Eating,

Restaurant review: Red Sea Cafe

2010-02-14T10:18:00.000-08:00

Communal dining at the Red Sea Cafe.

East Vancouver has an odd concentration of Ethiopian restaurants. There are two in two blocks on Commercial Drive (Harare and the Addis Cafe), both of which I've enjoyed. Now further west in Mt. Pleasant, we've still got a few options, as there are two more in two blocks near Fraser and Broadway, an intersection that conjures up images of dirty East Van but has been slowly undergoing some revitalization. Fassil is just east, and the Red Sea Cafe is just west. A brief exchange at On The Bone led me to seek out Red Sea, and while it wasn't spectacular, it was enjoyable.

For those of you that haven't tried Ethiopian or Eritrean cuisine, I highly recommend the experience. It's simple, communal eating, with vegie or meat dishes piled on top of injera, a sourdough crepe-like bread. You rip off a piece of injera, uses it to scoop up some food, and pop it into your mouth.

All the food is rich and creamy. The vegie dishes are some legume in a butter and spice sauce, the meat dishes a bit more oily and spicy. It's hard to know what the flavours are; ginger, chili, garlic, others. Red Sea is nearly identical to Harare and Addis. The vegie dishes are a little less exciting, but the meat dishes were more tasty. Nothing surprised, though we didn't try the raw meat dishes. For $30-35, the vegie/meat combo for three was quite filling (two meat and three vegie dishes on a huge plate of injera with extra injera on the side).

Fassil's menu looks a little more enticing: I really want to know what the white food is, because I haven't seen it at the other three:

The crepe-like injera is slightly sour, nicely chewy, and a perfect utensil.

Red Sea Cafe

670 East Broadway at Fraser

604.873.3332

Campagnolo part two: the family-style dinner

2010-01-31T19:13:00.000-08:00

Digging in to the pork ragu tagliarini. So tender.

To celebrate my birthday in style, we decided to go to Campagnolo, fine-dining northern Italian, with two friends. When we were there for brunch a short while ago, I noticed that they serve family-style if you want (only for tables of four or six), meaning the kitchen cooks for you for a fixed price, either $30 or $40 per person. Knowing that we would likely spend that much anyway, I thought it would be a fun way to go through their menu.

N and I have been before, but just after it first opened in December 2008 and we couldn't remember what we'd had, and they've changed their menu (no more carne cruda, unfortunately). For a great review of the place when it first opened, see On The Bone, an excellent Vancouver food blog.

Our server (who was excellent and quite friendly) brought us our wine (a wonderful Cusumano Nero d'Avola from Sicily) and some cheese sticks. The wine menu is excellent, and priced better than one might expect given the food prices.

Our antipasti quickly followed: sliced cured meats, tuna crudo (raw albacore), an arugula salad, fried chickpeas, olives with hazelnuts. Delightful. All their cured meats (and sausage) are homemade. The tuna was perfect, and the cured meats were top notch. Top notch, I say.

A pizza was next, with sausage and arugula and parmesan. Excellent. Then the primi. A pork ragu tagliarini that was a joy, every bite so tender, one of the best dishes of the evening. The arlecchino (bow-tie pasta) with fennel sausage and kale was too dry but still quite good. The mushroom risotto was earthy and comforting.

Tender chicken and slightly rubbery halibut.

For secondi we had a nice piece of Polderside chicken, some sliced steak and a piece of halibut. At this point we were quite full, but these dishes didn't impress as much. The steak was very good, the chicken was very rich and tender, but the halibut was overdone. A side order of potatoes was superflous at that point.

Delicious blood orange panna cotta and and slightly odd pineapple cake.

Vanilla panna cotta with blood orange compote and crushed hazelnuts was almost too much after all the rich food. The pineapple cake with Italian meringue didn't seem to fit, but was nice and moist.

Cappuccinos capped off what was the best meal I've had in a long time. I hope to return soon, once we've saved a bit.

Campagnolo

1020 Main St. (just north of the bus station).

604.484.6018

5pm till late seven days a week

Campagnolo part one: Saturday brunch

2010-01-31T10:10:00.000-08:00

The delicious braised pork belly crepes. Whoever came

up with this dish deserves thanks.

It was my birthday a short while ago, and we decided to try Campagnolo again. I'll leave that for Campagnolo part two, but while we were browsing their menus, I noticed that they did brunch, and at very reasonable prices considering the quality they put out for dinner.

The menu is very short: only seven items, with four sides. They offer three different frittatas ($9 - $10.50) and four other breakfasts, or colazione ($11 - $12). Each main comes with one side, or contorni.

The frittata with pancetta, spinach and goat cheese looked too good to pass up. With a side of roasted potatoes, it didn't disappoint. The frittata itself was a little flat, but the pancetta (Italian bacon) was perfectly crispy. The potatoes could have been a little more flavourful, but they were still quite good.

Eggs with tomato on country bread.

My friend tried the frittata with potato, fontina and black pepper, and was quite pleased. The eggs with tomatoes on country bread was quite large (3 eggs) and looked delicious. But the winner of the morning was definitely the braised pork belly crepes (crespelle) with mushroom cream sauce. Tender pork, rich sauce, light crepes... delicious. I am really looking forward to a return visit.

The spare yet warm interior.

Campagnolo

1020 Main St. (just north of Terminal)

Brunch Saturday and Sunday, 11:30 - 2:30

604.484.6018

Restaurant review: Eating at the Libra Room

2010-01-22T01:17:00.001-08:00

N and I went to the Libra Room tonight to hear a string quartet play some Shostakovich. I know, what? He's a Russian composer that I had only read about, but our friends R and J were interested so we agreed. R pulled out (something about touring NYC with his band... guess he missed out on Shostakovich), so the three of us went to enjoy an evening of modern classical music at what is normally a jazz-ish bar.

We started with a drink. The wine list is full of cheap drinkers that didn't appeal. I went for beer: Unibroue's Blanche de Chambly is a lovely wheat beer in the German tradition. N had some forgettable shiraz. I have no idea what J had. Like I said, cheap drinkers.

I ordered the southwest pork tenderloin with polenta, salsa and refried beans (of which I was nervous) for $14, N opted for a beet salad to start ($8) and the sable fish with purple potato mash and green pea puree($15), and J went for the steak with puff pastry potatoes au gratin and grilled tomatoes and eggplant ($19). The lamb sounded good (anything wrapped in prosciutto will taste pretty good), but for $25 I'll eat lamb elsewhere.

I'm not overawed with the kitchen's ability to put out a pork tenderloin. The pork itself was a bit bland (though nicely tender), the polenta was a touch too crispy (when polenta gets too crispy it's just chewy), and the refried beans came out of a can, I'm pretty sure. Still, for $14 I've had burgers that were worse than this. I wouldn't order it again, but I would try something else on the menu.

I tried a piece of steak, and it was decent. I hope the sides were better. The sable fish looked very good, though I didn't try it. N's beet salad looked quite good, with a generous dollop of chevre.

All in all, not a great dining experience. The Libra Room is not a place to go strictly for food, though they are trying to make it so. The menu has been improved, and you can tell that the chef is trying to offer interesting meals. They're just not pulling them off that well. It's decent for the price, and hopefully they will improve.

The real reason to go to the Libra Room is the music, which tonight was horrible at times, and merely good if uninspiring for the remainder. A Shostakovich string quartet is not your mother's classical music, I'll tell you that much. Moody, amelodic (unmelodic?), punctuated by sharp bursts of minor notes... pleasing dinner music this wasn't. It is, however, one of the only places I know that has live music seven days a week, and for that it deserves our support (even though I've heard there are rumblings about how they treat musicians). I'll come back the next time a friend's band is playing, order a beer, and maybe try the fish.

