Author Archives: saltandserenity

White Bean and Kale Soup

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Does anyone else suffer from “soup fatigue”? I’m talking about that feeling of losing interest after a few spoonfuls. I get bored by the flavour of every mouthful being exactly the same as the last. Not so with this soup. It’s got it all going on in terms of both flavour and texture.

I’ll warn you right now that this is not one of those soups you can throw together in 30 minutes. It calls for dried white kidney beans, so you will need to soak them for about 8 hours before proceeding with making the soup. Once the beans are soaked, they are cooked with onions, carrots and celery, which infuses the beans with great flavour. Plus, as a bonus, you use that flavourful bean cooking liquid in the soup. If you’re pressed for time, you could use canned beans, but you won’t get the same depth of flavour that cooking the beans yourself develops.

To add even more flavour to the soup I added a rind of parmesan cheese to the simmering pot. I keep the rinds in the freezer in a ziploc bag. They infuse the soup with a big boost of umami. Both regular and sweet potatoes are added along with a big handful of deep green kale.

While the soup is simmering, make a batch of coarse seasoned bread crumbs as a garnish. They add a welcome crunch to the creamy soup.

Click here to print recipe for White Bean and Kale Soup

Autumn Gingerbread Leaves

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A few years ago, I posted a gluten free version of these cookies. I wanted to share a gluten version for those not avoiding wheat. This gingerbread recipe comes from the genius folks over at Cook’s Illustrated. Thick and chewy and loaded with ginger and cinnamon, they are perfect. If you like them crispy, just bake them a bit longer.

Even though gingerbread is usually associated with fall and winter, I bake it all year long. I love to sandwich dulce de leche icecream between 2 cookies in the summer!

Decorating these cookies makes me feel like a real artist and the method is simple and fairly idiot proof. Check out the how-to video.

https://youtu.be/Rle7e5Pn1F4
Click here to print recipe for Autumn Gingerbread LeavesDownload



Butternut Squash and Israeli Cous Cous

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Let’s ease into this new season together, gently. No to boots and sweaters just yet, but I will encourage you to turn on the oven and roast some butternut squash. If you’re intimidated by a whole butternut, I’ve got you covered. Here’s an old video I made showing you the safest way to get the job done.

https://youtu.be/lMvnojo8S64

I like to dice the squash quite small for this salad. Little cubes, about 1/4 inch in size is perfect. Be patient and methodical, it will be worth it. Tiny pieces cook more quickly, plus, when all that surface area makes contact with a screaming hot pan, the result is lots of little crispy bits. Toss diced squash with some olive oil, salt and pepper and a few sprigs of fresh thyme and roast at 400°F.

I love to pair the squash with Israeli couscous (also known as pearl couscous). Israeli couscous is technically not a grain, but rather a pasta. Made from wheat flour and semolina, it is toasted, rather than dried. The easiest way to cook it is in lots of boiling salted warter, just like any other pasta. Cook it until it’s al dente. Part of the charm of Israeli couscous is the chewy, bouncy texture.

The squash and couscous are quite bland, so they need an assertive dressing to make it come alive. My vinegar of choice is sherry vinegar (labelled vinaigre de Jerez). It’s more rounded and complex than red wine or apple cider vinegar and way less cloying than balsamic. It has a crisp, bright acidity with lots of nuttiness and some caramel undertones. Don’t buy anything labelled “cooking sherry”. That’s not the same thing. My favourite brand sells for about $12 a bottle and it’s commonly sold in higher end grocery stores. In Ottawa I buy it at Herb and Spice. If you can’t find it, red wine vinegar would work quite well in this salad.

My green of choice for this salad is arugula. It’s peppery bite is perfect with the bland couscous and the sweet squash. A sprinkling of deeply toasted hazelnuts adds a welcome crunch. Any leftovers keep well in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Click here to print recipe for Roasted Butternut Squash and Israeli Couscous SaladDownload

Grilled Gazpacho with Cheese Crisps

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I’m not ready to wear socks yet. It’s technically still summer, and I plan to squeeze out every bit of joy from the last moments of the season. The markets are still overflowing with corn, peppers and tomatoes, so I’m going to ignore the pumpkins for just a bit longer.

This late summer soup comes together quickly. I grilled tomatoes, sweet red peppers, a jalapeno pepper, sweet onion and some corn. I dumped everything, except for the corn, into the blender and puréed until smooth.

The soup could be served heated or chilled, your choice. I like to serve it with some do-it-yourself garnishes. I filled some little bowls with diced cucumber, red pepper and charred corn.

If you’ve got a bit of extra time, make some lacy Parmesan crisps to crumble up into the soup for some crunch. They take about 8 minutes to bake in the oven.

