Oh So Colson

I’d forgotten just how delicious ginger is whether it’s crystallised, fresh or in a powdered form. There’s nothing so soothing as a cup of tea that’s made from freshly finely cut ginger over which has been poured hot water with some honey. 

I had some delicious ginger shortbread yesterday accompanied by a delicate green tea. I met a friend of mine at a tea house. She’d ordered the cookies and I tried them when I arrived. Mmm.. Anyhow tasting them reminded me of the vast quantity of root ginger that I have freezer. I’ve had to do this since I had bought some to use but I’ve not been able to use all of it before it started to sprout! So, I broke off this bit that was sprouting and shoved the rest in the freezer. Now, I’ve a new plant that’s growing alongside, in water in a jam jar sitting along side my two poor African violets which are, fortunately, slowly recovering from a blast of cold icy winter air. I made the mistake of leaving them in the draft of an open window when I had to open my windows since I’d set off the fire alarm by mistake when cooking one evening! There wasn’t a fire but my fire alarm is very sensitive and an increase in something or something falling on the burner sets off the fire alarm. I’m hoping that I didn’t kill the sprouting ginger root! I’ve an abundance of root ginger and I’ve got to find a way of using it. I could go the usual route and make gingerbread, ginger cookies, or with honey while poaching pears or in a tomato sauce with the usual garlic, olive oil and chopped onion. Perhaps I should put a piece in some green tea next time I make some…or maybe I should make some Chai from scratch rather than use those horrid sachets of Chai tea that I’ve got in my cupboard when I thought that I’d at least try it. That’s a possibility but I’ve an abundance of green tea with ginger or ginger and peach tea. So, now I’m on a quest to use the root ginger in my freezer since who knows how long it will last there. Perhaps I should make ginger madeleines….or even fresh ginger cake that’s so moist that it collapses in between your fingers. Mmmm..I think that I’ll pick something where the ginger flavours lingers the longest. 

I don’t understand why cream had to be added to a recipe for Spaghetti Carbonara? It’s a subtle combination of pasta, eggs, pancetta with its flavours enhanced, whilst still hot, with grated Parmesan cheese! Nigella Lawson’s recipe in “How to Eat. The Pleasures and Principles of Good Food” suggests that cream added but that the number of eggs should be reduced if cream is going to be added the egg and pancetta mixture. But my question is why add the cream since it only makes the subtle flavours in this dish disappear? Cream changes both the texture and the resulting flavour combinations. It makes the flavours flatten. Why? What is she trying to achieve…what is she trying to do? I can only presume that she’s a huge fan of cream and doesn’t mind consuming additional fat. Urgh! Or maybe she’s mixed up this recipe with ‘Sugo di Piselli, Prosciutto Cotto, e Panna’? Ah! What was on her mind?

Why do people think that avocados aren’t good for you and they’re fatty? I actually read a posting recently on a food blog where the writer of the blog said that she’d been throwing out avocados since she didn’t know what to do with them and that she disliked guacamole!!! Ahhh…these fruits are so good for you!! What a massive waste of vitamins and its not as if avocados are cheap!!

Avocados are delicious little bundles of quantities of potassium, vitamin E, the B vitamins, fibre, and mono-unsaturated fatty acids. In fact avocados have more potassium than bananas do..which is great since I’d eat an avocado over a banana any day. They are also cholesterol-free, contain ‘good fat’ as well as being high in unsaturated oil. So, the question is why not put them in lots of foods. They can be eaten not only in guacamole but sliced and put into sandwiches with cheese, lettuce, tomato and even bacon. Mmmmm.

Try slicing them and adding to salad which contains different types of lettuce, olives, sliced tomato, coriander with a simple olive oil and balsamic vinegar dressing. Or have a different dressing such as lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

Another salad which I learnt from watching my mother make it many times contains: thinly sliced onions (so you get the onion rings), with the flesh of several grapefruits and oranges (take off the white pith and the white layers that surround the flesh of the citrus fruit) and thinly sliced avocados. These are layered in a dish and then she’s made a dressing containing olive oil, lemon juice and fresh dill. What’s the name of this dish? I don’t know since she found a variation of it in a Sunset magazine many years ago and made her own variations of it. I may have some ingredients missing that she puts in missing..I don’t know..I suspect that I may have. I just love this salad.

