Afternoon tea

Hello foodies,

Yesterday, I enjoyed an elegant, traditional tea at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier.  In addition to providing luxe accommodations and overall service, many of their locations also serve an afternoon tea.  Tea, scones, clotted cream, jam, pastries, and small savoury sandwiches. Yes, it is pretentious.  And girly.  But if you enjoy an upscale atmosphere with a light repast and a companion whose company you enjoy, it is a delightful afternoon.

I have enjoyed several Fairmont teas across the country.  Lake Louise (unparallelled scenery), the Royal York, Mont Tremblant...  It is always a pleasant time.

Sunday was no exception.  The lounge where the tea is served has high ceilings, large windows, comfortable seating. Pristine linen table cloths and napkins, fine china.  Soothing instrumental music is played. All the expected details are there.  There is nothing to interfere with witty conversation that inevitably rises to the occasion.

There are three choices as far as service goes:  the traditional, the Canadian tea, and, for children, the prince or princess tea.  Since no children were involved on this outing, I can only speak to the traditional and Canadian teas.  I opted for the Canadian, my friend A for the traditional.  The main difference between the two were the opener:  my strawberries marinated in ice wine and A's basic melon laden fruit cup.

The strawberries were perfect.  None of the greenness, hardness or tastelessness you expect of strawberries in January.  The ice wine was subtle, not lending the often harsh alcohol content often experienced when there is no cooking involved.  All in all, this was a perfect start.

Then arrived the tea.  There is a wide tea selection.  Blacks, herbals, greens, fruit teas.  During the week they actually wheel a cart around the dining room, but on weekends it is often to busy to accommodate this. I, as always, chose Lapsang Souchong, a somewhat unusual Chinese black tea with a distinctive, smokey flavour.  I am not a big tea drinker.  I generally find herbal teas to be either bland, slightly flavoured water at best, or unpleasant boiled grass at worst (I despise chamomile), or, where black tea is concerned, it is often overpowered with tannin.  For me, the Lapsang Souchong offers a pronounced, yet pleasant flavour.  I take my tea without accompaniments.  No milk, no sugar.

Then, the traditional tea tray.

Scones on the bottom, then savouries, then sweets.  I was too determined to get to the scones and actually forgot my picture taking obligations, so here you see only one scone.  In reality, there were two:  one blueberry, one plain.  A's tea came with a cranberry and plain.

Served with clotted cream and delightful strawberry preserves, in my opinion, this is the culinary highlight of the meal.  The cream is not sweet, and is heavier, more buttery than the whipped cream we're all familiar with, and works well with the strawberry jam, which has a lovely berry flavour, but is also not overwhelmingly sweet.  The scones themselves are a perfect tender texture.  All in all the trio is perfectly balanced for maximum enjoyment.

Generally, the next step would be the savouries.  But I am a student of the school of save the best for last, and for me, dessert is never the best part of a meal.  So after the scones, I moved on to the sweets.

Here we have a berry and custard tart (my favourite), a maple tartlet (far too sweet for my personal taste, though I can see it being a delight to many), and a tea cake (not bad at all - nice blend of textures through the layers, with coffee and maple flavourings).  My sweets differed from the traditional tea in the maple flavouring.  A's tray also had a berry tart, but other offerings.

I ended with the savouries.  A's tray contained the more traditional "salad" sandwiches, mine, for $7 more, had more luxurious ingredients.

The cucumber and cream cheese (lower right hand) is a nod to the traditional.  Going clockwise from there, there is a medium roast quality beef with a pickled onion and horseradish sauce, a curried chicken salad (curry chicken very nice - not overwhelming, but present and satisfying), and smoked salmon with caper.  Cucumber was my least favourite, the other three all had things to recommend, though a day later, the curried chicken sticks most firmly in my mind - good texture, excellent flavour.

Afternoon tea is a bit of a splurge.  $32 for the traditional, $39 for the Canadian.  But it is also An Experience, and one that, if you have a venue in the area offering it, is well worth checking out of you have an afternoon to spare.  For me, it is an annual indulgence.  I am lucky to have a couple of friends who enjoy the tradition as much as I!

For updates, follow me on twitter! @culinarykira

Let it go, man! Or, polenta success!

Hello foodies,

Last summer, in this blog, I identified mastering polenta as one of my cooking objectives for the coming winter.  And now, I am happy to report that as of January 13, 2014, I have achieved the desired result!

