September 9, 2017

Chilled spiced tomato water

Tomatoes are ripe and juicy now and one fun thing to make with them is tomato water. Making tomato water became trendy a while back but I am slow to jump on the bandwagon. However, we had a flavour packed chilled tomato water soup at a recent multi course dinner at the #chefmeetsBCgrape that inspired me to make this soup now. To make tomato water you blend ripe, juicy tomatoes with basil, garlic, shallots and... View Article

September 7, 2017

Lime tarts

I was looking around the cookbook section at chapters a few weeks ago and found this lovely little book inside a beautiful box that looked like a chocolate or high end pastry box. Sure enough it was Laduree’s book Sucre featuring Laduree recipes for its world renowned pastries and sweets. It was the only copy and of course I grabbed it. It started me on a dessert making mania that hasn’t stopped yet. No one... View Article

September 1, 2017

Green beans with mustard seeds and tarragon

Sleepless nights are great for leafing through cookbooks and last night in the wee hours of the morning I got up and picked up Yotam Ottolenghi cookbook “Plenty” off my cookbooks shelves. I had to laugh because I saw that I had tagged almost every page with a sticker meaning there is a recipe that I would like to try. Practically the entire book was tagged. This morning I checked the fridge to see what... View Article

August 23, 2017

Confetti Cauliflower fritters

I am cleaning the fridges after having company on and off for a few weeks. There are odds and ends of beautiful local produce that I’d like to use and create room on the shelves for my next market outing, which in the summer can be every day. These delicious fritters were the result of fridge clean-up. I had a few florets of white, purple and orange cauliflower that I used as crudites (hence the... View Article

August 20, 2017

Crostini with cannelini beans and fried sage

This is a very Italian dish and like most Italian food it is simple and delicious. “Simple” I mean in a sophisticated way. Viva Italia. I cook beans frequently and tend to have some on hand most of the time so it’s easy for me to make these crostini without having to cook them from scratch. The beans can be homemade, slow cooked with aromatics, or if you don’t cook beans from scratch then use good... View Article

August 19, 2017

Beets three ways: beetroot, beet leaves and stems

In keeping with the nose to tail concept that doesn’t apply in my vegetarian kitchen, I am trying to use the whole plant, end to end and not waste any edible parts. You’d be surprised how much we waste in the foods we eat, throwing away good leaves, stems and even roots of some good vegetables. My company last weekend came bearing gifts from the garden, bringing beautiful beets with their greens still attached from... View Article

August 17, 2017

Corn-feta fritters with yogurt-dill sauce

We eat a lot of corn now that it is in season, locally grown and so sweet and tender. Occasionally we have a cob or two leftover, cooked or uncooked, and that’s when I like to make corn fritters. The simplest sauce to serve with it is a tangy yogurt with dill and a sprinkling of good salt. It’s fragrant, tangy and refreshing with the fried fritters. I took the pics outside and had to... View Article

August 16, 2017

New potatoes and yellow beans with creme fraiche and dill

There is nothing like new potatoes lightly coated with creme fraiche and liberally sprinkled with fresh dill and it’s even better with buttery yellow beans fresh from the garden or your local farmers market. It’s one of my favourite summer dishes. I steam the potatoes whole and unpeeled, cook the beans separately in salted water (sometime in the water I steamed the potatoes in) and then combine them in a pot with either homemade or... View Article

August 11, 2017

Avocado salad with dukkah vinaigrette and goat cheese

A beautiful ripe avocado is a special treat and once in a while I indulge. You have to buy it just right, either to serve immediately or to ripen on your counter for a day or two before serving. I have thrown away many avocados that I bought with good intentions and never got around to using. Once they go soft there is nothing to do but discard them. The softness of the avocado is... View Article

August 9, 2017

Berries, ice cream and meringue shards

Here is an easy summer dessert that uses the beautiful seasonal berries. I macerated the berries with a little sugar and ice wine (or dessert wine) top them with ice cream and whipped cream, then cover it all with meringue shards that add an element of surprise (you cannot see what’s under) and a crunch factor to this refreshing, simple dessert. I had an opportunity to cook for visiting friends in the last couple of... View Article

August 2, 2017

Beets sous vide

On my last trip to the local farm stands a few blocks behind where we live I picked a whole bunch of beautiful new and local produce. Small new potatoes, plump green onions, field cucumbers and these small sweet bunches of red and yellow beets. Normally I would roast them but I recently bought a new gadget for the kitchen, a sous vide immersion circulator, and decided to cook the beets sous vide. If the... View Article

July 31, 2017

Tomato salad with basil and homemade ricotta

We are lucky in the Okanagan to have winery restaurant chefs that pride themselves on creating dishes using local produce that are beautiful to look at and packed with flavour. One of my favourite is the Terrace Restaurant at Mission Hill winery. Not only the Tuscan architecture, the bell tower, the view and the beautiful wines, but the food at their Terrace restaurant is always outstanding. My gal friends were visiting from Calgary last week... View Article