Fondant Eggs

This is a big tradition in my family – my mom has made these almost every year at Easter, and there’s nothing we love more.  It’s basically butter and sugar dipped in chocolate . . . and what could be better?  I brought the recipe home from my preschool, and my mom’s been making it ever since, sometimes after a bit of pleading.  Usually it’s my job to do the chocolate dipping, but this year my mom agreed to go through the whole process together with me.

The process takes a while because of the refrigeration between each step, but they aren’t too hard to make.  And they are SO worth it.  The bitter chocolate is a perfect contrast with the sugary filling.

What you need:

1 & 1/2 cups butter, room temperature

2 lbs icing sugar

1 egg

2 teaspoons vanilla

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/4 teaspoon yellow food colouring, or whatever makes it a colour yellow you like

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

6-7 ounces bitter chocolate

What you do:

1.  Beat the butter in a mixer until soft.  Add the sugar gradually, then the egg, salt and vanilla.

2.  Remove about 1/4 of the mixture.  Add the yellow food colouring and almond extract to the 1/4 of the mixture.  Cover and refrigerate both parts until cold.  The yellow will form the centres of the eggs.

3.  Once the mixtures are cold, use your hands to roll the yellows into 7-9 balls.  Form the whites into 14-16 flat ovals, slightly concave.  Place them on a wax paper covered baking pan.  You need two white ovals to each yellow centre.  Refrigerate again until cold.

4.  Form the whites around the yolks with your hands, making them into an egg shape, smoothing them out.  Refrigerate again until cold.

5.  Melt the chocolate in the top of a double boiler.  Using a fork, dip the eggs into melted chocolate.  Place them on a wax paper covered baking pan.  Use the chocolate to touch up any spots with a spatula that aren’t covered.  Refrigerate again until the chocolate hardens.

6.  Wrap  them up individually and put a ribbon on top.  They are best served in thin slices.

Lebanese Chocolate Anise Cookies

When I lived in Halifax circa 1995 my friend and I ate a Lebanese feast every weekend at Mediterraneo Restaurant.  We were so addicted to their food that we were devastated to find they weren’t open on Easter weekend.  Luckily for us there was another Lebanese restaurant across the street, called Beirut Beirut.  I don’t think either of these places exist any more.  It was at Beirut Beirut where the owner, Peter, asked us to sample some of the desserts.  When we tasted these little unbaked chocolate cookies he made us guess what was in them.  We couldn’t, but after many visits and special orders for these cookies, he shared the recipe with me.  This is only my best imitation of the real thing, as I never actually saw him making them, so I had to guess at some of the process.

Instead of baking, you toast the ingredients, then mix them with some honey.

Today I made them into Easter egg shapes because it’s that time of year, and it was Easter weekend when I first tasted them.  Peter made them into small logs, or shaped like a Hershey’s Kiss.

This recipe makes about a dozen small cookies, but they are packed with flavour, so you don’t need a lot at one time.

What you need:

1/4 cup raw peanuts

1/4 cup raw almonds

1/4 cup raw walnuts (I used half walnuts, half pecans when I ran out of walnuts)

1/4 teaspoon mint leaves

a pinch of thyme

2 teaspoons anise seed

2 tablespoons flour

2 tablespoons cocoa

honey

a little icing sugar for sprinkling on top

orange flower water, optional

What you do:

1.  Grind the nuts, anise seeds, thyme and mint.  I used my electric coffee grinder to do this.  Spread this mixture on a baking sheet and toast at about 250F for about 15 minutes.  Every 5 minutes you need to give them a bit of a stir, and make sure they don’t burn.

2.  Mix the flour and cocoa with the nut mixture in the baking pan.  Toast for another 5 minutes or so.

3.  Let the ingredients cool, then place them into a bowl.  Mix honey in, a little at a time, until you get a firm mixture that you can make into shapes.

4.  Shape the cookies into logs, eggs, “kisses,” or whatever shape you desire.

5.  Sprinkle with a tiny bit of orange flower water, if you are using it, then dust a little icing sugar on top.

Homemade Yogurt

For the last few years I’ve been making my own yogurt.  It’s really easy to do, it is way cheaper than buying yogurt (1L of yogurt for the cost of a litre of milk), and it tastes amazing.  I eat it for breakfast most mornings, but I also use it to make yogurt cheese, dips, and as an ingredient in many recipes like this, this, this and this.  I also eat a lot of yogurt as a source of calcium, because as a person who is lactose intolerant I am always trying to include calcium rich foods in my diet.  The culturing process eats up most of the lactose, so it doesn’t hurt me.

