Dinner with Julie

Spicy Moroccan Stir Fry

Back in Calgary. Dinner was leftovers from this morning’s BT – a spicy Moroccan stir fry made with ground sirloin, peppers and olives, served over couscous. It was so cold in the back of my car – with the heater blasting up front – that my cilantro froze. For those of you not on the currently frozen Canadian tundra, last night it hit -41 in Edmonton, which is where I was.

It’s been a crazy week, and I’m off to another event tonight (I’ll keep this short so I can get some W time in) and we’re heading to Jasper on Friday (I’m doing cooking demos etc at the Pajama Party), and there’s another something special going on tomorrow night – a food tour for First Thursday my mom and I have been trying to piecemeal together for the past week or so, and I just realized I haven’t announced it yet.

Some of you may be lucky enough to know my mom. She’s done a lot for the arts and culture of the city – she was the general manager of the Cultural District for 10 years and is still on more boards than I can keep track of. Among a myriad of other festivals and events she’s brought/organized/run, she launched First Thursdays, bringing people downtown to the cultural district on the first Thursday of each month for art shows, tours, shows, sneak-a-peeks and great deals on food and drinks. She has put a ton of work into it. I want to be her when I grow up. Except I want to get more sleep. (PS she has a far busier social life than I do.)

My mom is usually downtown leading First Thursday tours, but can’t this week, and so she asked me to. Of course, I’m not quite as art-savvy as my mom, and so the tour wound up being food related. Which is going to be kinda fun, I think. It’s our first go at a sort of progressive dinner. Here’s the plan:

At 5, everyone meets at CharCut with a pocketful of $5 bills. We start by sharing a share burger (or two) at their communal table – and they’re giving us a special deal for beers, too – $5 – then we hop from place to place, tasting and drinking and carrying on. (But not too much, lest we get kicked out.) So if you’re looking for something fun to do tomorrow night, come along! It’s open to anyone who wants to join, and I’d love it if some of you came! (Note: you’ll need to email my mom at cd@culturaldistrict.ca, so that we know how many people are coming – it must be capped at 20.)

Hopefully it will work out, we’ll figure out what works and it can be a new thing every First Thursday.

What: A new First Thursday Food Tour – whet your appetites for The Big Taste (formerly Dine Out Calgary) with a progressive $5 Dinner with Julie!

Where:

5pm: A shareburger (large burger or burgers to be shared by the group) at Charcut, one of Calgary’s most popular restaurants (now a year old), NW corner of 9th Ave and Centre St SW, across from the Tower, $5 for the share burger, $5 for a beer if you want one, at their communal table.
6pm: Wine tasting and appies (by Julie!) at The Cellar Winestore, 137-8 Ave SW, $5
7pm: Dessert tasting at The Home Tasting Room, 110-8 Ave SW, $5
8pm: Thomson’s for Alberta beef carpaccio with regianno, pickled onions and rocket olive oil emulsion $5

Somewhere along the way we’ll stop at Coppeneur, the new chocolate shop, for a free chocolate tasting!

How Much: bring about $35 cash in $5 bills!

RSVP: cd@culturaldistrict.ca – limit 20 people!

And here’s the Moroccan beef!

Spicy Moroccan Stir-fry

adapted from the Canadian Beef Information Centre

1 lb (500 g) ground sirloin
1 onion, chopped
2 carrots, coarsely grated
1 small red pepper, chopped
4 garlic cloves, crushed
1 Tbsp. paprika
1 tsp. each ground ginger, cumin and cinnamon
1/4 tsp. each salt, pepper and hot chilli pepper flakes
Half a 28 oz (796 mL) can diced tomatoes
1/3 cup sliced green olives
Toasted pine nuts and chopped fresh cilantro, for garnish

In a large skillet, cook beef, onion, carrots and red pepper over medium-high heat, breaking up beef with back of spoon, for 8 to 10 minutes or until beef is completely cooked and vegetables are tender-crisp.

Stir in the garlic, paprika, ginger, cumin, cinnamon, salt, pepper and hot pepper flakes; cook, stirring, for 1 minute. Stir in tomatoes; bring to boil. Reduce heat to low; simmer, covered, for 5 to 10 minutes or until vegetables are tender. Stir in olives; heat through. Serve over couscous, topped with pine nuts and cilantro. Serves 6.

March 02 2011 | beef | 16 Comments »