Toronto

I think I’ve found a sushi place near me that is delicious, fresh, and not horribly expensive. Oh, and it’s mostly a take out joint too.

I had heard good things about Sushi 930 and as it’s close by, I wanted to try it out. The restaurant itself has a few tables, but the main purpose of this place is for take out. While it is on the pricier side for sushi, you can tell you’re paying for quality.

Here’s what was ordered:

Sushi #8 with whatever is fresh that day:

Sushi-tsuki: tuna, salmon, white fish, yellow tail, crab, shrimp + California roll, cucumber roll + spicy salmon hand roll

I also have an addiction to unagi so I got the Dragon roll (shrimp, tempura bits, avocado, cucumber + eel & avocado on top):

All items were excellent, but the hamachi (yellow tail) definitely stood out as a favourite. It’s the type of fish that will melt in your mouth and even won the heart of R. This place is on my favourites list and I’ll definitely be frequenting it more often.

Sushi 930
930 King Street West
Toronto, ON
www.sushi930.com

The Pie and Pastry Bible is book #2 for week 2 of my reviews. I’m a huge fan of Rose Levy Beranbaum and I practically have her entire book collection. As with her other “bibles”, this is a huge book with over 300 recipes. There is an entire chapter just on crusts. What I like most about Beranbaum’s books is that weights are listed along with the volume measurement. Weights are much more accurate as 1 cup of flour can be anywhere from 4-6 ounces — a difference that can make something dry instead of moist.

Instructions in this book are very explicit and the tone is very methodical. It seems people either love or hate this tone. The instructions can get wordy and this is sometimes confusing. I have to admit I don’t like her method for making pie crusts. She has you put all the ingredients in a big ziplock bag and use that to knead everything. I’d rather much feel the dough under my hands. The bag is there to prevent stickiness and you can use food safe gloves instead. The resulting dough is really easy to roll out and shape. Her favourite crust is the cream cheese crust, but my favourite crust in her book is the deluxe flaky one. Very flaky and tender.

I’ve made several items from the book and they have all been tasty. Noteworthy ones are the pumpkin pie, peach pie, and the cheddar cheese crust is amazing. One possible drawback is that a lot of these recipes are lengthy and usually complicated. The results are worth the labour in my opinion, but if you’re looking for a quick and easy book, this is not for you.

Overall, if you’re looking to perfect your pastry and pie making skills, this is the book that should be on your shelf. While my pies won’t win any beauty pageants any time soon, they are pretty darn tasty.

I finally made my way to Fiesta Farms and spotted Meyer lemons. I’ve only heard about these guys from food blogs. Meyer lemons are supposed to be sweeter, it’s a cross between an orange and a lemon.

Lemon meringue pie was destined to be.

Lemon meringue is probably one of my most favourite kind of pie. I may even like it better than pumpkin. It’s the meringue piled high and when it’s toasted, the crunch and lightness that you get in your mouth that I love. I even like the slight tartness of a lemon, it balances the sweetness of the meringue.

I’m terrible at making pies look pretty. I roll out the pie dough that’s never quite circular in shape and my fluting is pitiful. It’s all about practice I guess, but maybe I should give up and make tarts instead?

I rolled out the pie dough too thin so to get a piece you grab a spoon and scoop it out onto a plate. To make matters worse, I left my Italian meringue unattended while I was whipping it and didn’t turn out quite right. Despite appearances, it’s a very smooth filling and isn’t too tart. I’d prefer it to be more tart, so I’ll use less sugar if I make it with Meyer lemons. The meringue is very light and it isn’t the usual overly sweet meringue.

I’d like to try this recipe again — it’d be nice to have a pie you could cut and serve instead of scooping it out.

On Sunday I had the opportunity to participate in a charity bake off. The theme was Escape from Toronto and I decided that my escape would be to Paris since it was my most recent trip. One of my favourite things in Paris was the salted butter caramel — even R was fond of it! I settled on lavender French butter cookies with a salted butter caramel buttercream. I never actually had this combo in Paris, but to see if lavender and caramel would work I googled it and found an Alice Medrich recipe for a lavender caramel sauce so my pairing wasn’t too out there. For the cookie, I used a recipe from Poilane as a base and decided to switch it up. I think this is my first cookie I’ve “created”.

