zucchini pizza

Oh hi blog. It's been a long time. I'm not making any promises that I'll be posting on the regular (yet), but for now, here's my favourite recipe so far this summer! I spotted some awesome yellow zucchini at the farmer's market this week and threw together this pizza for a perfect mid-week dinner.

These days, my go-to pizza dough recipe is Jim Lahey's No-Knead dough. I half the recipe and add a tablespoon of honey to the dough. It's great because you mix the dough the night before and just let it sit until the next day.

For the toppings, use pesto for the base. Sprinkle with some grated parmigiano and a thin layer of mozzarella, and top with thinly sliced rounds of yellow zucchini, red onions and small dollops of goat cheese. Bake until golden brown. So good! 

montreal-style bagels

I've been making these homemade bagels about once a month and absolutely love them, but I decided to try a recipe for Montreal-style bagels and compare the two. I actually prefer Montreal bagels with their crisp exterior and dense, sweet interior.

I used this recipe by Marcy Goldman and, while they tasted (and looked) ok, they just weren't great. Definitely not as flavourful as the Montreal bagels I'm used to and the texture wasn't the same as the ones made in wood-burning ovens. Back to my old reliable recipe I guess.

filipino ensaymadas

My mom is visiting for the week which means I'll be getting lots of home cooking. So far one of the highlights was when she showed up with bags of homemade Filipino ensaymadas made by my 80-year old auntie. Sort of a cross between a brioche and Asian-style breads, ensaymadas are buttery, soft, slightly sweet buns. They can be eaten plain, topped with a smear of butter, then dipped in sugar, or topped with a smear of butter, dipped in sugar and sprinkled with shredded cheese (yes, cheese). Sounds weird, but tastes amazing. 

My auntie used to make these all the time when I was a kid (though we never got the cheese version) and me and my bro used to devour them. She’s passed the recipe onto me, but they’re pretty labour intensive to make and I’ve yet to tackle them. For now, my freezer’s stocked and I’m set for a little while.

english muffins from scratch

I recently acquired a copy of Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice and have spent many nights poring over the pages and ear-marking recipes to try. First up, english muffins.

Mine turned out bigger than usual english muffins and were a little misshapen, but they tasted delicious. And were perfect for Sunday morning toasted egg & cheese breakfast sandwiches:

While I was at it, I decided to bake up another dozen homemade bagels too. Now I've got breakfasts covered for the next couple of weeks.

You can find the english muffin recipe over here.

homemade bagels

Before I tackled making bagels at home, I did a lot of research. The two things I really didn't want? Rock-hard bagels or bagels that taste just like bread, but in bagel form. I decided to use Peter Reinhart's recipe because the dough rests overnight in the fridge, meaning I wouldn't have to devote a whole day to bagel-making.

At first, the dough was hard, literally. I was sure this wasn't going to work out for me. But after letting it rest and then forming the bagels, the dough seemed ok. The next day, the bagels were boiled, sprinkled with a variety of toppings then baked.

Fresh out of the oven, the bagels smelled awesome. When I took my first bite, I was in heaven. The crust was crisp and the interior was dense and chewy—just what I was looking for. I'd say these are more akin to NYC bagels, but I think that if I make them flatter and add extra honey to the dough, these could easily transform into Montreal-style bagels.

My favourite topping was the combo of caraway seeds, Maldon sea salt, dehydrated onions, poppy seeds and sesame seeds. All that was needed was a generous smear of cream cheese. 

buttermilk cake doughnuts

Sunday morning looked like this: perusing magazines and cookbooks + homemade buttermilk cake doughnuts.

The last couple of weekends have brought on a few too many indulgent breakfast treats—but these doughnuts were just what I needed to get my day started!

cinnamon rolls

I decided to surprise Joe with a warm batch of cinnamon rolls for breakfast last Saturday. This was my first time making cinnamon rolls, so I was ecstatic when they turned out just how I wanted them to: soft and gooey. And they weren't sickly sweet. 

