A guest post from our good friend, the founder and editor of www.spotlighttoronto.com, Suresh Doss

My Favourite Breakfast

I’ve been making this for years when I want a quick breakfast but also something different from scrambled eggs or an omelette. The recipe is very simple, here is what you need to re-create it.

Baked Eggs in Tomatoes

Ingredients

- medium sized tomatoes

- Eggs

- Fresh Basil

- Extra virgin olive oil

- Salt / Pepper to taste

Steps

- Preheat the oven to 375degrees

- Chop fresh basil and toss them in a bowl with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper to create a rub.

- Cut out the tops off the tomatoes and scoop out the seeds with a spoon. You want nice hollow centres so when you drop the egg, it stays in place.

- Rub the inside of the tomato generously with the basil rub.

- Place the tomatoes on a baking sheet, and put them into the oven for 8-10 minutes. If you wish to wrap a piece of proscuitto or bacon around the tomato, cook for a longer period of time.

- Take the tomatoes out, and drop an egg into each. Try not to crack the yolk.

- Place the tomatoes carefully back in the oven for another 8-10 minutes, until desired doneness.

- Sprinkle a little basil, salt over the tomato and serve immediately.

It’s a very flexible recipe that you can play with. I like to add proscuitto and a variety of other herbs and seasonings.

This could even be a good appetizer course at dinner time, topped with some smoked salmon and creme fraiche or splashed with truffle oil and some tarragon leaves.

Suresh eats very very well and all over the province. He takes lots of pictures of what he’s having for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Join the thousands of happy food fanatics who follow Suresh’s every move on Twitter here

Herb gardens are going crazy all over town and we want you to make use of that bounty in every meal. Here we present a series of recipes and ideas for putting all those delicious plants to good use.

Mint is not just a garnish for your dessert plate. It is so hardy and comes back every year so you’ve got to find ways to use it up. The chocolate mint pictured is in it’s third year. No special fertilizers or anything, it sits in a planter in the sun and bursts forth every spring.

You know how your beer cooler smells all musty when you pull it out for that first camping trip of the year? Scrub it out, then add hot water and throw in a bunch of mint leaves, close the lid and leave for a day. The mint “tea” will clear out the mustiness and leave you with a fresh smelling cooler ready to be packed with beer. You can use mint to freshen up your suitcase, sleeping bags, tents. Just place a branch of fresh leaves inside and let the mint work it’s magic scent into every nook and cranny.

Behind the bar it belongs in cocktails like mint juleps and mojitos. In the kitchen try using it in savoury dishes, like watermelon salad with basil, feta and mint or minted peas. The perfect side dish to some grilled lamb and so simple to make. Fry up some shallots in butter, toss in fresh or frozen peas, season with salt and pepper, sautee. At the last minute toss in a bunch of roughly chopped mint and serve.

Herb gardens are going crazy all over town and we want you to make use of that bounty in every meal. Here we present a series of recipes and ideas for putting all those delicious plants to good use.

I’m a total maniac for dill but I really only use it in the summer when it’s fresh and in my face. The tallest herb in the garden, with fronds that tickle your ankles reminding you that potato salad sucks without dill and so do bagels with lox, borscht, tuna salad, pickles, perogies and sour cream, dolmadakia, tartar sauce….

Dill just makes everything better. Pop a few dill flowers in with your next batch of quick cucumber pickles, add it to a Greek salad, mix it into butter and serve with pumpernickel bread and radishes, you could even use a few fronds to garnish your next gin and tonic.

My favourite use for this herb though is with fish, especially trout. Grill some trout then serve it up family-style next to a bouquet of dill and a bowl of lemon wedges. Fresh dill sprinkled over tender, grilled trout with a splash of lemon. Perfect.

We’re reposting this wonderful blog post from Communal Table. This husband/wife team of communications professionals write a blog dedicated to their passion for food. This post features an ingredient that is well represented on Fiesta Farms’ shelves; canned fish (who knew there were so many kinds?). Thanks for the ideas guys!

