Arugula Salad with Orange and Hearts of Palm

This arugula salad is my new favourite dish for summer. It has all the essentials of a great salad: colour (just look at how vibrant it is), crunch from the celery, sweetness from the orange, and something unexpected in the form of hearts of palm. You can use your favourite dressing, but I tried summery garlic dressing and […]

Smoked Mackerel Pate

Smoked Mackerel Pate

When I used to eat meat, I loved smoked mackerel. There was a fishmonger in the town near our Oma’s village who would sell freshly smoked fish, still warm from the smoker. Buttery soft mackerel and Schillerlocken (dogfish) were my favourites, just eaten plain or on pieces of bread or crackers. I don’t eat fish any […]

Cilantro and Chickpea Salad

This is an adaptation of a chickpea salad that Meinhilde used to make when we were younger. I can’t remember which cookbook she found it in, so I’ve reconstructed it from my spotty recollection (and input from Meinhilde’s excellent memory). This recipe is the first chickpea salad I ever ate and it may be one of […]

Agedashi Tofu – Deep-Fried Tofu with Amber Sauce

Agedashi Tofu

Agedashi tofu is a deliciously light tofu dish where pieces of silken tofu are dredged in potato starch before being deep fried. When it is served with the amber sauce, the fried crust turns a bit gooey and chewy, but in an amazingly toothsome way. The slightly biting flavour of the daikon nicely complements the sweet […]

Lazy Pickles, or Japanese Cucumber Salad

These are not really pickles, but rather a Japanese cucumber salad. This dish received its name of Lazy Pickles from one of my lunch buddies at work, who moved to Toronto from Ukraine a couple of years ago. The food she brings for lunch are amazing treats that seem to come from a  time forgotten by most […]