Smoked Trout

I just ate crackers and Smoked Trout from Trader Joe's. Peanut was pretty excited about this, seen here washing his paws in anticipation.


He looked so hopeful . . . but it was all in vain. No trout for Peanut.

Earl and Toby's

Early afternoon pre-softball dinner at Earl's: some kind of chicken curry thing. Photo by Jody's iPhone. Post-softball: stolen nachos and chicken wings from the Re-Ups at Toby's.

Char marks; Timbits

Tonight I ate at a house with a BBQ . . . salmon, pork, asparagus, zucchini -- everything was grilled. Mmmm delicious char marks. Timbits also made regular appearances throughout the day, between 10am and 11pm. The 40-pack just keeps on giving.

Barley Vegetable Soup +

President's Choice Instant Barley Vegetable Soup. Atop piles of homework. And, ummm, Panago pizza again. Tropical chicken. Aaaand Strewn Cabernet Franc, more delicious booty from the Niagara-on-the-Lake mini-winery tour. And Blenz, featuring one latté, one brownie, and one Max.

Panago; Sunrype

Denman Street domestic indulgence: Panago pizza and Sun Rype Apple Pineapple Banana juice.

SIDEKICKS; Lentils with Peppers & Onions

I mixed the other half of the can of lentils with red and green peppers and onions, salt and pepper and red pepper flakes and tempered red mustard seeds.

Aaaand Sidekicks. Tonight, in potato form. Cheddar & broccoli scalloped potatoes. Note: Some Sidekicks require the addition of milk; some do not. When you go about purchasing your supply of Sidekicks, make sure to buy some of each. Because if you're the kind of person who cooks with Sidekicks, you're likely the kind of person who doesn't have milk in the fridge.

Curry Point

Curry Point at Lonsdale Quay. I love you, butter chicken.

Wednesday Vacation

I cashed in a vacation day to take a mini holiday from my life . . . and attempt to organize it. I got a lot done. But didn't cook. I made this instant soup, ate an apple and filled up on pizza slices.


Then: first bike ride of the season! for some late night nachos and cream ales at The Foundation.

Checkers

I went to watch this
and ate this and this.

Lentil Mushroom Alfredo; Dirty Dishes

I am officially operating at full capacity. There is too much stuff to do. SO MUCH STUFF. I'm not complaining. But it's a challenge to find time to cook. So I'm keeping things as simple as possible. Simple cooking is still a minor triumph over grabbing a slice of pizza on the way out. Even if it involves Sidekicks. Ooooh, Sidekicks. Tonight's flavour was "Mushroom Alfredo." I mixed in roasted bell peppers left over from yesterday and half a can of lentils, salt, pepper and red pepper flakes. It was, surprisingly, ok. Here also is a photo of my sinkful of dirty dishes. And here is a song called Dirty Dishes. Feel free to play it on a loop while you do your own dishes.

Peppery Brown Sugar Salmon Flambé

The first meal I cooked since I've been back home, tonight I made Peppery Brown Sugar Salmon Flambé with pan-roasted bell peppers. Flambé because the foil accidentally caught on fire while I was broiling it in the last two minutes of baking time. Special thanks to Sonya whom I forced to abandon her unlocked bicycle outside Granville Island Market, and who then purchased my salmon for me when I remembered that I didn't bring my wallet.

Crab Backs

We had a viewing party for Aaron's show (that he edited) Glutton for Punishment tonight. It was lobster-themed, and we ate lobster bisque, with Richard's best homemade bread ever. I made some crab backs, a Trinidadian recipe handed down from my mom . . . when I was at home she gave me my very own set of crab back porcelain shells from Trinidad.


The crab back recipe calls for bread crumbs . . . I used panko (Japanese bread crumbs), but I think they are a bit too delicate; they don't really hold up any kind of crunchiness, they just kind of get absorbed. I therefore kept adding more and more and then too much panko, and kind lost the natural texture of the crab meat. Sooo, next time: normal bread crumbs. I also used only about 1/4 the onion that the recipe called for, and forgot the salt and pepper. So, it wasn't quite up to my mom's standards, but it still tasted reminiscent of her crab backs. I need some practice.

Here's the recipe, as transcribed by my mom. Note: Trinidadians call bell peppers "sweet peppers." Pepper is generally otherwise assumed to be hot or spicy.

Crab Backs

Grannie’s recipe.

Should be served in crab shells or any kind of fish shell or failing that, small pyrex dishes. Makes 12 crab backs.

