Pumpkins, pumpkins, pumpkins! Recipe and Book Giveaway from Barbara Fradkin #Halloween

Vicki here, and I’m delighted that my good friend the prominent Canadian author Barbara Fradkin is joining us today with the ultimate fall recipe!  Doesn't this pie looks scrumptious? Leave a comment below for chance to win her fabulous new book. 

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Thanks, Vicki Delany. I’m delighted to be a guest on Mystery Lovers’ Kitchen. I have three different series, one with a police inspector and two with civilian sleuths, and I confess all of them are hopeless in the kitchen. They are more likely to be grabbing food to eat on the fly as they try to save the world, so food ideas are few and far between in my books.

But Hallowe’en is fast approaching, and there are pumpkins everywhere. On supermarket shelves, in market stalls, and on people’s front porches. The quintessential pumpkin food is pie. Its spicy/ sweet flavour and velvety texture are perfect for a chilly autumn day. So I delved into the realm of pumpkin pie recipes to find the best pie that pumpkin has to offer.

The first thing to note is that every recipe claims to be THE BEST. Secondly, there are many variations on spices and preparation, and many shortcuts if you hate rolling out pie dough or roasting pumpkins. Here’s my personal judgment on what is truly the best, but feel free to mix it up or simplify it by using pumpkin pie spice, canned pumpkin or ready-made pie shells.

Pumpkin Pie

Pie crust: makes a 9-inch pie

1 ¼ cups white flour

½ tsp salt

1 tbsp white sugar

¼ cup shortening and ¼ cup butter, both very chilled.

¼ cup ice water

 

Pumpkin filling

2 cups pumpkin

3 large eggs

1 cup heavy cream

¼ cup milk

¾ cup golden brown sugar, or slightly more to taste

½ tsp salt

2 tsp cinnamon

1 tsp ground ginger

¼ tsp nutmeg

¼ tsp cloves

 

Preparing pie crust:

You can do this by hand with pastry cutter or two knives, but the food processor is way easier! Of course, ready-made is even easier.

 Mix flour, sugar, and salt in food processor.

Chill butter and shortening thoroughly and cut into pieces.

Add butter, shortening, and ice-cold water to flour, and pulse until mixture resembles a coarse meal and just begins to stick together. Do not over-mix.

Turn it out on a flat surface, fold it in on itself a couple of times to bond, and form a thick disc like a hockey puck. Wrap in plastic and chill at least ½ an hour.

Roll out on a flat, floured surface to form a 12-inch round, and transfer to 9-inch pie plate. Press down into the bottom and pinch the edges.

 

Preparing the pumpkin filling:

Start by roasting a fresh sugar pumpkin (small, not the jack-o-lantern variety). Cut it in half, scoop out the seeds (you can roast these, but I feed them to the squirrels), invert halves on a cookie sheet and roast at 350 degrees F for one hour. The skin should peel off easily if it’s cooked. Cool, remove pulp, and puree 2 cups in food processor.

Mix salt and spices together with sugar. Add eggs, sugar mixture, milk, and whipping cream, blend until very smooth.

Pour into slightly greased pie plate (see note below). In oven preheated to 425 degrees, bake for 10-15 minutes, then reduce heat to 350. Continue baking for 45 - 55 minutes. Cover the edges of the crust with foil near the end if they become too brown. Pie should be firm at edges but slightly jiggly in the centre. A toothpick inserted in centre should be wet but relatively clean.

Note: there will be too much filling, don’t ask me why. The amount would be perfect for a 10-inch pie dish, which I don’t have, and which would require re-calculating the dough recipe. I just poured the rest into a baking dish. Baker’s reward!

Cool on wire rack for at least 2 hours before chilling. Can be decorated with whipped cream or eaten by itself.

 

 

I hope you enjoy this recipe, which would be far too difficult for either Amanda Doucette or Inspector Green to manage. 

Barbara Fradkin is a retired psychologist and multiple award-winning mystery author whose work with children and families provides much of the insight and inspiration for her stories. She has an affinity for the dark side and is best known for her gritty, psychological Inspector Green novels, which have been nominated four times for the Crime Writers of Canada Award of Excellence in the Best Novel category. She has won this award twice.

