Tiffin Tales

Back to Basics: In Search of the Perfect Roast Chicken

Posted on Mar 15, 2011 by tiffintales

There is something magnificent about a roast chicken just pulled from the oven in all its golden glory. No matter how many other high-pressured jobs you may be juggling, it makes you feel strangely competent and proud knowing you’ve brined, trussed, seasoned and roasted that bird yourself. To test the true mettle of a chef, they say, ask him to make you a French omelette, or a roast chicken. In both, there is no hiding behind exotic ingredients or complicated sauces. There is just the egg and the chicken, showing off the most important thing – technique.

Growing up in India, there were two main representatives of American cuisine: burgers and roast chicken. The burgers got a vociferous vote of approval garnering an immediate fan following, as only the greasiest of junk food can do. (The queue at the very first McDonalds to open in India stretched around the block.) The roast, on the other hand, got a bad rep right from the start. It was nothing like the beautiful bird that Julia Child trussed and roasted on television. It was dry, bland and for people having grown up with chicken that is marinated in yogurt, bathed with a host of spices and cooked to moist perfection, it was boring. Needless to say, it never caught on. Even after traveling abroad and eating at some of the best restaurants, I found that the dish was more likely to disappoint than please, and after a while, I stopped ordering it.

While cooking at home, I experiment with a lot of cuisines and a plethora of meats that are difficult to find back in India. (Beef and pork are taboo, religiously speaking. My cousin teases me about how I might get disowned from grandma’s will, but when faced with a plate of the most perfectly prepared beef bourguignon, I think I’ll take my chances.) But maybe subconsciously discouraged by all the sub-par chickens I’d eaten and given that I cook for one, I never considered attempting the roast at home. Two things happened recently to change that: first, the lesson for my eighth Culinary Arts class at George Brown was roast chicken; second, one of the Apprentice challenges in Charcutepalooza this month was brined and roasted chicken.

If you are not yet familiar with the delightfully named Charcutepalooza (try saying it very quickly 10 times), it is a charcuterie extravaganza started by Kim Foster (The Yummy Mummy) and Cathy Barrow (Mrs. Wheelbarrow’s Kitchen) featuring a charcuterie challenge each month using Michael Ruhlman’s Charcuterie: The Craft of Salting, Smoking, and Curing as a guide. I join around 200 other bloggers (albeit a little late, having missed February’s challenge) as we learn how to prepare, store and above all, respect the meat we eat. This month’s challenge is brining – a process of soaking meat in a brine before cooking. Continue Reading…

Posted in Back to Basics, Charcutepalooza, Chicken and Meat, Food | Tagged Brining, Charcutepalooza, Roast Chicken | 10 Comments

A weekend in Ottawa: Part I – Arrive

Posted on Mar 08, 2011 by tiffintales

It’s 4:00 a.m. My eyes jolt open as the shuddering motion of a Greyhound let loose on a dark, open highway comes to a sudden halt. I have arrived at my destination, more than an hour early. Ottawa, so welcoming at other times, is cold and silent at this ungodly hour. I park myself on a hard bench at the bus terminal, huddled against the bitter wind that sweeps in every time the doors open automatically, sometimes presumably at the arrival of invisible ghosts. I alternate between trying to make myself comfortable and enviously regarding the large massage chairs (!) that earlier birds have appropriated as their temporary nesting grounds.

The B&B I’m staying in doesn’t open until 7:30 am. I give up my vain attempt at sleep after an hour, hop into a cab and direct it to the Elgin Street Diner, which I know is close by and open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. (My nerdy ways of researching any place I’m visiting does have its advantages.) The diner opened its doors 11 years ago and has become an Ottawa institution. It’s known for its poutine, milkshakes, burgers and breakfast, but what I’m looking for right now is a warm refuge and I find it here. I’m greeted with a welcoming smile and before I’ve even taken off my coat, a steaming cup of coffee magically appears – one sip and I feel almost ready to join civilization again. It’s not as deserted as I’d imagined it to be and despite the early hour, a jovial spirit hangs around the place as the servers chat with the cops and other regulars, trading jokes and even friendly insults (over hockey, of course. This is Canada, after all.)

I gratefully sip my coffee and take in the green booths, the old tables, brick walls and the smells emanating from the open kitchen. Much to my surprise, I’m suddenly starving and decide to order the breakfast special – two eggs done the way you like, bacon or ham or sausage, home fries, baked beans, toast and a bottomless cup of coffee or tea or milk – for $7.99. I skip the baked beans (I have some restraint after all) and ten minutes later, I’m happily tucking into my perfectly cooked sunny side eggs and home fries, which are exactly as they should be, crisp and almost caramelized on the outside and meltingly light on the inside. The food is good, but it is the attentive service (my cup is refilled every time I start hitting bottom), the unhurried pace, the welcoming banter and the casual vibe of the place that takes me in completely. There is a palpable shift in my mood and I feel ready to take on the day.

