I thought it would be a nice change of pace this week if instead of cooking we baked. A novel idea, however, I forgot how much I hate to bake. Not to be Debbie Downer, but in all honesty, baking to me is not nearly as fun as cooking is. You can’t take as many liberties as with cooking and you most definitely have to be exact on your measurements, heat, and timing.

With that said, however, the results can be quite beautiful and equally delicious if you get all the finicky directions taken care of.

For the baking takeover, we decided to tackle a simple shortbread cookie with luscious dulce de leche smothered in between, finished with a dusting of powdered sugar.  We got the idea after reading a recipe by Stephanie Eddy in The Globe and Mail.

Dulce de Leche:

Dulce de leche is basically gently heated condensed milk. Making it can be approached several different ways. Hell, you can even buy it pre-made. We used the general size for most condensed milk cans: 300 ml. The method we chose to use is: pour out the milk into a glass baking pan, seal the top with aluminum foil, drop it into a larger baking sheet then fill with a water bath that comes up to half of the glass when submerged. We baked the condensed milk at 450F for around an hour and 30 minutes, basically when it turned a nice deep caramel brown.

The Cookies

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons corn starch

2 cups flour minus 2 tablespoons

¼ teaspoon salt

1 cup unsalted butter at room temperature

½ cup icing sugar

2 teaspoons vanilla

Extra icing sugar for dusting

Method:

Preheat the oven to 350F.

In one bowl, beat the butter with a hand beater or mixer until it is creamy in texture. Scrape down side and add the ½ cup of icing sugar and combine using the beater on low. Add the vanilla and mix until smooth.

In another bowl, combine the flour, salt and cornstarch in a bow and whisk together.  Add the flour mixture to the butter mixture and beat on low until there is a crumbly dough.

(we highly recommend licking the beaters before moving on…  Sorry, Mum.  They’re just too delicious)

(more…)

Guacamole is one of those I-will-eat-you-anytime foods for me.  Pretty much nothing trumps good old guacamole, and if it’s on offer, I’m in.  Luckily for me (and unluckily for my waistline) guacamole is one of the easiest things on the planet to make, so if you’re one of those people who uses their oven for storage, this recipe is right up your alley (plus, everyone will ohhhh and awww about how crafty you are for whipping up something so darn delicious)

It is because of the sheer ease of this recipe that there are numerous variations.  You can opt to chop the avocado instead of mash.  You can add cheese or sour cream to up the yummy; cumin for a punchier flavour or hot pepper flakes to spice it up.  Whatever the case, this recipe is a no fail base, and since we’ve been known to feature a few trickier recipes (hello, Long Walk To Mordor) I thought this might be a fun change.  Besides, it’s Cinco de Mayo tomorrow and even if you’re not Mexican, there’s no reason for you not to join in the festivities, even if it’s only in appetite.

Simple Guacamole 

Ingredients: 

3 avocados that have dark skin but not soggy to the touch (don’t let my poor demo picture fool you, I have a weird thing about symmetry)

1 tomato diced

2/3 cup of chopped red onion

3 tablespoons of chopped fresh cilantro (don’t add if you’re like me and would rather die than eat cilantro)

1 lime (I used two bc they were sucky dry limes, but 1 is enough)

1 teaspoon of garlic (add more if you’re like me and love it)

salt and fresh ground pepper to taste

Method:

You can opt to mash the avocado, salt and  lime together first or be lazy like me and put all of the ingredients in a bowl and mash it up at the same time.  Tastes amazing either way.

Cover tightly and chill for an hour in the fridge or eat right away – I can never wait….

*trick I learned from Oprah*

Guacamole goes brown quickly, if you want it to keep it’s fresh green colour for longer, apparently putting the pits back in the guacamole helps fend off the brown.

Enjoy!  Preferably with a margarita!

Have any other twists on this tradition?  Leave me a comment with your fave version, I love guacamole pretty much any way it comes.

Happy Cinco de Mayo!

xo,

This was prolly the most challenging recipe I have ever had the pleasure of attacking. To be honest, I don’t consider myself to be really skilled in the kitchen, and this crazy-ass recipe sure as hell kept my kitchen ego in check. In total, the whole experience (and I call it an experience because at one point I was so frustrated I thought I was hallucinating) lasted a total of 8 hours. 8 hours of cooking. For one dish. 8 hours. I warned you.

