BBQ Steak and Asparagus with a Wilted Spinach Salad

Welcome to my tummy! As soon as we start barbecuing it doesn't end. Which makes even the cooler spring days feel like summer. My husband is great at a lot of things, he's best in the kitchen and even more so when cooking a steak on the barbecue. I've yet to eat a piece of meat as juicy and tender as my husband's. (Get your mind out of the gutter!) Seriously though, it even looks as amazing as it tastes. I never truly started loving meat until I met my husband. It just took someone who knew how to prepare it. He served this tonight with a wilted spinach salad and some barbecued asparagus.

BBQ Halibut, Shrimp and Spinach Salad with BBQ Figues and Port Reduction

How on earth do I name this post without naming everything on the plate!? There are so many fabulous things in this dish it would be like the description of an elaborate meal at a fancy restaurant. Ok, if I were to name this for a menu, what would I say... BBQ Coriander Halibut and Shrimp served with a Wilted Spinach Salad in a Port Reduction. And the description would read: New Brunswick Halibut Broiled in a Coriander Mayo and Topped with Lemon Garlic Infused Barbecued Shrimp served with Toasted Walnut, Goat Cheese and Fresh Broiled Figs on a bed of Spinach in a Port Reduction. Ok, still too much, and I still didn't say all I wanted to. I would totally order this. Thank god i'm the luckiest girl in the world and this is one of my regular royalty meals. Seriously, coat your fish in coriander powder and then mix some mayo in before cooking and you've got yourself a delicious piece of fish. Montreal Steak Spice on the shrimp with garlic and lemon is like nothing you've ever tasted. And for the mature folk (something about figs makes me feel old but civilized when I eat them), barbecue them and you've got a fruit you can add to anything, like our spinach salad with toasted walnuts, goat cheese and the port reduction, which was made with Worcestershire sauce, red wine, port, molasses, sugar, onion powder, walnut and olive oil. A perfect meal to end a beautiful sunny spring day. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention we had some potatoes and olive bread too!

Pork and Chinese Cabbage Dumplings from Dong Ling

A couple of friends of mine rave about the dumplings at Dong Ling. My husband and I decided to go there today to get some for dinner. It's a tiny little hole in the wall with a couple of freezers when you walk in. When we were there I didn't notice any menu other than the list of dumplings but from what i've read online I guess they do many other Chinese dishes for takeout as well. This place is now one of my new favourite spots. They have about a dozen different kinds of dumplings, I really just wanted to bring every kind home. Luckily they only took cash, and we had just enough for one bag, $8 and you get 40 dumplings, it's insane. We went with the Pork and Chinese Cabbage ones. The woman behind the cash was super nice too, and very happy to have us there. She had just brought out some warm meat patties. She noticed my husband eying them and let us take one free. It was stuffed with a tasty pork concoction and the outside was a bit greasy and dense – so delicious. I'd go back again just to get one of those. My husband cooked up the dumplings in his usual awesome way (he cooks everything perfectly) and served them with a zucchini and green bean salad tossed with a Japanese ginger dressing and sesame seeds. I love the way my husband makes this salad, he thinly cuts the zucchini length-wise with a slicer and it makes them almost noodle-like. The perfect side for what I think were some of the best dumplings i've ever had. You could really taste the freshness of the ingredients inside. The dumpling itself is also a bit thicker than a lot of dumplings i've had in the past. I can't wait to go back and get more. There will definitely always be a bag of these in my freezer going forward.

The dressing on the salad we had also deserves credit. If you like Asian flavours or are looking for a dressing to put over a salad to go with your dumplings, this one is fantastic. Renée's Japanese Ginger – so yummy!

