Winter comfort food – three hearty soups

Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

You can find summer veggies and produce all year long in a Canadian grocery store, but they aren’t near peak taste so why bother. I wouldn’t want to eat like my pioneer ancestors did, but I do bypass the faux green vegetable bounty for foods better suited to the winter table – warm and rich foods to simmer and roast, and fill the house with hunger inducing aroma.

On a dark, cold winter day there is very little that gives me more joy than a bowl of creamy soup. Nearly all the great storing vegetables make good soups.

There are three secrets to a hearty cream soup:

  1. roast the veggies
  2. let the soup sit in the fridge over night to develop the flavours
  3. don’t skimp on the butter
img_20160327_134605
One cilantro leaf makes a pretty garnish.

Roasted Carrot and Ginger Soup

Chop and roast 6 medium carrots in oil with a touch of salt and pepper at about 375 until the start to brown. Throw them in vegetable stock with grated ginger and minced garlic. I use a tablespoon of ginger and a teaspoon of garlic to a litre and half of soup. Simmer for a couple hours. Puree and add a pat of butter. Take off the heat and refrigerate over night. Reheat the next day and shortly before you plan to serve the soup, add some heavy cream and another pat of butter. Use Creme Fraiche instead of cream for a flavour boost.

 

Parsnipity Soup

A drizzle of harissa infused olive oil adds a nice kick.
A drizzle of harissa infused olive oil adds a nice kick.

I don’t peel the parsnips. Chop and roast about 6 parsnips with some salt, pepper and chili flakes at a bout 375 until they brown. Fry some onions. Add chicken stock and the roasted parsnips to the pot. Add a pat of butter. I also add a clove of roasted garlic and more chili flakes. Simmer, cool, and keep in the refrigerate over night. The next day reheat, and shortly before you are ready to serve add some cream and some good Parmesan cheese.

 

Creamy Potato and Sour Cream Soup

I dotted this with harissa oil too just because I love the extra spice.
I dotted this with harissa oil too just because I love the extra spice.

Use new potatoes. Peel and cube two small potatoes and boil them in salted water until they fall apart. Puree them. In a separate pan, fry some onion, bacon and celery. Keep the celery leaves aside. Cube two potatoes with skin on. Add the cubed potatoes, bacon, onion and celery to the pot with some more water and cook until the potatoes are just about tender. Put this in the fridge over night. Next day reheat, add a pat of butter and some sour cream. Cook until the potatoes are fork tender. Add the celery just before you serve.

Food vacations – New Orleans

Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

Every year my husband and I tack a couple days onto his annual convention and make a little vacation out of it.

The highlight of the trip was our morning coffee at Rouler. I’m pretty sure my IQ is 20 points lower pre-coffee so an excellent Americano can make or break a vacation for me. They made the mornings great, and their incredible buttery pastries were a bonus.

Emeril’s pork chop was almost a half pig.

We were full-on tourists our first night and ate at Emeril’s. I had a grape and mushroom salad that was a bit short on grapes (I love roasted grapes, so boo!) and swordfish. Hubby had a craw fish appetizer, and a pork chop. I do not normally take photos of my food when I’m out, but I did this time because I thought this chop was shockingly large.

Neither of us were blown away by the food, but the service was exceptional though. We got help ordering wine (the list was longer than War and Peace) and our waiter was the perfect balance of attentive and unobtrusive.

The next night we found a place called Cellardoor. Hubby had nachos (which turned out to be pork rinds and beans), mussels, a hurricane and bread pudding. I had gumbo, two local beers, and strawberry shortcake. The food was tasty, the room comfortably intimate, and the service friendly. I ended up stuffed and a wee bit giddy from the beer.

We then left New Orleans and headed to Thibodaux where we had a lovely meal at Fremins. I had onion soup, and Red Fish Belle River with pecan wild rice. There were two large lively groups of happy locals that we la-cookbook-1assumed were celebrating Mardi Gras, which I enjoyed being a spectator to. Our waiter was an attentive and friendly young man. The food was good.

After one night in Thibodaux we headed to Oak Alley Plantation. By the second morning my waiter had figured out that I wanted a one egg omelet with no ham, which to me is always a sign that a server cares. We ordered in one night – I had beans and rice, and a salad. la-cookbook-2The true selling point for Oak Alley was the beautiful location though, both as a point from which we explored the area and as the place we relaxed in the evenings.

I picked up two cookbooks at Laura Plantation. At least two of the recipes will get a pass but I really bought them for the history behind the recipes.

Louisiana and New Orleans were a nice visit, but not the foodie heaven I anticipated. We’ve skipped beans since we came home because too many legumes was too, too shocking to our systems. We’ve been back to weeks now though and my upcoming meal plan includes my cheater version of red beans and rice:

Cheaters Red Beans and Rice
Fry the veggies with the bacon. Add the beans and BBQ sauce. Cook until the beans are soft, squish a few. Serve over the rice.

Next year the convention is in Seattle. They have an excellent food scene so I will be reporting on that trip for sure.

Winter window gardens

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I watch Jamie Oliver cooking shows with such envy. I covet his winter-gardenwonderful kitchen garden.

