Potent, Ugly, Best Grown At Home You want an edible plant that’s impossible to kill in most any climate? Horseradish is your answer. If you’ve ever used ‘prepared’ horseradish from jars at the supermarket in your coleslaw, tartar sauce, or to dress a bit of roast beef, you only know half of the flavour. Freshly made from home grown crops has … Read More →
My Usual Ratio, You Can Choose Your Own I’m a big fan of steel cut oats in the morning. Not the instant rolled oats parked in my pantry for cookies and bread but the chunky, chewy sort of which the local Scottish settlers would be proud.* Yes you have to tend a pot for fifteen minutes instead of pushing a few buttons on … Read More →
Control Your Sugar Destiny... Deliciously Sugar is a hard monkey to break, or camel to get off your back, or erm… something like that. “Experts” have been banging on about it for years now and politicians have discovered that it’s the perfect addiction upon which to tack another tax and line their coffers with a bit of loosely-veiled social engineering. … Read More →
If it's not well-charred and burger-like naked, it'll never get past the critics with extras on top Happy Canada Day grill warriors! Bringing you the best in beavers and maple syrup for 150 years. Making a vegetarian “burger” can be an exercise in frustration and disappointment. The first problem is right there in the name. It sets false expectations rarely met which is a real shame because if they were called “traditional … Read More →
Smoke First, Dress Later Charcoal fills the air as much as honeysuckle this time of year and my little plot of land is no exception. Cleaning off the kamado smoker and trusty old Weber kettles is the BBQ equivalent of spring cleaning so I got after my collection of fire-based cooking vessels with the wire brush and scrunched-up balls … Read More →
Tender But Square - Because I'm Odd Like That Whether with butter and honey over morning coffee, next to fried chicken, or smothered in sausage gravy, proper Southern American biscuits* are made to be eaten the same day with the best coming from experienced hands who can form them from memory and touch. There’s usually a dedicated pan or time-honoured mixing bowl parked in … Read More →
Don't be afraid of the deep, dark spice Brownies are as much about texture as they are flavour. Whenever I’m trying to dance those two attributes around each other in a recipe I inevitably think of the buzz that chiles can add to the tongue which leads me to experimentation. Where better to try than inside a chocolate sponge laced with other exotics? … Read More →
Can You Spot the Parmesan Waldo As I sit here in the middle of a blizzard warning yet to make landfall with full force, I’m reminded of one of my favourite tricks in soup making. If you’re not making soup and still buying the rubbish in a tin you’ve really missed the kitchen boat. Culinary neophytes can make soup on the … Read More →
More Orange, Less Sugar Making jams and jellies is simple stuff. Fruit, sugar, pectin, done. People try to over complicate the method but that’s pretty much the whole formula. It’s just down to getting the ratios you like and cooking it properly. When fruit has enough pectin inside naturally, you don’t need to add any extra. What you do … Read More →
Definitely Not Pancakes Sometimes a single word triggers a memory. Sure experts tell us that smell and taste are powerful mental alarm bells but my internal dictionary seems to also have a web of recall attached. Today that word was ‘crumpet’. A leftover from Welsh, a language that my brain can barely hear at full speed let alone … Read More →
Same Dough, Three (or more) Flavours Like my fast scones, I make a quick dozen cookies for teatime often. Baked naked or with only a dusting of sugar I call them plain old ‘sugar cookies’… or ‘biscuits’ if your local terminology prefers. When the cinnamon rolling mood strikes, they pass for what North Americans would call ‘snickerdoodles’. If I’m really feeling … Read More →
Pizza Done Deep Blizzards galore here in Canada today so that’s a good reason to crank up the oven for pizza and bonus kitchen heat. I was in a deep dish, Chicago-inspired mood so I hauled out the cast iron for a foolproof pan crust. Find the mushroom discussion I mention here and the relevant crust and pan … Read More →
Tiny Plows Not Required (video below) Seeds are pure magic. Tiny capsules grow into giant plants seemingly from thin air. It’s nature’s version of a never-ending rainbow handkerchief out of the magician’s pocket. All the nutrients needed for the first few weeks are packed in there tighter than vitamin sardines and if you can jump start the growth process … Read More →
Sweet, Not Stewed to Death This week’s tempest in a teapot comes from the UK where the alarmist media is reporting a ‘crisis’ with the ‘rationing’ of iceberg lettuce and broccoli because of crop difficulties from importing countries. As if it was wartime and people were struggling to feed themselves with victory gardens and offal while bombs fell around their … Read More →
Game Day Cheese & Spice Overload There are very few topics that interest me less than politics or sports. After suffering last year’s political pundits ad nauseam, it’s time this weekend to try my best to avoid the hype over that big football game they have down in the States. My grocery yesterday was awash in all sorts of ‘game day’ … Read More →
Clementine, Meet Mister Cornmeal With little crates of clementines left over from the holidays and more showing up at the grocery by the truckload every week, I decided to spend half a case on experiments this week. The house smells like Valencia with all the citrus in the air and the cats have retreated to the less aromatic parts … Read More →
Raw Fish & Pink Colour Not Required Astoundingly, sushi isn’t particularly popular here on the eastern outskirts of Canada despite being surrounded by an ocean full of fresh ingredients. I know many of the uninitiated will scoff at ‘raw fish on rice’ but sushi and sashimi really can be so much more, oftentimes including neither ‘raw’ nor seafood. One market counter here … Read More →
Foolproof Everyday As regular readers will know, I’ve sworn off most all bread from the local factory bakers. Try as they might, they can’t afford to invest the time that makes bread taste great. My everyday oat bread has gotten a lot of attention lately it seems and so I thought I best share my even quicker … Read More →
Mystery Winter Supply Lines I have no idea how these peppers got to my local market in the midst of winter but I’m not complaining. Whatever sleigh brought them here is welcome relief from the doldrums of cabbage and potatoes. Since they were a bit wrinkly and demand is at a low point this time of year, the whole … Read More →
Perfectly Round Not Necessary For Great Tacos (video below) When the thought of making my own flour tortillas at home cropped up after watching Rick Bayless tackle them during a quesadilla video, even I had to question the wisdom and logic of the idea. Admittedly I’ve become a budget-obsessed cook of late but it’s an investment of hours of labour, right? Who … Read More →
Ugly Now, Flavour Later Why aren’t you making your own stock? Seriously. People queue for free samples of any whacky thing on a toothpick they offer in the markets so why would you say no to free ingredients just waiting in your kitchen? In one of the many comical holiday meal conversations overheard in the grocery store last week … Read More →
How An Italian Snacks When the pantry is nearly bare just before market day and you have hunger alarms making a racket in your brain, you need something cheap, fast, and hopefully already in your dwindling stocks. The power might even be out thanks to a blizzard but if you can boil water over a camp stove on the … Read More →
"Is that really fresh bao?" - Wash onboard Firefly's Serenity Steamed or baked, fresh Chinese buns filled with hidden delights are a thing of beauty. Portable too. Whether you call them bao, humbao, baozi, or just “delicious”, they’re an easy staple you should add to your kitchen repertoire. Filled with all manner of things from your leftovers stash or haphazard pantry, they are a yeast … Read More →
Fatten Up Your Personal Recipe Box There’s a million “recipes for dinner tonight” articles at the tip of your internet fingertips but inspiration is never a bad thing to stock up on in the kitchen I say. Many of those lists also seem to get more and more impersonal and predictable as time goes on and if you’re deranged enough to … Read More →
