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Creamy Lemon and Dill Dip

When I first got into Personal Chef work I was cooking for celebrities, the kind of people who can afford to pay the very best people to work for them. As a Chef who had only cooked in restaurants, I totally knew this and it made me nervous. I was confidant in my cooking but this was a different kind of cooking. Many of my clients wanted healthy food that tasted like bad for you food. I mean, who doesn’t?

I had never even heard or raw or macrobiotic cuisine before I started in this line of work. It just happened that my Mom was diagnosed with cancer around the same time, so I had an extra big reason to pay attention to these new, exotic, interesting ways that people were eating to stay healthy (or skinny or like, a good actor or whatever).

I loved the new challenge of this somewhat uncharted territory. After years working in fine dining, I knew exactly what buttery dishes, braised meats and rich desserts tasted like. It was just about finding these flavours within these healthier new parameters.

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Radicchio Salad with Roasted Acorn Squash & Hazelnuts

My obsession with radicchio doesn’t appear to be going anywhere. Luckily, although she turns the colour of of one when she’s mad, my baby didn’t come out an actual radicchio, despite the amount that I ate while pregnant.

Besides its fresh, subtle bitterness, crisp lettuce-y texture and nostalgia it brings for the outdoor markets on the cobblestones of Rome, there’s another reason that we eat a lot of it in our house. It’s the same reason that versions of this salad and this salad happen an awful lot at our place too. Radicchio, despite its fragile-seeming texture, is robust and lasts for quite a while in your fridge.

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High Fiber ‘Jam’ (& Thumbprint Cookies!)

Whether your digestion is on the sluggish side thanks to painkillers or chemo drugs or whether you’re pregnant and your digestion has become a shadow of its former self, this jam is here to the rescue.

Lovingly referred to as poo jam in my family, this is always on the menu for my cancer thriving clients (and was a staple in my house throughout my pregnancy). Sometimes I even make it for fun, just because it tastes so good (it reminds me of fig newtons).

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Creamy Cauliflower and Celery Gratin

This recipe is inspired by my grandmother. I’m sure a lot of people are inspired by their grandmother’s cooking but mine was a little different than what you’re probably picturing.

She was a really good cook, something I took for granted about all of the women in my family. She married my grandpa, whose parents were from Lebanon and so learned to cook all kinds of exotic (and incredibly delicious) Lebanese food.

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