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Everything posted by chromedome
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I'm trying to imagine what a Sisyphean cookbook would be like. Every time I shelve it, it rolls onto the floor and I have to try another recipe? Hmmm. This is tangential and may sound silly, but reading Frederick Forsyth's thriller "The Day of the Jackal" as an adolescent started several trains of thought which still occupy my mind. At the time (11 years old, I think, or 12) I had little knowledge of the French, and none of Algerians, but I was intrigued by the notion of national identity as it applied to the colonizers and the colonized. French considering themselves Algerians, Algerians considering themselves French, and of course the others to whom it was quite the opposite. I grew up in Nova Scotia, a place where the French and English colonial empires clashed memorably, and where even today there is something of an old-country tie. Reading Forsyth first led me to ponder how Canadians had identified ourselves, over the years, by distancing ourselves (politely) from the imperial Brits; and from our potentially imperial neighbours to the south. This may not be especially coherent (I've had a long day) but I'm sure you get the gist of what I'm trying to say. Reading Forsyth also led me to Camus and Malraux about seven years earlier than most of my peers... At any rate, I am professionally interested in all things pertaining to French cuisine, and personally interested in the styles of "home cooking" to be found there. I'm also personally passionate about middle eastern cooking, though I don't know nearly as much as I'd like...and especially the cooking of the Maghreb. So, on all fronts, I'm interested in what you have to say. I've been following your posts since you arrived here at the Gullet. So as long as we avoid the subject of tourneed vegetables, I'm sure we'll get along fine... Before I go to bed tonight I'll be putting on Cheb Mami and looking at those photos in your Algerian thread again. Yowza.
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Oooohhh, that hits a hot button for me. My first competition, as a cooking student, the judges trashed my entree as "confused" because although it was a Mediterranean dish, it included "middle eastern" spices like cumin and coriander. I argued strenuously with them (a stupid thing, I know, but as I say it was my first competition) that the Med has both a north and a south coast, and that they'd influenced each other for millennia. I also pointed out that North African spices were widely used in European cooking from the days of Apicius (or earlier) to the arrival of the Ottoman ascendancy. I guess it was like the ritual argument hockey players have with the referee after they've gotten a penalty...you know it won't change anything, but it makes you feel better. This is a great thread, chef, and I'm looking forward to more.
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eG Foodblog: Daddy-A - Adventures in Lotus Land
chromedome replied to a topic in Food Traditions & Culture
Hey, Daddy-A, how are you finding that tile backsplash? I've lived in places that had them, and frankly it's become something of a pet peeve. I've always found them a rat bastard to keep clean and sanitary. Beautiful workspace, though. You should see what I gotta work with in my post-war rental (50 yrs old +)! -
I don't think that there will ever be *too many* good French cookbooks. Whatever the trend of the moment, modern haute cuisine is a French creation/codification, and the wellspring of the industry. It will be revisited, and revised, and deconstructed, and re-interpreted, and occasionally reviled and railed against, but it is the mountain upon which we all stand. There is certainly a paucity of good regional cookbooks; perhaps excepting Provence in its current incarnation as the "flavour of the month." Lyons is justly renowned as one of the great centres of French cuisine, but often the indigenous "cuisine bourgeoise" is overlooked. Georges Blanc touched on it a bit (IIRC) in his Simple French Cooking: Recipes from our Mothers' Kitchens; but there is little enough out there as far as I've been able to determine. If you want to "go regional," that's probably a good choice. Personally, I tend to favour books with a strong authorial voice. Someone opinionated, passionate, shamelessly willing to TRUMPET the joys of his/her particular favourites. I also like lots of text, especially personal narrative. One of the reasons I enjoy the cookbooks of Duguid and Alford is that the recipes are accompanied by anecdotes explaining their connection to the dish or to the underlying culture. The gloriously beautiful photos don't hurt, either! A final point that might make your book interesting to potential purchasers is your roots in the former French colonies. In the literary world, some of the English language's finest writing is being done now by authors from the Caribbean and the Indian subcontinent. Similarly, I think you might be able to present both an insider's depth of knowledge and an outsider's clearer perspective of the associated culture. And of course, you'd have a great base of potential buyers to build on, right here at the Gullet. Talk about yer "viral marketing" potential...
