I have mixed feelings about this recipe. It was tasty and I enjoyed it, but I didn't really feel that it was optimally tasty. Also, the meatballs were very soft. I realize that they're probably supposed to be like that -- very tender and all -- but I didn't really care for the texture. I like my meatballs to have a bit more chew to them. And being so soft also made them very difficult to handle. I've reduced the amount of panade called for in the recipe below and added an egg. Hopefully that'll help make the meatballs a bit sturdier.

I've made some notes in the Creole seasoning post about what I'd do differently there next time. But a sub-optimal spice mix wasn't the only problem. TF and I both felt that there was somehting missing. I said that I thought it needed an acidic component. I actually tried stirring a teaspoon of balsamic vinegar into the leftovers after we'd all had our dinner tonight, and that did help some. But it still wasn't quite right.

Now that I'm looking at the recipe again, I see that we were meant to serve it with Louisiana-style hot sauce. That probably would have added that acidic component I was looking for! I am slightly annoyed that both white rice and hot sauce are called out as "important parts of the mix" in the preamble, but then only white rice is mentioned in the actual recipe. If it's so important, put it in the recipe! Oh well, now I know that, should I ever be making these meatballs again, they really need to be served with a highly acidic hot sauce to balance out all the flavours.

Cajun Meatball Fricassee

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country August/September 2020

Ingredients

Meatballs

• 40g saltines, crushed
• 1/2 c. milk
• 2 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• 900g ground beef
• 1 large egg
• 1 c. grated Parmesan cheese
• 1 Tbsp. Creole seasoning
• 1/2 Tbsp. dried thyme
• 1 tsp. black peppercorns, ground

Stew

• 1/3 c. oil
• 1/3 c. flour
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 bell pepper, chopped
• 1-2 ribs celery, chopped
• 2 slices streaky bacon¹, cut into 1cm pieces
• 6 scallions (green onions), chopped, whites and greens separated
• 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1/2 tsp. Creole seasoning
• 1L chicken stock
• 1 Tbsp. Worcestershire sauce
• cooked rice, to serve
• Louisiana-style hot sauce, to serve

Directions

Meatballs

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F) and set a wire rack in a baking sheet lined with foil or a silicone baking mat.
2. Grease the rack.
3. Combine saltines, milk, and Worcestershire sauce, mix, and let stand for 5 minutes.
4. Whisk saltine mixture until smooth.
5. Add beef, Parmesan, Creole seasoning, thyme, and pepper and mix with hands.
6. Make 24 meatballs (a scant 1/4 c. each) and place on prepared wire rack.
7. Roast at 220°C (425°F) for ~25 minutes.

Stew

1. In Dutch oven, heat oil over medium heat until just smoking.
2. Stir in flour with rubber spatula and cook, stirring constantly, until roux is peanut butter coloured².
3. Reduce heat to low and continue cooking, stirring constantly, until the roux is the colour of milk chocolate.
4. Add the onion, bell pepper, celery, and bacon and cook for another 10 minutes.
5. Add scallion whites, garlic, and Creole seasoning and cook for a minute longer.
6. Whisk in broth and Worcestershire sauce and bring to a boil over medium-high heat.
7. Add meatballs.
8. Reduce heat to low and cook, covered, for 20 minutes.
9. Uncover, increase heat to medium-high and cook, stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened (10-12 minutes).
10. Serve over rice and top with scallion greens and hot sauce.

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¹ I didn't have any bacon, so I tossed in a bit of pancetta instead. ^Back
2 The recipe said that this should be done at medium-high heat and take 2-5 minutes. But my roux was already peanut butter coloured after barely a minute! The rest of the cooking was supposed to take a further 5-10 minutes, but mine only needed 2 to reach the milk chocolate stange. I've reduced the temperatures here to try to get the timing more in line with the recipe. (I wasn't even using induction for this, so I don't know why it went so much faster than the recip expected.) ^Back

So, I've been going through cookbooks trying to find a use for some excess egg yolks that I've been hanging on to in the fridge. I sa a recipe for an egg-yolk-only white chocolate mousse in an issue of Cook's Country. That put me on to the idea of mousse in general and I figured I'd check the plain chocolate mousse recipe (in a different issue of Cook's Country) as well as seeing what Edmonds had to say on the topic of chocolate mousse.

Well, it turns out that I'd already made the Edmonds chocolate mousse and just forgotten to write it up. (Looked familiar once I was actually reading it, just didn't remember before I got the book out.)

