Read. Cook. Eat.

RCE: Heat and The Nasty Bits: Food Pairing!

2006-09-02T06:27:00.000-04:00

You didn't think that just because we were reading memoirs regarding two celebrity chefs this month that don't actually include recipes that I was going to leave you out in the cold, did you? Of course not!

A little hunting and digging on the web has brought you four recipes to attempt - one fairly straightforward and the other a little more involved. Two each from Mario Batali's Babbo Restaurant and two from Anthony Bourdain's Les Halles Cookbook. All look absolutely amazing and I really do hope you give at least one of these a try. Remember to take a picture if you can and post it to a site for us to take a look at (or email it to me and I'll just pop it up on Blogger's system).

Babbo Ristorante

Bucatini All'Amatriciana
Pumpkin Lune with Butter and Sage

Les Halles

Boeuf Bourgignon
Moules Mariniere

(Please note that all copyrights for all recipes and names remain those of the owner, not of this site - if anything goes wrong with the recipe, blame them - not me.)

Podcasts
Just so you have something to listen to whilst you're cooking up these little treats, I dug up these podcasts for you!

Podcast with Bourdain
Radio Show with Bill Buford
Buford on McGee on NPR

Reading
And finally, some things to read as you wait for your dishes to be ready...

An interview with Anthony Bourdain on Bookslut
An interview with Bill Buford on NPR
A review of Heat on NPR
A review of Heat on Slate

Finally, I don't know if anyone's noticed yet but I've just opened the Amazon.com Read.Cook.Eat. Bookstore (link on the right below my profile). This month's books and a few other niceties are listed there for purchase either here or somewhere else. My intention is just to provide a nice little place for some culinary inspiration, not to actually make profit. For the one person who did actually make a purchase through one of my links, THANKS!!! I'm not ever expecting to make any money, more that I can provide a service to some of our readers who don't have such available access to great bookstores and shopping experiences.

RCE: Garlic & Sapphires: Hash Browns!

2006-09-02T06:08:00.000-04:00

Poor Melanie... The poor dear has been struck with yet another of the poorly written and perhaps completely untested recipes from Garlic & Sapphires...

I must post this swiftly and regrettfully, with most of those regrets to Eric. Last night, the last day of August, I attempted to make the hash browns from Garlic and Sapphires. They were abysmal. I don't know how a person could f**k up freaking hash browns, but I managed to achieve this quite easily with a spare list of ingredients (8 new potatoes, an onion, salt, pepper, butter). I think I didn't boil them long enough. I think I used too much potato. I think I need to stick to what I'm good at, which is deep frying and pressing the button on a rice cooker.

Anyway, my bf thought they were good, although they needed more salt he said, and then he said they were like really good baked potatoes in a cake form, and then he said I'm going to put some salt and butter on these ok? And then he was throwing slabs of Plugra on it like frosting. Holy shit is it that bad, I said. And then he said, no! They're great!, but with a mouthful of the sort-of hash browns, so it was more like Mfno, fey're gwate! We ate them all, so they were tasty overall, but believe me - they weren't pretty.

So no picture for now. Sorry, Eric! I've failed the RCE club, and think I may be forced to renounce my membership.

If the two shots on Marcus' cameraphone end up being not so horrific, I'll post them later...but if I don't, just imagine the Texas Chain Saw Massacre -- with potatoes.

Goodness me, Melanie! You're so not going to be allowed to renounce your membership! Perish the thought! The entire purpose of the club is to read, cook and then eat. You did all three - sadly, with less than desireable results, but results nonetheless.

I think that we have a few more possible recipe tests to come up in the next few days but suffice it to say that in the end I think we can all agree that most of the recipes from Garlic & Sapphires fared less than acceptably. Perhaps a summary of our results should be sent to Ms. Reichl? Think I might take that task on... In the meantime, Melanie, I hope you like the next assignment - because its September and time for new books!!!

RCE: Garlic & Sapphires: Chocolate Cake!

2006-08-30T11:36:00.000-04:00

Wow! This is great response guys! I can't wait to see what you come up with for our September books! Here's kT's review of the Garlic & Sapphires Chocolate Cake!

Sorry, Eric, no picture. Honestly, it's not that impressive looking -- just a loaf of chocolate -- but it tasted great.

I tend to avoid any recipe that requires me to rig a double-boiler. I supposed I *could* just buy one, but I've nowhere to store it and so I live without. This means that I tend to avoid any recipe that requires melting chocolate (no, I don't own a microwave, either). But this was supposed to be a challenge, right?

Despite the fearsome chocolate melting, Reichel's cake truly is a last-minute wonder, a picture of simplicity with an impressive flavor. Oh, and about that chocolate melting? I cheated with a *Barefoot Contessa* trick. I finely chopped the chocolate and used the hot liquids to melt it (half into the hot coffee, half into the hot butter. It only took another 30 seconds or so on the stove for complete melt (in my omelet pan -- the best for melting butter).

Cakes are my specialty -- I am in no way an aspiring pastry chef, but when asked to bring food to a gathering, I bring cake and have for the past 20 years. In the past two years, I've been exploring Bundt cakes. I love the simple beauty of the shape, but most of all, I like that these cakes are generally designed to stand alone -- no frosting. Sometimes I glaze, but not often. Not that I have anything against frosting, but preparing it tends to be tedious and my results are hit and miss. Plus it's messier.

Reichel's cake is baked in a loaf pan, but comes from the same cake philosophy. The cake can be served plain (maybe a good coffee break snack?), with ice cream as Reichel suggests (classic, of course), but I'd suggest a few spoonsful of fresh whipped cream. I would stick with plain vanilla in any case, so as not to detract from the rich, multi-layered flavors of the cake.

The cake is dense with a texture similar to a cake-like brownie -- moist and a little crumbly. The butter is key in a frosting-less cake; it adds richness of texture and moisture. The coffee adds depth to the chocolate, but doesn't stand out on its own, taste-wise. The orange liqueur (I used curacao, as I had that, and not the Grand Marnier Reichel calls for) *is*there in the flavor profile, though everyone I fed it to noticed it more than I did. Somehow, the fruit flavor balances the chocolate.

The only note I have on the recipe is on baking time. I haven't tested my oven recently, but it was on target about a year ago. The recipe states 30-40 minutes and my cake took 55.

All in all, I think this is a keeper. The cake is simple but impressive. My guinea pig coworkers gave it two thumbs up overall.

As for your food questions:

I don't know that I have real "foodie" moments. I sometimes feel a little outclassed here. I live in the middle of nowhere and we do not have five-star restaurants. We do have decent local food places, but they all serve solid Midwestern food. Then again, this is what I grew up eating.

I can think of two significant moments, though. When I was 11 or 12, on a family vacation to Florida, I found a recipe in a USA Today paper -- Heaven and Hell Cake. The chef who created the recipe said he grew up in his parents' diner and hated choosing between angel food cake and devils food cake. This cake combined them (8 layers total, alternating the two flavors) with a peanut butter mousse and a chocolate ganache over the whole. The cake took me an entire Saturday to make. The success? A cake that only leaned very slightly and tasted amazing. The failures? A ganache that never set and an overly rich cake that our family of 6 plus guests couldn't finish it before it went stale. At over 1000 calories a slice, can you
blame them? After that, though, I worked my way through nearly all the cakes in my mother's Southern Living cookbook.

The other moment was my introduction to Persian food through my high school boyfriend's Iranian father. The man was an absolutely amazing cook. Persian rice is so different from Uncle Ben's that to compare the two seems erroneous, at best. Beyond that, the creation of pilaf dishes is an unparallelled and delicious art form. I wish I had paid more attention to how the dishes were made, but the flavors were so much different than anything I'd tasted before that it was like new worlds had opened up.

I honestly don't know much about the star-rating system, so can't choose a four-star place. I like small restaurants that have an intimate, quiet atmosphere, a unique but not fussy menu, and usually an ethnic flair. Were I ever to consider opening or investing in a restaurant, I would keep that all in mind.

Brussel sprouts? Coming up only if I can find the damn little mini-cabbages. I've only seen them in one store and they were pitifully wilted.

So, kT, sounds like you've got a bit of a challenge in your area to find the same variety of produce that we take for granted - but you're absolutely ingenious in the substitution department! Why don't you send us a few of your favourite tips for cooks in a pinch?

Try and find frozen Brussel Sprouts if you can't find them fresh, kT, they will hopefully be fresher and FAR more tasty! No need to feel outclassed - there is nothing wrong with good, hearty mid-western cooking. I once had the best sandwich I'd ever eaten (and still holds true to this day) at a diner in the middle of nowhere in Utah (I think... It could have been South Dakota now that I think about it...) - great bread, freshly roasted turkey breast, cream cheese, alfalfa sprouts, cranberry sauce, mayo and a special something that gave it an extra kick - PASSION.

Thanks again for participating kT!

NYC here we come!

2006-08-28T10:42:00.000-04:00

After much hand wringing and gnashing of teeth at the inefficiency of the scheduling system my boyfriend is required to use, we finally got notice of his working schedule for September. I was fully expecting that he was going to have to work on our NYC weekend but lo and behold, we actually caught a break and the ONLY weekend he has off is the weekend we're headed to NYC!

Plane tickets reserved. Check.
Hotel reservation in Soho. Check.
Dinner reservation at Babbo. Check.

Now I just need to go shopping for some clothes to wear. Seriously, I've got NOTHING in my closet that would be even halfway fashionable to wear in Autumn in New York. Time to get going! (and yes, I'm aware that I could do some shopping there, but frankly the prices here are so much better as to make shopping there a very large waste of money... Money I'd rather spend on Illy coffee or Broadway Panhandler or the Apple Store Soho...

Me SO excited!

RCE: Garlic & Sapphires: Matzo Brei!

2006-08-28T09:25:00.000-04:00

So there I was, at home, Thursday night, nothing to do and on my own for dinner. Typically, I use this kind of time when my boyfriend is working a night shift to make something I love but know he just won't eat (like liverwurst on rye bread or mushroom omelettes), but this time I went for the Matzo Brei.

It seems as though the poor little brei just was seeing no love from the RCE Book Club as no one wanted to make him. He was the lone holdout from our recipe listing and I just couldn't stand to see him left all alone. Particularly when the recipe was so easy and quick (and hopefully filling, I was STARVING).

So, I crushed up my matzos (got them for 99c at my local market - yay!) and soaked them under running water and dumped in my eggs and poured the lot into a hot pan with some butter. Mushed it around for a bit until it seemed cooked and dumped it on a plate. Add ketchup and there it was - Matzo Brei.

How did it taste? Actually, it was kinda boring and bland without the ketchup but I'm sure it was just the kind of dish that kids would love. There were crispy parts and eggy parts and all together it just kinda worked. Its a dish I would serve to someone who was just not feeling so well or had a bit of a tummy upset or just needed a bit of comfort food (gotta love the Jewish comfort foods, I say!).

So, here's the one caveat - make twice the amount called for in the recipe - I managed to eat the entire plate on my own. :-)

RCE: Garlic & Sapphires: Spaghetti Carbonara!

2006-08-28T09:19:00.000-04:00

Wow, now its Susan's turn to be on a roll - this time taking the plunge and making Spaghetti Carbonara a la Reichl. It sounds really like a very easy workday recipe - and far better than anything Ms. Ray would dream up (Lucas, I'm talkin' to you here! LOL)

Well! I finally did it. Tonight I was rushed, harried, had a houseful of hungry people, and just happened to have in my kitchen a pound of spaghetti, a pound of bacon, some eggs, parmesan and garlic. What else could I do but make the Garlic
& Sapphires Spaghetti Carbonara?

It was fantastic. It was delicious. Everyone loved it, although I suspect my Very Healthy Husband was biting his tongue at the combination of major cholesterol items all on one plate. The kids seemed shocked. My mother said, "Um, where's the sauce?" I answered, "You just made it." (she had been stirring the bacon pieces in the pan) I asked everyone, "Would you eat this again?" I got a resounding YES. (husband was washing the dishes, so he did not get to participate in the vote).

I have a confession to make. I was afraid of this egg business and worried that it would NOT get cooked by the hot pasta, that my pasta just would not be hot ENOUGH, and I would end up with slimey, not quite cooked egg all over my pasta. I added just a teensy bit of half and half to the beaten eggs on the bowl. As if that would somehow help? As if it would cut the degree of horribleness in case the eggs didn't cook? I don't know. So I did cheat a bit. But the eggs did cook, we all ate it with great gusto, and now I have something new and wonderful and EASY to make. Thank you Ruth Reichl, and thank you Eric for the assignment, and thank you Muffin Toppers for encouraging me to go for it.

You're MORE than welcome, Susan, and thank you for demonstrating the entire purpose of Read.Cook.Eat. Trying new things and new ingredients and new techniques that we would have been too nervous to try on our own. And it looks awesome!

RCE: Garlic & Sapphires: NY Cheesecake

2006-08-27T09:33:00.000-04:00

Our latest report from the world of Garlic & Sapphires comes from Susan who made the REALLY deliciously gorgeous NY Cheesecake:

So I finally got around to making half of my Garlic & Sapphires assignment: the New York cheesecake. I haven't made a cheesecake in eons. The dinner reception I had last week was a perfect excuse to get a new springform pan and go for it.

