Tag: cooking

Culinary Q & A with Brittney Le Blanc

Occupation: I work in the newsroom for 630CHED/iNews880. I write, report, and do web site stuff. Basically, if it’s in the newsroom… I probably do it at one point or another. I also run the @iNews880 Twitter account.

What did you eat today?

So far? Just two cups of hot chocolate. I’ve had my vanilla yogurt sitting beside me at work for about 4 hours now… so, hold on one second. Okay, I’ve had two cups of hot chocolate and a spoonful of vanilla yogurt.

What do you never eat?

I don’t ever eat nuts or peanuts due to allergies. But I also try to never eat onions or potatoes. I have a hate for green onions which I find places tend to add onto EVERYTHING. It’s not a welcome surprise on my plate.

What is your personal specialty?

I can cook a mean Mu Shu spin off. I use chicken instead of pork and add peppers, mushrooms, and rice noodles.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you will always find:

Ketchup. Which goes perfectly with my weekday meal standbys.

What is your weekday meal standby?

Either Chicken Nuggets, Fries, and Green Beans or Mac and Cheese. Both easy and fairly cheap.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My dishwashing brush. I hate washing dishes, but don’t have a dishwasher… this handy brush is efficient and allows me not to touch gross dishwater.

World ends tomorrow. Describe your last meal.

Chicken Mushroom Lasagna, steamed broccoli and cauliflower, a slice of carrot cake (without nuts) and a glass of ice wine. Alternatively, a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and a glass of milk. The world ends tomorrow — if I die from my allergies, it’s only speeding the process.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Probably the southside location of Silcilian Pasta Kitchen. My family discovered it a few years back and we go there for family dinners from time to time.

What’s the best place to eat in Edmonton?

I would have to say the Bul Go Gi House. I’ve been going since I was a little girl. Service is almost always fast and friendly, and the food is absolutely delicious!

If you weren’t limited by geography, where and what would you eat?

I’ve never given it much thought. Maybe I’d go to Hell’s Kitchen… I would order scallops and risotto. Those always seem so difficult to cook, but I’d love to try the finished product.

Follow Brittney on Twitter here.

The Cooking Chronicles: Mother’s Day Barbeque

My Mum requested a barbeque for her Mother’s Day supper, so of course we complied. I decided to make apple cheddar turkey burgers (which I’ve made before) and a side of grilled fiesta stuffed peppers, with Mack’s help.

Fiesta Stuffed Peppers

It really was a family affair – my dad helped out on the grill, and I enlisted my sisters to round out the meal: Amanda contributed a salad (with a citrus vinaigrette made from scratch, a first for her) and Felicia and Jeff made dessert – strawberry chocolate crepes.

Full plate

Dessert

We probably should be pampering my Mum more often than once a year, because she does more for us than we often realize. Thanks Mum for everything!

The Cooking Chronicles: Spanish Paella

Or perhaps more accurate – non-paella paella. I caught an episode of Michael Smith’s Chef At Home recently where he prepared a paella recipe that even I would eat, free of many ingredients that are unappealing to me, but what I thought were central to paella as a dish. The proteins consisted of chicken, sausage and shrimp, with nary a shell in sight. Saffron, another additive frequently used, was also missing from the recipe, but I was willing to overlook that in favour of experimentation.

The best part about the dish was its one-pot nature – once we had browned the sausages and chicken, everything, from the proteins, rice, tomatoes, and chicken stock, were thrown into the saute pan to cook together. Half an hour later, we had a fragrant, hearty meal.

Spanish Paella with Chicken, Shrimp and Sausage

Tomato was the dominant flavour of the dish, and I would have preferred additional notes present. Also, the shrimp had become so waterlogged over the last half hour that the texture was closer to that of lobster. Next time, I would be sure to add them closer to the end.

Overall, I was happy with the paella, and would make it again with some adjustments. The large pot lasted us several meals (both lunches and dinners), which meant less cooking over the week – always a plus!

