A Blog-Worthy Oatmeal

Belt tightening in effect. Back to a 40-30-30 diet. Steel cut oatmeal, slow cooked and satisfying, especially on a very dark and even colder winter's morning, is the wise and wholesome choice.

But … 6 a.m. comes awfully early and that snooze button is conveniently close. Trixie is burrowing between us on the down comforter, her purrs louder than a pesky alarm clock, signaling me to stay a while longer.  Baby, it’s cold outside.

The perfect solution is really s-l-o-o-o-w cooked oatmeal. Overnight, in fact. No matter what time I reluctantly roll out of bed, it’s ready and waiting, deliciously warm, perfectly cooked and amazingly good for you.

Overnight Oatmeal
serves two over two mornings

1 cup steel cut oatmeal
2 apples, cored and cut into medium size dice (I love Honey Crisps)
4 cups cold water
1 tsp salt (or more/less to taste)
¼ teaspoon cinnamon or to taste
Brown sugar or maple syrup for serving

1. Preheat oven to 225F/105C.



2. Combine oatmeal, apples, water and salt in an ovenproof casserole dish. Cover and place in oven.



3. Cook for 8 hours overnight, or until oatmeal is cooked to a creamy consistency. Stir in cinnamon.

4. To serve, sprinkle with brown sugar or a dash of maple syrup, or go for the purist version and have it as is (my choice!)

Yum.

So long to the holidays...

Abundance of food;

indulgence matches desire...

the scale rests heavy

As I say goodbye to the parties, the gifts, the exuberant spirits and sagging tables, I say a fond farewell to the season’s offerings with my haiku homage to festive feasts.

…And pay tribute to one of my favourite dishes of the season, courtesy of the New York Times. Double it up, spread it over several evenings replete with crusty French bread, and, as Florence Fabricant suggests, “pour an earthy, rustic red from the sprawl of the Languedoc, many of them balancing fruit and tight minerals without making huge demands on the wallet.”

Spiced Chicken Liver Mousse
Serves several as an appetiser; or two with nothing else to eat for dinner and a healthy regard for the joys of rich food cut to the quick with gorgeous red wine*

6 to 8 tablespoons chicken or duck fat, or clarified butter
1/2 teaspoon black mustard seeds
1/2 teaspoon ground cardamom
1 1/2 teaspoons ground cumin
1 pound chicken livers, connective tissue removed
1 medium onion, chopped
1 inch long piece fresh ginger, peeled and slivered
1/4 cup amontillado sherry
1/3 cup heavy cream
Salt and freshly ground black pepper.

1. Melt 3 tablespoons fat in a 12-inch skillet. Add mustard, cardamom and cumin and sauté until spices sizzle and are fragrant. Add livers and sauté over medium-low heat, turning, until cooked but still pink inside, about 10 minutes. Remove livers from pan.

2. Add 2 tablespoons fat, onion and ginger to skillet and sauté until soft, about 5 minutes. Add sherry, simmer about 5 minutes until somewhat reduced, stir in cream and cook until it starts to thicken. Transfer livers and contents of skillet to food processor and process until smooth. Season with salt and pepper.

3. Spoon mousse into a crock or bowl and smooth the top. Melt 2 tablespoons remaining fat and pour onto surface of mousse. Use an additional tablespoon of fat if needed to cover the surface. Refrigerate at least 4 hours before serving. Scrape fat off before serving, or mix it into mousse.

Yield: About 2 cups.

*based on a true story

Signs of Spring

It's -16C today. With the wind chill factor it feels like -27C. At the start of the year and in the deep of a Canadian winter, spring feels like a distant dream.

Except… for the unexpected quirks of nature. Our house is filled with Christmas greens - containers full of evergreens, pinecones and deep rich red dogwood branches. On the first day of the year, with the fireplace full of the ashes of the year’s first fire, there was this…



Our dogwood branches, full of green shoots and hidden energy, springing to life in the chill of winter.

Oh glorious Spring…can you really be that far away?

Turbo-charged Turducken!

With the Open House behind us, Christmas Day - and 14 guests for dinner - loomed large.  And fresh turducken - that weirdly wonderful combination of turkey, duck and chicken - was finally in my sight lines for the main course.

Fiesta Farms was the go-to place, as weirdly wonderful as turducken.  A 9 lb. turducken seemed a reasonable amount for 14 people, even accounting for the three vegetarians.  And who better to assemble it for us than Danny, the charming and enthusiastic butcher at Fiesta?



Here it is, pre-cook, in all its fleshy glory:



Umm, maybe we should have gone with the 7 lb....



Into the TurboChef...an extra pan to catch the drippings...



Let me digress a moment while the TurboChef does its magic. 



