Culina Mill Creek recipe: Beef with blue cheese and chocolate sauce on dirty mashed potatoes

From day one, the simple black and white decor and exotic recipes have been the core of Culina Mill Creek's ethnic comfort food. (Photos: Tina Faiz)

On Valentine's Day, it's common to indulge in bit of chocolate. But my idea of chocolate on Valentine's Day involves beef and blue cheese from Culina Mill Creek.

Maybe it's because Culina Mill Creek was my first love. My first restaurant love.

You know, the one you can't stop thinking about all day, hoping the hours go by faster until it's time for your reservation. The one whose menu you stalk online, and whose photos you drool over on restaurant review websites.

When it opened its doors on the first day of spring in 2004, Culina stole my heart and raised my expectations of what a neighbourhood restaurant ought to be--great food made with local ingredients, raised ethically and grown with love.

And from day one, Culina's beloved beef with blue cheese and chocolate sauce has been on the menu, taking me and many Edmontonians on an emotional roller-coaster ride.

At first glance of the menu you're disgusted by the combination of blue cheese and dark chocolate. Yuk! Then, you're baffled by co-owner and executive chef Brad Lazarenko's audacity to pair these together. How could he? But you order anyway, because curiosity wins over reason. By the time it arrives, in all its rich sauciness, you're an emotional mess, until that first bite, when sheer joy takes over.

How could a meal make one feel this way? I had to know.

"It's the combination of all four--sweet, salty, sour and bitterness--that if in balance will always work, no matter what you're making," reveals Lazarenko.

"The saltiness of the blue cheese, the sourness of the red wine," he says, paired with the sweetness and bitterness of the chocolate together create a deeply intense savouriness you'll never forget.

Like every first love we experience, this restaurant will always have a piece of my heart, and this dish will always be my choice of chocolate--for Valentine's or any other day of the year.

Culina Mill Creek

9914-89 Avenue

780-437-5588

Open Tuesday-Sunday, 5 p.m.-10 p.m., Bruch Saturday and Sunday 10 a.m.- 2 p.m.

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Culina Mill Creek recipe: Beef with blue cheese and chocolate sauce on dirty mashed potatoes

Love at first sight: dark chocolate and blue cheese sauces kissing atop a mound of ethically-raised Alberta beef and "dirty" mashed potatoes. (Photos: Tina Faiz)

Blue cheese sauce

You need to cook the flour for at least 6-7 minutes (see texture in middle photo) or the sauce will be pasty, says Culina head chef Christine Sandford. (Photos: Tina Faiz)

3 Tbsp minced onion
1 Tbsp minced garlic
2 Tbsp butter
2Tbsp flour*
pinch of chillies
2 cups whipping cream (can use 1 cup water, 1 cup
Salt and pepper
½ cup quality blue cheese, such as gorgonzola or Danish blue

* You can skip the flour and reduce the sauce more for a gluten-free option

1. Sauté onion and garlic in butter until translucent.
2. Add flour and cook thoroughly, at least 6 to 7 minutes.
3. On low-medium heat, add cream in stages and whisk to combine.
4. Add chillies, salt and pepper, and simmer for 10 minutes, but be careful sauce doesn't burn, or you'll have to start over.
5. Whisk in blue cheese and keep warm.

Chef's tip: Do not boil the sauce once you've whisked in the blue cheese, or the sauce will become grainy.

Chocolate sauce

1 cup demi glaze*
½ cup red wine
2 Tbsp chopped dark chocolate (at least 55% cocoa mass)

* You can purchase demi-glaze from Mo-Na Foods or use beef stock that's been reduced by half, but the taste will be slightly different

Instructions:
1. Add red wine to a small stockpot and reduce by half.
2. Add demi and simmer until slightly thickened.
3. If you want to thicken your sauce more, make a pink slurry with some red wine and 2 Tbsp corn starch and pour in.
4. Whisk in dark chocolate and keep warm.

Power couple: Creamy but strong blue cheese sauce and a concentrated red wine chocolate sauce. (Photos: Tina Faiz)

Culina Mill Creek recipe: "Dirty" mashed potatoes

6 Yukon gold potatoes
1/3 cup butter
1/2 cup green onion
1/2 cup grated Dutch Edam cheese
Salt
Pepper

Instructions:
1. Place the potatoes into a large pot and cover with water.
2. Bring to a boil and cook until potatoes are knife tender.
3. Cut up the cold butter, green onions and grated cheese into a large bowl.
4. Strain potatoes and place them in the bowl with the other ingredients.
5. Mash the potatoes with the skins on.
6. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Head chef Christine Sandford assembles this unusual combination of ingredients into one of Edmonton's most original entrees. (Photos: Tina Faiz)

Assemble beef with sauces on mashed potatoes

Culina uses organic grain and grass-fed beef from Sangudo Farms in Sangudo, Alberta. Use any cut you like. Culina often uses strip loin.
1. Grill the steak and let rest for 5 minutes.
2. Plate mashed potatoes. Slice the beef and arrange on potatoes.
3. Pour cheese sauce over beef and drizzle with chocolate sauce. There should about twice as much blue cheese as chocolate sauce.

Bon appétit!

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