Food Wine Sleep

Ah the humble crumble, in season sweet apples stewed with cinnamon and brown sugar, golden baked buttery topping and vanilla ice cream on the side! Is there a more appropriate thing to serve as dessert in the colder months? I think not.

Ah! Don't you love winter, the season of indulgent deserts. The one time of year no one really feels too guilty about too many sweets, must be the fact that beach season is well behind us.....or in front (depends whether you are a "glass half full" or "glass half empty" kind of person). The nice thing about this recipe is that even if you only have 4 dinner guests you can still enjoy the 6 puddings this recipe makes (they make a wonderful decadent muffin in the morning).

The English have somewhat of an unfounded reputation for being a country with very little to offer the culinary world. A belief that may have been partially true 20-30 years ago, but certainly not now. Nowadays not many cities in the world can top London's cuisine and many of the best Chefs I have worked with have been English. Maybe they're such good Chefs because of the diverse food scene they come from, or maybe they are trying extra hard to shake off the remnants of that unjustified reputation. Whatever the reason I have learnt many things from English colleagues, and this recipe is one of those many things. As in most great recipes, what really makes this recipe is i...

I've categorized this dish in winter but truth be told it reminds me more of summer. It was a dish that my mother would make a huge pot of a few times each summer. Each pot would last about a week and meant that my mother could spend more time enjoying the short Canadian summer rather than missing it spending her whole summer in the kitchen. I still use that approach when I make Chilli, I make enough to feed an army, portion it up and freeze it. It makes a great winter warming meal when you really don't feel like cooking but still want a warm home cooked meal.

I was on the phone to my friend Trevor the other day back in Canada, and as well as the usual catching up on each others distant lives, we talked food for a bit. During this conversation Trevor asked me how to make fettuccine Carbonara, as he had attempted it the night before and ended up with as is often the case, fettuccine a'la scrambled eggs. I explained to him the trick was to toss the warmed pasta through the egg mix away from the stove and by doing so the heat of the pasta will warm the egg sauce enough to cook it but not actually scramble it. I was thankful for that conversation because it is a classic dish I hadn't made in ages and since that phone call I have re...

Guacamole is one of those items that everyone and their dog has a recipe for. This of course is the best version (haha), it is my version. I find avocado and lime have very distinct flavours so I tend to keep mine very simple and not overwhelm the guacamole with a 1001 ingredients. You'll also notice that some people make their guacamoles chunky and others smooth. Depending on the dish I am serving it with I may make it chunky but overall I prefer to make it smooth as a ripe avocado really lends itself really well to that silky smooth texture.

I know what you're thinking, didn't we see enough of this dessert in the 90's. Well yes I think we did, but no we don't see enough of it now. It went from hip to passe overnight, and I am usually the first to bid good riddance to a dish that is eaten simply because it is in fashion, but the sticky date should never have been fashionable. It is a humble dessert, a dessert that was never suited to being trendy, it's old, and it's a classic and should be treated accordingly. You don't dress your grandmother in the latest hipster jeans, off the shoulder top, Gucci sunglasses and hang with her at the latest clubs every weekend for the entire summer, no of course not. You love...

A real summer specialty. The idea was to recreate the Italian favourite of aged Balsamico vinegar as an accompaniment to marinated strawberries as an mocktail. The thickened, reduced balsamic vinegar can also be replaced by a side order of pure Balsamico, where a guest can flavor their own strawberry honey juice to their liking. Please ensure that you use very ripe and full flavoured strawberries and a good quality honey. If you want to make this an alcoholic drink, replace the water with sparkling alcoholic cider.