Miniature Rosti, Creme Fraiche & Smoked Trout

My sister sent me the recipe for this little appetizer before Christmas. She used smoked salmon, but I have access to the most wonderful smoked trout (at the Clean Food Connection) and I decided I would give that a try. The rosti were so easy to make and they were absolutely addictive! On Christmas Eve, we all stood around the counter, waiting for the little morsels to come out of the pan. My Dad told me to "definitely put this recipe on the blog".

The creme fraiche turned out beautifully. It isn't as sour as sour cream; more of a fresh taste. If you don't have time to make creme fraiche, you can use sour cream mixed with chives. But let me tell you, it's worth it and besides having to whisk it together 24 hours beforehand, it is no trouble at all. You still have time before New Year's Eve, if you act soon. Happy New Year!

Chive Creme Fraiche

1 c. whipping cream
1 T. buttermilk
1/2 c. fresh chives, chopped fine

Whisk whipping cream and buttermilk in a small stainless steel bowl and cover with plastic wrap. Fill a larger bowl with hot tap water and place the bowl of cream into this bowl. Let sit at room temperature for 24 hours. Spoon the creme fraiche into another bowl, discarding any whey (liquid). Fold in the chives. Refrigerate.
*The creme fraiche will smell fresh and dairy-ish. If there is the smell of blue cheese, discard the whole batch.

Potato Rosti

3 large Yukon Gold potatoes
1/2 c. or more of grape seed oil
1 1/2 t. fine sea salt

Peel and grate potatoes on a box grater or in the food processor with the grater attachment. Mix salt into the potatoes immediately to keep them from going brown. In a large cast iron pan, heat enough oil to cover the bottom well. Add a little bit of potatoes to see if the oil is hot enough. It should sizzle right away. Place little piles (about 1 tablespoon or so) of potatoes and press down. Cook until golden brown and crispy, then flip and cook the other side. Transfer the potatoes to a plate lined in paper towel to drain. These can be made ahead of time and reheated for 5 minutes in the oven when you need them.

150 grams smoked trout or smoked salmon

Place a piece of trout or salmon on top of each rosti and top with a dollop of chive creme fraiche. Enjoy!

Christmas Preparations

The Christmas clock is really ticking. This morning, we picked up our turkey and December's meat share at Cooper's farm. We picked a turkey weighing in at about 18 pounds. On Christmas day, we will take our turkey down to my sister's house. My brother-in-law, Jake, will cut the raw turkey up into manageable pieces. An hour or two before dinner, he will roast the breasts, thighs and legs on a baking sheet, while a turkey stock simmers away on the stove (made from the back and any other odd bits from the turkey). I don't know whether Jake coined the phrase "relaxed turkey" or not, but that is what we call this method, which makes for a very easy clean-up. My Mom always makes the stuffing, but now we cook it in the crock-pot, moistening it with the turkey stock (or chicken stock). I still love the look of a whole bird in the oven, but with the relaxed method, that's the only thing you'll miss. The smell of roasting bird is still wafting through the house during the day because of the turkey stock and the stuffing.

The kids and I assembled an Ikea gingerbread house. It is a great size and the kids had a ball decorating it. When I think about an idyllic Christmas, decorating a gingerbread house is right up there on my list of things to do. However, the reality is seldom the stuff of dreams. Besides giving plenty of decorating instructions to Gavin & Ellen, who couldn't have cared less what my vision for the gingerbread house was, I found myself losing my cool more than once. "Whoever eats another decoration is going to their room!!!" I yelled, very close to the top of my lungs. Christmas has the magical power to bring out the best, and the worst, in people. Note to self - Lighten up!

To go with the tourtiere on Christmas Eve, I want to make a nice beef gravy. I thought I was buying 5 pounds of beef bones, this morning at the farm. Turns out I bought almost 20 pounds of bones, more than enough to make my beef stock. I roasted the bones in the oven for about an hour and a half, then spread tomato paste on the bones (not too much) and roasted them another half hour. Then into the super-sized canning pot with carrots, onions, parsley and celery, filled to the top with water and simmered for about 4 hours. The stock is currently out in the snow and tomorrow I will take the fat off the top and divvy it up into litre containers. It will make a nice gravy to go with our Christmas Eve dinner, with plenty left over for rest of the winter.

