Pacific Octopus

Cathy and I were in the celebration mood while visiting Vancouver Island. When Covid hit we were looking for that special top notch restaurant and had four to choose from. Tofino and Ucluelet has some mighty fine dinning establishments that are truly rehearsed and polished. Great food with equally as good libations served with no attitude and a sea side view was what we were looking for. Loads of suggestions were given us from the many island foodie connoisseurs and visiting guests to the island like ourselves looking for the best bang for the buck. When you hear several...

The Caviar Bar King Fish.

The Caviar Bar; Chowder, Mussels, Oysters and Caviar..     When I was cooking at the Kettle of Fish on Pacific Ave; My cooking station was known as the Caviar bar. It was what the owner Glen Anderson and designer David Vance used for the overflow and small private dinning room. The bar was made from solid marble and beside a libations center it had a chowder steam pot and a wood/charcoal fired bbq. Caviar was sold by the ounce with frozen vodka. The chowder made to order which the customer picked the kind and the ingredients. I also bbq grilled just about...

Classic Supreme Chicken or Turkey Pot Pi...

Classic Supreme Chicken Pot Pie. Taking on a production chef positions for a convenience food manufacturers took me out of the small restaurant test kitchens and into the mega federally inspected commissary size laboratories. At the Knotty Pine industrial kitchen I stood in the early morning in front of my gas fired Vulcan ovens filled with a roasting pan preheating to 350 degrees. On top of the flat top burner sat several 20 litre pressure cooker filled with whole chickens, some chicken stock, and seasonings all waiting to be pressure cooked to a fall off the bone...

Beef Stroganoff

Today I’m doing a Beef Stroganoff in my Insta- pot. I trimmed a small sirloin tip roast with some marble just under a KG. I started by sautéing on high some of the beef trim and fat with 1 lg. chopped onion, 1 big shallot and 3 bulbs of Russian Garlic. Stir-Stir 10 minutes and then added the seasoned beef with pepper salt. Stir-stir. The butter will start to brown and then I deglazed with 8 oz. good red wine. To some freeze dried toasted onion flakes with some beef bouillon, good shot of worcestershire 8 oz. more wine 8 oz. water mix, and pour over the beef. I then...

My Indian Thali Plate

My Indian Thali Plate. Thali refers to the metal plate that a thali meal may be served on. Thali is popular in Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and other states in North India. The idea behind a thali is to offer all the 6 different flavours of sweet, salt, bitter, sour, astringent and spicy on one single plate. According to Indian food custom, a proper meal should be a perfect balance of all these six flavours. Restaurants typically offer a choice of vegetarian or meat-based thalis. Vegetarian thalis are very typical and commonplace in Tamil Nadu canteens South India and Southeast...