The stuffing was excellent

I had bought the ingredients to try another Rick Bayless recipe: Ancho chiles stuffed with potato and chorizo with escabeche, which in this case is sort of like a quick sweet and sour pickle sauce. Well it sounded interesting and gave the opportunity to try some different techniques and flavours. I wouldn't say it was the most successful ever but I did learn something, so all good.

The escabeche was basically frying up some carrots, adding ground allspice, garlic, cider vinegar, piloncillo (unrefined Mexican sugar), water and onions. You get a sweet-tart sauce and into it let the ancho chiles sit and rehydrate for a while. Then cook up some potatoes and chorizo, split and clean the rehydrated chiles, then stuff them with the potato-chorizo mixture.

It is actually an appetizer but I made it as the main so we had a few each instead of just one and served it with salad and corn. Pretty good but not the best ever. I think there were a couple of reasons: 1. the ancho chiles I had were of varying quality. Some were really wrinkled and didn't soften up evenly, some had really thin skin and tore too easily, etc. etc. So every one was totally different. 2. The escabeche was okay - very tart and sweet - but I was not sure whether to serve it cold or warm. I didn't really want cold liquid on my dinner so heated it before serving.

But I try some new techniques: softening the dried chiles on a hot griddle, splitting and stuffing them, etc. And the potato and chorizo stuffing was really easy and can be translated into other things in the future for sure.

Nothing goes together better than chocolate & chili

I had been jonesing to make make a chili chocolate cake for some time and during Passover last month, I found this one online and decided to make it when we had guests from out of town. It was the dessert for a Mexican-themed seder-type meal (which was very delicious but did not have an hour of pre-amble from the Haggadah before we could partake of the repast, so to speak.) Anywho . . . more on that at another time! This cake doesn't have any flour or other leavining agents so it was perfect for Passover but that's not to hold me back from making it any time because it is SO delicious!

For my version, I used good quality Belgian chocolate and ground the dried chipotles myself in the mortar and pestle so the flavour was still strong and smokey. I definitely used more spices than the original recipe called for and also had goose eggs in the house so used those (1 goose egg = 4 regular eggs), which I think makes it richer. It comes out a lot like a brownie but with a bit of a kick. I could eat the whole thing myself, so it's a good thing there'll be others to share it!

Chipotle Flourless Chocolate Cake

• 285g of semisweet chocolate, roughly chopped
• 7 tablespoons (100g) of unsalted butter, cut into pieces
• 5 large eggs (or 1 goose egg and one regular egg), room temperature
• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
• 2 teaspoons of chipotle chili powder
• Dash or more of cayenne pepper
• Pinch of salt
• Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line the bottom of a 9 ½ inch springform pan with a circle of parchment paper. Grease the sides and the parchment with butter or non-stick cooking spray.

Melt the chocolate and butter together over a double boiler stirring occasionally until smooth.

Whisk together the eggs and the sugar in a large bowl, and then slowly, a bit at a time, whisk in the melted chocolate. Add the salt and spices and taste, adjusting the spices if needed.

Pour into the springform pan and bake for 25-32 minutes or until a toothpick comes out clean. Let it cool completely on a wire rack. Dust with powdered sugar and serve.

Butter chilies . . . I've never heard of them

G again at the keypad . . .

Tonight, and some other nights for inexplicable reasons, I felt the need to make a selection of veg curries for dinner. Unlike making a meat curry, I feel you can't just have one kind so if it's going to be veg, there's gotta be a selection. So it ends up being a bit of a madhouse in the kitchen and not always a roaring success.  The least successful part of this evening was the mushroom/pea/potato curry. I used pre-prepared curry powder and well it just ain't that good and there was not any thickness to the sauce. Sprinkled with some raita it was alright but I think I'm going to give the mushroom curries a pass from now on as I can't seem to get it right.

Second I made some butter paneer. I will admit it was pre-packaged sauce here too (I did make it all in a hour after getting home late!) and it was pretty good. The sauce was Mother's brand in a foil packet if you happen upon it. I bought it at Ambal Trading on Parliament St., where I get most of my south Asian goodies, including the roti/paratha and fresh paneer. There's also a fresh fish market in the back but I've not ever tried anything from there as I'm not so bold on the fish front.

But in my daily chili quest, I had to do something with the latest chili find I made last week at Ambal: butter chilies. Feast your eyes on these white babies.

And so tonight's effort was a red lentil dal that came out pretty terrific in the end. Here's my recipe - and it makes about 4 servings.

1 cup red lentils

3 cups water

3 dried butter chilies, chopped finely

1 small onion chopped finely

1 1/2 tbsp chopped ginger

3 tbsp oil

2 cloves chopped garlic

1 tsp tumeric

1 tsp cumin whole

3 tsp garam masala

1 1/2 tsp salt

Put the lentils and water on to boil for about 20 minutes. In the meantime, prepare all the other ingredients.

Add oil to a small frying pan and once hot add the onions and sautee for about 5 or 6 minutes. Add cumin and chilies and fry for a minute or so. Then add the garlic, ginger, garam masala and tumeric and fry for a few more minutes. You should have a nice soft, oily spice mixture.

