Category Archives: Blogs with cooking tips

February 8, 2012 · 8:04 am

Oh Dough Scraper: You Don’t Know What You’ve Got Til It’s Gone

Thank God I found you again under the meat tenderizer, lodged inside the medium size whisk

I wanted to make bread on the weekend and I could not find my dough scraper.  It does often get lost in my messy “tool” drawer as it is white and thin and discrete but usually I pull it out after a couple minutes of desperate searching.  But this day I really could not find it.  Squelching panic I decided, no biggie, I can forge ahead yet soon realized that bread making life was nowhere near as comfortable without ol’ Scrapey.  Scraps I sometimes call him–or “stupid piece of plastic” if I’m mad.  (Those are all lies, we never speak)

Anyway, a bread scraper or a pastry scraper can also be called a bench scraper (although a bench scraper is a bit different, stainless steel with a straight edge).  This simple tool is all about manipulating dough.  A spatula or your hands can’t lift soft dough well and some cases just plain rip up the dough –plus if the dough is wet–forget about it.

So moving onto irritation 1:  Without my scraper I could not do this:

Scraping out Rios Jr, my sourdough starter is a neat and efficient job with a scraper and is messy, sticky and maddening without.  Wide, flexible and rounded-the scraper gets in all the corners.  (Also great for scraping under a pie crust that has gotten a little sticky or been rolled too thin.)

After not being able to do THAT….I then could not do this:

And nothing scrapes down a mixing bowl quickly like you-know-who.   You also like it on hand to then gather your slightly damp, sticky dough and remove it from the mixing bowl.  See below:

I hope you get the idea. It was near impossible to take the picture and lift dough!

And finally, on the cutting board, the scraper lets you lift, roll, move the dough around and scrape up any sticky bits left on the counter or work surface.  There is serious satisfaction in efficiently flaking dough bits away and leaving a smooth, clean surface.

Again, one handed demo with other hand on camera, apologies it is not more action packed.

And as mentioned earlier you can then also portion your dough into smaller loaves or buns with the scraper (which I did in the Fougasse recipe) but in this case I was just making my usual two loaves.

In hindsight, knowing how much I need him, I give at least 35% credit to my plastic bread scraper for any loaf I have ever made.    I love you man.

Dedicated to a lost (and found) kitchen essential and sidekick.

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January 31, 2012 · 9:46 am

Mrs. Neumann’s Chocolate Chip Cookies (they’re the cat’s ass)

Do they look right Mrs. Neumann?

It’s taken me quite a few tries and some misses (I tried substituting butter for shortening) to get the technique of these cookies just right.  For as we all know, a recipe is just ingredients and the magic is in the hands that make it.  Or in the oven you’re using, or the type of fat (as I discovered).  Or just the fact that you don’t have to make it yourself.

my little angels

When I think of chocolate chip cookies I think of 33 Snowshoe Crescent and Mrs. Neumann’s chocolate chippers.  Some crumble but a chewy centre and the sweet balanced with a perfect hit of saltiness.

And if you’re thinking, “of course you can substitute butter crazy lady”, well, here’s the problem.  In a pinch you can but  you have to adjust the oven temperature. Butter melts faster than shortening and so at 350 °F the cookies just deflate into thin patties, becoming crispy and to brown.  So the last time I had to use butter I rolled the cookies and put them in the fridge to chill while the oven preheated.  I took the temperature up to 375 °F rather than 350° F to speed up baking and not allow them to spread so much.   And I baked them for 9-10 minutes.  They turned out better, did taste buttery, but I couldn’t get the same chewiness.

(One tray I baked for 15-17 minutes as I was checking email and finally the “DING DING DING” of the timer made it through my consiousness and I ran into the kitchen to find sadness in the oven.)

So embrace the shortening cookie lovers.  At least this one time.

(courtesy of Mrs. Neumann though now that I think of it I never really asked if I could use it.  Please still make me cookies for my birthday!!)

