86ed

Humbled

 
What's funny is when you look up the word "humbled" in Merriam-Webster, the synonyms are pretty dreadful "debase, "lower", "demean". I do suppose that to be humbled is not necessarily a pleasant experience all together,  I suppose it can lead one to reflect and make positive changes or realizations about ones life.  We've all been there and I don't mean those embarrassing moments either... no I mean the ones that show you that you've been doing it wrong the whole time orthe ones that make you realize how little you've managed to achieve in such an amount of time.  You try not to feel so low to the ground but inevitably I suppose once you hit the bottom there's only one way to go. I must say that those who say that have forgotten that once at the bottom you can stay pressed down there moving about left or right while remaining pinned down, trying desperately to avoid mediocrity but it fills up your mouth, eyes and ears. 

THE MAN WHO SOLD THE WORLD

 Bowie is one of those "untouchable" figures of music, no one can dispute his contributions and he frequently gets named dropped by  artists. There's no denying he 's one cool mofo', yet you rarely see artists covering his oeuvre, Cat power doing space oddity in a car commercial and Vanilla Ice aside.

I'm not about to claim that I know his catalog very well either, I have always known more of him than about him. I have Owned Ziggy Stardust and a live album and some compilations. I've always had respect but for whatever reason have never bothered to dig up his back catalog. I always assumed his pre-ziggy stuff was mostly odd, acoustic psychedelia. I was to be proved wrong...

 

This past winter as I was getting my tattoo completed , I was doing what I assume most people do when getting tattooed , that is, just lye/stand/sit there.  Thankfully the fine folks at Glamort have impeccable taste in music and therefore you have a good soundtrack to your malaise.  So somewhere among the rotation of Blonde Redhead, Noir désir, Mastodon, Manu Militari, begins a record that grabs my attention.  Now I don't want to interrupt the long silence and besides i'm curious to see if I can work out who it is. 

So it's rocking fairly hard, really present bass, definitely 70's , british, not quite glam and has a definite psychedelic bent.  After about 3 tracks of playing "name that band" I get stumped and finish with the lingering thought that it ssounds like Sabbath fronted by David Bowie and dismiss it because Bowie was never this heavy right? I give up and enjoy the rest of the record when the familiar intro to "The mans who sold the world" starts up.....whooooaa!!! this record was massive. Now i know Bowie rocks and i'm not teaching you anything new , but this record has this really intense, bass and drum heavy almost doom-like bits to it.  Sure it has it's underwhelming moments but overall it's a fantastic record. His voice is in fine form and sounds as strange and reverby as ever with yelps and howls thrown in for extra measure on some songs he sounds like he's losing his grip it's a great and overlooked record, worth it for the first 3 tracks. "Black country rock" being my fave.

Dialogue

  

Un Lundi soir comme je n'en n'avais pas passé depuis un bail.  Entouré de bonne conversation d'histoire à se tordre dans tout les sens, ainsi qu'un hopitalité  et un macaroni gratiné auquel on ne peut rien reproché ( Merci Ali et Marie-Claude).

J'ai parlé plus que d'habitude et j'en ai probablement trop dit malgré que j'ai essayé d'avoir un peu de retenu).  Ensuite une bonne marche dans la pluie à 1h30, rien de mieux que la descente du plateau à travers le parc lafontaine vers les quartiers  glauque de la rue Ontario pour me faire réfléchir un peu.  

J'ai quitté la cuisine depuis 3ans maintenant, durant ce temps j'ai passé à travers pas mal de phase différente, le métier me manque autant, j'ai par contre l'apréhension de comment je vais pouvoir y retourner puisque  j'ai dépasser le stade d'être rouillé, je suis conscient de la courbe aprubte qui m'attends.

Je crois avoir pris un recul du genre de cuisine qui me faisait "tripper " dans le temps, je sens le besoin de créer des trucs plus accessible sans autant être plus simple, le besoin de suivre une ligne directrice qui m'apparait de plus en plus claire.

Je suis autant grande gueule qu'avant en ce qui concerne mes idées socialiste de coopération entre cuisinier, producteurs , restaurateur et son publique.  De briser les murs qui se dressent à cause de l'insécurité des uns, la peur de perdre son petit cachet spécial ou des grosses têtes. 

