Corn Husk Boats

Hey, sailor!

If you're not up for making tamales, dried corn husks, a common wrapper used for those delectable snacks, can be reconfigured as a fun container to hold rice or salad.

First, go through your stack of dried husks, set aside the biggest ones and a small one to use for ties.
Soak in boiling hot water until pliable. Tear the small husk into strips and tie the ends of the larger husks. Turn the secured husk inside out.

Set sail by filling it with salad, in this case, a spinach salad with feta, orange, avocado and toasted almonds tossed in a lime vinaigrette.

No need for a side plate. Just dock your boat onto warmed dinner plates with, let's say, roast chicken, gravy, roasted veg and sauteed mushrooms finished with cream sherry.

Ahoy!

Stuffed Chilie Pasilla de Oaxaca

Although deemed a regional dish, I can't recall ever eating it in its stuffed form all the years I've been going to Oaxaca, Mexico. (See note below).

I first came across it in Diana Kennedy's book, The Art of Mexican Cooking, and it's been a staple at my house so long as I have a stash of the chilies on hand. The chilies are stuffed with mild cheese like mozzarella or jack, dipped in an egg batter, deep fried and served in a light tomato sauce.

The chilies are first lightly toasted on a comal, and then left to soak in hot water until hydrated and perfectly pliable, but not falling apart.

The chilies are carefully slit open on one side to slide the seeds and inner membrane out. Try to keep the stems intact. Pat the chilies dry and stuff with cheese.

For the batter, whip up egg whites until you have firm but soft peaks. Beat in the egg yolks one at a time, add a bit of salt.

Heat oil in a cast iron pan. Dip the chilies one at a time in the batter and plop in the hot oil. You can also roll the chilies in flour before battering which helps make it stick, but since a lot of my friends are gluten intolerant, I'm skipping the flour. You can always just add a bit of batter to any part of the chilie that's showing through.

My oil was a little too hot - oops. You want an even brown colour, not hot spots.

Turn the chilies with the aid of slotted spoons until brown on all sides. Drain on paper towels.

Heat the tomato sauce, scoop onto a bowl or plate, and top with one or two chilies. Garnish with a sprig of cilantro.

A molten cheese filling luxuriating in chilie heat, batter and tomato sauce.

Like they say...... OMG!!

Unlike the salsa I made earlier where the tomatillos tone down the chilie heat, this dish can be extremely picante. But it feels so good.

The chilie heat changes from crop to crop, so it's a bit of a loteria. So if you have guests of delicate palate, I would advise rinsing the chilie a few times in cold water after soaking and removing the seeds.

Buen Provecho!

Note: While the chilie relleno is a staple in the comedors and fondas of Mexico, in Oaxaca, it's the chile de agua that is commonly used. It's a fresh very piquante green chile and it's awesome. I've enjoyed the chilie pasilla de Oaxaca, in Oaxaca, in salsas and pickled as a condiment. Also extremely enjoyable. I bring back bags of the chilies, in various sizes, to use mostly for stuffing and for salsas. They can be purchased by itinerant vendors all over Oaxaca, and the pueblos outside of the city, mostly notably the Sunday Tlacolula market.

Salsa de Chile Pasilla de Oaxaca

With a bag of ash from Teotitlan del Valle and a bag of smoked chilie pasilla de Oaxaca, I'm picking up where I left off in December.

It's time.

The smoked chilie pasilla is a unique chile in Oaxaca, available nowhere else. The ones I picked up last trip are small to medium in size. They impart a smokey aroma to the air. Lovely.

While the tomatillos cooked on the stove, I heated the ash in a cast iron pan.

Once I could detect adequate heat, I tossed the chilies in, buried them and turned them around in the ash.

Miraculously, gratefully, the chilies puffed up.

I shook them of excess ash, and soaked them in hot water to make them pliable but not falling apart.

The cooked tomatillos were drained and cooled, waiting for their turn in the blender.

Remove the stems, seeds and inner membrane from the chilies, place in the blender with the garlic and a bit of the soaking liquid to loosen the blender. Blend until smooth.

I realize the photo above is not very appetizing but I want you to understand the texture.

Next, tomatillos are blended until smooth, and the two mixtures are stirred together. Salt to taste.

You don't really need ash to make this recipe, but it's a fun party trick, or something you could make when the barbecue coals are still hot. If it imparts a distinct flavour, it's subtle. The chilies can also be lightly toasted on a comal or in a cast iron griddle and then soaked.

The recipe is simple:

1 pound of tomatillos, husked, rinsed and cooked

4 to 5 chilie pasillas, cooked in ash or on a comal

1 to 2 medium garlic clove

salt to taste

The salsa has an elegant smokey heat with a slight sweetness perfect on grilled meats or shrimp or alone as an accompaniment with tostadas or chips.

