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Pappadums
I was first introduced to pappadums at a Grey Cup party about 25 years ago. (The Grey Cup is the Canadian Football League’s version of the Super Bowl.)
Served alongside chili, potato chips, chicken wings, and other more typical fare for hungry football fans, these thin, crisp wafers made from lentil and rice flours were a novelty back then.
Pappadums are likely still not standard Grey Cup or Super Bowl party fare today. They are most often served as an accompaniment to Indian food, but they also go well with dips and chutneys and can be served as a snack or an appetizer, or as an accompaniment to soups, stews or chilis. Hmmm, why not serve them at a football championship party? Sounds as though they’d easily fit most menus.
You can purchase dried pappadums under a few different brand names. In my local grocery store, I can buy plain, garlic or black peppercorn pappadums under the Patak’s label.
Patak’s pappadums are sold in packages of 10 thin, flat discs. The pappadums must be fried in oil, baked in a microwave oven, or roasted over an open flame before serving.
I prefer to prepare them in a microwave oven, first lightly brushing them with oil on both sides. Then, one at a time, they are popped into the microwave to cook on High power for 45 to 60 seconds or until they expand. And expand they will! As they cook, the dried discs magically morph into crisp crackers with a multitude of craters and ridges!
This dip goes well with a plate of crisp pappadums.
Bean Dip
(Makes 4 servings)
1 cup (250 mL) canned drained kidney beans, rinsed
1/2 cup (125 mL) coarsely chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) ground cumin
3 tablespoons (45 mL) low-fat plain yogurt
1 teaspoon (5 mL) lemon juice
In food processor or blender, combine all ingredients; blend until smooth. Serve with pappadums, naan or pita bread.
Pumpkin Pound Cake with Dulce de Leche Sauce
Whether you like to bake or not, at Christmas there are lots of reasons to do so. Sometimes it’s because you’ve been asked – or you’ve volunteered – to bring dessert to a party. Last Friday I did just that – offer to bring dessert for a dinner with friends.
I’ve been making pound cakes lately, and thought that would make a nice dessert.
I had tried a recipe for an eggnog pound cake made with a cake mix. The end result was okay, but the recipe really wasn’t special enough to share.
Then I made a pumpkin pound cake from Company’s Coming new cookbook, Tonight! (Magical Meals on Short Notice). This pound cake was definitely better, but the accompanying sauce was nothing to write home about, or write about at all. Well, I’ll write a little about it.
Strike one…..
The first time I made the sauce, the consistency was great, but I burnt it. In the recipe (see below), the brown sugar and butter are to boil gently together until thickened (about 5 minutes). The key words in this concept are gently and about. Obviously neither word registered with me the first time around. I should have kept a closer watch on the sauce as it thickened – then blackened! - before I checked in on it. Sadly, I was too busy trying to multi-task: clean up the kitchen, pay some bills, feed the dog….while a sauce was boiling out of control, then burning on my stovetop!
Strike two…..
I made the sauce again, but this time the butter and brown sugar never quite melded together. I probably over compensated for the first disaster and didn’t boil the mixture long enough. I added the brandy anyway, hoping for a miracle. (What was I thinking??) When I tasted the concoction, I decided 2 tablespoons (30 mL) was either way too much brandy or, maybe I really didn’t care for brandy all that much! The sauce had a strong, harsh and unpleasant taste.
With the second attempt nearly as disastrous as the first, I looked around for another recipe. Lesser, perhaps more intelligent(?!) cooks would have given up and just drizzled a commercial caramel or even chocolate sauce over the cake, but not being one to give up easily I forged on, scouring some of my cookbooks for another recipe.
Strike three…..
I found one that called for cornstarch as a thickener. This should give me the right consistency, I reasoned, and then I’d just add less brandy than called for to minimize and mellow the brandy flavour. Of course, smarter cooks would have opted to try flavouring the sauce with some thing they liked, like rum or amaretto. But I seemed determined to make myself like the taste of brandy.
