The National Nosh

Trend Alert: Canadian Eats

2012-02-05T11:26:00.011-05:00

The more I travel the more I learn that every area in Canada has its signature dish. From Acadian country’s Rappie Pie (pictured here) to Thunder Bay’s Persian doughnuts, while these recipes are everyday eats within a town’s borders, they're mystically almost unheard of elsewhere. Still, they are all part of the edible social fabric of Canada, where a tasty new chapter has just begun.

No ifs ands or buts about it, Canada is having a moment. It started with our winning ways at the 2010 Winter Olympics and continued when our economy didn’t tank as badly as the rest of the Western world's. Now, part of the trickle-down effect is our blooming indigenous culinary scene.

Canada is a young country with no true old guard to speak of. For this reason, our chefs tend to be youthful, multi-ethnic, homegrown, experimental, and their food, proudly delicious. Which is why right now is an exciting time to be a Canadian chef, or (better still) a Canadian restaurant-goer.

The first Bannock restaurant launched in the flagship Hudson’s Bay store in Toronto this fall, with a focus on traditional Canadian comfort food (everything from bannock pizzas to poutine and chicken pot pie). Then there’s chef Michael Stadtlander’s off-the-grid woodsy dream that is Haisai in Southhampton (the godfather of Canadian cookery, chef Stadtlander has also spearheaded the important cause of stopping a proposed mega quarry.) Vancouver has the Oakwood (try the Nanaimo bar custard for dessert) while other Canadian anthems include Martin Picard’s seasonal Caban au Sucre, as well as his meaty Quebecois comfort food temple, Au Pied de Cochon.

There’s also Edible Canada, which opened on Vancouver’s Granville Market, and Halifax’s Chives Canadian bistro, which just celebrated its happy 10^th. These are just a few examples; the good news is that there are many more.

But for money, the restaurant that has it all – great looks, creativity, hot chefs, and overall deliciousness, is chef Aaron Joseph Bear Robe’s aboriginal Keriwa Café. Judging from brunch alone, from the basket of freshly baked goodies and homemade preserves to the brown butter eggs Benny (why have I never had this magical take on hollandaise before?) with its local Red Fife biscuit base, crispy homemade bacon, not to mention the cleverly tasty roasted root veg tossed with salad side, I’ll be shocked if someone can find a better brunch in town.

Or, a more Canadian one.

Eat Here: Bestellen

2012-01-29T17:04:00.006-05:00

While it’s months behind schedule (oh City of Toronto, why must you mummify restaurateurs in red tape?), I had the opportunity to dine at Top Chef Canada runner-up Rob Rossi’s soon-to-open restaurant, Bestellen, at a Visa Infinite exclusive dinner (la dee da) this week. And let me tell you, this place can’t loose. In a word: Delicious. In two more words: Animal fat.

It was by far the heaviest meal I’ve ever eaten, and let the record show that I’ve spent plenty of time in Germany, have judged a competitive barbecue competition, and was a contestant in a pie-eating contest.

From the quivering pork belly starter on a silky chestnut puree, to the butter-poached lobster sided by a lobster doughtnut, to the 40-day dry aged ribeye and bone marrow, the sidecar pommes aligot (so full of decadently stinky cheese to be rendered almost stringy), button mushrooms doused in parsley butter, a mega Canadian cheese course, and a finishing jar of pudding choumer, it took me two days to fully digest the meal (not to mention the six creative wine pairings.)

The room is warm, the service is sprightly and everything was prepared to a turn. And I can only assume when the true menu takes shape, there will be a leafy green of some sort, for those of us with weak gallbladders.

Either way, I can’t wait to return and eat my face off.

Mushroom and Barley Potpie

2012-01-22T11:41:00.004-05:00

Regarding last week’s promise of a kale recipe this week: I lied. But check out the National Post in a couple of Wednesdays for perhaps my best rapini recipe, ever.

For now, feast your eyes on this.

This is the year that vegetarian mains take centre stage: So long meatless Mondays, hello meatless any old day of the week. But if you’re going to serve your normally carnivorous family a meat-free main it’s got to be filling and it’s got to be flavourful. Here’s where whole grains, mushrooms and cheese come in handy.

Mushroom and Barley Potpie 

(serves 8)

To make a hearty mushroom and barley potpie you will need 1 cup pearl barley, rinsed in a strainer, drained, then placed in a medium saucepan with 3 cups of water and 1 tsp salt, 2 tbsp unsalted butter, 2 garlic cloves, minced, I bunch green onions, trimmed and finely chopped, 1 454g package sliced white or cremini mushrooms, 1 tbsp fresh rosemary, minced, salt and pepper to taste, 1/4 cup dry sherry, 1 475g container whole-milk ricotta, 1 square (from a two-square package) frozen puff pastry, thawed, 1 egg yolk, beaten.

Bring rinsed barley, water and salt to a boil then lower to a simmer, cover and cook for 35 or 40 minutes, or until tender. Drain and set aside. While barley is cooking, melt butter in a large skillet, add garlic and green onions and cook for several minutes. Add mushrooms, rosemary, and a generous amount of salt and pepper, and cook for about 10 minutes, stirring often, or until mushrooms are soft. Add sherry, stir around for another few minutes, then transfer to a bowl and add drained barley when done. While filling cools, roll out puff pastry on a lightly flowered surface to fit on top of the baking pan. Preheat oven to 400 F. Combine cooked barley and mushroom mixture with ricotta cheese. Stir to combine. Butter a large (9x13) baking dish and add mixture, smoothing to even. Top with puff pastry, sealing to edges of baking dish, brush with egg, sprinkle with salt and cut a slit in the middle so that steam can escape. Bake in preheated oven until puffed and golden brown, about 45 minutes. Let sit for 10 minutes then slice into squares and serve your vegetarian delight.

Remembering Rapini

2012-01-15T16:12:00.004-05:00

Just when I thought my Jewish guilt couldn't get any worse (or better?), I'm lumbering down the produce aisles this week when I spot the bundles of rapini.

Rapini! My old friend; I hadn't given you a second thought in months, not since I fell in with the curly kale crowd.

Remember how much time we used to have for each other? I'd bathe you and blanch you, I'd stir you and steam you. Oh what fun.

And then along comes kale and you're yesterday's news. Shame on me!

Let's let bygones be bygones and start anew. I just picked up an emerald green bunch of you, and by this time next week, you'll be featured in a brand new recipe here.

Make new friends, but keep the old. One is silver and the other gold. And also, green.

Happy New Year, rapini. (And you too, kale.)

Stark and sweet

2012-01-09T14:39:00.008-05:00

It's that time of year again, when people go away to sunny locales and return to a cold and brooding Canada and wonder why it is that they live here. Why miss out on vitamin D when it's sunny all day long in Mexico?

Why freeze when you could be in Belize?

Personally, I love the change of seasons; bundling up in winter leads to welcoming the warming rays of April. Shvitzing during Toronto's humid summers means looking forward to September's autumnal bliss. (Pores get smaller, hair defrizzes, etc.)

Besides, winter has a lot going for it, including the Niagara Icewine Festival. Around this time last year I was coiffing at an ice bar in Jordan, Ontario, munching on Canada's first raisin harvest and roasting homemade marshmallows over an open fire.

Just like anything in life, you can either hide from it or embrace it.

Me? I plan on pulling on my toque and going skating -- if it ever actually snows this winter.

We need Trader Joe’s!

2012-01-01T19:19:00.009-05:00

On a recent trip I had a few minutes to duck into Trader Joe's to pick out a bag of delicious sounding and reasonably priced items we can't get here, including a pumpkin pancake mix, which I thought would come in handy at the cottage during the holidays. Fast-forward a couple of weeks, and with the addition of melted butter, eggs and water; a few minutes later it was nothing but “Mmms” and “Wows” from the usually hard-to-please breakfast crowd. Then someone new would lumber down the stairs late and add to the chorus with a heartfelt "Yum."

This boxed mix comes by its deliciousness honestly. It's not full of bad stuff (no hight fat or sodium trickery) -- just friggin awesome, flavourful pumpkin-spiced pancakes, made even better when I toasted some pecans and poured on the maple syrup.

For five brief morning minutes, all was right with the world.

One of my brothers vows 2012 is the year he brings Trader Joe’s to Canada, even though he is not involved in the import/export business nor the food industry in any way. Understand this: He will not succeed. So if anyone out there knows someone who is already in the process of bringing Trader Joe’s to Canada or has the ability to bring Trader Joe's to Canada, please let me know so I can pass the good news along. (We really, really loved those pancakes.)

Happy New Year to one and all!

The year in review

2011-12-26T13:33:00.008-05:00

This year I travelled, I cooked, but mostly I ate. Herewith I present my top 10 memorable food trips of 2011.

1. There are no two ways about it. Copenhagen is awesome.

2. But you know what’s even better? Baiersbronn!

3. And Tofino? Forget about it!

4. Meanwhile, Cleveland was a revelation.

5. I drank so many cocktails and so much tea in Victoria that I almost floated away.

6. I finally made it to Calgary during Stampede, and when I wasn’t eating my weight in funnel cake, I was eating dozens of doughnuts.

7. Freshest seafood ever? Try the east coast.

8. It was my first time in San Antonio, but it won’t be my last.

9. Boston’s food scene is on the upswing. Watch for it.

10. Finally, who says you have to travel far to experience the best? Niagara never fails to impress.

Let us all raise our forks and glasses to a great 2012. Happy New Year everyone!

Donna to the rescue!

2011-12-18T15:28:00.006-05:00

Chef Donna Dooher is the owner of the fabulous Mildred's Temple Kitchen, an airy cream and green apple room in Toronto's Liberty Village, where they dish out dependable blueberry buttermilk pancake brunches, chicken avocado club lunches, and gnocchi poutine with oxtail gravy dinners. And now they're getting into the holiday spirit by dishing out advice to those in need. Mainly, skittish home cooks.

Since chef Dooher has planned her fair share of holiday parties over the years, she's decided to lend her expertise to timid hosts, and has opened up her email line for those stumped for ideas or looking for the answer to culinary questions.

Simply email her at mildred@templekitchen.com with the subject heading "Ask Donna" and she'll get back to you within a day. She launched the "helpline" December 14th and will close it December 21st, so best to start that menu planning now, lest yea be out of luck later.

P.S. This photo is of the butterrific traditional shortbread available at Mary Macleod's. (See? I'm helping too.)

Christmas in Cleveland

2011-12-11T18:02:00.009-05:00

As we near the end of 2011 and look back on the year that was before I head to Laywines to buy the 2012 insert for my Filofax (some habits die hard), I’m reminded of all the great spots I visited; most of the trips all too brief. But one in particular that stood out as a place that would be perfect to head back to around the holidays, is Cleveland.

Not only was this city a terrific culinary surprise, but they’re also coo-coo for Christmas. Part of it has to do with the fact that the perennial favourite, “A Christmas Story” was filmed there. (I even met someone who was one of the kids in line when Ralphie was pushed down the slide. He recalled getting 10 days off of school and making $60; a fond memory.) The house/museum ode to the movie is also quite popular.

Then there are Snow Days at the Cleveland Indians’ Progressive Field, which includes a regulation sized frozen diamond, a skating rink, snow tubing slides, and all sorts of fun wintry games.

