Traditional to South and Central America, alfajores are shortbread sandwich cookies with a rich dulce de leche filling. We've added cocoa to the cookies for richness.
As the grand finale, this playfully gory cake brings to mind tales of killing vampires with silver stakes through the heart. In this case, the heart is chocolate, and the dagger, a sugar cookie — both much tastier than, and not nearly as painful as, the real thing.
This dish is inspired by the wonderful fresh produce from the Osbourne Village Farmer's Market which is across the street from my house in Winnipeg. The market is open Thursday nights from June to September and features only very local farmers, including some urban farmers. Each week my son and I would go to the market and buy one of each item available. Towards the middle of the summer I ended up with many varieties of peppers, summer squash, eggplant, tomatoes and herbs, so I developed this recipe to celebrate the Manitoba Harvest. All of these ingredients, with the exception of quinoa, are grown in Manitoba. Quinoa is an excellent source of iron and magnesium as well as one of the best vegetable sources of protein. Serve this dish with a slice of whole grain bread to complete the protein.
It is worth every effort to use fresh crab for these delicate spring rolls. Ask staff at the fish counter to steam it for you if you are pressed for time (or don't have a large enough pot). Or you can use 1-1/2 cups (375 mL) prepared crab instead.
Flavourful butter tucked under the turkey skin makes for incredibly moist breast meat and ultracrisp skin.
Come winter or late fall, there is nothing like sharing a savoury meat pie from Abitibi with family and friends. Commonly called tourtière, cipaille or tourte, there seem to be as many recipes as there are amateur of this hearty fare. The tourte, the bird that gave it its name, is unfortunately extinct, but the tradition of this delectable, easy to prepare in advance dish, is very much alive. Deer, caribou, moose, bear, boar and especially hare make it a very special treat. The fortunate cook, who has hunters in the family or generous friends to donate a little game, is blessed. Even more, if they are willing to help deboning and dicing the meat. However, it can also be prepared with farm raised deer, caribou, boar, rabbit and adding shoulder or loin of pork, as some game is very lean. The important thing to remember is (that the recipe calls for) half part game, preferably a variety of three different kinds, to half part diced potatoes. With some home-made tomato ketchup and a nice green sassy salad, like chicory with old style mustard and cider vinegar dressing, the hostess can sit back and enjoy the hunters' long tales.
Get creative when painting the glaze onto the trees. Windswept cedars, bending pines and evergreen boughs dotted with tiny bobbles look wintry and festive.
An intensely rich and complex sauce of chilies, seeds and chocolate, mole (pronounced moh-lay) sauce is the basis for mole chicken, turkey and cheese enchiladas. This recipe makes enough for two batches of Mole Chicken (see below) plus opportunities to use it to coat fish or pork chops.
These brownies are rich, super moist, fudgy, unbelievably addictive and oh so chocolaty. Definitely a dessert that is worthy of being made every day. Minus the Salted Caramel Sauce, these brownies pack extremely well into lunch boxes and are a terrific late-night snack.
While these savoury little pies take a bit of time to prepare, they are well worth the effort. The dough is forgiving and can handle being stretched over the filling. Serve with a tomatillo or tomato salsa.
