Fall Chills calls for Soup

September definitely flew by. Since it was rather brisk 'fall-like' in September I decided on trying two new things in increasing my cooking knowledge and skills. First, I would use the recipes from the Stop's Good Food for All  recipe book as inspiration to make some good easy comfort food and and secondly, to learn how to make soup. Yes, I've never made soup before. Not sure why I've never ventured into this territory, but since I was feeling rather cold most of September I figured that it would be a good time to try. For my first soup, I decided to make some hearty potato and carrot soup. Prepping for this soup was actually really easy! It also helps that I have an immersion blender (my birthday present to myself last year) to blend the soup to a smooth and tasty consistency. Here's what I put into my soup:
1 onion (chopped & diced)
2 pieces of garlic chopped
3 cups of chicken stock
3 large potatoes - diced (for this one I used a couple of small potatoes from the garden)
2 carrots (peeled & diced)
1 cup of milk
Shaved asiago cheese

1. Chop onion into pieces and cook for about 10 minutes or until you're finished peeling and dicing other ingredients (I also threw in 2 pieces of chopped garlic for taste).  
2. Once onions are mushy, pour in chicken stock.
3. Turn heat up.
4. Add in chopped potatoes and carrots. 

5. Let soup boil for about 20-25 minutes; until potatoes are soft.
6. Take off heat. Place the immersion blender in and blend until your desired consistency. 

7. Pour in 1 cup of milk and stir until well mixed.

8. Pepper & salt to taste.

9. Add a dash of asiago cheese before serving.

More must-eats in Montreal

Before I blog about the many delicious soups I've been cooking up, let me show you two more food items you 'must-eat' while in Montreal. First up is Schwartz's. We actually went to Schwartz's shortly after hot sandwiches were available (around 10am) for an early Sunday morning smoked meat sandwich. This was important, as there is virtually no line at this time.

A variety of lean, regular, and extra fat sandwiches ready to be eaten (each $5.90).
Oh and do you see that sign up in the corner? The one about 13.95/pound of smoked meat that is hot or cold? My friend bought about 6.6 pounds of that (almost a small baby!) to bring back to Toronto. I'm guessing her family is still enjoying small chunks of smoked meat from Montreal!

Pickles always make sandwiches taste so much better!

Another food item you must eat while in Montreal is poutine! This poutine was from a restaurant in Old Montreal. Cheese curds make a big difference in poutine. They must have that squeaky feeling to it as you bite in. Drizzled with just the right amount of gravy and accompanied with little nibblets of fries. 

Schwartz's Montreal 
3895 Saint-Laurent Blvd.
Montreal, QB
(514) 842-4813
http://www.schwartzsdeli.com/

Upscale dining in Montreal - at Le Pois Penche

     To complete our grand food tour of our full day in Montreal, it felt quite appropriate to eat at a french restaurant. We chose Le Pois Penche mainly because a co-worker had recommended it. Looking at their menu you may be slightly taken aback by their rather expensive prices. They are after all a traditional brasserie with all the usuals complete with a list of overpriced wines. They also advertise themselves as an upscale dining experience that is unpretentiousness with good service. While some reviews by patrons (e.g. chowhound, travelocity, expedia etc..) agree with them, most that I found while researching a bit about the restaurant found them to have rather pretentious and arrogant waiters, bad service, but solid food. My friends and I decided that we would try out the restaurant for ourselves and see how it went. First, to start our visit to the restaurant on a positive note, we made a reservation for 8:30pm on a Saturday night one day before our visit. The woman on the phone seemed rather friendly and was quickly able to confirm that their prix frixe menu ($23) was still available for a Saturday night dining experience (this was the main reason we wanted to try this restaurant).  
     Upon arriving at Le Pois Penche, the atmosphere seemed hurried and laid back at the same time. Making a reservation ahead of time was a good idea as we were quickly shown to our table while other guests waited a tad longer. The restaurant was fairly full for 8:30pm, there were patrons at the bar, enjoying their meals with friends and at the oyster bar. We sat down and were quickly given some crunchy baguettes to chew on. The waiter introduced himself, gave a few suggestions about wines (although wasn't very certain about recommending a particular type of white wine), and drink orders appeared fairly promptly afterwards.

