Apologies to all!

So I have been the worlds worst blogger lately! I have an excuse. All I've been cooking lately have been recipes for the restaurant. While I will post ssome teasers and small recipes before we open I can't really do that yet. I do have good news on that front, we have been looking at a few places and may be putting in an offer on the place we looked at yesterday!!! If that is the case we will be able to open in August!!! So I'm sorry I haven't been around and I promise I'll think of something to post soon. As soon as this heatwave is over and I'm eating more than salad.
until then here is an oldie but a goodie. I don't have instructional pics but it's pretty easy to put together.

This is a poached pear tart. It is devine! I got this recipe from one of my all time favorite cookbooks The Seven Sins Of Chocolate.

This book is stunning and the recipes are to DIE for. Who could not love a book all about chocolate? Some of the recipes are a bit advanced for the average home cook but many are so simple (spiced hot chocolate anyone?) I highly reccomend it. I just love looking at it on a rainy afternoon the photos are stunning. I wish I had a better pic of this but trust me no one will believe you made this. It takes 2 days (you want to let your pears sit over night) but is really simple if you don't let all the steps scare you!!!
Lets start with the pears shall we? You want to do this the night before!




Poached Pears
3 firm pears
1 3/4 cups light red wine
3/4 cup sugar
1 cinnamon Stick
1 vanilla bean split open (you can use a tsp of extract in a pinch but it really is so much better with the bean!!)
1 Star Anise (available in most asian markets)

Peel and Core your pears and slice in half add everything but pears into a saucepan and bring to a boil. Once your sugar dissolves turn down the heat to a simmer and add your pears. Cook for about 15-20 minutes or until tender when peirced with a knife. Wrap and refridgerate overnight.

Sweet Pastry
3/4 cup AP flour
2 tbsp almond flour (If you don't have it just throw some raw almonds into a coffee grinder)
2 tbsp confectioners sugar
pinch of salt
6 tbsp butter chilled
1 large egg yolk mixed with 2 tbsp ice water.

Now I'm going to tell you a secret of making perfect pastry at home! Are you ready it will be here in a few moments in preperation for it stick your butter in the freezer! Now gather and mix all your dry ingredients you want your butter to be in the freezer for about 15 minutes. Now grab your cheese grater and grate that frozen butter rub it all together until it makes a course meal. I love this method beccause it makes that happen a lot faster with less handling. Which means less melting which in pastry is good! Now add your egg yolk water mixture and stir until it just comes together. If it's not add a little bit more water until it does!

Now wrap it and Stick it in the fridge for at least 2 hours but up to 12. Now beat the crap outta it with a rolling pin until you can roll it out. Roll it out to an 1/8 of an inch thick. roll it onto your rolling pin to transfer to your tart pan. Lay it in the tart pan and use your rolling pin to trim the edges. Just roll it over the top. Wrap it and freeze it for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oven to 375f place the tart pan onto a baking sheet. Dock the dough with a fork and fill with parchment paper. Weigh the paper down with beans. This is called Blind baking. Bake like this for 10-12 minutes until the dough is set. Then remove the weights and parchment and bake for anothe 10 minutes until golden brown.

You may want to do this step the night before as well or at the latest in the morning. It needs to chill completely before you pour in the ganache!

Chocolate Red Wine Ganache
5 oz bittersweet chocolate chopped
1/2 cup heavy cream
3 tbsp unsalted butter cut into small peices
3 tbsp light red wine (use the same as the pears. I even used the poaching liquid to be honest with you! I think I drank the rest of the wine with a girlfriend the night before.

Place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl. bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Wisk until smooth and then add the butter a peice at a time. Wisking this whole time add the wine and wisk until smooth.

Assemble
Pour still warm ganache into your pie shell. tap it a few times so that the ganache is smooth. Drain and pat dry your pears and slice them very thinly. place in a circular design around the chocolate. Dust the edges with sugar and ta-da! It's done!!!

I know this looks like a lot of work but it's not really. Same as baking a pie. Try it and you won't be dissapointed!! It's so pretty and always looks proffesional.

Enjoy!!!

Epic Cake.