There’s also the annual “How the Kishka Saves Christmas”, which includes wieners, polkas and the traditional stringing of the sauerkraut on the Christmas tree at Happy Dog.

Even so, while I was in Cleveland the Christmas-themed thing I heard about most was the short-lived, beloved seasonal Christmas Ale brewed up at the local Great Lakes Brewing Company. This stuff is made with gallons of honey, spiced with fresh ginger and cinnamon, is 7.5% alcohol, and is known to make people behave very, very badly.

The brewery has several pub rooms, from the Taproom, with its 1890s-era Mahogany bar, to the Beer Cellar, which would be my regular haunt if I lived in Cleveland: It’s a low, intimate turn-of-the-century “rathskeller” with stone walls, brick floors and a wooden bar strung with twinkly lights. (Historically, it was the building’s basement for seed and feed.) The beer is fresh from the tap and the warm, salty pretzels are to die for. Certainly something to give thanks for in Cleveland this Christmas.

Snack of the Day: Homemade microwaved popcorn

2011-12-04T11:36:00.005-05:00

I love popcorn. In fact, I didn’t realize how much I loved popcorn until I was searching for a past blog post and found that I’ve talked about popcorn here and here and here and here and probably a bunch of other places too, but I think I’ve made my point.

Yet even though I eat more microwaved popcorn than I care to admit, do you know what I don’t love about it? That greasy, yellow, chemically stuff that lines the bags.

The solution? PaperChef parchment cooking bags. Using these bags makes popcorn as light as air-popped but without the klunky popper.

All you do is pour ½ cup of popcorn kernels into a parchment bag, fold the top over at least three times (you don’t want the steam – or popcorn – to escape), and pop it in the microwave on high for about 2 ½ minutes. Then pour popcorn into a bowl and top with melted butter and salt or whatever else you choose.

This, my friends, is what you call a snacking game-changer.

Enough already

2011-11-29T20:01:00.008-05:00

Okay Toronto, I'm officially sick of it. Over it. Perturbed. Perplexed. Vexed.

Why don't we have food trucks? Nobody has ever really explained the reasons to me.

Because the strange thing is, we've actually had food trucks for years, scattered throughout downtown, on the streets outside of Nathan Phillips Square and on Front Street near the ACC/Rogers Centre. On the UofT Campus, too. All of the fries with gravy, ice cream and hot dogs you could ever want. Even Chinese food.

But nothing more, and nothing new. Why?

Could it be that Mayor Rob Ford hasn't tasted the Nirvana that is the freshly prepared multi-ethnic cuisine on wheels featured in just about every major American city I visit (plus Vancouver, to great effect)?

I've had hot, crispy falafel in Manhattan and a bright Banh Mi in Boston.

There are entire shows dedicated to the topic, for goodness sake, as well as cookbooks and apps. (This thing is officially happening, people!)

Food truck food is largely honest affordable food made by passionate people using fresh ingredients and indigenous (or creative takes on trusted) recipes.

In other words, it's exactly what Toronto is all about.

So enough already. Let's cut the red tape and get this truck moving.

If anyone knows how I can help, let me know, and then I'll let everyone else know.

And then soon enough, we'll be eating grilled cheese sandwiches and kimchee tacos, and before too long we'll never know an evening that is not brightened by a Montreal smoked meat sandwich or a warm Belgian waffle by moonlight.

It will be a beautiful thing.

Eat Here: Quartino

2011-11-20T16:12:00.008-05:00

I just got back from a whirlwind weekend trip to the Windy City, where I was checked into the Trump Hotel Chicago, to check out the Trump lifestyle ahead of the January 31st opening of the Trump Hotel Toronto. (Hint: Cannot wait.) There was so much going on in Chicago this weekend. It happened to be the 20th annual Magnificent Mile Lights Festival on Saturday night, which starts the holiday season in earnest with a grand parade led by Grand Marshals Mickey Mouse and Minnie Mouse and thousands of their friends. It's the busiest weekend of the year in the city, and there were over a million people taking in the glittery parade and fireworks, a mass of humanity woven across bridges and through the streets while we took in the view from our plush chairs in the hotel's buzzy Rebar cocktail lounge while slinging back martinis and scarfing sushi. (Irony alert: This year's parade was sponsored by BMO Harris Bank, AKA, the Bank of Montreal.)

More on Trump later. For now, I'd like to talk about a delicious restaurant just a couple of blocks from the hotel, called Quartino. Man, was this place ever good. Though it's big and boisterous, chef John Coletta and crew still make everything in house, from the mozzarella to the sauces and sausages, salumi and pastas and desserts, and as a side note, their incongruous Sangria is killer.

They practically sent out the entire menu for our group to taste, from the amazing steamed clams in a pino grigo and red chili broth to sicilian caponata, roasted beet salad with ricotta salata and walnuts, to eggplant parmigiana, beef short ribs, crispy polenta fries, dates wrapped in pancetta, gnocchi with green beans and arugula pesto, skate wing with Brussels sprouts and pancetta, and a couple of signature pizzas including an impeccable thin-crust margherita.

And there wasn't a wrong answer in the bunch.

Gold Medal Eats

2011-11-13T11:47:00.010-05:00

Earlier this week my friend Ivy scored us some media tickets to the annual Gold Medal Plates culinary competition cum Olympic fundraiser in Toronto, and though I had attended once before and totally loved it, this year's soiree was even better. I didn’t try all of the competing plates (most, but not all), still, the dishes I ate were all delicately composed while busting a move with flavour and creativity.

Two things stood out though: There were no female executive chefs competing, and most of the dishes were needlessly heavy. (I can’t help but think some would have been a little lighter had there been a woman or two at the propane stoves, as in years past.) That said, my favourite dish, and the winning dish, happened to be both gorgeous to look at and sprightly on the tongue.

It was the handiwork of Chef Jonathan Gushue of Langdon Hall Country House Hotel & Spa. I’ve had his food before, and the chef is nothing short of a practitioner of white magic in the kitchen with all things local, vegetal, snouty and swimmy. He took home the gold for his dish of creamy salsify topped by Langdon Hall’s own Brussels sprouts leaves, crispy black salsify chips, all tossed around a preserved oyster -- just a hint of vinegar in it -- plus grated duck’s egg and smoked trout caviar for good measure. Somehow, it all formed a perfect bite, especially so with a taster glass of Organized Crime, 2009, Fume Blanc, also the winning wine pairing of the night.

Chef Gushue will compete at the Canadian Culinary Championships, the Gold Medal Plates Finale, held in Kelowna in February, 2012. Buy your tickets now (and visit the incredible Sparkling Hill Resort while you’re there), or just dig deep and donate to a great cause, Canada’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes. They bring us all so much pride. Let’s show them how proud we are of them.

P.S. I took this photo at the Vancouver Winter Olympics, AKA, the Best Olympics Ever!

It’s getting cold out there

2011-11-06T16:51:00.002-05:00

Let’s warm up with some seasonally appropriate, soul-soothing Broccoli Cheddar soup. While it’s not exactly a new taste sensation, this no-fuss winning combo of greens and cheese never goes out of style.

Broccoli Cheddar Soup

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp butter

1 cooking onion, chopped

1 large head of broccoli, florets cut into medium pieces, stems peeled and roughly chopped

2 carrots, peeled and chopped

½ tsp salt

½ tsp black pepper

pinch of cayenne

4 cups vegetable or chicken stock

½ cup cream (whatever you’ve got, from 5% to 18%)

2 cups grated sharp cheddar, plus extra for garnish.

Method:

1. In a large saucepan heat butter over medium, fry onion for several minutes, then add chopped broccoli, carrots, salt and pepper and cayenne. Cook for 5 minutes more, stirring often.

2. Add stock, bring to a boil, cover and lower heat to medium-low for 30 minutes. Remove from heat; get out the immersion blender and puree.

3. Add cream and cheese, heat on low for several minutes (do not let in boil), taste for seasoning and serve it hot, with an extra bit of cheese and pepper for good measure.

A photo and 1,200 words

2011-10-30T11:18:00.009-04:00

I can’t believe it’s already been ten years since my (then) enRoute editor Arjun had a short meeting with me on a sunny Montreal patio with the idea that I should: “Eat across Canada and do my thing.” Seriously, those were his full instructions.

From there, together we did resto research and amassed our first panel of food writers who recommended the best new places I should eat in their hometowns. Then we booked me into Holiday Inns across the country (the one true mistake of that trip), and off I went.

Were we overly ambitious that first year? Seeing as I ate at over 50 restaurants during a month of travelling, some days hitting two cities and eating two three-course meals per day -- I'd say yes. And did I have to buy a new pair of jeans by the time I had rounded the west and was headed back east to Montreal? Indubitably.

But it was good, tasty fun that I wouldn't have changed for the world, then I did it again the following year and then I was full.

I still write regularly for enRoute and in fact have a feature in the splashy new Food Issue, which hits seatbacks November 1st. This is the story that matches this photo (though do try to snag a hard copy of the magazine for all the sumptuous photos, spirited stories and lovely layouts).

I've been wanting to tell people about the great Black Forest region called Baiersbronn, which I visited in March, and now that the November issue is out I can finally yammer on about it.

Know that this is a place you should definitely visit, and an area I plan to return to. Not just because it’s easy to get to and gorgeous and your Michelin-starred dollars go far and the spas are incredible and the hotels and service are peerless. But also because the people are nice and the Black Forest cake is to die for. I travel a lot, maybe too much because it's becoming rarer for a place to surprise and enchant as much as Baiersbronn did.

I'm telling you, it really knocked my lederhosen off.

Snack of the day

2011-10-23T10:39:00.012-04:00

Childhood friends can be divided into two factions: Those who grew up eating sweet cereal, and those who snacked at the homes of those whose nice moms bought them sweet cold cereals. For a brief moment I was the former, but became the latter when my mom went back to school to become a Dietitian. Suddenly, out went the Cap'n Crunch and Pop-Tarts, in came the demerara sugar and Tofutti. Trying times, indeed.

Even so, after that, the nutritional lessons somehow stuck and as an adult I never reverted back to sweet cereals. That is, until last week when I bought home a box of something I simply could not resist.

A quick survey of the box showed nutritional promise, with its whole grains, low fat, seven vitamins and free Yoplait coupon.

Upon comparing it to my box of Great Grains cereal (also new to me, and I must admit I'm not enjoying it at all), this new Chocolate Cheerios label's news got even more cheery. Less fat than the "healthy" cereal, less sodium, and less sugar too, (though there is still way too much sugar in it to serve to kids in the morning; consider it a kinder sweet snack.) What's more, the fibre and vitamins post lackluster standings, but that's what fruits and veggies are for.

When I opt for a cold breakfast cereal I'm asking for a great tasting instant meal with my morning tea that'll give me a quick start to the day so that I have enough energy to bike to work before indulging in a secondary breakfast of coffee with cream and sundry pastries. (Oopsies.)

Of course, all of this Chocolate Cheerios news means nothing if the taste isn't there. Well let me tell you, it's there alright, a perfect mix of toasted Os with a deep hit of sweet, cocoa-y childhood nostalgia. This will be my new go-to breakfast cereal, as it also works wonders as a chocolate-satiating snack.

And if I happen to feel like Seinfeld while eating cold cereal in the middle of the day, so much the better.

