November 7/05 – Shirley Spafford of Saskatoon and Ben Garfinkel of Vancouver are each a winner of a Chow cookbook. Thanks to all who entered. You can still enter the contest for a Michael Smith Chef at Home cookbook until November 11th. Click here for that contest page.
For those of you wondering about a contest I had running way back before the CBC lockout, it was cancelled due to insufficient entries.
Hi everyone…thank you so much for all of the wonderful entries I have had so far to the two contests running on the blog right now. However, there has been a bit of confusion regarding where people are posting their entries.
To talk about a favourite recipe passed down from a friend or relative and an opportunity to win the book, Chow, by Janice Wong, click here.
To talk about a dish that doesn’t really have a recipe you follow exactly every time you make it, and an opportunity to win the book, Chef At Home, by Michael Smith, click here.
Don’t worry, if you have cross-posted I will figure it out and put your entry in the correct draw. The Chow draw takes place this Friday, November 4th, and the Chef At Home draw takes place Friday, November 11th.
Once again, thanks for some very well-thought out, touching and humorous entries!
Don
This is the fall book season…lots of Canadian cookbook authors are traveling across the country to promote their latest offerings. Here in Vancouver, we’re lucky enough to most of them coming through, and they’re always happy to indulge me with an interview, even if I make them work a bit.
Last week Chef at Home Michael Smith visited my Vancouver condo, rummaged around in the fridge and pantry, and came up with a great dish for me to cook.
He had me cut up some chorizo sausage, then brown it in a heavy-bottomed pot. Then I added some chopped onion and red bell pepper. When the veggies had softened, I added a can of chicken bouillion and 3 cans of water, and then slowly stirred in one cup of cornmeal and a healthy wallop of freshly ground cumin, a bit of salt and pepper. Then I kept stirring the mixture until it thickened. He also had me working on a salsa made with fresh avocado, tomato, bell pepper, cilantro and hot sauce. Delicious!
The good news about these visiting cookbook authors is that they always leave a couple of cookbooks behind for me to give away. So, if you have a favourite dish that you just whip up without a recipe, tell me about it in the Comments section below, and you could win one of two copies of Chef at Home. Contest closes November 11th. Good luck!
This week on Food For Thought I chatted with Janice Wong, author of Chow, From China To Canada: Memories of Food and Family. It’s published by Whitecap Books. It’s the fascinating story of Janice’s family as they became part of Canadian cultural history by operating a Chinese food restaurant in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Part of the book includes recipes handed down to Janice and her siblings by her father.
Tell me about your favourite ‘hand-me-down’ recipe and you could win a copy of the book. No need to include the recipe, I’m more interested in the story.
My favourite recipe like this comes from my Aunt Polly, who taught me how to make ‘cassadetti’, a sweetened-ricotta filled pastry that is fried in hot oil. Crisp and flaky on the outside, sweet and creamy on the inside. Whenever I get a little bit homesick, this is the dessert I like to make. Just scroll down to the comments portion of the page and type in your entry. I’ll choose two winners at random at the end of this month. Looking forward to hearing your stories!
October 14, 2005. Here are the recipes for this week’s edition of So Much On My Plate. Enjoy!
Thai Turkey Soup Serves 4
Boiling water
4 cups homemade turkey stock or low-salt chicken broth
4 1/8-inch-thick rounds fresh, frozen or dried galangal* or fresh ginger
4 Kaffir lime leaves*
2 tablespoons fish sauce or soy sauce
4 baby bok choy, trimmed and washed
2 cups diced cooked turkey meat (about 10 ounces)
Fresh Thai basil leaves* or mint leaves
Lime wedges
(optional)
3 1/2 ounces medium-wide (linguine-width) rice noodles,* broken into 6-inch lengths
Bean Sprouts
Hot chili oil
If using the noodles, place them in a large bowl. Add enough boiling water to cover noodles. Let stand until noodles are soft, about 5 minutes; drain.
Combine stock, galangal or ginger, lime leaves and fish sauce in large pot. Bring to boil. Reduce heat to low, cover partially, and simmer 10 minutes. Discard galangal/ginger slices and the lime leaves. Return stock to boil. Stir in baby bok choy and the turkey; simmer until turkey is heated through, about 3 minutes, then stir in the noodles if using.
Ladle soup into bowls. Serve, allowing diners to top each serving with Thai basil or mint leaves, bean sprouts, chili oil, and lime wedges to squeeze over.
*These items are available in the Asian foods section of most supermarkets. Many Asian groceries in more suburban areas will carry dried or frozen galangal and Kaffir lime leaves.
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End of Season Succotash Serves 4 as a side dish
Succotash is traditionally made with corn, lima beans and bell peppers. Since I hate lima beans, I’ve substituted green beans, and given a variety of options for the corn.
Ingredients:
1 tbsp. butter
1 red bell pepper, cored and cut into thin strips
½ pound green beans, trimmed and cut into 1-inch lengths
kernels sliced from one fresh cob of corn, or 1 cup frozen corn, or 1 can of cut baby corn
salt and pepper to taste
a handful of fresh basil leaves, chopped
Bring a large pot of salted water to a boil and drop in the beans. Blanch for 2 minutes, then drain and refresh in a bowl filled with cold water and ice. Drain again. (this helps set the nice green colour in the beans and stops the cooking process)
Melt the butter in a large frypan over medium heat, then toss in the bell peppers. Sauté for a few minutes until they just soften, then add the corn, stir and fry for 2 minutes, then add the beans and mix. Add salt and pepper to taste, and stir in the chopped basil just before you are ready to serve the dish.
October 13, 2005. Well, talk about going off the rails. After a real spate of blogging, my trip to Oregon and subsequent last-minute picketing, consulting and voting took away a lot of time and energy and I let things slide.
Back To Work! On Sunday the lockout of Canadian Media Guild members at the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation ended. On Wednesday I returned to the airwaves with an episode of Pacific Palate and on Friday I’ll be back with a new So Much On My Plate. Recipes for that show will appear on my blog as my webmaster is on holiday, but I can post info here until his return. My Food For Thought items will resume next week.
Still Slimmer: All the Picket-Size Me! work paid off. Since I started weighing myself way back in August, I dropped 9 pounds, using exercise and the South Beach Diet. Exercise is the key, and since I’m getting back into the silly season for work, and lousy weather, it has been the first thing to go away. I have to get back on the treadmill, so to speak, or at least a few brisk walks every week.
New Podcast: I have detailed a few of my experiences on the picket line in a new All You Can Eat podcast. I hope to keep going with them through the fall, so make sure you click here to download the latest one. Or look for All You Can Eat at Itunes.
