Had brunch in Nellie’s on 4th St the other day and I should say right from the start that I won’t be going there again. I am not a big fan of Nellie’s in the first place – the menu is a bit too heavy for my taste, but that’s more of a taste-buds  thing (I could never understand the idea of potatoes for breakfast…). But that’s not the reason I disliked the place: it’s crowded in the sense that there’s no room to move around the tables and you’re practically spitting on the person at the next table… And it’s filthy. I mean, really filthy. Everything is dusty; our cutlery, mugs and dishes were dirty and stained. So, no second trip for us there…

For a party of two, we paid $31 (tip included) for two omellettes, tea and coffee. I got the Californian omellette, with avocado and cheese; it turned out that the ingredients were not mixed, so half of my omellette had avocado inside, and half had cheese. My party got an omellette with spicy sausages. As usual, the meals come with hasbrowns and greasy toast (they put some margarine on the toast before they bring it to you).

Apple by Abhijit Tembhekar

Apple omelette is so easy to make! It’s good warm or cold, simple or with icecream or jam. You’ll need 4 apples, 4 tbsp white flour, 4 eggs, cinnamon, some butter and around 1 cup of milk. Optional: rum, raisins, vanilla essence.

Instructions:

1. Peel and cut apples into cubes. Butter an oven proof deep dish and put the apples in.
2. Sprinkle with cinnamon. Add rum and raisins, if using.
3. In a separate bowl, mix eggs with flour. Gradually incorporate milk.
4. Pour over apple cubes and bake at 375F for around 45 minutes or until the mixture has thickened.

Photo credits: Abhijit Tembhekar

An interesting dessert for the wine lovers. Got the recipe from ecurry (beautiful pictures too!). You’ll need: 2 firm pears (very firm!), 1.5 cup red wine, 1/2 cup orange juice, 1/2 cup sugar, orange grind and spices like whole cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon.

Instructions:

1. Peel pears, set aside.
2. In a pot, bring to boil wine and sugar. Then add all spices and keep on low heat for 10 minutes.
3. Add pears. They need to be completely sunk in. Boil on low heat until pears are tender (30-40 min).
4. Remove and put aside. If serving immediately, continue boiling the sauce until it gets syrupy.
5. Serve with sauce and icecream.

I got the recipe for this side dish from a recipe book (Cooking for Today. One Pot. Parragon Publishing) and adapted it to my taste. The original was meant to be very spicy, as it included 4 dried chillies. The dish itself is very flavory and works well with any type of meat (maybe except fish). You’ll need: 4 red potatoes, 1/2 cauliflower (flowerets), 1 onion, garlic, and a range of spices like turmeric, cumin, gingerroot (I used ginger powder, which the recipe explicitly warned against, but it worked well in the end), paprika, salt and pepper.

Instructions:

1. Soak cauliflower flowerets in cold water for 30 minutes. Meanwhile, peel and cut potatoes into cubes. Slice the onion and set aside.
2. In a wide pan, heat some oil and add some cumin (the recipe said white cumin seeds, i used powdered cumin). Mix thoroughly and after 1 minute, add the onion. Cook for 3-5 minutes (or until onion becomes translucent). Remember to mix constantly.
3. Add ginger, garlic, paprika, salt and turmeric and cook for 1-2 minutes.
4. Add potatoes and cauliflower, mix well and add 2/3 cup water. Cover and simmer until the veggies are tender, adding more water if needed.

I should probably confess right from the start that I won’t be going there again. Although the service was good, the food was way below expectations. We also didn’t get spaghetti – so take this with a grain of salt if you are in love with the carb-rich pasta. The place itself is your usual chain restaurant – nothing special. The menu features a wide variety of pasta, with a few salads and a few other options (like veal, chicken and steak). We both had the veal parmigiano with fries and spaghetti respectively. All entrees come with a choice of salad or soup, and icecream – so if you’re looking for a whole meal, this is a good spot to get it. The veal was extremely disappointing – my hunch is that it was cooked beforehand, then re-heated with some tomato sauce and a huge slice of cheese (cheese is great for taste – you cannot taste anything else but the cheese!). My party got the spaghetti as a side-dish and again, not impressive: they simply boiled the spaghetti in water, than dumped a huge tablespoon of tomato sauce on them. The dish was $14.25 and, with a glass of house wine and a fountain pop, the cost of our lunch went up to $38.68.

