Zesty & Spicy

If you like food, we'll get along *^_^*

Sourdough maple sticky buns

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If you’re nursing a sourdough starter, there’s always this one day where you have too much of it and, before feeding it, you have to discard some.  Since I don’t like thinking I’ve been “wasting” all this precious flour and water, this recipe is a delicious way to use your discarded starter.

There’s only one word to describe these… AMAZEBALLS.  They are drenched in maple and brown sugar and the bread texture is soft and elastic.  I really hope you’ll get a chance to try this recipe because it’s absolutely delicious and really easy to do.

Definitely one of those sweet treat worth cheating on your diet.

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Maple Flavoured Green Beans

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There’s been quit a bit of movements on my Instagram story lately.  Today’s #FoodieExperiment was the “Breakfast Poutine” but beside my idea being pretty good, a lot of refinement will be needed before making it a “blog post worthy” recipe.

These maple flavoured green beans is another recipe I’ve shared today and I decided to post it right away because it really is my favourite way to eat green beans.  Seriously… is there anything maple syrup cants do?!!

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Maple & Carrot Semolina Cake

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Just tasted this beauty I made yesterday.

Usually, it’s not my style to let some freshly baked goods wait on the counter before being honoured by our palates but, by the time it had come to the right temperature, it was getting way too late for me to indulge in such decadence.  As a first “fall baking” project, I’m very pleased with the results and I’m sure you’ll be pleased to.  The final texture is extremely silky soft and dense, very close to a pound cake but with a nice variation because of the semolina flour.

Cut yourself a slice, toast it the traditional way or put in the oven for a few minutes before devouring it with melted butter or cream cheese spread on top..  It’s worth it.

Bon Appétit!

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Sweet Potato, Spinach, Broccoli Risotto

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I hope you’ll enjoy this fun vegan and gluten free risotto, perfect for a busy week night and a next day lunch! 🙂

Sweet Potato, Spinach, Broccoli Risotto
 
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Ingredients
  • 4 cups of hot water
  • ½ cup of Glutenberg/Chartier maple beer **
  • 1½ cup of shredded sweet potatoes
  • 1 cup of finely chopped spinach
  • ¾ cup of finely chopped broccoli
  • 1 tablespoon of olive oil
  • 1 cup of Arborio rice
  • 2 big fresh garlic cloves
  • 2 tablespoons of nutritional yeast
  • ¼ teaspoon of salt
  • ¼ teaspoon of ground black pepper
  • Garnish idea:
  • Finely chopped basic leaves
  • **  The recipe calls for ½ cup because that's all I have left in my fridge but you could easily add one full cup of beer (and or white dry wine if you can find this beer anywhere) and remove ½ cup out of the water quantity.
Instructions
  1. - In a flat bottom pan, on the stove top, at MEDIUM/HIGH heat - Start by adding the tablespoon of olive oil with the garlic.  Wait till it start sizzling, then add your raw, uncooked Arborio rice and stir well to make sure the all little grains of rice are well covered with the oil and garlic.  Keep stirring non stop for an extra 1 to 2 minutes while making sure that nothing is sticking at the bottom of the pan.  If it does, lower the heat a bit.
  2. - Pour the beer and keep stirring while all the rice absorb the precious liquid.
  3. - Start adding your water, add the first cup, keep stirring constantly, add the veggies all in one shot and keep adding the rest of the water ½ cup at the time.  The whole process should be about 15-20 minutes maybe less.
  4. - Never stop stirring while everything get's absorb and when you're getting close to the end of your water and the texture is getting nice and creamy, start lowering your heat to MEDIUM/LOW.
  5. - Stir in the nutritional yeast, add the salt and pepper and you're done!

BBQ Lamb Spring Rolls with Sweet Maple Sauce

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It’s Easter tomorrow and since lamb is one of the preferred meat to eat on this day, I thought this recipe was perfect for the occasion.  I don’t think I need to explain again how I like to mix cultures because I have talked about it quit often in my previous posts.  Today I’m doing it all over again with these BBQ lamb Spring rolls with sweet maple sauce.  Yes maple again… lol  I think I’m seriously addicted and you can blame it on the fact that I’m Canadian 😉

They are fairly easy to do, you will only need a bit of patience.  The only “tricky” part would be if you never worked the rice paper but the only thing you need to make sure is you roll it tight.  My first goal was to make a step by step photo with this recipe to explain you how to roll the rice paper but I found this very useful and well explained link on VietWorldKitchen that I think will be perfect.

You can keep your spring rolls for one day in the fridge between layers of wax paper so they don’t stick together and what I like to do is to add a wet towel at the bottom of my container (under a wax paper) to keep some sort of moisture.

Bon appetit!

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Grilled Maple Salmon Salad

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I was reading one of my contracted model’s blog the other day and she was asking for diet tricks and recipes.  I have to admit that the word “diet” scares me till no end and I much prefer to keep a healthy everyday lifestyle and work on my portion control then go on a diet because most of the time I don’t stick to it and I get either frustrated for not eating what I want or I loose too much energy by not eating enough or the right things.  Plus, most of the time when the diet is done and you’re back at your normal eating habits, you gain everything you had lost and sometime a bit more.

As a model, worrying about my waist line is part of my everyday job you’ll say and that’s kind of true.  But I don’t believe in dieting and I don’t believe in starving myself.  Yes, I’m a model and what I look like is important but I will never starve myself because I simply love food way too much.  Over the years I had to adjust my eating habits, learn to work out the right way everyday and stop myself from buying easy and fast processed food.  I learned to make everything myself from scratch and to be honest, I’m glad I did!  These days I much prefer to never eat pizza again because I’m too lazy to make my own dough, sauce and everything than buying one of those pre-made versions.  If I haven’t made it from scratch, I simply don’t eat it.  It’s that simple.

