The Get It Together BBQ Grilled Cheese Sandwich

You never know you'll find at your local public library until you look. I was pleasantly surprised to find "Beastie Boys Book" waiting for me at the pick-up shelf, I had reserved it so long ago I had forgotten I wanted to check it out. It was through my best friends in elementary school back in the 80s that I discovered the groundbreaking white rappers; it was around the same time I got into their future touring partners in RUN-DMC. The beat from the streets of New York made quite the impression to three kids in Ottawa's suburbs. "Brass Monkey", "Paul Revere", and the classic anthem "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" were my favourite songs from Ad-Rock, Mike D, and the late MCA, but I drifted away from the Beasties by the time "Paul's Boutique" came out. Other than "Hey Ladies", I didn't care for the sample-heavy future masterpiece that it was (all I wanted was another "Licensed to Ill"), but I have liked at least one single from every album they've put out since "Check Your Head". Though mostly written by the surviving members, the memoir includes entries by some of their famous fans turned friends, such as celebrity chef Roy Choi. As the Mac My Cheese Fest is happening this week, I thought I'd pay tribute to one of the recipes Choi contributed to this absolute must-have for any serious Beastie Boys fan; grill these up the next time you're listening to "Sabotage", or if you're still hungry after you check out the festival.

Ingredients:

250 g shredded cheddar cheese
230 g dry macaroni
225 g butter
250 mL of your favourite BBQ sauce
125 mL milk
60 mL olive oil
1 loaf of sourdough or white bread
1 pineapple, peeled and cored

1. Cook the macaroni in boiling water according to the directions on the package. In another saucepan, melt the cheese over low heat with the milk. Mix the drained macaroni and the cheese sauce together and set aside.
2. Drizzle the pineapple with the olive oil, and sprinkle with a bit of sugar and salt. Roast at 177 °C until brown and soft, for about half an hour. Take it out, chop it up,, and puree it in a blender with a splash of water. Add the pineapple mixture to the BBQ sauce and combine.
3. Spread the butter on the outside of the bread slices, then layer the macaroni mixture inside. Drizzle the BBQ all over the macaroni, then close the sandwich. Cook the sandwich on a griddle on low heat until each slice is crispy.

Random Thoughts about the 'à la carte' Food Literacy Project

"À la carte" is a series of food literacy events the Ottawa Public Library hosts as part of an effort to increase awareness about the food we eat. Recent events featured a demonstration of the popular InstantPot multicooker, and how-to-make seminar about kombucha, a drink loved by health-conscious hipsters. I recently went to these presentations, here's how things went down.

Instant Pot

• As soon as I mentioned I was considering getting an InstantPot, people were jumping out of the woodwork raving about how much they love theirs; it's like the vibrator of kitchen appliances.
• I tried to sign up for a similar demo at the Main branch in the summer, but it filled up quickly. The one I went to the one held at the Orleans branch; it makes sense to have a live kitchen appliance demo in the suburbs.
• It wasn't a packed house, I'd say about 30 people in total. I was easily the youngest man in the room by 15 years; it was an audience of mostly older women. I couldn't help notice that I was also the only minority in the audience; are non-whites just not into Instant Pot cooking? 
• The live demo was hosted by Daniel Shumski, author of the book "How To InstantPot". Copies of the book were available for sale, with Shumski adding to his book's value by describing it as an InstantPot manual with better recipes.
• I may have been the only person in the audience that didn't already own an InstantPot.
• During the demo, he mentioned how his book teaches people to use their InstantPot more like the pressure cooker it is, and not as something you throw ingredients into, press a button on the front of it, and wait to start eating. Most of those cooking settings are just set to cook at high pressure for varies lengths of time.
• From the stories I heard from the audience, those old stove top pressure cookers sent a lot of peoples' dinner airborne.
• The Instant Pot isn't as "instant" as you'd think.  If you add the time the device builds up pressure on top of the cooking time for whatever you put in it, you're looking at anywhere from 15-30 minutes.
• I was hoping one of the uses for the Instant Pot would be as a pressure fryer, so I asked about as substituting oil for water and frying up a batch of chicken like Colonel Sanders did. I was told that would NOT be a good idea, and to use only small amounts of oil in the Instant Pot on the "sauté" setting as directed in the instructions.
• Shumski cooked some butternut squash from a recipe from his cookbook, but no one sampled it because no one brought any plates or utensils. For what it's worth, it looked and smelled pretty good.

