The Yum Yum Factor

I get it, I don't always feel like cooking some huge holiday meal either. I find, as my son gets older, we do less and less Christmasy stuff and spend the time off hanging out together. We go to movies, we play inappropriate games like Cards Against Humanity and visit friends because nobody has time to get together apart from Christmas. It has been a couple of years since our last, big, Xmas eve open house and I can't remember the last time I hosted a giant dinner. Our new ritual is to get up, go for dim sum and drive our Christmas Dog (we babysit her while her family flies out west to visit family) back to her family at their chalet and spend a few days drinking too much wine, eating too much food and relaxing. Now, does this mean I still don't want to eat turkey and enjoy the flavours of Christmas? Of course not. I LOVE turkey, I love stuffing, I love mashed potatoes and gravy and eggnog. Sometimes, when I can't even imagine cooking a turkey, I make something ...

It's an Ugly Sweater Party!

The Kingston Social and I are teaming up again for the new year and resurrecting our monthly Supper Clubs, starting in January. For my first menu, I will be doing a Yum style Peruvian dinner. My MVP pop up was one of my most popular of 2017 but, not one to rest of my laurels,  I really wanted to add something new to the meal and because it will be in January, soup just makes sense. This particular soup is based on the classic Peruvian soup, Aguadito de Pollo, also known as Levanta Muertos which translates into a soup to wake the dead due to it's restorative, nourishing properties and I have been told that it may or may not be great for a hangover. I am down with that. The soup, at it's most simple, is made with tons of cilantro, chicken and vegetables, usually served with whole, skin on chicken legs or thighs but that is not really my thing. Instead, I removed the skin, crisped it up until it was transformed into a chicken chicharon/cracker. It is crispy, salty an...

It's no secret that I am a lover of all things custard and caramel. Creme brulee? I'm there Creme caramel? Can't stop me. Dulce de Leche? Hold my earrings

Holy crap, I have been so busy cooking for other people that I have not even had time to cook at home, apart from a grilled cheese here and there. I have a few down days before plunging back into the fire next week so, in an effort to practice what I preach, it's time to get into my own kitchen. I have some interesting recipes that are not quite ready for prime time that will be coming soon, but, in the meantime,  I am still going through some of my favourite crock pot recipes and adapting them to the Instant Pot  since it is supposedly almost mid November and should be feeling like winter by now. I know that most of you think of ribs as a summer BBQ dish but for me, it's always been more of a winter thing so  I have started eyeballing the pork ribs at the butcher. I used to either do them slow and low for hours and hours, wrapped in foil in a low oven or all day in the crockpot for days when I am going to be out too long for that. The problem with the crockp...

Eva's Did you know that every night, more than 2000 Toronto youth are living in the street? Of those 2000, 79% of them site parental addiction, physical, psychological, sexual and emotional abuse as the reason they left home? 40% of homeless youth experience mental health issues but after 4 years of living on the street, that number grows to 705? Thankfully, there are places like Eva's Place, Eva's Satellite and Eva's Phoenix who provide Toronto's homeless youth with a safe place, support and opportunity. Their staff work directly with each and every young person who walks through their doors to come up with individual, personalized plans that will empower them to set and reach goals, both short and long term. It's a fresh start for the most vulnerable among us. You can make cash donations that supply these young people with personal hygiene supplies, TTC passes, food, safe shelter or a day of education counselling. You can volunteer your time, g...

This Peruvian inspired shrimp is currently one of my most requested dishes and by most requested, I mean that people basically command me to make this for dinner when they come over. The aji sauce is usually served with rotisserie chicken but I like with everything from french fries or roasted potatoes to fish. The herb marinated shrimp cooked in lots of butter puts this rich sauce right over the edge and the drizzle of crema de rocoto complements all that richness with a hit of acidic heat.  The sauce is totally addictive,  the dish looks way harder to make than it was to make which is always a plus and it's a really great introduction to some fabulous Peruvian ingredients like aji amarillo paste, made from a yellow pepper only found in Peru (medium to slightly hot) and rocoto , another paste made from a hot, red chili pepper grown mainly in the Andes from Chile to Columbia. Peruvian Shrimp with Aji Verde Sauce 4 servings marinade : 1/4 cup f...

Wow, October is a crazy month for me and if you live in the Toronto area, I hope you can join me for at least one of these great events! I have been super busy working for the last month at my catering bootcamp and have barely had time to think and now, this month looks like it's not going to let up. Cooking workshops, a drop in dinner and a Beau's Supper Club at The Kingston Social will keep me busy so I apologize in advance for the lack of new recipes to share with you but I will be back online in November with lots of new recipes to share. Drop in Dinner @ The Deppaneur Next Friday, Oct 13 I will be offering my latest drop in dinner at The Dep featuring a trio of very different ceviches - Octopus Aguachile, Asian Citrus Shrimp Ceviche and Vegan Hearts of Palm Ceviche with guacamole on a tostada. If you can't decide, get a flight of all three! Service starts at 6pm and we go until we sell out. Grab a bowl of Mexican Street Corn Chowder ...

Oh, I do love a challenge. An upcoming pop up was going to require a vegetarian option as a main to go alongside my Octopus Aguachile and Asian Shrimp with Spicy Ponzu and I was really hitting a wall. I wanted something just as fresh and summery and light but how in the hell do you make a dish that is synonymous with raw seafood without seafood in it? I set out to make a vegan ceviche because it should really be a thing but it felt like I was fighting a losing battle for a while because nothing was going to be able to replace the shrimp/fish component. It just sounds impossible, right? WRONG I tried a lot of different ingredients to sub in for the shrimp or fish and nothing was working. All of the bean alternatives tasted too beany. Tofu's texture was all wrong and I thought of doing jackfruit but that really works well for pulled pork and pulled pork ceviche is not something anyone wants to eat so I didn't even bother with that one. I was about to throw in th...

The greatest thing about European travel in the age of the EU is that you can get dirt cheap flights for these short haul jaunts and although you have to go through security, you no longer have to go through customs all the time. Its more like flying from state to state or province to province than it is from country to country. The only downside is that you no longer get stamps in your passport but we managed to get three return flights on Veuling (Spain's budget airline) from Paris to Rome for $100 CD each so I will live without the stamp at those prices. For once, I didn't research the hell out of Rome and apart from booking an apartment and making two dinner reservations, we just winged it. We landed, we got a taxi to our apartment, just a five minute walk from the Vatican, and started our adventure by the seat of our pants. Rome, as it turns out, is the perfect city to do this since, even if all you do is wander about for a couple of days, you are going to ha...