Woke up rather late today, and went out for a little bit, came back for lunch at around two and prepared the gnocchi that I made last night. I wanted to make the gnocchi with a butter sage sauce, since most recipes that I found used that but after visiting 3 different supermarkets (No Frills, Food Basics and Loblaws), none of them had sage. I wonder if it’s a seasonal thing? So instead, I made a butter garlic sauce and here’s how it turned out:

Garlic Butter Gnocchi

It didn’t turn out too great, due to the fact that the pieces were too big, and that there wasn’t enough squash/cauliflower flavour in the gnocchi :(. I’m going to cut the rest in half and try to prepare them asian style next time.

One row of Le Select's Wine Cellar

For dinner, I went to Charisse‘s Going Away Party at Le Select Bistro a nice French place at Wellington and Spadina. The restaurant had a huge wine list and you can see into their huge wine cellar as well as their kitchen. I ordered a Vesper martini, those of you who have seen Casino Royale may remember James Bond ordering this drink, a combination of Gin, Vodka and Kina Lillet (although Lillet Blanc is a common replacement since Kina Lillet is no longer available). I liked the drink, you taste the smooth gin with a little bite from the vodka and a dash of clean orange flavour.

The service at the restaurant was really quick and unintrusive (most of the time empty drinks cleared or glasses of water refilled without us even noticing) and they did not hover around like some waitstaff tend to do. My only complaint was that our waitress tended to stand at the head of our large table and take orders, only moving towards us when she couldn’t hear what we were saying.

Ragoût de Cèpes et de Seitan

To eat, I ordered the Ragoût de Cèpes et de Seitan, one of the two vegetarian entrees on the menu. The dish consisted of two halves, one side being the seitan and cepe mushrooms, and the other side being seared polenta and eggplant. The dish was one of the best non-pasta vegetarian dishes I’ve had at a western restaurant. The vegetables were perfectly prepared the seitan wasn’t rubbery (as it tends to be most of the time), and it was sauced just right so that all the flavours and components could be tasted.

To finish it off, I was still in the mood for another drink, so I decided to try a dessert wine. I’ve only had our local Ontario ice wines, so I asked my friend and the waitress to suggest a wine for me. I don’t remember the exact name of the wine, but according to the bill it was a Domaine des Coyeux Muscat ’02. Just like an ice wine, this wine was sweet and extremely delicious. It tasted like an ice wine mixed with regular wine, so that it isn’t too sweet. I wonder if they have this stuff at the LCBO?

Day 2, I tried to make an omelette with some random peas and peppers in the fridge early this morning but ended up rushing it and just eating it out of the pan.  I was running late for work and just threw everything together, so no nice picture for that.

Cabbage and Rice

For dinner, I was hoping to prepare the gnocchi, but it was 6:30pm and my stomach was already grumbling, so I opted for a simple typical asian stir fried dish.  So since my mom is gone, I’m pretty much the only person cooking and eating the fresh ingredients in my house, all my dad does is eat out or buy premade food from T&T.  Because of this, I’m forced to use up all the ingredients in the fridge before they go bad.  So, for dinner today is stir-fried asian cabbage, 3 different kinds in fact! I only know that one type of Napa, not sure about the other two.  I also added shiitake mushrooms and some sort of fungus (I think it’s called golden fungus in Chinese?).

This picture reminds me of something you'd see in a chinese takeout menu

After dinner I roasted Japanese squash (aka Kabocha) in the oven to prepare for gnocchi!  This was my first time making gnocchi, so I was pretty much just winging everything.  I left the squash in the over for far too long unfortunately, and basically ended up making chips out of them.  A small amount was still usable so I roasted some cauliflower to make up the for lack of squash.  After what felt like an eternity of adding flour and kneading, the dough was ready and cut up into little pillows of dough.  Unfortunately, they’re not the prettiest things on the planet, but hopefully they taste better than they look. I’ll probably make it tomorrow for lunch with a butter and sage sauce.

Squash & Broccoli Gnocchi

Squash & Broccoli Gnocchi