Our uber-cool, custom red TurboChef makes me happy. The snappy look is by frog design, and while I roll my eyes at their description of the design process - frog sought the honest voice of the consumer audience - it worked. I don't know that it's my "honest voice” that responded to the appeal of the TurboChef. I just know that cooking a perfectly juicy roast chicken in less than 30 minutes can’t be beat. Or having deeply rosy rack of lamb done and cut into chops in less than 10.

So there was no question in my mind that our first turducken would need to be made at warp speed in the TurboChef. 



Setting the oven for a turkey didn't seem quite right - the darn turducken looked more like a veal roast on steroids than a stuffed turkey.  Hmm...veal roast...that seemed like a good setting to try. The temperature was right - 350F.  The time sure sounded good - two hours.  And the results?



Delectable!

To table, everyone...

The Remains of the Day

Not....one...photo.

Of the 80+ guests, all in festive spirits and hungry as bears.  Of the 21 delectable dishes artfully arranged on the dining room table, buffet style.  Of the oh-so-pretty house, done up with Christmas greenery, a big old fat real Christmas tree and lots of love.  Of the kitchen island, laden with sparkling glasses, lined up soldier-straight, next to choices of cheery punch, or more grown up prosecco, red or white wine. Of the kitchen, put to work under the watchful eye of Ian, juggling food prep along with the team of four servers.

Yes - sadly - the new kitchen's inaugural first ever Open House - and our 14th - will have to live on in memory only.  There's still time to share the delectable recipes though and of course I seemed to remember to take photos before - when all the cooking was underway - and after...

Baby potatoes for three cheese fondue:


Marinated and pre-seared lamb chops for pistachio-crusted lamb "lollipops":


Tunisian bean dip being swirled into submission:


And the very generous expression of our guests, who support our holiday tradition of bringing a donation for the Daily Bread Food Bank:


Well, Christmas dinner - and our first ever turducken - are just around the corner.  Watch this space for the results!

Only one more sleep!

Haven't posted for a while - we have been in a whirl of activity getting ready for tomorrow's Open House.  It promises to be record attendance, and we are ready! 

Cookie baking and decorating complete: check.






Agonising over, selecting and then cooking what will end up being way too much food: check.





Getting the house beautiful: a given!

Now it's time to sleep and pray for a green Christmas.

Start Me Up Redux

According to S. John Ross, a sourdough starter should take three to four days to form.

This is what I had after 48 hours...

Here's the thing.  When I broke the dough "seal" that had bubbled through the nailhead opening at the top of the jar, it had the right smell.  A pleasant sour or beery smell.  Plus it looked right:



I decided to take a chance, feed the starter again, and see what happened that evening.


 
Same thing.  Same crusty top. Same delicious bread-y smell.  Same great bubbly look.



Re-read S. John Ross.

Here's the gist: When your starter develops a bubbly froth, it is done. You have succeeded. If this sounds brain-dead simple, that's because it is. People who didn't believe the Earth was round did this for millenia.

Hmm.  Guess I'm brain-dead this week.  Seems the starter was done two days ago.  So my lovely starter is now in the fridge, collecting hootch.  God and time permitting, I'll tackle a sourdough loaf this weekend. 

Sunday Night Dinner with Rich...the Farmers' Market Edition

We haven't had much of a chance to do a leisurely Sunday night cookbook "date" dinner in quite a while.  The Open House is two weeks away (major cookie baking this weekend); charity ball on Saturday night (in honour of the Bollywood theme, I wore a beautiful borrowed sari and lots of safety pins!); and both of us trying to rid ourselves of the season's first - and hopefully only - cold.

But we did go to the Green Barn Farmers' Market, at the Artscape Wychwood Barns and even though December has put a definite crimp in the offerings, there was still plenty of good things to buy - and eat.

...including Nuala's delicious scones and Irish soda bread.  Yummy when toasted and slathered with butter!



First thing to buy was the "main" for dinner and we found halibut from Goldwater Seafoods, a Canadian company specialising in Nova Scotian seafood.

The greens came from Everdale's great selection of goodies.  A bag of assorted greens, perfect for sauting, for only $3.00.



Vicki's Veggies provided the delicious salad greens and parsnips. 

Dinner is a very simple affair.  Halibut slow poached in olive with lemon and dill; braising greens sauteed in garlic, shallots and chili pepper flakes, with some sauteed baby parsnips added in for crunch and nutty flavour; and Asian greens dressed simply with balsamic vinegar and olive oil.  The perfect early winter dinner, filled with local goodness.

