Happy Easter! A simple Sunday Roast

I'm a wee bit behind in uploading these pictures, but better late than never.

I must admit I was at a loss for this year's Easter Supper.  Just not really enthused by any idea that came my way.  I suppose that's why I decided to go back to basics and have a simple Sunday Roast.  Nothing OTT, nothing garishly glam, no feigned humblebragging.

It's been a few years since I last did a roast beef. I just fell out of the habit, I suppose.

Clockwise, from top left:
Yorkshire Puddings
Roast beef with Horseradish Sauce
Maple Harissa Roasted Carrots
Peas, Dijon'd Mashed Potatoes and Gravy

What I didn't photograph?  The apple crumble, but here's the just-out-of-the-oven tweet

Apple crisp for tomorrow's Easter Supper out of the oven and bubbly. pic.twitter.com/0qK7CricBM
— Jasmine (@cardamomaddict) April 4, 2015

I consider roast beef a "back to basics" food.  Nothing fancy, nothing pretentious--when sharing a meal with good friends, you don't need pretention.  Just a good piece of meat, roasted until burnished on the outside, and blushing in the middle.  Delia Smith guided my very first roast, and is the inspiration behind the dusting the meat receives.  The temperature and time are from Nigella's How To Cook.

I like to have about 250-300g for a boneless roast/ 325-400g for a roast that has a bone, per person.  That all said, I tend to overpurchase for a couple of reasons: I think everyone should have as much as they want at a feast, and really...I want leftovers to sustain me through the upcoming days with beef dips, beef and spinach salads and Vietnamese-inspired noodle bowls.

Roast Beef 
Serves 4-5 people

1.5kg (3.3lb) roast
15ml/1Tbsp flour
15ml/1Tbsp powdered mustard
15ml/1Tbsp black pepper
10ml/1Dspn/2tsp powdered mushrooms
1-2 onions, sliced in 1cm thick rounds
Salt
Water or stock

Pat the joint with paper towels and let stand, unwrapped in the fridge for 4-24hrs.

Remove from fridge, pat again and let come to room temperature (about 30-45minutes).

Preheat oven to 450F/230C.

When the oven has come to temp, mix the flour, mustard, pepper and powdered mushrooms together and roll the joint in the mixture.  Tie the roast with cotton string.

Arrange the onions in the roasting tin, so they become a trivet on which the roast will cook.  Place the roast on the onions and lightly sprinkle with salt. Pour a little water or beef broth in the bottom of the tin, to avoid smoking your kitchen.

Roast for 15 minutes.  Turn down the oven temp to 180C/350F.  Tent the roast with aluminum foil for and return to the oven for 20 minutes.  Remove the foil and return to the oven for another 25 minutes (or until the roast's internal temperature reaches whatever safe cooking range, for whatever level of doneness you follow).

Remove from oven and tent with the foil for at least 20 minutes before carving.

Make gravy from the pan drippings, as you normally would.  Serve the onions, if you wish as a side dish.

cheers!
jasmine
  I'm a quill for hire!

Feast: Twelfth Night Cake

I know what you're thinking.

Fruitcake.

You managed to avoid your great Auntie Ermintrude's (rest her soul) infamous Christmas fruitcake-cum-doorstop for yet another year (or the first year...ever).

You swerved cellophaned fruitcake in the office free-for-all of the gift basket teardown, and took the last bit of stale candy-coated nutty popcorn, leaving the fruitcake for the guy who was at an offsite meeting during the basket goodie dispersal.

You even donated the thank-you fruitcake you received to the local food bank, justifying it by saying "even the hungry want a traditional Christmas."

Yes, you've had some near misses with the much maligned cake and thought you were doing fairly well.

And here I am offering you...fruitcake.

But it's not just any fruitcake. It's my take on a traditional Twelfth Night Cake.

Twelfth Night?

The Twelfth Day of Christmas. The end of the Christmas season. The day in which you really don't want to see any more Christmas leftovers hanging out in your fridge and start thinking of things like grapefruit, miso soup and watercress.

The name itself elicits English class flashbacks about a romantic comedy that starts with a shipwreck on the Adriatic, and goes on about a girl hiding out as a guy, a love triangle, cross-gartered yellow stockings and the rest. It's a fun work...but then I like the English Renaissance dramatists. I'm special, that way...but you know that...

