Q’s Escapades

   Growing up in Montreal Quebec I am grateful to have fresh local produce near me  that I was not  fully aware of until each student in class was assigned a region in Quebec to discover out of a raffle. I picked Outaouais, its about 2hrs away from Montreal; its located in western Quebec ( a popular city in that region is Gatineau). 

they are known for specializing in cheeses and non-alcohol wines, microbrewery beers, game products, chocolate, honey and many other delicious produce!

Above are some of the charcuterie that I enjoyed making and curing, such as Bresaola, Duck Jambonneaux, Toulouse sausages, Pastrami and Rabbit terrine with foie gras. Depending on the sizes and types of meat you are curing the process can take up to 5 weeks.

My two favorite charcuteries I really enjoyed making was toulouse sausages and pastrami! Toulouse sausage consist of 75% meat and 25% fat, you freeze the meat and fat until its solid enough to pass through a meat grinder. Now my not so favorite part of the process would be freezing my fingers in the walk-in fridge to mince the meat. Then you mix the ground meats with the rest of ingredients in a stand mixer or by hand until it binds together. And now the fun part!! pushing the meat through the sausage filler into the pork casing! for some reason its very fun but yet relaxing to form sausages, as its pushing through the casing hoping it doesn’t burst! 

As for the delicious pastrami its takes 3 days and 3 hours; a longer process but surely worth the wait! The type of cut used to make pastrami is beef brisket(located around the breast area or lower chest) or Beef plate ( located at the lower belly). We marinated the beef in a brine and pickling spice for 3 days in the refrigerator, then coat the beef with toasted coriander seeds and black peppercorn; hot smoke the beef with the option of maple or cherry wood. speaking of wood reminds me of the time Chef Oli showed the class how cold smoke cheese and that ANYTHING we could image could be cold smoked.. Anything!( it was mind blowing!)

Bread .... my oh my oh my! I love you BUT I should REALLY let you go.. 

I was very excited to learn how to make artisan breads since it had become one of my new loves, I was introduced to it about 6 years ago (not including baguettes and croissant) .I remember just like it was yesterday; picking up a slice of fougasse olive bread dipping it into olive oil then layering it with blue cheese and a slice of tomato, taking a bite as my eyes burst open with admiration... can you tell I love bread!?

Having the chance to make artisan bread this year was a heart warming experience, I’ve always wanted to learn to make croissant. there's so much to know about the bread industry; having to calculate the temperatures( air , flour water, levain), measuring precisely and remember the 12 steps of bread making its truly a technique and bond you acquire.

looking back at my past now bread and pastries seemed to be my safe place, if its not rice its bread 3 times a day. I grew up on a sweet breads like cross buns  for Easter weekend, tennis rolls , hard dough bread not sourdough type.

Growing up I remember people memorizing phone numbers to their favorite restaurants and taxi service ( 3-4-3-0-3-4-3! if you know then you know! lol). With technology development over the past decade, business are using mobile applications and online delivery to become more costumer friendly.  

Instead of walking or driving to the closest restaurant people have become accustom to this new order regime of Select cuisine, Mode of payment, Track location, Food delivered. From groceries to restaurants and even clothing stores, everything is at a click of a button.

Since I was young you could find me in the kitchen creating flavorsome meals from leftovers.

Of all the nicknames I’ve had, chef Q is the one that gravitated the most; ONE of my goals is to become a private chef like Chef Andrea Drummer. https://www.vogue.com/article/meet-andrea-drummer-the-executive-chef-of-lowell-cafe

Food is like the comfort from a mother when you hurt yourself as a child. The love I have for food is unconditional, emotional and dangerous!                      

Food brings happiness pleasure and warmth; It is the reason why I love to cook and eat; all the different flavors moving around in your mouth exciting your salivary glands giving you a mind blowing experience!