It was such a blast to run up the aisle at the Gourmand World Cookbook Awards here in Paris the other night and pick up this great little Swarovski designed trophy from Gourmand founder Edouard Cointreau.

As soon as I ran down to the podium Edouard leaned in a whispered “En Francais, s’il te plait.”

Merde! I didn’t even plan an English speech and I’m not really all that French.

The gyst of the speech was something like this…”Mom, Dad and Candace: Sorry, Thanks.” but with a big nod to Whitecap and a lot of bumbling through some French conjugaisons.

I’m still shocked and elated that Kitchen Scraps beat 17 other countries in the same category including these other four finalists…

• Chocolate: A Love Story 

Max Brenner and Illustrator Yonatan Factor

USA

• Beat Heat Eat

Dean Lahn

Australia

• Recettes pour Ma Femme, cuisine d’amour et d’humeurs

Bruno Verjus and Illustrator Irina Volkonski

France

Anyways, we’ve still got lots to see! After a busy day at Musee Orsay, L’Atelier Joel Robuchon and Musee Rodin we’ve got another busy one planned for the Arc de Triomphe and Notre Dame.

If you have been holding out for the International Olympic Committee to answer your petition to make Couch Surfing an official sport, there’s still a chance! Don’t give up your training until the last gold medal is awarded. Keep the dream alive with a round of thick cut potato gold medals with bright lemony mayonnaise.

The Olympics is no ordinary sporting event, you can’t just eat potato chips, this is the Olympics and you need to go for the Gold Medals!

INGREDIENTS

3 yukon gold potatoes, peeled and cut into ½ inch slices

Canola oil for frying

salt

Gold aioli

1 egg yolk

1 cup Organic Canola oil (available at the Cookbook Co.)

1 Tbsp Local Alberta Brassica mustard (or Dijon)

Zest and juice of 1 lemon

pinch of salt

pinch of curry (optional)

PROCEDURE

Start with a clean bowl, and vigorously whisk the egg yolk and mustard together. Continue whisking steadily while very carefully adding the olive oil 1 drop at a time—try pouring oil into a spoon, then adding the oil drop by drop from the spoon into the bowl. This will start the emulsion, and it should begin to thicken and start looking like mayonnaise. Continue to whisk, drizzling the oil slowly and in a very thin stream this time. When half the oil is incorporated you can pour the rest in a little faster than before (but not too fast).

The result should be a thick, gloopy mayonnaise. To make the mayonnaise delicious, add the lemon juice and zest, and season to taste. Add the curry for nice yellow colour and a punch of flavour.  Transfer to a smaller bowl, cover, and place in the fridge while the flavours develop and you get your gold medals going.

Peel the Yukon Gold potatoes and cut into ½ inch thick rounds.  Place the potatoes into a pot with UNsalted cold water. Place the pot over high heat. Exactly when the water starts to bubble, set the timer for 3 minutes. Don’t overboil or the potatoes will lose their shape and fall apart. Carefully drain the potatoes and let them air dry in the colander for 10 minutes.

Get a dry pan on the stove over medium heat and allow the pan to heat up for 5 minutes before adding the oil.

When the pan is hot, put in enough oil to fill the pan with a ¼ inch of canola oil. Let the oil heat up for 30 seconds. Place the dried potatoes carefully, one at a time, in a single layer to the pan. Let the potatoes fry slowly until they are golden and beautiful. Gently flip and fry the other side. Remove the potatoes to a plate lined with paper towel and sprinkle generously with salt. Continue frying until all the potatoes are fried beautifully. Serve gold medals warm with the lemony, curry mayonnaise for dipping.

Q: How many Vancouverites does it take to screw in a lightbulb?

A: 2. One to screw in the lightbulb, the other to tell you about the 2010 Olympics.

Cupid is far from the adorable little curly-topped chubby love-bug we know from Valentine cards. He is the love child of Venus, the goddess of love and Mars, the god of war. His singular reason for being is to fight the never-ending war on love. He knows all too well that men are from Mars and women are from Venus, so he is armed to the teeth with a bow and quiver of love inducing arrows to help the opposites attract. But even a natural born thriller like Cupid has his back to the wall around Valentine’s day, so arm yourself with these love inducing flaming skewered hearts with sweet and hot honey mustard glaze.

