In My Kitchen: July 2023

 So, June was another crazy month for us! We started the month off in Toronto... 

A simple strawberry cake - the berries were in strong supply this year in Ontario, deliciously juicy and sweet.  

Barney turned 6! Here was a mishmash of leftover frozen bananas & strawberries, pecans, teff flour, whatever was in the cupboard went into Barney's "birthday cake"!

This was a stunner challah I made for the fellows farewell party which we had on the sunny roof patio at Princess Margaret Hospital. I glazed it with maple syrup which worked out really well. 

And here my last meal in Toronto before going to the airport - Shanghainese style pan fried pork buns. These taste just like my childhood, my grandma used to go get these for a special treat or on days when she couldn't be bothered to cook. 

And voilà, we are in France! S has been doing an academic program in Bonn but he came back to Paris for the weekend to help me with my bags and to settle in. Here was our first meal together off the plane, of course including an excellent baguette from the boulangerie just downstairs. 

He also got me this lovely surprise from my favourite patisserie Cyril Lignac, titled Royal Chocolate - Dacquoise with almonds, praline feuillantine, chocolate mousse, crunchy dark chocolate sheet, confit of praline and chocolate icing. 

Doesn't it just make your mouth water reading it? 

I had to stay in Paris for an extra week for some appointments so S went back to Germany, and I made pancakes while reviving Barney. Just like last year, he had a lot of trouble adjusting to French water / flour!

Cute eschallots on a string bundle! 

And of course, croissants are everywhere in Paris... 

The French love apricots and I've come to adore their sweet - tartness. Here on a perfectly crisp pastry base with a scattering of pistachios. Delicious! 

Even the banh mis in Paris are excellent, served on a still-warm crusty baguette. 

And finally, the month of June came to an end in Germany. I came to Bonn just before S' birthday and we had a nice dinner at the aptly named Mr & Mrs Humus (Humus is where the heart is.. don't you love their logo!) followed by this little watermelon cake that I constructed out of watermelon. 

 

And here is the curve ball: 

I went to the World Cup of Aligro in Paris - it was quite the spectacle! Aligro is a dish from the region of Auvergne, which is made from mashed potatoes, cream and cheese. Now the cheese: potato ratio is 1:1, so you can imagine how stretchy/gooey it is! Here different teams competed to stretch their pots of aligro as tall as possible, using a cherry picker! The winner got to 4.9m (less than the previous world record, but it was a really hot day so the cheese was more prone to breaking... so the commentary went) It was actually an insane sight, only possible in France :) 

I'm sending this post to Sherry who hosts the In My Kitchen series, thanks Sherry!!