About Ann Allchin

I'm a multitalented mother of two who is always looking for a cooking challenge. I live in Toronto, where I am lucky enough to be able to find samples of almost every food in the world within five kilometres of my house. When I'm not with kids, I'm often reading, writing, or enjoying food and wine.

Salt of the earth – Sea asparagus

Posted on June 16, 2013 by Ann Allchin

I have an unapologetic love of salt. I smother my eggs in it, I add it to McDonald’s already salty fries… can’t get enough. Luckily I have low blood pressure, so when my husband is after me saying, “that can’t be healthy,” I tell him I’d basically pass out if I didn’t keep my salt levels high. Whenever we’re near a blood pressure monitor he’s convinced he’s going to be proven right with a skyrocketing result, but I always come in on the barely-functioning scale. Yay me.

Anyway, the point is that I love finding new sources of salty goodness. I’ve tried and liked different seaweeds before, but I can’t eat too much of them because I find them fishy. Enter the “sea asparagus”

Apparently these little fresh juicy morsels of salty goodness are harvested when the tide goes out. The sign on them said they were from Israel, but they’re also regularly available in BC. Oddly, they have a floral scent, but they taste kind of like the fresh version of a caper.

And they’re healthy too! They’re packed with B vitamins, especially B2 which is great for energy, and they also have vitamin A and folic acid. They’re good for the liver, skin, and stomach. They also have “TMG” (note: not TMZ – Lyndsay Lohan doesn’t need to avoid them) which fights stroke and liver disease. So if you drink a lot of wine with them, your liver comes out even in the end (okay, I made this up, but it’s possible??). They’re also called “sea beans,” salicornia, glasswort, pickleweed, or marsh samphire.

Because they were caperish, I decided to serve em up raw with a smoked salmon pasta (you can also steam them, but since I liked them raw I don’t know what this would do to the taste). I cheated and bought prepared alfredo sauce, but you could always find a recipe and make that yourself if you’re a purist. Here’s what I did – quick, easy, and tasty.

Smoked salmon sea bean alfredo (serves 4)

250mL prepared (or scratch) alfredo sauce
1 package smoked salmon
1 good handful sea asparagus
Dried pasta shells

Directions: Boil water for pasta, and cook according to package directions. Heat alfredo sauce. Chop smoked salmon and sea asparagus. Drain pasta and add sauce and sea goodies.

Results

This pic was taken before I fully chopped and incorporated everything, but you get the idea. Delicious! This pasta was a hit with everyone who gobbled it up. If you should happen to come across sea beans, don’t be shy to nab them. It’s always nice to find something that’s healthy and tasty. Rating: 4 Yums

Note: This is not the Canadian post where I’ll be preparing the delicacy I hinted about last time, but that is coming right up. Next hint: think igloos…

Snap to it! Exposure compensation, and a tough-guy knight

Posted on June 10, 2013 by Ann Allchin

You may recall from last week’s post that I’m trying to turn my camera into something more than a point-and-shoot. It’s just too darn heavy to lug around unless I’m using it to do more. So here are the results of my round table photo shoot, in response to Cinnamon’s “Snap to it” tutorial on exposure compensation.

Here is our Sir Snugglepuss (he’s going to HATE my public tendencies by the time he’s big) playing nice

And here he is in dragon readiness mode

And here’s his sister, who was told it was her brother’s turn to be showcased this week because she was the subject last week, but who couldn’t bear to be left out

I’m starting to understand camera settings better, but a lot of the time I still look at the result and say “whaaa?” Getting there! Stay tuned for more weird cooking later this week!

And here’s a teaser for a few weeks from now – I’ve entered to submit a post that must be Canada themed (and of course, an unusual food, because that’s my thing), so here are your hints about what it might be: 1. I have a funny feeling it might taste disgusting. 2. It seems incredibly unhealthy but some Canadians have survived on it almost exclusively in the past. 3. It scoffs in the face of modern energy bars. I’m pretty sure if I eat it once I’ll be able to survive off of my own fat for years. 4. Wine on a stick might be the best pairing. Guesses?

