Friday Finds - Recipes

Truffles!!

Recipe and image source

Mini raspberry marble cheese cakes

Recipe and image source

Ahi tuna salad one of my most favourite things to eat!

Recipe and image source


Grodon Ramsay's burgers and bread maker buns


Recipe and image source

Menu Plan - Week 4

Well we started the week off with leftovers from Saturday  mainly because they are there.
My original plan was to go shopping and get a chicken to roast but since I hadn't decided what we were going to eat the rest of the week there isn't any point in going shopping.

I'm also kinda stumped on a new recipe to try. I could call the loaded baked potatoes a new recipe as it isn't something we have ever had as a stand alone dinner...

Also pretty indecisive as to what we will visit this week.


Sunday - Football and DH nursing a sore throat
Lunch - frozen homemade chicken soup and baguette and cheeses
Dinner - leftover ham, potatoes and cabbage/carrots.


Monday - The Strip after lunch and picking up our show tickets for next week.
Lunch - with friends (Jacqui and Shawn) vacationing in Las Vegas at Gordon Ramsay's BurGR.

Dinner - pizza  too full from a late lunch

Tuesday DH golfing
Lunch - tuna sandwich salad with hard boiled egg
Dinner - roast chicken, roast potatoes and cauliflower the cauliflower looked awful so we went with broccoli.

Wednesday - Valley of Fire it was a little overcast so not great for photos in the desert. Instead we drove to Boulder Dam and then to Boulder City. We hadn't seen the bridge at the Dam as it only opened in 2010 and we have a soft spot for Boulder City. 

In 2006 we drove to Boulder City and when we reached it we looked at each other and said "we've been here before!!" We had been there in 2004 when we went to the Dam.
We stopped into the Boulder Dam Brewery and had a snack of chicken wings.

Lunch - probably out  tuna sandwiches
Dinner - Loaded baked potatoes 

Thursday - Movies DH went golfing as it was a warm but overcast day.
Lunch 
Dinner - chicken pot pie using the leftovers from Tuesday

Friday - Old Las Vegas walking tour  decided instead to pick up our mail and since we were over that way to visit Terrible's, Planet Hollywood and Hooters' Casinos. Then we parked at New York, New York and wandered on that side of the Strip.

Lunch - leftover chicken pot pie.
Dinner - Salmon with homemade mayo-mustard-horseradish sauce  we went to the Gold Coast TGIF for steak.

Saturday - stay at home, movies and surfing.
Lunch - had late big breakfast of sausages, bacon and eggs so we munched on potato chips in the afternoon with coke. Don't judge me!!
Dinner - homemade pizza

Gordon Ramsay BurGR

  We had a mission to work our way through Gordon Ramsay's restaurants in Las Vegas:Steak,  his  Pub and Grill and finally BurGR.

We started with his most expensive upscale Steak and ended at his least pretentious casual burger joint.
It has been an amazing culinary experience with nary a bad word about food, service and ambiance. It has certainly raised the bar for any further dining experiences.
After this experience I can see us going back to his venues to work our way through the appetizers and desserts.

BurGR is located immediately inside the Las Vegas Blvd doors of Planet Hollywood. We had some show tickets to pick up so we wandered around the Mile shops and were surprised that there was also a branch of A Cheeseburger in Paradise located there, a restaurant that we always go to when in Honolulu Hawaii.

We were meeting friends that were in Las Vegas for a vacation at noon at BurGR in Planet Hollywood. This is the most casual of his places in Vegas and it doesn't take reservations. We sauntered back around 11:40 and were placed on the waiting list. The hostess took our phone number so she could text us when the table was ready. We took a seat in the bar to await our friends.

We were seated and our server was amazing, she could explain every item on the menu.

Here is a video prepared for their opening in December.

We ordered drinks and some appetizers to start.
First up were jalapeno poppers, which I dislike in most places as they are just generic, frozen, dropped in a deep fryer.
Not these!! There six poppers served in shot glasses which contain homemade cheddar bacon ranch dressing to soften the heat. We were also warned that one of the poppers had the seeds left in it had an extra surprise.
DH must have gotten that one, it was the smallest on the plate but he loves any kind of heat so didn't even blink while the rest of us oohed and ahhed about the heat we were feeling.
These were delicious which is an understatement.
This photo is not a great one.

