Friday, October 21, 2011

Sugar Fudge (called Sucre`a la Crème) in 15 minutes

Allright, it's the holiday and you deserve a treat. It's not nearly as healthy as other things I have in this site but it's a big part of my heritage. Everyone in Quebec love these treats. A lot of people asked me to make a video of this and I will soon. It's been very busy lately and I barely find the time to keep my promise of one recipe a day. But im passionate for what I do and I am convinced that you will find this recipe really really quick and easy, it's pretty much impossible to miss if you have the right tools. You'll need a microwave and some glass bowl made for the microwave. I like to use the glass one because the plastic one are easy to melt with the high temperature and the sugar. Also don't go with a bowl that is too small, use the tallest one you have and leave ample room because the sugar will buble and you don't want it all over your microwave as it is a real pain in the b*** to clean after. Trust me i've been through all of this myself and I don't repeat the same mistake twice!

Here is the ingredients:
- 2 cups of brown sugar, packed
- 3/4 cup of butter
- 1 can of Eagle bran milk ( about 300 ml in a can)
- 1 1/2 cup of icing sugar
- 1 tablespoon of vanilla

Recipe
1- Mix well the first three ingredients together.
2- Cook in the microwave for 10 minutes, mixing really well every 2 minutes.
3- Add the icing sugar to the mixture and mix well with a mixer for 2 minutes.
4- Pour everything in a buttered square pan (about 2 inches)
5- Keep in the fridge for about 2-3 hours before serving. Cut into squares and serve !!

Best appetizer: The Seafood aspic/ Aspic aux fruits de mer
Dans l'esprit du temps des Fêtes, je veut vous introduire cette merveilleuse recette. Elle fait partie de la famille depuis très longtemps et ma mère la faisait depuis mon très jeune âge. Je me rappelle en 5ème année, ma mère l'avait fait pour ma fête des finissante de l'école élémentaire. Cette recette était servi avec des chip Bugles ou du pain baguette. Ce délice c'est retrouve a plusieurs fêtes et anniversaire. Elle sera toujours une de mes recettes préférée !

Ingredients/ Ingrédients
 - 1 cup of celery/ 1 tasse de celeri
- 3 to 4 green onion/ 3- 4 echalotes
- 1 pound of crab meat/ 1 lb de chair de crabe
- 1 pound of shrimp/ 1 lb de crevettes
- 2 packet of Knox jelly/ 2 sachets de gélatine Knox
- 2 hard boiled egg/ 2 oeufs cuits dur
- 2 cup of mayo/ 2 tasses de mayonnaise
- salt, pepper, parsley/ sel, poivre, persil

Recipe/ recette:
1- Cut very finely the green onions, celery and eggs and the seafood
    Couper finement les échalotes, céleri et œuf et les fruits de mer
2- In a pan, warm the mayonnaise
    Dans un chaudron, chauffer la mayonnaise
3- Mix the jelly with 4 tablespoon of cold water and add to the mayonnaise
   Mélanger la gélatine avec 4 c a table d'eau froide et ajouter a la mayonnaise
4- Add the vegetables, the eggs and the seafood and mix well. Pour in a mold. Set in the fridge for 4 hours before serving.
  Ajouter les légumes, les œufs et les fruits de mers et bien mélanger. Verser le mélange dans un moule. Mettre au réfrigérateur quelques heures avant de servir.

                              
In the spirit of the holidays, I decided to make some treats for work. I also filmed everything hoping to put another video online. Well, it didn't quite work as I planned and had some problem with one recipe. So instead of making a video, I decided I would try to make a picture recipe which show the steps of the recipe. So I am glad to present to you the peanut butter snowflake ( which I have renamed after having so many people laugh at the fact that they are called "balle de beurre d'arachide" which means peanut butter balls!)

Peanut butter snowflakes

You will need

- 1 cup of peanut butter + 1 cup of icing sugar
- 1/3 cup of melted butter
- 1/2 cup of grated sweetened coconut
- 4 cups of rice krispie


 You need to add the peanut butter, icing sugar coconut and melted butter to a large mixing bowl
You want to mix everything together really well until it is like a crumble, than you will add the rice Krispie, 1 cup at the time to make sure the mixture is even.

