Eat With Feeling moves to NEW YORK CITY!!!!

courtesy of Ano Lobb - flickr cc
http://www.flickr.com/photos/27384147@N02/6396978875/in/set-72157623196609454

Hello out there??? I must apologise for the lengthy absence and hope that maybe some of you remember EatWithFeeling! 

A lot has happened since my last posting - I am cringing when I see the date of it actually.....

First of all:   HAPPY NEW YEAR!! I have a great feeling about 2012 and I hope you do too. Whatever you are up to out there enjoy it, savour it and always EatWithFeeling :)

As for me? I recently up and moved to New York City with my husband!! I am so excited to be living in this wonderful city and I cannot wait to share my culinary adventures with you! I should mention that as a 'trailing spouse' I am not allowed to work here - and although I miss my job at George Brown Chef School I am excited to have the opportunity to live in and experience this incredible place.

This is my first post from New York City so I wanted to pay homage to a beloved American classic (with an EatWithFeeling twist of course:). These delectable delights are more of an adult flavour with the assistance of some orange essence and dark Ghirardelli chocolate chips... but the kids next door liked them too.

EatWithFeeling Chocolate Chip Cookies:

You will need:

• something to sift with
• a couple of mixing bowls (or a mixer if you have one)
• wooden spoon and rubber spatula
• ice-cream scoop (medium or a tablespoon)
• 2 bake sheets with parchment paper to fit
• a scale

Gather your ingredients:

• plain flour (I used organic)  - 190g
• baking powder                        - 3/4 tsp
• salt                                             - a good pinch - salt & dark chocolate love each other
• butter (salted or unsalted)   - 120g - make sure it is soft - not melted
• brown sugar                            - 160g
• orange extract                         - 1/2 tsp - I used Simply Organic orange oil
• large egg                                   -  1 - crack it into a small bowl and mix a little
• dark chocolate bits                 - 225g - I used 65% cocoa solids

Strategy:

• Preheat your oven to 350F or 180C
• Put on some fun music - Tony Bennet in keeping with the NYC theme!
• Scale/weigh the dry ingedients (except the chocolate) in to a bowl
• Beat/cream the butter and sugar together until uniform and pale in colour
• Add the orange extract to the butter-sugar mixture - mix well
• Add the egg in three stages, beating inbetween each addition
• Use the rubber spatula to scrape down the sides of the bowl as needed
• Add the dry mixture to the wet mixture
• Gently, gently incorporate the two mixtures into a soft dough. no aggression please:)
• Add the chocolate and incorporate - I do this by hand to avoid overworking the dough
• Scoop out even sized portions using the icecream scoop/tablespoon to form uniform balls of dough and drop onto the bake sheets. Leave enough room inbetween for spreading.

• Flatten them slightly with the rubber spatula or an offset spatula if you have one (I did this after they had baked for about 5 min and were nice and soft).
• Place bakesheets in the middle of the oven and bake for about 12 min.
• Take the cookies out and let them cool - they should still be soft and a little doughy - that is cool....:)
• Congratulate yourself on a job well done and EatWithFeeling  

Happy Canada Day - Canada Quiche

To celebrate Canada Day I decided to make a quiche using some delicious locally grown ingredients.
Last Tuesday at the Riverdale Market I bought some garlic scapes:

Some of you may have not used Garlic Scapes before. The have a beautiful garlicky aroma and a taste that is something between a green onion and garlic - for want of a better description:). Most of the time I slice them very thinly and add them to salad. This time I combined them with some other local produce I bought from Farmer Ted at Riverdale Market and some tomatoes Chef Michael Olsen from Niagara College gave me.

It seems I have the makings of a delicious summer quiche!! The eggs are from the St Lawrence farmers market and I also had some Ermite cheese I had bought on the same day which will go into the mix along with some Balderson cheddar

What you will need:
1 x pie crust - 2.5 cups flour, 120g unsalted butter cut into cubes - cold, 1/2 tsp salt, 100-120ml cold water: mix butter, salt and flour together to form a mealy mixture of course breadcrumb size pieces. Add the water 1/2 the amount at a time to form a smooth dough. Rest the dough (wrapped) for 20min. Roll out to 4m thickness. Roll up the dough around the rolling pin and unroll it over the quiche pan. Ensure the dough is pushed into the corner where the sides meet the base of the pan. Cut away the dough evenly around the edges with a pairing knife. Then rest again for another 15min. in the refrigerator.  See my previous  quiche recipe for baking instructions.

