I’m currently having a bit of a love affair with Londontown. While Paris will forever be my lover, London holds a special place in my heart as well. You may remember that I was in London over the summer. I had no plans to return so soon but the stars aligned and I found myself back in London a mere 9 months later. Luckily my list of eats was practically already compiled for me as a had a few places that I didn’t get to hit on my last trip.
Here’s the rundown…
The Bull & Last
168 Highgate Road
London NW5 1QS
Last time I was in London I REALLY wanted to eat at a gastropub. Sadly, there were only so many meals I could do and gastropub fell down the list. Luckily, I was able to make gastropub The Bull & Last my first food stop when I returned to London. The Bull & Last is in a lovely historical house near Hempstead Heath (isn’t that name just magical?) and it honestly feels like you’re having dinner in a friend’s dining room. It isn’t that small but it is super cozy.
Since this was my first meal after being in France I decided to transition from wine drinking to beer drinking. Since I know nothing about beer (although it’s on my list of things to learn more about this year) I had the server help me choose. I chose Camden Town beer because I liked the idea of it being super local. To start I had a fish soup with gruyere croquettes. I could’ve eaten a dozen of the croquettes (I got maybe about 3 or 4) but the soup was not what I was expecting. It was really just a brown fish broth. It tasted fine but was so different than what I had in mind. My main on the other hand was great. It was roasted cod with an oxtail ragu! Fish and oxtail! Pretty much two of my fave things. ANNNND it had gnocchi and something called “monk’s beard” which was the green veg in the picture on the right. If only all of my fish dishes were covered in a meat sauce… so good! If I had been in London longer I would’ve gone to B&L another time since the menu sounded so good. Worth the trip to Northwest London for sure.
Moro
34 – 36 Exmouth Market
London EC1R 4QE
+44 (0)20 7833 8336
I’m currently in a bit of a love affair with Gwyneth Paltrow and her weekly GOOP newsletter. But with good reason, GP and her team have the best picks when it comes to travel! They always pick the best shops and restaurants. On my last trip to London I found a number of places through GOOP and was always impressed. Moro was a holdover from my last trip that I was sad that I didn’t get a chance to visit. Located in Exmouth Market (really just a street) they serve up Moorish foods and tapas.
I started off my meal with a salt cod carpaccio that was in a deliciously nutty and fruity olive oil and sprinkled with lemon and fava beans. The Jamaican in me has the softest of soft spots for salt cod so I couldn’t resist this dish. While it was good it was definitely on the salty side but I did enjoy mopping up the saucy goodness with some bread.
From there I decided to go with a fish and had a fish (whose name I can’t remember) in a Romesco sauce. This was my first time having a Romesco sauce and I have to remember to make it one day. Romesco is a bit like pesto but made with tomatoes, red peppers, garlic and nuts (I think I found some marcona almonds in there). The sauce was a such a wonder with it’s perfectly balanced flavours and a variety of textures to crunch with every bite. Loved it.
While my meal was delightful the thing I keep on talking about is the dessert. Yoghurt cake with pistachios and pomegranates. Nuff said.
New Tayyabs
83-89 Fieldgate Street
Whitechapel, London
(44-20) 7247-9543
Last time I was in London I had to have Indian food and ended up at Dishoom. It was good but it was a little too new and fancy for me. Right before my trip this time around Mark Bittman wrote an article about Indian restaurants in London for the NY Times. Perfect timing. Most places seemed like winners but I settled on New Tayyabs because the location was convenient for what I wanted to accomplish on that particular day. Tayyabs is a few minutes away from Brick Lane (the strip that most would associate with Indian food in London) and is down the street from the Whitechapel street market which was a fun browse featuring many Indian goods and various trinkets.
New Tayyabs is actually Pakistani and thinking about it I’m not sure if I’ve ever intentionally gone to a Pakistani restaurant. Not that it makes a crazy difference either way. Anyhoo, I hit up Tayyabs for a lunchtime feast. And feast is exactly what I did. I ordered a mango lassi to start which was almost a meal unto itself. Everyone raves about the lamb chop appetizer so I started with that. You get 4 lamb chops that have been flattened and smeared with a yogurt marinade and grilled to perfection. They were so good kind of like meat lollipops. For my main I decided to go veg and have the Dhal Baingun which is a dal with eggplant. Truthfully, dal has never been one of my fave things. I usually find it kind of bland and uninteresting. This dal was great and I loved the soft, smokey eggplant in it as well. I ate it with naan and loved scooping up mouthfuls of dal with the fluffy naan. Tayyabs was definitely a winner.
