Piqued

(Following my foray into international cuisine via Epicurious’ Around the World in 80 Dishes series.)

Although I had already cooked something twice in the past week, I was still in a culinary mood and decided to try pizza with homemade dough!  Pepperoni and mushrooms is my old standby when it comes to ordering pizza, but nooo…the Epicurious series had to go with a true Italian classic: Pizza Margherita.

Pizza Margherita

Recipe | Video

I wound up not eating until after 11pm with this recipe, because I started after work and had to get the ingredients first.  My first time making a “real” dough that has to rise and everything.  It actually wasn’t bad!  Turned out nice and fluffy and spread out pretty easily into a nice pizza pie.

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Time to try a dessert!  In honor of the just-finished Winter Olympics hosted in Vancouver, I decided to go with Canada’s culinary contribution to the series: Maple Sugar Pie.  I’m pretty inexperienced at both desserts and baking, so this was definitely a new thing for me.

Maple Sugar Pie

Recipe | Video

I’m honestly not a huge fan of pecan pie, so I wasn’t sure I’d like this that much.  I do like maple syrup, though, so that was promising.  Turns out this is a quite easy and tasty dessert and was a hit among my coworkers who I shared it with.  Smells and tastes like breakfast!

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For this week’s dinner, it was a Red Snapper dish from Veracruz, Mexico.

Red Snapper, Veracruz Style

Recipe | Video

Not like any other Mexican dish I’ve had, with a very Spanish/Mediterranean blend of ingredients and flavors.  I was a bit concerned about the olives and capers since I don’t really like either, but the dish was amazing.  The raisins balanced out the dryness of the olives and capers, and the jalepeños made it all the better.  Scrumptious.

Over the weekend, I had a French-themed dinner party for some friends.  I cooked up some ratatouille and tarte tatin, and served with merlot, chardonnay, brie, camembert and French bread.  Very tasty, and not too difficult to cook either.  Then we watched the brilliant Pixar film Ratatouille.

Ratatouille

Recipe | Video

My mom used to make ratatouille, and I’ve made a version of it myself on a couple of occasions.  The version I’ve made before was a sort of Americanized version, very simple with few spices, very little sauce, and a lot of cheese.  Good, but probably not what the French would consider very authentic.

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Continuing my foray into more challenging cooking, this week’s dish was Pozole Rojo with Tortillas de Maiz. I’ve never had Pozole Rojo, a Mexican stew made from pork and hominy, and I’ve never made tortillas.  So sounded like another good way to branch out!

Corn Tortillas

Recipe | Video

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