Roasted Butternut Squash, Carrot & Yam Soup

Oh, yeah, comfort food. It is February, after all. It’s been raining for four months straight, and we’re starting to believe we’ll be this shade of paste for the rest of our lives.

This is one of those recipes that you can kinda “wing.” Basically use whatever you have in your fridge, whatever is in season. This is a nice fall soup, as it takes advantage of root vegetables which are at their peak, and incorporates the warming properties of ginger and garlic. You could easily skip the step of roasting them, but I find it gives an extra layer of flavor.

Ingredients:

• 1 medium squash (I used butternut, but acorn or pumpkin would do just as well)
• 1 largeish yam
• 2-3 large carrots
• 1 medium onion, or half a large one
• 5-6 cloves of garlic
• 1 chunk of ginger, about one inch square

Method:

Peel all the vegetables and cut them up into chunks. This is really the part that takes the most time. I’m not too concerned about  making sure they are all the same size, as they’ll finish cooking in the broth later. This step is just to get some caramelizeation on the vegetables. Toss them all on a cookie sheet, and drizzle over with a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper, and a touch of maple syrup if you like. The more space the vegetables have on the pan, the better your caramelizeation will be, the more crowded they are, the more likely they are to steam.

Put the cookie sheet in the oven for 20-30 minutes, fairly high, around 350 or 400 degrees, tossing once or twice during the process. When you have some nice crispy edges on the vegetables and they are softening, take them out.

In a large soup pot, do a couple of turns of olive oil. Chop the onion, again, it doesn’t have to be too fine or precious, and throw it in the pot at a low-medium heat. Allow the onions to sweat it out for 10 minutes or so. Chop up the garlic and ginger quite fine, and add them in at the end.

Add your vegetables to the pot, and combine everything.

Pour over enough chicken or vegetable stock, or plain water, to cover all the vegetables, stir, and then allow to simmer until everything is married together and the vegetables are mushy.

Working in batches, puree the soup. I used an immersion blender, but you could use a regular blender, just be sure to allow the soup to cool if you do.

Now is the time to adjust the seasonings and to add more stock or water if the soup is too thick. You could also add some cream if you wanted to lighten it up a little and make it a creamy soup. Curry would also be a nice addition.

Serve with a dollop of sour cream or a drizzle of balsamic vinegar reduction.

Black Bean Brownies

Yeah, it’s a hard-knock life for me.

This coming weekend is The Wellness Show. This is the third year I’ve handled the publicity for them, and I gotta say, this is one of those jobs that I would (almost) do for free, just because I love it so much. My foodie heart beats so fast when I see the list of celeb chefs who are going to be cooking at the show, like, oh, Pino Posteraro of Cioppino’s; Ned Bell from The Four Seasons; Jennifer Peters of Raincity Grill; Robert Erikson of Central Bistro; Antonio Cerullo from Choices Markets; Kris Kabush from The Hart House Restaurant and Tojo. You know, no big whoop.

Our big special guest this year is Julie Van Rosendaal, whose brand new cookbook, Spilling the Beans, Cooking and Baking with Beans and Grains Every Day is selling out everywhere. It’s a gorgeous cookbook, and every single recipe in it, from breakfast to dessert includes beans. I’m feeling all starstruck, because I’ve been following her blog, Dinner with Julie, for ages.

So, I decided to try something that you would never consider putting beans into. Brownies. And might I mention, these are goooood. It helps that I used good chocolate, President’s Choice 70% dark. And while my inner sneaky mommy is thrilled at the additional 15 grams of fiber that the cup of black beans add to the recipe, these are not what I would really characterize as healthy. But all the same…

Ingredients:

• 1 c rinsed and drained canned black beans
• 1/2 c butter
• 2 oz (two squares) unsweetened chocolate
• 1/3 c flour
• pinch of salt
• 2 eggs
• 3/4 c sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 2/3 c good quality chocolate chips or chopped-up good quality chocolate bar

Method:

Put a double layer of paper towel on a cookie sheet and spread the beans out on it, and blot them until they are dry.

Over low heat, melt together the butter and chocolate. Mix until incorporated, then put aside, off the heat, to cool.

In a separate bowl, mix the flour and salt together and set aside.

Place the beans in a food processor and then add the melted chocolate/butter mixture. Whiz that up until it’s all smooth, stopping a couple of times to scrape down the bowl.

