A Toast To My Hometown's Better Eateries - Murray Street and Whalesbone

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In case you haven't guessed yet, I'm from Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Now, for those of you who read this and are unfamiliar with Canadian geography, Ottawa is Canada's capital. The Ottawa-Gatineau "metropolitan area" is Canada's 4th largest, while the city itself (without counting all the 'burbs) is the 6th largest. We clock in at about 1 million people.

Anyhoo, because of it's "government town" nature, Ottawa can get a bit dull. Perhaps we also have an inferiority complex due to our proximity to Montreal and Toronto which prevents some of our best aspects from shining through. That being said, we have a great, albeit tightly-knit, music scene, a whackload of excellent museums and galleries, and we're surrounded by natural splendour. Seriously, you can get lost in the woods within minutes of the downtown core.

But what I really love about this town is the FOOD! Since it's a tourist-friendly town and home to movers, shakers, lobbyists and leaders, naturally there are some really classy joints with old school flavour, where a guy like me would stick out like a sore thumb. But with the advent of the "foodie" movement of the past 15 years or so, we're seeing an upswing of restaurants that have a much more laid-back feel, but that have unbelievably good food.

Seriously, you know life is good when you can sit down and eat a gourmet meal wearing a Spider-Man t-shirt. And this is food that's so good you might find yourself gripping the table in amazement. Now, all good food comes at a cost regardless of the casual ambiance. Most of this places serve larger plates ranging in the 25-40 dollar range, and don't expect portions like the ones you get at Denny's. This is high end food that is hard to get, is usually produced by smaller local farms and environmentally sustainable fisheries and is of tremendous quality. This isn't the stuff you eat to fill you up in a pinch, this is "event eating".

Over the past few years, I've had the good fortune of eating at some wonderful places around this fine city and today's post is going to describe some of those places and talk a little about some of the plates I've had there. Also, I'm going to try my hand at cribbing and reprinting a recipe here and there. It might be a dismal failure, it might work out great. But be forewarned, I haven't actually tried any of these in my kitchen as yet.

1 - Murray Street  - http://www.murraystreet.ca/

Murray Street is a very "homey" type of restaurant nestled along Murray Street in the Byward Market, which I discovered just today is also called "Gastro Alley". Which makes sense considering that it houses this place, Sweetgrass Aboriginal Bistro (more on that later), Khao Thai (some of Ottawa's best), Domus Café (which I've not had the pleasure of trying - yet) and a few others.

I first went there in 2008 shortly after its opening for a friend's birthday and there were a lot of growing pains in the experience (apparently the words "pork" and "duck" sound very similar in a noisy resto), but the food was tremendous and I did get my meal comped because they got my order wrong. I was a bit 'meh' about the whole thing, albeit well-fed. A couple of years passed and it was a Friday night and my lady friend and I decided to pop in for what has to be the highlight of their menu: duck confit poutine. For ten bucks, there really isn't a more "bang-for-your-buck" treat out there. If you don't know what poutine is, I'll give you the basics: it's french fries smothered in gravy topped with cheese curds. Now, the evil genius chef at Murray Street (Steve Mitton) took the gloves off with his take on it. And I quote their menu:

Poutine: Hand-cut herb spatzle (Spatzle is a kind of egg noodle), shredded duck confit, roast duck gravy, fresh cheese curds.

Now, I've never confited a duck in my life. But for those of you who are now intrigued, duck confit is basically pieces of duck meat braised/baked in duck fat. You can buy it pre-made at higher end butcher shops.

Anyway, this is a dish that is so tasty and rich, most people couldn't finish it. And it's a small plate. Definitely a "must try before you die" kind of dish.

Now, on a recent Saturday morning I went for brunch there and had a smoked fish/veggie scrambled egg. It was quite tasty, but not quite as mindblowing as my girl's duck confit cassoulet (again with the duck confit!). But if you want to impress at breakfast (as I keep the conceptual thread of my last post going), make this!

Smoked Fish Scramble

Ingredients

- 4 tbsp butter or 2 tbsp butter and 2 tbsp vegetable/olive oil
- 200 g smoked trout or salmon or other smoked fish
- 4 eggs
- 1/2 cup milk
- assorted chopped/sliced veggies - the one I had had rutabaga, onion and leeks (I think). I recommend onion and leek for sure, the rutabaga was a bit weird with eggs.
- 1/2 cup grated cheese (I'd say a sharp cheddar or smoked Gouda to compliment the fish)

Directions

- In a frying pan, melt 2 tbsp of butter or heat 2 tbsp of olive oil
- Sauté veggies until softened and put aside
- In a mixing bowl, crack eggs. Add milk and whisk with a fork until fluffy consistency reached.
- Roughly chop smoked fish into 1 cm pieces
- Melt 2 tbsp butter in a frying pan and coat bottom of pan
- Add eggs to pan and cook until they start to turn opaque
- Add rest of ingredients and cook until everything is well-heated

Serve on a plate or in a shallow bowl with fresh biscuits or multi-grain toast.

