Several weeks ago, Eleanor Hoh (@wokstar) started sending good #ff tweets to a number of her followers she feels are fanatic about pho. A #ff is a weekly ritual whereby you highlight, via a hashtag, tweeps you recommend others follow. foodiePrints' twitter account (@foodieprints) was one of the tweeps she included.

As the Apartment 613 blog recently confirmed, we at foodiePrints are rather pho obsessed. Practical, low cost, and satisfying, Ottawa is blessed with a large number of Pho houses. We have eaten so many fine bowls of pho we have actually developed a list of characteristics to look for.

So, it was with great pleasure I accepted Eleanor's challenge to join a number of food bloggers, make a bowl of pho, and mass post an entry into the food community of the blogosphere by March 20, 2010. Do check Eleanor's blog, Be a Work Star, for a list of blog posts.

For our contribution, we decided to attempt a lamb pho. However, we borrowed aspects from French cookery to make it: salting (curing) and searing the meat before simmering. What resulted, while borrowing aspects of the traditional pho flavour profile, was not pho. Why? The broth did not taste as clean as a pho broth should. The broth was not clear. And, the broth was overly rich, carrying too much lamb flavour.

A Bowl of Lamb Faux Pho

Overly Rich Broth
However, it was a good bowl of noodle soup.

Here's how we made it.

Broth:
We took approximately 1.5 kg (3 lb) of lamb bones with a good deal of meat on them.

Lamb Bones
We seasoned them with kosher salt and placed them on a rack set in a plastic tray. Then, we placed the tray in the fridge, covering it with plastic wrap, for 2 hours.

Lamb Curing
The idea was to draw out liquid and concentrate flavour.

To flavour the broth, we took two small onions, halved them, and impaled each half with 5-6 whole cloves. We placed each half into a slow cooker and added a tbsp of black peppercorns, a dash of kosher salt, an inch of ginger (sliced), and the peeled and separated cloves of one head of garlic.

Gathering Flavourants

After 2 hours curing, we dried the lamb pieces and seared them in a well oiled metal bottomed pan, set to medium heat on a stovetop (2 minutes/side).

Lamb Searing

Lamb Seared
With so many pieces of lamb, we worked in batches. Every time we finished with a batch, we de-glazed the pan with a splash or two of water, scraping the fond, and added the liquid to the slow cooker.

Most Asian soups (broths or stock) are characteristically flavourful, but clean in taste and visually clear. This is usually accomplished by pre-simmering soup bones and/or meat for thirty minutes to an hour, dumping out the cooking liquid, and rising everything. I have always been told this "cooked out impurities." Impurities or no, the process largely eliminates the scum (protein foam, blood, and marrow) that floats to the top of a simmering broth or stock. Left in, the scum tends to cloud a soup. This is why culinary students are taught how to "clarify" broths or stocks with an egg whites. Post-simmering, a broth or stock can also be clarified with agar agar and a centrifuge, but I digress.

For this batch of broth, we filled the slow cooker pot to just above the bones and brought everything to a boil on high, boiling it for 5 minutes.

To be Broth being Brought up to a Boil
Afterward, we let the mixture cool to barely simmering and simmered the mixture on low for 3 hours. During the first hour, I checked the broth every 20 minutes to skim off the scum.

We then placed the entire pot into the fridge so the fat can setup on top and be lifted off. After straining and re-heating, we produced a rich broth that tasted very strongly of lamb. In the background were the typical pho broth flavours.

Done
To finish it, we diluted the broth with water and seasoned it with fish sauce to taste.

Faux Pho:
To serve, we plated bowls with fresh pho rice noodles, "as fresh as we could find" bean sprouts, cilantro leaves, lime juice, and soup beef balls (from frozen).

Clockwise from Left: bean sprouts, noodles, cilantro

Fresh as we Could find Bean Sprouts
If you have ever ordered beef balls with your pho in a decent pho noodle house, you were most likely served heavily processed beef, shaped into balls, that had a strangely chewy texture. These beef balls are sold in many Asian markets in the frozen section.

Soup Beef Balls
While we went with the frozen option, I have made soup beef balls from scratch before with very finely food processor processed beef, chestnut powder, rice starch, and a little baking soda.

