Bacon Wrapped Cod with Balsamic and Garlic Reduction

So it’s been a while that I’ve been wanting to make this, Bacon covered fish… to be honest I’ll eat just about anything if it’s wrapped in bacon….I also made a garlic and balsamic vinegar reduction sauce to serve with the fish, the sweetness of the brown sugar in the balsamic reduction is a perfect balance to the salty bacon that so lovingly wraps around the cod. This is a really simple dish to make that has major food porn photo potential.

Ingredients
4 thick cut cod fillets
6 bacon slices
1/2 c balsamic vinegar
1 tsp dark brown sugar
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1/2 tsp tomato paste
black pepper

 

 

To prepare the fish, pat the fillets dry using paper towel, season the fillets with black pepper.

Wrap the fish fillets in the bacon, 3 slices of bacon will wrap 2 fillets, ( see photo above) set aside

Heat a large frying pan over a medium heat, place the bacon covered cod in the pan and sear for 3 minutes a side until the bacon has browned. ( At my house fish has to be reaaaaallly well done in order for anyone but myself to eat it and so I cooked the fish for a bit longer )

To make the reduction sauce,  heat the balsamic vinegar, brown sugar, garlic cloves and tomato paste in a small sauce pan, simmer over a medium low heat for 5-10 minutes until reduced by 1/2 and thickened.

Seared Sirloin Steaks with Red Onion and Hoegaarden Beer Sauce

Sometimes a girl just needs a steak and roasted potatoes to be happy, I was definitly a happy camper after having this.  I added  touch of apple butter for sweetness and used Hoegaarden beer because its what I had on hand, but you can use any kind of beer that you like.

Ingredients serves 4
For the sauce
2 tsp butter
1 large red onion, sliced
5 garlic cloves, minced
 a few sprigs of rosemary and thyme
1/2 up beef stock
1 bottle of Hoegaarden beer or substitute
1 tbsp applebutter

Melt the butter in a small sauce pot over a medium heat, add the onions and sautee for about 10 minutes until the onions are softened and browned.

Add the remaining ingredients and simmer for 10- 15 minutes until thickened. Remove the sprigs of herbs.

For the steak, Drizzle the meat with olive oil and season with sea salt and black pepper.  At this point you can grill the meat on the BBQ, I seared my steaks on a griddle over a high heat for about 3 minutes a side.

Serve the sauce over top the steaks

For the potatoes
15 medium sized potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika
1 1/2 tsp garlic granules

Pre heat the oven to 375*f

In a large boil, toss  the potato slices with the olive oil, paprika and garlic granules. Spread the potato slices onto a baking sheet or two lined with parchment paper. Bake for 30-45 minutes until browned, turning the potatoes once.

Dried Blueberry, and Banana Muffins

There is an organic foods store near my house that I like to go to every now and again, not because I’m an organic foods enthusiast or a “health nut” but because the staff are nice, I like the variety of bulk dried goods, from different flours and sugars to dry fruit, bulk maple syrup, and nut butters, It’s a  just a quite, warm little shop that I am lucky enough to have bear my house. While at the Nut House (http://www.nut-house.ca/) recently, I bought a small quantity of dry blueberries, I had never had them, and when I saw that they were only 11.99/lb compared to the 25.00/lb ones at bulk barn, I went nuts and bought a small bag of them.  If you’ve never had dry blueberries, they are like candy, sweet chewy candy but good for you because its fruit.  The quantity of dry blueberries that I had left after munching a quite a bit of them, I used to make these blueberry and banana muffins, that were quite good.

Ingredients for 12
3 over ripe bananas
3 large eggs
1/3 c canola oil
1/3 cup honey
2 c whole wheat flour
1.5 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/3 c bran
1/8 tsp nutmeg
1/4 tsp cinnamon
3/4 butter milk
1 c dry blueberries
12 banana chips
1/3 c  rolled oats
confectioners sugar for dusting

Pre heat the oven to 350*f.

Line 12 muffin tins with paper liners. Set aside.

In a large bowl, mash the bananas until smooth using a potato masher or a fork. Stir the eggs, oil and honey and stir to combine.

To the wet ingredients add the flour, baking powder,baking soda, bran, nutmeg, and cinnamon, stir to combine, lastly add the buttermilk, and then fold in the blueberries.

Divide the the batter between the muffin liners, sprinkle the tops with the rolled oats and banana chips. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden . After the muffins are cooled you can dust them lightly,… or heavily with confectioners sugar.