6 tins of crab
1 medium onion
4 blades of chive
2 tsp Worchestershire sauce
½ each of sweet pepper (green and red) -- cut up very finely
¼ cup butter
juice of ½ lime
salt and pepper to taste
1½ Tbsp bread crumbs or more if required. * Do not make mixture too bready. Crab is the essential taste.

Directions

Open crab cans and drain all liquid from them. Place in a bowl and season with Worchestershire sauce, lime, and salt and pepper.

Chop onion, chives and peppers very small.

Melt butter in large skillet and add chopped vegetables. Add flaked crab meat. Mix well. Add bread crumbs to thicken mixture.

Let cool a little and fill shells or containers with mixture. Sprinkle with bread crumbs.

Place under the broiler until bread crumbs brown. Do not burn.


Ready to serve. This is great as an appetizer or first course at a meal or for lunch!

P.S. Here is a photo of Richard's beautiful bread. Apparently the secret ingredient is beer.

Mac & Cheese and Pinot Gris

During my Niagara-on-the-Lake mini wine tour, I bought a delicious bottle of Stonechurch Pinot Gris. They cold soak the grape skins so that it ends up looking more like a rosé, but maintains the subtle, complex structure of a Pinot. The merchant told me he's been pretty stumped trying to find the right pairing for this wine, but I discovered it last night: Claudia and Janos's Gouda, Old Cheddar and Monterey Jack Mac & Cheese, with garlic bread.

Below we see the lone Mac & Cheese sitting and watching Brian Eno's 14 Video Paintings. Photos by Jackie Wong.

Six Acres

More afterwork dining with the Whitecapettes, this time with our illustrious author Pierre, at Six Acres. We ordered every dip we could find on the menu. Photos by Mauve's iPhone.

The Cambie

Spontaneous post-work burgers and beers at The Cambie with the Whitecapettes -- the direct result of our publicist spending a little too much time with a certain BBQ book this afternoon.

Random food that crossed my path

Pre-softball practice: Pizzo pizza slice. Post-softball: random foods courtesy of Liz & Claudia. White wasabi peas, a chicken foot, and a bowl of Kraft Dinner. Photos by Richard Sexton. David Byrne coaster by Aaron. Hand by Claudia.

Cod and Grasshoppers

Monday April 13 -- Branzino alla Crosta (pistachio crusted wild Alaskan black cod with a fire roasted pepper sauce) at Quattro on Fourth. So so so so good. Grasshoppers at The Nelson Cafe.

Airplane Food

Sunday April 12 -- Dinner: Airplane food courtesy of my mom. (Thanks Mom!) Chicken sandwich, smoked almonds and Girl Guide cookies. In-flight movie: Frost/Nixon. The ground: Pretty far away.

Svíčková

Saturday April 11 -- My dad and I made Svíčková, my favourite Czech meal. You may want to become a fan of it too, once you've tasted it.

We used a pressure cooker, which doubles the pressure so that the food inside cooks at a higher temperature. My dad explains: "At higher elevations, where the pressure is lower, water boils at a lower temperature (eg. Water allegedly boils at 90° in Denver). When pressure is increased, water boils at a higher temperature." With a pressure cooker we can use less water, but still maximize on temperature for cooking the food . . . And because the temperature is higher, we don't have to cook it for as long.

Generally you would buy the cheapest, toughest meat you can find, and use a pressure cooker to tenderize it. That's how Czechs roll: Save on both money AND time with a little thing called SCIENCE. The meat we used wasn't bad to begin with, so we only needed 20 minutes in the pressure cooker.


Here is a photo of the root vegetables that form the base of the sauce. If you can't find celery root, then substitute with celery.


Svíčková

6 eye of round steaks
salt & pepper
half of 1 celery root
6 large carrots
2 medium parsnips
1 medium onion
beef stock
---


Seasoning
peel of 1 lemon
peppercorns (about 5 per steak)
allspice (about 5 total)
5–6 bay leaves (FRESH)
1 tsp thyme (optional)
---
sour cream (just over half a 500 mL container)
---
Serve with
cranberry sauce
lemon slices
bread dumplings



Directions
---
Peel and chop the veggies. Salt and pepper the meat, and sear it.



Add veggies to the pot and pour in 2–3 cups water (with beef stock if desired) to almost cover. Add seasonings.

Pressure cook 20 minutes (or about 1 1/2 hours, covered, if you don't have a pressure cooker) until meat is tender and veggies close to disintegration.

