Why let the heat escape?

If you order a hearty stew on a chilly day while sitting on a patio, you most certainly want it to be piping hot. Matter of fact, even on a boiling day I bet you want it hot. If you don't, you should! It's stew and it's supposed to be served hot.

So why serve this good beefy version in a shallow unheated dish that fails to retain the heat? It may be more visually pleasing, but it's not doing it's job if it's not warming me up. No knocks on the recipe (thought it required s&p.)

Good enough stew, no lack of giant tender chunks of beef, and you can find it at Heart & Crown. I might have it again!

Best Petite Bread Award

I was out for a friend's birthday a while ago and we stopped by Maxwell's Bistro on Elgin where he was bound to bump into other friends. Half a beer and a couple conversations later, my friend asks "Hey, you hungry? Want some bread?" I'm not one to refuse food, but I hesitated just long enough for them to explain that his friend here Johnny Scratch is the chef, has quite the skills, and that I must try his bread.

I clung onto every word while the history of the bread was explained and ten seconds later a bun dropped into my outstretched hand. I was now holding the heaviest little piece of bread I'd ever seen. It looked like it was designed to soak up mean steak juices. I snapped a quick bad flash-lit pic and promptly ate.

I'll have you know, I can be far too enthusiastic when I talk about food (?), but it's not often that I get emotional about it. This did the trick, Johnny's Sweet Pepper Bread. It was dense yet retained the flaky flavorful honest to goodness quality of bread; it melted in my mouth and my taste-buds were instantly fist pumping each other. I almost cried! "That's a day old. You should try it when it's fresh."

I can remember the last time food affected me in such a way, (begin dream sequence) it was at Mary Mac's Tea Room in Atlanta after my first soul food experience, in April 2006.

So there is no actual award for the Best Petite Bread, but if there was it would be in the shape of a beating heart and it would go to Johnny's Sweet Pepper Bread.

"Does your whole family cook like that?"

Yes. ..
From what I can remember of my early childhood, my parents were a little granola in their eating habits. Carob chip cookies were a regular occurrence and my first recollection of white sugar was when my grandma Thériault added it to my rice krispies & homogenized milk somewhere around the age of three. I loved going to both my grandparents, their traditional meals always ended in a confectionery sugar induced coma.


My father later remarried and suddenly we were six kids instead of three. We enlisted a daytime nanny for the better part of my youth, and she prepared dinner most nights and made fresh bread every Tuesday. She would usually make slow-cooker fare or root vegetables & meat, sometimes corned beef, all of which were seasoned well and tasted good, but when my dad prepared dinner the kitchen became an experimental culinary lab of unusual and tasty sorts. When I went to my mom's, her style was still very healthy, fresh grilled things tossed into a thin crepe, ending with gooey fruity desserts.


An endless story shortened, we had a very eclectic foodie background. (I tried meatloaf for the first time in my twenties, it was superb!) So this one's an ode to my extended family; my brothers and I definitely picked up on your cooking habits.


Here's what one of my brothers made for the family on Easter weekend, after we moved him and his gf into their new apartment.



Three hours of prep almost always yield a-m-a-z-i-n-g results. Glazed Easter bunny carbonara, and Macadamia nut crusted mahi-mahi over sauteed mushrooms and red peppers. The hunk of pasta on the left is the carbonara, which I'd be hard pressed to describe as anything but sublime.


The fish was perfect, but I was partial to the Easter bunny because it's slightly blasphemous and more so because I willingly ate those leftovers for three days. It had everything I shouldn't be eating, sour cream, cheese, sausage, blasphemous bunny, and more sour cream and cheese.


Next day he made spinach stuffed portabello mushrooms with Gruyère, fiddleheads my dad brought up from the Maritimes...




... and more bunny.





I didn't do much in the kitchen that weekend other than unpacking, prepping and hiding in the empty space where the dishwasher should be under the counter, then jumping out as soon as someone would dirty a glass. (That's my brother's joke, except in his version I was bone thin and had a bucket of fish heads to mow down.)





Even if I found Maple Cotton Candy at the grocery store while in Quebec City that weekend, my parting thoughts are all about the bunny.. you will not be forgotten roasty-bunny!

Egg Poaching vessels

I was on the hunt for egg poachers for a while, but since I discovered the Saran Wrap method, I didn't see a need for them at all.

Here's how it's done:

You place a square piece of plastic Saran on a small pinch bowl or ramekin. Crack an egg into it. Gather the corners above the egg and tie with an elastic or twist tie. Poach in boiling water for 4 minutes. Remove from water, gently open the Saran and place the egg on your fancy sandwich bread.