Neil and I absolutely love shopping at Fiesta Farms in Toronto. It’s a bit like our foodie Disneyworld. The place is filled with amazing ‘food finds’, so it’s fitting to write my first Food Find post about a product we discovered on our last trip there.

The variety of interesting ethnic foods at Fiesta Farms is amazing. Never would have I imagined that the canned fish section would be so appealing. Actually, when Neil spotted his first tin of ‘Calamary’ stew I think I scoffed at the thought and told him to put it back. But the adventurous food-lover in him pressed on and I’m so happy he made us buy some because it’s delicious and adds so much to a quick and easy pasta!

We’ve tried two different kinds now, and particularly enjoyed this one. Your initial gut reaction might be “Ew, gross!” but if you’re into food, try it out and you’ll probably be as pleasantly surprised as I was.

Here’s a really quick pasta dish we threw together tonight that impressed us both.

Linguine with Portuguese ‘Calamary’, Lentils and Garlic Scapes.

2 garlic scapes, chopped (or 1 garlic clove)

1/2 can of lentils

1 tin of Portuguese style ‘calamary stew’

Frozen spinach, thawed and drained

White wine

A few fresh basil leaves, chopped

Fresh parsley, chopped

Crushed chili flakes (a few pinches)

S&P

Sautee the garlic scapes and chili flakes in a bit of olive oil. Add the ‘calamary’ with a bit of the oil/sauce from the tin and sauté. Add in a few splashes of white wine and let it cook off for a few minutes. Add the lentils with some of the lentil liquid, then add the spinach. Let it all amalgamate for a few minutes. Add salt and pepper to taste and you can add a bit of water to make it saucy.

Mix in cook pasta (we used linguine) and season again with salt and pepper to taste. Plate the pasta and add a good amount of freshly chopped parsley and a drizzle of good olive oil to finish.

Not a clubhouse, or a BLT, not ham & swiss or tofurkey and tomato. We’re talking about a different kind of sandwich people! The greatest sandwich you could ever have in the blazing heat of summer. Ice cream sandwiches!

Bake your cookies late at night. It sounds crazy but it is much better than cranking the oven in the heat of the day. Try to make the cookies all a similar size and keep them as thin as possible because each sandwich will use two. Chocolate chip with vanilla filling, peanut butter with chocolate, oatmeal with butterscotch, sugar cookies with strawberry….the possibilities are endless. After the cookies have baked let them cool on a rack. Make some space in your freezer and bring out the ice cream you’ll be using, it will need to temper for 20 minutes or so at room temperature.

Once the ice cream is nice and soft (scoop from the sides, it gets softest there) you can begin. Scoop some ice cream onto the bottom side of a cookie and spread it around, put the other cookie on top and gently squish together. Run your finger around the middle to smooth out the filling and place sandwich on tray in freezer to set.

You can also roll the sandwich in a garnish to add more flavour and character. Roll the ice cream centre through shredded coconut, chopped nuts, sprinkles or cereal like Rice Krispies or Corn Flakes.

This is the perfect treat for summer, easier to distribute than a cake and it doesn’t even require plates, just lots of napkins!

Most of us buy fresh lemons, not only because we prefer to squeeze our lemon juice fresh but also for the added bonus of all that zest. Nevertheless, I like to keep some of the bottled stuff on hand just in case.

This is the best bottled lemon juice I’ve found, it doesn’t have that chemical aftertaste you often find with this product. Grown in the shadow of Italy’s Mount Etna, these organic Sicilian lemons benefit from the volcanic soil. They are hand picked, squeezed immediately and the juice is stored in glass bottles.

There is one recipe I always use bottled lemon juice for and it is perfect for summer. You can make it ahead and bring it out to wow your guests at the end of the meal.

