Authentic Whopper Taste Is Hidden In The Details There are many hamburgers in the world. Some thick, some thin, some simple, some complex. Burgers populate backyard parties, beachside picnics, and even posh receptions in equal measure with varying degrees of refinement. A vast corner of food culture sees minimalist mini-burgers with barely more than beef and bun co-exist beside enormous over-the-top versions stacked … Read More →
Cold Fruit For Hot Days I’m easily lured to a clearance sale in the kitchen section of my local megamarket. This was the case one November where, for a whopping $3, I grabbed a set of popsicle molds with deluxe drip-resistant handles. The perfect thing for the start of a Canadian winter, right? I promptly put them in the back … Read More →
Best not to count how many you eat in one sitting Prime grilling season has arrived again and around my kitchen that means “street” tacos cooked over charcoal. The fire is the easy part particularly once you have all the ‘extras’ sorted out. In my case those include a vat of garden-fresh salsa, some well seasoned beans, a little lime and coriander enhanced crema, and a … Read More →
Skip the pastry for a change and give your grater a workout with this potato crust quiche technique. If you choose your pan wisely it will do most of the hard browning work for you. Ideally a 10- or 12-inch cast iron skillet is used for its heat retention however any similarly sized pan you … Read More →
Keep It Ice Cold From Fridge To Glass A gentle reminder is in order for iced tea drinkers now that summer is upon us yet again. “Sun tea” – namely the tired old trend of leaving tea in a vat of water for the sun to gently percolate – is not only a microbial disaster waiting to happen, it also yields inferior flavour … Read More →
Made At Home Without The Drive Editor’s Note: I wasn’t planning on typing this up but more than three and a half actual (I think) people asked for it after seeing the curry lurking on the side of my recent basmasti rice missive. Butter Chicken I’m told was ‘invented’ in the 1950s by clever chefs with a surplus of meat from … Read More →
I get through great heaping bags of this stuff. Curries are never photogenic. Editor’s Note: Another question from the forums here. Seems like a lot of words to explain a very simple process but that’s what it takes to get it just right on the first go. Took me a while to sort out the details myself. You’ll memorize the technique soon after a few pot’s worth of … Read More →
Just enough for a day or two As requested in some of the food forums I haunt, here are the ratios I use for my “little bloomer” loaf. If you’re a family of four (or more) stick with full-sized versions but for one hungry or two normal humans this is just about the right amount to get through in the cruicial few … Read More →
Steamed & Dressed For A Tamalada With most fresh masa half a continent away these are not Mexican. They also aren’t truly the Mississippi ‘Delta Hot Tamale’ style developed for cotton field workers at the turn of the twentieth century by a curious mix of Italian and Mexican immigrants who had only ordinary corn meal available. Both styles are indeed delicious … Read More →
Deliciously Charred In All The Right Places ‘Chicken & rice’ is a natural pairing. From hauling out old retro recipes that call for cream of mushroom soup to treading the path to Indian biriyani, there is universal appeal. Arroz con pollo is arguably on the top five list of permutations and that’s where I started this iteration. The ongoing origin debate between … Read More →
Ugly Yet Delicious - The Next Test Will Be More Attractive I had a spare cauliflower in dire need of use so thought I’d do a first run and test on a simpler one-pot, hands-off oven baked aloo gobi. That’s a mild potato and cauliflower curry to the uninitiated outside India or too distant from a good take away joint. By using the whole head and … Read More →
Time Well Spent So it’s Thanksgiving today in Canada. Virus woes have put a crimp in dinner gathering plans the world over so for the first time in decades, I’m not cooking the usual fare today. I’m sure I’ll correct that omission when the American version of the holiday rolls around in a few weeks. In the meantime, … Read More →
If I can figure out how to work the blasted software I’ve been busy this year. I shall soon be slightly less so and thus a return to writing here, videos over there, and even streaming live elsewhere is a possibility. You have been warned. First snows came just last night so I’m in for the winter (mostly) and feel like cooking steaming pots of dumplings … Read More →
An Egg By Any Colour It’s Easter weekend and that means eggs galore. The unmatched set above comes from completely unmatched chickens up the road. Being the skeptic that I am, completely blind taste tests have been done over the years and I can confirm that shell colour has zero impact on final taste however a chicken’s diet most certainly … Read More →
Quick Cobbler For Cold Nights I know, I know. I’ve been lax in writing. The simple truth is that I haven’t had much interesting to say of late and life otherwise has consumed any spare time I would have had in which to communicate such tidbits. I’m still here. It’s still winter and blizzard-ing. And garden thoughts are at least … Read More →
Brownies Without The Brown I’ve never been a huge fan of chocolate. Sure I’ll take the odd piece from grand Swiss or French choclatiers and love a cocoa-laced red velvet cake at holiday but other flavours are more apt to tempt me. Vanilla for example. Or butterscotch. When the mood strikes for something like a brownie in texture and … Read More →
You don't have to raise them to make great cheese By request here’s some live-action cheese making using the method from my original “Discount Goat” post. Still just as good as before. I mention in the video my favourite use for chèvre is to stuff radicchio leaves and pan fry them in the vein of old Italian farmers. You can find that recipe below, simple … Read More →
The Ultimate In Corn-Flavoured Flexibility If you’re not eating polenta because it takes too much time to cook the genuine, creamy article from scratch, I’ve got a tip for you. Old Italians to gluten warriors can all enjoy the delicious corn-y goodness in under half an hour. First to define polenta, it’s cornmeal. That’s it. Fancy gourmet packets of the … Read More →
Modern Poaching Science Bad news – I’m terrible at making poached eggs in a pan of water. Good news – I like egg drop soup. If you’ve ever struggled with the old fashioned method of poaching eggs, these handy gizmos might save your breakfast. I tried all the tips before I found these new-fangled gadgets. Salt the water. … Read More →
Half Price Dairy Math Below Milk and dairy are some of my most troublesome pantry staples when it comes to maintaining both fresh supply and budget integrity up here in market-price-controlled Canada. Tinned evaporated milk can occasionally take the edge off those needs (and makes for better Mac & Cheese anyway) but sometimes you need the genuine fresh article. Just … Read More →
This One Night In New Orleans... (ed. note: this is complete tinkering of the original posting on 6 December, 2016 to better address vegetarians and the finer points of roux making as well as a new video of my last batch) After reading about my bean obsession and gallo pinto theories, a viewer from the Googlytubes asked for more specifics on … Read More →
Homemade & Fluffy, Not Expensive & Dense You can find my original hummus recipe in this post but it was the array of hummus permutations at the grocery yesterday that prompted me to make a video of the process. How many times can I say it? Cook. Beans. From. Dry. The selection yesterday had a range of prices (and flavours which you … Read More →
It's Winter, You Need Comfort Food If you’ve ever been stuck for a winter comfort food menu idea, it’s likely you’ve landed on old-fashioned meat loaf a time or two. It’s about as homespun as food gets in North America and requires only basic ingredients to get dinner on the table without a lot of tending. Whack it in the oven … Read More →
Control What Goes In & What Comes Out Is Better Pre-ground meat, “mince” or simply “hamburger” as it’s known in various parts of the world, has become the default setting for a large majority of home cooking. It’s a cheap, flexible, and widely available protein. Problem is, it doesn’t usually taste very interesting when compared to other options. I had a laundry list of concerns … Read More →
