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One Year In…..

May 3, 2012

Here we are, one year almost to the day after we moved our entire operations across the street from 571 to 564 Gladstone. And almost 6 years after we launched our concept, we could not be more pleased.

In the last 12 months we have doubled our team (to 20 committed and passionate Foodies), while expanding our retail store revenues beyond our expectations. While our Fresh Meal Service continues to be enjoyed by hundreds of people every Tuesday, Wednesday & Thursday (275 to be exact tonight), we feed at least as many customers through our front door every day of the week (Monday through Saturday).

So tonight, in celebration, we have created a menu that features all of our ‘favourite things’.

Fitzroy Beef Farmers have been our primary supplier of quality hormone and antibiotic free beef for more than 3 years. Although Flank Steak is tricky for us to serve, we felt that it really represented the best we had to offer when it comes to beef. Enjoyed rare, and re-heated gently, this flavourful cut is a real treat that we only put on the menu once every 8-10 weeks.

Beau’s Beer has become an Ottawa favourite in the last few years, and aside from enjoying a pint or two, our staff love to cook with it, and it has become a staple ingredient in our Amazing Beer & Caramelized Onion dip – available every week in our retail store.

The potato salad in our celebration dinner is flavoured with a variety of mushrooms from Le Coprin and Aldergrove mushroom farms, both local and organic mushroom suppliers who deliver to us on a weekly basis. We have also added Blue Ermite Cheese, made at the Abbaye Saint-Benoît-du-Lac cheese factory, part of a Benedictine monastery 150 kilometres southeast of Montreal. We have been carrying this cheese in our retail store for almost 3 years.

The slaw in tonight’s meal contains the last Apples from the overwintered cellars at Hall’s Orchard, You can buy from this family owned business every weekend at both the Ottawa and Main Street Farmer’s markets. We also carry their ciders in our retail store (fresh & sparkling). They also supplied us with pears well into the winter this year.

The maple syrup used to sweeten the vinaigrette in tonight’s meal, and sold in our retail shoppe comes from La Ferme Älska where Geneviève & Gabriel tap trees in their family owned sugar bush.

The yogurt flatbread comes from Rinag foods, a local business that makes specialty Indian foods for the Ottawa market, and has been a supplier of Naan bread & Samosas to the Red Apron for almost 6 years.

And finally to finish this meal, we are making our extremely popular and somewhat famous Red Apron Nut Free Carrot Cake with Cream Cheese Frosting. This recipe came to the Red Apron with Jo-Ann and has been a customer favourite since day 1.

And to top it off, Megan has made 275 hand rolled rose buds out of – you guessed it – Carrot! A flower for every staff member and customer who is enjoying this special anniversary dinner with us tonight.

Thank you for another fantastic year!

Jennifer & Jo-Ann

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Table 40 Review

April 2012

A few weeks ago Jo-Ann and I had the pleasure of participating in a unique Ottawa culinary experience. We had heard that the Fraser Brothers (of Fraser Cafe fame) were opening up their Table 40 space to a Monday night dinner. The concept is simple – one menu served family style around communal tables.

We are big fans of this style of eating as it is very consistent with the Red Apron philosophy and encourages people to try new things, and meet new people. We weren’t surprised to walk in and see a number of familiar faces. Also being big fans of the Fraser Cafe, we had full confidence that the evening would be a memorable success.

Of course, we weren’t disappointed. The menu is posted on their website. You can look at the Menus online. Our meal was an Asian inspired meal that started with a Squash Soup, accompanied by Rillettes on Toast. The bowls came to the table warmed up, and the soup was presented in a copper pot that we ladled out of ourselves. Knives, spoons and forks were in a jar on the table and the napkins were paper, from a dispenser.

The soup was smooth, creamy and delicious, and the toasts were generous and flavourful.

Next came a presentation of Duck Breast, Duck Confit, Spiced scallion ‘crepes’, kim chi, lettuce, sprouts, pickled mushrooms and on the side, soba noodles and a slaw of green mango & papaya.

These items were presented beautifully on a variety of platters and boards, allowing guests to scoop and serve themselves.

The portions were very generous and most tables had left-overs packaged up to take home. Everything was fresh, hot and flavourful.

One member of our party had a gluten intolerance and this could have been a challenge with a fixed menu, but the servers were able to easily identify which items contained gluten, and the kitchen made minor variations to accommodate our allergy.

The meal was completed by a Banana Cream Pie. Everyone left stuffed and happy, and the bill was EXTREMELY reasonable. I would strongly suggest you try it out as soon as you can because I am sure that the prices will be going up after the ‘Brothers’ have had a chance to test out this concept. The meal was beautifully executed and very warmly received by the 50 plus people we dined with that evening.

Congrats to the Table 40 Team!

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Butternut, Mushroom & Goat Cheese Lasagna

March 29, 2012

Tonight’s fresh meal menu features our very popular Butternut, Mushroom & Goat Cheese Lasagna.

