Spaghetti au bacon, aux tomates cerises et au basilic

On ne se réinvente pas. En tout cas, pas quand on essaie de faire à manger quelque chose de pas compliqué! Je partage donc un autre plat de pâtes, avec une recette adaptée de Coup de Pouce. Je l’ai adaptée surtout pour être davantage compatible avec l’allaitement, donc pas d’alcool ni d’ail (ni de piment fort, question de goût), et une seule échalote au lieu de deux. J’ai pris toute la boîte de spaghetti, soit 16 oz au lieu de 12 oz. Et du bacon au lieu de la pancetta, juste parce que c’est plus facile à trouver! La recette ci-dessous est la mienne. J’ai fait ce plat quand Chère Sœur est venue nous rendre visite pour faire la rencontre du Petit Prince – un franc succès d’un bord comme de l’autre!

16 oz de spaghettis ou autres pâtes longues (pour au moins 4 portions)
2 c. à soupe d'huile d'olive
8 oz de tranches de bacon, coupées en lanières
1 échalote française coupée en tranches fines
3 ½ tasses de tomates cerises ou de tomates raisins coupées en deux
½ tasse de feuilles de basilic frais, légèrement tassées
3 c. à soupe de pignons grillés (ou plus)
sel et poivre noir du moulin
parmesan râpé (facultatif mais recommandé)

Dans une grande casserole d'eau bouillante salée, cuire les pâtes de 8 à 10 minutes ou jusqu'à ce qu'elles soient al dente. Égoutter les pâtes en réservant ½ tasse de l'eau de cuisson et les remettre dans la casserole.

Entre-temps, dans un grand poêlon, chauffer 1 c. à soupe de l'huile à feu moyen-vif. Ajouter le bacon et cuire, en brassant de temps à autre, jusqu'à ce qu'il soit croustillant. Mettre le bacon dans une assiette tapissée d'essuie-tout et laisser égoutter. Dégraisser le poêlon et y chauffer le reste de l'huile à feu moyen-vif. Ajouter l’échalote et cuire, en brassant, pendant 3 minutes ou jusqu'à ce qu'elle soit dorée et commence à devenir molle. Ajouter les tomates et cuire, en brassant, de 1 à 2 minutes ou jusqu'à ce que la peau commence à plisser.

Sur une surface de travail, superposer les feuilles de basilic, quelques-unes à la fois, puis les couper en lanières fines. Dans la casserole, ajouter aux pâtes le bacon, la préparation aux tomates, les pignons, l'eau de cuisson réservée et le basilic et mélanger pour bien enrober les pâtes. Saler et poivrer. Servir accompagné de parmesan, si désiré.

Fudgy Cocoa Nib Brownies

I got this recipe from The Sprouted Kitchen, but the recipe is originally from David Lebovitz (in Ready for Dessert). These are very fudgy, not cakey, so adjust your expectations accordingly. (The Engineer and I prefer cakey brownies, but I’m aware that opinions vary wildly on this.) You could also add cocoa nibs, chopped nuts, dried fruit or coffee to the batter, but we opted to keep things simple. In any event, it’s a great way to end a meal. While they survived the freezer quite well, I must admit that I preferred them at room temperature rather than straight from the fridge, where I normally keep fudgy things. I made them with white whole wheat flour, but it should be noted that on The Sprouted Kitchen, Sara Forte made them with gluten-free oat flour, so they are easily adaptable.

5 Tbsp. vegan margarine (or unsalted butter)
8 oz. quality bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
¾ cup natural cane sugar (or regular granulated sugar if that’s what you use)
1 tsp. vanilla extract
2 large eggs, at room temperature
1/3 cup unbleached all-purpose flour (see note above)
1 pinch salt
¼ cup cocoa nibs for topping

Preheat oven to 350 °F. Line the inside of an 8-inch square pan with parchment or foil, allowing excess to extend beyond the edges of the pan. Lightly grease with butter or cooking spray.

In a medium saucepan, melt the margarine, then add the chocolate and stir over low heat until the chocolate is melted and smooth. Remove from the heat and stir in sugar and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Add the flour and salt and stir energetically for 1 full minute, until the batter loses its graininess, becomes smooth, and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. The minute-long stir is crucial for everything to stay together. (Stir in any additions to the batter, like nuts, at this point.)

