For the uninitiated, this summer was dubbed my “summer of funemployment”. As you may recall I started at Kellogg for my MBA this fall but officially stopped working on June 14th to be able to enjoy my summer. It occurred to me that this is probably the first summer that I hadn’t worked in some capacity since maybe middle school. I used to volunteer at summer camps, babysit, and of course work retail (Gap Kids #9155… among others).
Truth be told, summers off are wasted on the young. I’m sure my days off as a teen were spent at the mall, at the movies or maybe seeing a certain musical one too many times. Actually, quite certainly seeing one musical far too many times.
But now I’m 30 and pretty awesome with fun hobbies and interests. This means that there really wasn’t a dull moment in this summer of funemployment. It was filled with travel (Chicago, North Carolina, NYC, Chicago), cottage hangs, Toronto eating and a day-trip to Niagara.
Niagara is one of my favourite day-trips from Toronto. It’s under 2 hrs away and you can go wine tasting, visit farms, eat at lovely restaurants, see a play if the season is right, go to the casino (blech) and of course visit the falls. This time around we planned a lovely girls excursion that included the following:
– Peach picking
– Lunch at Ravine vineyard (+ tasting)
– Wine tasting at Southbrook
– Ice cream at Avondale Dairy Bar
– Wine tasting and honey purchasing at Rosewood Estates
We had a lovely day that may or may not have included a photo shoot amongst the peaches…
Armed with about 12 lbs of peaches I had to figure out a gameplan… fast! The peaches this year were AMAZING. Probably the sweetest, peachiest peaches I have ever had. So needless to say, a number of peaches were eaten out of hand. Another chunk were preserved in a simple light syrup and others still were turned into a peach jam with pinot noir and cinnamon. I couldn’t have a ton of peaches and not bake something. A while back I had made this fabulous peach pie with caramel sauce. While delicious, I wanted to step things up a notch so I decided to make Peach Frangipane Tartlets using Tartine’s recipe.
Peaches + almond-based filling + sweet pastry + baked in tartlet pans from France = amazing.
These tarts were quite possibly one of the best things to come out of my kitchen ever. And that’s a bold statement. What’s even more awesome is that you don’t have to use peaches, you can easily use plums, berries, apples, plums etc.
The recipe has multiple parts so rather than post below I’ll direct you to this link from the folks at Tartine: check out the recipe here.
Remember when I used to make macarons? I haven’t made them in AGES. In fact, the last batch that I made were the ones pictured above and that was literally a year ago. I’ve spent the past year with the intention of writing a post about these macarons but I never got around to it which drove me crazy since I totally love this photo. This year has been pretty crazy. From finishing up business school applications, weekends in Evanston for school-related things, quitting my job, my super busy summer of fun-employment to starting school, there hasn’t always been time for macaron-making or blogging. Scratch that, I haven’t really made that much time for macaron-making or blogging.
These macarons are easily my favourite. Pierre Herme has this flavour he calls Ispahan. It’s a combination of lychee, rose, and raspberry – it is divine. The cool thing is that he uses the same flavour profile across many different desserts so in addition to having Ispahan macarons you can usually find various cakes, croissants and dessert concoctions. I’ll include the recipe at the end of this post. It’s labour-intensive but really fabulous.
If the way the past year (or the past 5 months) has unfolded, next year promises to be great. Like capital G and T GreaT. There may not be a lot of time to make macarons; but it will be great. I’ve already had my planning meeting with the accountability team (yes, I have one) and have come up with next year’s theme: The Year of More. Interpret it as you may but it’s not really about self-indulgence.
Every year on this blog I set food-related goals. This year was so busy I recently realized that I hadn’t even thought about my food goals. Here’s a quick summary of how last year shaped up:
Capture my own food – I had visions of going fishing/hunting this summer but that didn’t materialize. Still on my list of things to do in life.
Find new ways to combine food and travel – I actually did this! While in Paris I took a cooking class where I made croissants, brioche and a few other gems.
Play with food styling – I’ve definitely dabbled in styling a bit but because I haven’t been blogging as much it hasn’t been that consistent. I actually have yet to setup my “photo studio” in Evanston.
Experiment with seafood – Mussels are definitely a part of my cooking routine but I haven’t branched out much more. I actually need to find a good (and not crazy expensive) fishmonger in Evanston/Chicago.
Can more – So I didn’t buy a pressure canner but I did do quite a bit of preserving this summer.
Butcher a thing or two – Didn’t happen. But it will.
As for this year, I’ll keep my goals modest and achievable. Here are a few:
Butcher something – Yup, this one is going back on the list. Will have to see what classes are available in Chicago.
Eat out more – Living in Evanston and being in an academically and socially intense program makes it hard to prioritize just going out in the city and having grown up civilized dinners at cool spots. Going to make that happen at least once a month.
Explore the Midwest – There are a lot of interesting things happening food-wise in the midwest and I’d like to take a closer look. Definitely need to have a roadtrip or two to some of the neighbouring states.
