Remembrance cake with lemon curd

Lemon Loaf

1½ sticks of butter, room temperature

½ stick of butter for greasing

zest 4 lemons

1 cup of sugar

1 whole egg

3 egg whites

2 cups of all-purpose flour

2 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp of salt

½ cup milk

1 Tbsp poppyseeds

1 Tbsp Fresh rosemary leaves, finely minced

Lemon curd

3 eggs yolks

juice of 4 lemons

½ pound (2 sticks) cold butter, cubed

½ cup sugar

PROCEDURE

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Grease up a loaf pan with lots of butter. Lay a long strip of parchment paper the width of the pan so there are flaps hanging over sides. Grease up the parchment too.

In a stand up mixer using the whisk attachment or using a hand-held electric mixer combine softened butter, sugar, whole egg and egg whites into a fluffy batter.

In another bowl combine the flour, baking powder, poppyseeds, lemon zest, rosemary and salt.

Add the dry mixture to the wet ingredients and stop mixing as soon as they are smoothly incorporated, about 30 seconds of fast mixing. Then add the milk to the mix and beat until smooth.

Scoop into the buttered loaf pan and bake until a tooth pick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45 minutes.

Let the loaf cool in the pan, then use the parchment flap to liberate it.

Cut into slices and smear on lots of lemon curd. Serve with a cuppa.

For the curd

Put the yolks, lemon juice, sugar, and butter into a cold medium-sized pot. Get out your whisk and put the pot over medium heat. Stir—you don’t have to stir quickly, you just have to stir constantly. Don’t think you can walk away for a second. Keep going until the butter melts. You’ll notice the sauce starting to get smooth and creamy, but not as thick as curd should be. Just be patient and keep stirring. It will start to thicken up.

When it is the nice, rich, and velvety consistency of hollandaise, remove it (and keep it away) from the heat source. Pour the curd into a bowl or jar. Allow it to cool at room temperature before covering and refrigerating.

The Tooth Fairy suggests you exercise caution during cherry season. She advises you to slow down when approaching a bowl of fresh juicy pit-filled cherries. Please enjoy this classic eggy French Clafouti dessert responsibly and make sure everyone knows you left the pits in the cherries or the TF will be left to pick up the pieces.

Whole Cherry Clafouti

1 1/4 cup flour

1/2 cup sugar, divided

1 cup cream

3 eggs

1 tbsp vanilla or almond extract

pinch of salt

2 Tbsp room temperature butter

2 pounds of fresh dark cherries, stems removed

In a medium bowl whisk together the sugar, cream, eggs, vanilla extract and salt. Add the flour, trying to whisk out the lumps but don’t worry about getting all the little lumps. They’ll soften up while the batter rests.

Cover the batter and leave it out at room temperature for 1 hour. Don’t freak out, just cause there’s an egg at room temp isn’t the end of the world. It’s going to get cooked and it’s necessary for a good batter to have a resting time so it can get cohesive.

Remove the stems from all the cherries but don’t take out the pits. It’s imperative that you leave the pits in so they can release the almondy and clove-like flavour compounds. It also helps to get your eaters to slow down when they know there are pits in this dessert.

Preheat the oven to 375˚F.

Get your baking pan very buttered up. The more butter the better. Your baking dish can be metal or ceramic. The size and shape can range from a 10-12 inch round cake pan to an 8-12 inch pie or tart pan. The important  thing is that all the cherries are in a single layer and there is enough wiggle room for just a little bit of batter to weave around them. Also make aure there a bit of room around the edges. If you use a smaller pan, just put fewer cherries in. You can eat them immediately as a consolation prize.

Pour in the batter and start placing the cherries in, leave room between and a nice 1 inch clearance around the edge.

Bake for 25-30 minutes. Obviously depending on the size of the pan this might vary. So just make sure that the center of the flan is cooked by inserting a toothpick into the middle, if it comes out clean, it’s ready.

Remove the pan from the oven and let it cool down to room temperature before serving.

Make sure to warn people about the pits or the tooth fairy will be left to pick up the pieces.

