Part IIIa: Lyon, Geneva and C.E.R.N. Laboratories

We’re celebrating Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend and JT and I traditionally head up to my brother’s cottage in the Muskoka’s. We’ve had all sorts of weather during this weekend over the years, from swimming in Lake Rosseau to a little snow. But what ever the weather, there is always lots of food, reconnecting with family and lots of wine. We wish you all a very happy Canadian Thanksgiving and safe travels. Remember, it’s never smart to drink and drive (Hungary has a Zero tolerance rate and France is 0.5!) Just choose a DD and give them lots of dessert instead! Happy holidays friends.

For this post, I’ve had to change my plan and divide Lyon and Paris into two posts so that I don’t bore you too much. I also figured out how to add a slide show (boy, that was painful!) but it’s done. So if you have a moment, please visit with us in Lyon.

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

A little history of why we chose Lyon; it is said to the Gastronomic Capital of France. I’ve read that there are over 30 Michelin star restaurants in the city. The people clearly love food and since we do too we thought it would be a perfect match. And it was…for the most part. We had read that we must experience the traditional Bouchon in Lyon and I’ve read many blogs advising that, so it seemed like a good idea at the time. Unfortunately Bouchon’s are generally small places and serve only a fixed menu of three to four courses, and unless you reserve well in advance you simply cannot get in (they only cook for the number of seats in the restaurant, and there is only one seating!). I simply cannot eat three to four courses and feel good, so we decided to just go to a bistro specializing in the cuisine of Lyon and order one course. We did this on night one, the day before our trip to Geneva to meet our friend Ted and his partner Ji. I ordered the andouillette of Lyon (warning…this may be offensive to the ultra sensitive) it is a ‘sausage’ of various ofal particularly some kind of tripe. Now I can eat practically anything, but this dish had an odor (Charles described his experience that he thought someone left the W/C door open, but now I’m getting ahead of myself) I thought it smelled of barn yard, very earthy and very strong. I didn’t take a photo as the lighting was really bad (and I’d rather not be reminded of the experience). It was served in a cream sauce (very rich) and a gratin of potatoes (quite yummy). I could barely eat it, but I persevered and had about a quarter (JT finished the rest). I did not have a good night that night and didn’t recover until lunch the following day! JT had smaller, more traditional sausages that reminded me of bratwurst, without a heavy sauce. Neither were high on my favourite list. But we were entertained for the most part by a street entertainer who was quite funny mimicking people and making rude balloon objects! We figured he could take 100E per set, and given an evening, he probably does 3-4 sets in different neighbourhoods.

Also, you can bet a tomato will taste like a tomato in France. They still care.

Note: if you click on the first photo in the gallery below, it will enlarge and you can click through them like a gallery!
Sorry, but it doesn’t work on your iPhone.

The view from our room toward the Rhone River

Opposite view from our room toward La République. The room was nothing special!

This was the beginning of La République, a wide pedestrian area through the city. These fountains were close to our hotel.

A lovely carousal near our hotel on La République

A marketing plan released too early! Surprise!

Our first meal in Lyon, a lite Niçoise Salad, a little too light on the tuna!

Walking around Lyon. This is Place des Cordeliers

The Rhone River

JT and his cane…prevented further injury. Today he has almost fully recovered!

The public pools are in the distance, with the towers

It’s really a lovely city

Our real Lyonnaise dinner. I ordered the Andouillette; I would caution against it.

Bag of wine anyone?

This is where we picked up the bus tour

Touring around Lyon

This is my lunch.

This is JTs lunch. We all know which one is healthier!

Bartholdi Fountain. There is smoke coming out of the horse’s nostrils and water from their mouths!

This is trompe L’œill is of all the famous people of Lyon. A company called CitéCréation’s are responsible for the lovely murals all over Lyon.

Another pretty shot

It ended up being a nice sunny day.

More historic buildings along the river

Beautiful skyline 1

Beautiful skyline 2

Basilica of Notre-Dame de Fourvière

It was warm enough to sit on top in the double-decker bus

On Place des Terreau (city square), this is Lyon’s City Hall

We may have had an adult libation or two. For the sake of Jed and Greg, of course!

Another great Caprese salad. On La République.

