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While patisseries are nothing new on Queen Street West, here in Toronto, there's a new kid on the block, and I gotta say, I'm a little tickled.Pain au chocolat

Giving established places like Clafouti something to talk about Nadege is an unassuming bakery with sleek lines that evoke a "France moderne" but the food is definitely deeply rooted in French tradition (with a few exceptions). Macarons, the French meringue based confection usually sandwiched with ganache entered the scene a few years ago, so Nadege has stepped up to the plate with a variety of offerings from Blackberry and Chocolate (yum!) to Mojito (pass). Of course they also have the regular pastry offerings you would expect, Croissant, Almond Croissant, Pain au Chocolat and the most decadent Chocolate Almond Croissant. I tried a unique pairing of Pistachio and Dried Cherry which was didn't quite have the depth of flavour I was hoping for.

But the one thing that has me truly tickled about Nadege is their introduction of Cannele to the Toronto scene. I have yet to see these little Bordeaux specialties anywhere else in the city.

Baked in copper molds, they are speckled with vanilla and have a soft custardy inside.

CanneleAlthough I didn't try their sandwhiches, they were pretty enough to frame. I'll definitely be going back for one of those soon. So definitely give Nadege a try. Although don't get carried away and ask the staff for a "Café Crème" or a "Café au Lait" because they'll look at you strangely. Just order a latté like the rest of Toronto does.

 Nadege, 780 Queen St. W. 416-368-2009.

Over a year ago, I was introduced to a delicious form of hot chocolate, it involves a spice bag filled with what might usually be savoury additions such as a bay leaf, peppercorns, ginger and even dried chili.

A concoction made of milk and/or cream with real dark chocolate melted in for good measure, it's good on its own, fantastic with a warming shot of brandy or cognac and sinful with a little coffee.

When a foodie friend suggested I try hot chocolate with Garam Masala mix, how could I resist?

The recipe comes from Arvinda's Artisanal Spice Blends but her recipe uses milk, and cocoa powder, and well, it's just not the same decadent consistency as doing it the way I learned a little while ago.

So taking inspiration from Arvinda's recipe, and using her Garam Masala spice blend, here's my version.

Garam Masala Hot Chocolate

1 cup whole milk

1 cup 18% cream

113 gr. bar of 70 per cent dark chocolate (I used Ghiradelli)

2 tsp sugar

2 tsp Arvinda's garam masala spice blend

1 dried red chili

Pour milk and cream into a saucepan. Bring to a light simmer. Add spices and chili, remove from heat and let steep for 1 hour.

Strain mixture.

Reheat milk and cream mixture. Once warm, add broken pieces of chocolate, and stir until melted. Add sugar to taste.

This drink will warm you from the inside out, even without the cognac. A perfect little indulgence for someone like me, who's abstaining from alcohol right now. It's also a great way to end a meal.

Cheers!

This past Christmas, I got on the Julia Child bandwagon, enthralled by the movie Julie and Julia (more for Meryl Streep's portrayal of Child than anything else), and put Mastering the Art of French Cooking on my wish list.

Well, my mom came through and I found myself poring over not just volume 1, but volume 2 as well.

And although I love the books, and I say this with the greatest affection for Child, some of the recipes are more complicated than they need to be. There, I said it. Challenge me if you must, but it is the reality by my standards, and that is saying a lot from someone who is taking chef training as a hobby.

I don't doubt that much of what is in the books is directly taught at the Cordon Bleu. The problem being that some of it is clearly restaurant cooking.

Case in point: Coq au Vin.

A great braising dish, this one becomes unnecessarily complex with seperate recipes for the brown-braised onions (to be added at the end) and the sauteed mushrooms, also to be added as a garnish. I puzzled over this, and can only come up with this explanation: in a large production kitchen, you would make these onions or mushrooms in large batches because they would be used for several dishes. At home, it just doesn't make sense.

Now, the chef in me says: "Wait! How will the chicken get the flavours of the onion, if they're not cooked in the dish?" The practical side of me says: "And that's yet another pot to wash!"

So I tinkered with the recipe and referenced the Larousse Gastronomique (one of the previous year's Christmas gifts), and found that a delicious result could be achieved in one dish and dare I say it, maybe even a little bit healthier! Note: I did not say this is "healthy". It still contains bacon and enough fat off the chicken.

Just to make sure I didn't deviate too far, I even did the flambe. (Be sure to stand back, as you'll be surprised by how high the flames will rise). The result was a rich sauce, tasty mushrooms and onions to boot and a perfectly braised chicken thigh. I also used only thighs, which not only makes this an economical option, but the dark meat works best with the slow braising. I like this recipe because it breaks all the rules-- using red wine with poultry and beef broth instead of chicken. Of course if you were so inclined you could make your own dark chicken broth by browning the bones first, but that's another time-consuming endeavour.

