Adephagia 12:34 pm
This year’s garden:
2 rows of onions
1 row of lettuce 1 row of spinach. Note: next time plant another row each 2 weeks after first planting
1 row of french beans - best yield to date
1 row of yellow beans
16 pepper plants
16 tomatoe plants
2 rows of potatoes, 5 or 6 seeds per row
cucumbers - too much space
Adephagia 12:59 pm
2 large tomatoes, seeded (don’t have to) and diced
½ small sweet onion, like Texas sweet or red, finely chopped
1 to 3 jalapenos finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh cilantro, chopped
1 large garlic clove finely chopped
2 tablespoons fresh squeezed lime juice
1 teaspoon olive oil
¾ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon cumin
¼ teaspoon black pepper
Combine all the ingredients and chill for 2 hours before serving with chips.
1 ½ pounds tomatoes, seeded and cut into small dice
1 small onion, finely chopped
2 jalapeño chiles, seeded and finely chopped
2 tablespoons chopped fresh cilantro
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
¾ teaspoon salt
Adephagia 8:47 am
The garden has been bountiful this year. With 4 plum tomato plants, 4 Early Girl, 4 Bonny Best and 1 Rutgers plant I’m swimming in tomatoes. Also with 12 sweet pepper plants, 8 jalapeno plants, 4 salsa pepper plants and about 5 dozen onions, I’ve decided to spice things up a bit when it comes to canning and preserving. I’ve already replenished my canned tomato store plus a lot more, so I’ve decided to can some salsa as well to use up the abundance of peppers. (Note: this is the 1st year that I’ve really reaped excellent large sweet peppers). Here are a couple of recipes I used that produced EXCELLENT canned salsa (i.e. not the fresh, use up immediately kind which I also have recipes for).
3 quarts tomatoes, peeled and chopped
3 large bell peppers, chopped
3 jalapeno peppers, chopped
4 medium onions, chopped
1 large bulb, chopped and minced
1 cup white vinegar
1 teaspoon whole oregano
3 tablespoons salt
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (for hot), reduce the amount to make milder
Blend first three ingredients. Simmer until reduced to 2 quarts. Stir in remaining ingredients. Put 1 teaspoon vinegar in bottom of each jar. Fill with salsa and process 30 minutes in a water bath.
Servings: 4 to 5 pints
8 cups peeled, cored, chopped fresh tomatoes
1 to 2 cups seeded and chopped fresh mixed hot peppers; use more or less to taste. I used the following proportion to produce a nice burn hot salsa: 10% habenero, 10% thai chiles, 60% jalepeno and 20% salsa (or green) chile
2 cups chopped onion
8 cloves garlic, minced
½ cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon salt
¾ cup cider vinegar
¼ cup fresh lime juice
Combine all ingredients in a large pot. Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Reduce heat and simmer about 10 minutes. Pour hot salsa into hot pint jars, leaving ¼ inch headspace. Seal jars with two piece caps. Process in a boiling water bath for 15 minutes.
Family Life and Adephagia 1:32 pm
A couple of weeks ago my ’step’-Grandfather Ernie passed away. Being a WWII veteran there was a military service followed by a family service at the funeral home in Ottawa. That gave me an opportunity to visit with some Uncles, Aunts and cousins that I have not seen for 15-20 years.
It was a very interesting couple of days. We stayed at my Uncle Roger’s place. He has quite a few interests in common with myself of which cooking and computers are at the top.
We won’t delve into the computer interests as that is way to boring. But the cooking….
For the stay, Roger bought a 20lb shoulder of pork (for < $20 !!) and cooked it for over 24 hrs on his BBQ. It was magnifique and there are 2 reasons for this:
1) The Big Green Egg. The world’s greatest smoker and grill (for the price you pay). Now you’re cooking with flavour!
2) Pre-mixed rubs from www.chefpaul.com The advantage is that they are well balanced and flavourful. The disadvantage is that you’re subject to the amount of sodium put into them.
Potato Salad: the secret is mustard seed soaked in rice vineger and the mixture added to the salad. Use real mayonnaise and coarse seed Dijon mustard.
It was great to see some faces from so long ago. Everyone looks pretty much the same as when I last met them and for some reason that felt reassuring. Probably because I felt young again.
It was fun taking the brother Luc out to the Elephant & Castle at the Rideau Centre on Friday afternoon. We are able to check out some old stomping grounds. I can’t believe how much I miss living there when I’m re-visiting. But there’s no way I would ever want to be more than a visitor again. Too expensive too overpopulated and too cold in the winter.