This recipe doesn't help me with my egg yolk dilemma as it uses whole eggs, but it should still be written up. I was happy with how it came out if I recall correctly, and it's a fairly easy dessert to make.

Chocolate Mousse

From Edmonds Cookery Book

Ingredients

• 100g dark chocolate
• 2 Tbsp. water or espresso
• 4 large eggs, separated
• 1 Tbsp. rum or cointreau
• whipped cream, to serve

Directions

1. Chop the chocolate and place it in a heatproof bowl with the water/espresso.
2. Set the bowl over a pot of boiling water and heat for 5 minutes.
3. Remove from heat and stir gently until combined.
4. Beat the egg yolks until fluffy.
5. Gradually stir in the wearm chocolate mixture.
6. Mix in the rum/cointreau.
7. Beat the egg whites to stiff peaks.
8. Add half of the egg whites to the chocolate mixture and stir to combine. (Don't worry about deflating them at this point. The goal is just to loosen the mixture a little bit.)
9. Add the remaining egg white and gently fold into the chocolate mixture until no longer streaky. (NOW you want to be careful not to deflate it too much.)
10. Spoon into 4 small or 1 large dish and chill¹ for 1-2 hours.
11. Served topped with whipped cream.

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¹ Edmonds recommends putting the mousse somewhere cool, but not cold to set. They note that if set in the fridge, the mousse may become too firm. I set mine in the fridge anyway and just checked it fairly frequently to see when it was set enough, but not too firm. Keeping it slightly warmer (probably somewhere in the 6-10°C range) would probably avoid the risk of overly hard mousse, but I'd also worry about food safety at those temperatures. Especially given the raw egg in this recipe. My preference would be to store it colder, get it to set up as quickly as possible, and eat it sooner. Less chance of any nasties having a chance to multiply and cause problems that way. ^Back

This was phenomenal! I mean, it was really, incredibly, unreasonably good. The chicken was delicious, but the veggies and the pan drippings really stole the show. And it used up a bunch of ingredients that really needed to be used. So... bonus!

I don't cook whole chickens very often. (Usually only when my parents have given us one.) And I've only cooked a spatchcocked chicken once. And I've never done the spatchcocking myself before today. It went pretty smoothly in the end. Although this has convinced me that I need some proper kitchen shears and not just the scissors that came with this knife set. I also couldn't get the wing tips to stay tucked under the breasts like I was supposed to. In the end, I decided to just cut them off and toss them in the InstantPot along with the spine and all the vegetable scraps. I figured if they weren't going to cooperate, they might as well enrich the stock.

I didn't have any fresh thyme, so I ended up tinkering with the spice rub a little bit. It's still pretty much the same. The main issue is that swapping out the fresh thyme for dried changes the proportions a bit since you only need ~1/3 as much dried thyme as fresh. It still worked out amazingly well though, so I'm okay with the altered proportions. (I also decided to use a mix of sweet and hot paprika since I didn't have any smoked. Follow your heart as to which paprika is best for you!)

Cast Iron Chicken and Vegetables

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2021

Ingredients

Spice Rub

• 4 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 2 tsp. dried thyme
• 2 tsp. granulated garlic
• 2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1 tsp. paprika (smoked, hot, sweet, or a mix)

Chicken and Vegetables

• 450g potatoes¹
• 1 large or 2 small fennel bulbs², trimmed and cut into wedges
• 1 red onion, peeled and cut into wedges
• 225g carrots, peeled and halved crosswise³
• 1 (1.4-1.8kg) chicken
• 2 Tbsp. oil, divided

Sauce

• 3 Tbsp. olive oil
• 2 Tbsp. chopped flat-leaf parsley
• 1 1/2 Tbsp. lemon juice
• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. spice rub

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 220°C (425°F).
2. Combine all the ingredients for the spice rub and set aside.
3. Prep all your veggies. Keep the potatoes separate and submerge them in cold water to stop them from oxidizing.
4. Place the chicken breast-side-down and cut along both sides of the spine with kitchen shears. (You can use the spine for making soup/stock.)
5. Flip the chicken over and press it flat.
6. Tuck the wing tips under the breast. Cut them off if they won't stay put.
7. Make a cut ~1cm deep between the leg and the thigh.
8. Flip the chicken breast-side-down, and sprikle with ~1 Tbsp. of the spice mixture.
9. Filp it back over and drizzle the skin side with 1 Tbsp. of the oil. Then sprinkle with ~5 tsp. of the spice mixture.
10. Heat a large (30cm/12") cast iron pan over medium heat for 5 minutes. (Less if using induction.)
11. Add the remaining 1 Tbsp. of oil to the pan.
12. Place the potatoes in the pan, cut-side-down.
13. Add the carrots, fennel, and onion to the pan, trying to get as much pan contact as possible.
14. Sprinkle ~1 tsp. of the spice rub over the veggies.
15. Place the chicken on top of the veggies.
16. Transfer the pan to the oven and roast at 220°C (425°F) until chicken is done (~1 hour).
17. Meanwhile, make the sauce by whisking all the sauce ingredients together. Set aside.
18. Remove the chicken from the pan and return the veggies to the oven for another 15 minutes.
19. Either carve the chicken, top with sauce, and serve with veggies or return the chicken to the pan and drizzle the sauce over it, then carve and serve.

