So I used a pressure cooker. Congrats to me

Hey, look I'm not even going to get into how long it's been so just pretend like nothing is amiss.
Anyways, this Christmas I got a pressure cooker / slow cooker / steamer from my mom.
It's not that I didn't want it, but I didn't want to disappoint her because I have a hair blanching, skin ripping, wall climbing fear of pressure cookers. Also a little bit afraid of the house burning down capacity of a slow cooker, but that was less of an issue.

So I read the manual, and searched the internet, and did a Facebook and Twitter poll. There's this really fantastic blog called Recipe Rifle manned by the charming and honest Esther Walker that I love to read when the firewall at work lets me (and you should too, so the link is up there). And I thought, if she were in my shoes and had an irrational fear of pressure cookers (which I don't know if she does or doesn't) would she do it? Yes, and then write about how fucking terrified she was. And so that's what I'm doing here right now.
I did it.
and I was fucking terrified.
and we all lived.
and it was good.

I started with the idea that I would do a lamb ragout. Lamb shoulder with garlic and onions and tomatoes and mushrooms. Nothing too finicky, nothing too adventurous. And so I got to this point.

And then I realized I actually have to put food in this machine and turn it on. Paralysis.
You see, you have to understand where the fear comes from. I got another pressure cooker many years ago as a gift and the instruction manual for that one had death and dismemberment warnings in it.

I'm going to let that one sink in for a bit.

DEATH AND DISMEMBERMENT

And then I lost the manual and of course never used the bastard. Oh actually I used it once, but it was so terrifying and traumatic that I've blocked the memory of it almost entirely.

So, after I put my big boy pants on, the food went in and I waited.

Don't be fooled, that's a zoom in. If you think I was getting that close to it for any length of time, you're sorely mistaken.
I think at one point Harlie went within 6 feet of it and I barked at her to get out of the kitchen. But I DID risk life and limb to rescue the iPad that I had left next to it.

And after 35 hand wringing, stomach churning minutes, it was over. I poked at it with a wooden spoon for a bit and then we had food.
It was a little more watery than I wanted, but no one died so essentially it was a success. We served it over tagliatelle and pretended that I wasn't a total maniac for being afraid.

Thanks!
-C.

Shameless plug, oh and hello again

Hello there, my name is Candace, maybe you don’t remember me, we met once, on the interwebs. I used to write this here blog...

Beh, sorry guys, I’ve been overwhelmed.

You see there was this

And then this became that

And then that started doing this all the time.

She’s the best, she REALLY is. And every day is a new adventure, but it takes up a lot of time and energy.

So anyways, I recently received an email about infoods. I had gone to a food bloggers event through them a while ago (this was before the great writing dearth of 2011/2012) and I was contacted again about writing a bit about their newer products. If I could have reached through the wifi waves and given a big hug I would have. This is exactly the push that I needed, and by exactly the right product. A group of products that I’ve come to rely on.

Kyle and I look at eachother all the time and ask ourselves “Do other people live like this? Do other families struggle like this?” Our week days are a blur of making dinner, preparing dinner for the next night, fighting to feed the beast dinner, and laundry (always laundry). So when I found the incuisin risottos at the grocery store, the company already had a huge soft spot in my heart and I jumped at the chance to try them. Really? Something that’s not made of 60,726 chemicals and doesn’t turn out tasting like a salt bomb? Really? It takes 5.5 minutes? Maybe I’ll take you home little buddy...

My mother tells me that when I was small my mantra was ‘Candace do it’ and I guess I never really grew out of that. So using a prepared product is a little nerve wracking... I mean... Candace DIDN’T do it. But what I found when I tried the incuisin stuff is that while it was solid enough to stand alone as a side, there was definite room to get creative. Dear sausage risottos, and buttery mashed potatoes with spinach and artisanal cheese, welcome back into my life.

And then another time I had a bunch of horrid sad broccoli and a few withering onions and one frozen piece of salmon and one frozen piece of tilapia, and a 1/4 of a bag of frozen roast potato wedges. It seems disgustingly wasteful to throw it all out, but what am I going to do with all of this? With a bag of the incuisin cauliflower puree, 2 eggs, a squeeze of lemon and a cupcake pan they became fish and vegetable croquettes. So while I’m not promoting the use of almost putrid vegetables and abandoned frozen fish, I’m just saying that having the puree already there really saved my bacon... Mmmm bacon.

So my point is, THANK YOU, thank you thank you thank you infoods for making products that are real food, are tasty on their own, but also basic enough that you CAN add your own spin to it without spending all night. Also it’s really nice to be able to even contemplate a cauliflower puree. I was THIS close

(you like my desktop? it’s Olive’s arse) to trying to develop a silencer for my food processor... Actually I’m still considering it — DON’T WAKE THE BABY!