Leaving the pits in makes this dessert easier to make and the pits impart a pleasing almondy and clove-like aroma to the dessert. It could also be argued that because people have to slow down to eat the cherries, the clafouti will inevitably taste much better than wolfing it down. Leaving the pits in will save you from having to add thumbtacks or marbles…

The Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov conditioned his pet dog to expect a treat every time the he rang a bell. Eventually all Ivan had to do was ring the bell to get the dog drooling.  We have been conditioned to think that Rhubarb is a fruit because we associate it with sweet desserts and just the mention of a rhubarb pavlova should be enough to get you drooling.

Drool-inducing rhubarb pavlova

4 egg whites at room temperature

pinch of salt

250g sugar

2 tsp of cornstarch

1 teaspoon of white vinegar

1 tsp vanilla extract or vanilla paste

250ml of whipping cream

1 cup of rhubarb, chopped into 1 inch pieces

2 Tbsp white sugar

2 Tbsp water

1 tsp vanilla extract

Preheat your oven to a very low 180˚F.

Get a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Use some kind of electric beating device like a hand beater or ideally a standup mixer to beat the egg whites until they are slick and satiny. If they get dry and chunky you’ve mixed them too far.

Beat in the sugar ¼ at a time until incorporated.

Turn off the electric device and add the corn flour, vinegar and vanilla.

Usually folks use a rubber spatula to fold ingredients, but if you use the same gentle technique of scopping underneath the pile and bringing up through the middle using a whisk it will incorporate things much faster and deflate fewer bubbles.

Get a parchment paper lined baking sheet and using a large spoon scoop out and arrange even piles on the baking sheet. Once all the meringue are portioned out use the spoon to create a little divot in the center. It will look somewhat like a fly nest cloud.

As you put the pavlova into the oven, reduce the temperature to 150˚F. Bake for 45 minutes. Without opening the door, turn off the oven and let the meringues dry out and cool to room temperature.

If your oven does not go down as low as 150˚F, just bake at your lowest possible setting until they just start to get a little colour and then turn off the oven to let them dry out and cool to room temperature.

For the rhubarb. The more tender and young the stocks are the more they will want to fall apart. It’s okay if they do fall apart.

Get the sugar and water in to a small pot, bring to a simmer until the sugar dissolves. Add the rhubarb and vanilla cook for 1 minute. Reduce heat to a bare simmer, place a lid on top and cook until the rhubarb is just tender, 5-10 minutes. Let it rest and cool down to room temperature while you make the whipped cream.

Whip cream in a cold bowl until thickened but still kinda pourable.

To assemble. Place pavlova on a plate. Fill the nest area with a sloppy scoop of rhubarb and flop some whipped cream on top.

gets along with

Pavlovas get along smashingly with fresh fruit like kiwis, strawberries and oranges. Also try topping with citrus curds like lemon and passionfruit. Top with booze infused whipping cream and enjoy making a sweetly sticky mess.

fresh pick

Rhubarb is known as ‘the pie fruit’, even though it’s a vegetable. With Russian origins, it has taken the dessert world by storm with it’s tart flavour, prolific early growing season and adorable pink colour.

If you are picking from the garden, grab hold tight and tug each stalk individually out of the ground. When buying in the store, pick rhubarb that is nice and pink and about as thick as your thumb.

The leaves of the rhubarb plant are poisonous, so don’t eat your greens.

If you can dedicate a big patch of backyard to the prolific plant, then you can plant it and reap the bounty. Or buy it at local farmers’ markets or roadside fruit stands.

If your mom irons your undies, lets you win at arm wrestling and bakes you cookies you too are a lucky son-of-a-mom. Disconnect the umbilical cord and show some love by baking these easy and delicious shortbread cookies. They make a really nice treat with a cuppa tea and a pedicure… and for Mother’s day you can return the favour.

My mom’s shortbread cookies

1 cup of all-purpose flour

½ cup (aka: 1 stick, ¼ pound) butter (room temperature)

¼ cup packed brown sugar

Icing glaze

1 cup of icing sugar, sifted

2 Tbsp lemon juice

3 Tbsp boiling water

Preheat your oven to 350˚ F.

Get yourself a medium sized bowl and place the butter, flour and brown sugar in the bowl.
Go wash your hands with warm soapy water and dry them before you shake the water all over the floor.

Using your thumbs and fingertips work the flour with the butter to form small granular bits of dough.

When all the flour has been worked into the butter and you have a nice pile of crumbly bits you can start forming a big dough ball. Unlike most butter doughs, you can use the warmth of your hands to warm the butter to help it all form together. If the dough is crumbly, that’s called ‘short’.

Make one big dough ball and place it onto a clean, lightly floured counter. Dust your rolling pin (or empty wine bottle) with flour and roll the dough out. If it is super crumbly and falling apart just press it all back together to form a tighter dough ball. Roll the dough into any shape as long as it is an even ¼ inch thick. Now cut out all the cookies using a 1 inch round cookie cutter. You just want little cookies because they are quite rich and you only need a 2 bite cookie. Carefully pick up the cookies and transfer them to a parchment lined baking sheet. Amass the remaining scraps and make another dough ball. Roll it out and cut out some more cookies.

When all the cookies are cut out, use a 4-pronged fork to make 3 little marks on top. It’s called docking, and momma said dock them out.

Bake the cookies for 8 minutes. The cookies won’t go very brown, they stay quite light coloured. But you can bake them a little longer if you want them to get a little more brown.

Meanwhile sift the icing sugar into a bowl and add the liquids all at once. Stir it all up with a whisk until there are no more lumps. You may want to strain out the lumps or some of your cookies will appear to have zits.

Place a wire cooling rack over a piece of parchment paper or a plate. When the cookies are done transfer them to the cooling rack and spoon the icing over the cookies while they are still warm. If you wait until they are cool, the butter forms a sort of repellent surface that the icing doesn’t stick to.

Makes 24 1-inch round shortbread cookies.

* Do not double this recipe. If you want twice as much, make 2 batches. For some reason it’s the only way it works.

MORE Mom stuff at SwerveCalgary.com

Mom blogs

Here is a little shout out to the local Calgary mommy bloggers. Hopefully someone is baking for you guys today.

www.dinnerwithjulie.com

www.backseatgourmet.blogspot.com

www.thepinkpeppercorn.blogspot.com

www.foodmamma.blogspot.com

The multifaceted sweet potato can easily turn the tables on taste because it is delicious and healthy. The dark orange flesh is lusciously jammy and chock full of nutrients like beta carotene, calcium and loads of good stuff. Also, it can be enhanced with marshmallows, brown sugar or maple syrup they make a great side dish… or even a tasty dessert. This batata* tatin is a clever new look at a sweet potato pie that you can enjoy as a side dish for dinner with roast chicken or as dessert with whipped cream. Makes you wish you had an extra mouth.

batata* tatin

1 package of frozen puff pastry

½ cup maple syrup

½ cup butter

2-3 large sweet potatoes

really big pinch of cinnamon to taste

Check the package directions for the puff pastry, as it may require a couple hours of defrosting. Thaw the dough before starting the sweet potatoes.

Peel and cut the sweet potatoes into 4 rounds. Place the rounds on their flat side and quarter them.

Whip out a good 10—12 inch oven proof pan (all metal, no plastic). A cast iron would be ideal.

Get the pan over medium heat and melt the butter with the maple syrup.

Once everything is melted start filling the pan with chunks of sweet potato. Make sure all the sweet potatoes are snuggly fit into the pan. Cook the sweet potatoes over medium heat for 15 minutes, flip them over and continue cooking while you roll out the puff pastry.

Dust the top of the potatoes with plenty of cinnamon.

On a well floured surface, roll out the pastry into a 13 inch (approximate) circle, can be trimmed using a sharp pairing knife. Fold the circle of pastry in half and half again to make it easy to pick up and lift onto the pan. Place the dough point in the center and unfold the pastry so it covers the pan. Fold the over-hanging sides in like you’re tucking the sweet potatoes into bed.

Get it into the oven quickly and bake at 400˚F for 45 minutes.

When it is done, let it rest for 10 minutes before holding a cutting board tightly on top and flipping the whole thing over as fast as you can.

Knock on the pan three times for good luck, then take the pan away and cut into wedges. If any bits stick to the pan, pick them off and put them back in their spot.

Serve as a side dish with roast chicken and sautéed spinach or for dessert with toasted pecans and some sweetened vanilla whipped cream.

* A potato by any other name would not taste as sahweeeeet! European botanists made some misnomers with plants coming from the New World. Sweet potatoes (indigenously called batatas in Barbados) were introduced to Europe by Chris Columbus on his first voyage. 200 years later potatoes (indigenously called papas in Peru) came over and started getting called patata, which led to potato and subsequently sweet potato.

