Cottage Cooking Club – January 2015

January 28, 2015 ~ Teresa ~ 9 Comments

Spring is a few weeks ahead of itself here. The blooms that start popping up in February have been appearing everywhere around the neighbourhood over the last two weeks. It’s a welcome sign of renewal.

I’ve been experiencing renewal in a slightly less pleasurable way since the turn of the year. Our building was completely re-piped over the last few weeks and it was disruptive enough to throw off my blogging schedule (among other things). Half of my kitchen’s contents were piled on the other half and the rest of our place was uneasily accommodating the contents of our storage and coat closets, along with the substantial contents of a big built-in bookshelf.

There are no more holes in the wall and in their place, there are bright new coats of paint. We’re slowly organizing and putting away the things we’re keeping and working on getting rid of the rest. (One of the advantages of this sort of project is that it inspires you to purge unneeded belongings.) One of the disadvantages of work of this kind is that it saps creative energy, so we’ve been existing on some pretty utilitarian cooking lately and writing inspiration was a little hard to come by.

But that’s all over with, so I’m back in the kitchen and at my desk and will be catching up on some promised posts soon. For now, I’m glad I only committed to one Cottage Cooking Club selection this month, though all of them looked like things I’d love to try.

Curried Bubble and Squeak

Just before the chaos began, I made a big batch of this bubble and squeak. The traditional version has been a comfort food favourite of mine for many years, but one that I don’t often remember to make. This curried vegan version, which uses leftover cooked cabbage and potatoes, is economical and delicious. (And as a bonus, it reminded me that simply sautéed shredded cabbage is a delicious side dish all on its own.) I added chickpeas to the dish, for a little protein and fibre boost, but otherwise followed the recipe. My only quibble is that curry powder is such an imprecise description. I’m going to be playing around with curry spices as I make this dish again, until I get a combination I really love.

I also made the fennel and celeriac soup with orange zest, which was delicious, but that was when the work in our kitchen began and I neglected to get a photo. I love this sort of soup, especially when the weather is cold or rainy. Citrus and fennel have bright notes that help to make up for sunless days and celeriac has the same sort of earthy heft as potatoes, which braces against the cold. A perfect winter soup.

Now, we can move on to February. It’s a cold and dark month in many places, but here in Vancouver, it’s often full of spring.

Here are the links to the rest of the group’s posts for this month. I encourage you to check them out – you’ll meet some wonderful bloggers and get some great inspiration for vegetarian eating.

Holiday Book Reviews – 300 Best Homemade Candy Recipes

December 23, 2014December 24, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ Leave a comment

I don’t know about you, but this is the week when my Christmas shopping always begins in earnest. So, for the second year in a row, I’m bringing you three book reviews to help you cross a few names off your list.

I received a review copy of 300 Best Homemade Candy Recipes from Robert Rose Inc. Nevertheless, all opinions in the following post are my own.

My mother’s aunts were tiny women with very strong arms. That’s because they were raised in an era without stand mixers or food processors to help them in the kitchen. One of the things they used their strength to make, in quantities great enough for the whole extended family, was the French Canadian specialty sucre à la crème. This simple fudge was something we looked forward to at Christmastime and my great-aunt Leona taught me how to make it when I was a teenager. Until very recently, sucre à la crème and truffles were the only candy recipes in my repertoire.

Enter Jane Sharrock’s 300 Best Homemade Candy Recipes. I’ve been curious about candy making for some time now, so when I got the opportunity to review this book, I jumped at it. Sharrock’s cookbook covers most of the categories of candy you can find in a kitchen and some, like lollipops, that I never dreamed you could make at home.

Sharrock began collecting candy recipes when her mother gave her a treasured pressure cooker that was perfect for making candy, along with a small booklet of candy recipes. Sharrock went on to try to preserve the candy recipes from earlier generations, which lends her cookbook an air of nostalgia. Reading through the recipes, I get the sense that these candies populated the tables at church bazaars and community potlucks, in the days before mass-produced sweets took their place.