Traditionally a cake that holds a hidden prize is served The prize--a bean or a pea--crowns the finder as king or queen. They get to wreak magisterial havoc until...people stop putting up with it (midnight, from what I hear). (NB: As someone prone to wearing her tiara "for no reason," I find the idea of having to find a bean to be able to wear a crown rather sweet...but I realise for the world's tiara-less sometimes sparkly needs to be precipitated by a bean.)

Sometimes the cake is a fruitcake; sometimes it's a galette des rois--a puff pastry cake filled with frangipane; sometimes it's a fruited yeast bread. This year, I decided to go with fruitcake.

I looked at various recipes for Twelfth Night cakes and several seemed...very reminiscent of heavy fruitcakes that seem to dominate fears, worries and japes of December. Many seemed to be modified spiced pound cakes. Some reminded me of yuletide hot cross buns...but without the hot crosses and with more fruit. They were round, ring-shaped or baked in special moulds. But really...far too many lived in the realm of "dreaded" fruitcakes.

After more than a month of feasting, I wanted a lighter cake that keeps the original celebratory spirit...without being...dreadful.

Instead of glaceed cherries with loads of sultanas and currants, I opted for a mixture of dried blueberries, cherries and cranberries. If I had remembered I had dried pears and apricots, they would have been used as well. I couldn't leave out the citrus, but didn't want candied citron, so I zested a clementine and brushed the top with Cointreau. Additional flavour came from some leftover eggnog (and an extra few gratings of nutmeg).

The resulting tender cake is lovely and moist, fruity and lightly citrussed. The interior has a warm hue and the crust is burnished. I'm having it for breakfast, but it would accompany a cup of tea quite nicely.

Will this cake prompt the same jeers that greet its December cousin? I hope not. But maybe the promise of the opportunity of wearing a crown* will convince some to try it.

* And no, you won't be getting to wear my tiara.

Twelfth Night Cake
Yield One 21cm x 11cm (8.5"x4.5") Loaf

Ingredients
100g (approx 250ml/1c) mixed dried fruit of your choosing, rehydrated in boiling water, drained
1 egg
185ml (0.75c) egg nog
225g (435ml/1.75c) cake flour
1tsp (5ml) baking powder
0.5tsp (2.5ml) bicarbonate of soda
pinch of salt
grated nutmeg (approx 1/8th tsp)
75g (85ml/0.33c) soft butter
150g (125ml/0.5c) brown sugar
1tsp finely grated orange zest

1 dried bean or baking bean (optional)
1dspn (10ml/2tsp) cointreau or brandy


Method
Preheat oven to 170C/325F. Paper a 21cm x 11cm (8.5" x4.5") loaf tin

Beat together egg and eggnog and set aside.

Sift together flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and nutmeg. Set aside.

Cream butter until light. Add sugar and zest and continue beating until fluffy. Add in the dry and liquid ingredients in the usual fashion (dry-wet-dry-wet-dry), scraping down the bowl between dry additions. Fold in the rehydrated fruit and the bean (if you're doing that). Pour into prepared loaf pan.

Bake at 170C/325F for 30 minutes. Turn the heat up to 180C/350F for 20 minutes. The cake should be warmly golden in colour and an inserted skewer comes out with a few crumbs clinging to the wood. Remove from oven and brush with the cointreau or brandy.

Ice, if you wish with

• a heavy mixture of icing sugar mixed with water, milk or orange juice
• a blanket of fondant, complete with fussy Shakespearean, Epiphany or Royalty-themed decorations
• a different blanket, this time of marzipan

Or you can do what I do and leave it plain...perhaps slathering your slices with double Devon cream or brandy butter.

Note:

If you don't have eggnog,

• 110g (125ml/0.5c) butter (instead of 75g butter)
• 2 eggs (instead of 1 egg)
• 125ml (0.5c) milk or orange juice
• 1-2Tbsp extra sugar (to taste)

cheers!

jasmine

I'm a quill for hire!

Feast: Baby 'bella's 9th birthday party

An ice cream party. Our Baby 'bella wanted an ice cream party to celebrate her ninth party. Fifteen flavours were on the wish list.

Hmmm...my ice cream maker has been disconcertingly silent during the past few months...and I do have two inserts taking up room in my freezer. A quick glance at the list and we divvied up the flavours, combined a few and two weeks of churning and we came up with a dozen flavours between the two of us. Thank goodness I now have a deep freezer to store my five flavours.

Nine little girls in total.

Nine squealing little girls.

