Daim Cake

I spent a little while at IKEA this past Sunday as I got a refund – of store credit and decided to get a couple of things for our condo.  I had read on Chocolate & Zuchini about these mysterious candies – Daim that I had not seen before at IKEA not that I was previously seeking them out.  I did decide from the description of this cake that I should probably make it as a contender for Christmas Eve dinner. I found them next to the check out and got 2 bags. I saved one bag and made the cake with the other.

Gâteau aux Daims

- 3 C  all-purpose flour
- 3 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 tsp baking soda
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp freshly grated nutmeg
- 1 1/2 cups (300g) Daims
- 1/4 C  ground almonds 
- 1 C  unsalted butter
- 1 1/2 C  granulated sugar
- 1/4 C  light brown sugar
- 4 large eggs
- 1 tsp vanilla extract 
- 1 C  plain yogurt
- Confectioner’s sugar (optional)

Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F) and grease a 10-inch cake pan.

Unwrap the Daims and chop them roughly with a knife, not too thinly: you want Daims chunks, not Daims powder. In a medium mixing-bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, nutmeg and ground almonds. In a smaller bowl, toss the chopped Daims with a tablespoon of the flour mixture.

Cream the butter in the food processor for 3 minutes. Add in the granulated sugar and mix for 2 minutes. Add in the brown sugar and mix for another minute. Add in the eggs, one at a time, mixing well between each addition. Add in the vanilla extract and mix again.

Add the flour mixture in three additions, alternating them with the yogurt in two additions, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Avoid overmixing the batter. Stir in the chopped Daims, and pour the batter into the cake pan, leveling the surface with a spatula.

Put into the oven to bake for 55 minutes to an hour, until the cake turns brown and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Let rest for five minutes on a rack, unmold and return to the rack to cool completely. Dust the top with confectioner’s sugar if desired.

[Recipe adapted from Lisa Yockelson's Buttercrunch almond tea cake, in her book Baking by Flavor]

You can find more information and a small blurb by Clothide at Chocolate & Zuchini.

Filed under: Food , Baking, Cake, Chocolate & Zuchini, Daims, Easy Recipes, IKEA

French Vegetable Soup

I recently read French Women Don’t Get Fat by Mireille Guiliano. My first thoughts were not positive regarding this book as I read it I had to agree with her on many things. It’s true portion sizes and snacking have become ridiculous affairs and thus began my journey to become more French than I already am.

I particularly like her simple soups and apple desserts.

I made this particular soup which is listed as un Potage d’hiver on her website.

And you can certainly follow that recipe, I however made this variation which is good.

INGREDIENTS

3 small- medium potatoes
1/2 lb carrots, peeled and sliced
2 leek stalks, cleaned and sliced

2 celery stalks, cleaned and sliced
2 sprigs fresh thyme

1 medium onion

2 cloves garlic

Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Yield: 6 servings

RECIPE

Add a little olive oil to a large pot simmer onions and garlic add rest of vegetables, put in remaining veggies, add thyme sprigs. Add water to cover. Bring to a boil, lower the heat and cover. Simmer for 1 hour.

Remove the vegetables and strain, reserve vegetable water. Purée in a food mill or processor. Reheat the soup for a few minutes. Add some of the vegetable water if it is much too thick, to your liking. Season to taste. Serve with crusty French bread.

You can always change the seasoning to something you would prefer. And you can also add a little milk or cream to change the soup if you keep it in the fridge for the week.

Filed under: Food , cooking, Easy Recipes, soup, winter treats

Ramsay’s Ratatouille

Since watching the movie Ratatouille I have wanted to make ratatouille! The rat sold me on a vegetarian dish! When I saw it in one of my cookbooks it had to be made.

Ratatouille (adapted from Gordon Ramsay’s “Fast Food”)

Ingredients
1 large red onion
1 small eggplant
1 red bell pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 large zucchini
1 garlic clove
1 can diced tomatoes
2 small tomatoes (recipe suggests cherry tomatoes, they didn’t have them at the store)
Sprigs of thyme
Sea salt and black pepper
Olive oil
Basil leaves (optional)

Directions

Chop the vegetables into bite size pieces (keeping them separate is suggested here, I didn’t). Heat the olive oil in a large pan and sauté the red onion with the thyme sprigs for a couple minutes.