This means that for the most part, the recipes use ingredients that you’d easily find at the supermarket. The few specialty items, like candy coating, can be found at baking supply stores. But, just because these recipes are old fashioned, doesn’t mean that they’re all unsophisticated. The pralines, divinity, and nougats would make a sweets table shine and even recipes that were thought of as homey, like taffy, seem very impressive these days. You won’t learn skills like tempering chocolate or making marshmallows from scratch, but once you’ve mastered this book, taking your candy making to the next level will be a breeze.

What I like best about this book is that it teaches you a wide range of candy making skills, includes troubleshooting advice and photo demonstrations, and even guides you through the steps you’d need to take if you were trying to recreate a favourite candy without the recipe.

I think after working through some of Sharrock’s categories of sweets, next year’s holiday treat boxes will be the best they’ve ever been. In the meantime, I’m going to give Sharrock’s tuxedo fudge another try. I forgot to put the coconut into the bottom layer and added it to the top, instead. As a result, the bottom is creamy, but the top is a bit dry. Following the instructions should make my next attempt perfect. Thanks to Robert Robert Rose, Inc., I’m sharing the recipe with you. If you’re still on holidays next week, it would be a great way to start filling your freezer with goodies before the New Year’s resolutions set in.

Tuxedo Fudge

Makes about 3 1/2 lbs (1.75 kg)

8- or 9-inch (20 or 23 cm) square pan, lined with parchment or buttered
2-quart heavy saucepan
Candy thermometer

Coconut Layer
2 cups (500 mL) granulated sugar
Pinch salt
1/2 cup (125 mL) butter or margarine
1/4 cup (60 mL) light (white) corn syrup
1/2 cup (125 mL) milk
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
1/2 cup (125 mL) sweetened flaked coconut

Chocolate Layer
2 cups (500 mL) granulated sugar
2 tbsp (30 mL) unsweetened cocoa powder
Pinch salt
1/2 cup (125 mL) butter or margarine
1/4 cup (60 mL) light (white) corn syrup
1/2 cup (125 mL) milk
1 tsp (5 mL) vanilla extract
1/2 cup (125 mL) pecans, in large pieces (optional)

1. To make the coconut layer: In heavy saucepan over low to medium-low heat, bring the sugar, salt, butter, corn syrup and milk to a boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to boil. Cover and cook 2 to 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar crystals on the sides of the pan. Remove the lid. Cook, stirring only as needed to prevent scorching, to the soft ball stage (234°F to 240°F/112°C to 116°C, with 236°F/113°C recommended).
2. Remove from the heat. Cool slightly, about 10 minutes. Add the vanilla. Beat by hand until the candy begins to thicken and lose its gloss. Stir in the coconut. Spread the candy into the prepared pan. Cool at room temperature while making the chocolate layer.
3. To make the chocolate layer: In a clean saucepan, combine the sugar and cocoa until well blended. Add the salt, butter, corn syrup and milk. Bring to a boil over low to medium-low heat, stirring until the sugar dissolves and the mixture begins to boil. Cover and cook 2 to 3 minutes to dissolve the sugar crystals on the side of the pan. Remove the lid. Cook, stirring only as needed to prevent scorching, to the soft ball stage (234°F to 240°F/112°C to 116°C, with 236°F/113°C recommended).
4. Remove from the heat. Cool slightly, about 10 minutes. Add the vanilla. Beat by hand until the candy begins to thicken and lose its gloss. Stir in the pecans, if desired. Spread the chocolate layer over the coconut layer in the pan. Cool and cut into squares. Store in an airtight container.

Gift Giver’s Guide: For the sweet tooth, the nostalgic, and the cook who wants to extend their gifts from the kitchen beyond cookies and squares.

You can find the rest of this year’s reviews here and here..

Holiday Book Reviews – Plenty More

December 21, 2014January 13, 2015 ~ Teresa ~ 3 Comments

I received a review copy of Plenty More from Appetite by Random House Canada. Nevertheless, all opinions in the following post are my own.

