Spaghetti Bolognese

I can’t believe the blog has gone on this long without posting this recipe, the very first savory meal I ever made by myself.  I don’t actually remember when that would have been but somewhere around age 12, possibly a little later and definitely before I was 14.  And this is a dish I have made ever since.  It was my mother’s specialty but now when we have this meal as a family (and I am at home) I am always the one who makes it (which isn’t usually the case for other family favourites I now make myself).  This is likely a dish most home cooks make with at least some regularity, especially if they are cooking for children (what kid doesn’t like spaghetti?).  But I really think mine is better.  Like many of my dishes it does take some time to make but, like many of the dishes I post here, it is not all that difficult or particularly time consuming.

3lbs ground beef

2 onions

Olive oil

1 head of garlic (you can use a little bit less)

1 green pepper (optional)

Mushrooms (optional)

Carrots (very optional)

2-3 cups tomato sauce (or 1 can San Marzano tomatoes)

3 tablespoons tomato paste

2 tbsp rosemary

2 tbsp thyme

2 tbsp oregano

2 tbsp basil

1 tsp cayenne (or to taste)

1 tsp salt

½ tsp allspice

½ tsp cinnamon

1 piece parmesan rind (or about ½ cup grated parmesan)

½ cup red wine

Spaghettini or Spaghetti

There are many options possible for this recipe.  One thing I have done at times is to add some bacon to this.  When I do, I add about ¼ cup of chopped bacon to the pot at the very beginning and cook until the fat is rendered out, then use the bacon fat in place of some of the olive oil and proceed with the recipe.  Also, there are many vegetable options that you can use, just keep in mind this is not a vegetable-based sauce, so the vegetables should only be an accent.  Aside from the onions, none of the vegetables are actually required and others could be used instead.  If I happen to have mushrooms and green pepper in the house I will usually use them in this.  I know that carrots are very frequently used in Bolognese style sauces, but they would need to be diced very fine or grated in, and I don’t think it’s worth the trouble.  Zucchini might be another good option here.

Dice the onions and mince the garlic.  Saute the onions on medium heat in olive oil, along with the green peppers, if using.  When the onions have softened, add the mushrooms and continue to cook until mushrooms have cooked.  Then add garlic and cook for 1-2 minutes, until the garlic is fragrant.  Then add the beef and brown/cook it (in most pans, with the quantities in this recipe, the meat won’t really brown – too crowded – but that doesn’t really matter here, you just need to get the meat cooked).  When all the meat is cooked, add the tomato sauce and paste, mix well.  Then add salt and all the herbs and spices (I typically use dried herbs for all the herbs called for here.  Yes, I realize many, if not most, chefs consider the use of dried basil to be completely unacceptable, but in this case I disagree.  It does have enough flavour.  If you have fresh basil absolutely use it, the sauce will be even better, but dried works fine.  The same goes for all the herbs with the possible exception of oregano – even with fresh you should still use some dried).  Make sure to taste for seasoning and balance here.  Herbs and spices vary in strength and they can lose their strength over time.  Next add a piece of parmesan rind.  The way to get this is, once you have finished grating all the usable cheese off a piece of parmesan, keep the rind – in the fridge or the freezer – until needed.  If you don’t have a piece of rind available, just use grated parmesan.  Then add the wine and simmer on low with the lid on for at least ½ hour – if you have more time even better. 

 Meanwhile prepare a large pot of water for the pasta.  Make sure the water is salted generously, as this is the only opportunity to actually season the pasta.  In my view, there is no real benefit to putting oil in the water – if you use a pot that is large enough, the water will not boil over, and the oil will definitely not transfer to the noodles on draining.  When the water is at a full boil add the pasta, making sure to stir it occasionally so it does not stick.  Cook to al dente, most package directions are actually not too far off so if you start checking it maybe 2 minutes before the package says, it should be done.  Drain the pasta right away but DO NOT WASH IT.  Many chefs now tell you to save some pasta water and mix it with the sauce.  While this is generally good advice, this is in no way an authentic Italian pasta sauce.  The proportion of sauce to noodles will likely be way off and a chunky sauce like this is actually not the best type of sauce for spaghetti anyway.  This is really a recipe for meat sauce with pasta.  For that reason, adding pasta water won’t help you much in this instance.  Anyway, put the drained pasta back in the pot and toss with olive oil.  Serve the sauce with the pasta, and garlic bread if you like.

Garlic Bread

While there is some halfway decent garlic butter available in stores, I think it is still worth the effort to make your own.

Garlic

Butter

Fresh herbs (I suggest parsley & thyme)

Salt

White wine

Parmesan cheese

Chop the garlic and mix it with melted butter.  Cook in the microwave for a minute or so, then add salt, herbs and wine.  Don’t add too much wine, but it is there to add some acid and some water to soak into the bread and help infuse the garlic.  Use a crusty Italian-style bread – Ciabatta works very well as it bakes wide and flat.  When split, it is perfect to hold plenty of garlic butter.  Brush the garlic butter onto the bread, top with the cheese, and broil with the broiler set to low.  Watch the bread carefully and you may have to rotate the pan, move pieces around, and remove some pieces earlier, to make sure everything crisps nicely but does not burn.  Serve immediately.

Beer Can Chicken

A long time ago I wrote a post about how to roast chicken.  Click here to find that post.  It was a general post that explained what I termed the best way to roast any form of poultry.  Well, in the summer you don’t really want to use the oven very much.  Fortunately there is an even better way to roast chicken, this time on the barbecue.  Though this is cooked on a barbecue, it has a taste less like the typical BBQ chicken, and more like a rotisserie chicken with some smoke flavour.  This is actually a very easy method and even easier than the roasting method I described before.

Beer can chicken is a chicken cooked slowly on a barbecue standing up perched over a can of beer.  While this sounds like some bizarre hillbilly cooking experiment, this is actually a very sound culinary technique that actually roasts better than in an oven.  The first reason is that this allows the bird to be cooked standing up, so all sides receive the same amount of heat, assuring even cooking.  And the can of beer performs an absolutely critical role; providing a constant source of moisture inside the chicken throughout the cooking process.  So this avoids the ever-present problem of dry breast meat, which I addressed in that earlier post.  And finally, cooking chicken on a barbecue will provide some smoke flavour to the chicken.  Like in my previous roast chicken post, this technique will also work with other birds, however your barbecue will need enough clearance underneath the lid to be able to cook larger birds.

1 medium chicken, about 1.7 kilos

smoked paprika

paprika

granulated garlic

salt

pepper

cayenne

olive oil

1 can dark beer

Set up your barbecue for indirect cooking.  This procedure will vary depending on what type of grill you are using.  When I posted about BBQ brisket I described how this is done for a charcoal grill and suggested that a gas grill might be more troublesome.  For this application, a gas grill will work just as well and the set up would be easier.  Since the cooking time is shorter you shouldn’t need to worry about running out of gas and a gas grill has the added benefit of being easier to control the amount and location of heat.  For a charcoal grill, set up coals on the outsides of the grill and place a drip pan in the centre, underneath where the chickens will sit.  You will most likely not need to add another batch of coals as they should last to some degree for the entire cooking time needed.  But you should still keep an eye on things because conditions can always vary when using charcoal.  On a gas grill, put a drip pan under where the chicken will go, and do not light that section of the grill.  Usually you will only need to turn on one section of the grill to generate sufficient heat (though this may vary depending on your specific grill).  On a gas grill, remember that there are often small racks above the main cooking surface - these will need to be removed.

