Author: Lynn

Happy Canada Day!

~ Lynn ~ Leave a comment

This is probably the coldest Canada Day I have ever experienced, the high for today is just 17 degrees! (that’s about 62F). For the rest of Canada, that might put a damper on the Canada Day Festivities, but here in Montreal we celebrate Canada Day by moving. I don’t know why everyone in the city moves on the same day every year considering the chaos that ensues, but we do. I personally am not going anywhere, but some friends of mine have just come back from two years in Australia and I’m off to help them get their apartment all cleaned up. I’m really anxious to see them, and meet the son they had while they were down there!

Maybe afterwards we can hed down to the Old Port for some Beaver Tails! Don’t worry, there is no beaver meat involved in a beaver tail, just yummy deep-fried dough covered with a variety of sweet toppings.

Happy Canada Day!

Raspberry Crumb Bars

~ Lynn ~ 22 Comments

I spent a couple of days happily munching on my Quebec raspberries, but I realized I’d have to actually do something with them or they would go to waste. What to do, what to do? A memory of recipe for raspberry bars popped into my mind, and thankfully I had bookmarked it. The recipe for these raspberry crumb bars is courtesy of Smitten Kitchen. I should have realized, most of my bookmarked recipes come from there.

These bars were really easy to make. The recipe says to pulse everything in a food processor, but since I only have a mini one I mixed everything together with my hands. I think a pastry cutter would have worked too. I made a couple of other small changes; I swapped whole wheat flour for all purpose, cut back on the sugar, and baked them in a smaller pan. These bars are deeelicious. The tartness of the raspberries is perfectly cut by the sweetness of the oats. I had a hard time not eating them all as soon as I cut them.

Raspberry Crumb Bars

Adapted from Smitten Kitchen, who adapted it from Baked: New Frontiers in Baking

Crust

  • 1 1/2 cup whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/4 cup quick oats
  • 3/4 packed brown sugar
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 3/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
  1. Preheat oven to 375.
  2. Put all ingredients in a large bowl, mix with your fingertips or a pastry cutter until well combined (mixture will be crumbly)
  3. Press half the crust mixture into an 8×8 inch pan lined with parchment paper. Bake 12 to 15 minutes.

Raspberry Filling

  • 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
  • zest and juice of one lemon
  • 1/2 tsp cinnamon
  • 2 tbsp whole wheat flour
  • 1 pound raspberries
  • 2 tbsp unsalted butter, melted
  1. In a medium bowl, mix sugar, flour, cinnamon, lemon juice and zest, and butter together.
  2. Add raspberries to mixture, toss gently till all the raspberries are covered.
  3. Once bottom crust has baked for 12 minutes, cover with raspberry mixture and then with remaining crumb mixture. Press the crumb down gently.
  4. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes.
  5. Let cool completely before cutting into bars. Seriously. It will be tough, but if you cut them too soon they will just fall apart.

Enjoy!

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Bonne St-Jean!

~ Lynn ~ 8 Comments

Quebec raspberries! Perfectly imperfect. The first of the year according to the guy at the market. (I’m pretty sure all the other guys were taking american raspberries and throwing them in Produit du Quebec baskets, they look fresh from the grocery store)

It’s St-Jean Baptiste Day here in Quebec, also known as Fete Nationale (National Hoilday). Last night most of the province was out partying. Today people generally have a BBQ and share a few beers. It’s pretty wet out there though, so I decided to just stay home and clean. When my mom called to ask if I wanted to go to Marché 440 with her and my dad I was 99% sure it would be closed, but I said yes just to get out of the house.

Turns out I was wrong.

My trip to the market was unexpected, so I wasn’t looking for anything in particular. I decided to only buy products from Quebec, and ended up with a pretty random collection.

Quebec Radishes.

Pretty little multi-coloured carrots.

Quebec Asparagus.

Now, what do I do with all this stuff?

Quinoa and Veggie Stuffed Portobellos

~ Lynn ~ 6 Comments

My eating habits haven’t exactly been super healthy lately. It’s not that I’ve been eating junk food, but I’ve been eating out a lot, having quite a few drinks, and there was this, and this, and that. So I’m trying to come up with tasty but healthy homemade meals. tonight’s was definitely tasty, and I believe it would qualify as healthy. Portobello mushrooms stuffed with quinoa, zucchini, peppers and spinach.

