Inarizushi

Whenever we go to the Sushi Shop for lunch in our building at work, Rach would often get an order of inarizushi. When it comes to sushi, I rarely eat the ones that don't have fish in them. One night, we went for all-you-can-eat sushi at Kanda, and I tried a piece of inarizushi. Yum! I liked it!

On a recent trip to the Korean market, we found canned abura-age (thin deep fried tofu). It was ready to eat right out of the can, all you needed was to make the sushi rice. So why not? They don't come cheap though...about $6 for 15 slices.




1 can of aburaage
1 Tbsp minced garlic
5 slices fresh ginger
3 Tbs mirin (sweet cooking wine) or 1 Tbsp honey thinned with water
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup water

For Sushi Rice:

1 cup sushi rice
1.5 cups of water5 Tbsp rice vinegar
1 tsp mirin
3 Tbs sugar
1 tsp salt
toasted sesame seeds and finely crushed nori


To prepare aburaage:

1. Open can and boil the aburaage to rinse off the oily marinade.
2. Mix all ingredients to make the marinade.
3. Soak abuura-age in the marinade overnight in the fridge.

To make sushi rice:

1. Soak rice in water for 10-15 minutes.
2. Mix rice vinegar, with sugar, salt, mirin. Heat gently while mixing so salt and sugar can dissolve. Let it cool. Put aside.
3. Wash rice two or three time in running water, drain well and transfer into deep cooking pot with water. (for every cup of rice, use 1.5 cups water)
4. Bring to boil, reduce heat and cook covered for 15 min.
5. Take pot off of heat source, and pour rice over an aluminium covered baking pan to cool. At this point, the rice should be soggy. Drizzle the vinegar mixture over the rice. Do not mix, the rice is delicate. Let it sit for 15 min to cool and soak up the rest of the water. It can be used when you can grab it with your hands or when they begin to look hard and clunpy.

To assemble:

1. Carefully open the abura-age pockets and fill them with cooled sushi rice.
2. Sprinkle toaste sesame and crushed nori on top. Serve.
   

This was pretty easy to make, however, I used a bit more mirin and sugar that what was in the recipe and it ended up a bit sweeter. Other than that, it was good. I would make this again. Kev didn't have any, and he didn't seem too interested either.

Shrimp Jambalaya

Jambalaya is a Louisiana Creole dish of Spanish and French influence. The dish is a New World version of the Old World dish paella. A Cajun version, loosely related to paella, was adopted after absorption of white French Creoles into the Cajun population following their fall from power in New Orleans after the Civil War. (Source: Wikipedia)

Every time I read the word Jambalaya, I hear Newman from Seinfeld in my head. I haven't had jambalaya anything in a really long time. I was looking in my recipe book for a shrimp recipe and found this. I used to love spicy foods, but have had a bland palate lately. Maybe it comes with age.


3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
2 cups of onions, chopped
2 cups diced bell peppers, preferrably red or yellow
Salt and pepper
4 cups chicken, beef, vegetable, or shrimp stock, or water
2 Tbsp minced garlic
1/2 tsp cayenne or to taste
2 tsp fresh thyme leaves or 1 tsp dried thyme
2 cups peeled, seeded, and chopped tomatoes, or a can of diced tomatoes, drained.
2 cups long grain rice
2 pounds shrimp
minced fresh parsley or cilantro leaves for garnish

1. Place oil in a large skillet and turn the heat to med-high. Add onions, bell peppers, sprinkle with salt and pepper. Cook until onions soften and begin to brwon, about 10 min. Warm stock in a small saucepan over med heat.
2. Stir garlic, cayenne, and thyme to the vegetables. Add tomatoes and turn heat to med-high. Cook for a few minutes.
3. Add rice and hot stock and bring to boil. Once boiling, lower to med heat. Cook uncovered, stirring occasionally, untilt he rice is tender and the liquid is just absorbed, about 20-30 minutes. Add shrimp and stir. Cook 2 or 3 minutes, then raise heat if necessary to cook off the remaining liquid. Garnish and serve.

I really like these one-pot dishes. I don't need to make the rice seperate or make a veggie sidedish. Everything just goes in. The shrimp jambalaya was good, but a tad spicy. I might consider reducing the cayenne next time. Other than that, it was a tasty meal. I think there's something about canned tomatoes that we're kind of sick of...when Kev and I started dating, we liked making this crockpot sausage dish that required canned diced tomatoes. And we made i t quite often. So now, everytime I make a recipe with canned tomatoes, it just doesn't taste as great for us. Perhaps next time, I will make this with fresh tomatoes instead.

Japanese Style Simmered Mackerel

My first attempt at making mackerel didn't turn out the way I thought it would. I had made Mackerel with Sweet Soy a few months ago and it ended up being way too salty. So i continued to look in the recipe book and found a Japanese style simmered fish recipe. So I decided to try it.

6 medium-small mackerel fillets

2 Tbsp oil

1 Tbsp minced garlic

5 slices fresh ginger

2 Tbs mirin (sweet cooking wine) or 1 Tbsp honey thinned with water

1/4 tsp cayenne

2 Tbsp soy sauce

1 tsp sugar

1/2 cup water

1. Heat a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add oil to the skillet, when hot, add garlic. Stir once or twice and add fillets. Raise the heat to high and sear about a minute each side.
2. Add the remaining ingredients and stir. Turn the fish once or twice in the liquid, cover, and reduce the heat to low. Cook until done, about 6 minutes.
3. Serve on white rice and drizzle remaining sauce on top.

