Stir Fry Beef with Coconut Rice

When you feel under the weather, comfort foods soothe the belly and the soul. I have had a cold now for four weeks (!). Due to allergies, I can't take any medication so I have to wait it out. So I took a couple of days off work, watched Season 2 of Bones and tried to get some rest.

When I don't feel great, I reach for the foods I grew up eating: those comforting meals my mother made that made me feel better when I was feverish, tired & curled up in bed. (It's amazing no matter how old you get, you are always your mother's child.)

One of the foods I long for when I am under the weather is the soul-satisfying stir fry beef. A venerated a Chinese restaurant staple, this dish is so simple & deliciously easy to make it at home. It's very flavourful, so comforting and quick, you'll be diving into a steaming bowl within minutes.

This is not exactly my mother's recipe as the marinade for the beef is enhanced by a touch of malt vinegar. This addition came from one of my favourite cookbooks, Simple Chinese Food, by Kylie Kwong. Her cooking is simple, accessible and wildly delicious. In her fabulous cookbook, she has a recipe for stir-fried beef where she adds a dash of malt vinegar. When I tried adding malt vinegar to my regular stir fry beef, I knew I could never go without it again. The malt vinegar adds a zippy, perky flavour that enhances the umami of this dish.

Coconut rice isn't exactly something I grew up with, but for some reason, I had a craving for it. The rice has is lightly fragranced with a faint hint of coconut flavour. It is a nice match for the stir fry.


Stir Fry Beef with Coconut Rice

1lb beef - sliced thinly (sirloin or flank work well)
1/4c + 1 tbsp light soy sauce, separated
2 tbsp sesame oil
1 tbsp malt vinegar
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 tbsp vegetable oil
2-3 tbsp water
3 green onions - sliced thinly
1 thumb-sized piece of ginger, peeled & finely sliced into matchsticks*
1 large red pepper, cut into bite sized pieces

Coconut Rice
2 c white rice
1 c coconut milk
1 c water
1 tsp salt

optional: 1 tsp sesame seed

1. Marinate beef with soy sauce, sesame oil and cornstarch. Set aside (in your refrigerator) for at least 30 minutes, but ideally 2 hours. Overnight is fine as well.
2. Meanwhile prepare rice by rinsing rice until water is clear. Put rice, coconut milk, water & salt into a rice cooker. Set on. (If you don't have a rice cooker, use a medium sized sauce pan with a well fitted lid. Bring ingredients to a boil without lid on, then cover & reduce to medium-low and simmer for at least 5 minutes. Reduce to low and cook until all the liquid is absorbed about another 5 minutes.)
3. Drain meat from marinade. Reserve marinade liquid.
4. Heat a wok or a large fry pan, add vegetable oil and watch for vegetable oil to shimmer but not smoking. Carefully add meat in batches and allow meat to sizzle and brown - about a minute or two. (Depending on the thickness of your beef.) When you have cooked all of the meat, remove and set aside. Turn down heat to medium-low and add ginger and red pepper to the pan (add a tsp more vegetable oil if the pan is dry.) Stir after about a minute. Toss in green onions. Return the beef to the pan alongside any liquid that may have accumulated. With reserved marinade, add 3 tbsp water, 1 tbsp soy sauce & stir re-incorporate the marinade and add to pan. Turn up the heat slightly.
5. Remove from wok/fry pan when the liquid transforms into a clinging sauce. Serve over coconut rice. Add sesame seeds if using.

*if you find ginger too spicy - try using half of the amount or try ginger powder which is far less "warm"
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Pear & Celery Soup

It's been a tough week....

I had intended to post yesterday afternoon after basking in the simple pleasure of a luxurious, lazy long weekend sleep-in followed by a sweet, luscious breakfast to start the day. Unfortunately, the wildly delicious pear and ginger clafouti I had planned to share with my husband (and with you) was an utter flop. Disaster. Ugly, soggy, and barely edible (In the end, we did eat it. My husband managed a half-hearted, "It's good" as he choked down bites.)

