An Inauthentic Flammekueche

Lately, I've been really trying hard to steer clear of cheese. As much as I love it, it just doesn't seem to love me. And when cheese goes... well... I've tried to love pizza without the cheese, but I just haven't been successful.

Enter the Alsatian dish: Flammekueche.

Flammekueche (or Flammekuchen in German) roughly translates into baked in fire... which means you're required to get that oven piping hot. It's a thin crust, topped with fromage blanc (or, in my inauthentic case, full fat sour cream), onions and cooked bacon.

I like mine with a beer crust.

Beer. Bacon. Shallots. It's a winner based on those ingredients alone.

Flammekueche

(adapted from bonjourlafrance.com)

serves 4-6

Ingredients

2¼ cups all purpose flour, divided
¼ cup warm water (100º-110ºF)
1 tbsp granulated sugar
2¼ tsp active dry yeast
1 tsp kosher salt
¼ cup dark beer
6 tbsp milk

1 cup sour cream
½ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp freshly ground black pepper
3 pinches ground nutmeg (crucial to the dish)
3 slices bacon, chopped into ¼"-½" wide strips
4 large shallots, peeled and thinly sliced

Directions

1. In a large bowl, mix together ¼ cup flour with water, sugar and yeast. Set aside for 30 minutes, or until bubbly. Stir in remaining flour, 1 tsp kosher salt, beer and milk. Turn ingredients onto a lightly floured surface and knead until you have a smooth, elastic ball. Place in a greased bowl, turning dough all over to coat. Cover with a tea towel and set aside in a draft free location, and let rise for 1 hour, or until doubled in bulk. Punch down and let rise again for 1 more hour.

2. Meanwhile, with a rack in the middle, preheat oven to 475º and line your largest square baking sheet with parchment paper.

3. In a bowl, stir together sour cream, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Set aside

4. Heat a skillet over medium heat and fry bacon until crispy. Remove bacon and drain off all but ½ tbsp fat. Fry shallots in fat until golden and brown, about 5 minutes. Remove from pan and set aside.

5. Roll dough out on a lightly floured surface until  as thin as you can manage to transfer. Transfer to baking sheet, cover with tea towel and let rest for 5 - 10 minutes.

6. Spread sour cream mixture over surface of dough, leaving a ½" border on all sides. Sprinkle with shallots and bacon. Fold up sides of dough.

7. Bake for 15 minutes, or until bottom is golden. Let cool on rack for 5 minutes before cutting and serving.

Best enjoyed with beer, in my opinion.

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.

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?

Slow Cooked Baked Beans

If you happen to have a few hours on your hands to let the oven work it's magic, and you're in the clutches of a winter storm, I have just the antidote: baked beans.

Now, to be clear, these aren't your canned Heinz variety. And, while I'm sure they'd be very good on toast, they're even better paired with a spicy sausage, cornbread and some coleslaw. Yes, the flavour profile is the same (molasses, tomato, bacon) as those canned, but these taste infinite better and the consistency of the bean is toothsome and not mushy at all, because you'll be using dried beans.

Wait a minute, I can practically hear you saying through my computer screen, did you say dried beans? Don't beans require soaking time?

Good news, my friends, use a small bean (I used navy beans) and you can just dump them in to the pot. The great advantage to this is they cook in the flavoured liquid, which means they're infused inside and out with sweet, smoky goodness.

I adapted this recipe from a vegetarian version by Mark Bittman. He uses konbu (seaweed) to tenderize the beans and add some of that earthy flavour that the traditional version gets from bacon.

Since I had the bacon (and since it was the good stuff), I decided to use it. I mean, I have the konbu too... but in a competition of bacon vs seaweed, I'm going to declare bacon the winner.

You know what the best part of this is? It's just so darned simple. There are very, very few ingredients.

missing: molasses, salt and pepper

Few ingredients = easy prep. And we all love easy prep, don't we? Once this is in the oven, there's very little left for you to do other than to stir it and check on the water levels.

