May 11, 2016 | Musings, Restaurants
I’m not exactly sure when Five Guys Burgers & Fries opened up in the States or when it became such a big thing. Honestly it just seems like it’s another restaurant that has gone by the KISS principle – Keep It Simple Stupid. They made the menu small and tried to hit the few menu items out of the park.
The chain reminds me vaguely of a college-town restaurant that was extremely popular in Athens, Georgia – Go Dawgs! They served chicken fingers and sandwiches made of said chicken with a special sauce. I went once and that was all I needed. Funny thing – most of the press clippings on the walls of Five Guys seem to be from either college newspapers or alternative newspapers, which mainly college students read.
The interesting thing about this location in Saskatoon was that there was a pretty good mix of clientele – from families with kids to 20-somethings to older couples. That said, if you have a high sensitivity to Gluten, you might want to skip chancing this one.
Five Guys Burgers & Fries
Rating – 3.5 out of 5 Peppers – Burgers, hot dogs and fries. Good toppings, good food, but you pay for it.
Location: Eighth Street, Saskatoon
Restaurant type: At your own discretion Gluten Friendly – There is no GF menu. What you see is what you get. If you don’t eat the buns, your burger or hot dog is technically GF as are most of the non-sauce fixin’s and fries. That said, I won’t use their sauce selection and/or would be very leery of cross-contamination as nothing is separated in the kitchen.
Food: The quality of the food was pretty good. It’s definitely better than a fast food burger and in some ways, they serve better burgers than say a chain such as Milestone’s (Canadian) or Applebees (American). One of the best things about this place is the bag of fries – about the only thing worth the exorbitant price of the burgers.
Selection: The only real selection you have here is with or without cheese or bacon on your small or large hot dog or burger. Oh and you can have your fries with Cajun spice that is not as good as my recipe. Beyond that the list of options to put on the burgers is impressive if not a rather standard group of choices – jalapenos and hot sauce being the only standouts for burger fair.
Price: Granted you get a double with each burger and a big ole bag o’ fries, but … It’s not worth it – I could spend just as much and feed five guys at my place with tastier options and better quality. The price is what will keep me away from this place.
Spicy Ending: It’s high quality, but simple burgers, It’s honestly not worth the price or the hype for me to go out of my way.
Apr 27, 2016 | Desserts, Nut Free
A number of years ago, I was the editor of a rural weekly newspaper. As part of that job, I was expected to be the face of the newspaper in the community especially for events such as fundraisers or events where local businesses were participating.
During one of those fundraising events, my talents as a cook were auctioned out to the highest bidder. One of the two times I did this, I pulled off a Habanero Orange Cheesecake. It was good, but a tad bit too spicy for a dessert. So I decided that Jalapeno and Lime was a much better flavour combo.
The fun thing about this recipe is that it only needs a small change to from gluten filled to GF. This is definitely one of those times that GF does not mean Taste Free!
Jalapeno Lime Cheesecake
1 1/2 cups (350 g) graham cracker crumbs
1/3 cup (80 g) melted butter
4 jalapeno peppers
9 oz. (250 g) sugar
3 8-ounce (675 g) packages cream cheese
4 eggs
2 tbsp. (30 ml) heavy cream
3 limes
- The first step is to boil water to place in a pan on the bottom rack of your preheated oven at 400 degrees. The next step is to either crush about 20 graham crackers in crumbs or use about 1.5 cups of graham cracker crumbs to mix with the melted butter to form your crust just lining the bottom of a 9-inch springform pan.
- Using disposable gloves destem and deseed your jalapenos. Once done with that, place them along with two tablespoons of sugar into a food processor to create a coarse paste. This can also be done with a mortar and pestle if you have one.
- Slowly beat the cream cheese together until it is smooth. After blending in the sugar, beat in the eggs one by one until the mixture is smooth. Add in the cream and blend before zesting one lemon.
- To zest a citrus fruit, you use a zester or a very coarse grater and basically scrape off the outside of the skin until you hit the white of the fruit. Don’t go below the white as that is usually bitter.
- Then blend in the zest from one lime and the juice that lime and another. Blend this well before blending in the jalapeno paste.