Now add the eggs, sugar and vanilla, and whiz it some more until it’s all blended together.

Scrape the wet mixture out of the food processor bowl into the flour, and mix until just incorporated. Add the chocolate pieces.

Bake in a greased 8″ square pan at 350 degrees for about 28-30 minutes. I prefer my brownies still a bit gooey and raw in the middle, however.

Serve with a sprinkle of powdered sugar, a drizzle of chocolate sauce, ice cream, or all three.

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You can see Julie Van Rosendaal at 2 pm on Friday, February 17 on the Celebrity Cooking Stage at The Wellness Show, going on all weekend at the Convention Centre.

Perfect Banana Bread

There are certain recipes which I am on a lifelong quest to find the best of. Basic recipes, things you’d eat on a daily basis, but for which so many recipes exist that it will likely take you a lifetime to find your favorite one. Brownies. Chocolate Chip Cookies. Peanut Butter Cookies. And Banana Bread.

I found this recipe on Pinterest a couple of weeks ago, and pinned for further research and testing. I made it last night.

The end.

I have nothing more to say. Nothing to add, no adaptations. This is, hands down, the best banana bread I have ever made, and I have made a lot of banana bread.

This is professional-grade banana bread, the kind you pay $2-3 a slice for in coffee shops. Soft, not too sweet, bannana-y, and with a bit of a crust.

I’m not even going to post the recipe, I’m just going to link directly back to the original post on Your Cup of Cake.

Try it. I dare you to find a better recipe.

The Truffle House

Very high on my list of favorite things is Sunday Brunch.

There’s just something so decadent about drinking many mugs of coffee with one (or a group) of my friends, eating bacon and eggs, things I wouldn’t normally eat during the course of the week, catching up, laughing, perhaps a Caesar or a Mimosa. Lazy Sunday morning/afternoon, no where to be, no plans, no responsibilities.

And what, might I ask, is more decadent than Truffles?

I wound up at The Truffle House in Dundarave (West Van) last Sunday. Brunch with a girlfriend, she recommended it. The Truffle House is a very small place. It reminds me of a coffee shop, but don’t let the casual atmosphere (leather banquettes, stone fireplace) deceive you. There is a fully-functioning kitchen with a fully-functioning chef (James Hodgins, formerly of the Beach House).

The owners, Philippe & Fabienne Chaber, not surprisingly, are French, and very much engaged in the day-to-day operations of the restaurant.

West Coast Benny

Any time I walk into a restaurant and they have a salmon smoked benny on the menu, I simply close the menu. I’m done. The benny was served on a half of a croissant, which I really liked, because sometimes english muffins can be tough to cut. It was served with lox and the most perfectly ripe avocado I think I have ever seen. The eggs were perfect–free range, with a dark yellow yolk, whites firm, but yolks runny when you cut into them. Not too much hollandaise. Deep-fried potatoes already perfectly salted, and side of fruit. So good. My girlfriend had a very yummy matcha smoothie made with green tea and vanilla. Crepes also figured heavily into the menu, both sweet and savory. They also have a truffle omelet (of course!), which, is, apparently, to die.

We literally almost got whiplash when one of the waitresses brought out an apple tarte tatin. It was the most beautiful thing, garnished with a mountain of whipping cream on the side. The lovely couple beside us had to order one, and the wait staff kindly split it for them. Fabienne told us she had just made it that morning, and we were sad that we were too full to try it, but made a resolution to come back for it at a later date.

Fabienne, her Tarte Tatin, and a very happy diner.

A perfect Sunday: brunch and then a walk on the Seawall. Highly recommended.

The Truffle House Cafe
2452 Marine Drive, West Vancouver
Monday through Saturday, 8-5
Sunday, 8-3

Roast Chicken

Comfort food. Every culture has it. For me, as a child, comfort food was Campbell’s Cream of Tomato Soup (made with milk) and a grilled cheese sandwich.

In adulthood, few dishes say “comfort food” more for me than a roast chicken. Juicy and succulent, served up with some roasted vegetables around a family table, it reminds me of Sunday dinners, belonging, and warmth.

I’ve been making this particular recipe for a long time. Its origins are with that domestic goddess, Nigella Lawson, but I’ve tweaked it a bit. Here’s the original recipe.

