folkmann.ca » Ingredients

Country Bacon

jfolkmann — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 03:35:47 +0000

A few weeks ago we visited my sister in Fernie BC where we purchased a large brick of smoked bacon. Unfortunately for us (and fortunately for her) we forgot to bring it home when we left. We were happily surprised when she came by on the weekend and brought us a replacement slab.

The bacon is locally smoked (you can smell it all around town on smoking day) by Fernie Meat Market & Deli. They carry a wide variety of steaks, other meats and it’s a great place to pick up curing salt if you’re looking to make your own pancetta or other cured product.

I can’t wait to make a few dishes with it this weekend, but we couldn’t resist just frying up a little tonight as a treat. Any suggestions for what we should make?

Thai red curry paste

jfolkmann — Sat, 31 Jan 2009 14:45:37 +0000

Red curry paste is a key ingredient for many thai dishes. You can buy paste from most asian supermarkets, but it always tastes better when you make it yourself. It will keep in the fridge for 2-3 weeks. Thanks again to “Hot, Sour, Salty, Sweet” by Alford and Duguid for the recipe.

Preparation time: 15m
Cooking time: 5m
Difficulty: 2
Makes: 1 1/4 cups

Ingredients

1 ½ cups of dried thai red chiles
1 ½ tablespoons coriander seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
⅛ teaspoon black peppercorns
2 stalks lemon grass, trimmed and minced
1 tablespoon coarsely chopped coriander roots
¼ cup of coarsely chopped galangal
1 teaspoon minced lime zest
¼ cup coarsely chopped garlic
¼ cup coarsely chopped shallots
1 teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons shrimp paste

Preparation

Break the stems off of the chiles and discard, together with the seeds. Break the chiles into pieces, place in a bowl and cover with hot water. Place a small lid on top to keep the chiles submerged. Let soak for 30-40 minutes.

Meanwhile, heat a skillet over a medium-high heat add the coriander seeds and dry roast, occasionally shaking the pan until aromatic and beginning to change colour (about 3 minutes). ransfer to a mortar and repeat with the cumin seeds, for about 1 minute. Repeat with peppercorns, roasting just long enough to heat them (about 1 minute). Use a pestle to pound the spices together into a powder. Add the lemongrass, coriander roots, and galangal and pound until reduced to a paste. Add the lime zest and pound to blend. Add the garlic, shallots and salt and pound to a smooth paste.Transfer to a bowl and set aside.

Drain the chiles, place in the mortar, and pound to a paste – this will take a few minutes. When the chiles are fairly smooth, add the shrimp paste and pound together. Add the reserved spice paste and pound together. Store in a well-sealed glass container in the refrigerator for 2-3 months. Makes 1 1/4 cups of paste.

Anchovy butter

jfolkmann — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 03:37:17 +0000

Flavoured butter is a great way to add a little something to a bland dish. This particular version tastes great added to braised winter greens with a few tablespoons of balsamic vinegar (based on a Jaime Oliver recipe). You can use the same recipe to make just about any kind of flavoured butter, try rosemary or lemon.

Preparation time: 10m
Cooking time: n/a
Difficulty: 1
Serves: 1

Ingredients

1/2 cup butter (1 stick)
1 tin of anchovies (oil removed)
2 cloves garlic
Salt (pinch)
Pepper (pinch)

Preparation

In a blender or food processor mix all of the ingredients together. Scrape the mixture on to parchment paper, and roll it into a log. If you’re going to use it in a few days keep it in the fridge, otherwise put it in the freezer.

Yuzu honey

jfolkmann — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:51:30 +0000

Yuzu is nothing short of a flavour orgasm. It’s inclusion is just about any dish adds a wonderful citrus edge unlike anything we have in the west. Since we couldn’t take the actual fruits back with us from Japan we sought out as many Yuzu based products as possible. Our favourite find is Yuzu honey made by the Sugi bee farm. It’s all we can do not to just suck the nectar straight out of the bottle. Included in the packaging was a handy list of practical applications…

1. Use as you would jam on bread and in yogurt.

2. As a cold beverage: Mix Yuzumitsu honey and cold water.

3. As a hot beverage: Mix Yuzumitsu honey and hot water.

4. Yuzumitsu honey and vinegar drink: Mix Yuzumitsu honey, vinegar and ice water. (not sure about this one)

5. Yuzumitsu honey miso paste: Combine honey, miso, soysauce and sesame seeds. Mix well and add to boiled spinach, broccoli or cauliflower.

6. Yuzumitsu chicken: Rub chicken lightly with honey, salt and pepper. Bake, roast or fry – We tried this recipe tonight with two lovely little cornish hens. Delicious.

7. Yuzumitsu apple: Cut an apple into four pieces and bake in the oven for about 5 minutes or until lightly browned. Dip into honey.

8. Yuzumitsu sweet potatoes: Boil sliced sweet potato in water and honey.

9. vodka and yuzumitsu honey: Mix vodka with yuzumitsu honey and soda water. Apparently good with other types of alcohol as well.

Easy dill pickles

jfolkmann — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 02:21:32 +0000

I have a love-hate relationship with canning season. On the one hand I love the fruits (or veg) of our labour, but on the other hand the smell in the kitchen reminds me of going back to school. Talk about negative smell association.

