Recipes
This is my recipe stream, where you can see all of my most recent recipe posts - if you'd like to browse recipe categories, or are looking for something more specific, please visit my Family Recipes page! I love experimenting and making things from scratch - baking pies, preserves, pickles, soups, salads, you name it - and coming up with delicious, easy recipes that become a part of my regular routine. Cooking your own food is really satisfying when it tastes delicious, and that's always my goal - food as good or better than I can get at a restaurant, but inexpensively and easily made in my own kitchen. I'm an advocate for trying new things - whether its making fresh pasta for the first time (still on my list to learn!) or making your own pie pastry (something I've been doing for years), it's often easy to make food from scratch, and it usually tastes a lot better. Check out my most recent recipes below!
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Fresh Pasta – Pasta Fresca all’uovo
I’ve been wanting to learn to make fresh pasta for quite a few years; I did make an attempt at it a while back, when I was replicating historical recipes (something I’m still really interested in). I found rolling the dough out with a rolling pin didn’t really work for me – I either didn’t have the upper body strength or the patience to get the thinness I was looking for. I’ve waffled on buying a pasta machine, because they’re a bit pricey and I’m not a fan of having kitchen gadgets take up space unless they’re really getting used. But then a friend lent theirs to me, and I’m…
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Cinnamon Rolls
This recipe for cinnamon rolls was originally written to be made with a standing mixer and a dough hook, but I’ve altered it. since I don’t have one. The only real difference is that it may take a but of muscle to get the dough ingredients combined (and of course, I got impatient, as I do, and got my hands into it to mix it thoroughly). I know that standing mixers have been The Thing for Serious Home Cooks for a long time now, but they’re expensive, and while I’m sure I’d get some use out of one, I mostly view them as a dust-catching status symbol that takes up…
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Shrimp & Bacon Fettuccine
This Shrimp & Bacon recipe has been a staple dinner of mine for a few years now; I love it because it’s really simple to make, really delicious, and it always feels a bit indulgent and celebratory. When I want something hearty and flavourful, especially in cold weather, this is what I make. And it’s pretty easy to keep most of the ingredients on hand – I usually buy frozen raw shrimp & bacon whenever I see them on sale, and keep them in the freezer. I’ve done the same with fresh Parmesan – though I’ll note that when you try to grate frozen Parmesan, it gets a bit powdery,…
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Chicken and Rice Soup
I love this Chicken and Rice Soup, which was suggested to me by a friend on Twitter after I was given a giant bag of rice last year. But the way the original recipe was formatted and written at Bon Appetit (with autoplay video links, ugh!) made me crazy. So I’ve re-written it with some small changes (I hate kale, so I sub in spinach). I find the soup base itself a nice substantial chicken soup, but the garlic oil makes it addictive, and I always double that part of the recipe, at least. The rice does sometimes break down into mush, but I don’t mind that – it just…
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Pecan Pie
I made this for a friend’s birthday, and he said it was “the best pecan pie he’s ever had,” which is exactly the kind of response you want when you bake something for someone. It’s both the first one I’ve ever baked and the first one I’ve ever eaten, but I know I’ll be making it again, because it’s always good to play the hits. Pecan Pie Ingredients Directions Based on Epicurious’ Old-Fashioned Pecan Pie recipe with alterations.
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Short Rib-Stuffed Agnolotti del Plin
Tools Ingredients Pasta dough Roasted Braised Short Ribs Pasta Filling Pasta Sauce Method Day One Roasted Short Ribs Pasta Dough Day Two Roasted Short Ribs The Filling Pasta Filling the pasta Cooking the finished pasta Alexi Chatzilias tenant
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Christmas Recipes from the House of Shaw
Festive recipes from our family gatherings
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Poulet en cocotte (Roast Chicken in a Pot)
Like many people, I spent this Thanksgiving apart from my family due to the pandemic. I’d had a rough week for a whole bunch of reasons, and was feeling really sad about missing out; cooking a big feast with and for people I love is one of my favourite things. But we decided we’d eat together over video chat, so I went ahead and made up a whole dinner like I’d do at home, though on a smaller scale – pumpkin pie, stuffing, melting potatoes, spinach salad with macintosh apples and sliced almonds, and instead of a turkey, a lovely roast chicken. Roasting a chicken is pretty straightforward, and I’ve…
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Roasted Brussels Sprouts with Bacon
A comfort food based on roasted brussels sprouts, with caramelized onions, bacon, and a lovely vinaigrette - it's quick, easy, and delicious!
