Mango Coconut Lime Ice Pops

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It is undoubtedly the summer of ice pops. This week we’re going tropical with mango and coconut, with some lime thrown in, because we’re fancy like that.

The first time I made them, I layered the coconut and mango to make them striped. While they made for a gorgeous picture, I found that the mango-lime layer was too tart and the coconut layer was too sweet. So, I am recommending that you throw aesthetics aside (not something I am prone to doing lightly), for the greater good of taste, and forgo the lovely layers. When you blend everything together the harmony of flavours is exceptional.

You could of course buy fresh mangoes, sit them on your countertop and wait several days for them to ripen. But it’s bloody hot and we want our ice pops NOW, so buy a bag of frozen chopped mango.

Chances are, If you have any millennials in the house, there’s already a bag of frozen mango in your freezer along with the ubiquitous container of protein powder in the cupboard, and kale and spinach in the fridge. My daughter is visiting for the summer , so we are well stocked on all the smoothie ingredients.

Into the blender go frozen mangoes, lime zest and juice, coconut milk, a bit of sweetened condensed milk and a touch of heavy cream.
You could leave them unadorned or accessorize them with a quick dip in melted white chocolate and toasted coconut. Your choice. No judgement here.

Click here to print recipe for Mango Coconut Lime Ice Pops.

Cherry Yogurt Breakfast Ice Pops

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I make popsicles a few times every summer and end up buying new molds almost every year because I can’t find them or have lost half the parts for the set. This year I splurged on this set , and I am promising myself it will be the last set I will ever buy. They are stainless steel and everything fits neatly into a little tray to hold and store all the parts.

Fresh cherries are at their peak now and we decided to celebrate with them.My daughter thought that plain Greek yogurt would be the perfect base for these popsicles. She is way more health conscious than I am and she convinced me to sweeten them with just 2 tablespoons of honey. We decided to use both pureed and chopped cherries for a textural treat.

Fresh or frozen pitted cherries are cooked with a bit of water for about 5 minutes, until softened. They get blitzed in the blender. we mixed some chopped fresh cherries with the yogurt and honey and filled the molds 2/3 full. Then we poured in the pureed cherry mixture and swirled it with a wooden skewer for a pretty marbled design.
Since they are not very sweet, I thought they would make a perfect portable breakfast. I couldn’t resist dipping the top into more honey and rolling them in some chopped granola, for a complete breakfast!

Click here for recipe for Cherry Yogurt Breakfast Ice Pops.

Tropical Coconut Cookies

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I know that posting a new cookie recipe in July, in the middle of a heatwave, seems like a bad idea, but go with me on this one, please. I promise you, these cookies are worth turning the oven on for.

Coconut is one of those polarizing ingredients, much like cilantro. People either seem to love it or hate it. I am #teamcoconut all the way. These cookies were inspired by Martha’s Coconut Chip cookies. 

I tried Martha’s recipe but found that the cookies spread way too much. They were too chewy from all that coconut and the bottom got way too dark before the top of the cookie finished baking. They were good, but not quite blog worthy. I was going away for the weekend, so I tossed them into the freezer and decided I would play around with proportions and remake them the following week. My daughter and 7 of her friends discovered them in the freezer and polished them off, saying they were the best cookies ever. One of them described them as “juicy”. I am assuming that was the extra-chewy quality of these cookies.

I tinkered with the recipe and added more flour so that they did not spread as much. I reduced the amount of coconut and added in some chopped macadamia nuts and white chocolate chunks. I believe that coconut, macadamia and white chocolate are the baking holy trinity.
For the coconut, use unsweetened coconut chips.  An ice cream scoop makes quick work of portioning the cookies. You want them all exactly the same size so that they bake evenly.
White chocolate, on its own, can be cloyingly sweet. But pair it with buttery, crunchy macadamia nuts and that’s when the magic happens. Add coconut to the mix and you have a home run. Chewy, nutty, crunchy, these cookies have it all. I would imagine that a scoop of vanilla ice cream sandwiched between 2 of these may be just what you need to beat the heat.

Or just have one with a cold glass of milk.

Click here to print recipe for Tropical Coconut Cookies.

Skirt Steak with Pomegranate Tomato Relish

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Skirt steak, prized for its deeply rich flavour, is one of my favourite cuts of meat to grill in the summer. I have been making a version of this recipe for years now, and it ocurred to me that I have never shared it with you. My bad. So sorry.

You all know that I love salt, but if you buy kosher meat, be aware that kosher skirt steak is super salty. Proper koshering technique requires that the salt be put on all sides of the meat. Skirt steak is a very thin cut, so it absorbs more salt than a thicker cut. My butcher friend Joel suggested that I soak the skirt steak in cold water, for about an hour in the fridge before marinating. Change the water every 20 minutes. This works really well in reducing the saltiness. Of course, if you don’t keep kosher, skip this step.

Start with a really flavourful marinade. I whisked together an assertive blend of olive oil, red wine, red wine vinegar, pomegranate molasses, honey, garlic, thyme and bay leaves. Overnight is ideal, but if you are short of time, a few hours in the fridge is fine.

