Supper Club

We meet with 8 friends every two months for a gourmet supper club. All of us love to cook and eat. We all take turns preparing different courses and we go all out. Last night we had an appetizer of thai chicken with red chilis on shoestring potatoes, 5 spice duck with pomegratate jus, and fruit cornucopia with custard and raspberry coulis. Yeah baby, Papa's got a brand new bag. Feel free to drool and live vicariously through the following photos. Yes, it really was that good.

Birth Class Salad

Today we went to our birthing again class in preparation for the new kid. It was an absolutely fabulous class run by a doula named Sarah. She is a great teacher and we had a fun time and walked away feeling re-energized and empowered for the upcoming momentous event. If you are having a kid, you absolutely must check out her website here, and take a class or hire her to doula for you.

The class was an all day affair so we each brought a potluck dish. The four other couples in the class were funny, intelligent, caring, kindred-soul types who all brought yummy food so we ended up with a fabulous gourmet lunch. I got a few compliments on my Mediterranean couscous salad that I brought, so here it is for your enjoyment.

Ingredients
1 box couscous
1 cube vegetable bullion
1 tablespoon oregano
fresh ground pepper to taste

1 cucumber, peeled
1/2 red onion, diced
hunk o' feta, diced
bunch kalamata olives
2 tomatoes
fist of cilantro, chopped fine

1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
juice of one lemon
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
2 tablespoons brown sugar

Prepare couscous according to instructions on label but add the veggie bullion to the hot couscous water for extra flavour. When couscous is done, fluff with a fork and add pepper and oregano. Let cool. Combine cuke, tomatoes, onion, feta, olives, and cilantro. Add couscous and mix. Whisk together remaining ingredients for dressing and toss until everything is combined. Happy birthing!

Honey Dijon Carrots

Sophia actually preferred these carrots over the lamb. I don't think she has learned that carrots aren't cute yet. Oh well, I ate her lamb. Everyone wins!

Ingredients
bunch of carrots cut as you are so inspired
2 tablespoons butter
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon honey
kosher salt
fresh ground pepper

Boil the carrots until they are almost done but still crisp. If you are English, this might be incredibly difficult. (Sorry Bob, Helen, Gill, Paul, Ralph, Rachel, Ray, Tina, Peter, Henri, Heidi, Paul, Serena, and all of Joanna's family. Please tell your countrymen to stop boiling the crap out of their veggies.)
Drain the water and quickly add the butter, Dijon, and honey so that everything melts. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Yum. God save the Queen, the facist regime.

Balsamic Mint Lavender Reduction

When you go to plate the lamb chops, whip up this glaze to drizzle over the chops...

Ingredients
1 cup balsamic vinegar
1 splash soy sauce
1/3 cup honey
2 tablespoons fresh mint, chopped
2 teaspoons lavender

Bring ingredients to a boil in a small sauce pan. Boil down until reduced and thickened but be careful not to boil it too long or you will have vinegar taffy.

Mary Had A Tasty Little Lamb...

Our friend Shannon wanted to hang out and brought over some gorgeous halal lamb chops last night. I marinated them up, made a rub and this evening she came over and brought along Lucas and Ari for the lamb feast. (There are three morals to this story. One, if you bring me delicious meat, I will cook for you. Two, our Muslim brothers know their way around a butcher shop. Three, cute things taste good.)


So anyway, buy yourself some cute little lamb and turn the volume up to 11. You will need...

Marinade
1 cup yogurt
1/2 cup beer
1/4 cup oil
1 sm onion, chopped fine
3 cloves garlic, crushed
1 lemon, zest and juice
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon pepper
1 tablespoon salt
1 tablespoon lavender
1 tablespoon oregano

Bang everything together, mix, and pour into giant Ziplock. Add chops and marinade overnight in fridge.

Tasty Little Lamb Spice Rub
1 teaspoon thyme
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon ground mustard
1 teaspoon crushed mustard seed
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon lavender
1 teaspoon basil
1 teaspoon mint
1 teaspoon lemonade crystals

Take lamb out of marinade, wash and dry chops. Mix spices and rub both sides. BBQ. DO NOT OVERCOOK! After all this work that would just be blasphemy and that cute, fuzzy, little lamb would have died in vain. For more info about the ultimate BBQ doneness poke test click here. Let chops rest 5 minutes and sprinkle leftover rub on them before serving with Balsamic Lavender Reduction, Honey Dijon Carrots and Rustic Smashed Potatoes. Those recipes to come soon...

