Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon (Mirabel, QC)

11382 Rang de la Fresnière
St-Benoît de Mirabel, Québec
450.258.1732
website

One of the most sought after reservation is the limited run Cabane à Sucre (or sugar shack) by reknown Restaurant Au Pied de Cochon in Montréal. Reservations are available on December 1st and are usually filled on the same day. By winter time before they are ready to open, the restaurant contacts the first ones on the list to confirm reservations. As there are cancellations, they work their way down the waiting list of food enthusiasts. That is how I got my chance at Cabane à Sucre Au Pied de Cochon, when my friend MC was contacted and transferred her reservation to me. (Her friend was contacted a few weeks before, and she went with him, not taking a chance on whether she'd be eventually called or not).

My sister Elle, our friend Em and I arrived at 6 pm sharp, as we were told not to be late as we were going to be sharing dishes, family style. People were already seated and some already eating, so I assume seating was slightly staggered. While the waiters took care of the other tables, it took us a while to get our drink order. Three drink choices were offered, and I picked the daiquiri à l'érable ($10), which was a great start to our maple syrup themed meal.

We were seated at a table of 10. The group of 6 next to us had started getting their food, while we were grouped with another diner who came all the from Québec City for this feast. Please note at this point that this means all the food coming next were served for four people (and four not very big women at that!). We watched our neighbours enviously as they received their food; it seemed particularly cruel to make you wait for food when you can see and smell what others are eating.

Finally, the appetizers, all 3 of them, arrived.

The maki à l'esturgeon was made up of nori, topped with rice, fried sturgeon, a (maple?) sauce and gold flecked oreilles de crisse (a cabane à sucre standard). I'm not sure the gold leaf stood out while we ate, but it sure looks nice in pictures! Elle and I really enjoyed this dish, but I tried to limit myself to one square, as I knew much more food was coming.

The next appetizer consisted of a large dish of house terrine of creton (made up of offal, sweetbread, boudin, tongue), an endive salad and buckwheat crêpes. The crêpe eaten with a goat cream cheese and a bit of creton was really good. Admittedly, while I like the idea of not wasting any meat and eating nose to tail, I was not too keen on the mysterious pieces of meat in the terrine and preferred the goat cream cheese. The endive salad was a good accompaniment to the fatty terrine.

The last appetizer was hareng fumé (smoked herring) on top of very thinly sliced potatoes, served with pickled onions. The potatoes were very good but the herring was a bit too fishy for my taste.

Next came the omelette soufflée à l'homard (lobster omelette) presented in typical Au Pied de Cochon style; the omelette was covered with in-house smoked meat and a lobster shell. Pieces of lobster were strewn throughout the fluffy omelette. We had read a recent blog post about asking for containers to take home, and cut out omelette pieces that made for perfect breakfast the following day.

Next up was the very decadent foie gras vol-au-vent, and because foie gras isn't sufficient, the puff pasty was also stuffed with Victor et Berthold Brie cheese, a béchamel sauce, leeks and ham. When we sliced into it, a messy combination of Brie and foie gras oozed out. To balance the fattiness, the vol-au-vent was topped with watercress and apple slices - and the another fatty layer of oreilles de crisse. I really liked the apple slices and watercress combined with the fatty fillings. One very small slice of vol-au-vent went a long way.

Since tables were at various stages of the meal, we got previews of what was to come. One very impressive dish (again in very typical PDC fashion) was the braised duck, topped with onion rings and dramatically stabbed through with a knife. The duck was served with a complete addictive parsnip purée. Elle had the deft hands to cut the duck into four beautiful portions, and it was absolutely one of my favourite dishes of the night.

Accompanying the braised duck, was a plate of pork flank and pork butt (well, porcelet, which translates to baby pork), served with cabbage dressed with maple, and a strong Dijon mustard. At this point in the meal, we were getting ridiculously stuffed so sliced a piece of pork 3 ways. The pork was perfectly cooked and I wish there was more cabbage to enjoy - but vegetables are definitely not served in excess at a PDC meal.

