Archive for the 'Recipes' Category

There is always cooking going on…

Published on January 13, 2008 in Baking, Tips and Recipes. 0 Comments

but there aren’t always photos.

The trade show job necessitated some baking. Banana bread, oatmeal cookies, chocolate cookies, banana/raisin/chocolate chips squares, cornmeal & cheddar mini muffins and my favourite carrot cake.

I love baking, the smell says “I love someone”. I didn’t taste anything, of course ’cause of my low carb diet.

Funny isn’t it, as a chef I taste and season just about everything that I make but when I bake I can’t. Imagine getting a cake with a wedge missing and the little note “tasted the cake, it’s fine”. Baking is where you really have to trust your recipes. I have some favourite authors but my most favourite baking book is an obscure one called Secrets of a Jewish Baker. This book is foolproof, wether you are baking their bread recipes or muffins or loaves, it’s just wonderful. It doesn’t have pies & cakes but I have other cookbooks for that .

We are cooking vegetarian this week as well as a host of other little projects. See you tomorrow.

Winter is about slow food!

Published on January 9, 2008 in Family, Recipes and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

 There is nothing I enjoy more than slow food. Tender, juicy, warm, filling and flavourful, it epitomizes winter cooking and comfort food.

There is nothing that shows that you love your family more than tantelizing aromas wafting through your house all day (from a chef’s perspective anyways).

I love rouladen. It’s a great way to make outside round tender. First a filling. While I know a ton of people who stuff their rouladen with pickles, ham and Eastern European delicacies I prefer Spinach, Romano Cheese, Sauteed Onion and garlic and Pine Nuts.

I lay out my slice of outside round and pound it thin if it’s too thick. I place my filling down then centre, then roll it up.

Sometimes I skewer them shut with toothpicks but today I just handled them carefully. I seared then in a hot frying pan.

Then I made a nice simmering sauce for them.

In the frying pan I sauteed some garlic, onion, deglazed the pine with white wine and some home made tomato sauce. Then I added chopped black olives and poured the whole mixture over top of the rouladen which I had neatly laid out in an oven safe dish.

Now we just cover and pop the whole thing into a slow oven (300) for about an hour and a half. This dish is ideal for the freezer. It could also be made in a slow cooker. My slow cooker was too narrow and I would have had to pile the rouladen ontop of each other and given that I didn’t secure them I didn’t want them to fall apart.

Personal Chef update

Published on November 28, 2007 in Recipes. 0 Comments

Tuesday we were in the kitchen making:

Beef and cheese enchilada casserole, broiled lemon and onion salmon, Toblerone cookies, roasted vegetable salad, beet salad and Chicken Korma.

When I make Chicken Korma dish at home I use chicken thighs and cook the chicken in the korma sauce. When I am preparing this dish for  client who prefer chicken breast meat, I make the sauce first and then saute the chicken and simmer slightly in the sauce. This way the chicken doesn’t get overdone.

Here is the recipe:

Chicken Korma for 6
1 kilograms boned and skinned chicken breast halves
37 1/2 grams blanched almonds
3 cloves garlic — minced
1 1/2 inch ginger root — minced
3 tablespoons oil
4 1/2 cardamom — pods
1 1/2 onion — finely chopped
1 tablespoons cumin
3/8 teaspoon salt
225 milliliters yogurt
262 1/2 milliliters cream

Instructions

Cut chicken in 1 inch cubes. Put the almonds, garlic and ginger into a food processor and blend to a paste adding 2 tbsp. water. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and saute the chicken until browned, set aside.
Add the cardamom pods and fry for 2 minutes, add the onion and saute. Stir in the almond and garlic paste, cumin and salt. Add the yogurt a little at a time and cook over low heat until it has been absorbed. Return the chicken to the pan . Add the cream and simmer until chicken is fully cooked.

But we are baking, baking, baking this week! Stay tuned for baking updates.

Low Carb Soup

Published on November 22, 2007 in low carb and Recipes. 0 Comments

I have been living the low carb lifestyle for about 3 years. Every now and then I gain a little weight, mostly while I’m on holidays but sometimes work exhaustion can do it too! Now that I’m back from Hawaii and I know for sure that I will either have to lose some weight or buy a bathng suit in another (read larger) size.

No way! So back to cutting out excess sugars and carbs.

My favourite lunch is this Korean Beef Soup from Karen Barnaby’s Low Carb Gourmet . I have made a huge number of the recipes and they are truly fantastic. I double the batch for the freezer.
If you are considering a low carb diet I have cooked for many many clients and have just a ton of suggestions.

Blintzes and berry sauce!

Published on November 22, 2007 in Restaurant and Recipes. 1 Comment

We were busy in the kitchen today. We started off the morning getting ready for a weekend catering job. Hummus & Garlic Feta Dip , coffee cake, cookies, jalapeno cheesecake and then moved on to making the crepes, filling and sauce for the blintzes.