The Filling:
20ml         Canola oil
4                Eggs - free range
1 cup         Whole milk
20g           Blue cheese (I used Ermite from Abbaye de Saint-Benoit du-Lac ) - crumbled
50g           Cheddar cheese ( I used Balderson 3 yr) - grated
1/4 cup    Garlic scapes - thinly sliced
1 cup        Swiss Chard/English Spinach - thinly sliced
1               Tomato - de seeded and diced
fresh nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

Strategy:

• Bring all the ingredients out of the fridge - let them come down in temperature and preheat the oven to 315F (157C)
• Heat the canola oil in a frying pan to medium heat and gently sweat the scapes and chard. Grate the fresh nutmeg over the mixture along with some salt and pepper. Add the tomatoes, sweat for another minute then turn of the heat.

• To a medium mixing bowl add the eggs, whole milk, grated cheddar - whisk until it is light and aerated. Add the blue cheese and fold to mix.
• Now you are going to add your warm vegetable mix to the egg mixture - but with only a small amount to begin. This 'tempers' the egg mixture so that the eggs don't cook and scramble in the bowl. When you have added and mixed a small amount in - add the rest in two more batches then whisk up well so that all ingredients are 'suspended' in the egg mixture. The mixture should be slightly warm
• Place the empty pie shell onto a bake sheet Turn the filling into the pie shell. Bake the quiche in the centre of a low temp oven for approximately 20min. When you take it out the middle should still 'jiggle'.

• Now kick back - grab a Steam Whistle or whatever your favourite Canadian beverage is and let your quiche rest - it will be worth the wait

Yours Truly, EatWithFeeling

Artichokes

Last weekend I was frolicking about the market and found some perfect looking artichokes.
I promptly came home, poured a glass of wine and got out my favourite Thomas Keller book - Bouchon.
Low and behold - he of course has inside, the perfect artichoke recipe......

We gobbled them up with some lemon myrtle 'rubbed and roasted' chicken with rocket salad.

Left over artichokes then made a great Sunday night addition to a grazing plate with meats, pate, olives and crostini


Here are some pictures from the preparation......



The artichokes took approximately 45min in the braising liquid which consisted of water, olive oil, white wine, fennel seed, peppercorns, thyme, bay leaf, garlic...

I used a small bowl to rest on them as they were braising to make sure they were submerged



I had to make sure that as I exposed the inner leaves that i rubbed them with lemon to stop them from going brown....

The artichokes - or what was left after Saturday night dinner are at the top of the platter - very yummy





Yours Truly,
EatWithFeeling

Bread

Home Baking

The Cook's Companion: The Complete Book of Ingredients and Recipes for the Australian Kitchen

Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Traditions from Around the World

I have to be honest, bread (baking in general) has never been a strong skill of mine for two major reasons:
1. a severe lack of patience  (on my part)
2. lack of time

This year I have tried to change that and have been 'practicing' my baking skills every other week at home making large batches of bread in my teeny weeny condo kitchen. I make a huge mess, play loud music and watch the amazing process of fermentation unfold.....

I have a lot of great cook books but I have to say that 'Home Baking'  by Alford and Duguid (link above) has been incredibly helpful & culturally insightful in my attempt to master home bread baking.
The other book (which i have had for years) is Stephanie Alexander's 'The Cooks Companion'. This book was given to me by my Dad (Hitchy) many years ago.
It is now May and I am very happy to report that my bread baking is now at a level where we have stopped buying bread at all!! Weekend mornings are filled with music, eggs & bacon and the smell of my bread toasting...... we eat with feeling around here.....
Out of all this the biggest lesson gained has been to slow down - good baking requires time. For me to get a good result with home baking there is no instant gratification - which is a good thing isnt it?

Boules (pg 178 'Home Baking',Alford & Duguid)

Yours Truly,
Eat With Feeling

Guest Blogger: My Dad (Thanks DAD!!)

Hitchy's Famous Baked Trevalley Recipe.

Recently (I am Kylie's Dad by the way), I was on the West Coast of Australia where there is a pelagic fish called a Golden Spotted Trevally (GST). It is a great fighting fish for those that enjoy fishing, and I caught one (just one,) really good GST at a place called Point Quabba which is about 80K North of a town called Geraldton (do google maps and look at Geraldton on the West coast of Australia).


