Adventure on the High Teas!

Dreaming of a time when having a cup of tea in the afternoon was a grand affair? Yearning to sip tea like royalty?

Well here is your chance! 15 Adventurers will be transported to a time gone by. Ladies, put on your loveliest chapeau. Gentlemen, perhaps a cravat? Sip tea, nibble on cucumber sandwiches, scones and cream, shortbread and dainty squares. Learn about the traditions behind serving high tea and enjoy a grand afternoon on Whyte Avenue. Afterwards, you may choose to stroll down the Avenue and take in some great Fringe entertainment too!
 
Where?

Cally's Teas

10151 Whyte Avenue
Edmonton, Alberta

When?

Aug. 25, 2013 at 2 p.m.

Menu

A choice of one of four teas, scones, fresh cream and lovely jam. Cucumber sandwiches, savory shortbread and goat cheese and a variety of dainty squares.
 

To purchase tickets please Click Here

French Fusion Dinner Adventure at Café de Ville

www.spcravings.com                                             info@spcravings.com

 

What a wonderful experience it is to let perfectly crafted food melt in your mouth. The sensual experience leaves your taste buds ecstatic with pleasure! That is exactly what Cravings members experienced at Sherwood Park's French Fusion restaurant: Café de Ville.

 

Fusion cuisine is cuisine that combines elements of different culinary traditions. It is a combination of traditional French cuisine and a variety of other cuisines such as Japanese, Italian and North American. Some of the most well known fusion cuisine combines European and Asian foods.

 

El Petit Bonhomme

Our evening began wonderfully with a glass of El Petit Bonhomme. Anita Jarmolicz from International Cellars shared her knowledge of this  bold blended Spanish red by Montreal's Nathalie Bonhomme from Bodegas Juan Gil. This blend is made up of half Monastrell, some Garnacha, and a little Syrah. Spicy with a hint of licorice and plum, it was a lovely start to our meal.

Chef Paul Campbell

Chef Paul Campbell, co-proprietor and Chef de Cuisine at Café de Ville, knows his French Fusion. He  creates new recipes or takes recipes, changes them, adds his unique "Je ne sais quoi" and creates bites of food that explode with flavour in your mouth!

What a wonderful menu Chef Paul created just for Cravings.

The evening began with two tempting Amuse-Bouche morcels. An Amuse-Bouche, or Amuse-Gueule, is very similar to an hors d'oeuvre but not quite the same. It is an extra little freebie to tempt you before your meal is presented to you. They are not ordered by you, instead, they are prepared by the chef as a little treat to show off his talents and prepare you to the meal to come. Translated from the French, it means mouth amuser. Something to make your taste buds happy!



One of the two amuse-bouche Chef Paul chose to serve us this evening were a flavorful Confit of Lamb, Wild Mushroom and Walnut Tartelette. The lamb was cooked using the sous-vide method, then confit with duck fat  and served in a small tartelette shell. The confit literally melted in our mouths (to find out more about the "sous-vide" method see Cravings'  "Fusion Cuisine" blog). Chef Paul uses locally grown and locally raised ingredients as much as possible in his recipes. The lamb used in the Confit was raised by  Barr Estates in Strathcona County.

Pan Seared Diver Scallop with a White Chocolate Beurre Blanc (bottom left)
Confit of Lamb, Wild Mushroom and Walnut Tartelette (top right)

The second amuse-bouche was a Pan Seared Diver Scallop served with a White Chocolate Beurre Blanc. This was the tenderest and most succulent scallop I have ever tasted. The fact that it was infused with white chocolate and Sambuca had absolutely nothing to do with it. Alright, perhaps it did.  The scallop was perfectly seared and the white chocolate beurre complemented it perfectly. Diver Scallops are different from the scallops you find in the seafood section of your corner grocery store. They are sea scallop that are hand-picked off  rocks by scuba divers. Diver scallops are not as gritty as boat-harvested scallops, which are dragged by nets at the ocean bed. Chef Paul shared a little chef's secret, the more colour you want your scallop to have, the drier the scallop needs to be.