There were 5 prix fixe available all paired with our choice of soup or salad. There was the pan seared salmon, the 'Curtis chicken', steak frites, fillet of sole, and the pappardelle pasta roasted duck with spring truffles. For $23 this seemed like a fair price. Here is what we ended up ordering.  

Lobster Bisque: Another try at lobster bisque,
hoping that it wouldn't be as salty as the one at L'academie.
This one included some sour cream which was a nice complement.
It also helped that the soup was hot, creamy, and not too salty!

The Salad option

Pan seared Salmon with fresh seafood broth & garden vegetables

Fillet of sole: with tomatoes & feta cheese, black olive tempenade
 and "fresh tomato salad" (in this case, I think it became 2 pieces of bok choy!?).
Really odd combination with the large pieces of boy choy. Somewhat out of place right? 

By the end of our prix fixe meal all appeared happy with their selection. Service may have been inconsistent at times (e.g. waiting for refill for water), but still fairly decent as they were attentive to requests. Their only drawback was that it took a tad longer to complete the request. We didn't find anything close to the negative remarks made by other previous patrons and we enjoyed our time at Le Pois Penche. I would recommend, though, that if you were to go to order off the prix fixe menu. This really seemed to be the best choice for quality, quantity and cost. Other entrees around the restaurant looked equally appetizing, but I'm certain it was for a much higher price! We ended our meal with some delicious profiteroles as one of my friends had never tried them before. They were light, fluffy, stuffed with vanilla ice cream (which I think is much better than cream) and perfectly delicious. Drizzled with just the right amount of chocolate sauce they were a great end to our meal. 

Le Pois Penche
1230 de Maisonneuve Ouest
Montreal, QC
(514) 667-5050
closest station - Peel
www.lepoispenche.com

More montreal eats!

     I apologize for the time between my last post to this one since my computer has been rather inconsistent as of late - starting up and working, then starting up and freezing! It has been quite a battle! Luckily I backed up all my pictures, was finally able to find a computer to use, and can now share with you more Montreal Eats, Toronto eats & some new ones you may not have tried around Edmonton! 
    So, going back to Montreal. After the market we hit up my latest favorite french dessert/snack - macarons at La Maison du Macaron. The shop is quite small and tucked away off a main street on Rue de la Roche. However, once inside you're greeted with a macaron tree, huge macarons (see below!), and rows upon rows of various flavoured macarons! I was in macaron heaven!! 

huge macarons!

Of course samples make it even better! 

Look at those pied!

 Since I was after all in a macaron house, I had to pick up a box for my family. I picked up Noisette (hazelnut), Pistache (pistachio), Citron (lemon), Fruit de la Passion (passion fruit), Chocolat au lait (Milk Chocolate), and Framboise (raspberry). One box of 6 macarons was $8. Next stop after sweets is something salty! On the way to our next food destination, we stopped by St. Viateur Bagel and picked up a dozen fresh hot bagels to bring home. Despite the bagels' freshness beckoning to us, we were stuffed - mainly from lunch at the market and eating a good plate of samples at the macaron house!

One of the many famous St. Viateur Bagel cafes

Bagels all ready to be bought & eaten hot!

With warm bagels in hand we quickly hopped on the subway to one of the Juliette et Chocolate shops. The rain was coming down fairly hard by then, but that didn't dampen our spirits as we were anticipating some yummy crepes & chocolate. We were definitely not disappointed! Below is our milk chocolate, banana & strawberry crepe, my dark chocolate and raspberry smoothie (which just about ruined my appetite for dinner as I spent had to take the rest with me in a to-go cup and spent almost 2 hours trying to finish it off!), and my friend's White chocolate with Bailey's smoothie.   

  La Maison du Macaron
4479 de la Roche 
Montreal, Quebec
closest station - Mont Royal
tel: (514) 759-9290
www.lamaisondumacaron.com


St. Viateur Bagel
3 locations throughout montreal. I went to the one at 1127 Mont Royal East
tel: (514) 528-6361
http://www.stviateurbagel.com/content/?id=63



Juliette et Chocolat
various locations across town.
1. 1615 St-Denis
2. 377 Laurier Ouest (corner of Parc)
3. 3600 St-Laurent (corner of Prince-Arthur)
http://www.julietteetchocolat.com