Dessert By Candy

CSA Share 5 Before & After

Before I picked up my second share from Kawartha Ecological Growers over a week ago, I previewed the list of items on their website. As can be expected, my mind immediately turned to numerous meal ideas and I anxiously awaited the arrival of Thursday. The promise of dry beans and lil gem squashes really got me filled with excitement. This is what I had in my box along with the extra items that I chose:

• fingerling potatoes
• lil gem squashes
• carrots
• red cabbage
• onions
• turnips
• assorted microgreens/sprouts
• dry beans
• pickled cucumbers, onions, cauliflower in mustard sauce
• eggs
• pork shoulder butt roast

At first glance, this box may not seem as versatile as the last share. After all, carrots, potatoes, and onions are often supporting players in cooking. Look beyond flashy recipes though, I found plenty of really interesting cooking ideas for such humble ingredients. I particularly savour the challenge of showcasing ordinary ingredients into extraordinary dishes. These are the different dishes I enjoyed:

	Warm Baked Goat Cheese & Sprouts A simple but very elegant salad worthy of dinner parties! This salad uses the assorted sprouts from the CSA share. It was topped with black seedless grapes, candied pecans, warm baked goat cheese, and a maple mustard vinaigrette. I followed the technique from David Lebovitz for making the baked goat cheese. Recipe for the complete salad available here.
	Frijoles a la Charra & Skillet Cornbread CSA share 4 and 5 joined forces to give me a meal of southern comfort food, though not the type of comfort food I grow up with. I adapted my recipe from Homesick Texan's pinto beans three way and cornbread recipes. The beans were stick-to-your-ribs good, porky and mildly spicy from the judicious use of jalapeno and chipotle in adobo. I prefer a thicker consistency for the beans so I threw in handfuls of cornmeal before it finished simmering. The beans came from this week's CSA share. Such big fat creamy beans! The skillet cornbread contains no sugar and is unmistakably savory. The toasty flavour of the handmilled cornmeal is the star. It was the first time for me to make skillet cornbread and I thoroughly enjoyed pouring the batter into the hot skillet sizzling with bacon dripping. It made for a crisp brown crust.
	Pulled Pork Sandwich with Coleslaw A pork shoulder butt roast was part of my extras in the share. Almost immediately, I heard pulled pork calling my name. This oven cooked version is based on the method published in Cook's Illustrated (an adaptation is posted on The Bitten Word) which involves liquid smoke in brining and the rub. The pork was covered under parchment and foil to roast to fork-tender. It was then given a brief uncovered roasting to give the outside some crispness. The sweet and tangy barbeque sauce is made with defatted pan dripping and maple syrup, for that Canadian touch. The colourful coleslaw is also pulled together with mainly contents from my share including purple cabbage and carrots. I added green onion and cilantro for more savory flavour. I couldn't decide between a oil/vinegar or creamy dressing...so I did both. I dressed the coleslaw with olive oil, rice vinegar, sugar, salt, pepper, greek-style yogurt, and maple mustard. I'm very pleased with this dish and definitely see myself making pulled pork more often from now on!
	Mustard Roasted Fingerling Potatoes These mustard roasted fingerling potatoes have a good medley of flavour with a tempting aroma. The potatoes were tossed with grainy mustard, lemon juice, lemon zest, rosemary, olive oil, butter, black pepper, and garlic. How can it not smell great? They are delicious hot out of the oven but I am partial to snacking on them at room temperature. The lemon flavour was unexpectedly pronounced but it's quite refreshing. Recipe available from smitten kitchen.
	Tassajara Warm Red Cabbage Salad A second salad from the same head of red cabbage, could it be? I love warm salads. Personally, I'm not keen on crunching on raw ribbons of cabbage so this lightly sauteed warm cabbage salad is a wonderful alternative to the coleslaw I made earlier. I adapted from the recipe posted on 101 Cookbooks which has a wealth of vegetarian recipes. I used a mix of dried apricots and dried black mission figs. Instead of candied sunflower seeds, I made use of some candied pecans that I already made for the baked goat cheese and sprouts. My salad was topped with stripes of shaved romano cheese. With all that garlic, onion, rosemary, balsamic vinegar, cheeses, dried fruit, and candied nuts, this warm salad delivers big flavour. It can easily be a main course salad.
	Roasted Corn Pudding In Gem Squash Roasted lil gem squashes are filled with peaches & cream corn kernels and a custard made with egg, cream, almond milk, anise seed, nutmeg, and scallions. They were finished off with a blanket of grated cheddar and broiled. This is a good sidedish or vegetarian main course. Recipe available here.
	Pot Roast With Polenta Another combined effort from CSA share 4 and 5. This is a beef pot roast made with carrots, turnips, and onions from this week's share and served with panfried polenta cakes made from cornmeal in share 4. I bought the blade roast from Green Gate Farm, a regular at AppleTree and Green Barn Market. After over three hours of slow cooking, the beef is so unbelievably tender. Thanks go to The Pioneer Woman for showing me how to make this most basic dish. Two hours into cooking, my entire kitchen smelled like pot roast. The power of thyme and rosemary and bay leaf! It was all I could do not to peek into the pot. Note to self: dishes involving brown sauce and fall-apart-fork-tender beef is delicious to eat but far from photogenic.
	French Onion Soup I chose a bag of onions for CSA share 4. As luck would have it, I got another bag as part of the core items for share 5. Sooooo, I had an abundance of onions, a very rare occurence at my house. Obviously, it was time to make onion soup. Making onion soup is the easiest thing in the world as long as you have a bit of patience. This is the recipe I used. It's important to take the time to caramelize the onions nice and brown. My version is topped with slices of toasted multigrain baguette and slivers of shaved gruyere. I absolutely hate to grate cheese so when I can use my vegetable peeler instead, I do. Snowy winter days + fireplace + soupe a l'oignon au gratinee + Olympics Men's Hockey Gold = Very Happy Candy