I usually stuff Portobello’s with italian sausage, so to get that flavour without the fatty sausage, I fried the zucchini in onion and garlic with some fennel seeds and hot pepper flakes. The mushrooms can’t hold enough liquid to cook the quinoa, so I cooked it while frying the zucchini. Then I combined all the ingredients and a bit of pureed tomato, filled the mushrooms, topped them with a bit of mozzarella and baked them at 450 for 10 minutes.

Back to Black (Forest Cake)

~ Lynn ~ 11 Comments

Growing up I had two favourite cakes, Fraisier and Black Forest. For some reason no one makes the Black Forest anymore. Maybe it’s because of the canned cherry filling that most recipes call for. This is me trying to bring the Black Forest back.

I made this cake for Father’s Day. I don’t want to brag or anything, but I have the best dad ever. Ever. So I wanted to make him a really beautiful cake. Sadly, the heat and humidity made icing the cake very complicated. It ended up not quite as pretty as I imagined, but still very very tasty.

The idea to make Black Forest Cake started with my lack of control when it comes to buying fruit. I had way to many cherries to eat by myself before they went bad, so I decided to try to preserve them. I pitted them, then covered them in sugar and amaretto. I let them sit in the fridge for a couple of days, and discovered they were delicious. I used these for the filling.

Black Forest Cake

Cherry Filling

  • Pitted cherries, soaked in amaretto, plus the juices.
  • 1/4 cup water
  • juice of one lemon
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1 tbsp cornstarch
  1. Put all ingredients a medium saucepan, bring to a boil. Simmer until liquid starts to thicken.
  2. Cover in plastic wrap and let cool completely.
  3. Set aside till ready to assemble the cake.

Cream topping

  • 1 cup whipping cream
  • 1 tbsp icing sugar
  1. Whip cream till starting to thicken.
  2. Add icing sugar, continue whipping till stiff.
  3. Set aside till ready to assemble.

Amaretto Soaking Syrup

  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup amaretto
  1. Combine all ingredients in a small sauce pan. Simmer for five minutes
  2. Let cool and set aside till ready to assemble.

Chocolate Genoise

  • 4 tbsp unsalted butter, melted.
  • 6 eggs
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 1 cup flour
  • 1/3 cup cocoa powder
  1. In a heat proof bowl combine eggs and sugar. Place bowl over pot of simmering water and whisk the egg mixture constantly until it reaches 130 to 140 degrees.
  2. Take eggs off the heat and whisk them with an electric mixer until they have quadrupled in volume (5 to 8 minutes)
  3. Preheat oven to 350.
  4. Take 2 tablespoons of the whipped eggs and combine with the melted butter.
  5. Sift the flour and cocoa together. Fold them into the egg mixture in 2 or 3 additions.
  6. Fold the butter in.
  7. Pour into a greased 9 in pan.
  8. Bake for 30 minutes.

Assembly

  1. Once the cake has cooled completely, slice it in half.
  2. Using half of the syrup, soak the bottom layer of the cake.
  3. Cover with cherry filling
  4. Cover with 1/3 of the whipped cream
  5. Place top layer of cake on.
  6. Soak with remaining syrup
  7. Cover top and sides of cake with remaining whipped cream.
  8. Garnish with fresh cherries.

Enjoy!

A Montreal Breakfast

~ Lynn ~ 4 Comments

Happy Fathers Day!

I’ve got a cake for my dad baking in the oven. In the mean time I thought I would share a classic Montreal breakfast. A Fairmount bagel with cream cheese and smoked salmon.

Fairmount and St Viateur both make their bagels fresh all day, every day. I won’t get into a discussion on which is better, as they are both excellent, nor will get into a discussion on Montreal vs New York bagels because that might lead to some serious arguments. All I will say is that Montreal bagels are smaller, denser, sweeter and baked in a wood fire oven which gives them a great flavour.

Enjoy!

American Cuisine

~ Lynn ~ 5 Comments

To celebrate Independence Day, Casey at Eating, Gardening & Living in Bulgaria has challenged us to make something that we think is American cuisine. If anyone wants to participate just let her know by June 27th , all posts must be submitted by July 3rd.

I signed up as soon as I saw the event, and ever since then I’ve been thinking about what american cuisine is.

It’s a tough question. My first thoughts went to burgers and fries, but that seems to simplistic. Many different cultures have come together to make up american cuisine, but does that mean I can just make an italian dish and call it american? Of course not, something about it has to make it american.

Then there is the question of regional dishes. Does New England Clam Chowder count as american? How about some gumbo? A nice bowl of chilli?

