Ginger Cheesecake

I have a new love. For years I've been true to Susan Mendelsohn's Lemon Cheesecake, but this year I saw Mary Berry bake a white chocolate and ginger cheesecake. It was love at first sight, and with a few tweeks, I made it as dessert for our Christmas meal. The general consensus was that it was one of the best cakes we've ever had, so you are forewarned!

This recipe is for a 20 cm spring-form pan, which I don't have. Instead I made it in an 18 cm pan, and used the extra to make a 10 cm tart.

If you have leftovers you will notice that the ginger flavour gets more pronounced after a day or two. I baked it on Christmas Eve and served it Christmas Day and the balance between ginger and white chocolate was perfect then.

Ginger Cheesecake

Based on a recipe by Mary Berry, I didn't use chocolate in the crust or decorations, Instead, I added dry ginger and ginger syrup in the crust, and increased the amount of stem ginger in the cheesecake itself. If you have access to ginger snaps, you could try using those for the base instead of digestive biscuits.

I had the oven a bit too hot with the result that the cheesecake browned a bit at the edges. Surprisingly, it didn't crack, but to produce a more attractive finish, I whipped some cream cheese and ginger syrup and spread that over the top before finishing it off with slices of stem ginger.

For the base
150 grams  digestive biscuits (or ginger snaps)
50 grams softened butter, plus extra for greasing
30 ml ginger syrup

1/2 tsp ground ginger

For the filling
300 grams white chocolate
330 grams  cream cheese
150 ml  sour cream
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
6 pieces of stem ginger (in syrup), finely chopped

For the decoration
100 grams cream cheese
30 ml ginger syrup
1 tablespoon fine sugar
2 balls of stem ginger, sliced
pearl sugar

1. Grease the base of a 20cm/8in spring-form pan and line the bottom with baking parchment.
2. Put the digestive cookies in a plastic bag and beat with a rolling pin to crush them, then add the 1/2 teaspoon of ground ginger. (If you uses ginger snaps, don't add the ginger.)
3. Mix in the softened butter and ginger syrup. I find it easiest to use my hands.
4. Add the crumb mixture to the cake pan and press into the bottom with your fingers to make an even layer. Chill in the fridge for a half hour or so.
5. Preheat the oven to 170C/325F while you make the filling.
6. Break the white chocolate into pieces and melt them in a microwave oven or in a bain-marie (a bowl placed over a pan of simmering water, without touching the water), stirring occasionally.
7. In a large bowl, beat the cream cheese and sour cream together until smooth. Add the egg and vanilla extract and mix until smooth, then stir in the melted white chocolate. Fold in the chopped ginger.
8. Pour the mixture onto the crumb base in the spring-form pan and spread out evenly. 
9. Bake in the oven for 40-45 minutes, or until firm around the edge and just set in the middle.
10. Remove from the oven and rest for 10 minutes, before loosening with a knife and releasing the spring. Let cool completely, then chill in the fridge.
11. For the decoration, mix the cream cheese, syrup, and sugar until smooth, then spread over the top of the cheesecake. Thinly slice the ginger balls and arrange attractively around the edges and center of the cheesecake. If you can find it, at a piece of pearl sugar or other type of decoration to the slices.

Spatchcocked Turkey

This year, after detours to ham and venison in the past couple of years, I returned to tradition for the Christmas dinner, so a small free-range turkey was on the menu.

Some years ago I discovered the technique of dry brining turkey to completely season the meat. This year I discovered spatchcocked turkey for more even and much faster cooking. (Isn't spatchcock a wonderful word?) I've done this with chicken so I don't know why it hadn't occurred to me to do this with turkey before.

My turkey was just over 6 pounds and I dry-brined it with about 2 tablespoons of sea salt, three days before it went into the oven . On Christmas Day, I removed the wishbone, removed the backbone and flattened the turkey. Then loosened the skin and tucked herbed garlic butter under the skin of the breast and over the sin of the legs. It roasted for 20 minutes at 250 degrees and another half hour at 200 degrees, then rested for 20 minutes before I carved it following the directions here. It was easy to do and looked great.

I like to make my version of Jamie Oliver's make-ahead gravy a couple of days in advance. I find it hard enough to juggle the timings for appetizer, oven room and vegetables, so not having to make gravy reduces the stress. This year I included a chopped fennel bulb and only one carrot.  It was good!

As usual, good company and good food made for a memorable meal.

Apple Muffins

I have a new favourite muffin recipe. It's a bit more work than my Madrigal Muffins, but sooooo yummy.

This is an adaptation from a recipe that appears in our family cookbook, but I've dialed down the sugar, upped the fiber, replaced butter with oil, changed the spices, and simplified the method.



