Jerusalem Restaurant Denver

Jerusalem Restaurant in Denver

One of Denver's oldest and most prized treasures is Jerusalem's, located right next to the University of Denver campus.  Open into the wee hours, college students know it well, but it is also extremely popular and known for its' authentic middle-eastern food.  I've always loved Gyro's, and I know they're popular in many culture's so here I will just call them middle-eastern. 

My friend Jocelyn works at DU and is a Jerusalem connoisseur, and when I went with her for her birthday, I knew I immediately had to share this culinary find with my better half!  And now I can pass along the inner secrets of this amazing restaurant.  First, get the #14, the ultimate platter.  This gives you a sample of practically everything on the menu including: baba ganoush, hummus (quite possibly the best in the world!), grape leaves, Gyro meat, falafel, chicken and beef shawarma, two types of salads, jasmine rice, and more!  Fresh homemade pitas are served table side and you just stuff all the goodness you can and enjoy!

No trip to Jerusalem's would be complete without sampling one of their amazing desserts!  My personal favorite anytime I see it on a menu is baklava so why change things up now!  The honey, phyllo dough, pistachios, and spices make this melt in your mouth goodness. 

Jerusalem's is a Denver treasure that's perfect for any meal, any time.  You won't be dissapointed!

Potato and Kielbasa Chowder

A nice recipe for a chilly stay at home night.

Ingredients for a winter's night.

Stick of butter.

2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil.

3 large carrots.

5 stalks celery.

1 white onion.

3 cloves of garlic.

5 large russet potatoes.

1 box chicken stock.

Fresh thyme.

3 tbsp flower.

1/2 box Velveeta.

2 cups milk.

2 cups water.

2 packages of Kielbasa.

Salt and pepper to taste.

Potato and Kielbasa Chowder

Chop carrots, celery, and onion and saute in butter and olive oil over med-hi heat until soft (10 mins.)

Add minced garlic cloves and leaves from three or four sprigs of thyme.  Saute an additional two mins.

Add flour, stir forming a rue. cook until flower is toasted, stirring constantly as to not stick to bottom of pan.

Add chicken stock, water, and potatoes.

Bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer for 30 mins, stirring every so often.

Add milk, velveeta, and sliced kielbasa.

Stir to combine ingredients and melt cheese.

Simmer and additional 15 minutes and serve.

Garnish with hot sauce, thyme, and freshly grated parmesan cheese.

I shaped the hot sauce garnish into a crab :) makes no sense but that's just the way it turned out.

Notes; I wanted to make a healthier alternative so I used turkey kielbasa, skim milk, and 2% velveeta.  For a richer chowder use whole milk, regular kielbasa, regular velveeta and substitute the 2 cups of water for additional chicken stock. Also make sure you are seasoning with plenty of salt of pepper as you go.

Squash, pear, and onion au gratin.

Mike found this recipe in the Better Homes and Garden cookbook.  I love that cook book!! You'll find a ton of classic and traditional recipes. Reminds me of my grandma's cooking.

Click on the link here to find it.

My notes;

the recipe calls for one medium pear, I would get two.  I would get whatever looks firm and ripe and smells like a fresh pear.  We used bosc. I would also sprinkle or grate a hint of  fresh nutmeg over the squash and pear layers.

We also modified the topping with a little extra parmesan cheese, a little extra butter, and all we had were Italian seasoned bread crumbs.  I liked the extra kick these provided.

Finally, I would cut back from one whole onion to half an onion.  The onion over powered everything else.  Get a white onion or the mildest you can find.

Practicing for Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been a challenge for my mom. Her game plan includes cooking a turkey for 17 hours, stuffing so dry you literally can't put enough gravy on it (or chug enough chardonnay,) and speaking of gravy... she takes the drippings from the bird, dumps in a box of cornstarch and then tries to hand whisk the lumps into oblivion. (sorry mom!) 

When she insists on hosting this food lovers holiday I insist on bringing the turkey, stuffing, green bean casserole, brussel sprouts, gravy, mashed potato's, and dessert. She can make everything else!

I love love love stuffing and can't believe I only eat it twice a year, Thanksgiving and Christmas. I'm on a quest to create the perfect sausage stuffing.  Usually when I'm trying to create a masterpiece I look at five or six recipes online, take what I like, and then dig into my own culinary repertoire.

