Quoting Shawn Highfield to Jim Weller <=-

My Loblaws store has stocked fiddleheads this
year. They grow wild all around me anywhere its wet but these are
flown in from the Maritimes and cost 12/lb! Crazy.

Laugh! Is anyone crazy enough to buy them?

Yes. They sold out. I guess there's lots of people who don't want to
go mucking around the bush in rubber boots or are afraid they'll
pick the wrong kind.

We missed them this year
as we couldn't get to the park in time to harvest.

Ours aren't ready yet. We are still getting some frosty evenings
and even the occasional snow flurry here as well as some nice warm
sunny days. The lakes are still frozen but the fast flowing rivers
and stream have open water now so the ducks, geese, swans and cranes
are back. They won't be here long as their nesting grounds are even
further north. The Indigenous folk are happy as they get a spring as
well as a fall hunt and the first roast goose of spring is a treat
they look forward to all winter. My Arctic Cooking group is full of
the photos and every week the posters are just a bit further north
than the ones the week before.

Breakup created a lot of flooding this year. Not in Yellowknife but
elsewhere. We had a combination of heavier than usual snowfall all
winter coupled with heavy rain and snow upstream just as the ice
started to break. The rivers run north so breakup starts in the south
and we frequently have ice jams at the river mouths. The town of
Hay River had its worst ever flood in its history with ice packs
ripping up the shore line 25 feet higher than the normal high water
mark.


Cheers

Jim

... Goose fat is one of the best tasting greases.

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JIM WELLER wrote to SHAWN HIGHFIELD <=-

Yes. They sold out. I guess there's lots of people who don't want to
go mucking around the bush in rubber boots or are afraid they'll
pick the wrong kind.

Wow. See to me it's one of the three wild plants I will pick without
worry. Fiddleheads, Ramps, and Morels.

they look forward to all winter. My Arctic Cooking group is full of
the photos and every week the posters are just a bit further north
than the ones the week before.

Very nice!

Hay River had its worst ever flood in its history with ice packs
ripping up the shore line 25 feet higher than the normal high water
mark.

That's crazy! Weather is a mess everywhere I guess.

Shawn

... Computer Lie #1: You'll never use all that disk space.

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JIM WELLER wrote to SHAWN HIGHFIELD <=-

Yes. They sold out. I guess there's lots of people who don't want to
go mucking around the bush in rubber boots or are afraid they'll
pick the wrong kind.

The bears are out and about here and hungry. Often with their little
babies. Here we transitioned from breakup straight into fire season.
Already getting red flag warnings and small fires.

Earlier you were talking about cooking stuff. I make something that
resembles duxelles, no alliums in it...only tiny amounts of butter
and salt, put 1tbsp lumps on foil, freeze, then suckie bag
individually. For when I want a mushroom/cheese omelet. I also dice
up ham or reindeer sausages and package them in 85g lumps in the same
way. Cooking for 1 and a tbsp of shrooms is a lot.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.05

Title: Lobster Tails Info
Categories: Info
Yield: 1 Info

1 Information

TT>I've never cooked lobster tails at home -- I can get rock lobster
TT>tails, frozen, but I don't think I've ever seen real lobsters
TT>except for fresh (sort of) in a tank, in markets around here.

Virtually all the rock lobster that's available, except for coastal
areas where it's caught fresh, is frozen anyway, so it doesn't much
matter. Once the lobster is dead, the edible lifespan on the meat can
be measured in hours, so they freeze 'em immediately for shipment.

TT>Your sources, of course, probably far exceed my sources, when it
TT>comes to lobster tails.

Unfortunately, no. For some reason, management is more than a little
stuffy about our dragging home samples :-) I do drag home a dying
Maine Lobster once in a while (if it looks like it's not gonna make
it through the night). It's a mixed blessing, since the darn thing
has to be cooked immediately, and I just can't get all that worked up
about lobster at 1 o'clock in the morning.

Actually, the frozen rock tails are pretty good, if they're prepped
correctly and you don't overcook 'em. If you ever want to try, here's
how:

1. Thaw the tails overnight in the refrigerator, or quick-thaw them
under COLD running water. At no time should the temperature of the
lobster flesh exceed 40 degrees (F).

