Eat | Drink | Breathe - Recipes and Reflections from the Westcoast

Fresh Mexican Chorizo

September 15, 2020September 15, 2020 Shawn Leave a comment

I think just about every household has a “default sausage”. You know, the one you or your loved one buys from the store every couple of weeks. The one type everyone can agree on. It’s usually some mild Italian-job that’s just innocuous enough to sneak into both omelettes and pasta sauce. I know some people who swear by the little breakfast patties as their go-to… Weirdos.

Our default sausage has always been chorizo, and I don’t really know why. Neither my wife or I were ever spice fiends and it’s sometimes hard to get a really good fresh chorizo in Canada. Regardless, we hunted the bright red, coarsely ground and piercingly spicy/smokey tubes of meat wherever we could and stocked up whenever we hit Victoria or the little artisan markets around Coombs.

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A Beginners Guide To Fresh Sausage Making

August 9, 2020September 15, 2020 Shawn Leave a comment

It took me about a year to get all the gear, source the pork and casings then carve out enough time – A weekend here and there – to really get into fresh sausage making. Now I’ve done over a dozen batches and experimented with many different recipes and techniques and I think I’m almost to the point where I now know exactly how much I don’t actually know. *Laughs*

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The Negroni Cocktail

June 29, 2020June 29, 2020 Shawn Leave a comment

Thanks to the dynamic duo of Cara and Karlee I’m suddenly inundated with a cupboard full of very familiar liquors, so it’s finally time to bust out my favourite cocktail recipe. This is the big one kids; the aperitif to rule them all, the perfect summer sip, the ayatollah of alcoholla. This is my personal favourite cocktail.

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Ten Food Projects For The Lockdown

May 26, 2020May 26, 2020 Shawn 1 Comment

Call it “lockdown”, “Isolation”, “Self-Quarantine” or whatever else the fact is just about everyone is home right now with quite a bit of free time. Those with families are now coping with a lot of mouths to feed more frequently and a dwindling supply of recipes to keep them happy.

Although I am not among those bunkering down I do have a few suggestions for anyone looking to start a new kitchen-related project and I also know quite a few industry folk who are using this time to hone their skills while hey wait for the food service world to start spinning again.

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Sumo-Style Hot Pot with Chicken Meatballs

April 26, 2020April 26, 2020 Shawn Leave a comment

“Sumo is the most perfect of sports. It has elegance, ceremony, danger, art, speed and most importantly two fat bastards smacking the shit out of each other. It is immaculate, which is why it has remained essentially unchanged for thousands of years. It remains the only thing in the world I want to see stay static. The only thing I love that loves me back.”
Warren Ellis – Transmetropolitan

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