As I was preparing the cheesecake, I started having major flashbacks to a cheesecake I learned to make from my college boyfriend's mother. Mrs. Cohen was famous for her cheesecake. For the four years I was with her son, she always made me a cheesecake on my birthday. It was an amazing and decadent treat. I mostly remember the part about having to stand over the bowl with an electric mixer for a full thirty minutes, so that the filling was as creamy and fluffy as possible. Not a minute less than thirty! The ingredients looked VERY similar, so I checked back on the old notebook with the handwritten recipe from Mrs. Cohen. Same ingredients, but slightly different composition. Instead of the 24 oz. of cream cheese that RR uses, Mrs. Cohen used 32. And instead of putting the sour cream on top as a glaze, she mixed hers in with the cream cheese.

I think it came out very pretty looking, and it was rich, delicious, but somehow a little bland. I think that adding the sour cream into the mix gave it a bit more zing. I don't know. People raved over it, and for the most part I think it was a huge success.

Now for the second half of my assignment: I picked Spaghetti Carbonara, but when I learned that it was "authentic" Carbonara, made with bacon and eggs (no cream), somehow I lost my appetite for it. (I am such a sucker for dairy products!) In fact, the idea of it kind of grosses me out. I am not sure I am going to be able to follow through on this one. Sorry, everyone!

Susan, we say go for it - try it out and if you don't like it? Chuck it in the bin and make a new one... :-)

Next I've got my report on Matzo Brei to post - and there's a few out there who I'm sure are working on their pieces still! Looking forward to reading them! September is just a few days away with a whole new set of fun reading, cooking and EATING!

RCE Garlic & Sapphires: Roasted Rhubarb!

2006-08-23T16:30:00.000-04:00

Roasted Rhubarb
Originally uploaded by virtualzen.

Okay, this isn't really a recipe as much as an excellent demonstration of a technique. Dump some fruit into a pan, add some sugar and chuck it in a hot oven for a while. Pull it out and go AAAHHHHHHH......

Yup, its THAT simple. You cannot mess this up - no matter how much you try (well, I guess if you left it in the oven for 4 hours at 450 it might burn your house down, but other than that...)

I actually couldn't find fresh rhubarb any more in my market (the season has kind of passed I guess) so I substituted some IQF from my local Dominion store (same as A&P, just so you don't think this was a highbrow operation). Literally, I ripped open the bag, dumped it in the roasting dish, poured over about a 1/2 cup of white sugar (I like it a bit on the tart side) and chucked it in. Checked it at the recommended time but since it was frozen to start I gave it another 10 minutes.

When it was done, I immediately put some on a bit of pound cake I had in the fridge and ate. Not only was it absolutely delicious but I felt as though I'd been completely transported back to my childhood where I used to eat just-washed stalks of barb dipped into white sugar. Yup, its that good.

So now that I had this stuff, what the heck was I going to do with it? Well, I tipped it all into a Mason jar, sealed it up and put it in the fridge for a day. The next day I was expecting a friend for dinner so I took about half a cup, added the same amount of water, a bit more sugar and simmered it for about half an hour. Strained it and put the ruby coloured juice back into the cleaned pot and boiled the syrup until it was just coating a spoon. I was planning on putting the syrup over ice cream but when my friend suddenly couldn't make it, I put it in a tiny container (it didn't end up making that much) and plopped it in the fridge.

Imagine my surprise when I found it the next day completely gelled. Yup, I'd turned it into rhubarb jelly. The taste of which was so completely rhubarby and fresh and tangy and tart and sweet and delicious that I ate it all on toast with just a smidgen of butter to join it.

In the end I'd managed to turn about $2 worth of ingredients into the most delicious warm dessert that a dollop of sweet whipped cream and a nice little biscuit would have done justice, followed by a great little syrup for ice cream (use a good quality vanilla here) and finally a jelly that needs no peanut butter. Not a bad investment if you ask me.

RCE: Garlic and Sapphires: Sort of Thai Noodles!

2006-08-23T15:52:00.000-04:00

Sort of Thai noodles
Originally uploaded by virtualzen.

Wow, what an interesting recipe this turned out to be. I have to say that if I had never eaten good Thai before, I'd have really liked this receipe. If I had never made good Thai before, I'd not really know any better.
Having said that, the dish was actually pretty good. The flavour was strong and tangy and following in the Thai tradition it really did have the sour, salty, sweet and hot elements; not to mention the umami from the fish sauce. But... I made it better.

Like Christine, I can hardly keep from improving a recipe when I just know it can be made better. The noodles can't be blamed, the sauce itself was fine BUT there wasn't a lot of umph to this dish. Adding some extra lime, cilantro leaves, little dried shrimps and some sliced red peppers seemed to really do the trick. Not only was the dish now edible but it was REALLY good and even more Sort of Thai.

I actually think that this recipe lets down the readers. After reading about all this fabulous food in the book and how much she loves this dish; one would be tempted to think that the simplicity of it all, the sheer brilliance would come forth. It doesn't. Add what you like to the wok and enjoy it - adherence to the recipe be damned.

Bits and Bites

2006-08-23T13:09:00.000-04:00

There's a few cool things happening in the food world that I thought I'd share with you all...

First, starting on October 7th, PBS in the US will begin airing Gourmet's Diary of a Foodie. Hosted by Ruth Reichl and her gang of merry food seekers, they'll be bringing all kinds of foodie goodness to the screen. Too bad my local PBS station doesn't appear to be carrying it as yet. The website goes live September 22nd.

Second, on my travels looking for more information on whether or not I'll get to see this new show, I found a HUGE archive of Julia Child programming on the PBS website. Managed to watch Nancy Silverton of La Brea Bakery making brioche and sourdough starter on my lunch break today. Totally fun!

Third, I scored HUGE today. I, along with my persistent friend Caterina, made about 300 phone calls each trying to secure a reservation for my birthday dinner in New York. We now have a 6pm reservation at Babbo for dinner. I'm SO excited about this, I can barely realize it. After reading so much about not only the restaurant, but the inner workings and kitchen personalities - I can't wait to go! The only fly in the ointment is that I won't know until Friday night whether or not the boyfriend is working that weekend (the whole trip hinges on his not working from September 22nd to 24th). We have the hotel reservation in Soho and the plane tickets already on hold - we just need to ensure he's not working. Keep fingers crossed (cause you SO know if we go that I'm taking photos of the entire event!)

Fourth, thank you all so very much for your kind words of support for my upcoming return to classes. I can't wait to start and your enthusiasm just shows me that I'm on the right path.

Fifth (and last, I promise!) I'm going to be posting my review of Matzo Brei, Roasted Rhubarb and Sort of Thai Noodles - and my general impressions of Garlic and Sapphires - very soon. I know I've been promising for ages now that I'll post them but I've had some personal things going on and haven't really felt like writing that much. Should be better soon.

Spilling the beans

2006-08-20T21:31:00.000-04:00

Okay, for all of you who are bit perplexed and have been emailing me wondering what my little secret could possibly be - I'm about to spill the beans. There are a few people who know this already but I'm gonna go public with this and hopefully you can all help support me when I'm in the midst of it all.

Here goes: I have enrolled myself in the Part-time Chef Training program at George Brown College here in Toronto. The school itself has appeared on a few various top ten culinary schools in North America lists - and I live literally less than a 5 minute walk away. I have taken a few courses there previously (which still appear on my transcript, although they were taken nearly 10 years ago) and recall my time there as some of the happiest I have ever felt.

My partner is pretty supportive of this move, although he really doesn't, I think, at this point realize what it is that I've done. This time next year, all things going to plan, I should be ready to take on my practicum and complete a 2 month stage at a restaurant in Toronto, somewhere. This term I'm taking two academic courses - mainly to get myself back into the swing of being in school part-time and also to get my mind working again outside of my working environment. I'm taking Food Theory (think McGee in a class!) and Business Communications for Hospitality students (I'm thinking menu writing? - whatever, its bound to keep my GPA at a 4.0 where it currently stands). I know that my instructor for the Food Theory class is none other than Robert Rainford, known to Canadian FoodTV viewers as host of one of their shows. Not sure who is teaching the communications class as yet. I've also got an online sanitation and safety course to take and a one day CPR workshop to do this term.

Anyway, I'm planning on taking pretty much two classes a term until I'm done (its a one year/2 semester program). Next term will be Culinary Arts 1 (all day Saturdays 9:30 until 5pm) and Hospitality Math (totally going to breeze through that one - I'd normally apply for an exemption but its a prerequisite for another course and I'm afraid that if I don't do it I'll miss out on something that I'll really need to know). The only course that I won't have time to get to before next fall is the Culinary Desserts class but I'm going to see if my previous work in Baking (also at George Brown) will get me exempted from it).

So there you have it. Not a HUGE deal to anyone else but me (and Sebas, I guess, seeing as he will be the one who will have to deal with me doing homework and such) but it really is a big deal. I've alluded to this in the past but the one thing that has always stopped me (other than Bourdain scaring the shit out of me in Kitchen Confidential) has been the thought that I'm just too old to work in a kitchen, I'm too decrepit, I'm not fast enough, I'm not clever or creative or spontaneous or macho enough. Screw that. I'm ready, I'm eager, I'm hungry dammit and I want this.

As Connie reminded me (thanks Connie!) Julia Child started cooking when she was 37 for goodness sake - and look at where she ended up. If I have even half of one percent of her success as a cook I'll be one happy little guy, lemme tell you.

Thank you to everyone with whom I shared my little (not so) secret ambition and all your support and kind words. Thanks to Christine for helping feed my foodie fire, to Drew for his encouragement as he's already walked this path, to Peter for being my rock, to Kathy for getting me to get off my butt, to Sebas for being the one who eats what I cook, to Lucas for reminding me what it is to learn to cook and to my parents for helping me realize that this truly is my dream, that life is too damn short to not do this - and finally to Bourdain and Boulud and Batali (lots of B's) for throwing down the gauntlet. Finally, to Julia Child, cause really - she started me on the whole thing in the first place.

Daniel Boulud's Letters to a Young Chef

2006-08-19T13:27:00.000-04:00

I recently picked up and read this incredibly insightful book on a whim (basically I had $15 burning a hole in my pocket) and read it pretty much in a day. I wouldn't choose this book for the ReadCookEat bookclub as its really not for the average foodie - its far more directional for the professional cook - but I couldn't really let the reading go by without talking about it here.

Boulud's long and very publically noted career at some of the world's best restaurants places him squarely in the position of being able to speak to a young chef and to tell him or her exactly how it is. What is like to work for the best - what is it like to work hard for the best and how do you manage to survive in the industry and indeed thrive in it. Its got some interesting anecdotes and even more interesting foodie tips - but this slim little volume is more important for the direct tone it takes with the reader. Basically, this is a roadmap for someone to become the best chef they can possibly be.

The only sour note that I found in it is that he makes specific mention that this is written for the young chef in mind - and he specifically states that if he were talking to a 30 year old it would be a very different conversation. At first reading I thought he was saying that at 30 one is just too old to become a chef, but on second reading I'm thinking that he perhaps is saying that at 30 one is not really able to necessarily traverse the world in search of taste sensations and cooking mentors.

Personally, I found this a really very inspiring look into one man's culinary career - but that's what it is, precisely. One man's experience and one man's opinion. If I wanted to be a chef, I'd not let his telling me that I'm too old stop me in any way shape or form. If anything, Heat taught me that one is NEVER too old to step into the kitchen.

Hell's Kitchen Finale

2006-08-14T11:51:00.000-04:00

Its ON!
Yup - right now, the battle between Virginia and Heather is ON!
I don't know who I want to win more... Both would be great - but so far I'm more onboard with Virginia's vision.
I'm not going to say anything about who wins for those of you who won't get the show till afterwards - but holy crap, I'm just about busting to know who wins!
(Even Sebas, who doesn't watch the show, has asked me to tape it for him... :-)

UPDATE#1
Okay, only half hour left and I so have made my decision as to whom I would like to see win. This woman is phenomenal and deserves it more than the other. I'd work for her in a second...
What a kickass show this is! I am already dying for season #3!

UPDATE #2
Right, the person I wanted to win did - and it was COMPLETELY deserved. Such a close race, but let me know what you think after you watch it (and if you don't watch it - why are you here? LOL)

Plus ca change...

2006-08-13T02:55:00.001-04:00

I can't really help myself with the French titles, what with having heard a massive amount of French over the past little while (which is what happens when your partner, his family and most of his friends are French Canadian). What the title really refers to is the same saying in English, "the more things change, the more they stay the same..." What I've noted this evening, however, has both to do with food and lifestyle. The more things changed, well in this case - they've changed.

I realized tonight that a year has gone by since perhaps one of the best summers of my life. I spent it out socializing with a terrific group of guys - all of us single, happy, free, unencumbered. We partied till the wee hours - drinking, dancing, carousing, eating, playing, flirting - until we collapsed back in our respective homes until the arrival of another weekend.

