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Quinoa, Occasions and Rocky Horror theatre

With the additions to our new menu, we find we get a lot of comments about our quinoa salad. They are usually one of two. A lot of people love quinoa and tell us how much they love the salad. However, there are a lot of people who aren’t familiar with quinoa — or even how it’s pronounced (“keen – wah”).

Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown for its seeds, which are edible. It has a long history as a food source and it’s known for a number of valuable properties. We wrote a bit about in last April when we posted a recipe for quinoa wraps. If you haven’t tried quinoa yet, drop by and give our salad a try. We think you’ll love it too.

Tonight might be a good time, especially if you’re headed to The Rocky Horror Show at the Imperial. The Saint John Theatre company provided us tickets and we gave them away earlier this week to Dan Wheaton (@captainwheaton). We’re not sure how Dan dressed for the show, but if you plan to go tonight and intend to dress for the show (in Rocky Horror style), we would love to see you.

Finally, in the flurry of activity here at the Deli we completely neglected mentioning we are the Restaurant Spotlight in the fall issue of Occasions, the NB Liquor magazine that is available free in all their outlets. If you haven’t seen it already, pick it up the next time you pick up a bottle of wine. You can read about us and also get the usual great recipes Occasions always has.

And that’s our little bit of house-keeping so we can catch up! We’d love to see you today or tonight, over the weekend or any time at all. And let us know what you think of quinoa, Rocky Horror or the piece in Occasions.

 

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Gluten-free quinoa wraps – our recipe

We hope you made it to the Simply For Life (SFL) seminar last night at the Trade and Convention Centre. If you did, you may have seen us. We were one of the many Saint John vendors taking part. Events like this are always full of information and for us it was a nudge to get on something we have in the works: identifying the SFL approved items on our menu.

On the subject of foods, last year when we were at the Fundy Food Festival we served up quinoa (pronounced keen-wa) wraps and they really went over well with everyone. Quinoa is a gluten-free food and we’re posting our recipe (see below).

 

What’s quinoa?

Quinoa is a grain-like crop grown for its seeds, which are edible. It has a long history as a food source. More significantly, it’s known for a number of valuable properties. Wikipedia tells us quinoa is,

“… Highly appreciated for its nutritional value, as its protein content is very high (12%–18%). Unlike wheat or rice (which are low in lysine), and like oats, quinoa contains a balanced set of essential amino acids for humans, making it an unusually complete protein source among plant foods. It is a good source of dietary fiber and phosphorus and is high in magnesium and iron. Quinoa is gluten-free and considered easy to digest.”

Now, here’s our quinoa wraps recipe, via our long time friend Lianne of Exhale Coaching in British Columbia. Thanks Lianne!

Quiona Wraps Recipe

Ingredients

  • 1 cups quinoa (keen-wa)
  • 2 cups water
  • Lettuce (iceberg, butterhead or romaine)

Method

Combine water and quinoa. Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer covered and cook for 15 minutes.

Marinade

  • 3 tbs ginger, fresh and grated
  • 1 garlic clove minced
  • 1-2 tsp red pepper flakes
  • 1 tbs cilantro
  • 1 tbs olive oil
  • 2 tbs honey
  • 3 tbs lemon juice
  • 1 tsp salt
  • 1-2 scallions (optional)

Method

Combine ginger, scallions, garlic, red pepper flakes, and cilantro. Whisk together olive oil, lemon juice, honey and salt. Combine these together and then add the quinoa.

Note: can be served warm or cooled. Next day, it’s even better. Can be served on its own or with a dollop of peanut butter / peanut sauce on each with the lettuce.

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Recipe for Italian Wedding Soup

Italian wedding: scene from The Godfather (1972).

You don’t have to be Italian to enjoy Italian Wedding Soup and, with our current weather forecast, you may find it a very tasty way to ward off the chill of the next day or two.

Janet, one of our Urban Deli customers, came by one day and shared a recipe for Italian Wedding Soup with us. Not only that, she also brought in the finished dish and it was wonderful!

It’s great with something as simple as bread sticks, Italian bread or baguette. Of course, a nice wine would be nice too. 🙂

Thank you to Janet for both the recipe and the sample.

Ingredients:

– 6 cups chicken broth
– 1 package mild sausage
– 3 tbsp garlic
– 2 cups celery (chopped)
– 1 large red onion (chopped)
– 1 – 16 oz (300g) frozen spinach (chopped)
– 1/2 – 3/4 cup pearl barley

Preparation:

1 – Remove sausage meat from sleeve and make into meatballs. Sauté with garlic in a frying pan until cooked.

2 – In a large pot, sauté chopped celery, onions and garlic until soft.