Libra Room
1608 Commercial Drive
5 - 1 seven days a week (and usually later on the weekend)
604.255.3787

Review: Vij's on a Friday night

2010-01-16T12:38:00.000-08:00

I was the lucky recipient of a surprise dinner at Vij's last night (many thanks to the lovely N and J, and to S for companionship). Everything you've heard is true: it's packed, the wait is fun (no reservations), the service is excellent, the food is amazing, and Vij is a brilliant host.

We started off the evening at Bin 942, the second Bin. This Vancouver stalwart is going strong, with an excellent selection of wines and tasty tapas. We tried a few different wines; the Chateau St. Michelle Riesling ($7/glass) was a hit, and Tinhorn Pinot Gris ($8 and slightly orange from leaving the skins on) was also tasty. It gladdens my dining heart when the cheaper glasses are recommended. The $10 malbec was also good, and I'm glad to have finally found one I enjoy. Popcorn with truffle oil was a little too salted but helped stave off hunger while we waited. The service was excellent (though N might argue that I just had a crush on the bartender).

At Vij's we settled into the waiting area and were quickly offered some tasters. We ordered some drinks, which the staff attach to your table (so much better than having to settle with a bartender after waiting at the bar for a table). Vij came over to check on how we were doing, and to see how our time elsewhere went. Apparently he had met our friends while they put their name down, recommended a place for drinks, and was checking to see if they'd followed his recommendations. Attentive: check.

The ladies ordered for the table as anticipation grew. Vij asked if we were chilly (courteous: check) and how busy Bin was (professional: check). We were going to order a sweeter German white to go with the spicy food, but I spied Joie Farm's A Noble Blend, touted as one of the best BC whites. I asked Vij if it would go well, and he effusively agreed (okay, now I'm just gushing). The wine was truly excellent, and the mark-up was under 100%.

The food arrived in batches, first some naan, then a seafood dish with spot prawns (frozen from May, I'm sure, but still good), the creamiest saag paneer I've ever tasted, and the amazing lamb popsicles in a lovely sauce that was both creamy and tangy (which N just told me she would drink cups of if made available). After discussing how the lamb recipe is in Vij's cookbook and is perfectly rendered, the waitress told us how happy she was to discover that the recipe is in Vij's cookbook and is perfectly rendered.

The aforementioned lamb popsicles, wine-marinated, in a fenugreek
cream curry on turmeric spinach potatoes. A true delight.

After dinner chai was complimentary, the service was excellent, and the setting was perfect. The busy room never felt claustrophobic, food arrived quickly but staggered perfectly. Vij was a wonderful host, and we ate the best Indian food in the city. I'm already looking forward to a return visit.

Vij's
1480 West 11th at Granville
604.736.6664
dinner served from 5:30 - no reservations

Bin 942
1521 West Broadway at Granville
604.734.9421
5 - 2 daily

Homemade granola

2010-01-10T20:51:00.000-08:00

You can see that I don't keep the tidiest kitchen all the time. This was around 11pm,
and I just didn't want to clean before I started baking.

While in Toronto in December I saw that my friend had made granola. Over the past year I've thought about it, said we should do it, and then nothing. The other day I decided to get off my ass and make some granola, like we used to when I was a kid. I grabbed the Rebar cookbook off the shelf (thanks, Bex, still got it) and got to work.

Well, got to buying ingredients, anyway. The making didn't happen until midnight-ish, because neither my lovely girlfriend nor I could sleep, and I decided to make the most of my time. It was oddly satisfying to stay up making granola. Here's the recipe from Rebar, a lovely little vegetarian restaurant in Victoria that people love.

3 c large flake oats
1 1/2 c barley flakes
1/2 c oat bran
1 cup unsweetened coconut
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup hazelnuts, coarsely chopped
1/2 c pumpkin seeds
1/2 c sunflower seeds

1/2 c veg oil
1/4 c water
2/3 c maple syrup or honey
1 tsp vanilla

1 c dried cranberries
1/2 c dried blueberries

Dry and liquids. Warm water means the honey mixes more easily.

Mix the first eight ingredients. Whisk together four wet ingredients. Combine the two thoroughly. Bake on two cookie sheets for about 30 min, stirring occasionally to ensure even baking. Add fruit and store.

This is actually with only half the granola, but it looked so pretty.

I made a few changes: Almonds instead of hazelnuts, some cashews, only a few pumpkin seeds, raisins instead of blueberries, and no coconut. I used honey, and warm water makes it easier to mix the liquid ingredients. And just like that, a big can of homemade granola. So simple, and so rewarding.

Restaurant review: Habit

2010-01-09T08:49:00.000-08:00

I just grabbed this from their site, as I didn't think to take pictures.

Looks like a pretty good shepherd's pie.

Last might my lovely girlfriend and I had dinner at the newly done Habit at 10th and Main. It reopened a short while ago after a lengthy period of renovations after a nasty fire closed it down. I didn't eat at the first incarnation, but I heard good things. It advertises itself so:

Lounge - Bar - Modern Canadian Food.

A quick glance at the menu shows a limited but intriguing selection of appetizers and mains, and some mouthwatering desserts. Of the appetizers, the cod cakes look good, as do the sweet carrot and brie perogies. We weren't too hungry, though, so only ordered a main each. The first thing that caught our eyes was the tuna casserole. They also offer a lamb meatloaf, veggie* shepherd's pie, some grilled fish, steak, brisket and a pork tenderloin. Both my girlfriend and I wanted the tuna casserole, but I thought that for a first time at a new restaurant we should mix it up a bit, and was leaning towards the pork tenderloin (but hesitating over pineapple chutney; I would prefer fig, maybe) when the extremely friendly server told us about the duck confit special, and I was sold.

It came with fried spinach, mushroom and bacon, and amazing gratin potatoes. They were the highlight of the dish, to be sure. The duck itself tasted beautiful and was perfectly done, but too salty even for confit.

N's tuna casserole was pretty perfect. It tasted like really, really good tuna casserole, which is exactly what it's meant to be. It didn't try to be too fancy, using high quality ingredients to make a wonderfully simple dish.

The dessert menu came with the information that the owner's mother makes them all fresh (though not the cheese plate from Mount Pleasant Cheese Shop). I was tempted by the pineapple upside-down cake, a childhood favourite, and the lemon meringue tart with strawberry sauce sounds pretty good, but the chocolate brownie with mocha ice cream, honeyed walnuts, whipped cream and caramel was the first choice of us both.

And it was a good choice. It's hard to go wrong with a brownie, but the quality shone through. The walnuts were perfect, not too sweet, the ice cream was a delight, and the brownie was rich without being cloying.

The drink menu is varied: great beer selection, very interesting do-it-yourself retro cocktails, decent wine selection, and an entire page of Canadian whiskies. Yes, you read that correctly. I'm not a huge fan of rye, so it's not a selling point for me at all. I don't care how you describe it, Canadian Club is , and I'm not going to order it just because it says that it has a caramel palate. We tried a more expensive one a while ago when there just for drinks (I forget which), and it was decent, but nothing special. I've since tried Tangle Ridge, which they offer, and quite enjoyed it.

Comfortable, relaxing, and welcoming.

The new decor is clean and warming. It's a bit too loungey for my liking, but it's a lounge, so... Our server was excellent, very friendly, very informative. It was a bit chilly, but that might have been me still getting over a cold. It's a very congenial atmosphere, no one rushing around, a mid-level hum in the room never overpowering our own conversation.

