Rhubarb n' Raisin Betty

I think that it might be a bad sign that I have pictures of food on my camera's memory card and I am starting to forget what recipes I made when! The following one is a Rhubarb n'Raisin Betty that I made when there was fresh rhubarb from the garden (well, mom's garden) and when I was feeling like I wanted something a bit simple and homey to bring to the office for dessert. Here is the recipe.

6 cups rhubarb peeled and finely chopped
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup raisins

Topping
1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
3/4 cup brown sugar packed
1/2 cup butter or margarine
1/2 tsp salt

Fill 10 inch casserole dish with chopped rhubarb and raisins then pour the granulated sugar on top. For the topping - mix the ingredients then sprinkle over the fruit. Pat down lightly with your hand and back uncovered in a 375 F oven for 40 minutes. It is great served with ice cream or frozen yogurt.

Baconnaise - because everything should taste like bacon

Am I the only one who was not aware of Baconnaise? There seriously is a product with this name and flavor? And has less calories and fat than regular mayonnaise?
Stay tuned for the upcoming taste test. Until then, check out the website along with other products that J&D produce. mmmvelopes (that's right with bacon flavored glue, so at least you get to taste bacon when you seal it)

http://www.baconnaise.com/

The fetish continues

Dear Abby:

Yesterday all of the Eric Ripert cookbooks and a video arrived in the mail. Jason took the package up to bed with him. Should I be worried? Or should I rejoice in the new food I will get made for me in the coming weeks?

Signed,
Fat and happy in Canada

http://aveceric.com

Not to be outdone.... but I was

In an effort to keep up with my culinary hubby I decided that I had better step up my game! But, figured I had better use up the pork chops and cabbage (I know I know) that I had in the fridge. Hence I decided to put a little spin on a traditional German-ish comfort food using the Bon Appetit cookbook as the foundation for the recipe.

I don't know if I actually surpassed Jason's recent cooking adventures, but I made a damn good meal for about $1.25 per serving.
Here it goes:
Asian Inspired Pork Chops and Cabbage
4 centre cut pork loin chops, boneless
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic, chopped
2 green onions chopped
1 Tbsp minced fresh ginger
7 ounces chicken or beef stock, divided
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tsp brown sugar
1/8 tsp chinese 5 spice powder
2 tsp cornstarch

Season pork on both sides with salt and pepper. Place in heated frying pan with oil. Saute until browned on both sides. Move the chops over to the side of the pan and toss in the green onions, ginger and garlic. Cook for a minutes until fragrant and then put in all (minus about a 1/4 cup of the broth), soy sauce, sugar and five spice powder. Cover and let simmer for a bit while you work on the cabbage.

For the cabbage:
1 tbsp veggie oil
one small cabbage (1.5 lbs-ish) sliced thinly
4 green onions chopped.
1 tbsp minced gresh ginger
1 tbsp sesame oil.

While the pork is cooking, heat oil in a new frying pan. Add the ginger and saute until fragrant - about 30 seconds. Add about half of the cabbage and cook until wilted. Then add the remainder of the cabbage and the green onions. Cook until cabbage is almost done. Toss with the sesame oil and stir fry while you are finishing the pork.

Finishing the pork and serving:
Stir the cornstarch into the remainder of the broth until smooth. Pour into the frying pan with the pork and let simmer for a minute until thickened. Place all of the cabbage into a large serving plate. The place the porkchops on top with the good sauce poured over top of everything. Serve at once.

It's always better with bacon

The Eric Ripert saga continues and my hubby decided to make the most amazing bacon carbonara for us tonight. Again, from Eric Ripert. He even found the 2007 Robert Mondavi Chardonnay that was to be paired with it - only having to visit 4 liquor stores to find it!

How great was the recipe?

AMAZING. The kids loved it despite the chives and cream.

Think that I will be working hard at bootcamp tomorrow AM. Whipping cream and bacon.....hmmmmmmmm.

To make your own gastroporn, visit the following link.
http://aveceric.com/wp/recipes/season-1/carbonara/

My husband and Eric Ripert

My husband enjoys Eric Ripert.

If you don't know who he is - he (Eric, I mean) is a fabulously awesome French guy who happens to be the chef of Le Bernadin in New York. He is also friends with Anthony Bourdain, famous food writer, chef and traveller.