I have a friend. My friend and I have been friends since grade 10. When we were young we got into trouble, we were however adorable (mainly her) and people would pretty much forgive us anything. We used to talk about gettng a loft. We had similar champagne tastes (that we couldn't afford.....and still can't.) with kooky, kitchy thrown in, (which we could afford and still can.) For birthdays and Christmasses we get each other similar gift bags that are bought at places like Urban Behaviour, Specialty candy stores and Outer Layer. Our dream for our loft was to have a Hello Kitty kitchen. We used to talk on the phone at night looking at these Hello Kitty sites wishing we had the credit cards to order something! In those days when our mid twenties (which we are now in) were as far away and exotic as the flying car.

Now this old friend is the Godmother to my child. So I decided to give her the gift of love and time. In cake form. Happy Birthday Jo we all love you!!!

I will post better pics/more intructional info at a later date. I more just wanted this out there! Believe it or not the cake was super tasty!!!



UPDATE;
So here are a few more pictures. I would be here for days showing people how to make this cake. I recommend this book. It is a great instructional book and is worth the money for the templates alone. The Hello Kitty cake is in here and I made a few additions and changes (all cosmetic none structural) from her Hello Kitty Cake. I love this book and has really Simple cakes as well as more advanced ones. I highly reccomend picking it up!!!

So here is the straight on cake from the front. The cake was 6 cakes (3 6 inch domes, 1 3x5 inch round and one 9x9 inch square) Not to mention all the lumber in there to keep it together (countless skeweres and toothpicks) The base was a 12 inch hexagong covered in fondant and coated with powdered black food colouring set with vodka. I used just the powder to give it that ashy, sort of apocolyptic look. I used this to create a stensil for the skulls on the base. They are also fondant. I did this while the cake was baking so that it would have a few days to dry. *Note* Beware traveling with this cake as the black colouring can get everywhere!! It will wash out of your clothes but it can get messy. I kinda looked like Cinderella by the end of it!







Here is a back side view. I don`t have a straight on back view right now but I am sure i will soon!! The cake was crumb coated with a raspberry buttercream. after that chilled over night I applied the fondant peices and then used a /10 tip bead on the snowsuit. Hello kitty has a bitten off ear and a cracked skull which is the exit wound from the necessary headshot. (I`m sure I don`t need to explain why a Zombie is shot in the head do I?) I used fondant for the skull and raspberry coulis for the blood. I also brought a squeeze bottle of the "blood" with me to the party to cover any imperfectiond from travel or so people could squeeze blood all over their cake. (This went over very well with a group of 20 something slightly inebriated individuals! The ribs are white fondant on black with a little blood for colour!





Here is her face. The face is rolled fondant shaded with powdered food colouring. I was inspired by this cartoon for the face. The eyes and nose are fondant attached with Royal Icing. The whiskers are toothpicks covered in royal icing. the drop of blood? More raspberry coulis.


Now you must be saying what my BD was saying. "OK that looks cool but it can't taste very good." He also says this whenever he watched Ace of Cakes, I agreed with him I could not figure out how to make a cake dense enough to do this taste good. Well Kate totally helped me there! The cake recipe I usedwas in the book I mentioned earlier and, well wow. It was chocolatey with a hint of coffee and some tanginess from buttermilk. It was delicious even when I left out the butter in one of the cakes! All in all if you like to decorate cakes (which I love!!) I highly reccomend inventing an occasion to make a cake out her book. Kate Sullivan you are a God. It was nice to be inspired by such a tallented individual. Not to mention my girl Jo without whom this cake never would have come into existence!!!!!

schizo post

So it was my good friend Ingrid's birthday on Tuesday. My baking ingredients at the new pad are really pathetic, which will hopefully be fixed this weekend when bd finally has a day off and we can do a real grocery shop. That however did not help me on Monday as I was trying to figure out what to make for Ingrid's birthday. I don't drive so my grocery list had to be portable. Like really portable, my stroller has next to no storage space in it. Then I remembered this blog I had seen. I remember how cute they looked and how simple they were. I wish I was as talented at photography as she is!!

I made a few changes to the recipe which proved a few difficulties. I added sliced peach into the cakes which meant these weren't really as structurally strong as they would be without the sliced peaches. Peaches contain a lot of moisture so I had to do some emergency surgery on these babies! They turned out okay though. Especially seeing as they were viewed in a dingy rock n' roll bar on Queen West! So here are the little peach cakes!!!

You will need for the cake;
1 box of yellow cake mix
3 eggs
1/3 cup of oil
1 cup milk
1/4 cup peach schnapps
sliced peaches (if you feel brave!)

