A Memorable Christmas 2013

Christmas 2013 will definitely be one of the most memorable Christmas to date for us Torontonians. The ice storm left 150, 000 homes in Toronto without power at its peak and it has been more than a week since the 21st, yet some 600 families are still without power as of this morning the 30th. So a lot of families had to spend Christmas in the dark. We were fortunate enough to have our power restored within 24hrs.

It sure does look beautiful with the sunlight glisten off the ice on the branches. But it makes you question how something that looks so pretty can be so devastating leaving so many homes in the dark. So we are very thankfully to (our heavenly father) and the hydro workers for returning our power so quickly in 24hrs.

This was what we were having for dinner just as our lights came back on. It was a Chinese herbal chicken soup to be eaten as a hot pot soup base and you can probably tell we cooked it on a butane stove. The weather has been quite cold the past weeks so our fridge was stocked, so even though our dinner plans were thrown off a bit we were lucky to have a nice meal in the warmth of home with our heat and lights back on by dinner time. And we were fortunate to have our Christmas brought back to us while so many were still sitting in the dark and cold.

The next post will be in 2014, so I want to wish everybody a safe and warm Happy New Year!!!

Duck Confit Part III: Easy & FailProof Confit

After the previous long posts of some background on Confit. I will try to keep this short & sweet

by giving you an easy recipe on making your own at home. It's so simple you will wonder why have it any other way.

 

Confit is best accompanied with something hearty such as brown rice, couscous or potatoes.

Things You Will Need:

-about 1.25 L or 5 cups of duck fat

-Cast Iron or Ceramic pot (if not, any Oven-Proof Casserole)

-Bread Pan (Preferably Glass)

-resealable glass container (Preferably square or rectangular as long as it is flat so marinade can circulate)

-Glass Jars (to preserve duck fat)

-a pair of chopsticks or skewers (when without, replace with fork)

Ingredients:

-5 cups of duck fat (you can render your own by saving scrapings or buy it from supermarket for the 1st time)

-a whole head of garlic and 4 additional cloves

-4-6 duck legs

-Handfuls of Coarse Salt & Pepper

-4 sticks of Thyme or any herbs you like

-2-3 Bay leaves

Tip: Do not throw out the fat after cooking!!! It can be reused.

You can save the fat after each time you make confit and increasingly after each consecutive time you will have more and more fat leftover.

Duck Confit Part II: Gascon Culinary Tradition (Recipe)

   The following recipe comes from a 19th century manuscript based on the Gascon culinary tradition of preparing confit. And the manuscript itself is based on a 18th century original that provides us with a glimpse of how the tradition of making confit was practiced in South-western France.

It should be noted that the process of making confit have remained essentially the same for at least the past 200 years, especially to those that are familiar with contemporary methods of preparing confit. So by the following the instructions below, you will wind up with pretty much the same confit that is served in Gascony today as it was found 200  years ago.

*(Except it might be a little saltier and lack of the convenience of modern amenities like gas/electric stoves & a fridge)

Method:

1. Preparation begins by bleeding the geese at the neck and scald them in hot in order to remove their feathers.
2. After plucking their feathers, hang the individual geese on  hooks to air dry them for 48 or 60hrs in an airy & cool place depending on temperature.
3. Following the drying process, cut the necks off and divide the geese into 4 quarters plus the rumps.
4. Take 4 big handfuls of crushed salt for each goose and 3 or fewer for each duck. So use more or less depending on size. Rub each quarter, neck and rump hard & long in order to absorb the salt.
5. Place the salted quarters in an earthenware crock or large pot and cure the flesh for 48hrs.
6. During the curing process, put the fat and fatty scraps all cut in to even sized pieces into a kettle and melt the fat on an extremely low fire, without boiling  or even simmering.
7. Strain the melted fat into a clean crock and save the fat.
8. Remove the quarters from the crock and clean off all the salt then wipe and dry the quarters on all sides by patting them with a clean cloth and when cleaned, place them in a very clean crock.
9. Take the rendered fat the day before and pour it into the bottom of a kettle, then add the breasts & legs besides each other and in layers. Then add the rumps, gizzards and necks into the kettle.
10. Place the kettle over a small & very gentle fire for 1 1/2 hrs counting from when the fat begins to melt. Make sure the fat does not boil.
11. After the 1 1/2hrs, raise the fire slightly and cook for another half an hour, then followed by using a bright hot fire to bring to a slow boil while keeping control for another 1/2hr.
12. Once the quarters are cooked, remove quarters, rumps and necks then leave the fat to rest and the quarters to be drained and cool to handle. Then place all the quarters in an earthenware crock and the rest of the flesh in a separate crock to be stored.
13. The last step that remains is simply to pour the cooked fat into the crocks and store them in a dry place while ensuring they are air tight by sticking strips of paper around the seams of the covering, 

The finished product are meant to be kept for three years, where people in Gascony almost never eat the stocks in the 1st year and wait until at least the 2nd year. As a result, it gives off a signature rancid flavour in which they believe has more taste.


References:
Schneider, Edward. “Of Goose in Gascony: The Making of Confit in Centuries Past.”
   Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 2, No. 3 (Summer 2002): 49–58.


Others in the Series:
Duck Confit (Confit de Canard) Part I: Historical Perspective 
Duck Confit Part III: Easy & FailProof Confit

Duck Confit (Confit de Canard) Part I: Historical Perspective

When you are out to have a nice dinner with friends or family and somebody suggests French food, what is the first thing that comes to your mind? More than likely you are thinking of Gratin Dauphinois or Confit de Canard.