Cravings is very lucky as Chef Paul has generously agreed to share his Scallop recipe with us!(see below) I will have to try making it but am pretty sure that it would never be as fabulous as his...



Chicken Consommé with Braised Leek

The next dish was a rich and flavourful Chicken Consommé with Braised Leek. Consommé is not a broth, it is a very strong, concentrated and clear stock that is simmered for a long time, filtered, and contains very little fat.

Following the consommé was  the entrée, an exquisite Beef Bourguignon served in a light and flaky puff pastry bouche. Once again the sous-vide method was used to prepare the meat. If I was not sold on the use of this cooking method before, I have become a great fan after tasting this dish. The cut Chef Paul used in this recipe was a flank steak. I could have sworn that he used tenderer cut. The small cubes of beef melted like butter in my mouth. I was not the only one ooing and aahing after each bite!  The beef was served in a bacon flavoured, velvety Bourguignon gravy with tender morsels of Field Mix mushrooms ( Crimini, Portobello, Button ) and onions. This lovely puff pastry nest was presented on a bed of Buttered Potatoes and accompanied by Roasted Vegetable Provence ( carrots, parsnips, broccolini )

Beef Bourguignon

This amazing meal was beautifully finished with a superb Poached Pear dessert. The pear was slowly and gently poached in Merlot wine mulled with cloves, cinnamon and orange juice. A sweet mascarpone cream dollop topped the pear. The silkiness of the cream was the perfect match to the grainy feel of the pear.

Merlot Poached Pear with Mascarpone Cream

Chef Paul emphasized that the choice of wine doesn't really matter. It is the pear that will sweeten it. This great recipe was also shared with us below by Chef Paul.

Café de Ville and Chef Paul do not only create delicious dishes, they create visually pleasing dishes that start your mouth watering as soon as the plate is placed in front of you! If you are looking for a restaurant that is a guaranteed to please even the most the discerning palate, look no further than Café de Ville.

Cravings guests will definitely be returning to Café de Ville again and again!

Café de Ville is located at:

25 Sioux Road
Sherwood Park, Alberta

To make reservations, please call: 780-449-4765 / 1-877-504-4765

~ Monique

Join us on our next Cravings Culinary Adventure: An Arabian Nights Adventure. Enjoy Middle Eastern Food, Belly Dancing, Shisha and more!  March 6, 2013 at 7 p.m.

For tickets, please click here:  Arabian Nights Dinner Tickets

Pan Seared Scallops with white chocolate beurre blanc and chiffonnade of basil
 

6 x Large (10/20 size) Fresh Scallops – Cleaned

2 Tbsp Clarified Butter
Salt and Pepper
2 Fresh Basil Leaves – Chiffonnade

For the seared scallops: In a large cast-iron skillet, heat the butter over medium-high heat until it has a nice sheen and you can feel the heat coming off of the skillet. Dry your scallops well using paper towel, sprinkle each side with salt and pepper and add them to the hot skillet. Once the bottom of the scallops start to brown around the edges, flip the scallops and cook until golden brown on each side and just cooked through, 2 to 3 minutes per side.

Beurre Blanc

1/2 Tbsp olive oil

1 large shallots, chopped

1/8 cup Sambucca

1/2 cup Whipping Cream

1/4 cup unsalted butter, cut into small pieces

2 ounces white chocolate, broken into pieces

Heat the oil in a medium heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium heat. Add the shallots and sweat until just softened, 1 to 2 minutes. Add the Sambucca simmer until the liquid is reduced to about 2 tablespoons, 3 to 4 minutes.

Add the cream (this will help stabilize your sauce and keep it from breaking) and simmer until reduced by one-third, 5 to 7 minutes. Strain the sauce into another warm saucepan over low heat. The sauce should remain warm, but never hot, or the sauce will break. On low or no heat, whisk in a few pieces of the butter at a time. Wait until each addition is incorporated before adding more butter. Once all of the butter is incorporated, whisk in the white chocolate.

Top each scallop with some beurre blanc and garnish with a bit of the basil.

