Brunch at The Sparrow- Review

I have been known to be rather harsh on restaurants, if there is a culinary weak spot I will probably spot it. This time however, I went to eat at a restaurant where I could barely find anything wrong. I would have loved to say that it was flawless but there was one teensy-weensy thing that could be corrected, but however, as far as restaurants go my meal was nearly perfect.

The restaurant’s decor is rather charming. There is lots of dark wood, framed picture and books shelves with books and knick knacks on them. I loved the wallpaper with the embossed birds on it. The menu is British inspired and it definitely felt as though I had wandered into my non-existent British aunt’s cozy drawing room.

I went to brunch with a group of Montreal bloggers. You can see their happy shiny faces above. It had been a while since our last meet up so it was nice to see everyone again. If you’re a Montreal food blogger drop me a line so we can include you in our next get together.

One thing I have to hand to The Sparrow is their attention to details. I loved the fact that they had lumps of cane sugar and their cream was served in a little jug. Ok, here comes the one bad thing about the food at The Sparrow. The coffee was not very good, but it was not very bad either, it was just mediocre. It tasted very weak. In my books brunch deserves a good strong cup of coffee. But then again, the coffee was included in the price of the food so I can’t complain too much.

Ok, now that that unpleasantness is out of the way you will see that the rest of my review will be positively glowing.

The menu was very minimalistic which can be annoying if the servers aren’t willing describe the items but we had a super friendly waitress who took her time to go through each item and answer all of our questions. The service here was excellent, even though the restaurant was full when we went we didn’t have to wait overly long for our food and our coffee and water were refilled at regular intervals.

I was torn over a few items but decided to order the custard doughnuts and the sausage and egg roll. The French toast made with brioche really tempted me but I will save that for my next visit.

One thing I have to say was that the plates were gorgeous. It added to the feeling of having a meal at a relative’s house, that is, a relative who happens to be a fabulous cook.

The doughnut were nice and airy, not heavy or greasy at all. I had ordered custard ones but I traded one away for a taste of a chocolate doughnut. The chocolate was just ok; I felt the chocolate taste was not strong enough. If they had put in more cocoa powder the taste would have been perfect. As well, the chocolate doughnuts were under filled compared to the custard doughnuts. Ok, so I lied, there were two things that I found that could have been better.

The custard filling was amazing. It almost tasted like crème patisserie and you can even see the little black flecks of the vanilla bean seeds. I could have happily eaten a few more of these.

One thing that I was really impressed by was the fact that all our meals were brought out at the same time and nothing was cold or overcooked. This is especially impressive given that most of us had ordered eggs which overcook and cool down quickly, and as there were 13 of us this was quite the feat. Most places have a very difficult time handling serving a big group at the same time.

Up above is my meal. It was a sausage patty on a soft milky bun, with a sunny side up egg, lettuce, tomato, cheddar and I think mayo or some other kind of sauce.

I am seriously salivating looking at these pictures as I am typing this. This sausage and egg roll was incredible. The sausage patty was perfectly seasoned and still moist and juicy. The egg was was perfectly cooked, the whites were firm but the yolk was runny and perfectly oozy. The cheddar was appropriately strong and the soft milkyness of the bun brought the whole thing all together. A lot of thought and care went into this sandwich. Like I said, this place really pays attention to the details.

I had also ordered bubble and squeak which is a potato and cabbage dish. This was also really good, the potatoes were soft and savoury with an incredible golden crust on top.

The following are the items ordered by other bloggers:

Crumpet with jam. This looked absolutely scrumptious. I’ve only ever had crumpets from the supermarket and this one definitely looked a million times better.

This was baked eggs, celeriac and oyster mushrooms with some toast.

This was the full English breakfast, otherwise known as the meat bonanza: bacon, sausage, blood sausage, beans, bubble and squeak (if I’m not mistaken), eggs and toast. This was most definitely the heartiest of the dishes.

This was scrambled eggs with smoked salmon.

This was eggs Florentine with smoked salmon. The slices of salmon were generous and looked lovely.

