The Anderson Award for On-The-Fly Culinary Ingenuity

... or, the Andy. I'm instituting this award because, well, face it, when you're cooking, sometimes shit happens.

In this case, mid prep for that absolutely luscious rack of ribs the other night, my stove blew a fuse. This was the second time in two days that the burners blew a fuse, the first time was with a bright blue spark (I think I mentioned it in another post). As you can see from the picture, I had two pots of potatoes going with the steamer full of carrots on the bigger pot. Everything was half cooked when the fuses died.

Meag and her friend ran to the store to pick up new fuses but when I went to put the new fuse in, my finger brushed the socket and I got a shot of electricity halfway up my arm. I figured that it was probably best to just step away from the stove for the night.

Quick thinking bird that I can be, I pulled out my big ole pancake griddle and cranked it up with the pots on top. Had everything back on the boil in a jiffy and dinner went on.

So, I feel a little weird awarding this thing to myself but I don't doubt that someone will come up their own story of On-The-Fly Ingenuity and then I will pass it on. This is not an annual award, it will be passed freely from person to person (this is made much easier by the fact that there isn't actually a tangible trophy... yet :D

So, who is Anderson? Do you really need to ask?

The Wee Crockpot

oh my god oh my god oh my god

wee-est crockpot in the world. My only love. So excited. Can't even post properly.

Ian and I were at SuperStore looking for a coffee maker and came upon this ---->

I made...a scene.

I love it so much but I dont know what to do with it! I don't have any slow cooker recipies...and even I did, this is a very small cPot! Any suggestions / helpful tips?

....EXCITED TO USE THE WEE-EST CROCKPOT EVER!

(soy milk to wee crockpot for scale - also! my kitchen counter! its like a submarine!)

Glögg - Scandinavian Hot Spiced Wine

This is very good. You can make it de-alcoholised or high-octane, whatever your preference. I must admit, the recipe I have specifically calls for de-alcoholised wine, so I'm not sure what, if any changes you would have to make to the method. 

You will need a large pot to make the recipe and heatproof vessels for serving and drinking. As well, a piece of cheesecloth and kitchen twine for a spice bag will be needed.

Makes 20 to 30 servings

2 bottles red wine ~ 750 mL (de-alcoholised or high octane, your preference)

4 oz candied orang peel (dried orange zest* may be substituted)

4 oz cinnamon sticks

40 whole cardamom pods

50 whole cloves

6 oz slivered blanched almonds

6 oz raisins

white granulated sugar to taste* (approximately 2 to 3 T)

- Make a spice pouch by wrapping the candied orange peel, cinnamon sticks, cardamom and cloves in cheesecloth ~ tie up with kitchen twine.

- Pour wine into pot and bring to a boil over medium heat.

- Add the spice pouch to the wine and continue boiling for 15 minutes ~ stir occasionally.

- Stir in the almonds and raisins and continue to boil for an additional 15 minutes more.

- *At this point if using orange zest instead of candied orange, add in sugar to taste. Stir until sugar is dissolved.

- Serve hot in cups with a few almonds and raisins included in each serving

**Note**

This may be made ahead and heated again just before serving. However, the almonds and raisins should be removed from the liquid if you are making it ahead. If left in, the fruit and nut mixture will absorb much of the liquid if left too long. Simply strain them out and just add back in upon re-heating.

Pehmeä Pipakakku (Finnish Christmas Spice Cake)

(pronounced PAY-meea pee-PAR-KAW-koo)

While rummaging around in my scraps of paper I call a recipe collection, I discovered some Finnish recipes myself and another member of a social committee prepared for a presentation about Finland to the Winnipeg Branch of the Royal Scottish Country Dance Society. Quite the multi-cultural post here. Regardless of nationality, the spices in this and other recipes I have just sound Christmas-y. Ah yes, and since the recipe was brought over from Finland, it uses a few more Metric measurements (Imperial equivalents are provided).

You will need a 12-cup Bundt pan that has been lightly buttered or coated with a non-stick spray.

Preheat oven to 350 F.