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¹ The recipe calls for small Yukon Gold potatoes no more than 3 or 4cm in diameter which are then cut in half. I already had a bunch of potatoes that needed to be used up, so I wasn't about to go out and buy more. I used the large potatoes and just cut them into eighths instead of halves. This seemed to work out just fine. The potatoes were beyond delicious! ^Back
2 The recipe calls for a 450g bulb of fennel and mentions that you should be adding 250g of fennel wedges to the pan after trimming. ^2
3 If your carrots are very large, you will likely want to halve them lengthwise as well. ^Back

I wanted to make a nice breakfast for everybody this morning. We had all the ingredients for this hash (more-or-less) and it looked tasty, so that's what I made.

I meant to add a few shishito peppers and/or a bell pepper to the mix when making this, but I completely forgot! Might be something worth considering for next time if we have any kicking around.

Corned Beef Hash

Slightly adapted from Cook's Country February/March 2021

Ingredients

• 450g russet potatoes, cubed
• 340g cooked corned beef¹, cubed
• 3 c. shredded green cabbage
• 1 onion, halved and sliced
• 2-4 carrots, peeled and cubed
• 2 Tbsp. oil
• 2-3 cloves garlic, sliced
• 2 tsp. fresh thyme (or 3/4 tsp. dried)
• 2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/2 Tbsp. ground mustard
• 1/2 tsp. coarse sea salt
• 1/2 tsp. allspice berries, ground
• 1/4 c. unsalted butter, cut into 16 pieces

Directions

1. Combine potatoes, beef, cabbage, onion, carrot, oil, garlic, thyme, pepper, mustard, salt, and allspice in a large bowl and toss to coat.
2. Heat a large pan over medium heat and add hash mixture to pan.
3. Cover and cook on medium or medium-low for 20 minutes.
4. Remove from heat and mash with potato masher.
5. Spread mashed mixture evenly in bottom of pan.
6. Add butter pieces around the edge of the pan and return to medium or medium-low heat.
7. Cook, uncovered, without stirring, for 5-7 minutes.
8. Flip over. (Not all at once. Flip one spatula-sized section at a time.)
9. Cook 2 more minutes.
10. Flip once more and cook another 2 minutes.
11. Serve with fried eggs, buttered toast, and/or hot sauce.

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¹ This recipe calls for corned beef left over from a boiled dinner (or chopped up thick slices from the deli counter). I didn't have that, but I did have a 340g tin of corned beef, so I just used that. ^Back

I found myself with a surplus of egg whites after making my pumpkin pie cupcakes the other day. I've been hanging on to them in the fridge with the idea that maybe I could work out something to do with them. I tossed around a few ideas, but these days pavlova is my go-to for using up excess egg whites. Sure I could toss them into a quiche or make an angel food cake, white cake, or friands... but pavlova is just so easy to throw together. And there are so many different flavour combinations to try!

My first pavlova was just a plain vanilla meringue with stewed boysenberries and whipped cream. The next time around I got a little more adventerous; the meringue was still plain vanilla, but I topped it with chocolate mousse and macerated cherries for a black forest sort of vibe. One of my favourites so far has been the spiced cherry pavlova: vanilla meringue, plain Greek yogurt, passion fruit, and stewed spiced cherries. The ube pavlova was my first attempt at a adding different flavours to the meringue. That one consisted of an ube (purple yam) meringue topped with coconut-flavoured Greek yogurt and fresh mango. I think it would've benefitted from a bit of ube extract (in addition to the ube powder) in the meringue and some toasted coconut or coconut extract with the yogurt to help boost the coconut's presence, but it was pretty good over all.