Here's what I came up with;

1 medium white onion

6 celery stalks

1 stick of butter

1 package of fresh poultry herbs

1 package of good sage sausage

1 box of chicken broth (turkey if you can find it)

1 bag of bread cubes (the kind that in every grocery store right now, specifically for stuffing)

Dump bread cubes into large mixing bowl.

Saute diced onion and celery in butter until soft (five to seven mins.)

Add sausage to saute and cook throughout.

Add minced herbs. (I minced all the sage, half the leaves of a rosemary stalk, and the leaves of four thyme sprigs.)

Mix thoroughly then pour mixture over bread cubes.

Pour in stock and mix until well incorporated.

Distribute entire mixture evenly in casserole baking dish.

Cover with foil and bake for 40 minutes in a 350 degree oven.  Remove foil and bake an additional 10 minutes until top of stuffing is brown and toasty.

Mike and I thought the stuffing was delicious but here's how I'm going to improve on this recipe for Thanksgiving.

The Ultimate Sausage Stuffing;

First I'm going to cook off one pound of bacon until crisp. I'll remove the bacon from the saute pan and saute the veggies in the butter and bacon drippings.  I'll also add a diced carrot or two to the saute mixture and a clove of garlic (everything benefits from a little garlic.)  After I add the entire mixture to the bread cubes I'll also crumble the crispy bacon into the mixture.

If you're looking for the "WHOA! What is that?" effect, you could also add a stalk or two of diced fennel to the veggie mixture, or possibly a leaf or two of tarragon.  This will give an ever so slight flavor of anise. Sure to be a show stopper at your Thanksgiving table!

We also made a butternut squash, pear, and onion au gratin. We'll post that recipe in the next day or two.... and since we were making comfort food we also made chicken friend chicken with a rich cream gravy.  

What a delicious meal!

Our last day in Canada

Our last day in Canada was filled with a shopping trip to Roots (A Canadian legend....wonderful clothing with a warm, casual feel), picking up a few Cuban Cigars, and stopping into Urban Fare.  Urban Fare was a find! A super cool high end grocery store with a cafe, bakery, flower shop, and so much more! (Think of a smaller version of Whole Foods but even more upscale.)

We stopped into Urban Fare looking for nanaimo bar.  This is a Canadian dessert and our concierge had directed us to check out the bakery at Urban Fare. Nanaimo bar is a three layered dessert that is a super-rich treat! First layer is coconut and graham cracker crumbs, second layer is creamy custard and third layer is chocolate ganache. Fabulous!!

While we standing in line to pay we also picked up a box of Maple Chocolate Canadian Toffee.  Traditional crunchy almond toffee but hit with just a hint of Canadian maple flavor. Heaven!

So now that we had dessert out of the way.. time for something a little more savory.  We found trendy Milestones bar and grill.  A fancy little grill serving up traditional pud fare with a hip modern twist.

We had Kobe Sliders,  Classic Caesar Salad, and the soup of the day was Mushroom.

The Mushroom Soup was the best thing we had. A blend of three types of mushrooms. Portobello, button, and shitake; all blended into a smooth creamy texture topped with home made garlic croutons, scallion, and drizzled with a rich hearty extra virgin olive oil.  I wanted to bathe in it!

The Caesar was ok, fresh and crisp, but nothing out of the ordinary.

I hope you enjoyed our posts about Vancouver and we'd love to hear about your favorite places when visiting our neighbors to the north.

Coast Seafood in Vancouver

Looking for some of the freshest seafood in Vancouver? We were and our concierge directed us to Coast Restaurant.

We wanted to have an exceptionally high end meal in Vancouver and take advantage of what the city had to offer. That led us to look for something with either Asian flare or seafood, Coast allowed us to have a little of both.

We started with the King Crab Tempura Roll.  Absolutely Amazing! This was fresh, crisp and ultra hip! A true flavor explosion on the palate. The trout roe garnish was like little champagne bubbles popping in your mouth.

We also ordered the Dungeness Crab Pountine.  Coasts version of this traditional Canadian dish was crispy french fries, cream gravy (resembling a hollandaise sauce,) cheese curds, smoky bacon, and dungeness crab.  Garnished with a fried soft egg. Break the yolk and dig in!!  This was one of the most delicious comfort foods I have ever eaten! Our waiter joked that he had his cardiologist on standby.

