Le Petit Mousse

Croque Monsieur at the Calgary Farmers Market.
Wiki defined as 'a hot ham and cheese typically emmental or gruyère, grilled sandwich.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Location:Calgary Farmers Market

Chef's Table at Kensington Riverside Inn

I remember listening to CBC radio when they were discussing group buy deals. One listener called in and commented on how they think that these deals for restaurants diminish and question the quality of food and experience of a restaurant. I DISAGREE wholeheartedly.  Groupon recently posted a deal for this restaurant.  I've been terribly excited to try Chef's Table for a long time now. I first heard about it via John Gilchrist's restaurant review on CBC radio.  And honestly, if John Gilchrist likes it, then it's probably fantastic.  I was right.

The restaurant is divided into two sections: the main dining room and kind of an outskirt dining room. The main dining room had the hustle and bustle of dining patrons opposed to the quiet dining area.  There is also an open kitchen concept similar to Mercato and Centini.

A little amuse bouche: Goat cheese mousse with a cherry tomato infused with balsamic reduction.

I had the Game Hen with confit pork.  The portion may look small but it was a very filling meal.

The halibut and chorizo ravioli with some type of vegetable foam.

Each entree was accompanied by truffle potatoes. What an adorable container.

I think what impressed me the most was the dessert.

Deconstructed Crème Brulée: hibiscus & pink rose meringues, toasted almonds,

compressed raspberries. What a creative and delicious interpretation.

Peanut Butter & Jelly: peanut butter mousse, banana cardamom sorbet,

chocolate plastic, huckleberry jelly. The colours in this aren't terribly captivating, the PB mousse looks a little like a duck egg and the sorbet looks a little like fois gras. The chocolate "plastic" brought out a bit of colour with edible pansies. The 'plastic' is a fondant texture. Even though it isn't colourful, the taste was outstanding. I can't wait to try other dishes on my next visit!

Mango curry black bean quinoa salad as per Dinner with Julie

So it was about last year that I tried this fabulous salad.  I've been dreaming about it for a while now, and the other day I decided to bite the bullet and buy ingredients that I do not normally carry in my kitchen (black beans, white balsamic vinegar, cumin and purple onion).

Here is Julie Van Rosendaal's recipe with my minor tweaks. ORIGINAL RECIPE

Ingredients
1 cup quinoa
3 ripe mangoes, peeled and chopped
1/2  yellow pepper, chopped
1/2 English cucumber, chopped
1/2 of purple onion, chopped
2 cups (packed) baby spinach, torn or sliced
1 can black beans 19oz, rinsed and drained
 
Dressing:
1/4 cup canola oil
4 Tbsp. white balsamic vinegar
1 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. curry paste
1/4 tsp. cumin

Salt and pepper

1) Rinse quinoa well under cool water in a fine sieve, then cook in a pot of boiling salted water over medium heat until tender but still firm to bite, stirring occasionally, about 15 minutes. (Just like you’d cook pasta.) Drain well, return to the pot, put the lid back on and let it steam – this will produce fluffy quinoa – until cooled.

2) Combine the oil, vinegar, honey, curry and cumin in a jar or small bowl and shake or whisk to blend.

3) Put the quinoa, mango, vegetables and beans in a large bowl, drizzle with dressing and toss until well coated. Serves 4-6.

Lemon pound cake- Oprah's recipe

 
Lemon-Sour Cream Pound Cake

Ingredients

• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 1/2 teaspoon baking powder
• 1/4 teaspoon baking soda
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter , at room temperature
• 3 cups sugar
• 6 large eggs , at room temperature*
• 1 teaspoon vanilla
• Grated zest of 2 lemons
• 1 cup sour cream , at room temperature

• 1 cup fresh lemon juice
• 2/3 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• Zest of 1 lemon

Directions

Position a rack in the center of the oven and preheat to 325°F. Butter and flour a 10-inch fluted tube (Bundt) pan, and tap out the excess flour.

Sift the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt together; set aside. Beat the butter and sugar in a large bowl with a hand-held electric mixer on high speed until light and fluffy, about 3 minutes. Beat in the eggs, one at a time, then the vanilla and zest. On low speed, add the flour in 3 additions, alternating with 2 additions of the sour cream, beginning and ending with the flour. Beat until smooth, scraping down the sides of the bowl often with a rubber spatula. Spread evenly in the pan.

Bake until a wooden skewer inserted in the center of the cake comes out clean, about 1 1/4 hours.

Bring the lemon juice, zest, water and sugar to a boil over high heat and cook until it is reduced to 1/2 cup, about 15 minutes. Allow syrup to cool before drizzling onto the cake.