Food Notes for April 13, 2009

How is it that long weekends (and four-day ones at that) just evaporate? Hope everyone had a good Easter break!

  • In the vein of the “very sexy party” held at Eden Lilly in February, local companies that promote sustainability and ecology have banded together to put on an event called Tipsy Hippy at Whyte Avenue’s Lucid Lifestyle, taking place on April 18. There will be food and drinks, art displays, and music. Vendors will include EnSante Winery, AlleyKat, and Breadland.
  • Jan Hostyn wrote a great profile of Baker Bill, aka Bill O’Gorman, the man behind the fast-vanishing bread at the Old Strathcona and City Centre markets.
  • Ballots for See Magazine’s 2009 Best of Edmonton are out. Eligible ballots submitted by May 2 will be entered to win prizes.
  • A little Vancouver-based company that makes Hardbite Potato Chips were featured on one of the Great Food Revolution episodes recently. I found them at the Italian Centre in a multitude of flavours, but the salty and simple Himalayan Crystallized Salt is my favourite so far.
  • Culinary documentaries are all the rage, it seems – Gold Medal Plates, a seven-part behind-the-scenes look at Canada’s “most coveted culinary competition” airs its first episode on Travel & Escape on Sunday, May 10. Episodes can also be seen online.
  • There were a few notable articles in the NYT this past week – the first on an intriguing trend of restaurants having wines on tap (yes, you read that correctly), another on pairing wines with Chinese cuisine, and a piece on banh mi in New York.
  • I still think Costco should consider implementing an express line, and it seems some think Starbucks needs one as well. A recent post on the Starbucks Gossip Blog quotes someone who thinks there is merit to having a separate line for those who can order their drinks in four lines or less, otherwise: “If you need to use the words ‘caramel,’ ‘chocolate,’ ‘pumpkin,’ ‘eggnog’ or ‘peppermint,’ you’re not drinking coffee. You’re having dessert.” Heh.
  • While I didn’t have a “proper” Easter dinner this weekend, I did have a potluck with a few of my girlfriends. I took care of dessert (an apple crisp I have made in the past), while my friends supplied the bulk of the meal:

Janice’s Apple and Grape Spinach Salad

May’s Pistachio and Breadcrumb-crusted Fish

Annie’s Spanish Omelette

The Cooking Chronicles: Olive Oil Popcorn

To accompany a viewing of Slumdog Millionaire (good movie; I liked the flashback motif), Mack and I decided to make stove-top popcorn.

My coworkers had been telling me about some of the ills of microwave popcorn, and after seeing Michael Smith whip up a pan full fairly easily, it didn’t seem difficult at all. We used his recipe as a guide, lightly coating the bottom of a skillet with olive oil, and tossing the kernels on top. It turned out we should have chosen a deeper skillet, as the popped kernels quickly took up all available space underneath the lid.

Popcorn!

We tossed the popcorn with some olive oil, salt, and chilli powder. Whether it was my heavy hand, or an extra-hot version of powder, we didn’t know, but our end product was a lot spicier than we had intended. Still, it’s something we will make again, with different seasonings.

The Cooking Chronicles: Poached Salmon with White Wine Cream Sauce

I am currently reading Alisa Smith and J.B Mackinnon’s 100 Mile Diet. The novel chronicles the Vancouver-based couple over one year of eating only local products. It’s not bad so far, though my strongest criticism about halfway through is a lack of Canadian statistics – while I am certain such numbers would be more difficult to come by, one of the reasons why I was drawn to the book in the first place was in the hopes that it would supply me with a well-supported Canadian context.

At any rate, the recipe for poached salmon in white wine cream sauce intrigued me, even though some of the directions were decidedly vague. Of course, salmon within a 100-mile radius would be next to impossible to obtain, so we headed to Ocean Odyssey Inland (10027 167 Street NW, 780-930-1901), a local purveyor of wild seafood.

