Apricot Cookies!!

Hey everyone! I know I have been silent for the past couple of weeks but I just had too many things on my check list, but I am still here, don't think I have abandoned you! One of the things I love about these food blogs is that you can share all sorts of recipes and experiences with other foodies like you, and get more passionate about cooking or baking!..

Last weekend I made these fantastic cookies from this cute blog I follow Love & Olive Oil. I've never tried to put fresh fruit into my cookie dough until I made this recipe. It was fantastic! I was overwhelm by the delicious combination of flavours! I just made a few changes to the recipe, I didn't add the instant coffee as I didn't have any, but it was super delicious anyways. You could really taste the Apricot flavour in the cookies. And another tiny little change I made was to sandwiched it with Vanilla Ice cream. Mmmmmm Delicious.

For all of you who are craving them right now, here is the link to the recipe!
Love & Olive Oil

Maple Cream Tart

This beautiful and sunny long weekend we celebrated Canada Day, and not only that but one of my very very very good friend's birthday!.. Nice weather always invites you to BBQ, and Marisol wanted just that to celebrate her birthday! I wanted to cook something nice for my girl, so I thought a creamy maple tart will be just perfect for the occasion!! I wanted to try something new which can be tricky sometimes as I really didn't know how the flavour was going to be like. It was the first time I prepare this recipe and.. oh boy, it was really a nice maple goodness bite! I believe everyone enjoyed it or so they said! Hahahaha anyways, it was a light sweet dessert perfect to enjoy after such a big meal!

Maple Cream Tart

Ingredients:

375g ready rolled shortcrust pastry
filling
1 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/3 cups of cream
1/2 maple syrup
5 egg yolks

Directions:

Roll out the pastry on a lightly floured surface so it can cover a 9 inch pie shell. Blind bake the pastry. Meanwhile prepare the filling. Place the cornstarch in a bowl and whisk with a little of the cream until the mixture is smooth. Add the remaining cream, maple syrup, and egg yolks and whisk until combined. Pour the filling into the pastry and bake in a preheated 325F° oven for 30 to 35 mins. or until the filling is set. Chill until cold and set.

Delicious!

Gelato!!

Finally summer time has arrived and with that, humid and hot weather is an everyday occurrence. What a better excuse to go for GELATO!..

I think I told you a few posts ago that I just moved to my new place last month, although it's been kinda tiring fixing every little detail there is to fix in the new place, it is also exciting getting used to your new surroundings! I already discovered a great couple of places. Fresh fish, fruits & vegetables and daily baked bread are just around the corner!... But today I am going to talk about one of my best findings!! GELATO! It is seriously one of the best GELATO I've ever tried in Toronto/Etobicoke and you can find it in a great little place in Royal York called San Remo Bakery. YES, you read well, Bakery. There you can find not only the fresh bread I just told you about, but to my surprise the first time I went there, you can also find this frozen treat!

I have only tried 4 different flavours: Raspberry Sorbet, Pistachio, Mango Sorbet & Lemon. All of which I couldn't have enough. I have been going back every week for my stash of GELATO and I believe they will see me again and again for the rest of the summer!

What to do with Left Overs?

It is awful when you have a lot of leftovers, you don't want to eat the same thing the same way for days, I encountered this many times, especially with big dinners such as Christmas turkey, or when I do big stews, etc. etc. The best of all is that this recipe is good for everything, either meat, chicken or turkey. I haven't tried it with Fish so I can't speak to that. But I have tried it with Christmas turkey, beef stew and simply chicken that I have left over. It was very very good every single time, so I hope this will comes to mind when you don't know what else to do with your left overs!

Leftovers Pie

Ingredients

2 bacon pieces, roughly chopped
½ bunch of fresh thyme, leaves picked
olive oil
butter
3 leeks, washed, trimmed; white end chopped into chunks, green end finely sliced
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
400g of your meat, turkey or chicken leftovers
2 heaped tablespoons plain flour, plus extra for dusting
1 cup of turkey, chicken or vegetable stock
1 to 2 tablespoons of crème fraîche
1 x 500g packet puff pastry
1/2 cup of pecans, roasted
2 sprigs fresh sage, leaves picked
1 egg

Directions

Preheat your oven to 375°F. Put your bacon in a large pan on a medium heat and add the thyme leaves. Add a splash of olive oil and the butter and let it fry for a few minutes. Add the leeks and fry them for about 3 minutes. Add a pinch of salt and pepper then pop the lid on top, turn the heat down to medium and let them cook gently for 30 minutes, stirring occasionally until they are soft and melt in your mouth.

