Labels, who wants to waste their time with labels? My wife has owned and used a Brother P-Touch labeler for some time, keeping things neat and organized. I’m the cook and kitchen manager in the house and until now have been happy with a hunt-and-peck outlook to kitchen management. Sure my wife complains she can’t tell what meat is in the freezer, but isn’t half the fun taking out a frozen hunk of dark meat, turning it over and over again in your hands and making a complete guess as …

I saw a post recently on Chow that made me very skeptical: cook pasta in a frying pan, just covering the pasta with cold water and cooking on high until tender.
 
This goes against all thinking on pasta cooking: everyone says we need vast amounts of boiling water to properly cook pasta.  Yet this new recommendation came from Harold McGee, a very respected food scientist.  So I gave it a try.  And you should too, as the results were wonderful.  Watch the video, then try it out with my !

I saw this on YouTube: make a clay pot refrigeration container, called a Zeer Pot,  with sand and water.  It’s a very simple and effective technique that once constructed is good forever with the addition of water.

As well here’s a great case study how this is helping people in Sudan, along with a technical manual and brief.  They use a clay lid instead of a damp towel, which makes more sense for long term usage.

I had an event at church this past weekend where I had to provide the main dish for sixty people.  I was looking to do this as cheaply as possible while still supplying a great meal.  A local store where I like to get deals had chicken thighs, backs attached, for $0.69 a pound so I picked up twenty pounds.
First step was to break the thighs down.  They were on sale and had backs attached so that meant two things: lots of skin and bone I didn’t want in my …

I was wandering the supermarket with the family just before closing and came across a pile of tilapia and cod fillets on 50% discount as their best before date was the following day.  We bought a bunch and came home ready to make fish and chips.
A really authentic British fish batter was required so after several web searches I cobbled this together:

1 Cup Flour
1 TSP Baking Powder
1 TSP Smoked Paprika
1/2 TSP Salt
1/2 Cup Milk
1/2 Cup Water

Mix it together and it resembles glue or paste: very thick.  I like to add …

I was in Toronto over the weekend and had a chance to try Smoke’s Poutinerie.  They only service poutine, that glorious French Canadian mix of fries, cheese curds and gravy.  Good things kept being said about the place so I knew a trip was in order.  There’s not much to the place: seating, simple decor and the counter.

They feature a variety of toppings and gravies to go over your fries and cheese curds.  I decided to try the double pork: pulled pork, bacon and green peppercorn gravy.  It’s a simple …

Over the weekend I made a chicken dish with bone on thighs, backs attached.  It was $0.89 a pound so I purchased fifteen pieces.  After I tried to brown the first five pieces the skin fell apart so I removed the skin from the remaining ten pieces.  It was a decent pile of skin and I hate to waste anything so I decided to render the chicken skins to get chicken fat.  The process is simple: put the skins and trimmed fat in a pot on as low as it …

At our house I try and make everything myself, and that includes luncheon meat.  I prefer to roast large pieces of beef and pork with a heavily applied dry rub.  Cooking at 300F in the oven or the barbeque, even better the Big Green Egg, and you can expect about 20% weight loss after cooking.  So a five pound roast at $2 per pound becomes four pounds of sliced meat at $2.50 per pound; a whole lot better than the deli counter.

Above is a pork loin with a dry rub …

This is a carryover from my own childhood and always a favourite with my children: cheese dreams.

Give any bun a thick swish of Cheez Whiz and add pieces of cooked bacon.  Put them under the broiler and you have a hot and tasty lunch or snack; I especially like the blackened bits.

I’ve about my enjoyment of french toast but my recipe always seemed a little too simple: nothing to elevate it to wonderment.  Luckily that’s changed.

