With foodiePrints celebrating its third birthday - its first published blog entry, a twice re-written "hello world" and its first recipe, one for almond biscotti - I discovered that we have relatively few Christmas-themed posts. This post aims to slowly remedy this by compiling a selection of images from our archives to share some of our traditions.

Office Christmas Parties
Office Christmas parties are an interesting species of get-together. As Jack Knox wrote in his "Office Christmas party all about being inappropriate" for Canwest's canada.com, the general consensus from business leaders is to attend. For the organization, they provide management an opportunity to evaluate staff's soft skills for future advancement. Such includes appropriate dress, conversation skills, and showing discretion. For employees, they provide the opportunity to get to know each other in a relaxed setting and get a sense of the prevailing thoughts of management.

The party I attended with my better half's office was held at Ottawa's then Civic Centre (1015 Bank Street) at Landsdowne Park. There, I watched my first live hockey game, featuring Ottawa's 67's.

67's Game

Served was typical sport stadium grub.

Onion Rings and Chicken Fingers

Not Particularly Spicy Wings

Beer, Mexican Corona

Mine was held at La Boîte à Chansons (444 Bd De l'Hopital) in Gatineau, a very large restaurant, whose interior is made to resemble a log cabin.

La Boîte à Chansons

There, I ate a traditional Quebec feast:

Clockwise from bottom: tortière, meatballs, roast beef
Everything was smothered in gravy. Though, I was instructed the tortière, a revered meat pie dish, had to be eaten with ketchup.

Mini Tortière, properly served
Indeed, the tortière did well with some added sweetness and acidity to match the savory filling and rich pastry.

A week later, my team also bid farewell to our office assistant, a wonderful gal. She happened to be the person who ensured that I ate my serving of tortière without embarrassing myself. To celebrate her advancement, we took her out to lunch at Naples Pizza (70 Rue Montcalm), again on the Gatineau side.

While my colleagues each ordered great pizza, I went rogue and ordered the lasagna (spelled "lasagne" on the menu, cost: $9.95). Here is the oddity of pasta I was served. It still puzzles me today.

Chimney-shaped Lasagna

Filled with Pizza Sauce, Cheese, and Pepperoni
On Naples Pizza's menu, the lasagna was described as "a special blend of Italian Noodles, Pepperoni, selected Cheeses, & Meat Sauce." Lesson learned: When going to a renowned pizza house, order what it makes best. Comparison-wise, a personal combination pizza ("mushrooms, pepperoni, green peppers, bacon & onion") cost $9.75.

Christmas Baking
That year, Jenn and I baked cranberry scones and almond biscotti, batches of each destined for two potlucks and several close friends.

Regarding the biscotti, I followed the tried and true recipe that launched this blog.

One Batch of Almond Biscotti, drying

Though, whilst searching for that year's Christmas basket fodder, we came across these biscotti at the Dollar Store.

Dollar Store Biscotti
They were slightly more puzzling than the chimney lasagna.

Regarding the scones, their recipe comes from a baking course we took at Ottawa's Three Bakers and a Bike Bakery (1281A Wellington Street W.).

Scones Destined for Jenn's Parents
I am not at liberty to share that recipe, but here are hints that work with all tea-style scones recipes. When making scones, there must be enough fat to coat the flour mixture to form pebbles.

This is too dry

So add enough fat that...

...the mixture resembles this.

Bake six to a half sheet pan, lined with parchment paper

Cool on cake racks...

...and you will have great scones

A Toaster
That year, a dear friend gifted my better half with something she had been eyeing for a while...

A Hello Kitty Toaster

Naturally, it arrived boxed in pink

Interestingly, it makes pretty good toast...

...which we ate a lot of that Christmas

On a related kitty note, here is a mousse filled chocolate kitty Jenn's sister Jasmine received as a Christmas gift.

One odd looking chocolate cat
And, here is how we discovered it was filled with mousse...

One bisected odd looking chocolate cat

Speaking of tortière, the following is a twitter conversation I had on the subject this past weekend...

More after the jump...

Almost a month ago CTVOttawa went to the source for cheap eats in our city: Cheap Eats Ottawa (ceot). There, the good people, who publish the definitive book on our city's frugal fare, furnished reporters with a collection of 3 dollar lunch suggestions. One, had me re-evaluate an establishment I had been walking by for years: Helen's Cuisine in the Melrose Groceteria (1082 Wellington Street W.).

But first, there is something we must establish. When you visit shawarma houses, such as Istanbouli's at 81 Holland Avenue, they serve fast food. Though, the dishes served are arguably healthier and higher quality options than those from large chain American-style fast food outlets. Plates are also made to order, plentiful, and affordable.

