Archives for January 2017

Potlatch Salmon

CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge

Prelude: I am definitely a proud Canadian so when the Culinary Historians of Canada invited food bloggers to participate in a Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge – well, that is something I just have to do! What a great way to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by honouring our country with a different Canadian dish every month. The first topic is fish and seafood, so I am sharing my recipe for Potlatch Salmon with you, plus a wee bit of background about the history of potlatch.

Potlatch Salmon – have you heard of it? Potlatch Salmon is one of our family’s favourite ways to serve fish. It has turned many folks from being fish dislikers to fish lovers – it is all about the glaze. First, though, we should take a look at the term Potlatch and understand the source. Potlatch is a term derived from Canada’s Northwest Coast aboriginal groups that symbolized an abundant feast, typically held in winter often using indigenous food that had been dried and preserved throughout the year. The feast was held for life events such as weddings, funerals or births. Roughly translated, it means a feast of ‘giving’. Tables at the Potlatch feast overflowed with food, generally far more than could be consumed with the idea that it would be shared amongst the guests to take home.

While Potlatch feasts are not as common today, traditional dishes that were once served at these events, of course, are still enjoyed by one and all. One of our favourites is Potlatch Salmon. What is Potlatch Salmon, exactly? Typically, it is an entire filet of salmon (skin on), spread with a simple, yet unique dry rub and cooked over an open flame or barbecue. The dry rub turns magically into a luscious sauce which can also be used as a glaze. For the purposes of this post, I will explain the method and technique of making Potlatch Salmon three different ways using slightly altered techniques that you can enjoy as an appetizer, lunch, dinner or at your own family feast. Try it with bannock, another traditional dish. I show you how to make bannock in this post.

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Bacon Cheese Potato Cups

By Denise Pare-Watson

Do you have a repertoire of appetizers that you make for every small plates occasion or one that friends and family ask you to make for SuperBowl parties and TGIF events? This recipe for Bacon Cheese Potato Cups is one of those appetizers that seems to fit that bill, suits every occasion and is just darned delicious. This particular appetizer was probably the hands-down favourite in my Appetizer classes.

Bacon Cheese Potato Cups | urbnspice.com — Bacon Cheese Potato Cups – perfect for any appetizer event| urbnspice.com

The appetizer class is a hands-on lively three-hour jam-packed course where we make an entire sample menu of appetizers. Typically, we then debrief with a glass of wine and enjoy the feast together at the end of the class. These Bacon Cheese Potato Cup appetizers never, ever made it to the table at the end of the class. We hovered over the baking sheet as they came out of the oven and demolished them in seconds. Luckily, I took a photo or two before they disappeared.

Bacon Cheese Potato Cups are super easy to make and do not require any obscure ingredients. The trick is finding the perfect size potato – these potatoes fit in the palm of my hand, so small but not as small as nugget size. The reason is you will be working with half of a potato for each potato cup with the intention of a two or three bite appetizer.

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Nut Butter and No Nut Butter Cookies

By Denise Pare-Watson

There are many types of nut butter cookies and not so many for no nut butter cookies. That is why I wanted to revisit an old recipe that our family has made for years and years. This version is called “Nut Butter and No-Nut Butter Cookies”. The recipe is based on a national brand peanut butter cookie recipe which has always been a favourite in our household. I have updated the recipe to reflect the need to consider dietary restrictions, including gluten-free, nut-free options and refined sugar-free options. This updated recipe will be the answer to all of the Moms out there who are trying to find a great cookie recipe for their families in which no one has to feel guilty snacking on a small cookie or two.

Sunflower Butter Cookies

Furthermore, for school lunch treats, try making these cookies with a nut-free spread such as Sunflower Seed or Pumpkin Seed Butter. In addition, I have included a recipe for Sunflower Butter below the Nut Butter Cookie recipe for you to try. And finally, a funny story about a misadventure of making sunflower butter with a happy ending.

