The Food Blogger Dinner at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald

Last Tuesday I had the amazing opportunity to meet Executive Chef Serge Jost at the Fairmont Hotel Macdonald's Harvest Room. Not only did I share a meal with Chef Serge but I had the chance to cook with him as well! I along with a few food bloggers and food lovers experienced an interactive dinner as a part of the Fairmont Macdonald's second annual interactive dinner. When we arrived at the Harvest Room, there were beautiful 3 course menus laid out for us to read and then cook! Yup, you read that right. The only way we would be able to enjoy an amazing dinner that night in the Harvest Room was to first cook it up ourselves! Thankfully we did have help!

So, let me introduce you to the cooking/food loving team! At the back row from left to right is Brittany Watt (from Harvest Microgreens),  Chef Jost, Lindsay (from Edible Woman), me, and Santana (our delightful server). Then in the front row is Linda Hoang (Linda-Hoang.com) and Cindy N (from Let's Om Nom). 


We were quickly split into three teams of two by Chef Jost and made our way into the Harvest Room kitchens! Everyone was super excited and thankfully each team of two only had to prep and cook one dish. Linda and I had the awesome opportunity to be paired with Chef Jost to make the appetizer course. 

There were many components to our "Beets & Goat Cheese" appetizer which was composed of a beet gastrique, quail egg, spiced hazelnuts, apple cider vinaigrette, celeriac, candy cane beets, watercress & argula. Now, since our dish was first up we had to work quickly! Under Chef Jost's directions we lightly roasted nuts over a cast iron pan (seasoned with pepper & salt) to make goat cheese cubes, prepared celeriac mousse cubes (prepared in the Thermomix and flash frozen), yellow beets cubes, prepare a cider vinaigrette, and quail eggs.

Look at the beautiful colours in the goat cheese! 

While we were sweating away (literally as cooking next to the oven is hot!), the main course and dessert team were also working hard to prepare their dishes.

Top to Bottom: Sea Bass being filleted, Cindy preparing a dessert component, Brittany & Nicole preparing the gnocchi, and Lindsay preparing a part of their dessert. 

As we prepped and cooked the appetizer with Chef Jost we learned so many tips and tricks. First of all, Linda and I were given many reminders to always taste our food! Also that all dishes should have a nice balance of acidity to it.

Thanks to Lindsay for capturing this photo of us! 

After a flurry of activity to prep all the components for our appetizer we were ready to plate! First, I painted the beet gastrique onto the plate with a brush and then the rest of the components went onto the plate. 

Once we returned to the table Linda and I were greeted by an amuse-bouche composed of a passion fruit and watercress pesto. A perfect way to start dinner!

Then, our own appetizers were served to the whole table - a beautiful Beets & Goat Cheese appetizer! Out of all the components I really loved the celeriac mousse (the white cube in the foreground which is solidified with agar agar), followed by the goat cheese cubes infused with roasted nuts.

Finally, Linda and I could relax and enjoy some of this gorgeous bread while those making the main finished up their preparations and got them ready to serve.

Wow! The entree team did an awesome job with their Panseared Sea Bass on top of a saffron 7 herb gnocchi, summer vegetables (including turnips- the white veggie) topped with a warm rhubarb vinaigrette and a crispy kale leaf. The main was also paired with my favourite Sauvignon Blanc from Oyster Bay New Zealand.  

The last course was dessert. Lindsay and Cindy worked hard to get every single one of their sweet green salad & pink grapefruit desserts to not only taste amazing but to look the same! Yes, there were veggies in the dessert! Chef Jost said that he liked adding something unique and unexpected to a dish. In this case the lettuce leaves were tossed with vanilla and olive oil. Under that was a sweet mesclun, grapefruit sorbet and a creme catalane. A very bright, creamy and cool dessert to end an amazingly unique night.

It is not often that I can say that I not only dined with a chef but also cooked a meal together with him! It was such a great evening to share in amazing food and sit down with Chef Jost during dinner. He talked about how anytime he makes a dish he is never finished and pushes further to make it better. He also believes very much in using real food to make healthy dishes where you can taste the actually "taste the food". 

