It is a common question for food bloggers, specially those of us who write about restaurants, of whether we can cook or not. I mean, given that we tend to “criticize” about the food served in the restaurant, how about the food we cook ourselves? Truth is most of us, in a way or another, have written about a recipe so I am certain most of us can certainly cook. In my case, I haven’t done so for a long while and thought it was time. So, while I was in a local supermarket one day, I looked around to see what I was fancying to cook and then noticed the rotisserie chicken – something I buy once in a while as a form of “cheap”, quick, decent meal. So, I thought: How about I cook one myself? Something like…

In terms of cooking, here is one cultural shock I underwent after I moved to Vancouver: heat source. In Panama, my mom has a powerful gas range (check here – and even this one is the low end she used to have!) so I am used to it. When I moved here, the first stove I used was an electric one and just to boil some water it took an eternity. Basically, all the recipes and method I learned in the past didn’t really work and required a lot of tweaking around. I have mostly caught up but, still, some recipes simply do not work the same way. At the same time, I learned some things as well: one of them that of using an oven. See, my mom never used it and, as a result, I never had things like home made banana bread. But, considering it was there, I might as well give it a try! And while I would bake and roast, one thing I never did: roast a chicken. Why? Simply because I could get one from the supermarket almost at the same price than an uncooked one! OK, granted it wasn’t a fancy free range chicken but, still, when in a hurry and hungry, that beats a lot of other options. However, this time I was up for the challenge and…

Yup, got three chickens. See, roasting a single chicken would have been a single challenge. How about preparing three chicken for the whole week? Of course, I was taking my chance: by the end of the week, I could be sick and tired of eating chicken. Or would I? Anyway, I had to start somewhere and did so by roasting one of them.

I have stated that simplicity beats a complicated recipes every single time. So how about a recipe that requires six ingredients (two of them so commonplace that is not even considered so)? Yup, as simple as that! And that recipe I used is that of It’s Just Food recipe for roast chicken. In this case,

• A chicken
• Garlic cloves
• Lemon
• Salt
• Pepper
• Oil

I started by pre-heating the oven at 400C. In the meantime, I cut some red peppers and eggplants and let it bake while it was pre-heating. Meanwhile, I trimmed some extra fat from the chicken, rinse and pat it dry. From there, I rubbed it with salt and pepper (in my case, I also used some smoked paprika for some additional flavour and colour) and stuffed the cavity with several cloves of garlic. I finished it by stuffing a lemon. Finally, I rubbed some of the oil. When the red peppers and eggplants were ready, I took them out and put the chicken in. Cooking time is dependant on the size but, in my case, it took me around 1.5 hours. But, as usual, make sure the thigh is wiggling and juices are running clear (among other things). Once it was “ready”, I took it out:

Around the hour mark, I started boiling water. Yeah, I knew it was going to take a while… While it was boiling, I started preparing some pesto. See, rather than roasting potatoes, I decided to put to good use some basil I purchased previously that week. But, to keep the potato theme of potatoes, I got some vacuum sealed gnocchi and, well, basil + nuts + some oil = pesto! By then, the water was starting to boil so I blanched some rapini. In an example of good timing, as soon as I took out the rapini, I checked the chicken and it was good to take out of the oven. Well, since it still need some resting, I might as well! I took the chicken into a plate (carefully tilting it so that all the juices will fall back to the roasting pan. Yeah, it was “clear”) and dropped the rapini into the fat laden cooked chicken juices after dropping the gnocchi into the boiling water. Once they were ready, I mixed the gnocchi with the pesto and it was time for plating.

The end result! To the top left counter clockwise, the roasted red peppers, rapini, gnocchi (with pesto) and a quarter of home made roasted chicken. So how does it compare? On one side, the chicken was actually juicy, despite I didn’t give it a brine treatment, so no gravy was required. Some additional flavouring would have helped though but, given that I didn’t give it that much of an effort (after all, first attempt!), I will have to say it was good enough! Would I do it again? Now that I have the know how, I might give it a chance again, this time trying to be “fancier”.

That brings the question: what did I do with the other two chickens? Since roasting another one was partially out of the question, I had to be creative. So I started by cutting the chicken into pieces. I will have to admit I was quite proud of how I cut it into pieces and the time it took me (less than five minutes each by using only a standard chef’s knife rather than a boning knife). Still, what to do, what to do… I then devised a plan: given that some pieces would be more suitable for some applications, I decided to split the breast and “the rest”. So, for the breast, I decided to poach them.

Here is a big question: what do you do with all the bones you get after cutting the chicken into pieces? Throwing it away is obviously not the correct answer, instead, I roasted it along with onions and celery. Once it got to a certain point, I put it into a pot and some water to create a broth of sort. Once it was boiling hot, I lowered the heat to the lowest level possible and dropped the chicken breasts and left it to poach. Once ready, the follow up question was, what to use it for?

A sandwich (or wrap in this case) was an easy way. Above, a wrap made with homemade hummus, avocado, alfalfa sprouts and roasted eggplant and peppers (which were prepared already). Add a little bit of each, wrap it tight and, again, dinner/lunch is ready!

Still, what to do with the rest of the poached chicken breast? Suggestions would include add it to some tomato sauce to serve with pasta (canned if timing is an issue) or, my sort of favourite canned food, add some cubed pieces into pork and beans and call it dinner!

