Subscribe via RSS
Follow Us On Facebook
Follow Us On Twitter
Ever since Jenn finished schooling at Queen's, she and I have been throwing Christmas dinners for her family every year. This year, we went with a turkey-based feast. Due to other engagements Thanksgiving weekend, we opted for Mongolian Hot Pot using a chicken pho broth in October. This left me without having cooked a turkey for 2009 and I could not let December pass without roasting one up.
Given the shopping insanity we witnessed at the nearby Loblaws Superstore (190 Richmond Road), leading up to the week of the 25th last year, we opted to order an (apparently frozen) organic turkey from Wellington's own Saslove's (1333 Wellington Street W.). Originally scheduled for pickup on Christmas Eve, we requested to fetch our turkey the day before (December 23, 2009). We were glad we did. Apparently, the entire neighbourhood and surrounding ones order turkeys from Saslove's. While the 22nd of December was quiet at Saslove's store front, word quickly spread that the entire shipment of turkeys had arrived. Surprised employees had to create a queue to the back of the butcher's the next day to hand out turkeys. They created a queue to the only cash and till that could handle debit and credit cards. They created a bypass queue to a second cash and till for anyone paying with cash. Guess which queue was longest? On the bright side, everyone in line was friendly to one another and the staff made light of the situation to lift spirits. I remarked to Jenn that we have never had a better turkey buying experience. Though, next year, we will be ordering two small turkeys instead of the giant $86.31 (before taxes) monstrosity we ended up lugging home. Interestingly, giblets cost an extra $5.
Dinner-wise, here is the menu we chose:
Chinese Appetizers (Small plates for Arrivals)
Small Plate Buffet
Rolled Prosciutto
Starter
Mains
Feast
Tortiere
Lo Mai Fan in Lieu of Stove-top Stuffing
Dessert
Recipes follow:
Omasum
The recipe for the stir fried ginger and scallion omasum has already been posted to foodiePrints.
Pig Tails
Pig tails, like pig feet are offcuts prized by Asian cuisine. They are usually long braised in a sticky sweet sauce, loaded with umami for special occasions like Chinese New Year. For Christmas dinner, we opted to slow poach them (2 hours) in a soy master sauce, originally leftover from a red-braise. This master sauce is one Jenn and I continually re-adjust the seasoning of and use to poach chicken with to make soy sauce chicken. We poached the tails the night before and reheated them in a pan to caramelize the sugars, just before guests arrived.
Pig Tails Added to the Soy Master Sauce
Pig Tails Poached
The tails took on the flavours of the poaching liquid. Their skins softened and caramelized beautifully in a well seasoned cast iron pan on medium heat.
More after the jump...
Given the shopping insanity we witnessed at the nearby Loblaws Superstore (190 Richmond Road), leading up to the week of the 25th last year, we opted to order an (apparently frozen) organic turkey from Wellington's own Saslove's (1333 Wellington Street W.). Originally scheduled for pickup on Christmas Eve, we requested to fetch our turkey the day before (December 23, 2009). We were glad we did. Apparently, the entire neighbourhood and surrounding ones order turkeys from Saslove's. While the 22nd of December was quiet at Saslove's store front, word quickly spread that the entire shipment of turkeys had arrived. Surprised employees had to create a queue to the back of the butcher's the next day to hand out turkeys. They created a queue to the only cash and till that could handle debit and credit cards. They created a bypass queue to a second cash and till for anyone paying with cash. Guess which queue was longest? On the bright side, everyone in line was friendly to one another and the staff made light of the situation to lift spirits. I remarked to Jenn that we have never had a better turkey buying experience. Though, next year, we will be ordering two small turkeys instead of the giant $86.31 (before taxes) monstrosity we ended up lugging home. Interestingly, giblets cost an extra $5.
