What drew me to The Tasting Room initially was its large selection of appetizers, which came in large enough portions to constitute a small meal, or to share. Their Scallops Wrapped with Bacon are out of this world, but to be honest, so are most of their appetizers. Carribean Shrimp and Banana Curry is another unique appetizer that cannot be missed. The Calamari was a little on the bland side, but the Coconut Lobster Lollipops certainly made up for it. Prices for these appetizers are close to their entrees, but so are the sizes.

Their daily soup has also been consistently satisfactory. The daily soup is not on their menu, but I recall enjoying an excellent Black Bean Soup on two different occasions. I have not tried their entrees, as I am always full after the appetizers, but I have it on good authority that their seafood pasta is well-stocked for a $13 entree (lunch, $19 dinner).

They also have a very reasonable wine flight for anyone interested in a little wine tasting. Their servers are knowledgable, friendly, and always provide impeccable service. My only complaint is that their washroom facilities are far too small, but the rest of the restaurant is stylishly decorated.
Rating:

• Chocolate chip oatmeal cookies, based on her mother’s coworker’s friend’s secret recipe
• Caramel custard with whipped cream, based on the recipe from Classic Stars Desserts by Emily Luchetti
• Banana napoleons with warm caramel walnut sauce, based on the recipe from Classic Stars Desserts by Emily Luchetti

The banana napoleons were the most successful and the most delicious, but also by far the most time-consuming. We made everything from scratch, without realizing how tediously long it takes to turn a ball of butter, flour, and salt into a light, airy puff pastry. Luckily, we started working on the puff pastry first, so by the time we were finished preparing the cookies and custard, the puff pastries were almost ready¹.

Unfortunately, I cannot find the caramel custard recipe online, nor am I allowed to share the chocolate chip oatmeal cookie recipe on pain of death, so I will walk through the process of the napoleon recipe, and you can see the full recipe here. My version is basically written in layman’s terms (or how I would describe the process) because the steps written in the book are slightly confusing.

Making the Puff Pastry
If you’re planning on making your puff pastry, make sure you have plenty of time and plenty of patience. It takes up to four hours to make, because every time it is folded, it has to be refrigerated for an hour. To make it worth your while, I suggest making a large batch and freezing what you don’t use. Or, just buy frozen puff pastry from your local supermarket.

1. Cut up the butter into small pieces. The book says to cut them into 1/4 in cubes, but it doesn’t have to be that precise. The point is to break up the block of butter without melting it.
2. Work the butter into the flour. It’ll be clumpy and messy, but don’t worry. That’s how it’s supposed to be.
3. Make the dough into a mound and form a well in the centre. Pour the water into the centre, then work it into the dough.
4. Pat the dough down to about 1 1/4 in thick (6 x 8 in rectangle). Wrap and refrigerate for an hour.
5. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the dough into a 7-by-16-inch rectangle about 1/2 inch thick. You may have to flour the surface of the dough so the rolling pin doesn’t stick.
6. With a short side of the rectangle facing you, fold the dough as you would a business letter: Fold down the top two-thirds toward you and then fold the bottom third over the top.
7. Give the dough a quarter turn so that the open seam is on your right and the closed seam is on your left. Repeat the rolling and folding process. Wrap and refrigerate the dough for 1 hour.
8. Repeat steps 5-7 two times, refrigerating for 1 hour after each time.
9. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. On a lightly floured work surface, roll out the puff pastry into a 16-by- 9-inch rectangle about 1/16 inch thick (basically, as thin as you can).
10. With the tines of a fork, make holes (about 1/8 inch apart) all over the puff pastry.
11. Using a sharp knife, cut the puff pastry into twelve 4-by-3-inch rectangles. Place the pastry rectangles on the prepared baking sheets, spacing them 1 inch apart. Place the baking sheets in the freezer for at least 30 minutes.
12. Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C). Bake the puff pastry rectangles until golden brown, 10 to 15 minutes. Let cool on the baking sheets to room temperature.

Making the Caramel Walnut Sauce

1. In a heavy saucepan, melt the butter over medium-low heat. Stir in the brown and granulated sugars and cook, stirring frequently, until the sugars are melted, about 5 minutes.
2. Stir in the cream and vanilla and continue to cook until the sauce has thickened slightly, about 5 minutes. If the sauce doesn’t thicken, it may just because the heat is too high. After taking it off the heat, it’ll thicken as it cools, so don’t worry.
3. Remove from the heat and let cool. Stir in the walnuts. If you don’t want the walnuts to soften, you can wait to stir in the walnuts right before serving, or sprinkle the walnuts over the napoleon separately and add the caramel sauce on top.

Making the Chantilly Cream
Chantilly cream is just fancy whipped cream basically. Being the lazy chef that I am, I really don’t see the need to make your own whipped cream for this recipe, because it is only a topping. Just get some store-bought whipped cream, mix it with the amount of vanilla extract and sugar called for in the recipe, and you’re done!

The rest of the recipe is simply to combine the elements. Our puff pastries were too thick, so we just topped one with the other elements, instead of making it into a sandwich. Either way, it tastes amazing!

Other notes: This would also go really well with vanilla ice cream, and feel free to add some berries to give it some colour. You can also substitute caramel sauce with chocolate fudge sauce, especially if you’re using ice cream.

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1. Actually, I lied. They weren’t ready at all, not according to Ms. Luchetti’s recipe. But we decided to skip one, or two, hours of waiting.