This turned out really well. Much better than the sweet soy sauce from the other mackerel dish I made. The sauce in this one is sweet and savory. I drizzled some of the sauce on my rice as well. It was delicious. My only complaint for this is that I didn't make enough. Kevin liked this a lot and has requested I make it again. :) I added a some chopped green onions to the sauce and a sprinkle of sesame seeds to garnish.

Char Siu

Char siu (also spelled chashao, cha siu and char siew), otherwise known as barbecued pork in China or Chinese barbecued/roast pork outside China, is a popular way to prepare pork in Cantonese cuisine. "Char siu" literally means "fork burn/roast" after the traditional cooking method for the dish: long strips of seasoned boneless pork are skewered with long forks and placed in a covered oven or over a fire. (Source: wikipedia.com)

The best char siu i've ever had was quite possibly on my last visit to Vancouver. My uncle Stephen took us to this popular Chinese restaurant and specifically ordered the char siu because "it's the best char siu", and he was quite right. It was moist, perfectly glazed, and the perfect amount of lean meat to fat.

Kev loves char siu...that's probably an understatement. We always buy char siu when we're near chinatown. And when we visit Kev's parents in Ottawa, char siu is often waiting for our arrival. And there is often leftovers the next day or Kev will bring some home. I remember when I was younger, my mom would also buy char siu a lot because my sister likes char siu. Now, I'm kind sick of it.

A while ago, Kev picked up a pack of pork loin strips from Loblaws that was on sale. So I asked how he wants me to prepare it and he said "I don't know...char siu?". So I said fine, and found a char siu recipe for it.

2-3 pounds Pork butt, boneless, medium fat

3/4 cup Hoisin sauce
1/2 cup Soy sauce
1/2 cup Rice wine or dry sherry
1/3 cup Honey
1 Tbsp Sugar

1. Slice pork butt into strips about 2 inches wide and 5 inches long.
2. In a large bowl, mix together the hoisin, soy sauce, rice wine or sherry, honey and sugar. Add the pork strips and marinate for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight.
3. Preheat oven to 425°F. Add a rack to a roasting pan and fill the pan with water to come just below the rack. Wipe any excess marinade from the pork and line the strips up neatly in the roasting pan.
4. Place the pan in the oven and roast for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 325°F and roast for another 30-40 minutes, turning and basting frequently with the remaining marinade or with peanut or sesame oil.
5. Cut into bite-sized pieces and serve.

My knowledge of different meat cuts is zero. I have no idea about the different textures and quality. I only know filet mignon is a good cut meat, because of its price on menus. lol Although I don't know my meats, I do know that the pork loin that was chosen was way too lean to be good char siu. But I made it anyway, only to hear Kev complain about how dry it was. I marinaded the pork overnight, but was not really bursting with flavor. I also drizzled a bit of honey on it to give it a glazed look, corn syrup will work too. For the left overs, we used the char siu in soup noodles and it was less dry. The recipe/marinade itself was ok, perhaps a different and fattier piece of pork would have made the difference.

Adobo Chicken

In Filipino cuisine, adobo refers to a common and very popular cooking process indigenous to the Philippines. When Spanish colonizers first took administration over the Philippines in the late 1500s and early 1600s, they encountered an indigenous cooking process which involved stewing with vinegar, which they then referred to as "adobo," which is the Spanish word for seasoning or marinade. Dishes prepared in this manner eventually came to be known by this name, with the original term for the dish now lost to history. Typically, pork or chicken, or a combination of both, is slowly cooked in soy sauce, vinegar, crushed garlic, bay leaf, and black peppercorns, and often browned in the oven or pan-fried afterward to get the desirable crisped edges. This dish originates from the northern region of the Philippines. It is commonly packed for Filipino mountaineers and travelers. Its relatively long shelf-life is due to one of its primary ingredients, vinegar, which inhibits the growth of bacteria. The standard accompaniment to adobo is white rice. (source: wikipedia.com)


I first learned about Adobo Chicken through my friend Amy. For my first Vday with Kev, we decided to eat at home since it was a wednesday night (Lost night). I was looking for something new to make. Back then, I hadn't discovered my love for cooking. I talked to Amy and she suggested Adobo chicken and I decided to try it. I remember thinking that the adobo chicken was too salty and didn't like it that much. Perhaps it's the brand of soy sauce I used. I had kikkoman...


Now, 2 years later, I decided to revisit the recipe. I found an adobo chicken recipe in one of the my giant recipe books. It was slightly different from Amy's recipe, but I decided to combine the two recipes. Amy's recipe had more spices, while the recipe in the book had a milder sauce because they diluted the soy sauce with water.




8 chicken drumsticks
1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup white or rice vinegar
1 cup water
1 Tbs chopped garlic
3 bay leaves
1/2 tsp crushed peppercorn, or ground black pepper

1. Combine everything, except chicken in a large pot (large enough to hold the chicken in one layer). Bring to boil over high heat. Add chicken; reduce heat to medium-low and cook covered for 30 min, turning once or twice.
2. Boil uncovered for another 15 minutes. Serve with white rice.

