Creamy baked potato and celeriac

I had to dig into the recipe archives for this one, not because I haven't been cooking lately, but mostly because I haven't cooked anything new lately. I have however been eating some great things, including a messy, drippy, insanely good burger from this place. Seriously, if you live in Ottawa, go to Hintonburger as soon as possible. You may have to wait in a smoky line, and you may be forced to eat in your car, but you definitely won't be disappointed. But back to the dish at hand. I first made it for Christmas dinner, where it accompanied some roast beef for dinner. Christmas is long past, but with this weekend's chilly temperatures, you might be mistaken in thinking it was right around the corner. Brrr. Anyway, if you're looking for a hearty side to warm you up and fill your tummy, this one is great. It's from the brilliant Jamie at Home book, which is probably my favourite Jamie Oliver book to date. The dish is essentially a scalloped potato concoction, though perhaps a bit easier to throw together? (that's a total guess on my part as I've never made scalloped potatoes before.)

Begin by sourcing out a fresh brain. Kidding! This is celeariac, but it kinda looks like a brain doesn't it? You'll find it in the grocery store near the potatoes or other root veggies. It often has a lot of dirt stuck in all the cracks and crevices, so you'll have to use your knife to peel away all the craggy, bumpy bits to reveal the off-white flesh beneath. Celeriac, if you've never had it before, has a flavour somewhere in between a potato, parsnip and maybe a turnip. It's also great in soup, or even pureed as a side.

After you have all the veggies chopped, in they go to a pan to be covered by milk, sage and parmesan cheese. And after a while in the oven, out comes a bubbly, cheesy mess that I defy any one to pass up. Please forgive the blacked edges -- blame my dirty oven which I refuse to clean until I replace it! Creamy baked potato and celeriac From Jamie at Home by Jamie Oliver 4 tablespoons butter, melted, plus a couple extra knobs, divided 2 pounds potatoes, peeled 1 small celeriac, peeled and halved Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper 1 pint heavy cream (I used some milk and some cream) 1 clove garlic, peeled and finely chopped 1/2 a small bunch fresh sage, leaves picked and roughly chopped 4 ounces freshly grated Parmesan, divided Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F and butter a large, shallow baking dish. Slice the potatoes and celeriac into disks just under 1-inch thick. Place the slices into a large pan, cover with cold water, season with salt and pepper and bring to the boil. Simmer for 5 minutes, then drain in a colander and allow the vegetables to steam dry for a minute or so. Put back into the pan with the cream, chopped garlic, sage, half the Parmesan and a good pinch of salt and pepper. Mix together, then tip into the buttered baking dish and spread out evenly. Pour any mixture left in the pan over the top. Sprinkle over the remaining Parmesan, cover tightly with aluminum foil and cook in the preheated oven for 35 to 40 minutes until golden brown.

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

Not a lot of introduction needed for these cookies. They're made with 100 per cent whole wheat flour, which you would think would result in a dense, heavy product. But instead, these cookies have kind of a nutty, wheaty flavour, somewhat akin to digestive biscuits.

I brought a tin of them to work and it was empty by 10:30 a.m. What more proof do you need?

Whole Wheat Chocolate Chip Cookies
Adapted from Good to the Grain, by Kim Boyce and found on Orangette

3 cups whole wheat flour
1 ½ tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. baking soda
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, cut into ½-inch cubes
1 cup lightly packed dark brown sugar
1 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp. vanilla extract
8 oz. bittersweet chocolate, roughly chopped into ¼- and ½-inch pieces, or bittersweet chips

Position racks in the upper and lower thirds of the oven, and preheat to 350°F. Line two baking sheets with parchment. (If you have no parchment, you can butter the sheets.)

Combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt in a medium bowl, and whisk to blend.

Put the butter and sugars in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. With the mixer on low speed, mix just until the butter and sugars are blended, about 2 minutes. Scrape down the sides of the bowl with a spatula. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Beat in the vanilla. Add the flour mixture to the bowl, and blend on low speed until the flour is just incorporated. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl. Add the chocolate, and mix on low speed until evenly combined. (If you have no stand mixer, you can do all of this with handheld electric beaters and/or a large, sturdy spoon.) Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, and then use your hands to turn and gently massage the dough, making sure all the flour is absorbed.

Scoop mounds of dough about 3 tablespoons in size onto the baking sheets, leaving about 3 inches between each cookie. (I was able to fit about 8 cookies on each sheet, staggering them in three rows.)

Bake the cookies for 16 to 20 minutes, rotating the sheets halfway through, until the cookies are evenly browned. Transfer the cookies, still on parchment, to a rack to cool. Repeat with remaining dough.