Boy, things have changed.

I spent the day running from shopping to coffee to more shopping to home to send the boyfriend off on his merry working way so I could get down to the business at hand. Making jam. Peach jam. One plain, one with ginger. Making gougeres to test a recipe for Christine. Filling them with smoked salmon and capers for a midnight snack. Freezing the rest to make for company as appetizers. Prepping ingredients for tomorrow's dinner - Japanese curry rice. Taking pictures of coffee and my Italian ingredient centre of my kitchen. Listening to music blaring from iTunes in a somewhat disturbingly psychic awareness of my mood, playing Tori Amos when needed and Madonna ("Push", from Confessions) just after Christine emailed to say, "Enough with the Tori!" :-)

Yep, I've hit my Carlsberg years. I'd rather stay in on a Saturday night cooking cheese puffs and skimming foam off jam and drinking Illy espresso than quaffing cheap pitchers of beer and getting annoyed by the silly drag queens who insist that blue is a good colour for eyeshadow. The venue has changed, the company has gone its separate ways - but I'm still having a good time in my own little way; the best summer I've ever had in so many ways. Plus ca change...

RCE Book Club: September coming up fast!

2006-08-13T02:55:00.000-04:00

Just a reminder for everyone that we are halfway through August (pretty much, give a day or two) and that means that we're nearly halfway through Garlic & Sapphires! I've done my recipes and will post them in the days to come (roasted rhubarb gets TOTAL thumbs up!) but I've also been socking away some interesting stuff for our two books, Heat and The Nasty Bits. I just picked up The Nasty Bits this week and I'm really looking forward to getting into it.

I have to admit that I have an ulterior motive for selecting these two books - something that only one person other than my partner, my best friend and parents know about - and I'll reveal all on September 1st!

Hope you're all enjoying the summer!

RCE Garlic & Sapphires: Gougeres!

2006-08-13T02:24:00.000-04:00

Christine was on a roll the last little while getting her recipes done - and this one, well... just read for the whole story...

I was madly emailing Eric while making gougeres when we both decided to just IM chat in real time as the gougeres were baking. Of course, then I was able to make real time updates on the situation--which was rapidly going downhill. I find "bloopers" almost as enlightening and definitely more amusing than kitchen/cooking successes, so I hope you're entertained as I detail...GLOOPY GOUGERES (gougeres are supposed to be super fluffy poofy spheres akin to cream puffs, definitely not gloopy).

I met each weird development with stoicism, even though inside I was shrieking, "This is NOT right! This is not right! " I was wishing i was cooking alongside someone when Eric logged in. I'd just popped my first batch into the oven, and decided to open my laptop and distract myself from the non-poofing gougeres....

CHRISTINE: halfpoofed gougeres!
ERIC: LOL - only halfpoofed?
CHRISTINE: I'm making my second batch which I sort of "dried out" beforehand ERIC: and the choux paste was totally balled up and firm before adding the eggs?
CHRISTINE: yeah totally
ERIC: huh... I wonder if she was using smaller eggs? 5 medium = 3 extra large? (at this point I noted that Reichl did not specify egg size, but the standard is "large eggs" and so she should have noted usage of eggs of other size)
ERIC: I'm laughing my ass off over here! LOL gloooooooooopy!
CHRISTINE: but the second batch seems to be poofing more since I "dried out" the choux paste on the stove on low heat while the first batch baked
CHRISTINE: i decided to try to make the 2 batches differently to get an idea of different techniques i mean even pepin's recipe says to dry out the mixture if it gets too wet--(pause here while I go to check on the 2nd batch) ok 2nd batch is not much better
ERIC: I'm thinking that the extra eggs are just making it too wet - I remember the mix being dry as hell and hard to pipe so perhaps it really just is too many eggs... Do they taste ok? that's the important thing, right?
CHRISTINE: they taste ok i think it's the 5 eggs plus she should have said "finely diced" gruyere and in fact i think it could have been grated the diced grueyer never quite melted all the way into the mixture
CHRISTINE: so in sum they taste okay that's what we'll do then but the choux paste was too gloopy due to too many eggs and chunks of cheese and drying out the mixture for the 2nd batch did not save the gougeres
ERIC: LOL

Now, to help Christine out, I found the recipe for Thomas Keller's gougeres in the French Laundry cookbook - and made them this evening. Much better. Ms. Reichl, your recipe just doesn't work. Whoops! Forgot to test it I think!
Originally uploaded to Flickr by Smitten

RCE Garlic & Sapphires: Watercress Puree!

2006-08-13T02:12:00.000-04:00

Wow! The entries are just rolling in - Connie actually made the watercress puree last weekend and had this to offer...

Well, I got Garlic and Sapphires last Friday afternoon, and finished while waiting for a few things to finish cooking (vichysoisse, polenta, another batch of fregola sarda, apricot galette, noyau ice cream) it on Sunday. As I was chopping up the leeks for the vichysoisse, I looked in my fridge and realized I had all the ingredients for the pureed watercress.
It's a very simple recipe - it's just watercress, potato and butter. You boil a chopped potato for 20 minutes, blanch four bunches of watercress with the potatoes, drain everything and press out all the moisture, puree it, then emulsify with half a stick of butter. So I decided to make it to go with the polenta and lamb chops Zack and I would be eating for dinner. I altered the recipe a little - I salted the water (whenever I boil pasta or potatoes, I always add enough salt so that it tastes like seawater) and added half an onion (left over from the vichysoisse). Also, watercress can be kind of fibrous, so I made sure to remove any thick stalks and trim the stems. In my experience, getting drained boiled leafy greens to puree to a smooth consistency is a little tricky. You either have to shake up the blender a little (I have a Cuisinart) or add more liquid. I wound up shaking the blender. Next time, I might use a food processor instead. I liked it, but Zack, who's accustomed to eating watercress salad, said he preferred having it in salad. But he doesn't like creamed spinach, which Reichl compares this dish to.

Connie

She actually sent me a GREAT answer to some of the questions I posed earlier regarding our food patterns and has this to say...

I received Garlic and Sapphires last Friday, and by Sunday, I finished it. So yeah, I liked it. It was a lot of fun - the kind of book that's perfect for reading during your commute if you take public transit. I'm now reading Heat, by Bill Buford, but first, and since this is a book club, I'll take some time out to answer Eric's questions.

One can imagine why she became food obsessed (I've not read her other books so don't spoil it for me if she actually writes about it outside of this book, ok?) and ultimately a food critic - but what were YOUR foodie moments? What brought you to seek out other like-minded food people?

I think my parents were pretty obsessed with food when I was growing up. I remember in my early childhood trips to the Newport Beach fish market, weekly visits to a local butcher, touring the Italian market near my house (Lucci's), how my mother would only purchase our fruits and vegetables from produce stands. "You should only buy asparagus in the spring," she explained (I wanted my favorite vegetable during Thanksgiving). "Otherwise, it's no good." I think I tasted my first fig when I was five (I didn't like it). And of course, I lived 10 minutes away from Little Saigon - I can still point out the very first supermarkets in that enclave. Though our cooking styles are nothing alike (I'm more Cal-Med/French, and I don't often cook Chinese. That's really easy for me, and if I'm stumped, I call Mom), I have the same attitude about ingredients. I didn't realize how particular I was about food until I started college, and encountered the UC Berkeley Unit 2 Dining Commons. Yuck! But during Welcome Week at Griffiths Hall, I met Justin, my BFF. We hit it off right away, and decided to BART into San Francisco's Chinatown immediately, which was how we discovered Sam Wo's. Soon, we were shoveling items from the DC salad bars into ziploc bags to be stirred into late night ramen hot pots. We like to joke that our friendship solely based on food. Food and fashion. When I visited him in Paris last year, I proposed making ramen once more, but we wound up at Pierre Gagnaire.

If you could pick one restaurant in your experience that deserves four stars what would it be and why?

French Laundry. Everything was perfect. The food, the service, the ambience. You can read about it here. [Ed. Its a GREAT story! Now I REALLY need to go there!]

What would the restaurant of your dreams look like? Sound like? Feel like? Smell like? Where would it be located and what kind of food would it serve?

Justin and I have a running joke about opening a restaurant that serves "go away baby" noodles (long story), bacon stuffed pork chops with gravy, parisian
macarons (because cupcakes are so 2003) that's also an optomotrist's shop and shoe store. But in all seriousness, I wouldn't be able to settle on one concept. I enjoy a eating at fairly wide variety of dining establishments, from ghetto taco trucks to my secret sushi joint to 3 star Michelin places.

Again, Connie, thanks! Totally surpassed my expectations - and I'm SO going to the French Laundry one of these days. Add it to the list!

RCE Garlic & Sapphires: Aushak!

2006-08-11T09:37:00.000-04:00

This time, Christine chimes in with a great story of her dumpling obsession and making Ruth Reichl's aushak recipe! Sounds pretty good and turned out pretty well!

Hi Eric I made the aushak this past weekend! (I turned it into a "dumpling day" while I was at it, and decided to make Korean fried mandoo too). Note that I have never made aushak before, though I've had it at an afghani restaurant here in the Bay Area. So I can't really compare it to other recipes, but I will observe the results.
This is a remarkably straightforward recipe, I think. I researched other recipes on the net, including one at "cooking with amy's blog and the ingredients and their ratios in Reichl's recipe seem very much in line with other recipes I saw. The variations that did exist involved supplementing the scallions (green onions) with leeks. In terms of process, some recipes sauteed the dumpling filling beforehand, and Reichl's recipe involves no pre-cooking of the filling.
I chopped the scallions and in hindsight I would have chopped them finer (unless I precooked them)--the dumplings, while delicious, needed to boil a WHOLE lot longer to soften the green onions. I don't like green onions mushy, but as a filling I prefer them thoroughly cooked and not crunchy. I imagine if I'd chopped the onions finer (like nearly minced), they would have cooked faster in the 5 minute submersion in boiling water.

Otherwise the dish was GREAT! I am partial to dumplings of course, but the scallion filled dumplings, yogurt, and meat sauce were great balancing complements to each other. The yogurt and meat sauce are crucial to this dish as just the dumplings alone might be a bit bland. The meat sauce was easy to make, as was the yogurt sauce. The most time-consuming part of this recipe as you might expect, is making the dumplings, which I find soothing. If you find the edges of your wonton/gyoza wrappers not sticking, try using egg white instead of water as a "glue."
I just want to note that if you're not going to immediately boil the dumplings, you definitely want to place them on a flour coated surface with plenty of space between each dumpling (like 1/4") so that they're not touching. Otherwise, you'll end
up with dumplings that STICK to the plate, and fall apart if you try to separate them from the plate! (which is what happened to me because i forgot about the flour).
Oh well, there went about 15 aushak dumplings!
If you want to preserve the dumplings, leave them on the flour coated plate/baking sheet and stick them in the freezer until they're frozen. Then put them in a ziploc
bag.
--Christine

I've also got the gougeres story from Christine, the roasted rhubarb, the Sort-of Thai noodles and I think I might take the Matzo brei on this weekend as well. If you've done your recipe, let me know what you think!

Okonomiyaki!!

2006-08-02T22:56:00.000-04:00

Since Sebas had brought me back a few things from Japan (including okonomiyaki sauce and kewpie mayonnaise amonst other things), I'd been dying to make okonomiyaki at home. I'd only ever had it out and never tried it for myself. Well, tonight that was all going to change. I stopped at the market and picked up a few necessary items and got straight down to it. I found this recipe on about.com (mainly cause it was simple) and just went for it. Tasty, fast, easy and oh so filling (not to mention that it would be REALLY cheap if it weren't for the pricey toppings). I know it says you can use all kinds of toppings but really I just mixed in some little dried shrimp with the cabbage/egg mixture, topped with some katsuoboshi and scallions along with some okonomiyaki sauce and mayo and dug on in!

INGREDIENTS:
1 cup all purpose flour
3/4 cup soup stock (dashi)
1 egg
1/4 of a small cabbage (I used about half of a split napa cabbage)

For Toppings:
Thinly sliced pork or beef
Squid
Katsuo-bushi (dried bonito flakes)
Sakura-ebi (dried shrimps)
Beni-shoga (red ginger)
Ao-nori (green seaweed)
Okonomiyaki sauce (or tonkatsu sauce)
Mayonnaise

PREPARATION: Shred the cabbage into very thin slices. Beat an egg in a bowl and add dashi soup stock or water in it. Add flour in the bowl and mix well. Combine sliced cabbage in the flour mixture. Fry meat/squid/shrimps (your choice of toppings) in an electric cooking pan or a frying pan. Pour the flour mixture over the toppings in the pan. (Make a couple pancakes.) Cook a few minutes and flip pancakes and cook for a few more minutes. Put okonomiyaki sauce and mayonnaise on top of the pan cakes. Sprinkle katsuobushi flakes, aonori, beni-shoga on top. Makes 2 servings

RCE: Garlic & Sapphires Moules Marinieres!