So someday I’ll post about the molecular gastronomy kit that Kyle got me for my birthday and the one blissful afternoon that I got to play with it (ancini di pepe w/ tomato oil & balsamic pearls) but in the meantime I’ll be happily spiking my frozen tomato risotto with caramelized onions and hot Italian sausage and NOT keeling over from exhaustion. And if you get in my way in the frozen section, I’ll guiltlessly elbow you in the face. (I’m all talk, that won’t happen)

Here’s the other night’s dinner. For no reason since I never talked about it. But guess where the risotto comes from.....

Schedule the pumpkin scone intervention!

I have an addiction

The good news is that unlike the people on the A&E show 'Intervention', no one will get hurt from it

It is the Starbucks pumpkin scone and I blame the lovely and talented Alexandra Meikleham for this addiction. She introduced me to this tasty treat and contributed to the downfall of this blogger's waistline (I'm joking... ish)

And because of the seasonal nature of pumpkin scone, and the fact that I'm still getting used to this having a kid thing, I thought I should ferret out the recipe myself.
Fortunately for me, someone else has already done that.

I made a few small adjustments to the recipe, and let me tell you, my loved ones are seriously going to have to con me into a 'documentary' about scones and then tell me how my scone addiction has affected their lives negatively. Also they're going to need to get one of those slings that they transport whales in to get me out of the house one day.

INGREDIENTS:
2 cups all purpose flour
7 tablespoons granulated sugar
1 tablespoon baking soda (it was supposed to be baking powder, but I made a mistake, and it worked out)
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves
1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
1/2 cup canned pumpkin
3 tablespoons milk
1 large egg
6 tablespoons cold butter

Plain Glaze
1 cup plus 1 tablespoon powdered sugar
2 tablespoons milk

Spiced Icing
1 cup plus 3 tablespoons powdered sugar
2 tablespoons whole milk
1 tsp pumpkin pie spice

Also, a little tip, if you brew your coffee and throw about 1/2 a tsp of pumpkin pie spice in the basket, it's a tasty almost gingerbready flavoured coffee result.


So here goes... ready?
Preheat oven to 425 degrees F.
Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon, 1/2 teaspoon nutmeg, 1/4 teaspoon cloves, and 1/4 teaspoon ginger in a large bowl.

In a separate medium bowl, whisk together pumpkin, milk, and eggs.
Cut butter into cubes then add it to the dry ingredients. Use a pastry knife or a fork to combine butter with dry ingredients. Continue mixing until no chunks of butter are visible. You can also use a food processor: Pulse butter into dry ingredients until it is the texture of cornmeal or coarse sand. Or until your arm gets tired (if not using a food processor) or until you get fed up.

Fold wet ingredients into dry ingredients, then form the dough into a ball. Pat out dough onto a lightly floured surface and form it into a 1 inch thick rectangle that is about 9 inches long and 3 inches wide. Use a large knife or a pizza wheel to slice the dough twice through the width, making three equal portions. Cut those three slices diagonally so that you have 6 triangular slices of dough. That's what the original recipe said, and it's fine, but if you're like me and need at least 1 scone per day, you might want to make them half the size so that you get 12 smaller ones.

Bake for 14 to 16 minutes on a baking sheet that has been lightly oiled. Scones should begin to turn light brown. If you're making 12 smaller ones, start with 9 minutes and then put them in longer if they aren't done yet -- every oven is different...

While scones cool, prepare plain glaze by combining ingredients in a medium bowl with an electric mixer on medium speed (actually a fork works too). Mix until smooth. When scones are cool, use a brush to paint a coating of the glaze over the top of each scone.

As that white glaze firms up, prepare spiced icing by combining ingredients in another medium bowl with an electric mixer (or fork) on medium speed (doesn't your fork have a medium speed? *scoff*). Drizzle this thicker icing over each scone and allow the icing to dry before serving (at least 1 hour). A squirt bottle works great for this, or you can drizzle with a whisk.

And if you can't wait for the scones to cool, skip the plain glaze, just make the spiced one and dip your scones into the bowl as you scarf down the whole batch.
(what? no one else does this?)

