Poached Blood Oranges

I love blood oranges and they are in season for such a short time.  This year I was in Southern France at the beginning of the blood orange season, and was amazed at the intensity and juiciness of blood oranges fresh from the tree compared to those that I can buy at a grocery store in Toronto.   If I had stopped and thought about it,  I shouldn't have been surprised, because I always celebrate  the intensity of Ontario strawberries freshly picked from the field in the summer,  and tomatoes from the garden, still warm from the summer sun.

When I came home, I wanted to recapture that intensity, and so experimented with poaching the oranges.  Not the same as the freshness of the oranges from the tree, however this has quickly become  a favourite winter desert, dead simple to make with only three ingredients. 

8 blood oranges

4 meyer lemons

1/2 cup of honey

Peel oranges and remove all of the white pith and external membrane, being careful to keep oranges whole.   Set aside in bowl, to contain any juice that might bleed from the oranges.

Juice lemons, and put in non corrosive pot.  Add honey and bring to a simmer.  Carefully place oranges and any juice that may of accumulated in the lemon and honey mixture.  Turn oranges every couple of minutes until all sides have been in the poaching liquid for 2 or three minutes.  Do not over cook, being careful not to let the oranges get mushy. 

Remove oranges with a slot spoon to bowl, and reduce lemon and honey mixture by 50%.  It will be very red by this time.  Pour hot mixture over oranges and let cool to room temperature.  Serve with biscotti, and or ginger or vanilla ice cream.  

Lemon Honey Polenta Torte

I offered to bring a desert to a garden party, thinking I would have lots of time to make something - and then my flight was delayed. After being away for a week, and an hour before I was to leave for the party, I arrived home to an empty fridge.  There were a few lemons from the week before and some whole almonds.  I turned on the oven, threw the almonds in the food processor, and processed them into a fine grind and I was able to make this and only be a  few minutes late for the party, and the torte disappeared before I had a chance to taste it!

Lemon Honey Polenta Torte

Torte

• 1 cup of soft unsalted butter
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 1/2 cup of honey
• 2 cup of ground almonds
• 1/2 cup of fine cornmeal
• 3 eggs
• 1 1/2 teaspoons of baking powder
• zest of 2 lemons

Syrup

• juice of 2 lemons 
• 1 whole lemon
• 1/4 cup of honey

Preheat oven to 350F

Beat butter and sugar together until soft and creamy.  slowly add honey while beating.  Add one egg at a time and continue beating until smooth and a pale yellow.  

Mix ground almonds, cornmeal, lemon zest, and baking powder together.

Fold in dry ingredients 1/3 at a time.

Line the bottom of 8" spring pan with parchment paper and butter the sides.  Spread batter evenly over bottom of pan and bake for about 40 minutes.  The cake  is ready when it has pulled away from the edge of the pan and is golden.  Take cake out of oven and cool slightly.  Remove from spring pan and place on plate.  

While the cake is cooking combine honey and lemon juice over low heat on stove top.  Slice the remaining lemon into thin slices, removing any seeds,  and add to the  honey/lemon mixture. Simmer for 10 minutes. 

Prick the top of the cake with a fork, and  pour 1/2 of the lemon and honey mixture over the top.  Arrange the lemon slices on top, and pour the remaining honey mixture over the top.  Cool and serve.

I have substituted oranges for the lemon, with equally good results

Revitalizing Ginger and Chicken Soup

This has been a long and cold winter in Toronto, and a bit of a shock, because for the past few years, winter has been relatively mild.  There also seems to have been more colds and flues than usual this winter and so far, I have avoided them all. I have been relying on variations of this ginger chicken broth as a solution to the winter, adding different ingredients, depending on what is available.  Sometimes just greens, and maybe some chicken or not, other times frozen shrimp, mushrooms and greens. After a bowl of soup with this ginger broth as a base, I feel better almost instantly.

Because the broth takes time to make, and I never know when a I am going to need a pick-me-up, I like to keep single portioned containers of frozen broth in the freezer for emergencies. 

This past weekend I had guests in the country and dressed this basic soup up with chinese greens, poached eggs, and enoki mushrooms.  I served it with some of my red river bread for lunch.  