 More recently, she embarked on a mystery-thriller series featuring Amanda Doucette, an adventurous, passionate but struggling international aid worker who is looking for healing and new direction. There are currently four books in that series, set in different, iconic locations across Canada, with The Ancient Dead set in the starkly beautiful badlands of Alberta.

I will be doing a random draw for a copy of my brand-new Inspector Green mystery, THE DEVIL TO PAY. To enter, please answer this skill testing question in the comments.

What police service does Inspector Green work for?

 

Enjoy and Happy Hallowe’en!

Crispy Ginger Beef by Guest Barbara Fradkin + #Giveaway

Welcome today's guest, Barbara Fradkin. She's sharing a Canadian-Asian fusion recipe for Crispy Ginger Beef and telling us about her new book, THE ANCIENT DEAD. To be entered into a drawing for a free copy, leave at comment at the end of this post. I can't wait to read the book and try the recipe. Please tell us about them, Barbara. 

My protagonist Amanda Doucette is a passionate, adventurous foreign aid worker who can’t turn her back on people in trouble. She is currently doing a cross-Canada charity tour, and each book is set in a different iconic location. THE ANCIENT DEAD (January 2021) is set in Alberta’s renowned dinosaur country, where the discovery of buried human bones stirs up old secrets involving her uncle who went missing thirty years ago.

Although Amanda’s work has taken her around the world, she’s never had the chance to develop her own cooking skills. But she is fearless and often plunges in where few would dare. Alberta is famous for its beef as well as its grain products, but when I researched Alberta recipes, I also discovered a recipe for ginger beef made famous by Calgary’s Silver Inn in the 1970s. Its Canadian-Asian fusion seemed perfect for Amanda. Like Amanda, I plunged in where I’d never been and tried out this recipe for the first time. Here are the results, good and the bad.

Ingredients

For Beef

1 lb. flank steak
1 egg
¾ to 1 c. water
1 ¼ c. cornstarch
3 tablespoons flour
½ tablespoon white pepper
2-3 c. oil for deep frying

For Vegetables

1 large carrot
1 sweet red bell pepper
1 green bell pepper
6 cloves garlic
chunk of ginger, roughly the size of two thumbs

For Sauce

¼ c. light soy sauce
2 tablespoons white vinegar
3 tablespoons mushroom soy sauce (or dark soy)
1 tablespoon Chinese cooking wine (or cooking sherry)
½ c. water
¼ c. sugar
½ tablespoon crushed chillies (or to taste)
1 tablespoon cornstarch (this is my alteration)

 

Slice beef into thin strips against the grain. Mix egg, water, cornstarch, flour, and white pepper to make batter, and toss beef in it. Deep-fry strips a few at a time for about 2 minutes and set them aside on paper towelling.

I made three mistakes on this part. First, I used the suggested 1 cup of water in the batter but I think it made it too thin because it didn’t stick to the beef well. I suggest cutting water to ¾ cup. Next, I put too many strips in the oil at once and I didn’t make the oil hot enough. A wok would work better, and make sure the oil is very hot.

Cut all the vegetables including garlic and ginger into julienned strips. Mix together all ingredients for the sauce. Stir fry the vegetables until they are slightly cooked by not soft and then add the sauce. Bring it to a boil, stirring, just until sauce thickens. Add the beef and stir to coat.  Serve over rice.

The recipe called for keeping it warm for a couple of hours to bring out the flavours, but I was too hungry and ate it right away. It was delicious! But the beef was soft rather than chewy and slightly crunchy, possibly because of the mistakes I mentioned. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Barbara Fradkin is a retired child psychologist with a passion for the dark side. She has written eighteen novels in three series, including the Amanda Doucette mystery/thriller series and a police series featuring exasperating, impetuous Ottawa Police Inspector Michael Green, which has been nominated four times for Crime Writers of Canada’s Awards of Excellence (formerly the Arthur Ellis Awards). Barbara has won the award twice. 

Website: https://www.barbarafradkin.com/ 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bfradkin/

GIVEAWAY!

I’m giving away a book to a Canadian or American reader. 

