MTL a Table: Bistro-Brasserie Les Soeurs Grises

MTL a Table finally done as of this past Sunday. In a final attempt to give a brunch a shot, my friends decided to go out for one last little trip out! Well, a post I saw about the recommended brunches just made me want to go eat one of them so much and the Bistro-Brasserie Les Soeurs Grises just looked phenomenal in the article that I’m happy they agreed.

Let’s wrap up MTL a Table in style!

Bistro-Brasserie Les Soeurs Grises

MTL a Table Brunch

First service

Mimosa with Prosecco
(another option is mimosa with beer)

One word for this: YUM! I love mimosas. Probably because I don’t usually have them when I go out for breakfast.

 Second service

Toutiere du Lac St. Jean (Pie pan of Lac St-Jean with deer, ox and boar, country bread, wild boar bacon jam and seasonal fruits)

Burger des Soeurs (Pretzel Bread, blueberries wild boar sausage, aged cheddar cheese, egg, fruit mayonnaise, lettuce, tomato salsa Kumato and seasonal fruits and brown chopped potatoes)

Pancake and Gravlax (Thin pancake with gravlax and smoked Matane shrimp, dill cream, flying fish egg, apple and fennel salad, smoked potato salad and seasonal fruits)

I had the tourtiere du Lac St. Jean for this one. The other choices, without the lactose portion just would seem incomplete. But then, I had my eye on this option. I don’t think it was on the menu displayed on MTL a Table site. Just to show that, you can never be sure about a menu until you give it a chance for these events. For those who don’t know, Tourtiere is something of a traditional Quebec food. It is pretty much a meat pie. Some people prefer to eat it with ketchup. I do that sometimes. If you look at this one, they really changed up the formula. The meat is different and the presentation as well. It was so awesome! Right from the meat in the pan to the bacon jam. As for the other options, the pancake and gravlax was delicious as well. My friend enjoyed that one. Her husband took the burger and I think it was decent as well.

In Addition…

The winner of the show for my friends was maybe the side of pretzel bread that we got. It was not only cute to look at but also tasted really good. I personally think they could have gotten another one.

Overall… Bistro-Brasserie Les Soeurs Grises is a winner. The brunch was the best meal out of the four places we checked out. You can argue that I’ma brunch lover so a little biased but this place has heart, great atmosphere, located in a nice part of town and the service was great. Really not much to complain about. I just want to go out to eat there again and try something else on their menu.

Dinner: Ultimate Garlic Bread

I’m a little behind on Sunday’s post all the time so I figured that I’d go for a quick and fun post: a new recipe post!! They are making a comeback slowly but surely, which is good because I like the feeling of having accomplished good food or trying out new stuff.

I’m not sure about all of you but my husband LOVES Garlic Bread and I mean like cheesy garlic bread. The moment I saw this recipe, I knew it was one I had to do. Plus, we had just bought lactose-free cheese so for once, I can actually get in on the lovely snack/meal. I ended up using this for lunch a few times.

I saw this recipe on Popsugar Food in this video. They take full credit for the attempt of this recipe.

My recipe does have a few modifications and it will be at the bottom as usual.

First of all, here is how it turned out.

Now for the modifications to the recipe:

• Melba Toasts turned into breadcrumbs instead of Panko breadcrumbs
• Lactose-free Cheese (Allegro brand) instead of all cheese ingredients
• Unsweetened Almond Milk instead of whole milk

The recipe says that it makes two servings, however I made smaller portions and ended up with double the amount. These Ultimate Garlic Breads are a little more complicated to make than then regular bread because you have to first make the chicken, let it cool off before cutting and then make the dough, put it together and back into the oven. It is incredibly cheesy and I have to say grating cheese is something I am the worst at (but that is really just my own problem and not the recipe’s fault). However, if you happen to want to give up halfway and just pull out the chicken breasts and eat that, I can totally understand that because I kind of wanted to also because they look delicious alone.

With that said, this recipe did take me a little while because I paired it with another recipe. I’m a fantastic multitasker in many many other scenarios in life except for two places and that is cooking (not baking) and gaming. However, I did manage to get this recipe done in a really long time and I blame my skills on it. However, this is a much more time consuming recipe but the payoff is worth it. This Ultimate Garlic Bread is packed with a ton of flavor from the chicken to the extra cheesy filling and topping. It isn’t a light meal so I’d suggest to cut it in strips or something and eat it like that. The video suggests to use marinara sauce to go with it. I haven’t tried it with that pairing yet.

Bottomline: The Ultimate Garlic Bread takes a little more time to put together but is well worth the effort.

Gluten-Free (Coconut Flour) Banana-Walnut Bread!

Last month I was contacted and asked to create a recipe using coconut flour. Seeing as how I’ve been meaning to give coconut flour a shot, for my gluten-free flour choice, I decided to give it a try! You can find more info on coconut flour on their site here.

