Maple Harissa Chicken Wings

This post should have been a cookbook review.


But it's not.


A few months ago I received a gorgeous-looking book about Moroccan cooking.  Then I read it.


Augh.


Let's ignore the writing style that oozes braggadocious smarm and reeks of self-satisfaction.


Let's ignore little gems like telling the reader if they want to use this cookbook they should get a scale that weighs in fractions of a gram (since getting the book I've checked every kitchenware department I've come across and cannot find one that measures such minutiae...one gram, not a problem...less than that, I'd have to special order it in.


Aye, there's the rub.


Every cookbook review I do includes several recipes reviews, with each recipe blindly followed, you'd think I were a sheep crossed with a Disney-prodded lemming.  There's no question that the book had a lot of recipes...the question was which recipes intrigued me enough to try them?


Apparently each recipe I found interesting required me prepping ingredients at least a month in advance, or scouring my local shops for ingredients they hadn't heard of.   And those ingredients I could find made me balk at the pricetag.


Don't get me wrong.  I'm all for authenticity, but this book really made it clear to me that this book--and many others are really written for those in major metropolitan areas (and yes, I do live in a CMA of more than half a million people...but that's not big enough to carry some of these ingredients).  Home cooks who would like to try these recipes who don't have easy access to more exotic ingredients would have to order them in or try and make do with what they have, not really knowing what the called-for herbs and spices really taste like.


Needless to say...the book is still untested...and probably will remain so.


In the meanwhile...the book did trigger something.


Although his harissa recipe called for spices I couldn't find, the idea of harissa grabbed me.  After looking up other recipes and playing with the flavours, another idea grabbed me.  


Maple-harissa chicken wings: the smokiness of the spices matched maple syrup's smokiness.  Sweet and hot are generally a good combination.  It's a spicier version of honey-garlic and a smokier version of sweet thai chilli.


The wings also gave me an opportunity to try out Alton Brown's chicken wing preparation technique I saw ages ago --essentially render the fat first by steaming the wings and then roast the wings on a cookie rack.  It's a bit labour intensive but the end result isn't too bad.


The sauce is sweet, hot and smoky.  It may be too hot for some, and if you find it so, add a bit of roasted pepper or tomato paste to the pan with the maple syrup and balance flavours to taste.  




Maple Harissa Chicken Wings

Yield 750g/1.5lbs


Ingredients
750g (1.5lbs) chicken wings, split into drummettes and wings


For the sauce
For the Harissa
0.5tsp (2.5ml) coriander seeds
0.5tsp (2.5ml) caraway seeds
0.25tsp (1.25) cumin seeds
2dspn (20ml/4tsp) lemon juice
5 dried chillies, soaked in boiling water for 45 minutes
2 garlic cloves
0.25tsp (1.25ml) salt
1Tbsp (15ml) olive oil


3Tbsp Maple Syrup (to taste)
salt (to taste)
pepper (to taste)
1-2 tsp (5-10ml) tomato paste or minced roasted red peppers (optional, to taste)


Method


Preheat the oven to 225C/425F. Lay a tea towel or a double layer of paper towels on a baking sheet. Set a cooling rack over top the towels and set aside.


To cook the chicken wings, set about 2-3cm (approximately 1") of water to boil in a large pot. Lay the wings in a steamer basket and set in the pot. Lid the pot and let steam over medium heat for about 10 minutes.Remove the wings from the basket, place on the cooling rack, and pat dry. Let the wings cool. Remove the towels and line the tray with tin foil. Roast for 40 minutes, turning the wings once.


Start the sauce while the wings are roasting.  Toast the coriander, caraway and cumin in a dry pan, over medium heat, stirring occasionally. When the seeds have darkened and have released their aromas, remove the pan from the hob and tip the spices onto a plate to cool (five-10 minutes). Grind to a paste the toasted spices with the rehydrated chillies, garlic, salt, olive oil and lemon juice.


