An Adventurous Meal in Gatineau Park
I was recently contacted by a UK based undertaking called the EatWild Project to join them in a dinner to celebrate historically local foods. The premise this company was using was to be “Culinary Explorers” and follow Samuel de Champlain’s route from the East Coast through to Ottawa doing pop-up style dinners along the way based on historical foods of the time. Interesting concept, right? I thought so too, so when given an invitation to join a group to dine in a Gatineau Park cabin, I accepted. To be honest I was a little sceptical (ie. freaked out) about meeting total strangers in the middle of Gatineau Park, at night, then having to hike 3.5 km to a cabin with no electricity or plumbing. I guess my sense of adventure was particularly strong as I decided to head off into the night.
Arriving barely on time at the parking lot to Lac Phillippe I was met with, well, nothing really. No one. A few vehicles. Maybe everyone had arrived and had headed to the cabin. A quick call to a contact number I was given (the organizers were not travelling with cell phones) – and it looks like the rest of the group is still 10 minutes out. Once they arrived, quick introductions were made , then the 5 of us were off for a bit of a hike. Gatineau Park is quite lovely on a chilly winter’s night. A little unnerving under the circumstances, but lovely. After about a 30 minute hike, where we chatted and got acquainted, we arrived at our cabin destination, and……no one. OK, maybe I should start running back to the car. The organizers were supposed to meet us here. Weird. Well at least the cabin was unlocked, so we went inside to pass a little time, have a beverage, and decide our next move. Isn’t this the premise to 1000 cheesy horror movies? The cabin itself was pretty bare bones: no water, no electricity, a wood fired stove, a table and chairs and bunks for about 8 or so. At this time we are thinking should we stay or should we go? After about 45 minutes, our organizers arrive (happy that we’ve still hung around) with tales of car problems and trail head confusion. OK, light a fire, looks like we are having dinner!
here's the cabin - kinda freaky
Now that it seems like we are going to eat, I’m wondering what’s on the menu, because it has been a surprise. With a historical reference to the evening, the meal must be locally based, so, here we go. My apologies for the crappy pictures, but it was tough to get any light at all without the flash.
First course: a soup of maize (corn or popcorn), with butternut squash, blueberries and bison meat. This was actually based on a historic recipe where the corn was popped then turned into a soup. It was quite interesting. Not something I would make again for myself, but it was actually pretty good. The roasted squash and blueberries gave it a sweetness and the bison a bit of saltiness, which it needed as the popcorn mash was, as you can imagine, a bit bland. Warming and filling on a cold night.
Next up, the main course. This again was definitely something that could have been eaten a couple hundred years ago. Elk stew, wild rice (the real stuff, not the generic cultivated stuff), sauteed kale and rye bread. Another hearty plate with tender pieces of elk meat and wild rice that was just crispy enough. The kale with still firm enough and the bread had a good chew. Satisfying.
Lastly dessert of course. Maple cake with cream and dried blueberries. Sweet and tasty enough, but fairly generic. Not much more to say about it really.
What was fun was that after we had dessert, we all went outside and poured reduced maple syrup on a fresh piece of snow and had maple candy (my first time).
After our maple treat we said our goodbyes to our organizers and started our long walk back to our cars. The moon was very bright and it was calm and serene as we kept up a quick pace. It was now after midnight and my day was going to start again in only a few hours. All in all it was a fun experience. A nice group of people, a tasty meal and a good hike. It also makes for a good story. Thanks to all that we there and to the Culinary Explorers for putting it together.
Chocolate & Beet Brownies
For many years in Vancouver I worked in a restaurant that made a very good chocolate cake. Customers loved that cake but had no idea of it’s secret ingredient. Beets. Yup, red They gave no real flavour to the cake but helped to keep it very moist. Recently, I had the idea to add beets to a chocolate brownie recipe. Worked out pretty well. I used a fresh beet that I boiled, but you could certainly use canned if you like. It is best to use the best chocolate you can though. If you only have chocolate chips that’s OK, but the better the chocolate, the better the brownie.
These brownies will remain super moist for days – if in fact they last that long at all. Not likely.
Chocolate & Beet Brownies
10 0z (1 1/4 cup) chocolate
1 cup butter
4 eggs
2 1/2 cups brown sugar
1 1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1/2 cup chopped red beets
Boil beet under very tender (or use canned if you prefer). Place beet in food processer and pulse until small chunks (do not puree). Reserve.