Combine the spices to make the rub.  Again, I am not really giving you any proportions, but paprika should make up a large component.  Lightly coat the chicken with olive oil, then coat with most of the rub, leaving about a teaspoon aside.  Massage the rub into the chicken on all sides and some inside the cavity.  Then take the dark beer (in most cases, darker beers are better for cooking as they have a lot more flavour to impart) and empty half the can (what you do with that half is up to you!)  Then add the reserved teaspoon of the rub to the half-full beer can.   It will foam up a bit but that’s OK, it will subside.  Then, when the coals are ready, add a foil-wrapped packet of soaked wood chips (on a charcoal grill, split the wood chips into two packets and add one to each side) and prepare the grill for cooking.  Then insert the beer can into the cavity of the bird and stand it up on the grill over the drip pan.  You will need to push the legs forward so the two legs and the base of the can form a tripod that will allow the chicken to remain upright.  Then close the lid and leave it alone for about 1hour and 15 minutes.  For a chicken of the size called for, this should be enough time to cook the bird through.  Carefully remove the chicken to a platter, still standing up, tent with foil and all the chicken to rest for about 10 minutes.  Then, using tongs, remove the can.  The liquid that remains in the can makes a nice gravy for this dish, though it may be a little thin for some tastes.  Carve the chicken (check my roast chicken post for instructions) and serve with a side dish of your choice and the gravy.

Beef Paprikash

5 lbs beef bottom blade (or other stewing meat)
3 onions, diced
1 lb parsnips, peeled and cut large on the bias
3-4 carrots, peeled and diced
2 ribs celery, diced
olive oil
½ head garlic, minced
1 Tbsp tomato paste
1/4 cup good quality hungarian paprika
½ Tbsp cumin
1 Tsp cayenne
6 thyme sprigs
1 Tsp salt
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup red wine
2 cups tomato sauce or canned tomatoes
1 ½ cups sour cream

This is another braised meat dish so it follows the general theme of my post about How To Make a Stew. But this meal is a classic in my family so I feel it deserves its own post. There are also a few modifications of the basic technique. Paprikash is a traditional Hungarian dish typically made with veal, although beef chicken or pork are often used as well. As this dish is named after the primary spice, it is important to use good quality paprika. This is not a place for smoked paprika and I would generally advise against using Spanish paprika, as it is generally of inferior quality to Hungarian. Hungarian paprika is sold in two variations, hot and sweet. The “hot” in hot paprika shouldn’t normally refer to the heat associated with chili burn, but more to the pungency. Hot Hungarian paprika is the ideal form of paprika to use for this dish. Sweet paprika will work as well, though you may want to increase slightly the quantity of cumin and (maybe) the cayenne to compensate for the relative delicacy of the sweet paprika. Of course this will all depend on the actual quality of the product. Sometimes the hot paprika can be quite spicy, though it is not supposed to be. In this case reduce (or even eliminate) the cayenne so it doesn’t get too spicy.

First brown the slices of parsnip and set aside, then brown the meat and set it aside, as described in my stew post.




Then add the onions, carrots and celery and saute until soft, then add the garlic and cook until fragrant. Then add the tomato paste and paprika and cook, stirring constantly for about 5 minutes to open up the aromas of the paprika. Do not let it burn. Then add more oil and stir in the flour to make a roux and cook for about a minute. Then add the wine, then the tomatoes and the salt, pepper and other herbs and spices. Add the meat and parsnips back to the pot, bring to a boil and cook in a 275 degree oven for about 3 hours or until the meat is very tender.

Before adding the sour cream

After the sour cream

When the stew is done, take it out of the oven and let it cool for about 5 minutes. Make sure it is no longer boiling. Then stir in the sour cream, one or two dollops at a time. At this point, if you bring the paprikash back to a boil, the sauce will separate and appear curdled. This won’t affect the taste but when done properly you will get a very smooth texture that boiling will undo. However, when frozen and reheated, the damage is actually not as bad as one might think, as the sour cream stays more or less emulsified. We serve this over egg noodles or another broad pasta, such as pappardelle. Other pasta will work as well, or any other starch you would normally serve with a stew.

BBQ Brisket

While a post roast is rather flexible in that either fatty or lean brisket will work quite well, a fattier piece of brisket will work much better on the BBQ. If you can find it, the ultimate cut of meat for this is Wagyu brisket. Wagyu is a hybrid of the breed used in Japan for the famous Kobe Beef. This meat has far more marbling than other beef and that quality will serve well for the dry heat of the barbeque. Failing that, look for a fatty piece of ordinary brisket.

The cooking process and cooking time will depend somewhat on what equipment you have for barbeque. If you have a true southern style pit smoker, well... I wish I were you!! If you have such an elaborate piece of equipment, I assume you would know a little something about barbeque, so simply put on a good rub, like the one below, and cook it on a nice slow heat for many hours (the time will depend on the size of your brisket but at least 4-6 hours - I am not so familiar with the time frames for this). If you have another type of barbeque, there is still a way to get a result very close to true barbeque. The problem is that most household BBQ’s are designed for hot and fast cooking, which is exactly the opposite of what you want for brisket. A charcoal grill will work better for this purpose than gas, especially because running a gas grill for 2-3 hours puts you at high risk of running out of propane part-way through. But the basic idea is that the coals will burning at the sides of the grill with the meat in the middle, so it is not directly over the heat. It will be subjected to a somewhat higher temperature than is ideal, but I find it works extremely well, especially if there is a lot of fat.

Dry Rub
1 Tbsp Herbes de Provence or other blend of dried herbs
2 Tbsp cumin
2 Tbsp coriander
2 ancho chiles, seeded and ground
1-2 pasilla chiles, seeded and ground
1 Tbsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp cocoa powder
1 Tbsp coarse sea salt
2 tsp demerara sugar
1 Tbsp smoked paprika

Mop
½ cup sherry vinegar
1/4 cup olive oil
1/3 cup dark beer
1 Tbsp dry rub
1-2 tsp soy sauce
black pepper

Barbeque Sauce

½ cup steak sauce (from July28, 2010 post)
1/4 cup ketchup
1 tsp granulated garlic
1 Tbsp dry rub

Again, all the amounts and proportions for the dry rub are very approximate, I do all this by eye and taste, and it will also depend on the size of your brisket. You will need enough rub to coat the brisket, with two tablespoons left over to add into the mop and the barbeque sauce.

Combine all dry rub ingredients. Rub a small amount of olive oil on the brisket then thoroughly coat the brisket with the rub, massaging the spices into the meat. Refrigerate at least overnight, 24-48 hours would be even better.





When ready to cook, set up the barbeque. Pile the charcoal on either side of the grill and light. Make sure there is plenty of excess coals for later as they will die out before the brisket is done. Now our barbeque is set up with hinges at each side of the grate so they can be lifted up to add more coals without removing the entire grate. There are also dividers that can keep coals on the sides so they do not fall into the centre of the grill. You will still be able to do the recipe without these aids, it will simply be a little less convenient.

When the coals are ready, place a foil drip pan in the centre of the barbeque, then put on the grate and place the brisket over the drip pan and put the cover on. A 4-lb piece will likely take at least 3 hours, and each batch of coals will last about 1 hour. If you have a chimney starter you can light the coals before adding them to the barbeque, but this is not necessary as long as the coals are not fully burned out. Just add the fresh charcoal to the still glowing coals and the new ones will catch.