This was honestly the highlight of my week (or month!). If you haven't had the chance to visit the Harvest Room go and make a visit. Also this year marks Fairmont's centennial so there are a number of events including high tea (with loose leaf tea) and their equally amazing brunch that you can partake in! As well, for those having limited time during the week there are now "45 minute experience" 3 course lunches that are available for $24. 

Fairmont Hotel Macdonald
Harvest Room
10065 100th Street 
Edmonton, AB
(780) 429-6424

You can also follow Chef Serge Jost on twitter!

Macawrongs - When Macaron Baking Doesn't Go Right

Does the above picture ever look like some of the macarons that come out of your oven? Over the past couple of years many a "macawrong" has come out of my oven! It definitely has been upsetting when I crack open the oven and instead of beautiful smooth macarons with lovely feet (the ruffled edges on a macaron shell) I see a pan of these shells there. In fact, just this week I experienced a batch of macawrongs myself.

The purpose of this post is to continue to encourage you all to keep baking those macarons. Yes, they can be finicky despite all the work we put into them. Let's do some digging into why these macarons look like this. My hubby Dan, an engineer by trade, who has seen me through this journey of macaron making will also help dissect what likely happened in these macawrongs. 

In the macaron shell above, there appears to be a nice feet or pied (french for the ruffled edge). However, the top of the macron appears to almost mushrooming over the top. When we look at this macaron shell from above, it also seems that the piping was inconsistent given the slight irregular shape of the circle. One of the possible causes for this above macawrong is due to over resting. Yes, that can happen! Resting your macarons for up to 2 hours depending on humidity can lead to positive results, but in this case this shell was rested for over 4 hours (it was a humid day, so I had thought that resting it more might help).  

In the macawrong above we see that there's a "fissure" where the feet should be. These are not feet, as we can see the bottom of the shell is rounded into the mat. We think this was due to two things, a large air bubble inside the macaron which caused the top of the shell to rise very quickly and result in the split. So tamping (or banging the sheet of macarons on the counter) can help bring the air bubbles to the top and the flatten the pointed tip on top of the macaron. Also using a toothpick to poke out the air bubbles after tamping will help.

This macawrong was caused because the shell was likely not dried long enough. When the macarons are dried enough, it should be dry to the touch. So when this macawrong was baked in the oven, it immediately cracked due to the heat of the oven. This crack can also occur if your oven is too hot or there is an air bubble in the macaron.

To ensure the best possible macarons follow along in my Macaron 101, Macaron 102 and Macaron 103 posts. I walk you visually through all the equipment you will need and also tips and tricks at each step to help you be as successful as possible in your macaron journey. 

Let me know how it goes and feel free to leave me comments and we can trouble shoot together. Have fun despite the macawrongs! Always know that one day perfect macarons will come out of your oven!

Austin Adventures - Sake Social at Uchiko Austin

When we did our research for places to eat in Texas, one of the food tips that stood out was the Sake Social at Uchiko or Uchi. In our food calendar for the week (yes, we have a food calendar when we travel!), Uchiko was planned for either in Houston or Austin.

After exploring Austin most of the day by taking some easy hikes, enjoying some beautiful views and dipping our foot in the Barton springs we decided to freshen up and make it to the Sake Social at Uchiko Austin for 5pm.

The Sake Social happens every day from 5-6:30pm. It is pretty much happy hour with drinks and food at "happy hour" prices. Here's a link their sake social menu. Thankfully, the place we were staying at was fairly close to Uchiko, so we made it there very close to 5pm. Upon arrival, Dan and I were treated to their complimentary valet service. Seriously, such a great service to have as it's harder to find free parking in Austin. Also another first for us in Austin as I am pretty sure we haven't experienced that before.

Once we arrived, I was more than excited to find out that there was still space at the sushi bar! This was also a food tip from what we read and I highly recommend doing the same if you are a small party of 1 or 2. While sitting at the sushi bar you not only get to see all the food action, but you also get to interact with the sushi chefs. After we sat down and ordered our drinks, the chef who was working in front of us, Kelsey, introduced herself and gave us some great recommendations on where to start in the Sake Social menu.    