Blintzes are made by every culture, they’re just known by different names. My polish mother in law calls them naleshniki.

I have been using the same recipe for crepes since I made my first ones when I was 12 years old.

Crepes (30)
Ingredients

2 1/4 cups milk
1 3/4 cups flour
3 eggs
1/4 cup butter — melted
1 pinch salt

Instructions

Add milk, eggs to blender and process. In 2 or 3 additions add flour, add melted butter. Let mixture stand for at least 1 hour.
Heat crepe pan, lightly oil, swirl batter, cook until crepes are done then flip and lightly cook second side.

The filling for my blintzes has changed over the years from cottage cheese to ricotta cheese. It’s easy and straight forward.

1 454 gr tub of ricotta

1 large egg

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp vanilla

1 tsp cinnamon

sugar to taste.

Mix up the filling and place a tablespoon or so in the centre of your crepe. Fold up from the bottom then fold in the sides and finally fold down the dop. Fry on both sides in hot butter and serve with your favourite sauce.

Ginger Sweet Potato Seitan Stir Fry

Published on November 20, 2007 in Experimentation, Vegetarian and Recipes. 1 Comment

Our client is a vegetarian, her husband likes meat so we have been working on some seitan dishes that appeal to both of them. So far we have met with great success on the creativity side but the price of seitan was ridiculous.

It was costing over $12 in seitan at my favourite grocery store and I thought that this was an exorbitant price for gluten flour. Undaunted by the undeserved reputation that making seitan is difficult, I set out to make my own.

I did some research, mostly on the internet and would like to give credit to Ken for doing an amazing job at describing the process.

Here is the photo of our Ginger Seitan Sweet Potato Stir Fry and the recipe follows:

Ginger Seitan-Sweet Potato Stir Fry - Serves 4

Ingredients

2 tablespoons Sugar, Brown
1 tablespoon Cornstarch
3 tablespoons Soy Sauce
2 tablespoons Dry sherry
1 teaspoon Ginger Root, minced
2 cloves Garlic, minced
1/2 cup Pineapple Juice, Unsweetened, canned
1 pound Seitan, — julienne
Pepper — to taste
3 tablespoons Oil
2 Sweet Potato
1 Red pepper — julienne
1/4 pound Pea Pods — washed & trimmed
4 Scallions — sliced

Instructions

Sauce: Combine brown sugar, cornstarch, soy sauce, sherry, ginger, and pineapple juice. Stir well. Set aside.
Saute sweet potato and bell pepper for 2 to 3 minutes.
Add snow peas and garlic and cook one minute, and then pour in reserved sauce.
Add seitan, stir and cook until mixture thickens and ingredients are glazed. Add green onions and stir just to combine.
We will definitely be making many more seitan dishes as it has that ‘meat mouth feel’ that make the dish feel complete.

I should mention that being in Toronto with the city’s huge selection of ingredients it was not difficult to find gluten flour. I didn’t buy the brand name vital gluten flour I just picked some up at our local bulk barn, they even had organic gluten flour.

We also made Black Bean Chilaquile, Spinach Stuffed Lasagna Ruffles, Vegetable and Chickpea Stew and Ginger Peanut Tofu Stir Fry.

Tomorrow we’ll be deboning and stuffing a turkey in preparation for American Thanksgiving. We’ll also be making a Sweet Potato Bake, Green Beans Almondine, Stuffing, gravy and mmmmmm Caramel Sauce for the Bavarian Apple Torte.
See you back in the kitchen tomorrow.

Cooking at the Royal Winter Fair

Published on November 7, 2007 in Class, Demo, Recipes and Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I just love the Royal Winter Fair. Every year I do a cooking demonstration at the Royal Vineyard Cooking school. This year the theme was pressure cookers (no kidding).
roywalwinterdemo
The food disappeared so everyone must have enjoyed it:)
watchingthedemo
Here are the recipes:

East West Pot Roast
Slow simmered beef roast in a rich gravy flavoured with shallots, ginger, garlic, soy and hoisin sauce.
1/2 oz dried shiitake mushrooms
1 cup water
1 tbsp oil
4 lbs blade beef (whole roast or cut into 1 inch cubes)
4 shallots
4 garlic cloves
1 tbsp ginger root
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
8 oz fresh shiitake mushrooms
10 oz beef stock
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tbsp oyster sauce
2 tbsp hoisin sauce
1 tsp chili pepper, finely chopped
2 T cornstarch, or other thickener

In a bowl soak dried mushrooms in boiling water for 30 minutes, strain, reserving liquid. chop mushrooms.
Sear roast, transfer to pressure cooker.
Add shallots to searing pan cook until soft, add ginger root, salt, pepper, reserved mushrooms. Add fresh mushrooms. Add reserved mushroom soaking liquid and beef broth, add soy sauce, oyster sauce and hoisin sauce. Transfer to pressure cooker.
Bring to pressure, run for 1 hour (for roast) for 25 minutes (for stew).
Remove roast, let rest, slice, adjust seasonings in sauce.
Thicken sauce with cornstarch if desired.

