The Internet is the world’s biggest recipe book

Millions go online, hunting up recipes when the cooking mood hits. My favourite printed recipe book is Madame Benoit Cooks at Home, a treasure trove of recipes including her century-old Quebec beans, made with rum and apples. Even a lunchtime sandwich is a confection in Madame Benoit Cooks at Home.

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Once, overzealous trying to help a bachelor friend cook his first-ever Thanksgiving turkey dinner, I hurriedly tore a page with a recipe for the best stuffing I ever came across from the Benoit book. It was one of those recipes for turkey stuffing where you first rub the bowl in which you’re putting the bread with a garlic bud and one that called for simple ingredients like grated lemon rind. I eventually found a similar recipe to Madame Benoit’s on the Net and keep forgetting to order a new book every time I’m shopping at Toronto’s World’s Biggest Bookstore, “book heaven on earth”, which would come with the missing page. When entertaining friends for dinner in today’s fast-paced world, you don’t always have to start from scratch. You can always do what my friend Connie calls “doctoring” up gaining you kitchen shortcuts, and more time at table with friends. Two shortcut examples from my own kitchen. When I am serving an entrée that goes well with cranberry sauce, I use the contents from a bag of orange-flavoured “Craisins” brand, dried cranberries, available in most supermarkets. I put the orange-flavoured cranberries in a small saucepan, add a tablespoon or two of red currant jam, leaving it simmering over low heat just until the jam melts. I add a little grated orange rind, and a dollop of Grand Marnier. Dinner guest always ask for the “recipe” for this cranberry sauce, which tastes so much better than the stuff that comes in the can. Another shortcut if you are inviting friends over for a dinner where turkey, roast beef or anything that comes with gravy is being served is packaged mashed potatoes from the supermarket. They keep for ages in your refrigerator and they taste every bit as good as the ones that you have you standing over the kitchen sink for dreary peeling duty.
BBQ Grill A Succulent Rack Of Lamb I recently threw a backyard barbecue party to celebrate the fourth anniversary of Canada Free Press as a daily. Determined to serve rack of lamb for a change, I made an unsuccessful tour of the supermarkets in my neighbourhood looking for the right cut. Finally, Giacomo, who owns the fabulous downtown Toronto restaurant Donatello’s told me to take myself off to Costco’s, which I did. With the right kind of cut for perfect rack of lamb now in house, I turned to the Internet because I’d never made it before on the grill. The recipe that sounded the simplest was one in which you soak the lamb in a brine bath with rosemary sprigs and garlic. I like the chef’s advice to not use sugar-based marinades, which toughen the meat. If you want to “sauce” your rack of lamb, make a separate one that guests can spoon over the finished product. The one I made by mixing pesto with sour cream and a quarter cup of toasted hazelnuts was a big hit with my guests. Connie’s Doctoring-Up Department, once found a guest who hated brussel sprouts, trying them out and proclaiming that they were the best he ever tasted. All I did was toss a few shelled chestnuts and some butter in with the sprouts! It was Giacomo that taught me that sometimes the simplest recipes are the most delicious. This is just a start, there must be thousands of gourmet-on-the-run recipes available. Send them in. Make someone’s you don’t even know a Happy Kitchen!

Our favourite quick Gourmet entrée

Poached salmon served with basmati rice and the vegetable of your choice. Sautee two diced garlic buds in four tablespoons of olive oil. When they are golden, add one quarter cup of dry white wine. When it stops bubbling, add one cup of chicken broth. Add four to eight filets of salmon. Cover and poach for seven minutes. Mix one-quarter cup of mayonnaise with fresh or dried dill and spoon over the salmon after poaching.

Gourmet-on-the-run Dessert

One of the most delicious and most impressive desserts is a Roman-like tray of fresh fruit alongside imported cheeses, including soft runny ones like Brie. This is a dessert that calls for be fresh coffee and a bottle of good port. Draping grapes over the edge of a footed crystal bowl gives a lush Victorian look to an ordinary fruit bowl.

Entertaining

It’s the little touches that make people remember. Tie pastel-coloured ribbon around two-inch tall vases holding a single stargazer lily with a little fern look great on the side of every dinner guest setting. The bonuses you get from stargazers are multifold. They last a week if you keep their water tapped up and their fragrance is redolent of summer breezes even in Winter.