Someone may have chosen a slightly over dressed chicken Caesar. Don’t you hate it when that happens?

Palais de la Bourse or Palais du Commerce viewed from our table at the restaurant. On La République

The exterior of the Paul Bocuse Market

Some of the shops

We were there a little after 4pm and most of the vendors had shut down, but there were some beautiful examples anyway

Presentation. You can buy ready made Caprese Salads in beautiful containers. It’s a little hard to see.

La boulangerie

Glazed Fruit look like jewels.

Les Armures, the oldest hotel/restuarant in Geneva. I may have even sat in the very seat George Clooney sat!

Our good friend Teddy and his partner Ji. We had a lovely day in Geneva

Lake Geneva with the Jet d’Eau

C.E.R.N Laboratories The Particle building. They apparently invented the internet!

C.E.R.N. Laboratories, the particle exhibit.

Our cooking class with Chef Jean-Marc Villard

Chef and I in the garden

The fig tree absolutely exploding with figs ready to eat!

If it were warm enough, we would have dine outside!

The lovely brick BBQ

This is his professional kitchen, he has a private kitchen upstairs!

The dining area

Chef Villard and JT examining the soup

JT chopping green olives for the sauce

Chef Villard searing the Monkfish wrapped in bacon. YUM!

Monkfish with a green olive sauce, fingerling potatoes seared in olive oil and the seared scallops (for the soup)

Enjoying a little hors d’œuvres and a glass of wine.

This is only the photo I took of the Clafoutis, it was pear, chocolate with a glorious caramel sauce. I can hardly wait to make this again!

Pumpkin soup scented with vanilla with EVOO sautéed trumpet mushrooms and seared scallops with hazelnut oil drizzle. OMG, this was amazing!

Our main course: Monkfish wrapped in bacon with a green olive veal stock sauce, fingerling potatoes sautéed in EVOO and snap peas with arugula (rocket) pesto. It was DELICIOUS!

Mme. Villard patiently waiting for my photo to be done!

Winemakers notes: “The color is a brilliant light straw. Aromas of intense acacia, yellow peaches and exotic fruits. On the palate the wine is very elegant and harmonious. Its freshness allows the fruit to fully develop. A seductive wine to be enjoyed with appetizers and hors d’oeuvres”.

Geneva trip 1:

We made arrangements to meet up with our good friend Ted whom we haven’t seen for at least 10 years. He and his partner Ji traveled by train from outside Zurich to make this possible. We enjoyed a wonderful lunch in Geneva’s oldest restaurant/hotel in the historic district. I may have even sat in the same chair as George Clooney; check out their guest book. Geneva is a beautiful city whose population is manly made up of people from somewhere else; there are many company head offices in Geneva as well. We had hoped to meet up with other blogger in Geneva too, but sadly she had to travel for work on the date we could make it. We shall have to return one day.

Geneva trips 2:

We had booked a tour at C.E.R.N laboratories so that we could see what all the fuss was about. This was a very bad weather day; traveling on the highways, it rained so heavily that at times we were unable to see the hood of the car! The tour itself was lead by a physicist and was interesting but we both felt that since we were in Lyon for such a short time, this little side trip could have been avoided without much loss. Plus it was a gorgeous day in Lyon which we missed entirely! And we had to rush back for our cooking class! Not-withstanding the tolls which over the two days were in excess of 100E! Oh well. Live and learn.

Upon our return to Lyon we tried to return the car with the tank empty but they would have charged us 175E to fill it themselves so we opted to find a station and fill it ourselves for 52E. It took over an hour (mainly waiting for people to fill their cars) and return…only minutes to spare for our cooking class. Chef Villard was ready for us waiting in the lobby of our hotel! I barely had time to change and freshen up!

Cooking Class with Chef Jean-Marc Villard

Winemakers notes: “The color is a brilliant light straw. Aromas of intense acacia, yellow peaches and exotic fruits. On the palate the wine is very elegant and harmonious. Its freshness allows the fruit to fully develop. A seductive wine to be enjoyed with appetizers and hors d’oeuvres”.