Roasted Corn Pudding In Gem Squash

The couple of lil gem squashes from my most recent CSA share had been staring at me from across the kitchen table for a few days. They looked so diminutive and adorable but at the same time a little intimidating. Between the tough skin and their perfectly round shape, I was not sure I could cut them up without losing blood or finger. However, the promise of discovering another vegetable was too tempting so I finally tackle them today.

Roasting is my standard preparation for winter squashes. However, I really want to do something more special with these cute ones. They are the perfect size to be stuffed and already portioned for individual serving. Most stuffed squash recipes use a filling of sausages and/or grains. Not a big fan. When I saw this recipe from 101 Cookbooks, my eyes lit up. This is my adaptation of the recipe after playing around with the proportions to my liking.

Ingredients

• 2 gem squashes, halved and seeds removed
• 1 large egg
• 50g heavy cream
• 50g almond milk
• 1/4 tsp anise seeds, crushed
• a pinch of grated nutmeg
• 1/4 tsp ground pepper
• a pinch of fine sea salt
• 2 tbsp of finely chopped scallions, reserve a bit for garnishing
• 1 cup of corn kernels (I used frozen because it is middle of winter)
• 1/4 cup grated cheddar cheese

Method

1. Preheat oven to 425F. Place the squash halves on a roasting pan and roast for 30 minutes until the flesh is tender.

2. While the squash halves are roasting, prepare custard. In a large measuring cup, mix together egg, cream, almond milk, anise seeds, nutmeg, pepper, salt, and scallions.

3. Remove squash halves from the oven and fill them with corn kernels until full. Reduce oven temperature to 375F.

4. Before you fill the squash halves with custard, you want to make sure that they are level so you can fill as much custard as possible without spilling. Here I set each squash half over a silicone muffin cup and readjust accordingly. They are more stable too! Fill the squash halves with custard until full.

5. Bake for 15-20 minutes until custard is set and still a bit jiggly in the middle. Remove from oven and top with grated cheddar cheese.

6. Set oven to broil and broil the squash halves until cheese is bubbling and golden brown. Keep a very close eye on it. Depending on your oven, it takes approximately 3-4 minutes.

7. Garnish with reserved scallions and serve immediately. One per person for sidedish, or two per person for a vegetarian main course. Me? I can eat all four in one sitting.

