Or, how to make 150g of salmon feed 3 people. This was a spur of the moment kind of meal, when Court & her husband invited me to stay for dinner but had no real plans. We searched the fridge and found just enough ingredients to make a delicious, filling supper. Without enough pastry to wrap these, it wasn't a true "Wellington" but we figured it was close enough. I love when random creations like this turn out to be something terrific; I'm sure we all know it doesn't always turn out that way.
Salmon Wellington:
150g salmon, cut into 3 pieces
25 shrimp
1 leek, chopped
1 large carrot, chopped
1/2 cup full cream
1/4 cup cream cheese
dill
salt & pepper
1 block puff pastry
1 egg, beaten
Put the leeks and carrots in a pan with a little bit of margarine and cook for a few minutes until they soften, then add the cream and cream cheese and stir together until melted and at your desired consistency to coat the seafood. Add dill, salt, and pepper to taste.
Next, oil 3 ramekins and line the bottom with shrimp. Layer some sauce on top, then add the salmon, more sauce, another layer of shrimp, and finally the last of the sauce. When I started to run out of the sauce I just added more cream to stretch it out a bit further. Roll out the puff pastry and cut out circles to top the ramekins, then coat with the egg wash. Bake in a 350F/180C oven until the pastry has browned.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009
Budget Salmon Wellington
Saturday, December 5, 2009
Mish Mash Mushroom Risotto
I am home solo tonight with the new babe, and I have to say this new life of mine is a serious adjustment. The little one seems to have colic - which is just another name for pretty much any baby discomfort that makes them miserable and so they cry about it for hours on end and there is nothing that seems to make it better. In an effort to feel just a tiny bit more in control of some part of my life, I decided to cook myself a decent meal, even though it was just me, even though I had to do most of it with the lovely background music of a baby crying. Sometimes when you feel like you are bad at being a mom, it is a tiny measure of comfort to remember that at least you are a good cook. That being said, if anyone has magic cures for colic - I welcome suggestions!
This risotto is based on my usual risotto recipe. In addition, I decided to mix in a little mixture Brooke gave me for "healthy rice" because I am breastfeeding, and therefore feel like I am doing a good thing any time I make any choice with the word "healthy" in it (it has flax seeds and other stuff like that in it). I also did not have white wine, so I put in a tiny splash of red, and I used onion soup base instead of chicken broth because I am trying not to eat actual onions (see above re: colic), and also my husband used the last of the chicken stock and we have about a foot of fresh snow on our roads telling me to stay home and make due with what I have.
Here is a picture of my finished dinner. That's right, I made a lobster tail to eat all by myself. I like to think I am classy like that.
Wednesday, December 2, 2009
Cheese Scones
The other day I made leek soup with the last of my share of the leeks from the garden (and of course, didn't take pictures!). I decided I wanted to have cheese scones with it, and luckily made enough that I could photograph them the next day when I had a second. I found this recipe on The Foreign Kitchen blog after trying a couple of other recipes unsuccessfully. As long as you have a food processor this is a very quick and easy recipe to whip up. It's great to make when you want home baked bread but don't have the time to make it. Really, could anything with cheese melted on top be bad?
Cheese Scones:
2 cups of flour
4 tsp of baking powder
1/4 tsp of salt
a pinch of ground nutmeg
1 Tbsp of Maple Syrup (I used sugar)
4 Tbsp of cold unsalted butter
1 egg beaten, combined with milk to make 3/4 cup
1 1/2 cup of grated cheddar (I used white cheddar to keep the scones lighter in colour)
3 Tbs grated Parmesan cheese
Combine the dry ingredients in a bowl. In a separate bowl mix the egg, milk, and syrup together. Cut and rub the butter into the flour (Use a food processor).
Now, I added 1 1/4 cups of grated cheddar to the flour and butter and combined these before I added the egg and milk mixture, but if you want an ooey-gooier texture stir the milk and egg mixture into the flour first and then fold in the cheese.
Looseley shape this into a disc, without handeling it too much. Turn it out onto a well floured suface, sprinkle it with the remaining 1/4 of cheddar and the Parmesan, and cut the disc into 8 slices. Place these onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (or just greased) and bake at 475 Fahrenheit (250 Celsius) for 10 minutes until the tops are browned.The scones taste best fresh out of the oven, and even though they are savory a fresh gob of peach marmalade or a drizzling of honey makes these an extra special treat.
Saturday, November 28, 2009
Delia Smith's Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding
Okay, it's not that I am not cooking or eating, I just haven't had time with the little one to then take pictures and write about it. Basically I end up making food as fast as possible and then either relish the few second I have to eat with both hands free or I end up eating while holding her or feeding her. This was actually made the weekend before I had the baby, back when I still had time to photograph things not baby related. It is delicious though. It's not just kind of delicious, it is amazingly delicious if you like dark chocolate. It's like a mix between the perfect gooey brownie and a chocolate lava cake.
I've never made bread pudding before, it just isn't the first thing that comes to mind for me when I think about dessert. My husband picked it out though when I told him that he had to pick a cake for me to make for him for his birthday. It was a big hit all around, I can't wait until I have an occasion to make it again so I can show off. I also like that you make it a day ahead, and then just pop it in the oven when the time comes.
