Valentines Menu 2013

Menu
Local Dungeness crab cake with aïoli, winter greens and a lemon vinaigrette
or
Homemade mushroom Raviolo with sage cream sauce & double smoked bacon
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Pan roasted fresh Lingcod fillet & grilled prawns with green asparagus, champagne butter sauce and yukon potatoes
or
Grilled 6 oz Sterling Silver Beef Tenderloin with Comox brie whipped potatoes , winter vegetables and thyme demi- glace
or
Braised Lamb shank with seared Polenta, vegetable brounoises and fresh herbs

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Dark chocolate ganache cake with vanilla bean creme anglaise, coffee parfaît & warm sour cherry compote

$58/person

Half dozen “Qualicum Bay” oysters on the half shell with mignonettes

$16.00*

*(optional add on to your set menu)

Menu

Local Dungeness crab Raviolo with Champagne sauce and pearl vegetables

or

Chicken liver Pâté with toasted pistachios,local organic greens and pickled quail eggs

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Braised Queen Charlotte Island black Cod with puff pastry shrimp vol-au -vent, sautéed local leeks and a Pernod-lemon butter sauce

or

Grilled 8oz flat iron Steak with pommes Duchesse, horseradish crème fraîche and a black peppercorn demi-glace

or

Oven roasted free range chicken breast “Provençal”, with tomatoes, black olives, capers, seared polenta and winter vegetables

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Dark Belgian chocolate cake with kirsch cream, sour cherries and homemade vanilla bean ice cream

$60/person

Roasted winter squash soup with sage, pancetta lardons and whipped crème fraîche

Or

Water cress salad with shaved parmigiano reggiano, crisp crostini and aceto balsamico vinaigrette

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Pan roasted, fresh local Snapper filet with confît roma tomatoes, winter vegetables and potato straw

Or

Oven roasted free range chicken breast with whipped potatoes, local organic brussel sprouts and cranberry compote

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Spiced vanilla bean parfait with raspberry coulis and crisp almond tuille cookie

$50/person*

*price does not include beverages, hst or gratuities

Christmas menu #2

Homemade mushroom Raviolo with a white wine-sage cream sauce and crisp vegetable juliennes

or

Local organic parsnip soup with house smoked Sooke Trout and whipped crème fraiche

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Sautéed wild Pacific ocean scallops and prawns on squash ribbons with tomato butter sauce and roasted Yukon potatoes

Or

Oven roasted Pork tenderloin stuffed with figs, green peppercorn demi-glace and caramelized onion bread pudding

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Lebkuchen crème brûleé with sour cherry compote & pecan tuille cookie

$55/person*

*price does not include beverages, hst or gratuities

Christmas menu #3

Duck confît crèpe with local organic greens and cassis gastrique

Or

Seared scallops with a roasted red pepper & Kalamata olive tapenade and crisp Parmigiano tuille

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Smoked Queen Charlotte Island black cod on homemade papardelle noodles with a lemon-Pastis butter sauce and green asparagus

Or

Oven roasted fresh B.C Venison loin with Spaetzle, cranberry preserve, seasonal vegetables and pan juices

*****

Roasted, spiced pumpkin tartlette with vanilla bean and dark rum whipped cream

$68/person*

*price does not include beverages, hst or gratuities

Markus’

Wharfside Restaurant

New Year’s Eve 2011

Local Dungeness crab salad with watercress and a lemon & extra virgin olive oil vinaigrette

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Gin-tomato soup with wild Pacific Ocean scallops and chive infused oil

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Braised Queen Charlotte Island Black Cod on sautéed leeks & fresh local shrimp with a Pernod and pink peppercorn butter sauce

Or

Grilled Sterling silver beef tenderloin with truffled winter vegetable strudel and Beaujolais demi-glace

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Dark Belgian chocolate mousse & pecan toffee crisp with berry coulis and orange reduction

$70/person

For those of you who have not witnessed Markus’ garden you are missing out on seeing the most well behave and well organized greenspace in town. All his plants are like little soldiers in perfect lines and equally spaced apart – I honestly wouldn’t doubt if they can sing their own anthem! They grow on his command and produce to please him. Not a weed dares to enter the confines of his greenhouse and if a careless wire worm so much as glances at his tomatoes it is eradicated in a quick and efficient manner with an onslaught of nematodes. Markus grows food. Food for us and food for our diners. If you can’t eat it, it has no place in his garden. I, on the other hand, grow feelings and memories.

I really dislike having a lawn. It is forever needing to be cut in the spring and watered in the summer. Since we have a limited space on our lot I have decided to rip up the lawn. Slowly but surely, our lawn is disappearing and being replaced with memories, sentiments and convictions of my life.

Can plants represent a time in your life that you don’t want to forget? Sure they can, at least for me they can. Take the rows of sweet peas I am planting. The slightest whiff of a sweet pea bloom transports me back 25 years to my great grandpa’s beautiful garden in Saskatchewan. If I close my eyes while inhaling the flower’s scent, I can feel the warm, black earth of his garden underneath my bare feet as I run past the curtain of sweet peas to loot his raspberry patch. For this same reason, have a lilac bush that I planted in memory of my grandma. The simple scent of its flowers brings tears to my eyes as I mentally revisit the warm June days picking bouquets of it for her and the way she made that bunch of flowers seem like the best gift she had ever been given.