2006-08-02T22:13:00.000-04:00

Connie wrote me last week with her review of the recipe she selected, Moules Marinieres, and so she becomes the first entry into the discussion of our August book, Garlic & Sapphires. I've not edited this at all, in the interests of leaving the spirit of the review intact.

Okay, I'll admit it, I cheated! I haven't actually gotten the book yet - Since the recipe was so simple, I just jotted it down at the bookstore. I hope I didn't miss anything. I tried to take pictures, but my camera ran out of batteries. D'oh!

Anyways, I love mussels. They were a fairly standard dish during my childhood. My mom would stir fry them with purple basil and chinese black beans, and since then, I've eaten them many different ways - stuffed with garlic and grilled, in paella, roasted on a bed of rock salt, in a broth of mint and coconut milk, etc. I've even had them raw, on the half shell. One of the restaurants I frequent - Plouf - specializes in
mussels. The recipe I use the most is from Bouchon's cookbook. It incorporates saffron, mustard and lots of garlic. We eat it pretty often at home. And there's a facinating recipe from Paula Wolfert's The Cooking of Southwest France that involves packing the mussels very tightly hinge side up between wooden planks, placing a layer of pine needles directly over them, then setting the needles on fire. The mussels are ready when the fire subsides.

Reichl's recipe is the classic, straight out of Mastering the Art of French Cooking. It's pretty simple - boil the aromatics in white wine (Julia sometimes says to use vermouth or pernod) long enough evaporate the the alcohol, then add the mussels and cook until they open. Throw in some butter and chopped parsley, et voila! C'est moules marinieres. With a side of fries, it becomes moules frites, Belgium's national dish. This recipe is a lot easier and lighter than the one I normally make, but just as
satisfying. Keller says to saute the aromatics in butter, stir in some dijon mustard, saffron and thyme, add the wine and bring to a boil, then turn off the heat. Allow the saffron to steep for at least five minutes, return the broth to a boil, cook the mussels,
then toss in the parsley. I found that the flavor of the mustard and saffron were assertive and rich enough enough that I started substituting olive oil for butter. In Reichl's version, incorporating the butter towards the end added an extra dimension of sweetness, sort of like when you stir butter into risotto as the final step. I may try that trick the next time I use Keller's recipe.

A few notes about the recipe - Bouchot mussels are considered the best, but PEI, farmed on Prince Edward Island, are pretty good and readily available. Before
I cook mussels, I always soak them for an hour in water with a little bit of flour, changing it halfway, to "flush" and plump them. As a final step, I scrub them with a brush and pull out the beards just before they go in the pot. If you're going to add butter towards the end, cut it up the so that it distributes evenly with the mussels. Oh, and even if you're not having the frites, be sure to serve them with crusty bread.

Connie

Thanks so much, Connie! I have to admit a bit of bias towards PEI mussels (being Canadian and all) but I'll pretty much eat them any time they're fresh and tasty! Its pretty common in most groceries here in Canada that have a fresh fish counter to find them in bags nestled in ice, just waiting to be cooked. I have to admit that the roasted pine needle trick is one that I'm dying to try. Perhaps next time I'm visitin my parents...

Anyway, next we'll have Christine's review of Aushak - and her obsession with dumplings! I'm planning on getting cracking on mine as well (although rhubarb season is pretty much over, I'm going to go with frozen to compensate) but I also bought matzos today at the market (99c, can't go wrong!) so I'll most likely make mazto brei as well... So bring on the recipe reviews and your thoughts on the book! Can't wait to hear what everyone thinks!

P.S. I've started on reading Heat, one of our September selections. You're in for a treat if you like the thought of working in a kitchen! I can hardly put it down!

Prosecco: The drink of hot hazy days

2006-07-31T10:29:00.000-04:00

I've been working on this post for a short while now and have finally gotten round to writing - and on the hottest day of the year (in Toronto, at least)! Since reading a few weeks ago on Kitchen - Apartment Therapy about Zardetto prosecco, I became incredibly intrigued. What was this prosecco of which I read? I was also re-reading Under The Tuscan Sun by Frances Mayles where she and her husband Ed consume seemingly vast quantities of the fun little bubbly. Coincidentally, the New York Times also ran a piece by Eric Asimov on the fun times testing proseccos (prosecci?) [membership required to read piece]. Talk about a strong portent to have some fun with bubbly!

Now, I have to admit that I approached this little investigation with some trepidation. While it would be easy to just pick up the recommended versions from both the Kitchen and the NYT, but it appears that the brands there just don't seem to be found in my local wine shop. So, I was a bit on my own. I picked up two bottles for sampling and then picked a third - and I can easily declare one the winner. Which one? ALL OF THEM. They're all great little wines, a lot of fun to drink without the sometimes overly dry character of proper champagne - not to mention that I find them a LOT tastier than the typical cava and a far cry less expensive than my tipple of choice, Veuve Cliquot. Out of the lot of them, I have to say that the Martini was my favourite for a few reasons:

It was FUN to drink! It made me smile on more than one occasion. I don't care that its a mass made drink - the fact that it was CA$12 makes me think that this is the kind of fun bubbly that I could bring along to pretty much any event and that most people are likely to enjoy.
The bottle packaging makes one think of bright summer days, with casual dining and a relaxing being top of mind.
Its soft, fruity, mildly sweet character (I don't think it has any actual sugar left in it, I'd call it nearly a .5. I'd say I got lemons and a hint of grass in tasting - and that's a good thing as far as I'm concerned!

So, there you have it - my new summer drink of choice. Pick up a nice bottle, chill till icy cold, pop the cork and have a toast with me! To the hottest days of summer!

RCE Book Club Updates & Sept/Oct Selections!

2006-07-30T23:02:00.000-04:00

Well, I finally managed to snag myself a copy of our book of the month, Garlic and Sapphires, and finished it this morning while the boyfriend was off flying around Canada for work. Drinking my coffee, listening to Dave Brubeck and contemplating what to eat for breakfast (I ended up at 11 having leftover orrecchiette with Mario Batali's Bolognese sauce from last night's dinner) put me in just the right New York state of mind to finish the story.

For those who haven't yet gotten down to reading it, I urge you to dive right on in. Its a fast read and can be easily digested in commuting time hits. I'm going to save my review for a later time but let's just say that I enjoyed it.

Okay, so I've got my first submission of a recipe review from Connie (thanks!) and I'm going to start posting them on August 1st - first come, first served. Remember we all wanna hear about the recipe AND how we liked the book. There's a few things that came up for me in reading it that I'd love to hear how other people felt...

One can imagine why she became food obsessed (I've not read her other books so don't spoil it for me if she actually writes about it outside of this book, ok?) and ultimately a food critic - but what were YOUR foodie moments? What brought you to seek out other like-minded food people?
If you could pick one restaurant in your experience that deserves four stars what would it be and why?
What would the restaurant of your dreams look like? Sound like? Feel like? Smell like? Where would it be located and what kind of food would it serve?

Okay, now that that's done - we have our September and October books to announce. I've decided to announce these WAY early so that we can all either a) save up to purchase them or b) order them from the library or c) borrow them from friends wherever we can. Please don't feel as though one needs to be rich and able to buy these books on a whim - cookbooks (particularly hardcover ones) can be expensive - and I'd hate for anyone to not be able to participate because of it. So, here we go!

September
This is an interesting month, because I'm going to surprise you and make it a DOUBLE PLUS GOOD month! We're going to read TWO books! There's just too much out there that we all want to read (based on your comments and emails) so we're going to do another memoir month - but this time, I want a recipe that you're inspired to make or create based on either one (or both) of these books. Now, this doesn't mean that you have to READ both - pick one or the other and go with it! So, we're going to read Heat by Bill Buford (an interesting review can be found on Amazon's page by our second author of the month) AND The Nasty Bits by Anthony Bourdain. I'm really looking forward to both - and can't wait to see what we come up with for recipes!
Heat @ Amazon.com
Heat @ Amazon.ca
Heat @ Indigo

The Nasty Bits @ Amazon.com
The Nasty Bits @ Amazon.ca
The Nasty Bits @ Indigo

October
This month is going to be all about seasonality of Autumn. When I was thinking about what I'd like to be reading in October I wanted something big and comforting and ORANGE. So, we're going to be reading Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin. Its all about the season, but considering that the recipes in this amazing book (it won a James Beard Cookbook award for pete's sake!) are a bit more challenging, a bit complicated at times and a bit time consuming - just the thing for the colder weekends some of us will be starting to experience in October. So, pick a recipe from the Autumnal section of the book and let me know what you're into making!
Sunday Suppers at Lucques @ Amazon.com
Sunday Suppers at Lucques @ Amazon.ca
Indigo

Again, don't feel too much pressure about getting the feedback to me straight away, I won't be publishing anything more on the September and October selections until the end of August so you have plenty of time to go check them all out. Looking forward to it already!

Australian Food Magazines

2006-07-27T12:10:00.000-04:00

When I was living in Australia (I lived in Melbourne for a year in 2003), I got really quite addicted to a few of the food magazines there - mainly because the quality of the produce, the meats, the seafood; they were outstandingly good, regardless of where you were. Not to mention the seasonality of produce. Grapes, for instance, were only available for a certain amount of time before they just were no longer there. Pumpkin (squash, basically) was available all year round and eaten just as much. The Queen Vic market in Melbourne was a favourite destination, but even better was my roommate Kat who would bring me home huge bunches of fresh basil and parmesan to be pounded into the freshest pesto I could ever imagine being made outside of Italy. Not to mention the little green grocer tucked up between Ikea and Kmart and a HUGE grocery store - but sold the most variety of fresh produce I'd ever seen in one little store. Melbourne, and Australia, really are a foodies dream destination - and hopefully through these magazines you'll come to understand why I simply must put it in your head that you have to experience it at least once in your life.

The four magazines that I fell in love with were Donna Hay, Australian Table, Gourmet Traveller and delicious. I also have been reading the North American version of delicious. now called "dazzling delightful delicious." (stupid title, but I'm sure it has something to do with copyright or some such thing).

dazzling delightful delicious. is a pretty little magazine and although its a smaller format and more appropriately compared to Everyday Food than the larger magazines on the market, its target demographic is clearly the Gourmet set. Having a roster of celebrity chefs (only some of whom will be known to anyone outside of the UK/Australia food circuit) with both stories and recipes is surely going to target the Batali/Bourdain crowd with a few fresh faces. While Nigella Lawson and Jamie Oliver are readily recognized from their shows on The Food Network, Jill Dupleix and Bill Granger come to mind as two celebrities who have yet to truly crack the celebrity/household name in the States. Which is not to say that they are not worthy of it (they are) but they really will need a bit more support to get there. Stay tuned to see how this lil' wonder of a magazine (you've simply GOT to see the photography to see why I stay in this industry even when I'm frustrated beyond belief with the politics - its THAT good) turns out over the next few issues.

By way of contrast, the actual full-size delicious. magazine published by the ABC (Australian Broadcast Corporation) has an established pedigree that seems to work well in its target market. It has been voted the world's best food magazine (by whom, I'm not entirely sure) and I can actually see why. Its not just the recipes. Its not just the restaurant reviews, the travel information, the wide availability around the globe of the ingredients, the exotic made everyday and the everyday made extraordinary. This is a magazine that is truly more than the sum of its parts. Its clearly the stylistic inspiration for the new edition both for photography and content (it does rankle me a little bit that the little guy is a recycled version for which I'm paying, not really original content - but I could be wrong and stand to be corrected). This magazine targets the Bon Appetit crowd but with upper-middle class aspirations. A delightful read, to be sure.

I used to love getting Australian Table magazine for a few reasons. One, they would nearly always pack in some kind of foodie freebie with the magazine (and for a $3.95 price, it was a HUGE bargain). I remember getting a miniature rolling pin and tart case once; another time it was a cloth shopping bag and yet another was a set of plastic cookie cutters. Very cool. Even cooler was the cross marketing promotions that one would see between the magazine, the advertisers and the market that actual sponsored and published the magazine, Coles. Being a large grocer, they had the money to back it up, naturally - but it was still very intruiging from a marketing standpoint. It was so cleverly done that it actually took me about 3 months to realize the connection, so smooth was the execution. If you ever come across this magazine, I defy you to NOT like its simplicity of design, boldness of inspiration to home cooks across the country and its clever charm and seasonal suggestions.

Donna Hay. turn simple into special. And that they do - very well. This magazine has become the inspiration for countless packages I've worked on - both the photography and set design. This is clearly one of the best designed magazines in the world, as far as I'm concerned, food related or otherwise. This is Martha Stewart Living for real people. Real people who don't have the funds to buy a Range Rover or Jaguar - but DO have the funds to buy a few old pieces of china from the flea market on the weekend to make thier chicken pie (from the issue pictured). The inspirational is truly made aspirational at Donna Hay and no one is left behind. This magazine truly demonstrates the Aussie ideal of the fair go - that everyone should have the same opportunity to succeed without bias or judgement - but dammit we're gonna eat some pretty lookin' and tasty food while we're at it. Oh, and the recipes really work.

