"weekend cooking" news and stories

My only aim in cooking is enjoyment!

The above quote, which starts off Ricardo Larrivee's preface for Weekend Cooking, couldn't be more true. I remember the first time I saw his Montreal-based show on the Canadian version of the Food Network. I was a bit put off by his exuberance, but for some reason I stuck around. By the end of his half-hour show, I was hooked and Ricardo had become one of my favorite televised cooks.

On his show and in his magazine, Ricardo blends gourmet food and recipes with ease, and this cookbook is no exception. The book features a myriad of food styles that offer fancy takes on simple meals like Ricotta-Stuffed Pancakes with Orange Sauce and Duck and Potato Hash, as well gourmet offerings like Foie Gras Terrine or Choco-Espresso Risotto – and it does so with a variety of mouth-watering pictures taken by Christian Lacroix.

In one way, this is my dummy cookbook – a text that offers me simple, yet mouth-watering dinner options when I just can't decide what I want to eat, want to whip up something fancy with minimal effort, or want to make something ahead of time. On the other, it's great for continuing to practice and expand my culinary skills. Weekend Cooking outlines a lot of basics, like a Bearnaise Sauce or pie crust, as well as a diverse selection of dishes and ingredients (beets, dear, scallops, biryani rice, quinoa...) that provide the perfect stepping stone for further cooking development. And for you wine fiends out there – each dish comes with a suggested wine pairing.

A couple of Friday nights, I took a break from school work in order to make a big pot of beef stew. I needed to retreat to some deeply comforting food and in cold weather there's nothing like beef stew (at least in my mind) to warm you up. It had been awhile since I had made it and but it's one of those recipes that always comes back to me when I have the ingredients spread out in front of me.

You can adjust this recipe to your tastes. I used about a cup of red wine to deglaze the pan when the veggies have picked up all the caramelized brown bits that come from browning the meat, but if you can use a little water instead. I always use parsnips in mine, but if you find them objectionable, feel free to leave them out. Instructions on how to make my version of beef stew are after the jump.