Rustic Meatballs With Mandarin Orange And Fennel Sauce

Dan    Mains, Recipes     beef, Christmas, cranberries, mandarin orange, meatballs, pork, recipes

What you’ll need…

Meatballs:

1 yellow onion (finely chopped)

1 pound lean ground beef

1 pound ground pork

2 eggs

1/2 bulb roasted garlic (minced)

1 cup bread crumbs

1 cup fresh parsley (finely chopped)

2 TBSP ketchup

1 TSP chili powder

salt and pepper

olive oil

Sauce:

1 yellow onion (finely chopped)

2 cloves garlic (minced)

1 bulb fennel (thinly sliced, approximately 1 cup)

2 mandarin oranges (zest and juice)

1/2 cup dried cranberries

1 cup water

1/4 cup soy sauce

1/4 cup orange juice

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

2 TBSP brown sugar

1/4 TSP ground cloves

2 TSP flour

salt and pepper

olive oil

100% Santa approved meatballs for the holidays! I generally don’t use mandarin oranges for anything other than simply peeling and eating, but thought that adding them to a sweet and sour sauce for these meatballs would make things a bit more merry. Also, as I tell my Start From Scratch classes, I like to use the word ‘rustic’ to make things sound better. For example, putting the word ‘rustic’ before my misshapen, hand-formed meatballs in the recipe title makes them sound so much more beautiful, doesn’t it? It’s all smoke and mirrors folks. All smoke and mirrors…On a side note, if you’re feeding these to kids, feel free to tell them these are made of Reindeer. The look on their faces will be priceless.

Starting off with the meatballs…Place the onions in a medium-sized pan, drizzle with some olive oil and cook on medium-high heat until softened, about 5 minutes. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and let cool for a few minutes. Add the rest of the ingredients to the bowl and combine with a spoon or by hand (I say by hand! Come on, it’s comfort food!). Form into 20 2″ diameter balls and set aside for now. These can be made a day in advance, just leave covered in refrigerator.

Now, moving along to the sauce. First, preheat your oven to 400 degrees. Place the onion and garlic in a medium-sized pot, drizzle with some olive oil and let cook until the onion begins to caramelize, about 10 minutes. Next, aside from the flour, add all remaining ingredients into the pot. Once mixture comes to a bubble, reduce to low heat and let simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

While the sauce is simmering, you can brown the meatballs. Drizzle some olive oil in a large pan on medium-high heat. Once the pan is hot, add the meatballs (in two separate batches) and brown on all sides, cooking them for about 6-8 minutes per batch. Remove and place into a prepared baking dish.

As a final step for the sauce, sprinkle in the flour to help it thicken a bit, then salt and pepper to taste. Pour the sauce over the meatball-filled baking dish and bake in the oven, uncovered, for 20 minutes.

Serve on some white rice with some fresh bread or crostini to soak up the sauce! Happy holidays!

Serves 5-6

Total cook time…1 hour

Rosemary Mushroom Pate with Homemade Cranberry Crackers

Dan    Appetizers & Co., Recipes, Vegan     appetizers, crackers, delicious, mushrooms, pate, recipes, vegan, vegetarian

What you’ll need…

Pate:

1 yellow onion (finely chopped)

3 garlic cloves

1 cup crimini mushrooms (quartered)

1 cup white mushrooms (quartered)

2 portabella mushrooms (loosely chopped)

1 TBSP red wine vinegar

1/4 cup sundried tomatoes

2 TBSP fresh rosemary (chopped)

1 cup vegetable stock

1 cup bread crumbs

salt and pepper

Crackers:

3 cups flour

1/4 cup dried cranberries

1 TBSP fresh rosemary

2 TSP sea salt

1 cup warm water

1/3 cup olive oil

Poor little vegans…They’re always overlooked in a holiday season full of buttery baking, roasts, turkeys and bacon-wrapped appetizers. Never fear, for I have got your back! This is an ideal dish for a holiday party whether or not your friends are vegan/vegetarian. Whenever I’m at a Christmas party, I tend to overindulge in any spreadable mixture that happens to be available on the table. And, besides, you’ve never really lived until you’ve tasted a delicious mushroom pate!

Start off by placing the chopped onion in a large pan. Drizzle with some olive oil and cook on medium-high heat until they start to caramelize, about 10-12 minutes. Next, add the garlic, three kinds of mushrooms and vinegar to the pan. Give the pan a good sprinkling of salt and pepper and let the mixture cook for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. When the time’s up, remove from heat to cool slightly.

Pour the mushroom mixture into a blender or food processor and add all remaining ingredients. Puree until smooth. Salt and pepper to taste, then place in a covered container in the fridge to chill. (this can be made several days in advance)

Moving swiftly along to the crackers…Preheat your oven to 425 degrees. Combine the first four ingredients in a bowl. Pour in the water and olive oil and mix with a spoon until a soft dough forms (Note: an electric mixer, i.e. KitchenAid, makes short work of this task!). Take the dough out of the bowl and place onto a floured surface, then knead it a few times. Cut into ten even sections and roll each out until they’re nice and thin.