The website that I'm using to help write this is functional and clear, but uses pdf menus, something that is really bothersome at times. Yes, you have to code in a few more pages instead of just writing a word doc and converting it to a pdf, but for my money it's worth the trouble.

Habit will definitely see my expectant smiling face again. Hell, I'll return just for the service and those potatoes.

Habit Lounge

2610 Main Street @10th

604.877.8582

5-12:30, 5-1 on the weekend, 5-11 on Sunday.

* Veggie with two g's always bothers me. I really don't see the need. How many of you thought Reggie was pronounced Regg-ee as a child?

Time and corn flour

2009-05-22T10:29:00.001-07:00

So I have a bit more time on my hands lately, and I've started to garden rather than bake. So there will be a distinctly gardeny feel to this, but I do intend to continue baking.

This morning we were hungry and had nothing to go with eggs, so I thought I would make some sort of corn cake or bread or something. I started with two eggs, some oil and honey and salt, whisked together. Then about a cup of corn flour (not meal) and half a cup of spelt flour and a teaspoon of baking powder. It seems like I ended up with corn pancakes.

Photos to follow.

Extended absence

2009-04-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

Hi everyone (if there is anyone left),

I just wanted to apologize for the lack of notice about the extended absence. Work and stuff got in the way of blogging. I've also been told to avoid white flour and sugar, for health reasons. I will remain away until after May 12th (election day in BC!), at which point I will be exploring my favourite recipes and trying to adapt them.

Cheers,
Brenton

Crepe update

2009-01-08T14:46:00.000-08:00

"Leaving you honey bronzed and very desirable" (Snik sun tan cream description)

I made crepes this afternoon, following the arrival of my mom's much-anticipated recipe:

Blend/beat/whisk:
3 eggs
1 c milk (whole milk, which is standard for me)
2 T oil*
1 T sugar
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon

Beat in:
2/3 c flour (I used a tad more)

Cook on medium heat, about 1/3 - 1/2 cup per crepe.

These turned out as I was hoping: taste like my mom's, feel like my mom's. They're a bit spongy in comparison to the last batch I made, because of the higher egg:milk:flour ratio, but I think it makes them better.

* I used olive oil, because I don't have any other around, but I really don't see the problem with it. Some people feel that its taste is too strong, and it overpowers some dishes. I like the flavour.

Served with bananas, yoghourt and syrup.

Blackstone Porter - Driftwood Brewery

2009-01-07T16:06:00.000-08:00

Blackstone Porter
650mL 5.1% alc./vol.
Driftwood Brewery, Victoria, BC

(This post may turn into a porter/stout tasting, because I've been enjoying a few lately.) This porter was brought over by a friend, a touch of serendipity as I had eyed it up while in Victoria a few weekends ago but didn't want to carry it back.

It is well-described on the label and website (see below), so I won't go into detail about its taste. The chocolate wasn't exactly overwhelming, but it had a perfect blend of bitter and rich malty flavours. It was smooth without being bland, and is brewed locally.

It is available in Vancouver at Brewery Creek, at 14th and Main.

On the label:
"This London style porter is distuinguished by a bittersweet chocolate character derived from the delicate balance of a traditional sour mash and a blend of select black and chocolate malts."

From the website:
"With just enough dark malt to be black this Porter leans toward the dry side in its malt profile. The addition of a partial sour mash (not uncommon in pre-Industrial Revolution Porters) lends a subtle tartness to the bittersweet chocolate flavour that dominates."

Pita bread

2009-01-04T19:07:00.000-08:00

Perfect pita.

As a child my family hosted a family from Iran for several months as they got used to Canada, learned English, etc. I have fond memories of eating pita and hommous with a salty soft white cheese, like feta but soaked in brine. I recently bought some soft Bulgarian sheep feta at a local deli and it made me want that pita and cheese again. So I found this recipe at about.com (odd, I know) and got to it.

Mix:
1/2 c warm water
2 1/4 tsp yeast (1 package)
1 tsp sugar (I would use honey next time)
Let yeast flower.

Mix:
3 c flour
1 1/4 tsp salt

Form hole in middle of flour. Pour yeast liquid into hole, add 1 c warm water and stir. Knead for 10-15 minutes, until dough is elastic. Let rise until doubled in size. Punch down. Form about 10 balls from the dough. Let sit covered for 10 minutes. Roll out dough into circles, 5-6 inches across, 1/4 inch thick. Bake at 500F on preheated sheet for 4 minutes until it puffs up, then flip and bake for 2 more.

This is working wonderfully; the pictures should tell the tale well enough. I am so pleased with this. The recipe is prefaced with this: "It is very hard to duplicate in a home kitchen". Well, thanks for the warning, but no need. The recipe is simple, and these are great.

One minor thing: Next time I won't knead for so long, as they are a bit chewy.

Doubled in far less than the suggested 3 hours.

Waiting for the rolling pin.

This was a pretty magical experience; until they puffed up I didn't quite believe that they would.

Crepes

2009-01-02T16:21:00.000-08:00

Served with leftover cranberry sauce and sour cream, and apricot jam and cream cheese, both topped with maple syrup.

I went to make crepes the other morning, and couldn't find my mom's tried and true crepe recipe (see Edit below). I searched for about 2 1/2 minutes on the interweb and found two similar recipes, at all recipes and Alton Brown's on foodnetwork.

The first think I noticed is that both use water and milk, which struck me as odd. I followed the first one, though made a suggested change from the comments section: it says to mix the eggs and flour then add wet. The suggested change was to follow standard procedure and mix wet then add dry.

Mix (using great new electric beaters):
2 eggs
1/2 c milk
1/2 c water
2 T butter, melted
(I added vanilla)

Mix in:
1 c flour
1/4 tsp salt
(I added a splash of sugar)

They turned out okay, but not as good as I'm used to. It may have been the water. I'm going to get my mom's recipe and try again.

On the plus side, I did get to use my new mixing bowl and egg beaters. They performed admirably.

Frying in the cast ire.

Edit: My mom just emailed it to me. Much higher ratio of eggs/milk to flour. And none of this water in addition to milk business.

3 eggs

1 cup milk

1 T sugar

1/4 tsp salt

1/4 tsp cinnamon

2 T oil

2/3 cup flour

Eggs milk etc in blender, add dries

Homemade vanilla extract

2008-12-31T13:14:00.000-08:00

The gorgeous vanilla caviar.

This will be short, as it's just a copy of these instructions at Vanilla Review. It felt pretty cool to make homemade vanilla, it took only a short time and wasn't at all expensive.

Vanilla beans in stores can be $5 each, so you would need a small fortune if you wanted to make some serious extract working with what's available in your local store. After reading a few tips, I looked at the offerings on eBay and found something that looked decent: 30 organic beans for $23 Cdn. And when they arrived there was a bonus pack of 10 more. I chose grade A, but apparently grade B provide more flavour by weight, so if you're buying by the pound go for that option.

Slice beans lengthwise, and scrape out the inner "caviar". Stick caviar and bean husk in alcohol, shake like a hot-damn, let sit for several weeks, and you're good to go. Use 6-8 beans per cup of alcohol. I used vodka, as it's a more neutral alcohol, but it might be fun to try other flavoured alcohols. On the advice of the instructions I chopped the bean husks up, to allow for better flavour extraction. Done and done.

Ceramic cutting board (our wooden ones would have absorbed so much vanilla flavour, I thought), knife, bottle, vodka, beans.

You can't really see, but the vanilla stuff is just under halfway to the top of the alcohol.

Merry Christmas to me: new measuring tools!

2008-12-28T21:32:00.000-08:00

New tools. I won't show you my old measuring ones.