The brand of my yogurt maker is Deni, and I like it because it’s the perfect size for a quart canning jar.  I just took out the little jars and insert that came with the machine, and make it in the big jar – fewer jars to wash up!

What you need:

1 litre milk, I use whole or homo, from Avalon Dairy

1/4 cup plain yogurt or yogurt starter

What you do:

1.  Heat the milk in a pot, stirring to avoid scorching.  Heat until just before it boils (110F if you want to be exact).

2.  Let the milk cool to room temperature.

3.  Mix a little of the cooled milk into the yogurt, then add a little more milk, stir it in, then mix all the rest together.

4.  Put the milk into a clean jar and screw the lid on tight.  Place it in the yogurt maker.  This keeps it a constant temperature.  I like to keep it in for 8 hours, but you can keep it in up to 12 hours.  It will taste more tangy the longer you keep it in

5.  Refrigerate the yogurt to stop the process. You can eat it a few hours later. I like to just cut up some fruit and put it in a bowl with the yogurt – a delicious and healthy breakfast or snack!

Chocolate Cherry Rum Cake

Yummy, rummy and chocolatey.  What could be better?  The dried sour cherries are soaked in rum, plus there’s chocolate chips for the extra hit that you’re craving.

This one makes half a recipe, one 9-inch round pan.  It’s from David Lebovitz’s cookbook Ready for Dessert.

What you need:

3/4 cup dried sour cherries, chopped

4 tablespoons of light rum

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons

1/4 cup cocoa

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/4 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/4 cup butter at room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

1 egg, room temperature

1 egg yolk, room temperature

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1/3 cup buttermilk or plain yogurt

1/2 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped and toasted

2/3 cup chocolate chips

for the glaze:

1 cup powdered sugar, sifted

2-3 tablespoons rum

What you do:

1.  Bring the sour cherries and 4 tablespoons of rum to a boil in a small pot.  Set them aside with a lid on for about an hour.

2.  Butter a 9-inch round square pan and dust it with flour.  Line the bottom of the pan with parchment paper.  Preheat the oven to 350F.

3.  Sift the flour, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

4.  Beat the butter and sugar until light and fluffy.  Add the egg and yolk and vanilla and beat in.

5.  Stir in half the flour mixture, then stir in the buttermilk or yogurt.  Add the rest of the flour mixture.

6.  Stir in the nuts, chocolate chips and cherries.

7.  Pour the batter into the pan.  Bake for about 45 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  It might have a little bit of the chocolate chip on it, so don’t mistake that for not being done.

8.  Let the cake cool for 15 minutes, then poke the cake all over with a toothpick and drizzle with about 2 tablespoons of rum.

9.  Let the cake cool for about another 1/2 hour, then run a knife around the edge of the pan and remove it from the pan to cool.  Peel off the parchment paper.

10.  To make the glaze, mix the powdered sugar and the remaining rum.  Spoon it over the cake and let it run down the sides.

11.  The cake should last about 5 days, but if you’re going to keep it that long it’s best to glaze it shortly before serving.

Thank you Corey for editing!

Lamb Chops with Pistachio Tapenade

These little chops are so easy and tasty – I’ve fallen in love with them.  I don’t cook lamb very often, so I wanted to find an amazing recipe, and after much searching I found it at Smitten Kitchen.  Olives and nuts, well right there you’ve got an amazing combination that works so well with the lamb.

If you want to try out this recipe on someone, feel free to invite me over!

I served them with tiny baked potatoes roasted with some duck fat, rosemary and salt, along with a green salad with vinaigrette, strawberries and toasted slivered almonds.

What you need:

1 rack of lamb or 6-8 chops

1/3 cup unsalted pistachios, toasted

1/3 cup pitted green olives

1 & 1/2 tablespoons capers

1 clove garlic, chopped

2 teaspoons fresh oregano

1 & 1/2 tablespoons parsley

olive oil

zest of 1 lemon

salt and pepper

What you do:

1.  Cut the rack of lamb into chops, the salt and pepper each one.  Let these sit while you prepare the tapenade.

2.  To make the tapenade, place the pistachios, capers, garlic, oregano, parsley and lemon zest in a food processor.  Add a little olive oil at a time to make it into a thick paste.