But it started out as a simple wish: A sweet & simple breakfast for my husband on our last long weekend of the summer. Pears are in abundance right now and boy, are they good this year. I had peeled and sliced beautiful Bartlett pears the night before as a time saving measure, hoping I could quickly run down stairs, throw the eggs, milk & flour together, add the pears and bake it while my husband slept. The goal was to gently wake him with the fragrant smells of summer-time pears baking in the oven to convince him to start the day. But alas, that would not be the case. The batter was far too runny and thin & when I pulled the pears out of the fridge, they had wept quite abit in the bowl overnight. The result was a runny, unset clafouti even after ninety minutes of baking.

Occasionally, accidents do happen. Next steps, what to do with all those gorgeous pears that are in-season now?

For dinner tonight, we decided we would start with a pear and celery soup. We needed to use up those lovely pears sitting on our kitchen counter and I needed to get back on the horse again. This recipe was decidedly more successful than yesterday's. It's creamy, flavourful with just a hint of sweetness without the calories. Delicious. Unfortunately, the photo was not meant to be. I hope you can use your imagination and still try out this soup! Bon Appetit.

Pear & Celery Soup
2 tbsp vegetable oil (or butter)
3 c peeled & diced Bartlett pears
1 small onion, peeled & diced
4 c peeled & diced celery*
1 liter vegetable stock
1 tsp ginger powder (or 1 finely chopped candied ginger)

optional garnish: Stilton blue cheese (non-vegan) or toasted walnuts (vegan)

In a medium saucepan, heat vegetable oil & sauté pears and onions until onions have become translucent. Add celery and continue to sauté until celery is softened. Add vegetable stock to pan, & simmer until celery is very tender. With an immersion blender, carefully puree soup until smooth. If using, stir in cream at the end. Do not boil again. Serve immediately with a garnish of crumbled Stilton or toasted walnuts, if you like.

*You must peel the celery, otherwise you have stringy bits in your soup - it's worth the extra effort.

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Avocado, Crab & Tomato Salad

My husband and I celebrated our first anniversary this past week. It was a great first year and we couldn't believe how quickly time passed. To celebrate the occasion, we decided to do something different. Instead of going out for a great and extravagant dinner, we decided to have a great and extravagant dinner at home by creating our own tasting menu, based on our favourite foods. It was unexpectedly exhausting but our three hour extravaganza allowed us to put the rest of the world and all the distractions of our everyday life on pause while we took a bit of time to slow down and enjoy time with each other. As we recalled our memories of our shared life together, in the years before our wedding day and the year since, we found ourselves laughing until our sides ached.

For this very special evening, I started the evening out with crab, one of my favourite foods. This appetizer is super easy, fresh and flavourful. The avocado is velvety and smooth, the tomato fresh and clean, and the crab is luxurious and dressed so simply that its true flavours come through.

Avocado, Crab and Tomato Salad



Serves 2

You don't need a fussy plating for this, you can toss all the ingredients together instead of placing them in layers.

1/2 ripe avocado - diced (click here for tips on how to prep)
8 cherry tomatoes - diced
1/4 lb lump crab meat - dark & white meat
1 tbsp mayonnaise
1/2 tsp celery salt
1/2 lemon (zest & juice)
pepper to taste

1. Divide the cubed avocado into 2 and place in the center of each plate.
2. Repeat with the tomatoes.
3. Gently mix crab with mayonnaise, celery salt, lemon zest & juice. Add pepper to taste.
4. Pile crab onto tomatoes and serve immediately.
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Millions of Peaches, Peaches for Me

If I had my little way I'd eat peaches everyday
Sun soakin' bulges in the shade
- Presidents of the United States of America

Peaches are one of my favourite fruits. They are sweet, dribble-down-your-chin juicy, and refreshing. And right now, local Ontario peaches are in season!


I love them in all of their shapes & forms from tinned peaches that offer a taste of summer when eaten in the dark dreary nights of winter, to the fragrant, massive globes found in the farmer’s market these days. They are heavenly when ripe and sweet, but they are also quite delicious under a crisp buttery granola topping or piled thickly & tucked into a sweetened pie crust. And, of course, I love them in this week's gooey summery jam.