Make both the mop and the barbeque sauce. Simply combine all the ingredients for both the mop and the sauce.

After the first hour of cooking, begin using the mop. This mop is almost more of a vinaigrette and will add back much needed moisture, as well as cool down the cooking brisket, so it doesn’t burn. Baste the brisket with the mop every half hour after the first hour of cooking. Cook until the brisket feels very soft and yielding. Let it rest for 10-15 minutes then slice against the grain and serve with barbeque sauce ON THE SIDE ONLY and coleslaw. This reminds me that in the previous post I failed to mention that brisket should always be sliced against the grain, including for the pot roast.

In Praise Of Brisket

Brisket is one of my favourite cuts of beef. It may not be the most familiar to many and even to those who know it, it can seem intimidating. There are a few reasons for this. First it can be a very tough cut and requires a very long cooking time to be edible. Also the uneven fat marbling throughout a single piece can be very difficult to manage, being either impossibly fatty or bone dry. And finally, unlike other stewing meat, brisket is usually sold in larger single pieces. But it has so many different uses and such an amazing flavour and texture, it is actually one of the most versatile, if you know how to use it.

Probably the easiest and most common use of brisket is in a pot roast. Pot roasting is a cooking technique similar to stewing and braising with only a few key differences. In a stew, the meat is cut into pieces and cooked in liquid for a few hours until tender, at which point it is ready. With a pot roast, a single large piece of meat is cooked in a similar liquid for a few hours until tender, but then there is an additional step. At this point, the meat is removed from the sauce, cut into thick slices, and returned to the pot and cooked for an additional period of time. Later in this post there will be a recipe. Pot roast is very much a European peasant dish. The poor people would only get tough cuts of meat to use as roasts, so the only way to make such roasts tender is to braise them. Brisket is a cut very well suited to pot roasting as the fat is distributed unevenly, which means the lean pieces could be dry inside. The slicing and additional cooking once braised will allow the meat to moisten after it has tenderized. Brisket is very prominent in Jewish cooking for two reasons. First, Eastern European Jews were definitely peasants so all they had were cheap cuts of meat. Also Jewish dietary laws only allowed the use of cuts of beef from the front half of the cow. Brisket is a large cut (so it could feed a lot of people) from the front half of the cow (it is actually at the very front of the stomach just behind the front shoulders) that, because it is tough and so difficult to cook, was not very expensive. Therefore brisket became a Jewish specialty.

Brisket Pot Roast

Brisket is also found in Texas barbeque. While most Southern barbeque is centred on pork (ribs, shoulder, whole hog), in Texas beef is and always will be king. While I greatly enjoy beef ribs, the favoured cut for Texas barbeque has got to be brisket. Here, brisket’s greatest advantages are the large fat cap and the thick veins of fat found within the meat. This allows the meat to baste itself as it is cooked on low, dry heat for hours on end. The standard method is to apply a dry rub to an entire brisket and put it in a pit-style smoker for many hours. For most people, this is not practical to make at home, but a little creativity can get you a reasonable result at home.

Dry-rubbed brisket ready for the barbeque

For another great use of brisket we return to Jewish cuisine. Jewish delis in Montreal have a marvellous creation that is Montreal-style Smoked Meat. Other deli staples featuring brisket include corned beef and pastrami, but smoked meat is the best of the best (to the New Yorkers who claim otherwise, as is the case with bagels I merely suggest you come to Montreal and have the real thing). To make smoked meat, briskets are cured with various spices and curing salt for several days then smoked, and finally cooked by steaming. Many of the key elements of the procedure use industrial equipment and others are kept secret, so I don’t really know how one would make this at home. Even worse, you really cannot find proper smoked meat outside of Montreal, what is available elsewhere is a poor imitation. The best way to experience it is take a trip to Montreal and eat at Schwartz’s Montreal Hebrew Delicatessen. You can also buy a full piece of fully cooked smoked meat in a vacuum-sealed bag that can be reheated and sliced at home by placing it on a rack in a roasting pan with water at the bottom and reheat covered in the oven. Maybe in a future post I will post an old review of Schwartz’s I started but never finished.

The Smoked Meat Plate at Schwartz's

Brisket Pot Roast

1 piece of brisket - try to find a piece that is at least 4 lbs
olive oil
3 onions, cut in large chunks
5 carrots
2 ribs celery
½ head of garlic, minced
2 Tbsp tomato paste
1 Tbsp flour
1 can tinned tomatoes or equal amount of homemade tomato sauce
1 Tbsp beef stock concentrate or 2 cups beef or veal stock
½ bottle red wine
1 Tbsp paprika
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp cayenne
salt & pepper

Most of this recipe follows the procedure for making a stew I posted back on December 13, 2010. In short, first season the brisket on all sides with salt and pepper then heat the widest pan you can find with some oil and sear the entire piece on all sides, then set the meat aside. Saute the vegetables and the tomato paste, add more oil and flour and, after cooking a minute or two, add the liquids and boil to reduce slightly, then add the seasonings. Put the meat and sauce together in an ovenproof pot and put in a 275 degree oven for about 4 hours, or until fairly tender. Then take the brisket out, slice it into ½ inch thick slices and return the meat to the pot, making sure to submerge them in sauce. Return to the oven and cook for 30 minutes more then serve with potatoes or something else that will absorb liquid.

slice the brisket when it is pretty much fully tender

This post will be continued in a day or two with a recipe for barbeque brisket that can be made at home with reasonably common household equipment.

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Before I finish this post, I need to make note of a sad passing within the blogging community. For those of you familiar with Amar's World may know about CJ, a fellow blogger who gave great advice and assistance to Amar and created Amar's Brotherhood, of which I am proud to consider myself a member. Well, CJ passed away on Tuesday from a brain tumour. CJ was a man of great humour with a big heart and I got the chance to chat with him on occasion in various places over the last couple years. We will all miss him.

Thai Green Curry

People seem to love eating Thai food in restaurants but really do not know how to cook it at home. Like any cuisine, it can be as simple or as complex as you want it to be. Such is the same of one of my favourite Thai dishes, green curry. Thai curries tend to be based on coconut milk and a very intense curry paste, as opposed to the ground spices predominant in Indian curry. The ideal way to make this curry would be to make your own curry paste, though getting the flavour balance and sourcing the ingredients can be difficult. There are good commercial curry pastes readily available in Asian groceries and some supermarkets. Thai Kitchen is a major brand that I can recommend. Just don’t use anywhere near as much as the homemade paste from this recipe as it is considerably more concentrated.