Our cooking class was amazing and I would definitely recommend it. Chef Villard is fluent in English and is a kind instructor. His kitchen in tidy and calm, but then again there were only two of us. I shall list the menu, but as you can well imagine, I shall be blogging about it in future blog posts! Chef Villard kindly created a little hors d’œuvres of sausages wrapped in home-made brioche (he served the meal with a lovely local wine made with a Viognier grape), we then had a wonderful creamed pumpkin soup fragranced with vanilla bean, drizzled with hazelnut oil (OMG, you MUST smell this!) and served with three seared scallops. Chef Villard mentioned that it depends where you are in France with the fat is that they use…not everyone cooks with butter! Our main course was a Monkfish wrapped in bacon with a delightful veal sauce with green olives (the sweetness of the veal stock and the saltiness of the olives really went well with the fish, and the bacon wrapping was not too salty at all), with olive oil sautéed fingerling potatoes and some lovely snap peas with an arugula (rocket) pesto. For dessert we made a pear and chocolate clafoutis with a glorious caramel sauce. Yes, this will be a dinner for several friends over the next month or so. Of course, I will try to make it marginally healthier (although for a French Chef, he didn’t use as much cream as I thought he might!). This was a very enjoyable dinner. If you are in Lyon, you must try to get into one of his classes, you will not be disappointed. We ate with Chef and Mme Villard and chatted as if we were long-time friends. It was a very enjoyable evening.

We’re off to Paris next on the TGV! See you soon.

Read Full Post »

A Healthier Pulled Pork, by Cooking with Corinna

I’ve been following a blog called Cooking with Corinna who has been doing the Ducan diet (you know, the French diet). Corinna has been very successful in losing weight following this diet and has decided to try and healthy up some of her favourites so that she doesn’t fall back into old bad habits and jeopardize her success. The first recipe she ‘healthed up’ was pulled pork. JT loves pulled pork but it’s not something I ever make at home, mainly because it is so unhealthy, or so I thought. Corinna’s method was relatively simple and frankly quite obvious but, for some reason I never thought of it myself. She simply chose a leaner and healthier cut of pork — pork tenderloin instead of pork shoulder. Genius! I was inspired to make this pulled pork for dinner the other night and boy was it a success! Corinna used a slow cooker, but I chose to get my roasting pan on the grill outside (it was so hot and humid that day, I couldn’t bear even the slow cooker!). The trick is low and slow; I cooked our 300g tenderloin for almost four hours on 121°C (250°F). I turned it a few times and made sure it was always covered in BBQ sauce. You can use a store bought BBQ sauce, or you can throw one together in minutes like I did. Soooo easy. You will be surprised that you won’t be able to tell the difference from the unhealthy version! And if you want to keep it even healthier, choose a BBQ sauce based with fruit instead of sugar.

Thanks Corinna, this one will be a keeper, that’s for sure!

A Healthier Pulled Pork

Serves 3, 100 g portions

BBQ Sauce Ingredients:

Original recipe can be found here.

• 1/2 cup ketchup
• 1/4 cup vinegar, preferably red wine vinegar
• 1/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup finely chopped onion
• 1 tbsp soy sauce
• 1 tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 1 tbsp prepared mustard
• 1/2 tsp ground ginger
• 1-2 cloves garlic, finely minced
• 1 tbsp espresso coffee powder

Directions:

1. In a small saucepan, combine all of the ingredients and bring to a slow boil. Reduce heat and simmer for about 5 minutes or until the flavours have blended well. Remove from heat and set aside.

Pulled Pork Ingredients:

Original recipe can be found here.

• 300 g pork tenderloin with silver skin and excess fat removed. This is a great video on preparing pork tenderloin. I removed ALL of the fat to keep it healthier.
• 1-2 tbsp canola oil (or an oil with a high flash point)
• 1 cup BBQ sauce, home made or store bought.
• 1 cup water

Directions:

1. Preheat BBQ to 121°C (250°F).
2. Heat the roasting pan on the stove with the canola oil until almost smoking. Sear all sides of the tenderloin. Remove the pan from the heat and allow to cool for a minute or two. Add the BBQ sauce and make sure that the tenderloin is brushed evenly with it. Place the covered roasting pan on the BBQ and turn off the heat directly below it. You’ll have to watch your BBQ so that the temperature maintained for the 4 hours is around 121°C (250°F).
3. Turn the tenderloin 3-4 times making sure it is always covered well with the BBQ sauce. I kept about 1 cup of water near the BBQ and added water as the sauce became thicker and evaporated. Eventually around 3.5 hours, the meat will literally fall apart and you will be able to mix it well with the BBQ sauce and cook it for the last half hour.
4. Serve warm or cold, on a salad, on a bun, or even in a fajita shell. Garnish with chopped cilantro and finely chopped green onions.

