Into Africa

I help out with the Interact Club at school and we’ve been fund raising for a trip to Africa to help some people there. We decided to do an African flavoured dinner as part of our fund raising activities. Our dinner featured a silent auction, an African Legend, read by Rutendo, and a performance by our Djembe Drummers.

For African flavour inspiration I turned to The Soul of a New Cuisine, by Marcus Samuelsson. I love this book because it has great food ideas representing a wide range of dishes from Africa…but that’s another blog, and I’ll get to it some other time. Suffice to say that the book is full of flavour that pops! We had to adjust the recipes a bit to feed our hungry guests but I think we maintained the overall integrity of Chef Marcus’s dishes. Here’s the menu as we presented it:

Spiced Cucumber Salad with Peanuts

Citrus Cabbage Salad

Minted Mango Couscous Salad

Mixed Greens with Tamarind Vinaigrette

Sweet Corn Fufu

Vegetable Tagine with Raisins and Pine Nuts

Braised Peanut Chicken with Coconut Peanut Sauce

Grilled Boerewors Sausage with Roasted Peppers and Onion

Kofta with Okra Tomato Sauce

Avocado Fool with Mango

Peanut Cake with Papaya and Plums

Malva Pudding

Tropical Fruit and Cashew Salad

Though we tried to get as much flavour into the food as possible, I have no idea if we were successful or not. I mean, we’re not from Africa, and we’ve never been there! We go next July! But we received good reviews on the food so I guess we’ll have to wait until July to find out if we produced food that was anywhere close to what people eat in Africa. In the meantime, I think I’ll continue to experiment with African flavours, so if you know of any other books that focus on African cuisine, please let me know and I’ll give them a try.

Panna Cotta Revisited

I like making Panna Cotta because it’s one of those old traditional dishes that you can update quite easily. By starting with a plain vanilla panna cotta and adding vibrant flavours, colourful garnishes or even tangy sauces, a new dessert is created. 

I included Orange White Chocolate Panna Cotta as part of my Cocktail Party Apps lesson I delivered the other night and it turned out great. The small portion size was just big enough to satisfy my sweet craving without being too much. I think everyone else felt the same way because they were all scraping out the tiny little cups we used so they could get every last spoonful.

I’ve mostly seen panna cotta served ‘unmolded’ but I like to serve it in a small serving dish of its own. For this one I used a tiny Maxwell Williams coffee cup that I picked up at a closing out sale last year. They hold about 4 oz maximum so I put 2 -3 oz of the mix into them so the berries fit nicely on top. And they come with a really cute spoon! A small brandy snifter or other clear glass also does well here because you can see that white creamy layer on the bottom with the bright berries sitting on top. Sometimes I make the berries, or other fruit garnish the dominant feature of the dessert. So you have fresh raspberries with lemon panna cotta, the panna cotta acting sort of as a sweet, silky cream for those delicious berries!

I’ve also served this portion size as part of a dessert plate to finish a nice meal. The size of the portion allows you to add home made cookies, a piece of cake or another type of fruit. The little serving vessel really adds to the appearance of the dessert.

Any way you serve it, any way you flavour it, it’s one of those desserts you can come back to time and again, making a different version or going back to a combination that you really liked. Try out a few different flavours for yourself. I’m sure you’ll love it!

   Orange White Chocolate Panna Cotta

    1 1/2 teaspoons unflavoured gelatine

    2 tablespoons whole milk

    ½ cup sugar

    1/8 teaspoon salt

    1 1/2 cups heavy cream

    zest of one orange

    1/4 cup fresh orange juice

    2 oz white chocolate chunks

    3/4 cup sour cream

1. Sprinkle gelatin over milk in a small bowl and let stand 1 minute to soften.

2. Whisk together sugar, salt, heavy cream, orange zest and orange juice and heat just until the boiling point. Don’t let the mixture boil.

3. Stir in the gelatin mixture and white chocolate and whisk until they are both dissolved. 

4. Mix in the sour cream and pour through a fine sieve into small wine glasses.

5. Chill until firm, at least 8 hours.

6. For service, add mixed berries to the glasses and serve.

Makes 12 little desserts suitable for a cocktail party or 6 larger size for dessert.

Great Chefs Of Our Time

If you stop by to see me and the TV’s on, it’s more than likely on the Food Network and whatever else I'm doing, I’m also watching a food show. I like watching most of them and can’t stand some of them. I thought that I would write a blog about my favourite shows and chefs but once I got going, I soon realized there were too many to fit in one blog. So I thought I would break it down into individual blogs about 1 chef and come back to the theme over time.So here goes my first installment of Great Chefs Of Our Time.