I did a test run and while the lavender cookies only needed some very small tweaking, I ruined many batches of caramel before getting it right. I used the dry method of making caramel where no water is added. It’s best to not have the heat on too high or you’ll burn it. Be patient and let the caramel work its magic.

I’d still like to tweak the salted butter caramel recipe a little bit. I’d like the filling to be a bit more stiff so it doesn’t squish right out of the cookie.

There were so many delicious things at the bake off and I wish I could have tried more, but my stomach had problems coping with that much sugar.

At the bake off my sister’s friends were there, one whom I haven’t seen since my sister was in high school (so I was maybe 10 years old at the time?). They brought these amazing patties which was such a nice change from all the sweets in the room. I could have eaten 5 of these. And I will as the recipe is posted
Sugar Baking cupcakes — Ferrero Rocher and Pina Colada

Amazing bacon blondies. I have always stood firm that blondies weren’t my thing, they are just too sweet. The saltiness of the bacon helps offset that. Recipe here

Cake or Death’s amazing St. Lawrence Market cake!

And of course, the recipe for the cookies:

Lavender French butter cookies with salted butter caramel buttercream (makes 24 2″ cookies)

190g of butter (13.5 Tablespoons) softened
50g (1/4 cup) of sugar granulated
50g (1/4 cup) of sugar superfine (I just ran it through a food processor)
1 teaspoon of lavender syrup (you can omit and add more lavender or make your own lavender simple syrup)
1.5 teaspoons of lavender, ground
1 large egg
2 (284 grams) cups of flour

Beat butter until smooth on low. Add sugar and blend into butter. Add egg and syrup.
Add flour and mix until it just incorporated. Add lavender and mix.
Divide dough in half and shape into a disk. Chill until firm.
Roll out dough on lightly floured surface 1/4”. Cut out shapes and bake at 350F for 10-11 mins.

Salted butter caramel butter cream recipe (slightly adapted from here).

The instructions on how to make caramel using the dry method that saved my sanity here.

200g Sugar

330g Whipping Cream (this is my translation the original recipe calls for Creme Fraiche Liquide)

30g Unsalted Butter + 140g Softened Unsalted Butter

3/4 Teaspoon fleur de sel

Make the Caramel

1. Add about 50g of sugar to a saucepan, let this melt then add another 50g sugar and let this melt. Continue three times until all 200g of sugar has been incorporated and melted (can anyone tell me why its done in this way I have never heard of making caramel this way).

2. Let the syrup caramelize until it has turned a very dark amber. I let mine go very dark, but if you want a sweeter caramel, remove it from the heat earlier. And unless you want 3rd degree burns in your mouth, don’t try the caramel. It’s hot! Remove from the heat and add the 30g butter. Add the cream which will spatter and bubble and may seize up and harden but will melt in the next stage.

3. Put the pan back on the heat and cook until it reaches 108C on a candy thermometer. Pour into a dish and cover with plastic wrap to avoid it developing a skin. Let this cool, until about room temperature.

4. Beat the remaining butter for 8 to 10 minutes and then incorporate the caramel in 2 additions. Add salt and mix until blended in.

I had a very nice woman come up to me later in the night who let me know that she liked my cookies and was surprised at the flavour. This made me happy to hear my cookies weren’t too crazy OR too boring.

Also much thanks to Sarah who mentioned my cookies in her post. She did a fabulous write up of the event! BlogTO also did a write up here

Since using Twitter, I’ve started to meet some neat people and I’m even going to be doing a charity bake off event which I never thought I’d ever be doing. If you live in Toronto, please check it out. The theme is escape from Toronto and I’ll be whisking everyone off to Paris!

Anyway, I digress.