Were we ever that squealy when we were that age? I'm sure we carried ourselves with grace and decorum...always walking from one place to the other, never raising our voices and never, ever jumping up and down like jackhammers riding on pistons. Hmmm...maybe age has fuzzed the little grey cells a wee bit.

Being one of the "official adults" on site I was to help keep things going and spot for any troublesome issues. But I received an invitation...which meant I was allowed to be a squealing little girl. I decided to be a squealing adult. Okay. I was squealing on the inside...those girls could squeal for Canada. Really.

Six hours.

Six hours of frenetic kitten cavorting, chinchilla chasing, snake spying and budgie bugging interspersed with games, food and foodish games. Heck. I was the "world famous food expert" who judged the cupcake decorating contest.

As a non-parent it was very interesting watching the dynamics and the personalities within a group of people this age. There was the nurturer, the forty year-old disguised as a nine year old, and...of course, the ever-so-precious-in-only-her-parents'-minds child.

The cake itself was Dorie's Perfect Party Cake (March '08's DB challenge) and I think my friend did a lovely job with the cake. Yes...the blessed thing did not rise but no matter. It's still a delicious cake. Loved the mauve daisies that set off the primrose of the buttercream.

And the ice creams? We had French Vanilla, Lemon, Butterscotch, Chocolate, Strawberry, Coconut-Mango, Ginger-Lime, Chocolate Chip, Banana Cream, Coconut Custard, Pink Peppermint-Oreo and Orange Sherbet. The young guests weren't too enamoured with the more...exotic flavours and left them for the grown ups (and Baby 'bella), and stuck to chocolate chip, chocolate and the Oreo-mint (hmm...all chocolate-based...who knew?)

Umm...yeah. The grown ups had a little extra help to get through the day (in case you were wondering, the wine glass was not part of the place setting...and the grown ups were not walking around the house with glasses of reisling during the party....AFTER the party was a different story).

Okay: yes, I know I should stop referring to her as "Baby 'bella" but I just can't. She'll always be "Baby 'bella" to me.

cheers!
jasmine

Feast: Easter Supper

Every Easter supper I try and go for something different, something I've never tried before. This is usually the time for first: the first roast chicken, the first leg of lamb, the first prime rib (etc). This year I was truly at a loss as to what I could do. No, I'm nowhere close to have cooked everything at least once, but I was looking for something a bit more fun than normal.

Then I remembered Meeta's Monthly Mingle theme: Arabian Nights. Apart from the "usual suspects" -- hummus, tabouli, baba ganouj--I've not really done a lot with Arabic-inspired foods. Well, one thing led to another, and I ended up with a hodgepodge of dishes from--or at least inspired from--various areas of the Mediterranean. These ideas and recipes were gleaned from a number of sources--Nigella Lawson, Claudia Roden, Nigel Slater, Delia Smith and a number of web searches:

My version of Jazar Bil Camoun Wal Toum (Carrot salad with Cumin and Garlic) used parsnips and carrots. Given my recent Savour the Season post on parsnips and the surprising lack of carrots in my fridge, I decided to make this Moroccan dish using the two veg. Simply blanch 600g of julienned veg, then saute in olive oil, garlic and cumin. Season with salt and pepper and squeeze some lemon over top. Serve cold.

This Lebanese spinach with chickpeas and onions (Sabanekh Bi Loubia) dish is normally made with either black-eyed or haricot beans (and caramelized onions), but I had a tin of chickpeas on hand. Soften an onion in olive oil, then saute garlic in olive oil and add a thawed packet of chopped spinach. Tip in the onions, season with salt and pepper, add the beans and squeeze some lemon over top. Serve cold.

I suppose the lamb is what started things off for this meal. I didn't want to do the standard rosemary-garlic version, but I saw a recipe for a date and mustard-glazed rack of lamb in The Toronto Star. The rub is made with rosemary, cinnamon, salt, pepper, cumin and coriander seed. The glaze used honey-dijon mustard, mashed dates, rosemary, cumin and garlic.


This aubergine and tomato curry is a cross between the most delicious dish my mummy makes and Lebanese aubergines with tomatoes and chickpeas (Mussaka'A Menazzaleh). Toast some black mustard seeds, cumin, coriander, tumeric, chilli pepper and garlic in olive oil and then tip in an onion sliced in half-lunettes and three chopped Chinese eggplants. Saute until soft. Add three or four chopped, very ripe tomatoes and add some water, a pinch of curry leaves, and salt and pepper. Stir in a tablespoon each of red current jelly and rice wine vinegar. Cook, stirring occasionally until it's all soft and oozy. Serve hot.