2. (NOTE: the following directions are for right handed people only.
Left handers should reverse the directions). Grasp the lobster tail
in your left hand, with the fins pointing away from you, and the open
(body) end pointing toward you. The top (rounded part) of the shell
should be on top. If you have sensitive hands, you may wish to
protect your hand with a towel, as the lobster barbs are sharp and
can infect like crazy.

3. Carefully insert the blade of a pair of kitchen shears between the
lobster meat and the uppermost shell, and make a lengthwise cut
through the shell, stopping just at the point where the shell and
fins meet. Do not cut into the fin area.

4. Use the shears or your fingers to cut through the shell at the
point where the fins and the shell meat, so that you now have a "T-
shaped" cut in the lobster shell.

5. Use your hands to pry the lobster out of the shell, leaving the
portion at the top (where you cut the T) still attached to the shell.
(Don't be afraid to get rough here -- the meat is pretty sturdy, and
the shell is TOUGH.)

6. After the meat has been removed from the shell (but still
attached at the top), flip it over (it will remain attached), and
make 3-4 shallow (careful here, it's easy to get carried away and cut
through everything) cuts at about a 45 degree angle through the tough
membrane on the underside of the meat. (This prevents the cooked
tail from curling.

7. Flip the tail over so that the meat is sitting directly over the
cut shell.

8. Using a sharp knife and a gentle hand (again, you don't want to
cut through the meat), Cut about halfway through the center of the
tail. It should fall open. Now make two more shallow parallel cuts
on either side of the center cut.

9. Finally, use your thumbs to press down on the shell at the fin end
until it snaps, and fan out the fins for a pretty presentation.

10. Brush the tail with butter, season lightly with seafood
seasoning or sweet paprika, and place it in a shallow ovenproof
baking dish. (We use pie tins). Place about a quarter inch of water
in the dish, and stick the whole thing under the broiler until the
meat JUST turns opaque. Do not overcook or it will be tough, dry, and
utterly tasteless.

Serve with drawn butter and lemon or (better IMHO) lime wedges.

Kathy Pitts in Bryan, TX. Re-U/L to NCE by Burt Ford 9/96 3/97 11/98
11/98 (Yep, twice).

MMMMM


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Quoting Bill Swisher to Jim Weller <=-

(fiddlehead) They sold out. I guess there's lots of people who
don't want to go mucking around the bush in rubber boots or are
afraid they'll pick the wrong kind.

The bears are out and about here and hungry.

That too. Same here.

Here we transitioned from breakup straight into fire season.
Already getting red flag warnings and small fires.

We're too wet here this year to have any serious fires for a month
or two.

duxelles

I have never had them. I should make some as they sound delicious.

rock lobster

Maine Lobster

I haven't had crab or either kind of lobster for ages. The prices
have skyrocketed these past two years. I just checked on-line" the
wholesale prices at the dock is $10/lb, Maritime supermarkets
re-sell at $18. Because of air freight costs (for live lobsters,
plus salt water plus ice) my price is $28 and frozen rock lobster
tails run $40/lb here.

Of course all this doesn't bother you a bit. Its a good thing we
like burbot (fresh water ling cod) with drawn garlic butter and
a squeeze of lemon.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Beef Stir Fried with Holy Basil
Categories: Thai, Beef, Chilies, Herbs
Yield: 4 Servings

2 tb Chopped garlic
2 tb Chopped shallots
2 tb Chopped mixed red & green
-chilies (prik ki nu)
1 ts Green peppercorns; whole
1/4 c Fish sauce
2 tb Palm sugar
1 c Coarsely chopped holy basil
-leaves (bai gaprao)
1 c Sliced onion (any mixture of
-Spanish onions; red onions;
-shallots and spring onions
1 lb Ground or minced beef

Neua pad bai kaprao (beef and basil)

This is a quick and easy dish to make. The holy basil has a "hot
peppery" taste, but if you can't get it then the standard European
basil is a reasonable substitute, though you should add a little
freshly ground black pepper in this case.

prik ki nu - called mouse dropping chilies, or dynamite chilies -
are the best chili to use, but if you can't get it standard
Mexican habanero chilies, or Scotch Bonnets, will do very well as a
substitute.