Soft, creamy polenta, the starting point, has never been the issue.  Soft polenta is incredibly easy to make.  A 4:1 ratio of water:cornmeal, then add whatever butter, cheese, seasonings you want.  Yes, there is labour involved; it needs to be lovingly stirred to get a nice texture.  But the requirement to stir does not equal difficulty.  Where I had, previously, consistently, failed is in making a crispy polenta.  While I like soft polenta, I LOVE crispy polenta.

Last weekend, wanting to take my brand new enamelled cast iron dutch oven, a Christmas gift from baby brother K, for a spin, I made braised beef short ribs.  To accompany them, I went with a soft polenta and wilted chard.

I was very pleased with this dish.  On top of being fairly pretty, the three components worked well together. Ribs, browned and braised with red wine, bacon, carrots garlic, leeks, onion, thyme, rosemary, and a bit of hot sauce, were tender and flavourful.  The wilted chard, slightly crisped on some edges, was both fresh and refreshing.  The polenta, enriched with an (un)healthy dose of butter, plus a good chevre (goat cheese), was tangy, corny and delightful  Really, the meal was an unqualified success.

(Aside: cast iron casserole/dutch oven is AWESOME.  Excellent, even cooking, easy to clean. Mine is Lagostina, and oval in shape.  While round might be more ideal, I still cannot rave enough about the virtues of an enamelled cast iron casserole.)

After this delectable meal, I was left with some polenta.  As anyone who has ever made polenta before knows, as it cools, it firms up.  So even a soft polenta, a 4:1 ratio, as I made, cools to a fairly solid mass.  A mass that can be cut into slabs and fried to golden, crispy perfection.

The key, I have found, after much trial and error, is patience.  On several previous occasions, I have cut slabs of leftover polenta, popped them into olive oiled pans, or under broilers, and hoped for a crispy result.  I had been consistently disappointed until Monday.  On Monday, after placing the slabs in a heated pan with some olive oil, I became distracted and left the pan longer than I had historically.  I returned, worried that I had ruined the polenta, only to discover that the pan-facing side was perfect.  The desired crispy golden crust was achieved, reinforcing the structural integrity needed to flip the slab without it dissolving into a shapeless, oily mess.  I left the other side to cook a comparable length of time, and the result was my polenta holy grail: crispy and textured on the outside, decadent and creamy on the inside.  The key to the perfect crispy polenta was to just let it go.  Don't fuss with it too much when it is in the pan.  Have the confidence to let it establish its crust, and then flip and let the other side go.  The result is a delightful side that is treat with many meals, and an alternative to the potato-pasta starch dichotomy.  Polenta is cheap and versatile; seasonings and cheeses can completely alter the flavour profile, making it a constant adventure.  If it is not part of your repertoire, I recommend going forth and experimenting.

Simple instructions:

4:1 ratio, water to cornmeal

Bring water to a boil.  Pour cornmeal in using a thin stream, whisking all the while.  Reduce heat to medium, and stir regularly to avoid lumps and achieve the desired consistency.  As it cooks, add salt and taste to achieve the desired seasoning.  Once the desired consistency is reached, stir in equal parts butter and cheese of your preference to taste.  With 1 c of cornmeal, I used 1/3 c each of butter and chevre.

Polenta is fairly forgiving.  Experiment with butter, cheese, herbs and spices to get your personal perfect polenta.  It can be made stiffer by using less water, and to this you can add chunks of sausage or other savoury ingredients.

To fry:

Let chill and then cut into slabs approximately 2 cm (a little less than an inch) thick.  Heat olive oil in a non-stick pan, then add the polenta cakes and let cook 7-10 minutes per side.  Season to taste and enjoy!

For updates, follow me on twitter!  @culinarykira

The Courtyard

Hello foodies,

Once again, I have been remiss.  But the busy holiday season is over, and I hope to post on a more regular schedule.  Rest assured, though I haven't been posting, I have been eating and taking pictures, and noting the thoughts that I want to share.

Today, I would like post a review of one of my favourite special occasion spots in Ottawa - The Courtyard.

I have been to The Courtyard intermittently over the years.  It has always been a place with nice atmosphere, good food, and good service.  Nice for a special occasion, but doesn't break the bank.  A few years ago, after a kitchen fire, they took the opportunity to refocus on creative, beautiful food, as I discovered on a trip there in January 2012.  That particular meal remains a highlight in my great meal memory bank.

On this most recent visit, I enjoyed the dinner.  It didn't reach the stunning heights of previous meals, but I still appreciated the quality ingredients, diverse cooking techniques, and attention to detail.