Food & design

2011-10-16T17:13:00.008-04:00

You know what I've been thinking about a lot lately (besides chocolate?) Food and design. Or rather, how good design makes food look better, and by extension, taste better.

The Japanese nailed this aesthetic centuries ago, and now Copenhagen seems to be the new Tokyo in terms of bringing something new and exciting to the plate. Take the bread and butter in this photo, that I was served at the famous Jacobsen restaurant in Copenhagen a couple of months ago. Sure, it's homemade butter, and yes, the bread was warm and springy and slightly sour and amazing, but just look at it: Gorgeous. A wooden stub a lovely bowl and a rough hewn table = bread course gold!

It's the little things that make the difference.

Spaghetti Squash and Meatballs

2011-10-09T23:17:00.004-04:00

We haven’t done a recipe in some time, so since autumn is upon us and winter can’t be far behind, let’s split the difference and make something that’s both hearty and healthy.

To make enough spaghetti squash and meatballs to serve four people, you will need 1lb lean ground beef, 1 egg, ¼ cup breadcrumbs, ½ tsp salt and some pepper. Mix together in a bowl then form into golf ball sized balls, place on a cookie sheet, drizzle with olive oil and bake in a preheated 350 degree oven for about 20 minutes or until lightly browned and cooked through.

In the meantime, to make spaghetti squash, with a large sharp knife, cut squash lengthways and scoop out seeds. Place cut side down in ¼ cup of water in a microwave-safe dish, cover with plastic wrap and microwave on high for about 10 minutes, or until soft and when running a fork over the insides it shreds the squash like spaghetti. (If you don’t have a microwave, cut and seed as described, then bake cut side down on a lined cookie sheet for 45 minutes in a preheated 350 degree oven.)

To serve, fill squash halves with meatballs and top with your favourite spaghetti sauce, some Parmesan, and a drizzle of good olive oil. Then dig in. Literally.

Eat Here: Bengal Lounge

2011-10-02T20:13:00.004-04:00

Admittedly, I was late to the poutine party, but when I finally arrived I put on my dancing shoes and never left. What’s not to love? Fresh cut fries, soulful gravy, squeaky cheese curds and a fork for shoveling -- the only thing that does poutine one better is an icy Coke or a local draft to wash it all down. Oh, and some great surroundings.

Which brings us to Victoria’s Fairmont Empress hotel, and me, tucked into a cozy high-back chair in the famed Bengal Lounge, a tiger hide sprawled over the fireplace, a heaping dish of curry poutine in the middle of our table.

The idea for the Bengal Lounge was inspired by Queen Victoria’s role as the Empress of India, and as such the lounge has been serving curry cuisine (there's a daily buffet) and signature cocktails, such as the Ivory Hunter and Hemingway Special since the mid-50s. (The Bengal Tiger is my personal favourite.)

Now getting back to that curry poutine; while it’s not a classic poutine (more of a generous portion of chicken curry on fries with some cheese), it is delicious. And even if you’re not in the mood for curry poutine I still suggest you pop into the Bengal Lounge for a step back in time in an elegant room with professional waiters in a storied hotel in a lovely, lovely city.

Toronto, the delicious

2011-09-25T11:52:00.012-04:00

It’s back to business at The National Nosh, which means me yammering on and on about what I’ve done and eaten lately, and in this post in particular, why I love Toronto so much.

Let’s take yesterday as an example. I had some afternoon errands to run so hopped on my bike with my little list. First stop was Ezra’s Pound for a quick pick-me-up, and sitting on that sunny patio sipping the city’s best coffee put me in the perfect frame of mind.

Then off I went to Lululemon to use up a gift card (scored a gorgeous sweater, complete with holes for my thumbs), some antihistamines from Shopper’s, stopped for a snack of dumplings at the semi-new food stalls at Scadding Court, then headed over to Kensington Market to pick up some spinach and ginger (I’m testing a paneer recipe), and za’atar. I’m heading to Vancouver next week to spend Rosh Hashanah with my best bud Natasha, and I’ll be cooking up two Middle Eastern feasts for somewhere in the range of 20-60 people, and Natasha says you can’t buy za’atar in Vancouver. (Note: Though Tash is an amazing friend, wife, mother, daughter and doctor, she’s also a compulsive liar.)

So let’s tally up my hour spent tooling around downtown: Free-trade coffee, Japanese dumplings, fresh veg and exotic spices, and then a bunch of us went for dinner in Koreatown. In other words, a typical day in Toronto.

What else am I excited about lately? Well, you should know that I’m entering week two of a major home renovation (the dust from which being the primary reason for the aforementioned antihistamines). My kitchen will be growing from about 4x4” to at least quadruple that size, and I simply cannot wait. Designed by my talented colleague at House & Home magazine, Mr. Cameron MacNeil, it’s going to be so gorgeous that I may even start giving cooking lessons, just so that strangers can see it and become enraged with jealously.

The return of the Nosh?

2011-09-18T11:52:00.009-04:00

Is the National Nosh back in business, or am I merely dipping my big toe back in to test the waters? I honestly can't decide. On the one hand, I really want to tell you all about the rest of my summer -- August was a doozie. I went bloodworming in Yarmouth, snorkelled with belugas in Churchill, ate smushies in Copenhagen and dined my way through Anchorage as their early autumn set in (pictured here).

Too many incredible experiences to share in one post, but in case you didn't know, the world is full of nice people and great things to eat -- and a surprising number of rainbows. So if you have the chance to travel, take it.

But getting back to my original point, does the Interweb really need another food blog? I'll let you decide.

If I get 10 comments at this site saying yes from 10 different people within the next week, I will continue the National Nosh for the foreseeable future. Otherwise we'll call it a day, and you can always keep up with me in the newspapers and magazines or via "new media".

Either way, it's been a slice.

Summer break

2011-07-20T23:11:00.003-04:00

Hello people of the Internet.

Just a quick 'hey' to say I've decided it's too hot and too summery to be cooking or sitting at a computer (when I'm not cooking or sitting at a computer for work.)

Instead, I'm going to go swimming and eat more ice cream, and I'll see you back here around Labour Day, unless something really big happens that I want to tell you about.

So until then, keep up with me at my blog at House & Home magazine, my weekly column at the National Post, etc.

And until then, have a sweet and shvitzy rest of your summer!

The 5lb question

2011-07-15T18:58:00.003-04:00

Just curious: Is it possible to gain five pounds in two days? Because I’m not even kidding, I think that just happened to me.

Maybe I should lay off the deep fried Snickers bars and blooming onions? Perhaps I should take a pass next time someone offers me homemade breadsticks, or hand-made doughnuts?

Possibly, I should start drinking less wine and root beer, and more water? Nahh.

I think the better plan, right after I get back from my weekend trip to Yarmouth, where I’ll be judging a chowder contest and then eating my weight in lobster and oysters – yes, right after that, maybe I’ll start working on my cardio.

But until then, I'll continue to eat my face off. After all, I can always lose these extra pounds, but summer comes but once a year.

Stampede, y'all

2011-07-08T14:28:00.007-04:00

A short posting today because I've got to catch my fight to Calgary in a few minutes as I'm heading off to see the Greatest Show on Earth. It may be the first time I'll be taking in the Stampede, but it won't be my first time eating some tasty Alberta vittles. I'm going to be checking out the Chuckwagon Races and the Stampede Rodeo, and I'll even have a behind-the-scenes Chute Tour of the bucking chutes, which sounds awesome even though I'm not really sure what it means, (though I figure bucking is involved.)

And you can get bet your bottom dollar that I'll be eating lots. I'll be eating Alberta beef and oysters and especially midway food (check out the National Post next weekend for my photographic deep-fried journey.)

The bottom line is, I'm hitting Calgary for a weekend of rootin' tootin' cowboy fun.

Not your everyday food festival

2011-07-01T09:46:00.004-04:00

It’s the name of the event that first grabbed me: Right Some Good. So evocative of Canada’s East Coast. So full of tasty promise.

Tickets are now on sale for 10 days worth of delicious adventures on Cape Breton Island; the new food festival runs from August 25^th to September 4^th.

The plan is, a number of global Michelin-starred chefs – such as Chef Atul Kochhar of London, the first Indian chef to ever receive a Michelin Star rating, and Chef Javier Vargas Guimaray of Peru, who has won the Guinness World Record for the world’s largest ceviche -- will prepare gourmet feasts using steadfastly sustainable good old Cape Breton ingredients.

Each meal will involve a star chef and skilled team, including an aspiring junior chef selected from applications across the country. Dinner guests will also experience some down home Cape Breton musical talent and hospitality at each unique venue across the island.

While toe-tapping and whiskey sipping, diners will dive into dishes like rhubarb glazed Bras d’Or pork rack, Mira Bay lobster stuffed with shellfish butter, and maple apple dumplings.

All 10 custom menus will focus on ingredients from the sea, forests and fields of Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, so you know it’s going to be a good old time -- with some right good food.

Eat here: Drake Summer School

2011-06-24T13:53:00.005-04:00

The Drake Hotel is like that slightly smarter, more fashionable best friend: You love hanging with her but sometimes she makes you so jealous you could barf. Full of bright ideas and usually one step ahead of the best trends, the Drake has maintained its vision of being a hotbed for culture, always changing, never resting.

When it first launched (ideally in my neighbourhood), I liked the place but didn't love the food. We'd go for drinks, sometimes drinks would turn into so-so snacks, but in all these years I never once ate in the dining room.

Things took a dramatic turn for the better when Chef Anthony Rose was hired, his love of great ingredients and slightly upscale comfort food translating into a menu of things you want to eat.

Case in point: The brand new Drake Summer School Dining Hall, which launched this week and runs to September 4. Located in the dining room proper, the space has been designed as a cheeky ode to a sort of circa 1940s British boarding school -- think Hogwarts meets Hogtown. Basically, the walls are hung with all sorts of old school photos, trophies, textbooks and other crap, while communal tables look like retrofitted bowling alley lanes slung with comfy chairs and banquettes.

And then there's the food. Cocktails aim high but for me, fell short. Too much kitsch (eg. emptying out juice boxes and refilling them with dribbly sweet vodka-spiked lavender lemonade.) I love a solid theme, but hate sticky fingers. (Go to the bar to get a proper delicious Drake cocktail.)

The menu is a long list of both re-imagined school day favourites and retro classics, including a spectacular creamy tomato alphabet soup, Thousand Islands-kicked Shrimp Louis, buttery mushy peas and a gargantuan two-pound aged Cumbrae's rib steak (suitable for two feasters) that was incredibly cooked and boasted a whiff of smoke (teacher's lounge?)

You'll like Drake Summer School because it's hot, tasty fun, and it's just here during summertime, then it's gone.

Next up for the Drake's Dining Roadshow: Chinatown launches September 8th.

Snack of the Day: Popcorn, Indiana

2011-06-16T20:21:00.004-04:00

Though I choose “sweet” over “salty” 85% of the time, there’s something about this Popcorn, Indiana white cheddar popcorn that hits me right in my happy place. Like the bag says, it’s crunchy, crispy, sharp and savoury, all at the same time. It’s the best bagged popcorn I’ve tried, and I cannot. Stop. Eating. It. (Help!)

I left my heart in San Antonio...

