Peach Custard Cream Pie

I want pie all the time.  When it comes to deciding on flavour, custard wins most of the time.  I've made peach pie before using various recipes, but this one I made up, because I had cream and frozen peaches I needed to use up.  I made a graham crumb crust, which is even quicker, and less messy, than a buttery crust.

Here it goes:
Preheat oven to 350.
Make graham crust according to box directions, usually about 1.25 C crumbs to 1/2 C melted butter.
Don't pre-bake.
Defrost and drain peaches, or use fresh ones, then fill the crust.

Mix a bit of flour, 2-3 tbsps, with 2/3 cup sugar, then add 1 cup cream and 1 egg.  Whisk.

Pour mixture over peaches:

Bake for 45 minutes.

I didn't completely drain my thawed out peaches, so the bit of liquid made the custard creamy.  It was delicious, just not as firm as it would have been without any liquid.  Creamy custard is perfect with peaches.

Enjoy!

Pickled Pumpkin

My other gran (not the one I always mention) used to pickle pumpkin.  I don't know her recipe, but I made up my own.  I didn't measure, just eyeballed amounts.  Here is what I used:

- large Cinderella pumpkin (Rouge Vif d’Etampes)

I used the one on the left for pickling, the one on the right to make pumpkin butter.

- apple cider vinegar
- white vinegar (for a few jars, just so I can compare the taste)

There were a lot of pumpkin cubes, so I made the brine in 3 batches, and for one of them I used white vinegar, which isn't as acidic as apple cider vinegar, so don't use as much water with it.

- filtered water
- sugar
- bay leaf
- cloves
- black peppercorns

Directions:
- peel and cube the pumpkin, be ready for some serious exfoliation of your skin
- bring to boil all ingredients, except pumpkin, and boil for a few minutes
- place the cubed pumpkin into the boiling mixture and boil for about 5 minutes, don't over do it, or the pumpkin will cook and start to fall apart
- place into hot clean jars and can as you would any food in a jar, boiling for 10 minutes.

I tasted the brine and it was yummy.  I hope this turns out as good as I remember it, it's been over two decades since I've last tasted my gran's pickled pumpkin.

Apple Custard Pie with Oatmeal Walnut Crumb Topping

I've never cared much for apple pie, regardless of quality and price range.  I had some apples and cream that needed to be used up, and a frozen dough disk, from when I made a couple of extras.  After contemplating, I decided to make an apple pie based on what I had in my pantry.  I did make an apple pie once before and didn't like it.  I love this pie.  Apple pie wasn't the problem, I just never had this apple pie.  Here's what you'll need:

Filling Ingredients:
- 3-4 peeled and thinly sliced apples (I used Gala, because it's what I had)
- 1/2 cup of 35% cream
- 1 egg
- 3 tbsp demerara rum (or bourbon)
- 2/3 cup brown sugar
- 1 tsp cinnamon

Topping Ingredients:
- 5 walnuts (it's all I had)
- 1/3 cup not instant oatmeal
- 1/4 cup cold butter
- 1/3 cups flour
- 1/2 tsp cinnamon
- pinch of salt

Directions:
Set oven to 375 degrees

- Whisk together: cream, rum, egg, sugar, and cinnamon
- Add sliced apples, the thinner the more surface for coating, and mix together
- Pour into unbaked crust

For Crumb Topping:
- Place walnuts, oatmeal, flour, cinnamon, and salt in a food processor, and pulse just to mix
- Cut in butter, and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse bread crumbs
- Sprinkle on top of filling

Bake pie at 375 for an hour.  Tastes delicious hot or at room temperature.  It would work cold as well.  I had two and a half slices already, and I'm debating if I should have another.

This is a trick I use when I roll out the pie crust dough.  Place the dough disk between 2 sheets of parchment paper, that way there is no sticking and mess on the counter.  This is great especially in small working spaces, like my kitchen.  Once you have the right size, peel off one side, and flip into the pie plate, press gently into the plate, and then peel off the remaining paper.

Use a fork to create a few vent holes:

Thinly sliced peeled apples:

Apples stirred into the custard mixture:

Pour the mixture into the unbaked crust:

Sprinkle with walnut oatmeal crumbs:

Bake at 375 for an hour, et voila:

Tastiest apple pie my taste buds have ever experienced:

 I am super pleased with this recipe.  Enjoy!

