Sweet Potato Poutine

My friend Laurie is one of the true originals. She’s one of the few authentically quirky people I know and she always, always makes me see things from an unexpected angle. She has an infectious, un-selfconsciously LOUD laugh that comes from somewhere deep inside and when I’m with her, I hear it often. Even on the bad days.

Laurie and I love to make plans together and cancel them with no hard feelings. We do this because we genuinely WANT to get together and it feels like a great idea on Tuesday to go for a post-work nosh on Friday night…but by the time Friday rolls around, we’re both too tired to go anywhere…so one of us usually cancels.

We do, however, get together with increasing regularity to wander through the Strathcona Farmer’s Market on Saturday mornings and we usually grab a bite to eat somewhere afterward… where I often put something through my nose due to a spontaneous burst of hilarity.

Laurie is a foodie. From the tip of her unruly mop of curls to the toes of her hippie boots, she LOVES food. She actually skips in to the Farmer’s Market because she is truly delighted to be in the presence of abundant, locally produced, foodstuff.

Last Saturday, she convinced me to sample Sylvan Star Cheese. Apparently, I’m the last person in Edmonton to learn about the award-winning Alberta cheeses. She highly recommended the smoked gouda and the cheese curds, so…I bought both.

And now I have cheese curds…so ….poutine, it is.  A true Canadian classic – adapted. You can buy almost everything you need to make this at the Strathcona Farmer’s Market (except for the spices and milk…but the milk at the supermarket is locally produced, so you can call it Alberta food without feeling too guilty.)

Necessary Stuff

3 large sweet potatoes

1 medium red onion

2 cups homemade beef gravy

Sylvan Star cheese curds
1 cup finely grated old cheddar

2 cups all purpose flour

2 tsp smoked salt

1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp garlic powder
Pepper to taste

Enough milk to soak the fries

Canola Oil

Slice the sweet potato into fries (whatever thickness you prefer) and soak them in milk. Finely slice the red onion and heat the beef gravy to a gentle boil. Combine dry ingredients in a plastic bag and shake to mix.

Heat the oil to 375 degrees, put fries in the plastic bag and shake to coat. Drop them one by one into the hot oil. Fry until crispy and place on a paper towel to drain.

In an oven-proof bowl, add a layer of fries, a layer of cheese curds and a few onions. Add another layer of fries, curds and onions. Sprinkle grated cheddar and more red onion on top and broil until cheese is bubbly. Pour hot gravy over fries and serve at once. With beer. 

Credit where credit is due…I put this recipe together in an effort to re-create one of my Edmonton restaurant faves.  Da-De-O on Whyte Avenue serves the best version of this I have ever eaten. Ever.  If you're looking for some satisfying soul food in Old Strathcona, I highly recommend you stop in and try some. It’s just that I can’t seem to get myself out often enough to satisfy my poutine addiction, so I had to learn to make this at home...

New York Cheesecake

You really can spend your whole life getting to know someone. Keith has been on my radar for longer than I care to admit and for the most part, I think I have him pegged. I know his routines, his habits (good and bad) and his sore spots. I know how to avoid a fight, even when I'm picking one.  That said...every once in a while, he surprises me.

His reaction to this cheesecake was a complete and total surprise. 

In the time we have been together, I have never made a cheesecake. This is because before a week ago, I can't recall Keith ever mentioning that he absolutely LOVES cheessecake. 

It all started like this: We were engaging in our usual weeknight activity of late...that is to say, watching pvr'd television. A food show segment featuring New York Cheesecake, to be exact. Keith started bemoaning the fact that there is NOWHERE to get authentic New York cheesecake in our neck of the woods - so I half-heartedly offered to make him one. He seemed pretty dubious that I would be able to do it...so suddenly, finding the perfect recipe became my mission.

After combing through recipes and watching videos for a week, combining elements from a few promising recipes, I came up with this and decided to give it a shot.

Keith LOVES this cake.

I mean...LOVES it. 

Even more than cinnamon buns. Seriously, who knew?

New York Cheesecake

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Graham Cracker Crust

2 cups (200 grams) of graham cracker crumbs 

1/4 cup (50 grams) granulated white sugar

1/2 cup (114 grams) unsalted butter, melted

Combine the cracker crumbs, sugar, and melted butter. Press the mixture evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the springform pan. Place in the refrigerator while you make the filling.

Filling

4 (8 ounce) packages of softened, full-fat cream cheese

1 2/3 cup granulated sugar

1/4 cup cornstarch

1 3/4 tsp pure vanilla extract

zest of one lemon and 1/2 an orange

2 large eggs (room temperature)

3/4 cup heavy whipping cream 

On low speed, blend together the cream cheese, cornstarch and sugar (one package of cheese at a time) until smooth. Increase speed to med-high and add vanilla and zest. Add eggs, one at a time and blend well. Turn the mixer back down to low (Do not over-mix at this point, it's more about blending.) Spoon filling into graham crust and place the pan in a baking sheet with about 1/2 an inch of water in it. Bake on middle rack for 55-60 minutes. Cake is ready when the outer edges are firm but the middle is still soft and a bit jiggly. Remove from heat and cool on a wire rack for an hour. Then cover with plastic and refrigerate until well-cooled. (Over-night is best.) Remove from springform pan and plate.

