Month: April 2009

The Cooking Chronicles: Danny Kaye’s Lemon Pasta

The recipe I had in mind for our fresh fettuccini noodles was one I had come across in Ruth Reichl’s memoir Comfort Me with Apples some moons ago. Like every aspiring cook, I had photocopied the recipe for “Danny Kaye’s Lemon Pasta” and tucked it away to be used on just such an occasion.

It wasn’t difficult  – the cream and lemon-based sauce with just a touch of pasta water was quick to pull together, though I questioned the amount of lemon zest and juice called for in the recipe. In the end, it was much too tart for my liking (I should have trusted my instincts), though we thought it would make a good side for a roast chicken or salmon main. We probably should have also added additional pasta water – the congealed cream as the dish cooled reminded us of the heavy carbonara we tried last year. Better luck next time!

Danny Kaye’s Lemon Pasta

There’s a First Time for Everything: KitchenAid Pasta Maker

Last month, a marketing company promoting KitchenAid products contacted me to ask if I was interested in giving their Pasta Maker a try. Always up for experimentation, I said yes, and shortly after, received a large box with my name on it.

All smiles with my Pasta Kit

Mack laughed at me when I told him I expected a package tied up in a red bow with a label, “To: Sharon, Love: KitchenAid,” but it was a little like the Cooking Fairy had decided to pay me a visit. The Kit contained two stainless steel stand mixer attachments – a pasta roller and fettuccini pasta cutter – as well as a brush for cleaning and a slotted spoon and pasta server. Lastly, two boxes of Ecco La Pasta mixes were included to simplify initial attempts.

KitchenAid Pasta Kit

Contents

We started with the egg pasta dry mix, added water, and let the stand mixer do the work. Once the dough came together, I relied heavily on the manual, particularly because I needed as much guidance as possible, having never made pasta from scratch before. It wasn’t entirely clear to me how the lump of dough we now had in front of us should be divided to be fed into the pasta roller (better illustrations or pictures would have helped matters), but we eventually figured out that thicker clumps of dough yielded the desired yard of pasta that would eventually be cut into individual noodles.

Dough coming together

Mack working the pasta roller

Cutting the pasta into recognizable fettuccini noodles was the best part, gratifying the work we had done up until that point.

Go Mack go!

Making fettuccini

Finished noodles

I think we were surprised at how quickly everything came together. Even if we hadn’t used the pasta mix, it still wouldn’t have taken much longer, as the stand mixer does most of the grunt work. As with most store-bought products as well, we liked that the pasta maker would give us control over the ingredients used in the dough (I wonder how duck eggs would fare in pasta?).

We both acknowledged, however, that despite how straightforward it was, we likely wouldn’t put in the extra effort to make something that could easily be picked up at the store. That said, I’m eager to look for recipes that involve different colour or flavour additives to the pasta – something unique that would wow guests at a dinner party, or would somehow spice up a fairly mundane dish.

I’m looking forward to our future pasta experiments!

Variety to Spare: Habesha

Mack tolerates my slight fixation with killing several birds with one stone. Borne out of my reliance on public transportation and walking as my main modes of travel, I do my best to make the most of my trips to areas of the city outside of my usual commute.

Following our jaunt to Seedy Sunday at the Alberta Avenue Community Hall, Mack didn’t flinch when I said there would be a planned stop at the nearby Habesha for lunch. I had read a review last year in the Journal about this new restaurant, and Liane Faulder has made mention of it several times over the last few months (Habesha now offers a vegetarian/vegan buffet on Wednesday nights). Though I’ve sampled Ethiopian and Eritrean cuisine before (at the Heritage Festival, for example), I’ve never before had a sit-down meal, so was eager to be exposed to a greater variety of food.

The interior of Habesha was larger than we expected from our external assessment. A long room was divided into a reception/coffee ceremony area, a second section dominated by the bar, and a third area functioned as the main dining room populated with a few tables. For a restaurant with many windows, the interior was surprisingly dim, so I was glad that our self-directed table hugged a window, with the option of being enclosed by a curtain fashioned on a curved bar that reminded me of a shower rod. There were two other parties present – and both embodied the relaxed, comfortable vibe of a restaurant that invited diners to stay awhile.

Mack looking relaxed and comfortable, and Twittering, of course

The owner (and sole waitress) brought us glasses of water and menus. We looked over the pages, divided into vegetarian, chicken and beef sections, and didn’t know where to begin. When she returned to take our order, we asked for her recommendations. She pointed us to the “combination” plates ($14.99 per person), and we decided to sample one beef and one vegetarian combination.

We weren’t sure how long our food would take, as it wasn’t clear whether or not our lone server was also the restaurant’s lone staff member, but thankfully, our dish arrived not too long after our order was placed. A circular platter lined with injera and dotted with multicolored meat, lentil and vegetable dishes was placed before us, accompanied by another small basket of injera. The soft, spongy bread is the main utensil in Ethiopian/Eritrean cuisine (similar in use to Indian chapatti), and explained the lack of forks and knives on our table.

Combination beef and vegetarian plate for two

Having tried injera several times now, I have to say I’m still not used to the sour taste of the bread, or to the fact that it is served cold. On the other hand, I immensely enjoyed the dishes themselves – the shiro wat (sun dried peas) were fantastic, with just a hint of spice, but so satisfying, and the fosolia – string bean and carrot mixture – was simple yet tasty. Mack liked the kei wot (prime beef stewed in spicy red sauce), though I know we both found most of the cubed meat rather tough. The spice level varied in the dishes (for example, the red lentil misser wot packed much more zing than the mellower yellow version), so the entire sample provided a nice spectrum of heat. In all, we found the combination plate was a great way to sample over ten different dishes, and with such a large portion size, ended up with enough food to take for lunch the next day.

