gadgets. I love being able to set the timer and leave it to do its work. I’ve had it long enough that I know how long each vegetable takes and it’s nice to spend my time in the kitchen on more interesting cooking tasks. (I’m totally trying to justify keeping a probably unnecessary electric appliance – hey, at least it was a gift. Tune in next week for my essay on the joys of electric can openers…)

Spinach has always been a favourite of mine (I was one of those weird kids who liked liver and onions, brassicas, and cottage cheese.) and I’m glad that my partner loves it, too. Speaking of spinach-lovers, I thought I’d share an old Popeye cartoon with you. I have to say, though, it was hard to find one that I felt comfortable posting. Those old cartoons are a lot more problematic than I remember. I’m guessing they don’t show that many of them any more. Here’s one that’s not entirely problem-free, but enjoyable for its presaging of our current food wars.

By the way, I’m flu-free now – thanks for the well-wishes from the Facebook Dorista crowd. Now, I just have to find time to catch up on the Ispahan cake.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Lemon-Steamed Spinach

FFWD – Orange-Scented Lentil Soup

March 15, 2013January 8, 2016 ~ Teresa ~ 13 Comments

East End Food Co-op is where we do a lot of our grocery shopping and it’s long been a neighbourhood hub in our area. It’s hard to go in there without running into someone we know and some of the staff know us so well that they’ve memorized our member number. The co-op does a good job of stocking organic produce, along with products that cater to the various tastes and needs of their customers (for instance, they sell a very good gluten-free all purpose flour). When this soup came up in the rotation, I headed over to the co-op to pick up some more of their beautiful organic French green lentils. Though I have to go further afield for some ingredients (like next week’s rose syrup), I’ve always felt grateful that I have such good options a five-minute walk away.

This soup was well worth using those lentils. One expects earthy, savoury flavours in lentil soup, so the brightness brought by the fresh ginger and orange peel in this recipe surprised me. There have been a couple of recipes from the book that I thought had a little too much orange in them, but this one was perfectly balanced, I thought. I made this with olive oil and vegetable stock, so it made for a nice meatless meal.

Yogurt and lardons are suggested as toppings, or in Cher’s case, homemade labneh. I was so pleased with this soup’s flavour that I ate it just as it was. No toppings needed.

You can find a version of this recipe at Sis.Boom.[Blog!]

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Orange-Scented Lentil Soup

FFWD – Cheesy Crème Brûlée

March 8, 2013May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 14 Comments

“Cheese has always been a food that both sophisticated and simple humans love.”
M.F.K. Fisher, How to Cook a Wolf (1942)

I simply love cheese. I guess I know which side of Fisher’s equation that places me on. Though I’m not a fan of processed cheese. There, I just retained my dignity.

This week’s dish was a cheese lover’s dream. Well, it was this cheese lover’s dream. My partner, who loves cheese even more than I do, decided that he wasn’t a fan of this savoury cheese custard. “I prefer my cheese sliced,” was his verdict. My reply: “More for me!” And I enjoyed these all through last weekend. I guess there are some advantages to recipes that don’t win universal popularity…

I used a mixture of Gruyère and Dubliner, which worked really well together. The Gruyère was the last little bit of a beautiful cave-aged variety that appears occasionally at our local food co-op. This brûlée was a very good last use of the cheese. I chopped my cheese into tiny cubes (measurable in millimeters), which disappeared into the custard while baking. I had to turn up the heat from 200° to 250° for the last fifteen minutes of baking time, as my ramekins aren’t as shallow as those called for in the recipe.

I’ll make this again, certainly (though for a dinner sans Kevin). Creamy, cheesy, mostly made-in-advance, and a little unusual – sounds like a perfect start to a dinner party.

Happy International Women’s Day, everyone!

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

FFWD – Chicken Breasts Diable

March 1, 2013May 4, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 20 Comments

We are well into Raincouver season here and I’ve just finished towelling myself off after taking the dog for a walk. Water is running over every surface outside, streaming down the sidewalks, making lawns resemble a beachside network of tidal pools and rivulets, all leading to the shallow seas forming around the storm drains at the corners of each street.

It’s the sort of weather that demonstrates the exact extent of water resistance in outerwear, but the temperatures are mild and the rivulets of water streaming through my hair were cool, not frigid. I’m grateful that it only takes one cup of tea to warm up, but it’s still not the sort of weather that would tempt me to run out for a forgotten ingredient.