And so a third round of sauce-making began. Sadly, it too was unsuccessful. The sauce, although nicely thickened, was thin in flavour and very pale, almost sickly looking. Surveying the mounds of pots and wasted ingredients, I felt like a sauce-moron.
Home run??
Since I was bringing the cake to a friend’s place for supper, I needed a solution – immediately! A raid of the fridge produced a jar of dulce de leche (a caramel creme spread – pronounced dool-say de lech-ay). I spooned some of it into a small bowl and warmed it briefly in the microwave – just enough to thin it slightly and make it easy to stir. Into the sauce I stirred a little half and half. (Milk would have worked as would whipping cream -35%M.F.) In mere seconds, I had a smooth, creamy, not too sweet sauce. I sliced off a piece of cake and spooned a little sauce over top for a test run. Mmmm. Home run! At last!
There was enough cake to enjoy for supper at my friend’s home that night, and to serve to guests at home the next day. A set of small gravy boats doubled beautifully as mini pitchers for the sauce so each person could serve themselves as much or as little sauce as they wanted.
Dulce de leche is basically cooked sweetend milk. You can make it yourself or buy it commercially. The brand I used was President’s Choice. You can use it as a spread for toast or as a topping for cakes, waffles, crepes, etc. Here are some additional recipes using it.
Pumpkin Pecan Pound Cake with Brandy Sauce
(Makes 12 slices)
When making the sauce, the brown sugar and butter should boil gently for 3 to 5 minutes without stirring, but keep watch over it. Instead of the Brandy Sauce, serve with warmed butterscotch or caramel sauce or maple syrup, or warmed dulce le leche spread thinned with a little milk or cream. A spoonful of sweetened whipped cream (add a little ground cinnamon if desired) or vanilla or butterscotch ice cream would also be a nice accompaniment.
1 cup (250 mL) butter or hard margarine
2 cups (500 mL) sugar
4 large eggs
1 can (14 oz/398 mL) pure pumpkin
2 teaspoons (10 mL) vanilla extract
3 cups (750 mL) all-purpose flour
2 teaspooons (10 mL) baking powder
1 teaspoon (5 mL) baking soda
1 teaspoon (5 mL) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) salt
1 cup (250 mL) chopped pecans, toasted
Cream butter and sugar in a large bowl. Add eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add pumpkin and vanilla in two additions, beating well after each addition. (Mixture may look a little curdled.)
Combine flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, allspice and salt. Slowly add to pumpkin mixture, beating on low until combined. Fold in pecans.
Spread evenly in a greased and floured 12 cup (3 L) bundt pan.
Bake in a preheated 350F (175C) oven until wooden pick or cake tester inserted in centre of cake comes out clean, about 60 minutes. Let stand in pan for 10 minutes. Invert onto wire rack to cool slightly.
Brandy Sauce: Combine 1/2 cup (125 mL) packed brown sugar with 1/3 cup (75 mL) butter in a small saucepan. Heat and stir over medium heat until boiling. Boil gently, uncovered and without stirring, until slightly thickened, about 5 minutes. Remove from heat. Stir in 1/2 cup (125 mL) half and half and 2 tablespoons (30 mL) brandy. Drizzle over individual slices of cake.
Recipe Source: Company’s Coming Tonight! (Magical Meals on Short Notice), Company’s Coming Publishing Limited, 2008
Mandarin orange segments make great dippers for chocolate fondue, as do pineapple chunks, apple wedges, banana slices, strawberries, pound cake cubes, pretzels....
Dippidity do dah!
Get out the fondue pot and forks. It’s time to gather ’round the glow of burning embers (make that a tealight) and dip yummy things into a vat (or just a small bowl!) of melted chocolate!
The nature of fondue makes it a special way to entertain, especially during the holiday season. This social, communal eating adventure allows participants to enjoy food and each other in a relaxed, leisurely way.