2 - The Whalesbone Oyster House - http://www.thewhalesbone.com/ -

I love seafood. You'd better like seafood. If not, this place won't be your cup of tea. But then again, let's peek at the menu, shall we?

Hey, Bone Marrow and Foie Gras? Beet Carpaccio? Roasted Veal Breast? Never mind, I'm almost tempted to go back soon and try all the non-seafood! Wait, no, let's not be crazy. But, it is ironic that it was here at a fish place that I first tried seared foie gras. And it was pretty damn delicious!

Speaking of foie gras, I feel it necessary to rant about this. My lack of previous exposure to foie gras (except in paté) is possibly because a lot of restaurants in Ottawa had been subjected to protests by uneducated animal-lovers who think that the gorging process that helps develop foie gras is cruel. So it was pulled from the menu at Beckta, Play and others. Methinks these holier-than-thou jerkstores have never actually visited Mariposa Farms where most restos in Ottawa get their foie gras. I'll betcha that those birds are treated a damn sight better than most people! Also, all farmed animals are born meat. The modern cow, pig, chicken and domesticated duck or goose only exists because it's going to be turned into food.

So, to all you political "eating meat is wrong and cruel" jackasses out there, I will simply say this: slaughtering farm animals is no more cruel than reaping crops. These creatures only exist to die and be eaten. Yes there are issues about how animals are treated in factory farms and they are valid concerns, but instead of tarring all carnivores and meat farmers with the same brush, why don't you find out where the factory farms are and conduct some sort of sit-in preventing their products from leaving, and allow the caring, conscientious farmer who loves and respects animals far more than you could ever fathom to carry on with their business.

And just in case I've not offended vegetarians quite enough, here's how I REALLY feel about this subject:

Now somebody get me a veal cutlet, some lamb stew and a tub of baby panda liver paté! (mmmmmm... panda liver... finger Ling-Ling gooood...)

OK, OK... PHEW! Getting carried away there. Back to the subject at hand: The Whalesbone Oyster House and its amazing food. I've only been twice and the first time I had the Seared Foie Gras plate followed by the Butter-Poached Lobster. What can I say? It's LOBSTER! Utterly delicious and perfectly tender. I had to stop myself from licking the plate.

The second time I went, I had a halibut dish as a main and it was gorgeous, but it was our appetizer that completely blew me away. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Big Eye Tuna Belly.

This was a special off-menu appetizer and there is no way I can imagine being able to recreate the dense, meaty, yet delicate flavour of this dish. I wonder if it was a one-in-a-lifetime treat and that breaks my taste buds' collective heart.

Oh wait, it appears to be on their regular menu now! Excuse me, I have to run to Whalesbone RIGHT NOW!

OK, now I have to rein it back in. I'm stuck at work, no point in imagining that my Cobb Salad is somehow going to magically become a lightly seared piece of succulent tuna. Dammit...

I can't even remember what it was served with, it was seared, dusted with coarse salt and some sort of creamy mayo-like sauce, and it tasted like HEAVEN! If you ever get the chance to try anything like this, get on that! I'm wondering where and how I could find a piece of tuna of that quality and am drawing blanks. Luckily, Whalesbone has that covered too! They have an office at 504 Kent Street that allows members of the public to pick up some of their own succulent piscatorial offerings. Not to mention the "brown bag lunch", which I have not taken advantage of trying. Which makes me feel moronic since I live three blocks away, but am planning to leave the neighbourhood in a few months! So the lesson here is to take advantage of nearby treasures since you never know when you'll be leaving them behind.

That's it for now. Many more posts to come, including Part 2 of my toast to Ottawa. Hopefully they'll be up before the New Year!

Cheers!

Breakfast goodness - Part 2

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Alright, last post dealt with some of the lighter breakfast options out there (not counting a bowl of oatmeal or Special K). This time we get into the more decadent breakfasts. If Part 1 was meant for a nice romantic "morning after", Part 2 is more in tune with the "must cure hangover with sex and grease" mentality. So, get ready for lots of greasy, sugary, fattening, booze-absorbing goodness!

First up is my take on an old British standard, the "fry-up". A fry-up is pretty self-explanatory: you fry up a bunch of stuff in a pan. Now the Brits do it up separately, basically making it a variation of the 2 egg special you'd get at your local greasy spoon (Ottawa folk, think Mellos).

Here's what a basic version of the English fry-up looks like:

Please note that I got this picture off the Internet, so whomever took it, please don't sue! 