Curry Paste
1/4 cup peanut oil
3 stalks lemongrass
4 large cloves garlic
1 bunch of scallions
a 2-3 inch piece galangal
a 1 inch piece ginger
½ cup packed mint leaves
½ cup packed thai basil leaves
1/4 to ½ cup packed cilantro leaves
12 keffir lime leaves
10-15 thai bird chilies
1 Tbsp palm sugar or brown sugar
juice from 1 lime
zest from 1 lime
1 Tbsp rice vinegar
3 Tbsp thai fish sauce
ground black pepper

The ingredients that go into curry paste

Grind everything in food processor, refrigerate at least 1 hour. Many of these ingredients may seem unfamiliar, which is why making the paste yourself is not essential though it is desirable. An asian grocery is the place where you would find most of these items. Galangal looks similar to ginger but has a thinner skin and milder, more lemony, flavour. Fish sauce is made from fermented small fish such as anchovies. It has a rather pungent smell, but its use in small quantities is indispensable to Thai and much other Asian cooking. It adds saltiness and gives a rounded, balanced, flavour. If you are particularly fond of cilantro (I am definitely not) you could add more cilantro and less of the other herbs. You could even add the roots as well, but bear in mind they have a very powerful cilantro flavour. Possible substitutions include regular basil for Thai basil, any hot chiles for thai bird chilies (just remember that thai chilies are stronger than most) or brown sugar for palm sugar. Like many recipes I have posted, the balance of flavour is all important and you may have to adjust the quantities of some ingredients to achieve that balance. Thai flavour is all about balance. Traditionally, one is to aim for a balance of sweet, sour, salty, and hot. In this paste, you should be able to detect a balance between all those tastes.

3 lbs boneless chicken breast, cubed
1 lb shrimp
1 bunch scallions
1 onion, diced
5-6 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans coconut milk
½ green papaya, peeled, seeded, sliced thin
2 cups snow peas
2 Tsp thai fish sauce

2 cups white or brown jasmine rice
4 cups water
1 stalk lemongrass, bruised, cut in half
3 keffir lime leaves
2 pieces lime peel
pinch of salt

Green, or unripe, papaya is a very thai ingredient. It is often featured raw in salads but I personally find it a little too starchy to be pleasant eaten this way. Cooking it in the curry however, really allows the papaya to take on the flavour it is simmered in. Just slice it thin and it will provide some very nice texture.




In a large saute pan or wok, saute the onion, green onions and green papaya in the oil until the onions are soft, then add garlic and cook 1 minute more until fragrant. Then add the curry paste. If you do not like things ultra spicy, you may not want to use all the paste but do use at least one half the recipe. Cook the curry paste for 3-5 minutes, to open up the flavours. Next add the chicken, ensuring that everything is fully coated, then add the coconut milk and fish sauce and simmer until the chicken is cooked, about 15-20 minutes. After about 15 minutes, add the shrimp so that it will not overcook. When everything is ready, add the snow peas and cook for maybe a minute longer, then serve over the aromatic rice.




For the rice, put all the ingredients together in a pot, bring it up to a boil, then cover and lower the heat to a bare simmer for about 25 minutes (a bit less for white rice), then turn the heat off and let the rice sit for at least 10 more minutes. Remove the lemongrass, lime leaves, and lime peel before serving.

Cherry Cheesecake

When I was working in restaurants, one of my specialties was pastry and baking. Yet you may have noticed that I have yet to post a single dessert recipe on this blog. First, I don’t do much baking at home and second, I tend more to follow written recipes rather than create my own, since baking relies far more on exact measurements and proportions. But here is a good one for you. I took the proportions from a recipe in a book but made changes to the flavours and used a couple tricks I learned as a professional. This is a fantastic cheesecake that is just a little bit different.

Cherry Cheesecake

Crust
2 1/4 cups chocolate cookie crumbs - I used a local brand of cocoa snaps
½ cup granola, ground to crumbs
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup coconut flakes (unsweetened)
2/3 cup melted butter

Filling
3x 250g packages Philadelphia cream cheese
2 oz plain goat cheese
½ cup + 2 Tbsp sour cream
2 cups sugar
3 extra large eggs
1 cup cherry pie filling - see recipe below

To Finish
2 cups cherry pie filling or enough to cover
1/4 cup toasted coconut flakes

First prepare the crust. This follows the procedure for a standard graham cracker crust but I have substituted a few ingredients for flavour. Instead of graham crackers or oreo cookies, I used ShaSha brand cocoa snaps made by a Toronto-area bakery. I suppose some other chocolate cookie crumbs might do - even oreo crumbs if you must. But they should be chocolate as this is a very good match with the cherries. Grind the cookies and granola together to form crumbs and combine with the sugar and coconut flakes (keep the coconut flakes whole for texture). Then add the melted butter, adding just enough to hold everything together. Press the mixture into a 12-inch springform pan or tart pan with removable bottom. Bake at 375 degrees for 10 minutes or until the crust has hardened. Let cool.

Be sure that the cream cheese has softened to room temperature. Normally I prefer organic dairy or at least dairy products that are local and without tons of additives. Yet cheesecake is somewhat fickle so you need a cream cheese that is sufficiently firm so as not to make your filling too watery. This is why traditional cheesecake recipes do not work with low-fat cream cheese - they have more water in them. The next time I make this I will probably try an organic cream cheese and see if it works. Whip the cream cheese, goat cheese and sugar together in a stand mixer using the paddle attachment until the mix is smooth. Mix in the sour cream. I learned this trick working in restaurants. One of the restaurants I worked in (in pastry) had an amazing cheesecake recipe and the secret was the addition of sour cream. I have since found many experienced pastry chefs also are using sour cream in their recipes. It really boosts the flavour. Then add the eggs, one at a time. Make sure each egg is fully incorporated into the batter before adding the next one. Now with the oven preheated to 325 degrees, assemble the cheesecake. Pour the batter into the crust, then take the cherry filling and swirl spoonfuls of it into the batter. This will produce a small amount of marbling in your cheesecake. Bake in the centre of your oven for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until the cheesecake has firmed up. Then turn off the oven but leave the cheesecake inside for another hour. This will allow the cake to cool more gradually without cracking. Due to the low oven temperature and a relatively small amount of egg, you don’t need a water bath for this recipe. Leave it to finish cooling at room temperature but do not take it out of the pan until fully cooled. Once cool, refrigerate the cake overnight. When ready to serve, unmold and top the cake with more of the cherry filling, leaving maybe a half-inch on the outside uncovered. Sprinkle flakes of toasted coconut on top and serve.



Cherry Pie Filling

No - I am not saying it’s okay to buy a commercial product here. This is rather easy and quick to make. The only difficulty is that it is hard to make this in small quantities. But then, you would require large amounts of this if you ever want to make cherry pie, and if you freeze the excess you will have filling available.

1 1/4 litres water
1 litre cherry juice
680 g sugar
170 g cornstarch
10 lbs thawed frozen sour cherries (in cherry season, stores often carry 10lb pails of frozen, pitted cherries exactly for this purpose - making pie)

Juice of ½ lemon

If the cherries are packed with sugar you will need to calculate how much sugar is already in the cherries and subtract that from the amount of sugar called for. 10% sugar by weight is typical, therefore a 10lb pail of sweetened cherries would contain 1lb of sugar (454g), meaning you would only add 266g of additional sugar. Cherry juice can be found at health food stores.

Combine half the cherries, one litre of water, the cherry juice and sugar in a large pot and bring to a boil. Simmer for about 15-20 minutes or until the cherries have cooked down and softened. Then add the remaining cherries and the lemon juice and bring back to a boil. Dissolve the cornstarch into the remaining 250 ml of water, then whisk this mixture into the cherries. Let this boil for one minute, whisking constantly, and being mindful that, as the mixture thickens, there is a risk of splatter and that can hurt. After a minute, turn off the heat and let the mixture cool before portioning into containers and refrigerating or freezing. Though this sounds like an insane quantity, this will only fill 4 cherry pies. Of course for the cheesecake you will be using far less, so feel free to make a half recipe.