Then one day not too long ago I ran out of 3$ Saran. Since this is pretty much the only thing I use it for (thanks to my arsenal of Tupperware), I thought of taking another look for egg poachers. It's not that I needed another one-use gadget, but I could see myself using this often; maybe it's usefulness was worth my 6$, so I bought two and started assembling.

You'll need:

eggs

green onions

bread

prociutto (or other meats if you dare, I added Montreal style oven roasted Turkey)

oilive oil

arugula

s&p

a good poaching method

and.. this recipe here.

Alright, alright, the poachers I purchased were 2$ each, plastic and they half-sank when I tossed them loaded with the egg in the simmering water; they immediately took on as much water as a paddle-boat on a stormy lake. The eggs tanked, basically.

My breakfast was tasty, but I prefer my poached eggs on the perfect side. Those darn plastic cheap poachers ruined it for me. They're so bad I can't find a picture of the product on Google. That's sayin' somethin'.

Should have gotten the poach pods. Or used Saran. Or my ramekins. Or a ladle.

Green Tuna Sammie

Most folks put celery or green onions in their tuna sandwich for added crunch and flavor, but I'm partial to frozen peas. Why? They have a nice "pop" if you don't over cook them.

1 can of chunk tuna

1/2 cup of frozen peas

a pinch of fresh grated garlic

no fat mayo to taste

pepper

bacon salt

buns, lightly toasted

As an added bonus, I'll share this tidbit with you: The only way to eat Kraft Dinner is with a can of tuna and half a can of peas. Mmm.. I'm not kidding. And no ketchup unless you eat your KD straight up. Maybe it's nostalgia, it's how my dad made KD while we were growing up, but I've convinced at least one person of our delicious theory. I guess one person isn't very convincing at all.. Hmm.. But I'm telling you, and that should be enough.

Bacon Everything!

Woohooooooooo! It was a long time coming, but I got my hands on some Bacon Salt seasoning, thanks to the boyfriend who gets 97% his giftmas presents at ThinkGeek.

I've been hearing for while that you can put it on everything to give it delicious fat free bacon flavoring and wow, I am discovering just how true that is. Of course you can top the obvious options, a baked potato, an egg sandwich (or any sandwich for that matter), omelette's, but it's amazing what bacon doesn't go with. Nothing.


I had a hankering for apples the other day. I cut it up into nice slices, turned around, and there it was, the Bacon Salt, looking at me. I had to do it.

Low and behold, it was quite delicious with a light dusting on my apple. Next time: Apples, 5 year old cheddar (which is lactose free) and bacon salt.

New Pho Bo Gaffe La

For the record, I thoroughly enjoy Pho, especially the all mighty Pho battles that occur when people debate who makes the best in the city. Which is why I made a deal with the beau that if he was late for our dinner date, I would get to choose the restaurant in part 1 of Battle Pho.

New Pho Bo Ga La on Somerset was easily my top choice, it had been the locale of many delicious outings in the past. The pho was as I expected, delicious broth as always with fresh herbs and ingredients.

What I didn't expect, was the extremely off tasting sandy texture of the shredded pork rice rolls. Oh wow, what is IN it? Neither of us could stomach to finish one. The rice noodles were normal, the shredded pork was normal, the lettuce was normal, but mixed in was this ew flavored thing textured like sand. The delicious dipping sauce did nothing to improve the taste or dryness of the wrap. When we later asked what ingredients were in the roll other than noodles and pork, the only offered answer was "pork, shredded".

Yes, I get it, but how do you ask again, politely, for them to pinpoint what tastes so bad. We left it at that.

I realize the flavour of my rant may be that the specific ingredient was not to our liking. Since I've never had it before, it's entirely possible that it tasted "right" to other patrons. All I'm saying is that I wish I new what it was so I could properly avoid it in the future. I'll also stick with what I trust, their amazing rare beef pho soups.

Going Out on the Lamb

Here's a little "things I don't feel like throwing to the ground anymore" haiku.

Made me hurl you did

Pickles mustard lamb and dill

Now I'll eat you all

Tonight, I finally conquered the last food item I disliked, lamb, thanks to the Southern Cross.

Yes, that's a picture of the ground.

