Truffle Mutt

Cloud 9

What could be better than a cool and creamy slice of chocolate cream pie? 

Well, certainly winning a $1,000,000 or coming home to find this gas range in your kitchen would be better, but the other night there was nothing close to that on the horizon, so this was pretty good.

The recipe I used for this chocolate cream pie came out of Diner Desserts by Tish Boyle.  It's a fantastic little book hosting a wide range of diner faves like coconut cream pie and classic cheesecake all the way to root beer floats. 

After I first read the book everything sounded so good I couldn't help wanting to try it all, but time, space and groceries not permitting, I chose the German Chocolate Cake.  The batter is made using both butter and coconut milks, so I thought it would be something a bit different.  What it turned out to be though was rather boring.  The cake, although very light and moist, was unexpectedly slim on taste.  At least the icing came through with a perfect score, it was brilliant.

After that my excitement for the book faded.  It was shelved and has been doing a fine job of collecting dust ever since, but the story doesn't end there.  This one has a happier ending.

The other day I was bumming around the kitchen thinking I needed to make something - mostly out of boredom - and I took the book out of hiding.  I didn't have a lot of ingredients in the house so I had to stick to the real basics. 

Chocolate - check
Cream - check
Chocolate wafers - no check (frig!) oh no wait I have graham crumbs - check (woohoo!)   

I can make chocolate cream pie! 

The recipe was easy to follow and it took no time to put together.  Once the pudding was done and in the shell I put it outside in the BBQ to chill overnight, because it was -5 or so outside and the fridge was full.  It was a great idea that went way wrong when Jason decided to use the BBQ the next morning.  And since I'm not all that quick in the mornings, it was a few minutes before I clued in and ran out to make the heroic rescue.  Luckily (especially for Jason), it was just a bit hot on the bottom. 

I guess it was a Southern Barbecued Chocolate Cream Pie!  The end result was totally yum, but unless you're a real BBQ die hard, it's probably safe to hold off on the last step. :o)

Hip Hip Brûlée

The sesame crème brûlée was a bit exciting.  It tasted awesome, but I I had to make the stupid thing three times before it would set properly - which was more a function of my temperamental oven than anything else.  I'm thinking maybe it's menopausal because it seems to be experiencing frequent hot flashes. 

Making the brûlée was easy-as-pie and the change would likely work with any recipe out there.  I added 1/4 tsp of tahini paste for each egg, blending it with the egg and sugar before adding the cream and baking as per the recipe.  But be careful and do not over bake!  Because before you know it creamy and smooth becomes curdled and seriously egg-y.  Yuck. 

The sesame flavor from the tahini was distinctive but subtle, so while I made the sesame Florentines to go with the brûlée, I ended up not serving them together because the strong toasted sesame in the candy over-powered the subtle undertones in the crème brûlée.   

Star Strawberries

Another night and here we are back to the party story. 

Nope, no more ice cream side tracks for you!  I am going to skip ahead to the desserts now though, because I have no pictures of the baked brie with Asian pesto or the smoked salmon mousse.  I would however, like to make a special note of the deep fried capers, which are ever so cool and if you've never tried them you should make the effort.  Try them on salmon sandwiches, appetizers or in salads.  They get fabulously crispy providing a distinct burst of caper saltiness.   

But now to the promised dessert...

For the tarts shells I cheated to save on time and used frozen ones, but I did make the custard myself using a Jamie Oliver recipe on Food Network.  The custard turned out well, but to increase the smoothness I borrowed a technique from Pierre Herme's lemon curd recipe and added a few tablespoons of cold butter to the finished custard.  Splendid! 

The topping for the tarts was as easy as pie, a mixture of diced strawberries and anise infused syrup.  To make the syrup mix equal parts brown sugar and water in a saucepan and bring to a boil, add three star anise pods to the syrup and then reduce by half.  Discard the star anise and chill. Mix in the diced strawberries once chilled and marinate for at least 1/2 hour.   Before serving spoon on top of the custard tarts.

We All Scream For Ice Cream

Tonight I'm taking a break from the book club posts to talk about ice cream, and not just any ice cream, but my 'I Bought Way Too Many Oranges & I Don't Know What To Do With Them' ice cream.  Catchy huh?  Ben & Jerry's will be banging down my door in no time!

