Shark Maki!!

Wow, watch out for the shark! I made shark maki for lunch. Excellent stuff, like red snapper, nice texture; like maguro or yellowtail.

La Baguette!

Well, here's how you can make real French bread at home...

Click the link below to see the whole production...
flickr.com/photos/telechrome/sets/72157594183015684/

We start off by mixing the dry ingredients. Fast-acting yeast can be added directly to the dry ingredients. Start with two cups of flour, add more to create a stiff dough. To be continued...

Rib Roast

I made this last night. Very lightly seasoned and roasted in the oven.

Pie Pictures - On the Blog Tonight

Ah, so you can put pictures in a blog!

Twenty years in the commercial computer biz, and I only figured this out today!

Duh!

Here are some pies that I made in little ceramic dishes.

We're going to be doing a lot more baking here on Mad Cook, starting with baguettes, as I had promised some time ago.

- Mad Cook

Wacky Maki...

This is a little roll that I made tonight that is colorful, tasty and neat.

It is a cross between a kappa maki (cucumber roll) and a regular california roll. It's got crab, cucumber and steamed carrot.

This, Andrew, is Pad Thai...

Our friend Andrew in Keswick, Ontario, asked me this weekend what Pad Thai is.

Well, I made some tonight and it looks like this here...

It is a South-East Asian dish prepared with fettucine-shaped rice noodles.

It is made with a tomato-based fish sauce, which gives it its color, and has shrimp and/or pork/chicken.

It is fairly spicy and also has scrambled eggs, bean sprouts, green onions, garlic, chilies, tofu, peanuts, yada-yada...

Personally, I think it is fairly labour intensive to create, although I love it, so I make a generous portion, enough for second helpings, which can be fairly pricey at a restaurant.

Cheers, from the mad cook.

Mad Tip #3: Preparing Sushi Rice

The Art of Meshi

Making Sushi Rice, or "Meshi" in Japanese cooking, is an art unto itself. A good restaurant will be judged by how well they make their rice.









This tip comes from Dannielle in Lethbridge, Alberta, who writes,

"a hint for shiny sushi rice; when you take it out of the rice
cooker (while still warm to hot) and put the sauce on, fan it as you
stir....the fanning cools the sugar and it forms a sort of glaze on the
rice....very cool...."

Thanks Dannielle, and we will be looking forward to some of your recipes and comments in the future.

And When I Get Back - French Bread!

REAL Bread:

Your gracious host, The Mad Cook, will be away until next week.

When I get back, we are going to make bread! Yes, that's right, real homemade bread, the old-fashioned, laborious, hand-kneaded way.

I've never been a big fan of bread machines. My Mom has one, as well as various friends, and they go on about how great it is to make your own bread, and you don't have to do anything, just drop in the ingredients, yada-yada...

Oh, and how much money you save making your own bread in a bread machine. Right. So, at the end of the year, I will be able to take that dream vacation, or buy a high-performance vehicle, from the largesse accumulated from my bread savings? Not.

For one thing, I think bread should LOOK like a loaf of bread. Not a weird-shaped flat cube with a dough-hook hole in the bottom. Bread machine bread always seems a bit "mealy" to me. It's always heavy, and doesn't have that stretchy, airy consistency of real bread.

I don't know, I suppose it depends on the recipe, but you can't beat the real thing; rising in a crockery bowl with a wet towel over top. The pungent smell of yeast and the elasticky, stretchy dough, with all the little bubbles in it. Real bread has to bake in a real oven, and rise up and turn brown under the heat. It has to fill the whole kitchen with that wonderful smell of fresh-baked. Real bread has to have an egg or milk glaze, to make it shine, and a dusting of cornmeal underneath.

So, when I get back, we're going to make real French-style baguettes, which are very simple to do, just flour, water and yeast. I'll show how even YOU can make real French bread in your regular oven, in less than 1/2 hour, illustrated with lots of original photos.

