Posts Tagged 'laura calder'

Coffee Chops and Blue Cheese Pasta

Published August 18, 2009 Dinner Leave a Comment
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I have laid to rest my French Food At Home book, temporarily. After making Laura Calder recipes for a week I have discovered that some of her recipes are awesome and some are not so scrumptious. I cannot tell if the recipes were not wonderful due to my inability to follow directions correctly from time to time, or simply because the recipe just wasn’t meant to be. For the most part, though, I enjoyed the meals immensely. Another thing I learned is that I really hate blue cheese. I’ve known this for a very long time, ever since I was 12 years old and my sister’s god parents were in town and they brought us a small brick of blue cheese. I remember sniffing it and thinking it smelled like old cheesy socks. I remember tasting it and spitting it back out because I was convinced the blue bits were the remains of old cheesy socks. Since then, I have avoided blue cheese and the faintest scent of that cheese triggers my gag reflex.

So, it was a great surprise to Jay- who absolutely loves to eat blue cheese – that I made blue cheese pasta. I made it because I knew he would like it, and he did, and also because I thought that if I gave it a chance I would somehow instantly fall in love with it. This was not so. I ate about four bites of it before announcing, “Yep, I really do not like blue cheese. Please eat the rest.” Jay laughed. I’m so glad he found my suffering amusing. The pork chops were great though.

To make the pasta, cook fetuccini noodles how you like them and while they’re cooking make the blue cheese sauce. Melt 250g of blue cheese and then whisk in half a cup of cream. Once the noodles are ready, drain them, return to pot, and coat them with the sauce and some fresh ground pepper.

For the pork chops, season two chops with salt, pepper and sugar on both sides. Heat a bit of olive oil and butter and once that’s hot fry the chops for about 10 minutes or until they are nice and caramelized. While that’s happening, brew about a quarter cup of strong black coffee. Once the pork chops are done, set them on a plate and keep warm. Pour the coffee in the pan and shake to deglaze. Let it boil down to a thin syrup, about 1 or 2 minutes then pour over the pork chops.

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Blue Cheese Pasta

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Coffee Pork Chops

Amazing Chicken and Carrots

Published August 16, 2009 Uncategorized 1 Comment
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Last night’s dinner was fantastic and I will definitely make it again. This is another Laura Calder French Food At Home recipe. I’ve been making one meal a day from her book for the past week and tonight will be the last one. I’m not sure yet which book I’ll be using, if any in particular, for the coming week.

I chose to make Carrot Juice Chicken because the name intrigued me. I am not a fan of carrot juice – I think it’s vile – but cooking chicken in it sounded delicious. I’m not sure if the recipe specifically requires plain carrot juice or sweetened carrot juice. I used the only carrot juice I was able to find at the grocery store which happened to be sweet.

First I seasoned three chicken legs with salt and pepper and then cooked them for about 20 minutes in a bit of olive oil. Once the chicken was nice and brown I added a tablespoon each of fresh, chopped rosemary and thyme. I had Scarborough Fair stuck in my head as I chopped said herbs. I then added a cup of carrot juice until it was reduced to a syrup. I added another half cup of juice until it reduced again and I repeated this until I had added 3 cups of carrot juice, turning the chicken every so often. Next time I make this I’ll be using chicken wings because the carrot juice makes a perfect sticky and sweet alternative to BBQ sauce.

While the chicken was cooking, I had put some cut up carrots in a small pot with a teaspoon of butter, a generous dash of carrot juice and enough cold water to cover the carrots. I let that simmer for about 30 minutes until the liquid was reduced to a syrup. I have to say that those were the best carrots I had ever had. Cooking carrots in carrot juice is brilliant! I’m so glad I found that recipe in the book as well. I served the chicken and carrots along with a somewhat mild tasting potato gratin. I felt it lacked taste but as Jay said it was good that way because you wouldn’t want to have too many overpowering tastes. How right he was.

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Toast Soup

Published August 13, 2009 Dinner Leave a Comment
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Sometimes I wonder if maybe I am not following a recipe correctly. When I was younger most of my teachers’ concerns were that I didn’t pay attention and that I didn’t follow directions.

Or maybe the recipe is as quirky as Laura Calder. I’m not saying it was terrible because I did, after all, eat the portion I served for myself. It was interesting. It was like letting pieces of hard toast disintegrate in a bowl of milky chicken broth. I wasn’t sure if I should have eaten the “soup” with a slice of bread. I’m undecided as to whether or not I should make this Toast Soup again.

If you’re still curious about this soup here’s how you do it:

Fry 6 slices of smoky bacon until cooked but not crispy. Add 2 cups of chicken stock, bring to a boil, then turn off the heat, cover, and let it sit for an hour. Toast 8 cups of French bread. I cubed my bread before putting it in the oven. Once the toast is nice and brown, just before getting too dark, bring it out, and place it in a large saucepan. Strain the chicken stock over the bread, reserving the bacon. Add 2 cups of milk, 2 tsp of balsamic vinegar or sherry and 2 tsp of Dijon mustard. Puree with an immersion blender until smooth. Taste before seasoning. Cut the bacon into strips and re-fry it until crispy. I just re-fried it and cut it into bits. Reheat the soup and serve hot with the bacon bits on top for garnish. According to the book the recipe makes enough for 6 to 8 people. It’s pretty heavy so about one cup is enough for one person – at least it was for me.