Montréal est une petite ville avec encore plein de potentiel pour la cuisine, mais il me semble qu'il y a trop de trucs pareil et un manque d'honnêteté autant du côté restaurateur que du côté client.  Comme je suis un "nobody", je  souhaite pouvoir aborder ce genre de discussion sans paraître comme si je chiale ou que je suis négatif ou que je me fais une petite jalousie.

Comment ouvrir le dialogue avec des gens qu'on ne connais pas, ou trouver des gens du même avis pour collaborer. Je crois qu'un genre de dîners underground avec des cuisinier différent à chaque occasion ça pourrait être cool, dans un restaurant différent à chaque fois, les soirs de fermeture habituel ( dimanche ou lundi par exemple).

 

Weekend Roundup.

Ihad a great weekend and managed to hit both markets on the weekend. Saturday Chloe has tap dancing lessons right next to Atwater market, so we decided to stroll through and get hera soda and see what else we could come up with. I always want to like the Atwater market, it has great things going for it, La Fromagerie du Marché,  Les douceurs (has verything you can think of), the vrac store and the Fishmonger are really the standouts and are top notch but I just don't ever get a good vibe from this market, perhaps it's proximity to the wealthier area of town and it's tendency to cater to i,t maybe....I don't know JT just seems more people friendly.

I was travelling lightly and without a camera (doh!) so no snapshots. I bought some smoked almonds and Chloe  inquired about what pine nuts tasted like and we talked about pesto and cakes...which reminded me I had to do something with our patch of basil lest we lose it to the cold. 

So we bought some pine nuts, with a promise from Chloe to help me make pesto ( her favourite). She actually did assist without too much coaxing  and we made quick work of sorting and picking the leaves off the stalks.  some fresh pungent garlic from our  garden, the toasted pine nuts from our market run and turned it into intense, fragrant pesto. We froze little portions so she can use it to make herself after school snacks of Pasta pesto aka  Chloefood.

 Sunday Was another beautiful day and Veronique was off so we hit Jean-Talon and of course bought way too much cheese and snacky things..and we made a big batch of pickled onions and pickled carrots, since those Nantaise type carrots we're abundant and really spectacular looking.

Dial M For Muffin

 

Another grey week, this is usually my type of weather but my energy level is so low it's a drag.

 I managed to make a spot-on batch of corn chowder ( I was not about to drag my sorry ass to the fishmonger to get clams so had to make due) and as 2 of my co-workers we're celebrating their birthday on Friday I made some muffins so everyone could have brekkie together.  As I dusted off my mufin molds I realized how longs it's been since i've made any.  This time around I made banana, chocolate chip muffins and Rasbberry-ginger muffins.

When I was in culinary school, I used to make 2-3 dozen of different types and freeze them, They would defrost in 30seconds in the microwave without the texture suffering too much and it was a way to get a quick bite before school. Considering I used to sleep only about 3 1/2 hours a night back then..every minute saved counted.  Along the way I managed to get really creative and try a bunch of flavours out, I still never managed to make a decent cornmeal muffin but I feel confident enough to create some flavours on the fly.

This time around I had loads of frozen banana's, so I quickly used my go-to banana bread recipe  knowing they would turn out just fine as muffins.

The other recipe I like to use is from on of my mom's old cookbooks. It's a really plain jane but super easy recipe and it's the perfect recipe from which to tweek out your own variants, add berries, spices, sub some other flours for part of the basic white it's very forgiving.

 

Basic muffins ( makes a dozen)

- 1  3/4 cups AP flour

-  1/4 cup sugar

- 2 tsp baking powder

- 3/4 tsp salt

- 1 beaten egg

- 3/4 cup milk ( I like to mix plain yogurt and milk)

- 1/3 cup oil ( you can sub, butter, olive oil, lard etc.. each adding it's flavour and properties) regular old veg/canola works great.)

For my version I added

-  1 cup or so of fresh raspberries.

-1tbp ground ginger

-3 tbsp candied ginger chopped finely

- 1 lemon- the zest of that is. 

