Canadian country music star celebrates 100 years of Grand Ole Opry
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Vancouver Sun
an hour ago
- Vancouver Sun
Cook This: 3 smoked and grilled recipes from Barbecue, including a juicy Florentine steak
Reviews and recommendations are unbiased and products are independently selected. Postmedia may earn an affiliate commission from purchases made through links on this page. Our cookbook of the week is Barbecue by pitmaster Hugh Mangum with writer Shana Liebman. Jump to the recipes: Florentine steak , berbere ribs and hawker wings . Pitmasters in the United States tend to focus on American barbecue regions, such as the Carolinas, Kansas City, Memphis and Texas. For his cookbook debut, Barbecue (with Shana Liebman, Phaidon, 2025), Hugh Mangum took a wider view, examining foods cooked with fire and smoke the world over. The Connecticut-based chef and pitmaster features roughly 280 recipes from 80-plus countries on six continents, including Canadian maple-smoked salmon, Ethiopian berbere ribs , Italian bistecca alla fiorentina (Florentine steak) and Singaporean hawker wings . Discover the best of B.C.'s recipes, restaurants and wine. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. A welcome email is on its way. If you don't see it, please check your junk folder. The next issue of West Coast Table will soon be in your inbox. Please try again Interested in more newsletters? Browse here. 'I started to think about what makes barbecue special besides, obviously, the food. And it's the culture around it, which is celebratory. And it's always celebratory. Whether it's a Tuesday or Sunday afternoon, it's always about a good time,' says Mangum. 'It got me thinking about barbecue as a global cuisine versus an American cuisine. And so, what is that celebratory food in Tokyo? What is it in Beirut? What is it in Portugal, or whatever it may be? What do people gather (around) on a Sunday or a Saturday or a Monday with their friends and family that's cooked with live fire or smoke?' The book opens with a focus on animal protein in chapters devoted to mains, skewers and sausages. Mangum gives vegetables and grains their due in a spotlight on sides, including salads, slaws, pickles, dips, fries, fritters, flatbreads, cornbreads and biscuits, and desserts that benefit from time on the grill. Mangum describes himself as 'a cook, through and through.' Changing careers from musician to chef, he studied at the French Culinary Institute and, in 2012, went on to co-found the barbecue restaurant Mighty Quinn's in New York City with his wife, fellow chef Laura Malone. As the pitmaster, he cooked every day for the first few years. 'There's something really special to me about not just nourishing my own soul, but nourishing people and having my hands actively in food,' says Mangum. 'I almost killed myself working so much, but that was just my day-to-day. I was just in it, in the eye of the storm. And it was exciting, and it was rewarding. It was also hard because I was missing my family. I didn't see them as much.' Today, Mighty Quinn's has locations in New York, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and Connecticut. As Mangum and Malone grew the business, his role leaned more toward management than cooking. Experiencing 'a bit of burnout,' he felt disconnected from what had started as a passion project inspired by his late Texan father, 'my introduction to the world of barbecue.' Reconnecting to cooking during the pandemic was the catalyst for the book. Mangum and Malone were at home with their three children, watching movies and cooking every day. The couple founded Rise Doughnuts in 2020 as a creative outlet. It's now a brick-and-mortar shop in Wilton, Conn., where they host barbecue pop-ups. 'It was like, 'What's for breakfast? What's for lunch? What's for dinner?' There was intention to all of it. And I think, through that intention, there was also joy in getting back to getting my hands in food every single day. But also, I was nourishing the people I love most,' says Mangum. 'Through doing that, I recognized that I missed this piece of my life that was barbecue. Through lighting fires at home and doing open-pit stuff, on a grill or whatever it was, it rekindled my love of it.' Mangum is a believer that if you start with quality meat, you'll get good barbecue. 'There's really no bad barbecue because people enjoy it no matter what. But there's good barbecue and there's great barbecue. And what makes great barbecue great, truthfully, starts with the fire.' In the book, he offers a fire primer, but says the goal is to have a two-and-a-half to three-inch bed of glowing embers with two logs sitting on top and a cascading flame. The wood provides the smoke in short or slow bursts, and the embers are the heat source. A globetrotting 'Texas gentleman,' Mangum's father, Hugh Mangum III, travelled the world for work. He returned with a taste for dishes he'd enjoyed in countries such as Peru and Japan. There are Peruvian recipes in Barbecue that Mangum's father made for him when he was a child growing up in Los Angeles. Though he didn't recognize it while writing the book, Barbecue brought him full circle. Whenever Mangum does Sunday barbecue pop-ups at Rise, he lights the smoker at 6 p.m. on Saturday and works overnight. Not sleeping is brutal, but there's also beauty. 'When the bed of embers is happening, and I'm lighting the fire, and I'm sitting there, it's just a very deep connection to my father,' says Mangum. After years of being a pitmaster, he's grown to see barbecue as an analog escape in a digital world. 'There are a lot of arts that are becoming lost because of technology and because of the phones we're on. Barbecue is one of those few things where you can't fake it. To get it right, you have to be really connected to it. And for me, I get the double whammy of getting to connect with my beloved father posthumously every time I light a fire.' Serves: 2 1 clove garlic, minced 2 tsp chopped rosemary 2 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil, plus 2 tsp for drizzling 1 (2 1/2-lb/1.1-kg) rib-eye, T-bone or porterhouse steak 2 tbsp sea salt, plus 1 tsp 1 lemon, cut in half 1/4 tsp black pepper In a large bowl, combine the garlic, rosemary and olive oil. Add the steak and coat in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for at least 1 hour but, preferably, overnight. Preheat a grill to 500F (260C). Bring the steak to room temperature. Rub 2 tablespoons of salt over the steak, then place it on the grill and cook for 7-10 minutes. While the steak cooks, place the lemon halves cut-side down on the grill and cook for 2-3 minutes or until lightly charred. Flip the steak, then cook for another 10 minutes, until the internal temperature reaches 125F (52C) for medium-rare. Set aside to rest for 5-10 minutes, then transfer to a serving dish. Sprinkle with 1 teaspoon of salt and the pepper, then drizzle with oil. Serve immediately with the grilled lemon. Serves: 6-8 For the ribs: 1/2 cup (100 g) brown sugar 3 tbsp berbere 1 1/2 tbsp salt 1 tbsp smoked paprika 1 tbsp garlic powder 1 tbsp onion powder 2 tsp dried thyme 4 racks baby back ribs or 2 racks St. Louis-style pork spareribs For the sauce: 2 tbsp olive oil 1 onion, chopped 5 tomatoes, seeded and chopped, or 2 1/2 cups (1 lb 4 oz/560 g) canned chopped tomatoes 2 cloves garlic, minced 1 (2-inch/5-cm) piece of ginger, peeled and grated 1 serrano chili, seeded, deveined and finely chopped 1 tbsp tamarind paste 2 tsp berbere 1/4 tsp ground cumin 1/4 tsp coriander seeds, coarsely crushed 4 tbsp strong coffee 4 tbsp honey For the ribs: In a small bowl, combine all the ingredients except the ribs. Place the ribs on a baking sheet and sprinkle evenly with the rub, covering both sides of the ribs. Cover and refrigerate for 12 hours. Make the sauce: Heat the oil in a large saucepan over high heat. Add the onion and sauté for 5 minutes, or until softened. Add the tomatoes, garlic and ginger. Bring to a boil, then reduce the heat to medium- low and simmer. Stir in the chili, tamarind paste, berbere, cumin and coriander seeds. Pour in the coffee and 2 cups (475 mL) of water and bring to a boil. Reduce the heat to medium-low and simmer for 40 minutes. Stir in the honey, then simmer for another 10 minutes, until the sauce has thickened. Set aside to cool. Preheat an oven to 225F (107C). Place a wire rack in a roasting pan, then lay the ribs on top. Brush half of the sauce over the ribs, then pour 1 cup (240 mL) of water into the pan. Tightly cover with aluminum foil and roast for 5 hours, or until tender. Set aside to rest for 10 minutes. Preheat a grill to medium-high heat. Brush the ribs with the reserved sauce. Place the ribs on the grill and cook for 10-15 minutes, or until caramelized and slightly charred. Transfer the ribs to a serving dish and serve immediately. Serves: 4 For the marinated chicken: 1/2 cup (120 mL) soy sauce 4 tbsp dark soy sauce 4 tbsp oyster sauce 2 tbsp sesame oil 2 tbsp dried basil 1 tbsp garlic powder 1 tsp onion powder 1 tsp black pepper 24 whole chicken wings For the hot sauce: 6 red bird's eye chilies 2 cloves garlic 2 tbsp grated fresh ginger 1 tsp sugar 1/4 tsp salt 1/2 cup (120 mL) hot chicken stock 1 tsp calamansi (Filipino lime) juice or lime juice Marinate the chicken: In a large bowl, combine all the ingredients except the chicken. Add the chicken and mix well to coat. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Make the hot sauce: In a food processor, combine the chilies, garlic, ginger, sugar and salt. Blend until it forms a paste, then transfer the paste to a medium bowl. Stir in the hot stock, then add the juice. Preheat a grill to medium-high heat. Place the wings on the grill and cook for 8-12 minutes on each side, until cooked through and slightly charred. Transfer the wings to a serving dish and serve with the hot sauce. Recipes and images excerpted from Barbecue ©2025 by Hugh Mangum. Photography ©2025 by Nico Schinco. Reproduced by permission of Phaidon. All rights reserved. Our website is the place for the latest breaking news, exclusive scoops, longreads and provocative commentary. Please bookmark and sign up for our cookbook and recipe newsletter, Cook This, here .
CBC
4 hours ago
- CBC
Saint Andrews-born author creates magical world inspired by Stonehammer Geopark
Social Sharing Author Laura Keating lives in Nova Scotia, but she grew up in Saint Andrews and says her "heart still remains in New Brunswick." Her horror novella Agony's Lodestone is part of this year's Books and Backroads series. Readers in six small communities in rural areas of New Brunswick took part in book clubs in CBC's partnership with New Brunswick public libraries — reading books from all genres and all with a connection to New Brunswick. Agony's Lodestone was read by a group of students at the Nackawic Public School Library. It tells the story of Aggie, a woman who stumbles into a mysterious world while searching for her sister, who has been missing for decades. During the search, Aggie enters a haunted forest, where time and space are unstable and shift, which Keating said parallels the emotional state of the book's characters. Themes of guilt and grief Keating said she wrote Agony's Lodestone at a time when a lot of grief horror was being written because of the pandemic. "I think a lot of the world was feeling a certain sense of guilt and grief," she said. "There's a lot of loss and a lot of huge life changes that happened during that time. I think that just sort of carried into my writing." Novellas are common in horror, she said, because they are the perfect length for what the genre tries to achieve. "It's sort of like if you're watching a horror movie," Keating said. "A good 90-minute film seems perfect for ratcheting up that tension, getting the sense, getting the thrills and the chills and then tightly wrapping it up." Agony's Lodestone is set in a fictionalized version of Saint John called Lancaster Falls. It also includes a fictionalized version of the Irving Nature Park called Cannon Park. Throughout the search in the story, Aggie feels guilt and responsibility for her sister's disappearance. As the search unfolds, unexpected video evidence emerges, casting even more confusion. Young adult readers in Nackawic found that themes of guilt and grief coursed powerfully through the book. 'Really cool' to highlight different types of fiction Books and Backroads features books from all genres, and Keating was pleased to have hers on the list. "In particular, genre fiction — things like horror and thrillers — don't always get as much of a spotlight in the Canadian literary body as our more traditional literature," she said. "I kind of just let the characters speak for themselves as I thought they would develop in their own ways and feelings given the scenario." Part of the story includes a theory, not considered scientific, known as the "stone tape theory." It holds that stones or rocks get charged with energy, causing reactions that can make people believe they have encountered ghosts or spirits. Keating said New Brunswick's geological formations in the Stonehammer Geopark, combined with the Bay of Fundy tides, struck her as the perfect combination. "And I thought, 'Oh, it's like you needed something to charge a stone battery," she said. "What would be better than the highest tides in the world?'" Students in the Nackawic book club felt the book was a great combination of folklore and psychological horror. Keating said she's heard it described as "folk horror," a genre that uses isolated woodland settings. She's also heard from readers who call it "cosmic horror," which refers to works by authors like H.P. Lovecraft, who wrote with the idea that there is so much more to the world than we can ever know and that to even try "would actually drive the human mind insane." When Keating heard that student Maggie Crabbe "was afraid to go to bed" after reading the book, her answer, like the best horror novella, was short and sharp: "Mission accomplished."
CBC
11 hours ago
- CBC
MAGA-affiliated musician's Canadian concert permits denied
American musician Sean Feucht has had multiple event permits for his Canadian concert tour denied or revoked by cities and Parks Canada, as some oppose his affiliation with the MAGA political movement.
