Susan's and Doug's Adventures

This recipe has a long story for us. We first had apple pancake at the Tranquility Bay B&B in Sechelt. Tranquility Bay is now the Tuwanek Hotel. Google lead us to the recipe below, on allrecipes.com, I think, though it has disappeared from there now (that’s why I’m blogging it here). It may not be exactly what Krista a Tranquility Bay made, but we like it just fine. Our friend Deirdre has her own variation on this, but we keep coming back to this one. The credit for this version goes to Ann WOW, although her version calls for 4 eggs, and Susan generally uses only 3.

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 4 tablespoons sugar
• 3/4 teaspoon cinnamon
• 1 large apple, cored and sliced
• 3 eggs
• 2/3 cup milk
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Melt butter in 10 inch frying pan with oven proof handle. Combine 3 tablespoons sugar with cinnamon and sprinkle evenly over butter. Arrange apple slices over sugar mixture in pan. Cook over medium heat 3-4 min. Cool slightly. Meanwhile, beat together eggs, milk, flour, 1 tablespoon sugar and salt. Pour gently over
apple slices. Bake at 400 until golden grown and sides are puffy, approximately 15 mn. Serve immediately.

My Christmas Fruit Cake recipe this year is derived from 3 recipes:

• Sarah Waxman’s Back Roads and Country Cooking
• Edna Staebler’s More Food That Really Schmecks
• my great-aunt Minnie Robinson’s recipe in our Robinson family cook book

The Sarah Waxman recipe is the core, as (I think) it has been the last 2 or 3 times I’ve made fruit cake.

• 225 g Thompson raisins
• 225 g golden raisins
• 225 g dried currants
• 115 g glacé peel
• 225 g glacé cherries
• 115 g slivered or sliced almonds
• 115 g pecan halves
• 125 ml Jamcian rum

Mix together in a large bowl the raisins, currants, peel, cherries, and nuts with the rum. Cover and let stand overnight.

• 500 ml all-purpose flour
• 5 ml salt
• 5 ml cinnamon
• 2.5 ml nutmeg
• 2.5 ml ground cloves

Mix together the flour, salt, and spices. Stir the flour mixture into the soaked fruit.

• 190 ml butter
• 250 ml brown sugar
• 4 eggs
• 65 ml maple syrup
• 65 ml orange juice
• zest of 1 orange
• zest of 1 lemon

In a another bowl, cream together butter and brown sugar. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Stir in maple syrup, orange juice, and zests. Pour into fruit and flour mixture and mix well.

Line loaf pan with parchment paper. Pour batter into pans and spread it smooth. Moisten top with a few drops of warm water. Cover pans with aluminium foil.

Bake at 175ºC for 1 hour, then turn oven down to 150ºC and bake for 2 hours more.

After removing cake from the oven, cool 5 minutes, then removed cakes from pan and cool on a rack. When cool, wrap the cake in rum soaked cheesecloth and aluminium foil, and age in the refrigerator.

We used the same roast turkey, gravy, and stuffing recipes for the 3rd time at our family Thanksgiving at Whistler this year. The turkey recipe is from CBC Radio One’s Q program, but I’m repeating it here because somebody at the CBC apparently doesn’t believe in cool URLs - the recipe is still in the Q blog archive, but the URL from 2008 is broken and the page has moved to the URL given here - who knows for how long?

The stuffing recipe is from the Chef John Folse & Company site, but it’s repeated here too so that I know that we have it.

We usually cook a 12 to 14 lb, fresh turkey and it takes 3 to 3½ hours to reach the recommended 170°F temperature. We use calvados in the gravy instead of jam or jelly to match the calvados in the stuffing.

Roast Turkey

• 12 to 14 lb fresh turkey
• 250 g butter
• 750 mL bottle dry white wine
• salt
• cheesecloth

Preheat oven to 325°F.

Melt 250g of butter in a saucepan, and add 750 ml of dry white wine. Bring to a simmer.

Remove the neck and gibbets from the turkey cavity, rinse the bird, and stuff the cavity with onions, carrots, and celery cut in big pieces. Tie string around the bird to hold the wings against the body, and to hold the legs together.

Cut and/or fold the cheesecloth to form 4 layers about 18 inches square. Soak cheesecloth in the butter and wine mixture in the saucepan.

Place turkey on wire rack in roasting pan. Sprinkle with salt. Place soaked cheesecloth on top to cover breast and legs.