I rolled out the dough quite thin so that I could maximize how much surface area got covered with the filling.

The great thing about this recipe is that you actually make the rolls the night before you want to bake them. Once formed, just place them in the fridge to rest overnight.

The next morning, after coming up to room temp, the rolls get baked, frosted, and are ready to eat!

dough:
1/2 C milk
1/4 C heavy cream (can substitute with milk)
1 pkg rapid-rise yeast
3 eggs
4 1/4 C flour
1/2 C cornstarch
1/2 C sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
14 tbsp butter, room temp,cut into cubes

filling: if you want extra gooey rolls, add more butter and sugar
1 1/2 C brown sugar
2 tbsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp salt
6 tbsp butter, melted

glaze: 
1/3 pkg cream cheese, room temp
1 tbsp milk
1 1/2 C icing sugar
1 1/2 tsp pure vanilla extract

For the dough: 
1. In a bowl, combine the milk and cream and heat in the microwave until warm. Add in the yeast and dissolve. Whisk in the eggs.
2. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with a dough hook (or by hand), mix the flour, cornstarch, sugar and salt. Add in the milk mixture in a steady stream until the dough starts coming together. Add in the butter, one piece at a time, until incorporated. Continue to mix until the dough is smooth and comes away from the bowl (about 5 minutes). Add more flour if your dough is too wet.
3. Place dough in an oiled bowl, cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for two hours or until it doubles in size.

Rolling and filling:
1. Combine the brown sugar, cinnamon and salt. 
2. Roll out the dough into a large rectangle on a lightly floured surface. Brush the melted butter all over the dough and sprinkle with sugar.
3. Roll up the dough tightly and cut into two-inch pieces. Place rolls in a baking pan lined with parchment paper or tin foil. Cover with plastic wrap and place in the fridge overnight.

Baking and frosting:
1. Remove the rolls from the fridge 1 1/2 hours before you want to bake them and let them sit at room temperature.
2. Bake at 350-degrees for 35-40 minutes or until golden. Let rest for 5 minutes.
3. Meanwhile make frosting by whisking cream cheese, sugar, vanilla and milk until smooth. Smear (heavily) over warm rolls.

pizza! pizza!

This pizza dough recipe from Pizzeria Mozza is fantastic! No really, it's probably the best dough I've ever made. There are a couple unconventional ingredients (rye flour and wheat germ) and the dough takes a while to make since you need to make a starter and let the dough rise a few times, but the resulting crust was so worth it. Chewy, full of bubbles and mega-flavourful, I couldn't stop saying "How good is this pizza!?" Here's the final rise of the dough (I made four medium-sized pizzas). You can see the bubbles forming.

Toppings! A good way to clean out the fridge.

Check out that crust: 

The recipe calls for using a pizza stone, but mine cracked a few months back so I improvised: I turned a large baking sheet upside-down and heated it in a 500-degree oven just like you would a stone. I'm already planning next week's pizza night.

bread in a pot

Jim Lahey's famous no-knead bread recipe is all over the internet and a lot of people swear by how tasty it is and how easy it is to make. You basically start the dough a full day before you bake it and let it sit at room temperature to ferment. Here's my dough ready to ferment:

When the dough is ready, you plop it into a dutch oven (though I'm sure any heavy oven-proof pot will work)and bake it for 45 minutes. Here's my bread after baking:

This bread was such a surprise. Crackly crust, bubbly innards and a nice yeasty flavour. It will definitely go down as one of the easiest breads I've ever made. I'll be happily making paninis with this loaf all week.

lunch in j-town

I only go to J-Town maybe once or twice a year, but when I do go, one of the highlights is having lunch at Cafe Green Tea. The menu is pretty simple with dishes like udon, soba, curry and tonkatsu, but the food is always piping hot and delicious. 

Pork tonkatsu + Japanese curry:

I find it hard to resist picking up some bread at the adjoining Bakery Nakamura. Unlike the savoury buns you get at Chinese bakeries that are soft and sweet, the bread here is very French influenced and baguette-like. The toppings are also mixed into the bread so you get bits of flavour in every bite. 

