Week 29: Peaches, Peaches, Peaches...

So I am a huge fruit fan. I enjoy all kinds but my favorite by far is fresh peaches from the Okanagan. In the last post I talked about our trip but I did not mention that bought 40 lbs (20 for us and 20 for my parents. These were first pick of the season peaches so they needed some time to ripen but once they did they were amazing. This week I am going to go through 2 recipes because one I have made several time before but it is so good I thought I should bog about it. The other is a simple recipe but it was so yummy. I will start with the simple peach gelato recipe which is actually more of a sorbeto but who cares. You will need

4 cups of peeled peaches

1/2 cups of water

3/4 cups of sugar

1 egg white

Start by making a simple syrup from the sugar and water in a small sauce pan over medium heat. Once the sugar has dissolved remove from the heat and cool.  While the syrup is cooling peel and cut the peaches. Puree the peaches and if you want strain through a sieve. I did not do this because I like to have stuff in my gelato. Combine the peaches and syrup and let cool in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Pour mixture into your ice cream maker an 20-30 minutes later you are enjoying some summer freshness in a bowl.

The next recipe is for a peach pie I found in the Moosewood dessert cookbook several years ago that is a wonderful twist on a classic pie. It is a peach pie in a ginger bread crust. The ingredients are

Ginger bread

1 1/2 cups four

1/2 cups brown sugar

1 tsp ground ginger

1 to cinnamon

1/4 tsp ground allspice

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup chilled butter, cut into pieces

2 tbsp molasses

2 tbsp cold water

Pie filling

6 cups sliced peaches

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp grated ginger root

1 1/2 tsp cornstarch

2 tbsp fresh lemon juice

Preheat oven to 375'. In a medium bowl sift together flour, brown sugar, ginger, cinnamon, allspice, salt and baking powder. Cut the butter into mixture and then mix with you fingers until it is crumbly and resembles cornmeal. Drizzle the molasses and water over dough and mix until the crumbs of dough begin to cling together. 

Set aside 1/2 cup of the dough and knead the rest into a ball. Press evenly into the bottom and sides of a pan and bake for 10 to 15 minutes.

In a bowl, toss peaches with brown sugar and ginger root. Dissolve corn starch into lemon juice and sprinkle over peaches and mix. 

Pour the peach mixture into pie crust and crumble remaining dough over the peaches. Bake on upper rack for 40-55 minutes. Check after 30 minutes if crust is stating to brown cover with foil and continue to cook until peaches are tender.

Week 28: A trip to the Okanagan

So last week we got out of the city and took a little trip to the Okanagan. The weather was great and the wine and food was as tasty as always. I thought I would go over some of the highlights of the trip for this post. As we do every time in the Okanagan, we went to Quails Gate and since Luca was sleeping in the car at the time Jamie went and got the wine. Now there was nothing new about us going to Quails Gate to buy some of their Old Vines Foch but that wine is so good it just needs to be mentioned. If you have not tried it go get a bottle.

For the first time we went to Mission Hill and although I am not a fan of their wine the grounds alone are worth the visit. I did pay $10 to try the OCULUS which was well worth it. If you want a nice $80 bottle of wine I would highly recommend it;-)

We stayed at a nice B&B on the East side of the lake so we decided to try a couple of the wineries down there. We went to Cedar Creek which was really so-so and we also went to Summerhill which was an interesting surprise. Their regular wine was adequate but their sparking wine selection was surprising good. I am not a big sparkling wine fan but since it was nice and hot that day I gave it a try. The next time we are going to a party that requires a sparkling wine I will be buying some Summerhill. 

Finally, we went to a wonderful goat cheese farm called Carmelis. It was a bit of a drive but worth it in the end. They had some lovely cheese (the goatgonzola was very nice) and made their own goats milk gelato on site. We did the full tasting and had some tasty cookies and cream and caramel gelato.  

Week 27: Finally back to blogging

So at the beginning of July I started back to work Jamie started a new job and Luca started full time alternating at daycare and with the Grand parents. Apparently this was ended up being tougher than I thought. It has taken me several weeks but I have finally got around to writing something again. This entry includes a couple quick things I whipped up over the span of a week and a half. 

