Asparagus & Swiss Chard Crepes (Vegan, Gluten-free)

Mother’s Day has just past. For me, Mother’s Day is always tinged with a bit of sadness. I love spending the day with my boy, but there’s always the feeling of missing my own mom. And when you’re not partnered, you have to keep your expectations for potential spoiling pretty low.

So, I did what I always do to cheer myself up–I headed to the kitchen. I decided to make crepes. While most people think of crepes as a sweet dessert-type item, they are actually very good in savoury applications as well. Think of the crepe as more of a tortilla–a vessel for wrapping things up into delicious packages. Buckwheat, contrary to its name, is actually gluten-free, but it makes a less pretty crepe than the sweet ones that are made with regular flour. I cut mine with TJ’s gluten-free flour mix to lighten them up a bit. This is a solid, utilitarian crepe that can take on a more robust filling.

I am currently having a love affair with rainbow swiss chard. In fact, I just bought some seedlings for my pot garden, so I’m pretty invested in chard right now. Asparagus, of course, is in season, so I’m loving it large right now. And the boy has developed a thing for leeks. “I like how they smell, mom, and they make a cool noise when you rub the leaves together.” They do. On both accounts.

I finished these off with a balsamic reduction (which made the crepe a little soggy, but really added to the flavour), and a few dollops of goat cheese (which you can leave off if you are going vegan).

For the crepes:

• 3/4 c buckwheat flour
• 1/4 c gluten-free flour mix (I used Trader Joe’s)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 1 1/4 c soy or rice milk
• 4 tablespoons melted vegan butter or coconut oil
• It’s always a good idea to mix crepe batter and let it rest in the fridge for a couple of hours before making the crepes.

Method:

• Pour the wet ingredients it a blender, and mix quickly.
• Mix the dry ingredients together in a separate bowl, and with the motor running, add slowly to the wet ingredients in the blender until completely blended.
• To make the crepes: heat your crepe pan over medium heat. Brush with a little coconut oil to keep from sticking. When the pan is heated, lift off of the burner, and place a ladlefull  of crepe batter in the centre of the pan. Swirl the pan with your wrist until the batter runs all around and forms a thin pancake the size of the pan. Place back on the burner and allow to cook to the point where bubbles are forming and bursting. Flip carefully, let cook another minute or so, and remove from the pan.

For the filling:

Ingredients:

• 1 smallish leek
• 1 bunch of swiss chard
• 1 bunch of asparagus
• 2 tbsps vingar (apple cider or coconut, something less acidic)
• salt & pepper
• chevre
• balsamic vinegar, reduced

Method: 

• Slice the leek in half, length-wise. Discard the outer tough leaves, and the root end. Wash well in between the layers. Slice into half-moons all the way up, but you may want to not use the tougher, greener tops of the leeks. Wash the swiss chard well and dry it. Cut or rip into bite-sized pieces, again discarding the tough stems.
• In a large frying pan, heat a couple tablespoons of EVOO over medium heat. Add the leeks and saute them gently for about 5 minutes. Season. Add the swiss chard, mix well, and then cover for about 5 minutes, until the chard wilts down some. Season, and add the vinegar. Toss well.
• In a separate grill pan, grill the asparagus. You need about 2-3 stalks per crepe. You could also BBQ the asparagus. You are looking for nice grill marks, and an al dente texture.

To assemble: 

Lay a crepe out on a flat surface. Add a generous spoonful of the leek/chard mixture, and then top with a few stalks of asparagus. Crumble some chevre on top, and then finish with a squirt of balsamic reduction. Roll up and enjoy!

Vancity Buzz Roundup

A few months back, I noticed that a local blog, Vancity Buzz, was looking for new writers. I was interested–VcB is the the most-trafficked blog in Vancouver, so writing for them could mean a real extension in my readership.

But what to pitch?? It needed to be a food column, of course! I decided to pitch to them the idea of writing about restrictive diets–gluten-free, dairy-free, soy-free, vegan. I often go out to eat with my friends who are on restrictive diets, and it’s always an adventure. Why not write about it?

So, I applied, and was accepted!

That’s me with a delicious Great Bear Pattie!