Interesting: I flew up there for the 1st time. 1st time in the new T1 in Toronto: very nice. 1st time in the Ottawa airport: very small but easy to rent a car. For about 150 it beats the extra 6 hrs I would have spent in transit by car not to mention that awful pass through Toronto on the 401.
Some closing notes: It looks like my brother Luc’s hockey pool strategy may fall short this year. He overloaded his picks on what he thought the 2 final teams in the Cup would be this year. One of those teams are out and the other one has yet to lock in. Good luck.
On another good luck note: good luck to my uncle’s home team Sens as they have made it to the finals for the 1st time in over 80 years. Let’s hope they pull it out and bring the Cup back to Canada and to the capital city. Leafs and Habs fans should prepare to eat crow.
BBC WikipediaAdephagia 10:31 am
Last year I brought up an interesting idea that I’m more prepared to take on. I believe I have the confidence to pull this off now that I’ve had some education in creative cooking. One step closer to switching professions to the more interesting and exciting culinary world. Just need to come up with the right idea now…oh, and a little more experience.
BBC WikipediaAdephagia 3:12 pm
Last night I started a 4 week, 4hr a night cooking class with my pal Jason. It’s being offered by the Continuing Education faculty of Conestoga College. The location is at the Waterloo Campus which is on University across from the Taco Bell / Pizza Hut Cardiology Centre. It’s in the building where the old school for questionable characters used to be. (more…)
BBC WikipediaAdephagia 1:12 pm
I was reading in MacLean’s about a new trend: cooking meals at home and charging the guests. The case in study was preparing an extravagant 8-course dinner that included such items as “Foie gras soaked in red-wine”, “pan-fried striped bass with lemongrass” and “rice-milk flan with white-chocolate-pistachio emulsion”. His ingredients consisted of the finest product he could find and multiple cooking trials and tasting experiences leading up to the day of the serving. Included in the meal was wine, so for $50 in this case, a guest was receiving an 8-course 4-star (at least strived for) dinner with alcohol. That is very reasonable assuming the ‘chef’ was able to pull it off.
This concept appeals to me in several ways. First and foremost, if I am able to convince some friends to buy in, it allows me to experiment and put my skills to work to see if I show any promise in high culinary cuisine. The cost of acquiring the finest ingredients will be defrayed so the expense on my part is simply the labour and time invested - which is more of a passion to me anyway. Secondly, it adds a pressure element that kicks it up a notch over simply cooking a meal for friends and family. With money being paid, it implies an expected return. The guests will be there for the fun, but there will be an expectation of quality no doubt. And as the article explains, if a guest doesn’t like it, he won’t be able to send it back.
So my first objective is to come up with my first menu. It may seem like a cop-out, but with spring coming into bloom, I would like to show off my wizardry on the bbq. I’ve got some ideas floating around but I think the meal will be broken out into a Tapas course including lots of surf and turf that is prepared on the grille followed by a sort of sausage feast with plenty of different types of grilled sausages and an abundance of unique sides (unique pickles, sauces). Perhaps even a ’seafood’ sausage of a sort?
Anyway, I’m opening this up to you: would anybody be interested in shelling out some coin to enjoy a night of restaurant calibre dining? I would charge an amount that covers the cost of ingredients. But these ingredients would be of the finest nature, implying that the cost wouldn’t be akin to a plate of burgers and fries. But the meal received would run for at least thrice more from a restaurant.
BBC WikipediaAdephagia 1:51 pm
The weather gods are shining upon us! Saturday forecast calls for 11C in the sun. To celebrate this glorious day, some friends are coming over and I am planning to fete them with a bounty of ribs.
I’ve been cooking Ribs for several years now and I must say that I am no slouch. I can state with confidence that every person who has tasted ”Ribs a la Roach” has given them great reviews. So, for posterity and in the hopes of providing you with some new ideas to incorporate into your BBQing techniques, I will now share some of the processes I use to make my best possible fall-off-the-bone pork ribs: (more…)
BBC WikipediaAdephagia 4:38 pm
It was Chris’ Birthday last Friday and I was hoping to post a wonderful Birthday Recipe for him to try some time. But I was politically waylaid and forced to deal with foreign policy.
Now, back to some lighter sides of life. Here is a recipe that Sonia and I have tried a couple of times and thoroughly enjoyed. It takes some time and care to prepare but provides an explosion of taste that is quite unique:
Polenta-encrusted chicken with corn mash, fried bananas and green tomato relish (more…)
BBC Wikipedia