Apple and Orange Egg Custard Tart

A refreshingly tangy twist on Mom's apple pie.
I usually bake it with the pie plate sitting on top of a cookie sheet because the filling invariably spills over the top of the dish while baking.

Ingredients:

• 1 + 1/3 cups whole wheat flour
  
• 6 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 3 eggs
  
• 1 orange
  
• 3 cups apples
  
• 1/4 cup sugar
  
• 1 cup half and half cream

Directions:

To make the crust:

Mix butter into flour with a fork.
Beat one egg and stir into flour mixture.
Knead pastry with hands until it forms a soft ball.
Roll pastry out until it is sufficient in size to line bottom and sides of a 9" deep dish pie plate.
Grease and flour pie plate.
Line pie plate with pastry.
Line pastry with tin foil and fill with dried beans or other baking beads.
Bake blind 10 minutes at 425°F.

To make the filling:

Zest and juice the orange.
Peel and core apples and cut into thin slices.
Toss apple slices with orange juice and zest.
Beat two eggs.
Add sugar and cream to eggs and beat well.
Fill pie crust with apple mixture.
Pour egg mixture over top of apples.
Bake at 375°F for 45-55 minutes (until custard is set).
Cool in pan on wire rack.
Serve at room temperature or chilled.

Wild Mushroom Crêpes

An excellent crêpe filling -- especially for those not quite up for the heat of my chicken curry.

Ingredients:

• crêpes
  
• 6 cups mushrooms (portobello, cremini, shitake & oyster)
  
• 1 garlic, peeled and diced
  
• 1/2 cup dry red wine
  
• 1 cup whipping cream
  
• butter for frying

Directions:

Prepare crêpe batter and chill.
Stir fry garlic and mushrooms in butter until mushrooms are soft.
Add wine and cook until liquid has evaporated.
Purée mushrooms in a food processor.
Return mushrooms to pan, add cream, and heat gently while mixing well.
All mushroom mixture to simmer over low heat until thickened.
Cook crêpes.
Spoon mushroom mixture in a line across crêpe, 1/3 of the way in from one edge.
Fold near edge up over mushroom mixture and roll up crêpe to surround filling.
For best results, serve crêpe immediately.
When large quantities are required, place filled crêpes in a singler layer in a large baking pan (such as a lasagna pan) and warm in oven to heat through just before serving.

Chicken Curry

This recipe is a favourite at my dinner parties as a crêpe filling. It is also excellent served over rice. I take it wilderness camping, preparing the curry ahead of time and freezing it in airtight plastic freezer bags. The curry then serves as an ice pack for the rest of my food during the first couple of days of my trip. Once it has thawed out, it is time to enjoy it. Cook the rice over an open fire, then stir curry mixture into cooked rice and heat through.



Ingredients:

• 1 coconut
  
• approximately 1 cup hot water
  
• olive oil for frying
  
• 1 garlic, peeled and diced
  
• 1 yellow onion, peeled and diced
  
• 1 inch ginger root, peeled and diced
  
• 1 lb chicken breasts *
  
• 2 tablespoons hot curry paste **
  
• 1 red pepper, seeded and diced
  
• 1 yellow pepper, seeded and diced
  
• 1 mango, peeled, pitted and diced
  
• fresh cilantro leaves
  
• freshly squeezed juice of one lime
  

Notes:

* I often work with chicken breasts pre-cut into strips for stir frying. This makes for quick, even cooking throughout without drying the outside of the chicken, and speeds up the work of dicing the cooked chicken.

** I favour Patak's Madras curry paste, but there is a wide variety of excellent prepared curry pastes available for those of us without the time to prepare our own.

Directions:

Drain and reserve water from coconut.
Bake coconut at 400°F for 15 minutes.
Break coconut open and pry flesh away from shell.
Peel brown skin off coconut flesh.
Purée coconut flesh in blender or food processor with reserved coconut water and enough additional water to make liquid up to 1.5 cups.
Allow pureéed coconut mixture to stand for 15 minutes.
Press coconut mixture through a fine sieve to extract milk.
Stir fry onion, garlic and ginger in olive oil.
Add chicken and continue stir frying until chicken is cooked through.
Dice chicken with spatula while continuing to cook. (Once cooked, it should slice easily with a plastic or rubber spatula.)
Add curry paste and mix well.
Add peppers, continuing to stir fry.
Add coconut milk and bring to a boil.
Reduce heat and simmer.
Add mango, chopped cilantro leaves and freshly squeezed lime juice.
Continue to simmer curry until flavours are well blended.

To fill crêpes:

Prepare crêpes.
Spoon curry mixture in a line across crêpe, 1/3 of the way in from one edge.
Fold near edge up over curry mixture and roll up crêpe to surround curry.
For best results, serve crêpe immediately.
When large quantities are required, place filled crêpes in a singler layer in a large baking pan (such as a lasagna pan) and warm in oven to heat through just before serving.

