Around Toronto in 24 coffee shops

I'm a bit of a box ticker and list crosser offer.  I'm competitive when it comes to collecting passport stamps and fridge magnets of places I have been.  As a kid I loved collecting stickers for my Panini albums and I'd glow with self importance if the teacher asked me to take the class register.  So I was quite intrigued when a friend introduced me to Toronto’s Indie Coffee Passport.  The perfect concept; a coffee treasure hunt.  The idea is simple; buy a passport for $25, visit each of the 24 participating outlets between now and the end of March, and get a free coffee worth up to $5.  Most important of all don't forget to get your passport stamp.  For me this is a great way to explore the city and catch up with my new coffee drinking, employment seeking friends.

First on the list this week was The Tampered Press over in Trinity Bellwoods. I almost walked past it trying to find it, as it is quite unassuming from the road. Inside it has regulatory coffee shop exposed brick walls and a newspaper strewn communal dining table. High stools at the wooden ledge peer outwards to the street and drink in the sun. A lone chap sits at the head of the table plugging away on his lap top, a few passers by drop in to take out, and mums drift in for a caffeine revival as their sleeping babies allow a moments relief.  There is a genuine ease to this place.

It’s a lovely warm day outside so I begin with an iced mochaccino. It was a tad too coffee-ey and not chocolatey enough for me, but it was easily sweetened with sugar which amazingly I was able to stir with an ACTUAL teaspoon and not those useless wooden sticks (how are you supposed to eat the creamy foam on your cappuccino with a wooden stick?) As the street lights begin to blink on, I order a milky cappuccino and pumpkin loaf, which comes slathered in the dreamiest brown sugar cream cheese frosting. Trundling home on the tram through the early evening city I wondered if I might be able to get my frosting to taste as good as that.

Butternut Squash & Sage Risotto

We are days away from Halloween and this neighbourhood is getting pretty spooky.  There’s an alarming number of skeletons draped on front lawns and carved pumpkin faces seem to follow me as I walk past.  This recipe is not spooky in the slightest.  It is Italian comfort food, just right if you’ve had a fright.  Although I’ve made this with butternut squash, feel free to substitute for pumpkin or any other kind of squash that you find available.

Serves 4

olive oil
1 butternut squash
1 handful of fresh sage leaves roughly chopped
large knob of butter
1 medium onion, finely chopped
3 cloves garlic; 2 crushed under a knife  and left in their skins, 1 crushed without skin
400g Arborio risotto rice
1 large glass dry white wine – about 250 mls
1 to 1.5 litres chicken stock
freshly grated parmesan cheese
salt & pepper

Start by peeling and chopping the butternut squash into bite size cubes.  Throw into a roasting tin with a good handful of sage leaves and the garlic cloves.  Drizzle with a good glug of olive oil and roast in the oven at 200c/400F/Gas Mark 6 for about 45 minutes until the squash is soft and easy to poke with a knife.

While the squash is roasting you can get on with the rice.  Melt butter in a large pan and slowly fry off the onion on a low to medium heat.  Don’t brown the onion, just let it go soft and milky.  It should take about 5 minutes, then add the final crushed garlic clove and cook for a further 1-2 minutes.  Add the rice and cook for about 3 minutes, then turn up the heat to medium high and pour in the white wine.  Let this bubble away for a couple of minutes.  Season the rice with salt & pepper and scrape any rice that has stuck.  Once the wine has all but evaporated slowly begin to add the stock – about a ladleful at a time and stir it through.  Leave for a minute or so until almost absorbed and then pour in a little more.    Keep repeating this process until you are almost out of stock.  It should take in total about 20-25 minutes.  You might not need all the stock, so towards the end of the 20 minutes start checking the rice.  You want there to be just a little bit of bite to it when you test a grain.  If it is still a little hard, then cook for longer and use the remaining stock, if you are already there then stop.

