crazy white girl with a kitchen

My brother, ever a whirlwind, blew into town from Kelowna this weekend. I immediately insisted we go dress shopping in Sherwood Park. My TRUE motive was to get him to go to Cafe Haven with me, though.

I first read about Cafe Haven on foodiesuz’s website and have stored it away in my brain for my  next visit to the bedroom community of Sherwood Park. I often go to Costco there, and you know what they say about shopping on an empty stomach!

I must confess cafes in Edmonton (other than Sugarbowl, da capo or Tesoro) turn me off. I think of schizophrenic menus, glass cases half full of stale baked goods and sad cups of coffee when I think cafe here. Hence, I went into Cafe Haven with a cautious approach.

Cafe Haven’s glass cases were full of deliciousness!

My concerns were unwarranted.

This little cafe has it goin’ on. In the community where I imagine Starbucks and Second Cup are the norm for caffeine junkies, Cafe Haven was bumping. Located in a strip mall in the space of a former bank (there is even an old vault), it is full of eclectic decorations and furniture, and features a limited but focused menu (lunch fare, mostly) and helpful staff. I totally agree with foodiesuz/Susan’s sentiments about most coffee shop menus being disjointed and all over the place. That said: Haven nails all the good stuff.

We both got sandwiches and I got a London Fog to drink. There were many other things that piqued my interest: nachos (!), pumpkin pie, hummus, soup. Their menu changes for the autumn/winter seasons and then again for spring and summer. There is also brunch (the menu changes weekly), catering… it’s a wonder cafe!

The brunch menu is taped up, but also updated online. They will be having a Valentines Day brunch as well.

My London Fog came out quickly and was, hands down, one of the best I have ever had. Along with a nutmeg-y sugar blend, there were curls of orange peel on top of the rich foam, adding a citrus brightness to the creamy tea blend. I do regret not getting a latte though; their latte art is beautiful and their beans are from Transcend.

Grilled pumpkin feta pesto spinach panini. The pumpkin was odd, but amazing. It just worked. My brother got chicken brie. He found the brie a bit sloppy and gooey, but otherwise the sandwich was delicious.

While we visited midday, they are open for dinner as well and are licensed. They had a posting for a short story slam, and while normally I might scoff at such things, I thought it was a good idea for a great space.

I will definitely be back, maybe as soon as for Valentines Day brunch.

Lunch for two with two drinks was about $22, and on my brother. Thanks Tory!

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Cafe Haven
9 Sioux Road
Sherwood Park
Mon – Fri 8am – 9pm
Sat 9am – 6pm
Sun 10am – 4pm

oh. And just for fun…

bubble hems are not for me.

Side entrance to Zinc. You may also enter through the main foyer of the AGA.

On Sunday January 31, the Art Gallery of Alberta reopened after being closed for nearly five years of renovations. The new building made a lot of promises: more gallery space, better exhibits, a stunning exterior and new spaces for restaurants and cafes. Tuesday February 2 marked the first day of operations of the flagship restaurant, Zinc. (Or is that ZIИC?)

Naturally, I have been excited about Zinc for sometime. Working where I do l afforded me the ability to see a lot of behind the scenes photos as things were put together going up to the big day, and doing a site tour of the Art Gallery of Alberta as a possible wedding venue amped up the excitement even more.

Visiting on the first day of a restaurant’s opening is a different experience, and not one necessarily recommended. Service may lack smoothness, menus could be in the process of being tweaked and may not be complete yet, and everything is in a state of change and upheaval.

I attempted to make reservations earlier in the week on their online reservation system, but it wasn’t operational yet. It wasn’t clear what number I should call to reach the restaurant, but the woman manning the phones at the AGA’s main number put me through.

We arrived a bit late for the 7pm reservation, but were seated in a mostly empty restaurant. Perhaps we missed the dinner rush, or perhaps there was just less hype about the restaurant than I expected.

The room, and building, are stunning. Some have criticized the design to be a non-Gehry designed Frank Gehry style building, and there are definite similarities, but the building is stunning nonetheless…especially when compared to the building before. Many people walking by stopped to peer in and more than once a car slowed to a crawl outside as the occupants stared as the impressive curvy zinc facade.

The restaurant itself has soaring zinc ceilings, with large ENORMOUS windows. Sitting near them, it was not chilly at all, however. Cool blue light accents the metallic accessories which is equalized by a warm yellow glow from candles and the bell tower at nearby City Hall. It’s a very industrial room, but also cozy due to carefully placed dividers and a gorgeous Douglas Fir wall. The view is quite captivating as it overlooks the square and City Hall, and I imagine in the summer it will be a great place to grab a drink before attending a festival or event in Churchill Square.

