Montreal Wants Me, But I Can't Go Back There

Montreal must be absolutely beautiful right now, and boy oh boy do I wish I was sitting on a corner eating a fried bologna sandwich from Wilensky's right now. With a sour pickle. And yellow mustard. And a cherry coke.
Oh well, I guess I'll have to settle for Montreal making it's way to Toronto.
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080523.wlbeard23/BNStory/lifeFoodWine/home

Pork & Sons

What does a gal like me do when she has an awkward phone conversation with her ex boyfriend? Go shopping!!! And while most women like to splurge on shoes, makeup or a new haircut, I went and bought myself a cookbook dedicated completely to pork. That's right, I went and picked up Stephane Reynaud's Pork & Sons and threw a dinner party surrounding all the recipes I wanted to try. This third generation butcher knows a thing or two about how to cook meat, and I think all my guests rolled home, bellies full and unable to look at another cured meat for a while.
Try this one for yourself at home!

Jambon de Paris, bacon, apple and curry sandwiches
Preparation Time: 20 Minutes
4 slices Bacon
1 Granny Smith or other tart eating apple
1 celery stalk, cut into thin batons
4 slices cook jambon de Paris or other unsmoked, fully-cooked ham, coarsely chopped
1 punch of fresh parsley, chopped
4 pita breads

For the Sauce
1 egg
scant 1 cup olive oil
1 teaspoon white wine vinegar
1 teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon honey
1 teaspoon curry powder

Preheat the broiler, then cook the bacon, turning once, for 4-8 minutes. Cut into small strips.
Peel, cure, and dice the apple.
To make the sauce, beat the egg in a bowl, then whisk in the opil, 1-2 teaspoons at a time, until about a fourth of it has been absorbed. Beat in the vinegar, then continue to whisk in the oil, adding it in a steady stream. Finally, whisk in the mustard, honey and curry powder.
Stir the bacon, apple, celery, ham and parsley into the sauce. Cut each piuta bread in half and fill the pockets with the ham mixture. Cut each in half again and serve.

Ideal Sandwich

So we all have big dreams in life to be happy, have a family and have the careers we want. Since I relate everything to food, I like to call this the ideal sandwich. An ideal sandwich will make your day every time you have one, especially since you can add food but they are virtually inedible which means zero calories.
Today's ideal sandwich:
1 holy land pita
4 tbs sunflower kitchen hummus
1/4 cup french fries
1 fried egg
1 baby

Turns out, the NYT's has a different idea about an Ideal Sandwich.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/30/dining/30sand.html?_r=1&oref=slogin

The Churro Borough

With anticipation of my upcoming NYC trip, I decided that along with my hunt for the perfect spring dress, I will be in search of a mighty fine churro. Why, you ask? Well friends, I'm addicted to rhyming and sugar.
So follow my quest for the perfect Mexican-style doughnut. And I don't even like doughnuts.
The things I will do for a rhyme...
If you aren't heading to NYC anytime soon and just can't wait, try this recipe from 1080 Recipes.

Churros

175 g / 6 oz plain flour
sunflower oil, for deep frying
icing sugar, for dredging
salt

(Makes about 25)

Pour 350 ml / 12 fl oz water into a saucepan, add a pinch of salt and bring to the boil. Tip in the flour all at once and cook, stirring constantly, until the mixture comes away from the sides of the pan. Remove the pan from the heat and leave to cool. Heat the oil in a deep-fryer or saucepan to 180–190°C/350–375°F or until a cube of day-old bread browns in 30 seconds. Put the cooled mixture into a churrera and make the churros, cutting them to the required length with a sharp knife as the dough is pushed out, and adding them immediately to the hot oil. Alternatively, spoon the cooled mixture into a piping bag fitted with a star nozzle and pipe directly into the hot oil, cutting the churros to the required length with a sharp knife and working in batches if necessary. When the strips of fried dough are golden brown all over, remove with a slotted spoon, drain well, dredge with icing sugar and serve immediately. Note: Some people prefer to use a mixture of water and milk (more than half water, less than half milk), which makes lighter churros.

Moules

So I went to the LCBO and cooked mussels with my friends from Mill Street. They were delicious and you can totally cook them at home if you like.
So here goes.

Buy 1 pound of fresh mussels and put them in a bucket. Fill it with cold running water and pick through to clean the mussels off, pulling off any beards or junk.
If there are mussels that don't close in the water, throw them out immediately.
Heat 1 tbsp of butter and 1 tbsp of oil in a large pan (like the one I am using in this photo). Add a tsp of minced garlic and cook until aromatic, about 45 seconds.
Add 1 cup julienne vegetables (I like using onions, peppers and carrots) and toss until slightly soft, another 2 minutes or so.
Then, add your mussels and toss them with the fat and veg until nicely coated. Add 1 tbsp Sambal (a great Indonesian-style hot sauce) 2 tbsp heavy cream and 1 bottle of good beer (I was using Mill Street Belgian Wit). Give a good shot of salt, toss and then cover until the mussels have all fully opened. If there are ones that haven't opened, discard them immediately.
Serve with fresh baguette.
C'est bon.

Keeping it in the family

So my dad is a really good cook and he made this chicken that left me wanting more. Want to make it too? Here goes:

7 sun-dried tomatoes
1/3 bottle beer
1/2 head fennel, julienne
1 large white onion julienne
7 cloves of garlic, peeled
1 summer sausage cut into bite size pieces
1 chorizo sausage cut into bite size pieces
double smoked bacon cut into bite size pieces
1 cinnamon sticks
1/4 cup fresh orange juice
1 whole chicken, skin on and cut into edible pieces
A generous amount of fresh rosemary
1/3 cup pine nuts
1/3 cup of black olives
4 tbs olive oil

Soak the sun dried tomatoes in the beer for 20 minutes or until soft. Blend them with the beer in a food processor until it becomes a paste and put aside.
Preheat oven to 400 Degrees Fahrenheit.
Heat the oil in a cast iron skillet, brown the chicken all over and set aside.
Keep the oil hot and add onion and garlic. Sautee until onions become translucent but not brown.
Add fennel and sautee for another minute.
Add bacon, summer sausage and chorizo.
Arrange the chicken skin side up. Smear it with the sun dried tomato paste, add the cinnamon stick and sprinkle the olives and rosemary all around.
Add the orange juice and cover the pan with tinfoil.
Braise for 1/2 hour and uncover, adding the orange slices and pine nuts. Bake for another 20 minutes or until skin is crispy and chicken is cooked through.
Serve in the skillet and make sure to scrape all the good bits of the bottom of for maximum taste sensation.

Gross

I'd heard of this product a while back and couldn't believe my ears even then. A beef flavored drink doesn't sound even slightly appealing, even to a meat and potatoes gal like me. Drink it with vodka like you would a Caesar. Or, if you were like me, you would try adding it to a soup or something.
Spicy stuff!