It’s only been in the last couple of decades that North Americans have rescued vegetables from their role as either abstemious “rabbit food” or underloved sidekick. Even today, many restaurants use vegetables more as a garnish than a true part of the meal on the plate. As much as I love a good steak, I’ve always craved more than a tiny pile of over-steamed carrots to accompany them. I want vegetables to receive the same care and attention, and creativity, that is brought to the proteins and starches in my meal.

At home, there are plenty of great cookbooks that celebrate proteins, side dishes, and desserts, but until recently, scant attention has been paid to vegetables. Yotam Ottolenghi, along with writers like Deborah Madison and Barbara Kafka, has changed all that.

I’ve been a fan of Ottolenghi since I discovered his Guardian column on vegetarian cooking a number of years ago. Not only did he make vegetables the centre of attention in his dishes, but he used them as a canvas for many of the herbs and spices that were just coming to the attention of British, Australasian, and North American eaters. Middle Eastern flavours like za’atar and harissa were showing up with the proteins on restaurant menus. Ottolenghi’s column, then his cookbook Plenty, sent vegetarians and vegetable-lovers to the spice rack, too.

When I found out he was coming out with a sequel to Plenty, I was excited. My copy has seen a lot of use and I was ready for more recipes. Unlike Plenty, which is organized by vegetable type, Plenty More‘s chapters cover techniques, from tossing to roasting to baking. It’s an evolution from exploring vegetables to becoming so comfortable with them that experimentation begins.

When I got my copy of Plenty More, I took the Roasting chapter for a spin, first thing. In the cold damp of a Vancouver winter, roasted meals warm the kitchen and the belly. I started with Squash with Cardamom and Nigella Seeds, which I served with a Moroccan tagine. Then, I tried the recipe I’m sharing with you today.

One of the reasons I think people believe vegetables are boring is because we’re afraid to work with them as vigourously as we do a piece of meat. Even roasted vegetables can be a bit wan if you don’t allow them to brown and caramelize. That’s one lesson Plenty More brings home. Both the recipes I tried allow the dish to develop the smoky, jammy flavours that come only when you roast something fearlessly.

This recipe gives you perfectly tender carrots with a crust of caramelized honey and accompanies it with a fresh yogurt and tahini sauce that provides a wonderful counterpoint to the dish.

Honey-Roasted Carrots with Tahini Yogurt

Serves Four

scant 3 tbsp/60 g honey
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp coriander seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
1 1/2 tsp cumin seeds, toasted and lightly crushed
3 thyme sprigs
12 large carrots, peeled and cut into 3/4 by 2 1/2-inch/2 by 6-cm batons (3 lb/1.3 kg)
1 1/2 tbsp cilantro leaves, coarsely chopped
salt and black pepper

Tahini yogurt sauce
scant 3 tbsp/40 g tahini paste
2/3 cup/130 g Greek yogurt
2 tbsp lemon juice
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt

Preheat the oven to 425°F/220°C.

Place all the ingredients for the tahini sauce in a bowl with a pinch of salt. Whisk together and set aside.

Place the honey, oil, coriander and cumin seeds, and thyme in a large bowl with 1 teaspoon salt and a good grind of black pepper. Add the carrots and mix well until coated, then spread them out on a large baking sheet and roast in the oven for 40 minutes, stirring gently once or twice, until cooked through and glazed.

Transfer the carrots to a large serving platter or individual plates. Serve warm or at room temperature, with a spoonful of sauce on top, scattered with the cilantro.

Once you’ve tried this dish, I suspect that you’ll be buying a copy for yourself as well as the person you were shopping for. I love that I can adapt most of these recipes easily for my vegan partner, while making the meat-eaters at my table forget that they’re being served a vegetarian meal.

Gift Giver’s Guide: For the vegetable lover, the curious cook, the flavour-seeker, and anyone who needs convincing that vegetables can be the star of the show.

Come back Tuesday for a review of a book that will fill your holiday sweets table with goodness.

Holiday Book Reviews – The Healthy Slow Cooker

December 20, 2014December 22, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 4 Comments

I received a review copy of The Healthy Slow Cooker, Second Edition from Robert Rose Inc. Nevertheless, all opinions in the following post are my own.

