Sunday afternoon, my better half and I took our guests to the Piggy Market in Westboro to visit Dave Neil and Pascale Berthiaume. Apparently, we arrived two hours before closing. Pascale had just returned from the Landesdowne Farmers' Market. Both she and Dave was visibly worn, but happy to answer all of our friends' many questions. Suffice it to say, Abby and Mlle Ling were curious about just about everything in the self professed "fine food delicatessen with a focus on artisanal pork products, and locally produced foods."

Bread and Smoked Duck Breasts
In the end, we picked up a loaf of oat and cranberry Art Is In bread and a pair of smoked duck breasts. Originally, I promised Mlle Ling duck confit, but Dave was all out. He offered me some frozen ones, but I substituted smoke duck breasts instead.

Abby Carefully Slicing the Art Is In Bread

Pair of Smoked Duck Breast

Sliced, served chilled
Mlle Ling's boyfriend Thomas picked up a tub of Pascale's Hazelnut and Chocolate ice cream for dessert.

Dave also graciously invited me back to see a batch of in-house hot smoked pork belly bacon. Were I not just in the market for appetizers for that evening's dinner, I think I would have walked away with an entire side. It looked and smelled incredible.

Total cost of duck breast and bread: $32.25 (and worth every penny!)

When I tweeted what I planned to serve as an appetizer (thinly sliced smoked duck breast on artisanal bread), Epicuria's Chef Tracey Black mentioned that smoked duck breast goes very well with fruit chutney. Yes, Chef! I then walked up to my fridge and demanded ingredients. My fridge coughed up a pair of mangoes, so I made mango chutney.

Mango Chutney
With limited ingredients and time, I settled on FoodTV's Anna Olson's recipe with slight omissions. The modified recipe follows:

Recipe

Ingredients

Diced Onions

Baking Chutney

Done
Things you'll need:

• 2 cups diced mango - I know, mass would be better. Still, 2 regular large mangoes produce 2 cups of diced flesh
• 1/2 cup diced onion
• 1/2 cup light brown sugar
• 3 tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 1 tbsp finely grated fresh ginger
• 1 tsp ground cumin
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• zest of 1 orange
• white granulated sugar to sprinkle

Prep:

1. Disassemble the mango, onion, and ginger
2. Pre-heat an oven to 375°F

Method:

1. Combine all ingredients in a non-stick pan and simmer on medium to medium-low heat until the onions are tender and the liquid reduces to a syrup
2. Spoon the mixture into heat proof ceramic containers. I used oval gratin dishes
3. Sprinkle with sugar
4. Bake for 20 minutes

The latter oven baking is meant to create a sugar syrup on top of the chutney. Had I a butane torch, I would have brullé'd the top.

Since there was no time to cool the chutney or allow it to mature its flavours, I chose to add some caramel sweetness and serve it warm. My intention was to pair savory and smokey with spicy and bright. The pairing worked.

Served

Playful Plating
Think duck breast. dry cured with spices. hot smoked. sliced thin, served chilled. Accompanying it, on slices of expertly worked bread, was something sweet, bright, and spicy.

Stew
Here is the additional entree I was asked to make: slow cooked beef stew (4 hours), using beef rib meat.

Beef Stew
Regarding the sauce, it came from blening the onions I stewed the beef with, forced them through a strainer, and using the resultant puree to thicken leftover braising liquid. Major flavourings: light soy sauce, fish sauce, and black pepper.

Bacon Waffles
For breakfast the next Monday, I snuck out of the condo early in the morning to barbecue a typical supermarket-sized package of bacon.

Barbecued Bacon

Bacon Mountain
When I came back, I whipped up a batch of cookingnook.com's waffle batter: 1 1/2 cups milk, 2 egg yolks, 1/4 cup sugar, 2 cups plain flour, and 1/2 tsp baking powder via the muffin method; thinned with 2 oz melted butter and 2 tbsp cold water; and lightened with firm peaked egg whites. While the mixture was hydrating, I ran the crisped and cooled bacon through a food processor and added the fine crumbs to the batter.

Batter

Then, my better half ran the batter through our waffle maker. Result: bacon waffles, which tasted really good with pancake syrup.

Waffle maker

Waffles

Texture
Think light waffles, crisp, and loaded with savory bacon bits.

Lunch in the Byward Market follows after the jump...

Byward Market
Our guests decided to end their visit in Ottawa with a walk around the bustling Byward Market. There, Jenn and I introduced them to the Obama Cookie.

The authentic German shortbread cookie, shaped and iced to resemble a maple leaf, comes from Le Moulin de Provence: French Bakery, which is located in the Byward Square.

Moulin De Provence

Authentic Obama Cookies
At the moment, the establishment is papered with pictures of the president's visit.

The following Obama cookies come from a "me too" bakery around the corner, called Aux Délices: Bakery and Pastry Shop

Aux Délices

Me Too Obama Cookies

More me too Obama cookies

For lunch, we went to La Bottegga Nicastro for sandwiches. I followed Abby's lead and let her order me a traditional Italian sandwich ($4.96 after taxes, before tip): prosciutto (freshly cut Canadian), provolone, on white. While she had hers as is, I asked for black olives on mine.

Nicastro's Famous Sandwich

Italian ham and cheese sandwich

That's right foot long for $5
What can I say, it's a classic for a reason: melt in your mouth prosciutto, creamy provolone, in a freshly baked bun...yum!

Mlle Ling had the deli counter "innovate" her a sandwich, indicating she was rather hungry.

The Works
Top to bottom: mayo, tomatoes, marinated egg plant, lettuce, prosciutto, provolone, on ciabatta bread.

Everyone left Nicastro's happy!

BTW, remember that walk on Saturday for groceries? We went by Petit Bill's. Am I the only one who dislikes it when my food, cartoon or otherwise, is made to talk to me?

Pinchie
Clearly, if "pinchie" is that reddish, it means he's cooked. He won't be speaking to anyone...Nice horns and lashes... :S

Update: Regarding the hazelnut and chocolate ice cream, it didn't last the evening. Somehow Pascale found a way to distill the essence of Ferrero Rocher chocolates into a rich and satisfying ice cream. When I got up Sunday morning, I noticed an empty tub on the counter, visibly scraped of any possible goodness...

Particulars:
Piggy Market
400 Winston Avenue
(613) 371-6124
E-mail: thepiggymarket@gmail.com

Pascale's All Natural Premium Ice Cream
Sold at the Piggy Market
(613)322-4256
E-mail: pascale@pascalesicecream.com

La Bottegga Nicastro
64 George Street
(613) 789-7575
E-mail: info@labottega.

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