Home: Cling Film Poached Egg

I love poached eggs, but how to cook them without ending up with a foamy egg soup or sticking to metal or rubber poached egg devices?

Easy, as the title says - Cling Film (or Glad Wrap, Saran Wrap etc.)

Find something to put the cling film in - I use a mug;

Add a drop of olive oil and add the egg 

Wrap it up

And repeat until you have a meal worth!

Once they are in the pan, cooking at a boil until they are your desired egg consistency. Soft, Hard - as long as the whites are cooked you are good.

Once they are cooked, retrieve them from the pan and unwrap, the oil will make this easy. They may not be the prettiest eggs but I believe this is the tidiest easiest way to get perfect poached eggs.

Away: Harlem Restaurant

Wow, this was a lunch time find, after wandering around Toronto just north of the office a decision was made, we were hungry and it looked like a quick trip to Wild Wings may be in order.

Across the road I spied a sign, Harlem, and suddenly my mind filled with thoughts of soul food, yum. We walked in, luckily the patio was full - I need air cooled space - and sat down in some very interesting chairs in the window, shaped like a spine, with a wooden pelvis to sit on.

After five minutes with the menu we decided to share, Buffalo Chicken, Catfish Lafayette, Harlem Jerked Meatloaf and a plate of Sweet Potato Fries. We ordered drinks - not normally noteworthy but the waiter heard Rum and Coke when Dave said Real Coke, we tried to make Dave drink through and make it a boozy lunch but he declined, that would of made the afternoon much more fun!

The Buffalo Chicken arrived first, a plate full of perfectly cooked chicken in a sticky heavy (but in a good way) BBQ sauce, next came the Catfish, yet again cooked to perfection in another delicious sauce, and then finally the meatloaf, a hard dish to get right in a restaurant but again spot on, at this point we are all stuffed.

Probably too much food for a lunch time but reasonably priced and I will definitely be returning here with Wissy.

Proper food served properly with decent portion sizes on Richmond East. My verdict - go try it now!

Home: Kraft Dinner - an outsiders view

After weeks and weeks of work colleagues in my currently adopted home (Canada) telling me of the amazing foodstuff Kraft Dinner we finally caved and Wissy bought two packets of the instant food, we even went as far as inviting Alex around for supper as he had never tasted it either.

Note: - I fundamentally have an issue with the naming of the product - Kraft Dinner does not describe in anyway what you are getting - in the UK it is called Cheesy Pasta, in the US it is called Mac and Cheese - both at least indicative of the contents of the box. It is like Mr Kellogg  launching Kellogg Breakfast, what could it be? Waffles, All Bran, Full English?


After work we headed home and the preparation began.

Boiling water - we can do this, 7 minutes later and the pasta is done, right, now the complicated part, add some of what was the most brightly colored powdered "cheese" I have ever seen, some butter and some milk, then stir.

Once the correct creamy consistency had been achieved add to bowl and consume.

The dominant flavor is from the butter, considering the color of the cheese powder I didn't get the punchy cheese flavor I expected at all, mostly just butter. At this point several members of the tasting party wanted to stop but I insisted we at least give the meal a fair chance, maybe it grows on you?

Luckily we have 100% meat, Bacon Bits in the cupboard, with the addition of some dried meat and lashings of Tabasco sauce we finally managed to add some taste and finish the dish.

The final consensus on KD? wrong, bad. I can see how it would appeal to students but as a grown man who can cook this food stuff will never pass my lips again - unless I am paid a large some of money to recant this tale.

As an aside in the same time you could cook a simple cheese sauce and pasta from scratch - yes we realise this would be more expensive, but also you could cook pasta and toss it in butter with some black pepper and this would taste better and be cheaper, finish off with an apple and it is still cheaper and healthier...

Away: Johnny Rockets

Johnny Rockets is a diner style restaurant, they are spread all over the U.S. although we were lunching at the Yonge and Dundas square location.

Three of us were eating, and we all chose different meals, although each meal was pattie based, Alex ordered the Pattie Melt, I had the #12, and Wissy had the Original Burger.

Alex probably made the right choice, our burgers were a little bit too gooey, they tasted great but all of the more liquid ingredients squished out the sides and made eating much more messy than a burger should be. This didn't stop the burgers tasting great but it did detract from the overall experience. The Pattie Melt on the other hand, what a great idea, take all of the burger ingredients, spread them out on toast and apply heat, assemble as a sandwich - genius.

The service was good, although I do always feel as if there is something slightly more important going on somewhere else that the staff want to get on to, they are attentive and speedy but I always feel like we are not where they want to be. Which is a shame as 99% of Toronto seems to get the service thing spot on.