We started with the crispy Brussels Sprouts that had a sweetness from the fish caramel (we think it's caramelized fish sauce) and finished off with lemon and chili. I don't usually love brussels sprouts, but if they are always presented this way I definitely could eat more of them! 

 I love hamachi (yellowtail)  so when I saw that their Negihama roll had yellowtail, I knew I had to order one of those. In fact by the end of the night we ordered two of these rolls! Uchiko's yellowtail actually comes from Japan, so we even had a taste of Japan tonight.

The next dish we had was the Koviche. A play on ceviche with fresh diver scallops, black lime, kalamata and tomatillo. Tomatillo is actually part of the tomato family and added a slightly crunchiness to this dish along with the scallops and balanced very well with the lime. 

The next dish that Kelsey recommended was the Bacon. You can just see the crispy rice peeking out from this dish, and there is an ajitama egg buried under the onions, cilantro and cucumbers. Using a spoon we mixed the egg and all the ingredients in the bowl together. I would characterize this dish as comfort food. Probably because crispy rice and and an egg harkens memories of childhood for me.

The Komaki Roll was probably Dan's favourite plate of the night. Think: Fresh. Mainly due to the pickled red peppers, gobo (burdock root), carrot, topped with onions and mint leaves. It was also wrapped in a soy paper (as opposed to the usual sea weed wrap) which made the roll very unique.

The pork ribs which came after were super soft, like, fall-off-the-bone soft. Kelsey explained that this was because they were prepared in a sous vide bath and finished on a grill with galangal (which is part of the ginger family).
Hearing how much I love hamachi, Kelsey/Uchiko treated us to a dish called "Hama Chili". The Japanese yellowtail rested on sliced orange supreme in ponzu sauce and was topped with thai chili. It was melt in your mouth yellowtail.

Dan and I, then, decided to venture out of our comfort zones a little; or more like I ventured out of my comfort zone and ordered the gyutan nigiri. If I didn't know, I would have no idea that this was grilled beef tongue as it was so tender. The yuzu kosho (made of lime zest, yuzu, thai chili) balanced the flavour of the beef tongue very well.

 

I also noticed that there were fresh  oysters on their daily special menu. So, Dan and I ordered half a dozen Beausoleil oysters. These oysters have a nice briny start and a sweet finish. In this case, Uchiko also flavoured theirs with cucumber granita, lime and a touch of chili.

We were starting to get full by the time we got near to desserts. Now, for those of you that know me, there is one Cantonese style dessert that I love called Deep Fried Milk. In his research, Dan noticed that Uchiko also had their version of Fried Milk. Their deep fried milk has a roasted corn flake crust, and accompanied by whipped chocolate milk, toasted milk, and an iced milk sherbet. So good! 

 Last but not least, was Kelsey's favourite dessert that she ordered for us of the Sweet Corn Sorbet. Polenta Custard, caramel salt, and lemon gelee. I really liked how the lemon flavour interacted with the polenta custard. I am thinking I will have to try making a polenta custard once we get home as my friend who is gluten free would love this!

We really enjoyed our time at Uchiko and I would definitely recommend visiting during the Sake Social. The staff are really friendly and helpful, and if you are able to, sit at the sushi bar since you will get a great interactive experience.

Uchiko
4200 N Lamar Blvd
Ste 140
Austin, TX 78756
http://www.uchiaustin.com

Texas Adventures- Austin Day 1 @ Easy Tiger

Today was a day of many firsts! Why do I say that? First of all I don't think I have ever woken up for a flight at 3 am. In some ways it was similar to me taking one of my regular naps instead of a good night's sleep. Another first is that thanks to Dan winning a door prize, we were able to fly business class! Not only was there a lot of leg room, but a full serviced breakfast. Also if you wanted to have beer, wine or alcohol you could! If it wasn't for the fact that it was 6 am in the morning and we were about to drive for a couple of hours we would have definitely had a glass or two in the air. 

During our drive down to Austin we passed several people taking photos of blue bonnets; which means Sprig has definitely arrived in Texas! We found our accommodations without too much trouble and after some rest, headed out to Easy Tiger for some food!