Apple Muffins
Yield: 32 mini muffins, or 16 regular muffins

Metric	American	Ingredient
125 g	1 cup	whole wheat flour
160 g	1.25 cup	white flour
160 g	.75 cup	packed brown sugar
5 ml	1 teaspoon	baking soda
5 ml	1 teaspoon	ground cinnamon
3 ml	.5 teaspoon	ground ginger
225 gg	1.5 cups	diced apple
240 ml	1 cup	buttermilk (or milk, plus 2 teaspoons vinegar)
12 ml	.5 cup	oil
	1	egg, beaten
5 ml	1 teaspoon	vanilla extract or essence

Topping:

50 g	.25 cup	packed brown sugar
45 ml	3 tablespoons	flour
3 ml	1 teaspoon	cinnamon
15 ml	1 tablespoon	melted butter

1. Preheat the oven to 190C or 350F and prepare the muffin tins. I use muffin liners for regular muffins but butter the tin when making mini-muffins.
2. In a bowl, combine all the ingredients of the topping, mixing so that it clumps together. (I've been known to use my fingers to rub it all together.) Set aside.
3. In a large bowl, mix the dry ingredients (flour, sugar, baking soda, spices).
4. Add the diced apple to the dry ingredients and mix.
5. In a smaller bowl or large measuring cup, mix the wet ingredients (buttermilk or clabbered milk, oil, egg, and vanilla).
6. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients all in one go, then mix only until all the dry ingredients are moistened. Do not over mix.
7. Spoon the batter into the prepared muffin tins, then sprinkle some of the topping over each muffin.
8. Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the muffins are nicely risen and browned, and the tops of the muffins bounce back when gently pressed.
9. Let rest in the tin for a few minutes, then remove the muffins to a cooling rack.

Time-Life: Scandinavia

I've gotten somewhat behind with the the Time-Life books cooking schedule. Part of it was the interruption caused by my holiday. The good part of that was that I was able to pick up the rest of the Time Life set that I purchased last year. It had been languishing at my sister's since then.

Another part of the interruption is perhaps how uninspiring I found the Scandinavian book. Traditional Scandinavian cooking seems to be just as plain as Dutch cooking. The baked goods looked the most interesting of all, but I really don't feel like making Danish pastries (which are of course, Viennese pastries.)

Nevertheless, I found one recipe that sounded interesting and that was the Norwegian fish pudding, which can also be formed into balls and added to a soup. So I decided to try my hand at Bergen fish soup with fish balls, but with a twist from Louisiana (hello Creole and Acadian Cooking!).

I made the fish stock following the recipe but found it very bland. Since I was also making jambalaya, I had some shrimp shells, so I added them to the fish bouillon, which ended up being more flavourful, a bit more colourful, and perhaps a less delicate match for the fish balls. Ah well, the resulting soup was good.

The fish balls were an interesting addition. They added a soft and fluffy texture that complimented the delicate flavour and texture of the soup. I can imagine children enjoying this soup.

Norwegian Fish Soup

My adaptations to these recipes were to and shrimp shells to the stock for the fish soup. I used the last of my parsnips for the fish stock so didn't have any for the vegetables in the soup, so substituted celery. Given how sweet parsnips can be, I suspect that this was a good idea anyway. And I used fresh dill to garnish.

Fish Pudding /Fish Balls
The following ingredients make a small fish pudding and about 25 fish balls.  Or you could just make one or the other.

Metric	American	Ingredient
600 grams	1 1/2 pounds	cod filet
30 ml	2 tablespoons	milk
60 ml	1/4 cup	cream
10 ml	2 teaspoons	salt
20 ml	1 1/2 tablespoons	corn starch
		freshly ground pepper, to taste

1. For the fish pudding, butter a small loaf tin and dust with bread crumbs. (A mini tin is good if you are making a half recipe fish pudding.) Preheat the oven to 175 C/325 F
2. Mix the milk and cream. Cut the fish into chunks, making sure to remove any bones that may still be in the fish fillets.
3. In a food processor gradually add the fish pieces with some of the cream mixture, pulsing them to form a smooth puree, and scraping down the sides as necessary. Add the salt, corn starch, and any cream mixture that hasn't been used yet.
4. For the fish pudding: Press and smooth the mixture into the prepared loaf tin so that no air pocket remain, then cover with some buttered aluminum foil. Place the tin a roasting pan and add boiling water until it reaches three-quarters up the side of the tin. Bake for 60 to 75 minutes. The pudding is done when the top feels firm and a cake tester comes out clean. Turn the pudding out onto a serving plate.
5. For the fish balls: Place the fish puree in the fridge for a half hour or so to stiffen up. Scoop out using a tablespoon and roll into balls using your hands. You can put the balls back into the fridge until ready to cook in the fish bouillon or water for 2-3 minutes. After cooking, drain them and add to the fish soup just before serving.

