Bitter Endive Holiday Gift Guide - #2

#2 - Muji Ice Ball Maker

It is exactly what you think it is - the coolest (get it?) ice mold you've ever seen. I picked one of these up in London and went for two more when I was in New York (seriously Muji, why aren't you in Canada yet?). It makes a perfectly spherical ball of ice - my ice of choice for cocktails. Perfect for the scotch-on-the-rocks drinker on your list. $11.75

Both images courtesy of www.muji.us

Bitter Endive Holiday Gift Guide - #1

Now that you've had your fill of the wacky waving inflatable arm flailing tube man, it's time to get down to business: Christmas Shopping. So, I present to you, the Bitter Endive Non-Denominational Holiday Gift Guide.

#1 - The Magisso Cake Server

You know how normally when you go to serve cake, you need both a knife and a cake server? Well not anymore. This thing does it all for you! Because who doesn't need an easier way to eat more cake?

This thing is a work of art. And it is not just me saying this, the people at the Red Dot Design Awards seem to think so, too. Magisso produces simple items that redesign the way we use tools and they do it with a beautifull, modern aesthetic. You just press it down on the cake for a perfectly uniform slice, give a little squeeze, and transfer it to the plate. Pretty amazing. Check out the video if you don't believe me.



It's available through my Amazon Webstore ($44.95) or in Toronto, at Mjolk - one of my favourite design stores that I am sure we will see more from this month.

Back In Action

Merry Christmas!

It's been a crazy month (I think I'm saying that every month!) but we are settled into the new place and unpacking as quickly as can be so that I can get back into the kitchen. Here are some things to look forward to in the coming month and new year:

-Scandinavian Christmas Cookie Extravaganza!
-Bitter Endive Holiday Gift Guide & eBay Store!
-Blog Redesign with some spiffy new features
-Design posts featuring some interesting things in the way of Kitchen Design
-25% more Omar (he's grown a lot and become adverse to having his picture taken)

In the meantime (less than a week, I promise), enjoy this Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man:

Doesn't he look happy?

Pork Cutlets with Spiced Butter

I know a lot of people don't eat pork. I can respect that choice whether it be for religious, cultural, or health reasons (or those of a family friend who just thinks pigs are too smart to be used for food) but I don't know that I'll ever really understand it. In the meat version of the Desert Island game my answer will always be the same: pork. From bacon and pancetta, to ribs and tenderloin, pork can be so easily transformed I could eat it for the rest of my life without getting bored. "The other white meat" is quite simply, to me, the only white meat (chicken has been done so poorly so frequently that the very idea of a skinless boneless breast has put me off poultry. Duck, you are not included in that sentiment).

I try not to buy too many cookbooks and food magazines. Recipes are so rampant on the internet (thank you, Epicurious.com) that more often than not they just feel like a waste of money. Donna Hay Magazine is the exception. Photography worthy of a coffee table cookbook and accessible, doable recipes make it easily worth it's $10.00 price tag. If you can get your hands on the 50th Issue Birthday edition, I highly recommend buying it. So far, I've made the Chocolate Stout Cake with Peanut Butter Frosting (ridiculously good), the Pork, Apple, and Thyme Meatballs (deliciously sweet and spicy), and the Pork Cutlets with Spiced Butter. I'm still cooking my way through the 16 page, 12 recipe Pork section (complete with a breakdown of cuts).

The beautiful thing about the Pork Cutlets is how wonderfully easy and simple they are. They let the pork taste like pork. Because of this, quality, ethically raised meat is crucial (I get mine from Rowe Farms). The chops are pan fried and topped with the delicious herbed butter (we used the leftovers on pasta and some grass-fed beef). The butter really couldn't be easier - through everything in a food processor, give it a whirl, then add the butter and whiz for a few seconds more. The leftover butter freezes well, too (freezing in an ice cube tray then storing in an airtight container lets you use just what you need later on).

Pair it with some brown rice and something green (green beans, steamed broccoli, sauteed spinach) and you have a perfect weeknight dinner. Thank you, Donna Hay!

Chocolate Sriracha Shortbread

It's been a crazy couple of weeks with engagements (eek!), business trips to New York (three words: momofuku pork buns!), and moving (pictures to come!). So it's been exciting and very stressful. When I'm stressed, I bake.

If you've read past posts, you've probably realized that I will find a way to incorporate Sriracha into almost everything I make. It's an illness, really. I've destroyed more than a couple of meals that way.

But, it's not a bad thing if the recipe is supposed to have chili, though right? Why, then I'm just reinterpreting a recipe. And there is nothing wrong with artistic reinterpretations. I just substituted chipotle chili powder with delicious, delicious Sriracha. (On a total side note, oh Gourmet Magazine, why did you have to leave me? Bon Appetit would never have the balls to mix chipotle and chocolate, but there you go mixing it up once again. Come back. Please.)

