Tag: food

The Cooking Chronicles: Ricotta Pancakes

Armed with Bisquick, I set out to duplicate an Everyday Italian recipe of Ricotta Pancakes this morning.

The show had advertised them as a fluffier alternative to the usual result from pancake mix, and I did find that the case, but they definitely came out flatter than I was expecting. I should have substituted milk for water, and added about a quarter cup more frozen blueberries. But the best part was – they really weren’t any more difficult to make than regular pancakes, as long as you have the ingredients on hand to start with.

Anyway, pancakes are a great way to begin any day!

Ricotta Pancakes

Charmingly Urban: Blue Plate Diner

I mention Blue Plate Diner (10145-104 Street) so often that you’d think I’d eat there more frequently, so I was more than happy to return on Friday night for dinner with Mack.

Just stepping into the restaurant makes me happy. Located in the warehouse district, the dining room retains some of the original brick, adorned with contemporary art, and accented with aged windows utilized as table dividers. I love the ambiance in the evenings, with swoony ’50s music, the natural buzz of conversation, and dim, candlelit tables.

The menu isn’t anything spectacular, but it’s like my favorite sweater – comfortable and good for all occasions. Something unique that they do offer is their Friday night dinner specials, with two featured dishes every week (and yes, it does remind me of dinner at the Gilmore residence). I ordered one of the two specials, a winter vegetable pie served with garlic mashed potatoes and grilled vegetables. Mack chose the beef burger and regular fries.

I forgot my camera (the photos below are from their website), so you’ll have to bear with text, but the pie was huge! Baked in a large dish and topped off with a puff pastry crust, it was teeming with carrots, mushrooms, and fennel root (to me, tasted like a cross between celery and onions). It was a satisfying dish that wasn’t too heavy, and a great choice on a cold night. Mack’s said his from-scratch fries were good, and polished off his burger in no time!

Needless to say, I’ll be back!

Ambiance
Table for two

Pre-New Year’s Potluck

May hosted a party in celebration of the New Year last night, and though it was meant to be a potluck, she ambitiously wanted to prepare several large entrees just in case the food guests brought went the way of desserts (as is typically the case with such events). Shiney and I offered to come early to help her out with the cooking.

Besides meatloaf and roasted potatoes, a “Better Butter Chicken” recipe, courtesy of Reader’s Digest, was on the menu. I haven’t yet reached the stage where I am comfortable dealing with raw meat, so I was relieved to find out that May’s Mum had already cooked and de-boned the appropriate amount of chicken for us in advance. Other than that, the instructions were really straightforward. This was my first time cooking with turmeric, and I must say, the aroma generated was fantastic (though from experience, it stains like crazy!).

Because this was a lower-fat version of butter chicken, the sauce wasn’t as creamy as those found in traditional Indian restaurants, but it was still pretty good. Simmering the sauce over low heat for 15 minutes really allowed the flavors of the spices to develop and come through.

While I still have much to learn on the vegetarian side of things, I hope to one day be able to make such a dish again, from start to finish, on my own!

Better Butter Chicken

The Cooking Chronicles: Mini Quiches

For the last (hurrah!) potluck of 2006, I decided to go with a variation of my tried and true baked egg theme: mini quiches. My Mum recently bought a large box of small tart shells, and had only managed to go through a quarter of the box, so I was more than happy to help her use up the rest.

Following a recipe printed on the side of the box (not sacrilege if done right), I decided on mushroom and parmesan as the filling ingredients. From my past experiments with cheese in such dishes, I’ve found that cheddar and mozzarella don’t quite provide the creamy texture that freshly grated parmesan does. And while I thought it unusual that the recipe called for a 1:1 quantity of eggs to cream (I substituted skim milk, as always), it resulted in a light-but-satisfying custard-like consistency for the egg.

Easy, and great as an appetizer, I will be making these mini quiches again soon.

Mushroom and Parmesan Mini Quiches

Delicious and Economical: Lorenzo’s

In search of a late afternoon lunch today, I wandered over to Zuppa Cafe, but was disappointed to find out that they would be closed until January 2. They have one of the most inexpensive meals I have ever encountered in the city centre area – a bowl of hearty, homemade soup of the day and a side of baked pita chips for $3 – perfect for a light lunch.

Thus, I made my way to my reliable backup – Lorenzo’s in Edmonton City Centre West (10025-102A Avenue). Though they recently moved from the City Centre East food court, they haven’t changed the specials they offer. My staple in high school, they were not only affordable (a pizza, pasta, and drink combo for about $5), but also, the service has always been excellent. The woman who is a mainstay at Lorenzo’s is always friendly, efficient, and sprinkles terms of endearment like “honey” in her speech, making me feel welcome and taken care of.