Enter Chicken Breasts Diable. Though it sounds adventurous, as long as you remember to pick up the chicken, it won’t send you running out into the rain for anything you don’t already have in your kitchen. The devil in this dish is Dijon mustard and it forms a very mildly piquant pan sauce when combined with shallots, garlic, white wine, and cream. I substituted milk for cream, as I often do. I also skipped the Worcestershire sauce, because I haven’t been able to find a gluten-free brand (admittedly, I haven’t tried very hard). I did add a very small dab of HP Sauce to the pan, since both Worcestershire and HP are tamarind-based. I think it worked pretty well as a substitute, but it really has to be no more than a dab, or it could overwhelm the sauce. Someday I’ll remember to look for gluten-free Worcestershire sauce beyond my usual haunts, but until then, I’m glad my favourite breakfast condiment can pinch hit for it. (In case you’re wondering, HP Sauce is to the Commonwealth what ketchup is to North America. Canadians often play for both teams.)

It’s not my favourite one-pan recipe from this cookbook (that would be Chicken, Apples, and Cream à la Normande), but it’s another recipe that’s going to be making repeat appearances. It doesn’t hurt that it’s comforting and warm without being heavy – perfect for this in-between time of year. With the lemon spinach that’s coming up later this month and celery root puree, this was a lovely meal.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Chicken Breast Diable

FFWD – Cheating-on-Winter Pea Soup

February 22, 2013February 22, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 20 Comments

A few years ago, the Vancouver Art Gallery exhibited a piece called Ought Apartment, which consisted of a stack of apartments reaching up through the centre of the building. Each apartment was decorated in the style of a particular decade, right down to the knickknacks and the contents of the drawers and cabinets. So many of the objects (and decorating schemes) resonated for me. The fifties apartment had the same sort of ceramic fish that my grandparents hung in their bathroom, there were some questionable young adult design choices in the eighties/nineties range, and so on up through to the millenium. It was the seventies apartment that fascinated me the most – it replicated the landscape (or carpetscape, anyway) of my childhood.

Why am I telling you all this in a post that’s supposed to be about pea soup? It’s all in the colour. The olive drab of the soup was a dead ringer for the avocado green of the kitchen appliances of my youth. The house that I grew up in had orange shag carpet in the living room, and olive green appliances in the kitchen. It may seem horrible now, but in the seventies it was de rigueur. Just as Ought Apartment had, this week’s soup carried me back.

What it didn’t do was carry me back to the taste of my mother’s pea soup, which is a solidly French Canadian split pea and ham bone affair. It’s delicious, but so was this soup, made with frozen green peas and romaine lettuce and relying on nothing more than salt, pepper, and softened onions for additional flavour. I couldn’t help myself – I added thyme and a clove of garlic to the onions, a minute or two before adding the vegetable stock. My vegetable stock was almost the colour of beef broth, I think because it has some tomato paste added to it, which might explain the colour of my soup. Others have reported their soups were a bright emerald green. No matter the colour, this soup does remind me of a summer soup, even though it’s also warming and rich enough for a cold spring evening. I’d like to take another run at this recipe when it’s truly summer, with fresh peas and mint. That might bring on another attack of memories, this time of shelling peas and shucking corn for family barbeques, but I’ll deal with it when it happens.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Cheating-on-Winter Pea Soup

FFWD – Coeur à la Crème

February 15, 2013February 16, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 31 Comments

You might notice a distinct lack of heart-shaped-ness in this week’s dish. I couldn’t bring myself to buy the traditional moulds for this dessert, so substituted a colander, instead. We’re not big fans of Valentine’s Day around here. We’d rather celebrate Kevin’s birthday, which is within a few days of the holiday. When we first started dating, we had a tentative conversation about it:

“So, I’m not really into the whole Valentine’s Day thing, are you?”
“No, not at all! That’s so great we’re on the same page!”

Obviously, reconstructing conversations is outside of my skills set, but you get the idea. We’d had partners in the past who celebrated it and it was a relief to both of us to be able to let it go. It’s one of those holidays that engenders the sort of high expectations that can lead to disastrous results – like New Year’s Eve, but with more self-esteem involved. Sis Boom Blog’s Trevor has a story that tells it so much better than I could, so I’ll leave it at that.