Dinner-wise, here is the menu we chose:
Chinese Appetizers (Small plates for Arrivals)
Small Plate Buffet
Rolled Prosciutto
- Pig tails slow poached in a soy master sauce with brown sugar, Chicken marinade, ginger, and star anise, served warm
- Stir fried ginger and scallion omasum (3rd stomach of a chow), served warm
- King oyster mushroom chips
- Atlantic smoked salmon
- Pingue prosciutto from The Piggy Market
Starter
- Cauliflower Soup, flavoured with Parmesan and topped with shredded and crisped king oyster mushroom
Mains
Feast
Tortiere
Lo Mai Fan in Lieu of Stove-top Stuffing
- Butter and Summer Savoury Roasted Turkey Breast
- Turkey Leg Confit
- Traditional Quebec Tortiere (filling: pork, ground beef, onion, cloves, rosemary, thyme, celery and potato) from Petit Bill's Bistro ($16.95, $5 of which to raise money for the Salvation Army's Toy Mountain campaign)
- Stir Fried Chinese Greens (Yu-Choy, which seems to be the green of choice this Christmas), courtesy of Jenn's mom.
- Sticky Rice (called Lo Mai Fan) with Chinese Sausage (lap cheung), celery, and shiitake mushrooms
Dessert
- Fresh fruit (freshly cut pineapple and orange segments)
- Apple Pie from Farm Boy, courtesy of Jenn's brother
Recipes follow:
Omasum
The recipe for the stir fried ginger and scallion omasum has already been posted to foodiePrints.
Pig Tails
Pig tails, like pig feet are offcuts prized by Asian cuisine. They are usually long braised in a sticky sweet sauce, loaded with umami for special occasions like Chinese New Year. For Christmas dinner, we opted to slow poach them (2 hours) in a soy master sauce, originally leftover from a red-braise. This master sauce is one Jenn and I continually re-adjust the seasoning of and use to poach chicken with to make soy sauce chicken. We poached the tails the night before and reheated them in a pan to caramelize the sugars, just before guests arrived.
Pig Tails Added to the Soy Master Sauce
Pig Tails Poached
The tails took on the flavours of the poaching liquid. Their skins softened and caramelized beautifully in a well seasoned cast iron pan on medium heat.
More after the jump...
[ Read More... ]
Tag(s): Christmas, Piggy Market, Saslove's, sighting
Since Christmas 2006, I promised myself to bake something different every holiday season for the potlucks my better half and I attend. Christmas 2007, we made cranberry scones, learning how in a baking workshop at a local bakery (Three Bakers and a Bike) earlier that fall. We would make them again a year later, but this time I re-worked the recipe to use only butter. I would also make several batches of biscotti, but I looked for something new, thumbing through magazines and surfing the web.
Eventually, I settled on Alton Brown's "Macaroon Delights."
AB's Macaroon Delight
Seeing AB's vid on how to make the macaroons would be one of the last videos I watched from the Food Network website. In following months, the powers that be blessed modifications to the site that not only favoured Microsoft Internet Explorer, but also browsers on the Microsoft Windows platform. As a proponent of open source software, I use Ubuntu Linux, my preferred web browser, Mozilla's Firefox.
Even more interesting, the webmaster or database administrator would mix up AB's two macaroon recipes on the Food Network website, an older recipe coming from Good Eats' "Down and Out in Paradise" special. For some odd reason, half way through the month of December, the month when food websites are most heavily searched, the title and links of AB's macaroon recipes were mixed up. "Macaroon Delight" was no longer search-able. Its corresponding recipe was renamed "Paradise Macaroons." The "Down and Out in Paradise" macaroons was renamed "Toasty Coconut Macaroons."
That said, whatever they were intended to be called, AB's holiday macaroons came out great!
Biscotti Macaroon Platter
Without re-printing AB's recipe, 14 oz of unsweetened + 2 oz of sweetened coconut (by weight) were mixed with 2 oz of sweetened condensed milk (by weight), a pinch of kosher salt, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Sweetened Condensed Milk
Dry Coconut Mixture
Then, 4 large egg whites, 5 oz of fine granulated sugar (by weight), and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar were whipped with an electric mixer until they formed medium peaks.
