The last of the treats that I made for Christmas goodie boxes! This nut brittle is versatile – try it with any mixture of roasted nuts/seeds that tickles your fancy. I have done straight almond, almond and peanut, peanut, almond and pepita, almond and cacao nib; all have turned out wonderfully. A corner dipped in melted dark chocolate adds a great extra bit of flavor that wont disappoint.
….And back to the world of the living, General Sura’s Chicken!
After a busy first few weeks of the year, complete with a bout of this season’s terrible flu, I’ve finally managed to get myself organized and start typing again!
This recipe is a riff on a common Chinese-Canadian/American dish that I’ve tweaked for my taste and style of cooking. Drop the deep-frying, add some veg, and turn up the heat/flavor with some Korean doenjang.
Brenda’s Scottish Shortbread!
Butter. Salt. Sugar. Flour. It truly is amazing how much flavor you can coax out of just four ingredients! In my opinion, a good shortbread should walk the the line between savory butteriness and sugary sweetness – with a hint of salt to bring out the best from both. After years of trying different shortbread recipes, all to varying degrees of success and occasionally verging on severe disappointment, I have finally been gifted with a winning recipe by my foodie coworker Brenda! Give these cookies a shot and I’m sure you’ll agree – enjoy!
Chocolate Dipped Sponge Toffee
Next up in the Christmas goodie pile is one of my favorites – dark chocolate covered sponge toffee. Sweet, crunchy, and oh so easy to make. We found it quite hard to not munch through the whole container before Christmas treat boxes had been assembled. Just a few ingredients, some quick (and scary) work with a whisk, and then a bit of patience and voila – basically a homemade/grownup Crunchie bar. The toffee is also good sans-chocolate for nibbling, or crumbled over some simple vanilla-bean ice cream.
Mak (Cut Cabbage) Kimchi
Tangy. Fizzy. Spicy. And just plain YUM! If it’s fermented, chances are I will be all over the dish. Kimchi is a definite favorite in my books. A bowl of freshly steamed short-grain rice with a nice pile of zippy kimchi is one of those comfort foods that I crave near-constantly. This recipe is a work in progress that I’m still not 100% happy with vs restaurant kimchi, but it’s pretty darn good if I may say so myself. I just need to figure out how to reduce sweetness and spice level a bit, while maintaining the proper environment for fermentation and production of all those essential probiotics. Conrad and other friends swear it’s the best kimchi, and I’m certainly flattered! However, it just hasn’t hit that right balance of zippy/spicy/tangy/fizzy quite yet.
Update: Just tasted the batch from Saturday and it is perfect! The recipe amounts have been changed accordingly – enjoy!!
Gingerbread Truffles
For Christmas baking in years past I’ve always done piles of various cookies, then foisted most of them upon people at work as well as dubiously appreciative friends and family. To keep up the tradition of expanding waistlines this year, and cut back on gift-buying stress, I have decided to do little gift boxes filled with candy and cookies for family and friends. These tasty little gems came about from a recipe I found on Epicurious. After doubling amounts, tweaking slightly, and a thorough taste test, Jason and I were quite pleased with the result. Do note that the picture lies vs. recipe instructions – I didn’t top mine with a little piece of ginger after dipping.. time was in short supply after work last night. Continue reading
Kimchi Fried Rice
A quick and easy meal for any day of the week, and a good way to use leftover rice. Kimchi fried rice is one of many dishes that I crave on a regular basis. While in Vancouver for work I regularly hit Dae-ji for a sweet and spicy fix. If you are at all interested in making your own kimchi, my recipe will be coming sometime this weekend after mixing up a batch with friends!
Earl Grey Caramels
With December suddenly here, and Christmas just around there corner, sugary treats and cozy nights seem to be the only way to cope. This year, instead of the usual piles of cookies and squares, I’ve decided to try my hand at a bit of candy making. Caramel is one of those things which I’ve never had much luck with in the past, usually ending up with a cracked and ruined mess stuck in the pot. After a bit of success with various nut brittles over the past months though I’ve been feeling somewhat emboldened. One failed batch on Friday resulted in lessons learned and a pile of sugar in the compost. The second time around on Saturday afternoon, I ended up with one fabulously tasty final product! Over 50 little caramels have been individually wrapped in parchment paper, and now await Christmas (minus a couple here and there stolen from the fridge).
Here we go
Second time around with this blogging thing. Last time it felt like just so much work to come up with a good story to wrap around the recipe. Here may be a bit more bare-bones, but food ideas will always be interesting and tasty.
endless.cook.books. 