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{Lighter} Fresh Raspberry Squares

{Lighter} Fresh Raspberry Squares // FoodNouveau.com

Want to know what summer tastes like? Bite into one of these squares. The berry cousin of lemon bars, they’re bursting with fresh, juicy and slightly tart raspberries, so they’re fruity and sweet, but not overly so. The use of a little cornstarch in the crust makes it super crisp (also allowing to reduce the amount of butter used in the recipe), and pecans contribute to balance out the bright flavor of the fruit. The filling is almost all raspberry, and again, a little cornstarch is used to thicken the mixture and allow it to set instead of additional egg yolks and butter, letting the fruit shine and making the dessert almost sinless. I like to serve the squares topped with additional fresh raspberries, but they’re absolutely fantastic on their own too.

Makes 9 squares

Crust
1 cup [250 ml] unbleached all-purpose flour
¼ cup [60 ml] ground pecan nuts
1/3 cup [80 ml] powdered (confectioners’) sugar
3 tbsp [45 ml] cornstarch
¼ tsp [1.25 ml] salt
3 tbsp [45 ml] canola oil
3 tbsp [30 ml] butter, softened

Filling
3 cups [750 ml] fresh raspberries (you can use frozen – not thawed – raspberries too)
1/3 cup [80 ml] water
2 tbsp [30 ml] freshly squeezed lemon juice
2 large eggs
1/3 cup [80 ml] granulated sugar
3 tbsp [45 ml] cornstarch
Pinch of salt

To serve (optional)
Powdered (confectioners’) sugar
Fresh raspberries

Preheat oven to 350°F [175°C]. Line an 8-inch [20-cm] square baking pan with parchment paper, letting it overhang on two sides.

For the crust: Combine flour, ground pecan nuts, powdered (confectioners’) sugar, cornstarch and ¼  teaspoon salt in a medium bowl. Add oil and butter. Using a fork or your fingertips, blend into the flour mixture until evenly combined. The mixture should be a little crumbly. Firmly press the dough into the prepared pan. Bake until just barely beginning to brown around the edges, 15 to 20 minutes.

For the filling: While the crust is baking, combine raspberries and water in a medium saucepan. Cook over high heat, stirring frequently, until the fruit is very soft and mostly broken down, 4 to 6 minutes. Pour through a fine-mesh sieve into a medium bowl, pressing on the solids to extract all the liquid. Discard the seeds. Pour the strained juice into a measuring cup. You need 1 cup strained juice; remove any extra or add a little water if you are short. Stir in lemon juice.

Whisk granulated sugar, cornstarch and a pinch of salt in a medium bowl until well combined. Whisk in eggs. Stir in the juice mixture, pouring it slowly into the egg mixture while beating constantly. Pour the filling over the crust.

Bake until just set, 15 to 20 minutes. (The center should still be a little jiggly—it will firm up as it cools.) Let cool to room temperature in the pan on a wire rack, about 1 ½ hours. Gently slide a sharp knife along the edges of the pan that are not covered with parchment paper, and lift out of the pan all in one piece using the edges of the parchment paper. Cut into 9 squares.

Dust with powdered (confectioners’) sugar and garnish with fresh raspberries, if desired, just before serving. Keep remaining squares in an airtight container (in a single layer) in the fridge and eat within 3 days.

Recipe Credit: Adapted from Eating Well Magazine.

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{Edible Cities} Eugene, Oregon, with Melissa from Lulu the Baker

{Edible Cities} Eugene, Oregon, with Melissa from Lulu the Baker // FoodNouveau.com

Meet Melissa Bahen, food blogger, from Willamette Valley, Oregon. Melissa has learned to cook in her mom’s kitchen, who learned to cook in her mom’s kitchen. This passion for homemade food, passed down from generation to generation, has made Melissa’s life revolve around meals: one of her favorite things to do is plan out her family’s weekly menu. She started her blog, Lulu the Baker, in 2008 as a place to collect her family’s favorite recipes. Here’s Eugene, Oregon, in her own words.

My Edible City

Melissa Bahen, food blogger on Lulu the Baker // FoodNouveau.comEugene, Oregon. My husband and I moved to Eugene over 6 years ago when our oldest daughter was just 10 months old. We didn’t know anyone here or have any family nearby, but we felt at home immediately in this funny, friendly little college town. Eugene has so many things that we love: you can cross town in 30 minutes or less even on the busiest day; it’s surrounded by beautiful farmland, and you can go 15 minutes in any direction and find a farm stand, orchard, or u-pick farm; and it has such a nice, small-town atmosphere–we rarely go out to dinner or run errands without running into someone we know! And we somehow talked both sets of parents into moving here too. So now, in addition to the friendly people and beautiful scenery that we like so much, we are surrounded by so many of the people we love! We are very lucky to call this beautiful corner of the world home.

