Foie Gras Poutine

I think i can credit my brother for many of my food knowledge. The only foie gras I knew was the foie gras pâté I would see at the grocery store, which is the lowest grade of foie gras you can find. My brother is a food connaisseur in my eyes. My first time enjoying foie gras the way it was intended, was at Au Pied de Cochon. It's a popular eatery in Montreal, and best known for their duck-in-a-can, which I have blogged about. People say you have to reserve weeks ahead for a table. I have been to PDC twice and had the Duck in a Can both times. I kind of regret not trying the foie gras poutine.

I was at the grocery store when I picked up a package of foie gras...certainly not the same quality as I could get at PDC I'm sure, but it was half the cost. So I bought it and found the recipe for PDC foie gras poutine online.

For the Foie Gras Sauce:

• 200 g (7 oz) fresh foie gras
• 6 x egg yolks
• 600 ml (2 ½ cups) PDC poutine sauce (available at the restaurant, or use store-bought poutine sauce)
• 50 ml (¼ cup) 35% m.f. cream

For the Foie Gras and Presentation of the Poutine:

• 4 slices slices fresh foie gras, 100 g (3 1/2 oz) each, 2 ½ cm (1 in) thick
• 400 g (14 oz) cheese curds
• 4 x white-fleshed potatoes (cut into French fries)
• Oil for frying (2/3 tallow and 1/3 peanut oil)

1. For the Foie Gras Sauce: Set aside 100 ml (½ cup of sauce for final presentation of the poutine. In a saucepan, bring the PDC poutine sauce to a boil.
2. Mix the egg yolks, foie gras and cream in a food processor at high speed.
3. Slowly add the 500 ml (2 cups) of hot poutine sauce to the mixture.
4. Pour into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until the sauce reaches 80°C (175 °F).
5. Remove the sauce from the heat. Stir for 30 seconds more. Keep warm.
6. For the Foie Gras and Presentation of the Poutine: Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F). In a very hot pan, sear the foie gras slices until they are golden brown. Transfer the slices to a baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes.
7. Cook the fries in the oil until crisp and place them on top of a mound of cheese curds in the middle of the plate.
8. Place a slice of seared foie gras on the fries and smother in the foie gras sauce.
9. Decorate with a few dabs of regular poutine sauce and serve immediately.
   

The dish was surprisingly easy to make. I have never handled foie gras before and I was honestly a little bit grossed out by how greasy and fattening it was. The piece I bought was small and I only had enough for one portion, which was actually perfect because Kevin was not home for this. So I estimated how much to use for the sauce and how much to sear to put on top of the poutine. I used about 2/3 of the piece for the sauce. My seared pieces were pretty small so I didn't need to cook them in the oven (step 6). And since I cut down on the ingredients on the recipe, it probably wasn't exactly the way it should be. I was simmering the sauce and trying to get it to reach 175 F, I stopped at 160F because the foie gras sauce was getting grainy from being overcooked. It lost its creamy texture. The poutine was still quite good, and would love to try the real PDC version. In the meantime, my $10 foie gras poutine was good enough. My favorite thing about the foie gras poutine was actually the seared foie gras on top. They were perfectly cooked and browned and absolutely delicious!

Au Pied de Cochon/536 East Duluth, Montreal/ 514.281.1114

http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/

More recipes from Martin Picard: http://www.foodtv.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=111324

Simple Steamed Mussels

I like mussels. I especially started loving them when I had the baked mussels from Kanda, an all-you-can-eat sushi place Kev and I like to go often. I know a lot of people who don't like seafood in general. They say it's the texture. I guess that part of my mind is not functional because I don't mind it at all. Other people don't like mussels just because they are filter feeders and are considered dirty. I personally think i've eaten worse things.



My mom makes her mussels Chinese-style; with our favorite black bean sauce. I believe she buys her mussels frozen. They are usually twice the size of the unfrozen/fresh kind that Kev and I buy. She once told me to buy Nova Scotian mussels, because they are usually bigger. I can't remember where the mussels we get originate from, but they are small.

