Rhubarb Martini

I made Laura Calder's rhubarb water but it tasted like the liquid from rhubarb pie - which I like a lot, but I don't want to drink it. We tried different things with the left-overs, like lightening it with sparkling water and adding fresh, crushed mint leaves and lime, which all helped but didn't make it worthwhile to do again. Then Ben decided to try and reproduce the cucumber martini I'd had at the Sylvia Hotel on English Bay - he didn't succeed in that, but tried his hand at making up a rhubarb martini with the leftover rhubarb water, and that was amazing!

1 shot (big) vodka

1 jigger vermouth

1/2 c. rhubarb water

5 mint leaves, crushed

juice of 1/2 lemon

1. Put all the ingredients in a martini shaker with ice and... shake.
2. Garnish with fresh mint leaves and ice to serve.

Fireworks Raspberry Tart

I made this for the Festival of Lights fireworks on English Bay. It was a resounding hit. A bit of a challenge to carry since it is a bit delicate - I baked it in a spring form pan with the edges cut half-way down the pan's lip, and that seemed to work fine. This is made with pastry cream - the difference between pastry cream and custard is that the former uses flour to thicken. 

1 cup milk

2 tsp vanilla extract

3 egg yolks

¼ cup sugar

2 Tbsps. flour

¼ cup heavy cream

1 lb fresh raspberries

1 9"/23 cm cookie crust, baked

1. Put the milk in a saucepan. Split the vanilla bean, scraping the seeds into the milk, then drop in the pot. Heat to a simmer, remove from heat, cover, and set to infuse 10 minutes. (If using extract, just bring milk and vanilla just to a boil and set aside to cool.)
2. Beat the yolks with the sugar until pale. Beat in the flour. Pull the vanilla bean from the milk and whisk the milk gradually into the egg mixture. Pour back into the saucepan, bring to a boil, and cook one minute. Remove from the heat (optional: stir in 1 tablespoon framboise liqueur). Strain into a bowl, cover with plastic wrap, and set aside to cool. 
3. When chilled, stream the cream in and mix with whisk until smooth.
4. Spread the pastry cream evenly in the base of the tart. Arrange the berries neatly over top.

Lamb roast with Caramelized potatoes

I find that cooking meat using internal temperature much more satisfying. We bought a boneless lamb leg roast at the farmer's market on Comox street and I had to figure out what to do with it. Here's what I came up with.

5 lb. leg of lamb/lamb shoulder, boneless

3 garlic cloves, peeled and sliced

1 tsp. salt and pepper

2 Tbsps. lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil, plus a little more for the potatoes

Several handfuls of herbes de Provence

2 lbs. potatoes, sliced about the width of your little finger

1/2 cup veal or beef stock

1. Several hours before cooking the lamb, make slits all over it with the tip of a sharp knife and slide a sliver of garlic into each slit as you go. Stir together the salt, pepper, lemon juice, and olive oil. Now, pat the herbs all over the meat to cover completely. Cover and leave to marinate for several hours in the refrigerator (I wrap it up again in the brown paper the roast came in). Let come to room temperature an hour before roasting.
2. Heat the oven to 450ºF with the top cooking rack mid-way, and another rack beneath it two notches down. Toss the potatoes on a baking sheet (with sides) or roasting pan with a little olive oil, and season with salt and pepper. Pour over the stock. Put the potatoes on the lower oven rack and the lamb roast directly on the rack above it, so that drippings will fall through directly onto the potatoes. During cooking, pour a little more stock or water in on the potatoes if they look dry at half-time. They are done when they are soft and nicely caramelized, glossy and sticky.
3. FOR BONELESS SHOULDER: Roast the lamb 20 minutes, then lower the heat to 400ºF and continue roasting (Laura says 40 minutes but for the boneless shoulder roast, this is too much. Take temperature reading after 20 minutes to work out the correct time) before checking with a meat thermometer - 140F for rare, 155F medium, 165F well done (temperature will rise about 5 degrees out of oven).
4. FOR BONE-IN LEG: Preheat oven at 450°F. Roast the leg for 20 minutes and then lower heat to 325°F for the rest of the cooking time of 2 hours (CHECK after 60 minutes, then every 20 minutes). The roast is done when an instant read thermometer inserted into thickest part of leg reads at least 140°F (for rare, see chart link, above) (temperature will rise about 5 degrees out of oven).
5. Rest the meat 10 minutes before carving. The meat will continue to cook, the internal temperature rising even more during this time, and at the same time the juices will flow back to the edges of the meat. Serve with the potatoes.

