blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
About once a year I toy with the idea of making homemade Jamaican beef patties after having one too many stale, microwaved corner store patties. I get all fired up, spend hours reading recipes but then I start thinking about having to find beef rennet for the dough and all of that work and muse to myself "since I have to get on the subway anyway to go find this beef rennet, why not just drop by Bathurst station and buy myself a delectable beef patty and skip all that work?" and that is usually what I do. One bite of that hot, juicy meat pie and all thoughts of beef rennet fly away. Have you ever had the patties at the Bathurst Subway Station??? Honestly. So, there is a bit of a contest going on over at the Food Bloggers of Canada and I am not one to resist a contest. Mushrooms Canada and Ontario Beef have teamed up to promote their new concept, Blend and Extend. The idea is that you replace some of the ground beef with finely chopped mushrooms in your favourite recipes to add a serving of vegetables to the dish as well as adding more volume to it and stretching the meat out so it goes further. If you look on the Blend and Extend website , you will find a whole whack of recipes, videos and ideas on how to get blending and extending. For the contest, we were asked to come up with an original appetizer recipe using this blend and extend concept. It just so happens that I have been on one of my "maybe I should try making these things myself" jags, but, as much as I love them, beef patties don't really scream "lovely app to serve at a party". I needed to come with an appetizer but I only wanted to make Jamaican patties. What to do. Spicy filling encased inside a buttery puff pastry shell on a stick. Get out of town. I remembered how much everyone loved my Brie Pops and wondered if puff pastry would work in place of the traditional patty dough. Patty dough is certainly heartier than puff pastry but they are both flaky and rich and I couldn't see any reason why puff pastry with a turmeric egg wash wouldn't work. The addition of the mushrooms to the filling worked perfectly allowing me to use less meat and the moisture they release, often a dilemma to be dealt with, actually helped keep the filling nice and moist. A word about the scotch bonnet peppers; even if you don't like spicy food, the scotch bonnet is a vital ingredient in Jamaican cuisine. Not only does it add heat, sitting firmly in them 100,000-350,000 range of the scoville scale, but they have a fruity flavour that can't really be replicated. Just make sure to start with a half a pepper and taste and keep adding until it's at a heat level that you are happy with. If you truly can't get your hands on a scotch bonnet, a fresh habanero is your best bet but if all else fails, use a jalapeno but you will lose the fruitiness of the scotch bonnet so do try to find them if you can. Oh, and if you chop these peppers with your bare hands, don't rub your eyes, pick your nose or put those fingers anywhere else for the rest of the day. Don't say I didn't warn you. Jamaican Patty Pops makes approx 24 appetizer sized patty pops or 8 full sized patties Ingredients: 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed but still cold 1 egg beaten with splash milk and 1/2 tsp turmeric beef/mushroom filling Kosher salt or fleur de sel and fresh thyme popsicle sticks Beef/Mushroom Filling 2 tbls butter 250 grams ground beef 100 grams button mushrooms (approx 4 large), rough chop 1 onion, rough chop 3 scallions, greens included, rough chop 2 cloves garlic, rough chop 1 scotch bonnet pepper, seeded and chopped or to taste 1 tsp curry powder 1/2 tsp allspice 1 tsp kosher salt a few grinds of fresh, black pepper 1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs between 1/4 and 1/2 cup chicken stock Directions: First whiz up your bread to make your fresh crumbs. I use a crusty Italian style bun and put aside. Next, throw your mushrooms into the food processor and pulse until finely ground and put aside. Now, put the onion, scallion, garlic and scotch bonnet pepper into the food processor and pulse until minced. Melt the butter over medium heat in a frying pan and saute the scallion mixture for about five minutes until softened but not browned. Using a spatula, scrape the mixture out into a bowl and set aside. Now add the ground mushrooms and the beef to the pan and start to cook it, smashing the beef down with your spatula as you stir so that you don't end up with big chunks of meat. You want the meat/mushroom mixture to be crumbly. When it's almost cooked, add the scallion mixture back into the pan and continue to cook until there is no pink colour at all left to the meat. Throw in the curry, allspice, salt and pepper, bread crumbs and 1/4 cup of chicken stock and stir well to combine. Cover the pan and let it cook for about ten minutes, checking it from time to time to make sure it's not getting too dry. You want it to be very moist but not liquidy so if you need to , add a slurp more stock during this time to keep the mixture the right consistency. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature while you prepare the rest of the stuff. You can make this a day ahead and refrigerate it until you need it as well. Preheat the oven to 375F Lay out one of your sheets of puff pastry ( I worked with it right on the parchment it was wrapped up in). Keep the other roll of pastry in the fridge until you need it. If you use something else, put a piece of parchment on to your baking sheet. Cut it into thirds one way and then four strips the other so that you have 12 rectangles. Now, cut each rectangle in half so you now have 24 small rectangles. Lay out 12 of the rectangles and brush each one with the egg wash and stick a little popsicle stick on to it, pressing lightly into the pastry. Put a heaping tbls of fillin in the middle. Top that with another piece of pastry and seal all four sides with the tines of a fork.. Prick two rows of holes on top and move to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Repeat with the second roll of pastry and when you have all 24 pastry puffs on the cookie sheet, brush them all with the egg wash, lay a tiny sprig of fresh thyme on top of each one and sprinkle the whole thing with some coarse salt. Pop those in the oven and cook them for about 15 minutes, until they have puffed up and are starting to brown a bit. they are best right out of the oven but are still really good at room temperature. *if you want to make a large beef patty, just cut the sheet in half lengthwise and then in quarters the other way so that you end up with 8 larger rectangles, skip the popsicle stick and make 8 full size patties. The make a great dinner with a salad on the side. They also reheat easily- just pop them on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350F oven for about 6 minutes.