Leave a comment about where you’d love to travel when the pandemic is over. Remember to leave your email address so I can contact you if you win.

Perfect summer party fare from guest author Barbara Fradkin #mystery #recipe #giveaway

Amanda Doucette’s perfect summer party fare by guest author Barbara Fradkin

Please welcome our good friend, award-winning author Barbara Fradkin, back to Mystery Lovers Kitchen.  We love her books and Barbara never fails to deliver a delicious recipe. Plus she's offering an enticing giveaway.  Make sure you leave a comment AND your email address.

This recipe is from Barbara's awesome new protagonist, Amanda Doucette.  Amanda is a woman on the go, full of enthusiasm and purpose. Although she loves to get together with friends over dinner and wine – sometimes even a good Scotch – she is less fond of recipes that require a pantry full of ingredients or half a day’s prep. Fast, fresh, healthy foods are her favourite. Never one to follow all the rules, she likes to make things up as she goes along. Instead of tuna in the classic salade Niçoise, she switched it to fresh poached salmon.  Here’s her recipe, as accurately as she can remember it after the wine and Scotch. It’s both versatile and forgiving, so every chef can put their own twist on it.  

By the way, Linda /Erika and MJ /Victoria both enjoyed this recipe at our annual writers' retreat!  

PERFECT SUMMER SALMON 

Ingredients

1 fillet of wild sockeye salmon, about a pound

1-2 green onions

2-3 garlic cloves

juice of one lemon, plus about 1 tbsp. of grated rind (more or less depending on how lemony you like it!)

¼ cup white wine

2 tbsp. olive oil

salt and pepper to taste (or that secret ingredient, Mrs. Dash’s seasoned salt)

water as needed

1.
   DIRECTIONS

      Chop garlic and green onions coarsely.  

2.      To prepare the salmon fillet, sprinkle the top lightly with salt, pepper, and the zest of half a lemon.  Spread the garlic and onions over it evenly.

3.      Heat the olive oil in a heavy skillet and fry the salmon briefly, dressed side up, to seal in the juices.

4.      Pour wine and lemon juice gently over it, cover with a tight lid, and poach gently until the pink flesh is just beginning to turn paler at the thickest part. Adjust heat and add water sparingly to avoid scorching.

5.      Towards the end, allow the liquid to evaporate so that the fish browns slightly.

6.      Remove the fish to a plate, spoon any remaining juices over it, and chill before slicing it into single portions. Place the fish in the centre of the prepared bed of lettuce, and encircle it with any salad ingredients you have on hand. Amanda uses seasonal fresh vegetables, in this case sliced tomatoes and peppers, baby new potatoes and green beans (cooked and chilled), and slivered hard boiled eggs. Drizzle with oil and vinegar or lemon garlic vinaigrette.

Voilà! The result is as pretty as it is delicious!

Meet our friend, Barbara Fradkin:

Barbara Fradkin is a retired child psychologist with a fascination for why we turn bad. Besides her short stories and easy-read short novels, she is best known for her gritty, psychological Inspector Green series, which has received two Arthur Ellis Best Novel Awards. However, she recently embarked on a new mystery suspense series featuring international aid worker Amanda Doucette, who battles her own traumatic past to help people in trouble.

The series debut, Fire in the Stars, was released in 2016, earning starred reviews, and the second, The Trickster’s Lullaby, will hit the shelves on September 2.  You can pre-order it now!  Barbara lives in Ottawa.  One lucky commenter will win a copy of Fire in the Stars!  Just leave a comment with your email address.  

 

Join Barbara on  FACEBOOK 

and check out her  WEBSITE

Don't forget your comments!

Welcome guest author Barbara Fradkin! #bookgiveaway

Barbara Fradkin is a retired child psychologist with a fascination for why we turn bad. Besides her short stories and easy-read short novels, she is best known for her gritty, psychological Inspector Green series, which has received two Arthur Ellis Best Novel Awards. She is now embarking on a new mystery suspense series featuring former international aid worker Amanda Doucette, who battles her own traumatic past to help people in trouble. Fire in the Stars is available in September through your favourite bookseller as well as online.

