This month’s Daring Cooks’ Challenge digs into the cuisine of South India and Sri Lanka – something I’ve wanted to do for a long time now! What most restaurants offer up as Indian food usually represents dishes from northern India. The flavours of South India and Sri Lanka are quite different, and really fun to explore!
Continue reading Daring Hoppers
I’ve become addicted to getting eBooks from the library. One thing I never expected was to find cookbooks!! Yes, it’s true – you can borrow cookbook ebooks from the Toronto Public Library.
The first dish I made is a delicious combo of soba noodles and almond butter sauce. So easy and so tasty!
Continue reading Soba Noodle, Tofu, and Vegetable Stir-Fry
A while back, I was asked to host the July challenge for the Daring Kitchen. It was hard to decide what kind of challenge to propose to the group, but in the end I chose something that has been a favourite of mine for my whole life – noodles.
I have always been a bit of a noodle fiend, growing up with Italian and German noodles and venturing into other cultures’ versions of “noodle” as an adult. The challenge I proposed was to make noodles from scratch – without the use of motorized equipment – and pair with an appropriate accompaniment (sauce, or whatever would go best). As an added bonus, I challenged the group to look into their own cultural backgrounds for recipes that were “noodly” (being VERY loose with the term).
Here is one of the recipes I offered… Egg Fettuccine with Aglio, Olio, Peperoncino e Basilico.
It’s amazing when a recipe inspires you to come up with another recipe…
It’s not that the inspiration recipe isn’t worthy in and of itself, but it helps to get the wheels turning in your head and it turns into something else!
Old Québec City is a combination of historic and modern, very walkable but also traffic-heavy in some parts. Likewise, the food has a bit of an identity crisis, both incredible and incredibly touristy. Before my trip, I was warned to stay away from Italian food there, and I now know why. Many of the places we saw were the worst kind of touristy fake “Italian-esque” food. Ughhhhhh.
Luckily, it isn’t hard to look past the bad and find the great. We had a great time eating and drinking around old Québec city, and I’m happy to be able to report on the gems of our trip.
Continue reading Québec City (Je suis arrivé, j’ai mangé, j’ai apprécié)
On our final day in Montréal we went back to Marché Jean-Talon. I talked it up pretty good, and Joe wanted to see for himself. Of course, I took him to Olives et Épices and showed him the spices. I behaved myself, and only bought two more items.
For lunch, we headed to Le Petit Alep. It was on my list of places to have lunch, but I just wasn’t hungry enough to go before. This worked out perfectly, because the place is adorable and a perfect place to bring J.
Le Petit Alep specializes in Syrian, Aleppo and Armenian Cuisines and is the baby sister restaurant to Alep, which is right next door. Interestingly, Petit Alep appears as the second top rated Middle Eastern restaurant in Montréal (according to Urban Spoon), while Alep didn’t make the top ten. I doubt it has anything to do with the food, but likely the price. Alep offers fine dining, which no doubt accounts for the higher cost. On the other hand, Le Petit Alep offers incredible food, at a great price, with a really nice comfortable atmosphere. It’s a great restaurant experience in it’s own right.
I may have mentioned before that I can be frustratingly indecisive. I wanted to order one of everything. We settled on a vegetarian appetizer platter, some fried pitas with za’atar and cheese, and Armenian sausage. The waiter says to us ‘so, you’re really hungry?’. I guess we ordered a lot.
The appetizer platter was partly made up of things I knew, like Hommos (chickpea dip) and Metabal (Syrian babaghanoush, puréed roasted eggplant) and Yalandji (stuffed grape leaves) – all of which were amazing. The highlight for me, though was the Mouhamara, a dip made from breadcrumbs, pomegranate molasses and nuts. It was tangy and nutty and unexpected. I need to learn how to make this. What a great way to use up breadcrumbs!
The fried pita dish was described by the waiter as being ‘Syrian nachos’, with fried pita crisps topped with seasonings and melted cheese. How can you say no to that? It was super fun.
The Armenian sausage was a little inelegant looking thing, but well spiced and delicious. We were told to dip these in the sauces, which made it even more fun!
To end the meal, we had Turkish coffees scented with cardamom (they were probably Syrian coffees, but I asked ‘do you guys do Turkish coffee?’, and wasn’t corrected). It was the perfect way to end the meal, and send us on our way to Québec city. Au revoir, Montréal! Au prochaine!
Today was the first day of the Ryerson Farmers’ Market, right out in the middle of the pedestrian zone on Gould St.
Ever since they first closed the street off to traffic, I have been hoping there would be a farmers’ market. Only a little bit hampered by the construction happening on Gould right now, the market got off to a great start with a handful of local farmers and producers. I can only imagine how great it will be once the construction is over, and the market is able to flower. So great!
As it is, we were treated to a nice selection of vendors selling some fresh veggies, strawberries, meats, bread and other baked goods, cheese, maple syrup and more! The Ryerson Market is part of the MyMarket group, certifying vendors who only sell what they produce.
I was looking for some asparagus, and was a little disappointed when I couldn’t find any. That dissolved pretty quickly, when I found some green garlic and collard greens from Svetec Farms. YUM!
Of course, I was drawn to the cheese at Monforte Dairy. They weren’t allowed to give any samples (boo!), but I figured I would try some anyway. I got some garlic scape cheese and some kind of goat cheese with the texture of a Manchego. Soooo good! I sampled them as soon as I got home.
I also picked up some maple syrup from Danbrie Farms, and will likely use it in a glaze for some fish soon.
Here is what I made for dinner tonight, using many of the ingredients I bought at the market. Go green garlic!
In case you couldn’t tell, I’m really psyched about this new farmers’ market and hope it continues every year. For that to happen, I’m pretty sure we need to have the pedestrian zone on Gould Street made permanent. If you are a community member (resident, Ryerson student or staff, etc.) please voice your opinion by filling out this survey.
The Ryerson Farmers’ market will continue every Tuesday from 3:30 – 7:30pm, until October 25th. The Grand Opening will be in two weeks, on June 28th, featuring a Strawberry festival!!
Catch them on Twitter @rufarmersmarket.
This month’s Daring Cooks’ challenge is “Healthy Potato Salads from Around the World!”, and the timing couldn’t be better!
This gave me a perfect opportunity to morph the classic Indian “Aloo Gobi” into a fresh potato salad! Instead of drowning the potatoes in mayonnaise, I’ve made a spicy and bright dressing with yogurt. If you like potato salad, and don’t shy away from fun spices, you will love this!
There was only one thing I absolutely HAD to do on my trip to Montréal. I had to go to Marché Jean-Talon and find me some Épices de Cru.
Continue reading Bienvenue aux Épices de cru (je mange Montréal pt. 1)
Now that the ‘good weather’ is here, I’m on the hunt for new and fun salads. There are so many rice and grain options to try, and I thought I had found a fun new rice to try out at my bulk store. This rice looked bigger than most rice, and was labelled “Cavena Nuda – Rice of the Prairies”.
Sounded pretty good to me! Little did I know that this “rice” was not rice at all…
Continue reading Cavena Nuda Salad with Tangy Mustard Dressing
