well... i should known not to buy chinese pastries from HBC

It's been a rather blah morning - nothing horrendously horrible, but nothing particularly exciting either. Somehow I ended up at the Bay food counter on my daily lunch quest. Food is cheap, it's decent, and I was in the neighbourhood anyway. AND... they carry Dufflet's pastries... which is really cool when you're craving a decent sweet snack that isn't a chocolate bar from the corner convenience store.

Imagine my surprise as I perused today's offering and saw... OMG... CHINESE BUNS! The ULTIMATE lunch food of my childhood (or cold, lumpy mac and cheese). So I had to buy one. BBQ pork the sign said.

One bite in and alas, I should have known better than to buy chinese buns from HBC. T'was not BBQ pork to be had... but rather, some type of curried meat... could be chicken, could be pork. All taste same.

it ain't pretty...

This is my New Year fish. I have no idea what it is called in English. In Chinese, it is called "lang yu" and I only get to have it once a year - at Chinese New Year. I believe it's imported from China, but since I have no idea what it's called, I can't Google anything about it. My grandmother makes it every year on New Year's eve, but we have to wait until the New Year to eat it - old superstition about how abundance (Chinese word sounds like the word for fish) in the old year will lead into abundance in the new year.

It's an extremely boney little sucker. The bones are extremely sharp and are forked, so swallowing one could be really uncomfortable. It takes a lot of patience (and a lot of silence) to eat one of these properly. Pan fried with just a bit of light soy... yum... my fav.

what do you get when you take two of my favourite things and put them together???

CADBURY CREME EGG COOKIES!!!!!!

Step one:

Freeze the creme eggs.



Step two:

Chop up the creme eggs. Lick fingers.



Step three:

Mix up batch of your favourite chocolate chip cookies. Stick on a piece of frozen creme egg. Bake until done.



Step four:

Enjoy with a big glass of milk.



After thought... sweet... super sweet cookie. The sticky fondant melted and formed a nice crusty layer on some of the cookies. But the effect was inconsistent (but still tasty). The Cadbury milk chocolate never melted as I thought it would, so some of the creme egg filling was left behind and hardened nicely.

Not sure if I would repeat this recipe, but I did have to "taste test" a whole bunch of them to decide whether or not I liked the cookies. ;)

cooking for one can be fun...

As much as I love to cook, cooking for one is a really big pain in the ass. There are always leftovers to contend with and sometimes freezing said leftovers isn't a viable option. (I refer you to the infamous freezer incident of 2006.)

My self-restraint at portion control is nonexistant and because I tend to want to use up all my ingredients (i.e. say the WHOLE bulb of fennel instead of HALF the bulb of fennel), I tend to make much, much more than the recipe promises. I have authority issues. Following directions is extremely difficult for me. And I pay for it by having to eat the same thing day after day for about a week. Not an ideal situation in my world.

Last week, I took advantage of having the kitchen to myself (FINALLY!!) and cooked up a storm - mushroom strudel, homemade red wine vinaigrette, bouillabaisse with fresh, crispy (store-bought) baguettes. My friends and I went to town, gorged ourselves silly and in the end, there was still had a ton of leftovers. But the leftovers were so good the next day... and the day after... and the day after that.

bouillabaisse schmassion style

INGREDIENTS

1 small bulb of fennel - diced (reserve fronds)
1 - 1.5 cup chopped onions
couple of cloves minced garlic
1 - 1.5 cups peeled and chopped tomatoes
1 lb or so of small white potatoes - cubed 1"
2 - 3lbs of seafood (cubed salmon, mussels, clams, scallops, etc.)
0.5 cups white wine
stock (chicken or fish or both)
a few good splashes of gin/annisette etc
salt & pepper to taste
2 sprigs of thyme
hot chili pepper (optional)

DIRECTIONS

Heat up some oil in a large pot. Throw in garlic, onions, fennel and cook until soft. Deglaze with the white wine. Add tomatoes, cook some more. Splash in some gin/annisette etc, cook a couple of minutes and throw in potatoes, fennel fronds, stock. Bring to a boil and simmer until potatoes are tender. Throw in thyme and the whole chili pepper (optional, for spicier, cut open and throw in deseeded pepper... pepper seeds can be nasty).

Here's where you have options.

If you don't have perpetually late friends (unlike me), gently slide your seafood into the soup. I kid. Just throw it in according to size and required cooking time. Simmer until seafood is done, remove thyme and chili pepper, season and serve.

