Truffle Mutt

3rd Annual Book Club

Yes, it was my third annual catering job for the book club gathering.  But, no I didn't serve this cake.  The picture is just for optical stimulation, because I forgot to take my camera with me for the evening.  This silly little cake actually thinks it's a pie, but it was really good, if not the most beautiful of my creations.

This years book club event was my biggest success, with a stray away from the less familiar Thai and Chinese cuisines.  But, as always, it was a blast to plan - everything from the food and garnish to the plating and dessert.

So what was on the menu?

The first course consisted of crispy mini potato skins, stuffed with aged Gouda and double smoked farmers sausage, drizzled with crème fraîche, smoked paprika infused olive oil and a scattering of chopped chives.  They were beautiful and they tasted fantastic.

And served along side was this recipe for sweet pea and sun dried tomato's on endive spears.  I owe trying this recipe to Cara and Joni, because without them I never would have been able to get past my fear and loathing of mushy peas.  Retch!  But this was worth it!  This simple recipe packs an unexpected amount of flavor and it's *all* good.

And lastly a duo of crostini's.   A rich wild mushroom sauté on top of a Gorgonzola smothered crostini and the other a lightly melted Brie topped with two slices of sweet fresh cherry tomato.

Then for dessert...

A baked Alaska filled with the most intense and addictive caramel almond ice cream.  I haven't been so enthralled by ice cream since Haagen-Dazs banana nut!  I was distraught when they took it off the shelves last year, but then I realized it was in my health's best interest.  And since overcoming the withdrawal my life has almost returned to normal.  And now this!  A reason to relapse - I may never eat anything else again. 

And then lastly I relied on a stand-by.  Pierre Hermé's lemon cream in Chinese tea cups topped with a tuile curl cookie, whip cream and a single berry.  They looked so great that a tear came to my eye when I remembered I had no camera. 

Weekend Dinner Finale

You would think a big gooey cheese salad followed by a bowl of piping hot onion soup would be enough for dinner on a snowy freezing day, but then you would be wrong.  The man of the house wanted, you guessed it, meat.  Sad thing is I actually understand - it's not easy to come down off a hamburger high you know, these things have to be eased into.

Keeping with the winter weather theme, I made a short rib braise with roasted potatoes and carrots using a recipe I adapted from the Zuni Cafe cookbook's Short Ribs Braised in Chimney Ale. 

The book recommends salting the ribs a day or two in advance, but I know from experience that when your husband whines about eating only vegetables for dinner and you have to make a quick decision, that an hour in advance works too.  Brown the ribs in a heavy pot or dutch oven.  Remove the ribs and add one sliced onion, 6 sliced button mushrooms, 2 bay leaves and cracked pepper.  Nestle the ribs back in and then add equal parts veal stock and Heineken beer until it comes partially up the side of the ribs.  Simmer covered with a tight fitting lid for two hours or so until the meat is very tender.

Then just before serving, take the ribs out and brush them with Dijon mustard and then broil them until the mustard is lightly browned.  Very simple, but don't let that fool you.  The dish was surprisingly good.

And no there was no typo, this was the finale for the night.  There wasn't even a tiny bit of space left for dessert.  So I made that on Sunday.

Weekend Dinner II

Mmm...  French onion soup.

And look at how prefect it looks in my brand new (flea market) soup bowls.  I love how pretty they are and I got six for 10 bucks - what a steal.  It's possible they even made the soup taste better.  Yeah, that part was probably in my head.  But whatever.

I combined a few different recipes, but slipped up and added a bit too much champagne vinegar.  Oops.  Sometimes my aversion to measuring devices (aka laziness) bites me in the butt.  I was able to revive it though by adding more stock.

I caramelized 4 large sliced onions, 3 shallots and 3 cloves of garlic.   Then de-glazed the pan with a generous splash or two of white wine, a 1/4 cup of sherry and then added 3 cups of light veal stock, 2 bay leaves and thyme.  I also added 1 tbsp of sun-dried tomato paste and should have added a tsp or two of champagne vinegar and not the 5 or 6 I did.  So, then I added another cup of stock.  I'd suggest the use of measuring spoons instead and leave out the last two steps.  Then I topped it off with white cheddar and Asiago cheese.  Mozza, Swiss and Gruyere would have been better, but how can you go wrong with cheese?  That's right you can't.         

Weekend Dinner

I don't know about you, but the weekend is my time to cook.  During the week I rarely take the time to cook a big dinner - who am I kidding, I rarely take the time to cook a small dinner.  It seems like we walk in the door Jason makes something quick and then it's off to the dog to the park.  There's just not much time for food and that means cheese smokies, hamburgers and a lot of ketchup.  And even though it's super yummy Stonewall Kitchen - Country Ketchup, when it starts becoming it's own food group there's just too much ketchup.

And it was on Saturday night, with another hamburger dinner looming on the horizon, that I snapped out of my gastronomic drought.  Luckily the fridge was well stocked, so I was able to jump into action without having to leave the house.  The first course for the night was a mixed green salad with blood orange vinaigrette and fried Kofalotiri cheese.  The sweet & sour dressing and bitter greens were the perfect accompaniment for the salty Greek cheese.

