Huevos Rancheros = Happiness

Huevos rancheros is one of the better things in life. It’s kind of like a two-dollar 20-minute insta-vacation to paradise. While in Mexico, I ate it in one form or another every single day for breakfast.

In its essence, huevos rancheros is a fried egg on top of a lightly fried corn tortilla with some other stuff on

top. That other stuff often includes refried beans, salsa, guacamole, lime juice, cilantro, etc.

Here’s a super easy way to make it.

Serves: 1

Time: about 20 minutes

1 onion, minced

1 tomato, diced

1 chili pepper, minced

cooking oil

2 eggs

2 corn tortillas

1 lime, juiced

2 tablespoons cilantro, chopped

1 avocado, diced

salt and pepper

refried beans (optional)

1. Cook the onion in oil with a pinch of salt and pepper on medium heat until translucent, about 5 minutes. Add the chili pepper and cook for another minute. Then add the tomatoes, and let it cook together for about 10 minutes.
2. Meanwhile, fry the eggs how you like them, and then lightly fry the corn tortillas on each side, about 30 seconds per side.
3. Assemble the tortilla with egg on top. Spoon over top of that the tomato sauce, avocado, cilantro and refried beans if using.

The Amazing Naan Wrap

I sometimes wonder what my featured item would be if I had a food cart. The other day I may just have figured it out.  In a way my sister has already been making it since she was a kid. Whenever we would have curry for dinner, she would make a sort of pita/wrap thing out of the naan bread by opening it along the seam and stuffing it with rice, curry and chutney. This was done using her hands, much to the frustration of my parents, curry dripping from ragged holes in the ruined naan.

So what I decided to do the other night was make my own naan wrap. I made a pork curry, cardamom rice, quick pickled cucumber, mango yogurt sauce, and fried onions. The result was incredible. If someone in my city made something like this, I would line up for it every day.

Naan Deliciousness

Next time you have curry, fry up a store-bought naan in butter briefly and then cut a segment off the top and bottom. Lay it flat and cut it open from one end along the seam, leaving it closed at the other, almost like a hotdog bun. Then you can wrap the bread around whatever you want.

Vichyssoise, or what to eat when you get your wisdom teeth removed

My least favourite part of getting my wisdom teeth out? Not the lack of energy or the pain, but the inability to eat solid foods. Craving crispy fried chicken dripping trans-fatty goodness? Raspberries fresh from your garden ripe this week only? Too bad! It’ll all get stuck in your gaping mouth-sockets. At one point I changed the channel from a KFC ad into lays potato chips into the food network. Mouth watering, palms sweating, eyes bloodshot, I wisely decided to turn off the TV, found a Julia Child cookbook and began reading through the section on puréed soups.

Vichyssoise is a fancy French word for an often-chilled leek and potato soup with cream. It’s actually credited as being the invention of an American chef, the name derived from his birthplace near Vichy, France. It’s super easy and quite delicious. And entirely not my own creation. Why mess with perfection? Impress your friends and serve it as a first course – or sneak into the fridge late at night and devour a week’s worth of vegetables and cream for a delicious midnight snack. Or you could always double the recipe and do both.

Sauté Leeks and Onions

4 tablespoons butter

8 leeks, cleaned and thinly sliced

2 medium potatoes, cut into small cubes

2 cups chicken stock

2 cups heavy cream

4 fresh chives, finely chopped

1 pinch nutmeg salt and fresh pepper

1. Sauté leeks and onions in butter over medium low heat until soft and translucent.
2. Add chicken stock and sliced, peeled potatoes. Boil 30 minutes.
3. Purée in blender, chill, season to taste with salt and pepper.
4. Whisk in heavy cream before serving

I Wonder if Anyone Reads Captions

To reiterate, this is not my recipe; I’ve borrowed it from Anthony Bourdain. He also wrote a gripping and gritty novel called Kitchen Confidential, which I would recommend to anyone who’s remotely interested in food.

Wild Rice Salad

I’ve been working at a canning business cooking and selling preserves for two months now. I’ve come away with a number of important lessons.

First off, cutting fifty pounds of onions makes you feel like you’ve been pepper sprayed, made to sit through The Notebook, and then jabbed in the eyes with hot sewing needles.

Yesterday at Work

Second, the vendors I work alongside at farmers’ markets are really nice. A blacksmith named Justin literally forged me a custom bench scraper for my birthday:

If you happen to live in Victoria, check out Saanich Organics for some fresh greens. Their salad mix is mustardy, virtuous, and crispy as the first shots of spring. Plus they gave me the salad mix for free so I’m using words like virtuous to describe vegetables. I like to think of it as my first promotion even though they don’t know about my blog.

The same night I got the salad mix my mom was making wild rice and onion bread so I decided to make a salad with the leftover wild rice.

Wild Rice Salad With Fried Eggs

Salad part:

Wild rice, cooked and strained

Orange segments

Cranberries

Fresh parsley, chopped

Sesame seeds, toasted

Pecans, toasted and chopped

Dressing part:

Olive oil

Orange juice

Salt and pepper

Orange peel

Lemon juice

Vinegar (any type but white vinegar)

Combine the ingredients for the dressing in one bowl, and the ingredients for the rice salad in another bowl. Then mix the two together. Toss the greens with olive oil and red wine vinegar in a serving bowl, put the wild rice salad on top and then put some fried eggs on top of that and ta-daa you’ve got a wholesome and delicious meal. You probably don’t have the exact same ingredients on hand as I did. That’s okay. Get creative, enjoy yourself, and don’t panic.

A Summer Apple Salad

Today I decided that if summer isn’t coming to the west coast this year, I’m going to make it come to me. This salad literally tastes like crispy vacation sunshine in a bowl and it’s super easy. More food should be like this.

The idea for this salad comes from a childhood vacation to Mexico. There was man with a broad-brimmed hat and the whitest smile who would sit near the beach with a machete and a barrel of coconuts. For a few pesos he would smash a coconut open with a machete (which amazed me to no end; my 10-year-old self spent two weeks of tinkering trying to get one of those bastards open). He would then slice the flesh into pieces and mix it all together with chiles, lime, mint, and salt. The resulting salad was as refreshing as the Nestea plunge. Apples work almost as well and are way easier to find in the grocery store.

Apple(s), cut into 1/2 inch dice

Lime juice

Fresh mint, chopped

Shallot, minced

Hot peppers, minced (optional)

A pinch of salt

Combine all ingredients in a bowl and adjust to taste.

9 Reasons I’m Starting a Food Blog

9. There may be 16660 food blogs already, but I have something to offer that no one else does.

8. Everyone thinks their mom’s/grandmother’s/step-dad-who-is-a-chef’s recipes are the greatest, but mine really are.

7. Unlike anyone else on the internet, I like to use “top reasons” lists to get my point across. 

6. It’s strangely fun to link random words.

5. My food photography will make you try to eat your computer screen:

Baby broccoli and smashed chickpea crostini

4. I always remember to photograph things I make before I eat them (see above).

3.. I recently realized that I’m not actually very good at cooking.

2. As per 3., I have lots of rock solid recipes to share that I made up myself.

1. This morning I had carrot cake and coffee and decided to write about it.