tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1367231814912678012024-03-05T07:21:13.478-08:00An Offal ExperimentAnonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.comBlogger91125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-68033370095340179532013-03-20T10:42:00.000-07:002013-03-20T10:51:51.399-07:00The End of My Experiment<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Well, I think the pig's head ended my experiment. It threw me into a complete dietary crisis and now I'm kind of vegetarian. <span style="line-height: 19px;">The secret was in the nose. I mentioned the nose in my post on head cheese, that I found the texture soft and unsettling. Noses also connect with my love for aromatherapy, the sensitivity of that sense continues to fascinate me. So somehow, feeling the pig's nose, trying to jam it into my soup pot, just shifted something inside me. I spent most of March trying to wrestle with my feelings and what those feelings meant for the future of my food blog.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">My diet is primarily vegetarian (despite the fact I write a meat blog) so the shift isn't a huge one and I will still eat meat on occasion. In essence, I want to eat sustainably, which means a very small amount of meat.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Thanks so much for coming along on my journey. Who would have ever guessed that a meat blog would lead to a vegetarian diet...</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">What will I continue playing with?</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">My prosciutto is still hanging so I'm excited to try that again.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Summer is coming and I am attempting soya sauce again.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Fermenting is lots of fun and my kimchi experiments will continue.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Bacon is my favorite meat so I will be making that every once in a while from local, well-raised pigs.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">I might get into sourdough again, but use it in concert with yeast.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">My fish sauce is still brewing away so I am going to be trying that soon.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">Pie competitions will definitely be a part of my future.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;">I'll definitely be growing my own food and herbs as much as possible.</span></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 19px;"><br /></span></span>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-58908650518454967352013-02-08T19:00:00.000-08:002013-02-11T14:06:36.257-08:00Making Cheese... Head CheeseIt's all fun and games until you get splashed with pig skin juice. That phrase basically sums up my experience making head cheese, my sweaty, grease-covered, finger burning experience. As people who read my blog know, I am all for long drawn out food experiences. Hand grind my sausage meat for two hours? With pleasure! Sit over a smoker for four hours while my bacon takes a smoke bath? Gladly! Spend three hours toasting peppers and a multitude of other random ingredients for mole? I'm like a pig in shit. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs_gXj4ODpYHbBiq4x_ahW3q073pVfb8wBtIdKnbe2jD6-vMN-y_3isb2rERP0SlrwvVDqE4VReNLQ0QjdACKfs9m7Xn6JXQyn70zdDNQsCEFyxyuMNjrfTvEMwR-YLBEmx-9MGzlfHFpi/s1600/IMG_5785.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjs_gXj4ODpYHbBiq4x_ahW3q073pVfb8wBtIdKnbe2jD6-vMN-y_3isb2rERP0SlrwvVDqE4VReNLQ0QjdACKfs9m7Xn6JXQyn70zdDNQsCEFyxyuMNjrfTvEMwR-YLBEmx-9MGzlfHFpi/s320/IMG_5785.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
Despite the fact that making head cheese is indeed a long drawn out food experience, I didn't really enjoy it. For starters, pigs have eyelashes. I don't know why it bothered me to see the eyelashes on my piggie, but it did. <br />
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Then there's the nose. The nose. You can tell just by touching it that a pig's nose is a sensitive thing and I didn't enjoy trying jam its beautiful nose into my stock pot. I just didn't. At one point I was trying to hack the nose off with a serrated knife, desperately trying to fit the whole head into the pot. <br />
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It was not pretty. I toughed it out though and ended up with a large loaf pan of jellied pig head. Here's how I did it.<br />
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The recipe came from Fergus Henderson's The Whole Beast and I followed it closely. To be honest though there isn't much to making head cheese. You are really just taking a head with at least one foot and slowly simmering it until soft then separating out the juice and meat and recombining it in a loaf pan. Pretty simple stuff!<br />
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<b>Ingredients</b><br />
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<ul><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9wUGnlXDGoPLzsUe1Jz3BPciktK5pCKxLwzUA_2XDEl7nQ2AxVCGyN84n7p50rGasporSYb88M9JNp9EyDmJOxP7qRlhnctFSaEZ5G-xpR_OesqthKMnGQ1fXJ0rslzIW9wtOw8wZzOE/s1600/IMG_5791.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="259" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjx9wUGnlXDGoPLzsUe1Jz3BPciktK5pCKxLwzUA_2XDEl7nQ2AxVCGyN84n7p50rGasporSYb88M9JNp9EyDmJOxP7qRlhnctFSaEZ5G-xpR_OesqthKMnGQ1fXJ0rslzIW9wtOw8wZzOE/s320/IMG_5791.JPG" width="320" /></a>
<li>1 pigs head</li>
<li>4 trotters or pig skin or a combination</li>
<li>1 bulb of garlic</li>
<li>2 onions, peeled and cut in half</li>
<li>2 celery stalks</li>
<li>4 green onions</li>
<li>Bundle of thyme, parsley and sage</li>
<li>2 large pinches of red chili pepper</li>
<li>1 tablespoon of coriander seed, ground in a pestle and mortar</li>
<li>4 cloves</li>
<li>The peel from 2 lemons</li>
<li>1 bundle of cilantro</li>
<li>Salt to taste</li>
</ul>
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<b>Directions</b><br />
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1) First you need a pig's head and at least one foot. The recipe calls for four pig's feet but I had a whole bunch of pig's skin from <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/10/homemade-bacon.html" target="_blank">making bacon</a> and <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/12/spicy-smoked-pancetta-lemon-coriander.html" target="_blank">smoked pancetta</a> so I used one foot and three big pieces of pig skin. Rinse the head well.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxK5wtQHWrIxRXvMufDSOyQi7iZQQOhTrjuBNGByFs8owq9olVhoG4pBUHslQVqt1sXYgYIcn3lYEUhvS-h3_DbP4cZkLysk2srIdXcmSO-eSSsIZLEgpaqUB4FIupgp8xRJa_RS-3I_qW/s1600/IMG_5799.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxK5wtQHWrIxRXvMufDSOyQi7iZQQOhTrjuBNGByFs8owq9olVhoG4pBUHslQVqt1sXYgYIcn3lYEUhvS-h3_DbP4cZkLysk2srIdXcmSO-eSSsIZLEgpaqUB4FIupgp8xRJa_RS-3I_qW/s320/IMG_5799.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
2) Find a pot large enough for the head and trust me, it needs to be mighty big. Place the head in a pot with all of the other ingredients <b>except</b> the cilantro and the salt. Fill the pot with water until all of the ingredients are submerged. Bring the whole mess to a boil and then reduce the heat to a simmer. You can't cook the head for too long. I repeat, you can't cook the head for too long. Other recipes talk about cooking it for up to 14 hours so don't worry about overcooking it. It took a while for my head to break down enough to fit into my pot so I cooked mine for close to four hours. Cook until the meat is tender.<br />
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3) Once the head is cooked, you need to get it out of the pot. This is easier said than done. I recommend putting another pot in the sink and pouring some of the liquid through a sieve until the head is easy to grab. At this point, wearing gloves or using tongs, pull the head out of the liquid and set it aside to let it cool. It will be hot so be careful and get kids out of the kitchen. Pour the remaining liquid through a sieve, discarding everything else (I squeezed the garlic pulp out of the bulb of garlic into the meat). If you are feeling particularly adventurous, you can dig through the pot contents for little bits of meat and soft sinew to add to your meat pile.<br />
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4) Put your broth back on the stove and reduce by one half. As the liquid reduces skim the broth, there will be brown scum and a lot of fat to skim off. Just be patient and dutiful. After all, who wants to eat greasy head cheese???<br />
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5) While the liquid reduces, pick all of the meat off the head. Wear gloves because it will still be quite warm. This is the really sweaty stage. You have the vat of pig broth bubbling away as you pick at a large very hot pig's skull. I found this part the most challenging and it takes some time to really clean the skull. Once you are finished, put the meat in the fridge while the broth finishes reducing and has a chance to cool.<br />
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6) After your broth is reduced and cool, add salt to taste. Err on the side of adding too much salt than not enough because head cheese is normally eaten cold so it can take some salt. At this point I added my fresh cilantro to the meat. I wanted it to be green and fresh so I didn't cook it at all. I chose cilantro because it complements the lemon and the coriander seed. Line a loaf pan with saran wrap and pack loosely with the meat. Pour in the broth up to the top of the loaf pan and shake and jiggle the pan until all of the air bubbles are released. Place a piece of saran wrap on top and put in the fridge overnight.<br />
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Voila! Head cheese!<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu576BAs5m_DPIMHNbS-PQY3OCawkdG03e-WKN25rE_kFk8-ajSs-u9vQbwFVj6_U8m1z5054_24tJOJ4Ut496fLyJGRgsuvqAX3gT-k3NnZksxCqrYQmbpCy7vqLftjZS-xRzNCGYrhwY/s1600/IMG_5813.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhu576BAs5m_DPIMHNbS-PQY3OCawkdG03e-WKN25rE_kFk8-ajSs-u9vQbwFVj6_U8m1z5054_24tJOJ4Ut496fLyJGRgsuvqAX3gT-k3NnZksxCqrYQmbpCy7vqLftjZS-xRzNCGYrhwY/s320/IMG_5813.JPG" width="253" /></a></div>
My gelatin set up beautifully. It doesn't have the artificial hard texture of manufactured gelatin but rather a wobbly luscious feel. I ate my first bit of head cheese on a spoon. That's right, I just scooped up a chunk of the end piece and into my mouth it went. <br />
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Not the most pleasant experience in the world.<br />
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I must admit right now that I am not a big fan of jellyish textures unless it is in chocolate pudding form. And head cheese is definitely not in chocolate pudding form. A large mouthful of meat and jiggly jelly didn't do it for me. <br />
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My second attempt was a sandwich. I put a large slice of head cheese on dark rye bread with a pickled golden beet and mustard relish and some greenery. The pork itself was delicious, beautifully flavoured and textured. It was just the jelly surrounding the fantastic meat that threw me off. So here's my solution.<br />
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Braising is a fantastic method for demeating a pig's head. Rather than taking the leftover stock and boiling it down to encase the meat, reduce it and freeze it in small portions to use in other soups. The natural gelatin will add a beautiful texture and you won't be confronted with lukewarm pig jelly in what was otherwise a delicious pork sandwich.<br />
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<b>Notes</b><br />
<ul>
<li>It's really a fairly simple recipe, which makes it fun to experiment with! As I mentioned, I decided to add fresh cilantro to my cooked meat to give the loaf color and freshness. I also added some red chili flakes for spice. The possibilities are endless. Maybe you want a Thai head cheese with lemongrass and thai basil? Chinese style head cheese with star anise, cinnamon and orange peel. German head cheese with pickled sauerkraut for the vinegar element or beets for color. Texture is always a good thing in food so add nuts and cooked veggies! Go wild with your head cheese! Ahhh... Head cheese.</li>
<li>Think of head cheese as a sandwich meat. You can eat it on sandwiches with cheese and mustard. It goes on a cheese plate with pickles. I've even read about deep frying it, which might be my next experiment. If anyone has delicious head cheese recipes, I would love to hear about them.</li>
</ul>
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Up Next? Roasted Romano Beans</div>
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-24246575720547684412013-01-28T18:58:00.000-08:002013-01-28T18:58:04.671-08:00Oyster Obsession Part 3: LiquorFor the finale oyster post, we are exploring the liquor - that lovely salty bath that surrounds the meat, the essence of the ocean. As I removed the meat for the po' boys I drained the liquor into a separate bowl. It was destined for Korea's national dish, the subject of today's post: kimchi.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlOcjTLe7vk1z115wG9Mm8qcFpTF9KbeAfdiVa-H4vV_mwIOSHMjccldAbqRCiSc-Zrlhvi_VrEmMQZ31Y9i4DX9RWwR1bNnl3Y1jmISrgptyiks7VkQxkv6VSOp-7L4JV_s-BNLnU2Kg/s1600/IMG_5707.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjTlOcjTLe7vk1z115wG9Mm8qcFpTF9KbeAfdiVa-H4vV_mwIOSHMjccldAbqRCiSc-Zrlhvi_VrEmMQZ31Y9i4DX9RWwR1bNnl3Y1jmISrgptyiks7VkQxkv6VSOp-7L4JV_s-BNLnU2Kg/s320/IMG_5707.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
I love kimchi. An asian version of sauerkraut that uses fish sauce and hot peppers to flavour the fermented cabbage, it is always served as a side dish on the Korean table. Interestingly, the hot peppers were not added to the original kimchi until the 1500's, when Japan invaded Korea and brought the pepper with them. Even in Korea, it is primarily Southern recipes that contain the seafood and spice elements, so consider this recipe more typical of a Southern kimchi.<br />
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The recipe is quite simple. I used my oyster liquor rather than fish sauce and the proportions are loose. Adjust to suit your own taste.<br />
<b>Ingredients</b><br />
<ul>
<li>1 head of napa cabbage chopped into 1-inch pieces</li>
<li>1/4 cup kosher salt</li>
<li>2 tablespoons of palm sugar</li>
<li>1 tablespoon of fermented shrimps</li>
<li>The liquor of 15 oysters (approximately)</li>
<li>1 tablespoon of fermented thai bird chili sauce</li>
<li>2 cloves of organic garlic chopped fine (very, very pungent)</li>
<li>2 tablespoons of ginger chopped fine</li>
</ul>
<b>Directions</b><br />
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1. I adapted this recipe from a <a href="http://www.chow.com/recipes/29505-basic-napa-cabbage-kimchi-kimchee" target="_blank">kimchi recipe I found on Chow</a> where the directions are to soak the napa cabbage overnight in salted water. Start by massaging the salt into the cabbage and then cover with water and leave overnight.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrZqYpA0JyB9iIbfcypKAFFQcn6DWGudPzJaKYFjl0waJDGAxEYxrBy9g2MLY5QkcT8axxp1trlBLRliy5zon-PjM-a_YOkpkdSMELNfGADHqBaCuOEfGW0RQuZbMgWsjDmGAKHZkwi_4l/s1600/IMG_5712.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhrZqYpA0JyB9iIbfcypKAFFQcn6DWGudPzJaKYFjl0waJDGAxEYxrBy9g2MLY5QkcT8axxp1trlBLRliy5zon-PjM-a_YOkpkdSMELNfGADHqBaCuOEfGW0RQuZbMgWsjDmGAKHZkwi_4l/s320/IMG_5712.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
2. The next morning, add all of the other ingredients to a large bowl and blend together until the sugar is dissolved and everything is mixed well. Add the cabbage to this bowl and mix it all together using your hands. I recommend wearing gloves so the hot peppers don't burn your hands. I also poured my oyster liquor through a sieve to prevent any little bits of sand and shell from falling into the kimchi.<br />
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3. Take a glass container and wash it out well with soap and water and then sterilize it in boiling water. Once it is cool, spoon the cabbage into your clean container. <br />
