Portuguese Canadian Bakery

Right now I have a mother and daughter staying with me from Brazil. In an attempt to find food for them that would remind them of home, I googled Portuguese food in Edmonton. Two postings came up: Portuguese Canadian Bakery on 5304 -118 Ave and Nata Portuguese Bakery on 15115 Stony Plain Road. So off we went to the Portuguese Canadian Bakery. It is a bakery, coffee shop, small deli and a dry goods grocery store. We arrived at 1600 hours and they had sold most of their baking. No one was sitting in the cafe area. Suzanne one of the two workers behind the counter spoke Portuguese. She conversed easily and freely with my guests. She recommended that we go to Fatima's to buy fruits and vegetables and noted that the store was owned by a Brazilian woman.

I asked Suzanne what the bakery was famous for and she quickly said the Portuguese buns. I bought six white flour dusted buns for $1.25. They were light, fine grained and the kind of bun that plays a supporting role in the drama and not the main character. It is inviting and I had the urge to pile cheese, cold cuts and pickles into the bun. The bun is large and would be perfect as a dinner roll if the main course was a stew. Then again it would also make the perfect sandwich.

Thirty Three Minute Lasagna

I saw the demonstration of this dish on a Cooks' Illustrated cooking DVD and just had to make it. It looked so cheerful and welcoming. Most cooking shows do not give you the exact recipe or will only give correct amounts for part of the recipe. This way they are not responsible for your failures when you muck up the ingredients and since most celebrities want to publish a cook book, they do not give away the recipes in the potential book. Tonight I had a Brazilian mother and daughter over for dinner and made lasagna. They gladly accepted the leftovers. Hint: I buy plastic containers just to give left overs away or meals away. They are not expensive and are like gift wrap. Everyday lasagna takes a great deal of time but not this dish.

2 onions
3 cloves of garlic
1 tbsp oil
1 pound of extra lean ground beef
28 oz. can of diced or crushed tomatoes
8 oz tomato sauce
8 lengths of broad lasagna noodles
1 tsp dry basil
1 tsp dry oregano
salt and pepper to taste
8 oz ricotta cheese
fresh basil leaves (or flat parsley leaves if basil is not available).

Chop and fry the onions and garlic till transparent in the oil. Add a little salt to this mixture to release the moisture. Add the beef and break up. Just cook till the pink disappears, no need to brown. Add the tomatoes, tomato sauce,herbs,more salt if needed and pepper. I did not have any red pepper flakes but if I had them, I would add a shake or two. Break up the lasagna noodles into 2 inch squares or what ever shape they take. Lay them on top of the tomato/meat mixture. Cover the pan with a lid and cook for 20 minutes on low heat. When I checked the noodles after 20 minutes they were still to firm so I cooked them for 3 more minutes. Dab the ricotta using two tablespoons over the top of the dish. Place the lid back on the pot and cook for 5 more minutes to soften and warm the cheese. Roll the basil into tubes and slice. Sprinkle on top. That it is. A simple dish that has all the flavour of the classic lasagna with one quarter of the work and time.

Humus with or without oil

Coming Soon!

Donna's Kitchen in Viking

Jim and I were in Viking for a meeting. I googled Viking to see where we could have a cup of tea or coffee after the meeting. The Koffee Kafe came up, hours of operation from 9 am to 5 PM. We could not find the cafe and ended up at Donna's Kitchen on Main Street. Thinking this might be the Koffee Kafe in another reincarnation, I asked Donna if she closed at 5PM. She gave me this long look and stated, "every day I am here at 5 Am. If I am lucky I am out of here by 7 PM but if I get a call from a crew, I don't leave until they are fed, 9, 10, 11 PM. Nevertheless I am back up at 5 Am". When I told her about my google results she replied, "they have been closed for 11 or 12 years". So much for google.

Donna was sensibly dressed in black pants with a bit of flour smugged on the side of one pant leg and black rubber boots. She was a middle aged no nonsense kind of woman. We ordered cinnamon buns and coffee. She brought us four made-that-day cinnamon buns, sticky enough to eat with a fork and knife. Free refills on the coffee. The bill was $4.00 for Jim and I. I thought something was wrong when she said $4.00. She caters and that day had done a lunch in Bruce, I did not ask how much she had charged but I was curious.

Her business card reads, Food With Flair, Catering Service and Concession, Donna Brooke, Main Street, Viking, AB T0B 4N0 (780) 336-2476 "No occasion too big or too small" A nice find.

Baked Salmon

Why just have one kind of baked salmon? Tonight my son Tom made three kinds of baked salmon for our dinner: salmon baked in a lemon dill white sauce; another piece basted with teriyaki salmon sauce and the third fillet was cut into pieces, dipped in beaten egg and then rolled in panko crumbs seasoned with thyme, parsley, basil and a dash of garlic powder. With small roasted potatoes tossed in oil, butter, parsley, thyme and of a bit of sea salt and coarsely ground pepper and asparagus sauted in a bit of oil, we had one of those hello-weekend-unforgettable-Friday night dinners.

Tony's Pizza Palace

The restaurant with two names: Tony's Pizza Palace on the business card and website: www.tonyspizzapalace.com and Tony's Pizzeria e Ristorante Itlaliano EST. 1986 on the take out menu. My friend chose the restaurant at 9605 -111 Ave. It was his birthday. Three of us had never been there before. We asked our server, what are the three top dishes that most people order. He rattled the names off so quickly we had to ask another server if we had heard correctly. We did have the recommended and popular bruschetta. Delicious! Every thing was fresh - basil, tomatoes, garlic and all infused with olive oil on a crust that was light, crispy and of course freshly made. For the pasta dish I had the highly recommended fettucini carbonara tossed with eggs, back bacon and Parmesan cheese. Pure comfort on a minus 15 celsius night.

Our server with the perfect spiked and cut black hair told us that Tony senior had started the business in New York. His son brought the business to Edmonton and he and the other servers were friends with Tony's grandson. They all played soccer together. His short history lesson was like salt to the forth coming food, it put the restaurant offerings in context and changed our relationship to one of "just any pizza joint to there are friends making this food and they care".

I will be going back. There are 9 more pasta plates to try. Given the bruschetta crust, I think the pizzas must be sublime.

Papaya Chutney

We so enjoyed the rice and chutney dish that I posted last week, I decided to try a recipe inspired by Lucinda Quinn but changed her recipe to suit my interests and available ingredients. There must be thousands of chutney recipes but the idea of one made with papaya was intriguing.

4 cups of finely chopped papaya
1 and 1/2 cups of chopped cucumbers
1/2 green pepper finely chopped
1/4 cup lime juice
2 inch root of ginger peeled and finely chopped
1 tbsp salt
1 cup vinegar
1 and 3/4 cups sugar
3/4 cups water

Place all ingredients in a pan and slowly cook for 2 hours. In Quinn's recipe she had half the amount of papaya and 3 tbsp salt. I could not abide that much salt. I increased the sugar by 1/4 cup because it tasted too tart. The contrast of colour between the green cucumber and peach orange of the papya was inviting. The smells of vinegar, salt and cucumbers made me think of pickling - a nice thought in the middle of winter.

The mixture took a great deal of time to reduce, so next time I would add less water. My daughter liked the outcome and will be using this chutney in her next rice, bean casserole.