Duck Duck!

Duck Duck! Cooking duck takes several rehearsals to make it perfect. Once you become involved in the ways to both sauté and and bake confit style, your final duck dinner will be perfecto. The breast portion is the one that I flavour with a good cherry brandy and with simple salt and pepper scored skin pan fry sauté to medium rare with crispy skin. The leg portion was baked in it’s own fats. Made a fava bean and mashed potato smear, with some wilted spinach and butter fried wild mushroom. A duck confit that’s sure to please even the pickiest eaters! Ingredients...

Lasagne Bolognese

Lasagna Bolognese. Fresh made pasta is available at Granville Island Market from the source Zara’s Italian Deli. Or you can make your own homemade lasagna pasta (sometimes called “lasagna noodles”) with a dough made of flour and eggs, with or without spinach—or using just semolina (durum wheat flour) and water. But today, the dried packaged ready-to-use lasagna noodles available in the grocery store are really excellent. When using regular store-bought lasagna noodles boil them in batches. To avoid the noodles sticking together, place them vertically on the sides of...

Spinach and Cheese Cannelloni with Roast...

Spinach and Cheese Cannelloni with Roasted Tomato Sauce. I like to cook Italian and making good spinach cannelloni is one of my favourites. When making a good pasta recipe it can be very simple or very complex especially if you make your own noodles. I like making the pasta sauce and filling from scratch. I find it very convenient when using a good packaged lasagna noodle like DeCecco because when they are par blanched they are easy to work with and have an acceptable taste like home made after being baked in a tomato sauce. Your time then can be spent on making a tasty...

Back in the 70’s, Guinness record ...

  Wayne Conrad Serbu Back in the 70’s I was making my way around Ontario searching out small independent cheese makers that would make artisan branded cheese for a large conglomerate food manufacturer. Millbank Cheese was one of the first I stopped at because of my familiarity being sold at the Galt market. I stopped in and saw that this Giant Cheese being made to be in the Guinness records. After doing my business with the owners I asked what are all the people doing over at that house? Don Tanner’s reply that it was the house of Vera McNichol. Millbank...

Burt Reynolds Monte Cristo Sandwich

Burt Reynolds Monte Cristo Sandwich. On a flight home I was seated next to a gentleman who also was heading to Toronto. We spoke and he just was going to be checking possible locations to set up his food service company for the movie industry. He spoke about his California based company was expanding and he was going to put four of his mobile kitchens to work in Canada. As the conversation grew a position for me to break into motion picture catering was being formed. Months had gone buy and I had forgotten about this gentleman’s proposal when out of the blue he phones and...