On this day, I ordered the small lasagna, which came to a measly $3. Though there was only one layer of cheese, there was enough pasta layers for a filling midday snack, rounded out with a generous topping of meat and tomato sauce.

Lorenzo’s is a great place to go for a quick bite!

Small Lasagna

The Cooking Chronicles: Best-Ever Carrot Cake

Using a recipe from my trusted Better Homes & Gardens cookbook, I baked a carrot cake for Mack in celebration of his birthday. I haven’t attempted to make a cake from scratch in some time, as I’m typically a Duncan Hines or Betty Crocker mix kind of girl. But as the recipe seemed straightforward, this was a reasonable challenge to overcome.

First of all, I never knew finely shredding carrots would be such a task. I ended up with orange everywhere (my nails still haven’t returned to their original color). Also, the icing took longer than expected as well, as I had to gradually beat in about 5 cups of confectioner’s sugar (that’s where the stand-alone KitchenAid mixer would have come in handy).

Overall, it was fun to make. And might I say, much like the other dishes I’ve been experimenting with, creating something from raw ingredients really instills a sense of pride and ownership. Often it seems that the act of cooking itself, even without the promise of an edible product at the end, is reward enough. The food, as they say, is the icing on the cake.

*I will also take this opportunity to wish Mack a happy birthday, and to let him know that for one day only, I will relent in my dominance in the NHL2K7 shootout and air hockey challenges.

Best-Ever Carrot Cake, about three-quarters frosted

Small on Servings and Service: Rigoletto’s Cafe

A few friends and I had dinner at Rigoletto’s Cafe (10068-108 Street) on Wednesday night. Extremely accessible, this Italian restaurant was located just off of the Corona LRT line.

The dining room was a dark, European-style bistro that looked from the furniture, carpeting, and lighting as if it hadn’t been updated since the late 80s or early 90s. Luckily, we were seated underneath one of the few spot lit tables, otherwise, we would have been eating over a single-flame candle and not much else.

Though I admit it was my fault for a) ordering the small versus the large plate, and b) not ordering a less mundane dish, I was disappointed with my tortellini in cream sauce – its equivalent at Chianti’s would have been several dollars cheaper and of similar quality. I had pasta-envy just looking at my friends’ rigatoni, penne, and lasagna, which were easily three times the size of my selection. Earlier, when we had put in our orders, I had asked our server if we could have separate bills, to which he scoffed, and ultimately didn’t even provide me with an answer. I couldn’t help but get the feeling that my question translated into my ridiculously small serving.

For dessert, I ordered a latte and the chocolate mousse. My coffee was all right (I find I much prefer the sweetened, less authentic varieties available at chain coffee shops), while the mousse had obviously been pre-made and refrigerated – much too rich and dense, the consistency was closer to pot de crème than whipped mousse.

Lastly, the service was spotty throughout the night. They were extremely short staffed, with three servers attending to the entire restaurant (which was surprisingly busy for a downtown location on a random Wednesday). Although our waiter was quite attentive initially, by the end, we had to signal not only to order our entrees, then dessert, but also to request and pay for our bill (which wasn’t, by the way, separated). I suppose Rigoletto’s could be the kind of place one dines at for an evening of uninterrupted conversation, but I would have still appreciated the occasional check-in from a friendly server.

With the abundance of restaurants I have yet to try, I would be hesitant to return to Rigoletto’s Cafe right away. But I do believe in second chances, so though the service received a failing grade from me on this round, I will allow for a retest in the future.

Modern Simplicity: Holt’s Cafe

On Saturday, May and I headed to Holt’s Cafe , located on the second floor of Holt Renfrew (10180-101 Street), for brunch.

We had both been wanting to eat there for ages, but it had to be a Saturday, as both of us wouldn’t have been able to get away for a lunch out of the office on weekdays, and Holt’s Cafe was closed on Sundays. In a recent Edmonton Journal piece, the reviewer cautioned all diners to make reservations early to ensure space availability, so about a week earlier, I called for a 12pm table-for-two.

When I arrived, the hostess immediately led me to a table by the window. Definitely one with a view, the glass overlooked the main floor of Manulife Place, and was positioned so it took full advantage of the sunshine filtering in from Manulife’s numerous skylights. Crisp white table linens contrasted nicely with the painted red walls, accented with the soft glow emanating from rectangular screen lamps. The minimalist decor scheme was chic, classy, and elegant, and an example of how a simple two-toned red and white color palette could be maximized to produce a warm but sophisticated design.

The cafe was moderately full, with patrons consisting mostly of mature couples and groups of ladies lunching. After getting settled, I nearly attacked the waitress for coffee, but she didn’t flinch at all, and even brought me cream without being asked (and of course, kept the refills coming). Unfortunately, there was no separate brunch menu, but I noticed that most of my fellow diners were choosing lighter meal options like salad or soup. Though dismayed because they had run out of Vegetarian Quiche, I decided to try the shrimp alternative anyway. May opted for the Whole Wheat Spaghetti topped with a curious Indian-inspired Marsala Sauce.

