Equinox Catering

Just a bit of fun.

2010-12-30T10:05:00.000-08:00

I wrote this piece several years ago as a concept for a magazine. They told me they wanted an 'Anthony Bourdain style column' and this is what I wrote. Some time between getting those instructions and submitting this piece, they had changed their minds and instead wanted a simple recipe column, so this piece has never seen the light of day. I post it now for your enjoyment...

In the course of my career, I have meet some strange characters, but the ones that are the most baffling to me are the ones that say to me “You own a restaurant – I always thought that that would be a great idea.” My reply tends to be a smirk and something along the lines of “Have fun with that.”

Restaurant work is not for the faint of heart, mind or body. Anyone who spends a few years of his or her life slaving away in a food establishment deserves at the very least a gold star. Anyone who is crazy enough to open their own restaurant deserves the Medal of Bravery, and anyone that can keep the doors of their restaurant open for more than a year deserves to have their name immortalized in verse along with their signature dish. There is only one other occupation I am aware of that in the course of a day you risk getting burned, sliced, bludgeoned, maimed, yelled at, flooded out, lose staff, do what angry people tell you to do, shut down, then be expected to return the next day to do it all again – but joining the army never had any appeal for me.

For those of you who have had this whimsical thought from time to time but have never worked in a restaurant, let me impart unto you, as best I can, some things you could expect to see in the day-to-day operations. In the kitchen we work with open flames, sharp metal edges, fragile ceramic plates and we juggle delicate food items in such fevered conditions that would make the average individual think they had entered an insane asylum. Hell, we already have the white jackets – we’re half way there. It doesn’t help that when two Chefs talk about food, the discussion can get as fanatical as a religious debate, or as heated as a political slander campaign. I’m not sure which is more frightening - watching two chefs scream at each other, one with a French Knife in hand, the other with a Cleaver, arguing over the best way to prepare lamb shank, or being one of those Chefs - and yes I have been in both positions.

On the floor (that’s what we call the dining room in a restaurant,) not only do you have to deal with the crazies in the kitchen, you have a room full of them you have to take care of. Balance drink orders, food orders, check and table numbers, people’s likes, dislikes, allergies, aromas, quirks and moods while keeping a smile on your face. At least you have to option of yelling at the nut-bars in the kitchen – heaven forbid you lose your temper with a patron!

At the end of the day, if you are lucky enough to have any full time and committed staff, you have the privilege of having a take home pay substantially less than theirs – if you are able to take anything home at all – for as least the first three years. So, do you still want to own a restaurant?

I personally love working with food, and I’ll probably work with food in some form or another for the rest of my life. I know that I could spend a lifetime working with and studying food, and still not know everything there is to know, and on a very basic level that excites me. For now I have my little restaurant and I take the good with the bad. I’m still looking for a good poet to write the Ballad of Chef Sean though. Any takers?

Comfort food in a age of allergies

2010-10-15T11:37:00.000-07:00

In the past twenty years or so, we have seen a huge spike in the number of food allergies and sensitives. The people hardest hit are those that develop some sort of sensitivity to wheat since it is used so liberally in our diet and in processed foods. As autumn starts to fade, the days start growing shorter and winter approaches. With the shorter days we find ourselves craving simple foods like stews and this can pose a problem for people with any sort of grain or gluten sensitivity since traditionally stews are thickened with flour. This need not be the case though, and even before the advent of cornstarch, many cultures made hearty dishes thickened with all manner of ingredients. Taking a page from my Irish ancestry, a traditional Irish stew uses the most common of ingredients available to a common farming family, and is a self thickening stew without the use of any grain whatsoever. I have a soft spot for peasant dishes, and Irish stew is easily in the top five of my all time favourite dishes. It may not be fancy, but when properly done it's flavours meld well together and dance on the palette.

Traditional Irish Stew

30 ml of butter

900 gram lamb shoulder, cut into cubes

900 gram potatoes, peeled and large dice

400 gram onions, large dice

400 gram carrots, large dice

1 litre fresh stock (beef or chicken)

200 gram shredded green cabbage

550 gram peas (optional)

Fresh parsley

1 Bay leaves

1 Sprig of Thyme

1 Sprig of Rosemary

Salt and pepper to taste

Melt the butter in a pan over a fairly high temperature and sauté the meat until it is browned all over, about 3-5 minutes. Add the onions on the same pan for about a minute or two.

