What to eat in record breaking heat

Today I thought I'd talk about the love affair I have been having...smooth and Greek. NO, not my affair de coeur, hes sweet and Jewish..but Yogurt.

Specifically Liberte Greek Yogurt

This yogurt is made using traditional Greek methods. Its strained according to the principles of old-time cheesecloth draining, which makes it incredibly rich and creamy and absolutely free of fat.

Now I have been a fan of Liberte yogourt for a long time, but I used to favour the Méditérranée Yogurt which sits in around 7%-10% fat. Mind bendingly good, but recently I have taken up this new "gaining weight easily" habit, so I had to kiss that one good bye.

I dont miss it a bit! I will admit I have monkey on my back, nutritionally, and its dairy. Perhaps it is my background in pastry. Perhaps it is because one of my "mottos" is " Salt and Fat make food taste good"  Whatever the reason its my downfall, so I am over the moon about ZERO FAT yogurt that tastes as rich and decadent as the full fat version.

I always but the plain, I have tried the fruit ones and they are good, but I prefer fresh fruit to the sweet jammy stuff that sits at the bottom of most yogurt cups. I sometimes add a touch of sugar, never honey, for some reason I do not like honey in it. I top it with fresh berries and usually my fav, Maple Oat Crunch cereal.

I swear its like a delicious fruit crumble with cream. It reminds me of a delicious decadent concoction I encountered as a young pastry chef.

When I was in catering at a high end corporate caterers called En Ville, we made a simple dessert, berries with "Russian cream". I think this name was specific to En Ville. None the less as a new pastry chef I was amazed that something so simple could be so good. It was quite simply, half sour cream, half yogurt, sugar to taste, and a splash of Grand Marnier. It tasted like a cloud of heaven dropped from the sky onto my berries.

Hey...did you know you can make your own yogurt and its dead easy!! I have made it a couple of times and it really is good. If you take the fiished yogurt and tie it up in a cheesecloth bag and hang it in the fridge( with a bowl underneath) you will end up with Greek yogurt, otherwise leave it as is.

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Ingrediants

1 litre (32 ounces) of full fat sheep or cow's milk (pasteurized)

2 tablespoons of previously homemade yogurt or plain unflavored yogurt with active live cultures

2 tablespoons of full fat milk (same type)

Get it together

Start with all ingredients at room temperature.

Heat the milk just to the boiling point and pour into a non-metal container.

Let cool to lukewarm (100-105F a little warm to the touch). A skin will form on top.

Mix the 2 tablespoons of yogurt (homemade or commercial) with 2 tablespoons of milk.

Add to the lukewarm mixture, carefully pouring down the side so that any skin that may have formed on top is not disturbed.

Cover with a clean dishtowel and place on another towel in a warm, dry place for at least 8 hours (or overnight) until it thickens.

Note: 8 to 12 hours is best. The longer the yogurt coagulates beyond that time, the more sour the taste becomes.

Good Luck!

Is it hot out there or is it just me?

With the humidex topping 44C today...yes, I said FORTY-FOUR, I cant say I find myself with much of an appetite.

Someone commented on FB today about frying an egg on the pavement, so I had to try it  :-)

For the record, it doesn't work, and by the dearth of videos on Youtube I am not the first silly fool to try it. Well, now we know.

Salad days

We are sitting smack in the middle of the dog days of

summer,and I will say I am glad to NOT be working in a kitchen. One of the summers I spent at the distillery was so hot we declared a Jihad against the heat.

We would put bar towels, soaking wet in the ice cream freezer. Once they were good and frozen stiff we wore them on our heads, once the wilted we'd toss them back in a take another frozen one. The boys started out by mocking myself and my assistant, until they tried it!

Austin, line cook

Mark the saucier

Assim our crazy Egyptian

I started out this summer with spinach, constantly, daily. Spinach with egg, spinach with pear, spinach with blackberries. Side note, I dont know why, blackberries are extra sweet this year.

I am now having a daily affair with tabbouleh. I started buying it. This one

Fontaine Sante Tabbouleh

For my tastes it is the best one you can buy,but for 5 bucks a pop, as a chef its shameful that I dont make it. 

So now I make it.

Middle Eastern tabbouleh is usually made with cracked bulgur wheat. But I often use quinoa (actually a seed that is an excellent source of iron), you really kick up all the goodness.

Ingredients

3/4 cup quinoa

1 cup chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley

1 cup chopped English cucumber

1/2 cup chopped green onions

1/4 cup chopped fresh mint

1 tomato, seeded and chopped

Dressing:3 tbsp lemon juice,2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil,s&p

Get it together...

Rinse quinoa under cold running water. 

Toss a pot of water on to boil and add the quinoa

Reduce heat, cover and simmer until no liquid remains
Remove from heat; fluff with fork. Transfer to bowl; let cool. Add parsley, cucumber, green onions, mint and tomato. 