The first was a crispy goat cheese salad. Years ago when Jamie and I lived in Italy we did a weekend trip to the South of France with our friend Lucie. While there I was introduced to warm goat cheese salad and I loved it. I had not had one in years and then I was watching Food Network one day and this lady was making one that sounded super easy. I will just describe the making of the goat cheese because it would go with whatever favorite salad you might like to make. Here is what you will need

1 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup rosemary infused oil (I used plain olive oil and threw some rosemary into the bread crumbs)
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme (or some dried thyme)
1 package of goat cheese
Salt and pepper to taste

Mix bread crumbs and salt and pepper and add 2-3 tsp of oil to dampen the crumbs. Spread on baking sheet and toast in oven until golden brown. Allow to cool and then toss in thyme and rosemary.


Slice goat cheese into 1/2 inch disks. Brush with remaining oil then coat with bread crumb mixture. Bake in oven for 5-7 minutes and enjoy. 


The next recipe is for a yummy cherry sauce that I served over brownies. It is cherry season here so it only made sense to make a cherry sauce. The recipe called for


2 cups of pitted cherries
1/2 cup water
1/3 cup sugar
2 tsp kirch (I used about 4 tsp of port instead)
2 tbsp lemon juice
1/2 tsp grated lemon zest

Stir everything into a medium sauce pan over medium heat until it boils and thickens (about 5 mins). That is it super easy ans super yummy. 

Week 26: A gift from Jamie

This week I am going to talk about a cooking class that Jamie gave me for being the best husband and father in the world! Actually since the gift was a cooking class she kind of gave the gift to herself;-) Jamie thought that i could use some inspiration since I am half way through the year and need to refocus my efforts for the next 6 months. She got me a cooking class at The Dirty Apron. There were so many options that i had a hard time choosing but in the end I settled on a seafood class. If you enjoy food and cooking I would highly recommend taking a class at The Dirty Apron. The Chef teaching us was excellent and very helpful and the rest of the staff were also great. The free flowing wine did not hurt either;-)

I am not going to go over the recipes here since I feel like that would be cheating or something like that. I will go over the menu and post the picture. We started the night by making Mussels Congolaise which are from Chambar (one of our fav restaurants in town). This dish has an excellent tomato coconut cream sauce that is perfect for dipping your bread.

For the second course we made maple seared scallops with a warm chorizo and kalamata olive ragout and a pea coulis. This dish surprised me because I do not like olives yet I ate all of the ragout. I am pretty sure it was because the chorizo was so delicious that it covered the yucky olives. I could have done with out the pea coulis it was too sweet and too pea-flavoured to be truly enjoyed. The maple seared scallops were amazing and so simple. Just let the scallops soak in a cm or so of maple syrup for 10 minutes and that is it. 

The final course we prepared was a pan roasted halibut on a bed of sauteed spinach and crushed fingerling potatoes with a charred tomato vinaigrette. There is really nothing more to say about this dish then it was superb!

The dessert course was prepared for us because we did not have the time to do it. It consisted of a cardamom, caramel poached pear with vanilla ice cream and a chocolate sauce. After they poached the pear they took out the core and seeds with a melon baller and piped the ice cream inside. In a word, divine.

Week 25: Garlic Scape Pesto

I have a quick confession to make about this week's post, I have tried to make garlic scape pesto before but have never had any success until now. Several years ago while Jamie and I were touring around the Okanagan we stopped by to see our friends Niki and Nick. While we were there they made some yummy garlic scape pesto. It was our first introduction to garlic scapes and since then we have bought them whenever they are at our local farmers market. The problem has been that every time I have tried to recreate the pesto it has flopped. The taste has usually been there but the texture is all wrong. So this past week I spent some time talking to the nice lady at the farmers market and she gave me some good advice on how to select the scapes, etc for pesto. 

Here is the recipe I used it is a garlic scape and almond pesto and it was delicious. 

10 garlic scapes, finely chopped

1/3 to 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan (to taste and texture)

1/3 cup slivered almonds (I used whole almonds that I roughly chopped and toasted)

About 1/2 cup olive oil

Salt to taste

Prepare like any other pesto. Add everything to a processor and blend. 

Mark's thoughts: Finally! It tasted good and had the correct texture.

Jamie's thoughts: Delicious! Luca liked it too.

Before I go I want to give a quick shout out to Niki's farm Rootdown Organic they are in Pemberton and you can find them at the Farmers Market on Sundays in Kits.

