On the Tenth day of Christmas…

My true love gave to me… 10 Lords-a-Leaping!

This was very probably one of my favourite days in our 12 days of Christmas. Ok I will admit I loved them all, but 7-10 were definitely my favourites.

To signify 10 Lords-a-Leaping we chose to make a Koulibiac Salmon, with a Pavlova for dessert.

So we started with the Pavlova, the meringue needs to bake a while at low heat, so we laid out some parchment paper on a baking sheet and shaped the whipped egg whites into a circle and popped it in the oven.

Once that was in the oven we started on the salmon. After making the brioche dough, using Julia Child’s Brioche recipe, we made thin pancakes to line the dough with. These soak up excess moisture and oil and prevent the dough from going soggy. once the pancakes are on, wilted spinach and first half of the salmon goes in.

Pancakes go on first to soak up the excess moisture and oil.

From there you add a filling, we used a rice and mushrooms, onions, and you place in two whole, peeled, hard boiled eggs. and then we put the top half of the salmon on.

Add a stuffing, we used rice, mushrooms, and onions, and place two peeled hard boiled eggs on top.

From there you place some more crepes on top to cover and help absorb the moisture, before covering it with the brioche dough and shaping it.

Once everything is in the pastry cover it and shape it so it looks how you want it to.

Using the excess dough and a pair of kitchen scissors we made a scale pattern on the body of the fish and shaped it to look like a salmon with a head and mini tail. It takes a good while to bake because it’s very dense and a lot of pastry, but it is definitely worth it.

Bake until cooked through and golden brown, and we served it with a dill sauce and Home made beets.

After such a rich dinner the perfect complement is, of course, a nice, light, dessert, like a Berry Lemon Pavlova.

Berry lemon pavlova with home made lemon curd, berries, and whipped cream.

To complete our pavlova we made a fresh and zesty lemon curd (my favourite!) Paired with a whipped cream lemon curd filling and fresh raspberries and blackberries. It’s the perfect sweet and zesty dessert to end a heavy meal.

So ends the 10th day of Christmas. Tune in next time to see what we made for day 11!

On the Ninth day of Christmas…

My true love sent to me… Nine lady (fingers) baking!

Hello all, yes I’m back again, I’m hoping to make it a banner month for writing productivity. For my (metaphorical ) new year’s resolution I’m going to try to blog more, even if it’s just reviving my “Cocktail of the Week.”

So for our Ninth day of Christmas we had a New Years Day classic. We made Pork Schnitzel, on homemade Ciabatta (or slipper) buns, with a decadent dessert of homemade Tiramisu!

So we started off by making our Tiramisu for dessert. It needs to chill and set after it’s been assembled so we wanted to give it as much time as possible to come together. Our first step is making the lady fingers!

The key component in a homemade lady finger is the meringue. You know it’s formed soft peaks when it makes a Dairy Queen Swirl.

So you want to start by separating your eggs and beating the egg whites with your whisk (or whisk attachment) until it forms soft peaks (left). Then you add a little sugar (2 TBSP) and beat again until it forms stiff peaks and is glossy (right).

From there you beat the egg yolks and the remaining sugar until it forms a mixture that is pale and has thickened, You want to split your egg whites in half and fold half into the egg yolks and sugar, sift in the flour and baking powder, and fold in the remaining egg whites.

Form there you transfer it to a piping bag and pipe the batter onto a baking tray lined with parchment, dust with icing sugar, and bake at 350 until they are firm to the touch and just golden, it won’t take long.

You want your fingers to cool completely before assembly, and once they’re cool you need to soak them in strong coffee, and rum so while we waited for them to cool and soak up the liquid we checked on the ciabatta dough, which had risen nicely and was almost ready for slipper formation.

Our next step was to assemble the Tiramisu so it would have time to set before dinner. To do this we had to create our filling. Step one, whisk egg yolks and sugar over a pot of boiling water (or a double boiler) until it’s pale, light and fluffy. The traditional way to make the filling is to whip the cream, and fold the mascarpone into the cooled egg yolks, but you could also whip the cream and mascarpone together and then fold into the egg yolks, once they’ve cooled.

Then it’s just layering and assembly (a little like a trifle or lasagna). Lady fingers, Mascarpone, cocoa powder, repeat until your dish is full and chill for several hours before eating so it can set.

The end result is a creamy, silky, decadent dessert that melts in your mouth and is the perfect way to finish you New Year’s Day dinner.