Pour half the stock into the pan, turn the heat up as high as it will go and scrape the pan as the stock boils to get all the meat juices. Pour the contents of the pan into a slow cooker and add all remaining ingredients. Set slow cooker on low for 6 hours. Right before you serve the stew, add a handful of roughly chopped parsley.

The potatoes should be cooked enough so the outer edges are soft and breaking apart, and a good stir should mix the thoroughly cooked potatoes throughout the stew acting as a natural thickening agent. A good Irish stew is never thickened with anything other than potato.

Serve as is, or on a piece of soda (or gluten free) bread. Enjoy!

A long break

2010-10-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

I was shocked to find that it had been over a year since I have posted anything on my Blog, and wonder where the heck all the time went too. After an extremely busy summer, the dust has settled, and it's time to get back into the swing of things.

The growing season in the area was very short this year, but it looks like the autumn crops are doing well: Blackberries, plums, apples and more squash then you can shake a stick at, so not all is lost. As those zucchini get a little too mature to be a tender side vegetable, I like to turn them into relish. Typically we have more relish then we know what to do with, so most of our friends get a jar in their holiday gift basket. Here's the recipe that was given to me years ago now:

Zucchini relish

12 cups grated zucchini
5 cups onion julienne
6 Tbl pickling salt
1 red pepper julienne
2 1/2 cups vinegar
4 cups sugar
2 small hot peppers (optional)
6 cloves garlic, minced (see note below)
1 tsp nutmeg
1 tsp dry mustard powder
1 tsp tumeric
1 Tbl cornstarch
2 Tbl celery seed (optional)
1/2 tsp ground black pepper

After grating the zucchini and cutting the onions and mincing the garlic, mix in the salt and let stand overnight. The next day, drain the fluid and rinse twice in cold water to remove some of the overly salty taste.

Add the zucchini mix and the rest of the ingredients into a thick bottomed pot and bring to a simmer for 30 minutes.

Ladle hot zucchini relish mix into sterile jars and process using normal canning techniques.

NOTE ON GARLIC - There is some controversy about using garlic in canning. Most government bodies in North America suggest when canning with garlic that a pressure canner be used to get a higher temperature. There is a risk of botulism poisoning if you do not pressure can. If you do not have a pressure canner, you have two options:

1) omit the garlic - if you do this, you will be able to can this recipe as you would any other household preserve. Pressure canning has a tendency to kill most of the garlic flavor anyways, and I did this in the past before I had a pressure canner with much success.

2) If you MUST have the garlic, you can also freeze the relish in small batches and pull as you need it. This does change the texture of the end product, but it does work in a crunch.

Autumn is harvest time, and there is still lots of canning to do for the winter months, so get out there and don't be afraid to try something new!

Think Globally, Eat Locally

2009-03-08T22:22:00.000-07:00

Originally published in Synergy Magazine.

Fifty years ago Vancouver Island produced enough food to feed 85% of its population. Did you also know that today Vancouver Island produces only enough food to feed about 10% of its population, and imports more than 70% of its fresh produce? Where have all the farms gone?

A brief history lesson: in the mid-1980s, buzz about the U.S. and Canada “Free Trade Agreement” was rekindled. On January 1, 1989, it was passed and put into effect allowing many products, including agricultural products, to pass over the border with fewer tariffs. On January 1, 1994, the U.S. and Canada Free Trade Agreement was superseded by what is now called NAFTA (North American Free Trade Agreement), opening up trade to and from Mexico.

In 1989, large amounts of U.S. subsidized produce started coming over the border into Canada, undercutting the prices of the local farmers. After a few years, it became evident that small local farmers were no longer able to support their families with traditional farming methods. Some stopped farming altogether, and the children of many farmers were encouraged not to take over the farms; to seek, instead, other employment, as the general feeling was that local farms were non-viable, a thing of the past.