Chocolate Bread and Butter Pudding:
9 slices, each ¼ inch (5 mm) thick, good-quality white bread, 1 day old, taken from a large loaf
5 oz (150 g) dark chocolate (75 per cent cocoa solids)
3 oz (75 g) butter
15 fl oz (425 ml) whipping cream
4 tablespoons dark rum (I used Kahlua instead)
4 oz (110 g) caster sugar
good pinch cinnamon
3 large eggs
Begin by removing the crusts from the slices of bread, which should leave you with 9 pieces about 4 inches (10 cm) square. So now cut each slice into 4 triangles. Next, place the chocolate, whipping cream, rum, sugar, butter and cinnamon in a bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water, being careful not to let the bowl touch the water, then wait until the butter and chocolate have melted and the sugar has completely dissolved. Next, remove the bowl from the heat and give it a really good stir to amalgamate all the ingredients.
Now in a separate bowl, whisk the eggs and then pour the chocolate mixture over them and whisk again very thoroughly to blend them together.
Then spoon about a ½ inch (1 cm) layer of the chocolate mixture into the base of the dish and arrange half the bread triangles over the chocolate in overlapping rows. Now, pour half the remaining chocolate mixture all over the bread as evenly as possible, then arrange the rest of the triangles over that, finishing off with a layer of chocolate. Use a fork to press the bread gently down so that it gets covered very evenly with the liquid as it cools.
Cover the dish with clingfilm and allow to stand at room temperature for 2 hours before transferring it to the fridge for a minimum of 24 (but preferably 48) hours before cooking. When you're ready to cook the pudding, pre-heat the oven to gas mark 4, 350°F (180°C). Remove the clingfilm and bake in the oven on a high shelf for 30-35 minutes, by which time the top will be crunchy and the inside soft and squidgy. Leave it to stand for 10 minutes before serving with well-chilled double cream poured over.
Friday, November 6, 2009
Kitchen Tip
I'm sneaking in just before midnight with a tip. Traditional Oven is one of the most useful baking sites I've ever used, as it provides conversions for specific ingredients like butter, sugar, and flour. The butter converter gets the most use from me - for example, it's a lot easier to weigh 85g of butter than to try to get 6 tablespoons while it's still chilled for scones.
Thursday, November 5, 2009
Bonfire Night!
Wanting a trip to England in November may sound strange, but I love Bonfire Night so much that I would go every year if I could. It combines some of my favourite things: fireworks, food, and history. I'm linking back to an old post for this - while they may not seem like it, these little roast potatoes are the ultimate finger food. Just pop them in a little paper bag or newspaper cone and they are a great snack on a cold night.
Read More...
Wednesday, November 4, 2009
Baby not Food
I just wanted to share with everyone my reason for not posting forever! We welcomed a new addition to our family. Once I am able to sleep a bit more through the night I hope to be back to posting like usual - but will probably be doing recipes that are a lot faster :-)
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Vegetables Galore
Just before the first snowfall, we pulled up the last of the garden (except for a few hibernating potatoes). This was my share of the harvest, and I spent a weekend preparing everything for storage and freezing. Most of the leeks and zucchini were put in the food processor and frozen for soups and baking, and the carrots were chopped, blanched, and frozen. Now I can look forward to garden veg all through the winter!
Monday, November 2, 2009
English Apple Cake
With my bags of apples from Superstore I needed some simple recipes. Attempting to bake in the midst of messy home renos was trying, to say the least. Luckily, Nigel Slater did not fail me; I often find his simple, thrown-together meals are the tastiest.
I've now made this three times as it is so quick & easy. The apples don't need to be peeled, just cored & roughly chopped, and while it needs an hour of baking time it only takes 10 minutes of prep. It also adapts well to changes, which is not always true of baking. I changed the pan from an 8" square to an 8" round as that was what I had unpacked, and switched lemon juice for lime juice (which I now prefer).
Nigel Slater's English Apple Cake:
130g butter
130g sugar
3-4 medium apples
juice of half a lemon or lime
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
2 tbsp brown sugar
2 eggs
130g flour
1 tsp baking powder
Preheat oven to 350F/180C. Line an 8" round springform pan by just pushing parchment paper inside so it comes up the sides of the pans. It doesn't matter if this isn't pretty, as this cake is pretty rustic anyway. There is no need to grease the pan, making for easier clean-up as well.
Core and chop the apples and put in a bowl with the lemon or lime juice. Toss with cinnamon & brown sugar and set aside while you cream the butter & sugar well, then beat in the eggs. Sift the flour and baking powder together and fold into the mixture. Scrape the batter into the pan and dump the apples on top with a little extra sugar. Bake 1 hour. You may be unsure about done-ness as it's difficult to tell with all the apples on top, but each time I've made this 1 hour has been perfect. 
Sunday, November 1, 2009
Spiced Applesauce
We're back! After a month-long hiatus (and some pretty sporadic posting in September), I am hoping to get back into the swing of things by participating in National Blog Posting Month. We were pretty busy in October - me with home renovations and Court with her new baby girl - and with the holiday season coming up things will probably stay that way. Hopefully we'll be up for the challenge.
Discovering orchard bins of apples at Superstore has meant a glut of baking for me recently. Who can resist apples at $0.54/lb? They're a little banged up, but perfect for cakes, pies, and (obviously) apple sauce. I tweaked this a bit by using Lyle's Golden Syrup (which I could eat by the spoon) instead of sugar and cardamom instead of cinnamon. This was warm, fragrant, and delicious... and perfect for autumn.
Applesauce:
4 apples, peeled/cored/chopped
3/4 cup water
2-3 tbsp Lyle's golden syrup
cardamom, to taste
Add apples and water to a saucepan over medium heat and cook until soft. Bash up with a spoon over the heat and add the syrup and cardamom, both to taste.
