On days when I have a photo shoot, the kitchen looks like a tornado went through it. The food has been thoroughly manhandled by me trying to get it to look just right for the photo. It has been sprayed with oil for shine, pinned with T pins to hold things in place and sprinkled so heavily with flaky sea salt and coarsely ground black pepper for texture, that it is no longer appetizing. On those days, dinner is fried eggs topped with tomatoes and Gruyere cheese.
I love it when friends invite me to dinner. I get new ideas about what to cook, plus, salad always taste better when someone else makes it. On New Years Day we went to visit our friends The Grizzlies. Mrs. Grizzly whipped up this spiced salmon for lunch. Garam masala, smoked paprika and cumin combine for a flavourful rub.
The spices are mixed with honey, olive oil and lemon juice and the salmon is roasted for about 15 minutes. I threw some broccolini on the sheet pan as well. Cauliflower or Brussels sprouts would also be delicious.
Mrs Grizzly served this with a cilantro salsa, but I had a surplus of pomegranates wilting in the fridge, so I whipped up a pomegranate yogurt raita sauce. Really fresh and yummy with the spiced salmon. I think I’ll be adding this salmon dish to our regular dinner rotation.
Leave me a comment and let me know what’s on rotation in your kitchen. I’m curious!
Happy New Year! Hope everyone survived the holidays. We had lots of family time over at the saltandserenity homestead, which explains why you have not heard from me since December 19! We managed to consume most of the cookies I posted about last month and I made latkes twice. All in all, a very delicious month.
As is customary around here, the first post of the new year is something healthyish, emphasis on the “ish”. Let’s start with the crunch. Of course we have the obligatory vegetable crunch, provided by raw kale, Brussels sprouts and sugar snap peas. Walnuts add supplemental crunch and a slight bitterness, which I have recently learned to appreciate. If you’re not into them, pecans or hazelnuts would be great. Just DON’T FORGET to toast them.
Apples provide a sweet-tart crunch. I found some Cosmic Crisp apples to use in my salad. If you see them, grab them! A cross between the Enterprise and Honeycrisp apple, Cosmic Crisps are out of this world crunchy and juicy and a bit more tart than Honeycrisps. They are excellent in salads as they are slow to brown.
The final crunch in this salad is provided by coarse homemade breadcrumbs. I took some stale sourdough bread, cut it into cubes and tossed it liberally with extra virgin olive oil and salt. I toasted them in a moderate oven until browned, and then crushed the croutons into coarse crumbs. That way, each bite of salad has some of this delicious crunch. They are also excellent in soups.
The addition of wheat berries make this salad a nutritional powerhouse. They are a whole grain and are packed with fiber, protein and iron. If you have never tried them, you will love their chewy texture and nutty taste.
We’re not going overboard with healthy. Baby steps here. There is cheese in this salad, Pecorino Romano, to be specific. The delicate funk and rich tangy flavour of pecorino is a perfect foil for the sweet apple and the bitter greens.
Martha just told me that it’s National Bake Cookies Day! There’s actually a special day for that? In my kitchen, everyday is bake cookies day. My Instagram feed is flooded with cookies this month.
Today’s cookie is a Linzer cookie. I have long been an admirer of these pretty jam filled treats, but until this week, I have never baked them. The talented food photographer Bea Lubas frequently bakes and shoots Linzer cookies and her work is so inspiring.
While they may look like just another pretty jam filled sugar cookie, the addition of ground nuts to the dough turns them into a cookie so tender that it just about melts in your mouth. The dough for a traditional Linzer cookie is made with ground almonds. Since I happened to have a surplus of pistachios on hand, from a greedy shopping spree in Sicily, I used those instead.
The classic filling for linzer cookies is raspberry jam, but I went with sour cherry. The sweet-tart flavour is a perfect complement to the rich tender crumb of the pistachio cookies.
Here are a few tips for success when baking these cookies:
The dough is quite sticky. Make sure to roll it between 2 sheets of parchment and dust with flour.
Chill the dough well before cutting out shapes. The cookies will keep their nice crisp edges and won’t spread too much if they hit the oven cold.
Dust the tops with icing sugar before covering the sandwiches. That way you won’t hide the pretty jam filling.
If you want to make these ahead, bake the cookies and freeze. Thaw, fill and dust with icing sugar the day you plan to serve them.
These biscotti are adapted from a very old recipe, in the now defunct Gourmet Magazine (a moment of silence please!!). The original recipe used dried cranberries and was dipped in white chocolate. I decided to switch it up with dried cherries, used chopped white chocolate in the dough, instead of dipping them and added shredded coconut because everything tastes better with coconut!
