About

Upside-down Cooking

I recently found myself living in New Zealand. I think the world of this country and am fortunate to get to spend some time here. The people are lovely and the country lives up to it's reputation in terms of natural beauty and awe inspiring landscapes.

Beyond the obvious fact that I am literally upside-down at the bottom of the southern hemisphere my routines and day to day life were also turned upside-down in the move from Canada. As that relates to cooking, something that is now very obvious to me is that the ingredients and flavours that I have come to rely on in my cooking at home are not the same when I am living abroad. Don't get me wrong, Canada and NZ are not worlds apart on the culinary / cultural spectrum, but I think that anyone who is a passionate cook will appreciate just how much the subtle differences in what is available in your new local store will impact your cooking. More so, there are subtle variations in the taste of items that you take for a given in one locale that aren't that close in the new locale. Add in local seasonality and local items and a whole new world opens up in your cooking. Or in other words, you're cooking upside-down.

The recipes posted here have a few goals:

To share the recipes that I love with anyone who is interested in them
To keep the ingredients simple. That's a promise. I will do my best to make sure that the ingredients in my recipes can be found relatively easily. I may push you to visit a local Asian grocery store for some of the dishes but by and large what you need should be available in most traditional grocers.
I'll weigh in on substitutions. Nothing like trying to make a recipe, not being able to find something and then getting frustrated.

Comments

Chicken Noodle and Sausage Soup

The wind where I live can cut you right down to the bone. Nothing will get you back up to speed like a warming bowl of homemade soup. It's also the best way to get through all the bones you've been saving from other dishes you've made by making the base from scratch in the form of your own broth. The veggies here can be changed up to taste of course or to suit whatever you've got on hand. This recipe is a in two parts, a recipe for the broth and a recipe for the soup itself. It's all pretty straight forward and I'd encourage you to mix it up with the exception of one part - do not cook your noodles directly in the soup itself. The result of that is a terrible mess if you reheat the soup. The noodles get way overcooked and they start to disintegrate. Best to cook them separately. Gather the Good Stuff Broth This recipe presumes that you've been saving bones etc from other meals that you cooked and that you've got roughly enough to make a decent stock.

Hot & Sticky Chicken Pops

These are just great. If you've got pickier kids then you can dial up the honey and dial down the hot and they'll love them. For adults, do the opposite. I like to serve this type of stuff as a heavy snack or during a chaotic dinner where you've got lots of folks coming and going. Obviously, these are open to be dressed up any way you like or even just straight roasted / fried for the crispy angle. Popping the knuckle off of drumsticks is a great trick. It not only makes a nice little handle, it's also visually appealing. Lastly, it severs the little tendons that run up and down chicken thighs that aren't the most pleasant when eating. This is a good technique to get used to using in many different chicken dishes. I believe it is called "Frenched chicken". Gather the Good Stuff 1. Chicken Drumstick - 6-8 or what ever will fit comfortably in your roasting pan 2. 1 Tbsp - rice wine vinegar 3. 1 Tbsp honey - use good stuff 4. 1-3 Tbsp Sriracha 5. Salt &

Gloriously Garlic Noodles

This is a dish that you can have on the table in 20 minutes or less. It has relatively simple ingredients that pack a ton of flavour. It's also open to a lot of variation. I like to serve it with shrimp as shown but really any protein will work, seafood being the fastest one to add. Also, feel free to play with the amount of garlic. The recipe that follows is on the extreme end of how much you want to put it in there. if you find garlic a little overpowering, or you have a dentist appointment the next day, maybe tone it down a bit. Gather the Good Stuff In regards to the sauce, you can be pretty loose with the quantities. If you like it a little saltier, use more soy sauce. If you like it a little hotter, add a little more cayenne. For the noodles, literally any noodles will do. I used the standard spaghetti but that's just because it is what I had on hand. 2 Tbsp soy sauce - a shot of a thicker darker one is probably a good idea. if you use one that is too light you'

Upside Down Cooking

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