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup shallots, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
3 pounds mussels, cleaned and debearded
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
ground black pepper to taste

1. In a medium stock pot, heat butter over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until translucent.
2. Pour in wine and mussels. Raise heat to medium/high and steam mussels until shells open, about 5 minutes.
3. Pour mussels and cooking liquid into a serving bowl, sprinkle with parsley and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

I believe this was the first time I ever cooked with wine. I don't drink alcohol, so I was a bit hesitant. But the alcohol evaporates and the sauce tastes so good. The only downside is that a night of mussels produces a lot of garbage...and smelly too.

Roast Duck Spring Roll

Kevin and I love duck. I like duck prepared the French way, but Kevin likes all duck...French, Chinese...Kevin and I live in the West Island of Montreal. I grew up more East and Center. We're maybe 30 minutes from Chinatown, where we normally buy roast duck and char siu (Chinese BBQ pork). When we visit my parents or his grandfather, we try to make a trip to Chinatown on the way. But we rarely make that stop. I find this a little annoying, especially when I'm running out of good soy sauce (never buy VH soy sauce, it's not real soy sauce) or when I need Asian products. When I asked him if there was an Asian market in the WI, he said he didn't know. A few months ago, we noticed one, but we didn't know if they sold roast duck. So another few months later, we finally checked it out and they did have it. Kevin is simple. you nuke the roast duck, make some white rice, and he's good. But me...i like to be fancy. And I also want to bring some type of green in all our meals. So I came up with the idea of making duck wraps...kind of like peking duck, but without the heavy wrapping. Instead I use the rice wraps most commmonly used for vietnamese spring rolls. I figured it was just easy to store the leftovers and it was light.

Lettuce leaves

Roast duck, bones removed.

Green onions, sliced into thin strips

Vermicelli noodles, cooked

rice wraps

Hoisin sauce

1. Have all the ingredients prepared on the table.
2. To assemble: Dip the rice wrap in water and let it soften. Put a lettuce leaf, vermicelli, duck, green onions, and a squeeze of hoisin sauce.
3. Fold two opposite sides, top and bottom. The fold the flap on the right to the left side. While rolling towards the left, tuck the ingredients...

This is very easy and fast way to have dinner on the table. Unless you make your own roast duck...but seriously, who has time for that? I'm more of a Rachael Ray than a Martha Stewart. lol Kevin sucks at step 3 and often ends up asking me to roll it for him. If you overstuff, you'll have a hard time rolling them. Bon Appétit!

Sidenote: I've always complained about how peppers are so expensive at the grocery store, but I noticed that Asian markets always have them for cheap. We bought a pack of 2 red and 1 yellow pepper for just $1.49 cdn. Love it!

Sheperd's Pie (aka Poor Man's Pie)

The last time I had sheperds pie was quite possibly 10 years ago when I was in high school. The idea of making sheperds pie came from Kevin. Sometimes when I put together the weeks menu I will ask him what he wants to eat. And he asked for sheperds pie. I've never made it from scratch before, so I wasn't exactly sure how to make it. For the longest time I seriously thought the dish calls for cream of corn and not just sweet corn bits. So I looked online for my answer...it's just regular corn, but most of the recipes I found had carrots and peas in it, which I found weird. So I decided to make it with just corn. I didn't think I needed a recipe, so I didn't bother writing anything down. Here's what I did:




Ground beef
1 can of sweet corn bits
3-4 medium yellow potatoes
milk
butter
Mrs. Dash seasoning
garlic powder
salt and pepper
Worcestshire sauce
soy sauce

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Boil potatoes until tender. Mash with butter and milk until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Brown the beef on medium-high heat. Add the last 5 ingredients or use whatever seasoning you want...
4. Add corn into the meat mixture.
5. Assemble the pie. Meat mixture with corn and mashed potatoes on top.
6. Broil until the top is browned.

The dish came out good, but a bit bland. When Kevin first saw the finished product, he said it looked like the sherperd's pie from a box. I'll take it as a compliment. He ate it without complaint. Also a good sign. I, on the other hand, am used to mixing it with ketchup. In highschool, everyone ate their sherperd's pie with ketchup. I've gotten used to it and it doesn't taste right without it. Perhaps next time i'll use more spices in the groung meat to give it some flavour.

