Osso Bucco is a northern Italian dish, from the Lombardy region (near Milano). The old school Osso Bucco did not include tomatoes (as they appeared in Italy after the dishes creation). This dish is made with veal shanks and icing on the cake for this dish has to be the marrow inside each bone. After […]
This dish came about after brainstorming with “The Dragon” on our recent trip to Chicago. I had prepared as part of the main course a braised lamb in tomato sauce on a bed of smoked eggplant purée. Hunkar Begendi for those who know Istanbul-Constantinople food. The key to pulling off this dish is getting the […]
I make dishes like these because I miss the summer, especially summer in Greece. One of the fondest memories I have from last year’s vacation was a day trip to Elafonissos, a small island just off the the coast of Neapoli, southern Peloponnese. The island has a pretty little main town, about 5 beaches and […]
If you’ve been to a seafood tavern or even a steak house that offers some fish and seafood on the side, then you may have had lobster thermidor. It’s a French classic where you boil the lobster, cut in half, remove the lobster meat, chop up and mix into an herbed bechamel with a hint […]
While in Istanbul, I’ve often enjoyed this lentil soup made simmering red lentils and aromatic vegetables. Some bay leaves and oregano round out the flavours and all one needs is a hand blender to blitz this easy to make delicious soup. I recently made this soup at my Constantinople (Istanbul) themed dinner and it was […]
Duck is a an underappreciated meat, at least here in North America. People often think it’s hard to cook or it has too much fat or both. If you want to try cooking some duck, I suggest starting with duck legs, now found packaged apart from the rest of the duck. If you’re good at […]
This meze is inspired by the one of the street foods one finds in the evenings when strolling the Sokaks (streets) of Istanbul. They call these Midye Dolmasi or Mussel Dolmades as the shells are stuffed with rice and mussel meat. The first time I visited Istanbul I would try everything offered by street vendors […]
December is coming up and there’s going to be a lot of holiday entertaining, regardless of your faith or beliefs. Here, we do things Greek style and I recently shared these cigars made of phyllo and filled with pastourma and Kasseri cheese. Pastourma is a cured beef product with its origins in Asia Minor, Caesaria […]
When I’m in Greece, I notice lots of folks there buying and eating salmon, even though it comes from Norway and Greeks have a wide array of small, medium and large fish from Mediterranean waters. When in Greece, I don’t eat salmon but now that I am back in Canada, we have plenty of wild […]
For the past while, the food trend that refuses to go away are desserts in a glass or Mason jar. It was stylish for a week but some people like to hold on to ideas. Moving on. Another trend, something more recent is the making of desserts using a microwave and a coffee mug. I […]