Mmmmm, greasy! Now, in my version, I kind of took a lazy man's way out. As you can see, they keep the ingredients separate in this fry-up, but I hate dirtying dishes, so I threw the lot of ingredients in the same pan!

I shall explain...

Fry-up à la Nick

Ingredients

1 potato (the kind you use for boiling), diced small (about 1/2 centimetre, or 1/4 inch)
2 chorizo sausages, sliced thin
1/4 onion, sliced very thin
6-8 cherry tomatoes, halved (try to keep as much juice as possible)
2 eggs
1/2 cup grated cheddar
fresh ground pepper

other options

- diced red pepper
- sliced mushrooms
- various herbs of your choice

Directions

- boil potatoes until you can pierce with fork easily, strain and set aside (this shouldn't take more than 5-8 minutes)
- drizzle a bit of olive oil into a pan and heat
- add sausage and sauté for about 5 minutes
- add rest of ingredients and cook until eggs and veggies are done
- serve with toast and hot sauce

Trust me, it's a thing of greeeeezzzzzzy beauty.


French Toast - basics and variations

"I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast,
But I'm intercontinental when I eat French toast!"
- Beastie Boys, The Move

I don't about you, but I happen to think that French toast is the best of the "Sweet Three" of breakfast. The "Sweet Three" being French toast, waffles and pancakes, of course.

Most people would probably choose pancakes over French toast. The thing is that unless you have a wunderkind taking care of the pancakes, I find they often taste like sweetened lumps of dough. I am a much bigger fan of the other two.

Now, I will admit that waffles are perhaps the PERFECT (non-oven-baked) breakfast treat, if cooked to the point of nigh-burnt crispy goodness. But, having made and cleaned up the resulting batterstorm of mess in the past, I'm pretty much convinced they're not worth the frigging effort.

Which brings us to the delicious compromise that is French toast. What can be simpler than coating bread in an egg-milk mixture and frying it up?

Now, I have no idea where French toast comes from, but hey! Wikipedia says neat stuff!

"The earliest official mention of French Toast is in the Apicius, a collection of roman recipes dating back to the 4th or 5th century." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/French_toast

We all know that French toast is commonly explained as a excuse to use up stale bread, but I find if you use a nice artisan bread or baguette, it goes from being merely tasty to "Man, that's so good!". The key is to use bread that's a bit stale or started out being fairly hard. Soft bread falls apart when you try coating it in the egg-milk mixture.

Implement-wise, you'll need a mixing bowl for the egg-milk mixture, a frying pan to cook the French toast, a fork and knife and LOTS of maple syrup.

Making French toast - Basics

The simplest way to do up French toast is as follows (I know most of us learned this when we were 7, but you never know):

- Crack an egg into a bowl, pour milk in (not too much) and whisk together with a fork. Add a dash of cinnamon and vanilla if you wish. Add more egg and milk as needed.
- Take a slice of bread and place it in the egg-milk mixture, ensuring that the bread is fully coated.
- Shake off excess mixture (you want just enough to lightly coat the bread and not get it too soggy).
- Repeat previous two steps with as many slices of bread as needed.
- In pan, melt about 1 tbsp butter and coat pan with butter.
- Place coated slices of bread in pan and fry until golden brown, flip and do the same for the other side.
- Serve on a plate with whatever forms of decadence you see fit. I'm a fan of pure maple syrup and sliced fruit

Now that you have the basics, let's fancy things up a bit!

Variation 1 - Bananas Foster French Toast

This was a beauty of a breakfast that my girl Kari found online a few weeks back and, like any chef worth his or her salt, I made a damn sight easier.

Now, no matter how easy I would like to make this recipe, it's still going to require two pans. You'll need a fairly large frying pan and a smaller saucepan of some sort.

Ingredients

- French toast basics (eggs, milk, bread, vanilla, cinnamon, etc.)

- Bananas Foster

- 1-2 ripe bananas, sliced
- 3-4 tbsp brown sugar
- 2 tbsp unsalted butter
- pinch cinnamon
- (tiny) pinch nutmeg
- splash dark rum (optional)
- splash banana liqueur (quite optional, since I don't actually know where you can by the stuff!)

SIDE NOTE: Bananas Foster with booze is how I used to make it back in my line cook days, but when we made it for breakfast, there was no booze at all and it tasted fine. ALSO, I just looked up banana liqueur on the LCBO Web site and it would seem that Malibu sells a banana rum. So, perhaps use a bigger splash of that in place of both the dark rum and banana liqueur. Really it's up to you.

