Plum-a-palooza: A Small Plum Cake for Four

At the farmer's market this week, my husband picked up a few pounds of shiro plums. The shiro plum is a Japanese variety and isn't white, as the name might lead you to believe, but yellow.

Shiro plums are sweet and bright, but also happen to be clingstone, which may deter you if segmenting clingstone fruits annoys you.

Truth be told, although I had asked him to pick up some interesting fruit, I wasn't really sure what I was going to do with 4lbs of these plums. In the end, I opted to make a small plum cake and to use the rest of the fruit in a jam (which I've started and is currently sitting in my fridge waiting for a flavour infusion tomorrow - vanilla? star anise? cardamon? I definitely want the vanilla... but I can't decide what, if anything, else to put in).

Plum Cake

(adapted from Martha Stewart)

Ingredients

¼ cup + 2 tbsp butter, at room temperature
½ cup all purpose flour
¼ cup spelt flour (you can use all purpose instead)
¼ tsp baking soda
generous pinch kosher salt
¼ cup packed brown sugar
¼ cup granulated sugar
1 egg + 1 egg white
½ tsp vanilla extract
zest of one lemon
1/3 cup plain yogurt
4 plums, halved, pitted and cut into 6-8 slices

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375º. Generously butter and flour a small, 6" springform pan. Set aside.

2. In a small bowl, sift together flours, baking soda and salt.

3. In the bowl of a mixer (or, using a hand mixer), cream together butter. Gradually add in sugars. Once mixture is light and fluffy, add in whole egg then the egg white. Once this is incorporated, add in vanilla, lemon zest and yogurt.

4. Add flour mixture to wet ingredients in 2 batches, making sure each batch is incorporated before adding the next one. Pour batter into prepared pan. Smooth.

5. Arrange plum slices over the top of the batter. Place in oven for 30 minutes. Remove, loosely tent with foil and return to oven for an additional 35 minutes. Cake is done when a skewer inserted into centre comes out clean.

Let cool on rack on counter. Cake is best eaten the day it was made! Might I recommend some ice cream, whipped cream or a sifting of icing sugar?

You may have noticed in the picture that I've cut the cake into more than four slices... we weren't particularly hungry, so smaller was the way to go!

Corn Sauté with Sweet Onion and Zucchini

This is resoundingly one of my go-to August dishes. It's safe to say that it's my mother's too, because she called me asking for the recipe just as I was whipping this up.

It's best with fresh corn on the cob, so make it up while the corn is fresh!

It serves 4 as a side dish, but my husband and I have been known to just chow down on it alone for dinner.

Corn Sauté with Sweet Onion and Zucchini

(lightly adapted from Fine Cooking)

Ingredients

1 tbsp butter, divided
½ tbsp olive oil
1 tsp kosher salt, divided
1 medium sweet onion, finely diced
1 medium zucchini, finely diced
2 heaping cups fresh corn kernels, cut from about 4 ears
2 cloves garlic, minced
½ tsp ground corianger
½ tsp ground cumin
juice of ¼ lemon
3 tbsp chopped fresh mint
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a dutch oven or very large skillet, melt ½ tbsp butter with ½ tbsp olive oil over medium-low heat. Add in onion and ½ tsp salt. Cover and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, until onion is translucent. Remove heat and cook, stirring occasionally, for an additional 3 minutes, until onion is beginning to brown. Add in zucchini, and continue cooking until zucchini begins to shrink and lose some of its moisture, about 3 minutes more.

2. Add in remaining ½ tbsp butter, corn kernels, garlic and remaining ½ tsp of salt. Cook, stirring frequently until corn becomes bright, tender and caramelizes slightly, about 5 minutes. Add in coriander and cumin and cook for 30 seconds, until fragrant. Remove pan from heat. Stir in lemon juice and 1 tbsp mint. Let sit for 2 minutes, then add in black pepper and additional salt to taste. Serve with additional mint sprinkled on top.

Sweet Cherry & Brown Sugar Panna Cotta

My desire for all things smooth and creamy is a reaction to the unbearable heat we're having right now. Today it feels like 42ºC with the humidex. And, while I'm enthuiastically looking forward to the heat and humidity of Hawaii, that's a far more gentle humidity than the smog filled reek of Toronto.

Thanks to Phil's heroic efforts last year to get us an air conditioner (He seriously got the last one available in the downtown core), our top floor apartment is relatively cool at 26º. And while this spells good news for our ability to sleep at night, it does mean that our electricity bill is skyrocketing as I write this.