UPDATE: I recently used some of the frozen cherry filling for a different application, and realized that, before using thawed cherry pie filling, it must first be reheated to boiling, then cooled back down. Otherwise the cornstarch gel will develop an unpleasant texture resulting from the cornstarch coming out of phase. By re-melting and and heating the filling, the cornstarch will reset and recover its former texture.

This cheesecake is perfect for entertaining. While it takes some time to complete all the steps, it is not very difficult to prepare and looks impressive. And the taste is exceptional.

Homemade Tomato Sauce

In my recipes, I have often mentioned using either canned tomatoes or homemade tomato sauce. Tomato sauce is fairly easy to make at home as long as you have a way to store it. The best way is to make a very large quantity near the end of the tomato season, like now, and freeze it in the portions you will use.

Tomato Sauce

1 bushel ripe plum tomatoes
1-1/2 cup vodka

That is all the ingredients. This does take some preparation time though. I recommend having someone else help you with this process, otherwise it can seem overwhelming and take a very long time. If you make this much, you will also need a VERY large stockpot - perhaps two. You will have at least 20 litres at the beginning - perhaps more depending on whether there are some rotten tomatoes in the bunch and how full the bushel was. To buy the tomatoes, a farmer’s market is usually the best bet. You do not want beefsteak or other round tomatoes, as they have more juice and not enough pulp to provide a rich sauce. In Montreal, I was able to find a variety called “Super Marzano”, which is a variety similar to the famous Italian San Marzano tomatoes. These tomatoes are very sweet and on the dry side, which means when cooked they make a very deep flavoured sauce with a fair amount of sweetness. I don’t think these are commonly grown in Canada though, but the more common Roma tomatoes are pretty good too, as are any variety of plum tomato. The tomato season runs until the first frost, which in this part of the world is usually sometime in mid-October, though it can sometimes come earlier. Although field tomatoes start becoming available in August, plum tomatoes ripen later and the large quantities at low prices are not available until the season is nearly over. Bushels are generally available starting in September running until about a week or two into October, unless a frost comes before then. This year was bad for tomatoes, and many other vegetables. We had a cool and rainy May and June, then very little rain for the rest of the summer. Also, except for a period of a few weeks in July, it was not exceptionally hot. And finally in September, we got more rain, and colder weather. As they were predicting a chance of frost this past weekend, we needed to get our tomatoes last week. Even in the last week in September many vendors had mostly under ripe tomatoes in their bushels, but we were able to find one vendor at St. Jacob’s Farmer’s Market with good quality ripe tomatoes. If a bushel seems too much for you, half-bushels are perhaps even more common than full bushels, especially this year when both yield and quality were off.



When you get the tomatoes home, the real work begins. This is an all-day process so you may want to wait until the next day and get started in the morning. The first thing that must be done is the tomatoes need to be peeled. To do this, you will need to blanch the tomatoes in boiling water then cool them down, after which the skins will come off easily. There are a few ways this can be done, depending on your equipment, how much help you have, and your own preferences. My preferred method is to set up a pot of boiling water and a large bowl or tub filled with ice water. Place a batch of tomatoes - not too many at one time - into boiling water for about 45 seconds to a minute, maybe more if they are especially big. Then fish them out using a skimmer (depending on the size of your basket and pot, a fry basket could work as well, or lacking anything better, a slotted spoon) and transfer them immediately to the ice bath. Once the tomatoes have cooled back down, they can be removed from the water and peeled. Once peeled, cut the tomatoes into chunks - size doesn’t matter that much - remove the core if it seems quite large and woody (otherwise don’t bother) and put them in your big stockpot, making sure all the juices get in the pot too. Try to be as efficient as possible in these steps, to save time. This is where an assistant can be incredibly helpful. You can divide up tasks so both of you are constantly working. Still a full bushel can take two people about 2-3 hours. So maybe if you are new to this, it might make more sense to start with a half-bushel.




Anyway, once you have a few inches of tomatoes in the stockpot, you can turn the heat on to low. This will save time since while you continue to process tomatoes, the others already in the pot can start cooking. Once the tomatoes have broken down somewhat and there is a lot of liquid in the pot, it is time to add the vodka. As vodka has no taste, you may have wondered why I am using it here. Similarly, I used to find it odd that a classic Italian pasta sauce was “alla vodka”. Vodka sauce doesn’t taste “boozy”, in fact doesn’t taste out of the ordinary at all. But vodka sauce is a rose sauce, which has a base of tomato and cream. When you make a sauce out of something solid, your goal is to extract as much flavour as you can out of the food into the sauce. Most flavours dissolve well in water, which means any liquid works well for making a sauce or stock. However, not all flavour compounds dissolve in water. Some of the distinctive flavours in a tomato are soluble in alcohol and not water. Other ingredients share this quality. That is why many commercial extracts, like vanilla extract, are created using alcohol as the medium. What this means for our purposes is that by adding alcohol to the tomatoes, you will get heightened flavour you would not get otherwise. Since we want to taste the tomato and not other flavours, vodka is the best choice, as it is high in alcohol and has no flavour. In these early stages, stir the pot frequently, making sure nothing sticks on the bottom and scorches. Once the tomatoes are fully broken down, there is less risk of this, but occasional stirring is important.




On a side note, you can use this knowledge to make your own vanilla extract as well. This is extremely easy. Take three vanilla beans, split them but do not scrape out the grains, and put everything in a 300-500 ml glass jar, and fill the jar with vodka. Seal it, and store this in a cool, dark place for about 1 month and your extract is ready to use. If you find it is not strong enough, add another bean and set it aside for a couple more weeks. You can even make the vanilla go further by continuing to top up the bottle with more alcohol, as long as the bottle is still at least 3/4 full. And if you seek out really good vanilla beans, you will have some amazing extract.

Once all the tomatoes are in the pot, let them simmer for several hours, until they have formed a thick, chunky sauce. 4-6 hours is a good guideline, but that depends on how much you made and how concentrated you want the sauce to be. When it is done, let it cool for a couple hours, then ladle it into containers. In our family we use 500ml containers for a portion, which is two cups. These are usually sour cream or deli containers that have been saved and reused. Some people prefer to create a smooth sauce by grinding the tomatoes through a food mill, which also removes the seeds, before storing. I think it’s much better left chunky in its more natural state, seeds included. Store these containers in your freezer and take them out as needed. Obviously if you do not have a lot of freezer space, that will limit how much you can make. One bushel should make about 18 litres of finished sauce. This amount will normally last us at least two years, sometimes three.

There are some additional variations you could make to this. You could add some garlic or basil to the tomatoes, but if you are going to use this for a variety of purposes that may not be what you want. Also, if the tomatoes are under ripe, or just not very sweet, a small quantity of sugar added to the pot can help things out a bit. Don’t add very much, a few tablespoons ought to do it.

Choosing Your Ingredients - Part 2

This is the second part of my post about choosing your ingredients. This post covers stock, alcohol and spices.

The ingredient you use for meat flavour can be difficult to choose. Your options include stock, or demi-glace, homemade or commercial. If you use commercial product, be careful of the sodium level of the product and read the label - you want to avoid preservatives and any ingredient that you do not recognize. Please do not use bouillon cubes - you are basically putting an artificially flavoured salt lick into your food. Making your own stock is a skill in its own right, and I was thinking about making it a separate post but I think I will just include it here. Making stock is not that difficult and the basic process is as follows.

