Real Food

Alright, here we go. I am blogging. I never thought I'd see the day. But here we are. Anyways, that aside I decided to start this food blog to contribute to the already great number of food blogs that have helped me out in my time of need when looking for that perfect recipe, or preparation. I cook enough that I get really engaged in my cooking, and I hope some people can try some things I make, give me feedback, as well as give me your ideas and recipes.

Today, after feeling the effects of a late night on the town in Winnipeg, I decided to make the classic french stew/boil "Pot-au-Feu". Earlier in the day, all I wanted for dinner was pizza, but as I came to life over the course of the day, I craved something that I could slow cook on the stove for a few hours. I pulled out my 4 core cookbooks. I'll just go into a little aside here on my favourite cookbooks! I use cookbooks for ideas, inspiration, and sometimes exact recipes. My go to books are:

The Best Recipes in the World by Mark Bittman -This book is a must have for EVERYONE, in my opinion. It had over 500 recipes, which are all relatively simple, from all over the world. There is a strong focus on Asian cuisine, which is great. The book explains ingredients, gives lots of variations on its recipes, has a region/country based index (best thing ever), and has sample menus divided by region/country. It is awesome.


Molto Italiano by Mario Batali - I just got this book this past Christmas, and already have read through it a couple times. It has about 300 recipes or so, and covers every Italian classic you could ever want. Most straight from the various regions across Italy, and others the New World variations. A good pickup for anyone that likes Italian food. Mario is the man when comes to everything Italian, as far as I'm concerned.



The Les Halles Cookbook by Anthony Bourdain - This the bible of bistro cooking. I use it anytime I have the urge to cook French food. Giving us the the recipes from Les Halles in Manhattan, where he used to be the Executive Chef, Bourdain narrates the recipes with his famous witty prose and don't mess with a classic mentality. Get it.

Bones by Jennifer Mclagan - All about cooking things on the bone (and cooking the bones!). This book has lots of recipes with GREAT pictures. I haven't made that many things from this book, but it often inspires me to cook something on the bone... although that is almost always.





Sorry for that aside. Anyways, I picked up Bourdian's Les Halles Cookbook, flipped to the "Big Classics" chapter, and saw Pot-au-Feu. I scanned the recipe to make sure I could get everything, or at least think of a reasonable substitute. This is often a problem if I don't want to run around to a bunch of stores, because the walking distance grocery store is pretty terrible. Regardless, I was able to get something to put together this, slightly different based on what I could get:


Meat: A bunch of beef short ribs, a large beef cross rib steak, and a couple beef shanks

Veg: Onions, green onions, celery, garlic, some red and green cabbage, potatoes

Herb/Spice: Cloves, bouquet garni (parsley, thyme, and bay)

Garnishes/Fixins: Hot prepared mustard, dijon mustard, medeteranian sea salt, fleur de sel, pink himalayan salt (haha, I got a thing of three different finishing salts for Christmas), black pepper, sweet gerkins, fresh baquette

What to Do:

1. Put all meat in a large pot, cover with cold water, bring to a boil

2. Remove the meat, pour out the water, and wash the pot (I don't know why, but Tony seemed pretty adamant about it in the book)

3. Put meat back into the pot, along with the onion (2 of em', halved with two cloves stuck in each end), the green union (chopped pretty large), celery (chopped), garlic (smashed), and the bouquet gari. Salt and pepper it up, then cover with cold water and bring to a boil

4. Simmer on medium low for about 2.5 hours (at least - when the shortribs are tender, everything else should be too)

5. Add the cabbage (cored and cut into wedges) and potatoes (peeled and cut into pieces) in the last 40 minutes of cooking or so.

6. Serve that steamin' heap of meat and a big plate with all the garnishes, and serve the broth as a soup on the side. Eat that mo-fo UP! Ya'heard?

That is it. Its pretty easy. And VERY tasty. The meat just falls apart, and that that was on a bone will cease to be on that bone. Yeah.

I drank some wine with this to start. An Australian Shiraz, but halfway through I realized that beer might be better. Eating the meat with the mustard and bread reminded me of German food, and it just cried out loud for beer! So I poured a Half Pints Little Scrapper Ale. It went well. Andrew (my roommate), and I a feasted for a while, until we could eat no more. It was awesome. Now I'm leaving to go to Sault Ste. Marie for a few days, so Andrew will have enough food to keep him going for a week!