As a foodie, it is very difficult not to have come across Gordon Ramsay, the foul-mouthed, short tempered, and extremely talented master chef from the UK. He is perhaps the most significant British pop-cultural export of the past decade. I believe that he has singlehandedly revolutionized the cooking industry by elevating the public profiles of chefs to levels traditionally enjoyed by sports stars. Never before have chefs been spoken about so freely outside of culinary circles. Chef Ramsay was the first.

Ask random Canadians on the street if they have heard of revered Spanish Chef Ferran Adria and you will more than likely receive confused looks. Ask the same people if they have heard of Chef Ramsay and they will not only recognize the name, but they will more than likely have an opinion of him.

These opinions, positive or otherwise, may have come from watching either of Chef Ramsay's British shows that have been adopted by the American Food Network: the F-Word Kitchen or Kitchen Nightmares. If not, they come from watching him on Hell's Kitchen. There, he earned the disdain and reverence of millions of viewers for disparaging contestants on what amounts to a reality television show set in a professional kitchen.

In Canada, you'll also find his cook books in Chapter's. You'll find him on talk shows. You'll find him in the national news. And, you'll find him on billboards. The following is located in the Wellington Village (1351 Wellington Street West), above a parking lot.

Larger than life Ramsay

Most recently, Chef Ramsay made the international news for earning 2 Michelin stars for one of the newer members of his kitchen empire, a fine-dining eatery at the Trianon Palace hotel near the Palace of Versailles in France. Chef Ramsay is no stranger to the highly sought after Michelin star, but his latest pair come despite failing to impress the celebrated French food critic, François Simon, of Le Figaro (a French newspaper).

With so much media exposure, some fans even try their hand, attempting dishes that the classically trained chef makes to look effortless. The results often include a trip to the emergency room.

Mimicry being a form of praise, the restaurant recruiting firm, Caterer.com, hired child-actor, Felix Light to make three videos as ?Little Gordon", a pint-sized representation of Chef Ramsay, complete with a fiery temper and "bleeped" profanity.

Felix Light as Little Gordon
Source: Eat Me Daily blog

Here is the second of the three videos on youtube.com:


Surprised by how popular the videos have become, the firm created Little Gordon his own website.

Chef Ramsay was so impressed by the 9 year old's performance that he reportedly hired Light to terrorize contestants on the latest seasons of Hell's Kitchen and the F-Word.

I wonder if Light does any free-lancing. There are times that I wish I could spring a "Little Gordon" on some unsuspecting restaurateur as I wait for the chef to "hatch the chickens", "mill the wheat", or "catch the fish" for my starter.

Our dinner at Absinthe on the weekend wasn't our first encounter with the restaurant. My better half and I have been following the exploits of its chef/owner Patrick Garland since we moved into the Wellington Village five years ago. Then, Absinthe was located on Holland Avenue (65A), adjacent to what looks like a family-owned garage. Today, a restaurant named Canvas is in Absinthe's former location, and Absinthe is now situated on Wellington Street (1208). There, it seats three times as many patrons in its much larger dining room.

During the summer of 2007, we followed the construction of the new Absinthe with anticipation.

Absinthe to Open

Logo and Artwork

One side of the Dining Room Under Construction

Other side of the Dining Room Under Construction
It opened anew August 2007.

The former Absinthe was a small location with few tables and a cozy French bistro-like atmosphere. In its original incarnation, lightly stained wood tables, leather padded chairs, and warm colours were predominant. On Wellington, the restaurant has a cavernous feel, dark and mysterious. While the floors are still hard wood, the restaurant seems to have taken on the culture surrounding the green tinged liqueur for which it is named. The back of the restaurant sports a murky green wall with the name of the restaurant written on it in gold. The furniture is all well worn, almost black, and the lighting is dim. It feels as it should were one to go to an establishment that serves an illicit liqueur.

During the 19th and 20th centuries, absinthe was favored by artists and writers because the anise flavoured liqueur was distilled from worm wood, making it hallucinogenic and addictive. Recently, the century-old ban on the liqueur that reputedly drove "good men mad" has been relaxed in several countries. The metal implement decorating the Absinthe's restaurant signage is an ornate absinthe spoon. Because the herb infused liqueur is bitter, it is traditionally served diluted with water and trickled over a sugar cube suspended over a glass with a slotted spoon. The process turns Absinthe milky white. It is seldom consumed green.

The September (20) following Absinthe's grand re-opening, Jenn made reservations to celebrate my 30th birthday. We both ordered the signature steak frites. However, I found the setting to be somewhat disconcerting given that Chef Garland's menu had not changed, serving up the same bistro fare. Bistro food in a dark venue felt somewhat "cold." Besides, we were directed to a table next to the large glass double doors. While we ate, a cool evening breeze, characteristic of Autumn in Ottawa, wafted into the restaurant, forcing us to reach for our coats. To our waitress' surprise, we finished our meals with our jackets on. An early November restaurant review by Ottawa Citizen's Anne Desbrisay likewise mentioned the same shortcoming. Still, we enjoyed our meals. Our cheque came with a business card and an advertisement for a lounge night.

A year later, I'm not sure lounge night events are still being held. The newly re-opened Absinthe, however, has participated in many community events.

This past summer (June 7, 2008), Absinthe was one of the restaurants along what I like to call the "Wellington Street Epicurean Row" that doled out free edibles during the "Taste of Wellington West" event. Absinthe's contribution: mini-burgers.

Taste of Wellington West

Mini-Burgers

De-constructed
Absinthe's mini-burgers were made with ground bison. Unfortunately, the eggy bun did not go well with the gamey pattie. When Jenn and I took the burger apart, we realized that the bun was actually a halved cream puff that came from a classic French pâte àchoux.

Absinthe also participated in this past fall's "Celebrity Hors d'Oeuvres" event (October 28, 2008), winning a second "Silver Spoon Award." The first came from the notorious 2005 competition, where the restaurant Kinki served sushi off of scantily clad women. This year, the competition was again fierce. Still, Chef Garland's appetizers earned more tickets than his contemporaries: Allium, A'roma Meze, Canvas, Dish Catering, Epicuria, Juniper, Le Café (NAC), Murray Street, Pelican Fishery & Grill, Sala San Marco, Savanna Café, Thyme & Again, Urban Element, Whalesbone, or Kinki and Mambo. True to form, Kinki and Mambo presented their appetizers with a woman in a bikini draped across the table. Proceeds from the competition benefited the Great Canadian Theater Company (GCTC).

Congratulations to Chef Garland.