Poached Pears
 

3¾ cups (one 750-ml bottle) Cabernet Sauvignon wine
1 grated orange zest
1½ cups fresh orange juice
1 cup sugar
½ Tablespoon grated lemon zest
½ vanilla bean
1 cinnamon stick
2 firm Bartlett pears, peeled, halved, and cored

In a saucepan, combine the wine, orange zest and juice, sugar, lemon zest, vanilla bean, and cinnamon stick. Bring to a boil over high heat and reduce heat to a simmer. Add the pears and poach for about 1 hour, until tender when pierced with the tip of a sharp knife. Lift the pears from the pan.

Strain the poaching liquid through a fine-mesh sieve into a bowl. Reserve ½ cup of the liquid and pour it over the pears. Cover and refrigerate.

Assembly

½ cup mascarpone cheese

1 Tablespoon sugar

In a small bowl, whisk together the mascarpone cheese and sugar. Spoon the sweetened cheese in a pastry bag fitted with a #3 plain tip.

 

Remove the pears from the refrigerator and place each pear half in a shallow soup plate. Pipe a little of the sweetened mascarpone into the cored space in the pears. Spoon a little of the reserved poaching liquid around the pears.

A Short History of Chinese Tea

    www.spcravings.com                              info@spcravings.com
         

Oolong, Black tea, Green tea, White tea...Next to water, tea is the second most popular drink worldwide.  People enjoy tea first thing in the morning with their breakfast, during their breaks at work, in the afternoon with friends, and in the evening to relax. Many specialty tea shops have been popping up all over the place during the last few years as more people have found the joy of preparing and drinking loose leaf tea.

According to legend and a few historians, the origin of tea in China can be traced back to Emperor Shen Nong around 2737 B.C. The wise Emperor believed that drinking boiled water was very important to one’s good health. He required that all his subjects and servants boil water before drinking it. One late summer day, as the legend goes, the Emperor was travelling and stopped to rest. He asked his servants to boil some water for him. While the water was boiling, some leaves from a camellia bush fell in the water and turned it brown. The Emperor, curious by nature, decided to taste it and quite enjoyed the flavour! He had his servant harvest some of the dried camellia leaves to take along and use during their travels. He felt that it gave him vigor and energy. That is how tea drinking for medicinal purposes came about.

Tea, as a common drink, took a little longer to become popular, that happened around 300 A.D. But it wasn’t until 780 A.D. that tea became part of Chinese tradition. By 900 A.D., tea drinking reached Japan and Chanoyu, the Japanese Tea Ceremony, was created. It was around 1669 that tea was introduced to England. It was an aristocratic drink as it was very expensive. Soon Britain started to import tea in larger quantities and eventually all classes were able to afford it.

The word “tea” comes from various Chinese words used to describe it “Tay”, “Cha” and “Tchai”. It is indigenous to China and India. Two main varieties are cultivated as well as many hybrids.

There are various grades and types of tea:

White Tea

 

 

White tea is the purest and least processed of all teas.  It has very little caffeine. It is mostly grown and harvested in the province of Fujian.  White tea comes from the buds and leaves of the Camellia plant. These are left to wither in natural sunlight before they are lightly processed to prevent oxidation or further processing. Its’ name comes fro the fine silver-white hairs on the unopened buds.

Green Tea

Green tea is the most popular tea. Some green teas are flavored with flowers or dried fruits. It is made from leaves that have had very little oxidation during processing.  Green tea is processed and grown in many different  ways, depending on the type of green tea that is wanted.

Oolong Tea

Oolong tea, or wu long tea, is full-bodied with a flavorful fragrance and sweet aroma. It is semi-fermented. It is the most common tea served in North American Chinese restaurants.

Orange Pekoe or Black Tea

A common mistake is to think that Orange Pekoe is a type of tea. Actually, Orange Pekoe is a grade of tea. Tea is graded on the size of the processed black tea leaves. There are 7 grades of Orange Pekoe tea. Orange Pekoe grade teas have a woodsy and slight bitter taste with floral aromas. Black tea is a type of tea that is more oxidized than the other teas.  Black tea is generally stronger in flavor than the less oxidized teas.