Ingredients:

• One chicken (small enough to fit inside a large ziploc bag)
• A ziploc bag
• One lemon, or the juice of one lemon
• rosemary (fresh if you have it)
• 4-5 cloves of garlic, smashed and skinned, torn roughly
• a teaspoon of dijon mustard
• 2-3 tbsps of olive oil
• Salt and pepper

Method:

Wash your chicken thoroughly, inside and out, and salt and pepper the cavity.

In the ziploc bag, add the rest of the ingredients.

Add the chicken to the bag, seal, and then smush it all about to mix up the marinade and massage it into the chicken. Place the bag with the chicken on a plate, and put it in the fridge. Ideally, you want it to be in there for 24 hours, but if you only have a few hours, that’s okay.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Place the chicken and marinade in a roaster, and roast, uncovered, for 60-90 minutes, depending on the size of your bird. You’ll know it’s done when the leg joints are loose and easy to wiggle, or you can prick it with a knife in the leg bone joint and the juices run clear.

Remove the chicken from the oven and tent it with some aluminum foil for about 5-10 minutes. This allows the meat to rest and makes the chicken juicer.

Carve and serve!

Peanut Butter Cups

Well, kids, it’s that time of year.

One of my long-standing holiday traditions is that I choose a day in late November or early December, and get together with my friend, Michelle for a full day of cookie-making. We use the cookies as hostess gifts when we get invited to parties, we give them to our kid’s teachers, and I also give them to clients and media, or anyone that’s helped out my business during the year.

When I was just starting my business a few years back, and was super broke, this felt like a thoughtful gift. I mean, who has time to bake cookies anymore?? The tradition stuck, and now it’s expected.

Over the next couple of weeks, I’ll share some of our traditional recipes with you, but this year, Michelle tried out a new one, and I am in LOVE!

This recipe comes from Alicia Silverstone’s Kind Diet Cookbook, and is meant to be vegan. I am not vegan. In fact, I’m not even a very pescotarian right now, so I modified it, using ingredients I had on hand. Her recipe also calls for regular muffin cups, but I find these are so rich, that two little bites is enough to make me happy, so I made them in petite-four cups that I had lying around from making miniature brownies.

Here’s the original recipe.

And here’s mine:

Ingredients

Base:

• 1/2 cup butter or margarine
• 3/4 cup natural peanut butter (I used Adam’s smooth)
• 10 graham crackers, put into a ziploc bag and made into crumbs (it’s good for getting your aggression out)
• 1/4 c packed brown or demerara sugar
• 1/2 cup rice krispies

Topping:

• 1 cup high-quality dark chocolate
• 1/4 cup soy, rice, or almond milk
• chopped nuts (peanuts, walnuts or pecans) for garnish

Method:

In a small saucepan, melt the butter over low heat.

When the butter has melted, stir in the peanut butter, graham crackers and sugar. Stir until smooth and incorporated.

Add the rice krispies and stir.

Put the whole works in to a medium-sized ziploc containaner, squeeze out any remaining air, and seal.

On a cookie sheet, lay out your cupcake liners in rows.

Cut a large corner off of the ziploc bag, and pipe into the cupcake liners, until they are about 1/2 to 2/3 full.

Melt the chocolate with the milk over a double-boiler.

Spoon a little of the melted chocolate on to each of the cups.

Sprinkle with nuts to garnish, and then put them in the freezer for a couple of hours. They are great straight from the freezer.

Avgolemono

Avgolemono is the most deceptive soup. It’s thick and creamy, and you’d think it was loaded with fat, but it’s not. Avgolemono is Greece’s answer to chicken noodle soup, and like many great recipes, it has only a few ingredients. That’s why you should use a really good, flavorful chicken stock, like the one from a couple of posts back.

I had this soup for the first time before I went to Greece. I don’t think I ever ate it in Greece, as it was way too hot in the middle of August for soup. But now, in the middle of a cold, rainy, Vancouver November….

Ingredients:

• 8 cups of chicken stock
• 2/3 c Orzo (rice-shaped pasta)
• 1 lemon
• 1 egg

Method:

In a medium saucepan, bring the chicken stock to a boil. Using a vegetable peeler, shave 3-4 large chunks off of the rind of the lemon, and throw them into the stock to help flavor it. When it’s at a boil, turn the head down to a simmer and add the orzo.