A while back I commented that the cookies Catherine from Sugar Baking was making sounded good. Fast forward to yesterday where she offered to drop off some cookies for me. Who can say no to free cookies? It was nice to be on the receiving end as I’m usually the one doing the giving. It was so nice to finally meet her, she’s just so darn nice and so talented. I was surprised to hear that she reads this blog because I still think it’s just 3 of my friends who read this.

I was lucky enough to get Toffee Pecan — 2 of my favourite flavours:

This is an awesome cookie! It’s soft and chewy just how I like my cookies. These are definitely not those rock hard store bought cookies that have a weird aftertaste to it. She also doesn’t skimp on the ingredients so there’s always pecans and tons of toffee studded throughout. I gave R a bite of the cookie and his eyes widened and that was my cue to run away so I could have the cookie all to myself.

If you’re looking for cookies, cupcakes, or cakes please check her out! Thanks again Catherine for these scrumptious cookies!

I’ve been meaning to write a review about this place when I tried it out a year ago. Seeing as R’s birthday dinner was here, I should resurrect this post.

Rodney’s Oyster House is a great place to go if you’re a seafood lover. Specifically oysters and lobsters (they also have an awesome steamed mussels dish). The knowledge the staff has about the wines and food here is incredible. The server we had was so informative and helpful. He went over the taste of different oysters, the traditional way of eating them, and even chose a few beginner oysters for those who have never tried them before. Next time I’m back there I’ll have them pick out what’s best that day. I don’t think you can go wrong with any of them.

What I really like about this place is that half sharing is ok so you don’t need to mow down a whole lobster to yourself (although I’m sure I could be persuaded to). This can make dining here relatively affordable. At $34.50 for a pound and a half of lobster, that’s $17.25 per dish which also comes with a side of fries. With the oysters we ordered, it was a satisfying meal.

I wish I took pictures, but I forgot to bring a camera which would have gotten dirty anyway as eating lobster is a messy job.

I’ve been wanting to get these lights ever since I read about them on the Steamy Kitchen website. I don’t have much natural light in my unit. I’ve been shooting outside to get the best pics, but it’s getting too cold to go outside. I finally bit the bullet and bought Lowel EGO lights from Vistek. When I went to Paris for my honeymoon we rented a lens from Vistek and they were super about not charging us an extra day because our flight was delayed and couldn’t make it back in time. Great customer service. I used them again to get the lights and some other things. When I found out they price matched, I saw the items I had just bought were much cheaper at a competitor. So when I inquired about the price match I was treated in a very unprofessional manner. In the end, it took the power of Twitter and some very helpful individuals to rectify the situation. I believe Vistek is the only place in Toronto that sells these lights. B&H has them for much cheaper, but once you factor in shipping, tax, and customs they are about the same price as Vistek. So B&H is probably the better deal if you have other big items you need to buy. I only have one light as they don’t sell the kit with 2 lights that B&H has (another con for Vistek).

Putting the lights together was a bit tricky. The plastic flaps that you’re supposed to fold down are very rigid and I was worried about cracking them if I was too forceful. I talked to Jaden from Steamy Kitchen about it and she had no problems at all. So maybe it was just my kit.

I also bought the sweep which comes with construction paper in a variety of colours. I don’t think I’ll be getting much use out of the papers, but the sweep makes for a good background and as an extra reflector. Much needed for me with my only ego light and dismal indoor lighting.

Here are some test shots.

The most delicious caramels I got from France that I haven’t posted about.

One of the rare times I will use the paper that comes with the sweep.

I still need to fiddle around with the lighting set up as sometimes my photos look blown out from the lighting. I’m wondering if I need a lens that has more zoom so that it’s not too close to the lights.

These lights are great for me because I’m also a night owl. Procrastination may have something to do with that, but for some reason I work better at night. This means a lot of the time my baking starts late at night (around 10pm or so). Many of my pictures need to be taken the next day, but with these lights I can finally start taking some night shots. I can also start taking more dinner photos too if I knew how to make them look more appetizing.

Here are some other food photography sites that I found helpful:

Pioneer Woman Photography a lot of good basics material. I just learned how to change the aperture from this site.