Lemon Pots de Creme

1. Set the oven at 325 degrees. Bring a tea kettle of water to a boil. Set six ramekins or custard cups ( 1/2-cup capacity each) in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish.

2. In a large bowl, whisk the sugar, yolks, lemon rind, and juice. Whisk in the cream and milk until the sugar dissolves.

3. Transfer the mixture to a large glass measuring cup or pitcher. Divide it among the ramekins. Pour the hot water into the baking dish at the edges so it comes about 2/3 of the way up the sides of the ramekins. Set a piece of aluminum foil loosely over the baking dish (do not seal the edges).

4. Bake the custards for 45 minutes or until they jiggle only lightly. Begin checking after 30 minutes; check every 5 minutes.

5. Transfer the custards to a large rack to cool to room temperature. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until cold. Garnish each with two strips of lemon rind or a fresh mint leaf.

via Tony Rosenfeld at www.boston.com

Spring is just around the corner yet the subtle threat of snow is still in the air, so it’s time to cram in the last of those starchy comfort foods while you still can. Soon it’s going to be salad city, this might be your last chance to jump on the gravy train.

Meatballs are the ultimate comfort food, whether in marinara or swedish, with gravy or sweet & sour. Served over rice, pasta, mashed potatoes or polenta, meatballs and starch belong together. There are so many ways to prepare them and each one so simple. What follows is a recipe that goes perfectly with flannel pyjamas, slippers and beer.

Mushroom Meatballs

This recipe has been handed down through generations of lazy cooks. It never fails to delight guests while providing the highest level of comfort a dish can achieve.

Ingredients

2-1 mixture of beef to pork

onion

dry sage & oregano

egg

breadcrumbs

1 can of mushroom soup

1 bottle of beer.

Steps

1. Mix everything together aside from the soup and the beer. Eyeball the amounts, or don’t even follow this and make your own go-to meatball recipe.
2. Roll out balls in whatever size you like.
3. Fry them in a cast iron pan just to brown a bit.
4. Mix soup and beer together.
5. Pour over meatballs.
6. Cover and cook on simmer until done.
7. Serve over buttery mashed potatoes.
8. Crack a beer.
9. Eat on the couch while watching “Meatballs”, “Porky’s” or “Dr. Quinn Medicine Woman”.

If you’ve just spent your whole weekend forecasting field goals, glazing chicken wings and cracking cold ones, all while wearing your beer-drinkin’ helmet, then maybe you should take it easy tonight.

Super Bowl weekend can take it out of you. Once all the gorilla millionaires have cleared the field to go sip champagne in a private jet, you’re left vacuuming up Chex Mix while your buddy crushes empty beer cans on his forehead. After cleaning up and popping a few Tylenol for that nagging hangover, you deserve to take it easy.

Make supper as simple as possible, and try to get a few veggies in there meat-head.

Lazy Lasagna

This is a soup that magically transforms into ooey gooey lasagna in the bowl. Alchemy at its best.

Ingredients

1 pound Italian sausage, or a mix of ground pork and beef

2 Tbsp. butter

about a dozen button mushrooms, chopped

2 zucchini, chopped

1 can, 28 oz. diced tomatoes

2 Tbsp. flour

1 cup 10% half & half cream

1/2 cup water

3/4 cup baby shell pasta

3/4 cup shredded cheese (mozzarella or provolone)

salt, pepper, oregano to taste

Steps

1. Remove sausage from casings and crumble into deep pot over medium-high heat. Cook until no longer pink. Remove meat with slotted spoon to a bowl discard most fat left in the pot.
2. Add butter, let it melt before whisking in flour. Let flour cook a minute or so before adding mushrooms & zucchini to pot. Stir well and return meat to pot and add tomatoes, let it come up to a boil.
3. In another pot, cook pasta until al dente and set aside.
4. Reduce tomato pot to a simmer before adding cream and pasta, let simmer briefly. If too thick add some water. Adjust seasoning and add oregano.
5. Divide cheese among soup bowls and ladle soup over top to melt the cheese.
6. Tell traditional lasagna to start lookin’ for a day job.

