The Last of the Sandwiches

I don’t even know what to write anymore. You all must be sick and tired of hearing about my damned sandwiches. Don’t worry, this is it. We’ve moved into the realm of the salads, which I’ll be reporting on soon. But before I get to them, just let me say a few words – I promise! Only a few! – about these last few sandwiches. It’s worth it.

Bruschetta with Sauteed Peppers

Soft, melty peppers, crisp bread, gooey cheese, and a touch of basil. Need I say more?

Creamed Leeks on (Walnut) Toast

Writing about this, I want to eat it again. Right. Now. I had never really made creamed anything and this convinced me that it’s an excellent, if calorific, way to cook. But hey, I’m still eating vegetables, right? Here you just cook some leeks with butter, a little wine, a little cream and some parmesan. Heaven on a piece of toast. As well as a very simple and homey supper, this strikes me as something you could serve very easily as a dinner part canapé that would totally impress your guests.

There. That’s it. Recipes below. I promised, right?

Sauteed Peppers

From Vegetarian Cooking for Everyone by Deborah Madison

4 large bell peppers – red, yellow, and/or orange

3 tablespoons olive oil

1 small red onion, quartered and thinly sliced crosswise

2 garlic cloves, thinly sliced

1 tablespoon tomato paste diluted with ¼ cup water

Salt and pepper

1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar, to taste

1 ½ tablespoons chopped marjoram or two tablespoons sliced basil leaves

Slice the peppers into wide or narrow strips as you prefer. Heat the oil in a wide skillet, add the onion, and sauté over high heat until translucent and beginning to colour around the edges, 4 to 5 minutes. Add the garlic and peppers and continue to cook, stirring every so often, until the peppers are singed on the edges, about 10 minutes. Add the diluted tomato paste, lower the heat to medium, and continue cooking until the peppers are soft, about 10 minutes more. Season with salt and pepper to taste, add the vinegar, and raise the heat to high. Cook, stirring frequently, until the peppers are glazed, then stir in the marjoram or basil.

To make the sandwich, toast some bread and rub half a clove of garlic on it. Cover the bread with grated fontina (or any kind, really) cheese. Put onto plates, spoon the peppers over top, and garnish with the basil.

Creamed Leeks on Toast

From same

Deborah suggests using walnut bread here, which I’m sure would be delicious. I didn’t buy any just for this and it was still great.

4 small or 2 large leeks, trimmed and sliced into ¼-inch rounds

1 ½ tablespoons butter

Salt and pepper

1/3 cup dry white wine

½ cup half-and-half or crème fraiche

2 teaspoons chopped tarragon, parsley or rosemary

¼ cup grated parmesan, gruyere, or crumbled goat cheese

2 slices bread, toasted and lightly buttered

Wash the leeks well, but don’t dry them. Melt the butter in a wide skillet, add the leeks, and toss with a little salt. Add the wine, cover, and cook over medium heat until the leeks are tender, about 20 minutes. Add the cream and herbs and simmer until slightly thickened. Turn off the heat, stir in the cheese, then spoon the leeks over the toast. Add pepper and serve.

A Lazy Saturday

A few Saturdays ago, J and I decided to take it easy.

We slept in. For me, it was that delicious kind of sleeping in where I woke up, and then lay in bed for about an hour falling in and out of sleep, cozy and warm, knowing I didn’t have to get up, knowing I had nothing at all to do.

We finally left for the Strathcona farmers market, picking up our friend Susan on the way. When we got there, J and Susan went off to find something to eat while I wandered the sunny aisles, picking up a squash here, some onions there, thin leeks and a bag of small, cute red peppers. When my bags were full I met up with them again and out we went. It was a beautiful day too – sun shining, wind blustering, but not very cold.

J and I walked down Whyte Avenue, a street lined with restaurants, cafes and shops. We stepped into any stores that looked interesting, browsing peacefully. We love to spend the afternoon this way, and it felt like a long time since we had done it.

We bought some pillow cases

A new clock




Some wonderfully retro plates




And this little treat to share.