Make a macro photo studio for $10
Food portfolio. Tons of info here on food photography.
VeganYumYum Food photography for bloggers.
Jaden’s review of Lowel EGO lights

And while we’re on the subject of photography I am addicted to Photoshop actions. I will usually run my images using the Pioneer Woman’s action set.

Look at the difference it makes:

The colours pop out much more. I like using the boost and quick edge burn for my food photos.

You can download the action sets here.

If you’re looking for a free photo editing program that’s super easy Picasa is awesome. R uses it a ton even though he’s a PhotoShop wizard because it’s so much easier.

These lights are a great investment for a hobbyist. It’s pretty inexpensive and gives great results. Because my lighting is so dark I think 2 would work much better and will probably purchase another one in the future.

On Twitter I saw a tweet about a Toronto cupcake meetup at The Drake Hotel that Cupcakes Take The Cake was throwing. I immediately sent an e-mail to rsvp. Then I remembered how shy I am. Was this a good idea?

I overcame my shyness (maybe all that sugar helped?) and had an absolute blast! Everyone there was super nice and friendly and I got to meet Juanita from Sweet Things, someone whose blog and twitter I follow. Juanita brought the cutest cupcakes

We We got to sample 4 different flavours: vanilla with a homemade marshmallow, coconut, pistachio cupcake with lavender frosting, and a chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting and edible gold leaf sprinkled on top.

It was interesting to hear everyone’s opinions on the cupcakes. A majority of people liked the vanilla cupcake, but I thought it was too sweet for my tastes. My favourite of the bunch was the coconut cupcake. This was surprising for me as it was the one I least wanted to try. I’m not a big fan of coconut at all, other than coconut cream pie. This cupcake tasted like coconut cream pie! It had a huge pile of coconut frosting bathed with shredded coconut and hidden in the cupcake was a custard filling. Delicious! The chocolate cupcake would be good for a lover of dark bitter chocolate. It was incredibly rich and the frosting looked like a sour cream chocolate ganache. The pistachio and lavender one was my second favourite out of the bunch.

Before I didn’t know what the appeal was with cupcakes, but I get it now. For me it’s like a mini cake where you can try different flavours in bite sized amounts. If you’re ordering a cupcake, you don’t have to commit to ordering an entire cake.

Big thanks to Cupcakes Take the Cake for setting this up. It was awesome meeting Rachel and everyone who was there!

Sunday was filled with GREAT food. I don’t think I’ve eaten so much in one day!

I’ve been dying to go to The Boiler House for brunch. It has live jazz and I hoped the food could compare to what we had at our wedding. It was a buffet so I knew that would be asking for a lot. I wasn’t disappointed in brunch at all, the roast beef was medium rare, the bacon was crisp, and the eggs benedict was so good the first time around that I had to grab another one. It even had the runny yolk which I love. I had to make room for dessert and had a lemon curd tart and some pain au chocolat. I wish I had room for the chocolate tart and pecan pie. I didn’t even get to try the omelet station. For $25, it was an excellent meal. I ended up ordering a mimosa which was $10! I hope they used real champagne at that price.

Definitely worth visiting again. I’d also like to visit the Hot House again. I haven’t been there in ages and they have a waffle station. Mmm…

I also had dinner with my parents and I was supposed to make a meal. It was to go with the crabs they were going to bring over and cook. I was relieved when they brought enough crabs that I didn’t have to make dinner.

I have had a serious craving for crab lately. Me being too gutless to kill them myself, I made my parents show me how it’s done so I could eat fresh crab and not have to do any of the work.

Avert your eyes from the rest of the article if me talking about killing live crabs is bothersome.

How to cook crab

I’m sure there’s a ton of ways in cooking this crustacean, but here’s how my dad did it:

- Choose live crabs. Pick lively ones and never pick dead ones. My parents advise to never buy frozen uncooked crab because you can never be too sure how long they’ve been dead for.

- Fill the sink with cold water and dump the crabs in.

