cookbook review – Beyond Umami

Baking with Dorie – Maple Miso Loaf

Beyond Umami — Sun, 24 Oct 2021 21:16:00 +0000

Baking with Dorie: Sweet Salty & Simple

Side profile of the Maple Miso Loaf

Yes it is true! Dorie Greenspan wrote another amazing cookbook – Baking with Dorie. I have honestly learned so much in the past few years cooking through Every Day Dorie with the Cookthebookfridays group. When I received the initial PDF of Baking with Dorie I was so excited for the glorious pictures that it would hold and was even more pleased upon receiving the real cookbook. The pictures are excellent as always (read: mouthwatering), all the directions are easy to follow and Dorie writes in a way that you feel like you are baking in the kitchen with her.

This newest cookbook – Baking with Dorie: Sweet Salty & Simple has now launched into the world. To celebrate some of us baked up her Maple Miso Loaf (page 69-70). I know it is interesting to think about baking with miso. Not miso soup but the paste is used to create this sweet yet savoury loaf.

I love that there is ample time spent rubbing the orange zest (or lemon if that is what you have) with the sugar so it becomes infused with the orange flavour.

Sugar and orange zest rubbed together

Then all the ingredients are whipped together (sugar, butter, miso paste, maple syrup) and finally the dry ingredients.

As the maple miso loaf bakes in the oven our entire place filled with a lovely zesty savoury smell.

Before the bake

We actually served the Maple Miso Loaf during Luna (our pup’s first birthday) party. Don’t worry the pups had beet pupcakes with yogurt icing, while the adults had slices of maple miso loaf. Everyone enjoyed the loaf. It is a coarse-crumbed cake, but still super soft. Certainly made for a different sort of dessert.

Typically you should not post the recipes straight from cookbooks but in this case we have permission. Definitely check out the Tuesdays with Dorie group to see how everyone else did. If you want to join the group all you have to do is bake and then post your link to the group (under the LYL post/comments). This cookbook is baked on the second and fourth Tuesdays of the month.

Maple Miso Loaf Recipe

from Baking with Dorie: Sweet, Salty & Simple by Dorie Greenspan

4 ounces/113 grams unsalted butter, at room temperature, plus more for the pan
1 ¾ cups/238 grams all-purpose flour, plus more for the pan
1 ¾ teaspoons baking powder
¼ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup/150 grams granulated sugar
¼ teaspoon fine sea salt
finely grated zest of 1 orange or tangerine
¼ cup/70 grams white or yellow miso
¼ cup/60 milliliters pure maple syrup (I used dark)
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1 ½ teaspoons pure vanilla extract
⅓ cup/80 milliliters buttermilk (well shaken before measuring)
¼ cup/80 grams orange marmalade or apricot jam (for the glaze, optional)

Directions

Center a rack in the oven and heat oven to 350 degrees. Butter an 8 1/2-inch loaf pan and dust with flour, or use baker’s spray.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and baking soda in a medium bowl. Put the sugar, salt and zest in the bowl of a stand mixer or a large bowl that you can use with a hand mixer. Reach in and rub the ingredients together until the sugar is moist and fragrant; it may even turn orange. Add the butter, miso and maple syrup to the sugar. If using a stand mixer, attach the bowl and fit it with the paddle attachment.

Beat on medium speed for about 3 minutes, scraping down the bowl and beater(s) as needed, until the mixture is smooth and creamy. One by one, add the eggs, beating for a minute after each goes in. Beat in the vanilla. The mixture might curdle, but this is a temporary condition. Turn off the mixer, add the dry ingredients all at once and pulse to begin the blending, turning the mixer on and off in very short spurts on the lowest speed. Then, beat on low speed until the dry ingredients are almost incorporated. With the mixer still on low, pour in the buttermilk and blend well. Scrape the batter into the pan, working it into the corners and smoothing the top.

Bake for 50 to 55 minutes, checking the loaf after 40 minutes and covering the top loosely with a foil or tented parchment if it’s browning too fast. The loaf is properly baked when it pulls away from the sides of the pan and a tester inserted into the centre comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and let the bread rest for 5 minutes, then run a table knife around the edges of the loaf and unmold onto the rack; turn it right side up.

If you’d like to glaze the loaf, stir the marmalade or jam with 1 tablespoon water and heat the mixture in the microwave or over low heat until it comes just to a boil. Using a pastry brush or a spoon, cover the top of the loaf with the glaze. Allow the loaf to cool to room temperature before slicing.

Wrapped well, the cake will keep for about 4 days at room temperature. If it becomes stale — and maybe even if it doesn’t — toast it lightly before serving. If you haven’t glazed the cake, you can wrap it airtight and freeze it for up to 2 months; defrost, still wrapped, at room temperature.

Umami Burger – Dorie Greenspan’s Everyday Dorie

Beyond Umami — Sat, 09 Oct 2021 03:39:00 +0000

Umami Burgers from Every Day Dorie

When I saw that the Cook the book fridays for today was the Umami Burger from Dorie Greenspan’s Every Day Dorie, I knew I had to make it. We subbed out our original Friday night cooking plan of bulgogi with rice cakes in favour of Dorie’s Umami burgers. This recipe has the name umami in it, how could I not make it? A quick look in the fridge indicated that we had a pack of mushrooms (clearly waiting to be used for this exact purpose) and some spinach. No gochujang sauce, but we had a bottle of spicy chili crisps. Frozen ground beef was found in the freezer, so we just had to defrost the meat and we were set!

Brioche Buns in the Oven

Seeing that we were having burgers for dinner, the hubby decided to make his own brioche buns. He started the baking process last night (Thursday) so he could bake them up after work for dinner.

The beginnings of the mushroom mix for Umami Burgers

The recipe is fairly simple with the bulk of the umami flavour coming from the 10-12 chopped mushrooms. We had brown crimini mushrooms so that is what I used for our Umami burgers.

Cooked down mushroom mix with sauce added

After the chopped mushrooms and red onion (vidalia) has cooked down (about 6 minutes), a sauce is added. Simply mix oyster sauce, soy sauce, sesame oil, and in my case spicy chili crisp sauce. Go easy on the oyster sauce, as the sauce tends to be fairly salty for my taste. I also did not add more salt to the cooked mushrooms and onions as it felt adequately salted already. When the mushroom mix is cooked, place in a bowl and let it cool.

Forming the Umami Burger Patties

After our acupuncture appointment we came home and finished assembling the rest of dinner. Dorie does suggest that if you want additional mushroom flavour, you can mix the mushroom mix with the beef and let it sit in the fridge for a day. For us, we just mixed the beef and mushroom mix together and allowed it to marinate for around 10 minutes.

Cooking 4 Umami Burger Patties on a Cast Iron Pan

We did not make our burger patties as big as the ones in the cookbook; mainly because we wanted to match our patties to the brioche buns that Dan had made. We were surprised that there was no binder needed to keep the patties together. In the end that was not needed as long as we followed Dorie’s directions. Dorie suggests cooking the patties (on each side) for 4 minutes without moving them. Doing so provides a nice char and after 4 minutes you will be able to flip them. We cooked ours on medium to high heat on a cast iron pan.

Fresh Brioche Buns

The brioche buns that Dan made fit perfectly with the burgers. They were soft and fluffy and perfect for our Umami Burgers. We topped our burgers with a slice of smoked Balderson cheddar and spinach. So good! Later on I did add some mayo and grainy mustard to see how different flavours

Again a great savoury recipe from Dorie. We also really loved her Easy Salmon Burgers that we made a few years ago too!

I would highly recommend that make these Umami Burgers. They are found on page 140 of Every Day Dorie by Dorie Greenspan or here.