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4. The liquid might not reach the top of the cabbage. I took a clean rock (wrapped in saran wrap) and placed it on top of the seasoned cabbage to help press the liquid out of the cabbage. Cover the jar or put a lid on it and let it sit out at room temperature for 24 hours. Then move the jar into the fridge and let it sit for a week.<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxje9nfQbB4JxcA1QzTdELfO7IRJ9ZegfVdpzWDcKn0kz8jR3iu4XjGOhFEWJcr_ZmCfQdPhuSyXGf3D3g8eWtvHzQ5PoMKfvt8ToJ1scdI0SlaMeVVYjt5PXo9y_xMWPgaCuj7oBsmEb/s1600/IMG_5717.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiGxje9nfQbB4JxcA1QzTdELfO7IRJ9ZegfVdpzWDcKn0kz8jR3iu4XjGOhFEWJcr_ZmCfQdPhuSyXGf3D3g8eWtvHzQ5PoMKfvt8ToJ1scdI0SlaMeVVYjt5PXo9y_xMWPgaCuj7oBsmEb/s320/IMG_5717.JPG" width="240" /></a>Whoo! The hot sauce is hot! I only used a tablespoon of the thai bird chili sauce (homemade) but it is hot so it made the kimchi a bit overwhelmingly hot! The oyster brine gives the kimchi a lovely delicate flavour. Definitely a winner. The garlic is fairly strong but not overpowering and the ginger is strong, but I'm a ginger freak so it makes me happy to nosh on large amounts of ginger. <br />
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Changes for next time? I am going to try another batch with my <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/08/making-fish-sauce.html" target="_blank">homemade fish sauce</a> when it is ready. I might try less hot sauce next time just because it is so freakin' hot that it interferes with the pleasure of eating the kimchi. Different veggies might be fun as well, radish is traditional, cucumber is also used, broccoli might be interesting. <br />
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Kimchi is a fabulous addition to any diet. <a href="http://www.whfoods.org/genpage.php?tname=foodspice&dbid=19" target="_blank">Cabbage is a cruciferous vegetable</a>, which is renowned for its cancer-fighting ability and fermented foods are great for digestion in general. If you've never tried it before, give it a shot and I promise that you will be back for seconds.<br />
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Up Next? Corned Beef Sandys<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment.</a>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-30436402668336282982013-01-23T20:07:00.000-08:002013-01-23T20:07:00.534-08:00Oyster Obsession Part 2: Meat<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYx5RLkFMglHgmJIrTy3CgH2dBKV5DQIwNFHr0CZcHwsOnvMheSmir91ZI0vdWpCmWXYCaLhUVIk5-3lroQ6IX8FKFptONUZXEbeOXfkmD2iTYW6TvWEUbzH-E5Yp_oSi1wzwKXy3vnyh/s1600/IMG_5702.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhDYx5RLkFMglHgmJIrTy3CgH2dBKV5DQIwNFHr0CZcHwsOnvMheSmir91ZI0vdWpCmWXYCaLhUVIk5-3lroQ6IX8FKFptONUZXEbeOXfkmD2iTYW6TvWEUbzH-E5Yp_oSi1wzwKXy3vnyh/s320/IMG_5702.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
For the next stop on my oyster obsession journey, I delved into the shell. While the oyster meat is delicious raw, a deep fried oyster is possibly the next best thing. And this recipe is utterly delicious.<br />
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As I trolled my new Martha cookbook and <a href="http://www.epicurious.com/" target="_blank">Epicurious</a> looking for oyster ideas, I came upon the po' boy, a traditional sub sandwich from Louisiana. Oysters are a traditional meat found in the po' boy and the recipe gave me an excuse to deep fry in the name of learning a culture's food traditions. I love deep frying for a good reason, it's infinitely more satisfying.<br />
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The original oyster sandwich, found in New Orleans in the 1800's, was called an oyster loaf. It was also known as a peacemaker - and man, after eating one, I totally understand how that term came about. The po' boy is related to the peacemaker but can have lots of different meaty toppings, oyster is but one choice.<br />
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<a href="http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Oyster-Poboys-233540" target="_blank">Find a link to the recipe here.</a><br />
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I followed the recipe to a T with the exception of using buttermilk rather than regular milk. I also threw in some red chili flakes. To make your oysters extra perfect, make sure you salt each topping component (the flour, egg wash and corn meal). Keep in mind that the oysters will be sandwiched between two pieces of bread so they can handle some salt.<br />
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I also recommend prepping the oysters and letting them sit on a rack while the oil heats up. As they sit, the outer cornmeal crust will dry a bit and will fry up extra crispy! And extra crispy is what you want!<br />
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My final tip is to always use a thermometer when deep frying. I guarantee, unless you are very experienced, that you will not heat the oil up enough and you will be left with little greaseballs from the sea. This is almost always the problem with heavy deep fried food. If it is fried properly, it should be light not greasy. The hot oil instantly seals the outside of the food if your temperature is hot enough. If not, then the coating just absorbs the oil. This never tastes good.<br />
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To serve, get your favorite bread. Traditional, Louisiana-style is a baguette with a crispy exterior and a soft interior. You can serve it with mayo, mustard, lettuce and tomato or "undressed" with nothing but the meat (okay fine maybe a little mayo). Straying from the path is my general rule in life so I made up a spicy soy dressing, do what will make your sandwich taste delicious.<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
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You will notice that there is no picture of the completed sandwich. I tried, I really did, but I have a rule that photography ought not to interfere with eating. And there was no way I was setting up a photoshoot with my luscious peacemaker begging me to eat it! Oh it was good. The cornmeal crust was absolutely to die for. Super crunchy, super tasty, a little spicy, perfection. I think it's probably perfect for deep frying just about anything so check out the recipe just for that. The oysters were from <a href="http://www.dailycatch.org/" target="_blank">The Daily Catch</a> and, again, were absolutely delicious. Plump, juicy, tasty. Go check out their store if you are a seafood lover.<br />
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Up Next? Oyster Obsession Part 3: Brine<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-41316122572808446402013-01-19T20:01:00.000-08:002013-01-19T20:07:36.882-08:00Oyster Obsession Part 1: RawA couple of weeks ago, I ate oysters for the first time in probably ten years. For some reason, I was of the firm opinion that they weren't anything special. Well that opinion changed with a visit to Merchant's Oyster Bar on the Drive where I enjoyed four different varieties of icy, on-the-half-shell oysters. Delicious and salty and slippery with just a touch of lemon.<br />
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Merchant's does buck-a-shuck after 9:00 pm, which is when we went. When the oysters arrived at the table I was quite disappointed that they were already shucked! I thought we were shucking them ourselves and because I had never shucked an oyster before I was quite excited. Needless to say my girlfriends made a lot of fun of me when I mentioned this. Now that I have shucked my own, I can see why "shuck your own oysters" might not work as a restaurant concept.<br />
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My oyster adventure started with a trip to <a href="http://www.dailycatch.org/" target="_blank">The Daily Catch</a> on Commerical Drive. Last October I took part in a <a href="http://www.socialbites.ca/" target="_blank">Social Bites</a> cooking competition and as part of the chef goodie bag I got a $25 gift certificate to <a href="http://www.dailycatch.org/" target="_blank">The Daily Catch</a>. Being out of town and then caught up in the craziness of Christmas, it took me until now to make my way into the store.<br />
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The oysters are a great deal ranging in price from $1 to $2 bucks. I bought a selection because, as you will see, this is just the first in a series of oyster obsession posts.<br />
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For my raw experience, I ate the $2 oysters. I can't remember the name so you'll have to go in and ask yourself or give the store a call at 604-253-3474. The oysters are a small size and are quite easy to open yourself. As most sources will say, make sure your oyster shells are closed or that they close when poked. This means your little oyster is alive and won't kill you with rottenness.<br />
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I didn't buy an oyster shucking knife because I don't know how often I'll be shucking and, quite frankly, it seems unnecessary. I just used a knife with a good point and a blade that I don't care about. The key is to find the oysters weak spot. Once you can get a little bit of the knife in, jiggle it around until it slides all the way in and then twist. The top shell should pop off. Don't get discouraged, it takes a few oysters to get good. Be careful not to spill the liquor. That is the best part.<br />
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Once your oyster is popped open, settle it onto a bed of ice to get it nice and cold. Get a little piece of lemon and squeeze it into the waiting shell. Pick it up and inhale deeply. Mmmm, the smell of the ocean. Then open wide and let it slip, slide down your throat. It is a wonderfully sensual food and with valentine's day coming up, is an excellent choice for a celebration with your lover.<br />
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Up Next? Oyster Obsession Part 2: Meat<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-13824552486007237102013-01-10T16:17:00.000-08:002013-01-11T07:35:23.786-08:00Orange and Flower Water Jam plus a #GiveawayWhen you like to cook, your family soon latches on and starts giving you cooking related presents. Personally I love it and during Christmas I majorly scored with two amazing cookbooks given to me by my brother and sister. I'm am going to review a recipe from "The Whole Beast" by Fergus Henderson soon but today, oh yes, today we are diving into <a href="http://www.octopusbooks.co.uk/books/general/9781845335649/salt-sugar-smoke/" target="_blank">"Salt Sugar Smoke" by Diana Henry</a>.<br />
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I love this book. I read it from front to back as soon as I opened it. Long after the family had left the Christmas present opening area, I remained, nestled on the couch in my snuggie poring over my book. Every few minutes I would yell out to someone, "Do you like marmalade?" or "Get over here and look at this picture!" or "Doesn't this (insert recipe name) sound delicious?" My father quickly remarked that my brother had unleashed a beast.<br />
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I love this book. As I picked up the giveaway copy today from Chapters and carried it home, I couldn't help but lament that I had to give it away. If anyone needs two copies of a cookbook, it is this cookbook. One to use and one to admire.<br />
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Why do I love this book so much? First of all, it is out of character as I tend to hate being restrained by recipes. However, the pictures are gorgeous. Dripping jams, juicy fruits, beautiful cocktails, luscious meats, ahhh... They make me want to run off into the forest with nothing but a bag of apples, some cardamom and canning jars. The writing is perfectly sparse. I don't want to read excessively, but I want to read enough to inspire me to try the recipe. A short story, a tidbit of a description, a pairing suggestion, she hits the nail on the head. And finally, the recipes are delectable. They all sound fantastic. Period.<br />
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So, because I believe that everyone should own a copy of this book, I am doing my part and giving one away. I'm also celebrating my one-year anniversary of dedicating myself to this blog!<br />
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Please find the contest details below this "completely delicious, soft, bitter sweet-scented jam." As Diana Henry suggests, "use it on sliced brioche (watch it dribble over the edges). It's fabulous, too, spooned over cream to serve with bitter chocolate cake."<br />
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<b>Ingredients</b><br />
<ul>
<li>7 organic oranges</li>
<li>5 cups granulated sugar</li>
<li>Juice of one lemon</li>
<li>3 tablespoons orange flower water, or more to taste</li>
</ul>
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<b>Directions</b></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMYZJZDN-DmzMkCasjecVGqjnaLPW26u2x9PjSadSoSzNutDp3oWLUuElNsL3cdK3d-XgL5-IV5M7GxCmME89qlIeI7Rs4NPwbX762HfWaSpJBpFB9BP4Cbuu0xg_Js_TQdxgpmZq8bEdv/s1600/IMG_5677.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="248" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhMYZJZDN-DmzMkCasjecVGqjnaLPW26u2x9PjSadSoSzNutDp3oWLUuElNsL3cdK3d-XgL5-IV5M7GxCmME89qlIeI7Rs4NPwbX762HfWaSpJBpFB9BP4Cbuu0xg_Js_TQdxgpmZq8bEdv/s320/IMG_5677.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
1. The recipe is quite simple. Start by peeling the oranges thickly, boiling the peels in water for 10 minutes, rinsing and then soaking in fresh water overnight. After you peel the oranges, juice them. You should have about 2 cups of juice, drink the excess.</div>
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2. The next day, shred the peel as finely as you like. I left mine quite thick as I think it gives it a rustic feel, which makes me enjoy eating it more. Then, combine with the sugar, juice and lemon juice, and bring to a boil. Turn down and simmer for 30 minutes. Now add the orange flower water.<br />
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3. Process in a water bath for 10 minutes. Henry says that the recipe makes about 4 cups but mine made 5! Yes!!!<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvSIDTM9hnAl9r38Vf80hWIOpw9OhqyBkldzN8jzRkuJEeRZrDiCEoSNQYl2QAH3_W23YQKPcZzvTAM9rmzQOA91uVLZrt5tAIwb6V3NwI9vx7OekCLertAehOx5IfKfvkxAlnXsIcFWGB/s1600/IMG_5684.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvSIDTM9hnAl9r38Vf80hWIOpw9OhqyBkldzN8jzRkuJEeRZrDiCEoSNQYl2QAH3_W23YQKPcZzvTAM9rmzQOA91uVLZrt5tAIwb6V3NwI9vx7OekCLertAehOx5IfKfvkxAlnXsIcFWGB/s320/IMG_5684.JPG" width="320" /></a>Absolutely glorious! I ate mine spooned into some porridge and then, later in the day, smeared on a croissant with butter. A huge fan of cooking with flower waters in general, I just loved the richness that the orange blossom water gave the jam.<br />
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And now on to the contest details...<br />
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1. I want to know your favorite type of jam or jelly! Let me know (and enter the contest) by:<br />
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<ul>
<li>Commenting on this blog post.</li>
<li>Following me on <a href="https://twitter.com/VanShoMac" target="_blank">Twitter</a> and tweeting your answer!</li>
<li>Following me on <a href="http://pinterest.com/shonaghm/" target="_blank">Pinterest</a>.</li>
<li>Joining my mailing list.</li>
</ul>
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2. Each thing you do gives you another entry.</div>
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3. This contest is open to residents of both the US and Canada (with the exception of Hawaii).<br />
4. The contest closes on the last day of January, 2013.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-910900484234844382013-01-03T20:31:00.000-08:002013-01-03T20:31:00.678-08:00Broccoli Salad with Hazelnut Mayonaise<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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December 29th was the final Christmas feast of 2012 hosted by my cousin Sarah. Whew! Another eating season over and this last meal was a great way to finish it off. My sister turned veggie this year and my Uncle and Aunt are also veggie so Sarah decided to make a veggie Christmas dinner. The side dish was a broccoli salad with cranberries, red onion, cheddar cheese and a crunchy nut of some kind. It had a mayonnaise dressing which offset the sweet cranberries and raw broccoli beautifully. I loved it so much that I wanted to make some the following night for my own dinner. <br />
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I changed the recipe a touch and decided to make my own mayonnaise for the dressing.</div>
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Mayonnaise is a traditional french sauce though most people in North America, when they hear the word, think of jarred commercial mayonnaise. Hellman's and Miracle Whip are NOT mayonnaise. Seriously. Real mayonnaise is delicate and silky held together with raw egg yolk and patient whisking. It doesn't sit upright when spooned onto a plate preferring to lounge instead, a smooth pool of nutty richness. <br />
