Glazed rutabaga (the return!)

Just a word to say that I improved on a recipe I discussed on my blog a few weeks ago (link).

This time, I simply cooked them in water and 'glazed' them in honey, butter and some of the cooking water. Of course, this mixture was not exactly a glaze, it was too thin and not sweet enough to stick to the vegetable, but after thickening it with starch it became thick enough to coat the turnips. Of course, calling this glazed rutabaga is not appropriate since I used a liquid that was more like a sauce than a glaze...

I feel this version is better then my first one in part because I can control the amount of sugar (honey) in my sauce and also because of the delectable creaminess of the sauce. A last note, I added some cinnamon, clove and nutmeg to this sauce; tiny amounts, hardly detectable, but I believe they helped adding a different dimension to the dish.

Simple simple simple asparagus salad

Again, I am sorry for this out of season dish... but, as I said in a previous post, asparagus are out of season but we still get some very nice ones from South America (I know, there is an ecological price to this but, in Canada, nothing is in season from October to July except snow).

When I was a kid, most of the veggies that we ate at either of my parents' homes were boiled or steamed and served with salt and sometime a bit of butter. They were good but my point is that they were always cooked and served the same way as side dishes. When growing up, I realized that vegetables do not have to be cooked and served this way all the time and that they can also take center stage.

The problem is that most of the time, you just don't want to complicate diner too much... After all, we only have a very limited number of hours per day! A solution, that many of us have figured out, I am sure, is to simply substitutes butter and salt for other condiments such as flavourful oils, vinegars, mustards, etc. In this case, I used sherry vinegar, olive oil, coarse salt and grinded pepper... it took no time and was delicious! I think I am really in the process of simplifying my cooking these days and I enjoy food like never before! (maybe it's because I started to write about it too...)

Roasted chestnuts and more

Chestnuts are on season now, so we did some experiments with them recently.


1. Roasted in the oven (with a little bit of water as suggested in the Larousse Gastronomique)







2. Added to a butter scotch sauce (butter + brown sugar... and in, this case a bit of chai tea to cool down the pan)








I have always loved the taste of chestnut but never liked their powdery texture. It might be because I do not cook them the proper way... but then it's been my experience with all the chestnuts I've tried.

If you have any trick to share for dealing with chestnuts, I'd be glad to hear/read them.

Sauerkraut - Choucroute

A classic when the colder months arrive: sauerkraut! It's not light or refined but it's soooooooo good with a few beers. All i did for this one was to get both the sauerkraut and the sausage from a very nice local polish butcher shop and cook the fermented cabbage with some beer and a few juniper berries in the same pot where I cooked the sausages. Easy and yummy!

Coconut creme brulee

I made these cremes brules this weekend using the coconut milk leftover from my lamb curry (link) and the egg yolks leftover from my stock clarification experiment (link).

It looks nice isn't it? Well,.... to tell you the truth, I forgot to add sugar to the custard. I don't know what is happening to me, I get so forgetful these days, I guess I just don't sleep enough... There's often a way to get out of trouble with a bit of imagination so I'll make a thicker caramel crust on the next ones in order to add a bit of sweetness.

And, I should not use a very coarse sugar (like I did) since it burns before it has the time to melt.

Had mint, made a granita

I bought a lot of mint in Montreal last weekend and I had to find a way to use it. Mint tea is a great option but I felt more like making desert today. I made this nice granita using lemon and lime juice, some dried orange zest that was sitting on my spice rack for a long time now, sugar, vodka, pernod, triple sec, and, of course, mint. I first made a strong mint tea by boiling some of the mint in water, to which I added the citrus juices, the orange zest and some sugar. I cooled it down, strained it, and added the liquors and a fine chiffonade of mint leaves. I placed everything in the freezer and voila! My first granita ever!

The taste was fabulous (thanks to the liquors). However, the mint chiffonade, which, while adding colour, did not blend well with the ice crystals producing a weird texture. Next time, I could try to blanch the mint first so that it can get a bit softer and I could chop it more finely... Otherwise, I feel this recipe is good for the best restaurants!