Growing up, my mom would make this dish a lot. Believe it or not, I used to hate it because I had this strange aversion for tomatoes. The dish slowly it grew on me, and now it’s a wholesome and nostalgic dish that I’ve grown to looove. It’s perfect on a cold rainy day or when you’re feeling a bit under the weather, and best of all it’s all made in one big pot! Hope you enjoy :)

ingredients needed:

-4 tomatoes, roughly chopped
-1/2 onion, diced
-2 tbsp vegetable oil
-1 teaspoon sesame oil
-2 tbsp sriracha (optional)
-~2L water
-maggi bouillon cube (shrimp flavoured)- optional
-3 tbsp soya sauce
-2 tbsp chinese vinegar
-2 tbsp chinese cooking wine
-1 package fried tofu puffs, halved
-2 handfuls baby bok choy
-1 package enoki mushrooms
-4 eggs
-~500 g fresh rice noodles
-1 cup frozen peas
-4 green onions

how to:

-in a large cooking pot, heat vegetable oil and sesame oil. Add tomatoes and onions and stir/crush for 5 minutes, add sriracha

-add water, bouillon cube, soy, vinegar and wine and let simmer for ~15 mins
-add mushrooms, bok choy and tofu puffs and let simmer for 5 mins

-crack eggs into pot to let poach, or break them up in the broth (or both!)
-cook noodles in separate pot according to instructions, then add to broth, along with frozen peas and let simmer for 1 minute
-garnish with green onions and enjoy!

stay ravenous, my friends!

I was at the grocery store the other day and came across the most beautiful piece of tuna. Of course, I had to buy it, and on my way walking home, I decided that I was going to do something asian-inspired, and thus this recipe came to life. Not only is this dish incredibly tasty, it’s super simple and quick to make.

The nuttiness of the sesame tones down the spicy sriracha flavour for an overall well-balanced dish. I served my tuna over an asian-dressed quinoa salad, but your options aren’t limited- feel free to have it over any type of salad, vegetables or even rice.

ingredients needed (serves 2)

• -2 X ~200g sushi grade tunas steaks
• -1 cup sesame seeds, toasted lightly
• -1/3 cup sriracha
• -1/4 cup sesame oil
• -few cracks of black pepper 
• -1 tbsp vegetable oil

how to

• -in a medium sized bowl, mix together the sriracha, sesame oil and black pepper
• -coat your tuna steaks in the liquid mixture and then place on toasted sesame seeds. sprinkle remaining seeds on top, and press gently to ensure even coating, but not hard enough to damage your steak
• -in a medium high frying pan with hot oil, sear tuna for ~30 seconds on all sides
• -place seared tuna in aluminum foil for 5 mins before slicing

stay ravenous, my friends!

I love those lazy sundays when you can sleep in, have no responsibilities and just spend all day in bed catching up on reality tv.. for me, these days usually come after a night of dancing, drinking and late night poutine, and they almost always start with this dish.

I love hash because it’s pretty much a mixture of anything you have in your fridge: veggies, meats, spices and herbs, carbs, anything really! It’s super easy to make, clean up is non-existent since everything goes in one pan, and on top of it all it’s super tasty and loaded with yummy nutrients to get your day going (or not..) Feel free to make any adjustments to the recipe; it’s more of a guideline if anything.

ingredients needed:

• 1 chicken sausage
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• 1 potato, washed and diced (skin on is the way to go)
• 1/4 yellow onion, diced
• 1/2 red pepper, diced
• 2 leaves kale*, ripped into bite sized pieces
• handful cherry tomatoes, halved
• 5 mini portobello mushrooms, sliced 
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp basil pesto
• salt and pepper, to taste
• 1 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 2 fried eggs
• 1 green onion, diced
• 1/2 avocado, sliced

*don’t have kale? substitute with any other leafy green.

how to:

• -in a large sauce pan over medium high heat, sear the sausage (or other meat) until brown (about 5 mins), remove, rest & slice
• -in the same pan, add oil and potatoes and let brown
• 
• -add 1/2 cup water to aid with cooking through, and when the water evaporates add the onion & pepper and cook for ~3 mins
• -meanwhile, fry two eggs to your liking (mine were over-easy)
• -add kale, tomatoes, mushrooms, garlic and reserved sausage to pan and let cook for ~2 mins
• -to finish, season with s&p, add pesto (or any other herbs available) and balsamic vinegar
• place the eggs over your hash, garnish with green onion and avocado and enjoy!

stay ravenous, my friends!

