 Welcome to the kitchen life. The kitchen life is all about simple recipes, surefire techniques and passionate cooking. Today I've got a couple very special guests with me as we cook with grapes. We've got a savory recipe and a sweet recipe. My daughter Grace and my daughter Blake, girls say hi. So we're going to be working together. Now listen, we're here at our farm and the snow actually flew one more time. So it's such a good time to talk about fresh ingredients, fresh ingredients that are delicious to eat fresh, but you can also cook and bake with them. The first thing that I have to show you, and this is so that we don't lose any of your attention is this beautiful, look at this, so this is a pound cake. Now we finished one this morning, but what I want to show you is this is full of grapes. Now we've got both the crimson seedless and the Thompson seedless grapes and girls we're going to dress this with a little bit of powdered sugar. So let's get a quick look at this and this, this is such a nice way to finish this. So it's not nice, it's easy, so it's sweet enough, but that little bit of sugar will just dress it up nice. Do you want to try it? Okay, go ahead. So the great thing about being in the kitchen with your kids is you can really smack it. Go ahead. There you go. Make it rain, there you go, is you get a chance to do recipes that they'll enjoy today, but in all likelihood these girls will probably be making these recipes for years to come. Now don't think that I don't have work for you, we've got eggs to crack and we've got all kinds of great recipes, so you can see that's the first. So this is our ricotta pound cake with fresh grapes and we can hardly wait to show you how that comes together, just tuck that up there right now. And the other recipe that we're going to make is a cast iron chicken with muscat grapes. Now this time of year, and I'm going to ask my son Dakota to give us a great shot of what it looks like outside right now. Right now things are frozen. So if you have a look outside you'll see, and I'm just going to get this door, things are frozen. Things like this just about everywhere here in Canada and this kind of weather always makes me think about spring time and summer time. The thing about grapes from Chile is that because they're from the southern hemisphere, you know as a professional chef we always eat local. But this time of year we've got to go to the southern hemisphere to get good ingredients like this, so Chilean grapes are just a ticket. Let's get started with this savory recipe. So I don't know if any of you at home or wherever you're watching this have thought about using grapes and savory recipes, but this recipe today is going to take a few simple ingredients. We've got some beautiful chicken. So we've got chicken, breast and thighs. I'm mixing the two and they're both bone in so that there's a ton of flavor. So when you cook with the bones, when there's bones in the chicken, there's more flavor. So the first thing we have to do though is preheat the pan. And because I'm going to roast, I want a pan that will allow the heat to get to those grapes once I do put them in. Now grapes have a lot of sugar content. So when I begin this dish you'll see that I'm going to start by making sure to get the chicken roasted before I put the grapes in because I don't want them to burn. So I have turned that on medium high and I'm going to use this opportunity to ask everybody out there. The reason we love to go live here from the farm is that we want to be able to answer any of your questions. So as a professional chef, there's all kinds of techniques and tricks and different things that we like to do to show you how to make things in your kitchen easier. So let's do a little bit of we're going to need a few grapes. So I'm going to start you girls off with some grapes here. So these are crimson seedless. And then these so the green here are Thompson and these are crimson crimson red and the Thompson are green. So if you can just start by pulling those off and just put them right here on the board. Okay. And do it fast. Put them in the bowls. There you go. So as they're working away on that, one of the things to keep in mind with grapes is that they are extremely nutritious. So as a snack in the kitchen, one cup about the size of this bowl contains about 8% of the daily amount of fiber you need, about 9% of the daily amount of potassium. Plus there's a, they're full and packed full of antioxidants. So this is a great snack. It's easy to harvest. You can see. They're my favorite. They're your favorite. So one of the questions though that I did have and this was a question leading up to this broadcast was about that powdery substance that's on the outside of the grapes. That's known as the balloon. This is something that's present with plums, with blueberries. And what you'll find is that on the surface of the grape actually has a very important role. Man, you beat your sister. Oh my goodness. That little bit of bloom, so we've washed these now, but that little bit of powder, that white substance on the outside, they're rolling around, that white substance on the outside. That is designed to protect them. So