The store where we bought the plates is marvellous. It’s called the Junque Shop and it’s down in a cluttered basement with no windows. It’s like stepping into a jumbled old house, owned by someone who has collected a lot of cool stuff. There’s a lot of second hand kitchenware, like old dishes, teacups, trays, and toasters. There was also some great vintage furniture, including a wooden sideboard with green-handled doors and some chrome tables and chairs.

I was fascinated by a whole bunch of old cameras that I wish I could have spent longer looking at. Ever since looking at some pictures by another food blogger (Molly Wizenberg of the wonderful Orangette) that she takes with her Polaroid, I’ve decided I want one. At this store there was an old Brownie camera, and one of those long thin ones that you slide apart.

It was the kind of place I could have explored for a long time. It was the kind of place that reminds me how much I love looking at old things.

But thankfully, the last stop of the day was also the best.

We took the bus back to the University to go to a café that J has been telling me about. In fact he couldn’t stop telling me about it ever since he first went there a few weeks ago. It’s called Leva and it’s on a corner in this little squat building with yellow signs that looks inviting even when you spy it from a distance. Up close you can see people sitting at little tables and steam rising from the coffee machines through the window. You know you’re in for something good.

I spent a few hours falling in love with this place while we sat and read and ate, enjoying the live music. It’s a beautiful room with a long white marble coffee counter and glass cases full of delectable food. The tables are marble as well, except for the big wooden one where we sat. And along another wall is a long marble counter with stools where you can sit and sip your coffee and look out onto the street. J read his book and I wrote and read on the computer while we shared two pots of mint tea, a pizza and a platter of hummus and pita. The food tasted perfect. The pizza was salty and warm, the spicy Italian salami blending with the melted cheese. The crust was crisp and flaky, just like the bread that came with the hummus. It wasn’t like any pita I’ve ever had before: crispy but soft on the inside, and salted. It melted like a cloud of dough in my mouth. The hummus was garlicky, smooth and delicious.

(As we ate the leftovers at home, we realized that the pita and pizza crust were made from the same dough.)

We couldn’t resist dessert, beckoning from the glass case. J had a vanilla-chocolate tart and I had the angelfood cake. It was two thick pieces of cake stuffed with whipped cream and strawberries. It was elegant and delectable – the cream was thick and unsweetened, and the cake was perfectly sugared and light. My only complaint was there weren’t enough strawberries.

We sat in Leva as the sun set outside and groups of people chatted around us. The clatter of spoons against cups blended with the whirr of the milk steamer. Everything looked and felt wonderful.

My First Braid

I learned how to braid hair as a kid, but I wasn’t very good at it. I could never make the three strands the same size, and I always seemed to miss little pieces of hair as I wove my way over and over, over and under. I could never get the hang of French braiding – that was way too complicated.

I haven’t worn braids in years. Every so often I attempt a single braid in what I hope looks like a casual, sophisticated hairstyle, but usually it just ends up looking messy and old-fashioned.

So when I attempted to braid my first bread a few weeks ago, I was a little nervous.

The bread recipe was a chocolate-chip pumpkin loaf that I came across while browsing some food blogs. I had some leftover canned pumpkin sitting in the fridge, but I wasn’t keen on turning it into a sugary treat (for once!) so this seemed perfect.

The dough came together nicely, and smelled spicy and aromatic. I discovered that kneading dough with chocolate chips in it isn’t the easiest thing in the world – they kept popping out and rolling to the floor.

After the first rise, it was time to braid. I divided the dough into three pieces and rolled each into a long, thin strip. I positioned the strips in a convenient place on our desk-cum-island, where I could get at them from both sides, took a deep breath, and began.

It went surprisingly well. The recipe tells you to start braiding from the middle and do both sides separately, which was clearly different from a hair braid. I got a little mixed up on the second side and spent a minute or two crossing the strips over and then crossing them back. But I figured it out, and when I was all done, my braid of dough looked pretty good.

Then I had to twist the dough, which I figure out without too much trouble, so the finished product looks like a big round braid. After another rise and some time in the oven, it puffed up golden brown and tasted delicious. The pumpkin flavour was subtle, but the spices pumped it up a notch and the chocolate chips made it feel like a special treat. I especially liked this bread sliced warm right after it came out of the oven, or toasted with butter.

I’m still not a great hair braider, but I’m ready to tackle my next bread braiding project. Maybe a loaf of Challah in time for Hannakuh?