Posted in Restaurants, Travel | Tagged Elgin Street Diner, Le Cordon Bleu, Ottawa, Weekend | 4 Comments

Chocolate-Ginger Sugar Topped Cookies

Posted on Mar 01, 2011 by tiffintales

You know you’ve stayed in Canada for a long time when someone asks you about the weather and you reply nonchalantly “It’s not too bad today. Just hovering around -10°…” only to be met with nonplussed silence.

I remember my first day here very clearly. It was the beginning of March and my friend had told me that it had stopped snowing a week ago. On the plane ride over, I found myself silently wishing “Please, please let there be a little snow.” Coming from Bombay where winter temperatures average around 28°C, snow was a magical entity I had never experienced, much like Santa Claus. Well, I must have been a very good girl that year because I stepped out of the airport into what was apparently one of the worst snow storms Canada had seen in decades. My body was ill prepared for the temperature difference of nearly 50°, the bitterly cold wind swirled around me and I was knee deep in the snow I had so wished for. A week of three layers of clothes, heavy boots, gloves, scarf, hat, chapped skin, numb fingers and I’d had enough of the stuff.

But I’ve long since grown used to it and watch in silent amusement as visiting friends encounter a Canadian winter for the first time. (“Why! I don’t understand this. It makes no sense!” wailed a friend on a recent visit from North Carolina.) There are things I’ve come to love about winter: watching the snow fall silently outside the window, walking out into a world in which all the harsh noises seem to have got muffled by a giant, white blanket, ice skating by the lake, screeching in glee while hurtling down a hill in a giant tube, a mug of dark hot chocolate, a bowl of steaming stew, not having to worry too much about the calories because the lovely purple jacket covers it all up. And cookies.

Posted in Bars and Cookies, Featured, Food | Tagged Bars and Cookies, Chocolate, Ginger | 3 Comments

At the beginning: Dark, Fudgy Chocolate Brownies

Posted on Feb 10, 2011 by tiffintales

Nothing inspires as much hope as a new beginning. New job, new town, new home, new relationship, new year – they all bring with them the vision of new possibilities, a fresh outlook, a blank slate to do with what you wish. There is a renewed energy, a spring in the step. It may all lead to the same tedium, the same results because people don’t essentially change, but for that brief period of time, there is hope. You wake up bright and early on the first day of your job, spend hours choosing the perfect outfit for that first date, make new year resolutions, forgetting that as exciting as the beginning may be, it is what comes after – the middle – that really counts.

I have never been big on new year resolutions; never consciously made one. Resolutions, especially those that are announced with a lot of fanfare, I’ve noticed often come to naught. This year was going to be no different until one day toward the end of December my boss called to inform me that I had to move to Toronto for a new project. Anyone who knows me knows how absolutely in love with this wonderful city I am, so this was good news. But I had to give up my old place, close accounts such as my rarely used gym membership, find a new place in a new city, pack up all my stuff, move, unpack all my stuff, and show up to work, all within a week. While this might intimidate some people, I’ve been living a fairly nomadic existence for the past few years and I felt up to the challenge.

Posted in Bars and Cookies, Food | Tagged Brownies, Chocolate, Fudgy, Valentine's | 10 Comments

White Chocolate, Macadamia and Cranberry Cookies

Posted on Dec 17, 2010 by tiffintales

Posted in Bars and Cookies, Food | Tagged Bars and Cookies, Christmas, Cranberry, Holiday, Macadamia, White Chocolate | 5 Comments

Candied Bacon and Rosemary Shortbread

Posted on Dec 13, 2010 by tiffintales

I woke up this morning with my eyes bright and alert for the first time in a week. My brain was free of the cobwebs that a cold and flu had ridden it with. I opened the front door and the world had changed around me. Snowflakes had been falling silently while I was asleep and wrapped the world in a blanket of white. I went back inside and grabbed my camera, which had been lying untouched for days. I must have presented quite an amusing sight – in my pajamas and winter coat clicking away with a grin on my face.

Back inside, as I got out the bacon for breakfast, there was something else on my mind. Cookies. My cookie countdown had suffered a minor setback on account of my cold, but there is nothing that aids recovery better than cookies. Or bacon. Adding bacon to the cookies just seemed like the right thing to do.

