The ULTIMATE winter comfort food

12 Tuesday Dec 2017

Posted by notanotherfoodblogca in beef, comfort food, food, recipe, recipes, slow cooking, Uncategorized

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cropped short rib

Toronto got hit with the first snowfall last night, and the snow was around 15cm this morning!! I’m not ready for winter, and for some reason this is the time of the year when I slack off really hard on my 6am gym workouts and eat all the carbs instead. I just loooove putting on my PJs, turning on Netflix, and eating all the carbs. Just like this awesome braised short rib and mashed potato that I made!!

I’m actually salivating as I type this entry out, just thinking about the braised short rib that I cooked this past weekend, with fall off the bone, super tender meat, in a super delish sauce that has the perfect balance of tangy and umami flavours. The recipe, which I loosely adapted (eyeballed) from a Tastemade video that didn’t have measurements, featured Franklin BBQ owner, Aaron Franklin, sharing his grandmother’s legit looking pot roast recipe. Franklin BBQ is a reallllly big deal in Texas – it is THE place to get classic BBQ in Texas with a wait that could go up to 4-5 hours… and yep it’s on my list of places to eat before I die!!

I tested a bunch of recipes for pot roasts and braised short ribs in the past, ranging from really tomato based ones, to even some with red wine, and I can say this recipe in my top three for sure! It’s got simple flavours that truly complement each other and really lets the beef shine. Comfort food doesn’t need to be complicated!!! I once made Julia Child’s Boeuf Bourguignon and was a bit disappointed at how the flavours overpowered the meat. My favourite ingredient here is the shiitake mushrooms, which I have never used in a stew before! I’ve only used cremini mushrooms, but I love the flavour this adds.

Make this dish ASAP. It’s the perfect comfort food this winter!! Super simple recipe, which you can set and forget aka leave in your oven for a few hours. I made this with buttery mashed potatoes and roasted garlic carrots and it was EXCELLENT!!!!!

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Christmas in a Cookie + Baking with Canola

29 Wednesday Nov 2017

Posted by notanotherfoodblogca in baking, chocolate, comfort food, cookie, cookies, dessert, food, recipe, recipes, Uncategorized

≈ 4 Comments

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canadian, canola oil, christmas, cookies, holidays, recipe

I’ve been bad. Sadly, I’ve been cooking with vegetable oil and shortening, which I recently discovered was not the best option for your heart!!

Last week, I attended a really awesome culinary workshop at the Loft on Geary, hosted by Canola Eat Well. They’re a joint partnership between Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba Canola Growers, that aims to inspire us to use canola oil in the kitchen by connecting us to the stories of Canadian farmers. I even got to speak first hand to one of them, a very lovely lady from Alberta, Jeannette (to my right in the picture below). Let me tell you I am CONVERTED! Who knew that Canola is Canadian and grown for us by over 43,000 family farmers on the Canadian Prairies?! I use vegetable oil really frequently to deep fry breaded pork chop, pork belly and chicken, but never again!!

#CanolaConnect ladies! Photo credit: Josh Tenn-Yuk

Aaaaand here I am with my favourite thing about Christmas (it’s really the other way around…kidding)!! Also, I’m pretty sure I look 17 years old in this photo, WOW!

Photo credit: Josh Tenn-Yuk

Sooooooo here’s the deal: Canola oil, which should be your local Canadian choice, is heart friendly because it’s a good source of Vitamin E and K, super low in saturated fats (half of olive oil) and is packed with Omega 3 fats (helps protect against heart attacks and strokes). It’s also has a pretty neutral taste, so it allows the flavours in baking and cooking to shine, AND also makes your baked goods moist. Trust me, we baked a bunch of goodies with canola oil at the workshop, and they were outstanding!!

Kettle Corn, Coconut-Lime Blondies, and MORE!! Photo credit: Josh Tenn-Yuk

Here’s a handy canola oil baking conversion chart! I didn’t know this either but it’s awesome for deep frying (McDonald’s even uses it), because it can fry up until 468F.

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Are you a fan yet?!

Well, you’re going to LOOOOVE these Chocolate Ginger Jewels I just baked. Chef Claire Tansey is the mastermind behind this perfect cookie, which you need to bake this holiday season. This is literally Christmas in a cookie, with the cinnamon and ginger spice giving me all the holiday feels. UGH! To-die-for!!

