Savoy Brasserie

I can't believe how quickly E is changing.  At 9.5 months, she has now learned to army crawl her way around, showing us all of the ways our house is not sufficiently baby-friendly.  I'm guessing she'll be walking before fully crawling.  She has started cruising this week and that's all she wants to do...  Well..cruising and using the phone to call 911.  Seriously!  What are the chances of a baby pressing the talk button and then 9-1-1?  Apparently, pretty good.  Oops.

Good thing she doesn't make strange (yet?) -- we were able to get out a second night out during Grandma and Grandpa's recent visit.

This second night we went to Westboro. The corner of Churchill and Richmond has changed a lot this year.  First Gezellig moved in on the north-west corner and now Savoy Brasserie has taken over the space previously occupied by Newport Restaurant on the south-east corner. 

The Savoy has a lot of things going for it (location, space, design, concept).  At the same time, there are new restaurant kinks to work out (food consistency, staff training, flow of restaurant, equipment functioning).  

We met up with a couple of friends for dinner about two weeks after Savoy Brasserie opened. For an appetizer, R and I ordered the Savoy salad.  The salad was a bit underwhelming, but I'd attribute it to forgotten ingredients.  I didn't realize until after I finished the salad and saw the neighbouring table's order that our salad didn't include chick peas.  I did, however, notice that there wasn't a drop of dressing (grapefruit vinaigrette) on the salad.  Our friends order the escargot and enjoyed it.

For my main, I ordered steak frites.  The steak was done to my specifications (medium), but I debated askng for steak sauce.  Generally, I hope for a steak to have enough flavour on its own, without needing some sort of sauce.

My friend ordered a bouillabaisse, which she enjoyed.  

R ordered veal scallopine and said it was "just okay."  Not pictured is the duck confit, which our friend really enjoyed (though I think he felt like his serving size was smaller than ours).

Although the staff all seemed polite, I found the number of waiters a bit dizzying.  I know R got really tired of his chair being bumped by passing waiters.  Hopefully they can find a way to widen the aisles for the waiters to pass through.  Below, you can see see the amount of space between the two chairs, which is a main artery of the restaurant.  

Of course, the elephant in the room is the firemen.  Again, I'll give the restaurant slack because it recently opened.  But, the smell of smoke, followed by blaring smoke detectors and entry of firemen kind of broke up the evening.  We took it as our cue to leave and headed down the street for some dessert.

So -- the big question.  Will I return?  Sure -- I'd like to see how they're doing in a couple of months.  Aside from the lack of space between tables, I think all of the bumps we experienced can be easily ironed out with time.

Odile

Going out for a nice dinner is a rare occasion these days.  E and I go out for lunch fairly regularly (maybe once every couple of weeks).  But, without a babysitter or family in Ottawa, I can count the number of times we've gone out for a nice dinner in the past nine months on one hand.  

Knowing that R's parents were coming for a visit, I texted Ron about going out for dinner.  I listed a couple places I would like to try, but hoped he would choose one in particular: Odile.

Odile is Chez Edgar's little sister, but only in the sense that it is Marysol's second restaurant (note: Odile opened about a year ago).  I may be biased, but I think little sisters are pretty awesome.  

After getting screwed by my GPS and ending up in Aylmer, we made our way to Odile's lovely patio area.  I love the way Marysol's food uses fresh ingredients, is cooked with a lot of care, but is not at all pretentious.  

R and I shared a caesar salad.  The dressing had a great kick of garlic and anchovies.  I loved the croutons.  It tasted like bread that had been soaked in garlicy goodness and then baked.  I also thought the pig cheek was an interesting touch.  It had good flavour, though was a bit on the fatty side for my liking.  

For the main I ordered red wine braised shortribs.  They come with a puree of yukon and celery root and kale.  All of this is topped off with chevre noir, a gremolata and shallots.  Oh goodness was this so delicious.  Comfort food at its best.  The shortribs were melt in your mouth and flavourful  If this is how fresh kale can taste, then I need to work on improving my kale-preparation skills.  I will also be looking to make a recipe where I can punch up the flavours with a gremolata soon.  The serving was hearty, but I want some more!

Others at my table ordered the duck breast and were quite complementary of it.  Clearly, there is no shying away from a healthy serving of meat.  My table mates also quite enjoyed the touch of sweetness brought by the fruit (fig? date?).

Even though it was starting to get cold (well, I wasn't cold after drinking two glasses of wine), we couldn't skip out on Marysol's delicious desserts.  Our friends shared an almond cake (can't remember what else was in it).

R and I shared a slice of pear and sugar pie,  We were completely full before the pie came, but managed to find room for it and thank goodness we did.  I don't always like pie crusts because they can be too dry for my liking.  But I loved the crust on this pie.  Of course, the star was still the filling.  The fudgy/sugary thing on top didn't do much for me.  I felt the pie was sweet enough without it.  But, I don't like fudge in general.

