Baingan Bharta (Eggplant Curry)

Eggplant. Never liked it, never though I would. Last year, Kevin's family came to visit and we had a big dinner with the whole extended family. We had a kids table and an adults table. They brought out this super stinky casserole dish to the adults table and if we could see stink lines, they'd be green. I will always remember this story of eggplants.

I disliked eggplants so much that it was the first thing i put on my "don't cook" list when I was living with Rachelle. We had a list of all the foods we didn't like or were allergic to on the fridge. So we knew not to make anything with it or to not share if made.

But then, a few weeks ago, Kevin and I invited Kev's little cousin, Benjamin, over to play video games. Because we promised him this when he watched our fish when we went on vacation. His mother invited us to stay over for dinner when we dropped him off. Her friend was over at their house and made this indian feast and my favorite dish was this veggie curry mash. I was very surprised when she told me it was eggplant. That's when I decided to look for a recipe and try my hand at making this classic Indian dish. I altered it by adding ground pork for my carnivore fiancé.

1 large eggplant
2 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 medium onion, thinly sliced
1 tablespoon ginger garlic paste or minced ginger/minced garlic
1 tablespoon curry powder
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cup plain yogurt (optional)
1 fresh jalapeno chile pepper, finely chopped (subbed with a few dashes of cayenne)
1 teaspoon salt
1/4 bunch cilantro, finely chopped

Ground pork

1 1/2 Tbsp corn starch

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C).
2. Place eggplant on a medium baking sheet. Bake 20 to 30 minutes in the preheated oven, until tender. Remove from heat, cool, peel, and chop.
3. Meat option: Mix corn starch into the ground pork and mix in pepper and salt for taste.
4. Heat oil in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Cook pork. Mix in cumin seeds and onion. Cook and stir until onion is tender.
5. Mix ginger garlic paste, curry powder, and tomato into the saucepan, and cook about 1 minute. Stir in yogurt. Mix in eggplant and jalapeno pepper, and season with salt.
6. Cover, and cook 10 minutes over high heat.
7. Remove cover, reduce heat to low, and continue cooking about 5 minutes. Garnish with cilantro to serve.

I'm not sure how it would taste like with the yogurt, but the way i made it with the substitutes, it was yummy. I'd make this again. I think the yogurt would give it a more bland taste, which wouldn't be a bad thing. Without it, it had a much stronger curry flavor.

Cinnamon Walnut Pastries

You know, cooking doesn't require that much effort. I don't make it a secret when I shortcut some of my recipes. Real cooks would be ashamed of my kitchen practices. I use frosen vegetables, minute rice... If you look at the pictures i take, they look complicated to make, but in reality, i always pick recipes that are easy. I like cooking, but I get tired from work like everybody else. "Anyone can cook" (quote from Ratatouille)

At my old employment, I had a little baking group thing with a few co-workers. Once a month, we'd bring in baked goods to share with each other. Bakin is something I like doing, but it's even more time consuming than cooking a meal I find. I have great respect for pastry chefs. That weekend, I didn't have time to make something from scratch for our baking meet. So I bought prepared puff pastry.

1 package of frozen butter puff pastry

Cinnamon

White sugar

Walnuts

1 egg white

1. Defrost puff pastry as indicated on the package.
2. Preheat oven to 400F. Unfold pastry and brush egg whites all over one side.
3. Sprinkle white sugar and cinnamon. The more the better!
4. Sprinkle walnuts.
5. Start rolling the pastry from one end to the other and brush egg white at the end so it doesn't unroll.
6. Bake for 12-15 minutes, until browned.

For the bake meet, instead of rolling them I put the second sheet on top of the first one after step 4. Then cut them into little strands and twisted them. So when they baked, they look like twirl sticks.

These look great after they're baked. My dad, who doesn't really eat desserts, liked these a lot.

Curried Honey Dijon Wings

This is a recycled recipe. So i'm cheating on having this "new" blog post. I made curried honey dijon chicken drumsticks back in december 2008. I remember enjoying this recipe quite a bit and have wanted to use the same recipe on chicken wings. I finally got around to doing it. And I figured that a marinade this good deserves a double post.

1/2 cup honey
1/3 cup Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon curry powder
2 tablespoons soy sauce
cayenne pepper to taste (or some other form of heat)
pepper to taste
Chicken wings


1. Mix everything but the chicken in a bowl.
2. Add the chicken, cover and marinate in the fridge for at least an hour. (I did it for nearly 6 hours)
3. Place the chicken in a baking dish (reserving the marinade)
4. Bake uncovered in a 375F oven for 20 minutes.
5. Brush on some of the marinade.
6. Bake uncovered until the juices run clear, about 20-30 minutes, brushing with the marinade periodically.

(This would also be great cooked on the grill, but watch it carefully as the honey will make it burn much faster.)

Chicken Piccata

I love chicken, but I always found chicken breasts to be difficult to work with because it get dry. While surfing several food blogs for chicken recipes, i found a couple of them had featured Chicken Piccata. I've never heard of this dish before. Chicken Piccata is a classic Italian dish that is supposed to be nearly foolproof. The chicken breast are sliced (butterflied) and flattened for faster cooking. This prevents from under cooking, as well as over cooking, because once the chicken is browned, it's done. My problem, this time, wasn't with the chicken, but with the sauce. I found it to be too sour. I started adding some sugar to the sauce, but a huge clumps fell out and i had to scoop the sugar out of the sauce. It was a bit of a disaster, but in the end, Kevin said he liked the sauce and I wasn't too impressed with it.

