Chef Connie and Sous Chef Char

I wish you all the best in 2012 !

We just filled the freezer up with this years side of beef.  We love knowing where our food is coming from.  We are very fortunate and grateful to have the ability to raise our own cattle and then get the satisfaction of exceptionally great tasting cuts all year.

Our friend Carla Johnson, has written a great book called ‘Cooking With Sin…Great recipes dipped in alcohol and wrapped in a wonderful story…’   She also has a blog, http://cookingwithsin.com/wp-content/themes/cookingwithsin-newtheme/images/headerad.png.

I know… you are wondering where I am going with this…  well Carla wondered if I had a great Gluten Free recipe that featured alcohol (that’s the Sin part of her book!) and whether I could give with her one so that she could share it on her blog.  I got to thinking that I could combine my homegrown beef with a some beer, get a nice hearty winter meal AND a blog post at the same time.

I decided to take an existing recipe and adapt it to Gluten Free.  The recipe also called for it to be cooked in a crock pot and that the beef be cut into stew sized chunks.  I did neither.  I did use the slow cooker setting

on my oven,  but I hadn’t left quite enough time for that so I ended up finishing it on top of the stove.  In the recipe I won’t put the stove option as this step would actually make the recipe more time-consuming and most home cooks are looking for ease these days.  Not everyone is interested in slow food…

Beer Braised Beef (Gluten Free)

Cook the bacon dice until crisp and transfer to paper towels and set aside. Add onions to drippings and cook over medium heat for 15-20 minutes, until soft.  Sprinkle brown sugar over onions and increase the heat to medium high and cook onions until they are golden,  about 8 minutes. Add vinegar, salt and pepper.  Transfer the onion mixture to your baking dish. Large enameled oval roaster works well.

Sprinkle the beef with a bit of salt and the flour.  Heat the oil in a large skillet and brown the beef on both sides.  Transfer the beef to the roaster on top of the onions.  Add the beer and stock to the heated pan and scrape up the brown bits,  reduce the liquid a bit, then pour it over the beef in the roaster.  Top with the bacon and thyme.

Cook in a 350 over, approx 2 hours.  Check after 1.5 hours for desired tenderness. Alternately, you could slow cook for about 8 hours or braise on the top of the stove for about 1.5 hours.  More stock would be needed for stove top braising.

When I checked my beef about an hour before we left, I realized that I had not left enough time to use the slow cook setting in my oven.  I have a VERY large All Clad straight sided Saute pan so I transferred the beef and liquid to it and braised it on the stove top.  The result was great and the liquid cooked down nicely.

The flavours in this dish are considered Flemish… or Belgian… so our friends cooked up Belgian frites(twice cooked) to go with it.  I must say the combination was fabulous.  Will definitely be adding this one to the cooking roster and with the deep fryer that I hope to be getting for Christmas… I am sure you will be seeing a future post when I start experimenting making fries….yum.

Our friend Rodney Hough (http://readysetlaunch.ca/about-us), arranged for me to cook at his former restaurant One99 in Orangeville (http://www.one99.ca/)  They have a program at the restaurant where wannabes from the public can come and cook with a chef for the afternoon and part of the evening…. then they feed you a fabulous meal(and wine)   This dinner had been a while in the making…  I don’t often get to Toronto.  When I do, I sometimes see Rodney, sometimes not. He and I have been conversing about all things food related for a number of years now. And then finally, our schedules converged and we had a date.

I spent the afternoon hanging out with Chef Roger and we made a variety of dishes.  Then for part of the dinner service, I cooked with Chef’s Mike and Craig and got to serve out some mains.  Mike is the Executive Chef and Craig, his brother, is the Sous Chef.  The team at One99 is exactly that….a team.  They respect each other and all get along famously.  The experience was fabulous and hopefully they will have me back one day to do it again.