Now it’s time to add the squash.  I like to mash up about half of it and stir it through so the risotto gets a yellowy colour to it.  I keep the rest in the chunky cubes, throw those in a lightly stir through so they keep their shape.  Serve with a good grating of fresh parmesan, and garnish with some fresh chopped sage if you wish.  This also calls for a glass of cold dry white wine.

Autumn Inspirations - Creamy Pumpkin Soup

This is my first fall. Of course I have lived through autumn before, but I have never experienced it North American style. There has been a mass immigration of pumpkins in the city. They are everywhere, sitting ceremoniously on church steps and relaxing on front porches, enjoying the afternoon sunshine. The trees are definitely more entertaining with their raspberry pink and tangerine orange leaves. I’ve also had my first Thanksgiving. As far as I can tell it’s a glorified harvest festival but without the need to donate tinned food to church for those less fortunate.  There is also the added bonus that everyone gets the day off to eat turkey and say thanks for stuff that grows in the ground.  Although there is turkey involved, everyone seems much more relaxed about it. It is the less stressful, more casual version of Christmas. So with a fall theme in mind, here is the first in a series of recipes I’ve tried out over the last couple of weeks. This creamy pumpkin soup is probably one of the nicest soups I’ve ever made, so if you try out anything at all, I would wholeheartedly suggest this. Let me know how you get on.

Creamy Pumpkin Soup



Me and the huge pumpkin

I started off intending to use the entire 11lb pumpkin I had bought, but as this recipe involves roasting the pumpkin first, I only had enough room and roasting tins to use up half the pumpkin. So I’ve based this recipe on 5.5lbs of pumpkin (so roughly 2.5kgs) and I ended up with 2 roasting trays of pumpkin. Use the biggest pan you have got, one that will hold at least 3 litres of liquid.
6 cloves garlic
6 stems of rosemary, finely chopped
1 tsp chilli flakes
Olive oil
1 onion finely chopped
25g butter
Salt & pepper
2 litres chicken stock (or vegetable stock)
150mls double cream (heavy cream)

Start by washing the pumpkin. Dry it off and place on a tea towel before you start cutting into it so that it is less likely to slip. Cut a smallish circle around the stem like a lid and begin scooping out the seeds with your hands. Put the seeds to one side and save them – you can make a spicy bar snack from them later! When you can’t remove anymore seeds this way, start to cut the pumpkin in half and use a spoon to scrape the seeds and stringy orange insides away from the harder flesh. Once it is cleaned out cut one half of the pumpkin into half again (as if around its middle), and finish up with wedges about the size of 6-8cm big. Fill up a roasting tray with the wedges and into each tray (based on 2 trays) scatter 3 garlic cloves (in their skins), the finely chopped rosemary leaves from 3 stems and ½ tsp chilli flakes. Finally drizzle with 2 ½ tbsps olive oil and season well with salt and pepper. Toss the ingredients so that everything is well covered and place into a hot oven (400F/200C/Gas Mark 6) and roast for 50 minutes. Give the pan a shake every 15 minutes or so.


Before roasting



After

Once the pumpkin is roasted (you should be able to stick a knife in it smoothly), leave it to cool. As it cools, in your large pan, fry off the onion in some butter for 5 minutes until soft. Scrape the pumpkin flesh away from the skin with a spoon and add to the pan. Squeeze the roasted garlic cloves from their skins into the pan, and throw in any rosemary leaves too. Pour on the stock, bring to the boil, reduce the heat, place a lid on and simmer for 20-25 minutes. Finish by pureeing in a blender or with a hand blender. Stir in 150mls double cream for a creamy luxurious soup. If you are feeling saintly then leave it out or try some low fat crème fraiche instead. Blend again to mix in the cream. Serve with crusty bread.

A fish feast

I was entertaining two friends last weekend, both of them a big fans of mussels, but only get to eat them when they eat out, so I thought I would buy as big a bag as I could carry and cook up a feast at home.  Luckily I was nearby Borough Market, close to London Bridge, so I made a detour there to check out what was on offer.  I picked up 2kgs of mussels (we like them a lot!) from the Furness Fish stall, and was going to get some large prawns for a starter, but instead saw some great looking sardines on display at Applebees, a fishmongers/fish cafe on the edges of the market.  Last but not least I stopped for a baguette to mop up the mussels cooking broth, at Flourpower City Bakery, and then trundled home on the Central line with my fishy purchases.
There is absolutely nothing wrong with the classic moules marinere, with shallots, garlic, white wine and a little cream, but I wanted to try something a bit different for my friends which I knew they’d like.  It turns the mussels from a French classic into a modern spicy Thai dish whereby you steam the mussels in a green curry style broth instead.  If you have time, then make your own curry paste, or simply use a ready made one, which is what I did as I was a bit pressed for time.  The only time consuming bit when you are doing mussels is the cleaning and checking bit, especially when you have 2kgs to go through.  Fill the sink, tip in the mussels, and give each one a quick scrub, remove the beard if there is one and set aside.  Discard any that have broken shells.  If any are open set them to one side in a pan with a lid, then once you have finished cleaning them, give the open ones a vigorous shake in a closed pan and you should find that they start to close.  Any that remain open after this should be discarded.  Then cover the bowl of good mussels with a damp tea towel and leave in the fridge until needed.  Don’t worry that they may start to re-open again once you take them out of the fridge, give the bowl a good shake and they will start to re-close.



Sardines are a delicious fish with really good strong flavour.  They evoke memories of Mediterranean BBQ’s for me, as I think there is no better way to eat them than this.  Sadly it wasn’t quite BBQ weather outside so I cooked these under the grill after having simply marinated them for a couple of hours.  The fishmonger cleaned and gutted the fish for me,  but he left the heads on and bones in, so it was up to me to do a bit of filleting.  Thankfully these little fish are pretty easy to prepare for the grill.  Remove the head and then place the fish belly side down, spreading it out slightly and begin to flatten it out starting at the head end with the heel of your hand, and working down to the tail.  Turn it over and lift up the tail bone starting at the head end.  It should start to come away from the flesh easily but you may need to help it along the way.  Remove any stray bones you can see with tweezers.  Now your fillets are ready for the marinade. 

Thai Style Mussels

For 4 (or 3 hungry people)

2kgs mussels cleaned and checked as above

2tbsps oil

1 can coconut milk (400mls)

2 shallots finely diced

2 tbsps thai green or red curry paste

2tbsps fish sauce

2tbsp lime juice

handful fresh chopped coriander

2 spring onions shredded into matchsticks

• You need a big cooking pot with a lid that will hold all the mussels with the lid firmly closed.  Heat the oil and fry off the shallots for 2-3 minutes until soft.  Add the curry paste and stir fry for another 2 minutes.
• Pour in the coconut milk, fish sauce and lime juice and bring to the boil.
• Once boiling tip in the mussels and close the lid and leave for 5 minutes, give the pan a good shake mid way through.  After 5 minutes give the mussels a good stir with a large spoon.  If they are open then they are ready.
• Discard any that don’t open, and serve on a large warmed platter and sprinkle with coriander and spring onion.  Serve with crusty bread to mop up the juices and provide warm bowls for your guests to serve themselves with.

Sardines with garlic, lemon & parsley

For 3-4 people
2-3 sardines per person filleted as before
3 cloves garlic crushed with salt
zest & juice of 1 large lemon
3 tbsps olive oil
2 handfuls of roughly chopped flat leaf parsley
salt & pepper to taste

• mix all the marinade ingredients into a small dish and stir well.  Pour over the sardines, ensuring they are all well covered in the marinade.  Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate for at least 2 hours before cooking.
• Pre-heat the grill to a medium-high heat and place skin side up.  Pour over any remaining marinade.  Grill for 2 minutes either side – the skin side should start to brown and go crisp.
• Serve with lemon wedges and some crisp green salad on the side, and not forgetting a glass of chilled white wine!