Directions

- In a frying pan, cook up French toast as indicated earlier.
- At the same time, in some other sort of pan, melt butter on medium-high heat, add brown sugar and stir until it dissolves. Add cinnamon and nutmeg. Continue stirring, bringing mixture to a boil.
- Add bananas and booze (if using). Stir all ingredients together until liquid is smooth and bananas have softened. Reduce heart to simmer.
- Serve French toast on a plate as normal and top with Bananas Foster sauce.
- Serve with your favourite breakfast pork. I somehow don't see steak working with this one.


2 - French Toast Sammiches with Ham and Chèvre

OK, now we get into possibly(?) more challenging (and untested) territory. This is an idea I want to try for a more savoury French toast dish, but I haven't actually tried it out yet.

The principle is pretty basic though.

First of all, prepare 2 pieces of French toast per sandwich as per the "basic" method. Once ready, put on  a plate and let cool a bit.

Using the same pan, fry up as many slices of ham as you want until it reaches a nice texture (or don't, depends on how you like your ham). Once cooked, put aside as well.

On each slice of French toast, spread about a 1/2 tsp of goat cheese (aka chèvre).

Assemble your sandwich.

Put the pan back onto heat and reheat, until sandwich is warm and chèvre has melted slightly.

Serve topped with chopped green onion (if you wish).

Probably best eaten with a knife and fork, but it's up to you.


I swear to Jebus I'll try this out, take a picture, and post it for you all to see what it is I have in mind.


So, yeah, that's just a few forays into the crazy culinary art known as breakfast. Thing is that there really isn't much to making breakfast when you get right down to it. The basics of a tasty morning are simple: eggs, pig, some sort of bread or bagel, some kind of plant matter, and cheese. Assemble as you see fit!

And, if all else fails, there's always Corn Flakes.

Cheers!

Breakfast goodness - Part 1

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Well, I am hoping that by now you've managed to cook your way into seduction as per the original aim of this blog. If you haven't, go back to the first post and try again!

As for the rest of you, now it's time for the most important meal of the day: Breakfast!

Now, if you're like me, breakfast isn't the first on your list of meals for practicing the fine art of cooking. I've always been a 'bowl of cereal and cup of coffee' kind of guy. That was before meeting my girlfriend who is a total breakfast-o-phile. She's made some craziness in that department! Example: tater tots, bacon and cheese smothered in Hollandaise sauce. I got through about 5 bites. Maybe she should send it in as a This Is Why You're Fat entry.

Now, that being said, I've had a lot of delicious breakfasts since we've been together and would like to share some of them with you.

Alright, where to begin, hmmmmmmmm...

Well, I figure we'll start smallish and healthier.

An easy, nutritious and tasty breakfast is the smoothie. While not a solid meal, it has most of the ingredients one needs to start their day and is very simple to prepare (as long as you have a blender).

Basically, a smoothie is milk, fruit and a sweetener, if required. Many other ingredients can be thrown in as you see fit, such as yogurt, cereal (such as All-Bran for fibre) and vitamin supplements.

Here's a fairly tasty smoothie I make somewhat regularly:

Strawberry Banana Mango Smoothie

2 cups milk (2%, 1% or Skim)
1/2 cup banana slices
1/2 cup mango chunks (I use bags of frozen mango bought at the supermarket)
1/4 cup strawberries
1 tbsp sugar or honey
3 tbsp plain yogurt

Combine all ingredients in blender and blend until smooth.

If mixture is very thick, add more milk and continue blending.

Any kind of liquid can be substituted for milk. I've used pineapple and orange juice. You can always use soy/almond/hemp/whatever milk, if you can stand that stuff (I can't).

Serve in a couple of big glasses and there you have it.

Another "healthy" choice is a simple offering of plain yogurt, granola and fresh strawberries. Slice the strawberries, toss in a bowl with granola, spoon in a generous dollop of yogurt, top with a teaspoon of maple syrup and voilà!

Omelettes

Next up is an old favourite: the omelette. Now, omelettes aren't really complicated at all. They're basically made much the same way as scrambled eggs (I'll assume you all know how to make scrambled eggs), with just a bit more skill required.

I'll walk you through the process.

First of all, the size of the omelette is based on how many people are eating it. Let's assume Romeo (or Juliet) that this is an intimate breakfast for two. So, let's go with two eggs per person, grand total of four eggs.

Now, you need to figure out what you like in your omelette. I usually go with something simple like onion, red pepper, mushroom and cheddar, so let's assume you're going to make that too.

Dice onion and pepper fairly small (about half a centimetre in width), slice mushrooms. Sauté all veggies in butter until soft. Put in a bowl and set aside.

Crack the eggs in another  bowl. (If you don't know how to crack an egg by now, I think this is about the time you rush out for McMuffins. Fail.) Add about 1/2 cup milk. Whisk with a fork. Set aside.