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Vichy Carrots

By Denise Pare-Watson

One of the very first classes that I was taught in Professional Cooking Culinary Training was Vegetables & Starches Class. I gained a whole new appreciation for vegetables from my culinary instructors during this three-week segment. It was jam-packed with useful information pertaining to all types of vegetables. I was surprised how little tips and techniques made such a difference in the taste of a vegetable; for instance – peeling and cooking a rutabaga properly. I talk about exactly that in this post. But, the vegetable dish that sticks in my mind the most is Vichy Carrots.

The name of this dish originated from a village in France called – you guessed it – Vichy. Known for its slightly carbonated volcanic water, it is said to be one of the most mineral-rich waters in France. Although is not likely the average person will be able to obtain this magical Vichy water, there is nothing stopping us from making Vichy Carrots by substituting either water, carbonated water or chicken stock.

Pot Latch Salmon Papillote | urbnspice.com

Potlatch Salmon Papillote served with Vichy Carrots and Israeli Couscous

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Pan Roasted Sweet Potato with Lime

By Denise Pare-Watson

This recipe for Pan Roasted Sweet Potato with Lime is one of our personal family favourite side dishes. We have served it with breakfast with eggs and sausage as well as brunch, lunch or dinner. It is just one of those dishes that seems to fit on any menu plan. We have been known to happily devour the entire dish between the two of us.

What do you think of sweet potatoes? Growing up, sweet potatoes were not something that I remember eating as a child. Nowadays, sweet potatoes – particularly pan or oven roasted sweet potatoes, appear on our table once or twice a week in one way or another. We love them! You must try them simply baked or microwaved, whole, skin on until tender; split open and eaten with a pat of butter, salt and pepper. So delicious! Sweet potatoes are a super food and known as one of the world’s healthiest foods with sources of Vitamin A, C, B6, B3, B1, B2, potassium, fibre and many other healthful properties.

Pan Roasted Diced Sweet Potato with Lime | urbnspice.com

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Roasted Butternut Squash and Caramelized Pear Soup

By Denise Pare-Watson

I am excited to share this recipe with you for Roasted Butternut Squash and Caramelized Pear Soup. I love this soup! It has just a few lovely ingredients that pair together in a magnificent way. It is fancy enough to serve to company. It is delicate in taste and silky in texture and is excellent served either hot or room temperature, which also makes this an excellent make-ahead soup.

Butternut Squash soup is the choice that my students ask for each time I set up a soup class. I ask my prospective students if there is any soup in particular that they would like to cover in my class. Butternut Squash Soup is always on top of their list. That makes me happy because it is one of my favourite soups.

But, first things first. Do you know how to cut and peel a butternut squash? It can be quite intimidating tackling such a roly-poly vegetable.

If you are not sure how to cut a Butternut Squash, I cover it step by step using photos in this post. Then, come back here and learn how to make this delicious soup. Roasting the diced butternut squash and pear really does amazing things to the flavour of these ingredients. Let’s do this!

Roasted Butternut Squash & Caramelized Pear Soup

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White Chocolate and Lemon Curd Tart

By Denise Pare-Watson

White Chocolate and citrus is something most people have not considered when looking for something a little different using chocolate as an ingredient. Presenting White Chocolate and Lemon Curd Tart – the combination of sweet white chocolate and lemon is a combination that pairs so beautifully together in perfect harmony. This is a decadent and impressive dessert. The curd is so silky and smooth and can be used on its own in a parfait or swirled lightly into Greek yogurt. The tart shells are pre-baked, so it really is a convenient make-ahead dessert.

White Chocolate and Lemon Curd Tart | urbnspice.com

White Chocolate Lemon Curd Tart

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Vinarterta – A Vintage Recipe

By Denise Pare-Watson

Vínarterta: what is it? It is a very flavourful, seven-layered Icelandic cake – a vintage recipe from the 1800s. The cake consists of thin layers cookie-like dough, rolled out, docked and baked just until it starts to take on a bit of colour on the edges. The traditional filling is made from prunes. For many folks, using dried prunes is a surprising filling, but you have to trust me – this stuff is good! The prunes are infused with what is known as the warming spices cardamom, cinnamon and cloves. These spices elevate the taste of the filling to something that you just know will be wonderful. The colour of the pureed prune is such a rich hue of black-brown that it makes a spectacular show in between the layers of the Vinarterta cake.

