appetizer – Beyond Umami

Lower East Side Brunch Tart – Everyday Dorie Cookbook

Beyond Umami — Sat, 11 Jul 2020 01:28:00 +0000

This week’s Cook the Book Fridays is in memory of a fellow member Chez Nana/Ro who sadly passed away in June. Nana baked, blogged, commented on all our posts and even learned coding and photography for her blog at the age of 88. How amazing is that? This recipe – Lower East Side Brunch Tart is a recipe that Nana had nominated in the past. So in honour of her, everyone in the Cook the Book Fridays community is baking this recipe for Nana.

Our group has never “met” in person but together we are able to all cook various recipes virtually. Everyday Dorie is actually the first “cook the book” community that I have joined and so far it has been great. I enjoy being able to spend extra time working on my photography skills and picture editing without worrying about the “recipe creation” part. It also adds new ideas and dishes to our meals.

For this recipe, you can choose to make your own pate brisee (buttery pie crust) or buy a store bought one. I opted to make our own pie crust following Dorie’s recipe on page 329 of Everyday Dorie. The pie dough comes together really quickly as a food processor blends the cold butter and flour without really heating up and softening the butter. After you have your disc of dough, chilling it is super important if you aren’t planning on using it right away. Even though I wanted to use it right away, I thought it would be best to put the dough in the fridge given that it was a fairly warm summer day. The tiny chunks of chilled butter will help to give your tart a flaky crust.

The Lower East Side Brunch Tart uses a “half baked” pie crust which means you bake it for 25 minutes. After the pie crust cools, the rest of the ingredients are assembled and the tart is baked again.

Lots of flavourful ingredients are used in the filling of this brunch tart and is reminiscent of a quiche. Smoked salmon, cream cheese, capers, and dill are layered into the crust followed by a mixture of heavy cream and eggs.

Because the tart pan that I used was deeper (I don’t have the cute crust one), I ended up using all 250mL of the small carton of cream I bought as well as adding in one more egg (total – 3 large eggs). I also added in a touch more smoked salmon and cream cheese. I skipped any extra salt as I typically find the addition of smoked salmon and capers already quite salty. As I am not a huge fan of red onions, I omitted the onions as well.

After the entire tart is baked for another hour (recipe says 45 minutes) at 350F the tart is done. Topped with additional dill and capers this recipe was perfect for our al fresco dinner outside.

I loved how easy it was put the recipe together. I “half-baked” the pie crust in the morning and let it cool. Within 20 minutes after returning home from the clay studio I layered the ingredients and put the tart in the oven. We actually had this tart for dinner with additional tomatoes, greens and a mojito each. I love how this tart reminds you of “bagels and lox with the works” as Dorie says in her recipe. For the next time I bake this recipe, I would consider putting quiche-like ingredients inside the tart such as spinach or maybe some ham and place the smoked salmon on top after the tart has been baked.

Find the recipe for Everyday Dorie’s Lower East Side Brunch tart here and check out the Cook the Book Fridays page for everyone’s pictures and links.

enjoy!

Summer Vegetable Tian from Every Day Dorie

Beyond Umami — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 04:35:00 +0000

Hello! I am finally back at it with #cookthebookfridays! I missed joining in the fun over the past few months as it has been a bit crazy with us moving back from Ottawa to Edmonton (in the middle of a lockdown pandemic!) and then finding our own place to live again. After a few months it is nice to have our own place again to cook and make desserts.

Dorie’s Summer Vegetable Tian was the main star for tonight’s dinner. It was prepped relatively quickly even though it involved a cornucopia of summer veggies. We put in eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini and mushrooms, a few good tablespoons of good extra virgin olive oil on the bottom of the dutch oven, along with fresh herbs, salt and pepper. While it shares the same set of veggies as a ratatouille, Dorie says a good tian has lots of oil and the veggies should be melting and bordering on jam-like consistency.

To make a vegetable tian preheat the oven to 400F. Then coat the bottom of the dutch oven with a few good tablespoons of olive oil. Then generously add salt, cracked pepper, fresh basil and sliced garlic. We also had chopped onions on the bottom of our dish as we had some left over from another dinner dish.