Last month I went to an organic blueberry farm in Richmond with my friend Mira. We picked away for an hour for 8 different types and ended up paying ~$25 for 10 lbs of fresh berries. It was a blast; after filling my basket I ran around the farm stuffing my face with berries haha. Oh and of course it totally worth it for the quality and quantity we walked away with!

Anyways, with so many blueberries one’s only option is to make jam. Really. So, here’s a recipe I found off of Canadian Living that I modified slightly by reducing the sugar, adding lemon and some blackberries. I found these changes rounded out the jam well and added some acidity to an otherwise sugar-loaded spread. My favourite ways to enjoy it are stirred into yogourt, in a smoothie, on toast with butter or just plainly by the spoonful. Enjoy!

ingredients needed (recipe makes ~6x250ml portions)

• -2 L blueberries
• -handful of unripe blackberries (optional)
• -2 cups granulated sugar
• -1 package fruit pectin crystals (~50 g), I used Certo
• -juice and zest of 2 lemons

how to:

• -wash blueberries & blackberries and remove any unwanted leaves, twigs, etc
• -mash berries (should make about 5 cups) in a dutch oven, then add lemon juice plus water (to make 1 cup liquid) and lemon zest

• -mix pectin with 50ml sugar and add to berries, bring to a rolling boil over high heat and then add remaining sugar
• -return to a full rolling boil for 1 minute
• -remove from heat, skim off foam 
• -using a funnel (or cut coffee filter), fill pre-sterilized canning jars (find out more about canning here) to leave about 1/4 inch headspace
• -cover with prepared lids, screw on bands and boil for 10 mins.

• -remove from water, let rest and leave in a cool, dry space for at least 24

• -no need to refrigerate these babies until they’ve been opened!

stay ravenous, my friends!

My dad recently moved to White Rock, and by doing so inherited a fig tree from the previous owners of his beautiful beach house. My dad is a garden fanatic; he spends hours a day gardening and maintaining all his fresh fruits and veggies. To be honest, his garden is quite fabulous and gives him lots to brag about. He grows tomatoes, green onions, green beans, strawberries & cucumbers just to name a few.

So during my last visit the figs at the top of the tree were perfectly ripe and he climbed up to snag me a few, so I thought I’d repay him by making a delicious fruit salad! I also used blackberries from the bush in the backyard and some juicy plums the neighbours gave us. The balsamic reduction really threw this dish over the top- the full bodied flavour of the vinegar contrasted the sweet figs and thick yogurt perfectly!

ingredients needed:

• -2 fresh figs, quartered
• -handful of blackberries, washed
• -2 small plums, cut into 1/6ths
• -2 dollops non-fat greek yogurt
• -handful of mint leaves
• -1/2 lemon rind
• -1/4 cup balsamic vinegar, reduced
• -1 teaspoon agave nectar (or other sweetener), drizzled

how to:

• -for the balsamic reduction: simply pour in pan, heat to high, and let reduce to 1/2 in a soft boil. Should be syrupy.
• -start by placing the yogurt in the middle of your serving dish. I used the quenelle technique (a fancy way of saying, three-sided oval)… but, you could just dollop it and it wouldn’t really make a difference.
• -place the fruit around the yogurt any way you wish
• -sprinkle lemon zest over top
• -cut, tear or even leave the mint leaves whole (I made ribbons- called mint chiffonade) and sprinkle over top

• -drizzle the agave nectar over top for a hit of extra sweetness. Agave nectar is a low glycemic sugar that won’t give you a crash later on. It’s mild and neutral (honey I thought was too overpowering for this dish) and is also vegan and gluten free!
• -drizzle balsamic vinegar over top and enjoy!

stay ravenous, my friends!

As a kid, my mom used to always make strawberry shortcake for me. The other night, she and I were home alone so I decided to give it a go as she cooked dinner for us. Usually we crack open the freshly baked shortcakes and stuff them with slightly sugared strawberries and vanilla whipped cream, but I thought I’d use the blueberries and peaches we had as they were super ripe and delish. Oh, and no whipped cream either because I was too lazy to get my butt to the grocery store haha, so I just used vanilla ice cream instead! Even so, still just as tasty.

