Summer is here! And it is being felt not only with the weather but also in the ingredients at the market! It is officially lobster season, as well as asparagus season… and if you ask me… those two ingredients make a great combo, as well as a great risotto.
RECIPES
I like to make a lobster risotto with a base of shallots, garlic, butter and white wine. Then once you are done with the adding of the arborio rice and chicken stock; your rice is cooked with just a little bite left to it, and the liquid has been absorbed, you add a couple tablespoons of mascarpone, the lobster chunks and blanched asparagus. (You could also add some crispy prosciutto for a little texture… just saying… yummmm). Season with a little salt (not too much as lobster is already salty) and pepper and voilà you have amazingly decadent (and seasonal!) risotto! Bon appétit!
KITCHEN EXPERIMENTS
I also experimented with a few new pasta shapes: sorpresine and cavatelli… it was therapeutic. Just repeating the folds, the rolling, the pressing… very good for settling the mind. And was very much appreciated by the whole family. (It’s quite amazing how hours spent in the kitchen shaping pasta can be gone in minutes with a household of men and teenagers… but still worth it to see the huge smiles and “Wow! This is delicious mom!” that came after the meal)
I have to say I fell in love with the sorpresine… the texture, all those little folds that catch the sauce and cheese (and meat if you are serving it with a type of ragù). I will definitely be making it again!!!
I also decided to try and come up with a new doughnut recipe: The Biscoff Doughnut. It was a huge hit. I put the cookies through the food processor until i had about 1/2 cup and added it to the dry ingredients. And to ice them I made a dulce de leche kind of ganache, dunked the doughnuts and then sprinkled them with more crumbled biscoff on top. They looked amazing! Unfortunately I was having a bit of an off day and forgot the sugar in the recipe, so after having just put the doughnuts in the oven, I took them out, scooped out all the dough, added some sugar (I was a little too conservative with the amount…oops!), redistributed them to the pans and put them back in the oven. As mentioned they looked great (maybe a little fluffy, will need to tweak the leavening agents next time) but the flavour was just a little off and I realized it needed indeed more sugar. So gonna test some more and soon share the recipe with all of you.
BOOKS
I finished Stanley Tucci’s latest book: What I ate in a year… and loved so many of the recipes he shared, dinner parties he threw or attended and the bountiful kitchen wisdom and one liners. I loved his description of the leek and onion puff pastry tart he made December 1st: “The flavour was good, but the texture was not. I instinctively knew I should blind bake it — of course I hadn’t read the instructions — but I didn’t, and I ended up with a soggy bottom, which is never a good thing, for tarts or people.” (side note: what is it with men and reading instructions??? Seriously! lol) Or his take on art: “Good art is ever-changing and therefore at times inconsistent. Art is the opposite of a Twinkie.” And moving forward, when I look at art I will now be thinking of a Twinkie.
And talking about Stanley… anyone here hooked on his new show? I am absolutely enjoying taking this trip to Italy with him (and you all!). The scenery, the people, the food and then there’s the extreme satisfaction of watching Stanley enjoy and find true bliss eating something amazing while saying: “I mean this is incredible!” I almost feel like I’m there too, can smell the food cooking and taste all those delicious ingredients. One day…
So therefore since I have finished this page turner of a book, I went on the hunt for my next foodie good read and came across Alton Brown’s “Food for thought” and I’ve got to say: it too is an awesome read. Entertaining (I mean laugh out loud funny… I’ve made a few strangers look up at me at I was reading this in public and quite literally found myself laughing out loud!) The way he describes his childhood as follows: “If you were lucky enough to be a child in the sixties, you know how magical Saturday mornings were. In a time before iPads, iPhones, game consoles, DVDs, VCRs, back when streaming was something water did, there was, for those of us fortunate enough to have one: the TV.”
Then he continues to regale us with how he mistook buttermilk to be regular milk when getting his Saturday morning bowl of sweet cereal ready… I nearly died laughing. And how he relived the experience while writing this book, on purpose so he could give justice to the experience. Talk about commitment! I am just beginning the book, so I’ll keep you posted with more fun tidbits as I savour this awesome read. (yes, pun intended.)
RESTAURANTS
We finished the week off with dinner at a new restaurant in Québec city on Cartier street called, Graffiti. It’s a mix of French and Italian cuisine meshed together and was delicious. I think the thing that stood out for me the most was the duck confit bruschetta: It was “out of this world” tasty! The fresh tomatoes mixed with the tender and decadent duck was mind blowing, served with a drizzle of balsamic glaze… well let’s just say I’m going to be trying to make my own version for one of our next date nights.
Hubby then had the Cartier Risotto which is served with pork belly (perfectly crispy), mushrooms, tomatoes and leek. It was pretty spectacular: a beautiful combo of flavours.
I had their seafood linguine, (even though the waitress warned me it was a bit spicy, lol) comprised of scallops, shrimp, mussels and clams in a delicious tomato, cream and white wine sauce. Their scallops and shrimp were cooked beautifully and paired well with the sauce. And no, for those of you asking, it was not too spicy!
Their cocktails were some of my favourite I’ve had in a while. I had the Hugo Spritz, which has prosecco, mint and a hint of something floral… but was a perfect combo of flavours. I wish I remembered what my hubby ordered, it was a grapefruit and elderflower cocktail and was also very very good. I would honestly visit them again just for their cocktails, thats how good they are!
We finished the evening by walking around Québec city and finished up at one of our favourite ice cream parlours: Chocolat Favoris. They are actually a chocolate confectionery, turned ice cream parlour because many years ago they started dipping their delicious ice cream in their oh! so thick! chocolate, then started adding flavours of chocolate you could pick from: dulce de leche, caramel fleur de sel, classic noir, s’mores, surprise, noisette croquante… I mean these are just a few. If you a visiting the area this is definitely a stop worth making: you will not find any other ice cream experience to equal this one (in my opinion)… it is the smoothest, most decadent chocolate draped over the creamiest soft ice cream you will ever taste. A party for the senses. I’ve been ruined for all other ice cream parlours I’m afraid.
To sum up, it was the perfect way to end the day.