Food Musings

A Winnipeg blog about the joy of preparing food for loved ones and the shared joy that travel & dining brings to life.

529 Revisited

December5

When you are able to reacquaint with good friends that you have not had the occasion to visit with in a while, it really doesn’t matter where you go or what you eat, does it?  The company was the most important thing and yet here we were tucked into a cozy corner table in the back dining room at 529 Wellington.  Because I have been acquainted with the WOW! Hospitality folks for many years, it was like coming home with lots of embraces and hugs.  I even was able to meet a twitter follower IRL (in real life).  She recognized me from my thumbnail photo and I was so glad that she introduced herself.

The room is warm and beautifully appointed and you can easily imagine the grand dinners that must have been common place in the restored mansion.  Our waiter was impeccable and did his best not to intrude upon our intimate conversations.  We all chose beef specials as they were relayed by our server:

Calf Liver on Mashed Potatoes

 the calf’s liver with onions on mashed potatoes,

a Caesar salad topped with grilled tenderloin and enormous shards of Parmesan cheese

and an open-faced rib eye steak sandwich with sauteed mushrooms.  The flavours of the steak were rich and deep and even though the beef was extremely well trimmed, my taste buds found a nugget of fat the was silky smooth and absolutely sublime.  My lunch reminded me of the way in which my Dad would enjoy his steak-nothing fussy or complicated: just the finest cut with lots of age and a little bit of seasoning.  I have never seen the kitchen of 529 so I do not know how their steaks are prepared but I imagined that it would have been seared in a hot pan or over a hot flame to seal in the juices and then carefully watched until the perfect doneness was achieved.  I tasted salty butter on the accompanying mushrooms and if I am not mistaken on the steak as well.  Unadorned and divine. And don’t worry about me, I did get my quota of veggies later in the day.

I may try the beef carpaccio next time, remembering back to when Doug Stephen, one of the owners of the restaurant first opened a bistro in the basement of the Travellers Building, named Cibo’s. I remember their carpaccio from our first wedding anniversary dinner.  Fine dining and fine beef have always been a part of our lives. 

The menu states that less than 1% of all Canadian beef available is graded Canada Prime and that all the beef at 529 is as such.  No wonder our lunch was so very good.

529 Wellington on Urbanspoon

Kath’s quote: “The quality of food is in inverse proportion to the altitude of the dining room, with airplanes the extreme example.”-Bryan Miller

Love-that is all.

Java Jive Slow Cooker Pot Roast

December4

There are so many reasons why I decided to make this Pot Roast recipe last evening.

1) My slow cooker was sitting right there on the counter.  I go through cooking spurts with certain appliances.  Right now I am in immersion blender mode: turnips and mashed potatoes last evening.  And anything that I can think of cooking in my brand new slow-cooker.

2) As we move closer to Christmas when we get a bit “turkeyed” out, beef provides a welcome change of tastes.

3) Speaking of turkey though, we already had one roasting in the oven for Sister #3 who puts on a dinner every year for the volunteers of  Winnipeg Havest.  Because the oven was occupied for the day, a slow-cooker recipe was the perfect choice.

Gang at Supper Table

4 ) Last night was Mandatory Sunday Supper at our house and I always try to prepare something particularly economical so that I can afford to package up the left overs and send a couple of meals home with our kids to help out with their busy lives (and their grocery bills).

5) D and I had tried a coffee rubbed steak at a tappas restaurant in the states this summer and I have been searching for a coffee/beef recipe that would equally satisfy.

6) There were roast tweets all afternoon on my twitter feed Friday and I could not stop thinking about the aroma of roasting beef filling my house.

7) I wanted to give my new talking digital meat thermometer a test drive.  Wow-this device takes all of the guess work out of roasting meat.  The gadget was absolutely precise when the beef was at our desired doneness and even spoke to me in a polite voice!

8) I seared the roast early in the morning, threw it into the slow-cooker and then was free to focus on my family and other tasks for the rest of the day (like trimming the Christmas tree).  I didn’t even have to make gravy, as this recipe makes its own!

9) I had the pleasure of working with Sally Vaughan Johnston this week when she was in Winnipeg and wanted to try another recipe from her “Best of Bridge Slowcooker Cookbook”.  So far she is 5 for 5, everything has worked out delicious and effortless.

10) We are going to need the energy that beef provides to get us through the week ahead: another major food-styling job for me and an annual Christmas dinner for a charity that we support that D caters each year.