So I’m putting the question out there to you. What is american cuisine?

Strawberry Rhubarb Swirl Pound Cake

~ Lynn ~ 10 Comments

I enjoy occasionally making fancy desserts like mille feuilles, but most of the time what I bake is more along the lines of a loaf or muffins. Maybe the occasional bundt cake. I like things that are simple yet delicious.

What could be more simple and delicious than a pound cake filled with strawberry rhubarb compote?

There are a lot of pound cake recipes out there, all tend to have basically the same ingredients, but vary in technique. I’ve tried a few of them out. The Cook Illustrated recipe is delicious, but involves a thermometer, which just seems silly. Its pound cake, grandmothers around the world have been making it forever with their eyes closed!

The thing about pound cake is that you can’t rush it, otherwise you’ll end up with a very dense heavy cake. So make sure you’re ingredients are at room temp, and cream the butter and sugar together for at least five minutes, till they really are light and fluffy looking (no shortcuts!)

My favourite recipe is pretty simple, and can easily be adapted to make it new and exciting. You can add some spices, make it chocolaty, or even a classic lemon. This time I decided to add a swirl of strawberry rhubarb compote to this one, to give it a spring time feel.

Strawberry Rhubarb Compote

  • 2 cups of rhubarb, sliced
  • 1 pint of strawberries
  • ½ cup sugar
  • ¼ cup water
  • Juice of half a lemon
  1. In a large saucepot, bring all the ingredients to boil for 5 minutes, then simmer for 15. Stir frequently.
  2. Let cool till ready to use.

Strawberry Rhubarb Swirl Pound Cake

  • 2 sticks butter
  • 1 cup sugar
  • 5 eggs, separated
  • 1 tsp vanilla
  • 2 cups flour
  • 1 tsp baking powder
  • ½ tsp salt
  • ½ cup strawberry rhubarb compote.
  1. Cream butter till shiny, about 3 minutes. Add half the sugar, cream until well combined, then add the rest of the sugar. Cream until light a fluffy.
  2. Add egg yolk one at a time, making sure well combined after each addition. Add vanilla.
  3. In a separate bowl, whip egg whites to soft peaks, set aside.
  4. In another bowl, stir together the dry ingredients.
  5. Add the dry ingredients to the butter and egg yolk mixture by hand. Don’t over mix.
  6. Fold in the egg whites. Make sure they are well combined.
  7. Place 1/3 of the batter in a greased loaf pan, then spread half the strawberry rhubarb compote. Place another 1/3 of the batter in the pan and cover with the second half of the compote. Top with remaining batter. Using a butter knife, cut a ziz zag pattern through the dough to create a swirl.
  8. Bake at 350 for 1 hour 15 minutes.

The cake will keep for a few days wrapped in parchment. If it starts to dry out, its great toasted with some jam.

Blueberry Raspberry Mille Feuilles

~ Lynn ~ 6 Comments

I’ve been waiting for an occasion to make this dessert for a while, but nothing ever seemed right. Then yesterday I realized a simple meal with good friends is always an occasion to eat a pretty dessert.

This has a lot of components, but each of them is very easy to do, and a lot of it can be done in advance. I based this recipe on Anna Olson’s Cranberry Mille Feuilles. I have to say this was yumm-ie. I had the leftovers for breakfast this morning (I think that’s fine because it has fruit and the custard is made with eggs and milk, so I got all my major food groups).

I sent Janice a sneak preview pic, and she asked me to let her know if I figure out the optimal way to eat mille feuilles. I don’t think there is an optimal way, you just have to get your hands in there and hope not to make too much of a mess. If anyone out there has a technique, please let me know.

Blueberry Raspberry Mille Feuilles

Pastry Cream

  • 3/4 cup milk
  • 1/4 cup heavy cream
  • 1 tsp vanilla extract
  • 2 strips of lemon peel
  • 4 egg yolks
  • 2 tbsp sugar
  • 3 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1/2 cup heavy cream, whipped
  1. Put milk, cream, vanilla and lemon strips in a large sauce pan. Bring to a simmer.
  2. Meanwhile, in a large bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch together.
  3. Once milk has simmered, add it to egg mixture one laddle full at a time, whisking constantly. Be careful not to add to much hot liquid in the first addition so that the eggs don’t scramble.
  4. Return the mixture to the sauce pan on medium high heat. Whisk vigorously until the custard has thickened.
  5. Cover with plastic wrap and cool.
  6. Once completely cooled pull out lemon pieces and fold in whipped cream. Cover in plastic wrap and refrigerate until ready to assemble.