I first posted a version of these biscotti almost 10 years ago, in 2010. While the recipe has stood the test of time, my image from 10 years ago (see below), has not! I find it rewarding to look back and see my progress over the years.
Traditional biscotti is made with eggs and no additional fat. This recipe adds butter which keeps them a bit soft and chewy in the centre. If you like a crunchier biscotti, just bake them for longer. These are perfect cookies for mailing as they stay crunchy for a long time. They are also perfect for freezing and pulling out when you need a quick sugar fix.
The dough is formed into a loaf and baked until it just begins to set. Then it is cooled and sliced and baked a second time, until crunchy.
If you were at the Trader Joe’s on Pico Boulevard, in Santa Monica California, just before Thanksgiving, and heard a woman squealing, I apologize. That was me discovering that the Trader Joe’s Dark Chocolate Covered Peppermint Joe Joe Cookies had finally arrived. They only make a short appearance at holiday time, and then they’re gone. I buy several boxes and hoard them in the freezer. No need to hide them from my husband, as he hates mint, but if my daughter finds them, I’m in trouble.
This year I decided to see if I could recreate them myself. I started with Martha’s chocolate cookie wafer recipe. I rolled the dough quite thin using cocoa powder, so it wouldn’t stick, instead of flour so that the dough maintained it’s gorgeous deep chocolate hue., I chilled it, cut out circles and baked it for only about 7 minutes, so that they would be done but still have a bit of chew in the centre when cooled.
Next, onto the filling. I made a simple American buttercream, flavoured it with mint extract and added just a whisper of pink food colouring.
Tempered chocolate has a nice shiny finish and won’t melt in your hand at room temperature. But, it’s totally optional. They will still taste very delicious if you decide to skip this step. I got to pull out my special chocolate dipping fork, from when my girlfriend Marla and I used to make hundreds of truffles every December. I always feel like such a professional when I pull out these seldom used tools.
While the chocolate is still wet, let it rain crushed peppermint candies.
In a statistically significant tasting of two subjects, the verdict on these cookies, was a split decision. I loved them even more than the Trader Joe’s version because the chocolate wafers were a bit chewy in the centre. My daughter preferred the crisper TJ’s cookies.
Sometimes when we’re travelling, my husband and I play this game, where we say what we would decree if we were king of the world. His proclamations usually involve cleaning up garbage at the side of the road, fixing derelict homes, zapping slow drivers off the road and shortening the length of red lights in Florida.
My wishes are a bit less lofty. I would create an ordinance that required all dentist offices to provide a pedicure while you are having your teeth cleaned. Multi-tasking at its finest. I would also command that all meals end with a cookie. I always crave a little something sweet at the end of dinner. Just a little bite, nothing too big. Cookies really are the perfect dessert. I think more restaurants should offer a cookie plate for dessert.
It’s December, so I have happily jumped onto the cookie train, and I intend to keep on rolling until you beg me to stop, or, I gain my annual holiday 5 pounds, whichever comes first.
These are a simple slice and bake cookie, studded with Skor bits and smoked almonds. For fun, I shaped them into a square log, but round cookies are good too. A tip for when you are slicing the logs; give the log a 90 degree turn after each slice, so that one side of the log does not get too squished.
I treated my cookies to a little dip in melted milk chocolate. The mellow flavour of milk chocolate is perfect with the caramel notes of the toffee and the salty smoky almonds.
While the chocolate is still wet, sprinkle on some extra crushed smoked almonds for extra crunch.
I first posted these cookies in December 2010. I thought it was time to show them some love again. Plus, my old photos were making me cringe.
Yes, these cookies are every bit as amazing as they sound. Tender buttery shortbread studded with big chunks of honey and almond nougat enrobed in milk chocolate.
The ingredient list is short, but the flavour profile is off the charts! Butter, all-purpose flour, confectioners sugar, and cornstarch for added tenderness. Vanilla and salt are there to enhance and balance.
A cookie scoop makes for perfectly sized cookies and even baking. Serve with lots of cold milk or a hot latte.
My experience with vegetarian dishes that supposedly mimic the real thing (vegetarian chilli, vegetarian pot pie etc..) have always resulted in lacklustre results. They just taste like a vegetable stew. They’re lacking the hearty, savoury substance of the original. The ingredient list in most vegetarian recipes is LONG! So, if you’re going to ask me to chop a boatload of vegetables, I demand more than mediocre.