Yet, avocados can be used as the principal ingredient in desserts and in Brazil avocados are frequently eaten this way. They’re delicious in a cream which consists of milk, a bit of sugar and several avocados. All the ingredients are blended together and eaten as a dessert. They are frequently made into ice-cream which is really delicious. An example of a recipe is to combine the flesh of about four avocados (without pips and skin of course) with 1 pint of whipping cream, a tablespoon of fresh lime juice and a few tablespoons of sugar. Blend the lime juice, sugar and avocado together, then add the cream and mix well. Then you can use your usual method of making ice-cream. Some people put into a freezer until it is almost set, then beat it, and freeze it again…while others have ice-cream making machines. I’ve no idea of how to use one of these highly technical ice-cream machines since I learnt how to make icecream using a freezer when I was a child. I also have an ice-cream maker which involves cranking the crank yourself and watching the liquid mixture become ice-cream in front of your eyes. Given that there are several standard recipes of how to make the mixture to make ice cream I’d follow the method that I’ve given above rather than making a custard and then adding mashed avocados. You don’t need to cook the mixture before you turn into ice-cream because the recipe doesn’t call for eggs.

Try eating sliced avocado with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, or just with salsa or just say who cares about calories and eat it with mayonnaise or even better allioli or aioli (same thing but different language).

So, I don’t want to read or hear of people throwing out avocados since they don’t like guacamole and they don’t know what else to do with these divine green fruits!

I really like making cake with yogurt and I like eating it for breakfast. It’s unique flavour probably arises principal flavouring ingredient is yogurt. But it isn’t necessarily the principal ingredient if you start to examine the different recipes that are available either by typing ‘yogurt cake’ in a search engine or by searching through one’s cookbooks. Indeed, this cake seems to be ‘de mode’ from what I can tell from reading various blogs devoted the topic of food and eating. This cake also seems to have originated in France from every account that I’ve come across. I couldn’t find it in my copy of the Joy of Cooking but I found it in the Silver Spoon (Italy’s classic cookbook for housewives) and in a cookbook by Nigella Lawson, and another on Turkish food by Claudia Roden. Lawson’s version is called “Baby Bunts” and her version requires melted butter, bunt tins, and the resulting cakes are subsequently removed from their tins and iced in lemon icing.

I first came across a recipe for this cake in a book written by Marcelle Hazan (who writes about Italian cuisine) but her recipe differs from that published by Clotilde Dusoulier (in her book titled Chocolate and Zucchini) whose recipes are predominately French. I’ve used both recipes several times. Both have different quantities of similar ingredients but Hazan’s has some fundamental differences. Her recipe entitled “Yogurt and Sambucco” rather than just a Yogurt Cake consequently it contains Sambucco. It like the recipe in Dusoulier’s book has oil but almost half of the volume of flour is cornflour (not cornstarch). Hazan’s recipe also contains one more egg than Dusoulier’s recipe and has triple the quantity of the flavourings. Dosoulier recommends adding one teaspoon of vanilla and possibly a tablespoon of rum, while Hazan recommends three tablespoons of Sambucco. Furthermore, Dusoulier’s recipe uses double the quantity of yogurt. I’ve found several recipes which use oil including one by Dorie Greenspan who seems to be, from the baking and cooking contingent who have blogs, as a ‘good cook who specialises in desserts’. Her recipe for yogurt cake utilises extra-virgin olive oil but although it probably gave the cake an interesting flavour when combined with lemon zest (or rosemary) but I really don’t like the greasiness that the oil causes in a cake’s texture. The cake will taste terrible if the baker concerned doesn’t know the age and the quality of the oil. The character of the cake, I suspect, probably changes if virgin olive oil is used since it probably shifts from a delicate cake that can be accompanied perhaps by fruit and even cheese to something that’s savory. The oil probably provides a high level of ‘moistness’ to the cake which is good but it can also be achieved by melted butter. I prefer moist cakes I dislike greasy oily cakes since I associate cakes which have that ‘glossy look to them’ with mass produced cakes found in chain supermarkets.

Both Hazan’s and Dusoulier’s recipes work and taste delicious even if you swap the oil for melted butter. I’d recommend both recipes since they are versatile, easy, and are delicious regardless of any little changes in the choice of additional flavourings: grated lemon zest, chocolate, orange zest, vanilla, orange juice, Cointreau, rosemary, vanilla etc. All of the recipes that I’ve found have the same basic ingredients but vary in the type of the oil, the number of eggs, the flavours used, and whether self-raising or plain flour are used and whether the flour component contains cornmeal and not just wheat flour.

Today I was reminded of just how delicious black pudding is but tragically I think it has a dreadful reputation for many.

