Eggplant Steakwiches

Glorious, glorious summer is upon us, and with it all of the delicious things that grow. Since my mom produced this recipe for eggplant "steaks" from Chatelaine magazine years ago it has been my favourite summer recipe, and it makes either a great meatless main dish or (with smaller eggplant slices) a fancy side. Maybe with meat steaks!

Come to think of it, you could also serve them as a warm salad course, assuming you've got a main to follow it. 'Cause it's fancy for a salad.

Take it easy: Grilled mahi-mahi and pineapple with potato wedges.

I've been missing, I know. I was finishing the coursework for my MA (done!) and got so busy I didn't even have enough time to procrastinate. Of course that isn't the same as saying I didn't have time to cook. My fellow MA candidates often asked how I could cook so often when it takes so much time. And oh, can it ever, but there are a lot of quick meals out there, too. Memorize a couple and keep the ingredients on hand and excuses to reach for prepackaged stuff start to disappear.

Pre-tossing. Fish is on the bottom..

Last night we were a bit rushed because we wanted to see Silver Linings Playbook (So good, by the way. See it!) and needed to squish dinner in there. Enter grilled mahi-mahi and pineapple.

I can't remember exactly how this became a staple meal for us, but I think it has something to do with a fish taco recipe that used very similar seasonings to my favourite grilled pineapple marinade: cilantro, garlic, and chiles (or crushed red pepper) chopped together, then mixed with olive oil, salt and pepper. Toss it over fish and pineapple. If there's some extra pineapple juice I add that, too.

On why our notion of "creepy" in food is all messed up.

A friend shared this article with me, on how North American attitudes toward offal illustrate a possibly disturbing trend in our attitude toward food. The whole article is worth reading but the following parts were my favourites:

Pan-Seared Octopus with Bean Salad

We were just away for the weekend and I spent today decompressing. It was the perfect day to try a new ingredient.

Pre-braise.

Enter: octopus.

This year we went to Nashville for New Years Eve and while we were there we made sure to visit City House in hopes of trying their crispy octopus. We had no luck getting the octopus (but lots of luck getting delicious appetizers) so I have been looking for something similar to try at home.

I had one of those cylindrical frozen, pre-cleaned packs of octopus tentacles in the freezer and I've been waiting for a chance to use it and decided today was the day. I thawed it to commit myself and went on the hunt for a recipe.

I found this recipe on SBS Food. It looked promising, so I made a few changes and got to work.

The octopus is braised first, then seared and served atop a lovely white bean salad. The suggested braising time is 45 minutes but cooked it for twice as long before reaching a tenderness I could work with, so leave yourself some time.

Seared on the bean salad.

Because the braise took so long for me I'd be interested to try this again either with fresh octopus to see if it takes less time or in a slow cooker to get things very tender and maybe infuse more of the flavours from the braise into the meat.

Since it's going to be seared I don't see why you couldn't braise ahead of time then heated through during the searing process when you're ready to eat.

Mardi Gras! Shrimp etouffee.

I love holidays that give me a reason for theme cooking. A few years ago I made this recipe for shrimp etouffee for Mardi Gras, and it's one of those meals that you think back on and look for excuses to repeat - so this year I made it again. Other than being typically generous with the onions and garlic (it's how I roll) and opting for store-bought Worcestershire (though I did make the Creole seasoning), I wouldn't change a thing.

Laissez les bons temps rouler!

Matt's Favourite Fish Curry.

I made this quite a while ago and did not take photos of the various steps but am posting it because of requests for the recipe. Years ago I received Vikram Vij's Vij's Elegant and Inspired Cooking, the cookbook for his not-quite-authentic Vancouver Indian restaurant. We've made a smattering of the recipes from this book (and the follow-up, Vij's at Home: Relax, Honey) most of which have been good and a few of which have been really excellent.

I made this a few times in June 2010 and yes, it's excellent. So excellent in fact that in December 2012 Matt said to me, "Hey, why don't you make that fish curry?"

You have to understand the number of dishes I've made that could be described as "that fish curry" to understand the multitude of emotions this made me feel, but with a little investigation we were able to narrow it down to a few from the Vij's cookbook and I've now labeled the recipe as Matt's favourite when I made it again in January.

The recipe calls for halibut and that's how I made it the first time, but it's equally good (and much cheaper) when made with haddock, tilapia loins or even basa. Basically any firm white fish should do just fine.

I've modified this recipe quite a bit in order to reduce the oil. It's probably not quite as good, but the difference isn't that big.

Charcuterie: Makin' Bacon

After a busy week it's always good to get a weekend food project going to wind down. This morning I got started on a ratio bread loaf (more on that later) and tonight I did something very important, my friends. Very important, indeed.

I started. Making. Bacon.


While in Detroit last weekend we were able to visit Butcher-Packer, which, if you've done any digging around with regards to charcuterie supplies (and who hasn't?), is the place from which everyone seems to order their stuff. I picked up what will probably amount to a few years' supply of pink charcuterie salt - essential for goodies like bacon, corned beef and the Glass Onion's chicken liver paté (the recipe from which I learned pink charcuterie salt exists). I also grabbed some DC cure #2 for dry sausages, which means I am stocked up for awesome.

Armed with my new goodies and a recipe once again from Ruhlman's Charcuterie it was time to make something of this:

Hello, lovely.