Events this busy weekend ranged from a family birthday party, to a Christmas Tea to a Grey Cup Party. 

Samantha had not been home for her birthday for the past five years, so it was a real pleasure to be able to put together a home-cooked celebration in her honour.   We were also happy to have Teddy and Brian, Granny and our neighbours come to join us.  On the menu:

Wild Rice Pancakes with Duck Confit and Plum Sauce (recipe follows)

Grilled Scallops over Orange and Fennel Salsa (Inspired by LCBO Food & Drink Holiday 2011)

Beef Tenderloin

Braised Kale

Green Beans

Butternut Squash Risotto

Gluten Free Lemon Coconut Layer Cake

Wild Rice Pancakes with Duck Confit and Plum Sauce

1 tablespoon olive oil

½ cup minced onion

1 large clove garlic, minced

1 cup cooked jasmine rice (do not rinse before cooking)

1 ½ cups cooked wild rice

Vegetable stock

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

Salt and pepper to taste

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 cooked duck legs, either smoked or as prepared duck confit from the butcher

¼ cup plum sauce

Micro greens for garnish

Heat 1 tablespoon of the olive oil in a small pan.  Add the onion, and sauté until softened and translucent.  Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds more until very fragrant.

In the bowl of a food processor, pulse the 2 kinds of rice for about 30 seconds.  Add the cooked onion and garlic and a few tablespoons of vegetable stock.  Continue to pulse until it begins to come together in a ball, adding more stock as necessary.  Add the sage, salt and pepper and pulse to just combine.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.  Scoop out small spoonfuls (about 1 teaspoon each) of the rice mixture, and with damp hands, form into small pancakes.  Chill for ½ an hour until set.

In a large non-stick frying pan, heat the remaining olive oil on medium-high.  Add the pancakes and cook until golden brown on both sides.  Place them back on the lined baking sheet and preheat the oven (or barbecue) to 350°.

This recipe works well with the leftover smoked duck legs but if you don’t have this on hand, prepared duck confit is a simple shortcut.  The duck confit can be heated and crisped on the barbecue for 5 minutes per side.  Meanwhile, reheat the pancakes for 5 minutes.  Slice or shred the duck and place on the pancakes.   Top with a dollop of plum sauce and garnish with a few sprigs of micro greens. 

Grilled Scallops over Orange and Fennel Salsa

The Food & Drink version calls for pan-searing the scallops, but for us, Ted grilled them to perfection.  We substituted chicken for our guests who did not eat seafood.

Enough large scallops for 2 per guest

For the Salsa:

1 cup chopped fennel

1 cup chopped orange segments

1/2  cup finely chopped red onion

2 teaspoons seeded and chopped jalapeno pepper

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons orange juice

2 tablespoons lemon juice

3 tablespoons snipped chives

3 tablespoons chopped cilantro

Salt and pepper, to taste

For the Rub:

2 teaspoons fennel seeds, cracked

2 teaspoons coriander seeds, cracked

2 teaspoons cracked peppercorns

1 teaspoon kosher salt

Olive oil for grilling

Combine all the ingredients for the salsa and set aside at room temperature.  If preparing more than one hour in advance place in the refrigerator until an hour before.

Combine the rub ingredients and sprinkle over the scallops. 

Preheat barbecue on Medium High.  Reduce heat to Medium.  Brush scallops lightly with olive oil, and place on the grill.  Sear 2 ½ minutes per side. 

Spoon salsa on each small plate, and top with scallops.

Happy Birthday Samantha!

It all adds up to 23!

Mark + football = party

Since the Grey Cup was scheduled to begin Sunday night at 6pm, Mark was busy Saturday at midnight, loading up the smoker with charcoal, gathering the pork butts and apple juice spray bottle, and organizing his coleslaw ingredients for the morning.  In quick time, he had the smoker lit and the temperature set at a constant 200⁰F. On went 3 pork shoulders and off we went to bed!   

By kick off time, the juicy pulled pork was ready to go, tossed with a spicy barbecue sauce.  Ever the traditionalist, he had a big bowl of coleslaw and a bubbling pot of baked beans ready on the sidelines.  As an added  bonus,  he was able to offer his buddies  a heaping platter of perogies, fried in butter, bacon and onions – these were acquired in a trade with Darryl.   Mark smoked an extra pork shoulder for Darryl, who prepared an extra couple of dozen homemade perogies  in exchange. What a talented, not to mention resourceful pair!

