Music For Your Food Porn Soundtrack - A Foodie Playlist

Now that the city has dug itself out from the first snowstorm of the winter, people can now focus their energies on New Year's Eve party plans. If you are hosting a party this year, food-themed or otherwise, you probably are busy getting your house ready and making the final touches to your food and drink menus.  Don't forget about a key ingredient to any party - the music. Below is a playlist composed of either food-themed songs or artists. The mix is eclectic enough for all musical tastes, or at least long enough to inspire your own additions, so head to your favourite music streaming service, and give it a go. 

All the best to you and yours in the New Year.

• A Tribe Called Quest - "Bonita Applebum"
• Jim Jones and Ron Browz featuring Juelz Santana - "Pop Champagne"
• Sneaker Pimps - "Spin Spin Sugar"
• Akinyele - "Put It In Your Mouth"
• AC/DC - "Have A Drink On Me"
• Action Bronson - "Ceviche"
• Limp Bizkit - "Faith"
• UB40 - "Red Red Wine"
• Katy Perry - "Bon Appétit" 
• Lil Wayne - "Lollipop"
• Portishead -"It Could Be Sweet"
• Method Man - "Meth Vs. Chef"
• Parliament - "Chocolate City"
• DJ Food - "Mr. Quickie Cuts the Cheese"
• The Four Tops - I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bun)
• Salt-n-Pepa - "Push It"
• Brandy - "What About Us?"
• The Verve - "Bittersweet Symphony"
• Eminem - "Ass Like That"
• Prince - "Cream"
• Red Hot Chili Peppers - "Give It Away"
• George Thorogood & The Destroyers - "One Bourbon, One Scotch, One Beer"
• Black Eyed Peas - "Pump It"
• DJ Shadow - "Building Steam With A Grain of Salt"
• Massive Attack - "Black Milk"
• Wu-Tang Clan - "C.R.E.A.M"
• Snoop Dogg -"Gin & Juice"
• Sublime - "40 Oz. To Freedom"
• The Notorious B.I.G. - "Juicy"
• Smashing Pumpkins - "Bullet With Butterfly Wings"
• The Chemical Brothers - "Morning Lemon"
• The Tragically Hip - "Little Bones"
• Ice Cube - "Check Yo Self (Radio Remix)"
• Main Source - "Live At the Barbeque"
• Ray Charles - "One Mint Julep"
• The Presidents of the United States of America - "Peaches"
• Spice Girls - "Spice Up Your Life"
• Fishbone - "Lemon Meringue"
• Roger Troutman - "I Heard It Through The Grapevine"
• Blue Öyster Cult - "(Don't Fear) The Reaper"
• The B-52s - "Rock Lobster"
• The Brothers Johnson - "Strawberry Letter #23"
• Public Enemy - "Cold Lampin' With Flavour"
• The Rolling Stones - "Brown Sugar"
• Chuck Berry - "You Never Can Tell"
• Caesars - "Jerk It Out"
• System of a Down - "Chop Suey!"
• Kelis - "Milkshake"
• DNA featuring Suzanne Vega - "Tom's Diner"
• Raekwon - "Ice Cream"
• Korn - "Word Up"
• Reel Big Fish - "Take On Me"
• Toni Basil - "Mickey"
• Vanilla Ice - "Ice Ice Baby"
• 112 featuring Jay-Z and Lil Kim - "Peaches and Cream"
• Peaches & Herb - "Shake Your Groove Thing"
• Strawberry Alarm Clock - "Incense & Peppermints"
• Kim Mitchell - "Go For A Soda"
• The Lovin' Spoonful - "Summer in the City"
• Cream - "Crossroads"
• Cake - "Short Skirt / Long Jacket"
• Peaches - "Fuck the Pain Away"
• Blind Melon - "No Rain"
• The Cranberries - "Zombie"
• Jimmy Eat World - "Sweetness"
• Sugar Ray - "Fly"
• Bananarama - "Venus"
• Taco - "Putting on the Ritz"
• Meatloaf - "Paradise By The Dashboard Light"

"Chef" - A Better Late Than Never review

When I heard that the Angry Dragonz food truck were giving away passes to see this movie last year if you tweeted out a picture of something from their menu, I thought I could kill two birds with one stone and score some food and bypass the ticket line. While I did enjoy the General Tso Chicken rice bowl with egg roll I ordered, my pictures weren't up to snuff to see the movie for free. Fast forward to this week, and the copy I borrowed from the Ottawa Public library came in. Jon Favreau stars and excels as a high profile chef who starts a food truck business when he loses his restaurant job after refusing to compromise himself anymore. Favreau gets the most out of his collaboration with co-producer and chef Roy Choi as the movie does a good job conveying the frustrations of being a chef working for a controlling owner; the struggles of juggling parental responsibilities and professional obligations; the perils of social media; and the trials and tribulations of getting into the food truck game. This film shows a great love of the art of cooking, and is a perfect blend of indie film making, and big box office star power. Recommended for foodies and anyone who's ever thought about packing it in and doing what they love not because someone is telling them to do it, but because they love doing it.

Cooking with Nintendo - America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking

There are video games that let you pretend you're a hero, a villain, or a star athlete, but only a few that can turn you into a better cook. I'm not talking about those simulations that let you use your finger to perform different kitchen tasks; I'm talking about making a meal with actual food in your kitchen. These interactive cooking aids were popular on the DS, the first handheld game console developed and released by Nintendo, with one of the more popular ones being America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking. Released in 2010, the application gives step by step instructions on how to cook from a range of 300 dishes from the people behind the PBS show,  hosted by Cook's Illustrated editor-in-chief Christopher Kimball. It guides the user through the preparation and cooking process via audio narration and instructional video clips, using the Nintendo DS's voice recognition to proceed through each step (it's no Siri or Google Now, but it's pretty good for decades year-old technology).  It even makes suggestions based on the calendar, offering recipes such as roast beef tenderloin; a wilted spinach salad with bacon and onion; and a classic shrimp cocktail (recipe below) for Christmas dinner. America's Test Kitchen: Let's Get Cooking also keeps a record of what dishes you've already made, and allows you to take notes, compile a shopping list, and exclude undesired ingredients from the recipes. It's hard not to like this video cookbook, it's fun for all ages and levels of cooking. Check out this game if you still have a DS game system, or if you're looking for something different for your DS the next time you're at the local used game emporium or video game bargain bin.

Also recommended:

• What's Cooking? With Jamie Oliver - From shopping to chopping the fun way to cook with Jamie Oliver
• Personal Trainer: Cooking

Ingredients: Shrimp cocktail

454 g extra-large shrimp
10 mL fresh lemon juice
2 bay leafs
5 g black peppercorns
5 g Old Bay seasoning
5 g salt

Sauce
237 mL ketchup
30 mL fresh lemon juice
30 g prepared horseradish, or to taste
10 mL hot sauce, plus extra if desired
2.5 g salt
1.25 g pepper

1. After removing the shell, use a paring knife to make a shallow cut along the back of the shrimp so that the vein is exposed. Use the tip of the knife to lift the vein out of the shrimp. Discard the vein by wiping the blade against a paper towel.
2. Bring 10 mL lemon juice, 2 bay leaves, 5 g salt, 5 g peppercorns, 5 g Old Bay, and 950 mL water to boil in a pan for 2 minutes. Remove the pot from the heat and add the shrimp. Cover the pot and steep off the heat until the shrimp are firm and pink, about 7 minutes.
3. Drain the shrimp and immediately plunge them into a bowl of ice water. Chill for several minutes. Drain the shrimp and refrigerate them until thoroughly chilled, about 1 hour.
4. As the shrimp chill, stir the ketchup, horseradish, hot sauce, and the remaining lemon juice, salt, and pepper in a bowl. Season with additional horseradish and hot sauce as desired and transfer the sauce to a small serving bowl. Arrange the shrimp on a serving platter along with the bowl with the sauce. It's ready to eat.