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Please note that hand mixing is essential.</div>
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<b>Mayonnaise Ingredients</b></div>
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<ul>
<li>1 egg yolk, organic with the outer shell of the egg washed</li>
<li>1 tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice</li>
<li>A tiny pinch of salt (you will adjust later to taste)</li>
<li>1/2 cup of hazelnut oil</li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkKGI4IJwKJuU8RSCE_n-Jb5Jhkejo8XPsYIDJQhiKLZ_Fn291pgTR4G4UueVecotKG0oYB6CXxVMk4po0mjI_u4MfmEfCCxnMiUC7Fp0g5SsW7m4yIQ4meFXsMpmyBjkATX2ENkdHgLsI/s1600/IMG_5611.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhkKGI4IJwKJuU8RSCE_n-Jb5Jhkejo8XPsYIDJQhiKLZ_Fn291pgTR4G4UueVecotKG0oYB6CXxVMk4po0mjI_u4MfmEfCCxnMiUC7Fp0g5SsW7m4yIQ4meFXsMpmyBjkATX2ENkdHgLsI/s320/IMG_5611.jpg" width="320" /></a>I like to use a raw egg yolk. None of this partial cooking or pasteurized liquid egg products, just a beautiful yellow yolk sitting in the bottom of my bowl. To this add your vinegar and a pinch of salt, whisking well. Now you need to blend your oil with your yolk and by beginning slowly, not overwhelming the yolk with oil, it becomes able to handle far more oil than if you had rushed the process. Patience is key. </div>
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Add your oil drop by drop, whisking the whole time. Once a third of the oil is incorporated in this fashion (according to The Joy of Cooking), you can begin to pour the oil in a thin stream making sure to continue whisking. After the oil is completely incorporated, taste for salt and adjust. The recipe I followed in The Joy mentioned adding a touch of mustard at this step and you could, if your choice of oil is underwhelming. I used a beautiful, organic locally-pressed hazelnut oil from Canadian Hazelnut Inc. so I decided to leave the mustard out.</div>
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Cover your mayonnaise and place in the refrigerator as you prepare the rest of the salad.</div>
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<b>Salad Ingredients</b></div>
<div>
<ul>
<li>Hazelnut Mayonnaise from recipe above</li>
<li>2 heads of broccoli with stems attached, about four cups</li>
<li>1/2 a red onion, sliced into thin strips</li>
<li>3/4 cup of whole hazelnuts</li>
<li>1 cup of dried sweetened cranberries</li>
<li>Salt to taste</li>
</ul>
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<b>Directions</b></div>
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1. Put the whole hazelnuts into a heavy bottomed saucepan and toast on medium heat until roasty toasty but not burnt. Shake the pan frequently to prevent said burning. This should take under fifteen minutes. Let the nuts cool and then either chop or crush. Keep the chunks of a decent size.</div>
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2. Chop the broccoli into 1/2 inch pieces and throw into a large bowl. Add the toasted hazelnuts, the red onion and the cranberries. Pour the entire bowl of hazelnut mayonnaise into the bowl and stir well. Add a good amount of salt and stir again. The salt will pull some of the moisture out of the veggies making the salad juicier so I like to let it sit for about half an hour in the fridge before serving. Stir well again and let it come to room temperature to serve.</div>
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<b>The Verdict</b></div>
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I love the hazelnut mayonnaise. The oil is made from raw hazelnuts so the flavour isn't overwhelming, but wonderfully subtle. The toasted hazelnuts add another layer of hazelnut flavour and I just love the nuts against the sweetness of the cranberries and crunchiness of the broccoli. I will mention that the raw onion is strong so if you are about to go out for a night on the town or have a make out session with your lover, you might want to skip it. Just sayin'.</div>
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Coming Up? Something offal related. Perhaps a pig's head or liver, tune in to find out!</div>
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-81597424770872076682012-12-31T06:33:00.000-08:002012-12-31T06:34:22.912-08:00Culatello or the King of ProsciuttoIf culatello is the king of prosciutto, what is the queen?<br />
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This was the first question that struck me as I started to read and learn about culatello.<br />
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After just a little thinking and reading, the answer became obvious: Jamon Iberico de Bellota. A Spanish variety of cured, dried and aged ham. So what makes Jamon Iberico de Bellota the queen? <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSDbTlvc5a_dOyvCSRRrHSRkg155j99wxejmVjrhliI6NbOcV9VeZKeQjTm3b28uIAdnrOwJ_CAIHhZK6-KX7sC0aQQOkU2nb6e6D4XRxX-ZQlUCSLFydNt2qD-uxnErllefsYJIh-Z2r/s1600/IMG_5481.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizSDbTlvc5a_dOyvCSRRrHSRkg155j99wxejmVjrhliI6NbOcV9VeZKeQjTm3b28uIAdnrOwJ_CAIHhZK6-KX7sC0aQQOkU2nb6e6D4XRxX-ZQlUCSLFydNt2qD-uxnErllefsYJIh-Z2r/s320/IMG_5481.JPG" title="" width="320" /></a>Let's start with the pig, a gorgeous black color. The pig version of the little black dress. The thigh itself is large with fat winding its way through: Can you think of a more feminine image than a luscious thigh? The process itself is simple, some would say almost self-contained, there's none of this dicing and slicing and wrapping in a bladder. It is the thigh and salt, like a woman with character, nothing else is needed. And of course, it's pricey. Jamon Iberico de Bellota, the queen of cured ham.<br />
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Unfortunately, for this post I am playing with the king. For several reasons. He's smaller. The culatello cut is only part of the back leg, the rump if you like, or the ass if you're feeling a bit spiteful. It is deboned making it far more manageable, a puppet king one could say. For my first attempt at a prosciutto, small and manageable seemed appropriate (and less wasteful if it all goes to heck). <br />
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I <a href="http://www.windsorqualitymeats.com/" target="_blank">trotted up to my butcher</a>, where I originally heard about culatello, to pick up my delightful little rump. They even managed to bring in a bladder for me, and a mighty big bladder it is. Once I arrived home I unwrapped my meat to find it tied beautifully, unfortunately, I had to cut it apart because the skin was still attached and Ruhlman clearly says in his new book <i>Salumi </i>the meat should be skinless. <br />
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Just to brag for a moment, I am getting darn good at skinning pig meat. The key is a sharp knife and a watchful eye. <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/10/homemade-bacon.html" target="_blank">You can see my directions here</a>. <br />
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Once the meat hunk was skinned, I tied it back up in a rather unartful fashion. But it was my first time and your first time is always a bit sloppy. Once it was tied, I took several large handfuls of salt and coated the meat, massaging it in. Then into the fridge it went for just over a week.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhashFprRRB9qPIc8QyH9mzpVba4JDcCQEpdJoXejVgmh0i-R-7IeqJL6lNjOVwwFoIyvz1eItyVRZNhb96Kqwq9sxsBAOgWxPuUXUsQHgaMft1fmkcjBFOHsKVFFjMHul5AWFupm-5O1P_/s1600/IMG_5562.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhashFprRRB9qPIc8QyH9mzpVba4JDcCQEpdJoXejVgmh0i-R-7IeqJL6lNjOVwwFoIyvz1eItyVRZNhb96Kqwq9sxsBAOgWxPuUXUsQHgaMft1fmkcjBFOHsKVFFjMHul5AWFupm-5O1P_/s320/IMG_5562.jpg" width="240" /></a>After a week and a quick bath in some white wine, it was ready for wrapping and hanging. I soaked my pig bladder in hot water for several hours until it was nice and soft. Then I cut it open, slipped the meat hunk inside and sewed it up. <br />
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Funny story. I needed a trussing needle and yelled downstairs to my mom (it's Christmas, I'm at the 'rents and that's where I'm hanging my culatello) to see if she had one. She did. But it was my <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/09/grandpas-blackberry-jam.html" target="_blank">late Grandpa's</a>. For some reason, while he was in his old folks home he asked my mom to bring him a large needle. What did he use it for? None of us know...<br />
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Anyways, to tie the culatello, make several loops around it lengthwise and then twist twine horizontally through the loops. Think of it as a net for your meat. I hung mine in a cleaned out storage closet in my parents basement. There is also rosemary, thyme and lavender hanging so my culatello feels like it is in Italy. <br />
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My parents live in North Vancouver and our climate is Coastal Rainforest meaning the air is quite humid so I am just going to leave the space as is with no extra sources of moisture. <br />
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Check back in six months when it should be ready.<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
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The process is fun... What will it taste like?<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-5135014002331957482012-12-26T06:40:00.000-08:002012-12-27T21:35:32.640-08:00EPIC Christmas Eve Brunch 2012<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Every year I host a Christmas Eve Brunch in my little apartment for a big group of mostly family with a few friends. The numbers often get up into the late teens, early twenties so it is definitely a packed house. My favorite part of this tradition (now in its fifth year) is choosing the theme. I was struggling a bit with a theme this year, nothing was really standing out, that is until I was half-way through my trip to Ecuador! <br />
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Of course! An Ecuadorian Christmas Eve Brunch!<br />
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Here's the plan:<br />
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<i><b>Appetizer</b></i><br />
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<b>Green mango slices with lime, salt, and pepper.</b> This was one of my favorite snack foods in Ecuador. Green or very light yellow mango slices are packed into a little bag and sprinkled with salt and pepper. Very refreshing and a wonderful way to wake up your palate in the morning!<br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"><b><i>Drinks</i></b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"><b>Cafe con leche.</b></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"> Made with my Ecuadorian roasted coffee topped with some delicious whipped cream and freshly ground canela. I brought canela home from Mercado Central but in the hub-bub of almost 20 people in my apartment I forgot to put it out. I put one of my cousins on latte duty and she made cows milk and soy milk lattes for my guests. </span><br />
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<b><i>Main</i></b><br />
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<b>Double-fried green bananas.</b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="-webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; color: black;"> How could I not serve these delicious morning treats? They were a breakfast staple on the farm. Making them is simple. The green banana is cut into 2-inch chunks and fried until golden. The fried chunks are then smashed and fried again. Keep them in the oven until you are ready to serve breakfast.</span></div>
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<b>Queso blanco.</b> <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/12/making-queso-blanco.html" target="_blank">I love making cheese and this cheese is quite simple</a>. We also ate this fresh cheese on the farm as the neighbor next door made it. While mine doesn't have the same depth of flavour (if only I had a cow outside my door to milk), it was quite yummy.</div>
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<b>Fruit salad.</b> Watermelon, apple, banana, and papaya. An Ecuadorian essential.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_1jD54-jF9xOyULbSlrCY5G9tQxPiBMZfp2sMBcCNfgKyvvPEgOfk-66XQ9olLNHipgdh_vEBmgqm3jZ2kD3GgKygJxQ-QEWvt2azbsU1bQ3bsfL_tV0HkYbAi5IE2-FV3fPNDEyt68oh/s1600/IMG_5541.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_1jD54-jF9xOyULbSlrCY5G9tQxPiBMZfp2sMBcCNfgKyvvPEgOfk-66XQ9olLNHipgdh_vEBmgqm3jZ2kD3GgKygJxQ-QEWvt2azbsU1bQ3bsfL_tV0HkYbAi5IE2-FV3fPNDEyt68oh/s320/IMG_5541.JPG" width="320" /></a><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-weight: normal;"><b>Avocado chunks.</b></span></b><br />
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<b>Salsa. </b> A touch of culantro, red onion, tomato paste, chile to drizzle over the cheese... Mmmm.</div>
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And that was my Ecuadorian-inspired EPIC Christmas Eve Brunch! It was wonderful to share the food traditions I learned on the farm with my own family.</div>
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<b>The Verdict</b></div>
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Like every Christmas Eve Brunch it is a packed affair. My apartment is a decent size but once I fit, er, cram, 18 people in, it feels pretty small. I really appreciate that my family humours me every year, shows up and eats me out of house and home. The consensus this year was that the plantains were delicious. A bunch of people in my family had never tried plantains before and I was happy to introduce them. They also loved the queso blanco. As well, my coffee was a hit! It doesn't taste like the coffee we have here, but I don't know why. Perhaps it's the roasting? Or the bean is different? Whatever the case, smelling it instantly brought me back to Ecuador... Another EPIC Christmas Eve Brunch over, which leaves me with the question - what will next years theme be???</div>
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Up Next? <a href="http://anoffalexperiment.blogspot.com/2012/12/culatello-or-king-of-prosciutto.html" target="_blank">Culatello or the King of Prosciutto</a><br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-82404224702062328432012-12-23T22:52:00.000-08:002012-12-24T16:15:59.317-08:00Spicy Smoked Pancetta & Lemon Coriander Pancetta<div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcci0rcI42iPrqRhRIHrJv8PN0P1cMzT3XqNSpgaEu21CKnkMyq6-RXaicP3YQ7J09CUh_BzO-V1XnsaSHQ-rDOLjP1a4qQA8tIhtlR_3lNUeHmbGzKm3FR5hY9BOvnYyGsHB6jAESrufE/s1600/IMG_5477.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="185" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhcci0rcI42iPrqRhRIHrJv8PN0P1cMzT3XqNSpgaEu21CKnkMyq6-RXaicP3YQ7J09CUh_BzO-V1XnsaSHQ-rDOLjP1a4qQA8tIhtlR_3lNUeHmbGzKm3FR5hY9BOvnYyGsHB6jAESrufE/s320/IMG_5477.JPG" width="320" /></a>Every Christmas all of the cousins in my family do a Christmas gift exchange. This year I got my cousin Hamish. He's the perfect person to gift with his love of all things meaty. So what was I going to get him? Hmmm, ponder, ponder, ponder. Ahhhh, yes. Bacon. No, pancetta. No, smoked pancetta! The best of both worlds! </div>
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I decided on two types of pancetta. The first would be flavoured and the second would be smoked and flavoured. And guess what? I got to build a smoker. Oh yes. Read on...<br />
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The first pancetta cured in salt and sugar, diced preserved lemon, toasted coriander and thyme. I let it sit in the cure for a week, the water slowly seeping out as the salt and lemon worked their way into the belly. It got a little bath to rinse off the salt and sugar before I grated fresh lemon peel straight onto the belly and then rubbed it with toasted and ground coriander. Into the drying closet it went.<br />
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The second pancetta cured in salt and sugar, hot flaked red pepper and one clove of garlic. It sat with the other belly, also being massaged and flipped every couple days. After rinsing, it got another dusting with hot pepper flakes then it was time for smoking. But I have no smoker! What's a girl to do? In my case, I decided to build my own and it worked like a hot damn.<br />
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I started with a kettle barbecue. The little black one that people bring down to the beach. There are four vent holes out of the top of the barbecue and to that I attached a ProFlex Dryer Vent Duct, with tape. Oh yeah. Hi tech. I cut the dryer vent duct in half, which was the hardest part, and attached the other end to the barbecue grill with twist ties. I suspended the grill between the backs of two chairs and then on top of the chairs I placed an oven rack. Voila! An ultra cold smoker! <br />
