Figs!

I grew up eating dry figs, and always liked them, and naively thought that that was just the way figs came; dry. It was on a family vacation to Portugal when I was a teenager that I first tasted a fresh fig. It was late August, and we were driving in the southern region of the country when my Dad suddenly stopped the car at the side of the road. He clambered up a bit of a hill and exclaimed that it was a fig tree full of fruit. Never being one to say no to food, I got out of the car and joined him on the fill where he handed me my first fresh fig. Since then, I have always associated figs with warm weather and warm climate, that is until last fall.
It was the beginning of September and I went to pay rent to my Sicilian landlord. He and his wife were both outside and showed me their garden which included a massive fig tree! I was completely blown away. He was equally blown away by the fact that I recognized a fig tree and liked fresh figs. His wife then picked me a basket of them and when I arrived at my parents that afternoon with them , my Dad had a fit...in a good way.
Last week, my land lady knocked on my door asking when I wanted to come and pick up my figs...I guess living in a small town does have it's benefits :)

Salade Nicoise

I always thought that it would be really cool to have a Salade Nicoise in Nice, alas, I've never been to Nice, but I have been to Paris and was so happy to see this on the menu at a small cafe at the foot of Sacre Coeur. We had just got off one subway stop BEFORE Sacre Coeur and ended up in a part of Paris that we couldn't seem to make out from the tourist map. Apparently, no one we asked had heard of Sacre Coeur either. We just kept walking until we came across a sign pointing to a very long and steep set of stairs, and decided to stop for something to eat before making the trek. And that is my Salade Nicoise story.
Here's the 'official' definition of what should and shouldn't be in this salad...it appears that I may have broken some of the rules, well with my boiled potatoes and steamed green beans...alas, my dreams of success in french cusine have been dashed ;)

Ingredients

2 or 3 potatoes (I like Yukon Gold), cut into small cubes and boiled
2 eggs, boiled and sliced
a few good handfuls of green and/or yellow string beans, ends removed and steamed
half of a cucumber, sliced into longish skinny pieces
a handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
6 to 8 leaves of lettuce ( I used the red leaved)
1 can of tuna (packed in oil-- I know, it's not as good for you as the one packed in water, but hey, it's still tuna, not steak...live on the edge)
a handful of olives
whatever else you think may taste good with the aforementioned ingredients

Dressing

In a mason jar or cup, add 1 part olive oil to 2 parts vinegar, some salt and pepper to taste
(and some garlic powder too)
If you have fresh herbs like oregano, thyme, dill, basil, parsley...mince some and add them to the mix.

Place the lettuce at the bottom of a serving platter and arrange the rest of the ingredients 'nicely' around the platter.
Drizzle with the dressing right before serving.

Fresh Cheese (Queijo Fresco)

As a child, fresh cheese was something I wouldn’t eat very often, since it wasn’t always available at the local Portuguese grocery store. I remember spending an afternoon at my cousin’s house and having sandwiches of fresh cheese that my aunt had just made. I was always amazed by the fact that she had actually made the cheese right there, while we played during the afternoon.

Years later, during dinner at my godmother Carmen’s house, one of her guests had brought fresh cheese that she had made. I immediately ambushed Rosaria for the recipe and was amazed by how easy it really was to make. I proved it this weekend during a few cooking demonstrations I hosted at the Western Fair. A video of that demonstration will be posted in about a month, once my trusty film/tv guy Marco has a chance to edit the footage.
What follows are some of the pictures I took backstage before the demonstration as well as the instructions on how to make your own fresh cheese.

Ingredients

1 bag of 2 % cows milk (approximately 1.3 L)

1 capful of powdered coagulant (combination of bacterial culture & rennet)

1 tsp. Sea Salt or ¼ tsp. iodized salt

Tools

Cheese mold

Big Bowl

Slotted spoon

Clean cutting board

Note: If you're looking to buy a cheese mold and the coagulating agent, LetsMakeFoodandWine.com sells both as a kit.

Step 1: Warm the milk to 32°C to 35°C using a water bath (if possible)

Step 2: Add the coagulant and the sea salt to the bowl, then slowly pour in the warm milk. Stir gently until the coagulant and salt are incorporated into the milk.

Step 3: Cover the bowl and wait about an hour or until you can see the milk starting to ‘set.’ It will look like kind of like plain yogurt.