I left the peaches raw and made a blueberry compote to top the ice cream, and don’t tell anyone, but I cheated and used bisquick to make the shortcakes.. They turned out just like I remember them tasting as a kid, and to top it all off it was easy as cake (haha) and required very little effort and time.

ingredients needed:

shortcake (recipe off the bisquick box) 

-2 1/3 cup mix

-1/2 cup milk

-3 tbsp sugar

-3 tbsp butter, melted 

compote

-2 cups fresh blueberries

-1/4 cup water 

-1/4 cup sugar

-zest of 1 lemon 

garnish:

-2 fresh peaches, sliced

-vanilla ice cream

how to:

shortcake

-pretty much just combine all the ingredients together to form a soft dough. Separate into 6 cakes, slightly flatten and bake at 425 C for 10-12 minutes, until golden. 

compote

-throw everything into a saucepan, and let simmer for about 10 minutes, or until the berries burst. Pop a few fresh blueberries in the pan in the last minute to add some texture!

stay ravenous, my friends! 

This post is in memory of the late food network chef, Anthony Sedlak. He was one of my absolute favourites growing up, and I wanted to make an entry dedicated to his enthusiasm, spirit, and (of course) his beautiful smile. One of the best things about him was the way he talked with his hands and his endless zest for food and cuisine truly was inspiring.

I took the recipe of the food network- you can find it here. I made a few changes to the original & decided not to make the spring rolls.

Shrimp- the shrimp were absolutely fantastic! Will definitely be reusing this recipe because it turned out way better than I could have imagined!

Salad-I unfortunately couldn’t get my hands on cellophane noodles (I’m thinking any asian supermarket would have them) so I used rice noodles instead, still worked alright but I think the cellophane would have been miles better.. Oh well.

Instead of the chayote I used watermelon rind- you know, the white stuff that tastes like nothing and no one ever eats? It’s loaded with vitamin C, citrulline, beta carotene and a whole list of other nutrients. I thought it was a great replacement and it also added tons of texture.

I also added a handful of quartered roma tomatoes- just for some colour and acid

Sauce-the only change I made here was to use honey instead of sugar- it helped with the consistency and I think gave a more rounded out flavour

stay ravenous, my friends!

one of the last things I did on my trip in asia was take a cooking class for a day. It was a delicious way to end my time there and was totally worth it (only spent $30 USD for the day) One of the best things about the meal was that all the ingredients (with the exception of a few- rice, noodles, coconuts) were grown in the garden on site at the farm where the class was.

In just a few hours, I made pad thai with chicken, green papaya salad, panang curry, tom yum soup and coconut sticky rice with fresh mango. Of course, everyone in the class picked different dishes to make, and everything was super fresh, authentic and delicious. 

Here are a few snap shots of the food: 

Meang Kum- a welcome snack traditionally served at Thai parties. The big green leaf is a betel leaf, which to me had a very aromatic peppery flavour. This dish is pretty obviously all about contrast. Crunchy coconut, toasted & buttery peanuts, spicy peppers, hot & fragrant ginger, sour lime, tangy red onion and the thick, sweet syrup. It all just comes together beautifully. 

All the ingredients are wrapped in the betel leaf into a little pocket and you pop it in your mouth, whole. What an explosion of flavours!

Prepped veg and chicken for pad thai- a Thai noodle dish, which surprisingly is not that popular among Thai people, but more so among foreigners (like me..) The dish is made with flat rice noodles and flavoured with fish sauce, tamarind paste, and shrimp. Yuuuuuum.

Pad thai is usually garnished with a sprinkle of sugar, chopped peanuts, chives, and a squeeze of lime. 

Now don’t get me wrong- I’m a huge pad thai enthusiast. Absolutely love it. You can ask my friends Morgan & Megan who I travelled with; I pretty much had it once a day for 2 weeks. But this next dish I actually fell in love with, so I thought I had to share the recipe with you all!

GREEN PAPAYA SALAD (som tum)

recipe serves 1

ingredients needed: 

• -1-3 (depending on how hot you like it) small thai chilies
• -1 long bean, cut in 1 inch pieces
• -2-3 cloves garlic
• -1/4 tomato, sliced
• -1 plate shredded green (young) papaya
• -1 tsp roasted peanuts, for garnish
• -2 tsp fish sauce
• -1 tsp palm sugar
• -1 tsp lime juice

how to:

• -pound chilies, beans and garlic together in a mortar and pestle until starting to break
• -add tomato, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice and mix together- crush the tomatoes slightly
• -add the shredded papaya and mix
• -serve and top with peanuts

In vietnam we came across a similar salad- it had some cucumber and carrots and was served with freshly grilled prawns. Feel free to make any variation on this, I’m sure it will be marvelous!

The ingredients needed to make a green curry paste: small green chilies, kaffir lime rind, turmeric, ginseng, coriander seed, garlic, shallot, lemongrass and galangal

Similar ingredients for red curry, only large, dried red chilies are used. Less spicy. Panang curry is made from the red curry, only after the paste is made, peanuts are added in and then pounded again until smooth.

