Beer

The boat is in the water, the mast up and I went for the first sail of the season today.  It was perfect!  The breeze was fresh, the sun was shining and the water smooth and flat.  The conversation with my friend Corine was lively and there were about a dozen other boats out on the water enjoying the day.  My little slice of heaven, my little bit of peace, my space where I am in control of my destiny.  We even shared the lake with the Loons as they called to each other back and forth.  I think we are all so driven to make money that we forget about the natural world around us and how amazing it really is, everything from the water to the sky.

Now, beer and sailing go hand in hand, and I LOVE beer.  However I seem to have developed an allergy to "cheap beer" the Labatts, the Molsons, the Lakeports of the world all give me a rash and a terrible headache.  As the 'recipes' for beer seem to be closely guarded secrets, I can only speculate on why the so-called bargain basement beers give me a rash.  Thank goodness for microbreweries and imported gems like Guinness.  I think beer is as interesting as wine and chocolate.  I have had beers made with cherries, I have had beers that cost $40 a bottle and beers made by monks.  Some beers are even good for you (in moderation) and the carb content isn't as bad as one would think, especially if you are an active person.

Beer and food are also a ton of fun to pair up, beer also pairs wonderfully with chocolate unlike most wine.  So raising my stein and chug chug chugging, here are two of my favourite recipes with beer as the main ingredient:

Beer Batter Bread

3 cups     Whole Wheat Flour
3 tbsp.    Firmly Packed Brown Sugar
1 tbsp.    Baking Powder
1 tsp.      Salt
375 ml    Your Fav Beer, room temp
4 tbsp.    Unsalted Butter, melted

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Grease 9" x 5" loaf pan.

Stir together flour, brown sugar, baking powder and salt.  Open beer and add it all at once; it will foam up.  Stir briskly just until combined.  The batter should be slightly lumpy, do not worry if it is not mixed to a smooth paste.  Pour into greased loaf pan and drizzle with melted butter.

Bake until top is crispy and a toothpick inserted into the centre comes out clean, abut 35-40 minutes.  Serve immediately but will keep a day or two wrapped in a tea towel.

Guinness and Steak Pie

1 lb         Chopped Sirloin

100 g      Butter

2            Large Onions, finely diced      

3            Cloves of Garlic, finely diced

200 g      Chopped Fresh Mushrooms

200 ml    Beef Stock (low or no sodium)

1 can      Guinness (room temperature)

to taste   Worcestershire Sauce

100 g      Flour

1 pkg      thawed puff pastry

Combine flour, thyme, salt and pepper.  Dredge meat in the flour and brown in the butter.  Set aside and reserve.  Deglaze pan with some beef stock.   Saute the onions in butter and add garlic, cook slightly.  Add browned beef, onions, garlic, beef stock, Guinness and Worcestershire Sauce and bring to a simmer.  Cover and place in a 300 F oven for 2-3 hours.  In the last 45 minutes of cooking, add the mushrooms.

Take stew from oven.  Turn oven to 400 F.  Spoon stew into individual bowls, top with puff pastry, brush with some raw egg, sprinkle with some dried thyme and sea salt.   Bake in 400 F oven for 20 minutes and serve immediately.

Pie and what does it have to do with sailing?

Pies of all sorts seem to be the new food trend in North America, so I thought I would share my favourite pie recipe, just for the hell of it!  I didn't provide a pastry recipe as everyone has their favourite, if you would like a recipe, send me a note.

Sour Cherry Passion Fruit Pie

Filling:

1 lb fresh sour cherries, pitted OR 1 lb frozen sour cherries

1 tsp. grated ginger

1/2 cup sugar

1 tbsp. vanilla

1 cup passion fruit puree

Cook cherries and sugar until thick.  Add remaining ingredients.  Pour into pie shell and cover with pastry.  Brush with egg wash or with heavy cream (gives a glossy sheen to the pastry)

Bake in a 350 oven until crust is brown, about 40 minutes.

You could wimp out and buy cherry pie filling but I promise you, once you have made this recipe from scratch, you will NEVER EVER want to buy cherry pie filling EVER AGAIN!

So what does this have to do with sailing?  NOTHING.  But cherry pie is my favourite pie and sailing is my favourite pass time.  2 weeks until splash down and the weather this weekend is frightful.  It's cold, rainy and windy - that's the forecast for the next three days.

