My week so far & the Lockout Burger @ Jump review

I know  I haven't posted anything recently so far. Exams are coming up soon and one last project is due so I will try to post some updates!

Cannolis!

This past weekend was great. For the most part I did complete a huge assignment.My dad and I wanted to surprise my mom this weekend so we went to Francesca Bakery by Scarborough Town Center. This an amaazing Italian bakery and I love the cannolis that they sell! These cannolis are made daily and they are definitely worth it. We bought 12 large cannolis. The stuffing has mascarpone, ricotta, and icing sugar in it. The shell is deep fried then cooled and filled with the ricotta mixture. When you bite this it is crunchy, sweet, creamy, everything you look for in a desert.

 On the other side of the store I saw a couple ordering about 6 of these huge fried balls. I had no idea what they were I knew they weren't rice balls becasue the rice balls were under the heat lamps so I asked and I found out it was fried dough stuffed with ricotta and chocolate chips. I was sold.

Bomba

 After a Facebook discussion I found out this dessert is called Bomba litrally meaning bomb. And it definitely was! It had so much flavour.
It's definitely not for someone whose on weight watchers but as I say, "live alittle".





My favourite part was definitely making dinner on Sunday. The recent LCBO Food & Drink winter 2012 magazine had a recipe for pistachio crusted pork belly. I thought that sounded amazing but I did not feel like eating pistachios on Sunday so I changed the recipe to really not include the pistachios and instead have a honey glaze. I served that with some potatoes. I was going for roasted potatoes however it did not come out crunchy as I wanted.

 I cooked the pork on a deep dish and placed water on the bottom to ensure it collected any juices from teh pork. I placed a metal rack on top of it to separate the pork belly from touching the water. I want the pork belly to cook but I don't want it to be steamed.

Roasted pork belly with honey glaze, olive oil poached potatoes, and sauteed rapini

I then placed a deep metal tray in the oven for a bit to get piping hot. The potatoes were boiled and left in the colander so the steam could go away so the potatoes lose a lot of the moisture. I boiled the potatoes so that the edges were crumbly. This way when I toss it with some olive oil this is what will give nice crunch to the "roasted potatoes" (ideally).

So after the potato pan was in the oven for a bit I took it out and added some olive oil and let the olive oil heat up. When it was lightly smoking I added about 8 crushed cloves of garlic, 3 sprigs of rosemary, and 3 sprigs of sage. I let those toast a bit to release the aroma and flavour the oil with garlic. Afterwards I tossed in all my potatoes and tossed them around so each of them were coated with olive oil.

Because I was in a rush to get this dish done I did not wait for the potatoes to get crunchy... I really have no patience for waiting around. Anywho I noticed the potatoes were cooked and were bubbling a bit under the broiler. I decided to place it under the broiler for a bit just to see if it would make it crispier. I  think it could have gotten crispier if I had more patience but I was hungry. So to me the potatoes were cooked. They also had an amazzing flavour to it. I mean for potatoes not being crispy or anything it was amazingly tasty! MIND BLOWWWNNNNN!

The pork belly after 2.40 hours the pork was cooked. I then switched the pork and the potatoes and placed the pork under the broiler and left it for a bit.

In a pan on the stove I had about 4 squeezes of honey and a SMMALLLLLLLLLLLLLLL like 4 tablespoons of water in and let it come to a boil. Honey glaze... DONE.

Rapini/Broccoli Rabe

In another pot I turned it on high and added some olive oil to let it smoke. When it became smoky I added some thinly sliced garlic  (about 3 cloves) and stirred it around until it turned golden. I then added about a teaspoon of crushed dried chili flakes to add some heat. Toasted it in the oil a bit to give some heat. Careful not to smell the pot because the heat from the chili flakes will go up your nose... I've had experience :(. Anyways add your chopped rapini and stir it around. Add about 1/2 cup of white wine and cover. This way the rapini will have the great flavour from the garlic chips and the chili flakes but it will also steam in white wine. How could you go wrong with that. Some of you may not know what rapini is. It's also known as broccoli rabe and it has a bitter flavour to it but its really tasty.   If you don't like bitter greens you can substitute using possibly asparagus but like peel it with a potato peeler. This way you get beautiful thin slices of asparagus and it looks quite fancy. Your friends will be quite impressed! With rapini as well as asparagus, after you cover it for some time check on it. When it is a BRIGHT FLUORESCENT vibrant green then it is ready.... well to me it is ready. I like a bit of crunch..

So we have the potatoes ready, rapini ready, and the pork belly is ready.

Slice the pork belly into about 2 inch cubes. Pork belly is quite rich but flavourful so you do not need that much meat. Remember if you are making pork belly and going to the grocery store, remember if the pork belly looks quite large remember that the fat renders and that the meat will shrink in the oven.

Back to the recipe, after you slice the pork belly brush some of that honey glaze on top of them. Then plate up!

One of the restaurants that I love going to is Jump. It is located by Commerce Court and King station. It is owned by Oliver & Bonacini two restauranteurs that I look up to. They had this promotion called the Lockout Burger.  It's $10.75 for an amazing burger made with  beef & short ribs. The fries were quite tasty and aromatic. It had a nice crunch as a fry should. One of the things that surprised me about the burger which is a small thing but did not go unnoticed was that the patty was smaller than the bun. The patty was quite thick but it would have been nicer if it was the same diameter as the patty. Just a small observation. Our server was really quite helpful. Also the District General Manager is a fellow graduate from school. He told us to get ready because he had a surprise for us.... We were surprised but thinking of what it could be.. possibly a small rice ball or a salad or something... We were wrong! He brought us this huge charchuterie plate with different meats like proscuitto, salamis, toasted crustini with flavoured oils and 4 different cheese and little pickled veg. This is one thing in our industry, meeting above guests expectations. We were not expecting anything and then he surprised us.

This charchuterie plate was AMAZING!
My favourite snack is definitely fresh crusty bread with some proscuitto or salami with a glass of wine and cheese. Everything was perfect. A majority of the breads used for the Oliver & Bonacini restaurants is made from their bakery at the Bay near Eaton Center.

Lockout Burger - Sorry for photo quality

Our burgers came after we finally dug through all the meats! The burger is quite tasty and had a nice truffle mayo on the bottom, melted aged cheddar. The meal, everything was quite good. After we paid my friends and I were hanging out for a bit talking. The one thing I think I would like changed is that even though we paid for our meal, our server did not come back to fill our water glasses. I'm the type of guy that loves to drink a lot of water but nevertheless it was great service and a great meal.

The lockout burger promotion is still happening. Below are following dates for the lockout burger:
Wednesday, November 28, Flyers vs. Maple Leafs
Monday, December 3, Sabres vs. Maple Leafs
Thursday, December 6, Hurricanes vs. Maple Leafs
Saturday, December 8, Bruins vs. Maple Leafs
Tuesday, December 11, Jets vs. Maple Leafs
Thursday, December 13, Predators vs. Maple Leafs
Saturday, December 22, Canadiens vs. Maple Leafs
Thursday, January 3, Lightning vs. Maple Leafs

Monday, January 7, Capitals vs. Maple Leafs

Thursday, January 10, Panthers vs. Maple Leafs  

Saturday, January 12, Canucks vs. Maple Leafs
Thursday, January 31, Capitals vs. Maple Leafs

Also another campaign they are doing is to promote the burger more. If you tweet a photo about #lockoutburger you will be entered a chance to win a lockout burger on the house for every game the Maple Leafs are playing during this promotion.

Anyways this is how my week is going so far I hope you are all enjoying good eats!