Hawk's Blog - a blog by Hawk - FoodProof

A Classic in 30 Minutes Flat?

Hawk — Sat, 26 Sep 2009 06:53:18 -0700

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Once upon a time, well, an hour ago, I was driving my three-year-old daughter Alexandra home from nursery school. She had a great time, playing today in the gym instead of outside because of the rainy weather and had worked up quite an appetite since breakfast. ?We?ll go right home and I?ll make some spaghetti with pesto and tomatoes,? I happily told her. ?No!?, she shot back. ?Spaghetti and meatballs??.please?? ...

Sustainability Never Tasted So Good

Hawk — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 16:53:39 -0700

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Aquaculture has been around for a few years now and most people are familiar with how it works. Atlantic salmon are grown in large cages off the shores of Charlotte County in New Brunswick, Canada, and harvested for the local, regional, national and world markets. It?s an industry that has humble roots but today accounts for more than $120-million in annual revenue for a number of players in Southwest New Brunswick. It?s an industry a lot o ...

Northern Manitoban Fried Chicken. I should start my own chain.

Hawk — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 11:06:09 -0700

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca I?m originally from a place that?s not very close to Kentucky. In fact, Thompson, Manitoba isn?t even that close to Winnipeg. It?s 750 kilometres north of the provincial capital and the coldest city in Canada?s 10 provinces. Up there in the 1970s and 80s, we had little in the way of any national brands, chain restaurants and the like. Except one - Kentucky Fried Chicken. My dad worked at the Inco mine up there, a forklift dri ...

Sticky, tacky, gooey good ribs

Hawk — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 11:30:23 -0700

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Everybody craves some Chinese take-out on occasion and one of my favourite guilty pleasures are those little sweet and sour pork ribs. You know the ones, sticky, gooey, sweet and meaty. That syrupy fall-off-the-bone goodness. Some are better than others for sure. Some actually have some hint of Chinese flavour to them while others are just pork in some good ol? Aunt Jamima corn syrup, perhaps with some soy sauce for colour. Wel ...

Rediscover the pleasures of the sub sandwich

Hawk — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 19:07:28 -0700

Enjoying a hearty sub with my daughter recently. The dough was just an hour out of the oven when we assembled our subs. By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Man, I love a good sandwich, and quite often, there?s nothing quite like sinking your teeth into a great big sub. There?s just no substitute for a meat-and-cheese-and-veggie-and-pickle-packed loaf of bread in your hand. Two hands if you make them like I do. There are several chain sub joints that are making ...

Gotta have Gumbo. There's magic in the roux

Hawk — Mon, 23 Feb 2009 17:52:36 -0800

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Special things happen to foods when heat is applied. It?s why we cook a lot of it in the first place. Some of the simplest things can hit a whole new level just with the introduction of some heat. Among the simplest combos that demonstrate this action are oil and flour. Mixed together, usually in equal parts, they become a roux. Apply some heat and they become fantastic; a deeply flavourful, nutty paste that forms an important part of ...

The San Fransisco Treat (minus the box and excessive salt)!

Hawk — Thu, 22 Jan 2009 09:12:14 -0800

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca When I was just a kid, maybe 30, I was a sucker for Rice-A-Roni. I admit it, I loved the stuff. I gave up processed foods for the most part a few years ago but that one was one of the harder ones to let go of. That little box packed a lot of comforting goodness. It also packed a lot of salt and chemicals but oh man, the comfort. Rice-A-Roni is definitely old school processed food because it actually requires a bit of skill in preparation. This is a product th ...

Loosen that belt - it's Ukrainian Christmas time.

Hawk — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 19:44:11 -0800

By Mike Hawkins www.FoodFunk.ca We were a bit late with the festivities this year, holding our annual Ukrainian Christmas meal on January 10, four days after the actual celebration. My wife has a Ukrainian-Croatian background and introduced me to this tradition when we first met more than a dozen years ago. The meal, served on Ukrainian Christmas Eve, is a 12-course meatless meal to represent the 12 apostles. Although I'm of half black, half Scottish background (it's a long story), I ...