Yeasted Chocolate Chip Pumpkin Bread
Source: www.bakingandbooks.com

Makes one loaf

Ingredients:

• 4 to 4 1/2 cups all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup pumpkin puree
• 1 heaping tablespoon active dry yeast
• 1/3 cup light brown sugar, packed
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves
• 1/4 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup low-fat milk, warm
• 1/4 cup melted butter (warm, not hot)
• 1 large egg, plus one more for the glaze
• 1/2 to 3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips, according to taste
• 2 teaspoons olive oil

In the bowl of a stand mixer or in a large bowl, combine the warm milk, the yeast and 1 tablespoon of the flour. Allow to rest for 5 minutes.

Add the pumpkin puree, spices, light brown sugar, salt, egg, and melted butter. Mix until combined. Add the flour 1/2 cup at a time, mixing well between additions. After you have added 2 cups of flour, add the chocolate chips, then continue with the rest of the flour. When the dough begins to pull away from the sides of the bowl switch to your dough hook, or a wooden spoon if making bread by hand.

If using a stand mixer, knead the dough for 4 minutes, adding extra flour 1 tablespoon at a time, if needed - just enough to keep the dough from sticking to the sides of the bowl. If making the bread by hand, turn it out onto a lightly floured surface and knead 4-5 minutes, sprinkling with flour as needed to prevent sticking. The dough is done when it’s smooth and bounces back when you press your thumb into it.

Place the dough in a deep container greased with 1 tsp of olive oil. Turn the dough once to coat the top and cover with plastic wrap. Allow dough to rise at room temperature until doubled in bulk, about 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Spray a spring-form cake pan with baking spray, or oil lightly and lightly flour. Sprinkle the flour on the bottom and along the sides, then invert the pan and tap out any excess flour.

Divide the dough into 3 equal portions, and roll each portion out into a smooth, thick strip about 15 inches long, with the ends slightly thinner than the middle. Be gentle with the dough or you’ll tear it, which wouldn’t affect the final flavor but would influence the way the finished loaf looks.

Lay the ropes side-by-side, not quite touching. Beginning in the middle and working towards you, braid the lower half of the three ropes. To braid, alternately move the outside ropes over the one in the center - left over, right over, left over - until you come to the end. Now go to the other side of your working space and braid the other half, this time moving the outside ropes under the center one. Braid tightly - you don’t want any gaps. When you finish braiding each side crimp the tapered ends together, then tuck them under. Twist the braid around itself, pinwheel fashion, gently pressing the outside end against the larger body of dough. Transfer to your prepared pan.

Whisk together 1 egg and 1 teaspoon of olive oil, this is going to be the glaze for your bread. Gently brush the dough with it. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

About 30 minutes before baking, preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.

Brush the dough with the egg mixture again. The dough will have stretched during rising, so be sure to get any spots that don’t have glaze on them.

Place the pan on a rack in the center of the oven and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until browned and the loaf sounds hollow when you tap it with your fingers. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then transfer the bread to a cooling rack. Allow to cool at least 20 more minutes before slicing.

Winter Fruit Salad

I made two mistakes with this recipe.

The first was to completely forget about a very specific flavour, and the second was to underestimate the importance of specific ingredients.

Let me tell you what happened, from the beginning. J and I were invited to a potluck and I decided to make a recipe that I saw on Smitten Kitchen for Winter Fruit Salad. It involved a sugar syrup, dried figs, pears and pomegranates, and it sounded intriguing. I know it’s usually not wise to make a new recipe for a potluck, but I was feeling adventurous.

So I went grocery shopping, spending much more than I had anticipated on figs, vanilla beans, and star anise. I also bought garlic oil, noodles, sugar snap peas and sweet chilli sauce for the sesame peanut noodles that J was bringing. Let’s just say I gulped when I got to the cash register. For all that I love our precious Sobey’s, it can be a bit dear.

Later that night I started cooking. It was when the sugar syrup was simmering and I leaned over the pot to smell the steam that I began to realize my first mistake. It had somewhat slipped my mind that star anise has a licorice flavour, and that’s exactly what the syrup smelled like. And licorice … well, it’s not really my favourite flavour. In fact it’s one of my least favourite flavours. Oops.