**1 Decilitre (dL) = 6 T + 2 t

3 eggs

2 1/2 dL white granulated sugar (works out to 1 cup + 2 t)

3 T molasses (dark or light)

1 1/2 dL milk (1/2 cup + 2 T)

1 1/2 dL melted butter

1 t cloves (ground)

1 t cinnamon

1 t ginger (ground)

1 t baking soda

5 1/4 dL flour (works out to 2 cups + 3 T)

- In a large bowl, using electric beaters, beat eggs and sugar until light and creamy.

- Add all other ingredients to egg and sugar mixture and beat well to incorporate.

- Pour batter into Bundt pan and bake for 30 to 35 minutes ~ depending on your oven ~ or until a pick/skewer comes out clean. Do not overcook. (Don't you think that's a given?)

This cake is good on its own, or with a complementary glaze. I leave what a complementary glaze would be up to the individual.

Words (Almost) Fail Me

Again, not what I had planned to make today but when I was talking to my most excellent butcher at Pal's, I noticed these little crown rack pork roasts. Basically, it was a crown roast, quartered. It even came with little paper hats for the ends of the ribs! (For lack of tape, I was not able to take a picture of the roast with the little paper hats *sad music*).

Okay, I let it rest until it lost the chill from the fridge then I seared it really well with a mix of butter and olive oil. I threw it into my little baking dish because it was just the right size and covered it with... Dijon Tarragon Dip! Yep, I made it a couple of days ago just for dip but figured that it would probably work as a pseudo rub. I slathered the stuff all over the top and sides of the roast, inserted the thermometer and stuck it in a 325 F oven.

As good as that church Pageant dinner was last year, I did overcook that roast a bit. I was on the thermometer this time like a bloody hawk and as soon as it hit 160 F I pulled it out and tented it with aluminum foil until it reached 170 F.

I made mashed potatoes with cream and butter (left over from baking) and cooked some carrots in the steamer above the potatoes. Meag made a Honey/Lemon Dilly Sauce for the carrots (I think we all know that one) and the meal was on.

It was a really generous cut of meat after I sliced it into four chops. The potatoes were pretty close to lump free and the carrots were a nice bit of tangy in the middle of all of the savoury goodness.

There's one chop left (we had a guest for dinner) and I think I might have to wrestle Meag for it.

I'm going to be writing another post about the potatoes. It really deserves a post of its own.

**Note: A small roast takes about 2 hours to finish at this temperature. When I made it again and looked over the recipe (see, I learned to check the post before I start) I noticed that I hadn't put in the time. Good to know whether you should start approximately 6 hours ahead or approximately 2 hours ahead, doncha think?**

Salmon Patties

I totally had something else planned to make today but this was a spur of the moment project with Meag. It's also part of another odyssey of mine: to rid my cupboard of cans of salmon. Somehow, I'd accumulated 15 cans of salmon (I swear I don't know how it happened, I don't actually remember buying even 1 can!) so I'm always on the lookout for things using cans of salmon. This recipe used 2 (whoo-hoo)!

650 g floury potatoes, chopped
425 g can red salmon, drained
2 spring onions, finely chopped
1/4 c chopped fresh parsley
2 t grated lemon rind
1 egg
5 slices bread, crusts removed
40 g butter
1/4 c olive oil
lemon wedges, to serve
1. Cook the potato in boiling water until very tender. Drain well and mash until smooth.
2. Place the salmon in a large bowl and break up the flesh with a fork, removing any bones and skin. Add the spring onion, parsley, lemon rind, egg and mashed potato Season with salt and pepper and stir well. Shape into rough patties, using about a third of a cup for each patty (Shamefaced Confession: I missed that line when we did this recipe. I looked at the yield for 4 and made 4 monster sized patties. The shamefaced part is that I was actually going to bitch about this in the post. I stand corrected).
3. Chop the bread in a food processor until it forms fine crumbs. Gently roll the patties in the breadcrumbs and neaten the shape. Press the breadcrumbs firmly onto the patties with your fingertips to coat well.
4. Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan. When the butter is foaming, add the patties and cook each side for 3-5 minutes, or until golden and browned. Drain on paper towels. Serve with lemon wedges.

The outside was really nice and crispy and gives me a lot of hope for this recipe if followed correctly. Even huge they weren't that bad, the inside was warm squishy potato and the outside was crispy so life was still pretty good even if I had just blown the fuses on my stove in a bright, blue flash. Life was still pretty good.

