smells like christmas

This holiday I cheated and used a boxed gingerbread cookie mix. I have a few of these shortcuts I use during the holidays because it makes life easier. Next year I may use gravy in a package as I had a lot of difficulty this year getting the right consistency. These little shortcuts are vital to my holiday sanity.

When the dust begins to settle I return to making things from scratch. One of which was Nigella’s Sticky Gingerbread. It was therapeutic to shred fresh ginger and boil molasses with corn syrup. It smelt like Christmas and made enough for an entire cake sheet! It also filled the house with the smell of yummy gingerbread goodness as it baked who needs scented candles? I brought it to J’s family’s Christmas dinner. It was a huge hit. It was sweet, moist and had a strong spicey flavour. The recipe was even requested J’s aunt who is an amazing cook and has her own amazing cooking repertoire. I still have some left over and steal away little pieces through out the day in order to savour that taste of Christmas. A+

And now for something healthy

I know I go on and on about Nigella’s indulgent streak, but she also can whip up something healthy and delicious. In order to offset the cakes, brownies, candies from the holidays I found this simple fruit salad recipe. The Antioxidant Fruit Salad consisted of mangoes; blueberries and pomegranate seeds with some honey and lime juice. It was simple, easy and looked beautiful. You can’t really go wrong with that combination even my granny ate it except for the pomegranate seeds (dentures). Delish. A+

finally got to use our hammer

Every Christmas I try to make an edible gifts for my friends. This year I had so many choices and couldn't make up my mind.  I decided to go ahead with a combination of items and create a tasting box. I made Smitten Kitchen’s Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies (the best choco chip cookies ever), her buckeyes (I had a graham cracker fail, which resulted in me ditching half the tray), Nigella’s lava cakes and gingerbread owls. After I ditched the buckeyes I looked for a proper peanut replacement and found Nigella’s Peanut Brittle.

I forgot how much I love corn syrup. As I watched the golden syrup pour out I couldn’t help but dip my finger in for a quick lick. I didn't grow up on maple syrup I had syrup and corn syrup both delicious but crazy high in sugar. I used maple now but every once in awhile the craving for the super sweet sneaks in. It was an easy recipe to do and quick, but really sticky. I think I need to work on the caramel/candy part a bit more as it only stayed solid when I froze it, once it came to room temperature it became a gooey mess.

When I finally took out the brittle from the freezer I gleefully took our lovely hammer covered the brittle with parchment paper and went to town. If you've ever had any cooking frustrations make a brittle and smash it to small pieces. Trust me you'll feel better.

Despite the fact that I couldn’t get the brittle to be harden at room temp it still tasted good. So B+.

the holiday dessert breakdown

Okay, last day of the year. Here are 3 posts about the desserts Nigella helped me make for the holidays. Enjoy. Just watched Julie and Julia last night so "Bon Appetite!"

fully loaded goodness

I know I mentioned this before but Nigella really does rock the delicious-but-not-so-good-for you category of food. Years ago J used to make a loaded potato skins recipe and they were delicious, but that recipe has nothing on Nigella's fully loaded potato skins. It even elicited a compliment from my Dad.

These skins are a bit fussy but well worth the effort. After roasting them for an hour you scoop out the delicious potato centre and mix it with sour cream, cheese, spring onions, salt and pepper and they key ingredient Worcestershire sauce. The final element is crumbly bacon. I had to keep getting new spoons as I kept eating the filling each time I filled a potato skin. Delicious...I think I may have used that word at least 4 times in this post.

What I have been enjoying about Nigella Christmas and Simple Chinese Cooking is that these books are not only beautiful and big but they also offer helpful tips to make your cooking experience easier. This is especially important during the holiday season when I depend on food items that are make aheads. A++ I wish I had saved some filling so I could eat it now as I write.

full steam ahead

One of my favourite Chinese food utensils is the bamboo steamer. We bought one ages ago and have rarely ever used it. Luckily for me J kept it in the move. I busted it out for my next 2 recipes from Kylie: steamed fish fillets with ginger and spring onions and steamed silken tofu with ginger and spring onions. Both were very similar in technique and had the signature Chinese flavours of ginger, spring onions and soy sauce. Both were light and tasty but the fish was definitely an eye opener for me more than the tofu. The tofu was a bit plain.