Cheesecake from Dorie Greenspan’s Every Day Dorie

Beyond Umami — Sun, 14 Mar 2021 22:23:00 +0000

Let’s continue following along with Cook the Book Fridays and cooking from Dorie Greenspan’s “Every Day Dorie”. This week’s was a Cheesecake. We had the option of using mandarin, tangerine or another citrus if we couldn’t find tangerines. I loved how quick it was for this cheesecake to come together. I must admit that I have never made a tangerine or mandarin flavour cheesecake before so this was a first. I was a bit sad that the cheesecake dropped a bit as it cooled in the oven and then the fridge (over 8 hours) but overall the cheesecake came out of the pan so well. I loved that the cheese cake was so simple. The flavour came mainly from the zesting of the mandarins into sugar and then slowly whisking together cream cheese, ricotta and eggs.

A slight layer of melted honey is slathered on top to give the cheesecake a shiny glaze. As you can see this cheesecake was quite large! Good thing there are many neighbours around us to help us eat all the food we experiment and create! We gave away a solid half of the cheesecake as Dorie says it feeds up to 16 servings!

Go check out the Cook the Book Fridays page to see how everyone else did! If you want to make this yourself, check out Dorie’s cookbook “Every Day Dorie” from amazon, chapters or wherever cookbooks can be purchased.

oh and before I forget here is a picture of the short ribs I made a few months ago for Cook the Book fridays and forgot to post it!!

Chocolate Mochi Brownies – Recipe from Mochi Magic

Beyond Umami — Tue, 16 Feb 2021 02:57:00 +0000

Most people love brownies, but have you ever heard of mochi brownies? I tend to think of Brownie and Mochi = Brochis! But first you might be asking, what is mochi? Mochi is a form of sticky rice cake that is made from Japanese short grain rice called “mochigome”. Mochigome is a chewy, sticky rice that is actually naturally sweeter than regular rice. You can have mochi either savoury or sweet and with different fillings inside. In this particular recipe, the mochi flour is used to make these brownies extra chewy. The best way to describe these particular chocolate mochi brownies are that they are full of decadent chocolate and chewy goodness. The recipe is from Kaori Becker’s new cookbook “Mochi Magic”.

Now if you never had mochi before then you should certainly get her book! The best thing is that I have been given permission to share with you this recipe for Chocolate Mochi Brownies! I would highly encourage you to use mochiko flour if possible. Initially when I made a few recipes from the book I wasn’t able to source mochiko so I used a Korean style of ground rice flour that seemed to match what we were looking for (finely ground rice flour). In chatting with Kaori through instagram she indicated that this would be a good substitute or glutinous rice flour could do the trick as well; though taste would be different.

Kaori herself describes these brownies as “Crispy on the outside and ooey-gooey mochi-licious on the inside, these brownies come together quickly and pack a serious chocolate punch!”

Chocolate Mochi Brownies (makes 10 pieces)

Ingredients

3 cups mochiko
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup brown sugar
2 1/2 cups whole milk
1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup melted butter
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup dark chocolate chips or chopped dark chocolate

*original recipe is 2 cups of light brown sugar, vegetable oil and semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

Butter a 9×13 inch baking tray.
Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
Sift together the mochiko, cocoa, baking powder and salt in a large bowl.
Beat the eggs in another large bowl. Stir in the sugar, milk, oil, butter and vanilla. Mix well. Scrape this mixture into the bowl with the mochiko mixture and whisk until uniform in texture (make sure there are no lumps). Stir in half of the chocolate.
Pour the batter into the prepared pan, then scatter the remaining 1/2 cup of chocolate on top.
Bake for 50-60 minutes, until the brownies are golden brown. Enjoy hot with vanilla ice cream or let cool to room temperature.
Cut into squares and store in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days or in the freezer for up to 1 month.

These chocolate mochi brownies are so good! I can’t convey how good they are through just the pictures alone so you will just have to make them yourselves! I did cut each brownie and made them rather large for these photo but I also had no issues just eating the entire brownie square myself! While we were taking pictures, we happened to be near Luna’s crate. (as it has really good light). She ran inside thinking she would get a treat as we have been praising her efforts of staying in the crate on her own. Of course we did not give her any of these brownies!

