Wet ingredients:

3/4 cup butter (salted)
1 cup brown sugar (beat to buttercream)
1 large egg (beat in)
1 tsp vanilla (beat in)
1/4 cup yogurt (stir in)

Dry ingredients:

1 1/2 cups white flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking soda (sifted together)

The following are rough proportions… I found the ingredients in my freezer so I used what I had… which probably worked out to more than 1/2 a cup of each:

1/2 cup – 1 cup white chocolate smashed into chunks
1/2 cup – 3/4 cup pistachio pieces (i smashed them)
1/2 cup – 3/4 cup dried cranberries

Form into balls, and press down with a fork.
Bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes… depending on your oven.

• don’t mash the sh$t out of the avocados – a little chunky texture is nice
• lotsa lime
• skip the sour cream / mayo / etc… avocados are wonderfully creamy on their own!

The Goods

2 large avocados, as ripe as you can get them, cubed*
1/3 cup fine chopped red onion
juice of one big juicy lime
1/2 tsp salt
dash of chipolte powder (not a requirement but adds a nice smokey backdrop)
fresh chopped cilantro, to taste

With a fork, gently mash the avocado. Don’t keep mashing til it’s smooth, leave some chunks!
Save the avocado pit and toss it back in the bowl. My sister in law tells me that it keeps it from going brown (oxidizing)… and she’s from Mexico so she knows her guacamole!

*cubing instructions…

slice the avocado lengthwise into 2 pieces and pry apart
hold one half in the palm of your hand and slice the flesh like a checkerboard, about 1 cm wide squares
take a spoon and scoop it out

I originally wanted to stuff the turkey breast with the “topping”. But the turkey was so perfectly bound together, I didn’t want to dismantle it then string it back into a roast. Using the topping instead made the presentation really nice! But I do want to try it as a stuffing sometime – buying the turkey breasts whole and then wrapping them up with the mixture inside. Anyhow this version is less complex, and turned out great.

Turkey Roast with Cranberry, Pistachio and Goat Cheese

I bought a 1.25kg turkey roast to serve 4, and we have some leftovers (but not much)! It was extremely simple to cook.

Preheat the oven to 350F
Place turkey roast in roasting pan (I actually used a casserole dish because I need a roasting pan)
Season turkey roast with oil, salt, pepper, rosemary and thyme (chopped fresh)
Make sure the skin side is up (if the roast has a skin-side) to preserve moisture
Cook until center is at 170F, this took ~50 minutes
Remove from oven and let site for 20mins. Put the lid on to keep in warm.

Tips

I put the lid on the roast after 20 minutes to seal in some juices. The turkey roast is really lean, you need to be conscious of not drying it out.

Topping

In a pot/pan you can fry in, but have a lid for…
Olive oil (~2 tbsp)
1 small red onion or shallots, chopped fine
2 cloves of crushed garlic
Salt to sweat em’
Cook until softened
Add 1/2 cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup white wine
Add lid and simmer
1/2 cup pistachios, smashed lightly to break into halves. Add to pan.
Chopped fresh rosemary and thyme… lots of it!
Cook until nuts have softened and wine has been absorbed by cranberries / evaporated.

Add to turkey roasting pan when turkey has about 10 minutes left. The turkey gets steamed with some of the flavour and the topping picks up a bit of the juice.

Miso White Wine Gravy

A turkey roast doesn’t give you squat to make real gravy, so I made one up.

2 tbsp butter, bring to heat in pan
1 tbsp flour, add to butter, let it dissolve and thicken
1/2 cup white wine, stir in
2 tbsp miso, stir in til dissolved
Simmer til til wine has lost alcohol
Add water as needed if the consistency it too thick. It should be about like regular gravy.

How to Serve

Get a platter.
Slice turkey roast into 1/2-3/4 inch slices, to your taste
Arrange on platter like dominos
Pour white wine gravy over (don’t drench em, just a little sauce for flavour and effect)
Spoon cranberry topping overtop
Spinkle goat cheese (about 3 tbsp) over mixture

Side Dishes

Yams

I made the same roasted rosemary yams… delish.

Brussel Sprouts with Sesame Seeds

My sister in law made these once and I lifted the idea from her.

Brussels sprouts
Olive oil, salt and pepper
Sprinkle sesame seeds
Stir together and roast til softened

I also made mushrooms and a bell pepper salad. I’ll post those separately!

I prepared this dinner in my mother’s kitchen, which is amazingly well stocked with every cooking contraption. Altogether it served 4, hungry people.

1 kg. fresh halibut filets

Tapenade? Sure we’ll call it tapenade

small pile of black olives, chopped as fine as you can get them
1/2 small red onion, chop as fine as you can
sprinkle 2 tsp herbes de provence* on top of chopped mixture
chop it all together until it makes almost a paste
transfer to bowl
add zest of 2 lemons
juice from 1/2 a lemon
3 cloves crushed garlic
some capers
some olive oil to make it a sticky-constency
salt and pepper
mix it all together, set aside

in a baking dish (for broiling), lay fish out flat, skin down
drizzle with olive oil
juice other half of lemon on top
salt and pepper
spread tapenade over fish (it was like an 1/8″ thick)
broil

* I’d never cooked with this herb blend – it’s a mix of thyme, savory, lavender and rosemary. My quebecois friend Dom keeps a rock salt shaker with herbes de provence mixed in… I think I’ll be adopting it into more cooking too.