Winter Fruit Compote

A couple of nights ago I opened a bottle of chardonnay because it was the only bottle of white wine I had in the house and I needed it for making soupe a l'oignon. That was my answer to an abundance of onions in the house. The soup turned out okay but in my quest to use up the onions, I created a new dilemma. Now I had to use up the remaining bottle of white wine! Drink it up certainly sounds like the most logical thing to do but I am really not much of a drinker. My mind turned to cooking immediately and ideas started to flow.

As I already have some poached pears swimming away in the fridge, making yet another batch doesn't make much sense. Risotto is a possibility until I remembered that I'm trying to meet a weight goal in less than three weeks. I want something that can keep in the fridge for some time and I can consume in small portions. A winter dried fruit compote is the answer.

Rummaging through my pantry, I quickly come up with a bunch of ingredients. A warm spicy aromatic poaching liquid is a must and for that, I gathered white wine, cinnamon stick, vanilla pod emptied of beans, star anise, whole cloves, and stripes of lemon peel. As for what to poach, that was even easier. I always keep a good variety of dried fruit as healthy snacks. Prunes, black mission figs, dried apricots, and cherries were just perfect. While everything was simmering away and filling my kitchen with a delicious aroma, I thought the compote looked like it was missing something. I want something tart and bright to brighten up both look and flavour. Oh wait, don't I have a stash of fresh cranberries tucked away in the freezer? I bought a big bag at Montreal's Marche Jean Talon last autumn. The little ruby orbs were just what this compote needed. The added pectin also didn't hurt since it helped to thicken the poaching liquid to a more syrupy consistency.

The flavour of this winter fruit compote is quite bold and it makes for a lovely accompaniment to greek-style yogurt, creme fraiche, vanilla (better yet, cinnamon) ice-cream, slices of toasted pound cake, or even as part of a cheese board. I think I'll have to try them all.

Added bonus: this dessert is vegan and gluten-free.

Ingredients

• 250mL white wine
• 250mL water
• 130g granulated sugar
• 1/4 vanilla pod, reserve bean for other uses
• 1 small cinnamon stick
• 2 whole cloves
• 1 star anise
• 2 stripes of lemon zest, about 4x1 inches each
• 454g of assorted dried fruit, chopped to 1.5cm pieces
• 30 frozen cranberries

Method

1. In a medium pot, stir together all ingredients except for dried fruit and cranberries. Alternatively, you can use a disposable paper teabag and fill it with cinnamon, cloves, star anise, and lemon zest before submerging that packet with the rest of the ingredients. This makes for easier clean up later.
2. Bring poaching liquid to a simmer over medium heat. Put in dried fruit and simmer at medium low heat for about 15 minutes.
3. Add in cranberries and keep simmering until berries start to pop and poaching liquid turns syrupy.
4. Discard vanilla pod and poaching spices.
5. Divide the compote into clean glass containers and top each container with syrup. Cool and store in fridge for up to a week. This recipe yields four jars each of 250mL size.

Baked Goat Cheese And Sprouts Salad

Do you know that feeling when you made a dish so tasty that you wonder why have you not make it sooner? I had one of those moments last Saturday. I received a box of assorted sprouts in last week's CSA share. A quick look in my fridge and I decided that I found the best way to use up a piece of unripened goat cheese and leftover cubes of frozen baguette.

I cannot stress enough how this salad is just simply perfect. A bed of sprouts was lightly dressed with a maple mustard vinaigrette. Pieces of fresh black grapes and candied pecans add sweetness and crunch in their own unique ways. To top it all off, a round of melty goat cheese with a crispy coating of breadcrumbs was just the right amount of richness to make this salad elegant but not over the top.

