Favourite Re-runs: Caramel Pecan Tart

This is a recipe I published some time ago, when I started my Recipes page. Today, messing around with my blog, I realized that the Recipe page is static - I don't now how to add additional recipes to it, so I am changing it into a Recipe of the Month (ROM) page and I will transfer the 'old' ROM to the main post when I change them up. That way, you won't miss one delicious morsel.

Caramel Pecan Tart

from Chez Piggy

Crust:

1/3c + 2T unsalted butter

1-1/4c flour

5T sugar

2 egg yolks

Filling:

2/3c packed brown sugar

1/4c unsalted butter

1/4c golden corn syrup

2c coarsely chopped toasted pecans

3T whipping cream

Preheat oven to 375 F. Crust: Line the bottom of a 9-inch tart pan with parchment paper (cut to fit). Cut butter into flour and sugar until it forms pea-sized chunks. Add egg yolks and mix until pastry just begins to cling together. Press into the bottom and sides of the tart pan, to 1/4 inch thickness. Prick crust all over with fork and bake for 12 minutes. Cool.

Filling: Combine brown sugar, butter and corn syrup in a large saucepan. Bring to a boil. Turn off heat, stir in pecans and cream. Lightly press into cooled crust. Bake at 375 F for 12 minutes. Let cool. Serve in thin wedges (It is really rich, *swoon*).

I love to serve this topped with a dollop of whipped cream flavoured with almond extract. Mmmmmm.

Foraging for Food: How about it?



Braised Squirrel Aurora

Just a quick little post about discovering Hank Shaw's Hunter Angler Gardener Cook blog today. Just love it. Talk about a DIY guy. Also very keen about his decision to follow his dream and embrace his life philosophy. He is truly living at the edge. His recipes are mouthwatering and definitely portray real food. I've posted a link to his blog in my faves list.

I must admit I can't see myself foraging in quite the same way, although I do love my weird little garden and growing the plants that sprout as volunteers from the compost pile. Come to think of it, there are an awful lot of fat squirrels scurrying around the yard. Hmmmm.

Soup: Soul Satisfying Food

There is something about a pot of home-made soup simmering on the stove that gives me comfort. In fact soup-making is my one weakness, and it doesn't take much in the way of motivation to get me started. I keep organic chicken stock in the pantry, and save and freeze veggie cooking water, and of course any bones or remnants of roasted fowl or beast end up in the stock pot or frozen for later use. I have actually been known to invite a dozen people over for turkey dinner, just so I can save the carcass. Seriously.

I make soup by instinct, and my instincts usually tell me that the fresher the better for your veggies and that butter and cream are great additions to just about anything you have on hand. Yes, I am channelling Julia Child. And this doesn't just apply to soup. I was moved to make the soup that is the topic of this blog after buying some gorgeous bunches of celery and a basket of fresh mushrooms at one of the last Farmer's Markets of the season.

 

This particular soup really needs garden or farm fresh celery. It has a much more delicate stalk, more abundant leaves and its taste is incredibly pungent, and - well - celery-flavoured. Now is the time to get the last of it.

And mushrooms. These beauties are from the Shan Ming Mushroom Farm in Maple Ridge B.C. They are gorgeously flavoured - musky and earthy. And just-picked (plucked?) fresh.

Because I cook by instinct, these measures are approximate, but they should get you through to a beautiful, flavourful autumn soup that marries celery and mushrooms in a creamy, delicious fall meal. My basic rule is keep tasting. Adjust as it moves you!

1/4 c butter
2 c fresh celery stems & leaves, chopped
Medium onion, chopped
3-4 lge King Oyster mushrooms - stems chopped, tops sliced
6-9 button mushrooms - sliced
Bunch of Enoki mushrooms - long stems chopped, otherwise leave whole
(Or any other mushroom combo of your choice)

1/2 c white wine

3 c chicken or vegetable stock

Sea salt

Freshly ground pepper

1 c heavy cream

Melt butter in bottom of  your favourite heavy soup pot. Add chopped onion and lightly saute for 3-5 mins. Add chopped celery and leaves. Add sliced mushrooms (reserve Enokis). Sweat these together covered until celery is soft and mushrooms are limp. Salt and pepper to taste. Add white wine and simmer for a few minutes. Add chicken or vegetable stock (or both) and simmer for about 30 mins. Add the Enokis just a couple of minutes before you add the cream. (about five minutes before serving). If soup is bubbling, reduce the heat before you add cream. Taste and adjust seasonings. Serve with love.

