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.

FFWD – Béatrix’s Red Kuri Soup & Chestnut-Pear Soup

November 28, 2014November 28, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 21 Comments

A few weeks ago, red kuri squash arrived at my local food co-op, so I snapped two up right away. At the same time, I picked up some pears and some vacuum-packed chestnuts so that I could catch up on another fall soup.

I served the red kuri soup and the chestnut-pear soup together, in small bowls, as we did Christine’s Simple Party Soups. The two soups complemented each other well. I put a dollop of sour cream in each of the bowls, but these soups are lovely without any garnish at all, as well.

Béatrix’s Red Kuri Soup

I used one of the squash in this soup, cooking it down with the rest of the ingredients, and roasted the other. It’s in the freezer, waiting for an opportunity to make this soup again. I’m interested to see how the roasted version compares to the traditional soup.

I split the soup with my parents, who enjoyed it as much as I did. Kevin’s not a big squash fan, but he didn’t mind this soup at all. I’ll be making it again, while there’s still red kuri squash in the store, but I also want to try red kuri in dessert recipes. I have it on good authority that it makes a terrific variation on pumpkin.

You can find the recipe for this soup on Dorie’s website.

Chestnut-Pear Soup

I didn’t give half this soup away and it’s a good thing, because Kevin absolutely loved it. Usually, he’ll eat soup without much comment, but he raved about this one and happily helped me eat through a full recipe’s worth. He was happy that I’d made it vegan, using vegetable stock and replacing the butter with olive oil. The ingredients for this soup are available throughout the fall and winter, so we’ll be revisiting it often.

You can find the recipe for this soup here.

Find links to the rest of the French Fridays crew’s posts on this week’s recipe here: Béatrix’s Red Kuri Soup. Then, see how everyone fared with the Chestnut-Pear Soup.

West Coast Christmas Show

November 25, 2014November 26, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 2 Comments

I attended the West Coast Christmas Show as a media guest, but had no obligation to review or write about any aspect of the show. All opinions are my own.

Last weekend, Abbotsford’s Tradex transformed itself into a winter wonderland of gifts, family activities, and holiday entertainment. The West Coast Christmas Show had come to town. And the Fraser Valley rushed in the door to welcome it. I was glad we went first thing Saturday morning, because by lunchtime, the crowds really started to arrive.

I wasn’t surprised, because the show was justifiably popular. Over the course of our time there, we found handcrafted gifts, all the treats and ingredients you could want for the holidays, and Christmas decorations, flowers and wreaths – along with more gadgets than I’ve seen since last year’s Home Show.

Here are just a few of the things that stood out for me:

Frost Bites Syrup Co. broad range of flavours
Sharon Hubbard‘s whimsical castles
Edible Gardens‘ line of balsamic vinegars
Clearbrook Coffee Company – nothing like locally roasted beans
a paper {life}‘s creative quilling
It’s For the Birds‘ seedcakes

I was also impressed by how much there was for kids to do at the show. While their parents may have come for the cooking demos and entertaining tips, there were also workshops galore for the small set, along with attractions like Santa’s mailbox and a beautifully set up model train.

Events like this have convinced me that for Fraser Valley residents, there’s no longer any need to drive into Vancouver for trade shows and artisan showcases anymore. What isn’t being produced in your own backyard is coming to meet you at showcase centres like the Tradex.

And there are more attractions to come for the Fraser Valley this holiday season. I was able to get a sneak peek at one of them while I was visiting the Christmas Show. North Pole BC‘s Festival of Christmas opens its doors at the Tradex on November 28th and I got to have a little look around at what you can expect. I even caught Santa napping beneath the Christmas tree.

Art in the Neighbourhood

November 23, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 2 Comments

I only had one day to enjoy the Eastside Culture Crawl this year, so I decided to concentrate on some of the smaller studios.

I also took very few photos, snapshots with my iPhone, so I could give the bulk of my attention to the art. It was a beautiful, sunny afternoon and I loved hunting down studios through the quiet streets of Strathcona.

I hope your weekend filled your eyes and hearts so well as this one did mine.