Eighteen years after “Free Trade” was implemented, the old farmers have now started to step down from their fields; and there are fewer young bodies to replace them. To make matters worse, since this farmland is not being used, both provincial and local governments are trying to change much of the protected agricultural land reserve into either commercial or residential land.

In the past couple of years, there has been a small resurgence of interest in local, traditional farmers and farming practices, but will it be enough? As it stands right now, there is only about a three-day supply of fresh food in our stores at any given time. If Vancouver Island were to be cut off from the mainland for an extended time for any reason, most of us would not have the personal food stores to last longer than this. Our culture has been so changed in the last 30 years that most families now need at least two incomes to support a household, which means no one in a household has the time to do the traditional preserving of foods that used to get people through the winter months and lean times. Without the time to show the younger generation how to prepare and preserve food, some of these techniques are becoming a dying art.

So, who is to blame? I spent a good amount of time talking about NAFTA, but before we go pointing fingers at various governments, corporate bodies or other unmentioned factors, let’s take a look in our own refrigerators. How many locally-grown or produced foods do people currently have there? In the pantry? Cellar? It’s easy to assign blame to a body of people we have no connection to.

In reality, we are all to blame. Every time we have purchased Washington State apples, potatoes or tomatoes instead of locally-grown ones, we have supported a system that does not support us. Yes, the cost out of pocket is at times higher, but the long-term costs of losing the ability to sustain ourselves is immeasurably catastrophic.

If we all purchased just half a dozen local foods more than we already do, the demand for local products would grow to the point where more local farmers would be needed to produce the food, thus turning the tide on the globalization of food. Think globally, eat locally.

http://www.equinoxcafe.com

Shopping Locally

2009-03-04T23:04:00.000-08:00

OK, I was looking at the article I was going to post, and it really did not make sense to post articles that are talking about August - and the previous post about summer is equally silly. So for the time being, I have shifted to articles that are not so 'time of the year' sensitive. This one was originally published in Synergy Magazine.

Anyone who watches modern cooking shows has heard the same phrase uttered time and time again: “Use fresh local ingredients,” but how many of us actually do? Furthermore, one could ask, in this day and age why should we? We have an excellent international supply line for all sorts of foods and for the right price, we literally want for naught all year round. To this there is neither a single, nor easy answer; but when you stop to analyze the situation, you will find yourself asking why more people don’t purchase and use local foods.

Some of the reasons for using local ingredients revolve around the environment, health, community support, politics and economics. In discussion, many of these topics cross and intersect with each other. The reasons for not using local ingredients are convenience and cost effectiveness. Since our culture has a fixation for money and personal economics, let’s talk about that today.

The argument given by the largest segment of our culture is that times are tough, and we need to stretch our household dollar as far as possible. California produce is less expensive than the local stuff, so in the name of our budgets, we have to purchase the less expensive variety.

First, I never really understood how products shipped across borders or half way around the world can possibly be less expensive than local products, especially when you consider that the further away the food comes from, the more expensive the shipping costs become. By the time tomatoes get here from southern California, for example, twenty to twenty five percent of the price you pay is for freight alone. This has huge health and environmental impacts, which we will discuss in later articles.

Secondly, most people have no problem spending more on a fair trade and organic cup of coffee so some nameless, faceless farmer in Costa Rican can make a liveable wage. Why are these same people so averse to giving their neighbours and the people in their community a liveable wage? Yes, the local tomatoes may cost a bit more per pound, but when you spend the money in your community, it tends to stay in your community. If you buy our produce directly from local farmers on a regular basis and form a good relationship with those farmers, do you not think they will come see you in your place of business when they require your services?

Also, the local produce you purchase is usually picked fresh that day, instead of being picked under-ripe, spending the better part of two weeks in transit and in warehouses sucking up carbon monoxide before it hits the grocery store shelves. Since it is picked fresh, local produce will have more nutrients in it, and with more nutrients in the food, you need to eat less of it to feed your body properly (oh, look - a health and economic benefit).