Egg Shells
Whipped Meringue
Medium Peaks
I discovered that a smaller metal bowl, allowing the egg white and sugar mixture to pool halfway up, produced a better meringue. After all a meringue is what beating egg whites and sugar together produces.
Finally, the meringue was folded into the coconut mixture to lighten it. The mixture was scooped onto parchment lined half sheet pans and baked in a pre-heated 325 F oven for 25 minutes.
Final Mixture
Tray of Baked Macaroons
Close-up
Trust me, use a disher when scooping the macaroon mixture to produce a nice tight package. Otherwise, you will end up with these:
Flat Macaroons
They still brown up nice though, producing a toasted flavour.
Browned Macaroon Bottom
The taller macaroons turned out chewy, crispy, sweet, vanilla-flavoured, and slightly caramel. They disappeared quickly at the pot luck they went to. Incidentally, AB's original recipe, topped the macaroons with semi-sweet chocolate and chopped nuts. I will have to try that sometime...
Other Notes
While the macaroons baked, I decided to play with meringue a little more, using a Tyler Florence recipe and producing the following snow peaks.
Snow Peaks
Close-Up
Clearly, I need more practice, working with a pastry bag.
Here are the logs of biscotti that turned into what was platterred above...
Biscotti Logs
During Christmas 2008, I also discovered pre-cut parchment paper.
Pre-Cut Parchment Paper
While convenient, a roll of parchment paper is cheaper by length overall and much more flexible when using half sheet pans.
And as always, here are contingency ingredients in case the macaroons didn't work.
Dry Cookie Mix and Marshmallows
Cupcake Tins, Almonds, Cranberries, and Powdered Sugar
You don't want to know how many cartons of eggs I had in reserve. The pantry is always stocked with extra bags of sugar and flour. Worst case scenario, I planned on baking up chiffon cupcakes and icing them with a marshmallow frosting.
Eventually, I settled on Alton Brown's "Macaroon Delights."
AB's Macaroon Delight
Seeing AB's vid on how to make the macaroons would be one of the last videos I watched from the Food Network website. In following months, the powers that be blessed modifications to the site that not only favoured Microsoft Internet Explorer, but also browsers on the Microsoft Windows platform. As a proponent of open source software, I use Ubuntu Linux, my preferred web browser, Mozilla's Firefox.
Even more interesting, the webmaster or database administrator would mix up AB's two macaroon recipes on the Food Network website, an older recipe coming from Good Eats' "Down and Out in Paradise" special. For some odd reason, half way through the month of December, the month when food websites are most heavily searched, the title and links of AB's macaroon recipes were mixed up. "Macaroon Delight" was no longer search-able. Its corresponding recipe was renamed "Paradise Macaroons." The "Down and Out in Paradise" macaroons was renamed "Toasty Coconut Macaroons."
That said, whatever they were intended to be called, AB's holiday macaroons came out great!
Biscotti Macaroon Platter
Without re-printing AB's recipe, 14 oz of unsweetened + 2 oz of sweetened coconut (by weight) were mixed with 2 oz of sweetened condensed milk (by weight), a pinch of kosher salt, and 1 tsp vanilla extract.
Sweetened Condensed Milk
Dry Coconut Mixture
Then, 4 large egg whites, 5 oz of fine granulated sugar (by weight), and 1/2 tsp of cream of tartar were whipped with an electric mixer until they formed medium peaks.
Egg Shells
Whipped Meringue
Medium Peaks
I discovered that a smaller metal bowl, allowing the egg white and sugar mixture to pool halfway up, produced a better meringue. After all a meringue is what beating egg whites and sugar together produces.
