Happy New Year!

Table for two featuring our beautiful new dinner plates from ceramicist extraordinaire and Nova Scotian, Jim Smith

Last night we decided we would stay in and cook an ambitious dinner for two chez nous. We took our inspiration from the New Year's Eve menu emailed to us from our favourite, but at 2000 km away, inaccessible, restaurant Fleur de Sel in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. With chef Martin Ruiz Salvadore's menu in hand we devised a slightly simpler one for our own cozy dinner party.

Menu
hors d'oeuvre
fresh Oysters
(beausoleil and raspberry point)
warm Gougères
Pastis

First course
Oysters Rockefeller
Gosset Champagne

Second course
Bibb lettuce Salad with Roquefort dressing

Main Course
Butter poached Lobster
Fennel Risotto with Lobster essence
Gosset Champagne

Dessert
Chai infused Panna Cotta
Ginger Crisps
Mandarin Oranges
Muscat Beaumes de Venise

Before the real preparations began, we whipped up a batch of pâte à choux from the truly excellent coobook Country Cooking of France by Anne Willan. The pâte à choux with the addition of gruyere would become a plateful of gougères, lovely golden puffs of pastry to eat between sips of champagne or Ricard. We met gougères for the first time in Champagne, France and were smitten forever. Now we can make them ourselves.

Making gougeres--in its sweet incarnation pâte à choux is the basis for profiteroles. The leftover savory version with gruyere cheese for the gougères, above, made a wonderful pizza crust for lunch today

First thing on New Year's eve morning we raced out to pick up two fresh lobster and oysters for our main courses. We needn't have worried. Our fishmonger, Caudle's Catch had received an early morning delivery to meet the demand. The place was incredibly busy. Even with lower lobster prices, our two magnificent lobsters, 2 1/2 lbs apiece, were still a pricey indulgence.

One of our magnificent feisty creatures

N bought a lobster knife and yesterday acquired the new skill of shucking an oyster. I can do it too, but why when it's so much more fun to eat them? Before the main cooking event, we shucked our little oysters and ate them plain.

N shucks oysters, beausoeil and Raspberry point varieties, with newly acquired skill and aplomb

So, after taking care of any pre-supper stomach rumblings, we set to the real work of cooking. Our big new technique of the day, aside from Oyster shucking, was butter poaching lobster. On a previous trip to Nova Scotia we had indulged twice in butter poached lobster and are now haunted by the memories. Meltingly tender and sweet lobster served out of the shell is indescribably good. Apparently the butter poaching technique was pioneered by Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Bouchon. Thanks to the myriad bloggers working their way through Keller's cookbooks, and a fantastic explanation of Beurre Monté (the surprisingly simple butter and water emusion used as the poaching liquid) on the Food and Wine website here, and the printed recipe for Keller's lobster "Mac and Cheese" published in Veranda magazine (June 2008), we had many sources of reference for our own version of butter poached lobster.

The barely-cooked lobsters emerge from their two minute bath

The secret, apparently, is to cook the lobster gently by submerging it in just boiled water for only two minutes. We then brought the lobster out of the water, pulled off tails and claws, and resubmerged the claws for an additional five minutes. Then we removed claw and tail meat from the shells and refrigerated it on paper towel until poaching time. We removed the heads and tomalley from the remaining carapaces and made a rich lobster stock in the usual way with onion, celery, and herbs, which we used for our risotto.

Beurre Monté--the luxurious poaching emulsion of water and butter kept just below boilling at180 to 190 degrees
Today we discovered that the leftover lobster infused poaching butter makes for decadent hot popcorn!

Before the final ta-da, I'l descibe the Oysters Rockefeller of which their are so many versions it is hard to know the definitive one.

The characteristic flavours of Oysters Rockefeller: anise, watercress, parsley, shallot, Pastis

The restaurant that is said to have originated the recipe, Antoine's of New Orleans guards it to this day. Our version was lovely with the fresh and aromatic flavours of fennel, watercress, shallot, pastis, and fewer breadcrumbs than seem to top many of the versions I saw on the web. The recipe we followed loosely is from the New York Times Cookbook by Craig Claiborne, recipe here .