All’s fair in love and war, so skip the predictable rose and bring home a dozen chicken hearts from Sunworks at Currie Barracks for Valentine’s day. Sweeten the deal with some Mead, the drink of the gods, which does double duty as a drink and is part of the glaze.

Share your heart with someone this Valentines.

INGREDIENTS 

12 chicken hearts*

HONEY MUSTARD GLAZE

1/2 cup grainy mustard

¼ cup honey

¼ cup Mead**, or beer

6 small red potatoes

handful of green beans

3 Tbsp butter

salt and pepper

PROCEDURE 

Fire up the barbecue to get it nice and hot.

Get the potatoes in a pot of cold water over high heat on the stove.

Whisk the mustard and honey in a medium bowl. Whisk in the mead to thin out the glaze. The rest of the mead is for drinking.

Set aside the glaze while you skewer the hearts. Metal skewers are ideal, but wooden skewers are fine and always benefit from a 20 minute soak.

Line up three chicken hearts on the end of each skewer with a centimeter between each heart to allow proper heat circulation.

Place them on a plate and season with salt and pepper. Grab your honey mustard glaze, a basting brush, your hearts and do a sexy sashay over to the barbecue.

Quickly give the hearts a little brush of the honey mustard glaze just before you toss them on the grill. Place the hearts on the grill with the handles sticking off the side, so they stay out of the line of fire to make flipping easy. Flip them every 3-4 minutes and apply a good slathering of glaze before each flip. Total cooking time might take up to 20-25 minutes. Pinch them for doneness, they should be firm, but not hard. No one wants a heart of stone. It’s okay if the outside gets charred, it adds a great flavour.

When the potatoes are tender (poke them with a skewer and if there is no resistance in the middle, they are done) toss in the green beans for one minute and drain the whole mess into a colander.

Serve two heart skewers with boiled potatoes and sautéed green beans with butter and loads of salt and pepper. Don’t forget to pour two brimming mugs of mead.

It’s a hearty dinner for two.

* Get a bag of about a dozen organic chicken hearts from Sunworks Farms in the Calgary Farmer’s market at Currie Barracks. www.sunworksfarm.com

** Mead is any alcohol made from fermented honey and can vary tremendously. I used Maxwell Mead, a sweet carbonated mead with 12.5% alc/vol. from these two Calgary CO-OP Liquor Stores: Midtown Market 
1110, 11th Ave S.W. or South Trail at #50- 4307 130^th Ave, S.E.. A Big Rock Honey Brown is an appropriate substitution. 

If you buy BlogAid: Recipes for Haiti the proceeds will go towards Doctors Without Borders to help with the Haiti relief.

That’s it, just buy this very cool cookbook and people in Haiti will be helped. It’s win/win.

Not quite sold on the idea, you heartless bastard? Read on if you still need convincing…

This book is the collected efforts of a great group of food professionals.

But at the head of this little gang of gastronauts stands the incredible (and seemingly invincible) captain Julie Van Rosendaal, who not only thought of the idea but also worked tirelessly to orchestrate the project and have it completed in less than three weeks (jeesh, my book took 3 years). But that’s Julie, she rallied hard!

For my small part, I’ve got one little recipe for Stone Soup, but there are many others who had plenty to give to the project.

From here I will let Julie tell you all about the wonderful people involved…

“… there were so many on board helping make that possible. Cathryn Ironside. Beth Snyder. George Brookman and the fine folks at West Canadian Graphics. Jim and the guys at Blurb.com (some of whom are apparently from Lonely Planet). And everyone who cheered us on, sent rah-rah emails, brought lasagna.

Let’s hear it for Chef Michael Smith, Dana McCauley, Emily Richards, Catharine from Weelicious, Cheryl from Backseat Gourmet, Jeannette of Everybody Likes Sandwiches, Nishta from Blue Jean Gourmet, Lauren of Celiac Teen, Charmian from Christie’s Corner, Shaina from Food for my Family, Marisa of Food in Jars, Shauna and Danny from Gluten-Free Girl and the Chef, Lauren from Healthy Delicious, Alice from Savory Sweet Life, Tara from Seven Spoons, Jess of Sweet Amandine, Helen from Tartelette, Gail from The Pink Peppercorn, Pierre of Kitchen Scraps (that’s me), Tim from Lottie and Doof, Tea from Tea & Cookies, Jamie from My Baking Addiction, Lori from Recipe Girl, Melissa from The Traveler’s Lunchbox, Brooke of Tongue-n-Cheeky and Aimee of Under the High Chair.”