In a double boiler or microwave, melt chocolate and butter together. In a mixing bowl mix together brown sugar and eggs. Blend in flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in chocolate, vanilla and beets until well incorporated. Lightly grease a 9×13 pan. Bake at 350° for approx. 35 minutes or until brownie is just firm.
Beets and chocolate. Who knew they go so well together.
Butternut Squash Muffins
The idea for this recipe came to me for two reasons: 1. I was going to make muffins anyways, and 2. I saw the piece of squash sitting in the fridge and thought I should use it up. I know, not that exciting, but it really had never occured to me before to make squash muffins and I thought I should give it a try. Butternut squash, being quite a bit like pumpkin, works very well here and keeps the muffins very moist. If you aren’t ready to go for the full squash experience, use 1/2 squash and 1/2 banana (which is really great as well).
Butternut Squash Muffins
2 1/2 cups flour (white, white or mixed)
1 cup + 1 tbsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp salt
2 tsp baking powder
1 cup butternut sqush (or mixed squash & banana)
2 eggs
1 cup milk
1/3 cup butter, melted
1 tsp + 1 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp + 1 tsp vanilla
Start by peeling and cutting up about a cup or squsah. Add squash to a small pot, cover with water, then add 1 tbsp brown sugar, 1 tsp vanilla and 1 tsp cinnamon. Bring to the boil, reduce to a simmer until squash is tender. Drain water and mash squash (you can leave it a little chunky).
In a mixing bowl add flour, brown sugar, cinnamon, salt & baking powder and mix well. Add eggs. In a seperate bowl mix together squash, milk and vanilla. Add to dry ingredients and stir. Mix in melted butter until well incorporated. Portion into 12 lined or silicone muffin cups. Bake at 400° for 23 minutes.
Dinner at The Whalesbone
I recently had the opportunity to have one of my first real Ottawa dining experiences at the Whalesbone. This was a 
birthday dinner out with quite a few food people, so the expectations were high for a good meal. I’ve heard they have some of the best seafood in town, and coming from the West Coast where seafood reigns supreme, I was looking forward to seeing what they could do.
Before getting into details of the meal, it’s worth noting that the Whalesbone is OceanWise certified, meaning that all or most of their seafood offerings are sustainable.
Now one of the advantages of going out with a group of food people is the restaurant kitchen tends to throw in a few extras and items that you won’t find on their regular menu. To start we had a platter of there house pork terrine and house char gravlax. Both were tasty. The pork with thick slices of bacon and the char with a subtle cure. A cheese platter came to the table as well, but I’m not sure of what those 3 cheeses were – still trying to figure out my local cheeses. Condiments ranged from grainy mustard and cream with the meat/fish to apple butter and a granola type mix with the cheese (a mix of seeds, nuts and fruit – it was good and a nice change from the regular spiced or candied nuts). Next came a platter of oysters. Actually they went so fast that another platter was ordered. I’m not a huge oyster fan, but tonight they were tasty. West Coasters I believe. I’m normally not a “add sauce to my oyster” kind of guy either, but with the tray of condiments came a little bottle of scotch. Scotch is actually very tasty on an oyster – makes the finish very smooth and not so briny. Lastly came a big bowl of smoked oyster dip with crunchy crostinis. The dip was neither smoky or oystery, but tasty none the less.
So now that we made it through several rounds of pre-appetizers,time to dip into the menu. The Whalesbone being a seafood restaurant, expect just that, with a couple seasonal meat choices thrown in. For my appetizer I chose the clam chowder (because I do love a clam chowder). This one was thick with heavy cream, potato and clam, topped of with a slice of white fish and a couple fritters. A tasty, rich chowder. Would like to have the fritters on the side, but that’s just me. At $12 it’s not a cheap bowl of soup, and that’s also the least expensive appetizer choice (it goes up to about $20 for the lobster roll).
For my main I went for the Walleye. Being on the West Coast for so many years, I’ve missed lake fish, so I had to give it a go. Nicely seared – still moist. Accompanied by a slab of fried polenta, prosciutto, turnips, sunchokes and a few other baby vegetables, with a spoonful of white veal sauce. Again I enjoyed it. A touch small for the $30 price tag, but well put together.
The dessert menu was skipped as a platter of birthday squares came to the table – to let the gorging continue.
All in all, good dinner, good company. I’d definitely come back to The Whalesbone again.
