Dessert By Candy

A Tip From My Mom

After my Mom passed away, I inherited her kitchen. Not just her batterie de cuisine, but the entire room in the house, cabinets and appliances and all. Since then, her kitchen has become my special place where you would likely find me any hour of the day.

Obviously I have added many new things to her kitchen since. My Mom and I have such different cooking styles. She cooked with a cleaver and made many simple Cantonese dishes with good variety of fresh ingredients by steaming, blanching, sautéing, and pan-frying.  I cannot imagine spending time in the kitchen without my trusty Le Creuset dutch oven to braise, my chef knife to cut, and my stand mixer for all kinds of baking projects. However, despite all the new additions, most things remain exactly where she left them because the storage location just makes sense. For example, everyone knows where to find the melon baller because the gadget drawer has been the permanent residence of the melon baller since the day we moved in. We wouldn’t even bother looking in the cutlery drawer because it has never and will never contain what we’re looking for.

Not that my brother nor I would look for the melon baller when there’s a melon on the cutting board anyway. Little spheres of chilled cantaloupe or honeydew may seem like the height of cuteness to many children but not to us. Melon is one of Little Brother’s favourite fruit and he would eat them in any shape or form. Me? Not so much. I have always been ambivalent about melons. Being the resourceful woman that she was, of course my Mom had a trick up her sleeve. Well, here is how melon is served at my home.

Joy Of Small Batch Preserving

Canning and preserving is fun but the cost of buying high quality fruit can add up quickly especially if you cannot resist the allure of more unusual varieties. Last night I picked up my weekly CSA share from Kawartha Ecological Growers and guess what I saw? Two half-pint containers of tiny black raspberries! Each berry is about the size of my pinky nail and it looks like a miniscule blackberry. Make no mistake, they taste nothing like blackberries. I would describe the taste as intensely raspberry with a wine undertone. I snapped up those last two containers quickly and could not wait to turn them into jam.

Most jam recipes call for large amount of fruit. After all, historically preserving is a way to, well, preserve the abundant summer harvest to be enjoyed throughout the year. Obviously modern city dwellers need not worry about the dearth of fruit in winter. The current trend of home preserving often stems from pure culinary interest. Those beautiful and rare black raspberries certainly sparked my culinary interest but one pint is far from the amount needed for typical jam recipes. Besides, getting three pounds of these berries would pose a serious hit to my wallet even if there are enough available.

Enter small batch preserving! I get to experiment with rare fruit and flavours with a much lower commitment to time and money. I supplemented my pint of black raspberries with another half pint of conventional red raspberries to make up one pound of fruit. The total time it took to transform fruit to jam was well under two hours, including clean up! With a yield of only two 200mL containers, I did not even need to break out the big canning pot. In fact, I can choose to forgo the water bath processing step and simply store the jam directly in the fridge. After all, how much time does it take to finish two small pots of such delicious jam?

Another Bento & A Giveaway!

I can’t get bento out of my mind this week. After testing out a new bento box purchase a few days ago, I made another one just because. This time I added a bit of middle eastern flair with a Lentils & Peas Salad inspired by a recipe in Moro East. I served it with flax & sesame seeds lavash, thick Greek yogurt, and almond stuffed medjool dates for dessert. I never thought earthy lentils pair so well with sweet peas. They are dressed in a classic red wine vinaigrette with shallots and mint. Another way to think about it is putting classic French lentil salad and peas with mint together in one dish. Moro’s Sam Clark is absolutely correct. Lentils and peas are meant to be together!

This bento is very typical of what I pack. There is little to none Japanese cooking yet the aesthetics of a well-balanced meal consisting of numerous courses fitting compactly into container remains. I love the visual interest created from different colours and shapes. But more importantly, I enjoy the variety of tastes. My strategy generally involves complementing dishes from my normal meal preparation with little bites of pantry staples and simple side dishes that do not require much cooking. Of course, I always keep in mind a reasonable balance between lean protein, complex carbohydrates, and fats.

A neat thing about having a collection of bento accessories at my disposal is the freedom to mix and match. For my Lentils & Peas bento, I used three boxes from my Muji set. The long thin box contains a good size serving of the salad while the individual smaller boxes can keep the lavash crunchy and separate the sweet from the savoury. I opted to use two elastic fasteners to secure the boxes as one unit. The full-size bamboo cutlery is lightweight and fits neatly under the elastics. There is nothing fancy about the boxes. Once I put them together though, there is a simplicity to its clean uncluttered look that evokes images of Scandinavian designs.

Speaking of bento boxes, I have a giveaway! This is the first giveaway I host on Dessert By Candy and I really hope it is something you like. Remember the cute bento box I showcased a few days ago? I like it so much I actually bought two sets! One lucky reader will get to keep one.

Breakfast Cake Mashup

Putting two of my favourite everyday cakes together into one sweet concoction seems like the most logical thing to do. I like banana bread. I like New York style crumb cake. So why don’t more people put ginormous boulder-size crumbs on top of banana bread to make an awesome breakfast treat? This morning, I set out to do something about it.