Place on some prepared baking trays, brush with olive oil and let them bake for 15 minutes, or until the crackers are crisp, starting to brown on the edges. Feel free to make whichever size of cracker you please. I tend to err on the side of larger, as it looks more rustic to my guests, but less work for me! Now that’s a win/win!

Once the pate is nice and chilled, scoop some into a bowl and serve with your beautifully rustic crackers. Done and done!

Yields 4 cups of pate

Total cook time…45 min (not including chill time)

Charcut’s New Concept ‘CHARPOP’ set to have its premiere pop in the new year.

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants, Thoughts     Aviv Fried, awesome, calgary, CHARCUT, Charpop, Connie Desousa, Grant van Gameren, John Jackson

You know what they say…out with the ‘cut‘ and in with the ‘pop‘. This week, the owners of top Calgary restaurant, Charcut, announced their new culinary endeavor entitled ‘Charpop‘.

This three day dining experience is a collaborative effort between Toronto chef Grant van Gameren (pictured below, I stole his twitter avatar, formerly of Toronto’s The Black Hoof), everyone’s favourite baker Aviv Fried, and, of course John Jackson and Connie Desousa.

This pop-up concept is new to Calgary and I’m happy it’s finally here! As written in their press release, ‘Culinary pop culture gives new meaning to short ordercooking. A truly exclusive, limited-window dining experience is in the works.’
so I’m sure in the coming months we will some more places following in their footsteps and…well…popping up too!

Although the location is still to be determinded, you can safely mark down these dates in your calendar: January 15th, 16th and 17th. The ‘restaurant’ will open at 7PM with a set menu (I believe, but don’t quote me on that) and tickets will be available on a first come, first serve basis.

Hey, who knows, you might even catch me moonlighting as a host on one of the evenings…we’ll just have to wait and see…

Thinking of all the individual successes/accomplishments of partners involved, and if the whole is, in fact, greater than the sum of its parts, then folks, we’re in for one hell of a meal!

Follow Charcut or Charpop (@YYC_CHARPOP) for updates, as well as check out www.charpop.com for more information and tickets (when they become available, though, is anyone’s guess. How mysterious!)

My Brunch is Cooler Than Your Brunch: Eating at Diner Deluxe (and a new Food Network Canada series is coming to town!)

Dan    Calgary & Area, Restaurants     awesome, brunch, calgary, Diner Deluxe, Food Network Canada, You Gotta Eat Here

Sorry, that sounded aggressive, but I can defend the title statement…

Just a couple months ago, Calgary was lucky enough to have ‘Eat St.’ pop by to film some of our great food trucks. Well, now it’s the non-moblies turn.

A brand new Food Network Canada show entitled ‘You Gotta Eat Here’ is set to premiere in Spring 2012. Hosted by comedian John Catucci, the program is currently traveling across the country filming segments at different establishments that boast one-of-a-kind dishes.

The production company contacted me this past summer to provide them with some recommendations of restaurants that would be interesting to feature on the show. I thought long and hard and short listed it to five: Diner Deluxe, Tubby Dog, Pfanntastic Pannenkoek Haus (can’t go wrong with Dutch pancakes!), Silver Inn (allegedgly the birthplace of ginger beef) and Jelly Modern (arguably a ‘trend’, i.e. the new ‘cupcake’, but still interesting). All of which (I believe?) will be featured on ’You Gotta Eat Here’ in its inaugural season.

Now, for the best part…Today and tomorrow they’ll be filming at Diner Deluxe, which is, in my opinion, one of Calgary’s best brunch spots.

The last time a friend and I went to the diner for some food, I had their Yukon Gold Potato Pancake dish for the first time. The potato pancake itself was about 1″ thick and as big as my head (mild exaggeration). It was topped with some cilantro sour cream and came with some tasty pork sausages.

Now, I’m not talking gross, out of a package, skinny, little breakfast sausages, but the kind of sausage that you eat and say: ‘Yeah! That’s a real sausage!’ You know what I mean!

My friend had the pulled pork hash with caramelized apples, grainy dijon mustard and poached eggs. Kind of like the rough and tumble cousin of an eggs benedict. I’ve had this one before and it makes for a pretty stellar breakfast.

The mini cast iron skillet also doubles as a handy weapon if an alien invasion were to occur. Always be prepared…

Lastly, and luckily for you (and me!), tomorrow between 11 a.m. – 2 p.m. the restaurant is letting friends, regulars and any other Diner Deluxe lovers have an opportunity to be a part of the You Gotta Eat Here filming!

If you’re free, just send an email to info@dinerdeluxe.com to see if they can squeeze you in! Come on and join in the fun. I know you want to.