I'm used to making parfaits with fresh fruit, yogurt, and granola. You can vary the fruit, add different flavours to the yogurt, try different types of granola or even swap it out for something else entirely (cocoa nibs, wheat germ, graham cracker crumbs, etc.) But those are the general components that I'm familiar with. That's the formula.

This recipe takes a significantly different route.

It still layers fresh fruit with dairy and something crunchy. It just swaps out what you're actually using as your dairy and "cruncy" components.
Instead of yogurt, you beat whipping cream with marsarpone and white chocolate for your dairy component.
For the crunchy... crushed amaretti biscuits.

This all works quite well. The cheese, chocolate, raspberries, and amaretti all make for an excellent (if very rich) final dish. I'm looking forward to having the leftovers after dinner tonight! Yum!

Mascarpone-Raspberry Parfaits

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

• 375g mascarpone cheese
• 1 c. heavy (35%) cream
• 100g white chocolate
• 500g raspberries
• 30-35 amaretti biscuits, coarsely crushed

Directions

1. Beat the mascarpone with the cream for 10-20 seconds.
2. Gently melt the chocolate over very low heat.
3. Drizzle the chocolate into the cheese mixture while beating vigorously. Continue beating for an additional 30-60 seconds.
4. Spoon a few raspberries into the bottom of each glass. (This made 8 small parfaits of ~200mL each for me.)
5. Spoon a bit of the cheese mixture on top of the berries.
6. Sprinkle some cookie crumbs into the cheese.
7. Repeat layers until glasses are full and all of the ingredients have been used.
8. Chill until ready to serve.

This is basically a dal. A very Anglo dal, but still mostly a dal: a soup of legumes cooked with aromatics and curry powder with a bit of roasted squash tossed in for good measure. If it were an Indian-style dal, the legumes would be cooked in water rather than broth. And the spices would probably not involve an Anglo-style Madras curry powder. And the peas would probably be cooked in a pressure cooker to get the desired soft texture rather than puréed with a blender. But the overall concept is still there. It's just had a few of the details changed around.

Curried Split Pea Soup with Kabocha Squash

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 small kabocha squash (~500g)
• 2 Tbsp. olive oil, divided
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 onion, chopped
• 2-3 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 Tbsp. Madras curry powder
• 3/4 c. yellow split peas¹ (chana dal)
• 2 1/2 c. vegetable stock
• 1/2 c. pumpkin or sunflower seeds, toasted
• 1/2 c. sour cream (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F) and line a baking sheet with a silicone baking mat.
2. Cut the squash in half, scoop out the guts, peel the halves, and chop into 2cm cubes.
3. Toss the squash with 1 Tbsp. of the olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
4. Roast at 200°C (400°F) until tender (30-40 minutes).
5. Meanwhile, heat the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil over medium heat.
6. Add the onion, season with salt and pepper, and cook until softened (~5 minutes).
7. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two.
8. Add the curry powder and split peas and toast for ~2 minutes.
9. Add the vegetable stock and bring to a boil.
10. Cover and reduce heat to medium-low.
11. Simmer until peas are tender (~35 minutes).
12. Once peas are tender, partially purée with an immersion blender.
13. Add roasted squash and cook until heated through (~5 minutes).
14. Serve topped with toasted seeds and a dollop of sour cream (if using).

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¹ I think this would also be great with skinned split pigeon peas (toor dal). Although you'd likely need to adjust the cooking time somewhat as I think they generally cook a bit faster than split peas. ^Back

I was going to make miche as my next sourdough recipe. But then I saw that this new sourdough naan recipe had been posted. And it looked nice and easy to put together. And I figured that it would complement the dal I had planned for dinner well. So I figured why not?!

I've made sourdough naan before. And it was pretty good. But I'm always game for trying new recipes. And this one was a bit different, since it's meant to use sourdough discard (mostly for a bit of flavour) and then adds a generous quantity of commercial yeast to do the actual leavening. (Hence my categorization of it as a "faux sourdough".)

I liked how this naan came out in the end. Although I did have to adjust the recipe fairly significantly. I don't know if it was written for a much higher hydration starter or if there was just a typo in the quantities or what... (A pox on sourdough recipes that don't specify the hydration of the starter!) But, whatever the underlying issue, the dough was way too dry when made according to the recipe. I ended up working in an extra 120g of starter and still needed to add a few extra teaspoons of water to get it to come together into something workable. And, honestly, I think the overall hydration was still a bit on the low side. Next time I might try working even more water into it. I was just trying not to go too crazy with it this time.

