Anise to Za'atar

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  • Dessert/ Food Writing/ Recipes

    Sweet Potato Pie and Cranberry Ice Cream

    November 11, 2019
  • Breakfast/ Dessert/ Food Writing/ Recipes

    Manoomin pudding with orange blossom water, roses and pistachios

    October 8, 2019
  • Food Writing/ Reflections

    On eating variety, finding comfort, and enjoying the magic of food with kids

    October 1, 2019
  • Baking/ Brunch/ Recipes

    Apple Streusel Coffee Cake

    September 12, 2019
  • Condiments/ Food Writing

    Foraging and Preparing Staghorn Sumac as a Spice

    August 26, 2019
  • Dinner/ Food Writing/ Lunch/ Recipes

    Manoomin and Grilled Halloumi Salad

    August 9, 2019
  • Baking/ Dessert/ Food Writing/ Recipes

    Mexican Chocolate Cake with Sour Cherry and Red Currant Jam

    July 25, 2019
  • Dessert/ Recipes

    Mulberry Earl Grey Sorbet

    July 19, 2019
  • Food Writing/ Lunch/ Recipes

    Vietnamese Inspired Seafood Pasta Salad

    May 3, 2019
  • Baking/ Dessert/ Food Writing/ Recipes

    Donald Trump eats Tacos: Why eating and cooking diverse food won’t make you a better person (and, a recipe for Eggless Ras El Hanout Spiced Apple Cake with a Brown Butter and Rum Icing)

    April 4, 2019
  • Baking/ Breakfast/ Recipes/ Reflections

    On Grandmothers and Cooking (and a recipe for Dutch Canadian rye bread/roggebrood)