Read Full Post »

Piri Piri Shrimp My Way

Firstly, I would like to add a disclaimer that Kristy from Eat, Play, Love Our Family Food Adventures is not paying me to blog about her recipes (unless she wants to, of course ). It’s just that there are some recipes that click for me, and her choices are often those kinds of recipes. Recently she and the kids made a Piri Piri Shrimp, in a post called Heating Things Up that really caught my interest for a few reasons: garlic and lemon juice, heat and shrimp! Of course, JT and I are still on the low carb, sugar, fat diet for another day or so I’ve had to modify the recipe (not that it wasn’t unhealthy to begin with, it just did not fit the chemical profile we are restricted to). So Kristy, I hope you don’t mind, but I did change it up a touch, hopefully not altering the recipe’s taste. Thanks again for a another flavourful dinner (and incredible lunch the next day!).

Roasting the hot peppers doesn’t really take ALL the heat out of them.

Serves 3 (dinner and 1 lunch, each 100 g protein)

Ingredients:

• 1-2 Serrano chiles
• 4-5 cloves of garlic
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika
• 1/2 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tbsp vinegar
• 1/3 cup low sodium vegetable stock (I used vegetable stock as it is slightly sweeter than chicken stock, because I replaced the wine vinegar with white vinegar)
• hand full of roughly chopped parsley
• hand full of roughly chopped cilantro
• 300 g (10.5 oz) uncooked, deveined, and peeled shrimp
• lemon wedges (oops, I forgot)

I forgot the lemon wedges.

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven on high broil. Cut the chile peppers in half (don’t bother removing the seeds and stems, they come off easily after roasting). Place the chiles on a lightly sprayed (with fat free cooking spray) baking sheet and roast until blackened, Kristy says about 10 minutes (I didn’t time it).
2. Trim the stems and remove the seeds (the seeds are the really hot bits)
3. In your immersion blender container, combine the chiles, garlic, paprika, lemon juice, vinegar, vegetable stock, parsley and cilantro and purée the ingredients until smooth.
4. Pour 1/4 of the marinade over the shrimp, cover and refrigerate for a minimum of 20 minutes, or up to 24 hours (see note).
5. Heat a large cast iron grill pan on the BBQ (had to involve JT in the cooking, you know how it is). Spray lightly with fat free cooking spray and when hot enough, cook shrimp until done (pink both sides).
6. Serve over greens with a few sweet red peppers drizzled with a bit more of the sauce (but reserve the remainder of the sauce because I have a GREAT IDEA for it for Saturday!)

Notes:

• Citrus can cook seafood quite easily (ceviche is based on this) so if you do leave the shrimp marinading for more than a few hours, check it to see if it’s cooking (starting to turn pink). Otherwise you may end up with rubbery shrimp.
• The Piri Piri sauce was INCREDIBLE — perfect for my taste, JT said it was OK, but perhaps he was just uninspired because the shrimp was served on greens (I live on greens so it was second nature to me) next time, I’ll serve his on Quinoa or Whole Wheat Couscous.
• Roasting the peppers did not minimize the heat, so beware. I adore it and JT found it tolerable, but it could be too hot for some.
• You may wish to add a teaspoon of agave nectar (or some red pepper coulis) to help subdue the heat, I did for JTs dressing but not for mine.
• The sauce is definitely better the next day so you may wish to make it up in advance and let it sit. I used this sauce in a dish I prepared last Saturday for Cinco de Mayo.

Read Full Post »

White Bean Hummus

The birds get up really early in these parts, even before the sun rises around 4:15am! Has no one told them about daylight savings???? The robins are the noisiest, but I don’t mind; it’s just so nice to have the windows open.