I was invited to an event at beautiful The St Lawrence Market Kitchen (upstairs at the market) to introduce me to Fresh Canteen , a new dinner prep concept launched earlier this summer here in Toronto. It's a service that caters to people who want to cook fresh, delicious dinners in their own kitchens but are often just too busy to shop for all the ingredients they need. They are quite committed to using locally sourced products whenever possible and that appeals to me very much. I have used Supperworks in the past to stock up for those times that I am too busy to shop but you still have to put aside time to drive down there, put all of the stuff together and get it back home. You also have to remember to take those damned bags out of the freezer the night before so it will be thawed by dinner time so you can actually cook it which doesn't come easily to me. I love the idea of everything for a dish being brought to my house for me by a handsome stranger. Okay, I just like to imagine it's being delivered by a handsome stranger with floppy hair and piercing blue eyes so don't judge- it's unbecoming. Think of it as a personal shopper for your belly. my lovely and stylish red apron Each week they have a list of recipes online you can choose from and then on Tuesday you will find an insulated box filled with all of the ingredients that you will need to make that dish. Each recipe is portioned out for two (or you can order enough for four) but both recipes that I have made would easily feed all three of us or two of us with enough leftovers for someone to take to lunch the next day so for the $15 per serving (and that includes delivery to your front door), you are getting a great deal. The three of us can't even eat wings at the pub for $30 to be honest so I am all over this. I have so many friends who eat out or do take out/order in at least 3 or 4 nights a week because they are all get home from work at 7pm on a good day and the last thing they are going to do is go shopping. I was also thinking it would be great for a weeknight dinner party - you just come home from work, open the box, whip up some fancy duck and wow your friends. The food is packed in an insulated bag with some reusable freezer packs and will stay cold all day in case you aren't home when the box comes. If you pop the whole thing in the fridge, it will stay fresh for a couple of days too so you don't even have to make it that night. Also, each recipe comes with a plastic covered recipe sheet with super detailed instructions and photos - kind of like cooking for dummies so even those who aren't 100% confident in the kitchen are going to be able to cook this stuff, flip their hair and flash their giant white chompers and feel just like Giada. All the meals claim to be done in about 35 minutes and I will say that both of the ones I made did, indeed, take about half an hour from starting my prep to chowing down. Right now they only deliver in downtown Toronto but you can get it delivered to your office if you work downtown and just take it home at the end of the day. I am pretty sure that this is going to catch on and eventually they will expand their delivery zones. oooo the table was set and waiting for us to finish cooking my cooking station I didn't know what to expect at the Fresh Canteen event but I know what I didn't think was going to happen - I didn't think that I would be donning an apron and cooking myself a delicious duck breast with mashed potatoes, that's for sure. I think everyone was pretty exited about getting to actually try out one of these meals and get their hands dirty instead of just tasting and mmmming politely. The duck box included the makings of duck breast with a butter grape sauce, mashed potatoes with sour cream and scallions and a mixed green salad. I don't really cook duck at home so I was pretty stoked about the opportunity to make it with people there to help me if I screwed up. I was encouraged to let the duck brown more deeply because I was going to chicken out and turn it too quickly and they held my hand as I seared it and then baked it off in the oven. Of course, I totally overcooked my breast because I wanted to get it to 130F and it was taking forever (the only downside was three or four pans per oven and lots of opening of oven doors so I don't think my oven was at temperature) A kind lady moved my duck to it's own oven when it was stalled at 120F but that oven must have been smoking hot because when I took it out about 4 or 5 minutes later it was already at 135F. DOH We all plated our duck, mixed green salad and mashed potatoes after making a buttery pan sauce with local grapes and sat together at long, communal tables and enjoyed the fruits of our labours with a nice glass of wine. I would totally make it again and I would order the duck box to make at home. I would make a few changes in the recipe but that is nothing new. I can barely make my own recipes without changing them all the time. we also had tasty desserts including this panna cotta and lemon meringue cupcake We were sent home with our spiffy, red aprons, a lovely knife from Nella and the box containing their Mock Butter Chicken. the contents of my Mock Butter Chicken box I was pretty happy to open the box and find that all of the ingredients were super fresh and enticing. Even the cilantro was still really fresh and not at all wilted. I made the butter chicken, following the recipe fairly closely and it was quite good and came together really quickly. I did the rice in my rice cooker and the chicken was done a couple of minutes before the rice so I would estimate it took about 20 minutes, all in. I didn't put in the raisins because I couldn't even imagine raisins in my butter chicken but that was the only omission. I added closer to 1 1/2 tbls of butter at the end and I had to add salt (that wasn't in the recipe) and, to me, it really did need the butter but I was pretty happy to eat a tasty version of butter chicken that was healthier than a traditional recipe. It made more than enough to feed Shack and I dinner (The Kid is off at grade 9 sleepaway camp), I was left with one small portion. It wasn't enough for a another dinner and The Kid wasn't here or I would have sent it in his lunch. What I did do the next day was to make Butter Chicken Sopes with it and they were actually even better this way. I love the corny flavour of the masa harina with Indian food and I have made Tandoori Chicken Sopes with great success so I was pretty sure it would work. I made some raita with greek yogurt and julienned the leftover radish and cucumber salad. I also crumbled a bit of paneer that I had left but I ran out so that doesn't show up in the photos. If you don't have paneer, it would be great with a bit of crumbled feta or queso fresca. Butter Chicken Sopes makes 6 large Butter Chicken from Fresh Canteen Sopes: I have full instructions with pictures here 1 cup masa harina 2 tbls lard or shortening 1/2 tsp salt 1/2 tsp baking powder 1/2 cup hot tap water plus another couple of tbls of hot water mix the masa harina, salt and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in the shortening like you would for pie dough. I just use my fingers to work it in until it has that pea like texture. Add the water, starting with 1/2 cup and mix it all together with your hands. Add water, 1 tbls at a time until the dough has the texture of a nice, soft cookie dough. If you are making small appetizer sized sopes, roll the dough into balls the size of golf balls. I made them bigger because it was our entree so mine were the size of swollen golf balls, maybe 2". f you have a tortilla press, great. If not, I use a flat spatula to flatten them out until they are about 1/4" thick. Heat a dry, heavy pan (i like cast iron) over medium heat until it's really hot. Add the sopes and fry for two minutes a side. Take them out of the pan and start pinching up the sides to make a little wall, turning your flat disc into a little well to hold in all those tasty fillings. It will burn your fingers a little bit but like fashion, sometimes you have suffer for great food. If you want you can use a teaspoon to push up the ledge too but it takes some practice. If you want to cook them later on, you can stop here and cover them well with plastic wrap and keep them in the fridge until you are ready to fry them. Heat another heavy pan (I don't like to use a really big pan to fry) with about 1/4" of vegetable oil. The oil is ready when a little piece of dough sizzles after you drop it in. Add the sopes and fry for a minute or so , flat bottom down and then flip them over and fry them for another minute , flat side up. Remove from the pan and place, flat side up, on a paper towel lined plate to drain some of that extra oil. After they are all done, flip them right side up and start filling them. Raita To make just enough for dinner, I mixed about 1 cup of greek yogurt with juice from half a lemon, about 1/4 cup of grated cucumber and a good pinch of kosher salt and about a tbls or so of fresh mint. Assembling the Sopes: leftover butter chicken(enough to mound at least a tbls per sope - more is okay) julienned cucumber/radish salad optional: about 3" block of paneer, crumbled to sprinkle on top (or greek feta or queso fresco) home made raita or store bought Make sure your sope is right side up so that the raised edges form a bit of a shallow bowl. Help a bit of butter chicken to fill the sope, spoon on some raita, add a little mound of cucumber radish salad on top of the raita and then, if using, sprinkle the paneer over the whole thing.
