Spinach Salad With Pomegranates

My dad recently returned from Greece and one of the things he "liberated" are some pomegranates from our tree at our summer home in Greece.

I keep telling him he shouldn't be bringing stuff back but he insists on "sneaking" some back into the country. It could be worse, I used to have a friend who worked for Canada Customs at Toronto's airport and he would tell us some pretty funny stories.

The one that stands out the most was the lady from eastern Europe that smelled funny. When one arrives in Canada by air, you're given a card to fill out to expedite the "interrogation" by customs officers. It's the standard customs stuff concerning what you bought by way of tobacco, booze, jewelry, fruits, vegetables, meats and dairy products.

This lady arrived in Canada and when she finally arrived at the customs desk, the officer noticed a weird smell. The officer immediately instructed her go to the left for "further" investigation.

A female customs officer then checked her out thoroughly but the luggage contained nothing smelly, nor did her purse or carry-on bag. Now the lady with the weird smell was summoned into an examination room...the strip search (again by a female officer).

The lady was instructed to undress. First her top came off. Nothing. Next, she was instructed to take off her dress.

The customs officer burst into laughter. The lady had tied a rope around her waist and had a big, honkin' salami dangling between her legs! "No meats are allowed to be brought in, ma'am".

Spinach Salad With Pomegranates

3 cups of baby spinach
1 small red onion, halved then sliced
1/2 cup button mushrooms, sliced
3 strips of crispy bacon, chopped
1/3 cup toasted walnuts, chopped
2 hard boiled eggs, quartered
1/3 cup pomegranate seeds
1 Tbsp. Dijon mustard
1 tsp. of dry tarragon
3 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Into a large salad bowl, add your mustard and vinegar. Now slowly pour in your olive oil while whisking until you've reached your desired consistency. Add salt & pepper and reserve.
2. Prepare your remaining salad ingredients and reserve until salad is to be served.
   
3. Add the remaining salad ingredients, toss gently and serve.
   

Homemade Greek Yogurt

Today is your lucky day. I'm sharing my mom's recipe for making homemade Greek-style yogurt. I've seen people lament that they cannot find good Greek yogurt or some have even invested in a yogurt maker.

Forget about it! All you need is some homogenized milk, some plain yogurt and containers for your finished product.

Giaourti (yogurt) is an integral part of Greek cuisine. It's part of a Greek breakfast, eaten as a snack or dessert and it's used to make the famous Greek Tzatziki dip.

I longed for homemade yogurt and summoned the mom to impart her recipe. A funny side note on this recipe is that after the milk came to a boil, she lowered the heat to a simmer and she dropped a ramekin into the milk. I asked her why she did this and she said, "that's the "pethera" or mother-in-law watching that the milk doesn't overboil".

"Huh" I asked? You see the mother-in-law never does any work and the bride (nifi) had the burden of all the house chores. The mother-in-law would do nothing other than menial tasks so, you get her to watch over the milk so that it doesn't overboil.

Bingo! I just learned that an earthenware utensil (ramekin) will prevent overboiling and another mother-in-law slur!

Homemade Greek Yogurt

4 litres of homogenized milk
1/2 cup of plain yogurt (containing active live cultures)

1. In a large pot, bring your milk to a boil. Reduce the milk to a simmer and place a ramekin into the pot to prevent overboiling. Simmer for 15 minutes and take off the heat (do not cover with a lid).
2. Allow the milk to cool until you've reached a temperature between 110 - 115F (you may use a candy thermometer for this. Your milk should be warm enough to hold your finger in it for 12 seconds.
3. Take some warm milk and mix it with your starter yogurt. Now add it to the rest of your milk and mix well.
4. Set your oven to "warm" or about 200F. Your ideal "incubation" temperature is 110F. Start ladling your milk into plastic containers with lids. You may place the containers of yogurt in the oven (oven turned off) OR place a blanket on the counter and lay your closed tubs of yogurt on it and cover with another good blanket. Your yogurt should set in 8-12 hours.
   
5. Refrigerate your yogurt for at least 4 hours. Your yogurt will be good for up to 2 weeks. Enjoy!
   

Beef and Mushroom Pie

After having much success making turkey pot pie with leftovers I was looking forward to trying a similar recipe for leftover beef.

I made a Prime Rib last weekend (I won't show the result as I had to have it well done for relatives) and I had some leftover roast beef and bones.

As tasty as Prime Rib is (and as expensive as it is), it simply isn't as good the next day as a leftover. I used to force feed myself with leftover roast beef but to be frank, it was a chore.

The Beef and mushroom pie recipe follows a similar path as it's turkey cousin, using leftover over meat, stock and some sauteed veggies with a pastry top to finish off the dish.

I'm delighted to share that the dish turned out remarkably well. The meat was tender and flaky, the biscuit dough turned out wonderfully this time as I did not forget to add the cream this time.

However, the one major step everyone should follow is braising the meat before using it for the pie. In my instance I had placed the bones and leftover meat in a pressure cooker for 45 minutes and my result was a rich beef stock and flaky, tender beef. Perfect...I'm ready for Beef and Mushroom pie! The next time I make this, I will include some frozen peas, otherwise this was a textbook comfort food dish.

