Matt's English Cream

 This delicious topping has been taylor-made to our tastes by my brother Matt and accompanies the apple waffles previously posted. Decadent, creamy and rich, this thin custard is also a perfect accompaniment to crepes or just fruit. Its important to note however, that English Cream, like all custards is a very fragile critter and must be treated with caution, heat the custard too much and your eggs will curdle, not enough and it won't thicken. Remember, with custards, balance and preparation are key.

Ingredients:
-1c. 10% cream (coffee cream)
-3 egg yolks
-1/2 tsp vanilla extract
3tbsp. sugar

1) Heat cream until warm in a pot.
2)Combine the sugar and yolks, don't let them sit too long as they will solidify.
3)Pour the cream mixture by the spoonful into the sugar and yolks, whisking constantly, as it thickens, add the rest of the liquid in a constant drizzle.
4)When all ingredients are combined, heat the liquid to about 78 degrees celsius, a double boiler can be useful here to maintain a constant temperature. If you have copper cookware, this is the time to use it.
5)Keep cream at this heat, whisking it until it reaches the desired consistency, it will cling to a wooden spoon in a nice coating.
6) Immediately remove from heat and pour into a room temperature container, straining it if necessary to remove any skin that may have formed. Add vanilla extract, keep stirring.

Your cream is now ready to serve!

Overnight Wholewheat Apple Waffles

Fall, fall, finally fall! Although I love every season, the coming of Autumn is always something particularly exciting to me! One of the main reasons? Food of course! Autumn is the season to collect the harvest, cook rich food and fatten up! And so with fattening up in mind I counterbalance this heart healthy fiber-full apple harvest waffle recipe with a dollop of my brother's decadent English cream. Inspired by the New York Times recipe for overnight waffles and my own experience with bread, I decided to let the recipe ferment overnight for the ultimate chewy consistency and malted flavour. Enjoy!

-4 c. wholewheat flour
-1 1/2 tsp. active-dry yeast
-1 tsp. salt
-1 c. warm soy milk (or normal milk!)
-3 c. real apple juice
-2 large eggs, lightly beaten
-3 tbsp. melted butter
-2tbsp canola oil
-1.5 tsp vanilla
-3 tbsp. maple syrup
-¼ tsp. cinnamon



1) The night before you plan to serve the waffles, add the yeast to the warm soy milk/milk and wait for it dissolve, while it is dissolving assemble the flour, salt and sugar mixing together and adding the apple juice.
2)Once the yeast has dissolved add it to the combined dry ingredients, mix until incorporated, let sit overnight.
3) Beat eggs, vanilla, butter and oil together before incorporating it to the waffle mix, the batter is now ready to be cooked up! Serve with Bananas and English Cream

Garlic Lime Chicken Caesar Salad

Having sampled a mindblowing Caesar salad at my professor's I felt a need to recreate the dish my way. For this recipe I went all out, the dressing was handmade from homemade mayonnaise, and incorporated a healthy serving of my croutons. As for the chicken, its marinade was directly inspired by my prof's husband's recipe, its cooking method however, was me being a tad...adventurous? Insane? The meaning is often the same, the interpretation is up to you.

Serves 4 as a side, 2 as a meal

Ingredients:t

For the chicken:

-2 juicy limes

-3 cloves garlic

-1-2 chicken legs, de-boned

For dressing:

-1 large egg, room temperature

-1 clove of garlic

-2-3 tsp. pasted anchovy

-2 tbsp. homemade mayonnaise (or store-bought if you must)

-1tbsp lemon juice

-1/4 c. olive oil

-4 tbsp freshly grated Parmesan

For salad:

-1 large head of romaine lettuce

-1 recipe of croutons

1) Wash limes with soap and rinse, juice limes into a bowl, crush garlic and combine with chicken let marinate for 2 hours or so, reserve juice limes

2) Make the Caesar dressing, combine the egg, crushed garlic, salt, lemon juice and anchovy paste with the mayo, mix vigorously with a hand mixer at highest setting

3)Slowly drizzle the olive oil into the mix while mixing, consider the emulsion used in the mayonnaise recipe, when thick, add parmesan, mix, let sit. The dressing will not become as thick as mayonnaise so don't worry too much about it, store in fridge.

