Almost every cuisine has a version of rice which speaks to the culture and the ingredients that symbolize it. So when I recently made pork souvlaki (recipe here), I wanted to make a rice dish that would both complement the rest of the meal … but still be something of a new creation. If you’ve…
White Chili
While we battle through a late season cold-snap, the calendar says that winter’s strength will soon be behind us. In the meanwhile, the cold weather continues demand slow-cooked comfort foods and I’m happy to comply. Nothing seems to warm as well as those one-pot dishes that cook for hours and warm you from the core…
Roasted Cauliflower and Cheese Soup
We are definitely into a season of comfort foods … and it’s a time for soups to steal the show. As part of my final CSA share last month, I received two cauliflower. One came with a forlorn and sleepy traveler attached and the other was a beautiful bright orange. Both heads were looking a…
Rum-Kabocha (Pumpkin) Risotto
Risotto is comfort food. Yes, you can make “healthy” versions of it as I did when I developed my Tuscan Kale Risotto earlier this summer. However, risotto is best prepared when it can just be, let its warm, sensuous, snuggling personality reach out, when it can comfort the soul and light a warm fire in…
Potato Leek Soup — Inside Out
I find it fascinating how our meals change through the course of a year as the things in season change, from the new tender veggies of spring to the hardy, substantial offerings of the fall. Nothing better describes this change in seasons than the emergence of potatoes and leeks … and nothing, if not this,…
Minestrone with Chard and Prosciutto
My CSA shares have given me three challenges related to the regularity and volume of certain bounties: zucchini, kale, and chard. The first of these veggies I’ve managed very well; the kale is getting used as well, but with less imagination; the chard, however, has been a harder test. Zucchini is ‘easy’ by comparison because…
Homemade Super Dog Food … aka Ben’s Breakfast
If I have a finger for every love in my life, one is given to food and another one, likely an opposable thumb, is given to Ben, my dog. Together, those two loves have produced this recipe for homemade dog food which I have been feeding to my super/wonder-dog for years. For those new to…
My Grandma’s Hamburger Soup (De/Re-constructed)
There is comfort food … and then there is food that loves. As you will read in my next post (tomorrow’s installment in the Canadian Food Experience Project), this is the most cherished Canadian recipe I know. It is a part of me, part of my family, part of my heart. Recreating this dish, however,…
Lemon Risotto with Tuscan Kale
Sex on a plate. Really, I challenge anyone to find a better way to describe risotto. It’s not a dessert, yet it is one of the most sensuous dishes ever devised. When I seriously started down the path of Italian cooking, there were a few dishes on my bucket list to discover, but risotto wasn’t…
Chilled Cream of Celery Soup
When my CSA share arrived this week with fresh organic celery in it, I was inspired immediately to make a creamed soup with it. The two bunches were young and small weighing in total less than a pound and they were adorned with a full mop of leaves. With so much flavour wrapped up in…