Analytical Donairs

I've been in Ottawa for a while now and haven't been blessed with the East Coast donair gods since the days when you could leisurely drive to Smith Falls, pick up some bulk chocolate at the Hershey factory and finish your drive with a stop at Pizza Delight. Once seated in the familiar environment we all grew up eating in, I'd order a Donair with extra donair sauce and garlic fingers to share, which also comes with donair sauce.

Gone are those days.. now they've shut down the Hershey factory *tear* and Pizza Delight *streaming tears of fury*, and I've been reduced to bi-yearly donair visitation rights when I go home to New-Brunswick. I hear the king of Donairs is, well, the King of Donair in Halifax, but I grew up swearing up and down Champlain St. that Pizza Delight's and Acadia Donair's version of the sauce was bar-none. It's all about the sauce topping the meat, tomatoes and onions, but here are a few key differences.

Pizza Delight's donair is piled high on a tough and chewy pizza dough and comes with a steak knife because frankly, it's unfold able and there's no other way to eat that bad boy.

Here's a close up for good measure.

The donair meat is crispy like crisp bacon, but cut too perfectly, like crisp chicken bacon, or as I call it, fakecon. Also note the iceberg lettuce which is atypical for donairs. Nonetheless, it's so tasty I refuse to order anything else from PD, including the world's best Caesar salad (ask a Maritimer), but not limited to Garlic Fingers. For the uninitiated, garlic fingers are pizza dough slathered in a supremely garlicky mélange and topped with oodles of cheesy goodness, then sliced into easily shareable rectangles about the width of two fingers.

Acadie Pizza's donairs can be gargantuan creations by a now famous local donair maker who's little restaurant has stood the test of time. Almost ousted from his location, fans now leave a token of appreciation, usually a hand written napkin note praising his efforts to stay open.

Pardon the blurred cell phone picture. This small version of the Halifax Donair also comes monstersized, which is not unlike the size of a football. No need to attempt a dripping disaster, you can also purchase extra pita bread and sauce, reconstructing the larger donair into about eight smaller ones. Trust me, it fed three and we had leftovers.

Enough about my history with East Coast Donairs.. I now bring you..

Halifax style Donairs in Ottawa!

Yes, the rumors are true, Centretown Resto Bar on Bronson St. makes fabulous donairs with East Coast (ie Halifax) style donair sauce, or the closest thing I've found to it in O-ttown..

Their donairs come in small or large, you can pick up, get delivery or eat in and watch the game. I don't care how you get yours, but consider running. Don't forget extra napkins on your way out.

Food notes from abroad..

I recently received the first e-mail from a friend who has left Canada in search of a lengthy world experience. For a non-foodie friend who used to eat spaghetti 7 days out of seven, he wrote of such vigorous food thoughts that I could not mask my surprise at his bold statements and asked if I could post his message.

Such, his journey begins in New Zealand..

"So I've beem here 9 days now. On day 4, I met a British guy that wasn't really a foodie but was accustomed to eating good meals in his family. He asked me what I thought of the food here in NZ. I hadn't really thought about it too hard. I'd only tasted a few things. I shrugged and said it's alright. He said he thought it was bad. Just bad. Like everything tastes slightly different, but in a bad way. Since he said that, I started noticing it everywhere. I've hardly had a good meal. I've purchased a few meals that looked amazing but turned out to be mediocre or even just plain bad. What's the concensus among foodies? Is NZ known for bad food? What doesn't taste like shit here?

Thanks,"

Uhm, bold statement, P. Since I haven't traveled there I don't have an opinion, but surely it's not ALL bad, right? Must have tapped into his foodie sense, so far I've received nothing but food related e-mails, all escalating in hilarity and sounding more and more like a cry for help. I'll try and find you something.

Big Banana Ice Cream Fail

I was quite shocked to hear that crushing frozen bananas in a blender could make one ingredient creamy ice cream, according to the Kitchn.

Probably so, just as long as you're using a food processor that was manufactured post the 1980 date and that you have not used it to chop endless amounts of basil right prior to it's current use. Both cause my ice cream's demise.

For starters it was too dry so I added a bit of water & yogurt. (I blame that on my processor.) The texture improved, but there's just no way to hide basil in banana!

Can you imagine that I couldn't bring myself to throw this horrible mistake? It's still in my freezer, yet I wouldn't even feed it to a cat. Well.. I would, but only so I could find out if cats make the same bitter-faces that I make.

It's not that hard you guys.. it's just Reese's..

I had a hankering for peanut butter cups over the last Christmas holiday back home, which is pretty surprising considering I made ten varieties of cookies over two weeks, as well as truffle coated cherries (which the dog ate in it's entirety). So there I am, staring at my dad's extensive pantry, wondering if it's possible to make these little poppers.