4) Once the chicken has marinated enough, clean, dry and prepare the lettuce, set croutons aside

5) Grill the chicken, the most common method would be the bbq, drizzle the marinade on top and let the limes sit on the chicken as it cooks. If you have the time, space and materials/don't own a bbq feel free to cook the chicken over a wood fire using the grill as seen here on what I will hereby refer to as the ghetto grill:

Then you just add their little lime hats! I am not responsible for any damaged incurred while building a ghetto grill.

6) Cut up chicken, add to lettuce with croutons and dressing, mix vigorously and serve...mmmm decadent

Fresh Apple Juice

Nothing rivals, the taste of fresh pressed apple juice, nothing. If you've only ever had the chance to taste that clear yellow beverage that calls itself "juice" found in tetrapacks and resembling waste liquids, then you're in for a surprise! Love apples but hate apple juice? It's probably because you aren't drinking the good stuff! The good stuff is preservative free, a rich hue of brownish red (caused by oxidization) and tastes like an orchard that jumped into a food processor. If you have a juicer or some sort of fruit press, I recommend going out and getting some apples asap! If you aren't one of these lucky people, you can always do what I did, use a food processor. Now I wouldn't do this every day, as it took about 2 hour for me to produce 6-8 liters of juice, but that was partially because my food processor is older than me and kept jamming/overheating. Seriously though? Once a season its totally worth it!

Ingredients:
-40 lbs of deer apples (bruised, beaten and ugly fallen apples, mine cost me 5 bucks)

1) Fill a large sink (or the bottom of a bath tub) with hot war, adding dish soap and mixing until frothy. Dump you apples into it and vigorously.
2) Rinse twice and leave to air dry
3)Remove all bugs/bites/bad bruises from your apples (if using deer apples)
4)Core the apples (I did anyway, apparently its not necessary for making juice but it didn't seem nice to the geriatric food processor to feed it cores)
5) Feed the apples to the processor collecting the pulp in your biggest bowl (you might need many) and then wrapping with cloth (you can use an old CLEAN t shirt) and putting it in a colander over a bowl to drip as you process the rest of the apples.
6)Once you've done grating all of the apples and wrapping the pulp, squeeze your apple bundles into your colanders to squeeze the juice out into the bowls.
7)Collect all the juice in a clean container, the pulp from the apples which is mostly dehydrated should now be apple to fit into 1-2 colanders all at once.
8) Leave these colanders overnig, over bowls or pots with a heavy wieght pressing down on them
9) The next morning, collect all your juice and pasteurize it, heating it at to 75 degrees celsius for at least 15 seconds (that's what the internet told me to do and I was fine, I take no responsibility if it doesn't work and you get some strange heat resistant apple disease)
10) Cool juice and store in very clean or sterilized containers in fridge

Super Healthy Banana Multigrain Breakfast Porridge

As Autumn arrives and the brisk weather comes along we can begin to take out our warm clothes and even better, cook warm food! This belly warming bowl of awesomeness might not look like much but it sure packs a punch when it come to nutrition! Jammed full of protein, fiber, potassium and other goodies this is an ideal pre-exercise breakfast. Even better? If your banana is ripe enough you won't even need to sweeten it with anything else!

Serves 1 light breakfast (I don't have much of an appetite in the morning and tend to have fruit with it, don't hesitate to double it!)
 Prep time: 5 min.

Ingredients
-3/4c. Water
-1 1/2 tbsp. flax seed
-2 tsp. quinoa
-2 tbsp. quick cooking oats
-1/2 of a ripe banana
-Soy milk/ milk to taste
-1 tsp. maple syrup/honey/sweetener (optional)
-1 pinch nutmeg or cinnamon (optional)
-Seasonal fruit or nuts (or both!) to top with

1) Grind quinoa and flax in a coffee grinder or other such instrument until finely ground, add with water and oats to a small pot
2)Heat grains and water at medium heat, crushing the banana into it with a masher, fork or even your hand (I won't tell, I promise)
3) Add spices and maple syrup if using, cook mixture until banana has completely softened, grain have fluffed and the porridge has reached your desired consistency, don't hesitate to add more water if you need to.
 4)Serve hot with soy milk and top with seasonal fruit

Croutons

Croutons 

These crunchy little delights are an excellent accompaniment to soups and salads, providing a whole new level of consistency normally not found in these dishes. Following the old adage that bread is best fresh, and realizing that there are only so many breadcrumbs that one can use, croutons are the perfect use for old bread, certainly if its somewhat stale!