And I'll end this post with a picture of the creature -- because I need to prove that there really is a kid, and that I didn't just totally slack on the blog posts because I'm a lazy bum. There she is with Miss Olive - the patron saint of this blog (Saint Olive? that'll be the day)

Okay kids, thank you for joining our cheeseandolive drum circle, come back soon
xo
-Candace.

p.s. Alex, please don't be mad that I linked to your castingcallpro.com profile, it's free publicity :)

Cupcake Camp and the Smoked Fruit

Yellow everyone,
Back again!
This time to talk about the 2nd annual Cupcake Camp Montreal. I was at last year's and while it was very successful, nothing could have prepared me for this year's success. I cautiously agreed to participate this year because it took place November 21st, 6 days before my due date, thankfully the kid didn't come early and I was able to honour my commitment. Although I REALLY REALLY wanted to help out and be part of the organization, I thought it would be smarter if I waited until next year. So hit me up for any kind of help you need next year guys! I WILL be bugging you... but this year I stuck to baking only. My submission was Smoked Apple Cupcakes with Maple Cardamom Buttercream. So here goes, the recipe....

The cupcake recipe is partially pilfered from... um... well, uh *sigh* Martha Stewart. 
I'm sorry, I know, I know she's built of pure evil, but I'm sure she had nothing to do with it!!! I know A LOT of good people who went on to work for her. It's okay right?

Right?

Initially, I smoked the apples whole, but then I realized that peeling them was hell. So, word of advice, peel, core and cut your apples into 8ths or 6ths. It's much easier than trying to peel a smoked apple.


•2 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
•2 teaspoons baking soda
•1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
•1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
•1 teaspoon salt
•1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, softened
•1 cups sugar
•1/2 cup demerara sugar
•1/4 cup demerara sugar
•2 large eggs
•1 inch vanilla bean scraped to death
•8 apples (4 yellow delicious, 4 MacIntosh, if possible) peeled, cored, and cut

Start off by putting your apples in a disposable pie pan (or 2) and sprinkle the 1/4 cup of demerara sugar on top. Smoke for 1.5 hours at about 220 degrees. It's best if you do it a few days before because some liquid leaches out of the apples and has a very strong smoky sweet flavour. When you first take the apples out of the smoker, a lot of the smoky flavour is caught in the sugar residue that you won't be able to get into the batter. The apple juices that leach out sort of wash the sugar off the pie plate and you get a smokier flavour in your batter.

(pssst. these are Martha's instructions slightly adapted)
Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Line 2 standard muffin tins with paper liners; set aside. Whisk together flour, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg, and salt in a medium bowl; set aside.

Put butter and both sugars (1/2 cup demerara, 1 cup regular white) into a bowl and mix on medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about 5 minutes. Mix in eggs and vanilla. Coarsely chop apples in a food processo and mix in apples to the wet mixture. Add flour mixture; mix, scraping down sides of bowl as needed, until just combined.

Divide batter among lined cups, filling halfway; bake until tops are springy to the touch, 18 to 20 minutes. Remove cupcakes from tins; transfer to a wire rack; let cool completely. (makes 24)

For the icing, I will try to give you the recipe but I really winged it

•1 cup room temperature unsalted butter
•2 1/2 cups sifted icing sugar
•1/4 cup + 2 tbsp REAL maple syrup
•1 tbsp ground cardamom

Whip up the butter with an electric mixer pouring in the maple syrup slowly.  It will be clumpy and weird looking. As you sift in the sugar (I did it 1/2  a cup at a time because my hand was getting tired) it will become smoother.

About halfway through, I added the cardamom, mixing on medium speed. Once all your sugar is in and you're satisfied with the consistency, then you can ice your cupcakes.

If you want a stiffer icing, simply add more icing sugar.

Also, something that I will share with you.... I made a test batch... and I didn't find them smoky enough, so I added 1 or 2 dashes of liquid smoke to the icing.  It was only for the test batch, but I feel guilty divulging that fact. Anyways, if you need it, liquid smoke will help you out and won't ask for anything in return.

So here's the picture of my finished cakes. Next year I think I'll spend more time on the beauty aspect.  But they were tasty : )

So once these were iced and packed up, we brought them downtown to Cupcake Camp Montreal 2010!!
And even though I had a panic attack there, I take that as a good sign. THERE WERE TOO MANY PEOPLE -- bad for sensitive wimps like me, good for the organizers and the charities (Kids Help Phone and La Tablée des Chefs). This year they raised $34,500!!!!

Kyle and I got some phenomenal cupakes, there was the Double Chocolate with sugar cookie on top from Macchi Inc. (Make sure you read The Mrs Macchi Blog and follow her on twitter), there was the Double Cupcake: Mini chocolate on the top, vanilla on the bottom with a lovely snowflake detail from Montreal Confections (who incidentally did our wedding cake last year and she's super nice).  There was the ridiculously poufy and decadent Oreo cupcake with some sort of cream cheese icing covered in oreo dust from RawSugr. And unfortunately we don't know where the other three came from: another Oreo creation, Cookie Dough cupcake with a wee cookie on top, and a caramel fleur de sel. 