Game Day – “Snap to it” weekly challenge

Posted on June 3, 2013 by Ann Allchin

Now some of you may be reading hoping for a weird cooking experiment, which is generally my thing. But thanks to Joanna at www.midwesternbite.com, who is one of my Internet buds (here is where my husband is giggling and I’m saying “but they’re REAL”) I virtually met (keep laughing, but they’re my FRIENDS, and not the Facebook kind), Cinnamon, who hangs out at www.eatpraytri.com, and knowing the two of them has encouraged me to veer from my general theme. But it’s really for the benefit of my general theme. I’ll continue.

When I started my blog, I took pictures with my iPhone. Yes, I’m sure Apple will tell you the camera keeps getting better and better, but I often wondered, “Hey, why are most food pictures so good that I can physically smell them, while mine kind of … stink?” Example below.

Around that time, my husband bought a kick-ass camera. I happily set it to auto, and things improved immediately. Example below.

But I still had no clue what any of the wee dials on the camera did. Enter Joanna and Cinnamon

both of whom creepily may just have my colouring, but more importantly, are both fantastic photographers. And Cinnamon was willing to teach me how to use my camera! Every week! Here, in the Snap to It challenge.

I have happily submitted for two weeks now, learning new photographic skills each time. For week 1, the theme was “basic” and here was my submission

I was pretty proud of that picture. I was slightly disappointed I wasn’t chosen to win that week, but since Joanna did it was all good.

Last week’s theme was “triangle.” I didn’t get to submit because I couldn’t upload from where I was in Ireland, but here’s what I took, which you may have seen on the blog just yesterday, loyal followers who I love. My husband Phil kicked my butt with his nonchalant entry, immediately following mine.

And so, after the longest preamble ever recorded in the history of mankind, here are the pics I took of Charly this week, where we were focusing on achieving “bokeh,” or “good blurriness,” as I understand it. My submission will be one of the first two – which do you like best??

Girl talk?

Or game day jitters?

Here are a few more that aren’t contenders, but are good Charly shots with ok Bokeh. Love the bokeh.

Looking forward to an action shot tutorial in future!

If you’re just a foodie and not a photography fan, tune in for weird cooking trials again soon. If you’re a shutterbug though, check out Cinnamon’s site and join in! (And a question for you: Which photo should I have submitted?)

Does nettle soup bite back?

Posted on June 2, 2013 by Ann Allchin

This post is going to be multifaceted, so get ready. It will include dangerous cooking, of course, but because I was just in Ireland for two weeks, it will be dangerous travel cooking, as well as travel guide, with a splash of “snap to it,” for good measure. There, you’ve had a recipe before we’ve even begun (a recipe for an enjoyable read, that is! Ha ha).

Over 50 years ago, a sense of adventure brought my husband’s parents John and Meta to Canada from a town near Belfast, Northern Ireland. This move worked out very well for me personally, because it not only meant I was able to meet my husband, but also that every few years we’re able to hop across the pond and enjoy the enormously warm hospitality of Phil’s aunts, uncles, and cousins.

This was my fourth trip over – on the first trip, my husband proposed. This time we revisited some of the gorgeous places where ten years ago I thought he might have been reaching for a ring in his pocket.

Would he ask at the 800-year-old Carrickfergus castle, I had wondered hopefully? Nope.

Maybe swaying on the Carrick-a-Rede Rope Bridge? Smart that he didn’t, because it’s much windier than it looks.

Thanks “discovernorthernireland.com”

At the Titanic exhibit? No, it’s actually not romantic, and also it didn’t exist then, but I had to mention it in case you happened to be in the neighborhood. It’s very well done.

Had to be while we were jumping from stone to stone in the Giant’s Causeway … but no.

