The Grape & the Gourmet

The Grape & The Gourmet Little Engine > Chef Interviews & Recipes > An Interview with Scott Downey Welcome to The Grape & The Gourmet, a publication crafted exclusively for Little Inside This Issue Engine Wine Club members and delivered straight to your inbox every month. Perhaps you’ve already discovered that while our wines afford great pleasure Chef Scott Downey of The Butternut Tree, on their own, they also perform magically when accompanied by food. For Edmonton, AB The Grape & The Gourmet, we’ve asked top chefs across Canada to pair their favourite Little Engine wines with recipes that are straightforward enough to January 2021 recreate in your own home. Delicious, memorable and inspiring—like reaching for the moon and also getting the stars. Beef Wellington At Home An Interview with Scott Downey The Butternut Tree, Edmonton, AB Edition 01 | January 2021 By Kate MacLennan Pairing: Little Engine 2018 Gold Pinot Noir By carefully selecting only the best Canada has to offer for his restaurant The Butternut Tree in Edmonton, Chef Scott Downey is helping to put Canadian cuisine on the world map. Canadian cuisine is on the verge of having a moment, but it’s probably not what you think. Surely none of us truly believed we’d arrive on the global culinary scene with a spicy Caesar in one hand and a butter tart in the other—no matter how delectable the ubiquitous butter tart is. And yet there we were, the world’s second-largest country, a proud smorgasbord of multiculturalism, seemingly trying to do just that. Of course, before everyone else arrived the Indigenous Peoples of Canada understood that the offerings of this vast land are abundant and vary widely from the Pacific to the breadbasket prairies; the Arctic Circle to the greenbelt farmlands of Southern Ontario; Quebec to the Atlantic. Finally the rest of us have also begun to celebrate this bounty, and such is the intent of Chef Scott Downey at The Butternut Tree restaurant in Edmonton. “What is Canadian food—maple syrup? Ketchup chips? Those things are Canadian but they’re not a representation of who we are. Our melting pot nation was agriculturally built around the importation of known farmable species, but Canadian food has more substance to it—from the best seafood in the world and incredible wild game to endless offerings of berries,” the Alberta-born chef explains. Earlier in his career, Downey cooked at Daniel Boulud’s Michelin-starred flagship Daniel in New York City, a celebration of French cuisine. Later, he worked the highly decorated restaurant Noma in Copenhagen, which focuses on growing within the region and showing seasonality. The influence of both is apparent on The Butternut Tree menu, where Downey entwines diverse international inspiration with products he can source right here within Canada’s borders. Every ingredient he uses is native, from pork, scallop, kale and sunchokes through the salt and pepper. The resulting menu is local and largely sustainable, as well as creative and for many of us, nostalgic. (cont. on next page) “We don’t use citrus, tropical fruits, or anything along those lines. Chilis are a staple ingredient for other restaurant pantries, but not ours,” says Downey. “We went through a giant exploratory research and development phase before opening to find out not just what is growing in Canada but who’s growing or making something quality here.” Said another way, Downey’s goal isn’t to make food that’s good for Canada, but to make food that is excellent precisely because it’s from Canada. And it’s a focus that extends through libations. “Every single wine on the list is Canadian and hand-picked for a specific reason,” Downey says proudly. “I’m at the point in my career when I try something or it’s presented to me, I notice when there’s something special about it. The Gold Pinot [Noir] was the first I had from Little Engine. It’s this wonderful wine that can hit those notes across all seasons—it has an unctuousness that we can pair throughout the year. We’re finding little gems like this across Canada. If we’re going to do something we want it to be the best and most proper representation of what we do. You can tell with Little Engine they’re doing the same.” For this occasion, Downey paired the Little Engine 2018 Gold Pinot Noir with Beef Wellington. “It sounds so fancy, but we can break it down to five easy steps,” he assures of the recipe. “The nice thing is that Beef Wellington has a couple layers to it: the