dessert tagged posts

Welcome to my newsletter that I will publish on Mondays, whenever I have enough news tidbits to share with you.

Headline News:

Unfortunately, I am starting off my first newsletter with very sad news. The main building at St. Jacob Farmers’ Market was destroyed by fire early this morning. Read the story here: www.cbc.ca.

Food Events:

There’s one day left to head over to Spencer Smith Park in Burlington, Ontario for the 18^th annual Canada’s Largest Ribfest, organized by the Rotary Club of Burlington Lakeshore. This year’s Ribfest will include a kids’ zone, live bands, crafters’ artisan fair and of course, 18 ribber teams from across North America competing for your vote for the best finger-lickin’-good ribs. August 30^th to September 2^nd, 2013  11 am to 11 pm Friday, Saturday and Sunday, 11am to 8 pm Monday. All the info you need to know is here: www.canadaslargestribfest.com

Restaurant News:

Cagney’s Restaurant & Wine Bar in Streetsville (home of the legendary Cagney’s caesar salad) is temporarily closed for renovations and is planning on reopening – with a fresh new look – around the last week of September/first week of October and will also be open on Sundays for brunch and dinner. Wonderful!

Tandoori Flame Grand Indian Buffet & Thekka ‘d Indian Bar plans to open this fall in the former location of Mother Tucker’s Market Place at Britannia Rd. and Mavis Rd. in Heartland Centre. Can’t wait to try it because olive Indian!

Grocery Store Finds:

Looking for Latin American grocery stores? Check out my post publishing this Thursday – Latin Love Affair: Olive’s Shrimp Tacos.

Sweet Notes:

End the summer holidays on a sweet note with Kawartha Dairy ice cream.

Pictured below: Raspberry Lemon-Lime Sherbet, Mint Chip, Blue Bubblegum, Creamy Orange, Chocolate and my favourites: Moose Tracks (vanilla ice cream with chocolate peanut butter cups swirled with Moose Tracks® fudge) and Crème Brulée (caramelized brown sugar sauce and Crème Brulée crunchy candy swirled in rich custard ice cream).

Click here to find Kawartha Dairy Ice Cream in your neighborhood. I counted 18 flavours at the Apple Factory.

Photo contributed by Charlotte Brehl.

My Black Cherry Rose Water Sherbet turns sweet dark cherries, a touch of cream, and a faint but alluring hint of rose water into a luscious make-ahead summer dessert that will make you dream you are feasting in a sultan’s tent under a starry Sahara sky.

Rose water is the essential water that is left behind in the steam distillation of rose petals to extract rose oil for perfume. Olive to fill a bowl with tap water, add a healthy splash of rose water, and float some delicate rose petals on the surface as a pretty table decoration or a refreshing gesture for pampered guests in my bathroom.

For centuries, fragrant rose water has laced sweets and drinks in Middle Eastern, Indian, Mediterranean, and Southeast Asian cuisines. Did you know rose water was common in American and European baking until the 19^th century when vanilla stole the scene?

French Pastry Chef Pierre Hermé (widely acclaimed as the “Picasso of Pastry” and the “Couturier of Haute Pâtisserie”) brought rose water back into vogue in Paris when he combined the flavours of rose, raspberry, and lychee into a much sought-after macaron creation he calls Ispahan (after the Damask rose).  His book titled Ispahan (to be published in September 2013 by Editions de La Martinière) will be dedicated to interpretations of his famous flavour combination.

Rose water has since made its way back into the spotlight on this side of the pond. When I read in the June 2013 issue of Chatelaine magazine that Toronto’s Cava restaurant was using rose water in their Strawberry Rose Water Sorbet, I decided to try the combination of rose water and black cherries in a sherbet. I think it turned out beautifully.

As a springboard for my recipe, I started with Ree Drummond’s Cherry Sherbet recipe (olive her blog The Pioneer Woman); but I cut back on the dairy and sugar, eliminated the alcohol, increased the amount of cherries, and added the rose water. And I made it without an ice cream maker, using a simple tray-in-the-freezer-by-hand method instead.

