Odd Bits Dinner in Waterloo

Last night I was at Nick and Nat's Uptown 21 in Waterloo. I met Nick last year at Savour Stratford, when we were both judging the Best Chef competition. Nick asked if I would participate in a cookbook dinner at his restaurant sponsored by the local bookstore Wordsworth Books. I said yes,  Nick had told me he loved my Fat book, authors always fall for flattery. Also I love this type of event, the chef does all the work and I have time to meet people who like my books and I can continue my mission of convincing people to try odd bits. Nick made my food shine and alas my photography doesn't do it justice - I had a camera incident - my flash had a mind of its own deciding when it would and wouldn't work, but I've posted the snaps anyway.

The Tale of Two Tongues

Where have I been? Taking an August vacation like the French? No. I've been cooking tongue. Now that the Canadian part of my North American book deal is finalized and I have a publisher in north and south of the border I am earnestly working on ODDBITS.
Now before you think I am crazy to do a book on offal this is not an offal book, it is a book about underused animal parts, some of which are offal.

Trying to Believe in Spring

Saturday was beautiful, warm, well 12C, and sunny. I spent a lot of the day outside, repotting plants and cleaning up the garden. I moved all my plants out onto the deck yet one more time. There was even pale pink hothouse rhubarb in the market - spring was here.
I made two desserts, a pavlova with poached rhubarb and a recipe that Mary, a writer from Ireland, sent me - an upside down cake made with a scone dough, both were simple and delicious.

Today winter is back, no sun and a bitter wind. Worse still it is going below zero tonight so I'll be hauling all those plants back inside. I know it is only March but this winter has been so long I really want spring to arrive.
I am slowly catching up after 5 days in New York, more about that trip soon. First I have to finish my taxes - now that is a harbinger of spring.

The Trials and Tribulations of Lard

Anybody who says they never google themselves is probably lying, and if that person is an author they are definitely lying.
I google myself quite regularly and discover interesting sites, blogs and reviews that writers promised to send me and forgot. The last couple of days I have stumbled across two food blogs, the first Syrup and Cornbread written by Aimee a southerner living in New England. I knew she was going to be a fat lover. She had problems rendering lard so I left a comment and hope she will try rendering again. The second blog, Nosheteria, written by another person transplanted to New England, Adrienne who was making lard pastry but alas she didn't render the lard first. With the exception of butter and beef suet, all animal fat should be rendered before using. She also noted her lard had a very piggy smell. In my experience good quality lard has a clean neutral odour and is creamy white, sometimes with a blush of pink. Other writers often claim their pastry had an odd piggy taste or smell when using lard. I've never encountered this and I've used lard on three continents. An animal's fat, like its meat, is flavoured by what it eats. This is very evident with good butter. The fat must be fresh, all fat deteriorates with time, light and heat and although animal fat is a lot more stable than highly polyunsaturated fats it can still turn rancid. Buy your fat from a reliable natural or organic supplier.
I have posted a photo of some back fat that I have in my freezer. You can see that is creamy white. One piece has traces of meat, don't worry let that worry you, they'll be left behind when you render it. If you do want a stronger flavour, not piggy but more roast pork, often useful for Mexican recipes, just render your lard longer, until the pieces become dark golden in colour. Leaf lard, which is great for pastry making, should come in a piece with a papery membrane surrounding it and it should be firm. Next time I have some I'll post a photo. I hope Aimee keeps rendering lard and that Adrienne renders hers first, before trying the pie dough again.