Last week I had the pleasure of meeting Lorraine Elliott of Not Quite Nigella, in Toronto. We’ve been following each other for four years now and when we met in person it was like we’d known one another for ever. I wanted to do something special with her so I contacted an acquaintance who produces several Food Network Canada shows and she made it happen – we spent the morning on the set of Chopped Canada, Season 3. But you’ll just have to wait to hear all about it in the new year (don’t worry, it’ll be here before you know it!).
Lorraine was in Toronto with the Canadian Tourism Commission and made a special request to come to Toronto to meet me! I was flattered beyond belief. For Lunch, we met up with my dear friend Barb (Profiteroles & Ponytales) and a new friend, Trudy Bloem, a Personal Chef from Ottawa (the DIL of a lovely neighbour) at one of my favourite Italian restaurants, Bar Mercurio. We shared a number of tasty dishes that I’m sure Lorraine will blog about. The CTC sure kept her busy and she saw many of the Food significant parts of TO, but not everything so I’ve invited her back! And one of these days, we’ll travel to Australia to visit her (and Charlie, Maureen & Liz)!
Lorraine wasn’t the first positive experience with an Aussie I’ve ever had, after all there was the “gravy boat incident”.
About 12 or 13 years ago, I was trying to finish off some stray pieces to our wedding China. I checked our local supplier and as I suspected it was unaffordable, so I checked eBay. I’ve purchased many things over the years from eBay and my experiences have always been exceptional. I found the exact gravy boat, you guessed it, in Australia. It was a young couple recently married and for some strange reason were given a gravy boat to a set that they didn’t want, so she was selling it for a very reasonable price on eBay. I contacted her to make sure she would ship it to Canada and she said she would. She was not registered on PayPal so she asked for a money order. No problem, but I needed an address. She gave me an address and off we went to get a money order. We don’t often need money orders so we were inexperienced (this will make sense later in the story). The money order was mailed and we waited. And waited. Weeks went by and the girl didn’t receive it. I called the post office and asked how long a letter from Toronto should take to travel to Australia and they said six to eight weeks. So we waited in the meantime corresponding with said girl almost weekly. At 10 weeks she still hadn’t received the money order but she was tired of the game so she said she would mail the gravy boat to me anyway and hope to receive the money order. I felt bad about it, so we got another money order but when we went to cancel the first one, we discovered that we had included the receipt in the original envelope so we couldn’t cancel it (read inexperienced)! I bit the bullet and got another money order anyway (still marginally cheaper than buying the gravy boat in Toronto). I wanted to make sure I had her correct address so I asked her to confirm. You guessed it, she had given me the wrong address the first time (sweet girl but…) so the new money order was mailed and within a week the gravy boat arrived! Then two days later the girl wrote to say the second money order arrived and that she would destroy the first one if it ever arrived. I’m not kidding you, a day later we received back the first money order (with receipt) marked “unknown address, return to sender”! This drama took over three months! We were able to get a refund with the original money order, I got a deal on the gravy boat and a great story out of it! Do you have any cool stories like this? Share in the comments.
If I were serving this avocado hollandaise at home, I would have definitely used the Australian gravy boat, but I served it at the cottage for a tasty vegetarian breakfast!
Vegan Avocado ‘Hollandaise’ Sauce
Makes about 3/4 cup of ‘hollandaise’ sauce
Ingredients:
- 2 small very ripe avocados
- 1/2-3/4 cup water
- 2 tbsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp white vinegar
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
Directions:
- Purée everything together until very smooth adding water until desired consistency is achieved, season with salt and pepper.
- Serve warm or room temperature.
Notes:
- This is a much ‘lighter’ feeling sauce than the traditional eggyolk-butter-based version.
- I didn’t want to add more lemon juice as I feared it might make the sauce bitter so instead I added a teaspoon of white vinegar and a tablespoon of Dijon, it was a flavourful sauce.
- Add only as much water to the sauce to achieve the consistency that you want. I wanted mine pourable and I almost used the entire 3/4 cup, just a hair less.
How fun that you got to meet Lorraine! Aren’t blogger meet ups the best? And what a fun gravy boat story–so glad it worked out in the end. Whew.
P.S. What a gorgeous twist on hollandaise!!!
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Thank you kindly Liz, meeting Lorraine was so lovely, I was very glad she was able to squeeze a morning out of the CTCs busy schedule.
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It was so nice to have met you Eva! I wish we could have met up more but as you say, the itinerary was so busy but I will still treasure our time together and the lovely gifts too! Your bug shirts are so cute and I’m glad that the gravy boat story ended up well! 😀 xxx
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You are ver sweet and very kind. I love my gifts too, particularly the delightful beet root marmalade (we had it on burgers last week). I always think of Australia when I use that gravy boat!
