Toqué! Learning From The Best

Fig.1. A great looking book, both outside and within the covers.

Norman Laprise is the father of Quebec cuisine.  There, it’s been declared—no illusions or allusions to anything otherwise.  Can I back up this declaration? I can’t but Norman Laprise can:  His career as a chef began in the kitchens of Quebec City, where he chopped and sautéed his way toward Montreal and landed in Citrus in 1989, where Laprise was head chef. It didn’t take long for him to get noticed, four years later he opened Toqué! With Christine Lamarche; the rest is history. (Google it if you don’t believe me)

It is my opinion that Norman Laprise is this province’s premier food pioneer: It was Laprise who obsessed over freshness long before it was trendy to do so; as a result, he looked for food in nearby rivers, lakes and cattle fields, as freshness and proximity go hand in hand.  He has a connection with food and the earth, a connection that can only come from being raised as a farm boy, a connection that compels him to use his vegetables stem to seeds and his animals nose to tail.  He fuses local ingredients together, such as scallops and pine needles, opening up new flavor possibilities while simultaneously reshaping the local, food landscape. He’s committed to using the whole ingredient, a tomato in Laprise’s hands is squeezed, prodded, analyzed and respected until it gives up every ounce of flavor, scent, and taste it contains. The best part of all this is that Laprise does it for the food, as well as for himself: no fanfare and no vanity, just a respect for food and the desire to educate who he feeds; he also happens to be one of the nicest people I’ve ever met.

Fig.2. Toqué!'s take on a bacon lettuce and tomato. This BTL is a perfect example of Laprise's  approach: simple and elegant with an emphasis on freshness.

Motivated by food and sharing, Laprise began to work on a cookbook nearly three years ago, along with his business partner, Christine Lamarche, and Toqué!’s chef de cuisine, Charles-Antoine Crete.  This cookbook is a veritable gold mine of knowledge that will show you how to turn food into gold.  But if you read this book properly, it’s not just your food that will turn to gold, but your attitude toward food as well.

Buy yourself this cookbook for Christmas, you will not be disappointed: the stories are entertaining and illuminating, and the photographs are beautiful. And while the recipes might appear complicated at first glance, this complexity stems only from the visual beauty off of each recipe.  Read through the recipe and you’ll discover that Laprise’s approach to food is not one of complexity, but of honesty: take a few, simple ingredients, make sure they’re the best and freshest ingredients you can buy, grow or somehow procure, and love them until they’re cooked with style.
The Toqué! cookbook is available both in English and in French and can be found in most major book stores, as well as on Amazon.

Fig.3. Prosciutto and strawberries.

Zuppa Di Lenticchie e Manzo

Fig.1. Just before adding water. 

If you’ve been a faithful follower of THI for more than one winter, you’ll no doubt be aware that nesting is a part of my pre-winter routine. While cold air might involuntarily compel some people to stack their pantry shelves with Campbell’s canned soup, the cold air triggers the need in me to nest by way of homemade soup. (By the way, did you know that Campbell’s discovered several years back that they could increase soup sales by linking their radio advertising spots with cold weather. They developed an algorithmic computer program that tells different radio stations across the Continent when to run their soup ads; if you’re hearing a Campbell’s soup ad on the radio, there’s a good chance you’ll need an umbrella and a parka.)

Cold, frigid air demands a hot and hearty soup and nothing does hearty like lentils and beef. Protein is the key word here; one bowl is usually enough to keep you satisfied for hours. I’m getting tired of saying this, but this soup does taste better the next day.

Fig.2. Zen And The Art of Mis-en-Place

Zuppa di Lenticchie e Manzo  

Beef and Lentil Soup

Serves: a small army

When I make soup like this, I make enough to freeze. Knowing that I have several containers of soup nestled in the freezer nurtures my inner nester.  If meat isn’t your thing, just omit the beef, at your own peril.

Ingredients:

4 to 5 tbsp olive oil

about 700g Stewing beef, cut into large pieces (I like to use the blade, but feel free to use pre-cut cubes of stewing beef. Some stewing beef sold in supermarkets isn't the greatest so go to a butcher instead and tell them you want a beef cut that will shred easily when braised or boiled.)

1 large onion, chopped

4 large parsnips, chopped

4 to 5 large carrots, chopped

4 stalks of celery, chopped

4 to 5 medium potatoes, diced

Water

4 cups chicken stock

1 can (28oz) whole plum tomatoes

4 bay leaves

1 ½ cups lentil (I use Easton Green, they take very well to being boiled and won't go mushy)

Salt and Pepper

Fig.3. Browning the meat and getting a proper fond on the bottom of your pot is crucial to any soup or stew.  The trick is patience and low to medium heat.  Never set burners too high.

