Glammed up burgers

Ah, the hamburger...a delicious ground beef patty, layered with lettuce, tomato, ketchup, mustard and onions, and placed between a soft, white bun. Yum. Meat, veggies and carbs - perfection.

Or so I thought until I recently visited the Gourmet Burger Co. You walk in, and what you have to do is simple: follow the steps outlined for you on the chalk board - your options of what to put on your custom burger are laid out. And if you're up for a side, you have a choice of a number of things to choose from, ranging from onion rings to sweet potato fries (I had regular fries with vinegar).

I went at lunch with a girlfriend on a Friday afternoon...let's just say this is one place where you truly have to wait for your food.  Each burger is cooked after you place your order, so rest-assured, you're not getting anything from a heating tray (no offense to McDonald's or other fast-food restaurants...there are often times where I would absolutely kill for a Big Mac or a McChicken, but that's a post for another day).

In fact, in took nearly 15 minutes for me to get my order - which was fine with me, since I had a place to sit, but for others, it would've been a long wait. I also had a side order of fries (it WAS Friday afterall).

The verdict? Absolutely amazing. The burger was perfectly cooked and not oily (I find burgers are either dry or too oily) at all. I had lettuce, tomato, caramelized onions and sauteed mushrooms on my burger. Even the bun was perfectly soft and fragrant (no stale bread here). And the fries? Fresh cut and made from real potatoes.

(By the way, some of my readers know that I am also a fan of Craft Burger. In terms of a difference between Craft Burger or the Gourmet Burger Co. I have to say there isn't much of a difference, in terms of pricing, taste and popularity. Both produce an extremely delicious burger.)

Restaurant rating: Definitely worth an extra hour or two at the gym.

Chef's Challenge part 2

View from stage right(?)

So I was really tired when I posted earlier today (this a.m.) and will most likely be passing out shortly (my attempt at a nap failed).

I have to preface this particular culinary adventure with this line: through my job, I was lucky enough to attend the first inaugural Chef Challenge. I attended as staff, but was able to enjoy many parts of the evening as well.

The Chef's Challenge with Gordon Ramsay, in support of Mount Sinai Hospital was generously sponsored by MasterCard Canada.

Billed as "Canada's premiere culinary fundraising event for Mount Sinai Hospital's lifesaving research and care of women in their daily battle against breast and ovarian cancer", the premise of the event was simple: raise money for Mount Sinai - and if you're one of the top 50 fundraisers, you get to compete in the culinary challenge. The coolest part?  Each fundraiser was assigned to a team captain, each one, a top Canadian chef: Mark McEwan, Lynn Crawford, Jamie Kennedy, David Rocco or Massimo Capra - all of Food Network fame.

And of course hosting the evening was none other than the culinary rock star himself, Gordon Ramsay.

As guests ate, the various teams would go and create culinary arts of work to impress the celebrity judges.  The evening was a mix between Hell's Kitchen and Iron Chef. The evening was absolutely amazing.

And what were the guests eating?

First course: butternut squash soup with chestnuts and sage, paired with 2006 Wildass Riesling.

My thoughts: amazingly creamy and paired perfectly with the riesling. There was a touch of truffle oil in the soup as well.

Second course: seared and marinated salmon, beetroot carpaccio, Gravenstein apple, honey and soy dressing, paired with 2006 Wildass white.

My thoughts: perfectly cooked salmon with a nice crisp wine. The wine was a blend of many grapes, but what came through most was what I believed to be the chardonnay. (Side rant: chardonnay is an amazingly buttery wine, which went with the buttery texture of the salmon).

Third course: braised Pacific halibut, fennel confit, tarragon and a red pepper vinaigrette served with a 2006 Stratus White.

My thoughts: the flavours were amazing, but the halibut was slightly overcooked.  The wine while good, clashed with the red pepper vinaigrette.

Fourth course: fillet of Ontario Angus beef, sweet potato fondant, glazed red onion and wild mushrooms, served with a 2006 Stratus Red.

My thoughts: I'm not a huge fan of Ontario reds, so I won't go further than this on the wine. The dish itself was perfectly cooked - LOVED the glazed red onion and the mushrooms. The beef was done medium rare (which is the ONLY way to eat beef) - my only hangup is that the beef didn't taste as though it had been seasoned.

