Making Memories in Manitoulin – at it again!

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry,

It's great to be able to follow your food adventures in Manitoulin again.

Just out of curiosity, how many hours a day do you devote to cooking projects? The amount of stuff you produced in just a day or two is quite impressive already!

Good question - I just kind of plug away at things throughout the day. The total time spent directly cooking would be an hour or so I suspect. I need something like a pedometer for cooking to determine actual numbers.

[Kerry Beal]

Tonight's dinner - pichana. Noticed a package of top sirloin pieces at the grocery store - reduced 30% (even better). Skewered, heavily salted and cooked up on the BGE.

A 'Little Italy' to accompany it.

[Kerry Beal]

Off to work - on call today. Request for cheese biscuits. Wish I had some red pepper jelly to go with them.

[Kerry Beal]

A perfectly adequate lunch - fresh mozzarella from Wegmans, basil from the garden.

[lancastermike]

DSCN1362.jpg

A perfectly adequate lunch - fresh mozzarella from Wegmans, basil from the garden.

Tomato, moz and basil is Maggie's favorite summertime meal. We have it often

[Kerry Beal]

Was beginning to fear that dinner might be lunch repeated as I waited for the helicopter to pick up my truly sick patient - but Ornge finally flew off and I made my way home to make larb. No thai red chilis in the freezer for the perfect picture - had to settle for a nice squirt of siracha. But did toast up some glutinous rice to finish it properly.

[FrogPrincesse]

Kerry- what is your go-to larb recipe? It looks good.

[Kerry Beal]

Kerry- what is your go-to larb recipe? It looks good.

It's a kluged together recipe from all the recipes I found on eG.

Larb Source: eG adapted

(1 servings)

• 1 pound chicken thigh meat, diced in processor
• 1 tablespoon oil
• 1-2 tablespoon chicken stock
• 2 or 3 limes juiced
• 1 tablespoon palm sugar
• 2 or 3 tbsp fish sauce
• 2 or 3 cloves garlic
• 1 inch chunk ginger (or powdered ginger)
• 1 tablespoon frozen lemongrass
• 3 kaffir lime leaves
• 1 big squirt siracha sauce, or a diced thai red chili or two
• 1 sliced shallot
• 1 tablespoon toasted rice powder

Mix all the ingredients for topping together. Correct to get the right balance of sweet, salty, sour and hot.

Heat the oil and add the chicken. When the chicken starts to lose it's pink colour add the broth to prevent the meat from browning. Cook until just loses the pink colour. Top with sliced scallions. Dress with sauce. Serve on romaine or endive. Top with toasted rice powder.

[Kerry Beal]

This morning before I headed out I put together the dough for Tom Cat's Semolina Filone from Artisan Baking by Maggie Glezer. I'd made the poolish last night - managed about 30 minutes of autolyse before I completed the dough. It didn't get the appropriate turns, and probably rose for about 6 hours in all with a couple of knock downs when I was home.

I had just put it in the oven and gave it a quick spray with water - when the phone rang calling me in immediately. I set the timer on my phone and headed off.

With about 10 minutes left on the clock I was able to scoot home and pull it out of the oven.

It's not pretty! But it was delicious.

[Kerry Beal]

For a number of the years that I've been coming up here I would get an e-mail or call from Anne, one of the support staff in the clinic, asking me to pick up stuff from Malabar Spice - a supplier of spices, ingredients and charcuterie equipment about a kilometre from my house, that is owned by a girl with whom I went to kindergarden. Anne's husband is a butcher and a couple of years ago I brought up the really big and heavy meat slicer that I inherited from my friend Huey for him - cause I knew he would take proper care of it where I couldn't. He makes excellent summer sausage. I'd bring up spices, cloth sausage casings - what ever they needed.

Anne would give me summer sausage, her own maple syrup - all sorts of yummy goodies. She also used to e-mail me really good jokes!

Two years ago Anne died unexpectedly - leaving a huge hole in the lives of everyone here. To honour her memory the staff planted a memorial garden in front of the clinic.

A couple of days ago - I noticed what looked like a ripe strawberry in the garden. Imagine my delight when I realized just how many nice ripe strawberries there were hiding in there. So every day since I have gone rooting around, picking the ripe ones and bringing them home for the rug rat and I to enjoy (if they make it that far).

A fitting memorial!

[Beth Wilson]

What a unique memorial garden. I really like the idea of the recurring strawberry plants for people to pause and enjoy a moment. Truly unique.

[Kerry Beal]

After rounds this morning I headed to the grocery store to have a little visit with the butcher (the widower of Ann - whose memorial garden I snatched a nice ripe strawberry from while leaving the hospital this morning). This is the last day NY strip is on sale - so I got him to dig around in the cooler and find me a primal that hadn't been trimmed within an inch of it's life. Bob understands the fat is flavour thing - but has to trim for what the customers expect these days. The meat he takes home still has the fat on it!