We learned that large oysters are best for Oysters Rockefeller, in fact, the larger, the better

The aromatic green purée is spooned over the oysters, nestled on a bed of rock salt, and spread to the shell edges before cooking in a hot oven

Oysters Rockefeller--delicious.

Finally, our main course, butter poached lobster and fennel risotto



Happy New Year Everyone!

Alchemical Quince--this is too good not to post

If only our homes were so easy to transform.

Last night after reading a little more about quinces, I couldn't resist the temptation to experience their transformational powers firsthand. Using a simple recipe from the Joy of Cooking (the latest edition) I made Membrillo--the quince paste of Spain that is the perfect accompaniment to Manchego or any other strong salty cheese.

Look:

Peel, core and slice three quinces. Put slices in saucepan with one cup of water.
Simmer until soft (45 min.)

Puree the quince slices and return to pan with 3 cups of sugar. Simmer over low heat for 2 1/2 hours until mixture is very thick. Pour mixture into buttered parchment-lined pan.

Let dry overnight at room temperature. Cut into squares and serve with Manchego (or Parmigiano-Reggiano) cheese slices, sliced pears, nuts, crackers or anything else.
Quince paste will keep unrefrigerated for a month or more, but ours will be long gone before then.

This is an absolutely delicious and almost preposterously simple recipe. Just my kind. I see quince paste in my future. What could be more perfect for the holiday season than a square of sparkling red Membrillo with a slice of aged Manchego, (or possibly a Quebec aged cheddar?) atop a slice of crisp flatbread accompanied by a glass of Pedro Ximenez sherry?

The most wonderful home scent

Smell and memory are linked so closely that I can’t be sure how much my initial experience of this particular aroma has coloured my current perception, but I’m sure I can’t be alone in thinking this must be one of the most delicious scents anywhere.

Our first experience of it was in France. It was a moody September day just outside of Moustiers-Sainte Marie in Provence. As we drove the narrow road up a mountainside to our destination for that evening, the rain began to pour down. Through a miracle of good luck, we found our chateau, which emerged all rosy stucco and pale blue shutters at the end of a winding lane through a chestnut wood. The rain had stopped and afternoon sun was slanting through tree branches, raising a slight mist and turning everything to gold. Like so many French chateaux now being rented out by ambitious new owners to tourists, this one had fallen from its former glory, but its air of grandeur remained intact. We were early and since no one came to greet us when we called, we walked through the heavy open doors onto a worn limestone floor and then into a high ceilinged dark paneled room with an imposing stone mantle and game trophies crowding the walls. At one end of the room was a doorway lit by the sun which we headed towards almost automatically. There in a rustic back kitchen, glowing in the gorgeous late day sunshine, was a bounty of golden fruits and the most pervasive and wonderful smell.

It was un coup de foudre. The fruits were quinces. I was in love.

A bowl of gold--quinces (and pears) from the local farmers' market

I didn’t think the name, which sounded like a description of a pained expression, did justice to this fruit of the heavenly aroma, but then I discovered the inevitable downside to the seemingly perfect fruit: quinces, which look and smell like an otherworldly combination of apple and pear with a little extra je ne sais quoi, are too astringent and grainy to eat raw.

Quartered quince showing the grainy hard flesh

I’ve since poached quinces and strained them into gorgeous clear red jelly—their ivory flesh turns russet when cooked—but I love them best in a bowl, looking like slightly lumpy golden orbs and sending their lovely scent into every corner of my house. Sometimes, in the grocery store, I find quince imported from the middle east or asia, but the variety seems different, the fragrance not so intense. These ones came from the farmer’s market where two young girls told me they had climbed the tall quince tree in their backyard to pick them by hand the day before. Has anyone else fallen for a quince?

