June: Leadnow, Anti-Choice Extremists, the Greens and more -- The month on The Left Chapter in review

From: Unintended consequences: Attacking Leadnow and "strategic voting" 

June saw 27 posts of various kinds on The Left Chapter.

Here are the top five posts, in terms of hits, for the month of June. June saw what is, so far, the piece with the largest number of hits, by a fair margin, for this blog ever! In fact it has stayed in our "Popular Posts" column for almost the entire month since it came out. There were also a lot of contenders, this month, for the number five spot.

1) Unintended consequences: Attacking Leadnow and "strategic voting"

As I have noted before, partisan political narratives often die very hard -- even when these narratives have begun to do far more harm than good to those who continue to espouse them.

Read More!

2) Anti-choice extremists target Trudeau and women's reproductive rights

Warning: While necessary to the content of the piece, this post contains some disturbing and very graphic images.

The extremist anti-abortion group, the Canadian Centre for Bio-Ethical Reform, (CCBR) has been distributing leaflets and demonstrating around Toronto lately. Recently they targeted my west Toronto neighbourhood of South Etobicoke both distributing their leaflets door-to-door and demonstrating at a local intersection as well as, disgracefully given the imagery they use, outside of a local high school.

Read More! 

3) Are the Greens a "progressive" party?

Are the Greens a "progressive" party?

While Green voters would certainly appear to think so, some New Democrat partisans would seem to say otherwise claiming they are little more than Conservatives with composters. Recently, as an example, Paul Moist, head of the Canadian Union of Public Employees, in a letter critical of Leadnow and its strategic voting campaign stated “Neither the Liberal Party of Canada nor the Green Party are progressive...Both parties have very right-wing economic policies, do not stand for working families or public services. Only the NDP has a progressive platform.”

Read More!

4) Tom Mulcair, Bob Rae and balanced budgets

As part of Tom Mulcair's bid to eschew any hint of anti-capitalist radicalism on the part of his no longer Socialist even in theory New Democratic Party, he made a pilgrimage the other day into the heart of the Bay St. beast, Toronto's Economic Club, to attempt to allay any remaining fears that the titans of capital may have that he might do anything at all that would meaningfully threaten their power or profits.

Read More!

5) Tory led city council continues Toronto's tragic transit farce

The tragedy and farce that is Toronto's political capitulation to the cult of the car continues unabated.

Mayor John Tory -- despite the recommendations of the city's own planners and health officials, former mayors and many others -- has managed to narrowly get his "hybrid" Gardiner Expressway plan passed by Toronto City Council and to see the Boulevard plan of basically all experts (less narrowly) defeated.

Read More! 

It seems our readers are fans of ironic posts of dubious recipes as the number one food post for the month was Tuna Almondine: Behold the greatness! The number one "serious" food post was Pesto Encrusted Boneless Leg of Lamb.

Do you have a left point-of-view or opinion, a recipe or a story you want to share?

Send them to The Left Chapter via theleftchapter@outlook.com!


Check out our review for the month of May!: May: Bill C-51, the "Men's Rights Movement", taxes & more -- The month on The Left Chapter in review

Pesto pepper steak with sour cream & pickled peperoncini

Today I want to take a look at one of my favourite ways to jazz up a New York Strip Loin or a Sirloin grilling steak. This recipe is meant for these cuts, or boneless Rib Eyes, but does not work as well for bone-in cuts.




First, take the steaks out, salt them to taste and then give them a nice coating of freshly ground black pepper. Drizzle a bit of extra-virgin olive oil over them, then let them sit at room temperature for 30 minutes.

Salt, lots of freshly ground pepper, and a touch of olive oil! 

Cook the steaks to rare or rare-medium/medium rare using either the cross-hatched grill pan or charcoal BBQed methods I have described before. The dish works great with either of these two cooking methods. For the steaks pictured I used the cross-hatched method.

When the steaks are done, let stand for a couple of minutes.

Then top the steaks first with a nice coating of green pesto sauce. Take a scoop of a thicker sour cream (14% or, if you are lucky enough to find it, 30%...this dish is a treat so don't use the 5% variety. It is just not the same) and place in the middle of the steak on top of the pesto. Finally, top this with pickled peperoncini pepper and serve. You can use different peppers but these I think work best here.

The mixture of these flavours is truly spectacular and it is a highly visually appealing dish at a dinner party! It all goes perfectly with a nice Mediterranean style salad, crusty bread and, of course, a hearty red wine.

Enjoy!


