Caramelized Onion Crostini

This is one of my original recipes. It’s sweet, it’s tangy, it’s crunchy and delicious. It’s also easy and will be a crowd pleaser. Just double or triple the recipe for more people. Enjoy!

2 med. yellow onions, cut in half and thinly sliced

1 tbsp butter

Drizzle of olive oil

Half of a Baguette (French, ciabatta, home made onion bread)

1/4 cup finely grated Goat-Gouda Cheese (Mozzarella with work too)

1/2 tsp dried thyme

1 tsp balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup peach preserves (or apricot jam)

1. Heat the butter and oil in a frying pan over med heat. Break up the onions and add to the pan. Stir the onions until they are covered in the butter. Turn heat to low-med and put a lid on the pan and leave alone for 8 to 10 minutes. Stir, and leave another 10 minutes. Add the thyme and vinegar, stir and cook another minute. Remove from heat.
2. Prepare the bread; slice to 1/4 inch thick, brush with olive oil both sides, and toast under the broiler until both sides are nice a toasty.
3. Evenly distribute the preserves onto each crostini, add the onions and cheese. 
4. Broil until the cheese melts and everything is hot again.

Serves 2 hungry people.

Scalloped Potatoes with Porcini and Bacon

I friggin love Porcini mushrooms. Porcini to me, is like Truffles to others. I rarely use them because I revere them. They are unique and earthy and simply luxurious. I adore them. I could marry them and become Mrs. Porcini, but I prefer the indulgence of a rare love affair that makes me come back for more. If I ate them all the time, the love I feel them for them may dwindle. Oh.. but do I pine for them after I indulge! Sigh. 

Eat, drink and be merry!

This recipe comes from the LCBO’s Food & Drink Magazine Autumn Edition.

Scalloped Potatoes with Porcini and Bacon

1 pkg (14g) dried porcini mushrooms

6 strips bacon, thinly sliced

1 small onion, diced

2 garlic cloves, minced

2 lbs potatoes (or in english about 5 or 6 med-large potatoes)

2 cups milk, 2% or homogenized (I used skim milk - gotta stay healthy!)

1 cup whipping cream

Pinch of nutmeg

Salt & Pepper

1 cup coarsely grated Gruyere cheese

1. Preheat over to 350deg F.
2. Butter a casserole that measures about 9inches square (I used an 8x11 casserole - it worked fine). Place mushrooms in a small bowl. Cover mushrooms with about 1/2 cup boiling water. Let stand whole preparing ingredients.
3. In a large frying pan, cook bacon over medium heat until it starts to crisp, about 5 minutes. Add onion and continue to cook until bacon is crisp and onion is tender, about 5 more minutes. Add garlic and cook about 30 seconds, just until fragrant. Strain mushrooms over a bowl but don’t discard liquid. Squeeze out any liquid from mushrooms into bowl. Chop mushrooms and stir into bacon mixture.
4. Peel potatoes and slice as thinly as possible, no thicker than 1/4 inch. Place milk, cream and nutmeg in a large wide pan. Gradually add mushroom liquid, so that any grit at bottom of bowl doesn’t get added. Over medium heat, bring to a simmer. Add potatoes to simmering milk mixture. Stir. Cook just until almost fork tender, about 10 minutes.
5. Using a slotted spoon, remove and spread about half the potatoes into prepared casserole. Top with half the bacon mixture. Lightly season with S&P. Spoon remaining potatoes over the top. Repeat with bacon mixture and season. Carefully pour milk mixture over top, to evenly distribute. Bake, covered about 30 minutes. Uncover, sprinkle with cheese and continue to bake until golden and bubbling, about 20 to 30 minutes. Let stand 15 minutes before serving.

Serves 8

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Loin with Apples and Sage

If you don’t live in Ontario, then you are not lucky enough to be able to pick up, for free, the LCBO’s Food & Drink magazine. This magazine has some of the best food recipes around. None of them are healthy. None of them are particularly easy, but all of them are luxurious, rich and interesting. The 2010 Autumn edition has a beautiful photograph on the cover of this recipe.