Let’s start with Mark McEwen and The Heat. I sometimes feel a little nostalgic when I watch this show because some of the names and sites are familiar to me. I was working at Le Select Bistro on Queen St. when Chef McEwen started up North 44. There was quite the buzz at the time about the new venture and it was the place to go as soon as it opened. The food has been creative, tasty and visually appealing and has garnered great reviews over the years. Since the start of North 44 Mark has added two other restaurants to his holdings, Bymark and One, as well as an upscale gourmet shop, simply called McEwen. (I want to call it a grocery store but I don’t think the term does it justice).

But back to the show, I like The Heat because it’s real. McEwen takes you through catering gigs from start to finish. What his team goes through to get the job done, what problems he encounters along the way and of course the stellar end results. From ‘small’ parties to 500 seat extravaganzas, the team always pays great attention to detail and the food always looks fantastic. I like the cooks on the show and would love to cook along side them. They all seem passionate about food and what they do and dedicated to Chef McEwen and his restaurants. That says a lot about Chef McEwen.

McEwen just published his first book, Great Food at Home, which I purchased right away because I’ve been so impressed with his food and what he’s done throughout his career. Though I’ve just opened the book and skimmed through it a few times, I’m already impressed. When I read through the introduction and descriptions of food items, I can here Mark’s voice as he explains why he did this or included that. I’m looking forward to trying many of the dishes contained in the book and will let you know how that goes.

But for now, I look forward to every show, even if I’ve already seen it once. When I watch the show I feel like I’m right there with his team and that’s a great place to be. If you haven't seen The Heat, it's well worth checking out.

It's All In The Bean

I just love vanilla! The scent it spreads in the air, the flavour it imparts to baked goods, desserts and even savoury dishes. I think it’s kind of comforting somehow. When I smell it, I think of home, but I’m not sure why. Is it because I associate it with my mother’s (and father’s) baking? Is it because I think of a kitchen when I smell it, which is the most comfortable place in the world for me? Who knows? I wonder if that’s why they use it to scent some baby toys? To give that comforting feeling to children. Even my kitchen and bathroom hand soap is vanilla scented! My hands smell like vanilla! I love it!

One thing I know is that it’s a flavour I don’t want to do without. When I use it in desserts, I always put double the amount called for in the recipe. I like to put extra vanilla in chocolaty desserts because it goes so well with chocolate and the same with coffee sauces. Or simply in coffee, or even a glass of milk!  Have you ever added vanilla to the milk you add to your morning cereal? Give it a try if you haven’t. Or how about your oatmeal?  

Vanilla is even a welcome addition to some savoury items. Lobster is one of them. We used to feature a lobster dish with a vanilla butter sauce at the Explorer Hotel that was actually quite nice. Paring it with rosemary also creates a nice flavour combination. But you have to be careful when using it in a savoury preparation. Use it sparingly so you just get a hint of vanilla, otherwise it overpowers the main ingredient. You want the vanilla to just compliment the other ingredients in the dish.

My cupboards usually contain vanilla in at least 3 different forms. I always have a whole bean or two for those special items that need the little specks of seeds and deep flavour of real vanilla, like ice cream, crème brulee or crème Anglaise. A friend of mine has been known to bring me a bunch of beans from a shop he visits in Montreal. Since I can’t use them all at once, I put them in a tall skinny jar and cover them with vodka. The vanilla flavour infuses the vodka which can be used in some preparations but more important, the beans seem to suck in the vodka, making them plump and juicy. Simply cut them open and squeeze out the vanilla beans and syrup into what ever you are making. Of course I always put the left over shell of the bean in my sugar jar so that it becomes infused with vanilla and adds to the applications I use the sugar in.

I also have a small jar of Madagascar Bourbon Pure Vanilla Bean Paste that I picked up at my favourite Kitchener food shop, Vincenzo’s. It’s a bit pricey but a great addition to my spice shelves. And if for some reason I run out of vanilla in these forms, there’s always that old back-up bottle of vanilla extract! It will do in a pinch…I guess.

So next time you’re baking, making a dessert, or trying to think of an exotic flavour to use, don’t be afraid to add an extra splash of vanilla. Perhaps you too will find the scent and flavour comforting, and reminiscent of warm kitchens and of home.

 

Mark's Best Oatmeal

2/3 cup milk

1/3 cup quick cooking oats

1 tbsp dried cranberries

1 tbsp pecans, chopped          

1 tbsp dried banana

1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1 tbsp  maple syrup

• Mix the milk and oatmeal in a small pot.
• Add the pecans, cranberries and dried bananas
• Bring to a simmer and cook gently for about 3 minutes.
• Pour into a bowl and top with maple syrup.