Baked Beans

(adapted from Mark Bittman's How to Cook Everything Vegetarian)

Ingredients

½ lb slab bacon, chopped
½ -1 tbsp canola oil
2 medium onions, chopped
¼ cup tomato paste
6 cups water
¼ cup molasses
2 tsp mustard powder
1 lb small dried beans (like navy)
2 tsp salt
pepper to taste
(optional: a minced chipotle in adobo sauce, or replace with molasses with maple syrup and throw a chopped apple in)

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 300º.

2.. In a dutch oven placed over medium heat, cook bacon until fat is rendered, about 7 minutes. Remove bacon with a slotted spoon and set aside. Add enough canola oil to the fat in the pan to make 3 tbsp oil total. It's possible you won't need to add any extra at all or may have to remove some fat.

Bacon fat. It's flavour country.

3. Add onions to the fat and sauté until softened and just beginning to turn brown, about 5 minutes more.

Stir in tomato paste, and cook for about 1 minute, stirring to pick up all the brown goodness at the bottom of the pan.

tomato paste in a tube, where have you been all my life?

 Stir in water, molasses, mustard powder and beans (do not add the salt yet, this will result in a tough bean).

Cover dutch oven with lid and place in the oven for 1 hour.

4. Check on beans after the first hour in the oven. Stir and check on water level. They should still be covered by an inch or so of liquid. If they aren't, add some more water. Return to oven for another hour.

not cooked yet!

 5. After they've spent two hours in the oven, stir the beans again and check on the liquid level. Cover and bake for an additional hour, stirring and checking the liquid level every 30 minutes or so. The beans should become tender between hours 2 and 3 in the oven. It took mine closer to the 3 hour mark.

Beans are plumping up nicely.

 6. Once the beans are tender, remove the lid from the dutch oven and crank the heat up to 400º. Stir in salt and pepper. If you want to add more mustard or molasses, feel free to do that here too. You want to reduce all that liquid now, so return the pot to the oven and let cook for about 30 minutes more, or until the sauce is thick.

Perfectly thick sauce and tender beans

Like just about all things that are slow cooked, these are much better the following day. If you want to be really authentic about the whole deal, make some steamed brown bread.

Mushroom & Bacon Risotto with Spinach

Risotto was not something I got enthusiastic about until shortly after my wedding. Phil and I had a dinner out at Roy's in Kahana. I believe I had some kind of fish... but whatever it was, it was totally overshadowed by the lobster and Kula corn risotto. About 6 months later, I tried making it for the first time.

Let me tell you this: if you haven't tried it, making risotto is easy. EASY.

The only challenging part is standing over the pot stirring for the better part of 25-30 minutes. But, I figure, if you have a glass of wine or two to keep you company, that time just flies by!

Bacon and Mushroom Risotto with Spinach

(from Cooking Light)

Ingredients

4  cups chicken stock (homemade if possible)
6  bacon slices, chopped
1  cup  chopped shallots
1  tablespoon  extra-virgin olive oil
1  teaspoon  chopped fresh thyme
4  garlic cloves, minced
4  ounces  cremini mushrooms, sliced*
4  ounces  shiitake mushrooms, stemmed and sliced*
4  ounces  oyster mushrooms, sliced*
1  cup  uncooked Carnaroli or Arborio rice or other medium-grain rice
1/3  cup  Madeira wine or dry sherry
4  cups  baby spinach
1/2  cup  (2 ounces) grated fresh Asiago cheese
1/2  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper

*For the record, I just used cremini. It was all I had on hand.

Preparation


1. Bring chicken stock to a simmer in a small saucepan (do not boil); keep warm over low heat.

2. Heat a large Dutch oven over medium heat. Add bacon to pan; cook 8 minutes or until crisp, stirring occasionally.

Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon. Add shallots, oil, thyme, and garlic to drippings in pan; cook 6 minutes or until shallots are tender, stirring occasionally. Stir in mushrooms; cook 8 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Mind the dark bits

3. Add rice, and cook 1 minute, stirring constantly.

Stir in Madeira; cook 1 minute or until the liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly. Stir in 1 cup stock; cook 4 minutes or until the liquid is nearly absorbed, stirring constantly.

