Green Beans and Tempeh with XO Sauce

Green Beans and Tempeh in XO Sauce

This tempeh recipe is a riff on a dish that we love at our favourite Chinese restaurant here in Toronto. The beans in that case are mixed with a bit of ground pork, but here I replaced it with some tempeh. Originating in Hong Kong, XO Sauce is a Chinese sauce made from dried seafood, including shrimp, […]

Poutine Buffet Bar Party

Poutine Bar Buffet Party

  Ryan loves poutine, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he had some incarnation of it every week. Poutine is a Quebecois dish that only became available in the rest of Canada in the past few years. Basically, it’s a bowl of French fries dotted with fresh cheese curds and dripping in gravy. The hot gravy […]

Chinese Ginger Green Onion Sauce

For the longest time, I thought this was a Japanese condiment. My Gichan (grandfather) would prepare it, my mom would make it, and now Tomiko and I make it. My cousins on the Japanese side of our family also make it, so I thought it was only natural that it was Japanese. I actually learned about […]

Chimichurri

Chimichurri, Kiku Corner

Chimichurri is a spicy, refreshing, garlicky green condiment that I whipped up the other day. Although it originated as a sauce for grilled meat in Argentina, it has such a bright zing that it would be a shame to limit its uses! I like to marinate tofu in chimichurri, use it as a dressing in a bean […]

Lobstars! Part Three – Lobster Fra Diavolo

Here is the last course of my lobster dinner, Lobster Fra Diavolo, or Fra Diablo. It is basically pasta with a spicy tomato and red pepper sauce, studded with cooked lobster meat. Since the first two dishes were flavourful but not very spicy, the heat of this sauce makes the meal more interesting and varied. […]