The Yum Yum Factor

typical selection of banchan I am presently designing a set of banchan (the small plates of delicacies that accompany any Korean meal) for an "open mic" dinner that I am making for a place in Toronto called The Depanneur.  I will be serving a version of my BiBimBap Sopes so we are already starting from a Korea meets Mexico kind of place and that means that I want the banchan to reflect that as well. I have been experimenting with replacing some of the more traditional Korean ingredients with things that you might find on a Mexican dinner table with great success so far. For starters, both cultures love to pickle things and since the flavours meld together beautifully, it's been a ton of fun to experiment with different combinations although some have been more successful than others. Because I am not crazy pants, I am only sharing the success stories with you and trust me, there are often spectacular failures. The first recipe that I will share is this recip...

The minute I saw this recipe for Rock 'N' Rye Peach Jam , I knew I would make either this recipe or a variation of it as soon as we hit peach season. Once we brought back our delicious Niagara peaches, I kept thinking that the cardamom was screaming ARAK to me and not rye. Only a Canadian will remember using the purple, velvet Crown Royal bag as a pencil case in grade school, but suffice it to say, Rye is as Canadian as it gets. Cardamom, on the other hand, reminds me of the flavours of the Middle East while rye bellows East Coast Canada at 2am on a Saturday after gorging on smores made with a stale Aero bar and the marshmallows that I found in the back of a cupboard in my aunt's trailer. Then I thought that cardamom required an alcohol that comes from the same part of the world and I just happen to have a bottle of Arak that I brought back from Jordan. This Levantine booze is an anise flavoured, colourless alcohol similar to Greece's Ouzo, France'...

It's Throwback Thursday so let's repost this No ReEats gem from September 25 back in 2011: Sept 22     half price apps at a pub Sept 23     BBQ beef from the freezer on homemade rolls with coleslaw Sept 24     impromptu road trip to Niagara and Buffalo, late lunch at The Anchor bar Sept 25     Grilled Strip Loins with Chimichurri Compound Butter We have been eating out a ton because Shack is finally done his movie and has been making it home in time to eat and he wants to go out all the time, so we have been out and about and not eating at home a ton. This Sunday was a beautiful, warm, sunny September day and seeing that we have barely used the bbq all summer, I demanded that we stay home and grill. He has been jonesing for steak and baked potatoes but I wanted to do something a little special. I LOVE chimichurri but thought it might be fun to make a compound butter using all the ingredients but substituting butter for the olive oil a...

This past summer, a friend brought me over a bag of rhubarb. I made a couple of batches of rhubarb simple syrup but I still had a few cups of chopped rhubarb left and wasn't sure what to do with it. I really didn't want to bake with it because we had just polished off the rhubarb pie ice cream and the last thing I needed was more dessert lying around the house. Pickles Why couldn't they be pickled?

I really love the scorching hot, Peruvian, yellow hot pepper called aji amarillo. It really has a unique flavour and the bright yellow colour makes everything it touches look really pretty which, in turn, makes everything it touches taste great. If you look good, you feel good. I was introduced to this spicy little devil by our good friend, the MVP (Most Valuable Peruvian) when he made us papa a la huancaina. I watched him make this very traditional dish for us and, at the time, I was dying a little inside because all I was seeing was a bunch of bland, white food. Boiled, sliced potatoes, sliced hard boiled eggs, a bowl of queso fresco and some milk - omg, how was I going to eat this without making my bad face? The worst part was how exited he was for us to taste  this special dish that he was clearly infusing with unadulterated Peruvian love. He put the cheese, milk and some of these frozen aji amarillo peppers in the blender as he told us that it is virtually impossi...

I swear to god, if I had known how easy it is to make my own grainy mustard, I would have been doing this ten years ago. I love condiments of all kinds but I am a mustard addict. I couldn't even tell you how many jars of fancy mustard I have in my fridge at this very moment. I should own shares in Maille by this point if you measured the actual amount of their grainy mustard I go through a month. I just know that there is so much mustard that I can't find room for anything else most of the time so we are forced to eat nothing but canned foods with mustard sauce. Okay, it's not that bad but it's close. For my first batch I knew I should be keep it simple because I also know this is just my first of many, many batches of mustard. Just a pinch of thyme from my garden for this jar but there will be more and they will get fancy. Grainy Thyme Mustard adapted from  Honest Cooking 2 tbls dark mustard seeds 2 tbls yellow mustard seeds 1/4 cup white...

Gong Hey Fat Choy! It's day two of Chinese New Year and I am good to go with our friend, the snake. I cleaned the crap out of my kitchen on Friday and on Sunday, I didn't clean, I didn't wash my hair, I didn't sweep. To be safe, I spent the entire day in pjs and lounged around reading, I watched a movie on my iPad and then I reclined on my couch watching the Grammy Awards. The snake is going to be good to me. One of the traditional things to eat during Chinese New Year are noodles. Noodles represent longevity so if you want a long life, make sure you don't cut them while preparing them or eating them. You have my permission to slurp up entire mouthfuls of noodles - NO BITING MID STRAND IF YOU WANT TO LIVE A LONG, PROSPEROUS LIFE. If you choose to bite down, it's not on me. I warned you. Growing up, I thought Chinese food was nothing but sweet and sour chicken balls, sticky, neon red sauce and chicken fried rice. I moved to Toronto and wa...