chromedome

Hmmmm...I saw one of Day-Lewis' books at the liquidation store yesterday. Good, is she? I'd never heard of her, but the book was cheap enough... The local library has its annual book sale on right now. I'm going to go down tomorrow and see how far $20 gets me.

Added two more from the clearance table at my local liquidation bookstore. One was a Barnes & Noble "special" called The Asian Kitchen, edited by Lilian Wu. The recipes look to be a mixed bag as for authenticity, but they're photo-illustrated in the style of the Eyewitness children's books; so I thought it would be a good 'n for the kids to run with. The other was A Table in Tuscany, written and illustrated by Vancouver native Leslie Forbes (now a London-based illustrator). Very nice. Price tag $2 CDN/ea.

I don't think you'll intimidate the free flow of expression...if anyone has a "tough" question for you, you'll still hear it. Of course, you're running the risk of being swamped by questions, but I guess that's still easier than a book tour. At least here you can just log off when it gets to be too much... Welcome aboard. I look forward to reading your book.

Yes, welcome aboard indeed! I've just finished your "Mediterranean Street Food" and enjoyed it tremendously. Of course, as a confirmed offal lover in a household of confirmed offal haters, your new one will be a bittersweet read...

I don't get out a whole lot, so I'll have to scope out my former classmates for some input. There are lots of places around the downtown that are passionate favourites for various people I know...just gonna have to sift through everybody's prejudices. It'll help, of course, if you PM me with some guidance about what you like. Be advised that I haven't lived in Vancouver for the best part of two decades, so references to places there will leave me none the wiser. If you find yourself a few quiet moments in and about all the mayhem, of course, you're more than welcome to look me up and say hello. I haven't met any eGulletters in person yet.

Paul Schufelt, who was the executive chef at Chance, has remained in the newly-revamped restaurant in the same capacity. What I've heard through the grapevine is that Chance did well from the lunchtime office-tower crowd, but wasn't able to attract an after hours clientele. A downtown steakhouse is probably not a bad venture, given the lack of immediate competition pointed out upthread. We'll see how it pans out. I see Chef Schufelt from time to time at Commerce Place, so I'll sound him out about how things are going.

Boning the wee buggers isn't as hard as it sounds, it's just fiddly. I did it for the first time in a "black box" scenario at cooking school, with my clumsy arthritic fingers (and under time pressure at that), so there's hope for anyone! Just make sure your boning knife is really, *really* sharp at the tip.

I regularly do mini-strudels in puff pastry at my work. I use 15"X20" sheets, and roll them out to roughly a 24" square. This makes for numerous benefits: it improves the pastry:filling ratio; gives me 50% more product from a given sheet (nine squares instead of six); keeps the puff from ballooning too much; and makes it easier to cut without shattering into a gazillion flakes. I used to egg wash my seams, but now I just leave them at the bottom and don't worry about it. Of course I bake from frozen, which makes a difference as well. Another thing you may want to do is check with your supplier. The brand of puff I buy (it comes from the Vancouver area) is available in both a high-rise and a low-rise version; buying the latter would certainly help you in this particular application.

Unibroue makes several outstanding brews, ranging from the conventional 5% up to an imposing 10.5%. Lately I've been drinking that one a lot, a BIG-ass Abbey-style ale called "Terrible." It's very good; dark and rich with toasty notes, but still with that distinctively Belgian-styled fruitiness. One of the few beers which may be cellared for several years.

One year I followed that train of thought, and as a result our Canada Day meal was moose curry served over couscous. It was pretty good. This year I wimped out, and just did steaks and baked potatoes to go with the aforementioned leek-and-brie tart and green salad. For dessert, I made the wife an ice-cream birthday cake. On the bottom, rum syrup-soaked chocolate genoise, surrounded by chocolate ice cream. Middle layer; a "bullseye" of vanilla ice cream, surrounded by last summer's frozen cherries & berries compote, surrounded by a ring of vanilla ice cream. Top layer, chocolate genoise surrounded and covered by chocolate ice cream. Garnished with whipped cream and fresh cherries. Yum.