Many other fillings can be used, including seasonal apricot filling and raspberry filling. My daughter and I were discussing making a version with all three fillings in one cake. I think that this could be my next cake challenge. I would be tempted to make the layers even thinner so that I could experiment with the different coloured fillings.

Vinarterta with Apricot Filling

In culinary training, we were introduced to many cultural desserts in Baking and Pastry Arts, and this cake was one of the classic cakes we discussed during our lessons. It is delicious! I had forgotten all about this cake until my neighbour mentioned to me that she had in her possession her grandma’s vintage recipe for Vínarterta and that she had always wanted to try making it.

We spent a lovely morning making the cake together using the vintage recipe. As far as she knew, her grandmother’s recipe had sadly not been made by anyone in the family since her passing in 1978. She told me that her grandmother’s parents came to Canada in the 1800s and her grandmother was born in Canada. I am sure that there are great stories about baking this Icelandic recipe and many more dishes in their kitchen – I would have loved to be a part of that. I felt that making this cake using her recipe was a great way of honouring her grandmother. And besides, I love baking using vintage recipes.

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How to Make a Meringue Nest

By Denise Pare-Watson

I learned how to make a meringue nest early in my pastry chef career. It is an excellent idea in the pastry kitchen to have a repertoire of recipes that use an abundance of egg whites. The reason for that is because there are so many egg yolks utilized in the kitchen for crème brûlée, custards, sauces, Hollandaise and Béarnaise sauce, to name a few. We often had buckets of egg whites within a day or two of kitchen activities. Since there are only so many egg white omelettes you can make for the spa menu, using egg whites in cookies or desserts was popular – and fun! I had quite a repertoire of recipes available to use these extra egg whites and I will share some ideas with you to use in your own kitchen.

Blackberry Lime Curd in Crispy Meringue Nests

In this article, I will give you some ideas how you can use extra egg whites as well giving you as a recipe for meringue nests. On this blog, you will find recipes for Italian Almond Macaroons, Rice Flour Tuile Cookies, Earl Grey Chiffon Mini Cakes, Colourful Meringue Cookies, Chocolate Financier Cookies and many more. Making meringues are another way to use egg whites to create all kinds of excellent dessert options.

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Blackberry Lime Curd

By Denise Pare-Watson

Did you know that you can make curd out of virtually any juice or purée? In this post, I will explain how to do just that by explaining how to make a Blackberry Lime Curd. A curd is essentially a stirred custard, similar to crème anglaise or pastry cream. Most folks have heard about lemon curd. I do love a well-prepared lemon curd. It is the perfect balance of sweet, sour and tangy. You can use it in so many ways: as a cake filling; in a crème brûlée recipe; in lemon curd ice cream; on top of plain Greek yogurt for a refreshing dessert – the list goes on.

Blackberry Lime Curd in Crispy Meringue Nests

That said, I want to encourage you to try to make a curd using a fruit juice or fruit puree. In the past, I have made crimson coloured raspberry curd, fresh looking orange curd, and even a coral coloured rhubarb curd. Try making a new variation, too, thinking outside of the realm of luscious lemon curd for a change. I think you will be pleasantly surprised!

White Chocolate Lemon Curd Tart

In this post, I am going to explain how to make blackberry puree, and then, using the prepared puree, I will illustrate through my recipe how to make a luscious blackberry lime curd. It is a gorgeous sauce, not only in its rich burgundy colour but also its flavour.

I lived for many years on Vancouver Island, British Columbia where blackberries were plentiful, so it was wonderful to make good use of this bounty from our berry picking adventures. We always had a lovely feast of the freshly picked berries in our usual style of serving them simply with a light sprinkle of sugar, lime zest and vanilla bean paste. I typically use the remainder of the berry pickings for puree, jams and compotes.

Blackberry Lime Curd served with Langues de Chat cookies

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