Food Wine Sleep

Air dried venison or other game meat is considered a specialty throughout winter in many European countries. In order to preserve the meat gained during the short hunting season, for usage throughout the winter, drying, curing and salting are popular methods. This dish combines the air-dried venison meat with a mild feta-olive salad and makes a delicate appetizer for any day during the cold winter.

The crisp asparagus is sure to please the lovers of all things green. The salty prosciutto will definitely make the meat lovers smile. The reduced balsamic will satisfy the sweet teeth amongst your guests and the ease of preparation is most definitely going to please you; the host, (that's really all that matters isn't it?) Enjoy your party.

Frittata is one of those items you can make when all you have in the fridge are eggs and a few bits and pieces; it's entirely welcoming to your creativity. This particular recipe is one that I created one morning when I had a relatively bare fridge. I had had a few friends over for dinner the night before, or should I say "I had had a few friends over for wine the night before". We ended up drinking a disproportionate number of bottles to food. That's what I love about my friends, they are so enthusiastic about my food, they always bring what ends up being one bottle per person, far too much but who am I to complain. Anyhow this one morning I woke up and not...

Most people can quit obviously recognise a lamb rack or some cutlets, however many people aren't aware that lamb back strap is that exact same meat. It is the "sirloin" of lamb and as in beef this cut has an abundant flavour and I highly recommend it for barbecuing. As with sirloin however, the trick is not to overcook it. In this particular recipe I have taken that extremely flavoursome meat and added another level of flavour by marinating it in homemade Cajun spice. To compliment rather than confuse the strong flavour of the marinated meat, I've served it with a relatively simple and refreshing salad. This particular dish serves quite respectably with either a...

Carpaccio is a traditional Italian dish and lends itself incredibly well to modern healthy eating. Although Carpaccio traditionally refers to a first course of thinly sliced raw beef, named in honour of the Italian renaissance painter, Vittore Carpaccio, you can now find many modern interpretations using raw seafood and uncooked vegetables, (see tuna Carpaccio). In this dish however we are going with the original; beef. Carpaccio is a perfect option to serve your guests if you want an impressive first course that will take only seconds to prepare on the day. You can prepare all the parts for beef Carpaccio the day before, allowing you to use the time on the day to mingle...

Ox cheek, I can see you scrunching up your nose in disgust as you read that, but trust me once you've tried it you'll be wondering why you haven't been eating it all along and why you can't get it everywhere. Or maybe you are already familiar with ox cheeks and are here to get another recipe for this fabulous ingredient. This recipe, as most great classic dishes, was probably created out of sheer economic necessity. Necessity of peasants who could not afford to be wasteful with any part of the animal and had to ensure that everything went to some sort of use. With these humble beginnings, I find it rather interesting to note that dishes like this are now only found on...

This must be one of the more simple recipes I know, but the fresh herbs and the roasted spices of the Chermoula lack nothing in flavor or fragrance. Of course the dish works with all kind of other fish aswell but the cod used here will come out really juicy and fork tender.

These little cakes are so versatile; they can be used as a canape, first course or even main course. Once you start making them regularly you'll find that they lend themselves very well to your creativity. Simply drop the ingredients listed below the egg and add your own creations. Whether it be Cajun, lemon & pepper, ginger & lemongrass, onion & dill, or cashew & coriander they will definitely become a favourite.

A good Chicken Stock is the building block of many a good soup, sauce and stew. Quality home made stock is to the Chef as much a staple as good olive oil, butter, salt and pepper. Although there are many retail varieties of stocks now available, many of them I find too salty and contain a lot of unwanted additives. Plus I find something very enjoyable and therapeutic about making stocks for my kitchen. Not only can you claim to your quests that the entire dish is made from scratch but you will know exactly what is in the food you are eating.

This is great example of a recipe that is healthy, easy, quick and yet still a very comforting winter dish. When I make this I rarely have it with anything more than a bottle of Pinot Noir and some ciabatta bread. Actually I lie, a few weeks ago I made it for a lunch and simply added arugula leaves, a little more vinegar, a splash of olive oil and served it with white wine.

I don't know why people don't use spatchcock more often. You know how people always fight over the best part of the chicken, for some it's the breast others the thigh or wing. Well hey, if you use spatchcock everyone can have a whole or half a bird, so there's no more feeling ripped off. On top of that a spatchcock has a lot more flavour and moistness, ok it may not be the most easy eating meat but a little knife and fork work is definitely worth the extra taste, especially when the alternative these days is hormone fed boneless, skinless, flavourless cardboard chicken breast. This dish is great in summer with a nice crisp white wine and a leafy green salad as a first cou...

Some of the best beef comes from Argentina and with it comes one of my favorite steak accompaniment. This thick parsley-olive oil paste is as commonly eaten in Argentina as ketchup is in the rest of our world. There are several variations and I guess every chef in Argentina has his own special twist to it. However it always features Italian flat parsley, virgine olive oil, vinegar and garlic.