don't wash that off when you first get it home from the market or grocery store. Make sure to wait until, just before you eat them, that'll keep them, preserve them. And one of the things I want to show you here, and we'll get a close up of that, you can see how nice and bright, that's a really nice bright green. So that tells me one thing, that's a good fresh grape. The other thing is, those grapes weren't really falling off were they? You had to pull them off, right? So when you're choosing grapes, what you want is to make sure that they're attached to the vine, they're falling off, there's a good chance they're a little bit aged, so you want the best product in your home. The last thing is, when you are using grapes, you can store them in the refrigerator for about five days. So I know they never last that long around here. But grapes are, will store for a long time and they are extremely nutritious. So I'm just going to reach over here. I feel that my pan has come up to temperature. I'm going to start with a little bit of butter and a little bit of olive oil. And I'm doing that for flavor, so I'm going to take a tablespoon of butter. And I'll actually, you know what else, let's make sure everyone can see this. I'll just put it here. When I put this in, just make sure to, that you don't get, that's piping hot. So I'm going to put the butter in. So immediately, tell me what you smell. Don't touch it. Can you smell that? So it immediately begins to develop some real fragrance. I'm just going to coat the bottom of the pan. I don't want any of the chicken. It smells good, doesn't it? So and then the other thing is, you see it's bubbling right now and melting. But then I'm going to add just a little, this is an oil called Camelina oil. Now you could use olive oil, Camelina oil, okay, good, she's paying attention. So Camelina oil in and now this is ready. The reason I add that Camelina oil or olive oil is I want to raise that smoke point a little bit. So if I just, can you smell that Camelina oil now? Immediately comes to life. If I just saute with butter, a good chance it's going to burn. So I'm going to put this back on the stove. Always start with a good hot pan, always. Otherwise, rather than getting a really nice sear, you'll end up essentially boiling instead of, I'm just going to grab a little bit of salt here. And so this is just, I'm just going to put a little bit at my hand. This is a fine sea salt, but just season the outside. One of the things, if you've taken your chicken out of the, salt smells good. I don't know, you might be selling a little too hard. If you can smell salt, I'll be surprised. You have to, she takes, after her dad, sorry. So you have with the chicken, if it is coming out of the freezer, make sure it's fully thawed before you come to this point. And then the other thing is pat it dry. And the reason that you pat it dry is you don't want any, like it'll just, the salt will drain off and it won't be good. So I'm going to gently put this into the pan. Just before I do, let's have a look at this, at this beautiful fresh thyme. So fresh thyme, I want you to smell that. Just smell that. It smells really good. Smell good? Do you like it? Yeah. You're not just saying that. You like it? Yeah. Smells good. Yeah. So thyme and chicken, they're very happy together. They're in a good relationship. Yeah. Like if they were like, it was social media, they would friend each other. So I'm going to put this over in the pan. And then I, so what it's going to do is it's going to flavor the oil. And I'm going to get some of this chicken in. So girls, why am I using chicken with the bone? It makes more flavor. That's right. That's very good. You're paying attention. And I also don't want to crowd the pan. And you know, when I hear that sound, I know first of all that the chicken, it's going to get nicely seared. And I don't want to overcrowd the pan. If I overcrowd the pan, I won't get a nice even sear. I'm just going to turn this pan on. There we go. So with that chicken on, I'm just going to season the second side. So people have a lot of questions about seasoning. Now this chicken has bone in, excuse me, just for a second, this chicken has bone in. So with bone in, you're going to get a ton more flavor, but it's going to take a little longer to cook as well. So seasoning on, more salt. Now you might want to be inclined, if you don't read the whole recipe, you'll think, well, I'll toss the grapes in now. But this is a time where you just want to work on just the chicken. We're just going to flavor that chicken. Now while this cooks, girls, we're going to get started on this beautiful pound cake. So a few simple ingredients. Now one of the things I want you to learn, and girls, I'm going to teach you right now, is you want to make sure to incorporate dry ingredients first. So I have a cup and three quarters. Do you want to put this in? You can pour that in there. Go ahead. And this is all-purpose flour, perfect. And then what I have to do is I've got to put in about a teaspoon and a half, and you can do this, Blaker. And this is baking powder. Now baking powder, go ahead and put that in. Good. So that's one teaspoon, and then I