What, do most non-boat owners want to know, do boaters need to do to get ready for launch?  Well here's my list just for this year, some years it's shorter, some years it's WAY longer:

Power wash hull and deck

Go home and change into dry clothes

Sand bottom

Paint bottom

Resand bottom after realizing your hair was dragging behind you in the fresh paint

Touch up bottom paint

Wax and buff hull

Power wash deck again as the seagulls have used your deck as target practice

Cut out rotten deck bits and fill with epoxy

Reinstall lifelines

See if motor will start

Take motor to fix it guy

Install motor

Scrub out interior of mildew

Hang rudder, attach tiller

Unscrew tiller and reattach pointing into the boat

Install man-overboard pole

Uncover mast

Attach side stays to mast (the lines that hold up the mast)

Purchase new side stays to replace the worn out broken ones (very important that the mast doesn't fall down)

Find the little pieces of plastic that hold the boom on - damn French system!

Find all those little split rings that attach the sidestays to the boat, thus holding up the mast

When the boat is in the water, and the mast is safely standing, here's the next to do list:

Hang boom on those damn French little pieces of plastic

Put on the main sail and realize you forgot all the battens at home

Drive home to get battens

Take off main sail and insert battens

Put main sail back on

Look for sail cover

Go to car to retrieve sail cover

Cover main sail with sail cover

Open fridge and find left over beer from last year, crack the tab, warm but okay, drink

Install all lines, including pole down, cunningham, outhaul etc., which requires a screw driver

Go to Dollar Store to buy new screw driver as the other one rolled off the deck into the lake

Install all split rings on front and back stay, curse that you didn't replenish first aid kit as you need a bandage desperately to stop bleeding after cutting oneself with those *&^^ split rings

Attach boom vang, unattach boomvang, turn it over the correct way and reattach

Attach main sheet, this takes the most time, usually a good hour as one can never remember how those damn lines go through which pulley which way

Spend 2 hours tuning the rig and 30 minutes going back to the dollar store for a pair of needle nose pliers and more bandaids

Now the boat is ready to go!  14 days and counting!  woo hoo.

It's all Retro!

Today, April 2, 2011 I sold my 7-course renaissance lute.  Many of you may not know what that is so here's a picture:

I bought it about 1991ish from a lute maker here in Toronto, Michael Schreiner, one of his first instruments.  Yes it was a student model but it wasn't cheap.  It is beautiful, a spruce top, flame maple back, ebony fretboard, rosewood neck and tuning pegs.  The sound was quiet, sweet and very introspective.  I love Renaissance music and found a couple of singers that blended with my little lute and it sounded like running your hands across satin.  Mostly I played for myself but I had the pleasure of studying for just a short time with Jakob Lindberg from England.  

Why did I sell it?  I have serious repetitive strain injuries and can't play guitar or lute anymore (that's why cooking was a good artistic substitute for me).  So what is this post about?  Retrospective.  When I posted my ad for the lute online (not expecting to get one offer) I initially was thinking about the money, then as the day wore on and I received several offers within a couple hours of placing the ad I started remembering my time as a musician.

It's funny how a lot of songs, and sayings say to look ahead to the future, forget the past and I think sometimes we forget what we have actually accomplished in our lives.  I have been on planet Earth for just shy of 40 years and I have had the pleasure of eating ice cream with my dad and sister while tied up to the government dock in Port Bruce catching fireflies and sleeping on the boat.  I have had the pleasure of being chased by the herd of cows at my stepdad's farm and being chastized by Grandpa Quick for giving the heard that little work out (apparently not good for beef production).  I remember my first professional guitar, I remember the amazing fun times at Mohawk College as a music student.  Those fun dinners with my Aunt and Uncle and cousins when I lived with them.  The time my grandma picked me up from the bus station in downtown Hamilton and hopping a fence in her granny mumu because she was too lazy to walk around.  The time I had a radio program on McMaster College Radio and kept forgetting to turn the mic off and some of the swear words I would get in trouble for.

The time I drove to Albany, New York for a concert.  The guitar competition in Buffalo where a member of the audience ended selling me the most beautiful sounding guitar I ever owned.  Then meeting Paul, no reason but to play gigs at Starbucks and Chapters at first, then pointing out that parking spot in front of my apartment one night...

The joys of finding new guitar music and being able to take what is on the page and make it into something beautiful and being able to share it with others.

I remember when I had to make the decision to give up playing for good - the tears, the sadness, I remember when we had the privilege of buying the boat and now making new memories with my boating friends and my chef friends. 

Think back on your own lives - I realize how much I have done and really how many opportunities I made for myself, rich and poor - and I'm looking forward to doing much more!

