Some sort of poached egg concoction...

Warning: If you're one of those people who eat each component of your meal separately, don't attempt this at home!

This isn't the type of thing to eat bit by bit, you need a little bit of everything to have the perfect bite! You see I think eating a meal is like an orchestra, it's completely the sum of its parts. Sure a trumpet sounds good alone, as well as the violin etc. However, when you listen to all the instruments in unison, what you get is something richer- a one dimensional sound that comes to life. The same can be said for food and with this dish in particular, a little piece of everything = a bite of heaven.

You have the:
1. toasted english muffin that provides crunch
2. poached egg that streams with a rich luxurious yolk
3. chilis in oil for a layer of heat
4. pickled mushrooms to cut through everything with a punchy tang
5. pea shoots which ground every bite with a welcome earthy note
6. shaved parm cheese that adds saltiness

You should really try this at home! It's completely delicious!

Ingredients:
1 English Muffin
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon Italian peppers in oil
5 pickled mushrooms, sliced (get the Italian kind)
1/4 of a handful of pea shoots or microgreens
A couple shavings of fresh parm
1 teaspoon vinegar

Method:

Bring water and vinegar to a very low simmer, just so it starts to bubble a second or so apart. Crack the egg in a ramekin. With a whisk, start stirring the water to create a whirlpool effect and gently drop egg from ramekin one at a time. Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until whites are a soft firm around the yolks. Remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel.

Meanwhile toast one half of the english muffin. Place egg on top of english muffin. Top with chilis, mushrooms, pea shoots and cheese.

Afternoon Tea

I was never the little girl who had afternoon tea parties with imaginary friends, teddy bears and snacks. I was far less refined and preferred playing street hockey or tackle football with the boys. So maybe a part of me is making up for my lack of girlie childhood experiences with newfound obsessions. I just love tea parties- they're dainty, pretty and provide me with an excuse to have another meal between lunch and dinner:)

The other thing I like about afternoon tea is that you can pre-pare everything in advance. It really allows you to be a guest at your get together if you take the time beforehand!

There are a couple secrets to having a perfectly whimsical tea spread:
1. Invest in a tiered dessert tray- it naturally divides your scones, sandwiches and fruit
2. Have a selection of teas- herbal and non herbal
3. Buy cute serving plates, tea pots and teacups

I served scones with fresh jam, smoked salmon, chicken and egg salad sandwiches. I will share my treasured chicken salad with you, which is my mothers PERFECT recipe.

Chicken Salad:

2-4 tablespoons full fat hellmans mayo

2 skinless/boneless chicken breasts

1 whole celery rib + 1 celery rib finely diced

1/2 chicken bouillon cube

1 whole onion +1 tablespoon finely diced onion (as fine as you can without making it into a paste!)

1 tablespoon relish

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Place one rib of celery, chicken, chicken bouillon cube and one onion (quartered) in a pot and cover with water. Bring to a boil and simmer gently until the breasts are cooked. Remove from pot and let cool. Shred the chicken into stringy pieces (quite time consuming, but worth it!). 

Meanwhile, place your your diced onions in a strainer with a teaspoon of salt and rinse under cold water. Drain. 

Mix two tablespoons of mayo, relish, diced celery, diced onion, salt and pepper. Add the chicken and blend well. Taste. Add more salt or mayo if needed

Smoked Salmon, Poached Eggs, Super Toasted Crumpet... C'MON!

I'm the type of person who wakes up in the morning to my stomach- it grumbles and roars, demanding some fuel to start the day. I'm also the type of person who falls asleep at night to thoughts of what I'll eat in the morning. "What will it be tomorrow?" I ask sleepily as I rest my head on the pillow.

Today it was my take on eggs benedict. I really enjoy eggs benedict but no more than two or three or four bites, but I stop at four... it's just too rich for me. The rich egg yolks that cascade over the english muffin coupled with the 12 yolk and 1cup of butter sauce is delicious at first but grows overwhelming fast! So I ommitted the delicious but intense hollondaise and replaced the english muffin for an even better English counterpart- the crumpet. If you've not had a crumpet, it's well, amazing! It's spongy but takes well to toasting and has all of these wonderful porous holes that soak in whatever you give it- butter, jam, or in my case-yolks!

You have to try this dish! The hardest part is the poaching, which is not really that hard at all! Totally worth the assembly!

