Taste is a funny thing.
Have you ever noticed how you loved a certain premade food until you tried its homemade counterpart?
I find this happens to me all the time. So much so that I sometimes make a concerted effort not to eat something in its homemade form that I already love just so I can continue to enjoy it. The best examples I can draw on for this would be chocolate bars. Even though I don’t eat much in the way of mass-market chocolate anymore, I still enjoy the occasional 3 Musketeers or Crunchie, and have no intention of learning how to make the various components by hand (purely for the sake of time and my lack of it) thus the reason I shy away from most handmade candy bars and choose to focus more on pure chocolate instead.
Certain simpler tastes from childhood, like Kraft Dinner (which I rarely, if ever consume anymore, preferring Annie’s Homegrown if we’re talking packaged) or a yellow can of Habitant pea soup no longer satisfy for no reason other than that any homemade version is leaps and bounds better. In that regard, I often choose to go without until I’m in the mood to prepare something, rather than settle for an inferior product that’s not going to cut it.
Most recently I had this “aha” moment with a Jos Louis. Ever since I was a child, Jos Louis’ were the sweet of choice when I happened to be granted a special treat. And again, though I don’t eat them as often as back then, I still occasionally nibble them (usually when I’m sick and in need of childlike comforting). The only difference was this time after one bite of the chocolate-coated cakey pastry, I’d lost that lovin’ feeling. You see, the week prior I’d made homemade whoopie pies for the first time, and having that fantastic taste memory so near to the top of my consciousness made the store-bought cake pale in comparison.
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Tags: 3 Musketeers, Annie's Homegrown, Betty Crocker, candy bars, Chef Boyardee, Crunchie, Jos Louis, Kraft Dinner, packaged, pantry, Purveyors, ramblings, taste, Wonder Bread
Posted in Nonsense, Purveyors | 1 Comment »
Yesterday, after surprisingly little prodding, I managed to successfully coerce the Everyman into joining me for an afternoon at the Royal Agricultural Winter Fair.
As far as I can recall I don’t think I’ve ever visited “The Royal” before, but if I did, it was probably during some grade school field trip or something nearly 20 years ago. I can vividly recount visits to the Winnipeg version of The Royal, if for no other reason than the presence of Bonhomme (du neige). Bonhomme is the mascot of the Quebec winter carnival, but there’s a surprisingly large French population in Winnipeg, so for some reason he makes an appearance there, too. The toboggan slaloms were pretty awesome as well, which unfortunately isn’t something we’d ever see in Ontario, I imagine.
Up until a few weeks ago I really had no yearning to go to the Ontario Royal. But, when I met my editor Sheryl at Pantry for lunch a few weeks ago (aside from having an utterly scrumptious mushroom and oxtail tart) she made an off-the-cuff remark that made me wonder how much of a foodie destination The Royal might be.
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Tags: Beau's Natural Beer, beer, Bonhomme, butter, Carmichaels, cheese, cows, cured meats, European Quality Meats, From These Roots, jam, Kernal, LCBO, Monforte Dairy, pantry, peanut butter, Pristine Gourmet, Purveyors, Rootham's Gourmet, Southbrook Winery, The Royal Agricultural Winter Fair, Traditions Of Thornloe, Upper Canada Cheese, vinegar, wine, Woolwich Dairy
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Human beings are creatures of habit.
Ever noticed you’ve eaten the same few foods for breakfast or lunch every day for 3 weeks straight, or regularly cooked with the same flavor profiles week in, week out?
If you ask anyone who loves to cook, they’ll probably tell you they have a few favorites or secret weapons in their arsenal used to spice up everyday meals. In this installment of The Foodie 13, we’ll take a look at the few staple ingredients I always need to keep on hand.
1 – Chili Salt - I first started grinding my own chili salt last fall, after my Chinese 5 Color Pepper plant produced so many little peppers that I didn’t know what to do with them all. A small bite on the deck early one morning convinced me they were much too piquant to eat on their own, and by that time I’d already canned my pickled jalapenos for the year. Not wanting to waste any of my harvest bounty, I buried the chilis in a jar full of sea salt. Once the chilis were completely dehydrated, I dug them out, removed the stems and then pulsed them with salt in the food processor. A tiny pinch is all you need to make any dish sing; from simply grilled grass-fed burgers, to sticky roasted pork belly, to sumptuous salted caramel, everything it touches tastes that much better. The bit of kick it brings to the table isn’t half bad either.
2 – Tomato Powder - Several years ago while walking home from work one day, I discovered The Spice Trader, at the time a newly opened flavor emporium. I wandered in curious and walked out with $250 worth of oils, vinegars and spices – there really are some things I have no restraint over. While there were many more exotic spices purchased that day that I still love and use all the time, tomato powder is the one I most often come back to. A pinch of it often turns up to season my grilled grass-fed burgers, and a few dashes works wonders in a marinade or dry rub. It can be stirred into sauces for a quick and concentrated hit of flavor, or dusted onto bread dough before it goes into the oven. While the texture and color may remind some of the crusty clumps that can be found at the bottom of a bag of ketchup chips, I can assure you that tomato powder is to it what olive oil is to I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter; a relative only in that they share a similar name (in the second case, that would be fat, in case you’re wondering).
3 – Coffee Olive Oil - Another one of my prized finds from that first outing to The Spice Trader was a rather expensive bottle of coffee olive oil. It may sound strange, and it’s definitely a little extravagant, but the 500 mL bottle will last you forever (if it’s properly stored) and has a multitude of uses. Start off slowly by using it instead of regular olive oil in an oil and balsamic bread dipper. The roasted, nutty undertones are quite unlike anything else; except perhaps coffee (which I don’t drink, so I wouldn’t know). It tastes divine drizzled on fresh tomatoes off the vine, sprinkled with a pinch of salt and a few basil leaves, and adds that bit of je ne sais quoi to a loaf of focaccia just before it hits the oven. Used to dress a simple sauteed mushroom sauce for pasta, there’s almost nothing better. The first time the Everyman tried it he said he didn’t like it all that much, but since then I’ve used it in a variety of foods that he almost always loves (and usually doesn’t even discern that this is what’s in there).
4 – Sherry Vinegar - It’s only recently that I’ve started to enjoy sherry vinegar, but it’s one of those things I can’t believe I missed out on for so long. I first purchased some at the beginning of the year to make one of the many homemade chorizo recipes I was testing. The chorizo recipe may not have wowed me (it was the one that turned out watery and unappetizingly grey) but the sherry vinegar came out a winner. Its flavor marries well in pickling liquids, vinaigrettes, and especially the fresh shredded vegetable salad I make that the Everyman loves so much (beets, carrots and sunchokes or celeriac). Now that I’ve found it, I can’t live without it, and I’m coming up with more uses for it every day.
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Tags: bulgur, chili salt, coffee olive oil, Cooking, essentials, food, hard wheat flour, Lists, miso paste, multigrain pasta, oven-dried tomatoes, panko breadcrumbs, pantry, parmagiano reggiano, pesto, porcini mushrooms, sherry vinegar, The Foodie 13, The Spice Trader, tomato powder
Posted in Cooking, Foodie 13, Lists | 2 Comments »
