Canadian Living KitchenAid 2007 Cook of the Year Contest

Calling all Chef wannabes (me included)! This is our chance to make our mark on the cooking world!

Last years winner, Dan Roberts took the top honour for home cooks in Canada: He was named the Canadian Living Cook of the Year with his winning recipe: Stuffed Beef Tenderloin with Rösti Potatoes.

Here's how it works:

You are given a list of ingredients. You then get some wildcard ingredients to add to the list (I'm clearly adding some Domaine Pinnacle Ice Cider to the list- food judges are happier when their tipsy). You then make a fabulous original recipe and submit it. The Canadian Living Test Kitchen will choose the top 16 recipes from across Canada. From these, we'll select four finalists, who will fly to Toronto to compete in a cook-off in The Canadian Living Test Kitchen on June 22, where the Cook of the Year will be chosen by a panel of food professionals.

The winners will get to see their photos and recipes published in an upcoming issue of Canadian Living, which could be even cooler than the grand prize, a bunch of kitchenAid appliances.

For more info please check out www.canadianliving.com

PS: My buddy Hubba (see pic of her below in her office) says she's gonna win. I have $10 in my pocket that says that I get further in the competition than she does. (Okay, truth be told, it was Hubba that told me about the contest so if any of us win we owe her a cut. Its like if someone buys you a coffee from Timmy's during roll-up-the-rim time and you win a donut- you owe that person a bite.)

Great Quote from E.B. White

Hey, this completely applies to my view of cooking. I thought you'd enjoy it as much as I do.

"I get up every morning determined to both change the world and have one hell of a good time. Sometimes this makes planning my day difficult." - E.B. White

Perch, the other white fish

So, B went to the grocery store on the weekend and decided to randomly ask the fish guy what was on sale. Two things in this story are bizarre 1) Who on earth talks to the fish guy? 2) Why would you ask what's on sale? It probably means that its been sitting there for a few days.

Anyway, the fish guy says that the Perch is on sale. B gives him this horrible look, like she's just smelled my hockey bag. The fish guy responds that perch is good...really! So he gives her a recipe and she buys the fish. We made it the other night and it was great. Here's the recipe

Ingredients
1 Filet of perch
2 tbsp butter
2 tbsp olive oil
1 shallot (not a green onion but a french shallot)
1/4-1/2 cup white wine

Directions

• Warm a skillet on medium-high heat. Add the butter and olive oil. Add the perch and brown on 1 side (about 3 minutes, not more than 5).
• Turn the perch over to brown the other side. Add the wine and shallots and cook for another 3-5 minutes until cooked through. The wine, butter, shallots and olive oil turns into a great sauce so don't forget to serve it over the perch.

Honestly, this is a good recipe even if you're not a big fish eater. Try it, I know you'll like it.

Quebec Pea Soup

I got this recipe from A Taste of Quebec by Julian Armstrong which I've referenced before. It is a great Quebecois cookbook.

This recipe is for Pea Soup, Beauce Style but it is very similar to what they serve at the Cabane à Sucre.

Ingredients
2 cups dried white pea beans
2 tbsp. butter
1/2 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup chopped leek, white part only
1/4 cup smoked ham, plus ham bone
1/2 lb. salt pork
1 clove garlic
2 L cold water

Directions

• Soak peas for at least 8 hours or overnight in water to cover; drain.
• Heat butter in a large heavy hot and saute onion and leek just until tender.
• Add peas, ham, salt pork (in one piece), garlic, water and salted herbs. Bringquickly to a boil, lower heat, partly cover, and cook gently for 2-3 hours oruntil peas are tender.
• Stir occasionally during cooking, adding more water if necessary.
• Remove salt pork, cut in small pieces, then return to soup and serve warm .

Feast at the Sugar Shack

It's that time of year again, the nights are still cold with temperatures below freezing and the day is warmer. These are the perfect conditions for making maple syrup. In Quebec this is celebrated with great feasts and some good, down-home partying. This weekend my fiancé and I along with some family took a visit to the sugar shack, otherwise known as "La Cabane à Sucre".


