Canadian Dishes

Well we tried to celebrate Canada Day with some of our favourite foods from our trips over there. Some worked, some didn't quite match our hopes and some weren't even attempted!

We'd decided against the Beaver Tail thing. Perhaps another time. We did however make the crab and spinach dip, baked prawns, steak, caesar salad and Poutine.
The Crab dip was excellent, and the left overs were eaten as a spread on crackers the next day. The baked prawns were nice, but nothing like how I'd hoped. The steak was OK, the caesar salad good (bought dressing!), and the Poutine - well I think that was the success story of the evening.

Crab, Spinach and Cheese Dip (This recipe)

We followed the recipe(copied out below), but cut down the quantities by about 2 thirds, mainly because crab meat is expensive and the amount made would have been massive!  
1 lb.Crab Meat
1/2 lb. Parmesan cheese
1 lb. cream cheese
1 lb. sour cream
1/2 lb. Gouda cheese
10 oz. frozen chopped spinach
1 tsp. Seafood Seasoning

Method

Thaw spinach, drain well, chop into half-inch pieces and lightly saute to evaporate remaining liquid, set aside.

Place crab meat into a large bowl, handle gently, carefully examine for shell, set aside.

Place all cheeses, sour cream and spice (except for about 2 Tbsp. of Parmesan cheese) into saucepan.

Heat over medium until smooth; do not boil.
Fold spinach into hot cheese mixture.
Fold crab meat into mixture.
Remove from heat, place into lightly greased baking dish or bread boule.
Sprinkle remaining Parmesan cheese over top.

Bake in preheated 350F/180C oven for 10-15 minutes or until top is lightly browned.

Baked Prawns

(I have since found a recipe claiming to be the recipe from The Keg Steakhouse. Not sure if it would have worked for us though, as apparently you need an escargot dish and different cheeses. Below is my attempt without following a recipe)
Place a handful of prawns in a shallow gratin dish and top with a mixture of grated cheese (we used gouda) and crushed garlic.
Bake until cheese is bubbling.

Poutine
For those who don't know. Poutine is a dish of chips and cheese curds covered in a brown gravy-like savoury sauce. According to Wikipedia it originated in Quebec but can be found across Canada. We did find it in most places we ate (apart from the more specialist places e.g. Murphy's on the Water and The Keg)
It is rather calorific, and we did actually call it a heart attack on a plate once. Obviously, its not to be eaten every day. But Canada day is once a year!
After some research into poutine recipes and what the actual poutine essence is, we came up with something rather simple. I found a great deal of different options for the sauce, but the traditional sauce is a simple gravy. Obviously we had to make this from scratch as most pre-prepared gravy mixes, or takeaway versions will have wheat flour in. Looking at different option ideas, I added a chopped shallot for added savouriness.

Gravy
1 shallot finely chopped
1/2 pint beef stock
ground black pepper
salt
cornflour

Gently fry the shallot until soft.
Pour in the beef stock and keep on a high heat.
Add plently of pepper and then salt to taste.
Thicken to the desired consistency (think not quite as gloopy as KFC "gravy")

We used chips from the local kebab shop as these bore the resemblance to those served at Maxwell's and follwing the advice of one website we used chopped mozerella instead of the proper ingredient of cheese curds.

To assemble, place the chips in a heat-proof dish. Sprinkle with the cheese and pout over the gravy. We put the dish in the oven for a small amount of time to ensure that the cheese was melted.
Our take on Poutine. Yum!

Experimental Vietnamese Spring Rolls

Vietnamese Spring Roll

After re-cooking the Cambodian Aubergine Curry and Stir Fried Spinach with Nuoc Cham for friends on Friday night we'd got the taste for Oriental food again. We'd managed to source some Shrimp paste for the curry, as in the original recipe, but were not able to include it this time because of allergies, so this also fueled the inspiration for all things oriental.
We took a drive into Manchester and to Wing Yip so I could see the delights available - Tim was the one who'd been there for the Shrimp Paste.
It really was like an Aladdin's Cave. The shelves were full of everything you could possibly need to create a Chinese, Thai, Vietnamese etc etc dish, and even though I wanted to read every label of each exciting sauce and condiment we had to focus! We picked up a couple of different Malaysian curry pastes and concentrates which were wheat free to try, some exciting Shrimp Chilli, some rice sticks, (which seem to be noodles, but there were also rice noodles, hmmm?) some Prawns and the main thing we were after, some spring roll wrappers.


Vietnamese Spring Roll Wrappers

Vietnamese spring roll wrappers are different to Chinese it seems as they are rice, as opposed to wheat. They can be used for Vietnamese fresh rolls, or summer rolls, and also deep fried to create the crispy, crunchy spring rolls we normally first think of.

We'd got some pre-packed (I know, I know!) vegetable stir fry and together with the prawns we thought that would make a decent filling. Plus the veg was half eaten and needed finishing off. We'd also got quite a bit of Nuoc Cham left from Friday so we used this to season the mixture. We decided on the deep-fried version rather that fresh as one of the core flavours for fresh rolls is mint and coriander, and rather than go shopping again we decided to use what was in the fridge.

We cooked through the veg and added the Nuoc Cham and Prawns at the last minute to heat through. We then, as per the pack instructions, soaked the spring roll wrapper in warm water for about 5 seconds until pliable. A spoonful of the stir fry mixture was then placed on the wrapper - once we'd managed to spread it out ready to roll, and perhaps not in the neatest of ways, rolled it all up.


Spring Rolls ready to go.