If you are curious about lutes and interesting guitars, check out Michael Schreiner's website or Paul Saunder's website (he fixed all my guitars over the years):

www.schreinerlutes.com

www.paulsaundersinstruments.com

Propylene glycol mono and diesters of fatty acids

More of a rant today than anything...

Once again, I spend time, designing a cake, pricing out specific flavours, setting a price that reflects my skills, what the specialty cake market prices are, using all the freshest ingredients, nothing frozen, all quality products, no artificial flavours or saw dust filler (yes you read that right - why do you think commercial boxed cake mixes taste like nothing and are so cheap...) and the potential client goes to Costco.  The only comfort I can gain from wasting all that time is that she will get what she pays for, it will be boring and like I hear from a lot of brides "no one ever really eats any of the cake" - ever wonder why?

Let's take a moment and look at the ingredients on a well known boxed cake mix from the grocery store:

"BC Golden Yellow Supermoist - with Pudding in the mix"

enriched bleached flour (wheat flour, niacin, iron, thiamin, mononitrate, riboflavin, folic acid), sugar, corn syrup, leavening (baking soda, sodium aluminum, phosphate monocalcium, phosphate), partially hydrogenated soybean and/or cottonseed oil, modified corn starch, corn starch, salt, propylene glycol mono and diesters of fatty acids, dextrose, dicalcium, phosphate, distilled monoglycerides, sodium stearoyl lactylate, natural and artificial flavour, xanthum gum, colour and nonfat milk...whew

 Let's look at a comparison with my vanilla bean cake recipe:

Lazy Cat signature vanilla bean cake

Unbleached flour

sugar

butter

egg whites (fresh)

vanilla bean

WHAT...?  It's because the ingredients for the "BC Golden Yellow Supermoist - with Pudding in the mix" are cheap to produce and have a shelf life of infinity.

********

How about Buttercream - here's the ingredient list of the can you buy off the shelf (which has a shelf life of 2 years...):

BC "BUTTERCREAM"

Salt, distilled monoglycerides, colour, polysorbate 60, sodium stearoyl, lactylate, sodium acid phosphate, natural & artificial flavour, citric acid, nonfat milk, freshness preserved by potassium sorbate. - WHERE'S THE BUTTER?

The Lazy Cat - French Buttercream

Fresh egg yolks

Water

Sugar

Butter

Vanilla Bean

Picking on one of the ingredients in the "BC buttercream" for example - potassium sorbate.  WTF is that?  Colourless salt that is very soluble in water, potassium sorbate is produced by neutralizing potassium hydroxide with sorbic acid.  So then what is potassium hydroxide or sorbic acid?  Sorbic acid  is an organic compound used as a food preservative, that's all, no nutritional value whatsoever.

Then there is distilled monoglycerides?  What about polysorbate 60?  Polysorbates are a class of emulsifiers [the process of combining to ingredients that normally won't combine i.e. water and oil] used in some pharmaceuticals and food preparation. They are often used in cosmetics to solubilize essential oils into water-based products.  A study suggested that exposure to polysorbates was a cause of hypersensitive reactions (aka allergies).

Why do we, as consumers, choose the cheap over quality.  I still can't find an answer.  I find the sweets I make, you eat once or twice a year, because they are considered fattening and 'bad for you', so why buy the chemically created sweets when you eat those chemicals every day?  You eat chemically altered food on a daily basis, in your cereal, your Tim Horton's coffee and donut, your sandwich meat, Wonder bread, your processed dinner you reheat in the microwave, mistakenly thinking because the tv tells you are eating 'steamed veggies' it MUST be good for you, converted rice products etc.  There are even artificial preservatives in the cheap beer that Canadians consider our national pride.  

I would love to hear from anyone as to why they choose price over nutrition and natural ingredients.  I don't understand the "because it's convenient to go to Costco or wherever", it's just as easy to call up your local bakery or cake maker or chocolatier and place your order and have it delivered to you on the day you need it.  Please let me know, because if people just like the store cake mixes, and cans of frosting then I can switch over and charge $10 for a birthday cake, just like Costco or Walmart, it would save me a lot of time and energy and I can keep the good stuff to myself.  

Looking forward to hearing your comments!

How to make veggies...well...yummy

Boiled veggies.  No thanks.  I hate them.  I prefer roasted, grilled, fried, with sauce or butter.  What are my favourite vegetables?  Butternut Squash, Green Lentils, Mushrooms of all kinds, Brussel Sprouts, Fennel, Cabbage, French Green Beans...those are just a few.  I have never boiled any of them! 

