No matter what they tell you, always use bread flour.  It just makes a much nicer, chewier bread.  On the other hand, for rolls, always use all purpose flour.  Well, that has been my experience, anyway. 

One more thing, if you don’t own a mixer with a bread hook, get one or tell your family and friends to pitch in and get you one.   You must have a birthday or something coming up.  Otherwise, be prepared to knead by hand for 10 minutes.  It’s work, I’m not going to lie to you, but on the bright side, it’s wonderful exercise for your arms.  I’m lazy.  I have a machine.  Certainly if you plan to bake bread on a regular basis, you’ll need one.  Many years ago I watched my mother bake bread.  After adding sufficient flour to the mix, she would hold the bowl between her knees, grab a big wooden spoon with both hands and proceed to beat the dough into submission.  Every once in a while, she’d have to stop to catch her breath.  She would do this until the dough came clean from the sides of the bowl.  That was her clue that it was ready for kneading. Continue Reading »

(source: putporkonyourfork.com)

Ingredients
* 1/2 cup (125 mL) paprika
* 1/4 cup (50 mL) garlic salt
* 1/4 cup (50 mL) brown sugar
* 2 tbsp (25 mL) ground coriander seed
* 1 tbsp (15 mL) ground black pepper
* 1 tbsp (15 mL) ground cumin
* 1 tbsp (15 mL) chili powder
* 8 back rib tails – about 3 lb/1.5 kg
* 2 cups (500 mL) your favourite BBQ sauce

(In case you care, my favourite BBQ sauce is ketchup mixed with dark soya sauce.  I love it.  What can I say?)

Directions
1 Combine the first seven ingredients to make a rub – or you can use your favourite commercial rub, or use your own recipe. Dust the rib tails with as much of the rub as adheres. Surplus rub can be kept, covered, for up to six months. Preheat grill to medium (about 350°F/180°C) with the lid down. Turn off one side of the grill and lay rib backs on the turned off; close lid. Cook ribs for about 30 minutes, or until they begin to brown and are fully cooked; turn occasionally. Open lid and lay ribs on “on” side of grill. Apply sauce on one side of the ribs, turn them over and apply again. Repeat this – brushing and turning – every two or three minutes for a total of ten minutes. Keep a close eye on the ribs to ensure that the sauce doesn’t burn.

2 Pork back rib tails are often sold as “Button Bones”. Two back rib tails make a good appetizer portion.

I tell you, I’d never heard of it before “Button Bones” that is. They’re great. My husband and I just loved this recipe.  I did them on my inside Jenn-air grill but you can do them in the oven too.

About the ingredients – you don’t have to make such a large amount, you can just cut most things back to 1 tsp. It’s up to you. The mixed spices certainly last forever.

No, this is not a recipe for beaver tail.

I would love to know what lame-brain came up with the idea of open shelving in the kitchen. I hate open shelving anywhere, but in the kitchen? Maybe it’s because I’m a clean freak and dusting and wiping etc is what I do. I go ape when I see dust or dirt anywhere.

The kitchen is a busy place. Dust and food particles land everywhere from time to time, especially if you’ve forgotten to put a lid on your blender or your pressure cooker explodes, or on a less benign note, you’re sifting flour and it flies everywhere. Then try cleaning all that goop from those open shelves with the pretty cups and things sitting there.

No, a thousand times no. If you must display your favourite objects, then choose glass inserts in the cupboard doors. That way, your beautiful items are protected and clean-up is a snap.

Tags: kitchen shelving, open, shelving

• 1 large roasting chicken (5-6 lbs), cut into 2 legs, 2 thighs, and 2 breast pieces, each with skin removed; back, neck, and wings hacked with a cleaver into 1 to 2 inch pices to make stock.
• 1 T olive oil
• 2 bay leaves
• sale
• 3 celery stalks, trimmed and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 4 medium carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2-inch pieces
• 6 medium boiling onions, peeled and halved
• 6 T unsalted butter
• 6 T all-purpose flour
• 1tsp. dried thyme
• 2 T dry sherry or vermouth (optional)
• 1 T heavy cream (optional)
• 3/4 cup frozen peas, thawed
• 1/4 cup minced fresh parsley leaves
• Ground black or white pepper

Dumplings

• 2 cups cake flour
• 2 tsp. baking powder
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 2 T butter, melted
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup minced fresh herb leaves such as parsley, chives or tarragon

Method:

1. Make the stock

Heat olive oil in a deep (at least 4-inch high) large skillet or 6-qt Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Add hacked up chicken pieces – the back, neck, and wings – and onion chunks (not the boiling onions).  Saute until onions soften and chicken pieces lose their raw color, about 5 minutes.  Reduce heat to low, cover and continue to cook for about 20 minutes.  (While chicken stock pieces are cooking, bring 6 cups of water to a boil in a kettle).  Increase heat to medium-high, add the 6 cups of hot water to the chicken pieces.