Roast in oven 3 to 3½ hours, basting every half hour with butter/wine mixture. Turkey is cooked when juices run clear or a meat thermometer placed in thickest part of thigh (do not touch bone) registers 180°F (82°C) for a stuffed bird, or 170°F (77°C) for unstuffed.

While turkey is roasting, make stock by simmering neck and gibblets (except liver) along with a carrot, small onion and herbs of choice in water to cover for at least 2 hours. Strain; discard solids.

Remove turkey from oven. Carefully peel off cheesecloth. Let stand about 15 minutes before carving.

Turkey Gravy

Redcurrant or blackcurrant jam work best but raspberry or plum would be fine.

• 2 tbsp fat from turkey drippings
• 2 tbsp all-purpose flour
• 1½ cups turkey stock
• 1 tbsp Calvados
• Salt and pepper

Redcurrant, blackcurrant, raspberry, or plum jam or jelly can be substituted for the calvados.

Whisk flour into turkey fat in a saucepan to make a roux. Gradually add turkey stock and whisk while bringing to a boil. Add calvados, and salt and pepper to taste.

Fruit and Nut Stuffing

• ½ cup pecans, chopped
• 5 oz. day old French bread, cut into ½ inch cubes
• 1/8 pound unsalted butter
• ½ cup onions, finely chopped
• ½ cup celery, finely chopped
• ¼ cup red bell pepper
• ½ cup dried apricots, finely diced
• 2 tbsp dried cranberries
• 1¼ cups green apples, peeled and finely chopped
• ¼ cup Calvados, applejack or apple cider
• 1/16 tsp ground cloves
• 1/8 tsp dried thyme
• 1/4 tsp dried sage
• 1 cups chicken or turkey stock
• Salt and pepper to taste

METHOD:
Pre-heat oven to 350°F.

Toast pecans on a baking sheet until lightly browned, about 5 minutes. Remove and set aside to cool. On another large baking pan, brown French bread cubes, stirring occasionally until crisp and dried. Do not overbrown. Cool and place along with pecans in a large mixing bowl.

In a 1-quart sauce pot, melt butter over medium-high heat. Sauté onions, celery and red bell pepper for 3-5 minutes until wilted. Add apricots, cranberries and apples. Sauté 5-10 minutes, then add Calvados. Add cloves, thyme and sage.

Add chicken stock, bring to a low boil and reduce to simmer. Season the stock to taste using salt and pepper.

Pour the seasoned stock over the bread mixture, tossing to incorporate. Spoon the dressing into a 3-quart casserole dish and bake, covered, for about 45 minutes. Additional stock may be added to retain moisture. Uncover for 5-10 minutes to brown lightly, if a crispier top is desired.

There is so much good, local food available right now that cooking and eating is just a pure pleasure!

We went to the Kits Farmer’s Market this morning and came home with leaf lettuce, 3 kinds of berries (raspberries, blueberries, and blackberries), apricots, cherries, and baby shitake mushrooms. The fish shop has fresh Qualicum Bay scallops, halibut, salmon, and arctic char.

So, tonight’s dinner was linguine with scallops in a lemon butter sauce from Donna Hay’s “New Food Fast", and a lettuce and berries salad with a berry balsamic vinaigrette based on a recipe in “Canada Cooks Salads".

Dinner on Friday night at Il Terrazzo in Victoria provided a reminder that proseco isn’t just for New Year’s Eve, it’s a wonderful, refreshing summer wine too, so we had a couple of chilled glasses to help with the cooking and eating tonight.

This recipe is based on one that appeared in the Vancouver Sun Food section just before Christmas.

2 tbsp      olive oil
1 medium    leek
1 clove     garlic
1/2 cup     heavy (35%) cream
8 oz pkg    fresh oysters
slices of baguette
grated Parmesan cheese

Pre-heat oven to 425°F (220°C). While the oven is pre-heating place a slice of baguette for each oyster in a baking dish, and put them in the oven to crisp up. Turn them once.

Slice the leek in quarters, lengthwise, leaving a little at the root end to hold it together while you wash it, then slice the white and pale green part thinly, and discard the rest (or add it to the vegetable stock bin). Chop the garlic finely.

Heat the olive oil in a skillet and cook the leek until tender (4 to 5 minutes). Add the garlic and cook 1 minute londer. Pour in the cream and cook until it thickens slightly. Season with salt and pepper and remove from heat.

Place an oyster on each baguette slice in the baking dish and spoon the leek and cream mixture over them. Top with Parmesan cheese. Bake 10 minutes, bubbly and starting to turn golden-brown. Serve immediately.