302 Rue Ontario E. at St. Denis

metro: Berri-UQAM

See my September 2009 review here.

Israeli couscous (left), sous-vide salmon (middle), wild rice (left)

For the process takes constant attention. I do not have a self-stirring bath like what they use on Top Chef, so I had to constantly regulate the water temperature manually. This meant removing 2-3 cups of water and adding 2-3 cups of warm-hot water so that the temperature maintained a constant 115F. As I’ve stated several times, my apartment is frigid and it was far too cold to leave the pot on the counter. I tried putting it on the warmer burner of my stove, which slowed down the cooling process slightly, but only slightly. I was replacing water every five minutes. Very inconvenient and quite a waste of water. I got through a similar process on a much smaller scale when I make Wiley Dufresne’s slow cooked egg, but that’s for another post.

2 uncooked salmon fillets, olive oil, and one heavy duty freezer bag

Also, I hate cleaning plastic bags. My parents are environmentally conscious, and often wash out and reuse ziploc bags. Not I. Even the heavy duty freezer bags. I just feel that they never get fully clean and then you have to dry them hanging off of a long-handled spoon or something, which results in water spots and my forgetting them and them getting wet or dirty again so that they’re never ready to go back into the drawer for later use. So I rarely use freezer bags and I use a reusable plastic container for taking sandwiches for lunch. Every time that I make this dish, I will be using and discarding a freezer bag. So it’s bad for the environment.

I had based my shopping list on the video that I’d seen, but then as I was pulling it back up as I was making it, I found the printed recipe, which was significantly more involved. It was clearer in the written recipe that the water bath needed constant attention; based on the video, it looked like you could set it aside and forget about it for 30 minutes, which was not so (well, maybe in the summer). I forgot to get hazelnuts and after my pumpkin spice episode left a cinnamon smell on my Magic Bullet, was reluctant to use it for coriander. I crushed the seeds in a small bowl using the handle of a chef’s knife, and wished I had a mortar and pestle. The seeds were more palatable, but still hard. In fact, the salmon sous-vide-ing took so much effort, that I threw the rest of the recipe out the window and just sprinkled in arbitrary amounts of toasted sesame seeds, crushed coriander, dried ginger, salt, and pepper and gently melted butter. It turned out fine. Better than fine, actually. It was by far one of the best dinners I’ve made in a while. the sort that even after you’ve eaten your fill, you just want to keep on eating and eating. The salmon was buttery, it was silky, it was heaven on a fork. Gentle poaching will give you tenderness, but this method created a superb salmon that left me craving more even as I was eating it. As my husband was slaving over the sink later on, cleaning all of the dishes, I kept thinking back on the succulent salmon, and how I wanted more. But it was all gone, alas, and well enjoyed.

fennel salad, pearl couscous, wild rice, and the most incredible sous-vide salmon I've ever had

To accompany the salmon, I made the last of the Israeli couscous and since I thought that my husband doesn’t like Israeli couscous and there wasn’t quite enough for two who portions, I also made wild rice as well. I had considered making a salad and had bought a fennel bulb just in case. I tasted a small bit of salmon that broke off the larger pieces and was so enchanted with the flavour and texture that I was compelled to make a salad to help show off the perfection of the fish. I hate making salads, and can usually count the number of salads I make in a year on one hand. But the fennel salad was simple, and was basically sliced fennel tossed with lemon juice, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Brassierie T! serves their dill salmon with a fennel dill salad that’s fairly similar, though better presented.

After seeing what sous-vide-ing does to salmon, I wonder what it’ll do to other things, like chicken or pork. Or more salmon…mmmm…sous-vide salmon…

cutting out cookies. I often use a small wire strainer to powder the surface with flour or sugar. I'm never satisfied when I fling it around using my fingers like they do on tv.

Then, when I started using pâte sucrée as a crust for tart tatin, I found that I again had leftover pie dough. I would lay rolled out dough over the hot dish of bubbling apples, and it would basically melt into the right shape. This left me with several handfuls of dough which couldn’t be rechilled because it was already partially melted. So I folded in more sugar, cut them out, and sprinkled cinnamon and sugar liberally over each. For extra measure, a pea-sized bit of butter was added to the top just before they were put into the oven. Because a little bit of butter never hurt anyone. To my great surprise, these cookies turned out edible and my husband actually named the “pie cookies” his favourite cookie, above even chocolate chip and ginger molasses cookies.

extra dot of butter on top makes a big difference. I only needed ~1 pat of butter for the small batch.

