Apres Le Deluge

Well, we had an interesting week…

We received a month’s worth of rain in two hours on Monday night, and as a result, our basement (as well as many of our neighbours’) was somewhat soggy.  Actually, a whole lot soggy.  Much of this week has been spent talking to restoration experts and insurance adjustors.

It wasn’t something we expected to happen.  But as Andrew said to me, “You learn what’s important to you.”  He’s right – I raced for the girls’ old schoolwork and the photo albums, while he rescued the signed Sidney Crosby jersey.  It is good to know your priorities.

We were also grateful for very basic things – like the guys who showed up to pump our basement.  And for the incredible number of people who have shown us small kindnesses on our journey back.

When we finally got our power back, almost a day later, we realized we’d barely eaten in that time.  With dinnertime nigh and men still in our basement, a trip to the grocery store was out of the question.  So I relied on what I had on hand and pulled together a quick meal, one component being these beets.   I don’t know if it’s because it was our first meal in a day, or because I was so grateful for the small things, but I think this was one of the best vegetable dishes I’ve ever eaten. I've since made it again with red beets, and it was very good.  But I'll be looking for golden beets next time because it was truly delicious.  (And hopefully 'next time' we won't be wearing boots in the house.)

"Apres moi, le déluge"

- attributed to Louis XV

Roasted Beets

(adapted from Ina Garten’s Barefoot in Paris)

6 golden beets 

1 1/2 Tbsp good olive oil

3/4 tsp fresh thyme leaves, minced

1 tsp kosher salt

freshly ground black pepper to taste

1 Tbsp pear or raspberry vinegar (I only had pear vinegar in my cupboard, and it was sublime)

juice of half a large orange

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Remove the tops and the roots of the beets and peel each one with a vegetable peeler.  Cut the beets in 1 1/2 inch chunks.  (Small beets can be halved, medium ones cut in quarters, and large beets cut in eighths.)

Place the cut beets on a baking sheet and toss with the olive oil, thyme leaves, salt and pepper. Roast for 35 to 40 minutes, turning once or twice with a spatula until the beets are tender.  Remove from the oven and immediately toss with the vinegar and orange juice.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper, and serve warm. 

Waiting for Mango

This week, Andrew and I saw Waiting For Godot at the Stratford Festival with our friends Trish and Cliff.  We're fortunate to live fairly close to Stratford, Ontario, and I try to make it to the festival twice  each summer.  In the past, I've seen shows both deep (Hamlet, King Lear) and light (The Pirates of Penzance); this year we saw one of each, the other being Blithe Spirit.

According to the program notes, the play was informed by Samuel Beckett's wartime experiences in France, where he was a member of the Resistance and, like Vladimir and Estragon, slept in ditches and survived on scavenged turnips.  An early critic described Godot as being "a play where nothing happens, twice".  The combination of humour (sometimes slapstick) and pathos is deeply moving, and says more about human nature than almost any other work of literature I've read.  I can't help but think it's as timely now as the day it was written.  As Allan Pero writes, "(t)he disturbing, almost tragic element of the play ... occurs not because it is so alien to us, but because it is all too familiar."

I loved the show, partly because it’s a great production, and partly because I’d been anticipating it for so long.  Waiting for Godot is a classic that I read in university, and that I’ve wanted to see ever since.  (I guess it’s fitting that it took me so long, although it would be even more appropriate if I’d never seen it.)

I didn’t wait thirty years to make this crumble – once I saw it, I knew I had to try it.  With mangoes and raspberries at their seasonal peaks, it’s the perfect time of year to make it.  The crumble is so perfect, even Andrew – who doesn’t like mangoes at all, and tells me so every summer when I load up the kitchen with them – succumbed quite happily to its charms. 

“Estragon: I can’t go on like this.

Vladimir: That’s what you think.”