For The Decorating
2 cups icing
2tbsp peach jam
12 whole almonds
2 cinnamon sticks
1 bunch mint

Set the oven to 350f

Drain and dry the peaches on paper towel. Get the peaches as dry as you can, you brave thing you!!!

Mix the rest of the ingredients together as per package directions.

now pour into these nifty pans you really need these to make it work!
you can buy them here. I think they're nifty!

pour your batter in filling them up about 2/3 full. I filled them up too much don't do that. especially if you are putting the peach slices in.
now add your peaches if you are using them.


Bake for 18 minutes. I'm not sure how long if you aren't using the peaches. I'd say read the box and keep an eye on them.

Now for the icing. Now I want to say that I normally never ever do this. I bought icing. I know, I know. How could I do such a thing. Normally my icing is my pride and joy. Literally the icing on the cake! I recommend making your own butter cream I should of but I'm gonna be honest. I knew these were going to be drunkenly devoured around midnight at the bar. No one would notice that I didn't make the icing. So I bought icing and threw about two tbsp of peach jam into the mix and threw it in the fridge.

Now for the decorating! In two small tupperware containers pour 1/4 cup of sugar, in one container pour in six drops of red food colouring in the other 12 drops of yellow food colouring. Now shake them up!!! dislodge any clumps with a fork.
Once your cakes have chilled to room temp smear a bit of icing on the flat side of the cake place an almond on the icing and place a second cake on top creating a sphere. You can paint the cakes with simple syrup now if you like. It will help them keep a little longer but it's not necessary. Now I put them in the fridge for an hour to harden these cute little things up! While they are in the fridge you can cut your cinnamon sticks into stems about you want them fairly thin and about half an inch long.

Unfortunately while they were hardening my lovely assistant had to leave so I don't have any more process pictures. It will just have to be description from here on out! Don't worry I'm scared too!

When they come out of the fridge have your 2 plates of sugar ready dab the cakes into the red sugar to create those lovely blushing cheeks peaches have, roll the rest of the cake in the yellow sugar making sure you pas close attention to the icing. now use your cinnamon stick bits to poke in a mint leaf and you are done!!

(note take pictures right when you make them! The sugar will stay on as will the colour but it rained the next day. Humidity and sugar are not friends!!!)

Well sorry about the craziness of this post. i may fix it, I may not. I do however have some pics and notes from the old place so you can look forward to another post soon! I hope when my schedule gets a little less hectic I'll be posting about 3 times a week.

Until the next sporadic time for now!
-lex

We're Moved!!!

So we moved to our new apartment last Thursday. Things have been a little hectic. We had to buy almost all our furniture plus all the other stresses of moving. I was so stressed out I left my kit behind!!!! So we are stuck trying to cook with a bread knife and two paring knives. Luckily I remembered my ice cream maker which as B.D. pointed out is the most important thing! He makes me laugh. So this is a back post. I made these for dinner one week and then made them as mini burgers for Superbowl Sunday. Until I get my knives back and finish oiling my lovely new prep bench that B.D. bought me for my birthday I will be scouring my pics for posts!!

I would like to introduce you to The Buffalo Chicken Burger!
Isn't it yummy looking!
You will need,

Burgers;
1 pound ground chicken (I grind my own, pre-ground pioultry freaks me out!!!)
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp worcestershire sauce (not gonna lie, I pulled it out of the fridge for spelling)
1/4 cup bread crumbs
2 tbsp Frank's Original Hot sauce (or like but I LOVE Frank's!)
2 tbsp butter
salt and pepper to taste

Sauce;
1/2 cup mayonaise
1/2 cup sour cream
1 tbsp worcestershire (I just copy and pasted that time)
1 1/2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
6 oz blue cheese
salt pepper to taste

If you are grinding your own meat like I do, take two large chicken breasts and six chicken thighs.


Wash the chicked thoroughly and then cube into one inch cubes (approximately) and put into the freezer for 20 minutes. Now you are not completely freezing the chicken you just want to make sure that the fat is very very cold! If it isn't you will end up with a gloopy stringy mess that is among other things really hard to clean!


Once it is frozen run it through your grinder, or pulse in a food processor. Viola, ground chicken!! I usually steralize all my grinding equipment after by boiling for about 20 minutes. Slightly excessive but I'm a little neurotic. You will have two pounds now. I freeze one of them with my trusty vacuum sealer for later use!