New Oven, First Meal

Last Sunday my oven died on me while I was making dinner. After finishing the chicken on the BBQ, and the mac and cheese on the stovetop, I ordered a new range and made arrangements to remove our old cooking workhorse. Our new range is white, has four burners, and isn't anything fancy, but that no reason to not christen it with a new recipe. I decided on Tyler Florence's smothered pork chops, mostly because it popped up on my Facebook feed when I trying to think about what I wanted to make, and because I had all the ingredients for it on hand. While we ate and enjoyed our meal, I made a toast to the oven that I cooked many a meal on and in over the past ten years. I look forward to making many more with its replacement.

Ingredients

4 pork chops, 2-cm thick, bone-in
128 g all-purpose flour
30 g tablespoons onion powder
30 g garlic powder
5 g cayenne pepper
5 g salt
2 g freshly ground black pepper
250 mL chicken broth
125 mL buttermilk
60 mL olive oil

1. Put the flour in a resealable bad and add all the spices. Pat the pork chops dry with paper towels to remove any moisture and then drop them in the bag of seasoned flour. Seal and shake the bag for a few minutes to cover the chops, then shake off any excess flour from the meat, and set them aside.
2. Heat a large sauté pan or cast iron skillet over medium heat and coat with the oil. When the oil is nice and hot, lay the pork chops in the pan in a single layer and fry for 3 minutes on each side until golden brown. Once cooked, remove the pork chops from the pan.
3. Add some of the seasoned flour to the pan drippings. Mix the flour into the fat to dissolve and then pour in the chicken broth in. Let the liquid cook down for 5 minutes to reduce and thicken slightly. Stir in the buttermilk to make a creamy gravy and return the pork chops to the pan, covering them with the sauce. Simmer for 5 minutes until the pork is cooked through. Season with salt and pepper before serving.

Stock Your Pantry The Right Way

Animals aren't the only ones who need to stock up on food supplies as the days and nights get chillier. With the help of this chart from fix.com, you can properly fill or start filling your pantry to save yourself from venturing out in the cold.

Harry Potter-themed shooters

Thanks to the good people over at Graphic Nerdity, you can now distinguish your Halloween party from all the other muggles this year with these drinks inspired by everyone's favourite Hogswart alumnus. Be warned - like Bertie Bott's Every Flavour jelly beans, some of these shots are an acquired taste; please remember to drink responsibly.

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For the Love of Popeyes Chicken

Most people when they hear the name "Popeye", they think of the lovable spinach-eating sailor man from Saturday morning cartoons, but it makes me think of my favourite fried chicken fast food restaurant. Established in 1972, Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen has been making mild and spicy fried chicken along with sides such as red beans and rice, Cajun fries and mashed potatoes that beat anything that the Colonel has to offer. The first time I ate at the apostrophe-free Popeyes was back in 1991. I was in New York visiting my cousins, and we stopped there before going to see "Boyz in the Hood". I remember loving how tasty and non-greasy the chicken was, and lamenting that we didn't have a restaurant like that back home. I didn't get another taste of "Louisiana Fast" until over a decade later when I discovered there was a Popeyes in Toronto during a visit with my future wife. She too became a Popeyes convert. I made more converts when I took a trip to Detroit with some friends sometime later when we were visiting a friend living in London at the time; to this day, one of my boys says he'd take "a bullet in the ass" for some Popeyes. My love of this place may have caused me to oversell its greatness, as some friends of mine who have tried the food there didn't think it was as amazing as I described it, but even then, they agreed that it was better than the chicken they had at KFC (or Dixie Lee, or Church's for that matter). But now that Ottawa finally has a Popeyes location, with another now at Orleans location to taste for yourself. (Updated: Feb. 12, 2015)

NOTE: I have not been paid by AFC Enterprises to produce this blog entry, but if Popeyes Louisiana Kitchen wants to send some free food my way because of this, I won't object.

Untraditional side dishes for Thanksgiving

While turkey will always be the main event in a traditional Thanksgiving meal, it's time to show the undercard meals of the dinner, the side dishes, some love. Mashed potatoes and green bean casserole can be had anytime. This year, surprise yourself and your loved ones and with these non-traditional side dishes.

Oyster Dressing "Grand-Mère" - This dish will be a hit if you like your sides spicy, crispy, and salty.

Ingredients

57 g. slab or thick-sliced bacon, diced small
29 g. chopped parsley
5 g. kosher salt
2.5 g. garlic powder
2.5 g. cayenne pepper
5 mL hot sauce
4 dozen shucked oysters plus 1 cup oyster liquor, oysters halved (2 cups)
4 large eggs
2 scallions, minced
2 large garlic cloves, minced
2 tablespoons sweet paprika
2 large baguettes (about 454 g.), diced small (12 cups)
1 stick unsalted butter
1 celery rib, diced small
1/2 green bell pepper, diced small
1/2 small onion, finely diced

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (176°C). Butter a 10-by-14-inch (25.4-by 35.56 cm) shallow baking dish. In a large skillet, cook the bacon over moderate heat until crisp, about 5 minutes. Add the butter and let melt, then add the celery, green pepper, onion and minced garlic and cook until softened, about 8 minutes. Add the paprika, garlic powder and cayenne and cook for 3 minutes, stirring occasionally.
2. Put the diced baguettes in a large bowl. Spoon the bacon mixture on top. Add the oysters and their liquor along with the scallions and parsley.
3. In a small bowl, beat the eggs with the hot sauce and salt. Pour the eggs into the bowl and mix everything together. Scrape the dressing into the prepared baking dish and bake in the upper third of the oven for about 45 minutes, until heated through and crisp on top. Serve hot.
   
   The baked oyster dressing can be refrigerated overnight. Reheat before serving.

Sweet Potato French Fries - You always have them (or wanted to try them) when you're at your favourite burger bistro - for that reason alone these should be served as a side dish this Thanksgiving.

Ingredients

3 medium-sized sweet potatoes
15 g. sugar
15 g. salt
15 g. 5-spice powder
60 mL vegetable oil

1. Preheat the oven to 450°F degrees (232°C). Peel and slice the sweet potatoes into matchstick-sized pieces; the skinnier you make them, the crisper they’re going to be.
2. Mix your spices in a large bowl. Pour oil over the spice blend and combine well. Throw in your potatoes and toss until they’re completely covered.
3. Lay them out out in a single layer on a cookie sheet; use two sheets if they’re looking crowded. Place them in the hot oven and bake for 25 to 30 minutes. Take them out at the fifteen minute mark and turn them over with tongs or a spatula.

