Steak and Kidney Pie

Sorry for the long absense, I was getting used to my CSA basket which let me eat salad everyday for a month and that’s just not right for a single guy that wants to talk about music and food. Next thing you know I would written about the virtues of Sarah McLachlan and Celine Dion. AIN’T HAPPENIN’!

To keep within arm length of the macho posturing here is something that should please the meat eater amongst you. Yet I have a little something for the chicks too (this is getting out of hand, please excuse any chauvinistic remarks until the end of this post, gotta keep character. Plus, let’s pretend Writer, or Jennifer, pissed me off with her feminism nonsense.) Steak and kidney pie is one of those super easy things anyone can do with a few minutes, and almost a couple of hours of looking into. Ladies, this is perfect to hang around the house and cleaning up shit, for the boys just watch some footie until this thing gets done (this is a British recipe after all, I had to slip something like “footie” in there. Spot the next Englishmanism and win a pat in the back.)

Alright, before everybody freaks out, yes I didn’t make my puff pastry. I tried 3-4 times and I suck at it. Sue me. Go plead for some at you’re local pastry shop or buy the frozen stuff. There are a few organic frozen pastries out there, so please try to find those. To accompany the kidney pie, I have already pickled a few beets, old school style in vinegar, sugar and salt. And to please my mother I sautéed some zucchini with some green onions and some garlic scapes pesto (all recipes coming up after the kidney pie.) Here we go:

 

Steak and Kidney Pie

• 1 pound of Beef Chuck or any other stewing beef will do. Cut in 1” cubes or so (no fuss necessary)
• 1 pound of Beef kidneys, Pork kidneys work. Membranes removed and cut in 1” cubes (NO FUSS I SAID!)
• 1 large onion
• 2 cups of beef stock, or 2 cups of Stout beer if you like, or combination of
• 2 tablespoons of butter
• 2 tablespoons of flour
• 1 bay leaf
• 4 juniper berry
• 1 egg
• Salt & pepper
• Oil to fry

In a large pot, over high heat, throw some oil in the pot and the oinions. Let the onions start to caramelize and all the beef and the kidneys. Brown on all sides and add the liquid to the pot. Scrape the bottom of the pan for the good stuff and lower the heat to a simmer. Add the bay leaf and juniper berries and cover. Cook for a good hour and 15 minutes. Check sometimes to make sure you have enough liquid (should not be a problem.) Mix the butter with the flour in a bowl to make a paste. Add this paste in bits around the pot after the hour and some of cooking, let the sauce get thicker and take off the heat.

Pre-heat the oven at 400 F. In a deep pie dish or a few smaller container (like I have used above) fill the containers with the sauce and meat. Roll out the puff pastry and cut the pastry into manageable pieces for you container, or let intact if in a pie dish. Dispose over you container and pierce a hole to let the steam go hot. Beat the egg and brush the egg on the pastry. Put the pie in the oven for a half hour.

Eat!

Pickled beets

This is not really a recipe but a serie of rule of thumbs. Depending on the veggies, you will get different mileage. I poach my beets, you could do them raw but it will be a bit different in texture, but I also do them al dente, I hate mushy beets. So I peeled the beets and cooked them in salt water for 15 minutes for the sizes you see above, basically you have to gage how you like them and do accordingly. I then put enough vinegar to cover my beets and added ¼ of the volume of the vinegar in salt and 1/8 of that in sugar. Heat until the sugar and salt is dissolved. Let cool and pour over the beets in a sterilized jar.

Garlic Scapes Pesto

• 3/4 cup of pine nuts
• 1 ½ cup of grossly chopped Garlic Scapes, with the flower removed
• ½ cup of olive oil
• ½ cup of grossly chopped basil
• Salt and pepper

Toast the pine nuts in a frying pan for a few minutes over medium heat. Put all the ingredients in a food processor and pulse into oblivion, or rather a paste. Put the in the fridge and use everywhere as in pasta and as condiment for fish or in vegetables like in the little recipe below.

 

Zucchini Sauté

• 1 green zucchini, cut in julienne or something relatively small
• 1 yellow zucchini cut in julienne or something relatively small
• 2 green onions, minced
• 2 tablespoons of garlic scape pesto
• some olive oil
• salt and pepper.

