I first interested after reading my Winnipeger's foodie buddy, Zollipop. Back when she posted about it, I somehow forgot about this place. Then, two days ago at the urbanspoon, I found people posted some pictures of this cafe. One of them was a picture of different hot sauces on this cafe's table.

You might be curious why I was so fascinated just because a picture of hot sauces. Well let me tell you. I grew up at a place where all restaurants have a bottle or bowl of chili sauce or sambal on the table. I came to the country where I have to ask for hot sauce at some restaurants unless I go to the Asian ones. Sriracha, tabasco and chili oil are pretty common to be offered here, but this cafe offers sambal ABC sauce or labeled as tropical chili sauce in Canada and Thai sweet chili sauce. Now, you got what I meant. Yes, I grew up with this kinds of sambal sauce (preferably jempol and belibis brand), but since sambal ABC is the easiest to get in Winnipeg, I like buying it.





The Sherbrook area, the one that is closed to Misericodia hospital has some places to dine in for vegetarians such as Stella's Cafe, Cousins Deli & Lounge and Charisma Indian restaurant. In my honest opinion, with a great concept and settled in the right neighbourhood, Boon Burger Cafe will do considerably. Plus, it is owned by conscientious people.

Take a look what this place has promised...


The place is not that big yet very efficient. It has two communal tables inside and two small round tables at the patio. The communal table really reminds me of traditional warungs (read: small restaurants) in Indonesia where you can have a chat with the strangers next to or in front of you. Strangers are just friends you don�t yet know. Don't you think?

As an omnivore who often makes vegetarian foods for the better half, I enjoyed my Salsa Burger from Boon. Salsa Burger contains grilled mushroom-rice patty, chunky salsa, avocado, a slice of daiya vegan cheese, red onion and lettuce. The only thing I didn't enjoy was the salsa. I don't find the salsa is perfect balance for this burger. However, I took a bit of my husband's Buddha Burger and loved it! Buddha Burger has curried chickpea patty, mayo, creamy cucumber sauce, peach chutney, sliced cucumber, tomato, red onion and lettuce.


In fact, I didn't eat in. I just recreated how Boon serves the burgers for the sake of picture; serve on a square wood plate. Thanks goodness for my food props at home! I have almost the same as Boon has, so I can take a picture of my meal. Plus, I have my own sambal ABC sauce too

Boon's baked sesame fries was tasty too. Yummmm.

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I got a bag of apples and didn't know what to do, too many recipes out there.  Apple sauce, apple pie, chicken apple, you name it!

Then, when I stopped by at Hyundae mart, I found a great deal on roasted buckwheat (kasha) and beans.  Beside buying more miso, I grabbed some beans and kashas.  Hyundae mart used to be a Kosher food grocer,  I guess the Korean took over the management, changed the name and added more Korean and Japanese products.

Thanks to Irma for her Eid goodies that was sent from Germany.  I have few packages of almond flavour to boost my baking.

The mix of almond flour and buckwheat is used to substitute  the oat which contains gluten.

Apple Buckwheat Crumble
adapted from Canelle et Vanille
Yield: 10 ramekins

Ingredients:
400 g apples, cored and diced
2 key limes, zest and juice
1/8 tsp almond flavor*
25 g sugar
15 g cornstarch

Topped:
100 g butter, cold and cut into small pieces
100 g sugar
100 g buckwheat
100 g almond flour
1/4 tsp salt



Directions:
Toss apple, key lime, almond flavor, sugar and cornstarch together in a bowl.

Mix the sugar, buckwheat, almond flour and salt in a bowl. Add the cold diced butter and work it into the flour until a crumb forms and small pieces of butter remain.

In small ramekins or a pie dish, add apple mixture and top with buckwheat and almond crumble.

Bake at 350F for about 30 minutes or until fruit starts to bubble over. If the crumble turns dark before the fruit is bubbling, cover with aluminum foil.

The rest of the unused crumble may be frozen until next time.

*Almond flavor can be used interchangeably with vanilla pods, powder or flavor. Almond flour can be substituted for soy flour.

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These pictures have been long overdue. Seven months ago when I still stayed in Boissevain, I was kinda craving for Ethiopian food. But, no Ethiopian restaurants in the province except in Winnipeg. Then, I read on the Brandon local newspaper that there would be the 7th Annual Lieutenant Governor's Winter Festival in Brandon. The distance between Brandon and Boissevain is about an hour driving.

