Truffle Mutt

Book Club #?

Yeah I have no idea how many book club evenings I've catered now - quite a few anyway.

This one was the last meeting of their season, but more importantly (for me anyway) it's the last one before I head off to school.  Holy smokes is it ever getting close!

So, a celebration was in order.  A fun menu, featuring a compilation of my favorite bites.  The lamb and beef/pork sliders were inspired by my TV addiction, Diners Drive ins and Dives and maybe a little bit by the nerdy good looks of Galen Weston serving President's Choice sliders to his make-believe neighbors - haven't you seen the ad?  The Asiago and roasted vegetable phyllo pockets by a dinner I had at Storm Mountain Lodge...

Add to that a bottle of wine, crispy crab cakes with lemon dill sauce, maybe a few more bottles of wine, lemon cream blackberry napoleons, coffee granita and mini pecan praline layer cakes and you have the makings of a great time.  

So, cheers to you the Witches of Word!  You've been the best guinea pigs I could ask for.  See you next year!  But, no letting your expectations get too high.  :)

Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale - More Pics

I wrote this yesterday, but the post seems to have disappeared into the abyss - I'll try this again.

 

 

These were the large and small lemon cream and raspberry swirl tarts. 

 

And these were the fresh berry and vanilla pastry cream tarts.  My only regret was sacrificing elegance for transportability - so they look a bit like summer berry spaceships. 

   

And lastly, a picture of golden, flaky baklava, adapted from this Alton Brown recipe. 

Before I destroyed it...

At about 11pm on Friday night I was thinking more about sleep than food and I didn't properly reduce the syrup, then as if that wasn't enough, I permanently sealed their fate by wrapping the squares too early.  When I woke up in the morning all those beautiful golden flakes had turned into a big wet Kleenex.  So sad.

 

Calgary Food Bloggers Bake Sale

 

I'm a little late getting this post out since the market is happening right now, but better late than tomorrow!  Here's a link to Vincci's site where you can find out more information and see a copy of the poster.

The bake sale is taking place today and tomorrow as part of the Calgary Market Collective in Kensington and all the proceeds from our table will be going to Calgary Meals on Wheels.  Could you ask for more perfect excuse to indulge?  I think not!

My pecan caramel chocolate tart (adapted from Saveur) shown above is making an appearance at the sale, along with several other delectable delights from my kitchen including raspberry coconut bars, rhubarb cake, almond slices, peanut butter marshmallow bars, maple pecan pie tarts, fresh fruit tarts with vanilla pastry cream and lemon cream tarts with raspberry swirl.  It was a busy (and messy) couple of days at my place, but all for a great cause.  

Good luck at the sale guys!  And thanks to Vincci for organizing and putting it all together.

So Good

 
This tri-tip roast was supposed to enter my Mexican marathon but after a bit of reading on egullet and chowhound I fired up the barbecue instead.  No, it wasn't all the talk about tough, chewy, overcooked and stringy meat that made me want to try grilling it, but rather the few hidden phrases like, "gastronomic treat" and "serious good eats".  Honestly, how could I not go for it after hearing claims like that?

Thanks to Bobby Flay's recipe for skirt steak, this roast was slathered in a not-for-amateurs-fiery-hot chipotle sauce with a tangy, buttery avocado relish.  Both of which were fantastic even on their own!  Did I happen to mention this was really good?  I should have. 

I served it with roasted potatoes, golden beets and carrots done on the barbecue too.  No, if your taste buds are all fired up then you may want to find a tri-tip for yourself.  Mine was from the fine folks at Hoven Farms at the Calgary Farmers Market.  Leave one for me though.

Red Pork Tamales

 I made TAMALES!  So cool.

Mom and Dad just got back from their snow bird vacation in San Diego and they returned with loads of goodies.  Jewelery from the markets, handmade glass pendants and FOOD.  That's right lets skip straight to the good stuff. 

I got a tortilla press, dried hibiscus flowers, Mexican oregano, cinnamon and a million and four dried chilies.  Maybe a million and five.  I have anchos, chile negros, pasillas, japanese, guarillos and arbols.  Mounds of them!  Are you getting a sense of my happiness?  It's almost impossible to get Mexican ingredients in this part of the world, so yes, chilies really are that exciting!

Thanks for the silver chain Dad.  It's beautiful too!  :)   

Setting out to put at least a small dent in my chili supply I tried my hand at making tamales.  I was able to find both the dried corn husks and Masa at Salsita, which was formerly the Boca Loca store at 777 Northmount Drive NW.  It turns out they also have frozen banana leaves, which you can also use for tamales.  Those will have to wait until next time, as will my quest to find real lard.

Don't let what you read about tamales scare you away.  They are time consuming, but no more so than making pasta or bread and they are definitely worth it.  They freeze well too.

Sunnyside up Mexican Style

Alright, this picture might require something in the way of a description.  You can see that it's partially eaten, but just so you know I didn't intended to take a picture of it all messed up and devoured.  It's just that it really did looked a better at this point. 

