Hot or cold, for breakfast, lunch, or dinner—things don’t get much more versatile than this fiber-filled frittata. Mix up the veggies to keep it seasonal and interesting for endless weekday options. It’s earned a regular spot on my menu.
This is my favorite cake of all time. I love it when we have to judge this round on The Great British Bake Off! The perfect lemon drizzle has a light and airy sponge and a sharp, zesty crunchy topping. My version has quite an intense lemony flavor, but other than that it’s a total classic and I don’t think you should mess with those classics. The only thing to remember is to pour over the drizzle while the cake is still warm.
If we all ate fika, I think the world would be a much better place. Fika is a Scandinavian ritual, like afternoon tea. Traditionally, a range of buns are served that you share with your neighbours, people you work with or friends (imaginary or otherwise). It’s such a great custom and even the mighty Volvo plant in Sweden stops for fika every day. What follows here are the recipes for three different flavour buns, all made from the same dough, but with different fillings (butters) and glazes. We recommend the Milky Way glaze with the cinnamon bun, the coffee glaze with the cardamom and orange bun and the orange glaze with the Nutella bun, but it’s totally up to you. We’ve given quantities for the butter and glaze recipes, but to be honest, you can adjust them depending on whether you want a subtle hint of flavour or a big mouthful, so don’t feel tied down to the measurements.
When I was growing up, we ate several dishes that I thought were really unusual and unique to my mother. Macaroni soup was one of them. Small pasta shapes swimming in chicken or veggie broth, flavored with shiitake mushrooms, peas, carrots and ham. Sometimes Spam was also in that bowl. To me, this didn’t feel like a distinctly Chinese dish, so I assumed it was just something my mum made when she was short on time. I continued to think it was a family recipe until a very recent trip to Hong Kong, where I saw it on the breakfast menu at McDonald’s and practically every other cafe and cha chaan teng menu. I was shocked. Only then did I realize it was actually known as “Hong Kong–style breakfast”; it dawned on me that I still had much to learn about my family culture.
At a cafe close to my hotel in Hong Kong, I ordered a variation of this dish—tomato soup brimming with macaroni pasta, topped with scrambled egg. My love for this dish was instant, inspiring a childlike wonder for a bowl full of textures and childhood memories, just with a little twist.
The first time I took a sip of our new Sunny Little Thing Citrus Wheat Ale I immediately thought about brunch. Sunny Little Thing is easy to drink, has a smooth mouthfeel and is citrusy and bright. It’s a perfect accompaniment to cut the rich, fatty flavors of the hollandaise and sunny side eggs and enhances the smoky flavors of the cold smoked trout. I used it as an ingredient in the hollandaise sauce in place of some of the lemon juice and the bright citrus notes really shine through.
Of all the savory breakfasts in my book Dining In, this one is definitely the heartiest and most time consuming. Even so, it’s still a basic one-skillet deal. It’s also the one dish I am most likely to eat for lunch or dinner, with or without eggs, because I find chickpeas simmered with dried chorizo and fresh tomatoes to be one of life’s greatest pleasures.
Like a hard cheese, cured yolks can quickly add savory depth and complexity to a wide range of foods—soups, salads, pastas, and even meats.
A highlight at the Adjarian Wine House is this open-faced cheese bread, with its bright yellow egg yolk at the centre, the most iconic dish from the Autonomous Republic of Adjara. Adjarian (or Adjaran) khachapuri is a favourite throughout Georgia, and involves participation from the diners who stir the egg into the hot cheese to finish its cooking. The edges of this khachapuri are quite thick. The diner breaks off a chunk by hand and dips it into the eggy cheese. I like the version where the dough edges are enriched with grated cheese before baking.
The perfect fried egg sandwich means different things to different people. Find just the right one and you are guaranteed bliss for many mornings (or late nights!) to come. For me, a lot has to do with the layering strategy (a well-thought-out stack can help keep layers from sliding out the side of the sandwich!), as well as how the eggs are cooked (I like mine fried with edges slightly crispy, and yolk just runny enough to coat everything when you take a bite, without getting lost to the plate). Another equally important factor is the inclusion of a little acidic tang to play off the fat of the egg yolk and cheese. My answer to this is mustard and pickles. I discovered these unconventional additions when I was in college in Montreal, and often frequented a burger joint called La Paryse. My favorite dish on the menu was the egg sandwich with pickles. Now, when I wake up a little rough around the edges and need a substantial meal to start the day, this is it.
Eggs are the poster child for sous vide cooking: The technique produces eggs with unique texture, and the method is hands-off and easily scalable.