For this recipe, after some thought I decided to use a banana bread as the foundation.  I’ve heard that coconut flour is a little more dry than normal flour but still very good.  But then, most gluten-free flour seems to have that problem too.  I wonder if it’ll turn out the same way.

Banana-Walnut Bread

As I’ve been saying in previous baking posts, moving has been really hard.  I can’t seem to find everything I need between leaving some pans for my mom, coincidentally the loaf pan so I was stuck with this square one.  Still, bread is bread and with a little lower baking time, it worked out pretty well. Before I say anything else, here’s the recipe I used, adapted from the Pumpkin Bread recipe in the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook. It’s not Christmas but its my go-to bread recipe.

Banana- Walnut Bread

Makes 24 slices (in a loaf pan)

3 mashed bananas
1 cup sugar
1/3 cup vegetable oil
2 tsp vanilla
4 eggs
3 cups coconut flour
2 tsp baking soda
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground cloves
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts

1. Move oven rack to low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven.  Heat oven to 350F.  Grease bottoms only of pan with shortening or cooking spray.

2. In large bowl, stir banana, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs until well mixed.  Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts.  Stir in nuts.

3. Bake 8 inch loaves 50 to 60 minutes, 9 inch loaf 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hour 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.

4.  Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pan to wire rack.  Cool completely about 2 hours, before slicing.

For once, the recipe up there, ingredients is exactly the portion I used.  I had to guesstimate a bit of the portions as I couldn’t find my measuring cups but it worked out okay.  It definitely was a little dry and crumbly but the taste was very good.  I’d have to agree that with a little practice in finding the right level of moistness to the recipes and some research, coconut flour could be a really good alternative for a gluten-free diet/baked good.

This banana bread was pretty good.  I think it was a good idea to decrease the sugar since bananas already have quite a bit of it.  The walnut pieces gives it some chewy texture and it smelled delectable.  Think banana and coconut filling the house.  I’m serious, its a pretty good choice.  I’ve been searching a long time for a good gluten-free flour.  Cloud Nine with a rice and buckwheat base was a good mix but unfortunately thats not available at Costco anymore (or anywhere I frequent).  The Robin Hood GF flour has a beet base and it tastes really bad.  Blame that one for why I haven’t been baking a lot.  Now, coconut flour smells really good without being in the recipe and if it holds all those nutritious values like on the site, I’m down for giving it a shot.

Do you eat gluten-free foods? Have you tried out coconut flour as a substitute for all-purpose/wheat flour? 

Christmas Baking: Pumpkin Bread!

I had some pumpkin puree left over from making pumpkin pancakes in the morning so I decided to make this Pumpkin Bread from the Betty Crocker Christmas Cookbook.  That book didn’t fail me last year at all and plus, it looked really good.  It also fit the bill of wanting something on the healthier side.

Fresh out of the oven

PUMPKIN BREAD

Makes 2 loaves 8 inch pan or 1 loaf 9 inch pan

Ingredients

1 can (15 oz) pumpkin (not pumpkin pie mix)

1 2/3 cups sugar

2/3 cup vegetable oil

2 tsps vanilla

4 eggs

3 cups whole wheat flour (or all purpose flour)

2 tsps baking soda

1 tsp salt

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp ground cloves

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 cup coarsely chopped nuts

1/2 cup raisins, if desired

Out of pan and waiting for overnight cooling before eating

1. Move oven rack to the low position so that tops of pans will be in center of oven.  Heat oven to 350F.  Grease bottoms only of two 8×4 inch loaf pans or one 9×5 inch loaf pan with shortening or cooking spray.

2. In large bowl, stir pumpkin, sugar, oil, vanilla and eggs until well mixed.  Stir in remaining ingredients except nuts and raisins.  Stir in nuts and raisins.  Divide batter evenly between 8 inch pans or pour into 9 inch pan.

3. Bake 8 inch loaves 50 to 60 minutes.  9 inch loaf 1 hour 10 minutes to 1 hours 20 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Cool 10 minutes in pans on wire rack.

4. Loosen sides of loaves from pans; remove from pans to wire rack.  Cool completely, about 2 hours before slicing.  Wrap lightly and store at room temperature up to 4 days or refrigerate up to 10 days.

Want a slice of Pumpkin Bread? 🙂

There were a few modifications or choices I made.  One was that I used whole wheat flour but you could use all purpose flour.  Second is that I used dried cranberries instead of raisins since I didn’t have any.  As for coarsely chopped nuts, I used pecans. I’m pretty sure vanilla meant vanilla extract.

Making bread in general is pretty straight forward.  Its just combining all the ingredients together and then putting in the oven.  The only deal is that oven time usually takes longer than say making cookies so you’d need to expect a bit longer, especially for cool down before serving as well.

This Pumpkin Bread recipe is totally worth it though. Its super delicious.  The nuts and cranberries give it a nice complement to the taste and makes it a little more chewy.  Its smells good and it looks fantastic as well 🙂 I’d definitely do this again!

Do you like Pumpkin bread? What type of bread do you like to make/eat?

