Your morning cup of awesome

Hi there! Just a quick rant on coffee, because why not?

If you're anything like most North Americans, you probably need a decent cup of coffee in the morning to get your motor running. Lord knows I do! Now, I've developed a caffeine sensitivity over the years, so I'm limited to 2 cups a day (albeit I've been known to drink 2 Large-sized cups a day from one of the 8 million coffee shops near home and work). With that limited capacity for consumption comes a heightened sense of discerning taste when it comes to what kind of java I want in my mouth. In downtown Ottawa, most people get their coffee from one of the following purveyors: Tim Horton's, Starbucks, Second Cup or Bridgehead The standard Tim Horton's is swill, Starbucks is meh, Bridgehead's dark roast tends to have a lovely caramel-molasses aftertaste (reminiscent of sponge toffee), while Second Cup is more chocolatey. And, as far as local purveyors go, Bread and Sons make the best brewed coffee around. But I find nothing beats the coffee you make at home, if you have the right coffee and system.

Now, like most people, I have a cheap Mr. Coffee that makes 8 cups of decent brewed coffee. I usually get President's Choice West Coast Dark Roast. But this does not a cup of awesome make, more like a cup of sufficient...

Looking back on the various cups of Joe I've had over my lifetime, I have to make a confession: when I was in university and still living with my parents, most mornings they'd make a pot of coffee stronger than Thunderlips. And they'd usually make it at 5 in the morning. By the time I got to it around noon, it had turned into a viscous grey-hued brew of doom. And that was how I liked it! So, my coffee palette was underdeveloped. At least until I moved to Vancouver for a few months and started making coffee using roasted and sold at a local Portuguese café. My method was to simply place the grounds in a conical drip filter over an empty cup and pour hot water over the whole thing. It was really really tasty and up until recently, that was how I drank my coffee when camping.

But it wasn't until I met the lovely and vivacious Kari that I discovered the best cup of coffee in the world is actually Turkish Coffee! Turkish coffee is a preparation where you take ultra-finely ground coffee, out a tablespoon or two at the bottom of a cup and pour boiling water over it. You let it sit for a while and all the grounds sort of gel at the bottom. This stuff is so good that I don't even put any milk or cream in it; it's the only cup of coffee I've ever had black. Now, granted that she gets the "good stuff" straight from the owner of Byward Fruit Market (I don't even know if he sells it to the public!), but if you get a chance to try Turkish Coffee from a reliable source using the best beans possible, DO IT! You won't regret it. Just remember not to drink it right away unless you like a mouth full of coffee grounds...

So, that's MY morning cup of awesome. What's yours?

Riffin' on the Classics, part 2

Hi all!

Picking up where we left off, today we're going to look at my take on Shepherd's Pie (a basic dish of layered ground beef, corn and mashed potatoes). First, let's examine the history behind this fairly common classic. Turns out, if wikipedia is to be trusted, that Shepherd's Pie traces its origins to the late 18th Century when potatoes were becoming a staple food in poorer parts of England and Scotland. What we commonly know as Shepherd's Pie here was (and still is) called Cottage Pie in the UK. Shepherd's Pie was similar, but used lamb or mutton instead of beef, which makes pretty obvious sense to me! And yet, the beef version is what we know as Shepherd's Pie here in North America (well Canada at least). Even more odd is the French Canadian name for it: Pâté chinois (Chinese pie). S'il y'a des Québecois/Québecoises qui peuvent me reconter l'histoire de ce nom, ça sera bien apprécié.

Shepherd's Pie is a fairly simple classic that pretty much screams 'comfort food'. The great thing is, no one ever said you have to follow the standard model of ground beef, corn and mashed potatoes. So, being the kind of guy who always likes shake things up, I went on my own path of Shepherdspie-y goodness (that's a word, right?) I used a chorizo-onion-garlic base instead of ground beef, I added olives to the "corn layer" and instead of mashed potatoes I used mashed sweet potatoes and topped it with a layer of breadcrumbs and Parmesan cheese. Also, instead of using just regular ketchup, I had the evil Ketchup of Doooooom as a condiment. What is the Ketchup of Doom? Well, I'll tell you!

Ketchup of Doom (spicy ketchup)

- 1 cup ketchup (I prefer organic or at least one with lower sodium)

- 1 chipotle pepper in adobo sauce, minced, seeds included

- juice of 1/4 lime

- Mix all ingredients well, preferably in a near-empty ketchup bottle with a silly hand-drawn (and possibly misspelled) label:

I think the evil-looking "e" saves it...

OK, play time's over. Now we have to actually get into the making of this tasty dish.

Shepherd's Pie à la Nick

Ingredients

- 1 large sweet potato, cut into chunks

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1 tbsp butter

- 1 dry-cured chorizo sausage (I like it spicy, but that's a matter of taste), finely chopped

- 1 medium onion, minced

- 4 cloves garlic, minced

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- 1 cup frozen corn

- 5 Kalamata olives, pitted and thinly sliced

- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

- 2 tbsp Parmesan cheese, grated

- pinch dried rosemary and/or thyme

Directions

- Place a large pot of water on to boil. Once boiling, add sweet potato and oil until fork tender (about 20-30 minutes).

- Once cooked, drain the sweet potatoes in a strainer. Place in large bowl. Add milk and butter and mash until creamy. Set aside.

- Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.

- In a large skillet, heat olive oil on medium-high heat. Sauté chorizo, onions and garlic until onions are soft and nearly translucent (about 10 minutes)

- In a bowl, mix breadcrumbs, Parmesan and rosemary/thyme.

- Using a (nearly) square bake pan (like the one pictured below, I don't remember the precise measurements), layer the chorizo mix, followed by the corn, then olives. Spread the sweet potatoes out for the next layer. Top with breadcrumb mixture.

- Put in oven for about 20 minutes (until breadcrumbs are golden brown)

- Serve in a bowl or on a plate with your favourite condiment!

Baked and ready to go with some Ketchup of Doom and a cold beer...

...which later became a glass of Rioja... MAGIC!

So, that's another classic given a radical and delicious makeover. Enjoy!

Riffin' on the classics, Part 1 - Caesar Salad and Garlic Bread

Hello there!

Today I'm taking a look at some familiar meals/food items that can sometimes get boring when done the old-fashioned way. But with anything from a few twists to an utter reinvention, you can get the dual advantage of eating something you know that you like, but still make it your own and make it new.
For the recipes in today's post, I want you to project yourself into any 'run-of-the-mill' restaurant you've been to and think of a few items that are inevitably on the menu. One's on the Salad menu, the other under Appetizers or Sides. Starting to get the picture? You digging what I'm talking about? Why, it's Caesar Salad and Garlic Bread, of course!

Now, what's interesting about Caesar Salad is that it's not from Italy at all. This well-loved salad has nothing to do with Roman emperors. It gets it's name from the chef who invented it, Caesar Cardini (who, to be fair, was an Italian immigrant, so I guess it's inclusion on Italian menus isn't completely off the authenticity mark) who, according to most of the stories I've read/heard/seen on TV, put it together in a pinch after running out of a lot of "normal" salad ingredients. Disputes abound, as with all recipes, as to who really invented it, but it is generally attributed to Mr. Cardini.

As for Garlic Bread, it would seem that it too has its origins in North America, at least according to the Internet...

Anyhoo, enough of the history lesson, let's get to the food dammit!

1 - Caesar Salad

So, why Caesar Salad as a meal? Well, Kari and I decided to make these classic "sides" as a main meal, mostly because we're trying to cut down on our meat intake (bacon doesn't count!) and eat more veggies. So, this seemed like a light enough meal to fit the bill.

The first step was figuring out a good recipe for Caesar Dressing. Now, there are a few basics to most salad dressings, namely vinegar and oil. But there are a myriad of variations on Caesar Dressing, so I had to cannibalize a bunch of them.

Thing is about "authentic" Caesar Dressing is that is calls for raw egg yolk. Which brings me to today's 'foodie rant'. Something that has been cropping up a lot lately in the 'gourmet realm' is the use of lightly cooked or raw egg yolk in dishes. Apparently the egg yolk is supposed to flow over other elements in dishes to tie them together and add a vibe of richness. Well, it's no secret that I'm not the hugest egg fan and when I do eat them I want them cooked to death. Runny yolk is about the least appetizing thing ever. Now this is just my taste, but I do wonder if there's a deeper split over the yolk issue out there... I encountered this phenomenon was when I ate at Beckta last year and a dish was supposed to have the "break the yolk so that it runs over everything" element to it, but much to my surprise and joy, the yolk was nice and firm. In other words, the cook might have screwed it up, but it was a screw-up I preferred.

So, with all grumbling on eggs being done, I'm still without a replacement for egg yolk in my salad dressing. Buuuuuut, then I realized that I had mayo! That would work!

So, with my egg replacement on hand and a few ideas rolling around my head, here's what I came up with for dressing (with a lot of guidance from the Food Network Web site):

Caesar Salad Dressing

- 1/2 cup mayonnaise (that's mayonnaise, NOT imitation dressing-type crap. Why? THIS is why! - many thanks to The Oatmeal)
- 3 tbsp olive oil
- 1 tsp white wine vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
- 1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
- 1 tsp Dijon mustard
- juice of 1/4 lemon
- a few dashes Worcestershire sauce
- 2-3 anchovy fillets, roughly chopped
- 3-4 capers, minced
- Freshly ground black pepper
- pinch smoked paprika
- 1 tsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese

- Blend all ingredients together in a non-reactive bowl or jar. Cover and refrigerate for an hour or so.

Next step is making the salad itself, which is ridiculously simple:

Caesar Salad

Ingredients

- 1 head romaine lettuce, base cut off, leaves washed and torn-or-cut into bite-sized pieces
- 1 portion Caesar Salad Dressing
- 3 strips well-cooked bacon (it should be crumbly)
- 3-4 tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
- 1 cup croutons (store-bought or homemade or Polenta Croutons - see below)
- black pepper to taste
- lemon wedges

Dressing

- In a large non-metal bowl, mix lettuce, dressing and bacon with salad tongs or by hand.
- Serve salad individually with a lemon wedge and top with croutons, cheese and pepper.

NOTE: In an additional effort to be original, we made Polenta Croutons. Essentially we took some pre-cooked polenta, cut it into cubes, tossed it with olive oil and baked until crispy. The basics of cooking polenta can be found here: http://www.wikihow.com/Make-Polenta. Essentially it's all about adding hot liquid into cornmeal a bit at a time and stirring constantly for 20-30 minutes. It's labour intensive, but think of how strong your forearms will be!

In the end, the use of mayo over egg yolk made it a lighter tasting salad, the Polenta Croutons were an interesting change of texture (crispy outside, slightly soft in the middle) and the addition of smoked paprika to the dressing added a little more 'oomph' to the whole thing. I was pretty pleased with the results! Also, it had bacon.

2 - Garlic Bread with Cheese (aka Garlic-Cheesy Bread)

Next on our list is a variation on the old standby, Garlic Bread with Cheese.

OK, I'm not going to go too crazy and start baking my own bread (although I do aim to try it one of these days), so I used a whole-wheat baguette from Hartman's (next time this comes up on the "to cook" list, I am definitely using the organic Sourdough Baguette from Bread and Sons Bakery). As for the rest of it, it got a bit tweak-crazy. First off, no garlic butter is complete without a splash or two of white wine; second, I figured caramelized shallots would be a nice accompaniment, so those went in as well; third, when you have a boon of fresh mushrooms, but they're getting a bit on the shriveled side, they really, REALLY, add some surprisingly delicious depth to Garlic Bread; and finally, who the hell said that the cheese has to be mozzarella? I see your mozz and raise you old Cheddar and Danish blue cheese!

Salivating yet? Well, let's get this sucker made then!

Garlic Bread with Cheese

Ingredients

- 3-4 cremini or white mushrooms, cleaned and thinly sliced

- 2-3 shallots, minced

- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced

- 1/2 cup salted butter

- 1/4 cup dry white wine

- 1 baguette, sliced in half and each half quartered (for a total of 8 pieces)

- 1 cup old Cheddar cheese, grated 

- 3 tbsp Danish blue cheese, crumbled

- In a saucepan or skillet, melt butter on medium heat.

- Increase heat to medium-high and add mushrooms, shallots and garlic.

- Sauté for 4-5 minutes, then add wine.

- Reduce heat to medium-low and let cook for another 4-5 minutes, until veggies are well-cooked. Keep stirring to ensure nothing sticks and butter doesn't burn. Remove from heat.

- Set oven to Broil.

- Using a spoon, carefully coat each piece of bread with layer of garlic butter mix. Top all pieces evenly with cheeses.

- Broil in oven until cheese melts and turns golden, pay attention to bread to avoid burning. Serve with Caesar Salad.

So that's it! Verdict? Really tasty Garlic Bread! Try this method out, I think you'll be very pleased. Lord knows Kari and I were!

Garlic Cheese Bread, as it was meant to be!

That's it for today but I'll be back soon with Shepherd's Pie that doesn't use ground beef or mashed potatoes. Am I blowing your mind yet?!?!? Tune in next time!

Cheers!

The Joy of Vinegar

When you think delicious food, it's unlikely that vinegar is the first ingredient that comes to mind. And yet, vinegar is one of the cornerstones of many cuisines. Sushi often incorporates rice wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar can be added to tomato-based pasta sauces, is used in making all kinds of salad dressing and can be reduced into a tasty sauce in its own right, and any time I make BBQ sauce, there's bound to be some apple cider vinegar in there.

One type of food preparation that relies heavily on vinegar is one that I've always loved but never tried until recently. That, my friends, is pickling.

Pickling made easy

I recently made my first foray into pickling food and I was very pleased at the results. Now, your impression of pickling might be a little biased by watching Aunt Betty make her 'famous' Green Tomato Relish using a crazy system of Mason jars and boiling water. Lord knows I found it intimidating.

Fortunately, looking through the Lee Brothers - Simple Fresh Southern cookbook, I found several easy "fridge pickle" recipes. One of them was for Pickled Carrots with Shallots. I kind of needed to try it as soon as I saw it. Here's the recipe:

Carrot Pickled with Shallots

Ingredients

- 1 ½ lb. carrots, peeled and sliced 1/8 inch thick on bias

- 8 oz. shallots, thinly sliced

- 6 sprigs fresh dill, cilantro or epazote (having none of these available, I used thyme instead. Fantastic flavour, but maybe different than the authors had intended)

- 1 cup distilled white vinegar or white wine vinegar (I used the latter and am glad I did. White wine vinegar can be found fairly cheaply at Italian grocers)

- 4 cloves garlic, crushed and peeled

- 2 tsp kosher salt

- 1 tsp sugar

- ½ tsp celery seeds

- 2 tsp whole black peppercorns

Directions

- Combine carrots, shallots and herbs in 1 qt mason (or other) jar w. lid.

- In small saucepan, combine 1 cup water with vinegar, garlic, salt, sugar, celery seeds and peppercorns and heat until it simmers.

- Pour brine over veggies, cover loosely and let cool to room temperature

- Seal container and chill in refrigerator for 1 hour before serving. Pickles will keep for up to 2 weeks.

Seriously, it's just that easy to make "fridge pickles". The drawback is that they won't last you through the zombie apocalypse. What really surprised me is just how crunchy the carrots were after being pickled, not to mention super-tasty!

Carrots a-pickling!

Below is a nice way to present them as a side for whatever you might be eating that night. These would go super-well with a nice cold antipasto plate.

Pickled Carrots with Shallots and Thyme - photo by kira_generika

I also thought they might provide some interesting crunch and texture when paired with some Meatloaf par exellence on a bun (I was right): 

Not Your Average Sandwich! - Meatloaf and Pickled Carrots on Kaiser (Dijon mustard added later)

As an added bonus, I recently discovered just how much fun a drizzle of balsamic vinegar can be when paired with roasted potatoes that have been topped with blue cheese:

Roasted Potatoes with Blue Cheese and Walnuts - photo by kira_generika

Basically, you just roast the potatoes as indicated on the package, crank the heat up, top with some crumbled blue cheese, walnut pieces and fresh pepper, then top with a little bit of balsamic vinegar. Trust me, you'll love it.

And there you go, just a teaser on the wonderousness of good ol' acetic acid + water.

If you have any neat applications of vinegar, I'd love to hear about them!

Cheers!

Dessert for Dummies

I don't about you, but desserts are definitely low on my list of favourite things to cook. I chafe under the strictness of baking, my sweet tooth is usually focused on ice cream or cookies from competent bakers, and I find there's very little opportunity for experimentation.

That being said, we all have to learn to make dessert at some point. I learned many, many years ago to make Doomsday Bars and Bananas Foster, but the first is more of a portable snack (made almost entirely of sugar) for camping, and the second was one of my duties as pasta cook at Big Daddy's back in 1996 (and it was served over vanilla ice cream instead of French Toast). When I began my current love affair with cooking, dessert simply didn't register.

I think the real trepidation comes from the fact that 90% of desserts are baked in some form or another. Baking kinda scares me. I've done virtually none in my lifetime, unless you count meatloaf. I tried baking cookies once a couple of years ago, and while they were tasty, a couple of kneads of the dough too many and the cookies were just too damn hard.

But, fear not, fellow bakeophobe, out of the fridge comes the easiest foundation for making a tasty dessert one can find: whipped cream. Who doesn't have a childhood memory of licking the beater or whisk clean after Mom or Dad prepped the whipped cream for a Strawberry Shortcake?

The great thing about whipped cream is that it only needs one ingredient (possibly two or three, depending on what you're doing) and minimal technique (but a fair bit of effort if being done by hand).

How To Make Whipped Cream

Essentially, all you need for whipped cream is a carton of whipping cream (35% milk fat - usually sold in a golden-yellow carton), a fairly large bowl and either a whisk, an egg beater or an electric mixer/beater.

First step is to empty the carton of cream into the bowl. At this point, you may add additional flavouring. Certainly, many folks like to add sugar to their whipped cream to make it sweet. You wouldn't want to use more than a tablespoon of sugar per 500 ml carton of whipping cream. I prefer to use a tablespoon of maple syrup, but that's just me. Another flavour addition is vanilla, but if you're using vanilla extract, you don't want to use too much; no more than a half teaspoon per half litre carton or cream.

Next comes the whuppin'... um, I mean whipping. How you whip depends on what tool you're using. If using a regular whisk, make sure you whisk the cream thoroughly and quickly, beating it as fast as you can (get your mind out of the gutter!) with the whisk until the cream thickens and solidifies somewhat. Basically, whup that mutha 'til it's the consistency of whipped cream. Now, this may cause your forearm muscles to hurt a bit and it takes about 10-15 minutes, but it's a great form of stress release. When using the egg beater or electric beater, it takes less time, somewhere around 5-10  minutes.

Once the whipped cream is ready, it's time to make a dessert! Now, neither the girlfriend nor I are very dessert-oriented cooks, but we find ourselves often scouring the kitchen 30 minutes after dinner looking for a "bite of sweet", but just nibbling on chocolate or whatnot never quite does the trick. But as it happened, we had an apartment full of Xmas chocolate, cookies and other sweets lying around. So, the first dessert idea was to crush some Ferrero Rocher chocolates and sprinkle them over whipped cream in a smallish dessert dish/ramekin. As you can see below, it was actually quite a pretty dessert and completely met the "bite of sweet" requirement".



Whipped Cream topped with crumbled Ferrero Rocher chocolates - photo by kira_generika

The other dessert idea was a little more ambitious (i.e. crazy). I had lots of leftover cookies from the holidays, but they'd kind of gone stale and rock-like. But, if you crumble them up and pan-fry the pieces with some butter to soften them and give some extra flavour, then layer them in a bowl with maple-pecan fudge, whipped cream, and grated dark chocolate, well then you're in business! Actually, you're probably in diabetic shock. The fudge was a bit too much... But this "pan-fried parfait" would have been perfect if the fudge had been omitted. Or if somehow bacon was incorporated...



Breakfast for Dessert?
Another fun dessert idea that came about recently was a slight variation on the "pan-fried parfait", but this time with a little more of a healthy framework (at least I think it was healthier...). Kari had just bought some lovely Astro Original yogurt. It's a full fat yogurt, but it's also one of the least "messed with" in terms of additives and so on. It's just milk, cream and bacterial cultures. It's great in curries too. Regardless, after two desserts with whipped cream as the star, it was time for something lighter.

Now, for many of us, granola, fruit and yogurt is a pretty standard breakfast, and a tasty one at that! But when doing dessert, you need to add a certain flair. Kari was fine with just blueberries and yogurt, but the frozen state of the berries made it necessary to tweak things a bit. I started thawing/cooking the berries in  a saucepan on their own when I realized that they needed some liquid to help the cooking process. Now, I could have just used water and that would have been fine, but I realized that it would be a damn sight better if I used some red wine to macerate the fruit as it thawed. I threw in some maple syrup, a pinch of both cinnamon and nutmeg, then some lime juice, and suddenly we'd made sort of a "Mulled Blueberry Wine" sauce! Then, another flash of inspiration hit as I thought about the fruit/yogurt combo and how it usually went with granola. We just so happened to have some "sweet and salty" granola bars, so I chopped those up and sprinkled them on top.



Yogurt, Blueberry-Wine Sauce and Granola Bar Pieces

I was a smidge uncertain as to how good it would be, but it turned to be pretty darn tasty! I was gaining some confidence in my ability to create desserts! Well, three ingredient desserts that were already half made for me, anyway...


A Breakthrough in Vanilla!
But it was only last night (January 13, 2012) that I really impressed myself in the dessert field. Kari was heading off to kick all kinds of butt training for a run and I was in charge of dinner. Dinner itself was pretty simple: stuffed pork chops, roasted potatoes and roasted cauliflower. When I asked Kari what she wanted for dessert, she offhandedly mentioned a craving for vanilla pudding. I had the powdered Jell-O stuff in mind, but that wasn't going to cut it. So, I looked up a recipe on the Internet and found the following at Allrecipes.com (which I followed to the letter):

Old-Fashioned Vanilla Pudding

Serves 2

Ingredients


- 2 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon cornstarch
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup 2% milk
- 1 egg yolk, lightly beaten
- 1 1/2 teaspoons butter
- 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract (try to avoid artificial extract if possible)

Directions

1. In a small saucepan, combine the sugar, cornstarch and salt. Gradually stir in milk. Cook and stir over medium heat until thickened and bubbly. Reduce heat; cook and stir 2 minutes longer. Remove from the heat.

2. Stir a small amount of hot filling into egg yolk; return all to the pan, stirring constantly. Bring to a gentle boil; cook and stir 1 minute longer. Remove from the heat. Gently stir in butter and vanilla.

3. Cool for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Transfer to dessert dishes. Cover and refrigerate for 1 hour.

Just before serving, I grated some dark chocolate over top to add a bit of extra depth to it.


Vanilla Pudding topped with Dark Chocolate Shavings


 
Wow, wow, wow... It was soooooooo tasty! Creamy, rich and yet delicate. Makes the Jell-O stuff taste like powdered crud. And really not too difficult, just labour intensive.
 
So, there you go, no-bake dessert crafting made simple. Now, that isn't to say that you should give up on any pursuit of baking. Lord knows I need to try my hand at pie crust someday - if only to make the following alliteration real: Pulled Pork Pie. 
 
But if you're craving that "bite of sweet", you can still make it yourself with far less difficulty than you might expect.
 
Enjoy! Cheers!

Xmas Eve at Casa del Unicorn

Happy (insert appropriate holy day here)!

It's the holiday season and out cometh some of the year's best feastings. I've partook of the traditional Christmas turkey feast most years and this was no exception. But this is also the first year where I celebrated the holidays with my favourite lady-friend Kari and we took the opportunity of having nothing going on Christmas Eve to have our own little celebration à deux.

But really the fun began on the 23rd. Kari still had some shopping to finish up at the mall, so I was in charge of picking up the food. Now, because it was Christmas Eve eve, we needed a couple of days worth of meals. I decided that I wanted to make one of them something stew-like, but was in the mood for something in the Spanish vein. Basically I wanted chorizo. So, I went to Saslove's Meats and picked up some chorizo as well as a duck breast (I made the duck for dinner that night to much excitement, having never cooked duck before - more on that in a subsequent post). We also decided that our Xmas Eve celebration needed a wine and cheese course, so that was next from the International Cheese and Deli, where I grabbed some Goat Brie, a Danish Blue and an aged Manchego.

Next came a quick trip to the Byward Fruit Market for veggies and such and a pop in to Aux Délices Bakery for the baguette (olive baguette to boot! SCORE!) and some dessert (which we never ate - oops). Then, a quick beer at the Dominion and it was off to LCBO for a booze stock-up. 150 bucks and a box full of bottles of wine and beer later, it was off home!

Skip ahead to the next evening. After working til 7 pm, I booted it home to get ready for the feasting!

First off, we made a quick appetizer of wild boar sausage slices on crostini with a smidge of Dijon mustard. Taaaaasty!

Next came the stew:

Spanish "Chili"

Ingredients

- 2 tbsp olive oil
- 3 chorizo sausage, casing removed and divided into small bits of meat
- 1 Spanish or Vidalia onion, roughly chopped
- 3-4 cloves garlic, minced
- 1 small eggplant, chopped in 1 cm thick pieces
- 1 zucchini, sliced into quarters length-wise and cut into 1 cm thick pieces
- 2-3 tomatoes, chopped (with their juice)
- 3/4 cup dry red wine (I used a Spanish Rioja, which was perfect)
- 1-2 tbsp tomato paste (they sell tomato paste in squeeze tubes now, which is really practical)
- 1 tsp smoked paprika
- pinch cayenne pepper or other ground pepper (I used guajillo powder for this one)
- 1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
- 1/2 tsp black pepper (or to taste)
- pinch saffron (in this case, we had no saffron, so we used a Saffron Pepper Rub we'd gotten at a farmer's market. Close enough!)
- juice of half a lemon
- capers (for garnish)
- 1/2 cup flat-leaf parsley, coarsely chopped (for garnish)

Directions

- In a large pot, heat olive oil on medium-high heat
- Sauté sausage meat, onions, garlic and eggplant for about 5 minutes
- Reduce heat to medium and add zucchini, tomatoes, tomato paste, wine and seasonings. Stir everything together. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 50 minutes.
- Stir in lemon juice and simmer for another 10 minutes.
- Serve in bowls topped with a few capers and lots of parsley. Serve with baguette, preferably olive baguette.

Now, the recipe presented here is not exactly what I made, but rather the way I'd do it next time. First off, the 'eggplant' part was actually a leftover eggplant side dish from the night before that was basically eggplant baked with croutons, oil and balsamic vinegar. But, if I was doing it from scratch, I'd toss in fresh eggplant for sure.

Second, I added the capers to the pot while cooking. This didn't really ruin anything, but when I had a bowl for leftovers a couple of days later, all the salt had leeched out of the capers and basically oversalted the whole thing. So, only add your capers per order. Trust me.

Otherwise, I recommend this one highly. It was super tasty, super easy and had a really bright flavour profile that stews often lack.

 Ain't it pretty?

Spanish 'Chili' with Olive Baguette - photo by kira_generika

 
Now, this was Christmas Eve and really our only "alone" celebration time as the next day would be filled with screaming kids, work, slot machines, turkey, and the fairly recent tradition of closing the Dominion with a whackton of our friends. So, yeah, a romantic after-dinner treat of wine and cheese and present opening was pretty much perfect.

I kind of took my inspiration from the Wine Flight we took at Play a month back (the epic tale of which can be read here) in pairing 3 cheeses with 3 different wines. The difference is that I'm a rank amateur and don't always get it right. In this case, 2 out of 3 (which ain't bad).

So here's what I came up with:



Wine and Cheese Flight Selections - photo by kira_generika

  
First Pairing - Goat's Milk Brie (Quebec) with Toasted Head Chardonnay (California, 2010)

Toasted Head Chardonnay is one of those "go-to" wines. It's a Vintages Essential at the LCBO and you can usually find it at any location. It's got a very rich, smoky yet buttery flavour to it. The Brie was more subtly flavoured than expected, but still quite tasty and I think it went beautifully with wine, but I could see someone more critical complaining that the wine might overpower the cheese.

Second Pairing - Aged Manchego (Spain) with Campo Viejo Rioja Reserva (Spain, 2006)

This was a perfect pairing. The Campo Viejo Rioja was very dry but assertive, and offset the crumbly texture and heavy-duty saltiness of the Manchego (which is a bit similar to Parmesan, but not quite as salty or pungent). The two came together to make a wonderful burst of juicy and salty. I really think the cheese brought out an extra dimension of flavour from the wine. I'd go with this pairing any day of the week.

Third Pairing - Danish Blue Cheese (Denmark, assumedly!) with Bombing Range Red (McKinley Springs, Washington State, 2007)

Aaaaaand insert sad trombone noise... I blew it with this one. I'd been so impressed by Washington State wines after having Velvet Devil Merlot paired with a Blue cheese at my first visit to Play, that I thought (like an idiot), that they'd all pair well. I was totally wrong. While the Bombing Range Red was assertive and bursting with flavour, it was torpedoed by the Danish Blue. Yes, it was a fairly mild Blue, but not that mild. Oh well... next time I'll know to avoid Blue cheese with all but the most kick-in-the-teeth reds. Or whiskey...

But, I was still feeling clever and threw in some extra elements to our wine flight. Just to be cute, I threw in some extra flavours to go on top of the cheese. I topped the Manchego with cumin seeds (WIN!), the Blue with Sriracha salt (DOUBLE WIN!), and the Brie with brown sugar (ok, not so much win... too sweet). I also tried playing with the leftover parsley from dinner, but it didn't pair well with anything except the Chardonnay. Can't learn without experimenting, right? We also made little toast squares out of some 12-grain bread to serve the cheese on, but that too was not well matched with the wine and cheese.

Ready to enjoy wine and cheese and more! - photo by kira_generika

 

Then it was present opening time where a good time was had by all!

So, that was our foodie Christmas Eve chez Casa del Unicorn. I hope all of you had fantastic and delicious holidays!

Happy New Year! See you in 2012.




 

A Toast to my Hometown's Better Eateries - Play!

This post has been a long time in coming as this is one of my favourite places to eat in Ottawa.

Play Food and Wine is the brainchild of Stephen Beckta and Michael  Moffatt (of Beckta renown) and the concept is to have a low-key, fun environment to enjoy really tasty small plates from an ever-changing menu and a diverse wine selection while not breaking the bank. Whereas Beckta is a once-a-year super-splurge (as my post from last March will attest to), Play has been a recurring treat for a couple of years now. Why I haven't blogged about it yet is really just a case of me forgetting to chronicle my meal properly in the past (sometimes it's hard to remember how good something tastes four glasses of wine later...) and by the time I remember to actually write a post about it, I've forgetten the details!

So, this time I made sure to take pictures and notes of what we ate and what I enjoyed most about it. Luckily the meal was pretty damn memorable all on its own! Let's explore it together, shall we?

Kari and I are pretty exacting in our culinary experiences when we go out. I have no qualms letting the server know how I'd like a meal to proceed and this was no exception. Luckily Play follows a service model that accomodates the customer without ever getting the sense of "attitude" from the staff that we're bothering them. In fact, I think the fact that we knew exactly what we wanted and in what order probably made life easier.

So, here's how the menu works at Play: It's a savoury small plate menu (as you can see below) with cheese, charcuterie and dessert selections also available. On the back of the menu is the wine list. They also publish it on simple paper so you can keep your menu to take home, something both the blogger and experiential packrat in me appreciate.

First things first, we ordered our de rigueur cocktails, which is usually something fun and sparkling for Kari (a Spanish Cava in this case, I believe), and a draft beer for me (Beau's Lug Tread).

As we sipped our drinks and looked over the menu, we figured we'd stick to two plates each, followed by a "Wine and Cheese Flight" (more on that later...). So, now came the actual choosing process of what's for dinner! One thing I really dig about Play is that they list the wine pairing along with the plate, so for wine rookies like me, it saves a lot of contemplation. Now, as I looked through the menu, the first thing that grabbed my attention after the Pork Belly was the Meatball Sub. And then I looked at the pairing, which happened to be the exact same thing as what was in my glass! So, first course was picked. Kari was having a bit more trouble deciding, but the ingredient combo in the Beet Bruschetta was too enticing to pass up. Next course had me torn between Pork Belly and Braised Rabbit. In the end, having previously had only one bite of rabbit in my life, I decided to go for it. I've had Pork Belly a few times, including once at Play, so I figured the rabbit needed to be given a chance to shine. Meanwhile, Kari was weighing the options of Pork Belly herself, as well as the Gnocchi and Beef Tataki. In the end, she went for the beef, basically for the same reason I did. It is worth noting that Play usually has pork belly on the menu, so the opportunities to try it are ample.

So, food was ordered with the pairings as listed, and off we went!

Kari's 1st plate - Beet Bruschetta w. chèvre, honey and truffle - paired w. Barbera d'Asti Cascina Caslet (Italy, 2009)

I only tasted a bit of this one, as it was Kari's plate, but I noticed a magical element in the combination of beet, chèvre and honey. It was a completely unique mix of flavours that worked very well together. Definitely something to try in the future, either at home or at Play.


Nick's 1st plate - Meatball Sub w. spicy eggplant, burrata and hickory stix - paired w. Beau's Lug Tread Lagered Ale (Vankleek Hill, Ontario, 2011 - I hope!)


 

Oh man this was good times! The meatballs were so ridiculously tender that I had to ask how the kitchen staff made it. Turns out they use pork belly. HA! Now, take this gorgeous meatball flavour and mix it with subtly spicy eggplant, fresh and bright tomato sauce, gooey burrata (a fresh mozzarella). Not bad eh? NOW, top that sucker with homemade hickory sticks. Yeah. Goddamn. Not much to say about the beer except that it's really good beer and beer goes with meatball subs.


Kari's 2nd plate - Beef Tataki w. habanero jelly, shiitake mushroom and sweet & sour onions paired w. Z52 Zinfandel (Lodi, California, 2006)

I'm somewhat regretting not getting a whole order of this myself... In case you're wondering, Beef Tataki is a Japanese cooking style where the meat is lightly seared, then slightly marinated, then sliced super-thin before serving with all the good stuff listed above.

One of the best bites of beef I've ever had and I've had a LOT of beef in my life. I can't really remember what the rest of the flavours on the plate were. Again, this wasn't my dish. Rats...

Nick's 2nd plate - Braised Rabbit w. orecchiette pasta, sofrito, date and pistachio - paired w. Benzinger Chardonnay (Sonoma, California, 2008)

This plate sort of hurt my brain. I wasn't quite sure what to expect with this dish. I knew that rabbit was a very light-tasting meat and that the combination of light meat, nuttiness from the pistachio and the sweetness of the date would be interesting. What I didn't expect was how evocative it would be. This was a plate full of Autumn. It had elements of Thanksgiving dinner with the veggies of the sofrito, and the rabbit was similar to turkey in flavour and texture. Also, the sauce itself had elements of a sweetened gravy. But on top of that, there was a freshness to the whole thing that simply reminded me of going for a walk on a brisk Fall day. More date would have been nice though...

The wine was maybe a smidge under-assertive compared to the complex flavour of the plate, but I guess it's better for the wine to be "outshined" by the food. Nonetheless, it was a tasty experience!

But next came my favourite part, the Wine and Cheese Flight!

Wine and Cheese Flight

Play does its best to keep the good times rolling and for the late crowd, they offer their Wine and Cheese Flight from 10 pm to closing time (generally midnight). This consists of three 2 ounce glasses of wine paired with a generous hunk of cheese. Usually there's a brie-style cheese, something hard and salty, and a blue cheese. Tonight was no different.

Our gracious Wine Director, Grayson

We were fortunate to have Play's Wine Director (aka Head Sommelier?) Grayson McDiarmid there on this night (he also takes care of the resto's twitter account - @playfoodandwine). He kind of takes experiences with wine and cheese to a whole new level.

The whole thing is presented on a single plate per person and our Sommelier/Director explained his choice for each pairing. I remember that there was a theme of "chips and pop" to this Flight, with each choice having its roots in salty meeting sweet. Works for me!

1st pairing - Brie de Meaux - France - paired with Organized Crime - Pinot Gris (Niagara, Ontario - 2010)

Brie de Meaux is a raw cow milk described as "creamy and mushroomy". The earthy flavour was nicely contrasted by the bright, citrusy flavours of the Pinot Gris. I was pretty impressed by the wine, as I find most Niagara wines a bit boring.

2nd pairing - Caciotta - Italy - paired with Pagos de Araiz - Crianza (Navarra, Spain - 2007)

The Caciotta is a goat's milk cheese wrapped in walnut-leaf. It had a beautiful saltiness that was offset by the nuttiness of the walnut leaves. It reminded me a bit of Manchego cheese, so paired nicely with the slightly sweet Crianza. Chips and pop indeed!

3rd pairing - Bleu d'Elizabeth - Warwick, Quebec - paired with Gonzales Byass - Sweet Cream Sherry (Spain)

It's been said that no ordinary wine can pair well with blue cheese. While I tend to disagree, it's pretty hard to pair well with a red or white. Here, Grayson decided that a sweet cream sherry would do the trick. He was right, the sherry was very sweet and robust (almost cloying), but that was a necessary flavour profile to match up with the very salty and intense blue cheese. In the end, it created a fascinating intersection in the mouth with nuttiness and chocolate being the end products. YUM!

Who needs dessert?

Of note: the first time I did the Wine Flight was back in '09 and I had the pleasure of a fascinating pairing of a blue cheese and a uniquely bold Merlot called the Velvet Devil out of Washington State. I remember the flavour was reminiscent of a pancake breakfast. I've since had Velvet Devil at Whalesbone and Play a second time. I want more and really wish the LCBO or SAQ had it in stock. Siiiiiiigh...

Free booze! YAY!

As an added bonus, when Grayson heard that Kari had never tried Port, he insisted on treating us to a 2 oz. sampling of a Taylor Fladgate 10-year old Tawny Port. Thanks again Grayson!

In the end, the bill was in the 215 dollar range, including tip (I think...). Certainly worth it for that delightful an eating experience.

So, that was just a sampling of what the dining experience at Play is like. We're going back there for a 4-course table d'hôte on New Years Eve, so expect a follow up post, if I don't get too loopy on champagne...

Also, as a bonus, they do a 2 plates for 20$ lunch special. I have no idea why I don't take more advantage of this...

Merry Xmas and enjoy the food!

Cheers!