Mack Jeock

Une autre recette que je me promets d’essayer depuis longtemps… L’excellent mack jeock de Piment Oiseau, soit une recette de porc coréen. Je me suis enfin donné le coup de pied dans le derrière qu’il me fallait, et voilà. C’était à s’en rouler par terre!

J’avais doublé la quantité de porc pour en avoir pour au moins deux repas; par contre, ça a un peu compliqué la cuisson, qui se fait sur une plaque sous le gril, alors j’ai dû faire ça en plusieurs fois. Je donne donc les quantités d’origine pour faciliter les choses, et sachez dans quoi vous vous embarquez si vous en faites davantage (pensez à diversifier les modes de cuisson aussi, par exemple en brochettes sur le gril dehors ou alors dans une poêle). J’ai aussi adapté la recette pour faciliter la tâche aux gens en Amérique du Nord. Quand même, je recommande absolument! C’était à s’en lécher les doigts. La salade de poireau suggérée dans le billet de Piment Oiseau était beaucoup trop forte à notre goût; je recommanderais de remplacer le poireau par du chou, ou alors de carrément laisser tomber cette salade pour servir le porc avec un légume vert et du riz. (Je n’écris donc pas cette recette.)

700 g. (1 ½ lb.) de porc (j’ai pris un filet de porc)
2 oignons verts, hachés
4 c. à soupe de miso
1 c. à soupe de sauce soja
4 c. à soupe d’eau
2 c. à soupe de sucre
3 gousses d’ail écrasées
2 c. à soupe de vin de riz
1 c. à soupe d’huile de sésame
2 c. à soupe de sirop de maïs
un peu de poivre noir

Mélanger tous les ingrédients de la marinade dans un saladier. Couper la viande (sortie un peu à l’avance à température ambiante) en petites bouchées et faites-la mariner dans le mélange, le temps de préparer la suite. (Moi, je l’ai plutôt laissée mariner 4 heures au réfrigérateur.)

Faire chauffer le gril du four. Déposer les morceaux de viande sur une grille, au-dessus d’une plaque tapissée de papier aluminium.

Faire cuire sous le gril pendant 5 minutes environ (ça dépend de la puissance de votre four). Retourner les morceaux avec une pince ou une fourchette et remettre sous le grill pour 3 minutes environ.

Servir sans attendre, avec du riz blanc et un légume.

Steamed Caramel Cake

I’ve had this cake from Stonesoup bookmarked for years, and I finally gave myself the little kick in the butt I needed to make it. I left it in the oven for only 45 minutes instead of 1 hour, because the cake was nice and golden by then, but it sank in the middle and was underbaked. I would leave it for the full hour next time, possibly covering it with foil at some point to prevent overbrowning. Once it is baked, the cake tin is covered with a plate so that the cake steams itself as it cools, making it very moist.

The original recipe calls for topping the cake with peanut butter ganache, which I made with coconut milk instead of cream. In the end, though, while the ganache was good, I found it too rich and I think the cake would have been better off without it. I think it would be great on its own, or dusted with confectioners’ sugar before serving. If you do make the ganache, try topping it with a good pinch of flaky sea salt to make it more interesting.

Do make sure you’re using quality white chocolate (made with real cocoa butter, not vegetable oil; I used Ghiradelli).

100 g. (3.5 oz.) lactose-free butter or margarine
250 g. (9 oz.) white chocolate (made with real cocoa butter), broken into chunks
6 eggs, separated
200 g. (7 oz.) brown sugar
250 g. (9 oz.) almond meal

Preheat your oven to 320 °F. Grease a 9” springform pan; line it with paper and grease again (the original recipe didn’t call for the paper, but I found out the hard way that it should have!).

Melt butter in small saucepan. Remove from the heat and add chocolate chunks. Allow to stand while the chocolate melts.

Meanwhile, whisk the egg whites until super light and foamy. Gradually beat in brown sugar until well combined (I whisked them until soft peaks formed).

When the chocolate has melted, stir and add egg yolks to the mixture.

