July 1st is Canada Day. A holisY to celebrate all that makes Canada the best place to live. But since 2004, food activist  and passionate advocate for Canadian food, Anita Stewart has been promoting the Saturday of the August long weekend as "The World's Longest Barbecue". How can it be the longest barbecue? Simple, Canadians are lighting their barbecues from coast to coast to coast, grilling Canadian-produced food to recognize and support our farmers, fishers and everyone else who delivers our edibles. And drinkables.

Stewart's yearning to make the day more than a barbecue, Canada Food Day, if she succeeds, is a more focused name. And of course, this tribute is not just about firing up the grill and celebrating local and seasonal foods to keep farmers et al in business. It's about community, getting together to share what we  have plenty of - lucky, aren't we!

To be part of Canada Food Day, aka The World's Longest Barbecue, all you have to do is go to Stewart's website, sign up and describe the menu you're having on Saturday. (I suspect if  you have the party on Sunday or Monday Steward won't quibble. But there is something electric about people sitting down together all over Canada. A virtual picnic without all the technology.) On Stewart's site you'll see the outline of what she would like to know about your dinner so write about what's on the menu, andy regional food or special dishes worth mentioning, where the food came from with information about the producers if you know them. It's the stories that will make the difference, so be sure to include details. Canada Food Day sounds like fun, and the good part is that it will help make a difference. Log onto www.anitastewart.ca. To quote Anita, "Large or small, every celebration is important!"

So...what am I planning? Well, as I'm from Stratford in the heart of Perth County, good food and farming, I'm grilling (or roasting) a loin of pork. Not with thyme, mustard, salt and pepper as my mother would have done as befitted her era and Celtic roots, but porchetta-style, with herbs of an Italian provenence - less Stratford than Toronto where porchetta sandwiches are widespread, and wonderful.

To go with, Island Potato Salad from Anita Stewart's Canada, The Food/The Recipes/The Stories, (Harper Collins, 2008, $34.95), see above,  and since I know we need vegetables, corn on the cob - straining to be the Canadian national vegetable. Again, not just butter, salt and pepper, but with a wash of exotic spices as discovered in Toronto's Little India by Andrew Chase, food editor of Homemakers Magazine. All the recipes follow.

Barbecue Loin of Pork with Porchetta Flavours

To make sure the herb and fennel flavours penetrate the whole loin, the meat is butterflied, then rolled. The instructions may seem long, but if you're looking for great flavour, press on! The step-by-step photos should help - just leave yourself enough time when you're tacking the recipe for the first time. 

1 pork loin centre roast boneless (single loin), about 3 lb (1.5 kg)

3 tbsp (45 mL) canola oil

6 cloves garlic, minced

2 tbsp (30 mL) minced fresh rosemary

4 tsp (20 mL) minced fresh sage

3/4 tsp (4 mL) fennel seeds, crushed

1/2 tsp (2 mL) salt

1/2 tsp (2 mL) freshly ground pepper

1 tbsp (15 mL) dry white vermouth

. Place roast, fat side up, on large cutting board. Starting at right side with knife parallel to the board, cut loin in half almost but not all the way through.

. Open like a book.

. Starting in centre of opened loin, and with your knife parallel to board, cut in half on left side almost but not all the way through. Open the flap like a book, extending the surface of the meat.

. Repeat on right side. Open flat. Cover with waxed paper; pound with mallet or rolling pin to as even thickness as possible. Set aside.

. In small skillet, heat the oil over medium-low heat; fry garlic, stirring often, until softened, about 5 minutes. Scrape into a large bowl; stir in rosemary, sage, fennel, salt, pepper and vermouth.

. Spread about three quarters of the garlic mixture over inside of loin, leaving 1-inch (2.5 cm) border along 1 short end. Starting at the other end, roll up firmly toward border.

. Tie with kitchen string at 1-inch (2.5 cm) intervals. 

. Place in the large bowl with the remaining garlic mixture; turn to coat all over. Cover and marinate in the fridge, turning occasionally, for 2 hours or up to 1 day.

. Place drip pan over 1 burner of 2-burner barbecue or over centre of 3-burner barbecue. Add enough water to come 1 inch (2.5 cm) up side of pan. Heat burner or burners not over drip pan to medium. Grease the grill over the drill pan. 

.  Place the rolled loin on the greased grill over the drip pan. Grill, turning every 20 minutes, until meat thermometer registers 160° (71°C), about 1-1/2 to 2 hours. 

. Transfer to cutting board and tent with foil; let rest for 15 minutes. Snip and pull off the string; slice across the grain.