The heavy rains have shortened the local cherry season which will probably finish up by this weekend so try to get some local cherries while you still can. I found these beauties (grown in Jordan Station, Ontario) at Longo’s on Monday.

I pit cherries the same way I do olives. Make a small slit in the cherry, place the flat side of a chef’s knife over a single cherry and push down carefully with the heel of your hand until the cherry crushes open and the pit is easily removed. It will take a bit of time, but I relax at my kitchen table while pitting my cherries and find it therapeutic. And since you need to make this recipe a day in advance, all the work will be done well ahead of serving it.

Serve my Black Cherry Rose Water Sherbet in small portions in tiny, pretty cups. Sprinkle some fresh rose petals or rosebud tea at each place setting for added romance.

Black Cherry Rose Water Sherbet

Makes about 2 cups

You need to make this lovely sherbet one day before serving, then freeze overnight until ready to serve. Be careful not to add too much rose water, which can easily overpower a recipe; there is just a subtle hint in my recipe.

Ingredients:

4 cups fresh sweet dark (black) cherries, freshly pitted by you (yes you!)

3/4 cup white sugar

1 cup heavy cream

1/2 teaspoon rose water (see notes below)

juice of 1 lemon

Directions:

Place the cherries and sugar in a wide saucepan. Bring to a gentle boil over medium heat, stirring frequently; then reduce to a simmer. Simmer gently, stirring occasionally, until cherries are soft and liquid thickens to syrup, about 7 to 10 minutes. Cool to room temperature.

Add the cherries with syrup to a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Add cream, rose water, and lemon juice. Blend just until combined.

If you have an ice cream maker, great! But I don’t, so here’s what I do:

Pour the cherry mixture into a 9-by-13-inch freezer-safe baking dish, cover with plastic wrap, and place the dish in your freezer. After 45 minutes, use a fork and rubber spatula to scrape the frozen edges in toward the centre, breaking up any lumps while stirring. Repeat every 30 minutes for 2 to 3 hours, until frozen.

When fully frozen, place the sherbet in an air-tight, freezer-safe container with a tight-fitting lid. Store in the freezer, overnight, until ready to serve the next day. The sherbet is best eaten the day after it is made. Serve in small portions in tiny, pretty cups.

Note: Because it is perishable, store your rose water in the refrigerator after opening.

Cortas Rose Water: available at Adonis

www.goldaskitchen.com supplies Nielsen-Massey Rose Water.

Herbal Rosebud Tea from Village Foods: available at Adonis

Fresh Rose Petals: courtesy of Roscoe’s Roses (did you notice some missing Dad?)

What better way to celebrate the arrival of summer than under a perigee supermoon (the closest and largest full moon of 2013)…

with an equally spectacular strawberry tart?

My Strawberry Tart is a simple but elegant way to showcase the fragrant, local field strawberries that I picked up at Streetsville Farmers’ Market on Saturday.

Based on the gorgeous fruit tarts popular in France during festival time, my recipe is an easy and relatively healthy summer dessert that looks almost as stunning as a tarte aux fraises from a fine Parisian pâtisserie. After listening to the utterly charming audiobook French Women Don’t Get Fat (read by the author herself, Mireille Guiliano), I learned that the fattening pastry cream, that is often spread over the base of a tarte aux fraises, is not necessary. Great, because I am not crazy about pastry cream, but olive strawberries!

There are a few easy steps to this tart. You can make the simple syrup required for the coulis well in advance. It keeps for 2 to 3 weeks in your fridge and can be used to dress a fruit salad or to sweeten homemade lemonade or ice tea.

Bake the crisp, shortbread cookie crust in the morning, filling your kitchen with a delicious aroma, then set it aside to cool. It has a hint of ground almonds, which you can replace with flour if there are allergy concerns.