In a frying pan, over medium heat, put the oil in and wait for it to get hot. Add the onions and once they start sweating, add the zucchini. Once the zucchini start sweating add the pesto and let the flavour marry for a few minutes and serve.

Tunes : Has to be Five Roses from Miracle Fortress. The good press it has been given is totally deserved. Graham has written this little gem of a pop album that really brings his quirks together while keeping melodic and interesting throughout. He managed to create this really deep production with complex arrangements and kept everything light and fun. Really nice album. Plus, it’ll please your lust interest and you might get her in in the sack for it (remember I said to excuse me until the end of the post?)

Lobster Story

This will be an unusual post for this blog. This is a story about lobster. This is a story of family, good times spent together, breaking myths and quite a bit of gluttony. This is dedicated to my mother.

Back in the early stages of my parent’s marriage they went to a popular trip, back then, for Québec people to do the “tour de la Gaspésie”. Gaspésie is the most eastern peninsula of Québec’s south shore of the St-Lawrence river. At the very start of the region, they stopped in what looked like burger shack in Ste-Flavie. Ordering lobster, they would change their, and all of our lives forever. Sitting on a picnic table, the lobster was served, directly out of a meatlocker, unprepared with a bottle of mayonnaise with a drink of Coca-Cola.

The lobster was plainly the best they’ve ever eaten. As they worked messily through their lobster it became quite clear that the mayo, cold lobster and Coke is something only deities can dream of. Alright, this sounds like a lobster roll type of thing but it isn’t, it is more than that. For the foreseeable future, this shack by the side of the road would be a destination of choice, every spring. My parents would pack up the kids, travel close to 4 hours to eat lobster and then come back.

I remember being very young and going there and eat a hot dog because Lobsters looked icky. I remember,a few years later, enjoying my lobster like it was chocolate cake, having finally seen the light, and making fun of my younger brother and his ketchup-filled hot dog. I remember coming back from there, laying in the hatchback of the car belly filled the precious meat and going to sleep.

Unfortunately, at one point my father decided that it was a bit insane to travel 8 hours to eat lobster. A few unsuccessful tries of more accessible lobster had us longing for the ride. Then, one spring, while we were at my grandmother’s place came the epiphany: the lobster longed for. The lobster from a fishmonger close by. The two wonderful ladies running the place knew lobster and they cooked it just the way we wanted. From then on started a tradition that still is in place today.

My mother’s birthday is always around the Mother’s day weekend. It just so happens that Mother’s day weekend is also the second week of Lobster of les Iles de la Madelaine, a small archipelago in the gulf of the St-Lawrence river, a place particularly known for its lobster (think like Maine is to Americans.) So from then on, the person closest to that fishmonger would pick up an amazing pile of lobsters and get to my parent’s place and we would celebrate my mother’s birthday by gorging ourselves with lobster. Only lobster.

One thing that is also particular in this process is that most people will say that the best way retain the full flavour of the lobster is to cook it in only sea water. The fishmonger we buy it at, do cook it with sea water but with the important addition of a court-bouillon. This gives a subtle taste to the lobster than makes all the difference.

As I explained earlier, we eat lobster with mayonnaise and coke. To this day, nothing has changed because even though I have eaten lobster in many other ways, this is simply the best way, the closest to the product and the tastiest. We don’t eat it with fancy home made mayo either, I tried it once and it wasn’t the same, we use Hellman’s.

We don’t prepare it in anyway before it is at the table. We take it from the iced cooler and dump in an empty plate. That’s it. You take care of going through the messy process of getting the meat out of there. Juices fly. Fat flies. Everybody has a smile on his face. We all have our own process to eat it too. My father open it all up and takes out all of the meat then goes to work. I start by sucking the legs, then move to the smaller claw and arm, then the bigger claw, then tail and finally sucking on the little flaps at the end of the tail. Once I am finished I give my carcass to my father so that he can eat the insides, because I am not that fond of it. Taking a nice piece of meat, dipping into the mayo, and right at the second the lobster disappears in your throat, taking a nice sips of coke, that bubbles in your mouth… it is ecstasy.

There is a notion that is perpetuated by restaurateurs, fishmongers and even fishermen that 1 ½ pound Iles de la Madeleine and Gaspésie lobsters are the best. I call bullshit. The best lobsters, to me are the 2+ pounds. Because of that, we eat 2+ pounds lobsters, usually two of them. At the end of the meal, we are usually way beyond the point of being satiated.

