Delicious Elgin County

Southwest Ontario tourism held a conference this week in St. Thomas. Of course, I went for the food and it certainly didn’t disappoint! If you haven’t visited some of these places in Elgin County, try them out.

Pinecroft (www.pinecroft.ca) made some luscious mushroom soup and Farmgate Markets made some seductive corn beef sliders. Empire Valley Farms (www.empirevalleyfarms.com) brought chef John Mairleitier who made the most irresistible roasted garlic and butternut squash soup and the Windjammer (www.thewindjammerinn.com) in Port Stanley offered iron spike pulled pork with yummy buttermilk chive biscuits.

For dessert, Heritage Line Herbs (www.heritagelineherbs.com) had two different cheesecakes; one flavoured with lemon balm and the other with pineapple sage herbs – heavenly! Clovermead Farm (www.clovermead.com) was there with yummy waffles, whipped cream and drizzled with their luscious honey, a simple dessert with stunning ingredients!

If yoy’re like me an love Sunday afternoon drives, these destinations are worth the trip – enjoy! Check out http://on.fb.me/zgTZEZ for delicious pictures.

SouthWest Ontario Fun

It's the spring launch of SouthWest Ontario tourism. I'm going because this new region from London to Windsor that includes Simcoe, Woodstock and all the beach front and rural areas in between is one of Ontario's most satisfying summer playgrounds. Minister of Tourism, Culture and Sport, Michael Chan thinks so too because he'll be there cheering on the dozens of tourism people who coordinate activities, restaurants, history, farm to table culture and natural landscapes so it's easy for people like me to navigate and have a truly enjoyable experience. In true tourism fashion, the 2-day event is at the historical railway station in St Thomas - I can't wait. I'm not a railway buff but I appreciate our history and enjoy the experiences both fun and educational that they offer.

You may not get to the SouthWest summit today, but let me know what your favourite place to visit is in SouthWest Ontario. Here is a travel story from The Ontario Table - there's many more in the book and at http://on.fb.me/zgTZEZ you will find lots of pictures - eye candy that will inspire you on a lazy summers day.

Eat Local in March!

April just around the corner and spring is already in the air. April is a busy month on the farm getting ready for the busy summer months. Trimming the trees and vines, plowing the soil, setting up irrigation, repairing equipment and planning for the upcoming season.

We live in a province rich with delicious local food and wonderful farmers who work hard in and out of season to provide this food, yet how many of us really take advantage of what we have all around us?

I have provided a page from the March issue of the new Ontario Table $10 Challenge Ezine. This online magazine was released at the beginning of the year and is filled with hints and tips to eat local year round. The Ontario Table presents the $10 Challenge encouraging consumers to switch $10 of their current food budget to local food. This is a great tool for those looking to take up this challenge and support these farmers. You can find the full January, February and March issues on the Ontario Table website at www.ontariotable.com

I would love to hear your thoughts and how you plan on taking up this challenge in the year ahead!

Like our Facebook page and share the local food Ezine with all your friends!

Lunch that is Brunchified

Step into the elegance of wine country cuisine with sunshine streaming into the simplicity of Early Canadiana décor of crisp, white woodwork, contrasted by muted Tuscan colours and romantic chandeliers hovering over crisp white tablecloths. This is Peller Estate Winery Restaurant and I’m having brunch, or as Executive Chef Jason Parsons tells it, “lunch that’s brunchified”.

“I make dishes at the restaurant that I’d make at home and then some,” explains Parsons of his irresistible menu that has room for both lobster and baked beans on the same page. The food reflects a rich Canadian culinary tradition and a typical chef’s playground all at the same time. Yet Chef Parsons is a real peoples chef; he makes food you’d want to eat instead of the artsy plates.

Brunch is one set price of $47.95 and it includes the most decadent start, a glass of Peller Estate sparkling Ice Cuvee. This is a delicious glass of uber elegant sparkling wine with a kiss of icewine used as the dosage – oh yummmm! To say the rest of the menu includes an appetizer, entre and dessert, is to understate the palate experience that follows the high expectations already set by sipping.

The Lobster salad fills the palate with fresh, sea breeze clean flavours of succulent lobster, bright greens, juicy beets and luscious chevre. It’s a dish that leaves you feeling as happy and exhilarated as a walk on a warm sunny spring day.

The Truffle Seared Diver Scallops offers up large, mouth-watering scallops that are seared and caramelized on the outside, seductively moist on the inside. The icewine hollandaise sauce lends a melt-in-your-mouth, heavenly texture while the potato rosti anchors the play of elegance with a crispy, weighty texture. With a sip of the Ice Cuvee, this is a dish you’ll swoon over.

The Slow Roasted Pork Shoulder with House Baked Beans, and Riesling Braised Winter Greens is a rich, savoury, heart-warming dish. The dance of hearty flavours wraps you in an embrace of passion and with every mouthful, you feel it right into your soul.

Heritage Beef Tartar with Celeriac Remoulade and House Made Toast offers up bright beef flavours on a floating texture that’s feather-light on the tongue and brought into focus with a morsel of celeriac slaw (or remoulade - chef’s speak).

The menu changes often and has more to do with Parson’s creative rhythm than any culinary schedule. In the spring you may find tiny tarts of bright, virgin asparagus and thick, sexy brie but the next week it may be gone in favour of what Parsons finds new and exciting. Parson’s is a rare chef that cooks with a heart and shares it with everyone who cares to eat his food. Don’t miss this amazing dining experience.