So, as I turn up the thermostat on the a/c one more degree (how high can we go before it's no longer bearable in the bedroom?), I find myself craving the cool and the creamy.

This panna cotta is so smooth, you'll never believe there's no cream in it. Just look at those gorgeous white tops:

This is a very gently set panna cotta - and the cherry gelatin is very gently set.

Wobbly, I believe is the word to describe it.

You can, of course, attempt to unmold it from its glass or ramekin, but I quite like serving it as it is, inside a glass vessel. You're forced to dig down to the bottom for the cherry layer, and I'm a sucker for treasure hunting.

Sweet Cherry & Brown Sugar Panna Cotta

(inspired by this recipe from epicurious)

serves 4 as a small dessert or 2 very generously

Ingredients

for cherry layer

½ tsp gelatin
½ cup cherry juice
½ tbsp lemon juice
½ cup pitted, quartered sweet cherries
½ tbsp amaretto (optional)

for yogurt layer

1 tsp gelatin
½ cup 1-2% milk
¼ cup packed brown sugar
1 cup thickened yogurt (see step 1)
½ tsp vanilla
1/8 tsp salt


Directions

1. Place ¼ cup cherry juice in a small saucepan. Sprinkle with ½ tsp gelatin. Allow gelatin to soften for 5 minutes. Heat juice/gelatin mixture and stir, until gelatin is dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in remaining cherry layer ingredients. Divide mixture evenly between ramekins/glasses/whatever you're serving these in. Place in the freezer for 30 minutes to set up.

2. Clean small saucepan. There's no sense in getting another one dirty! Pour in ¼ cup milk and sprinkle with 1 tsp gelatin.Allow to sit for 5 minutes so gelatin can soften. Heat over medium heat, stirring gently, until gelatin is completely dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in remaining yogurt layer ingredients. Remove glasses from freezer. Gently pour some of the yogurt mixture over top of the cherry mixture. It's important to do this gently, as the cherries will not totally have set yet. Repeat with remaining glasses. Place in the fridge to set, at least 4 hours before serving.

And guess what, made with 4% yogurt, this recipe still clocks in at a lowly 220 calories per serving, based on 2 servings per recipe. That makes this beach goer very, very happy!

Grilled Hanger Steak with My Favourite Marinade

One of the many, many things that I both love and hate about my local (independent) grocery store is its selection of food. Sometimes, you'll be overwhelmed with options, and sometimes, you'll go in for a flank steak and be met with skirt and hanger steaks and nothing else.

This was the first time I've seen a hanger steak carried in our store, and I couldn't believe how inexpensive it was. If my reading of Bon Appetit is anything to go by, hanger steak has become really popular with chefs over the last few years for its depth of flavour. Its texture makes it a great steak to grill up for fajitas too.

I opted to marinate the steak before grilling it using my all time favourite marinade: a Pam Collacott recipe from way back in the day. This is both my mother's and my favourite recipe. Best of all, if you let the meat marinate overnight, you're practically guaranteed tenderness, regardless of the cut.

Pam Collacott's Budget Steak for a Bunch

(adapted from Canadian Living)

Ingredients

3 tbsp soy sauce
2 tbsp lemon juice
2 tbsp canola oil
1½ tbsp Worcestershire sauce
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp minced onion
1 small clove garlic, minced
½ tsp coarsely ground black pepper
¼ tsp dried thyme

1 lb steak (your choice of cut)

Directions

1. Whisk all ingredients except steak together in the bowl/bag you plan on marinating the meat in. Place meat into marinade, turning to coat. Let marinade in fridge for at least 4 hours, but preferably overnight.

2. Grill steak for 6 minutes, turning once for rare, about 8-9 minutes for medium and 12 for well done. Let rest for 5-10 minutes before cutting into thin slices.

In case you haven't seen hanger steak before, here's what the whole marinated and grilled looks like:

Deliciousness!

Grilled Potato Salad with Bacon, Shallot and Brown Sugar

The first time I made this recipe was back in the late '90s, when my aunt, uncle and cousins were visiting Ottawa from Yarmouth, N.S. Wanting to veer away from the traditional mayonnaise based salad, we decided to try a recipe from Martha Stewart's Great Parties book. It's one of Martha's earlier books, but I still use it regularly. The recipe for Grilled Peach Chicken is a staple in our cottage cooking, just as this potato salad is.

Fifteen years after first making it, I've made several tweaks (the original recipe serves 14!) to the amount of oil and vinegar, and I always up the amount of bacon required.

In fairness, just because I cook more bacon, doesn't mean the bacon makes it into the salad. Sometimes quality control needs to ensure the freshness and... uhm... deliciousness of the bacon.