2011-06-10T10:13:00.006-04:00

The recent launch of the stunning Pearl Brewery complex along San Antonio’s River Walk, anchored by the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) plus the school’s strong focus on the local Latino gastronomic aesthetic have helped give this rich and tasty American food culture the legitimacy it deserves.

Not that it needs a fancy culinary school to lend it legitimacy. But since over 80% of the kitchen workers in the southern states are of Latino descent, this gives them the opportunity to helm kitchens as head chefs with culinary degrees in their back pockets while cooking their own food.

In addition to the Latino-infused CIA, gourmet shops and restaurants like La Gloria (street foods of Mexico), there’s a Saturday Farmers Market in this River Walk extension, which together illustrate how Latin American food has become an important part of the larger American culinary cannon.

When I was speaking at a conference in San Antonio (or as I like to call it, Shvitzy Antonio) earlier this week, I was taken aback by bursts of colour and music everywhere, the kind people and the great food. From our waiter at Luke (star chef John Besh’s first restaurant outside of New Orlean’s), who joked about putting roofies in our French “75” cocktails, to the amazing receptions held at the famed Mi Tierra, and then the closing night event where a smiling group of Brazilian dancers conga lined us from the manicured lawns out onto our waiting river boats, the sweltering heat added even more exotica to this small but proud American city, where the tacos are great, but the margaritas are even better.

Surprise! Top Chef Canada Doesn’t Suck

2011-06-03T09:03:00.003-04:00

I don’t know why I was taking it so personally, but I was wracked with worry in the days leading up to the premiere of Top Chef Canada. As a big fan of the American version (and as someone who met with the producer prior to casting to give him some ideas re potential chefs), I cannot believe how good it is. It totally doesn’t suck. No “The Trouble With Tracy” lighting. No canned laughter. Just a great group of mostly talented chefs.

The bigger shocker? A lot of them even have big personalities; showboating and smack-talk included. (How very un-Canadian.)

The hosts are nice facsimiles of their American counterparts, and most of the challenges have been even more interesting than the U.S. ones, including one that had the chefs traipsing around Toronto’s unique ethnic enclaves to learn and cook recipes from another’s culture.

I’ve enjoyed the food of a few of the chefs (in real life), including Connie DeSousa’s, who is truly doing women chefs proud.

I visited Calgary last summer and toured around the city for a day with Connie and her Charcut co-chef/owner John Jackson, and also had a fantastic meal at their restaurant, where they make everything from scratch. During summer the place becomes a veritable pickling and jamming factory, where they can more than 1,000 jars of everything from tuna to berries to peaches and cucumbers. And then they use some of that preserved fruit in their ever-changing, dead simple, crazy delicious, no-bake cheesecake. I wonder if Connie will break it out if there’s ever a quick-fire dessert challenge.

Charcut's no-bake cheesecake

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

3/4 cup (175 mL) heavy cream

1/4 cup (50 mL) icing sugar

seeds from half a vanilla bean

1/2 teaspoon (2 mL) pure vanilla extract

1 1/4 cups (300 mL) cream cheese

1/4 cup (50 mL) graham crackers (crumbs)

1/2 cup (125 mL) seasonal fruit, fresh or preserved

Method:

1. In a bowl, whip heavy cream, icing sugar, vanilla seeds and vanilla extract until thick, then put it in the fridge.

2. In another bowl, beat cream cheese using whip attachment, frequently scraping down bowl until there are no lumps. Then fold whipping cream mixture into cream cheese.

3. Layer jam jars with graham crumbs, cheesecake filling and fruit.

An eBook for the Ages

2011-05-27T10:24:00.005-04:00

My friend Yael passed along an incredible link this morning, to The Project Gutenberg EBook of the International Jewish Cook Book, by Florence Kreisler Greenbaum, which is free to all.

Yael, who is strictly kosher, writes: “In my search for a recipe (as I never asked my grandmother to write these down) for Farina Soup and Klutzsky, I came across this fascinating and homey Jewish cookbook. It dates back to 1919, and was compiled by a New York housewife and foodie extraordinaire. Some of the recipes I recognized, some I desired, and many I read and lavished in the cook's expertise.”

I immediately clicked on the link Yael had sent and was swallowed up in a world of both ancient and modern Semitic flavours and traditions – 1,600 recipes in all. There are appetizers, sandwiches, garnishes and dumplings for soups, sauces for fish and vegetables, stuffings for meat and poultry, fresh fruits and compotes, egg dishes, cheese dishes, coffee cakes, cookies, steamed puddings, pickles and relishes, and more, and so on.

It’s like a Jewish culinary jackpot full of simple recipes that allow anyone to prepare and enjoy a wealth of global recipes that follow the rules of Kashrut, and that stand the taste test of time.

Here’s an easy classic to get you started:

CHICKEN LIVER PASTE, No. 2

Take one-quarter pound chicken livers that have been boiled soft; drain and rub through grater, add one-quarter cup of fresh mushrooms that have been fried for three minutes in two tablespoons of chicken fat, chop these, mix smooth with the liver, moistening with the fat used in frying the mushrooms, season with salt, pepper, paprika and a little onion and lemon juice. Spread on rye bread slices. Garnish plate with a red radish or sprigs of parsley.

P.S. I didn’t have a photo of chopped liver so instead included this photo I took at an awesome herring smokehouse on the Magdalen Islands last spring. (I figured with the kosher diet’s predilection for smoked fish it was appropriate to the post.)

It's 'cue time!

2011-05-20T16:59:00.006-04:00

As we head into Canada's May 2-4 weekend, I thought I’d pass along some tips sent to me during this, National Barbecue Month.

The following 'cue tips come courtesy of John McLemore’s book “DADGUM, That’s Good!”. John McLemore, a southerner through-and-through, was born an entrepreneur and accidentally became a cook. Here are 20 of his best barbecue tips. (Note: I've added bracketed comments after some of his tips where I felt like adding my rootin' tootin' two cents.)

Have a great long weekend, y'all!

20 BBQ Cooking Tips from John McLemore, author of “DADGUM That’s Good!”

1. Coat grill rack with non-stick spray or vegetable oil before preheating to prevent food from sticking.

2. When grilling fish, grill with the skin side down or on aluminum foil (coat with non-stick spray).

3. Red snapper is quick and easy to grill. But make sure the grill and fish are well oiled, and handle carefully.

4. Salmon is a favorite for grilling, because it doesn’t dry out. Rich in natural omega oils, you can pop it on the grill without oiling. Start by grilling the salmon skin side up. This allows the natural fat under the skin to be drawn into the filet, keeping it rich and moist. (Salmon may be fatty but it can certainly dry out, and nobody likes overcooked salmon except for cats. Also, I would definitely oil the salmon before grilling it. A quick teriyaki marinade is a crowd pleaser too.)

5. If you’re grilling scallops, use fresh ocean scallops. These should be a pinkish tan or ivory color, not unnaturally white. (Buy dry pack, not wet packed.)

6. Freshwater trout is great on the grill. The skin becomes thin and crispy and the meat is full of flavor.

7. To keep tuna burgers moist, choose the freshest tuna steaks you can find and serve them medium-rare to medium – don’t overcook. (And a post-BBQ smear of wasabi mayo does the trick here.)

8. When grilling BBQ ribs, pork butt, or tenderloin, cook unwrapped for 50 to 75% of the cooking time to infuse smoke and flavor. The remaining time wrap with heavy aluminum foil to retain moisture and tenderness

9. When grilling burgers and steaks, allow grill to get to a high temperature before placing food on grill. Let steaks or burgers grill several minutes prior to turning, which will sear in the juices. (This also prevents sticking.)

10. When choosing an inexpensive steak, opt for flank steak rather than skirt steak, which can be tougher. Flank steak is thin and cooks quickly. They’re usually marinated before being grilled. Wrap the steak in foil as it comes off the grill and let it stand for 10 minutes. Slice it thinly on a diagonal across the grain to sever the tough fibers and make the flavorful steak more tender. (I buy flank steak more than any other meat. It's lean and a delicious way to beef up summer salads.)

11. When is cheaper better? Chicken thighs may be one of the cheaper cuts, but they do great on the grill! Thighs are more flavorful and the extra fat in the skin makes them better suited to grilling.

12. For the juiciest chicken and chops, you want to sear them on both sides on high heat for several minutes and then bring the grill temperature down to complete the cooking process.

13. Grilling vegetables in aluminum foil, with oil, prevents them from falling through the grill gates. (A bit of butter makes them even better.)

14. Just a few minutes on the grill gives bell peppers a sweet smoky flavor. As soon as the skin puffs up and turns black, they’re ready. (Roast them whole and then put them in a bowl and cover with plastic wrap so that they steam their skins off. Peel off blackened skins, then core peppers and scrape out seeds before slicing peppers and using them in a feta red pepper dip, or as a pizza topping.)

15. Cut zucchini in half lengthwise, coat with olive oil and sprinkle with salt and pepper; grill for 15 minutes. (Zucchini is great in this salad.)

16. You can leave the husk on the corn while grilling. Once you see the shape of the kernels burning through the husk, your corn is ready. (I prefer husking it first so I get that nice charred look and taste.)

17. Grilled Caesar Salad? Sure – the Romaine lettuce ends will char, but it stays remarkably crisp and sweet, with a char-grilled flavor. (I have plans to make this soon.)

18. Always allow grill to cool prior to cleaning, but I recommend cleaning after each use.

19. To extend the life of your grill (and smoker), store in a dry place or keep covered after each use.

20. Do not grill alone; spend the time with family and friends. (It’s more DADGUM fun!)

Eat here: Obika Mozzarella Bar

2011-05-13T13:06:00.003-04:00

When it launches on May 16^th in Brookfield Place, next to the Hockey Hall of Fame, the latest outpost of the mini but global restaurant chain (Rome, Milan, London, New York, Tokyo, Istanbul and Beverly Hills) will specialize, as it has since 2004, in one main ingredient: Mozzarella di Bufala Campana *DOP (denomination of protected origin.)

I know what you’re thinking: “How odd.” True enough, though after a sneak sampling this week, to that I answer: “But how delicious.”

Simplicity is where it’s at, at Obika Mozzarella Bar. As in the best varieties of mozzarella, including DOP Stracciatela di Burrata (like oozing cheesy cream heaven), Ricotta, and Smoked Provola. (The smoked one tastes like a Milanese cookout.) All of this prized mozzarella comes in tasting plates, salads, stuffed, or whipped into starters, pastas and pizzas. Oh yeah, and the city has a new contender for best tiramisu.

Onion and garlic aren’t used in this kitchen, so don’t come here if you’re looking for a spicy meat-a-ball-a! But do visit if you want to sit in a sunny downtown atrium and sip some crisp whites from Campania (or intense reds from Sicily and Tuscany) while eating pure, unadulterated authentic Italian food.

But really, mostly cheese.

Snack of the day

2011-05-06T14:52:00.007-04:00

Some things change and some things stay the same and I for one am glad that Cadbury Easter Creme Eggs are just as sickeningly sweet as ever, and that the company holds true to their promise of having them disappear after Easter. They could make some extra dough by selling them year-round, but they don't, and I admire that on some weird level.

I almost missed out on my annual egg but just bought one in the remainder bin at Loblaw's for 25 cents, and now it's gone.

