In My Kitchen: April 2023

Dear friends of IMK, welcome to my kitchen, have I got a story to share with you this month! 

Who would have thought you could make little dough lovebirds like this? I really enjoyed the process of making them. The males have their wings spread and the females are more demure. I also strangely enjoyed poking the cloves in to be their eyes... 

Here they are after baking! Aren't they beautiful? 

I had to store them out of sight because they were the first step in a big surprise project... 

I've never made such a giant dough (it was a simple challah dough), I couldn't find any bowl big enough so I put it inside my biggest IKEA pot. Obviously my sourdough was too active - the next morning I woke up to see that it had exploded in the fridge! 

Can you guess yet what I'm making..? I made my own wedding "cake" from sourdough! 

It was a base layer of braided challah (just because challah is delicious), a Chinese middle layer of a Chinese style babka with sesame, coriander, chilli and green onions, and an Italian top layer of tomato focaccia. It represents the coming together of our cultures. 

You may ask... but why is it on the balcony? Because I started making it 2 hours before the wedding and I needed it to cool down quickly. It was -5 outside so I put it outside to cool! We ended up putting it together just 7 minutes before the wedding started. Talk about cutting it close! 

The Italian focaccia layer 

Braiding the Chinese babka... 

Have a look at that Chinese layer, my friend E's flavour creation - she calls it crack babka because it is utterly addictive!

Here's the final wedding "cake" in all its glory. So much fun to make!

My bridal bouquet - the first time that I met S we ate artichokes that we bought from the market downstairs from his place in Paris

We also got ourselves a beautiful dozen roses 

S wanted to match the artichoke so he had a piece of cos lettuce for his pocket - so sweet

This is probably one of my favourite photos from my entire life! It was so special to celebrate our wedding with friends in Toronto, especially our music friends. We got married in the party room in our condo so that we could unplug the piano and take it downstairs.  It was so special that we could play a part of the second Brahms violin sonata during the ceremony - here is a video of the beginning. It was a really simple wedding, 20 people, a potluck dinner, and a music party - now how often do you get to play music in your wedding dress?? 

And now we drink our coffee from these cups :) 

Thanks to Sherry for hosting the IMK series - I don't know any of you in person but I feel like I know you all, thanks for all your words of encouragement and support! 

In My Kitchen: March 2023

Oh how the time is just flying by! In February we went back to Australia for two weeks. On the day we left Toronto it was -20 (-28 with wind chill) and when we got off the plane in Sydney it was 30 degrees! What a crazy temperature difference...

In sunny Australia... 

It was actually our first Valentine's day together in person. We celebrated with a group of friends at a suburban Chinese restaurant - all of us not believing in hallmark birthdays, but since the Australian Barney is still alive I had to make this sourdough heart to share with everyone. We clandestinely ate it under the table before the food came! 

We visited my friend the cellist from my old string quartet, and together we played Mendelssohn's piano trio no. 1 in D minor and a bit of the Beethoven Archduke piano trio, my favourite. We made this fruit salad for dinner - how I adore Australian summer fruit! 

We went up to the Gold Coast to visit my music friend and her husband, and we spent a few days playing music there - some Bach, the Beethoven violin sonatas, and some 2 piano music. This Queensland yoghurt with mango is just excellent.  

She made us this cake on the last day, and dusted it with icing sugar and paper cut outs - how smart!

Then I made the same cake (Claudia Roden's orange cake) and decorated it with some mango for my dad's 70th birthday! For his birthday, S and I prepared a musical gift of Beethoven's Spring sonata and the traditional Chinese piece The Butterfly Lovers. 

A couple of extraordinary tomatoes we ate from my dad's garden. 

The second week we were in Australia, we stayed in Newcastle. My dad and his partner came up one day for lunch and here we are having whole roasted barramundi with a selection of Chinese veggies all from my dad's garden. 

Long term readers will recall that I have a close music friend in Newcastle with whom I played duets all throughout COVID. She put on a big dinner for us with roast lamb, sauerkraut, cauliflower & cheese, roast potatoes & pumpkin. It was such a feast! She's turning 80 this year, and she is just incredible! 

Our last dinner in Australia - home made pan fried dumplings, and a big pot of "Russian" soup at my dad's. 

Back in Toronto... 

It was freezing... and we continued our Manga Mondays tradition. Here the dish was natto, which is a kind of fermented soybean. An acquired taste, I must say. We had it with some salmon and tofu miso soup, and a simple side of broccoli stalks stir fried with daikon. Everything was more delectable than the natto!

Another Manga Monday... pork katsu with rice, highly non traditional sides of bean sprouts and heirloom tomato. We baked the katsu instead of deep frying it and it turned out really well! 

Another day, we had wonton noodle soup for dinner.. it's just so cold, it's soup weather. 

Finally, here is a beautiful loaf of shokupan, or Japanese milk bread I made with my sourdough. I have been experimenting with plant based milks, and I'm excited to report that this milk bread worked out really great with oat milk. 