At Istanbouli's we rarely spend more than $25 (including taxes and tip) for a pair of combos or a combo and a platter. This includes Istanbouli's vegetarian platter, featuring falafel (chick pea fritters):

Falafel Plate

Falafel
Crispy, nutty, and delicious, Istanbouli's falafel was not overcooked and the salad was, as always, fresh.

And, Istanbouli's chicken sandwich combo and a chicken shawarma platter:

Large Chicken Sandwich Combo

chicken shawarma plate
That evening, we ate on Istanbouli's patio, enjoying our vertical rotisseried chicken, salad, pickles, garlic sauce, and potatoes.

However, you won't see vertical rotisserie columns in a regular home. There are no fryolaters. There is no commercial grade range hood. By the same token, Istanbouli's pickles are more than likely purchased in large jars or vats. Their baklava is made in factory and resold.

For a taste of homestyle middle eastern food (Lebanese in particular), go to the Melrose Groceteria where you can pick up a hearty lunch from Helen's Cuisine for under $3.

Melrose Groceteria and Helen's Cuisine

Window Signage

As far as I can tell, the establishment was once a small grocery, but no longer. Helen's is disarmingly informal restaurant. There is a dining area with tables at the front of the store, and, at the back, a large food counter, powered by Helen's single electric stove. Just about everything is made from scratch and you are treated like family. Everyone becomes her sweetheart.

She serves up chicken and beef shawarma, falafel, hummus, tabbouleh, baba gaboush, fatayer, fatoush, beef kibbie balls, and baklava, all home style.

Street Signage Front

Street Signage Back
And, this amazingly happy woman has been at it since 1968.

When Jenn and I visited, there were containers of vegetarian stuffed grape leaves next to the till, made that very morning. Helen had buckets of turnips pickling in the back. And, she proudly showed off two mountains of mini spinach and meat fatayer cooling on trays for a party. Noticing that I have a little familiarity with Lebanese food, she even told me to come back the following Monday because she would have a fresh batch of labne (yogurt cheese) ready.

Just snackish, Jenn and I picked up a pair of larger fatayer, mine with meat (beef) and cheese ($3-ish), hers, just meat (under $3).

Meat and cheese fatayer w/a sorel drink

Cheese-only fateyer
Resembling Lebanese meat pies (lahem bi ajeen), I was reminded what my best friend growing up told me. While lahem bi ajeen are good from a commercial gas powered oven at a bakery, homemade is much better. While I'm not sure if fatayer is comparable because of the much thicker crust and different toppings, they were great.

The dough was well worked and flavourful.

Bottom of the meat and cheese fatayer

Texture of the dough
The toppings, well seasoned and tasty.

Best of all, after we paid, Helen pointed us to a park and ushered us out, like children with a packed lunch, to go out and play.

To me, there is a time for food made by professionals, trained and experienced to work with commercial grade equipment, who produce flavours and textures that are difficult and/or extremely time consuming to accomplish at home. There is also a time to enjoy home style food, made with conventional tools, but with equally masterful hands. Helen's serves the latter.

Determination: Ethnic - Lebanese: ---$, --***

Update 1: According to Reuters, sometime last Friday (July 10, 2009), the word "shawarma" was added to the Webster's dictionary, along with other food-related words: "locavore", "acai", and "goji." Shawarma's definition:

a sandwich especially of sliced lamb or chicken, vegetables, and often tahini wrapped in pita bread

Update 2: For reference, here is what 2 varieties of lahem bi ajeen look like from the Alladin Bakery on 1020 St. Laurent Boulevard.

Lahem Bi Ajeen

Zaatar (Lebanese Thyme)

Meat with Cheese and Hot Sauce

Particulars:
Istanbouli Shawarma House
81 Holland Avenue
(613)722-4800

Helen's Cuisine
1082 Wellington St. W
(613)728-2566

After coming home from my day's training, I found myself penning the following letter:

Dear Mother Nature,

Can you please reign in Jack Frost? He has already made his point. It is cold in Eastern Ontario. This morning, my course instructor accused Ottawa weather of being deceptive. He, being from "Merry Old England", was last in the city in January. Today, grass is showing, yet the temperature dipped below -12 C. With the wind chill, it felt like -20 C. After this week's set of lectures, he refuses to return to Canada!

Robbing Ottawa of a management instructor with 12 years of teaching experience aside, we are 3 days past the Vernal Equinox (March 20, 2009), the day of the year when the sun crosses the celestial equator moving northward, otherwise known as the first day of spring. Is it really necessary to have weather like this?

Daily Minimum Daily Temperatures To Date for March 2009

Daily Maximum Daily Temperatures to Date for March 2009
Source: Environment Canada

Thanks in advance!