3.  Preheat the oven to 425 F.  Heat a frying pan to medium-high, then add some olive oil.  Cook the lamb chops for 2 minutes per side, or until they are browned.  Remove the chops to a baking pan and smear some of the tapenade on each.  Place the chops in the oven and cook for 4-5 minutes, which will give you lovely rare chops.

4.  Remove the chops from the oven and let them rest 5 minutes before serving.  Savour!

Lemon Cherry Poppy Seed Muffins

Oops, I think I’m getting the keyboard sticky. . . I just baked these, and they’re so good that I’m typing while I eat.  To be fair, they’re more of a mini cake than muffin – I think of a muffin of something sort of healthy, and I can’t really think of any health benefits for these except the sheer joy of eating them.  And joy is pretty good medicine, don’t you think?

I’ve been wanting to make a lemon cherry poppy seed muffin for a while, but I haven’t found a recipe I like.  I took this one from the Mennonite Girls Can Cook blog mainly because it had buttermilk in the recipe, which I think is the reason these turned out so light and cakey.  The original recipe is blueberry lemon, so I just exchanged the blueberries for dried cherries and poppy seeds.  I also made the glaze out of white sugar instead of the icing sugar the recipe called for, because I find glazes made of icing sugar have a bit of a tinny taste to them.

This recipe makes 1 dozen, but feels free to double it if you need more.

What you need:

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

3/4 cup sugar

2 eggs, room temperature

2 teaspoons lemon zest

1 & 1/4 tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla

1 & 1/2 cups flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup buttermilk

1/2 cup dried cherries, chopped (sour cherries if you have them!)

1 tablespoon poppy seeds

for the glaze:

2 tablespoons sugar

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1/4 teaspoon lemon zest

What you do:

1.  Place paper liners in a 12 cup muffin tin.  Preheat the oven to 375 F.

2.  Beat the butter until light and fluffy, then add the sugar and beat again.

3.  Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then beat in the lemon zest and juice, and the vanilla.

4.  For the next part make sure you beat only as much as necessary to incorporate the ingredients: Beat in 1/2 cup of the flour, then 1/4 cup of the buttermilk.  Add 1/2 more cup of flour, then 1/4 cup more buttermilk.

5.  Mix the remaining 1/2 cup of flour with the baking power, baking soda, poppy seeds and salt.  Hand mix this into the batter until just barely mixed in, then add the cherries and just fold them in.

6.  Spoon into the lined muffin tins.

7.  Bake for 20 – 25 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.  They should have a golden brown hue.

8.  While the muffins are baking, put the glaze ingredients in a pot and heat enough for them to melt together.

9.  When the muffins are baked, place them on a rack to cool and glaze them right away.

I recommend eating them while they are still warm, but I’m sure they’ll be almost as good when they’ve cooled.

 

Mango Quinoa Salad

Here’s a salad with a taste of summer.  Easy, yummy, and great picnic food!

What you need:

1/2 cup uncooked quinoa, cooked in 1 cup water

1 teaspoon olive oil

1 mango, cut into chunks

1 jalapeno, deseeded and chopped finely (leave the seeds in if you love spicy food)

1/3 cup raisins

1 tomato, chopped

juice of 1 lime

a little chopped cilantro and/or parsley

What you do:

1.  To cook the quinoa, put it in a pot with 1 cup of water.  Bring to a boil, then put a lid on it and lower the heat, cooking for 15 minutes.  Then remove the pot from the heat and let it sit for 10 minutes.  Let the quinoa cool to use in the salad.

2.  Toss all the other ingredients together in a large bowl to let the flavours mingle, for at least half an hour.  By this time the quinoa may be cooled, and you can either serve the mango mixture on a bed of quinoa, or you can mix it all together.  Serve with a garnish of something green, like cilantro.

 

Cocoa Veggie Chilli

I can pretty much guarantee that you won’t miss the beef in this chili.  I know, that’s a pretty bold statement, but it’s got so much depth to the flavour that you might not miss the meat.  And if you’re vegetarian, well then you’ll be celebrating!  I served this one with a bit of avocado on top, and some corn bread on the side.  Yum!  A little plain yogurt and cilantro would also be great.