If you love pork and bacon and apples and sage and garlic, you must try this out. D and I oohed and aww’d over, not only it’s beauty, but it’s rich, complex flavours, despite it’s simple ingredients. Without the sage and garlic, this recipe would just be a pork tenderloin wrapped in bacon. Add in the pungent fresh sage from the garden and the aromatic garlic and you’ve got something special. The apples and onion compliment these flavours and add just a touch of je ne sais quoi! You must try this out.

I did a slight variation from the recipe below, because there are only 2 of us eating, I choose to use only 1 pork tenderloin and 2 apples. Enjoy!

Bacon-Wrapped Pork Loin with Apples and Sage

2 large pork tenderloins; silver skin removed.

10 fresh sage leaves, very finely chopped, or 1 tsp of dried sage

2 to 3 large garlic cloves

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp fresh ground pepper

9 to 10 slices of thick-cut bacon; best quality

Kitchen Twine

3 to 4 large cooking apples such as Cortland or Spy (I used Wealthy)

1 large cooking onion

2 tbsp all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cups chicken broth or stock

1. Take the sage, garlic, salt and pepper and bash up in a mortar and pestle. Rub all over the pork.
2. Lay out the bacon strips snugly together to form a rectangle. Place the loins across the bacon so the bacon ends emerge from each side. The loins should be placed beside each other, fat ends opposite for even cooking. Beginning at one end lift the bacon end over loins at a 45deg angle. Then, alternating sides, continue lifting the bacon ends down the length of the roast forming a chevron pattern of bacon on top.
3. Cut five 12-inch lengths of twine and one 30-inch length. Place 5 shorter lengths of twine under the loins widthwise. Working out from the roast centre, firmly (but not causing deep indents to form) tie up each piece of twine, spacing evenly apart. Then tie up the roast lengthwise with longer piece of twine. Trim twine ends; discard. (Roast can be prepared, covered and refrigerated for up to half a day. Add 10 to 15 minutes to roasting time).
4. When ready to roast, preheat oven to 425deg F. Heat a large frying pan over medium heat. Light brown roast on all sides, about 15 minutes in total. Transfer to a baking pan lined with a rack. Place in oven; set time for 30 minutes. Check and continue roasting until a meat thermometer reads 145deg F. Remove from oven; transfer to cutting board. Cover roast with foil; let rest 15 to 20 minutes.
5. Meanwhile, peel, core and slice apples. Thinly slice onion.
6. Drain most of fat from frying pan; place back over medium heat. Add onion; cook 10 minutes or until lightly browned. Stir in flour; cook 1 minute. Stir in chicken broth; add apple slices. Bring to a boil; simmer, covered, 5 to 10 minutes or until apples are tender and sauce is lightly thickened. Add more broth if too thick; keep covered and hot.
7. To slice pork, snip off lengthwise string. Then slice about 3/4 inch thick, removing crosswise strings as they are encountered. Place a few saucy apples on each warm serving plate, top with a couple of slices of roast and drizzle with more sauce. 

Serves 6 to 8.

I served this with the Scalloped Potatoes with Porcini and Bacon. The starter was the Caramelized Onion Crostini. A decadent meal, to say the least!

Warm Green Onion and Tomato Salad

This is a super easy, tasty, warm salad that uses amazing fresh, local and seasonal ingredients. Sometimes simple is best. Enjoy!

Warm Green Onion and Tomato Salad

2 bunches green onions, trimmed and whole

4 or 5 Campari size tomatoes, quartered

Handful of Parsley, torn

Balsamic Vinegar

Olive oil and Butter

Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper

Add some olive oil and butter into a frying pan and warm up. Add your green onions and wilt for about 5 minutes. 

Place the green onions on a plate and put your tomato quarters on top. Toss on some parsley and drizzle with a little balsamic and season to taste.

Nana T’s Pickled Beets

I had all these wonderful plans for Sunday. Cut the grass, do some laundry, pick up some groceries and relax.

I decided to hit the grocery store first to get that out of the way but when I walked into my local grocery store, my eyes widened. Right inside there were stacks of 10lbs bags of Ontario potatoes, carrots, onions and beets. I was planning to walk by and go about my shopping, until I saw the price all these 10lb bags.. I blinked. I looked around to see if someone was playing a joke on me. I walked around the stacks to see if the other side had a different price. It didn’t. I could not resist this. I can never resist a bargain. I picked up the bag of beets and while putting it in my cart I watched all my best laid plans disappear. 10lbs bag of beets for only $1.88. I could almost taste grandma’s pickled beets already. I carried my bag of beets into my house and excitedly called out to D to come see what I got! I quickly started digging through Nana’s recipe folders and Eureka! I found the recipe and got to work.

