Eric Akis

Food Writer at Times Colonist

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Articles

Eric Akis: Coconut cupcakes make a sweet Easter treat

1 week ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

If you need an Easter treat to serve family and/or friends this weekend, consider making moist, sweet and inviting coconut cupcakes. As you’ll see by today’s recipe for them, it’s a three-step process. You first make a rich batter infused with coconut milk, spoon it into a muffin tin lined with baking cups, bake the cupcakes, and then let them cool. The next step is to make an icing that’s also infused with coconut milk, and then spread it on the cupcakes.
Eric Akis: Easter-inspired chicken dish offers taste of Mediterranean

1 week ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

If you’re having friends or family over during the Easter long weekend and need a supper idea, I have a spring chicken dish for you to consider. It is Mediterranean in style, is not overly fussy to make and you can prepare parts of it in advance. The messiest part of making this dish is seasoning bone-in chicken thighs, flouring them, and then searing them in a hot olive oil.
Eric Akis: Meat-free patties are packed with nutritious lentils

2 weeks ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

A reader, Mike, emailed and said he enjoys eating lentils and has been trying to make lentil burgers (patties) with them. He said he’s tried following recipes on sources such as YouTube, but lamented his efforts have resulted in lentil mush, rather than lentil burgers, despite the presenter showing one sufficiently firm enough to pick up. Mike said the recipes he’s tried have not called for a binding agent, such as an egg, and wondered if that’s where things went wrong.
Eric Akis: Succulent halibut baked in flaky phyllo pastry

2 weeks ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

There are many ways to cook fillets of B.C. halibut, which is in season. You can grill them, steam them, poach them or sear them. But my favourite — as you’ll know if you follow my columns — is to wrap them in phyllo pastry and bake them. It’s a method I like because it seals the halibut inside a golden, flaky crust that keeps the fish moist, even if slightly overcooked. I also like this technique because you can sauce and flavour the halibut in a variety of ways.
Eric Akis: B.C.-grown produce stars in main-course salad

3 weeks ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

If you have a craving for a leafy main-course salad and don’t want to buy imported lettuce, you might think your B.C.-grown options are limited at this time of year. But thanks to our mild West Coast weather, greenhouses and innovative methods of growing produce, that is definitely not the case. At farm markets and grocery stores, particularly smaller ones that focus on stocking local foods, you can, in fact, purchase quite a nice selection of produce in early spring.
Eric Akis: Pizza, with a chicken curry twist

3 weeks ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

I like to keep a package of store-bought naan on hand, a flatbread that’s at the ready to warm and serve with such things as saucy curries. I also like to have them around just in case I’m in the mood to make a more exotic-tasting style of pizza. By exotic, I mean a pizza that’s not topped with the usual pepperoni, mushrooms and peppers, as one in Canada might traditionally do.
Eric Akis: Banana pancakes an easy recipe for kids and grandkids

4 weeks ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

If you have kids or grandkids at home during spring break and need a breakfast they could help prepare, here’s a recipe for banana pancakes. They are not difficult to make. You mix a dry flour mixture with a wet one made with eggs, milk and pureed bananas. The pureed bananas are made by blending darkened, overripe bananas in a blender, food processor or in the cup that came with your immersion (hand) blender. It’s important to use overripe bananas in the batter, as they can be easily pureed.
Eric Akis: Pasta or rice? Orzo offers best of both worlds

1 month ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

When I’m cooking an entrée that could be served with rice or pasta and can’t decide which one, I’ll often opt for orzo. It’s a small type of pasta that’s shaped like rice that kind of offers the best of both worlds. Orzo is the Italian word for barley, another reference to the pasta’s grain-like shape. Beyond Italy, this type of pasta, for eons, has also been enjoyed in other places in the Mediterranean region.
Eric Akis: Vegetable and barley soup is a hearty, nutritious use of leftover ingredients

1 month ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

When you write two food columns a week, it’s not surprising that leftover ingredients start to amass. That’s not a bad thing, though, because they’ll often yield another satisfying dish. Such was the case last week when I looked in my fridge and found part of a cabbage, part of a squash, half an onion, a carrot and some green onions, all of which would be in a good in a soup, I thought. I also had some chicken broth, garlic and few other ingredients on hand to make it with.
Eric Akis: Brie adds gourmet touch to grilled ham and cheese

1 month ago | timescolonist.com | Eric Akis

Since childhood, I’ve been a fan of meals that combine soup and a sandwich. My first experiences with them weren’t gourmet, though. When I was a kid, my mom, like many other moms, would heat up a can of tomato soup and serve it with a grilled processed-cheese sandwich. It’s a simple, satisfying meal that I still enjoy once in a while. But these days, I’m usually much more inventive with the soup-and-sandwich combinations I make.