Making Stock

Take some bones, preferably some that also have some cartilage attached. For some stocks, especially beef or veal stock, you may want to roast the bones in the oven first, along with some onions, carrots, celery and a dollop of tomato paste, but for other stocks, put the bones directly into the tallest and biggest pot you have. Cover the bones with cold water and bring everything up to a simmer. Make sure it does not reach a full boil and keep the stock at a bare simmer for anywhere from 2-8 hours depending on what kind of stock and what bones you are using (fish or vegetable stocks take much less time - about 45 minutes). Chicken stock takes from 2-4 hours, dark (roasted) veal stock takes 4-6 hours, white beef stock takes longer. As it simmers, especially in the first hour or two, some scum will form on the top of the stock. This needs to be skimmed off, either with a skimmer or with a ladle (being careful not to take off too much water).

skim this foam off the surface

About halfway through the process add onion, celery and carrots cut into large chunks, along with some thyme sprigs, a few bay leaves and some whole peppercorns.


Do not add salt. Because the liquid is being reduced over time, any salt you add during this process will become more concentrated. Since stock is not a finished dish, seasoning is not as important. When the stock is done, let it cool a bit, then carefully strain the stock into a container using a very fine mesh strainer (if you really want to be anal about this you could even line the strainer with cheesecloth or a large coffee filter, like some restaurants do). Multiple wide containers are a good idea if you have a lot, as this will cool the stock down faster making it less vulnerable to spoilage. If you are going to use all of this within a couple days, you can keep the stock in the fridge. Otherwise, portion into amounts you would use at any one time and freeze. From a roasted beef or veal stock, you might want to make your own demi-glace. To do this, put the finished and strained stock into a fresh pot and bring it to a boil and reduce the liquid until you have half the total volume left. Adding some red wine at the start of this process can produce a nice result.

Alcohol is a very important cooking ingredient. Because alcohol boils at a lower temperature than water, it evaporates and reduces quickly, providing a lot of flavour. The problem is, depending on what you buy, it can get expensive. For wine, you have probably heard that you should never cook with a wine you wouldn’t drink. This is generally true but a little misleading. If a wine doesn’t have much flavour, or is too sweet or tastes unpleasant it will probably not be a good choice, because you are putting something that doesn’t taste good into your food. On the other hand, many characteristics of good wines are volatile. This means they are aromas that dissipate into the air. When you cook, these complex aromas and nuances will disappear. So a fine, complex wine will essentially be wasted. So buy wine that is acceptable to drink but there is no need to spend large amounts for a cooking wine. Beer can be very useful for cooking as well but can be a little trickier to work with. Most beers are bitter so this has to be accounted for. I also would not suggest using most mass market beers as to me they are nothing but water with some alcohol in it. Choose fuller flavoured and darker beers as they will be more likely to leave behind a noticeable flavour after cooking.

Almost any hard liquor can be useful for cooking. However, if the flavour of the booze is either non-existent or very distinctive, the applications will be limited. For this reason scotch and gin have limited uses. Some of the alcohols I find most useful are brandy, sherry and rum. I also use Calvados, an apple brandy. I may use other things for specific applications. For rum, use dark rum only. White rum is only acceptable for mixed drinks and even then I’d rather use Jamaican medium or dark rum. For brandy, the key is to find a balance between good flavour and reasonable price. For this reason, it is often good to look for a non-French brandy as you will pay more for equivalent quality for a French brandy. I prefer Spanish Brandy from Jerez, the region that also produces Sherry. However, when I was in Quebec it was almost impossible to find any brandy that is not from France, so I had to look for a V.S.O.P. Brandy that is not too expensive but has good flavour. Recently at a friend’s house, I tasted a Greek liqueur known as Raki. It was very impressive with a complex, brandy-like flavour with hints of fruit and vanilla. I am very interested to see if I can get a quality version here and how well it will work in cooking. For sherry, I would apply similar “rules” to those above for using wine. Just keep in mind that for savoury cooking, you should be looking for a dry sherry. While vodka has no flavour I do find it useful in making tomato sauce, because the tomato has certain flavour compounds that dissolve in alcohol and not in water, giving a tomato-based sauce more flavour.

The next category I will discuss is spices. I firmly believe that, here, quality is a very important consideration. Spices can lose their freshness fairly quickly so the form in which you buy them is important too. The most important thing is to not buy a lot at a time, particularly if you buy pre-ground spices. If you plan to cook frequently and with many different spices, I would highly recommend buying whole spices and grinding them yourself. While ground spices may be more convenient, they have a maximum shelf life of six months, during which time they continuously lose flavour. If you have never ground your own spices, try it once and you will be amazed at the difference. There are two options for grinding spices. For most people, a simple coffee grinder is the best choice. They are inexpensive and grind spices quickly and effectively. For those that are really serious about spices, you might consider getting a mortar and pestle. For these there are smooth ones, usually porcelain or granite, that are good for very hard and dry spices. For spice ingredients with some moisture, you may want a coarse stone model, often made with lava rock. All the bumps and ridges help make a paste. These items do tend to be big and bulky and they also require more time and effort to prepare your spices. I do take my spices very seriously and I have not bothered to get one (though a stone mortar and pestle is on my eventual wish list).

Because I cook with a lot of spices, I have a very wide variety so I have access to anything I might need and I can make my own spice mixes. That leads me to spice mixes. Many cuisines have rather complex blends of spices that are integral to many dishes. If you are unfamiliar with the flavours it may be easier to simply buy the appropriate mix. But here you must be very careful of the quality of the mix you buy and to make sure that there are no “fillers” or other ingredients that do not belong. Many use an abundance of salt as an alternative to flavour. One example I have already mentioned in recipes before is chili powder. To most people, “chili powder” exists only as a jarred spice that one uses to make chilli. Years ago, we used to use commercial chili powder in our family, as we had found a brand that was full flavoured and of good quality. But in time they stopped making this (isn’t that always the way things work - as soon as you find a product you like, they stop making it!) and nothing else on the market met even our lowest standards. The solution was to make our own. What is chili powder? Well, it is a blend of ground dried chiles with a few other spices. Mixes can vary, but the most prominent spices are cumin seed and coriander seed. I believe that some may use some form of powdered tomato paste or some similar powdered tomato product. Some might contain salt and/or sugar. My own chili powder combines pasilla and guajillo chiles in a 2:1 ratio (sometimes I add ancho as well), to which I add cumin and coriander. I have written before that, if you have a chili powder that tastes good to you, it will work fine in your recipe. However I don’t believe there are many good chili powders out there so I generally recommend to use the chiles and spices instead.

So how do you know what quality is? The ideal situation is if you can buy spices somewhere that specializes in spices. Often you will be able to sample the product and maybe even learn something about it. They will also source the best quality product and sell some of the more obscure spices unavailable at other stores. The disadvantage is that these stores can be pricy and, unless you live in a large city, you are unlikely to find one in your area. Fortunately, some of these stores sell online so you can have things shipped to you. Health food stores that sell bulk spices can also be good, since you can actually smell these and check for quality. For most people, this is the source I would advise. Many sell spices that are organic and/or Fair Trade certified, ensuring good growing practices and good treatment of the harvesters. Because they are sold in bulk, you can buy only the amount you need - another advantage for freshness and budget. I generally advise against buying in supermarkets - they are overpriced, especially when you are paying extra for a fancy jar, and the quality is generally not good. Some ethnic food stores, especially Asian and Indian, sell many spices often at low prices but, with some exceptions, the quality is often suspect to me.