Make food a priority – I still cook a lot but I’ve also been finding myself getting take out a fair bit too. Plus with my schedule (and not always knowing where to go for certain ingredients) means that I’ve slacked off in terms of doing more elaborate cooking projects like making charcuterie. Let me get back on that for 2013.
Explore more cuisines – I feel like I’ve been in a bit of a rut in terms of cooking mostly familiar things. This means that I rarely crack open some of my more interesting cookbooks. I would love to explore a bit more with some of my Thai and Moroccan cookbooks.
Re-build my home “studio” – When I lived in Toronto I managed to create a pretty sweet indoor lighting setup to simulate daylight. I didn’t bring it with me to Evanston which is also a reason why I haven’t been doing that much food photography these days. My goal is to get a new and even better setup going within a few weeks.
I feel like these goals are pretty achievable and should be fun to work towards! As a parting gift, here’s the recipe for the macarons mentioned above.
Happy New Year!
Ispahan Macaron (from “Macarons” by Pierre Hermé)
makes about 72 macarons
For the raspberry jelly:
420g raspberries
35g caster sugar
2 leaves of gelatine (2g each)
For the macaron shells:
300g ground almonds
300g icing sugar
110g ‘liquefied’ egg whites
4g strawberry food coloring
4g carmine red food coloring
300g caster sugar
75g mineral water
110g ‘liquefied’ egg whites
For the lychee and rose ganache:
410g Valrhona Ivoire couverture or white chocolate
400g lychees (preserved in syrup)
60g liquid crème fraîche or whipping cream (35% fat)
3g rose essence
To finish:
Edible ruby glitter
Start by preparing the raspberry jelly. Soak the gelatine leaves for 15 minutes in cold water to soften.
Using a hand blender, blend the raspberries and sugar to a purée. Strain the purée to remove the pips. Heat a quarter of the purée to 45°C. Drain and dry the gelatine and add to the hot purée. Stir and add the rest of the raspberry purée.
Pour it into a gratin dish lined with clingfilm up to a depth of 4mm. Allow to cool for 1 hour at room temperature then put the dish in the freezer for 2 hours. Turn out the jelly and cut it into 1.5cm squares. Return the jelly squares to the freezer.
For the shells. Sift together the icing sugar and ground almonds. Stir the food coloring into the first portion of liquefied egg whites and pour them over the mixture of icing sugar and ground almonds but do not stir.
Bring the water and sugar to boil at 118°C. When the syrup reaches 115°C, simultaneously start whisking the second portion of liquefied egg whites to soft peaks.
When the sugar reaches 118°C, pour it over the egg whites (while continuously beating on low speed).
Whisk and allow the meringue to cool down to 50°C, then fold it into the almond-icing sugar mixture. (The batter is ready when it becomes glossy and start to resemble a thick pancake batter.) Spoon the batter into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle.
Pipe rounds of batter about 3.5 cm in diameter, spacing them 2 cm apart on baking trays lined with baking parchment. Rap the baking trays on the work surface covered with a kitchen cloth. Sprinkle every other row with pinches of color sugar or ruby glitter. Leave the shells to stand for at least 30 minutes until they form a skin.
Preheat the fan oven to 180°C then put the trays in the oven. Bake for 12 minutes quickly opening and shutting the oven door twice during the cooking time. (Once at the 8 minute mark and once at the 10 minute mark.) Out of the oven, slide the shells on to the work surface.
For the lychee and rose ganache. Drain the lychees. Blend then strain them to obtain a fine purée. You will need 240g purée. Chop up the chocolate and melt it in a bowl over a pan of barely simmering water.
Bring the cream and lychee purée to the boil. Pour it over the melted chocolate a third at a time. Add the rose essence and stir.
Pour the ganache into a gratin dish and press clingfilm over the surface of the ganache. Set aside in the fridge for the ganache to thicken.
Spoon the ganache into a piping bag fitted with a plain nozzle. Pipe a mound of ganache on to half the shells. Lightly press a square of frozen jelly into the center and finish with a dot of ganache. Top with the remaining shells.
Allow the macarons 24 hours in the fridge for the flavors to meld and bring back out at the point of serving.
After a looooong quarter of Kellogg fun followed by a jam-packed snowy week of Kellogg fun aka ski trip my body is like “girl, please” and has decided to shut down. This means that for the past two days I have basically done nothing but napped, watched all of this season’s episodes of 30 Rock and all of season 1 of Scandal. Yes, this is my life. Nevermind that I just realized that Christmas is right around the corner. I tell you, these days if it isn’t in an Outlook invite it doesn’t exist. Damn. Shame. Plus I’m basically ready to bypass Christmas and just usher in the new year already. Out with the old…
Anyhoo, my fever recently broke, my chills went away which gave me clearance to hit the mean streets of E-town (Evanston) in search of joie. My first excursion involved getting a tub stopper (bubble bath time!), a doughnut and hitting my guilty pleasure World Market. It wasn’t until I got BACK home that I decided that what was missing in my life were two things: guacamole and a newly dreamed up popcorn confection. So I hit the streets again to venture out to downtown Evanston’s only grocery story aka Whole Paycheque (but what if you don’t have a paycheque?) Foods.