All the veggies are sliced to about 1/4 inch thick. Then the sliced eggplant, tomatoes, zucchini, and mushrooms are all layered and nestled into each other. Dorie suggests sandwiching the eggplant slices between slices of tomatoes. Ensure that all the veggies are tightly overlapping each other in a spiral.

The hardest part was waiting for the entire vegetable tian to bake! It smelled amazing as it sat bubbling in the oven. It took almost 2 hours in order for the vegetables to be bubbling, tender and juicy.

This recipe turned out really well. I loved how all veggies roasted together creating the most amazing aromas. We were a bit surprised that the two of us finished the entire dish when it was meant for four people. We will definitely make this again as it was so simple and so delicious. Next time, we will have to make sure that Dan has a fresh loaf of sourdough ready so that we can enjoy it with the vegetable tian.

You find find the recipe for Dorie’s Summer Vegetable Tian here. Alternatively, you can also purchase the cookbook yourself and find this recipe on page 234! Go check out the Cook the Book Fridays page to see how everyone else did with this recipe, their thoughts and of course the pictures!

Fresh-Off-the-Cob Corn Chowder – Cooking from Every Day Dorie Cookbook

Beyond Umami — Sat, 10 Aug 2019 23:41:00 +0000

After a brief hiatus, I am once again joining Cook the Book Fridays group through cooking through Dorie Greenspan’s Every Day Dorie. This time it is a fresh corn off the cob chowder. Over the past few months I have increasingly loved going to Farm Boy for all of our groceries; especially fresh vegetables!

Dan and I prepped the recipe this morning and by noon we were able to have it for lunch (taking us roughly one hour to prep and cook). Dorie’s recipe involves splitting the corn kernels, garlic and onions into two separate bowls to start. One bowl will eventually be the start of the corn chowder, while the other bowl is for the toppings (corn, onion, garlic along with the bacon).

To maximize time, while the soup was cooking on the stove (potatoes, corn, chicken stock and some sprigs of thyme), we also cooked the bacon in the cast iron. In Dorie’s recipe she describes cooking the soup first, and then after blending up the soup (with cobs & stringy herbs discarded) to start on the toppings.

While the rest of the soup simmered away, we multi-tasked! Cooked the bacon, and then the remaining garlic, onion and corn on the cast iron in the remaining bacon fat.

For serving, I scooped the blended soup into bowls then added in some cubed cooked potatoes, the corn topping followed by the bacon. For this bowl, I added in some kale for extra colour and flavour as we had a kale caesar salad to accompany the soup.

I would definitely make this recipe again. Though, I am sure that only fresh corn cobs will do. However, I am sure that in a pinch canned corn kernels will work too. I do love cooking the cobs in the soup to add further flavour. The corn also stayed nicely crisp and sweet. I should also note that I ended up using mostly chicken stock with 1 cup of water mixed in for my soup as I didn’t have any chicken cubes. As for the bacon (though not always necessary for soups), it gave this corn chowder soup the additional salt flavour it needed. Also, how could we say no to bacon?

Plus, it is a real treat to be able to cook this recipe with fresh corn from Ontario. I’ll have to try again when we are back in Alberta to compare.

Hope you enjoyed this recipe and will make it yourself. It’s found in page 72 of Dorie Greenspan’s Everday Dorie! Even better, I found the recipe on Dorie Greenspan’s site.

Also do check out how everyone else from Cook the Book Fridays did on this recipe!

Small Batch DIY Homemade Kimchi Recipe

Beyond Umami — Tue, 09 Apr 2019 15:02:00 +0000

It seems that I have fallen in love with having kimchi in our fridge. There are so many uses for kimchi including as a side to your main course, on noodles or kimchi fried rice of course! As time has progressed, I decided that I really wanted to make my own kimchi. When I asked the Korean ladies at church, all of their recipes were designed to make huge amounts (tubs!) of kimchi. After some tweaking and testing, this is the recipe that I currently love making at home; mainly because I can make a manageable amount of kimchi (1L) that doesn’t threaten to take over the entire fridge!