Easy Tiger is both a German bake shop and a beer garden so we checked out their pastries (packing some away for breakfast/late night snack) before heading down to the restaurant portion.

The weather in Austin has been super nice (27 C and sunny) which meant that we could take full advantage of the outdoor beer garden. We sat at communal picnic tables in the patio which is next to the ping pong tables and enjoyed our food. 

Borrego Verde - Housemade sausage of Lamb, Pork, Poblano, Cumin, with Tomatillos and green chile salsa on a pretzel bun.

Smoked Turkey Breast on Pain au Levain bread avocado, radish, roasted jalapeno aioli. 

Since we liked the pretzel bun so much and was still a bit hungry we decided to order a share plate. 

"Snack Board" - 2 small pretzels, large beer cheese, house mustard, chex mix, and beef summer sausage.

We left Easy Tiger thoroughly satisfied and full, we can't wait to check out some of the other things (including BBQ!) in Austin over the next few days. 

Hopefully we'll be able to keep you all updated with our adventures in Austin. Stay tuned for more!

Easy Tiger

East 6th Street. 

Austin, TX

http://easytigeraustin.com/

Cooking with Chef Lynn Crawford & Catelli Healthy Harvest Ancient Grains Giveaway

Last Wednesday I had the incredible opportunity to meet Chef Lynn Crawford! You probably recognize her from Food Network's Chopped Canada or Pitchin In. Last week, Chef Lynn Crawford was out in Western Canada cooking and demoing Catelli's newest line of pastas - Healthy Harvest Ancient Grains.

It was a great night enjoyed by all in Get Cooking's space filled with tasty pasta ideas from Chef Lynn Crawford, canapés from the Get Cooking team, and demos of Catelli's Ancient Grain Pasta from Chef Lynn Crawford. We also had the opportunity to put together a dish using Catelli's pasta ourselves! 

Phyllo pastry with crunchy pear and pear soup (left from Evert), buckwheat noodle with yellow asian pear and a cumin coconut pancake (right from Alexei of S'wich Food Truck). 

The pasta is made with 100% whole grain Canadian wheat and five ancient grains: quinoa, amaranth, millet, sorghum and teff. 

We also learned how cooking times could affect the firmness of the pasta. However, the firmness depends on preferences as well so there can be a lot of variety in cooking times.


One of the exciting parts of the evening was watching Chef Lynn Crawford demonstrate a simple but delicious dish of pesto-dressed spaghettini and marinara rotini with fresh shavings of cheese on top. 

Then all of us food bloggers and the media (after taking photos) cleaned our plates!

After all the demos, we divided into groups to make our own Chilled Noodle Salad with Ginger Wasabi Dressing to take home and of course photograph.

Of course, I had a slight celebrity chef fan-girl moment when I wanted to get a picture with Chef Lynn Crawford. The bonus was when I shared with her that she could use a timer for selfies, she even instagramed our photo!

Giveaway

Alright! So I am excited to share that one lucky Canadian reader or follower can win a year's supply of Catelli®'s Healthy Harvest Ancient Grains pasta through this blog! Catelli® will ship the year supply of pasta to you. This giveaway is open only to residents of Canada. Enter the giveaway in the Rafflecopter below with your details. Make sure you leave a comment as that is the mandatory requirement for entering the giveaway. Good luck!

Prize: One (1) lucky reader or follower will win a year supply of Catelli® Healthy Harvest Ancient Grains Pasta (60 boxes, valued at approximately $200).

Duration: Giveaway closes on Wednesday April 8, 2015.

Who Can Enter: Open to residents of Canada.

Mandatory Entry: Leave a comment on this post about what dish you will make with this pasta and with which type of pasta (Spaghetti, Saghettini or Rotini). Need some inspiration? Visit Catelli's recipes.

How to Enter: Please follow the instructions in the Rafflecopter below. Remember that leaving a comment is mandatory. Additional entries included in the Rafflecopter.

How will the winner be chosen: The winner will be chosen at random and will be notified via email. The winner will have 24 hours to respond or a new winner will be chosen.

a Rafflecopter giveaway