First thing first, the loaf shape has got to go. Crumb cake is all about proportion of crumbs to cake and the measly amount of surface area of a loaf cake just doesn’t do crumbs justice. A standard 9x5x3 loaf pan takes 8 cups of batter. Baking the banana bread in a 9 inch square cake pan would be perfect since it takes 10.5 cups of batter. The extra room is necessary to pile on the crumbs. You can see in the photo that there is a nice thick layer of crumbs. Just the way I like it!

Next thing is flavour. I like my banana bread on the plain side with just walnuts and vanilla so the banana flavour can shine. However, I like the sweet mix of spices in crumb cake even more. The heady mix of cardamom, cinnamon, and ginger is my favourite. The cardamom is just a little off beat to keep things from being too predictable. Of course, like most baked goods involving bananas, you must use really ripe fruit with lots of brown spots for the best flavour. Aside from the mashed bananas in the cake, I sneaked in a thin layer of banana slices between the cake batter and crumb topping. Once baked, they almost disappear into the cake but the extra punch of banana flavour is incredible.

Aside from being a decadent breakfast cake, what I like most about this recipe is how it conveniently uses up four large ripe bananas. Four!!! When I got home last night, my kitchen was filled with that deep aroma of ripe bananas. I knew I had to put them to good use quickly and that was the inspiration behind this recipe. I’m happy to report my kitchen now smells like an early morning bakery instead of a late afternoon fruit stand. Cheers to that.

Strawberry Jam Success Is Mine

The last three weeks I have been moaning on and off about my struggle with making strawberry jam. How do I capture the essence of in season strawberries at the height of their flavour into a mason jar? It’s all too easy to overcook the berries in attempt to reach that elusive jiggly set when there is so little pectin in the fruit. I refuse to use commercial pectin and I don’t have any apple pectin stock in my pantry. Last night, I found my strawberry jam success with a little help from pectin-rich red currants.

Mixing low-pectin with pectin-rich fruit in jam making to achieve a desirable set is nothing new. The trick lies in choosing a combination that doesn’t outshine the main flavour in the preserve. This is why under-ripe apples are often used to make pectin stock because of their neutral flavour. I paired red currants with strawberries for its complementary berry tartness and also the bright red colour. My fourth batch of Minty Strawberry Jam remains predominately strawberry with a hint of mint, lemon, and kirsch in the background. The only telltale sign of red currants is the occasional seeds found in the jam. The set is so beautifully loose with all that bright summer strawberry flavour bursting from the whole berries. I’m so happy that I finally have a batch of strawberry jam to be proud of!

Bento Box For Him

At my house, bento or brown bag lunch are reserved for special occasions. I associate these on-the-go meals with good times like picnic or road trip or hiking so of course they are special. Just the other day, I realized my BF and I share a little tradition. We live in different cities and it’s a long drive for him to visit. After spending a weekend together, I always pack him a lunch to enjoy on his drive home. It’s usually just a couple of sandwiches, some cheeses, perhaps a bit of cured meat, and some fruit and nuts for dessert. There were a few times I wanted to pack him a bento but always changed my mind last minute because I could not bear to part with any of the bento boxes in my collection.

I don’t have a large bento box collection but it’s certainly big enough for someone who doesn’t pack bento on a daily basis. Most pieces were purchased abroad during travels and some have been with me since I was a kid. Needless to say, I feel rather attached and would definitely be devastated if I lose any of them. My collection includes a cream-colour faux lacquer box from franc franc, a mix & match set from Muji with silicone dividers, a tiny plaid set I have for twenty years, a cheap red one that I use for pungent food, a flat clear one with lots of dividers, and a family-size box that comes with plates. There must be others lurking in my kitchen but those are the ones I reach for the most. I was shopping at J-Town today and saw some cheap and cheery boxes among their new merchandises at a very reasonable price. The collection comes in different shapes and sizes for the boxes with matching cutlery sets, elastic bands, and carrying bags. At under $5 for each piece, I could not resist the good deal. I picked out a green and brown two-tier box with cutlery compartment and bright pink elastic band, all for under $13CAD! This would be the dedicated bento box for the BF.

Off The Course

Some people follow recipes for clear and concise direction while others treat them as inspirations. I generally fall under the first group because I do a lot of baking. With baking, there is less room for improvisation unless you’re prepared for unexpected outcomes. When it comes to cooking, I do take more liberty with my interpretation of recipes. This is even more so as I become more confident in the kitchen. However, this week’s Salmon and Tomatoes En Papillote for French Fridays with Dorie takes the cake for how far I wandered away from the original recipe. Yes, I cooked salmon and grape tomatoes using the classic en papillote method but that is where the similarities end.