Garlic Scapes in the Landscape

Our harvest of garlic scapes

Last year we started to despair that all of the garlic in our local grocery stores was imported from overseas, which seems outrageous since garlic grows so beautifully here in southern Ontario. So during the months of August, September, and October we bought dozens of garlic bulbs from the local farmers' market and directly from some farms we visited. We ate most of our local garlic stash, but kept a dozen or so bulbs, to separate and plant in our own garden. We don’t have an assigned vegetable garden yet, so I planted both hard and soft neck varieties anywhere I could shoehorn them in around our other plants. This year our young garlic is thriving and blocking out some other plants, notably our new yellow roses bushes (which are extra small after being eaten down to the ground by rabbits). Garlic is not quite as inconspicuous in the landscape as I’d thought it might be. Next year I will designate a garlic growing area.

Bling scape

Today we harvested the first fruits of our garlic crop: the scapes. A garlic scape is the flower stalk of the garlic plant. As the flower stalk grows, its stem coils, making it very easy to distinguish from the rest of the plant. A farmer we’d spoken to said that removing the scape encourages a bigger bulb below ground. This necessary harvest is a delicious early harbinger of the garlic crop to come. We’d noticed the appearance of the developing flower stalks a couple of weeks ago, and today they seemed at the perfect degree of curliness to be harvested. As I snipped the pale green stems, I discovered that the cut scapes can be conveniently worn as bracelets--allowing me to keep both hands free. The smell of the freshly cut garlic scapes is delicious, like garlic, only milder, and with an underlying bright fresh green scent. The scapes I’ve bought from farmer’s markets before have been fairly tough, but these freshly harvested ones are crisp, tender, and easily bitten.

Today for lunch, we had garlic scape pesto over linguine, a recipe which a quick Internet search reveals in many variations. Essentially, garlic scape pesto is one in which the scapes take on the dual role of the traditional basil and garlic.

Garlic Scape Pesto

Our Garlic Scape Pesto recipe included:

• Garlic Scapes (about 40 with the tougher flower end removed)
• Olive oil (several tablespoons)
• Parmagiano reggiano (a generous grating—maybe ½ cup)
• Pine nuts (about a ½ cup)
• Salt to taste (less than a teaspoon)
• Lemon juice (of half a lemon)

I made the pesto, not in the food processor, which I was too lazy to haul out of the cupboard, but in our new two-speed Osterizer blender (which we bought to replace the Kitchen Aid after I broke the blender jug. We kept the base of the Kitchen Aid and will replace the glass part if we come across one, but we are delighted with the handsome new Osterizer so far).

Our perfect, pungent lunch

The pesto was beautiful: bright pale green, and very, very pungent. The pesto had a fresh green taste with a strong undertone of garlic and quite a bit of heat after a few bites. The garlic taste is not nearly as intense as raw garlic, but unless you are a true garlic lover, this pesto won’t delight you. We we’re delighted. This pesto was wonderful on pasta, but tonight we might try it on a wild salmon fillet, which we plan to barbecue if the rain stays away. The garlic scape harvest will definitely be an anticipated yearly event for us (provided we remember to plant our garlic in the fall).

Tripping on the ceiling

Are we attempting to make a low-budget sequel to a Space Odyssey? Just who is that limber alien?

If we've learned anything during this long process, it's that home renovations are seldom straightforward. Some little problem always arises to trip us up. Even so, when we get on a bit of a roll we get excited and start to believe we can keep up the pace. Our minds rush ahead to the next steps and just as we're feeling really optimistic some stubborn obstacle brings us to a stand still. Saturday morning's stumble came when we were just about to finish securing the vapour barrier to the ceiling in our eating room. A little investigation with the six-foot level revealed that our assumption of several weeks ago that the ceiling was pretty much level, was wrong. To level the old wooden ceiling joists we had to pull out all of the fibreglass insulation that N had neatly installed between them last week. We used lightweight metal studs to level the ceiling. It's a technique N read about in Fine Homebuiding magazine. The metal pieces are installed alongside the existing joists--no shimming or planing necessary.