“But Eileen,” I can hear you saying, “we haven’t even gotten to dinner yet!” Yes I know but, life’s short, eat dessert first.

Back to our main course, while that sets our buns and loaf are ready to be shaped and go into the oven,

They come out this wonderful golden brown colour and smell fantastic!

Once the buns are ready, it’s just a matter of finishing the Schnitzel itself.

To accomplish this efficiently we set up a sort of assembly line system, where first it would get dredged in flour, then beaten egg, then bread crumbs, and straight into the hot oil, when there was space.

And there we have it folks! Our Ninth day of Christmas, Lady slippers and lady fingers, the perfect way to start out brand new year. See you next time for our tasty take on 10 Lords-a-Leaping!

On the Sixth day of Christmas…

On the sixth day of Christmas, our Christmas feast would be… Shakshuka eggs!

Egg Shakshouka evolved from an Ottoman meat stew into a vegetarian egg dish sometime around the mid-sixteenth century, according to Joan Nathan’s 2017 book A Culinary Exploration of Jewish Cooking from Around the World: A Cookbook.

It’s a protein packed, healthy and delicious meal, perfect for a cold winter evening. Usually it’s served in a cast iron pan and people take their eggs from there but as I was home late my mom made mine up for me when I got in.

Shakshouka Eggs are usually made in multiples and served as a “family style” dish in a cast iron pan. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Shakshouka eggs was the perfect meal for the day before New Year’s Eve, it’s hearty, but not too heavy, and really tasty. Until next time, keep cooking, baking, and eating! Next up? Days Seven and Eight!

On the Fourth day of Christmas…

Our feast for the fourth day of Christmas was a bit of a throwback to day one. Since we had a bunch of leftover turkey we made a play on the old nursery rhyme “Four-and-Twenty Blackbirds baked in a pie.” Obviously we didn’t have 24 blackbirds but we did make a very tasty turkey pot pie.

It’s not quite four calling birds but our fourth day of Christmas feast was a turkey pot pie, using the leftover turkey and vegetable from our first day of Christmas. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

We made the puff pastry and let it chill before rolling it out and while it was chilling we did some prep for the next few days of dinners as well.

Once the pastry was chilled we used the leftover turkey meat, carrots, mushrooms, parsnips, and gravy to create the base for our pie. We didn’t use a pastry shell to line our casserole dish , we just topped it with pastry.

Instead of a crust shell for our pie we simply filled casserole dish with the leftover turkey, mushrooms, parsnips, carrots, and gravy and topped it with pastry. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

To roll the pastry out to the right size for our pie we rolled out a huge sheet of puff, making sure it was the same thickness all the way across, and we put the casserole dish on top to measure out a cap.

To get the size and shape of pastry that we needed to cap the pie we rolled out a huge sheet and used the casserole dish as a measuring tool. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger

Then we cut steam vents in the top of the pie and chilled it until we were ready to bake. While we were waiting on that, we continued or preparations for our next few days of feasts. The first thing to do was to make a brioche dough for buns and bread. I had, of course, been watching too much Great Canadian Baking Show and expressed an interest in wanting to learn to make Brioche a Tete so we did some of those as well, though without the chocolate.

Brioche is a very sticky, rich dough, and it’s wonderful for sandwiches or buns, or just breakfast.

The first step to Brioche is making the dough. Unlike Challah Brioche uses a lot of butter as well as eggs, which gives it, not just its puffiness, but a tender crumb as well. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

When you think of making an egg bread dough you might think first of Challah, tender, fluffy, malleable, and delicious. A Brioche dough isn’t too different from a Challah dough in terms of execution, the recipes are similar, but Brioche adds a load of butter to the dough. This gives it a firmer, delicate, and more crumbly texture than its kosher counterpart.

This texture makes Brioche ideal for jams, or toast, or burgers, it’s got a lot of structure and it’s really tasty. But it’s not as malleable as Challah, you can’t usually do crazy things with it like braid it, but you can make a “Brioche a tete” by either taking a piece of dough off and regrafting it to the ball of dough, or by rolling a teardrop shape and ripping a hole in the fatter end then pushing the thin end through. Of course the traditional way is to rip a piece off and stick it back on but that’s incredibly difficult to get right if you’re doing it for the first time.