Click here to print recipe for Grilled Gazpacho SoupDownload

Apple and Honey Challah Twist

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Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, is just a few weeks away. It’s traditional to dip apples in honey, to symbolize our desire for a sweet year ahead. In my desire to be efficient and practical, I thought it would be a brilliant idea to bake my honey and apples right into the challah. I have been hard at work the past two weeks, figuring out just how to achieve that.

My starting point was my favourite challah dough. On Rosh Hashanah, challah is round, a circle without an end, to symbolize our wish for a year in which life and blessings continue without end. I was inspired by cloudykitchen’s Mixed Nut and Dulce de Leche Brioche Knot. Her clever twisting method was perfect for Rosh Hashanah.

After baking 5 versions of apple and honey challah, I believe I have nailed it. My husband, my chiropractor and my UPS man were happy to eat my experiments. None were a total fail, but there were a few issues along the way. The first hurdle to overcome was how to add the apples. Raw apples leached too much moisture into the challah, and made for a soggy bread. Sauteeing them first, solved that problem.

The apple flavour was kind of muted in the finished bread. In order to amp up the apple volume, I spread the dough with a thin layer of apple butter. Apple butter is simply very concentrated applesauce. There is actually no butter in it, only apples. It’s tangy and really packs a wallop of flavour. Some brown sugar, cinnamon and golden raisins provided a perfect counterpoint for all that zingy apple flavour.

Check out my video to see how it all came together.

https://youtu.be/KY80IAQMm14


Any leftover bread makes amazing toast the next morning. It’s a perfect way to segue gently from summer into fall. I’m not quite ready for pumpkin, but I will happily embrace apples in any form.

Click here to print recipe for Rosh Hashanah Twisted Apple and Honey Challah

Late Summer Tomato and Burrata Pasta

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Tomatoes don’t reach their prime until mid-late August. That’s when the farmstands and markets are full of juicy, ripe, warm from the sun tomatoes. And if you’re anythig like me, you buy way too many because we have waited so long for them to arrive. If you happen to have a surplus of ripe tomatoes, this pasta is a fantastic way to use them up.

A mix of different kinds of tomatoes is fine. If you can find any heirloom varieties, they are perfect for this dish. Just halve or quarter the little ones and dice the larger ones into a 1/2 inch dice. There is a no-cook sauce. When tomatoes are this good, heat is not needed. Mix up a marinade of garlic, anchovy paste, red pepper flakes, olive oil, red wine vinegar and capers. Let the tomatoes macerate in this liquid while you cook the pasta. Use a good quality, fruity extra- virgin olive oil here. And don’t be afraid of the salt. Tomatoes need lots of salt.

Cook up a pound of pasta. Penne, rigatoni, fusilli, orecchiette or any short pasta will work here. You need a hollow pasta or one with lots of curves, to catch all the flavourful liquid. Toss the drained pasta into the bowl with the tomatoes. The warm pasta will absorb all that delicious liquid.

This pasta can be served warm or you could let it sit for a few hours and serve it at room temperature. Add a few dollops of burrata cheese and lots of fresh basil just before serving. If you can’t find burrata, fresh mozzarella would also be delicious. Check out this article if you’re wondering about the difference between freh mozzarella and burrata.

Click here to print recipe for Summer Tomato and Burrata Pasta SaladDownload

Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

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If you’re of a certain age, you may remember a time when ice cream treats were sold from a truck that travelled around to different neighbourhoods. That ringing bell would set off an avalanche of kids, running from their houses.

My favourite was the Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream Bar. I loved how the crunch of the outside coating gave way to the soft fluffy ice cream middle. I recently had a craving for them and bought a box at the supermarket. It was so disappointing. It tasted nothing like my memory. It was too sweet and really artificial tasting. Nostalgia is often like that.

Luckily for us, Stella Parks over at seriouseats has made it her mission to turn our childhood memories into a reality that never disappoints.

In order to get an intense strawberry flavour, start with freeze-dried strawberries instead of fresh ones. Fresh strawberries have too much water, and when you freeze them into an ice cream base, it becomes icy, not creamy and smooth.

This is a no churn ice cream (meaning no ice cream machine needed). Start with egg whites and sugar, heat them to 165°F and then whip them into a, stiiff meringue.

Whip some heavy cream with ground up freeze dried strawberries and then fold it into the meringue. Then pipe this mixture into popsicle molds. After years of buying and losing plastic popsicle molds, I finally invested in these. But any popsicle molds will work.

Pop them into the freezer for at least 24 hours.

For dipping, mix melted white chocolate with a bit of coconut oil. That will give you a thin outer shell for the ice cream. Grind up some more freeze dried strawberries with Rice Krispies and then roll the chocolate coated bars in this. Crunch!!

