Recipes, tips and reviews
These recipes are developed, tested and re-tested until perfect. Try one at home tonight.
I used the Japanese Kuri squash which is a fiery red colour. It roasts well. You can use any drier variety of squash for this curry.
The best Scottish shortbread handed down through my family. Crumbly, sweet and buttery.
This dish has a salty, savoury sauce with a little bit of a kick. If you don't want the spice of the jalapenos, leave it out, and finely diced onion can be used instead of the shallots.
This is the one hors d’oeuvre that I keep being asked for time and time again. It’s crunchy, creamy, spicy and hits all the high spots.
Mushrooms and squash have a real affinity and this soup proves it. I like to use oyster mushrooms, but chanterelles, which I found at the supermarket this week, provide the best flavour.
The fifth taste, umami, has much to do with glutamate, an amino acid found in such foods as prosciutto, soy sauce and a number of cheeses. Umami can show up in your glass, too (fermentation is glutamate’s old friend).
When this recipe originally ran in The Globe and Mail, I received a lovely note from reader Barbara Zuchowicz. This dish reminded her of a wonderful meal she had in Italy: "It brought back joyful memories of a trip to Italy my late husband, an exceptional cook, and I took a number of years ago.
A tipsy laird is a Scottish riff on the English trifle. It is rich, creamy and flavoured with Drambuie – a softer, more flavourful version of the more familiar trifle. Buy good almond cookies and sponge cake rather than making them.
Read MoreThis is a simple and flavourful meatloaf with the same spices used in haggis. The oatmeal gives it a haggis-like texture, too. In Scotland, haggis is often served with a dram of whisky poured over it. I've made a whisky sauce.
Neeps and tatties (turnips and potatoes) is traditionally served mashed together as a side dish, but to continue with the modern theme I've turned it into a soup. Scots like spicy food, and I have flavoured the soup with a little Indian curry paste to give it some spark. Reserve some of the leek greens for garnish.
Read MoreI like to use spareribs because they are meatier than side ribs. The honey garlic sauce is quite sticky and adds a real spark of flavour to the ribs. (You can add more hot sauce if you like.) If you are serving this alone, accompany it with rice and stir-fried greens. This is an old-school recipe, originally made for the less sophisticated Canadian palate, but it's still a favourite today.
This is my brother David's favourite Chinese dish – he loves the lemony punch with the crisp chicken.
Read MoreThis easy and attractive dish serves four as part of a Chinese menu or two alone with noodles or rice. Clams or shrimp make excellent substitutes for the mussels. If you can't find fermented dry black beans, you can substitute an equal amount of Asian black bean sauce, though the dry beans have a better flavour. This makes a lot of mussels; you can serve them without the noodles if you prefer.
Read MoreEric Reguly, the European business correspondent for The Globe and Mail, invited us for dinner in Rome. He lived in Rome as a boy and is based there now, and loves all forms of Roman cooking. Small Manila clams or New Zealand clams are less sandy than littleneck clams. In Italy, no cheese is ever served with seafood. The tomato confit garnish is optional.
Read MoreHostaria Romana is an old-fashioned Roman trattoria. The waiters are old pros doling out lavish bowls of antipasti with irreverence and wit. The pastas are served in the bowl that they are mixed in (called originale) and if two of you order the same pasta, they give the woman the bowl and the man a soup plate, which goes to show that Italians really do love women.
Made with pancetta, eggs, cheese and cream, carbonara is soaked in tradition. Young chefs, such as Francesco Apreda at the stunning Imago restaurant in the Hassler hotel (the best meal we had in Rome), are putting their own spin on this quintessential Roman dish. I adapted this recipe from the dish he made for us with quail and quail eggs. If you can find boned quail, use 12 ounces finely chopped (instead of the chicken) and the yolks of 12 quail eggs.
Read MoreFew things are sexier than truffled cheese – it has a huge hit of flavour and an appealing muskiness. Look for a cheese that contains truffles rather than just truffle oil flavouring. I often make a little salad of mixed greens, dressed with a touch of extra virgin olive oil and lemon juice, to go with this as a plated first course. Otherwise, you can nibble on the crostini with a pre-dinner drink.
Mushrooms, garlic and chilies are all known for their libido-lifting qualities. This is a simple oven-roasted steak, sliced and sauced. Along with the confit of potatoes, serve with sautéed rapini.
Read MorePeel the potatoes with a peeler so that they are slightly elongated, not round. They should be of an even size and similar shape. In classic French cooking, they are traditionallycarved into a barrel or olive shape. You can include tiny yellow beets and baby turnips in the mixture if you wish.
Read Morehere's nothing more romantic than staying home for a special Valentine's Day dinner – especially if the kids aren't around. I developed this menu specifically for the non-cooking partner in the relationship. This is a surefire way to wow your sweetheart. The recipes are easy, as is the shopping.
Read MoreAt a cooking class I attended at the Barbados Food & Wine and Rum Festival, Chef Fergus Henderson made his signature roast marrow bones with parsley salad. This is the recipe from his book The Whole Beast: Nose to Tail Eating, in his own words. Its dry humour and vivid imagery is a refreshing change from traditional recipe writing.
This easy recipe is a good one to make for family or friends. It's taken from Simply Ming One-Pot Meals, by Ming Tsai, the award-winning host of Simply Ming on the Food Network and chef of the acclaimed Blue Ginger restaurant in Boston. I skim the fat before serving.
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Here's a simple butter cake cut into an Oscar shape, frosted with buttercream and covered in edible gold dust. Julie Vrbos, a custom cake designer and owner of Sweet Jules in Toronto (www.sweetjules.ca), expertly carved this for us as we watched in awe.
Read MoreThe key to making the ultimate chicken pot pie is in the amount of chicken (lots!) and the crispness of the pastry (it should be crispy!). The sauce should be thick, as the chicken will add some juice while it bakes. You can use different vegetables, but I am a purist and like carrots, leeks and peas. To poach a chicken, place it in water with a tetra pack of low-sodium chicken stock to cover.
Read MoreServe in mugs with a breadstick stirrer. If Korean chili paste is unavailable, 2 teaspoons miso and 1 teaspoon Asian chili sauce works well; otherwise, just use hot sauce.
Read MoreThis is one of my favourite vegetarian dishes – it's so versatile. I serve it as an appetizer with a slice of grilled bread and some buffalo mozzarella on the side, or warm as a main course over couscous or penne.
Wonderfully fragrant lemongrass stalks and lime leaves add plenty of flavour to this soup, but be sure to remove them before serving. Coriander stems with roots attached give a better flavour (wash them well), but lots of coriander is sold without roots – so just add a couple more stems. Bird's-eye chilies are available in many stores, but use 1 or more teaspoons of sambal oelek if unavailable.
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© 2018, Lucy Waverman.