Brioche a Tete can be made a couple of different ways, one by taking a piece of dough off the formed ball and grafting it back on, or by rolling a teardrop, ripping a hole in the fat end and pushing the thin end through. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Once the loaves and buns were shaped we left them to rise and then before baking we egg washed them to give them that signature shine and put charcoal salt and sesame seeds on the burger buns.

Once the Brioche had doubled in size we egg washed them and baked them off and voila! Delicious Brioche buns. (EILEEN MCMANUS

Baked until golden brown these rich buns are the perfect pair for ham or cheese burgers, breakfast sandwiches, or soup! (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

So ends our fourth day of Christmas feasting, join me next time for a delectable fifth day!

On the Third day of Christmas…

On the Third Day of Christmas, my parents made with me…Chicken with a mustard sauce, fresh bread, and salad with roasted black walnuts.

Our third day of Christmas feasts was Chicken in a mustard sauce, fresh baked bread, and green salad with toasted walnuts. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

The first thing we did, to ensure proper proofing time, was to make the bread. We made the dough, and after it proofed, formed two nicely sized baguettes and left them to proof again.

After making the baguette dough we proofed it before dividing it in half to form it into the proper shape. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

We rolled the dough into 2 baguette shapes and did a second proofing before putting them in the oven to bake. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance food Blogger)

Before baking we sliced into the top of the baguette, adding a diagonal slash pattern across the bread. This is not only decorative but it allows the bread to expand a little more during the bake.

Before baking we used a blade to put a slash pattern across the baguettes, which allows the bread to expand a bit more. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

From there we made the mustard sauce to cook the chicken in and cooked it a bit before baking the chicken breasts in mom’s cast iron pan until they were done.

We cooked the chicken breasts in mom’s cast iron pan and then we baked them in the oven to finish cooking. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Fresh bread, hearty green salad and amazing mustard chicken, a third day of Christmas feast such as this can only be topped by an equally amazing dessert…Sticky Toffee Pudding, topped with flaming brandied cherries.

Sticky Toffee Pudding is a very moist sponge, flavoured with dates and topped with chopped pecans and caramel sauce. It originated in England, but the precise when of its creation is a little nebulous.

Sticky Toffee Pudding is an english dessert made of a date flavoured sponge cake. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

You put together the sponge base and put it, either in small pans for individual servings, or a larger pan and bake until it’s just set, if it’s a little underdone the carry over cooking should take care of it as long as its mostly cooked.

To serve top with a warm caramel pecan sauce and serve either on its own or with whipped or ice cream.

The topping for Sticky Toffee Pudding is a creamy, gooey caramel sauce with chopped pecans mixed in. The warm sauce gets poured over the sponge just before serving. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

The caramel sauce is a mixture of butter, sugar, cream, and chopped pecans, heated until the sugar melts. Before serving it should sit for a little time to cool so it doesn’t burn your mouth.

Sticky Toffee Pudding is one of the greatest desserts, flavoured and sweetened with dates and topped with a gooey caramel sauce and chopped pecans. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

There you have it! The Third Day of Christmas Feast. French mustard sauce chicken, green salad, and fresh bread, finished off with a delectable dessert of Sticky Toffee Pudding.

Next up, Four Calling Birds!

On the Second day of Christmas…

On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me…2 turtle doves.

Ever notice that the 12 days of Christmas song is just a little heavy on the poultry? Partridge, Turtle Doves, French Hens, Calling Birds, Geese, Swans, that’s 6 days right there! So instead of further poultry for our second day of Christmas we changed it up a bit. We did a Chana Dal which is made with chickpeas, and we made our own Turtle candy!

After the caramel has set you can start to dip them in chocolate. You can submerge them fully or just dip the tops as we did. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

We started by setting up the Chana Dal because it has to simmer for a while before it will be ready. It was kind of a non-traditional Chana Dal because we put in eggplant, potatoes, and carrots along with the Chick peas but it was really good it turned out really well. Once all that was in the pot and simmering we got to work on our dessert, which had to set up for several hours before being consumed.

For the second day of Christmas we made a sort of non-traditional Chana Dal with chickpeas, eggplant, carrots and potatoes. It turned out spectacularly! (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Now you might be wondering, why chickpeas? Well, we figured a baby bird is always a chick, which covers the dove portion, and then turtles for dessert.

While the Dal was simmering we started our Turtle candies. We started by roasting some pecans, both pieces and halves. We roasted them off in the oven and while they were still warm we started to form the turtle shapes, 2 pecan halves for the body and one on top to add height to the shell. Then came the caramel.

