Fourth of July Bash

Break out the fat pants, EGS cooked up American cuisine for its summer meeting. Think comfort food. Lots and lots of good old-fashioned, rich, heart-stopping comfort food. We should have had a cardiologist on stand-by.

Katherine and Tim hosted the meeting at their house on July 2, so of course we also celebrated America’s Big Day: the Fourth of July. For our token American, Kate, we broke out the red, white and blue. We also invited a special guest, Brendan’s sister, Carmen. With another judge in the mix, the pressure was definitely on. 

Katherine began the appetizer round with her ode to Mickey Ds, a Bic Mac slider. She served it with a buttermilk onion ring. Tim paired the dish with another American classic, Coca-Cola.

Sabrina went next with her gourmet take on the Philly Cheesesteak.  She served beef carpaccio on mini-sour dough rolls with cheese espuma, chives and smoked sea salt. They were so pretty and yummy. Aaron whipped up a Bud Light Lime slushie to go with the appetizer.

Brendan rounded out the first round with another “heart healthy” option: deep-fried, bacon wrapped mac and cheese. They were little pieces of heaven fried in peanut oil. Kate made a pitcher of spiked Kool-Aid to go with it.

After the votes were tallied, Katherine’s fast-food classic clinched the appetizer round.

The next round almost killed us. Take Katherine’s main course – fried chicken and waffles. She used Thomas Keller’s fried chicken recipe. The acclaimed American chef serves a version of fried chicken and waffles at one of his many high-end restaurants. Tim offered two drink selections, either Pabst Blue Ribbon beer or Jack Daniel’s iced tea.

Sabrina also picked a southern American classic for her main – a Carolina pulled pork sandwich with homemade smoky BBQ sauce. She served it with a baked mac and cheese loaded with bacon, panko crumbs, thyme and parsley. Aaron paired the dish with refreshing strawberry basil lemonade.

The round ended with Brendan’s dish: a steak sandwich served with a roasted red pepper and gorgonzola spread on a homemade ciabbata bun. The sandwich was topped with caramelized onions and arugula. On the side were homemade potato chips (I could have eaten an entire bag!). Brendan made the chips by thinly slicing Yukon potatoes and then frying them  in peanut oil. Kate helped Brendan out by making the buns and sandwich spread. She also went above and beyond the call of duty in the drink department by make beer hats for the boys and decorated plastic wine glasses for the girls.

In the end, it was a neck-and-neck race between Sabrina and Brendan. B’s steak sandwich eventually won out. Thanks to Kate for bringing decorations and dessert — a patriotic JELL-O poke cake.

THE SCOREBOARD

Brendan: 6
Katherine: 5
Sabrina: 6

Brendan’s Big Win

We met at Brendan and Kate’s for the beginning of the 2011 EGS season on April 23. The appetizer was a tricky proposition — it could only contain five ingredients.

Brendan pulled out the win by using these five ingredients:

1) Tuna
2) Soy sauce
3) Wasabi
4) Ginger
5) Mayo

Using those ingredients, he made simple but elegant tuna skewers served with ginger and a wasabi dip. He marinated the tuna in soy sauce before lightly cooking it in oil (cooking oils and salt and pepper didn’t count as ingredients). 

Kate paired his dish with a ginger saketini. Sooooooooo tasty.

Sabrina came in second with her tuna appetizer. She used:

1) Tuna
2) White onions
3) Ponzu sauce
4) Green onion
5) White truffle oil

She made tuna tataki served on white onions, ponzu sauce and infused with white truffle oil. Green onions served as a garnish. The dish was both tasty and beautiful.

Aaron paired the tuna tataki with Sapporo beer.

Kat finished out the appetizer round by using:

1) Flour
2) Eggs
3) Butter
4) Boursin cheese
5) Cream

All simple ingredients but together it became spaetzle, a delicious German dumpling dish. I bought a spaetzle maker at Call the Kettle Black in Edmonton.

Tim paired my dish with a buttery white wine.

For the main course round, Brendan also came up with the win. We were tasked with making a veal dish and B. treated us to veal scaloppini and a warm potato salad.

His veal was coated in bread crumbs and herbs and then cooked in butter. It was topped with charred radicchio, arugula and other greens, along with thinly sliced cheese.

