Recipe for Chaussons au Anana – Pineapple Turnovers

When Dan and I were in Taiwan we really loved eating pineapple cakes. They were often super fresh with cooked down pineapple fillings surrounded by a shortbread crust. As Lunar New Year was coming up, Dan wanted to make pineapple cakes (a traditional Lunar New Year treat in Singapore and Taiwan) but also incorporate croissants or some kind of laminated pastry. 

Dan recently came across a pineapple jam filling from a Singaporean Chef named Violet Oon. This recipe involves stewing the pineapples with cinnamon and cloves, something very different from Dan’s previous iterations. We had some puff pastry in the freezer and thus, Dan’s need to combine different elements was satisfied through making a pineapple turnover, or a Chausson au Anana.

Outside ChiaTe – this pineapple cake had a blend of
pineapple and mashed winter melon

SunnyHills Pineapple cakes – this one was 100% pineapple

Ingredients

*Makes 8 large pastries or 18 medium sized ones.

• One large ripe pineapple – approximately 750g of pineapple pieces
• Pack of frozen puff pastry – made with butter (thawed)
• Small beaten egg
• 150g Sugar
• Cinnamon stick
• 5 cloves *but 10 would be better

Directions

1. Chop up pineapple (we used a food processor to quickly chop up in a 10 pulses).
2. In a medium sized pot, put in the pineapple, cinnamon stick, sugar and cloves. Cook at medium heat for 20-25 minutes until the liquid is mostly boiled off.
3. While the pineapple filling is still warm, extract the cinnamon stick and cloves and allow the filling to cool down (about 1 hour).
4. Preheat the oven to 400F.
5. Beat a small egg in a bowl.
6. Slice up a “sheet” of puff pastry using a ruler. Depending on the size you want to make, you can either make large 5 inch squares or 3.3″ squares.
7. Place the pineapple filling in the middle of each square. For small squares about use about 1.5 tablespoons of filling. For larger squares about 3 heaping tablespoons.
8. Brush the edges with the beaten egg wash.
9. Fold one side over diagonally so you end up with a triangle shape.
10. Use a fork to crimp the edges. 
11. Place the pastries on a prepared baking sheet with parchment paper.  You will likely need two baking trays.
12. Brush the top with the beaten egg and generously sprinkle sugar on the top of each turnover.
13. Put baking sheets into the oven – one on the top rack and one on the bottom rack. Bake for 15 minutes. Rotate trays and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the tops are golden brown.
14. Eat and enjoy! Take photos as necessary.

• 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.

Ingredients for chaussons-aux-pommes

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

Directions: to prepare the apple filling

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). 

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.

Assembled ingredients for Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos

Why wait for Taco Tuesday, when you can have tacos today? Or even tomorrow? It has been pretty hot here in Ottawa, so I have been leaning towards meals with limited oven or stove time. So even though it seems that there are many ingredients needed to make this specific taco recipe, I am sure you already have most of these ingredients in your fridge/freezer. I am also a sucker for dips as snacks, so avocado and salsa are pretty much permanent ingredient that I have on hand. 


Now, don’t feel like you have to make your own guacamole for this recipe. Buying guacamole is perfectly fine in my books (I also have really loved Farm Boy and all their products here in Ottawa)! In fact the salsa I used in this recipe is store bought. 

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos

Feel free to make your own tortillas or buy store bought ones. We have this huge bag of masa harina that I bought when we first moved to Ottawa, so I really needed to use it. You can get a more detailed method of how we make our tortillas over on my blog post Quick and Easy by Step Homemade Tortillas if you want home made. Masa Harina is also gluten free (just make sure the package says gluten free) as it is made of corn. The brand I use is Maseca.


In terms of planning, make the guacamole, grate the cheese, and assemble salsa and veggies into bowls before cooking the shrimp and making the tortillas. That way, you can start assembling and eating once the tortillas are finished cooking.

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp with mushhroom, garlic & onion

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos Ingredients

Paprika-Garlic Shrimp

• 300g (2/3 lb) shrimp- zipperback, deveined D*I used pacific White Shrimp
• 1 large mushroom (or 3 smaller ones) sliced
• 1 small onion (chopped)
• 1/2 tsp paprika
• 4-5 cloves garlic (diced)

Guacamole

• 2 ripe avocados
• 2 tablespoon lime juice
• zest of one lime
• 1/2 of a red onion (diced)
• salt & pepper to taste

Homemade Tacos (makes 9 small tortillas, 3-4″ in diameter)

• 1 cup masa harina (also can use corn flour) 
• 3/4 cup water

Other ingredients:

• 1/2 cup grated cheese (your choice) *I used Balderson Cheddar
• 1/2 cup salsa (your choice)
• 1 cup arugula 

Ingredients for Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos – featuring some of my wheel thrown bowls!

Directions for Paprika-Garlic Shrimp Tacos

1. Prep guacamole – In a small bowl mash avocados, lime juice, lime zest, salt & pepper together. Stir in red onion. Set aside in refrigerator while prepping rest of the taco fixings.
2. Follow the instructions to defrost the shrimp.
3. Peel the shell off the shrimp.
4. Use a paper towel to absorb excess liquid.
5. In a small bowl place the shrimp and mix in 1/4 tsp paprika, then set aside.
6. Heat a pan to medium-high heat. Add in 1 tablespoon of oil. 
7. Once the pan is hot, add in the chopped garlic and onion. Once onion starts to soften, add in the other 1/4 tsp of paprika. 
8. Continue to stir, and then add in the sliced mushrooms. Cook mushrooms until softened and browned along with the garlic and onions. 
9. Add shrimp to the pan. Cook until done (approximately 5 minutes; Shrimp is cooked when it curls).
10. Once shrimp is cooked, place in a dish and set aside. 
11. Make the tortillas by mixing together 1 cup masa harina with 3/4 cup of water (for more visual pictures see my post here).
12. Roll 9 balls that are approximately ping pong or golf ball in size. Cover them loosely with saran wrap while rolling to keep them from drying out. Place saran wrap/parchment paper on top of each ball. Using a flat bottom pan, sandwich the ball between some saran wrap or parchment pap. The saran wrap will prevent the dough from sticking. Flatten each ball to make a tortilla 3 1/4″-4″ in diameter. 
13. Cook each tortilla on a pan (medium-high heat); approximately 50 sec each side. We use a cast-iron pan but a regular pan will work too.
14. Place cooked tortillas in a stack, and cover with a kitchen cloth in order to keep them soft and warm. I used a brie baker to keep the tortillas warm and wrapped a kitchen towel around it.

Assemble your tacos and enjoy!

Wow, time is flying by. Sorry that I have been neglecting the blogging part lately, though, rest assured I am still doing a lot of baking and recipe testing over on Instagram. After this post, I hope to work on a macaron post! I have been spending some time working on my photography skills, photo editing and making pottery (for food props and more!). Creating my own pottery and glazing them in all sorts of fun colours have been a recent obsession of mine. If you look through these photos you will see some of my pottery pieces! 

Making the pie dough is a breeze. Just process flour, sugar, salt and butter in the food processor until slightly lumpy (as above). Then, roll the pie dough out until it is a wide flat circle. Next, place the dough between two sheets of parchment paper in the refrigerator for at least an hour before using.

For ingredients, Dorie uses Mushrooms, Leek, Green Onion, Onions, Bacon and the addition of walnuts! The walnuts certainly gives the galette a distinctively crunchy bite.

The main ingredients of leeks, green onions, onions and mushrooms are cooked down in a pan before walnuts, bacon and cheese is mixed in.

Then a splash or two of some dry white wine followed by some heavy cream to give the filling additional flavour.

The beauty of a galette is that nothing has to be perfect. Just quickly fold in the dough and it will naturally crease as you go. If it rips, that’s okay too! The dough is so forgiving that no one will notice once it is baked. Everything comes together so fast that you are able to do other things in between. In fact, we had a guest over for dinner and we did all of the dinner prep (and photography shots) while we snacked on appetizers and entertained.

Now that you know how easy it is to make this mushroom bacon galette, you should make one too!  Also, check out how everyone else from Cook the Book Fridays did with this galette!

Oatmeal Cookies. For me, cookies aren’t the same unless they have chocolate – thus oatmeal must always be followed with chocolate! Looking back at the blog I do have an oatmeal, chocolate chip & raisin recipe from 2010(!) and a recipe for Oatmeal & Raisin Cookies using canola oil from 2012. However, the recipe that I have been testing and creating over the past year(s) I realize is not even on the blog. This never even occurred to me until a friend asked me for my recipe recently!

So, without further ado here is my latest oatmeal and chocolate cookie recipe.

Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

Directions for Crispy Chewy Oatmeal Chocolate Cookies

I love how these cookies, eaten while still warm from the oven are crispy and still have a nice chew to them. Feel free to play with different variations of chocolate additions. I can assure you that each one tastes perfectly amazing. Try a mixture of chocolate chip with dark chocolate chocolate chunks, chocolate wafers and skor or even a mixture of chocolate chip, dark chocolate squares and a chopped skor bar! Hope you enjoy these as much as I do!

Ingredients for Reverse Seared Pork Loin

• Pork Loin (2kg / 5lb) – pick a loin that has an even layer of white fat along the length of the loin.
• Coarse Salt
• White Ground Pepper
• Baking Powder
• Seasoning (optional)

Directions for Reverse Seared Pork Loin

1. Drain and pat dry the pork loin with paper towel. The pork loin should be dry to the touch (a paper towel should not pick up any moisture). 
2. With your sharpest knife, score the fat layer in a small criss-cross pattern. Try to score the fat layer until it reaches the meat layer.
3. With some butcher’s string tie up the loin at about 7-8 cm (around 3 inches) sections. This makes the loin more even so that baking is more predictable. Once tied up, the scored fat layer should flare out a bit like a pineapple.
4. Sprinkle coarse salt across the loin. We use about 2-3 teaspoons of coarse sea salt for about 30 cm in length of loin (11-12 inches). You want to be able to see the salt end up between the scored channels of fat.
5. Sprinkle 1/4 teaspoon white ground pepper (while optional, we really like it on the pork)
6. Sprinkle a few pinches of baking powder.
7. OPTIONAL – we sometimes sprinkle about 1/2 teaspoon of chicken roast seasoning (that has rosemary and thyme) as well, you can generally use any dry seasoning you like provided it doesn’t have any sugar in it.
8. OPTIONAL – Place the loin in a tray and leave uncovered in your fridge overnight (this will make it taste better due to the effect of drying out the top layer of the pork) – yes, that says uncovered.
9. Preheat the oven to 250F.
10. Put the pork loin into the oven and start checking the internal temperature of your pork around 1 hour into baking.
11. Pull the pork loin out of the oven when it reaches 145F, the top will look almost raw. Cover with aluminum foil while you crank up your oven to broil (or as high of a temperature as possible).
12. About 15 minutes before you are serving, remove the foil from the covered pork loin. Place the pork loin into the oven for 10-12 minutes. Broil until the fat crisps up and turns to a dark golden colour.
13. Take the pork loin out of the oven. 
14. Carefully slice into pieces (because there’s a lot of juices) and enjoy!