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
a Kamayan dinner at Lamesa Filipino Kitchen The week started off with a bang with a visit to Seven Lives in Kensington Market for breakfast ceviche. We met a lovely couple from Barrie who were somewhat of a culinary safari and chatted while we waited for our food. They were here for their anniversary and attempting to eat at every hot spot in the city in a 24 hour period so we gave them some suggestions (including forcing them to go back to the counter and order the ceviche PRONTO). This sort of thing makes me appreciate living in such a great place and taking all of this edible bounty for granted sometimes so thank you , adorable couple from Barrie if you are reading this. The Wood Firepit and Tap Sunday meant brunch because we have to eat people. It was a lovely day and we were strolling Queen Street in the Beaches and decided to stop in at The Wood Firepit and Tap to try it out. I had brought home take out the first week they were open but we had never actually eaten in yet. There was only one other table occupied, which is too bad because brunch was really good. Soft boiled eggs cooked perfectly for my Eggs Standard ($9) - actually, the chef deemed one of my eggs not to be perfect so he sent out a third which was totally unnecessary but appreciated. The home fries were really crispy and more like little chunks of french fries but I liked them. The applewood smoked bacon could have been more smoky flavoured but that is about the only complaint I could think of. The kid absolutely killed his Breakfast Poutine ($10) and Shack was also very happy with his Pork Duo eggs benedict ($14). Just the right amount of pulled pork and some more of the applewood smoke bacon, more perfectly cooked soft poached egg and a solid hollandaise sauce and you have yourself the makings of a very good, affordable brunch option in the heart of the Beaches. Hallelulah Lamesa Filipino Kitchen a beautiful fruit juice drink that was waiting for me at the table when I got there I had been looking forward to my media Kamayan dinner at Lamesa Filipino Kitchen since the day I was invited to it. I have reviewed Lamesa before here and have been back a few times since. I got there a bit early so I could make sure to get a seat up in front where I knew the lighting would be better so that I could get some good shots and found my buddy, The Tasty Gardener had beat me to it and was waiting for me with a nice saved seat. If you have never heard of it before, Kamayan translates to "eating with your hands" , kama being the Tagalog word for hands. Ever since I first heard that Lamesa was starting to offer Kamayan dinners (they started out monthly and now it has become a regular, Sunday dinner staple) I have been trying to organize a small group to go. We have even made reservations a couple of times but had to cancel them. Damn you film industry that makes it nearly impossible for any of us to plan anything farther ahead than 12 hours! I will be writing up a full description of the meal next week but, for now, here are some quick photos of the extravaganza that starts with a table covered with banana leaves which the chefs use as their canvas as they proceed to paint and arrange a dizzying array of sauces, meats, seafood, rice and salad that looks like utter chaos until you realize that they have managed to provide each diner with their own "plate" of food. Amazing. Trader Joe's Later in the week, Shack and I drove to Buffalo to pop into Trader Joe's. It was a nice day for a drive, he didn't have to go to work and he is leaving in a couple of weeks to work out of the country for a bit so we are spending as much time as we can hanging out. For some of you a day spent driving to another country to grocery shop might seem like an odd outing for a "date" but this is how we roll. For a mere $80 we filled our cart with spekulas cookies, sea salt, tea, a couple jars of cookie butter, pumpkin butter, Greek olive oil, a couple gallons of their spiced apple cider, coffee beans and tons of chocolate treats - is there anything they don't roll in chocolate at Trader Joe's??? Much of this is destined for Xmas gift baskets but the prices are really amazing - we get burrata cheese there for $4.99! That is nutty. Right before we crossed the border , the news broke about the shooting in Ottawa and so we listened to the CBC radio coverage all morning and for the rest of the day and then got home and watched, in horror, as the CBC continued to give the most restrained, responsible, respectful coverage of this tragic event that I have seen in a very long time. In this age of CNN's BREAKING NEWS, complete with tragedy theme songs, jumping the gun and reporting rumour and innuendo before it's verified as fact and the whole tragedy porn style of news that we have gotten far too used to, I felt so reassured by the comforting voice of Peter Mansbridge letting me know that he was there to just keep the country apprised of the facts. Thank you Canadian news people, for reminding me how important it is to retain the CBC as our national news source that shouldn't depend on ratings and advertising $$ to stay afloat. After that, nobody around here felt much like eating out and merry making so I will leave it at that for the week and see you next Friday. Don't mess with a mace bearing Canadian > Sgt At Arms Kevin Vickers. A true, Canadian badass.
