eG Foodblog: Peter the eater - Nova Scotia Eats

[Smithy]

I recently made some gravlax and salmon ceviche at the same time for a side-by-side  comparison. I bought a small fresh piece of Atlantic salmon and cut it into chunks and placed half into a container with 1/2 cup salt and 1/2 cup sugar. The other half went into a container with the juice of a lime and a lemon plus a few capers. I left them overnight in the fridge and got this:

The gravlax on the left became very firm and the colour deeped, whereas the ceviche was soft and flaky and pale - similar to cooking with moist heat. I gather most would have applied a weighted pressure to the gravlax to flatten it out while curing, and they'd add dill, I did neither. As well, overnight in the fridge is longer than ideal for a traditional ceviche.

I took bits from each and put them on cukes with a little sour cream/cream cheese mixture.

<snip>

The ceviche was more like a cold piece of poached salmon with a little citrus dressing. Both are really tasty, easy and affordable, and faster than smoking.

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I've only made gravlax once. It was a several-day preparation, complete with the weights and days in the refrigerator, and mustard-dill sauce. Although I liked the result I've hesitated to invest the time to do it again. It never occurred to me that it could be expedited that way. Did you also add liquid, or just the salt and sugar?

I'm a great one for side-by-side comparisons. Thanks for doing that, and providing the comments on the results. Both the results made tasty-looking hors d'oeuvres!

[bavila]

A folk tale I suppose, but, the story is often told that when the Acadians were forced out of Canada, they began their long trip to Louisiana. Their friends, lobsters, decided to follow them south. By the end of the long trip, the lobsters had lost so much weight that they were now crawfish.

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That's funny. I can't believe I haven't heard that before.

And speaking of lobsters, is the "lobster crisis" over yet? I haven't been following this lately...

[Peter the eater]

I've only made gravlax once. It was a several-day preparation, complete with the weights and days in the refrigerator, and mustard-dill sauce. Although I liked the result I've hesitated to invest the time to do it again. It never occurred to me that it could be expedited that way. Did you also add liquid, or just the salt and sugar?

I did not add liquid. The photo shows a syrupy substance - all that water was sucked out of the fish and it made the grains of salt and sugar disappear. It continued to change the next day or so getting darker and more firm. I figure thinner pieces of fish means a faster process.

[Peter the eater]

tejon,

You asked about bagged milk - you can see it in the next batch of pix. You can buy 3 bags (4 litres) for $5.19 up to $7.35 around here. And the empty bags work perfectly in my kitchen shrinkwrapper.

Here I am preparing 6 chicken thighs for a Thai red curry coconut in the tajine. The other 6 are being frozen. With the sale, the thighs work out to just under 50 cents each (my keyboard doesn't seem to have the $-like character for cents)

This vessel is good for this kind of thing because it goes from stovetop (for browning) to oven (for slow cooking) to tabletop (for eating) and its supereasy to clean.

[Peter the eater]

I'm from Toronto but married a Caper (a person born on Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia).

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Does she have any good Scottish recipes you'd care to share during your blog?

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Her father is from Bristol, England and her mother is from New York City (Flushing), they moved up to Cape Breton in 1963. As far as "good Scottish recipes" go, she makes excellent oatcakes and scones, among other things. For Burns Day (Jan.25, birthday of Scottish poet Robert Burns) I try to make vegetarian haggis (a culinary oxymoron if there ever was one) but have not yet got it right.

Where you looking for anything in particular?

[Peter the eater]

maple angelfood cake with maple whipped cream and maple candy:

It was a delicious way to stay out of the rain.

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Oh my gosh, I would be in heaven with that plate in front of me. I love maple flavored everything and anything. Can you share the maple angelfood recipe???? pretty please?????

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Maple Angel Food Cake

1 1/2 cups egg whites (from about 12 eggs), at room temperature

1 1/4 teaspoons cream of tartar

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 1/4 cups sugar

1 1/8 cups cake flour, sifted

1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoons pure maple syrup

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.

In a mixer fitted with the whisk attachment (or using a hand mixer), whip the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and salt and continue whipping until soft peaks form. With the mixer running, gradually add 1 cup of the granulated sugar and continue whipping until stiff and the sugar has dissolved, about 30 seconds more.

Sift the remaining 1/4-cup of granulated sugar with the sifted cake flour 3 times, to aerate the mixture. Fold into the egg whites, then fold in the vanilla and maple syrup.