    February 20, 2019
  • Breakfast/ Brunch/ Lunch/ Recipes

    Shakshuka with Ethiopian Berbere Spice

    February 7, 2019
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  • If you've been following food media, or just have a Twitter account, it was hard to miss the.... conflagration.... that happened this past weekend. ⠀⠀ I'm learning to hold my tongue a little, remember it's not always my place to jump into everything I have an opinion on, and take some time to listen and think through things. I think this is called growth.... 😂 ⠀⠀ But what it all pointed to was a larger issue that I've been grappling with for a while: what does ethical recipe development look like, especially when you're white and you're cooking from places and cultures that are not your own. I get asked about this a lot... ⠀⠀ So, I've distilled some of my thoughts into an essay that I think does some work, that thoughtfully adds to the discussion, and addresses more than this particular moment. Because, it's not just this moment (many of the complaints point to her track record...) and it's not just her. ⠀⠀ From the essay: ⠀⠀ "Being an ethical recipe developer requires understanding that a recipe is not JUST a recipe and food is not JUST food. Recipes are an accounting of a relationship, a photograph of a place and moment, a map for others to follow, and an intimate attempt at connection and kinship. They are a relational strand. Recipes have only been written down in recent human history, but the reason they were written down was to share them with others. To learn from others. To connect with others through food, at the table. What does your connection look like?" ⠀⠀ Check out the whole essay, "World Building and the Ethical Practices of Recipe Development". The link is in the profile ☝ ⠀⠀ #foodwriting #recipedevelopment #foodblogging #alisonroman #fbcigers #nytfood
  • It's been hard to find time to write, or even the energy to refine and string thoughts together. So, here are random snippets in the meantime.... ⠀⠀ It's hard to know or classify the effects of a pandemic, the toll it takes both individually and collectively. You can record the cases, the deaths, the unemployment rate: but what of the other effects? The people struggling with job loss, the physical and mental toll of 'recovery', those who cannot visit loved ones in life and in their last moments... ⠀⠀ I'm cooking each day, feeding my family, and still finding moments of pleasure alongside the practical, sustenance based activities that dominate my kitchen right now. I'm also squeezing in time for a longer project, but the time to write and develop recipes has shrunk. But there's still a few things on the burner that are coming soon (hopefully). ⠀⠀ I get asked a lot about ethical Qs around cooking food from other cultures. It's going to require a much longer essay (and there's one in the works, if I can channel my anger into something useful...) and is especially pertinent in relation to recent food world 'dust ups', but, broadly, it's about building and maintaining good relationships: to the ingredients, to the food, and to the land, cultures and people who have made that food, nurtured it, saved it, been fed by it, etc..... ⠀⠀ The pic: a coconut sahlab/salep. It's a popular milk based drink in the Middle East, one that's sweet, creamy, thick, and warm. I made this one with coconut milk though, keeping the cinnamon and rose water flavoring. It worked perfectly. ⠀⠀ It's hard to imagine the ways in which our lives and worlds are being remade right now, but I hope that we're all continuing to build and sustain the relations and worlds we hope/want to live in, ones we can all be safe in. Hope, while maybe difficult to sustain especially now, is ever important. Much love to you all 🙏 ⠀⠀ #sahlab #salep #middleeasternfood #foodwriting #fbcigers
  • “Stay Home" has been one of the primary messages of this COVID era, an attempt to curb the rapid spread of the virus. But what has become rapidly apparent is that ‘staying home’ looks dramatically different for everyone. ⠀⠀⠀ Maybe you’re struggling with the boredom of being home, isolated from friends and family. Maybe you’re struggling with having to go to work and face increased exposure to a virus that has a chance of killing you. Maybe you’re struggling because you’ve lost your work and there’s increased anxiety about where the rent cheque is going to come from. Maybe you haven’t got a home to isolate in... ⠀⠀⠀ As I see glimpses of friend’s lives from those who are ‘self-isolating' or ‘sheltering in place,’ there are such dramatic differences. Are you isolated by yourself in a 200ft apartment? Are you in the country, your kids running around in the back acres? ⠀⠀⠀ And this is just touching the tip of the iceberg: are you now working from home? Are the shelters you normally call safe now laden with anxiety and fear? Have your bills gone up? Are your kids murdering each other anew each day? Is it hard to imagine eating? Do basic things like walking outside or grocery shopping bring anxiety? Can you afford groceries? ⠀⠀⠀ Or, maybe you’re one of the people who feels like much hasn’t changed at all for you. ⠀⠀⠀ What has struck me as completely ludicrous and misleading is the second common message I’ve been seeing: “We’re all in this together.” It’s an attempt to gloss over the deep, structural inequities of our societies, a distraction from the divisions that the virus (and the responses to it) have laid bare. Everything about our experiences, from the likelihood of contracting the virus to the healthcare you’ll receive to the likelihood of dying from it, is cut through by inequities based on factors such as race, class, or location. ⠀⠀⠀ I’m trying to, as a starting point, be mindful of this as I think, write, cook, and eat. I’m incredibly privileged to be in the position I am: with a house over my head, groceries to cook with, and a family to share these with. Simply recognizing this is not enough, but it is a starting point. ⠀⠀ #stayhome #wereallinthistogether
