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Winter Recipe Roundup

Winter Recipe Roundup
Crustcrumbs

What happens when you give drunk people fire and tell them to spell.

Judging by my Facebook feed, everyone wants this winter to die a fiery death and never return.  Well, suck it up, because I have more winter photos to share, as well as a reminder of the winter recipes we posted.  Hopefully soon this winter will be a distant memory, and you can look back on this post fondly in October when you’ve forgotten that time when it was technically spring but still -14 degrees Celsius and snowing outside.

Also, we busted our asses in a snowstorm to take these photos “in the name of Crustcrumbs!“, so you are going to look at them, okay?  Okay.

Actual snowstorm.

Our shooting conditions.

Winter Recipe Roundup

1. Ice Fishing & Perch Soup

For this recipe, we trekked over to Minet’s Point Park in Barrie to visit the cool ice fishing tepees.  We pretended to go ice fishing to the amusement of the locals while John cooked fish on a portable grill and served it up in a soup.  In a glorious display of grace and finesse, I slipped on the ice and injured my hip like a 90 year old woman.

Perch Soup

2. Hickory Smoked Venison Shoulder

The venison was smoked on the BBQ.  I made John go outside in the snowstorm to check on the meat while I took pictures through the window “for artistic purposes”.  This was also my first time trying venison and it was tasty, but not as tasty as the wild rice salad John made as a side dish, which I am still obsessed with to this day.

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3. Gluten-Free Sticky Toffee Pudding

We baked a cake in a wooden wine crate in a campfire (sort of).  Spoiler alert: the wood crate caught on fire.  The cake was still tasty, because John says it’s impossible to screw up sticky toffee pudding.  Even when it’s gluten free.  I didn’t take a good photo of the final product because cider.

Sticky Toffee Pudding

More Pictures

Ice fishing huts

Cooking Outdoors

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Sticky Toffee Pudding

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Sticky Toffee Pudding

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Enjoy spring!

Related posts:

Gluten Free Sticky Toffee Pudding Hickory Smoked Venison Shoulder Halloween Dessert Cart Roundup Cheesecake with a Coconut Crumb Crust

5 Days of Cocktails – Day 1: County Nog

5 Days of Cocktails – Day 1: County Nog

In honour of all of those Christmas office parties cluttering up your social calendar this month, we’re celebrating inappropriate boozy get togethers with our ultimate Mad Men-stlye booze fest and the 5 Days of Cocktails! These are our favourite cocktails to celebrate the end of the year. Some drinks we have all year-round and others, like the County Nog, we only bring out for Christmas parties when we’re pining for spiced Christmas flavours.

5 Days of Cocktails

For those not accustomed to especially boozy cocktails (I prefer mine to come in at 3 ounces), here is a little reminder of restraint coming from Dorothy Parker:

“I like to have a martini,
Two at the very most.
After three I’m under the table,
after four I’m under my host.”

With that out of the way, let’s get on to the party!

County Nog

Eggnog enthusiasts have all but ruined eggnog for everyone else. To them it either has to be a heavy custard affair that’s more appropriately eaten with a spoon or it’s the cartons of the prefab stuff, sometimes without booze and even worse, though I admire their greedy-passion for it, steamed into their morning latte.

County Nog

When I think of drinking eggnog, I think it’s got to be cold, boozy and in small doses so that it leaves me wanting more. It’s what to drink when you’re not really feeling like Christmas because of it’s powerful ability to evoke the Christmas spirit. It’s what Clark Griswold pours into his Christmas moose mug in National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation and is the iconic drink for taking people past the point of Christmas cheer and into something a bit merrier. This Christmas sipper is for the well-intentioned Christmas romantic.

County Nog

This recipe is based almost exactly on a recipe that appeared in the Globe and Mail two years ago and it comes from one of Toronto’s best mixologists, Aja Sax, currently bar manager of The Huntsman Tavern. It was created while she was working at The County General restaurant, hence the name “County Nog”.

Makes 1 cocktail

1 1/2 oz bourbon (I use Bulleit)
1/2 oz Grand Marnier
3/4 oz Earl Grey tea, steeped and cooled
1/2 oz cinnamon simple syrup
1 egg yolk
dash of Scrappy’s cardamom bitters (optional)
whole nutmeg for grating

In a shaker add the bourbon, Grand Marnier, Earl Grey tea, cinnamon syrup, egg yolk and bitters. Shake for 10 seconds, then add ice to fill the shaker and shake for an additional 20 seconds. Strain into a cocktail glass and using a microplane or other fine grater, grate the nutmeg over the top for a garnish.

Cinnamon Simple Syrup

makes 500ml syrup

250ml cold water
250g granulated sugar
1 cinnamon stick

Combine all of the ingredients in a small saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring a little to ensure the sugar dissolves evenly. Once the sugar is fully dissolved, remove from the heat and cover for 20 minutes to allow the cinnamon to further infuse into the syrup. Store in a glass jar in the refrigerator and use within 1 month.

 

Related posts:

5 Days of Cocktails – Day 4: Bourbon Sour 5 Days of Cocktails – Day 2: Black Manhattan 5 Days of Cocktails – Day 5: Bijou 5 Days of Cocktails – Day 3: Widow’s Kiss

Ginger Ice Cream

Ginger Ice Cream

Ginger Ice Cream

The sourness from the lime slime oozes into the spicy ginger and boozy-sweet apple in this ice cream, making for a superb dessert tribute for a bunch of 80s children to enjoy on Halloween as they rewatch Ghostbusters for the hundredth time and cry about how how old they are.

A lot of times home made ice cream freezes too solid and requires some time out of the freezer before it can be scooped. For those uninitiated to home made ice cream, it’s a hard first lesson to take. One of the reasons this happens is because most home ice cream makers aren’t able to churn enough air into the mix before running out of space in the machine. A trick learned from the genius Nigella Lawson is to take the extra step to whip the cream before adding it to the cooled custard in order to incorporate extra air into the ice cream before freezing it. Fat, sugar, and alcohol also help to keep ice cream from freezing solid after it’s frozen in the freezer. This recipe does have a higher portion of fat but it’s worth it and it’s not too sweet, allowing the spiciness of the ginger to come through. The Calvados is optional, though apart from being delicious, the alcohol will help to create a softer texture.

Ginger Ice Cream Recipe

Makes approximately 1 1/2 litres

Ingredients:
100g fresh ginger, unpeeled and thinly sliced
500ml whole milk (3.8% M.F.)
6 large egg yolks
125g granulated sugar
200ml whipping cream (35% M.F.)
1-2 tablespoons Calvados (optional)

In a medium pot boil the ginger in water for 2 minutes then drain, discarding the ginger water. This will kill the enzymes in the ginger that could potentially curdle the custard – a crucial bit of information taken from ice cream master David Lebovitz.

In the same pot as the drained ginger, add the milk and heat to just steaming, before it reaches the boiling point. Remove the pot from the heat and leave to steep, covered for 30 minutes to an hour.

In a medium bowl, whisk the egg yolks and sugar until pale yellow and thick ribbons fall back onto themselves when you hold the whisk above the bowl. Slowly whisk in the warm ginger-infused milk then strain the custard mixture back into the original pan, reserving the ginger. On low heat cook the custard, stirring constantly for approximately 10 minutes until thickened and just starting to coat the back of a wooden spoon. Strain the custard back into the bowl and return the ginger pieces to the mix. Leave to cool slightly before covering and refrigerating to cool completely. If you’re impatient you can place the bowl of custard in a second bowl filled with ice, stirring the custard until it’s completely chilled.

Once the custard is cold, discard the ginger and gently whip the cream to thicken it to the same consistency of the custard. Add the thickened cream and the Calvados (if using) to the custard and freeze in your ice cream maker.

Related posts:

Profiteroles Filled with Strawberry Mascarpone Cream Concord Grape Tartlets with Stay Puft Marshmallow Tops Cheesecake with a Coconut Crumb Crust Lime Slime

Lime Slime

Lime Slime

Halloween dessert cart covered in edible lime slime

The idea for lime slime came from the immensely weird and out-there Bompas & Parr. In their first release from Bompas & Parr Editions, Tutti Frutti, they detailed their experience of creating 55,000 litres of slime to surround the SS Great Britain.

As it turns out, lime slime is the perfect recipe to kick off Crustcrumbs. We hope to bring you images and recipes that show food in the most appropriate settings. No reclaimed wood surfaces – unless called for. With that in mind, there aren’t many other occasions to fully enjoy the strange sour, goopy-slick sensation of lime slime than on Halloween. Even better, we recreated a scene from Ghostbusters where Slimer gorges himself on a hotel cart full of food, leaving behind a trail of ectoplasm.

This lime slime is essentially limeade that’s been dyed green and thickened into a viscous dessert sauce. When coming up with dishes to accompany it, just imagine anything that pairs well with the sourness of lime.

For the dessert cart the slime was paired with an exotic fruit platter, ginger ice cream, concord grape tarts with Stay Pufted marshmallow tops, cheesecake with a coconut crumb crust, and profiteroles drenched in white chocolate and filled with strawberry mascarpone cream. After all of that, we couldn’t resist knocking back a few lime slime gin & tonics. We’ll be sharing all of the recipes in upcoming posts. For now, let’s get on with the lime slime.

Halloween dessert cart covered in edible lime slime

Lime Slime Recipe

Makes enough to slime an entire dessert cart – just over 1 litre*

Ingredients:
500ml freshly squeezed lime juice, about 10 limes
125g granulated sugar
500ml cold water
green food dye gel (we used Wilton’s Leaf Green)
35g sodium alginate (available from Powder for Texture)

Combine the lime juice, sugar, and water in a bowl that’s large enough to hold everything with room to spare. Using an immersion blender, blend the sugar into the liquids. You could also use a blender with the plug at the top removed or a food processor, so long as it’s large enough.

With the tip of a knife or spoon, add a minuscule amount of the food dye. You’re going for a fairly concentrated green slime but it’s better to add the dye gradually to best control the final shade of Slimer green. While the blender is running, begin adding the sodium alginate a teaspoon at a time, as it has a tendency to clump together. Continue to add the food dye and sodium alginate until you’re happy with the texture and colour. If it helps, envision this scene from Ghostbusters as you go along. It should feel funky when you dip your finger in the slime, which I highly recommend you do, while screaming like Bill Murray.

*When disposing of leftover slime, remember it doesn’t dissolve well into water – it’s best to flush this one down the toilet.

Related posts:

Lime Slime Gin & Tonic Ginger Ice Cream Profiteroles Filled with Strawberry Mascarpone Cream Cheesecake with a Coconut Crumb Crust