need a half teaspoon. The reason that we put dry ingredients and wet ingredients together separately in this case, or always in baking, is because we want to make sure that that baking powder. So what that baking powder does is it makes the cake rise evenly. So if you want a nice even cake, you need to make sure to do that evenly. What's that, huh? So a little bit of salt, now do you think salt is important when you're making a cake? It is, and that's because it adds, you need a little bit of seasoning for salt as well. So let me know, as you're watching, if you have any questions, we have people monitoring the social channels. Now I'm using a whisk to bring this together. The whisk breaks up all the dry ingredients evenly and allows me to get it incorporated thoroughly. So you see that? So that's all incorporated. Now I'm going to take and set that aside, and now it's time for some of the fun part. So I've got beautiful ricotta cheese, have a look at that, that gorgeous ricotta cheese, I love that. Now you could use some sour cream in this recipe, you could even use cottage cheese, but there's a really pleasant texture and a beautiful rich flavor that goes with ricotta. You can smell it. I know it smells great. I'm going to check it. We're starting to brown up nicely. Now you might not know this, but one of the great things about the chicken's butter in there and the oil in there, but chicken with that, it tastes pretty good. So although we're going to spoon off the extra, there's going to be a ton of flavor in there. So let's put this in, so ricotta will go in. So I've got a stand mixer, you could do this just in a mixing bowl at home if you don't have a stand mixer, or you could use an electric mixer as well. But you know, with the right tools, it makes every job easier. So ricotta in, and then what I've got here is just white granular sugar. Do you want to pour that one in? That one can be yours to pour in, and it goes? Perfect. It seems like a lot, but you know, that's a pretty big cake. So if you divide that cake, let's say by 12 people, it's actually not too, too much. But thanks for being the voice of health and reason in this recipe. Now, you just told me, okay, so we're going to put a little bit, now you tell me if you know what this is. Smell that. Oh, I know, I know, I know. What? What's this? Vanilla. Vanilla. Vanilla. So vanilla is, do you know what vanilla comes from? The vanilla bean? It's actually from a flower. Yeah, I was thinking of that, a flower. It's a flower. An orchid. So I'm going to pour just a little bit in, okay, smells great. And then we're going to put in, what I've got here is I've got one cup of butter. Now I just melted that butter, and I'm just going to pour that in. So the butter gives it richness, gives it flavor. How do you like to smell that chicken back there? Does that smell good? Okay. Now, we'll start this, and it's really important, let's get a bit of a close up here, I don't know if you can get in there, Dakota, but as I start this, Blake, I just want you to turn that to one, just turn it one click. We'll just start, so whenever you start with a stand mixer, start slowly, and then work your way up, slowly but surely, and we'll get, I'm just going to tip this so you can see what that looks like in there a little bit. You got a good view there, nice. So as I increase that temperature or that speed, it's going to bring it together, and then I'm going to just let that literally whip on maybe medium-high for about a minute here. It's going to add some air to that. It's going to mix it together nicely, and it's going to improve the texture. I'm going to check our chicken again. So look at that, we're starting to get some color. You're going to show that. We're starting to get a little bit of color over there. Nice, but I'm not going to rush this. This is a time, what will happen when we put the grapes in and we deglaze with this nice maple wine we have, is that all of the flavor development right now will become part of a very simple pan sauce. So every time we make a meat, so back way back when dad went to school, to culinary school, and one of the most important things that you can do whenever you're making a meat is not to lose any of the flavor that you've developed. And the way you do that is with a simple pan sauce. The great thing about these roasted grapes is they're going to be the base for this pan sauce, and we have a question here, yes. So it's a great question Alicia, what other ways can you use savory grapes? So grapes love pork. They love chicken. They love fish. As a matter of fact, the roots, if you think about any wine, any area of the world that is strong in wine, you'll see grapes in their dishes, classic dishes, hundreds of years old. In particular, new grapes to chili, a muscat grape, slightly smaller, bolder in flavor, but you can use them just about in anything. The only thing really I don't ever use them in is dishes with beef, but that's not to say that it wouldn't be good, but I'm telling you, fish, chicken, I've done it with lamb. Anything that lends itself to a certain sweetness will love grapes. How's that look? Good. It turned that up a little bit, looks nice. Yeah, it