We started making the Turtles early-ish in the day because they have to set firm over the course of several hours. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Butter, sugar and cream made a great gooey hot caramel but, with the recipe we used, also hardened pretty solid once cool. Once the mixture was at 117 degrees Fahrenheit we started pouring it over the pecans. Using a tablespoon we scooped some caramel and placed it on top of the pecan halves to form a covering. It was ery sticky, and a bit tricky to get the hang of, but I got it in the end.

Using a spoon or pair of spoons carefully scoop the caramel onto the pecans and leave to set. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Since the caramel is in excess of 100 degrees Fahrenheit it takes a bit to set up firm but after it has you can start dipping the turtles in chocolate. Now, you can dip in one of 2 ways. You can dip the turtles and completely cover them in chocolate, like the ones you get at the store, or you can do as we did and only dip the tops to make a chocolate shell.

Dipping the turtles can be done in one of 2 ways, you can dip the whole turtle, or just the top, as shown. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

After you dip them in chocolate it’s just a matter of waiting for them to set up before serving! You can serve them on their own, or with ice cream, however you like.

That’s it for today’s post on our second day of Christmas. Stay tuned for day 3, coming soon!

On the second day of Christmas my family made with me…Chana Dal, served on a bed of rice with homemade turtle candies for dessert. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

On the First day of Christmas…

I know it’s a bit late, but I’m finally getting the chance to write up my 12 days of Christmas Feasts. Christmas and the weeks following were busier than I anticipated and I didn’t get as much writing done as I would have liked, but let’s crack on!

On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me…a Partridge in a pear tree. Our take on Christmas’ first day involved a classic turkey dinner (partridges are a little hard to come by, and very small), with mashed potatoes, roasted parsnips and carrots, gravy and mushroom, wild rice stuffing. In place of the classic cranberry sauce, we used a homemade partridgeberry sauce. We also made Kipfel rolls and a pear Tarte Tatin for dessert.

Our first step was to make the roll dough. We used a mixture of white and Red Fife flour which gave the rolls a little bit of a different flavour and makes them really tasty.

Our first step was to make Kipfel rolls with white and Red Fife flour. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

After the dough has rested you must form it into the Kipfel shape, start by rolling it out really thin and slice it like you would slice a pizza. Then, take each piece and roll it up like a croissant and set it on a baking tray to rest.

You want to roll the dough out really thin, about 1/8″ before you slice them and roll them up. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

After they have rested egg wash them and sprinkle them with coarse salt, charcoal sea salt, poppy seeds, anything you like. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Before baking egg wash your rolls and dust them with coarse salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, whatever you like. The egg wash makes them look golden brown and shiny when baked.

Before baking egg wash your rolls and dust them in coarse salt, poppy seeds, sesame seeds, whatever you want. The egg wash gives the rolls a nice shine and a deep golden colour. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Photo Journalist)

The tarte tatin dough was the next thing we prepared as it has to chill down before you roll it out, but the tarte itself doesn’t need much prep until about half an hour before you serve it. Then you make the caramel sauce, peel and slice the pears and pop it in the oven. The Pear tarte covers our pear tree but how did we do our partridgeberry sauce?

Well, we used a base of Lingonberry jam and citrus peel to create our sauce and it was really good. Not quite as tart as a cranberry sauce would be but it was just the right level of sweet and tart to compliment the turkey nicely.

For our Partridgeberry sauce we used Partridgeberry jam, and citrus to cut the sweetness and round out the flavour. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

All in all the first day of Christmas was a smash hit. A classic turkey dinner, delicious gravy, stuffing and partridgeberry sauce finished off with the perfect pear dessert (in this authors opinion anyway) Pear Tarte Tatin. It was wonderful, and the perfect start to the 12 feast days to come.

On the first day of Christmas my family gave to me, a classic Christmas dinner with a twist. Delicious turkey with Partridgeberry sauce, instead of cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, carrots, parsnips, and wild rice and mushroom stuffing. I wonder what’s for dessert? (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

To cap off our first day of Christmas, go back to the pear tree that our partridge was sitting in. A delightful Pear Tarte Tatin, with halved pears instead of sliced pears, capped off a great evening. (EILEEN MCMANUS/Freelance Food Blogger)

Stay tuned for our next 11 days of feasting, and I hope you’re all staying safe and healthy this holiday season.

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