Chocolate is a favorite fondue choice. It’s fun! It tastes exceptionally good, especially if you use a fine quality chocolate. It’s easy. And a minimal number of ingredients (two!) are required – chocolate and cream (whipping cream or half and half both work). Liqueur can be added for flavour.
A good quality chocolate is essential and will definitely give the best flavour.
For easy melting, chop the chocolate into small pieces. You can use your microwave instead of a double boiler on the stove top to melt the chocolate, but do so carefully, at Medium (50%) power. Melt the chocolate partially, then remove it from the microwave and stir until the remaining chocolate melts.
A chocolate fondue should be served in a small earthenware or ceramic bowl instead of the larger stainless steel or ceramic pots reserved for cheese, oil or broth fondues. A small votive candle or tealight will provide enough heat to keep the chocolate warm without burning it.
Dark Chocolate Fondue
(Makes 4 servings)
3/4 cup (175 mL) whipping cream (35% M.F.)
12 oz (375 g) dark chocolate, chopped
2 tbsp liqueur (e.g. Kahlua, Amaretto, Grand Marnier, kirsch), optional
Fondue dippers (e.g. slices or pieces of fruit, angel food or pound cake cubes, marshmallows, cookies, pretzels, potato chips)
In the top of a double boiler, heat cream over hot (not boiling) water until warm. Add chocolate; stir constantly until melted and smooth. Remove from heat.
If desired, stir in liqueur. If chocolate mixture is too thick, stir in a little more cream. Transfer mixture to a dessert fondue bowl and place over a lit tealight.
Enjoy by spearing fruit or cake and dunking dippers in chocolate mixture.
I collect food-themed Christmas ornaments like this mini tree with ceramic S’mores. (Edible S’mores are a combo of melted marshmallow and chocolate atop a graham wafer or sandwiched between two wafers.)
Twelve inches high, this Christmas tree is adorned with tiny S'mores. It sits on my desk at work.
A close up of the ceramic S'mores (marshmallow snowmen atop a piece of chocolate and graham cracker).
My friends Yvonne and Pat are also food ornament collectors. Yvonne is a food consultant, food stylist, and author of two cookbooks (Prizewinning Preserves and Thyme in the Kitchen). Pat is a baker extraordinaire and a food consultant for Kraft Kitchens. They are both excellent cooks, and two of the most organized women I know!
Since the three of us work in food-related jobs – and we love to cook and eat – for years we have enjoyed the tradition of giving each other food-themed ornaments at Christmas. Every year the hunt is on to find something special to exchange…..something we haven’t already given each other! We’ve been doing this for long enough to amassed quite a collection of food-related ornaments.
Next Friday night we’re getting together for our annual Christmas dinner and gift exchange. I’ll post images of the new food ornaments we exchange but in the meantime, here’s a small “taste” of what’s in my collection. (Photos are courtesy of Yvonne.)
How often do you invite guests over and everyone ends up hanging out in the kitchen?
To be honest, it doesn’t happen too often at our house because our kitchen is soooo small. There’s just not much room for much partying if guests are wedged in between the fridge and the stove!
If your kitchen is a lovely large space, perhaps even open to the family room or great room, kitchen parties may be quite the norm when you’re entertaining, and you may be perfectly fine with this. But, occasionally you might secretly wish the guests would make themselves comfortable in other rooms of the house (logically, the living room or dining room!) – say, when you’re putting the finishing touches on dinner or if the kitchen is a mess from putting the finishing touches on dinner! Interior designer Loreen Epp has posted a few suggestions for getting the party out of the kitchen on her hot new blog – What’s New At Home (www.whatsnewathome.wordpress.com).
If you will be doing some entertaining this Christmas and would prefer that guests gather around the Christmas tree in the living room or the pool table in the family room, or in places beyond just the kitchen, check out Loreen’s suggestions.