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Roasted Mediterranean Chicken and Vegetables
This is a nice quick, healthy dinner that’s very filling and tasty. I’ve often made it for dinner and than saved leftovers for lunches. It definitely tastes best warm, though it’s okay cold. It’s also great with pasta, to make it a heartier meal – I had some leftover cooked pasta, and heated it up with some leftovers of this dish, and it was great. Adding the bocconcini a few minutes before serving gives it a chance to melt, which is really nice. You could also add oregano to the balsamic vinegar mixture, or a different variety of vegetables that roast well; I’ve never tried it with zucchini, but I…
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Chicken Burrito Bowls
Usually I don’t love marinating chicken. It takes extra time and planning (at least an hour), it feels wasteful (the leftover marinade goes down the drain, and people often recommend marinating chicken in a ziplock bag, which most will then throw away), and a lot of the time the flavours aren’t exciting enough to justify the extra prep and waste. But the marinated chicken for these Chicken Burrito Bowls turned out perfectly – flavourful, spicy, and delicious – and the amount of marinade leftover didn’t feel excessive. So I totally recommend this one, and if you can leave it overnight, it’s even better. It would probably work really well for…
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Moroccan-Inspired Carrot Salad
This Morrocan-inspired carrot salad is perfect; healthy, lemony carrots and chickpeas with the salty feta and pistachios and a nice hit of sweetness from the dates and pomegranate arils.
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Black Bean Chipotle Soup
A deliciously spicy, flavourful soup that’s warming and filling. This time of year, I like bright, spicy flavours and hearty soups that kick you out of your post-festivities malaise and get you back into the kitchen. This soup was serendipitous; I didn’t feel like cooking, and I was irritated that the grocery store didn’t have half of the ingredients I needed for the recipe I wanted to make. I felt grumpy that I had to come up with something on the fly, and thought this was going to be one of those soups that you made and ate dutifully without really enjoying it. I cooked it based on a recipe,…
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Cassie’s Banana Bread
This is my sister Cassie’s banana bread recipe; I made it for the first time this week. Cassie’s critique was that I mashed the bananas too fine – she likes more chunks of banana in the baked loaf. So keep that in mind! This is a nice, straightforward recipe that turns out delicious every time – or at, least every time I’ve eaten it! Cassie’s Banana Bread Ingredients 3 or 4 ripe bananas, smashed 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour 1/3 cup melted butter 2/3 cup honey (less with more banana) 1 egg, beaten 1 teaspoon vanilla 1 teaspoon baking soda a pinch of salt Directions Preheat the oven to 350…
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Buche de Noel
Buche de Noel Ingredients Filling 2 cups heavy cream 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar 1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 teaspoon vanilla extract Cake 6 egg yolks 1/2 cup white sugar 1/3 cup unsweetened cocoa powder 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract 1/8 teaspoon salt 6 egg whites 1/4 cup white sugar confectioners’ sugar for dusting Directions Preheat oven to 375 F (190 C). Line a 10″ x 15″ inch jellyroll pan with parchment paper. Filling: In a large bowl, whip cream, 1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar, 1/2 cup cocoa, and 1 teaspoon vanilla until thick and stiff. Refrigerate. Cake: In a large bowl, use an electric mixer to beat egg yolks with…
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Wassail – Mulled Ale
Wassail is an old tradition, going back to pre-Norman England and possibly earlier. There seem to be at least two kinds of wassailing: one kind carried door to door in a large wooden bowl to toast neighbours, and one to visit apple orchards (particular to apple-growing regions) or fields and livestock to ask for a good growing and harvesting season in the coming year and to scare away evil spirits. Like lots of old, regional traditions, it’s pretty confused and tangled-in with other traditions. Those traditions might have been unique from one village or family to the next, all in place for hundreds of years before anyone thought to write…
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Mulled Wine – Glühwein
Glühwein translates as ‘glowing wine,’ and I agree that it adds a glow to the season. In my time at the Toronto Christmas Market, the smell of mulled wine was one of the most evocative scents of the season, and a glass of it at the end of a long, cold day sent me home with a warmth in my heart. People have been drinking spiced wines since the Roman period at least, and the earliest recipe that we have is from 1390, which is older than any of the other recipes I’ve been able to find for my other festive drinks. This is another drink that was given to…
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Eggnog
I have never been an eggnog fan, at least not of the stuff I usually see at festive events – the eggnog that comes in a carton from the store. But I always thought I might like it a lot more if I tried making it from scratch, and this weekend my sisters and I decided to try it out – and I was right. In the older sources I can find, Eggnog is characterized as ‘an American drink,’ though it’s thought to be related to the old English possets. It’s often considered a good drink for people who are ill. I’ve read several times in modern recipes, without any…
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Lamb’s Wool
Lamb’s Wool is an old recipe, a drink that was made in celebration during the dark, festive season, often as part of the tradition of wassailing – in this case, a kind-of ritual toasting the apple orchards (and often other crops, fields, and livestock) to ask for a good harvest in the coming year. In the photo below, I’ve included some real rovings of natural wool from a sheep, so you can see that the colour is actually quite close to real wool. it also has a thick texture, that’s comforting, warm, and hearty. When I decided to try making it, I had a lot of research to do. Years…
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Cranberry Muffins
Update 2019: Ten years later, this is still my favourite muffin recipe! I usually load it full of cranberries, but you can substitute other fruit – I think raspberries work really well, and blueberries would probably be great. But I love the tart-sweetness of the cranberries, and i usually add more than this recipe calls for. I also really like the way maple syrup sweetens the batter – it seems to blend better (in my opinion) than honey does, but either is great. 2009 Post: This is my favourite muffin recipe ever; not particularly sweet, packed full of tart cranberries, pretty much perfect. If you’re one for the coffee-shop sugar-bomb…
