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 $5Somewhere 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 garnishIn 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 06:07 pm | beef
Natalie (ga) on 02 Mar 2011 at 6:15 pm #
Hopes it warms up for your romp around the city! I am from Minnesota so I understand cold.
TB on 02 Mar 2011 at 6:23 pm #
Your First Thursday foodies tour sounds great Julie. Please let us know if you organize another one.
Did you see http://www.babble.com/best-recipes/dinner/top-100-food-mom-blog-2011-full-list/? Congratulations for making the #4 spot in the Top 100 Food Mom Blogs 2011. Great accomplishment.
Carolyn on 02 Mar 2011 at 6:31 pm #
Julie, I so wish I lived in Calgary so I could hang out with you at these types of events. And that says a lot since I have little tolerance for cold weather!
RMB on 02 Mar 2011 at 8:32 pm #
I agree — your First Thursday sounds great. I would join you if I wasn’t busy. Please let us know if you plan another.
rose on 02 Mar 2011 at 9:57 pm #
Ditto. I’d love to be going out on the progressive dinner tomorrow night. However, I do live in Vancouver. Maybe you’ll do something here soon?
Rose
Laurie from Burnaby on 02 Mar 2011 at 11:47 pm #
Gah – to have the cilantro freeze! I’ve just come home from Golden. It was -35 there when we left. Cold cold cold – it was almost a pleasure to be back in Vancouver at -2!
Tara on 02 Mar 2011 at 11:56 pm #
I will be there!! I hope it’s not too cold!! It sounded like a fantastic plan, on an otherwise boring Thursday night. I had never heard of first thursdays! You certainly can’t beat the $21 cost. Thank you for taking time out of your super busy schedule to lead this event.
Amanda on 03 Mar 2011 at 8:40 am #
My friend told me about the tour and we RSVP’d for it last night via smartphone from the Yann Tiersen concert at 11pm… strangely your mother responded at such a late hour. You really aren’t kidding that she doesn’t much sleep… See you Tonight!
JulieVR on 03 Mar 2011 at 8:41 am #
Yahoo! No, she doesn’t sleep much! I often get emails from her at 3 am….
Ashley on 03 Mar 2011 at 10:57 am #
Oh, Julie, you should make a trip to Orlando! Its 78 and breezy here!
JulieVR on 03 Mar 2011 at 11:00 am #
I’d love to! And I hear you have a little place called Disneyworld I know W would love!
Cathy on 03 Mar 2011 at 11:20 am #
I just saw this! Darn meetings. I emailed your mom and threw myself on her mercy to see if there is still room.
Cathy on 03 Mar 2011 at 6:00 pm #
I may have to sign in as Crock Pot Cathy to differentiate from that OTHER Cathy!
I did a Moroccan dinner a few years ago for friends. It was wildy successful and I had a lot of fun researching the menu and trying to find the gaudy, but lovely glasses.
The best was a chicken-phyllo appetizer that took 2 hours to make, but was absolutely fantastic. Let me know if you’d like that one. Chicken. cinnamon and phyllo!
something_good on 05 Mar 2011 at 1:12 pm #
I’ve just stumbled upon your blog and I’ve been drooling at the screen for the past 10 minutes… great photos and recipes!
Sunny on 05 Mar 2011 at 1:31 pm #
Yum. This looks like a great recipe to try. I’ve never really attempted Moroccan before and this looks like an easy place to start. Thanks for sharing!
kathy wills on 06 Mar 2011 at 10:44 am #
next first thursday i’m in. can’t believe i missed this one, darnnnnnnn….
i’m talking about the food related event if you plan on organizing another one. what a great idea – if you repeat this email details pls as i follow waaaaaaay to many blogs to keep track i usually check them out once a month or so that’s why i missed this one