Roasted Almonds
One of them is to spread party nibbles throughout the house, or at least in the rooms you want the guests to be in! People tend to congregate where there is food, hence the natural inclination to gather in the kitchen.
Speaking of party nibbles, here’s a great one to serve at your next holiday soiree! Making it shouldn’t create too much mess in your kitchen – just in case you find a few guests still hanging out between the fridge and the stove!
Roasted Almonds
(Makes about 3-1/2 cups (875 mL)
3-1/2 cups (875 mL) blanched or unblanched almonds
1 tbsp (15 mL) extra-virgin olive oil
2 tsp (10 mL) coarse sea salt
1-1/2 tsp (7 mL) smoked milk or hot paprika
Line a rimmed baking sheet with parchment (baking) paper or foil; set aside.
In a large bowl, toss almonds with oil, salt and paprika. Spread evenly on the prepared baking sheet.
Roast in a preheated 325 F (160 C) oven until fragrant and lightly toasted and unblanched almond skins have just begun to split, about 20 minutes. Let cool.
Tips:
* Sweet or hot paprika, ground cumin or curry powder can be substituted for the smoked paprika.
* Roasted Almonds can be made ahead and stored in an airtight container for up to 5 days or in the freezer for up to 2 weeks.
Recipe Source: Canadian Living magazine, December 2005
There’s a new cooking show starting on TV tomorrow night. It promises to turn up the pressure on 16 Canadian chefs who test their cooking skills, stamina, and ability to handle stress and manage their egos as they attempt to outlast each other in an intense series of cooking competitions.
The Pressure Cooker pits the chefs against each other in a series of cooking competitions designed by chef Mark Walpole that require them to create specific dishes from mystery boxes of ingredients in very short time frames. To add to the excitement for viewers, the chefs wear wireless heart monitors that record their stress levels. The elimination-style format of the show gradually whittles the starting line-up down to two chefs who compete in a final grueling cook off.
The Tasting Judges – chefs Mark Picone, Cornelia Volino and Tawfik Shehata – are a demanding trio whose job is to taste, critique and score the dishes. Their standards are high and they aren’t afraid to voice their opinions, in no uncertain terms.
Kitchen Judges monitor the competing chefs’ performances as they prepare the dishes. They are tasked with eliminating chefs from the losing teams.
As a representative of one of the sponsoring organizations – Egg Farmers of Ontario – I was present for some of the week-long taping of the show which took place at Niagara Culinary Institute in Niagara-on-the-Lake in July. Judging by what I saw then, the show promises to be very entertaining. I don’t know the final outcome; that was kept very hush-hush! However, the show’s producer, Alan Aylward of Forevergreen Communications Inc., says he couldn’t have scripted the ending to be more exciting.
You can see a trailer of The Pressure Cooker at www.thepressurecooker.tv.
The hour-long show will air on Sunday (Nov. 2) at 10 p.m. on SUN TV and on Men TV Monday (Nov. 3) at 7 a.m., noon and 7 p.m. It runs for 9 episodes.
There will be an online component to the show where visitors to The Pressure Cooker’s website – www.pressurecooker.tv – are invited to answer trivia questions to win prizes.
Enjoy!
Happy Hallowe'en
Hallowe’en is the perfect holiday to go over the top with decorations and party food. It’s probably the only time of year when poor taste and “grossness” are preferred, or at least tolerated.
If you’re planning a Hallowe’en menu, you can go all out and spend lots of time, money and energy on creating a “terrorific” atmosphere at the dinner table. Or you can unleash your imagination and stir up little home-brewed ambiance by simply renaming favorite foods.
Need some inspiration?
Why not serve worms and eyeballs and dried bones (spaghetti and meatballs and biscuits) for supper? Or how about witch’s fingers and slime sauce (chicken strips and ranch dressing or plum sauce dyed green) or barbequed bat wings (chicken wings) or witches’ brew and dracula diggers (chili and tortilla chips)?