If you have perpetually late friends, simmer the soup until they get there. Bitch about it when they get there, and maybe drink the rest of the bottle of white wine while you wait. Depending on how late your friends are, you might want to pour in more stock or wine if your soup base has simmered away. Bring to a boil, throw in seafood as above.

Feeds a party of 6 with 4 days of leftovers for 1.

And for dessert on Day 4 of leftovers... swirly choco chip cookies... YUM!

smushy mushies... on ice...

For as long as I can remember, my sister has loved mochi balls. Maybe it's a soft texture thing, because she also loves mashed potatoes, baby beef rice, chicken and cream of corn on rice and a whole bunch of things she doesn't really have to chew...

The first time that she had mochi ice cream (have I ever mentioned before that ice cream is a breakfast food in this house?), she went positively ape$hit. No one was allowed to touch any of the mochi ice cream that was in the freezer. Maybe I'm exaggerating a little, but that was the extent of her love for the cold little treat.

So when I saw the recipe in the Nobu cookbook, I knew it was a must try. I went to J-town, bought some mochi flour (which is really hard considering that A) I don't read Japanese, and B) I didn't realize that mochi flour and rice flour were the same thing) and set out to make this seemingly easy dish.

Yeah right.

Nobu's recipe has a wee misprint, methinks. It calls for 30 sec of microwaving the mochi, sugar, water mix and then vigorous "beating" of the paste with a wooden spoon, upon which the paste was supposed to get thick and elastic-y. Repeat 3x. Well, I microwaved for the requisite 30 seconds, beat the liquid (with the consistency of very, very thin white glue) vigorously for neigh on 10 minutes, and NOTHING HAPPENED. Repeat 5 x.

It wasn't until I googled mochi ice cream that I found out that the microwaving is supposed to cook the mochi flour, sugar, water mixture, so that it really DOES become thick and elastic-y... and instead of microwaving for 30 sec like the book says, I was actually supposed to microwave it for at least 1.5 minutes.

Big difference.

Once I found out, I was no longer splashing around in sweet flour water. I actually had a super sticky dough that I could kinda work with (with the help of A LOT of cornstarch).

At the end of the night, I was covered from head to toe with mochi remnants, but I also had some amateurishly shaped yet pretty darn tasty mochi ice cream. I don't claim the recipe to be a complete success, but it's a start and I'll definitely try it again the next time Sista comes home for a visit.

and then what?

What sucks most about spending a whole day baking endless batches of cookies, is not having any decent ones left at the end of the day.

Now I'm going to have to spend another day doing it all over again. I hate Christmas.

cross post because this one really rocked

I had a lot of fun making this cake and I'm pretty damn happy about the way it turned out. Next time, the body will get a little more shaping, but hey, I was hungover from monkeyco Christmas party and didn't even feel like baking.

Now taking orders.

mimolette… a cheese of cannonballic proportions

Cheese is the food that I crave on a daily basis. Even if it’s just a nanosecond of the day, the desire for the luscious milky goodness of cheese is intense.

My foray into the world of cheese did not begin at an early age. I grew up on Mini Baby Bels and Kraft Singles donuts – a slice of Kraft Singles folded neatly in half, a bite taken out of the middle of the fold, and unfolded to get a toothy hole in the middle of the orange square. It wasn’t until my early teens that I experienced anything other than mozzarella, cheddar and the occasional piece of edam. A small wedge of camembert at a monastery lunch and I’ve been hooked every since.


Mimolette (or “Boule de Lille”) caught my eye during Tuesday’s lunchtime trip to the market. Frankly put, it looks like a cantaloupe. The outside rind is a textured, pockmarked beige-brown while the hard cheese on the inside is a bright carrot orange. I asked for a taste and then… WOW. Blown away.

It is a cheese that crumbles and melts away slowly in your mouth. There is a buttery, salty nuttiness to the flavour but also a hint of something fruity or perfumey; maybe even a touch of caramel if you think about it hard enough. The finish is clean with no lingering cheesy memories on your breath (note to self: good date cheese!).

where: chris’ cheesemongers (st. lawrence market)
caveat: $$ at $63/kg, it's not cheap! yikes!

la maquette

wild mushroom strudel in a spinach and leek cream sauce



La Maquette is supposedly the city's most romantic restaurant. I can see how one might think that if one was sitting on the patio on a warm summer day watching freshly married people walk out of St. James Cathedral, but the inside decor is heavy and stuffy and feels somewhat like a slightly dated Woodbridge fine dining establishment.

chilean sea bass on basmati rice



The food is french influenced and surprisingly inconsistent for such a highly touted restaurant. The highlight of the meal (and the only thing really worth talking about) is the wild mushroom strudel appetizer. Surprisingly rich in texture and flavour, the strudel pastry was tender, flakey and melted quickly on the tongue. The wild mushrooms were well seasoned (no bland mushrooms here) with a depth that was enhanced by the slight sweetness of the spinach and leek sauce.