Roasted Acorn Squash - If you must have a vegetable side dish on your table, give your potatoes the day off and try this instead.

Ingredients

2 acorn or dumpling squash, about 454 g. each
1 stick unsalted butter, softened
226 g. crushed vanilla wafers, almond biscotti, or pignoli cookies
125 g. brown sugar
45 mL tablespoons amaretto
kosher salt
freshly ground black pepper
extra-virgin olive oil, optional
8 fresh sage leaves

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Split the squash in half down the middle and scrape out the seeds with a spoon. Set the squash halves, cut sides up, on a baking sheet and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Drizzle with extra-virgin olive oil, if desired. If the squash are very large, cut lengthwise into quarters. 
3. In a bowl, cream the butter with the sugar, and the amaretto. With a brush or a spoon, coat the cut sides of each squash half with the butter mixture and put two sage leaves on top of each. Sprinkle with the crushed cookies. Bake until tender, 30 to 35 minutes, basting every 15 minutes with any remaining butter.

Mushroom Fried Rice - This side dish works with either leftover rice from last night's takeout, or from a previous dinner - good fried rice starts with cold cooked grains.

Ingredients

300 g. long-grain rice
230 g. cremini mushrooms, sliced thin
230 g. shiitake mushrooms, stems removed, caps sliced
230 g. white mushrooms, sliced thin
75 g. frozen peas
45 g. cooking oil
15 g. grated fresh ginger
2.5 g. teaspoon salt
1 g. dried red-pepper flakes
56.25 mL soy sauce
5 mL Asian sesame oil
6 scallions including green tops, sliced thin

1. Bring a medium pot of salted water to a boil. Stir in the rice and boil until just done, about 10 minutes. Drain the rice and set aside to cool.
2. In a large nonstick frying pan or wok, heat 1 tablespoon of the cooking oil over moderately high heat. Add half the mushrooms and cook, stirring frequently, until the mushrooms are tender and golden, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a plate. Repeat with the remaining mushrooms and another tablespoon of the cooking oil. Add these mushrooms to the plate.
3. In the same frying pan, heat the remaining tablespoon of cooking oil over moderate heat. Add the red-pepper flakes, ginger, and scallions and cook, stirring, until fragrant, about 30 seconds. Increase the heat to moderately high and add the rice, salt, and soy sauce. Cook, stirring, for 2 minutes and then add the peas and mushrooms. Cook, stirring, until everything's warm, another 1 to 2 minutes. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in the sesame oil.

"Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma" - Review of a food anime

For a guy who considers himself a pop culture junkie, I must confess I've never gotten into Japanese comics or animation, better known as manga and anime respectively. Manga always felt out of reach for me because I don't know Japanese, and I suspected something would be lost in the English translations; I remember feeling confused rather than awestruck when I saw "Akira" back in high school. When I stumbled upon the animated version of the comic series "Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma" recently, I wasn't sure what to expect. It's about a teenage boy's adventures at an elite culinary school where only 10% of the students graduate. The competition is fierce, with cooking duels being issued like samurai battles from feudal times. Luckily for the story's protagonist, Sōma Yukihira, he is a culinary ninja of a chef and is always ready and willing to test his cooking skills against his fellow students, or anyone else. The story plays out like a combination of "Top Chef" and "Dragon Ball Z", with lots of action and drama, and is quite knowledgeable about food with the author consulting with a professional chef to ensure the recipes portrayed are legit. That said, this anime plays up the pleasure one experiences when tasting exquisite food to the point it gives new meaning to the term "food porn' - you will see nude characters in various states of ecstasy from time to time. Whether you're a hardcore foodie, anime fan, or someone who likes their food programming on the wild side, "Food Wars: Shokugeki no Soma" won't disappoint.

Volunteering at Baconpolooza

Bacon has gone from something you ate with your eggs at breakfast, to a culinary obsession that makes tofu and kale fanatics jealous. Among the many bacon-enhanced items available, there's bacon ice cream, bacon-infused vodka, bacon salt, chocolate-dipped bacon... even bacon-flavoured lip balm and rolling papers. Bacon fashion is a thing, as well as bacon-of-the-month clubs, and bacon camps that feature lectures on bacon as art, and bacon recipe contests. It's the meat that even vegetarians have their own version of it to consume.  Whether it's a holdout from the Atkins diet craze or a tasty way to thumb one's nose at more health conscience lifestyles, bacon is eaten and enjoyed by many. Baked, boiled, fried, grilled, or smoked, people can't get enough of the stuff. Today the Canada Agriculture and Food Museum celebrates this love of cured pig meat with its Baconpalooza event, Ottawa's foremost celebration of all things bacon. Wanting to get a behind-the-scenes perspective for an event of this magnitude, I decided to volunteer my services for it, and after attending an information session Monday, and filling out some paperwork, it was made official. The following is how my four-hour shift went:

• I got up at 6:30AM to grey skies, cool temperatures, and damp conditions - perfect bacon festival weather. As I sipped my first coffee of the day, I began to wish I had volunteered for the VIP event that was held the night before. I now may not get the chance to ask Lynn Crawford what it's like working on "Chopped Canada", but parental duties prevented me from hob-knobbing and rubbing elbows with the special guest chefs, as well as the bigwig vendors and partners who helped put this thing together. 
• Just as I turn into the volunteer parking area, I realize that I left my parking pass at home - not the start to the morning I was hoping for. I did manage to get checked in after explaining the situation to Security and managed to get another pass for my car once I found the Volunteer Coordinator at the morning briefing. After getting my spiffy orange Baconpalooza shirt, the Coordinator outlined what he wanted us to do, and where he wanted us to do it. I was one of the lucky ones to get to work outside in the drizzle, but at least me and the volunteer I was partnered up with (Josh) got some umbrellas to use. A little after 8 o'clock, we were on our way to the Market area to help with the setup.
• Between the two of us, we set up tents for several vendors: Fat Boy Soaps were selling their new beer soap; Muckleston & Brockwell had lots of sauces, marinades, snack foods, and BBQ accessories for people to purchase. Griffith Farm & Market brought their best meats for sale, as did Kiefro Wild Boar Farm, and Seed to Sausage. Rounding out the vendors were Lowertown Canning Company, The Unrefined Olive, and One Sweet Idea. As we did our best to be available to everyone who needed help, people began to slowly trickle into the grounds, proving that it takes more than a little rain to keep people away from bacon
  


• Once that was done, I went to get the free Bacon Bites Breakfast the folks at the Ottawa Marriott were serving in the area that was usually a sheep field. Scrambled eggs served with chives and sauteed onions, with grilled baby potatoes and a bacon weave you could use as a taco shell to eat everything with. Add a bit of hot sauce to that, and you got a breakfast I'd wake up early every Saturday for.
  