With the remaining pieces (thighs + drumstick), for one meal, I chopped it into pieces, added some corn starch, sesame oil, soy sauce and peanut oil and mixed it. In the meantime, cook some rice in a rice cooker and pour the chicken/oil/start mix when it was almost ready and let the steam/heat of the rice cook the chicken. Of course, given that salmonella in chicken is an issue, I let them cook longer than usual and, to be safe, I mixed the chicken with the rice so that the residual heat would help distribute and cook the chicken. Because of the mix, the soy sauce “spread” through the rice, which was sort of an unintended effect. Anyway, in a Latin twist, I had some plantain and though I might as well using since it was starting to get ripe! Dinner is ready?

By the end of the week, I pretty much consumed three chickens. Would I do it again? Maybe. However, what I am proud of is the fact I was able to make things “interesting” and/or varied enough (here, shown “three ways”). Granted, it took some time to make all these but it is something I can say I am proud of…

It might seem like a déjà vu but, last year, around this time, I wrote a blog post about my mom’s cooking. Since I was in Panama a couple of weeks ago, I thought it might be suitable to write about it again. So, to my mom and all mothers, Happy Mother’s Day!

Would you believe I tweet about this?

Chicken with pineapple.

Stuffed eggplants.

Clams in black bean sauce. Nothing to envy from a restaurant version!

My mom can also cook “regular” dishes, like this snow pea with pork dish.

Chicken (and pork) this time with cucumber and tomato.

Again, langostino, this time, cooked with water crest.

Cucumber and tomato egg “omelette”.

Steamed fish collar with black bean.

Panfried oysters.

Congee.

Panfried wonton

Panfried fish with avocado.

Squid chow mein

Red kidney beans with salted pork

“Guavina”, “guabina” or “small eye fish”

Oxtail stew

To those who have read this blog for some time, to those who know me, specially those whom I have broken the bread with, know I am quite adamant about attending open houses, receiving “freebies” and similar situations. It is because I am an average person who just happens to write a blog which tries to describe experiences average consumer would have. However, you can’t deny that, despite my public notes about what to expect from this blog, once in a while, people in charge of PR have tried to contact me (the most hilarous one being one from a local restaurant – which shall remain unnamed – asking me to wear my stilettos and attend an event). So far, I have chosen not to attended any events from places restaurants in Vancouver but, I was quite puzzled when I received this email:

Hi! I have a review offer for you from President’s Choice. President’s Choice is celebrating Canada’s culinary cultural mosaic
with 1000 Tastes of Canada.

Would you like to sample some of these products? We’d like to send you:

• PC Indian Butter Chicken Cooking Sauce
• PC Blood Orange Italian Soda
• PC Tzatziki Yogurt Dressing
• PC Memories Of Mexico Fajita Cooking Sauce
• PC The Decadent Peanut Butter Chocolate Chunk Cookies
• PC Barbeque Baby Back Ribs Rippled Potato Chips

I’ve also got a release, backgrounders and images I can send. You can also learn more at www.presidentschoice.ca.

Let me know if you’re interested and I’ll have the samples shipped to you. Thanks so much for your time!

Rather than say yes or no outright, I checked with some other local food bloggers because, while I had some thoughts, I wanted to hear their thoughts too. In general, they were quite enthusiastic about it. However, I still had to ask one question in mind:

Dear ************,

Thanks for your email.

I will safely assume you sent me the email because I write a food related blog. But, before I answer your question, can you, please, tell me the expectations from your side if I choose to accept the samples? I.e., Do you expect I will blog it after I have sampled them? Will I have an independent opinion of the products? Please advise.

Now, before anybody tells me I might be making up this email, let me assure you, others were BCCed on this email… And, here is the response I got:

I was looking through Vancouver-based blogs when I found I’m Only Here for the Food. I saw that you write about a diverse range of foods (as you said Vancouver has a wide variety of offerings), and thought this 1000 Tastes of Canada campaign would be perfect for you. We would like to send you the sample products and hear your honest opinion. If you hate the food and don’t want to post about it, that’s perfectly fine. If you hate the food and want to write about how much you hated it, that’s your right, also. You are not entering any kind of agreement with us by accepting these products for review.

I hope this answers your questions, but feel free to get back to me with any other concerns.

Let me translate that just in case: Although I received these free samples, I have total editorial control over this post. No $$$ was provided in exchange for writing this post. In fact, rather than me keeping them for myself, I had a really good idea (something echoed by the people I BCCed): Do a mini-gathering and cook with these products!

Note: For a larger version, please, click on the image – it will open in a new window.
Note 2: To readers outside of Canada, President’s Choice is a private label brand of Loblaws, who operates different supermarkets in Canada, the best known being Superstore and the recently purchased T&T.

There were two problems though: Timing and place. I ended up going on a trip not long after I received the package (my trip to Florida) and where. The first one was just a matter of waiting after I came back, not that much of a problem; the second one, well, that is more tricky. Since I live in a one-bedroom apartment, that would have been difficult to accomodate that many people. Fortunately, Sherman of Sherman’s Food Adventures, who was among the people I BCCed, offered his place to hold this event. With that one detail resolved, it was a matter of making sure who else would come (as we had to coordinate the rest of the details, specially that of how much food). Again, with that issue resolved…

Please, do NOT ask about the sleep eye mask…

In the end, frequent blog reader/commenter Anita and TS of [eatingclub]Vancouver (and, of course, Sherman and Viv) were able to make it. Now, no hard feelings towards the rest whom I BCCed, after all, you all had plans and I knew timing wasn’t the best. The only regret, probably, would be that you couldn’t taste the dishes! But, back to the picture above, notice there are some products that were not included in the original list as well as products that should have been included but did not – Cookies anybody??? ^_^ The second picture includes that of the other ingredients we had to gather as, after all, without them, there wasn’t that much you could do… Once we took some of the pictures, we started cooking the following menu:

• Butter Chicken.
• Chicken Fajita – OK, actually this was the chicken marinated in the fajita sauce.
• Lemon Chicken – This was my personal variant to “compare” it to the other ones.
• Potato salad, as per this recipe (from President’s Choice site).
• Tomato salad/platter
• Pickled cucumber
• Peach Flognarde

Some chips to start up with

Chicken being grilled…

First couple of dishes… The naan being store bought naan

Pickled cucumber

Heirloom tomatoes with basil and olive oil. I am really impressed with TS’s skills, even with small touches before considering it “done”!

