Warm Bok Choy & Mushroom Salad with Crispy Garlic

I'm back!

It was a splendid retreat to Barbados. The three of us splashed in the ocean, walked along the beach and filled our bellies with flying fish.



While on holiday, our hotel room had a small stack of high quality glossy magazines which really were adverts for duty free shopping, sport facilities (golf, polo!), and restaurants on the island. I never opened the duty free shopping or the sports magazine... There was only one magazine that was of particular interest to me. Not only did they have shiny photos of seared scallops, grilled tenderloin and glistening sashimi, they published feature menus from these establishments. I was obsessed with this little magazine. Night after night, I flipped through its pages dreaming of the culinary extravaganzas being prepared for the guests of this island.

This week's recipe was inspired by a menu item I found in the magazine.

It uses my favourite Asian green, Shanghai bok choy. It's very mild in flavour and holds shape fairly well. If you don't like bok choy or it's not available, you can also use other types of greens....baby spinach springs to my mind.

What I enjoy the most about this dish is the variety of textures... crunchy bok choy, meltingly tender mushrooms, crispy crunchy garlic bits.

This would be a wonderful accompaniment to grilled steak or seafood.


Warm Baby Bok Choy & Mushroom Salad With Crispy Garlic



2 garlic cloves roughly chopped
2 tbsp vegetable oil
1 lb baby Shanghai bok choy, washed & separated
1 lb assorted mushrooms (eg. oyster, shitake, etc.)
1 tsp mustard powder
1 tsp minced ginger
1 tsp low sodium soy sauce
1 tbsp oyster sauce

approximately 1 tsp lemon juice (about 1 wedge of a fresh lemon)
s&p to taste
sesame seeds

1. Heat a large frypan on high-medium, add 1 tbsp vegetable oil. Swirl around pan. When it shimmers, add garlic & turn down heat. Cook garlic until golden and caramel in colour. Do not allow it to burn. Set aside.
2. Roughly chop baby bok choy into bite-sized pieces.
3. Heat remaining vegetable oil on high heat. Add mushrooms, saute on medium heat until mushrooms lose their firmness. Add bok choy until wilted. Stir in mustard powder, ginger, soy sauce and oyster sauce. (Taking care not to leave the vegetables in the pan in too long.)
4. Add lemon juice. Taste, then adjust salt & pepper to your liking.
5. Return the crispy garlic to the dish. Add sesame seeds. Toss before serving warm.
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If You Dare...

Note: Please forgive the tardy postings these last few weeks... we have been in the final steps of our major basement renovation and we've been scrambling to get our house in order and our weekends are spent moving furniture, and cleaning. Not fun.

The inspiration for this week's recipe came from a huge craving I have had for one of my favourite types of cheeses. Stilton. Gorgonzola. Roquefort. Cambozola. Blue cheese - it's a type of cheese you either love or you hate. It is assertive & distinctive and usually, ahem, pungent. There are people out there who are absolutely mad for a veiny, craggy bleu and I am one of those people.

While there are milder forms of this type of cheese, I prefer the verbose & in-your-face flavours for this appetizer. It's meant for just a few bites to set the stage for dinner and is not meant to serve as a portion for a main dish. If you would prefer a larger portion, I would recommend a milder blue cheese such as dolcelatte. This pasta has flavour!


Gorgonzola Pasta with Roasted Mushrooms & Pine Nuts

serves 4 appetizer sizes

1/2 lb small pasta (such as penne or shells)
1 tbsp butter
5 large button mushrooms, cleaned & sliced
80 grams Gorgonzola crumbled
1/2 c light cream (or milk - if using milk, I used abit extra & allow it to boil down a little)

salt & pepper to taste

2 tbsp toasted pine nuts

1. Cook pasta according to package instructions in a large pot of boiling salt water.
2. Over a high-medium heat, add 1 tbsp butter to a large skillet. Once butter has melted, toss in mushrooms. Spread evenly along the skillet and allow to roast off.
3. In a medium saucepan, add cream (or milk) and crumbled cheese over medium-low heat. Stir occasionally and allow to cheese to melt.
4. Once mushrooms have browned off and given up considerable moisture add to cheese/cream mixture.
5. Drain off pasta and add to sauce. Stir to incorporate.
6. Adjust seasoning and top with toasted pine nuts & serve immediately.