He cut me some steaks a few inches thick.

Sous vided them when I arrived home and enjoyed part of one for my lunch.

[Kerry Beal]

Had the doc working in the ER over for dinner.

Red thai curry with lichee and pineapple. Steamed thai sticky rice.

Steamer set up on TMX.

Tres leche cake - missed the plated picture - the rest has gone over to work to be finished off.

[Tri2Cook]

You do more cooking when you're working out of town and on call than I do at home under normal, relaxed circumstances. I used to do so much playing and experimenting during my free time, now, if I'm not at work, I rarely cook at all. I really need to get back to non-work-related cooking on a regular basis.

[Kerry Beal]

But it's so much easier up here!

[ElsieD]

Can you explain why you are using what appears to be an empty coffee can with a lid on it rather than the TMX steamer basket? and what is the bread basket for?

[Kerry Beal]

Ah yes - the steamer - well you see I don't have a pan here that is good to hold the steamer that it tall enough that the bottom of the basket won't hit the water. So I found the coffee can in the cupboard - cut open the bottom - and walla (as Lior would say) - perfect holder for the basket over the TMX. You can't steam with the lid off the thermomix.

The 'bread' basket is actually a thai rice steamer. Picture here. They work so much better for steaming the glutinous rice than any other steaming options I have tried.

Edited July 5, 2013 by Kerry Beal (log)

[Kerry Beal]

For Wiki tomorrow - Buttermilk Quick Bread with some banana slices, blueberries, walnuts and a bit of lemon oil. One loaf for the folks downstairs from me who trimmed the hanging branches outside that have interfered with the reception on the satellite dish.

[mkayahara]

You do more cooking when you're working out of town and on call than I do at home under normal, relaxed circumstances. I used to do so much playing and experimenting during my free time, now, if I'm not at work, I rarely cook at all. I really need to get back to non-work-related cooking on a regular basis.

I agree, Tri2Cook. The conclusion I've finally reached is that, unlike the rest of us, Kerry doesn't actually need sleep.

Case in point: I picked up one of those Thai rice steamer baskets at the same time as Kerry's (back in December), and I still haven't used mine...

Edited July 5, 2013 by mkayahara (log)

[Kerry Beal]

You do more cooking when you're working out of town and on call than I do at home under normal, relaxed circumstances. I used to do so much playing and experimenting during my free time, now, if I'm not at work, I rarely cook at all. I really need to get back to non-work-related cooking on a regular basis.

I agree, Tri2Cook. The conclusion I've finally reached is that, unlike the rest of us, Kerry doesn't actually need sleep.

Case in point: I picked up one of those Thai rice steamer baskets at the same time as Kerry's (back in December), and I still haven't used mine...

Matt - soak that basket for a couple of days in copious amounts of water - and change the water often until the water is no longer coloured. Mine is still colouring the outside of the rice. It's soaking in my big sous vide bucket in the tub right now.

I used it once at home since you got it for me - up here I have time to play - and sleep!

[SylviaLovegren]

Can you explain why you are using what appears to be an empty coffee can with a lid on it rather than the TMX steamer basket? and what is the bread basket for?

I thought it might be some sort of strange altar...

[Kerry Beal]

Hoity-Toity.

Roasted scapes with some steak slices.

Lunch today - leftover larb.

[Kerry Beal]

And the perfect dessert - two tiny scoops of strawberry sorbet.

Enjoying the coldness - it's 80º in this place - apparently the new motor for the heat exchanger didn't arrive today!

[Kerry Beal]

Headed off to Sudbury today to get a few things. 83º F in the house when I got home.

I hit a number of different places to get the things I was after.

The extremely old and decrepit - but very effective oven mitts that I brought up here a dozen years ago seem to have disappeared from the drawer. So one of my destinations was STOP restaurant supply to replace them. They'll get hidden away in my locked cupboard when I leave this time. I also picked up a roll of siliconized pan liner that I think I might find a use for in my chocolate room.

Resisted all the BGE stuff there - but did try to convince them again that they need to hold an eggfest of some sort.

Costco provided some nice lamb chops as well as some oxygen packed mussels. I like that they've now split the package so that you can cook half and keep the other half oxygen packed until you want to use it.

The new Food and Drink magazine was available at the LCBO today. Haven't taken the time to look through it yet though.

Fixed myself a Maximilion Affair in the new glass I found at Homesense.

Dinner was leftovers - a bit of cold steak with the remains of the fresh mozzarella and tomatoes.

[Kerry Beal]

Eggs with mushrooms, asparagus, green onions and cheddar for breakfast before they call. I have cauliflower roasting in the oven - hope there is enough time. I also have dough for rolls rising that needs 2 1/2 hours - mind you the slow to rise doughs are a bit more forgiving.

My sad offering for ER - it was too hot to do much else last night. Milk chocolate, graham wafers, peanuts and mini marshmallows.