Ingredients

• 2oz unripened goat cheese, cut into 2 rounds about 2cm thick
• 3tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2 sprigs of thyme
• 1/4 cup day-old bread crumbs
• 3 cups of assorted sprouts
• 8 black seedless grapes, halved
• 6 candied pecan halves, chopped (see notes below on how to make candied pecans)
• 1 tsp red wine vinegar
• 1 tsp maple mustard (or honey mustard)
• freshly ground black pepper and salt to taste

Method

1. The night before, marinate the discs of goat cheese in olive oil and leaves from 1 sprig of thyme.
2. Preheat oven to 375F. Remove goat cheese rounds from olive oil and set aside in the fridge.
3. Toss bread crumbs with 1-2 tsp of the olive oil used in marinating until moist. Spread on baking sheet and toast until golden, about 5-10 minutes. Toss in leaves from the remaining sprig of thyme. Let the bread crumbs cool down a bit.
4. Make the vinaigrette: in a large mixing bowl, whisk together 1 tbsp of the olive oil used in marinating, vinegar, mustard, black pepper, and salt. Set aside.
5. Lightly pressed the round of goat cheese onto the mounds of toasted bread crumbs until it is completely covered. There will be more bread crumbs than you need so I just mound the remaining crumbs into two little bed and set one round of goat cheese on top of each. This will ensure the bottom of the cheese does not stick to the pan. Bake for 5-8 minutes until cheese is soft and warm.
6. While cheese is baking, toss the sprouts with the vinaigrette. Divide between two plates and sprinkle with grapes and candied pecans.
7. Top each plate with a round of baked goat cheese. Serve immediately.

To make candied pecans: toast a cup of raw pecan halves in a frying pan over medium high heat, about 5 minutes until nuts start to smell really good. Sprinkle with 2 tsp of brown sugar and a shake of sweet paprika. Stir until pecans are coated. Remove from heat and spread over a plate to break up the pieces. Cool and store in airtight box up to a week.

Oooey gooey cheesy goodness but healthy nonetheless!

Mochi Cake With Beurre Noisette & Ueno Black Sugar

Lately, I'm experiencing a wave of good cooking/baking karma. I've been cooking more than ever before and the constant practice is paying off big time. I can't believe how delicious everything is turning out. Even unintentional mistakes result in unexpectedly wonderful results. This is rather unusual in baking where precision is everything. This baked mochi cake is a prime example.

Leading up to the Lunar New Year, I've been craving baked mochi cake (nian gao). It is a fad that started in the last decade, I think. I still remember one year when my mom came back from work clutching a hand-scribbled recipe and a piece of cake that her coworker made. It looked like a slice of good ol' pound cake but the chewy soft texture was unmistakeably like mochi. Nowadays you can buy this delicacy at most Chinese bakery around New Year. It's not traditional in the strictest sense but I love eating them nonetheless.

A quick search on the internet and I found a few recipes for baked butter mochi with more of a Hawaiian lineage. The recipes are simple enough that my mind immediately wandered to all the creative possibilities. Before I knew it, I returned home from my local Japanese grocer with boxes of mochiko (sweet rice flour) and a big bag of Ueno black raw sugar. Black raw sugar is a cousin of the more famous Okinawa kurozato. They both have very distinctive taste and is highly prized in making sweets. I've been looking for a reason to incorporate that in my baking and I think I've finally found a good venue.

An extra layer of complexity is added by the use of beurre noisette. This is where my happy accidental discovery happened. Unlike refined sugar, these lumps of raw sugar take a long time to melt so instead of a mixture of melted butter and sugar, I ended up with beurre noisette. Such irresistably nutty aroma! This cake is only mildly sweet which reminds me of the western sweets in Japan. The characteristic chewy texture of mochi is maintained in this baked version though subdued compared to traditional steamed mochi.

I love to pair this cake with a cup of steaming green tea or even matcha for a Japanese style afternoon tea. For a more decadent take, drizzle with syrup made from kurozato to highlight the black sugar flavour. Added bonus: gluten-free cake!

Ingredients

• 454g of mochiko (sweet rice flour)
• 2 tsp of baking powder
• 227g of unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 300g of black raw sugar
• 1 can (370mL) of evaporated milk
• 2 tsp of vanilla extract
• 4 eggs

Method

1. Preheat oven to 350F. Grease and flour two 5" round cake pans.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together mochiko and baking powder. Set aside.
3. Put butter and sugar in a small pot over medium low heat. Stirring occasionally, cook until all the sugar has melted, about 20-25 minutes.
See how big the lumps of sugar are? That would take some time to cook. After 25 minutes, butter has turned into beurre noisette (take a whiff of that nutty smell) and all the sugar has melted. Dark liquid gold. I want to eat this off a spoon but common sense told me it's burning hot. That would be dumb. 
4. Stir butter mixture into evaporated milk. Add vanilla extract.
Thick and smooth. The evaporated milk ought to cool down the mixture so it would not cook your eggs into scrambled eggs in the next step. A nice shade of mocha brown. If you want to be extra careful, you can cool the batter down a bit at this point. 
5. Stir in eggs until batter is smooth.
 