. Makes 8 servings.

Tip: You can also roast porchetta on rack in small roasting pan. It takes about 1 hour at 375°F. (190°C). Skim pan juices and serve with slices of porchetta.

Tip: This roast is almost better cold - and it slices more thinly. 

Bilingual, and trusting signage at a P.E.I. roadside potato trade.

Island Potato Salad

Stewart credits Joy Shinn who developed the recipe when she was working with the Prince Edward Island potato marketing board, Food Trust.  To go with the porchetta that serves 8, I made one and a half of the recipe written below, and because it is going with pork, substituted 2 roasted sweet red peppers for the prosciutto. I did not use honey. 

2 lb (1 kg) P.E.I. potatoes (5 to 6 medium)

4 slices prosciutto

3 green onions, sliced diagonally

Dressing:

2 tbsp (30 mL) apple cider vinegar

1 tbsp (15 mL) liquid honey

1 tbsp (15 mL) grainy Dijon mustard

1/4 cup (50 mL) canola oil

Salt and freshly ground pepper 

. Place washed potatoes in a pot and cover with cold water. Cook, covered, over medium heat until fork tender, 30 to 45 minutes. Drain and let cool Peel and quarter or, if large, dice coarsely. Place in serving dish.

. Arrange prosciutto on rimmed baking sheet; place under broiler and broil until crisp, about 6 minutes, turning partway through cooking. Let cool, then break into small pieces.

. In serving bowl, combine green onions and prosciutto to potatoes.

Dressing: Whisk or shake together the vinegar, honey, mustard and oil until blended. Pour over the potato mixture; toss gently. Season to taste with salt and top with a good grinding of pepper. 

. Makes 4 to 6 servings.

Indian-Spiced Corn on the Cob

8 corn cobs, husked

2 tbsp (30 mL) canola oil

1 tsp (5 mL) ground coriander

3/4 tsp (4 mL) each salt and ground cumin

Pinch cayenne

1 lime, halved

. Brush corn cobs with oil. Place on greased grill over medium-high heat; close lid and grill, turning frequently, until kernels are tender and lightly grill-marked, about 10 to 15 minutes.

. In small bowl, stir together coriander, salt, cumin and cayenne. Rub corn with cut sides of lime; sprinkle with spice mixture.

Makes 8 servings. 

For a little inspiration - here are some top notch Canadians and Canadian products. Enjoy them all.

Chef Chris Aerni, owner with his wife Graziella of the Rossmount Inn near St. Andrews New Brunswick. The Inn's renowned food starts with the large garden Aerni cultivates on a sloping hill behind the Inn.

A shore lunch beside Great Slave Lake in the Northwest Territories. Those are whitefish fillets browning on the griddle.

The historic building that houses the Saint John market makes it one of the most handsome markets in the country. Lots of inspiration here for your Canada Food Day menu.

By the Bay of Fundy shore there's a great choice of seafood.

(more...)

Donna Hay has solutions for the "No Time to Cook" dilemma.

On a recent afternoon style-maker Donna Hay took a few minutes to talk about her new book  no time to cook, fresh & easy recipes for a fast forward world, (HarperCollinsCanada, $36.95). She was in Toronto from Australia on a whirlwind trip to promote the book, and help celebrate the opening of  the very hip  and happening Teatro Verde's flagship store in the very hip and historic Yorkville.

Say "Donna Hay" and immediately there's a vision of uncluttered, light and  fresh food photography and clean-to-the-bone recipes with inviting flavour twists. Her cookbooks and magazine have a style as distinctive as any in the culinary world. I just can't get the word "clean" or "white" out of my head when I think of Donna Hay food photography. 

So what inspired this star of the culinary world to focus in on quick meals? I'm afraid, the answer is no surprise. She now has two young boys, 3 and 6, and understands, like every other parent the need to feed her family well in spite of arriving home from work dead tired. The solutions she has found for this challenge define the chapters, and inspire the recipes. 

Her first solution is assembled dinners. Better than take-out, still with the cook's own touch but without all the chopping and prep that seems like an unscalable mountain when you get home with a bare 20 minutes to get supper on the table. Store-bought hummus is a favourite "cheat" ingredient, already marinated vegetables, couscous, deli roast beef and canned lentils and beans also figure in these recipes. And she's not embarassed to suggest sandwiches for supper!

