Cooking up a Storm with the Help of my Kitchen Sisters

For some rea­son — prob­a­bly as an anti­dote to stress, this being the onset of that silly sea­son — I’ve been cook­ing a lot of late, in par­tic­u­lar try­ing new recipes from books by my Toronto foodie friends.

If you’ve read the pre­vi­ous blog — my tragic tale of the miss­ing cook­books — you’ll under­stand why the tomes in ques­tion are dear to my heart.

Espe­cially trea­sured are those 100 or so that I keep close at hand on shelves I had built for this pur­pose in the impor­tant room where it all hap­pens: my com­pact, cozy kitchen.

Break­ing open a cook­book I haven’t used before is lots of fun. In this case, it was Fri­day Night Din­ners, the lat­est offer­ing of many by my long-time friend and esteemed col­league Bon­nie Stern.

As is my wont, being a food sleuth and all, I asked Bon­nie shortly after the book came out (oy vey, that was three years ago) to name her favourite recipe from it. She didn’t miss a beat: “The brisket,” was her reply.

Yes­ter­day, I took the large thawed brisket bought some weeks ago at my trusty Kens­ing­ton Mar­ket butcher Sanagan’s and, Bonnie’s book in front of me, pro­ceeded to assem­ble ingre­di­ents. They were few, sweet and sim­ple. Every­thing was on hand in my pantry includ­ing an almost untouched bot­tle of Port.

Almost four hours later, when Ross and I came home from a neigh­bour­hood meet­ing to the beau­ti­ful aroma of brais­ing beef, the brisket was ready. Accom­pa­nied by mashed pota­toes and peas, it was deli­cious — lash­ings of rich, wine-infused sauce and ten­der, juicy meat.

We now have din­ner for sev­eral days includ­ing fod­der to fill lus­cious sand­wiches. This would also be a great dish to serve at Chranukah (aka Chris­mukah), the min­i­mal­ist fusion fes­tive feast I favour!

Thank you Bon­nie. I’ll be in touch for more recipe tips!

Fri­day Night Brisket

6-lb/3 kg dou­ble brisket
1 tbsp Dijon mus­tard
1 tbsp kosher salt
1 tbsp pep­per
1 tbsp paprika
1 head gar­lic, sep­a­rated into cloves, peeled
3 large onions, sliced
1 cup Port
2 cups dry red wine
1 cup beef or chicken stock, or water

Spread brisket with mus­tard; sprin­kle with salt, pep­per and paprika.

Place gar­lic and most of onions in bot­tom of large Dutch oven. Place brisket on top. Top with remain­ing onions. Add Port, wine and stock. Bring to boil. Place parch­ment paper directly on top of brisket. Cover tightly with lid or foil.

Bake in pre­heated 350F oven at least 3 to 4 hours or until meat is fork-tender. Remove lid and paper; return to oven and cook 30 min­utes more or until brisket is browned.

Remove fat from sauce. Serve brisket sliced with sauce and onions.

Makes about 8 to 10 servings.

And now for some­thing com­pletely dif­fer­ent — but equally good.

Mair­lyn Smith is among my best bud­dies in the Toronto food world. She’s a gen­er­ous col­league, a great cook, ter­rific recipe cre­ator — but, best of all, she’s funny!

An alum­nus of the Sec­ond City com­edy troupe, she gets my jokes and is quick to respond hilar­i­ously with her own. We’ve shared many a laugh together, often over the phone when we catch up on what’s cook­ing in both our lives.

Here’s a fan­tas­tic recipe from her lat­est book Healthy Starts Here! Again, the rec­om­men­da­tion came from the horse’s mouth, namely the bril­liant author herself.

Break­fast Grab-and-Gos

Once you’ve got the ingre­di­ents which I found, believe it or not, at my local super­mar­ket, these are a cinch to make. I often keep one in my car or purse for emer­gency nosh­ing, any time of day. I did most of this in no time in my stand­ing mixer.

1 ¹⁄₂ cups oat bran
1 ¹⁄₂ cups large flake rolled oats
1 cup whole wheat flour
³⁄₄ cup ground flaxseed
¹⁄₂ cup steel-cut oats
2 tbsp wheat germ
2 tbsp cin­na­mon
1 tsp bak­ing soda
1 cup dried cran­ber­ries or blue­ber­ries
¹⁄₄ cup choco­late chips (at least 60% cocoa mass)
¹⁄₂ cup coarsely chopped wal­nuts
¹⁄₄ cup packed dark brown sugar
2 eggs (prefer­ably omega-3)
4.5-oz/128-mL jar strained prunes baby food
¹⁄₄ cup canola oil
1 tbsp pure vanilla extract

Posi­tion rack in mid­dle of oven. Pre­heat oven to 375F. Line 2 large bak­ing sheets with parch­ment paper.

Mix together oat bran, large-flake oats, flour, flaxseed, steel-cut oats, wheat germ, cin­na­mon and bak­ing soda in large bowl. Stir in cran­ber­ries, choco­late chips and walnuts.

Whisk together brown sugar, eggs, prunes, oil and vanilla in medium bowl until well blended.

Add sugar mix­ture to oat bran mix­ture; stir until really well combined.

Scoop bat­ter into rounds a bit big­ger than a golf ball (a 1/4-cup/60-mL ice cream scoop works well). Place on bak­ing sheets about 2 inches/5 cm apart. Flat­ten with hand or back of damp spoon until about ³⁄₄ inch/2 cm thick. (Bat­ter will be sticky).

Bake in oven 13 to 15 min­utes or until medium-brown. Cool slightly on cookie sheets before trans­fer­ring to wire racks to cool completely.

Store in air­tight con­tainer up to 2 weeks or freeze up to 3 months.

Makes about 20.