For another great steak topping idea try: Argentinian Chimichurri grilling sauce

Pesto Encrusted Boneless Leg of Lamb

Let sit covered in the pesto, at room temperature, for 1 hour

Boneless leg of lamb is a great family or dinner party main anytime of the year...not just at Easter!

Today we will take a look at one of my favourite ways of preparing it -- by covering it in pesto and roasting it at two different temperatures. The method works for any size leg, though the one pictured here was 3 1/2 pounds (so a somewhat smaller one). What I particularly like about this method is that it creates a nice "crust" on the lamb and also results in there being different levels of cooking within the roast so it can cater to more tastes.

First, take out your leg of lamb and cover it in the pesto (you can make your own or use a pre-made). Cover and let sit a room temperature (not in the fridge) for an hour. Boneless legs usually come in a string mesh. Keep this in place during cooking and until carving.

Preheat your oven to 450 degrees.

After cooking, let rest at room temperature for 30-45 minutes

Place the lamb on a roasting pan with a rack (this works better than on a flat pan) and roast on the middle rack for 15 minutes.

After 15 minutes, reduce the temperature to 350 and roast until it reaches your preferred level of "doneness".

I like it rare, though most people like medium-rare or medium. As always, if you must cook it well-done, I don't want to hear about it!

The best way to gauge this is using a cooking thermometer of whatever type you own (the best are those where you do not have to open the oven).  For rare you want to remove the lamb when it is at around 120, for medium rare 125 and for medium 130.  This will take (not including the first 15 minutes of high heat roasting) around 10-13 minutes a lb for rare, 13-17 for medium rare and 17-20 for medium -- but really, using a thermometer takes out the guesswork.

It is a beautiful thing!

When done let the leg of lamb rest at room temperature before cutting for between 30 and 45 minutes depending on the size of the roast.

This pairs very well with rice, a nice pasta salad, mint sauce and, of course, a good bottle of red wine.

Enjoy!

Roti or Naan Bread Pizzas: Fast & Fun!

My son preparing his "Pizza Roberto" for the oven! 

Frozen pizza, with very few exceptions, is fairly terrible. We buy it, when we do, usually because it is fast and easy. When it is on sale it can be affordable, but it is often not. Moreover, it is often made with inferior toppings and sauces that, especially after freezing, just don't taste that good.




While it is not entirely true, many feel that making a pizza from scratch is simply too daunting, especially after a day of work.

But today we are going to do a fast and very fun alternative that uses any fresh toppings of your choosing and that can involve the whole family. This is Roti or Naan bread personal sized pizzas.

Roti or Naan is Indian style flat bread. This is readily available, with the wonderful rise of multiculturalism, in many standard grocery stores or can be sought out in specialty ones.

While store bought roti or naan does not hold up to homemade, of course, it makes an excellent thin style pizza crust.

I like to use Pesto Sauce as a pizza sauce, and if you do you do not need to oil the bread. But if you are using a traditional pizza sauce, passata  or tomato sauce, you should brush on about a half teaspoon of olive oil over the side of the bread you are going to top. If  using the thicker naan, brush the edge of the bread as well.

Then top with your sauce, toppings and cheese or cheeses of choice. I like to spread a nice layer of pesto, top it with spicy soppressata (a type of Italian salami), anchovies,  some unpitted black olives and feta cheese.

Pictured here is a roti pizza with pesto, pepperoni, green olives, mushrooms and topped with mozzarella. But the options are endless. Top with whatever you like. It is really great to use seasonal vegetables, sliced thinly and brushed with oil as toppings. Zucchini for example!

One brand of roti or naan bread

The best part is that it is a great way to involve kids or friends in the making of the dinner. As long as you have a variety of toppings to chose from, everyone can make something they like.



Once you have assembled your pizza, place it directly on the oven rack and place the rack in the middle. If you can cook convection preheat to 375 degrees and cook until the roti or naan is golden brown (or, if you like, a slightly darker brown for a well done, crispy crust) and the cheese nicely melted.For the roti this will take about  3-5 minutes. The slightly thicker naan will take 5-7 minutes.

If you do not have a convection option on your oven, preheat conventional to 400 degrees. Either option, monitor the pizzas closely. Individual appliances really do vary. There is a world of difference between golden brown and black and burnt! After the first couple of pizzas, you will know your oven. As always, practice will make perfect.



So next time you want some fast, fun and actually delicious pizza, with the toppings you want, try this! And watch for a future blog on BBQed pizza!