FFWD – Jerusalem Artichokes, Two Ways

November 7, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 22 Comments

This week’s post tackles two French Fridays assignments, because when Jerusalem artichokes first showed up in the rotation last month, there were none to be found in Vancouver markets. I prefer the name sunchokes for these, as it’s a bit less confusing than Jerusalem artichokes, which are neither native to the Middle East nor related to artichokes. They’re actually native to the Americas – a root vegetable from a plant in the sunflower family, with a flavour that hints at artichokes. Sunchokes are sought after by chefs, but they’re not for everyone. Some folks experience a bit of gastric distress when they eat them (we found out this week that my Dad’s one of them), so they’ve earned a rather notorious nickname.

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Parsley Coulis

This week’s dish was a puréed soup, much like a potato soup, with salty leek and garlic notes against the delicate artichoke flavour of the sunchokes. I substituted vegetable stock for chicken stock, but otherwise followed the recipe, which you can find here. I packed up half the soup for my parents and the flavours were a hit for all of us.

The parsley coulis caused a bit of consternation in the group, because a number of us couldn’t get the parsley past a pesto texture. I didn’t mind that texture at all in this soup. The parsley also finishes the soup perfectly.

Since sunchokes stick around in the market until almost spring, we’ll be revisiting this soup all winter.

Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes with Garlic

I bought more sunchokes than I needed for the soup so that I could roast some, too. We ended up having them as a snack last night and enjoyed them, though I’d used too small a pan and they didn’t crisp up as much as I would have liked them to have done. The slivers of garlic were amazing with the sunchokes and on their own – they made this dish. However, I think that next time I roast sunchokes, I’ll do as Sanya did and mix them in with potatoes or other root vegetables. I think they’d be a nicer element in a mix than they were on their own.

Another unusual vegetable demystified, thanks to Around My French Table.

Find links to the rest of the French Fridays crew’s posts on this week’s recipe here: Jerusalem Artichoke Soup with Parsley Coulis. Then, see how everyone fared with the Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes with Garlic.

FFWD – Osso Buco à l’Arman & Double Banana and Chocolate Tart

October 31, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 18 Comments

I suppose that because it’s Hallowe’en, I should rename this week’s dish. Something like Blood and Bones, a meal to suit the most ghoulish of eaters. But, I’m not that keen on messing with a storied dish like Osso Buco, even for the sake of a seasonal tie-in.

Instead, I’ll tell you that while we fielded visits from tiny zombies, fairies, witches, and one amazingly kitted-out Captain America, this citrus-y take on a classic recipe slowly braised in the oven.

I don’t eat veal, so my halved portion of beef shank rang in at less then ten dollars. For once, my preferences benefitted my pocketbook. I don’t think the dish suffered, either.

I served this with the citrus and onion rice that Dorie suggests in her bonne idée and it was a perfect accompaniment. I’m expecting tomorrow’s leftovers to taste even better.

Double Chocolate and Banana Tart

This month has been a pretty special one for Doristas, as we saw with last week’s posts. It was also a very special month for us, too, as we celebrated our tenth anniversary. This tart, made with a gluten-free version of Dorie’s chocolate pâte sablée, was one of the treats we shared together.

My gluten-free conversion needs a little work. The tart shell was crumblier than it should have been, but it didn’t fall apart and it tasted delicious, so it’s a good start. The filling – caramelized bananas covered in chocolate ganache, topped with slices of raw banana painted with hot apricot jam – was every bit as good as you could imagine.

Needless to say, we didn’t share. It was an anniversary treat, after all.

Find links to the rest of the French Fridays crew’s posts on this week’s recipe here: Osso Buco à l’Arman. Then, check out all the Double Chocolate and Banana Tart goodness.

Cottage Cooking Club – October 2014

October 28, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 15 Comments

There was no mistaking it this month. We’ve moved out of our summer repertoire of recipes and are solidly into winter vegetable territory.

If this month’s recipes are any indication, however, that’s not such a bad thing.

Carrot, Orange, and Cashews

On the rare occasion that I find myself supreming an orange, my mind always turns to this:

Am I the only one? Probably.

Sectioning the oranges aside, this was a very simple salad, flavoured with a little cumin and cider vinegar, but really playing on the flavour combination of orange, carrot, and cashew. It’s got a vibrancy that a typical carrot salad lacks and the juice of the orange manages to intensify the carrot’s flavour without itself disappearing.

