Sea Beans and Salmon

I found some sea beans of all things at Lulu's in Yellowknife! I also found an 'heirloom' tomato at the Co-op so I thought I would try the two with a peice of fresh salmon.
The sea beans look like bright green little twigs and taste like asparagus, and they are quite salty! They don't grow in the sea but rather in salt marshes or near beaches so I guess that's where they get the salt. You can eat them raw or cook them quickly and lightly.

To start this meal, I seasoned the salmon only with pepper since I would be serving it with the salty beans. I also used a a chipotle oil to fry the salmon which added a bit of spice to the fish. Make sure the pan is hot but not smoking so you sear the fish well and put a nice crust on top. It goes in the pan skin side up and then leave it for 3 to 4 minutes until it's golden brown and you can see it cooking around the edge of the fish. Turn it and cook it on the other side for the same amount of time, adding a spoon full of butter and basting the fish with it. If it gets a bit brown, that's okay too. More flavour that way! The key here is not overcooking it! It should be still a little under done when you take it out of the pan because it's going to cook a bit more.
While the salmon was resting I tossed some small diced red onion into the pan, then added the sea beans. Toss them around a bit, melt in a bit of butter and they're done. I served the beans and salmon with a bit of salad and the heirloom tomato slices. Simple but delicious!

California Food Exploration

The Golden Gate Bridge

Rabbit at Incanto

I recently traveled to San Francisco and Los Angeles with a group of St Pat's High School cooking students. Our goal was to explore food production operations, eat great food and generally have a bit of fun. I'm happy to say we accomplished all three goals!
We started in San Fransisco, visiting the Fisherman's Wharf, Alcatraz and generally touring around the city. We ate at The Stinking Rose, Incanto and a few other spots, including a food truck area called Streat Food.
We next visited The Edible School Yard in Berkley, where we were

The Edible School Yard

shown a garden that is planted and maintained by the students of Martin Luther King Middle School. The food produced there was used in the foods classes as well as the school cafeteria. We also visited The Cowgirl Creamery in Point Reyes and watched cheese being made!
We were also lucky enough to have a private market tour in Hollywood by Bob Blumer. Bob is the host of Food Network shows such as The Surreal Gourmet, Glutten for Punishment and the World's Weirdest Restaurants.  He took us through his favourite

market, stopping at vendors along the way and having us sample the best of the local California food. Dried fruits, oranges, apples, and almonds were just a few of the foods we tried. The vendors were generous and friendly and shared their passion for food with us.

Bob shows us the market

ter the market, Bob took us back to his place and cooked breakfast for us! We sat down to eat Fresh Roasted Potatoes, Chorizo Scrambled Eggs and these really tastey bagel sticks that he roasted in the oven to crisp them up. What a great day! Bob, thanks for sharing your market, your breakfast, and most of all, your passion for food!
 After dining in a couple of restaurants that Bob recommended, we finished our trip with a day on Venice Beach and the Santa Monica Pier. A perfect ending to our California food adventure!

Food Trucks in LA

Universal Studios

Ginger Sweet Potato Risotto with Honey Glazed Brussel Sprouts

This was so good it didn't even need the chicken I had planned for it. For the sprouts, I blanched them first, then fried them to get a bit of colour and sweetness to them. A bit of butter and honey, salt and pepper at the end finished them nicely. The honey goes well with the slight bitterness of the vegetables. 

Ginger Sweet Potato Risotto

    1 tablespoon olive oil

    1/2 cup onion, finely chopped

    2 cloves garlic, minced

    2 tbsp fresh ginger, minced

    1 cup sweet potato, peeled, cut in small cubes

    1 cup Arborio rice

    2 tsps curry powder

    1/2 cup dry white wine

    2 1/2 cups hot chicken stock

    salt and pepper to taste

    1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese

    2 tbsp butter

    Salt and pepper to taste

   1. Heat the olive oil in a large saucepan over medium heat. Add onion, ginger, garlic, sweet potato and cook, stirring until onion is soft but not browned. Pour in the rice, and cook stirring for 2 minutes, then stir in curry powder and wine. Continue cooking and stirring until the liquid has evaporated. Add hot chicken stock to the rice 1/2 cup at a time, stirring and cooking until the liquid has evaporated before adding more.

