Bourdain’s “Ewok” takes takes his final bows

Tony Bourdain always called him “The Ewok” – I always thought of him as a Howler Monkey.  Be that what it may, Emeril Lagasse and his show Emeril Live” will have its final show this December.

Hey, ten years is a great run for any show and for a live studio cooking show -  it will be a long time before anyone breaks that record.  It is quite an extraordinary feat. That being said, maybe it is time for Food Network to develop a new show -  with someone else as a live cooking host.

Not so much BAM!! as…well….applause.

Read all about it here 

Turkeys Feast on Turkey Day – Humour

With the Holiday upon our neighbors to the south lets pause and reflect how the turkeys will be spending the holiday – read all about it here.

Garbage in, garbage…. turkey?

There must be something in the air when it comes to the largest holiday in America -  Thanksgiving.  Everywhere turn -  every page I read I see new and weird and wonderful ways of preparing the roast ornithod.  Over the last little while I’ve seen the deep fried version, the beer can version and now for your enjoyment and future health problems comes  -  the garbage can turkey.  Now I didn’t make it up -  read it all here -  enjoy.

Bush pardons a turkey. Cheney still at large

America is full of traditions. Being from Canada, I like to look down at our kooky neighbors to the south and have a good chuckle at their expense.

One of the best moments of the year has to be Thanksgiving – which is coming up for them. (In Canada, we had it a while ago). Traditionally, on the eve of the Holiday the President of the United States, as an act of kindness “pardons” two turkeys and has them sent to a farm for the rest of their life. Spared the indignanty of the dinner plate they get sent to “stud”. Not a bad gig if you can get it – if you are a turkey, that is.

This year, the pair officially called May and Flower were the chosen couple. However it is the comments of the Vice President, which are the funniest. Read all about it here.

What makes a good grilled cheese sandwich?

Bread and cheese – what could be simpler than that?

The notion of bread and cheese is as old as the two of them have been made. Bread dates back to before the time of Christ and cheese, however more modern has been a part of the European diet since it was discovered. Many stories about the genesis of cheese have been around, A legendary story has it that cheese was ‘discovered’ by an unknown Arab nomad. He is said to have filled a saddlebag with milk to sustain him on a journey across the desert by horse. After several hours riding he stopped to quench his thirst, only to find that the milk had separated into pale watery liquid and solid white lumps. Because the saddlebag, which was made from the stomach of a young animal, contained a coagulating enzyme known as rennin, the milk had been effectively separated into curds and whey by the combination of the rennin, the hot sun and the galloping motions of the horse. The nomad, unconcerned with technical details, found the whey drinkable and the curds edible. But I digress.

Cheese is a simple and straight forward way of making food enjoyable and accessible to a wide variety of people.

Cheese is found, in many varieties, in most of the cold boxes of most modern homes. The common place for more diverse flavours, types and styles of cheese make it a versatile product.

Fresh, soft, semi-soft, firm and hard are the categories of cheeses and you can find more than one kind in each category in most supermarkets.

Fresh – think cottage cheese, cream cheese, mozzarella and feta. Think about them as being very perishable and full of moisture.

Soft – think runny when at room temperature and a thin rind. Think Brie, camembert.

Semi soft – think a sliceable texture. Blue cheeses, Gouda and Havarti

Firm – these have a dense texture, but easily sliceable. Think Cheddar and Emmenthal

Hard – Think brittle or crumbly. Parmigianno reggiano and Asiago.

Now the complex art of putting together the sandwich begins. Choose the bread and the cheese. For me it is a good sourdough, used for two reasons. One, it is a bit tart and has a good natural flavour without overpowering the cheese and the second, well, I like to eat and generally sourdough loaves are bigger.

Choose the cheese wisely.

Try semi-soft or firm cheeses first. More importantly they withstand the heating and melt, rather than run over the bread.

Slice the bread to about 1cm thick, and make it two slices please.