This potato salad is, compared to both the mayonnaise types and the German types, quite dry. And, that's the point. It's not meant to be swimming in dressing! It's a refreshing change from tradition and a great accompaniment to ribs and baked beans.

I've given amounts to serve 2-3 people. Adapt up as you see fit!

Grilled Potato Salad with Bacon, Shallots and Brown Sugar

(adapted from Martha Stewart's Great Parties)

Ingredients

1 lb red potatoes (new are especially nice), scrubbed
2 slices really good bacon
1 large shallot, peeled, halved lengthwise and sliced into half moons
1 tbsp + 1 tsp packed brown sugar
2 tsp apple cider vinegar
1 tbsp + 1 tsp olive oil, divided
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Place potatoes in a large pot of cold, salted water. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until potatoes are almost fork tender, amount 15 minutes (for large potatoes). You want to get them out just before, as you'll be finishing these off on the grill.

2. While potatoes are cooking, cook bacon in a skillet over medium-low heat until crispy. Remove bacon, and drain on a paper towel. Crumble and set aside. Pour off all but ½ tbsp of bacon fat from pan. Add shallot to pan and cook until golden brown, about 5 minutes. Stir in brown sugar, cider vinegar and 1 tsp olive oil. Stir just until brown sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat and set aside while you finish off the potatoes.

3. Remove potatoes from heat and cut into halves, if potatoes are small, or thick slices if potatoes are large. Try to leave the skin intact wherever possible! Brush with remaining 1 tbsp of oil and place on a greased grill to get brown and crispy, about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from heat. If you're using the thick slices, you may want to cut them again into bite sized quarters. Toss with reserved dressing and season with salt and pepper.

How I See This Summer Playing Out

This is going to be one crazy month.

Starting tomorrow, I'm going back to school (as a student, not a teacher) to do my Drama Part 2 class. (For those of you not familiar with the teaching system in Ontario, you have to complete 3 university courses in a subject in order to be considered an authority [they call it a specialist] in the field). I'm intending on becoming a drama specialist by the end of the winter session so that I can stay on as the head of the arts department at my school.

One of the huge bonuses to being a head is the position means you can't be surplussed. I think that would be very, very nice.

Anyway, it means there's not going to be much of a break for me this month! The class will be a lot of work, but I'm looking forward to learning more about designing drama curricula, and not being bored.

Not being bored is good. Very good.

Oh, and we're going to see Carrie Fischer in Wishful Drinking next week.

On top of the schooling, I'm still working my butt off in these four weeks to get at least vaguely bathing suit ready for Hawaii.

I'd settle for vaguely. Fat ass and all.

On my last day of classes, we're flying out to Victoria for a destination wedding on Salt Spring Island. I get to be in the wedding and I'm ridiculously excited about it. Like. SERIOUSLY. I've got a super cute bridesmaid dress that I'm very excited to re-wear in Hawaii.

Then, from BC, my parents, husband and I are all flying down to Hawaii for 12 nights. We're mostly going to be on Kauai and Maui (we have a layover on Oahu), and I cannot wait for everything. I'm planning on trying out Stand Up Paddling, and Phil and I are escaping for 3 nights to the Kauai Hyatt.

Once we get back from Hawaii in mid-August, I have three weeks left before school starts again. I've got a week going in to the hospital for allergy tests (patch tests, joy oh joy), hopefully a week in Ottawa to hit up the cottage and then one more week to do all of my years' planning for all the new classes.

Did I mention that one class includes 5 different classes? ESL A-D as well as grade 9 applied English. I have NO idea how I'm going to do it. I'm terrified out of my mind of that class!

But, I'm not going to dwell on it right now. Right now, I'm going to dwell on the amazing bowl of Ontario strawberries tossed with orange segments and a whiff of orange blossom water that I have sitting in front of me.

It's all about living in the moment.

Cucumber and Radish Salad with Lemon Dressing

I'm so glad the most recent issue of Cooking Light arrived before the postal strike began! It has some great recipes in it.

After all the heavy food (read: fast and deep fried) I ate on the Ottawa-Montreal trip, I've been in serious need of lightening things up. I'm paying off the sins I indulged in at Frites Alors!

It's T-6 weeks until Hawaii, and I'd love love LOVE to drop those 10 pounds that I've struggling with the past 2 months. Plus, one of my students (who we're pretty sure has Aspergers) announced very loudly that I have a "fat ass".

And when even the Aspergers kid notices, you know you've got to take action.