Riffs on Ginger and Salt

Two dishes have come into my scope that riff on the Ginger and Salt treatment from a few weeks back. While my previous post finds ginger, green onions, oil and salt used as a dipping sauce for steamed fish, chef David Wong of Oru at the Fairmont Pacific Rim features a dish of brined chicken breast, steamed, sliced and served topped with scallions, ginger and salt, with a side of house made kimchee. The brining is an extra step that seals in moisture for the chicken breast that can easily end up dry from overcooking. The kimchee on the side allows diners to add chilie heat as their taste dictates, and adds a salty-hot element to the dish.

Fuschia Dunlop on the other hand, presents a Hunan dish of steamed chicken dish with ginger and chopped salted chilies. In this case, the chilies take the lead over the salt, as I have previously come to love. A boneless and skinless chicken breast, cut into bite-size pieces, is blanched before being tossed in a mixture of ginger, Shaoxing wine and salted chilies - I'm using sambal oelek. Green onions - just the green part - are added as a garnish just before serving.

The mixture is steamed in a bowl, to keep all the juices in, until the chicken is cooked through - taking care not to overcook.

I had to jerry-rig a set up in my wok that elevated the bowl but would still allow room for the lid. Luckily, it worked!

I served the dish over steamed rice, decorated with slivered scallions. The ginger provided delicate counterbalance to the salt and chilie. Simply delicious.

So there have it. Ginger, green onions, chilies and salt. A simple technique, used in different combinations to make something spectacular.

Fragrant and Hot Spare Ribs - Asian Flavours #2

With the success of steamed spare ribs with black beans and chilies from Fuschia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook, I found another, slightly more complex recipe for ribs earlier in the book.

Fragrant-and-hot spare ribs (xian la pai gu) under the Street Food section, find meaty ribs luxuriating in chopped garlic, ginger, chilie bean paste, chopped salted chilies, ground cumin, dried chilie flakes and sesame seeds, and finished with a quickly-cooked coating of finely chopped scallions and red pepper. Of note is the use of cumin, that appears as an integral flavouring in many of the book's recipe. To me, cumin has always been something I've associated more with Middle Eastern, Indian and even Mexican cuisine, but here it appears in the cuisine of Hunan. Curious, isn't it?

Opting out of the required deep frying of the ribs, I simmered them until tender, reserving the broth, adding a few tablespoons to the stir frying of the flavour-packing ingredients.

This lusciously delicious dish is best eaten with your hands, providing a primordial pleasure along with its multi-layered moreish flavours. An ultimate street food or failing that, a brilliant dish for an outdoor fete.

The three colours are very reminiscent of something you'd see in Mexico, celebrating the red, green and white of their national flag. And of course, the chilie pepper really brought fiery nuances to many of China's regional cuisines.

Viva Mexico! Viva China!

Asian Flavours

Inspiration comes in many guises: a great cookbook or food magazine, a stunning visual cue, a fragrant aroma, fresh produce or from an exquisite dining experience.

Recently, inspiration came via lunch at Vancouver's Kirin coupled with Fuschia Dunlop's Revolutionary Chinese Cookbook: Recipes from Hunan Province.

Craving more Asian flavours, I returned home and immediately hit Fisgard Market in Victoria's Chinatown for supplies.

Light soy, dark soy, sweet soy, Chinkiang vinegar, Shaoxing cooking wine, fermented black beans, chilie paste, dried chilies, they're all being added to my global condiment family, ready when inspiration takes hold.

It had been years since I worked with dried bean curd skin and the dish I enjoyed at Kirin prompted me to try it again. Thin and fragile, the sheets are made from the skin that forms on the surface of cooling soy milk while making bean curd. Isn't that amazing?

Once hydrated in warm water, stuffed and rolled, they can be either fried or steamed - steamed I prefer. They make a delicious appetizer, dim sum, bits and pieces of the sheets can be thrown in a stew, or the rolls can be served as an accompaniment with steamed choy and rice to make it a dinner.

I made a vegetarian filling with chopped fine mushrooms, ginger, garlic, celery, green onion and bean sprouts. Sauteed in peanut oil, I added a dash of Shaoxing wine and a hit of chilie paste (sambal oelek) for zip.

Once the juices reduced, I kept it off the heat to cool while I prepared the sheets of bean curd.

Working carefully, I dipped the sheets in a bowl of warm water and transferred to a clean tea towel to pat dry. Don't worry about not having perfect looking sheets, you can layer and patch together strips. Remember too, that any dried bits and pieces left in the package can be used in a stew. Don't throw them away.

