Food/Drink
I was at the farmers market looking for Brussels sprout for a recipe and was able to find an entire stalk worth of sprouts. The most shocking thing about them is that the largest ones were fist sized at which point I would call them mini cabbages rather than Brussels sprouts.
The best thing about making food yourself is that you can make it any way you would like. I won’t pretend to be a french pastry expert but I was able to make mini and large macaroon. The mini ones were smaller than a quarter and made pretty good bite sized snacks while the large ones were almost the size of my hand and though were not the easiest to eat were interesting at the very least. I had them in the oven for just a bit too long so they did start to brown a bit but taste was not affected.
Pulling once again from a particularly favourite movie of mine a breakfast favourite of mine is eggy in a basket which is a fried egg and toast 2 in 1. Its easy to make quite literally only requiring bread and an egg but requires some practice to ensure that bread is toasted and egg is cooked. My trick for this is frying up the bread for ~1min before cracking the egg in so that everything cooks at the same time.
I feel like ramen is a min/max dish where either it takes 2 minutes or 2 days. I recently got my hands on some miso paste and decided to take a crack and homemade ramen.
I started of with making a dashi which I can only explain as an umami bomb using bonito flakes and kombu. The broth I made from chicken bones and vegetable scraps (typical broth). I also trialled soy soaked eggs which I soft boiled to the exact point where the yolks were still perfectly runny (I clearly could have let them soak for a bit longer) and added some shiitake mushrooms. As can be seen in the picture I also added a lot of green onions (and may have overdone it) which is a personal favourite of mine and you can never have enough.
I have a particular love for chanterelle mushrooms but unfortunately they are very hard to come by here in Canada. Not much to note but they make a phenomenal cream of mushroom sauce and a few slices of parmigiano reggiano as garnish tie it all together.
I was initially introduced to this dish while working at Toyota where this was available once a week for lunch and quickly fell in love with it. It is a very filling, tasty and balanced dish that is one of the great comfort foods. It is not a typical curry with a much sweeter flavour (not to say that it is sweet) and the potatoes and carrots are also a unique addition but this truly is an amazing dish.
Obviously drawing inspiration from the Pixar movie this was a fun recipe that is great for larger celebrations (Easter/Christmas). It is heavily important to ensure that all vegetables are of uniform size which is much easier said then done as finding zucchini, eggplant, tomatoes all in the same size can be difficult. It requires a bit of prep-work but once prepared can be easily baked while working on other things. I have trialled 2 versions, one classic with the typical vegetable and the other an improved modified version with a mix of alternating potatoes and bacon which add a nice taste to the vegetables (bacon>vegetables). To ensure size consistency I slice the vegetables on a mandolin but sometimes have to go by hand.
The B-52 shot is a very aesthetically pleasing shot with 3 clearly separated layers and a good taste. This shot leverages the relative densities of all the ingredients to ensure that they can stay separated. I make my modified B-52 (from bottom to top) with coffee liqueur, Baileys and heavy cream. The trick to ensuring all of the layers stay separate is to pour them over a barspoon so that inertia doesn’t mix it all up.
Apple pie is a classic and I don’t really have much to say other than the presentation matters and my personal favourite is an interlaced lattice. It provides a good structure, looks nice and is relatively easy and simple to make. Additionally for the crust I always use either vodka or 95% spirit with all ingredients chilled in the freezer to ensure that the crust stays flaky.
Baklava is a very labour intensive treat but well worth the invested time. I have tried it both with store bought and home made phyllo and can 100% confirm that store bought it much better both in taste and the time saved. I tend to make mine on a bit more of Turkish side rather than Greek adding a bit of rose water.