If you come across comments condemning pho noodle houses for serving "artificial beef" with their pho. The soup beef balls are likely what they felt was off-putting.

Here is our accompaniment plate:

Accompaniment Plate

To plate up, we brought the broth up to a boil in a pot set to medium heat on a stovetop and boiled it for 5 minutes. We actually re-heated the beef balls in the broth. Afterward, we lowered the heat to low and kept it simmering.

Re-Heating Broth
As the broth was heating, we blanched 2 portions worth of noodles as per the instructions on the packaging.

We placed the noodles into the bottom of two bowls and topped each with a handful of raw bean sprouts. When ready, we brought the broth back up to a boil and ladled it into the bowls. To them, we added some of the lamb meat (re-claimed from the bones), beef balls, and cilantro.

Bowl Being Assembled

Done

While what we made was not an authentic bowl of pho, it made a great dinner.

Next time, I will be re-attempting the broth with a mixture of beef and lamb bones. Also, I will be pre-simmering instead of skimming.

Over the weekend Julie (@TheMagicFridge) of Ottawa's Magic Fridge personal chef service tweeted a link to a piece by Andrea Aku of the StyleCaster website. Entitled "6 Classic Dishes Everyone Should Know How to Make", the write-up garnered 100235 views and 18 tweets when I last read it.

While I am not entirely happy with her generalization that Chinese food is "greasy", I was interested in what Aku considered basic recipes "a beginner chef should have under their [his or her] belt."

1. Chicken Noodle Soup
2. Meat Lasagna
3. Beef Stew
4. Roast Chicken
5. Chili
6. Chocolate Cake

Aku considers these "classic childhood comfort dishes" everyone should learn how to make.

The list and sentiment is rather timely with British TV Chef Jamie Oliver recently making his TED Prize Wish to educate children about food.

I wish for your help to create a strong, sustainable movement to educate every child about food, inspire families to cook again and empower people everywhere to fight obesity.

Source: Jamie Oliver, TED

If you haven't seen Oliver's impassioned TED presentation, I suggest you do. The video is embedded after the jump.

In his presentation, Oliver recounts several stories from his televised anti-obesity project in Huntington, West Virginia, called Jamie Oliver's Food Revolution. They include setting up a community kitchen "food center" and teaching children "10 meals" that equip them with basic skills to eat healthier.

With Oliver's words reverberating well with me, I decided to scour foodiePrints to see if we had Aku's 6 dishes written up on our food blog. I believe good food blogs are written by food enthusiasts who "play" in the kitchen. These food bloggers develop the physical memory from learning culinary basics. It permits them to better appreciate food, especially more complex dishes. Practicing what I preach, foodiePrints is a both sounding board for our thoughts on food and a cook's journal.

Chicken Noodle Soup

Chicken Pho Broth
While we haven't a post on chicken noodle soup per se, we have one for chicken pho. In it are instructions and a link to a recipe for how to make a chicken pho broth. The technique can easily be extrapolated and flavours modified to make other soups. Click here for that post.

Meat Lasagna

Bolognese Lasagna
Bolognese lasagna is one of the dishes I lavish my attention upon and make for family and friends on special occasions, usually from nearly first principles. Click here for my latest attempt. Click here for a quick and easy version.

Beef Stew

Lamb and Barley Stew
Slow cooking is a necessary skill that opens the door to lesser cuts of meat, new textures, and incredible flavour. In lieu of a beef stew, click here for a Lamb and Barley stew, I made for Guinness' 250th anniversary.

Also, in Asian cuisine, braising lesser cuts of beef produces component proteins for dishes like my better half's crispy chow mein.

Crispy Chow Mein with Yu Choy
Chinese food doesn't have to be greasy. In fact, authentic Chinese food typically isn't.

Roast Chicken

Spatchcocked Chicken
Roasting poultry is a really easy way to serve large numbers of people. There are several ways to roast chicken. I prefer spatch-cocked because the bird lies flat. It cooks more evenly and it cooks much faster. Click here for one of our attempts at spatch-cocked chicken on a grill.

We also oven roast chicken "a la can." Original recipes involved beer cans and grills. Click here for an attempt at "exploding" ginger-ale can chicken.