See you again next year, old friend.

A midweek pick-me-up

2011-05-04T11:28:00.003-04:00

I was just clicking through old blog posts trying to find a recipe, and I happened upon this, which I had almost forgotten about. It made me chuckle anew. Hope it does the same for you.

I'm here to help: Part 2

As previously discussed in last week's blog entry called "I'm here to help", not everyone is a fan of my Dish column in the National Post. I'm specifically referring to an Ottawa-area herd of elk.

Here's the column, printed in April of last year, that almost got me sued.

GETTING IT ON IN THE KITCHEN

restaurants are finding partners in local farmers

Amy Rosen, National Post

"This is the first time in 20 years there's been any interest in 'local,'" says Andy Terauds, co-owner of Acorn Creek Farm. "So we finally fit in."

Terauds's farm is a 75-acre fruit-and-veg spread near Carp, Ont., and he's attending Ottawa's second annual Farmer-Chef Meet and Greet, which is basically a speed-dating event for local producers and chefs. Dreamed up by Savour Ottawa -- a joint initiative of the City of Ottawa, a non-profit organization called Just Food, Ottawa Tourism and Ontario Tourism -- the event is heating up at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier. From the looks of things, a lot of people are eager to promote local culinary products.

Landing a date is not always easy, but the Ottawa chefs making the rounds today seem to have no problem hooking up with area farmers, as they ramp up for the 2008 growing season.

There are intimate whispers of micro-greens and sweet promises of heirloom tomatoes.

Last year, Terauds's farm hooked up with Juniper restaurant, for which they provide some 55 varieties of lettuce. But they're still playing the field. So, too, Sandra Salmins of Wild Parrot Delectables, who's selling her greenhouse-grown "shoulder season" greens to several high-end Byward Market restaurants, including Domus, Eighteen and Luxe.

As for Elk Ranch -- which, last year, forged an ongoing love match with the Chateau Laurier -- well, let's just say every town needs its slut.

And then I printed a nice recipe for elk stuffed peppers.

Long story short, the Elk Ranch did not find the reference funny. In fact, they threatened a lawsuit unless I personally wrote a big feature about them. (At least they liked my writing.) Even now, I'm not sure what they were so upset about. (Who doesn't learn from her mistakes?) Did they really think I was calling their elks sluts? Can elks even be sluts?

As my editor expected, I refused to write a feature story about their farm, and my editor was also smart enough to write the apology for me, knowing I would likely make matters worse. It was printed a couple of weeks later at the bottom of my column. Here's what it said:

An apology: My column earlier this month about Ottawa's Farmer-Chef Meet and Greet contained an ill-considered joke about the popularity of Elk Ranch with local restaurants. I described the event as a date, and in noting Elk Ranch's success with the city's chefs, I took the metaphor too far. The intent wasn't to disparage or offend, and I apologize unreservedly to Elk Ranch for any offense taken.

As you can imagine, that Dish column got the most-ever hits.

Bountiful Brant

2011-04-29T11:50:00.004-04:00

Brantford, Ontario has been getting even more serious when it comes to identifying locally grown food, ever since bananas and oranges started showing up at 'Buy Local! Buy Fresh' designated farmers’ markets. So a group of local farmer’s wives banded together (they know who grows what around these lolling farmlands) and together they go into participating restaurants to do Bountiful Brant inspections.

The Homestead Café passes muster, especially so when they make their famous strawberry rhubarb pie each summer, while the Blue Dog’s apple fritters are made from apples from the orchard just down the road.

The ‘Bountiful Brant Buy Local! Buy Fresh’ map is available at locations throughout Brantford and the surrounding areas, leading you directly to farm gates and retail outlets listed by farmers, be they meats, vegetables or fruits.

Here’s a simple springtime rhubarb recipe from an Ontario town that pushes up its sleeves, knocks on doors, and makes sure that buying local is truly all that it's meant to be.

Rhubarb Crisp

Ingredients:

4 cups rhubarb, chopped

2/3 cup white sugar

1/2 cup flour

1/8 tsp salt

3/4 cup rolled oats

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup butter

Method:

1. Mix together rhubarb and sugar and leave at room temperature in an 8 x 8 pan for 30 minutes.

2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix flour, salt, rolled oats, brown sugar and butter together and sprinkle over rhubarb. Bake in 350 oven for 40 - 50 min.

From the archives

2011-04-22T10:22:00.008-04:00

Seeing as I’m knee deep in Passover this week, I’ve decided to take a look back at a Semitic-tinged story I wrote for enRoute magazine a couple of years ago: Forget Screech and cod. Kosher wine and gefilte fish are Newfoundland's hot new exports.

But before you get reading about that, here are two recent stories written by others, in which I have a wee guest role. First up, the horseradish tasting I participated in for A. Brouwer & A. Wilson's monthly Shelf Life column in the National Post. It was pretty funny stuff as we were totally dying during the tasting: Some of the horseradishes were beyond hot (read: Totally addictive.) Gotta get me some of that hot Kozliks!

It just so happens that the day that story came out, I was sitting in Caplansky’s, elbow deep in gefilte fish during the first annual Gefilte Fish Derby (round three of Battle of the Bubbies). A few of us were judging both peppery and sweet versions of this uniquely nostalgic dish, and Jennifer Bain, who was trying it for the first time (and against all odds, liked it) wrote about the event here.

At Caplansky's, not only did I learn that my friend Joanna’s mom, Andrea Sugar, now officially makes the best gefilte fish in Toronto, but that Caplansky’s has the best cheese cake in town. And apparently, award-winning Andrea Sugar has agreed to share her recipe with Zane Caplansky -- so soon enough they'll have the best gefilte fish in town, too.

Kosher Quality (from enRoute magazine)

A rabbi, a Newfoundlander and a fish walk into a bar... Why Newfoundland's burgeoning kosher industry is no joke.

BY AMY ROSEN

“Over-Gefilte-Fishing Sparks Greenpeace Cry for Gefilte-Fishing Moratorium” is the fairly hilarious headline on a fake news story I read recently, the joke being that gefilte fish is not a fish but in fact a traditional Jewish “delicacy” fashioned from chopped pickled carp covered in aspic and studded with boiled carrot. (Think of it as a cod cake in a yarmulke.) I recall this joke as I drive toward Fair Haven, Newfoundland, on a sunny spring afternoon, where everywhere I look there’s nothing but marble-blue ponds and rolling hills that will eventually tumble into the great Atlantic. I remember this joke because not only am I driving through the land of fish moratoriums, but I’m also headed toward Neptune Sea Products – Atlantic Canada’s only kosher-sanctioned secondary fish-processing plant, with a pit stop at the country’s only kosher winery.

Here in cod’s land, Bond Rideout Jr. leads me on a tour of his kosher processing plant, bought just a year ago, with gleaming white walls, concrete floors, high ceilings and stainless-steel everything else. I see hundreds of capelin, the tiny iridescent fish that start rolling into nearby coves during springtime, smoked and resting on racks.

“There’s no question that kosher is growing,” Rabbi Chaim Goldberg tells me over the phone from New York, in a voice that’s a cross between Jackie Mason and my cousin Irv. Goldberg is a Rabbinic Coordinator at the non-profit Orthodox Union (OU), the authority that, among other things, stages surprise inspections of kosher-certified institutions to make sure that everything’s, well, kosher. “As the world is getting more global, manufacturers in places that have never seen a Jew before, and may never see a Jew, see kosher as a very easy way to market their product.”

It’s a US$14-billion-a-year business in North America, say the reps at Manischewitz, the king of the kosher brands.

Newfoundland’s Neptune has secured a bissel of that kashruth pie by producing some 200 different products, from wasabi salmon to Cajun cod. Rideout figures Neptune Sea Products’ sales will top $2-million this year.

Typically, people have their own ideas of what kosher means, with “healthy,” “clean” and “pure” being common descriptors. While the A-okay from a mashgiach – the specially trained kosher inspector – has more to do with complex Talmudic and biblical laws than idyllic coastal scenes, even the non-observant perceive the OU symbol as a standard of excellence.

Local fishermen bring in all the codfish, mackerel and herring. Smoked salmon – cold-smoked on-site in one of six large smoker rooms, using a secret 400-year-old recipe from the Isle of Man – is the bestseller. “We only use fish that have fins and scales,” Rideout explains. “The other main thing is, my employees can’t bring in ham sandwiches for lunch.”

Danny Bath, a former fisherman who does research and development for Neptune, has just perfected a line of spreads that he’d like me to try. The cream cheese-based shmears are reminiscent of every happy Jewish brunch table I’ve ever noshed at, all smooth and creamy with an intoxicating natural wood-smoke finish. I almost single-handedly polish off two tubs, yet still want more. Products this good cross religious and cultural lines.

After leaving the plant, I drive about 15 minutes down a rural road to the Rodrigues Winery in Markland, where Hilary and Marie-France Rodrigues rolled out their first batch of fruit wine in 1993. This being Newfoundland’s first winery, the government ended up applying the same regulations as for a dairy: You couldn’t put milk in barrels, so you couldn’t put wine in barrels. In the end, the nonsensical rules that had forced the Rodrigueses to ferment their fruit wines in stainless-steel double-lined milk tanks made it easier to be kosher, as part of the process involves letting water boil in the tanks for a certain amount of time. The result: a tasty niche product and the only kosher and sulphite-free winery in Canada.

Rodrigues Winery now produces 12,000 cases a year, and its bottles are found on wine lists in restaurants like Bacalao in St. John’s to as far away as Japan. Made from hand-picked fruit, the kosher quaffs come in a dozen varieties, including local blueberries, cranberries and indigenous cloudberries harvested from creeping plants found on the northern peat bogs of Newfoundland and Labrador.

The Rodrigueses’ son, Lionel, leads me through a wine tasting. The blackcurrant wine tastes of pure local blackcurrants. The strawberry reminds me of the real thing – like juicy summer strawberries, not strawberry candy. Lionel says they’ve also held wine tastings at the Beth El synagogue in St. John’s, but when I ask if he’s heard that old joke about Jews not being big drinkers, he looks puzzled.

“Really?” he says. “At the temple tastings they seem to drink.” Then he takes another thoughtful sip of his kosher blueberry wine and concludes, “But then again, we’re all Newfoundlanders.”

Snacksapalooza

2011-04-15T10:28:00.006-04:00

One of the things I like about working at Canadian House & Home magazine, is that over in the wee editorial section we have what's called Snack Thursdays, and it’s fairly serious stuff. There’s a schedule for it and everything, and god forbid you forget it’s your turn and show up empty handed, everyone will ignore you and Katie G. will tear you a new one.

I think Kimberley B. is the unofficial snack queen, as she’s a great baker and usually finds a way to swirl cream cheese into her treats (always a good idea.) Gwen usually dials it in (Timbits, Gwen. Really?) But all in all it’s always enjoyable and breaks up the Thursday doldrums.

And now for some late-breaking news about a totally new, snacky site: The girls over in design also enjoy their afternoon treats, so much so that Leslie and Jenn have just launched a handy blog that I’m sure is going to take the snack-loving Internet by storm.

As for the National Nosh, I’ve blogged about snacks many times before, such as here, here, here and here. Here too. And lest we forget, here? That said, I’m always open to new snack discoveries, and look forward to visiting the gals in design, both a few steps away in the office, and now freshly minted, on the Internet at Work Snacks.