Borough Market – Kappacasein Dairy
8 Southwark Street
London, UK
Open: Thurs 11a-5p, Fri 12p-6p, Sat 8a-5p
Perhaps one of the saddest things on my first trip to London was simultaneously discovering the Toasted Cheese sandwich at Borough Market and then learning that they no longer had a stall at the market. I was CRUSHED. I loved toasted/grilled cheese and if Ruth Reichel votes it as being super delicious I trust her tastebuds and must try it. Luckily Kappacasein is back at Borough which meant… TOASTED CHEE
SE FOR ME.
The famed toasted cheese sandwich features bread from Poilane in Paris, Montgomery Cheddar and a mix of onions, leeks and garlic. How could one NOT fall in love with that? After the first bite I truly understood what all the hype was about. The bread was toasted and had a nice amount of fat on it for it to toast even better. The cheese was pungent but mild enough for those who don’t like stinky cheese. And the addition of the onion mix added a good amount of spice to cut through the cheesiness. Heaven. I ended up back at Borough two days later and decided to go back to Kappacasein to get the Raclette since the line for it was very long the first time I was there. Never mind the fact that it was 10 in the morning. The Raclette featured potatoes smothered in melted Ogleshield cheese and served with gherkins on the side. Best breakfast ever.
St. John’s Bakery
Arch 72, Druid Street
London SE1 2DU
Tel:
On my last trip I had dinner at St. John’s restaurant and enjoyed it. I remember reading that they had a bakery and since I love trips I did a little digging and figured it all out. Their bakery is located in one of the arches on Druid Street, a street lined with food producers and wholesalers that open up their storefronts to the public on Saturdays only. It really is a cool strip with produce, cheese shops, butchers etc. It seems a bit random when you approach but it really is quite cool. Luckily I realized on Thursday that St. John was only open on Saturdays and planned accordingly.
Good thing I did. Now, you may or may not know that doughnuts happen to be my middle name. If I’m in a city with great doughnuts I must seek them out. These doughnuts may be the best doughnuts ever. They are known for their custard-filled doughnuts. These are no ordinary custard-filled doughnuts. The custard is magnificent. It isn’t a sticky custard. It is cream, light and airy but not too airy, it still has body. It is also vanilla-flavoured. They also do a raspberry-flavoured doughnut that is also delicious but really, go for the custard.
Parliament
I just had to throw this in. I had the opportunity to eat lunch at the private cafeteria at Parliament (where all of the MPs etc. eat) and they were serving… JERK PORK and RICE AND PEAS! I couldn’t resist! The food was on the bland side and they served it with this coconut curry sauce (whaaaat?) but it was decent enough and I appreciated the effort.
A few weeks back I was in Chicago for a quick jaunt. My sis had been raving about brunch at Art Smith’s Table 52 so we hit it up that Sunday. I had the shrimp and grits and she had the fried chicken and waffles. While my shrimp and grits were delicious the fried chicken was to die for. I’ve had my fair share of fried chicken but this fried chicken was perhaps the best I’ve ever had (cue ).
I couldn’t shake the thoughts of this chicken so I immediately took to the interwebs to see if this recipe existed anywhere. And it did! I found tons of recipes for “Art Smith’s Fried Chicken” but they were all different! Some required two overnight soaks, some involved cornflakes, some involved eggs. WTF? So obviously don’t believe anything you read when you see a recipe for your fave restaurant dish on the interwebs. I didn’t know who to believe. Should I go with Food & Wine or Serious Eats or any of the other blogs? In the end I cobbled together my own recipe taking my fave elements of each.
I decided to start off with a brine because brining chicken often makes it better. I then moved on to a hot sauce-laced buttermilk soak. The chicken then met a floury coating filled with spices including my fave, Old Bay Seasoning. Usually when I fry chicken I use my Le Creuset dutch oven but this time around I decided to go old timey and use my Lodge Cast Iron Skillet. This meant I got to use less oil. This was even more awesome since I decided to spring and use peanut oil instead of vegetable oil or shortening. That’s how ballers do, obvi.
So, was this chicken as good as Art Smith’s? Don’t be silly, of course it wasn’t. BUT it was one of the best things to come out of my cast iron skillet so I won anyhow. I mean doesn’t it look like extra amazing fried chicken? Trust me, it was. In the past, particularly with the Ad Hoc Fried Chicken recipe I’ve found that it turned out too salty so in this case I dialed back on the amount of salt. The result, non-salty chicken that was still super juicy. I turned this into a true southern feast by serving some collard greens (and I went all out with a smoked pork hock and everything) and a side of mac n cheese (the white kind, out of a box but still my fave). I’m obviously on a diet.
A Variation on “Art Smith’s” Fried Chicken
1/4 cup kosher salt
4 quarts cold water
One 2-3 pound chicken, cut into 8 pieces
1 quart buttermilk
2 tablespoons Tabasco (or any other hot sauce)
2 cups all-purpose flour
1 tablespoon baking powder
1 1/2 teaspoons garlic powder
1 1/2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
1 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 eggs
Peanut oil, for frying
In a pot, combine 1/4 cup of salt and the water. Stir to dissolve. Add the chicken to the pot and refrigerate overnight (about 8 hours).
