Maple Roasted Beet Soup with a Sour Cream Swirl
This beet soup, created by chef Wendy Seguin of Let Them Eat Cake in Stratford, is to-die-for delicious.
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, peeled, rough chopped
4 cloves garlic, peeled
1 tsp ground cumin
1 pound, about 6 medium red beets, peeled, rough chopped
½ cup maple syrup, medium grade
1 litre vegetable stock
1 cup 10% cream
Salt and pepper to taste
¼ cup sour cream
More with Maple in Stratford
Did you know…that it takes forty buckets of sap to make one bucket of maple syrup? Or that in order for sap to flow from the tree, it has to be below zero the night before and above zero during the day? Or, that once the buds pop on trees, the maple syrup cycle is done? I did not know any of this until very recently.
Basil simple syrup
I had the pleasure of indulging at the La Tavola Rotonda Italian dinner at George Brown College recently. The chef, Sophia Kudla, was kind enough to share a few of her recipes from the evening. Basil simple syrup, drizzled over a lovely basil parfait dessert (as seen below), was one of them. It had such an intense flavour for something so simple and I wanted to share the recipe.
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Con amore dalla Liguria (With Love from Liguria)
Every now and then it is nice to be reminded of what a fantastic city Toronto really is. I was reminded last night as I sat in the Culinary Studio at George Brown College’s renowned Chef School. My good friend Susan and I purchased tickets for a private dining experience, La Tavola Rotonda, which was part of the school’s homage to all things Italian.
The purpose of the evening, and the week-long festivities actually, was to showcase the talents of the Culinary Arts Italian Post Graduate Students. The evening consisted of 14 food enthusiasts, one brilliant and passionate chef-in-training and five region-specific, authentic Italian courses complete with wine pairings.
The chef, whose night it was to shine amongst her peers, was a passionate young woman named Sophia Kudla. As part of her post-graduate studies, she was required to do a three-month stage in Italy (poor thing!). Her placement took place in a family-run restaurant in Savona, a seaport in Liguria, which is a coastal region of north-western Italy, the third smallest of all Italian regions. It was there that Sophia developed a strong appreciation for regional Italian cooking, which in this case, meant seafood, seafood and more seafood.
“Having the sea at my doorstep was a blessing, getting to work with fresh fish, live shrimp, sea urchins and scampi was unforgettable, but the love and passion people have for their food will remain in my heart,” she said.
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Savouring Stratford
Last weekend, I had the pleasure of indulging in an exclusive gourmet trek to Stratford and Perth County with an inspiring group of food bloggers and enthusiasts from Toronto. Having grown up in Guelph, which is not far from Perth County, I was familiar with Stratford but regrettably had not ventured there in many years. After this trip, I asked myself, “What took me so long?’
Stratford is best known for the Stratford Shakespeare Festival and, more recently, the hometown of tween sensation Justin Bieber…but it also one of Ontario’s top culinary destinations. Home to one of the country’s top culinary schools, the Stratford Chefs School, and host of the Stratford Garlic Festival (September 18, 2010) and the Savour Stratford Culinary Festival (September 18-26, 2010), there’s plenty for the gourmand to savour about Stratford.
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