Oh, Canada?!

What has happened to the Canada we've known for so long?

Driving the 402, 401, 403, and QEW was - I'm sad to report - little different from driving on I-94 or I-696.
Merging didn't happen with the expected politeness. Drivers (with Ontario plates!) passed on the right at speeds well in excess of 120 (in the 100 km/h zones).

At least our experiences in Niagara Falls and Hamilton (apart from the final score) were excellent as always. Walking is different from driving, I suppose. Perhaps it's true, as we read on an overpass, that the 100 km/h limit constitutes abuse. As large and spread out as that country is, that anonymous graffitist may have a point.

Carnage du Jour - 19 August 2012

Hmm.
Grapes are on sale.
That makes me think that I should get a pork roast and do a rotisserie Rôti de Porc Véronique. And so I shall, or rather, so I did.

The roast (a rolled loin roast) first got my usual seasoning mix of beau monde, white pepper, and nutmeg, then it was loaded on the spit into the rotisserie.
Some vermouth bianco was put in the dripping pan, to mix with the juices coming from the roasting meat.
I also took a lemon, halved it, and put the juice all over the roast - cutting one half of the juiced carcass into quarters and placing them in the pan with the vermouth, and the other half getting impaled on the spit to release whatever it had left onto the top of the pork.

Oh, that's right, I hadn't mentioned that it's a vertical rotisserie, had I? Sorry about that.

At any rate, it was now time for the grapes. They were nice red seedless grapes, and after tossing a bunch in that drip pan, I also surrounded the top of the pork with more grapes.
Then it was simply plug it in and let it go for the recommended time (written on the side of the machine!) with the occasional stoppage for a bit of basting.

The lemon and pork and grapes and vermouth melded together into a wonderful sauce that wasn't actually necessary for flavour or moistness, but was welcome for both nonetheless.

"Was it good?" you ask.
A triumph, quite frankly. Highly recommended.

Carnage du Jour - 19 July 2012

Liver and Onions.
Sometimes there's just nothing better than the classics - especially when they get a slight update as in this instance.

We had four nice little slices of calf's liver that really wanted to be cooked.
Heidi had made a nice mixed frites bowl of russet and sweet potato fries, and we had some great left-over broccoli salad, so the flavours were going to work beautifully.

You know how liver can get a bit gummy when you fry it? That's because you're using flour on the outside - even if it's been seasoned, it's still flour, you know.
So, instead I used some seasoned corn meal - just a nice coating of corn meal mixed with Old Bay.
First the bacon was heated up in the pan (lardons, don't you know) and then the onions joined the fun.
When all was cooked, but not crisped, it was removed, the amount of oil adjusted, and the liver went in. After the first side got a nice sear and crust, they were flipped and the bacon and onions dumped on top to let their flavours flow into everything else.

That's all there is (and was) to it. A delicious meal, only slightly updated from the classic.

Enjoy!

Carnage du Jour - 11 July 2012

I never would have thought to do this, so credit goes to Heidi for this very successful experiment.

Ever use those smoker bags?
You know, heavy foil bags with wood chips in the interstices that can go in the oven or on your grill to smoke foods.
If you haven't, you should. They work a treat, and the food at least can be spectacular.

Sure, we've done salmon in there (delicious); chicken and pork chops too.
But steak?
Really?
Really.

We had a pretty massive bone-in ribeye in the fridge, and we had some hickory smoker bags waiting to be used, so ... why not?
Well, I had never heard of a smoked steak before, so I was a bit hesitant at first, but what the heck, right?

Just a bit of salt on each side of the steak (after patting it a bit drier than usual), and in it went.
These things start at 500F for the first 10 to 15 minutes with the oven door cracked as in broiling.
That does two things:

• It keeps the bottom element going (with the bag on the lowest rack position) so the chips really start smoking.
• It lets all that great smoke aroma waft out into the kitchen and enhances whatever level of hunger is extant.

Once that first bit has been done, it's down to 375F with the door shut for the balance of the cooking.
The steak took about 20 minutes total, and we had some roasted asparagus and a nice pesto pasta salad to go with.

Oh, I forgot to mention: it was spectacular! The meat was as tender as we've ever had, the flavour was wonderful, and the texture (beyond the tenderness) was a revelation. Frankly, I had no idea that cooked meat could taste or feel like that, and now that I do, I'll certainly be cooking steaks this way again.