I never, never manage to keep my tupperware organized for more than a couple of days. I am so jealous! ← Neither do I...but that's because the kids are in charge of washing and putting away the dishes! Least favourite kid habit..."I dunno where this goes. D'you know? Me neither. I'll just pick a spot..." Two weeks later: Dad: "Where is 'X'...did anybody see it?" Kids: (in stereo) "I don't know...wasn't me who put it away!" Hence I find parts of the ice-cream maker in the drawer with the utensils, and part of my meat grinder lurking in the back of the silverware drawer underneath a mound of chopsticks. Oy.

My wife is 5' 7", with a 34" inseam. Would it surprise you to know I'm a leg man? Just a thought...one of my taller classmates used to sometimes place a towel and cutting board atop an overturned bus pan, when doing prep for an extended period. He said it was no good for serious cutting, but excellent for light work...like prepping fruit for tarts, maybe. It's only a few inches, but it makes a difference. I understand completely about handling the damn fruit. I have arthritic hands, and while I'm absolutely fine with knife-handling, those slippery pieces of fresh-cut fruit give me fits. Without fail, when I'm working the dessert bench at my night job, there's always one dessert that calls for several slices of artfully-arranged fruit. Several times a night, I'll drop one onto an already-sauced plate and splash fruit coulis everywhere. Drives me crazy. Shame my boss isn't into nice, dry, textured tuiles as a garnish...

Well, I own a copy of Apicius...he predates Careme by, what? 1400 years or so? Haven't cooked anything from that yet, though. And for those who are interested, the Forme of Cury is available for download from Project Gutenberg, as are several other older cookbooks. Haven't found time to go back and examine them thoroughly as yet, but I plan to download them all. Not quite on topic, but offered FWIW.

Gary Danko gave me a minor epiphany, one night during cooking school. I was sitting up late, watching the Flash movie on his site about making the seared foie gras dish, and I began following a train of connections in my mind: Danko says that the CIA made him a cook, but it was Madeline Kamman who taught him to be a chef. Kamman learned to cook from a friend of her aunt's, a longtime professional. Her aunt's friend, in turn, had learned her trade in a private chateau in the late years of the 19th century. The chef she studied under had been Careme's last apprentice. So, the trail went from Careme to his last apprentice, to Kamman's aunt's friend, to Kamman, to Danko, to me. Perhaps it was the lateness of the hour (and the corresponding lack of sleep), but it gave me a feeling of being connected to a great tradition; a feeling I have not been without since that night.

Adam, the potato ricer may be part of your problem too. I tried using one of those (once) as an alternative to cutting from a board or forcing through the @^&*$ colander; unfortunately the holes were too small and too close together. The end result was yer basic Big Floating Wad O' Sludge. Gonna treat myself to one of those grater-with-a-hopper style spaetzle makers, someday reeeeallll soon now.

So...38 of the world's 50 best beers come from the US?

We'll be doing something or other, but I don't know what yet. Canada Day is my wife's birthday, and she's requested a brie tart like the one I made a few weeks ago; so that part of the menu's set. I'll also be pulling together a big ol' salad from the garden. From there, I've got no plans as of yet. I mean, come on...that's a whole three days away! Having my menu planned out would be like...like...buying Christmas presents before Christmas Eve...

Pop Shoppe is back? Holy cow. What's next? Eaton's? Dominion? Simpson's? I drink about two bottles of pop in a given decade or so, so they won't get rich off me, but that's still kind of cool in an off-kilter way.

Oh, geez, we must have collectively blocked it from our minds... Tim Horton's. God help us.

The old-timers love their flipper pie...personally I like the seal's liver best. There are a few interesting Acadian dishes, like "Rappie Pie..." And the traditional Newfoundland beer snacks, salted dried caplin and salted dried squid, served after heating on top of the woodstove. And hey, there's fish 'n' brewis; and damper dogs (though I believe the Aussies do something similar); and toutens. ...and I haven't seen anyone make pink potato salad outside Newfoundland (it's got pickled beets in). All the Purity products...the lemon biscuits, peppermint knobs, etc. I guess this has gotten all regional, hasn't it. Sorry.