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Chicken

When I was younger, sweet & sour anything on rice or noodles was the best. I'm not quite sure just how Chinese Sweet & Sour sauce is, but according to wikipedia, the sauce originates from Hunan. However, it is usually used as a dipping sauce. Although sweet & sour stir-fry was one of the best meals of my childhood, I rarely crave it now. A while ago, I found myself stuck with a can of pineapple chunks in the fridge, because I only needed the pineapple juice/syrup for another recipe. Being Chinese, nothing goes to waste. So I googled for a pineaple recipe and found this Sweet & Sour Pineapple Chicken recipe.




1 lb (500 g) boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
1 egg white
2 tbsp (25 mL) each cornstarch and all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each salt and white or black pepper
1/3 cup (75 mL) vegetable oil
1/3 cup (75 mL) sodium-reduced chicken broth
3 tbsp (45 mL) ketchup
1 tbsp (15 mL) sodium-reduced soy sauce and rice vinegar
2 tsp (10 mL) minced gingerroot
1 tsp (5 mL) granulated sugar
1 each onion and sweet red and green pepper, cut into 3/4-inch (2 cm) cubes
1 cup (250 mL) drained canned pineapple chunks

1. In bowl, combine chicken, egg white, cornstarch, flour, salt and pepper; let stand for 10 minutes.


2. In wok or large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; stir-fry chicken, in batches and reserving cornstarch mixture in bowl, for 3 minutes or until golden-brown.


3. Transfer to plate. Add broth, 1/3 cup (75 mL) water, ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger and sugar to reserved cornstarch; whisk to combine. Set aside.


4. Discard all but 1 tbsp (15 mL) oil from wok. Stir-fry onion and red and green peppers for about 3 minutes or until tender-crisp.


5. Add chicken, pineapple and stock mixture to wok; stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until thickened and chicken is coated.

Source Canadian Living Magazine: May 2008

The recipe was alright...nothing spectacular. The sauce smelled, looked, and tasted like sweet & sour sauce from a jar, so I guess it's a success enough. I tried to be cheap on oil, because I don't like using too much oil when I cook. I figured I had a non-stick skillet, so it wouldn't matter. I failed to recognize that I need to have oil because the chicken is covered in a four/egg mixture...The first minute of cooking with very little oil was a disaster...the flour would smear on the skillet and burn. So I finally added a bit more oil and stir-fried it. They didn't come out too oily. And the chicken breast were juicy...surprisingly. Perhaps the method of cooking the chicken with a flour coating creates a barrier for the chicken to not dry out. Am i making sense?

Stuffed Peppers with Feta

Buying fresh vegetables is expensive, especially peppers. Green peppers are usually oh-kay...normal price at $2.99/lbs. Sometimes our local loblaws sell old peppers at 50%...some dont look too bad. They're usually starting to get wrinkly. They come a pbag of 4-5 and Kev and I always look for them. And sometimes we buy them even if we don't need peppers in the dishes on our weekly menu (every weekend, my homework is to make up the week's menu and grocery list). Last week, we looked in the fridge and found 4 peppers looking quite sad...they were in their last day or two. So we decided to make stuffed peppers. I've made stuffed peppers before. I can't remember what recipe I used, possibly from Kraft, and it was not very good. So I looked up a recipe on allrecipes.com and found a vegetarian stuffed pepper with feta cheese. Since Kevin likes to have meat, i added meat to the recipe.



1 cup water
1/2 cup uncooked Arborio rice
2 green bell peppers, halved and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
ground beef

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in the rice. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Place the peppers cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Roast 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until tender and skin starts to brown.
4. While the peppers are roasting, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the ground beef, onions, basil, Mrs Dash, salt, and pepper in oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato, and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon in the cooked rice, and stir until heated through.
5. Remove from heat, mix in the feta cheese, and spoon the mixture into the pepper halves.
   Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
   

These were yummy. I would put more feta next time. I love it. For a cheaper version, you can also use any other cheese you have...like mozza or cheddar. I think i'd like this even more if it was red or yellow peppers. We each had one whole stuffed pepper and were quite full. We liked it so much we made it again about a week later, with 50% off red peppers! Yums!

