When I originally posted on this blog about the cruelty and destruction that the shark finning industry was causing, I got a very mixed response. While most of my regular readers agreed with me that this so called gourmet ingredient was procured at too high a price for our oceans, some pro-shark fin folks found my post and called me all kinds of nasty names. I won’t repeat them, but you can read them here if you like.
I faced another disappointment sticking up for sharks when I wrote a letter to the UN and asked them to intervene in shark finning on an international level. My son, my husband and a handful of other extended family members also wrote letters and not one of us received even a form letter acknowledgment that our letters had been received.
So, when I read a press release (thanks for sending it to me Cheryl!) that said that influential food activist Alice Waters had signed the No Shark Fin Pledge after formerly stating that she’d like to try shark fin soup, I was heartened.
So today, I post on a Friday night because to me, this constitutes breaking news and I hope that everyone reading this post will be caught up in the spirit of Waters’ action and take a moment to sign this pledge, too!
Here’s the link: No Shark Fin PledgePlease share it.
Looking for yummy ideas that will inspire you to cook the gorgeous bunches of Swiss chard, spinach and beet tops available at the market right now? Try this meatless mélange that features lentils as the protein source.
You can use other lentils but try to get the Du Puy lentils if you can. They are grown in volcanic soil that imparts superior flavour and a firm texture that chefs and gourmets love. If they aren’t available, you can use canned green or yellow lentils, but be sure to reduce the cooking time to 5 minutes since the canned version is already fully cooked.
1 bunch Swiss chard, spinach or beet tops
1 tbsp (15 mL) butter
1/4 cup (50 mL) chopped shallots or onions
1 clove garlic
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each salt and pepper
1 tsp (5 mL) grated lemon peel
1 cup (250 mL) sliced oyster or other mushrooms
1/2 cup (125 mL) Du Puy lentils*
13/4 cups (400 mL) chicken or vegetable broth
Separate the Swiss chard leaves from the stems. Wash and pat dry. Chop the stems into 1/2-inch (1 cm) pieces and slice the leaves crosswise into 1-inch (2.5 cm) wide ribbons. Reserve.
Melt the butter in a skillet set over medium-high heat. Add the Swiss chard stems and mushrooms and sauté until mushrooms are lightly browned. Remove the mixture from the pan and reserve. Reduce the heat to medium and add the shallots, garlic, salt and pepper to the pan. Cook, stirring often, for 5 minutes.
Add the lentils, broth and lemon peel to pan. Bring to a boil; reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 30 to 35 minutes or until most of the stock has been absorbed and lentils are tender but still whole. Stir in the reserved mushroom mixture and the Swiss chard leaves. Cook, stirring, occasionally, for 2 to 3 minutes or until the greens are wilted. Makes 2 servings.
*Tip: Du Puy lentils are also sometimes sold as caviar lentils or French-style lentils
Oops! I did it again. I’ve fallen in love with another online store. This deep and burning love is to be unrequited for two reasons:
1. I don’t need anything new.
2. I don’t have any extra money sitting around so I can’t even show this site how much I love it by purchasing something. Sigh. This will just have to be an a la distance crush, I suppose.
If I do win the lottery and find myself with money to burn, one of the first things I’m going to do is buy these three fun and fabulous items from Conran’s US Online store to add some fresh personality to my kitchen:
1. Double timer
2. Taxi cab yellow trash can
3. Pepper grinder
Those will be my first purchases. Then, I think I’ll branch out and see what interesting things they have at their Japanese, British and French shops. For instance, I might really, really need this picnic cutlery one day, right? And this light bulb candle is likely to bring me great happiness, too.
