Culinaria: recipes, memories ...

[tollbaby]

sugar in chili... *shudder*

[violetblue]

sugar in chili... *shudder*

Yes, tb, that's one of my hang-ups from childhood. I have to add sugar to any cooked tomato sauces I make. In fact, I LOVE sweet pizza sauce on pizza. I still miss a certain pizzeria in Chicago which made the best sweet pizza sauce. Sigh. [edit for tb] How exciting, tb, I also see one of our local restaurants is going to do a special Canadian dinner in honor of our neighbors to the north. Here's the menu: house-cured and smoked peameal back bacon roasted with maple-mustard glaze, sliced and served on garlice toast with fries and veggies; French-Canadian meat pies (what's that?); Canadian Atlantic salmon served in tarragon cream sauce; poutine, pommes frites (fries basically) topped with cheddar cheese curds (what!) and vegetarian gravy (well, we are a hippy-dippy lot here). Dessert will be an apple-blueberry crisp with maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. So what do you think? And what's peameal?

The paper printed a savory, not sweet, recipe today which may be of interest to you guys. This would also work with butternut squash.

Roasted Sweet Potatoes with Curry and Lime

6 T butter
1 1/2 T curry powder (to taste)
Sea salt or kosher salt
2 limes, cut into wedges
It doesn't say how many sweet potatoes, but since it serves 6, I'm going to guess 4-5 medium-sized potatos

Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Peel sweet potatos and cut into 1-inch cubes. Add curry powder to melted butter, then toss with potatoes. Spread on baking sheets no more than 1" deep and bake 20-25 minutes. If you want them crispier, put under broiler for a few minutes. Squeeze limes over them and sprinkle with salt to taste.

I think this would be good with tabbouleh or hummus and pita.

This recipe was printed in preparation for the beginning of the winter farmers market season. Does anyone know what micro-greens/shoots are?

[tollbaby]

sugar in chili... *shudder*

Yes, tb, that's one of my hang-ups from childhood. I have to add sugar to any cooked tomato sauces I make. In fact, I LOVE sweet pizza sauce on pizza. I still miss a certain pizzeria in Chicago which made the best sweet pizza sauce. Sigh. [edit for tb] How exciting, tb, I also see one of our local restaurants is going to do a special Canadian dinner in honor of our neighbors to the north. Here's the menu: house-cured and smoked peameal back bacon roasted with maple-mustard glaze, sliced and served on garlice toast with fries and veggies; French-Canadian meat pies (what's that?); Canadian Atlantic salmon served in tarragon cream sauce; poutine, pommes frites (fries basically) topped with cheddar cheese curds (what!) and vegetarian gravy (well, we are a hippy-dippy lot here). Dessert will be an apple-blueberry crisp with maple syrup and vanilla ice cream. So what do you think? And what's peameal?

Y'all don't really think we eat like that, do you? *sigh*

Peameal bacon is what you all call "Canadian" Bacon, only we roll it in peameal before cooking it. Peameal is the same thing as cornmeal, but made from dried peas. It's quite good, but very expensive, and we don't use it much. It's more of a specialty thing. Most Canadians have never even had it LOL - on garlic toast????? yuck.

French-Canadian meat pie is Tourtière. Traditionally, it's made with a mixture of ground beef, veal and pork, but most people now either use all beef or all pork. My mom still combines, along with some onion & garlic. It's quite yummy. Personally, I'm more of a steak pie person (I like nice big chunks or strips of meat with a thick, flavorful gravy).

Atlantic salmon in cream sauce?.... ATLANTIC salmon????? really??? I didn't know there was really much of a market. We mainly get pacific salmon here, and smoked salmon is HUGE in Canada.

UGH!!!! You can NOT make poutine with cheddar cheese!!!!! GROSS!!!! and VEGETARIAN gravy???? what is wrong with you people? You're destroying one of the institutions of purely Quebec cuisine. It should be made with DARK DARK beef gravy (darker the better...) and St. Albert cheese curds (brick cheese curds may be used in a pinch, but never cheddar or mozzarella! and NEVER EVER EVER GRATED CHEESE!!!!!!!)

And who the hell eats apple crisp with maple syrup? Yuck LOL Those two flavors just DO NOT go together Now if you had tarte au sucre... THAT's Canadian food. I'm not sure we had anything to do with apple crisp... did we?

[violetblue]

Thanks, tb. I'm going to print this out and go tell them what's what. I will tell them straight out that they are destroying the very foundation of Quebec cuisine, da*n Yankees.

I think the peameal sounds good, actually. And the meat pies. Your version, I mean. I still don't know about the fry thing, though.

Here's a recipe I found for Tarte au Sucre, since I didn't know what that was.

Tarte au Sucre
(Madame Benoit's recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 unbaked 10" single pie crust (1 bottom only)

METHOD:
Dissolve baking soda in maple syrup. Place in pie crust (first).
Mix flour, brown sugar and butter with your fingertips. Place in pie crust (last).
Bake at 350*F for 30 minutes.

YIELD: 1 pie.

So if I understand correctly, this is maple syrup mixed with flour and more sugar then poured into a pie crust. I'm trying to be open-minded, but I have to ask--do you know emergency procedures for insulin shock?

[laurie]

Can't be any worse than those little maple leaf candies they sell at all the tourist traps north of the border.


Tollbaby: No offense meant - I like (and buy LOTS of) those candies.

[Darb]

On a separate note ... I cen't tell you how nice it's been, having a break from ongoing family tragedies, to be able to indulge in simple pleasures like going out to dinner with friends, doing a little sightseeing, and indulging in a little culinary self-instruction.

For instance - I was on my own for most of yesturday afternoon and early evening, so I spent the afternoon teaching myself a few new techniques with duck that I'd always wanted to try ... such as deboning an entire duck, making duck mousse, rendering duck fat (two six pound ducks yeilded just over 3 cups of clarified duck fat), and also making browned duck stock and adapting it for use in a Japanese zarusoba sauce (note to nzilla, if he happens to be surfing nearby, from Japan - I substituted it for the dashi base).

I also experimented with homemade soba noodles (I didn't do as well there ... my dough came out too damp, and adding too much flour back in unbalanced the egg ratio, and made the cooked noodles too fragile and easily broken).

It was fun.

[tollbaby]

Thanks, tb. I'm going to print this out and go tell them what's what. I will tell them straight out that they are destroying the very foundation of Quebec cuisine, da*n Yankees.

I think the peameal sounds good, actually. And the meat pies. Your version, I mean. I still don't know about the fry thing, though.

Here's a recipe I found for Tarte au Sucre, since I didn't know what that was.

Tarte au Sucre
(Madame Benoit's recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 unbaked 10" single pie crust (1 bottom only)

METHOD:
Dissolve baking soda in maple syrup. Place in pie crust (first).
Mix flour, brown sugar and butter with your fingertips. Place in pie crust (last).
Bake at 350*F for 30 minutes.

YIELD: 1 pie.

So if I understand correctly, this is maple syrup mixed with flour and more sugar then poured into a pie crust. I'm trying to be open-minded, but I have to ask--do you know emergency procedures for insulin shock?

urgh. that sounds awful. Flour? Baking soda? I'll have to get my aunt's recipe.... but yes, in essence, it's sugar, butter, more sugar, and a little bit more butter thrown in for good measure. It is the most sinful dessert! (next to chocolate pot-de-crème)

Laurie dear, no offense taken. Can't stand them myself.

[Darb]

Tarte au Sucre
(Madame Benoit's recipe)

INGREDIENTS:

1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1 1/2 cup maple syrup
1 cup flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
1 unbaked 10" single pie crust (1 bottom only)

METHOD:
Dissolve baking soda in maple syrup. Place in pie crust (first).
Mix flour, brown sugar and butter with your fingertips. Place in pie crust (last).
Bake at 350*F for 30 minutes.

YIELD: 1 pie.

[Stump-the-Chow-Hound mode]

Actually, that recipe appears to be a maple-country adaptation of an old fashioned recipe (both Southern black and Mennonite in origin) called "Shoo Fly Pie" which, in it's various incarnations, was/is usually based on brown sugar mixed with an equal amount of dark molasses or dark corn syrup. Think pie w/flour-thickened sweet syrup (whatever was cheap and plentiful ... which in the south was typically molasses)

[/Stump-the-Chow-Hound mode]

[tollbaby]

ick. molasses... *gag*

Tarte au sucre is based on a white fudge-like substance called Sucre à la crème, which is simply brown sugar, heavy cream, and a bit of butter. It's delicious, deadly, and can only be taken in very small amounts LOL

Still working on my aunt's recipe. There shouldn't be any maple syrup or ANY other flavorings in Tarte au Sucre, unless that's a regional variant?