From the time I can really remember until I grew into my late teens and my grown siblings and their young families gathered on Christmas Eve to open presents, eat, drink and be merry. I was the youngest of five so by the time I was about 7 or 8, my older siblings were getting married and moving out on their own and so it was a great treat to have them all back together for the evening, I got to stay up until the wee hours of the morning and I was still young enough to be spoiled rotten. Starting in mid December, my mom always put out the same little cut glass bowl of minty candies and nuts in their shells with a nutcracker in every bowl. She would get a big gift box of turtles, which she would proceed to eat over the next day and a half until she would literally make herself sick and then swear them off for another year, just to do it all over again the next Christmas day. We ate exactly the same turkey dinner every single year, the same pies for dessert with nothing changed or added to the menu. The tree always looked exactly the same and it didn't occur to anyone to ever do anything any differently. As I got older, the family dynamic started to change, older siblings spent part of the holiday with the family of their girlfriend/wife/boyfriend/husband and slowly, traditions started to change and adapt but it wasn't always a smooth process. I moved away at 19 and spent the next decade traveling the world and living like a nomad and I didn't even always come home for the holidays any more. By the time I settled back in Toronto for good at 31 and moved in with Shack, my family was no longer spending Christmas eve together and I now had to juggle my family with Shack's mom and that side and his dad and that side. We tried to visit with all three on the actual day for the first couple of years, diving our time between my mom in London, his mom up by Lake Simcoe and then his dad in Aurora.We spent the entire Christmas eve/day on the road, it was exhausting and we agreed that this was not enjoyable for us at all so the third year we were together, we left on a road trip and spent the entire holiday together with Christmas in New Orleans and NYE in Savannah, Georgia and it was glorious. This was the point where we officially broke with any family traditions and began to find our own. We weren't with any family on the actual day and it was fine, nobody died, nothing blew up, we still saw everyone at some point over the holiday and we were rested and happy. a very happy New Orleans Xmas The year after that, we added a son to our little unit and that started the era of having my mom take the train to visit us for a bit and then we would all hop in the car and drive east to Kingston to spend the rest of the holiday with my sister and her family. We spent time with both of his parents before we left and it worked nicely. After my mom died, we began spending Christmas Eve at home and hosting an open house with a Mexican feast of Cochinita Pibil , getting up to open gifts on Christmas morning with my mother in law and then the three of us would go out for dim sum before continuing on to my sister's for Christmas dinner and staying there for a few days. This tradition has not really changed, for the most part. The odd year, we don't go to my sister's until Boxing Day because her family is now growing with her fourth grandchild on the way. She is now occasionally invited to go and spend the holiday with the family of her daughter in law and her daughter's family will spend it with her in laws and we stay home and have dinner with our good friends and neighbour's, The Bonds. we used to invite friends over to help decorate the three when The Kid was little Okay, I lied. That beautiful silver deer is the one thing that is ALWAYS out in his full glory every single year. I kind of like the fact that our traditions have some ebb and flow and that all three of us are open to changes. I have never been a fan of adhering to rigid plans that are not allowed to deviate. I have watched friends who experience so much stress over the holidays and bend over backwards to make sure that everything stays the same every year. They will spend a ridiculous amount of money and lose their mind rescheduling things to ensure that they are home ON XMAS DAY even though it would be easier and half the price to go home to visit a fews day before or after. a memorable Christmas dinner occurred at Nola a white Christmas can be overrated to be quite honest I like that we have a loose framework of what we would like to happen but nobody freaks out when we find out that, this year, my sister is not going to be home so we are going to have make our own dinner plans and will drive up to see them at some point in the week after. Some years we have taken a family trip, usually to the same area of Mexico, as our big gift to each other before right before Christmas. One year, we went back to New Orleans with The Bonds and got home Christmas Eve day so we skipped our open house that year. It was a nice break from hosting a big party and it made it even more fun to do it again the next year. There was a year where we didn't get a tree and a couple of years where we didn't get a tree until the 23rd or 24th. We never make our turkey dinner exactly the same twice although we almost always have turkey because we just really love turkey. Their are no dishes that MUST be on the table, prepared one way. Xmas 2011 The only thing I don't think we have ever missed is our Christmas morning dim sum. If we are in the city on Christmas morning, which we generally are regardless of where we end up later in the day, we have dim sum. If that didn't happen, I would miss it. It's our little multi cultural urban Toronto spin on a the holiday that has no roots in either of our very traditional, white bread upbringings. We often go to Mexico for Christmas - how festive does that look? As life goes on, loved ones die or move away, friends come and go and sometimes come back again, situations change and so do we. From the age of 5 until last year, a huge part of Christmas was the Avalon Christmas Performance and now that The Kid is in high school, we will go to sit in the audience but I will miss making his costumes and being a parent with a kid up there on stage. I imagine that before we know it, he will want to spend part of the holiday with his girlfriend's family and we will, once again, be on our own for at least part of Christmas and I will encourage him to make his own memories when he becomes and adult and goes off to make his own way. who wouldn't miss this?? I guess the fact that we identify the holiday with foods from countries and cultures that have nothing to do with our own upbringing reflects our urban Toronto life. This year we are going to host our open house maybe with Mexican food or maybe we will go Spanish tapas this year, get up in the morning, open gifts over coffee and croissants with The Bonds and my mother in law, go for dim sum and drive to Westport Ontario where my niece is hosting dinner for the first time and I am very excited about this new addition to our holiday tradition grab bag. The only tradition that has never changed for the last 19 years is that, no matter where I find myself over the holidays, Shack is right beside me and for the last 15 Christmases The Kid has been in the middle and I am good with that. Since the only thing that is pretty much a constant is our Christmas Day dim sum, I will share my recipe for pot stickers which may not feel like Christmas to you, but it's totally Christmas in our house. Pork, Shrimp and Enoki Mushroom Potstickers 500g ground pork 250g shrimp 2 green onions, minced 200g enoki mushrooms, chopped 2 tsp minced or grated ginger 2 tsp soy sauce 1 tsp sesame oil 1 tbls cornstarch 1/2 tsp kosher salt round wonton wrappers (i got about 50-60 dumplings out of this filling) for cooking: 1 tbls vegetable oil, 1/4 cup water dipping sauce: 6 tbls soy sauce 3 tbls rice vinegar 1 tsp chili oil 1 tsp sesame oil pinch sugar 1 clove garlic, minced 1 tsp minced or grated ginger mix all together and let sit for at least an hour I can't do a better job than La Fuji Mama when it comes to showing you the steps involved in making these dumplings so you should just go look at her gyoza pictorial on her blog and while you are there, poke around and read because it's a fabulous blog. So, peel and de vein your shrimp and then chop them up as finely as you can. Some people put them in a food processor but I don't like that pastey texture, much preferring small chunks of shrimp but that is a personal thing. Mix all of your filling ingredients together in a bowl. Have a small bowl of water standing by. Put a heaping teaspoonful of filling on your wonton wrapper. Dip your finger in the water and run your damp finger around one half of the circle. Bring both sides together to form a half circle and pinch the edges together to seal. Then bring each corner together and pinch - kind of like a little tortellini. I like this method because the dumplings stand up nicely but if it seems too much bother, just leave them in their half circle shape and fry them on one side. I put them all on a large cookie sheet as they are assembled, making sure that they aren't touching. Cover them with a tea towel as you work so they don't dry out. If you want to freeze some, put the on a cookie sheet, again not touching, and put the cookie sheet in the freezer for a few hours before you put them in freezer bags. If you are cooking the same day, cover them with some plastic wrap and you can leave them in the fridge until it's time to cook them. You need to use a frying pan that has a snug fitting lid. Heat the pan over med-high heat and add the tbls of vegetable oil, swirling the pan to make sure the surface is evenly coated. Add your dumplings and fill up the pan with as many as you can fit in without them touching. Cook them for 2-3 minutes to let the bottom get nice and brown. Then pour in 1/4 cup of water (it might splatter like crazy but that is normal), put on the lid and turn the heat down to med low. Let them cook for about 6 minutes like this. After the 6 minutes, remove the lid and if there is still water in the pan, turn the heat back up to med-high and cook until all of the water has evaporated. Now, THAT'S how I say Merry Christmas to all and to all, a good night.
