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Avocado Egg Rolls & Honey, Cashew, Cilantro Dipping Sauce

Allegedly from the kitchen of the long gone, legendary downtown Windsor restaurant Chanosos Makes 4 egg rolls, multiply as needed 1 large avocado diced 2 tbsp sundried tomatoes, chopped finely 1 tbsp red onion, minced 1/2 tsp fresh cilantro, chopped 1 pinch salt 4 egg 

Pork Egg Rolls

Makes about 16 egg rolls 1/4 cup soy sauce 2 tablespoons rice vinegar 1 tablespoon light-brown sugar 2.5 lbs of cabbage or bok choi, thinly sliced 4 medium carrots, coarsely grated 4 garlic cloves, minced 1 tablespoon grated fresh ginger coarse salt and ground pepper 

Basque Taloa with Panchetta & Sheep’s cheese

Serves 4

150 g corn flour

8 slices of round panchetta (or prosciutto, or even bacon)

50 g of Tomme de brebis – Tomme is a generic name for a soft or semi-soft cheese. Any mild cheese can be subsitutted

4 Eggs

Fleur de sel

Esplette Pepper

Boil 250 ml of salted water. Slowly add the corn flour. Wisk, then mix until the mixture is lump free and sticky. Once mix let the dough rest 10 minutes. The dough must be elastic and bouncy. Divide into 4 small balls. Flatten into tortilla type rounds 20 to 25 cm in diameter.

Cook the Taloas on a hot dry pan or griddle, about 2 minutes each side, and set aside. In the same pan, render the panchetta, and set aside. In hte pan with the rendered fat, cook 4 eggs, season with fleur de sel and esplette pepper.

Dress the taloa with the panchetta, then the egg. Cover in shredded cheese and esplette pepper.

French Macarons

Ingredients For the Cookie 100 g egg whites room temperature 3 large eggs 140 g almond flour 1 1/2 cups 90 g granulated sugar just under 1/2 cup 130 g powdered sugar 1 cup 1 tsp vanilla 5mL 1/4 tsp cream of tartar 800mg For the Buttercream 1 cup unsalted butter softened 226g 5 egg yolks 1/2 cup granulated sugar 100g 1 tsp vanilla 3 tbsp water 30mL 1 pinch salt Instructions For the Macarons: Sift the 

Quick Small Batch Sugar Cookies

4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted 1/3 cup granulated sugar 1 large egg yolk, white reserved for another use 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract 1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon baking soda 1/8 teaspoon fine salt 6 peanut butter chocolate hearts (like Reese’s) or 

Montreal Style Bagels

1 1/2 cups warm water

5 (65g) tablespoons granulated sugar

3 tablespoons canola oil

8 grams active dry yeast

2 large eggs, DIVIDED (one is for the dough and one is for an egg wash)

1 tablespoon maple syrup

4-4 1/2 (630g) cups all purpose, unbleached flour

1 teaspoon salt

3/4 cup poppy seeds or sesame seeds

16 cups of water

1/3 cup honey

In a large bowl whisk together the warm water, sugar, canola oil, yeast, egg and syrup. Combine until the yeast dissolves.

Stir in salt and one cup of the flour.

Add enough flour to make a shaggy, soft dough, about 3 cups.

Knead your dough for about 12 minutes, adding flour as needed as you go (I added an additional 1/2 cup, giving a total of 4 1/2 cups of flour). If you are making chocolate bagels (or raisin etc), knead in the chocolate chunks in the last minute of your kneading.

Once your dough is firm and smooth, cover with inverted bowl and let the dough rest 10 minutes.

Divide the dough into 12 equal parts (for large bagels). Roll each piece into a 8-10 inch rope, then curve each one pressing together the ends to make a bagel shape. Make sure that the ends are firmly stuck together or they will come apart when you boil them. Note that your bagels will look pretty deformed at this point (the holes will be very big etc), but just remember that the dough really puffs up after they are boiled.

Let the shaped dough rise for 30 minutes

About five minutes before your dough is finished rising, fill a large pot with water (16 cups of water) and stir in the honey. Bring that to a boil.

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F and line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

Boil your bagels by placing them in the pot (3-4 at a time, you don’t want them to be on top of one another), and boil for 45 seconds on each side (90 seconds total). Remove and let the water drain off onto a clean towel or paper towel.

In a small bowl whisk your egg and pour your seeds on a small plate.

Dip your bagel in the egg wash and then coat both sides in the seeds. Note, the bagels tend to get very dark in areas where they are not covered with seeds. If you are making chocolate chip or raisin bagels, I suggest that you still cover them with seeds. If you are not covering them with seeds, keep an eye on them in the oven to make sure that they don’t burn.

Bake at 425 for 8-10 minutes (they should be starting to get golden brown on the side touching the baking tray), then flip and bake another 6-8 minutes (until completely light, golden brown). This is really going to depend on your oven temperature. Usually the second side (and the second batch) bakes a lot faster than the first so keep an eye on it!

Cool the bagels on a cooling rack. Once completely cool, store in a freezer bag for a few days. Even better, freeze the majority of the bagels immediately after they are done cooling to preserve their texture.

Spicy Bibimbap Sauce

Ingredients 1/2 cup gochujang (Korean chili paste) 1/4 cup toasted sesame oil 1/4 cup sugar 1/4 cup water 1/4 cup toasted sesame seeds 4 tsp vinegar, apple cider vinegar or rice vinegar 4 tsp minced garlic Mix all together

Cuban Banana Soup

I had this soup at a restaurant in Curacao many years ago. I eventually came across the recipe below, which is the soup that I had. Ingredients 50g butter 4 very ripe (black) plantains, peeled and roughly chopped 100g leeks, roughly chopped 150g carrots, roughly 

Mango Chow Cocktail

Mango chow cocktail

Instructions

Half a handful of fresh coriander leaves
½ oz. fresh lime juice
½ oz. simple syrup
½ oz. Scotch bonnet pepper-infused Mount Gay Silver rum
1 ½ oz. regular Mount Gay Silver rum
2 oz. mango purée
1 wedge of lime, to garnish

  1. Muddle the coriander with the lime juice, simple syrup and infused rum. Add the non-infused rum and the mango purée.
  2. Pour everything into a cocktail shaker with ice and shake to combine. Test it and adjust to taste (more mango or simple syrup for sweetness, more lime for sour).
  3. Pour into a highball glass (don’t strain it) and garnish with a wedge of lime.

Hatian Pikliz

Ingredients: 1/2 cup white vinegar 2 tablespoons of lime juice 2 tablespoons of sugar 2 habanero or scotch bonnet peppers 1 medium garlic clove peeled 1 teaspoon of fresh thyme 3/4 teaspoon kosher salt 2 cups thinly sliced green cabbage (6 to 8 ounces) 1