This just in:
Apparently, Chef Garland likes to shop in Ottawa's little Chinatown, frequenting the likes of Kowloon Market (712 Somerset), Little Latin America (764 Somerset), Manphat Grocery Store (800 Somerset), Manphong Supermarket (775 Somerset) and 168 Market (1050 Somerset). This, from yesterday's Ottawa Citizen where he also extolled the frugality of shopping at ethnic markets, particularly Asian ones.

I'm shopping in Chinatown all the time. It's a really great open-air experience...At Kowloon Market, for example, the seafood is right in front of you in ice-covered buckets. The selection of spices and condiments is astounding

To Chef Garland, I have to ask, while the seafood maybe splayed out in front of you, have you also noticed that shoppers rest their baskets in the seafood when they order from the butcher or fish monger?

Furthermore, for pigs' feet, I recommend visiting he College Square Loblaws or Uni Mart (corner of Montreal Road and Selkirk). Like Loblaws, Uni Mart's pigs' feet may be a bit more expensive, but it packages them on trays and wraps them in cling film. I prefer my cuts of meat to be handled as little as possible before I get to them.

Particulars:
Absinthe Café
1208 Wellington St.
(613)761-1138

Saturday evening my better half and I headed down to the Absinthe Cafe for dinner. I was sporting another freshly cut Rob Meyers (master hair stylist) "original" from Celebrity Hair Design and I wanted to show it off. She earned an evening's fine dining after having put up with a week of my coming home late, exhausted, and somewhat surly. I recently accepted a transfer to another department and have been asked to stabilize a half dozen projects before I depart. As such, I spent a very long week documenting work and formalizing my corporate knowledge. To make matters worse, upper management has started showing its unhappiness with my choosing to leave.

Dinner at Absinthe provided both relief and escape.

With our menus came an amuse bouche, chilled shrimp in a mango salsa, served on house-made sesame crackers.

amuse bouche

menu
The meal started off great. The salsa provided sweetness and brightness. The shrimp provided savoriness. Both had soft textures, compared to the crunchy sesame crackers.

Jenn opted for an à la carte steak frites. I opted the 3 course table d'hôte, choosing the charcuterie duo appetizer, the mushroom velouté, and the Mariposa Duck Breast entree. Each were paired with a different glasses of wine, but I chose to stick with my glass of cranberry juice and water.

Before any course was served, the waitress brought us some herb focaccia.

Lovely Foccacia
The bread was rustic and irregularly cut, sporting a dense interior and crusty exterior. It was warm and quickly melted applied butter. Jenn and I originally thought it was a poppy seed sourdough as the bread had the characteristic sour flavour and unidentifiable black specks. Clearly, whomever baked the focaccia took time to develop the dough, ensuring great flavour. Perhaps a sourdough starter was used.

Next came the charcuterie duo, a very large plate consisting of a duck terrine, duck parfait (liver mousse with port gelée) and onion rosemary bread crackers.

Charcuterie Duo
I was hoping for a rabbit terrine as was advertised on the door of the restaurant. Nevertheless, the appetizer was glorious. The terrine was studded with pistachios and what Jenn and I figured were quartered Turkish apricots. It had a solid texture and a mixture of flavours: savory duck force meat, earthy sweet apricots, and nutty pistachios. The duck parfait, on the other hand, had a singular dark livery flavour that was accentuated by the tanin from the jellied port. Its texture was delicate, far more refined than pâté. I smeared it liberally on the crackers. Jenn and I shared the plate. It easily served two.

Richly flavoured soup followed.

Mushroom Soup
This ain't Campbell's! The soup was smooth and carried its mushroom flavour very well with every spoonful. It seemed garnished with a mushroom oil, adding to the overall "shroominess."

Here is Jenn's steak frites.

Steak Frites
According to the menu, the fries were freshly cut and fried from Yukon Gold potatoes. The two fries I made off with were great, crisp on the outside and tender in the middle. The serving dish, on the other hand, was unconscionable. Putting freshly cooked fries into a porcelain container causes the fries to soften with condensation and pool with grease. If the fries are left to linger, they become inedible. I dubbed the green dish the "soggifier."

The steak was a work of art. I actually found it odd the the waitress never asked for a doneness. After reviewing the menu and reading up on "hanger steak" (aka: onglet), I understood why. In North American bistros, steak frites is usually made with fillet. In Europe, the cut of choice is the "hanger steak." Why? Firstly, there is only one hanger steak per cow. As it is cut from a cow's single diaphragm, it literally hangs on the carcass and is attached to the last rib and spine, proximal to the kidneys. Secondly, cooking hanger steak with fast high heat methods requires finesse. Since it is not really tender, hanger steak needs to be marinated and then cooked rare or medium-rare. Anything else, and it will resemble tougher skirt steak, which is also cut from the diagram. Thirdly, hanger steak is very flavorful. Some fans believe that it takes on an offal flavor because of its proximity to the kidneys.

My better half thoroughly enjoyed her entree, deeming it superior to steak frites from Allium, which she feels is over sauced with jus. Me, I find fillet unremarkable and was slightly puzzled by the hanger steak's slightly chewy texture.

Here is my Mariposa duck entree.

Mariposa Duck Breast
Mariposa is the name of an organic farm located in "Wendover" Ontario. There, ducks are grain-fed, watered with well water, and allowed to roam around freely. Its quality of life must have contributed to its gamey flavour and succulent texture, because I have never had duck so good. Expertly sliced pieces were served on a bed of pureed cauliflower and goat cheese, surrounded by a maple syrup/cranberry reduction. On the right, glazed carrot threads, glazed parsnip, and "garlic fried spinach." The spinach tasted as if it were sauteed and was poor accompaniment to the delicate balance of fruit and meat on the other end of the plate. The perfect bite was a piece of duck, a dab of puree, and a gentle dip in the fruity reduction. I almost ate the plate!

Cost of dinner: $72.89, including 1 cranberry juice ($2.50), 1 sprite ($2.50), 1 Table d'hôte Duck ($41), 1 A La Carte Steak Frites ($19), and taxes. With tip, we paid approximately $42 each.

We'll definitely be back.

Particulars:
Absinthe Café
1208 Wellington St.
(613)761-1138

Today, I went looking for one of Thomasina (Tommi) Miers' recipes from her Channel-4 mini-series, "A Cook's Tour of Spain." The particular recipe employs both authentic chorizo and ripe watermelon. Apparently, the spicy chorizo goes very well with the sweet watermelon.