After we were seated our (very) green waitress asked us if it was our first visit to the restaurant which amused me a great deal. She was definitely still learning the ropes, but was careful to do things the right way in a restaurant of this calibre, like serve from the right and switch out cutlery after each course.

The menu was an abbreviated version of what is to come, and is expected to change seasonally, according to sommelier and maitre d’ Claude Fournier. He came around twice to see how we liked our meals, and took our thoughts and concerns very seriously. It’s nice to get someone who cares about the answer when they ask the question. Claude also said that Chef David Omar and him hope to have dishes which reflect the different exhibits in the gallery at that time. I’m excited a restaurant in Edmonton (other than the Blue Pear) will focus on a varied rotating menu. Although he is not a beer fan (”I cannot stand the yeast,” Claude said) he hopes to do beer pairing as well at some point.

At first glance, it seemed that there was a lot going on in the menu. I saw a lot of food trend buzzwords like foam, gelee and the like. I was also alarmed by the amount of flavours appearing on a single dish. For instance, the fois gras ballotine. However, they were all variations on anise, and it really worked in the end. There were only three appetizers plus a soup and five mains available to order. Later, two desserts (which we had to pass on.)

There is also a large cocktail list with some interesting libations available, and a selection of Alberta beers, but all in the bottle.

Our amuse bouche was served in a tiny coffee cup and was an extremely cold, extremely bland cream cheese avocado “pudding” with ginger. Thank god for the overly zingy ginger, because there was NOTHING going on in this otherwise. It did not amuse my mouth at all.

The housemade butter was angelic. Fennel with spring onion and fleur de sel. It was served with brioche baked in house.

Foie gras appetizer. A slice of foie gras with salted licorice caramel ice cream, black sambuca gelee, coriander apple with salad and brioche toast. As I mentioned previously, this dish sounded all over the map, like there was too much going on. Turns out: it was pretty good! The saltiness balanced well with the sweetness and the anise flavours just worked with the foie gras. The brioche provided just enough crunch for the creamy foie gras.

My dish was less successful. I had the beet salad. The Good: the presentation (like a salad painting!), the parsnip goat cheese puree, fresh carrot juice as a palate cleanser and rose honey reduction. The Bad: Rose honey reduction was hidden on the bottom of my salad, creating an unbalanced sticky glop of flavour as my greens disappeared and the beet “carpaccio” was kind of ridiculous. They’re just raw beets. And they were hard to cut. In addition the beets that were supposed to be roasted were not and were mostly crisp and hard as well.

“Taste of Alberta” main. At $44 this was the most expensive item on the menu. It featured (left to right) bison short ribs, caribou and a saskatoon berry sausage on a bed of braised red cabbage, artichokes and gnocchi. On top, a drizzle of spice chocolate sauce. To put it lightly, disappointing. While the short ribs were toothsome and savoury and moist, the sausage was dry, as was the caribou. How dry? This dry:

This caribou does NOT look succulent.

Wild Alberta pickerel with pickled mushrooms, edamame, beets and warm potato espuma.

I waffled on a main, but finally went with fish. I just HAD to know what “potato espuma” was. I was pleasantly surprised by this dish; it really knocked it out of the park. The pickled mushrooms perked up what is a relatively plain, light fish, and the glorified mashed potatoes just worked. Espuma is supposed to be more of a foam, but this is more of a light creamy mash. Menu error? I was left wanting more; the serving size was adequate but I just wanted to taste more.

I will have to return before I make any firm decisions, but this first visit left me wanted more of the good and less of the bad. I sense great things in the making, though, so I will remain hopeful and try to not judge before they are fully operational.

Dinner for two (two courses each), with one beer ran about $130.

Liane Faulder wrote a preview about Zinc in the Journal a few weeks ago: Zinc offers beautiful food, by design

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Zinc at the Art Gallery of Alberta
Open for lunch and dinner service everyday but Monday
Sunday Brunch is also served
780.392.2501
online reservations also available

I have to admit, I’ve always been cautious when it comes to sausage. I mean, I love it, but I can only eat so much. Perhaps this is because I can’t stop thinking about all the bad that comes with the good. It’s salty, it’s full of fat, it’s often smoked which isn’t that good for you either. There are nitrates and preservatives…and it’s so filling! Despite all these negatives, I am Ukrainian, so I grew up around rings of garlicky kielbasa and do enjoy dried sausages when hiking.