Okay, I admit it. This was NOT one of the magazines that I fell in love with in Australia. I've fallen in love with it since my return. The recent Italy issue was one that particularly made me fall head over heels. The photographic standard is high end, the recipes suitably fall in line. The travel destinations are certainly not for the budget traveller - but this is about fantasy. This magazine is for those of us without six figure incomes to remind us of that one perfect four star meal we experienced years ago but wish we could recreate at will. Gourmet Traveller goes to the resorts and the spas and the destinations we'd all love to pack our Louis Vuitton cases and call the car service to get us to the airport on time so our first class ticket doesn't go to waste. This truly is a gilded truffle of a magazine, meant first to be sensed and then devoured with a restrained gusto.

Foodie Intel

2006-07-25T23:30:00.000-04:00

I just realized as I received about three food related emails and newsletters in a row that perhaps I've got a bit overboard with my foodie intelligence gathering. I tend to be the kind of person who requires vast amounts of intel flowing my way at all times - and this means subscriptions to the online flyers for all my local grocers (Dominion, Loblaws, Whole Foods, Longos and Grocery Gateway), monthly or weekly newsletters from foodie magazines (Fine Cooking, Cook's Illustrated, Gourmet Magazine, Bon Appetit Magazine) and finally some from various foodie outlets (Golda's Kitchen, NapaStyle, Sur La Table, Williams-Sonoma and Crate & Barrel).

Good thing I'm used to handling all this data... :-)

Cooking for New Cooks (or How I Learned to Stop Being Afraid of the Kitchen)

2006-07-21T13:00:00.000-04:00

Inspired by my friend Lucas and his love of kitchen gadgets, cookbooks and yes, Rachel Ray, I'm going to go out on a limb here and talk to those of you who are not so comfy in the kitchen.

Yes, there are some of us out there who aren't sure of our ability to make great tasting, healthy (or not), fabulous dishes and meals. I have always been pretty comfortable in front of the range; baking and cooking being strong suits of mine from a very young age when I would mimic Julia Child making pancakes for my parents. Then again, I grew up watching the PBS morning cooking show lineup for years (between This Old House and The Victory Garden); The Frugal Gourmet, Madeleine Cooks, Julia Child - they were all my childhood heroes.

I think that the best way to overcome this lack of kitchen confidence is to just start small and build up to the grander dishes. Not everyone is going to be able to make a demi-glace or puff pastry or Black Forest Truffle Bundt Cake with Mascerated Rasberries and Creme Brulee Crust on their first time out (I've actually made this, SO freakin' good) but you can get there. I've been known to mess things up pretty badly myself (like forgetting to bring a prime rib roast up to room temperature from the freezer before roasting so that its still raw in the middle after 4 hours of roasting). To help you out I offer the following Top 10 Items You Must Accept To Learn How To Cook:

You will make mistakes. Get over them.
Sometimes things work out for the best when you make those mistakes.
You never know until you try.
Peanut butter and chocolate are NOT good together (sorry, just had to sneak that one in).
Burnt things are not to be called "Blackened", they are BURNT. Throw it out and try again.
Roasting is super easy, poaching even easier - if you can't do one, do the other.
Try making the things you know you already like and perfect them - don't waste your time (for now) on things you don't like.
Don't try and become a chef overnight. It takes time and lots of practice to flip ingredients in a pan.
Read the recipe ALL the way through and make sure you have everything before you start cooking.
Enjoy yourself! What's the worst that can happen? If its crap, throw it out and call for pizza. You'll try again another day.

So, where does one start? With Rachel Ray? (Sorry, Lucas, NO.) You start with the basics. How to make a really nice vinaigrette is a good one. Learn to chop garlic, whisk together lemon juice or vinegar with olive oil, and if its crap - no big loss. See Item # 10.

Another good one to start with is an omelette. Its basically an egg pancake with something folded up inside. Just keep the heat on medium, stir it round with something flat until it gets hard to stir and eventually it will all cook. Plonk some stuff (like cheese, roasted red peppers from a jar, baby spinach, sliced ham or whatever). Fold one side over the filling and there you go. If it turns out that its too stiff to fold, just call it a fritatta when you slide it on the plate.

Why not try a bunch of roasted veggies? Cut them up however you like (keep them on the bigger side), put in a pan with a few glugs of olive oil, sprinkle with salt and roast at 400 degrees for a while until they're brown (check them after 20 minutes or so - but let them get BROWN. Seriously. BROWN.) Stir a few times and there you go. Peppers are good this way with onions, carrots and potatoes.

And finally, for my friend Lucas, fish is one of the easiest things to make - even if you don't know how. Don't worry about breading and frying, baking or roasting. Poach it. Bring up some water with a few slices of carrots, onions, celery and parsley (whole, don't chop it) to a boil (big bubbles) and then turn the heat down to a simmer (little bubbles, no big ones) in a large frying pan. Slide in your fish fillets and cook for about 5 minutes (or a little longer if its a REALLY thick piece of fish). Turn off the heat and leave in there while you make your vinaigrette, toss the salad, open a nice bottle of wine and slice some bread. Then take the fish out and put on your plate. Plop some salad on the plate, put the fish over top and drizzle with your vinaigrette. The fish will be nice and cooked - add some butter on top if you like, a bit of salt and pepper and eat. Very quick, easy and tasty (and looks damn impressive too!).

But now you want more? More you shall have. Get thee to Amazon.com (or .ca, whichever) and start searching for beginner cookbooks. Most of the books seem to be a bit patronizing but they are generally pretty good. The Dummies series has never let me down yet when I wanted to learn something - I can't see this being any different. If you need to see them online, go to the actual bookstore and look at them. Sit down and read them a bit and see if they make sense to you. And if Rachel Ray is the best you can do, well, then do it. If she gets you cooking then I guess she can't be all bad. Just don't you dare stop there. I hereby give a 6 month pass for newbie cooks to read and watch Ms. Ray - then NO MORE. Don't make me come over there and break a spatula over your hand!

Finally, think of cooking as learning to ride a bike. You had a hard time doing it at first, you may even have fallen off and hurt yourself. But once you figured it out and learned to steer, pedal AND have fun - you never forgot how to do it. Its the same with cooking. Once you learn that ingredients are just like wheels, the heat of the stove like pedalling and riding really is like cooking - you WILL have fun doing it.

RCE Book Club Updates!

2006-07-21T10:22:00.000-04:00

Well, we're nearly there and we're not even quite at August yet! There's not much time left to make your picks! (Of course, if someone would like to make something that has already been selected, we're not going to complain...)
Here's where we stand right now (names in bold have not yet been claimed!)

* Aushak (Christine)
* Roasted brussel sprouts (kt)
* Last-minute chocolate cake (kt)
* Nicky's vanilla cake (Nikol)
* Roast chicken with potatoes, onions, and garlic (Arilyne)
* Gougeres (Christine)
* Hash browns (Melanie)
* Roast leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary (Nikol)
* Matzo brei
* Moules marinieres (Connie)
* New York cheesecake (Susan)
* Sort-of Thai noodles (Eric)
* Scalloped potatoes (Arilyne)
* Roasted rhubarb (Eric)
* Risotto Primavera (Lucas)
* Spaghetti Carbonara (Susan)
* Pureed watercress

Since we're so far ahead of the game here, I'm going to suggest that we start picking our next book - both to give us enough time to buy it and read it, but also so that we can all chime in on our preferences. I'm going to suggest the following, please pick one and either email me or comment and let me know why you chose that one:

Heat - Bill Buford
My Life in France - Julia Child
The Nasty Bits - Anthony Bourdain
Sunday Suppers at Lucques - Suzanne Goin (Winner of the 2006 James Beard Foundation Cookbook Award for Cooking from a Professional Point of View)
The Perfectionist: Life and Death in Haute Cuisine - Rudolph Chelminski
The Cook's Book - Jill Norman

Looking forward to our next adventures already!

Loving the linkage!

2006-07-20T11:42:00.000-04:00

Each morning whilst I sip my coffee and pretend to be working, I review my daily bloglines and come across some pretty interesting links that I'd love to share with you all.

First, I got my Whole Foods online sales flyer to go through, but more imporantly the newsletter included a few links to Cook's Illustrated Paella recipes, including a recommendation that Arborio rice is acceptable but Valencia rice is the preferred rice by their testers. They even include a link to their review of paella pans (I'm not sure how long these links are going to be good, get in whilst you can!) Now, I'm not entirely sure that cooking something in my oven is a good idea these days, what with the heat and humidity and all, but still its something I'd love to eat right now.

Epicurious now has a Most Popular Recipe section which can be found here. Take a look at what ranks #7! Its good for a giggle!

The Complete Keller

2006-07-20T09:21:00.000-04:00

And now, the unveiling of the Holy Grail of cookbooks: The Complete Keller.

BOTH volumes, The French Laundry Cookbook and Bouchon, in one slipcovered case. Packed for easy consumption. Pre-orders are available at HUGE discounts from the retail price (links follow) Guess what I'm asking my very understanding boyfriend for my birthday? ;-)

Amazon.com (US Pre-orders)
Amazon.ca (Canadian Pre-orders)
Indigo.ca (Canadian Pre-orders)

LA Times - From East to West

2006-07-19T10:48:00.000-04:00

Just to be fair, I'd like to also let you know that I also really love the LA Times Food Section. Its nearly impossible to find the LA Times here in Toronto (if you know where I can find it, please let me know!) compared to the NYTimes, so I tend to just read the articles online. Yes, like almost ALL newspapers these days, they will require you to register to read the content. I used to have a major problem with this, but what the heck - just make sure you sign the "do not contact me" bit and you'll never recieve a bit of spam.

Anyway, I've found a few nifty little links there that I'd thought I'd share...

Quick Fix Video Gallery
If you're not feeling the "Read.Cook.Eat." love and would rather feel some "Watch.Cook.Eat." love, check out these video recipes. Complete with enticing descriptions, pretty good photography, full recipes with shopping list and game plan - never mind your choice of video in Quicktime or Real, you really can't go wrong. And its great for people like me who don't have FoodTV on cable (but only until Autumn when we get digital cable, right honey? :-) and need a foodie fix.

A fresh dip into the life of the party
Talk about great timing! I've been getting into dips lately - making Roasted Red Pepper and White Bean, Hummus and a Pesto Hummus in the last week - and I'm looking for some new, kinda-no-cook recipes to help beat the heat. Lo and behold, I find that the LA Times has published this article about the history of and updating dips. Enjoy!!

HOT LIST
Perhaps most appropriately for a blog based on reading, cooking and eating; the Times also publishes a list of the hottest food/cooking/chef related books. This week we have Heat, The Nasty Bits, My Life in France, Garlic and Sapphires (our Read.Cook.Eat. bookclub selection for August) and Barefoot Contessa Family style rounding out the top 5.

Hope you get a kick out of the reading as much as I do!

NY Times - Food Section Roundup

2006-07-19T10:32:00.000-04:00

I LOVE the New York Times Style Section - particularly the Dining and Wine section. They have great sections on food, dining out, entertaining, wines, design and decorating. I subscribe to the RSS feeds but for those who don't I've found three articles today that are particularly interesting (membership may be required to read these posts depending on time accessed).

Korea’s Taste of Summer Is a Long, Cool Slurp
This is a really interesting look at the cool noodles from Korea. Christine, I'm sure, would have far more to say on this topic, but I would LOVE to have some of these tonight to help break this heat.

Too Sweet to Be Invited to Dinner
Eric Asimov, the Times Wine scribe, relates why he no longer tries to pair Pinot Noir from California with food. Personally, I LOVE Pinot Noir but agree with his assessment that American made PN's are becoming too sweet. I'll stick to French PN's - even Canadian versions are becoming too sweet for my taste. If I want sweet I'll drink a Reisling.

Ringmaster’s Back, Stroking the Lions
A not very flattering review of the "new" Le Cirque. I grew up reading about Le Cirque in Gourmet Magazine, seeing it mentioned on television programs - basically being held up as THE uber NYC dining experience. Sadly, it appears that it only holds true if you have some kind of pedigree or patina that can readily be determined by the front of house. Don't have what it takes? Expect poor (actually, it sounds like downright rude) service, mediocre food and no value for the overpriced menu. I don't mind paying a fortune for a memorable meal but darn it, I want a smile with my dinner - they're even free at McDonald's for heaven's sake.

Gourmet Covers Under the Microscope

2006-07-18T12:02:00.000-04:00

Thanks to my new e-friend, Lucas, I had a great little read of this article on Slate on the state of food styling and photography of Gourmet magazine. Now, Gourmet is one of my favourite foodie magazines, both for the articles and the recipes. It has not always been the case, in fact there was a period where I refused to buy it - primarily because the food stopped looking nice, the recipes were far too "out there" for me, and frankly I thought that the quality of the magazine was just not up to par.

Times (and styles) change. In the past few months I've taken to reading it again and have become a huge fan of this magazine (but the fact the Ruth Reichl is the Editor-in-chief of Gourmet didn't have any bearing, really, on our selection of her book for the ReadEatCook bookclub) once more. As someone who works in the food/styling/photography/packaging industry, I have had the opportunity to work with some incredibly talented photographers, stylists and designers and whilst I'm not a designer myself, one cannot help but start to develop a bit of a design sensiblity.