PULLED PORK  SMOKED ON THE BROIL KING KEG

IMPORTANT TIPS:

·         Low and slow is the name of the game here! We like to start the smoking before we go to bed, around midnight.  Usually, a 6-7 pound pork shoulder will take 12 to 14 hours – allow 2 hours per pound of meat. Whenever the pork shoulder is finished, remove it from the smoker, wrap it in foil and set it aside until you are ready to serve it.

·         Being organized means that most of the work happens the night before your gathering, which is great when you are expecting a big crowd. This frees your time up so that you can enjoy your family and friends.

·         Purchase a pork shoulder and be sure that there is a nice fat cap. There is a lot of flavor and moisture there, so leave it on.

·         Coat the whole pork shoulder with yellow mustard and your favourite rub, letting it sit for half an hour before placing in the smoker.

·         The cooking temperature of the smoker should be constant at approx. 225°F. The waterpan should be kept filled with water throughout the cooking time. The Broil King Keg is very efficient and reliable, so if you set it up properly with lots of charcoal, and adjust the vents correctly the temperature will remain constant all night long.

·         Start basting with a mop when you get up in the morning. Mop every hour or so until finished.

·         Cook to an endpoint temperature of 175°F.

·         Wrap the pork shoulder in foil and let rest for at least an hour before pulling it. Do not skip this step, as it is the final step in allowing the connective tissue to completely break down, resulting in tender, moist pork!

 

Getting started: 

1.   Pour a 6” deep layer of True’Cue lump charcoal on the bottom of the smoker.

2.       Use 2 True’Cue match-light charcoal starters to ignite the charcoal. Alternately, use a chimney starter.  Crumple up 1 or 2 sheets of newspaper in the bottom chamber, and place a cup of lump charcoal in the top chamber. Placing the starter on the pavement, a flat rock or non-ignitable surface, light the newspaper. Within 8-10 minutes, you will have glowing red coals. Carefully lift the chimney starter and dump the coals into the lump charcoal already in the Broil King Keg.

3.       Open the top and bottom vents to the widest position (#5).

4.       Let the coals burn for 10 minutes until the smoker reaches 225°F

5.       Dial down the top and bottom vents to the #2 position

6.       This should maintain a smoker temperature of 225°F for up to 12 hours. Add more charcoal as needed.

  

Kris "helped a bit" with the party

1  6-7 pound pork shoulder

3 tbsp yellow mustard

Rub:

1 cup brown sugar

½ cup chili powder

1/3  cup paprika

¼ cup celery salt

¼ cup garlic powder

¼ cup onion salt

¼ cup black pepper

¼ cup white pepper

1 tbsp dry mustard

1 tbsp 5-spice powder

1 tbsp dry ginger

Mop:

Apple juice in a spray bottle

2 cups Spicy barbecue sauce

Prepare rub and sauce the night before. Rub pork shoulder with yellow mustard, then cover with rub. Let rest for half an hour before placing on smoker, which has been set up according to the instructions above. Once the temperature has reached 225⁰F:

·         place a handful of soaked wood chips on the surface of the charcoal,

·         check to make sure the drip pan is full,

·         place the pork shoulder on the smoker,

·         close the lid and allow to cook for at least 6 hours.

·         Begin spraying with apple juice every half hour.

·         This is also the time to begin to monitor the internal temperature of the pork, using a meat thermometer. Once it has reached a temperature of 175⁰F, remove it from the smoker, wrap it tightly in foil and allow it to rest for at least an hour before pulling.

Kidsability Sugarplum Tea

Our friend, Eleanor Yach was part of the committee that organized this wonderful event at Langdon Hall on Sunday afternoon to raise funds for KidsAbility, a local organization which empowers children and youth with special needs to realize their full potential.   We were greeted with a glass of prosecco and led into a beautiful room all decked out for Christmas where we were served a full Afternoon Tea.

Honey Butter, Strawberry Jam and Devon Cream to accompany the scones

Assorted Finger Sandwiches

Dainty Desserts

Gearing up for the Holidays

We kicked off our week hunting for boughs and red twigs for our Christmas decorating.  Our friend Lynn was kind enough to invite us to her country property with our dogs and our clippers to harvest some of her beautiful dogwood.  

Another highlight was the Onward Manufacturing Holiday party, which was artfully organized and executed by Erin and her team.  Saturday morning in the bright sunshine they set up rows of Broil King, Broil Mate and Sterling barbecues and cooked 12 succulent strip loin roasts and 18 boneless turkeys to absolute perfection.  Both were simply seasoned with salt and pepper, but for the turkeys, they filled the drip pans with cranberry juice, and for the beef roasts, they used red wine.  The team members are true barbecue experts.  To learn how to set up your barbecue for this drip pan method,  refer to our Techniques section.