More than anything, this is a way to be together and celebrate the most important woman in my life. Enjoy a messy meal, like children, with the people I love. The only thing missing for the past few years was my brother, away in the Hong Kong he chose to make his life in, hoping that he will return to share this once again in the future.

Merci Maman pour être là

Broiled Quails and Mushroom Risotto

 

Risotto is one of those dishes that either blows you mind or leaves you cold. When well done it is pure joy: incredible soft texture, and more flavour than any other rice dish I know with so small an ingredient list. Even though rice is usually a side dish, here I think it steals the show, not that the quail was any bad, it was quite good actually, but the risotto just shines. Also, this risotto recipe gives a low cost and easy alternative to use stock to wet the rice. Without further ado:

Risotto:

• 3 cups of hot water
• ¼ cup of dried portobello
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 ½ cup of arborio rice
• ¼ cup of shredded parmigiano reggiano

In a bowl, pour the hot water over the dried portobello (other dried mushrooms work fine too) to re-hydrated them. Let the mushrooms steep for anywhere from 15 minutes to 30 minutes. Take out the mushrooms out of the water and reserve. Add the salt to the water. In a medium saucepan over high heat, melt the butter and once it is bubbling add the rice. Let the rice cook in the butter until it is starts to brown, then ladle a nice portion of the mushroom juice. Stir continuously, preferably with a wooden spoon, until the rice has absorbed most of the liquid, then add another ladle of mushroom juice. Repeat ladling the juice until the rice appears cook, test the rice from time to time. The rice should not fall apart completely, it should still retain a tiny bite to it. Once it has reached proper texture, remove from heat and add fold in the parmigiano.

The quail was mostly stolen from an Epicurious recipe. The original recipe was asking for a butter sauce I really didn’t feel like, so here is what I did:

Quails:

• 6 partly deboned quails
• 8 allspice
• 2 tablespoons of cayenne pepper
• 12 peppercorns
• 4 sprigs of thyme
• 1 tablespoon of kosher salt

Garnish:

• Wedges of lemon

In a mortar I put the allspice, peppercorns, salt and cayenne and pounded until a coarse powder, add the thyme leaves. After removing the backbone and thoracic cage of the quails I rubbed them with the spice mixture and reserved in the fridge for half an hour. Once you have finished that risotto, place one of the grill of you oven in the upper parts, where the quail will be approximately 2-3” of the element, start your oven on broil and let it heat up for at least 5 minutes. On a grill, place the quails upside down and place in the oven. Cook for 4-8 minutes depending on your oven, when the quail starts to char in a few place, turn over the quail and return to the broil for same amount of time.

Serve on the risotto and squeeze a wedge of lemon on the quail.

 Tunes: Cerberus Shoal are one of the leading improv rock-ensemble I know. They go to so many avenues to create their music that from one album to the other everything is entirely different. Not only does that keep things interesting whenever you buy an album it also lead to massive consumption of their important discography, much to my wallet’s desperation. I recommend Chaiming the Knoblessone because it works so well with this dish, melodic and challenging much like the spice of the quail and the buttery goodness the risotto marry.

Pseudo Mole Beef (served Taco-style)

Mole paste

• ½ cup of almonds
• 3 allspices
• 2 cloves
• ¼ teaspoon of fennel seeds
• ¼ teaspoon of peppercorns
• ½ teaspoon of salt
• ½ teaspoon of whole cumin
• 1 2” stick of cinnamon
• 2 dried bird chilies
• 1 fresh bird chili
• 3 cloves of garlic
• ¼ cup of 70% cocoa chocolate

Stew

• 2 pounds of beef chuck, in 1 to 1 ½” cubes
• 1 onion minced
• 1 large tomato, minced
• 2 cloves of garlic minced
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• 3 cups of beef stock
• Mole paste

Garnish

• Old cheddar

As I was getting used to making those awesome tortillas that Robert Rodriguez showed me how to do (full lard tortillas are maybe a little more neutral in taste but they are easier to work with and somehow seem to have a fluffier texture), I was also looking for ways to use them. One of my favorite things to eat in Mexican restaurants is anything drenched in mole, the wonderful chocolate and nut sauce that is made in different regions of Mexico. Now, proper mole has dozens of ingredients and everybody and their mother has its own way to do it. After some research on the net there was no way in hell I was going to run all over town to get spices and the other stuff needed, so I made with what I had, which is still quite a bit of stuff.

