Throwback Thursday - Autumn in Canada and a Cold-Weather Stew

The view from the top of Montmorency Falls, just outside of Quebec City

As the rest of the US continues to suffer through it's long winter I thought I would commiserate with a nice cozy-weather dish, inspired by Bon Appetit. I saw their recipe for Indian-Spiced Chicken and made a few tweaks here and there to make it my own.

The daunting staircase to walk up to the top of the falls

I began with a whole chicken and broke it down into parts and then proceeded to brown the chicken in a little vegetable oil. Once browned, set aside. Then in the same lovely pot add 1 diced onion, 4 cloves minced garlic and a thumb-sized piece of ginger, minced, and saute until your onion is soft and golden. Next add in 2 heaping tablespoons tomato paste and 2 teaspoons each of garam masala, cumin, turmeric, 1 teaspoon coriander and a hefty dash of cayenne, depending on how spicy you like it, and let all that marry for about 5 minutes.  

 Add in 8 cups chicken broth, 1 28-ounce can of crushed tomatoes, 1/2 cup cream, chicken and a bunch of carrots (roughly chopped if you please). Season with salt and pepper. Bring to a boil, then cover partially and reduce to a simmer, cooking for about 2 hours. Add 1 pound of sliced yukon gold potatoes and continue cooking for another 45 minutes until the taters are cooked through. I served over a bed of rice with a hefty dollop of yogurt and some fresh cilantro.

More Comfort Food - Chicken Tagine

 I feel like, for the most part, I cook off the top of my head. I am inspired by recipes and photos and dishes I eat in restaurants, but I tend to riff on them, tweak here and there, make them my own. Having said that, I find that the majority of the recipes I actually post are recipes that I am following or at least loosely referencing - so, here is one of my favorite in-my-head recipes: Chicken Tagine with Chickpeas and Apricots. 

   Also, I was in the mood for a soupier version so I added ample chicken broth, if you want yours thicker either let it reduce more or cut down on your chicken broth.

UCLA's Powell Library

Venice Beach

Ushering in the New Year - Tourtiere du Shack

I am a believer that food is a cure-all. As people make their annual resolutions I wonder at how they can even envision such discipline - giving up carbs? sweets? wine? Nope, I don't have it in me. Instead, I have decided to embrace food and consume more than ever before - partially kidding. 

I decided to make this recipe, the Tourtiere du Shack, as a cheer-up-and-feel-comforted meal. I read about this tourtiere a year ago in Bon Appetit. I was completely taken in by the amazing photos of Quebec in winter - beautiful heritage pigs in the snow and delectable, oozing maple syrup - and I tore out the recipe for the tourtiere because I fell in love with the story and the place but not really thinking that I had the discipline to make it - turns out, definitely worth the patience.

The recipe definitely takes a while but isn't actually that difficult, there is just lots of cool/waiting time. So hunker down with a good book and a glass of wine and decide to make this some time. The even better news - the leftovers taste just as good if not better. Happy New Year!

The old Helms Bakery building in Los Angeles

The view from the Grapevine, CA

Mac N' Cheese

In keeping with my cravings for unhealthy, hearty food, I decided to make some mac and cheese. I justified this by telling myself that our friend was in town and he would eat a lot of it . . . I ended up making so much that we ate mac and cheese for about nine days straight. 

Anyway, I stumbled upon Martha Stewart's 'perfect' mac and cheese. As a firm believer in the mantra, 'everything is better with bacon,' I amped up Martha's recipe with a few tweaks and the addition of bacon. It turned out to be really yummy, although I do recommend serving it with a light salad just to keep those arteries flowing.

*Addendum: I chopped up two thick slices of bacon and sauteed them in the skillet before making the roux. I took out the bacon but let the roux cook in the bacon fat and then added the bacon back in along with the cheese and pasta.

London Calling - Lamb Shepherd's Pie

My good friend was in town staying with us, and I told him that if he came up with the idea for supper, I would cook it.  He quickly (I always have the hardest time coming up with the idea) suggested a shepherd's pie. This seemed quite fitting given that we became friends when we were both living in England. It felt like a good nostalgia-dish. I started poking around and eventually found my muse, care of Bon Appétit – a Greek-inspired shepherd's pie with lamb. The original recipe called for Kasseri (a hard sheep's milk cheese), and, despite making a special trip to Rainbow Grocery (the name says it all), I didn't come up with Kasseri. I decided that the pie was rich enough without the addition of cheese, but I finished my servings of pie with a sprinkling of feta to give it a little extra cream.

Roasted Corn and Bacon Gougères

We had friends in town this weekend and decided to get the holidays started early with a crab feast! Normally, we gorge ourselves so excessively on the crab that we don't eat anything else besides a salad. I wanted something to accompany the crab so I decided to make something equally excessive - gougères with bacon and roasted corn. I tweaked the recipe that I found in an old Gourmet - leaving out the chives and substituting in some chopped jalapeños (if you feel like it). They were scrumptious! Added bonus: the recipe makes so many puffs that I put the leftover batter (is it batter or dough?) in the fridge and made the rest the following evening and they were just as good. 

The recipe card featured above was made by the Kirtland House Press.