bookmark break

Weekend reading: one blog leads to another, following a link turns into two hours of wandering aimlessly around the internet, and I inadvertently end up with a plethora of bookmarks - recipes to make, videos to watch, books to read, projects to make. Here's my favourite (mostly food related) finds of last week:

Julia Child gets cooking with a very famous Indian Chef, Madhur Jaffrey,

this recipe is perfect for my lunch next week,

geometric artwork on my favourite art and design blog,

theydrawandcook has a sister website, theydrawandtravel! here's one of the toronto illustrations,

everything you've ever wanted to know about excellent eggs - an enlightenment by bon appetit magazine,

my favourite food podcast, with an awesome website to boot,

this map of the online food world,

and some squash and chocolate cupcakes from a new blog find.

I hope you find some new gems! The internet is a big, scary forest of extraordinarily bad and extremely good recipes. Happy hunting!

 (a little island time this week over on Hanlan's point... just waiting for summer and swimsuits!)

Potato and Smoked Salmon Gratin

There is a dish at the restaurant where I work: a crispy potato rosti, covered in soft, caramelized onions, peppery baby arugula, thin slices of smoked salmon, and topped off with sour cream and capers. It's deluxe, delicious, and expensive to make at home. It's usually the recipe I turn to for my once or twice a year smoked salmon treat.

Yes, I call myself a vegetarian, but I eat fish a few times a month. Does this make me a liar, or a fake? I don't think so, but others might argue it does. While food choices are highly politically and environmentally charged, they still remain a personal, private choice.

Other people can state this argument for select vegetarianism more eloquently that I, for example Michael Pollan's NYT essay, An Animal's Place, or The Anxiety of Eating, by David E. Cooper. After being a vegetarian for ten (ten!) years, the decisions I've made are to continue eating eggs, cheese and dairy, but buy them from local, organic and ethical farms, for example Organic Medows or Montforte Cheese. Journalists might call me a 'demi-vegetarian,' a moderate and selective consumer of animal products. My friends might laugh at me for buying 7 dollar eggs, but I know that they came from an organic farm where the hens have ten times the space of battery hens, real access to the outdoors and are free from hormones, antibiotics and heavily processed feeds. Is the price difference worth it? That's a personal choice you have to make.

So what about seafood? Any cook who wants to continue eating seafood, while making environmental, ethical choices, should visit the Seafood Watch, run by the Monterey Bay Aquarium. And a great book on the topic is Bottomfeeder, by Taras Grescoe.

For me, giving up eating fresh-shucked oysters in Malpeque Bay on vacation, or stocking up on smoked trout from Akiwenzie's Fish at the market, was not something I was willing to do. Still, seafood is a once-in-a-while treat for me, and when I do buy it, I try and come up with an extra-special recipe, to do it justice.

This topic is quickly turning into an essay, but I swear I'm getting to the recipe. The inspiration was some delicious Wild Pacific Smoked Salmon, a carton of Small Flock's Delight Eggs (from grass fed, free range hens), Koslik's Horseradish Mustard and some Victory Organic Arugula. Here you go! (This is honestly the most delicious meal I've made... since Tuesday's macaroni and cheese with oyster and shitake mushrooms).

Potato and Smoked Salmon Gratin with arugula and poached eggs


1 tbsp butter
2 baking potatoes, sliced very thin with a mandolin
salt and pepper
1/2 cup caramelized onions
2 or 3 tbsp capers, drained
100 gr. smoked salmon
1 1/2 cups milk
1/2 cup sour cream
1 egg
1 tbsp Kozlick's Horseradish mustard

For serving-
1 egg for each serving, to be poached
Handful of arugula for each serving
chives for garnish (yes! there are chives in my garden already!)

Preheat the oven to 375. Grease a baking dish with butter. Make one layer of potatoes to cover the bottom. Layer on top 1/2 of each of the salmon, onions and capers. Season with salt and pepper. Make another layer of potatoes, then the rest of the salmon, onions and capers. Season with salt and pepper again. Add a final layer of potatoes. In a bowl, beat together milk, sour cream, egg and mustard. Pour over potatoes. Bake for 50-60 minutes, until potatoes are soft and top is browned. Let rest for 5-10 minutes, covered.