Since I had raved about the pork belly at the Pub we sampled an order as it only contained two buns and we cut those in half.

I would go back and have several orders by myself! 

Then we shared an order of onion rings which we were promised that the onion wouldn't do that slithery thing that usually happens.

Next we ordered our burgers, two Hell's Kitchen with jalapenos and avocados for the guys, one Uber and one Britannia.

Burgers are, of the burgers are intensely flavorful, cooked over an open flame fueled by hard woods. The burgers are made with cuts of short rib, brisket and chuck and basted in Devonshire butter, which adds to the rich taste. Burgers are served on milk-based brioche buns, made fresh daily and topped with sesame seeds. I will have to learn how to make these buns as they did not get wet on the bottom nor did they fall apart.

We, very wisely, decided to only order one fry, truffle parmesan. These fries are hand-cut and thrice cooking will ensure extra crispness. Also they use Kennebec potatoes offering a lighter, less starchy and crisper fry—perfect for the signature curry ketchup and chipotle ketchup.

We had tried the sticky toffee pudding in his other two restaurants so we decided we would order to share. This would be my open disappointment, these are served as push-up pops which is clearly stated on the menu, however I just did't get a taste of the toffee and it also said it was a salted peanut butter but there was no flavour of that either.
But we still enjoyed them!

Everyone proclaimed everything delicious!!!!

Gordon Ramsay's Pub and Grill

We're on a mission to eat at all three of Gordon Ramsay's restaurants in Las Vegas, a trifecta of Ramsay.
Last week we ate at Steak in the Paris Casino a very upscale and pricey establishment, worth every penny as far as food and service went.

The final stop will be next week at BurGR in Planet Hollywood!!

Today we went to his Pub and Grill a far more casual venue which recently opened in mid-December 2012.

We ordered from the lunch menu, the only menu presented to us. This has come up in several reviews that there is a grill menu and a lunch menu, and it seems sometimes guests are offered both and sometimes not.
The menus online now state that the grill menu is from 5PM and the pub menu is available from 3PM to midnight.

Gordon’s Pub & Grill is divided into two distinct sections, and that division extends beyond the menus. ”Uniform-wise, the Grill is slightly more proper, while the Pub is a bit more punk,” added Allison, who also designed the uniforms at Gordon Ramsay Steak in the Paris. “The hostess dress is our piece d’resistance. Its newsprint is packed with articles from Gordon’s homeland and history. Some fact, some hilarious fiction, all designed to engage the guest from back to front.

“Studded straps and kilt-pin closures keep the dress hanging on! Guests will find lots of witty gems in the one-of-a-kind newsprint. The hostess even has Zip-It gloves fashioned by glove guru Dorothy Gaspar, who created gloves for Ryan Gosling in ‘Drive’ and Madonna.”

The drinks menu is brought on an iPad and there is an extensive beer selection.

Duck Confit Poutine
hand-cut french fries, duck gravy, duck confit

This was absolutely addictive, with lots of shredded duck meat and the gravy was sensational (I just asked my DH for a word to describe it).  You don't even miss the cheese you would normally get on a poutine, even though I did hear another diner ask for cheese to be added to which the server graciously provided.

Braised Pork Belly Roll
English pea purée, cipollini onion, baby carrots, mustard sauce

I had forgotten that the menu mentioned baby carrots and was a little put off by the tentacle looking dark items on my plate. However, I gamefully cut into them and they were delicious. But oh that pork belly, I had it once before in 2010 on a trip to London and this was far more delightful but two pieces was too much for me (shouldn't have had the poutine).

DH chose from the "swimmers" menu. The broth was amazing, I could have just had that with the fresh bread that was served with it.

PEI Mussels and Clams (photo was taken with phone and flash made it much more yellow than it really was!)
chorizo, caramelized fennel, lemon zest

We decided to share sticky toffee pudding with sweet cream ice cream. We had also had this last week at Steak.