Morel Mushroom Cream Sauce

This is a recipe adapted from allrecipes.com.  I still prefer tomato sauce for pastas, but this was a nice change (and a good way to use up the dried morel mushrooms we have had for a while).

Ingredients

• 1 -2 ounces dried morel mushrooms
• 3 cups chicken stock
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/3 cup finely chopped shallots
• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon fresh thyme
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 1/4 cup snipped fresh parsley
• 1 cup chopped spinach
• Hot cooked pasta

Directions

1. Heat the 3 cups stock to simmering. Remove from heat. Add dried mushrooms; let mushrooms stand 20 minutes. Strain mixture through a 100% cotton cheesecloth-lined sieve, reserving 1 cup broth. Rinse mushrooms under warm running water; squeeze out excess moisture. Slice in half lengthwise any of the larger mushrooms; set aside.
2. For sauce: In a medium saucepan, melt 1/4 cup butter over medium heat. Add shallots. Cook and stir for 3 to 5 minutes or until shallots are tender. Sprinkle flour over shallots; stir to combine. Slowly add reserved 1 cup broth, stirring until smooth. Reduce to low heat. Cook, uncovered, for 7 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in thyme, 1/4 teaspoon salt, and pepper. Slowly whisk in the cream. Cook, whisking constantly, over medium heat for 7 minutes more or until the mixture thickens. Stir in reserved morels and 1/4 cup parsley. Cook and stir until heated through. Add in spinach.
3. Spoon sauce over pasta. If you like, sprinkle with additional parsley.

Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts

This is my favourite appetizer!!!!  All of this time, I thought this was something unique my Mom made, but after Googling it, it looks like it is extremely popular!  It is a great appetizer to make for guests because it is pretty easy, does not involve a lot of ingredients, and seems fancier than it is.  Sometimes I make it even when guests are not coming over because then I do not have to pretend to be polite and can just eat them all myself.

Ingredients
1/2 cup ketchup
5 heaping tbsp brown sugar
package of bacon
water chestnuts (whole, from a can)

Mix together ketchup and brown sugar in a small bowl.  Cut bacon into thirds.  Coat each slice of bacon in ketchup mixture and wrap it around a water chestnut.  Secure with toothpick.  Bake for 15 min at 375 degrees.

Coconut Squash Pie

Although this recipe sounds very exotic, it actually just tastes like delicious pumpkin pie.  One day, I was sitting on the couch, and had the amazing idea of using coconut milk in the pumpkin pie recipe instead of whipping cream (sometimes I just use regular milk).  We also happened to have a squash lying around the house and so I used baked squash, instead of the usual canned pumpkin.  The homemade crust and pumpkin pie recipe have been posted in previous blog posts - but below is what I did to make this particular pie.  The filling is actually enough to make 2 pies, so I ended up stretching the single pie crust recipe to form 2 crusts and made 2 pies (and ate them both!!!).

Homemade Pie Crust (adapted from Wanda's Pie in the Sky cookbook):


1.5 cups flour
1/4 tsp salt
2/3 cup cold butter, cut into small pieces
1/4 cup cold water

In large bowl, combine flour, salt, and butter.  Cut with pastry cutter until mixture resembles coarse meal and begins to clump together.  Sprinkle with the cold water, let rest for 30 seconds, then cut with about 15 strokes of the pastry cutter.  Form dough into a disk and wrap in plastic (but save a small ball of dough for the topping).  Chill for 20 minutes.  Roll out disk on a lightly floured surface, and transfer dough to pie plate.



Coconut Squash Pie (adapted from an old Toronto Star article):


398mL pureed squash, baked
2/3 C brown sugar
1/3 C white sugar
1 T flour
1 1/2 t cinnamon (more!)
1/2 t each of salt, nutmeg, ground ginger (more!)
1/4 t each of allspice, black pepper (more!)
1 C coconut milk
2 eggs, beaten
1/3 C orange juice (I didn't have any and just substituted extra coconut milk)
3 T orange liqueur
1 1/2 t vanilla

Prick pie dough and bake at 400 degrees, 5 min until dry (but not brown).  Cool.
Reset oven to 375 degrees.
In large bowl, mix pumpkin, sugars, flour, spices.  Add cream, eggs, orange juice, liqueur, vanilla; whisk together.
Pour into shell and bake 45 to 60 min until slightly wobbly.

Carrot Cake - Recipe from Wanda's Pie in the Sky Cookbook

This is the best carrot cake recipe.  I realize this is a bold statement, and I firmly stick by it.  It is from the Wanda's Pie in the Sky cookbook which has amazing recipes all around.  Please do not deviate from the recipe because every single ingredient is very important.

Note:  This recipe makes 2 cakes.  You are actually supposed to layer the cakes I think, but I never do.

C=cup, T=tbsp, t=tsp

Cake
4 eggs
1  1/4 C sugar
1 1/2 C oil
1/2 C orange liqueur
1 t vanilla
2 1/2 C flour
2 t baking powder
1 1/2 t baking soda
1 t salt
1 t nutmeg
1 t cinnamon
2 C grated carrots
1 C crushed pineapple
3/4 C broken walnuts
1 C coconut flakes
1 C raisins

Preheat oven to 350.  Grease 2 cake pans.  Use electric mixer and beat eggs and sugar until pale and creamy.  Add oil, liqueur, vanilla and beat until well combined.  Add flour, baking power, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and cinnamon.  Add to egg mixture.  Stir in carrots, pineapple, walnuts, coconut, raisins.  Pour batter into pans.  Bake 25-30min (may take longer than this - poke with toothpick to see if ready).