If you would like to find out more about Chinese tea and sample some, join us on January 30, 2013 on a Chinese Tea Tasting mini adventure. Huku’s Chinese Bistro’s owner, Andy, has brought back several teas for our Cravings event from his last trip to China. We will be sampling various green teas and enjoying Chinese delicacies at 7 p.m. Purchase Tickets.

~Monique

References: Chinese, Historical and Cultural Project http://www.chcp.org/tea.html

                      The Ivy Keep http://blog.ivykeep.com/?p=68

                    Teavana  http://www.teavana.com/tea-info/types-of-tea

                Wikipedia  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_tea

Bodega Norton Wine Tasting for the Non-Connoisseur

spCravings.com                                                                          info@spCravings.com


Last Thursday I had the pleasure of experiencing my first wine tasting education at Sherwood Park’s newly opened Wine & Beyond. They are located near the new mega Walmart in Emerald Hills off of highway 16.
 

The Education Center

Several times a month, Wine & Beyond hosts education classes in their Education Center. This Center is designed specifically for these classes and features long narrow tables in a horseshoe layout. It is equipped with a big screen projector for presentations and a small bar area for preparation. It is closed off from the rest of the store by big glass doors that ensure the class isn’t interrupted by shoppers.

 

 

The Winery

On this particular evening, we were taking in a presentation by a representative from Bodega Norton, a winery in Argentina.

 

The Bodega Norton winery was named Winemaker of the year for 2012. In 2010, Wine Spectator included Norton 2007 Reserve Malbec in their “Top 100 best wines in the world” list and in 2011, Wine Enthusiast nominated them as “The Best New World Winery of the Year" in their 2011 edition of its competition "Wine Star Awards".

I learned some things about Argentina itself during this presentation – such as the fact is has the fifth largest production of wine in the world. It has 300 days of sunshine with hot days and cooler nights, making it ideal wine making weather. It is also a great place to visit and their wine tours provide good value for your dollar.

 
 The Taster

Before I get into the wine review, a little disclaimer. I am not a wine connoisseur. I don’t talk about a wine’s “nose” or “finish”. My tastebuds know what pleases them and I will do my best to convey to you what it was I liked or didn’t like about a wine.

 The Wine

Our first tasting was of a sparkling rosé wine called Cosecha Especial Brut Nature. It is made of 50% chardonnay and 50% pinot noir. This sparkling wine retails at Wine & Beyond for $20.99 a bottle.

I was rather ambivalent about this selection as I am not huge on sparkling wines, but it was crisp with just a bit of a tart edge and was pleasant to sip on.
 

The second selection was Barrel Select Sauvignon Blanc. This wine was aged in stainless steel for 90% of the time, with the remaining 10% in French oak barrels. It was a nice white wine that would hold its own with many meals. It retails at Wine & Beyond for $14.99 a bottle.

 

The third wine was our first red to sample. It was a Norton Malbec ($10.99). It was described as having “friendly tannins” and I was left wondering how a tannin could be unfriendly and what the result of that would be!

This was the first wine we sampled that I had a definite opinion on. I didn’t like it. It had a very biting dry taste that I could feel on my teeth. I didn’t find it went down smoothly at all and left me wanting to reach for the bread to cleanse my palate – quickly. The room seemed to have a similar reaction as people politely told the presenter that it wasn’t really their thing.

     

 

The second red wine we tried was much better. It was the Bodega Norton Reserva Malbec. As its name implies, it is made from 100% Malbec grapes. It spends 12 months in first and second use French oak barrels and then 10 months in the bottle before it is released.

 

This wine was much smoother and there was almost none of the biting dry taste of the first Malbec. You pay a little more for this wine than the Malbec - $18.49 – but it would be well worth the upgrade.
 

What can I say about the final tasting of the evening? The Bodega Norton Privada, priced at $24.99 a bottle, was worth the wait. It was smooth, pleasant and full bodied. It spent 16 months in new French oak barrels and was bottled 12 months before release. It has a storage capacity of 10 years but most in the room agreed it probably wouldn’t last past the first week in their house! With one exception – a gentleman who preferred the Reserva – it was definitely the crowds choice!

