The Yum Yum Factor

I lived in Madrid a million years ago when I was in my twenties and I admit it - I was a tortilla addict. I ate tortilla in the morning. I ate tortilla mid morning. I ate tortilla at lunch, at dinner and again in the evening as a tapa. I also gained an alarming amount of weight which only made sense AFTER I watched somebody making it. Potatoes cooking away in a big pan of simmering oil was all I needed to see to understand why my steady diet of tortilla and beer was also responsible for my waist white wall tire. DOH. After I got home, I could never get the hang of making it myself, almost always resorting to just popping it in the oven to cook the top instead of flipping it because it constantly fell apart. I understand that this was also probably because I was constantly trying to lighten it up, make it a bit less fattening and leaner so I could eat more of it, more often. I have now given up on that and I am making it properly - poaching the potatoes in plenty of olive o...

One of the most comforting soups that I make is this Greek lemony chicken soup that is thickened with egg. Sometimes I make it with orzo but because I prefer to use a nice, starchy rice like arborio it usually takes a solid 45 minutes or so to make even if I have the chicken stock on hand. That's not super time consuming, by any means, but on nights where I realize that it is 7pm and I forgot to make dinner (which actually happens more than you can imagine),  knowing that I can whip this up in about ten minutes is thrilling in my little world.  If you want to make this on the stove, just cook it for about 30 minutes to make sure the rice is soft and tender. Oh, and after you add the egg, don't bring it back to a boil, just heat until just about to simmer and steaming - we don't want any scrambled eggs in our soup. I used Litehouse Salad Blend dehydrated herbs for this because in the winter, it can be difficult to find fresh herbs. Okay, its more likely that it...

This is not really a recipe in the traditional sense as much as it a suggestion of a recipe. My mother loved egg salad and I grew up eating it made with Miracle Whip, French's yellow mustard and a generous heaping of Bick's sweet green relish on squishy, white sandwich bread. It never occurred to me that people ate it any other way, to be perfectly honest and I was surprised when I grew up and made egg salad for other people, to find them kind of shocked by the addition of the mustard and relish. People are weird. Everyone knows that egg salad requires more than just a dallop of mayonnaise. It's perfectly acceptable to add some minced scallion, red onion or shallot too. Hard boiled eggs with nothing but mayonnaise is like peanut butter toast without buttering the toast, right?

We love edamame. If you have ever eaten sushi, you have probably had steamed, salted edamame in the pod and might not even know what edamame is apart from the fact that it is a tasty snack. Let me give you quick answer: it is the preparation of immature soybean in the pod and it's packed with protein, fibre, folates, vitamin K and more. In North America, we just call the actual soybean edamame, regardless of how it's prepared or whether it's in the shelled or removed. One of my favourite, quick lunch bag items, we go through this stuff like an ape goes through bananas. As much as we love the stuff, I am becoming increasingly wary of the soybeans coming from overseas because I can't really be sure about the quality. I keep reading all kinds of stuff about GMO's and other sketchy practices in production, never mind the fact that they are coming half way around the world to land in my freezer so who really knows how fresh they are? It is widely reported that 99% ...

Last week I went to Momofuku with my friend, Alice,  for ramen at long last. I have been putting this visit off since it opened because it seemed like it was nearly impossible to get a seat at lunch but we happened to be working at the Shangri La Hotel all day so I couldn't not go. More or less living up to the hype, the soup was pretty damned fabulous but the thing I couldn't stop thinking about afterwards was the poached egg they add to it. We get a soft cooked egg in our ramen all the time but it just comes to the table with the egg already in there and I have always just assumed that they poach them the same way I poach them. I bring a pot of water to a simmer, stir the middle to make a vortex - DAMN YOU WINTER VORTEX- and gently slide in an egg that I have cracked into a small bowl. I simmer that for about 3 minutes and gently remove with a slotted spoon and then drain on another paper towel lined slotted spoon. It's not brain surgery but it requires your full att...