The Kristin/Julia Project

So, on Friday night N and I went to opening of Julie and Julia. I decided it would be fun to invite her over for dinner first, and of course, in keeping with the theme of the evening, break out Mastering the Art of French Cooking and make something full of butter. Well, I did break out the old cookbook, but none of the recipes were really speaking to me. I wanted something that would be light and tasty, using all the wonderful produce that is around at this time of year, and that would have a Provencal feel. I know that it's pretty hard to find anything in France that would qualify as a proper vegetarian meal, but I thought that Julia must have something that I could make work. I was wrong. I was finding myself uninspired to create this meal and my day got busier than expected. I didn't have time to go shopping (luckily I have a garden and a fridge full of produce these days) and we had to eat really early to get to the show on time, so I decided that I would try my hand at a Soupe au Pistou with a green salad and some good toasted french bread drizzled with olive oil. I worried that this might be a bit too simple, when Mastering the Art of French Cooking is anything but, and I didn't want to disappoint, but time was not on my side and I had to make something. I adapted Julia's recipe, adding a few things, omitting a few others, and it turned out delicious! I only hope Julia would approve.

Soupe au Pistou de Julia (adaptee par moi)

4 litres of water

2 cups each diced carrots, potatoes, and a combination of leeks, shallots and onions)

1 Tbsp sea salt, fresh ground pepper

Boil the water, vegetables, salt and pepper slowly for about 40 minutes.

2 cups canned chick peas

2 cups diced green and yellow zucchini

1 cup diced green beans

Add to the soup and continue boiling gently for about 15 minutes. In the meantime, prepare the pistou:

4 cloves of garlic, grated

4 Tbsp tomato paste

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1/2 cup grated parmesan cheese (when I say parmesan, I mean a wedge of cheese that you are going to grate yourself, not some tub of "parmesan" dust that they probably swept off the floor of the cheese factory)

1/4 cup olive oil

Combine in a bowl. Once the soup is finished cooking, taste and correct seasonings. Add one ladelful of soup into the pistou, then add the pistou into the pot of soup and give a stir to combine. make sure to take a good whiff of the soup as you add the pistou, heavenly! Serve immediately with really good toasted artisanal bread drizzled with olive oil and sprinkled with fleur de sel. Bon Appetit!!

PS Just as I am posting this, my Mom called to tell me that there is a Julia Child special on PBS right now, I turned it on and she is making a omelette with the ease that most of us can only make toast.

Little Bums

Apricots are my little darlings of the fruit world. Their velvety skin, golden with sun-kissed coral cheeks, their sweetly tart, juicy flesh, their love of being stewed and cooked, their ability to be delicious in a sweet or savoury dish, all of these things put apricots right up there with fresh figs, summertime strawberries and wild Ontario blueberries for me.

The B.C. apricots are ripe right now, and every year as soon as I find them, I make jam. I have tried variations, adding the little almond inside the pit (blanched and chopped) is one that I love, but this year, I'm in a bit of a pinch for time and I don't feel like taking a hammer and splitting pits in my kitchen (it's actually a lot more difficult than it may seem). So I experimented and came up with a lovely Apricot jam with vanilla and lemon juice. I make it the French way, macerating the fruit and sugar overnight and then boiling until the natural pectin thickens. This makes a jam that is dark golden orange coloured and lovely with it's sweetness and tartness mingling.

My French Style Apricot Jam

1 kg ripe apricots (weigh after removing the stones)

850 g sugar

juice of 1 lemon or lime

1 vanilla bean

The night before you want to make the jam, quarter apricots and place in a large, heavy bottomed pot with a tight fitting lid. Add sugar, lemon or lime juice and vanilla bean, which you should split down the center and scrape the seeds out. I usually cut my vanilla bean into 3 pieces so that a few of the jars have a pretty length of vanilla bean inside. Give this all a good stir so that the sugar begins to melt a little and leave out on the counter all night.

