Lufa Farms

I recently heard about Lufa Farms through some friends of ours. It's a company that apparently built the first commercial greenhouse on the roof of a building, located right here in Montreal (there's now one in Laval as well). They produce vegetables all year round to be delivered via baskets at different drop off points in the Montreal area. They don't use synthetic pesticides, capture rainwater and recirculate irrigation water.

The population is getting bigger and farms lands need pesticides and herbicides to produce enough to feed this large number of people. But this is slowly poisoning the land. Even organic products are not sheltered from this. A recent study showed that half organic products have a pesticide residue http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/pesticide-residue-found-on-nearly-half-of-organic-produce-1.2487712. If you follow the link here: http://montreal.lufa.com/en/about-the-farm there is all sorts of information about how the farm works and how it could make a city self sufficient if they could build their greenhouses on more rooftops, such as shopping centers.

Being environmentally conscious as well as often frustrated at the lack of freshness and variety from my local supermarket, I was immediately intrigued by Lufa Farms. Here's what you basically need to know about it. Every week you get a 30$ or more basket of vegetables. It's completely customizable in the sense that they'll pick out a list of vegetables for you, but you can remove any items you don't want and add new ones. The catch is that it can't go below 30$. You have a couple of days to do this via their website. Sometimes things are sold out, but if you look often, they can come back. The day before delivery, they bill you and ship the basket to one of their many drop off locations that you chose from. You can cancel anytime you want, or change the drop off location, or just advise them that you'll be on vacation for the week. It's all very flexible.

The down side is that it's not cheap. For 30$ you could probably get a larger quantity of fruits and vegetables at your local fruit store compared to what you would get in your Lufa Farms basket.What drew me in despite this was the idea that it was fresh vegetables from nearby. So even in winter I can get a cucumber that tastes like it came from my parent's garden. And they have things I can't find even in fruit markets like a large variety of tomatoes that I had never even heard of. They also offer products from local vendors such as bread, chocolate, teas, pastries, eggs etc.

Below is a picture of my very first Lufa Basket. My husband says I was more excited opening it than I was opening my Christmas presents. What can I say, that's what food does to me!

Here a few highlights from the basket.

A lovely olive fougasse bread.

A clara eggplant. I read somewhere that apparently all eggplant used to be white. Which makes more sense as to why they are called eggplant. This apparently is less bitter than the purple variety.

Some micro greens. Small but packed with flavour.

Here I had ordered some Sun Gold tomatoes, but they must have been out because they sent me some cherry tomatoes instead along with an extra basket of Indigo Rose tomatoes. I only know the name because of the website pictures. They're both absolutely delicious by the way. And look how beautiful!

 These beauties are called Rebelski Beefsteaks. I plan on making a fresh tomato sauce with them.

Here we have black radishes. I chose these because I had never heard of black radishes. They are much larger than regular radishes and you can eat them raw as well as cooked.

One of my favorite, Jerusalem artichokes. I've mentioned these before, they taste like a cross between a potato and an artichoke. I have to say, I have never seen smoother Jerusalem artichokes. Usually they have a lot of knobs and a tougher skin.

These are sprouted fenugreek and crimson lentils. You can basically eat them just like that, sprinkled on a salad or cooked with them. Lufa Farms have a large variety of sprouted legumes.

Aside from this, I also had some apples, a head of Boston lettuce, some red cabbage and some Lebanese cucumbers. I would like to point out that this basket was 40$ instead of 30$. It won't necessarily fulfill all of your vegetable needs especially if you cook a lot like I do, but it comes pretty darn close and I know that this is the beginning of a beautiful relationship!

If you're interested in Lufa Farms, please visit the website here: http://montreal.lufa.com/en.

Crispy Potato Galette With Smoked Salmon and Dill Cream

I've had this recipe in my Big Black Book of Recipes (yes that's what it says on the cover) for a while now. I always had the intention of trying it because I knew this would be delicious (and it was). It's basically a fried potato galette topped with dill sour cream and smoked salmon. Although I made two portions with this recipes, it really should be split in four instead for a delightful appetizer. The recipe below is an adapted version from the famous Wolfgang Puck found in the Food & Wine magazine.

Serves 4
Ingredients

• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 1 small shallot (not green onion, or scallion), minced
• 2 tbsp chopped fresh dill
• 2 tsp lemon juice
• salt and pepper
• 1 1/2 pounds baking potato, peeled
• 4 tbsp cooking oil
• 2 tbsp melted butter
• 1/2 pound smoked salmon
• fresh chives, chopped for garnish

Step 1: Making the dill cream

This is the easy step that really doesn't require a picture, but I put two just for fun. Mix the sour cream with the dill and the lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper and chill until ready to use.

Before mixing

After mixing!

Step 2: Making the potato galettes

This is the most time consuming part of the recipe. It's not difficult but it's a bit messy. Preheat your oven to 425ºF. Take your peeled potatoes and grate them on a box grater.

Pre-peeled and shredded potatoes

After shredding

Now this next step is very important. Either put your shredded potatoes in a clean dish towel or in a colander and squeeze out as much water as possible. This took me a good five minutes of squeezing before I felt satisfied that the potatoes were as free of water as possible. If you don't do this, you won't be able to fry up the galette properly.

