Blasphemy Tourtiere at Taboo Eats this Saturday | foodiePrints

Well, after participating in the Courvoisier Collective Culinary Masterpiece Program and, as a finalist, serving several hundred members of the media a dish I came up with, one would think I learned my lesson.

Not quite?

This Saturday (December 15, 2012), I will be participating in Taboo Eats with eight other non-chefs for a chance to represent the Wellington West neighbourhood in founder Donna Henhoeffer?s My Neighbourhood Bites competition.

A Toronto-expat, who is trying to find her way in Ottawa?s culinary scene, Henhoeffer has a vision. She wants to bring the Underground Market (TUM) concept to the National Capital Region. TUM is a market for the food enthusiast community to sample dishes made by Toronto?s amateur cooks. Neither a farmers? market, nor a food festival, it creates a venue for entrepreneurs, who are not necessarily ?chefs,? to showcase their wares.

[Our Toronto correspondent Abby, volunteers at TUM. She covered one of their events for us.]

When I caught up with her at the inaugural Clam Jam dinner (a ?childhood eats? event and fundraiser for Harmony House Women?s? Shelter), she pointed out there are so many ?great foodies? out there who cook. She wants to provide them some exposure.

Besides, ??restaurants prepare the same [menu of] dishes, day after day.?

Taboo Eats provides a venue for novel dishes, targeted at the foodie community.

I politely disagreed, explaining Ottawa is unique in that there are several thousand farms within city limits. When in season, anything you could possibly want to serve can be prepared with locally sourced ingredients. Locavorism was never new to this city. Many independent restauranteurs and chefs have relied on local producers for decades, changing their menus regularly to showcase seasonal produce.

In fact, with the evolution of fine dining to be more convivial, menus tend to be shorter and less rigid. As Executive Chef Michael Moffatt of the newly opened Gezellig Restaurant (37 Richmond Road) explained to us, his cooks get bored. They brim with ideas. Some are practical. Others are not. It is the creativity of his kitchens that drives menu change.

That said, there are indeed talented amateur cooks in Ottawa, ?amateur? defined by Taboo Eats as anyone who has yet to earn a Red Seal in the cooking trade.

Some have taken to blogging to showcase their abilities, creating and photographing dishes that rival content published in printed magazines. For instance, Kelly Brisson of The Gouda Life is an amateur cook/food blogger we admire and, to some extent, envy. Having cooked from her blog, her dishes are indeed delicious and her photography is stunning.

But, not everyone can find the time to blog.

Almost sixty-five amateur cooks auditioned for a chance to compete at the inaugural Taboo Eats event ($10/person + $5/tasting), which was held in the Ottawa Jail Hostel?s ?courtyard? (parking lot) last September (same weekend as Beau?s Oktoberfest). Twenty passed their auditions. With almost 500 attendees judging the tastings, cook Justin Way of Must Wine Bar (41 William Street) was awarded top prize with his peach and blueberry tart. He was crowned top non-chef.

Afterward, Henhoeffer decided to expand, pitting Ottawa neighbourhoods against one another. She has organized Taboo Eats events for Wellington West (Saturday?s), Centertown (January 12, 2013), Greely (January 25, 2013), Vanier (February 16, 2013), Riverside South (April 6, 2013), Sparks Street (April 23, 2013), Westboro (May 4, 2013), and Orleans (May 17, 2013).

Friends of foodiePrints, Chef Andr?e Riffou of C?est Bon Cooking, Lissa Constantine of BirdDog Design (which publishes the Eat Me Ottawa dining guide), and Chris Sheppard (Shep!) of Kichesippi Brewery, suggested we align with Taboo Eats and look for opportunities to collaborate.

With too much on our plates, I decided to audition outright.

Besides, proceeds from Taboo Eats events go to the Ottawa Food Bank. And, the top three recipes from each event will be published in a cookbook, whose proceeds from its sales will also go to the food bank.

Knowing I could be competing with line cooks whose superior skills and experience (and access to better-than-residential equipment) would easily eclipse any attempt, I decided to have some fun.

It being the holidays, I took a spin on a treasured cultural icon of Quebecois cuisine, the hallowed tourtiere. After consulting my Facebook community on traditional recipes, I curried the filling, encased everything in puff pastry, plated slices with a mango chow chow, and subjected judges to the resulting blasphemy.

Blasphemy Tourtiere with Mango Chow Chow

Judges this round were Henhoeffer; Don Monet, owner of the venue for the Wellington West Taboo Eats event, the Cube Gallery (1285 Wellington Street W.); Katherine Hobbs, City Councillor for the Kitchissippi Ward; Don Fraser of the Wellington West BIA; and Ron Eade, former food editor of the Ottawa Citizen.

Notably, no Chef sat at the judging table, catering or otherwise. And, instructions were somewhat confusing. E-mails specifically told applicants to bring two appetizer-sized portions that would be served to four judges. Fraser was a last minute addition. Having been exposed to enough local professional caterers, I brought double the servings, my own serving-ware, and disposable utensils. Caterers like Epicuria and Tulips and Maple pride themselves on having contingencies for any circumstance.

