Christmas Baskets
As with past years, my better half and I put together some Christmas baskets as gifts for colleagues and friends. This year we substituted local artisanal products for individually-wrapped chocolate.

For a sweet component, we ordered various assortments of truffles from local Koko's Chocolates, hand made by Ottawan Lori Sword.

Koko's 8-piece Sampler
In fact, when giving chocolate during Christmas 2009, we only gave Koko's, ordering box upon box of varying sizes. I even replaced my family's annual box of Hershey's Pot of Gold with a 16-piece box of Koko's.

For the Christmas baskets, we paired 8-piece sampler boxes with bottles of hand-mixed Refashionista mint tea ($8/jar), ordered from Etsy.

Mint Tea

Regarding Koko's chocolates, many of my colleagues are chocoholics. Their thoughts:

• "These are really good chocolates" (she, losing complete interest in other chocolates on her desk)
• "They look like works of art" (after he opened the box and proceeded to walk around the office to show them off)
• "The chocolate is so...umm...crisp" (he, referring to the perfectly tempered chocolate)
• "The flavour. OMG!" (he, after popping the Triple Chocolate truffle in his mouth)
• "Excellent!" (she, reminiscing about having finished the box)

To my dear friend Yannick, I told "My goal this Christmas is to get you off of Godiva. These should do it!" I should ask him his thoughts. Stay tuned!

Christmas Pot Luck
This year, the Christmas parties we attended included a pot luck. For it, we pointed our hosts to foodiePrints and said, "anything goes!" One, selected char-siu. His better half, lemon chiffon cupcakes.

Knowing both friends are fond of the dark sugars from maple syrup, I modified foodiePrints' char-siu recipe to employ palm sugar, sugar that is analagous in flavour. Since palm sugar usually comes packed in puck-like shapes, I heated the marinade mixture in a double boiler to help the chunk of sugar dissolve. It was a straight substitution, palm sugar for regular sugar.

Here is the test batch, using boneless pork butt (aka: pork shoulder)

Finished Char-Siu taken out of the Oven, Glazed

Char-Siu being Sliced

Char-Siu Sliced
The batch we brought to the pot luck was a crowd pleaser, most everyone asking for the recipe.

Regarding the lemon chiffon cup cakes, Jenn decided to substitute a Kastella sponge for the chiffon sponge. I iced the resultant baked and cooled cup cakes with the same marshmallow icing we used for a batch of chiffon cupcakes that were sold at a Breast Cancer fundraiser during this past year's Glebe Garage Sale.

Kastella Cupcakes with Lemon Marshmallow Icing
The only modification, I flavoured the icing with lemon to cut the sweetness of the Kastella. To do so, I made a syrup by boiling down a mixture, consisting of the zest of 1 lemon, the juice of 2 lemons, a 1/2 cup sugar, and a 1/2 cup water. Once the mixture was reduced to 1/3 the volume, it was left to cool. 7 tbsp of it were then added to the marshmallow icing mixture, replacing both the 6 tbsp water and 1 tbsp table syrup.

By the time desserts were served, potluck party-goers were full. One of our hosts decided to eat the leftover cupcakes with milk, using them to fuel his morning marathon training.

One of the other guests brought a very pleasant lemon and poppy seed cake from The Cake Shop (250 Greenbank Road).

Lemon Poppy Seed Cake

Cake Served

Cake Box
It was quite good, moist, naturally lemony, not too sweet, and every bite was evenly distributed with poppy seeds. Yum.

Office Christmas Party
This year, my office Christmas Party was held at the up and coming Les Brasseurs Du Temps (BDT), a brewpub located in Gatineau. According to the Real Ontario tourism website, the site was formerly the Hull Waterworks building. Colleagues told me the building that borders on a creek, called Brewery Creek, which was once a museum. The waiter, who served my guests and I the first time I visited, said the building once housed a mill and brewery, circa 1821. Whatever its previous incarnations, on May 21, 2009, owner Alain Geoffroy opened the doors to an eatery that features beers brewed in house by brew-master Dominique Gosselin.