Mrs. Neumann’s Chocolate Chip Cookies

1/2 cup shortening

1/2 cup white sugar

1/4 cup brown sugar

1 egg

1 tsp vanilla

1 cup all purpose flour

3/4 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1 cup chocolate chips

Method

1. Preheat the oven to 350 ° F.

2. Combine the shortening, white and brown sugar, egg and vanilla and cream with a hand blender until light and fluffy.  (do not just combine it–you want light and fluffy!)

3.  In another bowl add the flour, salt and baking soda and stir well to combine.

4. Add the dry to the wet and blend well with a spatula.

5. Add the chocolate chips.  (Resist the temptation of adding a zillion extra chips or the consistency of the cookie will be off.  DO EAT a zillion extra chips).

6. Line 2 cookie sheets with parchment.  Roll the dough into about 24 little balls (they’ll be about 1 1/2 inches diameter) and divide them between the trays.  They will look small, resist making them super-size.

7. Press down lightly on each cookie with a fork until you leave an indent.  (I wet the fork in water between cookie so it doesn’t stick.)

8. Bake on middle rack  (do each sheet individually if you can’t fit both).  The recipe says 9 minutes (which is pretty right on)  but in my oven sometimes I go up to 11 minutes.  You want them browning on the edges but they will still be pale-ish on top.

9. Remove from oven, cool and eat them! Eat them all!

Then imagine if you made them with THESE.

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January 25, 2012 · 8:54 am

Foodie meet Library

Momofuko has been well worn

I would rather tell you how many shoes I have in my closet than how many cookbooks I own.  And actually, it’s not about how many I own, but how many I use regularly.

And when I say use, I obviously mean for recipes (my current 4-5 favourites rotate in and out of the kitchen) but also the books that I love to look at, that remind me of somewhere I travelled or just tell a good story or the books that I WILL use when I finally get around to doing some pit cooking in my backyard.

Pit Cooking (www.primitiveways.com)

But, if you love and use cookbooks you also know that, like an uncomfortable shoe, there are disappointments.  Recipes that never work or are too vague, purchases that were spontaneous “yes! I WILL be an expert confectioner!” and the trendy stuff  (how many Jamie Oliver cookbooks does one house need?).

I also do not mean to imply you have to cook out of a cookbook to enjoy it.  Not at all.  But, at least for myself, now that I know what I like I have a better idea what is a worthwhile investment of money and shelf space. And it forces me to look and flip through and appreciate the book right away as I will have to return it sooner or later.

THUS I INTRODUCE FELLOW COOKBOOK ADDICTS TO THE LIBRARY.

I myself forgot about the library for many years.  With amazon and ebooks downloading in a flash, it seemed troublesome to go somewhere to physically check out a book.  In fact, it did not even occur to me that the library had modernized since I was 12 and is now (gasp) on-line.

I got myself a card and now I just log on, put a hold on the cookbooks or books I want and I am sent an alert when it arrives at the branch of my choice.

Sometimes it takes a day or two and sometimes a few weeks (but how exciting when the email arrives saying Happy Day! The Art of Living According to Joe Beef is mine!! ).

Test Drive Potential Cookbooks

Now with cookbooks I borrow them.  I read them and maybe try a recipe or two.  And generally have a clear sense of whether I need this particular book at my fingertips at a moment’s notice.

And I feel a little more satisfied when finally making a purchase.  Yes, I took the book for a test drive.  It performed as I’d hoped.

And while you’re at the great place called The Library you can also get books such as this:

Or, something beautiful and simple such as this:

And all in all, the place just smells like books and pages and everything is organized and you can hide in a corner where no one knows you reading the latest issue of The New Yorker.

Or just looking in fashion magazines for shoes to buy.

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January 12, 2012 · 10:12 am

Mornings Just Got Better (and some great coffee reading while you sip)

Sigh. So cozy.

Red Rocket on the Danforth is open.  There is excitement about the foam on the lattes and the crema on the espresso.