In a bowl, combine the potato with the melted butter and season with salt and pepper. Don't worry if at this point the potatoes are turning a bit brown, just some good old fashion oxidation happening. Divide the shredded potato in four. In a non-stick skillet, heat up 1 tbsp of your cooking oil over medium-high heat. Add a portion of the potatoes and pat it into an 1/2 inch thick disc.

Pre Flip

Post Flip

Fry for around 3 minutes each side. If you followed the instructions properly, it should be fairly easy to flip. And unless you're a perfectionist, don't worry about the galette being perfectly round, it will taste the same regardless of shape. Place on a ungreased baking sheet. Repeat with the remaining 3 other portions. Once done, bake for 10 minutes in your pre-heated oven.

Step 3: Garnish your galettes

Remove your galettes from the oven and let them rest for 5 minutes while you take out your dill cream from the fridge and unwrap your smoked salmon. Note that you could use any kind of smoked fish for this dish.

Spoon the dill cream on each galettte and top with smoked salmon. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and garnish with the chopped chive. Serve immediately and wow your guests!

Cheese & Herb Pull-Apart Bread

I love making bread. It's not hard but it does require some time. I do own a bread machine which I find very convenient. However, the bread machine so far has never been able to produce breads as tasty as when I make them by hand. This is a personal favorite of mine and can be done fairly quickly (in bread time). It took me roughly 2h30 from start to finish to produce this beauty, most of this time inactive on my part.

The title says it all. It's a bread which is layered with cheese and fresh herbs. It's great freshly baked or completely cooled. Although I specify the kind of cheese and herbs used, you can be creative and use whatever you like. This recipe is adapted from the mammoth recipe book 1001 Essential Recipes.

Ingredients

• 7 or 8 g of dried active yeast
• 1 tsp of sugar
• 4 cups of all-purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp of salt
• 2 tbsp of chopped fresh parsley
• 2 tbsp of chopped fresh chive
• 1 tbsp of fresh thyme leaves
• 1 cup of grated cheddar cheese
• milk to glaze

Step 1: Activating your yeast

Mix your yeast with the sugar and 1/2 cup of warm water. Leave in a warm place for roughly 10 minutes, until the yeast starts to foam.

before

after 10 minutes

Step 2: Making the dough

Mix the flour and the salt together. Don't forget (very important) to pour the flour in your cup and shave off the excess with a knife. If you don't do this you risk having too much flour.

Make a well in the center and add the yeast mixture along with 1 cup of warm water. Either knead the bread by hand for 10 minutes or use a stand mixture with the hook attachment. If your dough is too dry, add a bit of water. If too wet, add a bit of flour. The dough should be moist but not sticky to the touch.

Roll your dough into a ball and place in a lightly oiled bowl. Cover with a plastic wrap and let it stand in a warm place for an hour or until doubled in size.

While that's rising you can start grating your cheese and chopping your herbs. Mix them all together in a bowl.

After 1 hour, your dough should look like this.

Punch it down and knead for a minute. Cut your dough in four and divide each portion into 5 pieces. You should have in total 20 pieces of dough. Don't worry if they are not all exactly the same size. It won't really matter in the final process.

Flatten each piece of dough with the palm of your hand to form a disc and press some of the herb & cheese mixture in the middle.

Flatten another piece of dough into a disc and place it on top of the first disc. Add some cheese & herbs to that disc and continue this process until you've used up all of the dough and you're left with a leaning tower of Pisa.

Lightly squeeze the dough together and place it into a greased bread pan. Cover with a plastic wrap and let it stand for 30 minutes. Start preheating your oven to 425ºF.

After 30 minutes. Uncover the bread and brush the top with milk. This step will encourage the Maillard reaction and give your bread a nice brown crusty top.

Place in your preheated oven and bake for roughly 30 minutes. Carefully unmold once down to let it cool on a wire rack or wooden cutting board. Eat it plain or with some butter. It needs little embellishment.

This bread smells amazing and tastes just as good.

Park Restaurant

To celebrate our 11 year dating anniversary (really, just another excuse to eat out), the hubster and I went to Restaurant Park which is located (not a Park street) on Victoria street in Westmount.

It’s only been opened since 2012 but I’ve heard fantastic reviews and, for Montrealers, executive chef Antonio Park is also known for his previous gig at Kaizen Sushi Bar & Grill. The menu is written on a large blackboard and changes often to accommodate seasonal ingredients.

Apparently Chef Park is one of the few chefs in Canada that has an importation permit for private fish, which in turn assures a fresh selection.

When we walk in, I immediately felt at ease. Given the buzz around this place, I half expected some level of pretentiousness. In fact it was the complete opposite. Everyone was incredibly friendly. Relaxed but efficient, they made you feel welcomed and not afraid to ask questions. Our waitress knew the menu very well, which is great when the food is somewhat unfamiliar.

Since this was our first time at Park, we opted for the tasting menu. This is a 5 course meal for 75$ each. The first course was a soup. Sweet beef broth with scallions and a poached egg.