Chili
While we have several curries on foodiePrints, we never wrote-up a chili. Happily, Rebecca (@bitofmomsense), the mommy blogger behind the "A Little Bit of Momsense" blog, shared her recipe for Crock Pot Chili on the weekend.

bitofmomsense (Mar 07, 10:11 AM)
@foodiePrints @Smart_Spaces a simple but yummy chili http://bit.ly/5JQZsf will be hosting 9 adults, 5 kids. it's a crowd pleaser

She was hosting guests for an Oscar party.

Chocolate Cake

Beetroot Brownies
Because my better half is allergic to chocolate, you will find few chocolate dishes on foodiePrints. You will find several sponge cakes like Japanese Kastella and chiffon cupcakes. Recently, however, I made beetroot chocolate brownies for a recipe competition. Click here for the entry.

I guess I need to get cracking on preparing a traditional chocolate cake and a good bowl of chili for posting...

More after the jump...

Yesterday, I had a somewhat awkward conversation with a relatively old-school project manager who disparaged the new online presence features of Microsoft's recently unveiled mobile operation system for smart-phones and other smart-devices, called Windows Mobile 7. He felt the social media-oriented aspect was a distraction for business users who are more task-oriented. So, Microsoft is essentially alienating its traditional user-base. Incredulous, I pointed out the upcoming millennial workforce is more conscious of work-life balance and values the new contact and event-driven features. Besides, modern business has realized using such tools as Facebook and Twitter thoughtfully can help them establish their brands (lends to good will) and cultivate familiarities with prospective clients, customers, or patrons. Savvy businesses, that realize benefits should not be measured $/click (or $/follower), also learn about their market at the micro-social level.

To me, Microsoft, having "out-Appled" Apple with respect to their mobile operating system's dynamic interface, made the platform attractive again. In a ubiquitous computing environment, devices need to be multi-functional. While I am not a member of the millennial workforce, I participate in several vibrant online communities using social media tools. It has grown my personal and professional networks, connecting me with people I would never have imagined speaking to. Many connections have materialized in the real-world and developed into friendships.

What does this have to do with sweet potatoes or gnocchi? I am blessed to have so many different people in my life. Through my participation in the food blogging community, I met Leela (@shesimmers), the blogger behind SheSimmers. Later I would meet Melody (@gourmetfury), the blogger behind Gourmet Fury. Together, they run Beet 'n Squash You. This month, it is battle sweet potato. For my entry, I asked a handful of people in my networks how they take their sweet potatoes. That is when I discovered how versatile the traditionally winter root vegetable actually is. I know people who only eat sweet potatoes as shoe string fries. I know people who like their sweet potato as pie filling. I know people who swear by "candied yams", topped with marshmallows. I know people who roast them, jacketed in aluminum foil. I decided to try my hand at sweet potato gnocchi, pairing it with a wilted green and some pulled pork. It is not my Beet 'n Squash entry.

Well, the pulled pork worked...
Pernil-Inspired Pulled Pork

One Pork Shoulder Roast

Second Pork Shoulder Roast

Spice Rub

Hawaiian Salt

Pork Shoulder Roasts Dried

Pork Shoulder Roasted Oiled and Coated

Pulled Pork after 90 minutes of Covered Roasting

Pulled Pork after 3 hours of Covered Roasting

Pulled Pork Mid-Shred

Pulled Pork Texture

Here's what you need:

• Pork Shoulder
• Enough Rub to Coat the Pork shoulder Above
• A Little Canola Oil

Yes it's that simple. For this batch, I used the following ratio of flavourings 6:6:1:2:1:1 onion flake, dried oregano, Hawaiian salt (seriously cool gift from seriously cool friend), Hungarian paprika, ground cumin, and red pepper flake by volume. My choice for measuring this time, a teaspoon.

Prep:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F
2. Dry the pork shoulder roasts of moisture.
3. Very lightly coat them in oil
4. Coat the roasts in rub

Method:

1. Bake covered for 3 hours or until the meat falls from the bone.
2. Shred
3. De-fat the drippings and reduce to taste.
4. Sauce the meat with the drippings. It should be slightly moist, not wet

Plan A: Gnocchi (failed)
Because the gnocchi failed, I am not going to write up the recipe. I am only going to record notes, so I can re-attempt it.

