Well Seasoned Blog

Oven Roasted Mushroom Soup

Roasting the mushrooms before you add them to the soup, intensifies their earthiness adds another incredible layer of flavour. Once you have taken this extra step – there will be no going back.

8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms
3 cups fresh cremini mushrooms
4 cups fresh button mushrooms
3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 tsp dried thyme
salt and freshly cracked black pepper to taste
1 cooking onion, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
6 cups homemade or best quality chicken stock
1 cup of cream
¼ cup minced fresh flat leaf parsley
¼ cup of dry sherry

Cut the cremini & button mushrooms into quarters or halves if they are small. Remove the stems from shiitakes and discard (they are too woody for this soup) cut them into quarters. Transfer the mushrooms to a small roasting pan and toss with 2 tbsp of the oil, ½ of the thyme and a sprinkling of salt and pepper.

Put your pan in a 400°F oven and roast for about 30 minutes, moving the mushrooms around occasionally until they are tender and golden brown.

Meanwhile, on top of the stove in large saucepan heat 1 tbsp of olive oil over medium heat and cook the onion, garlic & the rest of the thyme along with another sprinkling of salt and pepper. Cook until the onion is soft and translucent – you aren’t looking for any color here and be careful your heat isn’t too high, you don’t want your garlic to burn, it will make your soup bitter. Just before your onions are cooked stir on the sherry and let that reduce slightly. Finally, add the stock, the half of the contents of the roasted mushroom pan. With an immersion blender (or transfer to a regular blender) puree the stock with ½ of the mushrooms. Reduce the heat and continue simmer. To finish the soup, stir in the cream and the rest of the mushroom quarters – simmer for another 10-15 minutes.

Garnish with fresh flat leaf parsley and serve with fresh crusty bread & soft butter.

Double Chocolate Pancakes with Strawberry Syrup

It must be Valentine’s Day – you are getting chocolate for breakfast. How sweet it is.

½ cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup granulated sugar
3 Tbsp. best quality unsweetened cocoa powder
½ tsp. baking powder
Pinch of salt
¼ cup semi sweet chocolate finely chopped
1/3 cup plus 1 Tbsp. whole milk
2 Tbsp. unsalted butter, cut into bits
1 large egg

Into small bowl, sift flour, sugar, cocoa powder, baking powder, and salt. Add chocolate chips and blend well with a wooden spoon.

On the stove top in small saucepan over low heat, combine the milk and butter stirring often just until butter is melted; milk should be warm but not hot. Remove from heat. With fork, beat the and gradually add to the milk and melted butter mixture. All at once, add liquid mixture to dry ingredients. Stir just until combined.

Heat your non stick frying pan over medium heat until a few drops of water scattered on it move around rapidly before evaporating. Drop the pancake batter onto heated griddle by rounded tablespoons, spreading the batter slightly as you do so. Leave enough room between the pancakes for them expand during cooking. Watch pancakes carefully. As they cook, they will puff up and become full of bubbles. When the done the edges will appear set and small bubbles will appear on the surface. Gently flip the pancakes over; cook until lightly browned on second side, about 45 seconds to 1minute. Keep pancakes that are done on heatproof plate in preheated 200 degree oven until they have all been cooked.

Serve the chocolate pancakes hot, with butter and your favourite fruit syrup or with warm chocolate sauce and whipping cream topped with fresh strawberries.

Simple Strawberry Syrup

4 cups of thawed frozen strawberries
1 cups sugar
¼ teaspoon lemon juice

Place your thawed strawberries in a food processor and process until smooth. Pour the strawberry puree through a fine wire mesh strainer to remove the seeds. Transfer your seedless puree to a sauce pan, add the sugar and the lemon juice stirring well to combine. Cook over low heat stirring constantly until the sugar dissolves. Turn up the heat and boil over medium high to thicken, reduce the heat, simmer for 5 more minutes and transfer to a bowl to cool.

Serve the syrup at room temperature with your pancakes.