Fish Stock

2 medium carrot, chopped
1 medium parsnip, chopped
1 large onion, chopped
1 large potato, chopped
1 celery stalk, chopped
1 bay leaf
1 parsley stalk
6 peppercorns
1 teaspoon salt
4 liters water
900 grams / 2 pounds white fish remnants, such as white fish bones and heads (I can get this free from my fishmonger)
Optional: shells from about 20 large shrimp

Put all the ingredients except the shrimp shells into a soup pot, bring to a boil, then lower the heat and simmer for 30-40 minutes.
Drain the broth through a fine sieve into a large bowl or another large pot. Press the solids with a spoon to get as much of the moisture into the broth as possible. Discard the solids.
Rinse or wipe the soup pot and return the broth to the pot. Boil the broth until it has reduced to half the volume (about 2 liters).
Now add the shrimp shells, if using, and simmer for 10 minutes.
Drain the stock  into a large saucepan through a fine sieve lined with cheesecloth.

Fish Soup

25-30 fish balls, or 1 pound of fish filet such as cod or halibut
2 medium carrots, finely chopped
1 stalk celery, finely chopped
1 leek, white part only, finely chopped
2 egg yolks
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon finely chopped dill

1. Bring the fish stock to a gentle simmer and add the fish balls. Cook them for 2 to 3 minutes, then scoop them out with a slotted spoon to drain on paper towels. If you are using a fish filet, simmer it whole until the fish flakes. Then remove to drain.
2. Add the carrots and celery to the fish broth and simmer for 10 minutes.
3. Add the chopped leek and simmer for another 3 minutes.
4. Beat the egg yolks and gradually beat in about 1/2 cup of the hot broth, a few tablespoons at a time.
5. Gradually add the egg yolk mixture to the soup, stirring all the while.
6. Return the fish balls to the soup and heat through, but do not bring the soup to the boil. If you are using fish fillet, cut it into pieces and return to the soup.
7. Garnish the soup with dill and serve.

Time-Life: Cooking of India

As anyone who follows my blog knows, I adore Indian cooking. What I have learned about Indian cuisine to date comes mostly from Madhur Jaffrey, who has introduced the English speaking Western world to the delights of Indian home cooking. I also had a little recipe booklet from the Time-Life Foods of the World series but it provided no background information.

But that's changed. Through the wonders of the Internet I was able to order the Cooking of India from the Time-Life series, and am learning more about the background and cultural differences between North and South India, at least as they were in the 1960s. The world, and India, have changed a lot since then, but it's still an interesting read. I'm lucky to also have young Indian colleagues with whom I can discuss both food and Indian traditions. I'd love to get their perspective on the world depicted in this book.

Cooking of India was written by Santha Rama Rau as part of the Time-Life Foods of the World series and tackles the almost impossible task of providing an overview of Indian cooking for a Western audience with limited or no experience with Indian food. She has an interesting background with one parent coming from the north of India and the other from the south. It was a progressive, Brahman, middle-class (not to say wealthy, by Indian standards) background.

I think my favourite chapter is the first one, in which she describes her grandmothers' kitchens (probably in the 1940s), one in nothern Allahabad, the other in south-western Mangalore.

The heat of these recipes has been radically reduced to accommodate Western tastes. However, Northern Indian cooking is much milder than that of the south. Not that long ago I ate at the home of an Indian colleague, and her cooking was very mild, and she hadn't adjusted it for me. She said it was a very typical meal for them (a cauliflower curry, eggplant bharta, rice, and chapatis).

I think most of the recipes have been stripped down to their basics, but they are accessible and tasty. You'll find more elaborate recipes and more complex spice mixtures in other books and the internet, but I will be forever thankful to it for introducing me to baingan bharta.

Time-Life: Spain and Portugal

The Spain and Portugal volume of Time-Life Foods of the World was a much more satisfying read than the Quintet of Cuisines. The writer Peter S. Feibleman actually lived in Spain, knew the people, and could write great descriptions of landscapes and cultural events. I think I'd like to read some of his other books, such as his biography of Lillian Hellman, with whom he had a long friendship.

I found the recipes I tried less successful, whether it's because they were simplified too much or whether the food itself is less appealing, or perhaps just poor technique on my part.