It has been going on for some time. First it was just me catching him watching Avec Eric on PBS. Then it was Top Chef - likely trying to make me think that he was watching Gail Simmons. He is now open about the whole affair. PVRing his show, ordering his books and, well here is just one of the big positives - making me his food.

Today he made Barely Cooked Salmon with Leeks and Red Wine Butter Sauce. I may have fallen in love with him (Eric and Jason) all over again.

http://aveceric.com/wp/recipes/season-2/barely-cooked-salmon-leeks-red-wine-butter-sauce/

Rummage sale!

I am getting a new fridge. So, I have about 5 days to clean out the old one so that I can move it downstairs! Dinner tonight, and for a few more nights after that, was themed after a rummage sale. Inspired a bit by the most recent "Hell's Kitchen" where chefs (er, I mean, contestants) had to stretch $10 worth of ingredients into a decent meal, I rummaged around in my fridge for supper and tried to make it fancy.

It passed the test and it cleared just a smidgeon more room out of the fridge and freezer. goodbye frozen scallops, shrimp, M&M stffed potatoes, chicken and feta

The Menu
Appetizer: scallops, tomatoes and shrimp baked with feta
Main dish: greek chicken with overstuffed portabello mushrooms and potatoes
Dessert: Grape jello (what? I was cleaning out the cupbaord too!)

For your recipe viewing pleasure - the overstuffed portabellos
1 zucchini (diced)
1/4 cup diced onion
3/4 cup diced tomatoes
1-2 garlic cloves chopped finely
2 large portabello mushrooms, cleaned.
3/4 cup feta
2 tbsp chopped fresh oregano or 1 tsp dried.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F
Using a spoon, remove the gills from the mushrooms and discard.
lightly oil a baking sheet or dish and place the mushrooms gill-side up on the sheet. Set aside.

In a frypan, saute onions with a bit of olive oil until translucent. Add zucchini and cook until softened. Add garlic, chopped oregano and tomatoes and heat until warm. Stuff mushrooms with filling and sprinkle with feta.

Place in the oven for about 20-30 minutes until the mushrooms are softened and cheese is melted.

Peas'n Prosciutto

Ok, so maybe I now have a lot of left over bacon. And pancetta. And prosciutto. Whatever. There have to be some consequences (besides poundage) for hosting Iron Chef. Hence, I tweaked a recipe that I saw Christine Cushing do that includes peas and prosciutto. A nice way to dress up peas - an even nicer way to rid yourself of extra pork.

prosciutto - a couple of slices cut into smallish pieces
a teaspoon or so of butter
1/4 onion or shallot chopped
about 2-3 cups of frozen peas, thawed.

Saute onion and prosciutto in butter until onion is softened and prosciutto a bit translucent and cooked looking. Toss in peas and stir gently until peas are cooked through. season with salt and pepper to taste. I am sure you could substitute pancetta or just old fashioned bacon- even diced ham - too.

Bow down to Raichlen

The dish that made him famous - beer can chicken - may be the reason that some of you have not discovered him yet. But Steven Raichlen might be my favorite cookbook author on the planet (he certainly is Jason's). Alright, I will admit there is some barbecuing involved, but it is not all smoked meat, charcoal and streaky sirloin steaks. He is truly an aficionado of all that is outdoor cooking - be it vegetarian or otherwise.

This past weekend we tried an amazing Morroccan salad out of his new book, Planet Barbecue that was truly like nothing you have ever tried before and out of this world. I needed to share so here it is.

3 anaheim or cubanelle peppers
4 bell peppers (assorted colors)
2 large ripe tomatoes, seeded and 1/4 inch dice
1/2 of a SWEET onion, chopped
3 tablespoons mint, chopped but not too fine.
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice or more to taste
1 tablespoon red wine vinegar (or more lemon juice
kosher or sea salt
fresh ground pepper

place whole peppers (all of them) on the grill and grill them until blackened. Take them off the grill and let cool. Then peel off as much as the blackened skin as you can, and chop into a 1/4 inch dice. Place in a non-reactive bowl and dump the rest of the ingredents on top and mix. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Lordy. So good - even a bit out of our usual food fare, but worth the attempt for your next summer meal.

Battle Bacon

Iron chef time again and this time it was a head to head battle between the Smiths and the Haneys! The ingredient was BACON. Have I had bacon since that day? Well, actually no, come to think of it, I have not. But nonetheless we did cook some very delectable bacon dishes.

