Wednesday 25 April 2012

Sunshine Bread

Banana Pineapple Coffee Cake

Pineapple Swan Boat
Summer is around the corner and after a few hesitant looks into the mirror in daylight, I'm getting to see that I'm gonna need to kick off winters hairy-legged coat. No more polar fleece, no more multiple layers,  no watching too much TV and ease up on the fatty bum-bum desserts. Like, NOW.

Since I can't drop this much leg hair in one session and can't quit rich and delicious cold turkey, I've got a delightful vegan banana pineapple coffee cake to help easy the pain in between waxing sessions.

Golden Delicious
1.5 c whole wheat flour
1.5 c white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp white vinegar
4 ripe bananas
1 cup fresh cut pineapple
¼ c oil
1/2 c brown sugar
Pinch of salt
2 tsp Cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Butter up your dish, "aren't you a pretty dish, I bet you wake up looking that good."

Bowl 1 - mash the bananas, add oil, sugar and vinegar.

Bowl 2 - mix flours, B. soda and powder, salt and cinnamon.

Add the 2 bowls together and fold the batter on itself 4 - 5 times. Add the pineapple and fold until just incorporated. Bake until it passes the toothpick test. Eat soon and without guilt, guilt is such a bad way to ruin good food.



Monday 9 April 2012

Sugar and Spice - Maple and Pepper Baked Salmon



Veggie-vores look away, meatitarians get ready to swoon.

This marinade is dead simple and will not your fishnets off. Adapted from Bob Blumer's recipe here.

Your needs:
  • Suitable marinating bag (should be air tight) 
  • Salmon or arctic char (fillets or steaks)
  • Marinade - equal parts maple syrup and soy sauce ( ~1/4 cup each) 
  • 24 hours for a fridge nap.
Combine the soya sauce & maple syrup in the bag, slip the fish in and close the bag being sure to squeeze out all the air. Now, for a 24 marinate in the fridge.

Place the marinated fillet on parchment lined cookie sheet and liberally cover with cracked fresh pepper - use much more then you think is necessary - it mellows out when cooked.

Bake at 350 for about 10-15 min until firm in the centre. Don't forget the booze, we went with Russell's Wee Angry Scotch Ale (my review here), it's neither wee nor angry, it's fantastic.

Picante Verde

Tempted by the devil? Willing to try something that'll hurt & get the endorphins rushing? Fondue Voodoo supports your need for self inflicted pain, we'll even give you a recipe to help you along. Remember kids, we're not responsible for your injuries - but feel free to send us the pics.

What you need:
  • Peppers, about 8 in total. A combo of jalapeƱo, serrano & habaneros, go with the level of heat you might like.
  • Garlic, 2 cloves
  • Vinegar, 2 cups. Try 50-50 mixture of rice and white
  • Cilantro, a good handful
  • Salt, about 2 - 4 tsp
The addition of cilantro adds a herb-y freshness that bumps up the flavour. It could be substituted with parsely, chives or any combo of herbs of your choice.

Hot and herb-y.
Take all of the above ingredients and place in a blender and blend on high until you get a good smooth consistency. The cilantro will not completely blend in but should be fairly broken down. Depending on the heat level you may need to thin with more vinegar. Once satisfied with the result strain into bottles. Rather than discarding the pulp I like to reserve and use for marinades etc.

This will keep in the fridge for 2-3 months - ours never last that long. 


Sunday 8 April 2012

The Passion of the Trifle

Fondue Voodoo loves any holiday were the dead come back to life, it's like black magic for the masses, and we support that. In honour of this venerated Easter holiday we created a trifle inspired by Momofuku Milk Bar's Grapefruit Pie which you can find in their cookbook here. This trifle combines angel food cake, grapefruit/passion fruit custard and a sweet grapefruit cream. 
Trifle jar for excellent storage 

What you need for the custard: 
  • 1/4 cup seville marmalade (see our recipe here or use any marmalade you like)
  • 1 passion fruit innards
  • 1 cup of instant milk custard (follow the recipe on the box)
  • 1 segmented grapefruit
  • 1 tsp oil (such as sunflower or grape seed)
Cut the rind from the grapefruit and segment each piece from the membranes (slice down each side of the segment). Place the grapefruit segments in a saucepan with the oil and gently heat. Once the grapefruit is warm (about 2-4 min) gently press the segments with the back of a spoon to release the threads.  Set aside to cool.  While the grapefruit cools make the standard issue instant custard, add the passionfruit and marmalade to the warming milk and continue to cook as usual. Once the custard has thickened, gently fold into the custard together with the cooled grapefruit threads and place in fridge.

What you need for the sweet grapefruit cream:
  • 3/4 can sweetened condensed milk
  • 2 TBSP grapefruit juice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp citric acid
  • Optional, 2-3 drops red food colouring
Combine all ingredients and fold over until completely mixed. Place in a container and put in the fridge to set.

Layer the trifle in a non reactive bowl cake, cream, cake, custard, cake...etc...and send to the fridge for a little nap.

Upon eating this heavenly dessert, your friends and family will think they died and went to heaven.


Seville Marmalade - Spreadable Love

Guest post from Jar Head:

In January-February seville oranges come into season. Time for Fondue Voodoo to become assistant kitchen servant and aid in the making of the yearly batch of marmalade. FV's main squeeze is a jar-head for home made marmalade, even though it kills him a little every time.

Ingredients are fairly simple, lots of seville
oranges and a couple lemons
To make marmalade get yourself about 1.5 kg of oranges + a lemon or 2, 5 cups of water and 4 to 5 cups of white sugar and let the magic begin.

Scrub your fruit. Slice in half and juice, saving all of the liquid, seeds and membranes - you will use these later to thicken the jam.

Now comes the difficult part, scrape out the as much of the white pith from each half rind, compost the scooped out white pith. Julienne all of the rinds for the marmalade.

Place the rinds in a large pot with the reserved juice, the saved seeds and membranes in a cheesecloth or muslin bag and 5 cups of water. Slowly bring to a boil and let simmer for about 20-30 min until the rinds are softened.

Remove the membrane bag and let cool in a bowl.  Once cool enough to handle, squeeze out all of the thick pectin that has developed and add to the pot.  Add your sugar and taste - the end product will be sweeter than it tastes now, so error on the side a just a bit tart.

Bring back to a boil and leave at a high boil until it reaches 220 degrees F on a candy thermometer.  This will take about 30 min. If you don't have a thermometer you can also test by placing a plate in the freezer - test the jam by dropping a small amount on the chilled plate and see if it wrinkles when pushed with your finger - if it does it is done.

When the jam is set, you can either place in fridge or can - this recipe makes about 4-5 500 ml jars which I like to can for later (go here for canning instructions).  I process my jam for about 10 min in a water bath.

In addition to being tasty on toast, I like to use this as a base for salad dressing and anything else where sweet but tangy oranges might feel at home.

Love on a spoon

Tuesday 3 April 2012

Black Bruschetta - Black Garlic & Black Magic

My local smug food store, which I have a love/hate relationship with  carried Black Garlic for a short week or 2 back in Febuary. Like a piggy rooting for truffles, I sorted through the basket of what looks over-baked bulbs for so long I draw a crowd of on lookers

Black Garlic is a unique flavour, sweet, deeply caramelized and earthy, like balsamic vinegar in paste form, but better. The taste is so deeply mysterious, I felt that it was best left to a simple dish, that would allow the flavour come through.

Yeah, black garlic + black magic = Fondue Voodoo.

Black magic for foodies 
What you'll need:
2 large heirloom tomatoes
2 cloves of black garlic
3 TBSP balsamic (black) vinegar
5 TBSP extra virgin olive oil
handful of fresh basil - chiffonade
1 small clove of fresh mashed garlic
salt and black pepper to taste

chopped the tomatoes in small cubes
Next time, purple tomatoes for
ultimate blackness
chiffonade the basil
smash and grind the garlic
add the balsamic & black garlic to a bowl, mash the black garlic until it dissolves
add the olive oil, tomatoes, garlic and store to combine
season as you like.

Now go out and work your black magic with a little black Stout (Howe Sound's Megadestroyer) to warm your black little heart as you stroke your black cat and daydream about the inky blackness of the night.

Sorta Pizza for Hungry Kids

Who invented pizza? I hope it was some drunk Ancient Roman, tunic in shambles,  stumbling home in the wee hours of the morning boozy and got a bad case of munchies, only to find bread and tomatoes and herbs to make a quick snack....ok unlikely - but a girl can dream. 

Whatever the case, pizza can inspire great debate between thin crust vs thick crust, deep dish vs. minimalist toppings, and gourmet vs. late night by the slice greasey a la carte.  This is our quick toss together version that some how managed to look and taste incredible  - I love it when your expectations are so overwhelmingly exceeded you even surprise yourself. 
Pea Shoots on Pizza? Hell ya...

What you'll need:

  • Flatbread - thin or thick will effect how long it cooks, I used a thick middle eastern bread coasted with sesames.
  • Tomato paste - yep, straight from the can (stay classy Vancouver)
  • Basil flakes
  • Grilled veggies - eggplant, sweet potato, asparagus, peppers (not the jarred ones - belch) or grilled tomato.
  • Greens - spinach, arugula, sprouts, I used pea shoots.
  • Cheese - stray from traditional mozza, you'll be happy.
Consider the bread and toast as necessary -  you may want to toast the bottom to ensure even heating.  I broiled the bottom and then flipped and layer the toppings. Use your best judgement. Lather the flat bread with tomato paste, I think less is more - but use your illusions. 

Shake on some basil, this isn't rocket science. Spill on your veggies, oops veggie avalanche, too many veggies is never a bad thing Greens - topped with greens is just healthy. Coat with cheese - cheese layer of gooeyness is goodness. Seriously tasty goodness, now go out and surprise yourself - you deserve it.