Cooking Accessories & Gadgets Haul

I was in Toronto earlier last year in November. I went a little crazy in a Japanese cookware store as well as some other baking supply store.

I picked up a few things for myself as well as my Sister-in-Law. Below are a list of gadgets I purchased:

Heart Shaped Egg/Pancake Ring

Makes the perfect heart shaped egg or pancake. Just in time for valentine's day. Or any day for my beautiful Sister-in-Law and nieces :) Hope you ladies enjoy your 'hearty' breakfasts. 

Beautiful Blue & Pink Floral Cupcake Liners

Makes a simple cupcake look even more elegant. A childhood friend of mine is currently taking a Pastry Chef course. I gave her a set of these cupcake liners as a Christmas present and she loved them.

 

Sushi Press and Molds

 

Fill the mold with sushi rice. Press and remove from mold.

Dumpling Maker

 

Just line the press with dough sheet. Place filling in the middle. Fold the dumpling maker in half and voila.

Thai Red Carrot Curry

I was on a whim of trying something new today. I had about a half cup of baby carrots and some thai red curry paste that I have purchased from my local thai restaurant. I thought maybe I could make it a carrot curry sauce. And so I did. For the curry paste recipe, incorporate 1/2 cup carrots with 2 tbsps of your favourite red curry paste. Blend with 1/2 cup of coconut milk. You should end up with a chunky paste.

Ingredients:
2 chicken breasts, sliced
1 tbsp fish sauce or tamari sauce
1 tbsp golden cane sugar or palm sugar
2 tbsps corn starch
2 tbsps garlic granules
1/2 cup carrot, roughly chopped
2 cups coconut milk, seperated into 1-1/2 cups & 1/2 cup
2 tbsps red Thai curry paste
1 handful coriander leaves, roughly chopped
1 cup asparagus, 1" lengths
1 cup mushrooms, sliced
1 garlic clove, minced
1 ginger slice, minced

In a glass bowl marinate chicken with fish sauce, sugar, corn starch and garlic granules for 30 minutes to an hour.

In a wok heat up 1 tbsp of cooking oil, add garlic and ginger and stir till it is golden brown. Add mushroom slices and pan fry till golden brown. Add chicken and let cook for 5 minutes, occassionally stirring. Add curry paste and 1-1/2 cups of coconut milk. Simmer for 3 minutes. Add asparagus, stir and cover for 1-2 minutes. Remove from heat and serve with coriander as a garnish.

Keep in mind that the vegetables can be substituted with any vegetable of your choice. But the carrots will remain an ingredient for the sauce. :) You can also make this a vegetarian dish, use tempeh or tofu in place of the chicken. If you want it to be a vegan dish, then use tamari instead of fish sauce.

This curry is best served hot with steamed rice or flat bread. Hope you enjoy my recipe and feel free to leave me a comment below.

Happy Cooking :)

What to Do with Day Old Sushi

Have you ever wondered what you could do with day old sushi? Obviously the rice is hard and the nori is all soggy. I wouldn't want to eat it anymore. But with a few simple ingredients you can turn this leftover into Sushi Fried Rice. Keep on reading to find out how.

Ingredients:

day old sushi (minimum 12 pieces are required) 

2 sprigs of green onion (sliced thinly)

2 eggs (whisked)

soy sauce

fresh cracked pepper

lemon zest

vegetable oil

In a wok or a deep frying pan heat up 2tbsps of vegetable oil on medium high heat. Place nigiri sushi fish side down. Let the fish sear a bit and then use a wooden spoon and mash the rice till it breaks apart. We're trying to get the lumps out of the rice, as the rice heats up it will be harder to break apart. As sushi rice is sticky when heated. As the fish cooks you will be able to mash the fish into smaller bits too. Add the 2 eggs and keep stirring, eggs will stick to the pan so keep stirring. Once the egg is no longer liquid and you should have little bits of scrambled egg amongst your fried rice. Add soy sauce, lemon zest, fresh cracked pepper and green onions as desired. 

Enjoy your Sushi Fried Rice! 

Tomatoless Greek Salad

This one is for Beau, he doesn't like tomatoes. But for those who are making this salad for a large crowd of people that are tomato lovers like myself. I would make it with whole cherry tomatoes and the non tomatoe lovers can pick them out. This recipe Serves 4

1 green pepper diced

1 red pepper diced

1 yellow pepper diced

1 red onion diced

1 english cucumber diced

1/4 cup feta cheese crumbled

1/2 cup whole kalamata olives pitted

1 garlic crushed garlic clove

3 tbsp dried oregano

3 tbsp fresh lemon juice

zest of 1 lemon

2 tbsp olive oil

fresh cracked black pepper

sea salt to taste

(If you want tomatoes in this recipe simply just add 1 pint of cherry tomatoes to the pepper & cucumber mixture)

In a large mixing bowl combine green, red, yellow peppers with cucumber. Set aside. In a smaller bowl combine red onion with oregano, lemon juice, lemon zest, black pepper and sea salt. Let the onions marinate for about an hour and add olive oil and mix well. 

Then pour the onion mixture into the peppers and cucumber bowl. Toss well and sprinkle with feta & olives. Add additional salt & pepper to taste.

Voila! Bon Appetit :)