Chocosotto

INGREDIENTS

2 Tbsp butter

1 cups of Arborio rice

3 cups of milk

3 Tbsp brown sugar

vanilla bean, split

½ cup of dark chocolate drops or chocolate chips, or more if you’re a chocoholic

2 oz. amaretto (optional)

pinch of crunchy Maldon salt

PROCEDURE

Get two pots on the stove.

In one pot combine split vanilla bean, brown sugar, milk and bring to gentle simmer. Then shut it off.

In the other pot over medium heat melt the butter and add the Arborio rice. Stir the rice to make sure all the grains are slippery with butter.

Add a ladleful of warm milk to the rice and stir to incorporate. When it has mostly evaporated and been absorbed add some more milk. Stir until that milk gets absorbed the continue stirring and adding milk until the rice is tender and the milk is all used up. It should take about 30 minutes to use up all the milk. At the end of the milk, make sure you leave the risotto quite soupy.

While it is still hot add chocolate drops or chips and mix it all in until it’s smoothly incorporated. Add the optional amaretto and stir it all about.

You can either serve the risotto hot from the pot or chill it like a rice pudding.

Serve in a pretty bowl a pinch of crunchy salt on top.

gets along with

Almonds, caramel, peanut butter, cherries, cinnamon, cloves, coffee, cream, dried fruit, ginger, ice cream, milk, orange, port, vanilla.

fresh pick

Bernard Callebaut is a proud papa of a new chocolate venture. After being de-throned at his namesake chocolate shop he not only getting back on the chocolate horse, he’s bringing his family and friends along for the ride.

Expect to see a retail shop opening this April in downtown Calgary, but in the meantime you can get dark chocolate drops (and other tempting morsels) if you ask nicely.

Papa Chocolat’s temporary commercial headquarters location is Unit #24, 13750 Bow Bottom Trail, S.E., 403-3264-7212, www.papachocolat.ca

quick fire

Hot coco-cocoa. Shake up a can of coconut milk (don’t bother with Lite coconut milk) and pour it into a small pot. Whisk in ½ cup water, 1 heaping Tbsp of brown sugar, 1/3 cup of chocolate drops and a pinch of cayenne. Over medium low heat, gently bring the pot to a bare simmer. Stir until all the chocolate has melted. Serves about 4 little cups of very rich hot chocolate.

The cayenne isn’t to make it one of those trendy “Mexican” hot chocolates, it’s there to make your mouth feel slightly warm for a couple seconds longer after you swallow your gulp. It’s a lovely sensation.

nerdbyte

Chocolate is the fermented outer pod of the Theobroma cacao tree’s seed. It’s brown and horribly bitter but if you pump it full of enough fat (prefereably cocoa butter) and sugar, it tastes pretty much like awesomess. White Chocolate is just cocoa butter without the brown bits… and without any raison d’étre.

BONUS… I got a little saucy  with the writing on this column and was asked at SWERVE to scale back the sauce to a more manageable innuendo that you’ve already read above. Here was the previous, unedited version…

Chocolate, the hawtness

Chocolate melts in your hands and makes others do the same. Give chocolate to someone you are attracted and if they are attracted to you they will instantly want to bang on your Bonobo bongo. It causes instantaneous sensational consensual sexual arousal between two people resulting, with a high probe-ability rate, in a two-way boomtangle à la break-dancing octopus. Here are some hawt chocolate recipes to ensure you have a sexellently successful Valentine’s Day.

Apples are running rampant this time of year, but what’s really frightening is the onslaught of those little horrifying two-bite candy bars. Don’t get tricked into eating bags of crappy candy, treat yourself to some amazing homemade apple fritters. The undeniable sweetness of apples is made even better in fried batter and topped with your very own specially blended spicing sugar.

You Are What They Eat!

For Halloween, race to your local movie joint or iTunes to rent the movie Critters 3: you are what they eat! You’re not missing any serious plot details if you haven’t seen the first two Critters. You’ll be stunned to see a young Leonardo DiCaprio using grown up language. Also can you tell which famous celebrity chef is chopping chicken in the background? Best food-inspired horror-comedy scene ever!