I began to wonder whether he’d ever ask me, until…

He asked at the bed and breakfast in Sligo (slightly more romantic than the town’s name sounds) and we ate a breakfast that looked like this, so all was well.

More pictures, less talking you say? So here are some pictures of our sail with five kids and four adults through Strangford Lough…

Oops, turns out I only snagged one from the camera card and I’m too tired to grab others! Next time.

And we can’t forget Dublin…

Yes, that was a Leprechaun AND Molly Malone in the same shot.

Thanks very much to everyone who made our faces wide with smiles, our bellies full of food, and our spirits overcome with adventure! (That nearly sounded Irish – it rubs off)

And now on to the dangerous food! I can’t remember if I’ve cooked anything that was literally dangerous before, but hey, I figured if you couldn’t try for the first time at your Auntie Molly’s 84th birthday soiree, when could you?

I first heard about nettle soup on Twitter while following chef @tobyelkington (flavoursomefeast.blogspot.co.uk). I had become acquainted with the fact that nettles existed on a previous trip – my daughter had shaken hands with some. For those from my parts of the world where we don’t have them, they don’t call them “stinging nettles,” for nothing. You can imagine I had a few questions back and forth with Toby over Twitter asking how I could protect everyone’s tongues. He patiently explained that after you boil them for a while, the sting disappears. I quietly hoped Toby wasn’t someone with a sick sense of humour. After a plane flight, a pair of gloves, and a tour through the weedy bits of a garden led by Uncle Sam,

I had my nettles.

Probably should have brushed my hair for that shot, but nettle picking is tricky work.

Toby said to only use the tips of the leaves, but since I had left my gloves behind and had to use plastic bags that were less than efficient (ouch!) I just chose bright young leaves, having read elsewhere that those would also do the trick.

But let me share the ingredients before I get ahead of myself, inspired by Toby’s direction:

Stingy nettle soup without the sting

1500mL chicken or veggie stock
Olive oil
1 medium onion, roughly chopped
2 garlic cloves, roughly chopped
2 good sized potatoes, peeled and roughly chopped
2 big handfuls (ouch) of nettle leaves, picked from the stems while wearing gloves, the newer the better

Directions: Heat olive oil in large pot. Add garlic and onion and cook until translucent, about 3 minutes. Add potatoes and cook another minute or two. Add stock and bring to a boil. Turn down heat and simmer until potatoes are soft when pricked with fork (I am NOT going to tell you exactly how long to cook a potato. If you don’t know how to do this, you’d better leave a comment to tell me on which dark corner of this earth you live). Add nettles and cook 10 minutes or more (I did this longer because I was paranoid, and I sampled it to make sure it was safe).

Puree until smooth.

Results: Nettle soup was a big hit! Auntie Molly said her mother used to suggest it to purify the blood in spring. It was very simple to make and everyone finished their bowls. Even my kids ate it! I would make it again if I had access to nettles, but if not I’m sure spinach would make a satisfactory but lesser substitute. Rating: 5 Yums!

And finally, a note about “Snap to it!” A fellow blogger, Cinnamon, is posting photography challenges, to be answered every Monday, to help photographers of all skill levels learn to take better photos. I’ve completed the first two challenges, but last week I couldn’t find a computer to upload to while I was away. The challenge was “triangles,” so sailing made for great subject matter. Here was my submission, where I played with the camera to shoot into the sun and reduce the exposure:

But hubby Phil, who didn’t read the challenge (and who also took MANY of the shots above), took a super hot triangle shot that trumped mine this week. Don’t worry – I’ll get him next time.

The triumphant photographer

Weird ice cream is still good ice cream

Posted on May 7, 2013 by Ann Allchin

This will be a very quick post, because I didn’t actually cook anything this time. Easy peasy!

There’s a little “express,” grocery store at the end of our street, and it always shocks me that they’re able to stock such a great number of diverse food items within such a small amount of space. When I saw this ice cream, I had to pick it up, partly because it aroused my curiosity, but also to support the express store’s willingness to take a risk on a product. I’m guessing they don’t sell a lot of this in my neighbourhood, but they still had a shocking number of these containers available for sale.