 

I learned that making mole paste was first. Roast the almonds, either in a 450 degrees oven or in a frying pan, making sure to keep an eye on them so as to not burn them. Roast them on both sides. Dump the almonds, the garlic, all the spices (break up the cinnamon prior to that or pound it in a mortar), the chilies, salt and peppers in a food processor and pulse into oblivion. Once into a fine, or fine cornmeal, texture, add the chocolate and make a paste. Reserve.

 

In a dutch oven or a stockpot, over hight heat, add the oil and brown the beef cubes. Once browned on all sides, add the onions and garlic and cook for about a minute to brown a bit. Add the stock, the tomato, stock and mole paste. Bring to simmer, cover and cook for at least 1 hour, preferably 2. Check up on the pot every half an hour, every 15 minutes near the end because the sauce could dry up, add some stock or water to bring it back. Ideal texture after cooking should be very thick, something even thicker than Béchamel. If it is not, up the heat a bit and reduce a bit and keep stirring so that it doesn’t stick.

 

I served taco style by putting them in a hot tortilla and garnished with a few slices of old cheddar.

 

Tunes: I know absolutely nothing about Mexican music and since what I have done is not nearly as authentic to warrant some authentic Mexican music I decided to forgo any attempt to remain close to the subject matter. So, I decided to go something that makes me happy and one of the most criminally underrated Montreal band in the past few years: the Unireverse. This trio of synth enthusiast create incredibly fun and interesting originals and covers with one drum machine, a few other electronics and three vintage analog synths. On Plays the Music, the Unireverse just create eight songs that make your head bob up and down for an hour uncontrollably. Awesome.

Oxtail

Seeing some beautiful oxtail in the counter of the butcher, about the first time I was seeing decent tail forever (please…), just got me excited to make some. I had read Becks & Posh’s account with Heston Blumenthal’s oxtail recipe that completely convinced me not to make his, but the results being that good leaned me towards his ingredients at least. Blumenthal doesn’t go easy on the expenditures, his recipe cost B&P’s a 100$, something I was not willing to spend. So I decided to go easy on the wine, using my usual cooking wine: wine in a box. It ain’t the greatest wine but once reduced to hell, what difference will it make really (a big one would say Blumenthal, none would say my wallet). Also, the time factor of the recipe is a bit much, not cooking time.

• 1 oxtail, jointed
• 1 bottle of red
• 2/3 cup of port
• 2 medium onions, minced
• 3 carrots, minced
• ½ pound of bacon, minced
• a few sprigs of thyme
• 2 bay leaves
• 2 cloves
• 3 allspice whole
• 1 star anis
• the zest of 1 lime
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of oil

With that said, I decided to take normal braising technique, similar ingredients and long cooking time to achieve the results. Heat up on high a dutch oven on the stove. Pre-heat the oven to 250 °C. Season well your oxtail, throw in a tablespoon of neutral oil (grapeseed or canola) and a tablespoon of butter. Add the oxtail and brown well on all sides. Reserve on a plate for a little while. Add the bacon to the dutch oven and brown well. Reserve. Throw in the onions and the carrots (I did not have leaks and celery but the recipe called for it and it would probably be beneficial to add it right here) and brown. Once the vegetables browned, add the bacon and oxtail back to the dutch oven and cover with the bottle of wine. Add the bay leaves, thyme, cloves, anis, zest of the lime to the oven and bring the liquid to a low simmer. Throw in the oven and wait for a 3 hours. After 3 hours, add the port to the dutch oven. From that point on, verify the amount of liquid every hour or so and add a bit, ¼ -1/2 cup or so, of water if you level goes lower than the mid height of your oxtail pieces. Cook for at least 4 more hours.

After the cooking is done, remove the oxtail pieces from the liquid and strain the liquid. Put the liquid in a sauce pan and bring to heavy boil. There should be enough fat in there for the liquid to emulsion, reduce by a third or a half depending on how much you have left, but have enough sauce for your oxtail (I know this is a bit approximative but you have to “feel” this one out.) Adjust seasoning (it should need a significant amount of salt.) Plate the oxtail, pour the sauce over it and mince some basil and throw it over it with a sprinkle of sea salt (or sel the Guérande). Enjoy! I served with some quick and dirty steamed vegetables, bok chois in this case, with a bit of butter on them.

