International Moments in Grilled Cheese

This Boston Globe post on grilled cheese sandwiches around the world (croque monsieur, welsh rarebit, quesadillas), worthy of note in and of itself, led to a search for an appropriate image. We're quite enamoured with the result:

Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous. We're also enamoured with the site it came from, whatwereeating.com, and the post they used this image for: "jalapeno cheese bread...jarlsberg, havarti, and sharp cheddar... tomato soup... fresh vine-ripened tomatoes...  sauteed onions, garlic, roasted red peppers, and fresh thyme... garnished with fresh basil pesto and truffle oil..." (Just to give you a sampling.) AND we love the fact that, according to these fine folks, April is National Grilled Cheese Month. Hurray! 

As many of you already know, our secret weapon in this arena is using Thai Curry Chedder. Pair with a cold beer. Perfection.

Charelli's Partners with Starbucks

Less stinky cheese and more of what you really want: frothy, hot triple-venti lattés.

Joking! We're joking. April Fools and all. Jokes aside, though, we're pleased to be back at the blog and you can anticipate regular updates for April and beyond.

And if you're interested in a far more clever and ambitious April Fools prank, why not serve your friends and/or family these Tromp L’oeil Eggs and Toast for dessert tonight?

Explanation and recipe here.

Caramel Pecan Pumpkin Pie

Pastry for single pie crust.

2 slightly beaten eggs
15 oz of cooked pumpkin
1/4 cup half and half cream
3/4 cup granulated sugar

1 Tbsp all purpose flour
1 tsp finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 tsp vanilla
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg
1/8 tsp ground allspice

1/2 cup packed brown sugar
1/2 cup chopped pecans
2 Tbsp butter


Prepare pastry for single crust pie. Line 9" pie plate with pastry.

In a large bowl stir together eggs pupkin and cream. Stir in granulated sugar, flour, lemon peel, vanilla, salt and spices.

Pour pupkin mixture into pastry lined pie plate. To prevent over browning, cover edge of pie with foil. Bake in 375 degree oven for 25 minutes.

Meanwhile in a medium bowl stir together brown sugar, pecans and butter until combined. Remove foil. Sprinkle brown sugar mixture over top of pie. Bake for 20 mins more or until a knife inserted near the center comes out clean and topping is golden and bubbly. Cool on a wire rack cover and refrigerate within 2 hours.

Recipe: CLASSIC CHEESE FONDUE

(serves 4-6)

A)
1 garlic clove crushed

B)
200-250g Swiss Gruyere shredded
200-250g Swiss Emmenthal shredded*
100g Swiss Appenzeller shredded*
500ml Light Dry White Wine **
Nutmeg freshly grated
Black Pepper freshly ground
Pinch Salt

C)
20 ml Cornstarch
30 ml Kirch ***

D)
1 Crusty Baguette or ½ Boule or ½ crusty wholewheat loaf cubed

METHOD:

1. Rub enameled or heavy stainless steel 2L pot with A), then leave in pot.
2. Add B), place pot on medium heat.
3. Stir continuously 8-10 minutes until cheese has melted and wine has mellowed.
4. Increase heat, to med-high, continue stirring.
5. Combine C) well and add to pot and stir. Continue stirring until mixture has thickened, do not boil.
6. Taste for seasoning, keep warm, and serve.

* For a more complex flavour try “cave aged” Gruyere.
French Comte Gruyere is also a suitable replacement for Swiss Gruyere

** Swiss White wines are not available in BC. Try an Alsatian Pinot Gris or Blanc or blend such as Hugel, “Gentil”

*** Kirch is a distillate of Black Cherries, Swiss is best, although an Austrian Brand, “Schloss” is suitable. Also drink with fondue.

Tradition dictates if a man looses his cubed bread for his fork a round of drinks must be supplied, a woman looses hers a kiss is proffered!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We hope you're all having a wonderful, food-filled weekend. One of our favourite parts of Thanksgiving is pie. We love pie. Our staff pies this year include pumpkin with pecan and brown sugar topping - if it's good we'll post the recipe... for next year... Anyway, in honour of the holiday, of pie, and of Charelli's Dutch roots, we thought we'd post this lovely painting by early Dutch still life painter, Willem Claesz (b.1594 ): Breakfast Table with Blackberry Pie.

Here's a recipe for a contemporary version of (the apparently very traditional) blackberry pie. For more visual pie inspiration, you can browse the Pie Club group on Flickr. And then there's always this, the only worthwhile pie chart ever created...

Happy Pie Day!