Nana T’s Pickled Beets 

10 medium-large beets, about 3 1/2lbs (I did 5 lbs and increased the liquid amounts)

1 1/4 cups granulated sugar

1 1/4 cups water

1 cup white vinegar

1 tsp salt

Trim the leaves off the beets about 1 inch from the bulb. Scrub beets, place in a pot, cover with cold water and bring to boil. Cook covered, until tender enough to slip the skins off easily, about 45-60+ minutes (depending on size of beets).

Drain, skin, slice or quarter and pack into hot sterilized jars. 

Combine sugar, water, vinegar and salt;  bring to a boil and pour over hot beets. Seal and store.

5 lbs of beets makes 12 - 250ml jars. 

Note: Use rubber gloves when handling the beets and have your work surface covered really well to stop the red juice from staining everything. The juice stains everything. You will spend more time cleaning up after than anything else!

Recipes & Groceries

Today's Thought:

I love cooking. I love making up my own recipes and cooking for fun. I can be pretty creative with what I've got on hand at any time. Lately I have been cooking from Jamie Oliver's cookbook "Happy Days" (see my first post) to expand my cooking horizons. I would never have made a salad with Daikon or raw artichokes before I started this adventure. Now here I am and I'm enjoying new ingredients and hunting for said ingredients in the farmer's market.
I have one major pet peeve however, that I want to share here. I never seem to have one or two things that a recipe calls for. I'm not talking about the perishables here. I'm talking about food "staples".
For example, I currently have 5 different vinegars in my cupboard. Yes, FIVE. White, balsamic, red wine, apple cider, and tarragon/peppercorn in white wine, vinegar. But I don't have plain white wine vinegar. Oh yes and the next recipe calls for Rice wine vinegar. So off I go to the grocery store to buy this and now I have SIX different vinegars. I have an entire shelf in my kitchen dedicated to vinegars. My kitchen is not that big. Let me tell you that my spice shelf or should I say, shelves, has what I think is everything I need. But no. No. The next recipe needs something I don't have. Well, maybe I have it and it's buried behind the turmeric and red pepper seeds. Or maybe it's beside one of the 2 different kinds of paprika that is in there. Why are there 2 kinds of paprika in my pantry? Because I couldn't find the first jar and went and bought another one, which turned out to be different.. by the way does anyone know how many kinds of paprika there are? I thought there was only spanish paprika.. apparently I am wrong.

I have things in my pantry that I used once and never looked at again. This is my pet peeve. I think that I'm fully loaded and ready to go and then a new recipe calls for something I don't have. My kitchen is becoming a grocery store. Maybe even better than a grocery store. You can't buy a tiny amount of dried spice for one recipe. I bought a container of anise for the last post and I know I will probably never use the rest of them. They will go stale, I will throw them away, and then I will find another recipe that calls for them. The cycle repeats.

So that's my bitch. If anyone needs some spices or vinegar, let me know. I think I have everything, at least until the next recipe! :)

Rolled Pork Stuffed with Plums

The original title of this recipe from Jamie Oliver’s Happy Days cookbook was really long and so I decided to shorten it. Despite it’s name, this dish tastes amazing. So amazing in fact, that I’ve decided to call it one of my favourites. The pork is steamed so there is no fat. The sweetness of the plum sauce and the flavour of the anise go perfectly with fresh, thinly sliced spring onions and the neutral succulent pork. The combination of flavours are beautiful and it looks so lovely on the plate that it’s dinner party respectable. Just double or triple the recipe.

Serves 2

3 Ripe Plums

2 tablespoons of olive oil

2 Star Anise
2 thumb-sized pieces of ginger, peeled and finely grated

2 cloves

2 heaping tablespoons of brown sugar

2 Pork Cutlets

salt and ground pepper

1 small handful of parsley or cilantro, washed and chopped

Spring onions

Soy Sauce

Wash the plums, then run a knife around them, twist them and remove the pits. Cut into halves and then into 1/2 inch dice. Heat the oil in a pan and fry the star anise, ginger and cloves for 1 minute. Add the plums and sugar with a couple tablespoons for water, place a lid on, and simmer slowly for about 20 minutes until chunky and pulpy. Allow to cool in the fridge.

