{"id":91,"date":"2009-11-29T17:58:08","date_gmt":"2009-11-29T17:58:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/wp_genova\/?p=91"},"modified":"2009-11-29T17:58:08","modified_gmt":"2009-11-29T17:58:08","slug":"remembering-james-barber","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/remembering-james-barber\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering James Barber"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"DSC_1526\"<\/a>A funny thing happened yesterday.<\/em> I pulled a grass-fed beef chuck steak<\/a> out of the freezer for dinner and thought of James Barber. <\/p>\n

I remembered that he had a recipe for chuck steak in an old cookbook of his that I have owned since 1983, the second cookbook I ever owned, called 'Flash In the Pan'. <\/p>\n

In the recipe you brown a huge chuck steak and then simmer it in a rich sauce you develop with onions, garlic, tomato, oregano, vinegar, cayenne and cocoa.  Yes, cocoa.  He called it Tijuana Barbecue, and it was an adaptation from a recipe he learned from a woman while visiting that infamous Mexican border town.  I don't think there was anywhere in the world he visited that didn't result in him bringing back an adaptation of a traditional recipe.<\/p>\n

Anyway, the steak and its sauce were delicious, and after dinner my wife asked me, 'When was it that James died?'  I thought for a second, then realized it was about two years ago this time of year. A quick consultation for his obit<\/a> and I had the exact answer. Two years ago today, November 29th, 2007.<\/p>\n

Was it his spirit<\/em> reaching out to guide me to that recipe one day before the anniversary ?  Nah.  I just like to think his influence continues to affect me, and affect everyone else who loved James and his no-nonsense, unpretentious recipes and food philosophy.<\/p>\n

\"IMG_8851\"<\/a> This is that cookbook, well-stained and abused.  I used it a lot in the years after I picked it up at a garage sale in Terrace, BC.  This morning Ramona and I were paging through it, noting all the recipes I had tried, as I had circled them by page number in the index, and I thought we should make another James recipe tonight in his honour.  I had a couple of chicken leg and thigh combos in the freezer, so out they came while I considered the chicken dishes in Flash In The Pan.<\/p>\n

I settled on an old favourite, Chicken Tovarich.  How could I resist after re-reading his introduction?<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

"Wolves, beautiful women in horsedrawn sleighs, ice and snow everywhere, and potatoes and vodka. You know what Russia is like.  A primitive version of North Dakota.  It was quite a shock to find that there are light, joyous, sunny dishes in Russia, food made with sun-warmed fruits, and exciting at an Italian ever imagined – all of them easy to make and most of them digestible, even without vodka."<\/em><\/p>\n

And so tonight it's Chicken Tovarich, chicken, red wine, walnuts, onion, garlic and tomatoes, with lemon juice and peas to liven it up.  Another Barber bonanza.  Thanks, James. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A funny thing happened yesterday. I pulled a grass-fed beef chuck steak out of the freezer for dinner and thought of James Barber. I remembered that he had a recipe for chuck steak in an old cookbook of his that … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=91"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.dongenova.com\/site\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}