quick little trick: buttering pans

I am really lazy about buttering pans and lining things with parchment and generally prepping for baking. Sometimes I just don't bother; I bake cakes in springform pans and I just cut them free rather than actually buttering the sides and cutting out parchment circles for the bottoms.

The other day I was baking some financiers in little tins that definitely need to be buttered properly or the cakes will get stuck and you will end up ripping them apart trying to pry them free. I was going to melt the butter to coat the pans and brush it on, but that just seemed like a bunch of extra steps and dishes to wash (lazy). So I tried just brushing softened butter onto the pans with a fairly stiff pastry brush. It was quick and easy and it got into little nooks and corners. I was really impressed with myself for thinking of this. A quick look online showed me that lots other people discovered this before I did. I am perhaps not quite the avant-garde tin-buttering innovator I briefly imagined myself to be. I am still excited about how easy and effective is was and I think it will lead me to butter pans properly more often. You should try it! If you want to. 

Photo credit: Tyrel Hiebert

leek and goat cheese tortilla

Tortilla de patatas, is not like a corn or flour tortilla; it is a Spanish potato omelette. It is a common tapas dish and it is really versatile. Sometimes I eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if I'm feeling especially lazy. It is an fairly neutral canvass for any sauce you might desire and it'a perfect with a little green salad.

cauliflower (not) pizza

I really like putting vegetables, fruit and other healthy stuff into foods that might otherwise be a little less nutritious. Zucchini bread, carrot muffins, black bean brownies, chickpea muffins, any sort of fruit or vegetable purée into unexpected places. I love how sneaky and tricky it makes me feel. 

keep on hand: preserved lemons

Preserved lemons are great to have around. They are very easy and inexpensive to make, but quite expensive to buy. Whenever I see them for sale a teeny jar costs $10-15.  You will feel very smug when you have homemade preserved lemons and you see those fancy expensive ones in shops. They also make an excellent last minute host gift if you keep an extra jar or two in the fridge. 

Preserved lemons add this wonderful salty, bright boost to all sorts of dishes. I like to puree them  into salad dressing and hummus, mince them and rub onto fish or stick a whole preserved lemon inside a chicken I'm roasting. They are traditionally used in North African cooking, but they are very versatile and I find they work well with all sorts of different flavours, especially feta, halloumi, mint, garlic and chilies. 

healthier bran muffins

Despite the reputation muffins have for being healthy-ish, many bakery and supermarket muffins are nutritionally on par with a slice of birthday cake sprinkled with bran. White flour, shortening, lots of sugar...

salmon, arugula and kamut bowl

I have been eating different versions of this meal a lot lately. I swap out a different grain, green or protein to keep it interesting. There is a similar idea over here, to give you more ideas. I like to keep all the components on hand for a couple days' lunches: some cooked grain, some washed and chopped greens and some cooked salmon, to throw it together fast. I sometimes eat it hot and wilt the greens a little, sometimes cold like a salad. Infinitely variable.

Amaretti and raspberry ombre cake

Amaretti and raspberry cake

When I was deciding what cake to make for my friend's birthday last week I wanted something a little lighter, a little less intense. I'm still feeling aftershocks from Christmas overindulgence. I wouldn't describe this cake as light exactly, but the fruit does help offset the richness a little. 

I was try to replicate the flavour of amaretti cookies, which have a strong, slightly bitter almond flavour. Use a really good quality almond extract, some of the cheaper (artificial) almond extracts are too wimpy and bland.

Lentil soup shepherd's pie

My sister made me this dish a couple weeks ago when I had dinner with her and I was surprised how much I loved it. Not that I should ever be surprised by how much I like stuff she feeds me; she is a fantastic cook and she constantly makes dishes I would never think to make and then I love them. Just like this one. I have made it a couple times since then. It has that perfect comfort food, wintery casserole heartiness but it is still really healthy and packed with vegetables. Perfect fall hibernation food.

Squirrel life: foraging acorns for dinner

I didn't know you could eat acorns until I read it in The Urban Homestead. They are edible but they need to be processed because they contain too much tannin to be eaten otherwise. They can make you quite sick in their unprocessed state, but they are so bitter from the tannins that you aren't likely to eat enough to be a problem.

Once I knew they were food, I was sort of floored looking around at all the acorns sitting around, crunching underfoot, going to waste. My environment seemed more productive, more fertile, more useful. I started to forage through the city for acorns when I was looking for apples and blackberries. I thought I would share the preparation method with you; I will post some recipes using the acorns in the next couple weeks. This a nice fall activity especially if you can rope in a few friends to help you work; have an acorn shucking bee.

Salad Rolls with Peanut Sauce

It has been really hot for a few days and I have been eating salad rolls a lot. I have had them for lunch and dinner for maybe three days in a row. I love that they are cold and they are full of vegetables and they are waiting for me in the fridge.

I like to put a lot of garlic and chile flakes in the peanut sauce.You don't need to make your sauce so spicy if you don't want to, but I like the spice in contrast with the cold, mild vegetables.