Finally, Passover, that most unleavened of Jewish holidays, starts on Monday, so please be kind to your Jewish friends all next week, even if they're acting more grumpy than usual. (They're probably a little constipated.) Or, go one step further and bring a smile to their punims by making this totally tasty Passover snack.

Snack of the day

2011-04-08T22:12:00.004-04:00

I was in NYC last week, visiting with friends then attending a conference, but darn it if I didn't partake of some of the great street food Manhattan has to offer. With everything from falafel to tacos on four wheels, the best new snack I tried was a bag of warm roasted coconut chunks covered in caramelized sugar.

I'm going to figure out how to make these nutty, crunchy, soft and sweet bites of heaven (because I must. Have. More. Right. Now) and will get back to you with a recipe. In the meantime, if you happen to know how to make them, please. Tell. Me. Now.

Eat Here: Earls Toronto

2011-03-31T17:39:00.011-04:00

How many times have I been to Vancouver? Twenty times? Thirty? Seven? I actually have no idea, but what I do know is that every time I'm there I spot an Earls restaurant, and I wonder about it.

I wonder what hold this West Coast-sprung restaurant chain has on the denizens of Vancouver. I wonder why a day doesn't go by that a Left Coaster doesn't bring up a pasta dish, a burger, dessert or some fond memory that happened at Earls. And now with my Ask Amy column in House & Home magazine, whereby readers write in requesting favourite restaurant recipes, I get weekly emails from people asking for specific Earls recipes. Note to those people: Earls will not divulge any of their "secret" recipes.

So, weighing all the aforementioned evidence, I obviously started thinking that Earls was putting drugs in their food. And even with that impetus, I still never ate there. Too many other great restaurants crammed into fleeting Vancouver visits. Too little inclination. I was interested on one level, but turned off on another.

Then came news that Earls was launching a huge restaurant in Toronto's Financial District, just a few city blocks from where I work. And then came the invite to the tasting party prior to the big opening, mere blocks from where I work. And you know what? I went. And you know what else? Very tasty!

I loved the look of the place, a big bold T.O. meets West Coast 10,000 square foot statement, where steel and glass meet stone and marble. Locally grown and seasonal produce cooked from scratch is what they specialize in; from burgers to sushi to steaks, signature sandwiches and hip-worthy desserts. Fantastic wine list mulled over iPads, fun cocktails, and even a Toronto-specific house brew. Little wonder the place has been packed since day one.

And now I don't have to fly all the way to Vancouver to be annoyed by people who won't shut up about how great Earls is.

Springtime! (Um, hello?)

2011-03-24T09:59:00.007-04:00

If you live in Toronto you'll know that Old Man Winter and Jack Frost played a bit of a joke on us this week (and I've got a sneaking suspicion Mother Nature had something to do with it too), when they dumped a foot of snow on our fair city, just as I was beginning to take my undiagnosed springtime allergy pills again.

But they can't stop the asparagus from coming up, those tasty green and white spears are like vegetal clockwork, letting us know that spring has finally arrived, especially in Germany, where Spargelsaison rivals Christmas.

I just had my first batch of the year, white meaty, butter-poached white spears, at Nota Bene, imported from Holland, topped with a smack-your-mama Hollandaise sauce. They were awesome, and at $19 for four spears, they were also worth their weight in gold. (Money saving tip: make your own easy Hollandaise here.)

If spring won't truly come, at least we can fake it with a taste of it.

Burgers in Bouludland

2011-03-17T18:21:00.005-04:00

I'm kind of busy but also feeling kind of dopey and allergetic (instead of energetic), so this week let's dip into the well for a food story I wrote a few years ago for enRoute magazine that ended up being featured in the "Best Food Writing 2008" anthology. I was reminded of this story recently, when I read this amazing piece in the Atlantic, which basically calls out the Best Food Writing anthologies as a blight on humanity. Even so, I agree with about 81% of B.R. Myers' argument.

Someone’s in the Kitchen with Daniel

A private cooking lesson with Daniel Boulud shows why he’s cut out to be a French chef – and you’re not.

Here’s why Daniel Boulud’s burger is better than yours: Ordering the original DB Burger served at the chef’s Manhattan restaurant, DB Bistro Moderne, buys you ground sirloin stuffed with succulent braised short ribs, foie gras and preserved black truffle, made to order on a freshly baked Parmesan bun. The accompanying pommes frites, served in a parchment-lined silver cone, taste more potatoey than any fries I’ve had before.

Momentarily lost in the reverie that is love at first bite, meat juice dripping clear past my watchband, I realize too late that I’m actually meant to use a fork and knife to eat the thing, like the businessmen surrounding me who also wisely removed their suit jackets in anticipation. “Yes, that is what most people do,” volunteers my waiter as I lick my elbows clean.

Bottom line: Daniel Boulud is an evil genius – and if this burger were single and Jewish, I would marry it. In what must be a culinary first, the superthick stuffed patty sees the shredded short ribs actually cutting the fattiness of the foie and sirloin. What’s more, the short rib stuffing involves numerous steps, the most impressive being pouring three bottles of dry red wine into a saucepan and then setting it aflame. Boulud has taken an essential yet basic piece of Americana and spirited it into a technique-driven masterpiece.

Boulud’s pantry is stocked, like most in his culinary bracket, with the cream of the seasonal crop, a legacy perhaps of being raised on the family farm in Lyon. But it’s the way the chef handles his raw materials with a neurosurgeon-like attention to detail that must be the secret ingredient. This becomes clear after witnessing him at work during a private cooking lesson, post-burger. I’m here to learn how he transforms something even more pedestrian than the humble beef patty. I mean, it’s one thing to make an easy crowd-pleaser like his oft-copied haute burger, but it’s another thing altogether to make a potato and leek soup into, well, soupe.

I meet him in the small catering kitchen of Daniel, his flagship restaurant, just down the hall from the gleaming service kitchen. Boulud arrives wearing a pristine chef’s jacket, a perfect suntan and a Cheshire grin. I instantly deem him charming, creative and meticulous. In short, he’s a French chef. (And no offence to the burger, but if he were single and Jewish, I’d marry him too.)

We set to work on a cold potage Parisien purée with sorrel. “First, you make a soup with potato and leeks and good chicken stock. And then, separately, you blanch Boston lettuce and sorrel in salted water.” He squeezes out the water. “Then you boil a little bit of cream. Et voilà. ” Boulud pours it all into an industrial-grade blender and sticks his spoon into the running blender, which ranks as the second most dangerous thing I’ve ever witnessed. He adds salt and pepper – “always be seasoning” – a little more stock for that bull’s eye consistency, and then he sticks his finger into the moving blender for a taste, which is, hands down, the most dangerous thing I’ve ever witnessed. After the chartreuse-coloured soup is strained and cooled, he dollops a fluffy cloud of whipped cream atop the bowl, explaining that the quality of the ingredients, the seasonality and the technique make even a simple dish sublime.

But he’s not done yet. “And now we have some caviar floating on the cream,” he says (of course we do), at which point he starts spoon-feeding me his own line of Caspian osetra straight from the tin. Then the chef employs such gravitas while meticulously arranging fresh sorrel leaves and wee homemade melba rounds around the bowl’s outsize rim that I’m just waiting for him to pull out a ruler and calipers. Meanwhile, the cream and caviar gently loll atop the soup before slowly creeping over it like delicious sea foam. “ Et voilà! ” We both sneak a spoonful. Mmmm.

Sensing the caviar boosts the bottom line and recalling the price of my lunchtime burger ($32), I ask the chef how much he would charge for this lovely potage if it were on the menu. And with that, he laughs the laugh of a man who’d charge $90 for a bowl of soup.

I’m capping off my day in Bouludland on the other side of the kitchen door. The look of Daniel is that of a typical Park Avenue building built in the 1920s: columns and pilasters, velvet settees in the lounge and well-spaced tables in the dining room. It’s like entering a fancy restaurant scene in a big-budget movie, and, before long, I start to feel like Marie Antoinette as a stable of liveried servers refolds napkins, refills champagne flutes and presents us with a three-tiered silver tray of amuse-bouches to start. I half expect them to slip off my boots and start fitting me with bespoke Parisian footwear.

Following a remarkable dinner and the chariot des fromages, a series of desserts is upon us, including a vacherin à la violette, canneberges et litchis that is almost too beautiful for words. Dressed in a pastel-coloured frock of teardrop meringues, it is delicate, sweet and crunchy… By my count, it incorporates no fewer than seven textures, three temperatures and a dozen delightful flavour components, including, I suspect, marshmallow.

Just as I’m marvelling at the artistry of the thing, Daniel Boulud, who’s been working the room in his chef’s whites, approaches the table, still sporting that Cheshire grin. All I can think is, this is one happy man. He’s using an impeccable foundation of technique and inherent talent to turn meringue into magic and burgers into bliss. Something like that would make me happy, too.

Especially if I could charge 90 bucks for a bowl of soup.

Three-star eats

2011-03-11T07:49:00.006-05:00

This photo is of one of the 369 appetizers I ate while on a recent trip to Baiersbronn, Germany, researching a story I’m writing for enRoute magazine.

Part of the trip involved eating at Michelin starred restaurants, with each meal clocking in at roughly 4.5 hours. Very time consuming and filling! But also, surprisingly fun. (And obviously, totally delish.) You can read all about my experiences sometime later this year (if you choose), but in the meantime I can tell you this: I was stunned by how approachable three-star Michelin dining could be. Sure, the service was over the top, yet at the same time, sort of personable and chummy. The food was impeccable, out of this world, but not of the heavy old-world playbook I had been expecting.

That’s all I’ll say for now, as I fear I’ve already said too much, yet I still feel compelled to finish with this tip: You can dine at three-star Michelin restaurants in Baiersbronn, for as little as $185 euros per person. Compare that with what a three-star would cost you in Paris (eg. Guy Savoy is at least double that), which is probably why there were so many Viennese and Parisians filling the gleaming German dining rooms.

Imagine: A flight to Frankfurt then a speedy two-hour train ride, and you’re in the Black Forest eating a five-hour meal.

Guten Appetit!

Change is delicious

2011-03-03T18:53:00.005-05:00

I just realized that I’m about eight months into my first-ever office job, more than beating the odds set by most of my family and friends, who figured I’d last about two minutes in an office.

“You’ll have to set an alarm in the morning,” they cautioned.

“Everyone will hate you,” they warned.

“You’re not as funny as you think you are,” they said.

“What does my inherent hilarity have to do with working in an office?” I asked.

“Nothing. We just thought you should know that you’re not that funny.”

Either way, I’m still here, as Food Editor at House & Home magazine, and pretty much loving it. It sure helps that my co-workers are that winning combo of smart, funny and nice. And Snack Thursdays in the editorial department have turned out to be an unexpected boon. Also, being able to work here part time while continuing on with my freelance gigs is just what the doctor ordered.

We’ve been getting great feedback on the food features, and so far Lynda hasn’t fired me. And Suzanne must have some faith in me too, because as of May there will be a bigger and better stand-alone food section in the magazine for the first time ever. (Psst! It looks great.)