Now make your burgers!!
mix your meat, egg yolk, wors.... I don't want to type that again.....the brown stuff ;), and bread crumbs all together in a bowl. Season them and pound them out. If they won't mold then stick the mixture in the fridge for about 15-20 minutes.

Set your pan to medium high heat and cook. Flip after 7 minutes and cook until the juices run clear (another 5-7 minutes)

While your burgers are cooking melt your butter in a small sauce pan and add the Frank's. Mix well and set aside. add all of the ingredients for the sauce into a food processor or bowl. Mix in the processor or with an imersion blender until well mixed. Pour into a squeeze bottle and set aside. You don't want to make the

Now drink half of that glass of wine that must be around somewhere while your burgers finish up. When they are done add the Frank's and butter mixture and coat the burgers with it!
Assemble as you would a burger using as much of the blue cheese sauce as you want!
Enjoy All!! I also made these as mini burgers and they worked a little better, and by better I mean spicier! I'll post how to do that later but right now I hear a baby stirring!
Ciao for now!!!
-Lex

Domestic Goddess

So I know I said I wouldn't be posting again until I moved. I lied. Well didn't lie, our move in day got pushed back to the 4th so I figured I could shoot off a post. Something simple and easy... So who better than the queen of simple classy cuisine? I am of course speaking of Nigella! I love her. I think a part of it goes back to when I was 16 and she had an episode of how to cook for a dinner party when hungover. The episode started with her bleary eyed and scrambling for a cure. I still use her recipe to this day. But that is another story.


So this is a recipe from her book How To Be A Domestic Goddess. I love this book. The photos are fantastic and such great simple recipes. As I am in the process of being covered in dust and paper cuts, I wanted something simple. So I made this Savory Onion Tart. It is to me pure comfort food (second only to mac and cheese.) A sweet cheesy sconey goodness all together in one. I'm working on making these individual and I'll let you know the best way to do it soon!


So without further ado.....

Savory Onion Tart (addapted from Nigella Lawson)
(this is the way I made it I have added the actual recipe in brackets)

Filling
2 large videlia onions (or 4 red onions)
2 tbsp butter (1)
2 tbsp olive oil (1)
4 sprigs of thyme roughly chopped (same)
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar (not in actual recipe)
2 oz shredded gruyere cheese (same)

(I really like this pic!)

Crust
1 2/3 cups all purpose flour
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp salt
1/2 cup milk
3 tbsp melted butter
1 tsp roasted pepper mustard (the actual recipe called for dried but I was out!)
1 egg
3 oz shredded cheese

So start by preheating your oven too 400f. Put your olive oil and butter into your pan on medium heat. Cut your onions in half then cut those halves into four. When your butter and oil start to bubble throw in your onions. Let those slowly saute until caramalized, about thirty minutes.
mmmm butter and oil. My cooking secret? I always add just a little bit extra!

Make sure you stir those often! Don't hover just go toss em around every now and then. Like in between getting your dough together!
Start your dough by mixing your dry ingredients. These would be your flour, salt, baking powder and cheese. In another bowl mix your wet ingredients. These would be your milk, egg, butter and mustard. (If you are using dry mustard it goes in here too. I could come up with some bs reason but I won't. It's because Nigella says so!)
Then mix them all together. Use a spoon, fork, I use my hand. I like to get messy, that's how I roll. Mix it up till it forms a ball. Let your ball rest for, oh lets say, 15 minutes. Nigella doesn't let her ball rest. I do, plus your onions prolly won't be ready till then.

Now butter a pie dish. Are your onions done yet? They should be. If not have a beer and come back to me..... Now they are done. So you are now going to add your roughly chopped thyme and balsamic vinegar. saute it for about two minutes or until your vinegar becomes syrupy and sticks to your onions. then pur it in to your buttered pie plate.
Sprinkle your Gruyere over top of the onions and pound out your dough. You can use a rolling pin or your hands.

I like using my hands it maked it all rustic. That and I don't have to clean my rolling pin. Lay your dough over top of your onions and tuck it under a little!
Bake for 15 minutes at 400f then turn down your oven to 350f and bake for another 10. (If you are like me and have a super slow electric oven do the 400f for 10 and the 350f for 15.)

