Inferno to the Rescue: A Karma-Christmas Story

Fig.1 The Inferno team. The funny thing is that Marcella actually ran away with the bowl of pasta she's holding as soon as the picture was taken.

Here comes another Christmas, and somewhere John Lennon is still asking, "So what have you done?"  Before you all stop reading, let me assure you there won't be any preaching in this post; rather, this post will bring attention to what a certain restaurant in Montreal has done to help embody the spirit of the season.
Karma Christmas is the brainchild of food writer and all around swell person, Marcella DeVincenzo, aka. EatalianGirl.  The idea behind Karma Christmas is simple.  Come to a restaurant and eat way too much food for ten bucks, all that is required of you is to bring a grocery bag full of non-perishable food items for Sun Youth.
We booked a restaurant and sold out of tickets very quickly. (Which is easy to do when tickets only cost ten dollars.)  The theme for the event was Italian Sunday Lunch, a la Nonna: Big bowls of pasta, meatballs, sausages, salad and dessert.
The proverbial unforeseen problem, (which always occurs when organising events such as these) came in the form of the original restaurant not being able to host the event then only two weeks away.  Enter Restorante Inferno (located on Dante and Ste-Dominique in Little Italy.) A plea for help was met by Chef Nick and his cohorts with a resounding show of benevolence.  Not only did Chef Nick open his restaurant on Sunday (a day the restaurant is usually closed) but he overfed us with delicious pasta, mounds of meat, and a dessert that perfectly possessed the essence of the "Italian Grandmother".  His staff not only worked for free, but also went above and beyond what Marcella and I expected.  Dante Alighieri would have been amiss with this Inferno: No hell or pergatory here, just good intentions.
I've since returned to Inferno for purely selfish reasons, I was hungry.  I had a bowl of perfectly prepared Trippa and sampled a deeply flavoured lentil soup.  I'll be back again soon to sample some menu standouts that connected with the food neurons in my head, namely, the Mac&Cheese Cavatelli and Shortribs. (The menu, written on a blackboard, changes regularly.)
So a big thank you to Chef Nick, Mark, Fabrizio, Piero, Tony and everyone who attended. As a result of everone's selflessness, over 50 heaping bags of food was loaded into the back of a Sun Youth truck.
Merry Christmas.

Fig.2. Can there be a more beautiful picture?

Fig.3. Filling up the Sun Youth truck with bags of food.

Fig.4. Sun Youth is always in need of food. If you have food or cloths to drop off they can use it.

Inferno. 6850 Saint-Dominique, Montréal, QC H2S 1J7, 514274-0666

Sun Youth 4251 SAINT-URBAIN RUE  Montréal, Québec (514) 842-6822

The Jean-Talon Market Gets a Book

Fig.1. This book is filled with beautuful pictures and great recipes.

As someone who spends a lot of time at The Jean Talon Market, it was about time someone wrote a book about Montreal’s oldest and biggest food market.  About time because aside from the façade of food visible at The Jean-Talon Market, there’s a lot of history embedded within the roots of all those vegetables being sold there: a tale of immigrants, of culture, and of a city.  Susan Semenak succeeds in adding all of those ingredients to her book. A book that's well written, engaging, and reinforced with many beautiful photographs. 

In The Market Chronicles: Stories & Recipes From Montreal’s Marche Jean-Talon,  Semenak touches on the history of Montreal’s largest market, on the food, and on eating locally and in season; but what really makes this book unique are the stories of the people behind the food.  Mushrooms at Les Jardin Sauvage taste great, but reading about how Francois Brouillard and acclaimed chef Nancy Hinton forged a romantic relationship over foraged fungi spoke to the bond between food and sensuality.  The vegetables at Birri are beyond reproach, but Semenak sheds some light on why Lino and Bruno Birri’s standards are so high.  Anyone who has been to the market will be familiar with the smell of grilled meat coming from L’Olivier, but Semenak captures the ambition and cultural nuance that resides within a tale of two immigrants.  

Fig.2. Photos of Semenak visiting a sheep's-milk farm in Ste-Helene-de-Chester. The where-a-bouts of the lamb Semenak is holding are still unknown.

Semenak also succeeds in establishing the connection between localization and The Jean Talon Market; all the while asserting a human face, and many dirty human hands, toward all of the food products we sometimes think just magically appears on grocery store shelves.  She removes the cheese from its vacuumed prison and the fruit from its cellophane container and reminds us all that’s it’s all right for hands to touch the foods we eat.  The book is also an important reminder of how blessed we are in Montreal to have such a wonderful farmer’s market.  