Contemporary views on global cuisine see Confit de Canard as one of the staples of French cuisine in the transnational world, where French inspired restaurants and bistros serve duck confit. But up until the twentieth century, confit was simply the traditional method of preparing poultry in southwestern France particularly in the region of Gascony dating back to at least two hundred years ago.

A Typical Landscape of Gascony

The contemporary notoriety of confit can be attributed to the fact that when one travels to Gascony, Languedoc or the French Riviera, duck confit is easily accessible. And because Confit de canard is a sophisticated, yet rustic dish that is rich in flavour making it one of the most popular French dishes. As a result confit has been articulated as one of the representative dishes of contemporary French cuisine.

It was not until the rise of French nationalism during the Enlightenment period, was there an expansion of French cuisine as gourmet on a transnational level, which is evident of the shops and restaurants found in Paris. Because, prior to the late eighteenth century the notion of French cuisine that embodied the French identity of sophistication and class did not exist. Following the abolishment of guilds, it gave way to the commodity of commercial foods through a wide market of consumerism and an array of shops that offered prepared foods ready for consumption in urban French areas.

So by the late eighteenth century Paris already had an extremely large and rich food offering in public food establishments, such as restaurants and Patisseries. As a result, Paris became known as a Mecca of food consumerism through its wealth of shops and restaurants.

References:

Schneider, Edward. “Of Goose in Gascony: The Making of Confit in Centuries Past.” Gastronomica: The Journal of Food and Culture, Vol. 2, No. 3
(Summer 2002): 49–58.

Jones, Olive R. “Commercial Foods, 1740-1820.” Historical Archaeology, Vol. 27, No. 2 (1993): 25–41.
Trubek, Amy B. Haute Cuisine: How the French invented the culinary profession. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2000.
Image:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/feyte/6492447251/

Others in the Series:
Duck Confit Part II: Gascon Culinary Tradition (Recipe)
Duck Confit Part III: Easy & Fail Proof Confit

What is French Cuisine?

French or Haute, Italian and (Spanish) small plate dishes nowadays are the trend of popular cuisine that defines Western cuisine.  
But an existing pattern shows that many people have a total disregard or simply just don't care whether the dish they are eating is authentic or not.

So what is it that makes a dish French, is it because: 

(a) it's prepared by a person of French background
(b) is consumed by French people
(c) found in France

Many of the new and trendy restaurants today have disregarded the authenticity of dishes belonging to one's culture. And based on contemporary views of authenticity, there is no true definition of authentic cultural cuisine but simply a social construction of the food that we are used to eating interpreted as authentic. (i.e. just because you are dining in a bistro that serves French food, does not mean the dish in front of you is French)

Some authors such as Kwan have argued that authentic cuisine is the result of social conditioning that a person interprets as an authentic dish. Take a look at French cuisine for example, authentic French cuisine exists differently depending on the region of France. So authenticity is produced and not self-existing. (What is considered French food in Gascony may not be in Alsace)

Tarte Flambée (Alsatian)

Confit de Canard (Gascon)

What I am trying to get at here is that authenticity in cultural cuisine does exists and it is the interpretation that leads to erasure.

According to my background, authentic Chinese food to me would be Cantonese cuisine found in Hong Kong and while that is true, I consider Szechuan, Hakka and Beijing (many other regions) to be authentic as well. But, to say fusion and other interpretations of Chinese food (Mandarin buffet, Chinese take-outs or Chop Suey) as authentic then I find that problematic.

貴妃雞 Imperial Consort Chicken (Authentic Chinese)

左公雞 General Tso's Chicken (Americanized Chinese)

Similarly, if you bring "Americanized" Italian cuisine to an Italian of older generation or a person born and raised in Italy, it is not Italian food.

In conclusion, I am not saying that fusion or reinvented interpretations of cultural dishes are bad, in fact I support it. Because it allows us to better understand the interaction and interrelationship between cultural identities and cuisine. But when it comes to authenticity, we cannot take it for grant it and assume the dish we ordered is authentic just because the menu said so.

References:
Chinese Restaurants, dir. Chuek Kwan, 120 min. Tissa Films, 2005. DVD
Pictures:
http://yummyinmytumbly.tumblr.com/image/43344426190
http://www.flickr.com/photos/kwongeats/8287776424/
http://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/eats/best-new-york-general-tso-chicken-article-1.1241839
http://www.bonappetit.com/recipes/2013/03/cioppino
http://www.gourmet.com/recipes/2000s/2004/12/seafood-stew

Making Your Own Heart Too Soft

Let's start off the blog with a post on what a Heart Too Soft is and how to make your own. Heart Too Soft is simply a molten chocolate lava cake, but surprisingly many people don't know what it is and some have never even heard of it.

So let's spread the love for this wonderful dessert!

This is what a perfect molten chocolate lava cake should look like. The outer shell of the cake is suppose to be crunchy, while the heart of it oozes like liquid chocolate (hence the name: Heart Too Soft) that melts in your mouth.

The lava cake is considered a high end dessert usually only found in high end restaurants, but surprisingly as you will see below it is very easy to make it yourself at home.

The following recipe is a simplified version that is guaranteed to give you a perfect Heart Too Soft on par to those found in boutique bakeries or in high end restaurants (in my opinion).

Ingredients:

-(use foil of butter) to butter insides of 4 ramekins

-a stick of butter (125g)

-bar of good quality dark chocolate (100g)

-2 eggs

-1/4 cup of sugar

-3 Tbsp of flour