I've been to Andalusia and had wonderful home-cooked meals with fresh produce at a lovely B&B (Villa Matilde near Anjar), but I found eating in restaurants frustrating. Oily, mass-produced paella, monotonous salads of iceberg lettuce, tomatoes, boiled eggs, tuna, and ham. The overwhelming emphasis on meat, the lack of vegetarian meals, or even vegetables that were not served in oil, made lunches particularly unappealing. It's hot, you want a light lunch and the only vegetable choice is that same old salad! The consequences of mass tourism, perhaps. However, I do remember a delicious supper of sea bass baked in salt in Malaga, and I loved Seville and would like to go back there.

Anyway, back to this book. In general, they call for at least 2 times as much olive oil as I would use, and I cut the amounts whenever I thought it appropriate. Ingredients are simple with very few extra flavourings beyond salt and pepper. In some case, I adapted a couple by adding some hot peppers to give them a bit more kick.

I've not provided the recipes, but will be happy to post if anyone wants them.

Spain

From Spain, I made:

• Truchas a la Navarra (Marinated trout with red wine and herbs. This was tasty, but I found the choice of red wine odd and the resulting sauce yielded an unappealing color. If I make it again, I will use white wine.
• Spinach with pine nuts and almonds. I didn't have pine nuts and have grown tired of the flavour, so I just used almonds. I really liked this dish and will put it into rotation. The nuts provide a crunchy contrast to the soft spinach, and the garlic and serrano ham add depth and umami.
• Pollo a chilindron (Sauteed chicken with peppers, tomatoes, and olives. This was very good, although I did add some red pepper to give it a bit of a kick.
• Ternera a la Sevillana (Sauteed veal with sherry and green olives). I enjoyed the sofrito at the heart of this dish, but it rather overwhelms the delicate veal scallops. The sauce is a mixture of onions, garlic, olives, tomatoes, mushrooms, and ground almonds. The olives are quite dominant and I think this would work very well with pasta. In fact, it reminded me of past putenesca. 

Portugal

From Portugal, I made the Bolinhos de Bacalhau (Salt cod fish cakes, with parsely, coriander, and mint).

Salted cod is apparently the national fish of Portugal. Traditionally, that cod came from the Grand Banks of Newfoundland. I remember the early 70s when Canada started enforcing a 200 mile offshore limit to prevent the factory fishing boats from Spain, Portugal and other countries from fishing these waters dry, and then Canada's own mismanagement which led to the total collapse of the cod fishery in the 1980s. Thirty years on and the cod has still not recovered.

The only bacalhau I could find was actually salted Alaskan pollock and I think it does not require as long a soak as the original cod. However, the fish cakes it produced were very tasty. I made half a recipe and served with a poached egg.

If you just finely flake the fish, I found the cakes fell apart when you tried to term them. So after trying one, I briefly processed the mixture in a food processor. The resulting patties looked more like the ones in the book and stayed together better when frying.

Time-Life Qunitet of Cuisines: Summary

The  Quintet of Cuisines volume of the Time-Life Foods of the World series is such an odd grab bag of cuisines! Switzerland, Benelux, Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, and North Africa

Overall, I found it a disappointing book in terms of a description of the food and culture--too much about the writer and his gourmandizing lifestyle and not enough about the people. Oddly enough, the chapters about Eastern Europe were better because he hadn't been there and was basing he information on other sources, including the government. In the time this book was published, they were Communist countries, hence the travel restrictions.

The recipes, on the other hand, were fine and I have made a number of discoveries that are worth revisiting:

• I like veal! It tastes like beef but it is milder, more tender, and more refined. My only experience with it before was as a schnitzel, which I still think is a terrible thing to do with such nice meat.
• Flounder is a wonderful fish, with a sweet refined flavour and soft texture.
• Rubbing fish with some lemon juice 15-30 minutes before baking is a very good idea

I wanted to make a recipe from each of the five cuisines, but have yet to to do Poland and North Africa. However, in the past I've made the Polish borsht with dumplings, Moroccan bastila (not very successfully), and numerous tagines. There are lots of good looking recipes in this book, so I will want to continue to dip into this volume. As I do, I'll update this blog to maintain a record.

• Switzerland: Emincé de veau, Rösti , Zwiebelwähe (Onion and cheese tart)
• Netherlands: Schol uit de oven (Baked flounder)
• Bulgaria: Kiopoolu (Aubergine and pepper spread)
• Romania: Ghiveciu National (Veal and vegetable Stew with grapes)

Time-Life Quintet of Cusines: Bulgaria and Romania

Romanian stew after adding the last vegetables

On January first, restrictions were lifted for Bulgarians and Romanians who want to work in the Netherlands, Great Britain, and other European countries. Of course, they've been here for years already, working in all kinds of industry, including IT which is where I've met them, but now they don't need special work permits. The Poles are also here and if it weren't for them, you wouldn't be seeing fresh produce from Holland, because Dutch agriculture relies on the pickers that come from Eastern Europe.