Add remaining stock, 1/2 cup at a time, stirring constantly until each portion of stock is absorbed before adding the next (about 25 minutes total). Stir in spinach; cook 1 minute.

Remove from heat; stir in cheese, salt, and pepper.

Sprinkle with bacon.

Serve with a side of AWESOME.

Yellow Split Pea Soup with Double Smoked Bacon

About this time last year, I was walking through the aisles of our local grocery store, Fiesta Farms. Without wanting to wander off too far on a tangent, I just want to take a moment to emphasize how much I love this place. It's an independent store; it doesn't belong to a big chain. There's only one of it in the city. But, more to the point, it has the most interesting selection of foods on the planet.

I swear by their Gourmet Mediterranean Pizza Sauce. Other people must as well, because the stuff regularly sells out. If I'm there, and the sauce is there, then I'm probably buying multiples of it.

My list of favourites could go on and on (frozen parathas, liberté yogurt in a million flavours, gorgeous organic swiss chard, Rowe farms pork, beef and chicken), but what I really want to talk to you about is a little find I discovered last year in the deli section:

Brandt's Double Smoked Side Bacon.

I wish I'd taken a picture of it, but I was too engrossed in the intense, smoky smell while I was cooking and got carried away in a haze.

That seems to be what happens to most people when they open up a package of the stuff, because I can't find a picture of it anywhere on the internet. Not even off Brandt's website. Brandt is a Mississauga (just outside of Toronto) butcher that does their business in the traditional German style.

I have long loved their liverwurst as it tastes nothing like liver and lots like herbs and spices.

So, when I brought this bacon home last year, I had no idea what to do with it. It was a block, dark and firm with judicious amounts of fat, just slightly larger than the size of my palm. Luckily I found a recipe for Habitant Split Pea Soup that called for both salt pork and a ham hock and decided the hunk of bacon had enough manpower to stand in for the other two pieces of pork.

It was magical.

Weeks later, tragedy struck. Fiesta Farms stopped carrying the bacon. We were heading into March, the weather was strangely balmy and people just had no interest in buying such a dark, wintry ingredient.

I was heartbroken. Since then, I've looked for the bacon every time I've been at the store, with no success.

Until this week. There was one piece.

The soup was coming back to the table.

I picked up some organic yellow split peas from my local bulk store and  fired up the stove. Two hours later, the most deliciously flavoured soup appeared on our table.

Nothing beats a bowl of soup, especially a bowl of legumes and pork, on a icy January night.

Split Pea Soup with Double Smoked Bacon

(adapted from Cooking Light Jan/Feb 2010)

Ingredients

1½ tbsp olive oil
1 large onion, finely chopped
2 carrots, peeled and finely chopped
2 stalks celery, finely chopped
one hunk double smoked bacon (I think I had about 250g)
4 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
2 bay leaves
2 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
2 tbsp chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

1. Heat olive oil in a large Dutch oven over medium-high heat. Add 2 cups onion, carrot, and celery to pan; sauté for 6 minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in peas; sauté for 1 minute. Add broth and the next 4 ingredients; bring to a boil. Reduce heat, and simmer 1 1/2 hours or until peas are tender, skimming surface occasionally, as necessary.

2. Remove bacon and bay leaves. Set aside the bacon and discard the bay leaves

3. Dice bacon. Heat a nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add pork to pan; cover and cook 5 minutes. Drain off fat, and return to heat, cooking an additional 5 minutes or until crisp and browned, stirring frequently.

4. Return bacon to soup, and if you're feeling particularly decadent, pour in any remaining bacon drippings along with it. Season with salt and pepper.