Add the chocolate mixture and almond meal to the egg whites and fold gently until just combined.

Carefully transfer the mixture to your prepared tin. Bake for 1 hour or until the cake is deeply golden and feels springy in the middle when you touch it; you can cover it with foil around the 45-minute mark if it’s getting too brown.

Remove cake from the oven. Cover with a plate and allow to cool and steam for at least an hour.

White- And Dark-Hearted Brownies

This is a recipe I made with my kids on Valentine’s Day. I’m typically about a month behind on posting anything, but combine that with the pandemic, and here we are. But we could all use a little love, right? And this one is fun for kids to make. (Assuming you can spare a few eggs for them to practice cracking, of course; otherwise, handle that part yourself and give them other tasks.) It’s from Smitten Kitchen, and it’s really good. I mean, obviously it’s super cute and all, but the brownies themselves are delicious! They are delightfully chewy, and I was pleasantly surprised by the white chocolate brownies in particular! This is one case where I will recommend AGAINST substituting your favorite brownie recipe, because you do need something that holds together enough to sustain the “surgery” you’ll be performing on them with the cookie cutter. Even then, they’re delicate and you have to be careful!

The yield of this depends mostly on the size of your cookie cutter. You get two 8”-square pans of brownies any way you slice them, but my heart-shaped cookie cutter is about 2 inches wide, so it only fits in there comfortably 9 times per pan, whereas Deb Perelman’s measures 1 inch and she got 16 squares per pan. Do some math with yours. As for the chocolate, it is important that you use the good stuff here, especially for the white chocolate (by this I mean: REAL white chocolate, not white baking chips). I used Ghiradelli.

The recipe below is for ONE pan of brownies; you’ll have to make it twice, once with white chocolate and once with dark chocolate.

3 oz. (85 g.) semisweet or good white chocolate, coarsely chopped
1 stick (½ cup) lactose-free butter or margarine
¾ cup + 2 Tbsp. (175 g.) sugar
2 large eggs
1 tsp.) vanilla
¼ tsp. table salt or ½ tsp. flaky salt (about 2 g.)
2/3 cup (83 g.) all-purpose flour
1 heart-shaped cookie cutter

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, with ends of foil extending over opposite sides of pan. Repeat with second piece of foil in opposite direction. Grease foil.

Melt white or dark chocolate and butter together in a large bowl over a simmering pot of water (or in the microwave in 30 second bursts, stirring between each) until it is 90% melted; remove from heat and stir the mixture until it is smooth. Whisk in sugar. Whisk in eggs, one at a time, then vanilla. Add flour and salt together, stirring until just combined. Spread into prepared pan and bake for 25 to 30 minutes (for the dark chocolate version) and 30 to 35 minutes (for the white chocolate version).

Repeat this recipe with the other kind of chocolate. I only have one 8-inch square pan, so I waited until the brownies cooled down, then I removed them from the pan (see next step) and made the second batch.

Once the brownies are cool enough to handle, lift them out of the pan using their foil “sling”, place them on a flat surface like a baking sheet, and freeze them for at least 30 minutes. (It is much easier to make cut-outs once the brownies are frozen!)

Once both batches are frozen, place them on a large cutting board. Cut each pan-size brownie into squares (2-inch squares if your cookie cutter is 1-inch; I cut them into 9 squares each instead). Making sure your brownies are still cold (pop them back in the freezer at any point if necessary), carefully, slowly, gently, press your cookie cutter into the center of each brownie and set the cut-out aside. Insert the dark cut-outs into the centers of the light brownies, and vice-versa. From here, you can let them warm up to room temperature or wrap them up in the freezer until you will need them.

Bol burrito

J’avais essayé un bol taco au bœuf, aux poivrons rouges et au riz il n’y a pas si longtemps. J’avais beaucoup aimé l’idée, mais je trouvais que le paprika n’avait pas sa place dans cette recette – je remplacerais par du cumin, moi. J’avais servi le tout au Renard dans un bol en plastique avec une cuillère, et il a a-do-ré!


