One of my very favourite ways to create recipes is while I’m shopping and as I take inspiration from the fresh, seasonal ingredients around me. Last weekend, I had already picked up four beautiful salmon steaks but I was stuck with what create. This time last year I was in a similar place and opted…
Poutine with Maple-Cranberry Sauce * Fillet Mignon * St-Albert Cheese Curds
Poutine: greasy truck-stop food ending in heartburn or a gastronomic adventure that ends in foodgasm? Ever since I scarfed back the most amazing plate of poutine 13 months ago, I’ve been committed to recreating that dish prepared by the servers of Le St-Estèphe. There seemed no better time than now, especially with the advent of…
Indian Butter Chicken
Leftovers never looked so good…. This is my take on the classic Indian butter chicken, a dish that certainly gives other classics like Alfredo a serious run for their money in terms of how to tantalize the mouth with the full-fat richness of butter … and cream. Similar to, but different from, tikka masala or…
Grilled Pork Tenderloin with Banana-Date Glaze
Winter is certainly a time to dig into our dried fruits, especially with our dwindling produce this time of year. It’s a time to celebrate stronger flavours and sweetness. It’s a time for concentrated tastes that warm the body, inside out…. … but it is not a time to give up the barbecue. Yes, I’m…
Roasted Corn Salad
What’s the difference between a salad and a salsa, besides the language? The difference is “sauce” (which is what salsa translates). With the end of summer and the end of fresh corn nearing, I was craving corn to form the basis of salad number four in my five course salad night … and I wasn’t looking…
Grilled Fennel and Orange Salad
When the fennel showed up in my CSA share last week, I knew what salad number three was going to be in my five course salad night. I also knew I wanted citrus in it as a change of pace, even though the flavour isn’t exactly in season. But because of the season, I wasn’t…
Salmon Steaks with Lemon and Dill
Fish tales beget fish recipes. I’m sure that is written somewhere profound. In preparing my latest entry, The Shore Lunch, for the Canadian Food Experience Project, I was craving fish. The dilemma, as you’ll deduce from the entry, is that I’m unable to find wild, fresh trout where I now live. Inspired by my dill,…
Grilled Ratatouille
Ratatouille…. I’ll wager it is one of those dishes that leaves very few on the fence. I’d also wager the distribution of fence dwellers isn’t even. What better challenge, then, than to make a classic dish whose heyday may be past but whose opportunity for a triumphant return remains. I previously remarked that if you…
Grilled Prawns with Lime and Peaches
Some relationships are meant to be … some will be deep and lasting, intrinsic in their ties. Others will be friendships, casual acquaintances, passerbys even. Tomatoes and basil; peanut butter and chocolate; lobster and butter. These are intrinsic pairings. When the bok choy arrived in my CSA bin, I thought I had in my head…
Barbecued Ribs with Root Beer Sauce and Baked Apples
There are certain things I’ll almost never order in a restaurant: steak, pasta, chicken … and pork ribs. It’s not that I don’t like or even, in the case of ribs, love these foods … it is because I’m appalled at what restauranteurs will charge for fare that I can, in almost all cases, make…