Maple, Apple & Cheddar Dutch Baby

This recipe is something I’ve wanted to make for a while. It’s an attempt to recreate one of my favorite dishes – maybe ever – from a tiny restaurant called Edgar.

You won’t  stumble on Edgar by accident. It’s a small house in an out-0f-the-way Gatineau neighbourhood. Do yourself a favour though: go immediately. Drop what you’re doing – it’s not nearly as important.

I’ll do a full review of it sometime, so I’ll leave the tales of decadence and creativity for later (here’s a preview: butterscotch, chocolate, and banana rolls). The head chef at Edgar is Marysol Foucault, who is one of the best foodies on Instagram. I want to be her friend so much.

#WheresAtelier? – Restaurant Review

Above: Atelier kitchen staff grilling wild Quebecois hare loin in Dundonald Park.

Atelier is one of Ottawa’s best known restaurants, and consistently ranks in the top 10 nationwide (not to mention it’s inclusion in the 2014 Black Ink ranking of best restaurants worldwide). Its food seems like it comes from a wonderful chemistry lab. The restaurant offers a 12-course tasting menu for $110. I’m not reviewing that menu today; unsurprisingly, its a wee bit steep for my student budget – although I do hope to go before I leave Ottawa for good.

This post is about the incredibly creative, spur-of-the-moment event that Atelier ran this past August. #WheresAtelier was a chance for people who aren’t normal clientele to try their creations on the cheap. One of the chefs told me that they started planning only the week before, since they had no reservations lined up.

Sunday Morning – Shakshuka for two

I love red sauce. On pasta, pizza, made into soup – I love it all. No thank you aglio e olio, I’ll stick with marinara.

What I’m trying to say is: all tomato dishes are welcome in my house. Oddly, I didn’t actually enjoy tomatoes themselves until fairly recently, but tomato soup was my favorite childhood food.

Shakshuka is a tomato-y comfort food, for sure. It’s roots are ambiguously Middle Eastern – some say Lebanese, some say Tunisian – but I’ve come to know it as an Israeli dish. According to Wikipedia, Shakshouka means “a mixture” in Tunisian Arabic or other Maghrebi Arabic dialects.

Texas Treats – A Culinary Recap

This post is long overdue, but it’s worth the wait! About a month ago, Mom and I went to visit my wonderful Aunt in Houston, Texas. Now, I’m far from a country girl or a southern belle, but I really love the South. Do I necessarily love their history or political stances? No. But do I love their barbecue, seafood, and generally laid-back food culture.

Homemade sweet chilli sauce + oven-baked drumsticks

Happy August, everybody! I’ve really been enjoying my time off, and I hope y’all are making the most of what’s left of summer too. Let’s jump right into this, so we can all spend less time reading and more time outside (and eating).

Tandoori-inspired vegetarian quinoa

So I’ve only got one week left of my cleanse, and I think I’ve become pretty damn good at it.

This is only going to be a short post, but it’s a delicious one! My friend Carl made me this dish for dinner the other night and I was hooked. It’s rich, savoury, spicy, sweet, and all around easy to boot. It’s a vegetarian one-pot wonder full of veggies and protein – flavoured with Indian garam masala.

Moroccan Mint Tea with Thyme

Morocco is a dry country. Not dry as in boring, but dry in the prohibiton-era sense of the word: there’s no booze.

While not legally banned, drinking is seriously frowned-upon by the country’s Muslim majority. At least in theory. Heather and I scouted out our fair share of dingy basement liquor stores, with unmarked doorways and clerks that didn’t look you in the eyes. They would wrap up bottles of wine beyond recognition, to avoid unwanted attention on the way home. These shady little shops were, without exception, packed with Moroccans. People want their Heineken, they just don’t want their neighbours to know about it.

Alice’s Kung Pao Chicken 宫保雞丁

Living in Morocco gave me the chance me to eat tajine, pastilla, and seafood 24/7 if I wanted to. It was mint tea all day every day. Obviously I got to know that cuisine pretty well, but I got a chance to explore a couple of others too!

Alice is a sweet, cat-loving girl from Hong Kong who was also on exchange in Morocco. She introduced me to the authentic version of something I thought was a pseudo-Chinese Western creation: kung pao chicken. It’s spicy, savoury, and everything I wanted from take-out at home.

Moroccan Poulet au Citron + The Tajine

Morocco is one of the tastiest places on earth. The food is earthy, dark, and richly spiced. It leaves you delightfully full of both food and questions. Was that icing sugar and cinnamon on the chicken? Yes, it was.

I’ve just come back from a 4-month stint abroad in Morocco, and food is the part of my exchange that’s sticking with me the most. I miss the readily-available khubz (خبز), lovely round loaves of bread baked in clay ovens, perfect for dipping. I miss walking down our street to get limonana (ليمون نعناع), a drink from the Levant made of mint leaves and lemons. I miss Friday couscous. All that being said, I think the dish I miss most of all is Dar Naji’s famous poulet au citron. Chicken is dressed in onion, cilantro, olives and citrons confit, and then pressure-cooked into melt-in-your-mouth goodness. Ladies and gentlemen, I’m very pleased to say that I made a pretty successful recreation of it here in Ottawa.