Hot Cuisine Club Does Ultimate Poutine

Prepping the ribs

Our latest Hot Cuisine Club session was all about creating the ultimate Poutine. Sebastien came in early this morning and prepped braised short ribs, using a John Besh recipe from the Eat Like a Man cookbook. I watched them as they braised through the morning then he turned the broth into a sauce after school. Shanna pulled the beef apart while Seth and Reid cut fries. We blanched the fries for 8 minutes at 325 then fried them for 3 at 375. The fries were great just on there own but we topped them with a bit of cheese curd and then some of the braised short ribs and sauce. This was by far the best Poutine I've ever had! Nice job guys!

The sauce was a bit sweet so I would cut the sugar down by half the next time but other than that it was a great recipe. It's nice to have a bit of meat on the usual Poutine. Sort of makes it a full meal. It was great though and I'll do it again for sure. 

The Backyard BBQ

What would summer be without that big family BBQ in the back yard? Whenever I come home during the summer it has to happen and this year was no exception. It was quite special this year because my nephew Chris was taking care of the meat. He and a friend had built a new BBQ and were perfecting their BBQ skills so Chris picked up the meat he wanted to prepare and I set it up for the grill. We smothered the prime rib with garlic butter and herbs, then put the fat cap back on and tied it up. Three pork roasts were seasoned differently, one with Chinese 5 spice, one rubbed with my Northern Smoke spice rub and believe it or not, I can't remember what we seasoned the last one with. We basted the 5 spice rubbed roast with pomegranate molasses during the last half hour or so and that was the best. Grilled garlic chicken sausage from Hilltop Farms and garlic butter soaked grilled corn rounded out the meal. It was one of those meals that seems to taste better when all the family was around to enjoy it. Way to go Chris! We did a pretty spectacular job!

St. Jacobs Market

So many berries!!

Mom picks out a  cabbage.

Whenever I travel, one of my main objectives is to visit as many food outlets as I can find! The St. Jacobs Farmers Market in Ontario is the ultimate jackpot! There is so much food there and it looks so good that you just want to buy everything! I went this morning with my mom and was pleased to see a ton of local Ontario produce. Lots of cherries, berries and peaches to choose from and a big selection of fresh vegetables as well. We picked up peaches of course, some carrots, potatoes and cabbage and also fresh corn for dinner. We stopped at the Hilltop Acres Poultry Products and picked up some garlic turkey sausage to go with the corn as well.

Corn and sausage on the plate!

Corn and sausage on the barbie.

The corn and sausage went on the BBQ later in the day. I slow roasted the corn, brushing it with sage butter near the end and grilled the sausage, basting it with pomegranate molasses when it browned. A bit of fresh greens went with the corn and the salad and I washed that all down with a cold Organic Lager (or two!) from Mill St. Brewery. Great meal.

South African Food

A Taste of Africa

I travelled to Richards Bay in South Africa with the St Patrick High School Interact Club to visit the Grantleigh School and to help out in some orphanages and crèches. Of course while we were there we did a few tourist things as well and as always, I did my best to taste as much of the local food as possible!

My hosts for the first few days were Karen and Dudley and they started me off with a great meal of Bobote, rice and pumpkin, complemented by a Melktert for dessert. Very nicely done Karen! The Bobotie was made with nicely seasoned ground beef with raisins and a kind of custardy layer on top. Simply delicious! The squash and rice were great accompaniments for it.

Although was winter there and I missed the harvest season, I was able to taste some nice South African fruit. My day usually started with some of the best papaya (paw paw)  I have ever had! Perfectly ripe and nicely sweet, papaya has great taste and texture as well as some restorative properties. Pair that with melons and yogurt and you’ve got a great start to the day! I also tasted a couple varieties of oranges and apples as well as something that looked like a passion fruit. This we found on a walk with Pete through his son-in-law’s farm near the Grantleigh School. Pete spotted it on a vine that kind of curled through the other trees and picked it off. He pulled out his trusty Swiss Army knife, cut it open and we both had a taste. Although it wasn’t quite ripe, it was still delicious and only a bit sour. I think it would have great taste if it were fully ripe. I’ve seen people on the side of the road with fresh pineapple for sale, sometimes a whole pickup truck full. We were able to purchase some at a fruit stand in St. Lucia. One pineapple cost 5 rand. They sliced the peel off for you and handed it to you stem down so you could eat it like a popsicle.

 I get the impression that South Africans normally drink instant coffee, and although I’m not sure why, I quickly became used to it, especially if I had a Rusk to dip into it. A Rusk is sort of like a cookie as far as I can tell, completely hard and dry, sort of like an Italian Biscotti, but it quickly softens when dipped in your coffee and it also takes on the flavour of the coffee.  And speaking of coffee, I had a fabulous Cappuccino muffin at a little café at the boardwalk (mall) that was paired with a delicious cup of Red Tea Cappuccino! I’ve never had red tea or tea cappuccino but I must say it was delicious. There was a nice foam on top with a swirl of honey which really went well with the taste of the tea.