I’m forever wanting to make caramel corn and with the holidays fast approaching I got the crazy idea in my head to make a candy cane, chocolate and nut concoction. Pretty brilliant, right? I searched the interwebs for inspiration but couldn’t really find anything that fit the bill which meant… experiment time!
I started off with my favourite caramel corn recipe (what, you don’t have one? Shame.) and went H.A.M. from there. Originally I was just going to do candy canes and chocolate chips but then spied some walnuts in my cupboard that wanted to play too… so in they went.
The results while not attractive are delicious. The candy canes melted just enough throughout the mixture that every bite is filled with minty goodness (but not in an overpowering way). The chocolate (not surprisingly) melted where I was hoping it would maintain some of its chippy integrity. Then there were the nuts… perfectly toasted and full of win. Love. Obviously health food.
On my next batch I would definitely play around with adding my chocolate chips later in the game to ensure maximum solid chocolate chunks.
Festive Caramel Corn
190 g granulated white sugar
115 g brown sugar
75 g corn syrup
90 g water
pinch kosher salt
60 g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
140 g walnut pieces
60 g popped popcorn
150 g chocolate chips
100 g chopped candy canes (I used the food processor)
Combine the water, salt, sugars and corn syrup in a large pot and bring to a boil. Once it starts boiling and the butter and vanilla extract and stir constantly using a figure eight motion.
When the mixture reaches 260°F add the walnuts and continue stirring. When the mixture reaches 300°F add the popcorn, chocolate chips and candy cane pieces. Remove from heat and pour evenly onto silpat or greased cookie sheet.
Allow the popcorn to cool and then seperate into chunks and store in plastic container or ziploc bag.
It may not come as a surprise that chicken isn’t my favourite meat. Sure, I love it when it’s breaded and deep fried or when I see a whole roasted chicken, but on a typical night I’m not consuming chicken. And I pretty much NEVER order it when I go out. It’s not that I don’t like chicken but it always seems like the boring and safe choice. And don’t even get me started on this country’s predisposition for consuming dry, flavourless boneless, skinless chicken breasts. If I do eat chicken it’s usually the dark meat, it has so much more flavour and is always juicy. People stay sleeping on the dark meat… oh well, more for me.
Growing up our takeout choices usually consisted of the usual suspects: pizza, chinese, McDonalds and KFC. But one of the more interesting options (and one of the joys of growing up in a partially Portuguese neighbourhood) was Churrasco of St. Clair known for the Portuguese grilled piri piri chicken. The chicken is usually spit roasted or spatchcocked (my fave word) and grilled until pretty charred. The chicken has been marinated in a spicy marinade made with piri piri peppers (not always necessarily piri piri peppers) and then you get this spicy dipping sauce to go with it. If you’re lucky the place also serves roasted Parisian potatoes and Portugese rice with green peas. Most Canadian kids love eating Swiss Chalet but I could never stand that stuff and would always opt for Churrasco instead.
Since moving away from the old hood I don’t eat churrasco nearly as much as I’d like to. My current hood (in Toronto) has Churrasco Villa which is good but I much prefer the sauce at Churrasco of St. Clair. It wasn’t until a few months ago that I had the BRILLIANT idea of making churrasco/piri piri chicken at home. Why it took me so long I’ll never know.
After a pretty thorough search on the interwebs I settled on this recipe from Epicurious. I marinated the chicken overnight in flavourful mix of cilantro, garlic, ginger, piri piri sauce, lemon juice, oil and garlic. It was at this point that I knew that this chicken would be amazing since I pretty much wanted to drink and dip stuff in the marinade. From there the recipe says to grill the chicken but since I don’t have a grill I chose to broil the chicken to get some of that crusty goodness action going.
As anticipated the chicken turned out wonderfully. The acid in the marinade helps to soften the chicken which I also think allows the flavour to penetrate even further meaning that every bite is awesome. I served the chicken with this yellow rice that I like and some kale. This chicken has easily become a staple in my house and next I want to try using it in other applications like to top a salad.
Piri Piri Chicken
Glaze:
3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons piri-piri sauce or other hot pepper sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
Chicken:
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 2-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled, thinly sliced
1 large shallot, peeled, quartered
3 garlic cloves, peeled
1/2 cup piri-piri sauce or other hot pepper sauce
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil plus additional for brushing
1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
1 3 1/2- to 4-pound chicken, backbone removed, opened flat
For glaze:
Melt butter in small saucepan over medium-high heat. Add cilantro and garlic; cook until garlic begins to brown, about 2 minutes. Add piri-piri sauce and lemon juice. Reduce heat to medium-low; simmer 2 minutes.
For chicken:
Finely chop cilantro, ginger, shallot, and garlic in processor. Add piri-piri sauce, 1/4 cup oil, lemon juice, coarse salt, and pepper; process marinade to blend.
Place chicken, skin side up, on work surface. Using palm of hand, press on breastbone to flatten chicken. Tuck wing tips under. Pour half of marinade into 11x7x2-inch glass baking dish. Open chicken like book; place skin side down in single layer in dish. Pour remaining marinade over. Cover; chill at least 4 hours or overnight, turning chicken occasionally.
