Great Party Trick – How To Prove a Food Allergy

27 Dec

First off, let me just say that you aren’t going to believe me until you try this experiment yourself, so I encourage you to try.  Hold out someone’s left forearm face up and stick a piece of food on there that the person claims to be allergic to. Have them hold their thumb and ring finger together as tightly as possible. If they are indeed allergic, it will be very easy to pull their thumb and ring finger apart. If they aren’t, then it will be difficult.

We first tried this on Jenn, who has a major gluten allergy. When we put some white flour on her forearm, her fingers came apart like she wasn’t even trying. Then, we tried a blackberry, which she can eat fine, and her fingers could barely be pulled apart.

I then did this experiment on my mom, who can’t drink anything with caffeine in it. I tried with coffee beans, and her fingers came apart very easily. But when we tried with sour cream, it was very difficult to pull them apart.

Unfortunately, I have no allergies so I couldn’t verify that this worked on myself, but being witness to both Jenn and my mom made me a believer.


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Sauteed Tilapia and Zucchini

21 Dec

Been trying to eat more fish lately, so I Picked up a flillet of tilapia and a zucchini on the way home from work today.  I smeared the fillet in some good olive oil and then cooked it in a few tablespoons of butter for about 5 minutes. I sauteed the zucchini in some olive oil as well for about ten minutes, sprinking salt and peppper a few times.

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Lazy Sunday Barbecued Shrimp

21 Dec

I had a pound of frozen, unpeeled, uncooked shrimp in the freezer to use up. This recipe takes about 15 minutes in total. If possible start with fresh unpeeled shrimp, but if you are using frozen, then thaw in some cool water for an hour before you start cooking. You can use peeled, cooked shrimp if you want as well. The barbecue does not come from the cooking method but the flavour of the sauce.

Barbecued Shrimp (serves two, although I was starving and ate the whole thing myself)

-melt 1/2 cup of butter in a pan

-add one teaspoon of each of white pepper, black pepper, cayanne pepper powder, thyme, rosemary and marjoram. Mix together beforehand for better consistency

-add the shrimp and take out and reserve as soon as it’s pink (about 3 minutes). If you’re using cooked shrimp just heat them through, about a minute.

-add a minced clove of garlic, 4-6 tablespoons of white wine, a tablespoon of worcester sauce, 1/2 cup of fish stock (the buillion cubes are fine)

-bring it to a boil and reduce it down until it’s no longer watery, I forget the time, just watch it (see picture).

-plate the shrimp on a bed of rice, and pour the sauce over the rice

-serve immediately.

This is a nice lazy Sunday night dish, easy to cook and quick to clean.

Happy Cooking

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DJ Jayro Soup Development Team: Week Twenty-one – Sim Simma (Whose got Tomatoes and some Ginga?)

9 Mar

Dear Soup Development Team,

After twenty-one weeks, I have decided to hang up the proverbial soup pan, expand my horizons and move past this wonderful appetizer. Therefore, “soup up my soup” will serve as the predecessor for a new, more diverse discourse on the world of gastronomy. For those of you who actually read through these musings, you’ll notice that my notorious topic drift eventually led to the blog losing the focus of being simply about soup, and was begging to move beyond these borders and become more free-form in nature. So, watch out for something new in the next few weeks. It will be better, I promise.

The ginger plant, or Zingiber officinale, has a long history of cultivation, originating in Asia, then travelling to India, Southeast Asia, West Africa and the Caribbean. Culinary uses are many and varied, ranging from being the main ingredient of ginger ale, to being used in a variety of Indian and Chinese dishes. Ginger also has many medicinal uses, having evidence of blood thinning and cholesterol lowering properties, as well as being frequently used to treat dyspepsia and colic.

Although outrageously overpriced in shi-shi grocery stores like Loblaws and Sobeys, you can get ginger route in a bag for cheap at most Asian grocery stores. It is a staple in all of my Asian cooking, most frequently as part of marinades. You can peel the root and then use a cheese grater, or just smash it down on the cooking board if you have a cleaver. I like smashing things with the flat side of a cleaver, which is probably testament to my impatience when I have too much food prep to do for a meal.

Sim Simma (Whose got Tomatoes and some Ginga?)

Serves four-ish

Anyone who talks to me regularly knows of my obsession with Sandwich Box, a gourmet sandwich joint on Richmond St. across the street from my office building. Last Thursday the soup was Tomato and Ginger, and it was the best soup I’ve had there in a while. So, here is a solid version of it.

Cut up and then Puree the following:

2 yellow onions
4 ounces of ginger root

Melt in a soup pan over medium heat:

1/2 cup butter

add and cook for 4 minutes and stirring frequently:

Onion puree that you just made

Puree and add to the saucepan:

2 pounds of hot house tomatoes

Add, bring to a boil, then sim simma on medium low heat for 30 minutes:

1 cup vegetable (or chicken) stock
2 tbsp of white sugar
sea salt and pepper to taste
2 cups of heavy cream (whipping cream)

In a separate bowl, beat:

2 egg yolks

Add a small portion of the soup into the yolks, and then pour mixture back into the saucepan

Garnish with:

chives, cut into lengths

Serve

Track of the week:

Track this week is Sultans of Swing by Dire Straits, because it’s a way better song than anything by Beenie Man.

Adios for now,
Jayro
“made from scratch”

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DJ Jayro Soup Development Team: Week Twenty – I’m not a Player, I just Schuck a lot (Oyster Saffron Soup)

23 Feb

I'm not a Player, I just Schuck a lot (Oyster and Safron Soup)Dear Soup Development Team,

Substantial controversy enshrouds the months in which oysters should be consumed. One of the oldest rules states that they should only be eaten in months that contain the letter R. This adage came into prominence during a time when there was inadequate refrigeration during transport. From a health perspective, it is now safe to eat oysters year round.