But: I am no sausage addict.

Mike has been discussing wanting to make sausage for some time. We have a lot of extra bits of deer meat from the bucks he shot this fall perfect for making into sausage. There are places in town that will make sausage for you out of game meat, so we considered dropping it off there and coming back to collect the links later. But, the more reading Mike did, the more interested he was in developing his own recipe, and in smoking his own meats. I have to admit when he said “I am going to make sausage” I envisioned this classic scene from Seinfeld:

So, we went to get a Bradley digital smoker a few weeks ago, and it’s been non-stop meat at the house since. Ribs, chicken and yes: sausage. We purchased the smoker at BBQ Country.

BBQ country is a pretty great place. In addition to many BBQ models, there is a wide selection of BBQ tools, wood chips, sauces, rubs… anything the avid BBQer needs.

The smoker is about the size of a bar fridge, and is happy living on our condo patio. It doesn’t make all that much smoke, but it really billows out when you open the door. It’s completely automated, with a special loader for wood chip “pucks”, a timer and a bunch of other settings I am completely unaware of. Mike is the smokemaster.

In addition to the smoker, we also needed a few other specialty items, such as:

• pork back fat (to add to the lean venison)
• sausage casing
• sausage press
• meat grinder
• smoke sticks
• spices
• measuring equipment: thermometers, scales and tape measures

Most of these items were purchased at CTR Refrigeration & Food Supply in Edmonton (10456 170 Street). The meat grinder we already had, but a few stops at the butcher and Home Depot and things were completely set up. And that is where I took my leave from the process and the men took over.

There were two days of sausage making, with a knackwurst and hunter sausage being the final products. Here, Mike and Evan are trying to get the first sausage coil going. Things went pretty smoothly over all, with a few bursts and air pockets, but nothing too out of hand. I do know our kitchen is probably  too small for three tall men to be making sausage in, though.

I can’t speak much to the steps, but seems having the right grind on the meat and keeping the meat and equipment very cold (pre-grinding and during pressing) seemed helpful, and that there was a lot of cutting of meat, and double grinding of meat.

I think that hog casings were used. They come packed in salt, for sterilization and preservation, so you have to soak them and rinse them thoroughly before using them.

Before the sausages smoke, they must hang overnight to develop a pellicle. This is a sticky surface for the smoke to stick to.

Then, they smoke.

After a few hours (depending on flavour desired) the hot sausages are plunged in an ice bath to stop the cooking.

Oh god, so good. Paprika laden venison knackwurst with braised red cabbage and bacon, and tarragon potatoes.

The sausage is unlike anything I’ve ever had. It’s got a crispy snap when you bite into it, and the inside is at once juicy and substantial. The venison is a great flavour, and any dryness is tempered by the pork fat. The smoke adds depth, and the spices are strong, but not overwhelming. This is no supermarket sausage. It’s not even deli sausage.

I guess you could now call me a bonafide sausage lover, since I can not stop thinking about it.

People have long argued over what kind of pizza is better: thin crust or deep dish. I’m of the opinion that the best is thin crust, which is why I love Edmonton-based Tony’s Pizza Palace. I try not to eat it too often, but probably average once a month. While they do fantastic pizzas, the pasta that comes out of the kitchen is rustic and satisfying. But best of all: the Italian pretzel.

For $7.95, this is no wimpy snack. I wouldn’t even characterize it as an appetizer, since if you ate even a quarter of it with a salad or soup, it would be a full blown meal. When I want something crispy, chewy, salty and spicy, this is what I crave.

Tony’s crust is what keeps me going back, and this takes that dough, twists and swirls it, tops it with garlic, spices, anchovies and olive oil and bakes it. God, it is good. I’m fantasizing now as I write about it.

I know, I know. I’m late to the party on this one. But I have spent most of December either locked down because of the cold or because the video game Fallout 3 is ruling my life, and I have been sitting on this post. But I’ll tell you right now, if you enjoy baking or just like having access to a huge selection of products, get your ass over to Bulk Barn now.

Many of you who are well-versed in Edmonton’s food are well aware of Bulk Barn and its opening in town. It is a Ontario-based chain that opened their first franchise in Edmonton in late November. My mom had just been singing the praises of the store on her trip through Lethbridge enroute to Montana in September and how good it was when she was in Thunder Bay. Well it is finally here.