In the end, the result was impressive. People who didn’t even like lamb got into it. Nobody was freaked out by the pink ‘frosting’, they just dug in. And it was crazy delicious and totally worth all the effort. So, if you’re like me and have relatively low self-esteem and enjoy the odd compliment, I recommend this to you. I also recommend this recipe to anyone who likes a challenge. This recipe will test your patience, gross factor (when you get to the part of ripping the meat off the bone, the shank joints un-hinge), and altogether will to live/survive.

Anyone who can complete this one head-to-toe deserves a Nobel Peace Prize award with joint recognition in the Olympics.

Admittedly, I wasn’t able to make mine as beautiful as the file photo above as my star-tip jammed and basically broke my piping slash ziplock bag. Awesome.

Along the way, you’ll see my attempts. Be gentle. I also had to double the amount suggested in the recipe below because I had to make this for my mum’s birthday dinner with around 15 guests.

Good luck to those brave enough and God-speed.
(more…)

With the hot weather tease we got a few weeks back, I began to remember an important event that is closing in on the horizon: bikini season…! Yes people, it is fast approaching and to say the least I am beyond scared. Not only have I begun the three-month challenge at Lyzabeth Lopez’s Hourglass Workout, but I have also embraced many a food that I wouldn’t have dared to touch before. Case in point: kale chips. These babies have come to my potato chip craving rescue and proven themselves to be a true testament to the original. They are delicious, low in fat, not fried, and totally nutritious. Considering they cost an arm and a leg at Whole Foods, why not take 20-30 minutes and make your own? Here are three recipes I recently tried out:

Garlic Parmesan Friends

You’ll need:

1 bunch of Kale

1 tablespoon of Olive Oil

½ cup of Grated Parmesan

1 tablespoon of  Garlic Powder

1 teaspoon or large pinch of Salt

½ teaspoon of Cracked Black Pepper

Method:

Wash kale thoroughly, getting all the grit out. Pat the leaves dry and then take the leaves off the stem. Rip the leaves into bite-size or chip size portions.  Put leaves in a bowl and coat evenly with the olive oil.

Once all leaves are sufficiently covered with the oil, sprinkle on everything else except for the Parmesan. Put into a preheated 350F oven for 10-12 mins, or until crispy (not brown!).  Take out chips and sprinkle the Parmesan all over so that each chip gets some cheese and they’re nice and cozy. Put back into the oven until cheese melts (about 2 mins). Take out and eat!

Easy Peasy Cajun BBQ

You’ll need:

1 bunch of Kale

1 tablespoon of Olive Oil – easier with the spray kind

Sarah’s Cajun mix, which consists of: 1 tablespoon Garlic Powder, 1 tablespoon Onion Powder, 2 teaspoons White Pepper, 2 teaspoons Salt, 2 teaspoons Cracked Black Pepper, 2 teaspoons Dried Thyme, 2 teaspoons Dried Oregano, 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper, and 1 teaspoon Paprika

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 350F.

Do the same prep as with the last recipe (wash, dry, rip kale, add olive oil).  Sprinkle 2 tablespoons of the Cajun mix over the oiled Kale and make sure all of the kale has some sprinkles (if not, no flavor!).

Once everybody’s covered, transfer to a baking sheet and spread out the leaves evenly. Pop chips into the oven for about 10 to 15 minutes.  Keep checking on them to make sure they don’t burn. They’re ready once they are crispy!

We have another Vegan recipe that we’ve made but the pics were kinda screwy so we’ll post that one soon.

In the meantime, give these guys a whirl.  CAUTION!  They’re highly addictive!

Enjoy!

About a week ago, I let Coco know that I was fairly bored and wanted to contribute to the blog. The brilliant stone fox suggested that we do a weekly food instalment, and I immediately jumped out of my seat and screamed “YES!” into my whatsapp. So this is it guys; we’re going to cook recipes and give our own spin. Get excited.

We’ll test out trendy foods, hard-to-make foods, and good foods. If you have a suggestion, don’t hesitate to leave a sexy comment.

Last Monday, our (Coco and me) aunt came into town from Vancouver, so we decided this would be perfect for our first effort. We had to cook for 10 people and didn’t have a bunch of time to prep or dilly dally in the kitchen. It took a hot minute to figure out something relatively fast and easy to make, but we came up with an old favourite: marinated grilled flank steak, and a new favourite: baked polenta with herbs and parmesan.