Looking for a great Christmas gift, here it is.

Market Chronicles: Stories & Recipes From Montreal's Marche Jean-Talon is available in English and in French at all book stores, as well as in Costco. Published by Les Edition Cardinal.

English verions have almost sold out, but I found some still available at La Maison de la Presse in Little Italy.

Here's just one great recipe from Semenak's book. A soup made for winter and the cold nights ahead.

Foraging For Real Mushrooms

Fig.1. The cool dude holding one porcini is Adriano.  The dorky one holding two is some guy we met in the woods and claimed to need a friend.  He's still following us.

Ask any mycophagist and they’ll tell you this was a great year to forage for mushrooms.  Chanterelles and porcinis were especially in abundance due to the damp, humid mornings, and wet nights.

Found so many mushrooms this year in fact, that after the freezer was filled to the door with porcinis, we had to dry the rest. 

Fig.2. Out of the freezer and lying in a row.

Porcini mushrooms, when fresh, are a real culinary treat.  Unlike the tough nature of the dried variety that requires re-hydrating however, fresh porcini are meaty, juicy, and overflow with fungal flavor.  The best way to eat fresh porcini mushrooms is to simply sauté them in some good olive oil and garlic, and add a pinch of sea salt to them once cooked.  You can also get creative should the mood strike you, as I did below.

Porcini Pizza

Fig.3. It's a pizza, but this one is all about the mushrooms

If you’re not up to making your own dough, just go to a good boulangerie and pick it up there.  This is a pizza “in bianco” so no tomatoes here, as they will take away from the flavor of the porcini.  Don’t skimp on the olive oil or your pizza will be dry.

Ingredients:

Good quality olive oil

4 cloves garlic, whole and crushed

12 to 15 porcini mushrooms, sliced to app. 1/4 inch  (if you don’t have porcini, use oyster, king, chanterelle, Portobello or even all of them.  There are many different mushrooms hailing from Quebec available at your supermarket right now.)

a pinch of chili flakes (optional)

sea salt

Pizza Dough
1/2 cup mozzarella di buffala, grated

Grated Parmiggiano cheese

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degreesF

Pour some olive oil into a large non-stick pan set over medium heat.  Add the garlic and cook for 2 to 3 minutes, add the mushrooms, chili flakes and cook until softened, about 8 minutes.  Remove the mushrooms from the heat, season with sea salt and set aside.

Knead out your pizza (shape is up to you) in a non-stick pizza-pan coated with enough olive oil to prevent sticking.  Drizzle the top of the pizza with olive oil and sea salt, and place in the oven for about 15 minutes, or until outer parts of the dough begin to firm up.  At this point, remove dough from the oven and add the grated mozzarella (make sure it's drained properly and not watery), and dress with the mushrooms. (but not the garlic, unless you want to)
Return pizza to oven and cook until dough is cooked through, about 10 to 12 more minutes.  Top with freshly grated pamigianno cheese and eat immediately.

Hot Sandwiches Montreal Could be Proud of

Fig.1. Basi's lunch door is located on Shamrock, facing the market

We foodies tend to complain a lot: not enough of this and not enough of that and why don’t we have food like this city or that city.  Well we do, and often the great food we lament about not having slips right under our mouths.

It’s a while I’ve known about Basi’s new lunch and take out counter, but I hadn’t been since it opened about 5 months ago.  Located on Shamrock, directly facing the Jean Talon Market, Basi’s new counter offers up pizzas and sandwiches for people on the move, as well as for those who just need to re-energize from a busy market day.  On the lunch menu are classic pizzas such as pepperoni, bacon and seafood, to the more imaginative roasted tomato and figs.  Same variety goes for the sandwiches: Smoked salmon, sausage, prosciutto, veal parm, and a Basi Burger.

Fig.2. Veal Parm

It was a blustery day with a chill in the air.  Hunger struck like a free flowing autumn leaf slapping me in the forehead.  Basi was in eyeshot.  Walked through their lunch door, (the lunch entrance is different than the dining room entrance.) looked through their menu and opted for a veal parmigiano paninni, while my market companion chose the mortadella with rabiolo cheese. 