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I'm not sure what temperature a cold smoker is at normally but I wanted mine as cold as possible because I didn't use any pink curing salt. How perfect that it is winter in Vancouver right now so it is about refrigerator temperature outside. My little belly sat on the oven rack above the dryer vent for five hours and I didn't have to worry about food safety at all! <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w7D3zDbUUVaWEXHpsEoYpe0CivIsqF9tSXC1Fw-uYF9bXY-Eq_K9bPDvk1SQzSPRKgNvSjVSWCvt6b3FGbLzvFSa0lV_cCUpUv2To9bocGEanGsWkdR_biBcilNSXegH_U4zNTzFGk1L/s1600/IMG_5575.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="220" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg7w7D3zDbUUVaWEXHpsEoYpe0CivIsqF9tSXC1Fw-uYF9bXY-Eq_K9bPDvk1SQzSPRKgNvSjVSWCvt6b3FGbLzvFSa0lV_cCUpUv2To9bocGEanGsWkdR_biBcilNSXegH_U4zNTzFGk1L/s320/IMG_5575.jpg" width="320" /></a>For the smoke itself, I used mesquite. To light a fire, I bought <a href="http://www.lokkiicharcoal.com/" target="_blank">Lokkii bricks</a> from Canadian Tire and then put handfuls of damp mesquite chips on top of the Lokkii every 20 minutes or so. The package said that each large charcoal chunk lasted for two hours but mine lasted longer than five hours. I just stopped after five hours because it was late and I wanted to go to bed. <br />
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The belly took on a beautiful color, which I greatly admired as I hustled it down into the drying closet. Now when I say drying closet, I really mean my unheated storage locker. And let me tell you, it is smelling smoky. Sorry other tenants!<br />
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After two weeks of drying both pancettas were given a tin foil blanket and passed off to my cousin.<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
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I have no idea! My cousin is getting four pounds of pancetta and I hope he enjoys it... Maybe he'll comment on my blog!<br />
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Up Next? <a href="http://anoffalexperiment.blogspot.com/2012/12/epic-christmas-eve-brunch-2012.html" target="_blank">My EPIC Christmas Eve Brunch 2012!</a><br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-84316339265395939002012-12-21T06:44:00.000-08:002012-12-27T21:34:24.487-08:00Making Queso BlancoOne thing I really wanted to try was making fresh cheese like I ate in Ecuador. While it's probably a pale comparison (I don't have a cow outside my door nor a woman whose been making it since childhood), it seems like a relatively easy process. As well, I am using queso blanco in my Ecuadorian-themed EPIC Christmas Eve brunch this year and because it is one of the stars of the meal, I thought I should try it out beforehand. <br />
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The process is super simple and basically foolproof. I didn't even use a thermometer and it's only my second time experimenting with cheese!<br />
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<b>Directions</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_1jD54-jF9xOyULbSlrCY5G9tQxPiBMZfp2sMBcCNfgKyvvPEgOfk-66XQ9olLNHipgdh_vEBmgqm3jZ2kD3GgKygJxQ-QEWvt2azbsU1bQ3bsfL_tV0HkYbAi5IE2-FV3fPNDEyt68oh/s1600/IMG_5541.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_1jD54-jF9xOyULbSlrCY5G9tQxPiBMZfp2sMBcCNfgKyvvPEgOfk-66XQ9olLNHipgdh_vEBmgqm3jZ2kD3GgKygJxQ-QEWvt2azbsU1bQ3bsfL_tV0HkYbAi5IE2-FV3fPNDEyt68oh/s320/IMG_5541.JPG" width="320" /></a>1. Start with fresh milk. I am going to do a little thinking about where to source my milk for the EPIC brunch. I might see if the farmer's market has anything to tempt me or I might just go organic. The point is to buy milk that will make a beautiful cheese so buying the best quality milk you can afford is a good route to go.<br />
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2. Heat 2 litres of milk up until it starts to boil and as it's heating, add a heaping tablespoon of salt. I didn't let my milk get to a roiling boil and the cheese turned out fine but you might want to let it get quite bubbly. I noticed that my leftover whey was quite cloudy in comparison to other pictures I saw online. Just sayin'.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7jkdphJsF2eZ2OEF8SorAHq2kAJMnamxFGK-2w4NkhULfukDao22t1n7BiReeiJIluPspsdcujEVhcBZZWPmtegdGJ6Mc1rytbuI_vjm99uVv9tHFwdIBvYLh7SU6pifqZ3TwtHmV2vvq/s1600/IMG_5543.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7jkdphJsF2eZ2OEF8SorAHq2kAJMnamxFGK-2w4NkhULfukDao22t1n7BiReeiJIluPspsdcujEVhcBZZWPmtegdGJ6Mc1rytbuI_vjm99uVv9tHFwdIBvYLh7SU6pifqZ3TwtHmV2vvq/s320/IMG_5543.jpg" width="304" /></a>3. Once the milk starts to boil, add three tablespoons of white vinegar or another acid and turn the heat down to low. I'm going to use lemon juice for my brunch, but I didn't have any on hand for today's experiment.<br />
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4. Some recipes mention stirring and some mention sitting so do what you feel like. I stirred my vinegar-milk concoction for about ten minutes and then let it sit a bit. That worked well for me.<br />
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5. Once the whey (the leftover liquid) looks fairly clear, either scoop the curds out or dump the whole mess into a colander/strainer lined with cheesecloth. If you want to keep the whey then make sure the colander is in a bowl. There aren't a whole lot of uses for the acidulated whey but you can use it for baking, making oatmeal, creating sports drinks, and watering acid loving plants such as roses and rhododendrons. Waste not, want not!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDWajwM248OgixXCNCn9mrl8PmiK3HeYhsNDTFjBzW9ruXzahuKsqL5DxPh9-Hjrc_chnGFJ47ZQBaa5aLBJw454YNd8VdL6NM8k6FzAF59zktNBeBSmmOk_kAhXZOh6u89a1atT04PVHq/s1600/IMG_5545.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiDWajwM248OgixXCNCn9mrl8PmiK3HeYhsNDTFjBzW9ruXzahuKsqL5DxPh9-Hjrc_chnGFJ47ZQBaa5aLBJw454YNd8VdL6NM8k6FzAF59zktNBeBSmmOk_kAhXZOh6u89a1atT04PVHq/s320/IMG_5545.jpg" width="257" /></a>6. I let my curds sit in the cheesecloth for about ten minutes before scooping out some fresh cheese. You can put a weight on the cheesecloth to compress the cheese further but fresh off the stove is quite delicious.<br />
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I sprinkled mine with salt, which made it absolutely perfect!<br />
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<b>The Verdict</b><br />
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What can I say? I bought a croissant to enjoy with my fresh cheese and honestly they were the perfect combination. A crusty baguette would be wonderful or a rustic loaf. The recipe is so simple and so delicious that anyone who has ever even wondered about making cheese should try making this one.<br />
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Up Next? <a href="http://anoffalexperiment.blogspot.com/2012/12/spicy-smoked-pancetta-lemon-coriander.html" target="_blank">Smoked Spicy Pancetta & Lemon Coriander Pancetta</a><br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-25939327776872694482012-12-18T20:14:00.000-08:002012-12-19T09:03:49.627-08:00Gingerbread House Cupcakes!!!I was desperate to make a gingerbread house this year. Probably because last Christmas I took part in a gingerbread competition (we did an Occupy the North Pole theme) and the competition this year was canceled! What a let down! So I decided to go solo and came up with tiny gingerbread houses on cupcakes. Totally cute in my mind and I have to say they turned out not too bad. Let me know what you think. <br />
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Before I begin? Where did gingerbread come from? This is always an interesting question because the beginnings of any foodstuff is murky. Gingerbread is no exception. It all supposedly started in <a href="http://www.gingerbread.ultimategingerbread.com/p/history-of-gingerbread.html" target="_blank">Medieval Europe in the 11th century with spiced ginger cake</a>. Sometimes the cake was hard and sometimes it was soft. The ginger itself probably came from Asia and I don't know if they have their own variety of ginger cake. Germany built on the popularity of gingerbread and to this day there are little towns who specialize in gingerbread creations. And then the Grimm brothers happened. Hansel and Gretel came to life in their writing and the candy-covered gingerbread house became a mainstay in the popular imagination. <br />
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Now on to mine...<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkS2uuIx1E5noXKmMO23ZtWdjiq_0QIcX5JIJuwHtUBRjHyGXTHz0hZt-M3wyDYsfohdz9MQX_F5PvxPjW1AXuJFINqDo-eBq9sw54F4rbMOafTP9B6S-13UJnpzZ3Nk1oJmnW7eMjxEqu/s1600/IMG_5505.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkS2uuIx1E5noXKmMO23ZtWdjiq_0QIcX5JIJuwHtUBRjHyGXTHz0hZt-M3wyDYsfohdz9MQX_F5PvxPjW1AXuJFINqDo-eBq9sw54F4rbMOafTP9B6S-13UJnpzZ3Nk1oJmnW7eMjxEqu/s320/IMG_5505.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
First of all I need to confess that I didn't make gingerbread. I made ginger spiced sugar cookies. To make the cookies, I followed <a href="http://sweetopia.net/2009/12/sugar-cookie-recipe/" target="_blank">a Sweetopia recipe</a>. Just a side note: What an awesome site! The things that woman can do with icing! The only change I made is cutting the recipe in half and only using 1ml of baking powder so the cookies didn't puff up. The fabulous thing about sugar cookie dough is that it's hard to overwork so you can roll it and re-roll it and re-roll it. <br />
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I also used her royal icing recipe but really it's just icing sugar with some water and cream of tartar. I don't use the meringue powder but you might want to if you are making something large and architectural.<br />
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<b>Directions</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZD5IyPKF-zmVr5zpKIqlnA9Ty867py2xPxcVqE1bUr0LFKHarjgm4dKp2-aTYNCBb4oiEx5LRirN8tNslWKQ8lqvAHvGPjX0GznsJ9dGd0FXLBVdqMSAuRHT18_F8SHBA1avJhWbn44h/s1600/IMG_5506.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="218" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh1ZD5IyPKF-zmVr5zpKIqlnA9Ty867py2xPxcVqE1bUr0LFKHarjgm4dKp2-aTYNCBb4oiEx5LRirN8tNslWKQ8lqvAHvGPjX0GznsJ9dGd0FXLBVdqMSAuRHT18_F8SHBA1avJhWbn44h/s320/IMG_5506.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
1. Roll out the dough nice and thin. Using templates, cut out the required number of pieces. I needed 24 side walls, 24 roofs, and 24 peaked walls. Now that I have tried this out, I recommend making them as small as manageably possible. Mine were small but once baked, they did get bigger.<br />
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2. Let them cool and then decorate. I put doors on the peaked walls and tiny windows on the side walls. I tried making tiny wreaths but my icing point wasn't fine enough - that would be really cute doncha think? The roofs got the special treatment:<br />
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<ul>
<li>First, a rim of white icing filled with white icing. </li>
<li>Second, an outer rim of colored icing with silver balls embedded. These need to be placed with tweezers.</li>
<li>Third, cut a thin slice off the side of the roof that will connect with the other half. </li>
</ul>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GyqVs8xYADmXeqtLM3GCfNWrFe4wOHq-mMKF_vvS5zmTBC05aZqYFDAHvlJSYNJmR4PS2ftYvPXFuktMtdx3OBz-nCVCqtkSj5NscqcunHqzzg59V5fs14zkIhwjqzvv8XVabQ1k8vmX/s1600/IMG_5509.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="223" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_GyqVs8xYADmXeqtLM3GCfNWrFe4wOHq-mMKF_vvS5zmTBC05aZqYFDAHvlJSYNJmR4PS2ftYvPXFuktMtdx3OBz-nCVCqtkSj5NscqcunHqzzg59V5fs14zkIhwjqzvv8XVabQ1k8vmX/s320/IMG_5509.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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3. Let everything dry. Don't rush this step because you will just smear all your beautiful handiwork. Put two lines of icing on the outer edges on the inside of one peaked wall. Take two side walls (the ones with windows) and attach them with the windows facing out. The walls will be wobbly so let them dry a little bit and then adjust so the icing is a bit stickier. Using two lines of icing on the other peaked wall attach it to the other side of the two side walls. Hold the whole thing together for at least 30 seconds and then set it aside. Let it dry. </div>
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4. Put icing on the top edges of the peaked wall and on the inside edge of the roof pieces. Place the roof pieces on and hold in place for 20 seconds. Fill the middle gap with icing and then hold the roof in place again. Let it dry for a while.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvlKIIQw6wNg1PgLv6pGdBx2g8fUg14fW3g1Q7pEiry6MnSzUFXaPkkU1qRIb354_T8y7TNssVOmDzQLaA1Ts5SZc-N9Fa-ijJpbBdY7E6kBbjbMN4lXjrKENY6xKKdHiO_1LN-OTgT8RB/s1600/IMG_5510.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="236" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjvlKIIQw6wNg1PgLv6pGdBx2g8fUg14fW3g1Q7pEiry6MnSzUFXaPkkU1qRIb354_T8y7TNssVOmDzQLaA1Ts5SZc-N9Fa-ijJpbBdY7E6kBbjbMN4lXjrKENY6xKKdHiO_1LN-OTgT8RB/s320/IMG_5510.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
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5. Draw a line of matching icing along the centre line of the roof and place a silver bead at either end. Let it dry completely.</div>
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6. I decided to add an extra touch - a tiny Christmas tree out of white chocolate. A little surprise for the person who eats the cupcake. To make the tree, draw four or five circles on a piece of paper, each one progressively smaller. Tape the piece of paper down and then cover it with a piece of saran wrap, also taped down. Melt and color some white chocolate and put into a piping bag. </div>
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Pipe jagged shapes into each circle - don't worry about how they look too much because the overall effect will be awesome. For the last, smallest piece, I placed a silver ball on top with tweezers. Once the pieces are dry, put a dot of chocolate on top of the largest piece and place the next size up on top. Continue until the tree is assembled. Be careful, the pieces are delicate. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq6lk4Tm2M0lTHnJWmwmwlPdBKoolGmjlUDuisxqGFO0REOWO6eB8FboS2VHo7yaJ-Zoxh-_0FPz9yROPOdvbzdWTa32BJV4YU7QbqfJfYMnYL6UYQekTvajG2U7L2bGZ9ulZgk0LtdQ19/s1600/IMG_5525.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiq6lk4Tm2M0lTHnJWmwmwlPdBKoolGmjlUDuisxqGFO0REOWO6eB8FboS2VHo7yaJ-Zoxh-_0FPz9yROPOdvbzdWTa32BJV4YU7QbqfJfYMnYL6UYQekTvajG2U7L2bGZ9ulZgk0LtdQ19/s320/IMG_5525.jpg" width="264" /></a></div>
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7. Whoo! What a process. I am not going to say how many hours this took me, but suffice to say, many. Now make some cupcakes (or do this earlier, whenever works for you). I used a cake mix because I was spending so much time on the other elements. I added cinnamon, nutmeg and clove for some kick. Let them cool and then cut out the centre. I filled the cupcakes with <a href="http://www.atablefortwo.com.au/2010/06/28/sri-kaya-coconut-jam-recipe/" target="_blank">coconut jam</a>, which is just a cup of coconut milk and a cup of sugar cooked down like a dulce de leche. I also added a squirt of lemon juice and a pinch of baking soda. Really yummy...</div>
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8. Now it is time for the cupcake icing. I made a coconut buttercream with my leftover coconut jam (about 2 tbsp), 2 tbsp of salted butter, about a cup of icing sugar and enough coconut cream to make it spreadable. Once this was all whipped together I added about half a cup of shredded coconut. </div>
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Do you understand now why I used cake mix???</div>
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To assemble everything:</div>
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<ul>
<li>Take the filled cupcake and ice it with the coconut buttercream icing (I dipped the cupcake in shredded coconut, just an option).</li>
<li>Delicately place a white chocolate tree in the centre of the cupcake, with a dot of royal icing if you want.</li>
<li>Ice the bottom of the house with lots of white royal icing. Globbing it on makes it look like banked snow once the house is in place.</li>
<li>Gently place the house over the Christmas tree and press down firmly.</li>
<li>You're done!</li>
<li>Who am I kidding? You'd have to be nuts to do this recipe! </li>
</ul>
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<b>The Verdict</b></div>