My first post was about a new vegan joint called The Slow Bean. They make a $5 lunch bowl that’ll knock your socks off.

Then I wrote about Great Bear Patties, a brand new vegan, gluten-, soy- and dairy-free cookie on the market. I had met the owner, Tracy, at The Wellness Show, which was where she launched her business. She’s doing great!

Next, I did a cookbook review of Vegan Secret Supper, the recipe from which I shared with you for vegan creme brulee.

Just last week, I had the chance to meet and interview Chef Matt Stowe, who is one of BC’s  Top Chef Canada contestants, and I even got to sample his challenge-winning soup (delicious!).

Watching “Top Chef” at the Cactus Club.

Finally, I interviewed Vegan cookbook author, Dreena Burton. The Vegan Pot Pie I made for this blog was inspired by a recipe from her most recent book, Let Them Eat Vegan. Which you can win a copy of by entering the contest!

It seems like I’m branching out a bit from restrictive diets, as next up, I’m doing a piece on Coal Harbour Patios (it’s my hood, though), and a spotlight on gluten-free at EAT Vancouver in a couple of weeks. If you want to see those posts when they’re published, subscribe to me on Facebook, or follow me on Twitter. I’m also trying to figure out how to stream my VcB posts through this blog’s sidebar.

And for Cooking by Laptop? I’m working on a Basil Olive Oil Ice Cream, now that it’s summer again, I’m perfecting my gnocchi technique, experimenting with gluten-free crepes, making Julia Child’s Apple Tarte Tatain, and craving strawberry-rhubarb pie. I am also doing an interview with a fantastic food photographer, who’s going to share some tips with us about how to take better photos of our food.

See you soon!

Rain Barrels for the Roof!

May has been beautiful in Vancouver, so far. I have dug out my flip-flops and cotton skirts, and have stowed my Hunters and my raincoat in the closet.

I’m very excited: spring means growing things.

The last few years, I’ve grown things in pots, but this summer, it looks like I might actually get a garden box on the roof. Still a pot, really, just bigger than before!

Parsley, Sage, Rosemary… Chives, Oregano…

I spent last summer lugging 4 litre milk jugs that I’d filled with water up the stairs to the roof to water my herbs and vegetables. This year is gonna be different!

I applied to the City of Vancouver’s Greenest Cities Initiative  and got a grant to purchase four rain barrels for our rooftop garden. I just bought them and installed them last week (and now there hasn’t been any rain!), and now I’m just gonna let Mother Nature do her thing.

Ain’t she a beaut?

And no doubt I’ll be posting garden status updates over the next couple of months.

Flourless Chocolate Cake with Salted Caramel Sauce

Yesterday was my friend Jen’s (read-head Jen, to those of you who know how many Jens I have in my life) birthday. Jen decided she wanted to go retro and have her party at a bowling alley, so a group of us met up at the Commodore to drink bad beer and bowl a few lanes in ugly shoes.

It is a rule in my life that there must be cake on your birthday. Must be. For Jen, I wanted it to be as decadent and sinful as possible–and it had to involve chocolate. Our friend Marta also was there, and Marta is gluten-free, so I decided to make a flourless chocolate cake. The texture was described as being “somewhere between a ganache and a brownie.” The caramel sauce with a little sprinkling of fleur de sel is a sweet compliment to dark chocolate. It was declared a winner all around (unlike my bowling game), and pronounced “blog worthy!”

The birthday girl!

So, without further ado…

Ingredients:

• 8 ounces chopped chocolate, chopped (I used a mix of dark and milk–but don’t skimp on the quality of your chocolate here)
• 1/2 cup butter, cut into pieces
• 4 eggs
• 1/4 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup whipping cream
• 1 teaspoon vanilla

For the caramel:

• 1 cup sugar
• 1 cup whipping cream

Garnish:

• fleur de sel

Method:

Cake:

• Heat your oven to 325 degrees. Ideally, you want to use a springform pan, but just be aware that the bigger your pan, the thinner your cake will be. Mine turned out quite thin, only a little over an inch thick. This is okay, because it’s really rich, but if you want a thicker cake, use a smaller pan. I think my was an 8″. Prepare the pan by cutting a circle of parchment the same size as the bottom disc, then greasing the sides of the pan. Next, wrap the pan in two layers of aluminum foil, so that the foil makes a cross on the bottom of the pan. The idea here is to make the pan waterproof from the outside in.
• In a double-boiler over low-medium heat, place your chocolate and butter. Allow to melt, stirring occasionally, until all the chocolate is melted, and it is a smooth, glossy liquid. Set aside to cool for a few minutes.
• While the chocolate is melting, put your eggs, whipping cream and vanilla in a large bowl, and beat well with a mixer, about five minutes, until the mixture is foamy.
• Slowly add the egg/cream mixture to the chocolate mixture, whisking all the time. Once all of the egg/creme is incorporated into the chocolate, pour it into the prepared pan.
• In the middle rack, place a baking sheet, and put the cake tin on it. Pour boiling water into the baking sheet, as high as you can without overflowing, and then slide the pan back into the oven and bake for about 20 minutes, or until it’s not jiggly in the middle anymore. Remove from oven and cool. When cool enough, run a knife around the edge of the cake, and remove it from the springform. Let cool in the fridge for a few hours.

For the caramel:

• Quick note: caramel is tricky! And it requires a lot of patience!
• In a heavy pot over medium heat, pour in the sugar, and then shake it to even out the layer. Set the timer for 8 minutes. Leave it. You’ll know that it’s starting to be ready when bits of amber, liquified sugar start to bubble up through the layer of sugar. Start stirring, now. Just keep folding it over and over, moving the sugar around, probably about another 8 minutes, until it is all one amber, gooey, liquid mess.
• Put your whipping cream in a microwave-safe dish and heat it up on high for one minute.
• Take the caramel off the heat, and slowly add the whipping cream. Be very careful! The caramel will bubble up like lava! If it gets all separated, and there are hard bits, return it to the stove, and reheat it, stirring continuously. The sugar will re-melt into the cream, eventually giving you a smooth sauce. It may not seem really thick, but as it cools, it will thicken up. Strain the sauce into a glass jar.

• To serve: cut a slice of cake and drizzle with caramel. Finish with a sprinkle of fleur de sel.

Vegan Crème Brûlée

Say whaaat??

If there was ever a dish that was NOT vegan, crème brûlée is probably it. Full of delicious, full-fat whipping cream and egg yolks, the joy of cracking into a crème brûlée is the creamy, dreamy custard underneath. 95% of the recipe is milk or eggs. So–how to create that same texture using non-dairy ingredients an no eggs? Big challenge.

Enter Mérida Anderson. She became a vegan when she was 16. Her family did not convert. She had no choice but to learn to cook for herself, because her mom basically forced her to. She has no formal training as a chef, but five years ago was on a bike tour in Easter Canada, and ended up in Halifax. She got invited to a secret vegan supper there. This new trend, much like Diner En Blanc, uses people’s homes to create a kind of pop-up restaurant for one night. Mérida came home and started one on Sunday nights, once a month, in her tiny East Van apartment.

The result?

“Communal seating makes a very intimate dining experience,” she says.  “I find it more social and open. Yes, I host the suppers in my home, and most of my diners are strangers before they attend their first event. But it doesn’t take long for everyone to feel right at home. Dinner service lasts about 2 hours and is very relaxed.”

Recently, a collection of her recipes has been published. Vegan Secret Supper is not for the beginning cook. Anderson’s recipes are complex but beautiful, each one often requires 2-3 recipes to create the finished dish. But this is elevated vegan food. The one recipe that people wanted the most? Vegan crème brûlée.

I made this for a small dinner I went to the other night. The reviews were a bit mixed. Taste-wise, it was a huge hit. It’s delicious. There is a slight hit of acid from the lime, that plays very nicely with the vanilla. But texture-wise, it didn’t have quite the same creamy mouth-feel as a regular crème brûlée. It was a little soupy. Part of the problem with the version I made may have been my coconut milk. When I opened the can and dumped it into the food processor, it was badly separated, and there was a lot of coconut water. I might substitute coconut cream for the coconut milk called for, or leave the can in the fridge for a few hours and pour off the coconut water and just use the solid coconut milk.