Kale and Chicken and Raspberry Custard Tart

I was at the farm the other day and picked up two chickens, 60 eggs, 4 pork chops, and a few leeks.

I baked one whole chicken for dinner Friday, and there was enough for yesterday, and still some left over for today's lunch.  I posted a baked chicken recipe back in September, this one may have been slightly different, but similar idea.  I used some fresh lemon oregano and s&p as rub, carrots, bay leaf, and leek.

Here is the tasty kale recipe I made up today.  I'm very pleased with this tasty dish, normally I just sautée kale in butter, sometimes with garlic, but this is way tastier.

Ingredients:
- butter
- garlic (I used one large clove of local garlic, which is much more flavourful than the Chinese import)
- slivered almonds
- caraway seeds
- cumin seeds
- s&p
- 4-5 plum (Roma) tomatoes
- bunch of kale


Melt butter in a pan, add garlic, slivered almonds, then diced tomatoes.  I used 4 or 5 for 1 bunch of kale.  In the mean time take a sweet potato, wash/ scrub and cube it, then steam it, this way it retains its shape and doesn't get mushy around the edges.  Once the tomatoes have softened, add caraway and cumin seeds (crush them so they're more flavourful), s&p, stir, add kale, occasionally stir until it softens and shrinks.  Add the steamed sweet potato, stir.  Done.  So tasty.

Very steamy.

What was left of the chicken.  I love meat closest to the bone.

For dessert I made a raspberry custard tart.  Last time I made pie (pecan), I made enough dough for three pies, so I froze two.  I still have one in the freezer, and I keep thinking about a slice of pie I had a couple of years ago at The Pie Shack in Toronto.  The pie was called autumn harvest, and it was made with peaches, plums and apples, and had a top crust.  I'm thinking of making one with apples and plums and a crumble topping.

Enjoy!

Global Pork Shortage

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/story/2012/09/25/bacon-shortage-pigs.html

Seems like the world may be coming to an end with this unavoidable global bacon shortage.  The apocalypse has begun.  As for the corn and soy prices increasing, I say F both of those things.  Pigs should be eating oats.

Giant Puffball

Last Sunday I went for a mid morning walk, usual route, but I detoured a tiny bit, because I noticed a small manmade path across the street from where I usually stop at the marsh.  I'm so glad that I did, because I found a Calvatia Gigantea or the giant puffball.

I couldn't decide if I should walk home with it or walk home and drive back.  I opted to just take it.  It was heavy.  I normally don't have a camera on me during my walks, but I brought one this time to take photos of the marsh in the fall.

I decided to save the mushroom for Monday, since that was Thanksgiving and I was going to my parents' place for dinner.  The plan was that the mushroom would get eaten and I wouldn't have to freeze it.  I was hoping it would still be white on the inside, but once I sliced off the root area, I saw the yellow turning brown fleshiness and spores forming.  Giant puffballs are easy to tell apart from other mushrooms, but they are only safe to eat when they are young and the inside is white.  Once it starts turning yellow, and then darker, it is poisonous.  Sadly I didn't get to taste my amazing find, but now that I know where it grew, I plan on returning to that spot next year.

Probiotic Salsa and other fermented foods

I've been making sauerkraut for a while.  It reminds me of my childhood.  My gran used to make it, among other things.  In our kitchen, there was a barrel of kraut, and another with pickles, a smaller one with half pickles.  I don't know what those are called in English, but basically it's something between a cucumber and a pickle, no longer a cucumber, but not quite a pickle yet; they're delicious.

I make flavoured sauerkraut, with various herbs, spices, and veg.  I've also been making kimchi (Korean), curtido (South American), and salsa.  Salsa is a great alternative to the other options for those who don't like cabbage, but like probiotic foods.  I've got an idea for hot sauce, and I'm in the process of growing a symbiotic colony of bacteria and yeast to start making my own kombucha.