I’m also pretty excited about the April issue (it hits stands in about a week), as it features a bunch of incredible recipes from Milos restaurant. Quite a coup (if I do say so myself), including the Milos Special, which ranks as one of the single best things I have ever eaten in a restaurant.

I have to say that this job, this change, has been good for me. I’m learning new skills every day, especially at the photo shoots where I'm left in awe of the creativity of our food and prop stylists, like Ashley and Sasha. (By the way, Ashley is a man, and those are his hairy knuckles in the photo, not mine.)

So it turns out my family and friends had nothing to worry about after all: I may just make it to a year.

And by the way, my new office friends think I’m hilarious.

Eat here: Satteleihuette

2011-02-25T03:16:00.006-05:00

This is a meal from one of four huts in the Baiersbronn hiking region, deep within Germany's Black Forest. The "hut" is a gorgeous post and beam structure, while the menu of traditional local food is carved into wooden menus; your order then served by smiling women in dirndls.

The fire burned brightly as both hikers and villagers out for a stroll, put down their walking sticks and picked up glasses of beer and Riesling, and forks with which to dig into plates of traditional ravioli sided by creamy potato salad, beef soup, meatballs, and apple cake with whipped cream.

You know, a nice light lunch.

On buttermilk and bananas

2011-02-17T16:51:00.003-05:00

Not sure what to do with an over ripe banana and that last bit of buttermilk?

Ring, ring

"Hello?"

"Hi there, it's Mr. Obvious calling for Ms. Pancakes..."

Peanut butter chocolate banana buttermilk pancakes

(serves 4)

Ingredients:

1 cup flour

1 1/4 tsp baking powder

¼ tsp tsp baking soda

1 tbsp sugar

¼ tsp salt

3/4 cup buttermilk

1 large egg

3 tbsp butter, melted

1 large ripe banana, thinly sliced

¼ cup President's Choice new Mini Peanut Butter Melts (note: Yum!)

a touch of butter or oil for cooking the pancakes

maple syrup

Method:

In a medium bowl blend together dry ingredients, then mix in remaining ingredients until combined. Batter will be thick.

Heat large frying pan or griddle over medium heat and fry pancakes in batches (they should take a few minutes per batch.) You’ll know they’re done when they’re golden on both sides and cooked through. Drizzle with a touch of maple syrup and enjoy.

The Wick

2011-02-11T19:22:00.007-05:00

This afternoon we arrived at the Wick in the majestic wilds of Tofino, British Columbia. It's raining, as it should be. This is storm season.

We just inhaled the perfect "snack" of fresh cut fries topped with braised short ribs and blue cheese, washed down with a highball dark and stormy, stirred together with house-made ginger beer and rum. Sadly, the blue cheese wasn't local. "Unfortunately, nobody makes cheese in Tofino," said our waiter, "that blue cheese is from the other side of the island."

I lurve it here.

Snack of the day

2011-02-04T10:51:00.003-05:00

This bar of chocolate I bought in Grenada is the Best. Chocolate. Evah.

It’s the mellowest dark I’ve tried, with an intriguingly off-putting initial burst of earthiness, which quickly dissipates into a rich milky fruity mouthful -- and all with the added appeal of a cocoa nibs crunch. There’s something to be said for purity of flavour. To wit, the ingredients list on this chocolate bar? Organic cocoa beans, fresh organic cane sugar, organic cocoa butter, organic cocoa nibs, organic soy lecithin and organic vanilla beans.

So, like I said, best chocolate ever, and that’s really saying something, because if you know anything about me at all, you must know how much I love chocolate.

Basically, it’s always on mind. For instance, I mention it here and here.

And also here.

Plus here, and here, and who could forget about here?

And that's just the half of it.

P.S. Chocolate!

More of an idea than a recipe

2011-01-28T11:25:00.004-05:00

Still keeping up with those New Year’s resolutions of cleaner eating and more exercise? Ha! I knew you couldn’t do it. (Kidding.)

Here’s an easy dish for packing in the nutrients and the flavour. It’s kind of a take on couscous, though instead of being made with that wee pasta, it features one of my favourite superfoods, quinoa.

To make it, all you do is cook about 1.5 cups of rinsed quinoa in double the amount of water (if I had stock on hand I would have used it instead for an extra flavour boost.) While it simmers away, drain and rinse a can up chickpeas, slice and dice some veggies (green onion, grape tomatoes, orange pepper and the like, plus loads of fresh parsley), and juice a fat lemon into some olive oil.

Once the quinoa is cooked, fluff it with a fork, let it cool, then toss everything together in a bowl and season the lot with sea salt and black pepper and chili flakes. Then let it sit in the fridge for a couple of hours before eating so the flavours marry.

This stuff has legs: Pop some into a Tupperware and you can call it lunch, side it will some broiled fish or chicken and you can call it dinner, or, stick a spoon into it and you can call it a snack.

Fear not, the haggis

2011-01-21T14:07:00.004-05:00

Robbie Burns day is Tuesday, January 25. And you know what that means, don’t you? Scottish poetry and peaty tipples and that famous Scottish take on stuffed derma -- haggis!

Executive Chef David Garcelon has created Haggis Sliders to celebrate the beloved poet Robbie Burns and his Scottish heritage (just when you thought the slider had jumped the shark with President’s Choice's recipe for Korean BBQ Angus Sliders) the Haggis Sliders will be available in The Library Bar at Toronto’s Fairmont Royal York and can be paired with one of 25 varieties of Scotch or 22 types of beer including their exclusive rooftop honey beer, the Royal Stinger.

Here’s the problem: I’ve always wanted to try haggis, yet up to now the opportunity had always eluded me. And since I have a prior engagement on the eve of Robbie Burns day, it looked like another year was going to go by without me tasting this traditional dish.

But not so fast. My friend Melanie happens to be the head PR gal at the Royal York, and she had some sliders sent to my house today so that I could finally cross haggis off of my life to-do list. (And that’s what makes Melanie so awesome.) And you know what happened? I ate them. And you know what? Very delicious offal! The taste is not unlike regular beef sliders, albeit with a softer bite, a touch of allspice and a minerally, livery undercurrent. The sesame brioche buns, tomato chutney, crispy onions, a touch of mayo and pickled onion and gherkin garnishes are all thoughtful and work well in helping the haggis go down.

If you can’t make your way to the Library Bar on Tuesday and don’t mind going to the butcher to load up on gobs of innards and suet, here’s the Royal York’s haggis recipe. Be sure to accompany it with a glass of neat Scotch whisky and a heart full of good cheer.

The Royal York’s Robbie Burns Day sliders and pairings are available from 12pm through to 1:00 a.m. on Tuesday January 25, 2011. Also, click here for more haggis happenings around Toronto.

Traditional Haggis

Ingedients:

1 large sausage casing

5 cups dry coarse or steel cut oatmeal

1 lb. (0.5 kg) chopped suet

1 lb. (0.5 kg) lamb or venison liver, braised then minced

2 cups beef or lamb stock

Lamb liver and kidney, boiled and minced

1 large chopped onion

1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. allspice

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. pepper

Method:

1. Toast oatmeal slowly until crisp. Mix all ingredients (except stomach bag) together. Add stock.

2. Fill bag to just over half full, press out air, and tie-up securely. Have ready a large pot of boiling water. Prick the haggis all over with a large pin so it doesn't burst. Simmer slowly for 3-4 hours.

3. Serve with “neeps an tatties”, a traditional Scottish dish that combines mashed potatoes and swede turnips with chives, butter or drippings, and salt and pepper.

Kickass Korean Tofu

2011-01-13T18:54:00.003-05:00

After printing a series of blog posts about chocolate, shortbread, truffles and cheesy bread pudding, I had some requests to stop trying to kill you all, and instead, go back to my usual amenable ways of offering up healthy and tasty dishes for eating well.

So I guess you can add “good listener” to my list of “winning personality traits”. (And add “humility” to the list of “needs improvement.”)

Kickass Korean-style Tofu (Adapted from Gourmet)

(serves four)

Ingredients:

1 package soft or medium (but not silken and not firm) tofu

1 garlic clove, minced

1/4 cup green onion, finely chopped

1 tbsp roasted sesame seeds (tip: You can buy Japanese-style sesame seeds as they often come roasted)

2-3 tbsp Tamari or soy sauce

1/2 tbsp toasted sesame oil

1 tsp sriracha sauce

½ tsp sugar

Method:

1. Rinse block of tofu, then cover with cold water in a medium saucepan. Bring to a simmer, shut off heat, then cover and keep warm until eating.

2. While the tofu warms up, prepare sauce by combining ingredients above.

3. Just before serving, gently lift tofu from saucepan and drain on paper towels. Pat dry, then transfer to a plate and spoon some sauce overtop, serving remaining sauce on the side. Garnish with a bit more fresh green onion if you’re feeling fancy.

Be warned: This is addictive stuff. I almost ate the whole tofu block by myself in one sitting.

Cookie Dough Truffles

2010-12-31T11:02:00.004-05:00

The interesting thing about fantastic recipes found on the Internet is that most are viral so you really don't know where they originated, even though better blogs usually give credit where credit’s due.

Take this amazing (and amazingly egg-free) recipe for Cookie Dough Truffles as an example. Someone brought them into work as a treat, and said she got the recipe from one of her favourite blogs, The Girl Who Ate Everything, who in turn got if from Annie’s Eats, who adapted it from Mel’s Kitchen, who snatched it from Taste of Home, where this contest-winning recipe first appeared circa-2005 -- and with the inclusion of walnuts, no less.

Now it’s here, on the National Nosh.

Where will it show up next? Only Kevin Bacon knows for sure, but for the time being, here’s the scrumptious recipe.

Cookie Dough Truffles 

Ingredients: 

8 Tbsp unsalted butter, at room temperature 

¾ cup light brown sugar, packed 

2¼ cup all-purpose flour 

1 (14 oz.) can sweetened condensed milk 

1 tsp vanilla extract 

½ cup mini semisweet chocolate chips 

1½ lb. semisweet (or bittersweet) chocolate, coarsely chopped Mini chocolate chips (for garnish)

Method:  

1. Combine the butter and sugar in a mixing bowl and cream on medium-high speed until light and fluffy, about 2 minutes. Beat in the flour, sweetened condensed milk and vanilla until incorporated and smooth. Stir in the chocolate chips. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until the mixture has firmed up enough to form balls.

2. Shape the chilled cookie dough mixture into 1-1½ inch balls. Place on a baking sheet lined with wax paper. Cover loosely, transfer the pan to the freezer and chill for 1-2 hours.

3. When ready to dip the truffles, melt the chopped chocolate in a heatproof bowl set over a pot of simmering water. Dip each chilled truffle, one at a time, coating in chocolate and shaking gently to remove the excess. (If at any point during dipping, the cookie dough balls become too soft, return to the freezer to chill for 30 minutes.) Transfer to a wax-paper lined surface. If using mini chocolate chips for garnish, sprinkle on top quickly after dipping each truffle before the chocolate sets. Once all the truffles have been dipped, store them in the refrigerator until ready to serve.