A job well done everyone!

Plus I love this back cover photo taken by Brooke at Tongue N Cheeky. Noyce!

Avocados are popping up all over the place. These precocious little greenies are naturally drawn towards large sporting events like the Superbowl. Your only hope to cope with these funky fruits is the bash out a big batch of guacamole and enjoy with tortillas. If you can’t join ‘em, beat ‘em … to a pulp!

INGREDIENTS

4 avocados, beaten or mushed

1 lime

4 Tbsp coriander, rough chopped

4 Tbsp red onion, finely chopped

4 cherry tomatoes, chopped

big pinch chili powder to taste

big pinch salt to taste

serve with tortilla chips

PROCEDURE

Basically you need to mash up the avocado and add all the flavourings, then stir it all up, plop it in a bowl and serve with tortilla chips or cheesey baked nachos. To mash up the avocado, here are three perfectly enjoyable techniques.

Beaten: Put the avocado in a sealable baggie and suck out all the air before you close it up. Then just batter the poor trapped little avocado into submission with a blunt opbject. It’s really fun, but you will have to sort through the mess once the bag is opened and you’ll need to pick out the skin.

Mushed: Holding the avocado in both hands with thumbs on top and gently work the meat until the whole thing feels like jelly. If you can apply the right amount of force you will end up with a gooshy sack of avocado mush as long as the skin stays intact. Then you can cut a hole in the bottom and squeeze out all the mushed up avocado.

Mix all the flavourings in with the mushed avocado. Leave the pit in the mix because rumour has it the pit will prevent the guac from going brown. If you’re storing it in the fridge you can prevent browning from oxidation by wrapping the finished guacamole tightly with plastic wrap so the plastic is touching the surface.

To really prevent oxidation, just eat it right away.

Ripe on

If you avocados are rock hard you can expedite the ripening process by tossing them in a brown paper bag with an apple or tomato and leaving them on the counter at room temperature for a day. No paper bag? Wrap it all in some of that newspaper right there… the sports section would be an appropriate choice.

soup

1 white onion, rough chopped

2 Tbsp butter

1 glass of white wine

1 L chicken stock

1 head of cauliflower, rough chopped

enough water to cover

1 cup heavy cream

2 cups sharp white cheddar cheese, grated

pinch of nutmeg

salt to taste

grape compote

20 red grapes

10 red grape tomatoes

olive oil

1 heaping Tbsp brown sugar

1 glass red wine

garnish

toasted pinenuts

PROCEDURE

Preheat your oven to 425˚F.

Place the tomatoes and grapes in a baking dish and toss with olive oil to coat. Blap it in the oven and roast until the tops of the tomatoes just become slightly burnt, about 25-30 minutes.

In a small pot combine the brown sugar and red wine, bring to a boil and reduce heat to simmer until the sauce becomes thicker and sticky.

When the grapes are roasted, pour them directly into the thick syrup and toss to coat. Set aside to cool.

To toast pinenuts, you must be careful. You can either watch them for the 4-7 minutes it takes to toast them or you will risk burning these very expensive little nuts. Place the pinenuts on a baking sheet in a single layer and roast them keeping a close eye so they don’t burn. When toasted, transfer to a bowl and set aside for serving.

Get a large pot over medium low heat and toss in the chopped onion and butter. Sweat the onions gently over medium low heat until they become soft and translucent.

Pour in the white wine and turn up the heat to full blast. Now add the chicken stock and bring it all to a boil. Pile in the cauliflower and enough water so the cauliflower is completely submerged. Get it to a rip-roarin boil and bubble away until the cauliflower is cooked and very tender, about 30 minutes.

Using a hand blender (immersion blender) puree the soup until it is extremely smooth and velvety. Add the cream and while it is hot use a whisk to gently stir in the cheese so it melts evenly. Add the pinch of nutmeg and adjust the seasoning with salt if needed.