Kombucha Workshop

• For those unaware, kombucha is a fermented, slightly alcoholic, lightly sweetened tea drink. Contrary to what I thought, it's something people have been drinking since 221 BC for centuries and not something that became popular this decade.
• This demo was held at the Rosemount library. Hintonburg has changed a lot since the days I used to tag along with my dad when he went for a haircut in the area, seems only the library and the Giant Tiger down the street are still around from back in the day. Gentrification, you got to love it.
• The owner/brewer at Culture Kombucha, Wentsi Yeung, was the host. While I wasn't the only minority in the audience of 15, I was the only man present.  Single men, take note - ladies love kombucha.
• Hearing that they used beets grown by the kids at a local Parkdale school was both commendable and adorable.
• Holding the workshop in the same room the book return slot empties into was a mistake, the presentation was interrupted every couple of minutes by the flap of the slot, and the thud of books falling in a bin.
• Looking at the ease Yeung mixed a quick batch of kombucha, I was looking forward to seeing how she would incorporate the scoby, it was a bit of a letdown to see it was as simple as dropping it into a Mason jar; I expected more from a symbiotic culture of yeast and bacteria.
• I'm guessing the probiotics, enzymes, and nutrients that kombucha is known for are lost in the cocktail recipes I saw in edible Ottawa, but I can see how kombucha would be a better mixer than soda.
• Biggest takeaway from the evening: if you think your batch of kombucha has mold, assume it is mold, and throw it away. Why take the chance...
• The DIY kit we received at the end of the demonstration is resting in my fridge while I gather up my ingredients. I'll let you know how that experiment turns out in a future entry - stay tuned. 

OVERALL IMPRESSION: If you want to get out of your house and learn about food from a source other than Netflix, check out what's being offered at the Ottawa Public Library. You'll be surprised at what's being offered, and if worse comes to worst, you might find something more to your liking on the bookshelves.

Human Library - Chef

Happy 2014 everybody. Hope that the last twenty-four days of the new year have been good to you...

Have you ever wanted to pick the brain of a chef, but don't know one personally? If so, you will want to head to the Ottawa Public Library this Saturday between 11:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. to take part in the Human Library event. The Human Library allows you to have a 20-minute conversation with a person to learn about them and their experiences, essentially turning them into a human book. One of people appearing at the Main Branch is Luke Campbell, an Algonquin College trained chef who has cooked for diplomats, senators, and prime ministers, and is credited with bringing Jamaican cuisine to the nation's capital with his legendary Jamaican patties from his old restaurant Spicy Luke's. He probably won't share with people his recipes for this sorely missed treat, so this recipe from jamaicatravelandculture.com/ will have to do.

Ingredients - pastry

 1 lb flour
 1/2 cup ice cold water
 1/2 cup melted butter
 1/2 cup shortening
 1 tsp salt
 1 Teaspoon of baking powder
 1 Teaspoon of curry powder medium hot
 1 Teaspoon on turmeric or 1 drop of annotto

Ingredients - filling
 1 lb ground beef
 1 medium onion
 4 scallion (or 1 more medium onion)
 2 stalks fresh thyme or 2 tsps ground thyme
 1/2 cup breadcrumbs
 1 scotch bonnet pepper (or 1 tbsp curry powder / chilli sauce)
 2 cloves garlic
 1 cup water
 1 tsp salt
 1 tsp pepper
 1 tsp paprika
 1/2 tsp sugar
 1 teaspoon nutmeg

1. Pour the flour into a mixing bowl and stir in baking powder, curry powder, salt and turmeric.
2. Work the butter and shortening in with your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Slowly drizzle in the water until the mixture has a dough-like consistency (it should only be slightly sticky).
3. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in plastic wrap, and place in the fridge for 1 hour.
4. Cut the onion and scallions into fine pieces. Gently fry so they do not quite get time to brown.
5. Add the ground beef, thyme, garlic, peppers (finely chopped), salt, pepper, paprika, sugar and nutmeg. Fry until mixture is fairly dry, drain off excess fat if necessary.
6. Add water and breadcrumbs, and cook until the mixture has a thick, saucy texture. Set aside.
7. Roll the dough on a floured board until it is about 1/8 of an inch thick. Cut as many circles (about the size of a saucer) out of the dough as you can.
8. Place 1 tablespoon of the meat filling on one side of each pastry circle. Moisten the edges of each patty with water and fold the pastry over to make a crescent shape. Seal the edge of each patty by crimping with a fork
9. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Place the patties on aluminium foil, and cook for 35 minutes (or until golden brown) Serve the patties hot or cold.