Discard the brine, rinse out the pot and rinse the chicken well to remove the salt. Pour the buttermilk in the pot with Tabasco and add the chicken back to the pot. Allow the chicken to marinate for about 8 hours.
In a shallow bowl or large plate, mix the flour, baking powder, garlic powder, Old Bay, cayenne, and black pepper. Remove the chicken from the marinade and set aside. Crack the eggs into the remaining marinade and whisk to combine. Dredge the chicken in flour mixture, dip into buttermilk mixture and dredge once more in the flour mixture shaking off excess flour.
In a large cast-iron skillet, heat 1 inch of oil to 375°. Fry the chicken in batches until golden and cooked through, about 6-7 minutes per side. Drain on paper towels and serve.
A few weeks ago over at Sizzling Communications invited me to attend a butter tasting of Stirling Creamery at Lynn Crawford’s restaurant Ruby Watchco. Seeing as butter is my middle name I was definitely going to be in attendance.
An event based around butter is certainly a winner in my books. The team managed to incorporate butter into every aspect of the event. Not only was there butter to be spread on fresh baguettes but the rims of the cocktails served were butter-based and there were a number of dishes both savoury and sweet where butter was a main player. The folks at Stirling had four varieties on display for us to try: an 84% butterfat European-style, Goat Milk, Whey and a salted butter. Each butter was very distinct and so much better than the usual stuff I buy at the supermarket. The whey was my favourite as it had this almost sort of nutty quality about it. But don’t get me wrong, the goat’s milk was great and unique and the European-style was pure butter goodness.
At the end of the event we were gifted with A LOT of butter. Fresh off my my French baking class, I decided that I just HAD to use the European-style butter to make a batch of croissants.
Truth be told, croissant making was so much easier in class. Everything just seemed to hum along. Granted my at-home croissant making was SIGNIFICANTLY less traumatizing than my hot dog making experience, but the process did have it’s moments. I just didn’t plan the whole thing out properly. For example, the butter must be rolled out. I didn’t think this through. I set my butter on the cutting board and started rolling. Of course as I was rolling I realized I was really rolling it INTO the cutting board. Not ideal. I should’ve totally used parchment or something. Not a huge deal but was totally hilarious when I realized how silly I was. There were some other mishaps along the way including exploding dough in the fridge (you really have to wrap your dough in a gazillion layers before it goes into the fridge). But in the end it was nice to get a tray of these…
Of course that was far more croissants than I needed so I wrapped the rolled but not cooked croissants and put them in the freezer for future croissant goodness. My croissants turned out well. Not French baker good but still pretty darn good. And buttery. Man oh man were they buttery. And with really rich buttery taste… no complaints here. I do think I over-handled the dough because the croissants weren’t as flaky as I would’ve hoped but there’s always next time.
In Toronto you can find Stirling butters at places such as Whole Foods, Fiesta Farms, The Healthy Butcher and Olliffe Butcher Shop)
Thanks to the folks at Stirling Creamery for the butter stash and for a lovely event.
I’m not sure what switch has been flicked in my brain but recently dessert has been a big deal for me. Sure, I’ve always been a dessert kind of gal but I’d usually be happy enough settling for a few squares of chocolate, an apple pie from McDonald’s (my kryptonite) or a cookie or two (OMG, writing the word cookie right now has me craving a Fig Newton. Is that weird?). But goodness! These days my palette only wants fancy desserts. This involves bi-weekly trips to my favourite French bakeries for adorable cakes or has me slaving in the kitchen whipping up something special.
On a recent Sunday I wasn’t really thinking about dessert, promise! I was just happily meandering the produce aisles when I spotted a bag of key limes. I’ve seen key limes in the supermarket before but had never bought them. I immediately through them into the cart and the decision was made to make key lime pies. Exercising restraint (and a desire to use my new acquired tart pans) I decided to make Key Lime Tartlets instead of one giant pie. Thanks to the magic of the interwebs I stood in the supermarket and was able to get a general idea of what I would need to make it all happen and went on my merry way.
One thing that always disappoints me about key lime pie is the graham cracker crust. A graham cracker crust just doesn’t do it for me at all. It seems like such a throwaway. I love graham crackers but in crust form… I find it boring and plain odd. Clearly I was not doing a graham cracker crust. I didn’t want a pie crust either so I decided to do a shortbread crust because I think they tend to make things better.
The ingredient list for key lime pie is surprisingly short and uncomplicated. It’s pretty much eggs, key limes and condensed milk. How silly is that? I’m pretty sure the list is so short because juicing key limes is a bitch. I had a feeling that was going to be the case going in so I did a bit of research to find out the best way to juice key limes. I just couldn’t fathom juicing those little buggers by hand. Turns out you can use your garlic press to easily juice key limes. That was probably the most brilliant thing I learned all week.
