Dinner.

It's nearing the end of September, and I'm suffering greatly from the tail end of a doozy of a cold, that lingering unpleasantness that leaves you blowing your nose in vain and coughing endlessly for the next few weeks. Needless to say, I'm not feeling too sexy. The best solution I could come up with was to make sweet potato and coconut soup. It was a really good idea.

1 tbsp canola oil
1 small onion, chopped
2 celery stalks, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 thumb-sized piece fresh ginger, peeled and minced
2 medium sweet potatoes, chopped
1 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground coriander seed
1/4 tsp cinnamon
4 cups vegetable stock
1 400ml tin coconut milk
freshly ground black pepper, to taste

In a large soup pot, heat oil over low-medium heat. Add onions and celery, cover, and steam for 5 minutes or until they have begun to become translucent. Add garlic and ginger and cook for another minute. Add sweet potato, curry, coriander, and cinnamon, and stir, steaming for another minute or two. Add stock and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 20 minutes, or until sweet potato has become soft. Whizz until smooth with an immersion blender, or whizz in batches in a blender or food processor. Add coconut milk and stir to combine, cover, and simmer 5 further minutes to warm through. Serve with a bright, autumnal salad (my favourite is mixed greens with thinly sliced apple, dried cranberry, pecans, and balsamic) and enjoy the heck out of it. Nom nom nom.   

Sami Kelsh Eats Toronto

Exactly what it says on the tin, really: I came, I saw, I ate. Ravenously, and with reckless abandon. I also got rained on frequently, listened to Doctor Who audio dramas on my ipod (highly recommended, though be sure you know you'll be able to contain your giddy excitement at the especially adventure-y bits if you're planning to listen in public), and filmed more or less everything, which can be seen here in a convenient playlist for your viewing pleasure:

Strawberry Shortcake Milkshake

This works well when you’ve got a ridiculous hankering for something that tastes like pure summer fun, in the most ostentatiously rainbow-sparkly way possible.



Take a handful of fresh strawberries, rinsed and hulled, chuck them in with a scoop or so of party cake ice cream (which is basically vanilla with rainbow sprinkles, a ripple of frosting, and cake chunks)



and top up with enough milk to cover.



Whizz until more or less blended, serve, and feel really, really good about yourself.

Torontonia, here I come

So this year, in an effort to economise on travel (but still get the bloody hell out of town for a few precious days) I've elected to put Portland (I'm about 12,000 aeroplan points shy of a free flight) and Montreal ($250 for a train ticket? Je pense que NON) on the backburner, and take a Sami Kelsh Eats tour of the beautiful city of very nearby Toronto.

I'm actually quite embarrassed to say that it's been well over a year since I spent any time properly exploring the city, even though I'm only a little more than an hour away.

I've been living here for the better part of three decades, and there are startlingly few places I know where to eat in Toronto. If anybody wants to make some recommendations of cool places where I can get pancakes and sandwiches and things that are good, if I don't get lost, I might end up filming myself eating there.

What I Did This Weekend, With Peob Bear

Peob and I spent Saturday night and most of Sunday lunchtime putting together a gorgeous black forest trifle. Here's how it went:




















We started with a base of brownies (made with lots of really good dark chocolate and sweetened with maple syrup) baked in the wee hours the night before and left to cool until morning, then topped with half a jar of sour cherries and their juice, then topped with chilled vanilla custard cooked while we baked the brownies, then we whipped some cream and spooned generously over the other ingredients, and garnished with a sprinkling of dark chocolate. Perfection.

You can use pretty much any recipe you like for any of the components of this dish, but here are some you might find helpful:

Brownies

1 1/2 c. flour
2 tbsp. cocoa powder
1 1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 c. maple syrup
2 squares unsweetened chocolate, chopped roughly
1/4 c. water
1/3 c. oil
2 tsp. vanilla
Preheat oven to 350, and line an 8"x8" dish with parchment paper. Sift together flour, cocoa, salt, baking powder. Combine chocolate, maple syrup, water, oil, and vanilla in a small saucepan and warm over low heat, stirring gently, until chocolate is melted. Allow to cool slightly before adding to dry ingredients, stirring to combine. Batter will be very thick. Spoon over parchment-lined dish and bake 20-25 min. Cut into squares and let cool completely before assembling trifle.

Custard

3 eggs, beaten
1 1/2 c. milk
1/2 c. heavy cream
1/2 c. plus 2 tbsp. sugar
one vanilla bean, scraped, or a good slug of vanilla extract

Combine all ingredients in a double boiler (if you don't have a double boiler, a metal bowl set over a saucepan works just as well - just be sure the width of the metal bowl allows it to sit on top without falling into the water below) and warm over simmering water on medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until custard has thickened enough to coat the back of a spoon. Be sure not to overcook, or cook over too-high heat, or the egg will curdle. That said, don't sweat it if a few lumps form! Just give it a really good go with a whisk to smooth out the lumps and you're golden. Place in the refrigerator to cool before assembling trifle.

Whipped cream

1 c. heavy cream
sugar to taste
a little vanilla extract, if you like

This is such a no-brainer I'm not sure if it even warrants being a recipe. Using an electric hand-mixer, whip cream until it goes solid and creamy. See above for the kind of texture you're going for. Add to trifle as pictured above. And there you have it, ladies and gents, trifle!

Jam Thumbprints

Oh my giddy aunt, but these cookies are flipping fab. I admit, I'm something of a slut for taking baking recipes and "ruining" them by spoiling the fun and making them considerably less unhealthy, yet deceptively every bit as delicious as their waistline-ruining counterparts. This is a rare recipe that didn't actually require any healthy tweaking from me (notwithstanding a few substitutions based solely on what I happened to have in my kitchen storecupboards) and is wheat-free, vegan, and absolutely glorious. Though I might go crazy and add a little flaxseed to the mix next time to see what happens. *insert diabolical laughter here*





Jam Thumbprints

(loosely adapted from Gwyneth Paltrow's mum kinda)

Makes exactly 43

1 cup white spelt flour

1 cup whole spelt flour

1 1/2 cups raw whole almonds, blitzed in a food processor until smallish powdery chunks (it's ok to leave some bits in, as this makes life more interesting)

1/2 teaspoon salt (DO NOT fuck up and put a whole teaspoon in by mistake. If you do, carefully scoop half of it back out. This will in no way affect the overall fabulousness of your cookie. Trust me. *whistles innocently*)

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

1/2 cup canola oil

1/4 cup agave syrup

1/4 cup maple syrup

some jam: just about any jam will do, as long as it's not too runny. I used a crabapple blend my grandmother made recently, but it works beautifully with apricot or raspberry, and now that I'm thinking about it, I bet prune butter would be drool-inducingly gorgeous in these as well.





Here's how they're done:

Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine everything but the jam in a large bowl and stir until the dough comes together nicely. Place in tablespoon-sized balls on a cookie sheet, and use your thumb to make a well in the centre of each cookie. Fill each of these wells with a little jam. Bake until the cookies are beginning to brown, about 15 minutes or so. Place on wire racks to cool. Tuck in voraciously.