Wild and whacky side dishes might include grass and weeds with sliced toadstools and witch’s teeth (salad greens with mushrooms and sunflower seeds), maggots (rice), rotting teeth (corn) or lizard tongues (sautéed red pepper strips or carrot sticks).
Pond scum (jello with gummi worms) or bones (meringue cookies) make delicious desserts, and swamp water (frozen lemonade concentrate, lemon-lime pop and lime sherbet) will wash the meal down.
Sounds tasty, doesn’t it?
Here are a couple recipes for dried bones. Bon Appetit!
Breadstick Bones
(Makes 6 breadsticks)
1 can refrigerated breadsticks
Melted butter or margarine
Italian seasoning, Tex Mex seasoning or grated Parmesan cheese
Open can and unroll dough; separate into 6 strips. Carefully stretch each strip until about 12 inches (30 cm) long. Loosely tie a knot in both ends of each breadstick. Place breadsticks on an ungreased baking sheet.
Brush melted butter over breadsticks. Sprinkle seasoning or cheese over top.
Bake in a preheated 375F (190C) oven until golden brown, about 13 to 15 minutes. Serve warm.
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Meringue Bones
(Makes about 2 dozen cookies)
5 egg whites
1/4 tsp (1 mL) cream of tartar
1-1/4 cups (300 mL) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 mL) vanilla, orange or lemon extract
Line 1 or 2 cookie sheets with parchment paper. Prepare a piping bag with a round tip (about 3/8 inch/1 cm diameter).
With an electric mixer, beat egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form. Gradually add sugar, a couple tablespoons (about 30 mL) at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat until stiff peaks form and meringue is shiny and smooth. Add extract and beat just until combined.
Fill piping bag with meringue. Pipe a log about 3 inches (8 cm) long. Pipe two balls on both sides of the ends of the log. Repeat with remaining meringue. You can smooth any peaks that occur with a wet finger.
Bake in a preheated 220F (105C) oven for 30 minutes. Turn off heat. Leave cookies in oven for 8 hours or overnight. Store in an airtight container.
Tips:
* Let egg whites stand at room temperature for 20 minutes after separating; they will beat to a greater volume if they aren’t cold.
* Stirring a drop or two of yellow food colouring into the meringue mixture before baking will give the bones an aged look.
* If you don’t have a piping bag, use a sturdy ziplock bag. Cut off the tip once you have filled the bag with meringue mixture.
One morning last week I and a couple colleagues cooked scrambled eggs for brunch for about 100 people. Although we didn’t have access to a full kitchen, cooking the scrambled eggs wasn’t difficult. One of us cracked the eggs while the other two whisked, then cooked 1-1/2 dozen eggs at a time in electric frying pans. (We prepared about 3 eggs per person.) Once cooked, the scrambled eggs were kept in large covered stainless steel bowls until about 25 minutes before the start of the brunch. At that time, we placed the eggs into a warmed chafing dish.
The group we were preparing the brunch for arrived about 20 minutes late (they were coming a distance by chartered bus). A few speeches preceded the meal which meant that brunch didn’t begin until nearly an hour after the eggs had been placed in the chafing dish.
If eggs are held too long over heat (like on a breakfast or brunch buffet table where they are kept in a chafing dish or steam table), “greening” can occur. This is a natural reaction which causes the eggs to turn an unappetizing drab greyish-green colour. We wanted to avoid this so we took a few precautions to try to prevent the phenomenon.
These tips can usually prevent greening in eggs:
- Use fresh eggs. Greening will occur more readily in older eggs.
- Use stainless steel equipment and utensils.
- Whisk in 1/4 teaspoon (1 mL) lemon juice for every 1-1/2 dozen large eggs or 1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) citric acid crystals for every dozen eggs.
- Cook eggs in small batches no larger than 3 L (3 qts).
- Once cooked, avoid holding the eggs over heat for more than 30 minutes.
