Truffle Mutt

Greek Chicken

My favorite Greek restaurant in Calgary is Spiro's on 17th and it's right down the street from our new house.  Woohoo!  When I first realized that I would be so close I was bouncing with excitement.  And now after 592 visits and more tension on my zipper than the Golden Gate Bridge, ask me how I feel about it.  Still, they do serve the best lamb kleftiko, ever.  And the best melitzanosalata, taramosalata, tyrokafteri, moussaka - oh my goodness - I almost left out the lemon potatoes.  Now you understand the problem.

The picture above is my attempt to make lamb kleftiko, except with chicken.  It wasn't quite the same, possibly because I used chicken (?).  Regardless of that it was pretty yummy. 

The sauce at Spiro's is thicker and has a more intense tomato flavor to it, but I think if you braised the dish for a longer time to reduce the sauce and intensify the flavors that the result would be closer. Additionally, next time I might try using lamb to get a closer approximation of lamb kleftiko.  There's a thought.

Lemon Grass Thai Pesto

Lemon grass, ginger, shallots, basil, olive oil, cheese, nuts and garlic = a fantastic and seriously original pesto.  Although I spot something red in there - my bet's on chilies.

I don't have a lot of experience cooking with lemon grass, but I'm in love with the taste of it.  Now thinking back, I can only remember cooking with it once and the memory is a painful one.  The flavor of the dish was alright, it was the fibrous, jaw strengthening texture that remains burned into my mind.  Needless to say it ended up clogging the garburator after just a few bites.  This pesto from the Stock and Sauce Co. was a far superior gastronomic experience.

When I bought this at the market I was looking to buy a sweet basil pesto for my brother and his girlfriend for a dinner party they were having.  I was not (supposed to be) shopping for myself.  That was until the guy working the booth saw the HUGE "Sucker for Food" sign around my neck and offered me a tester. You guessed it - sold.  Now all I had to do is buy a dinner to go with it!

After a few more stops at the market, this was the menu.  Pan fried halibut, seasoned with salt and pepper, topped with lemon grass pesto, served with yellow tomato and cheddar salad drizzled with olive oil salt and pepper and sauteed asparagus.

Supposed to be Cannelloni Manicotti

I can't find my pasta maker!  I packed it a few months before we moved out of the condo, but now that we've unpacked in the new place I can't seem to locate it.  Of course if Jason was the one to unpack it - it could be anywhere.  I have asked him if he remembers seeing it during his unpacking, but honestly he wouldn't know pasta maker if it came up and introduced itself.  R.I.P. little pasta maker, wherever you are.

I set out at first to make cannelloni from The Food of Italy Cookbook, but having neither my pasta maker, or flat lasagna noodles on hand, I had to go ahead with what I did have - Manicotti.  This came with the serious side effect of not being able to roll the filling with the cheese or prosciutto, not good.   

It's All In The Tomato

I love tomatoes. 

I know they're not exotic but in the world of vegetables there's just no match for a tomatoes versatility.  Freshly sliced and layered on toast or used to round out the flavor of a winter braise, the tomato spans all seasons, preparations and regions of the world.  It is a wonderful thing.

And I love bruschetta.

I've eaten it a more than a few (thousand) times yet I've never attempted to make it.  The truth is I didn't trust the recipes - how could a few everyday ingredients make the aromatic rich tasting bruschetta that I get from the Italian market?  It couldn't - right?  So, I kept on buying it and was  perfectly content thinking I was making a sound choice.

And then it happened.  I had been at my favorite tomato booth at the Market, Gull Valley Greenhouse and I had a cache of vine ripened, hand-picked, ruby red tomatoes at my disposal.  Now, on it's own this circumstance would not have inspired bruschetta, but when an unexpected dinner guest arrived, that's exactly what happened.  And suprise me it did...  A few carefully selected ripened ingredients and I can make a killer bruschetta.  Who knew!?  Certainly not me. 

Calgary Cheesesteaks

I've never been to Philadelphia and I've never had a real Philly cheesesteak sandwich, so I had some research to do before making this attempt.  I surfed around the net to get some ideas, but wasn't keen on any one recipe.  For starters I knew my cheesesteaks were going to be born from a leftover bison chuck roast, not very Philly cheesesteak like, so I named them Calgary cheesesteaks instead.   

I thinly sliced the roast and then made an au jus for the meat.  I know the au jus is also very unauthentic, but I changed the name, so that should be acceptable enough.  To a large saute pan I added 2 tbsp of olive olive oil, 1/2 a medium chopped onion and 2 cloves of chopped garlic. When the onion was lightly browned I deglazed the pan with a splash of red wine and then added 1/2 a cup of beef stock, 2 tbsp soy sauce, 2 tbsp tomato paste and 1 tsp brown sugar.  After a few tastes I seasoned the sauce with salt and pepper and added the sliced meat and one sliced portabello mushroom.  I let the meat simmer for about 1 hour - only because my dinner date was late - and then made a batch of sauteed sliced onion and green pepper.

Then after a few more additions of stock to keep the meat from drying out, Jason finally arrived!  I served the bison piled high on a toasted slice of sourdough, added a big scoop of sauteed onion and green pepper and then layered the sandwich with mozzarella and a gruesome smothering of melted cheese whiz.  Philly-shmilly...