Please make them and enjoy each massive piece all by yourself! With ice cream while they are warm as Kaori suggests or just by themselves with a cup of tea or coffee!

Excerpted from Mochi Magic by Kaori Becker. Copyright © 2020 Published by Storey Publishing. Reproduced by arrangement from the author Kaori Becker. All rights reserved.

Pictures in this blog post are all taken by Lillian Tse (Beyond Umami).

Bean & Tortilla Soup – Every Day Dorie AND Blueberry-Buttermilk Bundt Cake

Beyond Umami — Sun, 25 Oct 2020 19:14:00 +0000

Hello, it has been a while! I have been updating my instagram, but between work starting again end of August, attending to all new COVID-protocols (while still doing my job as a Speech-Language Pathologist), pottery and getting ready for a puppy (YES! we are finally getting one)…life has been a touch busy! So today, I am finally getting back to my blogging and playing catch-up in my cooking through Dorie Greenspan’s Every Day Dorie with the “Cook the Book Fridays” bloggers! This past Friday it was the Bean & Tortilla Soup (Page 60). This soup is super easy to prep! Which was great since we chopped up all of the red onions, peppers, garlic, and carrots before we went for our flu shot, and then upon returning home we just threw it into the instant pot to saute.

In Dorie’s recipe, she suggests just heating up the beans (we used kidney beans), then spooning the amount you want into your bowl and then layering on the soup. Her recipe involves cooking over the stove-top. We sped up the process a touch by using our Instant Pot on the pressure cook mode for 5 minutes. To make the soup base we used the rest of the liquid from the kidney beans and water – as we realized while prepping the soup that we had run out of chicken stock.

Finally, the toppings! Dorie gives lots of great suggestions for toppings. She suggests reserving a bit of the red onions and peppers behind to add to your soup. Then, all the toppings are essentially everything I love about dips, but in soup form! Avocados, shredded cheese, yogurt/sour cream and finally tortillas! I might have over done my toppings a bit but this was such a great meal considering how cold it is getting here in Edmonton!

His (in the background) and Hers versions of the Bean & Tortilla Soup
in my wheel thrown bowls!

One addition is that next time, I would add more than 1tsp of adobo sauce; probably a good tablespoon of adobo sauce. This would add more smokiness to the soup which would help separate this soup from a minestrone soup and more towards a Bean & Tortilla soup. Dan did add in more adobo sauce to his soup later. Overall, a great soup to add to our soup rotations this Winter! Check out the Cook the Book Fridays page to see how everyone else did!

Finally, one more picture to add to my catching up of Every Day Dorie is this Blueberry-Buttermilk Bundt Cake! This one is a keeper! It was so good, I made it twice! Each time, we wisely cut up a good half of the bundt cake and shared it with our neighbours (individually wrapped of course!).

So so moist! The blueberries were so good in combination with the rest of the cake! The second time we made it, I used milkadamia milk using macadamian nuts (instead of buttermilk) and it still turned out great!

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!

Chaussons-aux-pommes Recipe from Duchess At Home Cookbook

Beyond Umami — Sat, 11 Apr 2020 22:23:00 +0000

Duchess Bake Shop is not just some random highly acclaimed Edmonton-based bakery, it happens to be the bakery in the same city that I live in. It is not an exaggeration to say that I have ordered and eaten all their baked goods over the last decade. So, it was exciting in 2014 when one of the owners, Giselle Courteau, published her first cookbook Duchess Bake Shop where she shared the recipes for their most popular pastries and cakes. Recently this past Fall, I was offered a copy of Giselle’s second cookbook Duchess at Home where she shared recipes that she enjoys baking at home.

