Appetizers

We had some luck fishing the other day so I decided to have my first crack at smoking fish. Bullet smokers like mine have a bad reputation for being too hot, but the way I use it with my home made smoker pucks this does not appear to be a problem in the least. I still have not installed my new thermometer so I do not know exactly what the temps are like in there, but I do know that when I keep the door closed my meats do not get an internal temperature anywhere near done, even after 3 or 4 hours of smoking. In fact, with the door closed I get a constant smolder without even having to add wet chips most of the time. And with smoking fish these low temperatures are required.

When I want to kick up the temperature to finish something off to a fully cooked state right in the smoker instead of on the grill, I just open the door and use a hair dryer as a bellows to kick up the heat. Of course you have to remove the foot first before doing that, otherwise you will get it covered in ashes.

Refried beans can be a healthy snack, or a full meal if you want them to be. You can wrap them in a flatbread as I do at the end of these videos and turn them into a burrito, or you can dip corn chips into them for a snack. Or for a full meal of taco salad, lay down a bed of corn chips, then some refried beans, lettuce, tomato, green onion, bell pepper and whatever else you want on top. Then top it off with a bit of sour cream and your favorite hot sauce. Delicious, and nutritious!

Salad dressing is incredibly easy to make with ingredients you probably already have around the house. And the basic recipe is so versatile that anyone and everyone will be making their own favorite dressings in no time at all. You start with a simple mix of oil and vinegar - 1/3 to 1/2 oil, and the rest vinegar. Use whatever type of oil you like - olive, canola, vegetable, or as we use here, grape seed. Same goes for vinegar - really all you are looking for is something with a bit of tang. So regular white vinegar works, but some of the fancier ones usually add more character. Regular off-the-shelf apple cider vinegar is one of my favorite. In this video we experiment with rice vinegar for the first time. Lemon juice also works exceptionally well.

Bleenies were one of the first "indigenous" foods I learned to make on my year on a student exchange in Soviet Ukraine. I wish for the life of me I could recall exactly how we used to make them, but I do recall it was really easy, and not really a recipe per-se but just tossing a few things together. It almost always involved some sort of soured milk product - either something like kefir that had been intentionally soured, or milk that had gone off, which happened a lot with their shoddy milk supply chain.

This recipe is one I got from a Romanian woman who served them at a BBQ she hosted last summer. It is easy to throw together, and pretty flexible too. In fact, the "recipe" she gave me did not really list the amounts of anything except the 1 litre of milk! So I've put some solid numbers on those ingredients in the many times I've made this since then.

• 1 litre milk
• 70 to 100g sugar
• 3/4 tsp salt
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 2 to 2 and 2/3 cups flour (see below)

We did not make any salsa last summer and so ran out some time ago. When I went looking for my recipe I dug up a list of ingredients but unfortunately had not recorded the procedure before, so I was shooting in the dark a bit here. This time I'm recording it all for posterity though!

Note that due to the lack of vinegar this recipe is not suited to canning by any means other than pressure-canning. The lack of vinegar makes for a nice sweet, fresh flavour that is very similar to the fresh salsas that are so popular these days. This is easy to make, though does take some time to boil down. We cheat and add a bit of corn starch to help thicken it.

This is pretty mild for spiciness.

I'd been hearing a lot lately about people making their own tortilla chips, but never could have imagined how easy it is. I happened to be driving past the local latino grocery store La Tiendita today, and decided to pop in to pick up some corn flour. Someone on Ottawa Foodies suggested the brand name "Masa Mix", so that's what I got. I did notice they had 3 or 4 different brands that ranged quite a bit in price, and the lady at the checkout told me that each has a slightly different character - so I'll have to try the others eventually, too.

The instructions on the Masa Mix say to mix :

• 2 cups corn flour
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 and 1/4 cups water

They say to mix this up and then add 1 tablespoon of water at a time until it is just right. For me it was 3 extra tablespoons, but that varies depending on ambient temperature and relative humidity, so it may be different for you.

A friend on the brewers' list was chatting about perogies today, and in particular about Hunky Bill's Perogy Maker. It's been likely 20 years since I've made perogies, which as far as I'm concerned is far too long. I was still due a Christmas present from Melissa so I went out and picked up a Hunky Bill's for just shy of 30 bucks, to give it a try. Next time I'll time how long it takes because I'm not entirely convinced that it's quicker to do. Rolling out the 2 sheets of dough takes a fair bit of time. Aside from that, the assembly is far quicker with the device. But all told as mentioned I'm just not sure it is a time saver.

Note they are darker simply because I rarely use anything but whole wheat flour