looks like cookie dough. It does look like cookie dough. So now what we have is, I'm just going to move that to the back. So now all those wet ingredients went in, right? So now what I'm going to do is I'm going to put the, you got it. You got it. You're paying attention. That's awesome. So I'm just going to put this in. And then one of the things you want to make sure to do, so if I turn this on high right now, you're going to end up wearing this. It's going to be a disaster. So we're going to turn it on low and bring it together. There we go. So we're going to turn it on low and slowly bring it up. Now here comes the fun part. You both like cracking eggs, right? Yeah. Yeah. Okay, good. So we've got some beautiful farm fresh eggs here. Do you already take your bowls? Oh no, I use them for the grapes. I'm not paying attention. Okay. The grapes, they smell so good. So beautiful. And the color is so beautiful. Okay. So you get these cracking eggs and I get the cracking eggs. So farm fresh eggs, if you ever have the opportunity, another thing, don't wash them until you use them. We've just watched these today. So crack that, crack that, get your eggs rolling there, and I'm going to continue to incorporate this. Good. How are you making out there? Good. Good. You just dropped the shell in there. How are you doing? Good? Yeah. Got it? Well done. You need a cloth? Yeah. Okay. There you go. I'm going to turn this on high now. It's almost completely incorporated. And this is a good time to, once again, develop. I love it. This looks good though, right? Yeah. If you'll notice, I left the eggs until right at the end. There we go. And what I'm going to do is I'm going to add one egg at a time. Now the reason that I do that is if I add all the eggs at once, it'll kind of separate and won't come together nicely. So a quick crack on the countertop, egg goes in, and I turn that one on. You'll notice that our batter here today is much more golden in its color because, quite simply because we're using these farm fresh eggs, and they're a little richer in color. So that's one incorporated. Now I turn the mixer off and pour another one in. I think that's your egg. So girls, what do you like most about grapes? Because I know you love eating them. They're super good. And it's nice to know they're healthy for you. They're sweet. Now have you ever cooked with them before? No. So it's your first time? Yeah. So I have used grapes quite often. Sometimes when I'm looking to add to a fresh berry mixture, you might think that, for example, many of the upside down style cakes where you have berries on the bottom, grapes are a perfect addition there. So what you can do is you can actually take a current favorite recipe that you have and just supplement grapes in place of other berry fruits. Other egg. Other egg. So I'm going to put that in. Looking good. So again we're going to turn that on, get it incorporated. Now that really looks like a cake mix. So whip that up. Now I'm going to take some of these grapes and simply slice them in half. And I'm going to leave some whole as well. And that's just for a difference in texture and a difference in appearance. That's looking pretty good. One of the things you always have to do girls is when you're doing something with a stand mixer. You've got to wipe off the stuff. Well first of all, you have to knock down the sides here a little bit just to make sure you get everything incorporated so you don't waste anything. Great. We'll turn that back on. I'm going to check the chicken. It's looking good already. I'm just going to turn this over. I'm going to bring it over to show you. It can actually use a bit more time. That skin is coming up nicely. Now the nice thing about this chicken is while it started on the stove top, I'm going to finish it in the oven. And there's a couple reasons for doing that. It'll cook a little more evenly in the oven. I want to get that hot air in the oven around all of those ingredients and also it makes it really simple. You'll notice here today that these recipes and all of these recipes are available at Produce Made Simple. All of these recipes are very easy. Using ingredients that you probably already have at home, maybe one or two things that you may need. Girls, do you have any questions about these recipes today? Anything you can think? It's pretty simple, right? They are pretty, aren't they? When you slice them open, they're pretty. That's the thing about cooking is that you really want to be able to enjoy what it looks like as well. Listen, we're going to take a minute and I just want to take a quick break because I think for you to fully appreciate this beautiful fruit and where it's grown this time of year, I want to show you a little bit of chili. So let's have a quick look at this beautiful country. There are beautiful vineyards and what's going on. Have a look at those pictures over there, girls. You see them coming up there? Look at that beautiful landscape. Stunning landscape. Isn't that beautiful? That is amazing. So you can see there. Is the garden going to be like that? It's going to be like that. It's not going to be quite that big, but it's going to be that beautiful. So you