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This looks delicious! I’m imaging this on some kind of Bennie. I bet it would be tasty, or even on our raw vegan tacos! That would certainly be a winner. So glad you had a great time with Lorraine! What a fun experience you all had. 🙂 As you know we love our Chopped! 😉
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Hi Kristy, thank you for your kind words. Meeting Lorraine and visiting Chopped Canada was definitely a highlight of the year. The sauce would be great on so many things!
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This sounds wonderful! I really don’t like the other hollandaise sauce!
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Hi Lizzy, Koszonom szivesen. Even though this too is high fat, it’s not nearly as rich tasting as the authentic hollandaise.
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What a story! Epic. 😉 Love the bug shirts. And this recipe, of course. Fun stuff — thanks.
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Hi John, thank you for your kind words. The bug shirts have saved me on more than one occasion.
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Those are pretty comprehensive bug shirts, Eva! There have been some times out in the woods where I could have used one of those! 😉 Love your avocado hollandaise. It would be delicious on a breakfast burrito as well as just straight on top of eggs. What fun that you got to meet Lorraine.
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Thank you kindly Betsy, sometimes I just wouldn’t go outside at the cottage if I didn’t have s bug shirt. The uses of this sauce are endless, thank you for your kind words.
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I’ll look forward to your visit, Eva. What a story (more like ‘saga’) over that gravy boat! It’s good it all worked out in the end and that the gravy boat arrived in one piece – that’s a long way for it to travel! How wonderful to catch up with Lorraine – you’ve seen her more than I have this year! She is certainly super-busy with her travels. What a gorgeous vegan hollandaise! I’d love that on some eggs right now xx
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Australia is on my bucket list for sure, wouldn’t it be wonderful to meet indeed. It really was amazing to meet Lorraine in the flesh, she really is lovely. Thank you for your kind words about the hollandaise.
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bug shirts and strappy sandals 😉 gotta love it. that’s quite the money order adventure but how great that it worked out on all counts. lovely avocado purée Eva – I think I would enjoy the tartness/acidity but might also be tempted to add a touch of coconut oil 😀
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Hi Kelly, you know me and my shoes! I couldn’t live without my bug shirt up north, those bugs are relentless! Adding the coconut oils does sound lovely.
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Eva, your avocado sauce looks so beautiful and bright! I love the bug shirts (have never seen anything like this in Europe!). Luckily your story ended well and the seller was honest…
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Thank you kindly Sissi, indeed that sauce was very green. About the gravy boat story, one could say the same about me!
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Hilarious shirts. Very funny gravy boat story. I’ve never had that sort of experience on ebay … luckily my sole trading card buying forays were brief and successful. That’s one GREEN avocado mayo. 🙂
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Hi Maria, I thought of you as I was naming this imposter recipe only because you had such strong feelings about my “guacamole” recipe a while back. It sure was green but not entirely off-putting as I originally imagined it would be.
I have lots of eBay stories but this one is definitely the best. Thank you for your comment.
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I’m trying not to be as RIGID in my definitions as I’ve been in the past cause, ultimately, you can call your recipe whatever your want. 🙂
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I’m not offended in the least Maria, I apologize if I sounded so. The French and Italians would agree with you! I like to name things in such a way that I could find them easily in the future! My blog is my own cookbook and I use it frequently to make recipes from the past. I appreciate your comments and I hope you’ll be keeping me honest.
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I’m glad you weren’t offended by my earlier comment(s), Eva. I think the more emotionally invested you are in a recipe, the more likely you are to want the names to be kept ‘accurate’. It may be due to wanting to maintain your cultural heritage, it may be due to having been trained in a professional school/kitchen and taught by your instructors that THIS is the way the recipe should be created.
In the case of guacamole, I don’t like a lot of the add-ins like diced tomatoes or even raw minced onions so I would never add them to my home made guacamole in a million years. A squeeze of lemon, a pinch of coarse sea salt and sometimes, a teaspoonful of sour cream. Even ground cumin seems pointless. I think I tasted my first avocado/guacamole some time in my mid 20s when friends took me to my first Mexican restaurant. We didn’t have a lot of money and guacamole was a rare order (we’d each have a second Tecate instead) … they used diced tomatoes in it, by the way. I ate it and ignored the texture issues because between the tortilla chips and the hot sauce that I ladled on, I couldn’t really tell they were there. 🙂
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😃
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Like Angie, I had no idea there is such and item as bug shirt. Sounds like you had a grand time with Lorraine, too bad I had to miss the opportunity. Love your sauce photo.
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I’m sorry too Norma, it was fun. Bug shirts are a necessity here!
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So creamy and healthy! We make avocado dressing for our salads very often, but I usually blend it with some yoghurt. I must give yours a try too. The bug shirts…funny haha..didn’t know they existed at all.
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Thank you Angie, adding yogurt sounds fantastic. The bug shirts are a necessity it the woods here, the bugs are horrific! Some of our dragon flies are as thick as your index finger and almost 15 cm long…they eat well!
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