Remove meat from broth and set aside. Use a hand blender to blend veggies and seasonings until smooth. Pass through a seive if necessary. Add sour cream and blend again. (If sauce is not thick enough, add corn starch mixed with a little water and bring to a boil. It's preferable not to do this, and if you have this problem, use more carrots next time.)

The sauce should have a subtle tangy sourness. Add lemon juice to taste if necessary.

Serve with bread dumplings, cranberry sauce and a lemon slice.

A couple more notes on the bread dumplings: here's a photo of the desired "slightly runny" consistency of the dough, with bread pieces mixed in. When packing the dough into the containers, use a wet spoon to press it down to minimize formation of air bubbles in the dumplings.

Synthetic Nuggets

With the leftover yolks from yesterday's meringues plus additional ingredients, my mom made me this wonderful omelette for breakfast. Yay mom!


We lunched at Strega Cafe. Niagara's Best Blonde, brewed right on St. Paul Street in St. Catharines, is a lovely beer.


Dinner in Toronto at Pogue Mahone (shepherd's pie) followed by some of Sean's street nuggets en route to The Beaver. Followed by a 5am-bedtime-snack of Pralines ice cream and gossip.

Michelle Meringue; Kilt & Clover; The Merch

Yesterday we made soupees. Also known as meringues. Also known as the things I failed miserably at making a little while back. So I guess (one of the things that) it really comes down to with meringues is having the right equipment. Don't try to make these in a blender. Here is a recipe transcribed by my mom:

Soupees

4 egg whites
½ tsp. cream of tartar
1 Cup Sugar (8 oz.)
1 Tsp. Vanilla Essence

Preheat oven to 200-250° (Depending on how hot your oven works, read the following. IF oven tends to run hot; heat oven at 200° and bake for 1.5 hours. IF oven tends to run regular; heat oven at 250° bake for 1 hour).

Beat egg whites with cream of tartar until quite frothy. (looks slightly stiff)

Gradually add 1 cup of very fine sugar a tablespoon at a time. (This sugar may be found in the groceries) or use castor sugar. If neither can be found use granulated sugar put into blender at high speed and grind until fine).


Gradually drop in 1 tsp. Vanilla Essence while beating.

Beat until stiff peaks form.

Drop by large spoonfuls onto cookie sheets lined with brown paper or waxed paper.


Once baking time complete, turn off oven. Open oven door ajar and let the Soupees sit in oven until cool and at room temperature.

Store carefully in air tight container. (Fragile -break easily)

Later I had dinner with my dad at Kilt & Clover in Port Dalhousie, where all the waiters wear kilts: mussels and potato skins (appetizers are two-for-one on Thursdays). Later: a blueberry wheat ale at the Merchant Ale House with Nadine.

Shrimp Curry with Roti

I did not help or even observe the making of the shrimp curry because I was off being a creepy adult exploring the halls of A.K. Wigg, my old public school in Fonthill. But I enjoyed eating it. We also had these wine sticks from Joseph's Estate Winery. Joseph is an environmental engineer and makes sure that no part of the grapes he grows goes to waste . . . He makes these snacks out of flour from the grape seed, or something like that. We ate a whole bag of them during our tasting there. Learn more about Joseph's innovations here.

Roast Pork, Sauerkraut & Dumplings

Tuesday April 7 -- A day of wine tasting in Niagara-on-the-Lake left me fairly incapacitated so I sat and ate most of this shrimp (Penelope was pretty jealous) until Nadine finally took it away from me and put it on the coffee table out of my reach. My dad cooked us a classic Czech meal of roast pork, sauerkraut and dumplings. I took notes. Here they are:


Roast Pork
Choose a pork shoulder with a thick rind. Season with salt and caraway seeds. Pour a cup of water in the baking dish. Bake at 375°F, probably about an hour or so. After the first half hour, baste every ten minutes. Towards the end let the water evaporate completely and burn onto the dish. Then add more water to scrape this up so that it becomes part of the gravy. Once this boils, resume basting.


Sauerkraut
This is made of sauerkraut, chopped onion, caraway seeds, and sugar and vinegar to taste.


Bread Dumplings
Combine 2 cups flour, 1 egg, 1 rounded tsp baking powder, 1 tsp salt, and water and/or milk to the consistency of slightly runny dough. Mix until smooth; stir in dried bread pieces until coated; ladel into 400 mL polypropylene beakers with holes drilled into the bottom (Note: Polyethylene can't handle the heat -- must be polypropylene), or a mug with a straw stuck down the side. Fill half-full. If you don't have holes or a straw at the bottom, the steam won't have anywhere to escape, and it will build up under the dumplings and they will go flying into the air.