• With all the vendors' booths finished, we went back to the Learning Center to be reassigned new tasks at the halfway point of the shift. This time we were sent to Barn 76 to help set up and man the beer ticket tent with two other volunteers. With it still not yet eleven, it was a pretty easy task, but as soon as we were legally able to serve alcohol, we got customers. The offerings were wine, a pumpkin beer from the Clocktower Brewpub, and a freshly made bacon Caesar. I handed out tickets and chatted with the others until I was relieved at 12:30PM. Not a bad bit of volunteering if I don't say so myself.
• Random observations:
• with all the food trucks around, you hardly notice the usual barnyard smells you associate with the Agriculture and Food Museum
• there was an animal rights protest happening across the street from the museum. The activists hoped to get people to think about what they were eating by laying naked on a plate. If it was anything like a similar protest done at last year's Ribfest, the protesters will have all their titillating parts covered, and their protests will fall on deaf ears.
  I'll assume they would not have liked these pictures of what was cooked over at the Meatings tent
  
• Favourite foods tried - the bacon sticky bun and the pulled pork and applewood bacon sandwich
  
  Apparently, pumpkin beers should be served warmer than usual brews to really get that pumpkin taste, but the one I had tasted pretty good chilled.
• This is the closest I got to Lynn Crawford and her cooking demonstration.
  
  Looks like I'll have to ask her about Dean McDermott next time.

The fun continues until eleven tonight, with performances by Drew Nelson and Monkey Junk. Come on down and get your bacon on.

Barbados Cuisine

After spending some time with family and friends in Quebec cottage country this month, circumstances have allowed me the chance to spend time with more family and friends, this time with the location being the island of Barbados. While visiting the tropics would be better during the icy grip of winter instead of the dog days of summer, I'm not going to look a gift visit to my parents' place of birth in the mouth. From upscale restaurants to colourful street food markets and vendors, Barbados is a Caribbean island with a rich choice of cuisine. Slaves from West Africa who were brought to Barbados in the 1600s were very influential in the country's traditions and foods, along with influences from England, Portugal, and Spain. The British influence is the most prevalent, as they decided to begin growing sugar cane in Barbados in the 1640s, making sugar one of the most common foods on the island, along with corn, fish, guava, molasses, potatoes, rice, and rum. Barbados' national dish is flying fish and cou cou (similar to polenta), traditionally served on Fridays, with the fish cooked either fried, or steamed. If you can't make it down to Barbados to sample this dish, here are the recipes for them to bring the island to your dinner table at any time of the year.

Ingredients: Fried Flying Fish
Source: http://www.alleasyrecipes.com/

6 flying fish (or any filleted white fish)
75 g green onions, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 lime
1 onion, chopped
½ hot pepper, chopped
2.5 g ground thyme
2.5 g ground cloves
2.5 g salt
2.5 g black pepper
bread crumbs or flour
oil for frying

1. Wash and debone the fish if necessary and place the fillets in a bowl.
2. Combine the juice from the lime with the green onions, onion, garlic, hot pepper, thyme, cloves, salt and pepper. Marinate the fish in this mixture for at least 15 minutes.
3. Heat the oil in a saucepan. While the oil is heating up, coat the fish in either breadcrumbs or flour, and fry the fillets until they brown or for 5 to 10 minutes.
4. Serve with either cou cou, vegetables or rice.

Ingredients: Cou cou
Source: http://www.barbados.org/

240 g corn meal
90 g okra, with the tops and bottoms removed, and chopped into rings (either fresh or frozen can be used)
45 mL butter
2.5 g salt
1 medium onion, chopped

1. In a bowl, combine the cornmeal with enough water to cover the meal, then set the bowlaside.
2. Place the sliced okras in a saucepan with some water, the chopped onion and the salt. Bring to a medium boil for a few minutes until the okras soften. Strain the okras into a bowl, setting aside the liquid.
3. Add about a quarter of the okra liquid back into the saucepan and add the soaked meal. You'll need a whisk or wooden stick to stir the cou cou as it cooks. (In Barbados they use a flat wooden spoon known as a 'cou cou stick'). Stir the mixture constantly to avoid lumping.
4. Add more of the okra liquid gradually. You can tell you're nearly finished when the cou cou starts to bubble gently at the surface. At this point add in the cooked okra slices and continue stirring for another 2-3 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the butter.

Slow Cooker Brisket

At some point if you watch enough BBQ shows on TV, you're going to want to cook a brisket. This is the problem that presents itself to me. Though it's considered the holy grail of barbecuing, brisket can be cooked many ways. By far the most popular way is by cooking it slowly over indirect heat from a wood fire. By smoking the meat, the smoke from the wood and the burnt dripping juices further enhance the brisket's flavor, along with marinating the meat, or rubbing it with a spice rub. Brisket done this way is popular in Texas; once finished, pieces of brisket can be returned to the smoker to make burnt ends, which are popular with fans of Kansas City-style barbecue. It can even be featured as a main course option in a traditional New England boiled dinner. But as a New York Jets fan, I don't care much for anything that comes out of New England. Because I also don't own a smoker, I'm going to use my slow cooker to break down the connective tissue in the meat to make it taste good. Aaron Franklin of Franklin Barbecue fame may consider what I'm doing sacrilegious, but the grilling the brisket will get on my gas grill while I'm grilling up some vegetables to go with this meal will have to do. I'll make it up to him the next time I'm in Austin, TX.

Ingredients  

beef brisket (I used about 750 g from a beef brisket pot roast cut in strips)
1 284 mL can beef broth
1 284 mL can beef consommé
1 packet of onion soup mix

1. Heat a cast iron skillet over medium heat with some olive oil. While the pan is heating up, take the brisket out of its packaging and pat it dry. Season the meat generously with salt and pepper. 
2. Sear the brisket until a golden brown crust appears on both sides of the meat. Remove and place the meat in the slow-cooker, fatty side up.
3. Pour in the beef broth, the beef consommé, the contents of the soup packet, and 284 mL of water. Cover and cook in the slow cooker on LOW for 6 to 8 hours or until the brisket is very tender. 
4. Let the brisket rest for at least 20 minutes before serving in the slow cooker set on the "warm" setting, or transferred to a baking dish and covered tightly with aluminum foil while resting. The meat can be served with its juices.

Easy to Make Ice Cream

The Canada Agriculture and Food Museum is hosted a celebration of all things ice cream. For those of you who missed this event, it is possible to make your own ice cream without having to buy a machine, or liquid nitrogen. The method uses the old school pot-freezer method, where the temperature of the ingredients is reduced by a mixture of crushed ice and salt. The ice cools the salt, and the action of the salt on the ice causes it to melt partially, absorbing latent heat and bringing the mixture to a temperature below the freezing point of water. In order to proceed, you will need two large resealable bags (4 L volume), two small resealable bags (500 mL volume), and the ingredients below. As long as they like ice cream, this is a great project to do with the kids if you run out of activities for them during the summer holidays.

Note: This recipe was taken from an online course I've taken in the past.

Ingredients
600 g ice
200 g salt (preferably coarse salt)
¼ tsp vanilla extract (or another flavour of your choice)
100 g whole milk
90 g heavy cream

(Note: this method also works with other milks - soy, almond, rice, etc. for a non-dairy version. Just replace the cream and milk.)