Take you pork, trim off any fat and bash it between 2 pieces of plastic wrap. When each piece is the thickness of about 2 beer coasters, lay it on a pan.

Season the plum sauce and stir in half the parsley. Smear the sauce in the middle of each piece of pork. Spread it out slightly so that the sauce covers about three-quarters of each slice and roll each one up like a jelly roll. Put the rolls in your steamer (or like me, my enamel colander over a pot of simmering water) and cover with aluminum foil. Steam over simmering water for about 10 to 15 minutes until the meat is just cooked. Remove from the steamer and serve the pork rolls on a bed of finely sliced spring onions, sprinkled with the rest of the parsley and doused with soy sauce and any left over plum sauce.

Japanese Daikon Salad with Watercress, Creme Fraiche and Grilled Lemon Dressing

This salad uses an Asian Daikon, which is an asian radish. They are available at some Farmer’s Market (Hamilton Farmer’s Market has them) and some grocery stores. My step-mother uses them all the time at family dinners, so when I came across this recipe I thought I’d know what it would taste like. I must have gotten a good one because my Daikon had a very strong radish taste to it. It was a fun salad to put together and you should give it a go.

Peel your daikon and thinly slice it (long thin slices, like linguine) I used the potato peeler to get the long thin strips.

Mix the strips with your watercress and dress with the following dressing:

Creme Fraiche & Grilled Lemon Dressing:

1 large lemon halved

3 tablespoons olive oil

3 tablespoons creme fraiche or mayo

2 heaping teaspoons Dijon mustard

sea salt, pepper, soy sauce

Broil the lemon halves for 5 minutes until soft and charred. Squeeze the juice into a bowl. Add the rest of the ingredients, mix together and season to taste. 

Cheesy Tomato Basil Mussels

This is a really simple and delicious appetizer that looks terrific on a plate, plus the shell acts as a spoon. 

35  small black mussels (500g)

1/2 cup of dry white wine

2 tablespoons of water

1 medium onion, chopped finely

2 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tomato, finely chopped

2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil leaves

1/2 cup coarsely grated mozzarella cheese

Scrub mussels, remove beards, discard any open ones that don’t close when you squeeze them. Heat wine in a large saucepan, add mussels; cook, covered, over high heat about 5 minutes or until mussels open.

Drain; discard liquid. Place each mussel in half of a shell, place on a baking tray.

Cook the water, onion and garlic in medium frying pan, stirring until onion is soft. Add the tomato, bring to a boil; simmer, uncovered, about 10 minutes or until mixture is thickened, stir in the basil.

Spoon the tomato mixture over the mussels, sprinkle with cheese. Grill under the over broiler until cheese is browned lightly.

Variation: Try different cheeses/smoked mozzarella works great to.

Leek & Potato Soup

Leeks and potatoes are in season right now and while wandering the Hamilton Farmer’s Market on Saturday I couldn’t resist bringing them home with me to make my yummy Leek and Potato Soup. This recipe is also vegetarian.

4 medium potatoes (2 1/2 cups cut into 1/4” dice)

2 small leeks, trimmed, sliced thin

1/2 cup chopped celery

2 cups water

3 1/2 cups milk

1 tablespoon of flour

2 teaspoons salt

1/2 cup milk

Put potatoes, leeks, celery and water in a large pot. Cover and boil 8 to 10 minutes until tender. Add the 3 1/2 cups of milk, then the flour and salt blended with the 1/2 cup milk to form a smooth paste. Stir thoroughly, reheat to the boiling point, stirring often, then simmer 2 or 3 minutes.

At this point in time you can eat it as it is, or like I do, stick the hand blender in until it’s a smooth creamy soup.

Makes 4 generous servings.

Apple Jelly - Part 1 - Extracting the Juice

I’m lucky enough to live in an area that has many different types of farms around that you can pick your own or purchase from a market, lovely seasonal foods. I’m a big advocate of supporting my local farmers. I try to buy most of the food I eat from Ontario farmers. It doesn’t always work out especially in the winter, but I certainly make the effort. And why not? A country drive on a sunny Saturday afternoon to the apple farm to pick my own apples to make jelly isn’t too terrible, in my humble opinion. 