Pounded away at this baby for a good 20 minutes! 

Panang curry paste

The final product! The paste is cooked in a wok with coconut milk (no oil!), fish sauce, palm sugar, sliced fresh kaffir lime leaves, chicken, and loooooove. Served with rice, not over rice. Thai people eat their rice and curry separately to preserve the taste of the curry. 

Tom yum soup ingredients

Tom yum soup- hot and sour prawn soup, flavoured with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass, fish sauce and chili jam. 

Coconut sticky rice with mango. By the time we got to dessert, I was ready to give birth that’s how full I was. But somehow I still had room for this, it was absolutely TO DIE FOR. Although I’ll admit I love sticky rice, I love mangoes, and I love coconut.. So maybe I’m a bit biased. 

Overall, the experience was unforgettable and the food was absolutely mouthwatering. Like I said, the perfect way to end the trip and I’m so glad to be able to share with you! 

stay ravenous, my friends! 

For the past threedays I’ve been in Hanoi, Vietnam and I’ve been having the time of my life (not only food-wise, but in all aspects of the trip!). We’re headed to Halong Bay today and after that, to Sa Pa in the north, then south to Hoi An and finally to Ho Chi Minh City. 

Unfortunately we never had the chance to try beer fish in Yangshuo; partly because we’re just too poor and also because of my renewed (& Morgan and Megan’s newfound) love for steamed buns. We seriously ate steamed buns multiple times a day and were dreaming of them even after having moved on to Hong Kong. 

Some of the great things that my stomach is still thinking about now:

HK- Dim sum. We ate at Tim Ho Wan, the world’s cheapest Michelin star restaurant. A whole blog post and photos of that experience to come, I promise! Let’s just say it was the best dim sum I’ve ever eaten, and I’ve eaten a hell of a lot of dim sum. The milk tea in HK is the best I’ve ever had, as well. Yuuuuuum. Mak’s noodles in HK is well known, too- noodles are freshly made using duck egg yolks which provides their silky smooth texture, complimented with a fabulous broth with lots of depth.

Hanoi- some of the best street food in all of Vietnam. So far we’ve snacked on freshly baked buns, both sweet and savory. The Pho here is the best I’ve ever had, and it was just over $1 USD! Of course we’ve also tried Vietnamese coffee, which was RIDICULOUS, strong and sweetened with condensed milk. Lemon tea near St. Joseph’s cathedral was great too, $0.50 and freshly brewed over ice. We’ve had rice rolls, spring rolls, green papaya salad and the best mango smoothie I’ve ever tasted at Ngon, one of Hanoi’s most famous restaurants. We’ve tried BBQ pork buns with minty greens, hot sauce and cilantro and we’ve eaten the local favourite, Che (Vietnamese sweet dessert soup- gloppy, gelatinous and served with fruit over ice) in the blazing sun. 

Needless to say my stomach has been the happiest it’s been in a long while. 

Hope yours is too!

stay ravenous, my friends!

So for the past 2 weeks I’ve been travelling around China- First, with my mom to Hunan and Sichuan provinces, then to Beijing to visit family. In Beijing I met up with my two friends, Megan & Morgan, and since then we’ve travelled to Shanghai, Guilin and now we’re in Yangshuo.

Food has most definitely been the highlight of the trip- unfortunately it’s only been window shopping for us poor student travellers (we don’t even have any room in our bags for much else anyways). Of course I’ve been keeping a food diary since being here, so I thought I’d share a few of the highlights of the great things I’ve been eating.

Hunan- you don’t know spicy until you’ve had a dish here. I was literally crying and locals were saying they couldn’t taste any la jiao (spicy pepper)

Sichuan- the mapo tofu here is a specialty and was fresh & delicious. A lot of the dishes here have Sichuan pepper which has a numbing quality on your tongue- quite strange I’ll admit, but it was addictive and enriched other flavours.

Beijing- unfortunately there was no time for any famous roasted duck, but we did have some zhajiang mian which was amazing.

Shanghai-xiaolong bao, which are simply steamed pork buns that magically form this mouthwatering juice that you must first suck out of the buns before devouring.

Yangshuo- beer fish (pi jiu yu), we haven’t tried it yet but that’s the plan for tomorrow!

Dinner tonight- cheap streetfood- steamed buns anyone? and checking out the bar scene over here!

stay ravenous, my friends!

PS. pictures to come later, I promise!