1. Fill a large resealable bag with the ice (the amount above or to about 1/3 full). Add the salt to the ice.
2. In a separate small zip-lock bag, add the heavy cream, milk, sugar, and extract (or other flavor). Seal it, trying to press out air to maximize contact with the ice, and seal well.
3. Place the small bag with the ice cream ingredients inside the large bag with ice. Place the entire package into a second large bag to prevent leaking.
4. Massage, or gently toss the bag around until the ice cream becomes solid. If possible, try to do this on a cold surface so the ice doesn't melt. You should use oven mitts or hand towels to handle this part, so your hands don’t get cold, thus letting you massage the ice cream better; constant mixing is key to getting a good texture.
5. Remove the small bag with ice cream from the large bag with ice. Wipe off the top of the small bag and then open it carefully.  Test the consistency with a spoon - if it seems solid and delicious, you can serve it. If your ice cream isn't solid enough before the ice melts, add more ice and salt and repeat step 4 until it’s ready.

Summertime Rum Punch

Hot summer days like the ones Ottawa has been experiencing lately require a tasty beverage to make the most of your relaxing during these lazy, hazy times. This recipe for rum punch is based on a formula used by both my Barbados-born father and a woman my wife met at the Wine and Food Show some years ago. This drink can pack quite a punch, so take the necessary precautions.

Ingredients
1 750 mL bottle of rum
240 mL citrus juice (lime or orange are good choices)
240 mL water
120 g white sugar
120 g brown sugar
nutmeg
cinnamon sticks
cloves
1 jar Maraschino cherries (optional)

"One part sour, two parts sweet; three parts strong, four parts weak."

1. Pour the citrus juice into either a large punch bowl or pitcher. Set aside.
2. In a saucepan combine the sugar, some cinnamon sticks, a few cloves, a dash of grated nutmeg, and the water. Bring everything to a boil, stirring until the sugar has dissolved. Allow the syrup to cool before mixing it with the juice.
3. Add half the bottle of rum and stir until everything is mixed together. This is where you can add more rum if you want a stronger punch, or some of the juice from the Maraschino cherries if you prefer a sweeter drink.
4. Add 4 cups of ice to your bowl or pitcher to keep the drink cool, and serve the punch with ice. Add a cherry for garnish.

Infographic: How People Grill Around the World

From the good people at PersonalCreations.com, here's something to read or mention to people at the next BBQ you host or attend this summer:

The Vulgar Chef vs. Thug Kitchen

Two popular cookbooks, "The Eat Like Shit Cookbook" from the Vulgar Chef (aka Kyle Marcoux), and the Thug Kitchen's "Eat Like You Give a F*ck" both share the same gimmick - edgy profanity.  Without the attitude and the curse words sprinkled throughout each publication, there is nothing that separates these publications from all the other cookbooks already out on the market. The Vulgar Chef uses the same Mornay cheese sauce that my favourite cookbook uses for macaroni and cheese; the basic vinaigrette recipe from the Thug Kitchen is no better than the one in everyone's favourite cookbook. Does that make the recipes in these books any less appealing? Not at all. "Eat Like You Give a F*ck" has a lot of great vegetarian foods inside and depending on how long you can tolerate the hardcore shtick, it would make a great source for those times a meatless dish is required. Meat lovers and food porn fans can't get enough of Marcoux's creations, as his food mashups are inspired. He was even featured on "FrankenFood". With that in mind, here are two recipes from each of these cookbooks that caught my eye, cleaned up for the easily offended.

Thug Kitchen's Carrot Cake Cookies

Ingredients

192 g flour (whole wheat pastry or white)
64 g packed light brown sugar
58.5 g chopped walnuts
58.5 g raisins or chopped candied ginger (optional)
5 g baking powder
2.5 g salt
2.5 g ground cinnamon
2.5 g ground ginger
2 medium-sized carrots, shredded
118 mL milk (regular, almond, nondairy, whatever)
59 mL olive or grapeseed oil

1. Preheat oven to 190 ℃. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. In a large bowl, mix the flour, brown sugar, baking powder, salt, cinnamon, and ground ginger until you no longer see lumps. In a separate bowl, mix the shredded carrots, milk, and oil. Pour the wet ingredients into the dry ones and stir until there are only a few dry spots. Fold in the nuts and raisins (or chopped candied ginger) and stir until there aren't any dry spots.
3. Spoon the dough onto the baking sheet for about 18 to 22 minutes, until the bottoms are golden brown.

The Vulgar Chef's Drunk as Fuck Mussels with Smokey Ass Garlic Onion Butter

Ingredients

900 - 1360 g mussels, cleaned and debearded
64 g chopped red onion
60 g fresh chopped garlic
32 g corn kernels (can or off the cob)
32 g thinly sliced fresh or pickled jalapeño
32 g chopped fresh basil
237 mL bourbon or white wine
1 chopped medium-sized tomato
butter (half a stick)
olive oil
cooked and chopped bacon
crumbled blue cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1. Run the mussels under cold water, and rinse or scrub any debris on the shell. Yank the beard (the thin, sticky membranes hanging out of the shell) out. If you spot any gaping mussels, check for signs of life by picking them and squeezing them a few times or knocking them with another mussel. The mussel should slowly close itself back up. If it doesn't, toss it in the trash. Soak the remaining mussels in a bowl of cold water for 30 minutes.
2. Heat 14g of butter and 14 g of olive oil in a large pot at medium heat. Add the garlic, jalapeño, basil, onion and let cook for about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Toss in the mussels and give everything a good stirring. Throw in the bourbon, tomato, and corn and cook until the mussels open up.
3. Melt the remaining butter. Once the mussels open up, throw in butter and give everything one final mix. Serve in a bowl, and top with the blue cheese and the bacon.

The Truth About Beer Can Chicken

The Victoria Day weekend is usually when the first big BBQ of the year happens. Along with hamburgers, hot dogs, planked salmon, and grilled vegetables, a popular food at these cookouts is beer can chicken. Perched on your favourite can of beer, and covered with an herb rub, the chicken is cooked on the grill, giving it a nice roast on the outside, with the inside bathed by the steam of the beer, keeping the meat moist. Or so we are told. Not only are there better ways to cook a chicken on the grill, the entire concept of beer can chicken is little more than a waste of beer. And nobody wants to do that on a long weekend.

To be fair, there is a reason people love the taste of beer can chicken, it does a lot of things right. The chicken is exposed to convection heat so it can crisp the skin on all sides, and because the legs aren't tied together, the dark meat can be exposed to more heat and finish a bit hotter than the thicker breasts. But the cooking method used leaves a lot to be desired. The can prevents the chicken from cooking on the inside. With a metal can shoved up its butt, warm air cannot enter the cavity of the chicken from below, and only a small amount can enter from above through the neck cavity. All the heat must enter the meat from the outside. Because meat doesn't heat evenly, it progresses inward from the part in contact with air, making the outer parts warmer than the inner parts. By the time the meat nearest the cavity hits 74°C, the outer layers are in the 82 to 88°C range. That may darken and crisp the skin a bit more, but it makes the outer layers drier.