It's been a great ride, and thanks for letting us into your life. I know how much commitment it took for you to keep us "in the loop," with everything you had going on. I'm sure this thread represents a whoooooole bunch of sorely-needed lost sleep! Thanks for sharing.

I used to work for an organics delivery business there, called Homegrown Organic Foods. They have a small storefront in a back alley off Allen St, open on Saturdays only, and of course do the "produce box" format as well. Website is at http://www.hgof.ns.ca, boss is Geordie (he's a good egg). Tell him Fred says hi. Basically get the farmer's market delivered to you, and avoid the crush... There is also an organics outlet on Agricola St, just off the Commons, whose name eludes me at the moment. They're a co-op, so membership can get you pretty good pricing. They specialize in grains and legumes. A few blocks further up, where Agricola crosses North, you'll find a couple of good Lebanese groceries. Just past them, heading north, you'll find Brothers Meats, which is a landmark for good reason. Hope this helps, and pardon the shakiness of my tired memory...

Pan: my understanding is that getting a liquor license in most provinces involves a nightmarish stack of forms about an inch high, and any number of provincial functionaries with invoices in their hands. I haven't had occasion yet to be involved personally in such an application. Lori: no, those were green seedless grapes. Saskatoons are smaller and darker (and later in the year).

I have to say, for once the first day of summer wasn't a bitter joke. After a week of mostly rainy skies, today was gorgeously sunny and the hottest day of the year so far, at 28C. When I got home after work, the first thing I did was to run around and open up all the windows to let the breeze blow through. So, after supper I decided that (heat notwithstanding) I was going to fire up the oven. After that discussion of Saskatoons vs blueberries last night, I thought about the frozen blueberries downstairs and had to make a cake. I used a plain version of the quick cake discussed upthread, with some nicely-soured milk and about two cups of frozen berries. I had a piece a few minutes ago, while scanning my second batch of photos (yay!), and I do believe I'll have another momentarily. It's soft and moist and altogether wonderful. By the time supper's cleared away and the cake is out of the oven, it's about 8:45. It occurs to me that I need to go to the nearby pharmacy to get a prescription filled, and I also need to get to Wal-Mart to do the one-hour photo thing. Both stores close at 10:00. Hmmm. I live at just precisely the distance from the mall (where Wal-Mart is) that I can walk there as quickly as ride the bus. Except of course I need to go to the pharmacy, which would mean waiting for a second bus. Never mind the bus, then. So I bootle off to the pharmacy, and drop off the prescription. Then I scuttle along to Wal-Mart, arriving at 9:20. Fortunately, the young lady at the counter assures me that the one-hour photo service actually only takes about 30 minutes. So I drop my film, and hoof it back down to the pharmacy to collect the prescription (and pick up some Pringle's, which were on sale); then back up to Wal-Mart again, arriving at precisely one minute to 10. Oy. On the walk home I stop at one of the local bottle shops and treat myself to a "single" of Morland's "Old Speckled Hen," an English ale which is new to me. This is by way of a reward for my exertions, and also to finish off my week of blogging on a celebratory note. It turns out to be a pretty decent brew, and well-suited for the cooling of a red-faced, sweaty cook/baker. Allllllrighty, then, let's turn back the clock to my Saturday dinner. After getting home from coffee at the mall with my "little" girl (she had hot chocolate), I set about making the pasta. First, two cups of flour with two of the small free-range eggs and one of the regular-sized ones: Then a spot of kneading... ...and when it mostly comes together, form it into a ball. I'm not too concerned if there are a couple of dry floury bits, because I'm going to leave it sit and rest in a plastic bag for a while, as I do the chicken. The moisture will even itself out through the dough, and when I come back to the pasta all will be well. Further down the page, in the chicken photos, you will see a blue spray bottle in the background as I work. That contains a sanitizing bleach solution, which I sprayed onto the table before returning from the chicken to the pasta. Resuming, then, at the point where I come back to the pasta... The rolling process. I've divided the