Looking back at 2009

Just over six months ago, I started this blog. Since then, I've met a lot of very lovely people and eaten a lot of great food.

I thought I'd share with you a few favorites.

My favorite recipes of 2009...

American Potato Salad Potato Salad: I made this on a whim from a combination of sources and now I've made it for a wedding and a work-related potluck. Everyone raves about it and I'm no longer allowed to bring anything but this dish to work potlucks!
Spiced Chicken with Barley Spiced Chicken with Barley: Another surprising find - the spice mixture in this recipe is unlike anything I'd made before and it's damn good. Another repeat in our menu.
Pork, Pineapple and Chile Salad with Avocado Pork, Pineapple and Chile Salad: The theme today is "surprising" -- I loved the interplay of flavors and textures. Definitely one of the "wow!"'s on my table this year.
Caribbean Rice and Beans Caribbean Rice and Beans: It took us four days to make this recipe again. It's that good, I think.
German Chocolate PieGerman Chocolate Pie: Oh man, I fell in love with this pie. I made it into mini-pies and loved every bit. It's now my go-to sinful, rich dessert delight.

. . . .

But, you, my readers had other ideas...

Top Three Most Viewed Recipes of 2009

Maizes zupa (Latvian bread soup)Maizes Zupa (Latvian Bread Soup): This is such a great dessert, but it's hard to afford (and source) the bread for it here. One of my favorite recipes from Latvia.
MujadarrahMujadarrah: Surprisingly popular, it's an excellent frugal yet tasty meal. Very good for those days you don't really feel like doing any work but want a heartily good dinner.
Speķa rauši (pīrādziņi)Speķa rauši (Latvian Bacon and Onion Rolls): One of the very first recipes I posted here and one of the two photos I have up on Photograzing. Definitely good - I love snacking on them.

. . . .

Most Searched For Recipe of 2009

Maltās gaļas mērceMaltās gaļas mērce: Surprisingly, or not since it's awfully good, this is what brings the most folks via various search engines.

. . . .

Most Popular on Flickr

Caprese Salad Caprese Salad: Talk about a runaway hit. This image got StumbledUpon and got quite a few hits in 24 hours. Damn good salad too -- and the sole reason I am planting tomatoes this spring.

. . . .

That's it for last year! I'm definitely looking forward to having a lot more great food and conversations in the year to come.

Some things you can look forward to:

  • I'm acquiring a copy of Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking by Michael Ruhlman and participating with a group of friends in a challenge to make six ratios from it over the course of the year. Periodically, I'll be posting various experiments from it. If you want to play along, let me know!
  • My mom gave us a bamboo steamer and her own set of challenges, so there will be more Chinese, Thai and Japanese meals on our table this year.
  • I really want to try to make more use of the cookbooks I've collected. For example, there are a bunch of heritage American recipes in one of my older books that I've been dying to try out, so I may do one of those per month.

Happy New Year!

I hope you enjoyed your New Year's celebrations, whatever they may have been, and safely returned (or stayed) home. I know the folks on the road here were crazy -- and that was well before dark!

I've never been much for resolutions. They're more likely to make me feel guilty rather than inspired. Instead of setting myself up for failure, I'll share with you some of the things I hope to accomplish this year.

  1. Graduate with my bachelor's degree in accounting
  2. After #1, get a job as an entry-level accountant
  3. Read more of the books I own that I haven't gotten to yet
  4. Finish cleaning out our spare bedroom to get rid of clutter
  5. Post three times a week here
  6. Continue eating well, incorporating lots of new recipes and good food
  7. Continue learning and improving my writing and photography
  8. Get back to the gym
  9. Walk at least three times a week
  10. Plant tomatoes, rosemary and thyme this spring
  11. And the most important one of all: Be happy.

What are you aiming to accomplish this year?

Holiday Cookie Extravaganza

Chocolate Chip CookiesDark Chocolate FudgeChocolate Walnut CookiesAbstract Tiger Peanut Butter CookiesOatmeal Walnut Shortbread ThinsLemon Volcanoes Christmas Cake BallsRice Krispie Treats
Christmas almost brought me a meltdown.

We don't have much and I wasn't sure what we could afford, so I came up with the idea to do a "12 Days of Cookies" gift for my parents, my mentor and my sis. Then I realized I couldn't afford to ship that many cookies (nor would all of them survive, should the Post Office delay them), so I did mini sets of shippable cookies for my mentor and sis in pretty Christmas tins, and saved the rest of the cookies for the following week.

I didn't make a dozen types of cookies. I ran out of baking steam when I got sick a few days before Christmas. In the end, I made:

But the cake balls... they're awfully good, but they nearly destroyed the whole plan.

Christmas Cake Balls

You see, one night before Christmas Eve, I was sitting at the kitchen table, happily dunking little cake balls in vanilla-flavored almond bark. (I'd run out of the green candy melts and no one in town had any candy melts, not even Walmart, which had run out a few weeks earlier.) I finished all the little balls and stacked as many as I could onto my quarter-sheet pan to go into the fridge to set. Not all of them fit, so I left them on my cutting board while I went to shove the pan into the fridge.

I bet you see where this one is going.

The fridge was stuffed full of food for Christmas Eve - an 8-lb ham was taking up a big chunk of room on the bottom shelf, along with a bunch of produce on the middle shelf. So I set the pan down mostly on the wedge of space on the bottom shelf (I thought), while I tried to prevent the door from swinging all the way open.

And the entire quarter-sheet pan of cake balls came crashing down onto the floor, cake first.

It was not good. I didn't have the time to go out and buy everything again, bake it all again and decorate it again. So I packed up the few I had left on the table for my mom and gave it up for the night, incredibly frustrated and upset.

In the end, my family loved the cookies. Most of the recipes came from the little booklet included with the December issue of Food Network Magazine. They came out fairly well, though I wasn't happy with the lack of strength of flavor in the lemon volcanoes and peanut butter tigers.

The runaway favorite of the entire deal? Cake balls. The very thing that decided to give me a meltdown.

What I love about them is the hard crunch of the candy shell and the soft, chocolatey inside. These little guys have been made famous by Bakerella and, though I would have loved to do little Christmas trees, I went with something I could reasonably pull off:

Christmas Cake Balls

It would have been so neat though. I almost bought little sprinkles to sprinkle on top of the little trees. And I almost did cake pops instead of cake balls when I found the lollipop sticks at the craft store. It would have been so much easier to get a good coating if I had.. and maybe since they would have been stuck into a block of styrofoam/floral-foam, they might not have crashed and burned.

Maybe next time.

Christmas Cake Balls [printable recipe]

From Bakerella.com

  • 1 box devil's food chocolate cake
  • 1 can chocolate frosting (not the whipped stuff)
  • 2 bags Wilton's candy melts, different colors

Prepare and bake cake as directed for a 13x9x2 pan. Let cool completely. Crumble into fine crumbs. (This is very sinful. Deliberately destroying a cake? Definitely a sin, but very delicious.) Mix most of the can of frosting in, adding the rest as necessary. You can use a spoon or fork, but at some point, it's just easier to use your (clean) hands. Form into little balls and freeze.

Melt the candy melts as directed. Dunk the little balls into one color then let set on some parchment paper. After a few minutes (and several more dunkings), the first little balls will be ready for a drizzle of the opposite color. When done, freeze or chill to speed up the setting process.

Check out bakerella.com for more ideas for cake balls and cake pops, as well as absolutely gorgeous pics.

. . . .

  • You might be wondering about the "Abstract Tiger" cookies. Next year is the Year of the Tiger, according to the Chinese. Every year, my husband and his family have made little cookies shaped like the animal of the upcoming year. My husband and I've made little rats with heart-shaped cutters and little oxen out of circles the past two years, so this year we were going to use a kitty-shaped cutter from a Halloween set for tigers.

Except the cookie dough kept breaking. And breaking. And breaking. We finally gave up and drew stripes on the plain discs -- thus abstract tiger cookies were born.