And contrary to what the recipe being used says, the beer doesn't add moisture or flavour to the chicken. Because beer is about 90% flavorless water, and 5% flavorless alcohol, all the flavour compounds are at most 3.5% of the weight. In a 355 mL can of beer, that's about 1 teaspoon of stuff with flavour; even if you add herbs and spices to the beer, their flavour compounds don't dissolve in water. Finally, there are the safety factors. If you forget to open the can, it can explode; hot fat from the drip pan may burn you; the drip pan might catch on fire, burning the bird; removing the bird from the can is a pain, because the can usually sticks to the chicken during cooking; the ink on the outside of the beer can (and the widget in that can of Guinness) probably isn't food grade and may seep into your food. There's enough here to make you reconsider even lighting your grill, but if you're like me, you're still going to make and eat beer can chicken. Because you like cooking it this way, and you like how it tastes when you do so. Sometime in the future, I'll try grilling a butterflied chicken (removing the backbone, flattening it, cooking it skin up on the indirect side, and then flipping it skin down on the direct side for a few minutes), or adding a rotisserie attachment to my BBQ. Until then, here's the recipe I use for beer can chicken:

Ingredients

1 1.81 kg. whole fryer
1 355 mL can of beer
240 g butter
30 g. garlic salt
30 g. paprika
salt and pepper

1. Preheat your BBQ for low heat.
2. In a small pot on the stove, melt the butter. Add the garlic salt, the paprika, and salt and pepper, to taste. Mix together, and let simmer at low heat.
3. Open the beer and drink half of it. Check to see if the neck and giblets have been removed from the cavity of the chicken, remove them if you find them. Baste the chicken with the melted seasoned butter. Either pour the remaining butter in the beer can or save it for further basting as it cooks; the choice is yours.
4. Position the chicken in the way your beer can apparatus recommends you to; if push comes to shove, lower the chicken on to the open can, so that the chicken is sitting upright, with the can in its cavity, and place the chicken on the grill, using the legs and beer can as a tripod to support the chicken on the grill and keep it stable. Cover the grill and let the meat cook for about 45 minutes.
5. Check the chicken every 15 minutes or so, until a meat thermometer inserted into the thickest part of the thigh reads 74° C.
6. Let the chicken rest for 10 minutes. Carefully lift the chicken off of the can. If it gets stuck, lay the chicken on its side, and pull out the can with tongs.

Science and Cooking: From Haute Cuisine to Soft Matter Science - Fermentation

As I posted way back when, I enrolled in an on-line course about the relationship between science and cooking. Here's what went on during Week 10.

• The star power is upped this week with guest lecturers Wylie Dufresne of wd~50 and David Chang of Momofuku making appearances. Ted Russin of The Culinary Institute of America also makes an appearance. 
• Harold McGee informs us that food fermentations are the work of living microbes; they're essentially invisibly small cooks that change foods for the better.
• Foods that owe their popularity to fermentation include dry cured sausages, pickles, breads, the vinegar in vinaigrette, cheeses, chocolates, wine and beer and ciders and the distilled beverages made from them. These are all thanks to bacteria and fungi like Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Leuconostoc mesenteroides.
• The most common food fermentations develop spontaneously. They're spontaneous because the microbes that are responsible are all over the place, in the air and in the soil and on surfaces of everything. And they thrive on the sugars in nutrient-rich materials like plant tissues and animal secretions like milk. 
• The second big group of food fermentations is produced by yeasts, usually Saccharomyces cerevisiae, but also others. They produce alcohols and carbon dioxide from fruit juices and other liquids that are rich in sugars. 
• There's a third group of fermentations is based on an Asian method for fermenting starchy foods, like the seeds of grains and legumes. Yeasts and lactic acid bacteria can't deal with starch directly. Sometime before the second century BC, Chinese brewers domesticated a species of mold, a kind of Aspergillus, which prepares starchy foods for the yeasts and the lactic acid bacteria by converting the starch into fermentable sugars. At the same time that it does that, the mold generates its own distinctive aromas. With the help of this Aspergillus, called koji in Japan, sake and other alcohols are made from rice in Asia. It's also how soy and tamari sauces and miso pastes are made. 
• We are told that the fermentation reactions in yeast, or in bacteria, are due to enzymes. An enzyme is a protein that is a type of catalyst; a catalyst is a molecule that increases the speed of a favourable reaction either by helping to break bonds, or by helping to make bonds form, without being used up.
• An example of a catalyst is baking soda or lye, which speeds up Maillard reactions that contribute to browning and flavour. 
• As magical as catalysts appear, they cannot make unfavorable reactions become favorable. 
• For more on fermentation, here's David Chang and one of his minions:
• In terms of the bond breaking, enzymes do this by either rearranging the molecule, or by affecting the atoms in the molecules in some way. In terms of making bonds form, enzymes do this by bonding to two molecules, or bringing them closer in proximity. The bond can then form more easily, because the molecules are positioned in a way that makes the bond happen more easily. Enzymes need to be very specially designed to fit the particular molecules they work on, so for each type of chemical reaction that an enzyme catalyzes, it is designed to help that reaction.
• The enzymes bromelain and papain are enzymes from pineapple and papaya. Because these are often found in meat tenderizers, they are used a lot in recipes because they break down the proteins in meats, making it tenderer.
• The browning of fruit or vegetables is also due to enzymes. Biting or cutting releases enzymes in special compartments of the cell, and they react with other compounds in the fruit or vegetable. 
• Thanks to one of Dufresne and Russin's collaborations, we can now glue one piece of meat or one protein to another, thanks to meat glue, an enzyme also known as transglutaminase.

In honour of the Hamburglar

At the beginning of February of this year, the chances of the Ottawa Senators making the playoffs were dead in the water. With their starting and backup goalies out with injuries, the team was forced to rely on an unknown call-up from the farm team. Fast forward to today - the Senators are playing their best hockey in months, and are playing the Montreal Canadiens in the first round of the playoffs. This is in part due to the play of Ottawa's newest hockey hero, Andrew "Hamburglar" Hammond. In honour of his success, I thought it would be as good a time as any to celebrate the food he got his nickname from, the hamburger.

There are almost as many claims to the origin of the hamburger as they are toppings for a burger, and meats used to make the patty. As it turns out, people have been enjoying ground meat placed inside a sliced bun since the late 1800s. Whether the patty is thin or thick, square or round, you can get a hamburger pretty much anywhere. Burger purists will insist that a hamburger should only be ground beef and seasoned with salt and pepper. These people should be ignored, as a tasty burger can contain binders like eggs or breadcrumbs; be seasoned with onions, soy sauce, Thousand Island dressing, or Worcestershire sauce; and be made with ingredients such as ground lamb, bison, and salmon; or meat substitutes like tofu, or textured vegetable protein. Below is the recipe I use when I'm in the mood for some hamburgers - try and resist throwing your burger on the ice as part of a victory celebration. Go Sens Go!

Ingredients

570g ground beef (don't use lean ground beef, burgers need fat for flavour and moistness)
1 egg
breadcrumbs
onion soup mix
Worcestershire sauce
ketchup
salt and pepper

1. Combine in a bowl the ground beef with the egg, the contents of the onion soup package, a dusting of breadcrumbs, a few shakes from the Worcestershire bottle, and a few shakes/squirts from the ketchup bottle. Mix everything together with your hands. Add more breadcrumbs if you think your mixture needs it.
2. Form the meat into patties, and sprinkle both sides with salt and pepper.
3. Whether you're cooking the burger using a grill, or pan-frying them, flip it only once. You're looking at about 3 minutes per side for rare, 4 minutes for medium, or 5 minutes for well-done.
4. Put the burger in either a bun (or in between some toast for a patty melt), and top with your choice of condiments, vegetables, and toppings.