   2. When the chicken stock has all been added, the rice is cooked but not mushy and the liquid has evaporated but is still a bit runny remove from the heat and stir in the Parmesan cheese and butter. Season with salt and pepper.

You may need more or less chicken stock, depending on how the rice cooks.

You can use fruit juice instead of the wine if you like. It tastes pretty good!

The Giant Caramel Pear Trifle

I was asked to do a big dessert for the Diamonds in the Ruff Dessert Gala presented by the NWT SPCA tomorrow night. I found this huge vase which I thought would be perfect for a trifle. A very big one! This is what I have for them, except for a few garnishes I want to add tomorrow night.

Giant Caramelized Pear Trifle

Diamonds in the Ruff

Almond Cake

400 g soft butter

300 g almond flour

180 g flour

380 g icing sugar

Zest from 2 oranges

12 eggs

1.      Mix the soft butter with the hazelnut powder and icing sugar.

2.      Incorporate the eggs and zest slowly so they form an emulsion after each addition.

3.      Spread the batter on a 2 parchment lined half sheet pans.

4.      Bake at 160 C for 14 minutes. Turn and bake another 14 minutes.

Caramelized Pears (x2)

• 2 Tbsps water
• 1/4 cup  sugar
• 4 x Pears, peeled, cut in halves, seeds removed and cut into thin strips
• 1 tbsp grand Marnier
• zest of one orange

1. In a large skillet, heat the water and sugar until the sugar is dissolved. Boil the sugar until it begins to caramelize. When it reaches a nice golden brown colour, add the pears.
2. Over a high heat, cook the pears for 4 to 5 minutes. Remove from heat and let cool.

Pastry Cream (x3)

• 1 cup milk
• 1/2 cup  35% cream
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 3 tbsp flour
• 6 egg yolks
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tsp almond extract

1. Mix the sugar and flour in a small bowl. Add the egg yolks and whisk until the mixture is smooth.
2. Heat the milk and cream in a medium size pot. Add the heated cream mixture to the egg yolk mixture slowly so the eggs don’t cook too quickly.
3. Pour the mixture back into the pot and bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon. Remove from the heat at the first sign of boiling. Add the vanilla and almond extracts.
4. Strain the cooked pastry cream into a glass or plastic container and cover with plastic wrap, pressing the plastic down a plastic film directly on the surface of the hot pastry cream.
5. Let it cool down and refrigerate for about 2 hours.

Whipped Cream

• 4 cups 35% cream
• 1/2 cup icing sugar
• 1 tbsp vanilla extract

1. In a bowl, whip the cream, vanilla and sugar until firm peaks are obtained.

Choclate Sauce

1 ½ cup cream

400 g chocolate

¼ cup Nutella

¼ cup Frangelico

• Heat the cream until it is just steaming. Pour it over the chocolate and mix until smooth. Add the Nutella and Frangelico and mix in.

Caramel Sauce (x2)

½ cup sugar

1 1/2 cups cream

2 tbsp grand Marnier

Zest and juice of ½ orange

1/8 tsp. baking soda

2 tbs. butter

¾ tsp. Vanilla

·         Place sugar in a heavy bottomed pot and add enough water to dissolve the sugar. Cook over high heat until a warm golden colour is achieved. Brush down the sides as the sugar is caramelizing. Caramelize the sugar.

·         Add the grand Marnier orange juice and zest and mix in. Add cream and baking soda, bring to a boil and reduce to a simmer.

·         When the sauce thickens, add butter and vanilla.

 

Assembling

1. Reserve about 1 1/2 cups of whipped cream for topping the finished trifle.
2. Mix half of the remaining whipped cream with the chilled pastry cream to lighten it. Fold in the rest of the whipped cream to make the pastry cream light and fluffy.
3. Cut the cake into rounds that will fit the serving dish you are using. Start layering the filling, fruit cake and chocolate and caramel sauces in a way that looks nice in your dish. Use the reserved whipped cream to pipe onto the top.
4. Refrigerate for 2 hours.
5. For service, sprinkle with the almonds and other garnishes if you like. .
6. Serve the remaining caramel sauce on the side.

Sausage Stuffed Dates

While I was in Chicago a few weeks ago, we ate at a restaurant called Avec. Although our dining experience wasn't great, these stuffed dates, one of their signature dishes, was! Their dates were stuffed with chorizo which had a nice bite to it. Wrapped in smoky bacon and roasted until crispy then served on a bit of tomato sauce. They were great!