I haven't done a lot of baking this year. Earlier in December, it seemed too early to have all sorts of baking sitting around the house. All of a sudden, it's getting a bit late, but I have finally gotten started. We made shortbread cookies this morning with silver dragees. They are the cornstarch shortbread cookies that basically melt in your mouth. They are tasty little cookies that always bring back memories. I have two batches of rugelach dough in the fridge, ready to roll out in the morning. I will make raspberry rugelach (June '08), my favourite variation of the cream cheese cookie.

I picked up two packages of smoked trout today. One will be made into smoked trout dip (Dec. '07) and I have a plan for the other one. On my sister's instructions, I'm going to make creme fraiche and serve it with potato rostii and the smoked trout. I can't wait! Tonight, I made a big pot of ribollita soup (Jan. '08) to have on hand for lunches or light dinners. I'm feeling pretty good right about now. Let's hope that I have done enough ahead to be able to enjoy these holidays to the fullest. I hope the same for you, too. Merry Christmas!

*The picture above is Oscar (on the left) and Soul (on the right) and me in the middle, at the Christmas tree farm last weekend.

Custard Eggnog

For custard-lovers everywhere, this is one of my favourite Christmas recipes. Normally, eggnog has lots of fat in it, but this version is much lighter. Imagine how impressed your family will be when you serve them homemade eggnog!

Custard Eggnog

1 1/2 c. sugar
1/4 c. all-purpose flour
Pinch of salt
4 extra-large eggs + 2 egg whites
8 c. skim or 1% milk, hot
2 t. pure vanilla extract
Pinch freshly grated nutmeg
1/2 c. dark rum (Alan swears by Mount Gay rum), optional

1. Whisk the sugar, flour and salt together in a large pot. Add eggs and egg whites; combine thoroughly. Gradually whisk in hot milk. Cook over low heat for 15 minutes or until the custard has thickened enough to coat a spoon. Remove from heat and strain into a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate until chilled, at least 2 hours or overnight.
2. Before serving, stir in the vanilla, nutmeg and rum, if using. Pour 2 cups of custard into a blender, add 2 cups of ice cubes and blend until frothy. Repeat with remaining custard. Serve immediately.

Tourtiere

Last week when I was speaking to my friend Janette, getting the scoop on all things pumpkin, I mentioned something about tourtiere. Janette said that she has a recipe that she has used for years. It was given to her by the wife of an executive from the Heinz Company, in Leamington, an "exceptional homemaker". I jotted down the recipe on the spot. (The picture above is of Gavin & Ellen helping me in the kitchen)

A few days later, my friend Carmen called and asked if I would be willing to help her master the art of pastry-making, for her Christmas Eve tourtieres. It was the perfect opportunity for me to get organized, so I made my filling early in the day and had it ready to go when Carmen arrived. We had a great time, rolling out the dough, and putting our tourtieres together. It didn't seem like work, and we actually got a lot done.

The two meat mixtures looked completely different, a point I thought was very interesting. After looking online at various recipes for the Christmas specialty, there are lots of versions. Some contain cinnamon and cloves. Some contain more potato than others and there are different combinations of pork and beef. This recipe doesn't contain the spices, but if you can't imagine your tourtiere without them, just add them at the beginning of the cooking process.

I baked one of my tourtieres last night and let me tell you - it was delicious! There are a few other points I should mention before you get started. The meat mixture will still be soupy after it has cooked for two hours, but it will thicken up after adding the potatoes (and will get even thicker after it has chilled). Bake the tourtieres until they are nice and dark - not burnt, but deeply coloured. When I thought the pie was done, I kept it in for another 10 or 15 minutes at least.