Reduce the heat now to very low and don’t allow the soup to boil again or it might break the smooth texture. Serve warm in a large shallow bowl with a lovely scoop of compote in the center and a sprinkling of pinenuts.

Serves 4-6 depending on the people.

Soup served on January 29 th at the Laurel showhome: 2176 32nd Street NW, Edmonton, Alberta (780)410-1914

Sultan’s always get the best stuff. The most wicked-awesome pets, the cushiest cushions and the most scrumptious chow. So what delights the Sultan more than his cuddly kitty or his favourite goose down cushion… it’s Imam Bayildi, also know as the Sultan’s Delight. A delightful dish of big chunks of eggplant, slowly anointed in emerald olive oil, brightened with ruby red tomatoes and sparkled with sweet garlic. This is traditionally a vegetarian dish, but we are topping it with lamb meatballs spiked with refreshingly fresh mint for an even more delightful main course.

Enjoy with a harem of your finest friends.

INGREDIENTS 

2 cups good olive oil

1 large eggplant, peeled and 1-inch cubed

(equivalent of 2 cups of cubed eggplant)

1 pint cherry or plum tomatoes, cut in half

1 white onion, large chunks

2 cloves of garlic, smooshed

water as needed

1 brimming cup chopped parsley

Meatballs

500 g ground lamb

1 egg

1 Tbsp yellow curry of choice

20-30 finely chopped mint leaves

½ tsp salt 

PROCEDURE

Peel and dice your eggplant into 1-inch cubes. Place a colander in a large bowl, then dump the eggplant into the colander. Sprinkle on a hefty tablespoon of salt and toss it all around. Set aside for 30 minutes while the salt works to draw out the excess bitter water from the eggplant.

Meanwhile prep your tomatoes, onions , parsley and meatball mixture.

For the meatballs, simply plop everything in a bowl and mix it up with a hand until a uniform meat mix is achieved.  Keep in the fridge until you’re ready to ball.

Get a nice oven safe pan (all-metal, no plastic) on the stove over medium low heat and just leave it to warm up for 5 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350˚ F.

The next bit takes some time, but is totally worth the extra loving.

Pour the emerald green olive oil into the pan and let it preheat for 1 minute.

Grab a handful of eggplant and squeeze out the excess liquid… you can squeeze it good and hard until it’s pretty dry, now lay that handful of eggplant into the pan in a single layer. Leave the eggplant to cook over medium low heat for 30 minutes to develop some colour and ensure the eggplant cooks through and soaks up some lovely olive oil. Nobody likes the wet-cotton eggplant, so cook it slowly. Transfer each the cooked eggplant using a slotted spoon to a bowl.

Pour out all but 2 Tbsp of the olive oil. You don’t have to pour it out, you can strain out the eggplant seeds and save it for other uses.

Now get the pan back on the stove and crank up the heat to medium. Toss in the onions and cook until they start to get soft and lovely. Then toss in the tomatoes, cooked eggplant and parsley. Mix it all about until it’s thoroughly incorporated. Leave it on the heat while you make golf-ball-sized meatballs and place them right on top of the mixture. When you are done, transfer the whole pan directly into the oven and bake for 20 minutes.

Remove the pan and let it rest for 10 minutes before serving on couscous or rice. 

Spinach and olive phyllo cigars with a lovely sundried tomato yogurt dip 

Do you have an unhealthy addiction to spanakopita? Here is a very simple alternative with loads more flavour and it just so happens to be much easier to make.

INGREDIENTS 

1 package frozen phyllo dough, thawed

filling

1 package frozen spinach, thawed and drained

1/3 cup olive tapenade

1 egg

butter

½ cup butter, melted

1 Tbsp cumin

yogurt dip

2 cups plain 3.5% yogurt, strained

¼ cup Sundried tomatoes, in olive oil, finely minced

1 Tbsp white balsamic vinegar or lemon juice

1 clove of garlic, grated with a zester

salt to taste

PROCEDURE

Allow an hour for the phyllo dough to thaw at room temperature.