Simmer until the orzo is tender, about 20 minutes.
Meanwhile, cut the lemon in half and juice it.
Remove the soup from the heat, and add the lemon juice. Stir well. Remove the lemon peel and discard.
Scramble the egg in a small bowl. Remove a ladle full of the soup from the pot, and add it slowly to the eggs, stirring all the time. This will help to temper the egg, so that when you add it to the soup, they won’t scramble.

Now, add the tempered eggs to the soup, slowly, stirring all the time.

Gently heat back up to a “soup” temperature, and serve.

Pumpkin Crepes

I get obsessive about recipes. Last year, it was creme brulee. This year, it’s crepes.

Crepes are not really something that I have eaten a lot of in my life. But last summer, I went to my friend Fabrice’s place for a fireworks party. Now, Fabrice is France-French, and he makes a mean crepe. It was on. Crepe Pan went on my Christmas list, and I’ve been experimenting with batters and fillings ever since.

In honor of the harvest and Hallowe’en, I thought I’d do a pumpkin crepe. If you’ve never had one before, a crepe is just like a really thin pancake. I’ve seen both a sweet or a savory application, but they are most popular as a dessert item.

The batter for this recipe comes from World of Crepes, natch.

• 1 c regular flour
• 1/3 c pumpkin (I had some fresh, but you could also use canned)
• 1 tbsp melted butter
• 1 1/4 c milk
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 2 eggs
• spice/flavoring: some combination of: cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger, cloves, allspice (heavier on the cinnamon, lesser on the others), equaling about 1/2 to 3/4 of a tsp. or pumpkin pie spice would also do nicely. I also added about a 1/2 tsp of vanilla.

Method:

Fire all of the ingredients in a blender or food processor, and blend well. If you don’t have a food processor, put all the dry ingredients into a large bowl. Combine the wet in a separate bowl, and mix well. Finally, add the wet to the dry, and combine well with a wire whisk.

Allow to rest in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. I know this is a time-consuming step, but trust me, it’s necessary to make crepes. It’s important for the batter to rest.

To make the crepes:

You’ll need a crepe pan (preferably non-stick), or a shallow, non-stick frying pan.

Heat it up on medium heat on the stove, and brush with a little melted butter.

Pour about 1/3 c of the crepe batter onto the middle of the pan, and then swirl it around until the batter runs all over the pan, and out to the edges.

Allow the crepe to set, and then flip over.

You can pile them in between layers of waxed paper on a plate until you are ready to serve.

Serving options:

Honestly, my favorite way to eat a crepe is spread with nutella, and rolled up like a cigar. Does that make me gauche? They are also ridiculously good drizzled with maple syrup. I had the leftovers for breakfast the next day like that.

Here are some other, more seasonal filling options:

I made an apple-pie type filling by peeling and chopping up a Granny Smith apple. I put it in a small saucepan with some apple juice, maple syrup, brown sugar, and cinnamon, and then let it stew gently until the apples were cooked and the sauce was thickened. I then spread some pumpkin butter on the warm crepe, filled it with the apples, and rolled it up. I served it with a little more of the apples on top, and dollop of whipping cream (you could also substitute vanilla yogurt for a lower-calorie option) and some nuts on top for texture and crunch. I’d suggest candied pumpkin seeds or walnuts or pecans. Finish the whole thing off by putting a little icing sugar in a small sieve and “snowing” over your finished crepes before serving.

Store the leftover (ha! as if!!) crepes on a plate between layers of waxed paper, tightly covered with plastic wrap. You can then take them out one at a time and microwave them for a few seconds to heat them up. Apply nutella or maple syrup and enjoy.

Slow Cooker Pulled Pork

I know I promised you a recipe using chicken stock, but I have something special in mind, and I haven’t yet had a chance to make it. So, while we’re waiting, something else warm, yummy, comforting, and pretty much the perfect thing for these shorter, colder days.

I love this recipe because it takes a minimum of effort, and is ridiculously cheap. This is one of those recipes where buying an expensive cut of meat does not necessarily make the final result better. Pork shoulder works great or a pork butt, don’t worry about a little marbling, the fat adds to the flavor.

You’ll need your handy slow-cooker for this one, and the slow-cooker is the perfect tool for low-and-slow. This method of cooking makes a final product that is incredibly flavorful, tender, and there is almost no work involved.

I started out with a pork roast. This one was under $5. Tenderloin is lovely, but save it for something else. All you’re looking for is a big hunk of meat (Sigh. Aren’t we all???!) Start by searing off the meat at a relatively high temperature in a frying pan with a little oil. Liberally salt and pepper the meat before you put it in the pan, just a few minutes on each side, until it gets a bit caramelized.

