– cooking, but of course;
– a trip to London to see the family and celebrate Mother’s Day;
– babysitting Paul and Su-Ming’s 4-month-old twins … successfully;
– HotDocs, but see a previous post on that;
– Mama Joan’s much belated Keg birthday dinner.
The poissoniere
Weeks ago we spent a fun – and expensive morning – at the first ever All-Clad warehouse sale up in Markham. It was a great sale with piles of deals any kitchen whore would love. One of our premier scores was an Iron Clad
… and what is one to do with a poissonière but poach a fish of course. On Saturday we invited Tennis Star Suzie over for dinner and laid on a whole red snapper for the occasion. I prepared a court-bouillon, a flavoured stock for poaching fish, and then poached the snapper. G applied his knife and fish deboning skills courtesy of Calphalon Culinary Academy and brilliantly prepared the fish for serving.
Homemade eggrolls
One
Sunday G decided to make homemade eggrolls from scratch. No small feat.
Sure the filling is fairly easy but boy oh boy making the wrappers from
scratch is an art we will continue to practice. This recipe made eggroll
wrappers that were ‘eggy’ and were prepared much as a crepe then
stuffed and finished off in the oven. These were delicious!
9) stuffing the eggroll; 10) the little buggers are ready for the oven
The Japanese bento box dinner, sans box
One Monday, I suddenly decided I wanted a Japanese bento box dinner and became a busy beaver preparing all sorts of Japanese mini-dishes, including – layered salmon rice with ao nori; cucumber shiso pickles; green beans with toasted sesame sauce, sauteed carrots and gobo and edaname. Course, then I realized despite all our kitchen accoutrement, we didn’t have bento boxes. So onto a plate it all went.
18 & 19) gobo has a very earthy flavour; 18) peeled and ready for the mandolin (you will want to keep the gobo in water with some lemon to keep it from browning)
20 & 21) saute the gobo with carrot and add in the chili, mirin, soya sauce, sesame oil and some brown sugar
24) the final plate pulled altogether … yum!
I headed to London to celebrate Mother’s Day at home as it has been many years since I was there for the actual day. It was a great trip and mom laid on a great dinner the night of my arrival. Riverside was relaxing as always and I sat around birdwatching in the gardens. Mother’s day we all gathered at the Grovesenor Club for a celebratory lunch.
26) mom’s cantaloupe and honeydew soup with shrimps; 27) fresh leg of lamb with asparagus and potato
28) sitting in the garden … see the little squirrel standing on the rock!?; 29) golden finches hanging outside the window
29) niece, mom, nephew and sis after lunch
Mama Joan’s Belated B-day
Last Thursday, I took TTC all the way out to the wilds of Scarberia to attend Mama Joan’s much belated birthday dinner with Tennis Star Suzie at the Keg.
34) Mama Joan, moi and Tennis Star Suzie at the Keg
AppsScraps 
Fancy poissonière…and very creative Japanese cuisine!! *drooling*
@christao408 – I get my All Clad from my brother for Christmas gifts. He and his wife buys them at the US when they drive down to visit relatives.
Wow… well done as usual! I’ve seen burdock before but never knew what to do with them.
It all looks so tasty! I love the idea of a bento box without the box… very deconstructed. All Clad had a sale? And I wasn’t notified!? The horror…
looks delicious, as always! i’ve been thinking about buying and cooking a whole fish for some time now… one of these days when i have time i’ll actually do it.
WOW! The fish is beautifully presented! Bravo! And HOW CUTE are those babies!PS – Did you stop getting those annoying Linked In messages? Sorry about that again.
I love poached fish!! You have a beautiful!!