Rachel Ray saves Turkeys everywhere!

Since many of us are about to make Turkey for Christmas dinner I figured this would be useful.
I was happened to be on YouTube when I saw a Turkey 911 video featuring Rachel Ray. She talks about ways to cut down the time it takes to cook a turkey. You can watch the video or you can save time by reading the tips below.

- If you need a 20lb bird, cook two 10-12 lb turkeys instead, the cooking time is less.
- If you have a 20lb Turkey but slept in and forgot to put it in the oven on time, cut the bird in pieces and it will cook in 90 minutes.
- If you burnt your pan drippings so can't make gravy with them just create a roux by combining flour and butter, then add turkey stock which you can buy at the grocery store.
- If you took the bird out too early and its not cooked enough, warm up some turkey stock on the stove, carve up the bird and put the pieces that aren't cooked enough in the stock and they will cook in minutes.
- If you took the bird out too late and its not as moist as it should be, (Turkey Stock to the Rescue!) warm up some turkey stock in a pan on the stove then carve up the bird and put the pieces that aren't moist into the stock and they will become moist again.

Drunken Pasta

Last week I was watching Food TV (as usual) and they had a very special edition of Iron Chef America. They had Giada De Laurentiis facing off against Rachel Ray. Which was already pretty cool. Then they "Kicked it up a notch" by pairing Giada with Bobby Flay and Rachel with Mario Batali. So this is clearly an episode of Iron Chef America that is not to be missed. At one point Rachel Ray pours an entire bottle of red wine into a pot. In my mind I'm saying, "Rachel, dear, it would be easier to drink it out of a glass." She turns on the pot and uses it to boil pasta. And at this point I'm blown away, I think this is pretty darn cool. She makes drunken pasta out of it. I'm pretty impressed by the whole thing.

But then I get time to reflect a little. If I'm at home and I'm making some pasta, I really think that there is no chance that I'm wasting a bottle of wine by boiling pasta in it. Its one thing to make Coq au Vin, which is a personal favourite, but that only takes a cup or two. Here's my thought, if you're at home and you don't have a cheap bottle of wine to waste boiling pasta, use less water and throw some wine in with it. You surely won't get the same level of flavour but it won't cost you a bottle of wine either. Otherwise if you are looking to get rid of a bottle of wine from the Dépanneur (corner store if you're outside Québec) fill your boots.

As a side note they are airing that episode again this week on Wednesday night at 9pm on Food Network Canada.

Brussel Sprouts

For those of you that already know my Mom, you know how wonderful she is. Many of you that haven’t already met my Mom, will have a mere glimpse into how kind and caring she is from the next statement. I had Brussel sprouts for the FIRST TIME in my life last Tuesday night. Yes, many of you can’t believe that I wasn’t subjected to them as a child, and yes, I know my Mom rocks for not having made me eat them as a kid.

At any rate, everyone complains about them soooo much that I figured I should try them. I was making a beer-can chicken in my oven and figured it would be nice to have some roasted veggies along side. I cut up some potatoes, parsnips, carrots and Brussel sprouts. I tossed the veggies in some olive oil, salt, pepper and rosemary and cooked them in a pan beside the chicken for a little over an hour. I’ll admit that the smell leaves a little to be desired but Brussel sprouts really aren’t bad at all. All of you Brussel Sprout lovers feel free to leave a comment. Be proud of your love for the sprout!

New Kitchen Store in Pointe-Claire

Okay, so its not that new. But I had never been there before. Last Friday night I needed to get a flavour injector for someone for Christmas (it might be you) and I didn't have time to go to the place I was originally planning on so I stopped at the Pointe-Claire Shopping Centre. In the new section of the mall, along Donegani there is a store called The Pointe-Claire Kitchen Store they don't have a website but you can call them at 514-697-5855. They have great selection and great prices. When you visit you will find lots of cooking utensils, dutch ovens (le Creuset and others), cake pans, cookbooks and of course, 2 types of flavour injectors. When you drop in tell them Stu sent you.

