Cheftimony Snack: What’s Cooking?
“Nisha Vora of Rainbow Plant Life is a former lawyer who sensibly gave that up to become a vegan food blogger. She’s written a wonderful recipe book called The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook”
On today’s snack-sized episode, I rant briefly about busyness and then dive into ten or so minutes on some fun dishes I’ve been cooking lately. Oddly, the one I don’t talk about is Gordon Ramsay’s Broccoli Soup, the feature picture for this episode. What an outstanding (and quick!) soup. If you haven’t tried it, it is certainly worth the very few minutes it will take you to make it.
I do talk about cacio e pepe, of course, one of my favourite dishes of 2019 and, seemingly, 2020. If you visit my hometown of Gibsons, British Columbia, I highly recommend you order this pasta from my friends at Buono Osteria. They do a brilliant job.
Next up are Brothy Beans, a slowly-cooked wonder of a dish, perfect for winter evenings. I learned about these beans from The Splendid Table podcast. On this particular episode, host Francis Lam welcomed several guests, and it was Andy Baraghani of Bon Appetit Magazine who shared this recipe. Give it a try, it is so much more delicious than I expected it would be.
Nisha Vora of Rainbow Plant Life is a former lawyer who sensibly gave that up to become a vegan food blogger. She’s written a wonderful recipe book called The Vegan Instant Pot Cookbook, from which my wife and I made a delicious Miso Mushroom Risotto one chilly winter’s eve. The combination of miso and vegan butter, both stirred into the risotto right before serving, really worked.
The next dish is one that sort of looked like the one in this blog post (which is a great guide if you’d like to try it). The key ingredient is one I found recently, Lao Gan Ma’s Spicy Chili Crisp. This stuff is incredible and, judging by the enthusiasm online, I’m not alone in that opinion. Check out this piece by Food 52 for ideas on how to use spicy chili crisp on, well, everything. The dish I made was simply fresh noodles cooked with some veg and then slathered in a combination of black vinegar, a wee bit of soy, and the spicy chili crisp. Lovely!
Last and most definitely not least is a unique approach to pizza by the Urban Peasant himself, James Barber. James hosted fantastic cooking shows on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation, he was a noted food columnist in Vancouver, and he released a series of cookbooks unlike any others you’ve seen, starting with Ginger Tea Makes Friends in the 1970s. It’s difficult to describe how different and wonderful James Barber was. There’s an interesting blog where a chef is cooking his way through the Urban Peasant’s recipes (give Quick Pizza Dough #2 a try!), and finding the occasional success amidst the more-regular… um… challenges. But it’s all great fun. I also recommend you have a look at some clips of the Urban Peasant, like this one if you’re hosting a fancy party, or this one on chicken stock, or even this one for an interesting approach to salmon steaks.
To the show now. Join me for today’s snack!