Try it, you'll like it.
Enjoy!

Carnage du Jour - 26 June 2012

It started with a disappointment, as many great meals seem to do. The eggplant was past its prime.
(OK, the eggplant had probably been past its prime for almost a week, but let's not pick nits, eh?)
So, what to cook with the pork chops instead of the roasted eggplant and tomatoes that had been planned? Well, how about that rutabaga and purple cabbage sitting there in the vegetable drawer? Well, why not?

Next up, peeling the rutabaga (don't you love that wax?) and cubing it. With the oven preheated to 425F, a liberal sprinkling of kosher salt and freshly ground pepper were added, and in it went.
About 10 minutes in, the small head of red cabbage was shredded (coarsely) and popped into the skillet for a quick sauté in some canola oil. The cabbage was added to the rutabaga and popped back into the oven.
After another 8 minutes, the skillet was reheated and re-oiled to receive the chops. They had been given a treatment of a bit of beau monde, some salt, and some cumin. A quick sear on each side (the blood was just starting to leak from the marrow) was all it took before they joined the veggies and some button mushrooms in the roasting pan. They got about a cup of chicken stock and a very loose tenting of aluminum foil and finished in the oven for another 6 minutes.

Serving time was very fragrant (aromatic?), and each of the components was simply delicious. The rutabaga was just tender and had almost a golden beet flavour. The cabbage was just perfectly cooked down - still a bit of tooth to it, but tender and tasty. The chops were cooked just through - one could imagine pink, but not see it - and as juicy as one would ever want.

All in all, a great success!

Carnage du Jour - 09 June 2012

It's been a while since I've written about a good chicken meal, and this one was too good to skip. Granted, I've waited well over a week, but I can still remember it well, so it must be worth a post.

Manhattan Grilled Chicken Breasts.

Sounds interesting, no? Well, it's much more than that - it's delicious. Oh, and it has nothing to do with clam chowder or a style of cooking from the East Coast (as far as I know).

It's called Manhattan chicken because the marinade for the boneless, skinless breasts is simply a Manhattan cocktail with a bit of oil added in.
That's right - into a plastic bag I added a nice dose of Southern Comfort and some sweet vermouth (aha!) along with a dash of garlic juice and a bit of olive oil.
The chicken marinated in the marinade for almost an hour while the fire got ready in the Weber kettle in the back yard (it's charcoal only chez nous, mes amis). The fairly huge breasts cooked nicely over the fire, picking up some of that smoke flavour to go with the Manhattan that had soaked in, leaving a wonderfully juicy piece of meat.
I sliced them into about 1/4 inch slices, and added them to some pasta along with the juice that had accumulated on the platter. A dollop or so of quark made it creamy with a nice tang, and then a batch of spinach was stirred in with a few mushrooms to make a nice single-serving-dish meal.

Tasty, simple, elegant, and easy.
Try it, and enjoy!

How to Cook Corn on the Cob

This is another in a very occasional series of "how to" posts relating to food.

There are many good ways to cook corn on the cob (for those to whom corn is a fairly generic term, please understand that I speak here of maize), including grilling the ears directly on a grill (whether a grill pan or a barbecue grill) and roasting the water-soaked ears over a fire or in an oven.
Still, one tends to come back to the tried and true methods that resonate from one's youth.

Of course, there's no reason not to update and improve those methods, and that is precisely what I've done here.
Husking corn is one of those activities that just mean "Summer" to those of us fortunate enough to have grown up with access to fresh ears of corn. I still find that I'd rather take off the husk and silk from the raw corn than from a cooked ear. So ...

Start with husked and silk-free ears of corn.
Bring a fairly large amount of salted water to the boil.
Here's the secret:
To the boiling, salted water, add some sugar and some powdered chipotle pepper, then add the ears.
Boil for a few minutes, then simply cover the pot with the heat turned off while waiting for whatever else you're cooking to finish. The corn will finish cooking without the burner, and will stay hot in the water for quite a long time.

Given that I don't know how big a pot you're using, I can't give you exact measures here, but here's about what I think I did:
It was around 5 quarts of water with about 1/4 C of sugar and about 1 t of the chipotle powder.

We just had the corn last night, and it was spectacular.

Try it, and enjoy!