dough into four equal portions for ravioli-making purposes. As described above, I have made a filling of minced chicken, a bread-and-milk panade, some cream, and seasonings. I piped this onto the pasta at a reasonable spacing, since I need to get in between the mounds of chicken to press out the air and seal up the sheets of pasta, like so... The little white cup contains water, for sealing the pasta. I used my little white plastic scraper to cut the individual ravioli (got to be nice to the kitchen table, doncha know), and boiled them in small batches. I tossed each batch with butter as it came out, and when they were finished mounded the bacon & mushrooms over top, and served it with a salad: Then there was the whole process of breaking down the chickens, as described above. First, we have the setup and the victim: I will only be using the steel at the very start, but the knife looked kinda lonely sitting there by itself. In the foreground you will see the plastic bag with the pasta dough resting in it; the mound of non-food in the back is one of my wife's current beading projects. The first step is to remove the wings... ...and then the legs. Then, using the knife's fine tip as an extension of your fingertip, free the breasts from the keelbone and ribs. The carcass and wingtips, as you will see in the next picture, go onto a separate plate to be frozen as soup makings. For the second bird, before breaking it down, I wanted to peel off the skin in one piece to use as the wrapper for a ballotine. The bird is upside down, and I start by making an incision all the way from the neck opening to the tail, running the length of the hen's back. Then, using the knife to help with the recalcitrant parts, I peel the skin off each side of the bird's back. Slide the skin off the leg and drum; just like turning a sock inside out. Moving up to the wings, sever them at the end of the first joint; leaving just the "drumette" attached to the breast. Unroll the skin from the wingbone too, just as you did the drumstick. Use your knife as necessary to free the skin from tendons, membranes, etc. The end result: a chicken to be broken down like the other; and a large, intact chicken skin to be scraped and trimmed and used to wrap all manner of chickeny goodness for later cooking. Finally, my Father's day breakfast...the cheese omelette my son prepared for me. It's a shame this camera can't get a decent closeup of a plated dish, as the omelette was really quite well-executed. ================================================================= This blog has given you a pretty reasonable look into my own life and circumstances, but I haven't done a whole lot of justice to the city or the province. By way of a quick redressing of the balance, here are a few good things to be found locally... Alberta's agricultural base is its biggest single economic engine, even more than the oil & gas sector. In order to foster closer relationships between producers and consumers, we now have an organization called "Growing Alberta" which publishes a pretty decent magazine quarterly, and runs an informative website here. The doyenne of the local foodwriting community is Judy Schultz of the Edmonton Journal; a woman with a national reputation and a nomination for a Governor General's Award under her belt. She and another notable local foodie, Mary Bailey, co-wrote a great book called the "Food Lover's Trail Guide to Alberta." Basically it covers everything from restaurants to farmer's markets; anything the visiting or resident foodie might want to see or do. The Amazon link is here: ...click... That's not the proper eGullet affiliate link thingie, but I'll come back and edit that in as soon as I find the thread that tells how to do it. One of the more interesting local artisanal producers is Emanuela Leoni, who hails from the Parma region of Italy. Having settled in Alberta, she became convinced that the local milk would make a very high quality Parmesan-style cheese; so she formed a relationship with some local dairy farmers and began producing "Leoni Grana" cheese. We used this a lot at my school, and it's a damned fine cheese. We also have a very good artisanal producer of yogurt here, a family-owned operation called Bles-Wold. The proprietors moved here from Holland 11 years ago, and began producing yogurt as a sideline to their dairy business in 1996. It's really good yogurt, especially considering that they've focused their efforts on a reduced-fat product. Finally, although I've resisted all week, I'm also going to put in a plug for my employers as a local artisanal producer. The company started out as a family-owned