I was recently over for dinner at a friends house. He brought out a few books that his dad had rescued from a local thrift store. One giant and slightly off smelling tome, called “The Creative Cooking Course”, is an opus to haute cuisine of the late 60’s and 70’s shown through the jaded eyes of 1982.
Book: Tender by Nigel Slater
I have a confession: I don’t like vegetables. I’m more of a fruit person. However I will admit there has been the odd occasion where someone has prepared some vegetable in a way that has blown my socks off. So in an effort to not get rickets, I purchased the most stunning book by Nigel Slater, Tender: Volume One. A book just can’t look this good, and not promise great tasting vegetables. Continue reading “Book: Tender by Nigel Slater”
Baking hybrids
My wonderful husband likes to challenge my baking skills with odd suggestions and combinations, so when I say ” I feel like baking, what should I make?” he often comes up with somewhat of a challenge. Continue reading “Baking hybrids”
Book: The Devil In The Kitchen
Before the advent of the food network, before the glut of celebrity chefs, before glam cook books, there was Marco Pierre White. Know publicly as the first ‘rock star’ chef, Mr. White was far more.
A starter of my very own!
One of the best aromas in the world, is the smell of freshly baked bread. This new year has been filled with simple white loaves, whole wheat bread and even flax seed and oat bread… but nothing really quite hit the spot. I was searching for that true tasting bread, and I luckily discovered that tonight. After a week of growing and feeding a starter of my very own, I finally got to bake bread that I’ve created from the ground up, and let me tell you: the wait is worth it! The only ingredients that went into this bread are water and flour (no yeast, sugars, etc… well some salt but that’s negligible) and they’re allowed to feed off each other for about 8 days before turning into a masterpiece. Continue reading “A starter of my very own!”
One of my all time fave pesto
One of my all time fave pesto ~
Orecchiette with Pistachio Pesto – 6 servings Continue reading “One of my all time fave pesto”
Simplicity
We all know the old attage: KISS or keep it simple stupid. I always find it diffucult to uphold this belief even though I am well aware of its application in the kitchen. Once I get cooking I am always adding a little of this or that, trying to balance flavours and textures to create the perfect dish. That is not to say that doing such is always a bad thing but often it detracts from rather than adding to the quality and character of a dish. Last night I made a simple tomato sauce that I just couldn’t stop eating. It was so simple yet so perfect and contained only 5 ingredients plus salt and pepper.
The recipe is as follow: 5 cloves of garlic sliced finely, 1 small onion diced, 1 796ml can of San Marzano tomatoes, 2 dried chillies and a very healthy splash of good quality olive oil. You simply sweat the onions, garlic and chillies in olive oil for about 10 minutes, add the tomatoes, pulverize with an imersion blender and then return to the heat for 5 more minutes. It couldn’t be easier or tastier.
I think the key with this as with any simple recipe is that the quality of the ingredients are as high as you could possibly find. I think I am going to learn from this experience and start preparing more simple, high quality dishes. Eating this sauce over some pasta with a little grated cheese was one of the most soul satisfying dishes I have enjoyed in recent memory.
GA
DIY Sous Vide
Do it yourself sous vide.
Black Cod & Risotto
Made this recipe once before back at work and when I saw black cod on special I just had to try it again at home.
Ethical Food Part 2
So I found this online. Its a BBC program called Kill it, Cook it, Eat it. It deals with animals from farm to plate. Not an easy watch, but pretty much as real as it gets. The whole thing is explained in the first 15 seconds or so. Not for the faint of heart.
Brinner
Last night i wasn’t in the mood to cook anything huge or go out to get a meal or even have one delivered for the sake of spending money needlessly, which kinda left me looking around the house until a light went off in my head and came up with some thing so sweet i don’t know why i don’t do it more often, Brinner. Or as you might know it, Breakfast for Dinner, take the Br from breakfast and combine with the inner from dinner. so genius. wish i could coin the phrase.
I personally haven’t had Brinner in years so when the opportunity came up from other else but the fact that the house had no other ingredients but those which make breakfast, inspiration followed. Couldn’t help but also think of my girlfriend Claire when making Brinner since she’s in fact in love with having breakfast for dinner whenever possible. Claire would have it for breakfast, lunch and dinner if she could. Why not have breakfast for dinner anyway, or lunch for that fact? Is it taboo? Is there a written code in Le Guide Culinaire or French Cookery that when dinning in or going out for dinner that one must have steak & frites, bœuf bourguignon, or grilled scottish salmon on a cedar plank, accompanied by a starch and veg?
