Elsa Brobbey

We’re waiting with delicious anticipation for the start of summer fruit season here in BC.
The season is short and sweet, just like the fruits but plentiful; luscious and fragrantly ripened fruits with vibrant colours; from delicate shades of peach, rich golden apricots to deep ruby hues of cherries.

In the meantime we have apples, which are practically year round in these parts, and when the sunshine has us craving fruit, we turn to apples.

Apples are awesome! Rich in disease-fighting antioxidants and soluble fibre, they’re a staple on my weekly grocery list – sometimes we buy a lot and don’t eat them fast enough, and in the summers, fortune occasionally smiles on us with a shipment of Envy apples from New Zealand.

Our over-abundant apples usually go into making these apple hand pies, or some other delicious apple filled pastry.
I love these portable and old fashioned pies! They’re adorable and make a delightful snack.

Chopped apples cooked gently in cinnamon, vanilla and sugar, stuffed into flaky pastry dough and baked – they’re aromatic, warm and comforting.

The sweet flavours of apples and cinnamon, with the hint of lemon, the buttery crust… absolutely addictive.

There’s something about sunny days that makes me want to travel, or just go for long walks. The rain on the other hand, makes me want to stay in bed and eat breakfast all day long.
There’s been a break in our dry lovely weather, temperatures have cooled and the rain is back!

The rain when it returns is comforting at first, perhaps because it rains so much here, and that’s familiar or maybe it’s the gentle cool morning air. Mornings that has me longing for a big breakfast, the kind so filling, it makes you skip lunch.

This little French toast number is one of those breakfasts; and I love it on cool spring mornings.
Decadent French toast with blueberry sauce and apples and pears lightly caramelized by roasting them.

This French toast recipe is one that I use often, because it’s simple, doesn’t have dairy or eggs and yet tastes scrumptious, I use very thick cut bread and let the bread soak up the mixture thoroughly before ‘frying’ it.

Another great tip I learned for making French toast is to get the skillet hot before you add the bread, here are six more tips for not screwing up your French toast.

I discovered roasted apples over the winter months, and it’s been my go-to breakfast side, it makes apples fun again, I love the sweet caramelized texture and how they still retain their crunch.

The blueberry sauce is sweet and tart, the perfect condiment for a host of breakfast foods, I’ve used it in yoghurts, porridge and granola.

Technically, this is three recipes in one, but do not despair, the blueberry sauce and the roasted apples can be made in advance. The toasts are good on their own too, with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or maple syrup and fruit.

(And because the recipe is so long, it’s after the jump)

I made this sautéed kale, carrots and couscous one weekend a couple of weeks ago and ate it every day for dinner for a whole week. I do this often, make a big pot of one of my favourite meals and eat it every day for as long as it lasts.

It also allows me time to research and plan my next spectacular meal, or as in the case of this week, stay outside in the sun for as long as possible.

We’ve had a nice stretch of amazingly sunny days, it as if we’ve shot straight for summer.
While I love this gorgeous warm weather, I’m a little leery of what this means for our summer.

Last night we took our dinner down to the beach and had a little picnic in the sun, it was a meal of leftovers… spiced chickpeas and vegetables salad from the weekend, and a sweet strawberry icebox pie for after.

Later, we strapped on our cameras and went for a long walk, capturing moments that captivate us, and make us fall in love with the city again – at that very moment, life felt perfect.

Now on to this couscous, it’s one of those simple and super delicious, and perfectly nourishing meals that you can make ahead of time. It has some of my favourite foods – chickpeas, couscous, carrots and kale.

The recipe comes from Chatelaine; originally a ‘kale and bell pepper quinoa toss’, I made a few modifications mainly based on what I had in the fridge and pantry.

It’s ideal on its on as a main dish, or as a side and hopefully with plenty of leftovers for lunch or dinner the next day.

Reason #286 why I love summers Vancouver – Whytecliff Park; the sun, the rocky beaches and the magnificent views…
Summer around these parts makes the other miserable nine months almost bearable, there’s nowhere else I’d rather be!