PhayaThai

Top Left (clockwise): Tom Ka Het and vegetable Tom Yum soup, Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and sticky rice, close up of whole fried fish in spicy sauce,
Whole fried fish in spicy sauce with sticky rice

A friday night with my girl Rachelle (Kev calls her my second BF), we signed up for a French macarons class at Europea and then a fabulous dinner at Phayathai. I haven't been to this restaurant in years, and to be honest, I don't have a clue why. It is quite possibly the best Thai food I have had in Montreal. This little restaurant is tucked away on a big street in downtown, corner Ste-Catherine and Guy. You can easily walk past it on your way to Bar-B-Barns.

Rachelle and I were famished by the time we got there. We were both weat from the drizzling rain and huffing and puffing because we were 15 minutes late for our reservation. It's a small restaurant, but seems well known online. Online reviews recommended reservation. Everything looked fantastic and we wished we had 5 stomachs.

R and I love Thai food, but we often settle for fast food Thai. I can't remember when was the last time I went to a Thai restaurant. We started our dinner with some appetizers, which we devoured before we remembered to take a picture. I ordered the mango salad ($7.75) and R ordered the fried tofu with peanut sauce ($3.75). Both were good, but I think what I wanted was the papaya salad. Mango salad was spicy and big enough to share between 2-3 people. We couldn't resist ordering soups since we were cold from the rain. R ordered the vegetable tom yum soup ($3.50), which was packed with tons of veggies. I wanted a soup with coconut in it, but didn't want to pay $7 for a seafood or chicken soup, so I ordered the Tom Kha Het, which is with mushrooms...a lot of them. For the main course, Rachelle ordered the thai green curry with vegetables ($10.95) and I had the whole fried fish in spicy sauce ($16.50), quite possibly the most expensive dish on their menu, but it was worth every penny. I remembered having this dish with my friends one time and loved it. The fish dish was big too. There are about 8 pieces of fish on the plate. It also wasn't as spicy as I thought it was going to be. We both asked for the sticky rice, which was great with out main dish.

We left there with a full stomach and very happy.

The restaurant is a great place for a romantic dinner. It's quiet and dim. However, if there's a big table of rowdy customers, then it might not be as quiet. I also would not recommend this place if you are in a rush. The service is good, but chill. And you really can't rush such yummy food. You have to enjoy and savour.

**************

Top left (clock wise): Fried fish cakes, Sweet & sour fried fish, Papaya salad, Fried fish in 3 flavor.

Rachelle and I went back a week later with a friend for lunch time. They had a lunch menu, but I found it to be a little boring. They didn't have the sticky rice for lunch time, which was a disappointment. To start, I finally ordered the papaya salad ($6.75) I wanted and it was so spicy and delicious! Rachelle ordered fried fish cakes ($7.50). Karenne ordered from the lunch menu and quickly regretted it. She ordered a stir fry chicken...quite regular, and I bet she felt cheated. I ordered whole fried fish in 3 flavors ($16.50). I don't know what the 3 flavors are, but it was good. It was a bit milder than the spicy sauce version, but still good. Rachelle also indulged and ordered the sweet & sour whole fried fish ($16.50), which she liked better than my fish, but I disagree.

Since we had to get back to work and were already taking a longer lunch, we ended up having to eat fast. It was an expensive lunch, but it was very good. However, I think i'll stick to going to Phayathai in the evenings.