Spoon the batter into an ungreased angel food pan or 6 miniature ones. Smooth the top with the back of the spoon. Bake until light golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool by hanging the cake (in the pan) upside down around the neck of a bottle until it cools to room temperature. Run a long, sharp knife blade around the cake to loosen, then knock the cake out onto a plate.

Serve with whipped cream flavoured with Maple Syrup

Maple Syrup Candy

1 cup maple syrup

Place maple in a small saucepan and bring up to 280 degrees F. Dip a spoon into the syrup and drizzle desired shapes onto a sheet pan sprayed with vegetable oil or lined with a silpat. Let cool completely so "candies" come off the sheet pan easily. Eat as is or use as a garnish.

[DCP]

My guess is the temperature was about 800 degrees too high - these were clearly has-beans. I now use the electric crockpot.

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Has-beans. I almost snarfed my drink upon reading this.

[dockhl]

And the empty bags work perfectly in my kitchen shrinkwrapper.

OMG.........it never OCCURED to me to use bags from anything else in my Foodsaver !!!!

wowiezowie.

[Peter the eater]

We drove down the south shore to Lunenburg for lunch, it is a unique place with loads of history. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Site and, among other things, birthplace of the Bluenose schooner, the ship on the Canadian dime. There's loads of tradition here - settlers from Germany leave a legacy of boatbuilding, carpentry, food, etc. Here's what we did:

drove through Mahone Bay:

view from restaurant:

obligatory lobster tank:

deserts and drinks:

I had the seafood platter:

walking off lunch:

some of the street signs:

sauerkraut:

cranberry farm:

making ice cream:

much easier than the old way:

this is the old way:

finnished project:

[Pan]

Coffee ice cream, wasn't it?

Was the Thai curry your recipe? I don't think I've ever had celery in any Thai dish. I'm sure I would have happily eaten the dish, though.

[Peter the eater]

Coffee ice cream, wasn't it?

Was the Thai curry your recipe? I don't think I've ever had celery in any Thai dish. I'm sure I would have happily eaten the dish, though.

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The Thai curry was more of a "use what you have" recipe. I find the red paste from the jar delicious and hard to replicate at home, like ketchup.

The ice cream was chocolate peanut butter cup at the request of our dinner guest. We just got the machine a few weeks ago, I can't wait to put some crazy flavours in it.

[johnnyd]

is the "lobster crisis" over yet?

I believe the Canadian lobster season started early May, which is why the prices have eased around the Northeast US.

Our local guys are getting US$6 to US$7 per pound at the dock - so that's US$9 at least retail. A lobsterman I talked to Thursday said he's going out quite a ways still, and curiously, found a couple "shedders" (soft shelled, just-molted) in his traps. "A bit early for them," said he.

I want a Tagine...

[MarketStEl]

I consider gravad lax (gravlax) to be one of the greatest contributions Sweden has ever made to the modern world, ahead of Ikea, ABBA and Mats Sundin. Alright, I'll include Daniel Alfredsson considering he'll be skating around with the Stanley Cup over his head in a few weeks. Can't forget Claes Oldenburg, either.

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You haven't even begun to scratch the surface: Volvos, Saabs, Absolut vodka, aquavit and that cheese that's soaked in it, Bjorn Borg, Nobel Prizes....Sweden and Swedes are way cool.

tejon,

You asked about bagged milk - you can see it in the next batch of pix.

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I assume that the thing on the right in this photo is the bag of milk. What do you do to decant it? Put it in a container or rack and tap it? Cut off a corner and pour it into a pitcher? Buy one of those refrigerator-dispensers like they have in the restaurants?

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this (AFAICT) uniquely Canadian practice fascinating. Anyone know how plastic bags came to be the preferred way to package milk up North? What advantages do they offer over cartons or jugs?

[Pam R]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this (AFAICT) uniquely Canadian practice fascinating.  Anyone know how plastic bags came to be the preferred way to package milk up North?  What advantages do they offer over cartons or jugs?

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I'm not sure it's the preferred way . . . maybe it's regional. I don't think it's nearly as popular or available around here as it was when I was a kid.

Peter - is it all bags around there? Or do you have the option of plastic jugs, paper cartons or bags?

[Magictofu]

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this (AFAICT) uniquely Canadian practice fascinating.  Anyone know how plastic bags came to be the preferred way to package milk up North?  What advantages do they offer over cartons or jugs?

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I'm not sure it's the preferred way . . . maybe it's regional. I don't think it's nearly as popular or available around here as it was when I was a kid.

