With Autumn fastening her chilly grip on our days the thought of something warm and comforting for dinner is needed. So luckily I came across this recipe in Saveur for Toad-in-the-Hole with onion gravy, a lovely combination of pork sausages wrapped in bacon and baked on top of a batter resulting in crispy browned Yorkshire Pudding and sizzling sausages. Perfect!

I did change the onion gravy a bit (you know who doesn’t eat beef -even in stock)and substituted streaky bacon  instead of Proscuitto to wrap half of the sausages, because well $1.00 a slice di Parma seemed a bit much for this dish and my current frugality. The bacon didn’t cling as well as the Proscuitto di Parma but that was okay because it rested on top of the sausages and Yorkshire pudding and got nice and crispy.

Onion Gravy with Chicken Stock

• One jumbo or two large yellow onions, thinly sliced
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1 Tablespoon all purpose flour
• 2 cups chicken stock
• 1/3 cup Marsala wine
• 2 Tablespoons Tawny Port
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce
• 1 teaspoon Kitchen Bouquet Browning and Seasoning sauce*
• salt and pepper to taste

Cook the onions in the butter in a medium saucepan over medium low heat until they are golden, stir them often as they cook to prevent scorching. When they are carmelized to a medium golden brown, add the flour and cook for a minute or two just to coat the flour with fat and cook it a bit. Add the stock, wine and Worcestershire, bring to the boil and cook for  a few minutes until it starts to thicken a bit. Remove from heat and stir in the Kitchen Bouquet and taste. Add salt and pepper if needed.

*Kitchen Bouquet is a flavouring sauce that is made from caramelized vegetables and spices. It is available in most grocery stores in the U.S.A. You could probably use Vietnamese Caramel Sauce in it’s place.

I made our typical house salad with Parmesan, pine nuts and shallot-Dijon vinaigrette to accompany and that along with a nice glass of Cider was that! We snuggled under a blanket, warmed by comfort food

and watched Veronica Mars on DVD- highly recommended as a superior TV show but sadly cancelled before its time.

Today there is a Pizza Party around the world that is being hosted by Zoë François and Jeff Hertzberg, M.D. , the authors of “Artisan Pizza and Flatbread in Five Minutes a Day.”

For the last year or so, Rick and I have been working on a wood fired pizza oven in our back garden. So this was a fun event to unveil the (almost) completed oven and share this great book with you too. To family and friends who have been (patiently) waiting for a pizza party- it’s on its way- I promise.     We’ve just been working on the practical aspects of using the oven. The doughs in the book will be helpful because we can mix up different batches of dough without a lot of time or effort and have them on hand for when the time is right to fire up the oven.

I have a separate post planned for when the last bit is complete on the oven to show you how we made it  and the different stages of completion- so more on that later. Right now let’s party with some pizza!

First gather the book and a few ingredients. I used four litre buckets to mix each dough in,  instead of the 5 quarts recommended because it was either them or a 6 qt which takes up too much space in my fridge.  So here are the ingredients. I made the “00″ flour variation of the Ultimate Tender Neopolitan Crust from page 73- because I happen to have about 40 lbs of Caputo “00″ flour from Central Milling on hand. It’s in the 5 Gallon bucket with the red lid pictured. The blue crock is my salt cellar.

I also made the “Cornmeal Olive Oil dough” on page 86, although I substituted purple cornmeal for the yellow listed. I know- I’m a rebel. Plus I had some to use up.  :)

I like to use my King Arthur (thingamajig)  mixing tool that my sister, Tonya, gave to me a few years ago for mixing things up in the buckets. It works great! Funny note:It’s in a gift box on their site featured with Bread in 5′s book.

This is what the doughs look like after raising and being chilled overnight:

So fire up the oven…

Rick just finished the spire on top of the onion dome. There is more to do but it works and more on the pizza oven to come in a later post.

It makes a great fire.

Toppings:

San Marzano tomatoes that I bottled this Summer from our garden, whizzed in the blender with a little salt and then strained make a delicious sauce.

I make pesto during the summer and freeze it in flexible ice cube trays. Just thaw and use.

Cubed Turkey Breast, Goat cheese, Brie, Ricotta,  Fresh and shredded Mozzarella, BBQ sauce, San Marzanos, pesto, homemade Bechamel, Ambrosia Apple, artichoke hearts, cooked sweet Italian sausage and pepperoni, shallots, onions and red peppers.

Prepared Margherita, San Marzano tomato sauce and fresh Mozzarella on "00" dough

Margherita out of the oven and topped with fresh Basil from the windowsill

Prepared Apple, Bechamel and Brie on Cornmeal Olive Oil Crust

After the fire:Turkey Breast on BBQ Sauce Before and after:

An “Italian Flag” one third each Margherita, Pesto and Bechamel Ricotta Before and after firing:

This is an "Italian Flag" before cooking

I had another pizza and some wood fired Naan to show you but I’ve lost this post twice running out of room so I’ll save those for another day. Party on and check out the other parties over at the Artisan Bread in 5 site.

Enjoy!

This clean-eating and very tasty Asian inspired dish makes use of three highly nutritious “super-foods”- Maitake Mushrooms, Lacinato Kale and Quinoa. I was in the neighborhood Asian market and came across a selection of beautiful fresh Maitake mushrooms. Maitakes (Grifola Frondosa) are being studied for their beneficial effects on the immune system, for cancer treatment and for their effects on blood lipids, glucose, insulin and blood pressure. They are chock-full of vitamins and minerals and besides that they taste really good.