Chairs were still being tucked under tables and the kitchen is not running yet but it was a warm welcome–on both ends.

And if you love coffee you must read Chris Nuttall-Smith’s “How to Make the Best Coffee of Your Life” piece from yesterday’s Globe.  Even if you dislike coffee, it’s a great read and offers much fodder for scowling and taunting the coffee obsessed.

And as a coffee amateur I also really appreciated this piece from Coffeestork  (which Chris tweeted later)  about the importance of fresh coffee beans.

And for the tea lovers, Red Rocket makes a London Fog –earl grey, vanilla and steamed milk.

And now I am going to SHUT UP about this place.

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December 20, 2011 · 8:30 am

Thumbprint Cookie Throwdown: Bacon Jam vs Bacon Marmalade

PC Bacon Marmalade in the left corner and Skillet Bacon Jam in the right.

I’ve been meaning to do a tête-à-tête with my two bacon spreads for a while so why not kill two birds with one stone?

I was making thumbprint cookies for the holidays and they have convenient little holes for filling.   I hoped bacon might infuse some sweet/savoury magic into my cookie tins.  Plus bacon in dessert is so overdone already, what better time than Christmas to overdo it?

The President’s Choice Bacon Marmalade, though a knock-off of the Skillet Bacon Jam, is actually quite different.  It’s made with caramelized onion and balsamic vinegar and is much sweeter than the Skillet Spread.  Great with an aged cheddar on a cracker or in grilled cheese, it has a more typical marmalade consistency with spice and orange peel.  The bacon element adds savour but as an afterthought.

Skillet Bacon Jam and PC Bacon Marmalade

As you can see there is a clear winner in the looks department.  The bacon jam is a BEFORE picture and the marmalade is the AFTER (once the jam has shaved, flossed and waxed).

Skillet bacon jam is meaty, smoky, pulled pork like in consistency.  It has bacon flavour full force.  It’s “smack me so I stop eating this” kind of good. Smoked bacon is the first ingredient in the Skillet product and sugar is the first ingredient in the PC marmalade.  Depends how much jam you want in your bacon jam.

Back to the cookies.  I am happy to report that all cookies turned out pretty tasty.  The sweet/sour character of the Bacon Marmalade’s balsamic vinegar and caramelized onion base was very complimentary to the buttery cookie.

Quite lovely, no?

But it was the Bacon Jam thumbprints that surprised me.  Because to be perfectly honest, I had a hard time taking a bite.  It’s the image problem again.  You’d rather get a piece of coal in your stocking than have this show up at your door.  It’s like The Cat Came Back in a cookie.

Now I'm thinking hide the bacon jam INSIDE the cookie.

They look furry, to put it kindly.  But they tasted fantastic.  The sweet, the salty–it was a darn good combo.  But you’d have to serve it to people at night, with no lights on.  No candles.  Not even Scentsy.  But, on the bright side you could all be comfortably naked.  And blissed out on bacon.

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December 3, 2011 · 9:28 am

Skip the carton, Make a Pitcher of Homemade Nog

One serving appears more ladylike when divided into three small glasses.

Today is the day we decorate our tree.  The Christmas Tree is my favourite part of the holidays.  As unexcited as I am to dig through the pile of boxes in the basement on the annual ornament hunt (why do I have two bins of Easter decorations?  Really?) I am pretty psyched to get the tree going.

Thinking that many of us might be putting up lights, Christmas shopping or lamenting the start of carols on the radio, I figured egg nog and alcohol could settle us right down.  Cursing also helps immensely.

If you’re going out for the weekend grocery shop, you only need  few ingredients to make your own egg nog: eggs, milk, cream, sugar. (I know! Why have you not done this before?)

My friend swears by the Mac’s Milk version (and I too admit to glugging the store-bought) but this is lighter, frothier and fresher and really a cinch to make.

HERE IS THE LINK TO MY CHEF BASICS  EGG NOG MAKING VIDEO.