Good Food Box pt 2 – Sweet & Savoury
Here are two more quick and tasty recipes that I made from the Good Food Box I received. Again, I tried to keep the recipes pretty straightforward with ingredients that both came from in the Good Food Box and that you may have at home anyways.
These are both tartlets made from puff pastry. Puff pastry can be pretty tricky to make yourself, so don’t be afraid to keep some from your grocer’s freezer section in your freezer. It’s great to have on hand for quick appetizers or desserts. Tip: puff pastry likes to be cooked in a hot oven, 400°+. It’s the quick steam created between the layers of butter that give it it’s rise.
Carmelized Onion & Mushroom Tarte - makes 4
1 medium yellow onion
1 clove garlic
3 button mushrooms
2 tbsp olive oil
1/2 tsp fresh thyme
puff pastry cut into roughly 2″squares
s & p to taste
Cut puff pastry into roughly 2″ squares (or whatever shape you like). Bake in a 400°+ oven for 6-8 minutes or until lightly golden.
Start onions by slicing into thin strips. Mince garlic. Heat pan to medium high. Add 1 tbsp oil.
Add sliced onions and garlic to hot pan with a pinch or s & p. Resist the temptation to stir or flip them!! Wait until the onions on the bottom start to caramelize before moving them around. Once the caramelization process has started, turn heat to low. Now you can give onions a stir every few minutes as needed. Once all onions have reached a deep, rich colour, add thyme and remove from heat.
Next up mushrooms. Same deal. Slice. Hot pan with oil. S & p. Don’t touch until they start to brown. Heat down to finish.
Assembly: place a spoonful of onions on puff pastry piece. Top with mushrooms.
If you want to get a bit fancier, add some cheese to the top, goat or Gruyere, and some toasted hazelnuts. Add a side of greens for a great first course.
Now for the sweet…
Carmamelized Apple & Pear Tarte
2 apples
2 pears
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1 tbsp butter
pinch salt
puff pastry – cut approx 4×10″
Cut puff pastry into approx 4×10″ piece (go ahead and make smaller ones if you like). Bake in a 400°+ oven for 6-8 minutes or until lighly golden.
Peel and core apples and pears. Cut into 1/4, then each piece again into 1/4.
Add all slices into large pan with sugar, butter and cinnamon. Cook over medium heat until lightly caramelized, maybe 10 minutes on medium-low heat.
Once apple and pears are cooked, line alternatley on puff pastry. Slide back into the oven for a couple minutes. This is great served with vanilla bean ice cream.
Good Food Box Recipes pt 1
So the other half of me receiving a Good Food Box and mentioning it here, was that I would put a couple of recipes together from what I found inside of it. If getting one of these boxes was something you were doing on a regular basis, I would say to eat as much as you can out of it raw. That is where you are going to get the bulk of your nutrition. The recipes I’ve come up with here are quite simple and as well I’ve tried to limit the ingredients to mostly what came in the box. Of course you can take these base recipes and add to them – isn’t that what a recipe is for?
The first recipe is actually something I had been planning to make the when I had received the box and found many of the ingredients inside – perfect.
Beef Stew
This is a fairly standard stew recipe. Nothing too crazy. You can use regular stewing meat if you like, which most likely comes from the shoulder, but for the best stew, use meat from the lower leg – calve & shin. Ask your butcher for it.
2 lbs cubed beef – roughly 1″ cubes
1 medium onion – lg dice
2 stalks celery – 1/2″ pieces
2 large carrots – 1/2″ pieces
4-6 cloves garlic – chopped
6-8 mushrooms – cut into 1/4
1 cup red wine
6 cups roasted chicken stock (or beef)
1/4 – 1/2 cup olive oil
1/2 cup flour
1 tsp ea rosemary, sage, thyme – fresh if possible
s & p
In a large bowl mix cubed beef with a good pinch of salt & pepper and toss with flour until meat is well covered. On medium heat, warm a bit of oil in a saute pan, add pieces of beef to pan with out crowding and brown well on all sides – the Maillard Reaction if you like. Remove pieces into a pot when browned. Repeat until all the meat has been browned. Add red wine to pan and scape of any bits stuck to the bottom. Add to beef. Here, I like to cook my onion, garlic, carrot, celery and mushrooms until it starts to brown a little, but you could just toss it all in the pot if you like. Add a bit more salt and pepper, the herbs and cover with chicken (or beef stock).