I live in the burbs so finding a good fishmonger can be hard and then you throw in the Sustainable Seafood Guide and you choice of fish becomes even more limited (for the better of course). The local Chinese supermarket has an excellent fish counter but I have a thing about live fish. When I was in grade 7 my parents took us back to Hong Kong to visit the Motherland. My grandma hustled my sister and I out to the Chinese market to buy the freshest of ingredients. Amongst the squawks of the chickens and the yelling of the stall vendors were rows of fish all iced. I believe the vendor meant to show us how fresh everything was but instead he traumatized me. He grabbed a live one, sliced it in half as if it was paper and splayed the fish out for all to see. The organs were still moving. I have avoided fish counters at Chinese supermarkets for that reason, although I doubt that behaviour would be permissible in a suburban supermarket. But with my new attempt at cooking I needed to overcome that. But this recipe was not the one to alleviate my fears. I ordered a nice little fish no head this time and headed home. The recipe was easy since it was filets. Hey i'm working in baby steps people.

Kylie's book is filled with amazing how-to images and it's good for a home cook. The instructions are simple and easy to follow. It helps that that book is larger than most cookbooks and the paper is amazing. This is how all cookbooks should be made.

There is one major thing I learned from this recipe: the heating of oil. After everything is cooked you plate your food then heat peanut oil in a small frying pan until moderately hot. Then you pour it over the fish releasing the flavours and giving it an extra punch. It was a revelation for me and when I mentioned it to my Dad he shrugged and said that's how it's always been done. Now I happily carry this tip in my heart as a sign that I'm finding my way to my inner Chinese cook. A for the fish, a B for the tofu.

cheesy macaroni and cheese

I can always count on Nigella for something yummy and indulgent. I was instantly drawn to her Macaroni Cheese De Luxe. I was raised on Kraft Macaroni and Cheese and have found that there was something comforting about the florescent orange tone of the powder cheese and noodles. Nigella offered a make ahead option which I gladly took so that I wouldn't be rushed on the day of the party.

As I strolled through the supermarket there were 3 cheeses the recipe requested. I spent a good portion in the cheese section deciding on what cheeses to use (sharp cheddar, emmental and parmesan). I bought shredded parmesan (I can't handle the smell of parmesan, childhood trauma). Be warned this recipe makes two huge trays. I split it in 2 for 2 separate parties and froze them. What came out was exactly what I expect from Nigella: yummy, warm, indulgent cheesy goodness. It looked as good as it tasted.

Later that night after the kitchen was clean and I was tucked in bed I imagined sneaking down into the kitchen late at night to grab a bite of this decadent treat just like Nigella. Lucky for my waistline I was too exhausted to get out of bed. A+

christmas meal making

Last year we began hosting Christmas at our house for both friends and family. We had just moved into our lovely/big new home and wanted to show it off and now it's become more of a tradition. On the advice of J's aunt I bought a Butterball turkey and it came out flawless and delicious. Cooking the turkey was the easy part, defrosting it was another thing. Did you know some turkeys take days to defrost? Last year I had to get up every half an hour through out the night to refresh the cold bath for the turkey in order for it to speed defrost in time and I was still pulling out ice chunks from it's cavity right before cooking. This year I learned my lesson but still had to speed defrost part way through, but luckily not through the night.

I know fresh is better but I was too late last year and this year I bought it ahead of time in order to not repeat last year's mistake. A fresh bird also takes up too much space in my already cramped fridge. Next year I'm going to try it and brining now that I've got about 5 turkeys under my belt.

On the surface of our Christmas dinners everything seems lovely and calm. The kitchen, however, looks like a bomb went off and my nerves are always slightly frayed. When everyone is finally sitting down eating I start to feel better.

I was also always behind schedule. This year I managed to overcome the timing hump and had the turkey out and ready when my family arrived. I think it had a lot to do with the sides I chose, I needed something delicious and easy, lucky for me Nigella came to the rescue. Now I just need to work out timing so that all the food is warm when it's time to eat.

