Sally’s Kitchen & Stuff

Making hallandaise sauce from scratch can be daunting - there’s the whole double-boiler thing, and the constantly whisking thing, and then there’s the whole bit about adding boiling water a spoon at a time. There is, however, a simpler way to do this.

Dump everything into the same bowl at the same time, whisk as the bowl sits over simmering (not boiling) water until thick. That’s it. Try it yourself - because we’re not adding boiling water, there is no risk of the egg scrambling.

Here are a few additional things to watch out for:

• Use the freshest eggs you can find. If it’s been sitting in the fridge for a week…don’t make hallandaise with it.
• Make sure your bowl sits OVER not IN the simmering water.
• Use a wire whisk and don’t ever ever stop whisking.
• If you’re still failing, try melting the butter in the microwave first. Stick your finger in it to check that it’s not too hot before adding to the eggs.
• Use fresh lemon juice when a recipe calls for vinegar.

On Saturday, Stu did the usual convenience store run. Instead of my usual plea for a specific chocolate bar, I just said "something sweet and nut-less." He came back to me with a tube of Rolos. I’m not a fan of Rolos, but since Caramilk is my other favorite, Rolo is pretty darn close.

I opened the wrapper and SCREAMED AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS. Up bounced the chocolate bar and it landed on the coffee table.

Stu exclaimed…"uh, what’s wrong?"

"THERE’S A MAGGOT IN MY CHOCOLATE BAR!" And on the coffee table, crawling, there it was. It was quite alive. The Rolo bar sits on the floor near it.

Stu then proceeded to put the maggot back into the bar and subsequently squishing it with the wrapper. So, what to do with a maggot-ed chocolate bar? I don’t know. Call public health? Likely. Why would a maggot be in a chocolate bar? Don’t they only eat rotting flesh? How desperate is this maggot to hatch in a Rolo bar? Now, what if I had opened the other end, eaten all the Rolo pieces, then to reach for the last one to find a maggot crawling on it? I shudder to think. Yuck.

From this day on, I’m only having chocolate if it’s factory sealed. None of this foil-wrapped stuff for me anymore.

Casual games. No, I don’t exactly fit the demographic for the stuff, but you don’t often find food related games in the serious gaming genre (restaurant tycoon doesn’t count; it sucked) and spending a few minutes clicking away while I wait for my ride is more fun than surfing the net.

Check out my favorite games! They’re mostly about food, by the way.

This makes for an impressive main dish, but really, MUCH easier than it looks. It is labour intensive though. I’ve modified the contents of the traditional Cornish pasties a bit so that it would SEEM more expensive, and used puff pastry instead of a pie crust to get a more manageable square shape. The steaks used in it can be anything, but since we’re cooking it to well-done, getting well-marbled expensive beef is a waste. Just get the cheapest cut you can find.

I would suggest making EVERYTHING ahead and taking the baking sheet of pasties out of the fridge to bake 30 minutes before serving. With so many steps, things could get a big hectic.

Ingredients
1 Cup of Chinese chicken marinade
3 small 4 oz "marinating" steaks
1 Cup chicken broth
2 small onions, chopped
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 Cups of sliced carrots
2 Cups of Cremini mushrooms, roughly cubed
2 + 4 TBSP butter / margarine
2 TBSP all-purpose flour
2 sheets of pre-rolled puff pastry (I used President’s Choice)
1 eggs and 1 TBSP water, whisked together

Instructions
Marinade steaks overnight in a freezerbag. I used chicken marinate for its sweet and salty flavour, but if you don’t have it, you can use soysauce, a bit of ginger, and a couple of tablespoon fulls of brown sugar. Brown steaks on both sides - don’t "cook" it, just brown it. Let it cool, cube them, and slice off any extra fat.

In the pan where you browned the steaks, pour in the chicken broth to deglaze the pan. Add onions and saute until lightly browned. Add garlic and carrots and cook until the carrots lose their bite. Set the mixture aside. In a clean pan, cook mushrooms on medium heat with 2 TBSP butter until soft. Add mushrooms to previously cooked mixture.

Now this might be a bit tricky. Melt the 4 TBSP of butter in a pan on medium heat, add flour. Using a wire whisk, whisk constantly, adding hot broth/water a dribble at a time to turn the roux into a white-ish sauce. This will be our "glue" to hold all the ingredients together so it can’t be too watery. Mix this with all your other cooked ingredients (add the steak now) in a big bowl and let it cool completely.

Preheat oven to 375. Unroll puff pastry and cut each sheet into half. Scoop filling onto half of each cut sheet - as much as it can hold, about 1 1/2 cups - and fold the other half over it, pinch the edges to seal. Try to leave as little edge as possible. Poke holes along the tops with a fork. Instead of lifting the pasties off the paper, simply trim the excess paper off and put the whole thing on a baking sheet. Brush with eggwash and bake for 30 minutes.

If you have extra time, put the baking sheet of pasties in the fridge before putting them into the oven. The colder the puff pastry, the puffier it gets in the oven.