I’m not sure if this recipe is good enough to make me give up traditional crème brûlée. But I do know that if I were 100% vegan, I would love, love LOVE it.

One last note: you will require a torch for this particular brûlée. With traditional crème brûlée that’s baked in a bain marie, you can maybe get away with using your broiler. But because this is not cooked, you just can’t.

For more information about Vegan Secret Suppers, visit their website.

Sweet Potato Lime Crème Brûlée

From Vegan Secret Supper by Mérida Anderson

Ingredients:

• 2-3 small white-fleshed sweet potatoes (you need 2 cups of cooked potatoes)
• 1 13-oz can of coconut milk or coconut cream
• 2 tbsp lime juice (I’d pull this back just a tad)
• 1 tsp lime zest
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 3 tbsp maple syrup
• 1/4 c sugar, for the brûlée

Method:

• Wrap sweet potatoes in foil and place on a baking sheet. Bake for about 45 minutes to an hour in a 375-degree oven, or until soft.
• Unwrap, and allow to cool. Peel. I put mine through a potato ricer, just to get an even finer texture. You need 2 cups of cooked, sweet potato flesh.
• In a food processor or blender, add the sweet potatoes, coconut, lime juice and zest, vanilla and maple syrup. Blend until smooth. Spoon into ramekins, and put in the fridge to set, 6 hours, or overnight.
• When ready to serve, sprinkle a thin layer of sugar over the surface of the pudding, and brulee with a torch until the sugar is hard and caramelized.

Check out my recipes for traditional crème brûlée, chai crème brûlée, and Chocolate-coconut (dairy-free) crème brûlée as well.

Fakin’ Bacon

I have always said “I could happily become a vegetarian if it weren’t for bacon.”

Truthfully, I’m not a big fan of meat. Haven’t been for years. But bacon… salty, crispy, delicious goodness… I have given up meat, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t still like sometimes crave a BLT or  a slice with weekend brunch.

Also, I live with a small carnivore, and while we’ve had many conversations lately about becoming vegetarians, I don’t feel like it’s right for me to force my beliefs on him. Our compromise is that he is welcome to eat meat when we eat out, and we are going to try more vegetarian meat-like products like bacon or pepperoni.

So, here are the results of our Fakin’ Bacon Taste Test.

It looks like real bacon…

Tofurky’s Smoky Maple Bacon Marinated Tempeh

Price: around $5

Available: most supermarkets, like IGA, Superstore, Save-On, but Donald’s has the best selection

What we thought: Tempeh is a fermented soy, which is supposed to be better for you than plain soy. However, it has a ricey, grainy texture that is very unlike bacon. It also looks more like ground beef that’s been formed into a loaf than like bacon. Michael says “it tastes like your hamburgers, mom.” Which is true, because my “hamburgers” are usually Money’s Mushroom burgers, or the Costco equivalent.

Rating: Meh

Yves Veggie Bacon Strips or Canadian Back Bacon

Price: $4.50

Available: most supermarkets, like IGA, Superstore, Save-On, but Donald’s has the best selection

What we thought: it comes in two versions: strips or round. Both are the same recipe, though, so it’s your choice as to what shape your prefer. This is also a soy-based product, but it has a smooth texture, and the marbling effect of real bacon. The strips are quite thick, though. It think Yves’ bacon is okay, and I like the idea of supporting a local company. However, my main beef (ha!) with all of their products is that they all kind of taste the same–the pepperoni tastes like the ham slices tastes like the bacon. Michael says “it’s kind of dry.”

Rating: It’ll do

MorningStar Farms Veggie Bacon Strips

Price: $6-7

Available: Trader Joe’s, or in Vancouver at Pirate Joe’s, 2349 W 4th

What we thought: thin and crispy, this bacon is the closest thing I’ve tasted to it’s pork namesake. This stuff is delicious. I doubt that it would fool a real meat-eater, but it might come close. The drawback of this one is that it’s the only one that isn’t vegan–it uses egg whites in the recipe. It looks the most like real bacon, as well.

Rating: it’s the bomb.com!