Ingredients:
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vinegar
as many pieces of smoked salmon as you please
1 crumpet

Method:
Bring water and vinegar to a very low simmer, just so it starts to bubble a second or so apart. Crack the egg in a ramekin. With a whisk, start stirring the water to create a whirlpool effect and gently drop egg from ramekin one at a time. Cook for about 2-3 minutes or until whites are a soft firm around the yolks. Remove from the pot with a slotted spoon and place on paper towel.

Meanwhile toast your crumpet on a high setting. Remove, place eggs on top and finish with smoked salmon. Enjoy:)

Pasta and Bean soup?....

I once had a friend whose grandmother had eight fingers. Now with the unripened maturity of a 9 year old girl, having less than 5 fingers on each hand was a thing of bewilderment and wonder. How did she lose them I thought silently as I watched her strain pasta and mix it into a large pot. Could it have been during the war? Perhaps she lost them cooking, or maybe she never had them to begin with? My mind twisted and turned, seconds felt like hours as she approached closer and closer with a heaping bowl that she lovingly made for her granddaughter's after school snack. The fingerless scenarios made me feel a bit sick and I panicked as I felt my enormous after school appetite slipping... But she put before me a beautiful bowl of pasta, drizzled with extra virgin olive oil and parmesan cheese. I closed my eyes, inhaled and thought "wow, this Nonna can COOK!"  

It looked so good, it smelled so good- fresh tomatoes, beans and garlic looked so beautiful on the plate. So inviting that the missing fingers were the last thing on my mind. I had one bite, two bites, three bites- it was a crazy haze of spoonfulls. The amazing thing was that I couldn't tell whether I was eating a pasta sauce or soup. It was a soupy pasta sauce! It was divine. Her Nonna smiled, bemused by my zest for "simple, peasant food" and happily gave me a second serving and third!

I thought of my long lost friend's Nonna recently and did the best I could recreating her delicious pasta dish! It was pretty darn good! The mashed beans, fresh tomato sauce and sweet garlic danced around my mouth and brought me back to my childhood days where I was exploring the most delicious Italian cuisine through my friends Nonnas- some of the finest cooks I've ever had the pleasure eating from!

Ingredients:

1 can cannellini beans, drained and washed

4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed

1/2 teaspoon chili flakes 

3 basil leaves thinly sliced

5 large ripe tomatoes, cut into eighths

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1/2 package penne pasta

as much freshly grated parm cheese as you like!

Method:

Heat olive oil in a large saute pan. Add the garlic and cook gently cook until it softens, you don't want too much colour-just a very light golden brown. Add the chili flakes, basil and tomatoes. Cover and reduce heat to med-low for 5 minutes. Remove lid and press down the tomatoes with a wooden spoon to help break them down. Add the cannellini beans and cover. Cook 10 minutes longer. Mash 1/2 of the beans with your spoon so that they become part of the sauce. Add a ladleful of pasta water to the sauce and bring heat to med-high. Let simmer to the consistency you like. 

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and cook penne. Drain and toss pasta into the sauce. Top with cheese and a good drizzle of extra virgin.

Chicken Posole

Few things make me feel more warm and cozy than a hearty hot bowl of soup or stew. I love making dishes like this on a cold winters day. I pour ladlefuls into a bowl, tuck my knees into my chest and enjoy spoonfuls of deliciousness as I watch snowflakes whirl around in some sort of whimsical dance.

This soup/stew is just divine! There's the heat from the jalapeno, the crunch and sweetness of the corn and homily as well as an acidic little kiss of lime! I love balance in food- balance of colour, texture and taste. This soup excels in all arenas and is totally worth the effort! It's not as though it's difficult per se, it just takes time to grow and flourish into something that's totally worth the wait!

Ingredients:
whole broiler chicken cut into eighths
2 tablespoons peanut, canola or vegetable oil
3 cloves garlic thinly sliced
51/2 cups chicken stock
1-2 fresh jalapeno cut into thin rounds (the more seeds the spicier)
1/2 orange or red bell pepper diced
4 ears of fresh corn
2 cups yellow or white hominy
2 limes juiced
1/2 cup coarsley chopped cilantro leaves
salt and pepper to taste

Method:
Salt and pepper chicken and let rest for 20-30 minutes in room temp. Heat oil in a large dutch oven. Lay chicken skin side down in batches. Let it get nice and golden brown, flipping over only once. Let rest on a plate .