This coastline is histrically significant because a number of Dutch and Portugese sailing ships were wrecked here in the 1700's and one of our naval ships "Sydney" was destroyed off this coast in WW2.



A lot of us Aussie blokes think Trevally is not the best eating fish we catch over here. I guess us blokes have always been a bit fussy about the best fish to eat (I wont go there as that is a debate that could last pages and years!!).



Basically we dont bake enough fish in Australia. We tend to pan fry or grill our fish.
A great and simple way to cook and enjoy the taste of Australian Trevally is to bake it in a foill wrap with a simple mixture of olive oil, pepper, basil and lemon juice. Keep the oven heat low and gently let it "stew in its own juices" as we say down here. A further way of keeping the juices with the fish flesh is to use a bit of baking paper as the first stage of the wrap and the foil after that.


My main problem, being that I am always curious as to how my meal is coming along, is to bring the packets of Trevally out of the oven prematurely, and check them by opening the packets and prising open the fish flesh to see whether it is cooked enough! Your own confidence and your knowlege of the quirks of your own oven will tell you whether it's ok. The flesh must be cooked but just cooked, not dry. That takes practice.



We ate our GST by a campfire on the West coast of Australia about 3 weeks ago. It was pretty bloody good according to my partner Elaine and our best friends Terry and Lynne. When we say "pretty bloody good" down here in these parts, that means it is very very good.



I was pleased. Simple but good cooking. Humbly speaking, I mess up some of my cooking on a regular basis. But I can do baked Trevally.
Regards,


Hitch (Kylies Dad)


Tallowood Farm


Via Stroud NSW Australia.

saturday morning breakfast

This morning I was walking my dog Hanna at our usual hangout in downtown Toronto.

All the snow melted yesterday and spring had decided to tease us with some 'warm' weather. This morning reality hit home as I stepped out in not nearly enough clothing for my morning sojourn with Hanna, and to be frank, froze my 'ass' off.

Maybe subconsciously I had really hoped that the weather would be a continuance of yesterday...or even a little better...Hanna didn't mind, she was reading all her stories left by other dogs and wondering if I was going to throw the ball agian....my mind wandered onto what to eat for breakfast..
As I was trudging along on the frozen field I could smell the fresh pressed coffee, and taste the lusciousness of a hollandaise sauce .....here is what I came up with.

Poached Eggs, Delectable Hollandaise

on Organic Springwater Toasts

What you will need for the hollandaise:

1.5 cups     butter - melted

2 large        egg yolks

30ml          white wine

10-15ml    fresh squeezed lemon juice

salt and pepper

Food you will need for the rest of the recipe:

2 slices of your favourite bread (I used a cookie cutter to make large circles and I used organic springwater bread)

2 large free range eggs

20ml of white vinegar for poaching the eggs

700 ml water (or thereabouts) for poaching the eggs

2 slices of smoked salmon or ham or some spinach or just..nothing - up to you

a wedge of fresh orange or a strawberry for a garnish

Your tool kit should include:

1 x saucepan (2L)

1 x whisk

1 x large mixing bowl

1 x bowl for melting the butter

1 small ladle or spoon for skimming milk solids if needed

1 tea towel

serving plate

paper towl

slotted spoon

STRATEGY

1.Focus on the hollandaise first  and get all your tools and ingredients ready for action.

2. Drink some coffee or whatever your morning preference is

3. Celebrate the fact that you are about to create something really delicious

4. Fill your saucepan with about 700ml of water and put it on the stove at medium. Melt your butter in the microwave and set it aside.

5. In your large mixing bowl place the egg yolks, white wine and the lemon juice:

6. Place your bowl over the saucepan - it should fit snugly on top of the saucepan without touching the water. The water should only be at a low simmer

7. Whisk, whisk whisk whisk whisk whisk - this is the stage wehre some music comes in handy. You want the egg mixture to increase in volume and become pale and thick. The simmering water underneath will gently cook the egg yolks without scrambling them.

HINT: keep a careful watch on the simmering water - the heat can build up inside and get too hot even if you have the temperature on low.

When your egg mixture looks like this:

you are ready to add the butter....