Later (at least two hours before you want to serve the tart), fill the tart with a concentric arrangement of the prettiest, similar-sized, scarlet-coloured strawberries you can find. Then make the coulis and glaze the berries immediately. The berries will glisten under the coulis; both will perfume the air with sweetness. Refrigerate the tart for at least two hours to allow the coulis to set. It’s best eaten the day it’s made but it is still good the next day or two, with a softer crust. Serve with a dollop of whipped cream if you wish.

You can use other seasonal fruit instead, such as raspberries, peaches, or apricots (but not kiwi, pineapple, papaya, or figs). Make sure you use the same fruit for the coulis.

Olive’s Strawberry Tart

Simple Syrup:

Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat gently until sugar has dissolved, stirring a couple of times. When the sugar is completely dissolved, bring to a boil and reduce heat to medium. Boil for 5 minutes. Cool before storing in a covered jar in your fridge for up to 2 to 3 weeks. Can be used to dress a fruit salad or sweeten homemade lemonade or ice tea.

Shortbread Cookie Crust:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Lightly butter the bottom and sides of the inside of a 10” round tart pan with straight, fluted sides and a removable bottom.

Mix the flour, ground almonds, brown sugar, and salt in a medium bowl with a whisk until combined. Cut in the butter by rubbing the flour mixture and butter between your fingertips, until the mixture blends into coarse crumbs. Knead gently with your hands to form a ball.

Distribute pieces of the dough evenly onto the bottom and up the sides of the pan. Using the heel of your hand, pat the dough to cover the bottom and sides evenly. Make sure there are no gaps. Bake on the middle oven rack for about 15 minutes, until golden brown. Cool completely before adding the fruit.

Strawberry Filling & Strawberry Coulis Glaze:

2 quarts of strawberries, washed, dried thoroughly, and hulled but left whole

Pick out the best-looking, similar-sized berries and arrange them on top of the crust in an attractive, concentric pattern, with their tips pointing up and their hulled ends pointing down.

Note: You will need approximately 1 ½ quarts of strawberries to fill the tart and for the coulis but buy 2 quarts just to be sure and to allow you to pick out enough of the best berries for the tart. You will need 1 ½ cups of strawberries for the coulis.

Coulis Glaze:

Prepare the gelatin sheets according to package directions, first following the Basic Directions and then the Cold Preparation Directions.

Meanwhile, purée the raw strawberries with a squeeze of lemon juice in a food processor. Add the simple syrup and blend. Strain through a sieve into a bowl, rubbing through with a rubber spatula. Discard the seeds and remaining pulp.

Before the gelatin begins to set, fold the gelatin into the strained coulis; then immediately pour the coulis evenly over the tart to glaze each berry. Refrigerate the tart until the coulis is set, about 2 hours. Store any leftovers in the fridge.

Note: I learned the basics of simple syrup, coulis, and glazes from the Gordon Ramsay Desserts cookbook. He uses many interesting ingredients to whip up different variations of flavoured stock syrups, coulis, and glazes. It’s well worth checking out the cookbook, available from the Mississauga Library. I modified his recipes for Stock Syrup and Coulis to fit the requirements of this recipe.

I can still hear the screen door slam behind me as I run into the loving embrace of my apron-adorned Grandmother where she stands, heart wide open, in her happy kitchen. She left us long ago but her twinkling smile still sparkles in my heart.

I can see her, clear as day, coming in from the backyard with an apron full of ripe cherries she just picked from her cherry tree. I can taste the tartness of the plump, ruby coloured, juicy jewels that she loaded in her cherry pie.

I will always remember the life lessons she taught me, like “two wrongs don’t make a right” or:

Or to share what you have whenever you can. During hard times homeless people knew that if they knocked on her door, they could always count on my Grandmother to share whatever food she had.