Faux Sourdough Naan

Slightly adapted from King Arthur Flour

Ingredients

• 420g hard (strong/high grade/bread) flour
• 120g plain yogurt
• 240g sourdough discard @ 100% hydration
• 120-150g water
• 2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast
• 1 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. sugar
• 3 Tbsp. ghee
• extra ghee, sea salt, and/or spices (optional)

Directions

1. Combine the flour, yogurt, discard, 120g of the water, yeast, salt, and sugar and mix until the dough comes together.
2. Turn out and knead for 1-2 minutes.
3. Work in the ghee 1 Tbsp. at a time.
4. If the dough seems too stiff, wet your hands and continue kneading. Repeat until enough moisture has been added.
5. Place in covered bowl to rise for 1-2 hours.
6. Knock back and divide into 100g portions.
7. Round each portion, cover, and proof at room temperature for ~30 minutes.
8. Heat a tawa or cast iron pan over medium heat.
9. Working with one portion of dough at a time, flatten into a round.
10. Wet one side thoroughly and place the naan, wet-side-down, onto the tawa. Sprinkle with desired toppings, cover, and cook for 1-2 minutes.
11. Flip and cook, uncovered, for another 1-2 minutes.
12. Brush with ghee and wrap in a clean tea towel while the remaining naan are cooked in the same fashion. (Shape each one while the previous one cooks.)
13. Serve immediately.

This recipe claimed to be for stew, but it's definitely more of a soup. I even cut the broth by 1/3 and it was still more of a soup than a stew. A delicious soup, to be sure, but still a soup.

I ended up using chicken sausage instead of the turkey called for because I found some on sale and used spinach instead of kale (which I doubled, since the 125g called for didn't seem like nearly enough). I also went with a mix of pot barley and pearled wheat because I got wheat instead of barley by accident when I was at the grocery store restocking. Whoops! That said, both grains seemed to work just fine, so I wouldn't hesitate to use either (or both) again in the future.

It was interesting that the recipe called for cooking the barley separately and then adding it to the soup later. I'm used to just adding the uncooked grains to the soup and letting them cook in the broth. I think I'd be tempted to try it that way next time, just to see if doing it that way makes a noticeable difference.

Spinach, Chicken Sausage, and Barley Soup

Slightly adapted from Dish of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 2 c. water
• 1 c. pearl barley (and/or pearled wheat)
• 500g chicken (or turkey) sausage
• up to 4 c. chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 4-5 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 small (~400mL) can diced tomatoes
• 250g frozen chopped spinach (or kale)
• salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Bring water to a boil.
2. Add the barley and cook until tender¹.
3. Drain the barley and set aside. (I reserved the cooking liquid and used it to poach the sausages rather than pan-frying them.)
4. Either pan-fry the sausages in a little oil until well-browned on all sides or poach them in some water (or the residual barley cooking liquid until cooked through. Set aside.
5. Measure out the residual cooking liquid (if you reserved it) and add enough stock to bring the total volume up to 4 c. Set aside.
6. Heat the oil over medium heat.
7. Add the onion and garlic and cook until softened (4-5 minutes).
8. Slice the sausages and return to pot. Cook for another 5 minutes.
9. Add the tomatoes and chicken stock and bring to a boil.
10. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer for 10 minutes.
11. Add the barley and spinach and cook until heated through (4-5 minutes).
12. Season to taste with salt and pepper and serve.

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¹ This took ~25 minutes for my mix of pot barley and pearled wheat. Pearl barley may cook somewhat faster, I'm not sure. ^Back

This is a nice vegetable side. It's fast, easy, and surprisingly tasty. I quite liked it!

Honey-Lemon Carrot Salad

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1/2 Tbsp. honey
• 2 Tbsp. white wine or sherry vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. olive oil
• 1/4 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 500g carrots, grated
• 1/3 c. sultanas or golden raisins
• 1/4 c. sliced almonds¹
• 1 Tbps. chopped flat-leaf parsley

Directions

1. Combine the honey, vinegar, and lemon juice and mix well.
2. Whisk in the olive oil and salt.
3. Add the carrots, sultanas, almonds, and parsley and toss to combine.