Tunes: This meal is so sweet and tasty, I would think something similar would be appropriate. For the the cooking, I would go with something a little funky like Prince’s 1999, one of his great album that combine, funk, rock and dance seamlessly while keeping things catchy throughout. For the enjoyment of the oxtail, I would recommend something a little more bittersweet like Michael Gira’s Angels of Light, with Everything is Good Here/Please Come Home. This album is what won me to Angels of Light, after a few years of denying that the leader of Swans could be so different, but it all made sense with this one. Further along the way I came around on the other Angels of Light material but this one breached the gap.

Poutine au Foie de Veau

This time I show where I am from. Poutine is a strange, to some, concoction made of fries topped with cheese curds and gravy. This thing was introduced to the world in the town of Warwick, Québec, Canada, apparently in the 60s and has since become an essential part of any grease spoon diner in Québec. There has been a few attempts to reinvent the Poutine, probably none so successful as the Foie Gras Poutine at le Pied de Cochon, that I visited recently.

 

 

 

Before going all the way and trying to reproduce that one, I thought I’d try it with something a little less on the expensive side, still amazingly good, veal liver. I have tried all sorts of Poutine in my days, from sausage to steak and all sorts in between but I’ll be honest, this one ranks high, very high. On to the recipe:

• 2-3 medium sized russet potatoes cut in fries shape per person (ideally not too long, 1”-1 ½” long is good.
• ¼ cup of old cheddar (I had a five year old) crumbled into small pieces per person
• 1 nicely sized cutlet of veal liver per person (a quarter inch thick)
• 1 teaspoon of oil
• 1 table spoon of butter
• Frying oil
• Salt and pepper

Gravy (for 1 Poutine):

• 1 glass of red wine
• 1 cup of brown beef or veal stock
• 1 small onion, minced
• 1 clove of garlic, minced
• 1 tablespoon of butter
• 1 tablespoon of flour
• Salt and pepper

I don’t have a fryer so I fried in a stock pot so I put my frying oil in the pot and put it over medium heat to warm up first. If you have a fryer, start it up for frying. In a sauce pan over high heat, brown the onion for a few minutes, add the garlic, fry for 30 seconds and add the stock and the wine. Lower the heat so that it just bubbles away. This will have to reduce by half, in the meantime start your fries.

 

I do my fries the French way, cook them first in medium heat oil, for a few minutes, then brown them over high heat just before service. When doing the first pass, just dump a whole lot in at a time and don’t worry about the oil descending in temperature, it just will take a tiny bit more time but will save you time in the end. Reserve them on paper towels when the fries seem cooked through, you’ll see they will be all limp. Don’t let them brown! If they brown your oil is too hot.

 

 

Now this becomes a little tricky, everything should be done at the same time but if you are quick you will be able to pull it off. First, bring your frying oil to a piping hot temperature. In another sauce pan, cook a brown roux with the butter and the flour (in short melt the butter, when it is melted just add the flour and cook the mixture until it is nice a nice brown-caramel colour). Once the roux is coloured, add the reduced sauce and see it become all thick and wonderful. Remove from heat and reserve. Start browning your fries in the oil in small batches and then reserve on paper towels. Then put on a frying pan on high heat, melt the butter in the oil and add your previously seasoned liver. Brown it well on each side, for a minute or two on each side (depending on how rare you like it). Slice the veal liver into bite size pieces. Adjust seasoning on the gravy if necessary.

 

 

Plate it this way: Fries at the bottom, sprinkle the cheese on top, add your liver and pour the gravy on top. Awesome stuff.

 

 

Tunes: Shalabi Effect – Unfortunately. This is an awesome improv record from one of the most experienced experimental artists in the Montréal scene. This was recorded over a three day stay at an art gallery a few years ago and shows everything the band can do. From Middle Eastern grooves to face melting noise experiments. Incredible record.

Octopus Stew Provençale with Soft Polenta and Roasted Pepper Squash Purée

First things first, there is not much that is “Provençale” in this recipe past the fact that it is inspired by the cuisine of this region and includes some of its staple ingredients (thyme, capers, olives etc..) Even though Polenta is said to be Italian, the recipe has traveled to France a long time ago and is commonly found in the cuisine of some of the regions of the country (perhaps notably in Corsica where polenta is done with chestnut instead of corn.)