Toss the salad with the dressing before starting the cheese, then the salad can be quickly assembled and served while the cheese is still hot.  Cut the cheese into the size you want to serve, but make it about 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick.  Heat a non-stick frying pan over high heat and add the cheese to the hot pan.  The cheese will start to melt immediately, but don't worry it will hold it's shape.  Let the cheese melt for several seconds and brown before flipping it and browning on the other side.  The cheese will still be quite firm.  Arrange it on the plate and then add the dressed greens.  Serve immediately.

Musseling Up

Lately, when I log on to my blog the first thing I notice is how long it's been since I last posted.  It never seems like that long - but the dates confirm it!  Time flies - fun or not.

My lack of posts isn't reflective of my time in the kitchen however, I've been cooking a lot since Christmas.  No pictures though, so that makes posting difficult (I'm all about the pictures).  And why are there no pictures, because unlike all you other brave bloggers out there, I haven't come out about my blogging yet.  Most people don't know that I blog and bringing out my camera at the table might tip them off (or cause some interesting rumors).  So why the secrecy?  I'm not sure - I guess I like the anonymity.  I can't well blog about Jade stealing a filet mignon off the counter (which I then served) if our dinner guests can read about it here!  Talk about dumb...

There's no dirt on the story of these mussels though.  Just garlic, garlic and more garlic.  I adapted the recipe from this one at epicurious and the sauce was a winner, so much so that I let Jason eat most of the muscles and I sopped up the sauce.  I used 9 cloves of garlic, left the olives and pasta out all together, added a leek and switched the red wine to white.  My only suggestion - make sure you have lots of bread on hand.

Gnocchi (really nyoki)

So, did anyone else out there foolishly pronounce this word as 'gu-naw-chee' before finding out the correct pronunciation?  Well, neither did I.  Especially not to an Italian while we were on safari in Africa - because whoa it would have been embarrassing if I'd done that. 

Alright, I admit it.  It was me.  But come on, could someone not have corrected me before it got to that!?   What are friends supposed to be for?  And who spelled gnocchi in the first place?  How are kids supposed to sound THAT out? 

Lucky for me though, making gnocchi was a much less humiliating experience.  I used the gnocchi recipe posted on Hungry in Hogtown and made the sauce from the bron marshall blog.  I loved the sauce but the gnocchi was so fluffy that it was almost mushy in texture.  Next time I'll try a recipe that calls for boiling the potatoes to see if the end result has more substance.   

These little dumplings are fun to make.  Just remember to make lots, because once you start you're overcome by the need to prefect the fork roll and that takes a lot of practice and hundreds of tries.

Veggie Stock Finale

Oh my!  I almost forgot to post about using the last of my veggie stock!  Now I have to try and remember what happened. 

I remember it tasted great.  I took all the leftovers to work for lunches.  I also remember that choosing the second dish for my stock wasn't too difficult.  I had a wee bit of stock left and as I flipped through recipes not many doors were opening for me.  But, I love coconut milk and cashews, especially together, so this was my choice.

If I make it again though I'll add a few chili peppers, heat would be better.

More From the Photo Gallery

This was another photo that I had gathering dust in my photo gallery. 

These fancy bites are my twist on sticky rice.   Last year I was cooking for a Chinese themed dinner party and I devised these so I could serve sticky rice with all the flavor and half the mess.  They aren't wrapped in lotus leaves, so I added the leaves to the water in the bottom of the steamer before steaming the rice.  It worked perfectly the rice was infused with the earthy aroma of lotus leaves.

In the bottom of a jelly roll pan lined with parchment I pressed a thin layer of sticky rice, then a layer of sweet pork filling and then another thin layer of sticky rice.  I tossed white and black sesame seeds over the rice and then pressed lightly to adhere them to the rice.  I cooled these slightly and then cut them using a biscuit cutter.  To rewarm cover with a moist towel and place in a warm oven, for several minutes.

Messy Shrimp

This super easy dish accompanied a salad and grilled bison tenderloin for dinner a few weeks ago.  I had a giant bag of shrimp in the fridge that I couldn't put off using and 1/2 a jar of Classico Sundried Tomato Pesto that I also needed to use up.

Browsing the epicurious website I found this recipe and adapted it to the ingredients I had on hand.  I used the wine, butter and basil from the recipe and added a few big spoonfuls of the pesto.  It  turned out to be a big hit and I would certainly make it again.  Next time though I will make a lot more sauce and serve it with fresh French bread for dipping.  Serve with napkins!

Home Alone

A few weekends ago I was home alone and the freedom was exhilarating.   

I spent my Saturday morning battling the crowds at the Calgary Farmers' Market and Planet Organic gathering my bounty.  I bought eggplants, tomatoes, summer squash, baby zucchini and cucumbers along with many other forms of organic matter that Jason would never eat, in preparation for my vegetable voyage. 

My plans for the weekend revolved around making stock, which I have been meaning to make for ages and ages.  I made two batches of veal stock and one batch of veggie stock.  And after spilling precious stock on my foot, the floor and the counter, I know that I will not attempt making stock again without a vastly larger stock pot and sieve.  In addition, if you're going to go through the time and effort to make stock you really should end up with more than 4 cups.  Come on!  4 cups.  I see a HUGE pot in my future.  Call me psychic.

After careful stock rationing, I decided to use the vegetable stock to make this white bean soup from my copy of 30 Minute Vegetarian.  I made a few changes to the soup and it turned out to be quite good.  Next time I may try dried beans instead of canned, because the canned ones are a little too mushy.