The ingredient was picked by my coworkers so no one had any advance knowledge of the challenge at hand. However, we might have taken some license as we allowed any sort of bacon to be used - back bacon, pancetta, proscuitto or the old fashioned strips.

What was the outcome?
A delicious range of dishes.
Jason - bacon havarti "melts" on garlic bread, caramel bacon fritters
Sandy - bacon chowder and a decontructed caesar salad
Pat - brie proscuitto roll, melon and bacon, bacon in a "blanket" with duo of dipping sauces
Carlyn - bacon popped popcorn with pancetta croutons and parmesan cheese, deconstructed bacon avocado and tomato sandwich, potato skins and bacon wrapped stuffing.

Needless to say, I continue to kick ass and take names.

Traditions....

I have been giving some thought to traditions recently. Traditions in terms of food anyway. This all started when I was watching a biography on a famous Canadian chef and he was reflecting on his mother's Sunday roasts. I was roasting a chicken myself this past Sunday night and Nathan was so excited about having mashed potatoes and gravy that I make (which by the way, is nowhere near as good as my mom's and mother-in-law's) Got me to thinking of all of the great meals that Sandy and I had as a child growing up.

1) Roast Chicken- I am not sure if we had roast chicken every weekend - in fact, I guess we likely did not. But a roast chicken was pretty commonplace. It always smelled so amazing in the oven and you could hear the rotisserie in the oven squeaking a bit as it turned. While it was cooking mom would fry up the gizzards in some butter and it would be a pre-dinner snack. Not sure that I knew exactly what a gizzard was but it certainly tasted good as a child. Dad would carve the bird and save the skin for the kids - or maybe just me as I am not sure if Sandy ate such things - and would put the little pieces around the rim of the plate for us to eat. I don't remember loving the stuffing the same way that I do now, but we always had it available with mom's homemade gravy. hmm - my mouth is watering

2) Bacon, Tomatoes and Cheese - Now don't get excited thinking this is some sort of fancy sandwich. This is an oddly good, but strange looking concoction that my dad made on a lazy day when we were having a low key dinner (and had a lot of fresh tomatoes to get rid of). Basically, you saute some bacon strips cut into 1-inch pieces for a couple of minutes. Not until crisp, but about half cooked. Then you cut slices of tomato over top. Like about 5-6 big tomatoes and cover and simmer until the tomatoes have become saucy. Then, nearing the end you add processed cheese slices to the top of the mixture. Wait until they melt and then stir to mix. Adjust flavoring with salt and pepper to taste. Serve on a plate with plasticky white sandwich bread and margarine (ha ha, oh, the 70's and 80s) on the side. It is saucy, so dip the bread into the juices. If you dare to try this recipe (and it is good), you will find the skin of the tomatoes in the mix as they come off when you cook them. That just adds character to the dish, but I supposed if you weremotivated you could skinm the tomatoes prior to cooking.

3) Roast leg of lamb- Always a favorite in the Volume house that was served on holidays like Christmas and Thanksgiving. Never appreciated it like I do now. It seemed like I wanted to have turkey like the rest of the kids did at school - how crazy was that when one could have an amazingly roasted lamb?

I am sure we can all look back on the traditions of cooking that we experiences as a child and whether fancy or otherwise, will always reminisce with fondness. In an effort to ensure that my kids have some traditions that they too can look back on, I am going to strive to make sure that I can offer them some consistently good foundational foods that I remember as a child...maybe even the bacon, tomatoe and cheese too!

oh my god, so good

Tonight I was invigorated from my first ever cooking class. I think this will help with the dry spell I have had in the last month or so....well, not for cooking, but for passing perogies and posting things on here at least.

I was at a Cookworks Vancouver class where I learned how to make:

Grilled Asparagus with Okanagan Goats Cheese Shaved Prosciutto, and BC Belgian Endive

Classic Carnaroli Risotto "Waldorf Slaw" with toasted hazelnuts, radicchio, Okanagan Fuji apples, and shave Jersey Farms organic parmesan

The piece de resistance: Whole Roasted Wine Fed Beef Tenderloin from Sezmu Farms served with Sweet Potato/Yam Press and roasted garlic cream.

Finally, for dessert: Chocolate Bread Pudding with with pears, raisins, caramel sauce and almond praline

Ned Bell from Cabana Grill in Kelowna was the chef du jour.