I laid the mushroom mix at one end of the sheet, rolled the sides in and rolled up. If you've worked with rice paper to make Thai-style salad rolls before, you'll breath a sigh of relief with bean curd skin. You can lay them side by side, and they won't stick to each other.

I steamed the rolls until heated through in a stainless vegetable steamer brushed with oil. This can also be done with a bamboo or metal dumpling steamer, also brushed with oil or lined with lettuce leaves.

Presented drizzled with a bit of sesame oil, I cut them in half for easier eating.

To accompany the dish, I steamed a a fresh bunch of choy sum, distinguished by its yellow flowering tops.

Copying what I had seen and tasted at Kirin, I heated a bit of peanut oil in a wok until hot. Adding sliced garlic, I sauteed it for less than a minute and then, and thinking off the top of my head, I added about a tablespoon of sweet soy and a dash of Shaoxing wine and swirled that around, then added the cleaned and trimmed vegetable. On medium heat, I tossed the ingredients together until the leaves collapsed and the stalks were still al dente.

Delicious!

Ragley Farm - East Sooke Getaway

Yes, of course we love the Cowichan Valley, but it's good to check in on the other side of the Island sometimes, in East Sooke.At the end of a long winding road, Ragley Farm, owned by Josephine and Rob Hill, is open for business. In addition to supplying some great restaurants such as Brasserie L'ecole and Sooke Harbour House with fresh seasonal produce, the farm is open to the public on Saturdays.

It's best to get there early, more like 10:30, when the woodfired stone oven has already been working overtime to deliver freshly baked breads, muffins, pies and croissants.

I'm loving the olive studded loaves.

Once seduced by the baking, customers can peruse the barn where the freshly picked farm produce lies in wait.

There's a relaxed vibe at Ragley and once you've gotten over being tensed up getting your share of produce, you can kick back at a table and enjoy more baking, a cup of coffee, or a light lunch.

I was so thrilled to see Oliver Kienast, one of my favourite chefs, cooking and helping out at Ragley. Today he made a seasonal asparagus soup. Oliver, who also works at Sooke's Markus' Wharfside (one of my all-time favourite restaurants), lives in the area with his partner Brooke raising Berkshire pigs and making all kinds of delicious cured meats, including bacon.

Once sated, the farm invites for wandering around, taking in the wildlife and the lush area. Ragley Farm, set on 31 acres, has been farmed since 1912, and the Hills have continued to maintain more than half of the farm in natural forest. Barnes Creek flows through the forest, bordering two sides of their farm.

Fruit trees abound and the produce selection changes with seasons. If you phone ahead you can reserve chicken eggs, meat birds and lamb, and fall preserves. The farm is open from April to December, Saturdays only. Bring cash.

Ragley Farm, 5717 East Sooke Road. *Plan ahead by using the link for the Hills (at the top of the post) and sign up via email for their weekly list of what produce, baking and flowers will be available each Saturday.*

Orr and Sons Family Butcher

One thing is certain about my future. The bikini is not part of it.

Once every two months or so, we make the excursion to Brentwood Bay to stock up on meaty treats from Ronald Orr and Son Family Butchers.

A family business in Canada since the 1970s, and previously to that in Scotland, Orr and Sons has been running a successful and tasty butchery long before the words artisanal and charcuterie became part of our everyday lexicon.

Run by brothers (sons) Stewart and Fraser Orr, and a meat savvy staff, the store produces a gob smacking array of house made products from sausages - bangers and blood sausage to name a few - meat pies, smoked hams and bacons, briskets and specialty cuts of meat, rounded out by a thoughtful selection of packaged goods from the U.K.

The pies just go on and on.


Orr's is also your go-to place for tattie scones (delivered weekly).

Check out this massive roll of Wiltshire bacon, a smoked version of Ayrshire - made in house of course. It's lovely as a pancetta substitute in pasta, or sauteed kale.

The beef tongue is absolutely luscious, made in a vintage press.

Stewart Orr is in charge of the links department, among other things, and today he's been working on perfecting something new.

The Savaloy. Cured with a pickley flavour and a deep red colour from the natural cochineal dye, the Savaloy is served in many British fish and chip shops, and will soon be a regular on the Orr roster.

Taste test.
Back at home, we boiled them first, grilled and gave them a go with only mustard. They're very juicy with a dense meaty texture, but next time we'll try them with sauteed onions for more oomph with some rich gravy and a toasted bun. Or maybe some mushy peas.

A trip to Orr and Sons is not complete without a Scotch egg. The only place in town to procure one.

Before....
And after, with a side of HP for dipping.

Haggis, of course, is always available, in sausage or its traditional form, all year round. But I prefer the haggis piggy bank.

With chops, sausages, roasts - pork roast with crackling this time - and sliced meats all packaged to go, we're good for another few months. Until summer then, when that one-piece will fit just fine.