So here I am. Taking some action. Even though I'm not a huge fan of either cucumbers OR radishes, something about this salad spoke to me.

I'm pretty sure it was saying: I'm what your body needs right now. Crunchy. Cold. Vibrant.

I really enjoyed this salad - some fresh dill in place of the parsley would be totally delicious and highly recommended. Plus, although I'm unabashedly trying to lose weight, this salad doesn't feel like deprivation. It feels like the antidote to a scorching summer day.

If you have a mandolin, be sure to whip it out for the radishes and cucumbers. That will make your life SO much easier.

Cucumber and Radish Salad with Lemon Dressing

(from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

½ cup thinly sliced radishes
2 cups thinly sliced cucumber
¼ orange pepper, finely chopped
¼ cup parsley, finely chopped
1 tsp lemon zest
1 tbsp lemon juice
1 tsp apple cider vinegar
½ tbsp olive oil
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper

Directions

1. Gently toss radishes, cucumber, pepper and parsley together in a large bowl. In a separate bowl, whisk together remaining ingredients. Pour over cucumber mixture and gently toss again. Let flavours meld in fridge for an hour.

Also, it's a tasty accompaniment for grilled steak, or as a side on some kind of Middle Eastern plate (baba ghanoush, hummus, pita, tabbouleh).

A Smoky Chopped Salad for a Hot Day

Last week, the temperature in Toronto hit a brutal 40º C with the humidex.

Let me be clear on one thing: I am not one of those Canadians who sits around dreaming of the scorching summer sun. I like the heat; I hate the humidity.

Perhaps it's the fact that we have no outdoor space in our apartment (which means all cooking gets done inside), perhaps it's the lack of central air to cool ourselves off at night, perhaps it's the memory of the smell of the summer when the garbage collectors went on strike. Whatever the reason, I really, really dislike Toronto when the heat and humidity hits.

This is one of those recipes designed to embrace the flavour of the heat and humidity, but to avoid heating too much up in the kitchen.

The whole thing comes together really quickly, and you can keep any extra salad dressing in the fridge for 3 days.

Chicken & Chickpea Salad with Smoked Paprika Dressing

Ingredients

Dressing

2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
1 smashed clove garlic
1 tbsp olive oil
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
½ tsp smoked paprika
½ tsp ancho chili powder

Salad

2 romaine hearts, washed, dried and chopped
2 cup mixed sprouts (pea, sunflower, radish, etc)
½ lb grilled boneless, skinless chicken thighs
½ 19 oz can chickpeas, rinsed
2 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled
2 oz blue cheese, crumbled
½ pint cherry tomatoes, halved
½ avocado, chopped
5-6 cremini mushrooms, sliced

optional: pickled jalapenos or green beans (I love Toorshi Hot and Savoury Green Beans)

Directions

1. Whisk together all dressing ingredients. Set aside and let sit for an hour so the garlic can infuse the dressing.

2. Toss together salad ingredients. Discard garlic clove and dress the salad. Serve on chilled plates.

That was dead easy, wasn't it?

Summer party things I love

I keep dreaming of hosting a dinner party up at my cottage. The thing is, my cottage isn't classy enough for that. So, I just day dream about a cottage on a lake... with willow trees... and tables with mismatched chairs.

10. Lemonade Jars - don't you love the gradation in the strawberry lemonade picture?

(from Sur La Table)

9. Burlap table runners - the perfect rustic fabric

(Style Me Pretty)

8. Natural, organic feeling flowers - as though there's a field nearby with them in it. (My cottage has a swamp... doesn't quite count, does it?)

(Style Me Pretty)

7. Low, huge paper lanterns - I'm madly in love with lanterns... and have been for years!

(unknown)

6. Fava Bean, Mint, and Pecorino Romano Bruschetta - mmm. Bruschetta.

(Martha Stewart)

5. Food on Sticks - That's probably my time in Japan speaking. Nothing says summer like food on sticks!

(Galaxyguides.com)

4. Dinner on the Dock - ah, I love this - especially with the palm branches and tiki torches! (If only we were directly on the river!)

 (sanctuare.com)

3. Bonfires - who doesn't love a big bonfire? There's something totally young at heart about them!

(darrellinjapan.wordpress.com)

2. Grilled Corn on the Cob - I love this stuff! The sugars in the corn get all caramelized and totally delicious.

 (slashfood.com)

1. A Relaxed Picnic Vibe - maybe it's the red, maybe it's the hamper. I love picnic food though. The sandwich is my all time favourite eat. You cannot beat a good sandwich.

(http://www.pigglywigglync.com)

Now, this is what my cottage actually looks like: