Name: Summery Strawberry Freezer Jam
Cook time: 10 min
Yield: 3 jars
Ingredients: 1 box certo; 2 litres strawberries (to make 3 cups of crushed strawberries); 4 cups sugar

Preserves

Summery Strawberry Freezer Jam

It’s Strawberry Season now, and I just love it. It’s one of my favourite times of the year! I made a few batches of this Summery Strawberry Freezer Jam recently and it is so so so good! The aroma of strawberries and sugar wafted through my kitchen and up the stairs scenting the whole house with sweet strawberries. While I occasionally buy imported strawberries from the grocery store throughout the year and also frozen berries anytime for smoothies, nothing beats fresh local strawberries. They definitely signal the beginning of summer.

I start thinking about local strawberries starting in March when the days start to get longer, the sun feels warmer and the snow finally starts to melt and when I pull out my last jar of strawberry jam from the freezer that I made the summer before. That’s when I start anticipating the beginning of strawberry season. And homemade jam.

Homemade jam is so much better than store bought. I know lots of people think it’s really difficult to make. But it’s not. Especially freezer jam. I used to think that freezer jam was for people that didn’t want to spend the time making real jam. But, that’s not the case. It’s just different. Freezer jam is cooked much less than regular jam and has less sugar (though it still seems like a lot). It is a bit thinner than regular jam, but the flavour is much more fruity and intense. And the colour of the strawberries just pop out at you.

I think I love homemade jam so much because that’s all we had when we were young. My Mum loved making homemade jam, so that’s what was in the refrigerator. Each summer she would make several large jars from the raspberries that my Dad grew in the backyard. She would make 5 large jars and put each of our names on the jar (one jar was for her and my Dad to share). When our own jar was empty – no more jam. I think my sister and I kept our own jars of jam the longest, probably well after Christmas, while our brother, Dave, ate his the fastest, as raspberry jam was his all-time favourite. And Bob would be somewhere in between.

Freezer jam cooks up very quickly. It took about 20 minutes for me to make 3 jars. Done. And the jam tastes so fresh, just like local berries. I put the jam in special plastic jam jars (the glass jar photographed better) and after the jam sits on the counter for 24 hours, in the freezer they go! And oh my goodness! The fresh strawberry taste! So good!

The jam tastes amazing right now, but the real treat is eating Summery Strawberry Freezer Jam on toast in February when it’s snowing outside and the temperature is -25. Just the aroma alone from the strawberries brings back summery memories in an instant and will warm you to your toes.

strawberries for strawberry lime elderflower granita

With all the fresh berries coming into season soon, I hope to make a lot of jam this summer.

Enjoy!

Hey! What’s your favourite jam? Send me a message. I love homemade jam.

Print Recipe

Summery Strawberry Freezer Jam

Serves: 3 jars

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

1 box certo
2 litres strawberries (to make 3 cups of crushed strawberries)
4 cups sugar

Instructions

You will need two pots to make this jam.

Wash and hull the strawberries. Slice them and place in a bowl or if you have an 8 cup measuring cup, that works great!

When you have one layer of strawberries, crush them with a pastry blender, or a fork.

Continue adding and crushing the strawberries until you have 3 cups of crushed berries.

Pour the berries into a large pot. Add the sugar. Heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Meanwhile, place 3/4 cup of water and one pouch of powdered certo in a small pot.

Bring to a boil, and boil for 3 minutes.

Pour certo mixture into warm strawberries and sugar..

Stir until all ingredients are well incorporated.

Bring to a boil for about one minute.

Let the jam cool down a bit.

Pour into plastic jam jars, make sure all the fruit is well distributed.

Let the jars sit on your counter for 24 hours. Then place in refrigerator or freezer.

Don't forget to label the jars with the name and the date.

Notes

These instructions are different than on the certo box, but they work the best for me.

1:30 am

Cooking/ Preserves

Syrian Muhammara Red Pepper Dip

I made this Syrian Muhammara Red Pepper Dip recently for my family and everyone loved it.

With summer weather fast approaching, I am building up my repertoire of dips, spreads and salad dressings etc. for summer barbeque dinners with my family.