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Whoa so yummy! The house got ooh's and aah's to no end. Totally worth the effort. I also entered my little fairy house into a cupcake competition over at<a href="http://movitabeaucoup.com/" target="_blank"> Movita Beaucoup</a>. It will be posted tomorrow just in case you want to vote for me, ahem, hint. hint.</div>
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Up next? <a href="http://anoffalexperiment.blogspot.com/2012/12/making-queso-blanco.html" target="_blank">Making Queso Blanco</a>.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-58926696769926193382012-12-15T22:21:00.000-08:002012-12-14T18:49:27.838-08:00Cambozola-Stuffed, Bacon-Wrapped Wild Black DatesAka the perfect holiday appetizer.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLZF0SuJ7GIpWB46vMosciaa_0WcAR8DBfa2w1vvNSn-OimxVVCfn7H7hQldgmfGYhe5_1PYIWPAyVeOto4SP3MFMXsk2ZF6ISOKTOdL2py_zJXbnaPr0TeGPULkh3lE93NJ4SiSmM4iZ/s1600/IMG_5492.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="249" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhuLZF0SuJ7GIpWB46vMosciaa_0WcAR8DBfa2w1vvNSn-OimxVVCfn7H7hQldgmfGYhe5_1PYIWPAyVeOto4SP3MFMXsk2ZF6ISOKTOdL2py_zJXbnaPr0TeGPULkh3lE93NJ4SiSmM4iZ/s320/IMG_5492.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
So how did I find these little beauties? I think I've mentioned before that I started a cleaning company to pay for school. I was at a client's house the other morning and we got to chatting. Both being food lovers, we often trade recipes and good shops and general food chitter chatter. This morning I was telling her about my recent bacon-makin' and she immediately seized on the opportunity to let me try "the most delicious thing I've ever eaten." Seriously. Unbelievably. Delicious.<br />
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And so simple. And so delicious. <br />
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The secret is to find the perfect ingredients.<br />
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I chose <a href="http://www.ayoubs.ca/product/dates/wild-black-dates" target="_blank">wild black dates from Ayoub's dried fruits and nuts</a> on Denman. If you live in Vancouver and haven't taken a visit to Ayoub's yet then I urge you to go. Yes, urge. Simply for the giant, ornate pewter containers that the nuts and fruits sit in, gorgeous. He roasts the nuts himself and you can just tell that he takes what he does seriously. I love food people like that and I love to support them. So buy your dates from him.<br />
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The cambozola I purchased from<a href="http://www.buycheese.com/" target="_blank"> Les Amis du Fromage</a> - their Hastings location. I've been wanting to check out this location and what a perfect opportunity. The cheese lady recommended Fourme d'Ambert, a french cow's milk cheese. It melted beautifully.<br />
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I am using my own bacon. Salty, smoky deliciousness.<br />
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<b>Directions</b><br />
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1) Cook the bacon to a nice level of doneness. You want the bacon cooked through but still soft enough to wrap around the date and cheese.<br />
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2) As the bacon is cooking, cut a slit in the dates and pull the seed out. Take a little chunk of cheese and stuff it into the date. Take a piece of bacon and wrap it around the date - secure in place with toothpicks.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIw3JeTkESvOdmK3ZujCLpmE4IDgydq33GbdFjT8P9GkzTKjPeIBDj1Y3rRQ3a-R3f_zk2neBgVSBFOwBDCF28ejuNU0PMII9EsoX0foUhYEdW2iALZDSL7C279p4RRX8hOJY1dXFB-HDZ/s1600/IMG_5499.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="228" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjIw3JeTkESvOdmK3ZujCLpmE4IDgydq33GbdFjT8P9GkzTKjPeIBDj1Y3rRQ3a-R3f_zk2neBgVSBFOwBDCF28ejuNU0PMII9EsoX0foUhYEdW2iALZDSL7C279p4RRX8hOJY1dXFB-HDZ/s320/IMG_5499.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
3) As this point you can either pop the delicious cheesy datey packages into the oven at 400 degrees until the cheese starts to ooze out or you can pop them in the fridge until you want to use them. <br />
<br />
You know they're done when the cheese is melty and bubbly. <br />
<br />
<b>The Verdict</b><br />
<br />
What a perfect holiday appetizer! They are easy to make, can be made ahead of time, use cheese and bacon and are absolutely delicious! I've served these on two separate occasions now and both times they were adored.<br />
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<br />
Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com16tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-89342288221594162582012-12-14T17:06:00.002-08:002012-12-14T17:06:39.433-08:00Chicken Foot SoupWhen I returned home to Vancouver from Ecuador, fall was in full swing. As those who live on the Northern Wet Coast know, this means rain and chilliness. I don't mind either because they inspire cooking and nesting - two of my favorite activities.<br />
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I was contemplating the cooking portion of this equation one night and decided to take some inspiration from Ecuador, and make a chicken foot soup. <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-food-of-canoa.html" target="_blank">As I mentioned in a previous post, Juan, the owner of the farm, loves chicken feet</a>. I've never actually eaten a chickens foot and decided that if he loved them that much, I should really see what they're all about.<br />
<br />
Chicken feet are my new favorite thing (I know, besides all of my other favorite things). But seriously, they are a forgotten little piece of offal and I will forget you no more little feet. The feet themselves are full of soft tendon and delicate chicken skin. The experience of eating them is fun, with lots of sucking on bones and pulling joints apart. And the texture, the texture. The broth of your soup will be silky and luscious if you add just one chicken foot, let alone thirteen like mine had.<br />
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<i>And my thrifty Scottish side:</i> This recipe made her happy. Only $1.36 for the 13 aforementioned chicken feet. Damn that is a deal.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirqDPV9vnP5fgD5kIoDOslasw0oSj7dKbJDf1j0P2Lzwu_poM6SAHvlpOss7jkhMZFGwLlLjGILi7a4sUjJLdu_0-sixEhAfG9a3G1wxzXpIg-zTl4pdDj-TnVabpvjXRg7D3PoqkWYqRW/s1600/IMG_5436.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirqDPV9vnP5fgD5kIoDOslasw0oSj7dKbJDf1j0P2Lzwu_poM6SAHvlpOss7jkhMZFGwLlLjGILi7a4sUjJLdu_0-sixEhAfG9a3G1wxzXpIg-zTl4pdDj-TnVabpvjXRg7D3PoqkWYqRW/s200/IMG_5436.JPG" width="200" /></a></div>
I also decided to try another veggie that I discovered in Ecuador - a yuca root. I'd seen these brown roots in the grocery store up here but never tried one. Why? I'm not sure as I am usually very adventurous. It might be its color and potato-like character, not a big fan of starchy veggies. But yuca, especially in soup, is also quite delicious and has a wonderful texture. So here is my Chicken Foot Soup recipe, a great way to warm up on a cold fall night.<br />
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<br />
<b>Ingredients:</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhft5oZhqHzCKF7hbPHl4NVdJRKEIgHMNlVKUC_lJcbRjKE9jwTqviZidadOE_UkeAMA6dE_3wQY_N2U8ei7Tdwqs2B6GrarqQJjK0aKt2dfJgL3tKxAj94CavBjL2LK3Q0eOYRCGhp55Vy/s1600/IMG_5439.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><b><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhft5oZhqHzCKF7hbPHl4NVdJRKEIgHMNlVKUC_lJcbRjKE9jwTqviZidadOE_UkeAMA6dE_3wQY_N2U8ei7Tdwqs2B6GrarqQJjK0aKt2dfJgL3tKxAj94CavBjL2LK3Q0eOYRCGhp55Vy/s320/IMG_5439.JPG" width="320" /></b></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Package of chicken feet (about a dozen feet)</li>
<li>1 large yuca root, cubed</li>
<li>2 medium sized carrots, cut into soup-sized chunks</li>
<li>2 celery stalks, cut into soup-sized chunks</li>
<li>1/2 cube of chicken boullion</li>
<li>3 bay leaves</li>
<li>1 medium onion, cubed</li>
<li>Water as needed</li>
<li>Salt and hot sauce to taste</li>
<li>Oil for sauteeing</li>
</ul>
<b><br /></b>
<b>Directions:</b><br />
<br />
1) Turn your oven on to 375 degrees and pop your chicken feet into a roasting pan. Roast until golden, approximately 45 minutes. The roasting is to help develop the flavour of the soup once the feet are added.<br />
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2) As your feet are roasting, heat up a tablespoon of cooking oil in a heavy bottomed pot (your soup pot), cube the onion and saute until translucent. Add the bay leaves, the boullion cube, the roasted feet and enough water to cover. Let simmer for twenty minutes.<br />
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3) While the broth simmers, cut the hard outer layer off the yuca and cut into similar-sized pieces. There is a woody string that runs down the centre of the yuca. If you can take that out then do so, but actually it has a nice effect of slowing down the eating process as you enjoy your soup.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxF-eqUIdkiQC0LYt1bcYvvqU9FJ6lQ0AOgJ3wE6-K_Fp_vMWbhSKrMw-WH2vgXD5TjiKPqdiVd0LbXmSZ7_YcuFqhZbGLtMIRof-S2p964OCll-HuVWbLXc8xVz30hPBWc6VhdP9eIPsg/s1600/IMG_5449.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhxF-eqUIdkiQC0LYt1bcYvvqU9FJ6lQ0AOgJ3wE6-K_Fp_vMWbhSKrMw-WH2vgXD5TjiKPqdiVd0LbXmSZ7_YcuFqhZbGLtMIRof-S2p964OCll-HuVWbLXc8xVz30hPBWc6VhdP9eIPsg/s320/IMG_5449.JPG" title="" width="320" /></a></div>
<b>Side note:</b> In the West (and I am guilty) we often equate efficiency with goodness. Remove the bones, take out the bay leaves, anything inedible should not be on the plate. While this definitely makes eating easier, I think it can, at times, reduce the pleasure of slowly and mindfully picking through a meal. Eating chicken foot soup is an exercise in patience (and greasy fingers) and I found that having to slow down and pull the woody yuca core out of my mouth really added to the mindfulness of the meal. Just a thought.<br />
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4) Approximately half an hour away from dinner time, add the yuca chunks. They turn translucent when cooked so are kind of like a built-in veggie timer. After the yuca have cooked for approximately 15 minutes, add the carrots and then after 5 minutes add the celery. Turn the temperature to low-medium, put a lid on and let the whole mess bubble away until it is time for dinner or the yuca are translucent.<br />
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5) Before serving, adjust for seasoning. I like to add a couple squirts of hot sauce for good measure.<br />
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<b>The verdict:</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
Deliciously unctuous from the cartilageouness of the chicken feet. Other than that? As delicious as only a bowl of homemade chicken soup can be!<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-76671192640622666962012-12-08T10:29:00.000-08:002012-12-08T10:29:00.342-08:00Christmas Gifts: Whole Wheat Christmas CrackersChristmas cookies are a traditional holiday party gift. They're great! Who doesn't want beautifully decorated cookies handmade by a friend? <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdp3-XiNjqvutLqdu0PtMXadRDC5Qvb9bCbVPA2_ZcLW4-TUPASQuD6cCUgv6x6yRtceWuKFum7ysDxQnfpskaqXtG86RATSwHBHHYY2DXomGtSRvnYq0eVH2Onbg5AUavkmzAeQnyJZTD/s1600/IMG_4809.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhdp3-XiNjqvutLqdu0PtMXadRDC5Qvb9bCbVPA2_ZcLW4-TUPASQuD6cCUgv6x6yRtceWuKFum7ysDxQnfpskaqXtG86RATSwHBHHYY2DXomGtSRvnYq0eVH2Onbg5AUavkmzAeQnyJZTD/s320/IMG_4809.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
But what about handmade crackers? They're kind've even a better holiday party gift. Most holiday parties involve cheese, bean dips, salsas, avocados... in other words perfect foods for cracker dipping. Give your party host handmade crackers and they can bust them open right then and there adding a fun touch to the appetizers!<br />
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Not only that, crackers are easy to make, but people seem to think they're hard so they'll be really impressed with you! What a win-win-win situation?<br />
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Making crackers is basically like making pastry. I found a great recipe on Smitten Kitten so use that as your <a href="http://smittenkitchen.com/blog/2012/09/homemade-wheat-thins/" target="_blank">basic cracker recipe</a>. <br />
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To make your crackers perfect, keep pastry-making techniques in mind:<br />
<ul>
<li>Cold butter, cold water, cold everything.</li>
<li>Don't overwork your dough as this makes pastry tough.</li>
<li>Grate your cold butter to make the pieces uniform and to reduce the need to handle it.</li>
</ul>
<div>
How to spice up your crackers? The variations on this basic recipe are endless. A few thoughts:</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHUeIqLL-wHhFhxs_BijIpQoVBSRXPpXRsBdzzIfItuR1L_auZQsrXh4O32HPU-tWLU_UWzI4TODMjoViCntPLg_x7HeFJXVOlwmhMKa7Y9MvWfOig2oKGZ_TGPwsko7S_E6LqLiu8somu/s1600/IMG_4818.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="199" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHUeIqLL-wHhFhxs_BijIpQoVBSRXPpXRsBdzzIfItuR1L_auZQsrXh4O32HPU-tWLU_UWzI4TODMjoViCntPLg_x7HeFJXVOlwmhMKa7Y9MvWfOig2oKGZ_TGPwsko7S_E6LqLiu8somu/s320/IMG_4818.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Smoked paprika and garlic</li>
<li>Honey and dijon mustard - the honey might make the crackers burn more easily so either brush a honey mustard glaze on at the end or watch the crackers closely.</li>
<li>Coriander seed and lemon zest - make sure you toast and grind the coriander seeds.</li>
<li>Cumin and garlic</li>
<li>Parmesan cheese</li>
<li>Cracked black pepper and lime zest</li>
<li>Finely chopped cilantro</li>
<li>Get creative and let me know if you try any fun and interesting flavours!</li>
</ul>
<div>
For packaging? Stay green!</div>
</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWj7bwuWXGl4ITyp_c-r98Nk6v1OTS1M_vrKTH74jcGz6YdeZ_wB9ozeFocGyl_fXHPaRfbNnRyKDbrKcZlp2n6frgMMcLFcAS_lajITdAsME2BruSeiRCGZkmhirN7U9TODkwMW8yZO4/s1600/IMG_4810.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjyWj7bwuWXGl4ITyp_c-r98Nk6v1OTS1M_vrKTH74jcGz6YdeZ_wB9ozeFocGyl_fXHPaRfbNnRyKDbrKcZlp2n6frgMMcLFcAS_lajITdAsME2BruSeiRCGZkmhirN7U9TODkwMW8yZO4/s320/IMG_4810.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>Old-fashioned cookie tins are a great way to package crackers.</li>
<li>Many kitchen shops sell decorative cardboard boxes, but a fun craft for kids is to make pretty cardboard boxes that they can decorate. You can then fill the boxes with crackers (wrapped in parchment or tin foil).</li>
<li>Reusable cloth sandwich bags.</li>
</ul>
</div>
<div>
<b>The Verdict: </b>Crunchy, salty, buttery deliciousness. </div>
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<div>
Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-74920648053739160692012-12-05T07:18:00.000-08:002012-12-05T13:54:03.648-08:00Vanilla-Infused Sour Orange Juice<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigGGNRKtOkR1jshtAjM_FhmLBpri_YwdoiC9u4dR88fNYCv_OHN76l4-tJ-DDZbtZyyCC96-K4cGe-3KOpIu3LHy-3IMED69wEwePNDY3PtSX9Lz69O9Bhw-p7de4oW0SkHkIw9aOdBy0P/s1600/IMG_5451.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigGGNRKtOkR1jshtAjM_FhmLBpri_YwdoiC9u4dR88fNYCv_OHN76l4-tJ-DDZbtZyyCC96-K4cGe-3KOpIu3LHy-3IMED69wEwePNDY3PtSX9Lz69O9Bhw-p7de4oW0SkHkIw9aOdBy0P/s320/IMG_5451.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
In my post on the delicious fruits and juices of Canoa (and Ecuador in general), I mentioned my favorite, a juice I considered Paradise in a Glass. A juice that actually made me want to make juice once I returned from my trip (please note I am not a juice drinker, it's coffee or water thank you).<br />
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Yes, you all know what I'm talking about...<br />
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<a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-frutas-y-jugos-of-canoa.html" target="_blank">Vanilla-Infused Sour Orange Juice</a>. The juice that I couldn't stop drinking on the farm. If Mami had a jug of her amazing sour citrus juice in the fridge, I was in there too! Yummy!<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJc-1VAf3FFkUBZ6ZgoLrbSN7gyKY5ACzTE0ZHbMt2I43JkfIJG4y9RUy97jpBEv4OQtlW8dPARkMRrWGngP69Y6oRbG-BLY-5YxXnm57AcYp7kMBx_8kV8EeiVuZrRzRIazZY_4FSegPp/s1600/IMG_5459.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJc-1VAf3FFkUBZ6ZgoLrbSN7gyKY5ACzTE0ZHbMt2I43JkfIJG4y9RUy97jpBEv4OQtlW8dPARkMRrWGngP69Y6oRbG-BLY-5YxXnm57AcYp7kMBx_8kV8EeiVuZrRzRIazZY_4FSegPp/s320/IMG_5459.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