I had a wonderful Christmas in snowy Vancouver: family, food, drinks, movies, games and so on. And presents: chocolate, Drambuie, gloves, books, among other things.

After spending so much time baking, though, I realized that I wasn't at all happy with my measuring and mixing tools. They are plastic, ugly, and have started to deteriorate. Today, after the soup and biscuits, we went to look at some kitchen/housewares at Boxing Day sales. The offerings at nood weren't particularly good, so bidding our friends adieu we wandered over to Ming Wo in Chinatown. (Great store; not a great site.)

I love Ming Wo. Love love. All the essential cookware, good prices, and friendly Chinese ladies eager to help. I've only been to the original one in Chinatown, so I can't speak for the other locations, but every time I go in I spend more than I should and I have a great time.

At home I had checked out the Cookworks site, hoping to find measuring tools on sale. Booooo. Cookworks may be a great store but everything is overpriced. At Ming Wo I found similar or identical products for 1/2 or 3/4 the price. And here is what we bought:

1 set stainless steel oval measuring cups
1 set stainless steel measuring spoons
1 large stainless steel mixing bowl
1 plastic spatula-like scraping tool (for getting muffins out of cursed non-stick tins)
1 handheld electric mixer (no more egg beater mishaps for me)

We looked at paring knives but couldn't decide which one to get. Next visit. We also need muffin tins, a 9" x 9" pan, and.... ack, I'll wait till I get there so I can enjoy the browsing.

Edit: Nina wanted me to clarify: she bought everything. So when I say "we bought", I mean "Nina bought".

Cheese biscuits (sorry, no pictures)

2008-12-28T21:09:00.000-08:00

With so much damn turkey left over, we had naught else to do but make soup. Stock this, vegetables that, and done. But what to have with it? Easy: biscuits. So I whipped up the ol' standby: my grandma's baking powder biscuits. Simple, fast, and take less than half an hour start to finish.

Mix:
1 3/4 - 2 c. flour*
some salt... 1/2 tsp?
2-3 tsp baking powder
maybe a sprinkle of sugar if you want

Cut in:
1/4 c butter
You want the butter to still be in small chunks, so that when it hits the hot oven it melts and spreads across the dough, creating layers in the biscuits.

Stir in:
2/3 - 3/4 c. milk**

Flatten to about 3/4 inch thick. Cut into biscuit shapes.
Bake at 425 F for 13-15 minutes.

At the death (footie terminology), someone suggests adding the cheddar cheese. So we grated some up and I worked it in, then stuck them in the oven. I'm not sure how much; maybe a half or whole cup loose?

The results were fantastic. Light, crisp, cheesy and chewy. Perfect buttered and dipped in turkey soup.

* I'm not sure why it's approximate. Also, I commonly use some corn flour (not meal), spelt, maybe some whole wheat, and occasionally throw in some poppyseeds. Doesn't seem to make a difference.

** I sometimes sub some yoghourt or an egg, keeping the total wet at the same amount. The recipe is really forgiving.

Gingerbread and applesauce

2008-12-25T10:48:00.001-08:00

Sweet, rich, spicy and wonderfully complimented by the applesauce.

Growing up, one off my favourite desserts was my mom's gingerbread and applesauce. It's cake-style, not cookie, and if you don't know, my mom makes the best applesauce in three counties.*

It's a simple cake recipe, but uses an entire cup of molasses. My mom would use blackstrap, which lends such an intense molasses flavour and colour to it. I did a bit of research into the different types of molasses, and found a few interesting bits:

1) Fancy is sweeter and lighter. Also known as first, from the first boiling of the cane.
2) Dark is from the second boiling.
3) Blackstrap is the third and final boiling and has the least sugar and darkest colour.

On to the baking:

Cream:
1/2 c. shortening and 1/2 c. sugar.

Whisk in:
1 egg, 1 c. molasses, fresh grated ginger. (I bought fancy molasses without knowing how much lighter it would be. In the future I would go with dark or blackstrap.)

Mix:
2 1/2 c. flour
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp ginger (if you don't use fresh ginger)

Add dry to wet, alternately adding dry with 1 c. hot water.
Bake at 350 F for 45 min.

Top with applesauce, preferably from Transparent apples. (Picture of apples here.)

Over at smitten kitchen they've just posted a recipe that uses Guinness instead of water, considerably more sugar, more spices and more eggs.

Wet ingredients mixed. Much lighter than my mom's.

* copyright Matt Turner, circa 1994.

Choco-lemon bomb

2008-12-24T13:23:00.000-08:00

Flambe? More like flam-don't....errr....

With an excess of chocolate cupcake batter (and a criminal deficit of muffin tins), I needed something in which to bake it. I found the spring-form and dumped it in, making a thin cake. I wasn't quite sure what to do with it, until the lemon butter (see below) wound its way into my sight the other night. Layered chocolate cake? Six layers, I ended up with: chocolate cake, strawberry jam, choco-cake, lemon curd, choco-cake, lemon curd. Then I figured booze would make it better (I know there are a few of you that think this about almost anything). A drizzle of Cointreau and an attempt to flambe later, and I had a choco-lemon bomb (in homage to Calvin). Delish.

Cupcakes and lemon tarts

2008-12-23T09:38:00.000-08:00

Our busy baking kitchen.

A couple of nights ago Nina and I went to the store and came back armed to bake: pounds of butter, dozens of eggs, kilos of sugar, and so on. Nina wanted to make sandbakels (Scandinavian cookies) from her grandmother's recipe with lemon butter and I was considering simple sugar cookies; then I read that the dough would need to be chilled for a couple of hours. I considered alternatives, and decided on the simple chocolate cupcakes from Zoe's and my weekend of baking.

There are two things about baking that I love: easy, repeatable recipes and other people baking for me. The cupcakes fulfilled the first criterion, Nina's sandbakels the second.

I made two slight changes to the cupcake recipe. Both Zoe and I agreed they could be more chocolatey, so I added two ounces of chocolate. And because the chocolate was semi-sweet, I reduced the sugar to 1/2 c. I also soured my own buttermilk: 1/2 c. whole milk, 1 1/2 tsp. lemon juice, let sit for 5 min.

Nina's sandbakels sound easy but took a bit of doing: Cream 1 lb. butter and 1 c. sugar. blend in an egg, then 5-6 c. flour and 1/2 c. ground almonds. Press into tins, bake at 350 for 15 min. We couldn't find proper tart tins, so we used muffin tins, which resulted in a chunkier, heavier cookie when they are meant to be light and crisp, but we were quite happy with the result.

Sandbakels, with lemon butter.

Lemon butter (lemon curd, to the English): In a double boiler combine 1/2 c. lemon juice, 2 c. sugar and grated rind from two lemons. Add 1 c. butter, stir until melted. Stir in 4 well-beaten eggs, continue stirring until thick. Let cool.

We had mixed results. The cupcakes were good, but I had a disaster trying to repeat the buttermilk icing. Our egg beaters broke and I got grumpy. Nina's sandbakels were a smashing success. Filled with the lemon butter, they were a tart, gooey, crunchy delight. I also used the lemon butter in a scrumptious chocolate dessert the next night. Stay tuned.

Burgoo - hearty stews for our chilly winter

2008-12-18T15:27:00.000-08:00

Simple presentation for simply good food.

Faced with -2 weather in Vancouver (that's the high for the day, and it's not getting warmer anytime soon), Nina and I decided a visit to Burgoo* was called for. It's warm, cozy and friendly and specializes in hearty comfort food: stews, thick soups, grilled-cheese sandwiches and such from around the world. Exposed wooden beams and a small room make it feel pub-ish, without the fire. I've eaten there a few times, and with one exception it's been wonderful. Unfortunately that exception was today.