I adapted the recipe from Mar-A-Lago for my key lime tartlets mainly because it was Oprah-approved. It did not fail. They were sweet, tart, perfectly balanced and 100% delicious. And SO EASY to make. Why had I never made key lime pie before? This is about to get dangerous…
Key Lime Tartlets
Makes 4 4-inch tarts
Crust
4.5 oz. (1 cup) bleached allpurpose flour
3.5 oz. (7 Tbs.) chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/2 large egg, lightly beaten
1 Tbs. granulated sugar
1/2 Tbs. chilled heavy cream
1 tsp. fresh lemon juice
1/2 tsp. table salt
Preheat oven to 350F. In a food processor, combine the flour, butter, egg, sugar, cream, lemon juice, and salt and pulse until the dough starts gathering together in large clumps. Dump the dough on the counter and gather it together. Press into your tart pans. Prick the dough with a fork, line the dough with foil and fill with pie weights. Bake for about 10-15mins or until lightly golden. Make the filling.
Filling
2 egg yolks
1/2 can (7 ounces) condensed milk
1/3 cup fresh Key lime juice
1 lime , grated zest
In a electric mixer with whisk attachment, combine the egg yolks and zest on high speed until fluffly (about 5 minutes). Add the condensed milk and whip for about 4 minutes longer. Lower the speed and mix in the lime juice until mixed in.
Divide the mixture between your tart pans and bake for about 10-15 minutes until the filling has just set. Cool on a wire rack and refrigerate for about 20 minutes before serving. Serve with whipped cream if you are so inclined. (You should be).
Paris is known as a fashion capital and when most people go to Paris they go shopping for the latest fashions. Not I! In terms of fashion I only bought a pair of Bensimon sneakers and a backpack (don’t ask). What I really stocked up on was food! Here’s a rundown of the groceries that I picked up while in Paris…
Tea
I have an obsession with tea and couldn’t visit Paris without hitting up two of the best-known tea shops, Mariage Freres and Palais des Thes. My tea cravings these days have been for teas scented with rose, coconut, lychee and a few other tropical flavours and my tea choices reflected that. I haven’t dipped into all of my tea yet but I’m loving Theophile from Palais des Thes.
Fleur de Sel
Sure you can totally find Fleur de Sel in Toronto but it’s ridiculous cheap in Paris. I paid around 2 euros for each pack. Then I came back to Toronto and saw one brand selling for $9.99. Clearly I won.
Tonka
Before my cooking class I had never heard of Tonka. Tonka is a spice from South America that is one of the best things ever. It smells/tastes like almonds, vanilla, cinnamon, nutmeg and just overall spicy goodness. I picked up two jars of the stuff from G. Detou because I never want to be without Tonka in my life. Apparently it’s illegal in the U.S. Check out this article.
Spreads
Europeans do spreads soooo much better than we do in North America. I picked up 2 jars of jam from my fave Christine Ferber, a jar of Bonne Maman (that I’ve never seen at home), a jar of Speculoos spread and some chestnut cream.
Lentils du Puy
I forever see recipes that call for a specific type of French lentil. They are hard to find in Toronto and when you do find them they are definitely pricey or not actually from France. I stopped myself from picking up several boxes. I’m excited to dip into these.
Pear-flavoured Pims
Pims are some of my fave cookies. A soft cakey cookie topped with jam and coated in chocolate is perfection. I was happy to find pear-flavoured ones in Paris and couldn’t resist. They were REALLY good.
Candied Kumquats
We used candied kumquats in our brioche in cooking class and in a moment of weakness I bought a bag of them at G Detou. I’m not sure what I’m going to use these for…
Cruesli
Oh man! Cruesli is THE BEST cereal ever. It’s cinnamon-scented granola with some puffed grains and… wait for it… huge chunks of dark chocolate. The French clearly know how to start the day off right.
Harissa
I always see recipes that require harissa. I’m sure I can find it here but it was less than a euro at the supermarket and right in front of me so I bought some.
For this trip I decided to do something a bit different and signed up for a cooking class. I know a few people that have done this on their vacation and highly recommended it. What I really wanted was to sign up for an intermediate or advanced pastry class but I couldn’t find one that worked with my schedule. I considered taking a macaron class but I’m pretty proficient in making them already so I passed. Instead I decided to sign up for a baking class at Cook’n with Class in the 18th arrondissement.
The class size was small with just 4 students and was taught in English. Our instructor Briony was Australian and very lovely. She was super patient and very good about explaining and demonstrating the various steps involved. We ended up making croissants, pain au chocolat, two types of brioche and foccaccia over the course of 3 hours.
