The preparations started mid-day with shopping at Calgary’s Sunterra Market, where the team also ate a yummy lunch at the Sunterra cafe. Chef Ezra of Chez Vous Dining in Toronto took me on a tour of the market, offering tips on everything from selecting a perfect avocado to how to choose olive oil (pure or extra virgin). In case you’re wondering, the perfect avocado will yield to pressure from your thumb but will not be too soft. A squishy avocado indicates air has gotten under the skin, which causes oxidization (browning) of the flesh. And for olive oil, extra virgin costs more, has that real olive oil taste, and won’t withstand high temperatures. Pure olive oil is less expensive and will withstand higher temperatures, but doesn’t have that signature taste. So, you use the two oils in different ways. Use extra-virgin for its flavour to start off a salad dressing, and finish with pure olive oil. When cooking at a high temp (caramelizing onions, let’s say) use pure olive oil.
While Ezra set up his kitchen, the team headed out to local butchershop Second to None Meats to pick up flank steak, boneless skin-on chicken breasts and unsliced bacon, which Ezra had ordered in advance. Later in the evening he explained his meat choices – he prefers skin on the chicken breasts for flavour, but skin-on, bone-out is usually not available at supermarkets; a good butcher will definitely prepare it this way for you, though. Also, Ezra advised us all to do as much of the "processing" work ourselves. It not only saves money (generally less processed foods cost less than more processed foods), but enables you to know better what you’re putting in your body. That’s why he bought a slab of unsliced bacon – using the Cuisinart food processor with the slicing disc he prepared perfect strips of some of the best tasting bacon you’d ever want to try.
Once the guests had all arrived, Chef Ezra began his demonstration. Wielding Cuisinart tools ranging from cookware to blender to food processor to electric knife and cutting board, he prepared a menu beyond compare!
All the guests were blown away by the food, and inspired to try the
recipes themselves, after seeing how possible it is to prepare
excellent food with the proper tools. In fact, I tried the Pesto and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts with Marinated Chopped Salad & Sweet Potato Puree last night – 30 minutes to a meal that really wowed ’em! A hint Ezra gave me which I tried to great success was to add 1/2 a beaten egg and some bread crumbs to the ricotta mixture just to bind it.
Click on the recipes below to download them and try them out yourself:
Cauliflower Puree
Marinated & Grilled Flank Steak Quesadillas with Avocado Puree
Pesto and Ricotta Stuffed Chicken Breasts
Sweet Potato Puree
Soma Chocolate Cupcake and Banana Ice Cream Sandwiches
Heck, once the wine began to flow, some of the guests even got up and tried their hands at Cuisinart’s amazing tools…that’s me (above) getting the stone out of an avocado in mouth-watering anticipation of the Steak Quesadillas with Avocado Puree. And all the guests discovered later on what a versatile tool the electric knife can be (many guests tried it out themselves). Ezra used it to cut the ciabatta loaf superthin for the grilled cheese, sliced even, thin strips of steak for the quesadillas and then made a chicken breast into a work of art with it (see the finished chicken dish pictured above).
I know that all the guests at the second urbanmoms.ca/Cuisinart Kitchen Party were thrilled with the experience – not to mention their free gift from Cuisinart! Check out more photos of the fun below, and hear what our host and some of the guests had to say.
Thank you so much again for giving me the opportunity to host the Cuisinart Kitchen Party here in Calgary. The whole event was absolutely amazing and my guests were blown away by the food, the preparation tips and techniques from Chef Ezra, and the Cuisinart products. They could not stop raving about how delicious everything was and how much they learned from the chef. He communicated so effectively the features and benefits of the products, and he has inspired us all to try the recipes and Cuisinart products for ourselves. Thanks so much to Cuisinart for their generous sponsorship of this event, for all of the work that obviously went into it, and for the generous gift at the end of the evening. We will all be talking about this evening for a long time to come!
Just wanted to pass along my thanks for a truly wonderful evening tonight! I feel so spoiled to have been included in the urbanmom’s kitchen party….what a total treat!!! The food was so amazing and the fact that someone else was preparing, serving and cleaning made every bite taste that much more delicious!!!
I just wanted to say thank you for the invite last evening. What an amazing night! I was absolutely stuffed (but so content!!). I’m looking forward to firing up my new electric knife and trying out some of the yummy recipes.
Think you’d like to host an urbanmoms.ca/Cuisinart Kitchen Party? There are still chances to win this amaing experience in your very own home…click here for details.
Kath is an urbanmoms.ca staffer and regular contributor in her blog: Losing It!