In a small saucepan, over medium-low heat, mix the harissa with the maple syrup. Taste the sauce--if it is too spicy for you, you can temper its zing by adding some tomato paste or finely chopped roasted red pepper. Balance flavours to taste.


When the wings are done roasting tip them into a bowl and pour the sauce over top. Toss the wings so they are evenly coated.


Notes

• If you don't want to make your own harissa, use about three-four tablespoons of bought sauce.

• You don't have to cook the wings in above-prescribed manner--if you prefer to bake or fry the wings, please do.

cheers! 
jasmine
I'm a quill for hire!

Maple-berry apple crisp

It's cold. It's warm. It's cold. It's warm.

It's maple syrup season.

Cold nights and above freezing days mean sugar shacks are in full boil. And for those of us luck enough to know someone with a sugar bush, visions of golden, mapley goodness dance in our heads...and our palates.

I'll pour it on sweet fritters, warm corn bread, ice cream and yes...pancakes.

Unlike "table syrup" in all its cloying viscosity, I'll use it as a more subtle sweetener--one that lends a deep smoky sweetness to whatever I use it in.

Normally when I make a crisp, sugar abounds: the apples are tossed in it, the topping has one or two types and usually the dessert is served with a dollop of sweetened cream, a generous spoon of custard or a healthy scoop of ice cream. This time I wanted the Granny Smith's tartness to shine through and be more of a feature against the sweetened accompaniment.

I'm fairly happy with the results--the apples are tart with a hint of maple. I like how the crisp nubbly topping contrasts against the softened apples and melting rivulets of ice cream. I will play with it some more--the topping could do with some playing -- maybe plump up the fruit before baking and maybe use a mixture of both whole wheat and ap flours...but for now, here's my maple-berry apple crisp.

Maple-Berry Apple Crisp
Serves 6-8

Ingredients
For the topping
70g (5Tbsp) butter, softened
65g (0.33c) brown sugar
40g (0.25c) dried cranberries, finely chopped
40g (0.25c) dried blueberries, chopped
40g (0.33c) chopped walnuts, toasted
55g (0.5c) rolled oats
75g (0.5c) whole wheat flour
finely minced zest of one orange
0.5tsp cinnamon
pinch of salt

For the apples
juice of one orange
180ml (0.75c) maple syrup
pinch of salt
butter
6 Granny Smith apples, peeled, cored and cut into 3mm (1/8") slices

Method:
Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Butter a 23cm x 33cm (9"x13") pan.

Mix the topping ingredients together, until crumbly and set aside.

Mix the juice, syrup and salt together. Tumble the sliced apples into the buttered pan and por the syrup mixture over top. Strew the topping over the apples.

Bake for 30-40 minutes, or until the topping is golden and the apples yield to the point of a sharp knife.

Let cool a bit before serving. Serve with custard, ice cream or cream sweetened with maple syrup.

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Food to mend a bruised heart: Part Three: Maple-glazed peppered bacon

There's nothing like a good breakfast to start a new adventure.

Granted, I'm not trekking through deepest, darkest Peru in search of the spectacled bear (or any other of Paddington's relatives); I'm not off to Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro, and I've not applied to CSIS (but really, if they need an accusedly adorable short chick who can not only string words together well but bring in the occasional cupcake, tart or biscuit to share, all they need to do is call. Besides, can't you see me as a Miss Marple (à la Margaret Rutherford)-meets-Thursday Next-meets-Nora Charles (especially when she gives that look when people are being idiots and she can't say anything...like the look I give the exbf when he's half-way through a sentence) with a bit of Nero Wolfe thrown in for good measure? See...I'd be perfect there).

I write of the final stage of bruised heart-mending: getting over him and considering returning to those murky dating waters again.

And they are murky.

I peeked into the online dating site where I met Dear Soul.

Eeek.