So what makes it different than the already good bulk sections of Save On Foods and Superstore? For one, the selection. There are thousands of products here. They may not all be in rotation at the same point, as some products are seasonal, but there is a huge cross section of items. Second: everything is fresh, well stocked, and clean. Also, the items can be measured so that there is little waste when you use them, stopping products you use only a few times a year from going stale.  Lastly, the prices are amazing.

Don’t think the items are limited to just flour and spices, either. There are wet products, pet products, natural foods and supplements as well as specialty cake pans for rent, and baking tools.

As a baker, I went nuts buying specialty flour and ingredients. I also picked up a friend’s favourite hard to find snack: chocolate dipped jujubes, and mailed them to her in Calgary.  Ibought items for snacking on, for sharing at the office… and for eating in the car ride home.

Pet products, ranging from bird seed to dog food and hamster munchies. No crickets for MY pets though.

The wet bar features nut butters.

Nifty machine for corn syrup. This is where most of my ingredients for marshmallows came from. I was surprisingly accurate in measuring out the products, so there was little waste: something I was really happy about.

Pipette bag tips for icing and decorating.

Cake pans were a mere $1.99 a day (with deposit) and if you could think of it, they had it. (Well, mostly…)

Clean clean clean! It should also be mentioned there were a lot of bags, pencils and twist ties. No struggling with broken or missing pens. As a bonus, for those of you who do not like writing down numbers on tiny tags with tiny pencils, the staff will look up SKU codes at the checkout. You’ll save time if you do it yourself, though.

Of course, a huge selection of candy, including over 40 Christmas products for the season. These jawbreakers were the size of ping-pong balls.

Many MANY spices here.

Rainbow of sprinkles, and other baking decorations.

The best was that they had take-home directions for many products, such as buttermilk power and soya milk powder.

Nuts on sale. Ranging from regular dry roasted to specially flavoured and smoked.

More cooler wet bar products. Kind of industrial looking, but clean.

The offerings of just one aisle. I love that “health food” is down the same aisle as candy and chocolate.

Many gluten-free and restricted diet products here. A god send for those of you who find it hard to get these products, or if you find them pricey.

So, Bulk Barn is basically amazing. I can only describe it as turning up the volume on bulk foods. Take your average product, such as yogurt covered raisins and multiply it: suddenly there are yogurt covered cherries, blueberries and cranberries. You buy how much you need, they offer discounts to students and seniors, and you get coupons when you check out for use on future visits. I highly recommend the honey mustard pretzels by the way.

Other Edmonton food bloggers have long ago written about this place, including Chris over at Eating is the Hard Part.

Bulk Barn
2077 98 Street
(In South Edmonton Common, near Superstore and Bed Bath & Beyond)
(780) 461-4454

The Bothy is the new darling on the Edmonton food scene. I’ve been waiting a while for this place to open. The promise of charcuterie got me drooling! Seems it has filled a gap in the Edmonton market as the place has been packed on both visits I have paid.

We left for the restaurant late, knowing the kitchen was open until 10:30. It’s nice to have a late night dining option that isn’t fried Sysco food.

The location is odd, but not crazy. It is Edmonton, after all. It’s near a few clothing stores, a car dealership and wine store in a strip mall off Calgary Trail south. It seems to fit for the restaurant, as it is narrow and long, featuring a prominent glossy bar. It was shockingly humid in the restaurant that first visit; it must have something to do with the wine. It was nice to be very warm on a cold evening, though.

They feature a long living wine list and many kinds (90+) of whisky. While they did not have champagne by the glass when I first visited, they do now, including a decadent offering from Krug. They also pour two and five ounce glasses of wine from the Enomatic machine. Maybe this will be the place to finally learn about wine.

We started with a three item charcuterie platter. Many of the items are sourced in Alberta, but I was disappointed to see there were no Valbella products. Most products come via shops I already frequent, like the Italian Centre or Paddys Cheese, so this wasn’t as mind blowing as I had hoped. I’d love to see some housemade sausages or pâté find their way onto the menu.

Here: roquefort, smoked cheddar and pork rillettes. It came with some tiny dabs of condiments, some pesto on token greens and some very crusty, half cut bread. I found it hard to tear off pieces from the loaf, which sent crumbs skittering across the table.

Bread crumbs all over the table! They remained the entire meal, too. Oh well, it’s a casual joint.

