Tag Archives: recipes

Appetizer, Cheese, Recipes

Cranberry Baked Brie

1 cup cranberry chutney
500g wheel Brie

Pastry

1 1/2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
3/4 cup butter
1/4 cup cold water

Place flour, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl
Add butter, and mix in with your fingers until mealy
Add water, knead lightly, cover and allow to rest for 20 minutes
Roll the pastry out on a lightly floured board to a circle18 inches in diameter
Place pastry in a pie pan (it will hang over the edges by 4 inches on each side)
Place wheel of Brie in the centre
Top with chutney, spreading to make a layer evenly covering the Brie
Fold the pastry up around the Brie, and tuck into place over the top.
Bake for 45 minutes, until pastry is golden brown
Cool for 1/2 hour before serving

Dessert, Recipes

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin pie is steeped in tradition and this recipe is quite easy. You can use a good quality canned pumpkin puree or make your own.

1 par-baked pie shell (see Sweet Pastry recipe for details)

1 3/4 cups pumpkin purée
1 cup brown sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground ginger
1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3/4 cup whipping cream

Whisk together brown sugar and eggs
Add pumpkin, spices, and whipping cream and mix well
Pour into par-baked pie shell and bake for 45 minutes – 1 hour, until slightly firm to the touch, and a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean.
Remove from oven and allow to cool
Cut into wedges and serve with whipped cream

Entree, Meat, Recipes

Simple Honey Glazed Ham

We have a ham a few times a year, and usually buy either a butt or shank half, bone in. You can score the top and then when you brush it with glaze, it gets all golden and crispy as it bakes. Leftovers make great sandwiches, can be fried for breakfast, and the bone is great for pea or lentil soups.

1/2 ham, either the butt or shank portion
1/4 cup orange juice
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
2 tbsp honey

Preheat oven to 325 F

Place ham in a roasting pan lined with parchment paper
Score top of ham into 1 inch diamonds
Place ham in oven and roast for I hour, uncovered
After an hour, baste with glaze every 15 minutes, and continue to cook for an additional hour, or until a meat thermometer registers 140 F
Remove from oven and allow to rest for 1/2 hour before serving
Carve into thin slices and serve with candied yams and a green vegetable

Recipes, Side dish, Vegetable, Vegetarian

Candied Yams

The flavour of yams baked in their skins and then mashed with brown butter and maple syrup is like caramel candy; nutty, sweet, and delicious. The vegetable referred to as a yam in North America is actually correctly identified as an orange sweet potato. Slaves, on encountering the tubers in the South, were reminded of the true yam, a tuber found in central Africa, and bestowed the name upon the variety of sweet potato they commonly used.

Preheat oven to 375 F

6 medium yams (orange sweet potatoes)
1/4 cup butter
1/4 cup maple syrup
pinch nutmeg

Bake yams for 1 hour, until tender.
Allow to cool for 15 minutes, then cut in half and scoop flesh from skins and transfer to a bowl
Heat butter until golden brown and pour over yams
Add maple syrup and nutmeg
Mash together until well combined
Season to taste

Dessert, Recipes

Deep Dish Apple Pie

Apple Pie, what can I say? Always a perennial family favourite. My Grandmother always used lard for her pie crust, but you can substitute vegetable shortening to get the same texture. I like to take the little bits of dough trimmings, re-roll it, cut it into leaf shapes, and decorate the top for a really nice presentation.

Preheat oven to 375 F

Pie pastry

2 cups flour
1 tbsp sugar
1 tsp salt
2/3 cup lard
1 egg, beaten,
1/3 cup cold water

Place flour, sugar, and salt into a mixing bowl
Cut lard into 1 inch pieces and add to flour mixture.
Using your fingers, work lard into flour until a mealy texture is achieved
Beat egg, add half to the cold water, and add to flour mixture. (reserve remaining egg for glazing)
Mix and knead lightly, just until dough comes together.
Divide into two pieces, cover and rest for 20 minutes

Filling

8 medium apples, peeled, cored, and sliced 1/4 inch thick
1/2 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1 tsp cinnamon
pinch cloves
pinch nutmeg

Roll out one half of the pastry and line a 9 inch deep dish pie plate.
Combine filling ingredients and place into bottom crust
Roll out remaining dough into a circle large enough to cover the filling and overlap by an inch
Brush edge of bottom crust with beaten egg, top with top crust, and trim edges to 1/2 inch
Crimp edges together decoratively, and brush top with remaining egg.
Score top a couple of times to allow steam to escape while cooking
Bake for 45 minutes, until crust is golden and apples are tender.
Allow to cool for a half hour at least before cutting.