Cooking Club - Local, Seasonal Food

It is almost every chef's mantra to use the best quality, local and seasonal ingredients in their cooking. Our group of amateur cooking club members decided to join them in this.

Our menu included:

Imogen - Tomato "Burgers"

Tomatoes from Essex County are simply the best

and are only enhanced with basil right from the garden.

Danielle - Cumin Scented Beet Latkes with Canadian Horseradish Goat Cheese &

Carrot Latkes with Gingered Michigan Applesauce

Beets and carrots from the backyard, doesn't get more local than that.

Dana - Pasta with Five Fresh Herbs

Rosemary - Roast Pork Stuffed with Chestnuts and Apple

The ingredients were very seasonal, maybe not so local.

Jillian - Roasted Fingerlings with Red and Yellow Piperade

Melanie - Fabulous Fall Fruit Crisp

All of this was served with Walkerville Brewery beer and Pelee Island wines.

Where to Eat?

A local blog recently did a poll of Windsor residents asking them whether they would prefer to support locally owned restaurants as opposed to national chains. The results were horrifying, with less than 30% choosing local eateries! I have great difficulty trying to understand why anyone would choose McDonalds or Applebees over a resto that supports the local economy and is more likely to have food grown in our region.

Windsor has a great number of restaurants that cover a variety of cooking styles and ethnic backgrounds. Many of these places offer dishes of very high quality that reflect the care and interest of the chefs that created them. To choose a place that is likely to serve something that has been formulated from a picture in a manual and created from premade patties or powdered sauces is not something I could do.

Here are some restaurants I have discussed in my blog and would recommend.

Taloola

Mimi Gardens

Windsor Palace and El Mayor

Marathon

Erleichda

Anywhere that serves Pizza



As well as a list of some of my favourite places.

Go out and support your local restaurants too!

In My Opinion...

I have been a terrible blogger lately. I apologise for the lag between posts.

On that note, I have decided to post some of my favourite eateries in Windsor, Ontario. I would love to hear your opinions on these places as well as suggestions of restos that you prefer!

Best Greasy Breakfast - The Velvet Restaurant

Best Place for an Intimate Dinner/Best Fine Dining/Best Wine List - Mamo Bistro

Best Place for Chicken Wings - Rock Bottom Bar and Grill

Best Pizza (this one was hard!!!) - Koolini and Riverside Tavern

Best Place to Grab a Beer - Kildare House

Best Place for Italian Food - Mezzo

Best Place for Ethiopian - Marathon

Best Place for Indian - India Palace

Best Place for Sushi - Teka

Best Place for Burgers - Gilligans

Best Place for Middle Eastern - El Mayor

Harvest at the Homestead Article

Autumn is such a gorgeous time of year in Essex County. It reveals a new bounty of local food products that our area has to offer. Take a look at the Food Network for my article about the Harvest at the Homestead Festival.

Better Than Your Average Grocery Store

After returning from our glorious vacation I felt like my cooking was in a bit of a rut. I needed some inspiration. So decided to head out to some small grocery stores in the area to see what I could find.

I hit Royal Pita Baking Company which is a Middle Eastern Store that used to be owned by Windsor's current mayor. When I walked in I saw at least 8 different types of olives - I knew I was in the right place. I left with my bags filled with fresh flatbread, glaceed fruit, haloumi cheese, rosewater and pomegranate molasses.

Mexico Lindo is a favourite of my husband and I. We love walking in to the smell of freshly cooked tamales and other dishes that are created each day. From there I was able to snag corn tortillas, hot sauce, dulce de leche, chorizo sausage and tomatillos.

So far I have made tomatillo salsa, grilled haloumi on poached eggs with arugala from my garden, and a pizza with the flatbread for the crust.

I am so thankful for the diversity in this city!

Ontari-ari-ari-ooooo

One of the greatest hurdles for people who attempt to buy local is convenience. Driving 45 minutes out of your way to buy local blueberries is not always great time management - it is, however, always worth it for the flavour and quality.

Homegrown Ontario has now made it that much more convenient to identify local Ontario meat. This organization " is an alliance of Ontario Pork, the Ontario Veal Association and the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency". Research from Ipsos Reid clearly indicates that "Ontario consumers want to support their local farmers while purchasing fresh, quality meat" and this allows them to easily do this.

The website includes recipes, ways to identify cuts of meat and where to find vendors.

The Toronto Star provides more information as well.