Sara Dickerman, the author of the Slate piece, I think has a pretty good eye for design and a great method for demonstrating the current state of the foodstyling world through the microcosm of the Gourmet cover tablescape. While I wholeheartedly agree with her assessment of the style progression of the covers, I differ from her in that I really quite like the darker, moodier, more somber appeal of the style. I guess I've gotten a bit over the shallow focus, light washed low angle shots of the late 90's and early 00's and I'm ready for something a little more dramatic; something more sophisticated. This isn't to say that it isn't hard to get those shots just right - I guess I'm just looking for something a bit more, well, realistic. Not everyone lives in a lightdrenched house in East Hampton. Some of us live in little apartments and condos and are rapidly wanting to see something that more reflects our lives. Aspirational design is one thing, but realistic portrayals can also move product.

For a more interesting view of what's happening, I'd rather turn to Australian Gourmet Traveller and Sainsbury's Magazine. They're both taking that light drenched look and gussying it up a bit so it looks a little less like Bauhaus food and more like something that we could all really be living with. There's variety and visual interest in each story and sometimes in each shot. This is food the way I make it - sometimes I'm at home, sometimes at a friend's place, often at my parents - and you use what you have. That's the reality of today's entertaining, isn't it?

Anyway, the worst part about this little tale is that the highly acclaimed March 2006 issue featuring Montreal is actually sold out from the Gourmet back issues department (I checked this afternoon). Its selling at over $41 currently on eBay and I don't have a copy. Stilted and overly propped the cover may be, but I still want a copy. :-(

ReadEatCook Book Club August Selection: Garlic and Sapphires

2006-07-18T11:24:00.000-04:00

Welcome to the inaugural meeting of the ReadEatCook Book Club - and the introduction of our August selection! (Yes, yes - I'm aware we're still in July, but this way we have plenty of time to read, cook and eat!) As I'm sure the photo gives away, this month we will be focussing on Ruth Reichl's latest memoir of restaurant reviewing in Garlic and Sapphires ( US Link -- Canada Link). I'm not going to give much more in the way of introduction to the book itself as I'd love for each of us to approach the book in our own way and be able to read it without any preconceived notions.

Having said that, I think some explanation as to how the club works is in order. First, go buy or borrow the book. Its been out long enough that most bookshops should carry it and your local libraries will probably have it. Then, read the book (laughing out loud as necessary!). Pick one recipe from the list below and comment or email me on which one you'd like to prepare (I'll update the list with whomever is making each dish so that we don't have too many duplications). Make the dish, photograph it (if possible - if not, that's fine just write your comments) and email it to me. Once we get all the submissions for the recipes made we'll get the conversation rolling with our impressions, both good and bad, and most importantly - how the food turned out!

Here's the list of recipes (thanks Christine!) :

* ~~Aushak~~ (Christine)
* ~~Roasted brussel sprouts~~ (kt)
* ~~Last-minute chocolate cake~~ (kt)
* ~~Nicky's vanilla cake~~ (Nikol)
* ~~Roast chicken with potatoes, onions, and garlic~~ (Arilyne)
* ~~Gougeres~~ (Christine)
* ~~Hash browns~~ (Melanie)
* ~~Roast leg of lamb with garlic and rosemary~~ (Nikol)
* Matzo brei
* ~~Moules marinieres~~ (Connie)
* ~~New York cheesecake~~ (Susan)
* ~~Sort-of Thai noodles~~ (Eric)
* ~~Scalloped potatoes~~ (Arilyne)
* ~~Roasted rhubarb~~ (Eric)
* ~~Risotto Primavera~~ (Lucas)
* ~~Spaghetti Carbonara~~ (Susan)
* Pureed watercress

Have fun and let's get the cooking started!!!

Heat related blog outage!

2006-07-18T11:16:00.000-04:00

Hi everyone! Sorry about the lack of posts the past few days - the heat has been absolutely ridiculous here in Toronto and I haven't felt like doing a whole lot of writing. On top of the crazy heat and humidity, the aircon in our building (yes, the entire building) chose this weekend to collapse under the strain. Just this morning around 8:30 did it manage to go back up; after horrible sleeping conditions, sweating doing nothing and barely able to cook - finally its back. Just as the heat is breaking, naturally.

I've got a few posts lined up for you - the very first selection of the ReadEatCook Book Club for August, a pesto making post, a review of my dinner at Centro as part of Summerlicious, a Gazpacho soup recipe to help beat the heat and finally, a post on making Christine's Galbi Jim (with pictures, but lacking one of the final product - I ate it too quickly to photograph. Its THAT kind of good. Damn good.)

So, enjoy the posts, comment away and keep cool in this nasty heatwave!

The ReadCookEat Cookbook Book Club and Testing Academy

2006-07-12T13:22:00.000-04:00

Okay, I've been giving this a bit of a think and I'd really like to test this out with my readers of this and my other food blogs - I'm starting The ReadCookEat Cookbook Book Club and Testing Academy. The premise is this - we select one cookbook a month, each choose a different (or the same, doesnt' really matter) recipe to make from it, photograph the results, discuss whether or not we thought it was worth the time/effort/expense and then share our results.

I'm not going to limit this to cookbooks but if there is any special equipment that helps prepare the dishes in question that can be part of our discussion. I'm hoping that over time we'll come up with a compendium of reviewed books so that readers will know what's worth buying, what's not worth the hype and what to completely avoid at all costs. I'd be completely open to suggestions for the month of August to start so either comment away or email me with what you think!

Meta-Food Blogging

2006-07-06T12:58:00.000-04:00

Its an interesting phenomenon when one food blogger can inspire another to create a dish discovered on yet another website. I call it Meta-Food-Blogging.

The boyfriend and I were doing some shopping one evening at the St. Lawrence Market in Toronto when I saw a few kumquats (for only $9.99 a pound) and simply had to buy some. I rememebered reading in Grant's blog that he'd recently been given his first kumquat and my curiousity was piqued. He'd used it them in this kumquat relish recipe from Epicurious and I just knew I had to try it (seeing as I have yet to receive an invitation to dine at Chez Grant ;-) for myself.

Found the recipe, cooked up the relish, grilled the port loin chops and zucchini, made some cilantro lime rice and plated it up. What I didn't know or realize at the time was how much the boyfriend hates pork. HATES it. To the point where I was not only peeved with him for not being more direct in his previously tellling me, "I don't really like pork" - but annoyed with myself that I didn't make a backup chicken breast or something else to serve this delicious relish with. Its a great combination of sweet, sour, bitter, salty, piquant and savoury - my only modification being that instead of using dried apricots I used fresh.

I still have a bit left in the fridge and while I won't make pork to serve it with, I'll find something. Perhaps a fish taco? Oh wait, the boyfriend doesn't eat fish either...

More Batali tools...

2006-06-28T23:06:00.000-04:00

The obsession continues... I've had yet another dream of Mario Batali, this time we were making risotto together using his nifty little tools. We prepped using his measuring cups, stirred using this risotto stirrer and made it in his risotto pan (which I'm just loving, although I'm not so sure that the handle is so necessary for anything less than polenta.

Hopefully this obsession my brain has with Batali will pass ~ I think seeing his endorsement of Nascar will do it for me, I just don't get that whole car thing...

You know you have a problem when...

2006-06-27T21:36:00.000-04:00

I think I have a food problem. Or at least a food addiction. It rears its head (I won't say ugly 'cause food only comes ugly in a few ways - monkfish, lobsters, crabs, celery root and broccoli) every now and again despite my best efforts to control it. Today it actually rose up twice.

First, it came overnight. I woke up in a cold sweat after just having had a dream where I was having dinner across the table from Mario Batali - a dinner that I'd cooked. A dinner of pasta that I'd made and he'd just shown up to see if it was up to scratch. I don't remember what he said, or did, but I remember thinking that I really liked his orange Crocs (I have a black pair - I rarely wear colour, you see...) and that it matched his hair. All the while, he was teaching me how to make proper bolognese sauce (he hated that I'd made Biba Caggiano's version instead of his, although they're basically quite the same, differing primarily in execution) and tossing around pieces of rabbit in some kind of caper and rosemary white wine sauce. Anyway, I woke up a bit discombobulated but nonetheworse for wear. That's the last time I read Food & Wine magazine before bed!

Second, I have become completely addicted to Quesada. I have to have it nearly every week - and sometimes I crave it so badly that I'd chew off my own right arm and have them grill it for me ~ burrito con Eric! (sorry, I just made that up, I know nothing about speaking Spanish...). I think it all started when I first had a Carne Asada Super Burrito at El Balazo when visiting a friend many years ago in San Ramon. Nothing has ever since come close to that complex and hauntingly delicious experience - that combination of meat, cheese, salsas to create the perfect umami experience. Until a few weeks ago when my boyfriend took me to Quesada and gustatory heaven.

I went back there tonight, in fact, after just missing the opportunity to have it last night when I went to meet the boyfriend for dinner (had the Tuscan Chicken Quizno's instead... Sensing a "Food Places Starting with the Letter Q" phase here...). When I knew that I was going to be on my own for dinner tonight I began to involuntarily salivate ~ I knew I was going to get my small grilled steak burrito fix. And fix it, I did. With cilantro-lime rice, slow cooked pinto beans, grilled sliced steak, chipotle tomato salsa, cilantro, jack cheese, chopped jalapeno, red onion, sour cream and guacamole all rolled into a very soft, very fresh tortilla; my day was now complete. I wouldn't normally call the act of loving a particular food and wanting to eat it once in a while a problem but its getting to the point where after polishing off my combo, I seriously contemplated getting another one to store for later. How bad could it be if I just kept one in the freezer for Quesada emergencies?

Little nibblies...

2006-06-26T22:46:00.000-04:00

I've been collecting some interesting quick little bits of intel from different sources and rather than round them up on something like del.icio.us or something, I'll link to them now and again on here so that everyone can find them...

First, thanks to Pat for sending the link to the George Brown College Food and the Media certificate program. This is exactly what I've been looking for with regards to getting training for food styling. They are holding their next information night on Tuesday August 29, 2006 - I'll definitely be attending.

Second, thanks to Maki for pointing out this link to Nudo ~ several groves of olive trees in Tuscany need adopting and Nudo makes it happen. For 65 pounds a year plus shipping and postage you get the product of your tree for the year, including organic oil in the spring and soaps and more oils in the autumn. Not bad if you're into that kind of thing (and if you're not, you're SO on the wrong page here! ;-) The site is pretty cute, well-designed and even has a map and photographs of the trees available for adoption.

Third, I've got some older posts on my other blog, Virtualzen, about cooking and things. I'm thinking to import them here if there's enough interest. Drop a comment line and let me know if you'd like to read them (seeing that Virtualzen isn't really everyone's cup of tea, there's full warning here that I am VERY candid about my life and use language that may not be suitable for all readers or workplaces).

Cook's Illustrated Recipe Test: Pound Cake

2006-06-26T22:30:00.000-04:00

Several months ago, after perusing the Cook's Illustrated website for some information on pans, I'd noticed that they had a link for recipe testers. Being culinarily curious, I signed up and promptly forgot about it. Until they sent me my first recipe on Friday to test. I've had a bit of a busy weekend up till this afternoon and the timing worked out perfectly to make a nice little cake during a well-deserved and welcome lull in the day.

After pulling together the ingredients (nothing difficult), sliding out the KitchenAid and a bit of mixing, folding and smoothing; the cake was in the oven and the apartment filled with the amazing scents that only butter, sugar and vanilla can properly combine to create.

About an hour and a bit later, I removed the cake from the oven, let it cool whilst I went to have dinner and came home to have a nice little dessert. Wow, talk about a nice crumb, rich and moist. Dense but light enough to be a bit spongy - perfect for absorbing my favourite topping - sour cherries with Port (I'll be making those again this year when the sour cherries come into season!).

Look for the recipe in an upcoming issue of Cook's Illustrated - I'm sure it'll be a big hit!

Summerlicious!

2006-06-22T13:54:00.000-04:00

Summerlicious. Yes, its that time of year again when we all dial and redial and redial again ~ all in an effort to get a reservation at some of Toronto's best and best known restaurants. We're not talking the newest of the new, but perhaps some of the finest dining we have on offer.