Again, it bears repeating that all this food was served for four people only!!! We packed up the rest to go.

The two meat dishes were served with another cabane à sucre standard, fèves au lard (baked beans). With a twist to the traditional, braised duck thighs were cooked with the beans and topped with ricotta. Note that the Creuset pot was quite large and filled with beans. Our fourth dining companion was not interested in beans at all, and we only ate a little as we were also stuffed. While I did bring some home and it made quite a good lunch, I did have to wonder if this amount of beans at each table was wasted (yes, I can't believe I'm complaining that there's too much food).

While we were all satiated, we also knew that the best part of cabane à sucre was coming: dessert! Not just desserts, but dessert doused in maple syrup. The main dessert was a maple sundae, with tire à l'érable stuck in. If you've never gone to a sugar shack, tire à l'érable is traditionally the last treat after the meal. This was my favourite as a child. It is served outside where there are wooden stands filled with snow. A person comes out with molten maple syrup and pours it onto the snow. Every person is provided with a stick, and you have to wrap your stick with the syrup that is starting to slightly  harden.  The syrup is sweet, hot and still fluid so if you don't eat it quickly enough, it will fall off of your stick. For someone who doesn't love sweet things, I would always go for seconds as I knew this was only an annual treat.

The maple ice cream was so good, and had pieces of homemade chocolate candy. Surrounding the sundae were maple éclairs, maple barbe à papa (the French term for cotton candy meaning dad's beard) and little cones stuffed with homemade maple marshmallow. There were also two very large danoises au beurre d'érable (maple butter Danish) that were packed home.

Saving the best for last, my favourite dessert were crêpes fried in duck fat, doused in maple syrup. I wondered with my sister how the duck fat made the crêpes better. At a higher frying temperature, the duck fat made the crêpes ultra crispy and deceivingly light. It did not matter how full I was, I could have eaten much more of this!

As my friend MC, who visited a few weeks prior, commented, abundance was the theme of the night. I could add excess and decadence to that. No doubt the food was very good and you definitely got your money's worth. I just wouldn't have necessarily picked all the dishes served but it's a good way of trying new things. I also think that such an abundance of food encourages waste, which I dislike.

We were a bit disappointed by the service too. It was a full house, and the waiters were understandably busy. However, we did wait very long for our food at the beginning, and for dessert at the end, when the second seating started to arrive. In addition, we had ordered half a tourtière that never came, even though we asked about it a few times. While we didn't need more food, we really wanted to try PDC's spin on another Québécois classic, and would have taken some home. When we mentioned this to our main server at the end of the meal, she didn't even really apologize for forgetting it, and just shrugged it off, saying a mistake must have happened in the kitchen.

All in all though we were happy to have gotten a chance to enjoy this special meal. At $57 per person, I don't think I would go every year but you definitely get fed what you pay. It's a great way to experience a cabane à sucre meal with a PDC twist. The meats (pork and duck) and desserts were definitely the highlights for me.

There was still some availability this season when they called me, so it's worth e-mailing if you're interested this year (they do take a bit of time to get back to you). They also mentioned that it's easier to seat a party of two, as you can sit at the bar. If not this year then remember to reserve early for next year's cabane à sucre Au Pied de Cochon.

Other 2012 Cabane à Sucre PDC posts:
* Foodie Date Night
* La Clique du Plateau
* Montcarte

Squash Lasagna

I check out the blog Lake Jane every day for design, fashion, and food posts. I ♥ it. Best of all, Marie-Ève is based in Montréal. While I was salivating over the pictures of "squash cream", my sister Elle was making plans to actually make this recipe.

Squash Lasagna - Serves 4
From Lake Jane.

Homemade Pasta
From Joy of Cooking: All about Pasta & Noodles.
The quantities were reduced to about two servings of pasta, but this was still a bit too much pasta for the lasagna.