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¹ I was all out of sliced almonds, so I used sliced hazelnuts for my salad instead. ^Back

This was really, really good! The passionfruit curd was incredibly delicious. And the meringue and fresh fruit complemented it very well. I would 1000% make this again. (Although I'd try to be a bit more careful with the meringue next time. The curd burst through the side of the meringue this time and made a bit of a mess. It was still delicious, just not very aesthetic.)

Mango-Passionfruit Pavlova

Slightly adapted from Dessert of the Day by Kim Laidlaw

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites
• 1/2 tsp. malt vinegar
• 1 c. sugar
• 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Curd

• 2 large eggs
• 4 large egg yolks
• 3/4 c. sugar
• 1/2 c. unsalted butter
• 1/2 c. passionfruit juice¹
• juice of 1 lime

Assembly

• 1 1/2 c. plain Greek yogurt
• 2 mangoes, sliced
• 3 passionfruit

Directions

Meringue

1. Preheat oven to 165°C (325°F) and line a baking sheet with parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.
2. Place the egg whites in a clean bowl with the vinegar and whisk until frothy.
3. Continue whisking on high speed while gradually adding the sugar (~1 Tbsp. at a time).
4. Beat until stiff peaks form.
5. Beat in the cornstarch.
6. Spoon the meringue onto the prepared baking sheet and shape into a large bowl.
7. Bake at 165°C (325°F) for 3 minutes.
8. Reduce temperature to 120°C (250°F) and bake for another hour.
9. Turn off oven and let meringue stand in hot oven for 2-3 hours.

Curd

1. Combine the eggs, egg yolks, and sugar and mix well.
2. Combine the butter and passionfruit juice over medium-low heat and cook until the butter is melted.
3. Gradually stir in the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
4. Stir in the lime juice.
5. Cook, stirring frequently, until the mixture thickens enough to coat the back of a spoon (10-20 minutes).
6. Cover and chill for at least 2 hours.

Assembly

1. Transfer the merginue to a serving platter.
2. Pour the curd into the meringue.
3. Spoon the yogurt on top of the curd.
4. Arrange the mango slices on top.
5. Cut the passionfruit in half, scoop out the pulp, and spoon it onto the pavlova.
6. Serve immediately.

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¹ I couldn't find any straight-up passionfruit juice. They had passionfruit "drink" (which appeared to be cut with applejuice) and passionfruit-mango juice (which had mango juice and mango pulp added to it along with the passionfruit juice). I decided that since it was going to be topped with mango anyway, the passionfruit-mango blend would be the better match. And I think that was the right choice! It was so, so good. Like I said, would absolutely make this again! ^Back

I really liked this broccoli! It had an excellent deliciousness-to-effort ratio. You just mix up all the dressing ingredients in a bowl, then boil the broccoli for a couple minutes, drain it, toss it with the dressing, sprinkle with some sesame seeds, and you're done!

The broccoli is cooked, but still has a bit of bite to it. The miso and soy sauce give you a bit hit of salt and umami that nicely balances the very slight hint of bitterness from the broccoli. The lemon juice lends a note of sourness without being overwhelming. And the toasted sesame oil and seeds give a mild nuttiness to round things out.

It's honestly great just like that. But if you want to add another layer to the flavours, you can go for something a bit spicy as well. I think Laoganma goes particularly well here. (Then again, I think Laoganma goes well just about everywhere, so maybe take my opinions on this with a grain of salt.)

Broccoli with Sesame-Soy Dressing

Slightly adapted from Vegetable of the Day by Kate McMillan

Ingredients

• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp. light soy sauce
• 1 tsp. miso paste¹
• 2 tsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. sugar²
• 500-600g broccoli florets
• 1 Tbsp. sesame seeds, toasted

Directions

1. Combine the sesame oil, soy sauce, miso paste, lemon juice, and sugar (if using) and mix well.
2. Bring a large pot of water to a boil.
3. Add the broccoli and boil until tender-crisp (2-3 minutes).
4. Drain broccoli thoroughly and toss it with the dressing.
5. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve.

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¹ The recipe didn't specify what type of miso to use, so I just used white because that's what I had on hand. Feel free to experiment with different types of miso paste if you have them available though! ^Back
2 So... I completely forgot to add the sugar to my dressing. That said, I liked it just fine without the sugar. I might try adding it next time just to compare. But, personally, I would consider the sugar optional here. Follow your heart! ^Back