6. Pour butter mixture into flour mixture. Fold until flour is completely incorporated. You want to be gentle but don't worry too much about overmixing because unlike wheat flour, this batter does not develop gluten. Woohoo!
Time for some elbow grease. But not too much. Finally the batter is ready. Very thick indeed. 
7. Divide batter between two cake pans. Bake for 45 minutes until toothpick inserted into the cake comes out with only a few moist crumbs.
Unlike me, you want to smooth the batter because that little bump showed up in the final product. Oops. Enjoy! I hope you'll like this cake as much as I do!

A Local Valentine's Day Dinner In Virginia

My recent infatuation with cooking from locally-sourced ingredients purchased at farmer's markets did not take a break just because I was away from home last weekend. Upon meeting with BO at the Dulles airport last Friday night, I immediately declared "You can sleep in on Sunday and Monday. But tomorrow we're waking up early to go to Falls Church Farmer's Market". That statement was met with a groan but I was determined.

The winter market at Falls Church city hall was small but well-rounded. There were vendors for fresh vegetables, meat, poultry, charcuterie, pasta, bread, cakes, dairy, eggs, cheese, coffee, pickles, even ice-cream! That was everything I could hope for in a market. It was perfect one-stop shopping for a homecook Valentine's Day dinner (apparently, great minds think alike). I was so excited about the lot of goodies that found their way to my shopping bag.

As soon as I stepped into the market, I made a beeline to Stachowski Charcuterie. I heard much good things about them and a taste of their samples explained why. I love the fresh kielbasa and the lamb merguez though the duck sausages was calling my name. However, I remembered that BO did not really enjoyed duck at our dinner at Au Pied De Cochon so I did not push my luck. After all, Valentine's Day dinner ought to be enjoyable for both of us. Cheese and sausages are a natural match and I liked what I saw at Blue Ridge Dairy. Their applewood smoked mozzarella had a creamy center (almost like medium boiled egg) and undeniable smokey flavour. I also snapped up a tub of their greek-style yogurt because I simply do not walk away from greek-style yogurt. I tasted many different apples at one of the two produce stands and was especially pleased with Nittany. This is a varietal that we don't get in Ontario. I love the balance of sweet, tart, and crispy. However, what really blew my mind was their fresh-pressed pear cider. I've always been a fan of apple cider but a sip of that pear cider is the essense of pear in a liquid form. I really wished I had gotten more. I rounded out my purchase with a bunch of kale and a couple of sweet potatoes...you know, girly food for me.

I really wanted to say I got my bread at the market as well but the truth is I did not find the bread all that enticing. The next day, we went to Georgetown for some argentinian gelato (our second attempt actually. Dolcezza was closed when we visited around New Year). I stopped into Le Pain Quotidien and got a quarter loaf of their pain de ble au levain. I love this style of traditional sourdough bread with its thick crispy crust.

Keeping in mind that it was Valentine's Day and I was cooking from a minimally equipped bachelor kitchen, I had to keep my menu simple. C'mon, I did not even have a frying pan (nor a dining room table for that matter...)! In just one hour, we had a feast spreaded over the coffee table.

• broiled fresh kielbasa and lamb merguez
• roasted sweet potatoe wedges lightly spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon
• butter sauteed kale
• pain de ble au levain with cultured butter
• applewood smoked mozzarella
• sticky chocolate cake

Had I been ambitious, I could probably do a quick saute of the apples in butter and dark rum which I'm sure would be perfect with the sausages. You may wonder where did the chocolate cake come from? Well, that one was decidedly not local. In fact, it was a little special gift that I made back home in Canada and carefully coddled through multiple airport securities. When I laid eyes on the recipe for this cake, I knew it was the one. It is sturdy yet decadent enough to be special. Besides, there is not a single drop of oil. The moisture is contributed from the prune puree and a generous Grand Marnier soaking syrup. BO enthusiastically agreed (in three helpings) that it was the perfect end to a yummy dinner.

