Strawberry Summer Tart

I love making tarts with fresh fruit in the summer and this one worked out really well. The dough is easy to make and handle. You can replace the strawberries with any fresh fruit you like.

Strawberry Summer Tart

Sweet Dough

    1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

    3 tablespoons white sugar

    1/4 teaspoon salt

    2/3 cup unsalted butter, very cold

    1 egg, beaten

    1 vanilla bean

White Chocolate Pastry Cream

    3 egg yolks

    2 ½ tablespoons sugar

    1 tablespoon cornstarch

    1 cup milk

    1/2 vanilla bean, halved

    1 tablespoon butter

    2 ounces white chocolate

    2 cups strawberries  
    ¼ cup red currant jelly

    1 tbsp water

1. Sift the flour, sugar, and salt together into a bowl.
2. Grate the butter into the flour mix using the big hole side of a box grater. Rub fat into flour until you have a coarse meal.
3. Make a well in center of the flour mixture. Beat the egg and vanilla together in a small bowl and pour the mixture into the well. Using a fork, draw crumbs into the egg mixture, pulling the dough together. Knead the dough until it forms a ball, just a few times, until a smooth dough is formed. Shape into a disk, cover with plastic wrap, refrigerate for 20 minutes.   
4. Roll the dough out to 1/8 inch thickness. Place the rolled dough into a lightly floured tart pan with a removable bottom, making sure the dough is pressed into the sides. Trim the excess from the top of the pan. Prick the bottom of the tart shell with a fork and place it in the fridge.
5. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch together until pale yellow.   Set aside.
6. In a stainless steel saucepan, bring milk and vanilla bean to a boil, remove from heat and remove vanilla bean. Add the hot milk slowly into the egg yolk mixture, whisking so that it mixes in quickly. Return the mixture to the heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until it starts to thicken.
7. When you see it thicken, and before it boils, remove from it from the heat and stir in butter and white chocolate until it has melted. Set the pastry cream aside.
8. Heat oven to 425 degrees F and position shelf in lower third of oven. Place the chilled tart shell in the oven and bake for 10 - 15 minutes. 
9. Remove the shell from the oven and pour the pastry cream over it, spreading it evenly. Return it to the oven and bake it another 15 minutes, or until the filling starts to bubble a bit and the crust starts to brown. Remove from the oven and cool.
10. Clean the strawberries and cut them in quarters. Place them nicely on the tart.
11. Heat the jelly with the water  in a small pot. When it is hot and melted, remove it from the heat and paint the tart with it. Be generous, letting it fill the cracks. Cool the tart then serv.

Canadian Skills Competition Culinary Silver

I was at the Canadian Skills Competition a few weeks ago, adviser to Sebastien and judge for the post secondary culinary competition. It's a great event, a great opportunity for kids from across Canada to show us all what they can do.And show us they did. Skills and talent permeate the arena as these people from all provinces and territories compete in trade and technology career areas from cooking to welding. Sebastien came away with Silver and culinary and AJ took the gold in welding. Both of these guys attend St Patrick High School and put everything they had into the competition.
These are some pics of the food Sebastien produced. Eggs Benedict, Minestrone Soup, Beef Rouladen, and Chocolate Mousse. This is the chocolate mousse recipe that Seb used on day 2 of his competition. He sandwiched the mousse between 2 slices of brownie and served it with chocolate ice cream and raspberry sauce. A very nice dessert indeed. Unfortunately, I don't have a recipe for AJ's welding project!
If you ever come across a Skills Competition, national, provincial or territorial, check it out. You will be amazed with what these kids can do!

Dark Chocolate Mousse

6 ounces dark chocolate, chopped

1 tbsp butter

2 large egg yolks

2 large egg whites

1/4 cup sugar

11/2  tsp vanilla

1 cup chilled whipping cream

·         Melt chocolate and butter in a metal bowl set over a saucepan of barely simmering water.

·         Remove bowl from over saucepan, add the egg yolks mixing in well, then cool to lukewarm.

·         Using electric mixer, beat egg whites and sugar in a medium bowl until soft peaks form.

·         Fold into chocolate mixture.

·         Using electric mixer fitted with clean dry beaters, beat cream and vanilla in large bowl.

