Festive Cake for the Festive Season

Here's a nice cake for the holiday season. Easy to make and the combination of fruit and nuts make it a tasty treat!

Pear Cranberry Upside Down Cake

1 tablespoon butter

1/4 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup packed light brown sugar

1 pear, peeled, cored, and cut in 8 wedges

3/4 cup fresh or frozen cranberries (do not thaw if frozen)

1/2 cup pistachios, toasted and skinned

Rub the bottom and sides of an 8-inch round cake pan with the 1 tablespoon butter.

Melt butter the butter in a small pot. Add the brown sugar and stir until the sugar is dissolved then pour it into the prepared cake pan.

Place the pear wedges in the pan nicely then sprinkle the pistachios and cranberries in the pan. Set this aside.

½ cup butter

½ cup sugar

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1 teaspoon cinnamon

¼ teaspoon fresh nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup milk

¼ cup sour cream

Preheat oven to 350 degrees with rack in center. 

Cream the ½ cup of butter and 1/2 cup sugar with

 a mixer until light and fluffy. Add the eggs and 

vanilla and beat until well combined.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt in another bowl.

Add the flour mixture, milk and sour cream to the sugar butter mixture and mix just until it all comes together.   

Pour the batter over the fruit and spread it carefully to the sides. Place in the oven and bake until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes. Let cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes. Run a knife around edge of cake; invert onto a rimmed platter.

Happy Holidays!!

Thanksgiving Fund Raiser

I worked with my Hot Cuisine Club members last night to put out a fundraising dinner at St. Patrick High School. Funds we raised will help us pay for our trip to California next March break. This is the menu we went with:

Arugula Salad with Roasted Beets, 

Goat Cheese and Toasted Pecans

Squash Ricotta Ravioli with 

Green Kale and Sage Cream

Turkey Confit topped with

Turkey Breast stuffed with 

Turkey Apple Sausage

Sage Jus

Sweet Potato Risotto

Braised Red Cabbage

Honey Glazed Carrots

Cranberry and White Chocolate Bread Pudding

Peaches and Cream Corn Ice Cream

Toasty Pecan Streusel

Honey Carrot Sauce

 I love beets (see my last post below) so it was only fitting that we start with a salad that had roasted beets in it. There was also a beet vinaigrette on the bottom of the plate to add to the flavour of the greens that were lightly tossed with blood orange olive oil and uzu vinegar. A little goat cheese crumbled on top completed the dish.

Cody and Harrison make the pasta

The pasta dish was made in the class using a technique for combining 2 flavours of pasta to create a striped sheet. This was then stuffed with a butternut squash filling and served with a sage and green kale cream sauce. 

The main course was a traditional turkey dinner prepared a bit differently. The turkey was first broken down to create 3 different components. Some of the thigh meat was used to make a turkey sausage mix that was then stuffed under the skin of the boneless turkey breast. These little roasts were then cooked right before service, giving us a nice moist and juicy turkey, not dried out as might happen with a normal roast turkey. The legs were first cured in salt, onions, thyme, pepper and juniper berries for 2 days, then cooked slowly in a bath of turkey fat. This slow process makes for moist and tender fall-off-the-bone turkey. Top it off with some sage jus for a great turkey taste.

The potato risoto wasn't a rice dish but rather potatoes and sweet potatoes cut into small cubes and then cooked like you would make a risotto. The result is a kind of chunky smashed potato with a kind of gravy flavour built right in. The carrots were ruby red carrots (thanks Lone!) that were cooked sous vide. They were vac packed with honey and butter and cooked very slowly in hot water, then reheated for service. Great way to preserve and intensify the flavour of the carrot.

 

The dessert was a traditional bread pudding with a bit of a twist. We tried a carrot sauce thickened with agar, topped the pudding with a spoon of white chocolate ganache and added a peach sphere on top of that! Playing with a little molecular gastronomy, the sphere was created using sodium alginate and calcium lactate. It looked like an egg yolk and behaved in the same way, oozing out over the dessert when poked with a fork. The flavour of the peach sphere matched the ice cream with, made with peaches, corn and white chocolate.

This was a great opportunity for these kids, some of whom have never seen, prepared or eaten food like this before. They're anxious to do it again though so watch for the next dinner coming up soon!