Source: How to Cook Everything by Mark Bittman

The end result was still a tad salty for my liking. I even added sugar to balance out the taste, but just couldn't fix it anymore. I guess I will accept this defeat and just accept that adobo chicken is just not for us. I tried. In Mark Bittman's recipe, after step one, he dried off the chicken and grilled them on the barbecue. We did not do this. Perhaps this was how it was supposed to be served.

La Banquise

I heard about La Banquise a few years ago. I'll guess and say 2-3 years. It's basically what people in Montreal call the best poutine in town. I don't really know about that. I love poutine and it's the ultimate comfort food for me. I usually like the poutine at La Belle Province, specifically the one on Peel st.


La Banquise is a 24hr place that you can go for the classic poutine or special poutine. Sounds great doesn't it? So as I was saying, when I first heard about it, I wanted to go. But it was a bit out of the way and when I meet friends for dinner, poutine is not always our first choice. La Banquise is noisy and more of a fast food joint. People don't really stay and talk for 2 hours after the meal.


When my friend Christina was visiting from TO, I saw this as an opportunity to go. I mean, we gotta show outsiders what real poutine is. :)

For my first Banquise experience, I decided to try one of their special poutines. I chose the B.O.M. poutine. It's the classic poutine with bacon, sautéed onions, and mergues sausage. It was delicious! Christina has the Matty Poutine; classic poutine with bacon, peppers, mushrooms and sauteed onions. Rachelle had the Poutine Chouxxx; classic poutine with coleslaw. We were all pretty satisfied with our choices.

They also have burgers and stuff like that, but we didn't pay any attention to them. The poutines come in 2 sizes. We all ordered the small size and it was a pretty good sized plate. We saw some people with the large size and it's a giant bowl. Potato coma! I'd definitely go again if i'm in the area, but wouldn't make a special trip there. I'm equally satisfied with greasy Belle Province poutine near my work.

La Banquise / 994 Rachel East, corner of Lafontaine Park in Montreal / 514.525.2415

http://www.restolabanquise.com/

Thai Green Curry Salmon

Salmon is possibly my favorite fish to eat...with Mackerel a close second. I used to only like eating salmon raw; sashimi. I usually don't like cooked salmon because I don't like the texture...I know...usually people don't like the texture of raw fish. lol Cooked salmon is often overcooked in restaurants and I hate that, especially when it's grilled.

New Years Eve 2007, Kev and I were invited to a dinner/ count down party at a friend's place. They served salmon and it was delicious!!! I couldn't believe it. The salmon was baked in this mavrelous Thai green curry sauce. It was a bit spicy. We emailed our hosts the nest day and also to ask for the recipe. I'm always looking for shortcuts and we found canned Thai green curry, instead of buying everything seperately. This also ended up being cheaper. I will also post my shortcut version of the recipe.

1 Salmon, filletted
3 Cans coconut milk
1 Tin green thai curry paste
1/4 cup clear maple syrup
pinch salt

1. Heat coconut milk, fold in green paste, maple syrup and salt. Cool sauce in fridge for 30 minutes or until cold.
2. Cut fillets into person-sized pieces and marinate in sauce for 9 hrs in fridge or 3 on table.
3. Preheat oven to 450 F.
4. When ready to cook, drain off sauce into saucepan, bring to a boil and reduce for 30 minutes on medium heat.
5. Place filet strips on cookie sheets, sprinkle with sugar. Bake for 20 minutes approx. Serve with sauce on the side.

Shortcut Version

1 can of Thai green curry (make sure it is green curry and contains coconut milk/cream in it)

Salmon filets

1. Cut Salmon into individual portions. Rinse with cold water and pat dry with a napkin.
2. Preheat oven to 450F. Place fish in a baking dish. Open the can of green curry and pour on top. Bake for 20 minutes or until done.

The canned green curry we buy had bamboo pieces and basil leaf in it. We used to buy another brand that did not have bamboo pieces and basil, it was good, but I think the extra stuff is better. You can always buy your own and add it if you want. I usually serve this with boiled vegetables and white rice to soak up the sauce.

Easy Honey Garlic Ribs

When Kev and I started going out, he told me his parents gave him a crockpot. One of the first things we cooked with it was crockpot ribs...we used BBQ sauce and we also tried honey garlic sauce, which was delicious...the ribs were fall off the bones, but we didn't like the texture of slowcooked meat. So Kev decided to try the recipe on the bottle and we've been making ribs this way ever since. I have to admit that this dish is really easy because we used prepared sauce rather making it from scratch. This is a "I have time but am too lazy to cook" recipe, because it's super easy to make, just takes a while to have on the table.




Rach of ribs, cut into indivual ribs
1 Jar of VH Honey Garlic

1. Put ribs in a big pot and cover with water. Bring to boil and turn down to a simmer. Simmer for 40-60 min, depending on how many ribs you have.
2. Drain and set aside. Boil jar of sauce in the pot you used. Add cooked ribs and simmer for 10-15 minutes. Turn constantly to cover ribs with sauce. If you have a lot of ribs, you use 2 jars.

Kev and I love these ribs. They are even better the next day when the sauce marinates the meat. I usually serve these with homemade potato wedges or mashed potatoes.