  • A few thoughts I've been thinking on what this moment, these challenges, this time might hold for us. And, why I'm sick of the term 'pivot'... 😂 ⠀⠀ Pivoting requires an anchor, a central point that is unmovable. Everything else swings, but that pivot remains... ⠀⠀ That's not what we need. We don't need one foot anchored to 'normal', because normal wasn't that great to begin with... ⠀⠀ We need to untether ourselves and allow ourselves to think of new possibilities not anchored to what was normal. Rip up the pivot. Shimmy and shake instead. Float away. Shuffle over a few steps. Run. ⠀⠀ There's no certainty, nowhere safe to run too (or else we'd all be there and wouldn't have to run - to paraphrase Gil Scott Heron). ⠀⠀ Anchors are often used by ships for safety. But in great storms, they become a liability, exposing the ship to danger. The best course becomes to cut loose, to let the wind and waves take you, to ride it out and take stock of where you are in the morning. ⠀⠀ I want us to ride, windows down, not sure where the road is going to take us, “on the way to another place altogether… On the way to new economies of giving, taking, being with and for” (Jack Halberstam) ⠀⠀ It’s going to be messy, going to be rough, but it’s necessary to untether, to refuse the pivot and instead imagine new normals that make our worlds and lives more livable... for everyone. ⠀⠀ It’s a state of emergency, so the question is: what’s going to emerge? ⠀⠀ (Photo: labneh making) ⠀⠀ #covidcooking #foodwriting #quatantinethoughts #refusethepivot #gilscottheron #jackhalberstam
  • Soooo - here's something a little different and definitely not food related (though I'm thinking of future connections!) ⠀⠀ I've published a new article on my personal website that looks at family history and colonialism around the globe. I trace the ship that my paternal grandmother immigrated to Canada on in1950 (that's it in the picture!) to Palestine, Indonesia, Australia, and then Canada - and use this to examine the ways in which colonialism is connected in this moment, through this ship. ⠀⠀ It's historical, a little theoretical (I'm a recovering PhD 😬), and longer than I normally write here but it's also personal. If you're interested and have the time, I've thrown the link in the profile! ⠀⠀ #dutchcolonialism #ssvolendam #familyhistory #settlercolonialism
  • I, like many of you, have been spending A LOT of time in my kitchen. ⠀⠀⠀ And time breeds a sort of intimacy. So, after a particularly long, hard day - the sort where you felt like you spent all day in the kitchen and the only thing to show for it is a mess - I decided to write a few things down. ⠀⠀⠀ It's not my usual sort of writing, and there's no recipe attached. It's about care, time spent, and about the ways we find connection. If you're interested there's a link in my profile to check out my newest essay, titled: ⠀⠀⠀ "Home Cooking and the Intimacy of the Kitchen" ⠀⠀⠀ The companion piece, on anarchy in the home kitchen, is in the works... 😂😂😂 ⠀⠀⠀ #homecooking #homecookedmeal #eattheworld #foodwriting #dadlife #homecook #reallifecooking
  • Normal is over and the state we’re in is called emergency. What, exactly, will emerge? ⠀⠀ Check in: how do you feel right now? ⠀⠀ A few random thoughts and snippets, because who can string words together anymore? ⠀⠀ I often feel a certain fog, a sense of inevitability that is shrouded by uncertainty. We see the tip of the iceberg but we don’t know how immense it is under the water, just how large of a gash it will rend in our hull. The rending is certain, the rupture is real, but the scale and scope of it are unknown. ⠀⠀ And, it is not just the crisis of the virus itself. It is an economic crisis, a political crisis, a societal crisis. In a few short weeks our world has been remade, is in the ever shifting process of constant remaking. One day it is this, the next it is something else: each step taking us somewhere new, somewhere we’ve never been before. ⠀⠀ “Our minds are still racing back and forth, longing for a return to “normality”, trying to stitch our future to our past and refusing to acknowledge the rupture. But the rupture exists…” (Arundhati Roy) ⠀⠀ Annie Dillard writes that ‘the gaps are the thing’. They are not the absence but the rupture, the space of possibility that we must inhabit. But there is nothing inherently hopeful about the gaps or the future. Things can always get worse, much like they can always get better. Rupture is only a promise of change, which Octavia Butler reminds us is the only constant. How we ‘go into the gaps’ matters. ⠀⠀ What will emerge is uncertain, but we all have the chance to 'go into this gap' and determine what emerges... ⠀⠀ This is little comfort, perhaps. So let me leave you with this plate, a simple shot of food I have made (and eaten). It is @thelemonapron's Swedish Meatballs on mashed potatoes. It is #comfortfood. ⠀⠀ Comfort is not an attempt to suture the wound but to sustain us while we are in this rupture, to allow us the time and space and energy to craft what will emerge. ⠀⠀ I don't know how I feel most days, it swings wildly hour by hour sometimes. But I am anchoring myself in my kitchen, making comfort food to sustain us. I am writing, my way of sense making. I am hoping. I am loving. ⠀⠀ #covidcooking