Ocean Odyssey has been at their west end location for about three and a half years, though they are also present at the City Centre Farmers’ Market. The storefront offers most types of fish you could think of, in addition to some shellfish (they had some of the largest lobster tails I have ever seen). I didn’t ask if all fish were obtained in this manner, but the salmon (all wild) are supplied by independent fishermen, and are flash frozen after being caught. Seafood is definitely an area where my knowledge about sustainable practices is lacking – it is something I need to learn more about.

Salmon cooler

Besides the great seafood, Ocean Odyssey also carries products from local producers, including Greens, Eggs and Ham (we had placed an order for duck eggs, which can be picked up on Friday or Saturday), Medicine Man Bison and Sunworks Organic Farm. Pat is knowledgeable about all of the products she sells as well, which definitely helps the consumer.

Mack shopping

We ended up with a package of cod cakes ($8) and two salmon filets, the latter of which were priced at about $7 each by weight, just $2 more than the fish I typically pick up at a grocery store. We pan-fried the cod cakes when we got home for a snack, but were disappointed with their soggy texture – we will likely just stick with the filets in the future.

Following the 100 Mile Diet recipe, I got to work reducing the sauce, which combined 2/3 cups of vegetable stock, 1/2 cup of white wine, 1 cup cream, and 3 tablespoons of dill. I resorted to using chicken stock, and excluded the buttermilk, but it didn’t seem to negatively alter the taste. Like most times when making sauce, I didn’t expect it to actually thicken, but I was very happy with the finished product.

As for the salmon, this was our first time poaching anything. We filled our pan with enough water to cover the filets, and set to work heating it up. Impatient, we attempted to multitask and set to preparing salads for lunch the next day, and forgot about the fish. The pot began to boil (something the recipe advised us to avoid), so we added a teaspoon of vinegar in an attempt to keep the filets together. They didn’t fall apart on us, so Shane’s trick worked.

Poached Salmon with White Wine Cream Sauce

Served with steamed broccoli and brown rice, it was a nice Sunday dinner. Mack noted that the fish seemed to have cooked through more evenly with the poaching technique than our usual roasting option. The sauce was a little on the rich side, but I liked the combination of cream and dill – the white wine was negligible.

While we’re still on the fence as to whether or not we’ll make this dish again, we both agreed that we will be back to see Pat at Ocean Odyssey.

The Cooking Chronicles: Danny Kaye’s Lemon Pasta

The recipe I had in mind for our fresh fettuccini noodles was one I had come across in Ruth Reichl’s memoir Comfort Me with Apples some moons ago. Like every aspiring cook, I had photocopied the recipe for “Danny Kaye’s Lemon Pasta” and tucked it away to be used on just such an occasion.

It wasn’t difficult  – the cream and lemon-based sauce with just a touch of pasta water was quick to pull together, though I questioned the amount of lemon zest and juice called for in the recipe. In the end, it was much too tart for my liking (I should have trusted my instincts), though we thought it would make a good side for a roast chicken or salmon main. We probably should have also added additional pasta water – the congealed cream as the dish cooled reminded us of the heavy carbonara we tried last year. Better luck next time!

Danny Kaye’s Lemon Pasta

There’s a First Time for Everything: KitchenAid Pasta Maker

Last month, a marketing company promoting KitchenAid products contacted me to ask if I was interested in giving their Pasta Maker a try. Always up for experimentation, I said yes, and shortly after, received a large box with my name on it.

All smiles with my Pasta Kit

Mack laughed at me when I told him I expected a package tied up in a red bow with a label, “To: Sharon, Love: KitchenAid,” but it was a little like the Cooking Fairy had decided to pay me a visit. The Kit contained two stainless steel stand mixer attachments – a pasta roller and fettuccini pasta cutter – as well as a brush for cleaning and a slotted spoon and pasta server. Lastly, two boxes of Ecco La Pasta mixes were included to simplify initial attempts.