Finally, the meringue was folded into the coconut mixture to lighten it. The mixture was scooped onto parchment lined half sheet pans and baked in a pre-heated 325 F oven for 25 minutes.
Final Mixture
Tray of Baked Macaroons
Close-up
Trust me, use a disher when scooping the macaroon mixture to produce a nice tight package. Otherwise, you will end up with these:
Flat Macaroons
They still brown up nice though, producing a toasted flavour.
Browned Macaroon Bottom
The taller macaroons turned out chewy, crispy, sweet, vanilla-flavoured, and slightly caramel. They disappeared quickly at the pot luck they went to. Incidentally, AB's original recipe, topped the macaroons with semi-sweet chocolate and chopped nuts. I will have to try that sometime...
Other Notes
While the macaroons baked, I decided to play with meringue a little more, using a Tyler Florence recipe and producing the following snow peaks.
Snow Peaks
Close-Up
Clearly, I need more practice, working with a pastry bag.
Here are the logs of biscotti that turned into what was platterred above...
Biscotti Logs
During Christmas 2008, I also discovered pre-cut parchment paper.
Pre-Cut Parchment Paper
While convenient, a roll of parchment paper is cheaper by length overall and much more flexible when using half sheet pans.
And as always, here are contingency ingredients in case the macaroons didn't work.
Dry Cookie Mix and Marshmallows
Cupcake Tins, Almonds, Cranberries, and Powdered Sugar
You don't want to know how many cartons of eggs I had in reserve. The pantry is always stocked with extra bags of sugar and flour. Worst case scenario, I planned on baking up chiffon cupcakes and icing them with a marshmallow frosting.
With foodiePrints celebrating its third birthday - its first published blog entry, a twice re-written "hello world" and its first recipe, one for almond biscotti - I discovered that we have relatively few Christmas-themed posts. This post aims to slowly remedy this by compiling a selection of images from our archives to share some of our traditions.
Office Christmas Parties
Office Christmas parties are an interesting species of get-together. As Jack Knox wrote in his "Office Christmas party all about being inappropriate" for Canwest's canada.com, the general consensus from business leaders is to attend. For the organization, they provide management an opportunity to evaluate staff's soft skills for future advancement. Such includes appropriate dress, conversation skills, and showing discretion. For employees, they provide the opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed setting and get a sense of the prevailing thoughts of management.
The party I attended with my better half's office was held at Ottawa's then Civic Centre (1015 Bank Street) at Landsdowne Park. There, I watched my first live hockey game, featuring Ottawa's 67's.
67's Game
Served was typical sport stadium grub.
Onion Rings and Chicken Fingers
Not Particularly Spicy Wings
Beer, Mexican Corona
Mine was held at La Boîte à Chansons (444 Bd De l'Hopital) in Gatineau, a very large restaurant, whose interior is made to resemble a log cabin.
La Boîte à Chansons
There, I ate a traditional Quebec feast:
Clockwise from bottom: tortière, meatballs, roast beef
Everything was smothered in gravy. Though, I was instructed the tortière, a revered meat pie dish, had to be eaten with ketchup.
Mini Tortière, properly served
Indeed, the tortière did well with some added sweetness and acidity to match the savory filling and rich pastry.
A week later, my team also bid farewell to our office assistant, a wonderful gal. She happened to be the person who ensured that I ate my serving of tortière without embarrassing myself. To celebrate her advancement, we took her out to lunch at Naples Pizza (70 Rue Montcalm), again on the Gatineau side.
While my colleagues each ordered great pizza, I went rogue and ordered the lasagna (spelled "lasagne" on the menu, cost: $9.95). Here is the oddity of pasta I was served. It still puzzles me today.
Chimney-shaped Lasagna
Filled with Pizza Sauce, Cheese, and Pepperoni
On Naples Pizza's menu, the lasagna was described as "a special blend of Italian Noodles, Pepperoni, selected Cheeses, & Meat Sauce." Lesson learned: When going to a renowned pizza house, order what it makes best. Comparison-wise, a personal combination pizza ("mushrooms, pepperoni, green peppers, bacon & onion") cost $9.75.