Coq au Vin (à la méthode Vixen)

3 to 4 oz of bacon

2 onions, sliced

1/2 lb mushrooms, quartered

2 lbs of chicken thighs, skin on bone-in.

2 tbsp cognac

1/2 can of tomato paste

3 cloves garlic

1 bay leaf

2 sprigs of thyme

1 cup red wine

2 cups of beef broth

Cut the bacon into strips widthwise and saute until brown in a dutch oven. Remove from pan. In the bacon drippings, brown the chicken with the skin on. After all sides are brown, remove and let sit.

Add in the onions and brown, slowly over low heat. Add mushrooms and continue to cook, adding a little butter to prevent sticking. Stir in tomato paste and minced garlic. Cook for another 2 to 3 minutes before proceeding.

With a heavy lid in hand, pour in the cognac, stand back, and ignite. Snuff out the flames by placing the lid over the pot and letting them die out. Scrape the bottom of the pot, pour in the wine, and simmer to reduce by half.

Coq Au VinAdd the broth, bay leaf and thyme. Remove the skin from the chicken and add thighs (without the skin) to the pot.

With a piece of parchment paper cut to fit the pot, place in oven at 350F for an hour. Baste chicken every 15 minutes to keep moist. Remove from oven, and if sauce needs thickening, take chicken out of pot and reduce. Replace chicken and serve.

Serve with roasted new potatoes and green beans.

Well, dear readers,

Have you noticed my absence in in recent months. I know I haven't been wowing you with great recipes or photos worthy of a little salivation over the keyboard. And for that I apologize.

However, you should know that there is good reason for my absence. I am pregnant. And those first few months of morning sickness really took a toll on what was produced in the kitchen. In fact, in kinda screeched to a grinding halt as I opted for frozen lasagnas and yogurt-fruit smoothies. The thought of raw chicken made me want to gag, and to be honest, I wasn't even too keen on the idea of eating it, even when someone else cooked it (sorry Hubby!)

Luckily now I'm past my first trimester, and my appetite is back. So I promise I'll be a little more diligent.

On that note, I'd like to introduce you to a new cookbook that embraces one of my promises to myself this year, to eat locally, and ethically where possible.

A Year in Lucy's Kitchenby Lucy Waverman gives excellent suggestions for meals every month of our Canadian year. While it's true that we may have to rely on canned goods in the winter, Waverman makes the most of them, noting that they can be substituted with fresh ingredients when in season, like in the following recipe.

The book is beautifully illustrated, but it's not food porn. Don't expect a glossy photo with every dish. Each month also takes into a account seasonal holidays, and incorporates recipes that could be used every day, or for these special occasions. Most importantly though, the recipes are simple. They are easy to execute and make cooking easy.

Waverman hits a homerun with this one.

In the following recipe, I would suggest one small tweak when using canned tomatoes. Drain them, or the wine in the recipe won't have enough time to evaporate by the time the fish is cooked. I loved how fast and simple this dish was. I did about 15 minutes of prep work and it was in the oven.

Halibut with Spiced Moroccan Saucecopyright Random House

By Lucy Waverman

SERVES 4

The combination of spices and colours makes this a real taste treat and feast for the eyes. I make it with fresh tomatoes in summer and good-quality canned tomatoes in other seasons.

1⁄4 cup chopped fresh coriander

1⁄4 cup chopped parsley

2 tsp chopped garlic

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

Pinch cayenne

Salt and freshly ground pepper

1⁄4 cup lemon juice

1⁄2 cup white wine

2⁄3 cup chopped fresh or canned tomatoes

4 halibut fillets (about 6 oz/175 g each)

1⁄2 cup cracked green olives

PREHEAT oven to 425°F.

CHOP coriander, parsley and garlic in a food processor. Add oil, cumin, paprika, cayenne, salt and pepper and puree. Add lemon juice and combine. Reserve 2 tbsp spice mixture.

COMBINE wine, tomatoes and remaining spice mixture in a baking dish. Place halibut in baking dish in a single layer, skin-side down. Spread reserved spice mixture over fish.

BAKE for 15 minutes. Add olives and continue to bake for 5 minutes, or until white juices appear on fish. Serve fish with sauce.

Excerpted from A Year in Lucy's KitchenCopyright © 2009 by Lucy Waverman. Photography by Rob Fiocca. Excerpted by permission of Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved.