When ready to serve, poach an egg for each person. (Check out this article on how to poach the perfect egg). Serve a square of gratin, topped with a handful of arugula, finished with a poached egg. Garnish with chives. Voila! (Or, Bon Appetit, as Julia Child would say. I'm in the middle of reading My Life in France.)

cocktail time!

Here you go: some not very seasonal drinks to get you through the end of the winter/spring/not-summer-yet blues. I made these two for my birthday- and they would look great with a paper umbrella, or some of those retro paper straws. If you have either mango or watermelon in your freezer, go ahead and use these for the recipes, making them into a frozen-slush kind of drink. Perfect for the freak warm weather from last week!

watermelon gin fizz
to make watermelon juice, puree chunks of ripe watermelon in a blender or food processor. Makes one large cocktail, or two small.

1 cup watermelon juice
handful of ice
1 oz. simple syrup
2 oz. dry gin
splash of club soda
3 or 4 mint leaves
2 or 3 lime wedges

In a martini shaker, muddle lime wedges and mint leaves. Add ice, watermelon juice, gin and simple syrup. Shake, and strain over ice in a tall glass. Top with club soda and garnish with a lime wedge and mint sprig.

mango mimosa
makes 4 cocktails.

1 ripe atulfo mango, peeled and cut in chunks
1 lime
1 bottle of sweet champagne or muscato

Puree mango chunks and juice of lime in a food processor, adding a few tablespoons of water to thin. Divide the mango puree in four champagne glasses, then top with champagne or muscato.

(The real reason for all these fruity drinks? Besides the occasion of my 25th birthday? I made these fruit plates for an event, and there were a lot of mangled chunks of fruit that didn't make the cut. Ever cut up 70 dollars worth of fruit? This is what it looks like.)

Lentil salad with sweet potatoes, almonds and currants

Here's a tasty salad, warm or cold, perfect for the lunch box. I used purple and white sweet potatoes (look at the colour!), but you can use any kind you like.

lentil salad with sweet potatoes, almonds and currants (makes four large servings)


1/2 cup almonds, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, diced
2 bay leaves
1/2 cup lentils, rinsed
1 1/2 cup water or vegetable broth
2 small sweet potatoes, diced
Olive oil
1 tsp cinnamon
Salt and pepper
1/2 cup dried currants

Preheat oven to 375. In a heavy bottomed pot, heat olive oil. Add almonds, and sauté until golden, around 2 minutes. Scoop out the almonds, leaving behind the oil. Set almonds aside. Add onion to pot, and sauté for 3 or 4 minutes, until softened. Add bay leaves, lentils and broth. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and simmer, covered for 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, toss potatoes with olive oil, cinnamon, salt and pepper. Spread on a baking sheet, and bake for 20-30 minutes, until cooked and browned.

When lentils are done, and almost all the water is absorbed, add currants and baked sweet potatoes. Taste, and add salt and pepper, if needed. Serve warm, or cool, on its own, or over a bed of salad.

hot cereal with apples, pecans and maple syrup

Hot cereal? I bet you're thinking about warmed up rice krispies right now - gross! In the olden days (term used loosely), cereal meant any kind of grain that you ate, which are really just edible grasses. Cereal, in it's true meaning, is not the sugary breakfast food we grab on lazy mornings, but a family of grains that were first domesticated 12,000 years ago. A high point in the history of the world, if you think about it.

Corn, wheat, oats, rice, barley, millet, quinoa and buckwheat. Look at your kitchen, and imagine where you'd be without them. Also, as a side note, the world cereal comes from the Roman Ceres, goddess of harvest and agriculture.

