recipes

Cauliflower Popcorn
Yield: 4

EASE OF PREPARATION: EASY
Ingredients:
Cauliflower Popcorn

* 1 heads cauliflower
* 1/4 cup olive oil
* 1 tbsp salt
* 1 tbsp salt
* 1 x popcorn container


Directions:
Cauliflower Popcorn

1. Preheat oven to 425°F.
2. Cut out and discard cauliflower core and thick stems. Trim remaining cauliflower into florets the size of golf balls. In a large bowl, add cauliflower, olive oil, and salt. Toss thoroughly.
3. Spread cauliflower on a baking sheet (lined with parchment paper, if available, for easy clean-up). Roast for 1 hour, or until much of each floret has become golden brown. (That’s the caramelization process converting the dormant natural sugars into sweetness. The browner the florets, the sweeter they will taste.) Turn three or four times during roasting.
4. Use crumpled up aluminum foil or paper towels to create a false bottom in your popcorn container, fill it with cauliflower and serve immediately.

Asian Pear Crumble
Yield: 6
Ingredients:
Topping

* 4 tbsp butter
* 3/4 cups chopped walnuts
* 1 tbsp packed brown sugar
* 1/4 tsp Chinese five spice powder
* 1 cup panko (Japanese style bread crumbs)

Asian Pear Crumble

* 1/2 cup dried cranberries
* 1 1/2 lb. Asian pears
* 1 x lemon
* 1/2 teaspoons Chinese five spice powder
* 1 cup water
* 2 bag jasmine tea
* 1 tbsp packed brown sugar
* 3 tbsp apricot pineapple preserves
* 1 tsp cornstarch dissolved in 2 teaspoons water


Directions:
Topping

1. In a wide frying pan, melt butter over medium-high heat. Add nuts and cook, stirring, until they begin to brown, 2 to 3 minutes. Add brown sugar and five-spice powder; cook until sugar dissolves. Add panko and stir to evenly coat

Asian Pear Crumble

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
2. In a bowl, soak cranberries in hot water to cover until softened, about 10 minutes; drain. Peel, core, and thinly slice Asian pears. Place cranberries and pears in a 1 1/2 quart casserole.
3. Grate lemon peel, then juice lemon. Add peel, juice, and five-spice powder to fruit; stir to coat.
4. In a small saucepan, bring water to a boil; remove from heat, add tea bags, and steep for 3 minutes. Discard tea bags. Add brown sugar and preserves to tea. Return pan to medium-high and cook, stirring, until sugar dissolves and preserves are melted, about 3 minutes. Increase heat to high; add cornstarch solution and cook, stirring, until mixture boils and thickens. Pour over fruit.
5. Spoon topping evenly over fruit.
6. Bake, uncovered, until pears are tender and topping is golden brown, 25 to 30 minutes.
7. Scoop into dessert bowls and serve warm.

Tomato Olive Salad
Yield: 4

Ease of Preparation: Easy
A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don't like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour, you have to add your own!
Ingredients:
Tomato Olive Salad

* 5 x large ripe tomatoes, sliced into wedges
* 1 cup Calamata style olives, pitted
* 1 x red onion, peeled and thinly sliced
* Zest and juice of 1 lemon
* 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
* 1 x bunch chopped flat leaf parsley
* Salt and pepper


Directions:
Tomato Olive Salad

1. Toss all the ingredients together in a medium-sized salad bowl.

Pumpkin Soup
Yield: 8

Recipe courtesy of Joe Avati, Comic/Cook. Yield is 4 servings.
Ingredients:
Pumpkin Soup

* 6 cups vegetable stock
* 3 1/2 lb. pumpkin, chopped
* 2 onions, chopped
* 2 cloves garlic, grated
* 1/2 tsp nutmeg
* coarse salt, and freshly cracked black pepper
* 2 tbsp sour cream


Directions:
Pumpkin Soup

1. Bring the vegetable stock to a boil in a medium pot.
2. Add the pumpkin, onions and garlic.
3. Simmer 20 minutes or until soft.
4. Puree soup in a blender until smooth.
5. Return soup to the pot to reheat.
6. Season the soup with nutmeg, salt and pepper.
7. Pour the soup into bowls.
8. Swirl in some sour cream.

Corn Fritters
Yield: 4

Ease of Preparation: Easy
A recipe is merely words on paper; a guideline, a starting point from which to improvise. It cannot pretend to replace the practiced hand and telling glance of a watchful cook. For that reason feel free to stir your own ideas into this dish. When you cook it once, it becomes yours, so personalize it a bit. Add more of an ingredient you like or less of something you don't like. Try substituting one ingredient for another. Remember words have no flavour, you have to add your own!
Ingredients:
Corn Fritters

* 3 ears fresh corn, kernels removed from cobs
* 3 x eggs
* 3 tbsp flour
* 3 tbsp cornmeal
* Salt and pepper
* 2 x green onions, thinly sliced
* 1 cup cheddar cheese, grated
* 1/4 cup vegetable oil


Directions:
Corn Fritters

1. Whisk corn and eggs in a large bowl.
2. Add flour, cornmeal, salt and pepper and mix well.
3. Stir in green onion and cheddar.
4. Heat oil in a large skillet over a medium heat then add batter by the spoonful and flatten to form a pancake.
5. Cook until golden, flip and cook other side.
6. Serve with Maple Butter (recipe from this episode).