Tartare Sauce

This was Meag's contribution to the meal and IMHO the high point. It's also from her cheapo cookbook. The funny part was when she was reading the ingredient list to me to check if we had everything. We did. It was just funny for some reason and we were both kind of giggling about it. I love my kitchen, even when I hate it.

1 1/2 c mayo
1 T finely chopped onion (we substituted an equal amount of Epicure 3 Onion)
1 t lemon juice
1 T chopped gherkins
1 t chopped capers
1/4 t Dijon mustard
1 T finely chopped parsley

Mix it all together and season with salt and white pepper.

I think it was the gherkins. Gherkins are inherently funny.

More Stock

I picked up a cookbook for Meag on the discount table at Coles (or something like that) a few Christmases ago. In my imaginary adopted family, a copy of Betty is included in every going-off-to-college care package (Doesn't that sound like a great tradition? I have the best imaginary relatives.). The recipe box doesn't change hands until I die. All other cookbooks are fair game however and I love to give and receive them (HINT, HINT! Totally kidding on the square there).

This cookbook seemed okay, there was a really good section in the front explaining all of the different cuts of meat and some of the techniques and terms. I also liked that it gave the recipes by weight because that's fast becoming my favourite way of working. Other than that it didn't seem to be anything special.

So this cheapo little book that I picked up is now selling for $50 on Amazon and we've gone through it with a fine-toothed comb and it is amazing. On one page, you're making the most serviceable stock, on the next page you're making Lobster Thermidor (which I SO want to make someday! And a Baked Alaska! Could you get more 70s? I don't know, I could open with a Waldorf salad.)

I ended up cutting the amount of chicken and veggies in half because I have absolutely no eye for how much a chicken carcass weighs and I only had about half of the amount I thought that I did. I still used the full amount of water for coverage with the full intention of simmering it down to about half its volume (honestly, I planned it that way all along!).

Um, on to the recipe

Bouquet Garni
Ingredients
# 1 sprig Italian parsley
# 2 large bay leaf
# 1 sprig fresh dill weed
# 3 sprigs fresh thyme
# 1 teaspoon black peppercorns
Directions
1 Remove stems from parsley.
2 Wash the fresh herbs.
3 Lay the herbs on a square of cheese cloth. Make a sack and tie it off with some butchers twine or tie together spices with twine and omit cheesecloth.
4 Place in soup, stew, or broth.
5 Remove before serving.

Chicken Stock (10 cups)
4 lb chicken bones
2 unpeeled onions, quartered
2 unpeeled carrots, chopped
2 sticks celery, leaves included, chopped
1 bouquet garni
12 black peppercorns
Mix chicken, vegetables and 14 cups of water in a large, heavy based pan. Bring slowly to the boil, skimming the surface if required and adding the bouquet garni (I just love typing that) and peppercorns. Reduce the heat to low and simmer gently for 3 hours. Skim froth.
Ladle in batches through fine sieve over a bowl. Press the solids to extract all of the liquid. Let the stock cool, refrigerate till cold and spoon off any fat.
If you want to concentrate it, you can reduce it at this point and then add water when you want to use it. It will apparently store for 2 days in the fridge or 6 months in the freezer.

They make it sound pretty complicated but it's basically:
Throw stuff in the pot.
Add water.
Simmer a reeeeaaaallllllly long time.
Strain.
Chill.
Skim.
Boil down if you want.

I Can't Get It Into My Mouth Fast Enough

I was on my way home from the grocery store with nothing to eat. Well, just ingredients. I had stopped for a little browse near the deli prepared meals but didn't really see anything that interesting plus I've been making a concerted effort to reacquaint myself with my kitchen. So, what I ended up doing was making a really simple bechemel sauce:

2 oz butter
3 T flour
2 c milk

Mix the butter and flour over low until the butter has melted and then for about 2 minutes until bubbly and golden. remove from heat and gradually stir in the milk. Return to heat and bring slowly to the boil, stirring until the sauce boils and thickens. Simmer 2 minutes.

At that point I added:

1 generous T of Epicure Caesar dressing
A few generous T of grated parmesan

I served it over leftover pasta (from the Quicky Chicken Florentine) with pieces of chicken (from the Creamy Gravy Odyssey).