I know that I post a lot about French food and desserts around here, but most of the time I try to cook healthy meals. It might seem challenging to do so when trying to balance the needs of an omnivore with a vegan-ish, gluten-free eater, but it isn’t really. We never ate very much bread with our meals and there are plenty of great grains that can satisfy our carbohydrate requirements. As for protein, I’ve always been of the mind that meat and dairy shouldn’t be the primary focus of weekly meals, so we were already eating a largely plant-based diet before my partner started his move toward veganism.

What can be challenging is making sure we have enough variety in our diet, so that we’re covering all the nutrient groups as we eat across the week. It’s easy to get into a routine, making the same few dishes over and over, with a little experimentation on the weekends. Much better to find ways to change things up more frequently.

One of my favourite ways to do that is to make use of my slow cooker. Not only can I fill it and forget it for the workday or overnight, having a large slow cooker means that I can make recipes in quantities that allow me to package and freeze several meals’ worth.

Unfortunately, a lot of slow cooker cookbooks focus on heavy meals that cycle through a limited roster of protein-starch-vegetable combinations. So, I was happy to find The Healthy Slow Cooker has a variety of recipes, both meat and plant-based, with a focus on using nutrient-dense ingredients. The best part is that all the recipes are gluten-free.

Judith Finlayson is well-known to Canadians as a writer and editor, but has become especially famous for her prolific publication of useful cookbooks. Many of them are slow cooker cookbooks, focusing on different health needs or dietary practices. The Healthy Slow Cooker is in its second edition, which came out earlier this year. This means that the recipes are updated, but more importantly, the nutrition tips and health information are more current now, too.

Those tips and information boxes, called “Mindful Morsels” and “Natural Wonders” are a welcome feature of Finlayson’s book. There are the kinds of information you might expect, like the sections breaking down the nutritional benefits of mushrooms or bell peppers, which help bring home the reasons for eating a wide variety of foods. But there are also sections that go into more depth, explaining the role of elements like fatty acids and micronutrients in our diets, why some foods which should always be bought from organic sources, or shopping with environmental concerns and sustainability in mind.

The recipes come from a number of culinary traditions, including Caribbean, Indian, Middle Eastern, and Asian flavours. They also make use of common ingredients, without ignoring some of the ingredients (think edamame or sunchokes) that have been showing up more and more in markets. There are lots of vegan or vegetarian dishes, while many of the recipes that weren’t explicitly vegetarian or vegan could easily be converted, like her Sweet Potato Coconut Curry. And most of the truly meat-based meals are freezable, ready for those times when I’m eating solo.

When I was deciding which recipe to share with you, I thought about how much of a boon fresh, vibrant food is on the winter table. Even though summer vegetables are long gone, many of them are available frozen, almost as nutrient-rich as when they were picked. Finlayson’s take on succotash was exactly what I was looking for, incorporating corn, roasted red peppers, tomatoes, and edamame with the warmth of paprika. It’s bright on the table, filling, and a good match for many different main courses. Best of all, it’s freezable, letting you enjoy it across the coldest months. (If you make it in summer, you can use garden-fresh ingredients and freeze some of it for winter.)

New Age Succotash

reprinted with permission from Judith Finlayson’s Healthy Slow Cooker

Serves 8

1 Medium to large (3 1/2 to 5 quart) slow cooker

1 tbsp (15 mL) olive oil
2 onions, finely chopped
4 stalks celery, diced
2 carrots, peeled and diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 sprig fresh rosemary or 2 tsp (10 mL) dried rosemary leaves, crumbled
1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt
1/2 tsp (2 mL) cracked black peppercorns
1 can (28 oz/796 mL) no-salt-added tomatoes, including juice, coarsely chopped
1 1/2 cups (375 mL) vegetable stock
4 cups (1 L) frozen shelled edamame
2 tsp (10 mL) paprika, dissolved in 2 tbsp (30 mL) water
4 cups (1 L) corn kernels, thawed if frozen
2 roasted red bell peppers, diced
1/2 cup (125 mL)finely chopped parsley leaves

In a skillet, heat oil over medium heat. Add onions, celery and carrots and cook, stirring, until softened, about 7 minutes. Add garlic, rosemary, salt and peppercorns and cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes with juice and vegetable stock and bring to a boil. Transfer to slow cooker stoneware.

