Hearty Comfort Soup
Classy Chopped Beef Burger and Cheddar Soup
This soup is a favourite at our house. Use it as a complete dinner with a salad on the side. Sometimes if I am having a dinner party with a light main like Grilled Branzino, I will serve a small half-cup Amuse Bouche serving as a starter. Some guests ask for seconds - unheard of for an Amuse Bouche.
Classy Chopped Beef Burger and Cheddar Soup Recipe
Liquid Gold - Homemade Chicken Stock
Liquid Gold - Homemade Chicken Stock
How much can I praise chicken stock or any kind of bone stock? This is clearly liquid gold. I use it in just about all of my recipes, and I spice it up to drink as a bone broth for a mid-morning pick-me-up. From a health perspective, I could go on forever, but let's just say that this may save your life. See my blog post on Bone Broth, it's benefits and some recipes to try. GO TO BLOG POST ON BONE BROTH
You can gather your chicken bones by saving and freezing them overtime when deboning chicken breasts or you can find a butcher who sells bones and sometimes if you are a regular, you may even get them for free. If you live in a large city like Toronto, our St. Lawrence Market has several butchers who sell them for $2 a bag - about 6 lbs.
Busy People: You can purchase really great stock from your local butcher for a fair price. In Toronto, you will find this at Sanagan's Meat Locker in Kensington Market, and Cumbrae's on Queen Street West and on Bayview. I am sure there are other independent butchers in your area that you can source this from. Just beware of mass-produced canned stock - it probably doesn't have the collegian and other good things that you need in your diet.
Recipe for Homemade Chicken Stock
Festive Flaming Holiday Punch
The Soup Party
Summertime Savoury Strawberry Salad
Grilled Haloumi Salad
I want to share one of my favourite summer salad recipes with you. It is easy to make, it will take just a few minutes to pull it together (if you do your mise en place before) as a first course or a side.
serves 4
INGREDIENTS
225g package of halloumi, sliced
2 T olive oil
1/2 tsp dried oregano
pinch of dried chilli peppers (if you like spicy food)
1-pint cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tbsp pomegranate molasses
mint and sorrel leaves, to serve (about a cup or more)
sliced romaine lettuce (about a cup)
1/2 cup pomegranate seeds, to serve
Method
Pour the olive oil into a shallow bowl, add the dried herbs and spice if using and stir to combine. Add the halloumi slices and turn until the cheese is well coated. This can marinate for up to 4 hours or more in the refrigerator.
Prepare the romaine, mint and/or sorel, toss in a bowl and set aside.
Have your individual plates or platter ready if serving family style and add the tossed herbs and romaine to the plates just before you begin to grill the halloumi.
Heat a large griddle pan on either the stove top or the BBQ.
Add the marinated halloumi to the pan and cook for 1-2 mins, then turn over and cook for a further 1-2 mins until golden brown on both sides.
Remove the halloumi from the pan and plate on top of the romaine and herbs on either individual plates or a platter if serving family style.
Immediately add the cherry tomatoes to the pan (add more olive oil if needed) and quickly saute for about 1 min and add on top of the grilled halloumi.
Then drizzle over the pomegranate molasses and serve with pomegranate seeds scattered over.
bone broth craze - what’s that all about?
Is bone broth a new craze or a flash from the past? As far back as the 1930's doctors were prescribing bone broth for many ailments. If you were lucky and your parents had time, you were probably given chicken soup when you were ill. Chicken soup made from scratch has always been the potion of choice for self-healing at home, bone broth is not a new phenomenon.
Stock or bone broth as people are calling it today is an essential part of a culinary tradition known all over the world to both indigenous cultures and classic cuisines. It has been the cornerstone of my cooking ever since I studied Cordon Bleu techniques. Bone broth is in just about everything I make. So, if you are a customer, you have been benefiting from our homemade bone broth on a regular basis in our meals and soups.