Add the eggplant, red and yellow peppers and garlic. Sauté for a minute then add the zucchini and sauté for a few minutes.

Add the can of diced tomatoes and a splash of water. Add the diced tomatoes and bring to a simmer. Cook for 8- 10 minutes until the vegetables are tender.

Season with sea salt and pepper. If using basil add it here.

I had a piece of bread with it. Just lovely!

Filed under: Food , Easy Recipes, Food, Gordon Ramsay, ratatouille

Toronto’s Terrible Transit Commision

This week while in transit….

I was groped by a gentleman in a stupor getting off the subway at Bathurst Monday evening.

Wednesday afternoon the TTC announced that there would be no service on the Yonge-University-Spadina line  between Bloor and Eglinton for the remainder of their evening service. As a result they told everyone travelling with them to get off at Bloor to take a shuttle bus from their to Eglinton. 

 Then I found this gem on the TTC page for service disruptions,” it is important to note that in the event of a TTC Subway/RT service delay, shuttle buses cannot carry the subway passenger volume due to their lower capacity and road congestion”. Right, well I think it’s a great idea to tell everyone to get on a shuttle bus at Bloor if you cannot carry the volume of passengers.

I would also like to point out that they kept mentioning that this service disruption was due to an outside contractor who compromised the bridge structure at St Claire Station. Yes placing the blame  on a contractor that you hired to work on your already rundown tunnels is another great idea. I felt like they wanted the passengers to be sympathetic with them because an “outside” contractor was the reason we were all experiencing this major delay (my total delay was an  hour).

And yet again they announced just a few weeks ago that they would be increasing the price of tokens by .25. While everyone is asking themselves how they could possibly increase the fare after not only being a ridiculous organization with really sub par workers who are at times more than unwilling to help their clients, I’ve decided to just take it in stride. Yes, I could be angry but then I would just be angry for no reason as the TTC isn’t going to change their ways because their passengers are unhappy with their service. I would just  be wasting a lot of energy working myself up for nothing because the TTC is still cheaper (at the moment) then it would be to drive from uptown to downtown and back 5 days a week.

FYI instead of taking their ridiculous shuttle bus with the overloaded crowd at Yonge and Bloor, I hightailed it to St George Station (and got a nice walk with window displays along the way – I love Christmas) and then took the subway north bound to Lawrence West and took the east bound bus Lawrence and then took the subway to my stop.

The important thing is I got home ok and their service disruption only lasted until 8:25pm.

Thanks for giving me the right perspective TTC.

Filed under: Travel , Commuters, Toronto Transit, TTC

Rustic Shortbread

While I was perusing Amazon.ca for good French cookbooks I somehow managed to find this website Chocolate and Zuchini - I am in love with this site. The recipes are simple and yet elegant. The website has a lot of French style receipes but I came across this recipe and I bought cornmeal and got started on creating homemade rustic shortbread.

Ingredients

• 2/3 cup top-quality semi-salted butter (if not using semi salted, add a “fat” pinch of salt
• 1/3 cup sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon (loosely packed) freshly grated, finely chopped citrus zest
• 7 tablespoons stone-ground cornmeal
• 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour, sifted

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300°F.

In the bowl of a food processor (or by hand, in a medium mixing-bowl, with a sturdy rubber spatula) cream together the butter, sugar, and vanilla or zest. Add the cornmeal and mix until combined. Add the flour and process until just combined.
Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface, knead for a few seconds until smooth, and gather into a ball. Press the dough with the heels of your hands into a spring form pan (or you can spread the dough out and use cookie cutters but watch the oven). Level out the surface with the back of a tablespoon, prick holes all over the dough and bake for 30 to 40 minutes, until lightly golden.

Transfer to a cooling rack, mark rectangular or square or triangular pieces using a sharp knife while still hot and malleable, and let cool completely. Separate the pieces and serve.
They were particularly yummy but I might use limes to flavor them next time for a change! They made my home smell delicious.