Jewel Yams with Rosemary

Super simple yams – but I’m totally sold now on Earthbound farms organic jewel yams. They are much smaller than regular yams, but you can eat the skin – they have a nice skin to meat ratio and they got super sweet inside.

I started roasting the yams well before the fish to get the timing right.

Cut yams into thick disks
Chop fresh rosemary, fine
Stir in oil oil, salt pepper
Roast em’

Broiled Tomatoes Provencial!

The tomatoes really complimented the halibut. A bit of sugar reduced the acidity.

Buy the ripest tomatoes you can find.
Slice 1/2 in thick disks, arrange on baking sheet
Drizzle olive oil
Herbes de provence
Sprinkle of sugar
Salt and pepper
Broil until some of the moisture is baked out, but they haven’t blackened.

Serve with grilled veggies (asparagus, bell peppers, mushrooms).

I served this with some rosemary mashed potatoes, grilled asparagus and mushrooms.

Panko Breaded Tenderloin

Preheat oven to 425

Pork tenderloin, trimmed
Season with salt and pepper
Whisk 1 large egg
Dip tenderloin in egg
Dip tenderloin in panko crumbs

In a cast-iron or heavy pan, add some mustard oil (any oil would be okay, this is what I used)
Grill the meat on the stovetop (I used a cast-iron pan) a few minutes on each side
Transfer to oven pan and roast till done ( I don’t want to be responsible for any food poisoning here so just make sure it’s cooked)

White Wine Anise Sauce

I reused the same pan that I’d seared the pork in for the sauce.

Chop 1 fresh anise bulb (~1 cup) fine
Add a bit more oil to pan
Saute til clear (then a bit brown), adding a bit of salt to make it sweat
Pour white wine over (~1 cup)
Stir in 1-2 tsp mustard
Bit of honey
~ 1 tbsp butter
Reduce the sauce to 1/3

Serving

Remove meat, let it sit for 5 minutes
Slice in 3/4 inch medallions and arrange
Drizzle sauce over it.

Ratatouille

• 1 medium eggplant, cubed. Sprinkle with sea-salt and let sit on paper towel for 30 minutes until some of the excess water leeches out. Makes for less-mushy eggplant when it’s cooked.
• 1 medium zucchini, cubed or disked. Using the leeching technique is not a bad idea here either.
• 20-30 cherry tomatoes sliced in half
• Bell peppers, sliced in large squares (1″ x 1″)
• 1 medium red onion and/or fennel bulbs, in wedges
• Crushed garlic
• Fresh rosemary chopped fine (or use herb blender)
• Toss with olive oil, salt and pepper.

Roast em. Remove from oven… if any skins get blackened, peel it off.

Transfer veggies to large saucepan.

Add…

• 1/2 can of tomato paste.
• 1/2 cup red wine
• Water as needed (the consistency should be stewy, nice and thick)
• Bit of honey to cut acidity.
• Ground fennel seed (if fennel bulbs not used when roasting)

Simmer for 30-60 minutes.

Snapper

Red snapper fillets, fried with salt, pepper, lemon juice.

Serving

Sprinkle ratatouille with chopped fresh basil and mild goat’s cheese.

Serve with baguette for dipping.

sesame oil mixed with a less pungent oil… half-half
onion, brocolli, mushrooms, baby corn, bell peppers
garlic, ginger

Saute the tofu in a separate pan.. that small crepe pan worked great. I like to do this so the tofu gets crispy on its own.

Sauce

Mirin (1/3 cup?), Miso (1/4 cup), Soy Sauce (< 1/4 cup because the miso is salty too)
Add the sauce to the veggies when they are 75%.

Rice Noodles

When the veggies are at 95%, and a bit of water to the wok, stir it around, then push aside the veggies so there a pool at the bottom of the wok. Add the rice noodles to the liquid, then pile the veggies back on top.

Put the lid on the wok and let the noodles absorb the liquid (3-5 mins?). Eat.

Soak the rice noodle in room temperature water for an hour to soften. If you’re pinched for time, boil water, and add same amount of room temperature water, add rice noodles and let sit for 15 minutes. The idea is to soften them but so leave some room for frying, where they will soak in some of the extra liquid for flavour.

Saute

canola oil or mustard seed oil
onion, cauliflower, bell peppers, sliced carrot
garlic, ginger
salt to make veggies sweat

Sauce

Mix together some ground cumin, tamarind sauce/chutney a bit of the hot sauce. Add mixture to the veggies when they are 75% cooked.

Chicken Tenders

If you are using vegetarian chicken tenders, add them at this time. If you are using chicken, slice into strips and stirfry separately, then add to vegetable saute.

Rice Noodles

When the stirfry is 95% done, and a 1/2 cup of water to the wok, stir it around, then push aside the veggies so there a pool at the bottom of the wok. Add the rice noodles to the liquid, then pile the veggies back on top.

Put the lid on the wok and let the noodles absorb the liquid (3-5 mins?). Serve. Eat.