The Alton Brown Experience

The Mr. Wizard of the television cooking show world, Alton Brown, is bringing his "Edible Inevitable Tour" to Ottawa Sunday, and when my wife told me about it months ago, I immediately booked our tickets for it. I've been a fan of Brown's since I stumbled across the book version of his groundbreaking cooking show "Good Eats". For almost 250 episodes, the show explored the science and technique behind cooking, the history of different foods, and the advantages of different kinds of cooking equipment, all in way that was both informative and entertaining. His stage show, which Brown does as a way to recharge after his duties hosting "Cutthroat Kitchen", has been described as a mash-up of a talk show, a science experiment, a multimedia lecture, a concert (apparently there will be live music), and a stand-up comedy routine. Here's a sample of what to expect, so if it looks like something you'd like to do on a Sunday evening, check with the NAC for ticket information.

  

I Watched This So You Won't Have To: "Knife Fight"

Debuting earlier this year on Food Network Canada, "Knife Fight" is a show hosted by former "Top Chef" winner Ilan Hall that pits two chefs against each other in a competition where they must make at least two dishes in one hour using a combination of two or three secret ingredients, and whatever is in the pantry. This is done for bragging rights in front of a live audience and is critiqued by Hall and two rotating judges, usually a celebrity and someone in the food industry. I've been watching this show on and off these past months, here's what I thought about the episode shown on March 5th:

• At the start of the show, Hall tells the viewer this isn't your mother's cooking show. If someone's mom had a hand in creating "Chopped", she would beg to differ. 
• Some people may remember Hall's role in the infamous "Top Chef" head-shaving incident done to molecular gastronomy douchebag Marcel Vigneron, so this show already has that going for it.
• We're lead to believe this show takes place after-hours in Hall's restaurant The Gorbals.  Reality TV being what it is, I question the idea of any chef letting a TV crew and an audience into their place after a night's service to film an "after-hours warzone". But I'm cynical like that, and I've never worked in a kitchen, so what do I know? And how underground can these after-hours chef battles be when they take place in a restaurant as mainstream as The Gorbals?
• We're also lead to believe he's been hosting these cooking contests for years. I would have thought getting his restaurant off the ground would have taken up a majority of his time, but again, this is reality TV, and all I know about the restaurant business is what I see on television, and read about in books.
• The winner of the competition gets a cleaver with the word "I win" emblazoned on it, the loser gets a smaller cleaver with the word "I didn't win" on his. Something tells me getting television exposure for themselves and their restaurant(s) is the biggest prize of all.
• Giovanni Reda is the master of ceremonies - does a cooking show really need a master of ceremonies?
• If you heard this much noise at a restaurant, you'd walk out, and bitch about the place on Yelp. There's got to be an "Applause" sign flashing in the building somewhere. I find it hard to believe that people can get that excited watching people cook. 
• Tonight's combatants are Raphael Lunetta and Neal Fraser. I'm sure these chefs are as good as the reputations that proceed them, but I can't believe the mere mention of these chefs names can cause that much of a frenzy. 
• Fun facts about the chefs: Lunetta loves surfing so much he's known as the Surfing Chef. At Fraser's Fritzi Dog artisan hot dog restaurant, you can get a sausage made with roast turkey and duck, and a sous-vide carrot for your veggie dog.
• We laughed at the idea back in the late 90's, but Kramer from "Seinfeld" with his peanut butter and jelly sandwich restaurant idea truly was ahead of its time.
• Our judges this evening are James Beard Foundation Award-nominated chef Mark Peel, celebrated chef Michael Cimarusti, and noted actress, winemaker (who knew?), and food lover Drew Barrymore. 
• No celebrity timekeeper for this week's episode. It looks like Barrymore pulled rank as the show's executive producer to get on the judging panel. The other judges may have more knowledge about food, but neither of them were in "Charlie's Angels", thus warranting the additional screen time.  
• A forty-day dry-aged rib-eye, abalone (a large mollusk), and Pacific Ocean trout are the mandatory ingredients. Other than the abalone still being live, these items don't appear to be so weird that they would throw the chefs for a loop. That being said, Lunetta seemed intimidated by the amount of food he had to use, and the time he had to cook it in. Fraser, on the other hand, seemed to take everything in stride and rolled with the punches.
• The audience is said to be made up of their chefs' friends, family, and whatever celebrities happen to be in the area. Either these chefs know, or are related to the most photogenic people in L.A., or there was a casting call for people to attend this show. That would explain the woman in the bunny ears, and the hipster in the leather fedora, unless this is how west coast foodies usually dress.
• Mollusks are hard to shuck, no matter how big they are.
• Barrymore on her foodie cred: "I had my first octopus at six years old, I never turned back." Something else that she tasted for the first time at a young age was alcohol - hindsight being 20/20, she should have stuck with the octopus. (Too soon?)
• Not hearing a lot of questions about cooking from an audience allegedly made up of foodies, just a lot of hooting and hollering. The judges though are very interested in what's going on in the kitchen, so it's good to see they're taking their job seriously.
• First dish out from Fraser: sauteed abalone with shishito peppers with a green garlic purée. Raves from the judges, though Peel wasn't crazy about the abalone.
• Lunetta seems to be having trouble in the unfamiliar kitchen, he is soon heard saying he's "in the weeds". This admission seems to surprise Cimarusti.
• I wonder who feeds the audience and the cast because the only people I see eating are the judges. Lots of people in the crowd are drinking, so I guess it's an open bar.
• Second dish out from Fraser: Ocean trout on English peas with a white carrot purée and mushrooms. More raves from the judges and some concern about whether the Surfing Chef will be able to plate anything.
• Even though he's running behind, Lunetta takes the time to properly debone the fish he's preparing. He is though ignoring the judges, and focusing on his cooking.
• Having the chefs walk the dishes out to the judging area really adds to the drama given the time constraints they're under.
• Do chefs usually carry around special spice blends with them? Seems kind of convenient that Lunetta just happened to have the spice he would normally use on a rib-eye for this competition.
• Also convenient: that Barrymore's wine just happens to be available for Lunetta to use for his pan sauce.
• A woman famous for her substance abuse issues has her own brand of wine. Think about that for a minute.
• With two dishes out to the Surfing Chef's none, I think Fraser is the clear favourite to win the competition unless Lunetta blows the judges away with his creations.
• 10 minutes left in the cookoff, and neither chef has touched the rib-eye yet.
• Lunetta announces he will walk all his dishes out at once when they're finished. The judges are OK with this.
• Third dish out from Fraser: Côte de bœuf (a fancy way of describing a rib steak) served with cheese grits and a horseradish gremolata (a chopped herb condiment). Enjoyed by the judges, with the gremolata, in particular, getting raves.
• With the clock ticking down, and the crowd chanting his name, Lunetta finally brings out his food. He presents to the judges a sea trout and abalone with a guava and citrus emulsion, and a côte de bœuf with a pan sauce made with pink peppercorns, beef fat and bones, and wine.
• Barrymore on tasting Luntta's beef dish: "It's like Christmas in your mouth!" 
• Peel liked the beef as well, particularly the pan sauce, but thought the dish was too complex and ambitious. Cimarusti liked the Surfer Chef's fish so much, he jokingly planned to steal it for his own restaurant. 
• It must be hard to judge people you know and have worked with, and admire. You can see the judges have a lot of respect for the chefs in tonight's competition.
• Lunetta doesn't like his chances of winning this contest. That belief holds true with Fraser winning, as I expected. A good time was had by all, all hail the Hot Dog King.