- Samual Beckett, Waiting for Godot

Mango Raspberry Crumble

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients:

1/2 cup all purpose flour (first amount)

1/3 cup dark brown sugar, packed

1/2 tsp ground cinnamon

pinch of salt

1/4 cup rolled oats

5 Tbsp cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 mangoes

3/4 pint raspberries

1 Tbsp all purpose flour (second amount)

2 Tbsp granulated sugar

1 Tbsp fresh lime juice

Directions:

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.  In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine 1/2 cup flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt and oats.  Mix on low for 30 seconds, then add butter and mix until clumps form, 3 to 4 minutes.  Transfer to a bowl, cover and refrigerate until ready to use.

Peel mangoes and cut flesh into 1-inch chunks.  Add raspberries.  Add remaining 1 Tbsp flour, granulated sugar and lime juice; toss gently to combine.

Transfer fruit to a shallow 1 1/2 quart (1.5 liter) baking dish.  Distribute topping evenly over fruit.  Bake until topping is golden brown and juices bubble, about 35 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool slightly.

The Last Day of June

It’s a short post today.  Here in Canada, we’re enjoying a long weekend to commemorate Canada Day.  The weather is gorgeous, and you’re probably assuming it’s a short post because I want to spend my whole day outside.

In fact, I hope to spend part of my day outside, but right now I’m in the house getting my youngest daughter packed for camp.  And my husband has joined me inside, as he’s watching the 2013 NHL Draft unfold on TV.  Because we are Canadian, and that’s apparently what we do on the last day of June.

So I’ll gift you today with an easy, delicious, salad recipe.  It takes no time to make, and you can use that saved time to do whatever you like – whether it’s relax outside, pack for camp, or watch a hockey draft.

Arugula with Sheep's Milk Cheese and Honey Vinaigrette

(adapted from Dorie Greenspan)

2 Tbsp white wine vinegar

2 tsp Dijon mustard

2 tsp honey

5 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

9 cups baby arugula (or other mixed greens)

1 3/4 cups 1/2-inch cubes of sheep's milk cheese (e.g. Ossau-Iraty)

1/2 cup dried tart cherries

1/2 cup candied pecans (recipe below)

Whisk together vinegar and mustard in a small bowl, then whisk in honey.  Gradually whisk in oil, and season to taste with salt. (Can be made up to 3 days in advance; cover and store in fridge.)

Place greens, cheese,  cherries and candied pecans in a large bowl.  Add vinaigrette and toss.  

(To make candied pecans, combine 1/2 cup pecans with 1/2 tsp olive oil in a small plastic bag. Shake until coated.  Add 1/2 Tbsp sugar and shake until evenly coated.  Bake at 350 degrees for 10 minutes until toasted, then let cool.)

Thursday's Child: The Grand Bazaar, Istanbul

The Grand Bazaar in Istanbul is one of the largest covered markets in the world.  Nearly 600 years old, it welcomes between 250,000 and 400,000 visitors every day.  That figure seems unbelievable, but given that there are sixty "streets" in the market, it's not hard to see how an enormous number of people can shop here at once without it becoming overwhelming.

There's virtually no end to what you can buy at the Bazaar.  A small sampling of the shops we saw included ceramics, fabrics, lamps, leather goods, jewelry, silver, carpets and food products. Depending on whether you were hungry or thirsty, it would be a great place to try your first Turkish Delight, or your first Turkish coffee.

We expected it to be like the souks of Marrakech, which we'd visited a few years earlier, but it was quite different.  The Grand Bazaar was quite well-organized, and any time we temporarily lost our bearing, it didn't take long to find it again.  (If we'd got lost in the Marrakech souks, we'd probably still be trying to find our way out.)  The Grand Bazaar is actually pretty similar to your local mall, if your local mall had 5000 stores and the dealers stood in the hallways, trying to entice you into their stores.