Tourtiere

2 lbs. ground pork
1 lb. ground beef
1 large onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
2 t. sea salt
1 t. freshly grocund pepper
1/2 c. Heinz Ketchup
2 T. Worstershire sauce
2 T. beef boullion concentrate (or 2 beef boullion cubes)
4 or 5 medium sized potatoes, peeled & cut into chunks
2 c. green peas
Favourite pie crust to line and top 4 regular sized pie plates (see Rhubarb Custard Pie, June '08 for a great pie crust recipe)
1 egg, beaten

1. Place the ground pork and beef in a large pot, mashing it down. Add water to the pot, just to cover the meat. Add salt, pepper, ketchup, Worstershire sauce, and beef boullion. Bring to a boil and then simmer, uncovered, for 2 hours, stirring occasionally.
2. In a separate pot, cover the potatoes with cold water. Bring to a boil and cook for about 20 minutes, or until tender. Remove from the heat, drain, and mash the potatoes coarsely.
3. After the meat mixture has cooked for 2 hours, skim any excess fat off the top (but don't take it all out). Add the mashed potatoes and peas. Cool completely in the fridge, or outside if it's near freezing where you live.
4. Later that day or the next, roll out four pie crusts for four pie plates. Scoop the meat mixture into the pie shells and level off flat. Cover with a top crust and flute the edges. Cut a decorative piece of holly & berries out of some extra pastry dough and place in the middle of the of the crust. Poke some slits in the top crust (to allow steam to escape), and either bake within a day or wrap well and freeze until needed.
5. To bake, preheat oven to 450 degrees. Brush the pastry with the beaten egg. Place the pie in the oven and immediately turn the temperature down to 375 degrees. Bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Your house will smell scrumptious.
*If you are baking a frozen pie, don't thaw it before baking, and just bake a little longer.

Fresh Pumpkin Puree

I have a new obsession - making my own pumpkin puree. I had tried doing my own pumpkin puree years ago, but I had less than admirable results and it made me think that pureeing my own pumpkin wasn't worth the effort. I hadn't thought anything more about until my friend Annie mentioned that she usually thinks less of pumpkin pies made with pumpkin from a can. Her mom apparently makes the best pumpkin pies with her own pumpkin puree. Her comment made me begin to wonder what I was missing out on, dedicated pumpkin lover that I am.

For my birthday in October, I received the ultimate in food processors - a Cuisinart. It was soon after this that I began buying little sugar pie pumpkins at the Clean Food in Mount Albert. The first two that I brought home were around the same size but one seemed heavier than the other. The picture above shows the difference in colour between the two pumpkins. The heavier pumpkin ended up being moister and much nicer to puree. The lighter pumpkin seemed to dry out more and was chewier. In the end, they both pureed well, but I now look for heavier pumpkins that I know will be juicier.

To bake your own sugar pumpkins, preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Cut the pumpkins in half and place seed-side up on a large baking sheet. Cover the pumpkin halves in tin foil and bake for at least an hour and a half. The pumpkin is ready to take out of the oven when a knife can easily be stuck into the flesh of the pumpkin and it goes right through. About half way through the cooking time, turn the pumpkins over so that they cook evenly. When the pumpkins have cooled enough to handle, clean the seeds out of the pumpkins and peel the skin off with a sharp paring knife. Cut the flesh into chunks and puree in the food processor until smooth. Each pumpkin makes around four cups of puree, give or take.

I called Annie's mom, Janette, to find out how she does her pumpkin puree. She said that she bakes her pumpkins whole in the oven, poking a metal skewer through the pumpkins in several places before baking. We talked about the fact there are sometimes pieces of the pumpkin that stay a little firmer than others. We agreed that turning the pumpkins during baking will minimize the firm bits. Janette freezes her pumpkin in 2 cup portions so that a pie is at her fingertips any time the occasion arises. She also mentioned that she prefers to freeze her pumpkin in chunks instead of freezing the puree. This keeps the pumpkin from getting too wet, therefore keeping the pie from being too wet. When thawing the pumpkin chunks, set the pumpkin in a colander and let the extra moisture drain from the pumpkin. After the pumpkin has thawed she throws it in her blender, along with the rest of the pie ingredients, and blends them together. Voila! A pumpkin pie in no time!