In a large (and I do mean large) frying pan, melt about 2 tablespoons butter. Yeah, omelettes aren't diet food either. As the butter melts, make sure you manipulate it as to coat the whole pan. This is VERY important, as it will help the omelette cook evenly and not stick. Be careful not to burn the butter either.

Once your pan is coated, pour in the egg/milk mixture. Let it cook on medium high heat until the edges start to become solid and recede from the sides of the pan.

Add your veggies and cheese and let cook for about 5 minutes, allowing the cheese to start melting.

Now this is the tough part: folding the omelette over. Make sure you have a fairly wide spatula or damn agile hands. You can either use the spatula to fold one side of the omelette onto the other, or do it by flipping one side onto the other with just the pan. Now, if you're like me, you suck at both and are going to break the omelette's beauty.

Here's what a properly folded omelette looks like:

(side note: Avocado Omelette? YES PLEASE!)

Here's what mine usually look like (ignore the hash browns and sausages on the left of the plate):

But if you're like me, presentation means sweet frak all, as long as it tastes good! Now, I like my omelettes (and all my eggs really) well done, almost crispy. Just remember that the longer you cook it, the drier the eggs will be. The goodness or badness of this fact is purely subjective.

Either way, once you've gracefully folded the omelette, or not, slide it onto a plate and slice into two equal servings. Serve one half to your guest and eat the other. Enjoy!


Now, the breakfasts I've shown you so far are somewhat reasonable affairs and not too over-the-top. That all changes with the next post. That's when we bring in the meat!

Until then, enjoy your morning!

A new pasta recipe of utter luxury - sort of...

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Hello again!

It's easy enough to make pasta, as demonstrated (hopefully) in my first set of posts. And the great thing about pasta is that you can experiment to your heart's content with the sauce. You can go from something light like an oil and garlic sauce to the decadent richness of an Alfredo or vodka sauce. But what we have here is the pinnacle of decadent. So decadent, in fact, that we're going beyond pasta into the lovely terrain of gnocchi.

Gnocchi is a potato dumpling of sorts, about 1 inch long. You can find it in supermarkets in the pasta section. It cooks in mere minutes and is about as substantial a base for sauce as you can find. You can also make it at home with different ingredients than potatoes (Me or my girlfriend are going to make sweet potato gnocchi at some point).

Here's what it looks like:

Gnocchi is the kind of stick-to-ribs food that would be great after a day in the snow (or an hour shovelling the driveway), especially when you top it with a Gorgonzola-cream sauce. Be warned, this is the opposite of diet food!

Potato Gnocchi w/Gorgonzola-Cream Sauce

Ingredients

1 package potato gnocchi (about 500 grams)

1 tbsp unsalted butter or olive oil
1 small onion, cut in half and sliced thin

3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup whipping or table cream
1/2 cup 2%, 1% or skim milk
100 g (approx) Gorgonzola or other blue cheese (the original recipe calls for Stilton, but that can overpower the palette)
2 tsp finely chopped fresh thyme
2 tsp finely chopped fresh rosemary
Fresh ground black pepper to taste

Directions

In a fairly large pot, bring salted water to boil.

While water is heating to a boil, in a saucepan, melt butter/heat oil (you're using the butter/oil to sauté the garlic and onions, so it's up to you which one you want to use, both are tasty, olive oil is probably better for you).

Sauté onions and garlic until they start to turn golden brown, about 6-8 minutes on medium-high heat.

Add cream and milk and bring to a boil. Be careful when bringing to a boil as the cream/milk mixture will bubble over very quickly making a total mess. Reduce heat to low (2-3) as soon as it boils. Let sauce simmer and reduce a bit (3 minutes or so)

Add cheese a little at a time, stirring constantly, until all cheese has melted into sauce.

Add thyme, rosemary and pepper. Reduce heat to minimum.

Back to the water: once boiling, add gnocchi, stirring to separate each piece. Boil for about 3 minutes. Gnocchi will be ready when it floats to to the top of the pot.

Empty gnocchi into a strainer and drain water. Put gnocchi back into pot.

Pour sauce into pot with gnocchi and mix well.

Serve in bowls with good bread to soak up sauce, a salad, and your favourite wine.

Enjoy! 

A tidbit to whet your appetite for my next full post

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Hello again!

As I may have mentioned in previous posts, I discovered the art of smoking food a couple of years ago and am really enjoying it. So far, I've done smoked pork back ribs several times, smoked pork tenderloin and smoked tilapia (fish).

When I have a bit more time and experience, I'm going to go into a full-blown post about the art, the joy, the dreams that I've felt while wreathed in smoke on my back deck.

My next thought is to try smoking shrimp. And cabbage.