This recipe is from the Vancouver Sun’s Six O’Clock Solutions cookbook.  I’ve just made a few alterations like substituting olive oil for vegetable oil, using red instead of green peppers, quinoa instead of bulgur, and I added some grated carrot.  I also let it cook a lot longer than the recipe suggests, as I believe a slow-cooked chili is a tastier chili.  But if you’re in a hurry, go ahead and cut the cooking time.

What you need:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 large sweet onions, chopped

1 tablespoon chili powder

1 tablespoon ground cumin

1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper

2 red bell peppers, chopped

1-2 grated carrots

3 garlic cloves, minced

3 tablespoons cocoa powder

1 – 795 mL can chopped tomatoes, with liquid

1/2 cup water

1 – 398mL can kidney beans, drained and rinsed

1- 398 mL can black beans, drained and rinsed

1/2 cup quinoa

1 can sweet corn

salt and pepper

What you do:

1.  Heat the oil in a large pot on medium heat, then add the onions and saute until translucent.

2.  Add the red peppers, garlic, chili powder, cumin and cayenne and stir for another minute or so.

3.  Add the cocoa, tomatoes, carrots, water and beans and bring to a boil.  Lower the heat to a simmer and cook for half and hour to and hour.  (here is where you can do a shortcut if you’re in a hurry – just add the quinoa now and let it cook for about 15 minutes)

4.  Add the quinoa and cook for 15 minutes, or until the grains are tender.

5.  Add the corn, and salt and pepper to taste.  Enjoy!  And enjoy the leftovers!

 

Veggie Breakfast Hash with Spinach Scrambled Eggs

For a big brunch here’s a healthy alternative full of veggies to the usual bacon and egger.  And if you’re not into a vegan/vegetarian breakfast you can add a bit of bacon or sausage.  I served it with some grilled tomatoes instead, and a big pot of tea.

What you need for the hash:

a few small potatoes

1/2 sweet or red onion, chopped

1-2 cloves garlic, finely diced

red/yellow/orange pepper, chopped

salt and pepper, to taste

a spring of fresh thyme and rosemary

butter/ olive oil

What you need for the eggs:

1 egg per person

a little water

salt and pepper

spinach, roughly chopped

butter/ olive oil for frying

What you do:

1.  Steam the potatoes for 15 or so minutes.  If they are large potatoes you can cut them up a bit so they cook faster. Or you could poke a few holes in them and microwave them until they are softened.

2.  Heat a tablespoon or so of butter/olive oil.  Throw in the onions and cook for a few minutes, then add the garlic and peppers, cooking until they are softened a bit.

3.  Chop or slice the potatoes, then remove the peppers and onions from the pan.  Add a little more butter/ olive oil, then add the potatoes.  Chop the thyme and rosemary and throw it in with the potatoes.  Let the potatoes fry until browned, then add the veggies, and salt and pepper to taste.

4.  Crack the eggs into a bowl and beat them a little with a fork, and add a little water, a teaspoon or so per egg.  Add a little salt and pepper.

5.  Add some butter/ olive oil to the pan, then  add the egg.  Add the chopped spinach, give the eggs a stir or two, and they’re done.

Serve it up right away while it’s hot!

Chocolate Buttercream Icing

 

I was honoured to be the person who got to bake the cake for Oma’s 100th birthday party.  I believe a birthday cake should be chocolate, so that’s what I made, and I wanted a fantastic buttery icing to go on it, so here it is.  Buttery and chocolatey – who could ask for anything more!

 

This recipe is from Elinor Klivans’ Chocolate Cakes: 50 Great Cakes for Every Occassion.  I omitted 1 teaspoon of coffee granules, which would be added to the whipping cream until the coffee granules dissolve.

 

What you need:

 

3 oz bittersweet chocolate, chopped

 

4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped

 

1/3 cup whipping cream, at room temperature

 

3/4 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature

 

2 & 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted

 

1/8 teaspoon salt

 

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

What you do:

1. Place the chocolate in the top of a double boiler or a bowl on top of a pot of hot water to melt the chocolate.  Let this cool slightly before mixing in.

2.  In a large bowl beat the butter until creamy, then add the icing sugar and slat and beat again until creamy.  I found this easier to accomplish by adding a little of the cream.

3.  Beat in the chocolate, cream and vanilla, then continue beating until the icing begins to lighten in colour.

4.  Use the icing right away.  There’s lots of it for a two-layer cake, so don’t worry about slathering lots between the layers.

I like to serve it cold so the icing is a bit hard, but do as you wish!