2007 November Archive at chefdemaison.ca

Archive for November, 2007

We are back cookin’ up a storm!

Published on November 19, 2007 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Vegetarian cooking this week and today we made seitan. You can make your own organic seitan very easily. You need about 2 cups of gluten flour, 1/2 cup of soy sauce, 1 1/2 cups of water 4 or so cloves or garlic, lemon zest, a dash of cayenne. Mix together well (ideally using a standing mixer) then bring 12 cups + 1/2 cup of soy sauce to a boil, turn to lowest heat and add your seitan. Poach below simmering temperature for about an hour or until the ‘brains’ are floating. Then cool in broth and slice. Seitan freezes well, so if you like it you should at least double the batch.

We are making Ginger Seitan Stir Fry tomorrow, check back for photos and the recipe.

On Vacation!

Published on November 18, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I have been in Hawaii for a week with my family.

We went snorkelling every day! We drove the road to Hana…or should I say ate our way to Hana. We ate baked breadfruit, multiple kinds of banana bread, coconut candy…mmmm……

Back at the ranch now and we have a busy week in the kitchen.

I’ll post some of the recipes that we are making each day, let me know if you try any of them.

Aloha!

Chocolate Truffles!

Published on November 8, 2007 in Experimentation and Uncategorized. 1 Comment

Today we broke out the chocolate slabs and got back into truffle making.

We piped out the filling.
pipingtruffles Terri piping out truffle filling
. We tempered the chocolate and then hand dipped the truffles.

and voila the finished product.
The truffle has been brushed with copper.

Cooking at the Royal Winter Fair

Published on November 7, 2007 in Class, Demo, Recipes and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I just love the Royal Winter Fair. Every year I do a cooking demonstration at the Royal Vineyard Cooking school. This year the theme was pressure cookers (no kidding).

The food disappeared so everyone must have enjoyed it:)

Here are the recipes:

East West Pot Roast
Slow simmered beef roast in a rich gravy flavoured with shallots, ginger, garlic, soy and hoisin sauce.
1/2 oz dried shiitake mushrooms
1 cup water
1 tbsp oil
4 lbs blade beef (whole roast or cut into 1 inch cubes)
4 shallots
4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ginger root
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms
10 oz beef stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp chili pepper, finely chopped
2 T cornstarch, or other thickener

In a bowl soak dried mushrooms in boiling water for 30 minutes, strain, reserving liquid. chop mushrooms.
Sear roast, transfer to pressure cooker.
Add shallots to searing pan cook until soft, add ginger root, salt, pepper, reserved mushrooms. Add fresh mushrooms. Add reserved mushroom soaking liquid and beef broth, add soy sauce, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce. Transfer to pressure cooker.
Bring to pressure, run for 1 hour (for roast) for 25 minutes (for stew).
Remove roast, let rest, slice, adjust seasonings in sauce.
Thicken sauce with cornstarch if desired.

Shrimp, Basil and Asparagus Risotto
Turn yourself into a brilliant chef in 6 minutes. Elegant, healthy and home made.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons Oil, Olive
2 tablespoons Butter
1 cloves Garlic — minced
1 Lemons — zested
1 Onions — finely chopped
1/4 cup Basil — chiffonade
2 cups Arborio rice
4 cups Stock, Chicken
1/2 cup Wine, Table, White
24 ounces Shrimp
1 cup Cheese, Parmesan — grated
1 handful Asparagus — chopped into 1″ pieces

Instructions

In a pressure cooker, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until softened but not brown. Stir in rice and saute for 1 minute. Pour in stock and wine and asparagus.
Lock the lid in place and bring cooker to full pressure over high heat. Reduce to medium, just to maintain even pressure, and cook for 7 minutes.
Remove from heat and release pressure quickly.
Stir in the shrimp, asparagus, basil and parmesan cheese and put back onto heat for a couple of minutes or until shrimp and asparagus are cooked.

Update - the personal cheffing world

Published on November 6, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

What’s up in the personal cheffing world?
Well this is one area of my life that has been business as usual. No crises, no emergencies, just smooth sailing and fun cooking.
Here is a photo of 10 days worth of dinners lined up on the counter. So what’s in those containers. Well there is Sweet Bourbon Salmon on a rice pilaf with swiss chard, corn and almonds, East West Stew over gnocchi with corn, Mexican Enchilada Casserole, Apricot chicken over basmati rice with broccoli and Shrimp, Basil and Parmesan rissotto. Yum!

Makin’ Ravioli

Published on November 6, 2007 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Labour intensive, yes, time consuming yes, the best in the world, yes! You just cannot imagine the texture of handmade ravioli unless you’ve had it. It’s rarely served in restaurants, even good ones, unless you are paying $35 a plate. My chef partner Cheryl does not understand why I bother.

It’s the most luxurious thing that I can think of. The carpool girls (Zoe, Georgia and Isabelle) came over and we whipped up the dough in the cuisinart. The recipe is as follows:
Crack 3 eggs into bowl, add 1 tbsp of olive oil, a dash of salt and shy of 2 cups of flour. Pulse til mixed, then run machine until the dough runs around the bowl. Put dough in a bag and let rest.
Then the fun begins. All of the girls took turns cranking the dough through the rollers. We mixed up an impromptu filling:
450 grams ricotta, handful of fresh parmesan, minced garlic and some chopped pine nuts.
We made the ravioli, cut them by hand and boiled them up.
Mmmm…… there’s nothing like home made pasta.
ravioli ravioli
My family ate it with some plain tomato sauce (tomatoes, onions, garlic, basil) and we sent the rest home with the girls.
My favourite ravioli is Salmon ravioli with wasabi cream. I made it for a brunch once. It’s a spectacular spring item.

The Pressure’s On

Published on November 2, 2007 in Recipes. 1 Comment

I am making Beef Bourguignon today using my pressure cooker.

pressure cooker

My pressure cooker sits on my stove hissing and sputtering and filling my kitchen with the fragrance of French bistro cooking. In about 25 minutes I have pressure cooked what would ordinarily take 3 hours of simmering on the stove. Pressure cooking not only saves time it also saves fuel. So tomorrow up at my Go Home Lake cottage, I will boil up some spuds, steam some broccoli and reheat today’s creation. That’s cottage life.

Beef Bourguignon — Serves 8
Ingredients

3 slices bacon — finely chopped
125 milliliters oil
85 milliliters flour
2 teaspoons salt
pinch pepper
1 1/2 kilograms stew meat
2 medium onions — chopped
1 clove garlic — minced
65 milliliters cognac — or brandy
250 milliliters red wine — 250
250 milliliters beef broth
2 bay leaf
8 carrots — chopped
100 grams pearl onions
16 mushrooms

Instructions

Cook bacon til crisp, reserve. Add oil to bacon drippings. Coat beef cubes in flour, brown, reserve. Cook onion and garlic, deglaze with cognac.
Add red wine, broth and bay leaf, return beef, add carrots and onions bring to pressure and run at pressure for about 25 minutes. Release pressure and add mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes or stove on the stovetop. Stir in cooked bacon and parsley.