Because it actually looked pretty bland in the first photo that I took, I cut up a little bit of the fresh parsley that I bought (for tomorrow's cooking adventure) and sprinkled that on. Parsley garnish, how passe I know but at least it was Italian parsley.

Technicolour Dinner

This was one of my more colourful dinners ever. I simply sauteed some mushrooms, grape tomatoes, and garlic in olive oil and then served it with cheese tortellini. I think the blue Gatorade really pushed it over the top, colour-wise. In my defense, the Gatorade was free. I know, I know, a red Gatorade would have been more appropriate, but only the blue stuff was free.

Quicky Chicken Florentine

Okay, this is another one from Life's On Fire: Cooking For The Rushed. I have to tell you, this is the cookbook that I pull out when I feel like I've been eating out too often. Her cookbooks are generally divided into weekly menus with shopping lists included. I think I've only once tried to follow a full week through but I've never made it a whole week. Not because of the food but because I prepared each recipe as written and, with only two of us, the leftovers do pile up.

I'm not going to try to replicate the way that she's got her page set up because she does this funky thing with columns so this will be a traditional format.

100 g frozen chopped spinach, thawed
1/2 tsp Mrs. Dash Original Seasoning (I've used grated nutmeg and a little salt as well)
4 large chicken breasts
1 can cream of mushroom soup
1/2 c mayo
1/4 t garlic powder
1/8 t celery salt
1/2 T curry powder
1/2 c fine bread crumbs
3 1/2 T grated Parmesan
1 t dried parsley
1/2 T canola oil
Dried penne (as much as you care to make)

Set over to 375F. Squeeze the moisture from the spinach and sprinkle with spice. Cut each chicken breast almost completely in half and spoon some of the spinach into the slit. Place each piece into a 9"x9" baking dish.

In a bowl, mix soup, mayo, garlic powder, celery salt and curry powder and stir until smooth. Spoon the sauce equally over the top of the chicken.

In another bowl, mix bread crumbs, parmesan, parsley and oil together. Sprinkle over top of the chicken and sauce. Set the timer for 35 minutes.

Fill a large pot with water, cover and let stand on stove. When the timer rings for the chicken leave it in the oven but bring the water to a boil now. When the water is boiling, add the pasta and set the timer for 11 minutes. Drain the pasta when the timer goes off and take the chicken from the oven. The sauce is really good spooned over pasta. Throw some broccoli in the microwave and you're good to go.

Good part: tasty, tasty, fairly lean, spinach, tasty
Bad part: you have to handle raw chicken, not a big deal for me but I know that it oogs some people out.

Tomato Aspic

A recipe requested by Jody, and finally found in my pile of scraps of paper. In my family, this is always required when roast chicken or turkey is served for a family gathering.

4 cups tomato juice
1/3 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped celery leaves
2 Tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp salt
2 small bay leaves
4 whole cloves
2 envelopes gelatin
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1 cup finely chopped celery

- Mix 2 cups of tomato juice with the next 6 ingredients. Simmer, uncovered 5 minutes. Strain.

- Soften gelatin in 1 cup remaining cold tomato juice, disolve in the hot mixture.

- Add the remaining juice and lemon juice.

- Chill until partially set.

- Add celery and chill until firm.

One of the Dirtiest Pages... Sweet & Tangy Meatballs

This originally came from my Life's on Fire cookbook which is... well loved. The cover is falling off it's so well loved. The neat thing about her cookbooks is that she's incorporated a whole meal into the recipe so, at the end of it, you have the main, the sides, all of it. It's pretty cool because she's also flagged each of the components so that, if you're just wanting to make the main (as in this case), you can still do it.

So get a big pot of water to boiling. Once it's at a rolling boil, take 2 pounds of lean ground beef (I think the recipe calls for 1 1/2 pounds but I round up and enjoy the extra). Using your hands, break off small chunks of beef and roll them into tight balls, dropping them into the water as you finish each one. Once you drop the last one in, set your kitchen timer to 7 minutes (she's a huge fan of cooking by kitchen timer and most of her stuff is ready in under 20 minutes prep). When the timer goes off, drain the meatballs in a colander then return them to the pot.