 

According to some sites and chefs, Polenta is a complicated process and takes quite a bit elbow grease. I just think these people are out of their mind. There is a few principles that need to be known: Throw that instant polenta to the garbage, the longer polenta cooks, the better it gets and you need to stir every 5 minutes, not exactly what I think is a difficult operation. To make polenta I simply boil as much water as a big pot can contain, with a bit of salt. Once the water is boiling whisk in as much polenta as you think you need (1-2-3 cups, whatever), lower the eat to low, stir for about 3-4 minutes with a wooden spoon to make sure the polenta doesn’t stick while the pot goes down in temperature. Stir every 5 minutes from now on and cook until you have the consistency you need, more or less if you need soft or hard polenta. Voilà.

 

The Roasted Pepper Squash purée is just as simple. Half and remove the seeds of a pepper squash and generously put olive oil on the meat. Put skin side up on a baking sheet and put in a 400 degrees oven for one hour or an hour and a half. Remove from the oven, let cool for a little bit and scoop out the meat in a bowl. Smash the meat with the spoon you scooped the meat out and add a teaspoon of butter per portion, salt and pepper and mix thoroughly. Encore une fois: Voilà!

 

Now for another distinction with this recipe: Beer. As you might have noticed in the past, I am much more a beer drinker than a wine drinker, mostly for ignorance reasons. That said, this recipe would work perfectly well if cooked with a nice white wine, preferably with not a lot of acidity. That said I decided to go with a nice Belgian-inspired beer from local Unibroue brewerie. La Blanche de Chambly was meant to be a copy of the Belgian Blanche de Bruges and ended up as a very nice distinctive beer with a terrific citrus character and a very smooth hop flavour.

 

The stew:

 

• 1 lbs of Octopus, in bit size chunks

• 1 big onion

• 1 big parsnip (any root vegetable you have works, combinations work too)

• ½ head of garlic

• ¼ cup of minced smoked herring

• 1 handful of capers

• 1 handful of chopped olives

• 2 hot chilies finely chopped (optional)

• 2 sprigs of fresh thyme

• 1 750ml of Blanche de Chambly

• olive oil

 

For the stew, brown the parsnip and the onion with a branch of thyme well in a dutch oven over high heat. Once nicely browned, add the octopus and the garlic for about 2 minutes, stirring a few times. Add the 750 ml bottle of the beer with the capers, the smoked herring and chilies. Let simmer over low heat for one hour or more until the octopus is tender. Adjust seasoning, the capers and smoked herring will salt the dish a bit so go easy on the salt. Garnish with some fresh thyme and a few chopped olives and serve over the soft polenta.

 

Tunes: Kristofer Ǻström, Loupita. Honestly one of the best folk records I have heard in the past 5 years. Great songwriting, great music and a lot of killer melodies.

Orange-Squash Pie

 

In honor of the Thanksgiving of my neighbors to the south I decided to make something similar to pumpkin pie. Problem is that I didn’t have any pumpkin (pumpkin in a can is EVIL), and I am not really a fan of pumpkin. What I did have is Acorn squash and I did have some oranges, and these two flavours go very well together. But first, the tunes.

 

I was in a Coltrane mood so I went to the shelf and went for the classic: Ascension. This album was the first where Coltrane really went completely in the free jazz direction and became one of the most important figure of the avant-garde. Not only is this album one of the best of that era of free jazz, it also stars some of the most important figures of the genre for years to come like Pharaoh Sanders, Archie Shepp, McCoy Tyner, Jimmy Garrison and Elvin Jones. The music is completely i-n-s-a-n-e, and sometimes you feel in this trance that these guys conjure with their playing. Not only do they create some of the most impressive music, on the fly no less, they do it at such a speed that it is almost unfathomable that these people be able to feel their way around this. Rising above what most consider music and getting to a level of transcendence unknown to most, I was ready to bake pies…

 

• 1 acorn squash
• 1 orange
• 4 eggs
• 1 cup of heavy cream
• 1 cup of brown sugar
• ¾ teaspoon of cinnamon
• ½ teaspoon of nutmeg
• 2 cloves ground finely
• ¼ teaspoon of cayenne pepper (don’t worry you won’t taste it, but it’ll awaken your taste buds)
• ½ teaspoon salt
• Olive oil

 

Now, I admit that I suck at making pie dough so I bought my pie dough for this. I am not proud of it so if you are of the many who can make that elusive dough, please do it, otherwise Tenderflake is your friend. With this recipe I made 2 small pies but it should fit in one large pie dish as well.