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I think the most succinct answer was given up thread...we do it because McDonald's doesn't. It's fiddly, time-consuming work which requires a fairly decent amount of skill. It's utterly impractical in the restaurant setting, where labour needs to be tightly controlled in the interest of coaxing as much profit as possible from a set of extremely difficult constraints. We're showing off, in short. I would take vigorous exception to the notion, expressed repeatedly upthread, that tourneeing is practical in the sense that allows the vegetables to cook uniformly. That is correct, up to a point, but it's an important point. The vegetables will, uniformly, be *cooked unevenly.* It's a simple function of the shape. The tapered ends will cook faster than the thicker middle. No way around it, unless you know a way to par-cook the middle of a 2 1/2" piece of vegetable. Now some may argue that the difference in textures between, say, an al dente middle and a fully-cooked end add interest to the dish. That may well be the case. In practice, however, the end result is almost invariably soft middle/mushy ends, or nice ends/hard middle. Neither of these is especially agreeable, to my mind. I've done 'em...can't avoid it, in cooking school...and I've even done 'em at home... but tourneed vegetables have no discernible practical advantage, to my mind. If you wanna show off your knife skills, give me some perfect brunoise. If you want your vegetables to cook uniformly, show me perfect dice. Seven-sided footballs, however mystically satisfying, don't impress me on a plate.
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Don't knock it, Coop...I'm one of many who have ended up as residents here after a Google search. For Vij's, in my case.
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There used to be a store in Halifax that specialized in chili-derived condiments, sauces, and rubs of all kinds. They did carry one brand of the mega-hots (the mfr insisted that a waiver be signed by any purchaser). It was not intended to be consumed *on* food, in fact it would cause a rather nasty chemical burn if you got it on you. It was intended to be measured, with an eyedropper, into rather large quantities of food. The idea, as I understood it, was to allow the heat level to be "customized" with minimal impact on the flavour profile. It seems a valid notion to me. Menton, there are a few different Matouk's being sold here in Canada. I've had that green one you illustrate, and it is a doozy! I haven't had it for a few years, and I was less attuned to hot foods at the time, but I vividly remember that combination of heat and intense fruitiness. I ate it on just about everything for a month or so until the bottle was gone. Fine stuff.
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At my work, we bake anywhere from 650-1000 drop cookies every day (depending on catering orders). We use a scoop. My night baker scoops 15 cookies, roughly 150g each, onto a sheet pan. Then she mashes them with a flat plastic thingie to about 1/4" (ie, 1/2 cm) thick, resulting in a pretty uniform cookie. I'm racking my tired brain to remember the number of the scoop, but I can't. It's the one with the blue handle, if that does it for anybody. It gives you a good compromise of reasonable uniformity with speed of execution.
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I just tried my first cachaca last week. I'd read all of Jorge Amado's novels in my teens/early twenties, so it was something I was curious about. I'd assumed all along that it was simply a local white rum, no different from anything else. What I bought was a brand called "Samba Brasil Gold," the first cachaca that I've seen here in Edmonton (admittedly I wasn't actively looking for it). It was an interesting pale green-gold colour, inclining toward the green. I was rather startled at the olfactory resemblance to tequila. It wasn't as apparent in the actual flavour, more so in the nose, but it was rather interesting. As with tequila, limes and sunshine seemed like the natural accompaniments. I won't be busting my backside to keep a bottle on hand, but it was interesting and I'd certainly think about getting some more when summer rolls around.
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In the case of anyone other than one's mother or SO, the correct answer would be: "If you don't like it scrape it off, and get over yer (sorry, "yo'") big bad self..." Of course, there may be repercussions.
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At work we use applesauce in ours. Two #10 cans in a 27kg batch, if that's any help...
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For me, a very robust pot of chili. For the head cold a few weeks ago, I made one with moose meat. Very nice, an extra dark earthiness from the game.
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I routinely do sides of salmon en papillote at work. Two-three goodly sides would serve 20 people adequately, and be a lot less work. Besides, you would likely find it easier to do the big dramatic gust-of-fragrant-steam tableside thing with one or two larger packages. I usually trim the belly meat or fold it under, so that it makes a more uniform thickness; same with the tail meat (I should clarify...I *trim* at home where I have specific uses for the trim; I tuck under at work where I'm feeding hundreds every lunchtime). A herbed or savoury butter of some kind works well in this sort of scenario. In fact, if you really wanted to do the oranges, you could place each supreme onto a small pat of the butter. This would minimize the "ceviche effect" while your salmon is in the fridge, but would allow the flavours to meld nicely during cooking. You could even pre-portion your fillets and then reassemble them in the parchment; giving you the dual benefit of speeding the meal and reducing your work. I find a decently-sized side of salmon is a perfect fit for standard full-sheet parchment; leaving just enough room around the edges to make a good fold for sealing purposes. I can get three or even four sides onto a standard baking sheet, depending on their size.