Šķovēti kāposti (Braised Sauerkraut)

Šķovēti kāposti

When it came time to discuss what we would be having for our Christmas dinner, my husband knew immediately that he wanted šķovēti kāposti, which is braised sauerkraut. I couldn't remember if I had had it at any of the restaurants or at my mother-in-law's house, so I was a little unsure of just what would happen to sauerkraut when cooked for a long time.

As it turns out, it becomes really, really good. The cooking process eliminates all the things I don't like about fresh sauerkraut - namely the sharp bite and crunchy texture. Now, don't get me wrong, I like sauerkraut but I love braised sauerkraut.

The thing about this dish is that while it's good fresh off the stove, it's one of those dishes that can really benefit from an overnight stay in the fridge. I really enjoyed it for dinner but it was even better at lunch the next day with some leftover potatoes.

Šķovēti kāposti can easily be converted to vegan - just use your favorite oil and sweetener instead of bacon fat, butter or honey.

Šķovēti Kāposti - Braised Sauerkraut [printable recipe]

Adapted from Latvian National Cuisine
Serves 4

  • 2 lb sauerkraut, drained
  • 1 medium to large onion, finely chopped
  • 2 medium carrots, grated
  • up to 1/4 cup honey or sugar (any variety)
  • salt, pepper
  • water
  • 2 tbsp oil, butter or bacon fat

In a large, deep saucepan, heat oil over medium high heat. Cook onion, stirring frequently so it doesn't burn, until lightly brown. Add the drained sauerkraut and cook, stirring frequently, until the sauerkraut begins to darken. (If you use a stainless steel pan, you will find that a layer of dark brown fond forms on the bottom of the pan. This is what you're looking for.)

Add enough water to cover the sauerkraut, scraping up any bits or layers at the bottom of the pan. Bring to a boil, cover and reduce to a simmer. Check periodically and add more water as it is absorbed, much like a risotto. Cook for 2 to 3 hours. The sauerkraut should be uniformly brown and tender.

Stir in the grated carrot. Add honey a tablespoon at a time, tasting after stirring. It shouldn't be strongly sour, but with light overtones of sweet. The honey is intended to remove some of the "bite". Season with salt and pepper to taste. Cook, uncovered, adding water as necessary, until carrot is tender and blends nicely into the sauerkraut mixture, about 20 - 40 minutes more.

Recommended to serve with boiled potatoes and savory meat dishes.

Merry Christmas! Priecīgus Ziemassvētkus!

How was your Christmas? Ours has gone well, though we spent much of Christmas Eve in the kitchen cooking.

Our Christmas meal consisted of pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi (grey peas with bacon and onions), speķa rauši (Latvian bacon and onion rolls), a spiral-sliced ham, šķovēti kāposti (braised sauerkraut), apple cobbler and mulled wine. (Mmm.. mulling spices + inexpensive merlot.. Wonderful.)

On Wednesday, I told you that we'd been waiting all year for one special dish.

Pelēkie zirņi (Grey Peas)

These, my friend, are pelēkie zirņi. Grey peas. This is also the last of our supply we brought with us from Latvia and, unfortunately, will be the last until we go back.

I don't know why we don't have these in the States. You'd think we would, since we're supposedly this huge melting pot of immigrants and grey peas, which are eaten by people all across Europe from England to Russia, should be here too. (Although apparently the French only advocate eating these as a "famine food.")

Instead, I find ...nothing. My dad-in-law found that the scientific name for them is Pisum arvense L., which seem to be sold only as seed to produce deer food in the States and not, as far as I can tell, for human consumption. I haven't quite decided whether or not it's safe to buy seeds -- they sometimes are sprayed with fertilizers and other nasties, so that wouldn't be good eats. Another name for them seems to be Austrian Winter Peas, but I haven't found anything more than seed-sites for those either.

Ordinarily, I'd simply ask family to ship us some, but currently, Latvijas Pasts is giving my mom-in-law issues over sending plant matter. If Latvijas Pasts is having issues, I somehow think that US Customs probably wouldn't appreciate it much either. BalticShop.com, the only importer I've found, isn't selling grey peas this year, unusually. There may be some prohibition I'm unaware of at the moment since they usually sell them every year. (Though you should check them out, they have a lot of nifty stuff for sale from the Baltics, including bread subscriptions from Lāči, the primo bakery in Rīga.)

