Umami Burgers from Every Day Dorie

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

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

Fresh Brioche Buns

This week it has been a whole host of cooking from Dorie Greenspan’s cookbook Everyday Dorie. I was super impressed how fast this recipe came together considering the fact that I only got home at 6pm but managed to prep, cook and have the soup done by 7pm. One way I sped up the cooking process was through using the Instant Pot (pressure cooker function). 

We really loved this soup. I was a bit worried initially that the ground ginger would be too much as it calls for 3.5 tablespoons of ground ginger. Since we only had about 2 tablespoons worth we put that amount in. 

The one interesting part is that Dorie’s recipes indicates that you can include meatballs in the recipe. Since I was in a slight rush, I put the Instant Pot in saute mode and then starting forming about 500g of ground beef into meatballs. Okay, I realize this picture below does not look super appetizing but I just wanted to show that I seared the meatballs a bit prior to putting them into the soup. After some slight searing I took out the meatballs and started making the rest of the soup. I sauteed the onions, garlic, spices, and the can of diced tomatoes. Then I added the meatballs back in and continued stirring and cooking for a few more minutes. 

Once the meat had some time to cook further, I added in the rest of the ingredients (chicken stock, water, lentils, chick peas). Finally, I pressure cooked the soup for 10 minutes. 

We ended up with a good almost 6-7 litres of soup (we have a 8 quart instant pot)! We had so much soup we shared some with our neighbours as well as friends. We really enjoyed the flavours of the soup. Dorie also suggests adding a pinch of lemon juice at the end for additional flavour. The recipe also calls for noodles, but we felt that there was plenty of ingredients in the soup already without the noodles.  

I did find that by pressure cooking our soup, the meatballs were able to absorb some of the flavours.  However, next time I would season the meat. Perhaps, I would season the ground beef with some chopped garlic, salt, pepper and some of the spices from the soup. I am also not sure if I needed the saffron for the recipe. The soup also tasted great 2 days later. It certainly added more flavour and body to the soup over time. 

I has been cold where I am in Edmonton, so this soup was perfect. You can find it on Page 66 of Dorie Greenspan’s Everyday Dorie. You can also check the Cook the Book Fridays website to see how everyone else did with this week’s recipe.

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!). 

• 1 package bacon (reserve 4-5 strips for soup topping)
• 1 onion; diced
• 3-4 cloves of garlic; diced
• 5 – 6 medium sized yellow potatoes; washed, peeled and cut
• 1 carton (900mL) no salt added chicken stock (6 cups) 
• bundle of kale leaves; washed 
• 1 cup of milk or cream (optional)

1. Prep ingredients. Wash, peel and cut potatoes. Dice garlic and onions. 
2. Prep kale leaves by cutting off the hard stems and keeping only the leaves. Wash and dry kale leaves.
3. Turn on the saute mode of the Instant Pot and place 6-7 strips of bacon inside. If making this recipe on the stove top, use a heavy bottomed dutch oven or similar. Remember to reserve a few pieces to cook later. 
4. Saute until the bacon is partially cooked and then add in the diced onions and garlic. 
5. Continue stirring until the bacon pieces are cooked and the onion has browned (about 8 minutes).
6. While still on saute mode, add in the potato pieces and stir for a minute.
7. Turn off saute mode and add in the chicken stock.
8. Switch to slow cook mode and allow the soup to slow cook for 8 hours. 
• pressure cooking: use the pressure cook mode and pressure cook the soup for approximately 12 minutes. Allow to naturally release. 
• stove top: turn element to high and then once the soup bubbles turn down to a simmer. Allow soup to cook uncovered on the stove top for at least an hour or until the potatoes have softened. Stir occasionally. Use a fork to check softness.
9. While soup is cooking, fry reserved strips of bacon in a separate pan. Fry until crispy. Take off pan and pat dry bacon between sheets of paper towels. This helps to remove extra bacon oil. Break into smaller pieces when cool.  (reserve bacon oil for other cooking adventures).
10. After the soup is finished cooking, blend soup until smooth. Use a stick blender or carefully transfer to a blender (vitamix or similar) to blend until desired consistency.  
11. Transfer soup back to the instant pot, and turn back onto saute mode. Once the soup bubbles add in a handful of kale leaves. As the soup is still hot it will slightly cook down the kale leaves. 
12. Add in a cup of milk or cream if using at this stage. 
13. Assemble your soup. Pour into your favourite bowl (in my case one of my newest wheel thrown bowls) and top with crispy bacon and kale.

one of the biggest wheel thrown bowls I have made so far! Isn’t it lovely?

Crispy Mushroom Arancini sitting in one of my wheel thrown pots.

This is a super quick recipe that I hope you will make. It is perfect for a rainy day or any day for that matter. The savoury bacon pairs perfectly with the “healthy veggie” kale flavour. You can control the hearty-ness of the soup with the amount of potatoes you used. The addition of the cream or milk does make this soup more creamy, but it is optional.

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.

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.

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.

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!

Moules Frites with crispy fries and a truffle aioli

Moules et Frites – 1/2 pound of mussles, pernod-tomato broth ($14)

Steak Tartare – mixed with cornichons, house made pickles ($16)

We ordered the steak tartare to accompany the mussels and fries. In Edmonton, we generally go to two restaurants that have different style of tartares: a Czech style and French style. The Marc’s version include pickles (as per french style) and has a bright tomato note to it. We had to ask for some more croutons just to finish the tartare.