Add edamame and stir well. Cover and cook on Low for 8 hours or on High for 4 hours, until mixture is hot and bubbly. Stir in paprika solution. Add corn, roasted red peppers and parsley and stir well. Cover and cook on High for 15 minutes, until corn is tender and mixture is heated through.

Variation
Spicy Succotash: For a livelier dish, stir in 1 can (4.5 oz./127 mL) mild green chiles along with the red peppers.

This is a terrific side for a braised tofu dish, or more traditionally, for a big platter of ribs. Finlayson includes a recipe for a corn and chile polenta in the cookbook, which would be a nice addition to either of these meals. Really, though, this dish would fit whenever you’d otherwise consider serving the usual boiled, steamed (or canned) vegetables.

I’ll be coming back to this cookbook often, both for the recipes and the information.

Gift Giver’s Guide: For the busy, the gluten-free, and those who want variety and flavour in their healthy menus.

Come back tomorrow for a review of a book that brings vegetarian eating to a new level.

FFWD – Orange & Olive Salad and Lamb & Dried Apricot Tagine

December 19, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 13 Comments

When it comes to the kitchen, December is a weird mix of ambition and ease for me. I make long lists of favourite dishes to make, along with new ones to try that usually involve a new skill to master. There are also many quick and easy meals, most easily forgotten, to accommodate all the rush and bustle (and more complicated works in progress) the holidays bring.

So, I was extra grateful to Santa’s Dorista elves for setting a schedule full of simple, delicious recipes. It’s been a good reminder that quick and easy doesn’t have to mean forgettable.

Orange & Olive Salad

Which brings me to this salad, almost as if I’d planned it. You can see how pretty it is in the photo at the top of the post and you can probably guess how easy it was to put together, too. What the photo won’t tell you is how delicious it was. The idea of orange, olive, and onion in a salad was a bit off-putting for a number of the French Fridays crew this week. But, one by one, almost everybody started posting that they’d loved it.

So, by the time I got around to making it this afternoon, I was pretty confident it was going to be good. Kevin, however, doesn’t get the benefit of Dorista social media chatter, so he was very skeptical when I set it down in front of him. He’s a good sport though. After assuring him that soaking the thinly sliced onion in ice water had rendered it mild and crispy, he dug in. And then ate the whole plateful, making it a hit for both of us. We’ll be having this again and I can hardly wait to introduce it to others. It’s an elegant, surprising dish that would have gone untried if it hadn’t been for this cooking group.

Lamb & Dried Apricot Tagine

This dish was never in danger of going untried. I’ve loved Moroccan flavours since my university days, when I discovered the recipe for Moroccan Chicken Stew in the copy of Anne Lindsay’s Lighthearted Everyday Cooking that was a moving-out-on-my-own gift from my mother. I did make it a little easier, though, by cooking it in the slow cooker overnight, then letting it rest in the fridge until dinnertime. When I heated it up, I couldn’t believe that it was even more fragrant than when it had come out of the slow cooker. I served it with saffron rice and Ottolenghi’s Roasted Squash with Cardamom and Nigella, both headily aromatic dishes themselves. It made for a fantastic meal.

The next ten days are going to see a lot of cooking and baking, family visits and celebrations. But, if you have time, drop by over the weekend – I have three last minute shopper’s cookbook reviews for you, from Saturday through Monday. And a happy Chanukah to everyone who is in the midst of celebrating it.

Find links to the rest of the French Fridays crew’s posts on this week’s recipe here: Orange & Olive Salad. Then, see how everyone fared with the Lamb & Dried Apricot Tagine.

Kevin’s Vegan Hash

December 18, 2014December 19, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 14 Comments

The Little Potato Company provided me with the potatoes used in this recipe. The recipe and all opinions expressed in the post are my own.