Potato salad

Chicken “marinated” with the fajita sauce

The lemon chicken. I could easily recognize one from the other because of the not-so deep colour.

Butter chicken, prepared as per jar’s instructions.

Dinner is ready!

Dessert is ready!

So, here is a breakdown of the food:

PC Barbeque Baby Back Ribs Rippled Potato Chips: I think it was Annie who said it tasted like an all-dressed chip with some smoky taste along. While I have stopped buying big bags of chips long time ago (though, once in a while, I will eat them), I find this quite good. It was crunchy and loaded with flavour (and salt?). However, I am not in a hurry to buy these.

Naan (not included in the sample package): I won’t even try to compare it to restaurant naan. But, for store bought, it was quite good while it is warm. Once it starts to “cool” down, it is not that different to any form of flatbread. However, at $2.xx, I might as well buy a good sourdough rather than naan.

Butter chicken: I think most of us were disappointed with this one. To quote Sherman: if I were to go for butter chicken, I would instead go to Surrey. But, then again, not everybody can do that (I myself won’t as I don’t like to drive “that far”). However, judging the product as is, there were some common comments: too salty and not smooth/sweet enough. Probably our understand of butter chicken is different, as we were expecting a smooth creamy sauce with tomato overtones. Here, we did not really taste too much of the cream. TS, mentioned something: it is possible the fact we used whole thighs rather than boneless pieces of chicken and/or the chicken was slightly seasoned might have had an impact on how the dish ended up. But, still, I do not think that would have had impacted that much on the taste of the sauce itself.

Chicken Fajita: I know, I know. Some people would have expected some flour tortilla and cheese and so. No, according to the PC newsletter, you should marinate some shrimp and cook them on the grill. However, no shrimp in this case and I made the executive decision of going on with chicken. In the end, we all agree it did not add much… Could it be we should use the sauce as a dipping sauce?

Potato salad: We used a recipe from President’s Choice site with one exception: no onions. It was due mainly because of somebody’s “reaction” to it (I will let you guess who that is). But, other than that, it was quite decent, as in lighter than similar salads made with mayo. But, if you like a richer version, go ahead and use mayo instead. Oh, I did go for the potatoes suggested by the recipe (hey, they would, obviously suggest their own products!); however, if you do try this recipe, any red potatoes will do.

Lemon chicken: For this chicken, I did the following: in a bowl, mix the juice of two lemon, some coriander, garlic, salt, pepper and 125 mL of olive oil. Pour it in a resealable bag with pieces of chicken thigh. Let it “marinate” for a couple of hours. Discard the marinate and grill the chicken. As a side sauce, in a blender, the juice of two lemon with 125 mL of olive oil and basil. I asked Anita to taste and she gave me a really odd (which ended up being a really good) suggestion: add some sugar! I thought this would be an epic fail as, at first, it looked like a mix-and-match of ingredients. However, it seems it turned out better than expected, though, to quote Sherman “I like lemons” (Of course, he is referring to the citrus…).

Pickled cucumber: I think I did not add enough sugar to this one but too many thai chili. As a result, this dish was quite hot but oddly refreshing. It seems everybody enjoyed it. Oh, as for the recipe, I will partially keep it for myself; however, TS has a good one here.

Heirloom tomatoes: I will have to give full credit to TS on this one, as he masterfully prepared the dish, even the small details like the basil and how much olive oil to add. As for the tomato itself, well, since it is a bit of mix-n-match, we could taste several types, though, we tended up to go for the “meatier” ones. Sorry, other than the its colour (the deep red ones), I don’t think I will be able to describe which one was it.

Peach Flognarde: If there was a personal fail, I will have to say it was this dish. Several things went wrong: not sweet enough and the batter ended up a big too “stiff”. And I though you couldn’t mess with a clafoutis/flognarde!

So, here is the big question: how did the PC products do? Before I go on, I admit that I normally buy some of the PC products, as I find some them as good, if not better than brand name products. However, in some instances they are hit-and-miss. As for the ones we sampled, the general concensus was that the sauces were mostly a fail. Given enough cooking skills, you will be able to make something a lot better rather than pouring sauces from a jar. However, if you are short on time, that might be an alternative. Come to think about it, if you are going all the way to a Superstore to buy these and prepare it from scratch, you might as well just buy a rotisserie chicken (or two).

Regardless of my opinion of the products, I will have to give thanks to Loblaws: It gave us an excuse to gather together. Anita, thanks for coming: you gave us interesting thoughts from a different perspective. TS, I apologize you ended up doing a lot of the cooking and I wish you did not have to leave early. Finally, Sherman and Viv, thanks a lot for offering your home to host this. So… How about some random wine tasting next time?