Cheers, from The Mad Cook

Mad Tip #2: Preparing Macaroni and Cheese

Macaroni and Cheese is a fine Canadian tradition.

More comonly known as "Kraft Dinner", K.D. or Mac & Cheese, this is a "meal" that can be made in minutes and requires little more culinary effort than to boil water. Almost everything you need is in the box. The only problem I have, is with the directions that tell you to add the powdered "cheese" sauce mix to the cooked macaroni, and stir. This results in a very uneven, chunky and powdery rendition of K.D.

For those of us singles, students and underemployed who subsist on Mac & Cheese, try this...

After your mac is cooked and draining in the colander, return the pot to the stove. Add your milk and butter. Melt and mix it over low heat, and gradually add the powdered "cheese" mix, stirring with a whisk. Continue stirring under low heat until the sauce thickens. THEN, you add your macaroni and blend with the sauce. This makes for a more even consistency, without the powdery orange chunks of cheese-like substance.

While you're at it, why not spice it up, and make a real gourmet K.D. by adding some finely chopped onions, smashed fresh garlic, and finely chopped fresh red peppers. Top off with some fresh-ground cracked peppercorns. Just because you're on a budget, doesn't mean you have to eat like you are!

Cheers, from the Mad Cook!

Mad Tip #1: Preparing Frozen Lunches

I don't know why this works, but it does...

We're all familiar by now, with the rounded-square plastic storage containers that you get at the dollar store? The last office I worked, the fridge was full of them with peoples' lunches.

If you prepare your lunch the night before, or a week before, here's a little tip that really works for me:
Say you're making chicken with rice. Make a bed of rice straight out of the cooker in the bottom of your container. While it's still steaming hot, take the chicken straight off the grill, and right onto the rice and zap the air-tight lid on it right away. Then immediately put it in the freezer, even while it's still super hot.

This seems to have a way of "flash-freezing" the food, without any apparent loss of moisture or flavor. When you go to "reconsititute" your meal in the microwave the next day, it comes out so totally fresh and moist and aromatic, as if it were cooked right then and there.

So remember, take your food straight off the stove, into the container, pop on the lid, and straight into the freezer. It really locks in the juices and the flavor. Try it with the Barbecue. The aroma will have your co-workers thinking that you're having an indoor Barbecue at the office!

Cheers, from the Mad Cook!

Recipe of the Week: Duncan's Seafood Chowder

Surprisingly, this doesn't take long to make, and is easy to do. This is a cross between clam chowder, corn chowder and potato soup! It's a very hearty, rich soup, that is more like a seafood stew.

I seem to be doing all my comfort food recipes here, I guess because we're just out of the winter season. I will try to do more summery dishes, with salads and vegetarian tastes. I also put tons of photos in my articles, which will be forthcoming.

This chowder can be done in a crock pot (did I tell you I love crock pots? (Maybe because I AM one!)) , but don't put the cream in until very last, or it will curdle and burn and turn a nasty yellow color.

Oh, and by the way, this is not a recipe to make if you're on a calorie-reduced diet! Just a warning. Again, the Cordon Bleu influence of culinary excess - butter and booze.
Well, here goes...

Duncan’s Seafood Chowder:

1 carrot, peeled and diced
1 onion, chopped
2 diced celery sticks
3 Tbsp. oil
1 cup. chicken stock
1 can niblets corn
1 large diced potato
2 bay leaves
3 Tbsp. flour
1 pt. heavy cream
1 cup grated cheddar cheese
3 cans crabmeat
20 small (bay) scallops
½ lb. shrimps
1 can baby clams
1 tablespoon chopped fresh thyme
1/8c butter
4 Tbsp. dry white sherry

Saute onion, carrot and celery in the oil. Add bay leaves, thyme, cook for 2 minutes. Add stock, potato, corn and flour. Simmer 12 mins. until potato cooked.
Add cream, cheddar, then seafood last. simmer.

Bon Appetit!