Imperial

Unrated

I want to love this restaurant. The food sounds really good, it's cute and cozy inside and it has a lot of potential to be one of those best kept secret kind of places. Unfortunately my review is not so great. The service was ok, friendly, nothing exceptional but definitely not a tip jar submission thankfully. As stated above, the food “sounds” really good, sadly the end result did not meet my expectations. They have 3 choices on the breakfast menu, the Main, which is 2 eggs, double smoked bacon, grilled ham and house sausage, the Vegetarian, which is a sweet potato, leek and feta frittata, and the Vegan, blueberry pancakes with whipped banana coconut filling. All three are served with roasted tomato provencal, sauteed mushrooms, breakfast potatoes and a butter grilled baguette. Sounds great doesn't it? I ordered the Vegetarian. And now here's where it takes a turn for the worst. Our food took exactly one hour to be served. Now, this restaurant is small, there are just over half a dozen tables, so if it's packed, it's really not that busy. But for a Saturday or Sunday brunch in Ottawa, a restaurant like that should have at least 2 cooks, or at least one that can handle a full restaurant. They had one, and she was not very fast. The plate sizes during that hour wait went from pretty full, to quite small. I have a feeling they were running out of food. Half a tomato became a sliver of tomato. A serving of sauteed mushrooms was reduced to 3 or 4 tiny little mushrooms. The grilled baguette wasn't baguette anymore, it was a very thinly cut half toast. And to top it off, our meals were cold. I tried the double smoked bacon from my friend's plate and there was no smokey flavour at all. My food was ok, I don't recall there being any feta in my frittata and I think I saw one tiny little piece of leek. The frittatas were pretty airy and the entire meal wasn't really enough to satisfy, especially not for the $10.75 price that went with it. On the menu board behind the counter I noticed their lunch and dinner foods, soups, salads, sandwiches and one entrée, a lasagna dish. The soups looked really good, a mushroom trio, buttercoconut squash and one that caught my eye on the specials board, sweet potato and thai peanut. I almost ordered one to go but by the end of my breakfast I was just really anxious to leave. All that said, I will go again, one more time. I'm hoping they were just having a bad day. Perhaps someone called in sick, maybe they had a massive flow of people just before we arrived, who knows. My friend Donnie went the day before and really enjoyed it. The service the day before was also slow, but the food was plentiful. They also do take-out, which could be very useful on some days. They are located next to Barrymore's on Bank.

Smoked Ribs

Well, my husband finally broke in his new smoker yesterday, and did we ever enjoy it! He decided to make ribs for the first smoke of the season. What a great choice.

The ribs came from Aubrey's Meats in the market and were country cut, meaning tons of thick meat around the bone, a lot more than you would normally get with regular ribs. My husband had asked for 4 racks but they only had 2, so to serve the number of guests we were having he country cut them. My husband used his best friend Montague's Memphis rub recipe to flavour them. It's a mixture of 2 tbs of each garlic powder, onion powder, black pepper, chili powder, cumin, brown sugar, 3-4 tbs of paprika and 2 tsp of cayenne and is it ever delicious! Once all rubbed in, they have to sit for about 2 hours. My husband then smoked them for 4 hours using apple chips. About 3 hours in he sprayed them with some apple juice and added more rub. 10 minutes before removing them from the smoker, he coated them with barbecue sauce. 

The meat was just falling off the bone, and were they ever meaty. The smokey flavour was fantastic and with the rub was just heavenly. I don't think i've ever enjoyed ribs so much. I have no idea why anyone would cook them any other way. I want to smoke everything now. It may become an obsession. With this mouthwatering meat we also had some potato salad, coleslaw and really great wine. I carefully chose a suitable wine for this dish from my little collection and man was it the right choice. I went with the Saltram of Barossa Cab Sauvignon. It fits it's description perfectly, powerful, intense and full-bodied. It was so good, I would highly recommend this for any meat dish. 

My friend Dino also brought a wonderful wine of the same intensity, Faugères. So yummy. Overall, a pretty fun evening of eating and drinking.

Spicy Fish Cakes with Potatoes and Green Beans

Oh my god I love fish cakes! I seriously can't get enough. My husband made so many of them tonight we even tried to get my friend Teresa over but I couldn't get a hold of her. She would have really enjoyed them, as did I. These ones were made with haddock. After cooking the haddock a bit my husband mixed it with some capers, dill, 2 eggs, flour, flax seed, bread crumbs, celery salt, garlic and onions. The spiciness came from the sauce which was a mixture of yogurt, chopped pickled hot banana peppers, dijon, horseradish and a bit of garlic. The horseradish is strong so go easy on it. The fish cakes on their own were fantastic, fishy and very tasty. With the sauce they became a spicy delight. He served them with potatoes and green beans. My husband is the best!

Maple BBQ Smoked Salmon and Veggies on Penne

I'm really not sure if i'm going to be able to describe this meal well enough so that you get the picture on how awesome it was. My husband is a king behind the barbecue. In fact, my parents proudly accepted him into the family after he perfectly cooked 3 different meats, fish and veggies on my dad's barbecue and served everything at the same time one year. He's done even more crazy things on ours at home. We often host large groups in the summertime, each with their own meat, all cooked by my husband. Our dinner tonight was a maple salmon barbecued until caramelized and blackened on the outside, moist inside. Those crisp, sweet bits just melted in your mouth, it was decadent. He also charred some asparagus, green beans and zucchini on the bbq that had been tossed in garlic powder and olive oil – i've never had asparagus so good in my life. They were almost like a snack, like chips or something. And if that wasn't enough, he served it all over some penne tossed in butter, lemon, garlic, fresh ground pepper and a tbs of dijon. Each item had such strong, mouthwatering flavours and combined was heaven. I told my husband he should open a restaurant, i'd seriously come back for this one again and again. He sprinkled some green onion over the top just before serving.