Oh right, the one in the middle. That was the raspberry truffle ice cream cupcake from Bilboquet. That one didn't make it home - partially because it was awesome and partially because of the melt factor.  Here's a bad picture of a 'cross section' (AKA after we bit into it) of the ice cream one :)

So that was Cupcake Camp Montreal 2010. Now my next task is to spit out a person.  She's supposed to arrive this saturday, but you never know what can happen. I guess that's all for now. Thanks again for taking the time to browse the aisles of the Cheese and Olive Superstore. 

xoxo

-Candace

Stay with me here... Potato... Ice Cream... trust me okay?

Hello everyone!
Look!!! It’s me again! And without a 3 month break!
How exciting....

Any-hoo, on the 12th of October I went to a product launch by infoods for their incusin line of purees with the effervescent Chuck Hughes.

There was quite a bit of awesome food presented and served. Being a big giant gestational pod, I couldn’t sample the salmon tartare and the parsley vodka shooter. But the blinis with caramelized onions were fantastic. There were potato croquettes on a stick which I didn’t photograph. A cauliflower cappucino, and a scallop atop a puree with carrot butter. There were also 2 sweet offerings, that I didn’t exactly catch what they consisted of except that they were CHOCK FULL of awesome.

See the pictures below, and make sure you bring a napkin to mop up the drool.

There was also sort of a blog challenge to create something with the insnax / incuisin line and then blog about it. It’s technically a contest, but since there’s no chance of me winning, I’ll just call it a blog challenge.

I decided to turn one of the purees into an ice cream. Since I don’t have an ice cream maker, and am wholly inexperienced at ice cream making, I expected it to fail spectacularly. It wasn’t too bad though. I think it would have been better if I could find a way to extract some of the water from the potato puree but even in this format it was very tasty. AND it did taste of the potato puree, so it’s not like it was just a textural thing.

I scoured the internet for how to make ice cream without an ice cream maker and it does take a bit of diligence.

Here goes....
What you'll need
2 egg yolks
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup heavy cream
1/2 tsp unsalted butter
3/4 cup incuisin butter and cream potato puree
tiny pinch of salt
1 1/2 tbsp sugar (or more if you want)

A shallow pan that can go in the freezer
A freezer
about 2h to wait

Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring slowly up to boiling point but DO NOT LET IT BOIL. Add the butter and mix it up

In a bowl, beat together the egg yolks and sugar until thick. Pour the milk into the mixture of egg yolks and sugar whilst stirring. Pour the mixture back into the pan and heat gently, stirring until the custard thickens - DO NOT BRING TO THE BOIL BECAUSE CURDLED CUSTARD BLOWS. When it's nice and thick and about halfway to pudding texture, add the frozen potato puree.

The potato will cool the custard and the custard will thaw the potato puree. If necessary turn the heat on again just low though. When the custard/potato mix is cold stir in the cream and salt.
Your next step is to pour everything into a baking dish made of something that can handle being frozen and throw it in the freezer. From here on I defer to Mr. David Lebovitz because that's where I found the technique.  After 45 minutes have passed, go back and stir it up really well.

Then go back every half hour or 20 minutes and mix it up again. And there you have it.  Eat it.
The only problem was that after it reached the perfect consistency, it kept freezing, rock hard. I think it's because of the water content  in the potato. I didn't want to cook the potato down into oblivion so I'm kind of at a loss how to fix it.  But I'm sure SOMEONE out there will have a suggestion.
AND if you get it at its perfect moment of frozen-ness, it's really quite fabulously tasty and indulgent.

Well thanks to infoods and Miss Mayssam Samaha For inviting me to that lovely evening, and my apologies to Chuck for accidentally tripping him with my bag.... (that was embarrassing)
If anyone has any suggestions on how to combat the over-freezing let me know because it was definitely something I would want to make again.
Merci and thanks for washing your feet in the fountain of Candace.... (ew, that was a little weird) anyways, thanks for reading. Come back soon

Xoxox
-Candace

Stock, make it or I mock you mercilessly

Hello again everyone,
I felt I needed to check in, it’s been a long while since I posted and I’m not giving up cheeseandolive, but I’ve had much much less inspiration to write.
I thought I was alone in this but I’ve been reading the lovely and talented Esther Walker’s blog reciperifle.blogspot.com. She’s recently announced her own knocked-uppedness and how her interest in food has waned.
She clearly regained her interest. Me on the other hand I’ve gotten lazy. No interest in retouching photos so that they’re not so blue or so that you can’t tell that I’m a total slob and my stovetop is filthy. But I’m trying.

