Two secret ingredients

Yesterday I went to the Dufferin Grove Farmer's Market and got carrots and beets. Today they impromptu turned into a soup. To liven up the broth, which was otherwise the salted water from simmering the vegetables, I fried minced carrot greens stems and parsley in olive oil with garlic. I also added two secret ingredients: sweet smoked paprika and aged dried orange peel that I previously wrote about.

Butterscotch Peanut Butter Marshmallow

Let me start by saying that these are all gone.

There is so much sugar in these that the Redpath factory went into backorder. 

I'm finding it hard to explain my love for these without expletives.

Just look at the pictures. And keep three things in mind:

1. Butterscotch chips 
2. Peanut Butter 
3. Marshmallows

Try to imagine this in your mouth

Pan-seared Ontario lamb crusted with rosemary and garlic. The sauce took red wine to deglaze, with some cream and wilted parsley to coat the pasta, topped with quail egg. I love whole wheat spaghetti; please don't hate on me for it. Also pan fried zucchini and tomato wedges. Good lord could life get any better.

Cream of broccoli soup with a twist

What makes this cream of broccoli soup special? Abundant amounts of parsley and garlic, parmesan rinds destined for the garbage from a restaurant, and lots of beer! It was a versatile soup too - cold it became a delicious dip.

Bell Pepper and Parsley Salad

I have craved and made several variations of this salad in the past few months. It reminds me of a tabouleh despite there being few ingredients in common. I love how fresh it tastes and feels to eat. In the future it might be interesting to add mango to the mix!

There's red and green pepper, flat leaf parsley, shallot, lime juice, and green lentils. In terms of a grain-based additive, some of my variations have included adding couscous or quinoa or both. Tabouleh has burgul in it. Often I get impatient, don't cook the lentils properly and they get mushy, but this time I followed the directions to great effect! The lentils still have a shape by the end of it!

Dry lentils

Oven baked pork chops with caramelised parmesan applesauce

I spent three months wanting to cook something more creative than oatmeal with currants and peanut butter (which is a delicious breakfast), but somehow never found the time. When I moved out of my shared house a few days ago, I was faced with finishing the fridge, including a bag of apples, pork chops, and parmesan cheese rinds, the combination of which screamed awesome at me. The result was oven-baked pork chops with caramelised parmesan applesauce.

Drink Development at R2

Last monday saw a few of the R² baristas brainstorming and shopping for the ingredients of possible specialty drinks. I photographed some of the process. 

Ingredients: result of shopping

We ended up developing two drinks, the orange mocha, and the chocolate chili latte. The orange mocha is currently being served at R², and comes with the lovely garnish of a chocolate-coated sliver of candied orange peel from Delight on Queen West.  

Chocolate-coated candied orange peel slivers

Ingredients of the orange mocha

Me on the phone

Chris, an esteemed regular

Evan, making a free-pour swan

Evan, pleased about something, possibly my photo of his latte art

We will be serving the chocolate chili latte later this fall. 

Chocolate chili latte ingredients

Red and Green Thai Curry Pastes

In February this year I decided I was going to make my own red and green thai curry pastes. I looked into some recipes and found some interesting ingredients that I had never heard of: galangal, and kaffir lime leaves.

Galangal is a root that looks vaguely like baby ginger and tastes like "has a citrusy, piney, earthy aroma, with hints of cedar and soap" according to Wikipedia, although I can't describe it myself. Kaffir lime leaves taste vaguely lime-like and look like this:

Kaffir lime leaves

Dried Orange Peel

These delicious-smelling orange peels were s(h)aved from a bunch of oranges hanging around the apartment using a vegetable peeler. I dried them in a pan on the lowest setting until they felt dry to the touch. As they toasted their aroma deepened. After they cooled, they got stored in a jar... The aroma matures a lot at this stage. I'm not sure what to do with them yet, but every so often I open the jar and smell their awesomeness.





Also, I think they'd be good with duck, or in marmalade.