This year, that extends to 130 restaurants with $20 lunches and $35 dinners (with a few lower priced exceptions thrown in there). I had one or two places in mind that I'd like to eat at but had completely forgotten until today that the reservation lines were open! Thanks to Sam at Becks&Posh who somehow triggered my memory, I looked up the website, downloaded a few sample menus and made my selections. A few short minutes later I had made two reservations and was disappointed to find that my final selection was actually booked solid. So, my boyfriend and I (pending his availability from his employer) will be dining on July 18th at Centro and July 25th at Truffles at the Four Seasons. The menus are described thusly:

Centro

Appetizer
Crab & avocado salad, baby arugula & citrus vinaigrette
or
Orecchiette pesto with smoked chicken & crumbled goat cheese

Entree
Peppered tilapia filet, tomato, caper, & black olives with lemon mash
or
Oven roasted Australian lamb loin, ratatouille vegetables & mint aioli

Dessert
Vanilla bean panna cotta, berry compotes
or
Strawberry sorbet shortcake

Truffles

Appetizer
Watermelon Gazpacho, White Balsamic Granite
or
Grilled Asparagus and Summer Bean Salad, Deviled Quail Eggs

Entree
Pan Seared Rainbow Trout, Truffled Sweet Corn & Clam Chowder
or
Grilled Hanger Steak, Warm Potato and Pancetta Salad, Horseradish Creme Fraiche

Dessert
Rosemary Panna Cotta, Grilled Peaches, Vanilla Mascarpone
or
Chilled Blueberry Parfait, Minted Blueberry Mojito Sauce

I have a good idea of what I'd like to have at each meal, but I may just surprise myself and have something different. I'll be sure to try and snap some photos of the meals but don't hate me if I'm too shy to whip out the camera - it could make for an interesting evening!

Food Styling?

2006-06-21T22:07:00.000-04:00

I went out to coffee after work with my friend Kathy. We're both in the midst of a career transition/evolution/dreaming phase - she's planning a bit more drastic change than I am, but we're still here to support one another along the way.

For those who don't know me well, I work in a marketing agency the primary product of which is CPG design and production. In other words, we create the packages for a lot of food, hardlines, health and beauty aids and beverages that you might purchase in your local supermarket. I, myself, work as a project manager - co-ordinating with clients to ensure that the work is done to their satisfaction - on time and on budget (sometimes... anyone who works in this industry will know what I mean).

One of the best roles that I play comes when we do a photo shoot in our onsite studio and I get to work with the photographers, the client, the creative director - and most fun of all, the food stylist. I've worked with some of Toronto's top food stylists and photographers - award winners in some cases - and the thing I really liked most was the food styling. I really loved the photography at first, but seeing how the food stylist worked hand in hand with the photographer and the creative director to bring an illustrated vision to life are the most fascinating moments of my job.

So... how does this relate to my transitional state? Well, I'm thinking about a career in food styling. I'm doing some research and I'll be making some calls to see if anyone is taking on an assistant or apprentice. Its not as though I'm expecting heaps of cash for the job straight away, but I know for a fact that the going rate for a top stylist here in Toronto can be well over $800 a day (and the, well, less talented? they're still making $400 - 500 a day). I guess in posting this, I'm wondering if anyone who reads this blog has any kind of experience or advice for someone wanting to get into the industry. Feel free to either comment or send me an email - I'd love to hear from you!

Capertastic!

2006-06-21T21:45:00.000-04:00

Thanks to Apartment Therapy's Sara Kate I have just uncovered a serious flaw in my pantry. I am missing one very essential ingredient for so many of my favourite dishes! I'm plum out of capers! I have none in the fridge; not one pickled little bud. I have none in the pantry, not one salt cured crunchy morsel. I don't even know if my boyfriend likes them or not, but he'll learn if he doesn't already like them.

I have loved capers for a very long time, although how I got there is a bit of foodie lore. I used to work with this fabulous woman, we'll call her Nina (simply cause that was/is her name). Nina and I found in each other a complete fascination for all good food, to the point where we took our cooking classes and baking courses together. We even took a French cuisine demo class together, even though we were really not impressed that it was demo only. (Actually, the chef pulled us aside and told us off one night because we were rolling our eyes too much in class and smirking too much - he didn't realize, and we very smartly told him, that it wasn't him we were smirking at - it was this know it all snotty woman sitting in front of us who simply had to take over half the class time with her gastronomic tales. We frankly didn't pay to hear a 50 year old divorcee regale us with episodes from her dining days, we paid to be instructed on how to properly prepare sole meunier and daube de beouf etc... Situation corrected, chef told the woman to stop talking so much and we both got an A for speaking our minds... But I digress, back to the story...)

Nina and I used to go shopping in Chinatown after dim sum (she introduced me to chicken feet and other nasty looking but tasty things), buying longan berries and chinese broccoli and oyster flavour sauce and 5 spice powder and other cool stuff. But on class nights we would meet early, eat dinner that we prepared for each other and then go to class. One night, she brought smoked salmon, freshly baked bagels, cream cheese, sliced red onion and capers for a bit of a breakfast theme. I'd never had anything more exotic on my bagel than Philly so this was a bit of an experiment for the young, burgeoning foodie. I'd never experienced that briny, pungent, delicate saltiness from a caper before this and suddenly I felt as though my tastebuds had finally matured and become fully awakened. This was a definite revelation that there was more to tasting things besides salty, sweet, sour and spicy - this was a food thing that I could see working in concert with all the above - and more.

Fastforward a few years to my second trip to Australia. I was having lunch at Gecko's Café at the Ayers Rock Resort and ordered their smoked salmon risotto on the recommendation of the server. It came garnished with crunchy deep fried capers, crispy red onion strips and chunks of smoked salmon that were lightly heated with thin ribbons of lemon zest woven in and through the delicate grains of rice. I can only imagine the look on my face when I went to absolute gustatory heaven in one bite. I've since recreated it many times and for those of you who wish to have the recipe, I'll give you this challenge. Try making it for yourself. Make a pretty standard lemon risotto (but leave out the parmesan - Italians would never add cheese to a seafood risotto or pasta except in very specific occasions) then while its just finishing absorbing the beautiful sauce (I like to let my risotto rest about 5 minutes after adding the final bit of butter and mixing through - I find it gives it a better finished texture), then fry some red onion crescents and drain till crispy. Heat that oil up and pop in a bunch of capers (try the salt cured ones - rinse them but don't soak them that long - and make sure they are DRY or else you'll have them pop everywhere!) and remove when crispy. Don't worry about the amount of salt, remember you'll not add the parmesan so these will add that salty kick along with the salmon. Finally, mix the risotto a final time with the smoked salmon chunks, a few fried capers, some fresh lemon zest, and plate with the onions garnishing the top. Totally amazingly salty deconstructed smoked salmon goodness.

Bonus points: If you simply must have a creamier, cheesier version - add some mascarpone near the end - talk about gilding the lily!

Noshing in Montréal

2006-06-21T13:28:00.000-04:00

For anyone who doesn't yet know, I've been participating in a few little threads over at Kitchen, by Apartment Therapy. We got into a very cool conversation about capers the other day (which has inspired a caper-filled post which I have yet to complete; patience my precious, patience!). Leeds, a contributer to the conversation, is from Montréal and had plenty to say about where to nosh and market in that fine city. Here's what we've got:

At Marché Atwater, check Premiere Moisson’s bread & (all butter) croissants. Les Douceurs du Marché for great tea selection, spices, oils etc.

Voted as having best croissants: Duc de Lorraine Patisserie, 5002 Cote des Neiges, all-butter croissants, cheeses, deli, great cafe au lait, in a bowl. It has a tearoom/terrasse; good for breakfast; close to St. Joseph's Oratory. At Marché Jean-Talon, 7070 Henri-Julien Ave.(Premiere Moisson has a shop here too), check cheese shops: Hamel, and Qui Lait Cru!?! (raw milk products, yum![And hard to find! Eric]) The excellent Le Marché des Saveurs du Quebec (All Quebec products, excellent selection, including fish, meats, patés).

Restaurants-too many to do justice. Enjoy! There’s ubiquitous Schwartz’ Smoked Meat on 'The Main'(Blvd.St. Laurent). I personally recommend Quebec Smoked Meat, 1889 rue Centre (514)935-5297; they smoke all their meats themselves, no nitrates, excellent products (no tables in the shop, they just sell you the components. Worth the detour. The rest: Smoked Meat Pete’s also got acclaim by Montrealers; it’s out of the way, but if you want to go for a nice drive: 283, 1Re Ave, L’Ile Perrot, QC. Le Cabaret du Roy is a restaurant in Old Montreal - the menu, entertainment, characters, decor, are just like it was in 16th century Quebec (Nouvelle France). Entertaining and educational.

Montréal Bagels: St. Viateur Bagel Shop, 263 St. Viateur, or Fairmont Bagel, 74 Fairmont; call for special orders such as 'all-dressed', etc.

In Old Montreal: Olive & Gourmando, 351 St. Paul, artisanal bakery
(breakfast/lunch), featuring fab brownies etc. AND on Friday and Saturday only: chocolate bread (not cake!), dark dense bread, not sweet, with a HUGE chunk of dark Valhrona chocolate baked into it! Good.

Miu-Miu: ice cream shop on St. Denis below Mt. Royal; very different flavours (mostly made with organic ingredients) features a selection of frozen soya milk ice cream.

For truly adventurous palates: at the Insectarium there is an ‘insect tasting’ featuring edible critters prepared by specialized chefs!

If you have the time and desire: La Route des Saveurs (The Flavour Trail) connects local cheesemakers, farmers and meat producers who open doors to public for tours, demos and tastings.

Book: Gastronomy and the Forest is now available in English, fusing the best of Quebec’s great outdoors & its fine cuisine, features photos & recipes for local favourites such as trout pie and caribou pot-au-feu.

Wow! That's quite the full listing! I'll have to see about adding the
Toronto-based version over the next little while!

Bon shopping, mes amis!

Soupe Glacée aux Fruits Rouges

2006-06-20T06:55:00.000-04:00

I've recently been emailed by a very nice reader from France who lives in Lyon with his partner. His very nicely worded email (in English, although I do read and understand most French - speaking it is another matter entirely) inspired me to write back and suggest that we exchange recipes. Not only did he write back but included a recipe for a dish that I'd not had since I was a kid and recall my Polish grandmother making something very similar. I don't recall the variety of fruits in it, just cherries, but I don't think these will do any harm at all... The best part is that cherries have just started to come into season here in Toronto, evidenced by the fact that Dominion has them on sale this week for only $3.99 a pound. Sebastian went shopping yesterday and picked up a pretty big bag of them, so perhaps I'll make this soup tonight to have tomorrow evening. Thanks, Jérôme, for reminding me of this cool, oldfashioned dessert on these hot, humid nights.

Soupe Glacée aux Fruits Rouges

- 1 pound of cherries
- Pint of strawberries
- Pint of raspberries
- Pint of bilberries (can substitute wild blueberries)
- Jasmine tea
- Sugar(to taste)
- Pink peppercorns

Begin this recipe in the cooler morning for later that evening when its hot and sticky and humid. The Jasmine tea fragrance marries well with the fruits - the fresher the fruit the better the flavour of the finished soup.

Bring to a boil twice as much water as volume of cherries and add the tea. Infuse quickly and remove bags or strain so it doesn't get too strong or bitter. Add sugar to taste (make this less sweet than you would drink tea, remember the fruits have plenty of sugar, you just want a slight syrup) and the cherries. A lot of sugar will create a rather thick syrup, a little sugar a lighter syrup. Return the pot with cherries, tea and sugar to a medium low heat and simmer for 10 minutes until the water is coloured and the cherries to keep a little of their color. Remove cherries with a slotted spoon and reserve. Reduce the syrup over medium high heat until thickened slightly, stirring contstantly to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and let cool to room temperature before placing in the refrigerator for at least three hours. Before serving, add to the syrup the reserved cherries, strawberries halved lenthwise, raspberries and bilberries. Add some pink peppercorns (can either be crushed or whole). Return to the refrigerator to chill completely and allow the syrup to permeate each berry.

Ribs, Wings and Potato Salad

2006-06-19T08:57:00.000-04:00

Yesterday was Father's Day - day of what should have been barbeque or BBQ or barbecue for those who aren't brought to you by the letter Q. I went up to visit my parents (solo; my boyfriend has yet to meet them and he was working in any event), have a bit of a nosh and drop off his little prezzie. We were meant to have some nice pork ribs on the Q with some salad and pie for dessert but the weather just didn't co-operate. The sun was shining down and the humidity was pretty low, but the wind just didn't co-operate. Thankfully, my parents hit upon this braised rib thing they do where they boil the ribs to cook them completely before glazing and dropping on the grill for some flavour. Not gonna happen with the kind of wind we had yesterday so it was down to having them glazed in the oven - not a bad subsitute, but why they didn't think to use the indoor Jenn-Air grill they have, I'll never really get to ask.

Anyway, after a few glasses of Cat's Pee on a Gooseberry Bush Sauvignon Blanc I volunteered to go with my Dad to pick up 5 pounds of chicken wings to add to the feast. We got 2 pounds of Creamy Caesar Parmesan, 2 pounds of Honey Jerk and 1 pound of this variety known as Canadiana (which I believe was nearly suicide pepper sauce with teriyaki on top of that - very strange but delicious nonetheless). Add to that my mum's homemade potato salad and we're talking a VERY meaty dinner that kept me well stuffed till this morning. Dessert was a nice storebought cherry pie with coffee - love me some cherry pie.

Right, so now here comes the recipe part...