Living in diverse Toronto as we do, it no longer shocks me to see green tea ice cream, or black bean ice cream, because I’ve tasted both at sushi restaurants for years. But black sesame? I couldn’t even imagine the flavour.

Another thing that excited me about this purchase was that I’m always looking for something my kids might try. People often ask, “Are your kids daring eaters too?” The answer to that question is a very firm, “Nuh-uh,” but I thought they might be willing to make an exception for something boasting the title, “ice cream.” And I was right. Happy Mother’s Day to me. There’s nothing moms enjoy more than being right when it comes to their kids. Right?

My daughter couldn’t even hold back long enough to get a bowl or take her scooter helmet off.

This ice cream was muddy good.

He’s mad because she won’t let him hold the container. Oh, the joy in being a little brother.

Success with the muddy black sesame ice cream! Rating: 4 Yums. It’s hard to describe the flavour. Think rich ice cream. Now add sweet sesame, with a toasted aftertaste. I should have gotten more creative with this dangerous food and made a dessert that incorporated a few things, restaurant-style, but I thought it might be fun to throw that out there as a question. What would go well with sesame ice cream if you were trying to be fancy? I’m thinking dense warm molasses cake with seaweed in it. Who has other ideas?

Does this taste like pee?

Posted on April 26, 2013 by Ann Allchin

A question I did not ask my husband tonight, but I could have. Not should have, in my mind, but could have. So I didn’t.

Last time I was at Rowe Farms, I picked up a nice big frozen kidney, aka, cow urine creation system. Just ’cause. When I grab something strange having questionable potential deliciousness, I procrastinate cooking it, which is why this post has been rather delayed since the last one. But today I bit the pee pee bullet (kidney stone?) and served it up.

I decided to learn to make steak and kidney pie, even though it’s really more of a fall/winter dish. If I’m eating fish, and I feel like red wine, I’m not going to drink something I don’t want just because someone says it doesn’t go together. Spring. Stew. Same.

I’d never had steak and kidney pie before, so I had to guess at what was traditional by sifting through recipes. The sense I got was that it was basically beef stew in pastry with some kidney thrown in. Guessing the whole thing got started because thrifty housewives needed to thicken up beef stew when they couldn’t afford all that much beef. I felt honoured to be joining the ranks, because I’m nothing if not a thrifty housewife. Might just start thickening Phil’s dinners up with other reasonably priced fillers. Bet I could make bologna look like salmon if I really made an effort.

Anyway, I found this stellar recipe that I chose partly because it called for ale, but not a full bottle of ale, so I felt like it was giving me permission to drink the other half. Sold.

Steak and Kidney Pie (modified from original per my tweaks. Makes 1 medium casserole dish)

30g plain flour
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
400g stewing beef – diced into 2cm pieces
a big knob of unsalted butter
Olive oil – for cooking
1 large onion – chopped
a good dollop of English mustard
170ml Ale
120ml beef stock – made from almost half of a Knorr stock cube (don’t use OXO it won’t taste the same.
a sprig of fresh thyme – leaves only
a good splash of Worcestershire sauce
Pint of mushrooms – quartered
Beef kidney, fatty membranes removed (mine was removed by butcher, but I read they can have them), cut away from central tendons
300g ready made puff pastry
1 egg yolk – lightly beaten to glaze

Directions: Defrost meats and puff pastry if necessary and preheat oven to 350. Bask in the beauty and slight creepiness of your kidney.

Melt butter on burner in stew pot that can go in the oven. Drizzle stew beef with olive oil and dredge in flour, having salt and peppered the flour. Over med-high heat, brown beef, adding more oil if necessary. Cut up soft bits of kidney, avoiding anything tough. Add to pan and brown briefly (kidney in pic below isn’t fully browned yet).