Amy, Erin, Dan, Anthony, Ben, Rich and Geoff preparing for the party.

 

The beef was grilled to perfection

Andy and his barbershop quartet provided entertainment.

  

We are also enjoying having our friends from England and Spain staying with us.  Wayne from Spain was so happy to come to Canada for the first time and to see Niagara Falls!  We fired up the smoker and filled it with beef and pork ribs from the Kitchener Farmer’s market and served them with a maple and rye whisky barbecue sauce to give it true Canadian flavour. 

In the spirit of finding ways to use our delicious leftovers, we have put together this recipe for Lamb Curry  to follow last week’s blog post.

Lamb Curry

2 tablespoons olive oil

1 medium onion, chopped

1 red pepper, chopped

1 medium eggplant, peeled and cut into ½ “ cubes

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 tablespoons curry powder (more to taste)

1 teaspoon ground cumin

1 teaspoon ground coriander

Leftover lamb roast, cut into 1 “ cubes

2 cups beef broth

1 rounded teaspoon cornstarch dissolved in 1 tablespoon cold water

Heat oil in a dutch oven over medium heat and sauté the onion and red pepper until softened.  Increase the temperature to medium high, add the eggplant and cook until slightly softened and beginning to brown, about 5 minutes.  Add the garlic and stir for 30 seconds, then add the remaining spices, lamb and beef broth.  Bring to a gentle simmer, then cover tightly with a lid and place in a 275° oven for 1- 1 ½ hours or until the meat is very tender.  Carefully place on the stove, and open the lid away from you to avoid steam.  Stir the water into the cornstarch and pour the mixture into the stew.  With the burner on medium, stir until slightly thickened.  You may repeat this step if you wish a thicker broth.

Serve over rice with a crisp green salad and mango chutney.

Boneless Leg of Lamb on the Rotisserie

WINTER MUST BE JUST AROUND THE CORNER!

 



We kicked off the weekend by packing up Christmas puddings at the Church of St. John the Evangelist in downtown Kitchener.  Each year, we become honorary members of the Harris family for a day as we pitch in to help fill the orders for these traditional home-made puddings. Yummmm! The aromas are not those of the usual gymnasium!!!! We had a craving for dried fruit for the rest of the weekend!! Last year, church volunteers made 2,700 pounds of Christmas pudding and nearly $18,000 was collected in sales.

Carla and her happy gang of pudding packers!!

SNOW - FINALLY (but alas, only briefly!!

It was a treat driving down to Ellicottville for the first time this season and finding the town blanketed in a few inches of fresh snow!  There were actually kids tobogganing down the main hill on Friday night, but by Saturday most of the white stuff had melted.  Still, it was a nice glimpse of what’s ahead!  We enjoyed a relaxing weekend hiking with our friends David and Jennifer and their Golden Retriever, Apple.

After Friday’s dinner out at Dina’s, we were ready for a home-cooked meal on Saturday.  On the menu:

Boneless Leg of Lamb on the Rotisserie

Steamed Broccoli

Sautéed Mushrooms

Grilled Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic Lasagna

Salad with Grilled Pears, Honey Pecans and Stilton Cheese

Boneless Leg of Lamb on the Rotisserie

3-4 pound boneless leg of lamb

¼ cup Dijon mustard

2 cloves garlic, minced

1 tablespoon chopped fresh rosemary

2 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme

2 teaspoons honey

1 tablespoon red wine vinegar

2 tablespoons olive oil

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

Combine all the marinade ingredients.   Place the lamb in a re-sealable plastic bag or in a shallow glass dish, and spread the marinade evenly over the meat.  Refrigerate at least 6 hours or as long as overnight.

Set up the barbecue for rotisserie cooking, referring to our guide under Techniques on the home page.

Place the roast on a spit rod and secure the forks in place.  Adjust the barbecue temperature to around 375°.  Cook to desired doneness, around 20 minutes per pound.  Tent with foil and allow to rest for 15-20 minutes to reabsorb juices.