Menu

Vension tenderloin 'wrapped' in a mousseline of shrimp and scallop

Vension tenderloin ‘wrapped’ in a mousseline of shrimp and scallop

-mousseline usually means that its bound with egg whites, but in this case we kept everything very cold, bowl, crustaceans, blade,  then pureed in spurts to bind the proteins.  Then we ‘wrapped’ the mousse onto the outside of the tenderloin piece, held on with caul fat.  After assembled, put all back in the fridge to keep together.  Upon an order, its baked in the oven until rare and served, cut in 3, on some Spaetzle with vegetables.

Spaetzle

• 1 pound of flour
• 5 eggs
• ¾ cup water
• 1 teaspoon salt

Spaetzlebrett

…and you need a Spaetzlebrett!  This is the way its made in Germany.  I must say, labour instensive but oh so fun…. (http://germanfood.about.com/od/potatoesandnoodles/ss/spaetzle.htm) …. so instead of going into the long winded way we did it… here is a link to what we did. ( I know, I cheated, but I was so busy at this step that there are no pictures)

After the we pulled it out of the water, we put it on large, parchment lined pans and put a little oil on it to prevent sticking.  Then it was all put in a fridge drawer and single portions were pulled out as needed… sauteed with some butter and you have it.  A few blanched, then sauteed veg and the dish is ready.

Slow cooked Duck legs

Some of the other items were, smoked harvest vegetable soup, wasabi crusted tuna, mussells, duck…

I had a blast doing this and hopefully will get to do it again in the future.

One of the events was our REIN meeting.  While attending it, one of our REIN members, Andrew MacDonald asked if I could send him my loco-moco rescipe….I said I would send it to him… so if I have to type out the recipe anyways… I thought I may as well make a blog post.  Unfortunately I have never taken a picture of the dish when I have made it, but as it is such a basic dish I have attached others I have found that look the same.  So here we go…

I didn’t give quantities because I found it gets adjusted due to everyone’s personal taste. Start with 1 tbsp of cornstarch, and see if you like the consistency.  I like to keep it a bit runny so that the rice gets a bit goopy.  Some recipes don’t have the ketchup or the dijon, but I found it added some depth to the flavour.  Also, one time I carmelized onions on the side and served them as a layer in the dish.  In Hawaii, where we discovered this, if you go to the local food places… the dish is basically always served with macaroni salad.  This seems very odd to me, but I think they just serve macaroni salad on the side of most platter meals there.

Heat your NON-non stick fry pan…. or as you would know it,  your STICK ON pan…. get it nice and hot, add some oil.  Place the patties in the pan, sear and get a litte charred… you want it to cook on a bit and get some ‘brown bits’ in the pan.  Flip and do the same thing other side.   Place burgers off to the side on a plate.   With the pan hot, add the broth, reduce down.  Add the worcestershire, ketchup and dijon ( just a little of each)  I like to have mixed them together in a small dish ahead of time.  Mix the cornstarch with water.. then slowly incorporate it into the pan, ensuring you don’t get lumps. Add some butter when its nice and smooth.

In a NON stick pan,  cook your eggs to your liking. Eggs do not cook well in pans that are not non-stick… Sunnyside up, or over easy is preferable… you want the yolk to be a bit runny.  To put it all together….rice, hamburger patty, gravy, egg, a little more gravy… Tip:  cook the eggs right at the last minute,  have the dishes ready to go and then serve immediately.

And then say …. ahhhhhh… comfort food.  This is a really basic easy dish that never fails to deliver.  We are off to Hawaii again very soon and I am looking forward to trying a few more versions of it.

And so my sautéed beet and feta and pine nut salad was exactly that… made up as I went.  Beets have a lot of sugar so it only made sense that they would saute very nicely… making that nice crispy outside crust that we like to call carmelized.

I have to say that I was never a beet fan.  I am not sure why, but it must have been a throw back to all those ‘weird’ foods that I refused to eat as a child.  When I think about it, I didn’t like anything with too much colour.  Beets, tomatoes, mustard, relish, lettuce, most fruit, all peppers…. Its amazing I grew fast and furious and was towering over my classmates by grade 5. Obviously eating your veg doesn’t have a lot to do with height.

Then a few years back I visited Earl’s with my Mom and I had a salad that had beets in it and I was hooked.