For a the friend party I did a mix of the indulgent and healthy. First off was the red salad. A delicious combo of red wine vinegar, kidney beans (protein), red onion, parsley and sweet cherry tomatoes.This simple assembly idea was easy to do but could have used a bit more pizazz. In the end I added more salt and pepper but I think a splash of balsamic could have given it the lift it needed. It had a fresh taste and was a good change from the turkey-potato combo. Plus it took no time and looked Christmas-y with it's green and red colours. I paired it with Gluten Free Girl's potato puree which was super rich with full fat cream and butter and very delicious. B+ for the red salad and A+ for the potato puree.

end of the year hustle

I've been running around cooking for the holidays and haven't had a chance to really blog. I picked up the last key items for my final recipe from Kylie for the year. Oyster mushroom, hokkien noodles and a red onion. Can't wait to whip up this easy stir fry. More posts to follow.

more chicken...

We've been eating a lot of chicken. Mainly because I've tried to minimize the red meat in our life and because J likes meat with dinner. Simple Chinese Cooking offers tons of protein options and categorizes them into separate sections. I thought I would try the stir-fried chicken filets with cashews. Kylie says this is frequently ordered in Chinese restaurants but I'm not entirely convinced as I don't remember ever eating this.

Needless to say this appealed to me because I love cashews and I had a cucumber in the fridge. Done and done. I followed the directions religiously (a first for me) and found this very simple to do. It's a little greasy because it's stir-fried but greasy Chinese food doesn't bother me. Some of my favourite dishes have had that glossy oil shine.

When all was said and it done it looked fantastic but when we went to eat it, it was super salty. Thinking I might have read it wrong I tried it again a week later. I reduced the 2 teaspoons of salt asked for by half but It was still salty. I'm still working it out. Luckily the rice cut the salt down but it still needs to be tweaked to reduce salt and grease. Despite all of that it still tasted delicious, like a greasy spoon meal with a Chinese twist. This recipe gets a B.

what i've been up to...

December has always been a crazy month both personally and professionally. At the end of the week I usually collapse on the couch and enter a television stupor. As the weekend progresses I find that couch potato-ing is not enough and turn to my other stress reliever: food. I find baking relaxing. There is something therapeutic in filling a scoop with fluffy flour and leveling it off.

For the past two months I've whipped up baked goods on what I like to call "the Sunday bake". I've made loafs, cookies and brownies amongst other baked goodies. Martha Stewart released her annual holiday magazine and this year's theme was cookies. I love cookies because they are small sugary bite size goodness...my mouth is watering just thinking about it. I went back and forth between smoked bacon ginger cookies and macarons...macarons won out.

Thanks goodness for my KitchenAid! I have literally burned through four hand mixers in my history of baking. I've tried cheap to mid-level ones. My relationship with them has always been tenuous and has always ended with a terrible burning smell. When my last one began to go up in smoke I decided that I had to fully commit to the KitchenAid. I haven't in the past because it was heavy and a bit cumbersome, but it really came in handy with the macarons. I spent 90% of the cook time whipping the eggs. After my first attempt was successful I decided that this would be my hostess/host gift for the holidays. I have done a mixture of black tea (cream of avalon or earl grey)-apricot jam macarons and chocolate-strawberry jam ones. Although these are not as good as Lauduree I'm still really happy with them, especially with a nice sprinkle of curry. Yum! I'm still figuring out some transport aspects but overall A+.

poaching a chicken

When it comes to Chinese food I have a few comfort foods that remind me of home. This soy sauce chicken is one of them. I had conquered my fear of cooking the whole chicken a year a go when I did Gluten Free Girl's rosemary-lemon roast chicken. In fact I found it easier than cooking chicken pieces and very satisfying as you pull the lovely golden chicken out of the oven. I had never poached a chicken before but I thought it couldn't be harder than roasting a chicken. I was wrong. First of all you need a HUGE pot to put a whole chicken in and you have to be more precise. Precision is not really my thing. But this recipe was pretty straight forward. You poach for 40 minutes and then you steep it in the pot for 3 hours! I had visions of salmonella dancing in my head.

