Let's Just List Off Some Good Things, Eh?

It's been a while since I've posted here. I've actually cooked and eaten a lot. . . but I've been a bit too busy to post. So I'm just going to list off some highlights.

1. The "Gourmet" Dinner for my sister:

I saw some really nice green beans in the store, so I decided to make Clotilde's Salade de Haricorts Verts, Noix De Pecan & Jambon Cru from the Chocolate and Zucchini book. I made about a third of her recipe for the two of us. It was pretty fabulous what with the rich, toasty walnuts and the salty, porky prosciutto I used. I didn't have any cider vinegar, so I subbed red wine vinegar. I think there were no ill effects from this, but sometimes I wonder about my palate. The combination of crisp-tender beans and rich accouterments made for one delicious salad. It's a great way to enjoy green beans.

For the main course, I served Marcella Hazan's Baked Sockeye Salmon with Bell Peppers and Capers, which I talked about previously here. The recipe is on Epicurious here. It's a delicious salmon recipe and worked well with the sockeye fillets I bought. The sides were some fresh, grainy bread and a roasted potimarron squash. The squash was a beauty:

It was actually grown in Edmonton in the Campus Community Garden. The flesh was really creamy and sweet. It was quite fabulous.

2. I'm a muffin making machine:

Well, not really. But, I did make these apple-cinnamon-pecan-oatmeal muffins. I used only whole wheat flour, which might have made them a little drier than usual. It was a variation on my blueberry muffin recipe with a chopped apple and a few tablespoons of toasted pecan in place of blueberries and some cinnamon rather than lemon zest. They were pretty decent.
I also made pumpkin muffins, which came out very moist and delicious, but I didn't take a picture. Imagine muffins that are orange through and through with the sweet taste of pumpkin. I used this recipe from Better Homes and Gardens. I was pretty keen to bake with pumpkin. Actually, I think I've been wanting to since last fall and winter. It seemed the perfect time at Canadian thanksgiving. I followed the recipe aside from substituting wheat flour for the buckwheat and using approximately 50-50 white and whole wheat flours. They were successful and relatively healthful recipe. I recommend trying the recipe for a tasty seasonal breakfast. My can of pumpkin was huge, so I also made a simple pumpkin soup one night and still have some leftover in the freezer, probably for a future batch of those tasty muffins.

3. Random bar cookie making:

Last Thursday, I baked some oatmeal-raisin bars during Grey's Anatomy. They are a tasty, buttery, not too sweet cookie. The recipe was in my Better Homes and Gardens New Cookbook and I can't find it on-line. I used whole-wheat flour for the cookies and made a half-batch in an 8-inch round pan. It's say they're good. I think they look good:
Basically, they have a butter, sugar, flour, and oatmeal base a bit like shortbread with raisin filling and more of the oat mixture crumbled on top.

Cookie Monster's Cookie Variations

I suppose there isn't much of a new story to this, since I've talked about this basic recipe before. Then again I did make some changes and take some pretty pictures, so I suppose it warrants a new post. For the food porn alone:There's nothing quite like looking at a tin of freshly baked cookies. These are oatmeal cookies, clearly and are based on Nick Malgieri's recipe that David Lebovitz blogged about. I've also blogged about them here. Anyways, like I said I made a couple of changes when I baked up the cookies for Robyn's barbecue.

I found my initial batch too sweet so this time I used 1/4 cup of granulated sugar instead of 1/2 cup. They still seemed sweet enough to me. I also used 1/2 cup whole wheat flour and 1/2 cup white all-purpose flour in place of 1 cup of white flour. I really don't think I could tell the difference with this, but I guess it made them even healthier. I also added a bunch of zest from an organic orange to the batter in the wet ingredients. This added a intriguing dimension to the cookies with orange flavour and fragrance that I really think goes well with raisins and oatmeal. It had my friends wondering just what that intriguing flavour element was. I baked the cookies for 9 minutes on an ungreased, non-stick cookie sheet and got a yield of 30 cookies.

The cookies were pretty popular and all the ones I brought to the barbecue got eaten. But, I saved a few for myself and for my sister, the zest-aholic to try. They're frozen now. I actually really enjoyed eating the previous batch straight out of the freezer. Is that weird? Nothing like a frozen cookie on a hot day, not that there are any of those left. (Hot days, not cookies.)

Here's a bonus close-up of one of these scrumptious soft, slightly chewy cookies:

The Biscotti Process

I decided to make biscotti as a special gift for some very special people who I'm visiting starting tomorrow. I actually made them on Monday because biscotti, being dry by nature keep well in an airtight container. Actually, that's why I like them as an edible gift. They don't need to be consumed immediately.

I actually baked biscotti in December as a Christmas gift for friends. I used essentially the same recipe then as I did now, so I had a better idea of what I was doing and they turned out better than before. The recipe is Sarah Moulton's Raisin Almond Biscotti found here, be prepared to spend some time on it. (That's why it's a biscotti process.) I follow it pretty closely except I find that 3 eggs is inadequate to bring the dough together and 1 whole egg is too much eggwash.

Basically, my modifications to the recipe this time include:
-soaking the raisins in the juice of one orange (instead of Cointreau, which I'm sure is lovely, but. . . expensive).
-adding the zest of 1 orange with the eggs and vanilla for even more orange flavour
-using 4 large eggs instead of 3 to bring the dough together
-only using as much eggwash as seems necessary

These are my two just golden, shiny (eggwash!) biscotti logs after their first half hour bake in a 325 F oven:

It's important to shape the logs very square so the ends won't result in undersized cookies. I did a much better job cutting uniform slices this time for more beautiful slices. It's best to cut straight a cross, not on an angle. I think I made that mistake last time.

Slices reveal a pretty yellow tinge from the zest/egg combination:
After baking for 12 minutes on one side and 10 minutes on the other, the dry, golden brown biscotti are a beauty to behold:
To ensure the quality of my gift, I ate a couple of end pieces with a nice cup of Earl Grey tea (sorry coffee makes me sick). They were very crispy but softened nicely in the tea. The flavours of orange, raisin, and toasted almond went well together. Overall, these are great cookies for with hot beverages and relatively healthy with no butter or oil at all.

I actually ate many of the biscotti I made in December myself. A biscotti and a cup of (decaf) tea was a remarkably effective (and pleasurable) relaxation ritual before bed during the exam time.