So not having my own mandarin and orange and lemon trees to pluck fruits from, I obviously have to resort to grocery store fruit. Sad I know but thank you globalization for making these fruits available. My recipe is my own. I never watched Mami make her juice, I almost didn't want to know how she did it because then the secret would be out! And don't you think things taste better sometimes when there is an air of mystery to them? I do.<br />
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So here it is. A taste of the tropics and a ray of sunshine for our cold, rainy Vancouver winter nights, not to mention a hit of Vitamin C! Always a good thing during the winter. Please enjoy!<br />
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<b>Ingredients</b><br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3tOCi9oCKnjZ-NUEKmGNwAXXCenOUFPTiWVbx75JbuhebWIkZEaK27aYbLHdQ9LctAo2Q-bwL_tv59bXbzw8AZHFPGoD8kEOlMXbENgSL0UtWNXiWuThMcgE0QWU-jY2h1PMU3ua5sah/s1600/IMG_5466.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="195" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhL3tOCi9oCKnjZ-NUEKmGNwAXXCenOUFPTiWVbx75JbuhebWIkZEaK27aYbLHdQ9LctAo2Q-bwL_tv59bXbzw8AZHFPGoD8kEOlMXbENgSL0UtWNXiWuThMcgE0QWU-jY2h1PMU3ua5sah/s320/IMG_5466.JPG" width="320" /></a></div>
<ul>
<li>2 navel oranges</li>
<li>1 lemon</li>
<li>3 green mandarins</li>
<li>2 key limes</li>
<li>Water as necessary </li>
<li>A plump vanilla bean</li>
<li>Sugar to taste</li>
</ul>
<br />
<br />
<b>Directions </b><br />
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1. Put on some salsa music. This step is key because it sets the mood and tone for what you are about to do. If you can turn the heat up and put on a sarong or a summery outfit that helps too. You might also want to buy some fancy umbrellas for the finished drink. With food, as life, it is the details that really create the experience.<br />
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2. When you are in the right mood, gather up all your beautiful citrus fruits and, of course, your plump vanilla bean. Slice the vanilla bean open, scrape out the oily paste and add the paste to a jug. Grate the peel of the lemon and oranges on a fine setting into the jug as well. Make sure you <i>grate the fruits directly into the serving jug</i> so you capture all the citrus essential oils. Now cut all of oranges, lemons and mandarins open and squeeze the juice into the jug.<br />
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4. All that is left are the adorable little key limes. We are doing something special with those! In Egypt, they serve a lime drink with key limes where they puree up the limes whole with water. The pureed mixture is then poured through a sieve to remove the seeds. This method captures all of the delicious and intense lime essence from the peel. So, puree the two limes with a cup of water until the mixture is foamy and luscious and then pour the mixture through a sieve into the waiting jug.<br />
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5. At this point it is a matter of adding a few scoops of sugar and tasting it. Add water and sugar as needed until you are in love with the taste. <br />
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This juice captures my experience in Ecuador. Why? It's complex, a mix of sweet and sour; it's full of the sun - lemons, oranges, mandarins. It's sexy, perfumed with vanilla bean, but subtle. It's perfect on its own, but also could be spiced up a bit with a touch of gin. Ecuador in a glass.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-46196330914532849672012-12-02T16:28:00.000-08:002012-12-02T16:28:00.318-08:00Eating in Quito: Part 2My trip back to Quito involved another harrowing journey on the bus. This time going up a mountain. As is obvious I survived the trip, much to my relief. With three days in Quito until flying home, I decided to really dive into the food culture. This desire was made easier with the discovery of the most amazing place ever, a food paradise of food paradises, Mercado Central.<br />
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So my blog is called An Offal Experiment and one of my goals is to develop a taste for offal. Let me just say that my experience at Mercado Central moved me much closer to my goal with the help of a beautiful young Andean woman and a classic case of mistranslation.<br />
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I had read that Ecuadorians make a tripe soup much like the Mexican soup menudo. Hearing that Mercado Central was the place to go for this soup I ventured in and ordered a bowl from the aforementioned beautiful young Andean woman. I quickly learned that menudo in Ecuador is not the same as menudo in Mexico. Menudo in Ecuador is every possible bit of chicken offal that can be stuffed into a bowl. It is heart, liver, intestine, I think windpipe, thymus gland, and probably spleen topped with cabbage and mint stuffed into a casing that is too tough to even bite through.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CzKXFL3w_wpZmLXVyy6nPHf2wHCcozsdcDUhXJyWNq3fUXM7Z8OEvVCPciosZKcif9t2XTtcCW3bvYglnSnXAlYNc7DoL2w9aD_ePIpPAMMb-r0Y_IrrNRMWcz_9huMfiFVGdp98NBdi/s1600/IMG_5425.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1CzKXFL3w_wpZmLXVyy6nPHf2wHCcozsdcDUhXJyWNq3fUXM7Z8OEvVCPciosZKcif9t2XTtcCW3bvYglnSnXAlYNc7DoL2w9aD_ePIpPAMMb-r0Y_IrrNRMWcz_9huMfiFVGdp98NBdi/s320/IMG_5425.JPG" width="320" /></a>Yes. This is what I ordered. And this is what I ate. Because my parents raised me to be polite and I would never dream of insulting that lovely Andean woman. It was so strange for Ecuadorians to see an obvious foreigner (I am very, very pale) sitting in this little booth eating menudo that as I finished and was leaving, one man looked at me and quizzically asked, "muy rico?" which meant "Very delicious?" or "Did you actually like that?" To which I of course responded, "Muy rico!" or "I freakin' loved it."<br />
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As I walked out of Mercado Central, I'll admit to patting myself on the back quite a bit and then drowning the memory of the soup with a pastry. The soup was quite good and the taste of various organs fairly mild, but it was heaped with organ meat, an almost unbearable amount for someone who doesn't really like offal.<br />
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Clearly, however, I'm a glutton for punishment because I went back to Mercado Central later that day. This time though I got a much safer meal with chorizo and potato pancakes and avocado. The chorizo was delicious with a deep, rich taste. It obviously had a bit of organ meat in it as well but the rich flavour was tempered with the spicing.<br />
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I also returned to Mercado Central the day after. What can I say I loved the place! This time I again ventured into organ meat territory with a soup called Yuarlocro. This is a chicken soup again with bits of organ meat and then blood sausage on the side. The pictures above are the Yuarlocro. The organ meat in the soup was much subtler and I found the blood sausage quite tasty if quite bloody tasting. The key with the sausage was to eat it in small amounts mixed with the avocado and the red onion - almost like a blood sausage side salad! Mmmmmmm...<br />
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Mercado Central illustrates the difference between the modern industrial diet and the food found in poorer or more adventurous food countries. In Canada there is a movement towards eating the "whole hog" but you won't find an entire food court devoted to various organ meats. It just doesn't happen - the Canadian palate is not developed enough for that. Call it a result of privilege or whatever, I loved seeing all the people slurping down interesting bits of meat.<br />
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But Mercado Central is not simply limited to organ meat. Juices abound, fresh vegetables, fresh fruits, dried goods, fresh flowers, fresh herbs, chicken parts, butchers, fish mongers. It was seriously my idea of heaven and as soon as I would leave I wanted to return again.<br />
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The rest of my time in Quito was spent hunting down my food favorites. These included:<br />
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<li><b>Cheese stuffed empanadas</b> covered in sugar from this one restaurant in the historic district. I seriously went four or five times in the hopes that they were making them. My last attempt right before I left met with success.</li>
<li><b>Green mango slices</b> with lime, salt, and pepper. This is my new favorite thing (or one of them). Mmmm, so tasty.</li>
<li><b>Fresh fruit in the park.</b> This giant cup of fruit cost a buck in almost any park I went to. What an amazing deal and such a great way to stay cool and hydrated. That grape sitting on top of the cup was possible the tastiest grape I've ever eaten in my life.</li>
<li><b>This fascinating pastry</b> that I've never had before. It was perhaps marzipan baked into pastry with the edges folded over? That is my guess but it might be wrong.</li>
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Ah! What a wonderful trip full of food and beauty and amazing people. I truly loved going to Ecuador and trying to get to know the culture in just a few short weeks. It gave me a taste of Latin America and I can't wait to go back for more.</div>
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-13674654879640318932012-11-30T17:28:00.000-08:002012-11-30T17:28:00.099-08:00The Food of Canoa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;">
A description of my trip to the farm in Canoa would not be complete without describing the food that Mami made. As part of the cost of staying at the farm, I was provided with three meals a day, eaten with the family. Normally I cook for myself so it was an absolute luxury to have someone else cooking for me everyday. I just loved rolling into the house in the morning with fresh cheese and buns waiting for me, a beautiful big bowl of fruit salad sitting there and <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-frutas-y-jugos-of-canoa.html" target="_blank">double-fried bananas</a> sizzling away on the stovetop. </div>
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This is by no means an exhaustive account of all the food I ate in Canoa. Mami made a lot of different foods. These are just some of my favorites.<br />
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Canoa is a seaside town, and though the farm itself is about 10 kilometres away from the shore, it was a quick trip into town to pick up fresh fish.<br />
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There were a ton of fish types that I had never seen before and my favorite way of eating them was when Mami fried them whole. A fresh whole fried fish is just so tasty with just a little salt and maybe a squirt of lemon or lime. <br />
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Every Sunday, a chicken was killed and made into a delicious potato and chicken stew. I don't know what spices Mami and Juan's sister used but I would guess there was cilantro as that was quite common. I might also guess cilantro root but don't quote me on that.<br />
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For those who read my <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/10/off-to-amazon.html" target="_blank">original post on going to the Amazon</a>, please note that I didn't kill a chicken. Juan's sister was just so damn fast that I didn't get the chance even to offer my help. It's like I would go to the bathroom and by the time I got out the chicken would be dead and half-plucked! My goodness.<br />
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Papi was quite proud of the chickens. He told me that they are a special variety called criojo (spelling?) and are very tasty. I will say that the chicken soup was quite good. <br />
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Juan and I had an interesting conversation about how Westerners generally like their food sanitized and Ecuadorians don't. He had a big chicken foot poking out of his soup and he was telling me how much he loved it, that it was his favorite part. I was saying that unless you are eating at an Asian restaurant in Vancouver, you rarely find chicken feet. This amazed him!<br />
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Another thing they grow on the farm is peanuts and one day Juan roasted and ground fresh peanut butter. I only got a little taste (mixed with a little freshly ground chocolate) but it was definitely the most delicious peanut butter I've ever eaten.</div>
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One meal that I didn't get a picture of but that was my favorite was crab-fried rice and beef tendon soup. Mami had all these tiny crabs from town that she made the most amazing stock from flavoured again with some kind of spice that hinted at curry but that I just couldn't place. It was the best fried rice I've ever eaten. The beef tendon was put in a pressure cooker and came out decadently soft. I absolutely adore beef tendon and am going to make this soup for my parents now that I'm home. The texture of the tendon was just so luscious and the broth had the subtle taste of onion and cilantro. It was amazing! And she also introduced me to the <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/11/the-frutas-y-jugos-of-canoa.html" target="_blank">vanilla-infused sour mandarin juice</a> at this meal so it was like I had never eaten before. Everything was just so delicious.<br />
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The last meal that they served me was "tortillas" but they were unlike any tortilla I have ever had. When I think of a tortilla, I think of flat corn wraps. These tortillas were more like a muffin and were stuffed with fresh cheese.<br />
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Papi spent at least an hour grating dried corn into this giant wooden bowl and then Mami spent what felt like the entire day kneading and mixing and forming. Once the cakes were ready they were put into a big metal pot and out onto the fire pit. A piece of sheet metal was put on top and then a burning log was put on that. It was an old school oven to be sure but the flavour of the tortillas was amazing. What a treat!<br />
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It would not be right to finish a description of food on the farm without mentioning the delicious cheese from across the street. <br />
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The cows would be milked and cheese was made and pressed right away. From recipes that I've found online the whole process takes about seven hours, and the outcome is so yummy. We would eat the fresh cheese on toasted buns or on top of the double-fried bananas or plantains. It was also stuffed into plantain dumplings and cooked in soup. Cheese...<br />
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A couple days after I arrived, one of the little girls and I walked over to the neighbor's house to pick up some cheese and because I was a guest she had to feed me. The slab, and yes I mean slab, of cheese she fed me was something to see. It was the size of a typical chunk of cheese you would buy in the grocery store. Huge! What wonderful hospitality and of course I needed to eat it all so that she wouldn't feel insulted.<br />
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My experience on the farm was just lovely. Despite my limited Spanish, I really felt like I got to know the family by the end of my stay. They stuffed me with food, the girls overwhelmed me with hugs, and Juan kept me laughing for most of the day. We both found out that you don't need to speak the same language to make fun of each other.<br />
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I hope to make it back in a couple of years to roam the cacao trees, eat the fresh bananas, and enjoy the company of the wonderful Estancia family.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-74662823111975195902012-11-27T16:28:00.000-08:002012-11-27T16:28:00.671-08:00Making Coffee: Roasting, Grinding, DrinkingI am a coffee fanatic. Some would call me an addict. I am known to not want to interact with the world until I've had my two morning coffees. An appreciation for a good cup of coffee goes hand in hand with my addiction and so the chance to roast and grind my own coffee was a prospect that excited me terribly. <br />
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Besides growing cacao and citrus fruits, Juan and his parents also grow coffee. Mmmmm, coffee. The berries are a beautiful bright green and ripen to a dark red. As you can imagine from my post on cacao, all of the colors in their food forest are stunning.<br />