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
my rare beef pho was every bit as delicious as I remembered and it will not be 10 years before I return Pho Hung I have to say just one thing before I get started: One of the things I love most about The Kid is the fact that he will go rogue when we eat out and order something off the menu that none of us have ever heard of and doesn't really even care what might or might not be in it. It was haircut time so we made our way to Kensington Market an hour or so before the scheduled appointment so we could whip in to Tap Phong for some espresso cups and grab lunch. Even though I know that neither of my boys feels the same about Vietnamese as I do, I asked if he would mind if we went to Pho Hung. I started going to Pho Hung 30 years ago, when I first moved to Toronto. It used to be at a location a bit farther north on Spadina and although I miss the open kitchen and the big, wrap around bar that you could slurp your soup at, the current location is nice and bright and cheerful and it's only old fogies, like me, who still refer to it as the "new place". I used to eat at the Bloor St location from time to time during TIFF when we worked out of the Intercontinental Hotel but I think it's been at least a decade since I have dined at the Spadina restaurant. Despite the fact that we are at Kensington at least two or three times a month, we never eat here because I am the only one who ever wants pho and it's usually Shack, our picky toddler, who decides where we will eat. waiting for the strong coffee to drip into the cup of condensed through before adding the hot, sweet coffee into the glass of ice The minute we walked in the door, I was assaulted by familiar smells and I almost wept with happiness and nostalgia. Not even having to read the menu, I ordered myself a small rare beef pho and a cafe su da for The Kid. I went over the menu quickly to recommend a number of dishes that I knew he would like when it happened: "I'm going to try #37" #37 was just called BÁNH XÈO or "Vietnamese Pancake with Shrimp and Pork" Honestly, that could be just about anything. Is it a crepe? Is it a pancake? Is it more like an omelet? the whole shrimp and pork thing could mean anything. It ended up being this giant, almost crispy omelet like thing stuffed with a ridiculous amount of bean sprouts, shrimp and pork and served with tons of fresh mint, lettuce and pickled vegetables. He couldn't finish it all because it was huge but he liked it and said he would eat it again but would prefer to order it as something to share so that he could have something else too. So, hat's off to The Kid for officially becoming the most adventurous eater in the family. Patois If you haven't had brunch at Patois yet, you need to do something about that. We joined some friends for brunch last weekend and I took a page from my kid's notebook and ordered something new. I pretty much always just want the fried chicken with waffles but, instead, I got the Patois Eggs Benny with jerk mortadella and hollandaise served over mini beef patties. It was so good that I don't know what I am going to do the next time we go there. Life was so much simpler when I only craved the fried chicken but the combination of the spicy meat from the patty, with the smooth, creamy sauce and the rich, runny yolk was absolutely perfect. The Kid got that Hong "King" Kong Waffle with nutella, berries and whipped cream up there and judging by the speed at which he inhaled the food, I would say it's probably pretty tasty. Underneath the waffle is some french toast stuffed with spekulas cookie butter. I didn't get to taste that because it belonged to the son of a friend and so I am not at liberty to just take a big bite but, like the waffle, it was devoured in no time. The special was the Rude Boy- an oxtail grilled cheese served with coleslaw and kale salad. This is not a brunch for the faint of heart, the mildly peckish or those looking for a simple smattering of egg and bacon but if you want to try something new, delicious, decadent and indulgent, this must be on your list of places to visit. Wahlburgers Shack and I popped into Wahlburgers last weekend to see what that's all about. It wasn't super full when we first got there but by the time we were finished our lunch, there was a line up and it was absolutely jam packed. So, these are not cheap burgers at all. The burgers are all at least $9.25, fries, onion rings and tater tots are another $3.50 so you are looking at a $15 burger and fries lunch. If you are bringing a couple of kids, it's going to add up and so it better be one fantastic burger and fries, right? We decided to try the trio of sliders for $16, which is actually not a bad deal. Each of the sliders is actually somewhere between a slider and a full sized burger at 3oz each and I really wanted to try more than one flavour. The big surprise for both of us was the Thanksgiving Burger. A moist turkey patty covered in stuffing, cranberry sauce, squash and mayo was our favourite out of the three and the one that we would happily order again as a full size burger. The buns are delicious, fresh and just soft enough to squish down so the burger fits in your mouth but with a nice, shiny crust that keeps it from falling apart. The BBQ Bacon Burger was a close second but the OFD was not that great. It's a fine burger patty but it's kind of bland and there are way too many bulky toppings. It totally fell apart when we tried to eat it and we ended up just picking at the deconstructed burger. Burgers that can't be eaten unless you have a mouth like Jim Carrey are my pet peeve (which is why I love the Burger's Priest so much). Fries arrived lukewarm and so we sent them back and when they were replaced with piping hot fries, they were very good and we barely touched the caesar salad that tasted like mayo with a touch of garlic. If Shack doesn't finish a caesar salad it says more about the salad than anything I can write, so there you go. A featured array of grown up $15 boozey milkshake tell me more about the crowd they are catering than anything else about the place - I use the term "grown up" loosely because no true grown up wants to drink a cocktail that contains four kinds of flavoured liquor, ice cream, chocolate cookies and blueberry syrup. All in all, the food was good, it's really bright and lively, kind of loud and I would imagine it's hopping whenever there is a big sporting event going on. I will stick to lunch. I want to Target this week with The Neighbour to help her pick out a frame for a photo and this is what happened to me. I just want to say that to all of you assholes who are crowing and almost gleeful that Target Canada was a failure and is pulling out, there are also over 17,000 Canadians who are