You’ll like this simple recipe for dill pickles, there is hardly any effort and the results are delicious. I can’t wait for ours to be ready. 2 months and counting…

Preparation time: 30m
Cooking time: 30m
Difficulty: 3
Serves: 12

Ingredients

10 pounds of pickling cucumbers
12 large mason jars
12 cloves of garlic
½ cup sea salt
4 cups of white vinegar
12 cups of water
12-24 sprigs of pickling dill

Preparation

Wash cucumbers and then let them soak in an ice bath for 1-2 hours. Place cucumbers in clean jars (some people sterilize them, but my mom always just washed them really well with soap and water). Add 1 cloves of garlic and 1 to 2 heads of dill to each jar.

In a pot, bring to a boil the vinegar, salt and water.

Pour the brine over the cucumbers in the jars and seal. Then place the jars into a hot water bath for 20 minutes. Remove and wait for the lids to pop, that way you’ll know you have a proper seal.

Put the jars in a cool dry place and wait about 2 months before eating.

Montreal Steak Spice

jfolkmann — Mon, 25 Aug 2008 13:05:53 +0000

This simple recipe makes a very tasty spice mixture to shake over BBQ steak. Add the spice to some nice ribeye steaks like the ones below.

Preparation time: 10m
Cooking time: n/a
Difficulty: 2
Amount: 1/4 cup

Ingredients

1 tablespoon of peppercorns
1 tablespoon of lightly toasted coriander seed
1 teaspoon of dill seeds
4 teaspoons of coarse sea salt
2 teaspoons of hot pepper flakes
2 teaspoon of paprika
1 teaspoon of granulated garlic (I prefer just rubbing my steak with garlic)

Preparation

In a mortar and pestle grind together the coriander seeds, peppercorns and dill seeds. Mix in the rest of the ingredients and put it in a jar for storage. It makes about 1/4 cup of spice.

Fresh eggs!

jfolkmann — Sun, 25 May 2008 22:19:02 +0000

There is nothing quite like a fresh farm egg. I love the fact that they’re not all uniform (check the ones at the bottom with the little nobbly bits.) Lucky for us our friends have started to farm their own on a very small scale. They have about 25 chickens and get about 2 dozen eggs per day. They only charge us what it costs to feed them as they are just raising the chickens as a hobby. My favourite way to eat the eggs is to boil them until they are just done (3 minutes or so) and smear them on grainy bread. Simple and delicious.

Meet one of the hens…

I love being able to meet my food or the producer of my food before I go and eat it. Somehow it just seems more natural than buying everything from a supermarket.

First harvest

jfolkmann — Mon, 19 May 2008 04:20:09 +0000

It’s been a very long winter…but spring has finally arrived and with it some early produce from our new garden. One of the nice things about buying a house are the leafy surprises that pop up unexpectedly. Lucky for us the former owners planted rhubarb in a great spot and we’ve already been able to pick a few stems. We’ve already made a very tasty rhubarb fool and I’m looking forward to all of the other great dishes we’ll be able to make over the summer.

Rendering duck fat from a roast duck

jfolkmann — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 21:45:31 +0000

The wonderfully golden liquid in the picture above is duck fat. Probably one of the most delicious edibles in the world and the result of 3 hours of roasting. To buy this much in the store (if you could find it) would cost a fortune. We were very lucky to find a lovely organic duck at the local farmers market and with only a light dusting of salt and pepper we were able to turn it into a lovely crispy duck. It wasn’t very hard to get the fat from the duck, you just have to be dilligent about taking the duck out of the oven regularily and removing the fat from the bottom of the roasting tray before it burns. I can’t wait to use it to roast potatoes sometime this week!

To roast the duck:

1 organic duck
Salt
Pepper

Preheat your oven to 375F (190C). Make sure you rince the duck inside and out and then pat it dry with paper towel. Trim any excess fat and skin from the duck and then cut small holes in the skin about 1 inch apart all over the duck to facilitate the release of the duck fat (make sure you don’t cut the meat). Rub the duck all over with salt and pepper. Place the duck on a rack on top of a roasting tray and put it in the oven for about 2 1/2 to 3 hours (until the skin is nice and crispy). Every 30 minutes remove the duck from the oven and drain the fat into a bowl. Using a fine mesh sieve strain the duck fat into a glass jar so that you can store it. It will keep in the fridge for a month or so, or in the freezer for a very long time.

List of spices and dried goods

jfolkmann — Thu, 13 Mar 2008 04:46:12 +0000

When we moved back to Canada we were forced to get rid of all of our spices and dried goods. Since buying our new house we’ve been restocking and we came up with this list. I thought others might find it handy. It’s not exhaustive, but it consists of those things we use most often.

Spices:
Salt
Pepper
Paprika
Oregano
Basil
Thyme
Marjoram
Chili powder
garam masala
cardomom pods
mustard powder
mustard seed
vanilla pods
cumin
coriander seed
cayenne
pepper flakes
rosemary
bay leaves
turmeric
cinnamon sticks
cinnamon powder
nutmeg
allspice
cloves
star anice
ginger

Dried goods:
raisins
choc chips
prunes
basmati rice
arborio rice
popcorn
barley
yeast
couscous
lentils
nuts
baking chocolate
flour
caster sugar
brown sugar
demerera sugar
oats
baking powder
baking soda
cocao
corn starch
wheat bran
oat bran
flax