Comfort food so far, with the household sick on and off: boerenkool, mostly from the pantry and freezer. The casserole ideas became a Casseroles blueprint and the Indian curries research is done. Bibimbap, enchiladas, and chicken tinga join a long backlog of trip finds (ono ceviche, the Puka Dog’s toasted bun, a sweet red cabbage), a Mexican feast to recreate, and October’s carry-overs: crab salad, pan-flattened gyro beef, and a two-phase pho.
Saturday, November 7th
We’ve been sick on and off for a few weeks, so we wanted some comfort food. Tonight we’re making Boerenkool, mostly from the pantry and freezer. It’s 1.5 kg of potatoes, with 1–2 onions diced, 1 large tin of kale, and a smoked sausage if you eat ’em. It’s old-school comfort food, relatively fast, and doesn’t require fresh ingredients. And it has nutrition. This is a problem with most fast and prepared foods, as they’ve evolved. One of the goals of this cookbook is to show how food can be fast, nutritious, and even comforting. If I can do it, it can’t be all that difficult.
Week of Wednesday, November 4th
New food wishes
- Bibimbap 1
- Enchiladas 1, 2, 3, 4
- Chicken tinga 1 (Mexican-ish)
- Casseroles, 2026 edition 1 ← Ethan really gets the simplicity of the casserole + adapts it to more current cooking styles. We make a tonne of these, but his are good inspiration.
- → turkey dinner casserole
- → taco lasagne casserole (12-layer Mexican dip?)
Food
- A classic Canadian pie 1
- A beef snack wrap that might work with salmon 1
- These weird beans suggest a much more interesting dish (1)
- Pot-au-feu (the French national comfort dish) → from that book (1)
- Carême
- Frijole soup
- Split pea soup, Dutch (thick cut bacon)
- That weird hearty bread
- Grilled, thin-cut carrots and zucchini salad with rocket (yogurt dressing was fresh)
- Dal (looser than I make, but lovely)
- Cauli curry (orange sauce)
- Ono with coconut cream ceviche
- Puka Dog: the relishes and sauces were great, but the bun + toasting technique were the real MVP (1)
- A subtly sweet, perfectly seasoned red cabbage from the trip (compare with Braised red cabbage)
- Hotel chicken sandwich: chicken breast, tender, nice bread, great flavour → pull from hotel menu
Recipes to research
- All of the Indian curries: pea and corn, cabbage, and various chicken variations
- Crab salad (like salmon salad), but with cabbage and carrot
- Gyro beef, pan-flattened on parchment: thin, roasted hot, sliced for pitas, salad, and sandwiches (test against Sheet-pan fast-food-style gyros)
- Tabbouleh salad, a pattern worth learning
- The onion jam from that double smash burger, savoury and sweet
- German dinner: roulade, pork tenderloin with apple
Mexican feast
- Enchiladas and green sauce → carne, were fantastic
- Chiles rellenos
- Guac (fresh) and habanero hot sauce
- Simple salad → shred, sliced tomato, onions → oil/vinegar simply
Methods and essays
- Pho, a two-phase method: stock, then broth (friend’s notes in October 2026)
- Sandwich methods, towards hoagie/kaiser
- Toasting methods → dry, dry/smooth, oil, whole vs. surface
- Cheesy pasta (one pan), a build or a recipe
- Research “national dish” dishes and consider adding: mole, tapas, borscht, pasta al pomodoro, rice, meze
- Food memory: American Grill in Cottonwood Mall? A guess from some research, either that or Boardwalk burgers