Aperitivo is the Italian word for aperitif. Ostensibly it is a drink taken before dinner.
In practice it is both drink and food. The fundamental idea of Italian aperitivo is that you order a drink and receive complimentary food. That food may be a fistful of olives, or it may be a no-kidding smorgasbord. Isn’t that amazing?
Let’s talk about drinks, then about food.
A Simple Bar for Aperitivo
Amari. If you can buy only one bottle of liqueur for aperitivo, it should be Campari. Campari is a bitter liqueur of about 25% ABV, flavoured with obscure herbs and fruit (eg chinotto, the myrtle-leaved orange tree). It was invented in Novara, Piedmont, by Gaspare Campari. It was first … Continue reading.
Usually I don’t post about something til I’m confident I have a best practice down pat. I have to say that there’s one important point in my fried chicken technique that I am waffling on: I’m torn between the winning flavour of buttermilk-brined chicken, and the superior texture of dry-rubbed chicken.
The Chicken. Frying chicken is a bit of a balancing act: you want the crust to develop the perfect, deep golden brown at the very instant the meat reaches the proper temperature. If you were to take an entire leg from a large chicken and deep fry it, the exterior would get much too dark by the time the meat cooked through.[1]
We are all familiar with maple syrup. And most of us know that maple trees don’t exude syrup, but sap, which is thin, clear, and only faintly sweet. The liquid must be reduced to become syrup, and in fact it can be further reduced to become pure crystalline maple sugar. So while we are all acquainted with a certain concentration of maple syrup – the one on grocery store shelves and brunch tables – there is actually a broad spectrum of products that can be made with maple.
Let’s look at the two extremes of the maple continuum.
Chilled Maple Sap
An amazing but subtle tasting experience, one that I appreciate more in lean years when the sap run … Continue reading.
Rye whiskey makes the band sound better,
Makes your baby cuter,
Makes itself taste sweeter. Oh, boy!
-The Punch Brothers
I have friends that get mad when I say this, but Canadian whisky is not necessarily rye. Unlike, for instance, Bourbon, which has very specific requirements for the grain bill (at least 51% corn), Canadian whisky is not highly regulated. Actually you can read everything that the Food and Drug Regulations have to say about Canadian whisky in about 90 seconds, here. Basically to be called Canadian whisky the drink needs to be made of cereal grain (no mention of specific types like barley or rye), it needs to be at least 40% alcohol, and it needs to … Continue reading.
I have purchased, without exaggeration, tens of thousands of dollars of Sylvan Star cheese. Not for personal consumption, of course, but for the restaurants I’ve worked for over the past few years. The mac and cheese served from the Nomad food truck, for instance, was made with Sylvan Star medium Gouda. The grilled cheese sandwiches at Elm are currently made with a blend of medium, smoked, and aged Gouda. Rarely does a week pass without my purchasing at least a whole wheel of cheese from Sylvan Star.
Jan Schalkwyk is the owner of Sylvan Star, and he was already a champion cheese-maker when he left Holland and came to Canada in 1995. He had fully intended to leave cheese-making behind … Continue reading.
The first several times I cooked Canadian quinoa I was a bit disappointed. Sure, it had a remarkable flavour, but it was much stickier than the South American stuff I had had before: sticky to the point of stodginess.
Eventually I remembered a lesson I learned from a guy in my culinary class. He was from Mumbai. Our instructor was talking about the importance of rinsing basmati rice before cooking it to remove excess starch from the surface of the grains. Once removing this powdery starch you can combine the rice with 1.5 times its volume, then cover and steam in the usual manner. The preliminary rinsing makes for lighter, fluffier pilafs. The Bombayite scoffed, and when prodded he said … Continue reading.
Spirits are distilled beverages, made by concentrating alcohol and other volatile, aromatic compounds to make heady, shelf-stable drinks.
The sheer number of different types of spirits available in most liquor stores can be confusing. What, for instance, is the difference between Scotch whisky and Irish whiskey? Or tequila and mezcal? Why is all Cognac brandy, but not all brandy Cognac? These questions can be answered by knowing a few things about how liquor is made.
All spirits can be classified using the following four pieces of information:
region of production;
ingredients, including the base fermentable material and any other flavourings like spices or caramel;
distillation details, including type of still used, number of distillations, and other nuances;
I consider this post a sort of addendum to The Story of the Buffalo. I suggest having a gander at that post before reading this one.
Red Fife wheat has received a lot of attention in our part of the world. It is a heritage or heirloom wheat, touted as the first cultivar to be grown successfully on the Canadian prairies. It is not genetically modified, and since it is not industrially grown, it is often organic. There are many compelling reasons to grow, purchase, mill, and cook with Red Fife wheat. It is, however, romanticized to a hilarious degree.
We all know that the buffalo was the basis of prairie life before European arrival. It remained an … Continue reading.
Amarone is the most fashionable Italian wine in North America. I’m in no way qualified to make such a sweeping statement, but I think the shelves of boutique wine shops offer ample testament. The wine is rich, concentrated, age-worthy, and expensive. It is by its very nature more pricey than most other wines: made from partially-dried grapes, it requires more kilograms of fruit to produce a litre of wine. The absolute cheapest bottles in Canada cost about $40, but most mid-level bottles sell for around $60. My first taste of Amarone was in the home of a self-impressed eye doctor. It was delicious.
Amarone is from Valpolicella,[1] a small region in northeast Italy, just outside Verona. Valpolicella is an … Continue reading.
This is balsamic vinegar of Modena.[1] We’ve all had it before: it’s brown, and sweet, and acidic. This bottle was produced by Unico. I think I bought it at Safeway.
Let’s look at the ingredients list. First is wine vinegar. Then concentrated grape must. “Must” is the winemaker’s term for unfermented grape juice. So concentrated grape must is just cooked grape juice. Next we see caramel, or cooked sugar, which gives the vinegar is characteristic colour, sweetness, and body. Finally we have sulfites, which inhibit micro-organisms and prevent unwanted fermentation. In other words, this condiment is sweetened vinegar.
Bottles labelled “Balsamic Vinegar of Modena” have a faux seal on them that says “Indicazione Geografica Protettata,” or IGP. This is … Continue reading.
The personal website of Edmonton chef Allan Suddaby
Aperitivo is the Italian word for aperitif. Ostensibly it is a drink taken before dinner.
Spirits are distilled beverages, made by concentrating alcohol and other volatile, aromatic compounds to make heady, shelf-stable drinks.