And Now the Beets

This is the third recipe that I have prepared for the Yellowknife Community Garden Collective's Fall Harvest Fair, coming up this Saturday, September 8th here in Yellowknife. I've chosen these three recipes for carrots, Swiss chard and beets because I think they are the simplest ways to cook them that brings out the natural flavour of the vegetables in use. To be perfectly honest, I could eat a plate of just these vegetables for my dinner. I hope you enjoy them as well.  

Roasted Beets
I think roasting beets brings out the true flavour of the vegetable itself. Just a little salt, pepper and herbs is great but if you want a bit of extra taste, sprinkle the finished product with a little balsamic vinegar and a few crumbles of goat cheese.

1 lb beets

1 tbsp olive oil

2 or 3 stems of marjoram (thyme, rosemary or sage also work well)

Salt

Fresh cracked black pepper

1. Preheat the oven to 400F.
2. Remove the stems and roots without cutting into the beet. Wash the beets well and dry them.  Place them on a double thickness of foil and drizzle with the olive oil. Add the herbs and season with a bit of salt and cracked black pepper.
3. Wrap the beets in the foil, sealing them tightly.Place them in the oven until tender, about 1 hour. (the amount of time roasting depends on the size of the beets)
4. Cool the beets and peel them. Cut them in slices or quarters and put them in a heat proof dish. Add a bit of butter, salt and
5.  pepper and reheat them for dinner.

YK Swiss Chard

Swiss Chard is one of those vegetables that is really delicious and easy to prepare, but isn't really that popular. I like to use rainbow Swiss chard, both the stems and the leaves, braising them lightly to tenderize the leaves and bring out their earthy flavour.

You can substitute white wine for the vegetable broth, and try using different herbs instead of the thyme.

Braised Swiss Chard

1 bunch Swiss chard, stems removed (about1/2 lb)

2 tsp olive oil

¼ cup onion, diced small

2 garlic cloves, minced

¼ cup vegetable broth

1 tbsp butter

1 tbsp fresh thyme leaves

Salt and pepper to taste

1. Tear the chard leaves away from the stems. Slice the stems about ¼ inch thick.
2. Heat a large pan over medium heat. Add the oil and heat through. Add the chard stems, onions and garlic. Sauté these ingredients until the onions turn translucent, about 3 minutes. Do not brown the onions or garlic.
3. Sauté the shallots in the olive oil.
4. Add the chard leaves and season lightly with salt and pepper. Sauté until they wilt a bit, about 1 minute. Add the vegetable broth, cover and cook for about 3 minutes.
5. Remove the lid, add the butter and thyme and mix in. Season with salt and pepper, being careful not to over salt.

Carrots Fresh From the Garden

The humble carrot is one of my favourite veggies, so when I was asked by the YK Community Garden Collective to come up with some recipes to highlight the freshness of this years harvest, Dill Glazed Carrots was a natural. This is a simple way to prepare them that brings out their garden fresh flavour. Tamara brought me a selection of Sebastien's finest carrots from the Arctic Farmer garden to play with and here's what I ended up with.

Dill Glazed Carrots

I like to use multi-coloured carrots when I can find them but plain old orange carrots do just as well. I also like to cut them in sticks rather than slices. I just like eating them that way. To peel or not to peel? That’s up to you. I peel large carrots but more often than not, I just remove the ends and scrub them down.

1 lb carrots

¼ tsp salt

½ tsp sugar

1 tbsp maple syrup

1 tbsp butter

2 tsp fresh dill, chopped roughly

Salt and fresh cracked black pepper

1. Prepare the carrots by peeling or washing them. Cut them in about 2 to 3 inch long pieces. Cut those pieces in halves or quarters the long way, or leave them whole, depending on how thick they are. All the pieces should be about the same size for even cooking.
2. Place the carrots in a large bottomed pot or pan and add just enough water to cover. Add the sugar and salt and bring them to a simmer. Cook them until they have softened a bit, but are still firm with a bit of a bite.
3. Remove the carrots from the pot and boil the remaining water until it almost disappears. Remove from the heat and add the maple syrup and butter, swirling it in until it melts, forming a bit of a sauce. Add the carrots and dill, season with salt and pepper and toss to coat.
4. Eat them up!