Given the nature of what we were producing the structure of the class didn’t allow us to make a lot of items from start to finish. Croissant dough for example has to be made in stages and requires a minimum of 16 hour rest time. Instead we were taught the various steps using pre-made batches of dough. The class was also a bit less hand-on than I had anticipated. I’m used to my George Brown classes where we’re given stations with our own sets of ingredients. For this class the students took turns helping out during different steps. Luckily our class size was small so it worked out.
I learned a lot in this class and it was pretty cool to demystify the croissant-making process. It really isn’t hard to do but it requires a lot of butter (we used about a pound in 12 croissants) and patience to roll the butter and dough together. In the class I was introduced to two “new-to-me” ingredients, candied kumquats and tonka beans. We used the candied kumquats in our brioche and they gave off a lovely citrus flavour. The tonka beans are what really won my heart. Tonka is a spice from Africa that is like a combination of nutmeg, vanilla, almonds and other goodness. You could use it in place of the aforementioned flavours and I could see this being great in French toast, crème brulee or in oatmeal. You grate it just as you would nutmeg. Love it.
Out of everything that I learned in class I could see myself making the brioche over and over again. I’ll likely give croissants another go because I do have that masochist gene in me. I’m also now in love with the idea of taking cooking classes when I travel. It’s such a great idea for doing something a bit different while travelling.
I recently received an invite from the lovely folks at Coach to an event at the Coach store on Bloor in Toronto to celebrate the launch of Gail Simmons’ book .Gail of course is a judge on Top Chef, the host of Top Chef: Just Desserts and Special Projects Director at Food & Wine. It also so happens that Gail hails from the T-Dot aka Toronto. Since I a.) love Top Chef and b.) love a hometown success story I was excited to not only read Gail’s book but also to meet her.
“Talking With My Mouth Full” is the story of how Gail got to be where she is today. After graduating from university she had no idea what to do next. A family friend suggested that she write down what she loves to do and use that to guide her. What did Gail write down? Eat. Write. Travel. Cook. Funny enough, that’s exactly where her journey has taken her. As someone who often stops to ask myself what the heck I’m doing with my life and who loves all things food and media, I find Gail’s journey fascinating. In addition to her current roles with Top Chef and Food & Wine, Gail has also worked as an assistant to Vogue’s Jeffrey Steingarten and worked for Daniel Boulud.
The more I read the book the more I totally loved Gail. I can totally relate to her and parts of her journey. Reading about her time interning at magazines, that’s me! When she talks about living in Toronto and how everyone leaves for school but like 95% of people come back, I totally get that. When she talks about why she wanted to move to NYC and the fact that she actually made it happen, I get that. How she was able to move to NYC and work for some top names that wouldn’t have even imagine, totally me. I do not however relate to her story about being 6 and getting wasted on wine. It’s one of the funniest stories that ends with this… “I don’t remember much else abut the experience, but then again, I was six and I was drunk.” Hilarious!
The Coach event was very intimate and informal which allowed me and Mardi from Eat.Live.Travel.Write to have a lovely chat with Gail. Through the power of Gail actually recognized me from my picture and knew that Mardi was a teacher. Clearly she does not employ a ghosttweeter (yup, I just made up that word). We talked about our blogs, her book, Toronto and of course food! She was incredibly lovely, looked great and was totally cool with answering a few questions for the blog.
Which brings me to…
4 Questions with Gail Simmons
1. What’s it like promoting your own book vs. Top Chef or your other endeavours ?
Totally different experience. When I started writing this book something hit me, I realized that this was the first thing that I’ve done in my life alone, with just my name on it. You work at Food & Wine magazine and you have a whole magazine of people, you’re just part of the team. You work on Top Chef and there’s a hundred of us in some way shape or form working as a team.
This is me. My name’s on the door. If it sucks, no one is taking the blame but me! No one’s going to be like ‘oh that publishing house’. No it’s just me, alone, there I am. So it was really intimidating actually, a lot of weight, it made me very fearsome. In the end I feel like I handed in a project that I was really proud of even though I had an amazingly short time to write it, and of course two days later I wanted to change everything. But you know, I’m proud of the outcome and it feels good because it’s personal. I also didn’t have to learn anything for it, it’s my story. It’s all there, it’s all in my head, so it’s a very easy thing to talk about.
2. What are some of your fave food memoir type books that may have inspired you?
There’s a couple of really great memoirs that I’ve read. Peter Mayle’s stuff originally is really great. Gabrielle Hamilton’s ‘Blood, Bones & Butter’ was a really great, modern, excellent memoir. Anthony Bourdain, although I would not say I was inspired by him in everyy way. He and I worked together a lot and spent a lot of time together, and traveled a lot together and we talked about that stuff a lot. I would say he would never call himself a chef anymore. He’s really not. Yes he was at one point but he left the kitchen and …his experience and my experience are in some ways similar but obviously the outcome was very different. But ultimately we found writing about food to be the way we wanted to be in the world of food instead of cooking. But there are some similarities there, although his time in the kitchen was a little crazier than mine!