Week 24: Tex-Mex potato salad

Last week the Vancouver Sun had several potato salad recipes that looked pretty good. Now for a lot of people potato salad is nothing new but I am personally NOT a fan of potato salad and I have never made one and have only eaten it on the odd occasion. The exception to this would be the super yummy octopus and potato salad we used to get in Italy which I hope to recreate this summer;-) 

So this week I made the Tex-Mex mixed mini potato salad. Here are the ingredients

1 1/2 pounds mixed mini potatoes
1/3 cup olive oil 
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 teaspoons chili powder
1 teaspoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons finely grated lime zest
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons orange juice
2 teaspoons Tabasco sauce (I used Frank's Hot Sauce)
Salt to taste
3/4 cup fresh corn kernels
1/2 cup diced celery (I left this out, I am not a fan of celery in a salad)
1/2 cup diced red bell pepper
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro 

Cut each potato lengthwise and quarter. Gently boil until just tender. Drain and cool to room temperature. 
Place the oil, cumin, garlic, chili powder, lime zest and juice, orange juice and hot sauce in a large bowl and whisk to combine. 
Add potatoes and the rest of the ingredients and toss to cover. 


Mark's thoughts: Not being a potato salad lover I was not sure about this but it turned out quite nice. Another good summer salad especially when my burlap sack potatoes are ready.


Jamie's thoughts: Nice change from regular potato.

I really enjoyed the colours in the salad and the freshly poured Black and Tan in the lower part of the image;-)

Week 23: Cioppino

The last few times I have been out to eat I have ordered soup. Now for most people this is a stupid statement but for me it is quite profound because I never order soup out. Actually I really do not eat a lot of soup so it is kind of surprising that I would order it. What I have found though is that I have been having some super yummy soups so I decided that I wanted to try recreating this cioppino I had in North Van. 

I found a nice recipe on the Food Network website and made a few changes along the way. 

3 tablespoons olive oil
1 large fennel bulb, thinly sliced
1 onion, chopped
3 large shallots, chopped
2 teaspoons salt
4 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper flakes, plus more to taste
1/4 cup tomato paste
1 (28-oz) can diced tomatoes in juice
1 1/2 cups dry white wine (I did not have any wine so I left it out)
5 cups fish stock (I used veggie stock and it was fine)
1 bay leaf

Here is what they suggested for seafood
1 pound manila clams, scrubbed
1 pound mussels, scrubbed, debearded
1 pound uncooked large shrimp peeled and deveined
1 1/2 pounds assorted firm-fleshed fish fillets such as halibut or salmon, cut into 2-inch chunks

I used
1 dungeness crab
1 lobster
1 lb of fresh BC spot prawns
1/2 lb of new potatoes


The nice thing about this recipe is that it was simple enough to make any night of the week. Start by sauteing the the onion, fennel and shallots in a heavy sauce pan for about 10 mins. Add the garlic and pepper flakes and continue sauteing for approx 2 mins. Now add tomato paste, diced tomatoes, wine, stock and bay leaf. Cover and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until flavours blend about 30 mins. Now I added the crab and lobster and let them cook for about 8 min. Finally I added the spot prawns for the last 2 mins.

Mark's thoughts: A very nice, hearty soup. I overcooked the lobster tail a little but but the rest was just right. Next time I will throw the lobster tail in a little later.


Jamie's thoughts: Messy but tasty.

 

Week 22: Done with hiatus

I have not updated the blog in a month or so and in a lame attempt to not look lazy I will blame any of the following

1) Vacation
2 Stanley Cup Finals
3) Last month before returning to work
4) Nice weather

The last one is a joke since anyone living in Vancouver knows the weather has been crappy. 

We did go a little vacation to Maui and this post is about that trip. We had some nice meals while we were there but I want to write about "The Fish".

So Jayson and I went for a little fishing trip and within the first 20 minutes of setting the lines we had a fish on. Jayson took that fish and lucky for him because for the next 5 1/2 hours we did nothing but soak the gear. Jayson pulled in a nice short-billed spearfish which is a fairly rare catch off of Maui.

Jayson and the fish.

Now I know this blog is about cooking new things but since I had never had short-billed spearfish I decided to include it. To cook the fish I took the fresh filet and seasoned it with salt and pepper and a little olive oil then I dropped it right on the grill and it was amazing. The fish had a nice mild flavour and a wonderful texture (almost like chicken).

The filets waiting to be brought home.

Week 21: Cornbread Waffles

So I am a little embarrassed about this week's post, not because of what I made, but because I have to admit that I have actually watched a reality TV show :-( For the past couple of months I have been indulging in the guilty pleasure of watching "America's Next Great Restaurant". I have to admit I really enjoy food based shows and this one had the added bonus of people with essentially no restaurant experience trying to convince investors to buy into their restaurant concept. I really thought the grilled cheese guy would go all the way. Anyway, the guy who won got to open three "soul food" restaurants in LA, Minny and NYC which is pretty cool for him. 

