Here I am in the place it all began for me, poetry-wise, reading last night at a series run in part by my first poetry teacher, Doug Barbour. I’ve had a great few days here catching up with old friends and eating well. My ritual visit to the Bul-Go-Gi House took place on my first night, on a table groaning under the weight of excellent bulgalbi (bbq ribs), delightfully garlicky wonton soup with rice cakes, a lavish serving of jap-chae noodles, and more. The second night’s good eating was the Sunday buffet at Maurya Palace: everything was good right down to the kheer. I had a wonderful and very beautiful Mimosa Salad (butter lettuce, shrimp and a few other things) at the Ninth Street Bistro, around the corner from one of my many former homes in this town and next door to Laurie Blakeman’s constituency office. Not to mention sharing a wall with my evening reading venue, Martini’s Bar & Grill.
With Bert Almon, one of my two poetry profs – both great mentors and supporters for many years – at the University of Alberta, who currently teaches a whole new generation of poets at the U of A.
Three of the Olives: K.L. McKay, T.L. Cowan, Jenna Butler.
Edmonton luminaries: Ben, Laurie, Merna and Shirley.
K.L. McKay reads (in front of a picture that looks a lot like my dear old dog Sara) as the Olive wraps up another night at Martini’s Bar & Grill. In addition to working in the Olive Editorial Group, she publishes a broadsheet series, Spire which offers a subscription that will deliver 12 hand-stamped and numbered issues to your door.
I assume this is powdered cardoman. Can you tell me how to use the pods themselves, I’ve always wanted to use cardoman and prefer pods but have no idea how to use them. Clodagh
Hi Clodagh: You just split the pods and grind the round black seeds (the husk can be ground too but it’s fibrous and tasteless and that kind of texture probably wouldn’t add anything to a cheesecake). Electric coffee grinders make good cheap spice grinders (clean them between spices with a tsp of raw rice or salt) but I haven’t tried grinding cardamom in one yet.
Otherwise in dishes like rice puddings or tea or curries you need to bruise or crack the whole pods and then infuse them in the cooking liquid. A bit like vanilla pods I guess; you should fish them out at the end as a kindess to your diners.
Merna reminds me that cardamom is popular in Scandanavian cooking. And according to one item I just read, consumption of cardamom has increased 657 percent over the past two decades!
The cheesecake sounds absolutely scrumptious. When I get through this flurry of activity I think I’ll try it. I don’t use cardamom very much and certainly never would have thought to add it to cheesecake. Unlike my daughter who has a bold and talented hand at mixing flavours and foods.