PhayaThai/ 1235 Guy (corner St-Catherine)/ 514.933.9949

"Throw Everything In" Pasta with Rosée sauce

You know that commercial for Olive Garden where the parents visit their daughter who is in college? And every time they visit, the parents take the daughter and her roommates to Olive Garden because they like to know that their daughter is "taken care of"...and she fake bumps her dad and says "Daddy!!!" and feels all embarassed. I've seen that commercial about a hundred times. One of the times we watched it, and actually paid attention to the food they were advertising. There was a dish with tomatoes and sausages and Kev said "Hmmmmm..." .I've never been to Olive Garden, since they do not have one in Quebec. People who have been tell me it's not that great, but why do they always look soo yummy? So on a weeknight, i decided to make pasta with tomatoes and sausages, but ended up tossing in pretty much everything I had in it. :)



Pasta, cooked al dente
1 can of diced tomato
brocoli florets
Any color pepper, I used yellow, chopped
4 Italian sausage, I like the spicy kind, casing removed
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 medium onion, chopped
chili pepper flakes and parmesan to taste
Pepper and salt

1. In a large skillet, cook sausages. Add peppers, brocoli, and onions. Cook a few minutes until peppers, brocoli, and onions are tender.
2. Drain the can of diced tomato, and add tomato to the skillet.
3. Add heavy cream and simmer until thick.
4. Add pepper and salt to taste.
5. Serve with parmesan and chili pepper flakes.
   

I'm a pasta lover...because it's carbs. I also especially love pasta with a creamy sauce, so there was no doubt that I would love this. This turned out to have a rosée sauce, it was creamy and yummy! Kevin liked it too. The thing with pasta with creamy sauces is that it makes me sleepy because it's such a heavy and comforting dish. I loved having a lot of vegetables in it.

Bi Bim Kook Soo

I remember the first time I had Bi Bim Kook Soo. I was in university. I was meeting my friend Jessica for dinner and she suggested Korean food. I didn't even know there was a Korean restaurant in Montreal. I imagined Korean BBQ, because i've had it in Toronto with my sister when she used to live there. I love Korean BBQ. When I got there, there were no grills. It was a regular Korean restaurant. No matter. I can't remember what I ordered, but remember that I enjoyed it enough to bring my friend Wynn there. We went several times together. One of those times, we ordered the "Spicy Cold Noodles". Boy was it spicy. We loved it! Now I don't go eat there that often, but still think about the noodles from time to time. When I looked up recipes for it. I found out that it was so simple to make.

• Udon Noodles
• Gochujang sauce
• toasted sesame
• Nori, crushed or cut in strips
• One boiled egg
• Cucumber, julienned

1. Cook udon noodles in boiling water. Directions on the package.
2. Drain and rinse with cold water.
3. Mix in as much or as little gochujang sauce and you like. Sprinkle with sesame and nori.
4. Eat with whatever you want.
   

Easy Peasy right? This wasn't quite as spicy as at the Korean place, but I like it.

Sweet Potato Poutine

Ahh Poutine! The ultimate comfort food. I've made poutine at home before, but I must admit that it wasn't from scratch. I used cubed mozza, frozen fries, and canned gravy. Sacrilege!!! I know. This is my very first time making everything from scratch...well...except the cheese curds. Those are store bought. lol

I got the idea to make poutine with sweet potato from Kevin at Closet Cooking. I get a lot of cooking ideas from him. He's very talented. For this recipe, I bought 2 huge sweet potatoes and I never knew how much sweet potatoes shrink when they cook... I also had a hard time cutting beautiful sweet potato wedges, so I had weird shapes. Wedges, strings, half moons...it was a circus of sweet potatoes. And sweet potatoes, especially the large variety, are extremely hard to cut. Kev saw how much trouble I was having and asked if i needed help. It didn't take him long to abandon me with the unfinished task.

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

• sweet potatoes (cut into wedges lengthwise)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven at 375F. Toss the sweet potato wedges in the oil, salt and pepper to coat.
2. Place the wedges on a baking sheet.
3. Bake until golden brown and tender, about 20-30 minutes.

For the Gravy:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.
2. Mix in the flour to make a roux.
3. Mix in the beef broth and simmer until thick and smooth.
4. Mix in the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
   

Assemble: Place the sweet potato wedges in a bowl and top with the cheese curd, add gravy on top to melt cheese a bit.

Kev wasn't a huge fan of this because he's not a big fan of sweet potato. I love it. I kept tasting the gravy while it was simmering and I just kept adding pepper into it. The sauce ended up being spicy, which is a not a bad thing. The simple gravy recipe is also good with roast chicken.