say it with pie

Charlie has taken over the towel basket in the washroom, but we’ll show him.

Basse-Yutz Flagons (centre), Episode 28

I am in love with A History of the World in 100 Objects, a new radio programme produced through a partnership between BBC 4 and the British Museum! It’s already 28 episodes in, but you can still catch up by downloading the podcast free from iTunes.

A History of the World in 100 Objects is written and narrated by Neil MacGregor, the Director of the British Museum, who opts for a personal rather than a didactic narrative style, which is quite engaging. He doesn’t present the objects chronologically, but selects them for their ability to illustrate a specific development in history. MacGregor’s casual tone humanizes the museum, which is typically associated with elite knowledge and status, and in turn humanizes himself, the museum director or “keeper of the keys”. It also encourages listeners to consider how objects relate to their own lives and join in on the meaning-making.

I really enjoy the multi-disciplinary aspect of the show as well. Pop-culture celebrities like Bob Geldof and Michael Palin make appearances alongside academic celebrities like archaeologist Ian Hodder. One excellent contribution came from industrial designer Sir James Dyson who commented on the functionality of a 1.2-million-year-old hand axe from Olduvai Gorge. It’s funny because the day I bought a Dyson vaccum cleaner was one of the greatest technological developments in my personal history.

I’m especially exited about the program’s use of new media and digital technology. Historically, new media initiatives at museums have kind of sucked. Even in this Internet Age, most museum websites kind of suck. While the website for A History of the World in 100 Objects is a bit too Flash-y for my taste, it’s easily navigational and very interactive. There’s a ton of valuable content which can be added to by individuals or by other museums so the database is constantly growing. Over at BBC Kids, they’ve developed a TV game show called “Relic: Guardians of the Museum” which you can play online as well (it’s super nerdy and cool, btw). And then there’s the fact that the podcast gets delivered automatically to my iPhone every day. Amazing!

A History of the World in 100 Objects is setting a great example for other institutions to explore new media initiatives. I’m talking high-calibre projects, not just setting up an intern with a twitter account. Of course, it will be a tough act to follow: there are not many museums as well-funded as the British Museum and few have affiliations with monolithic media networks like the BBC. But I’m hoping this is a turning point in the use of new media for museum outreach.

Last week my Mom came to visit for a whole 9 hours in between two flights. She’s been so impressed by my food adventures recently (especially the potato pizza) that I felt I had to attempt something spectacular. Her flight was scheduled to arrive at 8:30 pm but was likely to encounter bad weather, so it needed to be something that could be easily reheated the minute she walked through the door. Braised lamb shank seemed to be the perfect solution!

The lamb shank was well executed and Mom was appreciative, but I learned something important that night: I can not eat braised red meats more than once a week. After Sunday’s beef short ribs, Wednesday’s lamb shank seemed unbearably rich and completely unappetizing. There were TONS of leftovers.

I was feeling restless on Thursday and got the urge to play with my beloved Cuisinart food processor. Thus, my braised lamb shank got a bit of a make-over:

I ground the cooked lamb up and formed it into croquettes with some onion, garlic, herbs, breadcrumbs and an egg, dredged the croquettes in seasoned flour and pan-fried them until they had a nice crust. I made a tzatziki sauce to accompany the lamb croquettes and a simple red cabbage coleslaw on the side.

The lamb croquettes and slaw turned out to be a far more appetizing and memorable meal and bumped me off my braising kick for at least the next couple of weeks. So what will be my new kick?

Wonton soup is the perfect go-to lazy lunch. I buy those frozen wontons from K.J. Foods from the No Frills or Chinatown East for $2.50-2.99 a pop and stick ‘em in some chicken broth with a touch of soy sauce, sesame oil, ginger powder and garlic powder. Simmer until the wontons are cooked and then garnish with some chopped green onions and pepper.

This wasn’t a recipe as much as it was an excuse to post pictures of me slurping wontons. Om nom nom!

So it might look a bit like dog food, but these Braised Beef Short Ribs are one of the most delicious dishes I’ve ever made! Not that braising is very hard, but oh—how impressive were the results! Plus, it’s been freezing and what warms the bones better than slow-cooked meat and potatoes?

I didn’t work from a recipe (surprise, surprise) but I did have a little help from my friends. First, Chef John from Food Wishes who is always ready to espouse the merits of careful browning and a good roux. Second, the butcher at Loblaws who talked about the short ribs like they were his babies and cautioned me not to over-season them; I just used some salt, pepper and a couple sprigs of thyme. And third, the LCBO guy who introduced me to the La Casona Monastrell and the Castillo de Monseran Garacha, two $9 Spanish reds that are great for both cooking and swilling.

As long as it stays cold like this, I’m going to keep on braising.

Two of my favourite Chinese foods are Mapo Tofu, a popular Szechuan dish, and dou miao, (”dough meow”) which is the leafy part of a snow pea plant. I have attempted to cook both of these dishes on multiple occasions but never got them right…until tonight!

For the Mapo Tofu, I required a few special ingredients. The most essential was dou ban jiang, a paste made from fermented chilis, broadbeans and soybeans, and an essential in Szechuan cooking. The other was douchi, or Chinese fermented black beans. One thing I could not find was Szechuan pepper, which provides a unique flavour and a numbing sensation. Let me know if you know where to find it. Oh, and I picked up a bottle of cooking-grade shaoxing rice wine.

I’m not even going to bother describing how I cooked it because you can find tons of helpful recipes and videos elsewhere.

Then just cook the dou miao like spinach, with minced garlic and soy sauce. Noms!

This is a little stash of sweets I brought home from Chinatown East (Broadview and Gerrard).

On the left, we have something that was billed as “banana cakes”, but they’re pastry filled with goo that doesn’t really taste like bananas. I was feeling adventurous; not sure if I’ll finish them.

On the right, huge almond cookies! There’s probably a half-pound of lard in each. Mmmmmm.

In the front, crispy little biscuit curls from a Chinese grocery. I might get addicted! They have a lovely honey-citrus taste.

I love butchering chickens and turkeys, and I’m really good at it! Sorry, vegetarians!

I used Julia Child’s roast chicken recipe via Foodwishes.com.

What if you needed buttermilk for a recipe, but it was snowing heavily and you have an ear infection and consider that an acceptable reason not to go outside in the bitter winter cold? This may have happened to me today.

Fret not! You can fake buttermilk by adding 1tbs of lemon juice to 1 cup whole milk!

But wait: what if you don’t have whole milk, but you do have 2% milk and a carton of heavy cream left over from a failed crème brûlée experiment? You can fake whole milk by adding 1-2tbs of heavy cream to 1 cup 2% milk!

Thank you, Chowhound.

See? You can get away with anything with cooking. Baking, not so much.

There’s a good how-to article here. Grind in a mortar or a coffee mill and store for up to 4 months. But watch out! Fresh spices are more potent than their pre-ground counterparts.