Sweet Corn Blueberry Sundae

Sweet Corn Blueberry Sundae with Butter Popcorn "Sprinkles"
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This recipe is part of a larger dinner party menu you can find on my Substack. The category is It’s Corn!, and it features five courses centered around the miracle that is corn! You can find the recipe booklet and a handy party prep schedule here.

Do you consider ice cream a seasonal treat? I don’t. There is certainly an uptick in my ice cream consumption during the summer months, which we are technically still in. But I can’t think why we would relegate something as delicious as ice cream to one small sliver of the year, particularly the portion that tends to blow right by. Here is a Sweet Corn Blueberry Sundae for the week that most of us return to our respective routines. While it may feel a little exuberant for buttoned-down September, I can’t think of a time when a sundae is more needed. Sure, we’re all interested in putting our best foot forward, nose to the grindstone, and all that jazz. But even the most ambitious of us need joyful reprieves to see us through. This Sweet Corn Blueberry Sundae is that joyful reprieve, so let’s make it!

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Mozzarella Schnitzel with Tomato Chili Salsa

Mozzarella Schnitzel with Tomato Chili Salsa
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This recipe is part of a larger dinner party menu you can find on my Substack. The category is Night of 1000 Tomatoes, and it features five courses centered around tomatoes. You can find the recipe booklet and a handy party prep schedule here.

I’m a big fan of schnitzel. When I was in university, my biweekly indulgence was a chicken schnitzel sandwich from a campus pub. Looking back, I realize it wasn’t a particularly compelling sandwich, but when knockoff cereal was your norm, you tend to covet a crisp chicken cutlet no matter its quality level. The pub where I got that sandwich recently closed, so the nostalgia has been real. And that nostalgia reawakened a schnitzel-related idea I’d been toying with years ago: vegetarian schnitzel. Now, when approaching this quest, it seems only natural to start with tofu, but it just didn’t feel right to me. Then it hit me, Mozzarella Schnitzel. Essentially a mozzarella stick in a “cutlet” format. It couldn’t fail. Well, it could and it did. But eventually it was a success, and that’s why we’re all here.

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Celery Gimlet

Celery Gimlet
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This recipe is part of a larger dinner party menu you can find on my Substack. The category is Sandwiches, and it features five sandwich-inspired courses, yet none of them are actual sandwiches. You can find the recipe booklet and a handy party prep schedule here.

I’ve always found mixology intimidating. I feel like I don’t know enough to add my voice to the din. When it comes to cooking, I have endless internal resources. A vast culinary vocabulary of flavours, pairings, and textures. An armoury of techniques, in-the-field fixes, and quick shortcuts. I don’t have that when it comes to beverages. My partner does, but I do not. I only recently learned what fino sherry is, so I’m not exactly in the know, you know? But how did I acquire that culinary thesaurus of textures, that barrage of technical skill? I did it through trial and error, through burnt cakes and pizzas ordered after dinner defeats. I did it through 15 years of trying. Perhaps, I can do the same with cocktails. So this is me, trying. And today’s Celery Gimlet is, in my less-than-informed opinion, my most successful try yet. 

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Black Sesame Cake with Sour Cherry Glaze

Black Sesame Cake with Sour Cherry Glaze
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This recipe is part of a larger dinner party menu you can find on my Substack. The category is Bowl of Cherries, and it features five Korean-inspired courses centered around cherries. You can find the recipe booklet and a handy party prep schedule here.

I love how deliciously low-maintenance loaf cakes are. How approachable, snackable, and generally unpretentious they are. Sure, they may not elicit the same ooo’s and ahh’s a layer cake would get. But I’ve never seen a single person decline a slice. And decorating a loaf cake? Well, let’s just say, it’s a lot easier than those fancy lambeth cakes. Today’s Black Sesame Cake with Sour Cherry Glaze may be a humble loaf cake, but it makes an impact when it hits the table. Between the contrast of the dark, airy cake and the hot pink sweet and sour glaze, it brings considerable style to the table. The addition of sour whipped cream dollops and maraschino cherries solidifies its retro charm. And no, you don’t need a turntable or much more than a piping bag and tip to pull this look off. So let’s jump right in!

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