Crêpes

Crepes are best served fresh, straight out of the pan, but when serving a large crowd, I prepare all of the crepes ahead, filling them as they are cooked, and place the filled crepes in a baking pan in the oven to be re-heated for serving.

Ingredients:

• 2 cups all purpose flour
  
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
  
• 4 eggs
  
• 2 cups milk (approximately)
  
• 1/4 cup butter, melted
  
• additional butter for frying

Directions:

Combine flour and salt in a large bowl.
In a separate bowl, beat eggs with a wisk.
Beat 2 cups milk into eggs until well combined.
Slowly pour egg mixture into flour mixture, beating constantly.
Continue beating until mixture is well blended and batter is smooth.
Add melted butter and beat until combined.
Cover batter and refrigerate at least one hour.
Stir refrigerated batter. Batter should be smooth and thin.
Stir in additional milk if batter is too thick.
Melt small amount of butter over medium heat in crêpe or flat-bottomed frying pan. (Just enough to lightly coat surface of pan.)
Pour very thin layer of batter into pan.
Cook crêpe approximately 90 seconds over medium heat (bubbles should start to appear in top surface of crêpe.)
Flip crêpe with spatula.
Cook second side for approximately 90 seconds.
Turn crêpe out onto plate.
Fill as desired and serve.

Tyrcuill Experiments in Winemaking

My parents have an enormous apple tree in their yard which yields tens of thousands of apples each year. Save for a few eaten by the dog, my mother has been gathering these apples up into plastic bags and putting them all out at the curbside on garbage collection day. (I know, I know! I cringe too. I have tried to convince my mother to at least compost the apples, but she refuses.)

This year, my father and I decided to pursue a new plan for saving some of those delicious apples from the local landfill. My father purchased a 1000 watt Breville "Juice Fountain Elite" and we have been experimenting with making apple wine and cider. I will be chronicling those experiments in this post.



More to come soon!

Apple Spice Cake

This makes a delicious, moist and flavourful cake. I baked one for a camping trip, covered it in plastic wrap once it had cooled, and enjoyed some everyday of a five day trip!

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
  
• 1/2 cup brown sugar
  
• 2 eggs
  
• 1 cup whole wheat flour
  
• 3/4 cup whole grain oats
  
• 1.5 tsp baking powder
  
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
  
• 1/2 tsp salt
  
• 1/2 tsp grated nutmeg
  
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
  
• 1/4 tsp ground cloves
  
• 2 cups filtered apple pulp
  
• 1 cup chopped walnuts
  
• 1 cup raisins

Directions:

Beat butter and brown sugar together until light and fluffy.
Beat in eggs.
Sift flour, oats, baking salts and spices together.
Stir flour mixture into egg mixture.
Mix in apple pulp until well combined.
Fold in nuts and raisins.
Pour batter into greased and floured 9" x 5" loaf pan.
Bake at 350°F for 55-60 minutes (until wooden pick inserted in centre of cake comes out clean).
Allow to cool in pan on wire rack.
Cake is best fresh but cooled leftovers can be wrapped in plastic wrap, stored at room temperature and enjoyed for several days.

Apple Strudel

This is a great recipe for using up some of the pulp left over from the process of juicing apples. I use a high speed juicer which presses some filtered pulp through with the juice. This can be shaken into the juice for a healthy, fresh-pressed drink, but when I need my juice a little clearer, I strain it a second time through a double thickness of cheesecloth and use the pulp from that filtering in this recipe.



Ingredients:

• 4 cups apple pulp
  
• 1 cup ricotta cheese
  
• 1 egg, beaten
  
• 1 cup chopped pecan pieces
  
• 1 lb. phyllo pastry sheets
  
• 100g parmesan cheese
  
• 1 cup butter, melted

Directions:

Assemble all ingredients before beginning to work with phyllo pastry.

Mix apple pulp, ricotta cheese, pecans and beaten egg together thoroughly.

Grate parmesan cheese. (This step should be obvious, I know, and I'm not receiving sponsorship for any product placements on this site, but the tool I have been using for this job is so cool, I have to share it with you.)

The Amazing Microplane Zester


This fabulous tool was a gift from my friend Pam. The Microplane is awesome for finely grating chocolate, hard cheeses, garlic and hard fruits and veggies such as carrots and coconut.


Grated food is collected in the Microplane's own little tray.


And from there can be easily decanted into whatever other container you like.


The Microplane created a full cup of fresh and finely grated parmesan cheese in less than 60 seconds!

Spread one sheet of phyllo pastry out onto work surface.
Keep remaining sheets wrapped in damp cloth.

Lightly and quickly brush phyllo pastry with melted butter.


Sprinkle grated parmesan on top of buttered pastry.


Repeat with two additional layers of pastry, butter & parmesan.

Spoon apple mixture along one edge of pastry.


Fold near edge of pastry over apple mixture, tuck in sides of pastry, and roll up.

Bake strudels in 400°F oven for 20-25 minutes (until golden).

Enjoy these pastries fresh and warm.