In addition to trying this new technique the recipes requires you to make a stock in which you can use over and over again. In fact it says the sauce will become "deeper and richer" with every additional use. I'm going to be honest here I work on a food magazine and we are often confronted with food safety warnings. I strongly doubt this recipe would pass inspection.

Never did I imagine that so many sauces and elements needed to go in to create it something I thought was so simple. Kylie asks you to arrange a variety of ingredients to create this master stock but I think it was worth it. After my 3 hour wait I pulled it out and it was beautiful and delicious. Plus I was able to follow the book's amazing visual step-by-step to chop the chicken Chinese-style. Thank goodness I had the Chinese kitchen staple: a cleaver (thanks Grandma)! This chicken wasn't exactly like home (too much star anise), but it was a nice start for my Chinese cooking repertoire. I give it an A.

double bill

I've been negligent with my writing. With the holidays and work everything gets so busy and it's so much easier to do take out instead of actually cooking. To make it up I will do a double bill and we're half way through the month. In conjunction with Kylie's Simple Chinese Cookimg I will also do Nigella Christmas. Nigella and I go way back to when I picked up her cookbook How to Be a Domestic Goddess. I was intent on making her fairy cakes, but ended up making her lava cakes which I still make to this day. I have a few of her books Feast and Nigella Express. I love that she loves food and doesn't care if it's bad for you plus her food always tastes delicious. With all the new cookbooks out there I have kind of forgotten about her but this holiday I am bringing her back in all her glory. There truly is no better time to indulge than the holidays and there is no one else I'd rather do it with than her.

returning to my chinese roots

I was raised on homemade Chinese food. My dad would come home after work and whip up a simple but delicious meal. I never expressed any interest in what he made as I was growing up and at times wished something other than rice. As I have gotten older I have begun to appreciate the meals he made, the simple yet intricate flavours but I never made any effort to learn how he did it. When I finally asked him to tell me how he did it I realized that he made everything freestyle. He could open the fridge and whip up something, the recipes were burnt into his memory and that he never made anything the same way.

I am ashamed to say I don't really know how to make anything Chinese food related. I grew up complacent about it and thought it would just come naturally to me after watching my Dad all these years. Reality is that this type of cooking does not just spring from my mind and despite the fact that I have the trappings of traditional Chinese cooking (large cleaver, wok, bamboo steamer, rice cooker) I have no idea how to go beyond making rice or stir fry. I am determined to change that with the help of Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking.

This book is big and beautiful, the recipes are simple and familiar. It also comes with a good Chinese food primer. Armed with the book I went to T&T and picked up bottles of soy sauce, vinegar and cooking wine I am ready to return to my Chinese roots.

asian pear tart

The one thing I can do is bake. I've made crisps, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, brownies, you name it, except for pie. I made a rhubarb strawberry pie once. The filling was fine but the crust could have definitely used some TLC. There was my lazy rolling job, there was cracking and some major shrinkage. It was terrible and sloppy. Discouraged I opted to only use frozen pie crust which was okay but in now way as good as homemade.

I have always enjoyed the texture and mildly sweet taste of the Asian pear. I love that they come in the styrofoam nets and the juices that drip down your face as you take your first bite. So when I saw this I was no 100% sure but the photo was enticing.

Easiest pie crust I have ever made! That's all I have to say. GFG suggests shredding the frozen butter into your flour mixture. It worked so well and because it was GF I could easily mend the dough as I placed it into the tart pan. I blind baked (another first) and cut up my Asian Pears at ease and happy. The book asked for concentric circles and I'm mathematically inept so I made up my own pattern. Voila a yummy gluten free tart! That and a scoop of vanilla ice cream and you're set. Is there really anything else to say? A++

pasta!

I'm a dry pasta kind of girl and I rarely use fresh. I was using whole wheat pasta and missing delicious white pasta. Then I went gluten free and I'm not loving rice pasta it is sticky and they clump together. I've grown up loving pasta, longing for pasta when faced with rice every night. My mom felt that I should have been born Italian.