Here is what I made up:  Peel your beets, take care to not get EVERYTHING purple. Chop the beets in small dice.  This would be about 1/4 inch squares.  Heat the pan then add olive oil.  Throw in beet dice, add a little salt and start sauteing.  Get them nice and coated in the oil.  Lower the heat and stir/shake them up every so often.  They go through a few stages.  They will sweat out, then the sweated out liquid will steam them a bit soft,  then they will eventually carmelize on the outside.  You can even toss a bit more salt and some sugar in he pan to help it along.  It will take about 30 minutes.

I also lightly toasted pine nuts on another burner while the beets were cooking.

To serve:

Goat feta (young and not too salty) small dice

Pine nuts (toasted)

Arugula

Beets

Olive Oil and salt, if needed, to dress.

I toss it all together and the feta ends up pink.  If you don’t care for the ‘pink’ feta,  add it only at the end on the top of the salad but the result with ‘pink’ feta is better.

It was a good thing I delayed, I may have been somewhat more scathing in reporting on our final Ludlow Food Festival experience.

Let me back up. Years of spending dining moments with other foodie friends in London, it was suggested that we may want to attend the Ludlow Marches Food Festival. This 3 day extravaganza in Shropshire County England, has a bounty of local producers that come and display themselves and tantalize our appetites with food, ale, cider and spirits, all produced in a 4 county radius.

There is an ale trail, a sausage trail,a bread trail and a pudding trail. This all in addition to tents upon tents set up in and around the Castle and its grounds. It is delightful to see a Castle being used for one of its original uses. For three days, you can sample food and drink, take in countless demonstrations on 3 or 4 separate stages, take Slow Food workshops, and join the trails and grade their offerings.

We decided the sausage trail was for us. You purchase a ticket for £3.50 that is really a form, you wander around the town to find the five sausage tents, line up, eat and grade. At the end you take your grading form to a final stop, hand in your form and in exchange, you get your favourite sausage in a bap! It’s a great deal, yummy and a lot of fun.

The ale trail would have you stop in at 14 pubs with a mini cask on a lanyard, sample and grade the same. Folks usually do it over 2 days. You get the picture. The pudding trail isn’t about what we call pudding at home, pudding over here refers to desserts of all types.

So back to the fiasco. From Canada, prior to leaving, I tried to arrange a few of the Slow Food workshops and also snag a reservation at the ‘pop-up’ Michelin Restaurant that sets up inside the Castle. The problems I ran into were that both wanted money ahead of time to secure the reservation. The workshops were not expensive so I did what I tell others not to… I send some cash in the post. I did it with a guarantee on it and as it wasn’t much, I wasn’t too worried.

The festival restaurant was another story. The costs of wiring money were a bit prohibitive from my bank and I had left it a bit too long so mailing a money order wasn’t an option. I sent a note back and asked if we could pay upon arrival. They were very accommodating so we were set.

On Friday when we got to the festival, we checked in with the restaurant and everything was in order for our Saturday night reservation. I had previously let them know about Don’s food allergies, so all was going according to plan.

In the interim, sausages, ales, ciders, wine, more sausages, slow roasted pork, wood fired pizza, goat cheese, sheep cheese, charcuterie … to name a few… abounded.

After heading back to the Elm Lodge

where we were staying, we napped, then primped, then strolled first to a close ‘locals’ pub with Sky sports (Man U vs Bolton), then to another pub near the Castle.

Our reservation was for 8:30 pm so we made our way at 8:15 and were escorted through the grounds to the venue and greeted by some very lovely ladies who appeared to have everything under control.

The place was humming. Our escort had told us 100 people were dining and we were all to get 8 courses…so 800 covers were going to pump out of the ‘pop-up’ kitchen… Or so they thought….

With our drink order placed, we chatted about how lovely the setting was… About the other people around us… And then waited…and waited… and waited…and waited….