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Once the beans are ripe, they are laid out in the sun to dry, until they turn a dark brown on the outside. The bean on the inside is a light green and splits down the middle into two halves. What we traditionally think of as the coffee bean is half of this bean.<br />
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After the beans are dry they are put through the same mill that was used in the chocolate making at a very loose setting. This is to separate the beans from the hull without breaking the bean itself. Once the beans are milled though, you are left with a big bucket full of beans and chaff.<br />
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This is where Mami stepped in. She scooped up a big handful of beans and held it high in the air, pouring the beans into a bowl waiting below. As the beans dropped, the wind blew the chaff away, leaving just the green beans behind. It was amazing how well this worked. She and I then picked through the beans to remove any remaining chaff. <br />
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With the beans separated, it was time for the roasting. Mami first rinsed the beans in water and then put them into a large pot over high heat. It was then my job to stir, and stir, and stir - to bring the beans from green to a golden brown without burning them. This meant relentless stirring for at least an hour with Mami tutting over me saying, "Ne cancelar", which means, "Don't stop" in Spanish. She finally took over when I got quite tired. <br />
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It was fun watching her stir the beans because you could tell how practiced she was, how she must have done this hundreds if not thousands of times. And finally, the beans were ready.<br />
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Once they reached a dark brown, she took them off the heat and I started to stir again as she set up the food mill one more time. Into the hopper the beans went and this time we called on the two little girls to muscle through the coffee beans. Of course they were such balls of energy that more coffee was getting on the ground than on the pan so I quickly took over.<br />
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The smell of the freshly roasted and ground beans was amazing.<br />
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The next day Juan treated us all to cappuccinos. He got fresh milk from the neighbour across the street, and heated it up gently in a sauce pan.<br />
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While the milk was heating, he poured boiling water into a tin can full of ground coffee, letting the dark liquid seep out of the drilled holes in the bottom. Spoonfulls of coffee were added to the heated milk and then each cup was topped with a dollop of whipping cream and a generous sprinkling of canela.<br />
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As I drank I noticed golden fat droplets forming on the surface of the milk. It was so rich and delicious that all I could do was sit and sip. Oh my goodness that is a coffee that I will never forget.<br />
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It also made me question my relationship with coffee, my treating it like a drug, and the careless abandon with which I consume it. To know that there is this lovely family in Ecuador who go through this process to create a cup makes me realize how little I actually appreciate coffee. How I mindlessly scoop my grinds into my little french press, impatiently waiting for my morning hit. <br />
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I don't know how this experience will change my relationship, maybe I'll drink less, or drink with more care or drink with a greater appreciation? I look forward to finding out.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-29933668776598247092012-11-24T16:26:00.000-08:002012-11-24T16:26:00.042-08:00Making Chocolate: From Bean to Ball!<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ45YXFra_ktZjC9xcgdMA42REB6GuuUiEEU7WzBiQWgMWuhlgaG10rZJqXEWcsb8b6MTu3iIb5DDYPKD5JGvS6jNLjh_d6-Qq4_TfAr76b7uvgHrqWqr3A5lB64wiFJ6ylv5syf0svImo/s1600/IMG_5004.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgZ45YXFra_ktZjC9xcgdMA42REB6GuuUiEEU7WzBiQWgMWuhlgaG10rZJqXEWcsb8b6MTu3iIb5DDYPKD5JGvS6jNLjh_d6-Qq4_TfAr76b7uvgHrqWqr3A5lB64wiFJ6ylv5syf0svImo/s320/IMG_5004.JPG" width="320" /></a>One of the big draws for me when deciding to work on the farm was that they grew chocolate. The website mentioned the possibility of learning to process chocolate and that sold me. As people who read my blog know, I love to get down to the nitty, gritty of food production. That being one of the main reasons I started this blog. The opportunity to learn about chocolate was one I couldn't pass up.<br />
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Almost as soon as I arrived at the farm, I took a tour of the cacao forest. The pods start off as the tiniest and most delicate flowers that you can imagine. The flowers to the right are about the size of my pinky fingernail. I am a bit of a nut for tiny, cute things so I was quite entranced by the cacao flower. Once fertilized the flower turns into a tiny purple pod, becoming a brilliant yellow or red once it grows and ripens. The mature pods are about the size of a football.</div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0DdBPeCx64hbwfuX7uzJsLuP1WzHoETzTfYKSQZmOFTHDCjqtG3t2S0lBlqp5f65NGcVGMxPe-RQ6alvasiKXREEhpJ9GNnobPTLzP6VLy9YOozZqJFwf5_dYW75kFw4UXoyl4vzJm6N/s1600/IMG_5001.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgF0DdBPeCx64hbwfuX7uzJsLuP1WzHoETzTfYKSQZmOFTHDCjqtG3t2S0lBlqp5f65NGcVGMxPe-RQ6alvasiKXREEhpJ9GNnobPTLzP6VLy9YOozZqJFwf5_dYW75kFw4UXoyl4vzJm6N/s320/IMG_5001.JPG" width="320" /></a>Cacao trees grow quite tall but the cacao pods that contain the chocolate bean grow directly off the main trunks and branches so they are relatively easy to harvest. </div>
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To harvest the pods I used a machete and chopped through the little stem attaching the pod to the tree. As I did this I also looked for unhealthy or "malo" pods covered in a white fungus. These pods were also cut off and thrown into central piles where they will be burnt in order to control the spread of the fungus.</div>
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The chocolate that Juan grows is called criollo and it makes up only 5% of the world's chocolate supply. The flavour of criollo is less pronounced than the two other more common varieties but it has a more complex taste. Chocolate connoisseur's generally consider it a superior chocolate. It is much harder to grow and tends to suffer from fungal outbreaks more readily than the other types. It takes a dedicated person to grow this variety and Juan uses organic methods no less. Very inspiring.<br />
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Once the pods are harvested, they are sliced open and the seeds with their pulp are removed. The pulp surrounding the chocolate seed is sweet and moist and delicious. It makes a wonderful snack to just suck the pulp off the chocolate seeds and it is quite easy to eat an entire pod of pulp in one sitting.<br />
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As you open each pod, you have to check that the inside is pure white. If the pulp is brown then the inside of the pod has rotted or is infected and the seeds must be thrown out. The pods themselves are full of phosphorus and the empty ones are cast back onto the floor of the forest to add their nutrients back into the soil. The fallen leaves of the cacao trees are also left on the ground to protect the soil from moisture loss.<br />
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Juan's farm is an integrated system so all of the parts work together. The citrus trees grow among the cacao trees to offer shade and the rotten fruit and discarded peels also add nutrients back into the soil. I am sure that it doesn't hurt the flavour of the cacao to have all those citrus essential oils permeating the earth.<br />
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Breaking open a seed at this point reveals a beautiful purple nut with an extremely bitter taste, nothing like chocolate. It tastes raw and quite horrible. In order to begin transforming the cacao seeds into chocolate, the seeds need to ferment for several days.<br />
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All of the pulp-covered seeds are collected and put into a wooden box, covered with banana leaves and left outside. This is where the tropical air and micro-organism's begin to do their work.<br />
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As someone who has some experience with fermentation, I found it quite interesting to smell and watch the chocolate seeds as they fermented. A clear chocolate liquor drips out of the beans and they begin to smell like cheese. Almost like a soft blue cheese, not especially chocolate-like.<br />
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After a few days of this though, the smell begins to change and the scent of chocolate begins to tease at your nose when you smell the beans. <br />
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Once the beans are fermented they then need to dry in the sun. In Canoa we had a few nice days with some sunlight and so the beans got a nice sun bath out in the yard. Chasing the chickens off the beans was the farm work for a couple days as they seemed to find cacao beans quite tasty. The color of the dried bean is still a vibrant purple and the chocolate smell is much more intense.</div>
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After the beans dry, they need to be roasted. At Juan's place this means being roasted over an open fire for quite a long time. This was my job and I anxiously baby sat and stirred my beans while they were roasting away. The beans turn quite a dark color and once they are roasted the aroma of chocolate is compellingly clear. But watch out! The bean is still overwhelmingly bitter. The smell will fool you into thinking otherwise. </div>
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Once the beans are roasted the hulls need to be removed. On the farm we did this by hand, gently pinching each bean until the hull cracked and fell off. One by one each chocolate nut was revealed.</div>
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The next step was to turn the roasted seeds into a smooth chocolate paste. There was a hand-cranked mill, much like my hand-cranked sausage maker with two metal plates rather than a grinder attachment. The beans were fed in through the top and a paste oozed out the sides. The paste was then fed through again to make the chocolate as smooth as possible.</div>
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Once the cacao beans had been milled twice, the paste was allowed to cool slightly and then was hand rolled into a chocolate ball. <br />
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This ball of chocolate is as pure as it gets. Just a big hunk of freshly made chocolate. Watch out though because it is still super bitter.<br />
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To eat, use a beautiful old grater and grate the freshly made chocolate bar finely. Don't be stingy if you don't have to be. Once the chocolate is grated, warm up fresh milk in a sauce pan and add the chocolate to it. Allow the milk and chocolate to simmer until the chocolate is completely melted. You could add some fresh canela if you like, though it might detract from the taste of the cacao. Add sugar to taste. Sugar changes the flavour of chocolate radically - it's like alchemy.<br />
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Enjoy your hot chocolate sitting around a kitchen table with friends.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-70982348763701728152012-11-21T15:19:00.000-08:002012-11-21T15:19:00.648-08:00The Frutas (y Jugos) of Canoa<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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The journey from Quito to Canoa was harrowing. For those who haven't been to Ecuador, the drivers are pretty crazy. They drive fast and the rules of the road are taken as more of a guideline than anything else. For example, you really only need to stop at a red light if there are other cars around, otherwise, honk and speed on through. I found the driving style quite humourous until I realized that my bus driver to Canoa also drove in a similar manner - hurtling down 3000 metres of hair-pin turns in the pitch-black night. Trust me, all you can do is pray and try to sleep through it. <br />
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Once I arrived in Canoa at 5:00 in the morning, I was met by Juan, the owner of the farm. He strapped my giant backpack to his motorbike, I clung to him and we sped off down a dirt road. Needless to say the whole trip to the farm was a bit of an out of body experience. </div>
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When I got to the actual farm, the whole family greeted me! His parents, who also live there and work the land, his sister, her husband and two kids, as well as Juan's wife and four children. It was a full house. <br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvWeePnMUPzXUSygjME91SgBj3mUM_wFhjB5jFD-V_zHS4ryFWJ4DcmuY6IHbsqcCmaoXndBagkzKQWryWXRxb9WHYSWMlHUxIylcdXYBUy9fN1AO98iGej6WBpT5K_QrtMLsEdWKwroY/s1600/IMG_5159.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEigvWeePnMUPzXUSygjME91SgBj3mUM_wFhjB5jFD-V_zHS4ryFWJ4DcmuY6IHbsqcCmaoXndBagkzKQWryWXRxb9WHYSWMlHUxIylcdXYBUy9fN1AO98iGej6WBpT5K_QrtMLsEdWKwroY/s320/IMG_5159.JPG" width="240" /></a>There is so much to say about the farm and my experience there but because my blog is focused on food, that is where my focus shall stay.</div>
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One of the most amazing parts of living on the farm was the beautiful fruit growing all over the place. This was the first time that I've ever seen a little pineapple growing out of a pineapple tree, a giant tree full of papayas (right) and citrus trees heavy with limes, lemons, pomelos and mandarins. It really was heavenly.<br />
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Juices, or jugos in Spanish, play a huge role in the Ecuadorian diet. Juice accompanies every meal and it is always made fresh from the produce found on the farm. In the morning Juan would blend up fresh papaya with pineapple or mandarins or watermelons. His mom (Mami), though, made my absolute, absolute favorite juice: a vanilla-infused sour mandarin lemonade. Let me explain.<br />
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The farm is in an ecological niche called a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cloud_forest" target="_blank">cloud forest</a>. This means that the air is generally moisture-laden and foggy with not a lot of sunlight. I think this was especially true for the time of year that I was there - a wetter season. Because of the lack of sunlight, the mandarins had a hard time ripening and tended to be very sour. It was in this sour state that Mami made the ultimately delicious sour mandarin drink. </div>
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She combined fresh sour mandarins with whatever lemons were on hand, added sugar and water to taste and then vanilla essence. Oh my goodness I don't know why I've never thought to add vanilla to my lemonade before??? When I make perfume with lemon or orange I use vanilla because they smell delicious together, and now I know that they taste delicious together as well. This juice was so freakin' good. I don't know how I'll emulate it but I am definitely going to be trying.<br />
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There was also a lot of fruit eaten whole or out of hand. The property had banana trees everywhere and just outside the kitchen door hung a branch of bananas. These bananas were absolutely delicious. While of course the taste was similar to a store-bought banana, they had a much subtler, complex sweetness.</div>
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Bananas were used for lots of different things. If the bananas were ripe then they were eaten fresh or cut up into fruit salads. When they were green, Mami double-fried them for breakfast. Oh my goodness I love double-fried green bananas. They are a bit like a hash brown and are a great way to get some complex carbohydrates into your body first thing in the morning. <br />
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Another common snacking fruit were the pomelos. A pomelo is similar to a grapefruit, but is much less sour and much more giant. The little girls (there were two on the farm with me) would grab a giant piece of bamboo that had one end sharpened to a point and hit at the fruit until one came tumbling down. Using a giant machete, they would cut it open for me and we would suck the juicy parts out of the thick pulp. What a fabulous treat after you've been sweating it out on the farm.<br />