“Whytecliff Park (15.63 hectares in size) is located in a beautiful corner of Howe Sound with a rugged coastline and spectacular views of colourful mountains and passing boats. The waters off the Park became Canada’s first Salt Water Marine Protected Area (MPA) in 1993 and are now famous for its incredible underwater diving. Five hectares (12.3 acres) of this park contains a playground, picnic spots, a swimming beach, tennis courts and an observation pavilion from which to admire the stunning views.”

The promise of sun and higher temperatures this weekend has me dreaming of summer! Can’t want to relive all this again…

When my last tin of Bird’s Custard Powder was nearing its use-by date, I scoured the internet looking for different ways to use it up quickly, which is how I found these custard shortbreads.

I’m so glad I found them, they’re quick and easy to make, and melt-in-your-mouth delicious, now I’m kind of sad I ran out of custard powder – I need an excuse to get another tin, because I want to make these over and over again.

I recently made a batch for my friend K’s dad to take on his flight back home to the UK, he loved them so much (or appreciated the gesture), he’s promised me a large tin of custard powder when he’s coming back this summer.

The cookies are similar to these Christmas time cookies, with custard powder instead of almond meal, the texture is a little bit more airy and delicate, and the taste is lighter.

They make the perfect snack-time treat, and I’m in love with their bright yellow colour.

I think it was my dad who helped nurture my love for tea, and although it took me years to become a ‘real tea drinker’, I always had a revering fascination with tea.

My dad spoke wistfully of tea back when we couldn’t afford it, and when we could, he ordered it from the special duty-free catalogue we received each year.

He called it the tea of the Czars; it may have been Kusmi tea, not that I remember. For all his faults, my dad was never a boastful man; he was humble to a point of self-deprecation, yet he talked about his tea with such pride and passion, I knew it was something special.

We had it on special occasions only, on its own or with nuts or savoury pastries – that’s how he preferred his tea.

I have a deeper appreciation for tea now, its healing and calming properties; most of what I know about tea I learned from François-Xavier Delmas’ blog Discovering Tea, and his excellent tea shops.

I’m not a daily tea drinker, just because I like a little ceremony to go with my tea; I do tea and chickpea cakes often, the savoury (chickpea cakes) and soothing (tea) pairing makes me a little nostalgic and comforted.

The cakes are a little spicy, they melt in your mouth and the tea is cooling, it’s a deliciously unique and complimenting combination.

These chickpea cakes are my favourite teatime snack; the thing I love most about them is their versatility; an assortment of vegetables can be baked into them – onions, carrots, peas (pictured), cauliflower, bell pepper, cabbage, potatoes… etc and it always turns out wonderful.

It’s best enjoyed right out of the oven, when it’s still hot and crispy on the outside, and it’s perfect for tea anytime.

I’ve been feeling a little unmotivated lately; or perhaps lazy would be appropriate, but that’s such a four letter word…
Something must have happened to me in New York because I don’t think I’ve been myself since I got home.

I’m still struggling to finish unpacking from that little trip, and all I seem to be doing lately besides going to work, is staying in bed and reading – because, you know…“literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life”

Admittedly, the few times I forced myself to go out were actually nice, like the afternoon I went grocery shopping for this tomato, basil and cashew sauce – it was a bright sunny day.

This sauce is bright too; I love it for its simple fresh ingredients; it’s a little creamy from rich-tasting cashews and has a smooth tangy flavour from the tomatoes and basil.

I make a big batch, usually doubling the recipe and freeze some for later use; of course, it’s good tossed with pasta, but I use it in a few other dishes as well – on toast, sandwiches and flatbread, or tossed with roasted vegetables.

It’s technically a ‘summer sauce’, but occasionally I’ll come across some good looking hothouse tomatoes and the perfect bunch of basil and cave, also because it’s one of those easy no-brainer sauces that one makes when one is feeling unmotivated.

Like I said, I made a big batch… just in case it takes me a while to get out of this funk I find myself – it makes dinner interesting without too much work.