Transfer the cake to a wire rack and cool for 10 minutes. Drizzle half the syrup over the cake. Invert onto the rack and brush with the remaining syrup. Cool completely.

Recommended technique: If a recipe calls for room temperature eggs, place the uncracked eggs in a bowl of hot water for 5 minutes so they can lose their chill.

Jelly Modern Doughnuts

 Is this the new trend? Cupcakes are dead, long live the doughnut!   I'm always a few steps behind fellow food bloggers, this time maybe by a week or so, that's an improvement.   I was really disappointed when they closed down Krispy Kreme in the NE, but hey now we have a gourmet doughnut shop instead!

Hours of Operation:

Monday to Friday 7:00am - 6:00pm
Saturday 8:00am - 6:00pm
Sunday closed

I have to thank Hannah for alerting me to the JMD buzz.  Also see Julie and Jen's posts on JMD.

Be prepared to spend as much as you would on a gourmet cupcake.  A dozen @ $24.95. 

I like the bar stools around the periphery of the doughnut shop.  All that was missing were a couple cops snacking on jelly doughnuts.

I would have taken a picture of the display case but the human traffic was at a constant.  There weren't too many people staying to devour the doughnuts, most were taking them to go. 

I decided on S'more's and lemon curd.  They only had mini lemon curds left.  Now imagine your typical Tim's doughnut, that is the size of the mini.  The regular doughnuts are about 1.5x the mini.

I really enjoyed the marshmallow in the s'more's doughnut, not quite filled, the marshmallow sinks into the middle.  I wasn't really tasting the graham cracker part though.  The mini lemon curd has a perfect amount of citrus and is now my favourite doughnut.  

My friend had the Maple Bacon (this is not a filled doughnut).  I've made cookies with bacon and maple icing, the combination is fabulous. 

 *Updated photo for July 2011
These are half a dozen 'mini' doughnuts. Clockwise starting from the upper left: S'mores, Valhrona chocolate, Peanut butter, Lemon, Espresso, The Nenshi (Named aptly for our Mayor, it is a salted caramel doughnut) 

http://jellymoderndoughnuts.com/

The Big Cheese Poutinerie

Formerly Nellie's on 17th Ave, (across from the high school on 17th Ave).  The Big Cheese reminds me a bit of the cafe's I've been to in San Francisco. 

A small poutine is a decent size for one person.

I made my own: Regular cut fries, traditional gravy, cheese curds, sauteed mushrooms, caramelized onions and Carolina pulled pork.  Delicious.  Real cheese curds and the toppings were mouth watering.  My only comment is on the pulled pork and gravy.  The sauce on the pulled pork kind of overpowers the taste of the gravy. Next time I'd go for traditional, or even try the yam fries.

My friend ordered the Hogzilla: Carolina pulled pork, double smoked bacon and peppercorn gravy

http://www.mybigcheese.com/

Chocolate chip bacon cookies with Maple cinnamon icing.

 Bacon and chocolate. I've heard great things about this combination. I didn't believe it until now. Actually I think the maple icing officiates the marriage of bacon and chocolate. I made to versions of this cookie. The original one, and my alterations. I prefer my altered one as the original recipe had way too many chocolate chips. 

Here's a link to the original recipe.  
It's also May 4th. May the Fourth be with you.
 

My Version

Original recipe

2 1/4 cups flour

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 cup brown sugar, firmly packed

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 cup unsalted butter, softened

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 eggs

5-8 pieces of cooked crumbled/chopped bacon

1 cup chocolate chips

1)  In a large bowl, beat together the butter and sugars until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Add the vanilla and beat to incorporate.

2) In a separate large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt.

3) Add the dry ingredients to the wet in 3 increments, beating just until the streaks of flour disappear. The dough will be soft.

4) Using a large rubber spatula, stir in chocolate and crumbled bacon.

5) Optional: Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for a few hours. 

6) Preheat oven to 350 F.

7) Remove dough from the refrigerator. For each cookie, measure out about 2 tablespoons of the dough. Roll the dough into balls. Set dough balls about 2 inches apart on a parchment paper-lined cookie sheet.

8) Bake about 10 minutes, or until the cookies just start to turn golden brown.

Maple-Cinnamon Glaze (optional)

2 cups of confectioners sugar

1 Tablespoon of maple syrup

1/4 teaspoon of pure vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

3 Tablespoons of cream

Method

Mix the confectioners sugar, maple syrup, vanilla and cinnamon with just enough cream to make a thick glaze (about 3 tablespoons.) Whisk everything together until the glaze becomes smooth.