2-4 boneless, skinless chicken breast halves (1 1/2 pound total)
2 Tbsp grated Parmesan cheese
1/3 cup flour
Salt and pepper
4 Tbsp olive oil
4 Tbsp butter
1/2 cup chicken stock or dry white wine
3 Tbsp lemon juice
1/4 cup brined capers
1/4 cup fresh chopped parsley

1. Cut the chicken breast halves horizontally, butterflying them open. If the breast pieces you are working with are large, you may want to cut them each into two pieces. If the pieces are still thick after butterflying, put them between two pieces of plastic wrap and pound them with a meat hammer to 1/4-inch thickness.
2. Mix together the flour, salt, pepper, and grated Parmesan. Rinse the chicken pieces in water. Dredge them thoroughly in the flour mixture, until well coated.
3. Heat olive oil and 2 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet on medium high heat. Add half of the chicken pieces, do not crowd the pan. Brown well on each side, about 3 minutes per side. Remove the chicken from the pan and reserve to a plate. Cook the other breasts in the same manner, remove from pan. Cover with aluminum foil and keep warm in the oven while you prepare the sauce.
4. Add the chicken stock (or white wine), lemon juice, and capers to the pan. Use a spatula to scrape up the browned bits. Reduce the sauce by half. Whisk in the remaining 2 tablespoons of butter. Plate the chicken and serve with the sauce poured over the chicken. Sprinkle with parsley.
   

Sweet and Spicy Thai Shrimp with Coconut Rice

Over the winter time, Kevin and I went to visit his family in Ottawa. We often try to visit his family once every 2 or so months. That time, his dad made him honey water...which is basically honey mixed with boiled water. I was never a big fan of honey...especially the natural smell of it...I remember when my uncle suggested I sweeten my coffee with honey. He told me that it was the trend in Vancouver...i'm not too sure it was, but I did it anyway. I ended up chucking my coffee in the nearest trash.

What I didn't know was that I love cooking with honey. So when Kevin's parents gave us a bag of shrimps, I looked up for a recipe and found this. I added coriander to the recipe, just because I thought it sounded like it needed it. I also had leftover coconut milk in my fridge, so I made coconut rice to go with it, and loosely called my dish Thai.

Sweet and Spicy Shrimp

1 pound of shrimp, deveined and deshelled
1 1/2 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp garlic, minced
2 tsp ginger
1 cup coriander, chopped
2-3 Tbsp honey
2 Tbsp oil
pepper and salt to taste
dash of lime juice

1. Heat the olive oil and red pepper flakes in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onions, garlic, ginger and honey; cook and stir until fragrant. Add the shrimp, and cook for 5 minutes, stirring as needed, until shrimp are pink and opaque. Serve immediately over coconut rice.

Coconut Rice (2 servings)

2 cups Minute Rice, long grain (I know...my ancestors are turning in their grave)

1/2 cup coconut milk

1 cup chicken broth

1/2 water

crushed peanuts

chopped coriander

1. Mix rice and all liquids in a pot and cook/ simmer for 15-20 minutes until liquid is almost gone.
2. Once done, mix crushed peanuts and chopped coriander into the rice. Serve hot.

I was a big fan of this. I loved that the sweetness of the coconut milk made the underside burn just a little bit and gave the rice a nice aroma. Kevin called my coconut rice weird, and didn't like it. He's also not a huge fan of coriander and picked them out. Other than that, he ate quietly and finished his plate. Good boy!

Easy Baked Haddock

Fish is something I learned to love. My Chinese mother only makes fish the Asian way; steamed with ginger and green onions. Although a classic recipe that I still like, I think trying out different fish recipes from the internet has helped me discover my love for cooked fish.

I went through this crazy salmon phase. It was the only fresh fish i'd buy since moving out. Sometimes i'd mistakenly take salmon trout, but that was it. I started looking at easy fish recipes to make during weekdays and found a baked haddock recipe. It required very little ingredients and it was quick to have on the table. My store didn't have fresh haddock, so I had to subtitute with the frozen kind.

3/4 cup of milk

2tsp salt

3/4 cup breadcrumbs

1/4 cup of parmesan cheese

1/4 tsp dried thyme

4 haddock fillets

1/4 cup butter, melted

1. Preheat oven to 500F.
2. In a small bowl, combine milk and salt. In a seperate bowl, mix breadcrumbs, parmesan cheese and thyme. Dip haddock in the milk and then press into crumbs to coat. Place haddock in a glass baking dish, and drizzle with melted butter.
3. Bake on top rack for about 15min, or until it flakes with a fork.

This was a good fish recipe. I love everything in the recipe. The buttery taste and the parm cheese...I'd make this again. Online reviews complained about the soggy bottoms and some suggested putting the fish on wire rack. I decided against it because I wanted the fish to absorb the sauce. It gives the fish more flavor. The bottom was a tad soggy, but the top was perfectly crispy.

Jessica's Grilled Pineapple

I know I haven't been updating my blog in a long time, but I do have good reasons...well first I went on vacation and got engaged there. Got back home and got sick with a cold. But it wasn't swine flu...sorry, I mean H1N1. Then I got laid off at work. Got sick again. Found another job. I just finished my second week at the new job and I am usually too tired to blog...either that or i'm just busy playing video games.

Since summer is coming, i'll post about grilled pineapple. My friend Jessica made this for us a while ago. At the time, we couldn't use the bbq yet. So we just made it on the stovetop.


1 whole pineapple, peeled and sliced.
1 cup maple syrup or corn syrup
1 tsp of cinnamon

whole walnuts

1. Marinate pineapple slices in syrup and cinnamon for 1 hour to 24 hours.
2. mix walnuts and some corn syrup on the stove until well glazed. Set aside to cool.
3. On stovetop: Medium heat and cook until golden brown.
4. Serve with vanilla ice cream and garnish with glazed walnuts.

Simple and yummy!

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.