So, since it seems easiest, here's a completely untested Smoked Cabbage recipe. If you have the tools, give it a try! If not, give me a few days and I'll tell you EVERYTHING I know on the art of smoking food.

Simple Smoked Cabbage


4 servings

Ingredients

1 head cabbage
1/2 cup butter
salt and pepper to taste

Directions

- cut cabbage into fourths place stick of butter in middle close firmly but don't let butter come out of top place heavy aluminum foil around place on smoker for about 4 hours until tender.



Simple enough, right? Well, there are things you'll need and steps to take. If you know them, give 'er. If not and you're completely confused by what I'm talking about, stick around, all will be revealed. I just hope I've piqued your curiosity.


See you soon!

Comfort Food and Levels of Taste

Howdy!

It's hard to pin down what exactly 'comfort food' really means. It's all a matter of how you grew up and your level of taste. I remember a girl I was dating once told me that her ultimate comfort food was seared foie gras. Yeah, not quite what what normally comes to mind.

Which brings me to 'levels of taste' and a distinction I like to make amongst those of us who LOVE food. There are two kinds of food lovers: so-called 'foodies' and what I like to call 'foodophiles'. In French, it's the difference between 'gourmet' and 'gourmand'. More to the point, a 'foodie' is someone who only eats the best: the freshest and rarest ingredients, the fanciest, most elaborate plates, and who generally avoids all fast food and processed foods. Basically, a food snob. Contrary to what you might have gathered, I am NOT a 'foodie', I am a foodophile (with some foodie leanings).

So what is a foodophile? Well, think of Homer Simpson as the foodophile poster boy. A foodophile is someone who loves ALL (well, most) food, whether it's beluga caviar or a Joe Louis (think Hostess cupcakes, but Canadian); Beckta or McDonald's. Now, I do have a few peccadilloes about food that might nudge me towards foodie-ness, like my aversion to McDonald's 'beef', my revulsion at the proliferation of ketchup on wonderful foods, and my sense of bewilderment at the term 'well done' applying to any cut of meat.

But, for the most part, I'll eat ANYTHING.

Which brings us back to comfort food.

Part of growing up in the 70s/80s was living through the beginning of the Age of Processed Food. Entire meals could be done up in the microwave. Burgers from the local McDick's or Harvey's was the biggest treat 10-year-old me could get. As time went on and the 90s came along, I was living off of microwaved nachos (to be fair, I was in university at the time).

All this to say that a lot of homecooked meals were hard to come by for most kids growing up around me. I was lucky enough to have a mom who cooked a lot and very well, but there were still corners cut (there was a pizza night and a take-out burger night almost every week). I know that a lot of my friends were living off KD and hot dogs. So, it's only natural that a lot of us consider things like KD, hot dogs, pizza pops and other super-processed foods to be comfort foods!

Which is really a shame when you get right down to it, because the nutritional value of this kinda stuff is on par with shoe leather, and I will stand firm on the 'foodie-esque' principle that homemade food is almost always better tasting, not to mention more nutritious as it usually uses less salt, there's no monoguanodextrine, and you can taste the love (at least that's what my girlfriend says).

So, maybe the best thing is to try and recreate store bought comfort food at home. Just today I found a recipe for homemade Joe Louis! Pretty sure you can't taste the chemicals in this version!

Now my last two posts were all about warming Fall fare that easily falls into the "comfort food" category. So, what besides chili, pasta and soup is a 'comfort food'? Well, even though I rarely had it at home growing up, many North Americans will stand with meatloaf as a comfort food standard. So, with that in mind, I present a truly remarkable version of meatloaf that I found in the paper back in '04.

Meatloaf par Excellence

2 eggs

½ cup milk

1 ½ tsp salt

½ tsp pepper

½ cup bread crumbs

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

½ grated carrot

1 cup grated cheddar

1 tsp basil (dry)

½ tsp oregano

1 lb ground beef

meat from 2 sausages (mild Italian)

salsa

- Mix eggs, milk, salt, pepper & bread crumbs till crumbs dissolve

- Add veggies, cheese and herbs and mix

- Add meat and mix together

- Pack mix into loaf pan and top with salsa

- Bake at 350 F for 75 minutes (possibly less, check to see if done) – drain fat as you go (VERY important - basically, with oven mitts, remove the loaf from the oven and pour out the fat from one of the corners into the sink)

Once finished, remove from pan with spatula, slice and serve with veggies on the side!

So, that's one comfort food recipe down. 


