There's A Clear Winner, But Second Place Isn't Bad I have long used my fancy Japanese rice cooker to make steel cut oats. It can allow for timed cooking AND the all important pre-soak. But you protest “the pressure cooker can too!” and you’d be correct but for one caveat. You can’t pressure cook dairy without creating a curdled mess and milk is what … Read More →
For Edesia's sake, DON’T call it Carbonara! I’m told that geniune Italian handbags are pricey affairs with counterfeits galore at every turn. The same applies to various “authentic” dishes from around the globe, Italy included. And you know Italy, I get it. I totally understand why you’d want to protect a national culinary treasure like Pasta Carbonara. I’d be just as picky … Read More →
Rich & Golden Calories For A Cold January You know those piles of discount panettone that popped up on Boxing Day? Don’t pass them by. For the low, low price of a couple bucks you can have phenomenal French toast well into the new year. For the uninitiated, panettone is a decadent Italian holiday tradition in bread form. Rich in butter and dried … 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 →
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 →
Spin Your Spuds A Different Direction Fresh heaps of potatoes are rolling in from the fields around here so what better time to wake up your ordinary mash with some bold flavours, namely cider vinegar and fresh dill just as the summer herbs are finishing. Anyone can love whipped potatoes with heaps of cream and butter mixed in – I certainly … Read More →
What Well Dressed Tacos Are Wearing This Season When you hail from a hot climate, you’re going to end up with sour dairy. That’s how nature works. Thankfully sour doesn’t mean spoiled in many cases and clever food cultures have learned to embrace ambient heat and bacteria to give us all sorts of fabulous tastes from kefir to yogurt. The kitchens of Mexico … Read More →
Looks horrible. Tastes way better than the 60s. Guaranteed to irritate food hipsters. I read decades-old cookbooks and food magazines when I can find them. Sure many of the recipes are dated and politically incorrect but that’s the beauty and charm of digging into the culinary past. All of them can, at minimum, show me a time capsule of eating history or at most yield a recipe ready … Read More →
Gratin any veg you have handy If you aren’t making gratins from scratch at home, sell your kitchen now because you obviously don’t know what ovens are used for in a civilized world. Eat takeaway food from polystyrene boxes the rest of your days and ponder your culinary sins over a pot noodle. On yet another of my forays into the … Read More →
Big Mushroom. Big Flavour. “Simple is best.” It was the only English a gruff man originally from the Piedmont had said to me in half an hour of watching him cook. We were standing in his current home’s kitchen far removed from his native land but the balance of his commentary remained rapid-fire gabbles of Italian patiently translated by … Read More →