Tommi Miers' Spanish Tostadas

While I was pondering the paired flavour contrast, I turned to the tech website, hardocp.com, and found the following slightly "provocative" image:

Pair of Melons
Source: alt.games.warbirds forum c/o hardocp.com

A quick google search, turned up the source of the image, the alt.games.warbirds forum, and another "pair of melons"

Another Pair of Melons
Source: alt.games.warbirds forum

These being "funny pictures for a dirty mind" aside, if I am to make Tommi Miers' recipe, I have to find myself a ripe watermelon when the fruit is in season (late summer for the Ottawa-area). Fresh chorizo can be easily had at the local Saslove's.

According to iVillage's Garden Web website's FAQ, there are numerous methods to determine if a watermelon is ripe. Some require you to have the watermelon on a vine. Others, make quick indicators when shopping at the farmers' market or mega-mart. Here is one method that Alton Brown also vouched for in an episode of Good Eats.

Look for the spot where the melon rested on the ground; a yellow-white, yellow or a cream-yellow color spot suggests ripeness and a white or pale green spot indicates immaturity. A green watermelon will have a white bottom; a ripe melon will have a cream- or yellow-colored bottom. Those fruit that show a change of color from green or olive-grey to yellowish brown should be considered ready to harvest. Also look for a breakup of green bands at the blossom end of the fruit. For best quality, walk the patch daily.

Of course, if "thumping", looking at the "ground spot", or checking for pronounced colour contrast between the watermelon's stripes are not definitive enough, there is always magnetic resonance imaging (MRI):

MRI machine for determining the sugar content of a watermelon
Source: Kobe Corporate Research Laboratory Electronics Research Laboratory

An MRI is the preferred method in Japan, where locally grown watermelons are highly sought after and very expensive.

BTW, I have absolutely no idea what the lady or gentlemen in the pictures above are doing. Though, I promised Jenn that she could take a picture of me doing the same next summer.

And here is the obligatory whimsical picture:

Puppy in a Bun
Source: "Funny Video and Picture Collection" blog

To me, breakfast is quite the social quandary. What are acceptable breakfast foods? Why is it that we turn a blind eye to someone reaching for a cold slice of pizza for breakfast. Yet, we give others odd looks when they reach for leftover dessert. For those of us who like a little cake in the morning, there is a perfectly acceptable substitute that carries no stigma: muffins.

Last week, I decided to split a batch of muffin batter and make a half dozen each of blueberry and cheese muffins. Muffins easily make it from the kitchen table into a lunch bag during the morning rush to work. They are easily consumed while sitting on the bus, on your way to work or sitting at your desk, waiting for your latest batch of corporate-mandated software updates to run.

My tried and true recipe comes from Alton Brown and an older episode of Good Eats, called the "Muffin Man." A slightly modified recipe follows:

Recipe

Sifted Dry Ingredients on a flexible cutting mat

Whisked Wet Ingredients with separate bowls of blueberries and cheese

Coated blueberries, coated cheese, and reserved topping blueberries

Fully incorporated batter

Tinned muffin batter

Baked muffins

Turned out blueberry muffins, cooling

Turned out cheese muffins, cooling

What you'll need:

• 350 g (approx. 12.5 oz) of all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 2 tsp baking powder
• Heavy pinch of kosher salt
• 3/4 cup of sugar
• 1/2 cup of canola, sunflower, or vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1 cup Balkan-style plain yogurt
• approx. 1 cup fresh blueberries
• approx. 1 cup of shredded mixed cheese (e.g. cheddar and mozzarella)
• vegetable shortening for greasing a standard 4x3 non-stick muffin tin

The original recipe called for cake flour, which produces less gluten when stirred. However, I tend to reserve my supply of cake flour for cakes, not everyday fare such as muffins.

As for the Balkan-style yogurt, I like its texture and flavour better than non-Balkan-style yogurt. Please note that I am a strong proponent of traditional styles of active culture yogurt. I have yet to find a good reason for producers to thin it down or add "probiotics."

As for the pedestrian muffin tin, one day, I'm going find myself a cast iron or cast aluminum muffin tin like pro's use. They are much more sturdy and retain heat better than consumer-grade non-stick tins. In the meantime, my $10 dollar muffin tin from Zeller's will have to do.

Prep:

1. Pre-heat an oven to 380F. When the unbaked muffins are added to the oven, the heat will be raised to an even 400F, ensuring a strong blast of heat to raise the batter.
2. Sift the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt together onto a flexible cutting board. I find that a flexible cutting mats allows you to add the dry mixture to the wet in easy doses. Besides, flexible cutting mats are cheap and react badly to proper knife work.
3. Place the blueberries (save for a handful) and shredded cheese into separate containers.
4. Reserve the handful of blueberries for topping the muffins.
5. Add 1 tbsp of the dry mix to each of the containers of cheese and blueberries. The coating of flour will ensure that the cheese and blueberries stay suspended in the muffins as they bake.
6. Mix to coat. AB's recipe says to add the dry mix to all of the blueberries. I find that coated blueberries retain their white flour coating even after baking. Twice, I had to dust my muffins with confectioner's sugar to make the white coating look intentional.
7. Grease the 3x4 muffin tin

Method:

1. In a large bowl, mix together the sugar, oil, egg and yogurt
2. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and mix until everything is just combined. Because this is a quick bread with wheat flour, working the dough more will create excess gluten. This excess gluten will keep the muffin from rising properly and the resulting texture will be less airy. The intention is to disguise cake as a breakfast food, not bake bread.
3. Allow the batter to rest for 3-5 minutes. This step permits the flour to hydrate.
4. Split the batter into two medium-sized bowls
5. Add the floured blueberries to one bowl and the cheese to the other
6. Stir each half batch of batter until the blueberries and cheese are evenly distributed, no more
7. Dose into the pre-greased 3x4 muffin tin using an ice-cream scoop or disher.
8. Top the blueberry muffins with the unfloured blueberries
9. Carefully place the tin into the oven and raise the heat to 400F
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes, rotating the tin halfway through
11. Remove and turn out onto a tea towel.
12. Let cool completely before consuming.

I find that muffins last a couple days when stored in a sealed Tupperware container and left on the kitchen table. Though, because these muffins always turned out light, fluffy, and chock full of fruit or cheese, I have only had them last a couple days.

BTW, blueberries are somewhat economical this week (February 21, 2009) at the Superstore, considering that Ottawa is still trying to overcome the last vestiges of winter.

Cheap Blueberries from the Real Canadian Superstore
With a recipe this easy, it's a wonder that the food court coffee shops can even sell muffins with only a scant number of berries. At least, it's cake.

