As winter kicks in my new found obsession with braised meats only seems to intensify. The italian conversation ender on this topic is osso bucco. I can’t seem to think of anything funny to say about slow cooking a baby cow’s leg. Rice isn’t funny for an entirely different reason. Cute over boring, it’s all a treat though, eat it up.
Indian Food. Where spices hide all sins. I mean that in the best possible way. Any culture that can make goat taste good, can certainly make vegetarian taste good. Chana Masala may possibly be the easiest Indian dish I’ve ever made, certainly amongst the quickest. In my opinion this is the penultimate chick pea dish, second only to the mighty hummus. Before making, there is a tip to making Indian food that an Indian friend once gave me. Close all closet and bedroom doors before starting. This frankly, should be the first lesson in any Indian cooking class.
So I may have slagged off the Canadian side of my family regarding the turkey in my last post. I can only offer this as evidence that holidays were not a pure culinary disaster. This is in fact the king of holiday sides. No matter the dish, no matter the holiday, this is a requirement. In fact it was once remarked by an 73 year old woman, “this tastes like winning the Nobel prize for chemistry while at the apex of an orgasm.” I’m pretty sure that old lady never had an orgasm, but it’s certainly not an inaccurate description.
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Growing up half Canadian and half Italian lent itself well to exposing turkey for the sham that it is. Half of the holidays were spent eating the bird with all the variety of being served ‘cold’ or ‘warm’, while the rest of the holidays were spent eating things that generally had flavour. It is only fair that I went on to marry an English girl who simply demands that thanksgiving revolve around a bird too lazy to fly. A bird so lazy it makes you sleep after you eat it. A bird so lazy you can use it’s name to express discontent with other people, you turkeys! My point is that it barely seems fair. So for several years I’ve used all manner of techniques to attempt to make this bird as great as people make it out to be. This year, I think I have.
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I went to a Croatian-style pig roast this past summer and it was real good. Now that the cold weather’s here – I wanted that taste again…real bad. How could I achieve this without a pig? I pondered and pondered until I saw a real cheap cut of meat at the grocery store and thus came up with a solution: Pig Roast Style Roasted Loin of Pork served with mashed taters and Red Cale with apples and walnuts…..yum.
I could go on all day, and I encourage you to comment with your own, but what’s even funnier is adding cream and spices and calling it a meal.
Well it appears to be entirely trendy at the moment to dust off that aged Julia Child cookbook that you inherited when your weird uncle died and give the old bird’s recipe for beef stew a whirl. It is a long drawn out process, but it is good, really good. Pretty much the best stew I’ve ever had, so almost worth the effort. Be aware that you will have to eat it by dipping your hands directly into the piping hot stew and slurping it from your palms. This is because this recipe demands the use of every tool you have in your kitchen
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The earliest recipes for clam chowder date back to the ancient Mayan civilization. What is of course unclear to this day, is why they called it New England Clam Chowder. This specific recipe calls for fresh clams, unlike the Mayans who generally used canned. I think you’ll like it.