Madeleines

Listen macaron, you've had your day in the sun. With your loud colours and buttercream filling, it's time for the unappreciated Madeleine to take a stand in the spotlight.

Delicate and airy, the mini sponge cake treat hails from Commercy, France and is baked in a traditional shell-shaped baking pan.

It's a cinch to make so I can't understand why it's not served at every patisserie and smart bakery or even on restaurant menus, made-to-order. From start to finish the recipe took an hour to make. You can add to the basic recipe with lemon or orange zest, and since today is Valentine's Day, I added the chopped up zest of a blood orange.

You can gild the lily by serving it with creme chantilly, a luscious preserve, a strong cup of coffee, or as my friend TFA suggests, glasses of Port. I couldn't agree more.

TFA's Madeleines au Miel

Makes 12 or so

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F

2 eggs

75 gram white sugar

10 gram dark sugar

Pinch salt

90 gram flour

1 tsp. baking powder

Vanilla essence

90 gram melted butter, cooled

10 gram clear honey

Whisk eggs, sugar and salt. Sift flour and baking powder. Fold into the egg and sugar mixture. Add vanilla and optional citrus zest.

Pour in the honey and butter and fold gently but thoroughly.

Spoon batter into each shell shape.

Bake 6 to 8 minutes. Watch carefully. Let cool slightly before removing each from their shell-shaped confines.

Serve with creme chantilly (whipped cream sweetened with icing sugar and vanilla), blackcurrent jelly and Port.

Carrot Top

Out foraging at the local farms the other day, it's clear the last of the carrot harvest is upon us. At Michell Farms, 10 pound bags of carrots can be had for song, and I'm determined to sing their praises.

They might be big and woody-looking, but their flavour is intense, not only for juicing, but for a few versatile and easy to make dishes. One is a warm sliced carrot salad, the other, a dip to be used with warm pita or other Middle Eastern breads, or even slices of freshly baked baguette. Both take cues from Middle Eastern spices, with cumin, paprika and hits of olive oil and vinegar.They can be used as a side dish, condiment or accompaniment or delicious appetizer.

Here we go!

Keith Talent's Carrot Salad

Serves Two

1 lb carrots, peeled and cooked whole until al dente and sliced into coins

1 clove garlic, crushed

1/4 cup lemon juice

1/4 cup olive oil

1/2 cup chopped parsley

1/2 tsp. cumin

1 tsp. paprika

Red chile flakes to taste

Salt to taste

Cook the carrots in boiling salted water until almost done, or al dente. Meanwhile, make the dressing, keeping the chopped parsley aside. Slice the just cooked and still warm carrots into coins or other shapes that take your fancy. Of course, this all depends on the size of your carrots. (I had to split mine in half lengthwise, and then cut diagonals). Toss the carrot shapes in the dressing and toss in the parsley. Plate and enjoy while still warm.

Moroccan Carrot Dip

Makes about 3 cups

2 lbs. old carrots, peeled and chunked

2 tsp. harissa

4 tsp. ground cumin

6 Tbsp. red wine vinegar

8 Tbsp. olive oil

3 cloves garlic, crushed

1 tsp. ginger

salt to taste

Olives for garnish

Cook the peeled and chunked carrots in boiling salty water until very soft. Drain and add to a blender or food processor, adding the rest of the ingredients until you have a cohesive mash - but don't overdo it. Taste for salt or other spices, but remember, refrigeration will intensify these flavours. Refrigerate until ready to serve. Serve with hot pita, lavash, sangak or baguette slices. Delicious.

Baked: Seven Sweet Treats

You know the sayings: Life is uncertain. Eat dessert first. And, stressed is desserts spelled backward.

Whatever your philosophy, a sugary rejoinder enjoyed with morning coffee, as an afternoon indulgence, or to round off a delicious meal, is the icing on the cake, so to speak.

So when you want to have one's cake and eat it too, a little something to tart up a meal, here's a list of seven of my favourite treats guaranteed to hit your sweet spot. All are as easy as pie, a piece of cake, really.

