For fans of the cancelled cult comedy "Arrested Development", the wait is finally over. Seven years later, season four starts streaming on Netflix at 3:01 a.m. ET. in Canada May 26th. What would be more perfect than getting together with some friends and serving some cornballs and some frozen bananas while watching the continuing adventures of the Bluth family? Nothing, that's what...come on!
Ingredients for Cornballs
1/2 cup white flour
1/2 cup fine cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
1 egg
1/2 cup unsweetened soy milk with 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
oil for frying
Place all ingredients in a bowl and mix well.
For a savory cornball, add the following to the bowl: 1/4 cup diced onion 2 minced cloves of garlic, 1/4 teaspoon red chili flakes 2 tablespoons grated cheddar cheese (optional) Once the mixture is combined, add in the kernels of the ear of a cob of corn and 2 minced green onions and mix again.
For a sweeter cornball, add this ingredient instead: 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon 1/4 teaspoon sugar Once the mixture is combined, add in the kernels of the ear of a cob of corn and mix again.
Heat at least 6 inches of oil in a pot. Once the oil is hot, begin making your cornballs. Make each ball about 1 inch round and carefully place them in the oil. Once the cornballs are a nice golden brown on one side, flip them over. They will need to cook about 3 minutes per side. Once done, remove them from the oil and lay down on a paper towel to cool. For the sweeter version, combine 1/4 cup of sugar with another ¼ teaspoon of cinnamon in a Ziploc bag, add the cooked cornballs, seal and shake. Serve hot with drizzled maple syrup on top.
Always remember to be very careful when making cornballs. The Bluths can't stress that enough.
Ingredients for Frozen Bananas
Bunch of bananas, peeled
Equal number of popsicle sticks to bananas
Bag of semi-sweet chocolate
Line a sheet pan with waxed paper. Cut 1-inch off the end of each banana.
Insert a popsicle stick into the cut-end of each banana, pushing the stick halfway in, leaving the other end exposed for use as a handle. Place the bananas on the sheet pan and freeze 1 hour.
While the bananas get hard, melt the chocolate and butter in a double-broiler or in a bowl over a saucepan of simmering water, stirring occasionally.
Arrange the dipping decorations on several flat plates. Working with 1 banana at a time, dip it in the chocolate and turn to completely coat (spoon some on, if needed). Roll the dipped banana in the desired decorations, transfer to the sheet pan, and return to the freezer. Once frozen, store the bananas in an airtight container.
Anyone who knows me (or at least has read my May 2012 blog post) knows I'm a huge comic book nerd. I've got longboxes of Marvel and DC comics and graphic novels in my basement next to action figures of my favorite characters still in the original packaging, and I can go toe-to-toe with any Comic Book Guy at ComicCon about obscure superhero minutia. More recently, I've become a fan of the writings of the enfant terrible of the celebrity chef set, Anthony Bourdain. So you can imagine my surprise and excitement when I discovered that Bourdain has written a graphic novel called "Get Jiro!", about the world's most dangerous chef. A story that allows me to embrace both my foodie and comic book sensibilities? That was something I had to read.
Co-written with Joel Rose, drawn by Langdon Foss, and inked by José Villarrubia, "Get Jiro" was inspired by Bourdain’s favorite sushi chef, Jiro Ono. The story is about a sushi chef caught in the middle of a war between two very powerful chefs in a world where food preparation and cooking is taken very seriously. And by serious, I mean the protagonist will decapitate someone disrespecting his sushi by ordering a California roll without hesitation. With the popularity of Food Network and the new crop of food-related shows on other networks, this story is an inspired take on Western food culture wrapped around a grind-house action thriller. I'm thinking Jet Li as Jiro if Hollywood ever runs out of superheroes to make movies about, with either Quentin Tarantino or Robert Rodriguez directing. While this is a story with a lot of blood being spilled, it also had a lot for foodies to enjoy, as the artwork makes the reader appreciate the art that is making proper sushi. I highly recommend this graphic novel if you are a fan of Anthony Bourdain or comic books in general.