McGut Rot

Tonight we were doing some errands so we stopped at a fast food restaurant to eat. Earlier in the day I had shown Ben an awesome flash-based video game that my friend Hillary showed me. It is a hilarious, satirical Sim-esque video game where you control an evil international fast food corporation where you bulldoze rain forests, plant genetically modified soy, pump hormones into cattle before slaughter, fire minimum wage employees, and bribe environmentalists and nutritionists.
I can't believe that these guys haven't been sued into the next millenium yet. You have got to try this game. Download and play it before The Man says you can't. The game is a free download and you can get it here. If you want a deeper look into the freaky anti-McDonald's anarchist underground check it out here.

Ben's Burly Burritos

My mate Ben from Seattle is staying for a few days. He is an awesome laptop DJ. Check him and his trax out here. Ben doesn't groove on the meat so we whipped up some stylin' yam burritos.

Ingredients:
2 yams
2 potatoes
1 onion
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds
6 tablespoons vegetable oil
2 cloves garlic
zest and juice of 1 lime
Spice Rub
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
2 teaspoon chili powder
2 teaspoon kosher salt
2 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon powdered tomato soup
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon oregano
1 teaspoon lemonade crystals
1 teaspoon pepper
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon hickory smoke powder

Peel and slice yams and potatoes. French fry style is groovy if you can (buy one of those groovy slicer things). Toss with oil and add garlic, zest and lime juice. Mix up spice rub and toss it in. Put spiced veg mixture on oiled baking sheets and put in the oven at 450 for 20 min. When done adjust salt according to taste. Serve with burrito shells and all fixins like rice, beans, salsa, guacamole, cilantro, cheese, etc. Boo-ya.

Sophia groovin' on the yam burritos

Ancient Chinese Secret

Conflicting emotions are crashing over my soul like hurricane breakers smashing beach homes on the nightly news. I want to share the secret to life-long happiness with you, but it feels wrong. It feels like you should gain this secret knowlege on your own, only after years of painful searching. I also worry that the all-encompassing, souless, evil, unstoppable Internet, the godless betrayer of all secrets is not the forum to reveal such sacred knowlege. I worry that you might not have the character and inner fortitude to protect these secrets. But, I like you. I want you to be happy. I want you to win the admiration of your friends and family. I want you to make yummy food late at night and stay up reading a good book. I want your children to tug on your pants' leg, look up at you with gentle doe-like eyes, and with childhood awe and wonder ask if you will make them...

Super Ramen.

I know, I can't believe I am telling you this either. I mean, like, it's only our second date or something like that, huh? Please don't tell anyone else, let's keep it our special secret. Will you still respect me tomorrow morning?

I even hesitate to even put this miraculous dish through the recipe process. I feel like I am betraying the ancient deadly secrets of the Shaolin Monks. I might be killed for my betrayal.

Super Ramen is like jazz. (Shout out to you, Mark) Improvisation is name of the game but you must know the rules before you can break them. So here we go.

Super Ramen Recipe
1 pack pork Mama instant ramen (you may substitue Nong Shim if you absolutely have to but if you even think of using Ichiban, Mamee, Mr. Noodle, or some other crap like that then get out. I mean it. Get out! Right now. Stop reading and close your browser! You are not worthy of the Super Ramen secrets!)
1 tablespoon rice vinegar
2 teaspoons ABC sauce
1 teaspoon fish sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil
juice of 1/2 lime
1 tablespoon miso paste
1 tablespoon peanut butter
1 tablespoon brown sugar
splash coconut milk
1 egg
hand of bean sprouts
some sort of Chinese greens (I like baby bok choy or Chinese brocolli)
crushed peanuts

Grab your big ass ramen bowl. What's that? You don't own a ramen bowl? Well, this is a perfect time to smash open your piggy bank, take a field trip down to Chinatown, and blow the whole $3.99 on a monsterous porcelin soup bowl with pictures of fish or bamboo or something like that on it. Fill the bowl with water. Dump it in your soup pot. Dump in all the ramen flavour packs. (You can tell the quality of your ramen by how many different flavour packs it has. Mama has 3, if you are using ramen that only has one flavour pack then get out! Get out now!) Add the next eight ingredients and bring to a boil. Crack in the egg and whisk it to break it up. Add the noodles. Pour into your spankin' brand new ramen bowl. Slice greens and add on top with beansprouts and crushed peanuts. Garnish with a drizzle of ABC. Eat, slurp, and break on through to the other side.

Now go back to Chinatown, buy a bunch of sauce bottles that you have no idea what they are, clear your mind, and forget everything that I just told you and make it again. Then make it again, but better. Make it your own. You are the sensei, you have the power... Super Ramen power.