Chocolate coating in little cups: doable with melted Callebaut chocolate disks and mini foil cups, both of which I had on hand. But.. what's in a Reese's peanut butter cup.. what's in the middle? Crisp and sweet, it can't just be PB. Let's ask Google.. a two second search tells me it's... wait for it... graham cracker crumbs! (gasp!) The stars had aligned in my father's kitchen, ingredients were on hand with my incurable craving. I was on a mission without a recipe.

what you'll need (I heart Bulk Barn):

Callebaut chocolate
graham cracker crumbs

tiny foil cups

peanut butter

First, I assembled endless mini foil cups on a baking sheet and refrigerated it, as to not give away what I was doing should anyone pop into my kitchen-lab.

Next, I melted little Callebaut chocolate disks on a makeshift double boiler. (A metal bowl placed over a pot of simmering water.)

Then I lined the cups with chocolate by dropping in a little spoonful, twirling and spreading it as necessary until the bottom and sides were thinly covered, and popped them into the refrigerator until hardened.

Meanwhile, I melted the pb and added crumbs until it was thick, but not instant-cookie thick. (ftw are instant cookies...) I kept in mind that pb will eventually harden, rendering my lil concoction to a paste like consistency wrapped in a thin hard cocoa shell. To prevent a dry mixture once hard, it needed a proper balance of crumbs. It's a bloody guessing game folks. Taste it in the process. Spoon into the lil cups, leaving enough room for a thin chocolate coating. Refrigerate until hard.

Melt more chocolate, yada yada yada, apply thin coat to the top of cups, and why haven't I posted a single picture yet. Refrigerate.

They're done when they feel cold and hard. I kept them in the fridge until an hour before serving them, thus protecting them from the choc eating German pointer beast.

He's in fact a super nice dog... as sweet as these homemade PB cups which the friends called "more addicting than the real thing". And there you have it, bite marks and all.

Red Wine and Pasta, together at last

The Italians have it right. I wanted to start this post with that sentence but really, it's care of some Serious Eats newsletter that I bring you this best week's recipe from that week long long ago, a recipe for Spaghetti All'Ubriaco, which they tell me is Italian for drunken spaghetti.. Yes! Spaghetti cooked in a mixture of half red wine and half water, then splashed with extra wine right at the end (among other added things).

Rrrrrrrrrrr....

I was so intrigued by the recipe and inspired by the poster's enthusiasm that when I got home after work the same day, looked at that whole wheat spaghetti displayed in this glass jar on my fridge, and this leftover wine I had on that there counter, it was a no-brainer.. I needed to combine this and that and check out what the fuss was all aboot.

I'm terrible at following recipes, I most always meddle and fix it to my liking, as is the case with the linked recipe.

2 cups water

2 cups drinkable cheap red wine, plus 1/4 cup, reserved/separated

2 person portion of whole wheat pasta (kamut, spelt are healthy too. I estimate, sorry! Maybe I need this spaghetti measuring tool to crowd up my gadget drawer.)

1 leek, thinly sliced

1 large garlic clove, sliced

2 tbsp fresh parsley (I was out)

1 tbsp butter

olive oil on hand for splashing (in the dish, eh)

Start by lightly caramelizing the leeks in a bit of olive oil. Not sure how? Caramelizing happens when cooking something over low heat for a long time. This brings out the sweet nutty flavour of certain foods, so toss the leeks in a splash of olive oil big enough to coat but not drown, and let them sit over low heat in a pan until they change color and become increasingly delicious. Set aside, and by aside I don't mean in your mouth, not yet.

Oh... they were so plentiful before... caramelization: size < flavour.

Boil the liquids, add pasta and cook al dente, stirring often. Meanwhile, brown the sliced garlic in another splash of olive oil and the butter.

Drain the liquid into a bowl, marvel at the beauty of your cooked pasta, add the 1/4 cup of wine to the garlic in the pan, plus a generous portion of the red water. Turn up the heat so the mixture starts simmering, add the al dente pasta, the caramelized leeks and parsley, and toss the pan around until the liquid is absorbed.

Done! Add some shredded/grated cheese if you like. As usual, I did not.

Tv chefs have taught me that cooking alcohol abolished the alcohol content, but according to serious studies, alcohol added to a mixture and boiled for 15 minutes retains 40% of its alcohol content; another prime example that you can't believe everything you see on tv. With this newfound knowledge, I've decided this is one dish I'll be happy not to share with kids.