Amanda Doucette, the star of my new mystery suspense series, is a former international aid worker who has never settled down long enough or had the patience to learn to cook anything but the basics. In her travels, however, she has sampled cuisine from around the world and loves new experiences in food as much as in life. In FIRE IN THE STARS, the first book chronicling her adventures, she is in Newfoundland trying to help a fellow aid worker who has gone missing with his young son, and in one scene she finds herself in a spectacular lighthouse restaurant in Saint Anthony at the rugged northern tip of the island. She has teamed up with an off-duty RCMP corporal Chris Tymko who is also a friend of the missing man and equally worried about his state of mind.

Against the backdrop of soaring gray cliffs and crashing ocean surf, they share bowls of the Lightkeeper’s Restaurant’s famous seafood chowder. I myself, in the interests of research, sat at their very table by the window, looking out over those same roiling seas and sampling the same chowder. I can attest that it is delicious. Seafood chowder is a mainstay of Newfoundland and east coast cooking, and can be as variable as the ingredients the cook has on hand. It’s hearty, thick, and puts meat on the bones, and as long as you can lay your hands on some seafood – an easy feat in Newfoundland – and have some root vegetables in your pantry, you are good to go.

Below is the variation on the chowder that Amanda would make, if she ever stayed put near a kitchen long enough to prepare it. Maybe some day …

Classic Newfoundland Seafood Chowder

1 lb. cod

1 lb. medium shrimp

½ lb. scallops

Half dozen clams or mussels in the shell for garnish (optional)

1 cup each of carrots, onions, and celery, all diced

3 medium Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and diced

¾ cup butter

¾ cup flour

4 cups seafood or vegetable stock

1 cup heavy cream

3 cups whole milk

1-2 tsp. savory, finely chopped, fresh if possible

Small bay leaf

Salt and pepper to taste

Fresh sprigs of parsley for garnish

1.      Have all ingredients ready at hand, for you’ll be busy. In a LARGE pot, melt ¼ cup butter and sauté celery, carrots and onions together on medium heat for about 7 minutes.  Add pepper and salt.

2.      Add remaining ½ cup butter, melt, and stir in the ¾ cup flour to make a thick paste. Distribute well and cook briefly, stirring to make sure the bottom doesn’t burn or brown. 

3.     Gradually add the 4 cups of stock, stirring well throughout to ensure it blends and doesn’t lump. I used half chicken and half vegetable stock because prepared fish stock is hard to find. If you’re into making your own fish stock, you’re way ahead of Amanda and me.

4.      Bring the mixture to a soft boil, stirring often to prevent sticking. You will think it is much too thick, but it won’t be. Add diced potatoes and simmer for 10 – 15 minutes depending on the size of the potato and carrot chunks. They shouldn’t be completely cooked.

5.      Add cream and milk gradually, stirring gently, and bring to a very soft simmer. Do not boil, because that may curdle the milk. Add bay leaf and savory, cut or cumbled into small bits.

6.      Cut cod into one-inch chunks and scallops if they are large. Add cod, scallops, and shrimps to the pot and return to a gentle simmer for 10 minutes, stirring occasionally but carefully so the cod doesn’t break up. Test and add pepper and salt to taste.

7.      Meanwhile, steam clams in butter and ¼ cup of liquid – I used white wine and some of the broth.

8.      Serve chowder with garnish of parsley and clams, add a buttered roll and a glass of wine, and voila! A full meal!

This is a real meal in a bowl and can be made with whatever seafood and vegetables are at hand. A real Newfoundlander might add scrunchions, a delicacy of crisply fried, diced salt pork, as a garnish instead of clams and parsley, but if that’s hard to come by elsewhere than The Rock, you can substitute bacon for (almost) as good an effect. Newfoundlanders traditionally added scrunchion toppings to many of their meals, which were variants of bland white fish and bland white potatoes.

This recipe makes a large pot that probably would feed a dozen, and it’s great for leftovers. It can be halved or doubled without problems. It is adapted from The Wicked Scoff, a food blogger originally from Newfoundland and now living in New England.



Fire in the Stars, the first book in the Amanda Doucette mystery suspense series, will be out in Sept.!  To win a copy, please leave a comment. The winner will receive a copy of Fire in the Stars as soon as it's out!