Everything was super easy and it was moving along well until it's time for me to roll out the dough. I try to avoid recipes that involved rolling, I'm a lazy roller. I busted out the beautiful dusty marble roller my mom bought me. After 10 minutes of rolling and groaning about rolling until I thought it was thin enough. I do not have a pasta machine so busted out my pizza cutter and rolled out fettuccine-like pasta. It was still quite thick...boo! So I continued to cut and then roll out the noodles again making them a little thinner. Ah, the lazy woman's pasta.

GFG warns that GF pasta needs to be watched. It's good one minute and then it's mush the next so I watched it like a hawk. FYI water does not boil when you are watching. The pasta came out yummy and just firm enough. I tossed it into pesto. Simple, delicious and gluten free. I'm converted to fresh and am now on a hunt for a pasta machine. A+

gluten free bread - fail

I love the smell of warm filling the house with all it's yummy goodness. I used a bread maker for awhile and then switched over to hand made loafs. I loved watching it grow as it sat for 2 hours and then seeing it brown in the oven. When I decided to cut gluten out fresh bread is what I missed the most. I bought GF frozen loafs from the supermarket and found them gross. I have learnt when it comes to gluten it's about discovering new tastes and not finding a GF duplicate (the harshest lesson being when I tried GF eggos *shudder*). So when I decided to try 5 recipes I knew this bread had to be one of them.

Making bread from scratch is not as scary as it seems. It's more an exercise in patience. The cool rainy day made slowed my bread from rising but after a few hours it was ready. I popped my faux-Le-Creuset into the over for a half hour warm up. Usually I use a pizza stone but I thought I would try the pot. A while later the smell of warm baking bread filled the house, that smell gave way to a slight burning scent. My bread was slightly crispy and looked really rough. GF bread fail.

When my bread cooled and I sliced it open I was greeted with a beautiful sight. it was perfect inside. The texture and density was AMAZING. I toasted a slice and spread some marmalade jam onto it. Delicious. The crust was less then desirable but the inside was the closest I have ever come to real bread. So I'm going to try again with my trusty pizza stone and then see. Here's a snap of the inside of the bread with a pumpkin curry soup I made. So B+ for now.

warm rice salad with a touch of corn relish

The minute I laid eyes on this photo I knew I had to make this salad. It had all the elements of a really good meal: artichokes, avocado, tomatoes, red rice and yummy vinaigrette. Mmmm thinking about it makes me want to make it again tonight. I initially made this recipe as at Meatless Monday option and loved it so much that I did it again for my big family Thanksgiving. It was a nice balance to the spread of turkey, yam fries, brussel sprouts with pancetta. I also threw in the corn relish from the book. Let's just get the corn relish covered first. I wasn't a huge fan, but my mom and aunt loved it. I could not find the champagne vinegar so I used the white wine vinegar instead and I don't love boozy flavours. As with all their recipes there were a lot of flavours, but this time I think there was too much (corn, apricot, peppers, white wine vinegar). Although the roasted peppers were delicious and I roasted peppers for the first time (super easy!). I think I need to try it with the chicken recipe in order to give it an accurate grade.

Also on my list of firsts was fresh artichokes. Thank goodness The Chef covers them off in the book. It took a lot time and work and added a nice element of freshness but I don't know if I'd do it again. I switched in jarred artichokes for Thanksgiving which gave it a nice added touch of salt and acid. Hopefully Gluten Free Girl will forgive me for such a blasphemous switch out.

The book asks for red rice, so I hopped over to my local Bulk Barn and picked it up. It was nuttier than regular rice and I was happy to find something new to add to my grain repertoire (brown rice and brown pasta can get a little stale). I grew up with parboiled short grain white rice and I hated eating it everyday. It had to no flavour and was sooooo boring. I longed for pasta so much so my mom thought I should have been born Italian. As we got older my dad started switching up the white rice (he wouldn't touch brown rice with a ten foot pole), who knew there was so many kinds! Then I switched to brown rice because it was healthier and now have white rice as an occasional yummy indulgence. Even though I have grown to love white rice I still am leery of the perfectly formed rice bowl that comes from Chinese restaurants and only eat the rounded top. My sister and I use to fight over it because we felt that you would have to eat less rice. Now that I'm older I realize it was visually deceiving, although I still eat the top of the rice bowl and make J eat the rest.