Blueberry Raspberry

  • 1/2 cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1/2 cup raspberries (fresh or frozen)
  • 1/4 cup water
  • 1/2 cup sugar
  • 1/2 tsp cardamom (you could also use cinnamon)
  • 1 tbsp rum
  • 1 tbsp lemon juice
  1. Put all ingredients in a large sauce pan. Bring to a boil for 5 minutes, then let simmer for 10 minutes. Stir often.
  2. Cover in plastic wrap and let cool till ready to assemble.

Puff Pastry

  • 1 package puff pastry
  • flour for dusting
  1. Preheat oven to 375 F
  2. Cut the puff pastry into 3 equal sized pieces. Roll each out till 1/4 cm thick. Cut them into equal sized shapes ( I did rectangles because that way they would all fit on one baking sheet, Anna did an 8 inch squares).
  3. Place puff pastry on a baking sheet, dock the pastry (poke little holes with a fork), cover with parchment paper and then weight the pastry (I used beans, if you have another baking sheet that will fit on top that works too). Bake with the weights for 12 minutes. Remove weights and bake for 10 to 12 more minutes.
  4. Let cool completely and assemble.


Assembly

  1. On one layer of puff pastry, spread half of the pastry cream, and then top with the fruit mixture.
  2. Top with second sheet of puff pastry, and cover with remaining pastry cream and some of the fruit mixture.
  3. Place last sheet of puff pastry, top with some fresh berries and a dusting of icing sugar.

The original recipe called for one layer of cream and one layer of fruit, but my fruit mixture was much too liquidy for that to work. If your fruit mixture is thicker (you could add gelatin), I think that would make a very pretty presentation.

A Taste of Portugal

~ Lynn ~ 9 Comments

Portugal Day is finally here!

One of my favourite places to eat is Jano, a Portuguese grill on St Laurent. Everything is always perfectly cooked, with a wonderful grilled flavour. And the piri piri sauce .. oh. my. god. soo good.

I thought I had seen piri piri sauce at Loblaws, but its turns out all they have is piri piri chips (also delicious). So I decided to make my own piri piri. (Can you tell I like saying piri piri?).

Piri Piri

  • 1/2 cup hot peppers
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/4 cup vinegar
  • 1/2 oil
  • tsp salt

Directions

  1. Finely dice the hot peppers and garlic. I used 2 scotch bonnet, which is less than what the recipe calls for, but those little guys are HOT.
  2. Combine all ingredients in a small jar. Stir and let sit in the fridge for one week for the flavours to combine.
  3. Use a brush to spread over grilled meats.

Scotch Bonnets are cute but really hot. Based on my experience with these I would say leave the hot sauce making to the professionals. Or at the very least, wear gloves while working with them. My hands were burning for hours after dicing them.

The solution to the burning? Hand sanitizer. Because I didn’t use actual piri piri peppers (an African pepper), the sauce tasted a little different than the original, but still quite good.

Piri Piri sauce goes great with chicken, but I wasn’t able to find a recipe that I liked, so I just used a smoked paprika marinade and roasted the chicken, and made a portuguese side dish, Peixinhos da Horta, deep-fried green beans. The recipe for the green beans and the piri piri both come from Leite’s Culinaria.

Deep Fried Green Beans

  • 1/2 pound green beans, cleaned and blanched.
  • 1/2 cup flour
  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1 egg
  • 1/2 tsp baking powder
  • salt
  • oil for frying

Directions

  1. Combine the flour, water, egg, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Mix until smooth.
  2. Dip green beans in batter, cover completely.
  3. Fry in 350 F oil for 3 to 4 minutes, turning the green beans to make sure they brown evenly.

I also made Pasteis de Nata, using this recipe, but they were an epic baking fail. The recipe says to bake them at 300 F for 15, but after 15 minutes they weren’t even close to done. I bumped the temp up to 350 for another 15 minutes, still not enough. The custard never set, and the puff pastry was barely cooked through. I think they need to be baked at at least 400 F to get that caramalized top. One recipe I found after the disaster even said 550 F. I will try again, as the custard itself tasted great. And honestly, ordering more than one of these in a restaurant is a little embarrassing, but I could eat at least 10 all to my self.  At least.

Trying out different portuguese recipes was a lot of fun. Thanks to Casey for organizing the event. Be sure to check out her blog on June 1oth to see what everyone else made!