Inside, the visuals are mostly wood, from wood paneled walls to hardwood floors. The tables are painted black and the ceiling is extremely high, betraying the buildings former heritage as something other than a brewpub. Needless to say, it is a very open space.

Dining Room

Table
Beneath the bar area, which is opposite the 100 seater dining room and an adjacent open kitchen is the brewhouse. A spiraling pathway leads from the restaurant down to it.

Bar with 13 taps

Brewhouse
The restaurant is disarmingly informal and its bilingual staff were knowledgeable about BDT's beers during both my visits.

Along one of its walls is a chalkboard, listing the many in-house brewed beers. Its beer menu includes other Quebec microbrews as well.

Chalkboard

That late afternoon when my colleagues and I assembled for our Christmas party, I ordered an ESB.

ESB
I am not an aficionado, so the nuances and the sheer variety of in-house brewed beers was lost on me. I can only say with any surety that my glass of beer was pleasant to my palate. When I first dined at BDT, my more knowledgeable quests ordered tasting glasses of several in-house brews. They enjoyed their samples very much.

Food-wise, the menu recommends beer pairings with several dishes.

Menu
That said, I found the food spotty. According to our Christmas Party's waiter, BDT's chef is consulting only. A colleague later told me the chef comes from Chelsea's acclaimed Les Fougères. BDT's kitchen is thus made up of line cooks who have only been cooking together since May.

It explains a lot. When I ate lunch at BDT the first time, I ordered the Joe Monferrand Burger with bison ($15), which came topped with pan-fried crispy bacon, melted gouda, and a tomato salsa. While I found it somewhat under-seasoned, one of my guests, a Cordon Bleu-trained Chef, disagrees. We all ordered the same plates and we all left satisfied.

Unfortunately, when I came back with my colleagues, things were somewhat different.

I ordered the charcuiterie "duo de terrines" ($8) to start. What was served was a very tame, but decent plate of pork terrines, accompanied by Dijon mustard, caramelized onion relish, whole black olives, and drizzles of a fruity extra-virgin olive oil.

Charcuiterie Appetizer
I enjoyed it.

My main, a one-piece beer battered fish and chips ($12), demonstrated the consulting chef must not have been consulting that afternoon.

Fish and Chips
The batter around my fish was thick and greasy. Inside, the white fleshed fish, which reminded me of basa, was dry and harsh. The fries were fried until they were hollow.

If you ever fry up fries from scratch (freshly cut from potatoes), forget a fry from one batch, and it turns up in your next, you will find it develops a dark crust and the potato within seemingly disappears, leaving a large air space. I was served a plate of these. I am also not sure why I was served three "Dixie" containers of mayonnaise.

Oddly enough, mine was the only plate with hollow fries. My colleagues each received better batches of fries. Though visibly glistening, they would have benefited from being better drained of oil.

Our waiter, being extremely helpful received my customary 15% tip, but I did tell her about my over cooked fries as she took my mostly eaten plate. I had hoped the issue would be brought back to the kitchen.

Later on, I would hear BDT's kitchen somehow found a way to produce a fish and chips that resembled gelatinous lutefisk. The diner, none other than @refashionista and her family.

At the moment, unless you know the chef's in, I suggest sticking with the beer and nibbling on menu items that need little attention from BDT's kitchen.


BDT's Business Card

More after the jump...

My better half and I find that we eat out quite the bit during the weeks leading up to and including Christmas. There are always good friends in town or visiting, with whom we like to get together at one of our favourite eateries one last time before the new year. With the large dinners Jenn and I usually prepare between Christmas Eve and Boxing day, it is nice to sit down to a great meal at a great restaurant.