After flipping through the cookbook, I thought that some of the recipes were more accessible because it’s something that she makes all the time. One of the first recipes I wanted to bake was her Chaussons-aux-pommes. These are French-style apple turnovers using puff pastry so it is extra buttery and flaky. I was given permission to share the recipe from the cookbook which comes with more tips.

Ingredients for chaussons-aux-pommes

Ingredients for Chaussons-Aux-Pommes (makes 8 chaussons)

400g (3-4 small apples) Granny Smith or Honey Crisp
60g (1/4 cup) water
50g (1/3 cup firmly packed) dark brown sugar
30g (2 tbsp) unsalted butter
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
3/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 package frozen puff pastry (2 sheets), each sheet about 10 inches square
1 tbsp brandy or calvados
2 large egg yolks, beaten
sugar, for topping

Note: If you are comfortable making your own puff pastry feel free to do so. A much more convenient option is to buy pre-made frozen puff pastry. Make sure you look for one that is all butter- it’s a bit pricier, but worth it for the quality and flavour.

Equipment

You will need two baking sheets

Directions: to prepare the apple filling

Peel, core, and dice the apples into 1-to-2-cm pieces. In a saucepan, combine all of the ingredients except the brandy, puff pastry and egg yolks. Saute over low heat for 25-30 minutes until the apples are very soft, stirring every 5 minutes or so.
Once the apples have softened, turn the heat up to medium. Add the brandy and continue to cook until most of the liquid has evaporated. This should take less than 1 minute. Set the apples aside to cool, and then place them in the refrigerator. The apple filling needs to be completely cool before filling the puff pastry.

to roll, fill, and bake the chaussons
Line the baking sheets with parchment paper. Take the puff pastry out of the freezer and leave it on the counter to defrost. This should take 15-20 minutes. Make sure it is still cold when you start working with it.
Once thawed, on a lightly floured surface roll out each sheet of puff pastry slightly to make it smooth. Using a small bowl or lid 4-5 inches wide (about the size of a yogurt lid), cut out 4 circles per sheet.
Place 1 1/2 to 2 Tbsp of apple filling in the centre of a circle. Using your finger, dab a bit of water around the edges. Fold the circle over to make a half-moon shape. Using your fingers, press down on the seam edge to seal well. With a pizza wheel or a sharp paring knife, trim the edge of the puff pastry to create a clean line. Avoid using a fork to crimp the edges as this will prevent the pastry from puffing out as it bakes.
Transfer the chaussons to a lined baking sheet. Using a pastry brush or your fingers, gently brush egg yolk over the whole of each chausson.
Chill in the fridge for about 15 minutes. While the chaussons are chilling, preheat your oven to 375F (190C). When the chaussons are cold, brush them with another layer of egg yolk. Use a small, sharp paring knife, score each chausson with a half-moon shape from corner to corner; making sure not to cut all the way through the dough. Score small diagonal lines on each side of the half-moon to create a leaf pattern, again not cutting all the way through.
Sprinkle generously with sugar.
Bake for 30-35 minutes until the pastry is a deep golden brown. Don’t be alarmed if yolk that may have baked around the edges gets quite dark. After the chaussons have cooled to the touch remove them from the parchment, cutting off any dark yolk drippings. Serve warm for maximum enjoyment!

serving & storage
Chaussons aux pommes are best eaten the day they are baked. They will keep at room temperature for up to three days.

Personal notes and substitutions

I used honey crisp apples because I don’t like the sourness of Granny smith apples.
I used 3 medium-sized apples instead of small ones.
I didn’t have brandy so I used rum.
My resulting apple filling only had about 8 tablespoons worth of filling.
It took a lot longer than 25-30 minutes to soften the apples, next time I will try pressure cooking it or maybe cooking it with the lid on.
I could only fit about a tablespoon of filling in each chausson, but that might be because the pastry circle was a bit smaller than the recipe instructed.
I used the leftover puff pastry to make savoury palmiers (butterfly-shaped pastries with cheese).