KitchenAid Pasta Kit

Contents

We started with the egg pasta dry mix, added water, and let the stand mixer do the work. Once the dough came together, I relied heavily on the manual, particularly because I needed as much guidance as possible, having never made pasta from scratch before. It wasn’t entirely clear to me how the lump of dough we now had in front of us should be divided to be fed into the pasta roller (better illustrations or pictures would have helped matters), but we eventually figured out that thicker clumps of dough yielded the desired yard of pasta that would eventually be cut into individual noodles.

Dough coming together

Mack working the pasta roller

Cutting the pasta into recognizable fettuccini noodles was the best part, gratifying the work we had done up until that point.

Go Mack go!

Making fettuccini

Finished noodles

I think we were surprised at how quickly everything came together. Even if we hadn’t used the pasta mix, it still wouldn’t have taken much longer, as the stand mixer does most of the grunt work. As with most store-bought products as well, we liked that the pasta maker would give us control over the ingredients used in the dough (I wonder how duck eggs would fare in pasta?).

We both acknowledged, however, that despite how straightforward it was, we likely wouldn’t put in the extra effort to make something that could easily be picked up at the store. That said, I’m eager to look for recipes that involve different colour or flavour additives to the pasta – something unique that would wow guests at a dinner party, or would somehow spice up a fairly mundane dish.

I’m looking forward to our future pasta experiments!

The Cooking Chronicles: Thai Chicken Curry

After getting a positive result from the Pad Thai recipe in Trish Magwood’s Dish Entertains, my next marked page to try was the Thai Chicken Curry. I like that Magwood’s recipes are straightforward – Westernized, yes, but almost in a way that provide training wheels to facilitate eventually tackling a more authentic version.

This particular recipe called for six chicken breasts, which was way too much meat for the two of us even if both Mack and I intended on having the dish for lunch the next day. I cut down the quantity of chicken to four, and it worked out perfectly. I loved the smell of the simmering curry and coconut milk mixture; I’m sure coconut rice would have been a great pairing instead of the plain basmati that we had.

In the end, the teaspoon and a bit of curry paste wasn’t enough heat, and we could have done with a bit more onions, but those were our only complaints. This is a great one pot meal that is both quick and easy!

Thai Chicken Curry

Culinary Q & A with Chris Falconer

Occupation: I’ve just recently moved back to the city and picked up contract work at IKEA, where I was employed while I worked on my business degree, until I find a position in Human Resources to continue my career path.

What did you eat today?

Breakfast – banana and fiber one smoothie
Lunch – slow roasted chicken sandwich on homemade whole wheat bread, with a side of carrots and cauliflower.
Supper – braised lamb shank on a bed of green lentils at Culina.

What do you never eat?

I can’t think of any thing, besides balut maybe, that I wouldn’t eat.

What is your personal specialty?

Nice rustic loafs of bread and slow roasted pulled pork.

Complete this sentence: In my refrigerator, you will always find:

Yogurt, apples, carrots, lettuce, kimchi, various mustards and hot sauces.

What is your weekday meal standby?

A roasted chicken or tuna salad.

What is your favorite kitchen item?

My KitchenAid stand mixer.

World ends tomorrow. Describe your last meal.

It would be a meal of foods I have strong memories connected to. Starting with cinnamon french toast with real maple syrup – melted fontina cheese on a Montréal bagel – a bison burger with guacamole – tacos al pastor – sashimi – and finish with my mom’s chocolate chip cookies and a tall glass of milk.

Where do you eat out most frequently?

Sushi Wasabi – the perfect place to indulge in my fish cravings.

What’s the best place to eat in Edmonton?

I’ve been away for a few years so I’m far from current when it comes to the finer things. Although I must say after having just enjoyed my first meal at Culina, that is definitely a spot people should hit up.

If you weren’t limited by geography, where and what would you eat?

Puebla, Mexico – where the mole was created. With every aspect of Mexican cuisine available on the street, I think I’d spend a day walking while eating anything and everything wrapped in fresh corn tortillas.

Chris blogs at Eating is the Hard Part.