The recipe was easy, fun, and oh so delicious! Normally I would reduce the sugar in a recipe like this, but the Sriracha can take it, so I left it as is.

Important Note: If you go to the trouble of making shortbread from scratch a day early to allow the flavours to develop a little bit, I highly recommend not leaving them out where a rambunctious kitten (He's two feet long. He weighs more than Simon. He's not a kitten. Don't try telling him this, though) can topple the entire plate onto the floor, breaking every last piece. Just a tip.

Chocolate Stout Chili & Cornbread

The great thing about fall is that there is still wonderful produce available, but it's not too hot to actually cook anything. I generally enjoy cooking autumn and winter dishes more: stews, casseroles, things that cook for a long time over low heat. So, as soon as the weather changed, I was eager to make chili.

There is a lot going on: chocolate stout, jalapenos, chipotle chilies in adobo. Somehow, through the magic of chili, it all becomes this wonderfully cohesive, rich mixture in the end. Plus you get to top it with sour cream and cheddar, and really, what doesn't taste good after being topped with that much full-fat dairy?

Omar gets very impatient when he feels I am not meeting his exacting standards.

On the lighter (ha!) side of the meal, I like to make cornbread. Only it really isn't corn bread, it's corn puddings. Seriously. These little corn-bread muffins are so rich and moist that Martha Stewart calls them puddings. She's not wrong. They are supposed to have corn niblets (like the frozen little pellet-like pieces of corn) in them, but there is something weird about that, so either do it with fresh corn or don't bother putting anything in. Some of the commenters on the recipe page have complained that they are not sweet enough. This is crazy talk. Middle-America, obesity epidemic-type crazy talk. They are plenty sweet.

I love this meal. And I fully encourage adjusting the spiciness with some added Sriracha. Also, use a quality chili powder. It calls for a freakishly large quantity but you can cut back on that if you are using one with actual flavour. You could substitute the beef with ground turkey or tofu, but I can't in good conscience give you my blessing to do so. It just isn't the same without slow-cooked chunks of red meat.

Stracciatella Ice Cream, without an Ice Cream Maker

The temperature outside is a delightful 16 degrees and I couldn't be happier. I know I am in the minority when I say this (and I can practically feel Simon cringe from the other side of the room), but I am no fan of summer. I downright hate it. When I make this proclamation to Simon he points out that I say the same thing in winter (which isn't true; I love winter), and he then begins to list (in a somewhat pleading fashion) his favourite things about summer: cottages, patios, beaches, swimming, bbqs. But I know that any of those tasks performed without a beer in hand loses Simon's interest immediately. And furthermore, each and every of those tasks requires free time - something I've had none of all summer. But then, then he comes up with the one redeeming quality of summer with which no other season can compete: ice cream.

I am something of an ice cream addict. It's an unhealthy vice (as most are) that lately can only be satisfied by a dark chocolate-peanut butter concoction sold at the video store down the street.

So, it's late August. It's 36 degrees inside my apartment. On TV, Rachel freaking Ray is suggesting I make lasagna. The idea of turning the oven on, let alone cooking an entire meal, is the most ridiculous thing I have ever heard. I decide to make ice cream. For dinner. Without an ice cream maker. I may have been suffering from heatstroke.

Before you think I've gone completely insane in my absence (sorry about that, by the way), you need to know that it can be done. It only takes about 10 hours. The whole game is about stopping the formation of evil ice crystal by whatever means necessary: food processors, wooden spoons, immersion blenders. You can give yourself an advantage by making it a custard-based ice cream using the creamiest cream you can get your sticky little hands on (apparently having a rich base makes the ice crystal formation less difficult to deal with). So once you've made your base, you stick it in the freezer and let the magic happen. Only you stop the magic every hour or so pulverize the ice crystals to death. But I promise, I PROMISE, that if you dutifully and diligently make those ice crystals your enemy, you will be rewarded with deliciously rich, home made ice cream.

I started out making vanilla ice cream, but there is a small part of my brain (inherited from my father) that believes that if there isn't chocolate in it, it isn't dessert (I know it's wrong, and I try to ignore it, but sometimes it makes beautiful things happen). So when my vanilla ice cream was about a third of the way done, I melted some bittersweet chocolate, poured it over the frozen ice cream, and stuck it back in the freezer. Then when you take the immersion blender to the ice cream, the chocolate layer transforms it into delightfully Italian-sounding stracciatella.

 I don't know that I would do this again without an ice cream maker. But at the very least, it's given me yet another reason to purchase my coveted Kitchen Aid Mixer, complete with the ice cream maker attachment.

Dinnertime!

I'm blogging on the go from my fancy new phone.

Yum. Stockyards for dinner. Details to come...

Peach Brown Butter Buckle

Simon has this annoying habit of buying more fruit than he could ever possibly eat. So when he went up to a cottage this weekend and left me behind with a basket of just-shy-of-overripe peaches, something had to be done. Something with brown butter. And buttermilk.

