Steamed Halibut with Mango Teriyaki by Eric Akis of the Times Colonist · 26 March 2012 by colin newell
Steaming a fish, like Halibut, has some distinct advantages – you can cook it precisely without using any oil or on a grill or flat-top – and all you taste is the delicate nuance of the fish – no distraction. Perfection!
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Cooking time: About 10 minutes
1/2 cup teriyaki sauce – most brands are OK – watch the salt content!
1/2 cup chicken or vegetable stock or broth
2 Tbsp honey or corn syrup
2 Tbsp fresh lime juice
1 Tbsp Asian-style chili sauce, to taste
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1 Tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 medium red bell pepper, cut into small cubes
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
2 tsp finely chopped fresh grated ginger
1 small, ripe mango, peeled and cut into small cubes
4 (5 to 6 oz.) halibut fillets
2 green onions, thinly sliced
The side – we prepped a 1/2 cup of cooked Basmati Rice – the perfect compliment to this dish.
The sauce – Place the first 6 ingredients in a bowl and whisk until the cornstarch is dissolved.
Heat the oil in small pot set over medium-high.
Add the bell pepper, garlic and ginger and cook 2 minutes. Pour in the Teriyaki sauce mixture, bring to a simmer, and simmer 1 minute until lightly thickened. Be careful not to burn the garlic – burnt garlic changes everything!
Stir in the mango, turn the heat to low, cover and set aside the sauce until needed.
The Fish – Get out a large bamboo or stainless steel steamer. We used a steel one and used some parchment paper in a perfectly cut ring (of paper) in the bottom with around 10 pin holes punched in the paper.
Set the halibut in the steamer.
Cover the steamer, set over simmering water, and steam until the fish is just cooked through, about 5 minutes.
Plate the fish on top of the rice pilaf – top with sauce, sprinkle with green onion, and serve.
It’s delicious, it’s healthy and it has a zesty chili kick that you can regulate entirely to taste. Enjoy! Thanks to Eric Akis at the Times Colonist for this great recipe.
Click on the photo below for the bigger view.
2012 Variation of Alton Brown Texas Chili · 25 March 2012 by colin newell
Here is a another subtle variation on Alton Brown’s classic – it is not vegetarian but you can easily take out the sirloin and pitch in some firm tofu (grilled in advance of course…)
Use a 4L or 4-quart stock or stewing pot minimum – the biggest you have.
2 pounds Sirloin tip or lesser grade of beef (or pork… or Tofu)
4 tablespoons Canola oil
1 1/2 teaspoons kosher salt
2 bottle of beer, medium pale ale (I used Philip’s Slipstream Cream Ale)
2 (16-ounce) container medium or hot salsa
60 tortilla chips (really! 60… not 59 or 61!)
1/2 cup chipotle peppers canned in adobo sauce, chopped
2 medium onions – chopped
1 Yellow pepper chopped
1 Red pepper chopped
1 small Zucchini
1 large Pablano pepper chopped
2 Anaheim peppers chopped
1 chopped Habanero or Scotch bonnet peppers (be VERY, VERY careful with these peppers! There is a real risk of burning or blistering if your skin comes in direct contact with the seeds or chopped pepper flesh.)
2 medium carrots shredded (adds sweetness!)
2 tablespoon adobo sauce (from the chipotle peppers in adobo)
2 tablespoon tomato paste
2 tablespoon chili powder
2 teaspoon ground cumin
Heat your stewing/cooking pot (largest one your have!)and toss/brown meat with the Canola oil and salt/pepper in smallish batches. Add the meat in 6 to 8 batches and brown on all sides, approximately 2-3 minutes per batch. Once each batch is browned, place the meat in a clean large bowl or plate.
Once all of the meat is browned and set aside, add several tablespoons of beer to deglaze the pot.
Depending on how dry your pot is, add a tablespoon or two of your favorite canola oil.
Put in onions, yellow and red peppers, zucchini and carrots to brown for around 5 to 7 minutes.
Add Pablano and Anaheim chopped peppers – cooking an additional 5 minutes
Add Chipotle peppers and adobo sauce – stir in well.
Add bottled salsa (1 bottle at a time) and beer gradually.
Add tomato paste and ground spices
Add corn chips.
Return meat to the mix.
bring to a boil for 2-3 minutes, reduce heat to LOW, cover
and simmer for 1 hour (minimum) 2 hours = better!
Depending upon how hot your Habanero, salsa and chilpotle chilis are will dictate how much of a sweat you will work up – add sour cream to serving for the more delicate among you! Be warned: Habanero chili’s are among the hottest chili peppers on the planet – they are easily hundreds if not thousands of times hotter than the lowly jalapeno pepper. Use extreme caution with these orange peppers. If you are not prepared to assume the risk, leave this pepper out.