In the meantime, I think I’ll rehash an issue that I frequently bitch about and that is food fear / food laziness. Maybe that’s not the right name for it either.
Let me tell you the story.
I used to take the train to work every day (I started taking my car in the last few weeks of the gestation), and there are 2 women that I often hear talking about food. The thing is, they’re both dreadfully obese and are always talking about using this or that out of a can. Pasta sauce, soups, and worst of all, chicken stock. I think they fancy themselves gourmets, but everything that they talk about starts out partially or completely prepared. Pasta sauce, soups, and worst of all, chicken stock. Their reasoning? “It’s too complicated”. I can understand if you want to buy frozen puff pastry because it’s too complicated, or jarred curry pastes, or even frozen dumplings, but chicken stock?!?!?
Now I admit, in a pinch, if I don’t have any already made, or if there’s no chicken carcass waiting for me in my freezer, I’ve used the canned / frozen / or boxed stuff. But NEVER tell me that it’s because it’s TOO COMPLICATED.
“It’s too hot out” for sure.
“I have no chicken pieces” valid.
“I don’t have time right now” it happens.

But It’s too complicated? Pull the other one!

Maybe I’m getting too worked up about this issue, but just to be on the safe side, I’ll give you all a little primer on how to make your own chicken stock. And if you’re ever out and chatting about how complicated something as simple as tomato sauce, or broth, or soup is, and you spot someone staring at you giving you the stink eye, come over and say hello, it’s surely me.

To start out, you’ll need one very crucial thing, chicken.
Whether it’s a stock chicken (will explain more about that one in a bit — it’s a traumatic story) or pieces / bones of a chicken that was used in a previous meal, cooked or raw, it will all work (just not rotten, fools). Turkeys and ducks also work.
I must say though, if you want to make pork or beef stock, you will need to roast the bones otherwise you won’t get a very rich flavour. I will not be touching on that in this post because I don’t have pictures of it. Google it if you care.

Onions are also pretty important, but in essence, my theory is “use what you’ve got”
When you’re cooking, there are invariably things that you will chop off of a vegetable. Such as the top of a pepper, the tops and bottoms of onions, the ribs from chard, the leafy parts of celery. All of this you don’t have to throw out right away. Store it in your freezer in a plastic bag (make sure it’s clean though, no amount of boiling will remove sand and/or DDT) and when it’s time to make stock, you have a wide assortment of vegetables to choose from. My only counsel would be to avoid broccoli, brussel sprouts, and rapini because you don’t want to add any bitterness.

The standard configuration is to use carrots, celery, and onions (I like to use garlic too), chop them into manageable pieces and throw them in a large pot. Put your chicken in, if it’s whole or full meaty pieces, it’s better to be thawed, but if it’s a carcass, it can go in frozen. Add herbs such as thyme, bay leaves, rosemary, peppercorns, nothing too delicate. Cover with water and turn the heat on.

I prefer to let it come to a boil because I feel like I’m killing off any nasty germies, but if you want a clear stock you’ll only let it simmer... Hell if you want a clear stock, you’ll probably know how to do this already and won’t be bothering with this read. What I’m trying to do here is get people to make their own stock not to get the clearest most perfect broth. Once you embrace the idea that it’s not hard, tastes good, and makes your house smell awesome, then you can refine your technique.

So let it simmer for an hour or 2 and strain out the liquid into re-sealable containers and freeze. If you see a foam form while it is simmering, you can skim that off, or you can leave it. It is impurities coming from the chicken, but it won’t kill you. And like I said before, make stock now, refine later.
If you have the patience and are so inclined, you can refrigerate them and when the fat solidifies you can skim it off (much faster than skimming it when it’s in its liquid state) or you can get super lazy like me and freeze it as is then when you’re defrosting it just pick or scrape off the frozen fat, which will melt faster than the stock itself.

It takes virtually no attention, minimal skill, and almost free (If using scraps or carcasses)
HOWEVER, if you have a chicken that is a stock chicken, it is traditionally smaller and more slender than your regular roasters and may still have the head on. It will be cheaper. USE THIS FOR STOCK ONLY! We bought one once and tried to roast it. Firstly, it wasn’t 100% clean (organpalooza), and then there were the flat, rubbery breasts that cooked to the thickness of and iphone. Oh and don’t let me forget the crop. The crop is a fatty mass at the neck/shoulder area of the chicken. It is part of the digestive system. It holds excess food to be digested. When I cut into it, it crackled. There were white chips in amongst the fat, which I can only assume were pieces of chicken feed (roasted from being in my oven). But at first I thought that they were bone chips.
It was awful, I cried, we threw it out in its entirety and only had side dishes for dinner. I was a domestic failure and an energy / food squanderer. So to save you all the trauma of roasting a chicken that was meant for the stock pot. I share with you my story. So read your labels and by all means, buy the boiling chicken but be careful, if it looks puny, and still has a crop, chuck it in the stock pot, don’t waste your tasty cilantro red curry based rub (or however you choose to season your chicken) on this beastie.