pig farm (which it still is, among other things), back in the 1960's. In the 70's, when the mantra became "leaner, leaner, leaner," they began breeding lean pork like everyone else. Like everyone else, they discovered that lean pork just didn't taste as good. Most producers left it at that, reasoning that it was another case of "be careful what you wish for." The Price family weren't prepared to do that. They founded a company specifically for the purpose of improving the quality of local pork; importing quality breeding stock from England (where they were ahead of us in the quality of their pork) and combining those genes with the best of their own bloodlines. For the last three decades they've been singlemindedly attempting to breed the best-tasting pork in the world, and they've done a grand job. I have not personally tasted all of the world's best pork, so I can't speak to that, but I can say that it is outstanding in quality. The hogs are raised in family-owned farms, on natural feeds, and only receive antibiotics when they're sick (not with the daily rations). At a certain point along the way, the family began to resent giving up control of their product to the meatpackers, after lavishing all of this care and attention on their animals. So...they bought the packing plant. Around this time, they also branched into ranching beef cattle along similar principles of natural feeds and breeding for flavour. The next step, inevitably, was to open retail outlets to sell the product directly to the public; an example of vertical integration that's rather unique in North America. Rounding out our product line, most of our produce is sourced directly from individual growers in the US; and we've got a tight relationship with a quality meat-curing firm here in the province to make ham, bacon, and cold cuts from our meats. It makes for some seriously loyal clientele, I can assure you. It occurs to me, at this point, that while I've given you a lot of detail on my end of the business, I haven't really put it in context by giving you a store tour. I'll do that now, while wrapping up. Coming in the south end of our store, next to the wine cellar, you'll find a few shelves of dry goods: good EVOO and quality vinegars; preserves of various sorts; and some good-quality nibblies like Lindt chocolate and Lesley Stowe's RainCoast Crisps. Next to this you will find two coolers full of fresh produce, for those who are less interested in lunch and more interested in avoiding a trip to the supermarket on the way home. As you come around the back of the store you will find a section containing two huge (1m) cast-iron pans, imported from Germany, in which we cook stews and stir-fries every day. Fresh soups are also sold out of this section. Continuing around the back of the store you arrive at the deli, which functions as our "a la carte" dining area. Here we keep several meat, fish, and poultry entrees, as well as various starches and salads. Next to the deli is the sandwich area/back display case, where we set out hundreds of sandwiches each day to meet the lunch rush; and also my desserts, pies, and take-away meals. Turning the corner and heading toward the north end of the store, the next cooler contains fresh and cured meats, as well as cheeses and housemade dips and salsas. The remaining refrigerated cases contain dairy (including the Bles-Wold yogurt) and soft drinks of various kinds. Next is my old haunt, the pizza/pasta area, which contains the daily carved item, pizzas, quesadillas, and the daily pasta special. Finally, at the north end, you'll find my bakery, which by now you know pretty well. There are two islands in the store: the north one is the coffee bar, where we sell Starbucks coffees, wine (we're a licensed establishment), and my baked goods; the south island is the salad bar/citrus juicing area. We go through hundreds of litres of fresh-squeezed orange juice in a week. It's very good. Overall, the food here is certainly not fine dining, but for quality and flavour it would compare favourably to most mid-upper range "family" restaurants. We do it well, and are frequently picked as the best place to get a lunch in Downtown Pedway Hell. They're a fine operation, and whatever my day-to-day frustrations I've learned a lot here. [/plug] This wraps up my week of blogging, though I'm sure Soba will keep the thread open tomorrow as usual so that I can respond to any late questions. I know I'll spend the next month or so thinking of things that I'd been keen to discuss, but which have slipped away from me in the course of the week. Thank you all for your feedback, and your enthusiasm!