 

First cut the squash in quarters and remove seeds. Oil the squash on the flesh side and put on a sheet pan and roast in a 375 degree oven for 30 min. After this thirty minute, flip the squash on the flesh side for another 30 minutes. Reserve to cool. In a medium saucepan, put the orange in and cover with water and put over medium heat and simmer for one hour. Remove from heat to let cool down.

 

Scoop out the flesh of the squash in a food processor with the orange and pulse to a fine puree. In a large bowl, crack the 4 eggs and lightly beat the eggs with a fork to get them uniform. Add the sugar and spices and mix lightly, incorporate the squash and orange mixture. Pour into the pie shells and put into a pre-heated 375 degree oven for 40 minutes.

 

Serve with a dollop of whipped cream.

Pork Shank

When I read Bill Buford’s Heat I was fascinated by some of the old Chianti cuisine that is explained in there. One recipe was an ultra simple beef shank cooked very slowly. I had a pork shank in stock so I decided to adapt Buford’s take on to the pork and try to fancy it up a little bit with a cooking juices “monté au beurre”. First let’s talk about music.

 

I started making some racket in my own home for the past few days and this recipe was performed listening to a selection of noise releases from around the planet. First was Brise Cul Records’ Drone Season I. This drone compilation is the first in a series, first of two as of now, coming from my good friend Martin. Compiling tracks from Broken Sleep, Habeeb, MOZ, Narcotic Dreams, Pulse Emitter, Roxanne Jean Polise, Scant Intone and Warning Broken machine this compilation pretty much covers everything possible in drone: from laptop based to synth and all analog approaches. A very nice compilation, although not as good as the next one, it gives you a nice over view of what is out there in the drone world, bleak and monotone, just the way I like it.

 

Next was Pulse Emitter’s Mountain. This is a completely insane release in a pure drone fashion as it goes on for minutes and minutes before you have any emotional reaction to the drone. Everything is so bleak and even that you feel like there is nothing that will ever happen in this thing, yet it is strangely gripping. You always expect something to come down but it never happens and yet you feel amazingly satisfied that it doesn’t. This is one of the most impressive drone releases ever, everything for the a.d.d. sufferer.

 

This one was closely followed by a Boris and Merzbow collaboration called Sun Baked Sun. Merzbow shouldn’t need any introduction at this point as he is the godfather of noise and have been perhaps the most important figure in noise for the past 20 years. Boris are relatively new on the block switching from metal/doom to noisy experimentation from album to album and at the same time gathering more fans from one album to the other. Both Japanese heavyweights collaborate here for a relatively happy voyage through guitar and electronics soundscapes that combine what both do fairly well, Merzbow seemingly taking control at some point and not giving it back. Nevertheless, a thoroughly enjoyable release by the good people at Hydrahead.

On to the recipe

 

 

• 2 pork shanks, with skin and all
• 1 head of garlic
• 1 Bottle of italian wine, best with a hearty complex wine (buy two, one for drinking with the meal)
• ¼ cup of sea salt
• Water

 

Sauce:

• 2 tablespoons of cold butter, in half inch cubes
• 3 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
• 1 branch of rosemary
• Olive oil

 

Serves 2. I served with some roasted potatoes, nothing fancy.

 

This recipe is easy as can be but still takes time. First, in a large bowl, put the shanks and add enough salted water to cover. Put in your fridge for at least 24 hours. After the 24 hours, take out the shanks and rinse them thoroughly under the tap. Add the shanks to a dutch oven with the content of that bottle of wine and the full head of garlic, no need to peel it. Put in a preheated oven at 175-200 for at least 12 hours, I went for 18. This will be best re-heated so put the cooled down dutch oven in the fridge for a while.