Dressing: Whisk together lemon juice, oil, salt and pepper; pour over quinoa mixture and toss to coat. Serve at room temperature or cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Kensington Market

When I was younger and much cooler than I am now,  Kensington was THE place to hang out. It was shitty, run down and littered with  punks that still hang out near the TD kiosk and Global Cheese on Kensington Avenue. We used to troll all the vintage shops on that strip, starting at Courage My Love and ending at Malini, looking for vintage frocks and stockings with seams.


I still love the Market, although I dont spend nearly as much time there as I once did. And I find these days it is more about the food than the clothes. Of course that said, my friend and I did manage to find ourselves doing a little shopping this week...
Over the years the clothes in Kensington have become more cheap and unique as opposed to full on vintage. Not that vintage is gone, it is there, but even Courage isnt quite as 100% vintage as it was in my youth

I love it, the Market has evolved with me, style wise. I am still a bit of a Boho but not quite the cocktail dress girl I once was, so it all works for me!

So after some time pursuing the aisles of various wee shops, it was time to eat. We wandered around open minded but for the requirement of a patio...And we stumbled upon this little gem at 303 Augusta Avenue, just about across from Supermarket.

First up, Sangria...It was delicious, a little sweet but cold and so MMmmm after a long hot day of Toronto humidity. I will say I found it a tad disappointing that the only fruit garnish in the pitcher was apples. I mean, we are sitting in the middle of the market, make it sexy! But it was delish and I enjoyed every sip. I havent had sangria in ages, and I think it may be a new competitor for my beloved Mango mimosa.


We decided to go with a couple of items from the "Tapas" menu. You gotta love Toronto for having such restaurants that blend Spanish and Indian. And I love that it is not a pathetic attempt of jumbling two competing flavour palates, here I must reference the dreadful "Chino-Loco", a special kind of restaurant hell where they try to make burritos with asian stuff stuffed in , too. blech. This is simply Indian food, in the tapas style. Beautiful.

We settled on the Waterfalls Vegetable combo platter and grilled Masala prawns. And a great choice it was.

The combo platter was made up of a generous portion of onion bajia, 2 healthy sized samosa and veg pakoras. It was served with some kind of sauce I couldn't quite decipher, some kind of tamarind cilantro goodness in a ramekin. The platter was perfect to share, all the items were fried, but not greasy , and bursting with flavour.

The prawns, omg the prawns...The coriander-mint sauce that accompanied the prawns still shows up in my dreams, so good.... We had 2 skewers, with 3 prawns each, beautiful and aromatic, heady with masala and cooked perfectly! Not tough and over cooked, but perfect. They were presented on a bed of mesclun greens with grilled zucchini and red peppers with a side of tamarind sauce.

We topped off the meal with a basket of garlic naan, that had most recently been quite intimate with alot of butter...it was warm and decadent and highly recommended.

It was a great meal, with  great friend, all evenings should be so good! 

Waterfalls Indian Tapas patio
Kensington Market

When you are in the market don't miss......

* Courage My Love (jewellery & other vintage stuff)

* Global Cheese AND Cheese Magic

* House Of Spice

* Essence Of Life (health food crap)

* Pure Intent (naturopathy, acupuncture)

* Kensington Mall ( lots of great deals on clothes)

* Casa Acoreana ( best place to get any spice you have ever wanted)

Cafe la Gaffe

So this week I have a visitor from my hometown who is in town for business and free at night. So I didnt have to muse about what to make for dinner we went out! After a lovely late afternoon at the Island, where we enjoyed patio beverages and tip toed into the lake we ended up on the perfectly quaint Baldwin street and supped at Cafe la Gaffe who is participating in "Summerlicious".


Summerlicious is city run program with 180 restaurants in the city offering a "special menu"of 3 courses prix fixe. The idea is to get diners out of their comfort zones, to try new foods, at new places for a reasonable cost.

For people on the hot side of the table, "Summerlicious" is hell. Everyone in Toronto knows we need no cheap prices to fill seats and patios in the summer. But in order to participate in the much needed Winterlicious festival, in the cold months when people need encouragement to go out and spend money, you MUST be part of Summerlicious. more often than not the city-wide fête include hurried guests and hastily thrown together food as restaurants work overtime to deal with the influx of low-tipping and no-showing diners. 
When I was at the distillery, I had a lemon meringue tart on a summerlicious menu, on top of the 3 restaurant dessert menus I was already juggling, in a crazy busy season. I was cranking out hundreds a day. In the humidity of summer, the tart shells got very soggy over night so had to be made fresh, daily. I cant tell you how many hours a day I worked. Your regular diners still come and order off your regular menu, than the cheapskates come for summerlicious, in droves...Phewww


Cafe le Gaffe, to thier credit, offers ONLY their summerlicious menu. Excellent plan. Easy on the kitchen and therefore the food isnt rushed or resented. I sometimes would wonder if the diners could taste the resentment I occasionally cooked with...I know they could taste the love, so.....

My friend and I only wanted a nibble, so we split one 3 course meal. It was perfect! We started with a Caprese Salad. The peak seaon tomatoes were so ripe I could smell the sweetness of them from across the table. Nothing fancy, but simple delicous...Tomato, roast red pepper, bocconcini cheese dressed in a simple balsamic vinaigrette. The right dish for a warm summer night.


