The Yum Yum Factor

What do you do with a free case of Persimon© Persimmons? Well, aside from eating them straight out of the case, I made a persimmon chutney to serve with some sous vide pork and then I played around a bit with the rest. Out of everything else I made, this tarte tartin was my very favourite. I have been making an eggplant tarte tartin in cooking classes this year and it's a huge hit every time. The eggplant cooks down in the gooey caramel until it is reminiscent of stewed figs and the hit of freshly cracked black pepper in the caramel is almost as unexpected as the fact that you are actually eating eggplant for dessert. If it's fabulous with eggplant, it's kind of a no brainer to assume it's going to be even better with persimmons. I threw in a bit of cardamom and some pecans for good measure and I can now say, in my best FogHorn LegHorn voice, all puffed up chest and with a full air of confidence, that this is going to be my go to holiday dessert thi...

I'm not gonna lie, when the fine people from Foods from Spain offered me a free case or two of persimmons to experiment with, there was no way I was going to refuse. After being introduced to this fruit in Spain,  I realized that we only eat them raw and that I have never tried to cook with them before. Now was my chance to rectify that situation. These sweet, seedless little beauties have finally arrived in Ontario all the way from Ribera del Xuquer, Spain (at Metro and Sobeys) and they will be available until mid January. Actually, they are available until January or until they are all gone so you should grab some soon to incorporate into your holiday menus. Because these Persimon®  persimmons don't need to be ripened, they are ready to use straight from the store. Knowing that they are already ripe takes some of the guesswork out of purchasing a fruit that might not be so familiar and you won't have to stand in the aisle, shaking it, squeezing it and knocking ...

My new Bon Appetit came in the mail today and it was chock full of delicious things I really want to make but that I will most likely never actually get around to cooking. There was a segment on no bake desserts that really caught my eye because I have been invited to lots of bbqs in the next month and I usually bring dessert but since I now live in the sixth ring of hell, the thought of baking just kind of makes me want to curl up in a ball in the corner and suck my thumb. Understandably, I am more into making fancy cocktails than baking cakes and other sweet confections but I can't serve a Pimm's Cup to a bunch of four year old kids now can I? A recipe for cheesecake with ginger-lime candied raspberries caught my eye although I chose to not make the cheesecake this time around but the berries are perfect. They didn't require the oven to be turned on and spent only a minute on the stove and they would be incredibly versatile. These babies are just as delicious on a b...

I have not had one minute to cook anything for the last couple of weeks between working at the Toronto Film Festival, school starting up and life in general. Today, I was gifted with a glorious day off mid festival and so I after yoga, i set off to the grocery store to gets supplies for dinner and found some lovely, Ontario peaches and knew I had to make a little batch of jam with them. I had been planning to do a plum jam with cinnamon and crystallized ginger but didn't get around to it so I made some peach jam with the ginger instead. I knew I didn't want to bother with pectin and because it was such a small batch, I wouldn't bother with a water bath either. I would keep a jar and give the other jar to The Neighbours. After searching around, I found this recipe for Peach Vanilla Jam on Seasons and Suppers and decided to use it with a couple of tweaks. This recipe only makes a couple medium sized jars or one larger one but I like the idea of making a jar to eat inste...

I didn't have enough of any one fruit to do any fruit dedicated dessert so I turned to the kitchen sink of desserts again, the crisp. Since I am still all about Indian food after my Big Fat Hindu Wedding weekend, I knew that whatever I did, I would be adding cardamom to it. I needed something to serve after our dinner of Chorizo Sloppy Joes that wouldn't be terribly heavy or overly sweet. I can't tell you how much I am loving my Alton Brown crumble topping that I have been keeping in the fridge. Even if you only have a cup of fruit, you can turn it into a yummy crumble on a whim and have yourself a little sweet treat in the middle of the afternoon and nobody will ever even have to know. Peach, Fig and Raspberry Crisp with Cardamom 2 ripe peaches (i didn't bother to skin them) chopped 6 green figs, chopped about 1 cup of fresh raspberries juice from half a lemon the seeds from about 6 cardamom pods, crushed about 2 tbls brown sugar about 1/4 cup of cru...