gummy creations

August is always a crazy month for me. Getting ready for classes to start again, and for the return of students I still am amazed how fast the month flies by. So while I haven't been posting, I have been busy, and busy with lots of food related stuff.

We went to the family reunion in the Okanagan, and brought back with us, some peaches, pears, cherries, tomatoes and peppers...and so I have been busy canning some new stuff (to be posted later when I get a decent picture of the jars in natural light).

As I was sitting at the table looking at the freshly canned Roma tomatoes, I started to think about how I could have walked about 50 feet to the little grocery store practically out my door and picked up a tin of tomatoes for a measly buck something, there is something so satisfying doing it myself.

Then, as it often does, my mind wondered away and I started thinking about random things I could try to make from home.... I am not sure if anyone has ever watched "How It's Made", but it tends to be something that catches my attention, perhaps because it helps me think about how I could make things that we so often run out to the store to buy. I just love the challenge of trying to make something at least once...and so came the ah, ha moment when I thought, why don't I make my own gummy candies. Truly I have never desired to do it, but I figured the kitchen is already a mess, why not!? The result is below... not exactly the same as the junk you can buy at the corner store, but still kind of fun. We made the recipe below twice, first raspberry flavoured and then lime. I'm looking forward to trying to make these with my nephew!

Ingredients:

1 package flavored jello
6 packages unflavored gelatin
1/2 cup cold water

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, mix both the flavored and the unflavored gelatin.

2. Stir the gelatins up. Pour cold water in mixture and stir with a spatula until you have a gloppy-chunky blob not unlike play-doh.

3. Turn heat stove top burner on medium and melt blob.

4. Stir the blob constantly until melted.

5. Spray molds very lightly with a vegetable spray like Pam.

6. Pour the melted mixture into miniature bear molds, or other small candy type molds.

7. Place filled molds in freezer for 10 minutes to cool.

** I don't have candy molds but I do have silicon shapes ice cube trays from Ikea...and as a result, flowers and puzzle pieces. Voila!

Recipe from Marianne Dambra

dulce de leche pecan ice cream

At the wedding we went to a few weeks ago, instead of having a seating chart, there was a table with escort cards laid out. On each card there was the name of a guest, their table number and a favourite recipe of the newlywed's to take home (and hopefully make!).

This recipe comes from Pete's escort card. And given that he loves caramel and ice cream, we knew we would have to make it. I have had at the happy couple's house before, and it didn't disappoint when we made it - so a big thank you to them!

This is a delicious ice cream to make...it is not however a healthy treat, sweet and rich - so to make on occasion is good, just not something you may need to have in you freezer at all times. We made a few adaptations to the recipe, so below is what we ended up making.

Ingredients
1 c milk, plus 2 T
1 c whipping cream
4 egg yolks
1/4 c sugar
1 jars dulche de leche (or 1 can prepared sweetened condensed milk)
1/2 c pecan halves
Freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, heat 1 c milk and the cream over medium heat, just until bubbles appear around edge of pan. Remove from heat and set aside.
   
2. In a bowl, beat together egg yolks and sugar. Add warm milk mixture.
   
3. Wipe saucepan clean. Return custard mixture to pan and cook over medium-low heat, stirring constantly, until custard thickens and coats back of a spoon, 8-10 minutes.
4. Immediately remove from heat and strain through a fine-mesh sieve into a clean bowl.
   
5. Stir 1/3 can dulce de leche into warm custard.
   
6. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly on surface of custard, and let cool completely.
7. Refrigerate for 1 hour.
8. Preheat oven to 375°F (190°C). Spread pecans on a baking sheet, sprinkle with 1 T of water, and season to taste with pepper. Toast pecans until fragrant and lightly browned, 7-8 minutes. Let cool, then roughly chop. Set aside.
9. Freeze chilled dulce de leche custard in an ice-cream maker. Transfer to a chilled freezer-proof container and fold in toasted pecans. In a small bowl, mix half of the remaining dulce de leche with 2 T milk, then fold into ice cream just enough to form a marbled effect. Freeze until service.
   