I first learned to cook en papillote from the pages of Martha Stewart Living Magazine. I was so thrilled to put my gift wrapping skills to good use in the kitchen! There’s something crafty about cutting the parchment paper into heart shape and pleating the edges to form a neat little crescent. The surprise of unveiling the packet content tableside is made more special because it is a feast for all senses. The second I open my parchment parcel, what hit me first is not the beauty of the carefully arranged ingredients nor the delicious taste of the dish. It’s the irresistible aroma of fresh herbs and citrus that leaves me wanting more.

I baked my salmon using the traditional parchment paper. Grape tomatoes, shaved fennel, tarragon, wild salmon fillet, lemon zest, lemon juice, lemon slices, and green onions were layered in order. I love the hint of liquorice from fennel and tarragon to contrast the rich fatty salmon. The grape tomatoes were cooked just enough to intensify their sweetness.

My salmon fillet was cut to 3oz portions, much smaller than Greenspan’s recipe. 8 minutes of baking time was just right with the interior barely cooked. I much prefer my fish to be on the rare side. I was originally going to pass on this week’s recipe because I could not easily source wild salmon without paying an arm and a leg. Fortunately, I caught the tail end of the wild salmon season and came across a deal that I could not resist. There is even a good story on how I lost and recover my precious fish!

I’m very pleased with the ease of preparation and the elegance of the finished dish. Given availability of good ingredients, I would definitely make this dish again especially for dinner parties. It is a light main course perfect for the summer season. I highly recommend you to check out other bloggers’ interpretation of this dish over at French Fridays with Dorie. I have a feeling our creativities are out in full force this week! Recipe is originally published in Dorie Greenspan’s Around My French Table.

French Yogurt Cake My Way

The simple elegance of French yogurt cake is endearing. I can whip one up using the most common ingredients in the kitchen and the result is almost foolproof. I can dress it up or keep it plain depending on my mood. I can flavour it with chocolate or citrus or vanilla or nuts or spices for a complete flavour facelift. I can stud it with berries or apples or bananas or chocolate when I feel decadent. The French yogurt cake is the little black dress of my sweet kitchen. It makes me feel fabulous every time I pull one out of the oven, any hour of the day. Yogurt cake is similar to muffin and other classic quickbread recipes in terms of ingredients. Yet, as if by magic, the cake has a much finer crumb and a more delicate texture perhaps due to the slightly different technique. I would not mistake a yogurt cake for muffin even if I bake it into cupcake shape. Over at Chocolate & Zucchini, Clotilde has a good collection of yogurt cake recipes. At my home, there are some secret ingredients to make my yogurt cake extra special.

Frustration Of Jam

I did not realize how lucky I’ve been with my jam making experience in the last year. Every jar was a little reminder of seasonal fruit at their height of freshness captured in jiggly spoonfuls. This week I finally met my match with two consecutive batches of strawberry jam that refuse to set. I am now the owner of ten jars filled with strawberries in deep garnet syrup with a hint of mint, tarragon, and basil. The faint herbal note is the perfect counterpoint to the sweetness of summer strawberries. Alas, they are so runny the best that I can do is to call them conserve!

What you see in the photo tells a different story. That was my first batch of strawberry jam in 2011 made two weeks ago. It was a lovely soft set that mounds just enough on the spoon to be delightfully spreadable on my morning toast. Perhaps good thing comes from when I least expect? I had a small basket of strawberries left over from the premium ones I picked over for rumtopf. Instead of eating them out of hand, I cooked them into two 250mL jars of jam. I wasn’t even particularly mindful of what I did. It was a simple matter of macerating the berries overnight in sugar 40% of their weight with lemon juice, brought everything to boil, removed the berries, boiled the syrup to 218F, and finished cooking with the berries until gelling point. I could not believe how easy it was despite all that I read on the difficulty of strawberry’s low pectin content.

My Fish

Two weekends ago I lost a two feet long dead fish and recovered it to enjoy three different ways. Makes no sense at all? Let me elaborate. My local Whole Foods Market had a sale on cut-to-order wild caught Keta salmon on Saturday. What a glorious afternoon with fish after fish being weighed, skinned, de-scaled, boned, cut, and packaged to the customer’s specification! I was understandably excited because I avoid farmed salmons in my diet but the wild version is a splurge. The only caveat was that I had to purchase one whole fish which is a lot of salmon for one girl. If you know me, you can probably guess that I could not resist a deal. I promptly sidled up to the booth and chose my fish with bright orange flesh.

In the midst of the crowded booth, my fish (let’s call it Pat) traveled from ice bed to plastic bin to the scale. A price tag was printed and I happily moved over next to the chopping board to direct the fate of Pat. I had big plans for my new friend. Did I mention it was crowded? When I finally squeezed my way to the front, a gentleman was chatting merrily with the fishmonger and giving directions on how he wanted my fish to be cut. Excuse me sir? Are you sure this is your fish? When my question was met with an emphatic nod, I got confused and thought perhaps my fish got lost in the shuffle. I caught the attention of the helpful staff who weighed Pat. With the most quizzical look on my face, I stammered I think I lost my fish…the ridiculousness of my statement only made more apparent as I uttered it out loud.