Scooter Pie

So I made my first pumpkin pie. I was quite worried about it for several reasons. The first is that I've not only never made pumpkin pie, I've never seen it made, and I haven't even tasted it in years. The second is that, to be honest, I don't even LIKE pumpkin pie. So no matter what I thought I was in for a disaster.

As I started making it, from the Joy of Cooking recipe, I ran into a new problem. It's a single crust pie, yes? Yes. And in a lot of single crust pies one must bake the crust while empty, yes? Yes. And, in order to keep the empty crust from bubbling and buckling, one must weight it with beans or something, yes? Yes. Fair enough. But then the recipe, by which I was already getting a little put out (I don't have beans), tells me to glaze the crust with egg yoke before putting it in the oven. So wait. First of all, I never glazed with YOKE. That's weird. Also, how are you supposed to weight the crust if it's glazed with ANYTHING? But ask as I might, the recipe never answered. So, armed with common sense, I weighted the pie crust, unglazed, with lentils. This may make for some sort of unpleasant surprise next time I go to cook my lentils for real, but the crust was okay.

I took the crust out after about ten minutes or so, removed the weights, and glazed it with the yoke. It looked weird. And I was completely on my own timewise, the recipe having given conflicting specifications.

So I put the crust back for five minutes or so, just until the "glaze" cooked. It was bright yellow and, since our oven is crap, burnt around the edges. It looked weird.

Only slightly daunted, I continued the pie without further incident, only being unsure as to what texture the pie should be once it was done.

The next weird thing about the pie was that, even though I remember pumpkin pie ranging from a rich brown to bright orange, this was yellow. Not yellow orange. Yellow. Like curry yellow.

I was reluctant to try it, but cooks must be brave. And: IT IS AMAZING. Best pumpkin pie I've ever had.

Only don't microwave it. Just eat it cold. Microwaves are a bad, bad invention unless you make a habit of sacrificing flavour for convenience.

In retrospect I figure the yellow colour was from adding an extra egg, which makes the pie much more custardy. Also, I will give my one and only complaint about the Joy of Cooking, and that is that I think it's been revised a few too many times, especially in the pie section. Too many times it gives conflicting instructions for one thing, and absolutely none for another. I was told many things related to cooking time, such as when to turn the crust, when to remove the weights, when to add the glaze, and yet... no cooking time at all... I had to infer from both "three quarters into the baking time" and "three or four minutes before cooking time ends" that it should be about fifteen minutes.

Maybe that book needs a real editor: not just a recipe tester.

Pumpkin Plumpkin

Well we got a bit ambitious and to be fair, our cameras crapped out on us thus we were left with an imageless blog. My own laptop also crashed and has been replaced by brand spankin new one with an amazing webcam inside! Two months later indeed we decide to dust off the cooking books, and rev up the laptops for a new blogging season! And what not a better time than during the holidays? Today marks the first day that it snowed in Halifax, Nova Scotia. We decided to celebrate and bring in the holiday season with a warm, busy kitchen!

Two weeks ago we made a little trip to Lunenberg, a quaint town of Nova Scotia, home of the Blue Nose ship. On our visit we came across free small pumpkins along the sidewalk, labeled: Free Pumpkins for Pie Making! This friendly gesture inspired us to share our cooking adventures with the rest of you once again.

Here's a shot of Lovely Lunenberg






Sophia began pureeing the pumpkin the other day. It took her all day and it was a fruitful effort that yielded a whole lotta pumpkin. That was from her little pumpkin alone... we still have mine to puree as well! Needless to say, our following entries will undoubtedly be featuring pumpkin as the main ingredient.

This evening Sophia has outdone herself by making a home made pumpkin pie from scratch. The pie was a huge success and in fact, it was so damn delicious that we almost ate it all before getting a photo of it.





My contribution to the pie included making this little alligator from the pie crust scraps.

