“The historic Heydon House on St. Clair West. Built circa 1890 and designed by renown Junction architect James Ellis, it started off as a rowdy hotel that hosted cockfights in the ballroom until the police forced them to take it upstairs to the attic. It was also the scene of an infamous brawl in 1903 between workers from the stockyards to the west and railwaymen from the train depots to the south that pushed a vote to make the Junction a “dry” area – a ban that lasted until 2000 (I still can’t get over that). Prohibition ended up putting the hotel out of business, and by 1911 Heydon House was a rooming house. It is now an apartment building, and is rumoured to be a target for redevelopment.”

Lori Whelan sent us this photo of the Heydon House in Toronto for our Daily Photo. See more of her work on her Flick page.

To submit your photos to share with our readers, visit our Flickr Group Pool.

The post Heydon House by Lori Whelan appeared first on Toronto Guardian.

Our latest Toronto Chef recipe comes from Pukka Indian Restaurant on St. Clair West whose Chef Kirti Singh previously served us up some amazing food for a review we did. Read that PUKKA RESTAURANT ARTICLE HERE.

We thought it would be great to follow up with one of his recipes so that you can have a taste before you visit them.

Here is the recipe for French Beans with Coconut and Fresh Turmeric by Toronto Chef Kirti Singh.

Recipe serves 4 as a side dish

Ingredients

-450 g French beans
-2 tbs Coconut oil
-10 pcs Curry leaves
-1tbs Turmeric paste*
-¼ cup Raw coconut {freshly grated}
-¼ tbs Mustard seeds
-¼ tb Red chilli flakes
-¼ tbs Kosher salt
-½ cup Red onion chopped
-2 Garlic cloves minced
-Pinch Black pepper
-1 tbs tamarnd pulp

Preparation

*Turmeric paste

250 grams fresh turmeric

-Wash turmeric root. Roast at 325F for 1 hour until cook through and soft, similar to a cooked sweet potato. Once cooked, remove and let cool. With a motor and pestle, mash turmeric into a paste. {It isn’t necessary to peel the outside skin.}

-Clip the stem from the beans leaving the pointed end of opposite side intact. Bring a large pot of salted water to a rolling boil. Blanch beans making sure not to over cook.

-As French beans are quite delicate, this takes only 30 seconds. Remove beans from pot and immediately submerge in ice water to stop the cooking process. Once cooled, remove from water and let drain.

-In a large frying pan, heat coconut oil over medium heat. Drop a few mustard seeds into the oil and once it begins to sputter, add remaining mustard seeds and stir for 1 minute.

-Now add the onion and garlic and continue to sauté until the onion begins to soften and become translucent.

-Add curry leaves, chilli, turmeric paste and sauté for 1 minute, then add beans and tamarind. Continue to sauté, tossing the ingredients so that the beans are coated.

-Add coconut and a pinch of salt and pepper, toss for another 2 minutes. Test a bean to see if it is heated thoroughly, crisp, not overcooked, adjust salt as desired.

-Once cooked, transfer to a large serving bowl and sprinkle with more grated coconut.

Serve immediately.

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