A quick word about cooking veggie bacon:

Start with a smoking hot pan, preferably cast iron. Add about a tablespoon of coconut oil, as it has a really high smoking point, and the bacon won’t really get brown and crispy without it. When the oil is hot, add your bacon, and watch it! Turn after a minute or two. When it’s browned, drain it on paper towels. It crisps up after you take it out of the pan.

Vegan Pot Pie with Herbed Mushroom Gravy

Here in Vancouver, we’re really lucky to have some amazing local vegan chefs, including Dreena Burton, Aaron Ash and Mérida Anderson, all of whom have recently published cookbooks. I have all three, and will be making recipes from each one in the near future, but today’s focus is Dreena Burton’s Let Them Eat Vegan. Dreena did a cooking demo at The Wellness Show in February, and everyone that tasted her Nutty Veggie Burgers raved about them as being the best veggie burgers they’d ever had.

One thing I like about Let Them Eat Vegan, is that, as a mom, she focuses a lot on foods that kids will (hopefully) like. I’m not certain if Michael would eat this particular recipe, as he’s not a huge fan of potatoes, but pot pie as a concept is not something he is unfamiliar with, nor opposed to, so if you have kids, I’d encourage you to try to sell it to them, and see what happens.

I adapted this recipe from Dreena’s Winter Veg Chickpea Potpie. It’s basically her recipe, except I added the mushroom gravy, which I feel adds another layer of meatiness, earthiness, and just overall yumminess. Getting the texture of the gravy just right was something I struggled with. I added additional thickener, but it never really got quite thick enough. But it was really, really delicious. This would make a great family Sunday-dinner type main course.

(adapted from Dreena Burton’s Let Them Eat Vegan!)

Ingredients:

For the filling:

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1/2 medium-sized onion, finely chopped
• 1/2 leek, washed well, sliced
• 2 celery stalks, sliced
• 2 carrots, sliced in rounds
• 10 small new potatoes (I used a variety of yellow, red and purple), quartered
• 1/2 fennel bulb, sliced into bite-sized pieces
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 1/2 c fresh green beans, sliced into 1″ pieces
• 1 can of chickpeas, drained and rinsed
• 1/2-1 tsp each dried herbs: thyme, rosemary, and sage
• salt and pepper to taste

For the gravy:

• 2 tbsps vegan butter
• 2 tbsps olive oil
• 1-1/2 c mushrooms (crimini, shitake, portobello or a combination), halved and then sliced
• 1/4 c flour
• 2 tbsps chopped fresh rosemary
• 2 tbsps white wine
• 2 cups vegetarian stock
• 1-2 tbsps tamari sauce

For the pastry: one recipe Pie Crust (I used a mix of 50% white and 50% whole wheat flour)

Method:

• In a large pot or dutch oven, heat the oil over medium heat. Add the onions, leeks, carrots and celery, season, and cook for about five minutes, until soft. Add the garlic and stir.
• Add in the rest of the vegetables, season, add the herbs, and stir well. Partially cover, and allow to cook on low for about 10-15 minutes, until the vegetables are mostly soft. Add the beans and chickpeas and stir well.
• While this is cooking you can make the gravy. In a smaller pot, over medium heat, heat the vegan butter and the olive oil together until they are melted. Add the mushrooms, and allow them to cook down for 5-10 minutes. Add in the flour and stir well, until the flour is all absorbed into the fats and the mushroom juice. Deglaze with the wine, then add the stock, the tamari and the rosemary. Continue stirring until the gravy gets thick.
• Add the gravy to the vegetables in the big pot, remove from heat, and allow to cool while you prepare the pastry.
• Place the filling in a deep-dish pie pan or a casserole dish, and top with the pastry. Cut a couple of slits in the pie crust. You may want to brush the crust with some melted vegan butter. Bake 350 degrees for about 30 minutes, or until the crust is golden and the insides are bubbly.

Spring Risotto with Asparagus and Peas

It’s Easter weekend, and while that immediately brings to mind thoughts of chocolate, it also, to me, symbolizes everything green. My chives are starting to poke up, and here in Vancouver, we have crocuses, daffodils, and even cherry blossoms. Spring is here. We made it through another long, dark, rainy winter, and that’s cause for celebration.

This risotto is packed with everything green and fresh and seasonal: asparagus, peas, leeks and parsley. It’s light and yummy.