Lunch at the Forest & Stream

Yesterday was our company’s Christmas lunch and once again we were spoiled. We went to the Forest & Stream Club for lunch. The club was founded in the late 1800s on a parcel of land on the water in Dorval, Quebec. The service is fabulous and the food is great and so I figured that I needed to make a post about it.

Christmas lunch is a festive occasion so I admit to having a dram of scotch before the meal while we were sitting by the fireplace in the living room. We were then seated in the Moose room. It is called the Moose room because there is a Moose’s head mounted on the wall. No, I’m not sure if they serve Moosehead in this room. I started off with 6 oysters which were extremely fresh.

For the soup course I somehow avoided the lobster bisque and opted for consommé. Many of you are now saying to yourselves, “Stu, what on earth were you thinking? Consommé? Stu, that’s ridiculous.” And while you might be right on certain levels, the consommé at the Forest & Stream Club is quite good, but really its about the presentation. They bring the consommé in a lovely F&S china cup and then they proceed to add sherry right in front of you. Needless to say, this is no ordinary consommé. At any rate, it is something of a classic for the Forest & Stream and I enjoyed it immensely.

At this point, they also pass around pieces of white toast with the crusts cut off, which is kind of cute, refined and at the same time feels indulgent because not since I was 2 years old did anyone cut the crusts off of bread for me.

I had the Club-style Lobster Salad for lunch and I don’t think words alone can explain how wonderful it was. It was sinful, sophisticated and sumptuous all at the same time. At this point I fall into some type of euphoric trance thinking about the meal. All I can think about is the wonderful lobster claws and tail on a beautiful bed of greens with dollops of sauces on the side in endive leaves.

How can this be topped of properly? Tough to say, but my Forest & Stream chocolate millefeuille was wonderful. It was actually quite different from a regular millefeuille in that it was round, and had chocolate mousse instead of vanilla custard and didn’t have icing on top. Keep your eyes on this blog for Stu’s adaptation. Believe me, it will be coming soon…

The gift of Great Taste

At this time of year lots of people are looking for gift ideas so I figured I would help out my readers by providing some of my thoughts about giving the gift of great taste.

People love food, eating and cooking. The proof is that I write about it on a regular basis for no benefit other than to have a good time. Much like giving knitting needles to someone who likes to knit or golf balls to someone who likes to golf, giving food related gifts is simply supporting a hobby- a delicious hobby.

Here are a few Food related gift ideas;
- Cookbook of your favourite recipes (this will be my third year giving out a recipe book)
- Recipe cards with a few fave recipes, perhaps include them in a recipe box
- Homemade BBQ sauce
- Homemade spice rub
- A jar containing all the necessary dried ingredients for a cookie recipe along with instructions on how to make the cookies
- Good olive oil & balsamic vinegar (kitchens aren’t complete without these)
- A herb garden
- Cooking utensils or appliances
- A batch of cookies or chocolates

You can get really creative with these gifts. I suggest creating a theme.

B and I have some family members that are real Foodies like us, and almost every year we exchange food related gifts. Since I haven’t identified them, and I don’t think they know about this blog yet, I can tell you what we’re giving them. We found a nicely decorated shoebox at and are filling it with some infused olive oil, good balsamic vinegar, a copy of our cookbook, homemade BBQ sauce, homemade spice rub and a flavour injector. We’ll wrap the whole thing in tissue and cellophane and top it with a bow. I know they’ll love it because they love good food and love to try new things.

A colleague of mine had a Christmas dinner theme and gave a roasting pan to one child, baking utensils to another, a gravy boat and fat separator to another and the 4th child got a carving set.
Another colleague is giving a sushi set to one of her family members. It includes bowls for rice, soya sauce dishes, plates, bamboo place mats, chopsticks, bamboo mats to roll sushi and a bamboo rice steamer.

If you have a baker in the family perhaps giving a rolling pin, cookie cutters, a silpat, oven mitts, a cookie sheet and some muffin tins would be nice. You could make a fabulous package of it all by placing it in a pastry bowl and wrapping it in cellophane.