Now, onto the recipe. You can use any kind of hot cereal you like - I'm partial to cornmeal, oats or quinoa. The one I used in the picture is Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Hot Cereal. It's a mix of a bunch of grains, all ground up and ready to be cooked.








hot cereal with apples, pecans and maple syrup
(makes 2 servings)

1/2 cup  Bob's Red Mill Gluten-Free Hot Cereal
1 cup almond milk (or other milk)
pinch of salt

Tbsp butter or oil
1 apple, cored and sliced
handful of toasted pecans
splash of maple syrup

In a saucepan, bring milk, cereal and salt to a boil. Turn heat to low and simmer, stirring occasionally, until cereal is cooked to your liking. Meanwhile, heat oil or butter in a small frying pan. Add apple sliced, and sauté until apple is softened and brown, about 5 minutes. Add pecans and maple syrup, and turn off heat.

Serve cereal with apples on top, with some extra maple syrup or milk to taste.

meyer lemon upside-down cake

meyer lemon upside-down cake

A delicious gluten-free cake: crumbly and nutty, with a lemony bite. Adapted from this recipe in Whole Living.


2 tbsp butter
1/4 cup brown sugar
2 meyer lemons, sliced as thin as possible
1 1/2 cup toasted almonds
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
4 egg yolks
1/3 cup honey
4 egg whites

Preheat the oven to 350. Put the butter in a cast iron skillet. Throw it in the oven for a few minutes, until the butter melts. Swirl the butter around the bottom of the pan, then sprinkle the brown sugar on top. Layer the lemons in circles around the bottom of the pan. Set aside.

Combine almonds, soda and salt in a food processor. Pulse, until almonds are ground to a fine meal. Put in a bowl. Add the egg yolks and honey, and whisk to combine. In another bowl, beat the egg whites until thick, but not forming peaks. Fold into almond mixture gently, until just combined. Pour batter into cast iron skillet, overtop of lemons.

Bake for 30 minutes. Let sit in pan for another 5 minutes. Invert cake over a plate. Serve in wedges, with coffee or tea. Delicious! (and beautiful too.)

sunday brunch

Next time you have the urge to leave your house and wolf down overpriced pancakes, resist the urge and bring brunch into your kitchen. (You don't even have to change out of your pajamas.) Put on some nice music, make some coffee and cook with (or for) the people you love!

Stacks of pancakes, piles of bacon, buttery toast... It's enough to bring on a brunch-induced food coma. Often I find myself sleeping away the rest of my hard earned weekend after a meal of traditional brunch fare: pancakes, waffles, starch and more starch.

This brunch menu has it all- protein, fruit and veg, and a little bit of starch - but it won't leave you sleeping on the couch. A sunny mango smoothie, eggs baked in a bed of spinach with a spicy yogurt topping and crispy potato hash browns. Lay out a table cloth, turn on the radio, and bring a healthy brunch into your kitchen!

sunny mango smoothie
(Buy some sad-looking, overripe mangos for this smoothie. They taste the best, you're saving them from the garbage, and they cost a fraction the price. This makes 4 or 5 cups, and keeps in the fridge for an extra day. Don't leave out the lemon juice and zest - it brightens up the smoothie and adds some extra zing!)

3 over-ripe atulfo mangoes (the smaller, yellow mangoes)
1 over-ripe banana
1/2 cup 3% yogurt
2 cups soy or almond milk
2 tbsp liquid honey
1 tbsp lemon zest
juice of 1/2 a lemon

Combine all ingredients in a pitcher. Blend with an immersion blender. (Or use a traditional blender). Add 1/2 cup - 1 cup water to reach the consistency of smoothie you would like.

skillet baked eggs and spinach 
(adapted from this recipe in Bon Appetite) 


1 tbsp olive oil
1 leek, white and light green parts, sliced thinly
1 green onion, sliced thinly
1 bunch of spinach, washed and roughly chopped
juice from 1 lemon
salt and pepper
4 eggs

1/4 cup 3% yogurt
1 clove of garlic, minced
pinch of salt
1/2 tsp paprika
pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat oven to 350. Heat oil in cast iron skillet over medium heat. Add leeks and green onion, turn down heat to low, and cook for 10 minutes, until leeks are soft and starting to brown. Add spinach and lemon juice, and cook for a minute or two. Hold pan over the sink, and tilt to let the excess moisture run out. Give the spinach a press with your wooden spoon to get as much moisture out as possible.