going to be out of work. Say what you will about Target's issues with stocking shelves and pricing, they know how to train their staff to provide great customer service and I, for one, will miss my neighbourhood Target and I will miss the always smiling, helpful staff and I would take 100 understocked Targets over 1 Walmart and I hope that all the smart retailers out there run to snap up the wonderful staff that are going to be out there looking for a job when the door finally shuts. Target, we hardly knew ye. Oh yeah, my recipe for Cauliflower "Wings" Three Ways has been included on The Healthy Living with Greatist #StumbleBloggers List Again, it's almost time for Winterlicious! If you haven't tried my favourite Indian restaurant, Pukka, now's the time. I think I am going to try to hit Daisho for lunch, Lee for dinner and then I have to pick a spot near the AGO for the day we go to see the Baquiet exhibit. Make sure to try at least one new restaurant before it ends on Feb 15. Pin of the week: Oh, this will be happening in this house Instagram of the week: This woman's feed will make you drool all over your shirt Facebook share of the week: Post by The Yum Yum Factor. Jordan in Ten Dishes - http://t.co/dAM7rJmneL via @MargheNick — The Yum Yum Factor (@SMmamashack) January 19, 2015
Okay, this week was kind of overwhelming with what feels like non stop cooking, eating out, recipe testing and great new stuff to try out so get ready for a loaded post. My week started off with a fabulous Winterlicious lunch at Weslodge with three other food blogging buddies - I'm sorry Libby Roach, but I like to Licious. So, the $23 lunch menu has lots of good stuff on it so I had no problem ordering my lunch - I will admit that I am often not interested in the Winterlicious menus in lots of restaurants that I am actually really anxious to try out but at Weslodge, this was not the case. I was having the scotch egg as my first course and nobody was going to stop me. I have had this delectable little chorizo wrapped quail egg that has been breaded and deepfried until the centre is just a creamy mess of pudding like yolk while the outside is crispy - it's food alchemy at it's finest. Two of my table mates ordered the braised brisket sandwich and the cornmeal crusted catfish and although they both seemed pleased with their meals, the only complaint would be the tiny portion size of the catfish. It was really tasty but really small. My bowl of wild mushroom ragu on tagliatelle, on the other hand, was the perfect size and really good. Three of us had the cheesecake with lime curd and crushed up pretzels with one lone wolf who ordered the brownie. It looked like the saddest little brownie that ever lived, especially next to our beautifully plated cheesecake but she said it was really great, so if you are a brownie person, don't worry about how much prettier the other desserts are, just do your brownie thing. host John Catucci with Ramualdo Savati and Domenico Scurti of Pizzeria Via Mercanti Later that night I dragged Shack out to a party celebrating the new season of "You've Gotta Eat Here" where we met up with fellow blogger, Vicky from Mom Who Runs. I love this show and we refer to it all the time when we are looking for something good to eat when we find ourselves in unfamiliar waters. I love that it's a Canadian show that features Canadian restaurants and, Imma gonna keep it real here.... John Catucci is so much more personable and charming natural of hair than his American counterpart. If it weren't for him, we would not have found Dr Laffa so for that alone, we owe him our first born child. We ended up eating that tasty, thin curst pizza down there, having a few cocktails, watched the season premiere and closed the joint down. Vicky and I may, or may not have had a bit of a disco dance party with a very adorable toddler at one point but unless I see photo evidence, it didn't happen. Pizzeria Via Mercanti was one of the featured restaurants in the premiere so it made sense that they hosted the shindig and we not only loved the pizza we were served (it had a crust that was stuffed with prosciutto - HELLO) but Shack ate two bowls of a rich, cheesy, creamy pasta before he found out that it was made with gluten free penne and now my picky toddler is obsessed with finding out what brand they use so I can get some. It really was super tasty and although I had eaten at their Kensington Market spot, this was my first visit to their downtown restaurant at 87 Elm St. You Gotta Eat Here airs on Food Network Canada on Fridays at 9pm ET lentils, lentils and more lentils - finally perfected my Dulce De Lentil Ice Cream with Lentil Praline On Saturday I swung by the Annual Souper Bowl Fundraiser at La Papillion to grab 6 big jars of the best french onion soup This is what we did to our french onion soup a couple of days later I finally got to have lunch at Ka Chi in Kensington Market last weekend after years of longing. Although we visit the market at least a few times a month, we never eat here because Shack always wants to eat ceviche from Seven Lives, Tacos from Mexican Salsas (which, alas, is no more) or a slice from Pizzeria Mare and whenever I suggest this place, he ignores me as he gets in line with the other 300 people at Seven Lives. We took some good friends on an urban safari to Kensington Market. They don't really go downtown to eat and wanted to experience the market and we wanted to introduce my future daughter in law to something other than boneless, skinless chicken breasts or pasta with tomato sauce. Okay, maybe starting her off with Korean wasn't the most obvious choice, I really, really wanted to go here. In the end, it all worked out because everyone really liked their food (okay, future daughter inlaw didn't love her teriyaki chicken but she didn't hate it either so that is a big win). I had a bubbling bowl of spicy tofu stew with pork in a hot stone bowl, we shared short ribs and they graciously made my son's future mother in law a new plate of stir fried squid without spice when her food came and she couldn't eat it. Big brownie points for customer service, the food was really good and I will not wait so long to return. Super Bowl Party at The Neighbours- she made chili dogs and those delicious lobster bisquits and I contributed korean cauliflower "wings" Okay, for weeks we have been eagerly anticipating the opening of the Basquiat show at the AGO, Now's The Time. Shack LOVES this artist and even took the day off so that we could catch the very first glimpse of the show with our members only preview tickets for 10am the very first day. We dropped The Kid off at school and continued downtown, scored rockstar parking right across the street, maxed out the parking and went into the AGO. It was weirdly