Simple Frog Legs

My co-worker/supervisor calls me an "adventurous" eater. Meanwhile, he has a slab of moose meat in his fridge. I'm not much of a game meat person. I remember the first time I had frog legs. It was actually at a buffet, probably a Chinese buffet. lol I have never had frog legs at a French restaurant before, but would love to try it some day. While grocery shopping, I went to grab a pack of frozen mackerel and right next to it was a pack of frozen frog legs. They weren't too expensive, so i decided to buy it. It sat in our freezer for a few weeks before I remembered I had them. So I checked online for a recipe. A lot of recipes require frying...which is something I don't like to do too often. So I found a simple pan fried recipe.





frog's leg(large or small)
milk (as needed)
salt and pepper
flour (as needed)
5-6 tablespoons butter

1. Soak frog legs in milk for 1 hour, turning every 15 minutes. I believe this removes the "river" taste?
2. Remove from milk and salt and pepper them lightly, and coat them in flour.
3. In a skillet bring the butter to a sizzle and add frog legs.
4. Sauté legs uncovered until they're golden brown on both sides (turning as needed).

These cooked up really fast...if you don't think about what you're eating, it kind of tastes like chicken. This cooking method was easy and actually quite tasty. However, I think I would prefer frog legs as an appetizer rather than a meal. I'd rather have 2 frog legs than 8 of them, one after the other...urp.

Foie Gras Poutine

I think i can credit my brother for many of my food knowledge. The only foie gras I knew was the foie gras pâté I would see at the grocery store, which is the lowest grade of foie gras you can find. My brother is a food connaisseur in my eyes. My first time enjoying foie gras the way it was intended, was at Au Pied de Cochon. It's a popular eatery in Montreal, and best known for their duck-in-a-can, which I have blogged about. People say you have to reserve weeks ahead for a table. I have been to PDC twice and had the Duck in a Can both times. I kind of regret not trying the foie gras poutine.

I was at the grocery store when I picked up a package of foie gras...certainly not the same quality as I could get at PDC I'm sure, but it was half the cost. So I bought it and found the recipe for PDC foie gras poutine online.

For the Foie Gras Sauce:

• 200 g (7 oz) fresh foie gras
• 6 x egg yolks
• 600 ml (2 ½ cups) PDC poutine sauce (available at the restaurant, or use store-bought poutine sauce)
• 50 ml (¼ cup) 35% m.f. cream

For the Foie Gras and Presentation of the Poutine:

• 4 slices slices fresh foie gras, 100 g (3 1/2 oz) each, 2 ½ cm (1 in) thick
• 400 g (14 oz) cheese curds
• 4 x white-fleshed potatoes (cut into French fries)
• Oil for frying (2/3 tallow and 1/3 peanut oil)

1. For the Foie Gras Sauce: Set aside 100 ml (½ cup of sauce for final presentation of the poutine. In a saucepan, bring the PDC poutine sauce to a boil.
2. Mix the egg yolks, foie gras and cream in a food processor at high speed.
3. Slowly add the 500 ml (2 cups) of hot poutine sauce to the mixture.
4. Pour into a saucepan and heat gently, stirring constantly, until the sauce reaches 80°C (175 °F).
5. Remove the sauce from the heat. Stir for 30 seconds more. Keep warm.
6. For the Foie Gras and Presentation of the Poutine: Preheat the oven to 230°C (450°F). In a very hot pan, sear the foie gras slices until they are golden brown. Transfer the slices to a baking sheet and finish cooking in the oven for 4 to 5 minutes.
7. Cook the fries in the oil until crisp and place them on top of a mound of cheese curds in the middle of the plate.
8. Place a slice of seared foie gras on the fries and smother in the foie gras sauce.
9. Decorate with a few dabs of regular poutine sauce and serve immediately.
   

The dish was surprisingly easy to make. I have never handled foie gras before and I was honestly a little bit grossed out by how greasy and fattening it was. The piece I bought was small and I only had enough for one portion, which was actually perfect because Kevin was not home for this. So I estimated how much to use for the sauce and how much to sear to put on top of the poutine. I used about 2/3 of the piece for the sauce. My seared pieces were pretty small so I didn't need to cook them in the oven (step 6). And since I cut down on the ingredients on the recipe, it probably wasn't exactly the way it should be. I was simmering the sauce and trying to get it to reach 175 F, I stopped at 160F because the foie gras sauce was getting grainy from being overcooked. It lost its creamy texture. The poutine was still quite good, and would love to try the real PDC version. In the meantime, my $10 foie gras poutine was good enough. My favorite thing about the foie gras poutine was actually the seared foie gras on top. They were perfectly cooked and browned and absolutely delicious!

Au Pied de Cochon/536 East Duluth, Montreal/ 514.281.1114

http://www.restaurantaupieddecochon.ca/

More recipes from Martin Picard: http://www.foodtv.ca/ontv/titledetails.aspx?titleid=111324

Simple Steamed Mussels

I like mussels. I especially started loving them when I had the baked mussels from Kanda, an all-you-can-eat sushi place Kev and I like to go often. I know a lot of people who don't like seafood in general. They say it's the texture. I guess that part of my mind is not functional because I don't mind it at all. Other people don't like mussels just because they are filter feeders and are considered dirty. I personally think i've eaten worse things.