Add the garlic to the oil and let it get lightly golden for about 30 seconds, add the chilis and cook for another 10 seconds. Add the chicken stock and bring to a simmer. Return the chicken and all its juices to the pot and cook on a low simmer for 1.5 hours. Add the corn, homily, lime juice and cilantro and cook for 30 minutes more. Salt and pepper to taste. The chicken will fall off the bone and be so incredibly tender! Serve with rice or tortilla. Deeeeeelish!

Baked Salmon and Mixed Veggies

When I say YUM you say YYYY...YUM---YYY YUM----!

Yes, I just did that. This salmon number is so good it makes me want to cheer. I've moved to a house and feel so inspired by the treelined streets, fresh produce from local farms and cooking in my kitchen that bathes in glorious sunlight.

All the colours around me have manifested in this rather colourful dish of pinky-orange salmon, green rapini and asparagus, red bell pepper, golden potatoes and vibrant sweet yams.

What adds shimmer and shine to the salmon is a dressing I prepared before hand that I generously spoon over the fish making it even more moist and flavourful. You must must must try this!

Ingredients:
1-2 lb salmon fillet
1 teaspoon herbs de provence
1 potato, cut into eights
1 sweet potato cut into eights
1 leek, washed well and cut down the center and then in fourths
2 shallots, cut in half
2 cloves of garlic, smashed
a handful of rapini, stems removed and cut into fourths
a handful of thin asparagus, stems removed
1 red bell pepper cut into large pieces
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
4 sprigs of thyme

Sauce:

1/4 cup cilantro

1/2 teaspoon dijon mustard

1/2 teaspoon whole grain mustard

1/2 teaspoon sambal oelek

juice of half a lemon

2.5 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Toss all the veggies apart from the pepper, asparagus, leeks, shallots and rapini together with salt, pepper,thyme and extra virgin olive oil. Place in the oven for 30 minutes. Remove from the oven, toss in the shallots, leeks and bell peppers well so that it's also has some oil, if there isn't enough add a bit more oil. Cook for another 10 minutes. Remove and add the rapini and asparagus and cook for another 10 minutes. You may want to check the potatoes when you remove them if they're browning too much.

Season salmon with salt, pepper and herbs de provence and place on a baking tray lined with tinfoil. Place in the oven until cooked to your degree of doneness.

If you're comfortable with your kitchen abilities, place the salmon in the oven while the veggies are cooking and time it so they finish at the same time. If not, you can always reheat your vegetables. When the salmon is cooked, spread a tablespoon of the sauce over it, reserve the rest for serving.

For the sauce... place the cilatnro and mustards in a mortar and pestle. Pound a couple of times. Add the lemon juice, sambal and extra virgin olive oil and stir well. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Pesto, Salmon and Asparagus Penne

Soooooooooooooooo Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeelliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiciiiiiiiiiiiiiooooooooooooouuuuuuussssssss!

I absolutely love this pasta. It's a great way to have pasta if you really want it but don't want all the carbs as it's loaded with so many other delicious things such as blistered tomatoes, salmon and lovely asparagus. Also, it tastes fresh, fresh fresh! The tasty homemade pesto and earthy asparagus are just wonderful. I highly reccomend this dish, it's totally worth the effort of making your own pesto too!

Ingredients:
1 lb salmon fillet
2 cups fresh basil leaves that have been washed well

2 cloves garlic, smashed

1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil + 1/2 teaspoon

2 tablespoons pine nuts

1/2 tablespoon lemon juice

1/2 cup freshly grated parmigiano reggiano

salt and pepper to taste

pasta (as much or as little as you like)

a handful of skinny asparagus, stemmed and cut into fourths

1 cup baby tomatoes

Method:

Preheat the oven to 420. In the meantime put  the basil, pinenuts, olive oil, lemon juice, parm cheese and garlic in a blender and blitz until it's a consistency that resembles pesto. Reserve.

Line a baking tray with tin foil and place the salmon on top. Season with salt and pepper and olive oil. Bake for about 8-10 minutes or until the fish is slightly undercooked. Let cool and flake with a fork.

Meanwhile bring a large pot of salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and cook to your liking. 1-2 minutes before your pasta is ready add the asparagus. Cook for a minute or two and strain (reserve 1/4 cup of pasta water).

In the meantime, heat a little bit of olive oil in a pan and add the tomatoes. Let them cook on med-high until they start to blister. Reduce heat to low, season with salt and pepper. Add the salmon, pesto, pasta and asparagus. Toss well and add some pasta water if you want to loosen it up a bit. Serve with cheese and a sprinkle of chili flakes!