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A Different Salad for Summer

Sometimes recipes that you love happen by accident. This week's summer salad is a good example of one. Usually, I have a good sense of what I am going to make before I even step into my kitchen. But several weeks ago, I thought I might make a salad for dinner. In my mind, it was going to be a simple green salad with celery, peppers and tomatoes. Then my husband reminded me that our contractor was going to be arriving the following week which means we needed to purge our clutter.(We are "lowering our basement." I know that concept may sound strange for most people but in our neighborhood in Toronto where the tiniest houses sell for a mint, a way of extending your living space when you can't add an addition to your house is to dig down your basement floor to create enough head space. This gives you an additional floor of livable space. If this sounds expensive, you're quite right, it is, but it is cheaper than moving. Unfortunately, we will be working for quite a while to pay this off. But we hope in the end, it will be worth it.)

That little impetus gave me some thoughts to see what was in our pantry and there I saw it, Israeli couscous, in a gleaming mason jar. I had been thinking about using it and I thought I might try it as sort of a "light" pasta salad in that there would be more vegetables with just a highlight of starch.

The result is a clean, fresh tasting salad with the flavours of summer: tomatoes, peppers, and celery. It's juicy and crisp and feels like the type of salad you want to eat when the days are long and it is too humid to cook dinner. Even leftovers are delicious, it stays crisp even overnight and the couscous continues to absorb the flavours of the gardineria and the marinated mushrooms.

In fact, this “recipe” is so simple that I hesitate to call it that. It is really a couple of ingredients we had in the fridge tossed together. This recipe would work well for a picnic or a potluck where you might have limited access to refrigeration, easily doubles or triples to feed crowds and is easy to transport.

Israeli couscous is often mistaken for a grain, but in reality, it is actually quite similar to pasta. If you can't find Israeli couscous, you could use the more common finer-grained couscous or try a small pasta such as orzo. Israeli couscous can be found near the grains, rice section of your grocery store.


Israeli Couscous Salad


1/2 c Israeli Couscous

1/2 yellow / orange pepper
3 stalks celery, trimmed

1/2c marinated mushrooms*
1/2c gardinieria*

2 medium sized tomatoes

1. Cook Israeli Couscous per package's instructions in plenty of water until al dente. Drain couscous.

2. Meanwhile, chop pepper and celery into uniform medium-sized chunks. Add to a large bowl, toss with marinated mushrooms & gardinieria including some of the marinade. Add the warm couscous and toss well. Leave for at least 30 minutes (for best flavour).

3. Slice up tomatoes and add to salad when ready to serve.

*You can purchase marinated mushrooms and gardinieria (a delicious mixed vegetable pickle usually includes cauliflower, carrots, celery and hot peppers.) Both are so easy to make, but in a pinch we buy it. Alternatively, you could lightly pickle fresh vegetables by cutting up bite size pieces of your favourite vegetables - carrots, celery, cauliflower - tossing them in a boiling mixture of distilled white vinegar for up to 5 minutes. Strain and cool. Save some of the pickling liquid to toss with the couscous.
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The Fully Loaded Grilled Cheese: Meet Croque Madame

Note: What To Do With.... will return. I promise. I sat down to write this week's post and I couldn't quite do it justice. So I will save it for another day.

Sandwiches can be a marvellous thing. If you have lunch with me regularly, you know this already. I like them alot. They can be as simple as the peanut butter sandwiches I used to eat when I was a schoolgirl. Or with time permitting and a well-stocked fridge, they can be as flavourful and complex as you like. These days, I like thick juicy Ruebens, Cajun chicken on a toasted kaisers, BLTs, Montreal Smoked Meats, and Turkey Avocados... (and there is always a thick smear of spicy Dijon mustard.)