Remove. Splash some more oil in and add onions to pan, cooking until translucent. Add mushrooms and mustard and cook a few minutes. Pour beer in, and drink remainder of bottle. Here’s the nice Toronto one I used

Cook a minute or so, then add beef stock. Heat to boiling, and throw in remaining ingredients. Pop pot into oven, covered, and cook 2 hours. Your house will smell amazing.

Meanwhile, roll out your puff pastry so it will cover your casserole dish, flouring surface and rolling pin.

Remove stew from oven

Transfer to casserole dish. Brush top edge of dish with egg yolk and drape pastry over, poking centre a few times.

Brush pastry with egg yolk. Increase heat to 400 and cook a further 20 minutes or so, checking to make sure top doesn’t get too brown. And that’s it!

Results: The recipe was delicious, and I’d use it again for a straight steak pie, but the kidney didn’t do much for me. My mom hated liver so because I wasn’t raised eating organ meats I find it hard to get past the consistency. But there wasn’t an off-putting taste to it, and my husband ate his whole serving and put the leftovers away for another day – I would have heard about it if it was awful. Rating: 4 Yums for the recipe, but 1 Gag for the kidney. The cows can keep their pee makers.

Drink pairing: Already mentioned, Toronto’s Mill Street Tankhouse Ale

Just ducky

Posted on April 3, 2013 by Ann Allchin

The egg award has been my conversation lull solution lately. You know when you’re standing there with someone and there’s that awkward pause, like, “hm, I’ve already asked her about vacations and kids and work…” I’ve been helping people out by saying, “So I’m entering an egg contest.” I’ve told my friend Jackie about it so many times that when she accompanied me to the farmer’s market in our neighborhood (Mondays – we’re very lucky) to look for the eggs it was almost like I had selected her to be my second ovum in command, and she didn’t take her responsibility lightly. She later helped with sauce suggestions.

The rules of the contest are that the eggs need to be organic, and that there should be a photo of someone/thing related to where the eggs came from, so here’s mine:

Let’s call the free range egg farmer from Innisfil, Ontario, Canada “Laslo,” because he looks like a Laslo and he wasn’t very forthcoming with information. I did manage to learn that he has 100 quail and 20 ducks, but when I asked whether the duck the eggs came from had a name and he just said, “no,” in a very bored way, so I gave up when it came time to ask for his own name. Oh, Laslo.

I was happy to get duck eggs, though, because they’re unique here, which suits the dangerous theme of my blog well while also satisfying the requirements of the contest.

And you should know that these eggs have been on a bit of a journey to get here. I know I could potentially lose some freshness points because they went through slight cooler-coddled travel time, but I feel that the life experience they got added to the wisdom and maturity of this entry, so I feel proud to divulge their history. Like me, they have acquired a few battle scars that have only made them stronger – mine come mostly in the form of wrinkles, theirs…

We went up north for a few days with families and kids, I brought my duck eggs thinking my friend Hong and I would find leisure time to dream up and photograph a recipe, but instead the leisure time was eaten up by kids colouring eggs, and my extra big white ones were too good to resist (didn’t help that I had bought brown ones for my egg dying activity, which, FYI, don’t take colour nearly as well as white. Who knew?). So I wouldn’t let them boil my duckies, but I reluctantly let them dye them, making every three and five year old swear on their mother’s eyes that they’d be gentle. And I cooler-coddled them home again. The trip wasn’t a total loss, though – Hong gave me the idea to bake them in a bread basket.

And so we finally come to the product of all this egg fretting (frittata-ing? Not this time). I now reveal to the world, the perfect post-mortem-Easter-egg recipe and pending winner of the great global egg award…

Duck egg baskets with prosciutto and lemon basil cream sauce

(makes 6)

Egg baskets:

6 fresh, organic free range duck eggs
6 healthy-sized pieces of grainy bread
6 slices of prosciutto
3Tbsp butter, with extra for pan
Green onions, chopped, for topping

Preheat oven to 375. Generously butter 6 spaces in a muffin pan (mine stuck slightly, so do this well). Use a wide mouth glass to make 12 circles from bread. Butter the circles, and overlap two into each muffin space to cover. This can be slightly messy – it will look better later.