After the chili has stewed for a few hours, a lot of the extreme edge of the peppers have been tamed – including the habanero chili’s – that said, this is a very, very hot and spicy disk: Want it milder? Back off on the chili powder, use a mild salsa and avoid the Habanero or Scotch bonnet peppers.
Serve with ice cold beer, corn chips and a cotton napkin for wiping your brow.
This batch would easily serve 16 to 20 hungry folks – I freeze the chili in plastic containers for frugal hot lunches!
2nd day of Spring 2012 wonderful pizza · 21 March 2012 by colin newell
Colin and Andrea’s Amazing Pizza
Fresh dough from Ottavio.
Out of the fridge for 20 minutes minimum.
Caramelize 2 medium onions in olive oil/canola oil/butter mixture for 1/2 hour.
Roll dough on counter lightly dusted with flour.
Prepare pizza pan with PAM anti-stick product & light dusting of oil.
Transfer dough to pan.
Add 1/2 cup to 3/4 cup of your favorite organic pizza sauce.
Add onions
Add 2 cups of grated good quality Mozzarella cheese.
Add rings of sliced Chorizo sausage (in our example, a great sample
from Oyama, Vancouver.
Oven pre-heated in advance at 450 degrees.
Drop oven temperature to 425 and Put pizza in oven for 20 minutes.
Remove pizza from oven and gently add Bündnerfleisch cured meat (It is like proscuitto) – do NOT bake the pizza with super-thin Bündnerfleisch charcuterie – it was “kill it” – not good.
To be honest folks: This is the single best pizza I have ever had in my life! What a great day!
First day of Spring 2012 Brannana Bread · 20 March 2012 by colin newell
I cannot think of a better use for a banana than sticking it in something to hide the fact that it is a banana –
Banana bread – it is not really bread, but it is great with coffee in the afternoon when everyone’s blood sugar starts to crash.
I have a few recipes on this subject – and Yup – here is one more variation on the classic.
I buy banana’s to eat and I rarely eat them – they sit on my microwave til they turn darker than a cup of drip brewed Sumatra.
And they end up in Banana bread. And here is the recipe with a variation or two:
A little healthier than the standard…
Colin’s Bran-nana Bread
Wet
1/2 Cup butter softened
1 Cup raw sugar
2 Eggs
3 medium mashed bananas
Dry
1 cup whole bran
1 cup white flour
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 cup chopped almonds
In a mixer, add butter til creamed. Add sugar. Add 2 eggs one at a time
add banana’s one at a time.
Add dry to wet in mixer and mix to moisten all ingredients.
1 hour in greased pan at 350 degrees.
Let it cool before you attempt to cut!
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2012 When the company's good, the food doesn't matter · 4 March 2012 by colin newell
For Andrea and I, every day of the year is a potential dine around event.
But here in Victoria, right now – it is dine around and we are trying to take advantage of it – we have a few places lined up this week.
This previous Friday we did Bon Rouge – a sexy French Bistro Restaurant at 611 Courtney Street with dear friends Mark and Valerie.
Bon Rouge is the kind of place where you would almost expect characters from the French thriller “Diva” to appear, conspiring in a dark corner over one of Bon Rouges signature $5 martinis. Pretty sure I saw a couple of guys in dark suits up to no good. They were drinking vodka martinis and were clearly fomenting revolution…
I digress.
It was a busy and blustery Friday night in Victoria with just a vermouth twist of warmth in the air – none to soon: Winter has been going on way to long!
We were a tad early so we were seated at the bar. Andrea ordered a vodka martini with a twist of lemon. I ordered a small French press of insanely strong coffee (Fernwood) and some bread. The bread never showed up – but that was OK – we were soon to be relocated to the dining room, more or less on time.
Bon Rouge is a big room (3 rooms actually) and its biggest plus is the table layout, some great private booths and acoustics perfect for intimate chats – even between 4 folks.
Bon Rouge, for a French restaurant has service that I would describe as casually detached (some would call it slow, I wouldn’t) and maybe slightly less attentive than maybe it could be. But from where I am sitting (as an industry consultant), it’s not that bad. Lots of the food is of the “slow” category. For instance, I ordered the beef marrow appetizer – takes 20 minutes to prepare minimum and it was at the table to the second. Andrea had a shrimp and prawn ceviche that was very good. Mark has an Onion soup that appeared more like a 1/3 of a soup – also good. Valerie had the same appetizer as Andrea. No one was complaining.
I had bone marrow at a French restaurant in the Napa valley – Bistro Jeanty – and it was amazing – the marrow at Bon Rouge was a let down in comparison – there were a few nibbles and some bread… maybe a tablespoon of marrow. Sad colin.
In the mains, I had pork three ways; cheek, porchetta and bacon with some grilled vegetables (parsnips) and an awesome demi glace. For me, pork anything tastes too good to be healthy and this was no exception.