Expanding My Squash Horizon

My favourite way to enjoy winter squashes is to simply roast them until they are sweet, creamy, and tender. I think it is the best way to showcase the deliciousness of the ingredient. However, there are times when a bit more finesse in the kitchen can yield fantastic results without too much extra effort. When I first saw Dorie Greenspan's post on stuffed pumpkin filled with bread and cheese, I was intrigued. I love savory bread pudding and I love roasted squash. Combining the two together into a beautiful dish worthy of any harvest dinner sounds like a brilliant idea to me.

Much cooking ensued since I received my first winter CSA share two weeks ago. An interesting outcome is that a large part of my menu planning involve using up the most perishable ingredients first. Winter squashes are good keepers so I did not have a chance to turn this lovely bright orange orb into dinner until yesterday. All that waiting only made the result that much more satisfying.

Cutting out the lid was a lot easier than anticipated. I jabbed a paring knife into the squash until I made enough incisions to complete a full circle. The top came right off with just the tiniest bit of coaxing. To be on the safe side, I pricked the skin of the squash in case the skin bubbles up during roasting. The inside of the squash was filled with cubes of stale whole wheat baguette, Upper Canada Cheese Company's Niagara Gold, dried Mission figs, and a splash of cream spiced with nutmeg. The cream bubbled over during roasting which essentially basted the outside of the squash to a glistening sheen.

What I like most about this dish is I can enjoy it both warm or room temperature. After it cooled, I quartered the squash into neat wedges and I could see globs of cheese and bread swirled together. This is definitely a dish to make again and again.

My First CSA Share

The writings' on the wall. My recent fascination with locally-sourced produce and meat at Green Barn Market logically led me down the path of community shared agriculture (CSA). Obviously I love the experience and flexibility of shopping at farmer's market. The notion of making dinner based on what looks good at the market is somewhat romantic, isn't it? It's nice to know where my food comes from and that it is produced by sustainable farming practices. However, behind all that, my main consideration is simple. I want great tasting fresh vegetable, dairy, and meat. Ideally purchased in a way that fit into a busy schedule too. After all, a girl can't revolve her life around food all the time (not that I haven't tried). This is where I started looking into CSA in earnest.

Typical of my decision making, the first candidate I look at is most often my first choice. Call it intuition, I suppose. Fortunately, research and word of mouth validate that Kawartha Ecological Grower would suit my needs quite well. It was extra reassuring that the weekend after I paid my share in full, there was a glowing article on KEG in a major newspaper.

I picked up my first share last week at AppleTree Market and I am tremendously happy that I took the plunge. The photo above shows the goodies in all their glory. I came home with carnival squashes, carrots, leeks, cylindrical beets, blue & red potatoes, turnips, sprouts, onions, eggs, gourmet lamb sausages, and handmilled cornmeal. I also bought an inside round beef roast from Green Gate Farm, more of that delicious cheese curds from Empire Cheese, and a kabocha squash from nearby The Healthy Butcher (because I cannot say no to kabocha). With such a delicious bounty, meal inspirations come naturally.

• sprouts salad simply dressed with olive oil, kosher salt, and freshly ground pepper
• panfried lamb sausages over creamy polenta with goat cheese
• roasted beets with kefir
• classic roast beef
• gratin dauphinois with leeks
• toasted roast beef sandwich with aged cheddar, sauteed onions, and Voisin's maple mustard
• baked kabocha stuffed with bread, figs, and Niagara Gold
• roast beef hash topped with fried egg
• beans and cornbread
• winter vegetable beans stew
• roasted carnival squash
• grated beets and carrots salad

It's been a long time since I last felt this kind of anticipation about dinner. I think I have finally found the balance between eating healthy (for sports training) and eating well (for pleasure). This is a most welcomed change indeed.

Heirloom Cookbook?

Obligatory cookbook bookshelf photo. This is only a small section of my library but of course you wouldn't expect any less, right?