- Steam the crabs. This is easier if you have a steamer, but if you don’t like me just take a large pot and put a small amount of water in it. You don’t want to fill the pot halfway and boil the crabs, just add enough water to get some good steam. Really salt the water. Let the water come to a boil then throw the crabs in. Make sure the crabs are upside down. My dad explained why and now I’ve forgotten. Put lid on and watch out for angry crabs trying to escape. I screamed and ran out of the kitchen while my dad threw in the crabs and put the lid on it. But really, it wasn’t that bad. I’m better prepared for when I actually do cook them next time.

- Crabs cook quickly. They’re done when it’s orange/a deep red.

- Drain crabs.

At this point the crabs are hot and you’ll want them to cool down for a bit. I grew up eating crabs plain with rice. I still think this is a delicious way of having them. The rice sops up the juices of the crab.

Or, just pick the crab meat out and use them in a dish that requires it.

Notes:
- If the crab or part of it (such as the leg) smells funny, like a fishy kind of smell, it’s bad. Do not eat it.
- There’s white crab meat and brown crab meat. The brown crab meat is found at the top of the cavity. It’s that brown gooey stuff. Some people don’t like it because it’s rich and strong tasting, but I love it. This is what goes so well with rice. It would also add a bunch of flavour to any soup/stock.

I finally got a chance to go to Anthropologie (the downtown Toronto location opened a few months ago) and I fell in love with their housewares.

The housewares ranged from simple and pretty to retro kitsch. While I do appreciate kitsch, I’m hesitant about putting down money on something that I might tire of quickly.

Here are a few items I’m particularly fond of:

I bought a clear butter dish because I thought it’d look all pretty on display. Instead it gets greasy butter smeared all over the inside for everyone to see. I love how this butterdish is simple and delicate looking. It’s also a bit smaller than the one I have now which is great as I don’t have a lot of countertop space. Definitely picking this one up.

If only I drank coffee or took milk and sugar in my tea or held frequent gatherings/tea parties this would be mine.

Paris has been on my mind lately and I’ve been seeing many French inspired things. I love the entire Fleur de Lys line Anthropologie has. This pitcher has an Old World feel to it. I love the elegance.

The ruffled edging is very dainty and cute on these plates. I’m surprised I like these so much as it’s not usually my style. I think when I had afternoon tea at MoRoCo, it changed my views on what I considered before as “old lady-like” as something that’s pretty and delicate.

It was scorching hot awhile ago and with the day being so hectic (the wedding was days away) I suggested to go out for dinner at Fresh. Fresh is a vegetarian restaurant and they are really known for their juices and smoothies. I’ve only been there three times and it’s a good place to go if you’re looking for something tasty, healthy, and a casual environment.

Whenever I go, I always have a shake. If you go, you should too. Their beverage selection is very extensive and there’s bound to be something that catches your eye. The shakes start at $6 for 16 ounces and when I pair it with just a main I always have to take home leftovers. I appreciate that it comes in a compostable take out container. I don’t have a favourite shake because I always try something different. The Shamrock shake tastes minty and fresh, Blueberry Thrills hits the spot when you want a simple shake, and the Date Almond which Movie Man says it tastes like a pureed muffin.

I had the Magic Tofu wrap which had crispy tofu with tomato, lettuce, cucumber, red onion, alfalfa sprouts, grated carrot, and mayo (vegan) ($9). I find their portions big so I knew I’d be taking half of it home with me. That makes it pretty affordable to eat healthy. Smaller portions of some of their fresh bowls are also available. Movie Man had the Thai burger which he liked better than the Miso burger and our neighbour got the Black Bean Burrito which also got the thumbs up.

Their desserts are from Sweets from the Earth. We were all too full to have dessert, but I’ve had a couple of things from that company and they have all been very tasty in the foodie sense, not the “tasty for vegan food” label that people will sometimes put on foods that don’t quite match up to their omnivore standards.

The owner of Fresh, Ruth Tal has written a few cookbooks. My friend showed me one of her books and at that time I wasn’t too interested in it (I never visited the restaurant before), but now after having a few meals and their smoothies, I think I will pick up a copy. Especially since we’ll have a shiny new blender soon.