[tollbaby]

Well, I was browsing through my good vegetarian cookbook, figuring I wanted to try something new this weekend. Well, the eggplants at the grocery store were just lovely this week, so I bought a few, and I'm going to try the Eggplant Parmigiana recipe (with fresh tomatoes, bocconcini, cheddar and Parmesan cheeses.... yum). Will report back once we've tried it (also experimenting to see if the kids will eat eggplant any way other than sliced crosswise and bbq'ed, served as burgers). I also picked up some beautiful butternut squash and some really nice leeks (yay potato-leek soup!)

[tollbaby]

mmmmm it's delicious!!!! Will post the recipe later. The six-year-old isn't crazy about it, but my four-year-old is devouring her share. I'll be eating Eggplant Parmigiana for a while.... the recipe was HUGE.

[laurie]

Can you freeze the leftovers so you don't have to eat them all this week? That's what I do when I make lasagna or baked ziti.

[tollbaby]

I'm going to have to. there's TONS left over. Mmmmm cheesy

[laurie]

LOL, I'm that way about mozzarella - always buy twice as much as I need for a recipe, add more to the dish than the recipe calls for, and snack on the rest while putting it together.

[Darb]

Oooh, I love eggplant, in all it's incarnations.

/me refrains from pointing out that Eggplant is in the nightshade family, and is very mildly toxic (re: alklyoids) ... and thus shouldn't be consumed regularly, in mass quantities.

[Ghost]

/me refrains from pointing out that Eggplant is in the nightshade family, and is very mildly toxic (re: alklyoids) ... and thus shouldn't be consumed regularly, in mass quantities.

What do you mean "/me refrains from pointing out . . . " – you just posted the information – how about: /me kindly mentions . . .

[Darb]

Just in case you've been asleep all this time (we'll ignore for the moment that you're actually dead), quasi-sarcastic and self-deprecating asides are a matter of longstanding tradition around here.

So, if I want to point something out, while pretending to do nothing of the sort, that's entirely my perogative ... and get yer hands of my plate of perogies. Nya.

[Ghost]

Sorry, those were your perogies, I thought those were my pirogies.

[tollbaby]

hey Brad, I've heard that there's a way of treating the eggplant before you cook it to draw out the bitterness..... You wouldn't be able to give me a few pointers, would you?

While delicious, the eggplant parmigiana was quite greasy, due to the fact that the recipe called for the slices to be shallow-fried before baking. Well, eggplant is quite porous, and it easily absorbed a disgusting amount of oil LOL While it was delicious (and I have at least 8 portions frozen for lunchtime treats), I don't know if I'll make it again.

[Kvetch]

If it is aubergine you are discussing (I think that is right), my family slice and salt it overnight, then rinse and cook.

Salt fried/battered/baked aubergine is delish.

[Darb]

TB: Kvetch beat me to it. Salting (typically a few hours) and rinsing tenderizes it, takes out some of the bitterness (as well as alkyloids), and reduces the tendency to absorb oil. And yes, "aubergine" is another word for eggplant.

I dont cook eggplant with any high degree of regularity, but I have worked with it plenty of times ... one of my favorite way is to roast it whole, then skin it, squeeze it dry, then saute the pulp with assorted curry spices until it's a thick paste - and then mix it with yogurt, sour cream, and chiffonade of fresh mint, as a warm dip. I think Yamuna Devi has a recipe like that. I also have an eggplant rice dish that's very good.

[tollbaby]

Thanks guys! Will definitely try that next time I use it. There were a few bites in there that had me questioning my taste buds, they were so bitter and rank.

[violetblue]

I remember my mom doing this... anytime I use any "squash" type vegetable, I always soak it in salt water before cooking it. I didn't realize what the purpose of it was, though. I just did it because that's how I was taught!

(My favorite is paper-thin slices of zucchini dredged in flour with salt and pepper, then fried in a single layer in oil. Definitely a fatty indulgence but soooo goood.)

[tollbaby]

"squash" type vegetables???? Eggplant is a berry, isn't it? I've never had to salt any squash I've used... most forms of squash are naturally sweet.

[Darb]

I typically only salt eggplant too.

As for squash, I make a pretty good vegetarian lasagna that uses thinly sliced yellow (aka 'summer') and green ('zucchini') squash. I don't pre-fry it either, so it's a lot less oily than some comparable recipes I've seen.