Beef and Mushroom Pie

1/2 stick unsalted butter
2 medium sized onions, diced
2 large carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 inch circles
2 cup of button mushrooms, halved
2 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tsp. of fresh thyme
2 bay leaves
1/3 cup dry white wine
1/2 cup of flour
1 1/2 lbs. of bite-sized pieces of beef
1 Tbsp of Worcestershire Sauce
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place your butter into a large saucepan to melt on medium-high heat. Add your onions, garlic, mushrooms, carrots, thyme and bay leaves. Turn down the heat to medium-low and let them cook & soften for about 15 minutes.
2. Add your flour, turn up the heat to medium and stir constantly to mix the flour. Allow the flour to cook off for about 5 minutes. Add your stock and wine and bring the heat back up to high. Once it starts boiling, turn the heat back down to medium, stir constantly and allow the sauce to simmer until it thickens to a consistency of a creamed soup.
3. Remove the bay leaves. Add your beef pieces, Worcestershire Sauce and peas mix them in as well. Adjust seasoning with salt and black pepper. Reserve.

Sour Cream Biscuit Dough

2 cups all-purpose flour
1 Tbsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 cup frozen butter
1/2 cup half/half cream
1/2 cup sour cream

1. Into a bowl, sift the flour, baking powder and salt into a food processor. Using a box grater, grate the cold butter into the flour. Add your sour cream and half/half cream. Pulse a few times until the mixture looks dry with some buttery lumps.
2. Take the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead the dough several times. Roll the dough out and cut it into the shape & size of the vessels you'll use to bake your turkey pot pies.

Assembly

1. Preheat your oven to 425F, rack in the middle.
2. Spoon your pie filling into your baking vessels of choice.
3. Set the biscuit dough over the pie filling and brush the tops with an egg wash (1 lightly beaten egg with 3 Tbsp. water).
4. Place the baking vessels on a baking sheet and place in the oven for about 20-30 minutes or until the tops are golden-brown.

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

It's wonderful to see so many people embracing seasonal foods and experimenting, trying new dishes.

Pumpkin, squash, gourds and all those funny looking autumn veggies that are currently out there have turned out to be quite versatile. I've seen soups, pastas, stews, fritters, dips, sauces and in my case today, a dessert.

I remember as a kid the only use we had for a pumpkin was to carve it for Halloween, toast the seeds for snacks and sometimes go through the trouble of carving out the meat of the pumpkin for a pie.

Soon, I will see lots of abandoned pumpkins on peoples' boulevards, waiting to be picked up by the city's garbage collection. The plight of the neglected pumpkin saddens me.

We must take action! On gargbage day, tell your neighbors to reclaim their pumpkin, to steam it, cook it, roast, freeze it...just don't let that pumpkin go into composting Purgatory!

Enough of my tongue in cheek rant, on to the dessert. I've played around with this concept for a month now and I've finally achieved my desired result (tastewise).

I did the "brulee" using my oven's broiler but there's nothing like caramelizing your creme like a torch and there's no fear of warming the custard.

Otherwise, I'm sticking to this recipe. It's easy, it's quick and if you wait for the scalding milk/cream mixture to cool as directed, you won't get scrambled eggs.

The main inspiration for this dessert came from Gale Gand and her recipe was found at the Food Network. I tweaked the spices a bit, added some chopped pistachios and I trimmed the cream by replacing it with evaporated milk and the resulting custard was just fine.

I also strained the mixture before pouring it into the ramekins as I found some stringy pieces of pumpkin in previous attempts. Give this a go. It's even easy enough to offer as a weeknight dessert.

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

1 1/2 cups of evaporated milk
1/2 heavy cream
1/8 tsp cinnamon
2 pinches of nutmeg
1 pinch of ginger
1/2 tsp of fennel seeds
2 cloves
2 Tbsp. chopped pistachios
4 egg yolks
1/2 cup of granulated sugar
1/4 cup pumpkin puree
coarse brown sugar for the "brulee"

Preheat the oven to 325F

1. In a medium saucepan, heat the milk, cream, spices over medium heat, stirring occasionally, just until it comes to a boil. Take off the heat and let cool for 15 minutes.
2. In a large bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar together. Whisking constantly, gradually pour it in the hot milk/cream mixture. Whisk in the pumpkin puree.
3. Pour the mixture through a strainer, pushing through the liquid with the bottom of a ladle. Discard any solids.
4. Pour the mixture into 4 ramekins and arrange in a hot water bath. Bake in the center of the oven for 30-40 minutes until almost set (the middle should still jiggle).
5. Remove from the water bath and let cool for 20 minutes. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours before serving.
6. When ready to serve, pour as much coarse sugar as will fit on the custard. Pour off the remaining sugar onto the next custard and repeat until you've coated each custard with coarse sugar.
7. Place the ramekins on a baking sheet and broil until the sugar has caramelized or use a kitchen torch to create your brulees. Let cool for 1 minute before serving.