Waldorf Salad, Jamie Oliver's Way

I've long been a fan of Jamie Oliver -- his original Naked Chef series was the first cooking show I made a point to watch week to week -- and so how stoked was I to attend his cooking demo and talk in Toronto last Thursday?!

Jamie was just as cheeky, self-deprecating, and genuine as I expected him to be, and it's evident that his passion to get kids (and adults) eating healthy food -- which inspired his 'Food Revolution' in Britain -- hasn't subsided one iota. Most recently, he travelled through the U.S. and the highlights of those adventures are present in his latest show, Jamie's American Road Trip, and cookbook, Jamie's America. He cooked two recipes from the book: a red snapper ceviche similar to one he had at a Peruvian restaurant in New York City, and a steak dish with two sauces, a peanut-smoked chili sauce and a fresh tomato salsa, something he was inspired to create after time spent in L.A.

Farfalle with Mushrooms, Prosciutto and Rosemary

I'm a recipe girl. I browse through cookbooks, find something I want to make, buy the ingredients and follow the instructions more or less to the letter. That's not to say I don't make substitutions and get creative based on what I have on hand on a given day, but when it comes to creating my own dishes the results have typically been less than spectacular. I still recall scraping a disastrous lemon chicken dish -- so overpowering with lemon my lips pucker just thinking about it -- into the trash bin in frustration.

Tonight's dinner was another story -- without a recipe in mind but knowing I had prosciutto, cremini mushrooms and whipping cream in my fridge I decided on a pasta dish. Simple, maybe, but still many places where it could go wrong in the flavour and texture department. Tomato sauces I've done a million times, but I avoid cream sauces because they can be heavy (and of course they're not great for the waistline). Still, tonight I was feeling like something decadent and figured I should at least know how to do a cream-based pasta should the need arise.

I started by browning quartered mushrooms -- about two cups' worth -- in a bit of butter and olive oil over medium heat, adding a splash of water to the pan to prevent them from drying out too much. Once they had some nice colour to them and had shrunk down a bit I added four slices' worth of diced prosciutto along with 1 tbsp of chopped fresh rosemary. I let that cook for a few minutes, turned down the heat slightly, then added 1/4 cup chicken stock, 1/4 cup dry white wine, 1/3 cup whipping cream and the juice of half a lemon. I stirred all that together and let it reduce down until thickened slightly, 5-10 minutes.

Meanwhile, I'd been cooking about two cups worth of farfalle in boiling, salted water, just to al dente. Reserving 1/4 cup of pasta water, I drained the farfalle and then mixed it into my saute pan with the cream sauce. I added some salt and black pepper to taste, and then dished it out. To finish I grated over some Parmigiano-Reggiano, a spritz of fresh lemon juice, and some chopped fresh parsley. And the verdict? Delicious! Creamy without being heavy, and with a really balanced flavour -- the saltiness of the prosciutto and Parmigiano-Reggiano, the earthiness of the mushrooms, and the vibrancy of the lemon and rosemary contrasting with the cream. Not bad for an improvised dish, in fact part of the reason for this blog post is so I don't forget it!

I think the key is practice and the refusal to let kitchen failures discourage you. Even recipes aren't foolproof, after all!

Farfalle with Mushrooms, Prosciutto and Rosemary

1 tbsp butter
1 tbsp olive oil
2 cups cremini mushrooms, washed and quartered
4 slices prosciutto, diced
1 tbsp fresh rosemary, chopped
1/4 cup chicken stock
1/4 cup dry white wine
1/3 cup heavy cream
Juice of half a lemon
1/8 cup Parmigiano-Reggiano cheese
1 tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
Salt and black pepper to taste

Heat butter and oil in large saute pan over medium heat, add quartered mushrooms and a splash of water and cook until browned and a bit shrunk down. While this is happening cook farfalle pasta until al denta in salted, boiling water.

Add prosciutto and rosemary to pan and cook for a few minutes to allow the flavours to meld together. Turn down the heat slightly then add the chicken stock, white wine, whipping cream and the lemon juice. Reserve the lemon to squeeze a few drops over the finished dish. Stir all ingredients together and cook until cream sauce has thickened slightly, 5-10 minutes.

