Persian Naan

I have been cooking my way through Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. It is simple, delicious meals that can be made relatively quickly. This week we really enjoyed the Salmon Tikka with Cucumber Yogurt. I hadn't bought enough naan breads for the amount of salmon I purchased, so I decided to give the Persian Naan recipe in Baking with Julia a try.

The recipe and instructions were fairly easy and I baked it in time to finish at noon. That way I could enjoy it fresh out of the oven for lunch and send Andrew to work with it on the night shift.

When I first pulled the naan out of the oven it was wonderfully toasted, and still had a soft texture. It wasn't "candy" like the President's Choice version, but it was good. Andrew had a small taste and agreed.

However, that evening when Andrew got to work the naan had turned into a plank of wood. He tried softening it in the microwave and that made it worse in any of the thin areas and soft only in the ticker areas. The naan was totally useless. He tried eating it only to have a huge mess from the juices from the salmon and cucumber. He could barely enjoy the taste as his jaw hurt so much from chewing. But he had enough left in him to curse Julia's name.

I had tried making naan in the past that was a horrible disaster. It had made a huge hollow football. This recipe did have initial great results, but I can only recommend this recipe it you are going to eat it immediately.

Skate, Traditional Flavours Powdered - with changes

I have been merrily working away at the Baking Beauties challenges, having great success and really enjoying learning how to bake.

I noticed Tina joined the Daring Cooks and I just had to get in on it. July was my first challenge and I threw caution to the wind. Apparently I threw the recipe into the wind too, because I went crazy with the substituting. When I started the Baking Beauties I made a pact with myself to keep substitutions to the bare minimum. I knew it was what got me into trouble in the past and if I wanted to improve I had to start following the rules. And so far it has worked out really well. I am not sure what happened with the Daring Cook's challenge, but it started as soon as I saw the title. I wasn't going on a hunt to find Skate, and looking at pictures of the animal on the internet, I was okay with finding something else. I figured the challenge was to create a molecular cuisine dish and as long as I stayed true to the challenge that was all that mattered.

So Skate became Tilapia, green beans became peas (cut in half so that you wouldn't get the familiar pop and technically the eating experience would be different), and no bananas, banana chips, parsley, cilantro or powdered creamed. I kept the red onions, lemons and capers.

Dehydrating sucked. It took a lot of time and a lot of burned lemon rinds to figure out what power level the microwave should be set at. The onions just wouldn't dry out and it was very frustrating. In the end I did get all three ingredients dried and ground into a fine powder.

I thought the challenge was interesting and I did like the idea. Without the bananas I missed the tropical feel. Andrew thought the dish tasted "fine". Buttery fish and peas are good anytime with me. The thing that bothered me is that the dehydrating took away all the freshness. I get that is the point, but even with the concentrated flavours I felt like I was eating remnants from a dusty old spice rack not bright fresh food.

The final plated dish sure did look pretty.

French Strawberry Cake

I love strawberries, and all week I was very excited to make this cake. I went to the market to buy some fresh local strawberries, as I had already devoured the ones I picked myself.

The Génoise cake was a little more difficult than I had anticipated. I whipped the eggs just right and was folding in the flour and butter no problem. I ran the spatula through one more time, and that is when I noticed there were larger clumps of flour that had not been mixed through. I was so disappointed at my folding skills. I mixed the batter a little more and that is when my airy

whipped cream texture turned into sticky pancake batter.

The final result was very dense and only 3/4 of an inch thick. This sponge cake was missing the sponge. It was way too thin to try to cut in half for laying. The great thing is that with a cake so dense the mushed strawberries didn't soak into the cake making it soggy and all three layers - Cream Cheese/Whipped Cream, Sugared Strawberries, and Génoise - stayed distinct.

The cake was a huge hit and the flavours are amazing.

Hazelnut Baby Loaves

I don't have too much to say about the Hazelnut Baby Loaves. Overall they are tasty. I like the light flavour and the crumminess. I like them even more with the mascarpone cream whipped topping.

Few things to note... my insisting use of whole wheat flour. Peeling hazelnuts is annoying. I had no interest in purchasing mini loaf pans; I thought it was funny the book even points out you may not own these and gives you some purchasing locations, so I used my oversized muffin pan. I had no interest in purchasing Grappa (for the whipped topping) so I used my very favourite Frangelica instead - sooooo yummy!

Fruit Focaccia

Mmmmm.... Tastes like Christmas!

The Fruit Focaccia got great reviews all around. Everyone I fed a piece to loved it, and offered up comparisons it to other Christmas treats (such as homemade fruit cake and Kringle). The final result was a fantastic bready focaccia, jam packed with raison and cranberry goodness.

I am really excited about the final result, as getting there was a bit strange. I started the recipe on Thursday evening with the overnight macerating of the fruit. Friday I was too busy to continue with the recipe. Saturday I opened the container of fruit and was completely turned off by the sight and smell. I figured I would continue on.

I don't have a stand mixer and I am extra gentle with my hand mixer after a stint of making marshmallows and listening to the poor thing chug. The next steps talked about consulting the manual of your mixer to see if it could handle the heat of mixing the dough. So I decided the best tool available was my hands and decided to mix the dough old school. Mixing the dough seemed to go well, it was messy, but I have no idea if it "pooled" in the bottom of the bowl or would have made "slapping" sounds.

There was a huge issue of smell. The mix of the macerated fruit and yeast was disgusting... Andrew had to leave the room.

Due to bad timing, not reading through the entire recipe, and busyness, chilling the dough for 24 hours spilled over into Monday morning. So in the wee hours of the morning (before work) I I completed the remaining steps. A total of four days it took me to get through the entire recipe, and the entire time I was worried the completed product would smell like ass.

I gave Andrew the first piece (I wasn't going to be the guinea pig) I couldn't believe by the time I turned around it had been devoured. The final product didn't taste like any of the smells along the way. I was thrilled. I was especially thrilled that it wasn't just good, but really delicious.

Cantuccini

Cantuccini is just a fancy word for biscotti I think. Those who like biscotti thought the cookies were tasty. Those who don't (Andrew and I) didn't.

I made two different kinds. One is the recipe exactly from the book which was almond, except whole wheat flour instead of white. The second variety was chocolate and toffee.

We didn't mind the almond ones. Andrew said the chocolate ones tasted like burnt chocolate chip cookies.

I was sulking I didn't have anything interesting to write about the cookies, so I decided to try dipping them in my tea. Wow, what a difference. The tea immediately got soaked in and the taste and texture of the cookies instantly changed. I will definitely be polishing off the rest with cups of tea.

The sludge left in the tea is pretty gross though.

Chorizo & Spinach Quiche

I had made the French Apple Tart last week and had a left over pie crust. We love quiche so much I thought it would be fun to recreate one of my favourite restaurant treats. I can't resist Chorizo sausage quiche at Auberge du Petit Prince (I even asked them to serve it at my wedding). Since there would be only two of us eating an entire quiche, I added the spinach for the illusion of healthy.

Wow was it good.

The reason for the post is to comment on the crust. As part of the French Apple Tart the crust was fine. Nothing special. However it is the perfect crust for a savory quiche. The crust held up well through reheating, and both Andrew and I commented on just how much better it tasted all around. The quiche was loaded with cheese and salty goodness, so I think a more buttery crust would have just been too much.