Firstly to help us understand what clarified butter is, let us begin with what butter itself is. Butter is made up of three main components; around 80% fat and around 20% milk solids and water. When butter is heated, it melts. If it is heated for any length of time these components split apart from one another and settle into different layers. At the bottom of the heating vessel you will have a white cloudy substance; this is the milk solids and water. On top you will have the golden liquid known as clarified butter or what is know in Indian cuisine as ghee. Since the milk solids are what cause butter to burn, clarified butter can be heated to much higher temperatures...

I'm not going to give you the time to cook your steak for, as it is a very individual requirement, you may have a really hot barbecue or you may have a not so hot pan, you may like your steak a few inches thick or you may like a very thin cut. I'm not going to tell you what is the ideal cut of steak or breed of cattle as again that is a very individual choice, if you would like some help in choosing a steak, please see our Tips & Techniques category and click on "Steak Cuts". I'm not going to tell you what is the ideal degree of cooked ness for your steak as that again is a very individual choice. I am however going to tell you the 7 fundamentally most...

This recipe is a staple in many kitchens and really an old way of preserving the freshly caught fish. It is all based on the marriage of salt and sugar, which will cure the salmon or any other fish for that matter, and therefore preserve it. In general you can not go wrong when applying a 2:1 ratio salt over sugar when curing any fish. The time of the curing process although is quite essential and depends very much on the thickness of the fish fillet to be cured. Smoked salmon, especially from farmed salmon, is often quite fatty, but curing the salmon fillet removes a lot of the fatty structures in the meat and the resulting cured salmon is leaner, easier to cut and a del...

This recipe comes from Adam, an old friend and colleague of mine. I worked with Adam as a Sous Chef to his Head Chef in the early to mid 90's. As I'm sure you'll recall that was a time when "fusion cooking" was all the rage. A time when simply mixing wasabi through anything and everything made it French-Japanese fusion. A time when adding grilled vegetables to any dish made it modern Mediterranean. Now I know cooking is like fashion and the envelope needs to be constantly pushed in order to be tested, but I fear that what some chefs were passing off as "fusion" back then is the fashion equivalent of "fusing" Mr T's jewellery and hair cut to S...

This dish is on the top of my list for summer entertaining dishes. It sits there proudly for a couple of reasons, firstly, it's always a crowd pleaser and secondly, most of the work is done the day before! Unlike many dishes that deteriorate from being prepped too early, this recipe benefits from it. The beans need to be soaked for at least 24 hours and the herbs will permeate the chicken better if marinated longer rather than shorter. In addition doing all the work so far in advance will once again leave you more time to entertain and enjoy the summer weather for yourself. Bon apatite.

Kilawin or kinilaw is a traditional Filipino dish of marinated/cured fish or seafood in vinegar and a souring agent such as the juice of calamansi or Kamias. Calamansi is a small citrus fruits, which grows throughout South East Asia and the juice of it suits this dish much better than lime, as it is still fairly acid but has a distinctively fruity flavor. I personally like Kilawin of tuna the best, simply because the quality of the tuna available in the Philippines is second to none.

It doesn't get much easier than this, pop it all in a pot turn the heat down low, crack a beer and join your friends by the pool. In a couple of hours you'll be wowing them all with your abilities in the kitchen, even though you were barely there.

When it comes to organic food, I don't think I would be able to tell you the difference between an organic piece of parsley and a non-organic piece of parsley. However when it comes to chicken the difference is night and day. Organic chickens are more tender, the skin crisps better and the flesh tastes 100% like chicken. Non organic chickens are fed copious amounts of antibiotic growth promoters and the end result is unnaturally large birds with bland tasteless meat. Organic birds, even though usually twice as old when slaughtered are often still smaller than these unnaturally oversized counterparts. Having to feed and house the animals twice as long obviously adds a...

The Philippines pride themselves to have the best Mangoes. In parts I must agree, a Philippine "Carabao" mango, just at the peak of it's ripeness is both sweet with the right amount of acidity and very juicy. At that time the Philippine mango certainly is one of the best in the world. This salsa recipe is great with barbecued fish, seafood or chicken. I often use it as an accompaniment with Cajun spiced seared tuna or chili dusted prawns, and it also makes a great condiment with deep-fried oysters.

As most of my friends will tell you, I am a huge fan of summer and not big on winter. I tend to complain all winter about the lack of warmth and sunshine, to be honest I complain so much in winter I'm surprised I even have friends willing to put up with it. However, having said that there are a couple of things I do love about winter, there's food, food and more food. One of my favourite ways of cooking in winter is braising (cooking meats or vegetables in their own or added juices in a very slow oven). This dish, Braised Lamb Shanks is such a magnificent winter dish that it on its own gives me the tolerance to cope with the entire winter season, (well almost).

This dish for me always conjures up memories of long summer nights, nights spent amongst a forest of sailboat masts, glowing orange as they reflected the deep northern sunset. Every Friday for a whole summer myself and my two best mates since high school, John and Trevor would take John's dad's sailboat out onto the Georgia Strait, sailing around just off Vancouver. I remember one Friday in particular we were sailing back from the Gulf Islands, the diminishing light from the never setting sun painting the water a profound blue and the mighty fir trees appearing as mere peach fuzz on the coastal mountains, it had been an amazing day on the water. We were bringing the bo...