After much grumbling (“ugh, they’re not real cookies, I prefer snickerdoodles, blahblahblah”), I was eventually persuaded to make a whole batch of pie cookies, and not just from leftovers. I was still reluctant, though, and did not write down my additions to the pâte sucrée recipe, so the first couple of batches came out differently. Some had more butter, some were baked longer, etc.. I hadn’t made them for a while, and couldn’t remember what I’d done. Once I used iodized table salt instead of my usual kosher salt, which resulted in salty cookies (husband didn’t notice, but I couldn’t stomach them). The extra dot of butter, in addition to improving the overall flavour, helps to hold the sugar and cinnamon on the top of the cookie, but too much butter resulted in brown cookies that weren’t as flakey.

pie cookies. or "petite gâteaux seche au pâte sucrée â Martha Stewart." I think.

Pie Cookies

Based on Pâte Sucrée (sweet pastry dough) from the Martha Stewart Show

2 ½ c. flour

½ t. salt

6 T. sugar

1 t. cinnamon

2 egg yolks

1 c. + 2 T. butter, cold/frozen, cut into small cubes

~ ¼ c. water, ice cold (use more if needed)

In a large food processor, combine flour, salt, sugar. Pulse to mix.

Add butter. Pulse until it resembles cornmeal.

Add egg yolks, one by one, pulsing.

Add water until the mixture comes together when pressed together. Do not overwork dough.

Empty onto a large piece of seran wrap and divide into two lumps. Form each lump into a ball and then flatten into a disc. Wrap each well with seran wrap and chill for at least an hour and not longer than two days.

Roll out dough. Sprinkle with extra sugar and cinnamon and a small dab of butter on each.

Use cookie cutters, bake at 375°F ~11-20 min..

I had a can of pumpkin puree sitting around on the shelf, and decided to use it the other day. I had intended to make pumpkin bread, but when my husband told me about some good news he’d received at work, I decided to make him a pumpkin pie to celebrate. He likes pumpkin pie, but it seems extravagant to make a pie for just two people. I recalled a pumpkin pie video I’d seen on chow.com, and set about to try it. Or at least use it as a basis.

making the pate sucree. Making dough is the only reason I'll break out the full-sized food processor now, since the parts take a while to clean by hand.

I made a number of adjustments to this recipe. I used a pate sucréee recipe from Martha Stewart that I’ve used many times before for tarte tatin and pie cookies. I considered trying my father-in-law’s fabulous flaky crust recipe, but I was making this after dinner, and knew it would take me more time to work through the less familiar recipe than one I’d used (almost) successfully in the past. I used canned pumpkin because I couldn’t be bothered with using a fresh pumpkin this time around. And I had to use a number of substitutions for spices – bay leaf instead of juniper berries, Tellicherry peppercorns instead of Sichuan, and a tablespoon of orange juice instead of orange peel. I don’t like the taste of licorice, and while I have whole star anise, I got it for making Chinese tea eggs. I didn’t bother with the walnut topping, knowing I’d be serving the pie with vanilla ice cream. I rarely enjoy nuts – too much chewing involved without enough flavour to justify it, in my opinion – and don’t often keep them around. I grant you that walnuts are some of the least offending nuts, thanks to their tender “meat” and high oil content, but since I am the cook here, I get final say.

attempt at making a pretty crust. failure.

I made the dough first, chilled it, and then rolled it out and tried to make a pretty edge design. Tried, that is. I then lined it with parchment paper and dumped a bunch of ceramic pie weights on top. When I first started cooking, I used dried kidney beans, because Emeril had recommended them as a cheap pie weight on one of his cooking shows. However, I have never cooked beans before, and would only keep them around as pie weights. I hated throwing them out after every crust, and after forgetting to buy them several times, decided to invest in ceramic pie weights. Recently, I had considered getting a pie chain from my kitchen supply catalog, since the cats enjoy playing with the beads and the dust they produce are a little messy, but held back. One note for future attempts is to cover the crust edges with foil to prevent browning.

ceramic pie weights nested in parchment paper.

Also, one bit of crust actually melted off the side within minutes, causing me to have to dive into the smoking oven with a paper towel. I had tried to build up the crust above the sides, since I knew that it would shrink with baking, but perhaps the height was too ambitious. Maybe I need a deeper pie dish? Thicker crust? Different recipe? More research required to say for certain.

not a clean pan

shiny, clean pan. Ahhh.