Je me suis ensuite rappelé que j’avais vu une recette de bol burrito dans Ricardo et que je voulais l’essayer aussi. Celle-là, elle était vraiment à mon goût! Je vous donne ma version de l’assaisonnement à taco (que je fais toujours moi-même au lieu de l’acheter); sinon, remplacez les épices pour la viande par 2 c. à thé d’assaisonnement du commerce + 1 c. à thé de sel d’oignon. Ajoutez de la sauce forte au goût, bien sûr!

Aussi, bien que j’aie aimé la salade de maïs telle quelle, je l’ai trouvée absolument excellente apprêtée avec un reste de sauce verte tamarin-noix de cajou. Je la recommande fortement!

Pour le riz
½ c. à thé de sel
1 tasse de riz à grains longs
2 tasses d’eau

Pour la viande
1 lb. de bœuf haché maigre
2 c. à soupe d’huile végétale
½ c. à thé de fécule de maïs
½ c. à thé de piment coréen (ou plus, au goût)
¼ c. à thé de paprika
½ c. à thé de sel cachère Morton (doublez les quantités si vous utilisez Diamond Crystal)
1 c. à thé de flocons d’oignon
1 c. à thé d’ail en poudre
½ c. à thé de cumin

Pour la salade de maïs
1 boîte de 7 oz. de maïs en grains, égoutté
1 tomate, coupée en dés
½ tasse de haricots noirs en conserve, rincés et égouttés (j’y ai mis toute la boîte de 15 oz.)
¼ tasse de feuilles de coriandre ciselées

Pour la garniture
1 tasse de fromage cheddar sans lactose râpé
1 gros avocat mûr, en morceaux
crème sûre sans lactose, au goût
quartiers de lime, au goût


Pour le riz
Dans une casserole, porter l’eau et le sel à ébullition. Ajouter le riz et mélanger à la cuillère de bois. Réduire le feu au minimum. Couvrir et cuire 18 minutes. Laisser reposer 5 minutes. Égrainer le riz à la fourchette.

Pour la viande
Entre-temps, dans une poêle antiadhésive à feu moyen-élevé, cuire la viande dans l’huile avec les épices en l’émiettant à l’aide d’une cuillère de bois de 6 à 8 minutes ou jusqu’à ce qu’elle soit bien dorée. Réserver au chaud.

Pour la salade de maïs
Dans un bol, mélanger tous les ingrédients. Saler et poivrer.

Dans des bols, répartir le riz, la viande et la salade de maïs. Garnir du fromage, de morceaux d’avocat prélevés à la cuillère et de crème sure. Arroser de jus de lime.

Strawberry Coconut Granola

I decided to make strawberry coconut granola from the Minimalist Baker because, in addition to looking tasty, it called for an ingredient I’d never thought to use in granola before: freeze-dried fruit. This was great! I had some on hand because I tried giving it to my kids as a snack, and they liked it. I used strawberries, as the recipe suggested, but this would also be a great use for freeze-dried bananas! I can’t eat banana chips anymore because I find them much too hard, but freeze-dried bananas have a much more pleasant consistency. I changed the recipe a bit to suit my taste and baked it at a lower temperature; the quantities below are mine.

3 cups rolled oats
1 ¾ cups raw nuts, roughly chopped (I like pecans and almonds)
4 Tbsp. coconut sugar (I used coarse maple sugar; brown sugar or muscovado would also do)
1 pinch sea salt
6 Tbsp. coconut oil, melted
½ cup maple syrup (or agave nectar)
¾ cup unsweetened large flake or desiccated coconut (i.e., coconut chips)
1.2 oz. unsweetened freeze-dried strawberries

Preheat oven to 300 °F. Spray a roasting pan (or a large baking sheet or two) with non-stick spray.

Add oats, nuts, coconut sugar, and salt to a large mixing bowl. Stir to combine.

To a small saucepan, add coconut oil and maple syrup. Warm over medium heat for 2-3 minutes, whisking frequently until the two are totally combined and there is no visible separation.