Cut the cheese to about 1/8^th of an inch thick or else the bread will be black before the cheese melts.

Butter only the outside parts of the bread. This one stumps my wife for some reason, but it is logical. If there is butter on the bread between the cheese and the bread then the bread will get soggy because of the butter and the cheese will not stick to the bread. Butter the outside for browning only.

Butter both slices and place the bread in a warm pan. Not hot. Try a medium setting. The pan should just sizzle as the bread goes down. Make sure the bread fits the pan and accommodates both slices (the bigger the bread, the bigger the pan).

Put one layer of cheese on the bread, but not so that it overhangs the edge on both sides.

Turn the heat down a little and wait for the cheese to get sticky. This should take between 4-5 minutes, but it could be shorter depending on the cut of the bread and the hardness of the cheese.

The bread should be a golden brown and the cheese melted, but not runny.

Season one side with salt and pepper (always season to taste). You could use cayenne, or paprika but just S&P for me.

Put together and cut diagonally and there is no way that you can beat that flavour.

Fancy them up by cutting off the crusts and adding smoked salmon and serve them as hors d’oeuvres. Or, dip them in egg wash and seal them in completely and cook until golden. The possibilities are endless. And remember, just because it looks like kid’s food doesn’t mean it has to taste like kids food.

Breakfast: The most interesting meal of my day

I hate breakfast. I hate that feeling of having to put food into my system first thing in the morning.

I remember as a young child and still in school I got my parents into trouble because I would not eat food for breakfast. The school called my parents to ask if I was being fed properly at home. So I was made to have breakfast whether I liked it or not. When I was in this quasi fugue state of denial about breakfast I found there was a world of different foods that I could have as my morning repast. I soon found kippered fish to be one of my more unusual things in the morning. I would eat one can of the spicy tomato version, mashed up in the tin and then spread on bread with a good dowsing of cracked black pepper. This I thought was high dining for the first thing in the day. It was spicy and it was filling, not like stale cheerio’s or heaven help me, bran flakes. I thought this was the best way to start the day until I discovered coffee.

I like all forms of coffee. Dark espresso served in demitasse, or served with warm milk. I love Turkish coffee (medium sweet for me) whenever given the opportunity. I live for French press coffee for breakfast on the back deck and I can drink from morning till night drip coffee.

However, when I was younger, coffee became a fun thing. I lived for the buzz of the morning fix and as time wore on I developed some of the jitteriness associated with over caffeination – however I prefer my morning buzz anyway and I can’t do much about it. When I was 14 or so, I soon discovered there was more to breakfast than meets the eye.

I have an aunt who lives in Brussels – a great foodie city. She introduced me to some of the best food I have ever eaten.

Molly was a chef for the army a long time ago, but the spirit of her cooking continues (even though she is near 80).

She used to make us drinking chocolate for breakfast – when we were kids visiting ere in the summer. The adults got coffee, and so could I have, but I always wanted hot chocolate.

See she was a purist. And since she was also living in a city famous for chocolate, we always had the real thing no powder stuff for us.

The other thing is she made pizzas for us, and that is how I found the best – the greatest combination of flavours in the world – cold pizza and hot chocolate.

My wife looks at me strangely when I mention that this is some thing that I like – but bear with me – I think I am on to something great.

Pizza if made freshly has a lot of good things to it. Fresh ingredients and most often a fresh tomato sauce. The fresh tomato sauce is one of the great parts of the pizza, the smell and the acidic quality of the tomato makes fresh pizza much different than parlour made sauces.

This also gives me indigestion sometimes. Fresh pizza sauce from fresh tomatoes has a high acidic content, but let it cool and mellow out after being cooked and the magic happens.

The flavours soften and the combination of cold pizza, no matter what the toppings, and the rich and luxurious hot chocolate is heaven.

The pizza must be cold – not nuked in a micro-wave or heated in an oven. The muted tones of the sauced and all the other flavours is a good start to the day.

Once you have tried this combination – you will want it over and over….

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