I was looking forward to their Irish stew, which I've enjoyed before: "Guinness braised lamb with vegetables and homemade dumplings, served over garlic mash potatoes". It's thick and tasty, perfect for a cold, wintry day. Nina suggested we try the Beef Bourguignon instead, and having only had good experiences with their menu, we thought it would probably be fantastic. It was good, but not great.

The meat was tender and flavourful, the vegetables were perfectly done, and as always the mashed potato base (they use it under all their stews) was very good. The accompanying biscuits were wonderful. The service was great, they use cloth napkins (a must, in my opinion), and even the utensils were nice and heavy.

Beef Bourguignon is a traditional French stew made from beef braised in red wine and broth, caramelized onions, carrots and mushrooms, with some tomato paste added to the sauce. The problem with Burgoo's Beef Bourguignon was in the sauce: the entire dish was fairly spicy, enough to drown other flavours, but from black pepper, not from chilis. I've only had it once before, so I'm no expert, but I'm pretty sure it's not meant to be spicy. When you cook cracked pepper for any length of time the heat in it really comes out, which is why one adds it to taste near the end of many recipes.

It was unfortunate, and won't stop me from returning. I've tried their Kentucky burgoo, their Irish stew, the French onion soup, the biscuits, and they've all been wonderful. I highly recommend a visit, and if you like black pepper I would even recommend the Beef Bourguignon. There are line-ups at mealtimes, a testament to the quality of food and service, but don't be put off. When it's this nasty and cold (and there's wolves...), we need warm, hearty comfort food. A visit to Burgoo will defiantly give winter the finger while wrapping you in a big warm foodie hug (a bit much?).

For a more comprehensive review, read On the Bone's experience at Burgoo.

* What is a burgoo, you ask? A thick meaty stew. Like chili, there is no set recipe. Burgoo's burgoo (how fun is that?) is "slow cooked meats with lima beans, corn, tomatoes, cabbage and okra served over garlic mash potatoes" and is pretty damn tasty.

A warm and cozy feel to the place helps when it's negative degrees outside.

Thick and hearty, just too peppery.

Wonderful cheese and parsley biscuits.

Butter

2008-12-17T12:14:00.000-08:00

I just read a good article in the New York Times: Butter holds the secret to cookies that sing. Good tips on handling and baking with butter, something that I've had trouble with in the past. I really noticed the difference when making pie crusts this summer. Allowing the dough enough time to chill was so helpful in making good crusts that easily roll out.

Some tips from the article:

For mixing and creaming, butter should be about 65 degrees: cold to the touch but warm enough to spread. Just three degrees warmer, at 68 degrees, it begins to melt.

For clean edges on cookies and for even baking, doughs and batters should stay cold — place them in the freezer when the mixing bowl seems to be warming up. And just before baking, cookies should be very well chilled, or even frozen hard.

The best way to get frozen or refrigerated butter ready for creaming is to cut it into chunks. (Never use a microwave: it will melt it, even though it will look solid.) When the butter is still cold, but takes the imprint of a finger when gently pressed, it is ready to be creamed.

I'm already looking forward to making some cookies soon.

The article talks about the variety of butters available to the home baker. I can't think of more than a few in our local stores: the store brand, one bigger brand, and maybe something from Lactancia. Where are all the artisan butters? Is it a function of our dairy board/milk quota system? We're experiencing a flourishing of small cheese-makers in BC, but so far I haven't seen anything similar in the world of butter.

Simul-blogging: rusks, cupcakes, popcorn

2008-12-14T15:36:00.000-08:00

This weekend I made my way over to Victoria to visit friends. Zoe (of the wonderful Art Loves Craft) bakes, crafts and does web things, and I was looking for help with my nascent website (and by nascent I mean a grey page with a button on it. A pretty nice button, though.) and some quality family time with them and their baby, seeing as I am Unca Biff. I was also looking forward to baking and blogging with Zoe. Simul-blogging, if you will.

We put together a line-up of recipes to try: rusks, cupcakes and candy corn. Nothing fancy, though at one point I asked how difficult croissants would be. Time-consuming was the reply.

What are rusks, you say? Stale scones, is the answer. Dry, stale scones. Aka double-baked scones. Like biscotti are to coookies, rusks are to scones. And they're from South Africa.

Zoe and I got started, halving a recipe from recipezaar.com: Grate 1/2 lb. butter into 2 lb. self-raising flour (9 1/2 c.), then work in with your fingers. Add 1 tsp. salt and 1 c. sugar. Combine 1 tsp. vanilla and 2 med. eggs (1/2 of 3 large, doesn't really matter), roughly add to flour mixture. Work in about 3 c. buttermilk.

The recipes says to form into balls 1/3 smaller than tennis balls (an odd sizing, that). We tried that, but decided simple logs would work just as well, and it did; about 1 1/2 inches thick. Bake for 45-60 min. at 350, until golden brown-ish. We could have left them longer, I think, because they were still quite moist and not really crumbly like the recipe says.

Break them into chunks and dry out in your oven. (Overnight at 175 with the oven door open a tad. Seems a bit much. We're trying 225 with the door open and closed.)

Verdict: The rusks are busts. See Zoe's similar conclusion here. Partly it's my fault: I added too much salt. This wouldn't be too bad, except that there isn't any other flavour. Booooooring. If I made them again (though I wouldn't) I would double the sugar and add something with FLAVOUR.

Double-baked, and edible. That's a low bar to set. (Zoe's photo)

Right now Dan is making candy corn, with the simplest recipe imaginable: 1/3 c. Oil, popcorn... when it starts popping add (1/2 c?) sugar, then sprinkle with salt when done. Really, that's it. I'm skeptical, but luckily I only have a few minutes to wait....

Verdict: Crispy, salty-sweet popcorny goodness. Will definitely make this with Nina soon.

You can kind of see the cooked sugar.

And on to cupcakes: one-bowl chocolate cupcakes from cookstr.com. Melt 1/2 c. butter and 4 oz. chocolate with 1 c. hot water; whisk in 2 c. sugar. Let cool; whisk in two eggs. Add 1/2 c. buttermilk, vanilla, 1/4 tsp. salt, 1 1/4 tsp. baking soda, then 2 c. flour. Bake for 20 min. at 350.

Zoe made up a buttermilk icing recipe, and it's wonderful: 1/2 c. butter, 3/4 c. sugar, 1/2 c. buttermilk and 6 oz. bittersweet chocolate in a double-boiler. It's pretty wet right now, so we're going to have to add some sugar and cocoa I think, but it tastes divine. Could use some lemon zest (next time).

Verdict: A creamy chocolatey cakey good time. We added 1/4 c. cocoa to the icing, and it solidified nicely. I will be surprised if we eat dinner tonight after 4 cupcakes each... Edit: Dan made us fried-egg sandwiches. He's good for that.

Mmmm, chocolatey goodness. I didn't put sprinkles on mine. (Zoe's photo)

All-in-all, quite a wonderful weekend. Thanks, gang!

Rusk dough about to go into the oven: mine, Zoe's and the tennis balls -1/3.

Zoe whisking cupcake batter. Recipe online on the laptop. Sooooo po-mo. Or something.

Me whisking cupcake batter. Simul-baking. (Zoe's photo)

Small cupcakes out of the oven. I think you can tell; they were nice and cakey.

Zoe's better picture of the cupcakes. What nice composition. (Zoe's photo)

Simul-blogging: taking pictures for my blog of Zoe taking pictures for her blog. Blog-dorks. Blorks.