Thank you for reading again after a long hiatus. I am hoping to blog again very soon. I have an event that I am attending next week, and am very much looking forward to chronicling that. So don’t give up on me, I’m still alive. And if you're bored with me, at least take a look at Recipe Rifle, she's managed to work through the temporary inspiration void. I'm confident I'll be able to do the same, and soon I’ll have all the time in the world to write on my maternity leave *wink*
Oh and NEVER let me catch you saying that chicken broth is hard to make or I’ll out your laziness all over the internets.
That’s all for now.
Xoxoxox
-Candace.

Artichoke Challenge

Hello once again! It's been a while since I've been here, and for that I have to apologize. The truth is, I've been keeping a secret and it's been a little bit hard for me to be social and talkative for fear of spilling the beans. But the beans are out of the bag now (to mix a metaphor) and I'm back!

Oh, so you wanted to know the secret? Really? Mmmm, okay... well the two of us, Kyle and I, are about to become three!! No, we're not entering into some illegal polygamous relationship, there's a wee one in the works!

So now that I've cleared the air and there are no secrets anymore... on to the real meat of it, the meat of the artichoke! This challenge was the artichoke challenge and my entry is sautéed artichoke hearts with mushrooms over risotto style orzo. This challenge circle is turning into a real little community. We're welcoming our 4th member to the challenge Katrina! So make sure to check all of our artichoke entries. I will update the entry when links are available!







The thing about artichokes is that they're a real pain to clean. You certainly don't need to take off as much as I did if you plan on using more than just the very heart, but I just wanted the softest most tender chunks. Apparently if you buy the little ones, they sometimes come with no choke.

I have never seen this happen.

Instead I always end up elbow deep in these little white prickly bristles, with a melon baller that looks like I've been involved in the perverse torture of a hedgehog. Once you strip off the outer leaves, the stem, and the hard green parts around the base, you're left with the yellowy heart. There are also beautiful purple inner leaves that are a little bit sharp and should be pulled out or trimmed. And the hated choke. It is the bristly fur in the middle of the artichoke. A grapefruit spoon is actually the best method for removing this, but ours broke so I use a melon baller now.



I also like to do this in water, for two reasons: 1) because the fibres of the choke will stick to you and this helps to clean them off, and 2) because the artichoke flesh will oxidize and turn dark in the air. Rubbing all the cut surfaces with a lemon will help to stave off the browning, but immersing in water (or lemony water) will further ensure you don't end up with a blackened heart... artichoke heart.

For the recipe, you will need the following:
5 large artichokes
1 lemon
7 white or café mushrooms (cleaned and sliced thinly)
1/4 cup dried chanterelle mushrooms (reconstituted in boiling water for 2 minutes and chopped roughly)
3 oz pork belly diced into cubes the size of a single lego (think one peg)
1 small onion sliced
a shot of sherry vinegar (about 1/2 - 1 oz)
Olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
2 pieces of parmesan rind
1/3 - 1/2 cup dried orzo
4 cups chicken stock

Once you have the hearts properly cleaned and de-choked slice them into thin strips and put them in a bowl of acidulated water (with lemon or vinegar)




In a sauté pan, brown the onions in oil and remove. Add the little cubed pork belly and fry until browned. Then both types of mushrooms, once browned add the artichoke slices and fry until golden on the edges and a little crispy. Then add your shot of sherry vinegar and scrape down the pan. Remove from the heat and mix in the crispied onions. Ordinarily I would suggest keeping the liquid that you reonstituted the dried mushrooms in, but chanterelle mushrooms are notoriously gritty and unless you fancy worn down little nubs for teeth, just discard the mushroom liquid.

And then we tackle the orzo. Parmesan rinds are very handy little buggers. They're cheap and they very useful in risottos, soup stocks, and pasta sauces. Keep them in the freezer and they'll last for quite a while. You can usually find them from stores that sell chunks of the cheese in a hollowed out rind, they will usually cut up the rind when they're done with it and sell them rrrrreal cheap.