Shrimp, Basil and Asparagus Risotto
Turn yourself into a brilliant chef in 6 minutes. Elegant, healthy and home made.

Ingredients

4 tablespoons Oil, Olive
2 tablespoons Butter
1 cloves Garlic — minced
1 Lemons — zested
1 Onions — finely chopped
1/4 cup Basil — chiffonade
2 cups Arborio rice
4 cups Stock, Chicken
1/2 cup Wine, Table, White
24 ounces Shrimp
1 cup Cheese, Parmesan — grated
1 handful Asparagus — chopped into 1″ pieces

Instructions

In a pressure cooker, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until softened but not brown. Stir in rice and saute for 1 minute. Pour in stock and wine and asparagus.
Lock the lid in place and bring cooker to full pressure over high heat. Reduce to medium, just to maintain even pressure, and cook for 7 minutes.
Remove from heat and release pressure quickly.
Stir in the shrimp, asparagus, basil and parmesan cheese and put back onto heat for a couple of minutes or until shrimp and asparagus are cooked.

The Pressure’s On

Published on November 2, 2007 in Recipes. 1 Comment

I am making Beef Bourguignon today using my pressure cooker.

pressure cooker

My pressure cooker sits on my stove hissing and sputtering and filling my kitchen with the fragrance of French bistro cooking. In about 25 minutes I have pressure cooked what would ordinarily take 3 hours of simmering on the stove. Pressure cooking not only saves time it also saves fuel. So tomorrow up at my Go Home Lake cottage, I will boil up some spuds, steam some broccoli and reheat today’s creation. That’s cottage life.

Beef Bourguignon — Serves 8
Ingredients

3 slices bacon — finely chopped
125 milliliters oil
85 milliliters flour
2 teaspoons salt
pinch pepper
1 1/2 kilograms stew meat
2 medium onions — chopped
1 clove garlic — minced
65 milliliters cognac — or brandy
250 milliliters red wine — 250
250 milliliters beef broth
2 bay leaf
8 carrots — chopped
100 grams pearl onions
16 mushrooms

Instructions

Cook bacon til crisp, reserve. Add oil to bacon drippings. Coat beef cubes in flour, brown, reserve. Cook onion and garlic, deglaze with cognac.
Add red wine, broth and bay leaf, return beef, add carrots and onions bring to pressure and run at pressure for about 25 minutes. Release pressure and add mushrooms and cook for another 10 minutes or stove on the stovetop. Stir in cooked bacon and parsley.

Sandwiches and Sushi

Published on October 19, 2007 in Restaurant and Recipes. 0 Comments

Holy crow, it is more than a week since my last entry. I have worked a ton of the shifts at the RCCC and I certainly have a feel for the restaurant.
We have introduced a bunch of menu items that I really enjoyed.
We put the Ultimate Grilled Cheese Sanwich on the menu and served it with Red Onion Confit. In the restaurant these recipes are adapted to suit my personal taste (and become my secret recipes) but the original recipes are great!
At home last week we made Sushi with the carpool girls. My son, however, was not interested in the sushi making and quietly disappeared and watched a movie.
I am trying to wind down and take the day off but am having trouble relaxing a couple of hours shopping should help.

Take the Pressure Off

Published on October 4, 2007 in Class and Recipes. 0 Comments

Take the Pressure off

“Take the pressure off of weeknight cooking” was the title of the cooking class that cheryl and I taught today at montcrest school. The science lab was turned into a bistro as pressure cookers hissed and whistled away.

skeleton

We made East West Pot Roast, Rogan Josh and Shrimp, Asparagus and Lemon Rissotto. This class gave me the opportunity to answer questions about feeding children. I opined that children’s behaviour towards food is modeled after their parents. I truly feel that if mom and dad don’t take the time to cook at home at least once or twice a week that they are missing out on the opportunity to nourish the soul.

We ate well and froze the leftovers.

Shrimp, Lemon & Basil Rissotto – Serves 4

Ingredients

4 tablespoons Oil, Olive
2 tablespoons Butter
1 cloves Garlic — minced
1 Lemons — zested
1 Onions — finely chopped
1/2 cup Basil — chiffonade
2 cups Arborio rice
4 cups Stock, Chicken
1/2 cup Wine, Table, White
24 ounces Shrimp
1 cup Cheese, Parmesan — grated
1 handful Asparagus — chopped into 1″ pieces

Instructions

In a pressure cooker, heat oil and butter over medium heat. Add onion and garlic and saute until softened but not brown. Stir in rice and saute for 1 minute. Pour in stock and wine and asparagus.
Lock the lid in place and bring cooker to full pressure over high heat. Reduce to medium, just to maintain even pressure, and cook for 7 minutes.
Remove from heat and release pressure quickly.
Stir in the shrimp, asparagus, basil and parmesan cheese and put back onto heat for a couple of minutes or until shrimp and asparagus are cooked.