Apparently, Brit model and "media personality" Jodie Marsh once exclaimed that she has an IQ of 136. Shortly thereafter, she asked, "Is an egg a vegetable." This latter statement earned her a respectable listing (33) on the Daily Telegraph's Top 50 "Dumb blonde quotes". According to wikpedia.net, Marsh also appears topless rather frequently in the British tabloids and she had her own reality show.

Bachelors, defined by dictionary.com as unmarried men or young male fur seals, are assumed to be equally as clueless. Indeed, as a former bachelor myself, I was assumed to be unschooled in the ways of the kitchen and quickly dismissed as a liability to an office pot luck. One particular colleague in my present workplace happily encourages the stereotype, once saying "as a bachelor, I'm not entirely sure I have an oven."

Quite frankly, while I have encountered the odd case of complete cooking ignorance, I do not think the stereotype apt. My mother made sure I had the training as a child that I could feed myself when I grew up: how to make rice, how to put together a vegetable and meat stir fry, how to pan sear meat (steak and pork chops), how to bake chicken, how to make soup, and how to make dumplings. Please note that these were less recipes than flexible techniques that could be applied to a myriad of ingredients.

According to actress and "glamour" model, Aria Giovanni, some bachelors are not so well equipped. She, a seeming foodie, decided to remedy the situation by releasing a number of very popular YouTube videos on basic cooking. The videos, entitled "Bachelor Cooking 101" were made in association with the hollywoodtuna.com website, which has very little to do with canned tuna. The first, involves how to make hard boiled eggs. When I found the video on January 18, 2009, it had garnered 395 030 views.

Her technique: place several eggs in a pot with warm salted water, place the pot on a stove, bring to a boil on medium heat, cook for 8 minutes, empty water from the pot in a sink, run cold tap water over the eggs, crack and serve

This technique is vouched for by many a foodies' foodie's blog:
The writers of the Chocolate and Zucchini further recommend using room temperature eggs. Otherwise, the eggs should be placed in a warm water bath to bring them up to temp. To chill the eggs afterwards, they recommend employing an ice water bath.

I beg to differ. Hard boiled eggs can easily move from tender whites with bright yellow yolks to rubbery whites with green tinged yolks. Adding salt or vinegar does not make a difference. To avoid powdery yolks, reduce your eggs' exposure to heat and remember that eggs continue to cook after they are removed from their cooking water.

My technique: place several eggs (up to 6) in a pot with cold water (covering by about an inch), place the pot on a stove, bring to a boil on medium heat, let boil for a minute, turn off the heat, cover the pot, leave it for 12 minutes, and rinse with cold water until the eggs are cool.

Here is a batch that I made yesterday:

four large eggs straight from the fridge

eggs placed in a heavy bottomed pot with cold tap water

water brought to a rolling boil on medium heat and left to boil for 1 minute

dollar store timer set to 12 minutes

beautiful hard boiled eggs with bright yellow yolks

This technique is also vouched for by many a foodies' foodie's blog:
Elise from the Simply Recipes recommends this latter method and adds that using 5 day old eggs are better.

Hard boiling older eggs is perfectly fine in my kitchen as week old eggs tend to become egg salad anyways.

Egg salad sandwich
This way, the eggs in my fridge are fresh for including in my baking.

As of January 18, 2009, the following instructional videos featuring Aria Giovanni have been released on YouTube:

• How to make a simple tomato sauce - 1 month old: 34 055 views
• How to make an egg salad sandwich - 1 month old: 70 251 views
• How to make an omelet - 1 month old: 64 088 views
• How to make grilled cheese w/tomato - 1 month old: 99 119 views

I listed these because searching for "Aria Giovanni" on YouTube turns up an interesting assortment of videos.

Two years ago, I posted a recipe for baked spring rolls on foodiePrints. Today, recessionary pressures are making cooks and chef's a like re-evaluate their approach to food. Frugal cuisine is again becoming popular, so I decided to revisit the baked spring roll.

According to the Ottawa Citizen's Ron Eade and chef/owner Derek Benitz of the Benitz Bistro,

it comes down to attitude and your approach in the kitchen. Canadians have a pretty thrifty attitude to cooking, but a little guidance can help. At the end of the day, it comes down to reducing waste to one garbage bag a day at our restaurant...

During a recession, the amount of garbage thrown out can make the difference between a restaurant succeeding or failing. Chef Benitz extols the virtues of using left overs, trimmings, and odds and ends to add flavor and variety.

Like Chef Benitz, I like to cook and eat "nose to tail." Very little in my kitchen goes to waste, even leftovers. This is where baked spring rolls come in. They allow me to mix together odds and ends to make an easily portable confection. Borrowing from Mexican cuisine, leftover fried rice, bolstered with meat stripped from a roast, has even found its way into an Asian-take on the burrito.

Disastrous Baked Spring Rolls
In the past, I've used an egg wash to crisp up and colour the spring rolls during baking. That stopped when this happened:

Spring rolls with Egg Shellac
When baked at 350 F, this batch of spring rolls somehow formed a dry pasta-like shell.

The batch came from a forgotten pack of spring roll wrappers that I found in the freezer. Freezer burn had set in so, when the wrappers defrosted, I had to soak each in egg to soften the wrappers enough to work with. The resultant spring rolls came out surprisingly inedible, considering that I've soaked old spring rolls wrappers in egg before.

Freshly Wrapped Spring Rolls Brushed with Egg Wash
I guess soaking the wrappers and then brushing them again with egg wash was just too much. Perhaps, replacing lost moisture with egg caused the wrappers to take on some protein that toughened when baked.

Unfortunately, this wasn't the only lesson I took away from this disastrous batch of spring rolls.

Filling
If you're going to include lettuce as filling for a spring roll, do not pre-cook it. Unlike spring onions (aka: scallions), lettuce loses its colour and takes on an unhealthy yellow hue when baked in a spring roll.

Fool-Proof Baked Spring Rolls
Here's the solution my better half came up with to avoid the shellac problem: brush the spring rolls with oil.

Crispy baked spring rolls
This particular batch was the result of my cleaning out leftover vegetables from the fridge one Sunday afternoon. It came out very crispy.