Fifth course (dessert): honey creme brulee with clementine sorbet and hazelnut shortbread, paired with Inniskillin 2007 Vidal Icewine.

My thoughts: The wine wasn't too sweet (I'm also generally not a fan of icewines) and was a perfect ending. The overall dessert itself? Amazing - I don't have a sweet tooth, but I could've gone for seconds. I loved the shortbread (subtley buttery), and the texture of the creme brulee was perfect. The sorbet was good too - very refreshing - though I had to say I left that on my plate.

The food for the evening was catered by Daniel et Daniel.

But oddly enough, the focus of the evening was not on the food the guests were eating, but on the stage.

Encouraging Team Massimo

Gordon Ramsay truly is a charismatic man, and kept the action going all night. Not only was he funny, he was also extremely gracious. It's no wonder he's a media darling (though I don't doubt for a sec he has a temper, I'm now more convinced than ever it's all an act).

I was lucky enough to have access to the staging area and managed to snag a few photos as well.

Being back stage gave me a chance to see how the stage kitchen was set-up. Let's just say that a lot of work goes into making sure these kitchens are working.

David Rocco and a team member

Mark McEwan and part of his team

Team Crawford: the winning team

The event ran straight through until 11:30, with all the challengers working hard throughout the night. And while it was a tough call, Team Crawford was the strongest and placed first overall. The trophies?  Eggbeaters mounted on a base - genius!

But of course the best part of the night was when they announced over $1 million dollars had been raised that night.

It was definitely a night to remember, and one that this foodie will never forget.

Chef's Challenge

It's been awhile, and I'm only posting a short entry before heading to sleep. But I am lucky enough to be attending the Chef's Challenge at The Carlu - sponsored by MasterCard Canada to raise funds for Mount Sinai.

The event is hosted by Gordon Ramsay and will feature the following chefs:

- Massimo Capra

- David Rocco

- Mark McEwan

- Lynn Crawford

- Jamie Kennedy

This is going to be amazing foody experience. Stay-tuned for pictures!

My love-hate relationship with coffee / plea for new coffee shops

As you can tell by the title of this posting, I have mixed feelings about coffee. On the one hand, coffee is an elixir; party too hard the night before and need a pick-me-up? Coffee will do the trick. Getting up at the crack of dawn and need a little help before sitting down for a busy day at the office? Go coffee. And the smell? Oh I LOVE the smell of coffee. Strong, smoky and fragrant.

On the other hand, coffee is also disgusting. How can something that smells so incredible taste so incredibly disgusting? I would never drink my coffee black (okay, unless I was seriously desperate). It's bitter, burnt and...bitter. Did I mention bitter? Cream and sweetener all the way!

And if I drink too much, I get heart palpitations. Not to mention that coffee acts as a diuretic (joy).

Ironically, as I write this, I'm hunkered down at my local Starbucks.

But coffee is also an incredible baking ingredient. I've used instant coffee (yes, yes, blasphemy to you hardcore coffee drinkers) in cookies and am currently testing it out as an ingredient in savoury dishes (my poor, poor, loved ones). Oddly enough, I've never tried coffee in anything beyond, well, coffee.

So...with the weather getting colder, and coffee becoming a necessity (I definitely drink more coffee in the winter), I send this plea out to you, my fellow readers: I'm on the lookout for some new coffee shops in the Toronto area (but I'm also willing to travel as far as Prince Edward County). Please share your coffee stories / recommendations with me. Thanks in advance.

Bake it in a cake (a.k.a pumpkin pie baked in a cupcake)

Seriously delicious

So a good friend of mine found this insane web site that - get this - collects ideas on what can be baked into cupcakes. With the intense cooking from Thanksgiving, I decided to take a break and bake strictly for fun: hence Bake it in a Cake.

I tried out this recipe, and it was AMAZING. Unfortunately, I didn't have any cream cheese for the icing so tried this Martha Stewart recipe instead (warning: I found it WAY too sweet - even though I only used 2 cups of icing sugar).