Most homecooks own a general all-around tome which acted as a their gateway to the world of cooking and baking. They may have out grown it since but it will always hold a soft spot in their heart--this is where it all started. The Joy Of Cooking probably holds such an esteemed place for many in North America. If you grow up in France, Je Sais Cuisiner may be the one for you. As for myself, it is a very humble copy of Gas Cookery Book I inherited from my late mother.

If I am not mistaken, this cookbook is at most a couple of years younger than me. I never really had an opportunity to find out its origin from my Mom but my highly probable guess is she received it as a complimentary copy when we moved to New Territories (back then, the countryside). The house was huge and the kitchen was equiped with a gas oven cooking range, rather unusual for kitchens in Hong Kong. I have vivid memories of my Mom litting the oven with a lighter gun because I always thought she risked her life just to bake us cakes. Ah, the working of a kid's mind!

As a child, I loved to flip through the pages of this cookbook and imagined all the wonderful food it promises on its pages. Now that I think about it, it totally makes me wonder. This cookbook is heavy on text with only a sprinkling of colour and black & white photos. Compare to the coffee table-worthy cookbooks popular nowaways, it seems down right boring. I suppose imagination really is a powerful tool, especially for kids. Chapters are divided into different regional cuisines with representative dishes from Chinese, British, French, Japanese, Scandinavian, Portuguese, American, etc. I remember yearning to travel to all those exotic countries. Interestingly enough, all recipes in this cook are in both English and Chinese. I did not realize it when I was younger but it did help me learn both languages in a way that truly interested me.

Going through this book yesterday, I was amused by how dated it is. Check out the outfit and hairstyle of that lady cooking over the range! This is almost like the parallel universe photo of an I Love Lucy era snapshot of homelife in Hong Kong. Exactly how old am I, you ask? Bet you think I age really well. Here's another educated guess. My copy is probably a revised edition but it kept many of the photos from earlier editions. I also love the retro food styling and ornate dishware popular back in the days.

Food trend comes and goes but classics can endure the test of time. Surely pineapple upside-down cake qualifies. Guess what, my first exposure to this American classic is far from what you may envision. Pineapple rings were refashioned into an octopus surrounded by floating lotus leaves. Way groovy.

It is also interesting to see the pictorial for ingredients. This one for Chinese cooking shows off the packaging of some condiments that I remember from years ago. Some brands continue to use the same packaging to this day while others have evolved much since. When I saw that bottle of Del Monte Catsup, I instantly felt a wave of nostalgia. No Heinz at my home for sure!

A Lesson In Cheesemaking

I am fascinated by the art of cheesemaking. Turning milk into cheese? That almost qualifies for alchemy! A few weeks ago, curiosity got the best of me and I made my first round of chevre gently flavoured with lemon zest and pine honey. It was delicate and fresh tasting though lacking much of the complexity in my beloved cheeses. It was also an exercise in patience. Hours went by with the slow dripping of whey. On the scale of immediate gratification, cheesemaking probably ranks just above gardening.

I must admit though, it was tremendously rewarding to unmold my very own cheese for the first time. The experience reminded me of that distant past when I beamed in excitement at my first batch of muffins. Of course it was far from perfect but there was just something so satisfying about uncovering the mystery of a food I once thought is the domain of professionals only.

Soon after my chevre experiment, I came across The Stop Community Food Centre's cooking classes when I was looking up information on winter farmer's market. An afternoon cheesemaking workshop caught my eye and next thing I knew, I registered for the class. This is the workshop description from the website:

Learn how to make chevre, paneer, blue cheese, cheese curds, yogourt and kefir. Daveed Rotsztain will lead participants through the various stages of the cheesemaking process from culturing to l'affinage (ageing). The workshop will emphasize a sort of 'natural cheesemaking', with a focus on simple, hands-on techniques that can be easily reproduced at home. Daveed will also discuss the history, science and practice of cheesemaking, the politics of raw milk, rennet free cheeses and dairy ferments. Oh, and there will be lots of cheese to eat too.

Bio: Daveed Rotsztain is an organic farmer and farmstead cheesemaker on Mayne Island on the west coast of BC, where he makes chevre, as well as aged goats milk cheeses from a small herd of Saanen goats. He picked up his cheesemaking skills from various teachers, including a brown swiss cow named Sundae on Cortes Island. Daveed has given cheesemaking workshops for many food security-minded organizations around the Salish Sea including the Galiano Food Program, the UBC Farm, and the Sustainable Living Arts School.