Oh, boy. This post is long overdue. I originally took all the pictures, made the recipe, had some guinea pigs, I mean, “volunteers” test it (Hi Helen!), make another “improved” version based on their feedback (no pictures of this one, though), had another set of guinea pigs eat it and still no blog post. Can I say I am procrastinating? Of course not! I mean, there were all these festivals/celebrations going on in the last couple of weekends (Taste of the City, Caribbean Days, Powell Street Festival and Pride Parade)! And, although there is a festival this weekend too (the Vancouver Chinatown Festival – thanks to Jenny of My Secret Eden for telling me this one), I think I will take a break. After all, I already blogged about the Chinatown Night Market this year and I don’t expect the food offerings to be that different…

So now, back to this post… In early July, a colleague sent us an email: 5 pounds of blueberries for $10. His family, it seems, operates a blueberry farm and I just seized the opportunity. (On that note, BC is a large blueberry producer). How much? How about… 10 pounds!!! Now, now, I did not eat all of it, instead, I gave 5 pounds to a friend of mine and I kept the remaining half. However, still the question: What do you do with 5 pounds of blueberries? I was nibbling them until I said to myself: Hey, how about blueberry pie? Hmmmmm… Blueberry pie!

I must begin saying that I am not really into baking, mainly because of measurements. Notice it does not have anything to do with the weather – in fact, one of the pies I baked was during one of the hottest days this summer in Vancouver. Reality is, I find it stressing to measure everything *exactly*, not to mention measurement by weight rather than by volume. Fortunately, the recipe I used allowed certain liberties when it came to measurement. That recipe happened to be from one of my favourite TV shows: Good Eats. The full recipe can be found here and, for reference purposes, I am copying-and-pasting it below:

Ingredients

• 20 ounces blueberries, approximately 4 cups
• 4 ounces sugar, approximately 1/2 cup
• 1/8 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 1/4 ounces tapioca flour, approximately 5 tablespoons
• 1 tablespoon fresh orange juice
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 2 (9-inch) store-bought pie doughs
• 1 egg yolk whisked with 1 teaspoon water

OK, I did not really capture all the ingredients in the picture above, as, in some cases, it would be redudant, not to mention, I would have rather leave it in the freezer in the meantime (like the pie shells). However, one thing that might have caught your attention. In the recipe, it calls for orange juice but I have a lemon and a lime. How come? Well, it happens that I did not have any orange and I am not really an orange juice in the morning person. So, I took my chances and use another citrus instead.

And the instructions for the recipe are… (my comments are in italics):

1) Wash the berries and pat dry. Mash up half of the blueberries in a small bowl.

And mash I did! However, it was a bit difficult, as the blueberries where jumping here and there. I had to spend quite some time doing it. In the show, he layed all the berries in a baking sheet and mashed them there. Hmmmmm… I guess I was a bit lazy to use that technique and paid dearly???

2) In a medium bowl, whisk together the sugar, salt and tapioca flour. Add the mashed blueberries, orange juice and orange zest and stir to combine. Let the mixture sit for 15 minutes. Fold in the whole berries.

3) Line a 9-inch pie plate with aluminum foil. Place the blueberry mixture into the foil and place in the freezer until solid, approximately 6 to 8 hours. Once the filling is frozen, remove from the aluminum foil and wrap in plastic wrap and store in a freezer bag for up to 3 months.

I must admit I made a small mistake. Rather than a single tablespoon of orange juice, I used the juice of half lemon and half lime, which yielded several tablespoons. I realized my mistake afterwards but, still, took my chances!

For baking

4) Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.

5) Unroll first piece of dough and place into a 9-inch pie pan, making sure the dough reaches to the lip of the pie pan. Trim excess, if necessary. Prick the bottom and sides with a fork and set aside. Unroll second piece of dough and cut into 1 1/8-inch wide strips that are at least 10-inches long. Using a ruler that is 1 1/8-inches wide, lay the ruler on the dough at 1 edge and roll across dough using the edge of the ruler as you go to cut through the dough.

I used a disposable pan and did not use a ruler to make sure they were 1 1/8 inch long. Did I mention I don’t like exact measurements when it comes to cooking? So, instead, I just “eye-balled” the strips.

6) Remove the frozen pie filling from the freezer and place into the prepared dough in the pan. Lightly brush the edge of the crust with the egg yolk. Lay 4 strips of dough across the top of the filling horizontally, leaving an even amount of space in between each strip. Fold back 2 alternating strips and lay down another strip in the middle of the pie, perpendicular to the other strips. Return the strips that are laid back to their original position. Next, fold back the other 2 strips and lay down a strip to the left of the center perpendicular strip. Return the strips that are laid back to their original position and repeat on the other side of the perpendicular strip, folding back the same 2 strips as you did on the other side. Once you have a lattice, brush all the strips of dough with the egg yolk, trim excess dough and pinch strips and edge of crust in order to seal.

I know step #6 looks really long and it is mostly for visual purposes. Would I have instead just put the other pie shell on top (as a result being completely covered)? May be not…

7) Place on the bottom rack of the oven and bake for about 1 hour 15 minutes. The pie should be bubbling lightly around the edges. If the lattice is not browned enough in the center, place under the broiler for 1 to 2 minutes.

I will have to say that the first time I made it, I had to bake it for almost 2 hours. I think it was due to the wackiness of the oven temperatures. (Other than the built controls, no, I do not have a thermostat inside, though I know I should). Because the top wasn’t really brown, I put it under the broiler as per the instructions but I left it a couple of seconds too long… ^_^;;;

8 ) Place the pie on a rack and allow to cool to room temperature before serving, approximately 1 1/2 to 2 hours.