Abra: Yes, AP flour. I'm too cheap to waste cake flour on a quick-snack cake. Kind of defeats the purpose, yeah? Though the reason I changed the methodology was to avoid toughness in the crumb. I don't remember where the Rombauers lived, but I'm guessing their flour was a bit "softer" than ours up here in Durum-istan. Darcie: As I've said a couple of times, it sounds like more than it really is. If you were to describe your workday in my typically breathless style ( ) it would probably sound pretty impressive, too. The butter tart recipe is pretty simple. For a dozen tarts made in old-style (ie, smaller) muffin tins, use 1c brown sugar 2 tbsp butter 1 tbsp vinegar 1 egg 1/2 tsp of vanilla extract Beat the ingredients together, fill the shells, and bake. No sweat. As I said, I now add just a bit of cinnamon to mine. This size batch would probably fill up a dozen "bought" 3" tart shells, as well. Add pecans or raisins or walnuts or whatever, as desired. You could also add more butter, without hurting anything. Today's breakfast was a small drink of kefir, because I didn't really feel like eating. Got to work at my usual time, and this time I brought my uniform with me... We'd run out of the ham & cheese pockets I make, so that was priority one this morning. It's pretty simple, I just thaw sheets of commercial puff pastry; roll them out from 12"X15" to roughly 16"X16", and cut each sheet into nine squares. A reasonable portion each of sliced deli ham and grated cheese, pinch the edges, and freeze 'em up for later use. I make up enough for a week and a half, while I'm at it. This takes up the bulk of my morning. Mid-morning my reluctance to eat has worn off, and I'm nibbling on the trim (edge) pieces from the tray of caramel squares...a chronic weakness of mine. The rest of my routine (product checks, corn bread, strudels, etc) you've heard often enough already, so I won't repeat myself. For lunch today, I opt for one of our deluxe sandwiches; a thick heap of cold cuts on foccaccia with provolone cheese. Pretty good! I usually go with one of the hot meals, but every once in a while I feel the need for a sandwich or a bowl of soup. Fortunately, we sell both and they're good quality. The breads come from one of the best bakeries in the city, the cold cuts are excellent (and sometimes made from our house-raised pork and beef), and the soups are made from scratch with house-made stocks and fresh ingredients. After lunch I have a few more things to do. We have some apples that are getting tired, so I cut/core/peel half a case. I'm thinking that I'll make up strudel filling today or tomorrow, but it turns out I've got enough strudels already made up to get me through the week. I'll probably leave that until Friday. At any rate, I've got another whole case of apples to get through between now and then, as time and opportunity permit. I also make up some more pastries for the coffee bar, since I hadn't turned out as many as I'd wanted earlier in the week. Finally, I make up more of the mini-almond croissants for the pastry trays, since we've had one of those ordered for tomorrow. What with that, and attending to customer issues, and taking catering orders, and arranging an information package for my cashier who'll be entering the Culinary Arts program in the fall, it adds up to a pretty full afternoon. Amazingly, I'm out in pretty good time today. That's a bonus, because I want to get to the library. I have to drop off Jacques Pepin's La Technique (slightly overdue), and pick up Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast, which I've had reserved and been impatiently awaiting. Having done that, I'm home by 5:45. My wife is not feeling well, so she's already in bed. For supper I follow my nose to the cupboard where I keep the spices, grains, and legumes; and spend a few minutes lost in though. Hmmmm. So I put on a pot of rice, another with wild rice and kamut, and I pull down the quinoa as well. That doesn't need as long, so I keep that back for later. I bring up one of Saturday's chicken breasts and put it in the microwave to thaw. I put on a frying pan and put in some oil, minced ginger, and minced garlic. Once it starts to smell nice I slice up the chicken breast and put it in, a few pieces at a time, until it's all lightly cooked on the outside. Then I crack a can of coconut milk, whisk in a bit of cornstarch, and add it to the chicken. This can simmer for a while, as I fire up the computer and log onto eGullet... I crush one allspice berry, about a teaspoon of whole coriander, one cardamom, and several black peppercorns with my mortar and pestle, using a good pinch of coarse salt for the extra grinding effect. That goes into the simmering pan. I'm not shooting for a specific dish or ethnicity here, I just like the way all these things go together. I'll finish off the chicken with chopped scallions and cilantro. I'm thinking it needs something else, so I soak a bit of tamarind in hot water with a small chunk of jaggery. When it's nicely pasty, I'll force it through a little strainer. We'll use this as a flavour accent, at the table. Now I'm going to go out and pick a bit of salad for an accompaniment, and we'll resume this later on.