8. Remove your bowl from the sauce pan. Keep the saucepan water at a simmer for the poached eggs. Place your mixing bowl on the tea towel to stabilize it.

9. Check to ensure all the milk solids are removed from the top of the melted butter

10. Very slowly, drizzle the butter into your egg mixture whilst whisking. Ensure that with each SMALL addition of the clarified butter that all butter is incorporated into the sauce.

HINT: If the sauce gets too thick before you have added all the butter- you can add a very small amount of lukewarm water, then keep adding the butter

11. When all the butter is incorporated the hollandaise should look something tlike this:

Once you have completed the sauce, season it with salt and pepper - I always use black pepper which means that you can see the black flecks in the sauce - if this isn't your cup of tea then use white pepper.

When you have finished your hollandaise -

do not refrigerate or keep it for the next day. Use it or lose it.

Next: poach the eggs:

1. Add the white vinegar to your saucepan of simmering water. Crack your eggs into a small bowl, Make a 'whirlpool' with the water before adding your eggs. The should take about 6-7min.

2. When your eggs are ready remove them with the slotted spoon and 'blot' them on some paper towel.

3. Toast your bread of choice

4. Spread a little hollandaise on your toasts:

BUILD YOUR BREAKFAST:

1. Place the smoked salmon on the toasts:

2. Place your eggs on top:

3. 'Nape' with the hollandaise:

Eat With Feeling

Spinach & Flax Tagliatelle with Pork Ragu

A couple of weeks ago I was reading Mario Batali's book, 'The Babbo Cookbook' and was inspired to make a scrumptious pasta. Whenever I am in an 'Italian' kind of mood I like to pull this book off the shelf and leaf through the pages of wonderful recipes. Here is what I came up with:

Spinach and Flax Tagliatelle

Ingredients:

Pavarotti or similar music + a glass of red wine (optional)

2-3 cups all purpose flour

1-2 tbsp ground flax (which I keep stored in the fridge)

2 large free range eggs

1 tbsp olive oil

1 cup blanched spinach, chopped finely

1 good pinch of salt and a pinch of pepper

A good attitude

Strategy:

1. Sift the flour, salt, pepper onto a clean, dry counter. Add the flax and mix well. Make a well.
2. Add the eggs to the well and mix with a fork without breaking the well. Slowly incorporate the flour from the outside of the well into the egg.
3. Add the oil and continue to incorporate the flour until the dough starts to form. When this happens you can start to knead it. Knead the dough for a couple more minutes (you may have to use a little more flour on the counter). Make a smooth ball.
4. Wrap it and let it relax for a bit. Meanwhile set up the pasta roller:

I got this gorgeous machine for my husband a couple of years ago- but as you can see - it was a mutually beneficial purchase :)
When your ball of pasta is well rested, it is time to roll baby!!! Make sure you have some extra flour and a place to hang the finished product if necessary:

When using the roller- start on the thickest setting and after each time through you can turn the dial one step thinner until you have the desired thickness. I took mine to the thinnest setting.

When you have finished the pasta you can let it dry for later or cook it fresh. I divided mine in half  (half to dry and half to eat with feeling!) and with the fresh pasta, made a pork ragu:

 I wanted Ontario pork  and I guess I was out of luck until.... I came across spicy sausages made from Ontario pork. This turned out to be a great decision!
 The meat was already nicely seasoned with a little spice.
So in this photo you see my mise en place: onion, carrot, garlic, red and yellow tomatoes..........mmmmm

After browning the meat I added the onion and carrot. When these softened in went the tomatoes and some puree tomatoes (about 200ml). Season and then time to relax. If you decide to make this (and you should) try adding 2 sprigs of freshly chopped flat leaf parsley just at the end of the cooking process instead of during. You will notice a  difference in the finished small and taste.

I let this simmer for a good 25min.

For me it was important to leave the meat 'clumpy'. I wanted this sort of texture to go with my pasta:

I finished the ragu with a little cream (heavy cream that is:)

Cook the pasta in salted boiling water (lots). If you are cooking it fresh you only need about 4 minutes. If you will be cooking it dry 7-10 minutes will do depending on the thickness then drain and toss in olive oil before mixing with the ragu and serving. I added Grana Padano to finish.

Writing this up has made me want to do it all over again it was so tasty!

Yours Truly,

Eat With Feeling