I must say that making my open-faced sandwich of whole wheat toast with german salami, salt free bacon topped with a over easy egg and thyme, garlic, shallot sweet potato hash and lemon balsamic vinaigrette on arugula salad was damn good and had great comments about it from others i cooked it for.
Just thought i’d share that with everyone and get some feedback on what you guys thought about Brinner. Let the revolution begin (though i’m sure its already out there).
Dinner with friends
A very dear friend of ours was in town over the holidays and to celebrate we christened my new kitchen with a delicious meal, lots of wine and very good company.
These dinners are something of a tradition, it all starts at the grocery store. My wife refuses to partake in this often excruciatingly slow, dithering and slightly painful experience. Hours are spent; we start with coffee, then we survey the produce, possibly look at the meat, then its back to the produce…. maybe we’ll have fish, or chicken, lets look at the meat again. … It takes a while, neither of us are decisive… The meal takes shape as we slowly choose each ingredient.
This time we tried out my new haunt, Bloor west. We started at the Bloor meat market, picked up a bone in pork loin (7 bones), then to a delicatessen to grab some cheese. I must say that Bloor west is oddly deprived of a good cheese shop. Finally we stopped by at my favorite veggie mart and grabbed, chesnuts (hankering) parsnips (they looked delicious), brussel sprouts, pears and some potatoes.
And this is how the meal came together.
We started with a chestnut and parsnip soup:
Score the chestnuts (10 to 15 of them) and roast until they are soft – 30 minutes. If you don’t score the chestnuts, wear goggles or a face mask because they will explode. This happened to me once when I took the chestnuts out of the oven. It hurt … a lot.
While the chestnuts are roasting,
peel and dice 3 large parsnips
dice one large onion,
peel and dice two potatoes,
crush and chop a couple of cloves of garlic,
and 2 tablespoons of fresh thyme.
Throw it all in a pot and saute for 5 minutes or so. Add 6 cups of stock and simmer. When the chestnuts are done, peel and chop and throw them into the pot.
Once everything is good and cooked, puree it with a stick blender and add a half cup or a cup of heavy cream. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
The Main
Pear and cider(strongbow) roast pork.
Trim pork roast, season with salt and pepper.
In a large roasting pan or a very large cast iron roasting pot, brown the pork roast on all sides (2 mintes per side). Remove the roast from the pan and add 1 cup of diced carrots, 1 medium diced onion a handful of diced shallots and a couple of cloves of garlic. Saute for 5-8 minutes or until the onions are clear.
While the veg is being sauteed core and slice 2 Bartlett pears. The slices should be about 1/8″ thick. They don’t have to be pretty as they will end up under a stick blender.
Reintroduce the pork and cover with veg and sliced pears. Add a half can of strongbow and fire it in the oven for about an hour and a half at 325-350. When the roast is cooked, take it out of the pan, tent with foil and let it rest while you tend to the gravy.
Note: I don’t believe in kitchen thermometers, when I say the roast is done, poke it with you finger. Don’t use a knife. Poke it, and poke it often. For me cooking has a lot to do with “feel” – something “feels done – the only way to really get to know that feeling is with practice, and mistakes. Many of you know about judging the “doneness” of a steak by poking it. It works, it just takes practice. The pork roast when poked should have some give, but still be elastic. It should be firm enough to spring back, but not so hard that it does not give under your poking.
Another Note: There is nothing wrong with medium, or slightly pink pork. Yes, there are some nasties that can live in pork, but if you cook it until it is hard and lifeless you might as well eat a shoe. If you notice that your pork roast is purging slightly pink clearish liquid as it rests you have succeeded.
For the Gravy: Transfer the contents of the roasting pan into a vessel that is good for blending. I use a tall cup that came with my stick blender. Puree it and add some heavy cream, a little Dijon and season to with salt and pepper.
Enough talk, here are the pictures.
As far as the sides go we had shredded Brussel sprouts and scalloped potatoes. I had no part in these so I will leave it up to the creator of these delicious sides to either post another entry, or update this one. I do have pictures.
For dessert we had a lovely strawberry short cake that I also cannot take credit for.
A nod to our West Coast guests for the excellent wine, and yes there was old mill and bourbon, these are also part of the tradition:
I know I was a little sparse on directions so if you need help, just ask.
