So Gouda! Artichoke Appetizers

Christmas 2014 is over, but the New Year is just around the corner! I made these filled artichoke hearts topped with gouda for Christmas Day appetizers and I am sure they will do well for upcoming New Year events and parties! 

For this post, I teamed up with my friend Michelle from The Tiffin Box and Dairy Farmers of Canada (DFC). The DFC provided me with the ingredients to try out one of their recipes from their Winter Warmth Collection titled "Exotic Artichokes with Gouda". 

I really liked the use of fresh herbs for the recipe. I am admittedly not a fan of parsley but with the combination of the fresh mint and dill, I barely noticed! 

In addition to the fresh herbs, the recipe calls for rice, chopped walnuts, seedless grapes, honey and shredded gouda for the topping. 

After all the ingredients are prepped, toss them together in a bowl. You can also place the filling into an air tight container in the fridge until you are ready to assemble the appetizer. I made these for Christmas dinner so I prepared all the ingredients mid afternoon and had the filling sitting in the fridge. Once guests arrived, I topped the artichoke hearts with the filling. I also added a few more gratings of gouda before serving. 

At first, I did have a little trouble topping the artichoke hearts with the filling as very little could be placed into each one. Then, Dan's Dad came to the rescue and suggested slightly pushing the artichokes hearts in to form a deeper vessel for the filling. This seemed to help a lot! We also attempted to cut down the artichoke heart but this resulted in extra artichoke pieces left over and the vessel falling apart completely. 

Overall, all the ingredients worked well together. I would suggest using less honey as the grapes were already quite sweet. I also used a Korean short grain brown sticky rice since that was all we had in the pantry. I am also thinking that getting artichoke bottoms next time would make the assembling of the appetizer much easier. 

So, head on over to the Dairy Farmers of Canada website to download the recipe and explore other recipes with cheese.  

Then, click on Exotic Artichokes with Gouda for the ingredient list and directions. Come on back to ask me any questions if you need! 

Also, remember to check out Michelle's post on her take on the Mediterranean Ricotta Cheese Fritters.

Disclosure: While Michelle and I were provided with the ingredients for our recipes, we were not compensated monetarily for our posts. 

Kimchi Roasted Cauliflower

You have probably been reading about how cauliflower is the "new" vegetable to cook with. Or, maybe it is what all the food websites that Dan and I have been reading are telling us. So, of course we needed to try out a recipe to test this theory of how cauliflower is the 'it' vegetable. 

This recipe is inspired by a recipe from the Thug Kitchen Cookbook. There is no frying of any kind which makes this cauliflower dish truly healthy! By adding in the kimchi, it reminds me of a dish from an exciting restaurant in Edmonton called Tavern 1903 (which recently closed) called KFC - Cauliflower Fried Chicken.

Feel free to adjust the spice level to your preference. The kimchi we used in this recipe was one that we had made with friends about a month ago. 1 head of cauliflower is good for 3 to 4 people.

Ingredients

• 1 Head of Cauliflower
• 1/2 cup of Flour
• 1/2 cup of water
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 4 tablespoons of kimchi

Instructions

1. Preheat oven to 375F. Cut up the cauliflower into finger-length chunks.
   
2. Start making the batter by mixing flour into the water as this helps to avoid clumps. Once flour is mixed in, add in the baking powder and salt.
   
3. Coat the cauliflower pieces with the batter.
   
4. Pour the coated cauliflower onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
   
5. Bake for 15 minutes at 375F.  Then, set the oven to broil and bake for another 5-10 minutes, until you have your preferred level of browning.
   
6. Take the tray out of the oven and gather the hot cauliflower into a pile. Then, slowly mix and fold the kimchi into the cauliflower pile.
   
7. Serve immediately. 

We also ended up grating some pecorino romano onto the dish afterwards and it worked perfectly! A friend of ours also thought sprinkling some furikake and toasted sesame onto the dish would work nicely too.

Let me know what you added to your dish in the comments below. 

Homemade Candied Cranberries Step by Step

Here are some neat treats to make for others, to serve at gatherings or to bring to potlucks that we have been making. These are essentially "raw" cranberries that have been candied. Think of them being a cranberry center with a crispy sugary shell.

I brought some of these to a work potluck and they were very well received! So, here is the recipe as even those that don't bake can make these creations! 

Ingredients

• 2 Cups of fresh (never frozen) Cranberries
• 1 Cup of Water
• 1 Cup + 1/2 Cup of Sugar
• 1 teaspoon of lemon zest

*We bought our fresh, never frozen cranberries from Costco! They had the best looking cranberries around!

Instructions

1. Create the simple syrup by pouring water and 1 Cup of sugar into small pot. Add lemon zest to pot. This will will help add more dimension to the flavour. Heat mixture until sugar has dissolved into boiling water.
   
   
   
2. Let the mixture cool for 10 minutes. Add cranberries to the simple syrup.
   
3. Cool the cranberries in the syrup until room temperature. Put cranberries and syrup into air-tight container. Rest in the fridge for at least 8 hours or up to 48 hours (2 days).
   
   
4. Strain cranberries out from syrup - this same syrup can be reheated and reused again. Let cranberries dry for about 5 minutes.
   
   
5. Put 2-3 tablespoons of sugar into a small dry cup. Placing one cranberry in at a time, roll the cranberry in the dry sugar. If you add too many cranberries at once you'll get clumping.
   
   
   
6. Keep the candied cranberries in an air-tight container in the fridge. It should keep for a few days in the fridge before getting soft. Alternatively, you can package them off as gifts in an air-tight container.
   
   

Hope you enjoyed these candied cranberries!

Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

The above picture represents the end result of me baking three different batches of salted chocolate chip cookies over a period of a week. Yes one week! Thankfully we didn't eat them all ourselves as we had people over for dinner and I dutifully brought them with me to potlucks, work meetings and get-togethers. Back in November, I was on a search for a chewy salted chocolate chip cookie that has a slightly crispy outside.  

Two different cookies, two different recipes.

I tried various butter to sugar ratios, different sugar amounts, sugar-butter whipping methods, baking soda vs. baking powder and even baking times. I charted everything! 

Flour to butter ratio and rising element were the main differences in these two cookies.
The one on the right was almost cake like due to the large amount of flour, while my current recipe (left) gave me what I was looking for - crispy outside & chewy insides. 

The recipe of the cookie that I am most happy with is depicted visually step-by-step below. Let me know in the comments below if you have a particular chocolate chip cookie that you enjoy and why.

Beyond Umami's Chewy Salted Chocolate Chip Cookies

Ingredients

• 1/2 cup butter
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/4 cup turbinado sugar
• 1/2 cup packed brown sugar 
• 1 1/2 cups flour
• 1 teaspoon baking soda
• 1 teaspoon of salt 
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup chocolate chip or chocolate chunks chopped
• good quality salt for topping

Directions:

1. Measure all the ingredients. Combine white sugar, turbinado sugar and brown sugar together. In a separate bowl combine flour, baking soda and salt together.
   
2. Place butter and sugars into the bowl of a standup mixer with the paddle attachment.
   
3. Cream butter and sugars together on medium-high speed for 10 minutes. It should look very fluffy.
   
4. Add in the egg and continue mixing with the paddle attachment. Once the egg is incorporated, add in the vanilla extract.
   
5. Slowly add in the flour, baking soda, salt mixture with the standup mixer running on low. Once all the flour is in the mixer turn the mixer back up to medium (~6)
   
6. This is what the cookie batter should look like.
   
7. Turn the mixer off and remove from stand. Fold in the chocolate chips or chocolate chunks with a spatula.
   
8. Once all the chocolate is mixed into the dough, measure out 20g balls of dough with a scale. This helps to make consistent size cookies that will all bake at the same time. Flatten each ball of dough onto a lined cookie sheet. Top with a good quality salt. In the picture below I used pyramid salt crystals.
   
   Bake at 375F for 12-13 minutes. They should be slightly browned on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside. Transfer to a baking rack to cool or pop one into your mouth for immediate taste testing.
   

Let me know if you try making them and what you like in a good cookie.