This Syrian Muhammara Red Pepper Dip is a surefire winner for summer picnics. This dip has lovely contrasting flavours with crunchy walnuts, smoky, silky smooth roasted red peppers and rich earthy cumin. It also has a luscious red hue. This dip is vegan so is perfect for taking to any potluck (when we’re able to). My recipe is not gluten free, as it has breadcrumbs in it. You could leave them out, the texture would just be a bit different.

This dip is popular in Syria as well as Turkey. Syria, is bordered by Lebanon, Turkey, Iraq and Jordan. These countries blend the cuisines of western Asia, Eastern Mediterranean, northeast Africa and northwest of the Arabian Peninsula which makes the food from these countries very, very interesting. I don’t really know much about this region, but some of the familiar ingredients from these countries motivate me to learn more.

Muahammara is a common dish that many families in Syria or Turkey eat almost daily. Many women in that region keep peppers in the freezer to have on hand so they can whip up this dip if someone pops by for a visit.

Some people make this with garlic, but I decided to leave it out, as I put garlic in so many recipes. I really wanted to taste the other ingredients. But you can add in a chopped clove of garlic if you wish.

Muhammara is seasoned with lemon juice, salt and cayenne pepper. Feel free to adjust those flavours as you like.

I hope you enjoy this dish! Let me know how you like it.

Print Recipe

Syrian Muhammara Red Pepper Dip

Serves: 6-10

Ingredients

1 285 ml jar of roasted red peppers, rinsed and dried
1 cup of toasted walnuts
1/4 cup of bread crumbs
2 tablespoons pomegranate molasses
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tsp cumin
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tablespoon lemon juice
salt to taste

Instructions

Toast the walnuts in a dry skillet until fragrant and slightly golden brown.

Place red peppers, walnuts, bread crumbs, molasses, lemon juice, cumin and cayenne pepper in food processor.

Pulse until smooth, but still coarse.

Pour dip into a serving bowl or tupperware container and place in fridge for a minimum of 15 minutes.

This dip tastes best after a few hours or even the next day and is best eaten at room temperature, but is still perfectly fine if eaten immediately.

Season with salt, and adjust lemon juice and cayenne pepper to your liking.

Serve with raw vegetables, crackers and/or pita bread.

1:30 am

Preserves

So Simple Apple and Blueberry Crumble Pie Ice Cream

Apple and Blueberry Crumble Pie Ice Cream is the fastest dessert I have ever made. I made it by blitzing leftover pie with ice cream in my food processor. It’s the perfect dessert to make when you have some leftover pie and ice cream, but not enough to serve up nicely. It’s perfect, because it evenly distributes both ice cream and pie into one delicous treat.

What Flavour of Pie and Ice Cream works best

You can make this ice cream with any leftover pie that you have on hand as there are many flavours of pie and ice cream that go so well together. I happened to have a very small slice of Apple and Blueberry Crumble Pie leftover from Mother’s Day. I also had a bit of Dulce de Leche Ice Cream as well as Vanilla Bean Ice Cream left in the freezer. So, this combination was divine!

A few suggestions of Pie and Ice Cream Flavour Combinations

apple pie and vanilla or caramel ice cream
pumpkin pie and cinnamon or caramel ice cream
cherry pie and chocolate ice cream or green tea ice cream
cheesecake and lemon ice cream
strawberry and rhubarb and french vanilla ice cream

What is the best Ratio of Pie to Ice Cream?

Italians have a great expression that I love; ‘ad occhio‘, which means ‘by eye’. And that’s the way this dessert is made: by eye. I made this pie ice cream combination with one small piece of pie and about 2/3 cup of Haagen Dazs ice cream. It made enough for two of us to have one small scoop of ice cream each. I loved that ratio with a piece of pie in every bite.

This is what I had on hand to make my pie ice cream. It doesn’t seem like a lot, but it made a perfect dessert.

Add the pie to your food processor and blitz until crumbled. Pulsing it 2-3 times should be enough. Because you don’t want to turn your pie into a paste.

Next, add your ice cream. I used 1 small piece of pie and about 2/3 cup of ice cream. You could increase the amount of ice cream if you wanted a higher ratio of ice cream to pie.

pie and ice cream blitzed in a food processor

Pulse the pie and ice cream together about 5-6 times, so there aren’t any large pieces of pie in the bowl. Scoop this into a freezer-safe container. It will be ready in a couple of hours.