Although not overly extravagant or involved to prepare, Osso Buco is, and always has been a real treat to make. Is it the joy from making that delicious sauce? A sauce so tasty that adding a piece of crusty bread and a bowl is all that is needed to make a meal. Or is it the almost maternal care used when keeping an eye on the whole thing in the oven? Or maybe it's the taking of an otherwise tough piece of meat and turning it into something that is melt in your mouth tender? Whatever it may be that makes me enjoy preparing Osso Buco so much, I am certain of at least one thing; making it is a distant second to the pleasure I get from eating it. All I need is one glass of...

"My brother in law Darren is the best steak cook I know!" I was very young when I first proclaimed that, in fact I may have said "my sister's new boyfriend," it was that long ago. I stick by those words today, as he still cooks one of the best steaks I've had anywhere; however it wasn't until a few years later as I embarked on my cooking career, that I discovered it had just as much to do with Darren's eye for quality and knowledge of beef cuts as it did with his skill. You see Darren knew that I being only young may have found the flavour of a robust sirloin or rib eye a little strong. So he decided to use what is considered to be the tenderest cut of...

I love this salad for summer time, warm weather, picnic's and when friends come over for a swim by the pool. It is very simple, quickly done, and refreshing. It is a meal in itself, perfect for busy people wanting to do something quick and light and for those of us who want to watch the calorie intake. I'll do several variations of it, with Cajun-fried shrimps, grilled salmon, stir-fried squid or a combination of it; whatever I have handy or feel like eating. Medium roasted warm sirloin of beef is also a nice option, although a Balsamic or a red wine vinegar dressing would then suit better than the lemon-olive oil emulsion required in this recipe.

This is a dish that I first discovered when working in a traditional Italian Restaurant many years ago. The very un-Italian head Chef was writing the specials menu one Friday afternoon outside the back of the kitchen. In my youthful cockiness I thought that meant it was break time and I went out as well (the orders seemed to be finished). I got out back and saw a few of the specials he had been writing down, I pointed to the prosciutto wrapped salmon filet and I asked him, "Trent, is that really an Italian Dish?" He answered somewhat agitated, "Who gives a *#!* if it is or it isn't, it has Italian ingredients in it and you watch how well it sells tonight...

This is a shining example of the less complicated a dish is, the better it is. Each ingredient in this recipe is served very near to its natural state and this lack of having been �messed' with results in a simple yet sophisticated combination. The flavours in this dish do all the hard work for you, fresh ocean trout complemented by an effortless sesame crust and seared beautifully rare, the fresh cucumber and the just picked tender baby herbs simply glazed with the distinctive flavours of fresh lime, mirin and fiery chilli. The best thing about this lack of complication is exactly that; uncomplicated cooking for you. Serve this next time you want to impress your...

This recipe builds on my Mother's recipe that I recall so fondly from my childhood in Canada. After a hard day of play in the cold west coast winter rain, sitting down to this sweet smoky broth was such a treat. We used to eat it with bucket loads of butter cooked croutons, but now I tend to eat it with just a little fresh bread. However you have it, I'm sure it will become a winter favourite.

Personally, papaya or pawpaw is one of my favorite fruits. I like it for breakfast with cottage cheese and few drops of lime or like here in this recipe as a mildly spiced salsa with prawns or other seafood for that matter. Papaya is a fruit which needs to be eaten at the peak of it's ripeness. If the fruit is just a little under-ripe they are quite tasteless and lack sweetness and flavor and if they are just a bit over-ripe the flesh is getting mushy and has a sort of "tired" aftertaste. This recipe of the salsa combines ginger, honey and lime, which I feel is a perfect accompaniment to ripe fully flavored papaya meat and goes well with any freshly grille...

One of the nicest things about dining out in restaurants is experiencing foods you can't make at home, having said that, it doesn't have to be that way. All chefs during their first year of training are taught how to make perfect stocks, stocks from which they are later taught to make virtually every sauce possible. Once you learn to make the perfect stock, all those restaurant sauces that make the meal worth paying top dollar for will be well within your reach.

I have had venison on 3 different continents and on each occasion it has tasted completely different from the last. Wow!! Does that ever sound pompous; when you write that word "Venison" it can't help but be read that way, just pretend I said chicken and I won't come across as a snob. Anyhow apart from the obvious reasons for these differences such as whether the meat is farmed or wild, there are many other reasons. For example, the climate the animal lives in, the age of the animal and even the geography it lives in. For example a very hilly and sparsely vegetated landscape will produce a very different animal to one that has grown up in a fertile well vege...

The first time I had this dish was a few years back. A gang of us went to a Spanish restaurant for a going away dinner for a few of the group that were off to Europe indefinitely. It was a brilliant night with beautiful food, great friends, kitschy flamenco music, lots of sangria and many embarrassing stories from the past. The details are a little sketchy but a couple of things I remember particularly well are; the Restaurant was about the size of a small sailboat with less than 7 tables in all. Despite this it was a very comfortable place, the seating was on wooden benches that resembled church pews and scattered over them were randomly coloured embroidered cushions. Th...