The drinks had come, but that was it. After 45 minutes we had not had the server come back. There were LOTS of staff, and they were in perpetual motion. Not sure what all the moving about was about, but it was not to bring food. We checked with a server, who seemed surprised… Finally I went to the entrance and checked in with the lovely ladies… They were horrified and immediately we received 2 Kir Royale appertifs…this on top of the bottle of wine we had started. Seeing as it was now 9:30 pm, I had to keep a lid on the wine consumption or the 8 courses would be a bit of a blur. Then one of the lovely ladies came over and comped our wine… I knew we were in trouble then…

We did get the first course, Don could only eat half of it…(pureed broccoli soup with whipped Stilton/blue cheese)… And I did get one slice of bread. And when my sugar levels bottomed out, I got up, screwed the lid back on the wine… And we left. The lovely ladies at the entrance were not surprised nor did they try to stop us. I guess something had imploded in the kitchen and they knew what was coming.

 I mention here a curious moment… Actually two, almost like a premonition, on our way from ‘locals’ pub to pub #2, Don inquired about whether I was excited for this anticipated feast… I said that I had lowered my expectations around things like this as I have been let down too many times. The other was the gal that served the wine, she made a specific gesture of leaving us the cap for the wine in case we didn’t finish. 8 courses, 1 bottle of wine and no driving? Seemed rather odd that we wouldn’t finish it….

But there it was… Our comped wine came with us and my inability to pay ahead of time meant that no further action was required by anyone.

We left the Castle and the Festival behind, stopped at Tesco(like Safeway) on the 1 mile walk home and picked up Spaghetti Carbonara

for me and Chicken Tikka Masala for Don.

We had a little kitchen where were staying and we heated up our late night dinner and turned on the telly…

And that was Ludlow.

(Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device in Europe)

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 So where were we?… Oh yah… I uploaded the car photo and off the email-blog-post went. Ooops! Needless to say we visited with our wonderful friends Matt Powell and Charlene Killeen, who planned on having a baby on August 18th, but instead delayed the inevitable until 6 days before we got there.

As would have it, the in-laws/out-laws left the afternoon we arrived so we met at a pub and had the first ‘day’ out for Mom Lenny and new baby Ace.

Don and I carried onwards to Aberystwyth with ‘Sheila’ as our guide. We learned early on, not only from warning signs on the motorway…. But from first hand experience, ‘Sheila’ aka GPS or SatNav as they refer to it over here….WALES IS NOT IN THE COMPUTER.

Sorry Matt, I had to let you down lightly, but the SatNav/Google people just didn’t think it high on the priority list to get the roadways accurate…. thankfully I have a sense of direction (AND a google map printed out in Canada!). Let me tell you about getting to the Welsh coast… Actually let’s not and let me just upload some photos from our time in Aberystwyth…….. (Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device in Europe)

  

 

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BUT

Then I had an experience tonight that needed to turn into a blog, so here we go….

We left Wales… Oh yah… the last time I posted we were in London… So we left London. We took bus 73 from Oxford to Victoria and jumped the Gatwick Express to… Where else… Gatwick, where we picked up a little 1 series BMW (automatic) and headed to Cardiff. I trust enough of you follow me on Facebook to see the baby pictures that resulted in that portion of the trip. Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device in Europe

In all our visits here, we have been very fortunate with the weather. I can count the times that I have had to use an umbrella. Don insists that its the sun that follows us around…

Lucky we had a suitcase full of warm weather wear for our imminent Italy portion of this trip. The best way for us to combat jetlag is to go walking outside during the day and visiting in the evening. The combination of the light and talk therapy does the trick.

As soon as we got here on Thurs, our friends from Reading, Andy and Djura met us at our hotel. The London Grosvenor Square Marriott had once again provided us with a suite and some champagne and red wine, so we met up in our sitting room. My phone had a breakdown so the pictures from the first day are missing….

The next night we met up with Graham and Lucy and hit a great tapas restaurant, Salt Yard. It is such a popular place that we had a set allotted time of 2 hrs, 630 – 830 pm.

Don and I had been there in the past and it was even better this time. We stopped in at a pub on both ends of the visit and then saw Graham and Lucy off on the train to their home in Faversham.

Graham has just started a food blog himself so in the future we will be swapping ideas and recipes. Looking forward to staying in touch over the miles in all things related to food and travel.

Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device in Europe