One thing I haven’t mentioned is which spices you should get. Well, I can’t really answer that. It all depends on what your tastes are and what kind of flavours you will want on a regular basis. Some of the more versatile spices include pepper (either black or a peppercorn blend), paprika, cumin, coriander, cayenne, nutmeg, allspice and cinnamon. Despite its name, allspice is not a blend of spices - it is a distinct individual spice. In Jamaica it is also called pimiento and is probably the most used spice there. Also note that there are two kinds of cinnamon - true cinnamon and cassia. Most supermarket cinnamon is actually cassia and anything that does not say true cinnamon or ceylon cinnamon is also probably cassia. Cassia is a bit sweeter and spicier, while true cinnamon is earthier and more complex. If you mainly use cinnamon for baking or other sweet applications, cassia will work just fine. Cinnamon is also useful for savoury applications, particularly in Indian food or in spaghetti sauce. If you will be using cinnamon in a lot of savoury foods it may be worth searching out true cinnamon. Of course if you read through my recipes you will find I use many spices other than those listed, some even more than others I have mentioned. The point is what I said at the start of this paragraph - what spices you use depend on what you want to cook and which flavours you prefer.

If I think of other ingredient issues I feel I should pass on, I might well add a new post on this topic.

Jerk Chicken

Spring here in Canada has been colder and wetter than usual but it finally looks like summer is finally getting near. That means it's grilling season! When I was living in Montreal I did not have access to a barbeque but now living at home with my parents I have that option. This is a recipe I have been making for a long time. I got the basis of this recipe from David Rosengarten, one of the TV chefs from the early days of the Food Network, almost a decade ago. While you can modify the amount of heat to your tastes, this IS Jamaican Jerk, so it does need to have some heat to it.

Jerk Chicken

2-3 small chickens (approx. 3 lbs each)
1 ½ cups vegetable oil
1 bunch scallions (green onions) (at least six)
3 cloves garlic
1 small onion
1 inch piece grated ginger

3 fresh scotch bonnet (also known as habanero) chiles, seeds and veins removed OR
2-3 Tbsp scotch bonnet hot sauce OR
as much as you can stand of either

3 Tbsp red wine vinegar
1 ½ Tbsp brown sugar
2 Tbsp fresh thyme
1 Tbsp ground allspice
½ tsp ground cinnamon
½ tsp ground cloves
½ tsp grated nutmeg
1 ½ tsp salt
½ tsp pepper
1 ½ Tbsp tamarind paste
2 tsp molasses
1 Tbsp lime juice
zest of 2 limes
1/4 cup Jamaican rum

This recipe requires some time, planning and some mess, but is rather simple to prepare, despite the number of ingredients. The recipe is better with fresh chiles but will work well with a hot sauce made from scotch bonnet peppers that does not have much other flavourings. When working with the fresh chiles, it is recommended to wear gloves when removing the seeds and veins. Scotch bonnets, a variety of Habaneros, are among the hottest peppers on earth and if you put your hand up to your face or, god forbid, your eye, it will be most unpleasant. If you have particularly sensitive hands these peppers might even irritate your hands. There is far more heat in the seeds and the ribs or veins (the white parts attached to the side of the pepper) so it is best to remove these. The flesh has less heat and all the flavour, so if you want more heat, don’t add the seeds, just use more peppers.

Chop the onion and scallions very roughly and put them in a food processor with the oil, garlic and ginger and puree until there are only a few chunks left. Add the chiles and process again. Add the sugar, vinegar and thyme and pulse to combine. Then add the spices, followed by the remaining ingredients. I do this in stages rather than all at once so I can keep checking the flavour balance and whether there is enough heat. It should seem just a bit too spicy, as this is a marinade. It may not look overly attractive - in fact it will probably look like greenish, brownish sludge as you can see from the pictures. The importance is the taste, though. When the marinade is done, transfer it to a large mixing bowl and cut up the chickens.



In a previous post, I described how to cut up a whole chicken for frying. The instructions for this application are mostly the same, but I will post it again because now I also have pictures of the various steps. For this recipe it is even easier because there will only be 4 pieces per chicken - I am not dividing the leg into drumstick and thigh, each side of the breast will stay as a whole piece, and the wings will stay attached to the breast. So all I am doing is quartering a chicken and removing the backbone. To disassemble my chicken, I take the legs off first. Cut down between the leg and breast then push up on the thigh until the thighbone pops out of its joint. Then remove the leg by cutting along the ribcage and through the joint.



Then I cut down each side of the backbone to remove the back, leaving the whole breast.



Using a cleaver, I chop through the keel bone (the big thick bone running down the centre of the breast). Now we have a quartered chicken, plus the backbone, which can be frozen and saved to make chicken stock.



When the chickens are cut, use a knife to poke a bunch of holes in each chicken piece and, one by one, put each piece in the bowl of marinade. Now the only way to do this is to get messy. You will need to rub the marinade into each piece of chicken. Try to get some underneath the skin and inside any gaps in the meat.



Divide the chicken pieces into 2 zip-top plastic bags, pouring the remaining marinade over the chicken. Distribute the marinade by massaging the chicken some more through the bag and let them marinate in the fridge for at least 24 hours. If you have time to do 48, even better.



Jerk chicken should be made on a barbeque. If you have a gas grill, set the heat on medium and let it come up to temperature. On a charcoal grill it will be a little harder to control the temperature but try not to let it get its hottest. Either way, it is very important to use wood chips to generate smoke. The best method is to soak either hickory, mesquite or fruit wood chips in water for 30-60 minutes, drain them and wrap them in foil pouches with lots of holes poked in them. Put the pouches directly on the heat source just before putting the chicken on. Cook for 20-30 minutes turning several times, or until the chicken is cooked.



Meanwhile prepare a sauce using the remainder of the marinade if you have enough. Add some water and rum and boil for at least 5 minutes so any bacteria is killed. Now if some of you are a little more nervous about salmonella, you may want to reserve some marinade before rubbing it into the chicken and use this instead. Serve the chicken with the sauce and rice as a side.

Herb and Mushroom-Crusted Rack of Veal

This recipe is a little bit different as it has some unusual ingredients. But it makes a phenomenal special event meal.

2-3 pound rack of veal (larger if you like)

1 bunch flat leaf parsley
2 ounces dried mushrooms
½ cup olive oil
2 tsp dry mustard powder
zest from one lemon
1 tsp salt
½ tsp ground pepper

For the crust:

First take the dried mushrooms and grind them in a coffee/spice grinder, until they form a fine powder. You can use dried shiitakes available at asian groceries or wild mushrooms available in fancy food stores and some supermarkets. I used a combination of mixed dried mushrooms. You want about 1/3 to ½ cup of powder for this crust. Next, strip the parsley leaves off their stems and chop the parsley finely. Keep chopping until the pieces are very small and uniform. Combine the parsley, ground mushrooms and mustard powder in a bowl and add the olive oil and mix to form a paste. Add the lemon zest, salt and pepper. The crust should be powerfully flavoured and a little bit salty. Either lay down the veal rack with the rib bones curving downwards or split the veal into two racks with the bones pointing upwards and interlocking in the centre. As I did this recipe with two pieces of veal rack, this is the technique I used. Season the racks with salt and pepper, then rub the crust over all the meat; your fingers are the best tools. Place in a 450 degree oven for 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 350 degrees and roast for about 1 hour.