However, I woke up the other morning with a craving for something else... I've had France on the brain lately and started to think about a bistro we stumbled upon in the third arrondisement in Paris several years ago. Then I remembered my lunch there, a Croque Madame with a salad frisee.

The Croque Madame is a variation of it's slightly more famous spouse, le Croque Monsieur. The Croques are crispy, crunchy, savoury and oozy. Despite its fancy French name, the Croque at a basic level is a grilled sandwich. The Croque Monsieur is traditionally layered with deli-sliced ham and Emmenthal while his Madame boasts the addition of a fried or poached egg. The egg may be tucked in between the slices of bread or it may lay on top of the sandwich.

In this version, I have used smoked turkey and mozzarella and added sauteed mushrooms for a woodsy flavour. (Mozzarella has such a delicate flavour, the mushrooms bump up the flavour abit.) It's optional but I think it makes this sandwich a little special.

Breakfast Grilled Cheese



2 tbsp butter
5 button mushrooms, sliced
2 slices of bread (I like multi-grain these days)
1 egg

pinch of salt, pepper, chili flakes
1 1/2 tsp of chives (to taste)
50 grams of your favourite cheese (I like mozzarella, old cheddar or Gruyere)
50 grams of sliced turkey, ham, pastrami, etc. (or a couple slices of bacon)

1. Heat a panini maker.* Heat a pan over medium heat until butter melts and foamy. Saute mushrooms and season with chili flakes until they sweat down. Season with black pepper and salt. Remove from heat and set aside.
2. Crack an egg into the hot pan and cook over easy.
3. Carefully lay one slice of bread on the panini press, add meat, sauteed mushrooms, chives, egg and cheese. Top with the second slice of bread and lay down the press on top of the sandwich.
4. Toast until you have nice grill marks on the bread and the cheese begins to melt.
5. Slice in half and serve.

*If you don't have a panini-maker, you can still make this sandwich. Heat a non-stick pan with about 1/2 tbsp of butter, once you have assembled the sandwich, place it on the heated pan to crisp up and turn golden. Carefully flip and brown on the other side. Serve immediately.

Since I started working for a British headquartered company, I have developed a strong affinity for "brown sauce" aka HP Sauce which has a strong presence in our staff cantina. Brown sauce is great with this sandwich. ...Read more

A Simple Brunch Menu: Simmered Mushrooms with Poached Eggs

One of the things I look forward to on the weekend is enjoying brunch with my husband. Our morning starts predictably with the sound of the coffee-maker pulverizing aromatic dark roasted coffee beans, my husband unfurls the weekend newspaper to glance at the front-page headlines then, we set about making brunch together. Some weekends, we want something sweet and fruity like blueberry pancakes topped with Quebec maple syrup. Other times, we prefer something savoury like a traditional English breakfast.

Eggs seem to be a necessary staple of our weekend ritual. I love them because they are utterly versatile and are absolutely delicious in so many ways: hard-boiled, soft-boiled, scrambled, sunny side up, over easy, poached, coddled, baked, salted, pickled, souffled, and meringued. (Although, not sure pickled eggs is something I'd want for breakfast...)

Usually, I have my eggs overeasy with an oozing, dribbling egg yolk that I sop up with a warm crisp multi-grain toast soldier. It is the simplest and quickest way to cook an egg properly. However, truth be known, my favourite egg is one that is gently poached: a rich golden yolk gently cradled by the tender egg white. A thick slice of smoked salmon and a spoonful of hollandaise and I am over the moon. It's a perfect way to start the day. I don't have a poached egg as often as I would like but when I do, I usually resolve myself to having it again soon.

I was flipping through an old issue of Gourmet magazine when inspiration struck me. There in its glossy pages, I saw two quivering poached eggs resting upon a plate full of roasted mushrooms, and I thought, “Now that would make an excellent brunch item.”

I had a small amount of chicken broth leftover, and I thought about slowly simmering the mushrooms. This is what I came up with...