One final point on the financial end of things – how many of us like spending money on higher fuel prices? I didn’t think so. When you purchase food that has been shipped from out of the province, or even off Vancouver Island, you are supporting higher gas prices, since you are in essence supporting a transportation system that consumes vast amounts of diesel and gasoline on a daily basis just to put food on your plate. It is a common economic principle that if the demand for something decreases, the price also decreases. So the next time you are shopping for food, ask yourself, where is this food from, and how will this effect my life and the life of my family?

http://www.equinoxcafe.com

SUMMER MARINADES

2009-03-03T09:08:00.000-08:00

Originally Published in Nanaimo's More Living Magazine

Summer is fast approaching, and with it; sun, family, friends, and backyard dining. Hot barbeque meats and chilled salads typically make up the average backyard dinner party, but what you need is a quick and easy way to make your backyard feast memorable. To that end, I have one word for you – marinade.

Marinades are used to add flavor to any food, and is not limited to just meats – you can easily marinate your vegetable kebobs in an Asian ginger and soy mixture and have a flavorful treat. Some marinades also have a curing effect on foods, and some marinades cure to the point where it is safe to eat ‘uncooked’ meat as long as it is cured properly and long enough. Curing is usually associated with preservation of food for storage over the winter months, but by using the same basic concepts, you can create light and refreshing marinated dishes for hot summer evenings.

There are different types of marinades, some wet, some dry, and if you do a quick search on the Internet, you will find literally thousands of recipes for various uses. There are some basic ingredients that you will find in almost all marinades. The type and quantity of these ingredients will affect what the end product will taste like, and in some cases how long you can store it. The use of marinades is not limited to steaks. Fruit, vegetables, seafood and poultry can all benefit from a few hours in a flavorable marinade. Here are some of the basic marinade ingredients and what they do;

Citrus

The acids present in fresh squeezed lime and lemon juice have a curing effect that is similar to cooking, and it adds a refreshing flavor to meats on a hot summer day. This technique is commonly used in the Mexican dish called Ceviche, where fresh raw fish is ‘cooked’ by lime juice with a mixture of cilantro, tomatoes, onions and fresh jalapenos.

Salt

Salt is a major flavoring ingredient in most marinades. In a light salt marinade, it adds flavor, but a heavy salt marinade will cure or preserve food. With enough salt, you can cure meat to the point where it does not need to be cooked to eat, or even refrigerated. Beef jerky for example is made with a combination of a dry salt cure and a smoking process. A perfect summer item that is cured and chilled with salt is the Nordic dish Gravlox, which consists of curing sides of salmon with salt, pepper, dill and alcohol. The mix only takes a day or two to cure through, and makes a nice chilled dish for a hot outdoor buffet.

Sugar

Sugar is also used to add flavor and as a preservative. Sugar is typically used in conjunction with salt in marinades to help sweeten an otherwise bitter or overly salty mixture. With enough sugar however you can completely cure food as well and we commonly see this in the autumn preserving of jams and jellies. A nice summer dish cured with sugar is candied salmon.

Alcohol

Alcohol has been used to cure and marinate since its creation. Wine and beer can be used in conjunction with other curing ingredients to add flavor, much like in the afore mentioned Gravlox. Sprits like vodka and brandy can be used to preserved fruits, and flavor the spirit used in the process.

Now I know some people out there are saying, “Salt, sugar and alcohol? If your cooking doesn’t kill me, my doctor will when he finds out what I’ve been eating.” There are healthy substitutes for some of these marinade ingredients, especially if you are just looking for the flavors, and not the curing effects.

In the place of salt, you can use soy sauce or miso paste, both of which do have some salt. I personally prefer to use a natural sea salt for my seasonings, and I do not recommend commercial salt replacers due to the numerous studies that show how unhealthy they can be. You can add any number of spices you want to enhance the flavor of your marinade, but your body does need at least a small quantity of good old-fashioned sodium chloride to function normally.

Sugar has numerous substitutes, and I don’t mean the manufactured ones with all those nasty warnings written on the side of the box. For healthier sweeteners, you can use an unrefined, unbleached granulated sugar, honey, or my personal favorite – maple syrup. Of course for diabetics or people with allergies to sweeteners, none of these options will work. For them Stevia, a leafy plant that acts sweet on the taste buds without the effects of sugar, is the safest solution.