Microwave for 6 minutes. Let cool slightly, then take the dumplings out and slice them up.

Tim Hortons donuts for dessert.

Furbacher-Meals: Fricassee Chicken

Tonight my mom and I made my favourite Trinidadian meal: Fricassee Chicken! Many times I have sort of kind of "helped" while she cooked us this meal . . . This is the first time I actually made it myself.

Fricassee Chicken

3 boneless chicken breasts, cut in large chunks
1 medium onion
1 large potato
1 cup baby carrots
1/2 green pepper (optional -- not in classic recipe)
1 tin sliced mushrooms
---
seasoning:
salt & pepper (LOTS of pepper)
garlic (1 heaping tsp, or a few cloves)
ketchup (at least double what's in the photo below)
Worchestershire sauce ("not too much" or "whatever you feel")
---
oil (LIBERALLY coat the bottom of the pan, about 1/4 inch)
sugar (about 1/3 cup)
(classic recipe uses real brown sugar)

Directions
Season chicken. Dice all the veggies. Mix the chopped onion in along with the seasonings and chicken. (Note: we also added shado beni, a traditional cilantro-based Trinidadian seasoning, but later decided it was a bad idea.)

Heat the oil (on high heat). Pour in sugar and allow to caramelize. It should become very dark -- but not burnt (or else it won't stick to the chicken.) Pour in the chicken mixture and coat with caramelized sugar. Stir occasionally and CAREFULLY, every few minutes, to make sure chicken picks up the sauce -- don't overstir, or the chicken won't brown properly. Scrape excess caramel from sides to prevent it from burning and add to the coating of the chicken.

Once chicken is browned to desired colour (about 5 to 10 minutes), turn heat down to medium. Slowly and carefully add water to sides of the pot, a spoonful at a time, to avoid diluting the chicken's colour (to a total of -- I say 1/2 cup; Mom says 1 cup), and mix in the carrots, potato and peppers (if using). Simmer until veggies are cooked (15 to 20 minutes maybe), adding the mushrooms about 10 minutes before it's done.

Serve with rice and veggies on the side.

Ottawa, Day Three

Sunday April 5 -- At the ByWard Market you can find Obama cookies, which are, naturally, shaped like maple leaves and say 'Canada' on them. You can also buy Obama's keychain there, and any other thing that was purchased or even looked at by Obama on his recent visit to Ottawa. Anyway we skipped the cookies and went for some beavertails.


Lunch at the Empire Grill with minutes to spare before running for my bus. I had the breakfast salad, a fascinating mix of flavours that included spinach, fennel, sausage, smoked bacon, herbed goat cheese, tomatoes and poached eggs.


A day-long bus ride included these lovely bus snacks, accompanied by as much of The Wire as I could get before my computer battery died.

I wandered around Toronto during a two-hour layover, and ended up dining at Chipotle Mexican Grill, whose motto, according to the receipt, is "Ingest No Evil." I had Star Ruby Grapefruit Grown Up Soda, one taco barbacoa and two tacos carnitas. The tacos carnitas tasted mildly evil.

Ottawa, Day Two

Saturday April 4 -- Between a tour of the Parliament Buildings and a visit to the National Art Gallery, we made a stop at Zak's to refuel on coffee and La Grande Poutine.


Afternoon snack: Baby carrots and Renée's Gourmet Greek Feta Dip, accompanied by episodes of Drunk History. (Witness history as it's never been told before: Drunk.)

Dinner at Chez Lucien: Guinness and the Hambourgoisie (avec tranches de poire et brie fondu).

Later at Zaphod's:
A Deep Thought, and other various Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy-themed cocktails.

Ottawa, Day One

Friday April 3 -- Shortly after the eagle landed in our nation's capital, appetizers were served up chez Spencer: pitas and veggie hummus.


Afterwards we dined at The Lieutenant's Pump. I ate what did not taste like $18.95-worth of steak.

Pizza; NWCAV

Last night: handul of coconut; apple; slice of Pizzo pizza. I'll be in Ottawa til Sunday; likely not posting until Monday.

In case of fiery plane crash death, I am pleased to leave behind this collection of the meals of the last six months of my life. In case of survival, there is something extra special to look forward to in the near future: my enrollment in the Culinary Basics cooking class at the Northwest Culinary Academy of Vancouver, starting May 11.

Minato Sushi

Minato Sushi on Broadway and Oak. Miso soup. Gomae. Pinky roll. BBQ Salmon Cheeks. One meal left until my trip to Ottawa. Don't expect much from tomorrow.