When I was given the opportunity to try The Little Potato Company’s creamer potatoes, I was happy to participate. The company started in Alberta, but now has farms across Canada and the US. They produce creamer potatoes exclusively, which are bred to stay small at maturity, with a thin, tender skin. I was also happy to learn their potatoes are non-GMO.

I spent the last few weeks boiling, baking, frying, and mashing the samples of the two varieties they sent me and I’ve been pleased with them in every application.

Last week, I shared a very meat-forward recipe using Blushing Belles. This week, I’ve got a vegan recipe for you, which uses their Yellow Fingerlings.

My partner, Kevin, wanted me to recreate the kind of breakfast that he’s had at the very few restaurants in town that serve gluten-free, vegan meals. I came up with this hash and he liked it so much, he let me name it after him.

Kevin’s Vegan Hash

Serves 2 generously as a main, 4 as a side

2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 large cloves of garlic, minced
2 small bell peppers, cubed
6 button mushrooms, cubed
12 Little Potato Company Yellow Fingerlings Creamer Potatoes, cubed
175 g extra firm organic tofu, cubed
a pinch of cayenne pepper
2 sage leaves, crumbled (or ½ tsp dried sage)
1 sprig fresh rosemary (or 1 tsp dried rosemary)
¼ tsp smoked paprika
½ cup Daiya Cheddar Style Shreds
salt and pepper

In a large, non-stick skillet or cast iron pan, heat 1 tablespoon of the oil over medium-low heat. Add the onions and salt generously. Fry, stirring occasionally, until the onions soften and start to brown. Add the garlic and turn down the heat to low. Continue to cook until the garlic has softened and the onions are completely browned. Season with pepper (and more salt if needed). Scrape into a bowl and set aside.

Add a little more oil, if needed, then heat the pan to medium-low and add the peppers. Cook until the peppers are soft and a little browned, stirring occasionally, adding a pinch of cayenne pepper when they’re nearly done. Season with salt and pepper, scrape into a bowl and set aside.

Add a little more oil, if needed, then heat the pan to medium-low and add the mushrooms, stirring occasionally. When they begin to release moisture, stir in the sage. When the moisture is fully reabsorbed, season with salt and pepper, scrape into a bowl and set aside.

Add a tablespoon of oil, heat the pan to medium-low and add the potatoes. Season generously with salt and pepper, add the rosemary sprig (or stir in the dried rosemary). Cook, stirring occasionally, until a fork pierces the potato cubes easily. If the potatoes are not fully browned, raise the heat to medium and continue cooking until they are. Check to see if more salt and pepper is needed, discard the rosemary sprig if you used it, then scrape into a bowl and set aside.

Add a little more oil, if needed, then heat the pan to medium-low. Add the tofu and dust the cubes with the smoked paprika, frying until the cubes are cooked through and well browned. Season with salt and pepper, then add the rest of the ingredients back into the pan, stirring until everything is well mixed and heated through.

Take the pan off the heat and add the Daiya shreds, stirring until they are well distributed and melted.

Check for salt and pepper, then serve immediately.

You can visit The Little Potato Company’s website for more recipes.

Mme. Maman’s Chopped Liver – A French Fridays Catch Up

December 12, 2014December 13, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 5 Comments

Do you ever have one of those days? You know, the kind that finds you doing everything but the one thing you’d set as a goal?

Well, today was one of those days for me. I made succotash, and rugelach dough, a cranberry crackle tart and extra tart dough. But I didn’t manage to get the lamb stew that was today’s French Fridays assignment into the oven. The lamb languishes in the refrigerator, the apricots wait patiently on the counter. Tomorrow will be their day.

Today, I ate ribs coated with a sauce that my mother made up on the spot, which somehow paired perfectly with butternut squash roasted with cinnamon, nigella, pumpkin seeds, and cardamom. And I dug into this chopped liver, which is humble-looking, but delivers on flavour.