It’s the beef or lamb, in traditional Shepherd’s pie, that provides the depth of flavour. That hearty, savouriness is know as umami. Umami, translated from Japanese meaning “delicious yumminess”, is recognized as the fifth taste, after salt, sweet, sour and bitter. Interestingly, raw meat, does not have a high umami level. Only by cooking it are the amino acids, which are high in those flavour-bomb glutamates, released.
Luckily for vegetarians, there are some plant-based umami bombs that can replicate this hearty savouriness. On the ingredients list for this recipe you will find dried mushrooms, walnuts, tomato paste, and soy sauce. Are all high in glutamates and provide umami in spades!
Umami ingredients have a multiplier effect. Ingredients high in umami enhance one another so that the whole dish packs more flavour than the sum of its parts. It’s why a burger topped with mushrooms, cheese and bacon (all high in glutamates and thus umami), tastes so good.
Lentils and bulgar (cracked wheat) add the textural element and bulk to the filling.
The best part about Shepherd’s pie is the mashed potato topping. I snuck in a few parsnips for an earthy nutty sweetness and some cheddar cheese to make it extra delicious.
You will be shocked at how delicious and satisfying this dish is. You won’t miss the meat at all, and I promise that all the chopping and prep required for this dish is worth it.
Think of a galette as the pie’s younger, free-spirited cousin. Pie, is by definition, baked and served in a sloped sided dish. Galettes are totally freeform, no pan, fancy adornments or crimping necessary. Think of a pie as the undergarment equivalent of wearing Spanx. The pie plate holds everything in. Galettes are infinitely more comfortable and easier to make!
The goal of both pies and galettes is a flaky crust. I experimented with adding pistachios to my galette crust this summer. This time I added pecans and cheddar and the results were outstanding. The nuts add a beautiful colour and flavour to the crust and the cheese adds additional fat which leads to extreme flakiness- a good thing in a galette, not so good if you’re human.
In developing this recipe, I made quite a few galettes to get things perfect. The leftovers were sliced, wrapped and frozen for my husband’s nighttime snack habit. I was shocked at how crispy and flaky the crust stayed, even without reheating.
In keeping with our carefree vibe, I left the apples unpeeled. You want to use a smaller apple for this galette. I found some small organic Honeycrisp apples. Pink Lady, Fuji and Granny Smith would also be good choices.
In the video, I used a plate to cut a perfect circle, because I’m not as laid back as I wish I were! Feel free to leave the edges irregular if that’s more your style.
My relationship with doughnuts is a complicated one. I have memories of painful childhood dentist visits followed by a trip to Mr. Donut for a chocolate glazed, as a reward. As a young adult, doughnuts filled an emotional void for me. I was a new mom, pregnant with my second child, and we had just moved to a new city. I missed my family and friends, and felt very lonely. After a visit to the doctor, to check on the progress of my pregnancy (and weight gain), I’d stop by Lady Jane Donuts for a chocolate coconut cake doughnut, to drown my sorrows.
Eventually I replaced doughnuts with friends and it was many years before I indulged again. Doughnuts are really best eaten within a few hours of making them which is why I like making them myself. There are two main types of doughnuts, cake and yeast. Yeast style doughnuts, obviously rely on yeast to do the leavening work. They have a more open crumb structure and a chewier texture. Cake donuts, on the other hand, rely on baking powder and/or baking soda to do the heavy lifting. They result in a donut with a tighter crumb structure, and are denser and more crumbly than yeast donuts. Cake doughnuts are my favourite.
Most Apple Cider Doughnuts suffer from a weak apple flavour. They’re heavily flavoured with cinnamon and nutmeg and light on the apple. I wanted to recreate that juicy apple flavour that you get with the first bite of a crisp apple. I learned how to accomplish this from Stella Park at serious eats.com. The secret, it seems, is freeze dried apples pulverized with sugar into a sweet-tart powder for dredging the doughnuts with.
Freeze dried fruit is not the same as dried fruit. Dried fruit is dehydrated and only about 75% of the water is removed. With freeze-dried, the fruit is placed into a vacuum chamber where the temperature is well-below freezing and 99% of the moisture can be removed from the fruit.
A few years ago, I discovered that not all doughnuts need to be fried. There is such a thing as baked doughnuts. They make special doughnut pans, but I decided to use my mini Bundt pans, because they’re a little bit fancy, and that’s how we roll around here at saltandserenity!
The doughnut batter can be made in one bowl and you don’t even need a stand mixer. These are so fast and easy to make.
You’ll have leftover apple cinnamon sugar which keeps forever, in an airtight jar. I have been mixing in a spoonful with my oatmeal every morning and sprinkling it on buttered toast. YUM.