Add a slice of prosciutto

Add egg

Bake at 375 for 20-25 minutes. Yolk should still jiggle when cooked. Carefully pry from muffin pan with knife. If a bit of the toast crumbles off, no biggie. Still looks delicious.

Now. If you’re tired and don’t want to continue, good for you, this is a tasty, impressive breakfast on its own. You may also wish to top with hollondaise for a “benny-style” treat, or to substitute dill in my sauce recipe below for another traditional option that goes well with lemon and eggs. Since I am entering a contest however, I went with a more unconventional sauce…

Lemon basil cream sauce (based on recipe here):

1Tbsp butter
1 garlic clove, crushed and minced
1/2C organic cream (I used 18%)
1/2C organic chicken stock
Juice of 1/2 lemon
1Tbsp cornstarch
Pepper
Small handful basil

Melt butter in small heavy saucepan. Cook garlic, 1 minute. Add cream and chicken stock and boil over low heat until reduced by about half. Mix cornstarch with lemon juice in small bowl and add to saucepan. Stir, continue to boil until sauce thickens, and add pepper. Add basil before serving. Pour over each egg basket on serving plates and voila!

Wish me luck, and thanks @justlovefood for encouraging me to enter this great contest!

Artichoke lemonade

Posted on March 23, 2013 by Ann Allchin

Okay, so I didn’t actually make artichoke lemonade. I was just trying to work on my search rankings. Because that title is going to be a home run.

I haven’t blogged for a while, and I’m telling you this even though I read something once that said never start by apologizing that you haven’t blogged for a while. But you know what this post is going to be about? Honesty. Open kimonos. Bet that term will get more search results than my title.

So I haven’t blogged for a while because I’ve had a few food flops lately. I wanted to tell you this because I think it’s important to be open about the fact that not everything you cook will be delicious. If you’re going to cook dangerously. there will be days when food won’t work out. You’ll never learn anything if you keep making chicken fajitas once a week. If I’m ever at your house, and we have to order in, know that as long as you have a very full wine cellar I will never judge. And since I am far from being a top chef, I have had to compensate for my own cooking with the odd extra nip of vino lately (that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it).

First I tried Meyer lemons.

They were shining at me from within their highfalutin specialty packaging, so I knew I had to have them. Their PR people say they’re sweeter than regular lemons, so you should use them in lemony baked goods for extra delectabillity. Maybe mine were genetically modified beyond recognition, but they tasted sour on their own, yet didn’t taste lemony in anything I made with them. And I made lots, thanks to this blog post, shared by @HipFoodieMom1 on Twitter.

I made lemon fettuccine. And it was good, but not so lemony.

I made blueberry-meyer lemon fizz. Seems to be missing from White on Rice couple’s blog now, but let’s not mourn it. Although my daughter did ask for it again recently. Blueberry puree, lemon juice, soda water, simple syrup (boiled sugar water 1:1).

And Meyer lemon bars. Again, nice, but not so lemony. I wanted cheek pooching lemony goodness.

Thanks bobbleheadbaby.com

I got something tasty, but not poochy.

And then there were the artichokes (that my daughter proudly chose at the grocery store and insisted I prepare for this blog). I had tasted them “from scratch” once in my life before, where my friend cooked them and told me to scrape the meat from the leaves with my lower teeth, but I thought I’d do them myself. I steamed, but undercooked them. I tried them again, but my guests thought they were too much like work.

I bought some artichoke asiago dip to go with the artichoke the first time, and dipped it in butter the second.

But the heart was delicious (don’t eat the fuzzies, which are the “choke”).