A word first on location and ambiance - to set the stage, so to speak.  The Courtyard is located in the Byward Market, in, you guessed it, a courtyard, where the open space is shared with Social, The Black Tomato, and Mama Grazzi's.  The Courtyard itself is located in an old stone building that features as part of Ottawa's haunted walk due to a history of people glimpsing a wandering Victorian woman in an upstairs window, supposedly the ghost of a woman who died in a fire many years ago.  The stone walls and high beamed ceilings give that exclusive, old world feel inside, and there are several different dining areas that run the gamut from cozy and intimate to open and spacious.

On this night, back in November, I went with frequent dining companion, L.  First up, my appetizer:

Beef cheeks in a bordelaise sauce, red wine braised onions and chives, confit potatoes, and salt cured foie gras.  The portion, as you can see, was small, but that was more than okay because of the layers and layers of richness involved.  At the bottom, you see the beef cheeks.  They had a soft, melting texture, and a great, beefy flavour.  The cheeks of almost any animal are one of my very favourite cuts, because, being a working muscle, they are so very flavourful.  Particularly suited to long, slow cooking techniques, in this case, they were cooked sous vide - that is, vacuum sealed in plastic and immersed in a water circulator at a low temperature for a long, long time: 12 hours.  Atop that, the confit potato, crispy, taking on the flavour from the duck fat in which it was confited, added texture to an otherwise all-soft dish.  The the red wine braised onions and chives, the sharpness of the onion cutting through the richness of the rest of the dish.  And finally, the jewel in the crown that was this dish, the foie gras.  Cool, creamy, unctuous.  I am a sucker for foie gras on a menu.

L's appetizer was scallops, with Jerusalem artichoke, watermelon and onion puree.  It looked beautiful, and L reported that the scallops were perfectly cooked and the dish was overall satisfying.

Normally, I try to balance my meal - if I go heavy and rich with the appeitzer, I try to go lighter and more acidic with the main.  Or I try to significantly change up the proteins to get a more varied experience.  This time, I was seduced into staying in the same vein by the words "sage polenta," which accompanied the elk (along with duck fat roasted carrots, Brussels sprouts, and onions, and a sour cherry sauce).  I've mentioned before my passion for polenta.

This was also a great dish, though, like the appetizer, rich and heavy.  Elk can be tricky - it dries out and toughens if it is cooked a moment too long, or not rested appropriately.  It is a very lean meat, and the leaner the meat, the more unforgiving it is to cook.  This was done very well, the elk moist and flavourful, the sour cherry sauce a nice counterpoint to the richness of the meat and duck fat roasted veg.  The polenta was soft, and the sage fit beautifully with the meat and sauce.  It wasn't the best polenta I have ever had, but it was a solid and satisfying version.  The polenta also had pecornio cheese, a hard sheep's milk cheese that is, increasingly, one of my favourites - blasphemy though this might be, I prefer it to parmigiano-reggiano.

L's main was somewhat of a disappointment to her.  The halibut was well cooked and delightful, but she found the risotto to have a cheez-whiz texture and flavour that was out of place and off-putting.  Visually, I would agree that it was the least appealing plate of the night, with that medium brown stripe of onion puree running across the plate.

The Courtyard is one of the few places where desserts routinely tempt me.  This is because of the interesting combination of flavours and textures on their plates, and the regular inclusion of herbal elements that, for me, are an essential counter to all the sugar.  Tonight, I went for the roasted plum and port semifreddo, with spiced balsamic reduction, candied pecan crumble, basil, and maple caramel biscotti.

You can see the attention to detail that goes into the plating.  L thought the semifreddo looked suspiciously like spam, but since I have never encountered spam in real life, this did not bother me.  The taste of the semifreddo was sharp and tart - aggressively so, but also refreshing after the richness of my earlier plates, and the basil nicely neutralized that sharpness between bites.  I found the portion far too large - one log of semifreddo was quite enough for me - and I was not fond of the jammy bits you see in the picture.

All in all, it was a very good meal.  Not the very best I have had there, but there were so many things that were done so well.  I recommend the tasting menu for people who are adventurous (that is what I had during my January 2012 visit).  In addition, they have a very affordable lunch menu for those not sure they want to commit $60 per person to dinner (without liquor).  I truly do feel that this place is under-recognized for the creativity and flair they exhibit, and I, personally, place The Courtyard among Ottawa's very best restaurants.

For updates and observations, follow me on twitter:  @culinarykira