I went to Hornby Island. I made a Baked Alaska. It was delicious and magical.
Baked Alaska
Take a bowl. Make sure the lip is about the size (or slightly smaller) than whatever cake pan you choose. Line said bowl with plastic wrap. Fill with ice cream. I layered chocolate, coffee, vanilla and another layer of chocolate. Into the layers I mixed in crushed up crispy crunch. Cover with plastic wrap. Freeze for minimum four hours (up to 24).
Meanwhile make a brown butter pound cake. Let cool. Remove ice cream from freezer. Unwrap saran wrap from top. Leaving the ice cream in its mold place the cake on top.
Freeze for another few hours. After an hour or two (or longer) flip cake and ice cream onto a baking tray. Remove plastic wrap and return to freezer.
Make a Swiss meringue. Coat cake in meringue. Be quick before the ice cream melts! Make sure that the ice cream is sealed in. Return to freezer for another hour or three.
When you are ready to serve heat oven to 450F. Make sure to preheat the oven. Cook the Baked Alaska for two to three minutes. Until the meringue is slightly browned. You could also use a torch if you have one (I don’t). Serve immediately.
It was incredible. And exhilarating to make.
I live in a culinary purist universe where the fewer tools a cook can use, the better the food. I like a good knife and simple ingredients. Rather than take the car trip to the grocery store while staying out in the woods, I rounded up the old-fashioned tools and very basic ingredients in the fridge and got creative. My favorite discoveries are as follows:
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Filed under cast iron eggs beaters
I finally took some pictures of food. Pictures of food + some words = blog.
I usually either roast a whole chicken or grill pieces of chicken… but the oven was calling on this particular night.
I envisioned a sort of baked, chicken-wing-style preparation with a little sauce on top… here goes:
BBQ Chicken Drumstick “Wings”
2-6 pieces of chicken (or more! or less! adjust the amounts below as necessary, I’d double it if you have more than 6 pieces)
Rub
1/4 tsp Cumin
1/4 tsp garlic powder
1-2 tsp Sweet Paprika (Spanish, or I used Peruvian because I am lucky enough to have an amazing Paprika and spice collection)
1/4 tsp Smoked salt (or regular salt, see note above)
1/4+ tsp spicy red pepper flakes (again… whatever you have)
1/4 tsp black pepper
Mix this all together either in a bowl or a plastic bag. Add the chicken and mix so that the chicken is covered. Heat a good bit of oil (I highly recommend throwing in a tsp or so of butter for flavor) in a large heavy-bottom pan. Sear (Ok, I should call em like i see em: FRY) the chicken so its browned on all sides. While that’s cooking, mix the sauce.
Sauce
1/4 C Ketchup
1/4 tsp Dijon Mustard
1/2tsp +/- Hot Sauce
1/4 C Honey
1 Tbs Balsamic Vinegar
Place the seared chicken in a glass pan just big enough to fit them all. Thoroughly coat the chicken pieces with the sauce, reserve some for basting. Cook the chicken for about 45 minutes, re-applying a layer of sauce every 10 minutes until all of the sauce is used (there should be some, nicely cooked and cuddling with the chicken fat in the bottom of the pan when the chicken is done… I highly recommend using this for eating).
-Olivia
Filed under chicken, barbeque, drumstick, bbq wings
Ontario Lamb. Seared with a rub of cumin, tumeric, salt, pepper, some other spices and a pinch of flour. Served over perfect tomatoes and with a mint garish. This is my final ode to summer.
I am excited for the abundance of a fall Sunday market tomorrow and will document this next season and its bounty with more dedication than I did the sticky, sweet summer.
Honey Peach Pie with Plain Greek Yogurt for breakfast (recipe idea from here)
Only I did no added sugar (just honey) because… it’s peach season in Ontario!
Plus the best pie crust I have ever made (and my great aunt thinks my pie crust is better than hers, and she does not mess around)… I am crediting modern conveniences- straight from food processor to plastic wrap, I never touched it.
Filed under honey peach pie greek yogurt
This ravioli from scratch experiment went pretty well. Not perfect, there is room for improvement, but it was fun and prettty delicious. You can find a basic pasta dough recipe here. I made it with 75% whole wheat. The fun part is the filling! I went with “what’s in the fridge” which turned out to be an interesting blend of carrots, chicken and spices… read on for how the whole thing comes together.
1 Recipe Pasta Dough
4-9 Carrots (depending on size)
2 chicken thighs
1 small red onion
Cumin, sage, salt, pepper, garlic
Approx 1 cup cheese (i would love to see this with a tangy, semi hard goats cheese), but I used an aged gouda - optional
First - mix and knead pasta dough. wrap and put in fridge to sit.
Peel and chop 9 small carrots or the equivalent number of large carrots (4ish). Place in a small pot of boiling water and cover
Chop 2 chicken thighs into small pieces (smaller than bite size)
In a large pan, heat 1-3 Tbs of olive oil
Add 1 TBS sage, 1/4 tsp cumin and 1 HUGE garlic clove (minced or crushed), or 1-4 smaller ones.
When oil and spices are hot, add chicken. finely dice a small red onion and throw that in.
Let this cook until chicken is no longer raw.
In the meantime, the carrots should maybe be done (tender). If they are not ready, use this as the time to grate the cheese.
Drain the water and either mash or puree the carrots (with a hand blender, or fork).
Add the carrots to the chicken. Mix together and turn the heat to low.
If you didn’t grate the cheese before, do it now.
Roll out the pasta dough! I had to do this by hand because we are in-between pasta presses at my house… it is NOT easy, but with a little mechanical help, it is no sweat.
Mix the cheese into the carrots/chicken.
Now is the part that calls for creativity… I had 4 sheets of pasta dough (roughly the same size) and layed 2 out flat. I then put small spoonfulls of the filling evenly spaced on the dough, put the second layer on top of each piece and identified where the filling lumps were. 
Then, using a shot glass, I pressed around each filled ravioli. This both sealed and cut out each individual piece. But there are tools for filling ravioli, and I’m sure there are other ways of doing it.
Now just boil in a salted water for a few minutes (wait until they all bounce to the top, then wait another 1-3 minutes then they should be ready). 
Serve plain or with a bit of browned sage butter.
Filed under carrot chicken ravioli sage ravioli sage
My love of tarts continues. Stop me if you dare (catch me if you can).
But this was not an Ottolenghi creation. Nay it was a recipe my mum had written in the back of the New Basics. Be proud. I can break my self-made mold (does that even make sense???).
I confess, I did use the Ottolenghi crust I posted about last week….
First cook your crust at 400 with weights for 10-12 and without for another 3. You want it to begin to brown.
Mix 3/4 c of sugar with 2 eggs. Add in zest and juice of 2 lemons. Whisk in 1/4 c almond powder and 2 tbsp sugar. Melt 2 1/2 tbsp of melted butter. \
Pour into pan. Cook at 325 until it just sets.
You will have a very thin layer of lemon. Once it was completely cooled I filled the rest of the tart with delicious, fresh, seasonal berries and sprinkled icing sugar for that finished look.
The judges determined that of all three tarts I’ve made recently this is the best. So I made it a second time the next night.