Salt Crusted Prime Rib
I’ve always wanted to try this, so when Loblaws had prime rib at an obscenely reasonable price, it was destiny. The first time I had salt crusted prime rib was in a tiny little town in Arizona. I was working at a copper mine in Bagdad and staying in Wickenburg (SP? but really who cares). Bagdad was a company town with one resto that served something that almost resembled food. Continue reading “Salt Crusted Prime Rib”
Simple Strawberry Shortcake
Hello all and a very Happy New Year!!! Welcome to a new decade hopefully filled with scrumptious food and yummy num nums…. Anyways, so over the Christmas break I perfected a cake I enjoy very much and that is Strawberry Shortcake. Although winter is generally not a season to be making anything involving fresh strawberries, this dessert goes well after heavy holiday feasts since it is deceivingly light (although filled with a million calories worth of whipped cream) Continue reading “Simple Strawberry Shortcake”
A Jolly Old Christmas
Christmas has always been one of my favorite times of the year, not for the time off work or the drunken stumbling of friends and family although they do go hand in hand. The Christmas season would not be the same without it, Christmas to me is being with family, eating amazing homemade food and watching christmas movies. This year however was a little different, as I have been traveling abroad since September and Christmas was to be celebrated a new way in jolly old England with family that I haven’t spent a Christmas with since I was a pubescent teen. But new experiences make you stronger and I was excited to spend time with my moms family as I haven’t in years.
The festivities started off with my prepping of appetizers the day before. They consisted of a chicken liver pate with pear and apple coulis and baked brie stuffed with caramelized mushrooms and garlic wrapped in puff pastry. Two easy and delicious christmas starters that wowed and amazed the family. That night, it was off to my grammas, brothers, sons house so that would be my moms cousins for drinks and the time honored tradition of wii rock band, that was a new one for me. With chips and tiny sausages on sticks to tantalize the palate, lets just say there was not much eating going on, but the company was good and once the guitar came out and the singing commenced we were feeling no pain.
Walking home that night though proved to be a challenge and with snow laden streets ahead we wobbled home. Snow is another obstacle for jolly old England as they are not equipped for snow. England was in chaos but thats another story. Calling home though at 4 in the morning our time was a lot of drunken slurring and merry chaos in itself.
Christmas day started a bit late as it took a lot for me to gain my strength after little sleep and long night of hugging the porcelain. With bacon buddies for breakfast and lots of tea I began to feel myself and got prepared for the arrival of my aunt and cousins. They who showed up fashionably late at 2pm, hung to shite. Appetizers quickly followed and my grandmothers shrimp dip – that she says is a staple at family events -didn’t make the grade. Canned shrimp, ketchup, mayo, cream cheese, and hot sauce -not the best hangover cure to satisfy the aching bellies – was left to fend for itself.
Christmas dinner in England is pretty much the same as in Canada, but with a few minor differences. The Turkey was cooked ahead by my aunt. It was a boneless breast and was over cooked and dry. This for me was sad as I love this aspect and it isn’t christmas without it, but considering my grandmas oven is a tiny something out of the 1940s and adjustments had to be made. We usually serve a honey but the English love their crackling so we had a Roast pork with crispy crackling that was delicious. The potatoes were roasted, not mashed, they were par boiled, then roasted in lard and turned out to be crispy on the outside and fluffy on the inside – the perfect roast potato! The english have this down to a science as the roast potato is pretty much the potato of choice. The vegetables on the other hand, were simple and easy broccoli, roast turnips and brussels sprouts. Not my favorite green veg, but a tradition in English christmas lunch.
The stuffing was done two ways. First, sage and onion out of a box which was good but when I offered to make a fresh batch was ignored due to quantity over quality. The second, was an apple and sausage which was homemade made by my gramma. It was good but the apple overpowered it and it tasted a little dry and tart with not much seasoning but it had great potential.
I’m beginning to learn that the English don’t mind the dry and blandness of their meals as they do cover everything with gravy or some sort of brown sauce, or in my cousins case, mayonnaise. The gravy was made by me so, it used the vegetable stocks, white wine, drippings from the meats, and roux slowly simmered and seasoned to perfection and without gravy browning. Gravy browning in my opinion should not exist. Any great gravy or jus should and can be colored by the length of cooking and type of protein you use. My aunt uses it religiously to give the proper color of a gravy by her definition, doesn’t matter if its a chicken or roast beef its all the same. An argument that have left us on different sides. Christmas pudding consisted of minced meat pies and a mixed fuit strudel that I made but unfortunately split and looked like the graboid at the end of the tremors movie at the bottom of the Nevada canon. had to through that reference in lol. But tasted delicious.
All and all the Christmas Experience was a great one in Jolly old England and I’m glad I got to catch up with the family I have here for a change, since it is hard to get all of us together at one time. I wouldn’t have changed it for anything Ciao for now.