Spaghetti Bolognese - the short version

2008-12-10T18:16:00.000-08:00

Served with Parmesan and a candle.

I always* thought spaghetti bolognese (spag-bol in the UK) was just spaghetti with tomato/ground beef sauce. That is, I did until I saw Heston Blumenthal make his perfect version of it on his show In Search of Perfection. For those that don't know, Blumenthal owns/runs The Fat Duck in England, rated the top restaurant in England in 2007 and 2008, best in the world in 2005.

He starts with oxtail, simmers things for hours upon hours, and in general makes simple dishes look amazingly complicated. His recipe here is a shortened version of that on his show. This is an earlier and even simpler version.

His version runs about 3 days long, time that I didn't have. I found a shortened and simpler recipe over at Just Hungry, and I was on my way. At 4pm I left to shop, and by 5:30pm the vegies were frying away. I mostly followed the JH recipe, but halved it-ish. I hope to eat at 8pm. (Edit: We ate at 7:45pm.) The sauce simmered for 1 3/4 hours; I would have liked to let it go another hour at least, but when you have a hungry date waiting, you cut corners.

Fry 1 c. each carrots, onion, fennel and celery, all finely diced.
Brown ground meat (I used 1/2 lb. lean beef, 1/4 lb. pork, 1/4 lb. veal), add to veg, along with herbs (rosemary, thyme, oregano, bay leaf), some red wine, some olive oil, 1/2-ish 796g canned tomatoes and 2 c. fresh diced tomatoes.
Simmer for hours.

It sounds simple, and it is. It also turned out well. With a sprinkling of fresh Parmesan (a blend from my local deli), the dish was rich, creamy (some people add milk) and satisfying. It did taste a lot like a simple pasta/tomato sauce/meat dish, and essentially that's what it is. Maybe I'm simply missing something from the debate about differences in Italian regional cooking, though it's not nearly as tomatoey as standard American pasta sauces, which are more like the Neapolitan version (Naples, in southern Italy) than the Bolognese. (Thanks again, Wikipedia.)

Both JH and my man Heston use dry pasta, and while I do love a good dry pasta, I haven't read anywhere why dry instead of fresh, though I seem to remember him discussing it on the show. The fresh pasta turned out just fine, though I did miss that wheaty durum taste you get with dry pasta.

The meat that I used wasn't particularly fatty, and I think this was a mistake. My options at the butcher were lean or extra-lean, though I suppose I could have asked them to grind some with the fat still attached. The pork and veal looked kinda fatty, so I thought it would make up for it. Next time I think I'll pay attention to JH's recipe and throw some bacon (pancetta) in the pan as well. I also don't think I browned the meat very well. I think I needed a hotter pan, or more oil, but the meat released a lot of liquid and stewed as much as it fried. Tips?

* always, Brenton? Hadn't really registered the phrase until a few years ago.

The sauce starts to simmer.

An hour or so in.

A very fine Valpolicella that was a gift from a friend.

The Great Bagel-Off of '08

2008-12-08T13:21:00.000-08:00

Welcome, everyone, to the Great Bagel-Off of '08. This momentous occasion was inspired by visits to two bagelries in the span of a week, and it got me to thinking: Who makes the best bagels in Vancouver? There aren't that many in the running, though we could have expanded our group of contestants just to make sure we didn't miss any hidden gems. As it was, we decided to have a head-to-head with the two acknowledged leaders in bagel baking in the city: Solly's and Siegel's. Both have multiple locations, making for a difficult choice: Do we try to include bagels from all locations? In retrospect we maybe should have,* but we decided on bagels from two Solly's locations (South - 28th and Main; and North - 7th and Yukon) and one Siegel's location (Granville Island), mostly out of convenience. Off we went.

We decided we would try three classic varieties from each place: sesame, poppyseed and cinnamon-raisin. Why not plain, you ask? Not sure, but it made sense at the time (and would quickly complicate things; see below). We also grabbed some cream cheese and jam, though they didn't really factor into the contest.

Personnel:
Me: Your fearless correspondent. Rode around Montreal on an old cruiser eating bagels and drinking espresso alongee. Some bagel-cred.
Matt: Thinks he knows bagels, but has NEVER BEEN TO MONTREAL! (that I know of)
Kaia: Lived in Montreal. Mad bagel-cred.
Lucas: His brother lives in Montreal. Bagel-cred by association.
Joanie: Has also lived in Montreal. Great hair.
Nina: A peripheral bagel-tester. Mostly napped, but made coffee for everyone.

First up, untoasted sesame:
Siegel's was warm and fresh. A bit doughy, but that's to be expected of a warm, fresh bagel. Kaia was having none of it, though. Solly's South was decent if unremarkable. Solly's North had good texture, nice and chewy, and a bit more salt. The winner. Lucas agreed with me that the fresh Siegel's deserved better. A stand-up guy, that one.

Next we tried untoasted poppyseed:
We quickly discovered that the clerk at Siegel's had made a mistake and given us plain instead of poppyseed. Marks off for incompetence. Solly's North had great flavour but was a bit too chewy. Solly's South was too thick and too chewy.

Siegel's plain deserves special mention at this point. Top marks overall, and by a wide margin, but with no direct competitors. The outside crust was a bit crunchy, split with the perfect sound and had great texture. It was a bit sweet, which was curious, but this was a great bagel. All four specimens were gone by the end of the Bagel-Off. Kaia really loved this bagel. A lot.

We got the toaster involved for the cinnamon-raisin round:
Solly's North and South went head-to-head out of the toaster. Neither had much flavour. North didn't have many raisins. South had better texture. Siegel's came in with a great-looking bagel that had a bit more cinnamon flavour but was also a bit doughy. This round was a disappointment for everyone, with no winner and real desire to repeat the cinnamon-raisin experience.

The fourth and last round was toasted sesame:
Siegel's was a great-looking bagel, with nearly no difference between the top and bottom. It was a little gooey (never good for a bagel), but tasted like a sesame bagel should. Solly's North took this round with a great entry: good texture and the best flavour. Solly's South was similar to North but their entries varied widely in the coverage of sesame seeds. (It should be noted here that Matt thought the South took this category while Joanie thought it tasted a bit weird.)

Aesthetics:
Siegel's definitely wins this. Thin, bumpy (can't think of a better word), round without being symmetrical. Both the Solly's were too thick, and some from South were horrible to look at.

Texture:
Solly's North. South was puffy, Siegel's suffered from some doughiness.

Flavour:
Solly's North edged this category, but Siegel's plain was the best overall.

A fine Bagel-Off, as bagel-offs go. No doubt there will be more in the future. I can't help but think that this was only round one, and that round two will be far more comprehensive. Benny's Bagel's was suggested. Any other suggestions? I know Mount Royal Bagels has a factory in North Van to supply Choices and/or Capers.

* Great Bagel-Off of '09, anyone?

It all started with a few bagels and a few labels.

Note-taking was an important feature of the Bagel-Off, obviously.

Those are some fine looking bagels from Siegel's.

A horrible, horrible specimen from Solly's South.

The aftermath. Not much of an aftermath, true, but we did start with 26 bagels. And if memory serves, the three plain bagels in the Siegel's pile were gone shortly after this photo was taken.

Applesauce

2008-12-01T22:10:00.000-08:00

Just made applesauce. It is so quick and easy, there should never be a reason to not make it. This batch took all of 20 minutes from start to finish, helped along by some mushy Macintosh apples. I wouldn't normally buy or cook with Macs, but I saw the bag of organic Macs at Granville Island yesterday and figured I needed some quick healthy snack food around. Well, they turned out to be bruised and a little mushy rather than crisp (which is really the only reason to buy Macs. That and their perfect apple shape/appearance).

