Winter Blues

The winter weather is starting to get to me. I hate this time of year, cloudy days, icy sidewalks, flu season, by January I'm craving summer! Now don't get me wrong I love skiing and snowboarding and sledding and skating but I've always felt that winter should only happen in the mountains (yes I'm a BC girl). It's so hard to find inspiration and passion for food when there are no fresh local ingredients or farmers markets.

Okay now that I'm done whining about the cold weather let's talk about food, in particular soup. Soup is one of those all season foods, you can make soup out of almost anything you can even make cold refreshing soups in the summer (aaahhhh summer) but there just isn't anything like a thick and hearty chicken soup with dumplings in the dead cold of a Canadian winter. This recipe is just like momma use to make and it absolutely reeks of home and nostalgia. Plus it has bacon and let's face it life just doesn't get much better than bacon ;)


RECIPES



CHICKEN STOCK

1 whole chicken
3 large carrots
4 stalks celery
1 yellow onion
4 cloves garlic, peeled
10 whole peppercorns
4 fresh thyme sprigs
1 fresh rosemary sprig
1/4 bunch fresh parsley
water

Place all ingredients in a large pot and add enough cold water to cover. Bring to a boil then turn down to simmer. Simmer for 3 hours and add cold water as needed. Remove from heat and let cool.

Remove chicken from pot and place on a tray, using a strainer pour stock into a separate container.

* use the rest of the stock ingredients to make a puree for a sauce or soup thickener

CHICKEN STEW

Remove chicken meat from bones, rough dice meat and set aside

1TBSP veg oil
500GR bacon ( I like double smoked bacon for this)
2 large carrots
3 stalks celery
1/2 med onion
3 cloves garlic
1/2 CUP white wine (or 1/4 CUP white wine vinegar)
chicken stock
3 TBSP fresh thyme
2 TBSP fresh sage
1 TBSP fresh parsley
1-2 TBSP sea salt
1 TBSP black pepper

Heat pot to med heat add chopped bacon and cook until crisp *(alternative is to place bacon in 400 degree oven and cook until crisp, flip as needed) add diced carrots, celery, onion and garlic and saute. Add wine (or vinegar) cook for 2 min and add stock. Add herbs, salt (more or less according to your preference) and pepper and cook for 30 min. add water as needed.

DUMPLINGS

2 CUP flour
4 TSP baking powder
1/2 TSP sea salt
1 CUP milk

Sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in milk. Spoon batter into boiling stew and cover with lid for 10 min. Turn off.

*over mixing will cause your dumplings to be tough or chewy instead of light and fluffy

Chicken Stew w/ Dumplings is ready to SERVE!!!

A Real Dessert

I don't usually like to write about things I make at work but I'm just tickled pink with my new dessert and it seems like everyone else is too. If you know me then you know that I'm not a huge fan of sweets, in fact I pretty much don't ever feel the desire to go out and buy a cookie or a piece of cake or any other baked goods. To me a dessert needs to have different elements, it needs to be sensual and sorry but cakes and cookies just don't turn me on.

So what different about this? Let's start with what's in it. The base is a jaconde which is essentially an almond sponge cake. The sponge cake is topped with dried black mission figs that I poached in wild flower honey, vanilla and water until the liquid was thick and syrupy. Next is the custard and I'm not talking about that powder stuff you get in a can, this one is the real deal made with eggs, egg yolk and milk. I added sheet gelatin to the custard once it cooled a bit so that it would set and hold it's shape but still be melt in your mouth creamy. The final layer is a crunchy sweet crumble made out of what most people consider a mistake... burnt white chocolate. Yup that's right all you need to do is throw your white chocolate chips on a cookie sheet and bake them for about 10 minutes until they're golden brown, run them through a food processor and voila!

There you have it 5 different elements, the soft spongy cake, the syrupy sweetness of the honey, the chewy figs, the creamy custard and the crunchy white chocolate crumble.

I'm bettin a cookie doesn't sound so good now does it ?