However, there is another reason to eat oysters only in the Rs; the warm months are spawning season and the texture can becomes quite unappealing. I was in this camp for a while, until I ordered some oysters last summer at the Starfish Oyster Bed and Grill in Toronto during the Summerlicious festival and thought they were delicious. The warmer months can make for some interesting variations in flavour; since oysters are basically filters, the different currents can bring different, and enjoyable flavors, to the same oyster from the same oyster bed depending on climate. These days, however, the vast majority of oysters are cultivated and a high proportion of these are sterile and unable to spawn, making the argument moot.

Utimately oysters are a matter of taste, and if you actually cook or poach them, it doesn’t really matter when they are eaten. So even if you don’t rush to make this recipe in the next short while, save it for the summer and it will be equallly delicious.

I’m Not a Player, I just Schuck A Lot (Oyster Saffron Soup)

Shuck about 24 oysters and reserve their liquor (the liquid) A pretty good tutorial here on how (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lzWvvyfB4tw&feature=related)

In a pan on medium-low head, add:

1 tbps butter
1 tbsp olive oil

Add and cook for about three minutes:

2 garlic cloves, minced
1/4 cup celery, fine dice
1 cup leeks, finely sliced and only the white part

Add to pot and poach for about two minutes:

oysters
oyster liquid

Add:

1/2 cup white wine (optional)
1 cup heavy cream (table cream may be substituted, but don’t try using milk)

Add, bring to just under a boil and then simmer:

a pinch of saffron
pepper to taste

Add and serve

parsley to taste

Track of the Week

This week’s track is Small Axe by Bob Marley, a man who certainly did a lot of schucking in his lifetime.

Cheers,

Jayro
“made from scratch”
www.soupupmysoup.com

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DJ Jayro Soup Development Team: Week Nineteen – 99 Problems (But a Bisque Ain’t One)

10 Feb

Dear Soup Development Team,

During the Roman Empire, the emperor Claudius II held the conviction that married men made for poor soldiers and had decided to outlaw the marrying of young men. Upon discovering that Saint Valentine had defied his orders and secretly encouraged young lovers to get married, Claudius ordered his swift execution. Thus, around A.D 270 on the fourteenth day of February, Saint Valentine was put to death. Some maintain that Valentine himself initiated the concept of sending love message in which he had ended the note by writing ‘from your valentine’. People say during imprisonment he fell in love with the jailor’s daughter and he had expressed his deep feelings for her by writing letters.

So this Valentine’s Day, while your wining and dining your better half in a haze of wine and chocolate, think of the reason why you’re there in the first place. On the other hand, if you’re having girl problems then I feel bad for you son, I got….

99 Problems (But a Bisque Ain’t One)

Heat the following in a soup pan over medium heat:

2 tbsp of butter
1 tbsp of extra virgin olive oil

Saute in the butter/olive oil for about three minutes

1 large (or 2 small) shallots, minced
1 large leek, thinly sliced diagonally

Add the following, cook for another minute:

8 ounces of crimini mushrooms, sliced
4 ounces of shiitake muchrooms, sliced
6 ounces of portobello mushrooms, sliced (about 3 smaller ones)

Add 1/4 cup of flour and incorporate into the vegetables

Add 3 cups of vegetable or chicken stock, bring to a boil and then simmer for 20 minutes

Add, simmer for 10 more minutes:

1 cup of cream (35% is best, you could also use milk)
thyme to taste
ground nutmeg to taste

Add:

1/4 cup sherry
lemon juice from 1 lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Track of the Week:

Track this week is “Fair Weather Friends” by Daedelus, because inside we’re all the same.

Cheers,
Jayro
“made from scratch”


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DJ Jayro Soup Development Team: Week Eighteen – Single Ladies (Put a Carrot in it)

27 Jan

Dear Soup Development Team:

New York Times food critic Mark Bittman was at the University of Toronto last week promoting his new book “Food Matters – A Guide to Conscious Eating”, and I was lucky enough to get a seat in the packed audience. He was on stage with CBC’s Matt Galloway for an hour-long discussion, with topics ranging from eco-eating to our overconsumption of meat. I know most of you are desensitized to the piles of statistics on the Western diet, however one crazy stat worth mentioning is that 7% of American’s calories come from soda (although, 7% of my diet probably comes from Canadian Club, and another 7% comes from red wine, so I can’t say much here).

One interesting take-away I got from the talk was his argument that you should really only be shopping around the perimeter of the supermarket, as the stuff in the middle is basically processed derivatives of the outside. This would follow that you should only really be buying about 10% of what a supermarket sells.

Below is a simple vegetable soup with some pearled barley in it. You can add whatever vegetables and spices you want, but the below can serve as a simple framework for timing and ingredients.

Single Ladies (Put a Carrot in it)

Start by making a simple vegetable broth:

Put in a soup pan, bring to a boil and then simmer for 30 minutes:

3 litres of ice cold water (or however big your pot is)
2 carrots, roughly chopped
2 celery ribs, roughly chopped
1 yellow onion, quartered
1 bay leaf
1 dried clove

remove all vegetables, bay leaf and clove and discard. Then add and cook on medium for 20 minutes:

2 cups carrots, diced
2 cups of celery, diced
1/2 cup yellow onion, diced
1 cup pearled barley

Add, cook for another 5 minutes:

1/2 cup roughly chopped or crushed canned tomatoes

Sea salt and pepper to taste

Serve

You could also add some small pasta the same time you add the veggies and barley

Bittman in the News

A good book review of Bittmans book is here.

Track of the Week

This weeks track is “Vegetables” by The Beach Boys. You know you love it.

Cheers,

Jayro
“made from scratch”


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