Duck Breast – pan roasted, with hasselback potatoes, kale, roasted beets, brown butter vinaigrette, topped with a pumpkin seed crumble ($36).

The duck breast at The Marc was one of the first dishes we raved to our friends about when they first opened eight years ago. The dish disappeared from the menu a few years ago and we longed for it’s returned. I don’t know if it’s because I kept telling the owners (Patrick and Doris) how much I missed it or maybe it was a chorus of other fans but we were really happy to see duck back on the menu again. Another friend told us that he only likes duck cooked two ways: Chinese Barbecue-Style and Duck at the Marc! The duck meat (we ordered it medium-rare) itself is tender and juicy while not being overly fatty with the skin. As you can see in the picture above, the accoutrements are generous and sauced well so you’re not just eating great duck, you have great leafy green (kale), potatoes, and corn in a good peppercorn sauce.

Braised Short Rib Bourguignon – with roasted carrots, mushrooms, lardons, potato puree & wilted greens ($34)

To say that I’m a fan of desserts at the Marc doesn’t cut it. Dan and I will head over to the Marc just for the dessert sometimes after having dinner at another restaurant. Sometimes we make a special trip from home late into the evening just because we feel in the mood for a special treat. Over the years we have tried all their desserts, but for particular night out we went for our go-tos.

the Marc’s decadent chocolate cake ($10)

The Chocolate Cake with its caramel filling is decadent, chocolate and almost fudgy. The candied walnuts and the salt hit in the form of the fleur de sel is great for chocolate fans (i.e. Me). It’s unapologetically rich and would be a star dessert in any Edmonton restaurant. That is, until you try the other favourite, the Marc’s Beignets!

Beignets – french style doughnuts with creme anglaise and caramel sauce ($10)

The beignets are a must-try (must order!) at The Marc. It’s not the rectangular Creole style of beignets. Rather, the light and airy fried sugar dusted dough comes with two sauces; a creme anglaise and a caramel. This is the dessert that Dan and I will drive out for after 8pm just to eat. This is the dessert that we certainly save room in our stomachs for when dining at the Marc. It isn’t served with any special plating because it simply doesn’t need to be fancy, it’s just good.

Over the years, some of the dishes may have changed but you are always guaranteed great French fare, in a relaxing restaurant environment and friendly service. The Marc is a great restaurant not just for special events but lunch, dinner or a night out. Patrick & Doris have done a fantastic job at consistently bringing high quality French dishes to Edmonton.

The Marc
100 Sterling Place
9940 106 Street 
Edmonton, Alberta
(780)4292828http://www.themarc.ca/

As I was processing the photos for this post, I tried recalling when I first had Shakshuka and for some reason I just can’t picture it. Maybe it’s because each time we make and share this with friends, our friends then share their first memory of shakshuka and it all blends together. I do recall how enamoured I was by how a dish with simple ingredients becomes so flavourful! Since that time period, I have seen Shakshuka literally everywhere! Sometimes you might see Shakshuka under a different name like Eggs in Purgatory. However, the essence of the dish is all the same. It is essentially cooking whole tomatoes with onions and spices in a skillet or cast iron and slowly poaching your eggs in said delicious sauce. This makes it easy to add your personal twists to the dish making a great comfort food.

Here is a version of our Shakshuka topped with feta cheese. Typically you would top your Shakshuka with parsley but I only had green onions on hand that day when I made this particular shakshuka.

Recipe for Shakshuka with Feta (serves up to 4 people)

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large skillet for approximately 2 minutes.
2. Add garlic slices, stir until onions become soft and translucent (approx. 8 minutes).
3. Add onions, with a pinch of salt & pepper. Stir for 1 minute.
4. Stir in smoked paprika with the cooked onions and garlic until it all 
5. Slowly pour in the cans of whole tomatoes. Gently crush tomatoes until both cans are added into the skillet. Mix in the sugar and simmer sauce until it thickens (approx. 12 minute)
6. Once sauce has thickened, make 4 wells in your sauce and crack eggs into the wells.
7. Allow eggs to simmer until the whites are set but the yolks are still runny. I prefer mine to be sunny-side up, but you could also baste the eggs (by gently pouring sauce over) as they cook.
8. Turn off the heat, crack with pepper & salt. Scatter feta and green onion (or parsley) all over.

Serving Shakshuka with a good bread; home-made or artisanal helps to sop up all the sauce. For this particular meal, we had it with a home-made cheese sourdough that my hubby had made. I’ve also served our shakshuka with quinoa.

The beauty of the Shakshuka is that it is perfect for any occasion. I hope you make this Shakshuka too and create more amazing food memories with friends and family.

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

• 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

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

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

Butter chicken served with Basmati Rice and Pappadums

Excerpts from Coconut Lagoon by Joe Thottungal. Copyright © 2019 Coconut Lagoon. Published by Figure1 Publishing Inc. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.

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. 

Shrimp to be marinated in lime juice.

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

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

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

Excerpts from Coconut Lagoon by Joe Thottungal. Copyright © 2019 Coconut Lagoon. Published by Figure1 Publishing Inc. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.