The curveball... 

My dad's current Guide Dog puppy is called Wendy. She's actually 8 years old, so not quite a puppy. She was working as a guide dog but the visually impaired person did not see that she was getting too overweight. Hence she has taken a leave of absence from her work to do an intensive weight loss program at my dad's. She is quite adorable and loves eating. 

I'm sending this to Sherry of Sherry's Pickings, who hosts the monthly In My Kitchen series - Thanks Sherry!!

In My Kitchen: February 2023

 Super late this month because we are in Australia for a quick winter sojourn! This is going to be a quick one since I'm on my phone.

Octopus wieners from La cantine de minuit. We got given this manga for Christmas and we started doing Manga Mondays cooking dishes from the book. 

Sesame bagels for my on call weekend. These worked out a real treat! 

Vegan lasagne we had for our meal prep. I made the bechamel with soy and it was a bit weird, but after resting in the fridge it was really delicious! 

Another manga Monday, next day curry with rice, here the curry was made with carrot, potato, chickpeas tofu. It's called next day curry because it is more delicious the next day! 

This was a delicious cinnamon raisin sourdough loaf I made for work colleagues. We also took it on the road for snacks, on the way to our long weekend in Banff. 

Chinese New Year

Hakka style abacus beads made from mashed taro and tapioca flour. These were really delicious, chewy and moreish, served with a spicy sauce of onion and mushroom.

S is a real pro at making dumplings now! I roll the skins and he stuffs them. 

It's the year of the rabbit! I think it'll be our new annual tradition to have the animal in salad form 

A whole roasted snapper. Fish is essential for the Chinese New Year celebration. 

We finished with a dessert of red bean cooked with orange peel for freshness. It was a great meal and we were thinking of family. 

It's been so cold in Canada that soup and fresh bread has become a staple. I'm trying to get back into baguettes again! 

Here we had a lovely big hotpot on a musical evening where we played the Beethoven string quartet Op 95, this must be one of my ALL time favourites. 

My curveball this month is this beautiful mountain vista from Banff. We went there for a 4 day long weekend before S had a conference. The Banff arts centre is an incredible site perched on the hill overlooking the touristy Banff town centre. We absolutely adored the mountain scenery, going for long walks and visiting Lake Louise. I had to keep checking my eyes that it wasn't some kind of Photoshop, it really was incredibly picturesque. 

I'm sending this to the In My Kitchen group hosted by Sherry's pickings, thanks Sherry for hosting! 

In My Kitchen: January 2023

Welcome to 2023! December 2022 was quite a whirlwind, let's take a look together in my kitchen.

Starting in France...

I started December in Paris visiting S. My music friend also came over from Vienna for the weekend, and we had a really nice catch up - we haven't seen each other since COVID!

Black forest cake from a very, very fancy patisserie Mori Yoshida 

I almost always buy artichokes when I'm in France since they are hard to find in Anglophone countries.. these were so delicious and fleshy.

A lovely rose that S' friend brought him all the way from Israel. The flavour was quite unique, tart and complex. 

Back in Toronto...

I tried scoring Christmas trees into my sourdough... 

8-strand sourdough challah for a music gathering one Sunday afternoon. How I love plaiting dough.

Lovely gingerbread cookies made by my friend. They are just perfect in texture, slightly soft with a great chew. 

Then, I got sick. I was sick for the last 10 days before I flew out to Italy for Christmas... I was so sick that I took 3 days off work, something that I don't ever remember doing. Here is the takeout S ordered me thanks to Ubereats (he was still in France) - my favourite congee, fresh rice noodle rolls with shrimp, and spicy turnip patties. 

And though I was sick, I was committed to the sourdough panettone project. I was so happy with how they turned out! 

Christmas in Italy...

There is nothing in the world like fresh pasta. 

I shaved the zucchini with a veg peeler and marinated it in some of his mother's home grown lemons. The antipasti mix we bought from the fantastic pasta shop Artusi in Padova. 

Sole fillets we roasted in the oven in a bath of lemon juice and olive oil, topped by sage freshly picked from his brother's garden. This was so simple and so delicious. 

Roasted carrots with he lemon-oregano-parsley oil left over from Christmas dinner, and braised brown lentils with beautiful local cabbage

This was part of the Christmas spread - swordfish and artichoke hearts. 

Spaghetti con vongole - freshly caught clams with the taste of the sea... 

And can one EVER have enough pasta? This pasta is cut to order, so it is literally as fresh as you could make yourself. The sauce was excellent. I could just move into that shop... 

The Curveball

So the curveball this month is a special snippet of Venice - what a beautiful view of the water, with a cute little bridge.. The big white building in the background is actually the most insanely ornate hospital I have ever seen. What a romantic place to get engaged, right in front of the hospital ;) 

Thanks to Sherry for hosting the In My Kitchen series, which has given me so much joy in revisiting my food photos every month. Thanks also to the community of food bloggers out there who keep this tradition going, for sending your encouraging comments. Happy 2023!