Step 4: Place the cutting board at the edge of your sink and place something under the end on the counter to create a slant. I usually use the rim of a mason jar lid, or a saucer. The cutting board needs to be on a slant so that the liquid from the cheese will be able to drain away from the cheese and into the sink.

Step 5: Place the cheese mold on the slanted cutting board. With one hand, securely hold the cheese mold and while using a slotted spoon, transfer the contents of the bowl carefully into the cheese mold.

All the contents of the bowl won’t fit in the mold right away. You’ll need to wait for the liquid (whey) to drain out of the cheese. You can speed up the process by using a shallow spoon to scoop out more of the liquid and make space for the remaining contents of the bowl.

Step 6: Keep adding the contents of the bowl into the mold until the bowl is empty. Make sure the cheese mold is secure on the cutting board and will stay put once you let it go. Now all you need to do is wait until most of the whey drains and the fresh cheese is left. If you leave it overnight, it will definitely be ready by the next morning.

Step 7: Carefully remove the mold from the finished cheese and transfer to a serving dish. You can keep the cheese refrigerated for 2 or 3 days (if it stays in your fridge that long!) It will lose more liquid and become denser with time, and you’ll likely need to drain the excess whey from the container that you store it in.

Serve with fresh cracked pepper, red pepper dip or anything else you can think of!

Kale Soup (Caldo Verde)

Here's the recipe for Kale Soup (Caldo Verde) and the video demonstration to go along with it. This really the most traditional Portuguese soup, and is usually served at similarly traditional events like weddings or cultural events. Like most Portuguese soup, a potato puree is used to give a creamy consistency, no milk or cream is added, and the finely sliced kale gives the soup its distinctive green (verde) colour. Hopefully with this recipe and the video, it'll feel like I'm in your kitchen helping you along with some homecooking, Portuguese style!

Ingredients

8 cups of water

6 medium sized potatoes, peeled & cut into small pieces

1 medium onion, finely chopped

2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped

1 chouriço (Portuguese sausage)

8-10 leaves kale or collards, finely sliced

1 tbsp. virgin olive oil

Salt & pepper to taste

1. In a large pot, bring the water to a boil and add the potatoes, chopped onion, garlic and sausage. Let boil until the potatoes are cooked through (approximately 15 minutes)
2. Remove the sausage from the pot and cut into slices. Set aside.
3. Remove the pot from heat, and using an electric hand blender (a potato masher or countertop blender works too) puree the potatoes until you have a smooth, consistent soup
4. Put the pot back on the heat, and bring back to a boil
5. Add the sliced kale to the pureed potatoes and boil, uncovered for another 5 minutes or until the kale is cooked.
6. Add the olive oil and sliced the chouriço before serving

Back to Blogging

Hi all,

So I've taken a bit of an hiatus during the summer months. It wasn't really planned, but as the weather became warmer, so did my apartment, and cooking in a hot apartment is, well, very hot. In any case, it's not that I've stopped thinking about the blog, or food for that matter, in fact I would say that I've been doing a lot of food related things, but just not posting.
I've been keeping busy with other food related things....I taped a cooking demo. You can check it out on YouTube I have to give props to my friend Marco Raffa, an aspiring filmaker/producer/tv guy, who found me a place to shoot the (3) part demo as well as edit the whole thing....THANKS MARCO! You can check out his portofolio of videos through the link above...happy viewing :)
I've also been traveling a bit...Toronto (Summerlicious @ Bymark....VERY good), Stratford (Theatre, Dining and picnics by the river), Simcoe (Cherry Picking), British Columbia (Sushi!!!) and of course in and around my neck of the woods for the usual sort of thing.
I've kept taking photos of good meals I've had or things that have struck my fancy with the intent of posting them all eventually. Well I guess all it took was the endless 'Back to School' commercials to get me off my duff and back to blogging....so I am officially back and will try to keep up with as best I can.
Come back soon and be sure to leave your comments and questions.
Oh and I've added a few photos below to prove that the 'Curly Cook' never stops thinking about food and blogging :)
Seared Ahi-Tuna at Bymark (by Mark McEwan) during Summerlicious in Toronto

View of the Avon River from our picnic table at Stratford on Father's Day.