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At first bite it’s slightly crispy, but inside it’s super soft and chewy (thanks to the canola oil), bursting with ginger spice, warm cinnamon flavours, and extra sweetness from the chocolate (I used chopped up Valrhona chocolate feves). My eyes literally rolled to the back of my head when I first tried it because it so epic. Especially when you eat them freshly baked from the oven… it’s so dangerous! I’m going to have to work out extra hard today after the 10 cookies I just ate!!!

Don’t sleep on this recipe. It’s so easy and quick to whip up too!

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Tested and Perfected Rice Krispie Squares

18 Monday Sep 2017

Posted by notanotherfoodblogca in baking, comfort food, dessert, easy, recipe, recipes, snack, Uncategorized

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recipe, rice krispies, snack

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Rice Krispie Squares: so easy to make, but so easy to mess up. I sadly was only introduced to them in the past year, when my coworker brought them in to the office… LIFE CHANGING! Yeah, really. Because before then I’ve only tried the packaged versions, which if you’ve tried the freshly made ones, can’t really hold a candle. So in my first few attempts to make them, I made sure that it was gooey and not dry, with some melty marshmallows in each square.

Now the real key to this recipe, and my coworker Liz would highly recommend, is to add a bit of vanilla. I did experiment with more expensive vanilla extract and regular vanilla and couldn’t taste the difference at all!

The recipe after the jump is my tried and true recipe, having made over 4 batches of them for our bake sale at the office. It’s pretty much perfection! The aluminum foil lining is a MUST to easily remove your squares from the pan.

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Cantonese Pork Belly with Grilled Peach Slaw

25 Thursday Aug 2016

Posted by notanotherfoodblogca in asian, chinese, comfort food, easy, food, mexican, pork, pork belly, recipe, recipes, summer, Uncategorized

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BBQ, peach, pork belly, recipe, recipes, summer

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Ohhh boy. I made such an INSANE Asian fusion dish, which I swear had angels singing (or crying tears of joy) because it was on a whole ‘nother level! My boyfriend even said it’s up there in his top five dishes of all time!

Five spice pork belly with grilled peach slaw – who would have thought that they’d be crazy good together? I really, really loved how the warm, slightly salty flavours of the five spice Cantonese pork belly complemented the tangy but sweet Southwestern inspired slaw. The first bite is an explosion of flavour and crunch (did you see that crackling?!) that just works well and tingles your lips at the same time.

What really helped elevate this dish was using local peaches from Niagara, which were SO sweet and juicy. They didn’t have to travel that far like the peaches from the US, and are in season right now in Ontario. This was my first time grilling them and can definitely say their sweetness is brought out even more after being barbecued! It’s perfection tossed together with homegrown cherry tomatoes, shallots, parsley, red pepper and lime juice. I was trying to find a kickass recipe that involved peaches for the Loblaws Share the Food Love contest, and this did not disappoint!

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Ah, pork belly, my second favourite type of meat… with ribeye being the #1. LOVED this so much. The five spice, shaoxing wine, salt, pepper and a touch of soy sauce worked really well. Not to mention it was baked at a low temp, and then put on broil for a few minutes to get that crunchy crackling. I used an interesting technique, placing sea salt on top of the skin so that the skin doesn’t cook while it bakes and allows you to finish the crackling evenly at the end.

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Overall, not complicated to make, and the payoff is huge. The vibrant colors and fresh flavour of this summery dish leaves me feeling bittersweet that summer’s about to end – make this dish ASAP and serve it with salad!

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Summer Pasta Dish: Pasta + Tomatoes

15 Friday Jul 2016

Posted by notanotherfoodblogca in easy, italian, pasta, recipe, recipes, Uncategorized

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carbs, easy, italian, pasta, recipe, tomato

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WOW. Who knew that simple ingredients could create an amazing, solid pasta dish?!

Damn, this was so delicious that I couldn’t stop eating. All you need is pasta, some decent olive oil, fresh basil, garlic, really good cherry tomatoes and you’ve got yourself a perfect summer dish!! It’s a good thing I picked up a bunch of cherry tomatoes from the farmer’s market – man it really added nice sweetness, perfectly complemented with the olive oil (infused with garlic). The basil topped off at the end just adds another kick, an extra level that makes this taste so fresh!

It’s also so easy to whip up – you can do this pasta dish in 10 minutes, or even less! And I do love parmigiano cheese but you definitely don’t need it! Trust me, it will drown out the simple flavours.

Love this so much… I’m going to get fat and it’s not even winter yet!

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