The bottom line is, don’t give up. You can deal with the failures/blahs in your cooking as long as you hold out for the heart at the end of it all (gag, gag, please no one quote me as a cheesy retweetable quote, because it will ruin my reputation).

Next blog post: beef heart. Kidding. So far.

Following Midwesternbite.com’s method, I’ll close with a question for you. What has your biggest flop in the kitchen been?

Chicken to try chicken livers?

Posted on February 26, 2013 by Ann Allchin

I used to work with a woman, Natalie, who was very opinionated about her food. She would look at me with all the gravity she could muster, and share very firm culinary beliefs, like, “Ann. Rice and soup should never go together.” She enjoyed soup, yes. Rice, no problem. But mixing the two went against her core values and belief system. Of course, I made a point of trying to shock her with food at every opportunity. I greatly enjoyed going on a business trip with her and eating at a restaurant during “garlic fest,” where I happily lapped up a bowl of garlic ice cream. She looked at me like she needed to figure out how to save my soul after that one.

I didn’t think I had similar beliefs about food, because obviously I’m willing to try just about anything, but as I embarked on this post’s culinary adventure I remembered I once had similar food prejudices. Another friend, this one from high school (Mary-Ann) used to bring liverwurst sandwiches to school for lunch. I couldn’t stand the thought of them and nearly gagged as she ate them in front of me. In my mind, meat needed to be fibrous. Meat. Paste. So wrong.

I’ve come a long way. I think being at parties where pate is often in close proximity to a wine bottle helped me lose my reluctance, and before I knew it I was picking up whole logs of the stuff and slurping down the jellied covering as an odd form of jello shooter.

And my biggest pate progression yet is what this post is based on. I made my own pate from real chicken livers.

Once again, I must apologize to my vegetarian friends. Tune out for this next part. Chicken livers feel cool. They’re smooth and soft and have a beautiful weight to them. And yes, saying that makes me feel like I should crave fava beans and a nice chianti.

Thanks propnurse.blogspot.com

Damn, that would have been the perfect recipe for chicken livers. But pate was probably easier to make. And now that I’ve made it myself, I know that it’s way more delicious to do it that way, and it’s super easy.

I found this recipe, and I’m glad I chose it because the author of the article clearly did her research, having tested many chef’s methods and selecting this one as the best. Here it is, painstakingly re-typed (you’re welcome! All I do, I do for you, my fooders), including a few bonus suggestions from me.

Perfect Chicken Liver Pate

350g chicken livers, cleaned (to clean, I cut off anything a different colour or unsmooth). I used local organic free range chicken livers because they grossed me out less
175g butter, diced (about 1.5 sticks)
1 shallot, finely chopped
1tsp thyme leaves, finely chopped
75mL madeira (I can never find madeira so I use sherry, although I’ve never looked very hard)
75mL heavy cream
1/2tsp salt
dash of allspice
1/4tsp ground ginger

Cut the livers into small pieces, and heave a knob of butter in a frying pan over a medium heat. Add the shallot and thyme and soften, then turn up the heat to medium-high, add the livers and saute for a couple of minutes until browned on the outside but pink on the inside. (This part freaked me out later because I read about how the livers are also susceptible to salmonella, so I’d actually suggest cooking them until they’re done in the middle)

This is what happens after the couple of minutes…

Tip into a food processor.

Add the madeira to the pan and boil until reduced to a couple of tablespoons. Tip into the food processor, add the cream, salt and spices and whizz until smooth. Add all but 75g (5Tbsp) of the butter, and whizz again. Taste for seasoning and adjust if necessary.

Pass through a sieve (I am often lazy about these kinds of details, but I highly recommend this part because it made it super smooth) into a serving dish and chill for half an hour. Melt the remaining butter over top, and refrigerate until set (you can omit this part – I thought it made it a bit re-chilled solidified butter weirdish).

