Bits ‘n Bites

Finally, with craziness of the holidays behind me, I can settle down once more and get my life back on track. It’s nutty – all this hoopla for one day…

Although I haven’t contributed much to this blog recently, the holidays were all about baking and cooking for me. I went back East to spend the holidays with my mom. It had been a couple of years since I had been to T.O for the holidays, so it was my turn to make the trek. Luckily the weather cooperated and stayed mild throughout my stay. Despite that, I wasn’t in the mood to confront mobs of people in stores this year. Luckily, my shopping excursions extended to grocery stores. I was determined this year to learn the technique for making Quebec’s traditional stew of “Ragoût de pattes”, or pigs’ feet stew. Since we were hosting the Christmas dinner, it all got rolled into a week of non-stop cooking and baking. It was great!

The recipe my mom uses as her base for the stew is from Jehane Benoît, a famous Quebec cook. With a few modifications, we came out with this recipe. (Hint: caramelize your onions and hocks until dark brown for a richer sauce).

Ragoût de pattes de cochon

1.5 kg pork hocks
1 tsp Salt
1/4 tsp Pepper
1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1 pinch Nutmeg
4 tbsp Butter
4-6 cups Water
1/2 cube of chicken stock, dissolved in water above
1 Cup onions, caramelized
4 tbsp flour, roasted
1/2 Cup Water

Instructions :
1. Season pork hocks with salaison (salt, pepper, ground cinnamon, cloves and nutmeg)
overnight .
2. Caramelized onions in a deep saucepan in 2 Tbsp butter. Remove from saucepan.
3. In same saucepan, melt 2 tbsp butter and sear well pork hocks.
4. Add water and dissolved chicken stock cube, and onions to pork hocks. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for at least two
hours, until meat falls from bones.
5. Remove pork hocks from saucepan and cool overnight in fridge. Remove/skim congealed fat.
6. Roast flour in oven until caramel brown (350F).
7. Remove meat from bone and set aside.
8. Thicken pork hocks liquid with roasted flour until nice thick consistency. Season with
salt, pepper (and allspice) to taste.
9. Add cooked pork meatballs and pork meat and heat thoroughly.
10. Traditionally served with boiled potatoes.

Pork Meatballs
1 lb ground pork, lean
1 Cup Milk
1 Cup bread crumbs
3/4 Cup onion, finely chopped
1/2 Cup celery, finely chopped
to taste Salt
to taste Pepper
to taste Allspice

Instructions :
1. Mix milk and bread crumbs well
2. Add pork, celery and onions. Mix well.
3. Add seasoning to taste and refrigerate overnight.
4. Roll mixture into 1-inch meatballs and fry in a bit of butter until 3/4 cooked.
5. Add to Ragoût de pattes to complete cooking.

This was one of the best ragoût we ever made. The key being patience in caramelizing your onions and hocks. The flour should also be dark brown, but not burnt. It took us over an hour to get it the right colour in the oven. But it was well worth the wait…

With wet snow falling outside my window this morning (again), it was a perfect day to tackle this month’s Blog Party Challenge: Another Bite of Dessert, hosted by the Happy Sorceress. The theme was straightforward: dessert canapés.

So many choices…Last week, for the first time, I finally got access to the Food Network as part of my new digital TV system. And for the first time, I got to see the Iron Chef of America show. Well-timed, the show was titled: All-Star Holiday Dessert Battle: Cora/Deen vs. Irvine/Florence. From the Food Network website:

In another All-Star culinary showdown, the Chairman has invited Paula Deen to partner up with Iron Chef Cat Cora and compete against Food Network’s own Tyler Florence and Robert Irvine.

The hour was filled with a myriad of desserts and sweets. My fillings were hurting at the final offering to the judges. Tina Fey was comatose by the end of it all. But, I had found my inspiration for this challenge.

