Shakshuksha

This lovely brunch-type meal, which is, actually, good at any time. With all the peppers and spices, you'd think it would be unbearably hot but, actually, it is just right. I have a recipe for the spice mix harissa somewhere...

2  Tbsp olive oil
½  cup (26gr) onion, minced
1  cup fennel bulb, minced
2 serrano chillies, minced
1 jalapeno, minced
½  cup green bell pepper, minced
½ tsp salt
2 garlic cloves, minced
1  Tbsp harissa
1  tsp sweet spanish smoked paprika
28oz (796 mL) diced canned tomatoes
½  cup water
6 eggs
2  Tbsps parsley, chopped
½  cup feta

1. Cook onion and fennel in oil in large skillet until soft, 3 minutes. Add chiles, pepper and salt, cook, stirring 8 minutes or until softened. Add garlic and spices and cook 1 minute. Add tomatoes and water, simmer until thickened, 10 minutes.
2. Crack eggs into the sauce gently, to poach. Cover and cook in low heat until whites are firm and yolk is runny, 5 minutes.
3. To serve, sprinkle each portion with parsley and feta.

Oatmeal Chocolate Chip Cookies

I've been looking for a good plain-old chocolate chip cookie recipe, and I think I've found it... well, it's chocolate chip oatmeal, but I like the folkloric texture oatmeal gives. And oatmeal is good for you... as is chocolate. Apparently.

MAKES : 32 x 1oz

⅔ cup (5.33 oz/151gr) butter, room temperature 
1 cup (164g) brown sugar
1 egg
2 tsps vanilla
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
1½  cup (150g) rolled oats
1½ cup (260g) chocolate chips

1 cup flour (155g)
(optional) ½ cup (56g) walnut pieces
(optional) pinch of cinnamon

1. In a large mixing bowl beat the butter and sugar until pale and fluffy. 
2. Whip in the egg and vanilla, then the baking powder, baking soda and salt. 
3. Add the rolled oats and chocolate chips and mix until well combined. 
4. If using the Optional walnuts and cinnamon, add them with the chocolate chips.
5. Finally, add the flour, mixing only until combined.
6. Wrap and put in the refrigerator to rest for 1 hour and up to 72 hours.
7. Pre-heat oven to 375°F.
8. Drop a Tablespoon of dough (1oz) per cookie on a parchment-paper lined cookie sheet. Flatten with your hand and bake 10 to 12 minutes.
9. Transfer to racks to cool.

Turkey Burgers (the secret is Cheese)

Ground turkey tends to be sort of bland, and I've searched for a good turkey burger recipe. I think I'm in pretty good form here, and have Frankensteined a number of recipes including ideas from plain old regular burger patty recipes.

1 lb ground turkey
¼ cup bread crumbs or quick cook oatmeal
1 egg, lightly beaten
3 green onions, chopped (45 to 60g)
1 clove garlic, minced
1 to 2 tsps fresh sage, minced (optional)
1 tsp salt
¼ tsp ground pepper
1 to 2 Tbsps cheese (whatever you have bits of, cheddar, mozzarella, gruyere, parmesan, blue, doesn't matter except to your taste)

1. I like to cook the garlic in a little oil first, and I save the oil to cook the patties in.
2. Mix all ingredients together and form into 4 patties.
3. Cook the patties in a medium skillet over medium heat, turning once, to an internal temperature of 165°F.

Chłodnik - Polish Cold Yoghurt Beet Soup

This makes an unusual, violent pink soup that is beautiful and delicious. It's great for a lunch on early fall days, with the warm, buttered potatoes and the cool, colourful soup.

Serves 8

One bunch of young beets with leaves (about 6)
1 tsp lemon juice, to taste
1 garlic clove, minced
5 cups of boiling water
1 English cucumber, quartered and finely diced
about 10 radishes, halved and sliced
4 spring onion tops or chives, chopped (40 to 60g)
A small bunch of dill, minced
4 cups natural yogurt or cultured buttermilk
sea salt to taste
freshly ground black pepper to taste
golden caster sugar to taste - optional
4 to 6 hard boiled eggs to serve
1 to 1½ kg cooked baby potatoes to serve
1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter for potatoes

1. Wash beet leaves, stems and roots. Peel roots and dice them, chop leaves and stems (if there are lots of leaves use only half).
2. Boil water, add beet material along with garlic and lemon juice. Cook covered until beets are soft but still crunchy.
3. Remove from heat, add cucumber, radishes, half of the dill (reserve the rest to sprinkle over potatoes), spring onions and set aside to cool down a bit. Add yogurt (or buttermilk), season to taste with salt, pepper (and sugar if using, but good young beets should be plenty sweet already) and place in the fridge for at least an hour.
4. Serve chilled with freshly cooked baby potatoes topped with butter and dill and hard boiled eggs on the side.
5. Add more boiled water if the soup is too thick or too intense in flavour.
6. If you have too many beetroot leaves, wash and chop them and freeze to use later in different soups.

Stuffed Baked Figs

Fresh figs are a fruit I associate with wonderful frivolousness. They're expensive and rare but so very delicious, stange, seedy watery soft sweet fruit. This is a quick way to elevate them to a light dessert.