For about half of the year I have a garden, but then the Canadian winter comes and my access to fresh veggies, herbs and cheerful flowers gets blanketed in ice and snow.

This year we had a kitchen renovation done, which included running a counter under a west facing window. I’ve tried to grow herbs indoors before with spotty success – I am infamous for my annual early winter rosemary death img_20161229_132133watch. Part of the new kitchen plan was that to create this sunny spot that would, hopefully, be able to support a few potted herbs and cheery flowers.

The kitchen renovation dragged out a bit longer than I had hoped, and potted kitchen herbs aren’t in stores right now,  indoor-crocusesbut shortly before Christmas I managed to pick up a ‘turkey’ herb mix and some bulbs at Home Depot. The herbs and some tulips are sitting in my kitchen window now, and I have some some crocuses are in my office.

indoor-tulipsI’ve already used snips of rosemary for some roasted grapes and some fresh parsley in chicken soup. Hopefully I will find further uses for some of the four herbs I have.

I’m gaining daily consolation from my tulips and crocuses. They remind me spring will come back sooner, rather than later.

Hopefully I will be able to find and nurture a broader range of herbs and repeat my spring bulb success over all my future winters in my new sunny kitchen window.

 

Creativity in the kitchen – menu planning made fun

Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

I love to cook, about that there can be no doubt. I love to eat well. I love to play with ingredients and flavours. I love the challenge of making something tasty out of what’s on hand. I love to step back and admire a lovely, lovingly prepared plate of food.

kitchen-doneThis means I spend a lot of time in the kitchen. To make that a bit easier, my kitchen just got a make-over. Pragmatically, we needed a few things to accommodate our family’s unique needs and wants.

High on the list of reasons for the renovation was that we needed more pantry space and a better approach to manage meal planning. More than once in the early days of our blended family adventure I was reduced to tears trying to make everyone happy with what we had in the cupboard. Having to come up with a meal on the spot every day was stressful to say the least.

img_20161229_151938One of the boys has some anxiety about food because he was raised with food as a battle ground. It is my firm belief that forcing a child to eat will only create a picky eater. No one, not even a child, likes to have no control over what they put in their mouths.

The best planning tactic I found to alleviate my stress and the boys’ anxiety is to write the meal plan for the two weeks my husband’s sons are with us on our calendar so we can all see it ahead of time. I leave the experimenting and improvisation for when it’s just my menu-board-2-christmashusband, my son and I because we have fewer issues with food.

Meal planning feels like a chore most of the time; partly because the lack of spontaneity removes the creative side of cooking that I love so much. As a parting solution, the contractor for our kitchen renovation made the meal planning fun for me. She suggested I hang a chalk board on the tiled wall next to the stove to write the meals on.

menu-board-3I bought myself a box of coloured chalk and am having so much fun writing menus it is ridiculous.

Now the boys don’t just know what’s for dinner, they get to decide if the meal is as good as advertised – then decide if the chef or the artist get higher marks for presentation.

 

Eggs, eggs, eggs for dinner

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sugar
The lovely people with the UofA’s heritage chicken program sent me some pictures for Christmas.

I adopted a chicken this past fall. The University of Alberta has a heritage chicken program that helps fund its work by adopting out their flock. It’s a brilliant plan. Adoptive chicken parents get eggs, and the University keeps a unique breed of chicken alive. My chicken is a Brown Leghorn that I named Sugar.

We got our first eggs Jan 5th.

I gave these first eggs the honour of centre stage in our dinner and made poached eggs on a bed of barley risotto, with flat bread and a spinach salad to round out the meal.

A while back I found that I get a better poached eggs by adding touch of vinegar in he water, but the real determinant of a nice looking poached egg is the freshness of the egg itself. These eggs were fresh and poached beautifully. Barley risotto has a nutty taste that complimented the creamy egg.

first-sugar-egg-meal
This is my plate. The guys had two eggs each and more risotto.

Sugar’s Eggs with Barley Risotto

You’ll need one part pot barley to 2-2 1/2 parts liquid. I chose vegetable broth.

I used a cup of barley. It yielded four servings.

  • Pot barley
  • Stock
  • Carrot, celery, onion finely diced
  • Garlic, minced
  • Another diced veggie (I chopped up pea pods)
  • White wine
  • Oil
  • Thyme

Cook the diced onion, celery and carrot in a deep frying pan. When those are cooked but not browned throw in a little minced garlic and stir that for a second. Then add a glug of white wine – maybe 1/4C. Add thyme. Throw in the barley and stir. Pour in stock to cover the barley. Keep the liquid on a low simmer, stirring frequently. Continue to add broth to keep the barley covered as the liquid is absorbed. The barley will be lightly chewy when it is done, but not crunchy. It takes 20-40 minutes depending on temperature. It is done when it is done.

The other vegetable goes into the risotto nearer the end. Pea pods take no time to cook so I added them right at the end when the risotto was done. I stirred them in, turned off the heat, and covered the pan while I poached the eggs. That was enough to steam the chopped pea pods.

Make the salad. I made a simple dressing out of olive oil, white wine vinegar, dijon mustard and a little salt and pepper. I keep small glass jars for this, put the oil, acid and seasoning in and shake it in the jar.

When the barley is done and covered, bring the water for the eggs to a boil in a shallow pan. Put a dash of vinegar in the water. Poach the eggs in the boiling water.

Serve the eggs on a bed of barley.

sugar-eggs

Christmas baking – Fruitcake

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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.

Family pub night

Darcy L. HooverLeave a comment

signcropI grew up eating family dinners together, and always ate with my son. It helps families feel connected and keeps parents involved in their kid’s daily lives. So when my husband and I blended our families I naturally kept mealtime as a time for us to gather.

The difficult part was that there is a huge difference in between how I raised my son to see mealtime and how his boys were raised. I suddenly found myself cooking for boys who weren’t open to new food experiences and who have anxiety about dinnertime expectations. I had to adapt my cooking style to tone down the grains and vegetables and quickly learn to cook more meat inclusive meals, which didn’t make my son happy.

The first few months were pretty rough. I actually cried a couple times. One of the early ways I found to take the stress out of meals was pub night.

pub-night-specialsBasically, it’s a buffet that we all sit down to while watching a movie or playing a board game.

Early pub night hits were pretty unhealthy and vegetables were pretty absent. I am proud to say though, that I have successfully introduced some healthier options and new flavours.

Potato skins, green onion cakes, hummus and pitas, chicken fingers, spring rolls, poutine, nachos pub-night-1and sliced veggies show up at the start. I’ve since added roasted grapes, lettuce wraps, onion tarts, mini empanadas and calzones, samosas, bolani, spinach or sundried tomatoes pastries, and meatballs. It’s becoming more gastro-pub and less corner store fare. Throw in some pickles, chutneys, olives, flat breads, sliced meats and cheeses, and I’d feel confident feeding the Queen.

As with every meal, the key is to let the boys try things on their own and NEVER force them to eat what they do not want. That out-dated parenting tactic is how they came to be such anxious eaters. This way is slowly taking the edge off and slowly broadening their horizons.

Even if they never embrace all the foods available I hope at least I take the stress out of dinnertime for them.

 

The hunting season widow

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Every November I lose my husband. While he’s out wandering the woods hunting, I eat alone. Even for an introvert there has to be something to look forward to in extended alone time, and for my hunting season widowhood that something is eating the foods my husband won’t.

A November Hunting Widow’s Menu:

Gnocchi with Gorgonzola Sage Sauce

gnocchi-in-gorgonzola-sage-sauceThe first time I had this was nine years ago in a tiny San Francisco restaurant. I came home and immediately worked on duplicating it, which turned out to be fairly easy.

I just melt the cheese into cream and add a couple sage leaves. Easy peasy.

I use Cambozola, which is somewhere between Camembert and Gorgonzola. I am incredibly lucky to live near Edmonton’s Italian Centre Shop. They carry this and every other cheese my heart desires.

pebre-verde-3-1024x713Pebre

Pebre is a fresh salsa I learned to make from my son’s father’s Chilean family. There are many family specific versions.

I use corn oil, lemon juice, tabasco, minced onion and cilantro. It tastes better the next day.

I usually make myself some fried fish Chilean style and rice to go with it.

spagsquashSpaghetti Squash

Another thing the Italian Centre shop always has is nice manageable sized squashes.

I steam the squash and pull the strands away from the rind. I mix that with olive oil, salt, pepper, finely minced or crushed garlic, red pepper flakes and some good quality shredded mozzarella. Bake that until it turns golden brown on top.

Beets

Last of the hunting widow menu items is my roasted beets.

I peel and slice the beets, and toss them in a mix of olive oil, finely diced or crushed garlic, and balsamic vinegar. I bake that until the beets are tender. I like to eat them as a side a dish with perogies.

Curry

As for the curry, that I leave to the professionals.

 

When winter comes too soon

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It happens every year. Winter comes too soon. I am never really ready to surrender my garden, I retreat under duress. Every year I spend one evening ruefully bringing in all the green tomatoes one step ahead of a forecasted killing frost.

gr cherry tomatoesOne family can only eat so many delicious fried green tomatoes, and it’s really hard to fry cherry tomatoes. But I hate wasting what I watched grow, so I’ve found a use for those little green garden babies.

I was given a Martha Stewart cookbook that has a really good recipe for tomato relish, and I tweaked started gr tomato chutneyit to my tastes.

How I made the relish:

I take all the sad little cherry tomatoes that are not quite ripe and dice them. I add diced garlic, ginger, onions and bell pepper.

started gr tomato chutneyTo this I add cider vinegar, salt, brown sugar, mustard and some water.
Then I boil it down until the all the ingredients are soft enough to be fully mixed – cooking gr tomato chutneysometimes this means I add more water as necessary. Easy peasy. And yummy.

I’ve never canned it , there is never enough to bother. I just pop it in the fridge and use it up over the last month of the grilling season.

Keep the relish basics intact – vinegar and salt and sugar – then taste as you go and adjust as it suits your family’s preferences. Word of warning, use only the little tomatoes that had a chance of ripening; using the very small ones tends to make the relish bitter.