Ah, this is the most “annoying” step. I mean, you have it done, you can see it, smell it but you can’t touch it! So, after too hours…

And here is a “slice” of the blueberry pie. Not too bad if I can say so myself, specially considering it was my first attempt! Now, a couple of comments given to me:

• It was not too sweet. Actually this was the most often mentioned comment. I will have to say I liked it as is, because it allows the fruit to shine, rather than killing it with sugar. My thoughts, of course…
• The consistency – as somebody told me, it was “gelatinous in the middle”. This is one of the things I “modified” in version 2 of the recipe. Instead of smashing half of the blueberries, I only smashed a third an left the rest intact. As a result of it, there were more individual blueberries rather than a paste.
• The “crust”. OK, it was store bought. Moving on… ^_^;;;

The main question is: is it worth it? Now, why you even ask that question! However, I do understand why that is asked. If you add up the total cost of ingredients, it could easily cost over CDN$8, whereas in a store, you can get one for as low as $6. While that is true, the cost of making this pie can be lowered if you can make the dough yourself (I don’t have a mixer so that is not really an option for me). But, putting that aside, it is the fact that you can adjust the filling itself. Want it more “mushy”? Sure, mash more! And, finally, those who have a family, it is about doing something at home rather than relying in the supermarket for prepared food. Heck, even if you are living on your own, make one and share it with others! In the end, is enjoying summer and what the land gives you.

It is almost that time of the year… When you start seeing more fruits and vegetables and don’t have to rely on frozen versions – which, depending on which fruit/vegetable we are talking about, they can be quite good in its own ways. One of the fruits that I was awaiting for was cherries. Although I won’t say I am crazy about them, there was something I wanted to make with cherries (but not with the frozen variety): Clafoutis. What is that? Actually, until last year, if I heard that word, it might have sounded like something you would get in a pharmacy with a prescription. No, I learned about this in an episode of Good Eats (one of my favourite cooking shows – the episode in particular was Going Dutch, which also feature another recipe that I like but I have extremely time consuming: No Knead Bread). And what is clafoutis? Check this picture below…

The link to the recipe is here; however, for convenience sake, I will copy-n-paste it below, starting of with the ingredients:

• 12 ounces fresh or frozen cherries
• 2 large eggs
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup whole milk
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
• Butter, for the Dutch oven

And, now, the steps (with my comments in italics):

Preheat an oven to 400 degrees F or prepare charcoal for cooking outdoors by heating coals in a chimney starter until hot and ashy.

Butter the bottom and sides of a 5-quart Dutch oven. If using fresh cherries, rinse, stem and pit the cherries. If using frozen, place the cherries into a colander and allow to thaw completely before using. Discard the juice. Spread the cherries evenly over the bottom of the Dutch oven.

In the show itself, Alton made a comment that, in France, they do not pit the cherries. Well, I am willing to give it a try so I did NOT pit them! And, oh, I wanted to try with the regular version of cherries first.

In a mixing bowl, whisk together the eggs and sugar until frothy and lightened in color. Add the milk, vanilla and flour and whisk to combine. Pour the batter over the cherries.

In the show, the milk, vanilla and flour are not added all at the same time. Instead, Alton adds first the milk, whisk it; add vanilla, more whisking; finally the flour. Also, ingredients did not have to be exactly measured, always a good thing for people like me who do not really like baking for that reason.

I know, I know, this is not a 5 quart Dutch oven, but it was cast iron, nonetheless! I could have used my larger Dutch oven but given the amount, I was not sure at that point and time.

Oven baking

Bake on the middle rack, uncovered, for 30 minutes or until golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

This is the method I followed. Now, there is one step I did not follow and that was inserting the knife. The reason? Because it wasn’t too deep, I don’t think there would have had anything to “cling” on… However, it was starting to look “golden brown delicious”!

Outdoor coals

Place 18 to 19 coals on a Dutch oven table. Place a cooling rack, or other wire rack, that is at least 2-inches high, directly over the coals. Place the Dutch oven on the rack directly over the coals. Cover with the lid and place 22 to 23 coals on top. Cook with the lid on for 25 minutes. Remove the lid and cook for another 5 minutes or until golden on top and a knife comes out clean when inserted into the middle.

It was not an option for me, so…

Allow to cool for 30 minutes before removing from the Dutch oven, slicing and serving. (End of recipe).

Again, a slice of the final result.

Natural lightning *really* helps you take pictures!

So, how was it? I must say it is not that easy to describe. First, the cherries were “cooked” and, as a result, they were soft (in a good way). The challenge was you had to be careful with them as they were not de-pitted. So, I had fun with that part. As for the batter, it turn into something similar to a custard/pancake but with a harder consistency. It kept its egg-y flavour while, at the same time, you could taste the hints of vanilla. OVerall, it was great!

If I were to do this recipe again (and you can bet I will since it is really simple), there will be some modifications I will do:

• Bake it in a glass baking dish. I think the Dutch oven was for the show purposes only, I am sure a baking dish would have worked as well.
• Depending on the size of the baking dish, most probably I will make it double. Again, in the picture above, it ended up in somewhat thin layer.
• Try other fruits! If I do this in winter, most probably will end up using frozen fruits but I am sure some fruits like strawberries will work as well (in the show, apricots and figs were suggested).