About half the guys were there two years ago--including *gasp* the superficial and rude ones. Many of the newer ones don't post photos and the "in thing" seems to be leaving a blank profile. Glah. I've even perused some picture-free, information-free theoretically wannabe half-of-a couple candidates whose 100 words mostly comprise of "I'm good looking and fun. Looking for the same. No pic, no response--fair is fair" Umm. Yeah. Good luck with that.

I'm not quite ready to go back out there yet, but at least I can bring myself to thinking about possibly maybe finding someone...at some point...later.

But before I do that, a good breakfast is in order. Not one of those poncey fruit and yoghurt with wheat grass juice dealies. I'm talking of real breakfast. The type that sends farmers off to the fields. The type that makes oleophobes quake in their boots. The type that gets you going the morning after the night before.

You know it:

Maple glazed peppered bacon.

Eggs.

Pumpernickel toast with butter and marmelade.

Fried mushrooms.

Hash brown potatoes

Tea.

Heaven on a plate. Pure and simple. It's the breakfast I have before I explore the country or a metropolis. When I meet with foodbloggers, it's pretty darned close to my standard order when at my favourite Toronto brunch spot. It's my favourite breakfast on a lazy Sunday morning at home.

Maple-glazed peppered bacon is another of those non-recipe recipes I love so much. There's nothing to it--bacon, maple syrup, and freshly cracked black pepper--but when combined, the result is smokey, salty, sticky sweet and spikey...just enough to remind you that life is actually... good.


Maple-glazed peppered bacon

Rashers of streaky bacon
Maple syrup
Freshly cracked black pepper

Preheat oven to 160C/325F. Line a baking tray with foil--if you have a cooling rack that fits the tray, set it on top of the lined tray, if not, don't worry about it.

Brush the rashers with maple syrup. Sprinkle with pepper.

Lay the rashers on the rack (or on the foil) and pop into the oven. Bake until done. How long will that be? It depends on a number of things: the bacon's thickness, how much fat there is, the state of your oven. It can take 15 minutes or longer...just keep an eye on them...the time between cooked and charred isn't really that much.

Related Posts:
Food to mend a bruised heart part one: Poutine
Food to mend a bruised heart part two: Choco-fudge cake with peanut butter icing


cheers!
jasmine
I'm a quill for hire!

International Bacon Day: Maple-Dijon pork tournedos

It's a known fact wrapping something in bacon automatically makes that something better.

Just to prove my deep, unwavering belief in this basic truth, I'll wait as you check with your bacon-eating pals.

Really. Scoot. Go run off and see what they say. I'll make myself at home and draw up your psych assessment based on a) the books on your shelves, b) the CDs on your racks, c) the DVDs in the corner and d) the mere fact you had to go ask someone about the bacon thing.

Lalalalala. Oh, that's interesting...I wonder if your Nana knows about that one over there...

Oh good. You've returned. And what did they say? See? What did I tell you?

There's no one thing bacon does that makes things just plain better. It could be the deep smoky-saltiness it adds to sauces, the crunchiness in salads or even the sheer heartily blissfulness pretty much anything fried in bacon fat has. Notice how nicely it plays well with others and makes the opinionatedly boring and inedible deliciously addictive?

As one potential online paramour (dispatched, like the rest of them) once told me, "Well of course your Brussels sprouts are good. You use bacon--bacon makes everything taste better." And no, he wasn't dispatched because he assumed my Brussels sprouts were tasty because of bacon (as opposed to the mere fact I know how to cook Brussels sprouts so they don't become a foul-smelling slimy layer of ooze at the bottom of a pot).

It's pretty darned good on it's own--a back bacon sandwich with plenty of bacon fat-fried onions and extra drippings on a soft white bun deserves its own altar in the Holy Shrine of Baconosophy...but that's just me...

When our dear author of A Dork and His Pork emailed me the other day mentioning his International Bacon Day yummyness, I knew my return from holidays post would be to celebrate this illustrious day.

My contribution to the fête is bacon-wrapped maple-Dijon pork tournedos (try saying that five times fast). Yes, pork-wrapped pork.