It's not often I make something and firm up a recipe on my first try. Usually, I have to modify and tweak at least a few versions before I'm happy. This is one recipe I am not changing. Not one bit. It's creamy and smooth and not too sweet with a pretty heavy hit of citrus. Victory is mine.

Soda Crackers...for the naysayers.

I had the most terrifically slothful day yesterday. Didn't even get out of my pyjamas. I slept late and spent the remainder of the morning, the whole afternoon and well into the evening just reading and writing and trying to figure out how to add printable recipe pages to this blog.

It was great. I highly recommend the occasional day embracing the fourth deadly sin.

I updated my facebook status somewhere around supper time, lamenting all the things I didn't do - including making home-made soda crackers, as was my original intention...and I had more than one person respond in disbelief..."Do people actually MAKE soda crackers?"

Sure they do. When they're not laying on the couch, that is.

Somewhere around 8:00 p.m. I got a little restless and decided to make some cracker dough...seemed like a small enough commitment because the dough has to be refrigerated over night. (I'll have you know that I also made a pot of chicken vegetable soup with some stock I had ready to go.)

It's now morning...and here I am again...making a substantial dent in my favourite couch, but only for long enough to get a little preamble on this page because my dough is ready to go.

This is not my recipe. I borrowed it from the Food Network - but it's not really theirs, either. They modified the traditional King Arthur Flour recipe and just omitted the Cream of Tartar. Since I have no COT at the moment, I'm going to give this one a try.

Soda Crackers

2 tsp active dry yeast (10 ml)
2/3 cup warm water (160 ml)
1 1/2 cups all purpose flour ( 375 ml)
1/2 tsp salt (2 ml)
1/2 tsp baking soda (2 ml)
2 tbsp melter butter (30 ml)
coarse or flake salt

In a small bowl, sprinkle the yeast over the warm water and let stand for five minutes. In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients and melted butter and mix. Form a soft ball and knead on a floured surface for five minutes or in your mixer with the hook attachment until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the bowl. Add a few drops of water or a sprinkle of flour if you need to. Place dough in a buttered bowl and coat all sides. Then cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge over night or up to 18 hours. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.

Remove the dough and form a small rectangle and then roll out on a lightly floured surface until dough is no thicker than 1/8 of an inch thick. Fold the rectangle in thirds (like a letter) and roll again. With a pizza cutter, cut the dough into small squares (or whatever shapes you like) and sprinkle with coarse salt or any other toppings that suit your fancy.

 Prick the crackers with a fork or toothpick a few times and lightly roll the salt into the dough. Place close together on a lightly greased cookie sheet or parchment paper. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown.

This photo is also to prove to Candice and Ramona that people DO TOO make soda crackers. (When they have no life.)











Place on wire racks until the crackers are completely cool and store in an airtight container or serve right away. Benefits to making your own crackers? They seriously have a great "saltine" flavour and crunch. Not to mention, they contain NO BHA or other ingredients I can't pronounce.

• 
  

Porkapalooza Pea Soup

It's a stay-inside Friday night and I have nothing (really) to do. Keith cleaned the house from top to bottom this week, up to and including washing floors, towels and linens. (If I didn't know better I would think Aliens abducted my ACTUAL husband.) I was supposed to go out after work with a friend but she had the same motivation as I did at the end of a long week. Home now, in my jammies with a fishbowl of my most favourite wine, I mustered up a little energy and decided to use the ham bone that has been vaccum-packed in my freezer since Thanksgiving...if for nothing else than to create a little room there.

All my vegetarian friends should probably just stop reading here - because this is a soup that is offensively full of meat...with some peas thrown in for good measure.

Keith loves thick, hearty, meaty soups..so this was conjured up especially for him. Even the stock is over the top...with twice the amount of everything I would normally use.

Double-stock

In a large soup pot, add:

2 litres of chicken stock
2 litres of water
2 large yellow onions, chopped into chunks
2 large carrots, chopped
2 stalks of celery, chopped with leaves from the whole bunch
4 stalks of fresh thyme
4 bay leaves
leftover smoked ham with meat on the bone
salt and black pepper to taste

Bring everything to a rolling boil, reduce heat and simmer for two hours.

When stock is done, strain and transfer liquid into another large pot.  Remove the meat from the ham bone, chop into bite-sized chunks and add to the stock.

In a large frying pan, brown 1/4 lb smoked bacon (slab bacon works best), cut into cubes and 1 double-smoked sausage, cut into thick slices.  Drain well and add to stock along with 500 grams of green split peas and a grated carrot and simmer for at least an hour or until peas are thoroughly cooked.

*A word of caution - this soup can be seriously salty with all the cured meat - if necessary, dilute to taste and simmer a bit longer. (Or use sodium reduced chicken stock, or even just 4 litres of water for the broth.) My friend Karen suggested putting a potato in the soup as it is cooking to absorb the salt - I think my mom used to do that...sounds like a perfect solution.

Garnish with fresh thyme sprigs and serve it on it's own... anything else might be over-kill.   ;-)

Mom's Ginger Sparklers (AKA Rock Cookies)

Someone told me years ago that in Egypt, they have a saying. "A soul will live forever if you speak their name each day." If this is true, poor ol' Mom isn't getting much rest. Not that she ever did...

These cookies were, without question, her absolute favourites. I can't see a ginger snap cookie without thinking of her. She loved to eat something sweet with her tea and often baked huge batches of these to keep on hand. Ginger cookies weren't necessarily MY favourites or my brothers, for that matter, so they would last for months. She kept them in a big tupperware container until they were so hard, they HAD to be dipped in tea to eat. I should mention that at this point, they also made impressive projectiles. They would leave dents in the walls and wouldn't crumble on impact. (They hurt like hell when you got hit with them, too.) My brother and I fondly dubbed them "Rock Cookies" and tested their strength in numerous creative, if ill-mannered ways.

 I sometimes bake these cookies for no other reason than to feel close to my Mom. I can picture her sitting contentedly at the kitchen table in her housecoat, with a steaming cup of tea and two or three "Ginger Sparklers" stacked beside her teacup. The recipe card has little dough splatters on it and the ink is beginning to fade but  the smell of them baking evokes memories that are oblivious to time.                        

Ginger Sparklers
3/4 cup butter or margarine
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup molasses
1 eg
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp cloves
Granulated sugar


Pre-heat oven to 350 (It once read 375 but it's been scratched out on the card...probably in an effort to make them softer.)

Cream butter and brown sugar - molasses and egg until light and fluffy - measure flour, soda, salt and spices - blend - stir into creamed mixture until blended - shape into small balls - roll in sugar - place 2" apart on a greased baking sheet - bake 8-10 minutes.

Store in an air-tight container for weeks...months...
years...hell, these cookies might even survive a nuclear holocast...(Love you Mom.)

Banana Almond Bread and the Barbados Diet

If you've noticed that I'm not blogging as frequently (and I like to think you have) it's because Keith and I are on "The Barbados Diet". For the record, this is NOT a medically sound weight loss program but rather a frantic, last-minute attempt to pare down before we have to get into our bathing suits in public. Keith is always a bit more dramatic than I am, so his diet consists of little more than lettuce leaves and water. Mine just eliminates my most favourite foods. In an effort to stay the course...I have all but ceased kitchen activity. It just makes it easier.
Lauryn and Jude are coming today and I can't force them to eat corn cakes and cottage cheese, so I am going to drive myself crazy and bake them banana bread.
To add insult to injury, today was also the first snowfall of the season so I'm feeling semi-suicidal and the smell of baking might just give me a reason to live. (Even if I can't partake.)
This recipe makes two loaves of moist, nutty banana bread. I'll send the house-bombs home with the remaining loaf tomorrow afternoon so I don't have to live with the temptation. 


Banana Almond Bread

Lightly butter two loaf pans and preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 sticks of butter (1 cup) at room temperature
2 cups of sugar
4 large eggs
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
3 cups all purpose flour
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons baking soda
2 cups  mashed, ripe bananas
1 cup sour cream
1 cup slivered almonds
Cream butter and sugar until fluffy. Add eggs, one at a time and vanilla. In a separate bowl, whisk flour, salt and baking soda and add to butter mixture until incorporated. Add bananas, sour cream and almonds, stirring until just combined. Pour into buttered loaf pans and bake for approximately 70 minutes or until a cake tester comes out clean. Allow bread to rest for 10 minutes before turning out onto racks to cool. 

Usually content to play inside, Lauryn couldn't WAIT to get outside to play in the snow. She asked until I relented. I reluctantly dressed her up in boots and snowpants, assuming she would ask to come back inside after about 10 minutes. I was wrong. She quietly and contentedly pushed snow around the yard and made this happy little snowman for me! 

The Secret to Surviving Canadian Winters

It's a bleak, grey November afternoon and I am struggling with the onset of another seemingly endless, dark Canadian winter. In spite of the fact that my life is literally overflowing with abundance (my family and friends are happy and healthy, I am about to start a new job, I have a big, warm house and a pantry full of good, nutritious food, not to mention plenty of clothes to keep me warm in the coming months) I am filled with dread and something even more subtly malicious...ennui.

I came across this video while searching for a photo for Keith and I watched it...remembering the afternoon (was it really a year ago already?) that I attended "Grandparent's Day" at Peanut's kindergarten. Following is the video and the most sure-fire way to conquer the winter doldrums. Some sage advice from a five-year-old. Enjoy.