The meals were served with a variety of wines from Road 13 winery, notably their: Honest John's White (super amazing), Riesling (amazing); and their Fifth Element red (zing!!!).

Sweet jesus it was good. I wish I had pictures.

Forget the diet.....sausage and pepper sandwiches.

I must let you in on a secret sandwich recipe that my hubby discovered, we tried, and I have since modified. Both the original and the pared down version are awesome...
What you'll need:
one coil of garlic sausage, sliced on the bias into thin rounds
one red and green pepper sliced into strips
one medium onion, sliced into half round shapes
mayo (not miracle whip)
marinara sauce (a jar of storebought is fine)
garlic 2 cloves minced
some olive oil
one large loaf of french bread
grated kraft italiano cheese or a mix of mozza and emmanthal/swiss or parmesan

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Throw in peppers and onions and saute in the oil until softened 3 - 5 minutes. Toss in the sausage rounds and garlic and saute until the sausage is cooked through and even a bit brown on some edges. Meanwhile place your french bread on an oven proof tray like a cookie sheet. Cut a triangle lengthwise along the top of the bread so that you have a "trough", yes trough, for the sausage mixture. You might find that you even need to use your fingers and carefully take out some more of the bread so that you have room for the sausage. Slather - and by slather, I mean don't be shy with it - some mayo into the nest you have created for the sausage. Now do the exact same with the marinara sauce. Place the sausage mixture into the french bread - you might not use all of it, but put enough in so it is level with the original top of the bread loaf. Liberally place the shredded cheese on top and put in the oven under the broiler until the cheeese is bubbly and the edges of the bread start to crisp up. You will need to be paying attention at this point. Once done, let it sit for a minute or two then you can cut into serving pieces - not more than four or you will really find it falls apart. You will likely just end up eating this with a knife and fork - but it is to die for.

The attached picture shows a modification where I used some left over roast beef instead of the sausage and individual buns instead of the french bread. Either is a great supper or snack that impresses despite the low key ingredients.

Corn Chowder

I meant to post this recipe sooner as I made this chowder using the leftover scalloped potatoes, which is the best way. My mum always made this with left over scalloped potatoes, except when I tried the recipe, I added bacon (why? Everything is always better with bacon).

If you don’t have any leftover scalloped potatoes, you can just cook up some onions with the bacon before you making the roux and cube up some potato to add-in.

Makes about 4 servings

3-4 slices bacon, chopped up

2 tbsp. flour

1 tbsp. butter

2-3 cups skim milk (or more if you want thinner)

½ cup half and half

1 small can peaches n’ cream corn (or use about 1 cup frozen)

In a large pot, cook-up chopped bacon until lightly browned. Drain off bacon fat (if you want). Add butter until it melts, add in flour and make a roux. Slowly whisk in milk and cream and bring to a simmer until chowder thickens. Add leftover scalloped potatoes. Add half and half and more milk (if needed). Turn down heat and simmer until heated through. Add corn at end.

I add fresh cracked pepper and salt to taste. Fresh dill is sometimes good to add, too! This chowder makes a filling lunch or dinner served with salad and crusty loaf.

Kickin’ it old school

No better way to bring in 2010 then to feast on post-holiday leftovers. My favorite!

One thing we had quite a bit growing up was an open faced turkey or chicken sandwich served with gravy and fries. This is because almost every other weekend we had rotisserie chicken – old school style – I remember the noise of the rotisserie in the oven going round and round few a few hours many a Sunday night.

After Christmas holidays, I found myself with leftover turkey, gravy and dressing. I told husband I was going to make him and old school Volume family recipe “Open Faced Turkey Sandwich” and proceeded to describe the dish:

“Leftover turkey served cold on top of white bread with gravy. Usually we had French fries on the side, but I think I will do something different.”

“Is the bread toasted?”

“Nope.”
“Oh. Would it be better toasted?”
“Nope.”
“And I would serve it with dressing on the side, but I ate it already.” (yes, I especially love leftover stuffing! Ever had a stuffing sandwich?!?)

We only had a bit of gravy, so I made a roux and used some broth to make some more. It is best to serve this with white, texas-style (thick-sliced) bread.

Needless to say, I got a lot of Mmmm and Yummy from the husband, so he was pleasantly suprised! I did serve it with some vegetables and a side salad to help off-set the dressing starter I wolfed down.