Peter - is it all bags around there? Or do you have the option of plastic jugs, paper cartons or bags?

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I can talk for Quebec and Ontario where the options are bags and cartons (very rarely plastic jugs).

We usually place the bag in a container, cut off a small corner of the bag to pour the milk and place the whole thing in the fridge.

[MarketStEl]

I forgot to ask last time: Who's Mats Sundin?

[patti]

When last I worked in the local school system here ('98) in south Louisiana, bagged milk had replaced cartons in school lunches. I had to learn how to drink it from one of the kids in the cafeteria (stab the pointed end of the straw into the bag).

[Peter the eater]

QUOTE(Pam R @ May 26 2007, 11:26 AM)

QUOTE(MarketStEl @ May 26 2007, 06:39 AM)

I'm sure I'm not the only one who finds this (AFAICT) uniquely Canadian practice fascinating. Anyone know how plastic bags came to be the preferred way to package milk up North? What advantages do they offer over cartons or jugs?

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I'm not sure it's the preferred way . . . maybe it's regional. I don't think it's nearly as popular or available around here as it was when I was a kid.

Peter - is it all bags around there? Or do you have the option of plastic jugs, paper cartons or bags?

*

Here are the dairy products from my fridge, plus two cartons I pulled out of the recycle bin.

As you can see there are many containers to choose from. I think the bags are fairly popular, probably not the most though.

[Peter the eater]

I forgot to ask last time:  Who's Mats Sundin?

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Mats Sundin is the captain of the Toronto Maple Leafs hockey team. They didn't make it the playoffs this year (thats when I switch to the NBA Toronto Raptors) but their cross-province rivals (Ottawa Senators) are in the finals.

[Peter the eater]

Donairs!

Warm up a pita, scrape some meat from a vertical spit into it, squirt with "sauce", add chopped onions and tomatoes. That's a donair - very popular here, also known as gyros (YEE-rows) in other places. The meat is spiced lamb, pork, and/or beef and the sauce is sweet and tangy. Tasty but very messy to eat. They are not exactly health food and I haven't had one in over a decade.

[Peter the eater]

Tuna!

I got some yellowfin tuna steaks earlier this week. They are firm, dark and delicious. One got grilled indoors on an iron skillet and the other was cooked to medium on the BarBQ. Looked like this:

This rare piece is on horseradish mayo and a slice of baguette:

The next day I did the other piece outside (it stopped raining) and shared it with the kids. I cooked it a bit longer for them, although both ways are fine for me.

They liked it! That second piece almost looks like pork to me. The fish monger told me that the tuna was sashimi grade and caught locally. I know there have been some enormous bluefins caught nearby - there's a stuffed one hanging from the ceiling on cables at a B&B in Cape Breton where we stayed once. It was 1200 lbs when caught in the Canso Strait which separates mainland Nova Scotia from Cape Breton. These creatures are very impressive, like underwater missiles. Apparently they swim from one end of the ocean to the other each season.

[Peter the eater]

blueberry pancakes for breakfast:

We all went downtown. This is the gate to Public Gardens in Halifax:

inside the gardens:

decorated lobster statues, they are everywhere! What variation on this theme does your city have?

this places sells rum cakes:

down on the Halifax waterfront. This is where Canada's Naval Memorial The HMS Sackville docks in the summer. Its a WWII corvette, not the Chevrolet kind. I thought it would be there by now but it was not. If you ever get here and tour the ship, check out the ship's bell. My kids names have been engraved on it because they were christened aboard her.

[bavila]

decorated lobster statues, they are everywhere! What variation on this theme does your city have?

My hometown, Lafayette, Louisiana had pelicans (the state bird). When I lived in Norfolk, Virginia it was mermaids. I worked in Washington, DC and there were donkeys and elephants (symbols of our two major political parties for those outside the US). I honestly can't remember if there have been any here. If there were I suppose they'd be either crabs or sailboats. Maybe blue herons. Of all these, the donkeys and elephants were my favorites.

[prasantrin]

Where you looking for anything in particular?

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Well, the scones would be nice, but I'm always looking for a good shortbread recipe (especially if it makes large quantities)!

Edited May 26, 2007 by prasantrin (log)

[little ms foodie]

decorated lobster statues, they are everywhere! What variation on this theme does your city have?

We have had pigs (a nod to Rachel the Pig at Pike Place Market) and carosel horses (can't remember what that was for)