This recipe is a little diversion from a traditional path to wellness. Cookies aren’t typically on the list. Made with virgin coconut oil, this delicious melt-in-your-mouth wafer containing both spirulina and dark chocolate are excellent components of your healing diet. All you need is just one to satisfy the palate and get a dose of goodness into you.
It’s important to cool cookies thoroughly before dipping into chocolate, as they’re very light and flaky. For perfect results, freeze cookies until firm before dipping and chilling.
Per serving:
In large bowl, sift flour, spirulina, and salt.
In bowl of stand mixer, beat 1 cup (250 mL) coconut oil and sugar together just until blended. Reduce speed and slowly beat in flour mixture just until blended. Beat in a Tbsp (15 mL) water, if needed, to hold mixture together.
Gather dough into a ball and press into a disk.
Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Line 2 baking sheets with parchment. Roll dough out on lightly floured surface to 1/4 in (0.6 cm) thick. Cut out using floured 2 in (5 cm) cookie cutter. Gather up loose dough into a ball and continue rolling and cutting until all dough has been shaped.
Place cut-outs on prepared baking sheets and slide into freezer for 10 minutes.
Bake cookies for 12 to 15 minutes. Remove; cool on baking sheets placed on a rack for a few minutes before removing and cooling cookies completely. Refrigerate or freeze cookies for a few hours before proceeding with chocolate dipping.
Melt chocolate in microwave in 20-second increments, stirring in between. Stir in 1 tsp (5 mL) coconut oil.
Line baking sheets with clean parchment. Dip half of each cookie into melted chocolate and place on baking sheet. Refrigerate cookies to allow chocolate to firm.
Store cookies in between layers of parchment in tightly covered container and refrigerate.
Tourtière is, for me, the dish that best represents Québec. It can be traced back to the 1600s, and there’s no master recipe; every family has their own twist. Originally, it was made with game birds or game meat, like rabbit, pheasant, or moose; that’s one of the reasons why I prefer it with venison instead of beef or pork. Variation: If you prefer to make single servings, follow our lead at the restaurant, where we make individual tourtières in the form of a dome (pithivier) and fill them with 5 ounces (160 g) of the ground venison mixture. Variation: You can also use a food processor to make the dough. Place the flour, salt, and butter in the food processor and pulse about ten times, until the butter is incorporated—don’t overmix. It should look like wet sand, and a few little pieces of butter here and there is okay. With the motor running, through the feed tube, slowly add ice water until the dough forms a ball—again don’t overmix. Wrap, chill, and roll out as directed above.
My love of artichokes continues with this classic recipe, one of the best ways to eat this interesting, underrated, and strange vegetable. Frozen artichoke hearts are a time-saving substitute, though the flavour and texture of fresh artichokes are, by far, much superior and definitely preferred.
Cervelle de canut is basically the Boursin of France, an herbed fresh farmer’s cheese spread that’s a speciality of Lyon. The name is kind of weird, as it literally means “silk worker’s brain,” named after nineteenth-century Lyonnaise silk workers, who were called canuts. Sadly, the name reflects the low opinion of the people towards these workers. Happily for us, though, it’s delicious—creamy, fragrant, and fresh at the same time. Cervelle de canut is one of my family’s favourite dishes. It’s a great make-ahead appetizer that you can pop out of the fridge once your guests arrive. Use a full-fat cream cheese for the dish, or it will be too runny and less delicious.