Christmas Baking
That year, Jenn and I baked cranberry scones and almond biscotti, batches of each destined for two potlucks and several close friends.
Regarding the biscotti, I followed the tried and true recipe that launched this blog.
One Batch of Almond Biscotti, drying
Though, whilst searching for that year's Christmas basket fodder, we came across these biscotti at the Dollar Store.
Dollar Store Biscotti
They were slightly more puzzling than the chimney lasagna.
Regarding the scones, their recipe comes from a baking course we took at Ottawa's Three Bakers and a Bike Bakery (1281A Wellington Street W.).
Scones Destined for Jenn's Parents
I am not at liberty to share that recipe, but here are hints that work with all tea-style scones recipes. When making scones, there must be enough fat to coat the flour mixture to form pebbles.
This is too dry
So add enough fat that...
...the mixture resembles this.
Bake six to a half sheet pan, lined with parchment paper
Cool on cake racks...
...and you will have great scones
A Toaster
That year, a dear friend gifted my better half with something she had been eyeing for a while...
A Hello Kitty Toaster
Naturally, it arrived boxed in pink
Interestingly, it makes pretty good toast...
...which we ate a lot of that Christmas
On a related kitty note, here is a mousse filled chocolate kitty Jenn's sister Jasmine received as a Christmas gift.
One odd looking chocolate cat
And, here is how we discovered it was filled with mousse...
One bisected odd looking chocolate cat
Speaking of tortière, the following is a twitter conversation I had on the subject this past weekend...
More after the jump...
Office Christmas Parties
Office Christmas parties are an interesting species of get-together. As Jack Knox wrote in his "Office Christmas party all about being inappropriate" for Canwest's canada.com, the general consensus from business leaders is to attend. For the organization, they provide management an opportunity to evaluate staff's soft skills for future advancement. Such includes appropriate dress, conversation skills, and showing discretion. For employees, they provide the opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed setting and get a sense of the prevailing thoughts of management.
The party I attended with my better half's office was held at Ottawa's then Civic Centre (1015 Bank Street) at Landsdowne Park. There, I watched my first live hockey game, featuring Ottawa's 67's.
67's Game
Served was typical sport stadium grub.
Onion Rings and Chicken Fingers
Not Particularly Spicy Wings
Beer, Mexican Corona
Mine was held at La Boîte à Chansons (444 Bd De l'Hopital) in Gatineau, a very large restaurant, whose interior is made to resemble a log cabin.
La Boîte à Chansons
There, I ate a traditional Quebec feast:
Clockwise from bottom: tortière, meatballs, roast beef
Everything was smothered in gravy. Though, I was instructed the tortière, a revered meat pie dish, had to be eaten with ketchup.
Mini Tortière, properly served
Indeed, the tortière did well with some added sweetness and acidity to match the savory filling and rich pastry.
A week later, my team also bid farewell to our office assistant, a wonderful gal. She happened to be the person who ensured that I ate my serving of tortière without embarrassing myself. To celebrate her advancement, we took her out to lunch at Naples Pizza (70 Rue Montcalm), again on the Gatineau side.
While my colleagues each ordered great pizza, I went rogue and ordered the lasagna (spelled "lasagne" on the menu, cost: $9.95). Here is the oddity of pasta I was served. It still puzzles me today.
Chimney-shaped Lasagna
Filled with Pizza Sauce, Cheese, and Pepperoni
On Naples Pizza's menu, the lasagna was described as "a special blend of Italian Noodles, Pepperoni, selected Cheeses, & Meat Sauce." Lesson learned: When going to a renowned pizza house, order what it makes best. Comparison-wise, a personal combination pizza ("mushrooms, pepperoni, green peppers, bacon & onion") cost $9.75.