Agreed, it’s annoying at time because you’re really craving for something specific that you just don’t have on hand but it’s a great way to learn self control.  If you really want to eat that specific thing, you just have to make it from scratch and try to make it healthier than the store bought version.  Everything is possible and as long as you keep to this rule and work out everyday, you’ll be fine in my book.  It has been working for me for the past 5 years now and I’ll never go back to my old eating habits.

Now to talk about about this salmon recipe…  It’s easy, fast and very good for you.  I don’t think I need to convinced anyone about the greatness of omega 3 and fatty acids.  It’s good for you, good for your brain and so dam delicious.  Like any other “fatty” fish like the salmon, we have to eat it in moderation but I think once a week is ok if you’re really a salmon addict or at least once every 2 weeks.

The contrast of the salty fish with the maple syrup (my obsession) and the sourness of the green apples drench in lime juice is amazing!  This amazing salad will keep you feeling full for the rest of the night or pump you up full of energy to go do over 1 hour of cardio.  Hope you’ll enjoy this recipe as much as I do 🙂

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My Experience at the sugar shack – Au Pied de Cochon

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When my friend Doug first invited me to go to the sugar shack with a few other of his friends, I jumped in the air like a kid in a candy store.  I haven’t been in a sugar shack in YEARS and my last experience, a few years ago, haven’t been that much fun because the place looked like a big open gymnasium with too many people and not enough love in the food.  Although I love maple syrup, everything maple flavored and I would never refuse such invitation, I still expect a certain amount of love and “homey” feel in a place like a sugar shack.

If you never heard of a sugar shack before, well…. the first thing you have to know, it’s a Canadian thing.  I don’t exactly know to explain it, but I’ll do my best…  Think about a wood shack in the middle of the forest where we create maple syrup from the water coming from the maple trees.  The owner of the sugar shack usually own a maple farm around his shack and bring back the water from his trees to make this liquid gold that we call maple syrup.  In this same place, you have a mini restaurant, that present a variety of delicious maple flavored meals, from salty to sweet.  You drink, you laugh, you eat… everybody is there to spend some family or friendly time, everybody is happy, it’s an amazing place with an amazing ora.  Maybe one of my favorite places in the world because of the feeling you have when you’re in there, surrounded by the people you love, drinking, laughing, eating… like it was your last day on earth.

Outside, the March weather is still cold but not too intense so you can enjoy some fun time playing in the melting snow with the younger ones and eat some taffy on snow.  Sometime, you can even visit the maple syrup “factory” and see the entire process from beginning to end of how we transform the precious maple water in to maple syrup.  It’s actually quit simple and I have vivid memories of my grand father doing it in his kitchen while I was sitting close to him watching his every move, hoping some would just fall outside the pot so I can just eat it on the spot without him noticing it.  Ahhh memories…

I didn’t know where my friend wanted to bring me but deep inside, I was hoping to go to the famous sugar shack “Au Pied de Cochon” owned by the famous chef Martin Picard that you might have seen on French or English tv in various shows.  Martin bought this shack in 2009 and since the reviews have been very good and I always wanted to go there.  What an amazing surprise when I realized that it was exactly where we were going!  I think Doug might have read my mind without even realizing it.  The second he told me that I might even have a chance to meet the big chef in person, I was even more excited!  He was indeed right because I did had the chance to meet Martin Picard and you can see the proof by the photo above.

I got to admit that it took me a good hour and 1 maple martini before having enough courage to go ask him for a photo with me for this blog.  I don’t usually get starstruck, I have met many mainstreams actors, producers, pornstars (obviously), tv and radio show hosts and more so it’s never something that happened to me.  When you think about it, they are just human being like you and me and there is nothing to be nervous about just because they are a public figure.  Last week end I realized that there is one type of celebrity that I’m nervous to meet and it’s chefs!  Ok that might sound totally ridiculous for you guys but it’s true.  I guess it’s because I’m an inspiring chef myself and I know I’m not even close to be up to part with mister Picard skills so I got nervous….  Anyways, the maple martini worked pretty decent because I went to see Marc and asked him to take a photo with me.  I brievely told him that I had a food blog and wanted to make a review of his place but I don’t think he really understood me or even cared.  Can you blame him?  …not really. 🙂

After all, I might have looked like any other random girl coming to him asking for this same request that he’s used to perform like a circus freak.  Don’t take me wrong he wasn’t rude at all and I’m sure once you know him he’s really sweet but I didn’t feel like sticking around at the bar with him and his friend like a stupid groupie so instead we exchanged a few smiles, took a photo and I went back to my place.  Now who knows, maybe after he’ll read this text I’ll have the chance for a real conversation with him over a nice glass of wine in his first restaurant : Au Pied de Cochon in Montreal to make another review….  A girl can dream right? 😉

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My First Mini Cherry Pie with Crumble top…

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These are looking pretty decent, maybe not as good as I had in my mind but I’m still very happy with the result knowing that it was my first time making a cherry pie and overall a fruit pie.  It wont be my last either, I have planned on making different versions of the cherry pie and hopefully I’ll get better at it every time.

I got to say that I had fun tweaking a bunch recipes that I found online to finally come up with this one…  Hope you enjoy the touch of maple syrup in the filling and dried mint in the crust,  I think they are adding a new dimension of flavor to the typical cherry pie you can find out there..  So try it out and let me know 😉

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