Look at how flaky and delicious they are on the inside! Hubby says I might have filled ours a bit too much but they were so good! I could barely restrain myself from eating them straight out of the oven. Every single bite had the cooked down apples in it. I do wish that this recipe made more than just 8 chaussons as these were eaten way too quickly. I guess I will have to make more next time!

Here is another look of the amazing chaussons-aux-pommes!

Also, if you missed here are some more recipes and blog posts for Duchess Bake Shop on the blog:

Macarons from Duchess Bake Shop

Lemon Meringue Cake that I made for Dan’s birthday!

Sour Cream Pie

Croissant Challenge – Baking the Duchess Croissant

Duchess Bake Shop party for their First Cookbook

Duchess was also part of our engagement (back in 2010!)

Excerpt from Duchess at Home by Giselle Courteau. Text copyright © 2019 Giselle Courteau. Design and Photography © 2019 Sarah Hervieux. Published by Appetite by Random House®, a division of Penguin Random House Canada Limited. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

Pictures in this blog post are all taken by Lillian Tse (Beyond Umami).

Butter Chicken Recipe – Cooking from Coconut Lagoon’s Cookbook

Beyond Umami — Fri, 25 Oct 2019 15:07:00 +0000

Coconut Lagoon Butter Chicken Recipe

Butter Chicken Recipe from Coconut Lagoon’s Cookbook

We loved the Shrimp Mango Curry that we cooked from Coconut Lagoon’s cookbook that we actually made the dish two more times over the month of September! Another recipe that everyone will surely want to try from Chef Joe Thottungal’s cookbook is the Butter Chicken. As mentioned in my last post, the Coconut Lagoon cookbook celebrates Chef Joe’s cooking journey that led him to open a restaurant in Ottawa, which celebrates the food from his homeland, Kerala located in Southern India. Kerala food focuses more on seafood, agriculture and spices. Rice, fish, and coconut typically dominate the cuisine. Kerala spices are typically peppercorns with mustard seeds, curry leaves with cinnamon, chilies, cardamom and cloves, kudampuli, and tumeric.

Dan and I with Chef Joe at Coconut Lagoon’s cookbook launch

In his book, Chef Joe talks about how butter chicken is really a north Indian dish and that Coconut Lagoon is a south Indian restaurant. However, after many years he finally put Butter Chicken on the menu as his son Matthew claims that butter chicken is his favourite. This recipe for Butter Chicken is dedicated to his son.

In terms of preparation, gathering the ingredients for this recipe was fairly easy. If you are uncertain about buying a huge quantity of spices, bulk stores would be a good place to shop (e.g. Bulk Barn). Though, we found some pretty inexpensive prices at Superstore/Loblaws for coriander and chili powder. The one tricky part was actually finding a good price for cashew nuts!

You do need to pre-marinate the chicken with yogurt, chili powder, tumeric, salt and oil the night before. This actually helps the chicken taste tender when cooked.

Butter Chicken cooking away

Butter Chicken Recipe (Serves 4-6) Gluten-free

2 cups raw cashew nuts
2 lbs boneless, skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 Tbsp plain yogurt
1/2 tsp red chili powder
1/2 tsp ground turmeric
1/2 tsp salt, plus extra to taste
1 tsp coconut oil
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 small onions, chopped
1 1/2 tsp Ginger-Garlic Paste (recipe below)
1 1/2 tsp ground coriander
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
3 Tbsp tomato paste
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 1/2 tsp dried fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi)
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1/2 tsp chaat masala
3 cups milk
Chopped cilantro, for garnish

Ginger-Garlic Paste (Makes ½ cup) Dairy-free, gluten-free, vegetarian

1 (4-inch) piece ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped (1/4 cup)
10 cloves garlic

Using a dish towel, pat ginger dry and transfer it to a mini food processor (or use a mortar and

pestle).

Add garlic and 2 Tbsp water and process until smooth, wiping down the sides of the food

processor as required. Stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 3 days.