Inspired by this Epicurious recipe, because quite frankly I didn't have the time nor the inclination to brine the loin for a minimum of eight hours, this recipe is one of my happy little kitchen experiments.
The only point I feel I need to mention as the porky-marinadey juices cook out of the meat, the sugars from the maple syrup can char on the baking tray, so definitely keep an eye them when in your oven's maw.

As anyone who's swished their rashers in maple syrup knows (please, get your minds out of the gutter), bacon and maple syrup pair nicely together. Dijon mustard and maple syrup are lovely. And garlic...well garlic is just plain good. Bacon good. The result is a nice mix of savoury, sweet and hot. And really, they look impressive--as only something wrapped in bacon can.

Bacon-Wrapped Maple-Dijon Tournedos

1 pork tenderloin, cut into 2cm discs
rashers of bacon, one per disc

Marinade:
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 dspn sage
a couple of pinches of salt
1 tsp black pepper
2 bulging Tbsp Dijon mustard
60ml Maple syrup

Whisk together the marinade ingredients, reserving about threeish tablespoons for later.

Marinate the pork discs with the rest of the mixture for 4-6 hours.

Preheat oven to 180C/350F.

Wrap each piece of meat with one rasher, pinning it with a toothpick to keep the bacon from unfurling.

Brush both sides of the discs with reserved marinade. Placed on greased baking tray. Bake for 30 minutes or until done or until cooked to whatever specifications your local food police tell you is safe.

1 dspn = 2tsp

cheers!
jasmine

Oh. You want your psych assessment? Well...some things are best not known...

What I'm reading: The Heart is an Involuntary Muscle by Monique Proulx

I'm a quill for hire!

Love shack, baby: Maple Syrup

A few weeks ago I mentioned how I...umm...encouraged my cold to return. Some of you asked me how one does that (the reasons, I hope, are so you won't do the same...as opposed to taking glee in my...well, "stupidity" is an awfully harsh word for it).

As some of you know, I've dipped my toe back into fetid waters known as "dating."

I've never been "good" at it and really didn't know what to expect. Which is why, as incredulous as it sounds, in September I actually met a very dear, sweet man who not only interested me, but he seems to have taken an interest in me. We had a lovely time together, but long story short, his life imploded a few weeks ago and he asked for time to deal with what The Fates dropped on him. We have left each other messages and spoken to one another in these few weeks, but still...it's a little bruising...at times it feels more than a little bruising.

Of my many wonderful friends is a phenomenal woman. I've mentioned her family before--remember Baby Bella's ice cream extravaganza? This is mummy of Baby Bella. The family was in what turned out to be the first couple weeks of an extraordinary six week boiling season, and she invited me up to her sugar shack to have a tramp through the woods, take in the heady aromas of boiling maple sap, clear my head and have a good think about life, the universe and everything.



The sugarbush is about an hour north-ish of here, and although she suggested I wear my woolies...Well, I didn't wear enough of them and my cold revisited for (thankfully) a short duration.

Really, it's a magical little place--a virgin maple bush where the summer sees it carpeted with green, including ramps and wild trilliums. That day there were no wildflowers or onions, but the remnants of winter were still on the ground, but you could smell the cedar smoke in the air and see the plumes of steam and smoke ascend above the tree tops. It's quiet--far enough from larger towns to remind you of what tranquility really is.

Inside the sugar shack are whorls of maple and cedar-scented steam. Above a three-channel evaporator, heated by cedar wood fresh sap is poured into the beast at one end, and boils, bubbles and makes patterns vaguely reminiscent of satellite images of great water-born storms. I was able to capture a very short (five-ish second) video of it...really, it was quite like those dances where lasers illuminated the swirling wind currents evidenced by dry ice fog (gosh...am I dating myself with that reference)?