You know what, I might as well start doing one now! ^_^;

I have mentioned in several other places grain legumes are a personal favourite. I can’t think of a variety of it I won’t eat: Chickpeas, black-eye, lentils, kidney beans, peanuts, etc. etc. While I was living in Panama, it was something I could find easily in any restaurant, as it was a staple. Sometimes it might be cooked together (arroz con guandu – rice with pigeon pea) or cooked separately and served together (red kidney beans and rice). When I moved to Vancouver, thanks to the multi-cultural society, I could still find some of them in some restaurants, though not to the same extent as in Panama. So, in the end, I had to go back to basics and, well, cook them myself! Here is my interpretation of red kidney beans, which is usually served with rice but I like to eat them standalone…

First, the ingredients:

• 450g/1 pound of red kidney beans
• Stewing beef or stewing pork or, in my case, roasted pork bones
• A medium onion, chopped
• 4 stalks of celery, chopped
• 2 green peppers, chopped
• 4 cloves of garlic, or as much as you want! – Diced
• 2 bay leaf
• 1 teaspoon of thyme
• Salt, pepper, cayenne pepper
• Oil

One ingredient that we used a lot in Panama but I have not been able to find in Canada is culantro. Before anybody says “don’t you mean cilantro?”, the answer will be no. Culantro, aka, recado, aka, saw-leaf herb, is a different herb that provides a totally different layer of flavour to the dish. So, if you are able to find some, use a big handful. Oh, and let me know where I can find some!

Before I continue, here is a small debate, should you pre-soak the beans or not? I would rather not answer this – In a way, it is up to the cook. The one exception is lentils: due to its size and shape, I have found it works better without soaking. As for myself (and this recipe), I did not soak them. I will leave up to the cook to decide which one works better for him/her.

As for preparation, in a dutch oven (and this is something you should NOT try to modify) at medium heat, pour 2 tablespoon of oil. Don’t use any fancy oil here, OK? I personally like peanut oil so that’s what I used. If using stewing beef or pork, you can brown then here first and put then aside. Sautee the onion, celery and bell peppers with a small dash of salt for 5 or so minutes.

After 5 or so minutes, stir in the diced garlic and cook for another minute, stirring constantly. At this point it should be quite aromatic. Add the beans and sitr.

Add the bay leaf, thyme, roasted pork bones and culantro – if using it. Then add 2 litre of water and let it boil for about 5 minutes. Lower the heat to a simmer and cover.

Cook for 2 hours at a simmer (a little less if the beans were pre-soaked), stirring every 15 or so minutes. If it gets too thick, add some cold water and stir it in, making sure it has been absorbed before adding more, if necessary.

After the two hours, if there is too much liquid, you can mash it lightly, stir and wait for 10 minutes. That should thicken the liquid. Remove the bay leaf and serve immediately as a side or over steamed rice. Or, in my case, a bowl of it standalone!

Drool! ^_^

First, a picture of the end result…

That’s macaroni and cheese, steamed broccoli and roasted chicken. And now, the story of how I ended up cooking this. Or to be more precise, blame this to…

I am not sure how familiar (or unfamiliar) are people outside of North America of this dish. When I was living in Panama, I don’t recall ever seeing a package of mac ‘n’ cheese. Of course, there are Italian restaurants down there serving almost all kind of pasta (whether they are “fresh made” or not, I can’t say); however, Panamanians seem to prefer tomato based sauces over cream/milk based. As a result, you seldom see alfredo sauce or carbonara. When I moved here, there were a lot of ads for this, usually targeting children (KD!). As a result, I seldom paid attention to it. For some odd reason though, while grocery shopping, I noticed this package… Or rather, a shelf just for this and similar products! So, I decided to buy a package to give it a try… Here is a serving after cooking it according to the package’s instructions.

Colourful? Agree… But, after a bite, I wondered myself: How can kids eat this?! OK, OK, somebody could say “well, you oriental people could eat instant ramen almost every single day!”. True but I don’t think that’s a fair comparison. Anyway, the taste was really odd. Not sure how to describe it. Probably the butter-y taste (it asks for two tablespoon) and some weird sweetness. The first couple of ingredients looks fine but then a list of weird ingredients follow. Lipase? Calcium Chloride?? Colour???

So I thought myself, how easy/difficult is to make this dish from scratch? After looking a couple of recipes on-line, I settled for one in particular: Laura Calder’s Macaroni and Cheese. And ingredients shopping I went…

• A pack of pasta. I chose rotini because the shape seems to hold sauces a bit better. CDN $1.50.
• 375 mL (1.5 cup) of milk. The original recipe calls for 250 mL (a cup) but I chose with some extra as a test. And I used 2% but I think any type (other than buttermilk?) would work. CDN $1.75 for the quart.
• A block of aged cheddar. CDN$5 but used somewhere between 1/3 and half the block.
• Two tablespoon of butter.
• Garlic or onion.
• Flour, salt, pepper and a bayleaf.

The recipe itself, I started by boiling some water to cook the pasta. Then…

Steep the milk with some garlic cloves or an onion and a bay leaf for at least 15 minutes. Grate around a cup of cheese. Feel free to add more if you feel. Wait for the water to boil and cook the pasta according to package’s instructions.

Prepare a bechamel sauce by melting the butter and, when it starts to “bubble”, whisk in two tablespoon of flour. Cook for a minute and then slowly whisk the milk (just the milk! Discard the garlic/onion and bay leaf). Keep on whisking until it cooks and starts to thicken. Stir the grated cheese and let it melt.

When the pasta is cooked, drain and toss the pasta in. Season with salt and pepper.

Again, I served it with roasted chicken (from a grocery store/supermarket, CDN $7/$8) and some steamed broccoli ($1). Wait, I did not bake it? Well, I am trying to compare it to the box version. And, needless to say, it was way better. I could taste the cheddar and could “tweak” the sauce consistency if needed.