In contrast to the long wine menu, the food menu is short. But, they know their strengths. They were sold out of haggis, so that left salad or housemade savoury pies. We followed up the charcuterie board with the pies. I got the outstanding tomato infused Provencal pie with creamy mashed potatoes.

The pastry was flaky and delicious, and definitely homemade.

Mike got steak and mushroom, with the soup of the day: tomato-bacon. It was the real standout at the meal. It was thick as tomato sauce, but rich and smoky in flavour. Very filling and satisfying.

I tried the salad on the next visit, which I can only describe as puzzling. It was spicy arugula with shavings of parm cheese and a very mild, lightly applied lemon vinaigrette. That’s it. Greens and cheese. For $11. So I can’t say I recommend their salads. There was definitely something lacking.

There was a lot of “mall art” in the space. Weird paintings featuring wine…and Marilyn Monroe. This one hadn’t made it up yet though. It was hiding in the wine room.

As we were preparing to leave, a familiar face from work stumbled in, my friend and fellow blogger Ben Gelinas. He and his friends got there after the kitchen closed, but ordered some whisky, including cracking this Glenfarclas 1979 which Andrew is holding. It runs $69 a serving. The bottle is a cool $1700.

Service was all over the map. Know that it can be incredibly busy, and it may take a while to get your order in. Chef Kevin Ostapek came out to greet us, and two of the three servers were on the ball..the third seemed to spend every spare minute fighting with the restaurant POS system.

Oh, and a word on the name. It is a reference to small shelter found in the wild areas of Scotland, meant to protect people against the elements or provide a restful refuge, if needed. I hope to find myself in need of refuge soon…

The Bothy
5482 Calgary Trail
780.761.1761
closed Mondays

My make-at-home, oven-friendly S’more kit. Based on an idea from Twig and Thistle.

So perhaps the title of this post is a bit misleading. I knew what I was getting into by making marshmallows. Candy thermometers, sticky messes and experimentation. But somehow, it still turned into a nightmare.

Oh sure, everyone says they are easy. Those people are highly talented in the kitchen though: people like Martha Stewart and the bloggers behind Smitten Kitchen and Whisk. Even with an anxious approach, I still screwed up.

My intention was to put together adorable little S’more packages as New Years gifts. I can’t take credit for the idea, it originated here, at Twig and Thistle. The main difference was that I was going to make my own marshmallows. I really regret not making my own graham crackers as well, but: next year!

The most challenging part of this was finding a trustworthy candy thermometer and the right packaging for the kit. I ended up ordering a bundle of clear acrylic boxes from a wedding favour supply company in Vancouver called Wedding Things. A company called Uline, as well as Etsy and eBay were both options, but they either sold in HUGE amounts or shipping was a bit higher than I liked, so I went with a company close to home.

The first recipe I tried was from Smitten Kitchen. I liked it as it included egg whites, which is not a common component of most marshmallow recipes. I was hoping they would make springy, less saccharine marshmallows. I bought most of my ingredients from Bulk Barn (more on that later) and made them with my mom’s KitchenAid mixer. It’s an important tool for making marshmallows, as a hand mixer may just not have enough power. But some people reported success, so give it a try.

Uh-oh. This doesn’t look right. It foamed up like a science experiment, too.

My first error: using a pot that was too large. I anticipated a huge mess, so I used a huge pot to contain the sugar syrup. This allowed the sugar mix to have large changes in temperature, and I think in the end what got me was that my thermometer didn’t get a good read, and I was anxious for the mix to hit the magic temperature of 240F. One second it was clear and bubbly…and an instant later: golden brown and smelling of burnt sugar.

I put my mix into the gelatin in my KitchenAid mixer, and mixed. Then: problems. The candy syrup had hit the candy temperature, and was starting to solidify. It got stuck in the marshmallow mix, to the whisk and embedded itself in the mix.

This is what I liked to call marshmallow amber.

Much like real amber, right? Just missing the prehistoric insect.

The hard chunks were embedded in nearly every marshmallow, stuck to the KitchenAid mixer whisk and pretty much ruined my first batch…and nearly killed the KitchenAid. It was overheating like you wouldn’t believe, as the candy wrapped itself around the whisk and slowed the motor considerably.

While the flavour was good: kind of caramel tinged, the texture and colour were horrible, and there were still hidden chunks of candy hidden inside. Bad news.