For the filling, 2 large Spanish onions, 2 red bell peppers, and 4 stalks of celery were finely chopped and then sweated in a tbsp of olive oil and a generous pinch of kosher salt on medium heat. Once the vegetation was translucent and any emergent liquid was cooked out, it was taken off the heat and left to cool in a mixing bowl. Approximately, a cup of chopped leftover pernil (Puerto Rican slow roasted pork) was then added to the chopped vegetables along with a cup of flat leaf parsley leaves and 2/3 cup of breadcrumbs. Why breadcrumbs? I wanted something to soak up any liquid from the filling should any juices emerge from the meat during baking. It is the same reason that breadcrumbs are added to a meat loaf.

2 tbsp of filling was then stuffed into spring roll wrappers.

Freshly Wrapped Spring Rolls

Jenn brushed each side with canola oil and broiled the spring rolls on racks in the toaster oven for 15 minutes on each side.

Brushed with Oil

Crispy skinned Spring Rolls

Given that spring rolls are supposed to be deep fried, brushing the wrappers with oil caused them to crisp under the broiler and take on more of their traditional texture. That is, without the trouble to putting a heavy dutch oven on a burner and watching over a very large vat of high smoke point oil.

And, to address an oversight in my original baked spring roll entry, here's how you wrap a spring roll:
Step 1

lay out a spring roll wrapper with a point facing you, lay on the filling in a line along the middle, and paint the edges with egg wash
Step 2

take the bottom point, draw it upwards, and and fold the tip under the filling
Step 3

roll the filling upwards, encasing the filling
Step 4

fold the left and right ends inwards
Step 5

re-apply egg wash to the exposed edges if necessary
Step 6

continue rolling upwards until the tip is sealed against the rest of the package
Done!

Spring roll wrappers can be found in most local mega marts alongside North American wonton wrappers. Me, I head to my local Asian supermarket.

Congratulations! If you're reading this, you've entered the world of homemade spring rolls. Now you've no excuse to let those leftovers go to waste.

Sifting through foodiePrints' photo archive, I found resized pictures for an entry I had half written on a dinner from the fall. Given that it is February, I figured that my readers would appreciate food from a warmer season. That said..

Last August, Jenn spent a weekend in Toronto to attend a "math conference." Such left me to my devices for meals. Friday night, I ate leftover pizza. Saturday evening I added another candidate to my "Decent Bowl of Noodles" project, putting together another bowl of ramen. The results of the project will show up in another blog entry eventually. That said, I wanted Jenn to have a warm supper waiting for her when she returned Sunday night.

From her nightly calls home, she mentioned a number of fast food restaurants, so I figured she could benefit from a nutritious meal. Wandering to the local mega-mart (Superstore at Richmond and Kirkwood), I picked up a fresh fillet of wild salmon. To augment the oily fishy flavours, I opted to layer the fillet with chopped herbs from the herb garden (chives, parsley, and dill) and dressed the fish with a fruity extra virgin olive oil.

Salmon slathered with Herbs and EVOO

I baked it at 300 F until the fillet flaked cleanly and the fish was no longer translucent.

Baked
Given that protein-rich liquid seemed to have been forced up from the flesh, I think I should have baked it at a lower temperature or en papillote.

I served a portion of the fillet with a side of zucchini ratatouille (zucchini, carrots, green broad beans, and German sausage) and steamed rice.

Served

My better half seemed to enjoy the meal. The salmon showcased fresh oily flavours with strong herbal notes. The ratatouille was well textured, nothing was too soft or too hard. I strategically pre-cooked the sausage to add last and sweated off the carrots before adding the zucchini or beans.

BTW, before I headed to the fish case, I did as any respectable pseudo-bachelor and picked up a "slice" for lunch.

Superstore Pizza
While the Superstore pizza is made from frozen pizza dough and topped with less than authentic processed mozzarella, the vegetables are fresh and piled on with reckless abandon. It's truly a meal in a slice.

It is Monday, the day after the North American music industry's gala awards ceremony, the Grammy's, aired on television. Just as the Grammy's have suffered a successive losses of viewership, I have had to take pause to ask a question. I am currently staring at two lists of culinary awards issued to restaurants in the National Capital Region: awards from the 16 annual gala (2009) for the Ottawa Restaurant Hotel Motel Association (ORHMA) and Ottawa's "Epicurean Awards." Both lists include many of the "usual suspect" restaurants. Both lists are long, leading me to wonder, "Are there more awards than there are restaurants in Ottawa?"

From the ORHMA Gala,

• "Bill Joe Restaurateur of the Year" went to Ion Aimers, founder and owner of the chain of The Works Gourmet Burger Bistros
• "MAC Knife Chef of the Year" (Top Chef) went to executive chef Matt Carmichael of Restaurant E18hteen and Social
• "CHEZ 106 Ottawa?s Favourite Restaurant" went to three locations of the Keg
• "Lifetime Achievement" went to Ottawa Citizen Food columnist Gay Cook
• "Ottawa Citizen Service Person of the Year" went to Nawal Roukos of the Newport Restaurant

A giant whisk was awarded to the host, Westin Hotel's, chef, Nelson Borges, whose cinnamon seared Mariposa Farms duck was voted best dish of the event.

Last year's winner of the "Bill Joe Restaurateur of the Year" was Dot Janz of Black Dog Bistro. Top Chef went to Derek Benitz of Benitz Bistro. "Lifetime Achievement" went to chef Kurt Waldel of the National Arts Centre.

Regarding Aimers, according to the Ottawa Citizen, he graciously accepted his award, remarking how lucky he was to be able to attend the event. Last April, he suffered a massive heart attack, spending 5 days in a coma. He celebrated his award with 20 managers and employees he brought with him as his guests at $125/seat.

Proceeds from the gala go to the Algonquin College student bursary fund. On a related note, Chef Carmichael was also celebrated at the gala for working with students enrolled in the Algonquin College Culinary Program.

From the The Epicurean Awards,

• "Linda Thom and Robert Bourassa Café Henry Burger Trophy" (Chef of the Year) went to Serge Rourre from Le Baccara
• "Three Stars Epicurean" Awards went to 3 restaurants: Le Baccara, Beckta Dining & Wine, Restaurant E18hteen, and Perspectives Restaurant
• "Two Stars Epicurean" Awards went to 20 restaurants: Absinthe, A'Roma Meze, Bella's Bistro, Benitz Bistro, Canvas, Chez Eric, Coconut Lagoon, El Meson, Juniper Kitchen and Wine Bar, Murray Street, Napo, Navarra, New Dubrovnik, La Roma, Restaurant Les Fougeres, Trattoria Caffé Italia, Urban Pear, Vineyards Wine Bar Bistro, Wellington Gastropub, Whalesbone Oyster House
• "One Star Epicurean" Awards went to 4 restaurants: Castlegarth Resaurant, Petit Bill's Bistro, Poco Pazzo, Sweet Grass Aboriginal Bistro
• "Best Wine Experience" Award went to Le Baccara's Sommelier Danielle Dupont

Conspicuously absent this year were last year's awards for "Regional/Specialty/Ethnic" and "Best Service." The list from last year was equally as long.

