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One of the many hats I wear is as a recipe tester for Michael Ruhlman on his last couple of books, first Ratio and now the upcoming Ruhlman’s Twenty. Throughout the testing process, hosted by the inimitable Marlene at Cook’s Korner, I got to see a number of the recipes in the book, but by [...]

For years, the only way I’d ever experienced squid was in its fried form – a form that has long been a favourite of mine and my husband’s. So I still remember the first time I ever had grilled squid, because it was so different from my previous experiences and so, so delicious. It was [...]

Today is Victoria Day, which marks the unofficial start of the planting season for most gardeners in Southern Ontario. I have yet to see much in the way of local farmed spring vegetables. On the other hand, foraged foods have abounded: fiddleheads, ramps, morels and, lately, spruce tips. Spruce tips are exactly what they sound [...]

I have no more intention of making this blog about TV than I do of making it about restaurant reviews: frankly, I try to limit my TV consumption, and when I do watch, it’s rarely food programming anymore. But I’ve been a longstanding fan of the Top Chef series, so I was intrigued to see [...]

Unsurprisingly, I came back from Ottawa with a renewed enthusiasm for playing around in the kitchen, and especially to tackle some of the projects I’d had less success with the first time around. First on that list: retrograde starch mashed potatoes. This time, I had a better idea of what was essential to the process [...]

Under normal circumstances, I wouldn’t write about the same topic twice in such rapid succession, but these aren’t quite normal circumstances. You see, after following their blog for years and waiting for the right opportunity to come along, I finally get to eat a meal prepared by Ideas in Food (or, at least, half of [...]

In Canada, maple syrup is classified into three grades and five colours: Canada No. 1 syrup is divided into “extra light,” “light” and “medium” colours; Canada No. 2 is also called “amber” and Canada No. 3 is “dark.” Unlike the USDA classifications, we have no grades “A” or “B”, though USDA Grade A is essentially [...]

The weather outside is starting to hint at spring, and that can mean only this: it’s maple syrup season! In their book Culinary Artistry, Andrew Dornenburg and Karen Page have a list of flavours associated with various cultures. The entry for Canada consists of only one word: maple. (Even Canadian bacon didn’t make the cut, [...]

As a meat-eater, I feel that it’s important to adopt a “whole beast” approach to the animals I eat. For two reasons: first, it’s less wasteful than eating only the “premium” cuts, and allows you to get more nourishment out of each animal. And second, because it acknowledges that the meat you are eating comes [...]

Although I clearly don’t mind using the occasional additive in my cooking, my collection of modernist food chemicals is still far from complete. So while everyone else I know has been busy making the macaroni and cheese from Modernist Cuisine, I’ve had to hold back, for want of carrageenan. (I do have the sodium citrate, [...]