And in case you were wondering, this is how mine turned out, served over a bed of multicoloured rice.

A recipe collection that spans the seasons from chefs Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann at the Ancaster Old Mill, just outside of Toronto, Earth to Table: Seasonal Recipes from an Organic Farm is almost a how-to guide on eating locally, seasonally, and ethically.

From advice on choosing farmed fish that doesn't harm its environment to commentary on using more than just "choice" cuts of meat and from tips on foraging in the spring to canning in the summer, Crump and Schormann take you on a culinary journey.

Crump admits he's only after the end product. And the end product has to taste good. He writes: "A local, seasonal, organic tomato tastes better than its alternative... I suppose if it were the other way around, I'd have to consider switching, luckily I don't."

The recipe titles scream simplicity. What you see is what you get: Chicken Under a Brick; Salt-Baked Arctic Char, Bread and Butter Pudding. They are all exactly what you would expect. Start with good ingredients, and it's hard to go far wrong. Some jumped out at me. I can't weight to try my hand at the Mile-High Pumpkin Pie, the Oatmeal Molasses Bread, or the One-Pot Fish Soup with Rouille. And I'm already dreaming of spring when I can try my hand at some of their rhubarb offerings.

I tried out one recipe, which I've been given permission to reproduce here by Random House. I should note that the recipe in the book gives you the amount of potatoes in weight, as well as a unit count.

I would go with the unit count. The weight (4 1/2 lbs for 4 medium potatoes) didn't seem quite right (that would be some heavy potatoes), and when I tried it that way, the mixture came out quite wet, and not workable.

I roasted my potatoes on a bed of salt in their skins, which helps keep the mixture drier, and I used a potato ricer, to lessen the mashing which can cause the potatoes to become more glutinous, which makes for tougher gnocchi. Though as noted in the recipe, the addition of sweet potato will lessen the chances of that happening.

Sweet Potato Gnocchi

By Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann, authors of Earth to Table

Adding sweet potatoes to a gnocchi recipe makes it a little easier for the home cook to pull off, because sweet potatoes have less starch than potatoes, and a high starch content can make gnocchi dense and tough. The combination of sage and sweet potatoes is one for the ages.

Serves 6 as a main course

4 medium sweet potatoes

4 medium Yukon gold potatoes

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 tsp salt

1⁄4 tsp freshly cracked black pepper

2 extra-large eggs, beaten

3 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil

1⁄4 cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese

12 fried sage leaves (see tip) 

Preheat oven to 375ºF. Place sweet potatoes and potatoes on a baking sheet and roast until soft, about 2 hours. Let cool slightly, then cut in half and scoop the flesh into a large bowl. (This should yield about 5 lbs of roasted potato mixture.)

Add flour, salt and pepper to the potato mixture and mix together until smooth. Make a well in the center and pour in eggs. Using a fork and starting in the center of the mixture, incorporate eggs into mixture. 

Turn out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until a soft, slightly sticky, spongy dough forms, being careful not to work dough too much. Shape into a ball and place on a lightly floured cutting board. Cut ball into 8 pieces and cover with a clean tea towel. Dust a baking sheet with flour.

On a lightly floured surface, working with one piece of dough at a time and keeping the rest covered, roll each piece into a 20-inch rope, about 1⁄2 inch thick. Cut rope into 1-inch lengths. Using your thumb, roll each piece of dough over the back of the tines of a floured fork, leaving an indention from your thumb on one side and the markings from the fork on the other. Place gnocchi on prepared baking sheet. Repeat with remaining dough. (Make ahead: Cover and refrigerate for up to 1 day, or freeze in an airtight container for up to 1 month.)

Meanwhile, bring a large pot of salted water to a boil over high heat. Plunge half the gnocchi into the boiling water. Once they float to the surface, cook for 1 minute longer. Using a slotted spoon, transfer to a baking sheet or plate and continue cooking the remaining gnocchi. Drizzle with oil and toss to coat. Sprinkle with Parmesan and fried sage leaves.

TIP:  There is such a things as “tough herbs” or winter herbs, like sage or rosemary.  These hearty herbs that keep growing well after the first snowfall can handle being fried- the result is crispy and delicious.  In a small frying pan heat ½ cup of canola oil until hot but not smoking.  Add hers band cook until crispy, about 30 seconds, and remove from oil using tongs.  Transfer to a paper plate lined with paper towel and use as needed.

Excerpted from Earth to Tableby Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann Copyright © 2009 by Jeff Crump and Bettina Schormann. Photographs Copyright © 2009 by Edward Pond. Excerpted by permission of Random House Canada, a division of Random House of Canada Limited. All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.