I have a Facebook page dedicated to my sauerkraut and other fermented foods, it's under the same name as this blog.

www.facebook.com/MetalPorkchop

Salsa

Salsa in the making

Napa Kimchi

Caraway Bay Kraut, Napa Kimchi, Apple Fennel Kraut, Curtido

Loads of beneficial bacteria, vitamins, minerals, and taste!  Great for your digestive tract, and once that's balanced and healthy, everything else works better too.  Some of my customers swear that they've been able to cut down or cut out their GI meds.

Sweet Sour Cream Soufflé

These are so fast, easy, and inexpensive to make, but they look and taste amazing.  I first came up with the idea when I had most of a 500ml container of 30% sour cream close to expiry.  I'm not a huge sour cream fan, I love it in mashed potatoes and on my burrito, but not much otherwise.  Though I have to say with age, I have started to like it more.

So all I do is leave the sour cream in a sieve over a bowl with cheese cloth, in the fridge over night, to remove moisture and make it firmer.  The next day, I take some raisins and soak them in Earl Grey tea, then drain.  I beat 2 egg whites separately, then 2 yolks with some sugar.  I don't measure, but use your judgement, and decide how sweet you want this to be.  I don't like mine too sweet, because the raisins are very sweet.  You can always taste test.  Add a tablespoon or 2 of flour to the egg mixture.  If you're using more than one container of sour cream, then increase the flour, but don't use too much, or your soufflé won't be as fluffy.  Grate one lemon's worth of rind, and add it to the yolk mixture, mix in the drained raisins, then fold in the egg whites.  Butter your dish or ramekins, dust with some flour and fill 1/2 to 2/3 full.  The first time I made these I had French butter cookies, and I placed cookies at the bottom of half the ramekins.  If you have a good cookie that doesn't have too much going on, try this out, the cookie ends up being a moist bottom "crust".  

In these photos, I ended up sprinkling the raisins on top and then covering with more batter.  Either way works.

Soufflés don't stay puffed once they leave the oven, so if you're making these for guests, don't take them out until you're ready to serve.  It's best to time it out, so that they don't stay in the oven too long, because they do end up burning.

I had these in at 325 for about 35 minutes.

The ones which don't get eaten right away are still very tasty, but once they collapse, they are more dense, and almost like a light fluffly cheesecake, especially the next day.  This is one of my best dessert experiments.  Bon Appétit!

Lose the Soy in Your Diet

http://www.thehealthyhomeeconomist.com/170-scientific-reasons-to-lose-the-soy-in-your-diet/

http://www.westonaprice.org/soy-alert/studies-showing-adverse-effects-of-isoflavones

I cut soy out of my diet back in 2007, mainly because it's overly genetically modified and processed.  I don't miss it, because I wasn't crazy about it in the first place.
As this article points out, soy, in its many forms, can be found in loads of foods, even ones you wouldn't expect, like chocolate.  Not all chocolate has soy byproducts as an ingredient, but if you look at the list of ingredients, often times you will see soy lecithin listed.

Be sure to check out the link for a detailed list of scientific reasons why regular consumption of soy is not healthy, even if your health practitioner still seems to think so.

Bill allowing sale of some homemade foods in California

http://www.latimes.com/business/money/la-fi-mo-governor-1616-homemade-food-20120921,0,6155634.story

Sometimes I wish I lived in California.

Baked Farm Chicken

I got this chicken from a small scale, honest goodness, hobby farm.  Farmer Tom is an easy going, laid back hobby farmer, who loves to show you around his farm and tell you about how everything works.  His farm is where I get my eggs at $2.50/dozen.  He doesn't advertise, and I wish I lived closer to his farm.

This chicken was delicious.  I think the last time I had good chicken, other than two weeks ago at The Prune in Stratford (which uses local ingredients), was when I was a kid back in Poland, and we grew our own chickens among other edibles.  BTW, I never order chicken in restaurants, the reason I had it at The Prune was because it was part of the fixed menu.

I made it simply.  Cut up a carrot, used one leek (from the farm), a few bay leafs, and sprinkled a mixture of French inspired herbs: savory, thyme, basil, fennel, lavender (very small amount), some s&p.

I started cutting before remembering to take a photo, as it happens often.

This is the chicken neck.  It's hard to look proper when eating bony parts, but who cares, the neck is one of the best parts.  Any meat closest to bones is tastiest.  I mention that all the time.