Posing with a very full sour cherry tree on Tio Tony's Farm in Simcoe
Sushi House Takeout, Vancouver, B.C.

Leftover Shepherds Pie (Empadão)

Remember how I mentioned that my brother had 2 favourite dishes? Bife a Cavalo and Shepherds Pie or Empadão, in Portuguese. I’ll have to admit this was one, and still is one of my favourite comfort foods. I can still remember distinct times when my Mom would ask us what we wanted to eat and we’d say “empadão!” 95% of the time. She wouldn’t make it all the time, and I understand why. It’s generally a long process; making the meat mixture on the stovetop, cooking and mashing the potatoes and then baking the whole thing. Well, I decided to cut out a step and used leftover chili and roasted vegetables from lunch time as the filling which left me only having to boil and mash the potatoes. Overall the results were pretty good. My family was happy with the fact that food was ready quickly and that it wasn’t just warmed up chili from lunch. My brother had his beloved empadão and no food went to waste.

Ingredients

• Leftover meat, could be BBQ, chili, stew, whatever, be as creative as you like
• Cooked vegetables, I used roasted peppers and asparagus, but you could use canned or frozen mixed vegetables too.
• Potatoes for mashing, here’s where you’ll have to eyeball it. I used about 8 medium sized potatoes which made enough mashed potatoes for a 9” square baking pan. It depends on how much filling you have. However, it’s better to make more mashed potatoes, you can use the extra as another layer in your empadão, or keep it to make some soup tomorrow
• Butter, a few tablespoons
• Milk, about a ¼ of a cup
• 1 or 2 eggs

1. Preheat your oven to 375 F.

2. Bring a pot with water to a boil and add the potatoes and some salt. Cook for 10 minutes or so, or until you can easily pierce the potatoes with a fork

3. Drain water from the potatoes and begin mashing with a potato masher. Add a tablespoon of butter and a little milk and keep mashing. Check the consistency of the mashed potatoes and taste them to see if they need more salt. Add more butter and/or milk if they’re not smooth or creamy enough for you.

4. Once the potatoes are mashed to your liking, get an appropriately sized baking pan and layer the meat mixture and vegetables on the bottom. Then smooth over the mashed potatoes.

5. Beat the eggs and apply as an egg wash on top of the potatoes before putting it in the oven.

Layering the mashed potatoes over the leftover meat and roasted veggies

The Shepherd's Pie baking in the oven...the egg wash makes it brown to a pretty colour :)

First BBQ of the Season

The one BIG thing I’m missing at my place is a BBQ. I live on the third floor of a house and don’t have a balcony so BBQ related food doesn’t happen during the week for me. As a big lover of all things grilled, this makes me sad, but on the up side, it means that I usually have BBQ all weekend when I go to visit my parents.

My parents are also big BBQ fans, although my Dad is adamant that charcoal or wood is the only ‘real’ way to grill food. My Mom is a bit more of a realist and places the need for food on the table quickly above most other things. They usually meet halfway by grilling on the propane grill during the week when things tend to be more rushed, and opting for the slow grill on the weekends.

Since my parents are such fans of grilling we, (my brother, uncle, grandparents and I) decided to buy them a really nice BBQ for Christmas. I naively thought that lots of other people must want to buy people BBQ’s for Christmas, but I soon found out otherwise. There was only one place I found that had a decent BBQ for sale, and since the plan had already been made, we stuck with it. All in all, it turned out pretty well. They loved the BBQ and it works and looks good.

My Mom started cooking on it once the snow melted, but it wasn’t until about 3 weeks ago that it really started getting warm enough to actually stand outside beside the BBQ as you cooked. That’s when I took these pictures. My good friend Milana came over too and the three of us, Mom, Milana and I, chatted and sampled as we grilled. My Mom chose the prepackaged kabobs, which is rare of her to do, but we were all tired and just wanted to eat. We cut up some peppers and mushrooms and I made some tzatziki to go with all of it. I think it’s this sort of thing that makes me love food and cooking. There are few things that make me happier than cooking while you have good people around you and just sort let time pass you by. I find it calming and settling, and when I look at these pictures again, I get a smile on my face because that’s the feeling I remember.

Do you love to BBQ? Have any ‘must haves’ at every BBQ? I’d love to hear your stories.