First course: Soupe à L’Oignon (French Onion Soup)
Caramelized onions swim in a twist on the traditional poule-au-pot soup, with swiss cheese on the bottom, and parmesan cheese and soaked bread on top.

Second course: Salade de Trinité (Trinity Salad)
Good things come in threes, and everything about this salad is good. Smoked salmon sits atop a bed of zucchini, corn, and onions, that can be enjoyed with three different yet harmonious sauces: teriyaki, garlic and mayo, and pineapple sauce with a kick.

Third course: Magret de Canard aux Pommes Rissolées (Duck Breast with Golden Potatoes)
Orange-infused duck breast with a sizzling crisp skin is bathed in a Bordeaux wine reduction with raisins and caramelized onions. On the side, golden potatoes in herbes de Provence.

Fourth course: Fraises au Chocolat et Truffes (Chocolate-covered strawberries and Truffles)
Orange-dark chocolate covered strawberries alongside raspberry-mint truffles dusted in cocoa.

The starters were enjoyed with a Gewurtzraminer from Isreal, while the main was accompanied by a rich red from Catalan, and dessert was served with a young Riesling. The entire meal was enjoyed with rays from the setting sun streaming in the large open windows of the salon of our Paris apartment with views of the Eiffel Tower.

The recipe I used for the duck breast was adapted from this one: French Countryside Duck Breast.
The modifications I made were to add the OJ directly to the duck breast. I changed the sauce quite a bit because the vinegar made it too sour, so I poured in more poule-au-pot stock and added onions and raisins.

The recipe I used for the potatoes was similar to this this one: Pommes Rissolées (French Browned Potatoes).
The only difference is that instead of using all those spices, I just used herbes de Provence, which is still very traditional.

The brunch consisted of muffins, breakfast squares, pancakes, bacon, and pastries, as well as orange juice (with or without champagne¹).

Everything was made with loving care and of course, from scratch.

These breakfast squares had a layer of homemade cranberry jam, topped with baked brown sugar and egg whites. The top layer was especially good, the brown sugar definitely came through.

The muffins were made from a pumpkin base, so they were a lot less sweet than the cranberry-brown sugar breakfast squares.

Homemade pancakes with blackberry compote (or maple syrup) and strips of bacon came out piping hot. The pancakes were light but held their form well.

To note in this picture:

• Someone will always stop at Tim Hortons before breakfast, because we. are. Canadian.
• Someone will always pull their Blackberry out and put it on the table, because we. are. business students.
• Homemade whipped cream. Also, I forgot to take a picture of the quince pastries but they were probably the most delicious of all (and probably took the most time to make because, let’s face it, homemade pastries are a bitch.)
• I was apparently the only one who deemed it appropriate to drink champagne at 10 in the morning, but with good food and good company, I had a lot to celebrate.

All in all, a huge success! I think my foodie circle is widening. Woohoo!

1. Although for me, it was more like “champagne, with or without orange juice.”

• Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, based on her mother’s coworker’s friend’s secret recipe
• Caramel custard with whipped cream, based on the recipe from Classic Stars Desserts by Emily Luchetti
• Banana napoleons with warm caramel walnut sauce, based on the recipe from Classic Stars Desserts by Emily Luchetti

The banana napoleons were the most successful and the most delicious, but also by far the most time-consuming. We made everything from scratch, without realizing how tediously long it takes to turn a ball of butter, flour, and salt into a light, airy puff pastry. Luckily, we started working on the puff pastry first, so by the time we were finished preparing the cookies and custard, the puff pastries were almost ready¹.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the caramel custard recipe online, nor am I allowed to share the chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe on pain of death, so I will walk through the process of the napoleon recipe, and you can see the full recipe here. My version is basically written in layman’s terms (or how I would describe the process) because the steps written in the book are slightly confusing.

Making the Puff Pastry
If you’re planning on making your puff pastry, make sure you have plenty of time and plenty of patience. It takes up to four hours to make, because every time it is folded, it has to be refrigerated for an hour. To make it worth your while, I suggest making a large batch and freezing what you don’t use. Or, just buy frozen puff pastry from your local supermarket.