Brunch: Benny's Bistro
This year, we discovered a great brunch place, which we have determined somewhat inappropriate for our growing brunch club. It has limited seating. It is quickly busy and it does not take reservations (first come, first serve). Located surreptitiously in the back of the celebrated French Baker bakery (119 Murray Street) on the epicurean end (near Dalhousie Street) of Murray Street, Benny's Bistro is a local's favourite for lunch during the work week and an amazing brunch during the weekend.

As the Urban Foodie (@whisk_food_blog) wrote in the Ottawa Metro (a commuter newspaper), Benny's is a "Simple Touch of Paris in the Market." I could not agree more.

Local Art in Recessed Alcoves, Checkered Floor, Warm Colours

Bistro-Style Tables
Though, the service at Benny's is many many times better than what Parisian Bistros are reputedly known for.

The Saturday morning we visited, the special was an omelet ($14), which is what I feel, a fresh take on New York Nova and Eggs; an omelet with roasted salmon belly.

Special
It was spectacular, fatty salmon belly cooked delicately in an ever so slightly runny and made-to-order omelet. The kale was just wilted too, offering both an earthy flavour and not quite cooked texture, fresh and green.

Roasted Salmon Belly Omelet with Wilted Kale

Omelet Disassembled
The accompanying salad consisted of arugula and string shaved beets.

Me, I ordered the organic forest and leek confit "taco" ($15).

Breakfast Taco
It too was spectacular. Accompanying the freshly cooked mushrooms and confit leek were braised Belgian endive, arugula leaves, shaved butter nut squash (likely shocked to fix the curls), and a lemon and horse radish creme fraiche to tie everything together. Its base, a round of puff pastry. Garnishing, a slice of in-house pickled beet.

The Perfect Bite
The mixture of fresh, peppery, sweet, earthy, fatty, bright, and buttery flavours and crunchy, crisp, and soft textures resulted in an adventure for the palate, akin to a crisp hike in a forest.

Regarding the service at Benny's, our dishes were served within 10 minutes of ordering, even with a nearly full dining room. Because my better half is sensitive to cheese, they happily subbed out components of their brunch special and furnished us with a side of roasted fingerling potatoes. The potato side was just as carefully cooked as our mains. We originally thought the potatoes were cooked in brown butter.

When seated, our hostess greeted us with a bowl of freshly cut bread from the French Baker bakery, nothing stale here. Drinks followed very quickly thereafter. Coffee for me and tea for Jenn.

Bread

Tea

Total: $42.38 (with coffee, tea, and side of roasted fingerling potatoes and before taxes)

For small parties of 4 or less, eating at Benny's is one of life's luxuries you should avail yourself of. If you are a local foodie, it is a must visit.

Please note that Benny's does not open for evening service, its dining room reserved for special events only.

Lunch: Le Cafe
When we found out the Toronto foodie who baked one of the Christmas cookie care packages we received was coming to Ottawa for the Christmas holidays and wanted to have lunch with us in the ByWard Market, I made reservations at Chef Michael Blackie's newly re-opened Le Cafe (53 Elgin Street) in the National Arts Center (NAC). Our guest, Bonita (@boneats) of the Bon Eats blog.

A little background, Jenn and I hadn't visited Le Cafe since we started dating years ago. It was at Le Cafe, then under the late Chef Kurt Waldele, that I tried my first seared duck breast and duck confit. She, her first steak frites, the steak perfectly seared fillet. On a pair of students' budgets, eating at Le Cafe was somewhat extravagant, so we visited sparingly, only celebrating special occasions there. Later on, I would find out one of my then supervisors, someone who would prove to be a mentor in my career, had proposed to his wife at Le Cafe, also during Chef Waldele's tenure.

Chef Blackie made a name for himself locally at Perspectives (525 Legget Drive) in Kanata's Brookstreet hotel, earning 4 Diamonds from the CAA/AAA. Many of the chefs I follow on Twitter congratulated him on his taking up the reigns at the NAC and later tweeted positive comments for his new menu.