And in case you're still stumped, my dinner wasn't really dinner either.  I'll give you a clue, it starts with huevos and ends with rancheros.  Yeah, you guess it!  It's huevos rancheros!

In about 15 minutes, Rick Bayless (via my copy of Authentic Mexican) helped me transform one very ripe tomato into a fiery Mexican classic.  Sure, it wasn't very dinner-ish, or photogenic, but it was sure yu-u-mmy.   

Huevos Rancheros:  

1 ripe tomato
1 canned chipotle chili
2 cloves of garlic
olive oil
2 corn tortillas
2 eggs
salt

Preheat the oven just to warm it and put your plate in there.

Chop the tomato and chipotle and add to a food processor.  In the skillet cook the whole garlic cloves until browned and then toss them into the food processor too.  Blend until the mixture until it is almost smooth and then set aside.

In the same skillet heat 2-3 tbsp of olive oil until very hot, but not quite smoking and pour in the tomato sauce mixture.  This fries the sauce and deepens the flavour, but be warned it also splatters hot sauce and oil all over the place.  Trust me it's worth it.  Fry the sauce until it thickens and then pour into a bowl and place in the warm oven. 

Next heat another tsp or so of olive oil in the pan and quickly fry the tortillas to warm them and then place them in the oven as well.  Lastly, fry two eggs sunny side up.  When the eggs are done slide them onto the warm tortillas and spoon over the tomato-chili sauce.  Enjoy.

*Adapted from Rick Bayless Authentic Mexican

It's Official

Woohoo!  I can finally make it official.

I'm trading in my job, my office and my production accounting certificate for a chef's knife and culinary school.  Here's to hoping I keep my fingers in tact in case I need to return to my calculator!  :) 

Sure it's a little bit crazy, but then again that's me.  From food crazy to food blogger and now this.  I'll be leaving an industry I've known for the last 12 years and moving myself squarely to the bottom of the pecking order.  And guess what, I can HARDLY wait.   Schools in on September 7, 2010.  Let the count down begin.

What's your Beef?

What could be better than a medium rare, succulent, perfectly seasoned piece of beef?  A medium rare, succulent, perfectly seasoned piece of bison - that's what.

I don't know for sure when we started eating bison, probably when we lived in the condo and shopped at the seedy 24 hour IGA in Lakeview (I think it's finally morphed into a Sobey's).  For some reason you could buy fresh bison there when no where else in Calgary seemed to carry it.  Who knew?

Now-a-days though, I buy my bison from Glengary Bison out in Airdrie.  Cynthia and Gary are great and you can buy direct at their farm, or have them deliver your order right into town.  The bison is naturally raised, which is as close to organic as you can get without the certification and the flavor is amazing.  Some of the other bison producers I've tried seem to have a gamier tasting product, but Glengary is right in the middle.  You can tell it's not beef, but the taste won't overwhelm you either.  The biggest difference between beef & bison for me is in the tenderloin.  With beef it can be hard to find a tenderloin with a lot of flavor.  It might be tender and melt in your mouth good, but at the same time leave your taste buds hoping for something more.  Here's where I think that bison saves the day.  It can have that same tenderness with a bolder meaty taste.

I pan seared this tenderloin roast and then finished it in the oven, served with a shallot and sherry reduction.

Opinionated eh?

Well here's some food for thought.  I was surfing the net today and on a whim decided to Goggle trufflemutt.  Little did I know that I would stumble upon this little nugget of goodness (heavy on the sarcasm).  

Sure, when you first land on this link you may not understand why I've sent you here, but look down a little further and you'll soon see what's got me in a tizzy.  Scroll down to Truffle Mutt and read the description for this blog.  Well, come on did you SEE it?

In Webster's dictionary terms this comment can be translated to:

–adjective obstinate or conceited with regard to the merit of one's own opinions; conceitedly dogmatic.

Really?!  Seriously?!  Fine, if that's how it's going to be, then in my less-than-humble opinion you're opinion is irrelevant. 

If you don't like what's posted here, I hope you find yourself a blog loaded with sugar plum fairies and skies filled with endless rainbows.  A virtual foodies paradise where where dinner is always on time, restaurants always provide perfect service, souffles never collapse, husbands are never picky and every single recipe, published or otherwise yields flawless results. 

And for anyone else that would rather read about what really goes on in my kitchen (which is incredibly far from the above), please you are welcome to keep reading.

Coriander & Cilantro

I love this recipe from Fine Cooking Magazine.  A think juicy pork chop, crusted in a pungent coriander spice mix, fried until crispy and drizzled with a citrus-y hoisin sauce and the sweet heat of peppadews.  Served with sesame sauteed cabbage. Yum.

And who knew I'd love coriander seed so much?  It's nothing like it's evil fresh relative - the dreaded cilantro.  The flavor is earthy, sweet and somewhat peppery.  As opposed to cilantro, which (at least to me) is akin to sucking liquid hand soap through a straw.