When I made the chick pea béchamel, I got to thinking about thickeners, and I thought if chick peas thickened the cheese sauce so well, would there be another bean that would work better? Navy beans came to mind, plus I could control the sodium (yes, I used canned chick peas! Shame on me!). I made the White Bean Paste and kept it in the fridge all week, using it in this and that (recipe for Quinoa Risotto turned out extremely well) but I had a bit left over and on Saturday I needed an appi for cocktails, but I’ll get to that in a minute.

While torturing myself on the elliptical at the club I watch TV (actually, I listen to my tunes and have the closed captioning on) and most days I can catch Jamie’s 30 Minute Meals. While most of his recipes inspire me, I virtually never make them verbatim; on top of that I’m told that there is a secret club who swear one is unable to make any of the recipes in 30 minutes! The other day he was making a Mediterranean dinner with all sorts of things, but what struck me was his presentation of a store bought Baba ghanoush. I’d never seen it presented as such before and I loved it. It was casual and approachable. He simply spread it on a plate and drizzled EVOO on it. Well, I knew I just had to use this technique and soon!

Fast forward to Saturday, we had spent the day downtown doing errands, and were at Yonge/Dundas Square (our Times Square) at 3pm to watch a flash mob promoting What to do Toronto (a relatively new web site highlighting current events in Toronto. The video isn’t up yet, but there are a couple of photos in the link; I’ll post the video when it’s up). The flash mob wasn’t an actual mob…not enough people to count as one, but they did dance in a lively choreographed manner which was entertaining. Sadly, it took place across the street from the Square, which meant JT and I missed the first half, by the time we noticed it was all the way over the other side of the busy street. It was close to 5 when we got home; we were cranky, tired and thirsty (did I mention that cocktails are held at 4pm in our household, drop by anytime, we always have lots!) It was also No Car Saturday, so we ran around using our Metro (I wore my hot pink patent leather stiletto BCBGs, I told you I wear inappropriate footwear, why are you surprised?). I needed an appi for cocktails, pronto. Back to the navy bean paste sitting in the fridge…hmmmm, so I put my Jamie inspiration together with a quick recipe and we were enjoying our cocktails with a lovely appetizer in no time. Cheers!

Not sure why the photo is so hot.

Serves 2-4

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup navy bean paste
• 1 tsp tahini (or peanut butter)
• 2-4 tbsp lemon juice (or to taste)
• 1 small clove garlic finely minced (I use my handy microplane)
• 2-4 tbsp Chipotle Olive Oil
• 1 tsp chopped fresh cilantro

Directions:

1. Put everything into a small bowl except the olive oil and mix. Since the bean paste is already processed into a smooth paste, you need not mess up your processor for this recipe, just mix well.
2. Spread on a pretty plate and drizzle with the olive oil, and sprinkle with the chopped fresh cilantro. Serve with crackers such as these: Gluten Free Almond Sesame Crackers or my Whole Wheat Flat Breads

Flashback to those hideous readers' digest recipe photos, mine is just missing the inappropriately placed gaudy shower curtain.

Read Full Post »

Gluten Free Cheese Sauce

To correct or not to correct? As I read through your lovely and flattering comments, the first thing I do is correct any typos that I notice. Is that OK? I usually ask you to correct mine, if I notice. Auto correct on my iPhone is great, but it can be a drag too, often correcting to words I do not want (it does ‘do’ for ‘so’ often, ARGH!). Anyway, I’d love to hear your thoughts.

Breakfast on the weekend usually has a bit more pomp and circumstance than the weekdays, mainly because I’m not rushing to get ready for work. I was dying to try an idea I found on Dara’s Generation Y Foodie and Kelly’s Inspired Edibles blog; Dara made a pizza with a white bean paste base instead of a white béchamel that I thought was pure genius and Kelly took an old favourite of Mac and Cheese and pulled the proverbial rug right out from under it and made it healthy using chick peas instead of noodles. And it got me thinking…a bean paste as a thickener…

You will recall that we had a half a tin of chick peas left over from our Moroccan Mussel recipe the other night and the bean paste béchamel was really itching to get out of my head, so I came up with this lovely cheese sauce. You can pour it over crèpes like I did, or you can use it as a base for pizza as Dara did or better yet, pour it over cauliflower or broccoli! The possibilities are endless. Thank you Dara and Kelly for this inspiration.