Revitalizing Ginger Broth with Greens, Chicken and Eggs

Ginger Chicken Broth

1 hand of fresh ginger,
2 sticks of lemon grass
1 large onion
1 head of garlic
1 stalk of celery, cut into a few large pieces
1 tablespoon of pepper corns
4 organic chicken backs, 
salt to taste

Additions to Broth

fresh green chinese vegetables, such as yu choy or bok choy and snow peas
chunks of pre cooked chicken
fresh eggs
fresh cilantro
hot peppers depending on your heat tolerance
cherry tomatoes
enoki mushrooms 
Sobo noodles

Wash the ginger and cut into about 1/8 inch slices.  There should be at least a half cup of ginger slices.  Slice the onion and smash the garlic cloves.  Cut lemon grass sticks lengthwise and smash.  Place all of these aromatics into a large pot, add the pepper corns and the chicken backs.  Cover with at least 4 quarts of water.  Bring to boil and then reduce heat to allow broth to simmer for a half hour.  Remove chicken bones, and take any chicken off of the bones, and set aside. Place bones back in broth and continue simmering for another couple of hours.  The liquid should have reduced by about half. Salt to taste.

Strain broth and discard bones, ginger, etc. 

Prepare sobo noodles. Rinse in cold water. 

Cut chinese greens into bite size pieces. coarsely chop cilantro, and finely chop hot peppers.  

Heat 1 cup of broth per person and poach eggs in the broth.

Place some noodles in the bottom of a large soup bowl.   Arrange some of the chicken pieces, a hand full of chinese greens and the mushrooms on top of the noodles.  Carefully place the poached egg on top.  Ladle the very hot broth used for poaching the eggs over the ingredients in the bowl.  Place cilantro, a few cherry tomatoes and chopped peppers to taste on top.  Let stand for a minute or two until the greens become a vibrant green and serve.  









  

Thanksgiving Roasted Capon

The first year that Claire was away for Thanksgiving, I was a bit lost, until I made Thanksgiving dinner for some of my friends who's children were also away.  This has become a ritual, and this year, with Claire home for Thanksgiving for the first time in a few years, I continued with the tradition.  Claire asked for a traditional turkey dinner including, stuffing, fall vegetables, cranberries, apple pie and pumpkin pie made from from a pumpkin  she picked from the garden. I compromised andI bought a large free range capon from the 100Mile Store, since I have never been a fan of turkey.

Last year, Claire made a turkey with friends for American Thanksgiving that she raved about, and so we applied what she remembered to this oversized capon. Bacon and apricots in the stuffing, but more interestingly, the stuffing squeezed between the skin and the breast, rather than in the bird cavity.  We had extra bacon and so wrapped the capon with a blanket of bacon.  The combination of the bacon clad bird with the stuffing under the skin resulted in a delicious and very moist capon.

Claire's Roasted Capon and Roasted vegetables as it came out of the oven

In addition, because one of our friends is celiac, we used gluten free bread for the stuffing, and potato flour for the gravy. A fabulous feast for all. 

9 to 11 pounds free range capon
1/2 pound of thinly sliced bacon
1 large organic orange
a selection of root vegetables including carrots, potatoes and onions
juice and zest from one orange

stuffing

2 shallots,
3 cloves of garlic
6 dried apricots
4 slices of bacon
2 tablespoons bacon fat
1 tablespoons of olive oil
juice of one orange,
zest from one orange
salt and pepper
a sprig of thyme
4 slices of gluten free whole wheat bread

stock/gravy

organs and neck from capon
onion
carrot
bay leaf
sprig of thyme
sprig of sage
4 cups of water

2 tablespoons of potato flour

Preheat ovem to 450F

Cut bacon into 1" pieces and cook until crisp in the frying pan.  Set cooked bacon aside and sauté finely chopped shallots and garlic in bacon fat.  Add olive oil if more fat is required.  Finely chop apricots, and crumble bread.  Mix all ingredients together in large bowl, and season with salt and pepper, and fresh thyme.   

Carefully lift skin at breast and stuff in as much stuffing as possible on both sides of the bird making sure that the bird remains symmetrical.  Take orange and puncture with a fork, and insert into the empty chest cavity of bird.  Cover breast of capon with strips of bacon, making a tight blanket for the bird. 

