It has been over three months since my last post! Damn, I knew it had been a while, didn’t realize it was that long though. Work, wedding planning and general laziness have taken over lately; but rest assured, I have still been eating well. I’ve got a mental back log of pics, recipes and a few new restaurant experiences that I need to get on here.
I’ll be back at it soon…
It’s been a while since my last post. But rest assured that I have been eating well. Today’s post is a dish inspired by the famous lobster spaghetti at one of my favourite restaurants, Joe Beef. Truth be told, I didn’t love the dish when I had it there (the price definitely had something to do with that, maybe also the fact that I’m not really a fan of spaghetti) but I did love the idea. Pasta, lobster meat and cream sauce, how can you go wrong? So I looked up a few recipes online, made a few tweaks and came up with my version. Full disclosure: it’s pretty close to the Joe Beef recipe, which I found here.
I’m trying out a new format for the recipe here, let’s see how it goes…
Suggested wine pairing: Buttery chardonnay all the way. A bottle of Château St-Jean Chardonnay from California was perfect.
The Result
This dish has a lot of cream and a lot of lobster, how could it not be good? Lobster meat is lobster meat, so as long as you’re dealing with fresh lobster you know that’s going to be good. Same goes for the bacon bits. And the saffron and brandy make a basic garlic cream sauce that much more tasty. Really simple and really delicious.
More pics:
We eat a lot of oysters at home. Like most food items in my life, I usually get my oysters at Atwater Market. Recently (or maybe I only noticed recently), they have started carrying Colville Bay oysters. The first time I tried one was during a particularly raucous dinner at Joe Beef, and I was immediately hooked. Since that time they have been my go to oyster, so I thought I’d share a couple of words.
Colville Bay oysters are grown in Colville Bay, Prince Edward Island and harvested by the aptly named Colville Bay Oyster Company, a family owned company. What’s so good about them? In a couple of words – plump, firm, a bit sweet, briny but not too salty and just really clean. If you’ve never had that clean fresh taste of the sea experience that oyster lovers always rave about then get your hands on a Colville Bay and you’ll see what all the fuss is about. I absolutely love the taste of these things. The quality control also seems to be top notch, I can’t remember ever getting a “dud”. And if that’s not enough, they’re not bad to look at (as far as oysters go), with their distinctive tear drop shaped jade / emerald coloured shells. In doing a bit of research I’ve discovered that these oysters have something of a cult following. Given that I’m dedicating a post to them, it looks like I might be ready to join that cult.
Next time you’re picking up oysters at your fish market or ordering in a restaurant keep an eye out for Colville Bays. They’re the best.
Pupusas are one of my new “things”. I discovered them this summer and immediately became a fan. A pupusa is a traditional Salvadoran dish composed of a fried corn tortilla stuffed with one or more of the following fillings: cheese, pork, chicken, beans or loroco. They come served with curtido (a coleslaw like concoction) and a thin tomato salsa; spicy sauce is optional. Last Saturday my fiancée and I stopped in for a quick pupusa lunch at La Carreta, a Salvadoran restaurant on Saint Zotique and one of many in the area. This was our second visit. Continue reading
Braising meat is so easy. As much as I love cooking a perfect medium rare steak, it can be stressful – one minute too much or too little can have a real impact on the finished product. When you’re braising for hours there is no such concern, it’s practically fool proof. And with such a long cooking process, there’s plenty of time for flavours to develop. One of the best braised meats I can think of are lamb shanks. Who doesn’t love fall off the bone tender chunks of well seasoned lamb? I came up with this recipe as I do most, by throwing together a few ingredients that I thought would work well together, seasoning with care and paying attention to the details. Continue reading
It has been a while since my last post, but worry not, I’ve been up to some good eating lately; both at home and out. A few weeks ago I finally made my way to a restaurant that had been on my list for a while now – Tuck Shop. It’s the kind of place (seasonal market cuisine w/ a short menu) that just seemed like it would be right up my alley, so I went in with high expectations. Continue reading
Last week I was on vacation with plenty of time on my hands and in the mood to make a serious meal on a Thursday evening. Something that would take a bit more time and effort than usual. I had a few ideas in mind – 1) make homemade pasta, 2) top it with something braised and 3) make use of ‘nduja (the spicy Calabrese sausage introduced to me a while back by a chef friend of mine). Thus was born this homemade pappardelle with ‘nduja and braised rabbit. Continue reading
I feel like I am always looking for good Pad Thai in Montreal (often without success). So, when on a recent rainy Saturday my girlfriend randomly suggested C Thai (she was looking for a BYOW in Little Italy for another purpose when she stumbled onto it) and my diligence turned up this review from Shut Up and Eat proclaiming C Thai’s rendition of the famous noodle dish as the best Pad Thai in Montreal, I was intrigued. Continue reading
Seared scallops are really simple to prepare (despite what Hell’s Kitchen would have us believe) and really delicious. Anyone who has read this blog knows I’m all about simple and delicious, so these are right up my alley. There are so many recipes out there for basic seared scallops, so for a little value add I’ve included a (you guessed it, simple) recipe for a strawberry basil salsa that you can use to take them up a notch. This is a dish that can be prepared in about 10 minutes and is sure to impress. Continue reading
It has been a while since my last post. Even though I’ve actually been quite busy cooking lately the ridiculous weather we’ve been experiencing in Montreal has prevented me from getting in front of the computer. Today I’d like to share a recipe that I recently came up with for a simple mushroom pasta dish. As a general rule, basic mushroom pasta is good. Sticking with my M.O., I set out to take the dish up a notch by using high quality ingredients – shitake and chanterelle mushrooms, Caccio di Bosco cheese, truffle oil and fresh fettuccine, all from Atwater market, of course. Continue reading