I was out of cumin seeds, so I used ground cumin, but I don’t think the salad suffered. This dish provides a nice contrast to the usual heavy fare of winter and would brighten any casual gathering, both in colour and taste. Something to keep in mind as the rainclouds make Vancouver their winter home.

Vegeree

Eggplant and zucchini are my partner’s two favourite vegetables, but he likes them served very plain. And separate. So, I was mostly on my own for this one.

I like the idea of this dish more than the execution – roasting the vegetables together left them a little underwhelming, I thought. If I make this again, I’d roast the eggplant whole, while caramelizing the onion on the stovetop. Then, I’d add cubes of zucchini to the onion to soften a little. Finally, I’d toss them with chunks of the roasted eggplant and the rest of the ingredients. I think this would add some depth of flavour that I found a little lacking in this dish.

Broccoli Salad with Asian-Style Dressing

This is a perfect lunchbox salad. You could make it the night before and refrigerate it, then pull it out and let it come to room temperature before lunch. You’ll just need to remember to pack two little containers containing the toasted sesame seeds and the slivered green onions, so you can dramatically strew them over your salad before digging in. Lunchroom theatre.

This one’s definitely on my ‘make again’ list. I especially liked that the dressing was complex without being too assertive.

Roasted Cauliflower with Lemon and Paprika

This dish is another simple treatment for a brassica. Florets of cauliflower dusted with smoked paprika and roasted with lemon wedges. I could eat this every day.

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

From Soup to Nuts – A French Fridays Catch Up

October 17, 2014October 17, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 14 Comments

I wandered down the Drive this evening, armed with an umbrella and a needlessly puffy raincoat, taking one final look to see if Jerusalem artichokes had shown up in the market.

This is what I found:

Fresh, fragrant chestnuts, hazelnuts, and walnuts;
Persimmons, fresh figs, quince, and softball-sized Okanagan apples;
Cauliflower in white, orange, and purple, carrots in a rainbow of colours, beets across the red spectrum, and mounds of homely, dun-coloured celery root.

Not a sunchoke in sight.

So instead, I’m giving you a triple-barrelled catch up post.

Provençal Vegetable Soup

Waaaay back in July, our lovely administrators Betsy and Mary allowed four of us to pick the recipes for that month. I chose this quintessentially summer soup. But before I could make it and post about it, I developed a flu and a sinus infection that kept me out of the kitchen for quite a while.

So finally, here it is, end-of-summer soupe au pistou presented to you when it’s cold and dark and rainy. My soup included some of the last of the beans, tomatoes, and zucchini from my garden and I had just enough basil left to make the pesto (but not enough for a garnish). I skipped the pasta and added extra potato instead. I also threw in a can of mixed Italian beans along with the chickpeas for extra heartiness. I kept it vegan for Kevin, so no pesto for him. My bowl had a healthy dollop of pesto and more than a pinch of Parmesan, which immediately melted into the hot soup. My soup wasn’t as clear as a traditional soupe au pistou because of all that extra potato, but it was awfully delicious all the same.

I don’t think it’s entirely inappropriate to be showing you this in October, actually. Like Smitten Kitchen’s Fall-toush Salad, this soup can be adapted for colder weather. At the end of every summer, I’ve always got a stock of frozen homemade pesto in the freezer – this year it’s mostly radish leaf pesto, because my basil harvest was unusually stingy. I think a swirl of summer in a bowlful of fall or winter vegetables sounds like a very good idea.

You can find the rest of the Doristas’ seasonally appropriate takes on this recipe here: Provençal Vegetable Soup

Rice Pudding and Caramel Apples

Now, for something you’d expect to see in October.

I love rice pudding, but it’s something I’m used to making when I’ve got leftover rice to use up. This rice pudding is doubly different from my usual practice – it’s made fresh on the stovetop and it uses arborio rice. The pudding is creamy with whole milk and from the rice itself. It’s flavoured only with vanilla, which plays beautifully against the caramel apples with their hint of lemon.

My caramel was a little thin, so next time I think I’ll do as Liz did and pull the apples out when they’re tender so that I can cook the caramel until it’s thick. We still loved it, though. The layers of caramel, apples, and pudding were so satisfying and the whipped cream added just the right taste and texture to make this dessert elegant and comforting all at once.