As for the custard, part of the reason for the delay in baking was that I refused to cook on what I considered to be a dirty pan. I could see clearly that it had been used to cook sausage with for vodka pasta, and I didn’t want any of that stuff to burn onto my spices for my ultra foodie pumpkin pie. I spent some time scrubbing it down with that green scrubber thing, warm water, and soap, and was rewarded with a shiny, clean little pan afterwards. I was good to go.

toasting spices in my shiny, clean pan. After a few seconds, I couldn't figure out why the bay leaf was in there, and removed it into the grinder cup

made to order, freshly toasted and ground pumpkin spices

I toasted the whole spices for 5 minutes, let them cool, then ground them in my Magic Bullet. I felt very foodie doing this. I put the freshly ground spice mix into a spare spice jar. It smelled nice. I peeled a lemon and minced the peel, which also smelled nice.

fresh plain brown egg in the middle and older, organic free run egg surrounding it (which is why it broke). Note how much darker the organic egg is compared to the lighter coloured generic kind

If given the choice, I prefer to buy farm fresh, organic, free range eggs. I don’t always do this for financial reasons, as the “good” eggs are three times the price of the cheap eggs. Michael Pollan’s gushing description of an all-natural farmer’s care of his grub-eating chickens in Botany of Desire started me off on this, but my own gastronomic experiences have confirmed them. While living in Providence, RI, I regularly bought a mix of eggs from my CSA (community-supported agriculture – a fun, weekly box of fresh produce from a local farmer) and then the weekly farmer’s market which included azuluna eggs. Those were my favourite, and would be the only enticement which could ever get me to set foot into an Evil Whole Foods, which also sold them when I couldn’t wait for market day. They had big, dark, creamy yolks and mine often had double yolks. Ohhhhh, they were amazing. Now that I’m cut off from my green eggs, I have to make do with buying those expensive brown eggs in the double fold plastic container in the organic section of the grocery store. In this picture, you can see clearly the colour difference between a more expensive egg and an inexpensive egg.

I opted to use my fancy, rainbow whisk to mix the custard.

I’d bought several cans of condensed milk for a different custard recipe involving squash, and was happy to use them for this case. I resorted to an online measurement converter in order to convert 14 fluid ounces into 414 ml into 1 3/4 cups. While the Joy of Baking had recommended not to overstir the custard, Mr. Portnoy instructed that it should be stirred well, which it was. I’d tried Joy of Baking the last time I had made pumpkin pie, which had cracked. There was leftover spice mix and leftover custard, which I stored although I doubt I’ll be able to use either.

beautiful, finished pumpkin pie. Note the burnt crust which didn't retain the pretty crimps I put into it- ugh.

Back in the pie went, and when it emerged after 50 minutes, I was happy to see that it was perfectly smooth and delicious-looking, except for the burnt parts of the crust. Unfortunately, that gorgeous surface was marred when I tested for doneness with a knife, twice to make sure. I let it cool for a bit, then served it with vanilla ice cream. I like how fresh the natural (Philadelphia-style) vanilla is compared to French-style. Almost as nice as freshly whipped cream.

midnight snack of pumpkin pie and vanilla ice cream.

It was almost midnight before we chowed down, but who cares? The spices and lemon zest really made a HUGE difference in flavour from preground spices. I couldn’t pick out all of the individual flavours, but they came together into a powerfully  spicy and delicately herbal mixture. Though I can’t promise to toast and grind all my spices from now on – it’s a lot of trouble (i.e. a lot of extra dishes to clean and my poor Magic Bullet cup and grinder still smell like cinnamon) and I’m usually satisfied with just using preground spices for this sort of homey thing. But when I want to wow company, I will do this. The crust stayed crisp and it was easy to break off the burnt section around the edges. My husband approved. And I enjoyed another slice the next morning for breakfast, which still had a nice, crisp crust.

polenta pizza for two

I always look for recipes that have attractive photos. “Food porn” my friends call it, but I like to have a template off of which to work. Also, pictures are a fairly accurate way of rating the wow-factor of a recipe. If the title says that it’s the “best,” but the picture looks like something that crawled out of a church basement potluck or a someone’s failed attempt to follow the directions on the back of a box, then I move onto the next recipe. The New York Times usually comes through for me, as can be seen with this polenta pizza.