Label me lazy or christen me clever, but today’s post recycles some of my past links so that you (and truthfully me, too) have a glossary of all my grilling and barbecuing recipes and tips:
Buying and using grills and barbecues
• Budget grilling
• Grill master quiz
• How to buy a grill
• Lighting briquette
• Winter grilling guide
Smoking and smokers
• How to use cedar smoking sheets
• How to use smoking briquettes
• Matching meats with woods
• How to turn your grill into a smoker
Cooking on the grill
• Best rib recipe (2008)
• Perfectly sticky gooey ribs (2009)
• Burgers: basic and beyond
• How to grill a steak
• Chimichurri steak
• Gourmet brie burger & cheeseburger tips
Grill safety
• How to calibrate an instant read thermometer
• How to use an instant read thermometer
Do you have a great grilling tip or a fabulous, hot-off-the-coals recipe you’d like to share? If so, please post it below. Links are welcome!
While retail experts expected grocery store coffee sales to grow 2.4% in 2008, the changes in the economy led many consumers to choose a homemade cup of java over a $4 latte. As a result, sales grew by 6% and are predicted to stay as strong as a Starbucks espresso.
In other coffee related news, the makers of Dippin’ Dots ice cream pellets are applying their super cold technology to coffee concentrate so that soon homecooks will have another, hopefully better, instant coffee option.
And, for those who still splurge on coffee shop coffee, a new website and iPhone application from Dunkin’ Donuts now makes placing large orders easier. The person making the coffee run can send out a group alert asking people what they want; then, those people can place their orders online. The person going to Dunkin’ Donuts can print out the order or look at it on his or her phone.
Personally, I’m not a huge coffee drinker. I usually have a cup a day, so buying my coffee from a coffee shop doesn’t have a big impact on my budget. What about you? Has the economy changed your coffee drinking habits in any way?
Usually by mid July my garden is bulging with green beans. This year, due to our sucky Ontario weather, I’ve had to buy green beans for most of July. Now, at last, I have bush as well as French green beans on the vines in abundance.
While I love to eat green beans that have been simply boiled and tossed with butter, salt and pepper, there are a lot of beans in this garden that are going to be ready pretty much all at once. I have a feeling I need to be ready with some alternate ways to serve them. Otherwise, Oliver may take me hostage and demand another vegetable as ransom. Well, no. That’s not truly likely but regardless, I think we’ll enjoy our crop more if I mix it up a bit with a few simple dress-ups:
• Gremolata: Toss hot green beans with enough extra virgin olive oil to coat lightly. Add finely chopped parsley and grated lemon zest, a dab of minced garlic and salt and pepper to taste.
• Lemon Pecorino: Toss hot or cool green beans with a little grated lemon zest, lemon juice, salt and coarsely cracked black pepper. Stir in a little minced garlic. Drizzle with extra virgin olive oil and add a handful of finely diced pecorino or asiago cheese. Toss before serving.
• Tonnato: Purée some canned tuna with equal parts mayonnaise and olive oil to make a soft paste. Add an anchovy fillet and a tablespoon of capers. Purée, adding lemon juice and pepper to taste. Toss with green beans or spoon over beans and serve on a platter.
• Soy ginger: whisk equal parts soy sauce and sesame oil until well combined. Stir in a little minced ginger. Toss with hot green beans. Season with lime juice, salt and pepper to taste. Serve sprinkled with sesame seeds if you like.
Do you have any yummy ways you like to serve green beans that you’d like to share?
Photo credit: Tracy Cox
Fried chicken. It’s pretty much the quintessential picnic food, right?
Oliver, my lanky son has been at camp for the month of July on Lake Baptiste so when Martin and I went to visit him Sunday before last, I wanted to bring a yummy, calorie dense picnic. On the menu: fried chicken, fresh rolls with butter, a green salad, a big bowl of Ontario cherries and chocolate cupcakes with dulce de leche & mascarpone frosting. A perfect meal for a boy with a big appetite!
Although I’ve made fried chicken before, it was so many years ago that I felt like I needed to do a bit of research before I started to make it for such an important meal. So, using tips from Ezra Pound Cake’s excellent post about fried chicken as my starting point, I got busy planning. I also perused the fried chicken notes in the America’s Test Kitchen Family Cookbook as well. (Do you know this book? It’s a fantastic reference. I highly recommend it as a basic book to have in your collection.)