Pelēkie zirņi (Grey Peas)

So, this is the last of our wonderful, wonderful peas. We hoarded them all year so we could have them again for Christmas, as is traditional. Last year, we made a bacon sauce with flour and heavy cream, but this year, we went with something simpler. When we go back to Latvia, we will definitely be bringing a few kilos back with us!

If you know of any importer or shop in either the US or Canada that sells grey peas, please let me know!

Pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi

Pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi

Grey Peas with Bacon and Onions (Latvian-style) [printable recipe]

Serves 2

  • 1 cup dried grey peas
  • 1 medium onion, finely diced
  • 1/4 lb bacon ends, finely diced (50/50 fat to meat)
  • salt and pepper

Soak peas overnight in lots of water. Drain, rinse and pick over for stones. Pour into a pot and cover with plenty of water. Salt water liberally. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for 2 hours or so, until peas are tender with a bit of bite (al dente).

When peas are nearly done, fry up onion and bacon together with some salt and pepper (to taste) until everything is nicely browned. Spoon bacon and onions over a bowl of peas, mix in and enjoy.

How was your Christmas? Ours has gone well, though we spent much of Christmas Eve in the kitchen cooking.

Our Christmas meal consisted of pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi (grey peas with bacon and onions), speķa rauši (Latvian bacon and onion rolls), a spiral-sliced ham, šķovēti kāposti (braised sauerkraut), apple cobbler and mulled wine. (Mmm.. mulling spices + inexpensive merlot.. Wonderful.)

On Wednesday, I told you that we'd been waiting all year for one special dish.

Pelēkie zirņi (Grey Peas)

These, my friend, are pelēkie zirņi. Grey peas. This is also the last of our supply we brought with us from Latvia and, unfortunately, will be the last until we go back.

I don't know why we don't have these in the States. You'd think we would, since we're supposedly this huge melting pot of immigrants and grey peas, which are eaten by people all across Europe from England to Russia, should be here too. (Although apparently the French only advocate eating these as a "famine food.")

Instead, I find ...nothing. My dad-in-law found that the scientific name for them is Pisum arvense L., which seem to be sold only as seed to produce deer food in the States and not, as far as I can tell, for human consumption. I haven't quite decided whether or not it's safe to buy seeds -- they sometimes are sprayed with fertilizers and other nasties, so that wouldn't be good eats. Another name for them seems to be Austrian Winter Peas, but I haven't found anything more than seed-sites for those either.

Ordinarily, I'd simply ask family to ship us some, but currently, Latvijas Pasts is giving my mom-in-law issues over sending plant matter. If Latvijas Pasts is having issues, I somehow think that US Customs probably wouldn't appreciate it much either. BalticShop.com, the only importer I've found, isn't selling grey peas this year, unusually. There may be some prohibition I'm unaware of at the moment since they usually sell them every year. (Though you should check them out, they have a lot of nifty stuff for sale from the Baltics, including bread subscriptions from Lāči, the primo bakery in Rīga.)

Pelēkie zirņi (Grey Peas)

So, this is the last of our wonderful, wonderful peas. We hoarded them all year so we could have them again for Christmas, as is traditional. Last year, we made a bacon sauce with flour and heavy cream, but this year, we went with something simpler. When we go back to Latvia, we will definitely be bringing a few kilos back with us!

If you know of any importer or shop in either the US or Canada that sells grey peas, please let me know!

Pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi

Pelēkie zirņi ar sīpoliem un speķi Serves 2

1 cup dried grey peas 1 medium onion, finely diced 1/4 lb bacon ends, finely diced (50/50 fat to meat) salt and pepper

Soak peas overnight in lots of water. Drain, rinse and pick over for stones. Pour into a pot and cover with plenty of water. Salt water liberally. Bring to a boil, reduce to a simmer and cover. Cook for 2 hours or so, until peas are tender with a bit of bite (al dente).

When peas are nearly done, fry up onion and bacon together with some salt and pepper (to taste) until everything is nicely browned. Spoon bacon and onions over a bowl of peas, mix in and enjoy.