Directions:

Add olive oil to a large Dutch oven or heavy bottom pot and set over medium heat.  When your oil begins to shimmer and slightly smoke, add some meat to the pot (do not over-crowd). Brown meat on both sides and set aside.  Add some more olive oil to the pot if necessary and add the onion, parsnips, carrots, celery and potatoes. Cook and stir well for about 8 minutes. Place the meat back into the pot and add just enough water to barely cover the meat.  With a wooden spoon, scrape the bottom of your pot making sure you dislodge all the fond stuck to the bottom (this is all flavor baby!)  Add the chicken stock, the can of tomatoes and the bay leaves and bring to a gentle boil.  Add the lentils and simmer until lentils are done, carrots are tender, and beef breaks apart. Season with salt and pepper.

Squashes Squishy And Frozen

Eating in season this time of the year means winter squash and cabbage, and you'll be hard pressed to find a vegetable that is heartier than winter squash.
Historically, winter squashes were preserved and consumed primarily by cultures in dire straits. I'm saddened when I see winter squashes left to rot in fields and angered by pumpkins wasted during Halloween (I love Halloween but advocate using at least some of the seeds and pumpkin flesh before they become Jack-O-Lanterns)
Cooking and preserving winter squash is not complicated, in fact, the cooking part can be done while you watch television or deal with your laundry: Squash goes into oven and oven cooks squash.
When it comes to seasoning your squash, like talking after sex, I truly believe less is more.  Like all vegetables in season, all the flavours you need are bursting through. Maybe a little salt and pepper, yes some butter will add flavour, but I implore you to not mask the natural flavour of the squash.
Cooking directions are given under each photo below.

Fig.1. Squashes from Birri

Fig.2. Butternut, acorn, spaghetti, and others I do not know the name of. All edible and delicious.

Fig.3. Seeds are not garbage! My trusty sidekick, Marcella DeVincenzo from Cucina Chronicles, saw to it that no seeds were harmed in the making of this post. Wash the seeds thoroughly under cold water (don't worry if some seeds still have squash-flesh still attached, the flesh will be cooked off.) Lay the seeds to dry on a newspaper or a kitchen towel.

Fig.4. While the seeds are still a bit wet, sprinkle them with any seasoning you desire. Hungry Ella opted for Berber seasoning. Roasting these small seeds makes them completely edible. I eat the whole seed, shells and all. Makes for great roughage.

Fig.5. Cut the squash in half and roast in a 400 degree oven. (close the oven door)

Fig.6. The squash is ready when you can insert a knife into the flesh without resistance.   I like a little caramelising on the surface of my squash, that's where the sweet flavour resides.

Fig.7. Once the squash has cooled down considerably, scoop out the flesh into a big bowl with a spoon.

Fig.8. Fill some freezer bags with the squash and place in the freezer. Winter is coming.  Isn't nesting fun?

Make a soup, make a casserole, a Shepherd's pie, add it to risotto, or just serve some mashed squash along side some meat. And talk about getting your money's worth, twenty bucks for about 40 kilos provides for lots of good eating.

Lumachelle All'Urbinate: A Noble Minestrone

Fig.1. A minestrone from Umbria with liver and Swiss Chard.

Umbria is the only landlocked region in Italy and best known for the town of Assisi, the birthplace of St Francis. Its geography is similar to that of neighboring Tuscany, with rolling hills and sparse farmlands, except where the mighty Apennines pass.  These imposing and high mountains are responsible for colder than usual micro-climates in many of the high altitude Umbrian towns; as a result, soups are popular in Umbria.

The soup featured in this post was inspired by The Duchess of Urbino, Beatrice Sforza (nee D’este).  During the late 1400s, Sforza was a patroness of the Renaissance art scene, helping architects such as Donato Bramante and artists such as Leonardo Davinci. But Sforza was also a gourmand and might have seen cuisine as an art form in itself; not in-so-much as having hands-on creativity in the kitchen, (Sforza was Royalty, as such, she did not do her own cooking; although, she is reputed to have been a good cook herself) but by involuntarily inspiring her cooks to create dishes that the Duchess might find visually pleasing. So her cooks turned to colors and shapes, relying on visually appealing fruits and vegetables to please the Duchess.  The Duchess was known in noble circles for having good taste, and along with her husband Ludovico Sforza, loved to entertain and were known for their lavish and elaborate parties.

This soup was known as Piatto alla Beatrice Sforza, Duchessa d’Urbino, it is currently known in Umbria simply as, Lumachelle All’Urbinate.

Lumachelle All’Urbinate

Lumachelle are snail-shaped pasta. I did not have any in my pasta armory so I used orrecheitte.  The dish varies depending on what neighborhood of Umbria you are in, you can substitute different vegetables depending on what’s fresh; however, the liver is constant. 