1. Cut up the butter into small pieces. The book says to cut them into 1/4 in cubes, but it doesn’t have to be that precise. The point is to break up the block of butter without melting it.
2. Work the butter into the flour. It’ll be clumpy and messy, but don’t worry. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
3. Make the dough into a mound and form a well in the centre. Pour the water into the centre, then work it into the dough.
4. Pat the dough down to about 1 1/4 in thick (6 x 8 in rectangle). Wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
5. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 7-by-16-inch rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. You may have to flour the surface of the dough so the rolling pin doesn’t stick.
6. With a short side of the rectangle facing you, fold the dough as you would a business letter: Fold down the top two-thirds toward you and then fold the bottom third over the top.
7. Give the dough a quarter turn so that the open seam is on your right and the closed seam is on your left. Repeat the rolling and folding process. Wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 two times, refrigerating for 1 hour after each time.
9. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the puff pastry into a 16-by- 9-inch rectangle about 1/16 inch thick (basically, as thin as you can).
10. With the tines of a fork, make holes (about 1/8 inch apart) all over the puff pastry.
11. Using a sharp knife, cut the puff pastry into twelve 4-by-3-inch rectangles. Place the pastry rectangles on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart. Place the baking sheets in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
12. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Bake the puff pastry rectangles until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets to room temperature.

Making the Caramel Walnut Sauce

1. In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Stir in the brown and granulated sugars and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugars are melted, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the cream and vanilla and continue to cook until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. If the sauce doesn’t thicken, it may just because the heat is too high. After taking it off the heat, it’ll thicken as it cools, so don’t worry.
3. Remove from the heat and let cool. Stir in the walnuts. If you don’t want the walnuts to soften, you can wait to stir in the walnuts right before serving, or sprinkle the walnuts over the napoleon separately and add the caramel sauce on top.

Making the Chantilly Cream
Chantilly cream is just fancy whipped cream basically. Being the lazy chef that I am, I really don’t see the need to make your own whipped cream for this recipe, because it is only a topping. Just get some store-bought whipped cream, mix it with the amount of vanilla extract and sugar called for in the recipe, and you’re done!

The rest of the recipe is simply to combine the elements. Our puff pastries were too thick, so we just topped one with the other elements, instead of making it into a sandwich. Either way, it tastes amazing!

Other notes: This would also go really well with vanilla ice cream, and feel free to add some berries to give it some colour. You can also substitute caramel sauce with chocolate fudge sauce, especially if you’re using ice cream.

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1. Actually, I lied. They weren’t ready at all, not according to Ms. Luchetti’s recipe. But we decided to skip one, or two, hours of waiting.

So the other day, I was to make something to show off my culinary skills to these professors that I was having a meeting with. I immediately thought of the unused muffin mix in my pantry, and volunteered to bring muffins to the meeting. But I’d never actually made muffins before (tiny little secret), so I was a little bit anxious as to how they’d turn out.
The mix was for a standard muffin with blueberry filling. The filling was the tricky part, since it was heavier than the muffin mix and would start to sink when I put it in the half-filled muffin cup. In the end, they turned out rather perfectly, worthy of being presented by the SassyChef.

Whenever I stay with my parents, I become the head chef. For the most part, I make all the meals, and even though my dad still sometimes helps, he’s more of a sous chef. My dad, by the way, is an awesome cook. He’s never had any training, he’s never read any recipe books, he just has a knack for it. Maybe that’s why cooking comes naturally to me, too. But the weird thing is, he has yet to impart any of his cooking knowledge to me. I developed my cooking skills almost entirely independent of him, and it’s only when I occasionally come back and cook that he can comment on certain aspects, like how hot the pot is or how I should slice the veggies. To the extent that we use the same ingredients (since I am working from his pantry¹), the flavour of our dishes are similar. But “my taste” is still rather distinctive from his. I don’t like using salt, I never use MSG or any artificial substitute if I can help it (i.e. onion powder, garlic powder, stocks), I try to use a minimal amount of soy sauce, and I usually add sugar in a lot of my soy sauce dishes. I like using fish and oyster sauce, and I’m impartial to ginger (which he almost always adds). Of course, ginger is an important ingredient, especially in meat dishes, but I only use it when I have to, and in trace amounts.

All this culminated in a week-long marathon of “healthy” dishes (by his standard, not mine), such as:

• Spicy eggplant
• String beans and garlic
• Pork loin, bell peppers, and onion
• Pork loin, celery, and onion with marinated firm tofu

I’m going to post the recipe for pork, bell peppers, and onion because it was my most creative one (you’ll know why once you see the recipe), but I have some hints and tips for the other dishes. Unfortunately, there are no pictures, so I’ll just be using the closest ones I can find on the Internet.

Pork and Veggies

Ingredients:
1lb pork loin
2 tsp cornstarch
1 tsp five spice powder
1 tsp cumin powder
1 tsp ground peppercorn
1-2 tbsp vegetable oil
2 small green peppers, or 1 big one, cut into chunks
1/2 small onion, cut into chunks
2 tsp cooking wine
2 tbsp soy sauce
3 slices of orange

Instructions:

1. Slice the pork loins thinly and mix with cornstarch, five spice powder, cumin powder, and ground peppercorn.
2. Heat up the wok with the oil until it’s nice and hot, then add the pork. Add the cooking wine and stir quickly, separating the pieces.
3. Add the green peppers, onion, and soy sauce. Continuing stir-frying. At this point, you may want to add a couple more pieces of peppercorn. You can also grind in some orange rind for a more tangy flavour.
4. Remove from heat and squeeze in two slices of orange juice. Serve hot.