I helped bottle about two gallons of syrup (and I have a quart of the special Jasmine bottling, as I'm calling it--yes, it's the bestest syrup ever), we sat in the little cabin next to the sugar shack (no: no hydro or water their either, but there is a wood stove which kept things mighty warm) sipping warm, fresh syrup from china teacups while discussing the recent turn in my life. Baby Bella's grandfather believes maple syrup can cure anything...and for a few hours that day, I certainly felt a lot better.



The sugar shack was built in the late 1800s by one my friend's ancestors and the property has stayed in the family throughout (except for a few years). Back in its family's hands, it took a few years to recover from the logging its temporary owners indulged in, with last year being the first year the remaining trees started giving sap. This year they truly made a go of it.

The nights have to be below freezing and the days just above to get the sap flowing from spiles into buckets. She and her family then collect the clear, sweet liquid by hand (none of that intravenous-like rubber tubing you see at some larger sugar bushes) and then is poured into a century's old evaporator. The sugar shack itself is quite rustic--no electricity, phone or running water (there's an outdoor privvy, when needs must)--when they are in the throes of "midnight boils", they work by candlelight wrapped in old quilts. Thus far, she and her family have produced more than 40 gallons of syrup. (update: by season's end they produced more than 50 gallons of syrup)



What I think makes it special--well, apart from it being made by friends are a couple of things. The first is how they fire the evaporator. Instead fuelling the fires with maple or old tires (as some producers do), they use cedar which imparts a bit of its flavour in the syrup. The other thing is, this is a way of life which is slowly disappearing from the area. These small family sugar bushes are dwindling, making way for what someone somewhere designated as "progress," leaving larger, more corporate producers to streamline procedures and do what corporate types do to things that are just simply...good. You can read more about sustainability and maple syrup production here.

My friend's family is continuing to make maple syrup in the way it was done more than a century ago, as part of the farm enterprise. Back then sugar was an imported expense and maple syrup, in its various strenghts was a local and affordable natural sweetner that could last a year or longer.

They've decided to bottle syrups highlighting the seasonal variances of the sap, including an unusual "Sharp Frost Amber": an especially caramelly syrup which followed a sharp freeze. Rather than homogenizing syrup in vats (by mixing sap harvests from several days) - to reduce the daily and seasonal variations - they've specially preserved the individual characteristics of the batches as the season progressed.



If you're interested in getting some syrup, let me know (the email address is on the side) and I'll pass on your request, they are selling it at reasonable prices ($10 for 500ml).

Each bottle comes with one of four family recipes--I've selected one to prepare and share with you.


Grandpa's Johnnycake
recipe courtesy Kim Love
1 egg
7/8c (220ml) milk
1tsp vanilla
5Tbps (75ml) melted butter
1/3c (65g) brown sugar
1c (130g flour
1 Tbsp (heaping) baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1c (160g) cornmeal

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Butter a brownie pan (20cmx20cm/8"x8") or a cast iron pan of a similar proportion.

Lightly whisk together the egg, milk, vanilla and melted butter. Stir in the brown sugar.

Sift together the remaining ingredients. Form a well, so you have a hollow that's protected by a mountain range of the cornmeal-flour mixture. pour in the wet mixture and mix until just combined. uyour wet ingredients well.

Pour into prepared pan and bake for 20-25 minutes, or until an inserted skewer comes out clean and the top is slightly dappled with brown.

Serve hot with butter and maple syrup.

"This is Grandpa Love’s favourite way to enjoy fresh maple syrup."

Mmm...Canada: Spiced blueberry-maple syrup

This week you'll hopefully notice that things seem to be a little more Canadian in the foodblogging world. Jennifer of the Domestic Goddess and I are hosting sister events, celebrating our home and native land, under the theme of Mmm...Canada.

Earlier this month Jennifer and I issued a challenge to the foodblogging (and foodblog reading) world. We want to know what Canada tastes like to you. She's interested in all things sweet and I'm interested in the savoury side of life .