While the meat is marinating, prepare the salsa. Pomegranate and tomatoes are mixed with lime zest, lots if parsley and some olive oil for a sweet-tart salsa that cuts through the richness of the beef. Let the meat rest for about 5 minutes before slicing. Make sure you slice against the grain. I filmed a video to show you the right way.

Click here to print recipe for Skirt Steak with Pomegranate Tomato Salsa.

Malted Milk Ice Cream

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 Perhaps it’s the latent scientist in me, but I find the process of making ice cream fascinating. Taking something from a liquid to a solid state is just so cool. (pun intended).I adore the flavour of malted milk powder. It adds caramel, toasty, roasted notes to all sorts of desserts. But what exactly is malted milk powder? I wasn’t really sure where it came from, so I did a bit of research. Turns out that malted milk powder is a derivative of barley.

The process involves taking sprouted barley, drying and grinding it up into a powder. During this process, the starches in the grain are converted to sugar, producing a sweet dried grain powder. Dried malt becomes the base for beer, whiskey and malt vinegar.

When dried malt is mixed with wheat flour and milk powder, it becomes malted milk powder. This stuff is a flavour bomb. I love adding it to cookies and brownies. The addition of milk powder to the blend adds a creamy rich dairy note, which is why I love it added to ice cream. You need to read the label of the brand you are using. Some brands, like Ovaltine, add sugar and cocoa powder. Other brands, like Hoosier Hill Farm, keep it pure.

I made this ice cream with Ovaltine, as I liked the hint of chocolate it added to the ice cream from the cocoa powder in the mix. If you prefer a more intense malted flavour, use a brand without any added cocoa.

This recipe comes from the King Arthur website. They added a swirl of chocolate fudge sauce to theirs. I left that out, but added some chopped Mars Bars during the last few minutes of freezing my ice cream. I like the little surprise of chocolate malted nougat bits studded throughout the ice cream.

Click here to print recipe for Malted Milk Ice Cream.

Watermelon Basil Cocktail

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I love a good kitchen hack, and when it’s suggested by none other than Alton Brown, I can’t resist.

When I saw him make watermelon juice without first peeling and dicing the watermelon, I was riveted. We tried it at the cottage last weekend and it totally works. It’s also so much fun. We mixed the watermelon juice with vodka and lime juice and topped it up with some sparkling water.

You can of course cut up watermelon and puree it in the blender. Either way you choose to do it, I suggest pouring the juice through a sieve to remove the lumpy bits. You want a smooth juice.

This week I tinkered with the recipe we created on the weekend. Our watermelon wasn’t that sweet, so I made a simple syrup. I decided to flavour the syrup with basil, since watermelon and basil are a really delicious flavour pairing. The basil takes this cocktail from good to great.

This would be the perfect cocktail to celebrate Canada Day or the 4th of July!

Click here to print recipe for Watermelon and Basil Cocktail.

Emergency Brownies

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These brownies are the creation of Stella Parks. If you are a baker and don’t know who Stella is, make it your business to learn all about her. She will make you life so much sweeter. She is the resident pastry wizard over at seriouseats.com. She is also the author of the charming cookbook Bravetart; Iconic American Desserts.

Stella wanted to create a homemade boxed brownie mix, for those times when crisis strikes, and you need a brownie immediately, but don’t have time to make them from scratch. You know, like when you scrape your car on the wall of your parking garage, or when you find out that The Chew was cancelled, or you need something to snack on while binge-watching something this weekend.

All the dry ingredients are mixed together in the food processor. Then you stash the mix in an airtight jar for emergencies. When crisis strikes, preheat oven to 350°F (if only most solutions to life problems could be solved by preheating to 350!), add coffee, 2 eggs, and some vanilla extract and the batter is ready.

A jar of this mix would be the perfect hostess gift to bring with you the next time you are invited to a cottage for the weekend. If you are feeling extra generous, bring along a new baking pan and some parchment paper and impress your friends with your ability to perfectly line the baking pan.


My favourite baking pan is made from light coloured aluminum. Pyrex or glass pans are poor heat conductors, which means that they are slow to heat up and to cool down. This can cause brownies to overbake, because the pan is stays so hot for so long after you take it out of the oven that it continues to bake the brownies.

Stella is insistent on top quality ingredients. Spring for the good dark chocolate, 70% bittersweet. Make sure your cocoa powder is Dutch process. It is darker and higher in fat. She recommends Cacao Barry Extra Brute, and I concur. The secret ingredient is malted milk powder. It is a flavour bomb. Ovaltine is available at most supermarkets, or you can buy Hoosier Hills Farms online. Stella suggests boosting the chocolate flavour with a little instant espresso powder in the dry mix. I used that the first time I made them. The second time, I didn’t have any left, so I substituted some strong coffee for the water she calls for in the wet ingredients. Score! The coffee really bumped up the chocolate notes.
The second change I made to the recipe was to add some chopped up Skor bars, because toffee can soothe like no other flavour.

 

Click here to print recipe for Emergency Brownies.