quiet, there were no other members waiting to go in , despite the fact that it was only 9:50am. The door was open so we walked in and asked where the Basquiat show was and we were told to follow the lady in the burgundy coat. We followed her onto the elevator and went upstairs. When we came out, there was a line of people checking in at a table and I saw a station with coffee, tea and juice, there were waiters passing around lovely things and a break dancing performance was going on. OH MY GOD I looked at my tickets and the were for 10am THE NEXT DAY. I told Shack and the look on his face terrified me into doing something I am not usually comfortable doing. I walked over to the table, told the woman that I had mistakenly thought my members preview tickets were for this morning. She told me this was the media preview and I swallowed my pride and said "Well, I AM media. I usually write about food and travel" and braced myself for being told to piss up a rope....... Instead, she wrote down my name, my blog name, my email and gave me a press kit and waved me off so she could check in the next journalist. Thank you kind AGO lady for letting us in. You saved my marriage and provided us with such a thrilling morning. We were treated to these amazing breakdancers (who knew anyone still knew how to do that??) sponsored by the Unity Charity , an amazing Toronto group that empowers youth to be leaders and role models in their communities. This show is beautiful - I love how they have grouped the paintings into 8 categories like "Heroes", "Street", "Mirrored" and "Sampling and Scratching" instead of just showing the work chronologically. Frank, the restaurant inside of the AGO, is even featuring a series of Basquiat inspired prix fixe menus that reflect his Haitain/Puerto Rican roots. We didn't stay to try that because we spent all of our time in the show but I want to try that out. Go see the show - it's really amazing and for anyone who is between the ages of 40 and 60 and who was, in anyway, interested in art and music, it represents a huge chunk of our lives. We stopped by Sully's Sandwich Shop on Gerrard East for a sandwich. As soon as you sit down, you notice that they put big pots of complimentary hot chocolate on the table to drink while you wait (you can also eat in as they do have about 8 stools but it was freezing in there and we had to eat with our coats and scarves on, so take heed). Our sandwiches were huge, tasty and well priced and although my Mexican influenced porchetta sandwich was good, I couldn't get Porchetta and Co's sandwich out of my mind. Next time I would skip the fries, which were really dry and order the larger salad, which was the best thing we ate. It's a really fresh, flavourful mess of greens with a mustardy vinaigrette, roasted beets and lots of feta. A great take sandwich option in the east end. God, I love my job. I have been dying to invest in a food sealer for so long now that I feel like an idiot for not buying one yet. Thankfully, someone at Food Saver reached out to me and offered me one of their machines to use and review, just like that one down there. Since the day I opened the box, I have been sucking the air out of everything that isn't nailed down around here and it is already my new, favourite kitchen appliance. We have made a custom bag and used it to marinated some beef in an airtight bag and I have used a couple of the ziplock bags that come with it - you can fill it with cookies, suck the air out of the bag and put it in the freezer, take it out and remove a cookie or two, suck the air back out and return it to the freezer. No more freezer burn, no more spoiled food, covered in my freezer's protective icy coating. I love it so much I have already ordered the marinating container, more ziplock bags and the mason jar sealer. I COULD WEEP more habanero squid, coconut shrimp on a dreamy, creamy corn and salad with hearts of palm at La Cubana My week finished off with a lunch date with one of my favourite bloggy buddies, Libby Roach. Only for Libby would I get out of my pjs and drag my ass all the way to Roncesvalles to gossip, engage in snark, catch up and to introduce her to the wonders of La Cubana . It's winter in Canada people. It's how we do. Pin of the week: If this tastes half as good as it looks, I'm in Instagram of the week: This South African's feed is stunning. It can't all be about food people Facebook share of the week: Post by The Yum Yum Factor. Tweet of the week: Holy. Shit. @MsKristyGardner made grilled salted caramel dark chocolate coffee sandwiches. http://t.co/ndFqQm5AdF pic.twitter.com/yPa0aQ4fH5 — Kelly Neil (@baconandbaileys) February 2, 2015
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
About once a year I toy with the idea of making homemade Jamaican beef patties after having one too many stale, microwaved corner store patties. I get all fired up, spend hours reading recipes but then I start thinking about having to find beef rennet for the dough and all of that work and muse to myself "since I have to get on the subway anyway to go find this beef rennet, why not just drop by Bathurst station and buy myself a delectable beef patty and skip all that work?" and that is usually what I do. One bite of that hot, juicy meat pie and all thoughts of beef rennet fly away. Have you ever had the patties at the Bathurst Subway Station??? Honestly. So, there is a bit of a contest going on over at the Food Bloggers of Canada and I am not one to resist a contest. Mushrooms Canada and Ontario Beef have teamed up to promote their new concept, Blend and Extend. The idea is that you replace some of the ground beef with finely chopped mushrooms in your favourite recipes to add a serving of vegetables to the dish as well as adding more volume to it and stretching the meat out so it goes further. If you look on the Blend and Extend website , you will find a whole whack of recipes, videos and ideas on how to get blending and extending. For the contest, we were asked to come up with an original appetizer recipe using this blend and extend concept. It just so happens that I have been on one of my "maybe I should try making these things myself" jags, but, as much as I love them, beef patties don't really scream "lovely app to serve at a party". I needed to come with an appetizer but I only wanted to make Jamaican patties. What to do. Spicy filling encased inside a buttery puff pastry shell on a stick. Get out of town. I remembered how much everyone loved my Brie Pops and wondered if puff pastry would work in place of the traditional patty dough. Patty dough is certainly heartier than puff pastry but they are both flaky and rich and I couldn't see any reason why puff pastry with a turmeric egg wash wouldn't work. The addition of the mushrooms