Immediately pour over the dry ingredients and stir to combine until all oats and nuts are thoroughly coated. Arrange on the roasting pan and spread into an even layer

Bake for 30 minutes, stirring every 10 minutes. Then remove from oven, add coconut, and stir/toss the granola again. Bake 5-8 minutes more. Watch carefully as to not burn, especially the coconut. You'll know it's done when the granola is deep golden brown and very fragrant.

Let cool completely before adding the strawberries. Toss to combine. I like to eat it with lactose-free milk or yogurt for breakfast, but you could also add sliced bananas, or use it as an ice cream topping.

Plush Coconut Cake

This recipe is from Smitten Kitchen. “Plush” truly is the best way to describe this vegan coconut cake! It was absolutely delicious, and the texture was remarkable. It would also be a great base for a confetti cake. I would recommend topping it with something, like large white confetti sprinkles or coconut flakes, because even though I followed the recipe to a T, the glaze eventually gave it a “wrinkled fabric” look that wasn’t the most appetizing thing (but, again, it tasted fantastic).

Last time I went to the grocery store, they were out of many ingredients, including eggs and coconut milk. You don’t need eggs for this cake, but the coconut milk is pretty much non-negotiable. If you don’t have a can of it in your pantry, consider buying coconut milk powder (like this) to tide you over.

2 cups plus 3 Tbsp. (285 g.) all-purpose flour
1 ½ tsp. baking soda
½ tsp. fine sea salt
1 cup (200 g.) granulated sugar
½ cup (110 g.) coconut oil, warmed just enough to liquefy
1 can (13.5 oz.) coconut milk, divided
1 Tbsp. plain vinegar
¾ cup powdered sugar, for the glaze

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line the bottom of 9-inch round cake pan with a fitted round of parchment paper and coat the bottoms and sides with nonstick cooking spray.

Whisk together flour, baking soda, salt and granulated sugar in the bottom of a large mixing bowl. Add coconut oil, 1 ½ cups coconut milk, and vinegar and whisk until batter is smooth.

Pour into prepared pan. Bake for 25-30, or until the top is springy and a tester inserted in the center comes out batter-free. Cool the cake in the pan on a wire rack for 10 minutes, then cut around it with a knife to ensure it is loosened and flip it out onto a cooling rack to cool the rest of the way.

Whisk together ¾ cup powdered sugar with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the leftover coconut milk, adding a little at a time, until it is smooth but not too runny. Add a pinch of salt, if you wish. Once cake is fully cool, spread over the top of the cake and smooth to the edges with a knife or small offset spatula, where it will find its way down the sides decoratively on its own.

Pita Chip Salad

This dish was created by Deb Perelman for Bon Appétit. In her column, she admits that if she were to just call this “warm winter vegetable salad with halloumi”, it would not be appealing to kids. But pita chip salad? It certainly worked to bring my kids to the table! I had also been meaning to try halloumi cheese for a long time, and when I found some at the store, I confirmed that it had 0 g of sugar (just check the nutrition label, because some brands might be a bit different), which means it is lactose-free. Hurrah! Halloumi grills beautifully, though I didn’t leave it in the oven quite long enough (I didn’t want to risk charring the vegetables or making the pita too crisp). Maybe I should have set the oven to broil instead of just letting it bake longer? Anyway, I liked halloumi. It was salty, and much squeakier than I had expected.

I had decided to increase the quantities of this dish to have enough for two nights, but in hindsight, I should have left them as is. It’s best eaten the-night-of, though it reheats well in the oven (20 minutes at 350 °F did the trick for me). The amounts below should make 4 servings, but keep in mind that kids might eat less. Don’t hesitate to bulk it up with pita or with a vegetable that you know your kids like. I didn’t split my pita into 2 layers because it was absolutely impossible to do without tearing it apart completely; I had 5 medium rounds of pita bread instead of 1 large one, which felt like just enough for my increased quantities (i.e., most of a smallish cabbage, ¾ of a squash, and 16 oz. of halloumi, all on 2 baking sheets instead of 1).