Drain pasta, reserving 1/4 cup pasta water to help the sauce coat the farfalle if need be. Mix the cooked farfalle in the saute pan with the sauce. Add salt and black pepper to taste and stir everything together. Ladle it out, and garnish with grated Parmigiano-Reggiano, parsley, and a final spritz of lemon juice.

Serves 2.

suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com

A comfort food night

It's funny how our palates change as we age. When I was a kid and all my friends were eating bland, tasteless Kraft Dinner, or equally bad knock-offs of it, my mom was making the real deal for my dad, my sister and me. Macaroni and cheese with homemade white sauce, fresh cooked pasta, and real Cheddar. I recall not liking it that much. That's not a slight on my mom's recipe - looking back I know that now I'd be devouring it by the bowlful, but as a kid the flavours were too intense for me. The same way I drowned perfectly grilled steaks with ketchup back then, I didn't appreciate the sharp tang of the Cheddar or the creamy, smooth bechamel.

But, as I said, things change. Tonight I made a very simple, but perfectly delicious, macaroni and cheese from ingredients I had on hand. A chunk of old Cheddar - very old, I'm not entirely sure how long it's been in my fridge - grated into a velvety white sauce of butter, flour, milk and leftover chicken stock, stirred into a pan with al dente macaroni and topped with freshly-made breadcrumbs from a stale hunk of sourdough-flax bread, rendered golden brown and crispy after a few minutes under the broiler.

For a recipe with a scant seven ingredients (not including salt and pepper) I can't imagine anything more delectable, more comforting on a cold January night. How is it I used to hate this stuff?!

Real-Deal Macaroni And Cheese

Serves 2

1 1/3 cups elbow macaroni
Fist-sized hunk of stale bread, spun through food processor to make coarse breadcrumbs
2 tbsp all purpose flour
3/4 cup 2 % milk
3/4 cup chicken (or vegetable) stock
1.5 cups grated old Cheddar cheese
3 tbsp butter

Cook macaroni in well-salted water (you should be able to slightly taste the salt) until al dente, about 11 minutes.

As the macaroni is cooking, rip bread into chunks and whiz in food processor to make course breadcrumbs. Depending on how much of a crust you like, you'll need anywhere from 1/2 cup to a full cup. Mix a tablespoon of softened butter in with the crumbs and set aside.

Melt another 2 tbsp butter in large saucepan. Add flour and whisk over medium heat for 2 minutes to make a roux. When flour is incorporated into butter and it starts to turn light golden in colour slowly whisk in the milk and the broth. Whisking constantly, bring the mixture to a boil and let it thicken slightly. This should take anywhere from 5-7 minutes. Once sauce is slightly thickened, remove from heat and stir in the grated Cheddar with a wooden spoon until it's melted.

Preheat broiler and mix cooked macaroni into sauce. Check the flavours and add salt and pepper as desired. Pour mixture into broilerproof 9-inch pie plate. Sprinkle buttered breadcrumbs over top and place under broiler until the crumbs turn golden brown, which should only take a few minutes. Watch this process carefully as the crumbs will go from brown to black quickly.

Inspired by a Bon Appetit recipe, but tweaked to my own personal taste.

If you wanted to make this a healthier dinner you could serve it with a green salad, but I have to confess, the only thing I had with my mac and cheese was a big glass of red wine. Heaven.

Salut!

Suzanne

Comments, questions, tips, suggestions? Email me at suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com.

The lovely and talented Tana Ramsay

I'm lucky in that my job as a news and features writer allows me to meet and interview interesting people from time to time. And because I have a penchant for all things culinary, I've chatted with a number of chefs and cooks over the past couple of years. Last November I had the good fortune to meet Tana Ramsay, the wife of celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay (he of Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmares, etc). Tana was in town promoting her latest cookbook - Home Made - and I have to say I dig her style.



Browsing through Home Made I found the kind of nourishing, comforting meals that I would make. Not terribly fussy, no ingredients you'd have to make an extra trip to a specialty food store to purchase. But at the same time her dishes aren't boring or commonplace.

A few days before my interview with her I decided to try out her recipe for sweet potato and carrot soup with chili oil (recipe below). One of the steps involved throwing a rind of Parm-Reg into the soup while it simmered, and then scraping off the melted bits in at the end and discarding what remained. Can I tell you what a difference that made?! I've made sweet potato soup plenty of times in the past and this one tasted so much richer. The chili oil sprinkled on at the end added a nice bit of heat as well.