Nor is Donna Hay afraid to pick up a barbecued chicken on the way home from work. "It can make so many things", she added. And they don't have to be boring "things" as the cheat's chicken caesar salad and the chicken salad with coconut dressing attest. She's up to to maxxing the flavour of a dish with condiments - Thai, Indian, mustard, pickled ginger, onion jam  - giving appealing flavour twists to simple ingredients like steak and chicken, grilled or broiled  in the simplest way. 

So what's in Donna Hay's fridge at home. "More than most people", she conceded," a couple of cheeses, feta, parmesan and a good Cheddar. Lots of vegetables - broccoli, green beans and snow peas. And eggs - my boys love to bake." The Hay pantry includes the usual pasta, many of them Asian, jasmine and arborio rice, preserved lemon and tuna. Open the door to the freezer and there's frozen berries for the boys' muffin-making sessions, pizza dough, frozen peas and a whole selection of dishes like broccoli & bacon soup Hay makes to have "some now, some later". Donna Hay admits that she thought freezing meals was old-fashioned "best left to my mother's generation", but now relishes the night-off meals she's packed away. 

If you're like Donna Hay, get home, make dinner and sit together to enjoy the fellowship of family, the absolutely last thing you want to do is "the dishes". Solution? One pot meals, and thought-through recipes that pare out the excess bowls, skillets and utensils that fill the sink and plunge a cook into despair. From this section comes a vividly flavoured chicken dish made from very familiar ingredients. Donna Hay recommends this kind of one-pot dish to a fledgling cook who needs a few really tasty easy recipes on which to build a repertoire of quick suppers. 

Lemon-Feta Chicken 

When Donna Hay creates a new recipe, she works out core flavours that work hard together, like lemon and oregano, and never forgets textures so a recipe like this has mellow and crunchy. She likes to serve the chicken and pan juices on a bed of baby spinach leaves - the heat of the chicken wilts the spinach, and voila- an easy vegetable course at the same time. Double the ingredients for more servings.

2 chicken breasts, each about 200 g, trimmed

200 g feta, thickly sliced

5 sprigs fresh oregano

1 tbsp lemon zest

2 tbsp lemon juice

olive oil, for sprinkling

cracked black pepper

green salad, optional 

. Preheat the oven to 350°F (180°C). 

. Place chicken, feta, oregano, lemon zest and juice in a baking dish. Sprinkle with olive oil and pepper. Bake for 18 minutes, or until chicken is cooked through (juice run clear when pierced with a knife).

. Serve with a simple green salad, or as Donna Hay suggested at our interview, on a bed of baby spinach. 

. Serves 2.

White on white background is often what Donna Hay picks for the food she styles, either for her cookbooks, or for her magazine. The food "pops" in an appetizing and interesting way.

www.teatroverde.com?

Vicki Emlaw delivers organic spinach to Harvest Restaurant in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Not just any spinach, but hand-picked, just minutes before Vicki Emlaw made the delivery.

You know you're in another place when you turn off County Road 13 in Prince Edward County, Ont. and and start down Morrison Point Road. Huge maples form a canopy over the road. There's a peace about the place that makes you feel like you've arrived.

And you have. Just ahead, the sign for Vicki's Veggies. The pretty one-room white frame building, in times past the local post office stands by the road, welcoming visitors to come in to check out what Vicki's got in her freezer and fridge, or dried and preserved on the shelves. Rather more than your regular roadside stand.

Outside, an array of whatever's in season - not much in early spring, but later, some of the 100 varieties of heirloom tomatoes she and her partner Tim Noxon grow from seed, or ground cherries, spinach, sorrel, asparagus, wild leeks or peppers. When Vicki's around, she'll help you make your choice and take your money. And when she's not, because the farm is the source of boxed vegetables that go out weekly to members of Community Supported (Shared) Agriculture (CSA), local restaurants like Harvest in Picton, and the passing public, Vicki and Tim are out in the fields - just drop your money into the cigar tin.

When I visited the farm 10 days ago, the trees were barely budding, and activity in the garden centred around snappy stalks of asparagus and lemony sorrel.From the bush, came wild leeks for the stand. But in the greenhouses, thousands of heirloom tomato seedlings were growing their second set of leaves.By the upcoming Victoria Day weekend, the tomato plants will be ready to graduate to the outdoors. May 16 and 17 and May 23 and 24 between 10 am and 5 pm, the sale of heirloom tomato seedlings takes place. There are over 100 varieties of tomatoes, and be warned, it's first come, first served. An assortment of other vegetables, herbs and tree seedlings complement the tomatoes.