My mom makes her mussels Chinese-style; with our favorite black bean sauce. I believe she buys her mussels frozen. They are usually twice the size of the unfrozen/fresh kind that Kev and I buy. She once told me to buy Nova Scotian mussels, because they are usually bigger. I can't remember where the mussels we get originate from, but they are small.

2 tablespoons butter
1/4 cup shallots, minced
3/4 cup dry white wine
3 pounds mussels, cleaned and debearded
1/2 cup chopped fresh parsley
ground black pepper to taste

1. In a medium stock pot, heat butter over medium heat. Add shallots and saute until translucent.
2. Pour in wine and mussels. Raise heat to medium/high and steam mussels until shells open, about 5 minutes.
3. Pour mussels and cooking liquid into a serving bowl, sprinkle with parsley and freshly ground black pepper to taste. Serve immediately.

I believe this was the first time I ever cooked with wine. I don't drink alcohol, so I was a bit hesitant. But the alcohol evaporates and the sauce tastes so good. The only downside is that a night of mussels produces a lot of garbage...and smelly too.

Roast Duck Spring Roll

Kevin and I love duck. I like duck prepared the French way, but Kevin likes all duck...French, Chinese...Kevin and I live in the West Island of Montreal. I grew up more East and Center. We're maybe 30 minutes from Chinatown, where we normally buy roast duck and char siu (Chinese BBQ pork). When we visit my parents or his grandfather, we try to make a trip to Chinatown on the way. But we rarely make that stop. I find this a little annoying, especially when I'm running out of good soy sauce (never buy VH soy sauce, it's not real soy sauce) or when I need Asian products. When I asked him if there was an Asian market in the WI, he said he didn't know. A few months ago, we noticed one, but we didn't know if they sold roast duck. So another few months later, we finally checked it out and they did have it. Kevin is simple. you nuke the roast duck, make some white rice, and he's good. But me...i like to be fancy. And I also want to bring some type of green in all our meals. So I came up with the idea of making duck wraps...kind of like peking duck, but without the heavy wrapping. Instead I use the rice wraps most commmonly used for vietnamese spring rolls. I figured it was just easy to store the leftovers and it was light.

Lettuce leaves

Roast duck, bones removed.

Green onions, sliced into thin strips

Vermicelli noodles, cooked

rice wraps

Hoisin sauce

1. Have all the ingredients prepared on the table.
2. To assemble: Dip the rice wrap in water and let it soften. Put a lettuce leaf, vermicelli, duck, green onions, and a squeeze of hoisin sauce.
3. Fold two opposite sides, top and bottom. The fold the flap on the right to the left side. While rolling towards the left, tuck the ingredients...

This is very easy and fast way to have dinner on the table. Unless you make your own roast duck...but seriously, who has time for that? I'm more of a Rachael Ray than a Martha Stewart. lol Kevin sucks at step 3 and often ends up asking me to roll it for him. If you overstuff, you'll have a hard time rolling them. Bon Appétit!

Sidenote: I've always complained about how peppers are so expensive at the grocery store, but I noticed that Asian markets always have them for cheap. We bought a pack of 2 red and 1 yellow pepper for just $1.49 cdn. Love it!

Sheperd's Pie (aka Poor Man's Pie)

The last time I had sheperds pie was quite possibly 10 years ago when I was in high school. The idea of making sheperds pie came from Kevin. Sometimes when I put together the weeks menu I will ask him what he wants to eat. And he asked for sheperds pie. I've never made it from scratch before, so I wasn't exactly sure how to make it. For the longest time I seriously thought the dish calls for cream of corn and not just sweet corn bits. So I looked online for my answer...it's just regular corn, but most of the recipes I found had carrots and peas in it, which I found weird. So I decided to make it with just corn. I didn't think I needed a recipe, so I didn't bother writing anything down. Here's what I did:




Ground beef
1 can of sweet corn bits
3-4 medium yellow potatoes
milk
butter
Mrs. Dash seasoning
garlic powder
salt and pepper
Worcestshire sauce
soy sauce

1. Preheat oven to 450.
2. Boil potatoes until tender. Mash with butter and milk until smooth. Add salt and pepper to taste.
3. Brown the beef on medium-high heat. Add the last 5 ingredients or use whatever seasoning you want...
4. Add corn into the meat mixture.
5. Assemble the pie. Meat mixture with corn and mashed potatoes on top.
6. Broil until the top is browned.

The dish came out good, but a bit bland. When Kevin first saw the finished product, he said it looked like the sherperd's pie from a box. I'll take it as a compliment. He ate it without complaint. Also a good sign. I, on the other hand, am used to mixing it with ketchup. In highschool, everyone ate their sherperd's pie with ketchup. I've gotten used to it and it doesn't taste right without it. Perhaps next time i'll use more spices in the groung meat to give it some flavour.

Sweet & Sour Pineapple Chicken

When I was younger, sweet & sour anything on rice or noodles was the best. I'm not quite sure just how Chinese Sweet & Sour sauce is, but according to wikipedia, the sauce originates from Hunan. However, it is usually used as a dipping sauce. Although sweet & sour stir-fry was one of the best meals of my childhood, I rarely crave it now. A while ago, I found myself stuck with a can of pineapple chunks in the fridge, because I only needed the pineapple juice/syrup for another recipe. Being Chinese, nothing goes to waste. So I googled for a pineaple recipe and found this Sweet & Sour Pineapple Chicken recipe.