My Favorite Dish

Cheeseburger from Dickie Jo's, Melissa Bahen's favorite food in Eugene, Oregon // FoodNouveau.comCheeseburger, onion rings, and homemade ranch from Dickie Jo’s Burgers. I love a good hamburger, and in my opinion, Dickie Jo’s has the best burgers in town! They make their own buns, which I think makes a huge difference, and use beef from the Pacific Northwest. I always like to know where my meat is coming from! They make crazy-good garlic fries, but I’m especially partial to the onion rings that they serve with this amazing, garlicky housemade ranch. And they have really good shakes and root beer floats too. When they first opened, their menu was pretty small, but they’ve since expanded it to include classic American diner fare like BLT’s, wedge salads, and chili dogs. And I’ve snuck more than a few of the Ritz cracker-coated chicken fingers off my children’s plates, and they are so delicious! You really can’t go wrong with anything on the menu–it’s all fantastic!

Useful Links

Also: Follow Melissa on TwitterFacebookInstagram and Pinterest.

Photo Credits: All pictures by Melissa Bahen.

Lobster Cannelloni with Pesto, Rosé Sauce and Toasted Pine Nuts {and a tasty giveaway!}

Lobster Cannelloni with Pesto, Rosé Sauce and Toasted Pine Nuts // Food Nouveau

This week’s recipe serves one of the most luxurious ingredients of the season, lobster, in an elegant but super easy way. Cannelloni can take a while to make, but if you take a couple of shortcuts by using high-quality, ready-to-use ingredients, you end up with a fantastic tasting dish whipped up in a very short amount of time.

My shortcuts for this recipe? The best dried Italian pasta and high-quality ready-made pesto and rosé sauce. As much as I love pesto, the truth is that I almost never make it at home because buying enough fresh basil to make a batch would cost me a week’s worth of groceries, and I’m plagued with the inability to grow my own (it always, always, dies on me – I can’t seem to do anything about it). Also, I confess: ever since I discovered Maison Le Grand’s line of raw pestos and sauces, I haven’t really felt the need to make my own. Their pestos are so bright and fresh, they really do taste like they were just coming out of my food processor. They’re one of the very few convenience foods I actually buy at the grocery store.

Maison Le Grand recently expended their line of pestos with new rosé sauces and they contacted me to see if I was interested in having a taste. (Full disclosure: this is not a sponsored post. The products I’ve used to make this recipe were provided for free, but the content of this post and my opinions are entirely mine). Being a long-time fan of their products, I quickly accepted – especially since the new sauces were dairy-free. Yes, dairy-free rosé sauces! My lactose-intolerant tummy allows me a small quantity of dairy products daily (like grated parmesan cheese over pasta, for example), but I absolutely cannot digest cream-based dishes and sauces. I have made rosé sauce before, both using soy cream and lactose-free cream, but it was the first time I heard of commercially made lactose-free rosé sauces.

The new sauces didn’t disappoint: they taste fresh, they’re well seasoned and… they make up a meal in no time! My favorite is the Rustic variety (with chunks of roasted bell peppers, caramelized onions and sun-dried tomatoes), but for my Lobster Cannelloni recipe, I went the classic route. I simply mixed the freshly cooked lobster meat with pesto, mixed in some toasted pine nuts, and cooked the pasta in a little rosé sauce. I believe the restraint use of seasonings and sauces lets the lobster’s delicate flavor shine through beautifully. A new spring classic in my house!

Of course, you can really make this dish your own by rolling out your own pasta, and making your own pesto and rosé sauce… But if you go the easy way, like I did, I won’t tell anyone, I promise.

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{Edible Cities} Penang, Malaysia, with Billy from A Table for Two

{Edible Cities} Penang, Malaysia, with Billy from A Table for Two

Meet Billy Law, food blogger, food photographer and cookbook author, from Sydney, Australia. The face looks familiar? Billy was also a contestant on the very popular series Masterchef Australia in 2011 (one of my favorite contestants across all seasons!), making it all the way to the top ten finalists. Born in Ipoh, Malaysia, Law moved to Australia in 1996 to study and never left. As a travel lover and passionate eater, Billy loves food in all its forms and believes one should try everything at least once, love it or hate it. He chronicles his adventures on his blog, A Table for Two, and his debut cookbook “Have You Eaten?” was published in September 2012. Here’s Penang, Malaysia, in his own words.