In fact, one of the things we enjoyed most was the way the shopkeepers interacted with the shoppers, and their sense of humour.  One of them, seeing the logo on my jacket, called out to me with great excitement, "Hey!  Helly Hansen!"  They weren't overly persistent, though; if we declined to enter their shop, they just smiled and tried to engage the next group of shoppers.

Istanbul is a city that has gone by many names over the years, including Byzantium and Constantinople.  But I think the best descriptor is its nickname, "The City Where East Meets West". It was this combination of the exotic and the familiar that made us fall in love with the city and its people.

Decadent desserts

My youngest daughter and I were discussing nutrition earlier this week.  Here’s an excerpt from the conversation:

Me: “I love super-healthy main courses.  My idea of the perfect meal is a healthy main course, and a decadent dessert.”

Her: “I love super-healthy desserts.  My idea of the perfect meal is a healthy dessert for the main course, and a decadent dessert for dessert.”

We both agree that this dessert falls under the category of decadent.  The vanilla cupcakes are great on their own, but I couldn’t resist adding a dulce de leche filling that made them everything I ever dreamed a cupcake could be.  I was glad she took most of them to her friend’s cottage this weekend, or I might have been tempted to overindulge in these decadent treats. 

I think we’d both find room for it in our perfect meal.

Vanilla Cupcakes with Vanilla Frosting and Dulce de Leche filling

(adapted from Eats Well With Others; Dulce de Leche from this brownie recipe)

Makes about 2 dozen cupcakes

Ingredients

For the cupcakes:

3 cups cake flour

1 Tbsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

16 Tbsp (1 cup) unsalted butter at room temperature

2 cups sugar

5 large eggs, at room temperature

1 1/4 cups buttermilk, at room temperature

1 Tbsp vanilla bean paste

For the Dulce de Leche Filling:

1 can (400 g) sweetened condensed milk

pinch kosher salt or sea salt

For the vanilla buttercream icing:

16 Tbsp (1 cup) unsalted butter, room temperature

4 cups confectioner’s (icing) sugar

1 Tbsp milk

1 tsp vanilla bean paste

pinch of salt

Instructions

1. For the cake:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and line two cupcake tins with liners.  Set aside.

In a medium bowl, whisk together the cake flour, baking powder and salt.  In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy, about 4 minutes.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and beat for one more minute.

Mix in the eggs, one at a time, until fully incorporated, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary.  Combine the buttermilk and vanilla in a mixing cup.  With the mixer on low, add the dry ingredients, altering with the buttermilk, in three additions, ending with the flour.  Mix until just incorporated.  Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix for 15 seconds more.

Divide the batter between the cupcake liners, filling about 2/3 of the way full.  Bake 20 – 24 minutes or until a toothpick inserted comes out clean.  Let cool 5 – 10 minutes before transferring to a wire rack.  Cool completely before frosting.

2. For the dulce de leche filling:

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.  Pour condensed milk into a glass pie plate or pyrex baking dish.  Stir in salt.

Set the baking dish inside a roasting pan and add hot water until it reaches halfway up the side of the pie plate.  Cover the pie plate snugly with foil, tucking it in around the sides at the top. Bake between 1 1/4 and 1 1/2 hours.  (While baking, check occasionally and add more water to the roasting pan if necessary.)

Once the dulce de leche has browned, remove from the oven and let cool.  Whisk until smooth.  Store in the fridge until ready to use.

3. For the vanilla buttercream:

In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, cream the butter on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes.

Reduce mixer to low and add in the powdered sugar, about a cup at a time, until totally combined.  Add the vanilla bean paste and a pinch of salt, beating to combine.  Beat for 1 minute.

4. Assembly

Using a small paring knife, cut a circle into the middle of each cupcake and remove a cone-shaped portion of cake.  Don’t cut right down to the bottom or to the edges or the filling will ooze out.  Spoon the dulce de leche filling into the hole until level with the top.  Once all the cupcakes have been filled, frost them with the vanilla buttercream.