Scrape the batter into the prepared pan, sprinkle the cocoa nibs on top and bake until the center is almost set, 25-30 minutes (don’t overbake). Let the brownies cool completely before lifting out the parchment from the pan. (Freeze if desired. They keep well at room temperature for a few days, but to get clean edges when you cut them, chill them first and run the knife under hot water between each slice.)

Liens de la semaine

Rebonjour tout le monde! Voici des liens en français cette semaine, dont certains datent un peu…

- Le thon en conserve n’est pas toujours du thon… C’est souvent de la bonite. Je déteste les appellations mensongères!

- Ça aussi, je déteste ça. Comme quoi pour le marketing, tout est dans la formulation…

- Les concours de beauté pour enfants sont désormais interdits en France. « Ne laissons pas nos filles croire dès le plus jeune âge qu'elles ne valent que par leur apparence. » Je trouve ça génial et j’aimerais que la même chose se produise dans mon coin!

- Notre Québec, expressions québécoises illustrées par une française. Très joli!

- Une animation montrant les différences de parcours pour une femme et un homme de carrière. C’est drôle parce que c’est vrai!

- Les p’tits pis moé, scénettes de vie au quotidien avec deux enfants. Hilarant!

- Ça fait un petit bout que je n’ai pas parlé de Galant, tu perds ton temps? Pourtant, j’ai beaucoup aimé leur dernier album.

- Voici un exemple d’accommodement « raisonnable » qui se trouve à être injuste, puisqu’au lieu de rendre le terrain égal pour tous, il pénalise la majorité.

- Et voilà qui me mène à la Charte des valeurs québécoises. Ou plutôt, celles des valeurs maroises, parce que cette xénophobie n’est pas le Québec que je connais. La Charte proposée interdirait le port de vêtements ou signes religieux par les employés de l’État, y compris ceux qui travaillent dans les hôpitaux ou les écoles. C’est du Hérouxville réchauffé, tout ça, alors que la Commission Bouchard-Taylor avait déjà conclu qu’il n’y avait aucune crise sociale au Québec et que ces anecdotes avaient été exagérées par les médias.

Les quatre principaux candidats à la mairie de Montréal ont rejeté la Charte, tout comme certains hôpitaux. Un texte, La Barbe nationale, tourne au ridicule le projet en l’appliquant au port de la barbe pour raison religieuse. D’autres expliquent les mythes et les préjugés sur lesquels sont fondés la Charte.

Il y a bien sûr des lettres ouvertes, comme celle d’un animateur anglophone à CJAD, celle d’une musulmane québécoise portant le hijab ou celle d’un québécois juif en exil.

J’ai aussi lu les articles tentant de dédramatiser ou de défendre le tout, comme celui-ci de L’Actualité, celui-là d’un immigré musulman ou celui de Pierre Foglia (quoi que…).

Il n’en demeure pas moins que la neutralité à laquelle je m’attends de la part d’un employé du gouvernement est tout à fait compatible avec la diversité, religieuse ou autre; c’est une question de simple professionnalisme. Oui, il faut s’adapter à la culture d’accueil et contribuer à la société, mais cela peut tout à fait se faire dans le respect de nos différences et de notre individualité. D’autant plus que le crucifix reste accroché à l’Assemblée nationale et visible sur le drapeau québécois! En présentant « nos » valeurs comme neutres, en plus d’être naïf, c’est qu’on pense que « les autres » s’opposent à nous, alors que ce n’est pas du tout le cas au Québec.

Selon moi, Mme Marois tente de faire oublier les sujets plus graves tels que le système de santé, l’éducation, les nids de poule, alouette, et surtout la rapidité avec laquelle le pourcentage de satisfaction des Québécois a chuté après sa montée au pouvoir, dans le but de se faire réélire avec un gouvernement majoritaire en effrayant les gens habitant hors des métropoles tout en semant la discorde dans celles-ci. De toute façon, le PQ n’a jamais eu beaucoup de vote à gagner à Montréal… Mme Marois semble être devenue experte dans l’art d’inventer des solutions à des problèmes qui n’existent pas (comme c’était le cas avec son projet de loi 14). Le Manifeste pour un Québec inclusif résume bien ma position, et je vous invite à le signer si vous vous y reconnaissez aussi.