To feast with your eyes, check this out: http://on.fb.me/ykLc4V

Peller Estate Winery Restaurant
290 John St, Niagara-on-the-Lake
888-673-5537

7 Chef's and 7 Dishes - Yum!!

My taste buds are humming and my palate is whet with excitement. There's a charity gala on March 17, 2012 at the London Convention Centre that includes 7 amazing chefs from across Canada hosted by celebrity chef Michael Smith from Prince Edward Island. London's own Alfred Estephan, Owner/Chef of the Idlewyld Inn, a beautiful old mansion that has been transformed into an elegant estate with the most luxurious bedroom amenities. I'm making a weekend out of it. Join me at the gala, meet Michael Smith, eat the best of Canada's top 7 chefs and have a great night. I'm going for the food and company and I hoping to bring some new food ideas and recipe tips back with me. http://bit.ly/y1jHra

I’ve perfected my Beef Bourgogne!!!

I’m still dreaming about my Christmas Day Beef Bourgogne I made in my little kitchen in Paris. It was so amazingly delicious that I made it again when I got home. At home, it was horrible! The second attempt was better, but not even close yet. A perfect beef Bourgogne, I’ve learned is about the quality of the ingredients as much as it is the recipe.

So I searched for the best ingredients I could find. I discovered the best beef from my local butcher, hung to perfection - it’s only $4.99 a pound, how can you not go for quality at that price! The second time I made it, it was much better than the first but simply not quite right yet. So learning from the beef, I went further.

The butcher in Paris recommended a bit of cheek in my Bourgogne and it was marvelous. So my local butcher got me cheek. Instead of regular, off the shelf flour, I had some stone ground all natural flour from Morningstar Mill in Thorold. I found little pearl onions at the market and went back to using regular white button mushrooms.

I’m not sure what the key ingredient was by OMG the Bourgogne was as spectacular as what I made in Paris! Perfecto! The sauce was sinfully rich, smooth as silk and elegantly full of flavour. The meat melted in hearty flavours while the little pearl onions creamed on the palate like silk. Aughhh, finally a dish to swoon over.

The entire experience reminded me of a time when a beautiful kitchen store graciously volunteered to make a dish out of my cookbook during my book signing. It was the Pesto Pan Chicken, a delicious and easy one skillet meal. When I arrived, they shared some concerns so I took a look. It looked so horrible I didn’t want to taste it. I suspected they added too much liquid because the entire dish was swimming. I saw no brown searing marks on the chicken either. Now I know that the chicken was injected with water that was released when cooked. The cook at the time didn’t know enough to drain the skillet of the chicken juices. You see, when you brown meat, it acquires delicious flavours, when you boil meat, it becomes bland and tough. When I made the recipe, I used chicken from the butcher so my recipe turned out very yummy.

So here’s my lesson for 2012. Buy the best ingredients you can from people who are experts in what they do. Second guess all recipe ingredients and make sure they’re the best you can buy. If you don’t, you're leaving yourself vulnerable. I'm raising my fork full of Bourgogne to toast the best quality Ontario ingredients!

Beef Bourgogne, a second attempt

Good food is worth great effort and that’s why I’m attempting Julia Child’s Beef Bourgogne twice in one week. I made it on Christmas Day in Paris with all the best ingredients I could find. It was so spectacular I just had to make it again when I was home. Unfortunately, the stewing beef I purchased at a grocery store was a disaster, but then you know that from my previous blog.

So I went to probably the best butcher in Niagara; Lakeshore Meats. Scott the butcher was sympathetic to my woes and explained why his meat will give me the results I wanted. He further ages the already aged beef, he buys from trusted sources and his meat is free from anything nasty you just wouldn’t want to eat. “Better quality meat will give you a better quality result,” he said.

So for exactly the same price ($4.99 a pound) I bought a pound of Lakeshore Meats stewing beef and a slab of pork belly. I wasn’t quite done yet, as I didn’t have the right sized pot nor did I have a sieve large enough to do the job easily.

I shopped some retail stores in Niagara but couldn’t really find what I needed. Then I remembered the restaurant supply store in Niagara Falls. I bought an exciting sieve and the perfect size Paderno pot (btw, restaurant supply stores are the perfect place to shop for everything you’ll ever need for your kitchen. There are 2 in Niagara, they’ll save you money and they’re delicious places to dig around in).

Equipped with the right tools and better quality ingredients, I made another Beef Bourgogne. I cut up the pork belly into what Julia calls Lardoons. In Paris, they sold lardoons; it was a package of pork belly already cut up.

I dried each piece of stewing meat with paper towels and got the pot to almost smoking hot. I dropped a few pieces of meat into the pot and they began to brown quickly. I turned them over and over making sure all sides were browned and like magic – no water appeared! I browned the entire pound of stewing beef with great success. Things were looking up!

Funny thing happened. I had far too much liquid so I removed 2 cups from the pot before it went into the oven. Perhaps I had more than a pound of stewing beef last time (?), hmmmm. I kept it aside just in case I needed it later. The stew simmered in the oven for 3 hours and I finished it off just as Julia wanted without the need for more sauce.

The result was amazing! The meat was tender and luscious! The meat in the previous attempt fell apart with a bit of fork pressure but I wouldn’t say it was tender because it was still stringy and the strings were chewy. This beef was actually tender, juicy and had more flavour – ok, so better ingredients make a world of difference.

What I couldn’t do was to get the sauce as velvety and luscious as my sauce in Paris. Perhaps it’s the flour. Augh, why did I leave the rest of the flour in the apartment in Paris?

While at Lakeshore Meats I asked Scott about adding cheek to Beef Bourgogne and he agreed, a bit of beef cheek make a huge difference in stews – so why is this a butchers secret! No one in Niagara carries cheek, but he was nice enough to order some for me. Yea, you guessed it, a third attempt at Julia’s Beef Bourgogne is just a week away – stay tuned. I’ll get this right yet!