While I can't see myself making a special trip to King East for any of the entrees that we ordered(chilean sea bass, duet of organic chicken and foie gras terrine, and duck confit), I look forward to a pre-theater or people watching afternoon with the musroom strudel and a glass of wine (or two).

where: 111 king st. east

rhymes with orange

2 weeks of tangerine obsession... culminates in... failure...

Some things are better when you dream about them, and not when you try to bring it into reality.

bar burrito... the one that almost did me in

I suppose I've been lucky thus far. Everyone has had a bad burrito adventure, but I've remained relatively unscathed. Until today - Bar Burrito. On Yonge, just north of Sheppard. It's big, it's clean, it's just not too good.

I should have clued in when I ordered. The fish would take 10 - 15 minutes, the steak and chicken mixes were already ready. The dog was tied up outside, I didn't want to wait, so a chicken and steak mix it would have to be.

My whole wheat tortilla went into the warmer, came out of the warmer, and the girl began slopping on random spoonfuls. My toppings came next - everything no green peppers, jalapenos are ok. Sauces good.

My next clue should have been when she wrapped the tortilla a little too hard and mushy rice and beans started showing through. She looked at it for a split second longer than she should have while deciding whether or not she should start the process over, decided not to, and plopped the monstrosity onto the grill. Great. Nice work ethic there, chick.

But I was feeling a little passive agressive. It was my first time at Bar Burrito, and I kinda knew that there would be a high possibility that I'd be blogging about it, and hey, it's the total experience that matters and not just the food itself. I grabbed my haphazardly wrapped up burrito and left expecting to return home with a pocketful of leaky burrito juice.

Up until that point, I hadn't been particularly impressed. The concept was a ripoff of another well known, established burrito joint downtown. At home, when I unwrapped my burrito, I thought the tides had turned. My meal hadn't leaked, the integrity of the tortilla was still intact, and minimal amounts of rice and beans had fallen out. Good sign.

Two bites in, I changed my mind again. Suddenly, my tongue was going to swell up in my mouth and death was imminently possible. I can take a lot of spice, but this was ridiculous. Maybe I had been slightly over ambitious when I asked her for hot sauce, but then again, who would have expected that they slice their jalapenos into half inch slices. Half inch slices... more than a centimeter of jalapeno in one bite. What the hell was the lazy ass dude with a knife thinking? Maybe I should go after them for attempted murder.

Things never got better beyond that point. The steak and the chicken were virtually indistinguishable from each other. Both were tough and tasted exactly the same to my pepper seared palate. And somehow, when I dissected the burrito to remove the offending jalapenos, I found three random corn kernels that didn't reappear anywhere else in my meal. Scary, but interesting... my Bar Burrito experience ended there.

I had been curious about this place for a while. Some people had raved about it, saying that they were going for twice-weekly burrito fixes. I have absolutely no idea what they were thinking - Burrito Boyz of the north, this is definitely not.

in search of the perfect poutine...

Poutine is the quintessential Canadian comfort food. French fries topped with cheese curds, covered with hot gravy, it satisfies like nothing else after a long, cold day on snow covered slopes or a happily sloppy night of bar hopping.

For many, the classic version of cheese curds and chicken gravy is holy, and should not be messed with. Bah humbug to the purist. Insisting on only a classic poutine and no other is like insisting on a cheese pizza only, or only sleeping on white cotton sheets. BORING. But for others (myself included), it is the lure of the satin sheets and the temptation of the variations that draws us out to the latest and greatest roadside truck, fry stand or wayside diner.

Everyone these days has a version of poutine - fast food chains and even four star restaurants - but what is it that makes a good poutine? It's a simple combination. Fries. Cheese. Gravy. In that order. Nothing special just an ooey gooey mess. Right? Wrong.

It's like saying that all pizza is the same - that the crust doesn't matter, the acidity and sweetness of the sauce doesn't matter, nor does the quality of the toppings, or even what kind of toppings are used. Fries are not just fries. Cheese is not just cheese and gravy is not just brown sauce that has been reheated in the microwave.

The key to a good poutine is the fries. Fries must be crispy and not soggy, medium cut - not thin like shoestrings, and not thick like homefries - and heaven forbid if there is a coating or flavouring of any kind except for salt. Oh, and they should be twice fried, if possible, so the gravy does not soak through as quickly and render the dish into a soggy mess.