I have been trying to figure out how it all started and according to Wikipedia, it seems to have started in 1988 when the website “BBQ Addicts” posted their recipe for the mother of all bacon recipes the Bacon Explosion on their website. That is apparently the day bacon went viral.

Now it seems to be appearing just about everywhere. I’ve seen everything from bacon flavoured lip gloss to bacon flavoured envelopes creates so you can even get your fix while you’re paying your bills! Don’t get me wrong, I am definitely not complaining – I love bacon, absolutely everything about it and it seems to have taken on a life of its own not just in my world but around the globe.

As a joke about 18 months ago I added crispy cooked bacon into a chocolate chip cookie for a friend’s birthday, a fellow bacon lover I thought would appreciate my thoughtfulness. The cookies have become a great selling item at Well Seasoned, we stock them in frozen unbaked dough balls and have had folks come from as far as Kelowna on a day trip to buy them.

Fast forward to now and it appears that millions of other folks are starting to appreciate that whole sweet salty combination that makes the bacon work so well in desserts. When the bacon is well cooked and the fat has been rendered out adding it to a recipe just adds another really interesting layer of flavour – people who don’t know it is in the recipe usually mistake it for nuts…I guess the crunchy texture and meatiness make them think they might be eating walnuts instead.

I hear from non bacon eaters (vegetarians) that bacon is really one of the only meat items they miss…I guess bacon is like a gateway drug for carnivores. In my mind bacon is one of those perfect foods, I always have it on hand – it can be defrosted quickly to transform a pasta dish in minutes, it can be cooked crispy and turned quickly into the ultimate BLT and who among us has never had breakfast for dinner?

I can’t stop adding bacon to food where it previously didn’t belong; it’s a slippery slope of porky goodness. I am doing it partially for the shock factor I suppose, trying to freak out my friends & family and partially because it is really cool to see how well it works in absolutely everything….I have made a brown butter cake with cream cheese bacon frosting, chocolate bacon bark, caramel bacon popcorn and even bacon baklava. It is so much fun and everyone seems to be getting a real kick out of it…when you consider the other culinary disasters I could be creating these ones do sound pretty good.

So – stop by the butchers pick up a pound or two of the best quality bacon he has available, double smoked thick cut is my drug of choice and get cooking – let me know what you come up with. Get on the bacon bandwagon, all the cool kids are doing it !!

I am sad that I have been missing out on the Olym**c hype around town this week – I have been in Toronto at a trade show eating rubber chicken from the Chalet Suisse unfortunately.
On the upside, I have been invited to an Olym**c Opening ceremonies party this weekend and want to take along a fun drink…what is a good Canadian girl to do when she can get her hands on a case of Moosehead !! I know – check out the Olym**c sponsors Jackson-Triggs and find some inspiration there…they have a ton of brilliant ideas but here’s where I am going..

Emerald Ice
1oz Jackson-Triggs Vidal Ice Wine
1/3 of a fresh kiwi fruit (homage to Colleen)
5 fresh tarragon leaves
1/4 oz simple syrup
3 oz sparkling wine
Fill shaker with ice, add kiwi & tarragon and crush. Add simple syrup and shake the heck out of it. Strain into a champagne glass and top with bubbly.
Cheers to the Canadian athletes bringing home the gold.

(sorry for the *** but the last thing I need is Van*c in my program I have enough blog trolls already)