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I have used home-frozen egg whites many times, and they work great. Over Christmas, though, I brought in some frozen/pasteurized egg whites from one of my wholesalers, and those wouldn't whip worth anything. Perhaps the more experienced could tell us whether that's typical, or just rotten luck on my part...
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Mostly their stuff is passable, and the prices are not *too* outrageous. Seems to fall in quality somewhere between the entry-level Wal-Mart/Zellers stuff and the better retailers, though the pricing seems to lean more to the higher end than the product justifies (in my opinion). I have been given several items, including a pizza stone (too small, and now broken), vegetable peeler (don't use it), a rather ordinary lightweight springform pan (at about twice the price of a comparable item at the mall), and so on. Worst item? A utensil stand (spoonholder, sort of a thing) which is too small for anything larger than a tablespoon, and has a non-attached handle which means that it can't be conveniently moved. Fix the handle, make it big enough for a mixing spoon, and then we'll talk. Best item? Yeah, the batter bowl.
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My parents did the weekend market "thing" for a while when they had their bakery. Ultimately they gave it up, as the extra work was disproportionate to the extra income. Of course, your mileage may vary.
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I've been halfway keeping an eye out for Kurlansky's book. Read the one on salt and it was outstanding.
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I'm committed to Edmonton for a couple more years, but I'm thinking probably Michael Allemeier at Mission Hill. Never met the man, but everything I've read is positive. Also, longer term, I'd like to go home to Nova Scotia and open a place near (or at) one of the wineries. At present there are only a couple of wineries worth mentioning. However, I'm thinking that as the Cool Climate Oeniculture thing gathers momentum, it's going to help marginal areas like Quebec and NS even more than BC and Ontario; so opportunities will be better in another decade or so. That'd be my real-world choice. After that, well...Vij's, for sure; and yeah, probably Feenie and Hawksworth. Haven't been in Vancouver since 1991, so my knowledge of the rest of the food scene is limited to what I read here.
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My kitchen is small enough and old enough that I have no room for shelving or pantries or almost anything else. I did find a couple of small towel rods, however, that fit into odd spots on the sides of cupboards and between walls and cupboards. These have been handy for hanging utensils on; especially given that my drawers are too shallow for any but the flattest of items. In spaces too small for even the towel bars, I've used cup hooks to hang a miscellany of small gizmos.
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Salt cod is something of a culinary touchstone for me, I guess. We used to get "CARE packages" from Newfoundland when I was a kid...on my father's side, we have been fishermen and boatbuilders all the way back to my original ancestor, who sailed his homebuilt 26ft boat from the West Country to Newfoundland back when Victoria was a young mom. My father broke the mold by running off to join the navy, and met my mother here on the mainland (to Newfoundlanders, you must understand, Canada consists of Newfoundland and the mainland. I have been asked in all seriousness, while living in Nova Scotia, whether I knew so-and-so on the mainland...in Fort MacMurray, 3000 miles away). Traditionally, the cod were split up the middle and the backbone removed, then layered with salt and left for a period of a day or two (depending on region and personal preference). They would then be rinsed and placed on a flat platform called a "flake" to dry in the sun. When they'd reached the desired (skateboard) texture, they'd be gathered up into bundles for sale or storage, as the case may be. My mother has a picture of the three-year-old 'Dome helping Grampa do the gathering. The European fleets generally used a different technique, salting down the cod in barrels of brine. Smaller fish were salted down without being split. These were referred to as "rounders," at least in White Bay, and were often preferred for family consumption as a) they tended to be less salty, and b) they didn't sell for much. The sort of curing that's referred to upthread is not uncommon in Newfoundland, these days. My uncle used to sell that out of his pickup as "corned" cod. Brine it or salt it for just a few hours, then pack it up and freeze it for the winter. Gives you a flavour reminiscent of the "old school," but lighter and with more of a fresh fish character. I like both, personally. These days, I get my little "fix" by going to the Saturday market at a nearby mall where a wonderful older Jamaican lady sells little codcakes for the absurdly low price of two bits.