8 to 12 fresh figs

2 Tbsps (1oz/28gr) butter, softened

2 Tbsps sugar

¼ cup pistachio or almond flour (or briefly run through a blender)

2 Tbsps flour

1. Heat the oven to broil. 
2. Cut a cross from the top about three-quarters of the way down into the figs. 
3. Mash together the butter, sugar, ground pistachios and flour and chill for 1 hour.
4. Divide chilled filling into as may balls as you have figs, and wedge into cross-cut of each. Broil a few minutes, until the nut mixture is golden and the figs are hot. 
5. Serve with whipped cream or crème fraîche.

Tartine briarde gratinée - Baked Pear and Brie Sandwiches

I often feel at a loss when it comes to making vegetarian meals for my niece when she comes for dinner. Tofu is bland (and please, don't even mention tofurkey!) and pasta, while delicious, gets repetitive. This Saturday I met a friend for lunch and then thought I wanted to shop, but soon discovered my heart wasn't into it. And yet, I also didn't want to go home right away. So I wandered, and ended up at Chapters bookstore on Robson street. I like to pick out a bunch of books and just settle down and flip through them. Maybe one of these days I'll actually buy one. Anyway, in one of the books was a bunch of recipes for 'tartine'; essentially, these are open-faced sandwiches. This one is spinach and pear topped with brie. The salt at the end is important to bring out all the flavours.

1 bunch spinach

2 very ripe pears

1 Tbsp (½ oz/14gr) butter

250g ripe brie

4 slices of my home-made Commons Bread or similar peasant-type bread 

A pinch of salt per sandwich

Fresh-ground pepper

1. Pre-heat oven to 450°F.
2. Peel pears and cut into matchsticks. Heat butter in sauté pan and cook pears until browned.
3. Prepare ice bath for spinach - wash the leaves and blanch in salted water - quickly draining and dumping them into the ice bath. Dry leaves on paper towels.
4. Arrange bread slices on a cookie sheet. Combine pear and spinach, and divide equally among bread slices, then sprinkle with salt and pepper.
5. Pop in the hot oven for a few minutes (2 to 4), or until the cheese has obtained the desired amount of runniness, and serve immediately.

Lollipops

Last Christmas my gift to my family was home-made candy. I think I got the most out of the experience, to tell you the truth. Making candy is incredibly fascinating and fun! Or at least for a research geek like myself. I haven't mastered the art of flavoring yet, but I'm willing to keep trying! This recipe is for lollipops - I just poured out rough, globby circles onto parchment paper and popped in some sticks before it cooled, and haven't explored other methods... yet! I found this amazing science-cooking site that explains how the different steps and ingredients work to make candy, called the Exploratorium.

Makes about 8 to 10 lollipops per batch

1 cup sugar
⅓ cup corn syrup
½ cup water
¼ tsp cream of tartar
¼ to 1 tsp flavouring
liquid food colouring
1 to 2 tsp(s) citric acid (optional)

1. Prepare either a marble slab or an upside-down cookie sheet (air underneath the sheet will help the candy to cool faster), by covering it with parchment paper and spraying it with oil. If you're using molds, prepare the molds with lollipop sticks, spray with oil, and place them on a cookie sheet or marble slab.
2. In your pan, over medium heat, stir together the sugar, corn syrup, water, and cream of tartar with a wooden spoon until the sugar crystals dissolve.
3. Continue to stir, using a pastry brush dampened with warm water to dissolve any sugar crystals clinging to the sides of the pan, then stop stirring as soon as the syrup starts to boil.
4. Place the candy thermometer in the pan, being careful not to let it touch the bottom or sides, and let the syrup boil without stirring until the thermometer just reaches 300°F (hard-crack stage). If you don't have a thermometer, you can test Drop a little of the molten syrup in cold water and it will form hard, brittle threads that break when bent.
5. Remove the pan from the heat immediately and let the syrup cool to about 275°F before adding flavor, color, and citric acid (adding it sooner causes most of the flavor to cook away).
6. Working quickly, pour the syrup into the prepared molds and let cool for about 10 minutes. If you're not using molds, pour small (2") circles onto the prepared marble slab or cookie sheet and place a lollipop stick in each one, twisting the stick to be sure it's covered with candy. (It helps to have a friend do this since you need to work quickly.)
7. Let the lollipops cool for at least 10 minutes, until they are hard. Wrap individually in plastic wrap or cellophane and seal with tape or twist ties. Store in a cool, dry place.

NOTE: You can use flavoring extracts that are available in the baking supplies section of your local supermarket, such as vanilla, almond, anise, maple, and lemon. Approximately 1 teaspoon of this kind of flavoring should be enough for a batch of lollipops.
There are also highly-concentrated flavorings specifically for candy making, available online or in specialty stores. The flavor choices are almost endless. These usually come in tiny 1-dram (1 teaspoon) bottles, and ¼ teaspoon should be sufficient to flavor a batch of lollipops.
It’s a good idea to have the flavors and colors that you will add to your candy measured out and ready beforehand. You will need to work quickly once the syrup reaches the hard-crack stage because it will harden quickly!
When using stronger flavors such as cinnamon, mint, and cherry, you can use a small amount (about ¼ teaspoon). Subtler flavors such as lemon, strawberry, orange, and peach require more (½ to 1 tsp). You can add about ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract with these flavors to accent them and add a "creamy" flavor.
If you're making several batches, save the stronger flavors for last or they may contaminate the other batches. Be sure to wash all measuring and mixing spoons in between batches as well.