Green Goddess Chilled Soup

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Most of the year I live a fairly hermit-like existence. Don’t feel badly for me, I like it that way. Sometimes it’s all about JOMO (the Joy Of Missing Out). But come summer, I try to cram in as much socializing as is possible. I am fortunate to be able to spend most of the summer on the lake, at our cottage. We have family and friends almost every weekend.

Although I love cooking, I don’t want to spend all my time in the kitchen, so I try to keep things simple. All my guests know that when they ask what they can bring, I ask them to be responsible for one meal. My friends and family are very skilled in the kitchen so it’s really nice to spend the afternoon on the hammock and be called to the deck for aperitivo and dinner.

I spend a day in the kitchen during the week doing meal prep, washing and chopping vegetables, making salad dressings and dips and baking some cookies or squares and stashing them in the freezer. That way, when the weekend rolls around I just have to thaw, assemble and grill.

Each summer I try to find a few new dishes that are big on flavour, look pretty and are able to be made in advance. Then I make them every weekend. The guests change and don’t realize it was served last weekend. This works until my husband and I are sick of eating it. That usually sets in by mid-August.

This chilled Green Goddess Soup is going on the summer rotation. I love it because everything is buzzed in the blender and it keeps in the fridge for 2 days. As the summer progresses you can garnish it with sweet corn niblets and diced vine ripened tomatoes. For now, some fresh herbs and cucumber ribbons look really fancy.

This soup was inspired by Melissa Clark’s Chilled Cucumber Soup over at NYT Cooking. I decided to play with the flavours of Green Goddess dressing and added an avocado to the mix for added richness. Cucumber is fairly bland, so it needs help from lots of herbs, a touch of garlic and a secret flavour bomb of an ingredient, anchovy paste. The soup will not taste fishy, but it adds a wonderful rich and deep flavour note.

I used basil, mint, Italian parsley and dill. For the liquid, I used Greek yogurt, thinned with a bit of water. A squeeze of lemon and a splash of sherry vinegar add a hit of acidic freshness.

Click here to print recipe for Green Goddess Chilled Soup.

Spring Panzanella Salad

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The Panzanella salad was created in Tuscany as a way to use up stale bread. The classic version  is traditionally made in summer. It includes chunks of stale bread and tomatoes, sometimes, onions and basil, simply dressed with olive oil and vinegar.

It is customary to soak the bread, as I discovered on a trip to the Amalfi coast a few years ago. I also discovered that the time honoured panzanella salad is not my jam. I really dislike the texture of the soaked bread. I prefer my stale bread with a bit of crunch.

This is my springtime take on the typical panzanella salad. It’s not prime tomato time yet, so I focused on spring produce. I have included a recipe at the end of the post, but there are no rules. Feel free to improvise and use what looks good to you.

I started with one of the first signs of spring, pea shoots. These are the sweet, curly, tender leaves and stems of the pea plant. Pea shoots have a subtle pea flavor and a light and crunchy texture. They are becoming more readily available. if you can’t find them, arugula or watercress would be a good substitute. If you can find fresh peas, they would add a perfect pop to this salad. Sugar snap peas are a good alternative.
Asparagus is a natural choice for this salad. Although I said there are no rules, I do have two fundamental edicts. Please don’t buy those flavourless skinny-ass pencil asparagus. And, please peel the bottom 2 inches of the stalk once you have trimmed the woody end off. It’s how I was trained. It’s a small detail that adds a bit of finesse and style to your salad.
Up next are radishes. Regular radishes add a bit of heat to the salad.

If you can find watermelon radishes, buy a few. They are larger than regular radishes and kind of gnarly looking on the outside.

But slice one open, and you will be smitten by that gorgeous magenta interior. They are milder than regular radishes and make any salad seem luxe.
And, because I refuse to believe that #putaneggonit is over, top the salad with a jammy (seven minute) egg.

Click here to print recipe for Spring Panzanella Salad.

Rhubarb and Pistachio Bundt Cake

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Pretty soon, we will be winging our way from rhubarb season straight into strawberry season. I am a little sad about it, my husband, less so! This pretty bundt cake was inspired by a brown butter strawberry-rhubarb glazed donut over at the charming blog, Adventures in Cooking. If you don’t know about Eva’s blog, you should check it out. It’s stunning.

Eva baked buttermilk donuts and dipped them into a pretty pink glaze, concocted from brown butter and pureed strawberries and rhubarb. I adapted her glaze and put it on this amazing rhubarb-pistachio bundt cake. Truthfully, the cake was almost faster to put together than the glaze, but taking the time to brown butter and roast the berries and rhubarb is worth it.

The first time I made the glaze, (yes, I ended up making it twice!) and poured it onto the cake, it was too thick and a bit fibrous from the strawberry seeds and stringy rhubarb pulp. So on the second go-round I strained the glaze through a fine mesh strainer and got the perfect consistency.

Oh, I forgot to tell you, the glaze is enriched with a bit of melted white chocolate to give it that extra oomph! You could, of course, make the cake plain, without the glaze, but why would you want to?

Studded with tangy rhubarb and crunchy pistachios, this cake is not too sweet. A little slice is the perfect afternoon pick-me-up.

Click here to print recipe for Rhubarb and Pistachio Bundt Cake.