Her name was Miriam but they called her May for short, having been born on the 31st of May. Today would have been her birthday. In honour of May’s birthday, I am enjoying a mid-morning snack of a handful of luscious black cherries that are the perfect foil for a small, sinful smear of buttery St. André (a soft ripened cheese crafted in Normandy, France). Olive black cherries with St. André cheese. It’s dessert without the guilt. I will wash it down with a spot of tea in this pretty and very special tea cup that was passed down to me. It was May’s birthday tea cup. Look, it has lilies of the valley and the word “May” printed on it. Isn’t it lovely?

It’s as lovely as May. Love you Grandma…and I saved the tea bag.

St. André cheese: Ile de France (available at Longo’s)

Teapot: Available from cobistyle.

Bouquet of lily-of-the-valley: Thanks to my husband. He surprises me every spring with a hand-picked bouquet. He says I look like May.

Sherway Farmers’ Market opened May 3, 2013. Farmers’ markets in Peel region open in June but there are quite a few in Halton opening in May. I am working on a local farmers’ market, farm market, and farm 2013 directory that I will post on my website soon. I’ll let you know when it’s up.

As the season progresses, Sherway Farmers’ Market will continue to grow. Here is a glimpse of some of the wonderful treasures I unearthed while visiting Sherway Farmers’ Market last Friday. There is a delicious recipe for rhubarb at the end of this post.

Sean and Shannon Declerc’s Fresh and Tasty Mushrooms, from Shelbourne, ON

Husband and wife team, Sean and Shannon Declerc, offer an impressive bounty of foraged, wild mushrooms (when in season) and specialty cultivated mushrooms including Portabella, Shitake, Enoki, Crimini, Beech, Oyster, and these beauties, Cinnamon Caps, that are named for their cinnamon colour. Shannon described the Cinnamon Caps as their earthiest mushroom with a beautiful, rich, woodsy flavour. They are delectable in omelets, risottos, or in roasted meat gravies.

Lion’s Mane is Shannon’s favourite. It has a milder, very fresh flavour, and a different texture than regular mushrooms, which Shannon says is appealing even to those who don’t like mushrooms. It’s very versatile and is great grilled, on pizza, or in soups.

Mushrooms are porous and absorb liquid quickly. The Declercs grow all of their cultivated mushrooms on wood chips, so they don’t require washing. If you really feel you must, please just wipe them with a damp paper towel so you don’t disturb their delicate disposition.

Ralph & Emmy Lise’s Farm Fresh Produce, from Holland Marsh, ON

Ralph Lise’s stand was brimming with fresh produce on Friday, including field asparagus,

colourful Ontario greenhouse peppers, and Ontario greenhouse tomatoes. Ralph’s tomatoes are grown in soil and picked at a riper stage, making them more flavourful than most grocery store tomatoes (which are picked under-ripe to make them less fragile during transportation). Having been raised by a mother who grew up on superb Kent County tomatoes, I always search out the finest tomatoes I can sink my teeth into. I did a side-by-side taste comparison between some vine-ripened tomatoes I bought at a grocery store (and left sitting on my counter for a couple of days to ripen) and the Lise Farm tomatoes I bought on Friday. Compared to Ralph’s tomatoes, the grocery store vine-ripened tomatoes were still under-ripe and had a mealy texture. Ralph’s tomatoes were juicier and more flavourful, even though I ate them as soon as I got them home. It was a refreshing snack – a plate of Ralph’s tomatoes (adorned with nothing but a light sprinkle of sea salt) and a little bit of protein just to keep me ticking.

I could not resist this sign, Freshly Dug Small White Potatoes. Doesn’t that sound fresh? These deserve to be boiled in their skin, smashed a touch with a potato masher, then tossed with my favourite extra virgin olive and some fresh mint that has been chopped in a dash of kosher salt to bash it all up and coax out the flavour.

Abraham and Judith Piets’ Quality Bakery, from Norwich, ON 

Abraham and Judith’s tables were laden with lots of delectable looking freshly baked goods including bread, sausage rolls, pies, squares, tarts, strudels, and these Dutch cookies that I have been searching for since my friend first got me hooked on them. They are called “Stroopwafels” (Syrup Waffles), a toothsome cookie consisting of sweet, chewy syrup sandwiched between two delicate waffle wafers. Lovely when placed over a hot cup of tea to soften the syrup.