Bring this liquid up to a boil, then down to a low simmer for about 3 hours. As with any braised dish, this gets better over the next couple days – if it lasts that long.
Served with garlic mashed potatoes or a soft polenta.
Beef stew is the kind of dish that satisfies the soul and doesn’t need to be fussy. It really only needs to be cooked long enough. Other than that, you can’t go wrong.
More recipes to come!
Ottawa Good Food Box
It’s easy at times to get caught up in the glamorous, sexy side of food. Food Network shows, blogs & Twitter and endless websites competing for abundance, exclusivity and well lit shots of food porn. At times we need to step back and remember that most of us do not get a prime table at the restaurant du jour. A high percentage of Canadians (and the world for that matter) cannot afford to eat a nutritious and well balanced diet.
Though we are quite well off here in Canada, there are many places, especially in the downtown sections of cities, where food deserts do occur. A food desert if you haven’t heard is a section of the city (usually lower income) where markets and grocery stores move out, leaving residents with few options to purchase fresh, healthy food. Maybe we can dive into the issue of food deserts another time. To help alleviate this fresh food issue, groups such as the Good Food Box Ottawa have been created to provide fresh, sometimes even local, produce buying opportunities at a very reasonable cost.
A little about the Good Food Box in their own words: “The Ottawa Good Food Box is a non-profit community-based initiative bringing neighbours together to buy a variety of delicious and nutritious fresh fruits and vegetables at wholesale prices. It works like a large buying club with centralized buying and coordination. Our goal is to purchase food that is in season and is grown close to home as possible. The Good Food Box concept is based on a very successful program developed by Food Share Toronto’s Field to Table Program that started in 1994 with only 40 boxes. Field to Table now delivers approximately 4000 boxes per month in the Toronto Area. Many communities from coast to coast have developed their own version of the Good Food Box, responding to local needs and circumstances. The Ottawa Good Food Box was developed in 1996 by a group of Community Developers and Community Nutritionists as a way of reaching out to those in the community who were not accessing adequate fresh fruits and vegetables.”
Here in Ottawa, the Good Food Box program is sponsored by the Centretown Community Health Centre (420 Cooper St.), as well as the City of Ottawa and the Community Foundation of Ottawa. Boxes are available at around 20 sites across the city for pick up, and must be ordered in advance. There are several price options to choose from, $10, $15, $20 boxes all contain a base selection – onions, carrots, apples, bananas, lettuce as well as potatoes every other month. Seasonal items and additional produce is added based on the box size (price). As well there are $5 bags of fruit available usually containing apples, oranges, bananas and pears. Also during the growing season, an organic option is available for $25 for a medium sized box. Purchasing a box is open to everyone – this isn’t a Food Bank type service. The produce for the boxes are purchased at wholesale prices and are resold at those same prices, ie a $10 box has at least $10 of wholesale produce, sometimes even as much as $20. The program doesn’t make a profit, but relies on volunteers and grants to help keeps costs low.
I was asked recently, as someone who both works in the food industry and who helps promote food issues, to take a basket and give my thoughts and maybe even come up with a recipe or two with the contents. I was offered a $15 box (for which I donated $15) and here is what I found inside for this month:
- · 5 apples
- · 4 pears
- · 2 oranges
- · 6 bananas
- · 2 lb bag of yellow onions
- · 2 lb bag of carrots
- · 2 green peppers
- · ½ lb button mushrooms
- · Large head of celery
- · Green cabbage
- · Romaine lettuce
- · Small bag of fresh cranberries
- · Small pumpkin
This is a pretty good amount of produce for $15. Everything here is fresh. These aren’t grocery store discards. There is definitely enough of the basics, as well as a few items to keep it interesting. Eating as much of this in its raw state would deliver the most amount of nutrition, but a few items lend themselves nicely to being cooked. Over the next couple days, I’ll post a couple recipes about what I’ve come up with using the contents of this Good Food Box.
Turkey Enchilada Casserole
It’s that time of year again when we have to figure out how to use up all that turkey that was cooked, and leftover from Thanksgiving. I suppose we could just buy a smaller turkey, but what fun would that be. To be honest, we went with a ham, and it was so nice outside, I did it on the BBQ – seemed appropriate.
Chicken enchiladas are something that my family eats fairly often and this one I use is based on Emeril Lagasse’s chicken enchilada recipe, but feel free to sub in all that turkey this week. In my house its made in the casserole style – easier to put together and tastes the same.