1 lb (500 g) boneless skinless chicken breasts, cut into 1-inch (2.5 cm) cubes
1 egg white
2 tbsp (25 mL) each cornstarch and all-purpose flour
1/4 tsp (1 mL) each salt and white or black pepper
1/3 cup (75 mL) vegetable oil
1/3 cup (75 mL) sodium-reduced chicken broth
3 tbsp (45 mL) ketchup
1 tbsp (15 mL) sodium-reduced soy sauce and rice vinegar
2 tsp (10 mL) minced gingerroot
1 tsp (5 mL) granulated sugar
1 each onion and sweet red and green pepper, cut into 3/4-inch (2 cm) cubes
1 cup (250 mL) drained canned pineapple chunks

1. In bowl, combine chicken, egg white, cornstarch, flour, salt and pepper; let stand for 10 minutes.


2. In wok or large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat; stir-fry chicken, in batches and reserving cornstarch mixture in bowl, for 3 minutes or until golden-brown.


3. Transfer to plate. Add broth, 1/3 cup (75 mL) water, ketchup, soy sauce, vinegar, ginger and sugar to reserved cornstarch; whisk to combine. Set aside.


4. Discard all but 1 tbsp (15 mL) oil from wok. Stir-fry onion and red and green peppers for about 3 minutes or until tender-crisp.


5. Add chicken, pineapple and stock mixture to wok; stir-fry for 2 to 3 minutes or until thickened and chicken is coated.

Source Canadian Living Magazine: May 2008

The recipe was alright...nothing spectacular. The sauce smelled, looked, and tasted like sweet & sour sauce from a jar, so I guess it's a success enough. I tried to be cheap on oil, because I don't like using too much oil when I cook. I figured I had a non-stick skillet, so it wouldn't matter. I failed to recognize that I need to have oil because the chicken is covered in a four/egg mixture...The first minute of cooking with very little oil was a disaster...the flour would smear on the skillet and burn. So I finally added a bit more oil and stir-fried it. They didn't come out too oily. And the chicken breast were juicy...surprisingly. Perhaps the method of cooking the chicken with a flour coating creates a barrier for the chicken to not dry out. Am i making sense?

Stuffed Peppers with Feta

Buying fresh vegetables is expensive, especially peppers. Green peppers are usually oh-kay...normal price at $2.99/lbs. Sometimes our local loblaws sell old peppers at 50%...some dont look too bad. They're usually starting to get wrinkly. They come a pbag of 4-5 and Kev and I always look for them. And sometimes we buy them even if we don't need peppers in the dishes on our weekly menu (every weekend, my homework is to make up the week's menu and grocery list). Last week, we looked in the fridge and found 4 peppers looking quite sad...they were in their last day or two. So we decided to make stuffed peppers. I've made stuffed peppers before. I can't remember what recipe I used, possibly from Kraft, and it was not very good. So I looked up a recipe on allrecipes.com and found a vegetarian stuffed pepper with feta cheese. Since Kevin likes to have meat, i added meat to the recipe.



1 cup water
1/2 cup uncooked Arborio rice
2 green bell peppers, halved and seeded
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 green onions, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon dried basil
1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash
1 teaspoon salt
1 pinch ground black pepper
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
ground beef

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Lightly grease a baking sheet.
2. In a medium saucepan, bring water to a boil. Stir in the rice. Reduce heat, cover, and simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from heat, and set aside.
3. Place the peppers cut-side down on the prepared baking sheet. Roast 25 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, or until tender and skin starts to brown.
4. While the peppers are roasting, heat oil in a medium skillet over medium-high heat. Cook the ground beef, onions, basil, Mrs Dash, salt, and pepper in oil for 2 to 3 minutes. Stir in the tomato, and cook for 5 minutes. Spoon in the cooked rice, and stir until heated through.
5. Remove from heat, mix in the feta cheese, and spoon the mixture into the pepper halves.
   Return to the oven for 5 minutes. Serve immediately.
   

These were yummy. I would put more feta next time. I love it. For a cheaper version, you can also use any other cheese you have...like mozza or cheddar. I think i'd like this even more if it was red or yellow peppers. We each had one whole stuffed pepper and were quite full. We liked it so much we made it again about a week later, with 50% off red peppers! Yums!

PhayaThai

Top Left (clockwise): Tom Ka Het and vegetable Tom Yum soup, Thai Green Curry with Vegetables and sticky rice, close up of whole fried fish in spicy sauce,
Whole fried fish in spicy sauce with sticky rice

A friday night with my girl Rachelle (Kev calls her my second BF), we signed up for a French macarons class at Europea and then a fabulous dinner at Phayathai. I haven't been to this restaurant in years, and to be honest, I don't have a clue why. It is quite possibly the best Thai food I have had in Montreal. This little restaurant is tucked away on a big street in downtown, corner Ste-Catherine and Guy. You can easily walk past it on your way to Bar-B-Barns.