Frosting - Make only 1/2 of this recipe!!!
1 1/2 C cream cheese, softened
1/2 C butter, softened
5 C icing sugar
1/2 t almond extract
1 t vanilla
1 T orange zest
1 T lemon juice

Use electric mixer and beat the cream cheese and butter until smooth.  Add icing sugar, almond extract, vanilla, orange zest.  Beat until smooth and creamy.  Add lemon juice and beat until light and fluffy.  Spread on cake (after cake has cooled). 

Enjoy!!!  (Especially for breakfast).  :)

Homemade Lemonade with Ginger and Maple Syrup

I was at Balzac's (the coffee shop) the other day and saw on their menu lemonade with ginger and maple syrup.  It was a bit expensive so I didn't end up getting it, but went home and made it that afternoon.  It was DELICIOUS!  So refreshing and tasty.  Yum.  Please make it - it is worth the trouble.

Heat in a pot for 15 minutes:

3 lemons worth of lemon juice
1/3 cup maple syrup
grated ginger (as much as you like)
4 cups water

Remove from stove and add in 10 ice cubes.  When cool, put into fridge.

That's it!  Enjoy!

BBQ'd Elk Steaks

Aki recently got his MA thesis manuscript accepted for publication (!!!) - so what better way to celebrate than with elk steaks!!  What actually happened was that he went away for the weekend, so I went to St. Lawrence Market to entertain myself.  I wanted to pick up a treat for a celebration dinner and walked past the man that sells elk meat, who I have seen many times.

Me:  How do you cook this?  <Pointing to elk pieces> Do you stew this?
Elk Man:  Yes, people like to make stew with these small pieces here.
Me:  Mmm.  <Pointing to big chunk of elk> - Do you roast this?
Elk Man:  Yes, that is for roasting.
Me:  And how do you cook this <pointing to elk steaks>?
Elk Man:  You would cook it any way you cook regular steak.
Me:  Okay, so barbeque or pan fry?
Elk Man:  Yes.

Thank you for answering my questions!  So I went with the elk steaks and hurried home.  I felt a bit bad about going to the market without Aki because he loooooves the market and we always go together, but then I found out later he went to Jean Talon market in Montreal without me!!!  That is a discretion that is about 25 times worse!  (I was going to say 50 times but didn't want to seem like I was exaggerating). 

Anyways, this is how I made the elk:

BBQ'd Lemon-Garlic Elk Steaks

• 2 pounds venison steaks
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon soy sauce
• 1 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 teaspoon onion powder
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/4 teaspoon black pepper

Place everything in a large ziplock bag, swish it around a bit, and let it sit in the refrigerator for at least several hours.  Take meat out 1 hour before grilling to let it come down to room temperature.  Heat up BBQ and grill on each side for 2 to 4 minutes.  I like my meat super rare (2 minutes each side), but you may not!

Credit to:  Derrick Riches, About.com Guide

It tasted very delicious!  I thought it might just taste like beef, but it was way more flavourful in a very unique way that is hard to describe.  I thought it might taste gamey like lamb, but it did not taste like lamb.  You will have to try it yourself!  It is a very lean type of meat and after eating it I felt strong (like elk)!!!

Ukrainian Borscht Time!

I thought I should probably taste this recipe before I posted it, so I just did.....not bad!  Mmmm, actually it's pretty good.  <This is live commentary>.  I think it is the garlic that makes it so good.  It wasn't quite what I was expecting - much more tomato-based and red than I had imagined.  I don't know if there is a difference between all of the types of borschts, or if it just happens to be this recipe.  It is from allrecipes.com but with no sausage.  Oh, I just remembered that I did not add the dollop of sour cream!!!  How silly.  I'm sure that will bring it from "pretty good" to "very good!"  To be determined.  And it would have made the photo look nicer!  Also, I thought I had parsley with which to garnish the soup and I chopped it up but then it turned out to be cilantro.  Oiy vey!  Next time I may try this recipe:  http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipes/recipe.html?dishid=3538.

Here is the slightly revised recipe below.  WARNING:  It makes a lot - a huge pot full.

Ingredients

• 3 medium beets, peeled and shredded
• 3 carrots, peeled and shredded
• 3 medium baking potatoes, peeled and cubed
• 1 tablespoon vegetable oil
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 (6 ounce) can tomato paste
• 3/4 cup water
• 1/2 medium head cabbage, cored and shredded
• 1 (8 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• salt and pepper to taste
• 1/2 cup sour cream, for topping
• 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley for garnish

Directions

1. Fill a large pot halfway with water (about 2 quarts), and bring to a boil. Add the beets, and cook until they have lost their color. Add the carrots and potatoes, and cook until tender, about 15 minutes. Add the cabbage, and the can of diced tomatoes - cook until tender.
2. Heat the oil in a skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until tender. Stir in the tomato paste and water until well blended. Transfer to the pot. Add the raw garlic to the soup, cover and turn off the heat. Let stand for 5 minutes. Taste, and season with pepper.
3. Ladle into serving bowls, and garnish with sour cream and fresh parsley.