One of my all-time comfort food favorites is the grilled cheese sandwich. No surprise there. This is my second post on that heavy-sitting delicacy. One of the three cheeses here is my own, a homemade goat cheese. Cheese is easier to make than you'd think. You should check it out. The other cheeses are the cheddar and parmesan leftover from my Pinwheel Loaf. Let's hope that one day I am making all my own cheeses. For now, one at a time. The whole wheat bread is also homemade and I'll probably post the recipe here because the results are well worth it -- depth of flavor and a nice crust.
Instead of using pine nuts in the pesto, which come most often from the far end of the world, I used sunflower seeds. They're just as good, cheaper, and they grow closer to home. Use any herbs that are available; pesto is also good with parsley, chervil, and even chives.
Enjoy!
Simple Pesto
• 1 cup fresh herbs of your choice • 3 tablespoons sunflower seeds • 3-4 tablespoons sunflower or olive oil • salt + ground black pepper
In a food processor, grind the nuts coarsely for crunchy pesto or finely for smooth. Add the herbs and half of the oil. Whizz until just blended, then add more oil to desired consistency. Taste and season with salt and pepper.
Grilled Pesto and Triple Cheese Sandwich
• 2 slices of bread • couple slices of aged cheddar • small handful parmesan, grated • small handful goat cheese • 2 tablespoons butter
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Melt 1 tablespoon of butter in a pan. Butter each slice of bread. Put one slice in the pan, drizzle with pesto, then add the cheeses and drizzle again with pesto. Top with the other slice of bread, flip and grill until golden brown. Transfer the sandwich to a baking pan and put in the oven for 5 minutes or until the cheese is melting. Eat.
This idea came from my girlfriend, whose mother used to make pinwheel loaves with pepperoni. What gives mine a sharp, salty flavor is the cheese; a mix of strong cheddar and aged parmesan. This is perfect as an appetizer, cut on a board into 1" slices, or for lunch with a crispy salad. I used King Oyster mushrooms because of their meaty texture and taste, but you could use any kind. I can't wait to go foraging for mushrooms this summer. Then I'll be making mushroom pinwheels and other recipes with chanterelles, king boletes, and shaggy manes.
Enjoy!
I recently met the folks from Prince Edward Distillery, as we shared an exhibitor's table at a Sydney food show. They were really friendly and fun to be around. They also make very tasty gin. I bought a couple of bottles, and soon came up with the perfect summer nerve-soother. Boosted iced tea.
Another herb growing back from last year's garden is chervil. I use Chervil to give a dose of light liquorice flavor to poultry and fish. For this recipe, I paired it with trout and added another one of my favorite ingredients, mustard. I kept it simple. The sauce takes only a few minutes to throw together and the fish takes ten minutes to cook.
A short note on overcooking salmon or trout: don't. Fish are much better on the medium-rare side. When overcooked they tend to dry out and lose a lot of flavor. The same rule applies to meats also. Less juice, less taste.
I had steelhead trout, but rainbow or speckled will do just fine. For a side, I sautéed mustard greens to give the mustard back its leaves.
Raw oysters on the half shell are quite the thing, but I also relish mine cooked. For this recipe, I filled the opened shells with chive butter (chives were the first to come up in the garden) and aïoli. The aïoli once heated becomes something between a holandaise and a creamy cheese. But you can also skip the baking and serve the oysters raw with the same ingredients. Either way, the flavours are terrific, so it's up to you!
Fresh bread gets people excited before a meal, especially when they know it was made from scratch. Here is a recipe for quick bread that's very similar to the one I use for flatbreads and pizza doughs. When making buns, the important thing is to let your dough rise properly; only that creates the soft, moist texture we all want in a bun. Sugar is added to give the bread that definitive "roll" taste.
While everything is out of the cupboard, you might want to make a couple of extra batches. Freeze them just after they've cooled, and next time all you will have to do is pop them into a hot oven for 5 minutes.
The peppery flavor of watercress and its juicy leaves are terrific in pesto. Think peppery, lemony, garlicy goodness together with toasted nuts and punchy parmesan. If you want a quick, crowd-pleasing appetizer or a spread for that grilled tomato sandwich, give watercress pesto a try. You even have the option of drizzling some with added oil on your meat or fish. Pesto is versatile, and since the greens and the garlic remain uncooked, it's also very healthy.
Enjoy!
Yields about 3 cups
Soup days are not over here on Cape Breton Island. We've had a week of rainy-windy weather, interrupted here and there by brief periods of sun. Cook-outs are just around the corner, but there's no rush. Just fill me up another bowl of that watercress soup. You can eat watercress raw as a salad leaf, or you can cook it. I made a soup with watercress and some roasted potatoes. I roasted the potatoes with herbs simply to give them (and the soup) a greater depth of flavor. You could also use any form of leftover potatoes--a rare sort, but hey, that's us.