10. Accompany ice cream with 1/3 can dulce de leche.

To prepare sweetened condensed milk into dulce de leche:

1. In a large dutch oven, filled with water, bring water to a rolling boil.
2. Carefully drop can of condensed milk into water, ensure it is fully covered, preferably with an inch or two of water.
3. Keep water boiling at a low boil for 3 hours.
4. You will need to keep adding water to the pot to keep the can covered, this allows can to be under constant and equal pressure. (I checked every 15-20 minutes_
   
5. After 3 hours (though many sites say anywhere for as short as 90 minutes) remove can from water and allow to cool.
   
6. You can store the can in the fridge once prepared unopened, and it would last for months.

**Please be careful while preparing the dulce de leche - it can be a little dangerous!**

Adapted from Williams-Sonoma, TASTE

filo wrapped coho salmon

So the mussels (below) were the appetizers as part of our seafood extravaganza. And the filo wrapped salmon was the entrée. It was quite possibly one of the fastest proteins I have ever prepared...with the goat cheese it was pretty rich. Tasty but rich. Next time I think I would cream together the goat cheese with a little bit of honey dijon or something like that to cut the richness just a bit. What I did love was how beautifully the filo turned out. I am always apprehensive to work with it, for fear of drying out or tearing, but then whenever I do, always a happy surprise!

(Lighting in the picture is horrible!)

Ingredients
2 coho salmon fillets - personalize size, de-boned and skinned
3 Tbsp crumbled herb goat cheese
1 lemon 5-10 thin garlic chives
2 Tbsp melted butter
2 sheets filo paper
salt and pepper

Directions

1. Pre-heat oven to 400 F
2. Lay one sheet of filo out. Cover the other with a damp cloth/paper towel to ensure that it doesn't dry out.
3. Brush top half of the sheet with melted butter.
4. Flip bottom half of sheet up onto the top, brush with butter.
5. Pat salmon dry, season with salt and pepper.
   
6. Place de-boned and skinned fillet on with 3 inches from the end of the sheet.
7. Top salmon with half of the crumbled cheese, 1/4 of the chives - chopped up into small pieces, and some juice from half of the lemon.
8. Fold top, bottom and short side of the filo ont the salmon, and then fold the salmon along the long side of the filo.
9. Brush outer filo with butter.
10. Repeat for second fillet.
11. Place packs on a cookie sheet and bake until golden brown - approximately 20 minutes.
12. Garnish (if you would like to!) with the other half of the lemon and remaining chives
    

Best served with a fresh light garden salad!

Serves 2.

chorizo mussels

Every summer I have a few seafood kicks. Living on the west coast, there is an abundance of delights from the sea. A few months ago there was the Spotted Prawn Festival in Vancouver...fresh fresh fresh meaty prawns, cooked simply either steamed or grilled and a little garlic butter - delish!

Today after work I wondered down to Granville Island, visited our favourite fish shop and picked up a few pounds of mussels and wild coho salmon fillets...and out of it we had a tasty summer seafood fest.

Here is our appetizer: chorizio mussels - the heat was delayed, using fresh chili's would have a stronger intense heat, the chorizo was more subtle.

Ingredients:
2 Tbsp olive oil
1/3 diced yellow onion
1 Roma tomato diced
3 cloves diced garlic
1 pinch salt
1 large chorizo sausage, sliced
1 Tbsp chili flakes
1/3 cup white wine
1/3 cup vegetable stock
2 lbs mussels, cleaned - only use tightly closed mussels
1/3 cup heavy cream
4-5 basil leaves

Lots slices of crusty bread

Directions:

1. Over medium heat, heat olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pot (I used a dutch oven)
2. Add to garlic, onions and salt to the pot, sauté until they begin to sweat, do not let brown
3. Add chorizo sausage and chili flakes, sauté for about 2 minutes, stir occasionally
4. Add tomatoes, allow to warm through
5. Add white wine and vegetable stock - bring to a boil
6. Add cleaned mussels, cover and let steam for approximately 5 minutes
7. Once the majority of all the mussels have opened, remove from heat.
8. Transfer mussels to a large bowl, leave sauce in the pot.
   
9. Add heavy cream, bring to simmer and allow to thicken - about 2 minutes.
10. Take all but one leaf of the basil, tear and add to pot, stir and pour into bowl with mussels.
11. Garnish with remaining leaf.
12. Serve with bread - use it to absorb all the tasty broth
    

NB: Only eat the mussels that have fully opened - the other's should be tossed.

musings and gardening

We have been busy this month! Between a wedding of good friends and all the excitement, events and errands around that, working many evenings and family there have been lots of dinners out and food ordered in...cooking or baking has been something that has not been on my mind at all! Sure, we've bbq'd burgers on the grill, and I've baked some vanilla cupcakes, but nothing to write on the blog about! But not for long, I have a list as long as my arm of things I am looking forward to make over the next few weeks, and can't wait!

What I have been up to has kept me outdoors. Living in an 800 - something square foot apartment I have really been missing the joy of gardening. I have a vault full of memories of being a kid and watching my dad garden, and every few summers my mom would put in a veggie garden. I loved watching the little seedlings start out scrony and over the course of a month or two bush out, fill with fragrant blossoms and in the case of the veggies produce food that could make it to the table in mere minutes.

Last year I put my name on a wait list for a community garden plot, as luck would have it, this year I got a large plot for me to with it whatever my little heart wanted - I was stoked! The plot is about 8'x20' it is on a slope, so I went with a fairly traditional approach, basic rows filled with:
green beens, sugar peas, butternut squash, carrots, onions, chives, beets, radishes and lettuce (I planted spinach but it totally bolted in the never ending June rain). I also planted several sweet pea plants - a little floral beauty. The picture below is the finished product of a hot afternoon in May turning the soil and planting.


And today, I finally got the chance to go and collect our bounty! Don't get me wrong, over the last weeks I have picked a few sugar peas off the plant, and some lettuce leaves, but today I went prepared, basket and shears in hand... and I walked away with an exciting assortment - bring on the kitchen now! I will get back in the kitchen -- till next week then!

In the picture from left to right:
Chives, Sugar Peas, Butter Lettuce, Green Beans, Sweat Peas, Radishes

o canada, our home and native land...

No recipes in this post. But, in honour of my fair country's 141st birthday, we did the typically Canadian thing: pack the car, pack some beer and get out of the city...and it was a great time for all.

This past weekend we went camping at Shuswap Provincial Park. I love camping. Love it. I don't know if it is the childhood memories, of big campfires, swimming in a lakes, having fun with friends and cousins, but there is something I just adore about packing up the car and heading out to the "wilderness". Pete likes to point out that how we camp, is not real camping...it is car camping. Fair enough. He is the strap on a 70 lb pack and walk up a mountain. I am the person who is completely satisfied to have a car to zip to the store if I need anything.

My favourite thing about camping now as an adult is to cook a delicious meal with pretty basic ingredients, and the kicker, is to try to cook everything over open flames. We always bring our camping stove, just in case there is a campfire ban, but there is NOTHING like grilled steak with a smoky wood flavour. A few pictures for fun are below. Our first night's dinner was delish, grilled steaks, mushroom risotto and salad - no picture of that, we were too hungry to take any!

Breakfast: Eggs, Roasted Potatoes and Sausages

Dinner: Teriyaki Salmon, Grilled Asparagus and Roasted Potatoes

daring baker's challenge: danish braid

For some reason I thought that starting this month's daring baker's challenge at 8:00 pm was a good idea - what was I thinking? Before I even get to that point, let me start by saying that I thought that this month's challenge of Danish Braid sounded exciting, challenging yes, but I was excited to try to create a laminate dough...and i loved that I had everything needed for the recipe except for the whole milk so there was no need spend $50+ on ingredients - so than you to Ben and Kelly who hosted this month!

Back to the 8:00 pm start, I had read through the ingredients, I was prepared to do all the dough turning, and leave it in the fridge overnight to bake the next day. Then came the slow unravellings of what could have been a long evening. My dough mixer wouldn't power up. I had run out of ground cardamom apparently, so had to crack the pods and pound to smithereens with my mortar and pestle. Then I made a batch of dough and forgot to add the eggs, but didn't know until had made the first well and had the liquid pour out all over the counter...and then finally, finally after remaking the dough, rolling out and turning it, but wait, one more mess to clean up, I spilt the carton of milk all over the counter - sigh - by 1:30 am, I was ready to go to bed.

I seldom loose my patience in the kitchen, but boy I am sure Pete was glad that I had something to get my frustrations out on! I enjoyed the process of braiding, it was interesting to see how such a simple step could create something that looked well presented. Below is the result - the dough didn't rise as much as I would have liked.

Ingredients:
For the dough (Detrempe)
1 ounce fresh yeast or 1 tablespoon active dry yeast
1/2 cup whole milk
1/3 cup sugar
Zest of 1 orange, finely grated
3/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
1-1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
2 large eggs, chilled
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
3-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt

For the butter block (Beurrage)
1/2 pound (2 sticks) cold unsalted butter
1/4 cup all-purpose flour

Apple Filling
4 Fuji or other apples, peeled, cored, and cut into ¼-inch pieces
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
4 tablespoons unsalted butter

Directions: Dough

1. Combine yeast and milk in a bowl with a hand mixer on low speed or a whisk.
   
2. Add sugar, orange zest, cardamom, vanilla extract, vanilla seeds, eggs, and orange juice and mix well.
   
3. Sift flour and salt on your working surface and make a fountain (My edit after round two - start in a large bowl, make well and add liquid, combine in the same method as follows). Make sure that the “walls” of your fountain are thick and even.
   