Lacinato Kale (also called Cavalo Nero or Tuscan or Black or Dinosaur Kale)  is one of my favourite vegetables, like all kale it is full of vitamins and minerals -particularly vitamins A,K,C and manganese as well as fibre and  deliciousness. It is also lovely in pasta dishes or as steamed greens.

Quinoa- I’ve written about how much I love it here before-is actually a seed (of the goosefoot plant- chenopodium quinoa) rather than a grain but it is generally assigned to the whole grains category. It has a complete protein- and lots of it- and is a bit nutty and delicious. I like it cooked a bit al dente so that there is a slightly chewy pop to the little curly-cued seeds when they are cooked. You cook it like rice- making sure to rinse it well beforehand as the seeds contain a naturally occurring saponin that makes them bitter. Just rinse and cook in a 2:1 of liquid to Quinoa for about 15 minutes after coming to a boil. Steaming is good too.

Stirfry of Maitake Mushrooms, Lacinato Kale and Quinoa

(serves two)

• peanut, coconut or avocado oil for pan
• 1 fresh Maitake mushroom* head, about 2 cups chopped (also called Hen of the Woods in your Asian Market)
• 2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1-2 cups Lacinato Kale washed, spun and cut into 1 inch ribbons
• Shao Hsing  cooking wine* (optional)
• Black Vinegar* (optional)
• Soy sauce
• Salt
• Szechuan Peppercorns, freshly ground, pinch (optional)
• 2 cups of cooked Quinoa (see above)
• chopped shelled pistachios

Heat a wok or a heavy bottomed skillet over medium high heat. When hot add the oil then the mushrooms and onion, fry until the mushrooms render their juices and the onions are caramelized, add the garlic and cook being careful not to burn it. Add the kale and stir until softened. Add Shao Hsing, Black Vinegar (*found in most Asian Markets) and Soy starting with a Tablespoon of each and then adding more as needed to adjust to taste. Add the cooked Quinoa and some salt and ground Szechuan pepper or regular black pepper and stir all to heat through and serve in small bowls garnished with a Tablespoons chopped pistachios for a bit of crunch.

Good Eating to you!

xo

When it’s cold and snowing it’s nice to know that you can go to your own freezer and pull out a quick comforting meal. These chicken pot pies in small ramekins are just the ticket!

I don’t make a bottom crust for these because #1 it reduces the calories, #2 the bottom crust always gets sogbog and #3 they’re easier and quicker to make plus you just don’t miss it.

All you do is bung some boneless, skinless chicken thighs into your crock pot and let them cook a couple of hours on high then add some cut up veg- onions, potatoes, carrots, celery, fennel, turnips, leeks, parsnips-whatever you have and whatever you like. Add a bay leaf or other herbs, a bit of salt and pepper and let it all cook away until it’s cooked through and the veg are al dente.

You can even put the chicken and veg all in together if you won’t be around to add them later.
When all is cooked, drain the chicken and veg then shred the chicken and stir in a little bechamel (or plain white sauce) to coat everything and make a sauce for the pot pie. Fill 6 ounce ramekins with the mixture, cut rounds (or even squares) of pie dough to cover the top, press around the edges to seal, cut a few vent holes for the steam to escape, place on a parchment lined tray to catch any overspill and then bake them immediately in a 375F oven until the pie crust is puffed and golden and the filling is bubbly- about 30 minutes. I bake these quite often in my little counter top Cuisinart Convection/Toaster oven.

Or let the filling cool, fill then top the ramekins with the pie dough and freeze them for future use. To bake the frozen pot pies- don’t thaw tthem- just add a bit of cooking time.
These are great because you can put what you like into them -just to your own taste, the crust tastes better and also you don’t have a lot of the fillers and trans-fats that commercial products often have in them. You can make them vegetarian by using seitan or tofu or just plain vegetables.
I usually make 8 or 10 of these, cook a couple for our dinner immediately and freeze the rest for a fairly quick no fuss dinner – just add a salad and a glass of wine and we’re eating in almost no time at all.

I usually have some kind of leftover pie crust in the freezer from another dish to use but here is a recipe for corn meal pate brisee again that works great with these. And as if I haven’t put the recipe for bechamel on here many times before here it is again:

for the Bechamel:

• 2 cups milk
• 2 small bay leaves
• 3 Tablespoons butter
• 1/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1 teaspoon season/garlic salt
• 1 egg yolk
• 2 Tablespoons half and half cream

Heat the milk with the bay leaves until just coming to the boil. I do this in a 2 cup Pyrex glass measuring cup in the microwave for ease. In a medium heavy bottomed (preferably copper clad) sauce pan heat the butter until melted and bubbling. Add the flour and season salt and stir until a paste forms. Remove the bay leaves from the hot milk and add the milk to the flour paste in the sauce pan. Stir constantly with a whisk until slightly thickened. Mix the egg yolk with the half and half and add to the mixture in the pan stirring as you add to incorporate it without making scrambled eggs. Cook until thickened.

 
Corn Meal Pie Dough or Pate Brisee:

• 2 cups AP flour
• 1/2 cup of cornmeal
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 pound fresh butter, cold and cut into small bits
• 1/3 cup iced water as needed

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the flour, corn meal, salt and sugar together until combined. Add the butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse sand. Turn the machine to full “on” and add the iced water in a slow steady stream, adding only enough to make the dough come together. Process as little as possible. Place a two large squares of plastic wrap on your counter. Turn 1/2 of the dough out onto each. Using the plastic wrap form each into a disk and place in the fridge for an hour.

Another amalgamation meal!

Enjoy!

xo