Bacon-based desserts seem to be the latest trend. The first I heard of it was the now-famous Humphry Slocombe’s bacon ice cream. While this innovative ice cream shop tops my list of must-visit places (incidentally it comes before the pyramids of Egypt, judge me if you must), I was not really sold on the idea – something about mixing bacon with dairy still irks me. But as I read more about chefs all over introducing not just bacon, but other traditionally savory ingredients into the sacred dessert turf, previously ruled almost unequivocally by sugar and chocolate, I became more and more intrigued. My previous experiment with a Lemon-Basil Panna Cotta had been a success. So why not bacon?

Posted in Bars and Cookies, Food | Tagged Bacon, Bars and Cookies, Holiday, Rosemary, Shortbread | 7 Comments

Triple Chocolate Walnut Biscotti

Posted on Dec 01, 2010 by tiffintales

Ever since my early days at school, December has been my favorite month of the entire year. There is just something about the festive air of December that belies work and signals the beginning of a holiday. There is a nip in the air, the lights beckon, Christmas carols play everywhere, extravagant holiday eating and drinking is expected. My best friend from school, Jenny, who I’ve known since the third grade, and I had declared December 1 to be a personal holiday, a date to be celebrated and rejoiced over. And even now, thousands of miles apart, we never fail to wish each other Happy December!

We were inseparable at school and our friendship is so old that neither of us can remember how it started. At first sight, we have nothing in common. But we share a bond so deep that even today, when our lives could not be more different, when we do get to meet, it’s as if the years in between fall away. She is one of those genuinely good people, the kind that sees and believes the best in everyone. In school, this made me fiercely protective of her but what I know now is that she didn’t need protecting. While I had the power to yell at people who made her cry, she had the power to forgive and forget. She was always the yin to my yang. Sometimes, I literally shook her “to stop being such a saint”. I still delight in getting a shocked and amused peal of laughter from her as she is tickled by something crazy that I’ve done. Recently, she was in an accident that had my heart leaping to my throat when I heard about it. She is on the road to recovery now and while I’m saddened by the fact that I can’t be by her side to at least make her laugh, I know she’ll be okay. Because she’s stronger than I am. While I have the power to rant and rail against the unfair hand life sometimes deals out to the nicest people, she has the power of absolute and unshakable faith.

Posted in Bars and Cookies, Food | Tagged Bars and Cookies, Biscotti, Chocolate, Christmas, Holiday, Walnuts | 11 Comments

Holiday Biscotti

Posted on Nov 29, 2010 by tiffintales

This space has been really quiet for the last two weeks. I wish I could say the same about my mind. Growing up can be a bitch sometimes. There are important decisions to be made and I don’t mean the fun decisions like Peppermint Mocha or Salted Caramel Hot Chocolate? As a kid, my biggest reason to grow up “soon” was that I wouldn’t have to ask permission before eating ice cream. (Yes, even then my decisions were being based sub-consciously on how much food I could eat.) But no one told that little kid that as an adult living in today’s world, even innocent pleasures like ice cream come with a topping of guilt. (You know things are bad when I start giving ice cream negative connotations.) No one told her that with freedom comes a ton of responsibility. Usually, I’m an excellent candidate for shouldering all that weight – I’m a regular nerd who’s done the right thing all her life. But recently I’ve been wishing I could put that weight down for a bit.

My head has been spinning round and round, but there’s at least one thing I know. When you can’t make a decision, you bake cookies. I was reading Maida Heatter recently and that great doyen of wisdom and experience agrees with me. She once heard a doctor talking on television about the dangers of stress and the ways of coping with it. She says “I yelled – Bake cookies. I often talk to the television. I yelled at it again and again… he never once mentioned my sure-fire treatment.” But I know what she’s talking about. Nothing bad can happen when you’re baking cookies. It calls for your complete attention as you cream the butter and eggs, take in the aroma of chocolate or vanilla or spices, roll the dough or drop it by spoonfuls. It’s cathartic. There are many who may not agree with me. When another favorite author (okay, let me just confess, I harbor a huge crush), Nigella Lawson published How to be a Domestic Goddess, she received a lot of feminist flak for it. But the idea is to revel in your power to create, not be forced into it. And even though it’s much easier to buy cookies at the supermarket or the bakery, try one fresh from your oven and you’ll be hooked. Get your family around to help, make it a ritual, a tradition; hell, sit on a high stool with a mug of coffee and direct the troops around. They’ll look back and remember it even if the cookies were misshapen or burnt – to create memories, that’s the power of a true domestic goddess.