How was this for an idea? Get your closest friends together and share a romantic dinner around a beautiful hand crafted walnut table the night before the BIG day. That's exactly what we did: love, laughs and aphrodisiacs!
Last Saturday my family and I ventured over 2 bridges to Kitsilano to visit our friends Laura and Darren. I popped into Capers on 4th to get some last minute ingredients and the lady in front of me was quickly grabbing a few groceries for the house when her total bill came to $582.36, wow! How can we afford life anymore?
Any how, the menu for our night was Veal Scallopini and Tartufate Pasta.
Laura picked up the butcher pounded veal and I grabbed the ingredients for the pasta. I'm going to share this recipe with you all because it was AMAZING!
Veal Scallopini:
Ingredients:
Pounded veal
1 large Bocconcini
2 cups Panko
1 cup Flour
2 Egg
Olive and vegetable oil
DIRECTIONS:
Wisk eggs into a bowl and set aside
Pour flour into a separate bowl and add salt and pepper
Pour panko into a 3rd bowl and set a side.
Toss, piece by piece: veal into the flour, then the egg wash, then toss it in the panko and set a side on baking a sheet. Do this to every piece of Veal.
While the veal is sitting, heat in a large frying pan, 1 cup of oil (60% vegetable oil and 40% olive oil). When the oil is heated, drop one piece of veal into the pan at a time. 2 minutes each side and remove back to the baking sheet. Once all the veal has been fried, place a sliced piece of bocconcini on each veal and broil until the cheese has melted.
Season with salt and pepper and serve.
So, are you looking for the book that has all the answers about cooking? If so, this is it. The New Best Recipe puts the Joy of Cooking to shame if you ask me. Like the cover says, "would you make 38 versions of creme caramel to find the absolute best version?" No! That's what this book is about, look up Prime Rib and they will tell you each and every way they tried to cook it and which one was the best. I highly recommend this book as a staple for the kitchen. Sorry, not many pictures!
Available at many stores or my Moms book store, THE BOOK WAREHOUSE on Lonsdale. Say you know me and she might just give you a discount!
Happy reading.
Here's a terrific chardonnay from a very well know producer. Yes, Rodney Strong, has produced an excellent Chardonnay from the Chalk Hill District of California's wine region. This Chardonnay has both a creamy and crisp mouthfeel with lingering flavours of vanilla and spice. If you haven't tried chardonnay in a while, buy a bottle and pair it with a nice crab salad or seared scallops with vanilla bean butter. Sorry, no recipes this time.
*Remember, spicy foods and chardonnay don't pair well together.
2008 Rodney Strong 'Chalk Hill' Chardonnay
$26.99
Available at most government liquor stores
Speaking of places I love.....yes, the number one kitchen store in Vancouver if not, Canada is The Gourmet Warehouse http://www.gourmetwarehouse.ca/ at Hastings and Clarke. Ranging from the best of cookware to the sharpest and best of knives to frozen edible treats, this store will NEVER disappoint. Owner/operator Caren McSherry and her staff do a fabulous job at keeping the store jammed with all of the absolute necessities for your kitchen and home. Check it out!
Thank you Caren!
As you can see from this wonderful site, we have some pretty amazing shots of food, wine and friends. A great friend of mine, Vicki 'foto' Gannon was kind enough to snap a whack of high def pictures for The Fresh Thinking site. Thank you Vicki!
Check out her site, SHE ROCKS!!!
When it comes to pots and pans, hands down, I love cooking with Le Creuset. With an array of funky colours and in production for over 50 years you'd think they've master it and yes, they have. With even cooking, great weight and so easy to clean, these are the pots for Fresh Thinking Catering!
Expensive? Yes, but it appears they'll outlast my lifetime. So, be ready Sophie for my pots and pans!
Hello everyone,
Okay okay, its $95 a bottle BUT..... I had the opportunity to try the new vintage of Tignanello 2007 (80% Sangiovese, 15% Cabernet and 5% Cab Franc) on New Years Eve and what a treat!
"Tignanello 2007 is a wine which presents itself with a great impact. To the nose, this wine opens with a pleasant concentration of aromas ranging from ripe red fruit to spiciness; with hints of vanilla and toasty notes which compose a bouquet with great persistence and elegance. It is a wine of unquestionable personality, with typical characteristics which deeply bond the wine with the land where it was born, exalting and rewarding this maximum expression of the wonderfully ripened sangiovese, so particularly optimal in this harvest."*
* http://www.antinori.it/eng/vini/vini.php#
When I was in the wine industry I sold Antinori for over 5 years and was very lucky to try each and every vintage while I was working as a sales rep. The 2007 vintage is, BY FAR, the best vintage I have tasted. So, if it's in the budget, buy a bottle or two and lie it down for that special occasion. If you're lucky enough to find a magnum at your local government liquor store, grab one too!
http://www.bcliquorstores.com/product/705442
For those of you that have never been to Cioffi's deli and butcher on Hastings, you MUST go! I tend to purchase all of my meats, cheese's, truffle products (yum) and pasta's from this wonderful family run business. There is actually 2 stores right beside each other so try not to miss one of them. From excellent cut meats, sausages and free range chicken to the best of deli cheeses and pasta's, you must go. Cioffi's is located on Hastings, minutes from the PNE and is well worth the short drive.
Sorry, they don't have a website.
Directions:
As most of you know, I don't only 'cook!' My 'full time' job, if you want to call it that, is a personal trainer at Method Personal Training in West Vancouver. The reason for my comment above is that, it doesn't feel like work. I left that part of my life one and a half years ago to follow my passions in life. Life is too short, as they say. When my dad died, earlier then he should have, it taught me to enjoy life to its fullest and that is exactly what i'm doing. Working with Jamie and the crew at Method is 'unbelievable' the atmosphere is fun, motivating and energetic every single day and the clients only make it better. If you haven't walked in the door at Method, you really must do it soon.
Check us out!
http://www.methodpersonaltraining.com/
September 24,2010 at Mr. Case's house: A night of magical vintages of Dominus wines from Napa Valley. Vintages from 1991-2006 all paired with exotic game supplied by http://www.hillsfoods.com/ including muscovy duck breast, kangaroo, Chicken Ballantine, Venison and more.....
What a night
I'm lucky enough to have a friend with a beautiful 'Hells Canyon' river boat. Geoff Bamford, also our mortgage broker http://www.geoffbamford.ca takes us up the Fraser river every year for a day of salmon fishing and I must say it's the highlight to my summer. We almost never come home empty handed and last summer was no exception.
Here's one of our favorite salmon recipes when we get back home.
1 Cup of Brown Sugar
3/4 cup of Soy Sauce
2 TBS of vegetable or grape seed oil
2 TBS of grated fresh ginger
1 TBS grated orange zest
Handful of chopped cilantro
Mix above ingredients and cover over the salmon for at least 2 hours. If you're grilling on the BBQ, lie meat side down for 2 minutes to allow grill marks then flip to skin side down until 'just' cooked. Remember, overdone salmon is never any fun!!!