At our first Feast of Fields event we wanted to create a truly local, fall dish. We hand made ravioli, and stuffed it with mushrooms & goat cheese, then served it garnished with a butternut béchamel, drizzled with a pesto of tarragon and sunflower seeds. It was fantastic! However, as we had to make and serve about 800 of them, we figured there had to be a better way to enjoy these flavours without having to hand make each ravioli.

So we re-worked the dish and turned it into a lasagna. It’s become one of our most popular dishes and we create it each Thanksgiving and Christmas, and occasionally in between we enough customers ask us too. It’s a bit of work but well worth the effort.

If you are feeling adventurous, I have included the recipe.

Butternut, Goat Cheese & Mushroom Lasagna

Ingredients

1 / 4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter
2 1 / 2 cups chopped onions
3 cups of local mushrooms, sliced (Note 1)

2 pounds organic, local butternut squash, peeled, seeded, cut into 1/4-inch-thick slices (about 5 1/2 cups) (you can use other types of squash for this dish, or sweet potato works well to)
1 cup vegetable broth
1 cup good quality pesto (Note 2)

2 400 ml containers whole-milk ricotta cheese (unless you want to make that yourself too, which is quite simple, but that’s another recipe)
1 log of good quality soft goat cheese
1 cup grated mozzarella cheese, divided
1 cup grated Parmesan cheese, divided
4 large eggs

4 cups whole milk
5 tablespoons flour
5 tablespoons milk
pinch of nutmeg

Olive oil
9 fresh lasagna noodles (Note 3)

Note 1: We use organic locally grown mushrooms from Christophe at Le Coprin in Farrelton, Quebec. The King Eryngii is a great choice for this dish, although almost any mushroom will work.

Note 2: The first year we made this we used sunflower tarragon pesto, which we made ourselves. Any combination of fresh herb pesto will work well, but tarragon gave it a really lovely flavour.

Note 3: We use fresh lasagna noodles sourced from a local pasta shop.

Melt butter in large skillet over medium-high heat. Add onions; sauté until soft, about 8 minutes. Increase heat to high; add mushrooms and cook until tender, stirring constantly, about 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Transfer mushroom mixture to bowl; set aside.

Add squash, broth, 3 tablespoons thyme, and 3 tablespoons sage to same skillet.

Cover and simmer over medium heat until squash is just tender, about 6 minutes. Season with salt and pepper.

Mix ricotta, goat cheese & pesto in large bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper; mix in eggs.

Make béchamel. Melt butter in a saucepan and stir in flour and mix until combined. Add cold milk and whisk, bringing to a simmer. Stir constantly until thickened and season with salt, pepper and nutmeg.

Brush 13×9 inch glass or ceramic baking dish with oil. Spread one cup of the béchamel on the bottom of the pan. Arrange 3 noodles on top. Spread one half of the ricotta mixture over noodles. Arrange one half of the squash mixture over ricotta. Sprinkle with one half of the mushrooms. Spread remaining half of the béchamel. Top with 3 noodles, then remaining ricotta mixture, remaining squash and remaining mushrooms. Finish with a layer of noodles topped with béchamel and sprinkle mozzarella and parmesan on top. Cover with oiled foil.

Preheat oven to 350°F.

Bake lasagna, covered, 45 minutes. Uncover; bake until golden brown on top, about 15 minutes longer. Let stand 10 minutes before serving.

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Red Fife Wheat

Canadian Red Fife Wheat is an heirloom variety, developed for the cold harsh climate of Canada. This heritage wheat has experienced growing popularity of late for many reasons, including the health benefits. A detailed exploration of this wonderful national treasure was explored last Thursday in Laura Robin’s article on the font page of the food section of the Ottawa Citizen.

Read all about it!

We are also carrying a Red Fife Sticky Toffee Bun with Irish Cream Glaze. Get em while their hot!

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Staff Lunch

March 2012

Generally our lunch consists of food that we are making for our retail store. We always sample everything we cook, and our lunch time gives us an opportunity to really dissect a meal and talk about how things might be improved. Lunch time is also a great time to bond, and get to know the people we work with better.

Last fall we had a new employee join us to work in the ‘dish pit’. Ameya is studying in Canada but was raised in India, by a mother who clearly knew how to raise a fine young man. Not only is he kind, gentle, exceedingly polite, intelligent and a hard worker, but we discovered this week that he had other hidden talents.

In January I asked him if he could cook. He said, ‘yes, I am a pretty good cook’. Hmmm….I thought that was a bold statement for a young man, so challenged him to cook a meal for the entire staff of 20. He agreed and the menu planning began!

Since March 8 was the day that Hindus celebrate Holi - a religious spring festival known as the festival of Colours, we thought it was a good time to enjoy an Indian Feast.

Although a tad nervous about what he had agreed to undertake, Ameya soldiered on, and with a bit of help from Maria presented his co-workers with the most amazing staff lunch EVER!

A rich, flavourful Mutter Paneer (above) was served with a creamy Prawn Curry, basmati rice with cardamom, and a fresh cucumber raita. There was hand made roti, and a couple of flavourful bites – one filled with mutton and the other with mixed vegetables. It was all quite spicy, which was nice for us as we always have to be careful not to make our food ‘too hot’ for our customers taste.