I plan on putting a spin on the traditional pumpkin recipe by making a Thai coconut soup. My soup didn't turn out as planned as I found out in the middle of making it that I did not have red curry paste... thus I improvised by adding a bit of lime and lemon juice, as suggested by Sophia and a bit of sour cream. I also took a risk and added a few shakes of fish sauce for good measure, based on a couple of other thai recipes that I'd previously looked up. To be quite honest, I downright dislike my soup, no matter how much lime or cayenne or pepper I had, I can't shake the sweet sweet taste of pumpkin in a soup. All in all, I've made the executive decision to avoid using pumpkin in anything remotely savory. Maybe it's an acquired taste. All I know is that as long as I've known pumpkin, he's been with his lovely fragrant wife, Mrs. Pumpkin Spice, all made up with her nutmeg, ginger, a hefty dose of sweet sweet cinnamon, and she likes to change it up with allspice or cloves. Although I hate to back away from culinary adventure, that's the way the pumpkin, for me, is going to stay.

As I watch Anthony Bourdain eat rabbit three way in Prague... I comfort myself with this minty beet carrot salad with tarragon. Who am I kidding though?

The vinegar really does temper the sweet taste of roasted beets and the tarragon balances out the bitterness. It's quite palatable, in fact.

We're Back!

Now that we're back in Halifax, our poor neglected blog can get a little more regular again, particularly with a new regular contributor! Well... I may be volunteering for her a bit, but let's hope it's regular.

I will miss the camera, the garden, the space, and the random equipment of the old kitchen, but it's good to be here. But I have to to tell you, the thing I really missed this whole summer away was my chef's knife. My Waterloo kitchen hasn't got one, although it has every other kind of knife known to mankind. Unfortunately, it looks like my knife was happy to see me too, and in all the rush of saying hello, it accidentally lodged itself in my finger. The good news is that it's my pinky finger, so in not using it I can practice looking refined when I have a cup of tea.

Oh, and I guess I'll post about the squash I was peeling when it happened. Minor detail.

Chocolate Mint Squares, Anyone?

Lovely quick recipe for a hot summer's day, unless you don't feel like turning on your oven.

Since I don't remember exactly where I got this recipe from, I'll try not to be too specific. The general idea:

For the brownie layer:
Any brownie recipe will do, if baked in an 8-9 inch square baking dish. I recommend Brownies Cockaigne from the Joy of Cooking because they're delicious.

First, line the the greased pan with aluminum foil, with about two inches of overhang. Then add batter, bake, and leave them to cool completely IN THE PAN.

For the mint layer:

This is a simple cake frosting with peppermint extract added. It takes about

2 tbsp butter, softened
1 cup confectioner's sugar
2 (or more) tbsp heavy cream
1/2 tsp peppermint extract

Mix these together with a hand or stand mixer until smooth and spreadable.

Since you've let the brownie layer cool in the pan, you should be able to lift the entire layer out using the tin foil. If it crumbles or sags in the middle, leave it a little bit longer. Putting it in the fridge will help. If it doesn't, your brownies weren't done. Sorry.

Anyhoo, flatten the edges of the foil and spread the icing evenly over the brownie layer. Let the icing layer set in the fridge while you melt:

1 oz unsweetened chocolate
1 tbsp butter

in the microwave, or on the stovetop, however. Once it has melted, pour it over the chilled icing. Rock the brownies back and forth until the chocolate covers as much as possible, then GENTLY fill the rest in with light painting strokes using a small spatula.

Put the whole thing back into the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Then your slab is ready to cut into squares! Hooray!


These freeze well and are useful for potlucks.

ओह हेल्लो

Ahem. Caroline here. The silent contributor and mysterious Quinn Street Attic resident whose name does not appear on the banner. Not even in small print or in a parentheses or anything!

Anyway, Subway in Ireland has nachos. And there's one attached to the building I live in. Yes. So I haven't been cooking for pretty much the entire summer. Actually, that's mostly because I'm quite far from any decent supermarket and the ones that are easily accessible have a very poor selection of vegetables.

This post isn't completely pointless and does serve a bit of a purpose, however. I'm posting this here to say that because of that fact, I've really been missing cooking. And since I'll be getting back to Canada with a few weeks to play with before school starts, I would gladly accept a challenge from either of you (or any of the readers) that I would document and post here.