Andrea had the lamb & lamb (sausage and shank) with bitter wilted greens.
Valerie had the trout – and Mark had the lamb times 2 like Andrea.
Mark and Valerie shared a creme brulee and Andrea and I sampled one of Bon Rouge’s simple cheesecakes.
Bon Rouge is not World class French – but neither are the prices. If anything, it is the New Wave of French cuisine. There is too much humor and too little stuffiness to make it pure French. And we love it for the most part.
The four of us had a great time. It has been a really challenging week and the conversation was key at this gathering. In some ways we could have just at easily eaten at Boston Pizza or Earls and cover the ground we did that evening. But we were at Bob Rouge… and all was well.
Dinner for 4 – around $200 less adult beverages.
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Victoria Food Culture at the top - ULLA Restaurant · 26 November 2011 by colin newell
When a great restaurant opens, there is one big mistake that a diner can make – and that is…
Not getting there early – that is, when the place first opens… Well, it can be problematic.
Because as time passes, the legend (and reputation) of the restaurant develops and with that, your expectations – particularly on your first visit.
And so you know, this is not quite like taking your first trip to San Francisco or the Napa or Sonoma Valley and picking out some established places – which are probably guaranteed to be good based on “travel expectations”. Which is another phenomenon entirely… Not like that at all.
So. ULLA. It has been open over a year (maybe 1.5 years…) and the reviews have been stunning. Apparently it has achieved a coveted Top-10 Enroute rating from Air Canada… OK. Checked the link. Yes it has. Impressive.
We booked a week or so in advance because this place tends to be busy – because of its reputation. And we landed on a very, very blustery Wet Coast Victoria evening while thousands of folks were without power, Ferry boats were docked and flights grounded. Consequently, there were a few cancellations at ULLA. No problem.
The room has a comfortable and warm feeling to it – we received a very friendly greeting at the door with an offer to take our coats – We were dining with another couple who had never been there – they were seated and giddy with excitement.
Menu’s and wine list immediately in hand we were given plenty of time to mull over the adult beverage selection and ask any preemptive questions about the menu or the ULLA concept.
Within a few minutes we had glasses of wine in hand and were quickly zeroing in on appetizers and mains.
Andrea had the 63 degree soft poached Egg on a brioche, with chanterelles, cipollini onions, black garlic jus, and parmesan. Well presented but kind of a single note item – like it was missing something extra on the plate to offer contrast.
Please note that Andrea’s palette is way more advanced than mine – in short, she is a super-taster and can pull flavors off of the plate and scents out of the air that a bloodhound would miss. It is an amazing talent to see at work.
Our couple friends (much to my chagrin) ordered two of the same appetizers; Escargot… 6 on the plate with lots of drizzle flourishes.
Note: These were not just ordinary snails – they were basil fed snails.
Yup. Not kidding.
Our friends thought they were yummy, that there was not a lot of snail on the plate and that it was more art than substance. Not a nit pick folks, just an observations.
My appetizer: Edremit, gemlik, castelvetrano and picholine.
Any ideas folks?
Olives. For whatever reason, I ordered a bowl of olives to nibble on. I love olives and these were all very tasty, different and appetizing.
Mains: Here was one of those times where I felt like smacking my friends on the head.
Andrea, Steve and Sharon had the pork tenderloin…
Still meadow farm pork loin, braised cabbage, Potato roesti (hash brown), celery root, bacon, cheddar, apple, gastrique (Gastrique is caramelized sugar, deglazed with vinegar, used as a flavoring for sauces…)
The pork was perfectly prepared and presented on the three plates – a veritable art gallery of small items to taste and enjoy.
I had the halibut cheeks on a bed of beluga lentils and roast sugared almonds, tents of steamed spinach and grilled baby cauliflower caps. The cheeks were slightly overdone and watery but everything else was dreamy and perfect. I could have eaten a plate of the lentils and almonds. The baby cauliflower was sublime.
ULLA is artistry pushed to the limit. Service is polished, at the ready and entirely unobtrusive. When we had questions, there were instant answers.
It’s entirely possible that someone with unrealistic expectations would be disappointed here. For me, any minor flubs in the kitchen are made up in superlative service and understanding of the product.
For me, any overall criticism would be: ULLA is a very serious restaurant. It is not a fun restaurant. There is a ton of passion and prowess here – but it is not a place where you raise glass after glass of wine hooting and hollering with joy. The food is art and ULLA is a food art gallery. And you know what they say about Art Galleries – they are repositories of brilliant works where you hold your voice down in quiet humility while you appreciate the artistic efforts of… well… artists.
If you love food, art and art galleries, you will love ULLA. But don’t be too noisy about it. Out of 10 points per, I would rate the food at 8.5 – Service 9.5 – Presentation 9.5
Colin Newell is a Victoria area resident, food and coffee lover – and occasional writer for EAT Magazine…
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