Bass Pedal Insanity

We have been saving a small portion of $$ every month for me to spend on gear, so that way I don't feel that all my hard work is in vain, and that I am only expending energy to keep us barely financially floating. (Although I am sure everyone feels exactly the same way). Anyway, this last week the unthinkable happened. After toiling away endlessly, and watching our bills devour our family finances like Homer Simpson stalking a wild doughnut, I finally saved enough money to purchase The Mother of All Bass Guitar Pedals. My friends, stand in awe and behold the glory of the Boss GT6B...
Quite frankly, this thing scares me. It has more computing power than the entire Sputnik era Soviet Union circa 1957. I think it might even have a button that will do my taxes and brew my coffee in the morning. I just need to finish reading the instructions so I should have everything figured out by sometime in 2010.

Asian Spice Rub Pork Lettuce Wraps

The other day my mate Stu gave me a deluxe chunk of pork and invited himself over for supper. (Mental note: if you give me quality meat, you can come to eat!) That humble pork roast was magically transformed tonight into Asian Spice Rub Lettuce Wraps. Here's the lowdown.


Ingredients
yummy chunk o' pork

Marinade
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup oil
1/2 cup rice vinegar
1 cup sake
2 tablespoons black bean sauce
2 tablespoons ABC sweet soy sauce
2 tablespoons brown sugar
thumb ginger, grated
3 cloves garlic, crushed

Spice Rub
1 teaspoon powdered ginger
1 teaspoon garlic powder
1 teaspoon chinese 5 spice powder
1 teaspoon ground pepper
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1 teaspoon green tea, powdered
1 teaspoon lemonade crystals
2 teaspoons brown sugar

Asian Slaw
1 cucumber, grated
4 carrots, grated
1 sm daikon, grated
1 fistful beansprouts
sm bunch fresh mint finely chopped
sm bunch fresh basil finely chopped
sm bunch fresh cilantro finely chopped
1 handful crushed peanuts
1/4 cup vinegar
1/4 cup oil
juice 1 lime
splash fish sauce
splash sesame oil
2 tablespoons brown sugar

rice stick noodles
1 or 2 heads iceberg lettuce
crushed peanuts
Sriracha Rooster Sauce
ABC sweet soy sauce

Instructions
-Mix all marinade ingredients and pour over pork in a Ziplock bag. Marinate in fridge overnight. 2 hours before tucker time dry off pork and make spice rub.
-Mix spices and rub on meat. (Duh, that's why it's called spice rub.) Fire up your BBQ on high but only light one side. Put the pork ON THE SIDE THAT IS NOT LIT. This is called indirect grilling and is a fabulous way to cook a larger piece of meat. After a half hour rotate the meat so that the side that was away from the heat gets a turn.
-Meanwhile, make your asian slaw which just involves alot of grating and chopping.
-Soften the rice stick noodles by pouring boiling water over them and let them sit for 10 min
-After 1 hour of indirect grilling check your pork. It should be done, take it off, slice, shred, or chop and sprikle it with any leftover rub.
-drain and rinse the noodles and prepare for yumminess

Get yourself a very large napkin cuz this is going to be messy but worth it. Pull off a large leaf of lettuce to use in a burritoesque fashion. Place some noodles, pork, slaw, peanuts, and a drizzle of ABC and Sriracha into the leaf. Wrap it all up and munch to your heart's content.

It finally works!

Well friends, my domain name www.diygourmet.ca finally works. Last night my buddy Chris came over, got his geek on and solved all my problems. Of course, I'd been trying to figure this out for a week and haven't posted because of my web stupidity but Chris fired up his amazing programming mojo and had my domain name humming at warp factor in only five minutes.

The moral of this story is that everyone needs a friend with full geek credibility. If you don't have such a friend, that's OK, you can use mine.

insert A-Team theme music here

If you have a problem, if no one else can help, and if you can find him (www.chrisoneill.ca), maybe you can hire... Steel O'Neill, web ninja.

Onto other things. This last week I have been feeling rather ill with a nasty cold/cough so I would like to share with you my DIY Gourmet uber-hot toddy recipe. I don't know if it will actually make you feel better, but it sure goes down easy.


juice and zest of one lemon
thumb of ginger, grated
mint teabag
3 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoon Nin Jion cough syrup
3 oz sake (most important ingredient of all)
hot water

Bang everything in your favourite enormous mug and add hot water to fill. Let steep for at least 5 minutes. Adjust sweetness by adding more honey if you like. If you don't want floaties in your toddy you can use a tea ball for the zest and the ginger. Bottoms up, here's to your health.

...all we need is just a little patience.

So...
apparently it takes about 2 days for the omnipotent Internet to send the elves running back and forth with all the 1's and 0's to figure out where my new snazzy domain name is (www.diygourmet.ca!) and exactly what it is supposed to do with it. That of course is assuming that I haven't seriously screwed up, which I probably have. Until the elves have finished their mysterious business feel free to check out my buddy Craig's adventures in making an immersion wort chiller here.

