POM was so kind to send me some coupons for free POM juice and I was excited to use the juice in a way that I hadn’t before. I frequently use POM juice when I make cocktails…but I have never used POM in a recipe for food. I decided to make a sweet pomegranate reduction and serve it over warm brie with crusty baguettes….ohh my gosh, was this ever good! The gooey salty brie, and the sweet pomegranate were such a good combination!! I served it with with a cheese platter when I had my friends over for dinner. They loved it!

Pomegranate Reduction (adapted from here)

I used this over a nice brie cheese, but I’m sure it would taste great over other cheeses. This recipe makes a lot of syrup! Keep it in the fridge and find a use for it :p

• Brie cheese, however much you like, warmed in the oven… 350F for 10-15 minutes or so.
• 1 1/2 cups POM 100% pomegranate juice (You could use their other flavours but I like the plain pomegranate!)
• 2-3 tbsp raspberry jam
• 1/2 balsamic vinegar
• 1 1/2 cups sugar

Combine juice, jam, and balsamic vinegar in a saucepan and heat to a simmer. Add sugar and heat until desired thickness is reached….I left mine on the stove for about 40 minutes lol it was pretty thick!

Heat brie up in the oven and drizzle with reduction. Serve with crackers or bread….yum!

Stay tuned for a Thirsty Thursday recipe of my go-to martini using POM!

Helloooo, I wanted to share with you guys a special treat that I made this weekend. In case you didn’t know, it is Thanksgiving in Canada so a feast was in order. One of my favourite parts of the meal was these roasted garlic mashed yams. I was in charge of dessert, and I decided to make a more savoury dessert- something I’ve never done before! I chose a walnut, fig and brie tart with pear sauce from Anna Olsen. I always trust Anna Olsen for baking recipes. The crust was really crumbly but I liked the rich, nutty flavour that the ground walnuts gave it. I love brie and I feel like I would use a bit less ricotta and a bit more brie. The figs combined with the honey are delicious, and the pear sauce was sooo subtle and yummy. This was really fun to photograph, even though I only had a minute or two before it went from oven to table. I just wish uploading it to the ‘net didn’t make the colours go off!

Walnut, Fig, and Brie Tart with Vanilla Pear Sauce

Crust

• 1 3/4 cups all purpose flour
• 1/3 cup lightly toasted and ground walnuts
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into pieces and chilled
• 3 tablespoons cold water

** LOL LOL LOL I just realized as I was typing this that I forgot to add the 3 tbsp of water….perhaps that was why the dough was crumbly. Too funny. Instead of rolling the dough out, I simply pressed it into the tart pan- no big deal!

1. Combine flour, walnuts, sugar and salt. Cut in butter until the texture of coarse meal. Add 3 tablespoons cold water and mix just until dough comes together. If needed, add up to 1 more tbsp. Wrap and chill for an hour before rolling.
2. Preheat oven to 350 F.
3. On a lightly floured surface, roll out dough to 1/4-inch thick. Line a 9-inch tart shell with crust and trim edges.
4. Line tart crust with foil and weigh down with dried beans or rice. Bake for 15 minutes, then remove weights and foil and bake for 10 minutes more. Allow to cool.

Filling

• 1 1/4 cups walnut halves
• 7 tablespoons honey
• 1/2 cup ricotta cheese
• 6 ounces brie cheese, (triple crème is best!)
• 12 fresh fig

1. Toss walnuts in 2 tbsp honey and spread onto a parchment-lined baking sheet. Bake for 10-12 minutes and let cool.
2. Mix together ricotta and brie. Spread over the bottom of the tart shell.
3. Cut figs into quarters and arrange, flesh-side up around tart. Sprinkle walnut halves over figs. Bake tart for 10 – 12 minutes, just to melt the cheese and warm the figs. While warm, drizzle remaining honey over tart.

Pear Sauce

• 2 ripe pears
• 4 tablespoons honey
• 1 vanilla bean
• 1/2 cup white wine

1. Peel and dice pears, and cook with honey, scraped seeds from vanilla bean and wine until tender, about 15 minutes. Puree and strain sauce. Chill before serving.

Enjoy!

Corny post title…..but the drummer in my favourite band ever (Travis Barker of Blink-182) owns a taco place called Wahoo’s Fish Tacos. One day I will eat a fish taco at one of the 50+ locations they have throughout the states….but in the mean time I will make them at home. This was my first time making a fish taco and it was fun, and taaaaasty! In the meantime I will also stare longingly at this picture and reminisce of the day I actually got to meet him many years ago…

I look different and weird in this pic….moving on!

Back to the tacos! I used halibut but I’m sure any white fish would do, and I really don’t have exact measurements for this recipe, as I was just making one taco, but I trust with a little ingredient guidance you can all get this right! I also used a wrap because I didn’t have any soft flour tortillas (story of my life- I use wraps for everything!).

Koko’s Fish Tacos

• white fish fillet, such as halibut
• lettuce
• cilantro
• avocado
• lime juice
• salsa
• cheese, I used regular cheddar but I think a nice white cheddar would be better. If vegan, just skip it!
• caramelized onions (don’t worry I’ll tell ya how to make them!)
• wrap, or soft flour tortillas
• cumin
• coriander
• chili powder
• chipotle powder
• garlic salt
• salt

To caramelize onions:

Drizzle a pan with olive oil and heat on medium high. Slice up an onion and add to the hot pan. Add a pinch of salt and pepper. Stir, to coat the onions. Turn the heat to low and keep stirring, as the onions slowly begin to caramelize. Keep an eye on them so they don’t burn! When they are brown, and soft, and smell delicious, they are done!

For the ‘guacamole’:

Mash up an avocado and add some lime juice and a pinch of salt. Stir in a scoop of salsa.

For the fish:

Pat the fish fillet dry, and slice into small pieces- about an inch wide and as long as the fillet is. Sprinkle evenly with cumin, coriander, chili powder, chipotle powder, and garlic salt. Turn pieces over and do the same to the other side. Drizzle a pan with olive oil and heat to medium-high. Add the fish and cook until done on each side (it took about a minute on each side for me, but it depends on the thickness of the fish).

Constructing the taco:

Spread the bottom of your wrap/tortilla with our lovely avocado/salsa mixture. Add a layer of cheese, add the lettuc, cilantro, caramelized onions, and finally the fish. Drizzle everything with lots of lime juice! Fold up like a wrap, and enjoy! Please yell wahoo! as you eat it.

Click here for a special guest post with a bit of info on fish-eating vegetarians vs. non-fish-eating vegetarians.

You wouldn’t believe the amount of things I had to take home from pastry class this week! We had so much food! The long-awaited truffle torte finally came home, along with apple turnovers and meat pies made with homemade puff dough. We also brought savoury croissants- ham & cheese and plain cheese. We made a charlotte russe which is a white cake, lined with homemade lady fingers and a gelatin mousse filling (I used a black currant/raspberry flavour). We also made creme brulee, and for some reason ours tasted like Mcdonalds vanilla ice cream! Can you imagine me standing on the train during rush hour trying to carry all of this and balance- whew! Not to mention the looks I was getting from other passengers….I could tell they wanted my cake

As you can see, I made gigantic truffles, and they had started to melt by the time I got home!!