No. 2 is completely switching gears but reflects a cuisine that is almost all 'comfort food'. Or at least all fattening! I lived in Prague, Czech Republic for almost a year back in '98-'99 and pretty much lived off of 'smazeny syr' - which is essentially a deep fried cheese sandwich. They take a breaded disk of Edam cheese, deep fry it till it's melty, stick it on a kaiser style bun and top it with a glob of mayo. They were sold at little kiosks all over the downtown core. Oh, and you could buy cold beer at the same spot and drink it while you ate your sammich o' doom, IN PUBLIC! Ahhh, those were the days. Needless to say, I gained over 30 pounds while I was there. Now, I won't encourage you to try and make 'smazeny syr' any time soon, I'm not that sadistic! But, there is another Czech delicacy that is almost as decadent, but probably a lot easier to make and less calorically masochistic.


Bramborak is a Czech potato pancake, similar to latkes. I had it a few times here and there and tried to make it myself once, but forgot to buy a cheese grater! The result was tasty, but the texture was all wrong. So do yourself a favour and buy a cheese grater! Heck, any cook worth his or her salt should have one anyway...

Bramborak (Czech potato pancakes)



½ kg raw potatoes, peeled and grated
1 tbsp. minced garlic
1 egg
¼ cup flour
1 tbsp. salt
oil for frying (veg or peanut)
milk (as much as necessary to bind mixture)
1 tsp. marjoram (or more to taste)
Black pepper to taste
1 tsp caraway seeds


- grate/mince potatoes
- mix with eggs, milk, flour, spices
- form into flat, pancake-like pieces, about 10 cm in diameter
- float cook in hot oil until golden and slightly crispy
- drain on paper towel to remove excess oil
- serve hot topped with warmed sauerkraut

So, that's about all I can think of today on comfort food. I'm sure I'll be back with more!

Cheers!

Fall means Batch Cooking - Part II - Soups and Sauces

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Hi there!

So we're back with the second part of my hard-hitting journalistic bombshell piece on... um, batch cooking? Never mind. But here I am back with more hearty Fall-oriented recipes that will warm your cockles and sub-cockles (a nod to Denis Leary). First, we'll look at a couple of pasta sauces that are a little different from your standard bolognese (meat) sauce or "chunky vegetable delight" or whatnot.

3 - Pasta Sauce

As you may well know, I'm a big fan of pasta. It's easy to prepare (as seen from this blog's inaugural posts), easy to eat, and it's good for you (I've recently started running and am enjoying the guilt-free carbs...). Now, a good "aglio e olio" (garlic and oil) style pasta is the height of simple gourmet, but there's something about a thick, rich, tomato-laden sauce that simply screams "comfort food". We all had a mom/grandmom/stepmom whose sauce evokes childhood memories. I'm fortunate enough to have had my mom's vegetarian sauce (but with sausage thrown in!) as well as my step-mom's spicy bolognese, as well as my dad's meatballs to satisfy my culinary memories of the joys of spaghetti.

Now over the years, I've developed a few of my own pasta sauces that bear no resemblance to anything I grew up with. The first was based on a tomato basil sauce that we made at Big Daddy's restaurant in Ottawa. As you'll notice, it's a sweet sauce that doesn't make use of the standard whackload of garlic found in most pasta sauces, which makes for a more delicate flavour that you might find surprisingly enjoyable.

Tomato-Basil-Sausage Pasta Sauce


Ingredients

4 tomatoes – ripe, pureed or chopped very fine
1 can tomato paste
3-4 cloves garlic
1 medium sweet onion, minced fine
1 tbsp sugar
2 tsp salt
2 tbsp cracked black pepper pepper
2-3 sausages - sliced (use whatever sausage you see fit;  I originally used mild Italian, but I've tried many different kinds and all usually add something different to the recipe)
1 red pepper – pureed or very finely chopped
½ cup fresh basil, chopped finely

Directions

- sauté garlic and onion in olive oil
- combine rest of ingredients, except basil and simmer until desired consistency is reached
- add basil once sauce is ready and is cooling (you do not want to cook the basil or it will taste like compost)

I usually serve this over penne or rigatoni and topped with lots of grated Parmesan (naturally).

Sauce number two is my take on an old standard: Linguine with clam sauce. My original recipe was a bit too fiery, even for me, so I've been working on reducing the spice level without making it too wimpy. So, the spices presented here are purely optional.

Red Clam Sauce for Linguine


Ingredients

2 cans clams
4 ripe tomatoes, puréed or finely chopped (or 2 cans plum tomatoes)
2 red peppers, finely diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
1-2 sweet or red onion, minced
1 small can tomato paste
1 cup red wine
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp black pepper
1/2 tsp cayenne (or less)
1/2 tsp crushed dry chillies (or less)
2 tsp basil (dry)
1-2 tsp oregano (dry)
olive oil

Directions
- Open cans of clams, reserve about 1/4 cup liquid, drain and rinse clams in colander.
- Heat olive oil and sauté garlic and onions for about 5 minutes.
- Add rest of ingredients, stir and simmer at medium low heat for about 90 minutes.
- Serve over or toss with cooked linguine and top generously with Parmesan cheese.