2. Poach the chicken in the stock

Add skinless chicken parts (legs, thighs, breasts), 2 bay leaves, and 3/4 tsp of salt to the stock and bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat; continue to simmer, partially covere, until broth is flavorful and chicken parts are just cooked through, about 20 minutes. Remove chicken parts from the pan and set aside. When they are cool enough to handle, remove the meat from the bones in 2-inch chunks or strips. Place a strainer over a large bowl and pour the broth through it, straining out the solids from the4 broth. Discard the solids. Skim and reserve the chicken fat from broth and set aside 5 cups of broth, reserving extra for another use.

3. Make the dumpling batter

While chicken is cooking, sift together flour, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Add chopped fresh herbs. Add melted butter and milk to the dry ingredients. Gently mix with a spoon until mixture just comes together. Do not overmix or dumplings will turn out too dense. Set aside.

4. Make the stew base, assemble the stew.

Heat butter in the pan you had used to make the stock over medium-high heat. Whisk in flour and thyme; cook, whisking constantly, until flour turns golden, 1-2 minutes. Whisking constantly, gradually add sherry or vermouth, then slowly add the reserved 5 cups of chicken stock; simmer until mixture thickens slightly, 2-3 minutes. Stir in the vegetables, simmer for 5 minutes. Stir in chicken and optional cream; return to a strong simmer. Add salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.

5. Add the dumplings.

Drop dumpling batter into the simmering stew by heaping teasp0oonfuls, over the surgace of the stew. Cover and simmer until dumplings are cooked through, about 15 minutes. Once you have covered the pan, do not uncover while the dumplings are cooking! In order for them to be light and fluffy, they must steam, not boil Uncovering the pan releases the steam. If after 15 minutes they are still not cooked through (use a toothpick or skewer to test) cover pan again, and cook for another 5 – 10 minutes.
Gently stir in peas and parsley. Ladle portions of meat, sauce, vegetab loes, and dumplings into soup plates and serve immediately.
Serves 6 – 8

Tags: chicken, dumplings

A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don’t like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour, you have to add your own!

INGREDIENTS:

• 1 pkg bacon, chopped
• 1 x large onion, chopped
• 2 x carrots, peeled and chopped
• 2 stalks celery, washed and chopped
• 2 cloves garlic, peeled sliced thinly
• 2 cups dried split peas
• 8 cups chicken or vegetable stock
• 2 x bay leaves
• 1 tbsp dried rosemary
• Salt and pepper
• 2 cups of frozen peas

DIRECTIONS:
Speedy Split Pea Soup with Bacon
1. Place bacon in a large soup pot over a medium high heat.
2. When the bacon is brown and crispy drain away the fat, leaving about 2 tbsp in the pot.
3. Add onion, carrots, celery and garlic to the pot and sauté for a few minutes.
4. Add the dried peas, stock, bay leaves, rosemary and salt and pepper.
5. Bring to a simmer and continue cooking until the soup is thick and the peas are completely soft.
6. Stir in frozen peas and stir to heat through.
7. Stir in salt and pepper to taste.

Tags: bacon, green peas, split peas

Ingredients:

1 cup graham cracker crumbs
2 T butter, melted

Filling:

2/3 cup golden raisins or candied peel
1 (475 gram)container ricotta cheese
8 oz. light cream cheese, softened
2/3 cup Splenda or granulated sugar
3 eggs
1/2 cup light sour cream
3 T all-purpose flour
1 T grated lemon rind
1/2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp salt

Directions:

Filling:

Tags: cheesecake, ricotta

I remember getting up one morning with an insatiable desire to have ox tail stew for breakfast.  No kidding.  And I wasn’t even pregnant.  Without a doubt, this is one of my favourite meals.  I first had it in Jamaica and have loved it ever since.  It takes a long time to cook, so this isn’t something you do in a hurry.  So, without any further ado, let’s get started.

• You’ll need about three tails.  Try for the leanest tails possible.  Have the butcher cut them into 2″ sections at the large end and longer as the tail gets thinner.
• Get out your dutch oven and drop in about 1/4 cup oil. Ideally, this would be coconut oil but failing that canola oil will do. Coconut oil gives it that unique island flavour.
• Dust the ox tails with flour.
• Finely chop about two medium onions
• Mince 4 or 5 good sized cloves of garlic
• Over medium heat, cook the onions until they are soft, then add garlic.
• Remove the cooked onions and garlic and set aside
• In the same dutch oven, brown the oxtails, adding more oil if needed
• When all the oxtails are browned, add back the onions and garlic.  Then add:
• 1 litre of chicken or beef stock (home-made or store-bought).  Make sure the ox-tails are well covered with the stock.  Pour more stock if needed.
• 1T salt
• 1tsp pepper
• 4 bay leaves
• 1 T dried basil
• 1T Soya Sauce
• 1T Thyme (dried)
• 2 finely diced carrots (large)
• 2 large potatoes, finely diced

Turn down the heat, cover with lid and let it do it’s job. 

You can check back every hour or so.  To test, use a skewer and poke the meat.  Doneness is reached when the meat almost falls off the bone. It must be very tender.

Meanwhile, take two cups of regular flour, add 1 tsp. of salt and 1 tsp. of baking powder, 1 tsp. baking soda, 1 Tablespoon dried chervil or parsley.  With a fork and, adding enough milk to bind it, stir until all the moisture is used up.  You should have a dough that be handled.  If it needs more milk or flour, add as necessary.

Next, take a bit of dough and roll it into a fat noodle between your palm, and drop it in the pot of bubbling stew.  These are called Spinners.  Keep doing this until all the dough has been used up.  Stir the pot to make sure nothing sticks.  Taste the stew.  Check for seasonings.  They may have to be refreshed. 

I had a friend who never tasted while she was cooking.  She told me the thought of it made her sick.  Her food never tasted great.  Come on, all the great chefs in the world taste as they cook.  How else are they going to know if it needs a little of this or a little of that?

Next, add 2 cups of frozen kernel corn, 2 cups of frozen peas and 1 large can of lima beans.  Wait till the stew bubbles again.  Now add one cup of red wine.  1/4 cup of rum.  Let the stew bubble until the alcohol evaporates.  The final touch to this amazing stew is 1 cup of heavy cream.

Serve on a bed of rice and a side order of fried plantain.   Figure-friendly?  Are you kidding?  BTW, leave out the alcohold if you so desire.  It will still taste wonderful.

So, good luck.

Tags: oxtail-stew, rum, spinners, wine

3 tablespoons butter
Sliced leek whites from about 3 or 4 leeks
1 tablespoon flour
3 cups peeled, diced Idaho potatoes
1 quart chicken stock (home-made or store-bought)
1 1/2 cups milk
1 cup heavy cream
Salt and white pepper
1 tablespoon chopped chives

• Melt the butter in a soup pot, add the leeks and cook until tender, about 5 minutes.
• Dust the leeks with the flour and cook for 2 minutes. Stir in the potatoes and stock.
• Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer for 25 minutes until potatoes are done.
• Remove from the heat and allow to cool slightly
• Puree until smooth.
• Line sieve with cheesecloth and ladle soup, one ladle at a time, through sieve using back of ladle to squeeze it through
• Stir in the milk and cream and adjust seasoning.
• Chill for 2 hours and serve garnished with chopped chives.

Yield about 10 8-ounce portions

Definitely not figure-friendly.

Tags: chicken broth, cream, potatoes

Take any chicken you have.  If you have a whole chicken or just pieces of leftover chicken parts like wings and necks and backs, that’s fine too. Never waste food.

There is a store across the street that sells a whole chicken that’s been stripped of its meat. There’s still plenty of meat on the bones and a whole pack is only one dollar. I buy it every time I need to make stock.

We eat a fair amount of asparagus. We like the fat ones as opposed to the skinny ones. The fat ones have a pretty woody stem at the bottom half. I just snap off the woody stems and save them in a plastic freezer bag and freeze them until I make chicken soup. They really add to the flavour.

Next, get out your stock pot with the drainer insert and throw in the following ingredients:

1 whole stripped chicken or parts you have saved from previous meals
1T salt
¼ tsp. pepper
4 bay leaves
1 T dried Thyme
1 T dried Chervil
1 T dried Basil
asparagus stems – if you have them. Make sure they’re rinsed well to get rid of the sand.
1 or 2 carrots
1 chopped celery but if you don’t have celery, throw in some celery seed
4 cloves garlic
1 large whole onion, cut into quarters – leave the skin on. If you use a big red onion, it will colour the soup a beautiful, rich reddish colour.
Add enough water to just cover your ingredients. Put a lid on it.

Simmer over low heat for at least an hour, until all the flavour from the chicken and the herbs have been extracted. I often put it on the lowest heat and simmer all night. Yes, all night. You can bet by morning, all the flavours that were in the various ingredients will have been extracted. Remove from heat. Let cool slightly, then lift the strainer insert and let the liquid drip into the pot. Throw the remnants on several sheets of newspaper, wrap and put in a couple of plastic garbage bags and take out immediately.

Get a fresh pot, take a big sieve and line it with a large coffee filter.  Now take a ladle and carefully pour the stock into the filter-lined sieve.  This is slow going because of the filter being quite dense.  You will, however be surprised that not only does it filter out all the little bits and pieces of stuff, but also the fat that normally sits on top and where you’d normally have to wait till it’s cool before being able to remove it.

What is left is a very flavorful, very clear broth.  Taste it to make sure you have enough salt. Adjust seasonings to taste but leave out the dried herbs. After all, you just worked real hard to make the broth clear.

This wonderful broth can then be made into noodle soup by adding a handful of the thin soup noodles.  You can add beans or peas or carrots – whatever you like – to this soup.  Or, especially if you’re not feeling well, leave it as a clear broth. 

I think you will love it.

Tags: chicken soup