Toasty Cool: Toasted Almond Gelato

Next to pistachios, almonds are my favourite kind of nut. (I'm mildly obsessed with marzipan). They're delicious and nutritious to boot (since apparently, it's a superfood). They also make a great, delicately flavored gelato; like vanilla, but less...ordinary. This is extra rich and velvety since the base is made from eggs and heavy cream.

Of course, you can get top-quality gelato and ice cream from the store. But making it from scratch is not only fun, but nice to be able to adjust flavours and ingredients to suit your taste. Homemade gelato is also usually denser than store-bought ice creams because less air is incorporated during churning.

The gelato can be enjoyed straight from the ice cream maker for a soft-serve consistency or, if you think you have the self-control, can be frozen for something more scoop-able. 

Recipe after the jump

Pan-Seared Salmon with Dill Sauce

Pan-Seared Salmon with Dill Sauce, Garlic Roast Potatoes and Broccoli

Well surprise, surprise. Here's another fish post, which means yet another salmon post. This is a ridiculously simple dill sauce that you can whip up while the fish is in the pan. It's great for a quick mid-week dinner. 
The sauce is made with crème fraîche, which is like regular sour cream but has a higher butterfat content. It has a more delicate and rich flavor, as well as a silkier texture. It is often used to make French sauces because it does not curdle when heated. It can also be whipped like whipping cream, or added to regular whipping cream to improve its "whippability." It has a relatively long shelf life of several weeks.  
This dill sauce is a nice alternative to tartare sauce and a lot fresher tasting in my opinion. (Though the consistency is a little thin to serve with fried fish.) 
I've run out of things to say about salmon, so let's let the one line "recipe" speak for itself...


Recipe after the jump

Crème-y Goodness: Crème Caramel

Crème caramel is a great dessert for entertaining. It can be made ahead of time so you can effortlessly serve it to your guests in all its golden, syrupy glory whenever you need it. This classic dessert is not cloyingly sweet and the smokiness of the caramel gives some edge to the delicate vanilla scent. 
Since this particular recipe uses milk in the custard, it is on the leaner side. If you would like it to be extra velvety and rich, look for a version that uses cream and/or more egg yolks. 


Notes and recipe after the jump...

The French Laundry Cookbook-Yukon Gold Potato Blinis

If I ever find myself in a food rut, the French Laundry cookbook is a goldmine of inspiration. The photography is beautiful and the writing makes it clear that Thomas Keller is an incredibly skilled chef that strives for perfection in his creations. Some of the recipes are a little more involved than others--for example, the recipe for Baby Lamb-Five Cuts Served with Provençal Vegetables, Braised Cipollini Onions, and Thyme Oil involve breaking down an entire animal. I think I'll leave that one to the professionals. 


This is the first recipe I have tried from the book and it's a simple one: Yukon Gold Potato Blinis. Keller notes that this type of potato absorbs more cream and results in the best texture. The blinis are soft, a little dense, and taste faintly of the crème fraîche. The recipe instructs you to serve them as soon as possible. While they do taste best when warm, I served them as an hors d'oeuvre and found that they are fine at room temperature as well.

In the book, the suggested accompaniments are Bottarga di Muggine and Tomato Confit, or Roasted Sweet Peppers and Eggplant Caviar, but these make great bases for other toppings as well. Here, I've served them with smoked salmon, crème fraîche and dill.    


Recipe after the jump

Christmas Special: Whipped Shortbread Cookies

Christmas just wouldn't be Christmas without holiday cookie baking. Rather than the icebox shortbread I usually make, I decided to try a whipped version instead this year. Filling the kitchen with the scent of buttery, rich shortbread baking always makes me feel festive. This recipe is unusual because it requires whipping the batter for 10 minutes. The light, fluffy batter can then be spooned or piped. The resulting cookie is delicate in texture and almost melts when you eat it.

Note: Having the cookie keep its ruffled, piped shape without melting into a blob while baking can be tricky. I tried refrigerating the piped batter before baking it, but had better results baking the cookies right after they were piped (at room temperature). 


Recipe after the jump!

A Delicious Discovery: Lamb Chops with Rosemary Roast Potatoes

I think families are extremely influential on an individual's eating habits. My family enjoys a relatively large range of foods and cuisines, but up until last year, I had never tried lamb. We would never cook it at home and, with my parents' warnings of its funky, animal-y flavour ringing in my head, I would shy away from it on menus.

Then last year, at a dinner party, I finally (hesitantly) nibbled on a lamb chop and enjoyed it immensely. Sure, the meat is more strongly flavored than chicken or pork, but when marinated and roasted just so, I was sold (and frankly, a little peeved that I had been missing out on something so tasty for so many years).

Now, lamb makes the occasional appearance at home. I find lamb (rib and loin chops especially) pretty forgiving to cook and it stays juicier and more tender than other types of meat. This is my new favourite way to prepare them.

A note on shopping: I haven't had much experience shopping for lamb. However, I learned that if you are looking for the classic frenched chops (with the bone running the length of the chop), look for rib chops. I ended up buying loin chops which also have the bone in, but it does not penetrate into the meat part as deeply, making for a less sturdy lamb "lollipop".


Recipe after the jump...

Lemon Panna Cotta with Blueberry Sauce

I bring odd souvenirs home with me when I travel. A tube of curry ketchup and a box of coconut "sheets" studded with raisins (to be eaten on toast) from Amsterdam. A little bottle of pandan extract from Singapore. Pearl sugar from Belgium. And, amongst other things, sheet gelatine from Barcelona. This last one is a bit strange, because sheet gelatine isn't even unique to Barcelonan cuisine. It's a little hard to find in North America and I'd never worked with it before, so I thought why not?

I finally used this gelatin to make a simple but sophisticated Italian dessert: panna cotta (or "cooked cream"). It's important to add just enough gelatin to make it set, but not so much that it's bouncy and flubber-like. Heavy cream is used to lend a silky, luxurious texture to the finished dessert. There are dozens of ways to flavour panna cotta, from simple vanilla to earl grey to rosewater. Since I had plenty of great blueberries to make a sauce with, I thought of the classic pairing with lemon. 

Tips and recipe after the jump...