You don’t need a wood-burning pizza oven imported from Italy. You don’t even need a pizza stone. Great homemade pizza can be had with a regular old cookie sheet and an electric oven.

If you have mayo, plain yogurt and sour cream in your fridge then you pretty much have Ranch dressing.

So, you have pizza and homemade Ranch, now this is where the magic happens.

Some strange alchemy occurs when the pizza is cut into sticks and dipped in the Ranch. A taste sensation so amazing you may have to lay down for a bit.

2 in 1 pizza! Mushrooms & chevre on the left, sausage & arugula on the right.

Better Than Ranch Dressing

Ingredients

yogurt

mayo

sour cream

lemon juice

scallion chopped

red wine vinegar

salt and pepper

Steps

1. Mix equal parts mayo, sour cream and yogurt.
2. Add a squeeze of lemon, chopped scallion, salt, pepper and a hefty shot of red wine vinegar.
3. Mix and taste, add more red wine vin. or salt as needed.

David Chow’s Pizza Dough

Drake pastry Chef, David Chow, makes large batches of this dough and par-bakes shells before freezing so there are always some on hand.

Ingredients

5 cups flour

2 1/4 tsp. instant yeast

2 tsp. salt

2 1/4-21/2 cups of water

splash of olive oil

Steps

1. Mix everything together, except olive oil
2. Grease cookie sheets with olive oil.
3. Divide dough between sheets and stretch to fit
4. Let dough rest and rise for 30 minutes and stretch again to fi
5. Dough has now risen and ready to bake at 400 for 10 minutes.
6. When you’re ready to make a pizza, throw on whatever toppings you like and cook at 400 for 7-10 minutes.
7. Cut into sticks and dips into Ranch. Or serve in squares with an iceberg salad tossed with Ranch. So retro!
   

   Iceberg salad with Better Than Ranch dressing, diner food at its best.

Eggplant is the star of Caponata, a cooked Sicilian salad. Our favourite is the version from Naples, Italy called Cianfatta, which makes use of the salty, briny deliciousness of capers and olives. Zucchini, red pepper, basil and currants are added for a final dish that sparkles with sweet, sour and salty delights.

Caperberries are fun to use in place of regular capers. Both come from the same plant but the berries are larger and can be sliced into thin rounds. Their inner flesh is reminiscent of a ripe fig and they look beautiful scattered among the bright green zucchini and dark purple eggplant. This is a nice winter salad because it isn’t served cold, but is best served at room temperature. With a pasta aglio e olio it makes the perfect dinner.

Ingredients

1 Italian eggplant, medium cube

2 regular zucchini, medium cube

olive oil

red wine vinegar

1/4 cup currants

dozen green olives, pitted and chopped

3-4 caperberries, sliced into rounds

1/2 a red pepper, small dice

basil, torn

Steps

1. Heat  a saute pan and saute the eggplant in batches, never overcrowding so you get some nice brown colour on it. Cook the eggplant thoroughly until it’s soft, it takes a bit longer to cook. You will have to keep adding more oil as the eggplant really sucks it up, but just add a drizzle at a time.
2. Put the cooked eggplant in mixing bowl.
3. Do the same with the zucchini but don’t cook it as long, just give it some colour and toss it in the bowl with the eggplant where it can finish cooking.
4. Now add olives, caperberries, currants and red pepper.
5. Add a few teaspoons of red wine vinegar and season with salt and pepper, taste it. Can you taste the slight hit of vinegar? If not add a bit more.
6. If the salad looks dry, don’t worry and don’t add any olive oil there is enough in there already.
7. Toss with some torn basil leaves and cover.
8. Let sit for a bit to let all those flavours mingle, then serve at room temperature.