Our paninnis emerged from the kitchen wrapped in aluminum foil.  Clasping the packets in my hands revealed their hot and comforting nature.  Given the cold outside, I didn’t know whether to eat them or shove them down my pants.  I decided to forgo the pant stuffing as I wore my 501 tight fits that day and had consumed potato chips the night before, squishing the sandwiches was inevitable.  Tasty, hot and packed with flavor, the sandwiches were perfect.  While they might not be the best sandwiches in the world, they are the type of sandwiches that complement this city.  Everything from the bread, to the meat, to the combinations of flavors’, to the way in which they are served, add to this city’s foodscape.  They are just the type of sandwich you would eat in New York and say, “I wish we had sandwiches like this in Montreal.

So the next time your mouth is wasting precious chewing time complaining about how the food in Montreal just can’t compare with the food in (insert city here), shut up and eat something, you might just taste the next best thing.

Fig.3. The aluminum package to the left of the bag is how Basi's sandwiches come wrapped

Fig.4. Mortadella and melted rabiolo cheese

Basi.  77 ave. Shamrock (corner Casgrain)  514.750.0774

Old Isn't Always Good

Fig.1. Baked pasta.  Disclaimer: It looks better than it tastes.

It’s generally believed that old, traditional recipes will result in great tasting meals.  That isn’t always the case as I discovered just last week.  Sometimes tasty ingredients, such as cheese or cured meats, are just the type of elements a recipe needs to propel it from a good meal to an unforgettable one.  The reason many old, Italian recipes don’t call for these tasty ingredients vary. From a geographical reason, to an economic one, ingredients such as salt, spices and cheese were unattainable for many Italians fifty years ago, and so, they made the best with what they had. 

If you’ve read my posts before, you’ll know my position that Italian ingenuity, with regard to food and cuisine, has no rival (except possibly China).  And that when it comes to making the sparsest and simplest of ingredients taste good, Italy will win wooden spoon down. So imagine my surprise when I made a recipe from a Slow Food book and it tasted, well, tasteless.

The recipe in question is Pasta al Forno Con Prociutto Cotto, Fontina e Bechamel. The idea seems great: cheese, pasta, butter, flour, cream, more cheese, and did I mention pasta.  All cooked in the oven until golden and gooey.  The end result was a dish that tasted bland and starchy; a dish that needs to be tweaked for sure.  I’m all for recording old recipes for posterity and tradition, but dishes such as these should come with a disclaimer that reads: I don’t taste as good as I look. 

When in doubt, always side on the air of umami. Some parmesan cheese and less pasta (I can’t believe I just wrote that) are all this recipe needs to make it unforgettable. My additions and suggestions to the original recipe are indicated in parenthesis. 

Pasta al Forno Con Prociutto Cotto, Fontina e Bechamel

Makes 4

Ingredients:

12 pasta circles 1/4" thick-(or 20 thin pasta circles. Make pasta and cut into circles the size of your oven dish.  If making pasta isn`t your thing, simply buy fresh lasagna sheets and cut into circles.  I prefer the thin ones as I find the thicker pasta the original recipe calls for make the dish too starchy.)

3 cups of bechamel

2 1/2 cups grated fontina cheese

12 prociutto cotto circles, 1/4" thick (If you can't find prociutto cotto, use ham)

(1 cup parmesan cheese, not in the original recipe but it's all this recipe needs to make it taste as good as it looks.)

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F

Prepare your pasta by cutting it, boiling it in salted water, and draining.  Make your bechamel sauce and set aside. 

In a non-stick pan, fry procuitto cotto on both sides until golden.

Once you have all the ingredients in front of you, you're ready to assemble.  Begin by coating the bottom of the oven dish or ramekin with bechamel, followed by some grated fontina, pasta circle, and grated parmesan. Keep adding in the same order until you reach the top.  Finish the pasta by topping it with bechamel and fontina. Place the dishes or ramekins on a cookie sheet (there will be spillage) and cook for about 25 to 30 minutes, or until top is golden brown. Let it cool for 15 minutes before tucking in.

Fig.2. Bechamel first, followed by fried ham.

Fig.3. More ham and more cheese.

Fig.4. A circle of pasta

Fig.5.Make sure you end with a generous amount of bechamel and fontina and parmesan cheese.

Wild For Fungus

Fig.1. Les Jardin Sauvage at The Jean Talon Market.

Fig.2. A large variety of mushrooms and a few other surprise

Some foragers I’m acquainted with have informed me that this is a great year for wild mushrooms, especially with the cool damp mornings of late. 