- Pour the filling into the springform pan and then gently tap the pan on the counter to remove air bubbles.
- Bake the cheesecake for about an hour or until it starts to separate from the sides; make sure to keep the pan of boiling water underneath the cheesecake. The added moisture from the steam should keep the cheesecake from drying out and cracking.
- Let the cheesecake cool outside of the oven for 20 minutes before placing in your refrigerator overnight. Before serving slice the third lemon into thin pieces and place one slice on each piece.
Some interesting variations –
For a deeper flavour mixture, you can roast the jalapenos slowly over an open flame. After putting them in a plastic bag, the skin will loosen and you should be able to peel the blackened skin right off the pepper. This should be done before you puree them with the sugar.
Also if you would like to give this a completely feel, use GF chocolate creme-filled cookies for the crust and sprinkle cocoa powder lightly over the top of the cheesecake after you pull it out of the oven. You could also put thin chocolate shavings on each slice. This version would be stupendous with habanero and orange!
Apr 2, 2016 | Egg Free, Entrees, Nut Free
With Easter just behind us and Thanksgiving just a few months away (hey a guy can hope!), I was thinking about what to do with leftover turkey. Typically, I would just make a sandwich pre-CD, But as we all know GF bread is a bit small and does not necessarily the best sandwiches make. Otherwise I would normally do something along the lines of a turkey burrito or quesadilla. And since I’ve shown you a few recipes for those already, I decided to try something new.
This recipe happens to be very, very close to a simple Alfredo. And it’s a great fusion of Mexican and that Alfredo hence the name fusion!
Turkey Con Arroz Y Salsa
1 red onion
4 jalapenos
2 tbsp (30 g) butter
1 tbsp (15 g) Cumin
1 tsp (5 g) Cilantro
1 tsp (5 g) Garlic
1 small jar Guy Fieri 7 pepper salsa
227 g Garlic & Herb cream cheese
1 lb. turkey, cooked and diced
- Saute the onions and jalapenos together with the butter and spices. While the base is cooking, make a recipe of Quick Mexi Rice.
- Once the onions are soft, add in the cream cheese and salsa making the sauce.
- After the sauce has started to thicken, you can add the turkey.
- Plate some rice and pour some of the sauce over the top – serve immediately!
Apr 2, 2016 | Dairy Free, Egg Free, Nut Free, Side Dishes
This simple rice is a great side for almost any Tex-Mex dish.
1.5 cups rice
2 tbsp (30 ml) chicken bouillon
1 tbsp (15 g) cilantro
1 tbsp (15 g) red pepper flakes
1 cup (225 g) frozen corn
Combine the ingredients and cook the rice how you would normally.
Feb 13, 2016 | Desserts
A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away (sorry that intro never gets old to me!), my wife introduced me to trifle. As a young warthog (ok, they’re both Disney properties!), I had never experienced trifle. I was not a huge fan of pudding mind you. On the other hand, chocolate cake was right up my alley!
Alas, a few years ago, CD hit me like a ton of flour and dreams of cakes went out the window. That is until I figured out there were GF cake mixes to be bought or GF flour to be purchased to make homemade cakes! And it was good.
This recipe is relatively simple and doesn’t take a whole lot of time depending on how store bought you go. Remember – chocolate cake, pudding – who said GF was TasteFree?!
Chocolate Trifle
1 recipe GF chocolate cake (something like this would work)
2 small (400 g) boxes chocolate pudding
1 tub (1 L) whipped cream
6 Skor bars
1/4 cup (30 ml) Kahlua
- Bake your cake and let it cool completely. This can be done obviously like the night before or a few hours before you want to actually put the trifle together.
- While it cools, make both packets of the pudding, ensuring it is set.
- Crush your Skor bars so that they are smaller bite size chunks.
- Cut your cake into small bite size pieces.
- Put half of the cake on the bottom of a deep bowl. Drizzle about half of the Kahlua on top of that.
- Add half of the pudding and then half of the whipped cream.
- Sprinkle half of the Skor bar over the top.
- Repeat steps 5-7, chill and serve!
