2021 Cooks the Books Recipe: École des métiers de la restauration et du tourisme de Montréal

Sweat the onion with the canola oil. Add the tomatoes then the garlic. Cook for two minutes. Deglazed with the whisky. Add the rest of the ingredients. Simmer for 15 minutes. Blend with a hand mixer and set aside.

Pre-heat the oven at 300°F (150°C). Season the beef with salt and pepper. Rub the meat with the paprika. Sear all side of the beef in hot oil then set aside. Remove the extra oil and deglaze the pan with the BBQ sauce. Put the meat back in and bring to boil. Cover and braise for 3 hours, until the meat is tender and shred’s itself easily. Reserve the cooked meat on the side. Strain the sauce and reduce to desired consistency. Shred the meat and mix with half the sauce. Keep the rest of the sauce for plating.

Liquidize the frozen corn kernels with 1 cup vegetable broth. Put the mash obtained in a cotton cheese and collect the corn juice.

Mix the corn juice, maple syrup, agar-agar in a saucepan. Bring to boil for 30 seconds. Season to taste with salt and chili pepper. Strain the mixture and fill a squeeze bottle with it. Delicately, let it drip, drop by drop, in the cold oil. Rinse the pearls in cold water and reserve.

Place the potatoes in a saucepan and cover with cold water, add salt. Bring to boil and cook throughout. Strain and mash. Add the milk and margarine. Mix well, seasoned to taste, and reserve.

Place the whole beets in a saucepan and cover with cold water and some salt. Bring to boil and cook until tender. Drain, cool and peel. Cut in 1 cm diced and reserve. Mix the vinegar with the sugar, mustard seeds, and bay leaf. Bring to boil and simmer for 15 minutes. Poor the hot marinate on top of the beets. Cool down and reserve.

Peele the green tomatoes and cut in 1cm dice. Mix with the coarse salt. Bring the vinegar, the sugar, and the spices to boil and infuse for 15 min. Remove the spices. Add all the ingredients and cook gently for 40 min or until the celery stalks are tender. Reserve.

Cut a dozen aluminium foil strips of 3 cm x 20 cm. Fold the strips to form a 10 cm ball delicately without squeezing them too much. Cut the potato with a spiralizer to form long noodles like potatoes. Wrap the potato noodle all around the foil ball. Wrap everything again with an aluminum foil poked with tiny holes to maintain everything in place. Fry in canola oil at 320°F (160°C) for 2m30sec. Remove the ball from the fryer and strain. Let cool completely. Remove the foil around the fried potato sphere. Carefully remove the foil strips inside the sphere with scissors.

Reheat the beef, the sauce, and the mashed potatoes. Warm the corn pearls. Sauce half the plate with the cooking juice reduction. With the help of a metal circle in the center of the plate, dress the meat, then the pearls and finish with the mashed potatoes. Garnish the other half of the plate with the pickled beets, the green tomato ketchup, and the seaweed. Finish the plating by placing the crispy potato sphere on top of the mashed potatoes.