My Edible City

Billy Law, food blogger, food photographer and cookbook author, from Sydney, Australia // FoodNouveau.comPenang, Malaysia. Despite living in Australia for over 17 years, I still have very fond memories of my home country, Malaysia, where my family still lives. Being thousand miles away from home, there are only two things I miss the most – my family and the food. Good delicious Malaysian food can be found almost anywhere in the country, and then there is this little island on the North-West coast near the border with Thailand called Penang. For Malaysians, Penang is the mecca of street food, or as Anthony Bourdain put it, “The food capital of the entire region”. You will find hawker food stands at every street corner in Penang, ready to expand your waistline with delicious street food influenced by the diverse cultures in this country. Malaysia is a food obsessed country so don’t be surprised that if you are greeted with ‘Have you eaten?’ instead of ‘Hey, how are you?’. That locals will make the 7 hours round trip from Kuala Lumpur to Penang just for the food is not unheard of.

My Favorite Dish

Assam Laksa, Billy Law's favorite dish in Penang, Malaysia // FoodNouveau.comAssam Laksa, hands down. Assam Laksa is also known as Penang Laksa, it is a specialty of this city. Many people would agree that no visit to Penang is complete without eating this famous and much-loved local delicacy. It consists of round rice noodles swimming in a dark muddy fish-based broth that has this distinctive spicy piquant flavor, soured with tamarind pulp, with a fishy mackerel aroma that is deliciously addictive. Many Penangites have mastered the art of Assam Laksa over decades, and several street food vendors have been selling the same dish at the same spot for generations. One of the most popular spots in Penang where you can taste this delicious bowl of Assam Laksa is at Jalan Pasar in Air Itam near the wet market. Be prepared to queue and wait for a table as it gets very crowded during lunch hour. Anthony Bourdain (on No Reservations, season 8) actually sat on a plastic stool at this stall in Penang, slurping the velvety smooth rice noodle and sipping the hot, spicy and sour fish broth — he was even tempted to use the word ‘Yummy’ to describe his unadulterated satisfaction. I don’t blame him.

Useful Links

Also: Follow Billy on Twitter, FacebookInstagram and Pinterest.

Photo Credits: All pictures by Billy Law.

Saba: An Unspoiled, Beach-Less Caribbean Paradise

Saba, a small Caribbean island part of the Netherlands Antilles // FoodNouveau.com

I had never heard of Saba before E forwarded me a travel article presenting the island as a diver’s paradise. We had been looking for a sunny and warm vacation destination, but we only had 9 days off, so we could only go so far. We wanted an active and exploratory trip, not a crowded and isolated all-inclusive. As I read more about Saba, I became increasingly intrigued by it, and before long, we had booked our vacation.

Saba is a small 5 sq. miles island, part of the Netherlands Antilles, just off St. Maarten. To reach it, we had to fly to St. Maarten, then transfer to a small 18-place plane that flew over to Saba in less than 15 minutes. We landed on the infamous 1,300-feet “shortest runway in the world” which only looks intimidating – the plane landed softly like a fly.

No closed cabin for these pilots.
Aboard the small 18-seat Winair plane that brought us to Saba // FoodNouveau.com

The airport peninsula and its short runway.
Saba's airport peninsula and its short runway // FoodNouveau.com

What makes Saba so special? The most obvious answer is this one: there’s no beach. Well, there’s one, a small patch of sea-level ground at Wells Bay that gets covered with fine, black volcanic sand in the spring when the currents and tides are right, but Donna, our island guide, told us that the beach hadn’t shown up for the last three years (they were crossing fingers it would this year). The idea that you’re in the Caribbean without easy access to the sea needs a little getting used to; it automatically filters out the traveler that’s more interested in sun bathing, swimming in the sea and relaxing, rather than being active and exploring. Since the latter was exactly what we were looking for, we immediately felt right at home.

Saba is a rocky, volcanic island on which you always have to climb up or go down a hill. The road that crosses the island is tortuous and often steep, and our first drive, in the taxi leading us to our hotel, was impressive, to say the least. It was a great way to get acquainted as we had a peek at some of the island’s landmarks: the houses perched on the island’s cliffs, the entrance to the hiking path leading to the island’s dormant volcano peak and highest point (Mt. Scenery at 2,850 feet), the delightful restaurants lining the main street of the village of Windwardside, and finally, the scenic drive down to The Bottom, the island’s capital.

Perched houses on Saba // FoodNouveau.com

A twisting and turning part of “The Road”, Saba’s main road that crosses the island.
A twisting and turning part of The Road, Saba's main road // FoodNouveau.com

Proof that everything’s perched in Saba: even the elementary school sit at the top of a very steep cliff.
Saba's elementary school sits at the top of a very steep cliff // FoodNouveau.com

Names given to geographical locations in Saba are very litteral: The capital is aptly named “The Bottom” for its geographical location in a valley, surrounded by several hills.The Bottom, Saba's capital // FoodNouveau.com

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