  • A well regarded food writer/recipe developer recently tweeted that he was having to learn something new: how to cook for his family every day. ⠀⠀ And it struck me how so many of even the ‘food literate’, the chefs and writers and such, have never had to cook like this. In contrast, our grandmothers did this without a second thought… ⠀⠀ And, perhaps this is one of the kitchen legacies that my mom left me: we never ate out or ordered in, and each day she made sure there was dinner on the table for her family of six. She normalized the practice of cooking. ⠀⠀ I’ve had a number of Qs recently about how I’ve been able to keep up my cooking in the ways that I have. And, in part, it’s because I’ve spent the past two years practicing. What you see here on IG is what I cook for my family. That’s been my primary goal: making sure there is something delicious on the table for my family to eat. ⠀⠀ I think I might write more about what I’ve learned and how to cook family meals each day, but so much of it has been about planning and practicing, about learning what rhythm works for you because we’re not all going to cook the same things or have the same rhythms. ⠀⠀ But, I think, what this period of social distancing is revealing to many (along with so many other lessons) is the immense amount of work and planning that goes into cooking every day. As a child, it looked like my mother did it with ease; it just happened and I didn’t question how. That work of making regular family meals has constantly been devalued but, in the current reordering of normal, those who have tried to jump back into that routine have been struck: this is a lot of work! To which the generations of women who have fed and sustained us in their home kitchens, replied: no shit! ⠀⠀ These are the plantain molotes from @bricialopez’s book #Oaxaca, filled with a black bean paste and cotija. Instead of the classic masa, plantain is used in the dough which, when fried, gives a soft, sweet shell with all the golden goodness of a tostone, complemented by the savoury black bean and salty cheese. It took me a few tries to get the consistency of the dough right but when I did…. *chef’s kiss* The family loved these!
  • How has your cooking changed over this period of social distancing or quarantine? ⠀⠀ For many people, the biggest change might be that they actually have to start cooking at home 😂 For me, I was already cooking almost every day, sometimes multiple times a day. In some ways, my cooking hasn't changed that much, especially if you only look at volume. ⠀⠀ But I've tried to be more rigorous. I am terrible at eating 3 'square meals': maybe eating a hurried lunch (no breakfast), then a family dinner, and snacking way too much. So I'm trying to sit down and eat a breakfast, make something with whatever is leftover in the fridge for lunch, and then still a family dinner. ⠀⠀ I've also become more flexible. I typically plan ahead what I'm making for dinner but I've been more attune to what's in the fridge and making sure it gets used in a timely manner. There's tomato sauce open in the fridge? Then let's make pizza! Leftover ground beef? Let's do patty melts again! ⠀⠀ I've also been more creative and adaptive, looking at what we have to make ingredient substitutions. I typically love roaming Toronto to find specific ingredients that are just right, but there's a lot less roaming these days... ⠀⠀ For example, this meal was inspired by a recipe in @sonokosakai's book #JapaneseHomeCooking. A couple weeks ago I had roasted a duck, freezing the meat and the broth I made with the bones. For the broth, I added ingredients for dashi, as well as some soy and mirin to my original duck broth. With it: duck breast marinated in soy, mirin & rice vinegar; scallions seared in duck fat (also from the roasted duck!); bok choy; a pinch of grated ginger; and a sprinkle of shichimi togarashi. It's not the recipe in the book, but it's in that vein & it's delicious! ⠀⠀ It's still just 10 days into this wildness for our family but already I can see how it's restructured our schedules and habits. It's a shake up. So I'm trying to use the spaces that the shaking creates to rethink and reorder how I cook. And, also, to hold on to what I can (and what's important) while everything is getting shaken around me.... ⠀⠀ #covidcooking #japanesefood #sobanoodles #homecooking #eattheworld #fbcigers