Steel studs--lightweight, square, easy to cut

Late Saturday night, N was still working on the time consuming and exacting job of levelling. I doubt anyone but a homeowner would take this much care. But N cannot stand wavy drywall, so the joists were leveled before we called an end to the day.

This morning N donned the white space suit and the respirator (with filters colour-matched to the insulation), and once again fitted the itchy stuff between the newly leveled joists.

p.s. The sprightly person in the fancy jump suit above is N reinstalling the itchy pink stuff in the newly leveled ceiling.

After the glamourous work was done, I smoothed out the wrinkles in the vapour barrier and taped up all the cut edges with red tuck tape. Then I marked the location of the joists and pot light centres on the walls while N went to buy drywall and rent a drywall lift. Unfortunately, I don't have the neccessary braun to hoist 5/8" sheets of fire rated drywall overhead for minutes at a time, so the lift is an invaluable tool, and its bright yellow arms never tire.

The drywall lift in action

While we work away to restore our eating room, our indefatigable tile installer, Harry Dunbar, is busily tiling our master bathroom. The tiling process is taking longer than Harry anticipated, but he is doing the most beautiful work. We know that Harry is pleased too because he says he'd like to hire a professional photographer to take pictures once the whole room is complete. Every night after he leaves, we go into the room and enjoy the tile. It's beautiful and will be even moreso once the tile is grouted. We are very happy with our tile choices and can't wait until we can use our new bathroom, even though that luxury is probably still a couple of months away.

My version of Alton Brown's brownies

During our work breaks we've been refortifying ourselves with the brownies I baked last night. If you're a fan of cocoa-based, cake-style brownies with a crispy, shiny surface, these are fantastic. They're from a recipe by Alton Brown, who apparently is a celebrity television chef. I've never seen his show, but I'm a fan of his brownies. In fact, I think this will be my default brownie recipe from now on. The recipe didn't include any chemical leaveners like baking soda or powder and didn't specify a type of cocoa, so I used a Dutch-process, fair trade, organic cocoa powder from a company called Camino Cuisine. The depth of flavour is fantastic--better than I would've expected from a Dutch-process cocoa.

So, it's late now, on Sunday night, but we're still hard at it so we can return our drywall lift first thing tomorrow. We have three more sheets of drywall to install before we quit. Here are some things about attaching drywall to metal studs that we didn't know when we started:

• the metal studs (of the flimsy gauge, dimpled variety available at home supply stores) don't hold screws very well

• in fact, when using self drilling drywall screws (supposedly intended for metal studs) with a regular drywall drill, most of the screws strip out

• So, we now know to use regular, fine-thread drywall screws
  

• the bevel edge of drywall is often much harder than the rest of the drywall board and can cause screws to strip

• So, we now know to baby the screws into the drywall bevel--either by drilling a pilot with a self drilling screw, or using our regular battery operated drill

At 10:30 pm, we have two sheets of drywall in place, two to go. Our rate of progress should get us into bed just a little before 6:00 am. Wish us luck.

Happy Valentine's Day

Spicy Mexican chocolate cookies and tin of Kusmi tea

In our house, these are the Valentine's day cookies. I'm not quite sure how we came to associate spicy Mexican chocolate cookies with this day--maybe the cayenne and cinnamon somehow remind us of those little red heart candies. I think I first made them about 10 years ago. At some point I must've decided to form the log of cookie dough into a heart shape and since then we've tried to make them every Valentine's Day.

This afternoon, I plan to eat a whole plate of these with a pot of Kusmi Christmas tea, scented with vanilla, almond, and orange (a gift from J). Still later, if there are any left, I think I'll spread them with strawberry ice cream and stick them in the freezer. We've learned that a day or two in the freezer will make the cookies soften and become perfectly textured ice cream sandwiches. The deep brown chocolate and pink ice cream should make a gorgeous and delicious combination.

The recipe is by Alice Medrich, chef, cookbook author, and recognized genius with chocolate. We've always made the cookies with butter, not the butter margarine combination the recipe recommends, and they've always been delicious. Here is a link to the recipe: Mexican Chocolate Cookies