Once the lentils are soft and cooked, turn off the heat, stir in the onion and spice mixture and add salt to taste.  Let is sit for a few minutes for all the flavours to get jiggy with each other and then serve and enjoy.

Wine & chocolate & extraordinary women

G here again . . . feeling the need to share on the nibblies front.

Last week I was invited by a law firm to it's "5th annual extraordinary women's wine and chocolate extravaganza." I'm supposing it's because I'm so extraordinary that I made it on to the invite list . . . hmm.

Anywho, walked in the door and was met with a glass of champagne with a little raspberry in the bottom and really, that's the way to start off any event. In fact, I think each workday should begin in that fashion and it would all just be so much more pleasant.

The chocolates on offer were from Stubbe Chocolates and choclatier Daniel Stubbe was on hand to chat about his creations. There were six chocolates paired with wines. Now I will say that I tried all the chocolates but not all the wines, although I did give a couple a go.

First up (and I did not take any photos) and because I may have mentioned that I'm on a chili binge, I had the rasampatti chili with bittersweet chocolate. This was a ganache filled offering made with a not-too-hot Indian chili that gave a sweet first taste then gradually left you with a bit of the chili heat. It was paired with Ricossa Moscato D'Asti, a sweet dessert wine that really added a depth and roundness to the chocolate. I had a few tastes of this one! It was my favourite. Daniel said he had spent quite a lot of time using different chilis to get one that worked with this and that it's always a bit of a challenge using chilis which get spicier as the days go by. This was still fairly mild as he said they'd only been made a few days before.

Secondly I tried the solid pink peppercorns on dark semisweet chocolate, which was also delicious. It was paired with the Muskoka Lakes Windery Red Maple, a dessert wine made with cranberries and maple syrup. Again a nice sweet wine against the spicy chocolate. Liked this one as well. The chocolatier again said he'd experimented with different types of peppercorns and finds the pink ones to be the best for the chocolate as it is more delicate than black or white.

The most unusual one I tried was the hard lemongrass in bittersweet chocolate, which actually had a really refreshing taste to it, just as you would imagine lemongrass would. Nice and light. The third and last of the hard chocolates was a wild fennel in semisweet chocolate, which was not too licorice-tasting and really quite pleasant.

There were two other ganache-filled options: Tanzania dark chocolate, which was a straight-up deliciously deep chocolate and balsamic vinegar in dark chocolate, a taste sensation. The trick to the balsamic filling is using a vinegar that's about 5 years old, nothing to dense or fancy, apparently. You need to have a bit of the tartness and if you use well-aged balsamic it's too sweet and often too viscous.

All in all a really fun evening chatting about chocolate and ingredients. And we got a little box of treats to take home.

Goat chops alla diavolla

Again, J is away so it's time to break into the goat that is still in the freezer from the farm. This time it's chops. I'd not opened the packages so was not sure what to expect but I think they were loin chops. Anywho, was going to do some Indian-style but that required hours of marinating and a lot of ingredients and I was in the mood for quick. So I adapted an Italian lamb chop recipe I found online and it was pretty good and had a bit of a kick to it as well, so that fit the bill for my current need to eat chilis every day (and I don't mean the restaurant chain!)

So here it is:

If you have one, toss the chops onto the bbq, if you don't then settle for the frying or grill pan like I did. Cook them to your liking.

The sauce is simple. A few cloves of garlic sauteed in olive oil with some hot pepper flakes. Now I was only making one serving and used two cloves of garlic, which wasn't enough, so use as much as you need for your liking of the garlic and pepper flakes. Once the garlic gets a bit brown, splash some white wine in there. Chop up a good handful of parsley and once the wine has burned off all the alcohol and evaporated a bit, toss in the parsley just so it gets covered in the hot-garlicky oil and gets the flavours. You don't really want the parsley to cook.

Once the chops are done, put the parsley sauce over the chops. I served it with some steamed asparagus. Add a bit of fresh lemon juice to the whole thing and serve. The entire preparation of the dish took maybe 20 minutes.

And while goat may not appeal to most people, it is really delicious. The flavour is less strong than lamb but with a bit more oomph than beef. It is also much less greasy, and lower cholesterol than lamb. I can't account for comparison with pork chops . . .  Try 'em if you find 'em, you never know.

Chili me this Batman...

Chili. It's good. I love a big pot of chili with meat and beans and tomatoey goodness.

But G can't eat beans anymore (booooo!) and so chili has not made much of an appearance this fall. Until I decided that we would give beanless chili a go. Dare we try chili without the lovely lovely beans? Would we be forced to have it with spaghetti like Cincinnati chili? NO!


Not only does the chili not need beans, it can be full of weird stuff and still taste good. (New camera coupled with it getting dark at 4:30 means pictures are suffering once again. Sigh.)

This chili was a breeze to make, seemed a little iffy, but was absolutely delicious. I promise. REALLY! Make some...