We heated some sunflower oil in the wok and chucked them in. First mistake. They all joined together, stuck to the bottom, burst, and pretty much mangled themselves into one big lump of rice paper and small floating bits of now deep fried veg. We did not take a picture!
After looking up a recipe for Vietnamese Spring Rolls in Rick Stein's Far Eastern Odyssey we saw where things had gone wrong. He specifies the temperature of the oil - not much use to us without a cooking thermometer, but also says to cook them so they do not touch. If we'd read that first we wouldn't have had to sacrifice the first 4 rolls. Actually we didn't really sacrifice them, as we did eat them! So we cooked the remainder very carefully. The higher temperature of the oil ensured that they didn't stick, plus we'd double wrapped a couple so as we turned them over the fragile rice wrapper didn't burst on us.
These were rather more successful.

The wrappers crisped up nicely and the Nuoc Cham dipping sauce added extra salty and hot seasoning. Lovely. The next couple we made we didn't pre-cook the filling - the prawns were cooked already, and they tasted just as good. Next time we get the Spring roll wrappers out I think we will try a recipe similar to the one in the Rick Stein book which includes minced pork as well as chopped prawns with veg and rice noodles. And also try the different option with the wrappers of the Fresh Rolls. Although we may need to practice the rolling up stage to perfect the look for Fresh Rolls really.

We will keep going back to Wing Yip for all our Oriental ingredients as everything seemed so cheap, not to mention exciting and inspirational. They also have an online store, but at first glance they don't seem to carry the full range of goods as the actual shops. Fresh produce was also notably cheap, their chillis, coriander, galangal etc all much cheaper than our normal supermarkets. The range of ingredients available will, no doubt, prompt us to being slightly more adventurous with our cooking, but I think we're a while off buying some frozen durian and some tinned abalone!

Prawn Saganaki and the Loss of a Vintage

As the tradition goes and due to Tim being at work, last night was another "Champagne Friday". Not sure where or when it started, but it did have something to do with Lost.
Anyway, recently having to sacrifice some potentially lovely vintages to the god of the sink following some very upsetting sherry tastes, a friend and I have decided not to save the posh stuff for special occasions (I don't know, the Pope visiting, or Daniel Craig/George Clooney/Brad Pitt turning up on the doorstep) but to drink and to experience the posh Champagne we've been hording for a couple of years since our last trip to Reims.
We had a rather posh 1995 Joseph Perrier "Josephine" cuvee, and either a Joseph Perrier Blanc de Blancs or Rose to go at, and we decided to try and team it with food that wouldn't detract from the champagne flavours.

1995 Joseph Perrier "Josephine"

Again, we are not pretending to know anything about food and wine matching, but the normal Friday night food of pizza, pringles and dip and cheese stuffed chilli type things probably wouldn't work with the vintage. After a quick google, we found that fish, seafood, cream and other lovely things were supposed to work with champagne (although the more you look into it, everything seems to go with it, and don't even ask about what goes with different vintages as opposed to blanc de blancs!). So here was another opportunity to cook the lovely version of Prawn Saganaki we found since returning from Crete.

While in Crete we were told by a very helpful waiter (more about him and the food over there when we get round to posting about it) that Saganaki means sauce, and that there are large and obvious differences between Cheese Saganaki and anything else Saganaki. Everything apart from Cheese Saganaki has, like the name suggests, a sauce.

We discovered Prawn Saganaki on our last day in Crete, and we're rather glad we didn't leave without trying it. It was lovely. Cheesy, tomatoey, with lovely large prawns. The setting was great too, this was eaten at the Blue Sea Restaurant in Elounda, on a jetty type arrangement, with the sea lapping below us.

Prawn Saganaki at Blue Sea Restaurant, Elounda

After loving this dish out in Crete I decided I would try and recreate it at home, and started by googling the recipe. The first that came up was this so I tried it. We also cooked the Stifado recipe from that site, and even though it was different that what we had tasted, somehow all the ingredients and flavours came through in the finished dish so we thought the Saganaki should be good too. The result was first tried out on the parents who enjoy food with flavour, and was a great success, so I thought it would work nicely for "Champagne Friday".

While it was in the oven, and the Josephine was chilling, we decided on the Blanc de Blancs. This was lovely, and re-affirmed our faith in that all our champagne that was bought a couple of years ago would not be of the sherry variety. It also re-affirmed our faith in the Joseph Perrier brand. We'd had a couple of bottles of the brut and vintage that hadn't been as good as we remembered, but this BdB was far nicer than any we'd tried before.

Joseph Perrier Blanc de Blancs

The Prawn Saganaki was done, so out of the oven, served with leaves and bread. This was different to the one from Crete, which had a smoother sauce, maybe blended, but we didn't really care!

I forgot to take pictures as soon as it came out, so the resulting few don't look as appetising as I'd hoped. But believe me, it tasted yummy.

Homemade Prawn Saganaki

The Josephine. Well. The cork popped - we have perfected the art of opening without a pop, and therefore no potential wastage. That was the first sign. Then the cork was rather brown at the end. The second sign. And didn't expand. the Third sign. We are, rather upsettingly, used to certain signs of off champagne.

The wine did have the sherry smell, and a slight sherry taste, but after a while - and a few mouthfuls this went away. We were very disappointed as this had been waiting to be drunk for a year since a 30th birthday party, (sorry 28th ;-)). We don't feel we can comment on the taste etc as we don't think, sorry we know, that it wasn't supposed to taste like this. After a period of grieving for the Lost Vintage, we did decide to finish it! And as with most champagnes, no hangover the morning after.

Josephine

Moral to the story, champagne is to be drunk, not kept for a special occasion that may never happen.