Passionate about food
Chef Karen Barnaby's recipes are uninhibited and sensuous
Mia StainsbyVancouver Sun
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
CREDIT: Ian Smith, Vancouver Sun
RECIPES THAT WILL KNOCK YOU OFF YOUR FEET: Fish House in Stanley Park chef and cookbook author Karen Barnaby displays her dish of roasted summer tomatoes with parsley, garlic and olive oil.The food muse simply adores Karen Barnaby. I can tell by the way I drool at her recipes.
They flirt shamelessly with taste buds, hold you hostage to temptation and command you to cook. The boldest of her recipes are like the tango, uninhibited and sensuous.
Sweet Potato And Apple Puree goes one step beyond, into seduction territory, with the addition of bourbon. Prawns in Cocoa Sauce awakens curiosity. Banana Chocolate Chiffon Cake with Cappuccino Cream is nothing short of sustained torture unless you can have a taste.
And her Instant Ecstasy Cookies? They deliver everything as promised with no holds barred on chocolate. Any more chocolate and they couldn't be called cookies -- they'd be like big Hershey's kisses, only way, way better, with coffee and pecans and almonds.
Writing her latest cookbook, The Passionate Cook: The Very Best of Karen Barnaby (Whitecap, $24.95), she could have taken easy street and simply compiled the best recipes from her previous cookbooks, but she didn't. She added 50 new recipes to her "best of" collection.
(Previous cookbooks are Screamingly Good Food, Pacific Passions, The Girls Who Dish, The Girls Who Dish: Seconds Anyone? and Inspirations. The last three were in collaboration with a group of women chefs.)
Barnaby, the chef at Fish House in Stanley Park, says the new recipes are from her cooking classes at Tools and Techniques in West Vancouver and The Cookshop at City Square. Altogether, there are 250 recipes in The Passionate Cook.
She doesn't include a lot of her restaurant recipes because typically, they would be difficult.
"I want people to be about to cook from the book. That's why there's no demi [-glace] and reductions and all that fancy restaurant stuff."
The title is apt. Passion is an integral part of Barnaby's relationship with food. For a number of years, this passion was evident not only in her cookbooks and at her restaurant, but when she stepped on her bathroom scale.
Five years ago, she went on a low-carb diet and lost 70 pounds. "I can wear fitted things now. Before, I wore tents because that's what you wear when you're fat."
Recently, she cut her hair, which she "spikes" for special occasions. And, she says, the slim Karen is much neater. "Before when I cooked, I'd make a giant mess. Now I clean as I go along.
"It's just the way I feel, a general sort of freedom to move. My head is less cluttered and my house is decluttered," she says. "I exercise now. I can stand on my head," she says of her progress in Pilates classes. "It's the first time in 27 years!"
The low-carb diet changed the way she eats and she no longer has a taste for breads or rices. "I have a taste of mashed potatoes or pasta now and it's like 'Yuck, how could I have eaten this for so many years?' " she says. But her diet hasn't stopped her from cooking and baking and creating like she's always done.
"I can still taste things, but that's all I need to do. It hasn't made me biased against cooking with carbs."
Ideas for dishes, she says, are all about ingredients and flavours. One Fish House restaurant recipe that made it into the book is the Salmon Bake with Sour Cream, Bacon and New Red Potatoes, one of the best sellers in the history of the restaurant, she says.
"It started with the title 'king salmon bake' spinning around in my head before I knew what it was," she says in her chatty introduction to the recipe. "What it turned out to be was a cozy combination of salmon, cheesey spinach and potatoes."
Sometimes, a memory from the past crowds into the present. The Lemon Crumb Cake with Lemon Curd is a jazzed up version of her "gramma's."
"She used to make crumb cakes all the time," Barnaby says, of her co-conspirator in food. "She used to cook things for me that my parents wouldn't eat, like lamb. We'd have it on the sly before everyone else had dinner." She cooked artichokes, zucchini and eggplants before they were common grocery items. "I don't know where she got them," Barnaby says, "and when she baked, she didn't follow recipes. I always admired that. She didn't measure a thing. It was second nature."
Recently, Barnaby's been waxing nostalgic for some of those childhood favourites, like Stained Glass Cake, made out of Jell-O and whipped cream. "I make it nowadays with sugar-free Jell-O and you know, if you like Jell-O, it's pretty tasty."
If she's bereft of ideas, one assumes Barnaby calls up her muse, who's probably making Lemon Crumb Cake somewhere, without a recipe.
Karen Barnaby's next book, Low Carb Gourmet, will be published in the fall by HarperCollins.