My portion was appropriately sized, and I wasn’t disappointed with the quiche. Light and fluffy, with a good flavor balance between the shrimp and the egg, it was the perfect brunch selection. Served with seasonal greens and a side of orange poppy seed dressing, the salad proved to be good companion to the quiche. My friend said her pasta was okay and not too spicy, but she would have preferred to have ordered my dish.

For dessert, we opted for the Lemon Tarts. They proved impossible to eat gracefully, as the filling was not viscous enough to adhere to the pastry shell. Though a tad too sweet for my taste (I prefer pastry cream), it wasn’t bad.

It was a wonderful dining experience, and while it may be some time before I can fit Holt’s Cafe into my lunch schedule again, I will be back to try their other entrees.

Dining room
View from the window
Menu and place setting
Daily Quiche with Seasonal Greens
Whole Wheat Spaghetti with Marsala Sauce and Vegetables
Lemon Tarts

The Cooking Chronicles: Farmer’s Casserole

Continuing with the season of potlucks, Mack and I decided to jointly contribute a homemade farmer’s casserole for a friend’s party. Though the thought of a casserole made me feel like I should don an apron a la Donna Reed or June Cleaver on Leave it to Beaver, the recipe was very simple – essentially an assemble-and-bake dish, slightly easier and requiring less clean up than a quiche.

We layered hash brown potatoes, diced cooked ham, grated cheddar cheese and chopped green onions in a rectangular dish, poured the egg and milk mixture over top, then put it in the oven. Comparable to the quiche, the most difficult thing we found was to wait for it to bake, and to decide via the “knife through the centre” test whether the egg had cooked enough. Though I think sixty minutes would have done the trick, the knife still came out slightly moist at that point, though when we finally decided to take it out the egg thankfully continued to set out of the oven.
The finished product was quite good, and I can see why the description for the dish lists it as a “hearty” selection – two servings and I was comfortably full for the rest of the evening. Next time, we thought mixing the filling ingredients (ham, potatoes and some of the cheese) before spreading it out in the pan would give the casserole a more coherent flavor, otherwise the cheese especially acts just as a topping and not as much of a “glue” as it could have. Also, one could potentially cut down the fat by using diced boiled potatoes instead of the hash browns.
Anyway, it was another enjoyable cooking experience!
Farmer’s Casserole

Coffee Shop Character: Sugar Bowl

After pho, Bettina and I were on the hunt for dessert. Our first choice was Leva Capuccino Bar in the University area, but it turns out to have shut down! It’s currently being renovated under a new name.

Thus, our second choice, thankfully located nearby, was the Sugar Bowl (10922-88 Avenue). I have quite a biased opinion of this cafe, with nostalgic affection connected to my first visit there. It involved a meeting with online (yes, online) fans of Billy Boyd, just prior to his appearance at the Garneau Theatre a few years ago (and no creepy pedophiles showed up).

The Sugar Bowl could be considered a younger, edgier relative of the Blue Plate Diner. I have always loved the decor – exposed brick, aged hardwood floor, roughly sanded tables, pendant lighting. On the downside, I have never been impressed by their service, as it has consistently proved to be mercifully slow, but on most occasions, I am willing to overlook it for its cozy cultivation of conversation.

When we arrived at 8, the room was about half full. By 9:30, however, it was packed, with groups of diners even patiently awaiting a table at the bar. We also found that as the night progressed, the lights were dimmed and the music volume was increased, with the song list switching from rock in favor of more techno-flavored tunes, making the atmosphere more in line with that of a bar.

Keeping it light, I ordered a vanilla hot chocolate and a Sugar Bowl Soufflé (made with Callebeaut chocolate). The hot chocolate came with a bit of a wait, and was lukewarm, but had a creamy, smooth vanilla flavor. The soufflé, on the other hand, took ridiculously long to make. When it finally arrived, more than thirty minutes later, the waitress apologized, saying that the order was tardy because the first one “collapsed.” Seeing the final product, I wondered what the previous creation looked like. Overturned on the centre of a square plate, and dressed with a shake of powdered sugar, I wasn’t sure what to make of it. I had never before had soufflé, so I was not a seasoned judge, but to me, the consistency was a cross between a pudding and a half-baked cake. The cocoa flavor was rather weak, actually, and I could have done with more tart confectioner’s sugar to supplement the dull, uninspired taste.

I can’t say I won’t be back, but it would likely be to sample their entrees instead.

Vanilla Hot Chocolate

Sugar Bowl Souffle with Callebeaut Chocolate