 

Salad Rolls:

Large rice paper wrappers

Cabbage

Carrots

Cucumbers 

Sprouts

Avocado

Shrimp/Prawns if you like

Finely chop or shred the vegetables and toss together in a bowl. Add shrimp if using and mix everything up.

Fill a large bowl with hot water. Place a rice paper wrapper completely underwater until it is soft and flexible. Take it out, letting excess water drip over the bowl. Spread out the wrapper over a cutting board and put a big spoonful of the vegetable filling in the middle of the wrapper. Fold the sides over the filling, and then roll the top and then the bottom over the center. Repeat until you run out of filling or wrappers. 

Peanut Sauce: 

1/2 cup peanut butter

2 tbs soy sauce

5-6 cloves garlic 

large pinch chile flakes

2 tbs lemon juice

black pepper

vegetable or chicken broth (or 1/2 bouillon cube and water)

Blend all ingredients in the food processor. Adjust the liquid until the texture is dippable but not runny. Or until it is however you like it. 

Dip a salad roll into peanut sauce and eat. And again and again and again until it isn't too hot to actually cook anymore.

Green Smoothie

After any sort of excess or binge, a weekend of parties or a particularly hedonistic meal, or at the first hint of getting sick I try to have a  green smoothie for a breakfast or lunch for a couple days. They make me feel like I am concentrating nutrition and I eat more greens vegetables that way than in most other meals. It makes me feel so healthy. This weekend I had a little tea party with scones, clotted cream and lots of jam. It was great but I have been feeling slugish ever since. 

Roasted Acorn Squash Brown Butter and Sage Pasta

Brown butter is alchemy as far as I am concerned. It takes something that is already good-butter-and turns it into something glorious, nearly unrecognizable. When I served dinner my friend L said "What's in this sauce?" and I said "Butter"and she said "Yeah, butter and what?" and I said "Butter". We went on like this for a while. The transformation from butter, creamy, slightly sweet and mild, and brown butter, deep, nutty and salty is a little unbelievable; she couldn't believe that there was only butter in the sauce. 

Some recipes call for brown butter to be strained and remove the milk solids, the little brown, crunchy, salty wonderful crumbs. I think this is crazy. Those caramelized milk solids are what make brown butter nutty, complex and a little magical. I cannot endorse straining brown butter. 

Roasted Acorn Squash Brown Butter and Sage Pasta

-Acorn or similar squash

-1/2 cup plus 2-3 tbs salted butter

-1 bunch sage leaves 

-pasta, any kind you like

-salt and pepper

Halve an acorn squash and scoop out the seeds. Brush the inside with olive oil  and sprinkle with salt and coarse pepper. Roast in a 400° oven for about 40 minutes. 

While the squash is roasting, melt the butter over medium high heat. Pay attention to the butter, it can burn quickly and it turns into disgusting black char. I have field tested tested this myself. After the butter melts it should boil and spit as the water in the butter evaporates. Then it should settle down and get foamy and frothy. Swirl the butter in the pan, watching for the colour to develop. The goal to get the milk solids in butter to turn a nice toasty brown. The milk solids hang out at the bottom of the pan, so check on their development by taking the pan off the heat every so often and letting the foam subside to check out the colour. Scrape them off the bottom of the pan occasionally so they don't burn. When the butter is a deep nutty brown pour it into a small bowl and set aside.

Add a couple more tablespoons of butter to the pan and melt on quite high heat. Fry the sage leaves for a minute or two. Test them for crispness pretty quickly after you start to cook them; let one cool for a moment on a paper towel to see if it is crispy once it cools. As soon as they are crisp remove them from the butter with a slotted spoon, drain on a paper towel. If the butter is brown you can add it to your sauce, if it got a little too burnt, toss it out. 

Set a large pot of salted water to boil; once it is boiling vigorously cook the pasta. When the squash is roasted let it cool until it isn't too hot to handle. Cube and peel the squash and set aside. 

Toss the steaming hot pasta with squash cubes, brown butter and a generous pinch of flaky salt and pepper. Smoked salt is particularly good but any nice sea salt is great. Plate the pasta and top with a crispy sage leaves. This pasta wants a leafy green little salad to take some of the edge of the richness and the edge off of my guilt for eating quite that so much butter. Because everyone knows salad cancels butter. That's science. 

Edamame with Red Wine Reduction and Garlic

I have been thinking about edamame a lot lately: they are great steamed and salted like you find them in  Japanese restaurants. They don't seem to show up much elsewhere, which is too bad because they are delicious and versatile.  I have had edamame dishes at a couple different restaurants that inspired me to experiment with some different seasonings.

 When most people think of soy they tend to think of tofu, soymilk, and a whole range of processed soy products. Nothing is wrong with those, but I'd choose unprocessed soy beans over the more popular soy products any day.  If you haven't seen edamame in your grocery store, have a hunt through the frozen foods section, or go to an Asian specialty market. I usually buy a big bag of frozen edamame in their shells and another bag of frozen shelled edamame beans. The pre-shelled beans get boiled until bright green, about a minute, and thrown into pasta, soup, salad— everything. The beans in their pods have been getting every seasoning I can think of, and I will post some of the others soon. This red wine glazed recipe may very well be the best so far. The big slices of garlic get stained really deep purpley-red.