To prepare the orzo risotto style is very easy, but a) it sticks more than traditional risotto, and b) it takes less time. Heat some oil in a pan and add the orzo and stir for about 30 seconds. Reduce the heat to medium. Add about 1/3 cup of broth and stir. Once the broth is absorbed, add more broth. Don't add all the broth at once because you'll just boil it like traditional pasta and the starches won't be pulled out creating a creamy texture - which, if you hadn't guessed already is the goal. Once there's a little goop in the pan (the starch - probably after 2 or 3 ladles of broth) add the parmesan rind. It will soften and release its cheesy flavour. Keep adding broth (1/3 of a cup, or 1-2 ladles at a time) until the pasta is cooked and the texture is creamy. You don't have to use all the broth. Once it is done, remove the parmesan pieces (I like to chew them like gum because they're all soft and chewy at that point -- should I not have mentioned that? Are you all grossed out and judging me now?)

And there you have it. Top the risotto with the artichoke mushroom mixture and eat it. I garnished with lemon zest, but like these old gems you can choose your own... garnish... adventure

Well that's it, sorry for the long gap between posts, I promise that I'll be better now that I have nothing to hide -- or do I?
Well thanks for visiting the museum, please comment otherwise... you know... need I remind you?

xoxox

-Candace

Hazelnut Pasta -- WOW so time consuming

Holy hell! I can't believe it's been a month and a half since I last posted. A lot has happened in the last 6 weeks. We went on our honeymoon! We went to El Salvador, and I REALLY reccomend it to people. It is beautiful and the people are so nice and there's so much to do. Volcanoes to climb, forests, beaches and a vibrant culture. It was amazing. We even got to watch gold medal olympic hockey due to the kindness of the resort staff, a vacationer with a laptop, and a spotty WiFi feed. Check out the story over at the husband's blog Cowhide & Rubber.


Anyways, I tried to blog about pupusas (national dish of El Salvador), and I tried to write about my disdain for those who refuse to eat out of their comfort zones, but it didn't work out. And then I decided to make hazelnut pasta. Spurred on by finding that Bob's Red Mill offered a hazelnut flour, I scoured the western end of the island of Montreal and didn't find any. I did manage to find finely ground hazelnuts, not quite at the level of 'flour' but I thought it would be fine enough.... oh it worked... but it took SUCH a long time. As it turns out they weren't ground fine enough. But I'm getting ahead of myself. The pasta recipe was as follows:


1 cup semolina
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1 cup finely ground hazelnuts, or hazelnut flour
1 tbsp oil (preferrably a nut oil like walnut or hazelnut)
1/4 tsp salt
3 eggs (whisked together)


Combine all the dry ingredients in a large bowl and add the eggs and oil. Remove your rings and dig your hands in! Mix together the ingredients until it becomes a flexible cohesive dough. If it is too dry add a little bit of water at a time until you acheive a ductile consistency. Roll the dough into a ball and cover with a tea towel or plastic wrap. Refigerate for at least half an hour.


Once it has rested, remove from the refigerator and chop the dough into manageable pieces (below) and cover the pieces with plastic wrap to prevent it from drying out.





After meticulously passing the dough through the pasta maker and collecting the scrappy shreds, putting it back together and passing it through again, this ragged strip is what I got. As I passed it through the increasingly tighter settings of the pasta maker, the pieces of nuts that were too large for the opening ripped through the dough. IT TOOK FOREVER. After I picked out the nut pieces that were too large it went fairly smoothly. But up until that point, it was utterly tedious.

Eventually I was able to get decent pasta out of it. Sure there's little holes in it, but over all, it looks okay. At this point I was really regretting not finding that hazelnut flour...

For the sauce I combined 2 shallots, about 1/2 a container of mushrooms (sliced), About 4 slices of bacon, chopped finely, 1 1/2 tbsp butter, 1/2 cup of white wine, and 1 tbsp chopped fresh sage.

Frying up the bacon and shallots in the fat of the bacon as it renders out, I added the mushrooms and continued to sauté until the mushrooms had browned slightly. I deglazed w/ the white wine and then added the butter to melt, finally tossing in the sage. I left it to cook for another minute or two and then tossed it with the freshly cooked pasta.

The final touch was a handful of shredded Comté cheese. It was a nice touch, adding some salt and a subtle nutty taste that complements the nuts in the pasta. All in all it worked out. It was super tasty and a real learning experience, but I threw out a lot of dough because I didn't have until 1 am to be making pasta. I will search for the elusive hazelnut flour and report back with new pasta and new photos.

A slow reentry into the blogging world, but I have another one planned very soon. The next one will focus on the upcoming event benefitting Wine to Water. We've partnered with Barefoot wines to bring you the first event of its kind in Canada. We're changing the format of the event to be a pairing event. If anyone is interested in being a food sponsor for pairings with Pinot Grigio or Zinfandel contact me and I will jump up and down repeatedly shrieking with glee.