Award winners were chosen by public survey. Entries were submitted between July 25, 2008 and October 15, 2008. Results were announced during this year's Ottawa Wine and Food Show.

While the Epicurean Awards seem to give awards to any restaurant with three submitted entries, the ORHMA are issued by industry peers. Honestly, why would anyone bother to spend 10-30 minutes filling in an Epicurean Award survey entry if the requisite restaurant didn't earn at least a 70% in your books. You would be spending more time rating the restaurant than you did partaking of the meal. Conversely, judging from the proceedings reported by food columnist, Ron Eade, on the Ottawa Citizen's Omnivore Blog, the ORHMA seems to be a must-attend event of the year for Ottawa's culinary industry.

As someone who has limited funds to dine out, I will take the ORHMA results into consideration along with the Ottawa Magazine's Christ Knight's best and brightest when choosing my next fine dining destination.

Speaking of which, here are Ottawa's "Top Picks" according to the Ottawa Magazine for 2008:

Christ Knight's Top 10 for 2008

1. Beckta Dining and Wine (Chef/Owner: Michael Moffatt/Stephen Beckta): 226 Nepean Street - (613)238-7063
2. Domus Café (Chef: John Taylor): 87 Murray Street - (613)241-6007
3. Le Baccara: 1, boulevard du Casino - (819)772-6210
4. Restaurant E18teen (Chef: Matt Carmichael, protegé of Susur Lee): 18 York Street - (613)244-1188
5. The Wellington Gastropub (Chef/Owner: Chris Deraiche): 1325 Wellington Street - (613)729-1315
6. Benit Bistro (Chef/Owner: Derek Benitz): 327 Somerset Street West - (613)567-8100
7. Allium (Chef/Owner: Arup Jana): 87 Holland Avenue - (613)792-1313
8. The Urban Pear(Chef/Owner: Ben Baird): 151 Second Ave., Unit C - (613)569-9305
9. Les Fougerès(Chef/Owner: Charles Part): 782, route 105, Chelsea - (819)827-8942
10. Signatures by Le Cordon Bleu: 453 Laurier Avenue East - (613)236-2460

In the same vein as foodieprints' Pork Loin entry, what do you do with a whole pork leg, the common precursor to ham, when it is sold at $1.99/lb?

If you come across a roast weighing 4 kg (8-9 lb), score the skin with a Stanley knife, rub coarse or kosher salt into the scored skin, place into a roasting pan, and cook at 200 F until the internal temperature reaches 145 F. Take the roast out to rest, raise the heat of the oven to 400 F. Place the roast back to colour the crackling. Slice and serve. If you'd like an entire recipe, try this one from cookitsimply.com. Quite frankly, I find roasting a joint of pork more of a reusable technique than a recipe: season, roast, rest, and serve.

Back End after Roasting

Coat of Lovely Crackling

Probe Thermometer, stuck into the thickest part of the roast

Sliced to Serve
I took the roast out when the temperature reached 140 F and then put it back to crisp the crackling, hence the slightly pinkness after roasting.

With respect to the string, I like to tie my roasts to ensure that juices aren't forced out during cooking. Gravity tends to flatten a roast. Given that most pork leg roasts come covered with a thick layer of fat and skin, this isn't entirely necessary. The crackling unfortunately didn't work too well during this run, neither properly crisped nor rendered. I'll have to consult my copy of Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's "Pig in a Day" dvd to see where I went wrong. Perhaps I should have roasted the leg at a higher temperature. Ezinearticles.com suggests 350 F.

Now, what do you do with a whole pork leg when it is sold at an astounding, never to be seen again, $.99/lb.

If you come across a roast weighing a whopping 10.225 kg (22.54 lb) and you've no buses to help you home, I strongly suggest bringing a child's sled along. In the summer time, try a wagon. Jenn and I shouldered the enormous roast home from the Superstore at Carling and Kirkwood. There, the butchers actually tried to convince us against purchasing the roast. When asked, they told us that they had whole pork legs, but they were enormous. We didn't heed their advice. At least the cashier had a good chuckle when she saw the enormous piece of pork on the conveyor belt.

22 lb roast in a Loeb bag
As a testament to the re-usable bags from Loeb, not only did one fit the enormous roast, it didn't tear during transit.

whole pork leg on my oversize poly board

Label

So what did we do with a roast that didn't fit a conventional oven? Making dry cured country ham was out. We had neither the ingredients (a lot of salt) nor the proper dry or cool place to cure or hang the leg. Making a traditional cooked ham was out. We didn't have a pot big enough to brine or boil the piece of meat.

We decided to cut the leg up into stew meat to replenish our frozen stores. The aforementioned bus strike saw us eat our way through our freezer. What lean pieces I cut out with little connective tissue was processed into dumpling filling.

Step 1 Stand up to your adversary

Step 2 Get a closer look

Step 3 Butcher out 3 freezer bags of 2 inch cubes of stew meat

3 bags of stew meat

2 bags of soup bones

Scraps went into a small curry with finely chopped onion and curry powder.

Scrap Meat

Everything else went into the food processor and ended up in dumplings, wrapped with North American wonton wrappers. I call them North American because traditional oriental wonton wrappers are thinner. When cooked they soften and become much more delicate.

North American Wonton Wrappers

Individual Wrapper

Minced pork with finely chopped nappa cabbage, minced ginger, and thinly sliced green onions

One tsp of mixture went into each dumpling

Wrapped Dumplings

Cooked Dumplings
Dumpling-making is something that nearly all oriental teenagers are proficient with long before they leave home. Ingredients are added until it all "looks right." Wrapping is done with deft hands.

For our mass of dumpling filling, I approximate for 2 lb's of meat, we added 4 leaves of a medium sized nappa cabbage, one 3" finger of ginger, and 6 stalks of green onion. For seasoning, my better half added several shakes of garlic powder, a pinch or two of salt, and 3-4 tbsp of soy sauce.

We cooked the dumplings in boiling water on medium heat until they floated. They were removed after another minute's simmering. Unfortunately, we didn't grind the meat fine enough so the resultant dumpling filling was slightly crumbly and a little gristly. Still, they made great meals during the week.

