CHABICHOU: the cheese and cheese shop

A few weeks ago, we went to the café / cheese shop / French lunch spot known as Chabichou, and pronouced "Shabby-shoe" after the famous French goat cheese.  Located at 196 Borden St. at Harbord, the owners, Laurent Brion and Whitney Brown, are also very cleverly the owners of Tati Bistro - located just down the street.
Tati Bistro is a full on restaurant but is open only for dinner, whereas Chabibou has a small and functional kitchen and is more of a lunch spot and specialty store.  In the former, Laurent can make such wonderful items as Soupe de Poisson, Sauce aux Tomates, and Cassoulet which are bottled and sold in large mason jars at Chabichou.  The shelves host a wealth of other food specialties, from olive oils, to pasta, tarallini, and beautiful French candies.
Approximately 80% of the 60 or so cheeses in the shop yield from France, with the remainder coming from allover - but with a strong Quebec showing.
As it turns out, Laurent's mother owned a goat farm where he used to make goat milk cheese back in France - so he knows of what he speaks (and sells).

A few notes regarding Chabichou cheese (seen in the far left of the above photo):

• Chabichou du Poitou is made in a very limited geographic area above the chalky soils of the threshold of Poitou, south of the Loire valley. Chabichou du Poitou is a small pyramid like mound of goat cheese.

• Chabichou du Poitou production can be either fermier (made on farms), co-operative or industrial. Obviously, the first is considered as being the best.

• Tasting Chabichou: Always great - but the flavours change as it matures. Good to eat young (3 weeks), ripe (6 weeks) or more dry (2 months), Chabichou has a rich goaty flavor. When mature, the cheese is dense and smooth with a distinct layer next tot he rind. Although sweet and delicate, the taste is slightly acidic and salty at the finish.

• Tasting advice: Chabichou is great as a dessert cheese to finish meals. Chabichou is best when made with spring-summer milk, when the goats are enjoying fresh pastures.
  

• Chabichou and wine: White Loire wine such as Sancerre or Pouilly-Fumé (it is all about terroir afterall!)
  

We were there to do some on-site photos with the various cheeses and other delicacies we found in-store.  Chabichou is presently closed Mondays so we enjoyed having the run of the shop.  A cheese of particular interest was the massive wheel of the Swiss "Abondance", selling at $6.10 /100 gr. - the wheel was going for $593 and change.  I love fondue, but even I have my limites.

photos by Michael Kohn.

Heroes: Real & Reel

I am not a big watcher of television, I have nothing whatsoever against it - it is just that my day seems to fly by and I haven't even caught a glimpse of the screen.  All that is about to change however - what the Vancouver 2010 Olympic Games opening in less than 48 hours.  When not working, I plan to spend some serious time in front of the screen - as do my kids, they are equally deprived and plan on making up for lost screen time.  I am very excited about the Games but wish that the media would cease their chatter regarding "our" medal count.  I cannot even imagine the pressure that the Canadian athletes must be feeling, in my books they are all heroes just for qualifying. 

I do work on television ads, yet it seems that I rarely get to view them, let alone get a demo reel.  Within the past two weeks, I worked on two ads; one for frozen fish and another for a new frozen pizza entrée.  The latter was an involved shoot, with multiple locations, a large crew,  and a few 15.5 hour days of on-set work.  It would seem that some of the components and product did not make it through the Canadian border, (protecting us from what I do not know), so one of my primary assignments was to salvage "hero" quality pepperoni from regular product which was later incorporated into newly constructed and television worthy "heroes". 

I do spend a fair amount of time in grocery stores - where I do get to see some of my work on packaging.  Just before Christmas, I worked on the packaging for two new SKUs coming out from our friends at ACE Bakery.  I look forward to seeing those in the not too distant future.  

I styled these Catelli SKUs a couple of years ago and they are still being used, a familiar face in grocery stores across the country.  Photography by Michael Mahovlich.