Another healthy alternative to marinades is a dry spice rub, like a Caribbean jerk spice, which typically consists of rubbing a blend of onions, allspice, black pepper, cinnamon, salt (optional) and other spices on your meat, letting it sit to infuse the flavors before grilling.

There is no reason for your summer barbeque to be a bland and flavorless experience, so get out there and enjoy the sun, the company and the great food.

http://www.equinoxcafe.com

Soups and Sauces

2009-03-02T08:20:00.000-08:00

Originally published in Nanaimo's More Living Magazine

So you’ve followed my advice, and you have prepared a few batches of stock. After using them once or twice, they are now starting to pile up in your freezer and you need a few recipes to use up that stock you so painstakingly made. I have just the thing to blow the socks off your next dinner guest.

When is the last time you created a home-made soup from scratch? It’s a dying art to be sure, especially in a culture that insists that on top of a full-time job, you need to maintain the house, drive the kids to and from soccer/dance/school/etc. and somehow take care of yourself in between. Gone are the days when one woke up to pleasant aromas wafting from the kitchen – or are they?

I bring your attention back to one of my favorite pieces of household cooking equipment – the crock-pot. This has to be one of the most under-used and under-appreciated of all cooking apparatuses. For busy people on the go, it is absolutely crucial to have one. Not only is it good for stews and chilies, it can also be an excellent tool for you to make soups when you are too busy to stand there and watch them.

“But wait,” you say, “It’s the middle of spring. The sun is out and the temperature is rising. I don’t really want to serve a hot soup.” Then don’t. If the art of home-made soups is dying, doubly can be said about chilled soups. When is the last time you even heard of a place that served one? Chilled soups are perfect for late spring and early summer when the vegetables are young and still have some of their natural sugars, and just enough starch to help thicken your soup. You have, of course, heard of Vichyssoise (potato and leek soup) and Gazpacho (cucumber and tomato) – the two most common chilled soups, which, when made properly, are absolutely incredible – but what about a chilled carrot and ginger soup? You’ll use up some of that chicken stock you have stashed in the freezer, and be the star of the next dinner party. If you have the time to do this, it only needs to simmer for about 45 minutes, but if you don’t you can put all your ingredients in the crock-pot on low heat right before you go to bed, then finish it in the morning. Then it will be chilled and ready for you by lunch! Here is a basic recipe to get you started:

1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 large chopped onion

1/4 cup chopped; (or grated) fresh ginger, skin off

3 cloves minced garlic

4 cups chicken stock

1 cup dry white wine

2 1/2 cups baby carrots peeled and tops off

dash of fresh lemon juice

salt & pepper to taste

Sauté your onion, ginger and garlic in the olive oil. If you are going to do this in one fell swoop, always sauté your ingredients in the same pot you are going to make the soup in. If you are using a crock-pot, just sauté these items in a frying pan before adding them to the pot. Add the remaining ingredients and simmer. After 45 minutes (or in the morning with the crock-pot method) your carrots should be cooked all the way through. Use a blender (conventional or hand) or a food processor to puree your soup, pass it through a fine strainer, pushing the pulp through with a ladle or spoon, then chill. If your end result is a bit too thick, all you need to do is add a small amount of chicken stock to thin it out to your desired thickness. I have seen similar recipes that add curry and/or coconut milk, so you don’t need to treat this recipe as a hard and fast rule. Go ahead and play with it, add flavors and make it your own. Part of the joy of cooking comes when the end result reflects a part of ourselves.

Before I end this column, I would be remiss if I did not say something about sauces made from scratch. I am a huge advocate of banning all powdered sauces from the grocery stores. Most people just don’t know that if they took an extra five or ten minutes, they could make their own Alfredo or pesto cream sauce from scratch that beats any packaged sauce hands down in flavor and nutritional value. A simple cream sauce is made easily by sautéing some diced onions in oil, adding flour to make what is called a ‘roux’ and adding milk or cream with chicken stock, stirring, seasoning and allowing it to thicken.

http://www.equinoxcafe.com

BASIC EQUIPMENT & STOCKS

2009-02-28T18:55:00.000-08:00

Starting this blog has been a long time coming. Over the past few years I have had several articles published pertaining to food and food security, topics that are very close to my heart. For the next while, I will be posting previously published articles, and once I have run out of those, I will start posting some new material on the topic. I love what I do, and I hope you find these articles useful.