With Christmas coming up, there are lots of opportunities to use fresh pumpkin puree. I just made a pumpkin cheesecake and pumpkin custard, both made with fresh puree. I haven't tried making my pumpkin pie with it (yet), but it's on my to-do list. Check your local grocery store to see if they still have sugar pumpkins. You may be in luck. The best part about my conversation with Janette was convincing her to enter her pumpkin pie in the Harrow Fair next year. What a great way to finish a long, hot summer in Essex County!

Pork & Apple Stew

Lisa & Steve own Cooper's Goat & Veggie farm (their lane is pictured above), just down the road from us. Cooper's has started a "CSA" program. Community Supported Agriculture. People purchase annual shares in the farm's harvest and in return receive a weekly or monthly food basket. In the spring/summer/fall, they do vegetables and some fruit (their September strawberries are incredible), and in the winter, they do a meat share program. We have signed up for the meat share and our first pick up was two weeks ago.

After reading and hearing lots about the state of animal farms and animal welfare, it has begun to make me think before buying just any old meat. The same thing happened with eggs. I began to care where they came from and how the chickens are treated. However, it's a lot easier to know where your eggs are coming from than to figure out where your beef or pork is coming from. The person that brought the meat share to my attention was my friend Tamara. She is working with Steve & Lisa on the marketing end of things. I have asked Tamara if it's possible to visit the farms where the meat is coming from. I think it would be great to offer people a chance to visit the farms and meet the farmers.

I like the idea of the meat share program for several reasons.

*All of the beef is naturally raised, hormone & antibiotic-free, Angus grade, from Steve's Dad's farm.
*All of the pork raised by family friends who allow the pigs to roam freely and they are raised humanely.
*The turkeys are raised in Uxbridge (about 20 minutes from here). Each family receives one turkey with their meat share.
*All the vegetables are "storage crops" grown either by the Coopers or one of their neighbours.
*The meat share comes in either 1o or 2o pound amounts. We opted for the 10lb share. For the 10lb. share, the cost is $600 for 6 months.
*The majority of meat will be beef and pork, with other meats making appearances every now and then, depending on the season (chicken, lamb, goat).

The day of our first pick up was a family event. We were given bags that had certain cuts of meat in them. That information was recorded so that next time we won't be getting the same cuts. The share that we received was as follows - T-bone steak, sirloin tip roast, sausages, ground beef (very lean), pork butt chops, pork chops, pork steak, 2 dozen eggs, potatoes, purple carrots, 3 heads of garlic (hard to find local garlic in grocery stores these days), 2 butternut squash, and onions. The meat portion made up our 10lbs, and the veggies were over and above that.

So, the freezer is full. We are feeling pretty good about participating in a CSA. But what on earth do I do with pork butt chops? This meat share is turning into a fun challenge for me. So far, we have used up the ground beef, sausages, the roast, all the eggs, and all the veggies. That leaves a number of meat items to get through before our next pick up (Dec. 22nd, when we will receive our turkey). I guess I don't have to use everything up by then, but I also don't want a major backlog happening in my freezer. Today, I decided to cook the pork butt chops. They made a lovely stew.

Pork & Apple Stew

1 1/2-2 lbs. pork butt chops, trimmed of fat (as much as possible)
2 T. grainy mustard
2 T. olive oil
1 large yellow onion, sliced lengthwise
1/2 t. dried thyme
1 t. kosher salt
1/2 t. freshly ground black pepper
1 1/2 c. fresh apple cider
2 cups apples, cut into medium sized chunks

1. Cut the pork into bite-sized pieces. Rub the pieces with the grainy mustard and sprinkle with salt & pepper. Heat the olive oil in a large pan over medium-high heat and add the pork, working in batches if the pan doesn't fit all of the meat in one layer. Brown meat until you don't see any pink left, remove from the pan, and set aside.
2. Add onions to the pan and cook until limp. Add thyme, salt, and pepper to the onions and stir. Add cider and deglaze the pan, scraping any brown bits off the bottom. Transfer the onion mixture and the pork to a slow-cooker. Add apple chunks and stir. Cook on low for 6-8 hours. Serve with mashed potatoes and veggies.