In addition to the “tear jerker” category of plants I am also planting a Bee friendly garden. After reading “The Incomparable Honeybee; The Economics of Pollination”, by Dr. Reese Halter (which I recommend that everyone  reads) I was so impacted by the importance of honey bees and bees in general on the feeding of humans and existence of the world, that I decided to do what I can to help. Bees hold our futures in their wings and we hold theirs in our hands. Without bees there is no pollination which in the long run equals no food for the beings on earth. So I am making a stand for the diminishing numbers of bees by planting plants that they flourish on and by having a non-stinging mason bee hive to help with the garden’s pollination. I even bought a pad of graph paper and tried to plan out each square inch of my bee garden the way Markus does with all his pristine raised beds. Unfortunately, by the time I got the lawn ripped out I had lost my sketch and now it is a more “flowing” garden than a structured one! I realize that my little garden will not replenish the bees numbers of the world but if we all had a small bee garden it would make a difference!

I guess my garden’s style can be classified as a sentimental yet practical one that not only feeds the bees and but the soul as well. Between both Markus’ and my garden we hopefully will have all of our bases covered by being feed and happy!

First crop of 2011, Feldsalat aka lamb's lettuce

As of today we have re-opened after our 2.5 week holiday. Somehow it already is Valentine’s day… it was just Christmas. Well we are going to celebrate the holiday of love  all weekend! We will be offering our regular menu and  an additional Valentine’s menu. We will be offering it on Friday the 11th, Saturday the 12th and Monday the 14th of February. 

Here is a glimpse of what V-day at Markus’ will look like:

Valetine’s  Day 2011 menu

Smoked black Cod & Prawn Crêpe with local organic winter greens

 and a lemon cream sauce

or

Duck confît Raviolo on sautéed baby spinach

 and pomegranate gastrique

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West coast Boullabaise with aioli and sauce rouille croûtons

or

Pork tenderloin Saltimbocca with wild mushroom Risotto, white wine & herb butter sauce

and seasonal vegetables

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Dark chocolate and Kirsch Gâteau with sour cherry compote and vanilla bean ice cream

$58.00*/person

*Price does not include hst or gratuity

or with German Spaetzle. Your choice: Sombero or Lederhosen! The nice thing about this recipe, an many of my mother-in-law’s other dishes, is that they are so balanced. The chile adds a zing of heat that balances the rich, heavy German preparation. This is a fusion you will unlikely find other than in Helga’s kitchen.

Schweinebraten de mi Madre

(My mother’s pork roast)

Serves 6-8 people

Ingredients:

1 fresh frenched pork rack with fat cap on (approx.  1.5-2 kg)

2 medium yellow onions, peeled and thinly sliced

2-3 whole fresh Serrano chiles

8 ripe roma tomatoes, quartered

3 bay leaves

1 bunch of fresh oregano, (stems and leaves)

1- 1.5 L water

sea salt

black pepper, freshly ground

6 tbsp canola oil

Medium sized, deep roasting pan

Method:

1. With a sharp knife score the fat of the rack. Rub the pork rack with a little oil and season with salt and freshly ground pepper. Let sit at room temperature for 20 minutes.

2.Preheat oven to 450˚F.

3.Heat the roasting pan on the burner of the stovetop until it is very hot. Then sear the roast, fat side down, until golden brown. Let sear on the fatty side for 10 minutes. Then turn the roast and sear the other side until browned.

4.Add sliced onions and whole chiles to roasting pan and brown them as well.

Add tomatoes, oregano and bay leaves. Let everything caramelize on medium heat.

Add water and bring to a simmer. The roast should just be covered with water.

5.Place in preheated oven and roast for 1 hour. Then lower the heat to 350˚F and roast for another 45 minutes or until the meat starts to fall off the bone.

6.Remove from oven and place the roast on a cutting board and let it rest before cutting.

Strain all the pan juices into a sauce pot and simmer on low heat until reduced.

Cut rack into chops. The meat can be reheated in the pan juices if necessary or plate with sauce over top of chops.

7.Pair with homemade Spaetzle (recipe to come) or with potatoes and a nice salad. In your glass, pour a good German riesling!

Markus’

Wharfside Restaurant

New Year’s Eve 2010

Amuse Bouche

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Homemade Cannelloni with fresh Juan de Fuca Dungeness crab on winter greens and preserved organic lemon vinaigrette

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Roasted parsnip soup with truffled chive oil and Gruyère crisp

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Smoked Queen Charlotte Island black cod fillet with roasted winter squash, kalamata olive tapenade, red pepper coulis and green asparagus

or

Grilled Sterling Silver beef tenderloin with sauce Bernaise, white asparagus, black pepper demi-glace and crisp potato Roesti

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White coffee parfaît with Belgian chocolate Ganache,

 orange sauce and red current coulis

$70.00

* price does not include hst or gratuity