When all was said and done, my Blasphemy Tourtiere was among the nine recipes chosen to be served this Saturday.

The event will essentially resemble a cocktail party. Set against the Cube Gallery?s displayed collection, there will be food and drink stations. This round, tickets are $15/person + online service charge (includes 2 tastings). Subsequent tastings are $5 each.

Now, because dishes will be modified and prepared in a professional kitchen, here is the recipe for my original Blasphemy Tourtiere.

Original Blasphemy Tourtiere

What You?ll Need:

• 2 large onions
• 2 large carrots
• Unsalted butter to sweat the aromatics
• Kosher salt to season
• 3 tbsp yellow curry powder (packed tbsps)
• 2 tsp garam masala (packed tsps)
• 1 tsp freshly ground coriander
• 1/2 cup boiling water
• Kosher salt and freshly ground pepper to season
• 3 small yellow potatoes
• 2 lbs medium ground beef
• 2 lbs lean ground pork
• Kosher salt to season the meat and encourage good sear
• High smoke point oil to sear the meat
• 1/2 cup coconut cream (reserve the milk as necessary)
• 2 tbsp fish sauce (optional)
• 4 sheets of puff pastry

Yield: 4 6? individual pot pies

Prep:

1. Finely chop the onions and carrots, preferably smaller than a brunoise.
2. Heat a metal-bottomed pan on medium heat and add the butter.
3. When the butter finishes foaming, add the onions and carrots to the pan and season with kosher salt (a pinch will do).
4. Sweat the onions and carrots in the butter until softened.
5. Remove the aromatics from the heat.
6. Mix the curry powder, garam masala, and coriander together in a bowl with the boiling water to form a paste.
7. Add the spice mixture to the aromatics and mix well.
8. Set the spiced aromatics aside.
9. Shred the potatoes coarsely and place them in a bowl of water.
10. Season the ground meat. Generally, I use two to three heavy pinches of Kosher per pound of ground meat.
11. Heat a metal-bottomed pan on medium heat and add the oil.
12. Sear the meat in the pan in batches. You actually want the meat to develop a crust.
13. Between batches, you may need to deglaze the pan with a bit of water, scraping at the brown bits. Reserve this liquid.
14. Reserve the seared meat in a separate container.

Method

1. Place the seared meat and spiced aromatics together in a pot and mix in the coconut cream.
2. Strain the shredded potatoes and layer them a top of the meat.
3. Mix together the deglazing liquid and coconut milk in a separate bowl.
4. Add enough of this liquid to moisten what is essentially a ragu. Liquid should and come up 2-3 cm on the sides of the pan.
5. Bring the everything to a simmer on medium heat and turn the heat to low.
6. Cover the pan.
7. Simmer the contents, scraping the bottom and adding liquid as necessary for 45 minutes.
8. Mix everything together, increasing the heat to medium, and reduce the mixture until nearly dry (but still moist). Starch from the potatoes will thicken the cooking liqueur.
9. Remove the mixture from the heat.
10. Taste the mixture for seasoning and adjust with fish sauce as necessary.
11. Let the meat mixture cool.
12. Preheat an oven to 400 F.
13. Line 4 6? individual pot pie tins with puff pastry, docking generously.
14. Spoon the meat mixture into the pie shells and top with a cross-hatch of puff pastry. Remember, when working with puff pastry, 1) use a pizza cutter to slice the pastry and 2) keep it cold.
15. Brush with an egg wash and place the pies in the preheated oven for 5 minutes.
16. Lower the heat to 350 F and bake until the pastry puffs and turns golden. This took us 40 minutes or so.

Mango Chow Chow (Ketchup)
The mango ketchup was made by reducing mango nectar (700 mL) with 4 dried red chiles, 4 whole cloves, and 1/2 tsp whole black peppercorns to a syrup. It took about 45 minutes. Then the whole spices were strained out and 1/8 tsp of ground ginger and 2 tbsp of apple cider vinegar were added.

That?s it!

This is essentially a curried take on tourtiere with influences from Indian and Thai cuisines. Old friends will recognize the filling as a modified curried ragu I?ve been making for years!

It?s a busy time, these last weeks before Christmas. If you can spare an hour this Saturday evening, come out and have a bite at the Cube Gallery! Unwind amongst some stunning art work. You get to help raise money for a great charitable cause. Nine amateur cooks are aiming to please.

And, you get to taste something blasphemous!

Particulars:
What: Taboo Eats (For the Honour of Wellington West!)
Where: Cube Gallery (1285 Wellington Street W.)
When: Saturday, December 15, 2012 6:00 pm ? 10:00pm
How Much: $15 + service charge by wanttickets.com

Source: http://foodieprints.com/2012/12/blasphemy-tourtiere-at-taboo-eats-this-saturday/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=blasphemy-tourtiere-at-taboo-eats-this-saturday

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