Every year I vow, "Never again!" after I wearily emerge from a steamy kitchen with burnt fingers in a haze of sugar and fruit. Jam-making is a tedious task. (Not sure if it's this troublesome for everyone, but it certainly is for me.) Every year, I feel like I spend hours prepping & chopping fresh fruit, sterilizing jars, counting out lids & screw-tops, and processing.

But all of that fatigue and weariness fades away when there is a row of gleaming mason jars sitting on my kitchen counter. I well up with pride seeing all those hours of chopping, stirring and processing translated into pristine, shiny jars of jams. Then when I open up a jar and thickly smear that sweet, sticky and fruity jam onto warm, crusty toast, I know exactly why I make my own jam. There is nothing like it.



I have been making this beautiful peach lavender jam for years. It is intensely peachy and slightly floral from the lavender. It's summer in a jar.

While, I have tried my hands at other jams: strawberry, mixed fruit and even apple butter, the jam I long for the most, is this really special peach lavender jam.

Ah, peaches.


Peach Lavender Jam

1 tbsp dried lavender buds (organic)
1/4 c hot water
5 c peaches (peeled, pitted and chopped)
2 tbsp lemon juice
7 c granulated sugar
1 pouch pectin

1. Soak lavender in hot water for at leat 30 minutes. Strain and reserve tea.
2. In a large pot, add peaches, lemon juice, lavender tea, sugar and pectin.
3. Cook until the mixture boils and bubbles.
4. Skim off scum.
5. Boil for at least five to ten minutes or until jam sets. (To test, place a saucer in the freezer. Drop a small dollop on the cooled saucer. If the jam gels and appears jammy, then you're done.)
6. Carefully pour into sterilized mason jars. Secure with lid and screw cap on (not tightly, but firmly).
7. Process jam in a large water canner for at least 15-20 minutes from boiling point(check your elevation and adjust your times accordingly)
8. Carefully remove jars from hot water, cool on a clean tea towel. Refrain from moving for at least 1 day.

A great source for all things canning can be found at the National Center for Home Preservation: http://www.uga.edu/nchfp/

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I'll Be Back...

Summer is usually a time for breaks in our day to day routines. It's a time for lazy afternoons, ice cream cones, backyard barbeques, and time with friends and family. Unfortunately, I have not been kicking back and relaxing... (Because I would be cooking up a storm and oh, to think of the jams and pies I'd make...)

But in fact, I have been caught up in something more banal. It's an extremely busy time at work and I have literally been chained to my desk trying to be a good employee. So please, please stay tuned because as Arnie says, "I'll be back" and we'll get caught up then. I promise.

A Summer's Lunch

In everyone's kitchen, there is one appliance that is indispensible. It's the one appliance that never collects dust. It works harder than all the rest, while the others are relegated to dark corners of the kitchen. In our household, it's our panini maker.

Perhaps the reason our panini maker gets quite a workout is our love for warmed, toasted sandwiches with delicious savoury fillings. In our household, there are few lunches that are as satisfying as a savoury cup of soup and a grilled sandwich oozing with melted cheese. No matter the season, our lunch-time mood always suits a grilled sandwich.

This week, I share with you one of my absolute favourite summer sandwiches. It includes a thick (read: generous) smear of tangy softened goat cheese, roasted sweet red pepper, and fresh fragrant basil leaves sandwiched between fresh toasted ciabatta melded together in my trusty panini maker.

Grilled Sandwich with Goat Cheese, Tomatoes and Roasted Red Peppers
1 4" slice fresh ciabatta bread sliced cross-wise
1-2 tbsp soft goat cheese (chevre)
1/4c roasted red pepper slices
1 small tomato sliced length-wise
3 large sized basil leaves

salt & pepper to taste

1. Preheat panini maker. Toast ciabatta slices cut side down until toasted & grilled markets appear.
2. Once toast is ready, spread goat cheese onto bottom slice of hot toasted bread.
3. Top with roasted red pepper & tomato slices. Sprinkle with sea salt & pepper. Then layer basil leaves and firmly place top of the ciabatta on top.

Serve with a spring mix salad or a small cup of roasted tomato soup.
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