This pavlova follows a similar theme of meringue + whipped cream + fruit. But the meringue gets a bit of dark chocolate swirled through it just before baking. The berries can be pretty much whatever you have on hand. The original recipe called for a combination of strawberries, raspberries, blackberries, and cherries. I ended up using mostly strawberries with a few blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries mixed in. The berries are "mulled" by steeping in a mixture of apple juice (or red wine), orange juice, cinnamon, star anise, and cloves. I was using frozen berries rather than fresh and found the resulting mixture a bit more soupy than I would have liked. I think I'd cut back on the apple juice next time to help alleviate this. And I'd also be inclined to add a few more spices to really lean into the "mulled" aspect: maybe a bit of allspice and some black pepper?

Overall though, this came out great. The chocolate marbling actually worked pretty well. The chocolate flavour came through nicely. And the mulled berries, malted cream, and bitter-sweet chocolate-y meringue all complemented each other nicely. I'd definitely make it again. That is... if there weren't so many other flavour combinations to try!

Dark Chocolate Marbled Pavlova with Malted Whipped Cream and Mulled Berries

Adapted from Taste.com.au

Ingredients

Meringue

• 4 large egg whites¹
• 1/2 tsp. cream of tartar (or white vinegar)
• 1 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)
• 220g sugar
• 100g dark chocolate, melted

Berries

• 2-3 whole cloves
• 2 star anise
• 2-3 allspice berries
• 3-4 black peppercorns
• 1 orange
• 125mL apple juice (or red wine)²
• 1/4 c. brown sugar³
• 1 (7-8cm) cinnamon stick
• 450g frozen mixed berries⁴
• 1/2 Tbsp. cornstarch (cornflour)

Cream

• 300mL heavy (35%) cream
• 2 Tbsp. malted milk powder (eg. Ovaltine)
• 1 Tbsp. icing (powdered/confectioners') sugar
• 1/4 tsp. vanilla extract

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 120°C (250°F).
2. Beat the egg whites on low speed for ~1 minute.
3. Add the cream of tartar, increase to medium speed, and beat for another minute or two.
4. Add the cornstarch and beat for another minute.
5. Increase speed to high and begin adding the sugar ~1 Tbsp. at a time.
6. Once meringue is thick, glossy, and forms stiff peaks, stop beating it.
7. Drizzle in the melted chocolate and fold it through a few times. Don't mix it too thoroughly or it won't be marbled!
8. Scoop the meringue onto a baking sheet and shape as desired. I like making a large meringue bowl/nest. You can pipe it onto the baking sheet if you want to be fancy, but I never bother.
9. Bake at 120°C (250°F) for 65-75 minutes.
10. Turn off oven and leave meringue inside to cool. (At least an hour, but as long as overnight.)
11. Meanwhile, place the cloves, star anise, allspice, and peppercorns into a muslin or cheesecloth pouch.
12. Zest and juice the orange.
13. Add the spice bag, orange zest, brown sugar, and cinnamon stick to the apple juice and bring to a boil over medium heat.
14. Boil the juice mixture for 7-8 minutes.
15. Add the berries and continue cooking until the mixture returns to a boil.
16. Boil for an additional 5 minutes.
17. Remove the spice bag.
18. Take a little juice out and mix it with the cornstarch. Pour this cornstarch mixture back into the pot and continue cooking for another minute or two.
19. Remove from heat and stir in orange juice.
20. Just before serving, combine the cream, malted milk powder, icing sugar, and vanilla extract.
21. Use an immersion blender⁵ to vigorously mix until the cream thickens and gets fairly stiff. If you stop whipping too soon, the cream will be runny. If you go too far, the cream will split into butter and buttermilk. If in doubt, err on the side of "runny".
22. Carefully transfer the cooled meringue to a serving platter.
23. Spoon the whipped cream onto it.
24. Spoon the mulled berries over the whole thing and serve immediately.

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¹ I ended up using 2 large and 3 small egg whites. Use your best judgement based on the size of your eggs. ^Back
2 The original recipe called for 250mL of apple juice or red wine, but it was also expecting fresh berries. I've reduced the amount of liquid and replace the fresh berries with frozen. Hopefully this should help make the final result a bit less soupy in the future. ^Back
3 The original recipe uses white (granulated) sugar. I used white sugar when I made this. I liked it just fine that way. But I think I might like it even better with brown sugar. I think it would give the mulling spices some extra depth. ^Back
4 The original recipe called for 150g each of strawberries and cherries + 125g each of blackberries and raspberries. All fresh. I used 550g of frozen mixed berries instead. This was fine, but I think it was a) too soupy and b) produced a bit too much topping relative to the meringue, so I've scaled back both the number of berries (slightly) and the amount of apple juice used to try to help with both of those issues. ^Back
5 You can use beaters (or even just a whisk) to make whipped cream. I advocate using a blender here because it produces a denser whipped cream that's more robust and resistant to deflating/melting than the lighter, airier whipped cream produced with a mixer/beaters/whisks. It'll be fine either way. This is just my preferred method. ^Back

Gamja Jorim (Spicy Braised Potatoes)

These potatoes are so good! I really love the spicy-sweet sauce.

