The Yum Yum Factor

I love a challenge. I was asked by MSC (the Marine Stewardship Council) to throw a little #OceanToPlate dinner for friends using MSC certified seafood and because that felt too easy, I chose to invite my friend who claims to hate seafood. To add to the challenge, she and her husband are on a restrictive diet at the moment and so they couldn't have rice, potatoes, beets, or pasta which are all my usual suspects when I am feeding them.

I love the way the crispy black beluga lentils mimic caviar  This is it. This is my final entry for the  Lentil Recipe Revelations Challenge  and I think it's a doozer. I had made some of this beluga lentil za'atar at the beginning of my recipe development phase and although I wasn't sure what I was going to do with it, I knew they would make an appearance. They are perfect when you want to add a bit of crunch to something and the addition of the za'atar turns the lentils into an actual condiment. I have been sprinkling them on food and eating them straight out of the container for weeks now while I munch and I think. I munch and I think. What to do with these brilliant little black pearls? I found a beet dip in the cookbook, Jerusalem and fell madly in love with it, making variations of it all the time. How you can not fall in love with anything this delicious that is also so bright and colourful? For this appetizer, I used less yogurt so that it is thicker-...

The Kid requested risotto for his birthday and he wanted just a plain, straight forward risotto so I chose a risotto Milanese with peas. Instead of white wine, I used prosecco which gives a nice, sharp edge that I really liked. Milanese calls for saffron, the most expensive spice in the world - actually, if you are talking the cost per pound, it's more expensive than gold. Luckily, you only use a pinch so even though it's a splurge, it's not going to break the bank but it will set you back about $10 for a tiny box. Be forewarned that you will most likely have to ask for it because most shops keep it behind the desk so that people won't steal it. Never mind dealing drugs, the real money is in dealing saffron. We had a hard time finding it at regular grocery stores and although we found an actual little bag of it for 99 cents (which means it was probably dandelions dyed red) we kept looking until we found proper saffron at a nice cheese shop for $9 . If someon...

We had our Father's Day manly meal on Saturday, complete with grilled skirt steak and all of Shack's favourites like grilled corn, asparagus and coleslaw so that we could go over to Jen's for some tacos and cocktails. My contribution to the festivities was ceviche and because I couldn't decide between the halibut and the scallops, I bought both. We scored these beautiful, huge local radishes at St Lawrence Market and I knew they would be perfect in a ceviche. Kind of peppery, crunchy, watery and crisp - since I never put fresh chili peppers in my ceviche so that Little Shack will be able to enjoy it, radishes will give it a nice spicy kick without making it hot. I have never met a ceviche I didn't like and I really liked this one a lot. Scallibut Ceviche 1/2 lb fresh halibut 1/3 lb fresh scallops juice of 4 or 5 limes 1 clove garlic 1 tomato , fine dice 1/2 small red onion or vidalia onion, fine dice big handful of cilantro, washed and chopped 3 l...