If you miss the sale, and want to plant heirloom tomatoes next year, circle the upcoming Labour Day weekend when Vicki's Veggies has its annual tomato tasting. Then next year, you'll know which tomato you really loved - and be there in time.

But, back briefly to the spinach Vicki was personally carrying to chef Michael Potters at Harvest Restaurant. In all the excitement of local asparagus, red-tipped leaf lettuce and chives, something as basic as spinach can go unnoticed. But not here. A favourite recipe came to mind when I got home and found some pretty decent looking organic spinach. Not Vicki's - but not bad.

Wilted Spinach with Currants, Pine Nuts and Garlic Croutes

This robust combination of greens, pine nuts, garlic and currants is popular all around the Mediterrnean, and gives a new twist to something to nibble on with a glass of wine. Plan on a selection of olives, multicoloured cherry tomatoes and a chunk of feta to serve with. The super-crunchy croutes are one-bite, so choose a slim baguette, or cut baguette slices in half. There's another way to serve the spinach - as a side dish with roasted or grilled fish, chicken or pork. 

1/4 cup (50 mL) currants or 1/3 cup (75 mL) golden raisins

5 anchovy fillets

8 cups (2 L) packed spinach leaves, 10 oz/284 g

20 thin slices baguette

5 large cloves garlic, minced

1/4 tsp (1 mL) each salt and freshly ground pepper

1/3 cup (75 mL) extra virgin olive oil

1/3 cup (75 mL) pine nuts or slivered almonds

Half lemon

. In  small bowl, cover currants with boiling water; soak for 15 minutes. Drain and set side. Meanwhile, soak anchovies in cold water for 10 minutes; drain, pat dry and chop finely. Set aside.

. Wash spinach, trimming stems if necessary; shake off excess water. Place in large heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cover and cook over medium-high heat until wilted, turning 2 or 3 times, about 4 minutes. Drain in a sieve and let cool; press out excess liquid. Chop coarsely; set aside.

. Spread pine nuts on small rimmed baking sheet; toast in 350°F. (180°C) oven until golden, about 3 to 5 minutes. (Watch the pine nuts carefully as they go from pale to too dark in a flash.) Set aside.

. Set garlic and oil mixture over medium heat; fry, stirring until garlic is tender, about 2 minutes. Add anchovies; mash until fairly smooth and hot. Add spinach and currants; toss together and cook, tossing often,  until spinach is well coated and hot. Spoon into warmed small serving platter; squeeze lemon juice over the spinach. Sprinkle with pine nuts and surround with croutes. 

. Makes 6 servings.

Tip: To make up to 2 hours ahead, prep all the ingredients up to the point of adding the cooked spinach to the olive oil. Refrigerate the chopped anchoves and chopped cooked spinach. Cover remaining ingredients and leave at room temperature. 

Vicki's Veggies: www.vickisveggies.com

Harvest Restaurant: www.harvestrestaurant.ca

Robins may be the famous harbinger of spring. But in my garden (aka the backyard) it's bright green fiddleheads pushing up through the leaves that announce the best season of  all. Curled up like the scroll at the top of a violin, or  fiddle, these ostrich fern shoots are not only a sign of good things to come, but the first feed of the year from my land.

The tightly furled fiddleheads at the perfect stage for picking. Simply snack the fiddleheads back and off.

Still coiled tight around the base of the plant and wrapped in what looks like caramel brown tissue paper fiddleheads are "ripe" for picking. It doesn't take more than a few days for the ferns to unfurl, turn into the tall ferns they are, and form the backdrop to a shady garden of hostas.  Too late to eat!

A warm day and the tightly curled fiddleheads shoot up. You can still pick the shorter fiddleheads, and include an inch (2.5 cm) or so of the stem as well. A wise picker takes only 3 shoots per plant so that next year the plant will have another harvest ready for picking.

My plan is always to get them while I can. And while the haste could be ascribed to greedyness, a sin I have been known to embrace, the truth is that ostrich ferns, left unculled in a home garden, would soon muscle into the territory of other favourite plants. In the wild, they spread luxuriantly over the banks and flats along freshwater rivers and streams.  So, at home I pick and cull as I go along, and cook up a feast as soon as the shoots emerge. Better to pluck them as 2-inch (5 cm) fiddleheads on a cool spring day than dig them out as 3-foot (3 m) ferns under a blazingJuly  sun. 