Then bring on everything else - the squeaky fresh cheese curds, foie gras, the horse fat fries, the twice fried fries, the chicken gravy, the pasta sauce (for the Italian version), the Montreal smoked meat, feta cheese, American cheese, etc etc. Combinations are endless, but all worth a try.

personal rave: "dirty fries" - greek fry poutine with meat
where: alexandro at the food of qq & yonge

1 cake, 2 cake, 3 cake... i bake

I'm always a little trepidatious when it comes to trying new cake recipes. I like using the tried and true, whether it be for taste or texture, and don't tend to vary from the usual vanilla or chocolate. But my repetoire is getting a little narrow. Sure, I can decorate like a fiend, but I'd love for my cakes to taste amazing as well. It's not enough that they LOOK good, but they have to TASTE good, too.

But here's my dirty little secret.

I. DON'T. LIKE. CAKE.

If I can help it, I don't eat cake. I'm not crazy about sweets in particular (some exceptions may apply... i.e. pie), and cake has got to be on the bottom of the list of things I'd willingly put into my mouth.

There's no rhyme or reason behind my dislike. I just don't. I used to like cake. I don't anymore.

So when I bake a cake, I try a piece to check that I didn't inadvertently use salt instead of sugar and baking powder instead of baking soda, that's about it. I rely on everyone else around me to tell me if it tastes good (or bad). But like everyone else, I'm finding that people's opinions vary from night and day. There's the "too sweet" people and the "too rich" people to the "not chocolatey enough" people and the "omg, this is the best damned thing I've ever eaten" people. Thus, it's really hard for me to judge what recipe is worthy of repeating.

Today, I tried a new recipe for chocolate mud cake that I have been eyeing for a few weeks now. At first, I was intrigued by the white chocolate version, but hey, I don't like white chocolate very much, and Wednesday's birthday boy is apparently a chocolate fan. Done.

Only, halfway through the baking process I got distracted by something on television and forgot to add some ingredients. Key ingredients such as SUGAR and COCOA POWDER (oh my!). And me being forgetful me, I didn't double check the recipe and popped the whole thing into the oven at 160 degrees C. Whoops.

An hour and a bit later, the kitchen smelled heavenly. Aroma de chocolat filled the air and everyone else's taste buds were watering. The cake smelled fantastic... and tasted... not bad.

It was more of a dark chocolate souffle. Very light and airy and not sweet at all. It would have been a perfect recipe for a molten lava cake, and amazing if paired with ice cream and a light drizzle of raspberry coulis.

So what am I saying with all this? Nothing really. Only that sometimes accidents are a good thing.

Oh, and btw, I made another cake following the recipe to the "T" that somehow, it doesn't seem quite as good. But we'll let the birthday boy be the judge of that recipe.

a taste of liquid sunshine

There is nothing close to the experience of sipping Pernod on a patio in the summertime. The pastis is light and incredibly refreshing, tasting faintly of anise and unlike a lot of cocktails, not too sweet. A simple squeeze of lemon enhances the aromas and opens up the flavours of the drink, giving it a depth that others come close to having, but don't.

The happy, sunny yellow colour of the drink is characteristic of this particular spirit. It pours clear out of the bottle, and turns milky-opaque when water (or ice) is added.

Which is very important to know.

Because, if say, one was sitting on the patio at jump and orders a Pernod with water and lemon, and receives something that is more of a milky beige than a sunny yellow, one would know that it is not Pernod and that the bartender is trying to pull the wool over one's eyes by substituting Ricard. Which does, by the way, taste different and has a stronger lingering licorice-like finish with none of the floral notes of Pernod.

(note to bartender... don't do it again)

Finding it in Toronto patios and bars is still a little difficult - demand and supply and the fact that marketing efforts seem to be concentrated in Quebec (aging French ex-pat target market and all that jazz). If you do manage to find it, prices will vary from the amazing value for money $4.55 at jump to a not so wallet friendly $10-something at the middle-management-convention filled louge at the hotel on Front St. across from Lone Star.

(see how far I'll go to avoid mentioning the name of that place...)

Word of caution. Pernod is definitely not the drink for everyone - some people find the anise flavour off-putting. And while I'm usually a card carrying member of the licorice haters party and really truly do think that the flavour of black licorice in anything is just plain icky, the mildness of the Pernod is strangely appealing... especially with that squeeze of lemon.

strawberry experiment #1

Sometimes, I just sit at my desk thinking about food. Usually this happens just before lunch (when I'm hungry), or around 3pm (when I'm sleepy). Yesterday I wanted to make a strawberry white chocolate chip cookie, i.e. take your classic chocolate chip cookie, use white chocolate chips, and instead of raisins (or whatever) use dried strawberries.