Dumplings Straight with Greens and Dumplings in Reduced Chicken Stock

Dumplings in Soup, Garnished with Green Onions

Me, I'm looking forward to slow cooked pork stew. Yum!

Actually, that someone was me. I just found an amusing little American web application, called bacolicio.us, that captures an image of any website fed to it and returns what the website would look like with a nicely crisped rasher of streaky bacon neatly deposited on it.

This is what foodiePrints would look like with more bacon on it:

foodiePrints with bacon

And since we're on the topic of bacon, here are some bacon sitings that I've been pooling for the past couple months:

Bacon Mat
Source: reddit.com c/o Ottawa's own Breakfast Blooger

If you're curious about how to make a "bacon weave", head over to Instructables. There, you will find a recipe that explains that bacon mats are baked, not pan fried.

How to make a Bacon Mat
Source: Seriouseats c/o Instructables.com

The majority of these images come from 2007, but the bacon mat made a re-appearance this past month in the widly popular "Bacon Explosion."

Bacon Explosion
Source: New York Times


Cross Section
Source: The originators of the Bacon Explosion, BBQ Addicts

This log-like mass of pork is a bacon mat wrapped 2 lbs of shaped Italian sausage, stuffed with crumbled bacon. Once put together, it is glazed and then cooked on the barbecue. Now ubiquitous and this year's featured Superbowl-Fare, the bacon explosion was originally created in Kansas by Jason Day and Aaron Chronister, founders of the Burnt Finger BBQ team. Chronister runs BBQ Addicts.

Speaking of this year's Superbowl, the boys at HolyTaco.com put together a "snack food stadium", containing among other traditional food ball foods, a lb of bacon and 58 Hostess Twinkies.

Snack Food Stadium
Source: Holy Taco

Now that two frighteningly savory preparations have been sorted, how about sweet bacon confections?

Chocolate covered Bacon

Bacon
Source: Marini's candy shop at the Boardwalk amusement park in Santa Cruz, California c/o msnbc.com

Bacon Mints

Bacon Mints
Source: CandyAddict.com

Then again, bacon seems to be showing up everywhere:

Bacon Dispenser
Source: saynotocrack blog c/o digg.com

And by enjoying bacon, some enterprising young women have decided to use it for lingerie.

Bacon Bra
Source: Brian Kusler's flickr photostream


Another Bacon Bra
Source: Lafinjack.net

Whatever the case, please remember where bacon comes from.

Maybe Next Time You'll Try a Little Sunscreen
Source: Royal Bacon Society

And to all a bacon-y good morning!

Before we begin, let me clear something up first. "Liverwurst" isn't German for liver sausage. Liverwurst is actually an Anglicization of the "Leberwurst." Leberwurst is German for liver sausage. That said, liverwurst, also known as Kentucky pate, is true to its namesake. Typically spreadable, liverwurst contains at least 30% pork liver. The balance is spice, pork, and fat. It can come shaped as loaves, links, or slices. Some varieties are even smoked.

Like other food-related authorities on the web, Herbst and Herbst's 4th edition of the Food Lover's Companion states that liverwurst is especially well suited to rye bread. This explains the many preparations I found that served liverwurst in sandwiches. Here is a sampling of two:

Chef William Conway's "Wurst" Sandwich
Source: The Never Trust a Skinny Chef blog


Mcquire's Liverwurst Sandwich
Source: Judy's Picassa album from her visit to McGuire's Irish Pub (Destin, Florida), care of Google Images

With these images as guides, I set forth to try my hand at liverwurst sandwiches. Given its deep livery flavor, I figured that pairing thick sliced liverwurst with onion or lettuce and tomato made sense. The onions will add bite. The tomato, brightness to cut the savoriness. The lettuce, texture.

For bread, I picked up a loaf of Bavarian Rye

Bavarian Rye
and I lightly toasted up 4 slices.

Here are the two sandwich bases: "Liverwurst and Onions" and LLT (Liverwurst, Lettuce, and Tomato)

two different sandwich bases
To create a temporary moisture barrier, each sandwich had a thin layer of mayonnaise on one side. On the other, Dijon mustard.

To each base went thick slices of liverwurst.

two liverwurst sandwiches

The liverwurst and onions combination was a bust. Unless, you've fresh vidalias (a truly sweet onion variety) available to you, white or spanish onions just serve to over intensify the savory flavors, especially with such a large portion of liverwurst.

Liverwurst and Onions

The lettuce and tomato actually worked to cut the sweetness. However, again, the portion of liverwurst was too much.

LLT

Lessons Learned:
Dijon mustard goes well with liverwurst, so long as the liverwurst is portioned in moderation.

After some more experimentation, here is my preferred way to eat liverwurst: lightly smeared on a fresh sesame seed bagel with some Dijon.

Liverwurst Bagel
Yumm!

Just before Christmas (December 7, 2008), CTV reported that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) was warning people with milk allergies to avoid two varieties of Life-brand chocolate bars. Accordingly, Life-brand Premium Swiss Dark Chocolate with Orange and Life-brand Premium Swiss Dark Chocolate with 72 per cent Cocoa may contained milk that was not declared on the label. Both were sold through Shopper's Drug Mart and Pharmaprix.

I'm wondering what the CFIA would say if they found the following as I did when I opened a 300 g box of Life-brand After Dinner Mints:

The box wouldn't open as I found the top flap glued shut

Then, I noticed that half of the mints wouldn't come out of the box.

There's even glue in the envelops holding the mints.

And here's the glue holding the envelops to the box.

I guess someone was overzealous with sealing the boxes after filling them with wrapped mints.

Suffice it to say glue encased chocolates met the bin with prejudice. I'm not impressed with Life-Brand chocolates at the moment.

On the bright side, at least the Life-Brand Mints weren't outwardly sporting a coating of coloured glue. Here are images of "cream cakes" that the Superstore at Carling and Kirkwood experimented with one summer in 2007.

Lemon Cream Cake

Strawberry Cream Cake
I'm not entirely sure what the shiny plastic frosting/icing/shellac is supposed to resemble, but it did not look at all natural. Given that these cakes are no longer available, I don't think they sold well either.

With respect to Cadbury's Caramilk Secret, the caramel is added to the chocolate bars the same way stuffed chocolates are made; by creating a mold with tempered chocolate, filling it, and topping it off with more tempered chocolate. There is a wonderfully well illustrated explanation at Ian Bailey's Sympatico web space.

