The Dog's Breakfast

Saturday morning. You follow your nose into a local bakery and come out with an exotic loaf you couldn’t resist – a black Russian with orange peel and cranberries, or a spelt sourdough full of nuts and seeds. You use a couple of slices for lunch and wonder what to do with the rest. But wait. Didn’t you also pick up a nice piece of ham and a big wedge of cheese? Suddenly this loaf is destined for brunch.

There’s a lot to love about a meal that stops the clock somewhere between breakfast and lunchtime, and walks a delicious line between sweet and savory. The apples and spices in this bread pudding say ‘pass the bacon’; the nuts and cheese say ‘pass the bubbly’. » Read the rest of this entry «

This is by far our most-asked-for recipe, and after receiving an email request this week from someone who tasted these six months ago, we thought it was time to share. David has brothers and sisters who request these weeks in advance of family reunions. And this is what we make for ourselves when we want to go whole hog on Saturday nights.

We found this blockbuster in a Food and Wine issue a few years back. It seems originally to have been published in the Complete Book of Pork, by Bruce Aidells. We’ve tried all kind of variations – grilling them, spicing them up, using a root beer glaze… Or sometimes we’ve left one or two things out, either because we’ve run out of something or thought there were too many ingredients. There aren’t. » Read the rest of this entry «

By now you’ve certainly heard the story of the boys from Brooklyn who quit their day-jobs to open what quickly became a hugely popular bakery. The Baked guys are foodie superheroes. And their books show as much creative chemistry as their recipes do. Their first opus, Baked, not only tells readers how to make the bakery’s most popular desserts, it also communicates a playful hipness and ironic glee that perfectly capture what we imagine to be the Brooklyn zeitgeist.

In their second book, Baked Explorations, the duo turn their imaginations to American classic desserts, re-inventing them with the same mix of devotion and irreverence. They pay serious homage to favourites preserved on hand-written, shortening-smudged recipe cards, and re-invent them with seriously saucy style.

» Read the rest of this entry «

We finally nailed this one. This was a recipe we bookmarked two years ago, after being amazed by this entry on La Tartine Gourmande, an endless source of inspiration. This soup is a favourite late lunch/early dinner on cold Sunday afternoons, but somehow our variations always fell short of what we wanted this soup to be. Not enough clams, too much coconut milk, and most often, a disappointing curry flavour. » Read the rest of this entry «

Our technicolor pumpkin pie made its first appearance on the blog last year. Between Thanksgiving and Easter, we seem to be either eating pumpkin pie, making pumpkin pie, or planning to make and eat pumpkin pie. Last year, we were playing around with spice mixes and figured if we like the spice in pumpkin pie, why not see how far we could push the flavour?

Cloves, cinnamon, ginger and nutmeg are all standard fare for this seasonal dessert, but we decided last fall to see how far we could push the traditional envelope. We kept the core flavours, and shone a halo around them with dried orange peel, star anise, cardamom, and black pepper. Although it’s hard to pick out any one real note, the real killer here is the dried orange peel. » Read the rest of this entry «

This radically simple dish is a secret weapon in our culinary arsenal. Anyone who tastes these will press you for the recipe. And you’ll invite them back for dinner, and make the walnuts right in front of them, and they’ll marvel at how something so simple can be so good.

These warm jewels make a perfect ending to a fall meal, alongside sliced pears, blue cheese, and a glass of port. Or with apples and some very dark chocolate. » Read the rest of this entry «

This apple crisp is the kind of dessert you expect your grandmother to serve you in heaven. It’s deeply familiar, but has been elevated to the realm of the divine, thanks to the clever folks in the test kitchen at Cook’s Illustrated.

Ask for apples that will hold their shape when baked. No one likes a mushy apple.

We have a love/hate relationship with Cook’s Illustrated. It’s a monthly food magazine that puts dishes new and old through a rigorous test-kitchen process, and applies the principles of food science to produce a ‘best’ recipe. The catch is that their concept of best seldom also translates as ‘simple’. » Read the rest of this entry «

2010 will be our second tomato vintage, and we’re happy to report that this year’s canning experience was a lot more fun than our first one. Last year our tomatoes were suddenly ripe mid-week, and without knowing what we were getting into, we started canning at 5 p.m. on a Tuesday evening. We got through 36 pints.

It was a particularly tomatoey summer this year, with dozens of new varieties appearing at the markets, begging to be tasted. We spent a weekend in Prince Edward County with friends in August, and visited an organic farm that grows and sells 240 varieties of heirlooms. The farm’s produce is laid out for sale in a little roadside shack that uses the honour system – you take what you like and leave your money in a little box. » Read the rest of this entry «

Our memories of food at home seem most often linked to our mothers, or our grandmothers. Learning that yeast needs warm water, why you need to cook the flour in a sauce, and how to smell when things are done – this is all distinctly maternal wisdom.

But my father was a gardener, and I can’t taste a late-August field tomato without thinking of him thickly slicing our backyard bounty for our summer suppers. For about a month every year, there was a plate of tomatoes and a plate of cucumbers on the table nearly every night. You could eat as much of both as you liked. » Read the rest of this entry «

We’re crazy about Thai food. Its artful balance of spicy, sour, sweet, salty, tangy, crunchy, and yummy has us permanently hunting for new Thai recipes and restaurants. We always have Thai chiles in the freezer and often use them in spontaneous ways: our neighbour Krish had us doing chile shooters one night last winter. You bite off half a chile, knock it back with a slug of vodka, and then bite into a wedge of lime. Instant endorphins.

Like the chile shooters, this salad is not for the faint of heart. The baby octopus often twist and contort themselves when they hit the hot grill, and if you’ve never smelled fish sauce before, you’re in for an interesting surprise. » Read the rest of this entry «