Anyway... Peel and chop the apples. The size of the chunks depends on the structural integrity of the apples: high and you want small chunks; low and it doesn't matter. I used Happy Planet apple-pomegranate-blueberry juice for liquid to start the sauce, though water is fine, and you just need a splash. I added a sprinkling of cinnamon, a sprinkling of cane sugar and the juice from half a not-so-juicy lemon. It would usually take 20-25 minutes to get the apples to sauce consistency, but these guys were practically begging to be sauce-ified. Seriously, in about 7 minutes they were done.

Now I just need to go buy some cute molasses and make that gingerbread I keep going on about (up and to the right).

Chocolate biscotti

2008-11-29T21:54:00.000-08:00

And right back to it. I was bored tonight and felt like creating something, and there was some cocoa powder staring me in the face. I like the lack of dairy in biscotti, and thought some nice chocolate biscotti would be lovely tomorrow morning.

I started by looking at this recipe, but didn't really follow it. And it worked out fine, so it just goes to show. Here's what I did:

Mix: - - - - - - - - - - - Mix separately:
3 eggs - - - - - - - - - - - 1 3/4 c flour
1 tsp vanilla - - - - - - - 1 tsp baking soda
2/3 c cane sugar - - - - 1/4 tsp. salt
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 1/3 c cocoa
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - 50 g chopped bittersweet chocolate

Mix together. Shape into flat log (see picture). Bake at 350 for 35 min. Let cool. Cut into biscotti shapes. Bake again, 10 min. twice, once on each side. Let cool. Dunk.*

* I didn't dunk these right away.** That will have to wait until tomorrow morning's coffee.

** I have now dunked. They are a little too crunchy, but very good. I think I will use a touch more sugar next time, or semi-sweet chocolate. And I could definitely go for a little more crumble. I wonder how I do that. Anyone?

Black currant biscotti

2008-11-28T16:50:00.000-08:00

I love biscotti, and it is surprisingly difficult to find good biscotti in this coffee-mad city of ours. I had some last night that was more stale than crunchy, and more often than not I am disappointed when I get it. How hard can it be to make dry cookies, I thought?
Turns out, not too hard at all. Simple ingredients, simple instructions. I think it must be the storage that ruins them at shops.

I didn't bother to look far, and quickly settled on a recipe over at Joy of Baking for cranberry-pistachio biscotti, even though I have neither cranberries nor pistachios. I do have black currants in abundance, though, and cookie recipes usually aren't bothered by substitutes.

Whisk together:
2 eggs (large, but I only have medium-large)
2/3 c white sugar (only have raw)
until thick and a bit fluffy. Add:
1 tsp. vanilla

In a separate bowl mix:
1 3/4 c flour
1/8 tsp salt
3/4 tsp baking powder

Mix together, and add fruit/nuts. Shape into log 12 inches long and 3 1/2 inches wide. Bake for 25 min. at 350∘(can someone please tell me how to make the degree symbol more easily?). Let cool for 10 min. Cut into biscotti shapes and bake for 10 min. twice more, once on each side. Let cool. Dunk.

So, a little detour. We went to check out the anti-anti-gay protest at Havana, so I turned the oven off and left the little fellas in. When we got back I flipped them over and turned the oven on. I left them a little long, as you can see, but they look great and as soon as I'm done this veggie dog I'll let you know how they dunk....(minutes pass)...

They dunk very well. They aren't as airy as other biscotti I've had, and are still a bit chewy. The currants are perfect. I'll probably use a little less sugar next time. All in all, a wonderful and successful snack.

Le Faux Bourgeois

2008-11-28T00:36:00.000-08:00

So I finally got around to eating out, and what a treat. Le Faux Bourgeois opened a few months ago at 15th and Fraser, not exactly a hot spot for fine dining. It's a small, warm-feeling (though cool) room, and it comes highly recommended.

The reservations are hard to get unless you want 6pm or earlier, which suited us fine. We were eating early to make it to the opera early (something about losing tickets, but I won't get into that here). A friendly host seated us at the window and didn't object when we moved to get away from the cold from the door.

The menu was limited but appetizing. A short discussion about dairy products led us to the Nicoise over puff pastry for an appetizer (sharing), and it was a good choice. The albacore tuna was gorgeously tender, the egg yolk still dark but not runny, the tomatoes crisp, the potatoes soft and scrumptious.

I tried the Fillet de Boeuf Grillé (rare), Nina the duck confit. After the two baskets of bread (which arrived very quickly) and the Nicoise, I wondered how much I would be able to eat, and upon seeing my dish I worried a bit. A generous portion, to be sure. The steak was perfect. Absolutely perfect. Tender, juicy, delicious, and beautiful. The sauce (red wine shallot jus) was rich and perfectly bitter-sweet. The potatoes gratin were good, and the accompanying vegetables were mostly very good, save for the chewy parsnips. A bite of the duck was also wonderful, if a bit bland (though that is probably in comparison to the beef).

The wine list was a good blend of regions, and the cheap by-the-glass options looked very decent. It would have been nice to have a red in the 7.5-9.5 range, but the Las Rocas (a Spanish grenache) for 7.5 was just fine.

We skipped dessert (had to replace the lost tickets), so I don't know what they offer, but I saw a créme brulée and chocolate mousse pass me during dinner.

All in all a wonderful meal. The food was amazing, the service exceptional, the setting lovely.

More bread!!!

2008-11-23T21:57:00.001-08:00

True to form, I moved from chocolate to bread. I whipped up a two-loaf recipe yesterday morning before a visit from a friend, the standard recipe I got from my mom, who rarely ever bought bread in my childhood. The recipe is as simple as it gets, and is mostly done by feel:

2-ish cups warm water
dollop of honey
1 T yeast (a little less, actually)
dollop of oil

Let stand for a few minutes until yeast flowers. Add:

2 cups flour, then
2-ish cups flour and
1 tsp-ish salt (you add the salt at this stage so it doesn't inhibit the yeast)

Knead.
Let rise 1 hour or so.
Punch down.
Shape.
Let rise 1/2 hour.
Bake at 375 for 29 minutes.

There is nothing particularly special about this bread, except that it inevitably reminds me of my mom (and dad). That's special. And it's so simple to get right, so when it goes a little wonky (rose too fast in the oven and split the cap, see picture #2), it's still fantastic.

Homemade chocolate bar

2008-11-13T23:26:00.000-08:00

Apparently this blog is about bread and chocolate, not eating out at restaurants. Who knew?

The other night Nina and I made a chocolate bar. We were desperate for a snack, and a desserty-type one, and Nina found a block of chocolate in the cupboard. A quick double-boil later and we were on our way.

It's mandarin season. At first we were thinking of dipping orange slices in chocolate and freezing them, but I wanted a bit more chocolate for my buck. We peeled and ripped up the mandarin slices, and sprinkled them with sugar and a tiny bit of salt and pepper (odd, I know, but it just came to me). We added some chili pepper flakes to the melted chocolate, as well as some cocoa powder and butter to increase the rich chocolatey flavour.

We drizzled the melted chocolate over mandarin bits in a foil-lined bread pan, and after an hour in the freezer we had a super-chocolatey homemade chocolate bar. Delicious. The salt and pepper weren't evident, and I think I would skip them next time, or at least the pepper, but the chili flavour came out a bit. Definitely going to experiment with this.

1-hour bread, take two

2008-11-07T11:10:00.000-08:00

I just started my second try at 1-hour bread (see below). This time I used a higher proportion of whole wheat/spelt flour, because I ran out of white. I also didn't put the salt in with the yeast, as it inhibits the growth. I decided to use less yeast (1 1/4 T rather than 1 1/2 T), because I just don't need that much yeast in my diet. The yeast flowered very quickly, and I was on my way.