Makes enough for 2-4   

Ingredients:

-4  thick slices of old bread (at least half an inch wide), I used leftover table bread from the recipe posted here

-2 tbsp good olive oil (mine was infused with lemon)

-1 large clove garlic

-1/8 tsp dried basil

-1/8 tsp dried parsley

-2 rough grinds of black pepper

-sprinkle with salt

1) Crush the garlic, mix alongside the spices with oil, let it sit 5min.

2) Apply the oil mixture to each side of the bread slices using a brush

3) Chop the bread into little cubes, wiping the rest of the glass with the bread

4) Bake for 350 degrees at 15 min., flip it and bake again for another 15 min.

5) By this point, the bread should be thoroughly dehydrated and ready for soup or salad, store in a (very) airtight jar or bag.

Homemade Mayo

Mayonnaise is one of the traditional 5 mother sauces of French cuisine, although a historically contentious issue, one thing is clear, mayo is absolutely delicious! It forms the basis for such famous salad dressings as Caesar and equally delicious as a base for sauces like aioli. Anyway, let’s get to it!

Ingredients:

1 large egg, at room temperature (it’s heat is VERY important)

½ tsp. Dijon mustard

2 tsp. lemon juice

1 c. vegetable oil

½ tsp. salt

1) Whip the egg, mustard and salt together at high speed until foamy about 1 min, you want to make sure that these three items are thoroughly mixed and the egg is truly broken up. Caution, if the egg is not well mixed, it will not absorb the oil and the sauce will never emulsify.

2) Keep the mixer running and add a ¼ tsp of oil, whip it for half a minute, repeat this step

3) Gradually increase the oil, adding ½ a tsp every 30 seconds, repeat step twice, it should look foamy at this point and be slightly thickened, repeat the step another 4 times

4) Increase the oil to 1 tsp. ever 30 seconds, repeat step 5 times

5) Gradually drizzle the oil a few drops at a time, leaving 10-20 second intervals with each pour, continue until all oil has slowly been integrated and the mayonnaise has become thick and creamy.

3 pepper chili

This chili is hot, spicy and full of complex layers of flavour. Now, without all the food snobbyness I’ll quite simply state that this recipe makes a nice belly warming bowl of chow. This isn’t a Texan chili, ie it contains beans, so please none of that debate! It’s also vegetarian, a sin to many, with that in mind, all I can do is hope you guys will enjoy this chili as much as I did!

Prep. time 20 min.

Cook 15 min. or indeterminably (it's chili, it's made to sit on the stove forever)

Serves 3-4

Ingredients

1 diced yellow onion

4 chopped green onions

1 clove of garlic, crushed

1 tbsp. of chipotle puree

1 tsp lime juice

1/8tsp salt

1/2tsp cocoa mixed with 1 tbsp. water

1/8 tsp ground coffee

¼ tsp+ 1 pinch cumin

½ tsp cinnamon

1/2tsp Ground chilis

1 jalapeno, seeded

1 540ml can of black beans, rinsed and drained

½ tsp. paprika

1 bay leaf

1 sprig of oregano

1c. tomato puree

1 tomato, diced

½ tsp. sugar

Oil for frying

2 tbsp. water

2 tbsp. tequila

1) Heat the oil until liquidy, add both types of onions, jalapeno, garlic and chilies, cook until golden and fragrant

2) Add salt, cocoa, coffee, cumin, cinnamon, oregano and paprika mix until thoroughly blended

3) Add diced tomatoes and reduce until the liquid evaporates

4) Add tomato puree, sugar, lime juice, water and bay leaf add beans and let simmer at least 10 min

5) Add the tequila, mix thoroughly and serve with sour cream, avocado, or cilantro...or all of the above!