 

~ Carla 

Note: Special Cravings Private Beer Tasting at Wine and Beyond. (Free event for Cravings members). For more info, visit our Cravings website at spCravings.com.

Table Setting Made Easy or Simple Step by Step Instructions on How to Set an Elegant Table

spCravings.com                                                                       info@spCravings.com

The holidays are around the corner and time for entertaining is par for the course. The menu, of course, is the most important part of a dinner party. The flavour and presentation of each dish aim to impress your guests. But let us not forget how important first impressions are. A beautifully set table: fancy china, sparkling crystal stemware, polished silverware, crisp linen all create the perfect ambiance for a special dinner and will set the mood for the rest of the evening.

First, place the dinner plate about two inches away from the edge of the table. Place the knife on the right of the plate with the cutting side towards the plate. Place the dinner fork on the left side, same distance away from the plate as the knife.

If you are serving soup, place the soup spoon half an inch to the right of the knife. If serving salad, place the salad fork to the left of the dinner fork at a same distance as the spoon to the knife.

Place a napkin to the left of the salad fork and the teaspoon to the right of the soup spoon.

The dessert spoon is placed at twelve O'clock at the top of the plate and the dessert fork just above it. Be sure to have them face opposite directions with the spoon facing left.

 

 

The bread plate is then placed at the top left corner at eleven O'clock to the dinner plate. If you have bread knives, place these horizontally on the top third of the bread plate with spreading side facing left.

Water goblets need to be placed to the top right of the dinner plate, about two inches directly above the knife. The wine glass is then placed two inches above and angled to the right of the water goblet.

Tea cup and saucer are placed to the right of the water goblet to create a triangle with the goblet and wine glass. The tea cup and saucer are placed just above and to the right of the tea spoon.

If you are serving salad, place the salad plate centered on top of the dinner plate.

 

Soup on the menu? Place the soup bowl on top of the salad plate.

Et voilà! A beautifully set table for your next dinner party! Now all you need is a few mouth-watering recipes...

~ Monique

Sipping Hot Chocolate Recipe

spCravings.com                                                                    info@spCravings.com    
                                                                                                                 
 My travels through the Mediterranean led me to Barcelona, Spain where on a rainy morning my husband and I ventured out onto Las Ramblas to look for a quaint breakfast spot. We had heard about the famous "Spanish sipping chocolate" and were eager to taste some.

We found a lovely little shop off Las Ramblas. And believe me, the sipping chocolate had us in epicurean ecstasy!  They served it with fresh hot churros. The chocolate itself was so thick and rich that you needed a spoon to eat it once you had finished using the churros.

The first thing I did, once we returned to Alberta, was to try and duplicate this delicious drink. I have come pretty close by adding a few of my own ingredients to achieve the same almost pudding-like consistency.

Here is the recipe:

Serves 4 - 6 in teacups.

Ingredients:

One whole, large plain dark chocolate bar such as Lindt or Cadburry. Broken into small pieces.
2 Tbsp Cocoa powder
4 Tbsp Instant chocolate milk powder
1 tsp  cinnamon powder
2 Cups milk
1 1/2  tsps Cornstarch mixed with some milk to create a paste

Dissolve cocoa powder and instant chocolate milk powder in 1/4 cup of milk. Place mixture in pot. Place pot on stove and heat on high until mixture starts warming up. Remove from heat. Add remainder of milk and stir well. Put half of the chocolate pieces into pot and place on stove top once again. Heat on medium. Stir constantly until chocolate pieces melt. Add remainder of chocolate pieces and repeat. Once chocolate pieces have dissolved, add cinnamon, stir well. Remove from heat and add cornstarch mixture stir well with a whisk. Return to heat and continue to stir with a whisk until chocolate drink has thickened to a consistency similar to a chocolate fondue. Serve with lady fingers cookies. Enjoy!
~ Monique

Come back and visit us soon for more recipes and great culinary information!
~ Carla & Monique