Menu
Chef Blackie is also a regular competitor during Gold Medal Plates.

Inside, the restaurant had largely not changed since Jenn and I were there last: dark stained chairs against white linened tables on a dark carpet. The textured white ceiling add a dimension of openness. The floor to ceiling windows overlooking the Rideau Canal offer a picturesque view, no matter what season.

Le Cafe's Dining Room

Table with Place Settings
Please take note of the one piece coarse salt and pepper grinder/dispenser on the table. It will come in handy later.

With Christmas not a week away, I ordered the soup ($6.50) to start and one of the specials that Monday, Le Cafe's interpretation of a turkey dinner ($11.50). I wanted inspiration for the turkey dinner Jenn and I were to prepare later on that week.

Sweet Potato Corn Chowder
Drizzled with truffle oil and ethereally light in texture, the cream soup was rich and flavourful, perfectly seasoned.

Turkey Dinner
Beautifully presented, Le Cafe replaced traditional stuffing/dressing with a savoury bread pudding. On top, sliced turkey breast. Then, yu choy (a Chinese green), bread pudding, cranberry sauce, roasted baby carrots, and turkey jus.

Dry Turkey
Alas, my slices of turkey breast were on the dry side. I had to drag bites through the savoury jus and tart cranberry sauce to make them palatable. Given the shape of the slices and the fact we were the first table in the dining room to be seated, my slices were likely first carved off the roasted turkeys. As someone who has been on a quest to prepare a moist roasted turkey, I find the first carvings from the top of the breast drier, as it is most exposed to the dry heat of the oven.

Bonita and Jenn ordered the other special that Monday, line-caught rainbow trout ($11.50).

Pan Seared Rainbow Trout
Both Bonita and Jenn, whenever possible, prefer their fresh fish medium-well, ever so slightly rare in the center. The trout was a little over cooked for their liking. Each fillet's corn meal crust though was crisp and carried a nice crunch. The sauce was a good accompaniment and the mashed potatoes, wonderfully smooth.

Bonita, Jenn and I remarked at all our dishes coming adorned with yu choy. Bonita aptly dubbed it Chef Blackie's "it" vegetable for Christmas 2009. We giggled quietly when other tables were served their dishes and patrons found their accompanying greens exotic. Yu choy is a staple vegetable in Asian diets, the three of us eating it in our respective homes the night before.

For drinks, with Bonita and Jenn having plans that afternoon and my having to return to the office, we decided to order purified water.

MB In-house Purified Water
According to a media-release, Chef Blackie had installed a Vivreau Water Purification System that purifies tap water, producing both a carbonated Perrier analogue and a non-carbonated option. At $3/re-usable glass bottle, a portion of sales goes to the NAC's National Youth and Education Trust.

As someone who very rarely drinks wine, I am weary of the disapproving looks I get from wait staff who think I am at a restaurant for a cheap meal. Usually, I order cranberry juice or a cocktail to finish the meal. But, with the in-house purified tap water on the menu, I have another option. At Le Cafe, our waiter's look changed from disapproving to amused, when I asked if bottles from "Chef Blackie's Vivreau Water Purification System" were available.

Total: $67.80 (after taxes, but before tip)

More after the jump...

Well, another foodiePrint went up on Ottawa Tonite. Its subject: Petit Bill's Bistro's annual Newfie Night Dinner."

Here is a screen capture for posterity:

Dining in Newfoundland Tradition: Newfie Night at Petit Bill?s Bistro

To re-iterate, Jenn and I had great fun and enjoyed our dishes. We shared the cod tongues and pickerel cheeks appetizers. I had the Jigg's dinner for my main and figgy Duff, lassy mogs, and jam jams for dessert. Jenn, the rabbit stew and the Newfie pound cake for dessert.