Then, right near the end, I realized that I had forgotten to add the salt. S-M-R-T. So I sprinkled some in with the last of the flour I was adding, and kneaded it in. I'm not sure how it will turn out, but I think it should be fine. The bread is rising right now beside the warm oven, and my stomach is already rumbling for that bread/butter combo.

Last time (see comments on above link) I left mine in for a few minutes longer than suggested (22-23 rather than 20) and was quite pleased with the outcome. At 20 the bread was barely browning; at 23 it had browned nicely and was perfectly done inside.

It's in the oven. Already the bread is bigger than last time, so it would seem that the salt/yeast thing worked. I will try reducing the yeast further next time. I've been a bit spacey this morning, and forgot to set the timer, so it will have to be an estimate. I've never been one for exactly following the recommended times of recipes, but with this one I'm trying to get it just right.

And it's out. It's beautifully brown, nice and round, and definitely bigger than last time. If I had to guess, I would say it was in for 24-25 minutes. Tastes great. Nice and dense without being gummy or too heavy, the crust is wonderfully chewy.

Crunky: The anti-Ikea Food

2008-10-31T18:19:00.000-07:00

Crunky. What? How great is this chocolate bar wrapper? So great.

There is a Korean grocer near our new house, and we have discovered a few pretty great items, our favourite being Crunky. For $0.89 you can pick yourself up a Crunky. Okay, that was a stupid line but it's pretty fun to say/write the name Crunky.

Crunky is similar to a Nestle Crunch bar: thin, with rice crisps. The quality of chocolate is pretty poor, but so is most commercial chocolate. It's merely edible. But what a name.

Ikea Food

2008-10-24T22:02:00.000-07:00

The other night on the way back from work (in Coquitlam. woot.) we stopped in at Ikea so a friend could grab some shelves. Needing to warm up, we got in line for a coffee. What the hell kind of cafe are they running at Ikea? 50¢ hotdogs, $1 pop, $1 cinnamon buns, $1 coffee (no variation). Super crappy cafeteria styles.

However, in the line up I spotted this little number: Choklad Ljus. $1 for 100g of milk chocolate in the most perfectly simple, clean and attractive packaging. Who was I to resist?

You may wonder what sort of quality one may expect from such cheap chocolate, and given the such inferior quality of everything else there*, I was wondering too. However, I was quite pleasantly surprised to tast a very rich, creamy milk chocolate. I usually choose the dark chocolate, but this wonderful bar reminded me why milk chocolate can be so good.

Thank you, Ikea Food. You make wonderful Choklad Ljus.

* The coffee was quite hot, which was nice. The cinnamon bun was dreadful, not at all worth it. I resisted the hotdogs.

Zoe's 1-hour bread

2008-10-24T09:51:00.000-07:00

Fresh from Zoe's latest post over at Morning Toast, I decided to give this recipe a try. I've baked my fair share of bread in the past, but my production rate has dwindled over the years. Partly it's a matter of general laziness, but at times the three hour commitment is too much.

The recipe looks so easy: combine flour, water, yeast, salt and honey, and in one short hour, voila! fresh bread. Right now it's rising for 20 minutes, then it's in the oven for 20 minutes, then it's in my belly with butter and honey.

From Simple, Green, Frugal:

Preheat oven 450℉. Combine 1 1/2 cups warm water, 1 1/2 tsp. salt, 1 1/2 T dry yeast, 1 T honey in a bowl and sit until yeast is obviously active. Add 3-4 cups flour, stirring in with wooden spoon*, until it's no longer really sticky. Shape into a log. Let sit, covered, for 20 minutes. Bake for 20 minutes. Take out and after resisting for 5 minutes, slice off a chunk and eat with butter and honey slathered on.

Results: Just finished my second piece. Loverly. Chewy, moist, a bit crusty. I probably should have left it in a few more minutes, but I can handle slightly underdone bread. Thanks, Zo.

* because making bread requires using a wooden spoon. That's how my mom and dad did it, and that's how my children will do it.

Home-made sushi: Attempt #1

2008-10-21T10:07:00.000-07:00

As a lovely housewarming gift, Nina and I were given a sushi kit. Bowls, plates, chopsticks, chopstick holders, bamboo mats, the whole bit. We decided to use them as soon as possible, and after a quick shop at our local Korean grocery store we had most of what we needed.

We had decided earlier that it was going to be only vegetarian: Fresh fish is difficult to find in our neighbourhood. We got right into the chopping, of mangoes, portabellos, green onions, red peppers, cucumber and asparagus. I checked out some sushi tips online, and started the rice and miso.

The rice ended up pretty bland. I needed to cook it with a bit of salt, perhaps, and the ratio I read for the vinegar was off (couldn't taste any difference). The texture was fine, I think, and it was properly sticky without being mushy.

Rolling out the maki was a tad difficult, shall we say. We didn't know how thick the rice should be, and my first (and only attempt) ended up as a thick log, not really even edible. Nina and her sister Emily took over, and we ended up with some fine rolls.

Unfortunately our soy sauce was dark, a little overpowering, and the wasabi was cheap and hot than flavourful.

So, the lessons:

1) More vinegar, salt and sugar in the rice.
2) Lighter soy sauce.
3) Better wasabi.
4) Thin rice.

We're going to try again, and soon I hope. I'm looking forward to trying fish, and trying the inside-out rolls with sesame on the rice.

Sushi-Yama

2008-10-11T18:40:00.000-07:00

Nina, Rebecca and I recently ate at Sushi-Yama, at Broadway and Guelph. I've been there a few times before, and always enjoyed it. We were eating dinner before going to friend's house for drinks on a Friday evening, not in a rush but not interested in a full meal experience.

We sat quickly with menus. I've had to wait there before, but they have since nearly doubled in size, so there were a few tables open. The wait table were very typical for a sushi place: fast, young Asian women, quick to smile and pour tea. We chose a few dishes to share and a few for ourselves. Our waitress came fairly quickly, and we ordered:

Garlic Tai (red snapper with roasted garlic in ponzu sauce)
Agedashi Tofu
Gyoza (pork and vegetable)
Miso soup all around
Negitoro maki (chopped tuna and green onion)
Japanese radish maki
Chopped scallop maki
and the amazing Salifornia roll: salmon, crab and something else in a huge deep-fried roll.

I also ordered a few pieces of nigiri: salmon belly, tuna and salmon.

The garlic tai was quite good (soft, barely warmed) but not as good as the tuna tataki which I've had before and we thought about ordering. I love ponzu sauce, and the garlic perfectly complemented the dish. The agedashi tofu was hot, soft, nicely crisp on the outside (lightly battered) and the broth wasn't too salty. The rolls and gyoza were fine (not outstanding, but it's pretty cheap); the Salifornia roll was a monster of deep-fried fishiness. I would hesitate before ordering it again but it was a fun experience.

The nigiri were disappointing, and I won't order those pieces again. The salmon was rubbery, the tuna oily (didn't even try it). We never received our miso soup, an oversight that can be forgiven once.

In total the bill was $29.90, and we were fu-ull. I will definitely go back (it's only three blocks from my house), but I will have to think about the nigiri. It's no Toshi's, that's ferdamnsure, but nothing is.

I eat

2008-10-10T22:58:00.001-07:00

I eat food. I like food. I like eating food at restaurants. I will be writing about the times I eat out, regardless of where or what type of food or restaurant, from the most common Vietnamese sandwich to the most delicate and pricey seafood.