The pie that I used had a crumble top crust which gave the ice cream a nice crunch. If your pie has a regular crust, but would like some crunch in your ice cream, try adding some granola.

Blitzing pie and ice cream together created something even better than having them separate. It’s so good, that my family and I had a hard time deciding which was better: warm pie with ice cream on the side, or pie and ice cream blitzed together. Which do you prefer?

a bowl of ice cream with a glass of liqueur

This Apple and Blueberry Crumble Pie Ice Cream was really really good.

Which combination will you make?

Print Recipe

Apple and Blueberry Crumble Pie Ice Cream

Serves: 4

Cooking Time: 0 minutes

Ingredients

1-2 pieces of any type of pie
2/3 to 2 cups ice cream (a flavour of ice cream to go with the pie)

Instructions

Place pie in the food processor.

Blitz a couple of times until it is chopped in large pieces.

Add ice cream. The quantity depends on you, but about 1/3 to 1 cup of ice cream per slice of pie should be good, depending on what ratio of pie to ice cream you would like.

Blitz 5-6 times, until pieces of pie are quite small.

Using a spoon and spatula, remove ice cream from food processor and place in a freezer-safe container.

Place in the freezer for a few hours, until firm.

1:23 pm

Preserves

Nutty Chocolate Hazelnut Spread Recipe

Nutella!!! This infamous blend of chocolate and hazelnuts not only tastes amazing, but also has quite a lot of history behind it.

World Nutella Day

World Nutella Day is February 5th and was created by Food blogger, Sara Rosso in 2007 to help celebrate this popular treat. She handed the reins of World Nutella Day over to Ferroro in 2015.

I have wanted to make my own chocolate hazelnut spread for quite some time now. This week seemed appropriate with World Nutella Day and Valentine’s Day so close together.

Why make Homemade Nutella?

I love store bought Nutella. But, like most food items, I prefer to make my own: I can use the best chocolate, sweeten it slightly with a small amount of local honey, and use fresh organic hazelnuts. It is also possible to use a variety of nuts, if you prefer.

This Nutty Chocolate Hazelnut Spread is made up of roasted and skinned whole hazelnuts, dark and milk chocolate, honey, milk and milk powder. You can alter the percentage of hazelnuts to suit your taste. This recipe contains 26% hazelnuts, Nutella contains about 13% and some places in Italy use as much as 50% hazelnuts. So, you can make it as nutty as you like.

How easy is it to make Nutella?

My recipe for this Chocolate Hazelnut Spread is so easy to make. All you need to do is roast and grind some hazelnuts, melt some chocolate, heat some milk mixed with powdered milk and honey and then blend them all together.

Store-bought Nutella is nice, but we really love our homemade version. It is nuttier, darker and less sweet than store bought. You can adjust the percentage of nuts, as well as the type of chocolate used. You will never get the hazelnuts as pureed and smooth as in store bought Nutella, but we actually prefer the crunchy texture.

Can I use other nuts?

If you find hazelnuts too strong, you can substitute part of them with skinned almonds, or macadamia nuts. Make sure you remove the skin from the hazelnuts and/or almonds. It’s not imperative to remove all of the skins, but try to get as much off as possible, as the skins will add a bitter taste.

When you put your nuts in your food processor, try to grind them as finely as possible. Homemade Nutella will not be as fine as store bought. But you will really be able to taste the roasted nuts and heavenly chocolate. That’s the joy of homemade!

This Nutty Hazelnut and Chocolate Spread is a blend of dark and milk chocolate. You can adjust the amounts of each chocolate, as long as the total weight stays the same. My version has some small chunks of hazelnut in each bite. So nutty!

Besides being so amazingly tasty, the combination of hazelnuts and chocolate has an amazing history.

History of Nutella

In Italy, the combination of chocolate and hazelnuts is called Gianduja. Gianduja was created over 200 years ago during Napoleon’s regency in Turin, Italy in the Piedmont area.

In 1806, Napoleon imposed the Continental System, which prevented British goods from entering European harbours under French control. This created a shortage in cocoa, which was devastating to chocolatiers.