Take a bite and relive your childhood!

Click here to print recipe for Shortcake Ice Cream Bars

Apricot Raspberry Crisp

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If we’re being completely honest here, and I think that we’ve known each other long enough for total transparency, fruit crisp is not really about the fruit. The fruit is just a vehicle for the buttery, crumbly crisp topping. Right?

My crisp topping incorporates butter, brown sugar, rolled oats, flour, a healthy pinch of salt and a lavish amount of toasted nuts. Today I opted for pistachios. I think they pair perfectly with apricots.

The topping comes together quickly, using your hands in a big bowl. Maker a double batch of the topping and store the extra in the freezer so you can make a crisp whenever the urge hits. It’s great in the fall with apples or pears and cranberries in the winter.

https://youtu.be/FVaoXEsgoWg

No need to peel apricots, just pit and dice. The amount of sugar you add will depend entirely on how ripe your apricots are. Start with 1/4 cup of sugar and taste. You can always add more. I like to thicken my crisp with Minit Tapioca. It does not make the juices cloudy like flour would. It’s available in the supermarket in the same aisle as Jell-O.

Click here to print recipe for Apricot Raspberry Crisp

Plum and Cherry Galette with Pistachio Crust

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Most recipes I post on this blog go through several iterations of testing before I deem them “blog worthy” . (Sort of like “sponge worthy”.) I don’t want to waste your time posting recipes that disappoint. As main taste tester, my husband happily eats most of my experiments. However, even he could not choke down first version of this galette. It was an epic fail.

I started with my favourite Galette Dough, spread it with a thin layer of pistachio paste, and dotted halved Bing Cherries over that. It looked pretty going into the oven.

But once baked, the pistachio paste became gummy, the zingy cherry flavour became muted and the chopped pistachios on top of the tart burned and became bitter.

I tackled the problems one at a time. It was clear that the pistachio flavour I was hoping for was not going to come from adding them on top of the dough. But what if I incorporated chopped pistachios into the dough? Bon Appetit has a great recipe for a savory galette, with a pistachio crust. This dough would work perfectly in a sweet application.

To tackle the dull cherry flavour, I decided to nix the fresh cherries and spread sour cherry jam on the galette. This is my favourite brand, but there are other brands available online or in the supermarket.

The final piece of the puzzle was figuring out what fruit to put on top. I had a bag of ripe plumcots in the fridge and their vibrant red interior would be gorgeous for this galette. Plums, apricots or pluots would also be excellent choices.

I like to think of a galette as a lazy-ass tart. No need to press into a pan or crimp edges. Just gently fold the dough to create an edge. The rustic appearance is part of the galette’s charm.

This galette was a home run. The gentle crunch of the pistachio in the crust added texture. The sour cherry jam was a perfect complement to the sweet plumcots.

Click here to print recipe for Plum and Cherry Galette with Pistachio Crust

Malted Milk Ice Cream Sandwiches

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If you’re not a food photographer, you might think that shooting ice cream sandwiches is fun. Nothing could be further from the truth. Photographing ice cream is one of the most challenging foods, because it melts so quickly.

I made the mistake of trying to shoot this last Saturday at the cottage, where it was a sweltering 32°C, with a humidex of 41°C! The ice cream wasn’t the only thing melting. We were sweating just standing still. I finally shoved the sandwiches back into the freezer and spent the afternoon on the hammock, in the shade. I got up very early Sunday morning before the heat got too bad and managed to get a few good shots.

Do you remember ice cream sandwiches before they got all fancy? That squidgey chocolate wafer, so moist, it stuck to the paper wrapper. How you had to lick the chocolate crumbs off your fingers after you were all done. The familiar, bland, slightly too sweet, vanilla ice cream center.

I wanted to recreate the ice cream sandwiches of my youth, but with a bit of an update. I’d keep the fudgy chocolate wafer but elevate the ice cream center. I decided to fill mine with malted milk ice cream.

Cook’s Illustrated has a fantastic recipe for the chocolate wafers. The addition of chocolate syrup keeps them super fudgy. All the ingredients are mixed in a bowl and spread into a thin layer on a baking sheet. Once they are baked and cooled, you can cut them into any shape you like.

If you would prefer not to make ice cream, just soften some storebought and spread it out onto a baking sheet. Freeze until solid and then cut into the same shape as the chocolate wafers.

They are delicious as is or you can go deluxe and embellish them with melted chocolate and various toppings. I used chopped Malteasers, mini chocolate chips and Skor bits.

Click here to print recipe for Malted Milk Ice Cream SandwichesDownload