I wanted to put something different onto my holiday baking list this year, so I made almond nougat. I love the chewy and crunchy texture and it’s surprisingly easy to make (if you have a stand mixer and a candy thermometer). Try making variations of this with strongly brewed coffee instead of water; or maple extract instead of almond extract; or switching the almonds for hazelnuts or pistachios, etc.
I discovered a new cheese just in time for the holidays – La Tentation de Laurier by Fromagerie 1860 DuVillage (Quebec, Canada). After I fell in love with this cheese, I discovered that it won 2nd place in the Open Class category at the 2010 Royal Agricultural Winter Fair (see here). [On a side note, I’ve purchased the award winning Fifthtown Artisan Cheese Co., Bonnie and Floyd sheep milk cheese before and although it is slightly too soft for my taste, it is very very good.]
La Tentation de Laurier is a soft, ripened cheese that is made with pasteurized, fresh milk and cream. Ingredients and nutritional values are shown at the end of this post. I wasn’t able to find this specific cheese on the cheese maker’s website (here). I emailed the company for specifications but they never replied.
This cheese has such a soft rind, and it is so smooth and creamy, that it makes for a wonderful spread. I absolutely love it on slices of fresh baguette. It’s flavourful enough on its own, but try adding apricot jam for a sweet variation. I have to admit that I’ve had several dinners that consisted only of this cheese on bread.
If you try this cheese, let me know what you think.
When I first heard the concept of bacon jam, I thought it might be an odd fusion of flavour and texture, but I was excited to try it nonetheless. I was not prepared for how delicious it would be and how often I would need to make it. This bacon jam is hearty with bits of bacon but spreadable like jam. It tastes deliciously smoky with an amazing undercurrent of sweetness. Even your home will smell like sweet bacon. 🙂 Although it takes 2 hours to make, it is incredibly easy to make. This would make the perfect hostess gift, holiday present, care package addition, or pot luck item.
Over the holidays, I served this to my family and Ed for breakfast with toasted english muffins, fried eggs, and tomato wedges. My dad, like I, was surprised at how much he liked it. Ed and my sister were fighting for the last of it and I received requests to make more very soon.
I eat this on baguette slices (ie. crostini) or right out of the jar with a spoon. Some more creative uses for bacon jam include: putting it on burgers, sandwiches, or grilled cheese; serving it on toast with a fried egg; using it as a base for vinaigrette or adding it to salads; adding it to baked brie or camembert; or using it in a brussel sprouts dish (ideas came from this website). Please post your ideas in a comment here!
Note that many bacon jam recipes have a bit of heat to them. I prefer to leave this out, but you could add hot peppers or any hot sauce that you like. Add this to the pot at the same time as the rest of the ingredients.
Singapore style fried rice noodles (rice vermicelli) is a mildly spicy dish that can be found in the types of Chinese restaurants that also serve congee, chow mein, and fried rice. (Check out those recipes under the Asian category!) There are many different versions of this dish. The way it is served in Malaysia is Very different from how it’s made in North America. But most people agree, that North America makes it best 🙂 This recipe is based on the way that all of my favourite restaurants do it.
I love meringues that are crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside. They remind me of my dehydrated marshmallows. Although they take a while to bake, they’re very easy to make. I took them into work and I was surprised at how many people associated them with fond memories of their mothers and grandmothers.
I made meringue cookies, but you could make meringue nests and top them with fresh fruits, sauce, custard, or whipped cream, etc. You could also add food colouring for themed occasions or add cocoa powder for chocolate meringues (try topping them with a chocolate chip). My co-worker told me that his mom hides a chocolate chip in the centre of her meringue cookies.
I had a lot of shredded coconut leftover from when I made Indian curry and coconut and mango rice pudding. So I experimented with making coconut macaroons. This recipe makes macaroons that are slightly sticky with a chewy centre and crispy edges. They are very easy to make and are great plain.
You could easily turn these simple treats into something decadent by dipping them in melted chocolate. You could dip just the bottoms or just the tops. Or you could cover half of a macaroon with chocolate by dipping it on the diagonal.
(photo source here)
Five Guys Burgers and Fries (website here) is a fast-growing American fast-food chain that has received outstanding reviews. They have an impressive list of awards and recognition, including Best Burger in the 2010 Zagat fast food survey (see here). In fact, even President Obama likes the Five Guys burgers. So, even though several new burger places opened in Kingston around the same time, I was most excited for Five Guys. It is with great pleasure that I announce that they did not disappoint. (See my reviews of Poutine Place and Harper’s Burger Bar and see below for a brief comparison between Five Guys and Harper’s.) However, you should know that Five Guys has been featured on various “most unhealthy” lists. Even their fries are considered the worst among restaurant foods in America (see here). That wasn’t enough to stop me from ordering the bacon cheeseburger (which is a double patty burger with 920 calories and 62 grams of fat, not including the toppings), but it is enough to prevent me from going back any time soon. My review below is for the Kingston, Canada, location only.
I love the freshness that you get from adding herbs to hummus. I usually add a little bit of parsley and/or dill to my plain hummus. But in this variation, the dominant flavour comes from one of my favourite herbs – cilantro. I made this for my birthday party and people really liked it. (See my sun dried tomato hummus recipe here.) More recently, I made this for John’s housewarming party and it was, again, a huge hit. This time, though, I didn’t allow the food processor to incorporate the cilantro leaves as homogeneously, and the hummus had a nicer look to it.
Thin, shrimp flavoured noodles come dried, in little bundles (1 or 2 per serving) and cook just as quickly as instant noodles, making them perfect for quick and delicious one pot meals. See my recipe for shrimp noodles served in soup with pacific clams and Chinese broccoli here.
The first time I tried rice pudding, it was served cold, and I didn’t understand why anyone would enjoy bits of rice in their creamy custard. I didn’t try it again until years later, when a friend of mine served it warm after dinner. She completely changed my mind about rice pudding. Then I came up with this recipe and turned Ed and Krystal into rice pudding fans too. 🙂
Rice pudding is a simple dessert that you can serve all year round. For example, you can serve it cold in the summer or use it as a refreshing finish to a spicy Indian meal. I prefer to make rice pudding in the fall or winter, because a hot bowl of rice pudding makes for a very comforting dessert on a cold night. Here is my recipe for basic rice pudding. Note that the instructions differ depending on whether you’re planning on serving this cold or warm. Also, try replacing some of the milk with evaporated milk or coconut milk, or try using sweetened condensed milk instead of sugar, but keep in mind that this may alter the cooking times. (See my coconut and mango rice pudding recipe here.)
It’s easy to create different variations of hummus. For example, you could use carmelized onions, curry powder, roasted red peppers, edamame beans, beets, pumpkin, etc. Here is my recipe for sun dried tomato hummus. (See my cilantro lime hummus recipe here.)
I love introducing people to garlic shoots (also known as garlic scapes – note, that’s scapes, not scraps 😉 ). I make this dish often and people always love it. In North America, the green shoots that grow from garlic bulbs are usually discarded. But these garlic shoots, when harvested while young and tender, are actually very tasty and have a light, garlicky flavour when cooked. You can find it in Asian grocery stores and the younger the better, so you want to avoid the really darkly green coloured shoots.
Picture above from top moving clockwise: tomato eggs, stir fried garlic shoots with shrimp, hot and sour soup, mongolian beef. See the Asian category for the rest of the recipes.
Picture below: Stir fried garlic shoots with shrimp and pacific clams.
Cooking with Alison 