In Turin, a chocolatier, whose chocolate supplies were low, began mixing his chocolate with ground hazelnuts, which are plentiful in this area of Italy. The name Gianduja is named after a popular Carnival marionette that is an archetype of the Piedmontese.

One hundred and fifty years after this crazy time for chocolate lovers, chocolate became expensive and scarce again due to the rationing in Europe during World War II. Pietro Ferrero was a pastry maker in Italy and in 1946 created Pasta Gianduja. His original version was formed into a loaf which was sliced and eaten on bread. In 1949, he accidentally added cocoa butter, which made it soft and easy to spread. It was renamed Nutella in 1964.

I hope you enjoy this Nutella recipe!

Buon Appetito

Print Recipe

Nutty Chocolate Hazelnut Spread

Serves: 12-16

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

240 grams dark chocolate
150 g milk chocolate
2 Tbsp honey
300 grams 2% milk
50 grams milk powder
150 grams hazelnuts

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Roast hazelnuts on an ungreased cookie sheet for about 10 minutes, do not burn. When they are fragrant and the skins seem loose, they are ready to take out.

Rub the warm hazelnuts in a clean tea towel, until most of the skins have rubbed off.

Add the hazelnuts to the food processor and grind until fine.

Warm the milk with the honey and powdered milk.

Melt the chocolate in the microwave. I melted it at 30 second internals, stirring in between. Do not overheat, or it will burn and you will not be able to use it.

Add the warm milk, and chocolate to the hazelnuts in the food processor.

Combine until everything is mixed together.

Scrape into a clean container.

Keep in the refrigerator for one week.

6:04 pm

Preserves

Frozen Mango Yogurt with Lime

This Frozen Vanilla Mango Yogurt with Lime is about the quickest sweet treat you will ever make. It’s so quick it’s almost instant. But I like to put it in the freezer for about an hour or so to firm up.

My sister reminded me recently of how we used to buy an ice cream cone in the middle of winter. We would eat it while we walked home from the local mall amidst swirling snowflakes. We would still be eating it when we got home which would give our Mom the shivers.

Frozen yogurt isn’t usually the first thing people think of for a sweet treat in the middle of the winter. Especially when it’s – 30 ° out. But, I don’t really mind the cold so much. I stay nice and warm bundled up in all my favourite winter gear.

What I miss the most during the long winter months is colour. I miss the green grass and leaves on trees, colourful flowers and even the colourful clothes that everyone wears. So, that’s what appeals to me with this Frozen Vanilla Mango Yogurt with Lime. I love the tropical mango, the fresh burst of lime and the coolness of the frozen yogurt. The colours of this frozen yogurt are eye-popping, yet soothing.

You can make this frozen yogurt in a snap. All you need is a tub of your favourite vanilla yogurt and a bag of frozen mangoes. Puree these ingredients in your food processor or blender until all the mangoes chunks are blended into the yogurt.

You can eat this frozen yogurt right away, as a kind of soft serve ice cream. But I like it more firm, so I pop it in the freezer for about 1-2 hours. I serve up a couple of spoonfuls in a fancy bowl or parfait glass and saveur every spoonful!

Bon appetit!

Bon Appetite!

Print Recipe

Frozen Vanilla Mango Yogurt with Lime

Serves: 8-10

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

One 600 g bag of frozen mangoes
One 650 mL tub of Vanilla Yogurt
juice from 1/2 lime

Instructions

Pour yogurt into food processor or blender.

Add frozen mangoes.

Blend until all frozen mango is blended thoroughly with the yogurt.

Add lime juice, and pulse for 30-60 seconds.

Transfer to a shallow rectangular plastic container.

Cover with saran wrap.

Place in freezer until firm (about 1-2 hours, depending on your freezer).

You can transfer the finished product to a more suitable container.

It will keep sealed in the freezer for approximately one month.

11:37 am

Preserves

Autumn Orange Port Cranberry Sauce Recipe

Thanksgiving is almost here! Yay! Thanksgiving has always been one of my favourite family dinners. I like it because it’s just about getting together with family and friends and enjoying all the great seasonal fruits and vegetables. No gifts, no cards, nothing commercial involved at all. We usually go for a nice long walk in the woods in the afternoon, followed by a lovely dinner of turkey, stuffing, brussel sprouts all served with my Autumn Orange Port Cranberry Sauce.

