Traveling Tastebuds is taking you to Toronto’s Little Italy for a farm-to-table experience. The Dog and Tiger Kitchen & Bar recently transitioned its menu from pub fare to a farm-to-table chef-led culinary destination. Newly hired Executive Chef, Thomas Salvo, has carefully curated the reimagined menu, bringing together regional farms, butcheries, fisheries, breweries, and wineries to create an elevated local dining experience.
Whether you are visiting Toronto for the first time or have enjoyed everything that the city has to offer on frequent visits, Little Italy is always a must visit area. Also known as College Street West, it has great restaurants (including The Dog and Tiger), lively bars and is close to Kensington Market.
We were lucky enough to receive one of The Dog and Tiger’s delicious plant-based, gluten free recipes to share with you. Their mushroom Caesar has all flavours and textures of a traditional Caesar salad but uses black garlic and nutritional yeast to replace regular garlic and Parmigiano. The fried potato crumble adds crouton texture without the gluten. Grilling the romaine adds another depth of flavour to the mushroom Caesar.
Black Trumpet Caesar:
100g Black Trumpet mushroom (any mushroom can be used)
30g Black Garlic
50g Shallot
15g Kozlik Daily Dijon
50g Nutritional Yeast
200g Sherry Vinegar
600g Canola Oil
Slice the shallots and rough chop the black garlic. Saute mushrooms and shallots until
cooked, 5-10 minutes. Combine the rest of the ingredients in a blender and blend until
smooth. Slowly emulsify with oil. Season.
Potato Crumb:
800g Potato
400g Water
Peel and cut the potato to about a 1/2 inch dice, doesn’t need to be perfect. Combine in
blender with water, blend until you have a coarse sand consistency. Strain out the water
and rinse the potato of all the starches. Place potato in a dry towel and squeeze out any
excess water. Fill a large rondeau with 2inches of canola oil. Heat the oil to 350degrees
and fry the potato in small batches whisking the potato to break it up. Fry until golden
brown. Drain onto paper towel and season with salt.
Tempura Batter:
100g Chickpea Flour
100g Potato Starch
250g Club Soda
10g Baking Powder
10g Salt
Herb Mix:
20g Parsley
20g Dill
20g Tarragon
20g Chive
Finely Chop and combine.
To Plate You Will Need:
Mushrooms: Hen of the woods, King Oyster, Beech, Oyster (or any of your favourites).
Romaine Hearts (1 will yield 2 portions)
- In a large saute pan sear your mushrooms. Once you have a nice golden brown sear
deglaze with white wine. Finish with a generous spoon of the mushroom caesar, a
handful of your herbs and season with salt and pepper. - Trim and quarter Romaine Hearts. Toss with oil, salt and pepper, grill on cut side. You
want a nice char. Spoon some of the caesar dressing over the charred side of the
lettuce and cover with the potato crumb. - Tear up some oyster mushrooms and coat with tempura batter. Fry until golden brown,
season with salt. - Plate one romaine quarter on centre of plate. Spoon mushrooms over top. Place other
romaine quarter offsetting. Garnish with tempura mushrooms.