Fortunately, these cuisines are touched on in the Quintet of Cuisines, the cookbook I cam currently concentrating on. So in their honor and giving pride of place to the vegetables they help to bring to our tables, here are a couple of recipes from Bulgaria and Romania.

As usual, I've been cutting recipes in half or in thirds so that I don't get stuck with having to eat only one food all week.

Bulgarian Kiopoolu (Aubergine and Pepper Spread)

This is a great spread with bread or crackers. In this case, I regretted that I didn't make more ;>

1 medium aubergine (about 300 grams)
1 green pepper
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon re wine vinegar
1 clove garlic, minced
1 teaspoon salt
pepper to taste

1. Roast the aubergine and the pepper over a flame or under a grill until the skin is blackened and charred, about 10 minutes. I stick a knife into the aubergine and just place it on a burner and turn it from time to time to get it evenly charred, and use tongs for the green pepper.
2. Let the vegetables cool for 5 or 10 minutes and then peel off the charred skin. I rinse them under cold running water to get rid of the last charred bits that don't want to let go.
3. Chop and mash the aubergine and green pepper finely and mix together to form a purée. Beat in the oil and vinegar until the mixture is smooth, then mix in the parsley, garlic, salt and pepper. Chill until ready serve, then serve with crusty bread or crackers.

Romanian Ghivenciu (Vegetable and Veal Stew)

This is a dish in which every element is separately browned and then added in a layer to the stew. It's a bit heavy on the butter and oil to get all that browning done, and takes a bit of prep work, but it's not difficult and is very tasty, the veal tender and the vegetables distinct. It reminded me of a Turkish stew and this makes sense, given the history of Romania which was dominated by the Turks for 500 years.

I would use whatever vegetables you have on hand as long as they include some starchy, some green, and some orange or red. For example, I used sweet potato instead of carrot and pumpkin, green beans instead of French beans, frozen peas instead of fresh peas, and savoy cabbage instead of white cabbage. And if I make it again (and it's worth making again), I probably won't include cabbage. I didn't enjoy it that much in this stew.

I cut the original recipe by two thirds and the resulting stew yielded 4-6 portions, depending how hungry you are and what you serve it with.The recipe also called for very modest amounts of herbs, and I think it would have benefited from more.

500 grams veal, chopped into 3 cm pieces
2 tablespoons flour
50 grams butter
15 ml oil
1 medium onion, sliced
1 tablespoon tomato or pepper paste
1 cup beef broth
2 medium potatoes, cut into 3 cm cubes
1/4 small celeriac, cut into 1x5 cm sticks
1 sweet potato, peeled and cut into 3 cm cubes
1/2 medium aubergine, cut into 3 cm cubes
1/2 green pepper, cut into 1x5 cm lengths
100 grams green beans,  cut into 5 cm lengths
1/3 cabbage, cored and cut into 2 cm pieces
1/3 cauliflower, cut into florets
1/4 cup red wine
1 tablespoon parsley, finely chopped
1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
1/2 teaspoon dried thyme
1/2 cup peas
1 tomato, cut into quarters and halved
60 grams green seedless grapes

1. Preheat the oven to 190C. Have ready a large frying pan or sauté pan (or maybe a wok) and a large heavy casserole.
2. Season the veal chunks with salt and pepper, then dust the with flour. 
3. In the frying pan, melt 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of oil over medium high heat, then brown the veal in batches, transferring the browned meat to the casserole.
4. Add the onion slices and garlic and sauté for a few minutes until soft and translucent. Transfer to the casserole.
5. Deglaze with half a cup of stock and mix in the tomato paste. Bring to a boil, then add to the casserole.
6. Now add some more oil and sauté each vegetable just until it is browned a bit, then add as a layer to the casserole: potatoes,  green beans, sweet potato, celeriac, aubergine, cabbage, green pepper, cauliflower. Add more oil as needed.
7. Deglaze the pan with red wine and rest of the beef stock. Add the parsley, oregano, and thyme and bring to a boil. Add this liquid to the casserole. Bring to a boil again, then cover and put in the oven for 45 minutes.
8. Now add the peas, tomatoes, and grapes and return to the oven for about 15 minutes.

Layering the vegetables on top the meat in the casserole

Completed stew

Time-Life Quintet of Cuisines: Netherlands

When asked, I can be a bit disparaging about typical Dutch food. It seems to be so dominated by variations of stamppot, which is mashed potatoes mixed with some other vegetable and served accompanied by a piece of meat. The classic is boerenkool met rookworst, which features kale as the vegetable and a smoked Dutch sausage as the meat. And there's hutspot (potatoes, carrots, and onions), and hete bliksem (potatoes, apples, and onions), and endive stamppot, and spinach stamppot, ... you get the idea. Of course, the Dutch are the tallest people in the world, so it's certainly very nutritious, and it is classic comfort food for many.