For me, cranberries are ubiquitous with fall. These ruby red berries, while incredibly tart on their own, absorb sweetness and flavour like no other fruit. In this Autumn Orange Port Cranberry Sauce I have added port, orange and lemon zest and juice as well as ginger. It is sweet, tangy and smooth all in one spoonful.

Cranberry sauce is fun to make because it pairs well with so many flavours. Many sweeteners work really well with cranberries such as maple syrup, honey, brown sugar or even white sugar. You could also use a combination of any of those. Add to that another layer of flavor with orange, lemon or baking spices such as allspice, nutmeg or ginger and you’ve got a sauce with flavours that just pop! I also love to add port to my cranberry sauce to balance the flavours.

Here are a few fun facts about cranberries.

Cranberries grow in Ontario. These berries grow on dry land on low trailing perennial vines in bogs. The bogs are flooded in the fall just before harvest. In October a harvester is driven through the bog and knocks, or combs the berries off the vines which then float to top. Farmers wade in to coral the berries to an elevator which sucks them up into a truck. I think that is pretty cool!

I love cranberries! And if you do too, here is a great place to visit to learn more and possibility get the best photo op ever!

Print Recipe

Autumn

Ingredients

1 pack cranberries, rinsed and picked over
2 cups cups sugar
1/2 cup port
1 orange (grated and juiced)
1/2 lemon (grated and juiced)
1/4 cup orange juice
2 Tbsp cup lemon juice
1 tsp fresh ginger grated

Instructions

Place all ingredients in a medium sized pot.

Bring to a boil.

Simmer for about 10-15 minutes.

Serve hot, or room temperature.

Makes about 3 cups.

1:00 am

Preserves

Strawberry Lime Elderflower Granita Recipe

Wow! I’m not sure what the weather is like where you’re living, but the forecast for tomorrow in Ottawa is 40 degrees C. That’s hot, hot, hot! And the best way for me to stay cool in hot, humid weather is by eating fruity frozen desserts.

This Strawberry Lime Elderflower Granita is so perfect for cooling down in the heat. Granita is a frozen mixture of fruit, sugar, water. It is the simplest frozen dessert you can make. And it’s a great dessert to make with your kids.

Granita is similar to sorbet but is made without an ice cream machine. The ice crystals that form are large and coarse and will be crunchy when you take a bite, but seconds later the granita will just melt away in your mouth. Divine.

To make granita, simply puree some fruit, water, sugar and any extra flavouring you may want to use, in a blender. Pour it into a shallow tray and place in the freezer. Check on it after an hour, and if it has begun to freeze, start breaking up the crystals with a fork. Place it back in the freezer for another 30-45 minutes. Repeat this process until it is all frozen and flaky.

There are many ways to enjoy granita. Of course, you can eat it plain in a bowl. You could also have it layered with whipped cream in a parfait glass. Some people also enjoy it spooned overtop of yogurt.

Strawberries have always been very symbolic of summer and a perfect fruit to use in granitas. But now with day-neutral strawberries, we can buy local strawberries until the frost hits! Yay!

Strawberries and limes go amazingly well together.

And when you add a few drops of Elderflower Liqueur…the flavour is heavenly.

There are so many fruits you could use in granita: blueberry, melon, watermelon, raspberry, blackberry, mango, or espresso coffee…. or mix them up and come up with your own flavour. The possibilities are endless.

Print Recipe

Strawberry Lime Elderflower Granita

Serves: 8-10

Ingredients

1 kg strawberries, hulled and sliced
150 grams icing sugar
1/2 lime juice and zest
1 ounce of elderflower liqueur (optional)
1 cup water

Instructions

Mix strawberries and icing sugar. Let sit one hour.

Place strawberry sugar mixture into a blender. Add lime juice, lime zest, water and elderflower liqueur (if using). Blitz on high until a smooth puree is formed.

Strain mixture through one layer of cheesecloth to remove seeds.

