Chris and Hiroko’s Yakiniku Extraveganza

Chris and Hiroko’s wedding was lovely and a lot of fun. We had the pleasure of spending a bunch of time with them and a group of their close friends. It was a quick but excellent trip. We arrived in Vancouver on Thursday and spent Friday and Saturday afternoon prepping for the reception meal.
We planned [...]

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Soy Based Dipping Sauce Recipes

These are the dipping sauce recipes used for Chris and Hiroko’s Yakiniku extravaganza. You really want to vary the ingredients to taste so use this just as a guide.
Ponzu Sauce
1/3 Cup Soy Sauce
3 tbsp Yuzu Crush (or use lemon juice)
3 tbsp Lemon Juice
1/3 cup Dashi
2 tbsp mirin
Chili vinegar soy sauce
4 tbsp chili paste (i used [...]

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Kombu and Katsuo Dashi Recipe

This is the Dashi recipe used for Chris and Hiroko’s Yakiniku extravaganza.
Kombu and Katsuo Dashi
8 inch kombu (dried kelp)
2/3 oz. (I just used a small handful) katsuobushi (dried bonito) flakes
4 and cups water
Bring to a boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Strain and use as a soup base or sauce ingredient.

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Caramalized onion tart with diced bacon and fennel

Could it be true? Dropping temperatures in late August, reminding us that summer won’t last forever. The perfect day for a caramelized onion tart for a late breakfast. This is sweet and savory all at once, the bacon and fennel coming together perfectly on the bed of caramelized onions.

You’ll need

About a cup of very active [...]

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Fife Flour Sourdough

Mr. Stephenson is a huge fan of Red Fife, an old Canadian wheat that has recently been experiencing a bit of a renaissance, and rightly so. As I was out of rye flour, I decided to try and adjust my standard rye sourdough to Red Fife – Mr. Stephenson made a light but intensely flavoured [...]

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Midweek baking

When Mr. Duess and Mr. Stephenson talk to friends, and frequently strangers, about their adventures in the kitchen where they bake bread, cure meats and lure unsuspecting lacto-acidic bacteria into carefully prepared habitats there’s one all to frequent question:
“Where do you find the time?”
Now, both Mr. Duess and Mr. Stephenson are far from being retired, [...]

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Dry Cure

Summary: This is a simple dry cure for meats – based on Michael Ruhlman’s recipe in “Charcuterie”

Ingredients

450g of KOSHER salt – make sure its Kosher
225g of sugar or 425g dextrose (dextrose is less sweet – it cuts the salt without making your meat too sweet)
50g of pink curing salt (Prauge Powder#1 or Instacure#1)

(Dextrose and curing [...]

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Italian Pancetta Spice Blend

Summary: This is an italian pancetta spice blend

Ingredients

4 cloves of garlic, minced
2 tbsp brown sugar
4 tbsp black pepper
2 tbsp juniper berries
4-6 bay leaves crumbled
1 tsp freshly ground nutmeg
plenty sprigs of fresh thyme

Instructions

This is a recipe based on traditional pancetta spices. There are as many versions of this recipe as there are bacons in the world [...]

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Five Spice-esque cinnamon bacon blend

Summary: This is a spice mix based loosly on Chinese Five Spice

Ingredients

1 1/2 tbsp star anis
1 1/2 tbsp fennel
3 2″ cinnamon sticks
1/2 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tbsp white pepper
1 tsp whole cloves

Instructions

This recipe is a variation on the traditional chinese five spice. As always with the spice mixes – its just a starting point, vary the [...]

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