Batch of links

It’s nice to be doing one of these again! I have too many links to round up into one post, so I’ll try to group them by theme and save some for later…

- If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you probably remember me talking smack about GMOs. Recent conversations with my parents and with the Engineer, however, made me think that perhaps I haven’t made my position entirely clear. It’s not the GMOs themselves that I have anything against. We eat tons of foods that Nature didn’t create but that are not at all harmful. What bother me personally are the crops engineered (and copyrighted) by certain companies (like one that starts with “Mon” and rhymes with “santo”) specifically to withstand tons of their proprietary pesticide. This bothers me because a) it means the food is saturated with pesticides that I’d rather not have in my diet; b) it is environmentally unsound and affects even plots of land not used for this type of cultivation; and c) it is very unfair, even unethical, as far as the farmers are concerned. But here’s a really good article explaining why genetic manipulation might be necessary to save the orange, and why this isn’t a bad thing at all. (On a related note, I’m not against banning all GMOs, of course, but labeling products so that the consumers know what they are getting seems like a no-brainer.)

- 7 scientific terms that are misused by the general public. Now if we could only get mainstream reporters to read this article…

- How self-awareness and suggestion can influence our food choices.

- Another guide to navigating food allergies and restrictions, be it your own or someone else’s. (And I found out, to my horror and dismay, that a certain tick can make you “allergic” to meat!)

- Great video about the real cost of the American healthcare system. And this is just one of the many reasons why Obamacare is so important.

- 4 sisters, photographed every year for 36 years. Awesome.

- Remember the woman on page 194? I salute Glamour for continuing the dialogue with the women on page 198. And here’s also a really great post about real women.

- A 96-year-old man entered a song contest to honor his wife of 75 years. His entry wasn’t eligible, because he sent it on paper instead of online, but his song was professionally recorded after all. And you may need some tissues.

- I had never understood how cow-tipping could work, and it turns out I was right. If there is such a thing as a rural (not urban) legend, this is it.

- Stop-motion animation with knitting makes for a great natural gas ad!

The definitive yellow layer cake

I don’t have much time to spend in the kitchen these days, but for the Engineer’s birthday, I’ll make it happen. The Little Prince was just over a month old and I was home alone with him most of the day, so it took me the better part of 5 hours to bake and assemble a birthday cake, but it was well worth it...

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you know I’ve been looking for a good recipe for yellow layer cake. When the Engineer asked for a yellow cake with chocolate frosting for his birthday, I knew I had to make something good, and I certainly didn’t have time to test recipes! I did what I probably should have done in the first place: I used the yellow layer cake recipe from Baking Illustrated. It was different from “typical” cakes in that instead of creaming the butter with the sugar, adding eggs, and then alternating with flour and milk, you instead mix the flour with the butter, then add the liquid ingredients in two steps. (It should also be noted that because I wanted to make sure I got it right, I used cake flour instead of my usual substitute and weighed it, and I used real butter instead of vegan margarine, since the lactose content was still low enough for me to enjoy the cake.) The result was a light, moist, fluffy cake that was absolutely perfect for the occasion, and from now on, this will be my go-to yellow layer cake. I used lactose-free sour cream to make a chocolate sour cream frosting.

7 oz. (1 ¾ cups) cake flour, plus extra for dusting pans
4 large eggs, at room temperature
½ cup lactose-free whole milk, at room temperature
2 tsp. vanilla extract
1 ½ cups sugar
2 tsp. baking powder
¾ tsp. salt
16 Tbsp. (2 sticks or 1 cup) butter, softened but still cool, cut into 16 pieces

Adjust oven rack to middle position and preheat oven to 350 °F. Grease two 9-inch round cake pans and line bottoms with parchment paper. Grease paper rounds, dust pans with flour, and tap out excess.

Beat the eggs, milk and vanilla with a fork in a small bowl. Measure out 1 cup of this mixture and set aside.