Preheat oven to 450F. Cover baking pan with aluminum foil. Remove chicken from marinade. Arrange skin side up and cook for about 45 minutes. Remove from oven and pour warm glaze over.
So this poor little blog has been a bit abandoned as of late. Why? Because B-School is crazy. And by crazy I mean super busy, super fun and A LOT of work. I’ve learned so much over the past three months both in the class room and outside of the classroom. I came into business school with the mindset that for the next two years I’d push boundaries both personally and professionally. We’re talking everything from travels, to activities, to how I socialize to the classes that I take etc. In the past three months I’ve been to Thailand and Indiana, ziplined, danced many a night away and I know that they are just core courses but I’m taking all sorts of quant courses. Oh, and it seems that in the spring I’m going to Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Bahrain and Oman. On top of that recruiting started a mere few weeks after the start of classes. Recruiting alone is a courseload of work. Looking at my calendar for next week I pretty much have a dinner even booked with a firm each night (and one night I have two!). I also find it fascinating to speak to so many people about their unique experiences at these different firms. Needless to say business school is amazing.
And now back to the regularly scheduled blog post…
Now, you all know I’m pretty crafty but even sometimes I surprise myself. One of my fave Toronto food blogs (that really doesn’t focus on Toronto) is Le Sauce by Yasmin. While she’s vegetarian I don’t hold that against her and totally love everything about her blog (and I imagine she’s pretty awesome in person too). Imagine my surprise when visiting her blog a few weeks ago that I saw a menu for a Lebanese lunch that included homemade pita bread.
Yes, pita bread.
For some reason it had NEVER occurred to me to make pita bread from scratch. It’s not like the ones I get from the supermarket are that great or anything but I guess I kind of assumed that they required some special equipment or something to make the pocket. Shockingly, no special equipment is required and they are actually super easy to make.
When I was coming off my juice cleanse this summer I wanted to have a vegetarian feast so I made all sorts of goodness including tabbouleh and hummus and thought that homemade pita was a great accompaniment. The ingredient list is simple and you likely have everything in your pantry already to make this happen. From a time perspective there isn’t a ton of hands on time. Sure, there’s kneading (I use my Kitchenaid Stand Mixer for that) but the remaining time is mostly rising and resting. Not bad. Even cooking them takes under 5 minutes.
While my pitas didn’t turn out that pocket-y they did turn out super delicious. Sure I’m a sucker for any type of bread straight out of the oven but there’s something about homemade pitas that have won me over. I can definitely see myself making these again and assuming I figure out the secret to making them more pocket-y (if desired) I probably won’t buy pita anymore. But I get intense about things like that.
Homemade Pitas
Recipe via Le Sauce
1¼ cups warm water (about 110⁰F)
¼ ounce active dry yeast (1 packet)
1 tablespoon of sugar
1½ cups whole wheat flour
1½ cups all-purpose flour, plus about ½ cup for dusting
1½ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons olive oil
Activate the yeast: In a medium mixing bowl, whisk the yeast into the warm water and add the sugar at the same time. Let the mixture sit for 3-5 minutes; after a couple minutes, you should start to see some foam rising to the top. (If there’s no foam at all, especially if the water isn’t warm, wait a few minutes longer; if there’s really nothing, you may have to start over with another packet of yeast.)
Combine the flours and salt in a large mixing bowl. Form a well in the center of the bowl and pour in the yeast mixture. Top it off with the two tablespoons of olive oil. With a big spoon, stir the ingredients until almost all of the flour has been absorbed, and it looks shaggy, but mostly together. Dump it onto a floured surface and begin kneading the dough. It should stick a little, but if it’s way too sticky, give the dough ball and your board a dusting of flour here and there. Knead the dough for about 10 minutes. You can also mix and knead the dough in a mixer fitted with a dough hook, until it’s smooth and taut. If you poke your finger into it, should bounce back at you.
Spray a clean, large bowl with non-stick spray or wipe it with olive oil. Place the ball of dough in the bowl and cover it with a damp cloth or plastic wrap. You can either let the dough rise overnight in the fridge covered in plastic (for up to 12 hours) or, let it rise at room temperature for one hour.
After the rise, give the center of the dough a punch with your fist and turn it out onto a lightly floured surface. Gently roll it into a thick log. Cut it in half, and then cut each half into five equal pieces. Shape each piece into a ball. Cover the balls with a damp towel and let the dough rest once more for about 20 minutes. If you’re planning on freezing the dough, arrange the balls in a freezer bag so that they’re touching as little as possible. Lay the bag flat in the freezer so that each dough ball freezes individually. The day you’re ready make the pitas, thaw the dough balls in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.
Using a floured rolling pin on a floured surface, roll each ball into a round, flat disk, about 1/8” thick. If you roll the pitas thicker, about ¼”, they might not puff as much, but they’ll turn out softer and deliciously chewy.