Butter Chicken Directions

In a saucepan, combine cashews and 4 cups water and bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce

heat and simmer for 5 minutes, until nuts have softened. Strain and set aside to cool. Transfer

to a food processor or blender and purée until smooth.

In a large bowl, combine chicken, yogurt, chili powder, turmeric, salt, and oil and mix well until

chicken pieces are fully coated. Cover and refrigerate for at least 6 hours.

Preheat oven to 350ºF. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.

Place chicken on prepared baking sheet and bake for 15 minutes, until par-cooked.

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Add onions and sauté for 3 minutes. Reduce

heat to medium. Add ginger-garlic paste and cook for another 3 minutes. Stir in coriander,

cooking for 1 more minute.

Add tomatoes and tomato paste and cook for 5 minutes. Stir in 2 Tbsp cashew paste, sugar,

fenugreek leaves, cumin, and chaat masala and cook for 1 minute. (Leftover cashew paste can

be stored in an airtight container in the fridge for up to 5 days.) Add chicken and milk and bring

to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 8 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through but still

juicy and tender. Season with salt to taste.

Garnish with cilantro and serve with rice.

Basmati Rice

2 cups Basmati Rice
1 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 1/2 tsp vegetable oil

Rinse Rice Well, at least 3-4 times, until the water runs clear. Put rice, salt, lemon juice, and oil in a large saucepan, add 4 cups of water, and bring to a boil, stirring to prevent rice from sticking.

Reduce head to medium-low and simmer, covered, for 12-15 minutes until rice is cooked. Remove from heat and set aside, covered, for another 8-10 minutes. Remove lid and fluff the grains with a fork. Serve immediately.

Butter chicken served with Basmati Rice and Pappadums

We really enjoyed making this Butter Chicken recipe and the directions were easy to follow. I did cut down the amount of cashew nuts we cooked to 1 cup since only 2 Tablespoons are needed for this recipe. I also used fenugreek seeds (which we added in while cooking ginger-garlic paste and onions) since I couldn’t find fenugreek leaves (kasuri methi). Serving Butter Chicken with Basmati Rice is important as the rice helps to absorb all that delicious flavours and sauce. The chicken was also super tender as it is initially parcooked and then cooked again with the rest of the spices.

If you enjoy Butter Chicken as much as I do then make this recipe! We also really liked the Shrimp Mango Curry (pictured below). You can find Chef Thottungal’s cookbook Coconut Lagoon at any major publishing outlets such as Chapters, Indigo and Amazon.

Shrimp Mango Curry – Cooking from Coconut Lagoon’s Cookbook

Beyond Umami — Fri, 13 Sep 2019 21:55:00 +0000

Shrimp Mango Curry – from Coconut Lagoon’s cookbook with basmati rice and pappadams in my wheel thrown bowls.

Finally cooked up this delicious Shrimp Mango Curry from Chef Joe Thottungal’s cookbook Coconut Lagoon. Chef Thottungal’s restaurant, Coconut Lagoon is located in Ottawa – which just so happens to be where we are living at the moment. I first experienced Chef Joe’s delicious cooking when I came to Ottawa for the Food Bloggers Conference in 2018. When I moved here in February, we went to Coconut Lagoon for dinner a few times bringing family and friends. Needless to say, I was excited when I found out that Chef Joe was launching his first cookbook.

Dan and I had the pleasure of attending the Coconut Lagoon cookbook launch party, which of course featured amazing dishes from the cookbook. The cookbook is about Chef Joe’s cooking journey that led him to open a restaurant in Ottawa, which celebrates the food from his homeland, Kerala.

Since I had eaten the Shrimp Mango Curry several times at Coconut Lagoon‘s restaurant, I decided that this would be the recipe I started with first. Most of the spices I found at Bulk Barn, which worked for me as I didn’t want a huge bag of red chili powder, fenugreek seeds or coriander. With the exception of the curry leaves and black mustard seeds, I picked up all my spices from Bulk Barn. For the curry leaves, I made my way to Thana which is a store specializing in South Asian & Caribbean groceries on Bank St. As for the black mustard seeds, since I wasn’t quite ready to commit to a huge bag of that, I picked up about 2 teaspoons worth from the Herb & Spice Store across the street from Thana.