I enjoy having kimchi with a kick of spice followed by a touch of sweetness. To do this, I put cubes of daikon into the kimchi. You can also choose to skip this part but trust me, it just adds a little extra to your kimchi!

Small Batch DIY Homemade Kimchi Ingredients

amount – 650g napa cabbage + half a daikon = 1 L kimchi OR 800g napa cabbage = 1 L

650g napa cabbage – washed & cut
half a daikon cubed
1.5 tablespoons of coarse salt
1 tablespoon sugar
1 carrot
1 bundle green onions (or less depending on preference)

Kimchi Slurry ingredients

7 cloves of garlic
1.5 inches of ginger
1/2 cup of simple syrup
3 tablespoons soy sauce
3/4 cup water
3/4 cup ground red pepper
3.5 tablespoons fish sauce

* to make a simple syrup, mix 1 cup of hot water with 1 cup of sugar. Store the extra in an air tight container for future kimchi making or for making drinks!

Small Batch DIY Homemade Kimchi Directions

Wash and drain napa cabbage Cut into smaller 1 inch (3 – 4 cm) squares.
Fill a large container with the washed napa cabbage ( I use a wide plastic one from the Dollar store).
Sprinkle 1.5 tablespoons of coarse salt and 1 tablespoon of sugar over the napa cabbage. Massage the salt and sugar over all the cabbage. Pop the cover on and leave in fridge for a day.
Make the kimchi slurry by blending up garlic, ginger, simple syrup, water, soy sauce, chili flakes and fish sauce in a food processor or vitamix. Transfer to an air tight jar.
*This can be made the day before or the day you mix the kimchi together.
The next day, drain out all the water from the cabbage.
Wash and sanitize a 1L mason jar.
Place the tub containing the napa cabbage in the sink (this will make clean-up after easier) After peeling the top layer of the carrot, use the same peeler to make thin slices of carrot and put these slices into the tub with the napa cabbage.
Add chopped green onion.
Add cubed daikon.
Add about 4 -6 big tablespoons of the kimchi slurry onto the cabbage mix. It depends on how much cabbage you have and how strong of a flavour you want.
Mix the kimchi slurry into the cabbage until everything is well coated. I use gloves to keep my hands from being stained red.
Fill mason jar with the kimchi. Jam everything in as much as possible; so that there are no air pockets!
Place your bottled kimchi in a large ziplock bag in the fridge. This will help prevent any of the flavours from getting into the rest of the food in the fridge. Every few days “burp” (open the jar) to allow any gas from the fermenting kimchi to be released. Allow your kimchi to ferment for about a week for best tasting results!

Some people say that you only need to ferment for 1 day, or until it starts “burping”. I prefer to have my kimchi more fermented but you should try for yourself and taste test along the way. The fermenting gases will continually build up so remember to release the gas. Otherwise, the kimchi will be very fizzy tasting. I find the amount of kimchi perfect for Dan and I as it takes about a month to finish one of these jars. Enjoy your kimchi!

Fluffy Layered Green Onion Cakes (Scallion Pancakes, Green Onion pancakes)

Beyond Umami — Fri, 02 Feb 2018 02:58:00 +0000

Green Onion Cakes (Scallion Cakes)

I will be the first to say that green onion cakes or green onion pancakes were never really on my radar throughout childhood or adulthood to say the least. However in recent months; most likely with me making my own kimchi I began to see green onions in a different light. The taste also began to grow on me. So after a few trials here is my recipe for green onion cakes.