▪ 1-½ all purpose flour
▪ 2 eggs
▪ ¼ tsp salt (optional)
▪ ¼ tsp extra-virgin olive oil
▪ water, as needed

Pour flour onto a clean counter (or a big bowl), shaping into a mound and make a well in the center.
Add to the well, the eggs, salt and olive oil.
Beat the eggs lightly with a fork, drawing in some flour as you go, until the eggs are mixed and slightly thickened.
Using the fingertips of one hand, gradually incorporate the flour into the eggs and blend everything into a smooth, not too stiff dough.
If the dough feels too dry and crumbly, add water as needed.
Knead the dough until satiny and very elastic, 5-10 minutes.
Divide the dough into 2 pieces and wrap the pieces loosely in plastic.
Shape one of the pieces into a flat rectangular piece.
Adjusting to the widest opening, pass the dough through the rollers, turning the handle to roll it through.
Fold the sheet in two, sprinkle lightly with flour and pass the pasta through the same rollers a second time.
Repeat folding the pasta in two and rolling 3-4 times, sprinkling with flour if the pasta gets sticky.
Reduce the spacing between the rollers to the next level and pass the sheet of dough through the rollers.
Continue reducing the space between the rollers by one notch at a time; if the sheet of dough gets too long, cut the pasta sheet in half, to make it easier to roll.
Roll the pasta sheet until you reach the thinnest setting.
Cut the pasta sheet into pieces that will fit the baking dish you'll be using.
Cook enough pasta sheets in boiling, salted water to make 3 or 4 layers (don't lay them on top of each other or they will stick). If there is too much pasta, it can be frozen for future use.
Set aside for lasagna.

These pics are from the fresh egg pasta post.

Brown Butter and Crispy Sage
▪ 2 tbsp of butter
▪ 12 or so fresh sage leaves

Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium-high heat.
As soon as it starts to turn a tan color, drop the sage leaves in and fry in the brown butter.
Remove the pan from the heat as soon as your butter is a beautiful nutty color and you smell the sage. Place the sage leaves on a paper towel and save the butter.

Squash Cream
We couldn't find butternut squash so used an acorn squash with yummy results. After making the squash filling (or "squash cream" as Lake Jane refers to it), we had to sample it and were instantly addicted to the creaminess!

▪ 1-½ acorn squash (or butternut squash like the original recipe), roasted
▪ olive oil
▪ salt and pepper, to taste
▪ Grated fresh Parmesan
▪ Brown butter
▪ 2 Tbsp of milk (because we didn't have cream, but cream would make it better!)

Cut the acorn squash in two, and take out the seeds.
Slice the squash into crescent shape pieces and place them on a baking sheet.
Drizzle with olive oil.
Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes until the squash slices are cooked through.
Once the pieces of squash are cool enough to handle, remove the skin, and place the roasted squash in a food processor.
Add the Parmesan, brown butter and milk in the food processor, and blend together.
Taste and adjust seasoning as required.

 Ingredients for the squash cream (oops forgot to take a pic of the actual squash cream!)

Walnut Crumble
▪ ¼ cup of roughly chopped walnuts▪ 1 clove of garlic
▪ salt

In a food processor, pulse the walnuts, coarse salt and garlic forming a crumble.
Set aside.

Ricotta Filling
▪ 1 cup of ricotta
▪ salt and pepper

Season the ricotta with salt and pepper to taste.

Putting the lasagna together
▪ Olive oil
▪ Cooked homemade pasta sheets (or store-bought lasagna sheets)
▪ Squash Cream
▪ Ricotta filling
▪ Walnut crumble
▪ Crispy sage leaves
▪ Parmesan, grated

Drizzle olive oil at the bottom of a baking dish.
Cover the bottom the dish with cooked pasta sheets.
Spread the squash cream over the pasta.
Spoon some ricotta filling on top.
Sprinkle the walnut crumble and add a few sages leaves (you can crumble them to cover more surface).
Repeat the layers 3 or 4 times.
At the very top, add more grated Parmesan for good measure!

This was a winning recipe! Not only did it taste as good as it looked on Lake Jane's blog, but it's so original; it's nothing like any recipe I've had. I love that it uses squash in a non-traditional way. I will definitely be making this dish again and again! I think it would totally win over any guest.

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).