5. Savour every mouthful.

My favourite thing to do with a can of chickpeas...

Maybe you know you're going to have an evening out braving the crowds for some last minute Christmas shopping. You know you'll be exhausted when you come home, but before you reach for the phone to call for a grease laden pizza, consider this recipe! It requires very little prep time, and mostly uses pantry staples. You've got a lonely can of beans in your cupboard, right?

For the record, yes, I do consider bacon a staple.

I made this recipe last March for the first time, and my husband regularly requests it. And by regularly, I mean at least once weekly. He doesn't get it that often, but it is one that's in regular rotation in our house.

Lately, we've been on a huge legume kick (see yesterday's quesadilla recipe). And for me, nothing pairs better with legumes of all shapes and sizes than something smoky and porky. This recipe comes from Cooking Light, serves four and will satisfy even the biggest meat eater in your house. We usually buy good quality bacon from Rowe Farms. It's naturally smoked and free of all those nasty chemicals present in most processed smoked meats.

Chickpeas with Broccoli Rabe and Bacon

(Cooking Light March '10)

Ingredients

1  pound  broccoli rabe, trimmed and cut into 2-inch pieces

1  tablespoon  olive oil
6  slices center-cut bacon, chopped
1  cup  chopped onion
1/2  teaspoon  dried oregano
1/8  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
6  garlic cloves, thinly sliced
1  (15-ounce) can chickpeas (garbanzo beans), rinsed and drained
1/4  teaspoon  salt
1/4  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
2  ounces  Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
 

1. Cook broccoli rabe in a large pot of boiling water 2 minutes or until crisp-tender; drain.

 

2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to pan; swirl to coat. Add bacon; sauté 3 minutes, stirring frequently. 

 

3. Stir in onion, oregano, and red pepper; sauté 4 minutes or until onion begins to soften, stirring occasionally. Add garlic; sauté 30 seconds, stirring constantly. Add chickpeas; sauté 1 minute. 

 

 

4. Stir in broccoli rabe, salt, and black pepper; cook 2 minutes or until thoroughly heated, tossing to combine. 

 

 

5. Place about 1 1/2 cups chickpea mixture on each of 4 plates; shave 1/2 ounce cheese evenly over each serving.

Pasta with Kale, Sun-Dried Tomatoes and Bacon

Until about a month ago, I'd never had kale before. Now it seems that I eat it 2-3 times a week! I cannot get enough of this stuff.

This recipe from Cooking Light turned out to be a total winner, in spite of my husband and I agreeing that we wanted more. We ate this meal then did our Christmas cards (while sipping our Chestnut Liqueur). It was the perfect weeknight meal.

I will say, even though I used the 5 cups of chopped kale called for, I felt the recipe could have used more.

Orecchiette with Kale, Bacon and Sun-Dried Tomatoes

Ingredients

8  ounces  uncooked orecchiette pasta
5  cups  bagged prewashed kale
2  slices center-cut bacon
1/4  cup  oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, drained and roughly chopped
1/2  teaspoon  crushed red pepper
3  large garlic cloves, chopped
1/2  teaspoon  freshly ground black pepper
3/8  teaspoon  salt
1  ounce  Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese, shaved
2  tablespoons  fresh lemon juice
Preparation

1. Cook pasta in boiling water 8 minutes or until almost tender. Add kale, and cook 2 minutes. Drain in a colander over a bowl, reserving 1/2 cup cooking liquid.

2. While pasta cooks, cook bacon in a large skillet over medium-high heat 4 minutes or until crisp. Remove bacon from pan with a slotted spoon; crumble and set aside. Reduce heat to medium-low. Add sun-dried tomatoes, crushed red pepper, and garlic to drippings in pan; cook 1 minute, stirring frequently. Add pasta mixture, reserved 1/2 cup cooking liquid, black pepper, and salt to pan; toss to combine. Top pasta mixture evenly with bacon and cheese; drizzle evenly with lemon juice.