Porcini Cream Pizza

(yield 1 X 12-14” pizza)

Ingredients

A) ½ Recipe Thin Crust Pizza Dough
B) 200 ml Crème Fraiche
30 g Dried Porcini Mushrooms
1 Garlic Clove, finely chopped
C) 15 ml Fresh Thyme Leaves, picked
Sea Salt & Freshly Ground Pepper
D) 150 g Cacciocavallo or Mozzarella Grated
30 g Parmesan or Pecorino Fresco
E) 6 Cremini Mushrooms, Thinly sliced
F) 30 ml Italian Parsley, finely chopped

Preparation:

1. Combine (B) in a small stainless steel pot, bring to a very gentle simmer and reduce by almost ½, stirring often.
2. Add (C) and cool mixture completely ((B) & (C) may be prepared the day before).
3. Press (A) gently with fingertips on a floured surface and shaped gently with the palms of hands into approximately 12-14” circle. Transfer to a piece of parchment paper laid on a inverted cookie sheet.
4. Spread (B) mixture onto curst leaving a 2cm border.
5. Scatter (D) over evenly followed by (E)
6. Bake on a pizza stone in a preheated oven 500 F oven, by simply sliding the paper onto the stone in 2 or 3 minutes simply pull the paper out.
7. Bake for about 8-10 minutes until crispy & bubbling
8. Cool on wire rack a few minutes before cutting.


Additional/optional toppings

o Pinch of dried chili flakes
o Julienne of prosciutto after the pizza has been removed from the oven.
o Top the baked pizza with a handful of arugula tossed with an excellent quality olive oil and a squeeze of fresh lemon or lime juice

Thin Crust Pizza Dough

(yield 2 X 12-14” pizzas)

Ingredients:

A) 8gr Active Dry Yeast (2 ½ tsp)
300ml Warm Water (110 F) (1 ¼ - ½ c)
B) 400gr “OO” Flour (3c)
5gr sea salt
C) Olive Oil

Preparation:

1. Combine (A), stir to dissolve, let stand until creamy
2. Combine (B) in another bowl.
3. Using a whip, add about 1 Cup of (B) to (A), whip to form a smooth batter.
4. Begin adding remaining (B) using a wooden spoon or by machine with a paddle (beater) attachment.
5. When all of (B) has been added, turn dough onto a lightly floured board to knead or attach dough hour to mixer, knead for 6-8 minutes until dough is elastic & smooth, additional sprinkles of flour may be added if dough is too sticky.
6. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and leave until doubled, 1 ½ - 2 hours
7. Turn out dough, divide into half, round up and relax covered for 10 minutes before shaping.
8. Shaped dough gently by hand, apply toppings and bake directly on pre-heated pizza stone at 500 F until crispy & bubbling, 8-10 minutes.
9. Allow pizza to cool slightly on a wire rack before cutting.

NOTE: to maintain the light crispier character of this dough, handle it gently when shaping and try to avoid the use of a rolling pin.

* If “OO” Flour is not available use 200g Cake or Pastry Flour with 200g All Purpose Flour.
* Instant yeast may be substituted for active dry yeast, simply add it to the (B) ingredients leaving only water as (A)

Truffled Turkey

Gioachino Antonio Rossini is reputed to have only shed tears three times in his life: once after the monumental failure of his first opera, again on hearing Paganini play the violin, and finally when a truffled turkey tumbled out of his small pleasure craft and was lost in the water. It must be one good turkey...


Ingredients

8 to 10 pound turkey
Truffles, as many as possible, fresh if available
2 pounds ground pork
1 1/2 pounds ground veal
8 shallots
Butter
Salt, pepper to taste
3/4 cup cognac
2 cups fine bread crumbs
1/2 cup chopped parsley
3 carrots, cut in fine julienne
3 leeks, cut in fine julienne
3 stalks celery, cut in fine julienne
White wine
Beurre manié
Freshly ground white pepper


Preparation

The night before you plan to cook the turkey clean the bird, slice some truffles, and slip them under the skin. Slip several truffles into the cavity as well, wrap the bird loosely in foil, and leave in the refrigerator overnight.

Next day, prepare the stuffing. Sauté the pork, veal and shallots in 8 tablespoons butter and blend well with salt to taste and 1/2 cup cognac. Do not cook completely — merely mix over heat and add the crumbs and parsley. Add seasonings to taste. Combine with the truffles in the turkey and stuff lightly. Sew up the vent and truss the turkey.