to the filling worked perfectly allowing me to use less meat and the moisture they release, often a dilemma to be dealt with, actually helped keep the filling nice and moist. A word about the scotch bonnet peppers; even if you don't like spicy food, the scotch bonnet is a vital ingredient in Jamaican cuisine. Not only does it add heat, sitting firmly in them 100,000-350,000 range of the scoville scale, but they have a fruity flavour that can't really be replicated. Just make sure to start with a half a pepper and taste and keep adding until it's at a heat level that you are happy with. If you truly can't get your hands on a scotch bonnet, a fresh habanero is your best bet but if all else fails, use a jalapeno but you will lose the fruitiness of the scotch bonnet so do try to find them if you can. Oh, and if you chop these peppers with your bare hands, don't rub your eyes, pick your nose or put those fingers anywhere else for the rest of the day. Don't say I didn't warn you. Jamaican Patty Pops makes approx 24 appetizer sized patty pops or 8 full sized patties Ingredients: 2 sheets of puff pastry, thawed but still cold 1 egg beaten with splash milk and 1/2 tsp turmeric beef/mushroom filling Kosher salt or fleur de sel and fresh thyme popsicle sticks Beef/Mushroom Filling 2 tbls butter 250 grams ground beef 100 grams button mushrooms (approx 4 large), rough chop 1 onion, rough chop 3 scallions, greens included, rough chop 2 cloves garlic, rough chop 1 scotch bonnet pepper, seeded and chopped or to taste 1 tsp curry powder 1/2 tsp allspice 1 tsp kosher salt a few grinds of fresh, black pepper 1/4 cup fresh breadcrumbs between 1/4 and 1/2 cup chicken stock Directions: First whiz up your bread to make your fresh crumbs. I use a crusty Italian style bun and put aside. Next, throw your mushrooms into the food processor and pulse until finely ground and put aside. Now, put the onion, scallion, garlic and scotch bonnet pepper into the food processor and pulse until minced. Melt the butter over medium heat in a frying pan and saute the scallion mixture for about five minutes until softened but not browned. Using a spatula, scrape the mixture out into a bowl and set aside. Now add the ground mushrooms and the beef to the pan and start to cook it, smashing the beef down with your spatula as you stir so that you don't end up with big chunks of meat. You want the meat/mushroom mixture to be crumbly. When it's almost cooked, add the scallion mixture back into the pan and continue to cook until there is no pink colour at all left to the meat. Throw in the curry, allspice, salt and pepper, bread crumbs and 1/4 cup of chicken stock and stir well to combine. Cover the pan and let it cook for about ten minutes, checking it from time to time to make sure it's not getting too dry. You want it to be very moist but not liquidy so if you need to , add a slurp more stock during this time to keep the mixture the right consistency. Remove the pan from the heat and let the mixture cool to room temperature while you prepare the rest of the stuff. You can make this a day ahead and refrigerate it until you need it as well. Preheat the oven to 375F Lay out one of your sheets of puff pastry ( I worked with it right on the parchment it was wrapped up in). Keep the other roll of pastry in the fridge until you need it. If you use something else, put a piece of parchment on to your baking sheet. Cut it into thirds one way and then four strips the other so that you have 12 rectangles. Now, cut each rectangle in half so you now have 24 small rectangles. Lay out 12 of the rectangles and brush each one with the egg wash and stick a little popsicle stick on to it, pressing lightly into the pastry. Put a heaping tbls of fillin in the middle. Top that with another piece of pastry and seal all four sides with the tines of a fork.. Prick two rows of holes on top and move to a parchment lined cookie sheet. Repeat with the second roll of pastry and when you have all 24 pastry puffs on the cookie sheet, brush them all with the egg wash, lay a tiny sprig of fresh thyme on top of each one and sprinkle the whole thing with some coarse salt. Pop those in the oven and cook them for about 15 minutes, until they have puffed up and are starting to brown a bit. they are best right out of the oven but are still really good at room temperature. *if you want to make a large beef patty, just cut the sheet in half lengthwise and then in quarters the other way so that you end up with 8 larger rectangles, skip the popsicle stick and make 8 full size patties. The make a great dinner with a salad on the side. They also reheat easily- just pop them on a cookie sheet and bake in a 350F oven for about 6 minutes.
Furikake is a savory Japanese seasoning that can be used to brighten the flavor of cooked rice and vegetables. In this recipe, we use it to boost the yum factor of protein-packed edamame.
My favorite recipe for an easy, feel-good meal - these Sweet Chili Salmon Bowls are fuss-free and perfectly balanced without compromising the yum factor!
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
Today, we're making Spinach Basil Tahini Pesto! We're flipping the script a little bit on a classic Italian sauce by ditching the cheese and nuts and replacin…
blog featuring recipes, travel and restaurant reviews
This image by Samantha Linsell of Drizzle and Dip is making me very, very hungry indeed. Which I guess is the aim of a good food photographer. It’s the “yum factor” we’re ai…
40g Coffee Salt In collaboration with Bonavista Coffee Company, the Newfoundland Salt Company combined freshly roasted coffee with sea salt. The result is a beautiful and aromatic finishing sea salt. Try this sea salt with chocolate, baked goods, on ice cream, or on pancakes and oatmeal. It's also great in rubs and marinades or in curries. Yum factor on high!
A simple recipe for a toffee roulade providing you with a desert with the wow - and the yum! - factor.
I decided to take Chriselle’s pregnancy craving and turn it into something that’s healthy for both her and the baby.
Healthy, creamy, and fresh this Greek Beetroot Salad Dip with Greek yogurt, goat cheese, herbs, and lemon, is one of the best ways to enjoy beets!
Agedashi tofu is a quick-to-make Japanese starter or side dish. It’s usually deep fried, but we’ve created this shallow fried version that’s easier to make at home.
After so many questions about my weight loss on the F-Factor Diet, I’m sharing details on my personal eating and workout habits. This is my lifestyle not a temporary change in my life. Yes I…
Mmmmm...kako mirišu :)
So the next time you find yourself in Los Angeles, be sure to bookmark this page for your guide to an authentic Koreatown experience!
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