Gourmet Cooking 101: Brought to you by Chef Kitchen & Chef Claes.

Chef Emily Claes and I would like to teach you how to create this delicious meal!

Pear Arugula Salad

Goat Cheese Potato cake and Tenderloin Steak

Okay, Okay... I accept the fact that you snickered when you saw that I referred to myself as a chef... and honestly, I laughed about it TOO! While I L-O-V-E delicious food, I still have a bit to learn about cooking it. Okay, a LOT to learn about cooking. Ever since working with some of the most AMAZING chefs in Canada at the Raw Bar, the desire to cook beautiful gourmet food grew and grew! Whenever I have the time (which seems to be like never these days) I like to play in the kitchen. Thanks to my friend Shannon Wiens, I learned of a great website full of pro recipes! It probably seems obvious, and maybe you have all been there before! The chefs that we know and love on the food network have the recipes they cook on television archived online, and the recipes aren't as difficult as you might think!

I hop between both websites for inspiration, because the recipes are different. Check out foodnetwork.ca and foodnetwork.com and try the recipe finder to find what you are in the mood for.

I have tried this recipe four times now, and I think it gets better every time! In my cooking adventures I find that I struggle the most with managing my time, and trying the same recipe numerous times has really helped me understand this.

To make this dinner you will need...
(Yield: 4)

Ingredients:
[Potato Cake]

6 medium Yukon Gold potatoes
3 tablespoons chopped parsley
3 tablespoons sliced green onion
2x113 gram logs fresh soft goat cheese, crumbled
2 tablespoons olive oil
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 cup flour
2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions! (I'm pulling these right from the site, so that I don't lead you astray... all the credit goes to Anthony Sedlak of foodnetwork.ca! You can find the recipe here!)

Potato Cake
To prepare potato cakes, preheat oven to 375.
Add whole, unpeeled potatoes to medium pot. Fill pot with cold water just to cover potatoes; season cooking water well with salt (it should taste like the sea) and bring up to a boil.
Boil on medium high heat until potatoes are tneder but not over done, about 10-15 minutes. Drain, peel, and mash roughly with a fork.
When potatoes haved cooled enough to handle, fold in fresh herbs, goat cheese and salt and pepper to taste.
Mix until just combined; pieces of goat cheese should still be visible. Form mix into eight 2 1/2 X 1 inch cakes. Flour lightly and set aside.
Add olive oil to a large non-stick pan and bring up to medium high heat. Add potato cakes and fry until first side is golden brown.
Flip onto other side, fry for another minute and place in oven to finish warming through, about 10 minutes.

Wait until the outside of your potato cake is brown and crispy! The potato cake may fall apart a little bit, but you can always shape it better afterwards!

[Steak]





4 tenderloin steaks 5-6 oz each
1/4 cup olive oil
2 tablespoons butter
1 shallot minced
1 cup port
1 cup beef stock
2 tablespoons butter
coarse salt and pepper

Directions! (I'm pulling these right from the site, so that I don't lead you astray... all the credit goes to Anthony Sedlak of foodnetwork.ca! You can find the recipe here!)

Steak
Preheat oven to 400. To prepare steak, heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan.
Season steaks well with coarse salt and pepper. When oil is nearly smoking, add steaks and 2 tbsp butter; sear both sides of steak until well coloured. (Depending on size of steak, this may have to be done in two batches.)
Finnish cooking in oven for desired doneness, about 5 minutes for medium rare. Remove from heat, transfer to cutting board and let rest, covered, for at least 10 minutes.
In same pan, add 1 tbsp oil and sweat shallot until softened and lightly coloured. Add port to deglaze and bring to simmer, reducing slightly.
Add beef stock and simmer; reduce volume by half. Remove from heat and swirl in 2 tbsp butter. Season sauce to taste with salt and pepper.

Emily also put together a simple but delicious pear arugula salad with asiago cheese. Tossed with olive oil and a bit of sea salt.

***Emily and I find that dressing up & putting on a cute apron really does inspire anyone to get in touch with their creative side. We would recommend and caution anyone who might attempt making this meal at home, to cook ONLY while wearing that dress, a hairband or pair of heels that you can NEVER seem to find an occasion to pull out of your closet.

If you don't feel like working in the kitchen all day - you may want to stop by your local bakery and pick up dessert! The wine in the photo on the right is one of my all time favorite cheap picks! Bear flag smooth red wine blend. Sweet (but not TOO sweet!) and deliciously full bodied. Mmmm. ($9-$12)

Voila!

Since Emily was house sitting this beautiful home for a couple of weeks, I came up for a "girls night in!" It was a lot of fun pulling together a delicious dinner. We managed to buy everything for dinner for under $20 each. Emily's wonderful mom, Ruth let us shop around her pantry for a bunch of ingredients, so we did cheat a little. ;)

Annnnddd... since we really like our Nikons...and cute hats... we did manage to squeeze a 5 minute photo session outside while the sun was setting.

Emily, I still can't get over you in this photo - and I just want to share it with the world!! You are INTENNNSEE - and I want your eyes.

Oh, and I really do dig your new hat ;)

I can never keep these bangs under control - I really can't see a thing... but I like them, okay? ;)

Emily... I love love love you, thanks for having me over for such a fun housesitting adventure!!