·         Fold into chocolate mixture.

·         Pipe onto brownie slices.

Cute Shrimp Cocktail

One of my favourite lessons to do at the Open Kitchen Studio is the Cocktail Appetizer Lesson. I've done it a few times and really like how everything turns out. One of my favourites is this little shrimp cocktail. Nicely poached shrimp with a garlic aioli and a few mini vegetable sticks. If you skewer the shrimp starting at the tail end and running through the body, you have a straight shrimp that sticks out of the glass nicely. We used skewers last night but they're a bit too big. A tooth pick might work a bit better. Make sure you don't overcook the shrimp. I bring the poaching liquid to a boil, turn it off, add the shrimp and let them sit for just a few minutes. It doesn't take long at all to cook them. Plunge them into cold water to stop the cooking process and make sure you dry them off before you assemble the cocktail.

Shrimp with Garlic Aioli

1 garlic clove, chopped

1 large egg

Zest and juice of ½ lemon 

1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley

¼ teaspoon salt

pinch freshly ground black pepper

1/2 cup olive oil

12 large shrimp, 21/25

12 wooden skewers, 6”

½ lemon, sliced

½ onion, sliced

1 tsp salt

12 pieces asparagus

12 strips red pepper, about ¼ of a pepper

12 parsley sprigs

1. Combine the garlic, egg, lemon juice and zest parsley, salt, pepper and oil in a tall cylindrical container and buzz with a hand blender until the sauce forms.
2. Set aside.
3. Peel and de-vein the shrimp, being careful not to cut too the back too deeply. Also try to leave the tail intact.
4. Slide the skewer into the shrimp from the tail end almost all the way to the head of the shrimp.
5. Fill a small pot with enough water to cover the shrimp. Add the onion, lemon and salt and bring to a boil. Remove from heat and add the skewered shrimp. Let the shrimp poach until they are just cooked. Remove them from the poaching water and place them in cold water to cool. When they are cool, drain them and dry them completely.
6. Remove the stem end from the asparagus. Blanch the asparagus in boiling salted water just until cooked, about two minutes. Remove them from the boiling water and place them in cold water to cool. When they are cool, drain them and dry them completely.

7. Place about 1 tbsp of garlic aioli in the bottom of a shot glass or small wine glass. Add the shrimp, (skewer up) asparagus (tip up) and the red pepper slice. Add a sprig of parsley.

A Honey of a Dessert

This Honey Cake with Cinnamon Ice Cream and Grilled Pears went over really well at my Thrill of the Grill lesson at the Open Kitchen Studio the other night. Grilling fruit in the summer give them a new taste and pairs (no pun intended) well with simple things like ice creams, cakes and cookies.The honey cake stays nice and moist for a long time and tastes great on its own. You can add some spices like cinnamon or nutmeg if you like.

Honey Cake with Grilled Pears and Cinnamon Ice Cream

1/2 cup olive oil
1 cup granulated sugar
3 eggs, separated
1 cup liquid honey
1 pear, grated

3 cups all-purpose flour
1 tbsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda

1/4 cup apple juice
1 orange, juice and zest of
1 lemon, juice and zest of

1. Combine oil, sugar and egg yolks in a large bowl and mix well. Stir in the honey and pear.
2. Sift the flour with baking powder and baking soda. Add to batter along with the apple juice, orange and lemon juice and zest.
3. Beat egg whites until stiff; fold into batter. Pour into a greased 13- x 9-inch baking pan; bake in 325°F oven for 1 hour.

Syrup 

½ cup sugar
½ cup water
1 orange
1 lemon

1. Place the sugar and water in a small pot. Use a vegetable peeler to take strips of peel off the orange and lemon and add them to the sugar water. Bring to a boil and boil for about 3 minutes.
2. Remove from the heat and let cool slightly.
3. Use a tooth pick or skewer to poke holes all over the top of the cake. Remove the peel from the syrup and brush the syrup over the top of the cake. Be generous and let the cake soak it up.