My only rule is that it has to include sausages, since seeing Sophia's torte thingy. Mmm sausages. Okay, that's a lie. You can challenge me with with whatever you like and then cook me sausages as a belated birthday present. That sounds fair.

Kiekenpastey: I'm never making this again.

Sitting in Victoria on a sunny day with a reclining ocean-view deck chair is not optimal for relating unpleasant cooking experiences. Okay, only comparatively unpleasant: The stress level of this dish is minimal, but the recipe clearly dates from times when aristocrats hired cooks who, you know, had nothing else to do in a day.

Today, if it's made at all, this pie is made at Easter, presumably because one has more time one one's hands, and many more mouths to feed with a single meal.

For the crust:

3 ¼ cups bread flour (this is a bread crust, not a pastry crust)

1 packet of yeast (The recipe calls for rapid-rise yeast, but more on this later)

2/3 cup lukewarm water

½ tsp sugar

1 egg, lightly beaten

¼ butter, softened (plus extra for greasing)

For the Filling:

800g chicken (the recipe calls for a whole chicken, but being lazy, I just bought chicken breast. Expensive, I know)

1 tbsp lemon juice

¼ cup butter

150g ground veal

pinch of freshly grated nutmeg (I don’t know anybody not Dutch who has a nutmeg grater... or maybe it’s just not something people talk about. I’m sure pre-ground nutmeg would be fine)

300g pork sausage

150g oyster mushrooms, diced

8 canned artichoke bottoms, drained (I’d never bought artichoke bottoms, and now even canned artichoke hearts are difficult to find. You’ll have to try Pete’s in Halifax or Vincenzo’s in Kitchener-Waterloo)

4 tbsp breadcrumbs

5 small eggs (I did not use small eggs)

4 tbsp chopped celery leaves (I used something else I found in the garden. I don’t remember what it was)

2 green onions, finely chopped

milk for glazing

salt and ground black pepper

For the sauce (which I don’t recommend; it just made the pie soggy, but I’ll include it in case you DO make the pie and turns out inexplicably dry):

1 cup whipping cream

1 tbsp corn starch

2 tbsp chives, chopped.

There’s a note under the ingredients that says morels are more authentic than oyster mushrooms, but the most I’ve heard about morels is that they’re only available for a short time during the year, so I doubt many stores would bother with them. I wouldn’t bother either.

First we make the dough! Sift the flour, if you wish, and make a well in the center. Add the yeast and water, and stir gently until incorporated. Leave it to rise for fifteen minutes. The issue I had here was that the only yeast I had was breadmaker yeast. It said it was interchangeable with regular yeast, but wasn’t rapid-rise, I guess. The only issue was that the dough didn’t rise during this stage at all. So... if it doesn’t rise during the fifteen minutes, don’t worry about it. If it does... then good for you, you’re better than I am.

After fifteen minutes, add the egg and butter and knead! I chopped the butter into cubes even though it’s softened, because I couldn’t imagine trying to knead half a stick of butter into wet flour with my hands. Transfer the whole thing to a floured surface and continue to knead until the dough is smooth and elastic. I wish I’d timed how long this took, but we’ll just say it was longer than I thought it would be. But it DOES happen. Form the whole thing into a ball and place it in a clean bowl. Cover it with a dampened dish towel and leave to rise at room temperature for 1 ½ hours.

Here’s another warning for this recipe: it uses a LOT of dishes. This is good practice for the clean-as-you-go style of cooking. If you don’t cook that way, you’ll need to start.

Anyhoodle, it is now time for the hard part. If you use a whole chicken, cut it into eighths. Otherwise, simply divide it into manageable, cookable pieces. Rub them with the lemon juice, salt, and pepper. In a large flame-proof casserole dish (or a dutch oven, like I used), melt the butter over high heat. Add the chicken and cook until browned, about ten minutes. Transfer the chicken to (yet another) plate and take the casserole off the heat.