My wife chops the beef with a pair of cleavers, and I can't bear to
watch... you can of course use a meat grinder or a food processor.

The garlic, shallots, peppers and peppercorns are ground together
in a mortar & pestle or a food processor. In a hot wok, with a
little cooking oil, briefly stir fry this paste to bring out the
flavour and aroma. add the remaining ingredients, except the
onion, and continue to stir until the beef is cooked through. Add
the onions, mix thoroughly, and serve.

Serving: For luncheon pad bai kaprao can be served over plain rice,
or over a fried egg or egg crepe, placed on the rice. For dinner it
goes well with the hot and sour tom yum soups, as well as curries and
other Thai food.

Add the usual Thai condiments (chilies in fish sauce (prik nam
pla), ground chillis (prik phom) and sugar), as well, perhaps as
ground black pepper.

Variants: It can be made with chopped pork or chicken, though of
course the flavours are quite different. You can also experiment
with replacing the meat with hard tofu marinated in a mixture of
sweet soy, fish sauce and ground ginger, say, or a vegetable mix
of your choice (I like to mix broccoli and cauliflower florets,
with julienned carrots and wing beans), to make a vegetarian pad
bai kaprao.

From: Colonel I. F. K. Philpott To: CHILE-HEADS-L

MMMMM



Cheers

Jim


... Savoury crepes: putting seafood into a dessert is a travesty

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afraid they'll pick the wrong kind.

it's one of the three wild plants I will pick without worry.

Or maybe it's the bears!

Fiddleheads, Ramps, and Morels.

You can certainly identify these easily: dandelion greens, pigweed
(lamb's quarters) and purslane. That's three more. And they are
easily found in every garden everywhere.

Hay River had its worst ever flood in its history

That's crazy! Weather is a mess everywhere I guess.

Extreme weather events are the new normal thanks to climate change.
We were warned about it 40 years ago but nobody believed it for the
first 20 years. Now it is so obvious; just ask anyone in the
insurance industry about increased losses due to tornados,
hurricanes, floods and forest fires caused by drought or look at the
time lapse photography of the polar ice caps and our most famous
mountain glaciers.

MMMMM----- Recipe via Meal-Master (tm) v8.06

Title: Beef Tenderloin Steaks Stuffed with Morels
Categories: Beef, Steak, Mushrooms, Wine, Dairy
Yield: 4 Servings

4 c Hot water
2 1/2 oz Dried morel mushrooms
4 ts Olive oil; plus
2 tb Olive oil
6 tb Minced shallots
1/4 c Brandy
1 c Dry white wine
1/2 c Canned beef broth
1 c Whipping cream
4 Beef tenderloin steaks;
1 1/2 inch thick)

Mix water and mushrooms in large bowl. Let stand 30 minutes.
Drain, reserving 1 cup liquid. Finely chop half of mushrooms.
Slice remaining mushrooms.

Heat 4 teaspoons oil in medium skillet over medium heat. Add 2
tablespoons shallots and saute‚ 1 minute. Add chopped mushrooms;
saute‚ 5 minutes. Season stuffing with salt and pepper.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add
4 tablespoons shallots; saute‚ 3 minutes. Add sliced mushrooms;
saute‚ 4 minutes. Mix in brandy and boil until almost no liquid
remains, about 2 minutes. Add wine; boil 3 minutes. Add broth and
reserved mushroom liquid, leaving any sediment behind; boil 5
minutes. Add cream; boil until thickened, about 8 minutes.

Cut 2 1/2-inch-wide by 1 1/2-inch-deep pocket in side of each
steak. Press 1/4 of stuffing into each pocket. Secure with
toothpicks. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in heavy large skillet over
medium-high heat. Add steaks; cook to desired doneness, about 4
minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer to plates. Add sauce to
skillet; bring to simmer, scraping up any browned bits. Spoon
sauce over steaks.

Notes: This elegant dish from Tony's in St. Louis, Missouri, is
perfect for a small dinner party. At the restaurant, they serve it
with sauteed spinach.

Recipe by: Bon Appetit November 1995

From: Kitpath

MMMMM


Cheers

Jim


... A 50% chance of rain is a safe but lazy weather forecast.

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