Once this becomes your signature holiday drink–you can move onto your own egg nog serving set.

.

EGG NOG RECIPE

Make sure you use the freshest eggs possible and have an alternate beverage available for guests like pregnant woman, children or the elderly who shouldn’t consume raw eggs.

Servings: 6

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Ready In: 45 minutes (includes 30 minutes cooling)

Ingredients

4 eggs, separated

1/3 cup sugar (reserve 1 tablespoon)

2 cups whole milk

1 cup whipping cream

fresh grated nutmeg

pinch salt

Method

With an electric beater whisk together egg yolks and sugar until sugar dissolves and yolks are pale and fluffy. Add milk, cream and nutmeg and whisk until well combined. Refrigerate until cold.

Just before serving whisk egg whites (at room temperature) and a pinch of salt to soft peaks. Add teaspoon of sugar and whisk until firm peaks.

Fold into eggnog to make it extra light and fluffy.

If you want to add alcohol you can whisk in 2 to 3 ounces of bourbon or rum before adding the egg whites.

Another opportunity to use my beloved nutmeg grater. (purse size convenience!)

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September 13, 2011 · 2:33 pm

Fee Fi Fo Foie

Guilt or no guilt?

If you ever want to elevate your picnic try try bringing some foie gras mousse.  This also applies events like bad movie night, a root canal or 3am at Sick Kids with your wheezing child.  I would add doing your taxes to the list, but if you’ve had the discipline to start your taxes you are certainly not going to continue knowing there’s foie gras mousse around.

This particular jar came from La Ferme Basque is Baie-St-Paul where we stopped during our Charlevoix vacation (read about it in the Globe) in August.  The woman who runs the operation is from the Basque region of France and makes the foie gras in a traditional way.  Even her lilting and soothing french accent could not make “force feeding” sound completely benign…. but it helped.

I suppose had I had serious moral dilemma with the whole thing I wouldn’t be showing you a half-eaten jar.  But, at least on a smaller scale using more traditional methods the whole thing sounded more humane.  And tasted so good on a baguette.

Near the end of their lives, for four weeks the geese are force-fed corn to fatten their livers (the traditional process is known as gavage).  Apparently geese are very social and like to be together (…birds of a feather is so true…) so unlike large industrial producers La Ferme Basque keeps the geese in groups, not seperate cages, so they are less stressed.

let's put a far-away face to these geese

Industrial Geese in individual cages:

Goose 1: Hey, did you just have a tube filled with liquid corn and corn syrup shoved down your throat?

Good 2: Yes.  Can I sleep beside you?

Goose 1:  Impossible.

Small Farm Raised Geese kept in groups:

Goose 1: Hey, did you just have a tube filled with corn kernels shoved down your throat?

Goose 2: Yes. Can I sleep beside you?

Goose 3:  Get in line.

Apparently the main reason some geese die because they are overfed.  Errrr…OVER over-fed.  On this smaller scale there are two or three people who do the feeding twice a  day.  In traditional “gavage” the same feeders always work with the same geese and they keep a hand at the base of the neck and can tell when it is dangerous to give more food.  It varies from goose to goose  (I know my limit with gummi bears  is 3/4 of a lbs).  In industrial production each goose gets the same amount of corn-liquid no matter what their size.

I also did not know that there were specific breeds of geese which were naturally better at digesting.  So obviously better for forced gluttony.   All in all, the geese are treated humanely (aside from the tube in the throat) and then shipped off to be slaughtered and turned into luxury food.

See–it’s hard to be totally on board when everything you write has to be followed with “aside from the tube in the throat”.

Example:

The goose had a great day at the CNE followed by some light tapas and Salsa dancing (aside from the tube in the throat).

or

The goose loved going on joyrides in the tractor and dancing under the light of a silvery moon (aside from the tube in the throat).

I just don’t know.

Decide for yourself—  read this excellent posting about the controversy and the guilt of loving foie from the Guardian UK.