To make a good soup you need a good stock. That said, I really encourage you to 
In the same vein as my other salads, it's simple, because I think salads are better left alone. I usually add just a few selected seasonings to give them a boost. Here the sweetness of the honey and the toasty cumin seeds take care of that. If you want a quick and filling lunch, just toss all the ingredients together and serve the salad on a couple of crispy leaves or greens.
Since this salad is mostly beans, it's a great source of fibre and protein. Worry not, it's very good. Even if you're not into the beans, give this combo a try. It might change your mind. You can also make this salad with chickpeas, red kidney, or any other bean really.
We drove down to Halifax this weekend for the Taste of Nova Scotia Cutting Edge Chef Competition, a part of the Saltscapes Expo. What was I expecting to find? A lot of people, great food and wine, and a chance to cook. Ten chefs from around Nova Scotia were competing in the event. Each of us was given a black box containing secret ingredients, and we had 45 minutes to make something awesome. Well, everything went pretty well--yesterday I found out that I won!
A couple of people asked me for the recipe of the slaw that I made during the competition, so here it is. Enjoy!
I made a feast for Easter. We ate garlic-parmesan potatoes, honey-whiskey carrots, barbecue-grilled veggies, homemade bread, a fall-apart leg of lamb, and a couple of salads. I barbecued the lamb on very high heat, mainly to brown the surfaces but also to give it a smoky taste. I did this a day in advance, and I would recommend giving yourself a similar head start. If you're the last minute type, just start early morning on serving day. The size of the leg does not really matter, but you'll have to reduce the cooking time a bit if you don't have a whole leg to, say, 6-7 hours. You'll know it's finished when it comes straight off the bone.
You can use this 
I love toast for lunch. It takes under 10 minutes to make and you can top it with any satisfying combination of handy ingredients. Choose your flavors; anything you have in mind will probably work if you don't over do it. For this toast, I went with garlicky chards, oyster mushrooms, and parmesan. You can also substitute the chard for spinach and the oyster for a different mushroom.
I can't wait to make toast with chanterelles this summer...
It's maple syrup season. Time to enjoy some local sweetness. Time to get sappy by surprising your loved ones with turnovers for dessert--or breakfast.
It's also time to make more of your own pastry. Practice makes better! I usually make my dough/pastry a day in advance, refrigerate it, and then take it out an hour before using. Also, prepare your sauce while the turnovers are in the oven. You'll have just enough time.
Enjoy!
Yields 8 turnovers
While food shopping, I came across some quality chicken livers perfect for making pâté.What's nice about this kind of recipe is that you can experiment with it; swap the port for a different liquid or switch the thyme for another herb or spice. Don`t be scared. Making pâté is easier than it looks, and it can be done in under 30 minutes*.
Enjoy it with crackers, on toasted bread, or in a sandwich.
Mussels are probably my all-time favorite seafood. I like to eat them on their own, a bowlful, still steaming, with lots of broth. Cooking mussels is quick, easy, and best done outside in the sunshine, with a cold beer; in our case - Clancy's.
We wanted lemon cookies, so I took my great-grandma's "mabelle" cookie recipe and added lemon. While at it, I rolled them in ground almonds before baking. The result is a soft but zesty cookie.
I also included a variation with a maple-almond filling.
Mustard (a blend of mustard seeds, vinegar, and spices) is what we use to crank up the acidity in our food; to send our tastebuds into hyperdrive. In this recipe I spread some old-fashioned mustard (the kind with whole seeds) on a flatbread, top it with asparagus and gouda cheese, and crisp it in the oven. Now that's some quality pub grub, to be enjoyed with drinks among friends.
Okay, it's really important to use good mustard. We use and I recommend "Pommery - Moutarde de Meaux." It's a bit pricey but worth every penny. Any good old-fashioned mustard will do, though.
This first recipe makes one killer appetizer while the second goes well with any breakfast. They are both really simple; two ingredients apiece, both grated, squeezed of excess water, and fried in a pan. The ratio is half potatoes, half whatever other vegetable. I made some with zucchini and some others with butternut squash. Feel free to experiment with anything you have in your own veg box and to size your cakes according to your own meal plan. Both of these recipes will make around 8 large or 16 small cakes. Cook for 6 minutes on each side for larger cakes and 4 minutes on each side for smaller ones. For an extra punch throw together a lemon-dill yogurt sauce, which, just so you know, also tastes great with fish.
Serves 4-6
Here's another satisfying soup that's quick, easy, and inexpensive to make. I topped the chowder with croutons and cheese the same way you would an onion soup, but if you're too pressed for time or too exhausted to bother, the chowder alone is tasty and filling enough to cover for you.
This started out as a four-part post, but lobsters just keep giving. So here's another classic - Lobster Bisque.
Bisque is the best way to savour every last scrap of your fruits de mer. A lobster's casing is full of flavour. You know what they say - waste not, want not. Next time you prepare crustaceans, remember to put a bisque on the menu too.