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Sea Salt Fish and Asparagus with Hollandaise Sauce

Published August 10, 2009 Dinner Leave a Comment
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I just waded through a blanket of smoke to get to my laptop so I could spread the word about tonight’s dinner. The smell of burnt sea salt is still lingering in the air. Sound appetizing? Well, let me tell you, it was!

I was a bit turned off by this Laura Calder recipe at first, simply because it involves cooking a fish over half an inch of coarse sea salt. In her book, French Food At Home, she advises to open a window. And how right she is. Unfortunately for me, and my nearby neighbours, I do not have a window in my tiny kitchen and the noxious odour and smoke coming from my apartment must have made them think I burnt dinner. As I watched the salt crackle and pop and burn, I prayed and hoped I was following the instructions correctly; lay the fish (I used rainbow trout), skin side down over half an inch of salt in a large pan over high heat for 15 to 20 minutes. After several minutes of watching over my sizzling fish, I stepped out into the living room and I was amazed the neighbours weren’t knocking on our door wondering if we were dying of smoke inhalation. I put aside my worries and focused on making the hollandaise sauce.

I remember making this sauce when I was younger, failing miserably and thus, afraid of trying again. I am excited and proud to announce that attempt number two was an amazing success thanks to Ms. Calder, who guided me through the emulsifying and whisking of butter and eggs. It’s a bit frightening that this sauce is made with two main ingredients; butter and egg yolks. When I put a cup and a half of butter into a sauce pan, Jay’s horrified reaction made me question whether or not this sauce was necessary for dinner. Adding four egg yolks made things seem slightly more disturbing. And let’s not forget the fact that the fish was resting on a bed of sea salt.

“Your doctor said your BMI is at a healthy level, right Jay?” I jokingly said as he glared at me.

Once the fish was cooked I peeled the skin off the fish as the book explains the skin is too salty to eat. I’m not even going to question that. I served the fish with steamed asparagus and plain basmati rice. I poured sauce over the asparagus and Jay and I sat down to eat. After giving our plates questionable stares, we dug in.

The fish was perfect. It was so soft and juicy and perfectly salty. The hollandaise sauce was very subtle, with hints of lemon among the buttery flavour (recipe for sauce here). Absolutely delicious.

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Breakfast and Dinner

Published August 10, 2009 Breakfast , Dinner , Must repeat , Recipe , Yum! Leave a Comment
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It used to be that most Saturday mornings I would wake up and fry two eggs and several strips of bacon. That tradition went on a little break when I began to eat only egg whites and no bacon. For the past month, however, I have not been dieting and so I decided to make two sunny side up eggs. Eggs are one of the simplest, yet most delicious, things to eat and I always enjoy admiring the bright yellow centres before I squish them with pieces of warm buttered bread. On Saturday morning I decided to not only add the usual salt and pepper but also a healthy dose of Frank’s Redhot sauce and some fresh cilantro. When I make fried eggs I like to cover the pan with a lid so the steam cooks the tops of the eggs faster. Jay hates this and prefers to let the eggs sit in the pan longer instead. But my way allows me to eat my eggs much, much sooner.

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On Friday night I had the pleasure of watching Julie and Julia with my friend. We are both huge fans of all things related to food and this movie was perfect for our addiction. It was no surprise that the next day I felt inspired to cook French food. I pulled out my French Food At Home book by Laura Calder and I quickly began to choose meals for my weekly menu. Most importantly, I needed a meal for that Saturday night and I chose Housewife Chicken. This dish involved cooking in batches and a small amount of tedious preparation such as; peeling and breaking a head of garlic, peeling and cutting the ends of 18 pearl onions, dicing four potatoes, chopping a third of a pound of mushrooms and dicing a quarter pound of bacon. I seasoned the three pound chicken with salt and pepper and after stuffing it with the broken garlic cloves, I had to truss the bird (which is something I had never done). I had to look up a video on chowhound.com.

The first truss!

My first truss!


A great thing about this meal was that it was cooked in one single casserole (except I don’t have a casserole so I used a large enough pot). Before I started on the chicken I had to cook all the other ingredients in batches. First I melted about a tablespoon of butter and I cooked the bacon and onions for about 15 minutes, until the bacon was crisp. Once that was done I set that aside in a large bowl. I then added the mushrooms to the pot for about 5 minutes and then those were added to the bowl with the onions and bacon. I added a bit of olive oil to the pot along with the diced potatoes and cooked those for 25 minutes. After adding the potatoes to the bowl of onions and mushrooms, I put another tablespoon of butter in the pot and so began the process of browning the chicken. I browned it for 5 minutes on each side before finally lowering the heat and covering the pot with a lid for about 45 minutes. Once the chicken was cooked, I put all the ingredients in the bowl back into the pot with the chicken for about 10 minutes to allow it all to heat nicely.

When all was finally cooked, I was almost too eager and impatient to start eating and I nearly lost my interest in taking pictures of the chicken. Somehow I managed to control myself. This is one chicken I will most definitely make again.

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