Cinnamon Ice Cream

1 cup milk
1 vanilla pod (sliced down the middle)
4 egg yolks
4 oz sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
2 tsp melted butter
1 cup 35% cream

1. Pour the milk and vanilla bean into a saucepan and bring the pan slowly up to boiling point. Beat the egg yolks and sugar in a small bowl until thick.
2. Mix the cinnamon and melted butter together. Add this to the yolk mixture.
3. Pour the milk into the mixture of egg yolks and sugar while stirring.
4. Pour the mixture back into the pot and heat gently, stirring until the custard thickens enough to coat the back of the spoon. Remove the saucepan from the heat and cool in the fridge for 4 hours or overnight.
5. When the custard base is cold, whip the cream to a very soft peak and fold it into the cream.
6. Transfer the whole mixture into an ice cream maker and freeze according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Grilled Pears

4 nicely ripened pears (I like bartletts. Always have, always will)
3 tablespoons honey
1 tablespoon freshly-squeezed lemon juice
¼ tsp cinnamon

1. Cut the pears in quarters from top to bottom. Remove the core from each quarter.
2. In a small bowl, combine honey, lemon juice and cinnamon. Brush the glaze onto each pear quarter, coating them completely.
3. Preheat the barbecue grill. Oil the grill rack with canola. Place pear wedges on the grill and cook approximately 4 minutes on each side until the pear is marked and a bit singed.
4. Remove from the grill and brush with any additional glaze one more time. Serve with slices of the honey cake and a scoop of the ice cream.

Whoop Ass Chili

Well I finally opened up a can of Whoop Ass. Whoop Ass Chili that is! On my recent trip to the Big Easy we stopped at a little shop called The Pepper Palace of New Orleans. This shop had a million bottles of hot sauce and spicy condiments. Great selection of everything hot. I bought some Wasabi Peanuts, a bottle of Ass Kicken' Peanut Butter and of course, a can of Whoop Ass Chili Mix. I opened it up last night and prepared it as per the directions on the can. The chili is a bit different than I'm used to because it uses a masa mix to thicken it up a bit so you have a bit of a corny taste to it. It also contains a little envelop of powdered habanero. The more habanero you put in, the bigger the whoop ass kick you get. I put in about half of the package, so according to the can, my chili is somewhere between a medium whoop and a big whoop. I was afraid to go all the way, and for good reason. The chili was quite spicy but had nice flavour and it made a great chili dog.

So if you find yourself in New Orleans, visit the Pepper Palace and put some spice in your life. Great stuff!

Great Slave Lake Trout Caviar

Tamara and Sebastien brought lake trout home from their fishing trip the other day, and they saved the eggs. Tamara tried frying them up but didn't really like them. I turned some into caviar and it actually worked! They tasted pretty good. Hmmmm...maybe there's a market for this specialty product.

 I also fried up the fish with a bit of a potato coating then served it with a wasabi flavoured edamame spread. Tasted pretty good along side a salad of fresh greens.  And topping it off, Great Slave Lake Trout Caviar!

New Orleans Beignet

Coffee and beignet in New Orleans is one of those things you just can't do without. (or is that two of those things?) We've tried two places that have made this ritual famous, Cafe Du Monde and Cafe Beignet. Cafe Du Monde is a very large indoor and outdoor cafe serving you guessed it, coffee and beignet. The original Cafe Du Monde was opened in 1862 on Decatur St in the French Market. It's a very busy place but since people are just sitting down for cafe au lait and beignet, the tables turn over quickly so the wait's not too long.

The world renowned Cafe Du Monde

The beignet came to our table buried in powdered sugar and piping hot. The sugar itself was amazing, tasting simply sweet and clean with none of that processed taste I'm used to tasting. I think it must be powdered cane sugar. 

It's difficult to say which place fried the better fritter. The beignet at Cafe Du Monde were a bit smaller but crispier, while the ones at Cafe Beignet were larger and a bit fluffier. I enjoyed both very much and can't decide which is best.

At Cafe Beignet we were served a bit of entertainment with our breakfast in the form of a few tunes from Lee 'Pink' Floyd. (The Cafe Beignet is located in the Musical Legends Park on Bourbon St.) A great way to start the day! Last night we returned to watch Steamboat Willie sing a few songs. This was a really nice place to sit and listen and enjoy the French Quarters famous breakfast. 

Breakfast entertainment at Cafe Beignet