Bottom line: Watching "Knife Fight" is like watching a CGI car crash directed by Michael Bay - you know what you're watching is fake, but you can't help but look at all the explosions. This show is food porn on speed. But interestingly enough, after seeing this episode, I wanted to head to my kitchen and cook something, which usually doesn't happen to me when I finish watching a cooking show. If you want to learn something about cooking, watch Hall's "Eat Like a Man" series of videos. But if you want to see celebrities and hipsters pretend to care about cooking, this is the show to watch. As guilty pleasures go, this show can't be beat.

Stock vs. Broth

As everyone is aware this winter of 2015, it's as cold as fuck outside. It's no surprise the current bone broth craze is taking off, who doesn't like a bowl of something hot and tasty when it's freezing out. When you read the article, you'll see the terms broth and stock are used interchangeably. Both are liquids flavored with vegetables, meat scraps, and bones, and are used as the base for soups, and sauces. You may be surprised to learn that the two are not the same.

Both culinary schools and old wives tales will say that broth is made from meat and stock is made from bones. Stocks are unseasoned, which is why they make a great neutral base for a soup or a sauce, but pretty unremarkable on their own. What makes broths so satisfying on its own are the seasonings, like salt, pepper, or wine; a broth is essential a seasoned stock. The heated bones, cartilage, and skin turns into gelatin thanks to the collagen, which adds to the stock's body, texture, and taste. Now that that's cleared up, here's a recipe for a basic beef broth. Whether you substitute it for your morning Starbucks as some in New York's East Village have is up to you.

Ingredients

2.72 kg. beef soup bones (or a combination of knucklebones, neck bones, beef shank, and oxtail)
1 large onion
3 large carrots
2 stalks celery, including some leaves
1 large tomato
1/2 cup chopped parsnip
1 medium potato
8 whole black peppercorns
4 sprigs fresh parsley
1 bay leaf
1 tablespoon salt
2 teaspoons dried thyme
2 cloves garlic
water

1. Preheat the oven to 450 °F (230 °C).
2. Trim the root end off onion, then slice or quarter it, peel and all. Scrub the carrots and chop them into 1-inch chunks. In a large shallow roasting pan, place the soup bones, onion, and carrots. Bake, uncovered, about 30 minutes or until the bones are well browned, turning occasionally.
3. Drain off the fat, and place the browned bones, onion, and carrots in a large soup pot or Dutch oven. Pour 1/2 cup water into the roasting pan and rinse. Pour this liquid into the soup pot.
4. Scrub the potato and chop it into chunks, peel and all. Chop the celery stalks into thirds. Add the celery, tomato, parsnip, potato, peppercorns, parsley (including stems), bay leaf, salt, thyme, and garlic to the pot. Then cover everything with 12 cups of water.
5. Bring mixture to a boil. Reduce heat. Cover and simmer for 5 hours. Strain the stock, discard the meat, the bones, the vegetables, and the seasonings. Makes about 8 cups.

50 Kitchen Hacks To Make Life Easier

Anything that either saves me time, makes my life easier, or makes me look like a superstar with minimal effort, is something I like. If you feel the same way, you're going to love the list below, provided by the good people of Kit Stone.

The new food trends for 2015

Greetings and salutations everyone. Hope the holidays were good, and the start of this new year has treated you well. During my downtime, I ate a lot of good food, hung out with family and friends, and enjoyed the two cookbooks I received as gifts, a reprint of my late mom's beloved "All New Purity Cook Book", and "The Official DC Super Hero Cookbook", the closest I'm going to get to the out-of-print cookbook I loved back in my youth. To get back into the swing of things, I thought my first entry of 2015 should be a comment about this year's predicted food trends.

• The new cocktail ingredient: Tea
  Taking advantage of the millions of tea drinkers in the world, bartenders will be looking for ways to add it to more drinks. This isn't as crazy as it sounds, as several local brewers, like the Dominion City Brewing Company, have made some great beers with tea. The green tea powder matcha will also be appearing it everything from pesto to antioxidant-rich drinks due to its vibrant colour and flavour.
• The new comeback food: Foie gras
  About two weeks ago, a judge overturned California's ban on the sale of foie gras, to the delight of chefs, foie gras producers, and lovers of fatty duck or goose liver everywhere. Because of this, restaurants will soon be making foie gras the centerpiece item of haute cooking again. I'm sure the number of death threats issued against chefs who resume cooking with this controversial food will decrease as the months go by.
• The new comfort food: Uni and guacomole
  Uni is the Japanese name for the edible part of the sea urchin; guacamole is in my opinion the best thing you can do with an avocado.  Together, they are a high-end comfort food combination that makes truffled macaroni and cheese look like last year's Kraft dinner. You might need an in with the chef at your favourite gastropub to get this before it starts appearing on the menu.
• The new cooking trend: Stem-to-root
  Picture cauliflower leaves being sauteed, and served over polenta with a sprinkle of parmesan cheese; carrot tops made into pesto and fennel tops finding their way into a relish; limp celery simmered back to life with ground meat, white wine, and aromatics. With the head-to-tail movement working so well with meats, it seems logically that a similar movement would happen with vegetables.
• The new foodie trend: Taking a selfie with the chef
  Why just snap a picture of your food when you can have a picture of the person(s) who made it? Given how temperamental chefs can be about people in their kitchens, I can't see this catching on, but with all the attempts to make chefs the new rock stars, who knows? Can't wait to see how this plays out at Union613...
• The new food treatment: Pickling and fermenting
  Vegetarians won't be the only ones benefiting from this, expect to see a lot more vegetables getting a bath in either vinegary, herbal or garlicky solutions this year.
• The new kale: Various contenders
  Several vegetables are vying for the chance to replace kale as the trendy choice in the produce department. Root vegetable like kohlrabi, celery root, and parsnips (one of my favourites) is predicted to be appearing in more kitchens, along with radishes and cauliflower. As a parent with poor eating habits, my wife is always looking for new ways to trick my son and I to eat healthier, so having something new on the vegetable side of the plate is always a good thing.
• The new Starbucks order: The flat white
  All the rage in Australia, the flat white is milk poured over two shots of ristretto (the first, most concentrated part of the espresso shot), with a thin layer of microfoam on top. What's the difference between that and a regular cappuccino? Beats me, I'm still uncouth enough to order a pumpkin spice latte in the fall.
• The new taste zone: Sour
  While umami will still get a lot of attention, the use of citrus, mustard, and vinegar will be seen in everything from beverages to entrees to desserts this year. It's about time sour have gotten some of the spotlight, it's an underrated taste. Who don't like a sourball gum every now and then?