In the end, I brined my chicken in a buttermilk and Frank’s Red-hot sauce mixture for an hour. Then, I set my hood fan onto high and heated an electric wok filled with oil. I find the electric wok is perfect for frying food like chicken since it’s easy to control the temperature, deeper than a conventional electric frying pan and much easier to clean than a deep fryer.
The result? Perfectly crisp fried chicken that was delicious eaten both hot and cold. Oliver loved it so I’ll definitely be making it again soon even if we don’t have another picnic planned.
What do you like to pack in your picnic basket?
Do you like champagne? I love it! In fact, if I could afford it, I’d drink champagne pretty much every time I have a glass of wine.
I wish my idle moments were spent pondering philosophical questions or formulating meaningful responses to problems such as poverty, disease and global warming. But, the truth is, I’m a pretty superficial person. Instead, I find myself on the subway or doing the dishes thinking about why some glasses of champagne are ‘hot’ (i.e. very bubbly) while others display just a gentle stream of bubbles.
The glasses in the photo above are identical but the one on the right has many more active bubbles. Why? These glasses of wine were poured at the same time from the same bottle. Shouldn’t the wine behave the same way in each glass?
Answering this dilemma led me to research by Gérard Liger-Belair, the world authority on wine bubbles (seriously, that’s his full time job!) As it turns out, the bubble and flow patterns you see in a glass of champagne can be affected by tiny flaws in a particular glass. In fact, some glasses are even etched to create pits in the glass that will create different flow volume and patterns. The intention isn’t just to give vapid women like me something pretty to look at while they get drunk, but to influence the way the aroma and taste of champagne are experienced.
Obviously, in the case of these two glasses, the effect wasn’t intended by the manufacturer but was the result of inconsistent workmanship. Regardless, it led me to learn something new (if not something useful)! Gawd, I love my job!
What food questions occupy your idle moments?
The other day I barbecued way too many side ribs than we could consume in one meal. So, I reinvented the leftover ribs as pulled pork sandwiches. It was simple and delicious:
• I used a fork to shred the meat and take it off the bone.
• I spread the meat in an even layer in a foil container and drizzled over a little extra BBQ sauce (I used this yummy sauce from Manitoba).
• I covered the pan with foil and heated it over low heat on the grill until the meat was very hot.
• All that was left to do was to pile the meat and lots of tangy caraway-accented coleslaw on soft, fluffy Kaiser rolls.
Our tummies were happy and it took me only minutes both to prepare dinner and to clean up afterwards.
Do you have any favourite “cook once, eat twice” summer recipe ideas?
According to experts like the scientists and conservationists who developed Ocean Wise, Seafood Watch and the movie The End of the Line, we would all be doing our oceans a favour by choosing small fish like mackerel and sardines more often.
Studies show that within the past century, we’ve fished about 90% of all the large fish species in the ocean, which means we’re now fishing the last 10%. These large fish take a long time to mature so if we continue to plan menus that feature large fillets of fish as our entrées, it won’t be long until there are no more fish to catch. In fact, one source confided to me that many large fish species could be extinct as soon as 2050!
The good news is that a growing number of restaurant chefs are experimenting with more resilient fish species such as sardines, mackerel and other smaller fish that mature fairly quickly and produce high numbers of offspring. Regrettably, consumers have yet to embrace these options. In fact, most Canadian fish lovers still prefer to eat salmon, tuna and other large fish while 90% of the sardines caught in North America are sold to Australia to be used as food for farmed tuna.
Have you changed your fish-eating habits because of conservation issues? Or, is this a new idea for you to consider? Likewise, do you think that making choices one meal at a time will make a big difference or is the extinction of blue fin tuna and other big fish inevitable?