I was happy to see that the students we were travelling with got a taste of South Africa as well. They stayed with host families for the first few days so they had their evening meal with them and the hosts sent them off to school with some nice snacks and lunches as well. Jackson ate a wild boar and antelope pie and loved it. Wish I could have tasted that one!

The Grad Cake

 For the past few years my Foods 20/30 class has been responsible for creating the Grad Cake. This year we tried to tie the grad cake to the theme of the dry grad, which was Greece. I'm not sure who's idea it was but we ended up trying to produce a cake that looked like the Parthenon. We used 8 recipes of chocolate cake, 3 recipes buttercream, containing 36 cups icing sugar, plus 2 recipes fondant icing, containing another 4 lbs icing sugar. We also made one recipe of pastiage for the picture frame and grad sign. We ended up with a pretty good cake but more importantly, had fun doing it and learned something about cakes in the process. Thanks to all the students who were involved. Nice job!!

Natalie, Mellissa, Joe Denns, Brendan, Tyler

Poutine? I did it my way!

Kids (and adults!) are always raving about Poutine, asking me to make it for lunch but I just don't get the attraction. I mean, potatoes, cheese, gravy. What's the big deal? Seems like it's Quebec's national (wishful thinking) dish. It certainly is popular not only in Quebec but all over the place. Even KFC has the stuff! Their version of it anyway. Probably made from a secret recipe with 11 different chemicals and additives! I was inspired recently though by an appearance by Chuck Hughes on Iron Chef America. He made his version of Poutine while competing against Bobby Flay, and he won! With Poutine against one of the best Iron Chefs ever! So I thought I would give my own version a try and this is what I came up with.
I wanted to make a really rich gravy so I started with short ribs. I braised them nice and slow until they were just about falling off the bone then let them cool overnight in their own cooking liquid. I wanted to serve some roast striploin with it so I used the trim from that to make a bit more stock then let that cool overnight as well.
The next day I removed the short rib meat from the bones pulling off all the trim and breaking the meat up in small peices. I started a roux in a large pot then added the bones, the stock and the braising liquid from the short ribs with other flavouring ingredients like garlic, onions, herbs and spices, tomato paste etc. I also reduced about a half bottle of red wine I had left over from the night before and added that to the pot. It cooked for about two hours, simmering slowly and thickening up nicely while developing a really rich meaty flavour.
In the meantime I put on some oven roasted potatoes to take the place of the fries. Lots of my special Northern Smoke seasoning blend, fresh thyme, onions and garlic and roasted to perfection! The strip loin was in the oven roasting with the potatoes, almost done...
I strained my gravy and added the short rib meat back to it, sort of like a beef stew but more gravy than meat if you know what I mean. A freind of mine brought over 4 of those little bottles of port, you know the ones you find in the mini bar of your hotel room or like they serve you on the plane? Anyway I dumped those in and checked the seasoning and called it done. Very rich and meaty flavour!
And for the plate, a few roasted potatoes, a generous sprinkle of cheese curds, lots of gravy with bits of short ribs in it and a slice of roasted striploin to finish it off! Now that's poutine!! My Way!!
It was so good I did it again the next day but left off the strip loin and added some grilled veggies! Yummy!

Fish Fry, Northern Style.

Every once in a while I have the opportunity to cook in a setting that's a little more challenging than my kitchen. A few weeks ago I went with a group of friends to check fish nets set up on Great Slave Lake, about 10 km out of Yellowknife. It was a great day with plenty of sunshine and fairly mild temperatures. There were about 20 people there, riding out on nearly as many snow machines.
When we arrived at the site it was pretty quick work for the guys to pull up the nets. We were rewarded with about 20 whitefish, 2 lake trout and 2 pretty big inconnu. Working quickly and skillfully, the 20 whitefish were filleted and readied for the pan. While they were doing this I was readying the pan and setting up the cooking station.
I brought with me buns, a bag of crispy cole slaw, a bowl of feta dill dressing (feta, mayo, sour cream, white balsamic vinegar, fresh lemon juice, fresh dill, salt and pepper) and a seasoned flour mix. The flour was flavoured with my own Northern Smoke spice blend with a bit of curry powder added for good measure. The whitefish fillets were dredged in the flour and fried in hot shortening. The fillets were then placed on the buns with a bit of the feta dressing on the bottom and topped with the cole slaw. This made for a pretty tasty sandwich. Of course, have that great fresh whitefish was what really made the meal. Having it on the frozen ice of Great Slave Lake made it, well, priceless!