All of the sides were good, honest fries and tasty onion rings, and the soda was as good as post mix can be although I expect bottomless sodas in a diner and they weren't, maybe I am being a snob?

Home: The Humble Potato

We eat a lot of potato, or at least we eat potato lots of ways, there is a good reason it is a dietary staple.

Our current favorites are:

• Mashed
• Rosti
• Farl
• Gnocchi
• Baked

Although looking at this list I suddenly see that they are favorites because all of the cooking methods use butter (anther of our favorite foods) in varying degrees.

Mash

Although mash is simple it is also probably the most versatile here.

Wissy peels the potatoes, I don't - this is a personal preference / laziness thing, but chop them into manageble chunks and keep them at a rolling boil until a knife slides in smoothly - if you left the skin on it should be lifting away from the potato.

A sturdy masher is essential, a flimsy mashing tool means you will soon be buying another, and the design is important, it needs to be easy to clean, or get a dish washer, pretty mashers with nooks and crannies are soon regretted.

Add butter - a knob - and milk and start mashing, you don't want to much at first as you can't take it back and you don't want to make potato soup!

Once it is the correct consistence, some where between crushed and light and fluffy - your call, you can start the fun part. We often add chilly powder or mustard, but you can go wild - cheese, ketchup, horseradish, whatever compliments the food on your plate!

Rosti

I prefer this for breakfast but it works for a evening meal just as well.

Grate the uncooked potato roughly, then squeeze out as much moisture as you can with your hands. I then fashion this into patties, about 3 inches across and 1/2 an inch thick and (although they can be baked) mine go into a lightly oiled pan.

Once in the pan add butter around the edges of the rosti, this will keep the pan cooler and add rich colour and flavour. As it cooks and colours up flip them over and repeat on the other side. Keep the butter coming it is important.

Like burgers the colour of the outside is important but you also want them in the pan long enough to be cooked, the potato in the centre needs to be warm and translucent in that sort of cooked potato way.

Once done put on the plate, add ketchup and enjoy.

Farl

This is a fairly new edition to my potato repertoire, Farl, or Irish Potato Cake, and a god choice to use up left over mash.

Start like the mash but at the point of adding the extras add plain flour instead, keep mixing and adding flour until it all sticks together with a constancy like dough (bread dough or play dough are both good references depending on your cooking experience/age), at this point I have added chopped spring onions, diced left over bacon would be good too.

Once you have the potato dough, roll it out on a flat cool surface dusted with flour, into a circle and chop into quarters - this is apparently traditional but it also makes cooking easier if they are a manageable size. The Farl shouldn't be much more than 1/2 an inch thick.

Into the oiled frying pan, of course using butter to help the cooking process and once one side is brown flip and repeat.

Serve straight away, job done.

Gnocchi


These are good for impressing people but are simple to make, Gnocchi are italian potato dumplings.

Starting with a basic mash, cooked and ready to go, like the Farl add flour until you get the dough consistency. A this point instead of rolling them out flat shape them in your hands into little dumplings, about 3/4 of an inch long and 1/2 an inch across.

Once you have all the gnocchi prepared they are dropped into boiling water, cooking time is easy, once they are cooked they helpfully float scoop them off the surface and serve. They don't take long, normally about 2 minutes so don't walk away...

Any sauce you cook for pasta will work for gnocchi too

Baked

I have left the humble baked potato for last, there are too many ways to cook these, on a BBQ, wrapped in foil, par boiling first, the most important thing to know is that once you have decided on a method - and ours is often an hour in the oven wrapped in foil - the important part is poke it with a skewer to make sure it is cooked through, it should slide in easily.

To serve cut it in a cross at the top push open and add butter (of course)

I know this isn't an exhaustive list of potato recipes but they are our favorites...

Home: Guest Post on Kraft Dinner

The following is a Guest Post written by Jaclyn Yurek, I have not tried Kraft Dinner but the love shown for this food by Canadian students is amazing, the Wikipedia entry discusses Canadian Culture and the processed cheesy pasta snack - anyway - read on:

You crave it after a long hard day at work, you buy 10 boxes when it’s on sale at the grocery store because now it costs over a dollar, after a long night out at a bar it’s all you want to cure the hangover, not to mention you went to bed the night before just thinking of how great it will taste in the morning, you always eat a whole box when really, the serving size is 1/3.  It doesn’t matter because it’s Kraft Dinner. It’s easy to make, and no one ever follows the instructions just use a little bit of milk, a spoonful of butter, all of the cheesey magic that comes in the box and you’ve got yourself a mean pot of KD. 