Pair of Sweet Potatoes, Pricked All Over
The potatoes were lightly coated in canola oil and roasted at 350F, until softened. This took 1 hour.

4.2 oz of Old Cheddar Cheese
The cheese was grated finely.

One Hot Green Chili, Finely Chopped
When the sweet potato had been roasted soft, it was left to cool for 5 minutes.
Then, it was forced through a ricer in batches.
To the riced sweet potato, 1 tsp of nutmeg, 2 pinches of kosher salt, 3 grinds of black pepper, and the shredded cheese was added. The remnant heat melted the cheese.
When the mixture cooled completely, one egg was added.

Sweet Potato Mixture Pre-Flour
2 cups of flour were sifted in with minimum stirring.

Sweet Potato Mixture Post-Flour

Here is where things went awry. After looking up several sweet potato gnocchi recipes on YouTube, I figured the texture of the gnocchi dough should resemble ones that contained 50% by mass ricotta. Thus, I added more flour, thinking my dough too wet and overworked it. I then overworked them further, shaping and re-shaping them.

Shaped Gnocchi
The gnocchi was boiled in simmering salted water until they floated.

Gnocchi Post-Boil
Then, the gnocchi was fried in brown butter.

One Batch Browned

Another Batch Browned

Here are three platings with gently wilted young spinach

Wilted Spinach

Plating 1

Plating 2

Plating 3
While they looked and smelled delicious, the gnocchi were neither tender nor light.

More after the jump...

Spearheaded by United Way Ottawa, our fair city embarked on a "Kindness Challenge", beginning Friday, February 12 and ending Friday, February 19. The challenge: to create a "kinder community."

Coordinated by a website (kindottawa.ca), a twitter account (@kindottawa), and an army of volunteers, the kindness initiative empowers Ottawans to choose to be kind to one another be it buying the person behind you a coffee as you pickup yours to donating used suits to Funk Your Junk. Here is the Twitter hashtag to highlight kind acts: #kindottawa.

Local businesses have pitched in, donating directly to the United Way or via today's "Stuff the Bus" event.

Several eateries also held their own events. Among them Boston Pizza (Orleans) and the Royal Oak.

Here are our contributions:
Friday (February 12, 2010): We took Toronto mommy blogger and foodie, Vicky (@momwhoruns) to Jak's Kitchen on Bronson (479) for breakfast.

Afterward, we picked up Chinese New Year candies as a surprise treat for students, parents, and teachers at Ottawa's Spirit of Math School.

Saturday (February 13, 2010): Jenn and I experimented with a Chinese New Year dish called turnip cake and documented the results to post a blog on the subject for 3 friends on Twitter.

Sunday (February 14, 2010): I thanked the sales person who helped me pick out a bottle of wine for a lamb shank dish I prepared, documented, and submitted for February's Beet 'n Squash You cooking competition.

Here is the related tweet:

@foodiePrints (Feb 14, 03:41 PM)
Random act of kindness today: Thanked sales person who helped me pick out a cabarnet/franc blend for a dish 2 weeks ago #kindottawa

We also picked up potted pink roses for our neighbour, who celebrated her 89th birthday on Valentine's Day. She slipped the following thank-you card under our door the following Monday.

Thank-you Card

Monday (February 15, 2010): I accepted Sunday's "Silver Medal"-level kindness challenge and baked short bread to accompany the candies and a Chinese bakery bought Swiss roll for Monday's classes at Ottawa's Spirit of Math School.

The recipe I followed comes from the Half Baked blog, entitled Honey Short Bread. A modified recipe follows after the jump.

Here is the related tweet:

@foodiePrints (Feb 15, 09:54 PM)
Random act of kindness 2day: Made honey (infused w/ginger & star anise) shortbread 4 teachers of #ott Spirit of Math tonight #kindottawa

I also volunteered to help haul equipment for that evening's setup and tear-down.

Tuesday (February 16, 2010): I randomly bought the person behind me his afternoon coffee when I went to pickup mine, a "Bronze Medal"-level kindness challenge.