I've been planning for this first spoonful of frozen bliss since moment I unwrapped my ice cream maker two LONG weeks ago.  Not wanting to take this maiden ice cream voyage casually I spent hours searching through cookbooks, magazines and websites looking for a creation worthy of the event.  But in the end, with the heavy cream in the fridge and the bowl ready and waiting, I decided to forgo excitement and make plain-old strawberry ice cream.

I made it as far as rinsing the strawberries when I noticed that I had an enormous mound of oranges smothering the life out of a few defenseless bananas. 

"Look at all those oranges.  Why did I buy that many anyway?  I don't even like oranges that much.  Great, now I'll probably end up leaving them there until they go hard, and then what?  I'll have to throw them all out. Poor oranges.  Such a waste.  Check it out, I think they look a little sad".

And there you have it people.  The entire, astonishingly deep thought process behind orange ice cream.  Enjoy.

A Ducky Pizza

Of all the things on the evenings book club menu apparently these little duck pizzas won by popular demand.  Of course, I find that understandable because who can resist anything that comes as a pizza?  I know my favorite pizza (before the restaurant closed that is) was the Chef's Gone Mad special at Royal Pizza, a mountainous combination of spaghetti, meatballs and layers of melted mozzarella cheese.  This concoction might sound gross, which is what I thought prior to the night I was brave enough to try it, but it was great.  But I digress.   

The only picture I had was of the pizzas in the dressing room because I got distracted and forgot to take a picture when they came out of the oven.  So you'll just have to imagine them with bubbly cheese and a frizzled green onion garnish.  Pretty huh?    

I owe my last boss credit for giving me the idea for this combination.  We were good food buddies and would often swap stories, recipes and restaurant recommendations during our work week.  I talked about cookbooks and restaurants, while her stories often revolved around weekend family get togethers where her adventurous brother would make some fantastic meal.  One weekend in particular she was being sent by her brother to collect a crispy duck from Chinatown for crispy duck pizza night.   
Being an amateur duck enthusiast I'd never eaten crispy duck before (okay so I'd never even heard of it) so my boss took pity on me and let me try a mouthwatering morsel and I still remember it as my most fond fowl experience.  I was hooked.   

The Chinese theme was therefore a welcome one, providing me the perfect chance to create a crispy duck pizza of my own.  I probably could have made the duck myself, but I took mercy on the rest of the people living in the condo building and decided not to smoke us all out.  Plus why mess with what Gee Gong already does so well.  So, off I went to Gee Gong's Restaurant on 206 Centre Street SE, where I purchased my duck and an equally delicious piece of bbq pork.

Let's Get This Party Started

It's been difficult getting back into the swing of things since January and I needed a serious kick-in-in-the-you-know-what to get me going.  Lucky for me my Mom was able to provide that well needed boot when she hosted her monthly book club and recruited me to provide the food.   

The book taking centre stage for the evening was The Jade Peony, which is a story about an immigrant family living in Vancouver's Chinatown.  Naturally I wanted to keep with the Chinese theme so I set out to design the menu and table design for the evening.  I started a few weeks ago with the planning and the menu ended up looking like this:

• Sichuan Shrimp nestled on rice crisps with herbed aioli (pictured above)
  
• Sweet Crispy Duck Pizza's with caramelized onion and sweet soy tomato sauce and melted mozzarella cheese
  
• Baked Brie topped with an Asian mint pesto
• Smoked Salmon Pate drizzled with apple teriyaki sauce and crispy capers

• Sesame Creme Brulee served in Asian soup spoons with caramelized sugar and sesame Florentines
• Green Infused Tea Cheesecake with white chocolate and fresh raspberries
• Chinese Egg Custard Tarts paired with strawberries marinated in a dark anise syrup

To start off the posting frenzy that will cover the evenings eatables, let's take a look behind door #1...

Sichuan shrimp. 

The sauce for these shrimp turned out better than I expected with a perfect balance of sweet, sour and spice.  The original recipe from The Food of China calls for the shrimp to be served hot but for my purposes I cooked the shrimp in the sauce and then chilled them before service.  It was quick to put together and would also make a great stir-fry sauce.