These cookies are very good while still warm from the oven, but I find that you can taste the wheat more – in a good way – once they’ve cooled.

Yield: about 20 cookies

Power up

Ever heard of the key power foods you're supposed to eat for maximum health? Well I managed to combine several of them into one meal this week. Bammo! Take that power foods.

So here's what I did: I boosted up regular old salmon cakes with two super health additions -- kale and quinoa. I had both cooked in advance, and added the chopped kale (probably 1/2 cup or so) to just about a cup of quinoa. Then, in went a tin of salmon, mashed a fork, some dried dill, two beaten eggs and lots of pepper and salt.

Here's how they looked in a pan with just about a teaspoon of olive oil. They were fairly wet, but still held together well.

I had them with an orange and fennel salad. Healthy and powerful!

Molasses oat bread

This weekend was fully of just about the crappiest weather we’ve seen so far this winter. First it snowed a bit on Friday night, then proceeded to rain, and rain, and rain, and then rain some more on Saturday. Then the temperature dropped off again Saturday night and it snowed, leaving approximately two feet of ice over every possible surface, which was then covered in 15 cm of snow. Imagine how happy I was on Sunday afternoon to spend almost two hours chipping my car out from its ice bubble, and then shovelling and clearing away shards and boulders of ice and snow from just about everything else.

This is the snow pile in front of my house. There's a complete shrub buried in there somewhere!

Needless to say, it was a good weekend to stay indoors and avoid anything that might be falling from the sky. And what could be a more perfect complement to a hibernation weekend than freshly baked bread?

In addition to the weather, a conversation with my Dad on Saturday where he mentioned how much he likes molasses inspired me to make this.

The molasses imparts a bit of sweetness to the loaf, and also turns it a soft brown colour. This is useful for fooling yourself into thinking this is actually a healthy, whole wheat loaf, when in fact it’s the kind of light and fluffy mix you only get with white flour. I let my loaf rise in the pan a bit too long (blame a nap), but it still turned out well. It’s great fresh, and warm from the oven, but also nice toasted with some honey drizzled on top.


Start by soaking your oats in some warm water.

And get the yeast started. Make sure it's fresh and the water's plenty warm.

Then add in the butter and molasses to the softened oats. The recipe calls for the butter to be at room temperature, but I wasn't convinced it would incorporate very well that way. So I ended up fishing it out and nuking it 'til it was melted.

Start kneading. This is a pretty sticky dough, so you'll need lots of flour.

Knead until everything comes together and it looks something like this.

And then it will look like this after an hour or so of rising. I covered the bowl in plastic and let it rise in the microwave (turned off) with a cut of hot water in it.

And then, by the second rise, it should look like this. I let this rise a little too long, but it didn't collapse.

And here it is fresh from the oven, smelling great. I found it didn't take quite as long to bake as the recipe said.

Want a slice?

Molasses-oat bread
Adapted from Bon Appetit, 1994 and found here

1/2 cup packed old-fashioned oats
3/4 cup boiling water
1 cup warm water (105°F to 115°F)
1 envelope dry yeast
6 tablespoons lightly unsulfured molasses
2 tablespoons (1/4 stick) butter, room temperature
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
4 cups (about) unbleached all purpose flour

Place 1/2 cup oats in large bowl of electric mixer fitted with dough hook; pour 3/4 cup boiling water over.

Let stand 30 minutes (water will be absorbed and oatmeal will be very soft).
pour 1 cup warm water into 2-cup glass measuring cup. sprinkle yeast over; stir to blend. let stand until yeast dissolves, about 10 minutes.

Mix molasses, 2 tablespoons butter and salt into oat mixture in bowl. mix in yeast mixture.

Add enough flour, 1/2 cup at a time, to form medium-soft dough, mixing at medium speed until well blended, about 3 minutes.

Turn out dough onto floured surface. knead until smooth and elastic, adding more flour if dough is too sticky, about 5 minutes.

Form dough into ball. butter large bowl; add dough, turning to coat. cover bowl with plastic wrap, then towel.

Let dough rise in warm draft-free area until doubled in volume, about 1 hour.
position rack in center of oven and preheat to 400°F.

Butter 9×5-inch loaf pan.

Punch down dough; turn out into floured surface and knead 3 minutes.

Form into a loaf. transfer to prepared pan.

Cover with plastic, then towel; let rise in warm draft-free area until dough has risen about 1/2 inch above rim of pan, about 45 minutes.

Bake bread 10 minutes; reduce temperature to 350°F.

Bake 25 minutes longer. brush top of bread with glaze; sprinkle 1 tablespoon oats over. bake until bread is golden and sounds hollow when tapped on bottom, about 10 minutes longer. Transfer to rack to cool.