Also, after we posted the entry, Melissa Dimock of Refashionista (@refashionista) exclaimed on Twitter how familiar she was with the dishes served. She even forwarded me a link to her Great Grandmother's recipe for Molasses Cookies. She, a maritimer hailing from Nova Scotia, says they make great jam jams.

I think jam jams using Melissa's Great Grandmother's cookies will be this year's Christmas cookie. Stay tuned for my attempt :)

Particulars:
Petit Bill?s Bistro
1293 Wellington Street W.
(613)729-2500

More after the jump...

After a brief trip to the ByWard market yesterday, I discovered that it is mid-October and the fall harvest is still with us, even with the evenings growing more frigid. I passed by the same vendor who sold me the beets I used to make a wonderful salad several weeks ago. His stand was still replete with baby beets. He was having difficulty trying to convince a family to try his wares. I stepped in, purchased another dozen and mentioned that roasted they go wonderfully well with cooked barely, red onion, and feta in a salad. He replied, "Perhaps it's the cook and not my beets." I looked at him then the family and said, "It's the beets." "You will find none fresher or sweeter." Then, I went to find a supply of local plum tomatoes.

The recipe for the salad was recommended to me by a tweep who goes by the handle @kaitli. A true foodie, she found me a novel way to use up the pearl barley I had picked up from the Wellington Herb and Spice (1310 Wellington Street West) in the Wellington Village.

The recipe hails from thekitchn.com, under "fall kitchen cure."

Here is my take:

Baby Beet and Barley Salad

Recipe

Five Dolla's of Local Produce

Uncooked Barley and Roasted Beets

Sweating a Chopped Red Onion

Salad, Just Assembled

What you'll need:

• 18-20 baby beets (tips on how to pick good beets)
• One red onion
• Approximately a cup of pearled barley (NOT instant barley)
• 4-5 strands of green onions (aka: scallions)
• 1 1/2 tbps lemon juice
• 1 tpsb olive oil

Why baby beets? Baby beets may be less sweet, but I find them much more tender and better for salads. More mature beets can be substituted, but will need to be cut into smaller pieces.

Method:

1. Don't bother peeling raw beets, it is a somewhat risky proposition. Instead, drizzle with olive oil, salt, and pepper and roast in a pre-heated 375F until a fork can penetrate each beet somewhat easily (approximately 50 minutes to an hour). This loosens the skins.
2. Then, take a tea towel, preferably one you don't mind staining red, and rub off the skins of the beets while they are still warm from the oven but handle-able. Work carefully as red beet juice stains everything a crimson purple.
3. Set the beets aside to cool and quarter them into wedges. The salad will be served at room temperature.
4. While the beets are roasting, bring 2 cups of salted water up to a boil on medium heat and deposit the barley into it. I find a pinch or two of salt to 2 cups of water will do. The salt will season the barley.
5. After adding the barely, bring the water back up to a simmer, turn the heat down to medium low and simmer for 45 minutes. Monitor the pot closely, it may require adding some water to keep the barley submerged. When cooked, the barley will soften. Cooking longer will soften the barely further. For this salad, I prefer a risotto-style texture.
6. Afterward, finely chop one large red onion and sweat at medium heat in a metal skillet (or heavy bottomed pot) with a splash of oil and a pinch of salt. The sweating will concentrate flavours.
7. When softened and any liquid cooked off, remove and let cool.
8. Chop the scallion for garnish.
9. Place the oil and lemon juice into a container and mix to emulsify. This is essentially a dressing.
10. Gently assemble everything together and serve. The beets will more than likely bleed, colouring the barely.
11. If you fancy a savory and sharp taste, crumble several 2" cubes of feta into a serving, mix, and enjoy.

This salad is a wonderful mixture of fresh flavours and textures: sweet and earthy from the beets, crunch from the onion, fresh green flavours from the scallions, bright flavours from the lemon, and a pleasant chew from the barley. It all goes together well.