Vegetables usually take longer then your steak and they require a lot more prep work so here are 2 of my favourite vegetable dishes that can be eaten as an entire meal.  These recipes may not be your typical recipe, a handful of this, a dash of that, but I see cooking like this whimsical - as long as you have your basic building blocks - aka your flavour profile - the exact amounts don't really matter in this type of cooking.  Once you have made these two recipes a couple of times, you won't need a recipe, just the basic ingredients and 30 minutes!

Lentils: Lentils contain high levels of proteins  In addition to containing high levels of proteins, lentils also contain fibre, Vitamin B1 and minerals. For the vegetarian, lentils should be mixed with grains, such as rice to obtain that complete protein.

 

Green Lentils with Bacon (as a side dish - great with steak, chicken, fish etc.)

1 handful per person of French Green Lentils

Chicken Stock, Venison Stock, Beef Stock, veggie stock (pair the stock with your protein)

1/4 to 1/2 cup White wine (if using chicken or veggie stock) or Beer (if using Beef or Venison Stock) or Port Wine (if using Venison Stock)

Finely chopped shallots

4 slices of bacon

Caraway Seed or your favourite spice (suggestions: fennel seed, star anise, clove, cayenne etc.)

Dried Thyme or 4 leaves of fresh sage

Salt and Pepper to taste

Olive Oil or butter

Heat a sauce pan on medium heat and add oil or butter.  Add your chosen spice (Caraway Seed) and the dried thyme or sage.  Cook out the oils in the herb and spice and add shallots.  Cook shallots on medium heat until translucent.  Add the lentils and cook for another 3-5 minutes.  Add the wine or your chosen booze and cover rest of the lentils with stock.  Turn up heat to high and bring to a simmer.  Reduce heat to low and let simmer for 15 minutes, stir a couple of times.  If liquid evaporates, add more stock of booze.  After 15 minutes add a tad more liquid of choice and cover with lid and cook a further 15 minutes, checking often to make sure there is some liquid in the pot, if it has gone dry, add a bit more stock.

In the meantime, cut bacon into small bits, and cook until crispy, drain off grease.

The lentils should be al dente, not mushy.  If not cooked to al dente, remove lid, add more liquid if required and cook for another 5 minutes.  Serve with bacon!

Risotto: My other favourite side dish and usually a meal unto itself is Risotto!  Risotto isn't scary and it isn't hard to make, it just takes practice, just like all cooking techniques - this technique can also be used to make the lentil recipe above.  Risotto should be creamy without having to add heavy cream!  It's the process of stirring the rice with the broth to develop the starch in the rice to produce that creamy texture, it's lower in fat then most people think!  You do have to use Arborio Rice or else you won't get the starch, please don't use anything else - you will only be disappointed.  Remember, vegetable dishes take patience.

Mushroom Risotto

2-4 kinds favourite mushrooms, cut in slices

1 handful per person of Arborio Rice

2 shallots finely diced

Dried or Fresh thyme  (if using fresh thyme - use 2-3 whole sprigs - dried is more potent than fresh)

Olive Oil

Chicken Stock

White Wine or Pale Ale Beer

Nob of Butter

1 clove of garlic - chopped

Fresh Grated Parmesan Cheese

Salt and Pepper to taste

Method:

Cook the mushrooms in butter, dried thyme and some stock until soft, set aside.

Heat stock in sauce pot to a simmer and keep warm.  Heat oil in pan over medium heat.  Add shallots trying not to brown them and then add dried thyme and garlic.   Cook for about 1 minute on medium.  Add your rice and cook another minute.  Add wine or beer and cook until the liquid is absorbed by the rice.  You may have to adjust your heat to keep the pan not too hot, the liquid should just be at a simmer.  Then continue to add your heated stock a little at a time (about 1/2 to 1 cup at a time) and stir, i(t's not necessary to stir the entire time but you do have to stir quite a bit), until the liquid is absorbed by the rice.  Continue until rice reaches al dente - this will take about 30 minutes.  Add the cooked mushrooms and a bit more stock, by now the Risotto should have a creamy look to it, but not like whipped cream creamy, a starchy creamy.  Add a nob of butter and the desired amount of cheese.  Serve immediately.  

Any leftovers can be reheated but will not be as creamy but will taste just as good!

So there you have 2 recipes that could be a side dish or an entire meal that include veggies and take about 30-40 minutes.  They are both easier than you think! 

Competition 101

I have a terrible competitive streak.  I think I got it from my dad.  I have participated in a lot of competitions, some successful, some not so successful.  I have competed as a classical guitarist, a Renaissance lute player, a double bass player, in all kinds of musical ensembles.  I have competed as a sailor, single handed, double handed and fully crewed and with too many crew.  I have competed with sugar, chocolate, cake and all sorts of ingredients. 