Pour mixture into a rectangular shallow container and cover with lid. Place in freezer.

After one hour, check mixture. If ice crystals have started to form, rake a fork through the crystals to break them up somewhat. You don't want the tray to freeze into a giant ice cube. Keep checking every 30 to 45 minutes and continue to break up the frozen parts with a fork.

When it's ready, the tray will be filled with fluffy ice crystals.

Enjoy on it's own, or layered with whipped cream, or overtop of yogurt.

9:43 pm

Preserves

Red Gooseberry Elderflower Jam Recipe

Red gooseberries are super beautiful: a lovely fuschia red, like a grape, but with very attractive pin stripes running down the length of the berry. They’re not very popular where I live, so, when I spotted a basket in a shop on our way out of Quebec City last week, I just had to grab them.

Gooseberries always remind me of my Mum. The first time I ever saw a gooseberry bush was on a family holiday in England. She loved to point out anything that was authentically British to remind us of her roots.

Homemade jam is SOOOO good! When we were young, we only ever ate homemade jam. I do not recall eating store bought jam until I was a teenager. Lucky me!! My Mum mostly made raspberry jam from the raspberry bushes that we grew in the backyard. My sister and I would help pick them. Dad would tie Skippy peanut butter tins around our waist with twine and off we would go to pick berries. After they were all picked and washed up, Mum would make loads of raspberry jam. She made one large jar for each of the kids and one large jar for her and my dad to share. After we had finished our individual jar of jam, there wouldn’t be anymore until the following summer.

My Dad grew up on a farm, so growing a couple dozen raspberry bushes, picking the berries and making them into jam, was second nature to him. My Mum, on the other hand, grew up in a city. Her mom died when she was only 2 years old, so she grew up with housekeepers throughout the school year and in the summer was shuttled off to various Aunties’ houses in the country. Farming or jam making was not in her blood. But she did it without complaining, because it made us all happy. She did love cooking and making preserves, so I know there was a part of her that loved doing it.

This Red Gooseberry Elderflower Jam is super easy to make. There is so much natural pectin in the gooseberries that you do not need to add any extra. All you need for this recipe is fruit, water, sugar and the optional liqueur if you want a boost in flavour.

I love the smell of homemade jam in the kitchen: fruity, sugary, warm and steamy. There is nothing better than homemade jam spread on fresh baguette. Yum!

Print Recipe

Red Gooseberry Elderflower Jam

Serves: 8-10

Cooking Time: 30 minutes

Ingredients

250 grams red gooseberries
100 mL water
250 grams sugar
2 Tbsp Elderflower Liqueur

Instructions

Prepare jars. Wash jars in warm soapy water. Rinse thoroughly. If you are going to be eating the jam straight away, then washing in soapy water and rinsing is fine. If you plan on storing the jam in the cupboard for a few months, then you will have to sterilize the jars. Here are good step-by-step instructions for sterilising jars. https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/howto/guide/how-sterilise-jars

Top and tail the gooseberries. This is done by removing the stem and the very tiny end, if it's a bit nubby.

Add red gooseberries and water to pan.

Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to let the fruit simmer for about 10-15 minutes, until the gooseberries become very soft and pulpy.

Add sugar and on a low heat, stir the mixture until the sugar is all dissolved. Do not boil.

Add the liqueur. Bring to a hard boil for about 5 minutes.

To check if the jam has set, pour some in a small dish and place in the freezer. After one minute or so, remove dish, if there is a skin on top of the jam, it is ready. If not, continue this method of cooking, and testing in a small dish in the freezer, until you see a light skin on top of the jam. This shows that the jam will set nicely when cold.

Pour the jam into the jars.

1:00 am

Preserves

Honey-Vanilla Ice Cream with Cherry-Galliano Swirl

With all this hot weather we’ve been having, all I want to eat is ice cream. I just want to sit in a floaty chair in the pool and eat a big frosty bowl of ice cream – summer at it’s finest.

Ice cream was the first thing I wanted to make when I bought my annual 20 pound bucket of sour cherries. This combination of Honey-Vanilla Ice Cream with Cherry-Galliano Swirl is so perfect on a hot summer day!

When we were little, my sister and I always chose the wildest flavours of ice cream we could find. We had a favourite ice cream parlour, Donna’s Lunch in Burford, Ontario, which was on the way to our grandmother’s house. We loved going there and were always excited to see what new flavours she would have.

Everyone else in our family ordered the traditional vanilla, strawberry or chocolate flavours. But Ruth and I loved the craziest, at the time, of flavours: bubble gum, cotton candy, blueberry swirl and our favourite to this day, tiger tail.

A few wild flavours that I’ve seen in Ottawa lately are: Hong Kong Milk Tea, Fruit Loops Cereal Milk from Moo Shu Ice Cream Shop; Unicorn and Pink Grapefruit from The Beachconers Microcreamery; and Ferrero Rocher and Raffaelo + Coconut from Stella Luna Gelato Shop. It seems like when it comes to ice cream, anything goes.

The Galliano in this recipe is optional, but really boosts the flavour. Galliano is a vanilla flavour liqueur. It was originally produced in 1896 in Tuscany, Italy by a local distiller named Arturo Vaccari. He named this liqueur after Giuseppe Galliano, an Italian hero of the First Italo-Ethiopian War.

If you don’t have Galliano you could substitute it with brandy or another vanilla liqueur, or just leave it out. It will still taste amazing.

What’s your favourite flavour?

Enjoy

Print Recipe

Honey-Vanilla Ice Cream with Cherry-Galliano Swirl

Serves: 8-10

Cooking Time: 15-20

Ingredients

For the Honey-Vanilla Ice Cream
2 cups cream
1 cup milk
1/2 cup honey
For the Cherry-Galliano Swirl
140 grams sour cherries, pitted
20 grams sugar
2 Tbsp Galliano

Instructions

Heat 1 cup of cream and 1 cup of milk together with the honey until warm and honey is melted. You can do this on the stove top or in the microwave. Don't get the milk too hot to avoid forming a skin on top of the liquid.

Place the mixture in a container in the refrigerator for a few hours, or overnight, until it is very cold.

After it is cold, add the remaining 1 cup of cream.

Place in your ice cream maker and follow instructions.

For the swirl, heat the cherries and sugar until the sugar is dissolved thoroughly. This can also be done in the microwave or on top of the stove.

Place this mixture in a container in the refrigerator for several hours or overnight until cold.

When the cherry/sugar mixture is cold, blitz in your food processor or blender until the cherries are very finely chopped. Add the Galliano.

Pour churned ice cream into a rectangular or square container that can go in the freezer.

Pour the cold Cherry-Galliano mixture in two lines on top of the soft ice cream. Draw figure eights through the cherry and ice cream to create a swirly pattern. Do this until the cherries are swirled throughout the ice cream. If you do it too much, you will have less of a swirl, but the ice cream will still taste amazing.

Place in freezer for several hours or preferably overnight. Serve in a bowl, cone or waffle bowls.

Enjoy!

11:35 am

Cooking/ Preserves

Robust Red Tomato Sauce

Tomato Sauce is one of the simplest pantry items anyone can make. It also freezes beautifully. It’s so handy to have a few tubs in the freezer so whenever I have time to make some sauce, I make double or triple the amount and freeze it for a quick dinner.

You can make SO many quick dinners when there is a ready made tub of tomato sauce in your freezer: pasta + sauce + parmesan cheese; pasta + sauce + sausage; pasta + sauce + any green vegetable from the crisper drawer such as spinach, zucchini, or even just onion or garlic; or tortellini + sauce + parmesan. Homemade sauce is so simple, and so much tastier than store bought that I try not to purchase bottled sauce too often. It is also more economical and healthier as there is much less salt.

This Robust Red Tomato Sauce is my go-to sauce for all pasta or pizza dishes. I love it because it has a very deep rich tomato flavour. I know other people like to add onions, garlic and sometimes carrots for sweetness, but I like the rich tomato flavour scented with only bay leaves.

If you are lucky enough to have a vegetable patch in your yard, or perhaps you rent an allotment garden, you could try growing your own tomatoes. Tomatoes used to make sauce are a different variety than eating tomatoes. You’ll want to look for paste tomatoes. Paste tomatoes have fewer seeds and have a firmer texture. They also all ripen at the same time, so processing the tomatoes into sauce is easy. Paste tomatoes may seem a bit bland when eaten raw, but when cooked down, they turn into a delicious sauce. Some varieties to look for are: San Marzano, Amish or Roma.

Personally, I buy whatever tins of tomatoes are on sale at the local grocery store. I also tend to buy tins with No Salt Added. However, if I am making a special pasta dish for guests or perhaps taking a lasagna to someone’s house, I would search out a more expensive brand such as Muir Glen, Eden Organic or San Marzano tinned tomatoes. These tomatoes do tend to have a richer and pastier texture. And the taste is divine.

Winter is the perfect time for making tomato sauce and all the accompanying pasta dishes. So, next time you’re at the grocery store, pick up a few tins of tomato sauce and simmer them on the stove while you browse through your favorite italian cookbook and bookmark a few italian dishes to make with your gorgeous homemade tomato sauce.

Print Recipe

Robust Red Tomato Sauce

Serves: 4-6

Cooking Time: 1 hour

Ingredients

1 can (796 ml) whole tomatoes (I use no salt added, but you can use either)
2 bay leaves
1 small can tomato paste

Instructions

Empty the can of tomatoes into a large pot. Squish all the tomatoes with your hands until well broken up.

Add two bay leaves.

Simmer on low for about 30 - 40 minutes, until reduced by about 1/3, with the lid half covering the pot.

Add tomato paste to taste. I usually add about 2-3 tablespoons.

Add salt and pepper to taste.

Notes

This recipe multiplies well. Increase the cooking time to about an hour for large batches. It should reduce by about 1/3.

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Preserves

Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pesto Recipe

January is a great month to make changes to your daily life. Maybe you want to hit the gym more often, go to the theatre or read more books. This year, I’m going to be cooking a lot more vegetarian and vegan recipes. I’ve been experimenting lately with some different dinner ideas and they have all gone down a treat. This vegan roasted red pepper pesto caught everyone offguard with it’s smoky flavour and heat from the chipotle.

Eating less meat and more vegetables is a much healthier and more economical way of dining. I found this recipe recently in Meatless: More than 200 of the Very Best Vegetarian Recipes and everyone in the family loved it.

I was a vegetarian for a few years when I was a teenager. Eliminating meat from my diet was easy, but back then, there were not many resources to inspire me to make interesting meatless meals. To make sure that I got enough protein in my diet, I ate a lot of eggs and cheese, and salty sunflower seeds.

Nowadays, there are SO many amazing vegetarian ideas. I love Buddha bowls, vegetarian curries as well as all the wild variations on pesto. I love the influence that international cuisines bring to vegan and vegetarian dishes. Spices and techniques from Thailand, Vietnam, India or South America really liven up our local veggies. We’re so lucky that international restaurants, recipes and ingredients have become more prevalent.

While I am familiar with vegetarian diets, the vegan diet is new to me, and perhaps to other people as well.

This vegan roasted red pepper pesto is amazing with it’s smoky hot chipotle peppers and nutty almonds. It does have quite a kick to it from the chipotle pepper. If you are serving this to anyone who does not like spicy food, decrease the chipotle pepper to 1/4 or 1/2 and add an extra half roasted red pepper. It is delicious on pasta, but you could also spread it on crackers, or a bagel or have as a dip with veggies.

Print Recipe

Vegan Roasted Red Pepper Pesto

Serves: 6

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Ingredients

2 large roasted red peppers
1 chopped jarred chipotle chile in adobe
1 chopped small garlic clove
2 tablespoons toasted almonds
1 teaspoon fresh oregano
2 tablespoons olive oil

Instructions

Place all the ingredients in the food processor, EXCEPT the olive oil. Pulse a few times until roughly chopped.

Add the olive oil and blend until everything is mixed together.

Season with salt and pepper.

Boil up 450 grams of spaghetti. Follow package instructions for timing.

Toss the spaghetti with the pesto.

Notes

To toast the almonds, spread them on a parchment lined baking tray and pop them into a preheated 350 degree C oven. It takes about ten minutes for them to toast.

If you are interested in further reading on vegan diets, here is some additional reading. Enjoy!

The Vegan Society

History of Veganism

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