The Chase Fish and Oyster

The Chase Fish and Oyster

10 Temperance Street

Toronto, ON M5H 1Y4

647-348-7000

Birthday weekends are the best! We haven't eaten out and tried a new restaurant in a long time, so Howard did a little research and picked a restaurant for my birthday dinner last week. The only stipulation I gave him was that I wanted oysters. I think it's been more than a year since I've had a good oyster platter!

Oyster platter delivered. Each table is given a card and pencil to mark the amount of raw seafood they would like to order. So I penciled in three Foxley Bay oysters and three Salt Grass oysters after our knowledgeable waiter went through the description. All oyster platters come with fish and oyster hot sauce, cocktail sauce, and migonette. Just so perfect that I could try each sauce per oyster. Maybe eight next time so I can really load up the lemon and horseradish on one.

We tried a bunch of sharing plates and this was by far our favourite. The big eye tuna "nachos" - in quotation marks because it was made with crispy taro root chips, hot mustard saffron emulsion, and sweet onion and shoyu dressing. Delicious and refreshing, it was so good during this chilly winter, imagine how much better it would be eaten on the patio during the summer!

Next up, the hot smoked white fish on toast with caviar and pickles. Great flavours and I don't even like pickles! But everything worked together to form that perfect bite.

Couldn't resist a side of shoestring fries. I love fries.

Octopus with harissa, spiced merguez sausage, mustard greens, and sauteed red onions. We made merguez sausages last summer and I thought they were pretty awesome. But this one was a hundred percent stronger and punchier in flavour. There were only a few slices on the plate, which is a good idea because it can easily overpower the octopus.

We decided to share a main, but thought that the portion was similar to the sharing plates. Regardless, the scallops with pumpkin ravioli, foie gras butter, and arugula was rich and creamy.

I always look forward to dessert, but felt this was too much chocolate and sugar for one person. Did I just say that? Darn, I am getting old! But thank goodness we shared it because it could not be finished as a single serving. The hazelnut bombe with hazelnut whipped ganache, dark chocolate cream, chocolate cake, and candied hazelnuts was like a giant Ferrero Roche minus the thin wafer shell. I can't believe I'm going to say this as well, but dessert was our least favourite dish of the meal!

But that doesn't matter, we are definitely going back and looking forward to trying the other restaurants from this hospitality group: The Chase (which is upstairs), Little Fin (right beside), and Colette Grand Café.

Merguez Sausages

I'm so excited to share my first homemade sausage experience with you. That's right, first time and I think I pretty much aced it! Although, the success has to be shared as I enlisted some experienced sausage makers – Howard's parents – to chaperone and make sure I was on the right track.

First thing, read the recipe and head out to the grocery store to pick up some ingredients: boneless lamb shoulder, garlic, harissa paste, ground fennel seeds, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground sumac, ground cayenne pepper, and sausage casings.

Using a large container (preferably with lid) for marinating, stir together the chopped up lamb, garlic, harissa paste, salt, ground fennel, ground coriander, ground cumin, ground sumac, pepper, and cayenne pepper. Cover and refrigerate overnight.

This is where it gets exciting (because I've never done it before). Using the Multi Food Grinder attachment on my Kenwood Chef Kitchen Machine, fitted with the coarse screen, we did a first pass with the lamb mixture. This will make the second pass through much easier.

At this point, rinse the casing and soak it in cold water.

Next up, we attached the multi food grinder attachment with the medium screen and added 1/2 cup of ice water to keep the lamb mixture moist. Look! It looks like the ground meat you find at supermarkets! Success!

Okay, final pass. This time we loaded the large nozzle attachment and fitted the sausage casing over it. This was the point in the process where I was a bit nervous. What if we couldn't keep up with all the meat loading into the casing? But luckily, with the motor control on the Chef, we could set it to a low speed and carefully take our time to make sure the casings were filled properly.

Make sure you have a helping hand at this point; you'll need someone to push the meat and someone to hold onto the casing. Teamwork!

Once the casing is stuffed with lamb mixture, twist into 5-inch (12 cm) links. Refrigerate until you're ready to cook.

Hungry? Place the sausages on a greased grill over medium heat and close the lid. Grill, turning once, until browned and juices run clear when sausage is pierced. Cut the links, the sausages will hold to finish.

These sausages are good! They have a great amount of spice and flavor, the consistency of the meat was good too. Everyone was raving about them and incredibly impressed that they were homemade. We polished off all 10 links that night!

Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post by Canadian Living and Kenwood. I received compensation for it. There was no requirement to produce a positive review of this recipe. All opinions are our own.