Grilled Butternut Squash and Roasted Garlic Lasagna

Preheat oven to 350°

 

1 medium butternut squash, halved and seeded

1 head garlic

1 teaspoon chopped fresh rosemary

Olive oil

 2 ½ tablespoons butter

2 tablespoons flour

1 ½ cups milk

4 ounces goat cheese, crumbled

1 tablespoon chopped fresh sage

1 cup Grana Padano, divided

Pinch nutmeg

Pinch kosher salt

 

1 egg, lightly beaten

1 1/2 cups fresh whole milk ricotta cheese

1 teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

1 teaspoon dried parsley

Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Sheets of fresh lasagna noodles

Preheat barbecue on HIGH.  Meanwhile, brush the squash with olive oil and wrap the garlic in foil.  Reduce the heat to MEDIUM and place the squash, cut side down, on the cooking grids.  Sear the squash for about 10 minutes, then turn skin side down and place on the upper racks.  Place the garlic on the upper racks as well, and cook until both are soft and tender to the touch, about 30 minutes more.

Meanwhile, prepare the goat cheese sauce.  In a medium saucepan, melt the butter and stir in the flour, continuing to stir for 3-4 minutes.  Whisk in the milk and stir until thickened and beginning to bubble.  Remove from heat, and whisk in the goat cheese, sage and ½ cup Grana Padano.  Set aside.

When the squash and garlic are cooked through and cool enough to handle, scoop out the flesh and squeeze out the roasted garlic, and mash them together in a bowl with the rosemary.  Stir in the cheese sauce mixture, reserving ¼ cup to spread over the bottom of the 9”x9” glass dish.

In a separate bowl, stir together the egg, ricotta, thyme, parsley, salt and pepper.  Set aside.

In a large pot of boiling water, cook the lasagne sheets 2 at a time, laying them out on clean dish towels as they cook.

To assemble the lasagna:

Place one layer of cooked lasagne noodles in the prepared glass pan, cutting with scissors to fit as necessary.  Spread ¼ of the ricotta mixture in a thin layer over the noodles, followed by ¼ of the squash mixture.  Repeat these layers 3 more times, and sprinkle with the remaining Grana Padano.  Cover loosely with foil, and bake for 35 minutes.  Remove from oven and let sit 10 minutes before serving.

Salad with Grilled Pears, Honey Pecans and Stilton Cheese

1 firm ripe bosc pear, peeled and cut into 12 slices

Olive oil

For the honey pecans:

1 cup pecans

2 tablespoons honey

1 tablespoon water

Pinch salt

2 ounces stilton cheese, crumbled

6 cups baby greens

For the dressing:

3 tablespoons olive oil

½ teaspoon honey

1 ½ tablespoons red wine vinegar

½ teaspoon chopped fresh thyme

Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

Preheat barbecue and reduce temperature to MEDIUM.  Toss the pear slices with a little olive oil and sprinkle lightly with salt.  Grill on both sides, turning at right angles for perfect grill marks.  Remove from barbecue when tender and set aside.

Meanwhile, prepare the pecans:  Combine the pecans, honey, water and salt in a small saucepan over medium heat.  Cook and stir until most of the honey mixture is reduced and coating the nuts, then turn them out onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet.  Bake at 350° for 10-15 minutes or until deep golden.   Let cool completely.

To assemble the salad:  toss the greens with the dressing and divide them onto 4 plates.  Arrange three pear slices on top of each, then sprinkle with nuts and cheese. 


AND ANOTHER THING.......

Last week, we promised some recipes that make good use of the leftovers from our smoked duck and smoked salmon dinner. Here is a delicious, rich recipe that utilizes the smoked salmon. This is rich and filling, but do not worry, we eat it as a special treat meal, rounded out with a huge fresh green salad. Do not worry about the calories so much. It's the flavour that is memorable here!

Fettucine with Smoked Salmon and Vodka

¼ cup butter

1 small onion, chopped

1 garlic clove, finely chopped

¼ tsp chili flakes

¼ lb smoked salmon, cut into chunks

1 large tomato, seeded

3 tbsp vodka

2 cups whipping cream

Salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 ½ lb fettucine

2/3 cup freshly grated parmesan cheese

Melt butter in a large sauté pan over medium heat.  Add onion, garlic and chili flakes and cook 5 minutes, until onion is golden.  Add salmon and tomato.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Increase heat to high and cook 2 minutes, stirring constantly.  Pour in vodka, reduce heat and simmer until liquid is reduced by half.  Add cream and continue to simmer until reduced again by half.

Meanwhile, cook fettucine in a large pot of boiling salted water, until al dente. Drain and place in a warm serving bowl.  Add sauce and toss to coat evenly. Sprinkle with parmesan cheese and garnish with fresh parsley.

Serves 6.