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July 17, 2011 · 3:26 pm

Thanks for the ribs Pete Watson

Man, my camera was so sticky.

Nothing grilled, nothing gained as they say.  Five years after Pete Watson and his wife Lara gave us a Weber kettle grill for a wedding gift we finally made ribs on it. What idiots we were to deny ourselves the pleasures of grilling ribs on charcoal for sheer procrastination.

But we have gained, oh yes, we have gained.  Sticky fingers, kind of sexy, smoky smelling hair and the most envious aroma of deliciousness coming from any backyard in the neighborhood.   If only I had begun the process in the early afternoon as I declared I would, we could have actually had the ribs for dinner rather than the cold pizza we half-heartedly choked down waiting until the ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender at 11pm.

Here is our talented little grill pre-show.

The kettle potential.

And then I bought myself some apple wood chips and though I could not get a coal chimney (sold out) I got some quick burning coal starter things which were quite effective as long I did not let my thought wander to the substances that made them so quick-burning.

My indirect heat set-up is almost ready.

I have the coals on one side and a drip-pan filled with water on the right.  I put a stainless steel box of soaked applewood chips on the coals just before I added the top grate and the the lid.

Ribs: rubbed, rested and ready.

Two racks of baby back ribs, about 2 lbs each.  I put a dry rub on them and left them for an hour at room temperature.  The rub had sweet paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, dry mustard, celery seed, fresh back pepper and chili powder.  The recipe (BBQ Back ribs with Sweet and Sticky Sauce) came from the Saveur BBQ Issue (I know, what else, right?  I will branch out one day but once again not only were the magazine’s recipes lipsmacking but the stories of BBQ, coleslaw, baked beans, coals, tradition and rivalry were addicitive too!)

And while the ribs cooked between 225 F-250 F over 3 hrs  ( I actually found it hard to keep the heat below 300 F even adjusting the vents as much as I could) I made the sauce.  Honey, apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, worcestershire, hot sauce, cloves……MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMessy.

Served with coleslaw and napkins.

And finally at 11pm, with the grill lit from the soft glow coming through the back door of the kitchen, I was able to pull off  shreds of the crispy rib-ends that were slowly caramelizing from their recent basting in sticky sauce.  And I ate them greedily, slightly out of site of my husband before he next opened the door to ask, “are they done yet?”.  And they were good.  Sigh with pleasure good.

Like Angelina Jolie, I am now a Pitt master.

And that’s why I want to thank you Pete Watson.

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July 5, 2011 · 11:45 am

Marion’s Fudge Recipe (lucky you!)

This is Marion...

And this is her wonderful fudge recipe.

(Check out step-by-step photos and the story behind the 70 year old recipe)

MARION’S FUDGE RECIPE  (adapted by Sue and Donna)

1 cup packed brown sugar

1 cup white sugar

6 tbsp Becel Margerine (4 tbsp if making chocolate fudge)

3/4 cup whipping cream (35%)

1 tsp vanilla

*2 ounces (2 squares) semi-sweet chocolate only for the chocolate fudge version

Instructions

1. Grease an 8″ X 8″ dish and set aside (mine is 9″ x 9″ and works fine, just makes thinner squares).

2. Have a medium bowl ready with 1 tsp vanilla already added.

2. Into a medium, heavy bottom pot add the brown and white sugar, the margarine, whipping cream (and chocolate, if making chocolate fudge)

3. Heat over high and stir to combine.  Let boil until a candy thermometer (or digital thermometer) reads 240 F. This will take about 10-12 minutes and means you have reached “soft ball” stage.

4. Pour the molten mixture into your medium bowl.  Using a hand mixer, mix on med-high (careful not to splatter as this is extremely hot) for about 1-2 minutes until the thin splatter on the side of the bowl starts to crystallize and gets dense when you wipe it with a finger…it will be “fudge-like”.

5. Pour the mixture into your 8″ X 8″ dish and allow to cool.  Slice and share.  (yah, right!)

** I cooled this in the fridge to speed things up the first time and found that slicing it when cold was harder as the fudge was more crumbly.