BTW, this salad makes a good accompaniment to lamb, especially a lamb stew.

At Chef Marty Mendelson's urging (@mgm3 on twitter), I made a reservation to lunch at Ottawa's Le Cordon Bleu campus. With its in-house Signatures restaurant being phased out and replaced by something with a more modern bistro feel, the culinary school's chefs-to-be and hosts-to-be still needed to gather experience, serving real patrons. As such, Le Cordon Bleu arranged three-course lunches every Thursday this summer in a spare dining room on the Laurier Avenue campus, the Cointreau Dining Room. The cost: $24.95 ($32 with a wine pairing).

Given how well Signatures fares in Food Network Producer Chris Knight's past top 10 lists of restaurants in the national capital region (NCR), which is published by the Ottawa Magazine every fall, it was difficult NOT to make a reservation.

Jenn and I chose to go August 27, 2009. Here is what we were to be served according to the menus on the culinary school's website:

August 27th 2009

Quail Rillettes with Port and Raisins
Duck Supreme with Blueberry Sauce and a Balsamic Reduction
Choice of: Mushroom Ravioli
or
Mushroom flavoured Crème Brulée
Lemon Meringue Tart

Our almost classic charcuterie starter was well executed, perfectly seasoned, and quick to be served. The quail rillettes came with a jellied port, house-made crackers, pickled gherkins, a morel, a boiled yellow beet, and a surprise portion of quail supreme.

Unfortunately, between our starter and main, the cooks on the line must have been in the weeds. Not only did we wait 4 times as long for our main as our starter (easily 20 minutes, maybe 25), but the blueberry sauce that had been plated had obviously dried. The edges of my mushroom ravioli, which contained wild mushrooms, had also dried. Further, the duck supreme was 86'ed and replaced with seared duck breast, done semi-well. Duck breast, prepared this way, resembles steak and our furnished butter knives could not cut through the pieces of meat easily. Happily, the duck breast was warm, allowing me to drag cuts of duck through its jus and barely syrupy blueberry sauce. Pairing these bites with slivers of mushroom created the perfect bite.

My better half was served the mushroom flavoured creme brulee. It was nothing more than a skinned, not bruleed, serving of the cream sauce that dressed my mushroom ravioli. Patrons at other tables, dipped their duck into it.

Our dessert was a poncy take on lemon meringue pie, which I felt matched the old-fashioned setting of the dining room. Just as the yellow painted walls, oversize paintings with ornate frames, Persian-inspired carpets, and worn tables paid homage to dining rooms of fine French traditions' past, we were served a dessert that borrowed from classic French cuisine to re-envision an otherwise American dessert. Our tarte sported a classic almond biscuit crust, filled with lemon curd. It was topped with whipped cream, in which sat two batons, seemingly made from semi-oven drying piped lengths of sweetened egg white meringue. All-in-all, I very much liked my dessert's flavour and texture contrasts. Neither was the custard too tart, nor the whipped cream, overly sweetened. There was an enjoyable balance.

In total, the lunch took us approximately 2 hours to eat, making the meal completely inappropriate for a regular work day.

While Jenn disagrees, I found the main dish under-seasoned. We both enjoyed the starter and dessert, but waited far too long between courses. Our hosts, on the other hand, were warm, welcoming, and patient.

Total cost: $58.00 after taxes and tip. Interestingly, the bill was made out by "Profusion Culinary Arts Inc."

The culinary-speak was taken from yet another enlightening blog entry from @cookingstudent's Cooking School Confidential. She has already had her share of live fire exercises, chronicling several in her blog. She often explains what went wrong, what went right, and how to make things run smoother the next time around.

Update: Here is the business card we picked up during our lunch.

Signatures Card

Update 2: I should note that we did raise many of the issues with our dishes to our waiter, constructively. With luck, something will be taken away as a learning experience.

Particulars:
Profusion Culinary Arts Inc.
453 Laurier Avenue