Wednesday (February 17, 2010): Today, we sponsored our friends Izzy (@spoonsie) and Falk (@isfalk) who are participating in Ride for Heart Spin-a-thon on February 20, 2010, proceeds going to the Heart and Stroke foundation.

I encourage you to sponsor someone for the Spin-a-thon as well. To follow our lead, click here to sponsor Izzy. Click here to sponsor Falk.

More after the jump...

There are some foods that are traditional to celebrating the lunar new year in Chinese Culture. Among them are various dried fruit and root vegetables, such as melon, lotus seeds, and sliced lotus root, everything candied. There are also bright coloured foil-wrapped candies, typically red and adorned with gold Chinese characters for fortune.

Foil-Wrapped Candies
Red signifies good luck.

During the eve of the lunar new year, family and friends gather for a feast. One of the typical dishes served is whole chicken, representing prosperity.

Roast Chicken
The tradition, most likely has something to do with how cost and risk-intensive it is to raise livestock. Slaughtering a chicken was done only on a special occasion.

Fish is also served, with head and tail intact, signifying a good beginning and end to the coming year. Also, lettuce wraps are commonplace, because the Cantonese word for lettuce is a partial homonym for good fortune.

Me, I am fond of two dishes, traditionally served during new year: steamed turnip cake (lobok gao) and baked New Year cake (nian gao). Turnip cake is savoury. New Year Cake is sweet. Both are more puddings than cake, but such are the English translations. Both are baked in round tins, signifying family reunion.

Turnip Cake
Turnip cake is such a favourite of mine that I have spent a good amount of time working to learn how to make a good batch. While foodiePrints does sport a recipe, Jenn and I have developed the physical memory and learned the visual and textural cues to put a dish of turnip cake together without measurements.

In doing so, we discovered there are two methods to prepare the white turnip, called lobok in Cantonese and daikon in Japanese. To make turnip cake, white turnip is normally shredded coarsely using a box grater or other rasp implement. When I last visited Vancouver, I learned another method in my better half's grandmother's kitchen, chopped turnip cake. This lunar new year, we made two batches of turnip cake, one coarsely shredded and the other, brunoise.

Brunoise is a French culinary term for chopping 2.5-3 mm (1/8") cubes out of julienne vegetables.

Julienne and then brunoise white turnip

Brunoise white turnip
And yes, the brunoise was sloppy.

Brunoise Turnip Cake

Ready for Steaming

Freshly Steamed

Texture after Resting

Coarsely Shredded Turnip Cake

Ready for Steaming

Freshly Steamed

Texture after Resting

Comparison

After Resting, Bottom: Coarsely Shredded, Top: Brunoise

Slices, Left: Coarsely Shredded, Right: Brunoise

Which do I prefer? I prefer the brunoise turnip cake because the turnips, even while sweated and then steamed, have more "turnip" character (flavour and texture) than the shredded variation. But, such is my palette. For me, brunoise vs. shredding, takes approximately 15% more time.

What does turnip cake taste like? It is definitely a carbohydrate, tasting of turnip and starch.

To serve, I usually fry up slices in oil until edges crisp. Though, I will have to attempt the Singaporean version, frying slices up with sliced red chillis.

New Year Cake (Nian Gao)
Here is a recipe for nian gao.

Electric Egg Beater-based Stand Mixer

Nian Gao Baking

One, Golden Crusted, Done

Other, Golden Crusted, Done
What you'll Need:

• 4 large eggs
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 2 cups of milk
• 1/3 cup of vegetable oil
• 1 package of glutinous rice flour

Method:

1. Preheat an oven to 325F
2. Crack the eggs into a metal bowl or the metal bowl of a stand mixer
3. Add the sugar to the eggs
4. Either use an egg beater or the beater attachment of a stand mixer to whip the egg and sugar mixture until it lightens
5. Add the milk and oil to the emulsion and beat until everything combines together
6. Slowly sift the rice flour into the wet mixture and beat until smooth
7. Pour the mixture into two 8" pie tins
8. Bake both for an hour

To serve, slice into wedges.

Slicing

Served

The texture of Nian Gao is dense. It is thick, sticky and sweet, signifying a rich and sweet life with abundance to come.