How to Get Your Hands on Some Fiddleheads:

If your garden isn't as lush with fiddleheads as mine, you do have options. Fiddleheads grow wild in the eastern part of Canada where they are harvested commercially. You can often find fiddleheads in farmers' markets starting around the end of April/early May until early -mid June, all depending on the weather, of course. In recent years, supermarkets across Canada have begun to stock fresh fiddleheads, often in bulk, but  sometimes packaged, for example, by the family-owned Norcliff Farms as "Fiddlehead Greens". Out of season, look for frozen fiddleheads packed and processed by this Canadian company. For the first time ever, fiddleheads are being farmed commercially near Port Colborne in Southwestern Ontario. Norcliff Farms, the largest packer and distributor of fiddleheads in the world, is responsible for this innovative venture. 

Prepping Fiddleheads:

First things first. Remove the papery coating from each fiddlehead. There are various ways of doing this - shaking the fiddleheads in a paper bag, or rubbing the coating off under cold running water. However, the most reliable way is to tackle the fiddleheads with a small paring knife. Then, rinse the fiddleheads thoroughly. If there is any evidence of grit, rinse again and agitate in a bowl of cold water. And just before cooking, trim off the stem.

Cooking Fiddleheads:

Fresh fiddleheads need to be cooked through. You can do this by plunging them into boiling water and, after covering and bringing them back to the boil,  boil for about 3 minutes or until tender. Or steam for about 7 minutes. Drain, immerse in ice water just long enough to stop the cooking process. Drain, pat dry with towels and toss in a salad with asparagus, or stir into a risotto, top a goat cheese canape, or reheat briefly in butter or oil and serve, seasoned with salt, pepper and a squirt of lemon. 

Fiddlehead Spaghetti Frittata

My motto with fiddleheads is keep it simple. You do want to taste them after all.  So I pair them with gentle flavours and don't complicate the cooking. 

8 oz (250 g) spaghetti, wholewheat if desired

1/3 cup (75 mL) freshly grated Parmesan cheese

3 tbsp (45 mL) butter

2 tbsp (30 mL) finely chopped parsley

1 tbsp (15 mL) snipped chives

5 large eggs

1/2 tsp (2 mL) each salt and freshly ground pepper

1 cup (250 mL) cooked fiddleheads (see above)

. In large pot of boiling salted water, cook spaghetti until tender but firm, about 8 to 10 minutes. Drain well; transfer to large bowl. Sprinkle with 1/4 cup (50 mL) of the cheese, 2 tbsp (30 mL) of the butter, parsley and chives. Toss well, letting the butter melt and the mixture cool briefly. 

. Meanwhile, in separate bowl, whisk eggs with salt and pepper. Scrape over the spaghetti mixture and toss gently to coat spaghetti and keep strands separate. 

. Heat remaining butter in large skillet over medium heat until melted and foaming. Rotate and tip skillet to coat side with butter. Pour in spaghetti mixture, spreading spaghetti evenly around the skillet. Nestle fiddleheads into the strands; sprinkle with remaining Pamesan cheese.

. Cook until bottom of frittata is golden brown and spaghetti mixture is firm from bottom almost to top, about 5 minutes. Slip the skillet under broiler and broil just until top is firm and nicely browned at edges. 

. Cut into wedges  to serve. Makes 4 servings.

Tip: Use leftover spaghetti or other long or short pasta.

You won't just drop into Thomas Haas Chocolates. You have to find your way to North Vancouver, to be exact, unit 128, 998 Harbourside Drive to feast on the delights of this cafe, pastry and chocolate shop. This I did recently - along with a steady bustle of cafe customers picking up desserts and chocolate, or settling in at one of the tables for a latte and almond croissant.

The famous almond croissants are in the lower right corner. But everything in this showcase is delicious with a cappuccino or latte.

As the morning moved into lunchtime, the choice was freshly made sandwiches, quiche, pastries and espresso, some to enjoy on site, some to go. 

If you like, your sandwich can be toasted in the sandwich press.

"I like a busy place", recounted Haas,"people don't just come in to buy chocolates." That busyness created by the cafe/pastry and chocolate shop combo is something he learned from his father whose Konditori in the Black Forest Haas , the only son, was supposed to take over. As for some inner sanctum of chocolate "with brown squares", it's not his style, although anything created in the Haas production rooms behind the cafe is the equal of chocolate shops anywhere.

Busyness aside, you're enveloped in the aroma of chocolate as you enter, and excited by chocolate, its abundance, and its colour. It was the run-up to Easter when I visited Haas, and along with the Haas selection of hand  made chocolates, his own line of chocolate bars, baking chocolate and hot chocolate, the counter held a controlled riot of bunnies, eggs, ducks, race cars, nests.  Equally joyful were the colours, spring bright yellow, orange, green and even some reds.  Haas explained. "Christmas is more serious. People are buying chocolates for presents. But at Easter, you can have more fun. It's for the kids." 