Falling for Autumn



 It is already full dark and not yet 7 o'clock in the evening. Fall is upon us. As much as I lament the loss of summer, there is a sweet anticipation in the Fall, when the leaves turn and crackle underfoot and the air is chill and tainted with smoke. Not quite mittens, but certainly sweater time, and a fine time for brisk walks. hot tea and good company. Today, I took the garden out.

Squash, beans and tomatoes nearly filled my basket. I managed to rescue a couple of ripe Black Krims from bandity raccoons - their greedy paws and sharp teeth snatching the best from the vine (how do they know?). The rest I'll ripen safely indoors, wrapped in newspaper in a cardboard box. The herbs are neatly trimmed and the little space under the stairs looks a bit barren as a few straggling vines cling to the trellis and the tomatoe stakes stand empty.

Yesterday, we attended one of the last outdoor Farmer's Markets for the year. A gloomy, overcast day broke into clear sunshine and blue sky and market-goers lingered, having formed friendships over the summer, sharing recipe ideas and pointing out favourite vendors.

Loaded stalls were filled with summer's harvest. Cranberries and carrots, squash, garlic, celery, potatoes and peppers, cauliflower (*swoon*) and corn. Honey. And mushrooms, those earthy, naked denizens of Fall.  We filled up packsacks and shopping bags and brought a bounty home with us.

I devoted  the afternoon to cranberry sauce making.Thanksgiving is just around the corner - next weekend for those of us in Canada, and Christmas is not just a remote possibility any more.

Tonight I am making fresh Cream of Celery and Autumn Mushroom Soup. Fresh pungent celery and King & Enoki mushrooms. It is simmering on the stove as a type. There is that sweet anticipation, again. Soup. Soon. Yum.

And the other anticipations - what will winter bring? And the pause as the garden slumbers - what will grow there next year?

Autumn is like the rest between the notes in music, so important  in the composition. Fall, it seems, makes me a little philosophical too. How about you?

A Salute to Summer: Gone but not Forgotten.

One of the ways I pursue happy idleness is messing around with technology. I have to admit that my curiosity about gadgets, apps and their technological possibilities far outweighs my skill. An ambition of my middle age, and one I am sure will take me well into old age, is to at least keep up! I said to my sister-in-law today that I will probably still be using my laptop in my 90's. She said I probably won't have one. I assumed she meant lap. But I digress.

In my work (which I promise not to focus on in this blog, hand over heart!) I advocate for social media and help my clients apply it to their work. I also love to play on Facebook and Twitter, and am a self-confessed Farmville addict.

Blogging is fun, too.

Lately, I have been moodling around with online video production programs. And, oh my! A new weakness. So my blog this week is a video tribute to summer, capturing some of my favourite elements of the season we are saying farewell to - at least here in the Northern Hemisphere - and celebrating summer food. In happy anticipation of the autumn and then the winter, I offer my Salute to Summertime.





With heartfelt thanks to the fine young folks at Animoto.
http://www.animoto.com/

Eat Play Snooze

Southwestern BC is in the midst of  a heat wave and I, for one, am enjoying sweltering it out in weather that reminds me of childhood summers. I come from the Kootenays where summers are hot, winters are snowy and spring and fall are seasons of their own. Even though I have lived most of my adult life at the West Coast, I have always found it a little unnatural to pack a  sweater around in summertime and to be chilly sitting outside on a midsummer night. So, I'm loving the heat and especially loving the summer lifestyle. The temperature in the Fraser Valley went up to a whopping 39 degrees on Sunday so we sought shelter under some big, leafy trees and enjoyed a breeze from the river and a potluck birthday picnic with friends. Here are some  summer scenes:

Time to eat: A big umbrella keeps the food shaded. A blanket buffet!

Potatoe Salad, BBQ chicken, hard-boiled eggs and pretty plates. Netting keeps the flies away.

Something to read...or perhaps nap.

My summer feet - dirty ones, just like the ones I had when I was a kid.

Some pretty summer feet - birthday girl and birthday presents.

Birthday cheesecake, hand made table(ground)cloth, summer roses in a jam jar.

This was a day of lingering contentment. Time spent with friends - talking, playing bocce, napping, reading newspapers and much good eating. Our theme: Eat, Play, Snooze.

Next month: an autumn picnic - featuring sweaters, campstoves and barnesgirl's percolated coffee!