Place capon in roasting pan and surround with root vegetables.  

Place in oven and reduce heat to 350F.  Cook for 15 to 20 minutes per pound.  If the bird is particularly large, you may need to protect legs and wings  and vegetables with foil during the final half of the cooking time.  Remove from oven when done, and the juices run clear.   

While bird is cooking, make stock with neck and organs of bird. 

Remove vegetables and bird from pan. Tent bird with foil and let rest for 20 minutes before carving.  Place vegetables in bowl and stir in orange zest and juice. 

Separate fat from juices in bottom of roasting pan and return juices to roasting pan.   On Stove top, add 2 cups of stock  and or white wine and deglaze roasting pan.   Slowley mix about a 1/ cup of stock into the potato flour.  Wisk potato flour mixture into degalzing liquid in bottom of roasting pan and bring to boil. Cook until gravy thickens.  Season with salt and pepper.  

Ryan's Quail Eggs in a Nest of Ham

This weekend, standing beside me at the counter in the 100 Mile Store in Creemore, was a charming young  man, I am guessing 10 to 12 years old, delivering his quail eggs to the store.   Ryan raises 26 quail that produce three or four dozen eggs a week. The eggs were perfect and very fresh, so of course, I  had to buy a package. What a treat!!!

I told Ryan about one of my favourite pizzas with quail eggs, and he looked at his parents, and I had the sense that pizza was added to their meal plan for the day.  

This is another of my favourites for quail eggs. These nests are mouth sized bites that work well as an appetizer or a special breakfast, and can be made in no time at all.  

Ryan's Quail Eggs in Nests of Ham

10 quail eggs
10 thin slices of serrano ham, taste to ensure it is not too salty, as the saltiness will be amplified when baked and can overpower the eggs
1/4 cup of soft chèvre
fresh ground pepper

1 small muffin tin with 1 1/2"(4 cm) cups

Carefully place a slice of ham in muffin tin, shaping it to fit the cup and ensuring there are no tears.  Place about a teaspoon of the chèvre in the bottom of the ham cup.  Carefully break open the the quail egg into the cup.  The membrane of quail eggs is very tough, and I use scissors to cut the membrane and break open the egg. Grind some fresh pepper on each cup.

Place under broiler and bake for about a minute watching carefully so that the whites are solid, but the yolks still run.  Serve immediately.

Pesto Zucchini Noodles

Zucchini Noodles with Pesto and Parmesan

My friend Ian introduced me to zucchini noodles a few months back, and I have to admit, I was sceptical and then I tasted.  He has this gadget, Taglialegumi, Plastica  (model # A4982799) made by the Italian Paderno , that turns zucchini into noodles that looks just like spaghetti.   Ian served the zucchini noodles with a cold tomato and date sauce which was so good that I immediately started looking for a gadget of my own.  I found one at a local restaurant and have been experimenting with different versions of zucchini noodles since then.

Zucchini coming out of Gadget 

I currently have an abundance of zucchini and basil in the garden, and have just harvested my garlic,  and so made a pesto version of the zucchini noodles this past weekend to rave reviews.

Zucchini Noodles

• 1 large green zucchini, 
• 1 large yellow zucchini
• 1 teaspoons of salt

Pesto

• 1 bunch of basil, about 2 cups of leaves
• 2 cloves of garlic
• approximately 2/3 of a cup of olive oil, 
• 1/2 cup of Parmesan Reggiano, freshly  grated 
• 1/4 cup of pine nuts or sunflower seeds

Cut zucchini noodles with noodle maker. Alternately  use a mandolin and slice both ways.
Salt zucchini  and toss gently.  Let rest in a colander for 10 or 15 minutes.

Mean while, prepare pesto.  Remove basil leaves from stems, discard stems and place leaves in food processor.  Add garlic,  olive oil and and process.  Add grated Parmesan cheese and sunflower seeds and process.  Add more olive oil if needed.  

Gently squeeze out excess water from zucchini noodles. Place in bowl.   Stir in pesto and serve.   

Note: my sister found a Taglialegui on Craig's List.