Would I change this recipe? Well, I made just ONE mistake: after I melted the cheese, I did not remove it from the heat. As a result, the sauce kept of cooking after I tossed the pasta. While it did not overcook the pasta, it did make the sauce a bit too thick. Of course, some people would like it that way… But, other than that, I like it!

And the most important thing? The cost! The big bowl of mac ‘n’ cheese was just under $6, enough for 5 large servings. Add the roasted chicken and broccoli (additional $9 at most), for $15, you can feed four!

Maize is an ingredient that puzzles in a funny way. While I will eat it without any problem, when it comes to cooking, aside from corn cob, well, I just draw blank. It is not that I don’t know what to do with it; rather, just boiling/broiling it is great. However, in winter, fresh corn is not available and, as a result, we look for alternatives such as canned, frozen or, the topic of this post, ground – as in cornmeal.

But what can I do with cornmeal? My first thought was… masa! In fact, I was thinking of tamal, the maize dought dish. But, wrapping them would have a time consuming task. Tamal de olla (the pot version of tamal) was option #2. But no, I wanted something simple; something like cornbread.

Now, I will have to say, it was a pain to prepare this dish. No, the dish itself was simple. Rather, was the research I had to do. While browsing different sites, the ingredients and methods are so different I was not sure which one I should follow. Among other things that could be different include:

• White cornmeal or yellow cornmeal
• Slightly sweet or savoury
• Cornmeal only or mix of cornmeal and flour
• Buttermilk or no buttermilk
• Additional corn or just plain cornmeal
• Dutch oven, cast-iron vessel or tray

After racking my head with all these, I decided to go for these ingredients:

• 1.5 cup of cornmeal. I am not sure what type was the one I had but I could say yellow it was
• 3/4 cup of flour. The flour I had is the Nutriblend mix
• 1 cup of buttermilk
• 2 eggs (room temperature!)
• 1 can of creamed corn
• 2 tablespoon of melted butter
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 tablespoon of sugar
• 2 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon of baking soda
• Honey (optional)

For this recipe, I strated by pre-heating the oven at 375F. Then, in a large bowl, I mixed the cornmeal, flour, salt, sugar, baking powder and baking soda together. In another bowl, I mixed the buttermilk, eggs and creamed corn. Then, add the dry ingredients to the buttermilk mix and stir to combine. Here, I added the optional honey. How much? As much as you want! In my case, about a tablespoon.

Then, in a muffin tray, I put the muffin liners and add enough batter. It should yield about 12. Then bake the mix in the oven for 20 minutes.

I let it rest for a couple of minutes before removing them. And here we have it!

In the background, a leafy greens salad. Of course, if this is the meal, the next question would be… Where is the protein?! Well, I wanted to try making poached eggs and this is the result.

Actually, I will call it a failure as the egg white partially “dissolved” in the water. I think that was because the egg was not as fresh as possible. I guess I will have to try again next time…

But, back to the cornbread muffin, how does it taste? It was slightly sweet and, probably due to the mix of flour and cornmeal, it was not too dry. And I like it! For next time, however, I will make these changes:

1) No muffin liner. I think I will pour the mix straight to the tray instead (of course, will add some oil/butter first).
2) I might consider using frozen corn rather than creamed/canned.
3) If not using the muffin tray, most probably will go with the dutch oven. In a previous attempt (without flour), I did it that way and it was quite interesting, as it develops a crust. This is partially due to the fact I added some fat in the dutch oven while I was pre-heating the oven.

And yes, that means I will certailny try this again!

With the current economic uncertainty, there is the talk about cooking at home to save $$$. How much this is true depends a lot on what you buy, what you like to eat, where you buy, etc. While I try to do it myself, it has its own problems. For me, the main problem is time. Although my work schedule usually allows me to come back early enough and prepare dinner, it does not, however, give me enough time to hit the gym or similar after work activities, come back and then prepare dinner. Of course, some might argue I should cook several servings and freeze them. Actually, that is what I do. The problem is eating the same for 4 straight meals…

I am sure a lot of people have problems similar to the ones described and, among several solutions offered by the market, there is the one delivering prepared ingredients (i.e., cleaned, chop, cut, portioned, etc.) to your home, where the only thing you have to do is finish “cooking”/re-heating it. To anybody who has cooked previously, he/she knows the most time consuming part of cooking is prep work… Sliced Tomatoes, a local company does exactly that. More information on how it works, please, visit their website.

The picture above is from their pick-up office. Based on the description above, one should ask: why I choose to go there if they deliver? Well, I am outside of their delivery area, plus it was easier for me to pick it up. But, having been there, if you choose their service, my suggestion would be to have it delivered: their pickup location is almost in the middle of nowhere! Again, more details, please check their website. It has far more details that what I can mention based on my one purchase experience… Also, this post is not about their delivery service; instead is about the food. That is, if you choose to go with their service, how good it is and is it worth it?

I ordered the following items: Irish Guinness Stew with AAA beef ($18, two servings), Lamb Moussaka (with brown rice – $18, two servings) and garden salad ($5.50, two servings). There is a reason why I ordered these: time required to finish them. In the case of the stew, it falls in the easy/fast (just re-heat), while the moussaka, falls in the time consuming category (bake for almost an hour). There are other dishes were you actually have to cook but I decided not to test those as there are too many variables (though in hindsight, I think I should have done so).

Irish Guinness Stew – two servings.

Lamb Moussaka in its original container – two servings.

Green Field Salad – two servings.