When I told Tana during our interview that the Parm-Reg rind addition was a revelation for me, she explained that the rinds can always be wrapped up and frozen for later use. So if you've come to the end of your Parm-Reg, or your Grana Padano or Asiago for that matter, don't throw it away. Freeze the rind for the next time you're making a lovely soup - perhaps one of Ms. Ramsay's!

Check out my full interview with Tana Ramsay here.

Sweet potato and carrot soup with chili oil

2 tsp fresh thyme leaves
6 tbsp chili oil
2 tbsp olive oil
2 medium onions, peeled and roughly sliced
1 garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
750g or 1lb 11 oz sweet potatoes, peeled and diced
400 g or 14 oz carrots, peeled and sliced
2 knobs of butter
2 Parmesan crusts
1 sprig of rosemary
750 mL chicken stock (or you can use vegetable stock)
salt and black pepper
1 small tub of creme fraiche to serve

Place thyme leaves in a mortar and pestle and grind them. Add chili oil and leave to infuse while you make the soup.

Heat olive oil in a large pan on low-medium heat and fry the onions and garlic for 8-10 minutes, until softened. Add the sweet potatoes, carrots, butter, Parmesan crusts and rosemary (still in a whole sprig), season well with salt and pepper and let them sweat down until they start to soften. This tends to happen quicker if you cover the pan - use tin foil tightly sealed around the top of the pan if you don't have a lid.

Once the vegetables have started to soften, add the stock and bring to a boil. Cover the pan and simmer for 20-25 minutes until the vegetables are really tender.

Once you have reached this stage remove the Parmesan crusts and the rosemary sprig with a slotted spoon and scrape off any melted softened bits of Parmesan into the vegetables. Tip the soup into a blender and whiz until completely smooth (you can use your immersion blender for this as well). Check the seasoning.

Transfer to serving bowl(s) and serve with a spoon of creme fraiche in the centre, then drizzle with the thyme-infused chili oil.

Serves: 6
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 1 hour

Source: Home Made, Tana Ramsay, HarperCollins Publishers, 2008

A mag to savour

I asked my cooking class instructor what magazines he recommends for aspiring cooks, and one of the ones he mentioned was Saveur. I visited its site, and I confess, I'm hooked. Tons of delicious looking recipes with simple to follow instructions, beautiful photos, and lots of how-to tips and advice on everything from skimming fat from stock to preserving lemons.

You can also sign up for their e-newsletter to receive weekly menu suggestions. This week's sounds delicious. It's for a lunch with friends and features recipes for ricotta crostini with cherry tomatoes, miso-marinated salmon, a spring salad, Breton butter cake for dessert, and a delightful-looking cocktail called Death in the Afternoon, named for the Ernest Hemingway novel about bullfighting.

Since browsing through the site and the latest newsstand edition, which is geared toward home cooks like me, I've decided to subscribe for a year. Though they're great for putting the recipes on the site I find it's nice to be able to browse through the pages of the actual magazine.

Hope to try some of their incredible looking recipes soon!

Salut!

Suzanne

If you would like to share a story, recipe, or tip, please comment below or email me at suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com.

Welcome!

Welcome to Plum Tart, a blog about all things food. To say that I enjoy food is an understatement - whether I'm in front of the stove, dining out in a restaurant, watching a cooking program or reading a book by a famous chef, I adore all things gastronomic. And I'm not a snob about it - I love a good peanut butter sandwich as much as I do a perfectly-cooked steak, a creamy risotto, or a rack of lamb. For me it's all about enjoying whatever it is I'm eating.

So why start this blog now? A couple reasons. One being I've started an introductory cooking course at an esteemed chef school in my hometown, Toronto, and I'm hoping to relate some of my experiences here. Another being I believe cooking and the enjoyment of food is best shared with others, and I'd like to exchange recipes, seek and offer advice, and engage in discussions about good eating with my fellow foodies.

I hope you enjoy, and if you would like to share a story, recipe, or tip, please comment below or email me at suzannekathrynellis@gmail.com.

Salut!

Suzanne