For our entree we ordered the Hot Signature Platter.  We wanted to try a little of everything.  Salmon, shrimp, scallops, ling cod,  all served around a platter of Thai rice and crispy edamame. The salmon was so fresh, probably came out of the water that morning, and the shrimp and scallops were cooked to perfection! The cod was firm and moist and everything was seasoned to perfection.

We opted to go back to Fairmont and have dessert.  We had a chocolate molten caked garnished with whipped cream and served with fresh berries.  The chocolate cake was covered in ganache and the middle of the cake was filled with a gooey mess of chocolatey goodness!  A great way to end a perfect evening!

Coast Restaurant is worth seeking out in Vancouver.

Oh Canada!

Perogies, Poutine, and Fish & Chips!  The first stop on our trip to Vancouver was Lennox Pub in the heart of downtown.

Being from Canada, I told Jeran I had to show him some authentic Canadian food.  While many of these dishes would be considered English or French, to me they were Canadian as I grew up on them.  Sometimes you just have to get a few appetizers and that's what we did here, starting with my all time favourite, Perogies.  Think of Perogies as a sort of dumpling, creamy 3-cheese mashed potatoes served in a pasta shell that is pan-friend (or boiled or deep-fried) and traditionally served with caramelized onions, bacon, and sour cream.  There are so many ways to prepare this dish, and it can be a great side or a main dish itself, but I love it the way we had it!

Poutine is an a very popular dish in Canada, served anywhere from fast food restaurants to upscale dining (see the Coast blog post for some super fancy poutine!).  Here we had the most common and incredibly delicious version.  You start with crispy french fries and top them with cheese curds and gravy.  The gravy and hot crispy fries melt the cheese curds and the result is the ultimate comfort food.  Move over mashed potatoes!

Last, but not least, fish & chips.  There are so many variations and almost every restaurant in Canada has this popular item on their menu.  Here we had a classic cod with homemade tarter sauce.  Simply delicious!

This pub was a great find in the downtown Vancouver area on the always-busy Granville Street.  Other traditional favorites on the menu included Shepard's Pie and Bangers and Mash.  We had so much fun enjoying these traditional Canadian dishes!

Lucile's

Lucile's Creole Cafe is one of our favorite places to go for brunch! Our friends Ray and Lori were visiting Denver and wanted a great place to meet for brunch. Mike and I quickly suggested a stop into Lucile's!

We started off with an order of the beignets. These are big puffy New Orleans style donuts. At Lucile's they cover them with powdered sugar and serve them with a rich decadent caramel sauce. The warm fried dough along with the sweetness of the powdered sugar and then topped with the caramel sauce.... OH MY!!! Yummers!

Most entrees are served with a warm biscuit.  These are huge, light and fluffy, and extremely moist. The best part, slathering with homemade orange marmalade, apple butter, or blueberry preserves. Each bite is bursting with chunks of fruit and full bodied jammy flavors. Would be easy to make a meal of just biscuits and beignets but of course we didn't stop there.

The soup special was Sweet Potato Crab Bisque. How in the world could you pass that up??  Rich sweet potato taste with chunks of dungenous crab. I could taste hints of cinnamon and nutmeg and a little sherry to bring balance to the entire concoction. Absolutely fabulous!!

Ray had the French Toast served with an egg and a side of country sausage. Topped with caramel syrup and garnished with fresh fruit. Mmmmm.

I have been dying to try the rice pudding porridge and since I seemed to be running on a huge sugar bender for the day, I figured why not stay with the sweets! The porridge was drizzled with raspberry sauce and garnished with dried currants and cream.  How could that combination of ingredients be anything but delicious? I would say the rice was a little over cooked and a tad mushy but I had to try it. Probably wouldn't order again but since I was craving sweets this was a nice addition to my bender.

Mike had the Eggs New Orleans.  This is my absolute favorite dish and has so many yummy flavors!  Lucile's takes their flash-fried eggplant (think eggplant parm) and tops it with two soft-poached eggs so the warm yolk runs all over.  Top that with their homemade Creole sauce which is a spicy marinara and then of course you add some delicious hollandaise for good measure.  Served with their homemade griddle-fried potatoes, this is a treat not to be missed.  My favorite dish on the menu!

If you're ever in Denver, Fort Collins, Boulder, Littleton, or Longmont this place is worth seeking out and having brunch.  Located in south-central Denver, plan on getting there early or waiting around 30 minutes.  Definitely worth it!