Brown rice. Originally it was part of the moussaka order.

First, the salad, this time prepared.

All the components were separated inside the bag it came on. In addition to the greens, it had pieces of apple, a creamy dressing and some cranberries. I will have to say it is your “average” garden, nothing extraordinary. In fact, I think I can prepare this myself by buying some field greens in a supermarket, a bottle of salad dressing, some cranberries, an apple or two, etc.

The Lamb Moussaka prepared and served. I will openly admit this was darn good. While not too creamy, it was balanced in the creaminess and gaminess (from the lamb). Not sure if it is really noticeable in the picture above, but the eggplants, instead of big slices, they were cut into pieces instead.

The Irish Stew served with the brown rice. This was not as good, though. I felt it was more on the lines of soup than stew; in my opinion, stew sauce’s consistency ought to be between gravy and soup. While adding the brown rice helped, it was still a bit bland. Finally, the root vegetables were a bit undercooked, as it has some crunchiness in it. I prefer it borderline mushy.

Overall, while the moussaka was quite good, the rest was sub-par. Probably because I ordered the wrong dishes? But, regardless of their taste, I don’t feel it is worth it. Going back to the initial premise, that one of saving $$$ by cooking at home, if you consider the amount of food provided, I think you can easily go to a restaurant (just don’t go to a high end one). If the point is to just “finish” at home, I think I could do better for the same $$$, like buying in a supermarket a roasted chicken ($7 or $8), green field salad ($6), some dried cranberries ($3), two or so apples ($1), a salad dressing ($3) and a loaf of bread ($2).

Now, I must make emphasis on this point: this service is not for me, probably because I am not their target public. However, to others, this might be worthwhile. For example, those who need help in portion control, this might be really helpful as the food is already partitioned in servings. Likewise, those who need a breakdown of the nutrition, they have all these details in their site. But, then again, it is not for me.

During the holidays, and thanks to the crazy weather, there were mornings where I woke up to the falling snow and, as a result, almost imprisioned in my apartment. As mentioned previously, whenever I have a bit too much time… Anyway, on one of the nights, after listening to the weather forecast, which called for snow next morning, I started planning next day’s breakfast. For the record, for this meal, I usually have cereal, fruit and (soy) milk. But, for a change, I wanted something special. That’s how I came up with the idea of making crêpes.

Before I continue, there is this “background” question, why crêpes and not pancakes? The answer is… I don’t know! Well, actually I do. I find pancakes a bit generic; in fact, if I *really* wanted pancake, I would just go to MickeyD’s and get it from their breakfast menu. However, this argument has a flaw (or at least here in Vancouver): If I wanted crêpes, I could as well go to one of the many Cafe Crepe here. In the end, I guess crêpes have a certain je ne sais quoi…

Now, the basic recipe, I used Alton Brown’s (Good Eats) – Food Network’s recipe here:

• 250 mL of flour ~ 1 cup. I used Nutri-Blend for this application
• 2 large eggs (important: room temperature!)
• 300 mL of milk
• 125 mL of water
• 45 mL of melter butter (~3 tablespoons). More butter later for cooking.

However, I wanted it to be “sweet” so I also used the following:

• A tablespoon of sugar
• A teaspoon of vanilla essence
• Some cinnamon
• Some nutmeg

OK, I actually did a small modification. That night, I did not have milk. Instead I had a can of evaporated milk and made milk by adding similar volume of water. This had a small impact in the final dish, later on this… As for the recipe itself, I just put all the ingredients in a blender and pulse for about 30 seconds. I must admit I made a small mistake (which made cleaning a bit more difficult later): I dumped all the flour at once. I thing I should have added a bit at a time. After I blended all the ingredients, I transfered it to a bowl and then to the fridge for next morning.

Preparing the batter in advance was on purpose (again, more on this later). So, on the next day, I took out the mix and left it out on the counter for 30 or so minutes to “warm up”. Then, on a pan, in my case, which just happened to be a crêpe pan (this is sheer coincidence! I usually use it to cook eggs), on low-medium temperature, I melted some butter.

Once it starts to brown, I pour some of the batter and swirl the pan to make sure it spreads evenly (and “thinly”).

Sorry for the fuzzy picture; I did not really have too much time to focus

Just like pancakes, when you see bubbles starting to appear on the top, use a plastic spatula to flip it. In my case, this didn’t take more than 40 seconds. Once flipped, I let it cooked for at most 20 additional seconds.

Then I would transfer it on a board (in my case, I placed some paper towel first). Repeat until done with all the batter. Based on the amount of ingredients above, on my 8″ (21cm) pan, I was able to make 7 and a half (the half being a small one, sometimes I also use it to “test” the batter and pan before making the rest).

On that morning, I sliced some banana an some leftover home-made cranberry jelly (60 mL of water, 3 tablespoon of honey, 3 tablespoon of sugar, juice and zest of an orange, 450 grams of cranberry on low-medium until it starts to boil, stirring it occasionally, then remove from heat).

It was quite good, if I can say so myself!

Now, here are some details about the original recipe:

• The batter was a bit “thick”. I thinks is probably due to the evaporated milk. A couple of days later, I made the same batter but using 400 mL of soy milk instead of milk and water. The batter was thinner and, probably as a result, the crêpes were thinner as well.
• If I did not let the batter “rest”, I found the resulting crêpe was a bit too easy to tear. Of course, YMMV.

And here is the result of the “adjusted” version…

In the end, I am surprised it was not as difficult as it might sound. In fact, it was so “easy”, I would certainly make for somebody as a “special” breakfast! ^_^;