Sunday, July 18, 2010

Go for Tea











I've been eying this place for a while. It looks very modern and gorgeous from the outside and I was curious if they had anything other than asian styles teas but as soon as I read a review about the great condensed toast I decided to give it a try, after all they had bubble tea too and who doesn't love that!!
The inside of the cafe surprised me, it was beyond gorgeous and a fun hip place to sit and grab a quick bite, order an appetizer or just eat dessert. They have lovely cakes and all their desserts go on sale for half price in the late afternoons. The condensed toast was thick and sweet, to die for, I could only finish half because it was that rich!! Lychee slushie was refreshing and the appetizer hot pot was a great little "snack/meal"

They have two locations in the GTA, so if you're ever in the area and wonder what to do I say to you "Go for tea!"

^_^

Saturday, July 17, 2010

Crepe dinner


crepes
Originally uploaded by Adventuress Heart
French Crepes

Ingredients
2 cups milk
2 eggs
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
Pinch salt
1 stick (4 ounces) unsalted butter
1 tablespoon butter to brush the crepe pan

Add milk and eggs to blender and combine. Add the flour 1/2 a cup at a time, blending after each addition to ensure there are no lumps. Add pinch of salt and melted butter then blend for 30 seconds until you achieve a smooth, silky consistency. Set aside in refrigerator for at least 30 minutes to rest.

Dip a piece of kitchen paper in butter and grease a small frying pan. Ladle a spoonful of batter into the pan. With a flick of the wrist swivel the pan in order to get a nice even covering all over. A good crepe should be paper- thin.

Recipe courtesy of Tyler Florence from foodtv.com

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Strawberry sauce is just a few strawberries blitzed with a freshly squeezed orange and mixed with the chopped berries and some sugar, it's absolutely delicious and refreshing!

Friday, July 16, 2010

Goulash


Goulash
Originally uploaded by Adventuress Heart
They say not to mess with a good thing, and my german grandma's goulash is good, no it's VERY good actually!

I was surprised with the results the first time I decided to try my hand at it, and I'm proud to say it tasted just like hers. My childhood memory of her putting some together and vaguely describing the process to us while we were on our housekeeping morning routine paid off.

We love the stuff and I did not dream of messing with her recipe ...

until today.. even so I hesitated with the idea of throwing carrots in but I knew by time dinner rolls around I wasn't going to be making any veggies so in they went with some button mushrooms and a dash of tomato sauce for richness.

It was pretty good but it won't happen again grandma ;)

Tuesday, April 8, 2008

Potato parsley dumplings




Potato Parsley Dumplings

Makes 4 servings


Ingredients:

Dumplings:
- 2 mashing potatoes, peeled, chopped and boiled in salt water then strained.
You can do this the night before and keep it in the fridge, or with leftover mashed potatoes.
- 3 tbsp samolina
- Salt and black pepper to taste
- 2 eggs
- White flour
- 4 tbsp chopped parsley

Soup:
- 1 small onion, chopped or in large slices to remove later
- 2 cloves garlic, whole
- 2 stalks young celery, chopped
- 1 tbsp low sodium Soy sauce for colour
- Veggie or Chicken stock. (or plain water with a soup cube)

Put the stock in a soup pot, add the onion, garlic, celery, soy sauce and let it come to a boil, then simmer until the veggies are tender.

For dumplings:

In a large bowl smash the boiled potatoes until it's mashed up, add the samolina and stir, it should be grainy, add some salt and black pepper to season. Now crack the eggs in and stir until it's incorporated. Throw in the finely chopped parsley and mix, now you need to add a couple of tablespoons of flour to create a sticky dough like in the photo above.
5 tablespoons or so should work, allow the dumplings to sit stirring occasionally, it will be gooey and stick to your fork/wooden spoon but that's ok because that means it will be nice and moist in the soup. We don't want the dough hard like a bread dough or that will make it heavy, and if it's too soft like a potato pancake dough it will fall apart and cloud the broth with starch.

When you're ready to make them bring the soup to a hard boil, take 2 teaspoons in each hand, stir the dough well and then scoop some into the spoon in your right hand and use the other spoon to push it into the broth, you'll get the hang of it, if you need you can moisten the spoons by dipping them in the soup. Occasionally stir the broth to separate the dumplings and prevent from sticking. When all the dumplings are made, lower the heat a bit for a few moments then take off the stove, they're pretty much done.

Enjoy! :)