Saviolo
Saviolo's JournalCheesy Corn Grits recipe (plus bonus Grits and Brisket!)
Though we live in Ontario, now, hubby (the trained chef) comes from Texas. When he ran his restaurant here, he wanted to include some dishes with a creole or southern influence, and one of the most satisfying dishes he made was grits and brisket. He wanted to introduce Canadians to cheesy, creamy, buttery corn grits with tender seared brisket, and a perfect sunny-side-up egg. Lots of customers were a little put off by the reputation that grits has (for some reason), but almost everyone who tried this dish found it deeply satisfying. I mean it's hard to go wrong with cheese, cream, and butter!
Important to remember to take these off the heat a little before they reach your desired thickness, because they will continue to carry over and thicken after they are taken off the heat. Also, the grits will cook into a sort of gel that may stick to your pot, so you'll want to keep stirring once it has become thick and translucent, and certainly after you've added your cheese and butter. Our recipe for brisket is one of the first videos we ever did on YouTube (actually our second ever), and is linked at the end of this video.
Japanese Fried Pork Cutlet - Tonkatsu Recipe
Last Japanese dish for a while, I promise! We had just come into some great ingredients and we wanted to use them. This week it's the classic pork katsu (or tonkatsu) recipe. This is very much like the kind you would find a nice Japanese restaurant either sliced on a dish on its own, or sliced over a bowl of udon or donburi. We show two different methods of seasoning for the dish, one where we season after it comes out of the oil, and one where we season the meat before it gets its breading. Important that you don't want to season the flour or breadcrumbs, because it may denature the oil while it's frying. You also need to make sure the oil is good and hot before your cutlets go in, because if it's not hot enough, it will soak into the cutlet and will make things oily and greasy.
We also discovered that it's ridiculously easy to make the restaurant-style katsu sauce! That's included in the video as well. Really tasty and zingy. Be careful with the liquid smoke if you decide to use it, as too much will make it taste like BBQ sauce, not quite what we were looking for. We'll be doing a video on our homemade ketchup when tomatoes are back in season around here!
Scheer's "positivity" campaign covering up his anti-LBGTQ+ voting history
Keep an eye on Andrew Scheer:
https://twitter.com/That_Edward/status/1129156399374716934
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@That_Edward
Gentle reminder; while Andrew Scheer is running a ‘positivity’ campaign and is refusing to release a full policy platform, we are already well aware of his ideals for how Canada should regress. Remember how happy we were with legalizing gay marriage? Andy does. #ScheerIgnorance
Japanese Sweet Soy Spinach - Gomaae Recipe
So, hubby lived for a while in San Jose, California, and was introduced to sushi down there. One of the first dishes he had at the sushi restaurant he went to was this spinach in a sweetened soy sesame sauce called gomaae, and he's loved it ever since. He's sort of synthesized his own recipe from several different methods he's found.
It's a really tasty dish, a little bit sweet, but with lots of savoury flavour from the sesame and soy sauce. We're lucky enough to have some local shops that stock the black sesame paste that we use here, but if you can't find it locally, you can certainly find it online. It's an amazing ingredient, similar in consistency to tahini, but using black sesame instead of white.
Productive discussion during the primaries
So, it's primary season again, and all of the same types of arguments are breaking out again. Sniping and smirking, snark and smugness.
Can we all stop for just 5 seconds before we post something and ask ourselves "Is this a productive addition to the conversation?" There is a real opportunity here to have a strong conversation based on policy and possibility. There are serious issues that need to be addressed. There is obviously a singular common enemy that everyone wants to remove from the White House (and he can take that rowdy band of brigands with him when he leaves). Everyone in the primaries is potentially electable, now is the time to talk about ideas, to talk about what is possible, about our dreams and goals.
No more sniping, no more shitty snarky comments about this or that. Build your candidate up. The more positive the conversation we have, the more people will be engaged and will be positive about the process.
Candidates are going to say crappy things about other candidates. It's a competition. We as supporters don't need to engage in this. "But but but but..." let it go. Stand on your preferred candidate's policies and positions. Make something to vote for not only something to vote against. We've all got the same few goals; to make Trump lose, to hopefully oust McConnell, to regain the Senate, to appoint SCOTUS judges, to try to stop the bleeding. And we can do it, and the best way to go about it is to go forth with positivity and optimism about what we CAN do.
Is your criticism framed as constructive criticism, or is it sniping and snarky? Is your post passive aggressive? Have you provided a source for your claims?
Do you know what's stopping us from having a good, rich, positive discussion?
Absolutely nothing. We could do it right now if we decided we wanted to.
Homemade fermented kimchi recipe
So, this week's recipe is another fermented item, we made our own kimchi from bok choi! It's quite a simple recipe, and doesn't require any cooking, just some chopping and packing the result into a jar. We made ours with our homemade fermented hot pepper relish to inoculate it and kickstart the fermentation. As with all fermented products, you do need a certain level of salt in the final product to encourage fermentation while discouraging the growth of things you don't want!
This turned out very spicy, but you can cut down on the spice, of course. You can also adjust the levels of the onion, garlic, and ginger based on your preferred flavour profile. This recipe is not vegetarian, because fish sauce is not vegetarian, nor is oyster sauce. There are vegetarian replacements for both of these items that use mushroom for flavouring.
And thanks for 1000 subscribers!!
Homemade Miso Soup Recipe!
Last week we did the dashi broth, and this week we're putting it to use by making miso soup! It's shocking how simple this delicious soup is, and you can achieve a flavour almost identical to the restaurant style soup you get at really good sushi places. Once you have that dashi broth, it's just a matter of getting the ingredients in at the right times for them to cook just enough! Also, when you make it at home, you can make some fun additions and have more stuff in it than you get at restaurants.
We used Shimeiji mushrooms in this recipe, but you can use anything you like. Tougher mushrooms like Shiitake will take longer to cook, and tiny and tender Enoki mushrooms will cook very quickly. The tofu and wakame seaweed should be the last things you add, just before serving, leaving them in the soup just long enough to get warm. Also, make sure you don't boil the broth after the miso has gone in, because it may start bringing out some bitter flavours.
Profile Information
Gender: MaleHometown: Ottawa, Ontario
Home country: Canada
Current location: Toronto, Ontario
Member since: Wed Oct 29, 2008, 04:34 PM
Number of posts: 3,282
