AppsScraps

Springtime is such a busy time. I barely have the time let alone interest to blog. So, with apologies, here’s a long tome on the past month that’s involved:
– 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 poissonière, a fish poacher. We certainly didn’t need one of these but what the hell, we thought.

1) the new poissonière

… 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.

2) grated onion, carrot, a bay leaf, salt & pepper and a sprig of thyme is simmered for 10 minutes; 3) the court-bouillon nears completion

4) strain into the poissonière and then add two cups of wine and bring to a gentle simmer

5 & 6) the snapper before, and after, poaching and below, on the plate

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!

7) the traditional eggroll filler; 8) the eggy wrapper is cooked

9) stuffing the eggroll; 10) the little buggers are ready for the oven

11 & 12) G eggrolls … omg yummie!

The Japanese bento box dinner, sans box

13) Japanese bento box dinner minus the 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.

14 & 15) for the green beans whisk brown sugar, soya sauce, a touch of salt, sesame oil and ground sesame seeds

16) toss with frenched, blanched green beans; 17) gobo – almost 3 feet long is a slender root vegetable better known as burdock (hard to fine, I purchased mine up at J-Town in Markham)

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

22) kirby cucumbers with chili, shiso leaves, sugar and some dried kombu; to pickle them simply add in some rice wine vinegar and set in the fridge; 23) salmon with rice seasoned with ao nori

24) the final plate pulled altogether … yum!

Mom’s Day
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.

25) fresh garden tulips await me at home

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

DSCF4366
29) niece, mom, nephew and sis after lunch

Babysitting the twins

G and I also were recruited to babysit my cousin’s twins while Paul and Su-Ming attended a meeting. We happily said ‘sure’ and soon found ourselves in Islington Village with Dylan and Luka in tow. They were the sweetest of boys and, to our luck, no diapering was required.

30) Dylan hangs out in the kitchen; 31) Paul with Luka

32 & 33) out and about in Islington Village with the boys

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

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