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Another equally delicious fruit treat the girls shared with me were guava seeds (below). On the path up to the farm was a neighbor's property where they grew guavas. The girls and I would climb through razor wire fences and nab a few pods.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlbMICqgm6AFUT0my1iJpsBpXNGp4czq5eKXTxs1sDkNaSq_acVe5PVIh9BMuMKBeX0gTC0jw3Rj2HUb8H3kFTLxVD9R1pKRjHmk0sZWC6cJTsZ-y0gN8wgDOK3iMP_3IeEWDT1TORvY3E/s1600/IMG_5104.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlbMICqgm6AFUT0my1iJpsBpXNGp4czq5eKXTxs1sDkNaSq_acVe5PVIh9BMuMKBeX0gTC0jw3Rj2HUb8H3kFTLxVD9R1pKRjHmk0sZWC6cJTsZ-y0gN8wgDOK3iMP_3IeEWDT1TORvY3E/s320/IMG_5104.JPG" width="320" /></a>The pods were about two feet long and once they were opened, the seeds could be pulled out and the sweet pulp sucked off. Imagine orange pulp but juicier with a floral sweetness. I was addicted and also kept the beautiful black seeds once I was finished snacking. I am thinking about turning them into earrings, an idea that the girls found hilarious. Everything we ate after I shared my earring idea was contemplated as possible jewelry. The cocoa pods were to die for but turned brown after I dried them. Darn.<br />
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The fruit was truly unforgettable. I would often wander through the forest, just marvelling at the colors, the smells, the abundance. <br />
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Up next: The beautiful cocoa pods growing amidst the fruit trees leads to a lesson in making chocolate from bean to ball.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-81906264896612923862012-11-19T14:38:00.002-08:002012-11-19T14:38:43.187-08:00Eating in Quito: Part 1<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonOIicfPCi8F-6kgOqHbUYf4Y95H1S0oyrbKM90dWFBFb0Dq_PiSkWGo2sA_jLupl7jgT6EmSDrB5DBanyBfHUO9UAm9goMh2WaVLI-Mo1BhPU4WoQjyq3I3kTQ37xvb3k83OXMTrYJFd/s1600/IMG_4954.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjonOIicfPCi8F-6kgOqHbUYf4Y95H1S0oyrbKM90dWFBFb0Dq_PiSkWGo2sA_jLupl7jgT6EmSDrB5DBanyBfHUO9UAm9goMh2WaVLI-Mo1BhPU4WoQjyq3I3kTQ37xvb3k83OXMTrYJFd/s320/IMG_4954.JPG" width="320" /></a>So my trip to Ecuador started off in the capital city of Quito. Quito is in a valley between mountains and is at an elevation of almost 3000 metres. This altitude makes it hard to breathe when you first arrive and forget about walking up hills or stairs - whew! I was winded in seconds. And I took altitude sickness medication!<br />
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The city itself is gorgeous. It's a UNESCO world heritage site because the Historic District is full of beautiful colonial era buildings. This is where I mostly hung out, haunting the vendors and restaurants for delicious bits of food. The streets are narrow and everywhere you look is a little store with someone cooking up something.</div>
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Staples in this part of Ecuador are rice, potato, chicken, fruit and pastries. There are lots of street food vendors selling fresh fruit, beautiful juices, barbecued meats, ceviche, and roasted pig skin. It was not abnormal to see a big pig head sitting out, waiting for some lucky person to dig in.</div>
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I saw these little piggies (right) on my first day there but I hadn't quite worked up the nerve to fully dive into the street food scene yet so I passed up the opportunity for a napkin full of pig skin and nuts. Day two, on the other hand, had me feeling more adventurous and led to my first run in with barbecued street meat. </div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3BqGzrmCmyun2jBHqrTAYXS5lRwVQgSPYnGxcVVZvuNRHtVo-KF-Pr9TRq0TWLFwoVtysa0o5bxISaGXdhYOTHI5n8ygqTBSG0YCX4fxcdemDL6j8JyQWYBS-49f9xwuc6-OctJcxbZj/s1600/IMG_4917.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhV3BqGzrmCmyun2jBHqrTAYXS5lRwVQgSPYnGxcVVZvuNRHtVo-KF-Pr9TRq0TWLFwoVtysa0o5bxISaGXdhYOTHI5n8ygqTBSG0YCX4fxcdemDL6j8JyQWYBS-49f9xwuc6-OctJcxbZj/s320/IMG_4917.JPG" width="320" /></a>It all started in this little park near my hostel - Parque Alameda. I met two street kids who were trying to convince me to let them shine my shoes. Instead I decided to buy them something to eat and they took me to this stand. The skewers had chicken, potato, plantain, and some sort of sausage. I will admit to feeling a bit nervous as the chef piled the new raw chicken skewers onto the grill right next to the cooked chicken skewers. As well, my chicken was quite pink in a few places, but I decided that if this was how he cooked them then this was how I would eat them. Delicious!</div>
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My next stop took me to another park in Quito - Parque Eijido (if I remember correctly). As I wandered through, checking out all the various happenings, I saw this lovely lady serving up some of the delicious pig skin I mentioned earlier. How could I say no?</div>
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The meal was fully loaded with pig skin, pig meat, two types of corn, boiled potatoes, and salad - all covered in a yummy creamy, salsa-like dressing. It was lovely to just sit in the park and enjoy the beautiful weather and some authentic Quitoean food. <br />
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The weather in Quito is absolutely perfect. The morning generally starts out warm, glorious and sunny and stays that way until about mid-afternoon. At that point, the skies cloud over and it rains for a little while, sometimes heavy, sometimes light. It's like the perfect signal for a nap. The night then cools down to about 10 degrees, great for bundling up under the covers and getting a snuggly sleep (or salsa dancing until the wee hours of the night).<br />
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After surviving my first two days of eating with nary an upset stomach, I decided it was time to sample the national dish of Ecuador. Cuy or to us English-speakers, guinea pig. <br />
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One thing that I really appreciated about the food in Ecuador was that they have no need to sugar coat what they are serving you. There is no disembodied chicken thigh or fish fillet. This method of serving their meat carried through to the guinea pig. If you order half a guinea-pig, that's what you get. Skull, teeth, soft palate and all. Mine was deep fried and I found the taste quite mild. The meat on the head was the most flavourful, probably because the guinea pig chews alot and so the muscles in the head get a good work-out. I really enjoyed it!<br />
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Besides the meat, which I know I am quite focused on, there was also amazing amounts of fresh fruits available to snack on. These little gems (right) are called ojos. They are a most interesting little fruit. The peel is quite thick, kind've like a tomato and then there is about half an inch of sour flesh. A giant pit takes up the majority of the inside. They were a great refresher after heavy meats and starches and were sold all over the place.<br />
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Another really interesting type of fruit juice that I tried was Colada Morada. It turns out that my trip fell at a point in the year when an Ecuadorian blueberry was in season. Nothing excites a foodie like a limited-edition food experience and this special blueberry is the basis for the Colada Morada drink. It is a hot, yes hot, blended fruit juice with chunks of fruit in it. Besides the blueberry, there was pineapple, strawberry and mango. Oh my goodness I never would have dreamed it was as delicious as it was. I am totally sold on hot berry smoothies now!<br />
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To top it all off, the prices are incredibly cheap. My chicken skewer was $1.50, the pig skin was close to the same, a huge hunk of watermelon sold for $1.00. Talk about a food paradise.<br />
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Next up? My adventures on an organic farm on the coast! I make chocolate, make coffee, eat tons of delicious food and then return to Quito for part 2!<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-22068355254491483732012-10-31T03:30:00.000-07:002012-10-31T03:30:03.952-07:00Off to the Amazon!I wanted to post a couple of other recipes before leaving but I was completely swamped planning and packing and freaking out over my trip.<div>
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I'm heading off to<a href="http://www.hostelrevolutionquito.com/HotelRevolution/Pages/organicfarmcanoa.htm" target="_blank"> Finca Organica Canoa</a> - a small organic farm in Ecuador. Between fifty and sixty families live on the farm and they grow a crazy amount of fruits and vegetables, from mandarins to plantains to cacao.</div>
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Who knows the experiences I will have? I'm bringing lots of paper and colored pencils for the kids as well as party packs of lip smackers for the village girls. I've heard the coffee is served Turkish style and is about as freshly roasted as it gets. I don't speak Spanish but I have some phrases a lovely Mexican man translated for me (some flirty comments) and a trusty Spanglish dictionary. I am just planning on using my hands and laughing a lot. It should be fun.</div>
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My trip goals include:</div>
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<li>Petting a tarantula (I'm arachnaphobic so this might not happen)</li>
<li>Eating a guinea pig (it's the national dish)</li>
<li>Visiting the world's largest outdoor market Otavalo</li>
<li>Maybe killing a chicken if given the opportunity... or at least plucking and butchering a freshly killed one. I see pictures of chickens on the website and they mention that we will eat chicken and there aren't any grocery stores around so... someone's got to do it I figure.</li>
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That's about it for major goals. Other than that, I really just want to have fun, kick back, do some writing and relaxing.</div>
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I can't wait to post some yummy local recipes when I get home!</div>
Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-15271396244324251962012-10-20T21:06:00.000-07:002012-10-21T08:59:27.299-07:00The Death of my Soya SauceThe death of my soya sauce provides a wonderful opportunity to both grieve and celebrate experimenting with food. Yes, you read that correctly, my soya sauce is dead. There will be no beautifully aged, complex tasting, umami-full soya sauce in my pantry, or in the pantry of any of my family members and friends. However, I learned a bit more about the varied and rich processes found in Asian cuisine, and that is the purpose of experimentation.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweEllGWV0Z7W6EWbz4N9KWSRqdVXR0gYbQLPKoSPFx0ExlilIuFZgDrLR4WDZdxvw5fQtHNGO3cGVPjhEsnTTo1s9EP5Hab4flFMR6IvozdNHPSSXB_skgJ1nY-0r2qxe4QMkhyphenhyphenaiXTE_/s1600/IMG_4429.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjweEllGWV0Z7W6EWbz4N9KWSRqdVXR0gYbQLPKoSPFx0ExlilIuFZgDrLR4WDZdxvw5fQtHNGO3cGVPjhEsnTTo1s9EP5Hab4flFMR6IvozdNHPSSXB_skgJ1nY-0r2qxe4QMkhyphenhyphenaiXTE_/s320/IMG_4429.JPG" width="320" /></a>As my loyal blog readers may remember, my experience thus far with my homemade soya sauce was a bit unsettling and traumatic. <a href="http://www.anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/08/homemade-soy-sauce-part-1.html" target="_blank">It started out innocently enough</a>, got a little bit creepy, and then <a href="http://anoffalexperiment.blogspot.ca/2012/10/homemade-soy-sauce-part-2.html" target="_blank">turned downright Lord of the Flies</a>. I was seeing it through though, putting up with its stank, settling in for the long haul. <br />
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Like a new relationship when you discover that your beau has obscenely stinky feet, but enough potential to make it seem <i>not that bad</i>. Until you discover that he is also full of bugs. And you just can't put up with a man who is full of bugs.<br />
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Picture this. I was allowing my sauce precious house time. It sat there stankin' up my living room, smelling like death. Seriously, it smelled like death. But the time came. I decided to peer in, pulling the cheesecloth aside for the last, fatal time. If I hadn't looked closely, been willing to get down and dirty with my soya sauce, I never would have seen the awful truth - there were many tiny, tiny, tiny white crawlies using my fermenting soya sauce as a home.<br />
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It had to go. That was the final straw.<br />
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And my fantastically rustic ceramic pot that I bartered to get? The pot that looked as if it were made to brew soya sauce in? <br />
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It's now a new home for my curly fern.<br />
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Shonagh explores the guts of food in <a href="http://www.offal.ca/" target="_blank">An Offal Experiment</a>.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-136723181491267801.post-10384130694657000332012-10-17T21:07:00.000-07:002012-10-17T21:07:00.344-07:00The Most Delicious Cauliflower Recipe in the WorldI have never been a big fan of cauliflower. I find the texture weird and the flavour underwhelming. The only way I've ever enjoyed it is when my late Grandma used to smother it in mustard sauce and cheese. Let's face it, anything tastes good smothered in cheese...<br />
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But when I was out shopping the other day, a bulb of cauliflower caught my eye. I'd been thinking about it lately because I'd seen some organic cauliflower at the farmer's market. As well, it is terribly healthy. Cauliflower is related to cabbage and so is chock full of cancer-fighting compounds. I am obsessed with adding more healthy veggies to my diet so into the basket it went. Once I got it home I decided to get a little creative and I happened upon a recipe that turns cauliflower into the most delicious vegetable ever, ever, ever. Seriously I've made this a couple times now and I am actually starting to crave cauliflower.<br />
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It's a few steps but is infinitely worth it.<br />
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<b>Ingredients</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Cauliflower - a cup or so chopped into bite-sized pieces</li>
<li>1 tsp of fennel seeds</li>
<li>1 tsp of coriander</li>
<li>2 tsp peanut oil</li>
<li>1/2 tsp cumin</li>
<li>1/2 tsp turmeric </li>
<li>2 tsp palm sugar</li>
<li>1/4 cup chicken broth</li>
<li>Salt to taste </li>
</ul>
<b>Directions</b><br />
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1. Start by heating a teaspoon of the oil on medium in a small saucepan. Add the fennel seeds and coriander and toast the spices for a few minutes. Once the spices are fragrant add the cauliflower pieces, the cumin, the turmeric, the palm sugar and the chicken broth. Cover the pan and cook until the cauliflower is soft, about five minutes. Toss the pieces around the pan periodically to coat them in the delicious sauce.<br />
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2. Once the cauliflower is soft take the lid off and let the liquid cook down. At this point, add the last teaspoon of oil and toss the cauliflower so that it is coated in the oil. Turn the heat up to medium-high and stick close to the pan. You are trying to caramelize the cauliflower and the palm sugar can burn so don't go wandering off. Fry the cauliflower until there are little beautiful bits of caramelized yumminess all over it, take off the heat and adjust for salt.<br />
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3. Inhale.<br />
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<b>The verdict: </b>Well as you can tell from the title of this post, I love this cauliflower. The sweetness from the palm sugar, the softness of the cauliflower, the burst of coriander or fennel every time a seed crunches open. So yummy. For those who don't like cumin, the taste is subtle. It just gives a hint of richness without being overpowering. For cauliflower lovers this recipe is a must. For cauliflower haters this recipe might just change your mind. No more cheese coated cauliflower for me.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08143289464436084810noreply@blogger.com1