You could tell the broth was made from scratch. It was like drinking roast beef. Loved the poached egg and the added flavour it gave. 

Next up was a "salad course". Burrata cheese with cherry tomatoes sitting atop a bed of cooked julienne fennel and yellow beet.

Those beautiful splashes of colour are different varieties of beet, puréed. Very fresh and tasty. It was a real shame to destroy this piece of art.

Next up was my favorite part of the meal; the nigiri. I'm not a huge fan of nigiri normally. Too much dense rice and bland sashimi. But these nigiri's were the complete opposite of this. The rice was moist and flavourful, the raw fish incredibly fresh. These almost looked like the ones in the documentary Jiro Dreams of Sushi.

The toppings included yellowfin tuna, salmon, red snapper, mackerel. All these had garnishes, some of which were new to my palate such as the shishito pepper. It's a Japanese pepper which is very tasty and mild but once in a blue moon you can get a hot one. It wasn't the case this time. The one with the brown liquid was a salmon nigiri with a maple sauce. Delicious!

Served in parallel was another dish which was not on the tasting menu but was requested by us, sea urchin!

I have wanted to taste sea urchin for the longest time but never had the opportunity. Why? Simply because I love to try new things and I've heard such great/awful things about sea urchin. So is it the foie gras of the ocean like some say or does it taste like a wet sponge? I'm honestly not sure. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. The taste is difficult to describe and the texture slightly creamy. I'd be willing to try it again, but not at the ridiculous price of 45$ that we paid. There is one thing I did love about this dish, aside from the beautiful presentation. It was served with a dwarf peach pickled/marinated with some truffle oil which I absolutely adored. Too bad it was so small.

Next was the ''main course''.

Scallops served on Jerusalem artichoke (my favorite root vegetable) in a dashi kombu jus. That brown streak is black garlic purée. More of a decoration than an edible part of the meal since it was very difficult to scrap it off the plate. This was also excellent and I was glad not to have more than two scallops since I was pretty full by now.

At this point, I noticed something unusual when my husband when to use the facilities. The waiter who constantly kept refilling our water glasses casually stepped up to our table and neatly folded Anthony's discarded serviette.

Notice how the napkin is placed strategically at the corner of the table after being folded. I have never seen this done in any other restaurant. It shocked me so much that I was compelled to discreetly take a picture once the waiter stepped away.

The big finale was my second favorite dish of the evening: dessert!

An orange blossom cupcake topped with dolce de leche and a popped quinoa cracker. Served with dark caramel, lychee gelly, pomegranate seeds and green tea ice cream. Yes it was as tasty as it was pretty and the orange blossom cake was to die for!

So overall, a memorable experience at Park Restaurant from beginning to end. The only drawback is that it costs an arm and a leg. It is without a doubt the most expensive meal we've ever paid for (cough sea urchin). Would I got back, yes. However, I would stick to the à la carte menu and opt for a cocktail instead of a bottle of wine. That way, I know I'll enjoy a good meal without going breaking the bank.

If you have a special occasion coming up, I highly recommend trying out Park Restaurant.

Julia Child's Awesome Brownies

I was sure I had already added this recipe on this blog. I was shocked to discover I hadn't. These are the best chocolate brownies you can make. Period. They're gooey, fudgey, super moist, and just simply delicious. If you like your brownies with a fudge like consistency, the secret here is not to over bake them.

This is a Julia Child recipe. The only thing I changed was to add some chopped walnuts, which is entirely optional.

Ingredients

• 1 1/4 cups sifted all-purpose flour
• 1 tsp salt
• 8 ounces unsalted butter
• 4 ounces unsweetened chocolate, chopped
• 2 ounces bittersweet or dark chocolate, chopped 
• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 4 large eggs, room temperature
• 1/2 cup walnuts,chopped

Preheat your oven to 350°F.
Sift the flour and salt together.

Melt the butter and the chocolate in a small saucepan over very low heat or use a bain-marie. Stir frequently and make sure that the mixture doesn't stick or burn.

You should get a silky chocolate mixture once melted. At this point you will be tempted to drink the melted chocolate straight from the pot. Don't.
Add 1 cup of the sugar to the saucepan and stir until dissolved. Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract. Pour into a large bowl.

While that cools off, put remaining 1 cup of sugar and the eggs in a bowl and whisk until just combined.

Before

After

Bit by bit, pour half of the egg mixture into the chocolate, stirring constantly to prevent the eggs from coagulating.

Whisk up the remaining egg mixture until thick and pale, roughly 3 minutes.

After whisking 3 minutes in stand mixer.

Using a spatula, gently fold in the whipped eggs into the chocolate mixture. Folding instead of stirring helps to keep the air into the mixture. Once just incorporated, fold in the flour and the walnuts if using.

Folding in flour.

Folding in walnuts.

Pour into an ungreased 9inch pan.

Before baking.

Bake for 22 to 26 minutes, until the outside turns dark and dry but the inside is still slightly wobbly when you shake the pan. Don't be scared to under bake! Let cool and cut into delicious squares of yummy chocolate heaven.

After baking.