KrisNeely, Author at Ant & Anise • Page 8 of 15

Arugula salad with pomegranate, feta and walnuts

What a crazy couple of weeks in late December. Like you said, Eve, much of it was happy and festive. But having Mom in hospital for almost a week with pneumonia over the holidays shook me up, maybe more than it should have.

Sitting with her in the hospital around lunchtime on Christmas Day was the worst part. Not because her condition had deteriorated. The antibiotics had started to work and she was getting better, well enough to be leaving the hospital in a few days if her progress continued.

For me it was that although she’d dodge this pneumonia, she won’t ever be herself again. Nothing like she was before Alzheimer’s struck. This isn’t news, of course. She hasn’t been herself for years, to the point that I doubt she knows who any of us are anymore.

I thought back to Christmases when I was growing up, when Mom was such a force. The one who was busy for weeks with shopping, baking, staying up late wrapping presents. She pulled everything together to ensure that we enjoyed Christmas, whether we were ripping open the carefully wrapped presents under the tree or tucking in to a feast of well-loved dishes that we had only once a year.

This Christmas Day, when I sat with her listening to Elvis’ Christmas Album (she always loved Elvis) and trying to get her to eat, I felt extra sad about all we had lost over the past several years.

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Parsnip hummus

Do you like parsnips?

Ummm…well, I don’t dislike them. But I don’t go out my way to find them either. I guess I appreciate them more than I used to. Does that count as a yes?

When I was growing up parsnips didn’t make their way into too many of our dinners. As in, almost never, at least on the Johnson side. (Eve, can you think of a time?)

No, we stuck to the basic root vegetables: carrots, sometimes rutabaga (which we called turnips, but were really yellow-fleshed rutabaga), and potatoes. Especially potatoes. A never-ending rotation of mashed, boiled, baked, and, for special occasions, scalloped. And then more mashed ones again.

On the Neely side of the family, parsnips turned up only once every few years, around Christmas. At my cousins’ place my aunt Glennys made candied parsnips, with heaps of brown sugar and butter to make them more appealing to everyone, especially the kids. I knew my sweets though, and the candied parsnips didn’t have me fooled. When the parsnips got passed around the table to me I remember taking a token one or two small pieces, just to be polite.

Enter the CSA. This was our second summer enjoying a weekly box of fresh vegetables from Cropthorne Farm in Ladner, and I love it. Well, mostly I do. It’s exciting to see the season unfold week by week and to try veggies I don’t normally buy.

But every season, there’s a few weeks where my culinary creativity sinks to a low ebb. Maybe it goes on summer holiday. At those times, when I open up the weekly box and see something I don’t regularly eat — like kohlrabi or parsnips — I’m apt to shove it to the back of the crisper, thinking what am I ever going to do with that?

That’s exactly how I felt when we got parsnips 3 weeks in a row in the CSA box. I secretly hoped that Bob would discover them in the fridge and roast them all up for a big Sunday night dinner à la Jamie Oliver.

No such luck.

So I took up a challenge for myself: Find some inspiration, somewhere, and make a respectable dish out of the parsnips. Not a boring side dish you’ve seen before (boiled or roasted parsnips), and not a slavishly strange creation you’ll never see again (Heston Blumenthal’s parsnip cereal). More like a simple, slightly offbeat dish that would appeal to almost everyone over 12 years old.

How about parsnip hummus?

Yes, parsnip hummus. An earthy, thick spread of cooked parsnips, tahini, garlic and spices. Some lemon juice and zest for brightness, and a little olive oil and melted butter for a velvety mouthfeel. The texture is like hummus but lighter, a little sweeter and spicier than one made with chickpeas. (And Eve, everyone happily enjoyed more than a token amount at your dinner party. I’ll take that as two thumbs up.)

Parsnip Hummus

This is a fantastic way to use parsnips in an unexpected way. It's a healthy, gluten- and grain-free appetizer that pairs well with raw veggies or crackers. Plus, you can make it a day ahead of time.

Ingredients

1 lb parsnips, peeled and cut into 2-inch thick pieces
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
juice + zest of 1 lemon
1 tablespoon ground cumin, toasted (*see note)
1 teaspoon ground coriander, toasted (*see note)
1/4 teaspoon ground cloves, toasted (*see note)
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
salt and pepper to taste
olive oil for drizzling (optional)
fresh vegetables, crackers or bread for dipping

Instructions

Place the parsnip pieces in a medium saucepan and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer over medium-low heat until parsnips are tender, about 5 minutes. Drain and transfer to food processor.
Add lemon zest and juice, spices, and olive oil and blend together until smooth. Scrape down the sides of the processor, add the butter and blend together again. Add salt and pepper to taste. If the texture is thicker than you prefer, add a little more olive oil or lemon juice. If not using right away, cover and refrigerate.
To serve, spoon hummus into a ramekin or onto a plate, drizzle with some olive oil if desired, and surround with slices of fresh vegetables, crackers or bread. Makes about 1-1/2 cups.