3 Do you have any “must eats” when in Toronto?
I do have a few although there are so many restaurants that I keep a list for when I’m here that I never get to eat at. Let’s see… I do love The Drake, the chef there I’ve known for a very long time, Anthony Rose. Terroni is a classic Toronto restaurant that I love. Foxley is great. Origin is a beautiful restaurant that I’ve eaten at a few times that I think is really great and really fun. I don’t know if it’s still open but one of my favourite places to eat breakfast used to be this little place in the Annex on Lippincot Street called Aunties & Uncles, I used to love that place! I haven’t been back in about 10 years. Woodlot, Caplansky’s , all very good food places.
4. What would you be doing now if you weren’t doing what you’re currently doing?
Like if I could do anything else and wasn’t in the food industry? I would want to be a zoologist. I’d want to work with animals. Maybe a primatologist, I really like monkeys. [Tonya’s note: Guys, she likes monkeys. This SLAYS me!]
Thanks to the folks at Coach I have an AUTOGRAPHED copy of to give away to a lucky reader (in Canada or the United States). Here’s how you can enter…
1. Leave a comment letting me know what you’re likely eating if you get caught talking with your mouth full.
2. BONUS entry: Follow me on Twitter () and tweet the following “Thanks to @wontonfm I entered to win Gail Simmons’ book #MouthFull and you can too http://bit.ly/w8xeqY !”
3. BONUS entry #2: Like What’s On My Plate on Facebook and say hello.
IMPORTANT: For the bonus entries please come back and comment to let me know if you tweeted or facebooked.
The contest closes on Sunday, March 25 at 11:59PM ET and is open only to residents with a shipping address in Canada or the United States.
As I mentioned in a recent post, I love me some beef cheeks. I like them so much that after first making them I called the butcher to order 5lbs of them so I could always have a stash of beef cheeks in my freezer. They are that good.
When I got the craving for chili the other day I thought, why not make it with some beef cheeks? I mean I’ve made chili with regular stew beef chunks and figured that short ribs would be better. And since beef cheeks are better than short ribs… wouldn’t that be the ultimate chili? Seriously.
So I defrosted some beef cheeks and set out to make the goodness.
I figured I’d see if there any recipes for beef cheek chili on the internet and I couldn’t find any! So I set out to modify a few recipes for short rib chili to accommodate my beef cheeks.
Chili is so controversial. I rarely find a recipe that has all the things that I like… a good thing that chili is so easy to whip up from scratch. I rarely can find a recipe that has beans and beefiness and tomatoey goodness and a variety of peppers and a bit of broth. Le sigh. But it’s all good. I used this recipe as my source recipe for this chili with a few modifications.
Holy was this chili rich and delicious. Beef cheeks are just so luscious and luxurious that they make everything that much more delicious and almost silky on your tongue. And the flavour was out of the world. Not too spicy and with this great body and depth of flavour from the peppers, cocoa and beer. Oh, I have to say it, cocoa in chili is the best. I’ve always been skeptical but recently took the leap and cocoa really helps along the meaty flavour. It doesn’t taste chocolately, it just tastes good.
What also put this chili over the top was my use of mix-ins. For me, I don’t put a ton of emphasis on mix-ins with chili. Maybe I’ll do sour cream and cheese but I don’t usually go all the way. This time I will and there’s no turning back. I did the usual sour cream and cheese but also kicked it up a notch with cilantro, green onions and red onions. Do it.
And I don’t have to tell you the golden rule of chili, right? But I will. If you can, make it ahead of time (like the night before) to allow the flavours to meld. Chili is so much better the next day.
Beef Cheek Chili
2 dried ancho chilies
2 dried guajillo chilies
2 cups boiling water
1 tablespoon ground coriander
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon coarse salt
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon chipotle chile powder
1 tablespoon chipotle chiles in adobo sauce
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
Kosher or sea salt
1.5 pounds beef cheeks (or short ribs), trimmed
Oil
2 cups diced yellow onion
2 large cloves garlic, peeled and smashed
1 tablespoon dried Mexican oregano (or regular oregano_
2 tablespoon tomato paste
1 28 oz. can whole tomatoes with juice, gently crushed
1 cup beer (I use a dark beer)
1 cup beef broth
1 tablespoon masa harina
1 can of kidney or pinto beans, drained
1 can of black beans, drained
Juice of one lime
Mix-ins: cheese, sour cream, tortilla chips, cilantro, green onions, red onions, jalapenos or whatever you think will taste awesome with this…
Cut open the peppers and shake out the seeds. Toast the peppers in a dry frying pan until they begin to soften. Put them in a bowl with the boiling water and allow to soak until they are very soft.