Spiced Candied Pecans

These were a serious favourite at the picnic. I had no idea that they possessed such a narcotic effect! Neither dessert nor appetizers, they are great snacks to nibble on throughout the picnic. I think in particular for the Bocce picnic.

1/3 cup sugar

3/4 tsp. cayenne

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. coriander

1/4 tsp. cinnamon

1/8 tsp. allspice

1 egg white

2 tsp. vegetable oil
2 cups shelled pecans

1. Pre-heat oven to 300F.
2. In a bowl, sugar, cayenne, salt, coriander, cinnamon, and allspice. Whisk in egg white and vegetable oil. Stir in pecan halves.
3. Spread nuts in a single layer in an oiled non-stick 10- by 15-inch baking pan. Bake in a regular or convection oven, stirring occasionally, until nuts are crisp and lightly browned, 20 to 25 minutes.
4. Let cool about 5 minutes, then use a wide spatula to loosen nuts from pan; cool completely. Serve or store airtight at room temperature up to 2 weeks

Fixing the Fancy - Red Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

I often notice that there are some recipes where the ingredients sound fancy but the end product is bland. This often happens with Epicurious recipes, such as the Radicchio, Red Cabbage and Tomatoes with Orange Vinaigrette recipe. I made it because I like radicchio and thought, correctly, that the red salad would be visually appealing, but it was just bitter to taste. Ben played around with it and, in my opinion, fixed it.

NOTE: the cherry tomatoes sliced in half are very important - the acidity and flavour from the escaping juices help balance the bitterness of the radicchio.

1 small red onion, thinly sliced
1/2 small head red cabbage, cored and coarsely chopped

1 Tbsp. plus 1 tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsps. finely grated fresh orange zest

4 1/2 Tbsps. fresh orange juice

Juice from 1 lemon

1 Tbsp. sugar, or to taste

1 tsp. salt (add more to taste)

1/2 tsp. pepper

1/3 cup olive oil

2 heads radicchio (3/4 pound total), cored and coarsely chopped

2 pints cherry tomatoes, halved

1. Chop onion and soak in cold water, to cover, for 15 minutes.
2. Shred cabbage, salt thoroughly and set in colander to sweat excess water. Leave for 15 minutes, rinse thoroughly with running water and quickly dry on paper towel.
3. While onion soaks and cabbage sweats, whisk together mustard, zest, juices, and salt and pepper to taste with sugar. Add oil in a slow stream, whisking until emulsified.
4. Drain onion well and toss together with radicchio, cabbage, tomatoes, and enough dressing to coat. Toss salad and adjust seasoning using sugar, salt and pepper.

My Birthday Picnic

So, I mentioned in my previous entry that Ben organized a lovely picnic potluck for my birthday. It was pretty busy, lots of people came and although the weather wasn't 100% great, we made the most of it. There definitely was a lot of food! I brought my Wonder Bread (the Miracle Boule) which was hugely popular, with soft chèvre and some lovely traditional French sausage we got at Granville Island; the Greek Loaf, which was equally popular (it disappeared first, but there was less of it); the Red Salad with Orange Vinaigrette, which was almost all eaten, and there was a lot of it; the Spiced Candied Pecans, which got rave reviews; and the Chèvre Pasta Salad, which got the least attention (I think it didn't have the same kind of visual impact and just looked like a pasta salad. Ben likes it a lot). So this is a really good test for picnic fare, and what is attractive and what's not.

Greek Loaf - Black Olive, Feta and Sundried Tomato Loaf

So, imagine a zucchini loaf, but savoury. I was looking for European ideas for picnics, and I came across these savoury loaves and at first I wasn't so much attracted to them. I kept seeing them on picnic Web-sites from France that I thought I'd give them a go. Today, Ben organized a b-day picnic for me, so I took advantage of it to try some food out on the crowd. This was a winner! I fudged the original recipe, but I think that was a good thing. Here's my version, which I've converted from Metric for the sake of clarity.

generous 3/4 cups (14 Tbsps.) flour 

2 generous tsps. baking powder

1/2 cup milk

3 eggs

5 Tbsp. oil from sundried tomato jar

1 3/4 oz. pitted kalamata olives

2 oz. sundried tomatoes in oil

100 g feta

1/2 tsp. dried oregano

1 Tbsp. fresh basil, chopped fine

1. Heat oven to 350F
2. Chop tomatoes and feta into smallish chunks.
3. Combine flour and baking powder in a bowl.
4. Create a well and add eggs, milk and oil. Mix until combined.
5. Add basil, tomatoes, olives and feta and combine until evenly distributed.
6. Pour into bread pan and cook 35 minutes. Allow to cool in pan before removing.