C’est tout! And yes, I know I’ve left the accents out of the word pate through this whole post but I just wrote a comedic novel for teen girls (yay!) and I should really be working on promoting that rather than food blogging which I’m doing to procrastinate because I enjoy it but I don’t enjoy cutting and pasting accents so I’m not going to. (To the tune of “it’s my party…”) It’s my food blog, and I’ll spell badly if I want to…

Results: Even better the second day. Extremely smooth. My parents ate it, and they generally don’t like pate. Like everything, it’s very nice to know exactly what’s in what you’re eating because you made it yourself, even though in this case it’s a hell of a lot of butter and cream. Rating: 4 Yums

Wine Pairing: A strong wine pairing for pate is beaujolais, so I’ll suggest the top beaujolais at my local liquor store for less than $20 (according to winealign.com) which is the 2008 Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais at only $11.95.

Toothless Sunshine loves dragon fruit

Posted on February 9, 2013 by Ann Allchin

Our house is all about dragons right now.

The dragon connection started in an odd way. My jeans fell apart, because I’m cheap, and I don’t enjoy buying expensive jeans, but I enjoy wearing them (see frugal article here). So while my jeans had become unwearable due to air conditioning in the nether regions, I wasn’t able to let them go. So I made a pocket purse for my daughter.

In the name of fairness, I offered my son a homemade gift of his choice. His confident request – “A dragon.” I did myself some googling, and found this pattern for a dragon. I was disappointed that the creators of the pattern hadn’t managed to find the perfect dragon fabric that I did – green velour with green sequins – so I smugly walked away from Fabricland and made the very first object of my son’s affection, Toothless Sunshine.

Let me just take a time out to say that I’m a giant feminist, and that I proudly own my love for cooking, sewing, and parenting as a personal choice afforded to a liberated woman. Let’s move on.

Anyway, as we were in the spirit of dragons, I picked up this fruit

at our beloved No Frills grocery store and told my son it was a dragon fruit (pitaya). He begged to try it.

I searched for dragon fruit recipes in an attempt to make something interesting, but didn’t find much beyond sexy fruit plates. I was glad I hadn’t chosen those, because it turns out dragon fruit is quite bland. It looks very cool – fuschia with seedy pulp – but it’s less sweet and tart than a kiwi, which it’s often compared to due to its consistency, even though the dragon fruit is actually the fruit of a cactus.

I finally found a recipe for dragon fruit salsa over scallops, which I won’t even credit because their creation had so few ingredients it was basically dragon fruit and lemon juice (and we’ve already established that dragon fruit has a super boring flavour). I used their scallop/salsa idea, though, and created this:

Seared Scallops and Dragon Fruit Salsa (serves 2)

6 large scallops
A few Tbsp olive oil
1 ripe dragon fruit (gives slightly to touch, like a ripe mango or avocado), diced
1 small handful of fresh cilantro, chopped
2 green onions, chopped
1 small handful dried cranberries
Juice of 1 lime
One chopped chili if desired

Directions: Heat oil over med high heat, approx. 2 mins. Add scallops and sprinkle with salt and pepper.

Cook 2-3mins per side, until white and firm on the exterior (scored and slightly darkened if barbequing, but it’s winter and I was cold, so I chose the pan). Meanwhile, combine salsa ingredients. Serve scallops topped with salsa.

Results: Nice! My husband said, “Let’s keep this in mind for when we’re entertaining.” (Or something like that, I wasn’t totally listening). I included the dried cranberries to add a touch of sweetness where the dragon fruit was lacking, and the onions and cilantro answered that salsa freshness expectation. The dragon fruit made the whole thing pretty, and added a cool, crisp texture. Exotic, fresh, and tasty. Rating: 3 Yums

Toothless Sunshine will serve this recipe to his fire breathing friends for sure.

Wine Pairing: Winealign.com suggests that scallops pair well with pinot gris, so I’ll suggest Bestheim Réserve Pinot Gris 2011, Alsace, selling for $15.95 in Ontario.

Cooking Dangerously

For home chefs who live on the edge

Author Archives: Ann Allchin