And if anyone has any suggestions as to how to make the hazelnut pasta a little more efficient, please leave a comment. My hand is now asleep so I will leave you with that. Thanks again for taking the time to read this! xoxoxoox

-C.

Mango Showdown

Ahh here we are again, the first challenge of 2010. You may remember the chicken challenge from last year. Well, we're back again with mango challenge, AND we've added another contender. TINA! from Brooks Pepperfire / Peppermaster and Operation Ayiti and don't forget to head over to Snack to check out Caty's submission.

So this is Challenge #2 Mango Showdown. 2 dishes for this one, Mango Scallop Ceviche, and Smoky Spicy Mango Sorbet.

#1 Mango Scallop Ceviche: This summer I was fortunate enough to attend a cooking class in Old Montreal with 4 wonderful friends. One of the dishes we made was a scallop ceviche. A ceviche is a raw fish preparation, but the amount of citrus in the marinade 'cooks' the fish. I've adapted the recipe to be spicier and more tropical (i.e. Mango).

Ingredients:

1 1/2 tbsp finely chopped or grated zest of orange, lemon, and lime. Whatever combination / ratio you prefer.

3 toes garlic, minced (A Dutch friend of mine once sent me a recipe where he listed the garlic cloves as 'toes' I have loved that ever since)

The juice of 1 orange, 1 lime, and 1/2 lemon

8 large sea scallops (not bay scallops) sliced thinly

a pinch of salt

1 habanero pepper, minced

1 1/2 tbsp cilantro, chopped

the cheeks of an underripe mango. What cheeks means is the broad flat sides of the mango where you can get the most meat. If you want you can take the rest of the mago flesh off the narrow sides, but I found that it was enough just to use the cheeks. The mango needs to be hard enough that it doesn't fall apart or add too much juice to the marinade but ripe enough that it's actually edible.

So, right, the pictures...

I used a vegetable peeler to remove the zest (the outer coloured area of the peel) from the citrus fruits. However, I guess the skin on the lime was too thin and I trespassed into the pith. You can see in the picture below, the white part. This is bitter and must be removed.

Here are some nice plump scallops, they shouldn't be mushy or smell like fish at all.

And don't forget to tweet while juicing the fruits :)

All ingredients except for the cilantro and put it in the fridge for a few hours. At least 3. You can see that the scallops have already started to turn whitish, this means that the 'cooking' process is starting.

Just before serving, add the cilantro and mix it up. I garnished. Yeah, you know it.

#2 Smoky Spicy Mango Sorbet: So January is sorbet month, as I may have mentioned. This one is not designed to cool you however. I paired the sweet juicy mango with the smoky spiciness of a VERY hot pepper. The Bhut Jolokia (AKA Naga Jolokia) peppers that I bought from Épices de Cru were of the smoked variety, and VERY VERY hot.

Ingredients:

2 ripe mangoes (for some reason I can't help typing Mangies, I like that word better)

1 dried smoked Bhut Jolokia Pepper. For those of you who might be intimidated by the 'HOTTEST PEPPER' you might want to substitute with a chipotle or even an Ancho Pepper would be nice.

1/2 cup mango juice

2 cups simple syrup

1 1/2 cups of water

1/2 tsp vanilla

To add to the smokiness, I cut and peeled the mangoes and then placed them in a very hot pan in order to char them. This WILL make a mess of your pan (burnt sugar is eeeeevil). After the fruit is removed I added 1 1/2 cups of water and the dried pepper. This will dislodge some of the material from the bottom of the pan and help to reconstitute the pepper.

To make the simple syrup, just combine a 1:1 ratio of granulated sugar with water and heat until the mixture turns completely clear. Add that to a pot with the chopped charred mangoes (mangies) and the reconstituted pepper (also chopped), and the liquid from the frying pan.

Cook over medium heat until the mangoes are mushy and cooked through. Add 1/2 tsp vanilla and blend with an immersion blender or in a conventional blender. Add 2 tsp vodka and pour into a shallow pan. Freeze over night. And as usual, since the vodka is out, make a drink, otherwise it won't freeze, honest!

Then shave it with a spoon and put it into small cups to serve. Consider serving it with a piece of cake or buttered scone. This baby's spicy, you're going to need some help.

I can't wait to see what my 2 other challengers have cooked up, and you should too!

Mangoes are tasty, but one last thing to note, don't cut too close to the seed. The seed is fibrous and you will be flossing for hours if you eat the flesh that's too close to the seed.

That's all for now kiddies. I will post very soon about the upcoming Wine to Water event in Montreal (tentatively scheduled for mid-May) sponsored by Barefoot wines. Until then, happy mangoes and thanks for visiting the cheeseandolive national zoo!

xoxo -Candace