When Nicholas started eating solids, (and I mean real food, not the purees that I had been making him), one of the first things I wanted to make him was spaghetti and meatballs. It was one of my favourite comfort foods when I was younger and I still really enjoy it.
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This dish evolved from an eggplant recipe that we made from one of the Ottolenghi cookbooks. It basically called for steaming the crap out of a sliced eggplant, and then seasoning it with a Japanese-style dressing. We made it (or some variation of it) quite a few times because it was tasty, easy to put together. It made for a nice side dish for dinner (e.g. along with rice and pickled vegetables) and leftovers were a good addition to lunch the next day. Lately though, we’ve been using our oven a lot for meal prep and it only made sense to recreate this dish with roasted eggplant. We also ended up making some adjustments to the dressing to suit our preference and married it a Chinese-style ginger-scallion sauce.
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At work, I have been coming across more and more co-workers that are choosing not to have gluten for dietary reasons. And as some of you may know, dealing with teenagers on a daily basis can be a challenge sometimes, and sometimes a slice of cake is just what you need to sweeten up the day. The kids and I were able to come up with a recipe that is gluten free for some teachers/staff with (and without) gluten allergies to enjoy. This is an official version of the cake that we originally made for last year’s super birthday.
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Steamed buns — pillows of deliciousness that can be sweet or savoury, stuffed or plain. The same dough recipe can be used to make a bao or stuffed bun and lends itself to many different fillings. These are also great make-ahead items! They can be done in a large batch and frozen, then pulled out a few at a time and re-steamed (or microwaved) as needed.
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How can something so simple be so good? The answer is a thin layer of caramelized sugar on top of a perfectly cooked custard. A student of mine wanted to make this at home for his family, so we started testing some recipes. I usually get a few students a year wanting to do this, but often enough – either from using a random recipe from the internet or not having the know-how to reduce our chances of error – we don’t get good results. Crème brûlée is so simple, and if done correctly it will be super tasty. That didn’t happen the first (few) time(s) though, lol.
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Smoothies & Sundaes 