can see there's different varieties of grapes. There's the Thompson seedless we're using right here. Can you see that beautiful grape? So also let's have a look at the ProduceMadeSimple website. I want to show you, this is one of the best websites for recipes I've ever seen. It is so functional, easy to use. The search engine is very powerful, allows you to get to the fruit that you want, allows you to see the things and the ingredients in a very simple way. And now for many of these recipes, there's videos to support them so we can show you how to use it in our recipe, but then how you can incorporate it into your very own recipe. Remember, that's ProduceMadeSimple. So that's beautiful. Chicken's coming along nicely. So now it's time. I've got about half of these grapes sliced in half, and the other half I'm leaving whole. And like you said, Blake, it's very pretty. So you can use any kind of grape. It's very sweet. It's very sweet. You want to make sure that it's a seedless variety, otherwise when you bake this up, it'd be full of seeds and a little bit unpleasant. So let's go to our mix now. So this is our beautiful pound cake mix, and you set that aside. And then these simply go in. So I want to get, I'm going to, the code I'm going to put this so that you can, you can kind of see this. I want you to see how beautiful these are, and to put them in. And then what we're going to do, they're rolling away. That's another good reason to slice them in half. They won't roll away on you. Grapes in, I've got a couple cups of grapes, you want dots there, I think we've got them all in now. And then what's really important, and the nice thing about grapes, unlike some other berry fruits, is they can really stand up to being folded into this recipe. So this is something, they're not going to lose their color into the batter. They won't crush up too badly. But you can see I want to mix those nice and evenly inside that so that I can get them into the oven and ready to bake. So now let's prepare our pan. Now you can use a typical, like a traditional loaf pan. You can use a fluted pan, whatever you like. The most important thing is just, it's important to season the pan. Now I'm using some of the cooking sprays that are available now in the market are very good. There's coconut and canola. This one in particular is canola, but have a look at the amount I put on there. Make sure that you put plenty on. Any of the extra will be left in the pan, so don't worry about that. But make sure that it's got a complete coating. If you don't have spray, what I want you to do is melt a little bit of butter, brush it over the entire pan, and then put some flour in there, gently knocking it around to have a light coating of that flour over all the butter. So look at this, girls. Tell me this doesn't look beautiful. Now Blake, what you can do is just spin that pan around for your dad. There we go. Okay, yep, that's good. Hold there. Okay, stop for a second. Man, it's tough keeping up to you, okay? And then we don't want to waste anything. Okay, you can leave that for a second. And so let's just get the rest of this beautiful batter. So it didn't take us that long to make this, it didn't take that many ingredients. You remember what we used? So we used grapes, that's right, butter, flour, and a little bit of sugar. You got it. So any time you can make a delicious recipe like this, we'll just spin this a little bit. You don't have to worry about this being uneven as it cooks, it's going to settle nicely. But what I generally do is I just give it a little push like this, just in case there's any little air pockets. And it just makes sure that it is just, perfecto, what do you think? Is that beautiful? Let's have a look at that. Is that beautiful or what? Do you like it? Yeah. Okay. So I'm going to take and set that aside. I'm going to bring it up now. I don't want you to get burned, but I'm going to bring this up. And I want to talk a little bit about this chicken dish. So be careful because I don't want you to get splattered. So what I've got in the bottom of this pan is some really, really good flavor development. Now you can smell the thyme. This thyme I'm just going to remove. So it's really used its value. This flavored the oil and the butter. But what I'm going to do now is when the grapes go in, I'm going to put some more fresh thyme in. And you know the way that I'm going to do this. I'm going to take this. Look at this, beautiful. Like, are you kidding me? Like, what's available to us in terms of the quality is absolutely spectacular. I think I better save that one. I'm going to go to this one. And I'm literally going to take, it will just snip off a little piece. And actually, I'm going to use the scissors to draw. You can try those. Have some. I made you not touch them all morning. So I'm literally going to lay that in there. Good it. There you go. And then I've got some green grapes here. We're going to put some of the green in. It's nice to use both colors. I'm going to put them in whole like this because that is going to roast just to perfection. And I want lots of grapes and I'm going to leave them on the vine. The reason I'm going to leave them on