The festival's concept was pretty much similar to Folklorama in Winnipeg. Just for your information, Folklorama is the largest and longest running multicultural event of its kind in the world!

Today, I just realized that I have had these pictures (make sure you see all the pictures below) when I went back to my old photo stocks on Flickr.

I was first got to know Ethiopian cuisine in 2008 when my husband and I went to the Ethiopian restaurant in our neighbourhood. Then, we felt in love with the food right away.

Traditional Ethiopian cuisine employs no pork of any kind, as most Ethiopians are either Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, Muslims or Jews, and are thus prohibited from eating pork.

Look how pretty the Massobs are! Massob/Mesob is an Ethiopian communal serving basket and made from woven grass.




When I entered the room and breathed in, the aroma rang a bell right away. Smell just like dupa in Indonesian or kemenyan in Javanese. It was incense that burned inside Kirkira (sorry if I misspelled).



This was my portion of Injera, Wat and Tibs. Injera is an Ethiopian large sourdough flatbread, which is about 50 centimeters in diameter and made out of fermented teff flour; Wat is meat Stew, it can be chicken, lamb and/or beef; Tibs is sauteed vegetables.


Teff flour is a gluten-free flour substitute that you can use in any of your recipes calling for all-purpose flour. It has nutty flavor and adds a pleasant sweetness to any recipe.

First time, I had a goat stew at the Ethiopian restaurant, I was stunned. It did remind me of goat curry in Indonesia. For those who love South East Asian curries, you won't have a hard time to like Ethiopian dishes.

Since I got to know Ethiopian tradition, I found similarity between Ethiopians and Indonesians. Traditionally, we eat the food with the right hand, no cutlery. Honestly, I sometimes do eat by hand at home :-P. The difference, the Ethiopians use injeera to pick up food. They also have small bowl with water and a slice of lime for washing the hand.


Stay tune for my next post, Ethiopian Coffee Ceremony.

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This is not a typical food that I cook everyday. I only make if I'm lazy or no time to cook.

As I'm a person who likes using a bit heat in food, I throw some slices of red chili. The dish looked too pale for me, so add parsley to give more colour. Three things that didn't come from a package were onion, parsley, and red chili.

When I was a kid, I vividly recalled that I enjoyed snails as sate bekicot (snail sate) and snail chips. Let see how those snails or the French says "Escargot" came in a can.




How did I make this lazy meal?

You will need:
1/2 onion, chopped
1 red chili, sliced
2 tbsp olive oil
1 can garlic butter snail
1 small jar (170 ml) marinated arichoke hearts, drained and chucked
200 g macaroni
water
pepper

Methods:
1. In a pot, boil water. Add salt, a bit olive oil and macaroni. Cook macaroni until al dente. Drain and save a bit of water from cooking pasta.

2. In a skillet, combine olive oil and butter that you saw on top of the snail can, with yellowish colour. Saute onion and red chili for a minute.

3. Add macaroni, a bit water from cooking pasta, artichoke hearts and snail. Cook until they mix. Sprinkle over, parsley and pepper. I don't add any salt since the snail already salty enough. Ready to serve.

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I don't mean to give this recipe a long name, but that is what the main ingredients are.

Being so picky with the store-bought' choices, I always love making my own broth from scratch. Yes! It means, boil the water with vegetables, shittake mushroom and herbs. I sometimes add shrimp skins in. In another word, you can make from any leftover fresh veggies and carcass.

I saw potatoes in my pantry and leeks, mushroom, provolone cheese, cilantro in the fridge, I was tempting to make a western style soup. I guess :)

The soup was served with toasted spelt bread. What is spelt? Spelt is a species of wheat that has been grown since 5000 BC. Spelt, emmer and eincorn are considered to be "ancient" wheat species, since there has been very little breeding of these crops. Some people with wheat allergy or wheat intolerance can tolerate spelt. Spelt does however contain gluten, and people with gluten allergies (celiac disease) are likely to be allergic to spelt, similar to wheat and other gluten grains.

Hey! Did I mention this one for my submission to the MFM2 November 2009 - World Cuisine? This November event is hosted by Rurie. Thanks Rurie for volunteering to do this.