I soldiered on and finished the recipe, pouring the syrup over the dried figs and apricots, slicing the pears and apples, putting the whole thing in the fridge to chill. I was hoping that I might still like it. But when J and I were riding the subway to the potluck and he opened the bowl to show me the salad, I realized my second mistake, and I pretty much knew that I wouldn’t.

I’m the queen of substitutions and it drives J nuts. Whole wheat flour instead of white (I once made a chocolate cake this way – not recommended, although I still ate it), sage instead of marjoram (big fiasco), . I am usually just trying to be resourceful and use up something we have hanging around in the fridge. It almost always turns out okay. I’ve been using self-rising cake flour in waffles recently, and they always taste great.

In the case of this fruit salad, I didn’t actually substitute a thing. In fact, I made a point of buying exactly everything that was called for, except for Turkish apricots that I couldn’t find. I just didn’t use the exact right ingredient.

The recipe calls for firm Bosc pears. When I decided to make this salad, I already had four Bosc pears sitting on our windowsill, and of course I wasn’t going to go out and buy more. It turns out I should have. Since the pears sit in the sugar syrup for about eight hours, they get a little waterlogged, and my very ripe pears just couldn’t stand it. They collapsed. They cooked. They mushed into slimy slices. It was very sad.

So this salad wasn’t a disaster. I think everybody at the potluck ate some. I didn’t hate it. But the intense licorice flavour combined with the mushy pears definitely didn’t make it a winner. And I thought I would like the figs better. I’m tempted to try it again, without the star anise and using firm pears. But I’ll be honest. It probably won’t be anytime soon.

By the way, J’s Sesame Peanut Noodles were delicious. Worth every penny. I’ve included that recipe too, because I picked it from our Nigella Express cookbook, and it proves that I don’t always make bad potluck decisions.

Winter Fruit Salad

smittenkitchen.com

3/4 cup sugar
3 star anise
1/2 of plump vanilla bean, split in half lengthwise
8 dried Turkish apricots, cut in half
4 dried figs, quartered
4 2-inch long pieces lemon zest (peeled with a vegetable peeler) from a Meyer lemon if you can find one
Juice of the zest lemon
3 firm Bosc pears
1 firm tart apple
Seeds from half a pomegranate

1. Fill a medium saucepan with 4 cups water. Add the sugar, star anise, vanilla bean and lemon zest. Bring to a boil, and cook until all the sugar is dissolved. Let it cool for just a few minutes (it should still be hot) and then stir in the dried figs and apricots. Let it cool completely.

2. Meanwhile, peel and core pears and apple. Slice thinly lengthwise and place in a large bowl, and toss with the lemon juice.

3. Once the syrup with dried fruit has cooled, pour it over the apples and pears. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and chill it overnight in the refrigerator.

4. The next morning, using a slotted spoon, ladle the fruit into a serving bowl, sprinkle with the pomegranate seeds and serve. Remove the vanilla beans (you can rinse and save what is left of them for another use) and lemon peels if you wish, or leave them in for decoration.

Do ahead Syrup can be made in advance and kept in the fridge for a day or two. Hot syrup can be poured over the dried fruit and kept in the fridge for a day or so. Prepared salad keeps in the fridge for a day or two, but is best fresh.

Sesame Peanut Noodles

from Nigella Express

This recipe is kind of annoying because it’s all in weights, so you need a scale unless you want to estimate, which you could do too.

For the dressing:

1 tablespoon sesame oil

1 tablespoon garlic oil

1 tablespoon soy sauce

2 tablespoons sweet chilli sauce

100g smooth peanut butter

1 tablespoons lime juice

For the salad:

125g snow peas

150g beansprouts, rinsed

1 red pepper, deseeded and cut into small strips

2 green onions, finely sliced

550g ready-prepared egg noodles (or regular egg noodles, or you could probably use spaghetti or soba noodles too)

20g sesame seeds

1 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro

Whisk together all the dressing ingredients in a bowl.

Put the snow peas, beansprouts, red pepper slices, sliced spring onions and noodles in a bowl.

Pour the dressing over them and mix thoroughly to coat everything well.

Sprinkle with the sesame seeds and chopped cilantro.

Serves 8.