Serves 2-4

Cheesy Goodness poured all over that Crèpe

Ingredients:

• 1 cup chick peas, drained and rinsed (you can use any canned bean for this recipe, but I would stick to the lighter ones, like navy beans, or black eyed peas or white beans)
• 1/2-1 cup low sodium chicken broth or vegetable broth
• 1/4 cup finely grated flavourful cheese like Parmesan and Gruyère or sharp cheddar
• pinch of salt

Directions:

1. Add the chick peas to your immersion blender container (usually a tall thin cup), add 1/2 cup broth, salt and purée until smooth and about the consistency of crèpe batter adding the stock as required. Remember you will be adding cheese to this so it will thicken up.
2. Pour contents into a sauce pan and begin heating up slowly. Add the cheese and stir until the cheese has melted. The cheese won’t stick to the beans as well as it would the béchamel, so you will likely have to emulsify again so that it’s not grainy.  Return to the heat and stir. You may need to add a bit more stock at this point, depending on how thick you would like your sauce.
3. Serve over crèpes or what ever you wish.

 

Read Full Post »

Wild Mushroom Velouté

This velouté was part of the 5 course dinner we served to an old friend and his fiancée. He had suffered a heart attack about a month earlier, so I wanted to make sure the dinner was super healthy. No saturated fats, few carbs, not too filling, but really satisfying. The mushroom velouté is a creamed mushroom sauce that I poured over the roast loin of pork. It was earthy, flavourful and simply delicious. But warning, you really must love the earthy taste of mushrooms, this really has it.

Makes about 2 cups of thick gravy or 3 cups of thinner gravy. The photo is a velouté I made about a year ago, and used it as a creamed soup instead. Very tasty, either way.

An alternate use for the mushroom velouté

Ingredients:

• 1/2 cup of finely chopped shallots
• 2 cups roughly chopped cremini mushrooms
• 1/2 cup finely shredded celeriac
• 1 tbsp finely minced garlic
• 2 cups mushroom ‘stock’
• 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
• about 1 cup vegetable stock
• 1/2 cup of dehydrated wild mushrooms
• non stick spray
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 tsp lemon thyme

Directions:

1. The night before you make the sauce, reconstitute the dehydrated wild mushrooms in 2 cups of water. When they have fully softened, strain the liquid through a coffee filter, reserve liquid. Wash the re-hydrated mushrooms well, getting all the sand out. Set aside
2. In a hot skillet, spray a good squirt of non stick spray.
3. Sauté the shallots until translucent. Add all of the creminis, the celeriac and the garlic. Sauté until soft. Add a bit of the mushroom stock and the Dijon mustard, stir well to incorporate.
4. Separate the ugly, tiny, really mushy bits of the rehydrated mushrooms and set aside. Of the lovely re-hydrated mushrooms, slice those that are a little too big to eat, remember, this is a chunky sauce.
5. Cool slightly, pour contents into your immersion blender jar and add all of the mushroom stock, ugly little bits of the re-hydrated mushrooms and purée until smooth. Add the vegetable stock to achieve the consistency you desire.
6. Now add all of the lovely, sliced re-hydrated wild mushrooms and stir well. Salt to taste. Stir in the lemon thyme just before serving.

Read Full Post »

Vadas Hus (Hungarian Hunters’ Stew)

This is a piquant sauce, made from carrots, parsnips and celery root. Original recipe from this link. All of the recipes on-line indicate that if you are cooking with beef, to begin this recipe a couple of days in advance so that the beef has time to tenderize in the marinade. I did this batch with turkey scallopini, so I marinated for a few hours.  Also, for poultry, I would strongly suggest that you allow the marinade to cool to at least room temperature before you immerse the poultry in it. Also, the original recipe called for a roux to thicken the sauce, I omitted this as I felt the sauce was thick enough with the cooked vegetables.