Our visit to the Cabane à Sucre started with the traditional feast. This generally includes Quebecois Pea Soup, scrambled eggs, ham, sausage, bacon, oreille de Crisse (you can always count on wikipedia for a decent definition), baked beans, cretons and of course- all the real maple syrup you can eat, which you pour over everything. This might sound like breakfast, and essentially it is, but there's always dessert afterwards. At le Sous-Bois where we went this year dessert is buffet style and includes homemade donuts, pouding chomeur, pancakes, maple-sugar pie and grand-pères (essentially baked dough in maple syrup). Of course all of these items are perfect vehicles for more maple syrup. Below is a picture of the food from their website. I didn't take any pictures because there's no better way to destroy a camera than getting maple syrup all over it.







So, once you're done with this huge feast you go outside for Tir. This is roughly translated to maple taffy. Essentially what they do is heat up the maple syrup to further reduce it and then pour it on fresh snow. It hardens to a taffy-like consistency. You then roll it onto a popsicle stick and enjoy. It is perhaps the best reason for going to a cabane à sucre. So whatever you do, make sure the Cabane you visit has "tir a volonté" (all you can eat maple taffy).

BBQ for Beginners- Pulled Pork

Okay, it’s fine to be a beginner. Everyone needs to start somewhere. This is a warm-up BBQ recipe for those that want to get into BBQ and for those that are in the north where its still a little too cold to fire up the smoker. I applaud you, but hope that you realize what you are getting yourself into. Okay, I don't have either of these recipes written down but I know them by heart. So here goes;

Pulled Pork
1- pork shoulder roast (1.5-3 Kg)
Your fave dry rub (I have included a copy of the dry rub from a Montreal BBQ restaurant)
Your fave BBQ sauce, I recommend making your own or maybe buying the chipotle Beer BBQ sauce from President's choice at Loblaws.
some white vinegar (optional)

Instructions
The key to pulled pork is to cook is on a low temperature for a long time. If you are doing this on a smoker it will take easily 8 hours. If you are doing this in an oven, it will take 5-6 hours depending on the size and thickness of the roast.
1- Score the tough outer skin of the roast but don't remove it until after cooking.
2- Preheat oven to 250 degrees F (yes, this isn't very hot)
3- Apply the rub liberally to the roast and allow to rest until the roast is glistening (about 15 minutes).
4- Cook the roast at 250 for a long, long time, until the meat begins to fall apart. During the cooking (about every hour) you can inject or mop with a mixture of vinegar and dry rub. This should help to marinade and breakdown the meat. It is not essential.
5- Once the roast is falling apart remove from the oven and rip/shred/tear/cut the meat into small pieces.
6- There are varying ideas on how much sauce to use. Sauce is a great way to cover up mistakes and also makes it fun because everyone gets covered in sauce. So add as much or as little as you want. Some people put the meat and the sauce in a foil tray on the BBQ to keep it warm. Important to note, you only add sauce to the meat once it is removed from the oven.

Pulled pork is generally served in a bun (perhaps a kaiser is best) with some cole slaw on it or beside it. Another great side dish is corn on the cob, if it’s in season. You could also do a carrot salad or a pasta salad. Serve with a good Canadian beer like Moosehead and lots of napkins. I suggest having some hot sauce on the side for those who like it hot.

Braised Mojito Pork Shoulder

This recipe kicks off Stu's Cooking Club's Salute to Pork! This tasty little pork with some latino influences will give you something to chew on over the weekend. I got the recipe from Rene Rodriguez from the old food network show, Cook like a chef.

Ingredients
5 lb. bone-in pork, shoulder, skinless with some fat
1 bunch fresh cilantro
2 cups orange juice
1 cup juice of lime
1 cup canola oil
1/2 cup chipotle chili
2 Bay Leaf, crushed
5 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp coarse salt
1 tbsp coriander, seeds
1 tbsp ground toasted cumin, seeds
1 tbsp crushed black peppercorns

For the Mojito (any recipe with a mojito is a good one)
2 cups orange juice
2 tbsp minced garlic
1/2 cup canola oil
1 cup minced shallot
1 jalapeno, diced, seeded
6 tbsp juice of lime
1/2 tsp coarse salt
peanut oil, for frying

Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees Fahrenheit.
2. Combine all the ingredients except the pork shoulder in a food processor and mix for 2 minutes, until well combined.
3. Place the pork shoulder in a large enough bag to hold it, then add the marinade and close the bag with a twist tie. Wrap it in another bag. Transfer the pork to a bowl large enough to hold the bag and marinate it in the fridge for 2 days, turning the bag occasionally to make sure the marinade covers the pork.
4. When you are ready to cook, preheat the oven and remove the pork from the bag. Transfer it to a roasting pan, fat side up, add 3 cups of water and pour the marinade on top of pork. Cover it with foil and cook for 1 ½ hours then turn the pork fat-side down and cook for another 1 ½ hours or until the meat is almost falling of the bone.
5. Increase the oven temperature to 400 degrees Fahrenheit and discard the foil. Cook the pork for a further ½ hour fat side up until brown.
6. Remove the pork from the oven and let it sit for a few minutes. Test it with a meat thermometer in thickest part of pork, not touching bone, until the temperature reads170 degrees Fahrenheit.
7. Set the pork aside to cool, then pull the meat from the bone with your fingers.

For the Mojito
1. Mix together all the ingredients for the mojito. Then, heat 3 tablespoons of peanut oil in a frying pan and add 4 cups of pulled pork pieces and fry a few minutes until crisp on edges. Add ½ a cup of the mojito and cook for a few minutes until the liquid has evaporated, season with chopped cilantro salt and pepper and serve on a bed of salad with sour cream.

The Other White Meat

The Quebec pork industry is in trouble. (I can hear the shrieks of terror from wherever you’re reading this) To pin the tail on the pig, it's the demand for Quebec pork which has fallen. Don't worry, we still have lots of healthy pigs and healthy Quebecers to produce them. The chop of the issue is that we’re having problems exporting our pork because the Canadian dollar has gone up meaning that foreigners have to fork-over more dough to buy our pork. Additionally, there are low cost producers that are cutting the pork belly out of the price (yes, this is happening in almost every manufacturing sector). Quebec exports 45% ($1.06 billion) of its pork production meaning that it is a very big part of the pig that is at stake here (yummm, Steak).

What’s the answer? Not sure, probably a combination of things including increased efficiencies in our production plants allowing us to produce the same quality at a cheaper price. It has meant decreased wages at different plants around the province. But we can also do our part by enjoying the other white meat.

So what does this have to do with cooking?
I’m just trying to do my bit as a good citizen that cares about his pig brothers and pig sisters so for the next week I’ll post a number of pork recipes. The truth is that pork is delicious, and I’m not just talking about bacon or sausages. Not only that, pork can be very healthy as well.

So have a good week, and get ready to eat some pork.

The Quebec Pork Industry at a Glance (info from La Presse Saturday March 3rd)
- There are 4111 pork producers in Quebec
- 28,000 direct and indirect jobs (that's a lot for one province)
- $2.7 billion industry

Tortilla Soup

I was invited over to a friend's place for a Mexican themed night a few weeks ago. One of the problem's with Mexican night is to find interesting things that are different than what you generally get; tacos, fajitas, Quesadillas, etc. I've found a great option that is delicious and out of the ordinary.

My friend Laurie taught high school for two years in Mexico and made an amazing Tortilla Soup that she had picked up from the locals. Strangely enough, there's also a recipe for Tortilla Soup in the LCBO magazine this month but I prefer my Laurie’s recipe which you will find below. The soup is fabulous and certainly a departure from the ordinary. Use it to spice up your next Mexican Fiesta.

Ingredients
1 dried ancho chili de-seeded
1 tablespoon corn oil
1 medium onion, finely chopped
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
4 tomatoes, chopped
1.5 liters chicken or vegetable broth
Yellow or white plain tortilla chips
Salt and pepper
4 limes halved
2 avocados
110g feta cheese (Crodner coudn’t find the cheese they used in Mexico so used this as a substitute.)
110g sour cream
Half bunch fresh coriander finely chopped


Directions
1- Soak chili in 125ml boiling water for 5 minutes or until soft. Remove chili and chop finely. Reserve the water for your stock.
2- Heat the oil in a saucepan. Add the onion and garlic and sauté for 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes and chili and cook 5 minutes more. Put the mixture into a blender. Add 2 tablespoons of broth and blend until smooth. Return to the pan and add the remainder of the stock. Bring to a boil, and then simmer for twenty minutes. Season to taste.
3- Serve immediately in individual bowls with a wedge of lime to accompany each serving. Garnish with avocado, feta, sour cream, coriander and a squeeze of lime juice to taste.

**Laurie’s notes:
- If you can find an ancho chili please let me know. I experiment but usually use jalapeno.
- I don’t pour into a blender; I have a hand mixer and just blend it in the pot.


Thanks for the recipe Laurie!