Rachelle and I were famished by the time we got there. We were both weat from the drizzling rain and huffing and puffing because we were 15 minutes late for our reservation. It's a small restaurant, but seems well known online. Online reviews recommended reservation. Everything looked fantastic and we wished we had 5 stomachs.

R and I love Thai food, but we often settle for fast food Thai. I can't remember when was the last time I went to a Thai restaurant. We started our dinner with some appetizers, which we devoured before we remembered to take a picture. I ordered the mango salad ($7.75) and R ordered the fried tofu with peanut sauce ($3.75). Both were good, but I think what I wanted was the papaya salad. Mango salad was spicy and big enough to share between 2-3 people. We couldn't resist ordering soups since we were cold from the rain. R ordered the vegetable tom yum soup ($3.50), which was packed with tons of veggies. I wanted a soup with coconut in it, but didn't want to pay $7 for a seafood or chicken soup, so I ordered the Tom Kha Het, which is with mushrooms...a lot of them. For the main course, Rachelle ordered the thai green curry with vegetables ($10.95) and I had the whole fried fish in spicy sauce ($16.50), quite possibly the most expensive dish on their menu, but it was worth every penny. I remembered having this dish with my friends one time and loved it. The fish dish was big too. There are about 8 pieces of fish on the plate. It also wasn't as spicy as I thought it was going to be. We both asked for the sticky rice, which was great with out main dish.

We left there with a full stomach and very happy.

The restaurant is a great place for a romantic dinner. It's quiet and dim. However, if there's a big table of rowdy customers, then it might not be as quiet. I also would not recommend this place if you are in a rush. The service is good, but chill. And you really can't rush such yummy food. You have to enjoy and savour.

**************

Top left (clock wise): Fried fish cakes, Sweet & sour fried fish, Papaya salad, Fried fish in 3 flavor.

Rachelle and I went back a week later with a friend for lunch time. They had a lunch menu, but I found it to be a little boring. They didn't have the sticky rice for lunch time, which was a disappointment. To start, I finally ordered the papaya salad ($6.75) I wanted and it was so spicy and delicious! Rachelle ordered fried fish cakes ($7.50). Karenne ordered from the lunch menu and quickly regretted it. She ordered a stir fry chicken...quite regular, and I bet she felt cheated. I ordered whole fried fish in 3 flavors ($16.50). I don't know what the 3 flavors are, but it was good. It was a bit milder than the spicy sauce version, but still good. Rachelle also indulged and ordered the sweet & sour whole fried fish ($16.50), which she liked better than my fish, but I disagree.

Since we had to get back to work and were already taking a longer lunch, we ended up having to eat fast. It was an expensive lunch, but it was very good. However, I think i'll stick to going to Phayathai in the evenings.

PhayaThai/ 1235 Guy (corner St-Catherine)/ 514.933.9949

"Throw Everything In" Pasta with Rosée sauce

You know that commercial for Olive Garden where the parents visit their daughter who is in college? And every time they visit, the parents take the daughter and her roommates to Olive Garden because they like to know that their daughter is "taken care of"...and she fake bumps her dad and says "Daddy!!!" and feels all embarassed. I've seen that commercial about a hundred times. One of the times we watched it, and actually paid attention to the food they were advertising. There was a dish with tomatoes and sausages and Kev said "Hmmmmm..." .I've never been to Olive Garden, since they do not have one in Quebec. People who have been tell me it's not that great, but why do they always look soo yummy? So on a weeknight, i decided to make pasta with tomatoes and sausages, but ended up tossing in pretty much everything I had in it. :)



Pasta, cooked al dente
1 can of diced tomato
brocoli florets
Any color pepper, I used yellow, chopped
4 Italian sausage, I like the spicy kind, casing removed
1 1/2 cup heavy cream
1 medium onion, chopped
chili pepper flakes and parmesan to taste
Pepper and salt

1. In a large skillet, cook sausages. Add peppers, brocoli, and onions. Cook a few minutes until peppers, brocoli, and onions are tender.
2. Drain the can of diced tomato, and add tomato to the skillet.
3. Add heavy cream and simmer until thick.
4. Add pepper and salt to taste.
5. Serve with parmesan and chili pepper flakes.
   

I'm a pasta lover...because it's carbs. I also especially love pasta with a creamy sauce, so there was no doubt that I would love this. This turned out to have a rosée sauce, it was creamy and yummy! Kevin liked it too. The thing with pasta with creamy sauces is that it makes me sleepy because it's such a heavy and comforting dish. I loved having a lot of vegetables in it.

Bi Bim Kook Soo

I remember the first time I had Bi Bim Kook Soo. I was in university. I was meeting my friend Jessica for dinner and she suggested Korean food. I didn't even know there was a Korean restaurant in Montreal. I imagined Korean BBQ, because i've had it in Toronto with my sister when she used to live there. I love Korean BBQ. When I got there, there were no grills. It was a regular Korean restaurant. No matter. I can't remember what I ordered, but remember that I enjoyed it enough to bring my friend Wynn there. We went several times together. One of those times, we ordered the "Spicy Cold Noodles". Boy was it spicy. We loved it! Now I don't go eat there that often, but still think about the noodles from time to time. When I looked up recipes for it. I found out that it was so simple to make.