Sincerely,
Don

I just need to find an address and figure out the correct postage. Needless to say, I'm a little fed up! For the record, I'm Ottawa-born and, like a lot of Canadians, I celebrate spring weather when the temperature is just 5 degrees below zero. -20 C is excessive!

In the meantime, it's cold enough to revisit pot pies. When you pickup personal pot pies either from frozen or from takeout, such as those from the Real Canadian Superstore's "Meal's to Go" counter, they are lacking something...

Chicken, marked beef, Pot Pies are $1.99/each

Heated up in the Toaster Oven at 325F for 30 minutes

When you break open the barely flaky pastry...

it's moist but nearly dry inside...

BTW, Superstore says it offers alternatives to the ordinary...

Plenty of Tasty Alternatives to Ordinary Takeout

Tasty or not, there is always little to NO sauce. I feel that pot pies should be loaded with sauce, binding everything together. Else, there is no impossible juxtaposition of textures, flaky pastry resting in sauce (slowly soggifying) with plenty of veg. and meat.

Here's an alternative pot pie "technique" to the fall back chicken pot pie recipe from before. It addresses the sauce issue directly:

Season and sweat off 3/4 cup of roughly chopped carrots in 2-3 tbsp of oil on medium heat until tender

French an onion (2 if small) and repeat with the onion slivers

Tear up leftover roast chicken (about a cup's worth)

Roast pork works too...

Make yourself some sauce.
There is no picture here because I've gone two ways before, with either a bechamel or a veloute. To borrow from one of the blogs that I eagerly read everyday, "Cooking School Confidential", the following lists the proper components of each:

1. bechamel: milk, white roux, a pinch of nutmeg, and half an onion garnished with one bay leaf held in place with a clove
2. veloute: roux and white stock

For a bechamel take a 1/4 cup of oil and heat it in a pan until it ripples. Add an equal amount (by weight is better) of all purpose flour, place it in the pan and stir. Just before the mixture colours, it will start smelling nutty. Remove it from the heat and slowly add 3 cups of milk that has been simmered with the above listed aromatics and spice (sans aromatics and spice of course). Add the mixture back onto medium heat until the mixture thickens and bubbles. For the veloute do the same, but use a poultry stock or broth. While it tastes heavenly with homemade, I have been known to use cartons of low sodium chicken broth that happen to be in my pantry.

The following pictures are of pot pies employing bechamel.

Add the veg and meat to the sauce and heat through

Toss everything into a pair of non-stick loaf pans

Let rest for 5 minutes...

Cover with sheets of puff pastry, cutting vents for steam and brushing with beaten egg

Bake in a preheated 400 F oven until the pies look like this:

Done

and Dusted


Portion with a plastic knife, so as not to scratch the non-stick surface

and Serve

I prefer to break up the top crust a little so I get some pastry in every bite.

My preferred service option

BTW, the above mentioned Cooking School Confidential blog is written by a witty ex-journalist/professional writer/lecturer/teacher who, after a very successful career, decided to goto culinary school. In it, she chronicles her journey into chefdom. I am in awe of her sense of humour, passion, and generosity for sharing her experiences. Skip the episode of Hell's Kitchen. Cooking School Confidential is MUCH better.

During the month of February, it is the dead of winter in Ottawa. Three months of ice and snow have fallen and daylight is short. This is when the cross section of any snow bank reads like the rings of a tree. You can actually count the numbers of storms that have come across our city in the layers of compacted snow.

During the month, the temperature also fluctuates between cold and very cold.


Source: Canadian Climate Data from Environment Canada

Ottawans are hardy people, but prolonged exposure to the bitter cold is good for neither body nor soul. This is when we turn to meat pies for comfort. Stodgy goodness, meat pies embody the cliche "meat and potatoes." Sometimes there is even a "splash of veg for colour."

Because Ottawa borders on Quebec, the meat pie of choice is often the tortiere. Quality tortiere can be purchased at many eateries. It also comes frozen at several bakeries and butcher shops. For instance, on Wellington Street, frozen tortiere can be found at Parma Ravioli (in the freezer case next to the frozen pasta entrees) and at the Harvest Loaf Bakery (stacked in the middle freezer).

I believe that meat pie cravings can be sated with homemade fare using provisions from the fridge, freezer, and pantry. There is little reason to brave the elements to pickup a meat pie. Though, Jenn and I have been known to concede a little after a particularly bad storm.

Such happened last year (2008) when snow kept falling during the last week of February, only relenting early March.

Unploughed Road in the Wellington Village

Snow Covered Cars

So, Jenn and I snowshoed it up to the Harvest Loaf Bakery to pickup something ready to bake.

