Grilled Kalbi Rib Benny

Last Friday night we went out for dinner but finding a spot was a much more arduous task than usual because it was Winterlicious. Winterlicious/Summerlicious theme was originally developed by the City of Toronto to encourage residents to go out for meals after the unfortunate SARS breakout in 2002; it’s a participation event where restaurants offer prix fixe meals for standardized rates (Lunch: $18 • $23 • $28; Dinner: $25 • $35 • $45). This year there are over 200 participating restaurants! What’s really cool is that some really high end restaurants participate where you get a three course meal for $45 Canadian (in some of these places $45 is usually just the main course!). It’s a great way to sample some expense account restaurants. But don’t think the restaurants aren’t making money because as one restaurateur once told me that because people perceive they are getting a deal on their meals, they will splurge on the bottle of wine, or two (in Ontario our restaurant liquor is usually marked up 3 times)! Getting a reservation this time of year is no easy task, even in non-participating places, but participating places it’s next to impossible. One year, I was on the phone for over an hour trying to get connected to a highly demanded Summerlicious restaurant, it was like calling a radio station for a prize, you just keep calling and calling and calling until you were connected. One year I gave up after 45 minutes of re-dial!

These days, I just couldn’t be bothered trying to get into the popular places plus we’re still trying to cut back consumption so three courses just isn’t what we want to eat, no matter how good the price. So Friday night we went to the newest addition of the Playa Cabana restaurants on Bloor, Playa Cabana Barrio. It’s part of a small Mexican group in Toronto and we have found (at their three other restaurants) the food to be exceptional and reasonably priced. This one was in Little Korea and the menu read more Korean than Mexican. I usually preview the menu but I was busy and didn’t this time. I was really in the mood for Mexican. The narrow restaurant was very crowded (imagine the width just wide enough for one table on either side, one parallel to the wall and one perpendicular). The tables are very close together so it’s difficult not to say ‘Hi’ and chat with the table next to yours (impossible for JT, that is). We were very fortunate as we had two young women from each end of the country (Victoria, BC and St. John, Newfoundland) reuniting for a girls weekend and we hit it off, weaving short conversations between courses about places they should go to in Toronto and their lives at the polar opposites of Canada.

One of the courses they ordered was BBQ’d Kalbi Ribs which came out “Fred Flintstone” style, piled up on a plate. When I say piled, it must have been 20 cm (8 inches) high! And I’m not exaggerating! It was difficult not to comment (for JT, that is)! But here’s the most unusual part: they insisted we take the last mammoth rib home as they were staying in a hotel (it was served family style, so it wasn’t handled). So we DID! Is that not the best story EVER? How many times have you wanted to give your uneaten food away while on holiday? It’s really a shame to throw away perfectly good left-overs (as long as they weren’t handled)

This inspiration is the result of that donated doggy bag of “Fred Flintstone” proportion Korean BBQ’d beef short rib!

Although the yolk doesn’t look as runny, it really was!

BBQ’d Kalbi Benny

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1 left-over BBQ’d Kalbi Short Rib with kimchi
• 2 crêpes (recipe can be found here)
• Hollandaise sauce (make your fav, healthy or not)
• 2 poached eggs

Directions:

1. Reheat rib and once hot, shred with two forks.
2. Fold crêpe into fourths and spread the shredded rib meat in the centre.
3. Top rib meat with a little of the left-over kimchi, then the egg and pour hot hollandaise over.
4. Serve immediately.

Notes:

• This inspiration ‘recipe’ would work famously with any shredded left-over meat.
• If having ribs for dinner, set aside one or two so you can have this fabulous breakfast.
• Coleslaw may be substituted for the kimchi or omitted, but it was a tasty addition.
• English muffins or any type of bread, for that matter may be substituted for the crêpes, I just wanted a slightly less heavy carb.

Lighting is everything.

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Huevos Rancheros @ the cottage

Please excuse the roughness of this post, I’m typing it in on my lowly little iPhone 3Gs, sitting on the deck, at the cottage! Gotta LOVE technology!
It’s cottage closing weekend. This time of year is always so sad, marking the end of yet another summer. This year was not a good year for cottaging for me; counting this weekend, it’s only my second time up! I never like to be one of ‘those’ people who turn down city invitations because, ‘sorry, we’re going to the cottage!’ On the other hand, it was a very sociable summer!
I left work early so we could have cocktails at the cottage, HAH! The drive up was a joke! The ridiculous drive that usually takes three and a quarter hours took FIVE! FIVE EFFIN HOURS! Can you feel my frustration???? It was pouring rain the entire way up, which made it even worse. Did you ever notice that people are TOTAL IDIOTS on the road? Breathe, breathe, breathe! That martini sure tasted good!
The cottage is on a smallish spring-fed lake called Limerick Lake (spring-fed=bone chilling cold!). JTs grandfather bought the land in the early 1900’s; it took them 24 hours to come up: 1)Two trains, 2)Stage coach 3)row boat. The grandfather had a log cabin built on it. Back in those days Canadian Indians canoed across the lake. How cool is that? The grandfather then sold the cottage and the land in the early 1920’s and bought it back in the late 1940’s! JTs Dad and Dad’s sister shared it until the late 1960’s at which point, JTs Dad built his own Panabode cottage (http://www.panabodeloghomes.com) about a kilometer away as two families in an old log cabin was getting too cozy (the family owns about a hundred acres!). We had electricity put in about 20 years ago, prior to that we used a gas generator, a propane fridge and stove. It was pretty rustic. In the late-1960’s JTs dad built a boathouse with three slips and a two bedroom cabin above it that they used to use in the winter (no running water, chemical toilet, basic and ugly). 20 years ago, JTs dad had a road put in; before that we would keep a boat at the marina and boat in the 20 minute ride! It does sound romantic, but shlepping groceries and necessities from the car to the boat, then from the boat to the cottage was no fun!
About 15 years ago JT and I took over the boathouse; we put in a composting toilet, a small shower and a decent kitchen (it’s not legal to have septic over water). We call the boathouse The Upper Deck – I have some pics at this link if you’re interested. We tried renting it to friends a few years ago, and discovered we’re not renting types. We like our stuff just so. http://evaandjohntaylor.shutterfly.com/2383. Please don’t think it’s fancy, far from it! But I know for sure that we are fortunate to have access to it. JT and I own land across the bay from the family ‘compound’ and had thought about some day building our dream cottage on it, but the five and a half hour drive (and so many others like it) convinced us otherwise! Anyone interested in 33 gorgeous Canadian acres, 1300 feet of shoreline? No road access, yet!
Our lake is still remote; the closest store is about a 20 minute drive on a dirt road and it doesn’t really have things that I would want anyway (mostly canned goods!). You really have to plan your weekend, food, libations, etc. Once, I forgot cream cheese for our bagel and lox breakfast and the only thing we could get was sour cream and onion chip dip! It was ghastly!
JTs sister used to use the log cabin, but now that their 87 year old Dad no longer comes up, she’s taken over his cottage too. Her two adult kids use both the log cabin and the Panabode.
There are so many things that I like about our cozy little cabin, it’s hard to list them all; but my most favorite thing has to be that we are right on the water! And that it’s small enough to clean it from top to bottom in less than an hour.
Back to the matter at hand, Huevos rancheros: a recipe I developed after a similarly called dish at our local restaurant, Dr. Generosity (stupid name but good food).

A delicious combination of flavours

Huevos Rancheros (updated September 2014)

Serves 2

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup cooked navy beans (I like navy beans because they are so creamy)
• 1/2 cup ground meat (we used turkey because it’s lowest in fat)
• 1/4 cup chopped sweet onion (we like Vidalia)
• 1/4 cup sweet corn
• 2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 tsp cumin
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1/2 tsp smoked paprika
• Pinch of cayenne
• 2 soft poached eggs
• Sour cream (we used fat free yogurt)
• Hot sauce
• 2 small ancient grain fajita shells warmed
• Chopped cilantro and green onions for garnish.
• 1 avocado, sliced

Directions:

1. In a splash of olive oil, fry the onions and garlic until translucent, add the ground meat and cook thoroughly.
2. Add the spices and garlic and mix until evenly distributed.
3. Add the beans and corn and mix well, heat the beans through.
4. Serve 1/2 the bean meat mix on one warmed fajita shell, with a poach egg on top. Garnish with chopped cilantro, sliced avocado and green onions.
5. Serve with a dollop of sour cream and hot sauce.

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