Doesn’t this look absolutely amazing? As Evelyne said to the waitress as she was ordering this, “you had me at Brioche”. The French toast came with caramelized pears, apples and cranberries all doused in maple syrup. I’m definitely getting this next time.

Perhaps the best part of this meal was the cost. The doughnuts, the sausage and egg roll, the bubble and squeak and coffee with tax and tip was 20$ which was an absolute steal considering the quality of the ingredients and the service we received. I will most definitely be back for brunch again soon, hopefully before the lineups get too long since I am sure this place will keep on getting more and more popular.

Technorati Tags: Brunch,Montreal,The Sparrow review

Duck, Mushroom and Asparagus Vol-au-Vent

The Husband is strictly a meat and potatoes man; give him a bloody steak and he is happy. The only exception to this rule is duck confit. Duck confit is duck which has been poached in its own fat. Sounds strange but tastes amazing. Given how much he loves it I am always on a hunt for new recipes that use this ingredient. I am pretty lucky in that our grocer is marvellously well stocked with wild game so I have no problem finding it on a regular basis. I don’t have a link to this recipe online but you can just eyeball all the ingredients. Since duck can be hard to find and is a tad expensive you could also make this recipe using leftover dark chicken meat or you could cook up some chicken thighs.

Now for the ingredients. First up is asparagus. I use the snapping method to get the ends off. You take an end of the asparagus spear in each hand and then start to bend. It will break off in the right place ensuring that you do not get any woody parts.

Ah, pre-washed, pre-cut mushrooms how I love thee.

Chopped onions. I don’t bother dicing them too daintily.

Chopped baby carrots.

All the aforementioned vegetables get cooked together in a pan along with some olive oil and salt and pepper until they are browned.

Duck confit taken off the bone and with the skin removed. I hate doing this job so I just pawn it off on the husband. This is one of the pluses of being married. Once we have a kid I can get him to take out the garbage and thus avoid doing all the unpleasant kitchen chores. My plan is brilliant isn’t it?

Once the veggies were cooked I added a few tablespoons of flour to the pan and stirred.

I then chucked in some white wine and chicken broth.

A generous splash of cream also went in there.

I then mixed everything until the sauce came to a boil and thickened.

The vol-au-vents are courtesy of the freezer section at the supermarket. While I will spend obscene amounts of time cooking, puff pastry and vol-au-vents are two things that I won’t bother making on a regular basis. I still feel vaguely guilty whenever I buy them pre-made though. I read an interview once in which Jamie Oliver said he used pre-made puff pastry which was a sop to my guilty cook’s conscience.

The Husband being a guy he asked to have french fries with this meal. Given the choice he will always choose potatoes as a side dish in some form. I have to admit I didn’t really get to taste this since I made myself something else but from the tastes I had of the sauce when I was adjusting the salt and pepper it was delicious. The Husband was rather happy with this meal and I was stuck having food envy since I had made myself lentil stew. Isn’t meal envy the worst? It’s even worse when you go to a restaurant and you end up ordering something that is just ok and the person you are with orders something amazing and you have to watch them ooohing and ahhhing over their food. I like lentil but it’s not definitely as good as duck confit!

Technorati Tags: Duck,Vol-au-vent

Pulled Pork Gorditas

I love Tex-Mex food. Oh how I wish there was decent Mexican food around these parts. Every single Mexican food restaurant that I have been to in Montreal is either bland or very bland, unfortunately. Since I had a craving for Mexican food I decided to make Gorditas. I actually made this recipe a few weeks ago so I am sitting here trying to remember what I put in them. Strangely enough gordita means “little fatty” in Spanish. This is also a term of endearment for chubby women (no, I am not kidding. We’re not very politically correct in Spanish). I cannot imagine a scenario in which a man will call his wife “little fatty” in English and not end up sleeping on the couch for a week. The recipe for the tortillas is here.

The tortilla part was easy to make. You mix masa, flour, baking powder and salt in a bowl.

The recipe calls for adding some cotija cheese to the tortillas. Since Italian cheese is what passes off as exotic at my local cheese counter I ended up using feta instead.