This delicious sausage, often called blood sausage, causes horror in the eyes of friends when I’ve mentioned the idea of eating such an item. However, it shouldn’t be shocking since it’s in reality a perfectly reasonable concept that one would use the blood of an animal in a sausage. A sausage is after all only an organ that contains animal flesh as well other ingredients necessary to create the sausage. so, why not add blood? Regardless of where this item is made it takes the shape of a link sausage and contains pork flesh mixed with blood which gives that distinctive colour. It has several names such as blutwurst in Germany, boudin boir in France, Morcilla in Spain, botifarra in Catalyna, blood pudding in England. It doesn’t have a metallic taste at all but it has a complex flavour which is good on its own or behaves as a complement to other ingredients. The recipe used clearly depends on where the sausage is made and a variety of ingredients is added changes according to geographical region that the sausage is made. Ingredients such as black pepper, cayenne pepper, mace, herbs, oatmeal, coriander, onions, cream, can be added to the of blood and all the other basic ingredients used in each regional recipe.

Why should people dislike this sausage? Well, perhaps this reaction is connected to one one’s cultural background of what is good to eat and what isn’t. Indeed, the chapter on meat and sausages in the book of Classic American cooking doesn’t contain any mention on blood sausage or black pudding. I like it when a few slices are fried in the same pan for breakfast with eggs, bacon, mushrooms, tomatoes and possibly even fried bread. This would be accompanied by a pile of buttered toast and large cup of tea. Perhaps if you had this everyday it would be a recipe for a heart attack but its part and parcel of a good English fry up. However, black pudding is scrumptious when it’s grilled and served on a bed of sweet sliced, peeled and cored apples which have been cooked in sausage fat. Elizabeth David describes this recipe in her book on French Provincial Cooking. While white and dark blood sausages, called botifarra, in Catalunya is a crucial ingredient in many of this region’s dishes. Indeed, nothing can be substituted for it.

Check out the blood sausage dish at: Le Reservoir, 9 (I think) rue Duluth, Montreal, Quebec.

I don’t understand why people have to fiddle around with the recipe of this incredible dessert. This recipe comes from Provence (France) where it is made with cherries (the pips are kept in the cherries) and it contains heavy cream, some vanilla, milk, eggs, sugar and according to some recipes perhaps a bit of Calvados or Kirsch. I can understand why people change the fruit since it’s not always possible to find cherries in the middle of the winter (for example) and sometime cherries are incredibly expensive. However, one should note that when one changes the fruit then the name of this dessert changes to “flognarde” sometimes spelt ‘flaugnarde’. It is always cooked in a baking dish in the oven.

But there are two things that horrify me when it comes to clafoutis recipes (a) the addition of larger than necessary quantities of flour and (b) vegetables! Ah…what is worse? Anyhow I’m going to tackle both ‘crimes’ - well, they are crimes in my mind. Why ruin a delicate dessert containing fruit, cream with a little sugar which sates one’s desire for something sweet, but not overpowering, in the midst of summer. Summer is usually the time when there’s an abundance of fruit of some sort of another…and whilst you know that it’s a good idea to eat fresh fruit…something sweet sounds good and somewhat preferable to fresh fruit. This dessert resolves that problem of eating the fruit which is good for you and sating your desire for something sweet.

What is becoming of this divine but simple dessert, from Provence,  described in delightfully by Elizabeth David and Claudia Roden? Both clearly state that it contains very little flour as flour is known to diminish the flavours of the other ingredients. The quantity of flour in their recipes is quite small and in the case of a recipe by Claudia Roden, that I’ve tried, only 1 tablespoon should be used. I’ve tried this recipe using different fruits and a couple of recipes by Elizabeth David as well. None of them call for vast quantities of flour. I found that various recipes exist for this dessert on food blogs and in cook books often request up to a cup of flour (8oz American). Indeed, in the cookbook entitled “Diane Clement at the Tomato” the recipe calls for 1 1/4 cups (310ml) of flour! Ah…my next question is why bother putting so much fruit when the flavours of the fruits suggested to be included are gentle and delicate. Such a vast quantity of flour only smothers the delicate hints of such summer fruits such as peaches, pears, nectarines, cherries, blueberries, strawberries etc. This isn’t a dessert that should be neatly sliced and placed on a dish with some coulee of fruits neatly swirled beside the slice. Clafoutis is a dessert which solves the problem of an overabundance of fresh fruits but provides the palate with a delightful combination of custard and cooked fruit. Enough! I can only conclude that this incredible quantity of flour is designed to prevent the serving from sliding around or over the edges of the plate. My answer: don’t be greedy in one serving and just ask for some more. This is custard not a cheesecake and it is not supposed to be solid. So, don’t even think of adding gelatine to this recipe! If you want it to be solid so that it can be sliced and then jsut add more eggs. But if the chef concerned can’t cope with the concept of additional eggs since they’re concerned about too much too many calories the answer is easy. Just only eat a little bit of it each day and make the enjoyment of the dish last a few days. Savour the flavour and don’t gulp it down in one go. 