Cook them at high heat, since it’s the moisture in the dough turning to steam that makes them bubble up:
To cook the pitas on a sheet: Preheat oven to 450° F but first, put a pizza stone or another flat surface that conducts heat well (like a baking sheet turned upside down) on the rack. You want the pita to touch a hot surface as soon as it goes into the oven. Once preheated, open the oven and quickly place the flattened dough discs, as many as will fit with a good 1” all around for clearance, on the hot surface and close the oven door. Cook the pita for 3-4 minutes if you’re aiming for soft and chewy; or another minute or two longer for a crisper, light brown crust.
To cook the pitas on the stove: Heat a dry cast iron skillet over medium heat until very hot; it should be hot enough to make the dough sizzle for a moment as soon as it touches the pan. Lay a dough disc in the skillet – no oil necessary. Watch it puff up! After about 2-3 minutes, flip the pita and cook for 1-2 more minutes.
Makes 8-10 pitas.
So the other day I was featured on View the Vibe as their Friday Foodie (even though they spelled my name wrong). Between this and interviews I realized that I’ve had this blog for 5 years! Let’s file that under “ish that is cray”. Five years ago I had recently moved back to Toronto after 6 years in NYC and I was bored out of my gotdamn mind working on an entertainment “news” program and a legal show. I started the blog as a little something to do and a way to track all of the amazing things I was cooking. Five years later the number of people that I have met through the blog, interwebs, food events etc. has been huge and the experiences that have come as a result of blogging have been enriching and wonderful. No complaints.
So I figured I’d take a break from finance, accounting, and stats homework (wait… did you know I was a journalism major in undergrad? Right.) and actually post a lil somethin’ somethin’.
I’m slowly getting settled into life in Evanston which means figuring out where to secure some of my favourite food items. In Toronto I know exactly where to go for all of my random food needs, but in Evanston/Chicago? No idea. Luckily I have a few people resources to help but sometimes there just aren’t enough options. In Toronto I love Love LOVE to shop at Bulk Barn. They have great prices, great selection and pretty good quality for bulk items. But get this, there’s no good bulk stores in the Chicago-area (well at least that I’ve heard of). Apparently Whole Foods is the best option but of course is not the cheapest option.
I’ve also had a hard time figuring out an affordable but decent fishmonger and a good and affordable butcher. For me, I used to love to shop at European Meats in Kensington and of course Sanagan’s. There are a few Sanagan-type butchers in Chicago but I’ll have to investigate pricing.
Perhaps what’s been the most disappointing is being able to get some of my fave West Indian foods. Evanston shockingly has a big Jamaican population so I’ve managed to find a West Indian grocer and there are plenty of Jamaican restaurants. BUT apparently the Trinidadian food scene has slim pickings. There’s one restaurant on the south side but I’ve heard it’s okay AND they don’t have doubles. That is a problem. Furthermore, no one in Chicago has doubles. Now, doubles are one of my favourite foods so I realized that this would be a problem unless…
I decided to make them!
And that’s what I did. For the uninitiated, a doubles (it’s always plural, it’s never a double) is a chickpea sandwich with the “bread” being barra which is fried dough. It’s a Trinidadian street food that is often eaten in the morning. I had made a chickpea curry earlier in the week using this recipe so all I had to do was figure out how to make barra. Luckily the internet was ripe with recipes that were all very similar but just had variations on which spices to include.
Making the barra was surprisingly easy. You just make a wettish dough, let it rice, make some balls and shallow fry them things. They puff up and get pliable and are amazing. I swear, the are fewer things more satisfying than hot doubles. My hot sauce game wasn’t up to par and I didn’t make a tamarind chutney (next time) but this was probably one of my fave things that I’ve made in a while. And for the record I ate them with some fried plantains and a bottle of ting. Boom.
Homemade Doubles
For the chickpea filling use this recipe
Barra (adapted from Trini Gourmet)
2 cups flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 tsp ground pepper
1 teaspoon yeast
1/3 cup warm water
1/4 tsp sugar
Oil for frying
Combine the flour, salt, curry powder and cumin in a large bowl.
In another bowl mix the water, sugar and yeast and allow to foam up for about 5 minutes (you want to make sure your yeast is active). Once active mix with the flour mixture and add enough water to make a slightly firm dough. Cover with a damp cloth or plastic wrap and allow to rise for an hour and a half. After this time punch down the dough and let rise for another 10-15 minutes.
To form the barra grab a ball of dough (approx. 1 tablespoon) and flatten into a disc about 4-5 inches in diameter. If needed, oil your hands so that the dough doesn’t stick to your hands.
Heat oil in a frying pan and allow the barra to fry about 15 seconds per side until golden and puffy. Allow to drain on a paper towel.
To serve, spoon some chickpeas onto one piece of dough, sprinkle your hot sauce or other condiments and top with another piece of barra.