 

Java Jive Slow Cooker Pot Roast
Author: 
Recipe type: Entree
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 6-8
 
Coffee is the subtle secret to this great tasting dish. Serve with mashed sweet potatoes.
Ingredients
  • 8 cloves garlic, lightly crushed
  • 3 carrots, chopped
  • 2 stalks celery, chopped
  • 1 large onion, thinly sliced
  • 1 bonesless chuck, blade or cross rib roast (3-4 lbs.)
  • salt and pepper
  • 1 t canoa oil
  • ¼ c all purpose flour
  • ¼ c packed brown sugar
  • 1 t dried thyme
  • 1 c strong brewed coffee
  • ½ c beef broth
  • ¼ c tomato paste
  • 3 T worchershire sauce
  • 1 T red wine vinegar
Instructions
  1. In a 5-6 qt. slow cooker, combine garlic, carrots, celery and onion. Season beef well with salt and pepper.
  2. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium high heat.
  3. Add beef and brown on all sides.
  4. Transfet to slow cooker.
  5. In a bowl, whisk together flour, brown sugar, thyme, 1 t salt, ¼ t pepper, coffee, broth, tomato paste and worcherstershire sauce.
  6. Pour over beef.
  7. Cover and cook onlow for about 8 hours or on high for about 4 hours until beef is tender.
  8. Transfer beef to a cutting board, cover loosely with foil.
  9. Let rest for 10 minutes.
  10. Stir vinegar into sauce and adjust seasonings.

Kath’s Tips: 1) The oven was already pre-heating for our turkey so I browned the roast in the oven instead of as the recipe suggests. Why waste electricity? 2) A meat thermometer means that your meat will cook to exactly the desired temperature. Mine is a Brookstone brand Grill Alert. A little pricier than the grocery store variety but so worth it! It even has a remote feature so that we could take the receiver downstairs with us and hear the signal over top of the sound of the Viking’s game on the big screen.  3) There are so many good recipes and cooking suggestions on the Beef Info site.

Kath’s quote: “In the childhood memories of every good cook, there’s a large kitchen, a warm stove, a simmering pot and a mom.” -Barbara Costikyan

Love-that is all.

 

Slow Cooker Apple Cranberry Cake

December3

I had the pleasure this week of working with Sally Vaughan Johnston while she was in Winnipeg promoting the Best of Bridge Slowcooker Cookbook.  As a food stylist I prepared the recipe in advance and then assembled the ingredients to take to CITY TV and CTV to be included in Sally’s on camera appearances.  The recipe itself is a breeze and comes out beautifully.

Apple Cranberry Cake Recipe

The batter is spread into the bottom of the slow cooker, then the fruit goes on top with melted butter pored over all.  The lid goes on and you just forget about it. While baking, the aromas of apples, cranberry,  brown sugar and cinammon are as pleasurable as a tri-wicked ented candle from Bed and Bath.


Slow Cooker Apple Cranberry Cake
Author: 
Recipe type: Dessert
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 4-6
 
The perfect flldessert. You can nap while it cooks. Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.
Ingredients
  • 1¼ c flour
  • ¾ c sugar
  • 1 t cinammon
  • ½ t salt
  • 1 egg, at room temperture
  • ½ c 2% or whole milk
  • 1 t vanilla extract
  • grated zest of one orange
  • 2 apples, peeled and chopped
  • 1 c cranberries. thawed if frozen
  • ¼ c orange marmalade
  • ¼ melted butter
Instructions
  1. Grease the insert of a 3½ - 4 qt. slow cooker.
  2. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, cinammon and salt.
  3. In another bowl, whisk together egg, milk, vanilla and pour over flour mixture and stir until evenly combined.
  4. Spread batter in prepared slow cooker.
  5. In a bowl, combine apples, canberries and marmalade.
  6. Arrange on top of batter.
  7. Pour butter over top.
  8. Cover and cook on hight for 2 to 2½ hours, until apples are tender and a tester inserted in the centre of the cake comes out clean.
  9. Turn off slow cooker, remove lid and let stand for 15 minutes before removing cake.

Slow Cooker Apple Cranberry Cake

The tartness of the cranberries and orange peel in the marmalade beautifully offset the slight sweetness of the hearty cake.

Kath’s tip: I let the cake cool completely in the crock and then pulled the cake away from the crock with a spatula.  When the time came to plate it, I used a large serving spoon that I had purchased at an Asian food store for serving rice.  Sally indicated that it had come out more neatly than she had seen it previously.

Kath’s quote: Cranberries-“The Indians and English use them much, boyling them with Sugar for Sauce to eat with their Meat, and it is a delicious sauce.” –John Josselyn, 1663

Love-that is all.

 

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