I have been on a bit of rampage lately, frustrated by the insurgence of designer cupcakes on the market and the pitiful shortage of actual cake. I’m sure you know those of which I speak…a cake, made with flour, sugar, eggs & butter. Some are multi layered, some are made in regular old square pans, and some are iced, some are not and, if you play your cards right you can even get a Bundt. My friends are sick of my cake vs. cupcake rant so I am not going to bore you with it her but suffice it say I have taken the bull by the horns. Recently searching for sweet inspiration in some of my favourite old cookbooks, I came across a recipe for Red Velvet Cake, the old school kind that uses cooked beets to intensify the color & add moisture. Apparently, during WW ll when foods were being rationed bakers grated boiled beets into their cake batter to replace the color, moisture & flavour they would otherwise get from the fat and cocoa powder. Enter, the mighty Beet. Part of the amaranth family, the beet doesn’t ever really get the kind of play it deserves, in my opinion, it is completely underrated. Just when I forget how great they are I come across them in a recipe or on a menu in a restaurant and it takes me back to wanting to eat them more often. Now, I will acknowledge they are a bit of a pain – there’s all that washing, peeling, cutting, boiling and of course, cursing those crimson juices that seem no matter how careful you are, to end up exactly where you didn’t want them. Well, I have a quick fix for that, beets come in a can and rarely are there casualties from opening a can! Now, they aren’t going to have that same fresh from the earth vibrancy of flavour that they have when you go to the trouble to cook the fresh ones & you aren’t going to enjoy that sense of accomplishment one gets when they have conquered a pile of beets but these ones for my little Red Velvet plan were just the ticket. So, into the recipe go the 1 cup of pureed canned beets along with the rest of the ingredient, a mix, a good scrape of the bowl and 1,2, 6 my cake is in the oven. After nearly exploding waiting for the cake to cool I am finally able to apply the generous layer of cream cheese frosting not just once but twice, I am pretty sure this is why the layer cake was invented – it is a brilliant way to increase your frosting intake. I think this alone is a great argument for cake vs. cupcakes … I digress. The old school Red Velvet was a revelation and the beets although you could taste them I am not sure if you didn’t know they were there if you could actually identify them. The cake was moist & perfectly delicious; I was able to take an extra bit of pleasure in it knowing I was eating my veggies for dessert. The world needs more cake.

A new franchise opened recently in the Fraser Valley – a fairly new Western Canadian based franchise with less than 15 locations (just to put it in perspective). Let’s for the sake of argument say this franchise sells widgets for $3.50 each and super widgets for $4.50. There are other widgets in town, in fact all over town if you look close enough but these ones are new and they claim to have the “best widgets in the world”. So a family buys this widget franchise from Widget Central – they want to make tons of money selling widgets, have no experience with widgets and likely wouldn’t know a “super” widget if it bit them in the ass but they see the current trend in widget sales and want a piece of that widget fortune. Well, this is going to take some capital – buying a widget franchise isn’t cheap so 3 f them get together to pool their resources and pitch in to buy their dream widget outlet. They rent a brand new building in a shiny new strip mall surrounded by homes of thousands of unsuspecting people they will coax in and hopefully get hooked on their widgets. After many months of negotiations with the landlord, expensive leasehold improvements, delays getting city permits, construction challenges and signage problems the dream widget location finally opens its doors and hangs a big generic sign out front that says “Now Open”. There is no brand and no sign to be seen anywhere letting people know exactly what it is that just opened – it isn’t until you drive up to the front door do you realize it is a Widget outlet and apparently you can get the worlds greatest widgets inside – well, thank god it is finally open. I didn’t know I really needed a stand alone widget outlet until now but hey, what the hell let’s give it a go. Inside the place is very sterile, empty actually…well, it’s new it will take them a while to settle in right? One sign on the back wall identifies where you are – there are a single row of well lit showcases where you can look at the widgets, there are tiny signs that say if the widget is a regular or a super widget…you can’t touch the widgets, smell the widgets or even get close to them, there is no description about how the widget is made, what is inside of it, how to use it or how to treat it when you get home. And apparently they even make Jr. widget but you have to special order those, clearly they don’t want to downgrade a potential sale.
So I order a regular widget and a super widget to go…they are carefully removed from their designated Plexiglas glass display case and put inside a plane unbranded cardboard box. There is no hope of knowing once you get home where those widgets came from, what they are used for, which one is the regular and which one is the super…it is all very confusing to a new widget buyer like me.
So now the widget outlet has been open for just about a month – they barely have a sign identifying them, they do not have any branded collateral material inside the outlet – they don’t care to find out who you are or where you came from or how you stumbled upon them they just want the $8.00 for your two unidentifiable widgets and to send you on your way.