Sounds fab, no?

Alas, it wasn't to be. No one at the Bayview Village Loblaws has even heard of dried strawberries, and me being lazy, it being kinda late by the time I got there, I didn't feel like driving all over town looking for something that may be not be readily available. So I improvised instead. Not bad. Next time, though, I might add a little more strawberry puree and perhaps not bake it for so long.

Of course, the wicked strawberry mojito may be why I lost track of time.

strawberry white chocolate chip cookies

INGREDIENTS
3 cups flour
1 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1 cup unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla
3/4 cup mashed strawberries (drained of juice)
mint leaves
1 oz Havana Club
soda water
juice of 1/2 lime
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips

DIRECTIONS
1. Mash strawberries and drain out most of the juice.
2. In a tall glass, muddle together strawberry juice, mint leaves, and lime juice. Add Havana Club, and top with soda water. Sugar to taste, garnish with a sprig of mint if you want to get fancy.
3. Take a sip of your wicked strawberry mojito.
4. Cream together sugar and butter. I like to do white sugar first, and then brown sugar.
5. Take a sip of your wicked strawberry mojito.
6. Beat in egg and vanilla.
7. Phew... that was hard work... take a long sip of your wicked strawberry mojito.
8. Stir in strawberry puree.
9. Take a sip of your wicked strawberry mojito.
11. In a separate bowl, combine flour, baking soda and salt.
12. Slowly add dry mix to wet, stir until almost incorporated
13. Take a sip of your wicked strawberry mojito.
14. Stir in white chocolate chips.
15. Spoon onto parchment lined cookie sheets.
16. Bake at 350 degrees fahrenheit for about 11-13 minutes, or until cookie looks almost done.
17. Make another wicked strawberry mojito.
18. Remove cookies from oven, and let sit for a few minutes before transferring to a wire rack to cool completely.

a la eminger... courtesy of foodporn (aka foodtv)

I saw it on foodporn, and I had to try it. Eminger Berries down south somewhere does an amazingly scrumptious version of a chocolate covered strawberry. Chocolate and strawberries... not new. Strawberries and cheesecake... definitely not new. Throw all three together, and you've got everyone lining up at your door begging for more.

cheesecake stuffed strawberries

INGREDIENTS
Freshly baked cheesecake, mushed into a paste of sorts
Strawberries
Dark chocolate, melted

DIRECTIONS
1. Cut the ends off the strawberries.
2. Take a small ball of the cheesecake mush and mold it to the end of a strawberry.
3. Shape cheesecake using the palm of your hand.
4. Dip strawberry in chocolate.

Easy peesy, no?

pearl on the waterfront...

For as long as I can remember, weekends were always about food. Early morning memories are filled with all the women sitting around the kitchen table making rice dumplings for various festivals, while the younger generation squished out pot sticker wrappers with tortilla presses. Giant pots of congee sat on the stove, simmering away while everyone gossipped and chatted away.

What I always loved most, though, was dim sum. Early morning or late afternoon, dim sum was always an occasion where family would get together. People dropped by when they could, have a few nibbles and a cup of tea, and then depart for the next piano lesson or badminton tournament. Inevitably, there was always an extended family member or friend of the family to bump into, and a lot of catching up to be done.

The wonderful thing about living in Toronto is the abundance and variety of dim sum that can be found. Though only a handful of restaurants can lay claim to being truly authentic, it's that neverending search for that perfect quintessential dish that keeps one coming back for more.

where: pearl, queens quay terminal

personal raves: char sui sow, fung jow, eggtarts

xacutti... always a good thing

bombay scrambled eggs



egg white frittata



mango and blueberry pancakes



where: xacutti
next time: super cheesy french toast

you heard it here first...

neopolitan

Equal parts Carolans, Frangelico, Amaretto... and a splash of strawberry juice.

Tastes just like the ice cream.

yum.

it's all about the secret sauce

schmassion's costa rican version of a mexican black bean and corn salad

INGREDIENTS
corn
black beans, cooked but not mushy
tomatoe, diced
cilantro, shredded
lizano
salt & pepper to taste

DIRECTIONS
1. Throw everything together.
2. Mix well.
3. Add salt and pepper and lizano to taste.
4. Let it sit for a bit.
5. Serve.