So, I remade the marshmallows, using a new recipe. This time, no egg whites, and I relied on a more scientific Alton Brown recipe. He laid it down in terms my science background could understand. Oh: I also did not let the candy mixture get too hot, stopping at 235F. I added a half teaspoon more of vanilla, and used clear vanilla so it kept the marshmallows snow-white.

The second batch went much better. Here, cutting them. Some people use scissors, or a pizza cutter.

Giving the marshmallows a corn starch/icing sugar bath.

The first batch is on the right, the second on the left. They are puffier as I used smaller pans to make them thicker, and didn’t over heat the syrup this time. They were a bit sweeter because there was more corn syrup in them, but the texture was wonderful.

Packaged up, tied with bakers twine and…

Given instructions and a best before date.

My recipe cards were some silly tissue paper fires. I think a grade two student may be more skilled with glue than I am.

So my tips:

• Use a medium sized, Teflon coated pot.
• Get a thermometer you trust, and pull the syrup off the stove at, or just below 240F.
• Coat your stiff spatula in spray oil or wet it first before scraping the marshmallow out of the mixer bowl.
• RESIST the urge to scrape everything out of the bowl. This is where things get really sticky. It may go against your nature of “getting the last drop”, but it will be easier.
• Use a mix of corn starch and icing sugar to roll the slightly sticky mallows in.

I will be trying lavender marshmallows soon, much like the ones I was too full to try from The Bison in Banff.

Some other marshmallow posts:

• Duchess marshmallows and mocha
• Marshmallow showdown: Whole Foods vs. Butter Bake Shop
• Recchiuti S’more pack

Merry Christmas! I hope your hearts are as full as your stomachs today.

Kelly

After working at the Journal for a few Christmas seasons, I can tell you it has always been a challenge finding a restaurant for our department to have Christmas lunch at.

First, there are a number of palates to please. The Journal has 11 staff photographers, plus many freelancers and desk staff. It can be hard to find a place to suit everyone, in terms of taste and budget. Second, the photographers are educated eaters. They get to photograph and visit many restaurants on the job, know the hot spots, and can be trusted for their restaurant expertise if you need a place to go. Lastly, it’s hard to find good places near the office, which is our preference due to a crazy busy schedule. Last year we ate at The Hat. I suggested Hardware for lunch, but no one bit.

This year for the Christmas lunch we went with the old reliable: an Indian buffet. Karma Bistro has been in the space formerly occupied by La Tapa for some time now. Based on previous visits I can say their a la carte menu is strong, and it is a reasonably priced choice for Indian food in the downtown core.

Ryan and Candace fill up their plates.

The buffet was fresh when we arrived at 11:30, with a large variety of dishes. I saw fish amritsari, pakoras, butter chicken, daal bukhara, eggplant, two kinds of rice and a few other dishes, roughly 10 in total. Naan is delivered to the table (unbuttered, though) and there are various chutneys and desserts available.

I found the buffet items to be above average quality, even if some curries (the daal) were a bit thin. Nothing was too spicy, so don’t expect a sweat inducing, authentically Indian meal. The lamb was a bit fatty and cut haphazardly, but flavourful and tender. Vegetables were crisp and well spiced. Service has always been good there, I find. For $14.99, I think all 17 of us came away happy and with a full stomach.

It is a busy place at lunch, so I suggest reservations.

Afterwards, we looked at photos from the past year, naturally.

Karma Indian Bistro
10523 99 Avenue
(780) 498-2992

For every new dish I try and blog about, there are five familiar old meals I consistently crank out. Some favourites include macaroni and cheese, tostadas, and veggie sandwiches. I will never say I get tired of them – because why else would I make them so often? – but sometimes they do need a bit of livening up.

One of the things I occasionally make is gremolata to zing up mac and cheese. It brightens and lightens the rich cheesy dish, and uses up some stuff I always seem to have in the kitchen: lemons, garlic and parsley. On this occasion I also had some cooked bacon, so I tossed that in too.

This recipe is dead simple.

Bacon Gremolata

• 1-2 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tablespoons Italian parsley, finely chopped
• 1-2 tablespoons lemon zest
• 2 tablespoons bacon, crumbled

That’s it. Most times, I do not even measure. Mix together, sprinkle. You can omit the bacon, and add more or less of anything to appeal to your taste buds. It is great on pastas, risotto, on meat and fish or even sprinkled on salads.