4. Pour the liquid in the middle of the fountain.
   
5. With your fingertips, mix the liquid and the flour starting from the middle of the fountain, slowly working towards the edges.
   
6. When the ingredients have been incorporated start kneading the dough with the heel of your hands until it becomes smooth and easy to work with, around 5 to 7 minutes. You might need to add more flour if the dough is sticky.

Directions: Butter Block

1. Combine butter and flour in the bowl of a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for 1 minute.
   
2. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and the paddle and then beat for 1 minute more, or until smooth and lump free.
   
3. Set aside at room temperature.

Directions: Turning the Dough

1. After the detrempe has chilled 30 minutes, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface.
   
2. Roll the dough into a rectangle approximately 18 x 13 inches and ¼ inch thick.
   
3. The dough may be sticky, so keep dusting it lightly with flour.
   
4. Spread the butter evenly over the center and right thirds of the dough.
   
5. Fold the left edge of the detrempe to the right, covering half of the butter.
   
6. Fold the right third of the rectangle over the center third. The first turn has now been completed. Mark the dough by poking it with your finger to keep track of your turns, or use a sticky and keep a tally.
   
7. Place the dough on a baking sheet, wrap it in plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 30 minutes.
8. Place the dough lengthwise on a floured work surface. The open ends should be to your right and left.
   
9. Roll the dough into another approximately 13 x 18 inch, ¼-inch-thick rectangle.
   
10. Again, fold the left third of the rectangle over the center third and the right third over the center third. No additional butter will be added as it is already in the dough. The second turn has now been completed.
    
11. Refrigerate the dough for 30 minutes.
12. Roll out, turn, and refrigerate the dough two more times, for a total of four single turns. Make sure you are keeping track of your turns. Refrigerate the dough after the final turn for at least 5 hours or overnight.
    
13. The Danish dough is now ready to be used. If you will not be using the dough within 24 hours, freeze it. To do this, roll the dough out to about 1 inch in thickness, wrap tightly in plastic wrap, and freeze. Defrost the dough slowly in the refrigerator for easiest handling. Danish dough will keep in the freezer for up to 1 month.
    

Directions: Apple Filling

1. Toss all ingredients except butter in a large bowl.
   
2. Melt the butter in a sauté pan over medium heat until slightly nutty in color, about 6 - 8 minutes.
   
3. Then add the apple mixture and sauté until apples are softened and caramelized, 10 to 15 minutes. If you’ve chosen Fujis, the apples will be caramelized, but have still retained their shape.
   
4. Pour the cooked apples onto a baking sheet to cool completely before forming the braid. (If making ahead, cool to room temperature, seal, and refrigerate.) They will cool faster when spread in a thin layer over the surface of the sheet. After they have cooled, the filling can be stored in the refrigerator for up to 3 days. Left over filling can be used as an ice cream
   

Putting it all together
(Makes enough for 2 large braids)

Ingredients
1 recipe Danish Dough (see below)
2 cups apple filling, jam, or preserves (see below)

For the egg wash: 1 large egg, plus 1 large egg yolk

Directions:

1. Line a baking sheet with a silicone mat or parchment paper.
   
2. On a lightly floured surface, roll the Danish Dough into a 15 x 20-inch rectangle, ¼ inch thick. If the dough seems elastic and shrinks back when rolled, let it rest for a few minutes, then roll again. Place the dough on the baking sheet.
3. Along one long side of the pastry make parallel, 5-inch-long cuts with a knife or rolling pastry wheel, each about 1 inch apart. Repeat on the opposite side, making sure to line up the cuts with those you’ve already made.
4. Spoon the filling you’ve chosen to fill your braid down the center of the rectangle. Starting with the top and bottom “flaps”, fold the top flap down over the filling to cover. Next, fold the bottom “flap” up to cover filling. This helps keep the braid neat and helps to hold in the filling. Now begin folding the cut side strips of dough over the filling, alternating first left, then right, left, right, until finished. Trim any excess dough and tuck in the ends.
   

Proofing and Baking

1. Spray cooking oil (Pam…) onto a piece of plastic wrap, and place over the braid. Proof at room temperature or, if possible, in a controlled 90 degree F environment for about 2 hours, or until doubled in volume and light to the touch.
2. Near the end of proofing, preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Position a rack in the center of the oven.
3. Bake for 10 minutes, then rotate the pan so that the side of the braid previously in the back of the oven is now in the front. Lower the oven temperature to 350 degrees F, and bake about 15-20 minutes more, or until golden brown. Cool and serve the braid either still warm from the oven or at room temperature. The cooled braid can be wrapped airtight and stored in the refrigerator for up to 2 days, or freeze for 1 month.