Does that not sound exciting?

Last Saturday, I went to Green Barn for our class. I learned lots from Daveed and saw all the mistakes that I made in my previous experiment with chevre. More importantly, the mystery has been removed from cheesemaking. I see that it is something I can do in my own kitchen and I look forward to more experiment in future. Let's take a look at what we learned in class:

The Green Barn was flooded with sunlight. A beautiful space for an afternoon of cheesemaking.   The Making Rennet Cheese (from left to right):

1. A cup of kefir culture was added to a gallon of warm whole unhomogenized cow's milk that is about the temperature of warm bath water. Using unhomogenized milk yields better result and is easier to work with.
2. A quarter tablet of rennet was dissolved in some water before adding to the milk. The enzyme in the rennet will cause the protein in the milk to tighten and eventually turns into gelatinous curd.
3. The pot of milk was covered with a lid and coddled with dish towels to keep it warm. It is important to leave it undisturbed because the forming of curds is a very fragile process.
4. After 30 minutes, we began to see some whey seperating from the curds.
5. After 60 minutes, it became gelatinous. Daveed demonstrated the clean pull method of testing the readiness. He dipped his finger into the curd and lifted it out. If the curd is ready, it should fall cleanly from both sides of his finger. This is not a very reliable test though especially for inexperienced cheesemakers.
6. After 75 minutes, the curd is becoming a little stronger. Daveed demonstrated another method of testing the readiness. He gently put his hand over the top of the curd. If he can pull the curd away from the side of the pot as one unit, it is ready.
7. After 90 minutes, the curd is finally strong enough and was ready for cutting.
8. Curds were cut into large 1 inch cubes. Larger curds are favoured for making squeaky cheese (hello poutine!).
9. After cutting, the curds are "pitched". i.e. rest some more to let them heal and strengthen.
10. Cooking the curds is another lengthy process. The large pot of curds was cooked over low heat to gently bring the temperature up slowly. We only stir them occasionally at first. As the curds got stronger, stirring became more frequent. Cook until squeaky cheese curds form.

  Here is a look at cutting the curds in action.   Heated cheese was the other style of cheese we made. This is rennet-free and the milk is heated to high temperature before curdling with an acid. Paneer is an example of heated cheese.

1. Milk was brought to a boil. Heated cheese must be made at above 80C temperature.
2. An acid is used to curdle the milk. Vinegar is one example but we used freshly squeezed lemon juice in our class that imparts a lovely taste.
3. Pour all the lemon juice into the milk and stir once or twice. You do not want to stir vigorously because the resulting curds would be tiny and the cheese would lose its smooth texture.
4. Milk curdled almost instantly. Using a slotted spoon, gently remove the curds into a strainer to drain out the whey. Do not take the shortcut and pour everything into a strainer! That would break up the curds.
5. Daveed showed us his homemade cheese form. Using two nestling plastic containers, the bottom one is pierced with holes while the top one is filled with water to weigh down the curds.
6. Put the strained curds into the bottom cheese form and set it over a baking pan to catch the drained whey.
7. Set the top of the cheese form (filled with water) over the curds.
8. Adjust the form to ensure the cheese is level.
9. After much draining and waiting, the cheese is pressed into paneer!
10. Unmolded paneer is ready.

  Stirring in lemon juice to the pot of hot milk.   Unmold the paneer in one swift move.   After class, we all gathered around the table for a yummy cheese tasting. Daveed brought a round of Moonstruck ash ripened camembert all the way from B.C. This cheese recently got a nice review in Globe and Mail so it made an impression on me. Apparently, it is not available for sale in Ontario so that was a nice treat. Another cheese that made a huge impression was La Bergerie aux 4 Vents' Geai Bleu from New Brunswick. Other cheese that we tried include Fifth Town's Wishing Tree, Mi Careme, Daveed's own crottin, hung goat yogurt cheese, and of course freshly-made paneer.

For more great reading on cheesemaking, check out this post on cheddar.