I debated visiting many restaurants for my birthday, even thinking as far afield as a return to Las Vegas. However, in the end practicality won out, and I stayed in Edmonton. While I considered old favourites Zaika, Habesha and Culina Highlands for dinner, I wanted to use the occasion to try someplace new. In the end, I settled on Hardware Grill.

When there is a discussion of good food in Edmonton, it is inevitable Hardware Grill pops up in the conversation. This long standing member of the Edmonton food scene has always been a front runner in cuisine in our city. However, until this month, I had never eaten there.

The restaurant opened in 1996 in one of Edmonton’s historic buildings, so named as it is in the location formerly occupied by the W.W. Arcade hardware store and Imperial Lumber store. The building, the Goodridge Block, opened in 1912. I had a very vivid memory of buying a copy of the game Jenga as a child at the location, which I thought was an Army & Navy. However, that seems to not be the case. Perhaps I just remember buying it up the street.

History aside, we arrived just on time to a busy restaurant for our Monday reservation in very cold weather and received a warm, casual greeting. Our table was in a private corner, just near enough to a large party of eight to feel included.

Initially I found the decor cozy, with a definite early 90s feel. Something about the colours and “loft” look, I think. After we had been sitting a while, I thought the decor was showing its age, however. Thinning carpets and squeaky chairs were evident. I enjoyed being able to see Jasper Avenue through the mesh blinds. Even at such frigid temperatures that day, there were still people scurrying about.

Hardware Tasting Menu for the week of December 14, 2009

Mike and I decided on the tasting menu, which changes weekly and riffs off their a la carte menu. Our server left a copy of the tasting menu so we could know what was up next. I am accustomed to dishes being announced as they arrive, so this pleased me. Sometimes I forget the intricacies of dishes for when it comes to blogging.

As it was a special occasion, I also indulged in the wine pairing. I will admit to being a complete blank slate when it comes to wine. Champagne, I know. Wine, I do not. However I enjoy the wine pairing ritual and the decadence of a new glass with every course.

Mike got a pint of the $8 exclusive-to-Hardware Howe Sound Nut Brown Rail Ale. It is a beer from Squamish, B.C. It was nice, but a little thin tasting for such a cold winter evening.

Our server returned with a simple basket of some warm sourdough bread. I am not sure what to say about the service, since I think my issues with it can be chalked up to a personality clash. Generally, I  found it good, and well paced. I guess it was just not at the level for what I expected for one of the finest restaurants in Edmonton, but that is very subjective. Some people wish to be entertained at dinner, I do not.

I should clarify there were no huge issues or problems, it was simply something that rubbed me the wrong way. However when I think back, I remember the food, which is what matters the most I think.

The amuse (no photo) was a delectably fatty, salty, smokey duck prosciutto. With just four slices I was left wanting more…just as a good amuse bouche should do.

First course was butternut squash-mascarpone cheese tortelloni with chanterelle mushrooms. There were also cipollini onions, which appeared often in later dishes. Composing bites of tender pasta with a sliver of mushroom and parmesan cheese was wonderful, and rewarding. The warm creamy filling made this dish perfect for winter.

The salad was goat cheese fritters on top of greens with dates hazelnuts and striped beets. The fritters were creamy and warm, balanced by a perfectly pomegranate vinaigrette dressed salad.

Sweetbreads followed (no photo), which was the only disappointing course, in my opinion. They were wrapped in prosciutto, resting on a roasted portobello mushroom with onion jam, potato crispies and wine reduction. The potato slivers were very crispy indeed and awkward to eat. They reminded me of the bottom of a bag of chips, actually. They kept going all over the plate. I finally just rolled the slightly touch, slightly overdone sweetbreads in them.

Confession: I often order lamb because it looks beautiful when presented and is fun to eat. Hardware’s rendition did not disappoint. It came on a huge pillow of pea ravioli, which complemented the lamb perfectly.

Before dessert, I visited the ladies room which is in the basement. There you might peer into the private dining room, which is a richly coloured room full of wine. Hardware probably has the largest wine list in the city (the book was close to 20 pages) and so it makes sense to make it part of the decor.

We ended on a sweet note, a Glenlivet butterscotch pudding, with a cornflake crusted bread pudding, made to dip into the pudding. It was hard to tell, but I think our server tried to tell us that he had sent our desserts flying off the plate on his first attempt to deliver them. It was not surprising, the presentation was quite wacky. I will admit that I am not a fan of butterscotch, but this was a good dessert. I could not simply finish my bread pudding though. It was too rich, and I was too full.