Ingredients for Green Onion Cakes

makes 8 green onion cakes

3 cups all purpose flour
1 cup hot water
3/4 cup cold water
1 tsp salt
2 cups (2-3 bundles) finely diced green onions (scallions)
8 tsp sesame oil (1 tsp per green onion cake)
extra salt (to taste)
1/4 tbsp canola oil (for cooking each green onion cake)
additional flour for rolling and kneading

*bundle of green onion is the entire bundle comprised of 4-5 stalks of green onion

Dipping Sauce (mix the following together):

1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 tablespoon rice vinegar
1/2 tablespoon sesame oil
1/2 tablespoon chili garlic sauce (add more if you like the heat)
2-3 green onions (scallions) thinly sliced

Directions

Combine flour and salt in a bowl. Add in hot water until clumps form as you gently stir with a spatula.
Then, add in the cold water and stir until just combined.
Knead the dough gently on a clean floured surface. Form the dough into a ball. Then wrap up the ball of dough and let it rest for 1 hour in an airtight location (I put mine in the microwave).
After 1 hour, divide the dough into 8 equal pieces. Place a piece of plastic wrap on top to prevent the dough from drying out while you roll out the green onion cakes.
With a rolling pin, roll out the piece of dough to 8 inches in diameter on a lightly floured surface. Spread 1 tsp of sesame oil onto the surface of the dough.
Sprinkle 1/4 cup of chopped green onion onto the surface. Add an additional pinch of salt (sprinkled) on top before rolling.
Roll the dough up lengthwise.
Ensure that the seam is at the bottom. Starting from one end, roll it up from one side until it becomes a tight ball. Tuck the end piece into the back of the ball. Squeeze the end slightly into the rest of the ball.
Using your rolling pin, flatten the green onion cake until it is 4.5 inches in diameter. As you roll, some green onion pieces may fall out. Gently place it back on top and continue to roll. Sprinkle flour on top of the cake and on the rolling pin to prevent the dough from sticking.
Finish rolling out the rest of the green onion cakes. Place plastic wrap or parchment paper between the layers of the green onion cakes to keep them from drying out and sticking to one another.
Using 1/4 tbsp of canola oil for cooking (each time), cook each green onion cake for 2 minutes each side or until it reaches a golden brown colour on each side. Feel free to use a cast iron pan, non-stick or stainless steel pan.

The finished green onion cakes

The layers of the green onion cake

While you could do this all by yourself, it’s helpful to have two people. This way, one person could be rolling it and the other can cook it. I used our cast iron pan, but you can definitely use non-stick pans as well. I feel the resulting green onion cake is awesome with several layers, juicy and flavourful with just the right amount of green onion and sesame flavour. It’s definitely worth trying if you are craving green onion cakes. Have the pieces of the green onion cake with the dipping sauce (recipe above) for added flavour and enjoyment.

Irresistibly Smooth Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Beyond Umami — Thu, 21 Jul 2016 17:34:00 +0000

It’s officially summer here in Edmonton which means sunny days spent on the patio, visiting friends, and just enjoying all that summer has to offer. One of my go-to appetizer dishes in the summer when friends or over or one that I bring with me to a party is a good old hummus dip.

When I first moved to Edmonton, there was a hummus dip that I always got from the Strathcona Farmer’s Market. It was half regular hummus and half roasted red pepper hummus in the same container. I loved it and used to buy it all the time to have with my pitas, bagels, and pretty much anything I could dip or spread it on. A few weeks ago, I opened the pantry and saw a jar of roasted red peppers sitting there. It dawned on me that although I often make our go-to hummus (and blogged it), I had yet to make my own roasted red pepper hummus.

There aren’t too many ingredients needed to make roasted red pepper hummus so I quickly gathered what I needed from our pantry. To blend all the ingredients together, I threw all the items into the Vitamix.

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus (makes about 2 cups)

Ingredients

1 can of chick peas drained and rinsed
1/4 cup of tahini (tahini paste)
Juice of 1 lemon & its zest
2 cloves of garlic
2 tbsp of olive oil
1 large roasted red pepper
sea salt to taste
freshly ground pepper to taste

kitchen equipment needed: food processor or blender, strainer

Directions

Drain and rinse a can of chickpeas and then place the chickpeas into the food processor or blender.
Zest the lemon. Then juice.
Add all ingredients into the food processor or blender.
Puree until it is smooth. It should look creamy.
Add more olive oil, salt & pepper as needed.

Follow the recipe above and you too will be well on your way to having your very own smooth roasted red pepper hummus. If you want more of a chunky hummus, blitz the ingredients a few times for a chunkier look and feel.