Last but not least, the mango! I have never had green mango before and who would have thought but Farm Boy actually carried them.

The instructions for this Shrimp Mango Curry (page 13) are very straightforward. Once you have your shrimp (about 1 lb), green mango, and all the spices than you are set! Since I had purchased deveined shrimp, all I needed to do was defrost and shell them. Then I marinated them in 1.5 tsp of fresh lime juice and set it in the fridge. After that, I set out to collect the rest of the ingredients I was missing (curry leaves & black mustard seeds).

Shrimp to be marinated in lime juice.

Chef Joe’s recipe relies on using two pans (one for the spices and then later on a deeper skillet for cooking the rest of the curry. In the first pan, he uses a method called tempering for the spices, which is a traditional method to extract optimal flavours from the spices. This involves the pan being at high heat initially and then turning down the heat right before cooking the seeds. First mustard seeds and fenugreek seeds are tempered. Then onions, garlic, ginger and curry leaves are added in.

Finally, the rest of the spices – tumeric, coriander, and chili powder.

Next, the shrimp and mango slices are added in and sautéed for a few minutes before the coconut milk is added.

Once the shrimp turns pink, the shrimp mango curry is done! It really does come together quite quickly! Definitely have pan splash guard ready as things will get hot!

We had our shrimp mango curry with basmati rice (following Chef Joe’s recipe – page 156) and some pappadams! Pappadams are essentially lentil crackers and these ones are made super quick! I just take them out of their package (which I also got from Thana), line the microwave with a paper towel and nuke several of them for 40 seconds.

This shrimp mango curry is so tasty! It was surprising how sweet the green mango was, but that added to the flavour of the curry. We did end up adding more coconut milk to our dish as we wanted a slightly saucier curry.

Go check out this cookbook and try this Shrimp Mango Curry for yourself. Or for an easy place to start, the chai is a good one or even the lentils. I am also looking forward to cooking up the Cauliflower Masala and the Eggplant Masala, mainly because I saw yesterday that all of those ingredients were also on sale at Farm Boy. Oh and certainly their Butter Chicken recipe.

Also I now have permission to publish the Shrimp Mango Curry. Here it is!

Shrimp Mango Curry

1 lb medium shrimp, shelled and deveined
1 1/2 tsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp coconut oil
1 1/2 tsp black mustard seeds
Pinch of fenugreek seeds
1 Onion, finely chopped (1/2 cup)
3 cloves garlic, coarsely chopped
1 (1-inch) piece ginger, peeled and coarsely chopped
20 curry leaves
1 tsp ground tumeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp chili powder
1/2 cup sliced green, unripe mangoes
1/2 cup coconut milk
1 tsp salt, plus extra for taste

In a small bowl, combine shrimp and lime juice. Cover and marinate in the fridge for 1 hour.

Have a splash guard and measured spices nearby. Heat oil in a frying pan over medium-high heat until nearly smoking. Immediately reduce heat to medium.

You can test the heat of the oil by dropping in a couple of seeds. The oil is at the correct temperature when the seeds crackle, but do not burn.

Add must seeds and temper for a few seconds, until they stop popping (Cover with the splash guard, if needed).

Add fenugreek seeds and temper for another 30 seconds.

Add onions, garlic, ginger and curry leaves and sauté for 2 minutes, until fragrant.

Add tumeric, coriander, and chili powder and stir for 1 minute, until the raw smell is cooked off. Transfer to a heavy-bottomed skillet.

Increase heat to high. Add shrimp and mango slices and sauté for 1 minute. Pour in coconut milk, bring to a boil, and cook for 1 minute, or until shrimp turns pink. add salt and adjust seasoning to taste.

Serve with rice and parathas.