Bake some apples for a yummy, healthy sweet treat! First, soak some raisins into rum for 15 minutes. Peel and core apples (I confess that taking the core out was quite a challenge).

In a plate, mix 2-3 tbsp brown sugar with 1 tsp cinnamon, 1/2 tsp nutmeg and cloves (powder). Roll apples through the mixture, then fill them with raisins. Bake in oven at 359F for 1 hour or until tender. Serve warm with plain yogurt and social biscuits.

Lunch for two in Banff, under $50: Melissa’s Restaurant is located one one of the streets parallel to the main one (218 Lynx St, Banff). It’s a very nice place, with a wooden-chalet feel inside and quite popular for both lunch and dinner. I for one prefer their dinner menu, which features some European-style plates like pork schnitzel and cordon bleu. But if you are looking for a place to have lunch, Melissa’s is a good option too. The lunch menu is quite varied – omellettes, sandwiches, and burgers. For lunch, we had an 8oz steak with french fries and tea/ coffee, and the bill came up to $30 (before tip). A bit pricey, I would say.

I miss the times when I walked to the bakery everyday, to get a fresh loaf of bread. Today, I have to drive to the supermarket to buy bread. There are no bakeries within walking distance to my place. Besides, the bread I buy always stays fresh for over a week – which makes me very suspicious about the kind of ingredients used to make it.

Cobs is a neat bakery with some 5 locations in Calgary. I spotted one today and decided to give it a try. Smelled like fresh bread, which is always nice. They bake a wide range of breads and baked treats. A bit expensive (2.50 for a small whole wheat loaf) but I thought it’s worth a try.

Bread from Cobs Bread website

This dessert is quite popular in different parts of the world under different names: for instance, in Eastern Europe it’s known as a ‘potato‘ while in the Arab world, it’s called a chocolate biscuit dessert.  Regardless of the name, the point is this is a delicious and easy to make dessert that requires ZERO cooking (as in ’stove/oven cooking’). You’ll need: 500 gr social biscuits (the very plain ones, no flavor, no filling), walnuts, raisins, rum, vanilla, milk and of course, cocoa (powder).

Instructions:

1. Break the social biscuits with your fingers. Place in a large bowl.
2. Soak raisins into rum for 10-15 minutes.
3. For extra taste, warm up the walnuts in a frying pan.
4. Pour some milk over the biscuits and, using a fork, mash/crush the biscuits until you get a thick paste (add milk gradually, you do not want to have a watery paste but a very thick one).
5. Add walnuts, raisins with rum, vanilla and 1-2 tablespoons cocoa. Mix.
6. Leave in the fridge for 30 minutes .
7. Take out from the fridge. Prepare a separate plate with 1-2 tablespoons cocoa. Using a spoon, shape the mixture into balls then roll them in the cocoa powder. Place on a separate plate, cover and refrigerate. Serve cold.

Banana by Jason Gulledge

I had two ripe bananas that nobody was gonna eat, but I didn’t want to make a banana bread again. I googled for some recipes, and came up with one for banana chocolate cookies. You’ll need 1/2 cup butter, 1 cup (or less if you’re not a big fan of sweet things) sugar, 1 egg, 1/2 teaspoon vanilla essence, 1 and 1/2 cup flour, 1/2 teaspoon soda bicarbonate, 2 bananas, pinch of salt, chocolate (use as much as you want, depending on how strong you want the chocolate taste to be. You can use chocolate chips too).

Instructions:

1. Heat oven to 350F.
2. Mix butter with sugar (your life will be considerably simplified if you leave the butter at room temperature for 30 minutes before you start working on it).
3. In a separate bowl, mix egg with vanilla. Then gradually incorporate it into the butter mixture.
4. Add flour, pinch of salt, soda (I always dissolve it with one teaspoon of lemon juice) and bananas.
5. If using chocolate chips, simply add them. I used 2 squares of a cooking chocolate bar, melted it in a small pan (you can do it on the stove or in the microwave). Incorporate melted chocolate into the mixture.
6. If you want (and  I would highly recommend it), add some raisins and a bit of rum.
7. Using a spoon, place small round cookies on two baking sheets. Bake for 10-15 minutes.

Photo credits: Jason Gulledge