Mix 1 cup ketchup, 1/2 c brown sugar, 1 T Worcestershire Sauce, 1 small, finely chopped onion and about 1/4 c water (this is a bit less than her original recipe but I like a thicker sauce, if you like a thinner sauce, by all means go for the 3/4 c water that Sandy originally called for). Pour it over the meatballs and stir to coat. Bring it to a boil and simmer for about 15 minutes.

Tasty, tasty. This page in the cookbook is covered with ketchup stains and dashes of Worcestershire. That's how you know it's good.

Cream Gravy Odyssey

I roasted a chicken last night (because isn't that where good gravies start, some sort of roast?). Mixed a whack of Epicure Herbes des Provence with butter and greased that little 4 pound bird up. I don't remember why but I decided to roast it breast side down and resting on a bed of carrots, celery and onion. Little salt, a little pepper and into the oven for a couple of hours. I even basted the little guy. No pictures because it was really just a roast chicken and we all know what that looks like. I tasted the pan drippings thought and thought that I might take a stab at gravy since it was so tasty.

I've never once had luck with gravy but I have a tendency to wing it with my proportions when I try this stuff because when I saw my mom and grandmother doing it, they didn't measure at all (having, of course, the experience of a thousand collective gravies between them). So I pulled out one of the go-to cookbooks and tried this (sort of, some people never learn).

2 T meat drippings (fat and juices)
2 T flour
1 c liquid (meat juices, broth, water)
1/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper

Make a roux from the drippings and the flour over medium still smooth and bubbly. Remove from heat, stir in liquid and return to heat until boiling. Boil one minute, season and Bob's your uncle.

Okay, confession time. I used butter and flour for my roux because... just because. I was going to use somewhere between a quarter and a half cup of milk topped up with the tasty liquid in the roaster for my liquid. This would have worked really well if I had one of those measuring cups that has the spout feeding from the bottom of the glass. As it was, the liquid was mostly the fat floating on the top and I was tired of playing with it all so I steamed ahead and ended up with something that looked like a nice cream sauce as long as you were stirring it but didn't look so hot if you just left it alone.

So the fault was mine and not the recipe. I will master gravy, I will. But the chicken was amazing.

Soy-Braised Beef

I'm having serious difficulties with Blogger's image upload function so bear with me. I took this photo with my cell phone because I absolutely love this crockpot. This is a faux wood-paneled lovely from the church kitchen. If you are having difficulty in reading it, it's the "Canadianna [sic] Crockery Cooker by... (drumroll please) K-mart"!. I thought I would put up a recipe that has probably never been made in this gem.

3 lb cross rib or blade roast
4 each carrots and green onions
2 whole star anise or 6 whole cloves
2 pieces dried tangerine peel or peel from 1 tangerine, mandarin or clementine (or, if you're doing this in a crockpot, use grated orange rind)
1 tsp peppercorns
1 piece (2") cinnamon stick, broken
1 piece (1 1/2") ginger, sliced
3 cloves garlic
1/2 c dark soy sauce
2 T rice wine or dry sherry
1 t sugar
28 oz can tomatoes, undrained and coarsely chopped
1 T Chinese black vinegar or balsamic vinegar

Cut beef and carrots into 2" chunks. Thinly slice whites of onions and chop greens into 1/2" lengths. Set aside seperately.

Cut cheesecloth into 7" square and tie up star anise, tangerine peel, peppercorns, cinnamon and ginger.

In shallow Dutch oven, combine all (except onion greens and vinegar) with 1 cup water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat, cover and simmer until meat is tender (about 1 1/2 hours). Discard the spice bag, stir in the vinegar and onion greens and simmer till the onions are wilted, about 5 minutes.

For crockpot: combine all but vinegar and onion greens in the crock with 1/4 c water(note the reduction of the water, please, you will regret adding a cup of water unnecessarily to a crockpot). Add the spice bag and cook covered for 5-6 hours on low. Whisk together 1 T cornstarch with 1/4 c water and whisk into slow cooker. Increase heat to high and cook covered for about 10 minutes before adding onion greens, orange rind and vinegar.

The best part of this recipe was getting to use my star anise. It feeds something like 6-8 people but freezes wicked well because there's no starch in it really. It was really good over steamed rice.