Paula Deen’s Chocolate Cheese Fudge was intriguing. I had baked cream cheese with chocolate, but Velveeta cheese?…I decided to tone down the richness of that fudge by using it as a base and adding cranberries as a topping.

Cheesy Fudge Cranberry Tarts

Base
Paula Deen’s Chocolate Cheese Fudge

Press one tablespoon into greased mini cupcake molds. Refrigerate.

Topping
1 cup frozen or fresh cranberries, roughly chopped
1 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup water
Splash of Southern Comfort (could also use Grand Marnier or Cointreau)
Fresh mint leaves, chiffonade

In a small saucepan, heat up the Southern Comfort with the chopped cranberries over medium heat. Add the sugar and water, reduce. Remove from heat and cool.

Assembly
Unmold the fudge cups, spoon some of the cranberry mixture in the cup and garnish with mint chiffonade.

The ladies also concocted a peppermint martini for the judges. This triggered my second canapé:

Peppermint Profiteroles
Base
Profiteroles: Choux paste recipe

Filling
Peppermint Pastry Cream:
2/3 cup whole milk
2 inch vanilla bean
2 egg yolks
3 tbsp sugar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1/4 tsp peppermint extract

In a small, heavy saucepan over high heat, combine the milk and vanilla bean and bring to a simmer.

Meanwhile, in a bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar and cornstarch until well blended. When the milk reaches a simmer, remove it from the heat and gradually whisk the hot milk mixture into the yolk mixture.

Return the mixture to the saucepan and place it over medium heat. Cook, whisking constantly, until the pastry cream thickens and boils, about 1 minute. Stir in the peppermint extract. Discard the vanilla bean and cool.

Toppings
Chocolate ganache
Candy cane, crushed

Assembly
Pipe the pastry cream into each choux. Dip each choux into warm ganache. Sprinkle with crushed candy cane.

For the cocktail, I decided to keep it simple: Brandy Toddy, from DrinkMixer website.

Brandy Toddy
2 oz brandy
1/2 tsp powdered sugar
1 tsp water
1 twist lemon peel

Dissolve powdered sugar in 1 tsp. water in an old-fashioned glass. Add brandy and one ice cube and stir. Add twist of lemon peel on top and serve.

Happy holidays all!

Here’s another Christmas gift suggestion for that foodie in your life…an online professional cooking course. Rouxbe.com, offers online cooking videos. I came across this company through my cooking school, Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver, who are also partners with this site. Starting in 2008, Rouxbe will be offering a full cooking school curriculum via the web. Subscribers to the site will have full access to this course, as well as all of the additional videos already present. Details are available here.

There is a 30-day free trial you can sign up for to check up the site. Annual memberships are $US49 and lifetime memberships are $US149. There is another option also available, and it’s a very interesting model I had not seen yet. You can still access the site for free after the 30-days if you sign-up for the sponsorship model. Rouxbe will find you a company, based on your tastes or interests, who will sponsor your access to the site. More details here.

To add to the fuzzies, Rouxbe donates 15% of all subscription fees to hunger relief agencies around the world through its Rouxbe for Life program. They are also Eco-neutral certified.

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Disclaimer: I am not associated with Rouxbe either personally or professionally. I did get a free annual subscription earlier in the year, as a graduate of Northwest Culinary, and because they were looking for people to test drive the site. I am not getting any commissions or kickbacks from promoting this site. I just like what they’re doing, the fact that they’re a local company and in my partnership with my school, and think they did a very nice job with the site. I also like their giving back to the community. End of story.

Stumbled onto this news item today in my Epicurious newsletter. You can create a custom cookbook using up to 100 recipes found on the epicurious site, or add your own recipes if you wish, or leave some blank space for later add-ins. Browse and borrow from some already created books by famous chefs. The book is hardcover and spiral-bound. You can even put your name on the cover. Cost: $us34.95. For more details, go to: epicurious.com. You will need to create a free account on Epicurious to use this feature.