5 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 ½ tsp. kosher salt
1 tsp. Aleppo pepper (I used 1 generous pinch of Korean pepper)
½ small head of red cabbage (about 10 oz.), cut into 1” pieces
1 medium red onion, cut into 8 wedges through root end (I prefer to cut off the root end)
1 ½ lbs. winter squash, preferably delicata, halved, seeded, sliced crosswise ½” thick
1 large pita bread (or more, see note above), split into 2 layers, cut or torn into 1 ½” – 2” pieces
8 oz. halloumi cheese, cut into 1” pieces
2 Tbsp. apple cider vinegar
1 ½ tsp. ground sumac
mint sprigs, for serving (I made a chiffonade)

Preheat oven to 425 °F. Coat a rimmed baking sheet with 1 tablespoon oil (I also lined it with parchment paper).

Mix garlic, salt, Aleppo pepper, and 3 tablespoons oil in a large bowl. Add cabbage, onion, and squash and toss to coat. Spread out n prepared baking sheet (keep the bowl handy) and roast until squash is browned underneath, 25-30 minutes (I flipped them over at the 15-minute mark).

Toss pita, halloumi, and remaining tablespoon of oil in the reserved bowl. Scatter over vegetables, then turn vegetables over with a large spatula. Roast until squash is fork-tender and cabbage, onion, pita, and halloumi are browned in spots (cheese should be soft inside), 15-20 minutes (I only left them in for 10 minutes, so perhaps a bit longer would have been better). Remove from oven and drizzle with cider vinegar. Top with sumac and mint.

Nutella Muffins

When I saw the second photo on this list of ideas for breakfast on Christmas morning, I just knew I had to make Nutella muffins. I used the basic muffin recipe they recommended, but doubled it because despite their instructions, I knew that 1 cup of flour wouldn’t give me 12 muffins. The result was ugly (they spread too much), but delicious, so I decided to use another base.


After some searching, I settled on these doughnut muffins, omitting the nutmeg and topping them with cinnamon sugar. Here is the result.

Note that when we’re speaking of 1 tablespoon of Nutella in a muffin, the quantity of lactose is tolerable for me. Of course, feel free to use your favorite lactose-free chocolate spread (such as Chocolate Soom, which is also nut-free) or make your own (like this one). I used my smallest cookie scoop to portion tablespoons of dough in each muffin; a regular size jar of Nutella gives you enough for 24 muffins.

2 Tbsp sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
3 cups unbleached all-purpose flour
2 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp baking soda
scant 1 tsp salt
¾ cup plus 1 Tbsp lactose-free milk
2 Tbsp buttermilk (or lactose-free milk with a dash of lemon juice)
1 ½ sticks (6 oz) lactose-free butter at room temperature (or cold margarine)
¾ cup plus 2 Tbsp granulated sugar
2 large eggs
12 Tbsp Nutella (or lactose-free chocolate spread)

Preheat the oven to 350 °F and set a rack to the middle position. Spray a standard-size muffin tin with cooking spray.

Mix the 2 Tbsp sugar with the cinnamon and set aside.

In a medium bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt, and whisk to mix them thoroughly. Set aside.

Combine the milk and the buttermilk in a measuring cup, and set aside.

Place the butter in the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and beat on medium speed for a few seconds, until the butter is soft and creamy. With the motor running, add the sugar in a steady stream. Continue beating, scraping down the sides of the bowl once or twice, until the mixture increases in volume and lightens to pale yellow. It should look light, fluffy, and wonderfully creamy, like frosting. This could take a couple of minutes. Add the eggs one at a time, beating until they are just combined.

With a wooden spoon, mix ¼ of the flour mixture into the butter mixture. Add 1/3 of the milk mixture. Continue to add the dry and wet ingredients alternately, ending with the dry. Mix until the dough is smooth and well combined, but do not overmix.

Fill each muffin cup about halfway with batter. Add a tablespoon of Nutella, then fill the rest of the way with batter. Sprinkle the top of each muffin with the reserved cinnamon sugar. Bake until the muffins are firm to the touch and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 20-25 minutes.