 

METHOD: preheat oven to 350F

1. In a large bowl sif the dry ingredients together ( I add the zest and candied ginger here) .

2. In a large measuring cup or bowl, mix the wet ingredients ( oil, egg, milk) 

3. Incorporate the wet ingredients into the dry, do not overmix, it should be lumpy.  If adding fragile fruit ( blueberries, raspberries etc..) add them to the dry ingredients first if not you can incorporate at the last minute without overblending.

 4. fill you buttered molds and cook , they take about 20 minutes or so.

 

 

Banana Muffins ( makes a dozen)

- 5 tbsp butter room temp.

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 1 tsp baking soda

- 1 teaspoon salt

- 1 cup sugar ( I use half brown/white)

- 2  large eggs room temp

- 1 cup smashed bananas ( about 2-3 bananas)

- 1/2 cup sour cream

- 1 tsp vanilla

- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts or chocolate chips ( or both)

 

1. Preheat oven a 350F butter  your muffin pans or loaf pans

2. In a medium bowl sift flour, baking soda and salt. set aside

3.  With an  electric mixer beat butter and sugar till creamy on medium high speed 2-3 min . Add the eggs, one by one  until incorporated, scrape down sides in between.

4. add the reserved flour mixture to butter sugar/egg/combo until well blended, add bananas , sour cream and vanilla, then beat until combined and stir in nuts or chips  and divide into molds

5. if making muffins they take about 20-25 minutes depending on moisture content of banana's, loaves are anywhere from 40 minutes to an hour.

 

QUINOA-BEET THANG!

  
Okee so on Monday while I was prepping the Otsu, I rummaged in the fridge and came across  a container of roasted beets ( I have the habit of Roasting off root-veg to use during the week  for lunches), which is normally welcome find but the CSA box has given us an overload of beets this season and frankly i'm kind of burnt-out. Nevertheless as I can't let any of the veg from the CSA box go to waste without a guilty conscience & and I hate spending money on horrid food court grub... So in times like these you need to go through the standards of your cooking repertoire,  the reliable   I really dig the contrast of the slightly bitter, nutty flavour of quinoa and the deep  sweet earthiness of beets. A little cilantro, parsley, scallions, sherry vinegar+olio and voila. Ok proportions, you have to keep a balance, you don't want too much quinoa, you don't want your beets  to look like flotsam floating in an ocean of inca supergrain. Think of the tundra and rocks covered in moss and you're on the right track.

Unfortunately I am a bit of a non-recipe person when it comes to things like this but really just work with what you have and what you think taste good together. Use Roasted turnips or carrots, add cumin or cinnamon, add chunks of feta or tofu...what-ev.

WE ARE SEX BOB-OMB!

Chloe's been raving about Scott Pilgrim Vs. The World since she saw it on opening week,  I had planned to see it with her and I took advantage of the fact that she had little homework to do on Tuesday and took her to the AMC.  I knew about the comic and the story behind it but sadly must say I never took the time to get into it.  Despite it's dismal turn-out at the box office I think this film will be one of those that reaches it' speak of popularity after a few years. It made me think of a mash-up between Ranma1/2 and a Kevin Smith movie in some ways. It's funny watching this film with my daughter who digs it ( her favourite movie ever according to her) but who possibly can't get the 90's references because of her age is that she's found something that draws her in anyways and proves that you don't need to be the necessary "target" audience to get it . Then again this was the child who was standing up and playing air guitar in the theatre when we took her to see "School of Rock".  I feel peculiar about the flick but I am trying to ruminate a bit before talking about it .   I don't know if I am the only one but when I get absorbed in a movie ( especially in theaters) I end up feeling kinda of dreamy, distracted and nostalgic (borderline bummed-out) and other times I'm all fired up and driven but then get self conscious about it because it's kind of cliché, non?

 It does make me nostalgic for playing music again, in the meantime the soundtrack is pretty awesome, especially that Metric track "Black Sheep"...that build-up is really intense. The score is interesting as well but I haven't got any further with it yet.