Aside from the exceptional food, the service was pretty stellar too.  Like the servers at Chez Edgar, our server was down to earth, professional and friendly.  I hope to be able to return to Odile soon!

Tomato Caprese Tarts with Chive Oil

My friend and I were having a bit of a debate, over Facebook, about whether keeping an orderly house  is something that people should prioritize, despite having little ones.  She wrote a long note about how she keeps her place clean and is ready for company at any time.

I quoted part of this poem to my friend:

The cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,

for children grow up, as I’ve learned to my sorrow.

So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.

I’m rocking my baby and babies don’t keep.

Truthfully, we do prioritize keeping the house (fairly) clean.  But, sometimes I wish I didn't care because the evenings and weekends can become one chore after the next.  Also, I was just a bit annoyed with my friend for writing a domestic manifesto about how easy it is to maintain such a lifestyle without acknowledging that she has never had to work for a living and has regular help from nannies.  

My friend also talked about making great meals for her family: "I don’t only buy groceries or make great suppers for company (as I used to) and then eat just okay the rest of the time. But I make a conscious effort to always cook great food for my family, as if company’s always coming over."  

Clearly, if I didn't value great food, I wouldn't be blogging about food for 6 years.  But - I don't always cook great food for my family.  For one, it's not only me that cooks (not to say that R cooks crap food - just that we don't have traditional gender roles in our house).  Sometimes, we just don't have the energy.  Or, sometimes, I just want a bowl of cereal for dinner.  Plus, I kind of like the idea that having guests over is a special occasion that should be marked by extra effort.  

Giz says that the cardinal rule when having guests for dinner is to make a recipe you know well, to be sure that you will be serving something that tastes good.  I pretty much break this rule every time.  

Last weekend, we had guests over and I really wanted to try a recipe from the Savory Pies cookbook of which I got a review copy. 

Tomato Caprese Tarts with Chive Oil

1/2 cup fresh chives, coarsely chopped

1 cup evoo

flour for rolling

2 (14 ounce) packages frozen all-butter puff pastry, thawed in the fridge

3 ounces well-chilled low-moisture mozzarella cheese, coarsely shredded

18 large cherry tomatoes or small Sweet 100s (on the vine, if possible)

Cooking spray

1 egg yolk lightly beaten with 1 teaspoon water, for egg wash

kosher salt

fresh whole basil leaves, for garnish

aged balsamic vinegar

Bring to a boil a small saucepan half-filled with unsalted water.  Add the chives and blanch for about 10 seconds; they should be very bright green.  Drain in a colander and run cold water over them to stop the cooking.  Pat dry with paper towels.

Put the chives and half the evoo in a blender.  With the machine running, add the remaining olive oil in a slow stream until completely pureed. 

Let the chive oil stand 1 hour and then strain through a fine-mesh sieve lined with a double thickness of damp cheesecloth.  Discard the solids.  

On a lightly floured work surface, use a lightly floured rolling pin to roll 1 package of puff pastry to a 10 x 15-inch rectangle, a scant 1/4 inch thick.  Use a 4-inch cutter to make 6 pastry rounds.  Transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet.  On a freshly floured work surface, use a freshly floured rolling pin to roll the second package of puff pastry to a 10 X 15-inch rectangle, a scant 1/4 inch thick.  Use a cutter to cut 6 more 4-inch rounds.  Then use a 3-inch cutter to cut out the centers of these rounds, creating rings.  Save the trimmings for another use.

Brush the outside edges of the rounds with egg wash.  Carefully lay the rings on top, aligning the edges.  Use a fork to prick the pastry at half-inch intervals inside the raised border.  Refrigerate until chilled, about 20 minutes.  

Set an over rack in the center position.  Preheat the oven to 425F. 

Divide the mozzarella among the pastry rounds, about 2 tablespoons (1/2 ounce) each, keeping it inside the boarders.  Lay 3 tomatoes on top of the mozzarella; it's okay if they touch or overhand a little.  Leave the vine attached or remove it, as you see fit.  Give the tomatoes a spritz of cooking spray (preferably olive oil).  Brush the tart edges with egg wash and sprinkle with a pinch of salt.  

Bake until the pastry is golden and the tomatoes are just beginning to crack and blister, 15-20 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature, garnished with lots of fresh basil leaves.  Serve chive oil and balsamic vinegar on the side as a dressing.  

Verdict -- these tarts were really good!  I can see myself serving them over and over again, kind of like this puff pastry recipe.  They're pretty easy to pull together.  My critiques would be that I didn't think that the chive oil added much to the recipe.  I'll probably try pesto on the side next time instead.  Also, I didn't like how the recipe basically suggested setting a bunch of puff pastry aside for another use.  I knew that if I set it aside, it would go to waste.  So I just re-rolled the pastry and made 10 tarts instead of 6.  

On a side note -- I also tried the pizza dough recipe from the book and loved it!  Great flavour and texture.  It's our new "go to" pizza dough recipe.