Pancakes are perfect food, they make me happy.  This particular recipe takes pancake happiness to a new level for me.

Lemon and vanilla go together so well and in a pancake it is absolutely perfect.  They taste great with pure maple syrup or spread with raspberry or strawberry jam.  You could also do the whole whipped cream and raspberries or blend some raspberries with a tablespoon of icing sugar and serve with whipped cream.  Make a sticky pancake sandwich with cream cheese, bacon and blueberries and then pour maple syrup over the top.   These are all stellar ways to eat lemon cream pancakes.  Enjoy!

Lemon Cream Pancakes
2 C Self-raising flour
1 Tbsp Sugar
a pinch of Salt
1 tsp Vanilla extract
zest of 1 Lemon
1 1/2 C Milk
1 1/2 C Plain Greek yogurt
2 large Eggs
3 Tbsp Butter, melted
Canola oil for frying

Preheat oven to 250 F, for keeping pancakes warm

In a large bowl combine flour and salt.  In a smaller bowl combine vanilla extract , lemon zest, milk, yogurt and eggs and whisk till smooth.  Add butter and stir.  Now is time to add the wet to the dry and stir till basically combine, let the lumps be and start heating up your frying pan on medium heat with some canola oil, about 2 Tbsp per batch.

Spoon batter to make pancakes of whatever size you wish.  When the tops of the pancakes start to bubble, flip them and cook for 3 min.  Slide cooked cakes onto a pie plate and keep them in the oven for warmth, till pancake making is complete.

Now eat ’em!

Korean Chilli & Orange Chicken

I want to make clear that this is not a Korean dish, it simply has Korean hot pepper paste or Sunchang Gochujang in it.  We have a ridiculous amount of citrus in the apartment right now and so I decided to make up this marinade.  Usually I just slather the pure chilli paste on chicken and throw it in the oven on busy nights, but thought I would create something with a bit more going on.  If you would like more heat, feel free to add more paste.  It’s crazy delicious!

Marinating this chicken overnight is obviously the best case scenario for maximum flavour, but if you don’t have time for that, an hour will do at the least.  I marinated these thighs for about 7 hours and they turned out awesome.

Spicy Orange Chicken
Serves 8

Ingredients
Marinade:
6 Garlic cloves, crushed
Zest of 2 Oranges
Juice of 1 Orange
1 1/2 Tbsp Sunchang Gochujang (Korean hot pepper paste)
1 tsp Black pepper
2 Tbsp Mirin
2 Tbsp Ponzu
2 Tbsp Olive oil
1 Tbsp White wine vinegar
1 Tbsp Fish sauce

8 Chicken thighs, bone in, skin on

Garnish with lime wedges and cilantro

Method
In a small bowl mix together all the ingredients till smooth.

Toss the chicken and the marinade in a freezer bag and smoosh around.  Keep it in the refrigerator for at least an hour, the longer the better.

Preheat oven to 400°F.

In a large casserole dish, arrange chicken and pour over marinade.

Bake for 45 minutes and if skin isn’t fully crispy, put it under the broiler and watch it till its all crispy and tasty looking, a few black charred bits are good.

Serve with lime wedges and cilantro.

Green Tea Crepes

Okay so I realize that I need to start posting more. Its been way too long! I thought this would be a great recipe to get back into it.

This is a beautiful crepe recipe that utilizes that earthy, vibrant, green tea powder called matcha.  You can buy matcha at health food stores.  It can be a little pricey but its a healthy treat and quite versatile.

My favourite way to eat these is filled with vanilla whipped cream and fresh, sliced strawberries.

Green Tea Crepes
Serves 2 hungry people
Ingredients
1 1/2 C All-purpose flour
6 tsp Matcha powder
2 Tbsp Granulated sugar
A pinch of salt

2 1/2 C Milk
2 large Eggs
1 tsp Vanilla

Vegetable oil for frying

Method
Preheat oven 325° F.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients with a whisk to ensure no lumps.

In a smaller bowl, whisk wet ingredients together till fully combined.