Omar likes peaches.

A couple weeks ago, Smitten Kitchen posted a Nectarine Brown Butter Buckle. What exactly is a buckle, you ask? Well it's a cake topped with so much fruit that the cake buckles around it. This one in particular has a buttermilk & brown butter cake topped with peaches and streusel.

I made some changes too: most obviously, I substituted peaches for the nectarines, used brown sugar in the streusel, and added vanilla to the cake. It turned out beautifully. The cake is deliciously moist, the streusel is crunchy and sweet, and the fruit is, well, it's fruit, you know what it's like. The brown butter flavour was, as Smitten Kitchen mentioned, too subtle. But with the vanilla (which I highly recommend), the fruit, the buttermilk, and the brown sugar, it's not lacking for flavour. You can use whole milk but why pass up an excuse to buy (or make a reasonable substitute. I know, scary, right? I promise it doesn't involve churning.) buttermilk?

I recommend not making this when home alone for a weekend. Even if the kitten promises he won't let you eat the whole thing. The kitten is an enabler and will not do a damned thing once it's done. I, also being an enabler, brought half the cake over to my parent's house, to my father who was also abandoned for cottage country (I might be more of an enabler than the cat).

petit pots de crème au chocolat

I think desserts should be impressive. I tend to like simpler, fuss-less food: good ingredients don't require a lot of mucking around, especially in the summer. But I like to make desserts that impress and confound with silkily complex flavours.

I wanted to make my brother something festive and chocolate for his birthday a few weeks ago but the heat this summer is oppressive and my apartment is without air conditioning so a cake or pie was out of the question. I decided on these wonderful little chilled custards. I had just bought new Duralex glasses and was looking for an excuse to show them off.

My Dad, always the original, wanted his with strawberries while everyone else opted for raspberries.

They were really easy to do. The hardest part was fashioning my bain marie (my springform was the perfect size and shape but leaked, so after trying every pan in the kitchen I realized I could line it with parchment paper to stop it from leaking in my oven). Go light on the espresso. Like, really light. It's nice, and worth adding, but the flavour comes through a little strong.

The texture is perfect. Creamy and cool but not too soft. I think the flavour was lacking a little. I wanted it to either be sweet and milky like milk chocolate or sharp and bitter like dark, but it was too mild to be either. This is the perfect kind of recipe to start messing around with, though. Vanilla and almond? Lemon and raspberry? Fresh mint, even. I always thought I could use more custard in my life.

Back to Work

As you may have suspected, I've found real, paying work and my blogging discipline has gone out the window. General work exhaustion combined with apartment hunting and a heat wave so excruciating it makes even the idea of turning your oven on unbearable have meant I haven't really cooked a thing in the past two weeks. Two weeks. I know. If there was some sort of blogging institution they would take my licence away.

But I'm back, and I promise a new post tonight (yes, as in 4 hours from now). I asked Omar to look for some good recipes while I was at work so we've got some exciting stuff to look forward to: Petit Pots de Creme au Chocolat, Sriracha-Lime grilled chicken, and Zucchini Vichyssoise. Pretty eclectic tastes for a kitten, no?

Omar checking his email before getting down to business.

Paneer Curry with Peas

I have a bit of a Palak Paneer addiction. The spinach-cheese-curry mixture represents all that is good in this world. My frequent cravings often result in a drive to Mother India for their palak paneer roti. But you see, Simon is working in California for 3 weeks. Simon who knows how to drive the car and is therefore the bringer of rotis. So, instead of starring longingly at the unusable car outside the window I decided to do something about it. (Before anyone comments: I know, I need to get a driver's license. I am grossly aware of this fact).

I made Paneer Curry with Peas from Epicurious.com. Can I just say how impressed I am with my local natural food store for carrying fresh paneer. So, anyway, I buy the thousand different ingredients needed for any Indian cooking.

And I decided to add some chicken thighs. I did the chicken by mixing some garam masala with yogurt, marinating the chicken in it, then baking them. Other than that, I followed the recipe exactly and I have to say, it was kind of gross. It was overly tomato-y and didn't have the rich gravy that I associate so much with delicious Indian curries.

It was really not good. The paneer tasted funny, and  sort of tinny. I had enough leftovers to last the three weeks Simon is away (why do I feel the need to cook for ten times the number of people I will be serving?) so I had to do something to revive it.

The next night, I fried up some more onion and added three tablespoons of garam masala. Once that was cooked, I added half a cup of yogurt and the left over sauce. I have to say - it was a lot better.

This is the curry after altering it the second night. Less pretty, but definitely more tasty.

It was richer and much less tomato-y. I don't think I would make this recipe again, though. As much as I love a cooking challenge, some things are better left to the pros and the fine people at Mother India make better, cheaper food than I could ever hope to. I do feel that I have to add, though, that Simon's mum has mastered Rogan Josh. So, once I get my hands on her recipe, I'll be up for trying another curry.