One Frozen Tortiere

Ingredients - beef, pork, onion, spices. flour, salt, vegetable shorting, skim milk

Ready to bake in a convection toaster oven

After baking, from frozen, at 375 F for 50 minutes

One serving of meat pie goodness
Our purchased tortiere's crust was quite substantial. Its meat filling was somewhat coarse and tasted very savory. However, the tortiere tradition normally includes adding either potato or breadcrumbs to the mince to release starch and trap any emergent liquid during baking. The added potato or breadcrumbs also change the texture of the cooked filling, making the Harvest Loaf version tasty but unauthentic. It was slightly crumbly.

While we were grateful for being able to pickup something sustaining after a record breaking snow fall, we usually sate meat pie cravings with chicken pot pie. One of our pot pie standby recipes follows. It is more of a method for using up leftovers than anything else.

Step 1: Find and coarsely chop aromatics from the fridge. For me, this usually includes onions and carrots. Disassemble enough vegetation to fill a 2 cup measure. Alternatively, 1.5 cups of thawed and drained frozen vegetable medley will do.

Step 2: Sweat the vegetation in 2 tbsp of vegetable or canola oil and a pinch of salt on medium heat in a pan until they become translucent. Set them aside.

Step 3: Gather together enough shredded or chopped chicken meat to fill a 2 cup measure. Set it aside. Besides roast chicken, I've used leftover pork roast, fried chicken, and steamed chicken.

Step 4: Create a roux by placing 1/3 cup of oil into a pan and heating it on medium until it ripples. Add 1/3 cup of flour and cook the mixture together until it turns slightly golden (blonde roux). Slowly add 2 cups of milk and stir until the sauce thickens. Season to taste.

Step 5: Add the sweated aromatics and meat to the milk gravy (aka: bechemel) mixture

Step 6: Place the mixture into an oven proof pie pan or souffle dish lined with pastry. In a pinch, I use thawed frozen puff pastry.

Step 7: Either cover the pie with more pastry or pieces of pastry.

Pot Pie ready for Baking

Step 8: Bake at 400 F until the filling is bubbling and the pastry turns golden brown (20-30 minutes).

Baked Pot Pie

Close up of piece meal crust

Step 9: Let cool for 10 minutes and serve warm

Slicing

Tidying up

Space left by Excised Slice

One serving of pot pie goodness

Particulars:
Harvest Loaf Bakery
1323 Wellington Street West
(613)722-7797
website

Parma Ravioli
1314 Wellington St W
(613)722-6003

I believe that great food comes in many forms and can from some unusual sources. However, employ some common sense when eating out. Don't order fish when you goto a pizzeria (or pasta house), unless you're visiting a coastal city in Italy (e.g. Naples). Don't order steak at a seafood restaurant. Don't order spaghetti at a dai pai dong (a type of open-air food stall that was once popular in Hong Kong). Similarly don't expect hand garnished plates at a buffet.

When it comes to pubs, pub food needs to be simple to make, quick to plate, easy to manipulate, and it must pair up well with the beverage of choice: beer. Like wine, why not cook the dish with the beer that you serve it with? In this case, the pub in question is the Royal Oak Pub on Wellington Street (1217) in the Wellington Village. The dish is a "Beef and Stilton pot pie." The beer is Guinness. It just works.

Well, the dish works. I'm not fond of darker beers, so I didn't order a Guinness with my meal. However, between the gently stewed beef, the sharpness of the blue cheese, the slight bitter notes from the dark beer, and the generous layer of puff pastry, I must have had a culinary epiphany.

The Oak's Beef and Stilton Pot Pie is listed on the menu as traditional "British Pub Fare." According to its description, like all the pot pies, it is homemade and served with seasonal vegetables and a choice of salad or potato. I substituted lattice fries for the potato. They were crisp and flavorful. The vegetables were a very coarsely chopped side that tasted like they spent some uneven time on the flat top. The pot pie was made with beef, mushrooms, and a Guinness Stout and Stilton gravy.

At $12.99 before taxes and tip, the meal delivered good value.

To my readers who are thinking about visiting Ottawa, the Royal Oak is a chain of pubs specific to the nation's capital. There are a total of 10 locations. I've frequented 3: the Bank Street Oak (318 Bank), the Laurier Oak (161 Laurier), and the Wellington Oak. Every time, I have been served pub food that was above average. If you're wanting for a pint, you can't really go wrong by dropping by an Oak.

Cheers!

Particulars:
The Wellington Oak
1217 Wellington Street
(613) 728-6661
Click here for the Royal Oak Pubs' Website