Many people are afraid of risotto because it’s a lot of work. It’s not really that bad. I’m not a pro, and my version would probably get me eliminated off of Top Chef (then again, that’s par for the course), but I’ve been doing it long enough that I have my own method that works really well for me.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups vegetable stock (I make my own, but I keep bouillon around in case I run out)
• 2 tbsp olive oil plus 1 tbsp butter
• 1 leek
• 1/2 bunch of asparagus, cut on the diagonal in 1-2″ pieces
• a handful of sugar snap peas, also cut on the diagonal (or substitute frozen shelled peas if you have them)
• 1 cup Arborio rice
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 2 tbsps–1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
• 2-3 tbsps parsley or other green herb like basil or Italian parsley
• cooked shrimp for garnish (leave off if you want it vegetarian)

Method:

• In a small saucepan on the back of the stove, heat the stock to boiling, and then turn it down to a simmer. It’s important not to add cold stock to the risotto once it starts cooking.
• Prepare the leek by topping and tailing it, and removing a couple of the outer leaves. Cut the leek length-wise down the centre, and wash between all the layers to get any dirt out. Then lay the leek, cut-side down on your cutting board, and cut it up.
• In a medium saucepan, add the olive oil and butter to a low-to-medium heat, and allow the butter to melt. Add the leek, season, and stir for about five minutes, until it begins to soften.
• Next, add the rice, stir, and allow the rice to all become coated with oil. Do this for about 3-5 minutes, then add the wine.
• Using a soup ladle, pour a couple of ladle fulls of hot stock over your risotto. It should cover the rice. Stir well. You don’t have to constantly stir during this process, but do watch it carefully so that it doesn’t dry out. Whenever the stock boils down, add another ladle or two from your hot stock.
• While your risotto is doing its thing, heat a small frying  pan on high heat and add some olive oil. Quickly stir-fry the vegetables for a few minutes. You want them to be lightly caramelized, but not fully cooked. Err on the side of underdone, as they will get cooked a little more inside the risotto.
• When all the stock is added, let it cook down again until it is a loose mixture. You want it to still be a little saucy, you don’t want it to be a porridge consistency. At this point, taste for seasoning and and adjust. Also, make sure that your rice cooked. Some people like theirs al dente, but I like mine cooked all the way through. If your rice is still a bit raw, you’ll need to add more stock.
• Add in the vegetables, half of the cheese, and 1 tbsp of butter. Stir well, remove from heat, cover, and allow to sit on off of the heat for 3-5 minutes. Add the parsley and stir.
• Spoon into dishes, garnish with shrimp (if desired) and a snow of freshly-grated Parmesan.

Chocolate Coconut Crème Brûlée (dairy-free)

It’s no secret that I’m obsessed with Crème Brûlée. If I go to a restaurant, and it’s on the dessert menu, I’m picking that above everything else. Done deal.

I make a pretty mean one, myself. It’s taken me quite a while to really perfect my recipe, but I’m pretty happy with it.

One small problem. If you have a dairy allergy, or are lactose intolerant, you can’t eat Crème Brûlée. And that makes me very sad. So I set out to see if I could make a dairy-free version, and after some experimenting, by golly, I did it!

Oops! I did it again!

The key to this recipe is coconut cream. Not coconut milk. I tried making it with coconut milk, and the consistency and texture didn’t quite work. It was delicious, but runny, a bit like a warm chocolate coconut soup. You can find coconut cream in your local asian supermarket, beside the cans of coconut milk. Use high-quality cocoa powder for this, the nice, dark kind.

I think you’ll find the flavors of coconut and chocolate play nicely together.

