This is what live radio is all about. Host Rick Cluff, producer Karen Burgess and technician Bert Cervo invaded the East Vancouver home of Bob and Charles at about 4:30am last Friday morning. The couple were winners of a contest is which the ‘prize’ was having the CBC Early Edition crew broadcast live from their home, 5:30am to 8:30am.
I was part of the prize. My job was to cook breakfast for Bob and Charles with whatever I could find in their cupboards, freezer and fridge. Bob and Charles claimed they didn’t cheat by shopping in advance, but they didn’t make my job very hard as they were very well stocked.
For starters I prepared a zippy fruit salad featuring banana, kiwi fruit, mango, canned pineapple chunks and frozen blackberries I found in the freezer. I did bring a secret weapon with me, a small bottle of Canadian ice wine. I made a dressing with some pineapple juice from the can, the ice wine and another surprise, a tablespoon or so of some very spicy, black pepper balsamic vinegar I found on the kitchen counter. For colour and extra crunch, I sprinkled some fresh pomegranate seeds on top of the salad.
As part of the main course, I took some strips of bacon and lined them up, slightly overlapping each other, then covered them with a healthy dose of ground black pepper, roasting the slices in the oven. In the heat of the broadcast, I forgot to drizzle some maple syrup over top of the bacon, but it was still delicious.
The crowning glory was an egg and cheese frittata. I sautéed some onion and orange, yellow and red bell peppers in olive oil in a cast iron frying pan. Over top of that mixture I poured 4 beaten eggs which had been augmented by some Dijon mustard, mayonnaise, salt and pepper and some grated Jarlsberg cheese. Once the bottom of the frittata had set, I added some slices of fresh tomato on top, along with some intensely-flavoured sun-dried cherry tomatoes Bob and Charles had harvested from their garden last summer and packed into oil. Oh yeah, and a few slices of Camembert cheese for good measure. Then the whole pan was flung into the oven and I broiled the top to puff up the eggs and melt the cheese until the top was golden brown. Yum!
Thanks to Bob and Charles for letting me mess up their kitchen, and take part in a very fun live radio show. For a few photos click here.
Do you have a beef with Vancouver Magazine as they are involved in the awards and dine out don’t you have anything good to say?, your comments surely only undermine the citys efforts to promote its restaurants, regardless 30 qualified or semi qualified judges are better than the ballot stuffing readers choice anyday. Are you sure you hung up your hat or was it hung for you. Note: on culinary sanitation–your home page photo has the veg pot on the ground–hope you don’t have a dog. RB