Christmas Eve is nigh!

It's almost Christmas Eve and I've been busily baking up a storm all week. A very slow storm who stops and rests quite a bit. Luckily, I've only got a head cold and it's been manageable, but I still have a lot to accomplish today and tomorrow.

Christmas Eve is when my husband has traditionally celebrated Christmas and we'll be continuing that tradition together, seeing family on Christmas day and following. We have plans for a great Christmas dinner, including one meal we've quite literally been waiting all year to have.

I'll be back on Christmas to wish you all a very merry Christmas and to share our special Christmas Eve meal. For now, I think we both have lots to do before Christmas is completely here!

Goat Cheese & Garlic Pasta

Goat Cheese & Slow-Cooked Garlic Pasta

This past weekend, we lost our furnace. Well, I should say that it's still there but it's not working. Whatever part it is that heats the air for the fan to blow has given up the ghost, so we're waiting for an HVAC technician to be sent by our landlords to come and fix it. (HVAC = Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) Since it broke down on Saturday afternoon, we'd pretty much given up on getting any help until this morning. Actually, as I write this, I still am not quite sure when it will be fixed and boy, is the house cold this morning.

We bought a space heater, put an extra blanket on the bed and shuffled our menu around so we could use the Giant Kitchen Space Heater (the oven) for dinners. For lunch yesterday, my husband wanted pasta, which, thanks to boiling water, nicely warms up the room while preparing food that warms you up inside too. It was late on Sunday afternoon when we decided to make this, so something fast was required.

I found a recipe in one of my cookbooks that I always mean to cook more from: Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food. I like his recipes, they're fast, simple and quite to our taste. It's also very much an idea book, as it gives interesting things to have with something or on something. For some reason, I never remember to look through it for recipes. I really should rectify that.

This one caught my eye. It involves slow-cooking garlic, starting when you put the pot of water on to boil, and crumbled goat cheese. That was just perfect for lunch, combining some of my favorite things with another of my favorite things: warmth. I tweaked it a little and wished vainly for some spinach, but alas, we had none in the house. It was beautifully garlicky and tangy, perfect for a cold afternoon.

Goat Cheese & Garlic Pasta [printable recipe]

Adapted from Nigel Slater's Real Fast Food
Serves 2

  • 1/2 medium yellow onion, diced
  • 6 - 7 big cloves of garlic, crushed and coarsely chopped
  • 7 - 8 sun-dried tomatoes, cut into strips or diced
  • 2 cups chopped spinach (optional)
  • 3 ounces goat cheese
  • 2 ounces white wine
  • 6 ounces filled pasta (like dried cheese tortellini)
  • 2 tbsp chopped walnuts, hazelnuts or pine nuts
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 tsp herbes de provence or thyme
  • salt

Over medium-low heat, start cooking the garlic and olive oil. Start some water boiling and find the rest of the ingredients. After about 10 minutes or so, add the onion to the garlic. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, until the water comes to a boil.

For pastas that cook in about 10 - 12 minutes1: Add the filled pasta to the water now and salt liberally. Otherwise, wait a bit longer.

Once the pasta has cooked about 1/3rd of the way, add the tomatoes, a pinch of salt and herbs. Continue to cook, stirring occasionally, for another 3 - 4 minutes. Add wine and spinach, if using. After another 1 - 2 minutes, crumble in the goat cheese along with a spoonful or three of the pasta cooking water so that the cheese melts nicely down into a sauce. Stir in the nuts and the pasta should be about ready now, so drain it and toss the little beauties into the sauce.

If you like, gild the lily with a bit of grated parmesan on top, but it's not really necessary.

Notes:

  1. Because we usually buy dried filled pasta in bulk as a pantry staple2, I've timed the recipe for about an 11 minute cooking time. You can use any kind of pasta, but if it cooks in less than 11 minutes, you'll need to add additional time to the garlic-onion mixture before adding the pasta to the water.
  2. Yes, I said staple. It's great for an emergency pick-me-up or meal since it can be eaten with just a bit of butter or olive oil and still be tasty and filling.
  3. In fact, almost all of the ingredients for this recipe are pantry staples of ours.