This past week I participated in The Escoffier Society's Culinary Salon.  This was my third time.  I decided, since I make cakes that people pay for I should go in the Professional Division for wedding cakes.   I like competitions of this sort because the judges will take the time to discuss your work with you face to face.  I like to hear what's wrong and why and how to make it work, what skills I need to improve, how to train my eye. This year's cake was a real challenge. 

The chocolate work on the sides of the cake have to be shiny, perfect and elegant.  All the decorations are piped by hand after hand tempering the chocolate.  The topper on the cake was my first attempt at designing and executing a showpiece after returning from Chicago.  I should have spent more than 1 day on decorating the cake but only had a week to do the showpiece and decorate the cake.  The best in show, which was a bread piece, took the guy 3 months to make.

When designing a cake, you have to take into account the time of year, the heat, humidity, cold and quality of the products you are using.  If it's too hot out, forget the chocolate, you have to use a little less buttercream, the fondant will get really soft, really quickly.  In the winter, the dry air will cause the fondant to crack, the chocolate will set before you want it to, the buttercream won't be as soft as you would like.  Although I would rather work with cakes and chocolate in the winter, it has its challenges.  Fondant work is harder than most people think.  There can't be any air bubbles, no tears, no shiny surfaces.

After talking with the judges, I got two thumbs up for the mini chocolate showpiece, they even went so far as to say it was perfect and gave me some tips to do the chocolate showpiece competition next year.  The judges wanted to see more piping skills, a more traditional design.  I was happy with my bronze  medal because the comments were worth all the effort and anxiety.  I personally loved the design of the cake and have added it to my portfolio.  

I have already started designing my chocolate showpiece for the March 2012 competition.  Yes it will be a love/hate affair with my design for a year, but I hope to not only learn new skills, but also snag maybe that elusive gold medal!

The week after Chocolate School

A week has gone by since my week at The Chocolate Academy in Chicago and I'm prepping for the Escoffier Society's competition - I'm in the Professional Wedding Cake category this year.  I have yet to win a gold medal, I have a bronze for petit fours, a bronze for wedding cakes, a silver for theme cakes and a silver for wedding cakes.  That elusive gold medal, will it be in my grasp this year?

This year's cake is a morph of a design I came up with a year ago.  It's art deco inspired and all the decorations are made of chocolate - would you expect anything different???

This competition isn't on television, it won't be in the newspapers or on the radio.  It's for professionals, run by professionals at a very high level to showcase skills and showcase new ideas in flavours, plating, ingredients and design.  True, this isn't a tasting competition but the criteria for the categories are flavour profiles.  

When I won a bronze for my petit fours, I had a white chocolate tube filled with raspberry mousse, an ice cream cone with a scoop of chocolate ganache, a fresh fruit bite made of different kinds of melons topped off with nutmeg cream cheese, mini brioche and 2 bite chocolate covered cheesecakes (see photos below).  The judges have pretty much eaten everything, tasted so many flavour combinations that they have forgotten more then most people have sampled.  None of my flavour combinations were mind blowing - they were the classics, it was the presentation!  I used sugar to make plates and serving trays and used the colour of the natural fruits to add that punch of colour.  Snagged me my first medal!

Year two, I snagged a silver for my wedding cake covered in gumpaste roses - I have a knack for flowers.

Claudia and I (team Pandora's Bakery) got together and entered the Theme Cake category.  These cakes were no dummies!  Real cake with a twist.  Our theme - Nursery Rhymes.  Three Blind Mice, Humpty Dumpty and Sing a Song of Six Pence.  Our cakes: Lemon poppy seed cake with a cream cheese icing, eggless vanilla cake with saffron scented white chocolate ganache and honey rye cake with apple buttercream respectively.  I remember when we were setting up our cakes the small crowd that gathered (it was 7am) and then as the cakes were cut, decorated and garnished a little gasp from the back, a finger pointing yelling in delight - they are nursery rhymes.  We got some great pictures, except for Humpty's cake, but my favourite was the Sing a Song of Six Pence cake and if you don't know the nursery rhyme, google it - Love that Cake!!

Now I'm working on my wedding cake for this year.  I decided to only enter one category, not enough time this year, it's a huge time commitment.  Wish me luck, I'll have a picture of the finished cake up on my blog next week, and pictures of the finished cake up on Facebook before then so stay tuned, I'm hoping a gold medal will be lying on the table beside it...sigh...