I’ve officially moved to Evanston, IL (just outside of Chicago) for school. YAY!! As my days in Toronto were drawing to a close people kept on asking me if I had a grand list of things to do in Toronto before I left. Surprisingly the answer was no. When I moved from NYC I had a list of to-dos as part of my last hurrah including walking across the Brooklyn Bridge, visiting the NYC Public Library on 5th Ave and checking out the Cloisters. Since I’ve lived in the T-Dot aka Toronto for most of my life, there wasn’t much for me to do but I of course I came up with my list of must-eats before I left. Here’s a quick rundown…
Old Faves
Pizzeria Libretto – 550 Danforth Avenue Toronto, ON M4K 1P7
I love this place. I loved the original Libretto but have grown to love the Danforth location even more since they take reservations. The best. I’ve pretty much never had a bad pizza there and if you don’t want pizza (oh, the horror) their appetizers are great. You can easily make a meal out of them.
Holy Chuck Burgers – 1450 Yonge Street Toronto, ON M4T 1Y7
Easily one of my fave burger spots in the city… probably even my fave. My last meal at HC ended with a bang. Johnny (the owner) convinced me to try his latest concoction which featured 2 all bacon patties, 3 slices of cheese, slices of bacon and a bacon thousand islands dressing. It was definitely an indulgence but not as intense as you’d imagine.
Rodney’s By Bay – 56 Temperance Street Toronto, ON M5H 3V5
This is my spot for lobster rolls and chowder in Toronto. Portion has gotten a bit smaller over the years but it’s definitely still a winner.
Marben – 488 Wellington Street West Toronto, ON M5V 1E3, Canada
Marben is great for a reliably delicious and mostly local meal. They also make a great “fancy” burger and a pretty wicked charcuterie platter.
Buster Rhinos – 28 King St. East, Oshawa ON L1H 1A9
I’ve been a fan of Buster Rhinos for a while but rarely make it out there because it’s in the burbs. When I learned that Darryl was opening a restaurant in downtown Oshawa that would be accessibly by GO Transit I knew I’d pay a visit. Guys, you know it must be good food if I venture to the suburbs via public transit. This time around I had the brisket poutine which was pretty out of this world and grabbed some ribs and pecan pie to take home. All was awesome.
Island Foods – 1310 Don Mills Road, Toronto, ON M3B 2W6
I’ve been eating at Island Foods since I was kid and they only had a stall at the food court at Dufferin Mall. Whatchu know bout that? When the craving for a roti strikes Island Foods is my spot. I don’t have a standard order but my tops are either channa/eggplant, channa/spinach, shrimp, or chicken/channa.
Beast – 96 Tecumseth Street Toronto, ON M6J 2H1
This is my fave brunch spot in Toronto right now. Hands. Down. My standard order is The Beastwich because it is amazing. Trust.
Wvrst – 609 King W Toronto, ON M5V 1M5
I decided to have my lowkey going away shindig here because prices are right, food is good and the space works perfectly for the ebb and flow of visitors. This time around I tried their the duck and foie gras sausage. Delicious but definitely on the rich side. I’d totally get this again.
Khao San Road – 326 Adelaide Street West Toronto, ON M5V 1P7
When I’m craving Thai food this is my spot. I’ve pretty much never had a crappy meal there. My faves are the massaman curry, khao soi, pad thai and the garlic shrimp. This place is worth the wait.
New-ish on the Scene
La Carnita – 501 College Street, Toronto, ON M6G 1A5 (416) 964-155
I’ve never been to TUM and never made it to their pop-ups so this was my first time trying La Carnita. Definitely one of my fave meals of the the summer. Everything from the corn to the tacos to the popsicles were amazing. I had a special featuring grilled octopus that increased the joy in my life exponentially.
Campagnolo – 832 Dundas Street West Toronto, ON M6J 1V3
I’ve been trying to hit Campanolo for AGES but never quite made it happen. So glad I did. I could eat their burrata and roasted grapes by the truckload every. single. day. For my main I had some octopus and sausage concoction (not sure what this octopus kick is about) and it really hit the deliciousness spot.
Keriwa Cafe – 1690 Queen Street West Toronto, ON M6R 1B3
Keriwa is another spot that had been on my list for ages. For some reason upon sitting down there weren’t too many menu items that jumped out at me so we decided to forgo appetizers and just had a main each, which were both delicious. Again the dessert selection wasn’t particularly striking so we ended up rolling out and grabbing poutine and beers down the street. We keeps it classy.
When I was in London a few months back I decided to hit Pierre Herme for a macaron fix. I usually hit up the Pierre Herme at Selfridges but this time around decided to find the actual boutique in Knightsbridge (who am I kidding, I totally visited the one at Selfridges earlier in the week). Those who know me know that I’m an excellent navigator, I rarely get lost. I’m not sure what happened that day but I got lost like 4 times en route to Pierre Herme. I think I was being over-confident and didn’t stop to get “in” the map (yes, I like to get “in” the map like Joey on Friends). As a result I took many a wrong turn. I even stumbled across a protest! Needless to say, by the time I arrived at the boutique I had earned my macaron(s).