underlying acidity of the wine gives a really nice flavour profile with the puff pastry—the fattiness of the butter content, the caramelization of that pastry on the outside. The mushrooms we cook down to a heavy duxelles and their earthiness brings out the unctuousness and berry and earthiness in the wine. The heavily seared beef we like to use is a Wagyu with a bit higher fat content which brings out the earthy components of the wine as well.” Downey makes the recipe with butter from British Columbia, beef, horseradish mustard, vegetable oil, eggs, spring onions and beef from Alberta, and mushrooms from Nova Scotia. The result? A dish that acknowledges a slice of Canada’s history while celebrating ingredients grown or made within its borders at present. Food doesn’t get much more Canadian than that. A Recipe from Scott Downey Beef Wellington DOWNLOAD Serves 2-3 Prep Time: 60 minutes Cook Time: 45 minutes INGREDIENTS 10-12oz Wagyu Beef Tenderloin 1 Sheet Puff Pastry (approx. 8 x 12 inch and ¼ inch thick) 5-6 slices Prosciutto, thinly sliced 1 T Horseradish Mustard 1.5 T Vegetable Oil ¼ cup Yellow Onion, finely diced 4 cups Mushroom, chopped finely 2 T Butter, unsalted 1 cup Red Wine Pinch Pepper 3 Egg Yolks 2 T Milk 2 T Fresh Herbs (Thyme, Sage, Rosemary, Savoury, Parsley) 1 T Dried Herbs (Use any herbs listed above in dried flaked form) *Wellington can pair with any traditional accompaniments of a grilled, roasted or braised meat dish. INSTRUCTIONS Preparing the Beef & Mushroom Duxelle 1. Melt butter in a saucepan on medium high heat; add onions, mushrooms, and a pinch of salt, cook until the mushrooms release their liquid. Add herbs then cook until liquid is all evaporated. 2. Add dry red wine, stirring frequently until evaporated. Season with salt and pepper. *Cooking until the steam is dissipated is the key to ensure there is no extra moisture inside of your Wellington for the cooking process. 3. Once wine is cooked out and mushrooms have lost their moisture, spread flat on plate and cool completely in your refrigerator. (cont. on next page) INSTRUCTIONS (cont.) 4. While Duxelle is cooling season your beef heavily with salt and cracked pepper. Heat your pan to high heat, add canola oil and sear all sides of the meat. This should take no longer than 2 minutes maximum. *The most important part of this process is that it is quick; you want your meat completely raw on the inside with as much sear on the outside as possible. This should take no longer than 2 minutes maximum. 5. Once your meat is seared, brush with horseradish-mustard and place in refrigerator until cooled completely. Building the Wellington 1. Lay out two sheets of cling film and place the prosciutto slightly overlapping onto the center of the bottom edge. 2. Spread mushroom Duxelle evenly across the prosciutto leaving the edges uncovered. Place your meat on the bottom edge lengthwise. 3. Using the cling film roll away from you rolling the prosciutto around the meat. Twist the ends of the cling film until the ends are tight creating a cylinder. 4. Whisk the egg yolk and milk together to create egg wash. Place your puff pastry on the counter lengthwise. Unwrap the meat roll from the cling film and place on the center of the bottom edge of puff pastry. 5. Brush all edges puff pastry with egg wash. Roll puff pastry around the Wellington. 6. Roll away from you half the way, tuck in your sides and continue rolling until roll is complete and Wellington is fully wrapped. 7. Brush pastry with egg wash thoroughly. Place in the fridge for 20-30 minutes. Reserve remaining egg wash. *If you want to add a lattice layer of puff pastry with a cut out design you can follow steps 8 and 9 to apply with no change to cooking time. Cooking 1.Preheat your oven to 400°F on convection bake. *If you do not have a convection setting on your oven, heat to 420°F. 2. Pull your Wellington out of the fridge and brush once more with egg wash. Let sit at room temperature for 10 minutes to temper prior to baking. 3. Place the Wellington on parchment paper on a sheet tray and place in the oven until desired temperature. Rare - 19 mins Medium Rare - 21 mins Medium - 24 mins Medium Well - 27 mins Well Done - 30 mins 4. After your meat is cooked to the desired temperature remove from the oven and let rest at room temperature for 10 minutes. 5. Slice the Wellington in 1 inch thick slices and enjoy with a bottle of Little Engine Gold Pinot Noir..

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