Cheese, Leek, Mushroom Potato Soup
recipe by me

Ingredients:
2 dried bay leaves
2 sprigs fresh rosemary
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp unsalted butter
1 stalk celery, cut into 1/2 cm diced
4 leeks, white parts only, washed well, thinly sliced
2 shallots, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
750 g Yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into -inch pieces
250 g white/button mushrooms, chopped
300 g provolone cheese
5 cups Homemade Vegetable/Chicken stock
sea salt and freshly ground black pepper

Directions:
1. Make a bouquet garni: first wrap bay leaves, and rosemary in a piece of cheesecloth. Tie with a piece of kitchen twine, and set aside.

2. Heat olive oil and butter in a medium stockpot. Add celery, leeks, shallots, and garlic; cook on medium-low heat until very soft, about 45 minutes, stirring only occasionally. Do not brown.

3. Add mushroom, potatoes, stock, and reserved bouquet garni.

4. Bring mixture to a boil, and then reduce to a gentle simmer. Cook until potatoes are very tender, about 40 minutes.

5. Remove bouquet garni, and discard.

6. Add cheese and stir with a hand blender, until all smooth.

7. Season with salt and pepper. Serve hot with bread.

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Don't be overwhelmed by the title! True, I used two kinds of berries, strawberry and Saskatoon berry.

I never feel regret that I had to move out from the city due to my work's location. I live close to the farmers where the food begins. My neighbour sometimes offers me to have some fresh vegetables from their garden.

Out of the blue, one of the local people came to the office. She brought a pack of fresh strawberry from u-pick farm. They were totally awesome, sweet and really red. Totally different with the store bought ones! I decided to keep some of them frozen and ate the rest for smoothie and snack.

The next two week, my husband and I went for Saskatoon berries u-pick. I came to conclusion to make New York style Cheesecake with adding Saskatoon Berries as compote. The story of Saskatoon Berry will be posted later.

Since I played around with the recipe, I thought it would be failed. Voila!!! I modified by adding flour as I enhanced by fresh/frozen strawberry in cream cheese filling, and of course the compote.

New York Style Strawberry Cheesecake
recipe by Ricardo Larriv�e, modified by me

Ingredients:
Crust

1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs =>I used Italian �Savoiardi� Lady finger cookies, then grind
2 tbsp sugar
1/4 cup melted butter => I reduced to 3 tbsp

Cream Cheese Filling
4 x Container (250 g/8 oz each) cream cheese, at room temperature=> I used 3 containers
1 1/4 cups sugar => I reduced into 1 cup sugar
4 x eggs
1/2 cup 35% cream => I substituted for plain natural yogurt
1 tbsp vanilla extract => I skipped this
1 cup fresh/frozen strawberry
1/2 cup flour (I suggested to reduce to 1/4 cup)
2 tsp konyaku jelly powder (I suggested to reduce to 1 tsp)

Directions:
Crust

1. In a bowl, combine the ingredients. Press lightly into the bottom of a 20-cm (8-inch) springform pan. Bake for about 10 minutes at 350�F. Let cool.
2. Wrap the outside (bottom and sides) of the springform pan with aluminum foil, making sure it�s watertight
3. Turn the oven temperature down to 170�C (325�F).

Cream Cheese Filling

1. Place all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse until smooth. Pour onto the crust.
2. Prepare a bain-marie: Place the springform pan in a large baking dish. Fill the baking dish with boiling water until it comes halfway up the side of the pan.
3. Bake in the middle of the oven until the filling is set at the edges but the centre trembles slightly when shaken, about 70 minutes. Turn off the oven, leaving the cake inside with the door slightly ajar for 1 hour. Remove the pan from the bain-marie. Remove the foil from the pan. Run a thin knife around the inside edge of the pan. Cover and refrigerate until completely chilled, about 4 hours.

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I had no idea to make anything, then I looked up in to my fridge, there were a wiener wrap can and 1 package of beef wieners. I ate them with my favourite chili sauce and my husband had them with honey mustard.

Special Consideration:		Quick and Easy
Servings:		12

Ingredients:
1 can (200 g) wiener wrap
6 beef/chicken wieners, cut each into a half
1 tbsp milk
sesame seed for sprinkle

Directions:
1. Heat oven to 375�F (190�C).
2. Unroll dough; separate into 6 rectangles. Cut each in half lengthwise to make 12 rectangles.
3. Place a wiener half on the shortest side of each rectangle and roll up. Place on greased baking sheet; brush with milk and sprinkle with sesame seed.
4. Bake for 13 to 16 minutes or until golden brown. Serve warm.

PS. On that picture, there are 13 wiener wraps, so I separated 1 rectangle into 3 small rectangles, that is why it came up more than 12 wiener wraps.

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