This chicken (about $15) was enough for six proper meals, and I got about 50 ml of chicken fat.  I wouldn't advise rendering chicken fat from store bought poultry.  Fat contains a lot of toxins, and chances are store bought poultry has no shortage of toxins.

I can't wait to use this.  I wish I had more.  I'll have to decide what I will use it for, maybe a crust for a savoury tart, or to fry up chicken livers.  Mmmm, I'm salivating.

Dill

Dill is an amazing little savoury herb.  During the summer, it looked like I would have a whole patch of dill, but then as it kept growing, it also got some sticky disease, so I cut it all down and threw it out.  I did catch two beautiful green caterpillars in my dill, so it may have been their stickiness.  My mom gave me a container of frozen dill from her yard.

Dill is an awesome plant, if you like it, because it seeds itself, and not always where you'd like it to grow.  It's easy to pull out before it seeds again, so it's not anything like mint, which takes over, and "seeds" itself via its root system, which is much harder to eradicate, especially over time.

My dill from last year, and possibly this year, before I cut it down, seeded itself in my lawn, near the veg patch, so I ended up with loads of my own dill after all.

I collect the leaves, chop them up, then store in a yogurt container in the freezer.  Frozen dill isn't as amazing as fresh dill, but pretty darn close, and so much better than dried dill, which doesn't taste like much.  I didn't wash my dill, because it's from my backyard.  If you have to wash yours, let it air dry, or shake off as much of the water as you can.  If you use a paper towel, gently pat the water off, don't squish the dill.  I find it's best not to wash it, so that it retains its (dainty) firmness.

Dill is a gerat herb for various foods.  My fave is on new potatoes with butter.  It's also a must for pickling cucumbers, it works in sauerkraut and various pickles, on salads, meats, vegetables, grains, any savoury dish really.  If using with cooked food, sprinkle it at the end, when serving.  If cooked, dill doesn't retain much flavour, like cilantro and fresh basil (to an extent).

I now have six containers of dill in my freezer :)

Quick Ice Cream

Back in May I wrote about how to make instant ice cream, instant being about 10 minutes.  A few weeks ago, I discovered another quick way to make very creamy ice cream.  This one is a bit more sugary, but has more flavour options, is ultra creamy, and takes about 3-4 hours compared to 12+ with an ice cream maker.  Even good quality store bought or ice cream parlour bought ice cream has a fair amount of sugar in it.  The instant ice cream (from the May post) can have no sugar or whatever amount you choose; it does taste better with sugar though, without it's bland and tastes like something (much bigger than sugar) is missing.

Anyway, this ice cream can be made and eaten in the same day and doesn't require an ice cream maker.
All you need is cream and condensed milk, plus whatever flavour you'd like to add and a freezer safe container.

Beat the cream and condensed milk in a bowl with an electric mixer.  The cream won't have stiff peaks, because you're beating it with the condensed milk, but the mixture will thicken like this:

If you're adding a flavour, add it at the end.  The above picture is cinnamon ice cream, so once I added the cinnamon, I used the beater to blend it in.  If you're using nuts or fruit, fold them in with a spoon or spatula.

When ready, pour the mixture into a freezer safe container.  I've made this a couple of times so far.  The first time I used a loaf pan and covered it with aluminum foil, the following time I used plastic tupperware containers with lids.

I smoothed it out a bit before placing in the freezer, because I wasn't sure if it was more likely to end up with frosty bits if it had texture.  I learned it doesn't matter.

The ice cream ends up free of icy bits/ freezer burn.  Here we have chocolate and cinnamon:

This one was for James with a Ferrero Rocher on top:

This one was for me:

This weekend I made four other flavours.  Clockwise starting at noon: wild strawberry liquor (Fragoli, it's Italian and it comes with the wild strawberries in the bottle), lavender flavoured honey with dried lavender flowers, cinnamon-chilli-chocolate, and almond with almond extract and almond slivers.

As much as I like my ice cream plain, all these flavours turned out delicious.

My very first experiment in this line was the cinnamon flavour.  Then I made the cinnamon and the chocolate for my parents, and they loved it, my dad even said that I should start selling it.  I'm sticking to my sauerkraut for now, and other fermented foods.

Enjoy!