I also added some corn kernels. I took some frozen corn and nuked it in the microwave until it was thawed and tossed it into the bowl.

I added enough water to bring everything together so that the dough was stiff but not crumbly.

Traditionally you fry gorditas but I decided to bake them instead. I scooped out the tortillas with an ice cream scoop and patted them down with moistened hands. I put them in the oven at 350 Celsius which the standard temperature that I use when I am baking something which is usually fried.

To top my gorditas I made pulled pork and once it was shredded I mixed it with browned onions that I had cooking on the stove as I took care of the tortillas.

To make a sauce I added in tomato puree, cumin, coriander, chili powder, salt and pepper as well as some Mexican spice mix which I had in the pantry.

I had no idea how long to cook the tortillas so I left them in the oven until they were firm and golden.

To assemble the gorditas I topped them with tomatillo salsa (from a bottle, but it comes from Mexico, Old El Paso’s travesty of a salsa has not yet darkened my doorstep), fresh cilantro, guacamole and some feta cheese. The tortillas were nice and tasty with the sweet corn kernels providing a nice counterpoint to the saltiness of the feta cheese. Tomatillo salsa and guacamole are always winners in my book and they make everything better. This meal was most definitely a repeat. It didn’t take long to make and made quite a bit of leftovers. The only downside was that this is not the kind of thing that I could take to work for lunch, however it made a few excellent meals to have during the week.

Technorati Tags: Mexican,Tex-Mex,Tortillas,Pork

Thai Chicken Fried Rice

Lately I have been in a cooking rut. After the holidays I swore I would cut back on making so much indulgent yet heavy food but alas, this left me without any inspiration. Vegetables just don’t excite me. I was flipping through a healthy foods cookbook and I saw a recipe for this Thai Chicken Fried Rice. It is not too bad on the caloric front (in spite of the word “fried” in the title) and while I cannot attest for the authenticity, it looked like it would be fun to try and a change from the usual Chinese Chicken Fried Rice.

The key to any stir fry/fried rice is to make sure that all your ingredients have been cut up before you start cooking. That way you can dump them in quickly and nothing will burn while you’re busy chopping.

First up were red peppers. The recipe called for red Thai peppers but since they don’t sell them in my supermarket I just ended up using red bell peppers.

Then some cilantro. I love cilantro, The Husband thinks it smells like death though. Sadly that rules out me making out most Latin American food for both of us.

Then some fresh basil. I know I should have picked off each leaf from the stem and tightly wrapped them in a nice little bundle and delicately cut them into ribbons but I couldn’t be bothered so I hacked at them like a maniac.

I started off by cooking my green onions. There was also half a red onion hanging around the fridge so I ended up chucking that in as well.

When the onions were done I took them out of the pan and cooked my chicken. I had taken two chicken breasts and sliced them thinly with a sharp knife. If you have problems slicing chicken finely put it in the freezer for a few minutes. It will stiffed up a bit and be easier to cut.

Once the chicken was cooked I added in some cooked basmati rice. If you’ve never tried basmati rice do give it a go. It is fragrant and good even plain. It is my go-to rice for all kinds of dishes.

The herbs, red pepper and onions then went back in.

For flavouring I added in a few tablespoons of oyster sauce and fish sauce. I just kept on tasting and adding more as needed. Since there is a lot of sodium in fish sauce I just added a touch of salt at the end. I had to buy a new bottle of fish sauce since The Husband threw away my last bottle by accident. He was cleaning out the fridge (by himself may I add. I married him for his cleaning skills) and opened it up and sniffed it. He thought it had gone bad and threw it away. Only later when I was looking for fish sauce and he told me what he had done did I enlighten him to the fact that fish sauce always smells funky. I wonder what it smells like when it really does go off.

Yum. This was good and very easy. It is also an excellent way of using up cooked chicken should you have some leftover from a roast chicken dinner. This could have used some heat and next time I am adding in some red chilli peppers. I think I like this much more than Chinese fried rice. The fresh herbs went really nicely in this and it is quite nice to find a recipe that uses basil that is not Italian.

Technorati Tags: Basil,Thai,Chicken,Fried Rice