Walnut Pudding

The weather has turned rainy and cold up here. Thank goodness I managed to make the most of the last sunny days. 

If you haven't been to Kejimkujik National Park, I recommend it.

 It's really a great place for the soul to start hunkering down and getting warm for the winter.

Walnut pudding is good for that too.

Pudding often gets a miss these days, since I think most people only get it in plastic cups in packs of twelve for school lunches. I love it, though. It can be warm or cold, thick or thin, savory or sweet. 

In this case, I wanted a Fall dessert for right after Thanksgiving. I'm mostly combining a whole bunch of Joy the Baker's many pudding recipes, the main one of which is this one. No cornstarch here, though, because I forgot to get some.

Here's what you need: whole milk, an egg, honey, salt, vanilla, and walnut butter.

Farms making cameos here include:

Jordan's Natural Acres (eggs)

Foxhill Cheesehouse (milk)

Limerock Orchards (walnut butter)

Brandt's Bees (honey)

Amounts are as follows:

2 cups milk

1/3 cup honey

1 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. vanilla

1/2 cup nut butter

1 egg

 If, as in my case, you don't have quite enough walnut butter (you need about half a cup), you can always put some walnuts in the blender with a little of the milk and blitz until smooth.

Throw all the ingredients into your one big pot and whisk like your life/autumnal happiness depends on it. When the mixture is smooth, switch to a wooden spoon or spatula, whatever will get into all the corners. 

Taste occasionally. I added more honey. 

When the mixture is glossy and your chosen stirring implement starts to leave a trail behind it, you can call it quits and stop stirring. The pudding may still look runny, but will thicken as it cools. 

This is so good with nutmeg on top. I like mine warm, but it's good chilled as well.

 Here's to mist, rain, sleet, and spiderwebs. 

Chicken Sofrito

For Canadians, Thanksgiving has come and gone. Since I happen to possess both United States and Canadian citizenship, I'll be celebrating both in my own small way. 

Thanksgiving in my mind has gone through many different evolutions: it has been a day for remembering Christopher Columbus sailing across the ocean blue, for reviling the same man for his brutality and narcissism, for enjoying food and stuffing myself to bursting, for celebrating family, and finally, for being grateful. 

I have learned to be thankful every day for something. Today, it's warm Fall days and unraked lawns and this gorgeous cookbook, Jerusalem, from my mother. 

From this book, I made Chicken Sofrito, which is a cooking method that I love for its low maintenance and versatility. 

First, the chicken:

Featuring all the mess from last night, plus this morning's coffee. This chicken is from Jordan's Natural Acres, from whom I regularly purchase excellent eggs. Those will be coming up in the next post. 

Put the chicken breasts-down in hot oil, and sear until brown for three minutes. Flip the chicken and sear the other side for another three minutes. While this is happening (or before), make the seasoning!

This is paprika, turmeric, salt, sugar, and pepper. 

To these, add lemon juice and mix to a paste.

MIX!

It should end up like this.

Put this all over the seared chicken on both sides

Somehow, while you were doing all this, you also chopped a red onion and a bulb of fennel! 

This goes in around the chicken that you've seasoned, and now the heat goes to medium-low.

After one and a half hours of slow cookery, it should be falling off the bone.

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone. Dessert to follow soon.

Acorn Squash Soup

Soup again! Squash, this time. This has been the shortest summer I've ever experienced, but I can't really complain, since that means it's hot soup weather.

Start with the squash. Cut it up into chunks and throw it in the oven for forty-ish minutes at 350F. I put some bacon fat at the bottom to prevent sticking.

Look at that orange glow.

This is one of the most beautiful sights of the end of summer. Beautiful, sunset-coloured flesh hidden in stony green skin. 

One more glamour shot, and then into the oven.

After they've been roasted, the squash pieces are soft all the way through, and steaming.

After they cool a little, I take the skin off. You can do this at the beginning instead, but I find it's easier to do so after the squash has been softened. In this case, the seeds and strings come out of the center much more easily.

I like this soup earthy, so that means sautéeing portobello mushrooms with onions and garlic until soft. 

Just to finish off the autumn taste in this soup, I add chopped, dried sage leaves to the onion mix. Put on the oven lid to sweat the leaves for about three minutes, and then stir to evenly distribute the flavour. I like a lot of sage, but it can be overwhelming.

After the sage has been added to your taste, add the chopped, skinned, de-seeded squash bits to the onion mix, and cover with water or chicken/beef/vegetable broth. Simmer for twenty minutes, and then blend the soup to your desired smoothness. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

A final reminder of the approaching Fall for you. Wrap up warm, and think about dried sage, nutmeg, and chestnuts. 