Personally I blame Calvinist Protestantism, which long dominated Dutch society. It's serious, dour stuff with no tolerance for frivolities like fancy cooking and the pleasures of the table. I'm not sure how the delicious baked goods like speculaas fit into, but most of those were originally Christmas treats.

But I could be entirely WRONG! Because tonight I prepared baked flounder (Schol uit de oven) and it was super—both simple and refined in flavour. It is not complicated to prepare, but the result has a lovely balance between soft white fish, crunchy gratin, and a hint of acidity from the lemon that was applied to the fish a half an hour before it went into the oven. This is definitely going into regular rotation!


Baked Flounder
Adapted from Time-Life Quintet of Cuisines
Serves: 1

The original recipe calls for 6 fillets of flounder, and has measurements to match of other ingredients to match. The recipe that I'm providing is for one person, and is how I scaled this recipe down. The original calls for dill seeds, but I only had dried dill on hand, and I think it was fine.

1 flounder fillet, cleaned and skinned
1/2 teaspoon lemon juice (or just a slice of lemon)
sprinkle of salt
1 slice of bacon
1 slice of white bread, preferably from a country loaf
1 tablespoon ground or finely chopped (blanched) almonds
2 tablespoons Gouda cheese, grated
2 tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon dried or fresh dill
freshly grated nutmeg
freshly ground pepper

1. Pat the flounder fillet dry with a paper towel. Sprinkle the lemon juice, or rib a lemon slice, over both sides of the fish fillet. Add a very light sprinkle of salt, and let sit for 20-30 minutes while you prepare the toppings (and any veggies you plan to serve with the fish).
2. Preheat the oven to 500F/260C and place the rack in the top third of the oven.
3. Line a shallow baking pan with parchment paper and grease it with some butter.
4. Fry the bacon over medium heat, turning after a few minutes, until both sides start to get crispy. Drain on paper towels.
5. Remove the crusts from the bread and create fresh bread crumbs from remaining bread. I just scooped the bread out of half of a crust role using a form, but you could process it in a blender.In a small bowl, mix the bread crumbs, chopped almonds, and grated cheese.
6. After the founder has "marinated", pat it dry again. Fold it in half length-wise and dredge both sides in flour, shaking any excess off.
7. Place on the lined baking tray, and sprinkle both sides with the dill, grated nutmeg, and pepper.
8. Place the crisped bacon strip on top of the folded fillet, and then sprinkle the bread crumb mixture over the fillet. Dot with some butter.
9. Bake in the oven for 7-8 minutes until the fish just flakes but us not too soft. (If you are baking a whole tray of 6 fillets lined up next to each other you may need as much as 10 minutes, but start checking at 7 minutes.)

Ready for the oven

Ready to eat 

Time-Life Quintet of Cuisines: Switzerland

The Quintet of Cuisines volume of the Time-Life Foods of the World series has got to be the weirdest assortment of kitchens, ranging from Northern Europe to North Africa: Switzerland, the Low Countries (Belgium, Netherlands, Luxembourg), Poland, Bulgaria and Romania, and North Africa (Tunisia, Morocco, and Algeria).

I haven't read the whole book yet so I think I'll defer the big review in hopes that the last three chapters will be better than the first two. This has less to do with the recipes than with the nature of these chapters. They concentrate on meals eaten with friends in restaurants, hotels, or at home, and seem much more about the writer and his wife than about the culture of the countries. And the sense of a whirlwind, breathless visit to each of the countries gives such a sense of afterthought to this volume.

The recipes are much more appealing. Tonight, I tackled two classics of the Swiss kitchen: Emincé de veau (Veal strips in wine and cream sauce) and rösti (Fried shredded potato cake).

Update 2014-03-15: I've also made the Zwiebelewähe, a rich cheese and onion tart made with Gruyere and Emmental. If anyone wants the recipe, I can post it.

I confess that meat in cream sauce never appeals to me very much, but this was an accessible recipe that I could scale down easily to one or two portions. And what's not to like about fried potatoes? To balance out the richness of the émincé de veau, I served steamed green beans accented with freshly-grated nutmeg, without even a lashing of butter. It turned out to be enough for two (very tasty!) meals.


Unusually for me, I decided to follow the recipes almost to the letter, except for scaling down the quantities. This included the, to my mind, excessive amount of butter. Perhaps this just reflects the way times and palettes have changed, but I found it made these dishes too rich and cloying. The sober green beans were a welcome contrast. From now on, I will not hesitate to adapt the fat content in these 45 year old recipes. In fact, the recipes that follow already have the fat lowered. This is the way I'll make them the next time.

Rösti with Onions
Adapted from Quintet of Cuisines
Serves 2 generously

4 medium baking potatoes
1 medium onion, finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon salt
freshly ground pepper to taste
2 teaspoons oil
1 tablespoon butter

1. Bring a pot of water to the boil and parboil the unpeeled potatoes for 10 minutes.  Drain and cool under cold running water. When cool enough to handle, peel the potatoes, then refrigerate them in a covered container for an hour (or longer).
2. In a non-stick frying pan, sauté the chopped onion in a teaspoon of oil until translucent. Set the onions aside in a bowl.
3. Just before starting to fry the potatoes, coarsely grate them using the largest wholes on a box grater, and mix in the salt and pepper. (The pepper is not part of the original recipe, but I think it's essential ;>)
4. Heat a small non-stick frying pan and melt half the butter and one teaspoon of oil over high heat. Add half the grated potato and press down with a spatula. Spread the fried onions over the top, and then the rest of the grated potatoes over the top of that. Press down again. Fry the potato cake for 8-10 minutes until the bottom is golden brown.
5. Place a plate over the pan and flip the cake onto the plate. Melt the rest of the butter in the frying pan, then slip the potato cake, uncooked side down into the frying pan. Cook for another 8 minutes or so, before slipping onto a warmed plate and serving it.

Emincé de veau
Adapted to serve 1-2

170 grams lean veal
3 teaspoons butter
1 teaspoon oil
1 small shallot, minced
2 tablespoons dry white wine
3 tablespoons single cream
salt and pepper to taste

1. Cut the veal against the grain into strips about 5 cm long and .5 cm wide.
2. Heat 2 teaspoons of butter and the oil in a heavy skillet over high heat until the butter stops foaming.
3. Sauté the veal strips for 2-3 minutes until they turn color and cook through. They probably won't really brown, but it's more important that the remain tender than that they brown.
4. Drain the veal an juices into a bowl and set aside.
5. Add the remaining butter to the pan and sauté the shallots for a minute or two, then deglaze with the white wine. As soon as it boils, add the cream and the juices from the veal.
6. Simmer for 3-5 minutes to reduce the liquid by half, before returning the veal strips to the pan. Stir for a minute or two to reheat the veal. Season and serve. 

Notes: The original recipe calls for:

• 1.5 pounds of veal to serve 4 people. This is about 170 grams per person, which given the richness of the dish, plus rösti and vegetables, was enough for two meals for me.
• 75 grams of butter and 2.5 tablespoons of oil. You can get away with less.
• 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallots. Get a life! that could be quadrupled, so I did.
• 1/4 cup of white wine. When scaling this recipe, this becomes 1 tablespoon which evaporates almost as quickly as it's added, so I added some more
• 3/4 cup double cream. I found this very rich and would suggest using single cream or thinning the double cream a bit.
• Simmering the cream sauce for 10 minutes to reduce by half. This took much less time in my smaller quantity.

Cheese and onion tart is very rich. Less custard-like than a quiche. 

Cooking Project: Time-Life Foods of the World

My friend Kaye recently started a two-year quixotic project to read and cook from the Time-Life Foods of the World cookbook series that was published in the late 60s and early 70s. Each of the 50+ books was an exploration of the cooking of a country or regional cuisine, with discussions of culture, history, recipes, and lots of photos. And it was accompanied by a spiral bound booklet of recipes.

Not surprisingly given the times and the origins, the series has a strong American emphasis. No fewer than 8 of the books deal with American cooking (!), with only one volume each for China and India, and none for Turkey, all cuisines with a rich heritage and strong regional differences. But it was part of a movement that opened the kitchens of Americans (and Canadians) to the world. What we now eat and what can now buy in an ordinary supermarket bears no comparison to what was available in 1969. And this series was part of that shift.

Along with some other interested crazy cooks, I'm joining Kaye on this project. We plan to read, comment, discuss and cook our way through as many of the 25+ books as we can in a monthly to 6 week cycle.

One problem: I didn't have the books. I did have the recipe booklet for Cooking of India, picked up in a second-hand store in PEI, but that was it. So I started ordering a few of the books via Amazon, but it was hard to tell whether I was ordering the hard-cover book or the recipe book or both. The complete sets were available but only in the States and the shipping costs to Europe were astronomical. But I then found a Canadian supplier that had almost the complete set and could ship to Canadian addresses for a reasonable price. My sister now has them in her custody and I will bring them back the next time I visit Halifax. I know, it's crazy, but cooking is my hobby. And as we all know, hobbies give us permission to be a bit crazy.

In the mean time, the few books I had already ordered have arrived and I can start cooking. Watch this space!