Toast the coriander and cumin seeds in the same dry skillet until fragrant. Transfer to a blender along with the peppers and their soaking liquid, salt, cinnamon, chipotle powder, chipotles in adobo, and cocoa powder. Puree until smooth and set aside.
Season the beef cheeks with salt and pepper and set aside. Heat some oil in your chili pot and brown the cheeks on each side. Remove the cheeks from the pot and set aside.
Add a bit more oil to the pot if needed and add the chopped onions. Cook until translucent and the add the garlic, oregano and cook until fragrant. Add the tomato paste off to the side and allow to cook on its own for a minute before mixing into the onion mixture.
Return the beef cheeks to the pot with any accumulated juices, then add the chile puree, and the tomatoes, crushing them a bit more. Add the beer and broth and cover simmer over low heat for about 3 or 4 hours (until the cheeks are super tender). If you want you can make the chili ahead of time up to this point if you don’t want to go all the way…
Add the masa harina (it thickens things and adds some corny flavour) and the beans to the pot and allow the beans to heat through. Add more salt if needed and stir in the lime juice off the heat. Ladle into bowls and top with the mixins.
If you’ve been reading my blog over the past few years you know that I probably love traveling as much as I love food. When I can combine my gastronomic pursuits with traveling (which I always find a way to do) then the trip will likely be amazing.
I recently took a jaunt “across the pond” to visit two of my favourite cities, Paris and London. Now you may be thinking, “wasn’t she just in London this summer?”, the answer would be yes. This unplanned jaunt started because one of my good friends, Robin, who lives in London, is getting married and decided to do a bachelorette weekend in Paris. Now even I can admit that I weekend in Paris is a bit extravagant for me so I turned the weekend into 5 days and added a 4 day stay in London as well. Not extravagant in the least!
The great thing about this trip is that since I’ve been to both cities more than once (I lived in Paris for nearly 6 months and vacationed there 2 years ago) I could just use the time to chill in the city and eat some good food. I’ll do a series of blogs to cover off some of the awesomeness of my trip including my croissant-making class in Paris and my Parisian grocery finds as well as what I ate in London. This entry is all about where I ate in Paris.
Since I was part of a small-ish (5-person) group, I was totally content to just hang with the ladies and not be obsessed with hitting up all of my food conquests. Also, since a lot of my picks require reservations and we didn’t have any, we ate a few random places. Because I decided to stay in Paris for an extra few days by myself I was able to hit up a few of the spots on my “must eat” list.
(Oh, photos are from iPhone 4S and often through some Instagram filter. Sue me.)
109 Rue de Bagnolet
75020 Paris, France
One place that came highly recommended by a few people including my girl over at Coco & Cowe was Mama Shelter. Now most people spoke of it in terms of a nightspot but they also serve food so we decided to make our Saturday night a one-stop shop. Situated in the 20th arrondisement, Mama Shelter was a bit of a trek from our Marais apartment on Rue des Archives on a rainy Saturday night with no reservations. Luckily the table gods smiled down on us and with my rough French I was able to secure a prime table for 5.
The menu is definitely heavy on the French influence but also incorporates an interna
tional flare here and there. To start we had some deliciously creamy burrata and warm leeks. A great start to the meal. I also should add that I ordered the most delicious cocktail. Their entire cocktail list (and it was extensive) and it was totally hard to choose. I settled on the “On the Road” that featured one of my signature flavours, ginger (for the record, my other signature flavour is coconut). For my main I had my third steak in two days and it was by far the best of the bunch. Perfectly cooked and served with fabulous frites and a bit of spicy “devil’s” sauce this made me beyond happy.
The service was also great. Everyone that worked there was super nice to our primarily English-speaking group and was surprisingly accommodating when we rolled up on Saturday at about 9PM looking for a table for 5. I also have to note that the DJs were GREAT. They played a mix of hip hop and R&B as the night wore on and played a lot of older songs (think TLC circa “No Scrubs”). We were a happy group.
Breizh Café
109 Rue Vieille du Temple
75003 Paris, France
I stumbled upon Breizh through David Leibovitz’s blog (a source for a lot of my great Parisian finds). They specialize in buckwheat crepes with an assortment of fillings with everything from smoked herring, to ham and egg as well as vegetarian options. I opted for the Bretonne which includes Gruyere, scrambled eggs, bacon, sautéed mushrooms and crème fraiche.
I’ve had buckwheat crepes once before at a rando place near Versailles. T
his crepe was infinitely better. The buckwheat added a hearty nuttiness to the crepe but wasn’t too heavy. You could also tell that the filling ingredients were great quality. I could easily see myself eating this every day. For my cocktail I chose something I had never seen before that was a mixture of cider and a ginge
r liqueur. It was interesting to say the least. I’m not 100% sold on the cider/ginger combination but kind of enjoyed it.