3 – Add chicken broth, spinach and barley, sausage meatballs to cooked veggies.

4 – Simmer for 2 hours

Serve with freshly ground parmesan cheese and enjoy!

(Aside: according to Wikipedia, the phrase wedding soup, “… is a mistranslation of the Italian language, minestra maritata (“married soup”), which is a reference to the fact that green vegetables and meat go well together.”)

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Mulled wine Urban Deli style – our recipe

We’ve had mulled wine available throughout December and many of our customers have commented on how wonderful it is. We’ve provided the recipe to a few customers that have asked about. Then we thought, let’s put it in our newsletter so those who want to try it at home can do just that over the holidays.

So, here it is … Enjoy!

Urban Deli mulled wine

Yield: 4
Ingredients

  • 1 750ml bottle red wine (we use the Italian Mezzomondo Negroamaro Salento)
  • 1 cup mulled apple cider
  • 4 tablespoons honey
  • 2 fresh rosemary sprigs
  • 3 cinnamon sticks
  • 3 whole star anise
  • 3 whole cloves
  • 3 whole peppercorns
  • 1 orange, sliced
  • 2 ounces brandy

Directions

  1. Put everything in a pot over the stove.
  2. Slowly bring all ingredients to a low simmer for 20 minutes.
  3. Transfer to a crock pot and serve.

It’s actually pretty simple. Pulling all the ingredients together really what it all about. If you do that, the rest is easy. 🙂

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A word about our BBQ sauce

A couple of weeks ago we came upon a great site for foodies called Plato Putas. We stumbled upon it via Twitter because they had a post titled Trip Report: Saint John, N.B., Restaurants. And guess what restaurant they loved? Yes, the Urban Deli.

And yes, we may be slightly biased in our love of their site. 🙂

One of the things they loved at the Deli was our BBQ sauce so we decided to do something we don’t normally do and mail them a bottle. But that also got us thinking … A lot of people have commented on our sauce, so we thought we’d give you a brief word or two about it.

As with any great tasting sauce or dish, the secret to its success is in the blending and proportions of the herbs and other ingredients — all the elements of flavours that make up the condiment or dish.

Now, we can’t give you a detailed recipe — it wouldn’t be much of a kitchen secret then — but we can tell you that it’s a combination of onion, garlic, chili’s’, sugars, vinegars, and one or two special flavours that are brought together to make our Urban Deli Gluten Free BBQ sauce.

Unfortunately, beyond that we can’t really tell you much without giving the secret away. But if you haven’t tried it yet, please pay us a visit and check it out! We’d love to see you!

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Creole Jambalaya – cooking class at the Urban Deli

Creole Jambalaya - photo: laaloosh.comWe did it a few months ago; we’re doing it again – a cooking class coming up on a Sunday – November 21, 1:00pm to 3:00pm –  with ‘Chef Bob.’ That’s Saint John’s Bob McVicar. The subject of the class? Creole jambalaya!

Traditionally, jambalaya is put together in three main parts involving meats and vegetables, and there are two main types of jambalaya: Creole and Cajun.

There are likely many more, because cooks love variations. We understand that Chef Bob has a Creole jambalaya  in mind for us on November 21. If you’re the curious kind, you can read more about jambalaya and its history.

The class at the Urban Deli will be ‘reserved seating only.’ There is a cost — $25 — to help offset some of our costs. But we’ve tried to keep it as minimal as possible. And we ask that you bring your own “to-go” container so you can take away your own sample of the finished dish.

Of course, you’ll also learn how to make this jambalaya and take home a copy of Bob’s recipe.

This should be a lot of fun. If you get thirsty, beverages will be available for purchase: beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks.

If you’re interested in what promises to be a flavorsome and entertaining afternoon, just give us a call at the Urban Deli: 652.3354.

The details one more time:

Cooking class at the Urban Deli
Creole jambalaya with Bob McVicar
Sunday, November 21, 1:00pm to 3:00pm
Cost: $25

We hope you can join us!

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We’re working on a newsletter

Yes, it’s something new we’re working on. As you can see over on the upper right, we’re putting together a newsletter. You can sign-up for it there or just go straight to the sign up page here.

No, we won’t be flooding you with oodles of emails.

We hope to provide you with news, events, recipes and maybe even a surprise or two … You can be “in the know” about what is new at the Urban Deli as well as get some tasty info on food. If you’re a foodie or just like being up to date on what we’re doing and planning, subscribe to our newsletter and be a part of our Urban Deli family!

And if you have some ideas on what you would like to see in an Urban Deli newsletter, please share them with us. Just use this contact form.

We hope you join us for our newsletter!

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