Taralli

Taralli never appealed to me until someone brought some to work. The Italian light and crispy breadsticks were studded with fennel seeds and had a great salty bite. I fell. Hard.

I loved the fennel seeds in the taralli I tried and I thought adding these with another classic, peperoncini, would make a great combination for my first batch of taralli. I also wanted to try a less common flavour, rosemary for the second batch.  
 
Taralli
Makes about 24 breadstick-shaped taralli's.
Adapted from Babbo Ristorante and David Rocco.

I immediately wanted to try the recipe from Canadian-Italian TV host David Rocco. But I then found a recipe  from Babbo Ristorante's website, my Italian Iron Chef hero's restaurant. This recipe has more wine, white wine in this case, but I did not go to the trouble of getting 00 flour, so I adapted from both recipes since David Rocco's recipe used all-purpose flour.

▪ 250 g (½ lb) all-purpose flour
▪ 2 tsp salt
▪ ½ tsp sugar
▪ 1-½ Tbsp fennel seeds / 2 tsp crushed red pepper flakes OR 2 Tbsp fresh rosemary (roughly chopped)
▪ ¼ to ½ cup (250 ml) white wine, or as much as you need
▪ ½ cup (250 ml) extra virgin olive oil

Place the flour, salt, sugar, and flavourings of your choice in the bowl of an electric mixer.
Add the wine and oil and mix on medium speed to form a wet dough.
Add more wine and/or water as required.
Transfer the dough to a plastic container, well dusted with flour.
Sprinkle the top of the dough with more flour, cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours or overnight.

Dry ingredients for the different flavoured taralli.

Turn the dough out onto a floured board and knead lightly.
Divide the dough into two pieces.
Roll portions of the dough into long ropes, about ¾ inch in diameter.
Cut the rope into about 4" pieces. (Taralli are traditionally shaped into rings, but I chose to shape them like breadsticks. It's also less effort this way!)
Boil approximately 4-5 litress of water in a large, shallow pot.
Season the water with salt.
Drop the dough sections, about 6 at a time; the water should remain at a simmer.
The taralli will float to the top when they are done.
Gently scoop them out of the water with a slotted spoon or a Chinese skimmer, allowing them to drain for a moment in the spoon, before placing them on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper.
The dough is still pliable so straighten them to make nice breadsticks-like taralli.
While you are boiling the taralli, preheat the oven to 375 F.
Bake the taralli for 40-50 minutes, flipping them over half way through.
Remove them from the oven when they are a nice even, golden brown.
Transfer to a rack to cool completely before storing them in an airtight container.

Boiling taralli and laid down on parchment paper for baking.

Making taralli is labour intensive but the crispy and delicious finished product was more than worthwhile! While I enjoyed both batches, my favourite is still the fennel seeds one. Unfortunately, I didn't put enough chili flakes to get enough kick. I would also add more rosemary next time for more punch. (The recipe above reflects the more generous quantities.) Other great ideas for flavourings would be to roll the boiled taralli with sesame seeds, or with very finely grated Parmesan. They make a perfect pairing with a glass of wine!

Grange vin+bouffe (Montréal,QC)

120 rue McGill
Vieux-Montréal
514.394.9463
website

I made plans with my friend MC for brunch. She suggested Grange vin+bouffe, and attached this review by Montreal Breakfast Review. I was really psyched by the description of "brunch with a twist", and a small plates selection for brunch. Unfortunately, the menu had changed to a regular menu; that'll teach me to base myself on a review that's nearly two years old!

The restaurant had a hip cabin décor, with wood planks and the requisite mounted deer head. The attractive waiters were dressed in plaid shirts. I kind of wish I had worn my new deer sweater - I would have fit right in!

We each ordered the freshly squeezed orange juice ($5). It came in its own little jug (burette on the French menu) to share, but the portion really wasn't big enough to share. The juice was very fresh and tasty, but I think on the pricey side for the portion.

After answering my inquiry about the small plates menu that did not exist, the waiter suggested that most patrons ordered from the "plats signature" section. MC ordered the Surf 'n Turn ($18) for something different. The description was somewhat accurate - salmon tartar with yogurt, beef tartar with cognac, salad and croutons - but she was rather disappointed, especially compared to my large plate.

I ordered Le Fermier ($18) which was significantly bigger than my poor companion's dish. It consisted of 2 scrambled eggs, William Swiss sausage, duck rillette, maple syrup smoked meat, potatoes and fresh fruit. As I didn't know what William Swiss sausage was, MC described it as a sausage with cheese. However, there was no cheese in my sausage! Funnily (or not), this flikr photo from nearly two years ago did have cheese. This meat-heavy dish was definitely enough to fill me up, and share some with MC! I enjoyed spreading the rillette on the bread, and really liked the sweetness that the maple syrup added to the smoked meat.

I thought brunch was decent at Grange vin+bouffe, but rather pricey for what it offered. I'm told that these are in the normal range for the more popular brunch spots. I guess I'll have to get used to big city prices! I was willing to pay a premium for the unique offering of small plates (I even found the old menu here). Unfortunately, these were no longer available, and without small plates, brunch at Grange vin+bouffe no longer seemed unique.

Cartel Street Food Bar (Montréal, QC)

1433 Crescent Street
Montréal, Québec
514.985.8887
website

With the availability of deals on a weekly basis from Groupon, and in this case LivingSocial, it really gives a chance to try out different restaurants. So on Elle's $20 for $40's coupon, we headed with our family friend A to Cartel for some "street food" style eats. However, I'm not sure that I would qualify the menu items as street food, but rather as small plates, tapas style food.

Since the dishes come in small portions, we hemmed and hawed to come up with the 4 to 7 plates our nice waitress (in very short and tight shorts - I guess this is Crescent Street) suggested for 3 people. After making up our minds and about to order, the waitress told us of the specials, and we had to regroup to reconsider our choices.

Keeping the dishes in the order they appeared, the first plate that came out were the Kuala Lumpur chicken satay (3 for $4) from the "Asian Hawker" section of the menu. The star of this dish was really the peanut butter sauce, that had a slight kick and coconut note to it. They were demolished quickly by 3 hungry girls.

Next up came the Maine oysters (3 for $9) that Elle wanted. Each oyster was topped with a mignonette and quite briny. I have to admit that I haven't had oysters since I was young, when I tried one attempting to be one of the grown-ups. I think it's definitely an acquired taste, but I did really enjoy the natural savouriness of the oyster. (And if you're an oyster lover, they have a special on Tuesdays for $1 oyster with $5 sparkling wine.)

The first special of the day we ordered were the causa de langusta (2 for $7). Causa is a Peruvian dish made up of mashed potato, topped with avocado slices and in this case a bit of lobster and crispy potato sticks. We mainly ordered this dish out of curiosity. It was good, but not as exotic as expected.

Our next item of Tuna and Seaweed ($12) came from the "Salad" section. Elle had ordered it previously and raved about it. The tuna was quite good but it seemed to have been sliced a bit sloppily, resulting in unevenly thick pieces of fish. I really enjoyed the seaweed salad, which had strong sesame flavours and really want to try to replicate this salad.

We were tempted by other diners' basket of fries and decided to order our own Cartel fries ($4). The hot and crispy thick cut fries were accompanied by an addictive spicy mayo. We were quite content by our addition.

The menu includes individual portions of tacos in the "Mexican Street" section and burgers in the "American Shack" section. Our friend A really wanted a burger and we agreed on the Swiss bacon  burger ($7). Though the burger was small, we managed to split among the 3 of us. The burger was quite good with a moist patty that was generously covered with bacon and cheese. However, at $7 for the size of the burger, I think this was rather expensive. It seemed the tacos at $3-$4 were much better value.

Finally, the special that changed our original game plan, was a Teriyaki duck and pork dish ($25). The waitress and manager raved about this dish (we also overheard other tables being sold on this dish). The dish was quite impressive and the meat did taste very good. The fat was completely rendered resulting in an extremely crispy duck skin. We cleaned out this plate. Although the dish was larger than the other ones, I think $25 for 4 pieces of duck and 3 pieces of pork was on the pricey side.

I love the concept of small plates. I enjoyed the variety of food and being able to share it with my dinner mates. The food was good but I thought overall, dinner was on the pricey side, especially without a coupon, as we didn't feel quite satiated for the close to $90 we spent (before coupon, taxes and tip).

Moving (virtually and in real life)

I realized I haven't blogged in a while but I have a good reason! I moved back to Montréal about a month ago, after having been away for 10 years!

I'm really excited at the prospect of re-discovering this city and being closer to my family.

I have also taken the time to reconsider how I wanted to continue blogging. I have decided I did not want to be limited to writing just about food, and I really wanted expand to other areas of life. So I've created a new blog, Live et Learn, that I will be writing with my sister.

No worries, there will definitely be more food posts (actually, the first post is a restaurant outing!). I think I may continue to post food-related posts on this blog too, or post favourite recipes onto the new blog but I haven't quite decided.

Hope you will follow me on new adventures!