The food was incredible, save for the slightly off sweetbreads course. A well paced two and a half hour dinner left me feeling satisfied. The service, however, made me feel awkward and might be enough to keep me away for a while. Perhaps I’ll give the lunch menu a try sometime soon.

Hardware Grill
9698 Jasper Avenue
780-423-0969

I have a confession. I have never made a classic roast chicken. I’m not sure why: something about the time it takes? The oddness of handling a whole chicken carcass? I found the whole process very intimidating. However, on one of the coldest days of this year, I trekked out to get a chicken.

Safeway did not have any fresh whole chicken (frozen, either) so I ended up walking to the downtown Planet Organic. There, one last (large, organic) chicken. I nearly fell over when I saw the price: $26 and change, but I didn’t have a lot of choice. There was a lot of snow on the roads and I did not want to get stuck driving around for a bird.

At home, I had a roasting pan, herbs, lemons, garlic and a thermometer ready to go.

Where to start? I rinsed it off, and patted it dry. This is supposed to ensure crispy skin. I peeked in the cavity to see if there were any giblets or kidneys, which would need removing. This was probably the worst part about prepping the chicken. It wasn’t necessarily clear what was to come out, but the cavity seemed  pretty empty with nothing jumping out at me, so I think it was clean. There was a neck, which I oiled and salted, and placed in the pan. My mom always enjoys turkey neck, so I thought it would be nice to have some chicken neck. It was a delicious snack later on.

This kind of reminds me of an episode of Friends where someone got a turkey stuck on their head.

I cut up some lemons and garlic, and made a rub of three kinds of paprika, salt, pepper, ancho chile powder and olive oil. Into the bird went some garlic, thyme, rosemary and thyme. I peeled the skin away from the bird, and pushed herbs, lemon slices and garlic up under there too. I rubbed down the chicken (front and back) with the spice mix, and turned it over onto its breast. Some people say this ensures juicy meat.

Into a 475 degree F oven it went for 20 minutes. I dropped the temperature to 350 and cooked an hour and a bit, until a thermometer shoved into the deep meat of the thigh read 180 degrees. Looking back, I was very nervous and anxious at this point. The chicken wasn’t cheap, and I didn’t want to ruin my first bird by  making it dry, or under cooking it. Now that I’ve made two more, it’s smooth sailing, though.

Carving it posed more challenges. My favourite thing to eat in Thailand is fried “chain saw” chicken. Named as such for it is hacked and cut up so haphazardly. But I did not want to to eat bits of cartilage and bone, and wanted to save all precious bone parts for the stock I wanted to make.

The chicken was really good. It was juicy and meaty and flavourful. A total success, and I bragged for days about how I finally made a roast chicken at home.

Day 1: We ate it with spaetzle and braised red cabbage.

Pan fried spaetzle.

Day 2: For lunch,chicken chunks in pita with baba ganoush Mike had made, all toasted and warm.

Day 3: Then in Duchess croissants, with guyere. This was a favourite: I plated it into a sort of French inspired bento box, with dill pickle soup, an apple, braised red cabbage and a hearty French ale. Although I suppose a French bento might have wine instead of beer.

Then I started to run out of chicken. With just a carcass left, I decided to make chicken stock. And let me tell you, if roasting a chicken is easy, making chicken stock is nearly child’s play. Most of the work is done if you have already roasted the chicken, so you just need a large enough pot, some vegetables for the mirepoix, water, spices and time.

Roasted chicken will impart a deeper colour and flavour to the stock, but is not necessary.

We have a huge stock pot. I’m not even completely sure how large, but I need to use the foot stool to properly administer the stock within.

My mirepoix was chunky celery, onions and carrots, with parsley, bay leaves, oregano, thyme with juniper berries, peppercorns, cloves and star anise. To this, 16 or so cups of water. I let this simmer very slowly with the chicken bones for several hours.

The cold weather really helped, as the stock pot would have been too large to cool in the fridge. Instead, the patio became my fridge. I skimmed off the fat on top. Since this was not turning into a consomme or fine soup, it was okay if it wasn’t precise and a bit cloudy. After skimming, I returned it to the stove to reduce and condense it. I ended up with 12 cups of stock. It was very flavourful, as the anise and cloves imparted a strong spicy taste.

Some vegetables (carrots, leeks, onions, celery), some chicken and some egg noodles made a satisfying soup. I probably made too much, as we were eating soup for another week after that. But, I can safely say my chicken experiment turned out well, and I added another item to my cooking roster.