“Asparagus is in season and I’m already getting asparagus-ed out, but soon, thank God, peas are coming on so I do a really great summer truffle dish with seared scallops, pea ravioli and summer truffles with a very acidic sauce with pinot gris from the county.” Michael suggests simplifying this dish to make at home by searing the scallops with some fresh peas, some shallots, deglaze the pan “and maybe serve it over some nice tag” - that’s short for the flat wide noodles know as Tagliatelle.

Michael tells me his whole family loves to get in on the Foodie action, “(my daughter) wasn’t even one year old and she was eating caviar scallops and foie gras, but that didn’t last long.” Cooking with his daughter allows him much needed family time in a busy schedule, “My daughter is eight and she can cook like the wind - she’s awesome! She likes to cook pasta, pancakes, eggs, and she’s always on the restaurant kitchen helping out with mis en place.”

I asked Michael some tips to bring the local, seasonal philosophy of Harvest to your home kitchen, Micheal suggests “Try to buy fresh foods… some people shop everday but it’s not realistic for most people, a few times a week is good and keep it really fresh. Keep good staples on hand, good olive oil, right kind of vinegars, so your not running for the basics all of the time. Also don’t just cook for one day, cook for two or three days at a time - leftovers are great!”

Hope you enjoyed that, we’re being called back to the set… watch for more details about Chef Worthy coming soon!

See you on the patio!

“I purchased a spice called Merquen when in Chile. We had it in a dip served with sopappilas. I was wondering if you have a dip recipe using this spice.”

Merquen is a chili spice blend. It is made from smoked chilies called Cacho de Cabra or “horn of the goat.” Depending on the preparation and producer, the dried chilies are ground and blended with various spices; usually coriander seeds, cumin and sometimes salt.

Use it as you would use chili powder. If the one you have has salt in it, decrease the salt you are using in your recipe. It is also great as a spice rub for steak or pork, sprinkled over grilled corn on the cob or anywhere you would like a smokey hit of flavour.

I would try substituting the spice in any of these recipes with the Merquen, I think the Red Pepper dip would be especially good!:

Curry Dip
Bean Dip with Zahtar
Red Pepper Dip
Sun Dried Tomato Dip

My last copy of  Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone goes out to Teresa Brogno, Of Montreal QC. Congratulations and enjoy the book!

Look for 5 more new celebrity cookbooks for subscribers starting next week!

The fourth copy of Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone goes out to Dan and Brenda Dube of Perth, Ont. Congratulations and enjoy the book!

Keep subscribing! I have one more Curtis Stone cookbook to give away and then I will be announcing the new celebrity chef cookbook coming up for my celebrity cookbook drive!

Join me there and know what’s coming up before anyone else and keep up in real time with the foodie-file.

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Don’t forget to subscribe to the Foodie-file to be eligible for a Curtis Stone Cookbook. I’m giving away one cookbook every week to a lucky subscriber!

“I would like to have someone explain to me the difference between Belgian waffles and normal waffles… Please advise. For example, could a waffle recipe be used in either machine, Belgian or classic? Thank You So Much, Jenni”

Any pastry that is made in a waffle iron is called a waffle. There are many different varieties, some are made with a raised batter and some are not. What you generally think of as a “normal” waffle is a round or square waffle made with a batter of eggs, milk (sometimes buttermilk), flour, butter and leavened with baking powder and/or baking soda – these are usually less than an inch thick and round or square.

Belgian waffles are traditionally much thicker, and lighter in texture with deep holes, but the real difference is that they are made with a batter that is leavened with yeast and egg whites which give them a light crispy texture. The round waffle irons with deep cavities are generally called Belgian waffle irons.

However, the term “Belgian waffle” is really very loose and undefined. It is not necessary to cook a Belgian waffle on a deep waffle iron for it to be a called a Belgian waffle. Also, you will definitely find recipes for Belgian waffles that do not contain yeast, sometimes an American waffle batter is made and cooked on a Belgian waffle iron and it is called a Belgian waffle. There are also many recipes for either type of waffle, even in Belgium.

Waffle makers generally come with recipe books that have exact proportions for their specific maker. Any recipe can be uses on a regular iron or a Belgian iron, you just have to adjust the amount of batter for each waffle.

Here are some waffle recipes to try:
Chocolate Chip Waffles
Pumpkin Waffles
Buttermilk Pecan Waffles
Blueberry Whole Wheat Waffles
Cornmeal Waffles with Eggs

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Foodie-file to be eligible for a Curtis Stone Cookbook. I’m giving away one cookbook every week to a lucky subscriber!

This is really somewhere between a quick bread and a pancake. It’s great as a main course with a salad or a few roasted potatoes, or slice it up and serve on the side with your favourite eggs -  scrambled or poached would be great. You can serve this bread warm or at room temperature so it makes for very relaxed cooking. 

Today, my third copy of Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone cookbook goes out to Jen Aragon of North Vancouver, B.C. Enjoy the cookbook Jen!

Keep subscribing! I have two more Curtis Stone cookbooks and lots of other celebrity cookbooks to give away once a week!

Yesterday I received a big bag of groceries from Metro grocery store showcasing their summer grocery items. As I dug through I immediately stopped at the bunch of asparagus to read the label and low and behold, it was a product of Canada!  I must have been slightly premature in my hunt because it looks like asparagus has arrived.

I love to steam big batches of asparagus when they are in season and keep it in the fridge. I snack on them straight up as spears, have them ready to go as a side dish or quite often cut up into my salad for lunch at the office with a few anchovies and grape tomatoes, maybe a boiled egg or a few new potatoes if I have them cooked, a little olive oil and squeeze of lemon - delicious!

If I’ve just picked them up fresh from the grocery store for dinner, grilling or roasting is the way to go. Again I always make extra because I love them cold or cut up in a quick frittata. My father loves to forage for wild asparagus and gets the really thin ones that are perfect to toss with linguine and pecorino cheese for a spring time pasta. My mom pickles these thin wiry asparagus every year, packing them into tiny jar to savour all year round.

Is your local asparagus up yet?

Here’s more information on delicious asparagus:
Cooking Cleaning and Storing
How to Grill Asparagus
How to Roast Asparagus
How to Pickle Asparagus (Not my mothers recipe, but still good!)
Asparagus Frittata

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Foodie-file to be eligible for a Curtis Stone Cookbook. I’m giving away one cookbook every week to a lucky subscriber!

“This is a question for Christine @ The Foodie File. I am not sure if you have covered this topic before but I was wondering what would be the difference in using unbleached flour as opposed to the usual all-purpose flour? Does it make a difference in the appearance of the baked goods? Thank you for your help. I really enjoy the blogs, very informative.”

This is a bit of a tricky question because, technically all flour that is used for baking is bleached. Milling a wheat kernel results in a pale yellowish-coloured flour that is left to age for a period of time. Aging the flour makes it better for baking because over time the proteins develop, which strengthen the gluten properties of the wheat. The added effect of this aging process is that the flour oxides and turns whiter or bleaches.

Chemical Bleaching
At one point all flour was treated this way. Then, somewhere around the 1800s, scientist came up with another method to age and bleach flour by adding chemicals to the milled flour. The result was a much reduced aging period, 48 hours as opposed to 12 weeks, and a much whiter end product. This process meant less time in a storage unit and therefore better profits and lower prices for flour. Consumers began to associate this ultra-white flour with better quality and soon the majority of flour produced was chemically bleached. The bleached flour that is chemically produced has a lower protein content then aged flour, therefore unbleached flour was still used in a lot of commercial baking, but even this has changed as consumers demanded whiter and whiter products.

Unbleached Flour
If the product is not labeled either way it has been chemically bleached. If you read the package you will find a bleaching compound present, either benzoyl peroxide or some type of chlorine. If a product is labeled unbleached, it has not been chemically bleached. Recently there has been a consumer demand for less processed food and therefore unbleached flour is making a comeback.

Does it Matter?
As to how each works is a matter of opinion. I took a quick survey in the Test Kitchen and the general consensus is that unbleached or bleached all-purpose flour act equally in a recipe. I have had the experience of having to adjust a pastry recipe when it had been developed with beached flour and I used unbleached instead – but it was a large scale recipe so possibly in smaller amounts it doesn’t make a difference. I do think that because of the stronger gluten properties, unbleached flour is better for making breads and yeast raised products than bleached flour. I also find that the texture is a bit different, unbleached flour tends to be a bit clumpier and so I sift if I’m making a cake or batter.

Is it Really Whiter?
If I’m making something that requires a fine texture I use pasty flour that for the most part is bleached - I have seen unbleached pastry flour but it’s not as available as bleached. As far as appearance goes, you may notice a slightly off white colour to a loaf of bread or cake baked with unbleached flour but it is pretty minimal.

More Flour Info:
Flour Facts
Gluten In Flour, Everything You Need to Know
What’s the difference Between Potato and Tapioca Starch or Flour?

Go Ahead and Stump Me!

Feel free to ask me any of your food-related questions, just leave a comment on any post in the Foodie-file. You will find a lot more answers to cooking questions under the Foodies Ask category of the Foodie-file.

Don’t forget to subscribe to the Foodie-file to be eligible for a Curtis Stone Cookbook. I’m giving away one cookbook every week to a lucky subscriber!