Crows in the Kitchen » Montreal

Breakfast in Montreal

Holly — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 20:08:42 +0000

Vbar and I flew north this past weekend to go visit Riane in the lively city of Montreal. It was a packed apartment with six of us pals plus two cute pups so meal planning involved some strategy. The first morning there we made a giant batch of scrambled eggs and bagels from a bakery down the street. Morning numero deux left us much less hungover and much more ambitious so we decided to replicate a tasty breakfast dish that Riane’s mom made for us when we visited them out in California. We decided on this dish because we had a beautiful sourdough baquette we purchased at Marche’ Atwater the day before, along with some left over spinach and peppers. The only items missing were the eggs and cheese which we got from the convenient corner store while we took the pups out for their morning walk.

Sausage, Roasted Red Pepper and Spinach Torta Rustica

Just like a fritatta this egg dish is very versatile. The main ingredients are baguette, eggs and cheese so its up to the cook what other tasty veggies and meats they want to throw in. Sausage would have been ideal but instead we went the vegetarian route with spinach, onions, garlic, green pepper, and tons of fresh orgegano. I was too famished to waste time getting a decent picture, but our potatoes also came out delicious with a few minutes under the broiler at the end and some freshly chopped parsley.

This breakfast provided the starch and carbs we all needed to throw back some mimosas and move on to some whiskey gingers!

Here is a shout out to the two well behaved pups that entertained us all weekend.

Emma Bear & Moose

muffins in mtl!

riane — Tue, 04 Aug 2009 18:52:00 +0000

bonjour from montreal! la belle province!!

when it comes to cooking, i am definitely a baker, so naturally, all my overripe (and underripe for that matter) bananas go into banana bread! whenever i spy a browning banana i throw it into the freezer for later use. i find, however, that when i re-visit these frozen fruits, they’ve often times turned completely brown and to a frozen mush in the freezer…don’t be afraid! thaw those puppies out and squeeeeeeeeeeze them into you mixing bowl, they’re already mashed!! i have found, however, that bananas of the frozen type never seem to pack as much flavor and i generally add extra.

for this recipe, i only had 2 bananas and none in the freezer, what’s a girl to do!? i modified my goto banana bread recipe, reducing ingredients and adding roasted almonds and coconut to produce 10 muffins! breads and muffins are great modifiers in that you can add and subtract fruits and nuts to your liking.

coconut almond banana muffins:

1 cup flour

3/4 tsp baking powder

3/4 tsp baking soda

1/4 tsp salt

4 tbs softened butter

2 ripe bananas

1 egg

1/2 cup brown sugar

1/4 cup nuts

1/4 cup coconut

preheat oven to 350F

sift dry ingredients.

mix wet ingredients.

add dry to wet, then add coconut and almonds.

scoop into muffin cups and top w/a little bit of coconut

bake in preheated oven 20 min and voila!

The Cock’s in the Kitchen

riane — Fri, 08 May 2009 15:05:00 +0000

Paul and I thought this was pretty funny:

http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_a_male_crow_called

Q “what is a male crow called”

A “male crows are called cocks”

Anyways, our good friends Steph and Jeff Spicer just moved into their first house out on the west island of Montreal and we finally got to go check it out! Upon seeing the diesel new grill on the back porch, Paul immediately suggested grilling (the grill master was in)

He marinated kebabs made with huge chunks of sweet onion, green and red pepper and chicken with his sassy homemade teriyaki marinade and grilled them to perfection.

Teriyaki Marinade

1 bunch of green onions, minced, whites only
3 large crushed garlic cloves
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup honey
Another interesting technique, compliments of Mr. Jeff Spicer, is scoring halved zucchinis. Take a small to medium sized zucchini and cut it in half length-wise. Next, take a sharp knife and score the flat side in a criss-cross pattern. Jeff adds salt next and lets them sit for a few minutes, to get the juices flowing, then olive oil and season to taste. You can throw these puppies on the grill and let them roast away. They only need to be grilled face down.

And perhaps my favorite of the night, trout sausage, or as I called them, trousage. I must admit I was skeptical at first, but they turned out to be quite delicious. They were simply a mix of fresh trout, parsley and chive, made into a sausage, but they were flakey and delicious and I will definitely pick them up if ever again I get the chance.