 

 

 

Banana-Nut Bread!

I’m slowly getting back into the baking thing.  It takes time which I don’t seem to have as much recently.

On Saturday, I realized that we had some extra ripe bananas and I wanted to bake something before we headed over to my boyfriend’s place. We came to the conclusion to make banana nut bread.

Banana nut bread

I found the recipe in Looneyspoons recipe book called Sweet Home Alabama. Its supposed to make two small loaves but I just made one bigger one.

Makes 2 small loaves/ 8 slices each

Ingredients:

1 3/4 cups all purpose flour

1/2 cup oat bran

2 tsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 cups mashed ripe bananas (about 4 medium or 3 large)

3/4 cup buttermilk or plain yogourt

2 eggs

1/2 cup packed brown sugar

2 tbsp butter, melted

2 tsp vanilla

1/2 cup chopped pecans

1/3 cup mini semi-sweet chocolate chips

1) Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray two 8×4 inch loaf pans with cooking spray and set aside.

2) In a large bowl, combine flour, oat bran, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon and salt.  Mix well and set aside.

3) In a medium bowl, whisk together bananas, buttermilk, eggs, brown sugar, butter and vanilla until well blended.

4) Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients and mix just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Fold in nuts and chocolate chips.  Do not overmix batter.

5) Divide batter evenly among loaf pans. Bake for 30 to 35 minutes.  Cool loaves in pans over a wire rack for 10 minutes.  Remove loaves from pans and (1) slice and eat warm, or (2) cool completely on rack, then store in plastic wrap.

Banana nut bread

I made a few modifications to the ingredients.

– Substituted buttermilk due to lactose intolerance to vanilla flavored almond milk

– Omitted vanilla (none left)

– Substituted brown sugar with white sugar (none left)

– Substituted chocolate chips with slivered almonds

Banana nut bread

Despite all the replacements, the banana nut bread turned out pretty good.  The nuts gave it a nice chew and the bananas kept the bread soft and moist.  There wasn’t too much sugar (and you can always put less) if you’d like to.  Plus, the recipe is rather straight forward and easy and then 30 minutes later, its ready to eat.

I’d call that one a winner for sure! 🙂

Sunday Baking:Coconut-Almond Bread!

Baking on Sundays is starting to become a routine.  This Sunday, I used baking to get rid of a terrible migraine.  You know what though, it worked (weird as it may sound).  I bought a new loaf pan as an addition to my bakeware so I’ve been wanting to try it out, just never figured out what type of bread to bake.  I flipped through recipe books and stuff but I was missing ingredients for everything so I just ended up winging it with a little inspiration from Looneyspoons Collection called “A Grateful Bread”.

“A Grateful Bread” is supposed to have grated apples and grated carrots and grated coconuts (aka coconut shreds) but I didn’t have any apples left at home.  I really didn’t think coconuts and carrots would’ve been a very awesome match without apples to balance things out.  Thats just a feeling I get, if you’ve done it and it turned out tasting good, I’d love to hear about it.

So with that being said, I changed some ingredients around and made a Coconut-Almond Bread instead.

Here’s the recipe (modified from original recipe in The Looneyspoons Collection by Janet & Greta Podleski):

COCONUT ALMOND BREAD

Makes 1 Loaf, 12 slices

Ingredients:

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

1 cup quick-cooking rolled oats

1 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp baking powder

2 tsp ground cinnamon

1/2 tsp salt

1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

1 cup sweetened shredded coconut

1/3 cup chopped almonds

1/2 cup water

2 eggs

2 tbsp vegetable oil

2 tsp vanilla

DIRECTIONS:

1. Preheat oven to 350F.  Spray a 9×5 inch loaf pan with cooking spray and set aside.

2. In a large bowl, combine flour, oats, sugar, baking powder, cinnamon, salt and nutmeg.  Add coconut and almonds. Mix well.

3. In a medium bowl, whisk together water, eggs, oil and vanilla.

4.  Add wet ingredients to dry ingredients.  Mix just until dry ingredients are moistened.  Pour batter into pan.  Spread evenly.  Bake for 55 to 60 minutes, or until wooden pick inserted in center of loaf comes out clean.  Cool for 10 minutes in pan.  Remove bread from pan and let cool completely on a wire rack.  Cover with plastic wrap and store in the refrigerator.

I gave you the modified version as I had changed so many of the ingredients and eliminated.  The only issue I had was why the bread didn’t become fluffier.  I’m guessing its because I took away some of the other grated ingredients but didn’t change the quantity other than the chopped almonds and grated coconut.  All in all though, it did taste pretty good.  I might have changed the balance of the coconut shreds and chopped almonds.  This bread is perfect as a dessert as it has a nice sweet coconut taste.  On the other hand, the almonds helped it give it the chewy crunchy taste.

I’ll definitely be doing more bread! Hopefully next weekend I”ll do another one!

Any suggestions for what bread to make? Any suggestions to make it fluffier? Will you try this out?