I think it’s the crispy onions and the quatre épices that really make this version of chopped liver special. The onions were almost crispy when they were done. I was worried they’d be too dry, but once mixed with the liver, hard-boiled egg, and some oil from the pan, and left to rest overnight, they melted into the mixture.

This was an unequivocal hit and will be showing up on my buffet table, humble-looking or not.

See how the Doristas fared with this recipe last year, when it came up on the rotation: Mme. Maman’s Chopped Liver. And here’s where you can find links to the rest of the French Fridays crew’s posts on this week’s recipe here: Lamb and Dried Apricot Tagine.

Patate Alpino

December 8, 2014March 12, 2016 ~ Teresa ~ 16 Comments

The Little Potato Company provided me with the potatoes used in this recipe. The recipe and all opinions expressed in the post are my own.

I don’t care who knows it. I love potatoes. Roasted, mashed, boiled, smashed, simmered, braised, caked, or scalloped – bring ’em on. So, when I got the opportunity to play around with The Little Potato Company‘s creamer potatoes, I was right on board.

It’s been fun experimenting with these tiny, tender, flavourful potatoes. The recipe I’m sharing with you today was inspired by thoughts of Swiss raclette, but it’s got an Italian twist, since my neighbourhood is famous for its Italian delis and coffee shops.

When I was tracking down ingredients for a dish I made recently with my cooking group, I ended up with quite a lot of Bresaola. Since raclette is often served with air-dried beef and roasted potatoes, it seemed a natural fit for the little red Blushing Belle potatoes I’d been working with. In keeping with the Italian theme, I chose a mix of Asiago and Parmesan cheeses to complete the recipe.

Patate Alpino

Serves 4 as a side; 2 as an appetizer or small plate

12 Little Potato Company Blushing Belle potatoes
1 head of garlic, broken into cloves, unpeeled
1 sprig of fresh rosemary
1 sprig of fresh thyme
1 tablespoon of olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper

15 grams of grated Asiago cheese
15 grams of grated Parmesan cheese
10-15 grams (1-2 very thin slices) Bresaola, shredded

Centre a rack in your oven and preheat to 400°F.

Toss the potatoes, garlic, rosemary, and thyme in the oil and then add several grinds of pepper. Salt lightly, or not at all, as Bresaola is quite salty enough. Roast the potatoes for 30 minutes, stirring around the 20 minute mark.

While the potatoes are roasting, grate the cheeses and mix them together. Shred the Bresaola and reserve separately.

When the potatoes are tender when pierced with a knife, remove them from the oven and preheat the broiler to 500°F. Discard the rosemary and thyme and remove the garlic from the roasting pan.

You have two choices with the garlic. You can keep the cloves warm and serve them with the potatoes, or (my favourite) you can squeeze the cloves out of their skins immediately and spread them on toasted rounds of baguette. (If you have leftovers, add them to your next batch of mashed potatoes.)

Gently crush each potato with a potato masher, taking care to leave them reasonably intact, then give them another grind or two of pepper. Sprinkle each potato with the cheese mixture and then place the potatoes under the broiler until the cheese is melted and bubbly. Carefully move the potatoes to a serving platter, using a metal offset spatula, then top each with a mound of shredded Bresaola.

This dish can serve as a side, but I think it really shines as a snack. With a glass of Italian red wine or a Belgian-style beer, it’s a satisfying way to warm up on a cold winter’s day.

If you’d like to take these potatoes back to the other side of the Alps, substitute Gruyère or Emmental cheese, with viande des Grisons (or Bündnerfleisch) as a topping. In that case, you might want to reach for a French vintage.

I didn’t stop there with my recipe experimentation with my stock of little potatoes. Come back next Thursday and I’ll have one more recipe for you. In the meantime, you can visit The Little Potato Company’s website for more recipes.

