“On my festival days they still feast on eggs and rabbits, on candy and on flesh, to represent rebirth and copulation.”
-The Goddess Ēostre from Neil Gaiman’s American Gods (more…)
My two greatest culinary passions are a) methods of preserving food- the simpler and more flavourful the better – and b) duck! The former being a tether to the distant past when salting and fermenting meant survival for crafty cooks and the latter being the tastiest damn animal know to man.
Now I know I’ve already done a ton of duck recipes, including the great-granddaddy of all preserved duck dishes: confit du canard, but bear with me one more time ‘cause this one’s a keeper. It’s a technique for preserving breasts that results in a semi-cured, dense and beautifully salty-sweet taste reminiscent of prosciutto de parma. It’s dead-easy and a great entry-level way to get into more serious charcuterie. (more…)
Lo, and naught but a week ago my old comrade-in-arms Nicholas (BBQ Warlord and member of The Brotherhood Of Bacon) crossed the frothing Georgia Straight to my monastery island and entreated me to join him on a glorious quest! (more…)
Ever since we ate at The Nest Bistro, I’ve been playing around with the idea of cheffing-up a brie-stuffed chicken breast. It’s such an easy way to add a whole lot of flavour and moisture to an oftentimes dry and tasteless bit of bird! If only there was a way to make it a bit less like the chicken cordon bleu you’d eat down at TGI McFunsters and a tad more cool. (more…)
The next time you are wandering ‘round the supermarket, or the farmer’s market or wherever you get your produce from, take a minute and smell a peach. Get your face in there and breathe deep! It sounds dirty and yeah people are going to give you weird looks, but trust me, you ‘aught to smell a peach now, when they’re at their most luscious. It’s the smell of summer.
Then buy that peach, take it home, and grill it. (more…)