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!

Travels in Taste - Schwartz's Deli, Montreal

I've just finished reading Anthony Bourdain's A Cook's Tour, which is basically the story of a celebrity chef's voyages to various parts of the world looking for "the perfect meal". I guess you could call it a Hollywood-ish example of foodie tourism (although I'm pretty sure some of the experiences and locales he visits in the book are unattainable for the average non-bazillionaire).

Over the course of reading it, I've come to realize that I too need to start travelling the world looking for some of the best food it has to offer. At least I've already got Prague under my belt, so no need to go back in search of more deep-fried cheese sandwiches, bread dumplings and bramborak.

Luckily, a recent trip to Montreal gave me a pretty decent (and unexpected) starting point. It was a Wednesday morning, I was staying at my brother's place in Montreal, looking forward to dinner with a local friend at a recently-opened BBQ place. But alas, plans had to be cancelled. This left me with a few hours to kill in the afternoon before the Mastodon concert (which was the whole point of being in Montreal in the first place). So, after confirming with my bro that Schwartz's Deli is indeed the place to go for smoked meat, I set upon an excursion up the length of St. Laurent Blvd. to find this promised land of brisket.

After a bit of confusion, I finally was able to amble my way into the place. I was greeted by an enthusiastic and easy-going gentleman dressed in cook's whites who asked "to go?", to which I responded "Actually, one for here if you have room" (the place was packed, which I can guess is normal). He indicated a table of four with three people still sitting, so I sidled into a seat beside a bunch of strangers. I was in love with this place!

Inside Schwartz's Deli - A beautifully low-key environment for such a wonderful culinary experience!

As I sat and took in the surroundings (and snapped a pic or two), the other three folks finished and left, leaving me on my own at the table for a bit. Looking over the menu, I decided I'd go for the standard smoked meat on rye, fries, coleslaw and pickle. Within minutes, the "server" returned and I gave my order and asked if they served beer. Turns out they don't! But he suggested I get the traditional Cott's cherry soda with the order instead. With a "Sure, why not?", my fate was sealed! He also assured me that "medium" fattiness was the way to go. Sure, I could have gone for lean, but what would have been the point of that?

It didn't very long for my order to arrive, nor for a few more guests to join my table. What I really enjoyed about the laissez-faire ambience of the place was the hodge-podge of clientele: Japanese tourists with professional grade cameras, businessmen in from New York, locals on their break or day off, not to mention the two guys from Norway who sat next to me.

But, ambiance be damned, I was here for the food!


Smoked Meat on Rye, Fries, Slaw and a Dill Pickle - What else does a man need?


Now, before I tell you just how damn good this sandwich was, let me give you some background on the significance of smoked meat in my lifetime. Back when I was a little guy in the 80s, there was a place called Kardish's Deli in Ottawa's Hintonburg neighbourhood (wayyyy before it was trendy). Once a month or so after going to Mass (that's what Catholics call "going to church"), my dad would trundle all the kids into the van and we'd have lunch at Kardish's, being served by their legendary waitress Nancy who knew all seven kids by name and would always give us extra fries and pickles. It was probably the best thing from my childhood.

I'd still go into Kardish's in my later years, but in 2000 they closed down. For years I went around Ottawa hoping to find comparable smoked meat, to no avail. I also had been to some of the better delis in Montreal (like Ben's) and definitely enjoyed the smoked meat, but it still didn't quite measure up to Kardish's. I feared that nothing ever would.

Then, more than 11 years after my last bite of Kardish's came my first bite of Schwartz's smoked meat.

Angels sang!

Taste buds exploded into flavourgasms!

I exclaimed "Oh my God!" quite audibly while gripping the table.

This was like NOTHING I'd ever tasted. Kardish's be damned, this was the promised land! The meat didn't need to be chewed, it just dissolved in a smokey moment of bliss and spice.

I was in Heaven...

If you've never had smoked meat before, you might hear folks say that it's basically the same thing as pastrami or corned beef. Whoever told you that deserves a beating. While all three are basically cured and smoked beef (smoked meat is always brisket, other cuts are known to be used with the other two), pastrami and corned beef are usually sweeter and less peppery. You know that "Montreal Steak Spice" they sell at the supermarket? Imagine if Yahweh Himself whipped together a batch of that (in reality, it was invented by a Schwartz's employee in the '40s), rubbed it all over premium beef brisket, cured that mofo for 10 days, and then smoked it in a smokehouse dating back to the '20s. Starting to see the difference?