The flourless, aka gluten-free, walnut cake

A crumble topping like no other

The sure fire pecan pie

When life hands you a surplus of olive oil

You'll thank me for these

Momofuku's famed Crack Pie

Something else besides carrot cake

Fast Track to Delicious: A Recap

When faced with the dinner hour with no ideas of what to make or with minimal ingredients in the larder, hunger pangs can drive us to do and eat crazy things. Suddenly clearing out the fridge and cupboards seems tantamount: I'll finish that jar of pickles to make room, that partial box of crackers, first topped with every jam and marmalade in the fridge. Maybe I'll finally try that jar of pickled clams languishing in the back of the fridge.

But perhaps you're more organized and have more self control. If not, I've compiled a list of five previous posts highlighting quick and easy recipes for lunch, dinner or otherwise. A quick reference should low blood sugar have you considering drastic and unwise measures.

Garlic's involved, as is chicken, pasta and tomatoes, plus options for when there's no protein in sight. Just click on the underlined texts below.

The list

A dead easy and delicious pasta dish.

A garlicky marinade with salt and rosemary for chicken.

Zucchini standing in for pasta.

A quick and easy appetizer, on bread, or even crackers.

Garlic + salt = a simple and kick ass marinade for chicken, roasted, baked or grilled, with fields notes on accompaniments.

Bon appetit!

Carrot-Almond Torte

In Victoria, snow makes us kind of giddy. People tend to smile more and greet strangers on the street. Small independent businesses have shuttered early, with notices such as, "We're off to play in the snow, see you tomorrow!" or "We've gone to make some snow angels!"

Snow pants, extra gloves and scarves are dragged out and many have made the pilgrimage to Beacon Hill today with their makeshift toboggans.

For me, it drives me to bake. Nothing beats the smell of baking when it's cold outside. This simple-to-make torte uses carrots for moisture and sweetness along with ground up ladyfingers - you know, the kind you use for making tiramisu.

The recipe has been passed along from friend to friend and I'm here to pass it on to you. Easy to make and really easy to eat, you can enjoy it as is or with sweetened whipped cream with liqueur, creme fraiche or even honey-sweetened pressed yogurt.

Carrot-Almond Torte

9 oz. (1 1/2 cups) unpeeled almonds (or finely ground almonds)

1 cup plus 2 Tbsp. sugar

9 oz. (about 6 small) carrots, peeled and cut into 1 inch pieces

1/4 lb. (14) lady fingers

1 1/2 tsp. baking powder

1 Tbsp. Amaretto or Frangelico liqueur

1/4 tsp. salt

4 large eggs, separated

10 inch springform pan, greased bottom and sides

Whipped cream, flavoured with sugar and liqueur, creme fraiche or honey-sweetened pressed yogurt for garnish.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees

Put almonds and sugar in a food processor or blender and chop very fine. Transfer to a large mixing bowl. (If you're using the ground almonds, just mix it with the sugar in the mixing bowl).

Chop the carrots as fine as possible in the processor or blender (I grated mine on the fine grate blade of my box grater). Add to almond-sugar and mix.

Break up the ladyfingers into small pieces and chop in processor or blender until fine. Add to almond mixture. Add baking powder, liqueur and salt to almond mixture. Blend thoroughly.

Add egg yolks and mix into the mixture.

In a separate bowl, beat the egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Fold into the cake batter in three batches, folding in gently but thoroughly.

Pour into the prepared springform pan, levelling off without pressing down.

Bake on middle shelf of oven 40 - 60 minutes. Check after 40 minutes using a toothpick.

When the cake has cooled to lukewarm, remove from pan. Start getting giddy. Serve at room temperature.

Like snow in Victoria, should you be faced with that rare occurrence of having leftovers, wrap in tin foil. It will keep several days without refrigeration.

Speaking with a Broad: Chef Patricio Sandoval at Villas Carrizalillo

Mention the name Sandoval in the restaurant world and the first thing that comes to mind is Ricardo Sandoval. With 28 modern Mexican restaurants under his belt, spanning North America and even Dubai, it's no wonder. He's in the news a lot. But following in his corporate footsteps comes his younger brother Patricio. As owner of Mercadito with four locations spread between New York, Miami and Chicago, he is carving out his own niche of Mexican flavours with a more casual vibe.