Poached Eggs over Simmered Mushrooms
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3 garlic cloves, minced
1 lb assorted mushrooms – cleaned, sliced into thick slices (shitake, button, cremini, oyster, morel)
1/2c chicken broth
¼ tsp chilli flakes
¼ tsp herbes de province

4 eggs
1 tbsp white vinegar

2 tbsp snipped chives
truffle oil

1. Heat vegetable oil in large pan. Add minced garlic and sauté until softened.
2. Add mushrooms and broth and simmer until the mushrooms reduce in size and the broth is thickened. This should take approximately 20-25 minutes.
3. Once mushrooms are almost ready, heat a separate shallow pan with water. Add 1 tbsp of vinegar to the water. (Before you add the eggs to the water, ensure you have a slotted spoon and your serving dish closeby.) When water begins to simmer, crack one eggs into a shallow dish. Carefully and slowly tip the egg into the barely simmering water. Repeat with the remaining eggs.
4. There should be enough water to fully cover the egg. Do not allow the pan to come to a boil. The water should continue to simmer and the whites of the eggs should start to take shape. The yolk will be extremely fragile and wobbly. It should probably take about 2 minutes.
5. Tumble mushrooms into a serving dish, and with the slotted spoon, carefully spoon the poached eggs out of the water and slide onto the mushrooms. Dust with chives and drizzle with truffle oil.
6. Serve immediately.


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Meat, Cheese and Heat: Raclette is the Ultimate Weekend Dinner

For our wedding last summer, we received a raclette grill as a gift. (We love our friends and family!) We were thrilled to receive it but it gathered dust in our basement over the summer and the fall as we continued to use our barbeque.

We decided that over the Christmas holidays, it would be a great time for us to break out our raclette grill. So my husband bought about a kilo of raclette cheese from the cheesemonger in anticipation for a New Year’s Party that didn't happen. The cheese sat in our fridge this week and we decided that immediate intervention was required in order to make a dent in it.

So we celebrated the end of our first week at work with a relaxing and fun dinner. We poured ourselves some bubbly (also another remnant from our wedding) and fired up the indoor grill. We assembled platters of roast turkey, the hottest Genoa salami, pickled onions, gherkins, escargots, shrimp, cubes of salmon, quail eggs, sliced mushrooms, boiled baby potatoes and loads of shaved raclette cheese. Then we sat down to talk about the events of the past week as well as the next stage of our home renovations. (Oh dear...)

There is something truly sublime about oozy molten cheese. But it’s a balance: too much cheese and it is unctuous and unpleasant and too little, well then, what’s the point? But just the right amount and it is a luxurious and comforting.

Unlike fondue where you plunge cubes of bread and meats into hot oil or cheese, with raclette, you grill your seafood, meat and vegetable on the grill on top. Then you shovel them onto the tiny raclette pan, sprinkle cheese and slide it under the broiler below until the cheese is bubbly and golden.



The beauty of raclette is its simplicity: melted cheese over grilled vegetable, meat and seafood – few things are this easy to prepare and are this delicious. The preparation is also quite simple. In fact, it took us less than fifteen minutes to assemble our food for grilling. Then we spent about ninety minutes grilling, and nibbling. And of course, sipping champagne. (Wouldn't it be nice to live like this every day?)


Raclette Party

8 oz raclette cheese per person (I think you could probably use other cheeses you like – I think mozzarella, cheddar, emmental, gruyere may all work nicely.)

For grilling – some suggested items:
• cubes of salmon or beef
• peeled raw shrimp
• green onions, cut into two inch pieces
• sliced button mushrooms
• boiled mini potatoes, sliced in half
• cooked escargot (my husband’s request)
• quail eggs (we cook them in the mini raclette pan versus the grill)
(We grilled tomatoes, I don't recommend them because the liquid gets so hot that it's a tongue burner.)

For the side:
• deli meats: prosciutto, roasted turkey, hot salami
• cornichons
• pickled onions

Sparkling white wine or champagne is a great accompaniment because it is very bright and refreshing.