See? Very easy and delicious. And the orange juice adds a subtle tang and also gives it a refreshing aroma. Really yummy!

Now for the other dishes…

Spicy Eggplant

I’ve made Szechuan eggplant in the past, but I don’t quite remember the recipe for it, so I made my own spicy eggplant dish off the top of my head with the ingredients at hand. Now you can probably find plenty of spicy eggplant recipes online, but here are some tips to keep in mind when you make this dish:

• Eggplant tends to get mushy quite easily if you’re not careful, and when you have a cubed eggplant dish, you do not want it to get mushy. The solution? Salt the cubes before you cook them, letting the water escape. Also, make sure the wok and the oil are extremely hot before you put the eggplant in. Once they’re in, try not to stir them too much, just shake the pan to toss.
• This dish will not come out well if you don’t use enough oil! You need hot oil and you need lots of it. I usually find I have to add oil part way through cooking. DO NOT ADD WATER. If you try to steam the eggplant, it will become mushy. If you don’t feel it’s cooked enough, just add more oil and keep tossing on high heat!
• Tastes great with lots of garlic, hot chillies, and hot chili oil. Garnish with scallions before serving.

String Beans

This advice is kind of generalized for many green veggie stir-fries.

• Start off with ample oil and wait for it to heat up before putting in the veggies.
• Add salt and garlic.
• If you want the veggies to be cooked longer (softer), add chicken/vegetable stock instead of water for great flavour (especially for veggies with skin, such as this)
• For bok choy or cabbage, instead of stock, use water and sugar to enhance the flavour

Remember, the effect of MSG can be easily mimicked with a combination of salt and sugar!

1. But then again, most ingredients are typical of Asian dishes anyway.

I made the omelet with one large egg and 3 egg whites, and used two slices of chicken ham. Very simple, and very delicious!
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Now it must be noted that Ma Po tofu is not easy to make right. The tofu used in this dish is somewhat firm, but not extra firm (fried or marinated) tofu, so it can very easily lose its shape. For an amateur without a real wok, this was a challenge for me. But I think, judging by the picture, I succeeded.

The recipe is modified from the one at Shiok (theirs is vegetarian, mine isn’t).

Ingredients:
400g firm tofu
200g ground beef/chicken/pork
1.5 tbsp Chilli bean paste (I didn’t have this so I used a combination of Guilin chili sauce and Lao Gan Ma chili sauce – both of which were made from or contain beans)
4 tbsp peanut oil
2 tsp black bean sauce
6-8 whole Sichuan red chillies (or 4-5 dried Indian chillies)
1 red chili pepper – chopped
3/4 cup Chicken stock
1-2 tsp sugar (makes it less spicy, so if you like it really hot, add less sugar)
2 tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp cornflour mixed with 1.5 tbsp hot water
1/4 tsp Sichuan peppercorns (ground)
2 tbsp spring onions (scallions) – chopped

Instructions:

1. Cut the tofu into 1/2in cubes. Be careful not to break any of them.
2. Marinate them in 2tsbp soy sauce for 30min.
3. Heat a wok on high and add oil. When it’s hot, add ground meat. Stir-fry until the meat is brown on the outside (but there is still some cooking left to do).
4. Turn the heat down to medium. Add the chicken stock, chili sauce, bean paste, and chillies, and mix.
5. Gently add the cut tofu. Try not to stir-fry it too much, as the tofu will break. Push it around the pan or hold the pan by the handles and shake it.
6. Pour in about 2tsp of the soy sauce that you were using to marinate it. Add the sugar.
7. Turn the heat down to simmer for about 5 min.
8. Depending on how much liquid is left, add the cornstarch and water. This will thicken up the sauce.
9. Turn the heat back up to medium-high and cook until the sauce has thickened.
10. Turn off the heat and add the scallions.

Anyway, I bought some chicken giblets¹ the other day and I’ve been really looking forward to cooking them. If you’ve never had giblets and are a little grossed out by them – don’t worry! They don’t taste strange, they’re just extremely chewy. So if you like tendons, you’re sure to like giblets (gizzards are my favourite)!

Now this recipe is an original so don’t go thinking I’m just copying and pasting some disgusting chicken innards recipe on here. When I read up on gizzards, I realized that they have to be cooked for a long time. You know what else is simmered for a long time? Tea eggs! One of my favourite street-vendor-foods (and extremely easy to make), tea eggs are simmered in a pot with soy sauce, star anise (or five spice powder), and green tea. Hence, that is how I decided to infuse flavour into my gizzards! I call this dish “Dragon Gills” (because all Chinese dishes have crazy names).