I recently caught up with Patricio at Villas Carrizalillo where he was setting up a new menu at the Villas new restaurant, Espadin. The new palapa restaurant overlooking beautiful Carrizalillo Bay with ringside sunset views is not part of his corporate portfolio, but as a side hobby to cook and enjoy the ingredients of the region. Living the dream, as some would say.

Can you describe your approach to cooking?

Well, I went to French culinary school, so I love French food, I love Mediterranean food. I worked at French and Mediterranean restaurants while in culinary school. And prior to that I cooked Mexican food with my brother, Ricardo. And that's when I started to discover my style of cooking. I realize now that a lot of my cooking goes back to the things that I learned at those French and Mediterranean restaurants: marinating the meats, using different herbs, different layering. roasted garlic, acidic elements, the spices. Instead of making it two dimensional, I like to make it three or four dimensional. Then I take the traditional flavours of Mexico with the chiles, things that I grew up eating.

A few years ago, I had a chance to travel to Oaxaca and Veracruz, all the way down to the Pacific Coast so I'm still learning. I still haven't been down to the Yucatan Peninsula yet. So, I'm still learning Mexican food, as I left Mexico when I was eleven. Back then I never thought about cooking.

What is your first food memory?

Growing up in Acapulco and always being surrounded by food. My father opened his restaurant when I was five years old. I remember going out to eat with my brother every Sunday at fancy restaurants and being treated like adults.

Is there an ingredient you can't live without?

Chiles.

Ingredient that's overrated?

Tuna. I usually don't work with tuna. For one thing it's overfished and the flavour is so difficult to use with different ingredients and not overpower the flavour of it. I think the best way to eat tuna is sashimi-style.

What's your go-to comfort food?

I love burgers. Every time I go to New York, I have to have a burger at this place I've been going to for 12 years.

(The burger at Espadin)

Where?

Corner Bistro on the westside. A divey bar. They only serve burgers. When I started going there they were $4.75, now they're $6.75.

Can you describe it?

Sesame seed bun. They do their meat on a salamander. They don't grill it or put it on a flat top. Cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mayo, pickles. That's it.

Who are your mentors and why?

My brother Richard who discovered me as far as seeing that I had the capabilities of working in a kitchen. He had just opened a Mexican restaurant (Maya) in New York, and said why don't you come and work and learn the restaurant business from the bottom until you become a general manager. So I said great. Right at the beginning part of the training was to be three months in the kitchen, and he noticed that I caught on to the flavours pretty quickly as someone who never cooked before. And he asked me if I would rather stay in the kitchen. I really enjoyed the pace of it. I always knew when I was growing up that I would never be in an office. And then when I found cooking - that's what I love about it - the fast pace. I love the adrenaline of it, the rush, you're always doing something and you're always surrounded by people.

And a year and half later, my brother tells me, I think you need to start coming up with your own ideas, your own specials. So, I'd go home at the end of the night and always came back to things that were on his menu that I would redo, but I would never come up with anything and I'd think, am I ever going to create something that's my own, that this is my own dish. And of course, I realize that now, the reason why I didn't know what to do was because you need to have an array, like a library in your head, of ingredients, different cuisines to create what's your own style. So I realize that, back then I couldn't have done anything, I had no idea what are all the ingredients that are out there, and what was possible. I had only seen techniques of his food that I couldn't expand my knowledge any farther than what I was seeing everyday. So six or seven years later after culinary school and cooking at all these restaurants, I came up with my food. That's why they say, the chef's jacket doesn't make you a chef. And school doesn't make you a chef. It's the experience that gives you the knowledge to become a chef, to be able to run a kitchen, create food, that's your own food. That's what a chef is.

When you came to Puerto Escondido and Villas Carrizalillo did you have an idea right away what direction the menu was to take?

