2008 Chianti by Fontodi, italy.
I'd put this up against any tuscan wine under $75. This chianti is drinking amazing for $33.99 and available at most of your government liquor stores.
Ingredients:
Savary Island Pie Company Italian Loaf
Tons of butter
Chilli flakes
Parsley
Garlic, peeled and crushed.
Directions:
Cut bread into slices
In a large frying pan, melt butter, add garlic, chilli flakes and parsley. Once melted. Dip each piece of bread into the butter and dip each side. Grill on the BBQ or oven bake. If you're using the bbq, be cautious as the butter will flare up so keep an eye on it. About 2 minutes per side.
Yes, 3 lbs of rib eye steak with a HUGE exposed bone! As my daughters says "nummeeeee!"
My new favorite cut as it WOWS the guests with the size and flavors of rib eye from the great marbling make it a melt in your mouth steak. Marinated in simply olive oil, rosemary, rock salt, pepper and garlic. Allowed to warm to room temperatue then hit on the webber charcoal grill.
Served with our home made canned balsamic organic figs.
A fun way to spice up your salad.
Organic romaine hearts available at most major grocery stores. Cut in half lengthwise and grill for a minute or two on each side just to allow some grill marks.
For the dressing, I wing together the following:
One raw organic egg
splash of lea and perrins
Splash of red wine vinegar
Splash of hot sauce
one clove of crushed garlic
one tsp of dijon
squeeze of lemon
10 crushed and flattened capers
squeeze of anchovy paste
S&P
Mix well then whisk in grapeseed oil. I find that olive oil is a little overpowering but feel free to use it.
Drizzle over the romaine hearts and top with slices of parmesan reggiano.
Yes, the kids were off to school and what better way to prepare them for the school year then to teach them how to cook a simple pasta, pan sear and oven roast the perfect steak and whip up a simple green salad.
Hosted in West Vancouver, we prepared a 3 course dinner to which all of the students particpated in.
Flown in to cook for a dinner with friends in family at beautiful Savary Island. The day started with visiting the local organic farm in Lund, BC where we packed our baskets with fresh organic vegetables, organic eggs, feta and free range organic whole chickens.
Dinner was a magnificent spread of grilled romaine lettuce, local BC spot prawns, an array of organic grilled vegetables, our famous grilled garlic bread with hot chillies and grilled spatchcock chickens.
And lets not forget breakfast. Savary Island Pie Company italian loaf soaked in cinnamon, 3% milk and organic eggs to make incredible french toast accompanied by local vanilla yogurt and fresh jams.
30 guests on a 140 ft vessel. It was a wonderful day in vancouver as the yacht headed up indian arm and all was good with a tapas menu ranging from Garlic jumbo prawns, digby scallops with pea shoots and pancetta to and our signature sliders. Always a good day when sailing!
Well, under $30 for a bottle of wine is doable if you ask me. So, for the month of October at the Park Royal Goverment liquor store you can buy this wonderful bottle of wine for $28 and change .
This Sangiovese merlot is terrific with rich hearty fall meals.
I hope you love it!
A
Okay, here's a fall pasta that is to die for:
Ingredients:
Truffle oil
Truffle salt
Pappardelle or linguini
Heavy cream
Dried mushrooms
Fresh Portobello or Chanterelle's
Fresh sage and Thyme
Shallots
DIRECTIONS:
Boil water for the pasta
Boil 500ml of water and soak 1 1/2Cups of dried mixed mushrooms. (let sit for 20-30min)
Strain mushrooms from the water and save the stock and discard the soaked mushrooms.
Sautee 2 finely diced shallots in a pan. Once soft, add the mushroom stock and 250ml of heavy cream and reduce until half. 25-30 minutes or so. This is the base to your sauce!
Once reduced, sautee 2 cups of diced fresh mushrooms (either portobello or Chanterelle or both) along with another diced shallot. Sautee until soft. Pour in the reduced sauce and stir in 25ml of truffle oil, stir and let simmer.
While the sauce is blending it's flavours, throw your pasta into the pot and cook until al dente. Strain from the water and toss the pasta into the sauce and mix. Season with truffle salt.
Garnish with thin slices of parmesan and finely chopped flat leaf parsley.
Enjoy with some italian grape juice ;-) Perhaps a brunello!
Okay, for those of you that have not tried this 'trendy' new cheese then you must do. Burrata, has in fact been around since the 1900's but has recently become all the rage in the soft cheese category. It's the buffalo mozzarella of cheeses. Hmmmm, what cheese will be next???
Anyhow, a bit about Burrata by wikipedia: It is a fresh italian cheese, made from mozzarella and cream. The outer shell is solid mozzarella while the inside contains both mozzarella and cream, giving it an unusual, soft texture. It is usually served fresh, at room temperature. The name "burrata" means "buttered" in Italian.
History: Burrata is a typical product of the Murgie in Puglia, a region in the south of Italy. It is produced from cow's milk, rennet and cream. Burrata was probably first made around 1920 or possibly 1900 on the Bianchini farm in the city of Andria in Murgia, an area in the Apulia region. In the 1950s, it became more widely available after a few of the local cheese factories began producing it. It is generally believed that factories found it a way to utilize the ritagli ("scraps" or "rags") of mozzarella. Established as an Artisanal cheese, Burrata maintained its premium-product status even after it began to be made in a number of factories throughout Apulia.
