Rubbishy Cookery

  It’s that time of year again—holiday parties! You have to bring something, you can’t arrive empty handed, but what can you whip up rubbishly without appearing rubbishy? I can help you. These nuts are originally from a published recipe on a long-forgotten bougie recipe blog, but I’ve pimped them up so much I don’t feel any compunction to confess to any plagiarism. These nuts are original Rubbishy Cookery now baby. Ingredients: Directions: This first part is the part I’ve “borrowed” from the other posh blog (whose name I’ve forgotten so I couldn’t credit them even if I wanted to. Sorry not sorry!). Toast a tray of mixed or single type of nuts at 300F for about 10-15 minutes or until the nuts are fragrant and light brown inside, without burning them: This part is critical (and thanks to the other highbrow blog of long forgotten title): get those hot nuts into a bowl and pour in a good glug  of tamari sauce and a smaller glug of toasted sesame oil—they will sizzle hard and evapo...

  I love hot pot Bibim Bap at Korean restaurants, with the crispy crunchy rice, delicate vegetables, runny yolk egg, and hot sauce all mixed together in the big hot bowl. But how can you make it at home? This post will show you how to make a rubbishy homage to this classic Korean dish. Ingredients: Note that the most important ingredient here is a kitchen small appliance: a waffle maker. I don’t remember when I last used my waffle maker to make actual waffles. I only use it now to “waffle” (yes, I just verbed the word waffle)(then I verbed the word verb) all sorts of things, mostly leftover starches. More on this in future posts. Note also the fresh rice cooker pot of jasmine rice. I usually use leftover rice for this, but my dinner companion had “seconds” of rice with last night’s dinner of braised tofu (presumably to dilute the braised tofu?) and there were no leftovers for today’s dish. Also note the fresh vegetables in the picture above. I have included the pick of the seasonal...

  This is my version of a beloved dish from another favourite long-gone restaurant from my youth, Young Lok in Toronto. Young Lok was a classic semi-authentic Szechuan Chinese restaurant, located in the Village by the Grange plaza near downtown Chinatown, and a family favourite all through the 1980s and 90s.  When Young Lok closed its doors, I thought I’d never have anything like their braised tofu (or as their menu called it, “bean curd”) in black bean sauce again, and I haven’t. But I think this version comes pretty close—thanks  to a special ingredient, without which this recipe would be a mere shadow of its aspirations. I’m going to split this recipe into two parts: the pre-cooking of the tofu, and the final braised dish. Part I: pre-cooking the tofu, or “bean curd”. Ingredients: Directions: First, pat dry and squeeze some moisture out of your firm tofu with a clean tea towel. Then slice the tofu into serving size cubes: Next, line a cookie sheet with parchment paper ...