• Udon Noodles
• Gochujang sauce
• toasted sesame
• Nori, crushed or cut in strips
• One boiled egg
• Cucumber, julienned

1. Cook udon noodles in boiling water. Directions on the package.
2. Drain and rinse with cold water.
3. Mix in as much or as little gochujang sauce and you like. Sprinkle with sesame and nori.
4. Eat with whatever you want.
   

Easy Peasy right? This wasn't quite as spicy as at the Korean place, but I like it.

Sweet Potato Poutine

Ahh Poutine! The ultimate comfort food. I've made poutine at home before, but I must admit that it wasn't from scratch. I used cubed mozza, frozen fries, and canned gravy. Sacrilege!!! I know. This is my very first time making everything from scratch...well...except the cheese curds. Those are store bought. lol

I got the idea to make poutine with sweet potato from Kevin at Closet Cooking. I get a lot of cooking ideas from him. He's very talented. For this recipe, I bought 2 huge sweet potatoes and I never knew how much sweet potatoes shrink when they cook... I also had a hard time cutting beautiful sweet potato wedges, so I had weird shapes. Wedges, strings, half moons...it was a circus of sweet potatoes. And sweet potatoes, especially the large variety, are extremely hard to cut. Kev saw how much trouble I was having and asked if i needed help. It didn't take him long to abandon me with the unfinished task.

Baked Sweet Potato Wedges

• sweet potatoes (cut into wedges lengthwise)
• olive oil
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Preheat oven at 375F. Toss the sweet potato wedges in the oil, salt and pepper to coat.
2. Place the wedges on a baking sheet.
3. Bake until golden brown and tender, about 20-30 minutes.

For the Gravy:

• 2 tablespoons butter
• 2 tablespoons flour
• 2 cups beef broth
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce (optional)
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce (optional)
• salt and pepper to taste

1. Melt the butter in a small sauce pan.
2. Mix in the flour to make a roux.
3. Mix in the beef broth and simmer until thick and smooth.
4. Mix in the soy sauce and Worcestershire sauce and season with salt and pepper to taste.
   

Assemble: Place the sweet potato wedges in a bowl and top with the cheese curd, add gravy on top to melt cheese a bit.

Kev wasn't a huge fan of this because he's not a big fan of sweet potato. I love it. I kept tasting the gravy while it was simmering and I just kept adding pepper into it. The sauce ended up being spicy, which is a not a bad thing. The simple gravy recipe is also good with roast chicken.

Chipotle Honey-Glazed Chicken Wings

I love chicken wings! But I know how bad they are for you due to the fatty skin. Some of my favorite chicken wings are my mom's. She makes this black bean chicken wing that is delicious. My sister and I would almost have a contest on who could eat more of it. I credit chicken wings for my boobs. LOL When I lived on my own, I went to costco with my family and bought a 1kg of BBQ chicken wings. It took me forever to finish it. The craving for them just wasn;t there anymore, because I didn't have the competition for them (my sister). Rachelle is a vegetarian. So the bag of wings were in the freezer for a few months. Also at one point, chicken wings were on sale at the grocery store and Kev and I bought so many boxes. And we are so sick of them now. I never bothered to make my own chicken wings until these last few weeks.

I found this recipe through Serious Eats. I originally wanted to make the Vietnamese chicken wing recipe they had there, but didn't have most of the things it asked for or didn't have anything that could substitute the missing ingredients. So I settled with the Chipotle Honey-Glazed Chicken Wings recipe. The original recipe is supposed to be adapted from Bobby Flay's Grill It! (don't ask, I don't know who he is. I don't even have the Food network). I didn't have all the ingredients, but substituted with stuff I thought would be okay.

• 1 cup honey
• 2 to 3 tablespoons pureed canned chipotle chiles in adobo
• 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
• 4 tablespoons ancho chile powder (subbed with regular chili powder)
• Kosher
• salt and freshly ground black pepper
• 4 tablespoons canola oil
• 2 teaspoons ground coriander
• 2 teaspoons ground cumin
• 2 teaspoons Spanish paprika (just used regular paprika)
• 3 pounds chicken wings
• 2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted
• 3 green onions, white and green parts, thinly sliced

1. Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a baking sheet with aluminum foil.
2. Whisk together the honey, chipotle puree, 1 tablespoon of the mustard, 1 tablespoon of the ancho powder, 1 teaspoon salt, and 2 tablespoons of the oil in a small bowl. Divide the glaze evenly between 2 bowls, one small, the other large.
3. Stir together the remaining 3 tablespoons of ancho powder with the coriander, cumin, and paprika in a small bowl.
4. Rinse the chicken wings under cold water and pat dry with paper towels. Cut the tips off the wings and discard (or freeze and use for making chicken stock). Cut each wing into 2 pieces through the joint.
5. Place the chicken wings in a large bowl, add the spice rub and the remaining 2 tablespoons oil, and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper and place the wings on the baking sheet.
6. Bake until golden brown and slightly charred, 30 to 35 minutes. Occasionally brush the wings with the small bowl of glaze and turn once during the last 10 minutes of cooking.
7. Transfer the wings to the large bowl, brush with the reserved glaze, and toss to coat. Transfer to a platter and sprinkle with the sesame seeds and green onions
   

These were good, but not amazing. I haven't made any chicken wings that have wowed me yet. I find that often, the flavors just don't get into the meat...it's just coated on it.