According to Health Canada, the Ottawa Citizen and the CBC, Canada has a growing unhealthy relationship with salt. We are consuming more than our healthy daily allowances. In 2007, the CBC reported alarming statistics from the 2004 Canadian Community Health Survey. Among people aged 19 to 70, 85 per cent of men and 60 per cent of women consumed more sodium than was recommended. The Statistics Canada report further stated that pizzas, sandwiches, hamburgers and hot dogs accounted for 19 per cent of the sodium intake. This is followed by soups at seven per cent and pasta at six per cent. In 2008, the Ottawa Citizen reported that Health Canada was appointing a working group to develop a strategy to reduce dietary sodium. Reason: A high-salt diet has been linked to hypertension and cardiovascular disease. It can also contribute to other health issues such as osteoporosis, asthma and obesity. One of the working group's targets are the manufacturers of food, particularly processed foods, which are currently enjoying a renewed popularity due to the economic downturn.

Here are some statistics from the Ottawa Citizen article:

• One teaspoon of salt equals about six grams of salt
• Six grams of salt contains about 2,300 milligrams of sodium
• Upper tolerable daily limit of dietary sodium: 2,300 milligrams
• Average daily sodium consumption by adult Canadians: 3,100 milligrams
• Percentage of daily sodium intake in processed food: 77

Source: Ottawa Citizen Online

Here are recommended daily limits for sodium, according to age group:

• 9-50 years: 1,500 milligrams
• 50-70 years: 1,300 milligrams
• Above 70 years: 1,200 milligrams

Source: Ottawa Citizen Online

The latest release of "Eat this, Not that" by David Zinchenko is a "Supermarket Survival Guide." According to it and a list of the "Saltiest Foods in America" from the Men's Health Magazine, the saltiest soup on the American market is Baja Fresh Chicken Tortilla Soup, which contains a whopping 2760 mg of sodium, almost double the recommended intake for the average adult.

How about in Canada? How much sodium does a can of soup that "eats like a meal" (i.e. Campbell's Chunky Soup) pack? They're on sale in Ontario this week at Loeb.

Loeb Sale on Chunky Soup

Here's a sampling from my local Loeb:
Prime Rib with Vegetables: per 250 ml serving (1 cup), 650 mg (labeled as 25% less salt than original recipe)
Tortellini with Chicken: per 250 ml serving (1 cup), 810 mg
Chicken and Sausage Gumbo: per 250 ml serving (1 cup), 650 mg
Turkey: per 250 ml serving (1 cup), 650 mg (labeled as 25% less salt than original recipe)
Beef: per 250 ml serving (1 cup), 770 mg (labeled as 25% less salt than original recipe)

Based on the serving sizes listed, each can has a little more than 2 servings.

Evidence:

Sampled Cans

Info from Labels

I picked up one can each of Turkey and Chicken and Sausage Gumbo. Both topped out at the lower end of less than a third the recommended daily intake of sodium.

Chosen Soup with already purchased same brand clam chowder

Info from Labels
The clam chowder, by the way, packs a whopping 850 mg of sodium. I guess that explains why I was chasing for water after eating a bowl.

I'll update this entry on how the soups taste later. In the meantime, if you're purchasing processed foods, read the labels and mind the sodium.

During the latter half of January, the Ottawa Citizen (a very local newspaper) re-published a piece by Victoria Times columnist Eric Akis, entitled "Slow route to tenderness: Lamb and veal shanks and beef short ribs make economical comfort food." Accordingly, during troubled economic times, scratch-cooked comfort foods provide a satisfying escape. With this year's talk of economic stimulus packages and the growing lists of layoffs, it is predicted that long simmered foods will again become popular.

As someone who subscribes to Chef Fergus Henderson's "nose to tail" eating paradigm, I never really let go of slow cooking, forging a special relationship with my slow cooker. Oft overlooked meat cuts lend well to simmered cooking, such as braising or stewing. This includes the lamb shank recipe that follows Akis' short editorial. The shanks are braised in an oven at 325 F for 2 and a half hours.

While I have a slow cooked lamb shank recipe that I want to share, I fear that Akis overlooked the fact that people are still overburdened with tasks. Simmering foods in a low oven is somewhat "inconvenient" while picking up groceries, visiting the local post office, fighting Bell Sympatico for yet another expensive cock-up, cleaning the condo, or spending time with your significant other. It is especially difficult when your city's entire public transit system is shut down due to strike.

The strike ended recently (thanks to an upcoming visit from America President Barack Obama), but I doubt most peoples' lives permit anymore flexibility. Tasks multiply now that buses and partial light rail are becoming available again. When once tasks were slow to accomplish because it was difficult to get around, they become location-independent again, meaning we can accomplish more. Thus, time is again a limited resource, so, before I post a slow cooked recipe for lamb shanks, let's look at one way to satisfy our slow cooked appetites without having to look after an oven for a couple hours.

My solution, pickup low sodium prepared sauces with no preservatives and look to the slow cooker to set us free. Introducing, beef rogan josh, slow cooker style.

What you'll need:

2 medium sized onions

onions, chopped fine

4 medium-sized potatoes and one can of Patak's Rogan Josh curry sauce

potatoes, chunked and soaked in water

2 cloves of garlic, chopped fine

one pound of hand cubed top sirloin beef with significant marbling

beef, mixed with 1 tbsp corn starch and 2 tbsp canola oil

Before we go any further, the rogan josh that we are familiar with in North America may be an English interpretation of an Indian curry. This is because, while Rogan Josh online recipes are spiced with Indian spices (tumeric, garam masala, coriander, cumin, and chile powder) and employ yoghurt, they also contain tomatoes, something common to a dish that Brits call "chicken tikka masala." In fact, the ingredient list for noted British Chef Heston Blumenthal's "perfect" chicken tikka masala is very similar to that of rogan josh. One has chicken. The other, beef or lamb. As Chef Blumenthal discovered, the closest authentic Indian dish he could find that resembled chicken tikka masala was butter chicken.

What to do:

read the instructions from the can

brown the stew meat in pan and place in the ceramic bowl of a slow cooker

de-glaze the pan with the onions, cook the onions until coloured, and add the garlic

add the contents of the can to the pan and bring to a simmer

add the chunked potatoes to the ceramic bowl and cover with sauce

Heat on high until simmering, switch to low and cook for 45 minutes.

finished rogan josh with potatoes

With a gentle brightness from the tomato-y sauce, savoriness from braised beef, and lots of Indian spices, this rogan josh made a great entree. The aroma during cooking was indescribably good.

Plate on cooked basmati rice, add a salad, and you've enough in one batch to serve dinner to 4, generously.

The best part: it's a slow cooker. There's no oven to look after.