So, go forth young Foodies and spread The Gift of Great Taste!

Tre Chic, my Chinese-Jamaican Inspiration

I was recently inspired by my good friend Tre Chic. She is of Chinese-Jamaican descent, loves to cook, loves to eat and has been a big supporter of my blog. She loved the dumpling post I did a few weeks ago. So I decided that I would make a Chinese-Jamaican meal in her honour. The menu included; jerk chicken dumplings, tostones (not Jamaican but certainly Caribbean) and then a salad which was pretty basic but none the less, its winter in Canada and you need to eat whatever fresh veggies you can get.

Below are a few pictures. But the recipe for the dumplings is very straight-forward. The filling of the dumplings is chicken breast, green onions and jerk seasoning. I was going to make my own jerk seasoning but once again I was screwed by a local grocery store that didn’t have scotch bonnet peppers. So I used some Bush Browne’s jerk seasoning which was quite good. I served the dumplings with some plum sauce which complemented the jerk seasoning quite nicely. Check out my previous post which goes into more detail about dumplings. All you need to do is replace the ginger and garlic from the dumpling filling with jerk seasoning and… *presto* you’ve got Chinese Jamaican jerk dumplings.

As for Tostones, they are double fried plantain cakes. They are easy to make and are a great and versatile side to a Caribbean dish. They look like bananas and I found they taste a lot like potatoes so would be great with a little something on top of them or beside jerk dumplings or jerk chicken. I got the recipe from a Puerto Rican site which looks to be quite good.

Ingredients
3 green plantains

oil for frying (I used a Teflon pan so used about 1 tbsp of oil)

garlic powder

salt

Directions
Slice the peeled plantains diagonally into 1" slices. Fry the slices over medium heat until they soften. Remove from oil and drain on paper towels. I folded some parchment paper, but the fried plantain in the parchment paper and then flattened with a plate to about a half an inch in thickness. The key is cooking the plantains enough so they are soft. Don’t rush this process. They should be nice and caramelized on both sides. It is best to press all the pieces first before going on the next step. Dip each piece in warm salted water and fry again until crispy. Remove from the oil and drain on paper towels. Salt them. You can then serve them with some salsa on the side or kethup or BBQ sauce. For some reason I could also see serving these with a nice artichoke dip.

Special Thanks to Tre for her inspiration for this meal and to my sister for leading me to the Tostones recipe. When they both visit Montreal next I promise to make them this meal.

If you only read 1 post from this blog....

Read this one!

"That which chiefly causes the failure of a dinner-party, is the running short- not of meat, nor yet of drink, but of conversation.”

This is a quote attributed to Lewis Carroll from Sylvie and Bruno Concluded. I came across it on page 103 of the November 2006 issue of REAL SIMPLE magazine in an article written by Genevieve Roth. Immediately upon reading this quote I was struck by a newfound context to my culinary adventure. We who love food, eating and entertaining still occasionally fall flat when it comes to dinner parties. The best meals we’ve ever had are a combination of food, drink and great conversation. But the conversation, more so than the other two components, is what makes or breaks the meal.

The article categorizes the 8 different types of people you might have at a dinner party and who to sit with who. Trying to put people into a box described in 1 paragraph is futile at the best of times, but if you need a guideline it's better than nothing. They also answer a few questions about assigning seats, place cards, kids tables, etc. It’s a good article so feel free to read it the next time you’re at the dentist or the hairdresser.

The important message was the one I got from the article was in Carroll’s quote; the right type of curry powder, Devonshire cream, or $50 Chardonnay won’t make or break your dinner party.

Some of my tips:

• Make something that won’t require you to be in your kitchen all night instead of with your guests.
• Leave your dishes in the sink while you enjoy a drink after dinner, they can still be cleaned the next morning.
• Don’t have a crowd so big that you can’t spend some time with everyone because as much as people appreciate the free food, they come to dinner to be with a friend.