When our server came back to check on us, she was taken aback by the food that remained. I couldn’t tell if she took the quantity of leftovers personally, but she mock-threatened not to pack it up for us unless we promised to eat it all. We did, but her guilt really wasn’t necessary, and left our experience a bit off because we hadn’t developed the necessary rapport for that kind of exchange.

Regardless of our end note, I would recommend Habesha as a good venue to experiment with Ethiopian/Eritrean cuisine, and like The Dawg Father before it, I am glad that there is one more restaurant to add to the “destination Alberta Avenue” list.

Habesha
9511 118 Avenue NW
(780) 474-2206
Monday-Thursday 4-10pm, Friday 4pm-2am, Saturday 12pm-2am, Sunday 12-11pm

April in Edmonton is for Variety

  • Edmonton Fashion Week returns with its spring 2009 shows and sample sales April 2-9. I’m glad the venue was changed to the TransAlta Arts Barns – more easily accessible by public transit than the Hangar.
  • To launch it’s 2009-10 season, the Winspear Centre is offering a free concert on April 2 at noon.
  • 2009 is the International Year of Astronomy, and to celebrate, the Strathcona Wilderness Centre is hosting a 100 hour Astronomy Marathon, April 2-5.
  • The plethora of craft shows continues with the kickoff of a new monthly show called Handmade Mafia. Happening on the first Saturday of every month, their first is scheduled for April 4 at Savoy and Orange Hall. You could easily make a day of it – brunch, Old Strathcona Farmers’ Market, then craft shopping.
  • I have a soft spot for the MacEwan Centre for the Arts music concerts – they’re inexpensive, and for the most part they’re feel-good shows. They wrap up their Month of Music on April 4 & 5, with their always showstopping Big Band Concert taking place on April 6.
  • The Mayor’s 22nd annual Celebration for the Arts takes place on April 6 at the Winspear Centre. I went last year and found it a great way to sample some of the city’s up-and-coming artists.
  • Want to meet the city’s Twitterati? Consider coming to Edmonton’s fourth Tweetup, planned for April 7 at Vintage Lounge.
  • Comedian Rick Mercer will be stopping by Grant MacEwan on April 8 for what will likely be a very entertaining evening. Tickets are $20.
  • It’s not the Westminster version, but the Edmonton Kennel Club is holding their biannual show and trials on April 17-19.
  • What better way to explore an area of the city than by foot? Swing on by to High Street for their Spring Gallery Walk, April 18 & 19, where eight member galleries will be participating.
  • The Edmonton Poetry Festival runs April 23-26. They have quite a variety of events scheduled – worth a look.
  • The Kiwanis Music Festival starts on April 20. This is their 101st year!
  • The City decided to do away with the more formal annual “community conference” and will be offering an Edmonton Transit System Community Fair in its place on April 25. The event focuses on the grand opening of the Belgravia/McKernan LRT station, but there will also be tours, presentations and activities throughout the day.
  • The Prince of Wales Armouries, which has been closed for renovations for the better part of a year, will be hosting an open house on April 25. I’ve passed by the venue almost every day during my afternoon walks, so I’m curious to see what it looks like.
  • The wiser, older brother of Earth Hour, Earth Day celebrations hit Hawrelak Park on April 26. Performances, exhibits, and family-friendly activities will abound.

Seedy Sunday

On a blustery, snowy, slushy day, when Old Man Winter decided to remind the city that we were still firmly in his grasp, Mack and I headed to an event optimistic about the forthcoming spring called Seedy Sunday.

This annual event was mentioned so often at the Food: Today, Tomorrow Together conference that my curiosity was beyond piqued. Having never grown anything in my life beyond those “life cycle” pots in the window of my elementary school portable, it was intriguing to me that passionate gardeners would gather together every year to exchange seeds and wax poetic about everything germination.

Seedy Sunday

Walking into the Alberta Avenue Community Hall, we were greeted by a volunteer and table full of resources, including two guides advertising heritage variety seeds available for purchase (one of which is Heritage Harvest Seeds). The atmosphere inside the hall was lively and warm, and we immediately forgot about the wintry conditions outside. Information booths from a wide range of gardening-related organizations were present (City Farm, Community Garden Network, Edmonton Horticultural Society – celebrating its centennial this year!), along with Ron Berezan’s Urban Farmer (he was away delivering one of the three lectures organized for the day). Producers were also present, including Patti Milligan (aka Lola Canola) and Gwen Simpson of Inspired Market Gardens. Gwen is definitely doing her best to branch out her business, and in April is launching cooking and gardening classes at her site in Carvel.

USC Canada was also there, where I picked up a free poster illustrating the centres of food origin along with details about the dire situation of decreasing crop and livestock diversity. Some facts:

  • 1 unique livestock breed disappears every month
  • 90% of US fruit and vegetable varieties have disappeared in the last century
  • 75% of India’s rice crop is planted with a dozen varieties. Once there were 30,000.
  • 10 companies control more than 55% of the world’s seed market

(You can read more about this topic on the USC website.)

Seed map

Of course, the main purpose of visiting Seedy Sunday was for the seeds. Jennifer from Edible Prairie mentioned the lack of seed vendors this year, but I wasn’t looking beyond herbs. As I am new to gardening in every sense of the word, I thought it best to start small with a modest container garden, so I didn’t miss the variety. I picked up a packet each of sweet basil and Italian parsley from Bedrock Seed Bank and will be heading to a hardware store to furnish the rest of my (hopefully) budding experiment. I must mention the $14 gift packs Bedrock was selling (containing six seed packets, containers, and starter soil) – I was so tempted to buy one just to have in my gift giving closet.

Shopping for seeds

Kudos to the ladies behind Seedy Sunday for organizing such a great event!