Clockwise from top left: cheese bun, bacon stick, cheese and onion bun, sausage wasabi bun. 

J-Town

3160 Steeles Ave. E.

momofuku pork buns

Remember when the Momofuku cookbook came out and everybody made the pork buns? Even I did. Twice. The reason being that they are awesome. Making the buns from scratch does take a bit of time (mostly due to the dough having to rise multiple times), but it’s all worth it when you bite into a warm, fluffy bun stuffed with juicy, fatty roasted pork belly. I usually add a smear of sriracha and a few quick-pickled cucumbers (marinate thin rounds in salt and rice vinegar for an hour).

Chang's recipe produces a large batch of the steamed buns, so I  freeze the extras. Just re-steam directly out of the freezer when you need them.

Served with a crunchy Asian salad: shredded cabbage, cucumbers, carrots, sweet peppers, and roasted peanuts tossed with a soy vinaigrette (garlic, soy, rice vinegar, sesame oil, green onions, salt and pepper).

You can find a scaled down version of the recipe here.

indian dinner

On Sunday nights, I usually try to make something sorta special for dinner. Something that would take too long to be made on a regular weeknight. This past Sunday it was homemade butter chicken and naan. I know you can buy jarred butter chicken sauce and even naan practically everywhere these days, but from scratch just always tastes better.

For the butter chicken, I like to add chopped spinach for a bit of greenery. Sorry, no recipe (I winged this one and didn't write down specific measurements).

Making good naan at home without a Tandoor oven isn't impossible. The first time I made this bread, I cooked one side in a pan and the other side directly over the gas flame on my stove. It was pretty messy, but produced the right look and texture.

This time, I cooked one side on a grill pan over the stove, then placed the naan (raw side up) under the broiler. This technique successfully produced those nice charred bubbles from my original attempt, without the mess.

makes 6 naan
3/4 C milk, warmed
1/2 tsp rapid-rise yeast
1/2 tsp sugar
1 3/4 C bread flour
1/2 tsp salt
melted butter 

1. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the dough hook, add yeast and sugar to the warm milk. Let sit for 5 minutes or until yeast "blooms".

2. Add flour and salt to the milk mixture. Let mix on low for about 8-10 minutes or until dough is smooth and supple. Place dough in an oiled bowl and let rise in a warm place for one hour.

3. Divide dough into six pieces. Shape into oblong pieces and place on a lightly floured baking sheet. Cover loosely with plastic wrap and let rise for 45 minutes.

4. Heat a cast iron grill pan on high and lightly brush with melted butter. Place dough onto pan and cook for about 3 minutes or until browned. Transfer to broiler (set on high) and broil until slightly charred and bubbles have formed, about 3 minutes. Remove immediately and brush liberally with melted butter.

asian style bread

I find the bread at Asian bakeries hard to resist. It's always light, aromatic and so soft. After much research, I found the secret to its texture is the tangzhong or water-roux method. This technique involves making a water-flour mixture that you cook, cool then add to the rest of the ingredients. Somehow it keeps the bread soft for days—way longer than most breads. 

I used this recipe as a guide, but halved the amount of sugar (Asian breads tend to be sweet)and kept the bread plain. 

buttermilk banana bread

I like my banana bread straight-up. No nuts. No chocolate. Nothing. 

Slathering each slice with creamy butter is a must though.

1 1/2 C flour

3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 C salted butter, room temperature
3/4 C sugar
1/4 C brown sugar
1 egg
1/2 C buttermilk
2-3 ripe bananas, mashed
1/2 tsp vanilla

1. Sift flour, baking soda and baking powder together in a bowl. 

2. Cream butter and sugars until smooth. Add the egg and mix until incorporated. Mix in the bananas.

3. Fold in the buttermilk and flour, alternating between the two and ending with buttermilk. Do not over mix.

4. Pour into a loaf pan lined with parchment paper. Bake at 325 degrees for about an hour or until a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean.