Dessert By Candy

Indian Feast At Home

Indian cuisine is at once familiar and exotic to me. Familiar to my taste buds because Toronto is a multi-cultural city with large South Asian population and authentic Indian food is woven into our dining culture. Exotic in my kitchen because I rarely crave Indian food at home. The whole concept of toasting whole spices and grinding my own spice blend as building blocks for most dishes seems like a job best left to the professionals. However, there are great reasons to cook Indian food at home. The wonderful choices of vegetarian and vegan dishes fit right in to my way of eating. Besides, I can still enjoy the vibrant flavours of these dishes without the heavy greasy taste often found at restaurants with penchant for ghee.

About a week ago I received a new recipe to test for an upcoming issue of Cook’s Illustrated Magazine. The recipe for naan promises fluffy tender restaurant-style flatbread that I can make at home with a non-stick skillet. Of course I jump at the chance to cook an Indian Feast at home.

Post-Turkey Brunch

I feel like I’ve been time-traveling to the future in the last week. While the excitement of Thanksgiving is building steadily in much of the blogosphere, I already moved on to making creative dishes out of leftovers from my (non-Thanksgiving-related) turkey feast. I love my stuffing enough to eat it directly out of the fridge (don’t judge) but the slices of roast turkey needed help. Since I had some leftover stale bread, lots of extra herbs, and crimini mushrooms, I came up with making a brunch spread with the star being Turkey Mushroom Strata.

What is a strata? Long story short, it’s a savoury bread pudding. It is the final resting place welcoming home to odds and ends in the fridge that embraces the motto sum is greater than its parts. Best of all, it is a very forgiving dish to make with much wiggling room for improvisation based on ingredients you have on hand. I did not follow any recipes for mine but Martha Stewart has a collection of frittata and strata recipes that look great. My post-Thanksgiving strata was hearty with plenty of chopped roast turkey with caramelized onion and mushrooms, but barely any stale bread. The generous layer of mixed herbs including sage, parsley, and summer savory gave it a fresh taste. The custard of eggs, lots of egg whites, and milk was seasoned with paprika, nutmeg, and Dijon mustard. A snowy blanket of grated parmesan cheese finished it with crispy brown crust.

Not-Thanksgiving Turkey Feast

Last Saturday I hosted a roast turkey supper with all the trimmings. The timing was strange as it was neither Thanksgiving in Canada or our southern neighbour. What gives? I missed out on Thanksgiving this year back in October because I was in Georgia for my last race of the season. Although my family does not place much significance on the holiday, I do miss the traditional holiday dishes. With just over 10 days until American Thanksgiving, the online world is abuzz with turkey talk. Every article I read only made my craving even stronger. Coincidentally, I already invited Dad to come over for lunch so the decision to cook up a storm with all kinds of seasonal favourites seemed rather obvious.

With only three of us, roasting a whole turkey would be overkill. Instead, I opted to roast a split breast and a thigh for a choice of white and dark meat. The amount was just right with plenty of leftovers. Following the directions in The Cook’s Illustrated Cookbook, my Orange & Rosemary Turkey was juicy, tender, and infused with citrus herbal taste. If presenting a whole bird is not a priority, I heartily recommend roasting turkey parts. Brining the turkey was trivial since each part fit neatly into a large resealable freezer bag and I could fit them into separate empty spaces in the fridge. As for roasting? It took merely 90 minutes! Both the breast and thigh cooked to perfect doneness at the same time. And carving was so incredibly easy!

From Slow Cooker Came “Barbecue”

This ought to be my 1000th post at Dessert By Candy except I fail at counting (go BMath degree!). I’ve been tossing and turning all weekend trying to come up with something really special to bake for this milestone post yet came up short. So instead, I put my slow cooker to work and prepared dinner for Little Brother and myself while I was out hiking on a beautiful fall day. Way to go procrastinator! I’m glad I didn’t do something extra extra special because apparently I overlooked seven draft posts that I keep in the folder. Phew, I still have some time before I hit number 1000!

However, this barbecued beef brisket meal I prepared is still quite special in my books and Little Brother’s appetite agrees. Fall-apart tender slices of beef brisket was well-seasoned with brown sugar chipotle rub and slow cooked for hours. I served it with barbecued beans, squares of northern-style buttermilk cornbread, and cucumber cranberry slaw. Aside from the salad, all recipes come from the vault of America’s Test Kitchen, my reliable source for North American cooking.

Celebration of Friendship With French Food

[This is my entry for America’s Test Kitchen’s Food and Friends contest. You can see my guest post over at America’s Test Kitchen Feed!]

When I was an university student, throwing dinner party for friends was a simple matter of picking a Saturday without impending assignment deadlines, word of mouth invite to a few good friends, and a phone call to our favourite takeout restaurant. We did not have the fanciest food nor the swankiest decor but we always had a great time. Since those carefree days, I have immersed myself in many issues of glossy lifestyle magazines and countless cookbooks. My dinner parties have also evolved. Days of careful preparation creates elaborate multi-course menu with everything made from scratch. A militant schedule ensures every last detail gets taken care of. And of course a very stressful hostess who cannot enjoy the company of friends because of too much distraction in the kitchen. One can say I lost my way.