First, make the polenta. I have a beautiful rainbow-coloured whisk that I use occasionally, but I feel more comfortable using this small whisk for its maneuverability in the saucier and use of heat. To be extra foodie-like, I’ve taken a few pics of the cooking process, several minutes apart.

cornmeal just poured into walter-milk mixture

this is what it looks like a few minutes later, stirring constantly. Still very liquidy.

a few minutes later. cornmeal starts to expand into the liquid.

polenta just about ready. Looks and feels like loose oatmeal.

I got this refillable olive oil from a shop in the Jean Talon Market. While the oil tastes great - fruity and full - the stupid cork is messy and I have to constantly wipe oil from the lip and side of the bottle.

bed of polenta on a jelly roll pan

Once the polenta is cooked, scrape it out onto a cookie sheet. Because I like a thick bed of soft polenta for this, I am using a jelly roll pan. From past experience, I line the pan with foil for easy clean up, and again with parchment paper for easy serving. I’ve tried just using one layer, but the polenta will stick to the foil despite being oiled and the parchment paper will tear on its own due to the oil and moisture. On top of this, I drizzle the olive oil. This recipe calls for a surprising amount of oil, but to skimp on it spells frustrating minutes spent scraping glued-on polenta off of an unforgiving pan. Also, I’ve found that it’s not necessary to chill the polenta, at least not during the winter here in Montreal. Where the thermostat measures 54F inside the apartment with the heat cranked up as high as it can go.

But that’s another topic entirely.

The polenta has to be left out for a while to cool, anyway, since it can’t go into the fridge hot. So since it’s so cold in the apartment, I just left it on the stone counter and moved it about periodically to a cold spot. By the time I had prepared the toppings and washed some of the dishes, the polenta had cooled and the end result after baking was just fine.

pancetta and onion waiting to be cooked. I use a tiny cutting board because it's easier to clean in my tiny sink.

As for the toppings, I like big hunks of chewy pancetta for this. I’ve also tried prosciutto sprinkled on top after it all comes out of the oven, which was also very good and perhaps preferable if you want the dish to be totally soft. Cook bacon or cut up ham would work as well. I’ve done a vegetarian version using sliced sundried tomatos, too. Because the polenta and spinach are so bland, some kind of salty colour helps, and makes it look nice and festive.

One package of baby spinach is just enough. Two packages will look more like the NYTimes picture, but will make the dish taste more like spinach.

And of course, I added mushrooms. As I do to nearly everything, it would seem. They were great when I tasted them straight from the pan, but I suppose I didn’t cook them long enough because they released even more juice when I moved them to a bowl to sit. I saved the juice, of course, for later use. Lastly, I cooked the spinach. This was all done in the same large pan.

Elizabeth Blue followed by sauteed spinach.

While the recipe calls for gorgonzola, I use Bleu Elizabeth, a Quebec blue cheese that’s salty, strong (but not too strong), savory, and bright tasting. Hamel, the fromagerie I use, seems to have one gorgonzola, which I don’t care for, and the Bleu Elizabeth works quite well as a substitute. It reminds me of Roaring Forties, which was my favourite blue cheese in Rhode Island and New Jersey, although it of course comes from Australia. I haven’t yet found it in Montreal.

mushrooms! I think they add something, but of course they are optional.

I’m always determined to make this dish look like the NYTimes picture. It was such an attractive picture, so I figure it can’t be wrong. A thick bed of polenta, topped with a thick bed of spinach, some pancetta and onion, and cheese. I’ve found it hard to emulate exactly, though, since one would need a significant amount of spinach to spread so thickly. I once made this recipe using two large containers of spinach, but then the spinach taste overwhelmed everything else. I started out using a larger, standard cookie sheet for this, and stopped when I found the polenta oozing out too thinly. It made the toppings look too sparse on top of the polenta. My husband has just made a comment about preferring a crunchier polenta crust, which I’m not sure is possible with this dish because the toppings are so moist. I’m considering experimenting using another recipe I have for cheddar grits for the crust, which I know gets “crunchy.” It’ll be a surprise, though. Shhh – don’t tell him (he doesn’t read this blog).

one last slice, destined for lunch the next day. Reheats perfectly in microwave or toaster oven.