Don’t let the length of this recipe scare you off. The most difficult part of the recipe is patience. If you don’t have a few hours to play around with this, split it up. Extract the juices one day and the next, make the jelly. Have some fun with it. Preserving the freshness of anything that you yourself picked from a local farm or from your own backyard is a beautiful thing.

Apple Jelly

3 lbs Firm Tart Apples

3 to 5 cups of water

Sugar

2 to 3 tablespoons lemon juice, if needed

Apples that ripen the latter part of August or early September are best for jelly. I chose “Wealthy” apples as they are tart, juicy and a good cooking apple. Choose only barely ripe fruit. Overripe fruit lacks sufficient pectin for good jellying.

Wash apples; remove and discard the stems and blossom ends; cut into quarters. Then slice the quarters and place skins, cores and all into a large saucepan. Add cold water to barely cover; the amount depends on how many apples you have and the shape of the pan. I didn’t weigh my apples when I started making this, so the 3lbs of firm tart apples is really for people who love following recipes to the t. 

Cover the pot, bring to a boil and simmer without stirring until the apples are soft, approx. 10 to 20 minutes depending on how many apple slice you crammed into your huge pot. 

Crush the apples with a potato masher and boil another 5 minutes uncovered. 

Place the apple goo into a jelly bag/t-towel and hang over a bowl for at least 15 minutes. I usually leave it at least 30 minutes as my jelly t-towel is pretty thick. Don’t squeeze the bag! Just leave it alone. Go do something else.

If you are like me and are too cheap to buy jelly bags (and have no idea where to get them anyway) you may have to do the hanging thing in batches. This is about the time where you should go make a drink. It’s 5pm somewhere. (Check out my Mojito recipe).

Once the entire process of extracting all the lovely rose coloured juice from the apples is complete, it’s time to make the apple jelly. You could of course skip this entire step and buy a $.99 can of apple juice and go straight to Part 2. I think, however, that you may need to add pectin if you use store bought juice. You would also need to add some red food colouring to make it that beautiful pink colour. 

Apple Jelly - Part 2 - Making Jelly

It’s very important that you measure the juice you put back into a saucepan. You will have to add 3/4 of sugar for every 1 cup of apple juice later. 

One you measure the apple juice into a saucepan/pot, bring the juice to a boil and cook rapidly for 5 minutes. Taste the juice and if the flavour is not very tart, add lemon juice. Then measure 3/4 cup of sugar for every 1 cup of juice measured add to the boiling concentrated juice and continue boiling rapidly until 2 drops run together to form a sheet when dropped from the edge of a metal spoon. 

This is called a “jelly test”. I have yet to master the concept of this test. It seems to easy and yet, it never seems to work.. not that my jelly doesn’t jelly, its just I’ve never seen this “2 drops run together to form a sheet” work. My secret is to put a metal spoon into the freezer and periodically take it out and dip it into the boiling stuff and if the jelly coats the spoon in a nice sheet.. and is “jelly-like”, I then go ahead and jar it.

If your mixture passes the “jelly test”, skim the jelly (get rid of the bubbles) and pour into your hot, sterilized jars, put the lids on and allow to cool. Make sure that all the lids have popped.. (is that the right word? hmm.. ok make sure all the lids have been sucked down). Any lids that haven’t “popped”, put into the fridge immediately and enjoy right away. The other jars can be put into a pantry and given away as Christmas gifts or hostess gifts. Or eat them. 

In case your have no idea what to do with the apple jelly, here are a couple of ideas:

• spread on toast/crackers
• put on warm Brie.. Try this ASAP.
• If you have any other suggestions, I’d love to hear them. Please leave a comment.

An important note: The “wealthy” apples that I used above created perfect, beautiful juice for jelly. The concentrated juice that I got was so thick it was almost a jelly itself. There was so much pectin in this juice that it literally took minutes to become jelly. I will definitely use these apples again. I ended up with 5 extra apples. I plan to make apple cinnamon muffins tomorrow to bring to work with me. Yes, the recipe will follow. :)