the vine is that when it comes time to serve this dish I want to be able to actually put some on the vine out to my guests and let me tell you something. Guests are going to be impressed by this dish. Impressed because maybe they've not used grapes in this fashion before. If they've never eaten grapes in a savory way, this will be a great introduction for them. You've done this for me before, stripped off the thyme. So we're going to strip off a little bit of this fresh thyme. Go ahead and put it in, Grace. And so we're going to strip off a little bit of the fresh leaves and then we're going to put some more bunches in. We want lots of thyme, beautiful. So there's going to be lots of, and we're going to tuck in some of this fresh thyme in and around. And this now, now I've got the oven, the oven is preheated to 350 degrees Fahrenheit. So if you want to get that oven open for me, I'm going to pop these in all the way open. Thank you. So that looks just beautiful. Okay. So we've got an incredible savory dish. We've got a beautiful, a beautiful sweet dish. Now let's have a look at this, slice this. I think it's probably a good idea for us to try this, what do you think? There's nothing better than eating when it comes to cake. Now you've got to be careful, because I've got to take some nice pictures of this. But let's have a look at the consistency, girls, my goodness. It's so beautiful. So let's have a look at that cross-section, oh my gosh. And that is the hallmark of a really beautiful pound cake. You see that dense dough in that beautiful flower, or the beautiful grapes, thank you. Let's literally, we've got to try a little slices. I think what we need is a little bit of milk with this, but let's give it a shot. Okay, go for it. Grab a piece, I'm going to try a piece too, we have to try it. If you need a pound cake recipe, this is the perfect pound cake. So the grapes, now let's talk a little bit about what the grapes taste like. So there you have a grape, if you haven't used grapes before, talk about what the grapes taste like when they're roasted. It's like a super concentration of sweetness. I want to show you something here. Just taste this, I'm going to fish one of these out. Just taste just that grape and tell me about that flavor. There you go, try that. My gosh. That's more intense, more sweet than the fresh. That is so sweet. It's because what's happened is it's concentrated the flavors. So this is a great thing that you need to take away from this broadcast today, is that when you bake with grapes, you're using a pass. Literally, this is like a fruit with superpowers. This is a fruit that you can bake with, that you can use savory, but you can use. And the nice thing about them is by volume, when you look at how many grapes that you get on a vine, how easy they are to harvest, how beautiful they are in color, the fact that they're nutritious and readily available. This is the best time of year to enjoy grapes, winter time. And let me tell you something, it has been a pleasure to share this with you today. Now listen, I want to tell you to go over to the Produce Made Simple website. That's where you're going to find the finished pictures of this. As soon as we're done this broadcast, we're going to have beautiful chicken. Yeah, go ahead, eat it. It's good, eh? Here, you want a little bit more? Oh, question. Okay, yes, any question? Oh, yes. Great question, Anne, thank you. So what can be done with grapes if you're not going to use them? My favorite thing to do is to freeze them. And there's no special thing that you need to do. I literally just wash the grapes, I dry them off and put them in a bag, and then I'll put them in the freezer. And I'll tell you something, with spring and summer time coming up, cold drinks, whether it be a lemonade or iced tea or anything out on the patio, what you can do is you can use those grapes as ice cubes. They won't change the flavor of your drink. But what they will do when you're finished? Yeah, what they will do is at the end of that beautiful drink, instead of just having ice cubes, you'll get to pop a few of those fresh berries. It's a great way to save fresh berries that you might not use. And on that point, when you are storing them in the refrigerator, don't store them in an airtight bin. Store them in ideally what they're shipped in, whether it's a bag or however it's shipped. It will be perforated so that some air can get to it. Store it that way for four to five days. Don't wash it until you're ready to eat it. And by all means, bake with it, cook savory dishes with it, and enjoy it with your family. So for Grace, thank you for joining me today, and Blake, and for myself. I want to thank you for joining us today for this episode of The Kitchen Life. Go over to Produce Made Simple to check out that website. We'll have all the information in this particular post and go over and give them a follow. They've got all kinds of incredible recipes and ingredients that you're going to want to see day in and day out on Instagram and on Twitter and on Facebook. Thank you for joining us. And for Grace and Blake, let's say goodbye. Bye. Bye. Thanks for joining us. Good afternoon. Good afternoon.