Mixed the veal with nutmeg and whatever seasonings you want, and form into six little meatballs. return the casserole to the heat* and add the meatballs and sausage. Cook at a high heat, turning frequently, for about ten minutes, until browned. Return the chicken to the casserole. Cover and simmer for 25 minutes.

*let me be the first to point out that one could simply form the meatballs earlier, and do all the cooking at once.

Remove the meat. Here the book says to reduce the cooking liquid until it sizzles. I didn’t know what that meant, really... so I reduced it until... well... until I saw fit. SO helpful, I know. Add the mushrooms and cook for 4-5 minutes. Remove them from the casserole using a slotted spoon. Discard the fat. You’re very welcome, your kitchen now smells delicious!

Cut the chicken meat from the bones, if there are any, and dice neatly. Slice the sausage thickly. Pat the artichoke bottoms dry and stuff with the mushrooms.

Your dough should now appear to be turning into some sort of lagoon resident-type monster under its dish towel.

Preheat the oven to 400˚F. Grease a 10 inch springform pan. I love springform pans. They’re the best. Cut off one third of the dough and knead on a floured surface, if you have any surface left with all those dirty dishes. Form into a ball and return to the bowl. knead the larger piece and form it into a ball as well.

Roll the large dough into about 14 inch round. Gently line the springform pan with the round. Roll the smaller bowl into a 10-inch round and cut out six hearts with, what else, a heart-shaped cookie cutter. Does everybody have these? I went through my mother’s cupboards and found about six different sizes of heart, among other novelty shapes. Sugar cookies this year are going to be FUN.

spread the breadcrumbs over the bottom of the pie crust and evenly distribute the artichoke bottoms on top of the crumb bed. Spoon the cut meat over and around the artichokes.

There are supposed to be more of these, but you get the idea.

With a spoon, or whatever, make five evenly spaced impressions in the top of the mixture. Into each, break an egg!

Sprinkle everything with the spring onions, celery, and seasoning. Pour in the cream.

Cover the pie and press the edges together, cutting off any “surplus.” brush the pie with milk, arrange the heart cut-outs to your liking, and brush with milk again.

Let bake for 1 hour. Halfway through baking, sprinkle the pie with water and cover it lightly with baking parchment.

For the sauce (sigh), heat the cream in a small pan. Mix the cornstarch with 2 tbsp water to a paste in (yet another) small bowl, and stir into the cream. Season to taste and stir in the chives. Pour into a sauce boat.

By now, it's likely late at night. You might want to stick this in the fridge and eat it for breakfast. I recommend reheating it in the oven though, because after a while the cream tends to make the bread crumbs quite soggy. And my last warning: make sure there are others willing to help you eat this; it's hefty.

What do you MEAN the Store is out of Garlic?!

Grocery shopping is about to get infinitely more frustrating as apparently Loblaws workers are going on strike for "an extended period of time." No matter: they consistently have absolutely nothing I need. They stopped selling canned artichoke hearts for Pete's sake!

Which brings me to today's challenge: Chicken Pie! This is all I'll be doing today, aside from some online window-shopping and that rockabilly dance night for one.

Sounds like the life, huh? Unfortunately, this recipe is VERY involved. It's not my usual chicken-and-mushroom-in-a-cream-sauce pie, this is traditional Kiekenpastey.

Now here's the weird thing about dutch recipes: the description begins by saying that this was "traditionally a sweet pie containing ginger, cinnamon, saffron and plenty of sugar."

Now that's fine. But where, along the way, did chicken find its way in? A clue: "Later, the ingredients included cocks' combs, sweetbreads and chestnuts in an open pastry case."

I can't wrap my head around how THAT must have happened...

Anyhow, the recipe has thankfully been updated to be, well, less gross. The filling consists not only of chicken, but also pork sausage and ground veal. So we've got our barnyard animals covered.

But guess what else! It's also got mushroom-stuffed artichoke bottoms! And homemade bread dough for the crust instead of pastry!

You can see now why I need a whole day to do this. Especially since I couldn't find artichoke bottoms for the life of me.

The picture in the book has cute little heart cutouts in the top. If my version has the same, we'll know I somehow had fun in the process.