I’ve not tasted this dessert yet, though I’ve tasted all its components, so perhaps I’ve tasted it after all. My no coeur in this crème version of this week’s recipe is going to taste pretty fabulous. Instead of liqueur, I added a couple of teaspoons of Campbell’s Gold amaretto-spiked honey. Drizzled on top is more of the honey and Dorie’s bittersweet chocolate sauce. (I should have stuck with just the chocolate sauce for drizzling purposes, as the honey made everything a little bit smeary. Oh, well.)

With this dessert and a pot of chocolate sauce in the fridge, I think we’re set for a cosy weekend. Happy Valentine’s Day to those who celebrate it and a very relaxing weekend to all.

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

FFWD – Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin

February 8, 2013February 8, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 16 Comments

Have I mentioned that I have some envy issues when it comes to citrus? Reading about other Doristas walking into their yards and picking fruit for the week’s recipe emphasizes the drabness of Vancouver winter a little too keenly. I was able to find some lovely Cara Caras today, so that’s some consolation.

Another consolation is that the orange in this dish didn’t wow me. Next time, I’d reach for some apples instead. Cardamom-rubbed porkloin, roasted in an apple cider and balsamic sauce, now that seems more my style. Not that I minded the stove-top method. It gave me more room in the oven to roast some potatoes and garlic, which I smashed with butter and a little milk before serving.

Now, I’m off to enjoy the long weekend. Next week, it’s coeur à la crème and the dreaded V-word.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Fresh Orange Pork Tenderloin

FFWD – Brown-Sugar Squash and Brussels Sprouts en Papillote

February 1, 2013February 2, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 37 Comments

The usual obstacles to a properly chopped ingredient are dull knives (got that covered – there’s a good sharpener in the drawer), poor knife skills (improving every year, thank you very much), or unripe produce (great selection at the local market this week). I have another, quite individual obstacle, in the person of one small dog:

Imagine that face staring intently at you while you prepare your meal. Distracting, right?

Roxy’s five now and when she was two, she got quite ill and had to be put on a diet of home-prepared pork and yam for a year-and-a-half. She’s back on dog food now, but is only allowed small quantities of fruits and vegetables as snacks. All this has led to her belief that everything prepared in the kitchen is for her.

This week’s dish included two of her favourites, squash and apple. There was some whining involved and it may come as no surprise that not quite the entire apple called for in the recipe made it into the oven. I also may have hurried through the chopping process a little, rendering my cubes of squash and apple a little less than uniform.

Distraction aside, this recipe was quick to put together and, en papillote, easily left to its own devices in the oven while the rest of dinner is prepared.

I liked the combination of Brussels sprouts, squash, and apple. Sage and brown sugar brought the flavours together well, though I think I might add some nutmeg next time. I also think I’ll forgo the foil – a little caramelization would really make this dish.

And Roxy? She moved on to demanding a portion of the blueberries I added to this banana bread. Everything in the kitchen. For her.

You can find many other blogged descriptions of this week’s FFWD recipe here: Brown-Sugar Squash and Brussels Sprouts en Papillote

FFWD – Shrimp and Cellophane Noodles

January 25, 2013January 25, 2013 ~ Teresa ~ 20 Comments

I’m not entirely sure I should be claiming to have made this week’s recipe, but I’m certainly not alone in this. Once again, our Problems & Questions thread was very busy and this week’s subject was tomato purée. Those who’d made the recipe early felt the purée overwhelmed what might otherwise have been a perfectly good stirfry. Those of us, not naming any names here (particularly mine), who tend to do things a little last-minute mostly decided to reduce the amount of tomato or eliminate it altogether.

I eliminated it and didn’t really have to tweak the rest of the flavours at all. Next time, I might squeeze some lime juice over the stirfry just before serving, but I was quite happy with tonight’s results. I did play with the recipe in other ways – substituting a mix of fresh wild mushrooms for the dried tree ear mushrooms and brown rice vermicelli for the cellophane noodles, but the seasonings in the original recipe were quite well-balanced, so I stuck with them. The five-spice powder was especially good with the shrimp and sesame-soaked noodles. If you’d like to see a delicious-sounding adaptation of this dish, here’s Patty’s version.

I’m not sure what it is about this month’s recipes, but our Dorista discussions have really taken off. Perhaps it’s because we’re getting close to the halfway mark of our project, or perhaps it’s just because January was chosen as the month to get a few challenging dishes out of the way. I suspect that it’s also because we’re becoming so intimately familiar with the style of cooking in this book that we’re going to see ever more creative riffs on each week’s recipe. I’m looking forward to it.