Sean

BASIC EQUIPMENT & STOCKS
Originally Published in Nanaimo's More Living Magazine

In the high speed, high stress pace of what has become the standard of our lives, it seems like an old-fashioned home cooked meal is becoming a thing of the past, or a best a weekend affair. A common misconception is that a good meal takes too long to prepare, but there is no rule that says a meal has to be made all in one sitting. With a few basic staples, inexpensive kitchen equipment, and some pre-preparation, anyone can make a quality meal for themselves or their families in under an hour. Today we are going to look at what equipment one should have on hand to make this possible, and how to make a stock – the single most important staple in any kitchen.

Let’s start with equipment. The list of things you will need to aid you in making fast and great meals are; a half decent crock-pot, a cheap coffee grinder, a food processor, a fine mesh strainer, and if you feed a large number of people on a regular basis, a good-sized stock pot would be a good idea – but a crock-pot will work in most cases. All these items are available inexpensively at any department store except for a fine mesh strainer, which you can find at any specialty-cooking store; barring that, you can always use a regular strainer in combination with some cheesecloth.

Secondly you will need to have on hand the basic staples that you will use in all your cooking. These items include: butter, fresh garlic (not that dried stuff), shallots, sea salt (I prefer the coarse over the fine), whole black peppercorns, Tabasco sauce, whole lemons, good quality wine (both red and white) and fresh herbs. The other ‘blend’ that you should have on hand at any given time is the French triad of onions, carrots and celery, unless you are doing a lot of Creole cooking, where their triad is onions, carrots and green peppers.

Now that you have all the essentials you need to cook like a chef, I’m going to let you in on one of the biggest secrets of cooking. Go to your cupboards where you keep all your dried ingredients, find those soup bases – you know the ones – they are either in cube form or a powder sealed in a package. Throw them directly in the trash because today you are going to make stock.

The first thing you need to make stock is bones, and to start off with, we are going to make a chicken stock since it’s the base for all good cooking. You can still find chicken bones, necks or feet (all of which are good for stock) at your local grocer, but if you are having problems finding bones, try your local butcher. If they don’t have any, they will know where to get some locally. Get just enough to fill your crock-pot about 2/3 full. What we want to do is save you some time and still have the basic ingredients on hand when the time comes. You can start making your stock right before you go to bed. Put the bones in the crock-pot with a medium onion (skin off), a coarse-chopped carrot, a stalk of celery (remember that French triad?), a clove of garlic, 2-3 whole black peppercorns and a couple of sprigs of mild fresh herbs (thyme, rosemary, parsley and oregano). If you are feeling risque, throw in ½ a piece of star anise, a seed of cardamom and 1 whole clove. Cover all this with water, place the lid on, turn on the crock-pot and go to bed. Chicken stock takes eight to ten hours to simmer and extract the flavors, proteins and gelatins from the bones, so when you get up in the morning, your stock should be ready. Drain the hot liquid through your fine mesh strainer, cool and freeze what you are not going to use in the next couple of days. Try to keep a couple of liters of stock in your freezer at all times. If you need to make larger quantities than your crock-pot will hold, you can do the same thing with a stockpot on your stovetop over low heat.

You can also make stock with beef bones, but try to use the shanks or knuckles as they have the most gelatins and flavor. Once you gain confidence making stock, you can make brown stock with beef, duck or venison bones which is done by roasting the bones and vegetables (add tomato paste to your roasting vegetables) on low heat for a couple of hours to brown before putting them in your crock-pot or stock-pot. Fish stocks can be made from the bones of lean white fish like halibut and sole, but once they come up to a simmer only need to be cooked for 45 minutes, and avoid boiling your stock at all cost – just keep it at a low simmer. Stocks are the magic cooking base that is used to make everything from soup and rice, and are excellent when used as a braising liquid for vegetables and other meats. Next time you make rice, use stock instead of water and you will be amazed at the flavor difference. Using stock in every day cooking will turn the ordinary meal into a fantastic one.

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