Taste? A tastesplosion in a major way.

This presentation has been brought to you by this wine and that pasta.

Cutting the Grapefruit.

I was editing a small video I made about cutting grapefruit a while ago, and after a hour of reading and an hour of practicing with Adobe Premiere, I saved my project. When I tried opening the wrong saved file, my computer wouldn't recognize the file type. Thinking I did something wrong and too tired to care, I went to bed and forgot about it. Until I stumbled on it today.

That being said, I love stumbling on things, especially when it's something I made and didn't know I had, like this video here.

What to do with pinch bowls?

The topic of pinch bowls came up today, or more like "what to do with pinch bowls". In reality, what can't you do with these cute silicone bowls. I purchased eight last year when Domus (the closest kitchen supply store) had a massive 40% sale. As you may know, I'm a bit of a condiment fan; they've come in handy when I want to have six different sauces for my plate of McCain low fat fries or when I'm pre-measuring spices.

What other uses could they have? I wasn't aware how minuscule small eggs could get until I saw these, care of the dude who picked them out of the grocery refrigerator...

... and now I'm wondering if I could use my pinch bowls to poach these teeny eggs, instead of getting one of the poachers I've been debating over.

The poaching idea: to be continued..

We Now Interrupt For This Special Public Service Announcement..

When removing roasted almonds or cookies from an oven always use both hands to lift the pan out of the oven and both hands to close the oven door. DO NOT try to open, remove with one hand and close with the other simultaneously. This will not, I repeat, will not work in your favor.


"If fooled, you can't get fooled again..."



WRONG! As the saying goes, Fool me once, shame on you, pan. Fool me twice, shame on me.. in the shape of a burnt almond ouchie.


"How the frak do you burn yourself twice roasting almonds??"


I've been asking myself the same question, twice a day, which is how often I change my arm bandage. It's been three weeks. Lesson learned, ok?

Food Monstar's Fruity Fruity Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies!

Today, I accidentally mixed up my Extra Strength Cold & Sinus Day pills for the nighttime ones. Gah!

No matter though, the great part of today was watching your friends and co-workers anihalate your the little baked labour of love cookies that you spend a couple hours slaving away over the day before while enjoying your first day of the real NFL season (even if Farve defected).

I originally made this recipe last Christmas, when I baked ten different variety of cookies, packed them all up into their own suitcase (there were that many) and hauled them back home for the holidays. These suckers stayed moist and chewy unrefrigerated for two weeks. Ok, in reality it was three, but in case I'm liable for the well being of my readers, I'll protect you and say two. Refrigirated if you must. (Sometimes I do, sometimes I don't.)

Quit stallin', me. Here's the recipe which I found via some magical google search for oatmeal and coconut cookies and which I can no longer find a link for. All I know is that I found, I switcherooed two items, and ta-da...

the Food Monstar's Fruity Fruity Coconut Almond Oatmeal Cookies!

3 cups oatmeal flour (process Oatmeal/Quick Oats in blender/food processor until pulverized)

1/2 cup whole weat or all purpose flour

1 cup brown sugar (packed)

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp salt (optional) (why do recipes say optional?? I forgot to add it this time, but I'd usually straddle the optional line and put half in.)

1 cup toasted almonds, chopped (don't know how? raw alonds can be toasted at 350ish for about 8-10 minutes on a cookie sheet. They're ready when they have browned and smell delicious. Remove from oven, let cool.)

1 cup finely chopped dried fruits (mango, papaya, apricots, maybe kiwi, think about adding raisins and Thor will get you then and there. NO RAISINS!!!)

4 tbsp water

2 tsp vanilla extract

1/2 cup honey

16oz. can of crushed pineapple, partially drained

Wait, what? No butter? No. No butter. Here's how it all comes together.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.

In a large bowl, combine dry ingredients.

In a blender, mix water, vanilla, honey and pineapple.

Add to dry ingredients, mix until combined.

Drop by spoonfuls onto parchement lined cookie sheet. Cookies retain their shape when baking, so try to spread them pretty flat.

Bake for 14 minutes, remove from oven, yada yada yada the whole cookie cooling spiel. (Let sit for a few minutes on the pan and transfer to cookie cooling rack.) Reapeat!

These babies will not brown so much, please don't attempt to burn them. They're deceivingly delicious! Try them! The masses agree!

..And by masses I mean the friends that I begged to eat these. "I don't know.." some skeptically said.. then they went back for thirds and there were none. Ha! That'll teach em.