Then when the mixture is ready it should look like this.
You want to take a bit of the mixture in your hand, and with the help of a little bit of water on your finger, you will shape a ball of about 1 1/2 - 2 inches. You will deposit it on a plate covered with wax paper.
 
For the chocolate covering layer you will need to use a double boiler to melt:
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 1/4 cup of water
- 3 cups of chocolate chips, semi-sweet or dark. Mix well

 
I personally use a fondue fork but you can use a regular fork if you like. You will dip the ball in the chocolate, making sure it is completely covered and deposit it on a wax paper covered plate.  

Before the chocolate completely solidify you want to add you finishing touch which is the snowflake part of it. You want to take some extra coconut flakes, icing sugar, chopped almond and you want to sprinkles them on the top of the balls.
Enjoy and in the next blog will have some toffee caramel treats to introduce you to !

The 10 best french Canadian recipes
I thought that it would be great to make a count of our really famous recipe. I decided I would make my own list of the 10 greatest French Canadian recipe. I did not choose on a wimp. I decided to evaluate each recipe on the highest rank in these categories; French canadian culture and influence, history of the recipe, years of introduction in the French Canadian culture, popularity among French Canadian and the fact that is labelled as " French Canadian" It is not just about taste but also about history.

1- Peas soup
The most traditional peas soup is made from yellow split peas. It is made with salted pork and herbs. The idea of the pea soup come from the first world war. The French-Canadian regiment came with the idea of feeding the troop with this recipe since it was the most consistent food available and it was easy to make.

2- Feve au sirop d'erable
Originally from the 1900, this recipe came from the American wood worker came to work in region of Bois-Franc. Some writing has also shown that this recipe existed in the 1800 in Acadia. The French Canadian population added a twist by mixing maple syrup to the traditional bean recipe.

3- Tourtiere
It seem the tourtiere came from "tourte" which is a bird, that was present by millions in Quebec. The Quebecer use to make pie with this bird meat and gave the name "tourtiere" to this dish. Later on it was adapted to more common meat such as beef, veal or pork. In some region you will find that the tourtiere is the cipaille that we called in Sept-Iles which is two different type of dish.

4- Cretons
The translation would say piece of fat coming from pork but it is actually more than that. It is usually made from ground pork or veal and mixed with spices such as nutmeg, clove and cinnamon. This typical French Canadian recipe get serve on bread with sometimes mustard on it.

5- Ragout de boulette
It's another typical French Canadian meal made from meat balls of pork and beef, potatoes, carrots, celery and turnip. The other option which is also very popular is the "Ragout de pattes" which is made from pork feet and spices such as cinnamon and clove. This is not my favorite thought. It seem these two meals exists since the XXe century.

6- Cipaille
It was originally created by the Montagnais population in Quebec by was later claimed by the first colons in Lac-St-Jean. It seem that the cipaille recipe was published as early has 1747 but they called it Sea pie and later called Cipaille. This meal consist of multiple layer of meat cube, potatoes, gravy and a layer of dough.

7- Pouding chomeur au sirop d'erable
It was created by female factory worker in 1929 during the great depression. This dessert was perfect considering the conditions; high in sugar and calories and inexpensive. It is created from ingredient that was readily available at the time such as flour, sugar, maple syrup and water.

8- Poutine
This dish was originally created in the 1950. There is multiple debate about where the first poutine come from. Certain state it came from a man named Fernand Lachance of Warwick, Quebec some claim it is from Drummonville.There can be more than 100 variety of poutine, the most popular being the regular gravy and cheese, the hotdog sausage, cheese, gravy and the "Italian" made with spaghetti sauce.

9- Pate chinois
It is a similar dish as the traditional shepherd's pie. It is not a Chinese recipe but came from the fact it was introduce to the Chinese railway worker back in the early 20th century. This recipe is very easy and consist of layer of meat, can of corn (creamed is better) and mashed potatoes.

10- Buche de Noel
Best known as Yule log. It's a traditional dessert served during the holiday in Quebec. It could be found in the ancient Celtic tradition of the celebration of the winter solstice. It is also very popular in France and seem it was then introduce to French Canadian with the first colonies.

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