Now to the point I was flipping through my mom's People magazine, I only read it for the articles, and there was a recipe for cornbread waffles from the winning restaurant, Soul Daddy. I figured I have to try it not only because I watched the show but also because Jamie and I love waffles and cornbread. 


It is a simple recipe and a nice variation for Sunday breakfast. 
1 1/2 cups cornmeal
1 cup flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1 Tsp salt
3 Tbsp sugar
2 1/2 cups buttermilk
1/4 cup oil

Whisk all of the dry ingredients and then add the wet and stir. Cook in a waffle iron and enjoy.


I did not have buttermilk so I used skim milk and added 1 Tsp lemon juice per cup. Also I made 1/2 the recipe but it was a little runny so I added about 1/4 cup of extra flour.


Mark's thoughts: Very yummy waffles a nice way to change up breakfast. Great with maple syrup or honey.


Jamie's thoughts: Liked the texture could have been fluffier.


Luca's thoughts: Since Luca is only 10 months old he could not really tell us what he thought but he did eat all the waffle bits we gave him so will say he liked them. Then again he eats everything we give him so????

Cornbread waffles and maple syrup. South meets north I guess...

Week 20: Red beans and rice???

So this week I had several things on the schedule one of them being red beans and rice. Now I thought that this would be a great meal for us it has everything a person could want but in the end it was not really our cup of tea. I found a veggie version of this Creole classic on The Bicycle Chef. Since none of us (even Luca) liked this dish I will leave it to you to follow the link and make it if you want. I should note that this is not a case of the dish tasting bad it was just a flavour profile that we did not like. Do you like how  dropped the "flavour profile" like I was some host on The Food Network;-)

This week was also my mother's birthday and since they were going to be in town for a visit I decided to make her a nice meal. I made a lovely rack of lamb on the BBQ with a herb rub and a balsamic reduction. Since this was not technically a "new" recipe I won't go into the details. What I will talk about is the dessert I made. Now anyone who knows my mother knows she loves chocolate almost as much as she loves her 2nd son. So I wanted to make her something super yummy and super chocolate-y. I found a recipe for chocolate raspberry cake and it did not disappoint.

Here is what you will need

Chocolate Cake

12 eggs, separated
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup cocoa (80 ml)

Raspberry Filling

1 cup raspberry jam
4 cups fresh raspberries

Chocolate Mousse

2 cups 35% cream
1 1/2 cups dark chocolate, chopped
1/4 cup soft butter
5 egg whites
1/4 cup sugar

This recipe was a little intimidating when I first looked at it but once I got going it was not so bad. To make the cake start by preheating the oven to 350'C and butter two 9 inch pans. I did not have 9 inch pans so I used a large pyrex pan. It also recommended lining the bottom of the pan with parchment. 
Beat egg yolks and sugar until thick and pale, then sift and fold in the cocoa with a spatula. 
Beat egg whites until firm peaks form and then slowly add it to the chocolate mixture in 3-4 batches.
Add the batter to the cake pan and bake in the middle of the oven for ~20 mins or until it springs back when touched. 

The raspberry filling was super easy, just melt the jam and then gently stir in the raspberries. Since it is not raspberry season I used frozen berries and then worked very well.

Finally the mousse, boil the cream in a saucepan then remove from heat. Add the chocolate and let stand for a couple minutes. Whisk the ganache until smooth then add butter and let cool to room temperature. 
Beat egg whites to soft peak. Add sugar and continue to firm peak stage. Slowly add this to the ganache and mix gently. Keep in the fridge for an hour. 

Assemble the cake by putting a layer of mousse on the first layer of cake. Top this with some raspberry sauce and then add the other layer of cake. Repeat and you are done. 

Here are a couple of notes, first these ingredients make a boat load of mousse so either cut it in half or use half of it and save half for a snack the next day;-). Second, my mousse was a little runny so I would leave it in the fridge a little longer. Finally, the cake was a little underdone in the middle (might have been the big pan) so I cooked it for another 10-12 mins after it was done. 

Mark's thoughts: In the end it did not look at good but it tasted yummy.

Jamie's thoughts: I think she thought it was yummy but that the mousse was not that great.

Looks can be deceiving, it was much tastier then you think...