Slowly whisk wet into dry ingredients, ensuring all lumps are broken up.

Get a frying pan or crepe pan (if you have) really hot on medium heat and add a touch of vegetable oil.  Carefully swish oil around in pan so its distributed in little globs.  First one is usually a bust so don’t worry, the rest will turn out lovely.

Pour about a 6 oz ladle full of batter into pan and turn pan to spread batter thin.  The edges will start to pull away when ready to turn.  Flip, and let it get a bit golden before flopping onto a pie plate.  As you go along, you may have to adjust the heat to keep the crepes from getting to dark.  See how it goes.  Keep them stacked and in the low oven to keep warm.

Fill with sweetened whipped cream and fresh sliced strawberries and roll.

Enjoy!

Creme de Cassis Jelly Shooters

When was the last time you did a jello shot? I have a feeling its been too long. Now from what I can remember of my first jello shot, (it was probably about a decade ago) it was your run of the mill powdered jell-o mixed with vodka sort of shooter. Now that I am a mature (i’m pronouncing that ma-tour, you should know) young adult (that’s a bit of a stretch) I am interested in something a bit more refined. I want to make a jelly shooter from scratch!!!

I had something specific in mind. A number of years ago I had a cocktail at a sushi bar that had two of my favourite things in it: creme de cassis liqueur and gin.  This would be the booze base of my shooter.  So I did some research and came up with the recipe below.

The great thing about this recipe is its super easy to replace the juice and alcohol with whatever pleases you.  I used pomegranate juice for this one, unfortunately its February so pomegranates are off the shelf so instead of dropping pomegranate seeds inside, I used fresh raspberries to float atop the shooter.  These are so much fun! Give your guests a toothpick to dislodge the jelly from the shooter glass and let the jiggling begin!

Creme de Cassis Jelly Shooters
Yields about 8 shots

Ingredients
1/2 C pomegranate juice
1/3 C sugar
1 envelope gelatin
1/4 C creme de cassis
1/4 C gin
1/2 C water
8 glass shot glasses
Enough pomegranate seeds to drop 4 or 5 in each shooter or a single raspberry per shot

Method

Heat juice and sugar in a saucepan till sugar dissolves. Remove from heat and add gelatin, whisk. Add creme de cassis, gin and water and whisk till gelatin is fully dissolved.  If there are clumps of gelatin, just put mixture through a strainer and drain the mix into a large cup measure with a pouring spout (preferably).  Have shot glasses ready with either pomegranate seeds or raspberries waiting in the bottom and pour over the cassis mixture to fill each glass.

Let set in the fridge for a few hours.

Annual Dinner Party Awesomeness

Ok this is my first post ever. I’m pretty excited.

So my good friend Nancy and I have decided that every year we will put on a wicked, awesome, super, fantastic dinner party for some of our foodie friends and family.

I’ve been promising pictures for a while now so here they are along with the menu.  Recipes to come!

Menu

Chilli oyster shooters

Pork belly with pickled mustard seed sauce and butter lettuce wraps

Charceuterie: prosciutto, chicken liver mousse, Genoa salami, Calabrese salami, olives, pickled fennel and espresso mustard served with Portuguese water bread, focaccia and olive bread

Mixed green salad with green apple and goat cheese dressing

Butternut squash soup with crispy pigs ear and pea shoots

Cucumber mint granita with a creme de cassis and pomegranate jelly shooter

Beef tongue with an espresso demi-glace, potato pave, carrots and baby broccoli

Polenta ginger hazelnut cake with hazelnut brittle and sour cream ice cream

Warning, my pictures are super lame.  My food photographer, Robin (also my husband) was sick and couldn’t come :(. So many apologies on the pics.  I promise to get better at taking pictures, or I will just insist Robin take them all. Either way, future pics won’t suck so much….I hope.  Oh another thing, the pictures I took were of my own plate which I realized I wasn’t as diligent about making pretty as the guests, so they are not perfect.  Cut me some slack, i’m new at this!