I grew up hunting and gardening, abandoned them both as a young adult, then fell in love with both again later in life. Apparently, same goes for ice fishing. I have semi-fond memories of exhausty ski-doo-trailer rides on to the lake, sitting on a pail getting blasted by the elements, eye lashes freezing together, not catching much of anything, getting … Read More
Dinner Party Menu
A breakdown of the menu for some new friends that came by for dinner last night. Excluding the first course – a salad from the garden…forgot the photo. The first three courses were paired with an alsatian riesling, the following 3 with a right-bank bordeaux. Overall, a lovely night: berkshire tenderloin on white bean purée, crispy sage pickled whitefish, dill … Read More
Pickerel Night
In a belated celebration of my brother’s birthday, we did a tasting menu of very fresh lake pickerel, paired with Tuborg and a 2006 Zind Humbrecht Turckheim Gewurztraminer [favorite white varietal of the birthday boy]. It was a heady lovely wine on the nose – showing honeyed apricot and pear. But it lacked in the palate department, both in structure … Read More
Crab & German Riesling – not so much?
Beautiful evening al fresco. 8lbs of crab, and 2 bottles of German riesling – one being a memorably heady and superbly structured 1976 Auslese. Add a sprinkling of bulgar salad, wood-fire grilled veg and honey-garlic apple-smoked pork chops + some interesting beers with good friends. I wish I could say it was blockbuster, as it reads well on paper, but … Read More
Pickled White Fish
Apologies for the post-sparseness – with spring finally arriving, my ambitious gardening plans have me leaping into action every spare moment I have. I’d be staining my fence right now were it not raining. Pickled fish. I fall into a rare category of ‘like’ with pickled fish, as most are solidly in ‘love’ or ‘hate’ camps – most having the … Read More
Wild Ocean Char Night
A few months ago, I had the good fortune of putting together a long menu using Yukon fresh water char. Fortunately for me, the friend who supplied the char was food-geeky enough to be compelled to go quite out of his way to hook us up with a bigger, fattier char: the wild ocean char. So he did. I am … Read More
Evil Smoked Farmed Steelhead Trout
One of my new year’s resolutions: more fish. So far, I’d say I’ve hit the mark as this is the third batch of smoked fish this week! First atlantic salmon, then ocean char, this time: farmed steelhead trout. Yes, farmed. And yes, I have mixed feelings about farmed fishes. Clearly, practices and methods can get dodgy. Mucking about with the … Read More
A Blissful Evening of Food and Wine
Excuse: 2 day seminar, attended by myself and a good friend who enjoys food and wine. Result: 8 courses paired to 4 beverages, 1 hangover. This wasn’t my first time with a menu of this scope, or wines of this caliber – but something – perhaps the reprieve of boredom from sitting through sessions on our butts all day – … Read More
Arctic Char – A Late-Night Char-Fest
A whole char is a pretty thing to behold. The skin is spotted and pinky-peach to a point that seems surreal for a fish. The three fish all had markedly different flesh colors ranging from paler pink to intense red like a sockeye salmon. Three of us batted around ideas of what to do with the fishes, and here’s what … Read More
Sleep? Char? Char.
Rather than sliding into bed at my usual time last night to do some reading, I was just getting started on an 8+ course, 3 wine pairing dinner with friends. What else does one do when a guest arrives from the arctic, bearing fresh-water char? next: the 8 courses, and some thoughts on working with the fish