I said I would definitely do Mexican, and give people what they want. I don't think people that come here want Italian, it's funny but that's what every place serves. It's the mentality, oh, they want pasta. No, they don't. Traditional Mexican food, if it's done well, they're going to eat it. So that was my whole idea.

Did you take popular items from your restaurant?

I try not to do the same things that I do over there. Same style of course. The tacos are the same, some of the ideas are the same, but none of the flavour combinations are the same.

First time in Puerto Escondido?

I lived in Oaxaca City back in '07 for six months but this is the first time in Puerto.

How do you like the market?

I love it. I go there almost every day. I love to see the product that comes in.

How do you find the ingredients here?

Very inspiring. Just to be able to work with a lot of ingredients that you never get to see in the States. That was one of my biggest attractions. For me, one of the things was not to make money from this place, I wanted to come to the market and make whatever I want, something you don't get to do in the States very much. That was a big thing for me, to come here, go to the market and be a part of this. Just to be in the culture and come back here four or fives times a year, and just do cooking.

Where there any ingredients in the market that really stood out for you?

I always like to see the huitlacoche. You see it the States frozen, fresh frozen, but to see it here on the corn. And also the cheese: the quesillo, the queso fresco.

A kitchen tool that you can't live without?

Molcajete

If you weren't a chef, what would you be?

I wanted to be a doctor when I was growing up, but I knew it was going to be too much homework!

Guilty pleasure?

Drinking.

Tequila or Mezcal?

Mezcal.

Straight or mixed?

Straight. Blanco. Always.

What is your most prized possession?

A spoon that we've had in New York since we opened the restaurant seven years ago, and we still use it for service. It's a serving spoon. Stainless steel with a big handle and we still have it. Which is rare for it not to get lost.

Why did you chose the cities you chose for opening up Mercadito?

New York because my brother and I lived in New York when I had the opportunity for the location. Then, we chose Chicago because we already had three in New York before we opened in Chicago, then my brother Alfredo worked in Chicago for a long time at Sushi Samba and he knew a lot of people, and knew someone with a building that had a lot of different restaurants that never worked out. People were saying this place is cursed, nothing ever going to work. So we went in there, and we've been doing amazing. Then just a natural progression from New York, Chicago and then Miami, and there's plans in doing Vegas next.

Any advise for budding cooks that want to learn Mexican cuisine?

I think one of the things is to be able to use the chiles, how to control the spiciness, but also be able to get the flavour and also to get to enhance the food. You know I always say that in order to have spice you got to have something to kind of cover up the spice a little bit. Like a balance of acidic, saltiness, sweet. I use honey in my cooking because that balances out the spikiness of the chile. It gives you the spice but it doesn't give you the burn. And in a lot of my sauces I use a lot of sweet butter. It just rounds out the all the ingredients together, makes it creamy, richer, so you don't have that spiciness in your mouth the whole time.

What would be your desert island dish?

Shrimp tacos. Roasted garlic shrimp with lime, butter and chile and tortillas.

And mezcal?

100 percent.

*The interview was edited for clarity and brevity.

Drinking with a Broad. Tropical Afternoon Cocktails Part Two

Seeing Red

Deep red hibiscus flowers, known as flor de jamaica in Mexico, are infused in water to create a cool refreshing agua. Its tart cranberry-like flavour, packed with vitamins, is especially welcome in the hot tropical sun - just add sugar to taste and pour over ice. For more adult tastes, a round of silver tequila makes seeing red all the more seductive for an afternoon beach-side respite .

Jamaica Margaritas

(a big ol' pitcher full, non-breakable of course)

Start the day by bringing two cups of the flowers to the boil in six cups of water. Sugar to taste. Lid on pot and let steep, off the heat, for a couple of hours. Go to the market. Have breakfast, etc.

Strain the flowers threw a sieve, pressing down on them to extract as much liquid as possible.

To the resulting liquid, add:

3 ounces of the finest silver tequila (100 % Blue Agave only)

3 ounces Controy

Juice of 2 fresh limes

Top the pitcher with ice

Collect your glassware and set up your station with a good book, sunglasses and sunscreen. The world is your oyster.