Tag: comfort food

Jess Garner’s Untitled Food Media Project

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Getting to sit down with two old friends in the middle of a pandemic was an absolute joy.

Jess (who you may remember from my rhapsodic post about old BBQs) joined Nick (my other brother from a BBQ mother) to talk about comfort food for his Untitled Food Media Project. It was over an hour of nerding out about the things that make us go nuts after a long night on the line.

There are conversations about pho, katsu curry, fast food and (of course) bacon. All of this and more is available on Mixcloud.

Chestnut Soup with Crispy Pancetta

Shawn 1 Comment

Many years ago on a whim I purchased a rather strange cookbook by Lois Anne Rothert dedicated entirely to the various soups of rural France. Normally I don’t pitch in for something so bizarrely specialized but something about this tome’s yeomen charm captured my imagination and it’s survived many cookbook purges over the years when shelf space became scarce.

Now, three months deep into my still-UN-identified illness this book has more than earned it’s keep with such soul-satisfying and sanity-soothing soups as Country Sorrel and Potato, Oyster and Cognac stew, Lentil Potage and this deeply savoury winter soup of pureed chestnuts, aromatics and crispy pancetta. Read More

Poached Chicken and Rice

Shawn 1 Comment

poached-chicken-and-riceI just realized our kitchen calendar was still on August and flipped it over, revealing the stereotypical picture of golden hued oak trees and a dilapidated barn that always accompanies September. Ugh… Here on the Westcoast September would be more accurately represented by a grey sheet of rain.

Yep, autumn has come just like it always does; like a switch is flipped, the sun just surrenders and the rains begin like the final act of Seven Samurai… And as usual most of my friends, family and co-workers are getting sick.

So the calendar goes back up on the wall, I fire up a big pot on the stove and pull one of my secret weapons against autumn depression from the freezer: Master Stock! I know it sounds like Master Chief’s little brother or a particularly corny GI Joe villain, but it’s not. It’s a broth made from simmering a whole chicken with Asian aromatics and then, over the course of many uses and multiple chickens it condenses into a powerful, gelatinous flavour bomb for use in soups, stews and sauces.

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Potato and Leek Soup

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Potato Leek Soup 1When I was a kid I would run outside every New Year’s Eve just as the ball was dropping and the whole neighbourhood was shrieking “Ten! Nine! Eight…” to stare up into the sky and feel the changing of the old year into the new.

I’d stare and stare listen and wonder what made the last year different, and squidge my eyes shut and search in my guts to feel something new and grown up inside.

Every year was the same. No change… No difference between one year and the next. Not until this year… 2014 is the year everything changed! Read More