Overall it was so much easier to do than the trout and quinoa and left you with a healthy serving of leftovers. J didn't even notice there was no meat in it as well. A+

trout and red quinoa

I started reading Gluten free girl's blog a couple of years ago. Through her site I discovered new ways to eat without my beloved bread and pasta. I later picked up her book Gluten Free Girl and began to make her yummy roasted chicken with a whole head of garlic and rosemary (well let's be serious I only made it about 3 times, have you read my previous post? J keeps asking for it though). Her new cookbook Gluten Free Girl and the Chef is a continuation of the first but with more recipes and glossy pages. The food ideas are more unique and the combinations are interesting which can be attributed to her husband, the chef. He contributes to the book but is not the primary voice although his influence is felt through out. I love the way they weave recipes and stories together. I want to make everything in it (a first for me) and it has moved from the bookshelf into the kitchen permanently. The only other book that gets that distinction is Molly Wizenberg's A Homemade Life.

My first try was the trout with almonds, grapes, quinoa, and kale with a lemon-marjoram vinaigrette. I know it's a (delicious) mouthful but I think it was definitely worth it. The first thing I learned was the value of mise en place (fancy word for prep), something I never do. I prefer to jump straight into a recipe instead of doing any prep work but with recipes that are more complex and require a multitude of things to do mise en place is definitely a must. At first it was easy because it was just pan frying the fish and as each element got added I became a bit of a spazzy mess. Goodness gracious there were so many pans that needed to be used! I once told a friend that mistakes make things look homemade. Let's just say this recipe was very homemade and looked a little too rustic. But it still came out and was delicious.

Shauna asks the reader to follow the recipe exactly the first time and then alter as you see fit but I was never one to follow the rules and did my own swaps (switching in cilantro for marjoram). I find that herbs while delicious rarely get all used up so I'm hard pressed to keep buying new ones especially if there is no alternate use recipe for it.

I'm going to be honest quinoa is not my favourite. When I did a gluten detox I tried quinoa flakes. The texture and the smell was less than appetizing and reminds me of something pretty gross. My friends LFB and VT know exactly what I'm talking about. I won't tell you what it is for fear of you never eating quinoa again (just know it's a healthy little grain and that's all). So when the recipe asked for red quinoa I had to pause and think, but my faith in Shauna convinced me to try it. And it was good! There was a lot of things going on with this recipe but the flavours complimented instead of competed. A+...I guess I'm grading things now.

every story has a first chapter

I did not grow up with a passion for food. When I was younger I didn't think much about it. I wished for McDonalds and Pizza Hut when my family went out for dim sum or when my dad made these beautiful home cooked meals. As I got older parties were catered by Pizza Pizza and the most I did was open a box in order to bake a cake. Even now I wouldn't call myself a foodie. I don't go out to the hottest restaurants or try the latest in food trends. So you must be thinking what am I doing here writing about food? Well I love to cook and would much rather make it at home. I guess you could call me a "cookie." Which is a suitable name because baking was what led me to love food.

It officially started with one book How to be a Domestic Goddess by Nigella Lawson. Actually it was her lava cakes. Simple, delicious and a huge crowd pleaser. This began my official love affair with baking and cookbooks. I have always collected cookbooks for the photos and when one book turned into 10 turned into 20 I realized I had a problem. I made a promise that if I didn't make at least one recipe from a book I had to get rid of it. It wasn't easy at first. I was a beginner at baking and the only meal I could make was spaghetti and tomato sauce from a bottle. But I slowly began to crack the spines and splatter the pages and would now be what would pass for decent home cook. It only took about 5 years!

I have never had a monogamous relationship with a cookbook, I make a recipe once maybe twice and move onto the next one. But when I realized a couple months ago that I had 6 books which I had yet to make a recipe from I decided that I would try commitment for at least for a month. So I'm making at least 5 recipes from a book and will document it all on this blog. A bit of a poor man's version of Julia and Julia. So begins my first chapter. I've started with Gluten Free Girl and the Chef by Shauna James Ahern and Daniel Ahern.