Just Wingin' It. The crisp satisfaction of the chicken wing.

Hawk — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 11:24:11 -0800

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Every decent pub on the planet has chicken wings on its menu. They're like crack when it comes to the bar snack, and I'm a true addict. Sadly though, not all pubs can manage a decent wing. I can imagine it's a fairly hard thing to do at a restaurant level when you're juggling 50 other menu items. Some still manage to make a nice wing, while others botch it to various levels of botchification. I just made up that word. Different people ...

Wishing for warmth, but a Spanish Omelet will do

Hawk — Mon, 08 Dec 2008 19:43:52 -0800

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Today is the day we Canadians start day dreaming. Last night, it snowed. It snowed and snowed and then the temperature plunged. The thermometer isn?t going to get above minus nine Celsius today. Whammo, it?s winter. So we dream. We dream of warmer air, of sunny heat, of green grass and a mellow breeze. We long for vine-ripe tomatoes, crisp local lettuce and crunchy fresh veget ...

The cure for the common cold. You heard it here first.

Hawk — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 11:55:28 -0800

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Well, I?m sick as a damn dog. Runny nose, aches, pains, and coughing up one-pound blocks of lung butter. I?ve got a full blown cold. I picked it up in Ontario, by the way. A nice place to visit but I wouldn?t want to inhale there. Thankfully, I have the cure for the common cold. Whenever I start to feel that building pressure in my sinuses, I break out the chicken and chi ...

Cheap, Drunk, Lazy Bastard Beef Bourguignon

Hawk — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:21:46 -0800

By Mike Hawkins www.foodfunk.ca Last week a sommelier friend of mine gave me five bottles of Shiraz wine with the instructions that because each of them had already been opened and sampled, I was to consume them within three or four days. Otay. Mishun accomblished?*hiccup*. Do you see stars? Anyway, I found ways to pound through the wine by cooking with it. On one night in particular, a half bottle of Shiraz got me thinking, ?..

Atlantic Canada seafood chowder. The one thing we do right up here.

Hawk — Mon, 03 Nov 2008 11:01:04 -0800

By Mike Hawkins http://www.foodfunk.ca Atlantic Canada is not really known for its food. Some people coming to the region for a visit tend to pack a lunch if they?ve been here before. We have to admit we do some weird stuff here. Cinnamon, and I think allspice, are prominent spices in the tomato sauce that goes onto many pizzas in this region. Among the most popular lunches is a peculiar wrap sandwich called a donair, a kind of cheapened gyro filled with a pseudo-meat th ...

My life with fresh pasta

Hawk — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 07:36:34 -0700

Fresh pasta was one of the things that really got me on a path towards a love of food. I was 20 years old when I finally got out on my own and had to start feeding myself for real. At that stage, I was still a lot closer to third-trimester dependance on an umbilical cord than cooking from scratch when it came to my ability to get food into my body. But I was willing to learn. The first real eye-opener for me occurred at a friends wedding recept ...

What to cook when you don't want to cook.

Hawk — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 13:13:38 -0700

Ever find an evening when you're hungry but just don't want to cook? Nah, me neither, but still, there are times when you want to spend less time in the kitchen and more time eating, strange as that sounds. When that happens to me every leap year or so, I prepare a dish like a few of the following. They're basically ready in the time it takes to boil up some pasta. Note: The quality of dried pasta matters. Forget Catelli or any kind of no name crap. Buy a brand like Barilla, DeCecco or Delverde ...

Thanksgiving turkey - brine it, baste it, taste it!

Hawk — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 06:03:11 -0700

Brined and roasted. The brown and crispy skin might be the best part! Exactly twice a year, I ask myself why I don?t eat turkey more often. It?s cheap, fabulous, versatile and celebratory. And that skin, oh that skin. Those cracklins alone are worth the price of admission. Here?s how I slap together my annual Thanksgiving or Christmas bird. I usually buy a roughly 13-pounder from Cochrane?s Market in Rothesay, New Brunswick. They?re New ...