Western (pink) décor belies good Chinese food, and not cheap takeout, either. Real Chinese food, resulting from decades of culinary experience. They even have a big gold fish tank. Some spicy Thai options on the menu as well. Kudos regarding the crispy taro birds nest mango chicken and the juicy and tender basil beef is the most popular dish on the menu. While the food is great, the best part of dinner is the feisty server/co-owner. Resto always deserted when we’ve dined, but the waiter assures us it fills up unexpectedly. Interior is better kept than those in Chinatown.

1242 Rue Mackay at Rue St. Catherine O.

Metro: Guy-Concordia (also Lucien L’Allier, if you’re on the orange line)

some of the ingredients used. I don’t cook “mise en place,” and will never have everything out on the counter before I start cooking. spices waiting for shrimp

This is one of my favourite ways to cook shrimp, and it’s incredibly easy and fast for those weekday meals when I can’t be bothered to spend a lot of time in front of the stove. All of the work is in measuring and cleaning measuring spoons. I’ve also taken this to work to make fresh in an electric skillet, to much appreciation from my lunch club (which is now defunct, alas). I don’t have a grill, so I’ve adapted it to suit my own cooking equipment and abilities.Since coming to Montreal, I’ve been using frozen shrimp exclusively, the kind you get in the freezer section of the grocery store. This way, I’m not pressured to use them right away and they’re always there if I just need to use a couple of shrimp. Several months ago, I switched to peeled and deveined frozen shrimp for the added convenience. I used to save a dollar by peeling the shrimp myself, freezing the shells, and then making shrimp stock out of them for risotto.defrosted shrimp, pre-peeled and deveined for my convenience

But that took time that I didn’t want to waste when I was hungry, it took up a lot of space in the freezer, and I never remembered to use the shrimp stock, which would just sit in the freezer, accumulating freezer burn. So now I shell out for shelled shrimp. The instructions on the package recommend defrosting overnight in the fridge before use, but I don’t bother doing that anymore. I just dump them into a colander and run cool water over it intermittently until it defrosts. I’d have to clean them anyway, so it’s not added trouble to run a little water over them. It takes 5-10 minutes. I stick with smaller shrimp for this dish, so they all have a generous coating of seasoning, but larger shrimp work as well. Drain and mix into the spices.

Suggestions would be appreciated.

pouring water onto lentils

My mother has a French friend who is a superb cook. I remember all of the dinners I enjoyed at her house quite fondly. A light potage, a chicken liver salad (made especially for me, since she knew that I liked chicken liver), a delicate mushroom dish, and my first experience with pastis from their magic liquor chest. One dish I have been thinking about a lot lately was a simple dark lentil soup she had made into which we poured heavy cream at the table from a charming creamer crock. It was so simple, but so charming and so French. I love food rituals.

previously made turkey stock. Run warm/hot water over the upside down container until it releases.Anyway, I haven't yet found that recipe and I haven't yet bucked up the appropriate phrasing to ask my mother to ask her friend for the recipe. I searched for a lentil soup recipe that was similar, and then gave up and settled on one that looked pretty good and that had gotten good reviews. The Barefoot Contessa's Lentil Vegetable Soup. I used to enjoy watching her show when I had television, but her recipes are enormous and I sometimes find myself paring them down to 1/4 of their size for just my husband and myself with plenty leftover. Since this was my first time making this, I just halved it.rest assured, it fit perfectly when defrosted.I've made red lentil soup before, but green lentils are another matter, and I got Eston lentils instead of French lentils, which didn't seem to make much of a difference except that they're smaller. When I soaked them in water, they expanded a little bit. I was able to use the turkey stock I'd frozen previously. It was just enough, and actually had a cup leftover, which I refroze.tomato paste in a tube = convenient and good

vegetables waiting for hot stock and lentils

As with the turkey stock, I skimmed the scum off of the top of the soup as it simmered.

scum!

super fresh rosemary. locally grown and sustainable, too!Unlike red lentils, which dissolve into mealy chunks, green lentils retain their shape. Like beans. Brownish, it didn't photograph well, but the hearty, nutritious soup was well appreciated on the cold Montreal winter evening during which it was eaten. There were four cups remaining, which I froze in two containers. I reheated one the other day, and found that it took two days to defrost in the fridge. It microwaved well.The end result was brownish, not unlike beans.a hot, satisfying bowl of lentil vegetable soup. Thanks, Ina Garten!

351 Rue St. Paul O. at Rue St. Pierre

metro: Place d’Armes

See my September 2009 review here.