So, those are two of the sauces I frequently like to make. The Tomato Basil is best in early Fall when all the ingredients are freshest. The Clam sauce uses canned clams, so canned tomatoes aren't so bad and because it's spicy, it's a good cold weather warming meal for late October into Winter.

4 - Soup

Nothing says warming goodness like a hot bowl of soup! Chicken Noodle Soup, is, of course, a staple of Fall/Winter cooking as cold and flus abound. I'd offer a recipe or whatnot, but personally, nothing beats Lipton's Chicken Noodle with a whack of hot sauce.

Now soup covers 8 gazillion variations and recipes. There are some standards from across the world that I could provide recipes for, but there are myriad versions across the 'Net. But I do feel like naming a few of them (with a little help from wikipedia):

- Borscht - Ukraine/Russia (beet soup)
- Bouillabaisse - France (fish soup)
- Clam Chowder - Canada/U.S. (thick soup with clams and potatoes and bacon)
- Cock-a-leekie - Scotland (leek, potato and chicken broth)
- Gumbo - Louisiana (spicy seafood and okra soup)
- Minestrone - Italy (vegetable soup)
- Miso - Japan (fish broth and soy)
- Mulligatawny - India (British influenced spiced chicken soup)
- Onion Soup - France (self-explanatory)
- Tom Kha Gai - Thailand (chicken soup with coconut milk)
- Avgolemono - Greece (chicken soup with lemon and egg)

As for soup recipes, I have two I'll be sharing. First, I give you a personalized twist on an old favourite:


Broccoli-Cheddar Soup

Ingredients

- 3 cup vegetable broth (you can get it premade in tetra cartons, or use a powder/cube)
- 1 cup light cream (or full-fat milk)
- 1 head broccoli, cut into small florets and sliced stalks
- 1 small onion, minced
- butter to taste (for sautéeing onions)
- salt to taste
- pepper to taste
- 1 cup grated cheddar (old works best)

Directions:

- sauté onion in butter until soft and translucent
- add broth, bring to boil
- add broccoli, reduce heat to medium and simmer for 15-20 mins. (till broccoli. is soft but not mush)
- add milk, cheese, salt and pepper
- stir until cheese is melted
- let cool for a few minutes and purée using an immersion blender if you have one. Otherwise you can use a regular blender and blend in small batches, just remember not to cover it completely in order to let heat and
pressure escape. Conversely, you could just leave it as is, but it won't be terribly pleasing to the eye (but still quite tasty!).

With the cream and the cheddar, you'll find that this is a very hearty soup and is more than enough to make a meal. Maybe a little bread on the side is all you need.

The next recipe was one my girlfriend provided to me when I was trying to decide to do with some dried mushrooms in my cupboard. It's from the New Moosewood Cookbook by Mollie Katzen. And it's available through Google books!

So I made this a couple of weeks ago and it was deeeeeeelicious! Imagine a bowl of the best mushroom gravy ever with some sour cream goodness as a bonus...


Hungarian Mushroom Soup (I think it's considered Hungarian due to the paprika/sour cream element)

Ingredients

2 tbsp butter
2 cups chopped onions
1.5 to 2 lbs mushrooms, sliced (I used a mix of white, cremini, oyster, shitake and reconstituted porcini)
1 tsp salt
2 to 3 tsp dried dill (or 2 to 3 tbsp freshly minced)
1 tbsp mild paprika
2 tsp lemon juice
3 tbsp flour
2 cups water
1 cup milk - at room temperature
black pepper to taste
1/2 cup sour cream
finely minced fresh parsley, for garnish

Directions

1) melt the butter in a kettle or dutch oven (or any large pot).Add onions, and sauté over medium heat for about 5 minutes. Add mushrooms, salt, dill, and paprika. Stir well and cover. Let cook for about 15 more minutes, stirring occasionally. Stir in lemon juice.

2) Gradually sprinkle in the flour, stirring constantly. Cook and stir another 5 minutes or so over medium-low heat. Add water, cover, and cook about 10 minutes, stirring often.

3) Stir in milk, add black pepper to taste. Check to see if it needs more salt. Whisk in the sour cream, and heat very gently. Don't boil or cook it after this point. Serve hot, topped with freshly minced parsley.

I had this with toast and was totally satisfied. But I think it would be glorious alongside pork chops or schnitzel of some sort... And now I want schnitzel... dammit...

So there you have it, just a few ideas for batch cooking. Have fun with them, get creative! I'll be back soon with more recipes that suit the season.

Cheers!