I want to know who sold this franchise and what did the people actually think they were buying?

They certainly didn’t buy a recognizable brand…no one knows those widgets from a hole in the ground. They didn’t buy a turn key operation with signage, an opening strategy and a plan. In fact – if you can grasp this, they aren’t even allowed to make their own widgets on site…the franchisees even have to call and order their widgets 2 days in advance. They must then wait for them to be delivered everyday by a courier from the widget factory. So if they run out of widgets in the middle of the day they are screwed…god forbid they order way too many widgets – what happens then? I am pretty sure you can’t send them back. They corporate widget office have convinced the franchisee’s that the widgets must come from their warehouse to maintain “quality control”. You don’t want to make your own widgets – that is too much work…leave it to us, we are the widget experts.
Really?
Widgets are easy to make and if you made them in the new outlet people would be excited to see them being made and maybe want to buy even more. The corporate office wants to maintain control all right – control over everything their dumb little franchisee’s do and sell. WTH ?
They don’t sell anything but widgets – no widget accessories, no widget upgrades, no widget swag…just widgets. They don’t even have frequent buy cards for the hardcore widget addicts.

Wow – is this really what people think owning a business is?

I don’t know who the sales person is that sells these widget franchises but they are obviously very good at their job to have sold these franchisees absolutely nothing. An unrecognizable brand, an inaccessible product, no apparent strategic plan, no collateral material, no marketing strategy and in my opinion a sadly inferior widget. Why did these people buy this widget outlet? They could so easily make their own widgets…probably from a pre-fab mix like the rest of the world does, they could have branded themselves and atleast made the widgets on site…where customers could have a relationship with the widget – see them being made & created on site by the folks running the outlet. Instead they purchased a place that for all intense and purposes could be selling bulk staples instead of widgets.

For the love of god…give the franchisor’s back their license and get on with your life – you could do much better on your own, they will never let you make more money they they think you should. They will control the cost of your widgets if they think you are selling too many so they will always make more money than you…what are you thinking? What part of this deal was remotely attractive to you? This widget franchise is a pipe dream and unless you evolve and are nimble & flexible in your business you will die on the vine like millions of others widget outlets before you. You don’t have a business – you are an outlet to sell widgets for “the man”. What a shame that you spent all that money.
You got my $8 once but I don’t need anymore widgets and unfortunately I won’t be back…don’t worry, apparently I wasn’t your target market anyhow.
Good luck to you and your widgets, I wish you success in your new endeavor but if someone…anyone could help me figure out what was remotely attractive about this franchise I would be grateful…why would people buy into something like this that they could very obviously do better themselves. I just don’t get it.
Thanks for your input…

Everyone around me is proclaiming their 2010 resolutions…”no more chocolate for me”, “that’s it! I am off desserts”, “I am going to the gym everyday”, “no more caffeine”, “I am only going to drink 2 glass of wine a week”…give me a break!
Every single one of these resolutions are temporary, we all fall off the wagon eventually – usually sooner rather than later and really isn’t it all just about getting a better offer? Sure we’ve all probably “over done it” a little during the holidays and just that fact that you feel like you need to make a resolution tells me you are paying enough attention to what is going on in your life that you are likely going to change that behaviour without stomping your feet, throwing your hands on your hips and announcing your feeble intentions to anyone that will stand still long enough.
Well, I resolved a long time ago not to make any resolutions, ever. I know ate too many butter tarts last month, well guess what? They are all gone and my mom isn’t sending anymore so that isn’t going to be a problem, I know I ate too much cheese last month, well guess what? It’s all gone and I will have to drive into Vancouver to get more so that isn’t likely to happen anytime soon either. I drank too much wine, but hey – let’s be real, that isn’t going to change anytime soon. I am going to keep drinking coffee, eating chocolate, fantasizing about bacon and sleeping late when I should be at yoga but I am going to do my best to do everything with a bit more moderation this year. I am aware of my vices and need to be able to manage them but hey, life’s short and I am not going to be jumping on and off the resolution wagon because it’s the start of a new year and hey guess what? There will be another one next year. So eat, drink and continue to be merry we shouldn’t just have that much fun with our friends and families once a year, we should be doing it much more often and have more reasons to make resolutions more often. Happy New Year !