A little note on when making this sauce; depending on how you prefer your sauces, feel free to add another 1/4 – 1/2 cup of wine or water to the sauce while it simmers, if you feel it’s too thick.

I grew up with Rwanda in the news when it was synonymous with genocide; but I always suspected that this beautiful Eastern African country ‘adorned with hills, lakes and volcanoes’ was so much more than its horrid and unimaginably painful past.

These days Rwanda is becoming known for premium coffee grown on small hilly farms many metres above sea level.

The coffee I brew at home is from Rwanda and I get it from a lovely coffee shop, and it’s really, really good coffee.

Then there’s the millet flour I get from the little African store on Kingsway, it too is from Rwanda – it’s ground from unhulled African finger millet they call uburo.

This flour is a little grittier and the flavour is nuttier than the much popular pearl millet.

When I use this flour to make the traditional Ghanaian spiced porridge (Hausa koko), it’s darker and bolder – a little full-bodied, if you may.

I make this porridge quite often on weekends, alternating between this flour and the pearl millet variety, which is lighter with a smoother taste.

I prefer this finger millet porridge; it’s a little more complex and the spices give it a luxurious depth, I make it with lots of coconut milk and nuts and a warm bowl of this porridge on Sunday mornings is deliciously heartwarming.

The recipe for this porridge can be found here; finger millet flour is in Indian grocery stores too as Ragi flour, and there’s a similar porridge from India called Ragi Malt.

There are certain movies that stay with you long after you’ve watched them, they aren’t necessarily the best, or your typical Oscar-worthy movies; sometimes it’s just because the themes in the movies are relatable.

I watched Higher Ground last year, a 2011 movie starring Vera Farmiga as a woman who suffers a crisis of faith in her tight-knit born-again Christian community.

Coming from an insanely religious culture, I connected with the heroine’s struggle with religion, faith, identity and doubt – I’ve been where she’s been, and basically came to the same realizations.
Every once in a while, something happens that makes me think back on this movie.

There’s also the song from which the movie gets its title, which brings back so many memories… there was a version sung in Twi that my dad played all the time, I can almost hear the singer’s raspy voice hauntingly sing of longing for a ‘higher ground’ – a far better place than she’s found; it made me dream then.

The reason why I’m bringing up the movie is because there’s a scene in it where the women gather for bible study, one of the ‘sisters’ is very excited that someone brought home-made carob-chip cookies to share.

Corrine, our heroine asks her friend; “Do you know what carob tastes like?”
“Chocolate?” her friend asks
“Disappointment” Corrine answers.

I thought about that scene when I started looking into making pie crust without the traditional animal fats (butter, lard) or vegetable shortening that contain trans fat.
I googled ‘vegan pie crust’ and coconut oil came up as an alternative. The challenge was to make a buttery and flaky crust that didn’t taste like disappointment, using coconut oil.

I love coconut oil, I use it in everything – from soups to conditioning my hair, and I’ve used it for baking with great results. Coconut oil stays solid at certain temperatures (76 degrees F. melting point) and can be cut into flour in its solid state just like conventional shortening.

I chill mine in the fridge for a few minutes, cut it into pieces and whirl it with my flour and salt in the food processor for a few seconds, add apple cider vinegar and a few tablespoons of water.

The dough comes together much like any other pie dough, bakes flawlessly and tastes… buttery and flaky.

I made apple hand pies for work using the coconut oil dough, it got high praise, and no one could tell it had coconut oil in it.

This strawberry pie is what I do with the strawberries that are just coming in from California; I wish I knew how to resist them – they’re pretty tempting but not as tasty as BC strawberries in the summer.

There are so many delicious facets to this pie; the crust, perfect textured crumble topping, and the strawberry filling generously spiced with cinnamon, nutmeg, ginger and cardamom for a rustic and flavourful taste – the warm spices and strawberries are perfect together; delightfully so, I love it especially during this time when we’re transitioning into warmer temperatures.