Possibly one of my favourite potato concoctions. I originally thought of it as Greek, but I found a Lebanese version of Roasted potatoes with lemon and coriander (Batata Bel Lamou Wal Cosbara). Boil a kilo of potatoes, chop into a very large dice, toss in olive oil, salt pepper and garlic. Roast at high heat (240C/475F) for about half an hour, or until crispy brown. Squeeze a couple of lemons over top and serve immediately.

I used this meal as the excuse to try Nigella's Turkish Delight Syllabub. I tried it before TFE and the exbf showed up and decided it was too rich for us...so what did I do (after I took this photograph)? I dumped everything into the ice cream maker and turned it into ice cream. Still too rich, but at least it's now frozen and buys me some time to figure out what I can do with it...right now I'm thinking of turning it into a frosting for a sponge cake.

And yes, here is the 2007 Easter Beanie picture. He wasn't pleased, but he forgave us...and no...he's not usually wall-eyed...I have no idea where that came from.






Cheers!
jasmine

tags: Nigella Lawson Claudia Roden Nigel Slater Delia Smith Monthly Mingle

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Feast: Gung Hei Fat Choy! Part Two

I don't know...perhaps you can think of this and the first 2007 Chinese New Year posts as a study in opposites. Part one was from a local, but somewhat popular Chinese Restaurant, dim sum trolleys, with tasty and freshly-made food.

Part two was from one of a chain of Chinese buffet restaurants. There was some dim sum, but it tasted fatigued. The food was sort of fresh--we kept seeing steamer trays refilled, but the flavours were uninspired and the textures weren't right--the hot and sour soup was very viscous--too viscous. Of course, being a buffet (that included things like prime rib, cheesecake and sugar-free apple crisp), with items that would sit out for a certain amount of time, they had to flavour things to a common denominator. Okay--to be honest, I liked the spare ribs and the lychee ice cream. If I could get the ice cream to go, I'd be very happy. It was popular--we waited about half an hour to get in. It was also very rushed. With all the commotion of people refilling, refilling, refilling their plates, and the legion of waitstaff descending upon recently emptied tables, I found it difficult to actually sit down and enjoy my meal.

I know I shouldn't compare a stand-alone restaurant to a chain,--but I suppose it just made me really appreciate the little gems we have around here...






cheers!
jasmine

tags: Chinese New Year

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Feast: Gung Hei Fat Choy! Part One

Last week one of my favourite dim-summy places celebrated the Chinese New Year with a special feast. Yes, we know The Year of the Pig began on 18 February, but this restaurant does a two-week celebration. We were lucky enough to get a table (I called 11pm the night before for reservations)--throughout our two-hours of nibbly goodness there were queues ranging from four people to what looked to me of more than 20.

The last four images (as blurry as they are) are of the Lion Dance. The crampt restaurant had a special little dance just for that day--I've never seen one in person. I thought the puppeteer was quite good--he attacked a hanging lettuce head (a symbol of wealth, or so I was told) in a way similar to Mr. Bean and a bowl of left over chicken...At the end, pieces flew everywhere.









cheers!
jasmine

Chinese New Year

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Catching Up: Feast - Pancake Tuesday

There are days when I wish I had a TARDIS...okay, there are more days when I wish I had David Tennant, but that's a different story. No, I wish I had a TARDIS so I could go back to last week and do all the online-ish things I wanted to do...

Like not download that Microsoft patch that pooched Zippy.

By not downloading that patch, I could collaborate online with my classmates for the group assignment that was due yesterday.

Then again, there are the other not-so-good things that happened last week that I could avoid:

Tuesday I went through three pairs of stockings before I left my bedroom...which left me with my last pair: a set of fishnets...sigh...yes, I probably raised a few eyebrows when I walked into the office...but then again, I do have interesting fashion sense.

Wednesday I woke up 15 minutes before I had to leave for work. 'Nuff said

Thursday...I don't remember Thursday, but it wasn't fun.

Friday was the day silly people tested my patience.

Saturday I was up until the wee hours as my darling TFE fixed Zippy

Sunday a big gust of wind came and slammed the storm door and bits flew off

Meh.


There were a couple of foodie bright spots this week...like Pancake Tuesday...Blueberry-blueberry pancakes with Cumberland sausages, mushrooms and potato pancakes...recipes to follow later...

cheers!
jasmine

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