Ingredients:

• 1 trimmed whole beef tenderloin, 5-6 lbs (my mom used to make this with eye of round — tenderloin is way too expensive, plus, it has 2-3 days to marinate, and soften up).
• 1/4 cup pancetta, cut in to little strips
• 1 cup grated celery root
• 1 cup grated parsnips
• 1 cup grated carrots
• 2 cups water
• 1/2 cup white wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup red wine vinegar
• grated rind of 1/2 lemon
• 2 bay leaves
• 1/2 cup minced sweet onion
• 1 tablespoon sugar (I did add this but strongly recommend not to, it was too sweet; the carrots make this sauce sweet enough)
• 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1/2 cup sour cream or yogurt

Directions:

1. Start this recipe 2 or 3 days before you plan to serve it.
2. Combine 1  1/2 cups water and the vinegars in a dutch oven (not aluminum), add the vegetables and bring to a boil. This step is simply to blend the flavours, not cook the vegetables. If making this dish with poultry, allow this mix to cool completely before the next step. I also transferred this mix into a glass container with a lid, large enough to hold the liquid and the meat.
3. Add the beef, grated lemon rind and bay leaves so that the mixture covers the meat. Marinate for 2 to 3 days in the refrigerator.
4. When you are ready to cook, pre-heat the oven at 350°F.
5. In a large dutch oven (large enough to hold the vegetables and the meat) over  heat wilt the onion in 1 teaspoon EVOO; do not allow the onions brown.
6. Remove beef from marinade and place it on top of onions. Cook meat for 2 or 3 minutes on each side.
7. Pour marinade over meat and place into pre-heated oven, covered until meat is almost cooked, for 2 hours.
8. Remove the meat and cut into 1/2 inch thick slices, set aside.
9. Remove bay leaves and discard. Using an immersion blender, blend vegetables until very smooth (you may wish to press this through a fine sieve to get the creamiest texture, as I did).
10. I omitted this step: Brown the sugar in a small frying pan until caramelized. Add 3 tablespoons cold water and cook for a few minutes till sugar melts. Whip in the mustard. Pour the caramel and mustard into the puréed sauce.
11. Instead, I whipped the mustard into the smooth sauce. Return the sauce to the dutch oven.
12. Add sliced meat; keeping the slices whole. Cook at a slow simmer for another 10 to 15 minutes to allow sauce to permeate the meat (this can be done on the stove).
13. Just before serving, combine the lemon juice and sour cream and whisk into the sauce. Serve with bread dumplings.

Read Full Post »

Valentine’s Day

Happy Valentine’s Day!

JT and I don’t really like going out for dinner on this occassion, our experience has been poor service and expensive menus, so we splurge at home!

Last night we started with little Mini Chive biscuits (From Food Network.com Barefoot Contessa) with Crème Fraiche (I’ve been having a difficult time finding it in the grocery stores, so I’ve made my own, see recipe below from Epicurious.com), Smoked Salmon and Capers (these are larger than normal capers and have a much milder, delicate flavour, and they are gorgeous because they have the stems on – you’ll likely need to go to a specialty gourmet store to get them, and make sure you wear padding because you WILL faint at the cost!). They are yummy in a martini too (but then again, what ISN’T?!?

Crème Fraiche (from Epicurious.com) kind of like a really decadent sour cream!:

• 1 cup whipping cream
• 2 tablespoons buttermilk

Preparation

1. Combine 1 cup whipping cream and 2 tablespoons buttermilk in a glass container.
2. Cover and let stand at room temperature (about 70°F) from 8 to 24 hours, or until very thick.
3. Stir well before covering and refrigerate up to 10 days (note from me, the longer you leave it in the fridge, the milder the buttermilk taste…this is really worth the splurge).

We also had King Crab Legs, a real treat. And in light of my trying to be good, I did a variation on Garlic Drawn Butter that was fantastic (if I do say so myself!!!!).

Heathy Drawn Garlic Butter Dipping Sauce (I’m going to try it on garlic bread and post the results soon!)

• 1/2 cup water
• 1 tsp yellow miso paste (miso acts as an emulsifier with the butter and water)
• 1 tsp butter (I used sweet butter because the miso has a lot of salt)
• 2-4 cloves garlic, peeled and smashed with the side of a chef’s knife.

1. Heat water, add miso and stir until miso is melted.
2. Add butter and garlic cloves and return to heat for 2-3 minutes so garlic releases flavour into liquid and butter melts.
3. Stir well (this will thicken) and run through a strainer to remove garlic bits (the sauce should be creamy, about the consistency of buttermilk).
4. Dip what ever your heart desires into this yummy, healthier sauce!

Read Full Post »