Kate paired his dish with a white wine.

Kat came in second with a slightly different spin on veal saltimbocca. Instead of just using prosciutto, she also slipped in a piece of buffalo mozzarella during the frying process. Heavenly. She served it with an arugula and white onion salad dressed in a lemon vinaigrette. Tim paired the dish with a light Greek beer. While saltimbocca is an Italian dish, he wanted to try something different. It was a good gamble.

Sabrina finished out the meal with her take on veal saltimbocca. She served it with poutine topped with a veal reduction sauce and garlic chili broccolini. Aaron paired the dish with a crisp French white wine.

Thanks to Kate & Brendan for hosting.
The next meeting is scheduled for July 2 at Kat and Tim’s house. The theme: “American cuisine.”

Bring on the Fourth of July party!

THE SCOREBOARD

Brendan: 5
Katherine: 4
Sabrina: 6

Spice Heaven

Spices are often the heart and soul of cooking. Used properly, they can take any dish to the next level, particularly with Indian cuisine. Earlier this month, I tried out a butter chicken recipe I borrowed from a friend. The recipe required a field trip to a southeast Asian supermarket, Sabzi Mandi, to pick up all the ingredients. That place is a must-shop for any serious foodie in Edmonton. Their spice aisle alone is reason enough to make the drive to Millwoods.

Simply Complicated

The EGS 2011 Season kicks off on April 23 at Kate and Brendan’s house. They have picked a theme they like to call “Simply Complicated.” 

Here is their email with the rules:

After many hours of deep thought, I have finally decided on the next EGS theme: “Simply Complicated”

The rules are as follows:

1. Simple Appetizer: The appetizer must be made with 5 ingredients or less. While salt and pepper do not need to be included in the ingredient list, everything else will count. That means all sauces, spices, and accompaniments will count. So, choose your ingredients wisely to ensure gastronomic success.
2. Veal Main: The main can be as complicated as you like, but it must include veal.

As always, spouses are requested to pair both the appetizer and main with a beverage of their choosing. The beverage pairing for the appetizer will not be included in the 5 ingredient maximum.

The battle will take place at the Storey’s Kitchen Stadium on Saturday, April 23rd starting at 5:00pm.

Allez cuisine!
B&K

2010 in review

The stats helper monkeys at WordPress.com mulled over how this blog did in 2010, and here’s a high level summary of its overall blog health:

The Blog-Health-o-Meter™ reads This blog is doing awesome!.

Crunchy numbers

The Leaning Tower of Pisa has 296 steps to reach the top. This blog was viewed about 1,200 times in 2010. If those were steps, it would have climbed the Leaning Tower of Pisa 4 times

In 2010, there were 15 new posts, growing the total archive of this blog to 18 posts. There were 39 pictures uploaded, taking up a total of 41mb. That’s about 3 pictures per month.

The busiest day of the year was March 9th with 31 views. The most popular post that day was A clean sweep.

Where did they come from?

The top referring sites in 2010 were acanadianfoodie.com, ugonnaeatthat.com, palatebliss.com, crispandchewy.wordpress.com, and facebook.com.

Some visitors came searching, mostly for edmonton gastronomic society, arriba mexico edmonton, tapas, greek yogurt edmonton, and www.edmontongastronomicsociety.ca.

Attractions in 2010

These are the posts and pages that got the most views in 2010.

1

A clean sweep March 2010

2

Arriba Mexico December 2009

3

EGS Primer December 2009
1 comment

4

Basil blues? February 2010

5

The society begins December 2009
1 comment

Tips for your inner wine snob

Christmas is creeping up and that means the festive season of parties, food and drink is set to begin.

Wine is often a bit of mystery for most folks but this cheeky and fun article by The Globe’s Beppi Crosariol helps vino lovers sort out all the lingo and snob talk that sometimes comes along with uncorking a bottle. 

A side note: I used to sit beside Beppi when I worked at the paper’s Toronto office before I was sent out west. We were all jealous of him because boxes and bottles of booze used to be regularly delivered to his desk. In the journalism world, that’s about as good as it gets!

Cheese, please!

A new cheese shop has opened in E-town. We can’t wait to check it out.