  • The spaces between us are larger than ever but it feels like the world has shrunk. ⠀⠀⠀ Or is it just me? ⠀⠀⠀ The pandemic has revealed so much about our societies, and our world. That we’re all connected and entangled with each other in so many ways. That we’re not all the same: that we don’t have the same access to resources, don’t have the same protections. ⠀⠀⠀ But what’s been revealed has always been there, just hidden from those unwilling to see it. We all have blinders that we know are there yet choose to wear. ⠀⠀⠀ Food has always been a window into some of these truths, too. Our food, the ingredients, and the ways we eat reveal how connected we are. They also reveal that we’re not the same: that we don’t all have the same access to food, to healthy food, to good food. ⠀⠀⠀ This pandemic is going to reorder so much of how we live; it already has in such a short time. Each hour, each day feels like a new shuffle. A new crack is formed or deepened. New bonds are formed, networks strengthened. ⠀⠀⠀ How it is going to reorder the ways we eat, the ways we access food? Is it going to deepen the unequal access to good food? Or is it going to connect us in healthier and more sustainable ways? It’s really up to us…. ⠀⠀⠀ Pictured is the lamb barbacoa from @bricialopez's book #Oaxaca, a generous dish for celebrations and community. It’s rich lamb is coated in a complex blend of peppers and spices, making a slick sauce whose color imprints itself onto everything it touches. I’d made this before ‘social distancing’ was a term we all knew, and now I’m wishing I had some more. The authors write that this is a dish to share with friends over a glass of mezcal and I look forward to the times when we can all do that together again! ⠀⠀⠀ #OaxacaCookbook #oaxacanfood #mexicanfood #covidcooking #comfortfood #eattheworld #fbcigers #foodwriting
  • Here's a wrap up link for all the recipes I shared for #soupweek! Bookmark it, share it, cook from it! (Link is in the profile!) ⠀⠀ There were amazing soup recipes from @yasminkhanstories @thecinnaman @thekitchenista @bry.washing @_worldinapocket @dgritzer @kawalingpinoy & myself. ⠀⠀ Our world is rapidly being reshaped and I wanted to engage that too: #foodwriting doesn't have to be merely escapist or inspirational (though that has its place). It can handle the depths and complexities of our world, of our stories, of our fears. This is just a humble recipe roundup, but soup is also an important #comfortfood for me and this is a time for comfort! ⠀⠀ "as COVID19 and the responses to it reshape our worlds in mere hours, what I am struck by is how we need the lessons that soup has to teach us. ⠀⠀ It’s sharing food, so let’s continue to share with each other (just don’t share the virus!). It’s good food to prepare ahead of time for a time of need, so let’s do that. It’s simple and doesn’t need a lot of ingredients, perfect for times when we might need to simplify our lives. It’s comforting and warming, and we need food like that in these times. It’s easy to package up and give some to those who need it, so let’s keep doing that too." ⠀⠀ Read it all on the site (this is just an excerpt!), the link is in the profile! ⠀⠀ #reciperoundup #souplove #soupseason #soupsoftheworld #eattheworld #f52grams #fbcigers #covid19
  • So, here in North America at least, it feels like the world shifted a little, even just in the last 24 hours?! And it feels like the shifting probably isn't over just yet.... ⠀⠀ Often moments like this are framed through a lens of 'lacking' or 'deprivation', the events that are cancelled, the moments lost, the 'isolations' enforced. ⠀⠀ But we can also see the possibilities: the chances to be gentle with oneself, the chances for kindnesses with one another, the chances to build and practice other forms of relationality with one another. Let us not be afraid to keep caring for and engaging the people around us. ⠀⠀ This is the last of the recipes I'm going to share for #soupweek. Go out, stock up on squash and lentils too. Now we're ready. ⠀⠀ This is the Red Lentil and Squash Soup with Za'atar Croutons, from @yasminkhanstories' book Zaitoun, and it's also found online (I'll share the link in my profile ☝). It's aromatic and hearty, and the croutons add a nice crunch. I actually, instead of making classic bread croutons, used za'atar pita chips for the croutons! ⠀⠀ #Zaitouncookbook is a beautiful book, full of delicious recipes like this one. But what I also love about Yasmin's book is how she delves into the lives and politics of the people making the food. There's no way to talk about #Palestine and #Palestinianfood without talking about how these are deeply impacted by occupation and displacement. She's gentle, careful, and respectful - it's a book to learn from, not only from the recipes, but from how they were collected, written, and put together. In a slightly different way, It's also a refusal to stop caring and engaging with those around us. ⠀⠀ This is not a time to stop caring for one another, not a time to succumb to fear (though, I get the temptation). I hope you are all able to be gentle with yourself and with others. Now is the time to grow and strengthen our care for one another, for our communities (and to expand how we understand who is in our communities!) I'll be here learning how to practice this, too. And, I'll probably be making lots of soup 😂 ⠀⠀ #souplove #eattheworld #middleeasternfood #fbcigers #zaitoun #craftbeer #eatwell #f52grams

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