The woman at the boutique was fabulous and we started discussing my love of Pierre Herme and we talked about how I’ve been to the boutiques in Paris etc. The woman was nice enough to even gift me with a free macaron. HOLLA! As I was waiting to make my purchase I spotted the English version of . As you may recall, my last London visit was coupled with a visit to Paris where I had wanted to do an advanced pastry class but couldn’t find one that fit my schedule. It was clearly a sign that I stumbled across this book so I bought it… all 5 lbs of this book! I would also like to point out that my suitcase on the way back was overweight.
Muffins are OK. Sure, I like the variety in the muffin world but truth be told if I want something sweet on the go in the morning a muffin isn’t too high on the list. Give me a doughnut or a danish or perhaps a pain au chocolate or chausson au pommes… all so much more interesting than a muffin. Plus, haven’t we all had super mediocre muffins? Those giant orbs of doughiness with the edges of the tops being the only salvageable part? Yup, I can sympathize.
Occasionally I’ll make muffins at home but even then they aren’t that awesome so I usually just use my muffin tins to make cupcakes or tarts. That is until I stumbled across Pierre Herme’s blueberry muffin recipe. I actually only ended up making this because we had a ton of frozen blueberries that needed to be used.
These muffins are life-changing.
So they’re a blueberry muffin. Pierre Hermes kicks them up a notch with a crumb topping with some ground almonds up in there. Oh, but then he has the NERVE to add lime zest to the muffin batter for a bit of a zing. Seriously. These muffins are ridonkulous.
Make them.
Pierre Herme’s Blueberry Muffins
The crumble:
50 gr cold butter
50 gr sugar
50 gr ground almonds
50 gr flour
Muffin batter:
175 gr sugar
Zest of a lime
A pinch of salt
300 gr of flour
10 gr baking powder
100 gr egg
185 gr sour cream
125 gr melted butter
120 gr blueberries
Preheat oven to 350F.
For the crumble, mix all crumble ingredients in a bowl and combine to form a coarse crumb.
For the muffin batter mix together the dry ingredients and in a separate bowl mix together the wet ingredients. Being careful not to overmix add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients.
Mix half of the blueberries into the batter reserving the other half for the tops. Fill muffins cups with batter, top with remaining blueberries and sprinkle with crumble. Bake approximately 35 minutes or until done.
On a recent trip to London I hit up a restaurant in Exmouth Market called Moro, had Romesco sauce and changed my life. I’m not quite sure how I’ve gone 30 years on this earth and the first time I had Romesco sauce was in London, in February… of 2012. Seriously, this is just despicable.
At Moro I had some sort of fish that was served bathed in Romesco. While I was eating it I had no idea what it was. Sure I knew the sauce was tomatoe-y with a hint of spice but I kept on coming across this crunchy little explosions. It really was a delight with the perfect balance of flavours and textures. So delightful that I went back home and began trying to figure out how exactly to recreate this at home.
Luckily I didn’t have to search that hard because the interwebs revealed that the Moro romesco sauce recipe is abundantly available. Go figure. Apparently there are a few Moro cookbooks out there as well (which I wouldn’t mind adding to my collection). Even for a major, diverse city like Toronto the ingredient list proved to be a bit of a challenge. Of course I had no trouble finding things like saffron. But the peppers, oh the peppers! Usually I’m able to find whatever dried chiles I need at Kensington market but I could not for the life of me find Noras or Guindillas. I substituted other peppers for them but I’d love to get my hand on these peppers (especially the Noras).
While my romesco didn’t taste exactly like the one that I had at Moro it was great. I served it with some super-pricey Halibut that I bought at Pusateri’s (I had one of those group buy deals) and it was a fantastic way to honour that expensive little piece of fish. For the record, romesco would also be great with shrimp, chicken and maybe even some veg like asparagus.
Definitely a new fave.
Romesco Sauce
3.5oz/100g whole blanched almonds
2oz/55g shelled hazelnuts
4 dried noras peppers, or ordinary dried peppers or 1 small dried red chilli, crumbled
Half a dried guindilla pepper
3 garlic cloves, peeled
6 tbsp olive oil
2oz/55g stale white bread, cut into .5in/1.5cm cubes
5oz/140g piquillo peppers, or 2 medium red bell peppers, roasted, peeled and seeded
1-1.5 tbsp red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar, or a mixture of the two
1 tsp tomato purée
40 strands saffron, infused in 8 tbsp boiling water
half tsp sweet smoked Spanish paprika
1. Toast the almonds and hazelnuts either in the oven or in a skillet on the stovetop until light golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool.
2. Open up the dried peppers and discard the seeds. Crumble the peppers into a bowl and top with boiling water.
3. Fry two of the garlic cloves whole in the olive oil until light brown. Remove the garlic and reserve. Fry the cubes of bread in the same oil until light brown. Reserve the oil aside.
4. Puree the nuts, bread, garlic and peppers (both soaked and piquillo, reserving the soaking water) in food processor. If you have a mortar and pestle you can use that too. Once you have a coarse paste, transfer to a mixing bowl and stir in the olive oil, half the pepper water, the vinegar, the remaining garlic clove, crushed, the tomato puree, saffron, paprika, salt and pepper. Taste for seasoning.