Cranberry, Oatmeal & Walnut Cookies

Cranberry, Oatmeal & Walnut Cookies

One of our favorite lunch spots is Jason's Deli, which we occasionally indulge in when we go to one of our favorite stores: Sunflower Farmers Market. When we're at Jason's, I always get a chocolate chip cookie and my husband always gets a cranberry-walnut cookie with our meals because their cookies are just so damn good. (The rest of the food is great too!)

When he found dried cranberries at Winco in the bulk food section (love), he asked me to make him a batch. Now, one thing you should know about my husband is that he's crazy for whole wheat. I changed out all-purpose for whole wheat in my chocolate chip cookies and made him a very happy man, so I knew that whatever recipe I wound up using needed to use whole wheat too.

In the end, I took one I particularly liked for inspiration and played around. I think they came out pretty darn good -- and I'm not even that particularly crazy about oatmeal cookies! These aren't spreaders, they bake up soft, puffy and chewy with just a hint of spice.

Cranberry, Oatmeal & Walnut Cookies

Cranberry, Oatmeal and Walnut Cookies [printable recipe]

Adapted from a recipe by Sarah Parker on Allrecipes.com
Makes 30 - 36 cookies
  • 10 tbsp butter, softened
  • 2/3 cup brown sugar, packed
  • 1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
  • 3 tbsp milk
  • 2 eggs
  • 1 1/2 tsp baking soda
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour
  • 1 1/2 cups rolled or old-fashioned oats
  • 1 cup dried cranberries
  • 3/4 cups chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 350F.

Cream together butter and sugar. Add eggs, mix until fluffy. Add milk, vanilla extract, baking soda, salt and cinnamon. Mix well. Add flour slowly, mixing thoroughly. Stir in walnuts, oats and cranberries.

Form dough into small balls and place 2" apart on a cookie sheet. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes. Let cool 3 - 4 minutes on the pan, then remove to a rack to cool completely.

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Mini Coconut-Chocolate Pies

Mini Chocolate Coconut Pie

Okay, these little minis are really little brothers to my German Chocolate Pie with a few changes. What I love about these is that they're fast, single-serving pies with plenty of crust and room for topping. And rather than "accidentally" having 1/5th or 1/6th of a whole pie (I'm sure I've never done that. Never!) you get exactly 1/16th but it's incredibly satisfying.

Now I loved the German Chocolate Pie, but it was just on the edge of being too sweet. I decided to try semi-sweet chocolate instead of sweet chocolate and was amazed at the stronger, richer flavor. The sweetness was just perfect.

I still want to try one of the artificial sweeteners in place of the sugar to see if I can get this to a delicious, decadent dessert with one-third less guilt. Maybe next time.

Mini Coconut-Chocolate Pies [printable recipe]

Makes 8 mini-pies

  • 2 ounces semi-sweet baking chocolate
  • 2 tbsp (30g) butter
  • 6 ounces evaporated milk
  • 3/4 cups sugar
  • 1 1/2 tbsp cornstarch
  • 1 egg, beaten
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1/3 cup flaked coconut (sweetened or unsweetened)
  • 1/3 cup chopped, toasted walnuts
  • pinch of salt
  • 8 Keebler mini-graham cracker crust pie shells

Preheat oven to 375F.

Melt chocolate and butter together using your preferred method. I use the microwave, myself. Stir in evaporated milk and set aside.

Mix together sugar, cornstarch and salt, then add the egg and vanilla. Whisk in chocolate, then stir in pecans and coconut.

Set the pie shells on a baking sheet. Pour filling in to the edge, you should just enough for 8. Bake for 20- 25 minutes. They should be browned and not very jiggly at all. Cool for 2+ hours to room temperature then refrigerate overnight. Serve topped with whipped cream and chocolate shavings.

Daring Cooks Challenge: Salmon en Croute

December Challenge: Salmon en Croute

The 2009 Daring Cooks challenge was hosted by Simone of Junglefrog Cooking. Simone chose Salmon en Croute (or alternative recipes for Beef Wellington or Vegetable en Croute) from Good Food Online.