Big bite apple critters

fritters

1½ cups all-purpose flour

½ tsp salt

1 tsp baking powder

2 Tbsp sugar

2 Tbsp canola or vegetable oil

2 eggs

1 Tbsp milk or cream

½ tsp vanilla

3 apples, peeled (gala, Spartan or granny smith)

canola oil for deep frying

spicing sugar

1 cup icing  sugar

2 tsp of spices (cinnamon, ground ginger, allspice, coriander, rosemary, etc, etc)

Get three medium large bowls out.

In the first bowl combine the flour, salt, baking powder and sugar. In the second bowl combine the canola oil, egg, milk and vanilla.

Peel your apples, then using a large holed grater, grate the peeled apple down to the core into the third bowl.

Mix the wet and dry ingredients together using a whisk. Then add the grated apple making sure all the tiny grated bit of apple have some batter on them.  Leave the mixture in the fridge to rest and chill for 30 minutes.

Preheat your oil to 350˚F, if you don’t have a regulated deep fryer you will need to use an oil/candy thermometer so you get the right temperature for golden browning. Guessing the temperature of oil can be tricky. Too low means you’ll get a bloppy mess, too high and it can boil over.

Make your spicing sugar by combining sugars and spices in a bowl and mixing to combine evenly.

You don’t just have to have cinnamon sugar. Consider some options:

• 1 tsp rosemary + 1 tsp cinnamon + pinch of cayenne

• ½ tsp ground ginger + ½ tsp cinnamon + ½ tsp cardamom + pinch of ground clove + pinch of nutmeg

• 1 tsp coriander + ½ tsp ground ginger + pinch of cumin

Use a fork to scoop out some apple batter and another fork to scrape it off into the hot oil. Only do about 4-6 at a time so the pot doesn’t overcrowd and spill over.

Fry on all sides until they look golden brown and delicious.

Use a slotted spoon to transfer the fritters to a paper-towel lined plate to leech off most of the oil, then while they are still hot dust them with spicing sugar like freshly fallen snow. Place on a wire rack or a plate to cool.

Enjoy them while they are still warm with a strong cup of chai tea or café au lait.

* On the cautionary side of deep frying, it’s best to leave the frying to an adult… or rather, a responsible adult.

Fry in small batches using a pot without a long handle that might catch on something. Don’t wear long sleeves. Never put out a grease fire with water, always use an extinguisher or baking soda. You’ve be warned!

gets along with

Celery, Cheddar cheese, cream, bacon, pork, peanut butter, nuts, cinnamon, cloves, ginger, star anise, yogurt

fresh pick

There are hundreds of kinds of apples ranging in colour and texture. Generally you want apples with bright colour (red, red/yellow or green), firm skin free from bruising and brown spots. A light squeeze should feel firm and not mushy. Most apples are sprayed with a waxy coating that should be washed off in warm soapy water before eating, unless you plan on peeling them.

Firm apples are good for baking (Granny Smith, Spartan, Honey Crisp) some are good for apple sauce (Macintosh, Golden Delicious, Sunrise) and some are perfect for eating straight off the tree (Fuji, Ambrosia, Royal Gala).

quick fire

One of my favourite breakfasts of all times is a thick piece of cinnamon raisin toast from Lazy Loaf and Kettle (lazyloafandkettle.com) with loads of drippy butter a good scattering of coarse salt and a freshly grated apple piled up on top. Plain yogurt with grated apple and a pinch of cinnamon is also awesome and the apple is sweet enough that it certainly doesn’t need to be sweetened.

Project Food Blog Challenge #4 – (100 competitors remain) Picture perfect.

*Project Food Blog is the first-ever interactive competition where 2000 Foodbuzz Featured Publishers are competing in a series of culinary blogging challenges for the chance to advance and a shot at the ultimate prize: $10,000 and a special feature on Foodbuzz.com for one year.

Louis the XIV was known as the Sun King. He was such a fan of oranges that he had great windowed buildings built for the purpose of growing oranges all year round. What we would now call a greenhouse was then called l’Orangerie.

Oranges are so revered in French cuisine that when you cut out a perfect orange segment it is called a ‘supreme’. Supreme is a super special term reserved for only the best of the bestest ingredients in French cooking.

A verrine is like a terrine, but instead of being set in an earthenware (terre=earth) vessel, a verrine (ver=glass) is made in a glass vessel. This glass encased verrine of orange supremes is dedicated to the homme himself Louis XIV, the Sun King.