Take some onion, carrot, yellow/red pepper, garlic, and sweet potato, chop it up to all about the same size, and cook in a little bit of cooking spray in a very hot pan. Add drips of water if it feels like it's sticking. After it's cooked for a bit, put it chili powder, oregano, dried mustard, and a sprinkle of dried ginger. Take out of the pan. Start browning the leanest ground beef you can find, breaking it up the whole while. If the meat is greasy, strain and spray with water to remove as much fat as possible (I find this is really important to ensure that any leftovers aren't overly greasy). Add the veggies and stir through. Add a big can of diced tomatoes, and heat through until a lot of the liquid has evaporated and the veggies are soft. Serve on soft polenta with a little shredded old cheddar.


We were so not sure about this one while it was cooking, but not only was it positively delicious, it was even better the next day. The chili had a bit of heat from the chili powder with just a little bit of sweet from the carrot and sweet potato. They got very soft in the cooking, so it wasn't even a little cloying. The polenta was just a nice (and low point) alternative to rice! Enjoy!

When the Cat's Away...

I have been going back and forth between my "old" camera and my "new" camera based on what I am up to, so I keep finding all of these things that I have yet to post about... so I decided to do a hodgepodge of things that have yet to be posted...

While G was in Israel, I decided to try some new things. Oddly, my new things are often variations on my old things, but whatever. In the spirit of new things, I really wanted to try to make a baked eggs. But I didn't want to bake them. So instead, I took some leftover canned chopped tomato that I had in the fridge, added some spice, cooked the moisture out and added two eggs. Once they were cooked (over-cooked, I admit sheepishly), I grated some white cheddar on them, which made the eggs look very albino.

I then served them on top of corn tortillas on top of beans. It was like a huevos ranchero. It was... okay. I think the tomatoes either needed to cook longer or needed more spices added. They still tasted kind of tinny. The beans were excellent, as beans almost always are, and the eggs just needed to have been cooked a bit less. BUT, it was a good try...

I know I've mentioned it before, but I really do love almost all things pork related. And I also love all things baked pasta related. So this recipe, Baked Pasta with Spinach, Ricotta and Prosciutto from Martha Stewart really seemed to fit the bill...



And I emphasize, it SEEMED to fit the bill. First things first. I didn't like the idea of the prosciutto in the pasta, so I used cooked bacon to which I also added some garlic. And I bought frozen spinach from Whole Foods that was so stringy it was really fairly vile. And I added a little bit of chopped tomato to the mix to liven it up. But it was still fairly bland. I wouldn't make this one again... but if you try it, let me know. It just wasn't that great, to be honest, but it has potential. I much prefer Nigella Lawson's baked ricotta pasta shells. I find that with the really cheesey pasta, you need some tomato sauce to cut through the richness... And if you want to know how much I didn't like it... I threw away the leftovers. Which never happens.

We also had our 'it's fall so it's chili' chili.


There are so many different ways to eat chili. I love chili and rice, and have even been known to enjoy a chili on spaghetti. But my all time favorite chili accompaniment really has to be chili with crackers and cheese. It's how we ate it when I was kid, and it's how I prefer them now.

This Sunday, we are moving away from the chili and I am going to make bbq chicken. I made a version at the cottage, but I am going to do it a bit differently tomorrow... stay tuned for that!

And then, there was the most excellently amazing lasagna that I made...


Whoa. Yeah. That's pretty good. I made it pretty similar to how my Mom does, browned meat with crushed tomatoes, lots of herbs, onion and garlic. Cook for about an hour to really thicken it up. I used President's Choice fresh lasagna sheets, which you don't boil (and they completely ruled). Then I just layered sauce with cheese and noodles. Pretty typical.

Nothing overly complicated, really, but everything delicious. G raved about it for days, and we greedily ate the leftovers!

Chili Sunday.

My Mom was visiting for about 10 days, and we jammed pack those 10 days! So last Sunday, we decided to kick bac and watch football all day. What do you eat when you wanna relax and watch football?

CHILI!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh yeah! A big ol' bowl of chili.

Football watching is really one my favorite fall activities. I find that I can watch football, thumb through magazines, fold laundry, make dinner, look outside at the falling leaves, and just relax. You aren't required to sit and watch non-stop, there's a replay if you miss it and someone in the next room yells YOU GOTTA SEE THIS! But I also love making fun game food. I find that I do chili quite often because it ticks all of the boxes, it's thick, it's eaten in a bowl, you can eat it with cheese, it's meaty and it cooks all day and just smells amazing.

I make my chili pretty simply... I start with ground beef and onion, brown it up. Put it in salt and pepper, chili powder to taste, powdered mustard, ancho, and stir it up to heat up the spices. Then come in the big guns. A can of whole tomatoes, tomato juice (v8 is great!), and the beans (two cans in this one). Let it cook and keep trying it for seasoning (and because you can't wait!).

So, we watched football. We ate chili with rice. We read magazines (I am trying to get my Mom interested in food magazines). And we just had a nice Sunday.

I only really see my Mom a couple of times a year, and it's really strange when we first get together because it's a bit like you're seeing a familiar stranger, even though we talk almost every day on the telephone. But then it all starts to work itself out and you end up just laughing and chatting and making chili.