Transition

Time has always had this particular elastic quality to me, June always seems to go on forever and then once July drops, the rubber band tightens and things just blaze through till you realize that September is creeping up on you. I don't mind so much since the transition from summer to fall is my favourite period of the year but it does always leave me feeling somewhat nostalgic and regretful of the things I didn't have time to do. I think this is also this season which changes I feel more profoundly.   

So yesterday as quitting time was approaching, I got the biggest craving for noodles , soba specifically ( I am a sucker for the earthy taste of buckwheat/whole wheat/rye), I wanted to prepare differently them differently than I normally would and seeing as I had a couple of recipes I have been meaning to try( especially try not to modify them before having made them once as -is)

I had the otsu recipe from 101 cookbooks on the back-burner since I went trolling through her archives a while back. I tackled another procrastinated project and scoped out  marché Thai-Foo in Brossard , this place opened in place of the regretted Kim Phat location in Brossard across from the auto-parc, i'll post more on the place once I have had a chance to spend more time in there looks good so far.

I really liked the way of cooking the tofu in this recipe, I pressed the tofu to get an even crust by resting a stock pot over the tofu pieces, the vinaigrette was nice but I think it would taste better if it sits for a while.  Of course I didn't follow everything as planned  due to a lack of cucumbers and a  CSA basket overload so I added sautéed onions+peppers.

Soundtrack: While cookin'   The Black Keys - Magic Potion, lately this has been my go to pump it up album,  If I have a task to do, this record will always get me in rhythm and focused. Good dirty drum and bass blues , I really dig the way this one was recorded more so than their other records it's got a certain heft. 

il était une fois une dinde russe : foie gras dans un faisan, dans une pintade, dans un poulet, dans un canard, et enfin dans une dinde

 

PATTE BLANCHE

Over the last year we have had to chance to visit some great producers and artisans within a modest radius from our home. It's not the hundred mile diet but it's close enough and I'm not following any strict guideline at the moment. On each of these trips there"s always plenty of discoveries to be made and nice folks to meet, this past weekend Véro had a rare Saturday off and we wanted to take a drive in the country. I suggested we go toward Hawkesbury and it's bordering Quebec towns, I wanted to check out some properties and figured we would find some other things to do at the same time. Some quick research before yielded a couple of interesting destinations plus a mandatory trip to the LCBO. We woke up too late to do lots of exploring but still intent on exploring a bit we headed out in the beginning of the afternoon. One site that caught my interest and the only farm we ended up visiting that day was la Ferme Albé. I found them while searching out info on Canadian Katahdin sheep farms. I had heard a lot of positive things about this breed of sheep before and lo and behold there is a farm just a little over and hours drive from Montreal. We made a point to stop in and see if we could purchase some lamb and maybe see a couple of cute sheep, the farms is a little off the beaten path but getting there is very straightforward. Micheline greeted us warmly and I think we took her off guard by our eagerness, when we couldn't quite make up our minds about which cuts to buy she showed us in and rummaged through her freezer to show us what she had and gave us a couple of choices, we settled on a pack of the cutest chops and a boned out shoulder roast. We then got a little tour of the place, we saw the weaned sheep in the barn, because of the unseasonable weather most of sheep we're in the barn ( we did see some out in the fields from afar with their Llama guardian). There we're some beautiful gals keeping cool and having a rest, We also got to see their laying hens, broilers and also turkeys that are going to be fattened up for thanksgiving. Luc and Micheline greeted us warmly and took the time to chat with us about a little of everything, really passionate folks who are doing something they truly love and with ideals that they are not willing to compromise for a quick buck, if only more folks could be like this. We ended having the chops that night for supper with a red rice and bulghur wheat salad, think tabbouleh but with red rice and chickpeas. Yesterday I pot roasted the shoulder with some tomatoes, anchovies, lots of fresh thyme, rosemary and a nice chicken/pork/beer broth I froze after braising ribs a few weeks back. Today I finished some Flageolet beans in the broth and called it supper. From our quick trials the meat has a nice flavour, not too intense or gamey but it's from fairly young animals, I found the fat to have a nice succulent quality (tasty even when cold) we really need to get a roasting joint next time to get the full range of flavours. Good folks making great food.