Well, since the Year of the Monkey started on February 8, why not use the mystery ingredients from episode 5’s second round (frozen sausage patties, Long Island Ice Tea, heirloom carrots and figs) to make dumplings? Not too hard to think of something, right? And to make it more main course-like, it can be served […]
Ingredients for the second (i.e. main) course on the fifth episode of this season’s Chopped Canada were: lamb crown, tomato sauce, nutritional yeast and chrysanthemum leaves. The first thing that came to mind was roast lamb. But I was trying to figure out what exactly to do with it (if I were to make this […]
Tiramisu is one of my favourite desserts! This might sound a little odd, but why can’t one attempt to make tiramisu with quinoa instead of lady fingers? Can’t be THAT difficult, can it? And no, I am using ACTUAL quinoa for the “cake” rather than quinoa flour – it isn’t, after all, quinoa flour that […]
For the appetizer round, the mandatory ingredients were chicken breast, stout, parsnip and jelly rolls. A little bit weird, but not a complete throw-off. Not that difficult to figure SOMETHING out, either. What I’d make would be sweet and sour chicken sliders topped with parsnip slaw. This would work very well both as a passed […]
Maple fudge was one of the items in the main course basket, along with soft pretzels, chili fries and corn on the cob. So what should one make with that? Why not pulled maple turkey over pretzel and fries cake? Topped with corn and kale salad? Maple fudge – would you use it for a […]
Ummm, sure? Yes, rainbow coloured “fruit ring” cereal (think Froot Loops) was one of the mandatory ingredients for the main course of Episode 21. This was along with rabbit legs, spicy pickled green beans and port. Yes. What a weird basket. Difficult, too. But one needs to use the imagination in order to win, right? […]
Mystery basket ingredients for the main course were not all that weird this past airing. They were whole chicken, malted soda, dried goji berries and raisin bran muffins. Thus, the first thing I thought of was stuffed chicken, using the goji berries and muffins. The malted soda could be used as a marinade for the […]
I was recently asked by someone, what can I do with all my spare alcohol? I know this person must not read my recipes often, since alcohol is a staple in much of my cooking. My advice to her was, either throw a big party and make cocktails for everyone, or use my recipes to […]
Most people know that alcohol is a great tool for cooks, but not everyone thinks of tea for cooking purposes. Tea has a beautiful earthy fragrance and brings new, unexpected depth and flavour to almost any dish. Green tea, black tea, jasmine tea, lavender tea or chamomile tea- they all work well, so be experimental! […]