Mum's Potato Salad

Take some potatoes (firm, waxy ones), clean out the eyes and scrub. Boil along with some eggs until tender (you can take the eggs out midway through when they're hardboiled). Cool both potatoes and eggs down and peel, cutting into 1/2" dice. Mix with Miracle Whip (or mayonnaise if you must), a bit of yellow mustard, a bunch of creamy horseradish sauce, salt and pepper. Add some sliced scallions if you like or minced onion if you prefer. Put into a bowl and sprinkle with some paprika - place in refrigerator for at least an hour to let the flavours come together. Eat with gusto and extra salt if you like.

See? Nothing much to it, the proportions and measurements are kind of irrelevant for this kind of dish as far as I'm concerned. This ain't no fine salade de pommes de terre et oeuves mayonnaise. This is simple, hearty and delicious potato salad to share. Give it a go!

An interesting salad

2006-06-18T11:33:00.000-04:00

I was at work the other day, just starting my day and drinking yet another cup of substandard but free corporate coffee and really trying to decide what the heck I was going to make for dinner. I knew I was going to be dining alone due to the boyfriend's working schedule, I wanted something a bit spicy and a bit exotic and a bit fruity... Opening up Bloglines for my morning fix of news, I found my answer in the Epicurious New Recipes RSS feed - Cucumber, Tomato and Pineapple Salad with Asian dressing. I had just bought a ton of limes, serrano chilies and new garlic, but I had a few things I had to pick up (along with some pork loin chops for grilling with my current favourite sauce/marinade - Memories of Tuscany Balsamic and Fig sauce) but nothing I couldn't find quickly.

One quick trip to the market later I had the English cucumber, vine ripened tomatoes, freshly peeled and cored pineapple (SO expensive for some reason when I could have easily and gladly done the work myself for less than half the price if they'd offered me a whole one), some mint, cilantro (mmm... fresh cilantro is a beautiful thing, isn't it?) and the ubiquitous fish sauce (I can't believe I didn't have any in my pantry! what has my stocking skill come to?)

A little bit of chopping, whisking and folding gently so as not to completely mush the very ripe veggies - a quick taste for seasoning (I found I needed a little more lime juice to get the right balance for my palate) and I set it aside to meld as I went to the rooftop to grill the pork.

Now, I'm the first to admit that when it comes to grilling, I'm really not that clued in. I'm nervous about lighting the barbeque to begin with and I'm more nervous about ensuring the doneness of the meat - so much so that I get into a bit of a panic over it. Is it better underdone and I'll just quickly zap it in the microwave or do I just let the thing char a bit longer on the grill and call it well flavoured? In this instance, I decided to put my recently acquired thumb fleshiness knowledge to the test. (I'll find the link for it somewhere, but basically its about the firmness of the pad below your thumb created by touching different parts of your fingers and comparing the feel of that to the resistance of the meat - trust me, its easier than it sounds).

Got the grilling done, plated up a nice little chop (actually, they were a great size), scooped out a bunch of salad (bit of a surprise as to how much liquid the dressing pulled out of the veggies, I'd almost suggest less salt to prevent some of this, but perhaps its the pineapple?) and ate. Holy serrano was it ever tasty! I have never really been confident in the power of mint to do anything for me but remind me of toothpaste and nasty powdery tisanes but in this instance it totally works. The bit of heat from the serrano mixed with the sweet/tart pineapple against the cool crunch of the cucumber was just amazing. It really did remind of a few things I've eaten in Vietnamese restaurants (but surprisingly, not so much Thai as I thought it would). The cilantro added that great herbal hit and the garlic (which I normally can't stand) actually just mellowed right out and blended into the background.

The second day of the salad was even better, if possible. A bit more crunch to the cucumbers now that they'd lost most of their water and became nearly picked in the asian-esque brine created by the dressing and the pineapple juices. My boyfriend took a huge bowl of it on the plane to eat for dinner, offering a taste to a colleague upon which she advised him to keep me around for a good long time (he told her I'm not going anywhere any time soon). Thanks Epicurious, for a great recipe, a terrific dish and for solidifying my relationship. Two happy thumbs up!

A nod to Well Fed (and Suzanne Goin)

2006-06-17T22:38:00.000-04:00

I spent a good part of this absolutely stunningly gorgeously HOT day in Toronto hanging out at Indigo at the Eaton Centre. My boyfriend was off working this afternoon and evening so I took the opportunity to do one of my favourite things without him (he gets pretty bored in bookstores and cookware shops whereas I could happily while away the hours in either place). I ended up spending too much time there, as a matter of fact, causing me to be late in getting to the drycleaners to drop off some pants for him. Oh well, such is life with a cookbook addict.

I actually had popped over to The Bay first to check the prices on the Mario Batali cookware that I'd previously posted about. The 6QT pot retails for $169, the Panini Grill for $129 and the Lasagne Pan for $129 - pretty much the same prices that I'd seen at Golda's Kitchen , but then again you don't have to pay for shipping if you pick them up at The Bay. I have a whole other post about additional Batali cookware (sounds like I'm doing a commercial for them I know, but honestly I don't even have one piece of it... YET - a post for another day is how I work in marketing and branding and really find the power of a good brand irresistible - think Apple, Nike, RedBull and now Batali).

So now that I knew that getting these pans (yes, I want all three) won't break the bank I felt a bit lighter in spirit and headed straight for Indigo. I even managed to bypass the Apple Store for a change (managed by not looking directly into the glowing Apple - never look directly at it, just see it in your peripheral vision or you'll be sucked into the vortex of all that is Apple and good) and went straight to the cookbooks.

Now, I've just finished reading Julie and Julia and It Must've Been Something I Ate and I was still in the mood for food writing. Picked up a few likely candidates such as The Man Who Ate Everything (also by Jeffrey Steingarten), a few collected works on food writing from Gourmet Magazine, and this book about the Culinary Boot Camp run by the CIA (FAR too expensive for me to consider right now - I looked it up as soon as I got home... About 2 grand tuition for 5 days and that doesn't include accommodations). While they were all very interesting, I knew pretty much that I was going to go with Steingarten but then I recalled reading about Grant's success with the book Sunday Suppers at Lucques by Suzanne Goin and went to pick it up.

There I sat in the window seat, in full public view as a tear nearly managed to escape my jaded eyes as I read each menu and experienced the perfection that each dish alone would create - and the sublime pleasure and culinary ecstasy that an entire MEAL of these dishes would create. I felt nearly sentimental as I perused the outstanding combinations of flavours, textures, ingredients and seasonality (seasonality of ingredients is what makes dining so special when its done right - and in fact, the book is organized this way) inspiring each menu.

Others have written much about how these meals would definitely take far more time than most cooks would have time for - taking into account the marketing for the ingredients, the hunting for a few special items, ensuring one has cookware up to the task but certainly not the inviting of friend round to sample, that would surely be the least onerous task involved - but the flipside is that these menus and dinners are inspired by the restaurant's Sunday menu and created by its brigade of cooks for goodness knows how many covers in one evening. From what I could tell these recipes are meant to feed 6 and are not really that difficult for the experienced and motivated cook. I, personally, would have no qualms about spending a good half day shopping for the raw ingredients and another half day in preparation for such a grand event as these meals are sure to support. Sadly, I had not enough cash on hand to purchase this lovingly written and outstandingly photographed treasure, so I placed it back on the shelf for the time being. Having said that, purchased online can save at least a third of the cover price and pretty much includes shipping so there's no real rush there.

On my way home, and even now several hours later, I am still taken with how much this book affected my sense of sharing and entertaining. I have visions of my boyfriend and I hosting dinners on Sundays for our friends that leave them sated, satisfied and substantially sloshed with equal measures of outstanding food, wine and conversation - all stemming from this lovely book.

Babbo NYC

2006-06-13T13:36:00.000-04:00

Following my investigation into the whole Batali Pots, I've been doing a bunch of reading about the restaurant empire he has built with his business partners, including Babbo, Del Posto and a few others.

Reading this website's contents is actually pretty amazing - full of content (while being somewhat disorganized) and recipes and other cool stuff. Highly recommended.

Now, as for the REAL reason I'm interested in reading about this most hot of eating places - its STILL considered to be a difficult reservation to make and the food is meant to be second to none. Fresh ingredients used in traditional and new ways - the kinds of foods that I'd love to try and yet with none of the overly complicated messiness that sometimes can come with superstar food. I hear that its extremely difficult to get a reservation but I'm gonna try. This is indeed the place that I referred to in my last post. Have any of you eaten there? Was it difficult to get a table? Is it better to try to go mid-week?

Hook? I read a quick excerpt from The Babbo Cookbook on Amazon and I really liked what Batali had to say about his food and his restaurant, primarily that New Yorker foodies really want to eat things like tripe and cardoons that they wouldn't make for themselves at home. Line? He goes on to say that the book itself is written so that each recipe can be prepared exactly as it is served at the restaurant, complete with contorni and dolci and pre-dessert and dessert and you name it. And finally, Sinker! He includes variations for some harder to obtain ingredients and for people who want to make less complex versions of his dishes. He got me with that one. I'm going to get this cookbook for sure - I'm thinking that I'm getting a bit taken with Batali...

Mario Batali Cookware

2006-06-12T15:14:00.000-04:00

I've been doing some research the past few days on some Italian cooking stuff. Between pasta varieties, pots and personalities I've been pretty immersed in it. I've been reading Under a Tuscan Sun (again) as I've finished reading "It Must've Been Something I Ate" and needed to pick up something new.

I've become completely enamoured of both Mario Batali's cookware and his restaurants in New York, but let's start with the cookware. In 2005 he released a 6QT pot, a panini grill and a lasagne pan (along with other accessories, I'll review those at a later date). They come in Espresso (brown), Crema (white) and his signature Persimmon (orange) - and this year he has added Pistachio (green) to the mix. I've seen all three pans at the cookware section of The Bay, originally when I was lusting over the Le Creuset sets. I originally dismissed these hefty orange numbers based on price and the "well, well - another celebrity endorsement - big freakin' deal" factor. I may have been wrong in my original assessment.

Besides the fact that I love the orange colour (the only one I've seen on display at The Bay), they are actually really well constructed, require no seasoning and man, do they weigh a ton. These really are pans that you'd be happy to leave to your children in your Last Will and Testament - "...and to little Luigi, I leave my Mario Batali cookware set - may it serve you well..." They really aren't cheap pieces that make you just want to suffer through an inadequately designed and inefficient tool. These really are made for the home enthusiast (the the point where they come with an entire instruction booklet that states quite emphatically that these are to be used at Low to Medium heat - they will conduct the heat well enough and do not require a high heat. But don't let that fool you - these pieces are constructed to go into the oven at up to 500 degrees - more than hot enough for a well roasted chicken or 3" steak.

So how much do these things cost? Well, I've done some research online and found that they are about US$100 each and about CA$150 - CA$175 depending on where you look. Golda's Kitchen in Toronto seems to have the best price including shipping so far (and they ship UPS so you know its going to be in pretty good condition when you get it).

Finally, I'm doing this - I'm comparing these to Le Creuset for an autumn timeframe purchase. I'm thinking that they are exactly what I want and need in a few new pans - and the fact that all the reviews I've read of these say exactly what I want to hear - good, even heat distribution; excellent heft and performance both on the cooktop AND in the oven - and best of all - less than half the price of Le Creuset.

Next up? Where I want to go for my birthday dinner... (hint: its in NYC and has 3 b's in the name - anyone care to hook me up with a reservation for September? ;-)

Bienvenue Charlotte!

2006-06-07T08:52:00.000-04:00

There comes a time in all of our lives when we have to do something that we're scared of doing. And sometimes we really have no choice in the matter but to suck it up (bitch) and get through it.

My biggest fear in the last little while is meeting my boyfriend's parents. While I was always quite sure that they were nice people with great personalities and an amazing sense of humour (if my boyfriend is anything to gauge it by) but the fact that they do not speak much English and I barely speak any French (well, not entirely true - I understand FAR more than I let on and I'm far too shy about speaking it to actually kick it in to gear unless I absolutely HAVE to) was a bit of a worry.

The reason for this whole worry is that his mother is visiting us. This week. Staying with us in our tiny little studio condo. I can't expect my boyfriend to translate the whole time, so I've had to pay very close attention to how we will communicate - trying to understand her accent being another difficulty to overcome.

Frankly, I needn't have worried. She is absolutely lovely and completely accepting of us and our somewhat quickly proceeding relationship (we moved in together after only about two months of dating and have been cohabiting for the past two months). She even bought me a little gift yesterday - a set of silicone potholders! They're VERY cool and exactly the kind of thing that we needed in our kitchen.

Anyway, I know that this post isn't really food related, more entertaining related, but I do have a food related point to make. After all the cleaning, worrying and fretting about how we would get on - the one common bond we share is cooking and entertaining our friends and family. I'll share more of our dining adventures over the next few days, stay tuned.

Bievenue chez nous, Charlotte! Bienvenue!

Espresso, please!

2006-06-05T17:32:00.000-04:00

Moka Pot
Originally uploaded by virtualzen.

I'm starting a new blog. Yep, I am. I'm kind of tired of the old blog - not that I won't be posting there for a while, but I'm ready to move on to something new - namely a FOOD BLOG!!! Yay!!

So, until I get some decent posts up, just hang tight and have a nice espresso (or latte if you feel to) with me!