Filed under: Food , Baking, Easy Recipes, shortbread

Cranberry Lime Biscotti

Last Christmas I made these on a whim. I thought the flavors would go nicely together and that they would be a cheery flavoring for biscotti. And I had tried several recipes from this book and all were excellent. I thought they would go nicely with the rest of my Christmas baking menu. Not to mention there is great satisfaction in being able to make biscotti that looks like it was store bought!

I adapted this recipe from Alice Medrich’s “Cookies and Brownies”.

Cranberry Lime Biscotti

Yield: about 45 small biscotti

Ingredients

• 1 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 large eggs
• 3/4 sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• Grated zest of 1 lime
• 2 tablespoons freshly squeezed lime juice
• 1 cup dried cranberries

Directions

Preheat the oven to 300 degrees f.

Combine flour, baking soda and salt in a small bowl and mix thoroughly with a whisk/fork.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar, vanilla extract and lime zest in a medium bowl until well blended. Mix in the lime juice. Using a wooden spoon stir in the flour mixture until just combined. Stir in the cranberries. The batter should be sticky and thick. Scrape batter onto a baking sheet, dividing it evenly into two long skinny loaves of about 14 inches long and 2 – 2 1/2 inches wide. Loaves should be at least 2 inches apart. Shape the edges of the loaves.

Bake for 35 minutes or until firm but springy when pressed. let cool for 10 minutes on the pan. Leave the oven on! Use both hands to remove each loaf carefully from the paper to a cutting board.

Using a sharp serrated knife slice the loaves on the diagonal into 1/2 inch slices. Lay the biscotti cut side down on the baking sheet. Bake for an additional 12 minutes. Turn the biscotti over and back for 12 – 15 minutes more or until golden brown. Cool the biscotti on a rack.

Enjoy!

Filed under: Food , Baking, biscotti, Christmas Baking, cranberries, Food, lime

HBO Canada – I Love You on TMN ON Demand

Since having gotten my very own cable box from Rogers I have been watching a lot of tv maybe a little too much really. But I was watching a lot of FOOD Network and watching that makes me want to bake and eat and sit and have lots of tea and think about butter cookies, pear tarts, peach pies, and a whole lot of other tasty delights that should not be devoured on a regular basis.

Then I discovered that TMN on demand came with my movie package and also has all the shows that I love love love and some shows that I didn’t know about – Entourage, Californication, Big Love, Hung and on and on. And the movies ……… better than a batch of cookies.

In an effort to reinstate my good taste in television I have been watching a lot more of the shows and this Billy Joel song can really do a lot to express how I feel about HBO Canada….

Oh, oh, oh
For the longest time
Oh, oh, oh
For the longest
If you said goodbye to me tonight
There would still be  TV(music) left to write
What else could I do
I’m so inspired by you
That hasn’t happened for the longest time

Once I thought my innocence was gone
Now I know that happiness goes on
That’s where you found me
When you put your cable wires (arms) around me
I haven’t been there for the longest time

Maybe this won’t last very long
But you feel so right
And I could be wrong
Maybe I’ve been hoping too hard
But I’ve gone this far
And it’s more than I hoped for

Who knows how much further we’ll go on
Maybe I’ll be sorry when you’re gone
I’ll take my chances
I forgot how nice romance is
I haven’t been there for the longest time

I had second thoughts at the start
I said to myself
Hold on to your heart
Now I know the kind of network (woman) that you are
You’re wonderful so far
And it’s more than I hoped for

I don’t care what consequence it brings
I have been a fool for lesser things (NBC)
I want you so bad
I think you ought to know that
I intend to hold you for the longest time…..

Forever and ever and ever until you start playing garbage television like most of the other networks. I love you HBO!

Filed under: Movies and Television , Billy Joel, HBO Canada, Rogers, TMN on Demand

Chocolate Chip Scones with a Chocolate Ganache

I was visiting one of my favourite food blogs Orangette, rather unfortunately Molly has not been posting as regularly since opening a restaurant in Seattle – Delancey’s , but on a happy note I was perusing her recipe index and found a recipe for chocolate scones … and then I just had to make them….I mean I had all the ingredients at home already.

You can see her blog and original post about these scones here.

Chocolate Chip Scones with a Chocolate Ganache

Yield – 6 large scones. (For Christmas I am going to make these tini-tiny. I felt that the large scones were a bit much, I mean there good but too much of a good thing.