5. If the sauce is too thick, add a bit of water and/or more olive oil. Romesco can be made in advance.
6. Serve over pan-fried fish or shrimp, chicken etc.
One of my favourite parts of my weekend is my weekly Kensington Market run. Since moving back to Toronto I’d often find myself there every few weeks to pick up some cheese, visit a fishmonger or hit up Chinatown for some goodies. As I’ve come to spend more time in the market I have discovered many more spots like my poultry shop, the big health food store, the West Indian spot, the big butcher (that recently closed), my Latin American spot and the tortilla spot (two totally different places). Chances are, if there’s an obscure ingredient on my weekly menu I can likely find it somewhere in Kensington. Because of this I now find myself hitting up the market weekly to cross a lot of items off of my list.
One of my fave places in Kensington is Sanagan’s Meat Locker. It’s this TINY butcher that I was about to wax poetically about but it turns out that I fully did that here. That’s how much I love Sanagan’s, I almost wrote the same post twice! My issue with Sanagan’s is that they have such an interesting variety of meats and cuts that there’s always something that I want to try and I often find myself impulse buying meat with no plan. On one Saturday afternoon I went in for bacon and the line was particularly long. While in line I decided to get some lamb tbones and then after some more time in line I decided to get duck legs. Nevermind that I’ve never made lamb tbones or duck legs before but I JUST HAD TO HAVE THEM. Of course once I got home I promptly threw them in the freezer and decided to figure it all out later.
This was the weekend I decided to make the duck. I love me some duck confit but the whole process just seemed entirely too taxing for me so I decided to pass. A lot of recipes for duck legs involve dried fruit and a braise that would render the skin a soggy mess. I don’t know about you but I fully think that crispy duck skin is the best and I wasn’t about to give that up. So I was pretty jazzed to find this recipe from Food & Wine. I liked that it wasn’t a confit but that it still promised crispy skin. I was intrigued by the sauce as well.
The recipe was easy to assemble and the ingredients were pretty basic. While the duck legs were in the office I started researching the correct internal temperature when I started reading about how duck really should be braised to make the meat sauce. Uh oh. This was fully not a braise. yes, there is liquid in the pan but the recipe says to keep the meat mostly out of it for the crispy skin. I could’ve freaked out at that point but I didn’t.
So how did my non-braised duck legs fare? While delicious and featuring crispy skin the meat was on the tough side. I wouldn’t be exaggerating if I were to say that I kind of had to saw at it a bit. While cutting it was hard it was tough to chew but it certainly wasn’t tender. Flavourwise all was good but I think next time I’d probably confit the duck legs as that really is my favourite way to eat them. Also, my sauce wasn’t saucy enough (I think the bread was soaking up the liquid) so I had to keep on adding in more broth and wine (there are worse problems to have).
I served the duck legs with some mashed sweet potato and what can only be described as a yuppie farmers market salad. I combined pea shoots, sunchokes and beets with some olive oil and balsamic and called it a side. All the produce came from the farmers market and I definitely paid a premium but it was worth it.
Crispy Duck Legs with Toasted Hazelnut and Garlic Sauce
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 large Spanish onion, chopped
One 3-inch cinnamon stick, broken
Salt
2 cups chopped plum tomatoes
1 cup dry red wine
1 cup chicken stock
8 Pekin duck legs (about 8 ounces each), trimmed of excess fat
Freshly ground black pepper
1/3 cup hazelnuts
1 cup finely diced crustless baguette
2 large garlic cloves, chopped
1 tablespoon unsalted butter
Preheat the oven to 325°. In a large skillet, heat 2 tablespoons of the oil. Add the onion, cinnamon and a pinch of salt, cover and cook over moderately low heat, stirring, until the onion is softened, 8 minutes. Add the tomatoes and cook over moderate heat, stirring, until very soft, 8 minutes. Add the wine and boil over high heat for 2 minutes. Add the stock and bring to a boil, then pour into a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.
Season the duck with salt and pepper and set the legs skin side up on the vegetables; keep the skin out of the liquid. Bake the duck legs on the top third of the oven for 1 1/2 hours, until the meat is tender and the skin is crisp.
Meanwhile, spread the hazelnuts in a pie plate and toast until golden, 10 minutes. Transfer to a towel and rub to remove the skins, then transfer to a mini food processor.
In a medium skillet, heat the remaining 2 tablespoons of oil. Add the bread and cook over moderately high heat, stirring, until browned, 2 minutes. Reduce the heat to low and add the garlic. Cook, stirring, until the garlic is golden. Transfer the bread, garlic and oil to the processor and grind coarsely with the hazelnuts.
Transfer the duck to a rimmed baking sheet and keep warm in the oven. Strain the pan sauce through a coarse sieve set over a saucepan, pressing on the solids; scrape the vegetables on the underside of the sieve into the sauce. Skim off the fat. Boil the sauce over high heat until reduced to 2 cups.
Whisk the hazelnut mixture into the sauce and bring to a simmer. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter. Season with salt and pepper and serve with the duck.
(Recipe via Food & Wine)