Pull her out and let cool for about 5 minutes. Then run a butter knife around the edge and invert onto a plate. I had to let it sit for another 5 minutes before it came loose but it's well worth the wait! And look how perfectly it tuned out!!
It was soo tasty and simple and vegetarian! This with a "meaty" salad (I served it with avacado, mandarin and strawberry salad) is a perfect meal when wishing for spring!
Enjoy! Next time I'm posting I will be in my new hood!!!!!

I'm Sorry

So I do have a line up of posts that I would like to put up. However Time is a little crazy short right now. We're moving on the first (Yay!) So I think I won't be able to post anything for a little while. I know I have been a while but things are a little intense. Naptime is packing time and by the time night rolls around and I'm finished my day I am soooo tired. So I'll see you all in a couple of weeks when I get my internet all sorted out. I Can't wait!!!!
Sorry for my suckiness!
-Lex

How to roast a chicken

So this turns out perfect. No seriously EVERY TIME! It's super moist and juicy and looks like it could be on the cover of a magazine! No matter who cooks this it looks stunning and although a bit of work most of it can be (and needs to be) done in advance so you can just pop it in the oven when you get home! You need a bowl or pot that can fit a whole chicken. Try this especially if you can't cook it will impress everyone who eats it!

There are 3 components to this don't be scared! The hardest part of this is boiling water and if you don't have fresh herbs use dried! The water will look like gross tea but it'll be fine trust me! So your 3 components are The Brine, The Chicken and The Gravy this gravy is really, Really easy. So if you got a gal or dude to impress make this for dinner they will think you are a domestic Goddess/God!

Enjoy!

The Brine;
You can make this days before or in the morning. If you are making it in the morning just make sure you have ice on hand too cool it down!

4 cups water
1/4 cup sea/kosher salt (I like sel gris because it's very salty. It also has an almost chicken broth flavour when mixed with the other ingredients of the brine)
1 small onion or large shallot
2-3 sprigs thyme
1 sprig rosemary
handful of parsley
2 smashed cloves garlic
2-3 bay leaves
5-6 peppercorns
2 tbsp sugar
4 cups cold water (or ice)

Now I know that looks like a lot of ingredients but don't be afrais. I often if I don't have fresh herbs use a handful of herb de provence or whatever herbs I have around. As long as they are green you will probably be okay!
(note; as you can see there is no rosemary in here, I don't care I do what I want! :)
So boil all of the above until the salt is dissolved remove from heat add cold water or ice and it's done! Just make sure your water is a little cold when you put in the chicken you don't want salmonella! Ew...
(hello little peppercorn)

Wash your chicken and put it in breast down. make sure it is covered in the brine. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Cut up 4 small or 2 large carrots, enough for the chicken to sit on. We are making a tasty roasting rack!
(You can do this ahead of time just store them in water in a sealed container. I also usually use cute smaller carrots and leave the tops on they look prettier but Little Miss Pants ate them all)

Now for the chicken
2 tbsp butter (or margarine)
More thyme (like 2 tbsp roughly chopped)
1 lemon
the goodies from the brine
salt and pepper to taste

Now haul out your chicken and pat it dry. Rub it down with the butter. Sprinkle your thyme and salt and pepper over top.

Fill the cavity with your lemon and all the solid bits of the brine. Then I like to tie it up. I'm kinky like that.

Place it on your roasting pan on top of the carrots. Roast in the oven at 375f for about an hour and a half of until your internal temp reaches 165f.
Yummies. Now you could eat it like this or you could make gravy. I like gravy. Now I don't have any pictures of it. It got eaten but here is what you do, to start you have ready;
3/4 cup of chicken broth
1/4 cup of wine (or more if you are like me and really like wine!
Pan drippings
1 tbsp water
1 tbsp cornstarch

Mix water and cornstarch and set aside.
Deglaze pan with wine. Deglazing is a fancy word for scraping the heck out of a pan with a wooden spoon assisted by hot liquid to get all the yummy bits!
add the deglazed yumminess to the chicken stock in a small pot. you will see fat float to the top skim off as much as you can with a spoon.
let that reduce down to aout a 1/2 or 1/3 if you are like me and use too much wine!
whisk in your cornstarch miture and let simmer for about 5 minutes.
if you are really fancy you can strain the gravy into a gravy boat.
Now carve and serve!!
I like it with garlic mashed potatoes for some ultimate comfort food awesomeness!!!!

(also save the carcass and put it in the freezer for chicken stock!!!!)

Now feel the homey yummy warmth!!!
Enjoy!