somerville kitchen @ Joy of Feeding

After all the hard work yesterday (Read Behind the Scenes), somerville kitchen was all set up at the 2013 Joy of Feeding representing Lebanese food for the sweet tooth - Meghli.

And what a fun day it was - food, music, warm people; excellent event.

Tune back for 3-days series  the full event. But for those who did not make it, here's just a preview of what you missed.

 

 

Behind The Scenes @ Joy of Feeding

One more sleep till the Joy of Feeding afternoon kicks in.

somerville kitchen and 15 others were busy at different sponsoring cooking facilities today preparing their dishes and organizing them for tomorrow.

I had the privilege of being assigned to the kitchen of Terra Breads where patches of Meghli were cooked, cooled down and then ready to be put together for tomorrow.

So now the task is preparing 800+ small platters of meghli!

Over a dozen of those trays needed to be filled with Meghli.

And what an enjoyable task it was to be in a beautiful bakery's kitchen for hours zenning as I poured one scoop of Meghli after another, finishing one tray after another, until all were filled.

The plan is to keep them cool overnight then dress them with coconut, pistachios, walnuts and almonds upon serving.

So this is what is waiting for you tomorrow, along with other savoury and sweets dishes by 15 cooks from 15 different countries.



Join me and taste my Meghli tomorrow at the Joy of Feeding.

 Thank you Terra Bread!

What To Do On Friday

Eating on the road could not have been better than this Friday.

French pastries  for the day's kickoff meeting - savoury or sweet; all made with lots of butter.

And healthy dose of vitamins...

After the meeting, it was back to my office away from the office - Chocolate Arts.

Typically, I work over a cup of hot chocolate. But it was already noon and why not, let's try the sandwiches.

This apple brie sandwich was divine.

Of course, there was my regular hot chocolate at Chocolate Arts; it's excellent to get brain juices moving.

Love my office away from the office and particularly love my new humble assistant.

Wacky Berries

Last year I wrote about the jardin raspberries on July 23 (Read Raspberry Forest).

This year, raspberries are out earlier and I am already enjoying some fresh off the bush before bed or first thing in the morning.

In addition to those beautiful raspberries, there is an invasion of a new wacky berry.

I call it Bro Berry since it was a small plant I picked up from my brother's garden in Toronto last year and transport it in a wet paper towel to le jardin in Vancouver.

It produces those berries that look like black berries but are lighter in colour, maturing earlier than black berries and have a slight raspberry sourness to them.





Whatever it is, I love it and goes well with other jardin crop, particularly toppping rice pudding.

And is very handy when one is serving a very little dessert portion (which is a common practice at somerville kitchen this summer).

But the wackiest is a raspberry and sweet tofu dessert - yum!

Yek O Yek Picnic

I featured Yek O Yek on the blog last year. And I should think of it more often.

My trip to Yek O Yek today was to pick up some Basmati Rice. The owner was very helpful and gave me a great tip - buy the regular Basmati along with a smoked version.

Cook them in proportion of 3 to 1 regular to smoked and you can have an aromatic style Iranian rice.

Purchase made. Then I remembered I had a working meeting at home tonight over pizza. But why have pizza when you have Yek O Yek deli staring at you.

Delicious baked goods with endless options.

I opted for cheese, spinach and lentils - yes, those square ones to the left of the picture are stuffed with a cumin-spiced up lentil mix.

Other varieties of munchies are all there for you, including an excellent home made yogurt.

But the best discovery is this Iranian herb omelette. Eat it with your hands and keep that heavenly smell with you all day.

Yek O Yek

3046 Main Street

Vancouver, BC

604-877-0139

 

Catses Love Replacement Chef

Catses got very excited to see Replacement Chef back at somerville kitchen.

(I, of course, was excited - who wouldn't be with someone like Replacement Chef making a delicious dinner and beautifully presenting it).

The dinner was simple - cheese tortellini with a vegetable creamy dill sauce.

And those cutest little plates came in very handy to serve what else needed to be added to the delicious dinner.

Thank you Replacement Chef from me and catses.

Back to My Dear Lovely Neighbour

My dear readers, you know the story. My Dear Lovely Neighbour spoils me and this is yet another one of those dinners.

There was beef in to-die for spices.

 
 Served with a melange of two rice - plain and saffron.

For the first time, a grilled fish too (it was my favourite item tonight).

And we all need our vegetables, so what's better than to have them Indian curry style.

Of course, dahl is always on the menu.

And finishing off with an indian style addictive dessert.

Thank you once again my dear lovely always inventive neighbour.
 

Triple Heat with Rick's

About time I did another Rick's Rub Experimentation.

As if it is not hot enough outside, let's take it to a higher level with Triple dose of Rick's Rub Heat beef stir fry (try it out).

First, stir fry beef was marinated with a spoonful of sherry and Rick's Rub Heat.

 

When I was ready to start the frying, I added another spoonful of Rick's Rub Heat to peanut oil and let it fry soaking its flavours into the oil.

Onions, chili, ginger, beef, zucchini, red and orange peppers, cabbage and the base of the stir fry was all ready (and really HOT).

Where did the third spoonful of Rick's Rub Heat go?

I mixed it with the cooked noodles before adding the noodles to the vegetables.

Now all three spoonfuls are mixed with each other and all the ingredients and I was ready to enjoy the heat.

Poor catses, it was way too much heat around so rushed outside.... Catses will probably say a word or two to Rick about the heat on the new Facebook Page Rick's Rub.

somerville kitchen Cookbook Club Goes Sky High

somerville kitchen cookbook club went to a higher level with Sky High this month.

Our favourite bakeress made a three layer Boston Cream Pie cake from the featured cookbook Sky High.

Indian foods, chicken recipes for all occasions and kneadless breads recipes were discussed.

We also learnt about how to bring to life your own yeast and raise it as a pet.

All over delicious cake.

A spreadsheet with all the cookbooks discussed in our club is available for those who ask and feed in return.