To strain the yogurt place a fine mesh sieve over a bowl and pour the yogurt into the sieve. Place it in the fridge for at least on hour or up to three and allow gravity to draw out the excess moisture leaving a nice thick yogurt behind in the sieve. Combine the thickened strained yogurt with finely minced (or pureed) sundried tomatoes, white balsamic vinegar, grated garlic and salt to taste. The salt will depend entirely on how salty the sundried tomatoes are.

Thaw the spinach in the microwave. When it cools squeeze out the excess liquid so it is very dry.

Place spinach into a bowl and add the olive tapenade and egg. Mix thoroughly to combine.

Get your butter and cumin in a small pot and melt the butter over low heat.

Prepare a baking sheet by lining it with parchment paper.

Preheat oven to 350˚F.

Place your melted butter and spinach mixture near your cigar rolling station.

Unroll the thawed phyllo dough onto a clean work surface. Cover with a clean damp tea towel as it will dry out very quickly.

Get one sheet of paper thin delicate phyllo dough onto your rolling station and using a pastry brush gently apply a sparse layer of melted butter.

Place another sheet directly onto the first sheet and brush with butter.

Now that you have two layers of phyllo, you can place a long strip of spinach mixture one inch from the bottom edge of the phyllo. Fold over the phyllo flap and carefully roll up a long tight cigar.

Roll until you reach half way, then cut the cigar away. Repeat on the top  half with spinach and roll it up again all the way to the end.

Line up the two long cigars and cut them into 3-4 inch batons. Transfer the cigars onto a parchment lined baking sheet leaving some space between each cigar to allow them to brown evenly. Make sure the seam of the pastry is facing down. Brush the tops with butter.

When you have a full tray, blap them into the oven and bake until the pastry is golden and flakey. About 8-12 depending on how much spinach is inside.

Allow them to cool to room temperature and serve with a bowl of the yogurt dip.

The remaining phyllo can be rolled up, wrapped tightly in plastic and refrozen.

Makes 16-20 cigars

Appetizer served on January 16th at the Magrath showhome: 307 Magrath Blvd, Edmonton, Alberta

Taste’s like home

Homes by Avi and Pierre Lamielle (that’s me), an international award nominee, chef and cookbook author, will be preparing a different menu item at each of Homes by Avi’s four showhome launches between January and May.

Appetizers on January 16th, 1-4pm

Spinach and olive phyllo cigars with a lovely sundried tomato yogurt dip 

HERE’S THE RECIPE

Soup on January 30th, 1-4pm

Creamy Cauliflower soup with roasted grape compote and toasted pinenuts

HERE’S THE RECIPE

Showhome Address: 2176 32nd Street NW, 780.410.1914 

Entrée TBA

Braised shortribs on soft goat cheese polenta with bright herb salad and carrots a la grecque

Ever since I was 15 when I first read Kitchen Confidential, I knew for certain that I never wanted to become a restaurant chef. Thanks to Anthony Bourdain I was able to set aside my culinary urges for fear of having to work on Christmas day along side a large Italian gorilla cupping my buttox telling me how not-gay he is.

Fastforward 15 years, after choosing a different path here I am with Anthony Bourdain and he’s not only signing my copy of Les Halles Cookbook, but he’s signing a copy of my cookbook Kitchen Scraps. I’m not working in a kitchen, but I’m happy to be part of the ever evolving foodscape especially if it means not having my buttox cupped in large man hands.

Thanks to my very good friend and food writer Julie van Rosendaal who hooked me up with a VIP-all-access ticket to see Anthony Bourdain chat it up at Jack Singer Theater here in Calgary. Incidentally Julie was a hilarious emcee for the event and she whet the audience for Bourdain.

Holy shit, Bourdain is brilliant. He was ON! His flawless delivery was much like his cutting prose: witty, intelligent and just enough of the nasty bits.

He had some good tips too. How do you get kids to hate McDonalds? Wrap a chocolate dipped SOS pad in a McDonald’s wrapper… probably has the same amount of ammonia.

And Anthony if you are reading this check out these old posts: Christmas at the Zoo, Mr.B Russell Sprout, and the BLT Kama Sutra. 

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For those of you with a Kitchen Scraps at home turn to page viii and put a check mark beside this picture! One down, five to go!