(And if you want to join us, let me or Kaye know. Kaye can invite you to the Facebook group she started for this project.)

Corn Bread Tamale Pie

Joy of Cooking is probably the essential American cookbook (just as heavily used by Canadians, of course). Before the Internet made it easier to find out how long to cook turkey, or what to do with cauliflower, Joy of Cooking was giving us the low-down. It has appeared in many editions since 1931, not all of them equally popular. I have two radically different versions--one dating from 1975 and another from 1997.

I really like the 1997 version, which featured recipes influenced by many other cultures, as well as vegetarian dishes. But there are downsides. Gone are the boldface headings that made scanning the index so easy, and the sans-serif typeface that made the text so legible. Now I have to peer at fractioned quantities to see whether it is 1/2 cup or 1/3 cup of flour or sugar. Apparently in the wider world of middle-American cooking this edition is not popular--too chef-y, pretentious, and time-consuming. No shortcuts like using canned soup for a casserole sauce instead of making your own (!).

But I still like the older edition too and apparently the recent edition has moved back to this model. I regularly turn to it for inspiration and information, as evidenced by the broken spine and the index that is falling apart. I recently returned to it for a vaguely remembered meat pie with a corn bread topping that I wanted to adapt for vegetarian use.

This recipe is definitely not pretentious. It is a simple, tasty supper dish that looks attractive and freezes well.



Corn Bread Tamale Pie
Adapted from Joy of Cooking, 1975 edition
Serves 4-6

I replaced the ground beef with tofu that has been frozen, defrosted, and flavoured with soy sauce and spices. The texture of frozen tofu is completely different from fresh tofu. It becomes sponge-like, and after being drained and squeezed dry, it acquires a meaty texture that easily soaks up flavours. It's like homemade textured vegetable protein (TVP). Although I haven't tried it, I presume that commercially prepared TVP could easily be substituted for the tofu. And for meat lovers, you could just use ground meat (about 400 grams)

Instead of a can of condensed tomato soup, I use a can of tomatoes and some tomato paste. And I add more vegetables, including a chili pepper to give it some punch. If you don't like spicy food or your chili powder is spicy enough, you can omit it.

Since there is soy sauce in the tofu flavouring and salt in the tinned tomatoes, there should be no need for additional salt.

Tofu:
1 block firm tofu that has been frozen (375 grams, drained weight)
2 tablespoons soy sauce, low-sodium if possible
1.5 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 teaspoon onion powder
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
1-2 tablespoons oil

Filling:
1 tablespoon oil
1 medium onion, chopped
1 stalk celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 red chili pepper,finely chopped
1 green pepper, chopped
1 can tomatoes or crushed tomatoes
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 tablespoon chilli powder
1 cup corn, drained (canned or frozen)

Corn Bread Topping:
.75 cup cornmeal
1 tablespoon flour
1 tablespoon sugar
.5 teaspoon salt
1.5 teaspoon baking powder
1 beaten egg
.3 cup milk
1 tablespoon oil

To prepare the tofu:

1. Defrost the frozen tofu and drain it. Squeeze out as much water as you can, then tear the tofu into small pieces, continuing to squeeze out the water as you do so. Put the torn tofu in a large bowl.
2. In a small bowl, mix the soy sauce, tomato paste, peanut butter, and spices. Add the mixture to the torn tofu and mix well so that all the tofu gets evenly coated and colored (more-or-less).
3. In a large skillet, heat the oil then add the tofu. Cook it, stirring from time to time, until it browns. This will take 10-15 minutes.

This step can be done a day or two in advance if you want. Keep the prepared tofu in the fridge until it's needed.

To make the filling:

1. In a large sauté pan (or pot), heat the oil over medium high heat, then sauté the onion and celery for a few minutes until the onion is soft. 
2. Add the garlic and chopped red pepper, and after another minute add the chopped green pepper. Sauté for a few minutes more.
3. Add the tomato sauce, tomato paste, chili powder, corn, and prepared tofu. When the liquid begins to simmer, turn the heat down, cover and simmer for about 15 minutes.

To make the corn bread:

1. Preheat the oven to 425 F.
2. While the filling simmers, mix together the dry ingredients in a bowl.
3. In a smaller bowl, beat the egg and milk together.
4. Add the egg and milk mixture to the corn meal mixture, stirring quickly to moisten all the ingredients.
5. Stir in the oil.

To assemble the pie:

1. Pour the tofu and vegetable mixture into a pie plate.
2. Pour the corn bread batter over the top. Don't worry if some of it disappears into the stew. It will rise above it in the oven.
3. Bake the pie in the oven for 20 to 25 minutes until the corn bread is done and beginning to brown.