I went to this restaurant on a Sunday night at about 8PM and it was packed with no tables opening up for another 2 hours… definitely make reservations. I think I looked desperate enough and in need of a crepe that the host gave me a bit of a makeshift position at the bar.
Frenchie Bar au Vin
5-5 rue du Nil
75002 Paris
Tél:
This one is another David Lebovitz pick. Since I was on a roll with showing up to popular restaurants without a reservation and getting seated right away I decided to rol
l up to for dinner on a Monday night to try my luck. My back up plan was that if Frenchie didn’t work out I could hit up their Bar au Vin which doesn’t take reservations. When I got to Frenchie I quickly learned that there was not a chance in hell that I was getting a spot to eat so I headed across the street to the Bar au Vin as it was opening in 5 minutes.
The Bar au Vin is tiny with maybe 4 or 5 tables and a bar that can seat about 6. It filled up within about 30 minutes of opening… on a Monday night! The wine list as you can imagine is extensive and the food is prepared in a tiny cubby… I can’t even call it a kitchen, and churns out small plates of goodness.
I started off with a fabulous (and beautifully presented) Terrine de Campagne studded with pistachios and wrapped in bacon. It was super rich and a great way to start the meal. I then segued into Burrata dish that also featured boudin noir and stewed apple chunks. This burrata was super creamy and pretty perfect. My only beef is that a plateful of burrata is totally obscene for one person. I finished off my meal (because hunks of terrine and burrata weren’t nearly enough) with an order of coquilles st. Jacques with Topinambour (NO CLUE) and something called main de boudha. This was a great way to finish off the meal as it was so much lighter (although not light) than everything else.
Frenchie Bar au Vin was a definite highlight of my dining this trip. Next time I would go with a few people and eat the entire menu as pretty much everything sounded like a winner to me.
Les Papilles
30 Rue Gay-Lussac
75005 Paris, France
Les Papilles was on my list for my last Paris trip but because I was traveling with somewhat picky eaters the no-choice, set menu style would not be conducive to everyone enjoying their meals. So I decided to pay a visit during the lunch hours for my last meal in Paris.
And what a great choice! I decided to go with their market menu which basically means that the chef picks whatever is looking good at the market and goes to town. Also being very ambitious, I signed up for the 4 course menu. FOR LUNCH. When on vacation…
The first course was pumpkin soup. But this was no ordinary pumpkin soup… it was two-parter. First the server presented me with a shallow bowl with finely diced pumpkin/squash (raw), bacon, croutons, chestnuts and chives. Then she brought out this huge bowl of pumpkin soup that I was supposed to ladle into the shallow bowl. BRILLIANT. The flavours were so perfectly balanced and there was a great contrast in textures. I loved the idea of ladling the soup over the fixins because the fixins weren’t over cooked and retained their texture.
One of my fave things about eating in Paris is that while I do speak/read French some things get lost in menu translation. The market menu that day featured “poitrine de porc”. This translates literally to pork chest. Now I wasn’t sure what pork chest would be like but kind of assumed it would be kind of like the shoulder or something. Imagine my joy when they brought out the dish and it was pork belly! The pork belly was slow-cooked for hours in a tomato sauce and served with beans, lardoons of bacon and carrots. There was also a pesto to accompany the dish which worked brilliantly to add a bit of brightness toe the flavours and cut down on a bit of the richness. When I saw the giant portion of pork belly I had to back out of the 4-course lunch and stop at 2 courses. While cheese and a pineapple upside down cake both sounded great my poor stomach would not be able to hold it. I’d add this to your “must visit” list for Paris.
One of the downsides to preserving is that I end up with more jars of goodness than I can use (I mean if you want to call that a downside). Sure I can (and do) share with friends but every once in a while I’ll poke into the cupboard and find a jar of jam that’s a bit older than I would like.
About a year or two ago I made a batch of blueberry jam flavoured with a hint of liquorice and wine. It had the promise of being amazing but I was making a VERY small batch and overcooked the lot and ended up with this super thick and hard to spread jam. Le sigh. I tried using it on breads and stuff but never quite got into it. Then I forgot about it.
Recently I was making pancakes for breakfast and didn’t have any mix-ins on hand. No berries, no bananas, nary a chocolate chip to be seen! That’s when I got the idea that this blueberry jam could come in handy. A lot of dessert recipes call for heating up jam to use as a glaze or spread over a tart so I thought about melting down the jam to make a syrup.
Clearly I’m brilliant.
I took out a small saucepan, added the jam and a bit of water and set the heat to medium-low. After some stirring and a few minutes I was left by a most delicious blueberry syrup that was perfect as a topping for my pancakes. You could totally use this as your only syrup for your pancakes or waffles or you could be totally glutinous like me and use it with maple syrup. We all make choices.
No recipe here just the advice to take some good jam, add it to a pan with a bit of water and heat it. That’s it.
