My wife and daughter have been carefully tending out first vegetable garden and we have a small harvest: zucchinis.  I wasn’t sure what to do with them but spotted a post about zucchini fritters on Michael Ruhlman’s website.  It was a solid recipe but I didn’t have most of the ingredients so I made a lot of substitutions.

One large zucchini or two medium, shredded
one medium onion or shallot, minced
two tablespoons of fresh herbs, minced
two eggs, beaten
three to five tablespoons of flour
1/4 cup shredded cheese
one clove of garlic, minced
salt and pepper …

After rummaging around the freezer for something to eat for lunch I came across the I made last summer when I bought all those whole turkeys on sale.  Last time around I had warmed them in a pan and then seared the skin to get it crispy: it had all the flavour I wanted but was a bit chewy.
Since this was for lunch I removed the skin and put the two thighs in my trusty steamer.  Fourty five minutes later I removed one and sliced it thinly on toast with …

I enjoy all types of and use it every day.  Until last week I would buy fine sea salt and coarse sea salt for various applications.  I like fine sea salt for pasta water and quick seasoning and coarse sea salt for everything else.
Last week I ran out of fine sea salt and was going to buy some when a “slap your forehead” thought struck me and make me feel very silly.  Why was I buying fine sea salt when I had large quantities of coarse sea salt that …

I love pastrami, corned beef and smoked meat.  I’ve tracked them down in New York and Montreal to savor at every deli.  I’ve made corned beef and pastrami based on Michael Ruhlman’s recipes in Charcuterie and enjoyed them thoroughly but continue to be troubled by the cost of raw ingredients.  Brisket was used because it’s a very tough cut and nobody wanted it so it was cheap; cured, cooked and steamed it became tender when sliced thin.  Unfortunately I can’t find it for less than $6 a pound which puts …

The latest issue of Saveur covers great Roman dishes including my favourite Spaghetti alla Carbonara.  It’s very straightforward with a few ingredients most of us have on hand, if you substitute bacon for guanciale.  What sets this issue apart is at the back in their technique section: how to properly mix the ingredients.

I can’t take a food picture that great so I’m borrowing it from Saveur.  The proper technique here is to mix your bacon (, ), eggs and cheese in a bowl into a paste, add your hot pasta …

We don’t eat out a lot, but when we do with our little children we mostly get something along the lines of fast food; a burger or sandwich.  Now that they’re getting a little older and can sit for an hour or so we’ve been going out to middle of the road sit down restaurants: places in Southern Ontario like Casey’s, Montana’s, Kelsey’s.  Two things struck me when we went back to these types of restaurants: they’re not cheap and the food isn’t that good.  We can do better by …

I buy all my spices whole and in bulk or loose form from a few stores in my area including The Bulk Barn and Fortinos.  I also like to get my dry goods in the same format in manageable quantities.  Whole spices last longer than ground and everything benefits from an airtight a container as possible.

I tried a variety of plastic containers until I settled on glass canning jars.  In my area they come in sizes from 250 ml  to 1.5 l with the classic metal lid; they all come …

I was making chicken roulades stuffed with smoked pork loin and Gouda this week and was concerned with them keeping their shape.  I pounded out the chicken breasts between pieces of plastic wrap until they were quite thin, then put the ham and cheese inside and rolled them.  I then wrapped each roulade in the same plastic wrap and made a tight bundle by twisting the ends, then chilled in the refrigerator for a few hours.

After unwrapping them and breading in flour, egg and panko bread crumbs they cooked in …

I needed some lemon juice for a recipe but I only had an old lemon in the fruit bowl that had become very stiff.  I remembered reading something about heating an old lemon to juice it so I put the lemon in the microwave for thirty seconds.

Taking it out the lemon had softened considerably: it juiced very easily.  Next time I’ll remember to let the lemon cool  before cutting it open!

I’ve been buying whole pork loins lately: they come with a lovely pork loin for about two thirds and sirloin for the last third.  The loin is very nice but the sirloin on these pieces is jagged and just isn’t pretty, so I cut it off.  I find this cut works wonderfully for two applications: my and a slow roast smoked on my big green egg.

The front roast is my smoked slow roasted sirloin and in the rear is the cured and smoked sirloin.  The sirloin is a …