For me, savoury or sweet, Canadian food draws upon a mixture of indigenous and introduced foods. And I think this makes sense, given our national history. Settlers and immigrants came here to start new lives, but at the same time wanted to maintain their own cultural identities. Wave after wave came, bringing their own seed and livestock, building upon this land's foods. Some introduced flavours have been here for centuries, while others for only a few years.

With every group of settlers--whether they arrived in the 17th century or the 21st, adaptation was was important. Apart from the weather (-30C in winter and +40C in summer) and eventual cultural, social and political changes, they also needed to find ways of eating that reminded them of distant family and friends with ingredients that were available here.

To be honest, when I first thought of Canadian confections, I thought of two things: maple syrup and wild berries. I know it's a bit cliché on a couple of fronts. Maple syrup because, well, it's maple: we produce 85 per cent of the world's maple syrup and the leaf is on our flag. Wild berries, because they are directly linked to our forests and untamed areas, homesteaders, bears and all that.

Sigh...you'd think I'd do better than that, wouldn't you? I mean, Canadian sweets are plentiful--butter tarts, Nanaimo bars, sugar pie, fruit pies, anything appley, ice cream (I can go on and on)--to immediately leap to two obvious ingredients was a little...anticlimactic.

But not.

To paraphrase the late, great James Barber, aka The Urban Peasant and a favoured Canadian cook: "You do the best with what you've got."

How perfect a food theory is that? And how à propos to apply it to Canadian cuisine--I mean it's what we've been doing for years, is it not?

My entry for Mmm...Canada: The Sugar High Edition is my spiced blueberry-maple syrup.

It's a simple twist on two very Canadian ingredients (Elmira purveyed the syrup and the blueberries were harvested last summer from Sudbury, Ontario). Add to that the ubiquitous, familiar and exotic cinnamon and black pepper, and we've got a meeting of East and West, indigenous and imported and sweet and spicy...

Yeah, I think this sweet says Canada to me...

This is one of those bits of instinctive cooking that really doesn't call for precise measurements.

Spiced blueberry-maple syrup
Maple syrup
Blueberries (fresh or frozen)
Cinnamon
Black pepper (optional)

Add all to a sauce pan and bring to a boil while stirring. Lower the flame and let as much of the liquid boil off, leaving as thick a syrup as you wish. Refrigerate any leftovers.

Pour it over buttery pancakes (as shown), over ice cream, fruit fritters...whatever you want.

Check back to Jennifer's site for SHF 44's round up on Canada Day (1 July 2008).


cheers!
jasmine

Food Fest: Elmira Maple Syrup Festival

Spring has sprung. Or, at least it wants to spring.

April's first Saturday is when people from far and wide descend upon Elmira, Ontario to celebrate all lovely mapley goodness at The Elmira Maple Syrup Festival. As I wrote in a previous post, I head up every couple of years and load up on the sweet stuff. Yesterday I got up early (for a Saturday) and headed in with a friend.

I'm always a little surprised at the variety of food available there. Yes, there's maple candy, maple taffy, maple fudge, maple butter, maple glazed goodies (buns, funnel cakes, etc) and of course) maple syrup on pancakes. But there's also back bacon sandwiches, sausages, turkey, souvlaki, jams, jellies and all sorts of things. I try and pace myself, but I'm not that good at it--had the pancake breakfast and then later I just HAD to get a backbacon sandwich...while I was waiting for a nice fluffy bun crammed full of yummy yummy bacon, that booth ran out of sausage...70kgs (150lbs) in three hours...

Here are some of my snapshots...


(l) crates of corn waiting to be roasted
(r) sticky maple syrup buns


(l) funnel cake in strawberries, maple syrup and whipped cream
(r) all sorts of lovely jams and jellies


(l) skewered meats
(r) the longest spring rolls I've ever seen


(l) the Gingrichs' maple syrup table (I always get my syrup from them)
(r) mmmm....bacon....


(l) toffee apples
(r) souvlaki


(l) pancakes pancaking on one of th big breakfast grills
(r) all that's left of my brekkie plate

cheers!
jasmine