Chocolate and Vanilla so happy together.

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June 30, 2011 · 4:58 pm

No Way Your Grandma’s Fudge is Better Than This

I Want You to Want Me

This recipe is 70 years old.  And it comes from a friend of a friend,  specifically, my friend Donna’s friend Marion who is 85 and has been making fudge since she was 15 years old.  Donna brought a batch over one day, and I  thought, “fudge, I don’t really care for it”.   Little did I know it was the best fudge ever made on earth.

I finally (after several tupperware gifts of fudge) asked for the recipe.  Donna brought me a photocopy of Marion’s handwritten instructions with the caveat, “many people have asked, no one has succeeded in making it”.   As I went through the recipe the first time I realized why people were having so much trouble.  It was written in a “dash of this, a dollop of that” kind of way that  a WW II Codebreaker would have a hard time cracking.

After many gruelling fudge-making trials Donna and I nailed it.

Before STEP 1: Marion says the whole fudge making process takes about 12 minutes.  She will not answer the phone or be otherwise distracted during this critical time and recommends the same to other fudge-makers.  I timed it–she’s pretty dead on. Please put iPhone on vibrate.

STEP 1:

This is the chocolate fudge version. Brown Sugar, white sugar,  semi-sweet chocolate, cream and Becel margarine.

The basics of fudge.

The first time we tried this I carefully measured the Becel margarine (I contemplated using butter but do I really want to mess with a 70-year-old recipe?) using my measuring spoons.  Marion’s recipe said “4 tbsp.”   The fudge turned out OK, but not nearly as creamy as it should be.  I asked Donna to investigate.  She came back and told me that the spoon Marion uses as a “tablespoon” is huge.  I pulled out a soup spoon, “like this?” I asked.   “Bigger” Donna said.  I pulled out a serving spoon, and yep, hit the nail on the head.  So for the vanilla fudge I use 6 tbsp of Becel margarine and it works like a charm.  (4 tbsp seems OK for the chocolate as I think the chocolate adds creaminess).

Step 2:

You now bring all the ingredients to a boil in a medium-sized, heavy bottom pan.  You can stir them together as they melt.  You are waiting to heat the liquid to soft ball stage (235-245 F).

Waiting to reach soft ball stage.

Marion uses the eyeball technique to pinpoint “softball.”  You pull the mixture off the stove every once in a while and drop a globule into very cold water.  You then roll the droplet between your fingers in the water to form a soft ball  (which then flattens on your hand when removed from the water.)  It takes some practise to grasp what you’re looking for.

I nixed that technique.  If you’re not a pastry chef or a frequent baker I predict this will be the end of your fudge making.  Instead I grabbed the digital thermometer (a candy thermometer available at the grocery store is also fine) and pulled the mixture off the stove at  240 F.

Step 3:

This was the most mysterious part of Marion’s process.

Mix Master

The instructions read, “Pour mixture into your Mixmaster and beat on speed 11 for about 1 minute. Carefully watching.”  Watching for what?  Donna did not know either.  Secondly, I am pretty sure the Mixmaster only exists in Marion’s kitchen and the Julia Child kitchen at the Smithsonian (it has 11 speeds!).

After careful watching

Instead of the Mixmaster I pulled out my electric beater and used that. Considering it is a hand-me down from my mom and its highest speed is as fast as the “low” speed on a new model, I figured it would work.  I poured in the hot fudge with a tsp vanilla and started beating.  And after about a minute I saw the splattered edges of the bowl start to crystallize–like the texture of fudge. Which I believe is what you’re “carefully watching”for.   So at that point I poured the thickening mixture into a 9″ X 9″ greased dish.

Fudge settles in.

Step 4:

Allow to cool while you lick the bowl.  Slice and eat.  You win!  Your life is now the best it will ever be.

Oh boy.

Marion’s Fudge Recipe (Adapted for lesser mortals).

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