Here’s the recipe

Marinated and Grilled Flank Steak (serves 4; we tripled it to feed the need):

Ingrediants:

1 .5 pounds of Flank Steak

1/3 cup of Olive Oil

1/3 cup of Soya Sauce

2 tablespoons of Balsamic Vinegar

2 cloves of garlic, crushed (or if you’re like me and adore garlic, whatever the cost of breath, as much as you want!)

¼ cup of Honey

Loads of cracked black pepper

You can also add some crushed Rosemary to this if desired.

Method:

To make the marinade, combine all of the ingredients in a bowl, smashing about the Garlic so that the natural oils leach out into the mixture (same goes for the Rosemary if added). Put the steak along with the marinade into a large Ziplock or other sealable bag. Message the marinade all over the meat and then put in the fridge for 4-6 hours, depending on how much time you’ve got. Since Flank Steak is very lean, it will suck-up the marinade relatively quickly. Because there is vinegar in the recipe, you don’t want to keep the meat in the marinade for too long as it will screw up the texture and turn the meat to mush.

Once marinated, take the meat out of the fridge and let it sit until it comes close to room temperature. This helps to prevent the risk of drying out the exterior of the meat before you’ve given the inside a chance to cook through. Once room temperature is achieved, put your stove or BBQ to the highest temp you’ve got. On a stove, use either a grill pan or cast iron skillet. Once your pan or grill is at it’s hottest (drop water on it, and if it bounces, you ready), add the meat. Don’t be alarmed by the aggressive sounds, this is good! Again, because this is such a lean cut, all you should really do is sear both sides. If it’s over medium, you won’t be able to chew it. I decided that since we had such a large group to grill the meat for 3 minutes a side. That way the edges will please the usually ‘well-done’ crowd while the middles will please the others.

Et, voila! Let the meat rest for at least 5 minutes. This is one of the most crucial points. Resting the meat allows for the juices to do their magic and re-distribute themselves amongst itself, making it super delicious. And we are done! We sliced up the steak on a bias and added arugula to the base and chopped almonds  overtop to make it classy.

On to the next:

Baked Polenta with Herbs and Parm

This is a recipe I sorta pilfered from Yotam Ottolenghi’s vegetarian tome, ‘Plenty’, but switched it up by adding more herbs, and removed the mushroom part at the request of a guest. This recipe serves 4, so I just ‘timesed’ it by 3 (as with the previous recipe) to feed the brood.

Ingredients:

4 tablespoons of Olive Oil

3 tablespoons of butter

2 crushed Garlic Cloves

3 tablespoons of chopped Rosemary

3 tablespoons of chopped Thyme

1 tablespoon of chopped Sage, fresh or dried

2 cups of Vegetable or Chicken Stock, whatever you fancy (or have)

1 ¼ cup of Quick Polenta (don’t get the traditional stuff, it takes an hour)

A large handful of grated Parmesan

An additional bunch of sliced Parmesan for topping (you can add Taleggio cheese, but that shit’s expensive)

Salt and black pepper, to taste

Thyme and Rosemary sprigs for garnish

Heat a medium sized pan to medium high and add half of the oil and all of the herbs, sans garnish. Sautee for a couple minutes; make sure they don’t burn. If they are, turn it down. Add the garlic and continue on for a few minutes until garlic is golden. Set aside.

For the polenta, bring the stock to a boil. Using a wooden spoon, stir in the dry polenta mix, slowly. Once everyone’s in the pot, turn it down to low and continue stirring for around 5 minutes or until the Polenta has absorbed most of the liquid. It should still have some movement, but should also have a bit of stiffness to it.

Once ready, remove from heat. Preheat your oven at this time to the broil function (500F). Add the Butter, a tablespoon of the sautéed Herbs and Garlic, grated Parmesan, and salt and pepper to season. Stir it in nicely and add to a casserole dish or something that can go in the oven (we used a big frying pan). Smooth it down so that it’s even and sprinkle the rest of the sautéed herbs/garlic mixture overtop. Put into the oven for 5 mins. Once done, take out and place the Parmesan slices (I used a vegetable peeler for these guys). Pop back into the oven for an extra minute so the cheese gets melty. Take it out, and there you are!

Add a glass of wine, drink it (repeat?), and be merry yall! I suggest a good Pinot Grigio bc that’s all I really drink, but my dad says a good Chianti will favour this dish well. Enjoy!!

Oh and if you can, invite someone cute like him (below) to keep the focus off of you and all on him! Plus he’ll eat anything you serve…  Even things you don’t, like lemons?

love,

sarah