Orange Croissant Overnight Breakfast Casserole

6 large or 12 mini butter croissants (day old are best)
1 cup orange marmalade
5 eggs
½ tsp vanilla
1 ½ cup half and half
2 tbsp orange juice
The zest of one orange
1 tbsp. melted butter
Grease a large baking dish with melted butter. Cut the croissants in half lengthwise leaving a piece still attached. Thin the marmalade slightly with orange juice and spoon inside the croissant.
In a bowl, whisk the eggs, cream, vanilla extract and orange zest. Pour this batter over the croissants in the pan so that they are partly submerged. Soak them overnight in the refrigerator. In the morning (atleast 4 hours later) Bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
Pay close attention, you want the egg mixture to set and that the croissants just to start to brown. Serve immediately with compote.

Tina’s Cranberry Apple Compote

1 medium orange, coarsely chopped
4 cups cranberries, washed and sorted
4 cups apples, peeled, cored and diced
2 ¾ cups white sugar
1 ½ cups raisins
1 ½ cups dried apricot, diced
¾ cup not from concentrate apple juice
½ cup candied fruit
¼ cup marmalade
¼ cup unsalted butter
1 teaspoon ground ginger
¾ teaspoon ground cinnamon
¾ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
¾ teaspoon ground allspice
¼ cup brandy

Place orange chunks into food processor and pulse till peel is in small chunks. Place in a large saucepan.
Prepare remaining ingredients except brandy) and add to the pot as you go; stir to combine. Place over medium-high heat and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to medium-low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until very little liquid remains, about 45 minutes. Stir in brandy and continue to simmer until thickened, about 5 minutes. Let cool. Store airtight and refrigerate 3 weeks or freeze up to 3 months.

My friend Bryan from Trail asked me tonight for some beverage ideas for his upcoming festivus celebrations…I went deep into the archives for these…almost forgot how good they were !!

Mulled Cider with Jack Daniels
Really good quality apple juice (the not from concentrate in the refrigerated section is best – I think it is Tropicana) heated on the stove in a large pot with whole star anise, candied ginger, cinnamon sticks, dried figs, all spice berries, cloves, dried cranberries. Heat until you have as much flavour out of the spices/fruit as you want….if you leave it too long it will start to get bitter – strain and transfer to a crock pot. Add JD about 1 750 ml. Bottle for 6 litres of juice but you can make it your own strength preference. Let it sit in the crock pot on low to keep warm for your guests to enjoy. You can add a bit of honey if you like but I find the apple juice sweet enough.

Coconut Hot Chocolate for Grownups.
One 13.5 ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
¼ cup sugar
1 ¾ cups heavy cream
1 cups whole milk
3 cups bittersweet chocolate
Marshmallows, for serving
8 oz coconut rum

In a small saucepan, combine the coconut milk and sugar and heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar; keep warm. In a medium saucepan, combine the cream and whole milk and bring to a simmer. Add the chocolate chips and remove from the heat. Let stand, stirring occasionally, until the chocolate is melted; whisk until smooth. Pour 1 oz of rum into each mug (8), then add the chocolate and spoon some of the coconut milk on top. Garnish with the marshmallows and serve.

Affogato an “Angie” spin on an Italian classic
1 pint of best quality chocolate ice cream
8 tablespoons finely chopped bittersweet or semisweet chocolate
8 shots of hot freshly brewed espresso coffee
8+ ounces Van Gogh espresso vodka
Divide ice cream among 8 large coffee cups. Between the 8 servings spoon over the chocolate, the espresso, and vodka – serve immediately.