This isn't a particularly challenging dish but it did provide me with an excuse to finally buy puff pastry. (Which also meant that I'd be able to make buljons pīrādziņi as a treat for my husband, so win-win all around.) I opted not to make the pastry because frankly, I'm leery of making puff pastry in my shabby, rundown little kitchen, because I just plain don't have the counter space to really make a good go of it. Maybe after I graduate and we move.

Normally, I try not to adapt the challenge recipes too much because, hey, it's a challenge! This time, however, it needed it as no (!!) spices were specified and marscapone cheese is extremely expensive. (I can make it from scratch but I forgot I needed to so I used my favorite goat cheese instead.)

So, I added some fresh basil from my happy basil plant in the corner, some salt and pepper (always essential) and tasted the sauce. Hmmm. Quite lacking, I thought, so I threw a bit of garlic, crushed chile pepper, thyme and lemon juice in. Much better.

Finding reasonable salmon here made me long to be back in Seattle, where the salmon runs are heralded by banners and everyone knows the name of at least five different species (Coho, Steelhead, Sockeye, King, and Copper River are my five). I could have acquired a whole Coho on ice from Central Market, had it filleted by the nice fishmonger and had a beautiful side of salmon for dinner and leftovers for salmon stock later.

Instead, I finally found two theoretically not-farmed salmon portions on styrofoam at Winco which looked acceptable. I had to skin it myself, though this time it went quite quickly and easily. Ah well, maybe next year I can snag a job in Seattle and move us back there.

Ahem. Anyway, enough with the daydreaming and on to the challenge! I wrapped each portion of salmon individually, cutting the pastry sheet in half. They fit onto my small quarter-sheet pan, which was rather nice.

At least there was enough sauce to go around, which I often find to be a problem with sauce recipes. Of course, I did wind up adding a lot more cheese to get to the consistency described than was called for, so that helped.

This meal definitely deserves a glass of white wine, or, if you're me, a glass of bubbly. (I love champagne and believe that it should be reserved for those special occasions like eating, getting home from work, finishing a paper or reading a good book.)

Overall, this dish came out very well. The pastry-wrapped fish is not really to my taste, however, so I wouldn't opt to make this again. I would much prefer a simple broiled salmon with butter and lemon to this. But, if it appeals to you, I can vouch that it is quite good.

December Challenge: Salmon en Croute

Salmon en Croute [printable recipe]

Adapted from Good Food Online for December 2009 Daring Cooks Challenge
Serves 2

  • 80 g (~3 ounces) soft kefir or goat cheese
  • 210 g (~8 ounces) ricotta
  • 120 g (~4 ounces) mixed greens (arugula, spinach, etc.)
  • 10 g fresh basil
  • 1 tsp crushed red chile flakes
  • 1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
  • 1 - 2 tbsp lemon juice
  • 2 cloves garlic
  • 1/2 tsp garlic powder
  • 1 sheet thawed puff pastry (I used Pepperidge Farms)
  • 1 pound salmon fillet, skin removed
  • 1 egg
  • salt, pepper

Preheat oven to 400F/200C. Whiz kefir cheese, ricotta, spices, garlic, basil and mixed greens along with a healthy pinch of salt and pepper into a creamy green sauce.

Roll out puff pastry and place on a parchment- or foil-lined baking sheet. Brush some of the sauce over the area where the salmon will rest, then lay the salmon on top. If there's a thin tail-end, tuck it under. Spoon a goodly portion of the sauce onto the salmon. Fold the pastry over into a neat parcel, trimming the edges neatly.

Make three cuts to allow steam to escape. Beat the egg, adding a little water, to produce an egg glaze. Brush the pastry well with the glaze.

Bake for 30 minutes or until it's golden brown and delicious. To test whether the salmon is fully cooked (since the flake test cannot be used), carefully insert the tip of a paring knife through one of the vents into the salmon and wait 3 seconds. Press the flat of the blade against your wrist (carefully, please), if it's hot, it's cooked.

Serve with the remaining sauce.

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