After roasting, allow the meat to rest for at least 15 minutes then serve. If you want a large portion you could simply cut the roast into large chops. You can also slice the chop into smaller portions off the bone. This goes very well with the cream sauce below and roasted mixed vegetables.

Basic Cream Sauce

I have used this sauce on rack of veal, but this sauce or a variation can go with a wide variety of meats. It is smooth and rich, with some meaty flavour and an acidic bite.

Cream Sauce

3 shallots, very fine dice
1/4 lb cremini mushrooms
olive oil
½ cup brandy
1 cup sherry or white wine or red wine
1 teaspoon veal or beef stock concentrate or 1 cup beef or veal stock
1 cup heavy cream
salt
pepper
nutmeg

Heat a large, wide saucepan with a small amount of olive oil and saute the shallots until soft, then add the sliced mushrooms and saute until slightly browned. Now, if you want - WARNING FIRE DANGER - you can try a little flambe action. This works best with a gas burner, though it will also work with an electric range and a lighter. Take the pan off the heat, add half of the brandy, and return it to the heat. On a gas burner, tilt the pan AWAY FROM YOU very slightly and that should be enough to ignite the alcohol. On an electric range simply use a long handled barbeque lighter to set fire to the pan. Step back and let the flames burn out. Keep a wide pan or lid ready to cover the pan if the flames get out of hand. You should probably have a fire extinguisher nearby as well. When ALL the flames are out add the wine or sherry and the stock or concentrate. If you choose not to flambe, add the brandy off the heat but do not ignite the alcohol and continue with the rest of the recipe. Dissolve the stock base and let the sauce simmer and reduce for about 10 minutes. Then add the cream, the rest of the brandy, and continue to simmer. At this stage, time is not the important factor, but rather the thickness of the sauce. The final texture should coat the back of a spoon. When you have achieved the desired thickness, add salt, pepper and fresh grated nutmeg. Check for seasoning and take off the heat. Serve with your favourite meat.

Slight variations on this basic technique abound. I strongly suggest finding shallots for this sauce, they have a milder and more complex flavour than onions and create an elevated sauce. If you want the sauce to be smooth you would not add any chunks like the mushrooms. Once the aromatics are cooked, flambe and deglaze. Alcohol options include brandy, Calvados, rum or other flavoured hard spirits. And wine or sherry could be replaced with marsala, madeira, port, stock, juices or any flavourful liquid. Depending on the sauce you want, a little tomato paste could be an option or for a steak, green peppercorns are a great idea, either dry cracked or peppercorns in brine. Chives could be replaced with parsley, tarragon or another fresh herb. Mix, match and enjoy!

Chicken With Kasha

Before I get into my recipe, I would like to acknowledge a sad passing among the readers of this community of blogs. Our good friend Darryl, whom you may know if you read Amar’s World or Scottie’s Toy Box, has passed away of a heart attack. He was a man of great love and honour. He was a man of God, yet he refused to accept people who used religion or any other reason to attack gay people. While he was straight, he had the greatest respect for us and was raising his children to be caring and tolerant people in their own right. He was a great example of how everyone should behave and comport themselves if we are to become a more tolerant world. He leaves behind a wife and six children, and my condolences go out to his family at this time.

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This recipe is my mom’s. It’s an old Eastern European/Jewish style recipe for roasted/stewed chicken. While the chicken is not cooked in the sauce it is cooked in a closed pot and a sauce or gravy forms underneath. And it is served with kasha prepared in the traditional manner. I have made this recipe for myself in a somewhat different manner, but I am presenting you my mom’s method.

3 small chickens
5-7 yukon gold potatoes
6 carrots
½ lb mushrooms, sliced
2 onions, diced
rendered chicken or duck fat
butter and/or oil
2 tblsp paprika
salt and pepper
½ cup white wine
½ cup water
2-3 tblsp sour cream

2 cups toasted buckwheat groats (kasha)
1 egg
3 cups water

Cut the potatoes into a small-to-medium dice, 1 inch cubes at the largest, maybe a bit smaller than that. Slice carrot rounds to a similar size, or even smaller. There should be approximately as much carrot as potato. Put the vegetables on the bottom of a large roasting pan with a lid that will be large enough to contain the chickens.


In a saute pan, either render some excess fat from the chickens or melt duck fat. Butter is also an option. Saute onions in the fat until soft, then add paprika and cook briefly until a thick paste forms. If it is too dry, add a little oil. Place the chickens on top of the potatoes and carrots back side up. Using a basting brush, paint the onion and paprika mixture on the chickens, then flip them and do the same on the other side.

basted and ready for the oven

Add wine and water to the bottom of the pan and put in a 350 degree oven with the lid on. Meanwhile, melt butter in the same pan you used for the onions and saute the sliced mushrooms until cooked down. When done, add the mushrooms to the pan and cook everything for about 1.5 hours, or until the vegetables are tender and the chicken is fully cooked and very tender.

the cooked chickens

When I have prepared this for myself I have used slightly different techniques that also work, though they may produce a slightly different product. For instance I would cut the vegetables a little larger and roast them with paprika and oil and a lesser quantity of wine for 30-40 minutes before adding the chickens simply seasoned with salt pepper and paprika and cook only until the chickens are just done. I have to say though, I like my mom’s version better.

When the chicken is almost done, prepare the kasha. A groat is the nutritional part of a grain such as oats or buckwheat. When toasted, the groats from buckwheat are often referred to as kasha. This is a very nutritional grain and not all that expensive. It can sometimes be found in supermarkets, usually in the kosher foods section. Otherwise, it can be found at health food stores.

kasha

Now kasha can simply be boiled in a pot of water, the same way as rice, but my mom’s method, while a little more technically difficult, produces a better product. It is also the traditional method to prepare kasha. Boil the water on the stove or in a kettle. Meanwhile, combine the kasha with one beaten egg in a bowl and combine. The trick here is to make sure that all the groats are coated and there is NO visible egg left unmixed. If you are preparing a different quantity of kasha, you will likely have to adjust the amount of egg used. One egg with 2 cups of kasha is about the right ratio. If there is too much egg, there will be some loose egg and, when cooked it will fry and stick to the cooking pot. When the egg is thoroughly mixed in, add the kasha to a very lightly oiled sauce pot and cook the kasha until there is a nutty smell and the kasha looks quite dry. When you reach this stage add the boiling water directly to the pot. The kasha will clump together at this point (because of the egg), so break up the clumps with a fork and let the kasha simmer on low heat for about 10-15 minutes or until tender. When the kasha is cooked this way, the texture will be smoother and not as grainy as with boiled kasha. You are also less likely to have groats sticking to the side or bottom of the pot if you have coated the kasha with the egg.

When the chicken is cooked and the vegetables are tender, remove the chickens from the pan and stir the sour cream into the gravy and vegetables. Carve the chickens (it’s O.K. if they fall apart a bit) and serve.



The addition of the sour cream is where this recipe deviates from traditional Jewish cooking. To be Kosher, in compliance with Jewish dietary laws, dairy products cannot be eaten in the same meal as meat. So sauteeing the mushrooms in butter would not be done either. If one truly wished to keep this kosher (or at least traditionally Jewish) you would use chicken fat or oil instead. Finishing stewed dishes with sour cream, however is a very common element in the non-Jewish cuisines of Eastern Europe. It works particularly well in dishes where paprika is a prominent ingredient, thus we use it to finish this recipe. Sour cream adds richness and counters the spiciness of paprika while giving a pleasant tang of sourness.