We were able to follow the first four suggestions above (opting to add lemon juice as per #3 because that’s what I had on hand). We also cooked the eggs until softly scrambled instead of cooking them until they formed very firm curds since we knew the eggs would sit in the chafing dish for a while where they would continue to cook from the heat. We didn’t want them the proteins in the eggs to tighten so firmly from the heat that they squeezed additional moisture from the eggs causing them to weep or exude moisture.
Unfortunately we didn’t anticipate the delay in the start of the meal and the long length of time the eggs would sit in the chafing dish. By the time brunch concluded, the eggs had been in the chafing dish for nearly 2 hours. At that point, some egg had stuck to the pan, although it was not burnt on. (It washed off later with a little soaking and scrubbing. Next time, we’ll spray the chafing dish with cooking spray before adding the eggs.) There was also some minor greening of the eggs that were in contact with the chafing dish. Nothing too serious. No doubt following the tips above helped prevent a full-blown case of “green eggs” and bacon!
I first wrote about Canadian gastronomer Anita Stewart and her idea for a giant national barbecue in July, 2003. These are a few paragraphs about the Canadian culinary caper she dreamed up as described in my July 30th, 2003 Creative Cooking column in The Record, Waterloo Region’s newspaper.
BARBECUING FOR A CAUSE; ELORA FOOD MAVEN URGES US TO STAND BY OUR FARMERS
It’s being billed as the World’s Longest Barbecue and you’re invited.
This Saturday, as the clock strikes 6 p.m. from time zone to time zone
across our country, Canadians are encouraged to sit down to enjoy a beef
barbecue in honour of our beef farmers and in support of their industry,
which has suffered dramatically after a single incidence of mad cow disease
was found in Alberta this spring.
Saturday’s national event is the brainchild of Elora cookbook author and
culinary maven Anita Stewart. Her dream is to “link Canada from coast to
coast to coast in one massive, delicious outdoor celebration of support for
Canadian agriculture.”
Fast forward five years and Anita is still passionate about celebrating our national and local cuisine and showing support for those who produce the food we are fortunate to be able to eat and enjoy.
Tomorrow, August 2, at 6 p.m. (your local time), you’re invited to celebrate the 2008 version of the World’s Longest Barbecue – Canada Day 2. There is still time to plan a barbecue, invite friends and family, then visit Anita’s website to post your menu plans. Your menu doesn’t need to be complicated or time-consuming to prepare. Just visit a local market or grocery store to see what’s fresh and produced close to home and you’ll be able to put together a delicious meal. If you want to find out what others will be grilling up that day, you can read menu ideas from fellow Canadians on her site.
My menu this year? Although we won’t be able to celebrate the WLB exactly on August 2, when we do fire up the barbecue in honour of this event, we’ll be serving some pretty standard summertime fare including devilled eggs, beef burgers with all the fixin’s, grilled portobellos (for my vegetarian friends), barbecued spare ribs, creamy potato salad, broccoli salad, corn on the cob with herbed butter, and bumbleberry crisp made with apples, blueberries, raspberries, strawberries and rhubarb, and served with homemade vanilla ice cream.
The latest book from Canadian culinary activist Anita Stewart
Anita is also a prolific author. You’ll find a list of her cookbooks/books about Canadian foodways on her site. Her latest offering is Anita Stewart’s Canada: the food, the recipes, the stories (Harper Collins Publishers Ltd, 2008). Not only a great read, it will provide inspiration for your WLB menu and other Canadiana-style meals this weekend and beyond.
You can read about Anita’s recent book tour on her blog.
The Perfect Cup of Tea
Want to make the perfect cup of tea?
Know what not to do, such as overboiling the water or using too small a strainer for the tea leaves.
Read about The Top Seven Mistakes Tea Drinkers Make and learn simple tips for preparing a delicious cup of tea on Tea Party Girl’s blog. You’ll find lots of information and ideas for enjoying tea on this blog.