The rain this time of year teams down and makes me want to stay in the house, on the couch with my blanket and a great movie. A great movie requires really great movie snacks, there are a ton of choices but I like to stick with the classic – popcorn. We love popcorn in our house; in fact I will admit that occasionally it is even a meal, not just a snack. Like other things I tend to obsess about for me there really is only one kind of “proper” popcorn…that’s the kind cooked in a big pot on the stove top with hot oil and a couple handfuls of kernels tossed in. I am sure you remember the dance from childhood – put the oil in the bottom of the pot, wait for it to start to shimmer – add the corn and put on the lid…shake, shake, shake! You will hear the first kernel explode and hit the lid and then like the inside of a giant firing range they start to let loose. Shake, shake, shake – you don’t want it to burn…and that line, it’s so fine. You have about a 20 second window from perfectly popped popcorn to burnt smoky tasting popcorn. Take if off the heat, remove the lid and dump the whole load immediately into a large bowl. And, don’t forget the best part, the melted butter, real butter – not some weird buttery flavoured topping or something called “butter buds” out of a shaker, and then of course the salt. You need to have the right butter to salt ratio – don’t over butter and if you don’t add the butter first the salt has nothing to stick to and ends up in a sad pile at the bottom of the bowl. Once you have achieved that balance you will have popcorn perfection, grab a napkin and get back to the sofa.
Now as you read this I am sure you are thinking about the popcorn of your youth and like me wondering how and when the transition to bad popcorn really began. The sad thing is that it happened over years without our noticing it, we just accepted it. Somehow actually popping corn on the stove top became such a chore that we resorted first to the hot air popper. Surely you remember that, it sounded like a super speed dust buster and sent the popcorn flying out of the little chute at 5 million rpm’s – so fast and so random they never even seemed to hit the bowl. You were supposed to use the little cup on top of the popper to melt your butter but really it only melted a tablespoon and with all that super dry popcorn you had to pick up off the floor, the tablespoon of butter wasn’t going to save it. Then, there is microwave popcorn, the kind with the bright yellow buttery flavoured oil product that as it cooks fills your house with the most hideous smell in the world, a smell that mysteriously seems to take forever to go away. So if you think about it for a minute you will remember the difference between really great popped corn and the stuff you should be using as packing material. You will be motivated to take out your largest pot, add some oil, a handful of kernels and start shaking; it really is worth the effort.

We cook pork shoulders for about 12 hours on our smoker…it takes a long time and is well worth the effort. I get lots of questions about a way to make it in the slow cooker or the oven. Well, the results are never going to be the quite same if you don’t use a smoker but my friend Julie Van Rosendaal posted this recipe on her blog www.dinnerwithjulie.com quite a while ago and I have tried it – it is great. So, if you are in a pinch or don’t have a smoker give this recipe a go, you will like it. And for tons of culinary inspiration visit Julie and her blog – she rocks!

Crock Pot Pulled Pork
This is unbelievably fast. While the pork is browning, hack apart the veg and throw them in the pot. They are only there for flavour for the pork and stock – you’re throwing them out anyway – so there is no need to be at all dainty about it. Then set the roast on top, pour over the beer and you’re done.
One 2 to 3 lb pork rib roast or shoulder
2 onions, quartered
2 carrots, chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
1 bottle dark beer
1 cup barbecue sauce (or to taste)
salt and pepper, to taste
buns or flour tortillas
Season pork roast on all sides with salt and pepper. Over medium-high heat in a heavy skillet, brown roast on all sides. Place onions, carrots and celery into the slow cooker; top with browned roast.
De-glaze skillet with about 1/4 cup beer, scraping up any bits stuck to pan. Pour liquid and remaining beer over roast in slow cooker. Cover; cook on low for 8 hours.
Remove roast and set it aside. Strain the liquid into a container, discarding vegetables. Place the roast back into the slow cooker, shred with 2 forks until it is completely pulled apart, discarding any chunks of fat you come across, and pour about 1 cup of the strained broth overtop; put the rest in the fridge to make soup with. Stir in the barbecue sauce. Set the Crock Pot on warm to keep it that way.
Serve buffet-style with buns or tortillas and if you like, shredded cheese, chopped tomato, lettuce, caramelized onions or creamy cole slaw.