Tourtiere

Motivation
I heard about this French Canadian winter meat-pie on NPR.  I later looked up the recipe from the NPR website.  The version below is my spin on the original version.  I used 1 lb ground pork and 1 lb sweet Italian sausage on my first attempt with good results.  Instead of a pie pan I used a non-stick, oven-safe, skillet that is about the same size with good results and a very handy handle to move it in and out of the oven.

Ingredients
2 lb Ground Pork
1 1/2 cups Water
1 cup Onion, finely chopped
1/2 cup Celery, finely chopped
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp Cinnamon
1/2 tsp Dried Rosemary
1/2 tsp Dried Thyme
1/2 tsp grated Nutmeg
1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
1 cup old-fashioned Rolled Oats (Quick Oats ok)
1 Refrigerated Pie Crust
Salt to taste


Mice en Place
Chop onions and celery.

Method
In a large pot add water and pork and bring to a simmer.  Add onions, celery, cranberries, and spices.  Cook covered for 1 hours, stirring occasionally.  Remove lid, add oats, and simmer another 20-30 minutes, stirring occasionally.  Taste and add salt if needed.

Take off heat and allow to cool while waiting for oven to preheat to 425 degrees F and pie crusts to warm to room temperature.

Place pie crust bottom on pie pan and fill with meat filling.  Add pie crust top and seal.  Be sure to cut a few vents in top.

Bake for 15 minutes.  Reduce oven to 375 degrees F and bake another 25 minutes until pie crust looks done.  (You could add an egg-wash the last 10 minutes or so if your that kind of perfectionist.)

Let cool a bit then devour.  I served mine with a bit of HP sauce, but it probably wasn't necessary.

Hot Ice Cream

Motivation
The idea to attempt this recipe was triggered by a friend who saw mention of the concept of "hot ice cream" in Cooking for Geeks.  I did a bit more research and discovered the excellent cooking blog Salty in Seattle that described a mascarpone based version.  This version is essential her version slightly tweaked and using a slightly different type of methylcellulose.

This ice cream has a great flavor but a very strange mouth feel.  It does not melt in warm liquids.

Ingredients
130 g Mascarpone
32 g Butter
65 g Sugar
13 g Methylcellulose (I used Methylcel F50)
78 g Water (I used low calcium bottled water)
pinch Salt
1/2 Vanilla Bean (seeds only)

Mise en Place
Let butter and mascarpone warm to room temperature.  Hit mascarpone, butter, sugar, and salt until just blended with immersion blender.

Place vanilla bean seeds in water and bring to simmer.  Ad methylcellulose to vanilla water and blend until incorporated.

Drizzle vanilla methylcellulose water into cheese mixture and blend again until combined.  Refrigerate overnight.

Method
Bring saucepan of water to simmer.  Scoop "ice cream" and drop in water.  Simmer for 2-3 minutes and retrieve and serve.

Cauliflower Cous Cous

Motivation
I saw purple cauliflower in the grocery story and bought it assuming I could come up with some clever use for it.  When I was flipping through the Modernist Cuisine I noticed a technique developed at elBulli where you grate cauliflower with a microplane grater to make a cous cous like texture.   The result is very pleasing.   I've tried the faux cous cous both cooked and raw and prefer the raw preparation.

Ingredients
Cauliflower
Sesame Oil
Salt

Mise en Place
Grate cauliflower through a microplane grater.

Method
Mix cauliflower cous cous with sesame oil and salt to taste.