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in the bowl of a stand mixer. Beat the mixture at lowest speed to blend, about 30 seconds. With the mixer still running at the lowest speed, add the butter 1 piece at a time; mix until the butter and flour begin to clump together and look sandy and pebbly, with pieces about the size of peas, 30 to 40 seconds after all the butter is added. Add the reserved 1 cup of egg mixture and mix at the lowest speed until incorporated, 5 to 10 seconds. Increase the speed to medium-high and beat until light and fluffy, about 1 minute. Add the remaining egg mixture (about ½ cup) in a slow steady stream, taking about 30 seconds. Stop the mixer and scrape the sides and bottom of the bowl with a rubber spatula. Beat at medium-high speed until thoroughly combined and the batter looks slightly curdled, about 15 seconds.

Divide the batter equally between the prepared cake pans; spread to the sides of the pans and smooth with a rubber spatula. Bake until the cake tops are light gold and a toothpick inserted in the centers comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before running a knife around the pan perimeter and unmolding to peel off the parchment. Cool completely before icing.

I feel like chicken tonight

Dinner’s in the freezer! (And hi, everyone. Still alive and well, albeit somewhat sleep-deprived. Apparently, time doesn’t stop when you have a baby. Did you know everyone’s posting about fall recipes already?) So, I said last time that one of our freezer meals was make-again good, but I now realize I don’t have a good shot. My camera is filled with pictures of the Little Prince, with only a few food shots sprinkled here and there… Here’s what you might end up with if you make these pesto chicken stuffed shells.

Except I couldn’t find shells at the grocery store, so I stuffed manicotti instead. I also made this with a dairy-free cream cheese substitute, but I used real parmesan (the dish is therefore lactose-free, though not dairy-free). I also omitted the garlic, since it was the early days of breastfeeding, but obviously it would be good with garlic too! The Engineer and I both loved this dish, and I’ll definitely be making it again.

12-16 jumbo pasta shells (or manicotti)
4 oz. cream cheese substitute (such as Tofutti), softened
1 cup freshly grated parmesan + ¼ cup for topping
3 Tbsp. prepared pesto (homemade or store-bought)
2 cups shredded cooked chicken (I used 2 breasts)
2 cloves garlic, minced (if desired)
salt and pepper, to taste

In a large pot over high heat, boil water and prepare pasta shells as directed on package. Cook pasta shells only until al dente; the pasta will finish cooking when the dish is baked. Drain the pasta shells and set aside.

In a large bowl, combine the rest of the ingredients, except the ¼ cup of cheese for the topping. Fill the pasta shells with the filling and place in a baking dish. Sprinkle the remaining ¼ cup of cheese over filled shells.

Freeze if desired, and thaw overnight in the fridge before continuing.

Preheat oven to 350 °F and bake shells covered for 30 minutes, then uncovered for 10 minutes, or until shells are bubbling hot and cheese melts.



If you are in the mood for chicken, though, you might also try this parmesan chicken cutlet recipe from Bon Appétit. It was actually created with a freezer in mind, and it worked beautifully. I’m sure the basic principle would work with any breaded chicken or pork recipe you like, too. You just need to come up with a side dish, but in a pinch, a green salad works fine.

¾ cup all-purpose flour
2 large eggs
1½ cups panko (Japanese breadcrumbs)
¼ cup grated parmesan
1 Tbsp. mustard powder
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 small skinless, boneless chicken cutlets (about 1½ lb. total), pounded to ¼” thickness
8 Tbsp. vegetable oil, divided
1 lemon, halved (for serving)

Place flour in a shallow bowl. Beat eggs in a second shallow bowl. Combine panko, parmesan, and mustard powder in a third shallow bowl and season mixture with salt and pepper.

Season chicken with salt and pepper, then dredge in flour, shaking off any excess. Transfer to bowl with beaten egg and turn to coat. Lift from bowl, allowing excess to drip back into bowl. Coat with panko mixture, pressing to adhere.

Chicken can be breaded 3 months in advance. Place between pieces of freezer paper or waxed paper and freeze in resealable freezer bags. Thaw before continuing.

Heat 6 Tbsp. oil in a large heavy skillet or a cast-iron skillet over medium-high heat. Working in 2 batches, cook cutlets, adding remaining 2 Tbsp. oil to pan between batches, until golden brown and cooked through, about 4 minutes per side. Transfer cutlets to a paper towel–lined plate and season with salt. Serve with lemon.