Savour the season

We asked some of the city’s best chefs for the dishes they like to put out when entertaining.

We also include a couple of our own favourites to serve up when friends and family come by during the holidays.

This edition we include Longtail Kitchen’s stir-fried winter squash and mushroom with shrimp paste, Wild Rice’s chef Todd Bright with his duck recipes, along with reporter Niki Hope’s favourite vegan bruschetta recipe, from Oh She Glows cookbook author Angela Liddon.

Coming together over a table of delicious food is one of the best parts of the holidays.

We hope you will enjoy a tip or two from our holiday recipe feature.

Happy Holidays!

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Bruschetta goes vegan – Easy and Delicious Vegan Bruschetta

By Niki Hope, reporter

This easy and delicious Bruschetta has become a staple in my arsenal of recipes, especially when it comes to entertaining. It’s from the blog of Oh She Glows author Angela Lidd, who specializes in vegan recipes.

It’s one of those great crossovers that the meat eaters I know seem to love as much as the vegans. Anyway, it is a yummy dish with red and green ingredients that give it a little holiday colour. Enjoy!

Ingredients:

2-3 cups grape tomatoes (other types would work too), chopped

1.25 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil

1/4-1/2 tsp. Fleur de sel sea salt, adjust to taste

Freshly ground black pepper, to taste

1 handful basil leaves, chopped finely

2 cloves very fresh and juicy garlic

1 tbsp. balsamic vinegar

3/4 of a baguette (we used Ciabatta bread), sliced on diagonal (about 25 pieces)

4-5 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil, placed in small bowl

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400F. In a medium-sized bowl combine 1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, chopped tomatoes, black pepper, finely chopped basil, one clove finely chopped garlic, and balsamic vinegar. Mix well and set aside.

Take your baguette and slice one-inch pieces. Take your other clove of garlic and carefully slice in half lengthwise, exposing thegarlic juices. Take a piece of the cut garlic and rub one side of each slice of bread to spread the garlic juices and flavour on the bread. Now place 4-5 tbsp of olive oil in a small bowl and dip bread into the bowl (garlic side down) coating one side of the bread.

On a baking sheet, line up bread oil side down and bake for 5-6 minutes watching very carefully. Bread will be crisp like toast, but not too hard. I checked mine every 2 minutes.

While the bread is cooking, take that sliced garlic clove and chop finely and add to the bruschetta mixture. Taste and adjust seasonings if necessary.

When bread is ready, flip so the oil side is up and scoop on the bruschetta mixture carefully onto each piece. Take remaining juices and drizzle over top. Serve immediately.

Makes about 25 pieces and serves six comfortably. We ate every last piece! Everyone raved about this bruschetta. It was so good! I think it was gone in about five minutes.

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Get elegant with duck – Duck Prosciutto with roasted mushroom risotto

By Todd Bright, chef at Wild Rice

Ingredients:

1 large or 2 smaller whole duck breasts, skin on

1 to 3 cups of kosher salt, or as needed

1 teaspoon cracked black pepper

50g blueberry rooibos tea

2 cloves of smashed garlic

You will also need:

cheesecloth

butchers twine

Instructions:

1. Line the bottom of a non-reactive container (glass, plastic, etc.) with about half of your kosher salt and tea. You will want about a quarter to a half-inch of salt, so depending on the size of the dish, you will have to adjust.

2. Crush the garlic and pepper (reserving enough pepper to dust the breast after rinsing the salt off) and rub them into the duck breast and place into the dish on top of the salt.

3. Cover the duck with the remaining salt and tea, and make sure it is completely covered. Wrap with plastic and refrigerate 24 hours.

4. Rinse off the cure with cold water and pat dry with paper towels. (The flesh of the duck should feel firm from the salt pulling out moisture. At this point, weigh the duck breast and start a log of weight to determine doneness when drying.)

5. Wrap in cheesecloth and hang with butcher’s twine (about 60 per cent humidity and 50-60 F).

6. Dry from one to two weeks until the meat has lost 30 per cent of its weight or when the meat feels quite firm, but not hard throughout.

You should be able to slice into the breast with a knife. If you can’t, the breast has dried out too much and might not be too pleasant to eat. The color of the duck should be a deep red, and the meat should smell almost sweet like a cured ham. If the meat still feels quite soft in the middle after a week or so, let it hang for a few more days.

Serves four.

Risotto

1-1/2 cups sushi rice

1 quart vegetable stock

1/2 cup white wine

1 medium shallot or 1/2 small onion, chopped (about 1/2 cup)

3 Tbsp. unsalted butter

1 Tbsp. vegetable oil

1 Tbsp. chopped Italian parsley

2 cups shiitake mushrooms, cooked golden brown

Kosher salt, to taste

Preparation:

Heat the stock to a simmer in a medium saucepan, then lower the heat so that the stock just stays hot.  In a large, heavy-bottomed saucepan, heat the oil and 1 Tbsp. of the butter over medium heat. When the butter has melted, add the chopped shallot or onion. Sauté for two to three minutes or until it is slightly translucent.

 Add the rice to the pot and stir it briskly with a wooden spoon so that the grains are coated with the oil and melted butter.

Sauté for another minute or so, until there is a slightly nutty aroma. But don’t let the rice turn brown.  Add the wine and cook while stirring, until the liquid is fully absorbed.

Add a ladle of hot vegetable stock to the rice and stir until the liquid is fully absorbed.

When the rice appears almost dry, add another ladle of stock and repeat the process.

Note: It’s important to stir constantly, especially while the hot stock gets absorbed, to prevent scorching, and add the next ladle as soon as the rice is almost dry.

Continue adding ladles of hot stock and stirring the rice while the liquid is absorbed. As it cooks, you’ll see that the rice will take on a creamy consistency as it begins to release its natural starches.

Continue adding stock, a ladle at a time, for 20 to 30 minutes or until the grains are tender but still firm to the bite, without being crunchy. If you run out of stock and the risotto still isn’t done, you can finish the cooking using hot water. Just add the water as you did with the stock, a ladle at a time, stirring while it’s absorbed.

Add the mushrooms.

Stir in the remaining 2 Tbsp. butter, and the parsley, and season to taste with kosher salt.

Serve immediately with thin slices of the duck prosciutto and a handful of sliced chives.

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Stir-fry taste temptation –Stir-fried Winter Squash & Mushrooms with Shrimp Paste

By Chef Justin Cheung (Longtail Kitchen)

Ingredients:

2 tablespoons rice bran oil

300 grams Kabocha squash, sliced 1/4’’

200 grams yellow chanterelles, cleaned

2 bird’s eye chili

2 cloves garlic

1 teaspoon oyster sauce

1 teaspoon shrimp paste

1 teaspoon sugar

1 pinch white pepper, ground

Fish sauce, to taste

handful of Thai basil

1 tablespoon fried shallots                                   

1. Grind the bird’s eye chili and garlic in a mortar and pestle to make a fine paste.

2. In a wok, heat oil till shimmering. On medium flame, add squash and stir-fry for a couple minutes.

3. Add seasonal mushrooms and continue to stir-fry until golden in colour.

4. Add a little more oil and stir-fry in the chili garlic paste. Add wet ingredients and cook until fragrant.

5. Adjust seasoning with fish sauce and sugar. Toss in a handful of Thai basil leaves and garnish with fried shallots.