The Yum Yum Factor

Say that ten times fast. A rich, creamy matcha no bake cheesecake with a crust made out of Matcha Pocky granola is the dessert you need. Like, right now. Last week, I hosted a pop up night at The Kingston Social House , the place where I have been cheffing since last fall and hosting supperclubs and cooking classes for the last couple of years. It's like my home kitchen away from home but better, because my actual home kitchen is about 2 square feet. I decided on a Korean inspired comfort food menu consisting of a Kimchi Meatloaf Melt, Spicy Miso Soup with Korean rice cakes for the vegetarians and a variety of banchan style sides. Korean's aren't really known for their desserts so it took me longer than usual to come up with something until I bought a few packs of Matcha Pocky. If you aren't familiar with Pocky, you need to do something about that. Pocky are a biscuit stick with a coating of "cream" that is usually chocolate flavoured but th...

who wouldn't want a cookie with some Bugels on top?? One of my favourite cookies is my Compost Cookie Bar   - I used to make  Compost Cookie Bars for the kiddies  when The Kid was at his Magical Unicorn School, using fun junk like Cap'n Crunch, caramel corn, Bugels, candy canes. I was very popular at his school. I needed a dessert to serve with Chili Verde, Vegan Jackfruit Pozole and a Beet and Roasted Fennel Salad with Pepita Crema for a drop in dinner at The Depanneur . I guess I could have gone the more traditional Mexican cookie route but where's the fun in that? Green & Black had sent me a few bars of their Organic Maya Gold   to play around with and , after tasting it, I knew it would make the perfect base for Mexican Compost Cookie Bars. The 60% dark chocolate bar's flavours are taken from a traditional Mayan drink from Belize so it's full of nutmeg, cinnamon and orange - a love match with salty, porky, chicharron. Whe...

Like any normal human being, I love caramel corn. I also love my roasted lentils AND I love gochujang, that magic, sticky, sweet, spicy Korean hot pepper paste. I bought my first tub of gochujang in a mall called K-Town so, naturally, I am calling this confection "K Corn". Props to my Korean grocery store peeps who are responsible for igniting my love affair with Korean food. This candied popcorn is sweet, it's spicy and it's crunchy, thanks to crispy roasted french lentils and nutty sesame seeds. I had to hide this stuff just so I could have enough to photograph because both of my guys wouldn't stop wandering into the kitchen to sneak handfuls of this caramel corn all night. This is the only snack you will ever need again. It took me a few tries to get the caramel just right but using the base recipe from The Kitchn  as my foundation, it finally all came together. You can find gochujang  at any Korean or Japanese grocery store as well as most general ...

It's that time of year again folks! It's time for this year's  Lentil Recipe Revelations Challenge  and I am ready to try my hand at reinventing the lentil again with three interesting new recipes, but first up: Dessert. Last year, my  "Cauliflower Wings Three Ways" took the grand prize. This year I have put even more pressure on myself to top that feat with something new and fresh, but, most importantly, something delicious that doesn't try to hide the lentil flavour. So, all that said, my first recipe is this ice cream. It started with the lentil praline, which is delicious on it's own and a great nut free praline option for people who have allergies. I had to eventually hide the canister of praline or it was going to disappear before I even had a chance to do anything with it because it's just that addictive. It's nutty and sweet but the taste of the roasted lentil still shines through. Originally, I was going to just do a ...

I am going to be very honest with you right now. The Great Blogger Cookie Swap was happening and the deadline for shipping was only days away. I had assumed, this whole time, that I was going to make cardamom/rosewater palmiers and had planned to make them at the very last minute to ensure their freshness upon delivery. As the time approached, I started panicking. What if they got lost in the mail? What if the Canada Post truck fell down a sink hole? What if my recipients opened their package only to find stale, horrible palmier train wreck cookies that would bring shame upon all of our houses??? Instead, I made the Cardamom Quince Layer Cookies that went out to the three bloggers who were assigned to me. These are really good but very strongly flavoured and when they are warm, out of the oven, they are incredibly cardamomish and after eating one like that, I had a mild breakdown. THEY WERE NOT GOOD ENOUGH TO SEND TO OTHER FOOD BLOGGERS FOR THE LOVE OF EVERYTHING OH HOLY NIGHT! ...