Lentil Soup in Newfoundland

A weekend at my friend Elaine's in Newfoundland, is the equivalent of a hot bowl of soup or a warm scarf on a blustery day. This is why I made my way to central Newfoundland at the end of November, an unusual time of year for a getaway in the North Atlantic.

Pea soup fog prevented the airplane from landing in St. John's. Instead, we landed at the Deer Lake airport, about two and a half hours by car to Elaine & Dermot's house. The threat of having to fly back to Halifax helped me make up my mind. I walked down the steps and across the tarmac, leaving my luggage in the belly of the plane. I could either rent a car and keep it for the weekend or I could try to grab a ride with someone going my way. There were two friendly looking men walking purposefully away from the rental car area and I managed to get a ride with them. The ride seemed to fly by and before I knew it, we were pulling up in front of Elaine's house.

The house, a traditional Newfoundland saltbox, looked like a Christmas card. I'm sure the "fellas" that gave me a ride were wishing their journey was ending on Elaine's doorstep. Elaine welcomed me in, the champagne was opened and we sat down for baked pita triangles with a blue cheese dip. For dinner, we had pan-fried Newfoundland cod, baked fries, a tartar sauce that contained sun-dried tomatoes, and a chopped vegetable salad.

For Friday, Elaine had arranged that her good friend and business partner, Joanne, join us for baking Christmas cookies and preparing an Indian dinner together. When Joanne arrived, we started with lunch - a baked shrimp dish with lemon butter and rosemary, a loaf of scallion potato bread, and a bottle of Prosecco. For the cookies, Elaine made Cafe Au Lait Rugelach; Joanne made Chocolate Caramel Nut Bars with Weurther's candies; and I made Lemon Thumbprints with raspberry jam and orange marmalade (see picture above). Dermot and Joanne's husband, Craig, joined us for cocktails and then we sat down to a lovely dinner. This Curried Lentil soup was the starter, enhanced with the mango chutney butter. It was delicious! Then we had a chicken curry, basmati rice, a vegetable stew with lime, and a homemade mango chutney. The Christmas cookies made a fine dessert.

Saturday was spent looking through cookbooks (Elaine's collection is impressive) and thinking of other recipes that we could make. An Irish Whiskey fudge turned out beautifully. Our dinner that night - a tender roast chicken, baked for 3 hours in a 300 degree oven, served with mashed potatoes and pencil-thin asparagus. Let me assure you, everything we ate over the course of the weekend was delicious. But it's more than just great cooking - it is the thoughtfulness and care that Elaine puts into everything that she cooks. I believe it was Oprah that said, "Love is in the details." She was right. Thank you Elaine & Dermot.

Curried Lentil Soup

3 T. butter
1 large onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, finely diced
2 T. fresh ginger, finely grated
1 jalapeno pepper, stemmed, seeded, and finely diced
2 bay leaves
1 heaping tablespoon curry powder
4 cans lentils
8-10 c. chicken stock
2 lemons
1/4 c. cilantro, chopped
Salt & Freshly ground pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter over medium heat in a large stock pot. Add the onion, garlic, ginger, jalapeno pepper, and bay leaves. Saute, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are soft and translucent, 5 to 7 minutes. Add the curry powder and cook 2 minutes more.
2. Add the lentils and 8 cups of chicken stock to the pot. Bring to a boil, then simmer for 15 minutes. Halve the lemons, squeeze the juice, and add both the juice and the remaining lemon rinds to the soup. Continue to simmer uncovered, stirring occasionally, for about 40 minutes. If the soup seems to be too thick, thin with additional chicken stock.
3. Remove the bay leaves and lemon rinds from the soup. Season with salt and pepper. Puree half the soup in a food processor or blender, and return it to the pot, stirring to combine. Add the cilantro and keep the soup warm over low heat.

Chutney Butter

1/2 c. butter, at room temperature
1/2 c. mango chutney

1. In a food processor, blend the butter and chutney together until smooth. Ladle the hot soup into bowls and top with a generous dollop of chutney butter. Serve immediately.