As to the question of vegetables?? I’ve been reading number of blogs and it seems as if the ‘in thing’ is to put vegetables in this dessert and to remove the sugar?! Why? I don’t understand. My only conclusion is that those concerned who are including vegetables do not know that a vegetable clafoutis is really a tortilla (from Spain) with vegetables without the sugar, vanilla and the flour. This ‘tapa’ as its commonly called is also called tortilla de patatas, tortilla Española, or Spanish omelette. There are also many regional variations of this classic dish once you start to explore the possibilities. It traditionally has eggs, milk, potato and it can contain green or red peppers, chorizo, courgettes or zucchinis depending on your geographical location as well as diced ham and peas. It’s really easy to make and does not require cooking in the oven. Maybe people would rather introduce vegetables to the clafoutis and to remove the sugar because making a tortilla requires hot oil, a frying pan, and a longer more involved process in contrast to the clafoutis which can be mixed, poured into an oven proof dish, and left to cook on its own in the oven. Maybe those people who have cooked a savoury clafoutis, I shudder at the thought of adding a vegetable to this dish, don’t know about how easy it is to cook a tortilla.

Ah, I love desserts. I particularly like things like creme brulees, creme caramels, clafoutis, and custards in general.

Creme brulees and creme caramels:
It’s really quite interesting, perhaps surprising is that there’s a number of varieties worldwide. But perhaps I shouldn’t be so surprised since they require relatively few ingredients, are very easy to make, and there’s many variations given that the recipes are being adapted to local ingredients. I’m often amazed at the reactions of friends because they seem to believe that both creme caramels and creme brulees are hard to make. They’re really easy in reality but I suppose the problem is that people don’t know how to get a smooth texture….it’s really just achieved by using a bain marie to cook it in! I’m in the midst of a current project where I take a different type each time I attend a friend’s potluck or dinner party (where one takes something). I always opt for the dessert section. Why? Well, it means that I can do some experimenting. I don’t make desserts for myself that often since I get very bored if I make something and I have to eat it for three or four days running.

I do bake for myself and I’ll eat the resulting consequences for a number of sequential breakfasts. The last cake I made was a recipe which I saw in the blog “Chocolate and Zucchini”…..which is apparently a typical cake from France made with yogurt. It’s delicious and has just a hint of vanilla. I used the recipe provided by Clotilde Dusoulier in her book of the same title. (The book contains many of the recipes on her blog.) I like making cakes that just are simply flavoured. Indeed, I find that so many recipes today are full of tons of chocolate, fruit, nuts, or liquiors so much so that the flavours overwhelm each other. Its often the case there’s so much in the recipe that there’s no flavour at all. It seems that people think that gourmet cooking must be something where you just through lots of flavours together…without thinking as to the precise manner in which the flavours compliment each other.

Anyhow back to my current unofficial research project. I’m currently trying out various creme caramel and creme brulee recipes. It seems from reading my cookbooks and scanning my favourite food blogs that there are various different types. I’m currently working my way through the different recipes. I’m now getting a better idea which ones are successful vis-a-vis shape, colour, flavour, texture and above all enjoyed! My friends have unknowingly become my testers. I enjoy watching their faces as they test them out!

The French version of the dessert tends to be flavoured with cinnamon. The recipes from Spain tend to contain orange juice. I’d like to make one of these but the oranges that I’ve found at the moment just aren’t very flavourful. I suspect because its winter time here in Canada and the oranges are ripened artificially.

I made a Brazilian version of creme caramel for a friend’s dinner party where she had cooked two dishes from Senegal. The version of creme caramel from Brazil contains condensed milk and regular milk while the French and Spanish versions use milk or cream. The Spanish recipes often reduce the quantity of the milk but make up the difference in the volume of liquid required by using orange juice. The next version that I’d like to make is a Cuban style creme caramel which uses evaporated milk. I tried this when I was in Miami last year, with a good friend of mine, and it was delicious. It had the same consistency as the other varieties but the flavour was slightly different and it had a firmer texture. I think that I’d like to make the Brazilian one again but this time try substitute some of the milk with coconut milk.

A few weeks ago I experimented, for another friend’s dinner party, with a recipe that I’d found on the internet which used Earl Grey tea which contains oil of bergamont. I decided to try this recipe since I had a creme brulee, in Winnipeg, called “London Fog” which was essentially a creme brulee flavoured with Earl Grey tea. It was delicious. The bergamont oil contrasted well with the richness of the caramelized sugar on the top. I made it myself and it was a definite hit with everyone at the dinner party. What bugged me though was that I had to use a grill, rather than my blowtorch, to crystallize the sugar sprinkled on top and the end result wasn’t what I hoped. I’ve accumulated a collection of recipes whereby creme brulee contains various liquors and teas. So..now I have to just find occasions to try these ones out!