Turn off burner. Make 4 indentations in the spinach, spreading it evenly around the pan. Crack the eggs into the indentations, being careful not to break the yolk. Bake until the egg whites are set, about 10 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir together yogurt, salt, paprika, garlic and cayenne pepper. Serve eggs and spinach immediately, with a dollop of yogurt on each egg.

potato hash browns
2 large potatoes, peeled and cut in 1 inch cubes
olive oil
salt, pepper, dried thyme

Preheat broiler. Steam potatoes over boiling water for 10 minutes. Toss potatoes with oil, salt, pepper and thyme. Spread in a pan, and broil for 10-15 minutes, until potatoes are crispy and brown. Serve with this homemade ketchup.

preserved meyer lemons

preserved meyer lemons
3 meyer lemons
juice of 2 meyer lemons
1/4 cup kosher salt

Cut lemons lengthwise in quarters, leaving the bottom 1/4 inch attached. Combine in a jar with juice and salt. Let sit for 3 days at room temperature, shaking every day. Move to fridge after 3 days, and let sit for 3 weeks, until the rinds are soft.

Here's the original post from Martha Stewart. She says to give the lemons a rinse, chop them up and use them in stews and salads. Here's an Israeli Couscous recipe with preserved lemon, recommended by David Lebovitz.

saffron rice

saffron rice with almonds and currants
Serve this as a side dish with anything with Middle Eastern or Moroccan flavours. Serves 6.


pinch of saffron
2 tbsp boiling water
2 tbsp olive oil
1/3 cup almonds, chopped
1 onion, diced
1 cup jasmine rice
2  1/2 cups water
1 tsp salt
1/3 cup currants (or raisins)

Cover saffron with boiling water in a small bowl. Set aside. In large pot, heat oil. Add almonds, and cook until browned, stirring often, about 3 minutes. Remove almonds with a slotted spoon, and set aside. Add onions to the pot. Sauté until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Add rice, and stir for 2 minutes, until rice is toasted. Add water, saffron and salt. Bring to a boil, then turn heat to low and cover. Cook rice for around 10 minutes, until all the water is absorbed. Turn off heat, fluff rice, and stir in currants and almonds.

(Adapted from this recipe at Epicurious)

apple rhubarb crumble with raspberry frozen yogurt

Meet my favourite dessert of all time - the simple crumble. Can you tell? There's already two recipes on here: a strawberry rhubarb, and a raspberry pear. If I had to pick my last meal on earth, it would be a huge bowl of apple crumble with a big scoop of homemade vanilla ice cream and a large mug of hot chocolate. So, why the crumble?

1. It takes less than 10 minutes of prep time.
2. Baking fruit makes the house smell lovely.
3. You can make it with or without butter - both versions are delicious.
4. Any kind of fruit works, whatever's in season or in the fridge.
5. The topping is forgiving and versatile.
6. It's impossible to make screw up.
7. It's DELICIOUS - nutty, sweet, warm!

Have I convinced you yet? Make this tasty version with winter storage apples and greenhouse rhubarb, and serve with vanilla ice cream for a treat. Or, feeling virtuous? Try a lighter accompaniment - a fast raspberry frozen yogurt.



apple rhubarb crumble
(adapted from Moosewood Kitchen's Cooking for Health. Makes 6 servings.)


2 cups chopped rhubarb
4 apples, cored and chopped
1 tbsp cornstarch
2 tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon


Preheat oven to 375. Put all ingredients in a shallow baking dish, and toss to combine. Bake for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, assemble the crumble:

1 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup almonds
1/4 cup maple syrup
1/4 cup grape seed oil
pinch salt
1 tsp cinnamon

Combine all ingredients in a food processor. Pulse to combine, until nuts are chopped into a coarse grind. When fruit is done, remove from oven and spread crumble evenly over top. Return to oven for another 20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature.

raspberry frozen yogurt
(adapted from Jamie Oliver's Meals in Minutes. Makes two servings - double or triple recipe for more.)

1 cup raspberries
1/4 cup yogurt
1 tbsp liquid honey


Combine ingredients in a food processor. Pulse until the berries are pureed, and the mixture is a smooth consistency. Serve immediately.