Apple Strawberry Buckle

Hello, everybody. Enjoying summer? 

That's too bad, because I can already smell Fall in the air. I'm completely torn between anticipation of pumpkin pies and spiced hot chocolate and my current immersion in crumbles, popsicles, cakes, and smoothies. This is really the life, isn't it?

This is where I work.

These are my friends and family, at one of our favorite places in the world: Polly's Cove.

This is beet gnocchi.

It has been a good summer. 

I'll welcome the seasons as they come. I still haven't found a time of year I don't like. In celebration of that and the fact that I have access to organic strawberries, here's this cake:

Apple Strawberry Buckle. I love that name, buckle. It has bounce and sturdiness at the same time, kinda like this cake. It's pretty dense, but compressible, and individual mouthfuls just fall apart around the fruit. I used this recipe from Seven Spoons, a food blog new to me. It's quite excellent. 

So, apples: I used Ida Reds from Hennigar's Farm Market. Not sure what variety of strawberry I was using, but they were from one of my favourite vendors: Longspell Point Farm. 

It starts very simply.
Fruit:

Spices and a little flour:

And butter. Always butter. 

Smash these up together to make a crumble for the topping:

Reserve a half-cup of this and move onto the actual cake body.

For that, we need our pot! Which, incidentally, you have to line with parchment paper, and then grease and flour the lining. Do NOT skip this bit, it'll be worth it. If you need a lesson on why you should do this, visit, this post of mine a few months ago. 

Once this is done, we're back to beating together butter, sugar, eggs, and vanilla. 

I find it so satisfying to do this by hand, especially because it's just a bit of butter, and not a huge whack of it. After this, we add flour and then milk. This is one of the best parts, because this is when the ingredients actually start becoming a batter. 

One gorgeous cup of Foxhill Cheesehouse milk. 

One... 

Two... 

Three... 

Beat!

MMMMMMMMMMMM. 

The batter is pretty thick. Good for scooping up with your index finger to taste. 

At this point, it's time to mix in chopped strawberries and apples. You could really put any kind of fruit in here, and it'd be okay. 

Put the reserved crumble over the top, pop it in the oven, and yank the whole parchment-lined cake out of the Dutch Oven when it's time to cool it down. 

En. Joy. 

Strawberry Basil Ice Cream

Hello, everyone. It's hot. Time for ice cream!

Well, gelato, really. I'm still working on having the right ingredients at the right time for spontaneous confectionary cookery.

First up: one litre of Foxhill whole milk. I'm a sucker for glass bottles.

Pour into the pot.

Set the milk aside to warm up for a bit on low heat. Now you have to chop a bunch of stuff. Basil leaves and strawberries, to be exact. Both of which are from Longspell Point Farms. 

Roll up basil leaves and slice thinly. Dice strawberries. Dish these up in separate bowls. Add a tablespoon of granulated sugar to the strawberries and set them in the fridge. 

Turn off the heat under the milk, toss in the greens, cover, and let them steep for at least half an hour, or overnight. 

Off to beat some eggs.

Three eggs to a litre of milk. I was just guessing on amounts, but it worked out. 

Whisked to a pale yellow with about 1/4 cup of granulated sugar. It may have been less - I didn't want it too sweet.

Strain (warm but not boiled) basil-milk into a container, preferably one with a spout. Slowly pour warmed milk into eggs and sugar, whisking constantly.

Once about a third to a half of the milk is mixed in, pop the pot back on the burner and slowly mix the eggs-milk-sugar into the warm milk on medium low, whisking constantly. Add a tablespoon of fresh lemon juice and salt to your preference.

Switch to a wooden spoon when the two mixtures are incorporated. Keep stirring until the custard starts to follow the spoon in thick swirls, or when the custard thickly coats the back of the spoon.

Once the custard thickens, remove the oven from direct heat and cool the custard to room temperature, stirring occasionally so a skin doesn't form on top. Once it's cooled, pop the pot into the freezer and stir with a flexible spatula every twenty minutes for two hours. 

I put the strawberries in here, but next time, I'll do that last. 

After the two hours, let ice cream freeze completely. I needed my oven for another recipe, so I poured the half-frozen stuff into an eight-inch glass baking dish. 

Here is where I needed some help. The ice cream was too flaky, which happens when you don't agitate the custard enough when it's freezing. I decided to use Kitchen Vignettes' method of freezing and blending, which you can read here.

Here's the chunked-up frozen cream in my ant-size food processor whose miniature engine screams like an eight-year old being chased by the Bogeyman himself. Four batches needed, in this case. 

And here's the result! It's pink, but you can still taste the basil. 

The best way to combat 35-40 degree weather. Best enjoyed immediately. Store in an airtight container in the freezer.