Month: December 2016

Christmas baking – Fruitcake

Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

Some of my favourite childhood memories are of my mom baking. There are many of her recipes that I make every Christmas season. Her shortbread – proper chewy shortbread. Her butter tarts. Her sugar cookies.

But one thing mom never made was fruitcake. About 10 years ago my grandmother gave me a recipe for a Christmas pudding that her mother made on the farm when she was a child. It was an old-world recipe adapted for the limitations imposed by winter on an isolated Alberta farm. I’ve made it, but didn’t love it.

That left me looking for a better alternative. I spent a few years searching for a fruitcake recipe I really loved. I finally found one a couple years ago, which of course I tinkered with until I got it just so.

xmas-cake

Favourite Christmas Fruitcake

Ingredients:

  • 1 lb dried fruits
  • Maraschino cherries
  • Rum or brandy
  • Cinnamon, ginger, cardamon, cloves nutmeg, salt
  • Lemon zest
  • 1 1/2 C butter
  • 1 C brown sugar, 3/4 C white sugar
  • 3 1/4 C flour
  • 6 eggs
  • 3/4 C finely chopped almonds
  • 1 tsp vanilla

Instructions:

Soak the dried fruits in dark rum or brandy over night. I use a mix of figs, candied peel, raisins, currents, candied ginger, dried bing cherries and mixed candied fruits (which if the label is to be believed included rutabaga). Soak the maraschino cherries as well, but separately from the other fruit.

The next day you make the cake.

Cream 1 1/2 C of room temperature butter with the sugar. Beat in the eggs one by one, then add the vanilla and 2 tb of brandy or dark rum, and 1 tsp of lemon zest.

In a separate large bowl mix:

  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1/4 tsp each, ginger, cardamon, cloves
  • 1/8 tsp each, nutmeg, salt

To this spice mix add the flour and almonds. Stir this into the butter, sugar and eggs.

Fold in your dried fruits.

Line your cake pans with parchment paper and spoon the mixture in.

Sometimes I line the bottom of the cake pan with the cherries, sometimes I arrange them on the top of the cakes. Either way works.

Bake at 350 F until you can stick a knife in the centre and it comes out clean. I also place a dish of water in the oven to create steam to keep the cakes from drying too much.

This cake is good immediately, but it is extra special good if you make it a few weeks in advance and pour some rum or brandy over it every second day.

I am told these can be soaked with brandy one last time then lit on fire, but I have never tried it myself.

 

A New York fail forces my hand

Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

I took my son to New York a couple years ago.

Aside from the lure of the stage I was looking forward to the food. As I’ve said before, I cook meat light (meat is usually 1/3 – 1/4 of our meal). That and the huge portion sizes are a challenge for me when I visit the US.

Our first dinner was at a ‘French’ cafe around the corner from our hotel. We were in a rush because we were off to the theatre, so close seemed like a good idea. My son ordered cassoulet. Sadly, it was about a dozen beans and two pounds of fatty meat.

IMG_20160826_121020When we got home I decided to prove to him that this was a dish worth trying again.

Cassoulet is time intensive, but an easy enough dish to make in terms of skill.

Soak 1 cup of white beans the day before. I let them simmer on low for a few hours, cool them and then leave them in water over night in the fridge.

I use one of my favourite enameled cast iron dishes, but any pan that goes from stove top to oven works.

Saute diced onion, carrot and celery (about a half cup of each) in butter, adding a good tsp of minced garlic when that is almost done.

cassoulet inTo that pan I add a bottle of Mutti strained tomatoes, 1/2 tsp sweet paprika, 1/2 tsp cayenne, 1 tsp smoked paprika, a couple bay leaves, some salt and pepper, and a pinch of nutmeg. I mix all that with about 1/4 cup of stock – I use chicken stock but vegetable would work of you wanted to make an all bean vegetarian version.

Then add the beans with some of the water they soaked in, and mix to coat all the beans. If you don’t add enough water don’t worry, you can add more water as you check the progress of the beans as the cassoulet cooks.

When that is mixed I arrange some meats on top. How much meat depends on who is eating, but I figure the pot should be at least half beans or the meal isn’t balanced.

img_20160330_183907I’ve used locally sourced smoked poultry, bacon, ham hocks, smoked ribs, and the moose sausage or deer smokies my husband brings home after hunting season. I’ve also thrown in ends of cured meats from the fridge. Use what you have on hand to feed the people in the house. It’s a peasant meal after all.

I pop the covered pot in the oven at 300F for a few hours. My pot takes about four hours but that will vary based on pot size and how well soaked the beans were to start. I give myself plenty of time and we eat when the beans are tender. Near the end I uncover the dish, sprinkle some bread crumbs over the top and turn on the broiler.

cassoulett-dishedThis recipe isn’t set in stone. Adjust to suit your family’s tastes.

Like a lot of the non chicken-finger-and-fries homemade meals I cook, this meal is not a huge hit with my step sons. But they eat politely. They need to be challenged to expand their palates not only because the more you eat the easier it is to travel and socialize, but eating more home cooked foods and less processed fast foods is healthier.

That’s my greatest cooking challenge.