Not only is today is a celebration of Mexican heritage and pride, it is also the day of Game 3 in the Montreal Canadiens/Ottawa Senators series in NHL playoffs. What better way to enjoy both events than to watch the game with a couple of cervesas, some chips and some guacamole? Here's the recipe I like to use:
Two years ago, I saw a trailer for a documentary about the driven chef Paul Liebrandt that I knew I wanted to see. "A Matter of Taste: Serving up Paul Liebrandt" was playing at the Mayfair, but for whatever reason, I missed the showing, but I recently discovered it was available for rent at the Ottawa Public Library. The documentary follows Liebrandt over a ten year period, and documents the highs and lows of his career. Those include being the youngest chef ever to earn a three star review from the New York Times; to being unemployed after a dispute with the owners a restaurant he worked at (they preferred a menu of comfort food over his more avant-garde menu); to re-opening a restaurant at the request of a famous restaurateur. Liebrandt is worthy of all the hype that surrounds him, as he is as much an artist as he is a chef, and the documentary shows how focused he is at achieving the perfection he demands from his staff to prepare his food creations. The film concludes with the new restaurant's opening and the staff eagerly awaiting the review that can make or break a restaurant, the one that appears in the New York Times. If you're a fan of molecular gastronomy, or enjoy watching an artist perform in their element, you should seek out this film, as there is quite a lot to enjoy in a fast-paced 69 minutes.
Ever wanted to know what part of the cow your favorite cut of beef came from, but were too shy to ask the butcher at where you shop? Wonder no more, thanks to this handy guide from the good people at Visual.ly. It comes in handy if you want to know how to cook a particular cut of meat, and gives a general idea on how much that cut will cost. Let the BBQ season commence!
Special guest blogger: my wife, and the baker of the Franklin household, Xanklin73 If the way to someone's
heart is through their stomach, wouldn't a sample of its special dishes
tell you something about the country that it comes from? That was the
question that Team Franklin decided to explore in our latest set of
informal cooking challenges. Since we're not jetting off on any
international culinary expeditions right now, we decided to use our
kitchen as a backdrop and source all of our recipes on the Internet.
Thinking less about making something "authentic" than making something
that's just "fun", we launched into this with gusto last week.
Home cooking -- and especially baking -- have become
huge stress-relievers for me lately. As a
perfectionist-modern-feminist-turned-web-freelancer-slash-mommy-on-leave-from-her-office-job
(you get the idea), there can be too much happening and too little time
in which to handle everything. And spare time? Not a chance. That
said, home cooking has offered me an unexpectedly still oasis to
creatively problem-solve while getting food on the plate for the people I
care most about. It's the very ultimate in mutli-tasking, so I will
call that a win. Spending time in my "oasis", I've loved rediscovering
vintage cookbooks that help me learn terms and techniques that used to
be considered basic decades ago. And I love the challenge that comes
from moving from one project to another and making the tools I have work
for me.
Buoyed by such great programming like "Chopped" and
"Top Chef", my husband and I have both discovered that we both really
like expressing our creativity through cooking. We've discovered that it
is infinitely more satisfying to try or improvise a new dish until we
can do it well and make it our own than simply selecting the dish from a
menu somewhere. And what better incentive to excel than to cook for
people that you love?
Last week, I experimented with an eggless recipe for
Parkin (a ginger cake or gingerbread from Northern England). My biggest
discovery? Team Franklin really, really hates molasses. Though the
recipe wasn't a favorite, I really loved the weight of history behind it
-- origins of this dessert possibly stretching back into England's "Gunpowder Plot" of 1605 or even earlier into Viking times. A pretty impressive feat for what's essentially a one-bowl dessert. Here's a great Parkin recipe that serves up both the history and the "how-to" , similar to recipe I tried, this version includes one egg.
In honour of St. Patrick's Day, we've
tackled one Irish dish in the morning and planned another for supper.
Irish Soda bread was bumped till next year in favour of something with a
bit of sweetness. I found a wonderfully understated Irish tea cake recipe that I baked that morning. I have no idea if it's authentically Irish
but I still loved it. It's basically a simple butter cake sprinkled with
confectioners sugar. We ate it while it was still warm from the oven,
slightly more warm than our breakfast drinks . What I liked most was
that this recipe was not too sweet and presented with a nice delicate
crumb. Once this cake made it to the plate, I found it difficult to stop
eating -- especially after whipped cream and strawberries were added.