Brown the turkey well in butter or butter and oil mixed and place the bird on a bed of the julienne carrots, leeks and celery in a large braising pan. Add the butter or butter and oil and 1 1/2 cups white wine and turn heat to high. Cover pan, reduce heat, and cook for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, basting the bird occasionally with equal parts of melted butter and white wine. When the bird is tender, remove to a hot platter and strain off the pan juices. Reduce the juices to 2 cups and thicken with beurre manié. Season to taste with salt and freshly ground white pepper and add remaining 1/4 cup cognac.

Serve with potatoes Anna and braised celery. Drink a fine Château-bottled Médoc — a Château Latour or Palmer.

From Epicurious.com

The Macaroon, and How It's the Best Thing to Eat

It's sort of a grey day and we're somewhat lamenting the impending end of summer, so forgive us while drift towards the lighter, fluffier end of the spectrum. We're going to take a moment to talk about macaroons (or 'macarons', if you will.)

These ones:


(Not those over-sugared stringy coconut things.)

Macaroons are the best. They're a hybrid cookie/pastry - much fancier than a biscuit, but you can still use your fingers. They have a paper-thin layer of delicate crispiness on the outside, through which you bite down into dense, moist, flavoured-almond deliciousness, until your top teeth meet the bottom ones in a thick, velvety layer of pastry cream. And they come in the most ridiculous colours. Ridiculous colour is important, if you want to create a truly fancy pastry. AND, they come in two sizes: regular, and mini. There's an inverse relationship between relative size and general amazingness. Anything done in miniature is automatically exponentially better than the regular-size version. And regular-size macarons are pretty incredible. So.

If you can't hop across the pond just to satisfy a sweet-tooth, Murchie's makes some pretty authentically Parisian ones that do very well in a pinch.

And if you're inclined to try your hand, Paris-based internationally trained pastry chef David Lebowitz, has put together some great resources.

Beehaus. The Best Thing Since Bauhaus?

Love bees. Love this. We welcome the rise of the Urban Apiarist!




And just for fun, another easy, snack-ish, cheese recipe - this one with honey:

Crostini with Blue Cheese, Honey, and Hazelnuts

Ingredients

* 12 1/3-inch-thick diagonal baguette slices
* 3 ounces blue cheese (such as Gorgonzola , Roquefort , or Maytag blue), room temperature
* 1/2 cup hazelnuts, toasted, husked , coarsely chopped
* Honey

Method

Preheat oven to 400°F. Place baguette slices in single layer on baking sheet. Toast in oven until golden, about 8 minutes. (Can be made 4 hours ahead.)

Spread blue cheese on baguette slices. Sprinkle hazelnuts over each. Drizzle each slice lightly with honey.

From epicurious.com

(Or, if you're feeling more adventurous/brave - here's one for Roaring 40's Blue Cheese and Truffle Honey Soufflé. If you make this, bring some in for us!)

Rudy's Figs - and Fig Trees!

Rudy (one of our customers) came in today, to buy some feta and prosciutto. The reason: his fig trees are laden and he intends to make the most of it with this simple recipe.

Ingredients:
-fresh figs
-feta
-prosciutto

Method:
Split figs open without cutting them in half. Stuff them with feta. Wrap them with prosciutto. Warm the stuffed, wrapped figs in the oven at a medium temperature until the prosciutto is hot and the feta is nice and soft. Serve immediately with a cool, gooseberry-ish sauvignon blanc.

We can't wait to try this.

And here's a hot tip for anyone who is landscaping, gardening or just wanting some beautiful fruit trees - Rudy has several young fig trees available, of many varieties. He can be reached at silverleaf@shaw.ca

Pimento Cheese Burgers

It's cooled off a bit but it's still summer, and turning down the temperature actually seems to crank up our appetite. So all things considered, we're liking the latest edition of Saveur magazine - it's about burgers. Burgers with cheese. The print issue has a full spread on how various cheeses taste and melt on a grilled patty. That particular article isn't online, unfortunately, but there are some good recipes on their site, like the one for the pimento cheese burger pictured above.

Cucumbers!

So... what to do with your Sun Wing cucumbers?

First off, sandwiches.
A really easy and delicious way to go about it: equal parts butter and cream cheese, and some finely chopped fresh mint, all blended together and spread on paper-thin, crusts-cut-off white bread. The cucumber slices should also be practically-transparent thin, and lightly salted.

Next, and perfect for this glorious, glorious sunny weather: add them to Pimm's.

We really like Pimm's with just San Pellegrino Limonata and a few slices of cucumber, but if you have the time/inclination, this 'Wimbledon Pitcher' recipe is also very nice. (From concierge.com, carbonated lemonade substituted for sprite. It's better that way.)