Serve this dish to guests after a heavy meal like a Thanksgiving feast or as a digestif between courses. Since it is unsweetened it makes a nice light palette cleanser and with the addition of the syrup makes lovely dessert. Makes 4-5 verrines or 1 small terrine.

INGREDIENTS

verrine

6 oranges

2-3 packets of gelatin or 4 gelatin sheets

rosemary syrup

1 cup water

1 cup sugar

3 sprigs of rosemary

Peler a vif is a French culinary term for peeling an orange (or other citrus) using a knife. Once it is peeled you can start cutting out the orange ‘supremes’. Supreme is another French culinary term for the ultimate little slice of orange without any connective membrane. ‘Supreme’ can also apply to a boneless skinless poultry breast, be it chicken, duck or goose.

1. Trim the top and bottom off the orange

2. Trim off the peel, making sure you don’t cut off too much of the orange meat, but ensuring you get all the white pith

3. Craddle the orange in one hand and use a very sharp knife to cut out the segments. Cut down very close to the connective membrane, then cut down the other side of the segment to release the little orange supreme. Perfection!

4. Use your thumb to hold back the flaps of the membranes as you work your way around the orange releasing supremes

5. Work over top of a bowl to catch all the juice and keep all the supremes

6. When you have cut out all the segments, squeeze out the juice as hard as you can

To set the orange segments in place we are using gelatin. You can use gelatin powder or gelatin sheets, whichever you have or prefer.

1. Drain off all the orange juice from the segments into a measuring container

2. Add water or orange juice until you have 400 ml of liquid

3. Using the gelatin package as an exact guide, calculate how much gelatin is needed to set 500ml (you need a little extra gelatin, even though we only have 400ml of liquid)

4. Double check your gelatin direction. But they should go a little something like this…

5. Divide liquid, placing one half in a small pot

6. Place the gelatin (sheets or powder) in the bowl and allow it to bloom (get soft)

7. Bring the other half to a boil

8. When boiled add the bloomed gelatin and mix until dissolved (if you are using powder, skip to the next step)

9. Combine the two liquids, stirring thoroughly

10. Combine the oranges supremes and gelatin mix together and stir to ensure the gelatin is dispersed evenly throughout the supremes

You can use anything you like to set up your oranges. If you use a loaf pan it’s called a terrine, if you use glasses it’s called a verrine. It’s up to you, but consider using something that you can turn out easily for a pretty presentation.

1. Fill 4-5 glasses evenly with orange supremes

2. Add the liquid until the supremes are covered

3. Place some plastic wrap nice and tight against the surface of the gelatin to avoid forming a skin

4. Any additional liquid can be set as a clear jelly if you like

5. Put the glasses or terrine in the fridge overnight to set fully

This is a simple syrup recipe that can easily be adapted. Consider using the ratio of one cup sugar and one cup water with any spice mix you can imagine. Think about infusing cinnamon, cloves, star anise, or a variety of teas. Any left over syrup is excellent for sweetening iced tea or even your morning coffee.

1. Pour one cup of sugar and one cup of water into a small pot

2. Add your spices. Here we used 3 sprigs of rosemary from our tree

3. Bring to boil, boil for 2 minutes. Make sure the sugar is completely dissolved

4. Set aside the entire pot and all to cool down to room temperature (about an hour)

5. When the syrup is cool, transfer it to a sealable container (squeeze bottle is ideal) and put it in the fridge. It will keep for a month

To serve

1. Get a large bowl or mug full of hot water

2. Dip the glasses into the hot water for 20 seconds

3. Wipe the glass dry and invert it onto a plate

3. Shake the verrine out using a quick downward plunge and a sharp 45˚ angle up-thrust

4. Pour the rosemary syrup on top so it covers the jelly and pools at the bottom of the plate

5. If the verrines are not coming out of the glasses,  don’t worry, just serve them in the glasses with syrup on top

Sweet and sassy Cassis

Cassis (French for Currants) is a dazzling vision of beauty when she’s sparkling at a poncy party decked out with clusters of opalescent white pearls, luminescent red rubies and deep black jewels. She is refined and sophisticated in the form of a jelly or syrup in a creamy dessert or a sparkling cocktail. While she can be light on her toes, this sassy vixen can also contend with the beastly heavy-footed game meats.

