Chocolate and peppermint is a match made in holiday taste-bud heaven. This Peppermint Fudge Smoothie lets you indulge without fear of a sugar crash. The avocado not only lends a great creaminess to this smoothie, but also provides a host of vitamins and minerals such as vitamin E, vitamin C, and folate that help keep our body and immune system healthy during these colder months.
Per serving:
Start by making fudge sauce. In small bowl, stir together dates and cashew milk. Set aside for 1 hour, allowing dates to soften. Place date mixture into blender and combine until smooth. Pour into small saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring occasionally. Remove saucepan from heat and stir in chocolate until melted and well incorporated.
Transfer fudge sauce to airtight container and set aside to cool at room temperature. If sauce is too thick to pour, stir in some additional cashew milk or water. Sauce may be refrigerated until ready to use. Warm over medium-low heat before using.
To make peppermint smoothie, place all smoothie ingredients, except cacao nibs, in cleaned blender and combine until smooth and creamy.
To serve, drizzle inside wall of each serving glass with a couple tablespoons of fudge sauce. Divide peppermint smoothie between glasses and garnish with sprinkling of cacao nibs. Enjoy immediately.
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.