Now this brings me to my experience. A friend of mine dropped in the other day and gave me a huge chunk of Bresaola (air cured beef). What a treat I must say. That same day, another lovely friend of mine gave me two containers of Burrata. Well, what to do? I went over to my friend Jesse's house and as we were watching the kids as the wives went out on the town, I began to build our masterpeice. Below is a presentation of Bresaola, fresh burrata from Bosa Foods and topped with fresh Arugula and dash of Truffle Oil. Oh, and how can I forget, a couple of great bottles of Brunello. Man, life is GOOD!
Here's dinner the other night:
Bone in pork chops from Windsor meats in Edgemont Village. I tried for Veal chops but sold out!
Recipe:
Render a handful of chopped pancetta and remove the meat from the pan.
Pan sear the previously seasoned (salt and pepper) chops to the high heated pan and sear each side.
Transfer the pan to an oven at 400F and cook till your liking.
Let the meat rest on a plate (minimum 10 minutes).
While resting, pan fry some shallots in the existing pan and add 250ml of chicken stock and reduce. Before the stock has evaporated, add 250ml of heavy cream and a TBS of peppercorns. Add the any remaining juices from the resting pork. Reduce until thick and add the previously seared pancetta.
Slice up your pork chops and smother in the peppercorn sauce.
Served with portabello, truffle linguini and fresh sautee'd asparagus.
Oh, and a nice bottle of Piane Delle Vigne 2005 Brunello to go along!
Okay, now that everyone has moved on to Burrata, I thought i'd go back to some Buffalo.
Here's a little creation I whipped up the other night.
Buffalo Mozzarella cheese with fresh cherry tomatoes and panko crusted Zucchini.
For the Zucchini, toss in Panko and sear quickly, toss in the oven at 400 for a couple of minutes and let cool. We do not want the Zucchini to be mushy but rather slightly crisp.
Present the items on a plate and drizzle with reduced balsamic.
Yumm!
Dinner at home:
Fresh pan seared and oven roasted halibut above grated potato cake, sauteed vegetables and panko crusted red tomato, all drizzled in a citrus butter and topped with crispy pancetta
June 17th, 70 terrific guests and all the photo's to match:
As we all know the Masters comes once a years as does the Super Bowl. This years Masters party was held at my good friend, Morris's house. The menu was gourmet home made pizzas for lunch followed by veal, pork and beef lasagna with caesar salad and garlic bread.....oh, and did I mention great wine?
Here's a gem for $39.99. Villa Di Capezzana is 80% Sangiovese 20% cabernet and boasts dense and sweet tannins while having well balanced acidity in harmony with both texture and body. A long and persistent finish with fruit flavors fromsmall red fruits and ending with spicy tones. Great with a robust red meat meal.
Available at Park Royal Liquor store in West Vancouver.
Here's a refreshing drink for when Spring actually kicks in...weather wise!
1.5 oz of Campari (an aperitif that is derived from the infusion of herbs and fruit)
3 oz of San Pellegrino Aranciata
Slice of blood orange
Serve over ice
Thank you to all of my friends and family for helping me with the launch of Fresh Thinking
Vicki: Thank you for all of your great photography
Tim: Thank you for being my right hand man in the kitchen and always creating a fun environment for us in the heat of the kitchen
Morris: Thank you for always offering Fresh Thinking your beautiful house and for being my most 'honest' food critic
Scott: Thank you for developing this amazing site
Mum: Thank you for inspiring me to cook and for being mum
Katrinna: Thank you for being my right hand female sous chef. I'm always inspired by your ideas
Jamie: Thank you for being my biggest food fan
My wife: Thank you for testing my food creations every night of the week and thank you for being my best friend
Thank you to all of my friends and family that are my biggest food fans during family Football Sundays
Food, wine and friends.....
When it comes to things I love in the kitchen, I only have a few besides a super sharp GLOBAL knife. One of the others is my lovely Mandolin which I got for Christmas one year from my mum. Of course, she bought it at the Gourmet Warehouse, where else?
The one below is the Cadillac of Mandolins but there are many other affordable ones to choose from.
Great for cutting french fries, thinly slicing beets or fennel and the list goes on.
Watch your fingers!
So everybody knows Croc's?!?! Yes, the casual shoe that allowed people to wear rubber on the shores, streets or in their gardens. So now there is, Native, a terrific story of a group of local guys that got together and loved the 'concept' of croc but lets be honest, "would you wear them out in public and feel cool?" That brings me to Native shoes, a comfortable, rubber shoe with style! Ranging from a the look of VANS, Converse, and Hunter boots that all boast a rainbow of the coolest colours.
I love to cook in these shoes every night at home and they are always a crowd pleaser at my events. I highly recommend you pick up a pair for around the house, boat, garden or for the streets. Available at a few stores that I know of in Vancouver: The Boardroom and or Homewerx.