Ingredients:
0.2kg giblets – separate hearts and livers from gizzards
1/2 an onion, sliced into squares
2 slices of fresh ginger
3 tsp salt
2 tsp ground pepper or 1 thsp peppercorns
1 tsp green tea leaves
3 bay leaves
2 tbsp olive oil
4 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp dark soy sauce
0.5 tbsp Guilin chili sauce²
2 tsp sugar
1 tbsp Chinese cooking wine or sherry (or Grand Marnier in my case, since I had neither)

Instructions:

1. Bring a pot of water to boil and add gizzards. DO NOT add hearts or livers. Scoop/rinse off the foam, refill pot with water, and bring to boil again.
2. Add ginger, salt, peppers/peppercorns, tea leaves and bay leaves. Turn heat down to medium and cook for 30min.
3. Add 2 tbsp soy sauce, turn heat down to medium, and cook for another 20-30min.
4. Heat a wok/pan and add olive oil.
5. Pour pot contents into wok. Remove bay leaves (and tea leaves if possible). Add 1 tsp salt and 2 tbsp soy sauce and cook for 2min.
6. Add chicken hearts and onions. Sautee for a while, and add Guilin chili sauce.
7. Finally, add chicken livers, dark soy sauce, Chinese cooking wine, and sugar. Mix constantly.
8. Chicken liver does not need to be cooked long. Remove from heat and serve hot with white rice.

1. Technically, giblets are gizzard, heart, and liver, but there was no liver in mine.
2. I recommend Lee Kum Kee’s Guilin chili sauce. This is a very versatile chili sauce that can be used with many Chinese dishes containing meats. It is not very spicy, does not overwhelm your taste buds, and enhances flavour without affecting other ingredients.

However, I did buy a delicious frozen pizza from Price Choppers this past weekend. Now, I know what you’re thinking: Why am I listening to this sleep-deprived chick talk about her stupid frozen pizza? She’s thinking of eating her roommate’s cat food for crying out loud – clearly, a crazy.

Well, call me crazy all you like, but Casa di Mama pizza is by far the best frozen pizza out there – and I should know, I’m a university student! The first thing I noticed is that the dough was so soft I could barely handle it when I took it out of the box. Now, this may have been because it had thawed, but usually, even thawed frozen pizza is still tough as a brick. Moreover, the pizza came on parchment paper. Delissio doesn’t come on parchment paper. McCain’s doesn’t come on parchment paper. But Casa di Mama does.
In any case, I added some toppings (I usually add red peppers because there never seem to be enough toppings on frozen pizzas) and followed the instructions on the box for heating times.

When it was done, the crust had risen into a golden halo around the pizza, with a slightly crunchy surface giving way to light fluffiness. This was comparable to some of the best pizza I have had – ever! Toppings can definitely be improved (I had pepperonis and hot peppers on mine) but the crust was really just perfect.

Breakfast is my favourite meal of the day, hands down. If I could, I’d make myself a home-made extra special deluxe super duper breakfast platter every morning.
It also happens to be one of the few meals I am fully comfortable with making.

• Scrambled/fried/hard-boiled/omelet eggs? I can do that.
• Bacon/fake bacon/ham/sausages/breakfast paddies? I can do that.
• Toast? Toast with butter? French toast? I can do that.
• Pancakes/waffles/Chinese pancakes¹? I can do that.²
• Fruit? I can do that.
• Coffee/(soy) milk? I can do that.

Unfortunately, I don’t have time to do all that every morning. But every Sunday morning, without fail, I make myself an enormous breakfast platter. Sunday mornings are the best. It’s my last day of the weekend, so I know I have to get some work done. The first thing I do is brew myself a nice hot cup of hazelnut coffee. I drink my coffee without milk/cream/whitener because 1) I am lactose intolerant, and 2) that is the way coffee is supposed to be drunk, so buying high-quality (hazelnut) coffee roast is a must.
Then I’ll have any combination of the above (things that I can make). I usually don’t have bacon/sausages so I must forgo the meat portion of the programming, but I can make tons of things with eggs, so I still get my protein.

This morning was no exception. Check out the fancy colourful super duper awesome breakfast platter of the day:

This platter features scrambled egg whites, fresh strawberries, toast drizzled with maple syrup, and yogurt sprinkled with some fiber cereal flakes.

It is also exactly 200 calories.

Huzzah!

Nutritional Information:
Calories: 200
Carbs: 31
Fat: 1
Protein: 18

1. Chinese green onion pancakes are deliciously light and fried; made of flour – multi-layered almost like a pastry, but still thin, with salt and green onions
2. By “I can do that,” I mean, I can buy that.