Wimbledon Pitcher (serves 4)

5 mint leaves
4 cucumber slices
2 strawberries, chopped (rough chop)
3 lemon wedges
3 orange wedges
8 oz. Pimm's No. 1 Cup
Fizzy Lemonade
2 oz. Hendrick's Gin

Our Sun Wing produce arrives every Tuesday - heirloom tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, bell peppers, and cucumbers.

CHEESEE RECIPES

Recipes contributed my you....
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Artichoke Crab Dip*

1 ½- 8 oz. packages cream cheese
1- 6 oz. tin of crab meat, drained
¼ cup mayonnaise
1 tsp. icing sugar
1 clove garlic, minced
2 tbsp. minced red onion
¼ cup sherry or red wine
1 can artichokes, drained and diced

Combine all ingredients (excluding crab and artichokes) in a double boiler. Heat gently. Add crab and artichoke just before serving.

*recipe can be doubled

Danielle (and Shea)
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Mexican Beer & Cheese Dip

Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10 minutes
Makes 3 ½ cups

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1 small onion, finely chopped
1 large clove garlic, finely chopped
2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
¾ cup Mexican beer
¾ cup canned tomatoes, drained & chopped
4 oz. can diced green chilies, drained
12 oz (or 3 ½ cups) grated cheddar cheese
4 oz cream cheese, cubed
1- 14 oz can black beans, rinsed & drained
pita wedges or nacho chips

Preheat the oven to 250F. Place an oven proof chafing dish or casserole in the oven to be pre-warmed for the hot dip.

Heat a medium-sized saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the butter and when bubbly, add the onion and sauté until translucent. Add the garlic and cook for 30 seconds. Add the all-purpose flour and blend well with a wooden spoon. Pour in the beer and continue to stir until smooth. Add the tomatoes and chilies and continue to cook until the mixture begins to thicken slightly. Add the two cheeses and continue to stir until the cheese melts and the mixture begins to bubble. Add the black beans and continue to stir. Place in a heated oven-proof bowl and serve with pita wedges or nacho chips.

Danielle (and Shea)
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Salsa Verde

1 Hass avocado, peeled and sliced
6 tomatillos, husked and finely diced (or 1 can tomatillos, drained and diced)
2 serrano chiles, finely diced
2 tsp. fresh oregano, minced or ½ tsp. dried oregano
dash of ground cumin
4 garlic cloves, minced
½ tsp. salt
juice of ½ lime

Using a fork, mash and stir the avocado, tomatillos, serranos and garlic in a medium sized bowl for several minutes, adding the salt, cumin and oregano as the mixture becomes uniformly creamy. Alternatively, you can use a blender to combine the ingredients. Serve with corn chips, tortillas or burritos.

This recipe makes about 2 ½ cups and will keep for a few days in the refrigerator.

Danielle (and Shea)
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Yam Stacks

Prep time: 25 minutes
Cooking time: 55-65 minutes
Makes 6 servings

2 medium yams (preferably long)
1 large onion, thinly sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
3 Tbsp. butter
salt and pepper to taste
125 grams goat cheese (preferably goat gouda)

Preheat oven to 300F. Prick yams several times with a fork. Place on a baking sheet and bake until just tender, about 45-60 minutes depending on size.

Meanwhile, melt 2 Tbsp. of butter in a small pot over medium-low heat. Add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring, about 7-10 minutes, until golden and sticky. Remove from heat and set aside.

When cooked, cool the yams until safe enough to handle and then carefully remove the skin with a small knife. Slice each yam into 9 even rounds.

Season each round with salt and pepper. Spread the goat cheese on one side of 12 of the yam rounds. Place 6 goat cheese topped yams in a parchment-lined baking dish. Top with half the onion/garlic mixture. Set the remaining goat cheese topped yams on the onions, gently pressing it down. Top with remaining onions and then set on the remaining yam slices. Drizzle with remaining butter. (Can be made to this point several hours in advance and kept stored in the fridge until needed.) Bake in 300F oven for 15 minutes, or until yams, cheese and onions heat through.

Danielle (and Shea)
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Creamed Stilton & Onion Soup

¼ Cup Butter
3 Onions thinly sliced
Sauté above

2 TBSP Flour
4 Cups Chicken Broth
Add flour, stir, and add chicken broth, stir until boiling remove from heat

6 oz Stilton Cheese
salt, pepper & nutmeg to taste.
Add to above

Reheat add
½ Cup Cream
Chopped Parsley

Can be made a day ahead
Enjoy with fresh bread

Carmen Lassooij ~ Charelli’s Delicatessen

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