Christmas Baking
That year, Jenn and I baked cranberry scones and almond biscotti, batches of each destined for two potlucks and several close friends.
Regarding the biscotti, I followed the tried and true recipe that launched this blog.
One Batch of Almond Biscotti, drying
Though, whilst searching for that year's Christmas basket fodder, we came across these biscotti at the Dollar Store.
Dollar Store Biscotti
They were slightly more puzzling than the chimney lasagna.
Regarding the scones, their recipe comes from a baking course we took at Ottawa's Three Bakers and a Bike Bakery (1281A Wellington Street W.).
Scones Destined for Jenn's Parents
I am not at liberty to share that recipe, but here are hints that work with all tea-style scones recipes. When making scones, there must be enough fat to coat the flour mixture to form pebbles.
This is too dry
So add enough fat that...
...the mixture resembles this.
Bake six to a half sheet pan, lined with parchment paper
Cool on cake racks...
...and you will have great scones
A Toaster
That year, a dear friend gifted my better half with something she had been eyeing for a while...
A Hello Kitty Toaster
Naturally, it arrived boxed in pink
Interestingly, it makes pretty good toast...
...which we ate a lot of that Christmas
On a related kitty note, here is a mousse filled chocolate kitty Jenn's sister Jasmine received as a Christmas gift.
One odd looking chocolate cat
And, here is how we discovered it was filled with mousse...
One bisected odd looking chocolate cat
Speaking of tortière, the following is a twitter conversation I had on the subject this past weekend...
More after the jump...
[ Read More... ]
Sometime during Christmas, I went looking for new cookie recipes and I spent some time wandering around the foodtv website. There, I ran across a short video clip from Everyday Italian with Giada De Laurentiis. The clip showed Giada making Almond Blueberry Cookies. They looked so great, that I dug out the recipe from the foodtv site and decided to try my hand at making them. Unfortunately, my stash of almonds were destined for biscotti and I had no frozen blueberries on hand, so I had to make some modifications to the recipe.
With the exception of the blueberries and almonds that made this recipe distinctively Mediterranean, the recipe itself seemed very standard: cream some butter with sugar, add an egg, add some liquid, add sifted flour and baking powder, and add your featured ingredients. I decided to imbue the batter with citrus. My featured ingredient was 3-4 tablespoons of orange zest.
The result was wonderfully citrus cookies that went into a Christmas cookie tin for a dear friend. The package also included shortbread, but that recipe will have to wait for its own posting later.
Yesterday evening, I revisited the recipe and added back the blueberries. In hindsight, I think I should have reserved some blueberries to top the cookies with. Otherwise, the recipe came out great.
Recipe follows:
More after the jump...
With the exception of the blueberries and almonds that made this recipe distinctively Mediterranean, the recipe itself seemed very standard: cream some butter with sugar, add an egg, add some liquid, add sifted flour and baking powder, and add your featured ingredients. I decided to imbue the batter with citrus. My featured ingredient was 3-4 tablespoons of orange zest.
The result was wonderfully citrus cookies that went into a Christmas cookie tin for a dear friend. The package also included shortbread, but that recipe will have to wait for its own posting later.
Yesterday evening, I revisited the recipe and added back the blueberries. In hindsight, I think I should have reserved some blueberries to top the cookies with. Otherwise, the recipe came out great.
Recipe follows:
More after the jump...
[ Read More... ]
Tis the Season for Baking Biscotti
Posted 12/21/06 by don | Filed under: recipeBox | 4 comments
This year's tweak:
I honey roasted the almonds and substituted the vanilla extract with Grand Marnier. I figured the boost of orange would set off the sweetened almonds. Happily the small amount of added alcohol didn't wreak havoc with the acid/base balance of the recipe.
Recipe follows:
More after the jump...
[ Read More... ]
«Prev || 1 ·
| Next»
Search foodiePrints
foodiePrints on 