You can find the recipe on Epicurious and you can see everyone else’s posts here: Rice Pudding and Caramel Apples

Caramel-Almond Custard Tart

And finally, a dessert that made me very popular at our housing co-op’s general meeting this week. I made Dorie’s pâte sablée, or sweet tart dough, for the first time in a very long time recently. I’d forgotten just how good it is, so when we had a gap in food provision at the meeting this week (our co-op is so big on feeding its members that we wrote it into our Mission, Vision, and Values statements), I decided to catch up on this tart. It’s a good thing I waited until now to make it, because it’s so easy I’d have been popping it into the oven on a far too regular basis.

Who knew that par-baking a tart crust, toasting a few almonds, making a creamy caramel, and whisking up a custard could add up to something that (almost) looks like it came from a pastry chef? I think this is the recipe I’m going to pull out next time I really need to get someone on board with something.

Here’s the link to more posts about this beautiful tart: Caramel-Almond Custard Tart

There will be plenty of roasting vegetables in the oven this weekend – the markets are full of root vegetables, brassicas, and squash. But, I’m not exactly sure when sunchokes will show up here. The grocers I’ve asked so far can’t remember exactly when they start coming in, either. Whenever they do, I’ll be making this week’s dish, along with the Jerusalem artichoke soup that’s coming up in the rotation in the next month or two. Catch ups are my thing, apparently.

Now, if you’re curious about what the rest of the French Fridays crew got up to this week, you’ll have to look here: Roasted Jerusalem Artichokes with Garlic

Cottage Cooking Club – September 2014

October 8, 2014October 9, 2014 ~ Teresa ~ 7 Comments

When I was in elementary school, we went to Salt Spring Island for a week called Outdoor School, where we stayed in cabins, ate in a mess hall, and did experiments in streams, on beaches, and in the woods. By then, I was the shortest and shyest of all the kids in my class and with a little bad luck, I was assigned to the cabin farthest away from the big hall where we ate our meals. Inevitably, I was late for almost everything. It didn’t help that I’d brought a precariously high stack of books along with me for the week. At the end of camp, the teachers held a just-for-fun awards night and I came away with a key chain that said, “The hurrier I go, the behinder I get.”

As you can see, this still suits me to a T – here I am, a week late with my Cottage Cooking Club post. And it’s not for lack of interest. This month’s selections were a huge success for us.

Pinto bean chili

One of the best indicators for me that I’m going to be going back to a recipe over and over again is how many notes I’ve written in the margins and white space on the page. It means that it’s versatile and customizable and that the base recipe is solid. This chili is exactly that. We’re given two variations, one for winter and one for summer, but you can get creative with what’s in season and what’s on hand. I chose the summer recipe, as the last of my zucchini was just ready and the markets were full of peppers of all varieties. I swapped out the bell pepper for pimento pepper (as you can see in the photo at the top of this post) and used one fresh cayenne pepper in place of the green chiles and cayenne powder. I served it vegan for Kevin, but grated a bit of Parmesan on mine. I needn’t have – it was flavourful enough on its own.

Puy lentil and spinach soup

Vancouver is famous for its cold, wet weather, as Seattle is, too. We Cascadians keep recipes for warm, comforting soups close to hand and this soup fits the bill. French green lentils are a staple for us and this soup, thick and almost stew-like, showcases them perfectly. I suspect we’ll be eating this regularly all winter.

Oven-roasted roots frittata

I was on my own for this one, but that was fine with me. I love frittata and this root vegetable variation, baked in the oven, was easy and delicious. It’s just the sort of thing I want to have waiting for me when I’m working flat out on a project and need lunch to be easy. Easy, delicious, and nutritious, that is.

Runner beans with tarragon and lemon

I skipped the butter in this dish and used Earth Balance instead. I’m still not convinced that it’s anything more than a pricey margarine, but using it meant that this dish was vegan. Margarine or no, the beans were delicious, and included some of the last of this year’s bean crop from my garden, along with some of the tarragon I’m digging up and trying to overwinter indoors this year. The combination of flavours was lovely.

Now, save for a summery French Fridays catch up or two I’ve got to find time to post, we’re well into the flavours of autumn. I suspect I’m going to love our October Cottage Cooking selections as much as I did September’s – I promise you’ll see the results a little sooner next month.

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.