Pizzeria Libretto (Toronto,ON)

221 Ossington
Toronto, Ontario
416.532.8000
website

After our day in Toronto, including brunching at Drake Hotel and munching on mini-donuts, we met our friend V for dinner. At a colleague's recommendation, we decided to try real Neapolitan pizza at Pizzeria Libretto. The restaurant does not take reservations, so after being told that there was a 2 hour wait for a table, we decided to head back to Drake Hotel for a drink. Unfortunately, minutes after we ordered our drinks, our friend V's cell phone rang, informing her that our table was ready! It had not even been an hour! So if you do decide to try this restaurant out, take the timing with a grain of salt, and have drinks closer by!



Our friend V and her boyfriend F ordered the salumi tasting ($24) as a starter. There seemed to be a variety of cold cuts, including Ontario prosciutto. They seemed to really enjoy their sampler.


Salumi Tasting.

My sister, brother-in-law and I shared an order of butternut squash arancini ($9), served on cauliflower purée and topped with a crispy sage leaf. The deep-fried ball contained rice mixed with butternut squash that provided a creamy texture. We really liked the cauliflower purée.



Pizzeria Libretto boasts that it makes VPN (Vera Pizza Napoletana) certified pizza and bakes their pizzas for only 90 seconds at a very high heat. This gives the crust a satisfying char. I think there are clearly two camps when it comes to pizza: thin crust and thick crust. I am a thin crust girl through and through, and so Pizzeria Libretto pizza's are right down my alley.

The first Neapolitan pizza we shared was the cremini mushroom ($17). I love mushrooms, so when there is a mushroom pizza available, it is highly likely that I will order it. I loved the earthiness of the cremini mushrooms against the mozzarella, the salty gorgonzola and the sweet roasted garlic cloves.



The second pizza we shared was the house-made sausage ($16). The sausage atop our second pizza was well-seasoned and I could really taste the fennel seeds. I loved the addition of chili oil and the very crispy basil leaves. This pizza had a lot more pizzaz compared to the milder cremini mushroom pizza.



For dessert, my sister L and I debated between the tiramisu and the chocolate-amaretto budino ($7). While I do love tiramisu, it is widely available, so we ordered the budino, which ended up being an excellent choice. The budino was chocolatey and creamy, topped with chopped hazelnuts. It seemed like such an indulgence to be eating the budino with a spoon out of a jar.



Even with the timing drama before our meal, we thought Pizzeria Libretto was worth the wait. Two thumbs up from everyone!

Mini-Donuts @Little Nicky's Coffee (Toronto,ON)

375 Queen Street West
Toronto, Ontario
416.260.0500

After brunch at Drake Hotel, we shopped our legs out at the Eaton Centre and on Queen Street West. The plan is that when we'd start to feel peckish, we would go have fresh donuts! After dealing with the crowds at The Gap, we turned down the street off Queen and headed to Little Nicky's.



Little Nicky's is a small coffee shop with a handful of tables and stools at the counter. It has a French bistro like vibe and offers good quality coffee. My sister splurged and ordered the Nutella hot chocolate! My brother-in-law and I each ordered an Americano, which was freshly made by the barista who asked how much hot water to add to the 1 or 2 shot of coffee. I liked that they offered spoons instead of stir sticks; I always admire efforts to minimize waste!



I was beyond excited to order a dozen of mini-donuts ($4) that were made to order. There's a small little machine where the mini-donuts are deep fried and come off of a mini-conveyor. The donuts are then tossed in powdered sugar and cinnamon.



Preparing mini-donuts.

We were excited to dig into the paper bag of hot donuts. They were soft on the inside, crispy on the outside, with a satisfying coating of sugar and cinnamon. There are really no sufficient adjectives to describe this, are there?



For $4, you really can't beat freshly fried mini-donuts! It makes me never want to have a donut at Tim Horton's ever again! Fresh donuts should be easily available everywhere!

Brunch at Drake Hotel (Toronto,ON)

1150 Queen St West
Toronto, Ontario
416.531.5042
website

My sister and brother-in-law came for a quick visit. We spent the day in Toronto and started it off by having brunch at Drake Hotel. Drake Hotel seems to be the ultimate hipster spot for brunch (I don't really use the term hipster often, but it really seemed befitting in this case - although really, what do I know about being hip?!).



We had brunch on the café side, where we sat under a colourful bicycle frame lighting structure. We were very impressed!



My brother-in-law D started out with a pretty cappucino.



We decided to share the warm scone share plate ($8) deemed Toronto's best blueberry scones by The Toronto Star. We wholeheartedly agreed and enjoyed each bite of our buttery scones, served with a choice of clotted cream dotted with vanilla specks, whipped butter and jam. Very worthwhile ordering!


