If you think about Calgary as just a beefeater’s meat market, you’ll miss out on some of the prime cuts Calgary has to offer. The Welsh rarebit, a classic frugalitarian’s meat alternative, gets a cowtown re-calibration when it is made using our finest bread, beer, cheese and Prairie Caviar (mustard).
Trim out the beef and enjoy some Prime cut, Grade-A Calgary without having a cow.
Calgary Rarebit
1 Tbsp butter
1 Tbsp flour
1 cup of any Wild Rose beer or Milk
½ cup grated Sylvan Star Gouda
1 Tbsp Brassica grainy mustard (Prairie Caviar)
1 free-range local egg
8 thick slices of Aviv’s bread
8 grape tomatoes, halved
Preheat the oven to 450°F.
Place the bread on a parchment lined baking sheet. Toast the bread on one side until the top is crispy and lightly toasted.
Get a pot on medium-high heat. Drop in the butter right away and sprinkle in the flour. Now use a whisk to mix the melting butter and the flour. They will bunch up pretty quick, which is cool. Keep whisking and pour in a splash of beer. Holy crap, it looks like gross goo, that’s cool, keep stirring. Pour in some more beer. Holy crap, still gross, it’s cool, keep stirring and make sure it stays smooth. Go a little more on the beer and keep stirring . . . Still looks like pus, but that’s fine as long as it’s smooth. Now you can dump in the rest of the beer and keep stirring until it comes to a boil.
When it boils, turn off the heat and switch to a wooden a spoon. Stir in the cheese until it’s smooth. Then plus it with the mustard. It should be cool enough to add the egg. But make sure you stir it in quickly before it starts to cook.
Pour or spoon the gooey cheese sauce over the pieces of bread. Blap the whole mess into the oven until the top puffs up a bit and gets nicely golden and bubbly. Watch it carefully, it can go from nice and toasty to burnt in the blink of an eye.
Serve it with nice juicy tomatoes on top. And look there’s some beer left in that bottle.
Beer
Wild Rose Brewery has seasonal beers, tap room tours and party pigs. You don’t need a Golden Ticket to get into the Beer Brewery and enjoy the flowing pints of happiness.
Bldg AF23, #2 – 4580 Quesnay Wood Drive SW, in Currie Barracks. wildrosebrewery.com, 403-720-2733
Cheese
Award winning full flavoured old Grizzly Gouda is so good it makes other cheeses seem cheesey. Pick up a slab at any Calgary cheese monger Janice Beaton Fine Cheese, Springbank Cheese Company and Say Cheese Fromagerie.
Mustard
Get some whole grain prairie caviar from Brassica in a variety of flavours. Find all kinds at The Cookbook Co., Savour Fine Foods & Kitchenwares and Community Natural Foods.
Bread
Genius baker Aviv makes the best bread in town. Grab a loaf at his bakery (5524 1 A St SW) Friday, Saturday from 10am-2pm or around town at Market 17, Fresh Kitchen and Sunnyside Market.