   

Political Mashing

Outraged with Harper's second proroguing of Parliament? Not impressed with Ignatieff's ambivalent leadership of the federal Liberal Party? And then there is the plethora of grievances against George W. Bush. If you are dissatisfied with our leaders past and present, and are looking for a little creative retaliation - then look no further. Potato mashers never looked so good, or generated so much fun!
These fun & funky mashers are made by Québécois artist Pascale Hebert and are available through the on-line gallery and boutique www.artefaks.com. "Sell your work, not your soul" is the gallery's tag line. Pascale's studio is called Métal en Jupe, in addition to the Harper potato-masher, she also offers up George W., Michael Ignatieff, Jean Charest and even France's top man - Nicolas Sarkozy. The website has a photo of the Harper potato-mashers at the December 2009 Copenhagen Conference where I am sure they were put to very good use. Potato mashers are $39.00 each, bon appétit.

Chick (Pea) Power

First and foremost, Season's Greetings to one and all! The "holiday" is always a super busy time for everyone, let alone being a self-employed foodie whose busiest work month is inevitably December, and being the mother of three kids, with one dog and a husband. A female friend described Christmas as a part time job, the kind that men just wouldn't get - on any level. Private baking kept me busy, making well into the thousands of the now famous Chai Snaps (photographed in the previous blog entry), as well as macarons, bûches, spiced almonds, lemon curd, paneforte, chocolate snowflakes and cheese crackers. Friends with restaurant kitchens are good friends indeed. On the family side, Christmas dinner was chez nous, I did everything but the 20 lb. plus turkey - which my sister-in-law raised, and my mother-in-law roasted and it all worked out very well. We have since had leftover turkey dinner, turkey pot pie, turkey soup, and finally the bones & bits have gone out in the green compost bin. We are officially turkeyed-out. Enjoyable as it was, it is now time to re-tool the menu.

Many people are making concerted efforts to eat less meat and for numerous reasons: from the ethical, to health, and for climate changing effects. I recently read that it is estimated that in the US alone, 7 billion, yes billion, animals are slaughtered every year - most of which are cattle.... I am trying to get my head around the math, the population of the US being at 305 million in 2008. Cattle in particular produce an enormous quantity of methane gas which contributes to climate change, therefore reducing one's meat consumption reduces the creation of greenhouse gases. I am an omnivore and a firm believer in a varied diet and most things in moderation. I enjoy all foods, but do not wish to eat meat everyday. I love the chick pea: it is versatile, cute, inexpensive, high in fiber and protein, and ethnically diverse. What is not to love about it? I often purchase 2 kg bags of dried peas, soak them overnight and cook them until just tender. I throw them into pasta to boost the protein content, make chana masala out of them - a good pot luck contribution when there is the odd vegetarian in the crowd and usually way too many meat dishes, and of course - hummus. Switching up the hummus is always fun, try using roasted garlic rather than fresh, roasted sesame oil, smoked paprika, smoked salts, all are great additions. The family cottage has no electricity but that does not stop us from making hummus. I purchased a hand-crank blender, the enticing photo on the box suggests that smooth margueritas and dacquiris can easily be wiped up in a canoe.! Our experience is not quite the same, a medium lump hummus is about the best that we can coax out of "The Vortex", oh well - it tastes great and goes well with a cold beer, or an occasional pop if you are a kid.

Here's to 2010, and to reducing the creation of climate changing gases - one chick pea at a time.

