VanEats

Roland and I love chili sauces and pastes, especially ones that have flavour as well as heat. I've been wanting to make my own Thai style chili paste with roasted chilis and shallots (my dad grew a lot of shallots this year!) and I've researched many recipes to come up with my version.

Thanksgiving is just around the corner for our American friends when many folks will be serving turkey. I wonder how many people will be serving deep fried turkey? It is a cajun tradition and sounds delicious. But it seems to be a bit too much trouble and hazardous even for an avid cook like me!

If any one has tried this, I'd love to hear about your experience making and eating it!

Via Lark Farm, I found the blog The Making of a Restaurant. It's written by two folks who plan on opening a restaurant in 5-10 years.

Well I don't know about opening a restaurant (other than it's a lot of work) but they always have lots of cool food related links. Please check it out!

A check of our referers log shows LarkFarm.com links to VanEats on their Surf Contents page. Thanks Mike!

Here is the recipe for torta di mele (courtesy of Judy Witts!), the apple cake I served at our dinner party a few nights ago. This tastes almost identical to the torta di mele that we ate in Tuscany.

When I made the cake, I multiplied the batter ingredients by 1 1/2 times and I baked the entire recipe in one - 10 inch springform pan. It took about 1 hour and 15 minutes to bake and the cake ended up being just over an inch thick.

In my first report about the Loy Krathong festival, I erroneously spelled Miang Kham. Miang Kham is a Thai snack food which we assembled ourselves at the festival (some Thai people prepared all the ingredients beforehand). Normally it consists of shallots, peanuts, toasted coconut, dried shrimp, lime, ginger and chili with tamarind sauce wrapped with wild betel leaves. We had it with basil-like leaves instead because betel leaves are not available in Vancouver. I'm sure both are delicious: hot, sour, spicy and sweet: one of my favourite flavour combos. Yummy!

Last night we served roast pork as well as roast turkey. After trying porketta in Italy, I was inspired to season the roast with more of a Tuscan flair by adding fennel seeds. But you can use whatever herbs you have on hand. I've made this with a combination of rosemary, sage, thyme, oregano and mint (the herbs that grow well in my dad's garden!).