Weekly Shout Out – Choux Choux Charcuterie
Choux Choux’s sublime sausage
Good afternoon, pretty ponies:
Winter weather brings on cravings for hearty braises and rich stews. While there is nothing we love more than pottering around the kitchen on weekends, harried weekdays don’t provide the time for slow braising dishes. Thankfully, the folks at Choux Choux Charcuterie can do the work for us.
We recently hit up Choux Choux to stock up on their legendary sausages (we love the Toulouse, a juicy pork sausage with a hint of nutmeg and the earthy Moroccan lamb). Not content to stop there, we poked our heads in the deli freezer. Nestled amongst duck, fois gras, and other gourmet goodies were a couple of neatly packaged containers of house-made boeuf bourguignon, a classic French dish consisting of chunks of beef with pearl onions and mushrooms, simmered in a rich red wine sauce. We couldn’t resist purchasing one to take home. We devoured our beef with steamed baby potatoes (to sop up all the delicious winey, mushroomy juices) with a side salad of spinach, flaked almonds and oranges. It was sublime. While we cannot take credit for this feast ourselves (hey, at least we made the salad!) we’d like to think Julia Child would be proud.
There is more at Choux Choux to delight the enthusiastic omnivore than just bourguignon (though it is worth a trip downtown for this alone). A classic European delicatessen, Choux Choux stocks an artfully chosen selection of hard to find cheeses. We go rangy for the Comte – a nut-sweet hard cheese, ideal for snacking on its own, as part of a cheese tray, or as a melting cheese (try grating a snowy mound over steamed vegetables, roasted potatoes or pasta).
In addition to their famous sausages, the owners at Choux Choux wield their charcuterie magic creating pates, rillettes, chorizo, bacon, ham and brisket. On the shelves surrounding the deli case, you’ll find a plethora of items for stocking your home pantry: Maldon salt, crackers, crunchy little cornichons, mustards, lavender honey, specialty oils, and French and European dry goods. The aforementioned freezer contains an array of ready made take home items such as pork pies, sausage rolls, stocks, homemade soups, duck, and seasonal specialties like tourtiere, a French Canadian meat pie. In our household, tourtiere is a Christmas Eve tradition. Gently heated and served with chutney and a green salad, it makes for an indulgent holiday supper.
Each day, Choux Choux Charcuterie offers two plats de jour (or daily plate) selections. As of this writing, we have not had the pleasure of dining in-house. We hope to rectify that soon. After all, a light protein-packed light lunch would provide just the right amount of sustenance for an afternoon of holiday shopping.
We’ll be writing a more comprehensive write up of Choux Choux in the coming months. In the meantime, we urge you to visit this marvellous delicatessen. With the holidays fast approaching, there couldn’t be a better time to discover why this Fort Street institution has a fervent following of happy eaters.
Love Monty, and the whole gang at H.A. H.Q.
ps: Do you have a favourite treat from Choux Choux? Is it the pate, the Dauphin cheese, the dry cured sausage or the divinely chewy chocolate chip sea salt cookie? Visit our Facebook or Twitter page and tell Uncle Monty all about it!
Cheese Please!
