Pear and Goat Cheese tartlets

A very delicious appetizer! It is a bit time consuming but so good!

Pear and Goat Cheese Phyllo Tart lets

4 tsp butter
2 onions, finely chopped
2 cups ripe pears, finely chopped, cored and peeled
1 tsp granulated sugar
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
pinch salt
3 sheets phyllo pastry
2 tbsp melted butter
300g creamy goat cheese
2 cloves garlic, minced
pinch salt
24 whole fresh sage leaves

(shopping tips- I suggest buying the goat cheese at Costco or Superstore, it is going to be expensive at your local grocery store for that much. Also, I have never used the sage leaves as they aren't always that easy to find and it is more of a garnish that looks pretty that anything else) Preheat oven to 400.

1) Melt 3 tsp of the butter over medium heat in a fry pan, cook onions for 5 minutes, stir occasionally.
2) Add remaining butter and the chopped pears, cook, stirring occasionally. It should take about 10 minutes until the pears are tender and turning brown.
3) Add sugar, vinegar and a pinch of salt. Cook, stirring until most of the liquid is evaporated. About 2 minutes. Let this mixture cool to room temperature. This can be stored and refrigerated for a day, This way you could do it ahead of time to save time, also if you are having people over you may not want your place to smell like onions!
4) Place one sheet of phyllo pastry, brush sheet with some of the melted butter. Lay a second sheet of phyllo pastry on top, brush with butter, add a third sheet and brush this with butter.
5) Cat layered phyllo lengthwise into 4 strips and crosswise into 6 strips to make 24 squares. Press the squares into mini muffin trays.
6) Mix together goat cheese, garlic and the last pinch of salt. Put 1 tsp of pear mixture and top with 2 tsp of goat cheese mixture, smooth the cheese mixture down on top. Garnish with sage leaf if you have them.
7) Bake for 10 minutes or until pastry is golden and filling is hot. Serve warm, also taste good cold! Makes 24 tarts. I found that it makes more like 30 tarts, but I guess it depends on how accurate you are with your measuring too.

Christmas Baking

Last week I decided it was time to start some Christmas baking. This year I decided I wanted to make shortbread, gingerbread and sugar cookies. When I was at the grocery store waiting in line, I started browsing through the Martha Stewart Christmas issue. I decided to pick it up to maybe find a new Christmas recipe to try. Also, since she is my blog name inspiration, it seemed appropriate. She had a recipe that I had to try. Chocolate Thumbprint cookies, with chocolate ganache filling. I remember making thumbprint cookies as a kid but they were not chocolate so I had to try these! They taste pretty good, way to go Martha! Even if she does make her recipes as complicated as possible.

Chocolate Thumbprints

2 cups all purpose flour
1 cup plus 1 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
2 teaspoons coarse salt
8 ounces unsalted butter, softened
1 1/3 cups sugar, plus more for rolling
2 large egg yolks
2 tablespoons heavy cream (for such a small amount I sometimes would just do half milk and sour cream, instead of buying thick cream)
2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract

1) measure out butter and sit out to soften
2) Preheat oven to 350 Sift flour, cocoa powder, salt in small bowl. Cream butter and sugar in mixer until fluffy. On medium speed add yolks, cream and vanilla. Add flour mixture until just combined.
3) Roll balls using 2 teaspoons dough, roll in sugar. (dough will be quite sticky) Place approximately 1" apart on baking sheets. Using the handle of a wooden spoon (or a knuckle works too), press gently in the centre of the ball of dough to create an indent. Bake cookies rotating half way through. Should take about 10 minutes, until just set, the cookies are similar to brownies, soft not crunchy. Transfer to wire rack after they have cooled slightly. Sometimes the middle of the cookie will puff up during baking, you can push the indent down again.
4) Spoon the ganache into the centre of each cookie. Let stand until firm. They will keep for about 3 days.

Chocolate and Vanilla Bean Ganache
(you should make this once the cookies are out of the oven as it is not supposed to sit long before you use it)

1/3 cup honey
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/2 vanilla bean, split and scraped, pod reserved (I ended up using a couple of tablespoons vanilla extract instead as I had never used vanilla beans before. I would like to try it with vanilla beans as I know now that the flavour would be a lot richer. I understand, however, they are quite expensive, so you may choose to use extract as well.)
4 ounces bittersweet chocolate finely chopped
1 ounce (2 tablespoons unsalted butter) softened

1) combine honey, cream and vanilla seeds and pod in medium saucepan over medium heat. (if you are using vanilla extract DON'T add it yet as it will just evaporate and you won't get any vanilla flavour) Bring to a simmer, stirring until honey dissolves. Remove from heat, cover and let stand for 20 minutes.
2) Place chocolate in a food processor. Return honey/cream mixture to a simmer, then strain removing solids. (You only need to do this if you used the actual vanilla bean) Poor cream mixture over chocolate in blender, let sit for 1 minute. Process until mixture is smooth, then add butter. Let cool slightly and then add to the middle of the cookies.