New Domain Name.

Dear Friends,

If you are able to read this, it means that I have successfully changed my domain name to...

www.diygourmet.ca

and have associated that name to this Blogger page. Woo Hoo! If you haven't bookmarked this amazing blog already, now you can save keystrokes by just typing...

www.diygourmet.ca

It even rhymes! Tell all your friends...

www.diygourmet.ca

If you can't read this, it means that I have seriously screwed something up and I am stuck in HTML limbo hell. Oh well, my area of expertise is cooking, not web publishing. Hopefully, I'll figure it out eventually.

Veggiesaurus Tikka Masala

I'm currently visiting friends in Seattle. My buddy Phil asked me if I would help him cook a meal for a bunch of his vegetarian friends. Now I obviously love chewing flesh as you can tell from all my previous turducken posts, but nonetheless, I enjoy the unique challenge and bloody vegetable slaughter of a great vegetarian meal. (If you are interested in some further reading regarding how your veggies scream when you chop them up into curry check out this and this).

For your sadistic enjoyment of torturing vegetables, I present you with Wade’s Veggiesaurus Tikka Masala...

Yummy Curry
1 cup plain yogurt (avoid low fat or non-fat yogurt for a richer flavor)
2 cup heavy cream
1 large can diced tomatoes
2 sm cans tomato paste
1 cup ground almonds (or approx 6 tablespoons almond butter)
1/2 lemon, juiced
2 teaspoon finely chopped ginger
2 teaspoon finely chopped garlic
3 tablespoons ground cumin
4 tablespoons garam masala
1 teaspoon red chili powder
2 teaspoon salt
2 teaspoon pepper
2 teaspoons paprika
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
3 tablespoons turmeric
6 green cardamom pods, crushed
2-inches cinnamon stick
2 tablespoon brown sugar
1 tablespoon mustard

Veggies
1 large onion, chopped
1 can chickpeas
3 potatoes, peeled and cubed
1 head cauliflower, chopped
2 cloves garlic, chopped
1 inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
1 fresh green chili, chopped
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped

Put all sauce ingredients in crockpot (crockpot is easiest because you don’t need to stir and you can forget about it) or in big soup pot on stove on low (If you do it on the stove, remember to stir so that the bottom doesn’t burn). Throw in all veggies and simmer on low heat all day. If you let it cook 6 or more hours on low the veggies will cook through in the sauce and be supper yummy. If you don’t have the time, precook the veggies till done and combine with curry. Garnish with more fresh cilantro and serve with Raita and Naan, and a selection of chutneys.

My little friend Emma helping me make curry.

Raita
1 cup plain yogurt
½ cucumber, peeled and grated
½ lemon, juiced
thumb fresh ginger, chopped
fist of fresh cilantro, chopped
fist of fresh mint, chopped

Bang everything together, mix

Naan
2 ½ teaspoons dry yeast
5 tablespoons sugar
2 teaspoons salt
4 ½ cups white flour
1 cup warm water
3 tablespoons milk
1 egg, beaten
1 tablespoon vegetable oil

Combine ingredients together according to what works best for your bread machine. Select dough setting and start. When dough is finished, punch down and divide into 12 equal sized balls. Loosely cover with plastic wrap and a damp tea towel, let rise until just before cooking. Light and preheat BBQ on high. Flour counter surface and rolling pin and roll out each ball to a thin oval. Heavily oil BBQ grate and grill each naan on high until puffed and blistered (approx 1 min a side). Yum

New Year's Blessings

Dear Friends,
Now you have all the info you need for your future family fowl (not foul) festivities. As you reflect on the past year and look forward to 2007, I pray that your kitchen will always be blessed with a cupboard full of good food and that you will share your table with those you love and cherish. I would feel honoured if I may in anyway be able to share or help in your family culinary adventures though this blog. Please keep checking back as I post recipes, share thoughts, and tell stories of the special moments that happen in my kitchen and around my table. Together, let's reclaim good eating as a tool of sharing joy, love, and equality to all those who God brings into our homes this year.

Go, eat your bread with joy, And drink your wine with a merry heart; For God has already accepted your works. Let your garments always be white, And let your head lack no oil. Live joyfully with the wife whom you love all the days of your vain life which He has given you under the sun, all your days of vanity; for that is your portion in life, and in the labor which you perform under the sun. Whatever your hand finds to do, do it with your might; for there is no work or device or knowledge or wisdom in the grave where you are going.

All my love and warm wishes,
~DJ Dread