Fig.2. Winter is coming, a soup like this will keep away those pesky White Walkers.

Ingredients:

4 tbsp butter

2 large carrots, chopped

Meat from 4 medium sausages removed from their casings

2 veal livers, chopped

4 large tomatoes, diced

4 cups chicken or beef stock

Swiss Chard, 1 Bunch, chopped (you can also use cabbage, substitute 2 cups)

2 cups or lumachelle pasta (any small pasta will work)

Directions:

Set a large, heavy bottom pot or Dutch oven over medium heat.  Add the butter, carrots, sausage meat, liver and tomatoes to the pot and cook, stirring often, until meat cooks through and the bottom of your pot is caramelized, about 12 to 15 minutes.  Add the stock and scrape the bottom of the pot with a wooden spoon.  Add the Swiss Chard and simmer until carrots are tender.  Add the cooked pasta to the soup and season with salt and pepper.  Serve hot and with some freshly grated Parmesan cheese. Like all soups and stews, this one is better the next day.

Pasta With Leftovers

Fig.1. Pasta and leftovers can be friends.

Sometimes it's not a question of using leftovers, it's about using all those edible odds and ends lingering in the recesses of your fridge and pantry. I hate wasting food and find it utterly sinful to throw away anything edible.
I've said it before: you can make pasta with anything.  The basic premise of a starch mixed with other ingredients holds true in many different forms, just because it's pasta doesn't mean it has to fit within a framework in our minds forged by years of people telling us what should be.  You might not think of combining pasta with avocado, but avocado with rice or tortillas (two starches of a different kind) are an acceptable match in many parts of the world. I've added pasta to just about everything at one time or another: shepard's pie, (not bad, had to add chicken stock if I recall) beef stew, (really good) chili, (awesome!) hamburger steak, (flippin' awesome!) you get the picture.

Here's something I whipped up last night with edibles just screaming to be made into pasta.

 Pasta With Chimichurri, Marinated Vegetables And Other Odds And Ends
 Serves 3 to 4

What you see in the photo below was hanging around my fridge and pantry. From the top: Italian parsley, orrecchiette pasta, half a jar of chimichurri, (which I made, it's basically garlic, olive oil, red wine vinegar, oregano, lemon juice, and parsley.) green onions, some saucisson (a Mondo Salami brand which I thourally enjoyed) a sweet red pepper, and some leftover marinated artichokes, mushrooms and olives purchased at Milano and tasted like plastic.

Ingredients: (See above)
Use whatever you have in your fridge. In this case, the jar of chimichurri added the wetness I needed. If you only have dry ingredients in your fridge, just add some extra olive oil to your pasta, some of the pasta water, or a combination of both.  And another thing, it's perfectly acceptable to have a greater ratio of other ingredients besides pasta in your dish.

Directions:
Set a large pot of salted water to a boil.
Add some good olive oil to a large pan set over medium heat. Start by adding your raw ingredients, in this case, add the chopped green onions and chopped red pepper, saute until tender, 8 to 10 minutes.  Add the rest of your ingredients including the pasta, stir well. If your pasta is dry, simply add some more olive oil or pasta water, or a combination of both. Use what's in your fridge and don't be scared. You don't need always need a recipe!

The Camera Eye

My son took what I think are some pretty amazing pictures on our trip to Italy this past August.  Lured by all things food such as I am, I feel I should tell you that I've literally been dragging this kid to countless farmer's markets, restaurants, and food shops to the point where I'm pretty sure food will be part of his future in one form or another. (I just hope it's in a positive way)
Italy was no different. If there was a market somewhere in some small nearby town, I was there. And so was my son, armed with his very own camera. These are some of the images he captured, which I think, are pretty good.

Fig.1. Holy mackerel

Fig.2. Zucchini envy

Fig.3. Vine tomatoes from Sicily

Fig.4. Lupini: Warning, beware of knuckle hair!

Fig.5. Prosciutto, notice how they're all different sizes.

Fig.6. For as log as I've been going to Italy, this lady and her vegetables have always been there.

Fig.7. Puppies taste better eaten while still very young. In central Italy they're usually stewed in tomato sauce.

Fig.8. Smelts. Toss em in flour and fry em.

Fig.9. Scampi

Fig.10. Merluzzo (cod)

Fig.11. Sfogliatelle in Napoli

Fig.12. Una Margarita a Napoli

Fig.13. Strozzapretti con tonno e pommodorini, made by moi

Fig.14. Focacci lungi con pommodoro e zuchini

Fig.15. "oh, atsa matta you, you no lika da frutta?"

Fig.16. Prosciutto and sausage

Fig.17. You Baccala!

Fig.18. The best gelato in Italy eys closed, Meringo Gelateria in Ripi