Turks and Caicos National Dish

I recently had the unbelievable pleasure of travelling to Turks and Caicos Islands in the caribbean. Their national dish is conch, you know those giant shells that so many people seem to have and that they insist on showing you how you can blow into it to make a horrendous horn sound, ya you know the ones. Well as it turns out they are actually one of the best things I've ever eaten ugly as they are. You can find them used in almost any dish and believe me I tried quite a few different dishes as it became my new food obsession especially since really how often am I going to be able to go to the caribbean to enjoy it this fresh!

Anyway I have to say my favourite was the conch salad, that bad boy you see in the picture was our lunch caught by the crew on our snorkelling trip. It's basically a conch ceviche with peppers, onion, salt and lime juice (sorry I didn't get a picture of the salad because I was too busy making sure I got my  fare share). The conch meat is a nice and firm white meat, not at all chewy or slimy and does not have an overly potent 'fishy flavour'. The fresh flavours and the fact that it was served cold hit the spot perfectly in such a warm climate. I had conch salad from 3 different places on our trip and this was definitely the best.

I also tried the conch fritters which where my second favourite conch dish though depending where you go they could be a little on the heavy side and sometimes too greasy for my taste.

My third favourite was the cracked conch, it was battered and deep fried and served with a dipping sauce. Like the conch fritters it really depended on where you ordered it as some was overly battered and the conch was lost or in other places it was served with a cocktail sauce that was really more like ketchup. I definitely say go to Da Conch Shack if you're looking to order this.

All in all eating conch was definitely one of the highlights of my trip, yes I really am that much of a food geek :)

P.S. It does not taste like chicken...

Vegetarian Quesadilla

Here's a  little bit of a twist on a good ole family fave. Quesadillas are one of my boyfriend's favourites. As he's not much of the adventurous type when it comes to dining out or trying new things quesadillas are pretty much his go to food at any restaurant and he considers himself quite the "quesadilla connoisseur".

I made these quesadillas vegetarian and packed full of vitamins and nutrients. I started out with an organic spelt and chia seed wrap and layered it with black beans that I sauted with onions, garlic, peppers, chipotle chili powder and cumin. I added some cooked quinoa to the black beans, spread it out on my wrap, topped it with aged cheddar and grilled it on my panini grill.

Once the quesadilla was grilled I served it up with some arugula that I tossed with a bit olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper as well as a hand cut fresh salsa and homemade guacamole that whose recipes will be a post all there own.

Voila! Dinner is served:)

Picture of Goat Cheese stuffed Chicken with Smoked Tomato Coulis

Stuffed Chicken w/ Smoky Tomato Coulis

Okay so I'm really going to try and make time for this blog again! My goal is at least one entry a week...

Last nights dinner seemed to be a hit, I made a chicken breast stuffed with goat cheese, basil and spinach (my own home grown basil which I was pretty excited about). I did a chiffonade of the basil and spinach and mixed it with the goat cheese then added an egg to help bind it all.

I used Hickory to smoke some roma tomatoes which was a learning experience! I had never smoked anything by myself before so I ended up with a full on fire! Second attempt went a little better except that I was so worried about starting another fire I didn't get the full smoky flavor I was looking for in the tomatoes.

I used the smoked tomatoes to make a smoky tomato coulis with shallots, garlic, red wine vinegar, paprika and a pinch of chipotle chili powder. I spooned the coulis onto the plate and placed the stuffed chicken breast on top.

I served this with an herb salad topped with chopped walnuts, yellow heirloom tomatoes, a drizzle of garlic infused olive oil and balsamic vinegar.

There was nothing left on the plates at the end of dinner so I think we'll put this dish in the win category.

Got The Scallops

So I got the scallops although I really wanted a larger scallop I settled for the small ones that were available. I made forbidden rice topped with matchstick daikon, julienne baby carrot and chives. I pan seared the scallops in butter and they turned out perfectly. When my scallops were finished I coated them in a seasoned, toasted cashew and fresh rosemary crust. What you can't see in the picture is the beautiful organic navel orange, ginger and garlic reduction obviously because of the yellow plate which made me realize that I need some new plates to show off my creative side. Anyway I strained my sauce, added the ginger and garlic that was strained from the the sauce to my rice and spooned some of the reduction onto the plate and placed my scallops on top. All in all I was pretty happy with how this dish turned out.