Source: Originally from Taste of Home

Amy’s Awesome 2011 Food Trends Forecast

2010-12-23T15:26:00.004-05:00

The end of the year can only mean one thing: Summary year-end lists and trends forecasting. Here’s mine, from the January issue of House & Home magazine. The list is the same, but the writing isn’t (trying not to plagiarize myself here), so enjoy, and try them out, and why not pass them along? Here they are, in no particular order. I, for one, think we have a lot of delicious things to look forward to in 2011. Let me know if you agree. (And go suck an egg if you don't.)

1. Pop-Tarts Redux: Nostalgia never goes out of style. Case in point, the reemergence of that childhood favourite, the Pop-Tart. The world’s first pop-up Pop-Tart restaurant recently launched in Times Square, where the iconic toasted confection is being spun into menu items like the Fluffer Butter, marshmallow spread sandwiched between two Pop-Tarts frosted fudge pastries; and Sticky Cinna Munchies -- cinnamon rolls topped with cream-cheese icing and chunks of Pop-Tarts cinnamon-roll variety. But we prefer the slightly healthier home-baked varieties using simple wholesome ingredients via internet-spawned viral recipes.

2. Greek-style Yogurt: Yogurt is one of the fastest growing segments in the supermarket, and Greek-style yogurt, specifically is in high demand. Why? It’s thick, rich-tasting and delicious. When topped with good quality honey, it also makes for a dessert-worthy dish of Greek decadence. What’s more, doctors and magazines such as Cooking Light agree that eating a snack with protein rather than just carbs can help curb hunger, which in turn keeps daily calories in check, and this is where this new generation of thick low-fat yogurt comes in extra handy. With our favourite brand, Fage, finally hitting Canadian stores, we’re eating more of it than ever. Added bonuses: It’s rich in B12 (perfect for fighting off those winter blues) and is full of good-for-your-belly live bacteria.

3. Friendly Butchers: Last year the culinary rock stars were organic farmers, but this year it’s the friendly butcher’s turn to shine. People are taking butchery courses, are raising their own animals (or buying a share in one), and befriending the hip baseball-capped meat purveyors behind the shiny counters at new organic spots such as Kensington Market’s Sanagan’s Meat Locker or the consistently smiley service at stalwarts like Cumbrae's and Armando’s on Granville Island. Our newly forged relationships mean our butchers know what we like and will go to the back to get us the grass-fed hormone free beef that we desire.

4. Coconut Water: We’re touting it as this year’s “it” food. From its pure, potassium-rich water to its virgin oil being spun into products ranging from skin care to nutritional supplements (helping in the realms of digestion and high blood pressure), the coconut’s benefits are attributed to lauric adicd, capric acid and capyrlic acid. But let’s not forget its toasted flakes topping our buttercream-iced cupcakes or its rich milk stirred into our favourite curries. We also wouldn’t say no to a pina colada right about now. Still, the slightly sweet water straight from the young green coconut is perhaps the purest form of our favourite new ingredient (though we also enjoy the Vita Coco and Zico brands when we can’t get it fresh from the nut.)

5. Smoked everything: We loved it in BarChef’s Smoked Manhattan, in our favourite new smoked finishing salt and in our smoked meats, be it a Montreal smoked meat sandwich at Caplansky’s or the perfect BBQ at Brooklyn’s Fatty ‘Cue. Smoke is everywhere this year, and we’re totally addicted to its earthy, warming appeal. How to get the taste at home? While chefs prize their Big Green Eggs, we’re secretly coveting the Kalamaoo Outdoor Gourmet K900HS hybrid freestanding grill (starting at a mere $15,895). Bottom line: From mesquite wood chips to BBQ sauce, smoke is hot.

6. Fried Chicken: Dished out from Harlem soul food kitchens to upmarket Jean-George’s restaurants, fried chicken is eaten down south, up north and throughout the belly of Canada. We’ve discovered that Korean chicken joints make some of the best stuff around – and Momofuku’s David Chang recently invented the superlative take on Korean fried chicken. Be it the Popeye’s chain or Thomas Keller’s crunchy dish at Ad Hoc, this is simple home cooking that’s also a finger licking guilty pleasure.

7. Young Chef Brigade: A new breed of chefs in their twenties and thirties aren’t waiting around to be given the chance to helm a kitchen – instead they’re making their own kitchens, and everything goes in them, in their largely bare-bones, nose-to-tail, field-to-table restaurants opened on a shoestring budget (in restaurant terms.) For instance, Toronto chef Nathan Iseberg opened The Atlantic with an initial budget of just $600!

8. Urban Bee Keeping: We’ve gone from growing herbs and heirloom vegetable gardens, to raising backyard chickens (for eggs) and now urban bee keeping. Some cities allow beekeeping, some ignore it and others have bylaws that restrict or ban the activity. Calgary has nothing on the books that doesn’t allow for keeping honeybees, providing they’re not a nuisance, while Ontario has a provincial regulation that does not allow bee hives within 100 ft of a property line. That said, from Manhattan rooftops to neighbourhood hives, we’re all abuzz about joining the ranks of these pollinating superstars, and we can’t wait to get our hands on the UK- designed urban bee hive called the Beehaus. Plus, it goes without saying that their sweet honey is the bee’s knees.

9. Kale Chips: A powerhouse of a vegetable married with a tasty crunchy snack? Who knew that eating our rich leafy greens could taste so sinful? Places like Live Food Bar and better health food stores have started packaging and selling them and Mark Bittman even showed us how to make them at the NYTimes web site: That’s what called hitting critical kale chip mass.

10. Fregola Sarda: This tiny toasted handmade Sardinian pasta has a unique nutty flavour and addictively tender bite. It’s also good for you; it has less carbs more dietary fibre and fewer calories than a typical pasta. Cooked in broth like rice, it’s a saucy side dish complimenting a simple fish dishes or rustic roasted meats, but cooked then cooled like Israeli couscous, it also makes for a great salad. It's popping up on rustic Italian restaurant menus from Noce in Toronto to Manhattan's hot new the Lambs Club.

That's all for now. Best wishes from the National Nosh, for a healthy, happy and delicious new year. And please, don’t forget to cook!

Snack of the day

2010-12-17T10:55:00.005-05:00

They're not quite a chocolate bar and not really like M&M's -- though these new Hershey's Drops won't melt in your hands.

At first I was skeptical: They're a little too big for popping by the mittful, sort of waxy looking, and they don't even come wrapped in a candy shell. How was this chocolate experience going to go down?

I guess the idea here is portion control. You know; having a bite instead of a bar. (Does that ever really work?)

The press release that came with these soon-to-be-released treats (look for them in stores in January) explains how the drops feature "a milk chocolate recipe that was developed specifically for the Canadian palate and launched in 2009. Understanding that people in different countries have different taste and experience preferences, Hershey Canada has brought together the 'right amount of chocolate' with the 'right amount of creaminess' for Canadians in a new format!"

Apparently, we Canucks have grown accustomed to the sweeter and creamier British-style chocolate, so this chocolate is just for us.

And while I may not be in love with the new Hershey's Drops as a snack food, talk to me after I've finished my mug of "Hershey's Drops" hot chocolate this afternoon.

The most wonderful time of the year

2010-12-10T12:52:00.003-05:00

Just because I don’t celebrate it, doesn’t mean I can’t love Christmas. Sure, there’s no tinselly tree in my home, no red stockings hung by the chimney with care, but oh holly, jolly, ‘tis the season for catching up with family and friends, drinking in both sparkling and creamy good cheer, but best of all, eating shortbread. Lots and lots of shortbread.

Some of it comes by way of the office, other times via cookie exchanges. Some shortbread is nibbled at parties, while more still is baked in my very own oven – but once a year, using one of my best-loved recipes.

But every so often, if you’re lucky enough, some of it, like this famous handmade, all butter Mary Macleod’s Shortbread, gets dropped off at your front door (Santa?)

Sold out of her Queen Street East shop in Toronto, but also at spots like Holt Renfrew (where only the best will do) there’s a real Mary behind the shortbread, a 70-something Scottish granny who has been baking up her biscuits out of her shop for clients near and far, for over 30 years.

Best bets: The traditional shortbread wedges, and signature chocolate crunch rounds. Even better bet? Seeing as they look homemade (because they are homemade), pile them into your own tins and Tupperware and claim them as your own.

I won't tell if you don't. Though, Santa may be watching...

Gratuitous banana shot

2010-12-03T18:46:00.007-05:00

I've been travelling a little too much lately, so right off the bat I'm going to admit that this is going to be a pretty lame blog posting -- yet not as lame as you would think.

Why am I changing my mind mid-sentence?

First of all, this post is going to inform you that I've been in both Grenada and Montreal over the past week, and have eaten sublimely on each island. Some of my culinary findings will be showing up in future stories in House & Home magazine, on the Food & Wine blog, in the National Post, and yes, right here on the National Nosh.

There's the housekeeping bit out of the way.

So why else isn't this blog posting super lame? Because it includes a photo of a monkey eating a banana!!

Eat here: The Tasting Room

2010-11-24T18:18:00.004-05:00

The Tasting Room, on Seattle’s Post Alley, is a spot to sip the state’s finest wines and nibble plates of local Beecher’s cheese while improving your high score at Boggle. It’s practically the definition of a hidden gem. I had almost forgotten about my visit there last December, until I saw the list of Oprah’s Ultimate Favourite Things from her annual show this week, and Beecher’s Mac and Cheese made the grade (good cheese makes good mac and cheese, natch.)

In other breaking news, I’m off to Grenada for a week, where I’ll be cooking and hiking and snorkeling and visiting rum distilleries and waterfalls, a chocolate factory and a nutmeg processing station, I’ll be river tubing and … it would appear, not doing a lot of relaxing.

No biggy: That’s what places like the Tasting Room are for.

A bit of a pickle

2010-11-18T17:10:00.008-05:00

I really wanted to blow your socks off today. I wanted to write the best blog post ever -- teach you something that you never knew was possible, that you never imagined could happen in our lifetime.

But then I sat here for a solid two minutes and couldn't think of a damn thing.

The tank was empty. The well was dry. (But the cliches were 'a flowing.)

I blamed it on the low pressure system, the fact that I woke up with the sniffles, that I didn't have my sweet tea this morning, that I was over-worked, that my jeans were too tight, that TV sucks now that True Blood and Mad Men are gone for the year (though I am buoyed by the return of Dexter). Yet I only had myself to blame. (As always.)

So I went to the kitchen to grab a snack. I was feeling peckish for a pickle. And that's when I noticed the empty jar.

In other words, the last straw.

And yet, friends, what happened next is the kind of thing that kitchen lore is made of.

I took that jar, void of pickles yet full of brine, and held it firmly in my hand as I raised it skyward to curse the gods.

And that's when inspiration struck.

No, I didn't pour myself a pickle back (which, by the by is mentioned as one of my Food News items in the latest issue of House & Home magazine.) Instead, I decided that I was going to make some more pickles. Right there, right then.

I don’t think that this is considered “food safe”, but this empty jar of amazing pickles had been gifted to me by the great chefs at Charcut Roast House in Calgary, and as previously mentioned, I was really, really sad that they were gone. But looking at the jar, still teaming with that delicious brine, I decided to slice up half a cucumber and make a batch of refrigerator pickles.

They won’t last long (especially since I’m going to finish them off today), but I thought it was a tasty way of extending some special pickle brine while also being terrific fodder for today's blog post.

I guess you could call me a “the pickle jar is half full” kind of gal.