When the leeks are ready, add the leftovers and stir. If you’ve got a bit of stuffing or any leftover veggies, add them too. Add the flour, mix it in well then pour in the stock and stir again. Add the crème fraîche then turn the heat up and bring everything back up to the boil. Have a taste and add a bit more salt and pepper if it needs it then you are done with the filling. Pour the mixture through a sieve over another large empty pan.

Get a deep baking dish roughly 22 x 30cm. Roll the pastry out so it’s about double the size of your dish. Crumble the pecans over one half of the pastry then tear a few of the sage leaves too. Fold the other half of pastry on top of them and then roll it out carefully and evenly so you have a rectangle big enough to cover your baking tray. Don’t worry if a few bits stick out here and there.

Spoon the leek mixture from your sieve into the pie dish and spread it out evenly. Lay your pastry on top, tuck the ends under then gently make some cuts to the pastry diagonally with your knife. Add a pinch of salt to your beaten egg then paint this egg wash over the top of your pastry. Put the pie in the oven for 35 to 40 minutes or until the pastry is puffed up and golden brown.

Serve hot and add some of the gravy you made from before!

This tastes heavenly!!

Red Snapper

Hello Guys!! I know I have been away for a while, but I am back! Although it felt like an eternity, I am finally moved to my new place and I have to say I love my new kitchen, it has lots of natural light which will be amazing for my food pictures!! Yay! I wanted to share with you one of the other dishes I learnt to cook at Calphalon. This Seared Red Snapper recipe with olive & capers tapenade is just amazing!! You have to try this one!!

Red Snapper with Tapenade

Ingredients:

4 fillets of red snapper
1/2 cup black sun-dried olives, pitted and roughly chopped
2 tbs capers
4 tbsp. flat-leaf parsley, chopped
4 tbsp. basil leaves, chopped
2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
4 tsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. black pepper
4 tbsp. olive oil

Directions:

Prepare a rustic chop of olives with caper berries, herbs , zest, lemon juice, and pepper. Add oil in stream until incorporated into a loose paste.
Heat a frying pan Over medium high heat. Season fish fillets with salt and pepper.
Add oil to the pan and add the fish (non skin side down), once the oil is hot. Sear on the one side until white protein bubbles appear on the side of the fillet and it begins to feel firm. Roll onto skin side and top with olive mixture.
Cook through – another 1-2 minutes and serve immediately.

Quick Tip:

In case you get the skinless red snapper the way to make it non stick is to coat it with flour before cooking it.

Enjoy it with glass of white wine!

Seafood!

I met with my best friend "D" at the corner of King and Spadina for a cooking class last Friday. As soon as we got there we quickly reserved our sits, front row and all, so we could really see everything that was happening in the kitchen. I really liked the class, it was all seafood! and we were able to taste every meal the chef prepared. He was very helpful, and answered all our questions. When "D" and I left the culinary centre we were so excited we quickly planned to cook the recipes the next day!.. and we did!!..

A couple of weeks later I cooked an "impress me welcome dinner" for my parent who are just visiting Toronto this week! They have been reading my blog for a while and were expecting to see her daughter perform in the kitchen. Luckily she nailed it!

The menu included

Fried Calamari

Ingredients:

2 lbs. of clean Squid (cut into thin strips)

the juice and zest of one lemon

salt & pepper

1 cup of flour

a pinch of paprika, cayenne pepper, parsley flakes, garlic powder, chili flakes (and every other herb our spice you would like to add to the flour base).

Directions:

Have your squid cleaned and cut. On a separate bowl add all dry ingredients plus the zest of one lemon. In another bowl, have your squid marinated with pepper and lemon juice for no more than 5 mins or so. For the deep frying, I always use a porcelain pot, it will help with the heating process. One other advice is to never never deep fry without a thermometer, believe me it will make your life a 1000 times easier and healthier. Heat the oil that you are going to use for your deep frying until it reaches 375F and keep it there. Mix the marinated squid with the flour mixture and start the deep frying!! I made a homemade mayonnaise to go with it!..

Enjoy!