The next morning, give another good stir and place on the stove turning heat to medium. Bring to the boil and allow to boil for at least 1/2 an hour and up to 45 minutes stirring occasionally. Sometimes I help the fruit along by gently pressing it into the side of the pot while it cooks and other times I just let it do it's thing. Either way you know it's going to taste amazing. When it looks thick and dark golden, pour it into sterilized jars and put the sterilized lids on tight, then invert the jars for a few minutes. I left my jars inverted for the day and when I flipped them back over the jam was stuck on the lids. Not a big deal, but a little funny looking and slightly annoying when the time comes to open them. Don't forget to label the jars with the date. If you keep them in the fridge I think they might last a little bit longer, but they can be stored at room temperature for at least 6 months if they've been properly sterilized. I'm not going to get into sterilizing jars, but if you've never done it, do a quick google search, I'm sure you'll find lots of tutorials. I do mine in the oven and I boil my lids. 

This jam is so heavenly spooned over a good piece of crusty baguette smeared with goat cheese. Mmmmmmmm.....now picture eating this while sitting in an apricot orchard with little goats walking around nibbling the grass.

Carottes Amoureuses

I was at the farmer's market last week and bought some lovely, sweet, baby carrots. When I got them home I noticed these two babies, all curled around each other. They just look so happy that I can't actually bring myself to eat them.

Everyone should have someone who fits with them as well as these two fit together. They just don't make sense when they're apart. That is true love.

Strawberry Fields Forever

It feels like winter here right now. Okay, maybe I'm exaggerating, but only mildly. It actually feels like winter in the South of France, which is cold. It's gray and cloudy, very windy, and the temperature is about 12C! I know I spend a lot of time complaining about the weather, but when you live in this city, that's what you do. People talk about the weather constantly, and not in the "I don't know what to talk to you about so let's just talk about the weather" kind of way, but in a detailed and analytical kind of way. We also feel that since we live through such brutally cold and long winters that we deserve hot and sunny summers, but Mother nature doesn't always reward us accordingly.

A wordy introduction to tell you that I have been waiting impatiently for strawberries this year, another thing that many Manitobans think they deserve.  It is a late year for everything here because of a late and cool spring. But, astonishingly, the berries grew. And ripened. And my Mom and I, as has become our yearly tradition, went to pick some. 

They were small little berries, but juicy and full of flavour. I made jam, sorbet, and ate strawberries for days. I tried some new jam recipes this year, Apricot Strawberry (very good), Strawberry Vanilla (ditto), and plain Strawberry, and as always, Freezer jam. So now when winter actually comes I can open a jar and fondly remember our freezing cold and rainy summer. Maybe it will make winter seem not so bad!

Quiche with Goat's Cheese and Garden Herbs

In response to my post about goats, I thought I should think of a good recipe using goat cheese. I have no shortage of goat cheese recipe ideas, but I especially love it when it's warmed in some way. This quiche is a delicious combination of creamy goat cheese, eggy custard, and gorgeous green herbs from my garden that just seem to get slipped in to everything I make lately. Please use this as a guideline and add whatever herbs you like and more or less cheese to your taste. Quiche is such a simple thing to make, I never measure, if you add 4 eggs instead of 3 or yogurt instead of milk or parsley instead of sage, it will still taste delicious!

Quiche with Goat's Cheese and Garden Herbs

1 roll frozen puff pastry

3 eggs

a nice piece of soft goat cheese (I used about the size of a golf ball)

3/4 cup milk

a good bunch of herbs, I used basil, chives, summer savoury and sage, finely chopped

salt and pepper

Preheat oven to 375F.

Thaw the puff pastry either overnight in the fridge or on the counter for an hour or

two. Once thawed. place it in a pie dish with the parchment on the bottom and press

into the sides. Give it a few pricks with a fork.

Beat the eggs, then add the milk, salt and pepper.

Sprinkle the chopped herbs over the pastry, then add the cheese, breaking it up with

your fingers. Pour the egg mixture over top and put the quiche in the oven for about

45 minutes or until golden and puffed up. If you're not sure whether it's done, put a

knife in the middle and make sure it comes out clean.

Let cool and serve warm or at room temperature. We even it it fridge cold the next day

for lunch. Serve with a green salad and a crisp white wine for a beautiful summer lunch.

Goats

For some time I have had the somewhat odd dream of wanting to be a goat farmer. I would have an old house in the countryside (this you have probably heard me talk about already) and a whole bunch of really funny goats with lots of character. Early each morning I would wander over to the goats, bleary eyed and tired, and then the goats would do such funny things that I would perk up and have a great day milking them and making fresh cheeses covered with home grown herbs, vegetable ash and sea salt. I do realize that this is my dream sequence and probably not at all the life of a real goat farmer, but a girl's gotta dream!

Last week, in the Okanagan with L, we went to a goat cheese farm and the goats were just as I imagined. Full of character, each one doing a funnier thing than the next. They just seem like such funny animals to be around every day. And the cheese, well, it was incredible. Full of that earthy, barnyard flavour that is so characteristic of goat's cheeses. They also had homemade gelato that was so creamy and rich, but light at the same time. I was in heaven!

Here is a quirky photo of those goats to replace a recipe, which I don't have time for today. If you look at what the goats are doing it is such a funny scene. The one standing on the box just stood like that the whole time, there is a goat in the middle who was scratching her back with her horns, and the one sleeping in the food trough made me laugh. If these goats don't brighten your day, nothing will.

Pizza Dough!

I don't have too much time, but I know if I don't do this now I won't find the time till next weekend. So I will hastily give you my recipe for my much tested pizza dough. I have had 2 requests in the past week for this (thanks for making me feel like a real chef by asking me for recipes B and L!) This recipe is really not a recipe at all, and it has evolved over time to include a bit of whole wheat flour. Now before you try to tell me how un-Italian that is, and how true pizza dough is made with Italian "00" flour, the suggestion to include a small amount of whole wheat flour came to me from a true Italian Mamma. So there. Try it, it's really good!

My Pizza Dough

4-5 cups of white flour as needed

1 cup whole wheat flour

1 tsp salt

1 packet traditional yeast or a big chunk of fresh yeast (please don't use quick rise!!)

1-2 cups warm water, as needed

Dilute yeast in about 1/4 cup of warm (not hot) water in a small glass bowl. Set aside for about 10 minutes while you get on with the flour. 

Stir 4 cups of the white flour and the whole wheat flour with the salt together in a bowl. When the yeast is diluted, pour over the flour, then add the water a little bit at a time until you have a "shaggy mess" as Nigella would say. 

Then turn the dough out onto the counter and start kneading. As you go you will feel that the dough is either too wet and sticky or too dry and floury, just add more flour or water as needed as you knead. After about 5 or 10 minutes you should have a beautiful, elastic ball of dough. When you do, clean your bowl in hot water, give it a slick of oil and turn your dough around in the oil. Cover the bowl with a damp, warm, clean dish towel and put it aside in a warm and non-drafty spot in the kitchen.

After an hour it should be well risen. If you want to use it right away, go for it. If not, give it a punch and a couple of kneads and put it back in the bowl. If you want to make it a day ahead, cover it in plastic wrap and put it in the fridge. The next day leave it out for about 4 hours or until it comes to room temperature.

To use it, stretch it onto a cookie sheet that you have sprinkled with fine cornmeal, top with whatever you like and bake it for about 20 minutes at 400. These are guidelines only, you really need to know your oven to get the timing right, and it also depends how thick or thin you make your crust. Sometimes this amount gives me 2 cookie sheet sized pizzas and sometimes I just get one. Depends on my mood.

Buon Appetito!