There's no doubt about what season it is! These chocolate masterpieces created by Haas and his chocolatiers change with the seasons and holidays. The "Powered by Chocolate" shirt is a hint of another passion of Thomas Haas - cycling.

Behind the scenes, chocolate racing cars wait to be packaged.

To be a chocolatier, is to be an artist and love colour.

For chocolate, Haas sources premium Valrhona from France  and Felchlin, a celebrated niche manufacturer in Switzerland. Why these two? "I buy from them because  they buy mostly fair trade cocoa beans, no child labour involved. They conche (slowly churn the chocolate for smoothness and flavour enhancement) for a full 72 hours as opposed to other chocolate manufacturers whose the conching process lasts 3 hours. Quality depends on the best cocoa beans, then the length of conching time."

Bars come with playful comments such as "your recommended daily dose" and "sleek, slender, easy to hide from your friends".

For Haas, it's this quality that really counts. "I don't want to be big, I want to be good."

While the photo doesn't do justice to Thomas Haas, it captures his grin, and shows his generous spirit and playfulness. Between the production room where he is standing and the cafe on the other side is a pass-through cupboard. On its shelves Haas delights in putting chocolate treats. He swivels the shelves so the treats are accessible from the cafe. Kids love to find these little bonbons, theirs for opening the tiny doors on their side of the wall. Bet older kids do too.

Creamy Dark and White Chocolate Mousse

Several years ago Thomas Haas shared a recipe for a chocolate mousse martini for a Christmas issue of Canadian Living. It's hard to forget how delicious it was. To simplify for today, I've reduced the original three to two layers of chocolate, but haven't left out the flowing Grand Marnier sauce, a citrussy contrast in flavour and texture, Haas designed to float over the chocolate.

White Chocolate Layer:

8 oz (250 g) white chocolate, chopped

1/4 cup (50 mL) milk

2/3 cup (75 mL) whipping cream

Dark Chocolate Layer:

8 oz (250 g) bittersweet chocolate, chopped

1/2 cup (125 mL) milk

1-1/3 cups (325 mL) whipping cream

Grand Marnier Sauce:

4 eggs, lightly beaten

1/4 cup (50 mL) granulated sugar

3/4 cup (175 mL) whipping cream

White Chocolate Layer: Place chocolate in heatproof bowl over saucepan of hot, not boiling water; heat, stirring occasionally, until half melted. Remove from heat; stir until completely melted.

Heat milk until just warm to the touch; pour over chocolate. Whisk briskly until smooth. Let cool completely; chill until thickened enough for  a wooden spoon to leave a trail in the bowl that fills in slowly.

Whip cream; fold half at a time into the chocolate mixture. Divide among 8 to 10 demitasse cups. Set on rimmed baking sheet and refrigerate until set, about 40 minutes. 

Dark Chocolate Layer: Prepare following instructions for White Chocolate Layer. Spoon or pipe over White Chocolate Layer, smoothing top with back of small spoon if necessary. Refrigerate until set, about 1-1/2 hours. (Make-ahead: Cover with plastic wrap; refrigerate for up to 1 day.)

Grand Marnier Sauce: In heatproof bowl whisk together egg yolks and sugar; whisk in cream. In saucepan wide enough to hold bowl with enough rim to grip the bowl, bring about 2-inches (5 cm) water to a simmer. Place bowl over the water. Heat, stirring often, until the sauce thickens enough to coat the back of wooden spoon, about 6 minutes. Strain into clean bowl; stir in Grand Marnier. Cover surface directly with plastic wrap and chill. (Make-ahead: Refrigerate for up to 1 day.) Spoon over chocolate.

Makes 8 to 10 servings you can even stretch to 12 if you use little pot de creme pots or smaller ramekins. The idea of the dessert is to have a delectable taste of something fine. Replace the Grand Marnier Sauce with 1 cup (250 mL) whipped cream scented with Grand Marnier if you don't have time to make the sauce. Garnish if you wish with curled strips of orange peel.*

*To make the curls, cut 3-inch (8 mL) long strips of orange rind from orange. Trim each strip into 1/8-inch (4 mm) wide strips to make a strip for each serving. Wind firmly around handle of wooden spoon. Wrap with damp towel, then plastic wrap; refrigerate for up to 1 day. Unwrap and arrange a curl over each serving.