I couldn't find chorizo so I used hot Italian sausage and it worked really well. The hot sausage goes really well with the sweetness of the dates and the smokiness of the bacon. Don't use sweet Italian sausage because you need that spice. And make sure you use the big medjool dates so you can get lots of sausage in them!
Here's how I did it.

Bacon Wrapped, Sausage Stuffed Medjool Dates
12 Medjool dates
1 1/2 hot Italian sausages  
6 strips bacon
1 cup tomato sauce

1. Cut a slit in the dates from end to end and remove the pits. Spread the date out a bit so you can form a pocket.
2. Pull the sausage out of the casing in small balls and place them in the date. You need to stuff them quite full so you have a good ratio of hot sausage to sweet date. 
3. Close the date, molding it around the sausage as well as you can. 
4. Cut the bacon strips in half. Place one stuffed date on 1 half slice of bacon and roll it up. 
5. Place the dates on a baking sheet, seem side down so they stay tight while they bake.
6. Bake them in a 400 F oven for 20 minutes and serve on the heated tomato sauce.

Wiseguy Underground

I was fortunate to attend what I think was the first Underground Dinner hosted in Yellowknife last night. For sure it was the first cooked by Wiseguy Chef, Robin Wasicuna. Robin put out 8 courses of simply presented food with flavours that popped! Starting with Fire Roasted Leeks with Romesco Sauce and finishing with a Bourbon Truffle, Robin tried to incorporate as many local foods in the menu as possible, not an easy thing to do in February in Yellowknife. But parsnips, carrots and leeks from Hay River were nicely combined with trout from the big lake and moose from...well somewhere nearby. All in all a great effort Robin and family! And thanks Lone for hosting this special event!

Here's the menu as I remember it:
Fire Roasted Leeks, Romesco Sauce
Hay Smoked Lake Trout, White Bean Puree, Roasted Blood Orange Sauce
Popcorn Cauliflour
Boudin Sausage Ball, Pickled Onions, Baby Clams
Roasted Marrow Bones, Crispy Fried Kale, Mignonette Sauce
Torchon of Fois Gras, Blueberry Sauce
Pan Seared Moose, Low Bush Cranberries, Bannock
Braised Short Ribs, Parsnip Puree, Hay River Carrots
Bourbon Spiked Truffle

Breakfast Pannenkoeken

On my last visit to Vancouver, I ate a place called De Dutch on Robson. This is one of a chain of Dutch pancake houses that serve that special Dutch pancake, pannenkoeken. It was pretty good but this morning I created one that made the perfect breakfast. If you try this out you won't be disappointed!

Mark’s Breakfast Pannenkoeken

1 cup flour

½ cup teff flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

Pinch of salt

3 eggs

1 tablespoon oil

2 1/4 cups milk

12 strips bacon, cooked but not too crispy

2 medium potatoes, boiled in their skins, cooled, peeled and grated

1 cup cheddar cheese

½ medium onion, diced small

Oil for frying

8 eggs

1. Mix the flour, teff, baking powder and salt together in a medium size bowl.
2. Mix the milk, oil and eggs together and whisk it into the flour mixture until no lumps remain.
3. Heat a large pan over medium high heat. Add one quarter of the bacon, onions and grated potato, sprinkling them evenly into the pan.
4. Pour about 1/2 cup of pancake mixture evenly over the frying bacon, onions and potato so the batter covers them but remains thin. Sprinkle on ¼ of the cheddar, then flip the pancake over. (I had to slide the pancake onto a pizza pan, hold the fry pan upside down over the pancake, then turn the pans over) Cook on the other side until the cheese becomes crispy. The pancake may stick until the cheese fully cooks. You might have to loosen it with a spatula. You can just flip the pancake then put the cheese on but then it just melts, not getting crispy.
5. When the pancake is done, put it onto a plate, crispy cheese side up.
6. Fry 2 eggs sunny or over easy, as you prefer them. Slide the eggs onto the pannenkoeken and serve. 

They were so good for breakfast, Mike and Pippa took a crack at making a dessert pannenkoeken. 
They sprinkled on blueberries and pears, drizzled it with caramel sauce and topped it with ice cream. Yummy!