Some may disagree, but Kraft Dinner is always best to eat just after it’s made.  None of this “left overs” business.  You either eat it all, or only make half a box. You can’t let Kraft Dinner go to waste, and saving it for another day by putting it in the fridge is just not the same.  The next day it’s always stringy and it loses its creamy goodness.

Some people new to North America who haven’t yet tried Kraft Dinner please take note.  You must buy the Kraft Dinner Original.  Don’t be confused by these other variations of Kraft Dinner that are in the grocery stores like “extra creamy”, “spirals”, “sharp cheddar” not to mention all of the fake Kraft Dinner brands out there that might look like Kraft Dinner but are in a different box with a different name.  None of these compare to Kraft Dinner Original (and there’s actually less in the box for most of them).  More recently since everyone’s on some kind of health kick, you can now get cauliflower noodles and whole-wheat noodles for Kraft Dinner.  Come on, go big or go home.  We’ve all dealt with the fact that it’s not good for us, but Kraft Dinner is a classic meal and not for those who can’t handle a good high calorie cheesey dish.

All in all, Kraft Dinner is really tasty. Enough said.  If you haven’t tried it, trust me it doesn’t disappoint.  And for those of you who might be resistant, just make half a box and I’m sure if you go out on any street in North America at 2am when all the bars are closing you could make a killing off of the leftovers.

TIP: could be served with cut up hot dogs, and ketchup (but really is best on its own).

Away: The Black Hoof, Toronto

It all started as a casual search on the Internet for one of Wissy's favorite foods, Bone Marrow, certainly an eclectic choice and not something that is available in every restaurant! the internet turned up several options in Toronto, most of which reviewed badly unfortunately. One though stood out, The Black Hoof and a plan was hatched.

Most of my work colleagues are quite squeamish about food but I bought it up, and after several comments about being a wrong un we had gathered another real food adventurer, Andy Clarke.  Plans made, on Thursday evening, Andy's last evening in Toronto we set off from Wellington, walking up Queen Street West - a favorite of all of us in search of "a meat and off-cut centric menu".


We arrived having been unable to book and were almost thwarted immediately, the wait was an hour, but we decided this was too important and hit a local dive bar to drink imported beers and increase our appetite.

On our return we could instantly see they had achieved their goal of being boisterous and casual, but with wine lists in hand and a big chalk board full of amazing foods our odyssey began...

Wissy had to have Roasted Bone Marrow, which was also the food to arrive, delicious and gloopy with a bowl of rock salt and a green garlicy accompaniment, already she looked satisfied!

Next up was Fois Touchon, a creamy slice of fois gras with honey and delicate brioche, again, shared, delicious, the balance of flavour between the honey and fois gras was devine, this was a dish we could of come to blows over.

Finally the starters were completed by a plate of meat - dried slices of hooved animals and fowl, all looking as good as it tasted with a pork fat whipped up into the guise of butter which spread on bread on its own would have been enough reason to visit the venue. By this point I had to stop taking pictures as I was going to miss out on the food...

On our second glass of wine or beer and onto the main events, everything we had chosen could be shared and we all sat forks poised for what ever would come next...

Beef Tartare - with slices of bread arranged quite prettily covered in egg yolk, again top notch, the best tartare I have had outside of Paris, the last slice of bread deftly cut into thirds by Wissy before we fought...

Pork belly and scallops came out, this could of been a heavy dish but the chef had captured the essence of the pork in bite size chunks without defeating us and again, the flavour combinations on the plate all matched, scallops and pork? We will all be trying this again before too long.

Finally, deep fried Sweetbreads, Fiddleheads and Ramps, as we are at the tail end of the fiddlehead season we couldn't of not ordered this dish, every element balanced and light, as it arrived while Andy was away from the table the temptation to scoff it down and hide the dish pretending it had never arrived was immense - but we would have been found out and we had to share so there will be one more person to discuss the meal with.

We had to end with dessert, there was no choice, just the menu item "Dessert", Wissy at this point was defeated but Andy and I ploughed on, and any dessert with deep fried brioche cannot be bad, right? Luckily it was yet again delicious, and just enough to complete a perfect evening of food. There was pineapple, passionfruit and the deep fried bread....

If I am in Toronto long term this will definitely be the go to venue when people visit, every dish was spot on, delicious and well presented, the staff were friendly, attentive and polite, and waiting an hour for a table was not a chore, especially as it was in a bar down the street waiting for our phone call from the waitress.

The bill - considering we drank and ate well was very reasonable, at $190 for 3 including taxes and tip. 10 out of 10 from all of us brave enough to visit.

Fun, food, and fiddleheads on Dundas West!