photos by: www.michaelkohn.com

'Tis the Season

It has started, Christmas baking that is. I start in on it before I do any decorations, before any seasonal shopping in fact. To other people, the kitchen has an almost permanent aroma of spice, but then again I am totally engrossed in my projects and notice little else. A few years ago, I responded to a job posting for a retail tea outlet who wanted a recipe developer to create and supply a few kinds of cookies to them. I stepped up to bat, produced a few prototypes and the rest is history. I would get orders for hundreds at a time, stay up all night and deliver in the morning not looking so bright-eyed nor bushy-tailed. It was actually a great learning experience, forcing me to create systems for productivity while maintaining the artisan appeal of the cookies. I made lemon sencha shortbread, roibos biscotti and the perennial favorite - chai snaps. The latter are an addictive, crunchy cookie who's flavour stems from a mixture of freshly ground spices. Perfect for any excuse or occasion, I produce them year round. They are popular with my kids, their friends, their teachers, neighbours, friends and private clients who put in orders at this time of year for the very same reasons. I plan to do more baking, bûche de noël and macarons are very popular and I also like paneforte - the "strong bread" from Siena, Italy. The translated name does not sound too tempting however, the version I make has chocolate, honey, toasted nuts, dried fruit and spice and should only be consumed in wafer thin slices. So many things to bake, so little time, so - get cracking! My chai snaps, and photo by www.michaelkohn.com

Saint Chef?

I was curious, having asked myself an obscure yet burning question.... who is the patron saint of chefs? Afterall, Saint Isidore is the saint of farmers, Saint Honoratus, for whom the spectacular French dessert known as a Saint-Honoré is named, is patron saint of pastry chefs. It turns out that it is St.Lawrence, and he watches over chefs but more specifically, he watches out for the chefs at the 'Q and for gruesome reasons.
Lawrence lived in the Roman times, more than 1800 years ago. According to legend, when Lawrence was asked by Emperor Valerian, who ruled from 253 - 260 AD, to bring forth the Church's treasures he brought forth the orphaned, crippled and diseased of the kingdom and announced that "These are the treasures of the Church!" This act of defiance resulted in the public torture and execution of Lawrence on the site of the Basilica di San Lorenzo in Rome by means of "grilling to death." Legend says that he was so strong-willed that instead of giving in to the Romans and releasing information about the Church, at the point of death he exclaimed "Turn me over. I am done on this side!" For this reason Saint Lawrence has been deemed the Patron Saint of Chefs and specifically those who cook on barbeques. In religious art he is often depicted holding a metal grill to memorialize his martyrdom.
It has been an unusually mild November, we've really been blessed with the weather in fact. I do BBQ year round, never putting the grill away and often having an uneasy feeling that I am somehow single-handedly responsible for global warming. The next time you find yourself releasing extreme heat, smoke and delicious aromas directly into the atmosphere, raise your glass in honour to St.Lawrence and be thankful that the biggest threat of our day is only climate change. Photo by www.michaelkohn.com

Something from Nothing

Between shopping for shoots and shopping for a family with three kids, a dog and two parents - I find myself in grocery stores frequently, very frequently.  It has certainly happened that after a day in a studio working certain foods, I never want to see them again.  OK, maybe not never ever but just not for a long time. There is a correlation between the time spent with the said food and the amount of time that can pass before you might consider eating it again. I estimate that it is about one month for every day of working intensely with that food.  I remember working on a TV commercial for five days, and for five days I made lasagna.  I did not want to see, smell or eat lasagna for six months. When work is busy, and the food diversified - my personal menu options get drastically reduced.  

Sometimes shoots have good leftovers, and if they are food-safe and not in twenty kilo packs I am usually game. I might MacGyver some of these items into a week night family meal, when time is of the essence and short cuts are appreciated.  A friend of mine once called me "Kitchen MacGyver", a compliment I think, in the fact that I could conjure up a meal from relatively slim pickings.  This skill came from passing summers at a log cabin with no electricity, a hand pump and very basic propane appliances. This talent has come in handy as a parent and has proved very helpful as a food stylist. Being able to deconstruct and rebuild on set is essential, and sometimes the craziest solutions yield the best results.

I came across a food quote worthy of sharing the other day and it is credited to the Duchess of Windsor: "If you accept a dinner invitation, you have a moral obligation to be amusing."

Bon appétit tout le monde!      

Photo credits: roasted chicken leg by  www.michaelkohn.com, shrimp & mushrooms by www.mmphotos.com.