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees Fahrenheit.

For the scones:
1 ¾ c unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ c plus 1 Tbsp unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa
2 ¾ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
6 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into chunks (I did not use a measure for this as I had one huge brick of butter)
1/3 cup brown sugar
½ cup heavy cream (also known as whipping cream)
2 large eggs
2 tsp vanilla
1 cup mini semisweet chocolate chips (I used regular but the mini might be more interesting)

Directions

In a large mixing bowl, sift together the flour, cocoa, baking powder, and salt. Drop in the butter, and using  two knives, cut the butter chunks into the flour until they are reduced to pearl-sized nuggets. Add brown  sugar. Set aside.

In a small bowl, whisk together the cream, eggs, and vanilla.

Pour the wet mixture over the dry ingredients, add the chocolate chips, and stir to form a dough. The dough will be firm but moist, and a bit sticky to the touch. Knead the dough lightly in the bowl,  if the dough is too sticky, don’t worry about kneading.

You can shape the dough into a round flat ish disk and cut it into sections or you can shape each scone separately. Bake the scones for 17-18 minutes, or until set. Remove them to a rack to cool, and set the rack over a rimmed baking sheet.

For the ganache (I halved this and still had plenty):
4 ounces semisweet chocolate, finely chopped (be sure to choose a good-quality chocolate that you’d enjoy eating on its own)
3/8 cup (or 1/4 cup plus 1/8 cup) heavy cream

To make the ganache, place the chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Heat the heavy cream in a small saucepan until it is very hot and steamy (not boiling, but close), remove it from the heat, and pour it over the chocolate. Whisk until the mixture is smooth and the chocolate is thoroughly melted. Use a spoon to drizzle the ganache over the cooled scones, and serve. [You will have leftover ganache, which can be refrigerated or frozen; the scones also freeze well and are remarkably good cold.]

Enjoy!

Filed under: Food , Baking, chocolate, Easy Recipes, ganache, scones

The Tank

Being that I live in a condo that is rather on the small side and that one of my very good friends bought me a fish tank as a Christmas present a few years ago….I decided it was time to set up the tank and have pets to call my own.

I set it all up and put in the appropriate chemicals to neutralize the water. Waited a week and then I added some fish… 2 have since died, one from being attacked by another fish and the other for absolutely no foreseeable reason.

Our fish tank now holds – including the clean up crew we added this past week-end:

• 1 red brick swordtail “Rudder”
• 1 Mickey mouse platy ”Meanie”
• Two Cardinal Tertras “Huey” and “Lewis”
• 2 Ghost Shrimp
• 1 Common Pleco
• 2 Oto Catfish

We are pretty happy with our fish and they seem to have adapted nicely. We added some live plants with the first round of fish and they are looking really great in the tank.

The shrimp are pretty hard to find as they are actually see through. But we got the cheapest kind to see how they do, if they do well we will obviously keep them, but if not we will get a more durable kind of shrimp – the almond shrimp which changes colours depending on what it consumes.

 

Filed under: Pets , aquariums, fish tank, platy, shrimp, swordtails

Country Vegetable Soup

It was chilly out last night and I was in the mood for something comforting to have for supper and healthy as well! Up for the task I scoured through the fridge and pantry and found

• half an onion
• 2 cloves garlic
• 3 medium size celery stalks
• 1 large carrot
• 1 can of kidney beans
• 2 variety of noodles
• 5 tsps of this concentrated broth paste, mixed with 5 cups of boiling hot water. I added a bit more water as well to cover everything in the pot.

I chopped the onion and garlic and added it to the already hot large pot with 2 tbsps of olive oil. I then added the celery and carrot and let them sweat while I got my broth ready and opened the can of kidney beans. I added the broth and kidney beans and gave it a stir. Then I added a handful of noodles – not recommended…. way too many noodles, but the soup is good for a first try of country vegetable soup no recipe… I added a little salt and pepper.

I will post the name of the vegetable broth concentrate that I used. It tasted a lot better than some of the boxed broth you can get in the grocery store.

Filed under: Food, Uncategorized , cooking, Easy Recipes, Food, Soups, Vegetable