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There are programs out there that generate nutritional values from your recipes. They all have limitations, but it's generally not too difficult to add ingredients as necessary. I think the tasting menu is a great idea! I have the same sort of dichotomous clientele; divided between those who are fanatically loyal to our 250g muffins and 150g cookies, and those who just want a little bite and don't want to indulge overly. Hopefully this will work out well for you. My February's been going well, but I have the good fortune to have 1200-1400 people through my location in the run of a day (busy-downtown-pedway Hell-office-lunch-crowd). Even the dieters buy things, they just buy *different* things.
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The importer is Georgia Enterprises Ltd (Canada). I don't know what restrictions there may be on shipping into the US, but you could correspond with them at kartvelly@shaw.ca I know that the Khvanchkara (note corrected spelling , I was even looking at the damn' bottle when I posted) is sold in the UK by this company. They specialize in wines from the former East-bloc, apparently, and have several other Georgian wines that I'm not familiar with. I have a predisposition to support producers who, rather than bring out the world's 257,000th mediocre Chardonnay or Merlot, are working to haul their own indigenous varietals into the world of modern wine-making. I think that in the long term, this is the future of the industry; making the best wine you can, out of the grapes that grow best where you are. Who knew what Malbec could be, for example, until the Argentinians started *really* working on it? Given the potentially disastrous situation with climate change, even the French may be hopping onto that bandwagon soon. Here in Canada, of course, wineries have long made use of niche hybrids like Baco Noir, Marechal Foch, and New York Muscat. These are not really indigenous grapes, but they represent the principle of "the grapes that grow best." In my home province of Nova Scotia, some rather drinkable wine is being made from Russian varietals. Go figure.
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I hear you. My *one* day person and I mixed, rolled, cut, baked, decorated, and (dammit) WRAPPED over 2500 heart-shaped cookies. It was the cellophane and ribbons that really got me down. We also did several hundred truffles, a couple of chocolate gift boxes, and over 600 creme brulees for the bloody take-out dinners. Oh, and thanks to a timely diktat from head office, I lost almost a third of every day during this time from having to cover the cash registers during everyone else's breaks. We're busy, by normal standards, but it feels soooo restful after V-Day. <sigh> A couple weeks' respite, and then it's Easter.
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Culinary School in Montreal / Quebec
chromedome replied to a topic in Eastern Canada: Cooking & Baking
I've been through the same process recently, Cricklewood. After years in retail sales, I followed my heart into the kitchen. I graduated from NAIT in Edmonton last April, at the age of 40. It's definitely an adjustment, and you're in for a few years of low-paid ass-busting work. I'm loving it, mind you, I just wish I didn't hurt in quite so many places. As for landing a job, the best advice I can give you is to be targetted and intentional. Don't just fire off a CV to any place that strikes you as interesting. Look at the websites and menus of the places you apply to. Research the chefs; there's a surprising amount of info out there on the Internet. One place I applied the exec is a triathlete; another is a fairly serious jazz musician. I made a point of knowing that about them before I ever darkened their doors. I also made a point of reading their menus and anything I could find (local papers, magazines, restaurant reviews, etc) explaining their attitudes and approaches toward food. Because the time will come when one of these godlike individuals (note my expressionless face) will sit you down and ask you a very simple question: "Why do you want to work here?" Your answer, very often, will decide whether you get a real interview or the ten-minute brushoff. Give them good reasons, real reasons (anybody who hires his own staff will smell bullshit in a second); and ideally reasons that convey a benefit to the chef. You can't come in with a song and dance about your cooking skills, because the second he puts you on the line you're going to get hammered. Emphasize skills like performance under pressure, deadlines successfully dealt with against all odds, organizational aptitude, perseverance...you get the picture. The things any employer wants to hear. But only if they're accurate and demonstrable (and ideally, things your references will cheerfully affirm). In my particular instance, I had the disadvantage of finding a stage in a city 3000 km from where I was living at the time (Halifax). I exercised due diligence at the research end, sent off the e-mails, and landed a spot in one of my top three choices (I still work there on weekends). Believe me, I made my case at length and in detail, and my letter was not generic. Aside from the introductory explanation of my circumstances, each of those queries was specific to that particular kitchen. I still needed to prove myself once I got there, but that was a question of attitude rather than skillset. The chef knew (and I knew) that if I had the right attitude she could teach me the rest. I'm still learning, every day, and I'm confident that I made the right decision. YMMV, but it's a great industry. -
Oh, yes, and several little ceramic ramekins for making brulees and pots de creme and suchlike. Fifty cents each.