Notes

Toasting and grinding your spices helps to boost their flavor: Heat spices in a dry sauté pan over medium-low heat, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon, until fragrant. (Keep a very close eye on your pan, as the spices go from fragrant to burnt in no time!) Remove from heat, cool, then grind in a spice grinder. I use an inexpensive coffee grinder which I use exclusively for spices.

Pear ginger upside-down cake

I’m blaming it on the move. The lack of posts lately, that is. To say it’s been hectic around here the last month is an understatement.

Moving house is one of those well-known stressful life events. And ours wasn’t just a move but a downsizing. I’m not sure, but my guess is that this ups the stress score a few notches.

In addition to the long list of regular moving tasks, with a downsizing there’s a number of questions that need answers before moving day: What is essential to take with us? Will our huge, well-loved sofa fit in the door? What can we shed rather than move into storage? And one question I pondered a lot: If it’s going into storage, won’t we realize in a year that we can get along without it just fine? That’s the minimalist in me talking.

With all the long days of making moving-related decisions, it suddenly hit me: With my regular life temporarily turned upside-down, I really needed a few stable things to count on. Anchors to help keep me sane amidst all the changes swirling around us.

…

Blackberry Apple Relish

My aim was to make a good, savory blackberry sauce. One that would creatively accompany a main course like grilled fish or meat. I tell you, it’s been a windy road to get there.

I think it comes down to the color.

Blackberries are, well, black. Very, very dark. For dessert, this is not a problem — a dark purple sorbet or pie filling that’s inky blackish purple come off as fun, like a whimsical finish to the meal. But when you’re aiming for a savory sauce, such dramatic dark purple poses a challenge.

First I tried a blackberry beurre blanc for a salmon filet I’d bought. I’ve adored beurre blanc since I went to cooking school, where I was first introduced to its buttery goodness. A perfect accompaniment to poached fish, if I remember the lesson correctly.

Beurre blanc is a rich, delicate sauce that requires a good amount of attention to keep the heat just warm enough, and the butter cold enough, so that the emulsion doesn’t break into an oily mess. I thought that adding blackberries would add a seasonal punch of summer, an interesting twist to a traditional sauce.

The flavor came through wonderfully. Packed with intense berry flavor, and enough tartness from the vinegar to balance with all the rich butter. When I closed my eyes and tasted, all was good.

But when I looked down at the plate to see the shocking dark purple sauce next to my pale spring salmon — white spring, no less — I was a little horrified.

…

Mini Chocolate Blackberry Cupcakes

It’s funny, the way we do family birthdays. The ones that fall outside of October, that is.

Between Christmas and August it seems impossible to get us all together to celebrate individual birthdays, one each in January, March and May and two in July. We’ve tried numerous times, but our schedules don’t mesh very well. And having Bob out of town on business so frequently these days doesn’t help either.

A late summer party to exchange gifts and belated birthday cards seems to work. There’s a small window of opportunity, around the third week of August, after you and Alan return from vacation and before Janet and Jenny head off in early September. By this time, there’s usually been enough warm weather and lazy summer days so we’re all relaxed, to some extent, along with more relaxed summer schedules.

After spending the day in the kitchen chopping, roasting and making vinaigrettes, I was happy to enlist some help to assemble the appetizers — Alana with the smoked salmon canapes and you with the melon pieces wrapped with prosciutto. We don’t hang out too often in the kitchen together, but it’s always interesting to compare how we’d tackle things.

Like the prosciutto wrapped melon. If it were you, you would have put the ingredients on a plate so your guests could assemble their own appetizers. The pieces of melon are so small, you want me to wrap each one?

Yes, Eve. (Tee hee hee.)

It’s true, making individual bites of prosciutto-wrapped melon is more labor intensive. But I like them that way. I think it’s partly because I like to be on the receiving end of perfect bite-sized canapés. It’s like you’re at a posh cocktail party, you know?

It could be my Dad’s side of the family coming out in me too. I can remember his mother taking a lot of care and attention to assemble a fruit platter for a party, fussing to make sure the watermelon slices were all evenly spaced in a fan shape and fretting a little when they would slide out of order.

To complement your rustic peach blackberry galette for dessert, I made chocolate blackberry cupcakes. Mini sized ones. (There’s that labor intensiveness again. But they’re so cute. And bite sized!) A blackberry in the bottom of each cup, rich chocolatey cake and a Swiss meringue buttercream, lightly flavored and colored with juice from fresh blackberries that I squished through a fine mesh strainer.

It was so good to get everyone together at last. We bundled up to eat outside, and I was thankful we had the outdoor heater going. When the light faded so quickly after dinner we ate dessert in the pitch black, except for the glow of the candles. The stories, laughs and bites of blackberry galette and cupcakes made me think this is just what a late summer barbecue should be like. Happy Birthday, Bob, Eve, Jenny, Alan and Dad. Thanks to Janet, Brittne, Alana and Mike for helping make the night a special one.

Mini Chocolate Blackberry Cupcakes with Blackberry Buttercream Frosting

Yield: 44 mini cupcakes

Adapted from Cake on the Brain's Best Ever Quinoa Cupcakes. These cupcakes are super moist, almost a bit too moist for my liking. (Hard to believe, I know.). The blackberry buttercream is adapted from a recipe from Sugar for the Brain.

Ingredients

Chocolate Blackberry Cupcakes:

2 cups cooked quinoa, cold (*see note)
1/2 cup milk
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla
1-1/2 cups sugar
1 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1-1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
44 blackberries

Blackberry Buttercream

4 large egg whites
1 cup sugar
3/4 pound butter, softened
pinch salt
1/2 cup blackberries

Instructions

For the Chocolate Blackberry Cupcakes:

Preheat the oven to 350F. Line a mini muffin tin with paper liners. Drop 1 blackberry into each liner.
In a blender or food processor, combine milk, eggs and vanilla and blend until combined. Add 2 cups of cold cooked quinoa (see below) and the melted butter. Blend until smooth.
Add the sugar, cocoa, baking powder, baking soda and salt, and blend well to combine.
Pour (if you're using a blender) or spoon out (if you're using a food processor) the batter into the cupcake liners. Fill them about 3/4 full. Bake the cupcakes for about 20 minutes, or until a cake tester inserted into the middle of a cupcake comes out clean.
Let the cupcakes cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then remove them to a wire rack to cool completely. If desired, frost with blackberry buttercream.

For the Blackberry Buttercream:

Fill a medium saucepan 1/4 to 1/3 full with water and bring to a simmer.
In the bowl of a stand mixer, add the egg whites and sugar. Place the bowl on top of the saucepan and whisk constantly until the temperature reaches 160F. If you don't have a candy thermometer, whisk until the sugar has completely dissolved and the egg whites are hot.
Remove the egg white and sugar mixture from the heat and quickly move it to your stand mixer. With the whisk attachment, whip until the mixture is thick, glossy and cool, about 4-5 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and remove the whisk attachment.
Using the paddle attachment, beat the mixture on medium speed. While the mixture is beating, add the softened butter one piece at a time and mix until all the butter is incorporated. Add the salt.
Squish the blackberries in a fine mesh strainer over a bowl to extract the juice. Add to the buttercream and blend until smooth.

Notes

If you haven't got cooked quinoa on hand, make it first so it can cool before you add it to the cake batter: For 2 cups of cooked quinoa, rinse 2/3 cup raw quinoa. Place it in a heavy saucepan with 1 cup water and bring to a boil on medium-high heat. Cover, reduce heat to low and simmer for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and leave covered for another 10 minutes. Fluff with fork and allow the quinoa to cool completely. Quick Tip: If you're in a hurry, spread the cooked quinoa on a baking sheet and pop it into the fridge so it will cool faster.

Roasted Blackberry and Brie Crostini

I have no doubt it will be a good year for blackberries. We’ve had a stretch of warm weather that’s extended out for several weeks, to the point that I almost can’t remember the last time it rained in Vancouver. Almost.

Even with all the sun and heat, though, blackberries do take their time to ripen. It’s mid-August already, but over the weekend the two spots that Bob scoped out for picking had bushes mostly full of hard, light red berries that won’t be ready for at least another week.

There were a few juicy ones, though, the kind that practically fall off into your fingers when you give them a gentle tug.

We had to be selective, not only because of the few really ripe berries. For some reason, we both were wearing too few clothes to venture too far into the prickly bushes. (Shorts and a tank top for picking blackberries, and Bob shirtless? What were we thinking?)

In our defense, it was a very hot afternoon. And it was our first time out this season. More of a blackberry reconnaissance mission, since we weren’t sure what state the berries would be in once we got up close. We’ll know better next time, or at least we’ll bring some long sticks to push away the prickly shoots.

At the risk of duplicating your triple cream brie and honey dessert too closely, Eve, I experimented with an appetizer of roasted blackberries, lightly melted brie and toasted crostini. So we could have blackberries before and after dinner. It makes perfect sense in August, doesn’t it?

The roasted berries have a savory twist — a splash of olive oil and some salt and pepper before you roast them. (I love a sweet-salty flavor combination. The ripe, sweet berries together with the salt were rather moreish, as Bob would say.) Aahhhh, summer.

Roasted Blackberry and Brie Crostini

Yield: 24 crostini

A savory twist on blackberries, this cheesy fruity crostini is a delicious start a summer evening. Even better with a glass of crisp rose wine.

Ingredients

1 baguette, sliced 1/4 inch thick into 24 pieces
6-8 ounces brie cheese, cut evenly into 24 pieces
48-60 blackberries
1-2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

Instructions

For the crostini:

Preheat the oven to 350F.
Slice baguette into 1/4 inch slices and place on an unlined baking sheet. Bake until tops are lightly browned, about 5-7 minutes. Turn crostini over and bake until lightly browned, another 3-4 minutes. Move crostini to a cooling rack and let cool.

For the roasted blackberries:

Place blackberries on a parchment-lined baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Roast for 5-8 minutes, or until just warmed through. (Keep an eye on them so they don't get too soft or start to burn!)

When you're ready to serve:

Set your oven to broil. Place the crostini on an unlined baking sheet. Top each with one slice of the brie and broil until the brie is slightly melted. Remove from oven. Top each crostini with 2-3 roasted blackberries and serve immediately.

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