Blueberry Scones.

My sister ordered the Eggs Benedict ($13), which consisted of 2 poached eggs, smoked pork loin on toasted English muffin with hollandaise, and replaced the hand cut fries with home fries. The home fries were nicely crisp with slices of sweet onion. She really enjoyed the thick cut smoked pork loin and hollandaise sauce (on the side).


Eggs Benedict.

My brother-in-law and I decided to share the Southern fried chicken + waffles ($14.75), which seemed like a novel menu item. It was made up of a large herb waffle, fried chicken, maple syrup, crème fraîche and Niagara cherry jam. I loved the savoury fried chicken and herb waffle combined with sweet syrup and cherry jam. The fried chicken was well-seasoned with a bit of a kick from cumin (?). I really liked the big pieces of cherries; my sister scooped the leftover ones over her scone. My only issue is that I don't like things overly sweet and thought there was too much syrup. Were I to order this again, I would definitely ask for the syrup on the side.


Southern Fried Chicken + Waffles.

We really enjoyed our brunch and even came back later in the evening for drinks. It's a great spot to hit in Toronto for a meal or drinks, if you're not staying at the boutique hotel. We also checked out a combination of cool and vintage items at the General Store next door.

Roasted Broccoli with Garlic and Parmesan

My latest obsession, meaning I've had this new dish every week for the past 3 weeks, is roasted broccoli. I already love broccoli, but this recipe has helped me re-discover this vegetable. It has also replaced my go to broccoli recipe, broccoli with garlic (another Ina Garten recipe). Roasting gives the broccoli a different texture; there's more of a chewiness (instead of the hard crunch when sauteed) and the caramelized edges provide a new dimension. Adding Parmesan and salt makes it a nice savoury side dish.



Roasted Broccoli with Garlic and Parmesan
This recipe is from The Barefoot Contessa. I skip the lemon juice and it's still good. I did have pine nuts when I served this dish to guests (and it is a great addition!), but on an every day basis, I skip that also.
From Ina Garten.

* 1 brunch broccoli
* olive oil
* salt and pepper, to taste
* 1 garlic clove, minced
* 2-3 Tbsp grated Parmesan

Slice off the florets and cut up into smaller sections.
Wash under water and dry well - by laying the florets on a dish towel.
Spread the florets on a parchment lined baking sheet.
Drizzle olive oil over the florets.
Season with salt and pepper.
Roast the florets in the oven for 15 minutes at 350F.
Add the garlic and sprinkle with Parmesan; roast for another 5-10 minutes.
Serve as a yummy and healthy side dish.
Tada!


Well-dried florets to be roasted.

This recipe is so easy. The trick to getting the best texture is making sure the florets are dry. Either dry the florets after washing, or even prep the broccoli on the previous night to allow it to dry out. Be ready to become obsessed!


Roasted broccoli.

More broccoli recipes:
* Broccoli with Garlic
* Stir Fried Broccoli on Pan Fried Cantonese Noodles

Kindfood (Burlington, ON)

399 John St.
Burlington, Ontario
905.637.2700
website

My colleague K and I went to check out Kindfood, a vegan restaurant in Burlington. Kindfood serves strictly vegan and organic food. Their motto is "Good food ain't cheap and cheap food ain't good."



After seating ourselves, we went to order by checking out the chalkboard. I was disappointed to hear that they had run out of the Morrocan Quinoa Salad. Instead, I decided to try out the OMG Grilled Cheeze ($8.95), while K ordered a bowl of tomato and garbanzo soup (I think).


OMG Grilled Cheeze ($8.95).
The Grilled Cheeze, served with a salad, is made up of Daiya cheese, which is mainly made of cassava. I had heard that the Grilled Cheeze was very good but I'm not sure I believed it. I have to admit that I thought it was very satisfying and it would definitely hit the spot if I had a grilled cheese craving. The Daiya cheese even oozed and stretched like real cheese!

I had a taste of K's soup and it was very good too. I really enjoyed the spicing that ensured the soup was not bland.


Grilled cheeze and soup.

K and I decided to bring cupcakes ($3.50 each I think) back to the office. After K got a dulce de leche, I spotted half-price day old cupcakes and got the red velvet and grasshopper mint ones. We weren't sure if it was the specific flavours but the day old cupcakes seemed on the drier side. I think I would stick to the freshly made ones next time. The icing was really good.


Vegan cupcakes.

Clearly based on this blog, I am not a vegan or a vegetarian. However, I do think that most people eat too much meat. I am definitely not averse to eating less meat, or dairy, sometimes. Kindfood is a great way to introduce vegan foods to those who are not familiar with it.