I came across a recipe recently for pancakes that used brown sugar; I had to break it down and mix it into my dry ingredients by hand but it added a great dimension.  I liked the idea of orange juice in the mix but it made the final taste too acidy and not custardy enough.  Zesting a little lemon or orange into the mix add …

If you don’t have a sausage stuffer it may feel like you can’t make sausage, but that’s just not so.  I enjoy sausage patties for breakfast so I don’t need my sausage to be in a casing.  My solution is to prepare my sausage and then roll it in plastic wrap: the thickness is up to you.  Once rolled I tighten the ends and leave it in the fridge to set.  When I want some sausage patties for breakfast I slice off a few discs, remove the plastic wrap from …

This morning my daughter was awake as I went downstairs to make breakfast: she’s an early riser and the only one in the house who sees me leave for work.
I had the bacon going and the eggs on the counter ready to crack.  She asks me “Daddy, are those farm fresh eggs?  Did you get them at a farm?  Calliou’s friend gets his eggs from a farm”.

Say what?  As it happens these were double yolk eggs I get from a local farm.  I know Caillou is a Canadian cartoon character …

I try to make stock whenever there are bones available.  My favourite is turkey stock: it seems to work with any meat and always makes a terrific gravy.

Trouble begins when I try to store it.  Large quantities are the norm: if you’re going to the effort of making stock then make a lot.  I used to freeze two cups of stock in a Ziploc bag which worked great and as stacked flat they freeze well.  Unfortunately defrosting it was an issue: I had to put the bag in a bowl …

Over the holidays I had a chance to roast a turkey and make gravy.  It was a twenty pound bird and I somehow ended up with just under a cup of fat in the roasting pan.  The fat was fairly clear and not that dark from the roasting: cooled it was a nice yellow colour.

I’ve been trying to make traditional gravy and not adding a packaged flavouring and thickener: that means stock and pan drippings added to a roux.  The day before I made a small batch of stock from …

A few weeks ago a local grocery store had pork picnic shoulder for $0.77 per pound so I picked up eight: seven in the freezer and one for the barbeque.  Nice fatty pork shoulder is perfect for low and slow cooking so I applied my and left it in the fridge for a day.  After that I started a fire in my Big Green Egg and once it was steady at 200F I put in the , a drip pan and the shoulder.  Twelve hours later I had this …

We recently went to Baltimore and Washington and had the chance to visit a few local eateries.  After watching some Food TV I knew Chaps Pit Beef in Baltimore was going to be a stop for us.

It’s a small hole in the wall with a cement floor and various tables.  Nothing exciting but we were there to eat.  There was a lineup to the door the entire time, a mix of regulars and tourists.

Pit beef was a new term for me but it’s straightforward: large joints of beef are cooked …

I love schnitzel.  Thinly sliced pork, chicken or veal that’s pounded thin, coated in flour, egg and bread crumbs, fried golden and crispy.  Served hot with a squeeze of lemon or room temperature on a sandwich, I can’t decide which is better.  I always make too much so the leftover schnitzel can be enjoyed in a sandwich.

It’s fairly easy to prepare but at times seems labour intensive.  I prefer pork loin for my schnitzel since it’s fairly cheap and has more taste than chicken breast.  Get a piece of pork loin …

For the past few weeks I had a strong desire for fried chicken.  The quick fix would be a trip to KFC but I wanted to make it myself.  I had a few whole breasts in my freezer so they came out and each breast was cut in half, giving me eight pieces total.
The traditional method is to soak the chicken in buttermilk, then coat in seasoned flour and fry.  I don’t think buttermilk helps tenderize the meat: buttermilk was far different when fried chicken recipes were created centuries ago …

French toast is a controversial breakfast in my home because my wife isn’t a fan and until this month that meant my children weren’t interested either.  I make breakfast Sunday mornings and appeal to the masses with pancakes or waffles, but a few weeks ago I made French toast for myself and my daughter became interested in what I was eating with butter and syrup.  Daughter and son each had a plate and became fans: they seem to enjoy the butter and syrup the most and whatever medium gets them …

While I was smoking the I was also roasting a whole leg of pork in my oven.  I was looking after a lunch and needed both meats ready at the same time, otherwise I would have used my Big Green Egg for both.

Low and slow was my oven approach: twelve hours at 225F.  First I made a paste of thyme, rosemary, garlic, salt and pepper in a food processor with enough olive oil to keep it moving.  I then cut through the skin creating the pattern shown above: this …