Baking Chez Moi – Cranberry Crackle Tart

December 1, 2014December 2, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 33 Comments

Our second Baking Chez Moi recipe is deceptively intricate looking. It’s a simple meringue tart on a pâte sablée base. It’s easy to put together, but the results are sophisticated in look and flavour. I made a gluten-free version of Dorie’s sweet tart dough for this one and as I’ve told you before, my gluten-free conversion of this dough needs a little refinement. The tender crust crumbled as I cut it, but it didn’t matter, because it tasted delicious. If I had been serving it for guests, I suppose I could have called it a cranberry meringue on sable cookie dirt and gotten bonus points for cheffiness. (Those of you who know me know I’d be too busy parsing my mistakes.)

I’ve got a disk of regular sweet tart dough in the freezer, so I’m going to make this again for the rest of my family during the holidays this year. In the meantime, Kevin and I are going to enjoy the leftovers of this one. The contrast between the tart cranberries and the sweet, melting meringue is wonderful, especially with the shards of cookie-ish crust.

If you’d like to try this tart for yourself, you can find the recipe on Dorie’s website. It’s a perfect, pretty dessert for the holiday table.

You can find the rest of the Tuesdays with Dorie crew’s entries on this week’s recipe here: Cranberry Crackle Tart.

Cottage Cooking Club – November 2014

November 30, 2014December 1, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 10 Comments

On this last day of November, it really feels like the holidays are approaching, with the chill in the air – there’s even snow on the ground. It’s the time of year we associate with soups and stews, but it’s also time to enjoy as much of this year’s harvest as possible, before the long wait for spring. This month’s Cottage Cooking Club selections suited this late harvest, early winter season perfectly. I made four of the selections, but you can click the link at the bottom of the post to see the rest.

Quinoa Salad with Herbs and Walnuts

The star of this salad isn’t really the grain, in my opinion, which is a good thing, since I substituted quinoa for the Israeli couscous called for in the recipe. I think it’s the fennel that makes this salad. Its crunchy brightness makes this salad a perfect antidote for the winter rains we endured for much of this month. With toasted nuts and spices, handfuls of herbs, and a splash of lemon, this is going to be a lunchbox favourite for us all winter long.

Belgian Endive, Pears, and Salty-Sweet Roasted Almonds

This simple, pretty salad could serve as an appetizer at a dinner party, but I like it better as a weekend snack. It’s got the same kind of crunchy freshness as the couscous salad, but the flavours don’t blend as much as serve as counterpoints to one another. If you’ve got the vinaigrette made up in the fridge, it’s easy enough to put together and addictive enough that you might snack yourself right out of needing to worry about dinner.

Chestnut and Sage Soup

I wasn’t sure I should try this one, since the Chestnut-Pear Soup from Around My French Table was such a success for us, but I’m glad I did. I think I like the flavour combination of chestnut and sage best of the two and that’s saying something, because I loved the chestnut-pear soup. I stirred a spoonful of sour cream into my bowl, but I’d made the soup itself vegan and it was really lovely without any dairy at all.

Right now, it’s time for fresh chestnuts in the market, so I’ll be taking advantage of those while I can, but I also think that vacuum-packed chestnuts are going to become a staple in my pantry, so I can enjoy chestnut soup year-round.

Swede Speltotto – Make that Rutabaga Risotto

This is the only recipe this month that wasn’t entirely a success for us, simply because the rutabaga was a little bitter. I made risotto, instead of using spelt, so that I could share this meal with Kevin (since he was in a lapsed vegan, cheese-eating phase). I added a couple of Gruyère rinds along with the rutabaga and Arborio rice and used only vegetable stock for the liquid. I finished the risotto with Parmesan and parsley and it was delicious. It was a bit of a letdown that the rutabaga didn’t measure up. I think I’d substitute another root vegetable in its place next time, or roast the rutabaga cubes and add them later, to give them some caramelization and sweetness.

November was a busy, eventful month and December promises to be even more so. There will be a lot going on the blog, but I’m looking forward to seeing what our Cottage Cooking Club selections will be, because I think a little vegetarian goodness will serve as a nice antidote to the holiday feasting that’s fast approaching.

Intrigued by this month’s recipes? Buy the book and join us.

Here are the links to the rest of the group’s posts for this month. I encourage you to check them out – you’ll meet some wonderful bloggers and get some great inspiration for vegetarian eating.