For our main course we had the grilled Tilapia, served with coconut cardomon rice and simple sauteed veg. Another home run! The fish was cooked to perfection, flaky but not dry, quite impressive for a late dinner when the kitchen is almost closed. The rice, altho white, which I normally avoid was so exquisitely aromatic, it teased the nose for minutes before it ever got around to pleasing the palate.


For dessert we had some chocolate banana gateau. I wont say much...My companion enjoyed it. It was made with excellent Chocolate (I want to say lindt, it wasnt "soft" taste wise to be Callebaut imho, but who knows ) I just found it quite heavy and without finesse, but I am a pastry snob, so lets just leave it at, it was a sweet chocolaty finish to a wonderful meal. 
I would be remiss in not mentioning our lovely server, she was attentive but not over bearing, just friendly enough and made sure we were taken care of...Kudus!
I recommend a visit!

Cafe La Gaffe

24 Baldwin Street

416-596-2397

cafelagaffe@rogers.com

$25 Dinnerplus taxes and gratuity

Soup of the day made with fresh ingredients
or
Salad of mixed spring greens with a raspberry Vinaigrette
(vegetarian)
or
Beef Carpaccio
Charred rare beef with olive oil, capers and Asiago Cheese
or
Caprese
Vine Ripened Tomatoes, Roasted Red Peppers, & Bocconcini with Lemon Thyme Infused Extra Virgin Olive Oil & Balsamic Vinegar

Pasta of the day served with salad
or
Risotto
Arborio Rice with Mixed wild Forest Mushrooms, Roasted Red Pepper, Leek & Sundried Tomato in a Stilton & Olive Oil Broth
(vegetarian)
or
Grilled Marinated Boneless Chicken Breast with a Maple Walnut Butter, served over House Greens
or
Fish of the Day
Served with Sautéed Vegetables and choice of Cardamom Coconut Rice or Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
or
Boneless Breast of Chicken Stuffed with Asiago in a Brandy, Madagascar Green Peppercorn Demi-Glaze, served with Sautéed Vegetables and choice of Cardamom Coconut Rice or Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes
or
New York Striploin with Sautéed Portobello Mushrooms in a Red Wine Demi-Glaze, served with Sautéed Vegetables, and choice of Cardamom Coconut Rice or Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

Gateau Creole
Bittersweet Belgian chocolate Cake Baked with dark Rum, Banana served with crème anglais
or
Crème Brulee
An old recipe from the cooking Journals of Caude Monet
or
Cheese Cake
Lemon Cheese cake with a raspberry Coulis

30 Day Rae

Alright, so this is totally NOT food related, but I was digging around the internet and found a link to a blog I did a time ago.
It was part of a 30 day self portrait challenge, where you guessed it, we took a self portrait every day, for a month. Fellow photogs comment and gave sage advise. I will say it was the fastest learning curve, I learned more about Photoshop that month than any other time.

I though you might enjoy a peek...

30 Day Rae

Im cheating on Spinach salad with Nicoise...

Once the warm weather hits, if you can call 40C warm, I tend to eat just fruit and salads. Its a good thing, as Martha would put it. The temperature isn't the only thing over 40 and it doesn't hurt to watch the waist and eat healthy.
Salad Nicoise,is a French composed salad with tuna, green beans, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, onion, capers, and potatoes. Sometime it has anchovies, and it usually has a tarragon vinaigrette.
I must include a word or warning here in regards to this beautiful, oh so rare tuna. If you are going to a cottage and pick up a salad containing said tuna, put in the car on a very hot, humid day and then in the fridge and then proceed to serve it at dinner....

You may get sick :(  I did, and I know better. Sheesh

Now, first of all dont feel at all bad if you think tuna looks like this. It does look like that, and its ok. Dont let the foodies and the snobs get to you!

Use what you have on hand. What I make more often than not is more tuna salad, er, Salad with tuna, than Nicose, but there are elements in particular that I must include to be satisfied.  For me, the big 4 is the tuna, hard boiled egg, Olives and the capers. As long as I have those three I am a happy camper. 

But when you want to dress to impress, so to speak, here is the real full recipe and a pretty picture from google to make you hungry.

• 2 grilled or otherwise cooked tuna steaks* (8 oz each) or 2-3 cans of tuna
• 6 hard boiled eggs, peeled and either halved or quartered
• 10 small new red potatoes (each about 2 inches in diameter, about 1 1/4 pounds total), each potato scrubbed and quartered
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 2 medium heads Boston lettuce or butter lettuce, leaves washed, dried, and torn into bite-sized pieces
• 3 small ripe tomatoes, cored and cut into eighths
• 1 small red onion, sliced very thin
• 8 ounces green beans,traditionally haricots vertes, stem ends trimmed and each bean halved crosswise
• 1/4 cup niçoise olives
• 2 Tbsp capers, rinsed and/or several anchovies (optional)(yuck)

My Dinner