 

Once ready to eat, take out the dutch oven and scrap out some of that upper fat on top, no reason to go overboard, the shank is fat enough as it is. Put the dutch oven over low heat for about 15-20 minutes. Take out the pieces of shank and get rid of the skin, some of the fat, keep some for crying out loud its divine, and reserve the re-heated meat. In a frying pan, over high heat, put some oil and the garlic, let the garlic quickly soften and ladle a good 3-4 ladles of the cooking juices in the pan, or eyeball how much sauce you want. Add the whole branch of rosemary. Let reduce at least in half and add the cold butter. The sauce should bubble away until it reaches a sauce consistency. Adjust seasoning and pour over the meat, go easy on the salt of the sauce because the pork has been sitting in brine for a day so the bigger pieces will have a salty taste so you don’t want that to overpower your dish. Voilà!

 

This recipe might not be the greatest idea for a first date but if you are entertaining a few people, it requires very little attention, except when doing the sauce, takes very little time to do and if you have foodie friends they will gush at the deep flavour everything has here. It is however a freaking heart attack in a dish and is quite fatty. The good news is that pork shank is one of those wonderful forgotten parts that you can get at the butcher for very little money. The only significant investment here is the wine so choose a pretty good one.

Jalapeno-Corn Meal Crusted Catfish and Okra Curry

There was some small fresh water catfish at the grocery store the other day and being the adventurer eater that I am, I decided to buy a bunch to try it out as I had never eaten any catfish before. I did a quick search on the net and it appeared that only the Cajuns seem to post catfish recipes on the net so for the second time in a row I was going to post a southern United States-inspired recipe. The recipe I initially though of doing was a catfish gumbo but as I was pondering the twist I was going to take with it, with the help of southern staple Gov’t Mule, I decided to go another route with an Okra Curry.

 

As hinted previously, the entire meal was enjoyed and cooked with the help of Gov’t Mule, specifically the “With a Little Help of our Friends” Collector edition. This box set combines the two previous released live concerts and adds two more CDs filled with Mule live action. Despite the fact that I really enjoy the Mule’s recorded output, there is nothing like the live recordings. This was a band that was an offshoot of the Allman Brother band’s backing band and yet they have surpassed the Brothers in more than one category. First, I like the fact that there is a bunch of psychedelia in addition to the southern rock and the fact that they jam as well as any but always keep a clear view that the song is the number one priority. They just write good, catchy songs.

 

Most music critics would probably say that this is all crappy jam-band non-sense and they would be wrong. The jam portion of this band is important but it has nothing to do with the Greatful Dead or Phish, simply because it is rarely to show off chops, but rather to lengthen the experience each of the songs with more twists and turns than the original songs had. And that Warpigs cover is freaking gold. And this is were everything comes together, the Mule isn’t just a southern rock band, it is a rock band that covers a lot of ground and I love them for that. Finally, Mr Woody, Rest in Peace, we miss you.

 

On to the recipes. First with the curry because that will take some time:

 

• 1 tablespoon of raw cane sugar
• 1 medium size onion, minced
• ½ a head of garlic, minced
• 1 inch off a fresh ginger root, minced
• ½ teaspoon of turmeric
• ½ teaspoon of cumin seeds
• ¼ teaspoon of coriander seeds
• 2 Cardamom pods
• 1 scotch bonnet pepper, minced, or any hot pepper you like
• 2 tablespoons of crushed tomatoes
• 1/3 pound of fresh stemmed Okra
• 2 tablespoons of oil
• salt and pepper to taste

 

Put a deep frying pan, or sauce pan if you don’t have any, over high heat and add the oil. Once the oil is hot add the sugar and let caramelize. Add the onion and let cooked until onion becomes soft, add the garlic and ginger until the ginger looks like going soft. Add all the spices and the hot pepper in and fry for a few minutes, careful of the consistency and add a bit of water if the mixture becomes too dry. Add the tomatoes and the Okra, lower heat to a simmer and cover. Take a look from time to time to verify consistency and add a bit of water as needed. Let cook for 40 minutes. More than enough time to prepare the fish.

 

• 1 big or two small Jalapeno peppers, minced
• ½ cup of yellow Corn Meal
• 1 tablespoons of salt
• 1/3 teaspoons of crushed black pepper
• ½ pound of fileted Catfish
• 1 cup of peanut or Canola oil

 

In a shallow dish combine all the dry ingredients and mix thoroughly. Dip the fish filets in the mixtures making sure to push the mixture in and coating the fish well and reserve. In a large sauce pan or a wok (my instrument of choice,) over high heat add the oil. Once the oil is hot dip the fish filets in the oil in batches until all of them are done, making sure to reserve on paper towels once fried. Serve with Okra and lime. Enjoy.