Turkey (or chicken) Enchilada Casserole
2-3 cups shredded turkey meat – white and dark
1 medium onion – sliced
1 each red & green pepper – sliced
2 cloves garlic – minced
1 lg (796 mL) can tomatoes – you can use puree or mash up a can of whole or diced tomatoes
3 lg tbsp chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
2-3 cups grated cheese – cheddar, mozzerella, jack
12 small corn tortillas
salt & pepper to taste
Warm a large skillet with 1 tbsp oil. Add onions and peppers with a little salt and pepper and cook until softened. Reserve.
In a pot add tomatoes, chili powder, garlic, oregano, cumin and salt & pepper to taste. Bring to the boil, turn down heat and simmer for 10 minutes until flavours mingle. Reserve.
In a 9×13 pan, layer 6 corn tortillas to cover bottom. Next, cover tortillas with turkey meat. Spoon half tomato mixture over meat, then add onions and peppers. Cover with remaining corn tortillas. Spoon remaining tomato mixture over tortillas and sprinkle on cheese.
Bake at 375° for 20-30 minutes or until cheese is nice and melted, and the middle is hot.
Garnish with sour cream, green onions and a splash of your favourite hot sauce. Brown rice is a great side for this dish.
I hope this gives you another dish in your repitoire of “dishes to make from holiday leftovers”.
A Sunday in September
It’s such a great day out today and wouldn’t you know its the day that I decided to jar 40 lbs of tomatoes. Now I’m not really complaining because these tomatoes will be most welcome on one of those cold winter days, I’m just saying, I wouldn’t have minded a rainy day today.
A Taste of Feast of Fields
Being new to Ottawa, I thought the Feast of Fields event held this past Sunday, would be a great opportunity to meet a few industry people and to sample some tasty organic/local foods. This annual event takes place on the well suited grounds of the Canada Agriculture Museum and is sponsored by the Ottawa Chapter of the Canadian Organic Growers. The gist of this event, if you don’t know, is to combine a farmer/producer who supplies product for a chef, who creates a small dish for sampling. Put a couple dozen of these combinations together and you’ve got a nice afternoon for your taste buds.
First off, the weather was fantastic. Warm and sunny – which is always key for an outdoor event. The process is simple: grab a plate and get in line. The farmers and chefs will hook you up from there. Having grabbed a plate, I walked over to the first booth which already had a good sized line, so I decided to check it out. Atelier. Two reasons why there was a line: 1. the quality of the food/restaurant/chef. 2. it was a composed plate of about 12 items, so it took a minute to make each plate. I wish I could remember every thing on this artistically composed plate, but I can not. They should have had a small sign. I’m sure they had to repeat the list a couple hundred times.
The centrepiece of this plate was the Miskin Meadows Farm pork belly (cooked sous vide for 36 hours), then pan fried to a crisp. Crispy skin, apple at least 2-3 ways. Very tasty and it all worked together – which is saying a lot since there were so many tastes on the plate.
Another big line-up and a tasty sample was the mini burger (or slider) from Allium who was teamed up with Willowpond Acres Farm.
A nice little burger (ground chuck I’m guessing) topped with braised brisket, heirloom lettuce & tomatoes, corn “salsa” with a help-yourself side of homemade chips.
It would be great if I could give you a run down of all the chefs/producers there, but that would get very lengthy. They all did a very nice job. Savvy Company had wines by the glass, Beau’s had beer on tap (sooo nice on a hot day) and Joël’s Coffee had, well, coffee. All great additions to the day.
For some unfortunate reason, I did miss the majority of the dessert table. I know, how did I let that happen, but I did have a few pieces from this watermelon table. Wow. Some of the best watermelon I’ve had in a long time – and they have seeds! Felicity was my favourite. Like candy.
One of the last bites I had before I had to head outwas from the Branch restaurant – and I wish I had more room in my stomach for it and another. So simple, yet so good. These potatoes were cooked in beef fat, then topped with a very garlicy aioli and Himalayan pink salt. Can I eat these every day?
Feast of Fields 2011 was a great welcoming to this city and I look forward to next year’s event and checking out more great places to eat in Ottawa and surrounding areas – especially those who gave their talents to this event – and to those who farm organically in this region. Well done.
LWF Food Service Consulting (landwaterfork) is a Ottawa, Ont. based catering, private chef service and sustainability consulting company, created by Justin Faubert, whose goal is to provide high quality, professional, personalized service for every client.