An optional additional step you can do before this is to create a rub and give your roast a nice massage with it a few hours prior to searing. I used something very similar to Guilty Kitchen’s rub that she puts on her baby back ribs here, but I added a couple tablespoons of brown sugar to mine. After giving your meat the spa treatment, put it back in the fridge for a few hours, or even better, overnight.

In the morning, sear the meat off, and fire it into the slow-cooker on low heat. This in and of itself could make a really tasty roast, but to add yet another layer of flavor, add some barbeque sauce. My fridge is never without Bull’s Eye  Old West Hickory BBQ sauce, but I thought, to keep it all authentic-like, I’d make one up from scratch.

• 1/3 c. onion, finely chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped
• 1/2 c ketchup
• 1/3 c vinegar (cider vinegar if you have it, it’s slightly sweeter)
• 1/4 c brown sugar
• 1 tbsp mustard or mustard powder
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce or soy sauce (or some combination of the two)
• 2 tbsp blackstrap molasses
• salt and pepper to taste

Fire all ingredients into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Turn heat down and allow to simmer for 5 minutes. Pour over your roast in the slow cooker, put the lid on, and leave it to go on low for about 6-8 hours.

And it will look something like this:

Remove the roast from the crock-pot and put it on a large cutting board. Pour the leftover BBQ sauce into a saucepan and allow it to thicken by simmering it for about 10-15 minutes. Meanwhile, using two forks pulling in opposite directions, shred, or “pull” the pork. It should shred very easily.

You can mix the thickened BBQ sauce back into the pork at this point, or you can serve it on the side.

Pulled pork is traditionally served as a sandwich, in a nice, soft, large bun, with a cabbage slaw, the BBQ sauce, and dill pickles, but there are many other ways to enjoy it. I had the leftovers on a pizza a couple of days later.

Chicken Stock

Ah, fall. The time of year when a young woman’s thoughts turn again to her Crock Pot.

Soups, stews, slow-cooked meats, are all about creating comfort as the weather gets colder, and have the added bonus of some pretty great aromatherapy.

I like to keep homemade chicken stock on hand as a base for all that comfort food. Yes, you could buy the packets of freeze-dried chicken stock, or pick up a tetra-pack the next time you’re buying groceries, but homemade stock is easy and adds an additional layer of flavor.

I make mine in the slow cooker, but you could easily do this in a large pot set on low on the back of the stove.
The base of any good stock is bones. You may be able to buy chicken bones at your local grocery store, I tend to find them more easily in small, mom-and-pop Asian grocery stores. There’s a really great place in the Richmond Public Market that sells two bags for $5.
After that, what goes in next is completely up to you! Here are some suggestions, though:

• Mirepoix: the holy trinity of French cooking, it consists of carrots, onions and celery.
• Spices and Herbs: garlic, peppercorns, coarse salt, rosemary, sage, bayleaf.

Method:

• Place chicken bones/carcass in the bottom of your crock pot (for an extra layer of flavor, you could roast it at a high temp for a few minutes in the oven or in a frying pan on the stove).
• Cut your vegetables/aromatics into large chunks. You don’t need to peel anything, just make sure they are washed, chunk them up, and throw them in. A word about colour: lots of onion skins will result in a darker stock, so omit if you like a lighter-coloured stock.
• Add your spices and herbs. Don’t bother peeling garlic, just give it a good bash with the back of your knife and chuck the whole cloves in. Same with herbs, feel free to put the woody stalks in, as well.

• Cover the entire mixture with enough water so that everything is mostly submerged. Cover, and turn on low.
• I let this go overnight, for about 12 hours (you will have pleasant dreams about roasted chicken dinners).
• Turn off, and allow to cool for little while. This makes it easier to handle.

• Strain off the solid part of the stock into a colander over top of a large bowl.

• You can do a second straining through a finer sieve or a cheesecloth or coffee filter if you like a clearer stock.
• Place the bowl in the fridge for a few hours and skim off the fat when it solidifies if you want a lower-fat stock.
• Place in zip-lock sealed bags and freeze, or you can freeze in individual muffin tins, which you then pop out like ice cubes, and store in a large zip-lock bag.

Enjoy.
The next recipe will be something made with chicken stock.