Cassis Delice

This recipe falls somewhere between a panna cotta and a Bavarois. So I went ahead and named it a Cassis Delice because it’s got a poncy French vibe and it’s delicious.

2 cups of whipping cream, whipped to soft peaks

½ cup water

1 packet gelatin

¼ cup black currant jelly or syrup

¼ cup icing sugar

Garnish (Choose one)

A drizzle of black currant syrup

A scoop of black currant jam

A shot of Cassis cassis as desired

Place the water in a small  bowl and sprinkle on the gelatin to soften. Meanwhile place the black currant jelly in a small pot and boil until it is liquid and bubbling. Pour the hot liquid black currant into the bowl with water and gelatin. Stir with a whisk, ensuring the gelatin is completely dissolved. Leave the mixture to cool down for 10 minutes in the fridge.

Now get a large bowl and a clean whisk. Whip the cream until the whipped cream is firm (not lumpy and chunky or you will be pretty close to making butter). Add the icing sugar and mix it all in.

Scoop some of the whipped cream into the bowl with the gelatin and whisk it together until smooth. Now return that mixture to the large bowl with the rest of the whipped cream.  Use a whisk to fold in the purple liquid until there are no streaks and the mixture is still light and fluffy.

Divide the mixture amongst 6 clear wine glasses or somesuch fancy serving vessel. Place in the fridge for 2 hours or overnight until the mousse sets up firm.

If you are serving to extravagantly poncy adults top it with Cassis liqueur, for a more respectable crowd try the black currant syrup, for breakfast top it with black currant jam.

gets along with

Bison, cream, chocolate, cinnamon, cloves, duck, game meat, mango, orange, sweet fruit, soft creamy cheeses, venison.

fresh pick

These little sweet and sour berries are loaded with colour and flavour. Pick out large clusters of firm berries. Currants come in black, red or white. The darker berries pack a stronger flavour.

It’ll take you about an hour to fill up a 4L pail ($12) at Kayben Farms 5^th Annual Black Currant Harvest Festival on Saturday August 28. Check out kayben.com for other U-Pick times. Bring the kids, they have a crazy-cool Adventure Park. Enjoy Jo-Jo’s yummy black currant whims at the Café.

quickeat

Make your own currant syrup by rinsing 1 pound of currants. Bring currants  (stems and all) to a boil in a large pot with 2 cups water and 1 cup sugar. Mash it up really well using a potato masher to release the precious juices. Pop a lid on top and boil for 30 minutes. Strain the mess through a fine meshed sieve using a potato masher.

Chill the syrup and keep it in the fridge for a month or two.

Use the syrup to fancify French Toast, fortify dark beers and super-fly a float using sparkling water and a scoop of vanilla icecream.

tidbit

Black currant stains on clothing are there to stay. The only solution is to simmer the rest of the garment in a pot with black currant syrup. Rinse thoroughly and let dry before you style your new purple blue jeans.

Round one…

John Gilchrist is flanked by bright red stacks of his newest publication of My Favourite Restaurants in Calgary.

I cut through the crowd of weekend market shoppers with a tight clenched fist, ready to deliver a message to this well respected local food guru. Like a shot I extend the poised fist levelled at his head and stop, release the grip and drop a one pound block of cultured local butter on his display table.

“Challenge accepted.” I exhale and walk away before John’s glare can change from bewilderment to whatever it changed to after that… hopefully glinty steele or fury or something perculating with strong emotion.

It’s official, the Pie fight challenge has been delivered. At the end of April I will be going pan to pan in a Pie Fight against John Gilchrist.

John Gilchrist is best know round these parts for reviewing restaurants on CBC Radio. He’s been doing it since 1980… that’s 30 years, I know this cause I’m about to turn 30.

He also pens the best little restaurant guide books for Alberta and is up to nine National Best-Sellers.

He can write and he knows about food. But that’s not what I’m worried about…

Can John make a good apple pie?

Will his lard crust be able to stand up to my classic flaky butter crust?

We met recently on neutral turf to peacably discuss the terms of engagement.

The only ingredients allowed are flour, fat, sugar, apple, eggs, salt and apples. For this competition, the pie has been defined as having a top and bottom and an apple filling.

John is a lard crust man.

I am a butter crust man.

Herein lies the challenge, to see which crust is better and who will get the upper crust! …and if you think that joke was flakey, wait til you see my crust.

I’ll keep you posted…