Montreal smoked meat is one of those "must try before you die" foods, and it must be tried at Schwartz's. Don't worry about the crowds, you'll find a seat next to a nice couple from Belgium or a bunch of techies on lunch break. Why would you have it any other way?

Oh, and the cherry soda? I wound up drinking two... Even with that, the bill was less than 20 bucks. What's not to love about the deli life?

Cheers!


Update - March 3 2012

After much pleading, I finally took Kari today. She really enjoyed the pickle:

Belly Christmas! AKA The Ottawa Wine and Food Show

Every year around the first or second weekend of November, Ottawa hosts the Wine and Food Show. I call it Belly Christmas because wow, there are some lovely moments of culinary and vintner-ary awesomeness. Now the scene itself is quite "meat-markety" and I think it's a chance for many folks to get their "sexy dress-up" on, but when you get a couple of food and booze purists like Kari and I there, the focus isn't on how hot all the people are around us (that is a happy bonus, mind you), it's on the tasty goodness.

So with that in mind, here's a photographic tour of some of the highlights from the 2011 Ottawa Wine and Food Show. There won't be any recipes included in this post since I doubt I could ever recreate this stuff!



2010 White Rabbit from Waupoos Winery in Prince Edward County, Ontario - Varietal: Pinot Gris, Riesling, Auxerrois



Soy Cones with Goat Cheese (and other tasty goodness) - from Le Moulin in Wakfield, Quebec




Kari enjoys the wine!



Utterly delicious White Bean and Sausage Cassoulet topped with Smoked Duck - from Le Moulin in Wakfield, Quebec



A nibble of Praline Milk Chocolate from Chocolatier Rochef - Gatineau, Quebec



Kari enjoying a Four-Spice Dark Chocolate from Chocolatier Rochef



Angus Slider (from the Sheraton in Gatineau, I believe) and Cleavage!

A taste of "Et La lumière fut!" Blonde beer from Les Brasseurs du Temps - Gatineau, Quebec

Les Brasseurs du Temps booth




Caught in the act of pre-lamb-meatball snarf - Plate was a Greek appetizer collection from Mystiko in Ottawa

 



Thalia - a Greek blend (can't remember the varietals involved)



Naoussa 2007 - a really tasty Greek Boutari wine



Who doesn't enjoy a good cheese flower?



A locavore sampler plate courtesy of Savour Ottawa and partners.



Chocolate-Pecan Pie from Life of Pie (not sure what that pink stuff is)

Shadow Ridge 2009 - California Cabernet Sauvignon - As expected, good times!

Shots of port in dark chocolate cups? Don't mind if I do!

Flirting with hot girl in a velvet dress. Too bad I forgot her name! It must be noted that this was near the end and sobriety was a very distant memory, but this was a very nice way to end the night!



So, there you are, just a few glimpses of the drunken fun that is the Ottawa Wine and Food Show.

See you there in 2012!

Homemade Pasta Dough and Ravioli

Me again!

I'll let you all in on a little secret that maybe I've mentioned before: Cooking, while often time-consuming and labour intensive, is not really all that hard. At least many forms of it aren't very hard to do. I'll grant you that trimming the membranes off a piece of foie gras or slicing a perfect cut of sashimi are probably pretty damn difficult, but who really wants to do that at home? But I'd say most forms of cooking have their root in simple methodology and cleverly matching ingredients.

One form of cooking that I think we tend to overlook as being something to do at home that's dead easy, and allows for a great deal of creativity, is making pasta from scratch. As happens so often, Kari and I were watching the Food Network and one of the chefs was making homemade ravioli. He made it look so damned easy that I figured we could give it a try. Kari had been in possession of a pasta making machine for a while but never took the time to use it. Now it was time. She did a bit of quick Internet research and found that pasta dough is a straight-forward recipe that involves a bit of technique, but is still dead easy. She used Alton Brown's recipe as follows:

Fresh Pasta:



- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 2 large eggs
- 3 tablespoons water
- 1 teaspoon olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon salt


Directions

By Hand: On a clean surface make a well with the flour. In a measuring cup mix the eggs, water and oil and salt. Pour the wet mixture slowly into the flour and mix with your 2 fingers until all of the wet is incorporated. Do not force the dough to take all of the flour. If you are
 going to use a pasta machine to roll out the dough you may at this point form the dough into a disk and cover with plastic wrap. Place in the refrigerator for 1 hour to rest.

Now, it didn't quite go exactly as planned since the egg broke through the "walls" of the flour well and leaked out. But with a bit more water and oil, she was able to salvage it and knead it into the proper consistency. After refrigerating the pasta for an hour as indicated, it was time to roll that sucker out!

Our first run was a little awkward as we tried to roll out too much dough at once, but it didn't take long to get the hang of it.

While Kari was preparing the pasta into sheet form, it was up to me to come up with the filling for the ravioli. Ravioli gives you the opportunity to get pretty damn creative with the filling. Really, there are no limits as long as it's fairly easy to tuck between two sheets of pasta.

So, I originally had one filling in mind, but as luck would have it, I wound up with two!

The first came about whilst chopping for ingredients. I was thinking smokey and spicy with strong umami components in it. This was not going to be a light meal! So, I came across some lovely hot chorizo sausage and decided to pair it with a kind of cheese I'd never tried: smoked Emmenthal (aka Swiss cheese). Now, I figured some mushroom was a must, so I reconstituted some dry mushrooms and went from there. When we got home and were about to get cooking, I noticed that there were leftover ribs in the fridge from earlier in the week. There were only about 3-4 ribs left so there wasn't enough for a meal, but there certainly was enough to shave the meat off, mix it with sharp provolone and mushrooms and make another kind of ravioli filling!

So, here's the breakdown on both kinds of ravioli filling:

Chorizo-Emmenthal Filling (for about 20 raviolis)

Ingredients

- 1 hot chorizo sausage, meat removed from casing (just squeeze it out of the filling, it's that easy).
- 3-4 tbsp chopped mushrooms, fresh or reconstituted
- 1/4 cup grated smoked Emmenthal cheese
- pepper to taste (because the chorizo has so much seasoning in it anyway, I didn't see much point in adding more than just pepper. It's up to you if you want to fiddle with the seasoning)

Directions

- Fry up sausage meat and mushrooms in a pan until meat is fully cooked. Transfer to bowl and stir in cheese and seasoning.

Rib Meat Filling... I think...

Rib Meat Ravioli (for about 20 raviolis)

- about 1/2 a cup to 1 cup cooked rib meat, chopped

- 3-4 tbsp chopped mushrooms, fresh or reconstituted

- 1/4 cup grated sharp provolone (aka Provolone piccante)

- Fry mushrooms in either butter, mushroom liquid (if reconstituted) or olive oil for about 5-6 mins (until cooked through).

- Transfer to a bowl and mix with rib meat and cheese.

So, the next step in our adventure is actually making the ravioli!

Well, first off, crack an egg into a bowl and whisk it/beat it until well mixed.

Next, take a sheet of pasta and lay it flat. Using a tablespoon used for measuring (so more round than oval), scoop about a tablespoon of either filling and place it on the sheet of pasta, about 2 inches apart from the next spot for filling (basically, as pictured).

Using a basting brush, brush around the filling. This will allow the top layer of pasta to stick.

Lay another sheet of pasta on top, using fingers to press down, following along the contours of the filling and sealing out the air to make the ravioli tight. You might have extra pasta bits leftover, just fold this over and seal.

Now this was my first time, so there were some hits and misses, as you can see...

A motley selection of ravioli

So, really, if you're not too picky on how it looks, it doesn't take much manual dexterity to make a functional ravioli.

The next step is to cook the pasta and sauce it!

In this case, Kari wasn't feeling the standard tomato sauce, so she made this tasty mix of onion and butter. But I'll be damned if I can remember how she made it. In any case, basically you want to place the raviolis in a pot of boiling water, same as any pasta. But it should be noted that fresh pasta takes very little time to cook, no more than 5 minutes. Just use a slotted spoon to remove the raviolis and shake off excess water. Serve topped with sauce and grated parmesan, pecorino, asiago (or whatever other cheese you like).



Dinner is served!

Oh and in case you were wondering which filling was better, I'd say the chorizo-Emmenthal, but only by millimetres.

Enjoy!