Using Cookbooks

Even though I am a pretty creative cook (as in- show me your fridge and I could find a way to make a meal out of whatever is in there), I sometimes loose my inspiration or find myself stuck in a rut. That is when I pull out the cookbooks. Jamie Oliver is a favorite because his dishes are a bit different and he uses lots of herbs! This weekend it was beautiful weather so we were in the mood to BBQ. My boyfriend brought home some steaks and prawns so I knew part of what I had to work with. Since we were BBQ'ing I pulled out my "Real Grilling" book put out by Weber. We had also just gone shopping in the market at Granville Island and bought a ton of fresh herbs so I knew I wanted to use those. I found a recipe for a spicy pesto marinade for the steaks, a mango prawn salad and a fresh strawberry dessert.

Rosemary and Roasted Garlic Pesto

2 mediums heads garlic
You want to remove the loose papery skin from the outside of the heads of garlic and cut the tips of off the head (so that once they are roasted you can just pop the cloves out easily). The rub the heads with olive oil and either put them on a cookie sheet in an oven or wrap them in foil and throw them on the BBQ. In the oven I put them on broil for about 15 minutes or until the tops start to brown a bit.

Pesto
1/3 cups lightly packed rosemary leaves
2/3 cup lightly packed Italian parsley
1/2 cup of pine nuts
2 Serrano chile peppers - stemmed and roughly chopped (I couldn't find these so I just used another kind of spicy peppers they had at the market)
2 teaspoons freshly grated lime zest
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1/4 cup olive oil
(I found this was not enough liquid to make my blender work so I added a few teaspoons of lime juice and a few more glugs of olive oil until my blender would blend)

Put the rosemary, parsley, pine nuts and chile peppers in the blender until finely chopped. Pop the garlic cloves out of the skin and into the blender, add the olive oil, lime zest, salt and pepper. Blend until it forms a paste.

Spread the paste on both sides of the steaks, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours before grilling.


You could use this paste for anything although the grilling book is using it as a marinade for the steaks. In fact, the next day I used the leftovers as a pasta sauce.

Shrimp and Mango Salad

Dressing
1 medium garlic clove
1 Serrano chile ,stem removed, coarsely chopped
2 teaspoons granulated sugar
1 small handful of fresh cilantro
1 small handful of fresh mint
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon peanut oil
1 tablespoon fish sauce
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Blend all the ingredients in the blender. It suggests adding 2 tablespoons of water but instead I used a few extra glugs of soy sauce and a little bit of white vinegar

(I didn't use the fish sauce and I used sesame oil instead of peanut oil.)

20 large shrimp (about 1 pound)
peanut oil
1 small head butter lettuce cut into mid size pieces
1 ripe mango (peeled and cut into 1/2" strips)
1 cup bean sprouts
(I also added pea shoots and roasted red pepper strips to the salad, you can add whatever you want)

Brush the shrimp with oil (which ever kind you prefer, this recipe uses peanut, I like sesame, grape seed or olive oil) then grill over medium heat until they turn opaque.

In a large bowl combine the vegetable ingredients with the mango and stir in enough dressing to cover. Put the salad on individual plates and add the shrimp. I put the shrimp on skewers and then added that to the side of the plate.

Scone recipe

I went to England about 4 years ago with a girlfriend. We went to the British Library and I bought this book called "Recipes for an English Tea". Perfect for Saturdays tea party. I love making the traditional sweet scones from this book.

Sweet Scones

lb flour
a little salt
oz currants
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1/2 teaspoon of carbonate of soda
3 oz sugar
3 ox butter
1/2 pint milk


Mix together flour, cream of tartar, carbonate of soda and salt. Then run in the butter, sugar and the same quantity of currants. Mix the whole to a smooth dough. with about 1/2 pint of milk; cut into shapes and brush over with an egg. Bake 20-30 minutes.

Time for a Tea Party

I love hosting a party and having people over. I love the preparation process; cleaning up, adding little touches like candles in the hall, fresh flowers in the bathroom, and food... I love cooking and eating! Some people get stressed out before they have people over but not me. I put on some music, get out a glass of wine and start on the appetizers or whatever you feel like preparing.

Today I am having a tea party. My boyfriend is out of town so it is a great opportunity to do something girly and not have him scoff at it. Some people laugh at the idea of a tea party but it is a lot of fun! It is an opportunity to get together with friends and be social! So far the menu is as follows:

scones w/jam and devonshire cream

strawberries

goat cheese and pear tartletts

tea of course (served in vintage tea sets of course)

Then I have also asked people to bring a variety of tea and a sweet or savory small dish. This way there will be lots of options and plenty to eat!