I have to admit, it did take awhile to make the mini pumpkin pies, and then the cake batter, and then the actual cake. Oh...and then the icing. But the end result was worth it. Special thanks to SMC for finding this cool web site. The recipe is as follows (just in case the site ever goes down, I'll always have a copy of the recipe).

This recipe should make 24.

For the pumpkin pies you’ll need:

- 1 batch of your favorite pie crust dough 

- 1 15 oz. can pumpkin pie filling, prepared according to the can’s directions.

For the cupcakes you’ll need: 

- 1 1/2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

- 8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

- 1 1/2 c. granulated sugar

- 3 eggs (room temperature)

- 2 t. vanilla

- 2 t. baking powder

- 1/2 t. baking soda

- 1/2 t. salt

- 1 1/3 c. whole milk

- 2 1/2 c. flour 

For the buttercream you’ll need:

- 2 sticks unsalted butter, room temperature

- 8 oz cream cheese, room temperature

- 2 c. powdered sugar

- 1 c. Hershey’s cinnamon chips (or any cinnamon chips you like)*

- splash of whole milk 

*Not available in Canada - substitute cinnamon and brown sugar

Directions:

Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees (F).

First ingredient: mini pumpkin pies

First, prepare the pumpkin pies. Mix up the pumpkin pie mix according to the can’s directions (or make your

own-fancy!). Roll out the pie crust dough and cut it into small circles that are large enough to cover the bottom and sides of mini cupcake tins (I used the opening of a small juice glass as a cutter). 

Press the dough into the lightly greased mini cupcake tins, and then fill them with the pumpkin pie mix. (Don’t go all the way to the top, the filling will expand a little while baking.)

Bake the pies for about 7 minutes at 425 degrees (F), and then turn the oven down to 350 degrees (F) and bake them for another 10 minutes or so, until the crust is brown and the filling is completely set.

After taking them out of the oven, cool them on a wire rack for about 10 minutes, then take them out of the pan and allow them to cool further while you mix up the batter.

Pies in the batter

For the cupcake batter, combine the butter and the cream cheese together on medium speed for about 90 seconds—you want the ingredients to be well incorporated. Then mix in the sugar until the mixture is fluffy. Add the eggs, one at a time, and then the vanilla, baking soda, baking powder, and salt. Then mix in the milk and the flour, alternating between the two ingredients. Scrape down the sides and bottom of the bowl, to make sure everything is getting well-mixed—beat again on med-high speed for about a minute. It should be smooth and creamy.

Spoon a heaping tablespoon of batter into regular-sized, paper-lined cupcake tins. Plop a cooled pumpkin pie 

Covering the pies

into the center, and press gently into the batter. GENTLY. You don’t want it to touch to the bottom of the pan. 

Cover the pies with another heaping tablespoon of batter, so the top and sides are completely covered.

Bake at 350 degrees (F) for about 25 minutes, until the cake is set and the edges and tops of the cupcakes have turned golden brown.

Allow them to cool in the cupcake tray for atleast 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack—they’ll be a little fragile at first. 

Once the cakes are cool, frost ‘em! 

To make the buttercream, melt down the cinnamon chips with a splash of whole milk. Pop ‘em in the microwave for about 45 seconds on high. Stir until all the chips are melted, and allow it to cool a bit while you whip up the rest of the frosting (you can put the bowl in the fridge, it’ll cool faster that way, and the milk will keep it from solidifying). 

1 down...many to go

Cream together the butter and cream cheese until they’re well incorporated. Then whip in the powdered sugar, a cup at a time, until the mixture is smooth and creamy. With the mixer on low, drizzle in the cooled cinnamon chip “ganache” (if it’s too hot it’ll melt the buttercream and ruin it—you don’t want that). Put in about half, then stop to taste it and decide if you’d like to add more. Some like it strong, others like it milder. 

If  you have any pie crust left over, roll it out and cut smaller discs and sprinkle them with a little bit of 

cinnamon and sugar. Bake ‘em for about 10 minutes at 350 and look at that, a cute and tasty cupcake topper!

You can also try candied pecans or a drizzle of caramel on top. Tasty!

This recipe was created by Megan Seling for Bakeitinacake.com