Bert Nieuwenhuis, Lamb & Wool Producer, from Orangeville, ON

Bring your cooler to the market because Bert offers a great selection of his locally raised and processed, government inspected lamb products. According to a great article on Bert (The Amiable Shepherd: Bert Nieuwenhuis by Nicole Ross, June 19, 2012 http://www.inthehills.ca/2012/06/departments/the-amiable-shepherd-bert-nieuwenhuis/), Bert’s products are popular with chefs and locals in the Headwaters region, so we are really lucky that he brings them down to Sherway Farmers’ Market. He sells lamb shanks, racks, legs, chops, burgers, roasts, organs, and even lamb heads. His lamb liver pâté sounds enticing. Next time I run into Bert, (perhaps at the Orangeville, Inglewood or Caledon Farmers’ Markets) I will be sure to have my cooler with me because olive Ontario lamb.

Andrews’ Scenic Acres, from Milton, ON

I was so happy to see local field rhubarb at the Andrews’ Scenic Acres stand. I can’t wait to visit Andrews’ Scenic Acres farm to pick my own asparagus, on the first sunny day that is available to me. I will tell you all about it on an upcoming post. As we move further into the growing season, the Andrews’ Scenic Acres stand at Sherway Farmers’ Market will be brimming with all sorts of fresh produce. I can’t wait for the berries.

This little gem of a recipe is a delightful way to enjoy rhubarb. The recipe comes from The United Churches in Canada Let’s Break Bread Together cookbook, a compilation of tried and true, treasured recipes submitted from United Churches across Canada.  The cookbook was compiled and published by the United Church in Meadowood, Winnipeg, Manitoba, in 1988. It is still available for purchase from Derksen Printers. Please see the full details and the link at the end of this post. It is well worth purchasing and would make a great addition to a novice cook’s library.

The Rhubarb Torte recipe was submitted by Brooks United Church in Brooks, Alberta. It’s an easy recipe that will make a confident baker out of an apprehensive one and a rhubarb lover out of anyone. Olive it!  Thanks very much to the United Church in Meadowood for permitting me to share this recipe with my readers.

Rhubarb Torte

The tartness of the rhubarb is tamed by the creamy custard filling, which sits atop a rich, buttery shortbread crust and is topped with a soft and billowy meringue. The recipe calls for a 9″ x 9″ pan but if you only have an 8″ x 8″ pan, it will still work out beautifully. In that case, you will have to cook only the filling a little longer than directed.

Crust:

Preheat oven to 325°F. Mix, by rubbing between your finger tips, until mixture turns crumbly. Press into a 9″ x 9″ pan. Bake for 20 minutes on the middle rack.

Meanwhile, prepare filling.

Filling:

3 egg yolks, beaten (separate the whites and reserve for the meringue)

1 1/4 cups white sugar

3 tablespoons flour

1/3 cup cream

2 1/2 cups rhubarb, chopped into bite-size pieces

Mix the first four ingredients well. Stir in the rhubarb. Spread evenly over crust. Bake 40 minutes, or longer, until filling is set.

Increase oven temperature to 350°F. Meanwhile, prepare meringue.

Meringue:

3 egg whites

6 tablespoons white sugar

Beat the egg whites, slowly adding the sugar one tablespoon at a time, just until soft peaks form and whites look glossy. Spread gently over filling. Bake for 15 minutes at 350°F until meringue is golden brown. Chill until ready to serve.

Recipe may be doubled for a 9″ x 13″ pan.

Rhubarb Torte, page 169: The United Churches in Canada Let’s Break Bread Together (Compiled and published in 1988 by the United Church in Meadowood, Winnipeg, Manitoba. Printed by Derksen Printers Ltd., Steinbach, MB). Available for order on-line at http://www.derksenprinters.com/store/cookbook_catalogue.shtml

www.sherwaymarket.com

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