WHOLE SPICED CHICKEN BAKED IN PARCHMENT PAPER:
One of Karen Barnaby's flavour-punched dishes, this chicken goes through two stages of spicing. The recipe is from The Passionate Cook: The Very Best of Karen Barnaby.
1 whole chicken, about 3 pounds (1.4 kg)
Marinade:
1 1-inch (2.5 cm) piece of fresh ginger, peeled and chopped
2 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
6 tablespoons (90 mL) yogurt
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) turmeric
1 teaspoons (5 mL) sea salt
4 teaspoons (1.25 mL) cayenne pepper
Spice Paste:
1 medium onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped
1 walnut-sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
2 teaspoons (10 ml) ground cumin seeds
2 teaspoons (10 mL) ground coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) turmeric
1 tablespoon (15 mL) paprika
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 mL) cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon (5 mL) sea salt
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) freshly ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) garam masala
4 tablespoons (60 mL) vegetable oil
2 tablespoons (30 mL) lemon juice
Remove the skin and fat from the chicken. Place all the marinade ingredients in the work bowl of a food processor or blender and process until a fine paste is formed. Rub the chicken inside and out with the paste. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours.
While the chicken is marinating, make the spice paste. Combine the onion, garlic and ginger in the work bowl of a blender or food processor. Puree until a fine paste is formed. Add all the remaining ingredients except the oil and lemon juice and blend until combined.
Heat the oil in a non-stick pan over medium-high heat. Add the spice paste and fry, stirring frequently, until the paste is dry and light brown. Remove from the heat and add the lemon juice. Let cool.
Preheat the oven to 350 F (175 C). Lay out two pieces of parchment paper that are large enough to enclose the chicken comfortably. Place one on top of the other to double wrap the chicken. Rub the chicken inside and out with the spice paste. Place the chicken on the parchment paper. Bring the ends of the parchment paper over the chicken and fold down to form a tight seal. Fold the remaining ends tightly.
Place in the oven and bake for 2 hours. An instant-read thermometer is extremely useful to check if the chicken is done. Push the thermometer through the parchment into the thickest part of the thigh. It should read 180 F (85 C).
Remove from the oven and let the chicken sit for 10 minutes. You could serve the chicken at the table, opening up the parchment to enjoy the first delicious rush of fragrance, or you could cut it up in the kitchen. Serve with the juices on the side if serving whole and drizzled over the chicken if cut up.
Makes 4 to 6 servings.
Not CanWest kitchen tested.
PEAR SALAD WITH BASIL AND PECORINO CHEESE:
Pear season is just around the corner. This salad would nicely accompany the Spiced Chicken Baked in Parchment Paper. The recipe is from The Passionate Cook: The Very Best of Karen Barnaby.
3 ripe pears (Bartletts are a good choice)
2 tablespoons (30 mL) balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon (5 mL) honey
3 tablespoons (45 mL) olive oil
1/4 teaspoon (1.25 mL) coarsely ground black pepper
1/2 cup (120 mL) loosely packed Pecorino Romano shavings (See note)
1/4 cup (60 mL) fresh basil leaves, torn into small pieces
Peel and core the pears. Cut each into 8 wedges. Mix the balsamic vinegar with the honey, add the pears and toss to coat them with the mixture. Arrange the pears on a serving platter and drizzle with the olive oil. Scatter with the black pepper, the cheese shavings and the basil.
Makes 4 servings.
Note: Make cheese shavings by drawing a vegetable peeler across a wedge of cheese.
Not CanWest kitchen tested.
ROASTED SUMMER TOMATOES WITH PARSLEY, GARLIC AND OLIVE OIL:
Get the tastiest tomatoes possible for this dish -- heirlooms or vine-ripened, says Karen Barnaby. And they should be large-sized. If they're too small, they'll burn. The recipe is from her new cookbook.
2 pounds (900 g) ripe tomatoes, about 8 large
1/2 teaspoon (2.5 mL) sea salt
4 tablespoons (60 mL) olive oil
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons (30 mL) fresh parsley, finely chopped
1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
Preheat the oven to 400 F (200 C). Wash and cut the tomatoes in half crosswise. Place them, cut side up, in a 9 x 13 inch (23 x 33 cm) baking dish. They will fit snugly.
Sprinkle with the salt and drizzle with 2 tablespoons (30 mL) of the olive oil. Place in the middle rack of the oven and back for 45 minutes.
Mix together the remaining olive oil, garlic, parsley and black pepper.
Remove the tomatoes from the oven and spread with the mixture. Return to the oven and bake 45 minutes longer.
Makes 6 to 8 servings.
http://www.canada.com/vancouver/van...ae-b7f46f2f01fd
How sad!
Saw another lovely write-up about you and your food wizardry, this time in the September edition of Canada's Healthy Living Guide. 
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