Make sure to use vegetarian oyster sauce if you'd like this dish to be vegetarian. For a vegan dish, double-check to make sure the sugar you're using is vegan as well.

Gamja Jorim

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 500g potatoes
• 1 Tbsp. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. gochujang
• 1 Tbsp. gochugaru
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 2 Tbsp. light corn syrup
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil, divided
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 5 cloves garlic, halved
• 1 Tbsp. canola (or other neutral) oil
• 1 c. water
• 2 green onions, chopped
• 7 shishito peppers, halved and seeded
• 1 Tbsp. toasted sesame seeds

Directions

1. Peel the potatoes, cut them into 1.5cm cubes, and submerge them in cold water.
2. Mix the light soy, dark soy, gochujang, gochugaru, oyster sauce, sugar, corn syrup, 1/2 Tbsp. of the sesame oil, and the pepper together and set aside.
3. Heat a wok over medium-high heat.
4. Drizzle the canola oil down the sides of the wok and swirl to coat.
5. Drain the potaotes and add them to the wok along with the garlic. If desired, reserve 1 c. of the potato soaking water for use later in the recipe.
6. Stir-fry the potatoes and garlic for ~5 minutes.
7. Reduce heat to medium and add the sauce. Stiry-fry for another 2 minutes.
8. Add the water. (You may use the reserved potato water here if you'd like.)
9. Cook, stirring frequently, for 5-10 minutes.
10. Add the green onions, shishito peppers, and remaining 1/2 Tbsp. of sesame oil.
11. Sprinkle with sesame seeds and serve!

Galbijjim (Braised Short Ribs)

I've been wanting to try this recipe for a while now. I was really surprised to see how much fruit it contained! You want me to make the sauce/gravy for my beef stew out of apples, pears, and kiwi? Really?! But it's great!

We'd already eaten this year's supply of beef ribs by the time I was making this, so I ended up cutting up a sirloin steak to go in the pot instead. I realize that this doesn't really give you the authentic galbijjim experience, but it's what I had available and I'm pretty happy with the results.

Galbijjim

Slightly adapted from Aaron & Claire

Ingredients

• 900g Korean (brown) or Asian (yellow) pear
• 250g sweet apple (such as fuji or ambrosia)
• 150g kiwi
• 1 yellow onion (1/2 if it's large)
• 6 green onions (scallions), divided
• 3 c. water, divided
• 1/2 c. light (regular) soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp. oyster sauce
• 1 Tbsp. dark soy sauce
• 1/2 Tbsp. dasida (Korean beef stock powder)
• 3 Tbsp. mirin
• 3 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 Tbsp. sesame oil
• 1/2 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1.2kg bone-in beef short-ribs
• 300g daikon
• 200g carrot
• 125g fresh shiitake mushrooms
• 5 shishito peppers
• 1 red chile pepper, thinly sliced (optional)

Directions

1. Peel the pear, apple, kiwi, and onion and cut into large pieces.
2. Place pear, apple, kiwi, onion, and 2 of the green onions in a blender with 1 c. of the water.
3. Blend until smooth.
4. Add the light soy, oyster sauce, dark soy, dasida, mirin, sugar, sesame oil, and pepper to the blender and mix well.
5. Bring some water to a boil and blanch the ribs for 3-5 minutes.
6. Drain the ribs and return them to the pot.
7. Add the sauce from the blender.
8. Swish out the blender with the remaining 2 c. of water and add it to the pot with the ribs.
9. Bring to a boil.
10. Reduce heat to medium and cook, uncovered, for 50-60 minutes.
11. Meanwhile, peel the daikon and carrots and cut them crosswise into 2cm pieces. Bevel the edges of the pieces if you'd like to be extra fancy.
12. Clean and trim the shiitakes. Put some decorative cuts in the caps if you'd like.
13. Chop the remaining 4 green onions and halve and deseed the shishito peppers.
14. Once the beef has cooked for 50-60 minutes, add the daikon and cook for another 10-15 minutes.
15. Add the carrot and mushrooms and cook until sauce reaches desired consistency (15-20 minutes).
16. Add the green onions, shishito peppers, and red chile (if using).
17. Serve with rice.