Mushrooms are fungus, which is a word that carries a somewhat bad connotation, especially when one thinks of feet.  People who love fungus, and like foraging for them, are called, Mycophagists, which is also a funny word if only because it sounds like it has nothing to do with mushrooms.

For the best selection of wild mushrooms in Montreal, I go to Les Jardin Sauvages in the Jean Talon Market.  I’m always amazed at the selection, and owner Francois Brouillard will be more than happy to regale stories of his farm and discuss fungus with anyone who will listen.  Les Jardin’s porcinis are fat fungus this year, and very flavorful.  The most interesting specimen however, is hands down a mushroom called Vesse du loup.  It resembles a football size marshmallow, white on the inside and light as a feather.  I was told that this mushroom need simply be pan fried on both sides, and drizzled with a little olive oil and vinegar. 

Mushrooms are a lot like women in the morning, scary in appearance, but once you clean them and dress them up a little, they become things of beauty.  Of course, it also depends on the woman, and the mushroom.  All that to say, don’t be scared of how they look.

 Fig.3. Porcini, chanterelle, and vesse du loup, ready to go into an omelet.

Wild Mushroom Frittata

Serves 3 to 4

 Fig.4. Wild mushroom frittata.

This omelet is on the plain side purposely so you can properly taste the mushrooms.  Adding Parmesan or olives will take away from the fungal flavor.  Clean mushrooms with a damp paper towel and never under running water; and those small worms sometimes found in fresh porcinis will not harm you, look at them as protein. 

Ingredients:

3 tbsp olive oil

1 cup porcini mushrooms, cleaned and halved

1 cup chanterelle (or any mushroom or your choice)

1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley

5 eggs

Salt and pepper to taste

Directions:

Heat the olive oil in a large, non-stick pan set over medium heat.  Add the mushrooms and cook until wilted, about 8 minutes.  In a medium bowl, whip all of the eggs together until combined and just frothy.  Pour the egg mixture evenly to the pan (make sure the pan is not dry, if it is, add a bit more olive oil.)  Lower the heat to medium low, sprinkle with parsley, and cook until the frittata sets.  Flip the frittata around and cook the other side, unless you like your omelets slightly runny like I do, then don’t flip it.

Fig.5. Biggest mushroom I've ever seen, vesse du loup. 

Tomatillos-Just Another Tomato

Peeling Tomatillos 

Fig.1. Tomatillos with thier husks on at the Birri Kiosk in The Jean Talon Market.

Tomatillos are fruits associated with tomatoes, and like tomatoes, are part of the nightshade family.  They can be eaten both raw and cooked.  The fruit is surrounded by a thin husk that begins to split open as the green fruit ripens.  The taste of a tomatillo is acidic, tart and full flavored; a mouthful can leave you with puckered lips. 

Tomatillos are an integral part of Mexican and Indian cuisine.  In Mexico (as well as most of Central America) tomatillos are used in most green sauces and are poured over tacos, fish, and all types of meat.  In India, tomatillos are used in chutneys. 

I like to make sauce with tomatillos, which I then preserve.  There’s a lot of natural pectin in tomatillos, which helps the sauce thicken.  Birri sells tomatillos in small bushels.  Look for fat ones, the husks should look like they’re two sizes too small for the fruit.  I look for the ones that remind me of Danny Devito. 

Tomatillo Sauce

Fills about 6 small mason jars

This sauce can be used on everything from beef to fish.  It can also be added to guacamole.  When you remove the husk, you’ll notice that the tomatillo has a slight, slimy texture to it, this is normal and does not need to be washed or scrubbed off.  They are also good raw.

Ingredients:

1 small bushel of tomatillos, halved

3 jalapeño peppers, seeds removed and chopped

5 medium plum tomatoes, halved

Salt

Directions:

Line two large cookie sheets with parchment paper and bake the tomatillos, peppers and tomatoes in a preheated 375 degree oven.  Bake until outer part of the fruit begins to brown, about 25 to 30 minutes.  Remove from oven and let cool.  Add all of the fruit (in batches) to a blender and puree until just broken up. (If you like your sauce finer, puree longer.)  Pour all of the pureed sauce into a large pot and bring to a boil.  Let it simmer for about 10 to 15 minutes and then fill your hot mason jars (I like to put my Mason Jars into the oven until they’re just hot but not too hot.) Seal the jars immediately and cover jars with a kitchen towel.  After a few hours, verify the jars to make certain they all sealed.  If some of the jars have not “pop”, submerge them into a water bath, and, using the canning method, boil water until jar seals