Chocolate Coconut Crème Brûlée

Ingredients:

• 200 ml (1/2 can) of coconut cream (you can find this in your local Asian supermarket, beside the coconut milk)
• 2 egg yolks
• 1/4 cup white sugar, plus more for the brulee
• 2 tbsp good quality dark cocoa powder
• 1 tsp vanilla (optional)

Method:

• Pre-heat your oven to 300 degrees, and boil a kettle full of water.
• In a medium, heavy-bottomed-saucepan, heat the coconut cream slowly over low- to medium-heat, just to the point where it is steaming, but not yet boiling. Remove from the heat and allow to cool for a couple of minutes.
• Add the cocoa to the warm cream, making sure to put it through a sieve first, to get rid of all the lumps.
• In a separate bowl, add the sugar to the eggs and whip until the eggs are pale. Add the vanilla and whip a bit more.
• Take a few tablespoons of the hot cream and add to the egg mixture and mix well. Then, slowly add the egg mixture into the cream, whisking continuously. Place back  on low heat for about five minutes. Do not let it boil!
• Arrange two small ramekins in a square baking dish. Strain the creme mixture into something with a pourable spout (I use a 2-cup pyrex measuring cup), and pour the creme into each of the ramekins, until they are about 3/4 full.
• Place the pan in the oven, then pour the boiling water into the pan, so that it surrounds the ramekins, and comes about 2/3 of the way up them.
• Bake for about 25 minutes, or until the center is set.
• Refrigerate overnight, or at least for a few hours.
• To “brulee:” pour a thin layer of white sugar all over the surface of the pudding. Burn it with your torch! (it’s the fun part). If you don’t have a brulee torch, you can use the broiler, but the results are slightly less accurate.
• Crack and enjoy!

“Lazy” Cioppino

I have the most beautiful friends!

My friend Farzana is addicted, yes, addicted, to the Cioppino at Brioche. She is also the person, who, of all of my vegan/gluten free friends, is the hardest to cook for. You see, she’s got some pretty severe allergies: dairy, soy, gluten, pineapple, and because of her religion, she doesn’t eat pork. Cioppino, however, doesn’t contain any of those things, so I thought I’d have her over one night for dinner and try my hand…

Cioppino (say “chow-pee-no”)  is a fish stew that originates from San Francisco. I’ve eaten some pretty great Cioppino, some of which has been in San Fransisco, but I gotta admit, the Brioche version is pretty fine.

The secret to a good Cioppino is a stock that has simmered for a long, long time, combined with really fresh seafood. Don’t skimp on the quality of your fish stock. It adds an extra dimension to the flavor of the dish.

This is a lazy version for two reasons: first, I use the slow cooker to make the stock, and second, I use frozen seafood instead of the in-shell kind.

The end result will warm you to the cockles (get it??) of your heart.

(adapted from “Not Your Mother’s Slow Cooker Cookbook”)

Ingredients

• 8 cups fish stock (I used a homemade vegetable stock I had already made and frozen, and then added the shrimp shells to it, as well as some clam nectar, and let it simmer for about an hour)
• 1 medium onion, diced
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 large can of diced tomatoes
• 1/2-1 cup red wine
• 1-2 tbsp fresh chopped herbs, like oregano, basil or Italian parsley
• bay leaf
• hot pepper flakes to taste
• 1-2 tbsp soy sauce, Worcestershire or Tamari (Tarmari makes it gluten-free)
• One bag 450 ish grams of mixed, frozen seafood–defrosted (mine had cuttlefish/squid, mussels, scallops, and shrimp. I got it at the Superstore, but I’ve also seen them at the Asian supermarkets, like T & T)
• 10-12 large raw shrimp, deveined and peeled
• A chunk of solid fish like cod or salmon, cut into 1-2″ pieces

Method

• In a frying pan over medium heat, add a couple of tablespoons of olive oil. When the oil is heated, add your diced onions, season, stir, and let saute for about five minutes. Add the garlic and allow to saute for another couple of minutes, until fragrant. Add the hot pepper flakes.
• Into the slow cooker, dump your onion mixture, your stock, wine, and the can of tomatoes, along with the bay leaf. Cook on low for 6 hours or high for 4. You want the sauce to be fairly uniform, so that the chunks of tomato are mostly blended in and unrecognizable. You may want to use an immersion blender here for a bit. Finally, add in the soy sauce (or Worcestershire or Tamari) and most of the herbs. Give this a good stir. The colour of the stock should be a dark red, almost brown.
• Now add in your seafood. Mix well, then put the lid on, and allow it to cook on high for about 30 minutes. Finally, test for seasoning, and adjust.
• Serve in a large bowl with a sprinkling of fresh herbs and a crusty baguette to sop up all the broth.