Sunday Night Farmers' Market Dinner for Two

Oven-poached Halibut in Olive Oil
adapted from The Gourmet Cookbook
serves two to three

1 lb. halibut fillet
1 tsp salt
1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
2 tbsp capers, rinsed
1 1/2 large lemons, thinly sliced
3 tbsps. chopped fresh dill, with additional for garnish
1 1/2 - 2 c. olive oil

1. Preheat oven to 250F

2. Pat fish dry, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.  Let stand for 10 minutes. Chop 1 tbsp of the capers

3. Arrange half of lemon slices in one layer in an 8-inch round glass baking dish. Arrange fish in one layer over lemons. Top with chopped and remaining whole capers, remaining lemons slices, and the dill, and pour oil over the fish until barely covered.

4. Bake, covered, until fish just flakes and is cooked through, about 1 hour.

Serve fish with some of the lemon slices, capers and olive oil spooned on top. Garnish with dill if desired.



Sauteed Autumn Greens
serves two generously


4 cups assorted kales and autumn greens, washed (do not dry the leaves)
1 tbsp olive oil
2 small garlic cloves, minced
1 medium shallot, minced
Pinch red chili pepper flakes, or to taste
Baby parsnips
Water as needed (approx. 1/4 cup)

1.  Heat the olive oil in a large non-stick skillet until hot. 

2.  Add the garlic and shallots and saute for a couple of minutes or until fragrant.  Add red chili pepper flakes and saute for one minute more.



3.  Add any tougher kale to the pan first and saute for until softened.  Add remaining greens; stir and cover for a couple of minutes until greens are softened but not wilted. Remove and set aside in serving bowl.



4. In the same pan, add the parsnips and stir until hot. Add water, cover pan, and saute on high heat, about five minutes or until parsnips are tender but still crunchy.  Add the greens, season with salt and pepper to taste, and serve.



Set the table and serve it forth!

Start Me Up...

Since last March, I've been trying, infrequently and without great success, to make sourdough bread starter.  My desire to get it right was recently reignited by The Omnivore's Dilemma, which I finally got around to reading.

In case you've always wondered what sourdough starter is, here's the definition from Wikipedia:

Sourdough is a dough containing a lactobacillus culture, usually in symbiotic combination with yeasts. It is one of two principal means of leavening in bread baking, along with the use of cultivated forms of yeast (Saccharomyces)...In comparison with yeast-based breads, it produces a distinctively tangy or sour taste, mainly because of the lactic acid produced by the lactobacilli; the actual medium, known as "starter" or levain, is essentially an ancestral form of pre-ferment.

Huh? If that leaves you as confused as me, I prefer this much simpler definition from S. John Ross:

Sourdough bread is bread made without added yeast. By making a "starter" in which wild yeast can grow, the sourdough baker can raise bread naturally, as mankind did for thousands and thousands of years before a packet of yeast was an available convenience at the local market...There are only a few simple steps to becoming a sourdough baker. First, you must create a starter: This is a bubbly batter that you keep in your fridge. The starter is mixed into a dough, and it causes the bread to rise. Bake and serve. Yum!

His recipe is one that was given to me by my friend Mike, a Syrian financial guru who loves to bake bread.  My kind of guy.

It seems so EASY - but I either forget about it in the first 24 to 48 hours (not a pretty sight), or it seems to develop way too quickly (lots of "hootch" on day one!) or it doesn't smell right.  I've tried organic unbleached bread flour; organic all purpose flour; 00 flour, all to no avail. So here is attempt number four or five. Using what my mother used all her life: good ole Five Roses flour.

Day One:

This morning...

Progress reports will follow throughout the week!

Only One Month, 27 Days and 775 Hours Until the Open House...

My niece Helina loves Christmas. Just about this time of year, she starts signing off emails with the exact Christmas countdown. Around here, Christmas always comes early: it’s called Liz and Rich’s Annual Holiday Open House. This year will be especially exciting - our first OH with the new kitchen!   

Invitations have been sent; menu planned; servers booked, even the wine is bought, stored and ready to pop open. The cooking marathon officially began this weekend. A bit of prep work done earlier in the week: filling for mini tortiere pies made, dough chilling in the fridge; caramelized onions for baked Brie done and frozen. It’s the only way that a couple of dozen or more hors d’ouevres make it to the sagging buffet table the day of.

This weekend the cooking started in earnest. We tackled the tortiere assembly and make dozens of mini beef wellingtons, a favourite recipe from Food & Wine magazine that first made an appearance at the Open House in 2000.

Mini tortieres are a variation this year - normally made without a "top" and baked in advance, this year I thought I'd try to truly make them like mini pies and freeze them without baking.

Of course it starts with the fabulous Julia dough!

All in all, a great start to the annual cooking countdown.  Dinner was delish too - Asian chicken noodle soup made with frozen homemade stock and chicken; freshly baked pizza and a mini tarte tatin  - the one I made two weeks ago and froze as a bit of an experiment.  It works! The crust isn't nearly as flaky and light but the taste still can't be beat...