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.

Thanksgiving Turkey and Wild Rice Soup

So Friday night a group of friends and I gathered for a Thanksgiving dinner to start off a long weekend of Thanksgiving dinners with our families.  Good friends + good food = a very good time. At the end of the night upon hearing that the turkey carcass was going to be thrown out and not made into a soup,  I rescued it, knowing it would be of better use  in a nice hearty soup than it would have in the waste bin. The Turkey was already delicious and well seasoned, which was a bonus for the soup.

• 4 liters of water
• 1 turkey carcass 
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed and unpeeled
• 3 bay leaves
• 1/3 cup + 1 tbsp wild rice
• 2-3 carrots chopped
• 3 celery stalks, sliced
• 1 small red onion, diced
• 1 tsp coriander
• 1 tsp celery seeds
• chopped parsley to taste
• salt and pepper to taste

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To start off, place the turkey remains in a large pot with the water (you might have to break the carcass into 2 pieces to fit in the pot, I did). Add the garlic cloves and bay leaves to the pot, Bring to a boil, reduce the heat and allow to simmer for 20 minutes.

Remove the turkey bones from the pot and allow to cool enough to handle. Remove all the meat from the bones and shred or tear into small pieces. Discard the bones.

Using a slotted spoon, skim the garlic and bay leaves and any small bones that may have dislodged from the carcass, alternatively you can pass the soup through a sieve.

Rinse the wild rice in cold water and place in the pot along with the shredded turkey and the remaining ingredients. Simmer for 30-45 minutes, until the rice has softened but still has a bit of a bite to it.

Dark Chocolate and Raspberry Bread Pudding with Evaporated Milk Crème Anglaise

I have been wanting to make this bread pudding for a few days now, and because I woke up unnaturally early for a Saturday today, I decided today was the day.  Originally I had wanted to make this with croissants, however, after browsing around the bakery and picking up a dozen croissants I came across this fresh pumpkin seed and cranberry loaf, it was dense and soft and I just changed my mind about the croissants. I used dark baking chocolate because I just really love dark chocolate,  but not everyone is a fan, you could most definitely substitute the dark chocolate for milk chocolate or white chocolate which would be really nice with the raspberries. 

 Ingredients  serves 4-8
1- 450g pumpkin and cranberry loaf, or substitute with a french loaf
4 large eggs
6 oz dark baking chocolate, chopped
6 oz  raspberries
2/3 cup whole milk
1 cup 35% cream / whipping cream
3/4 cup sugar
2 tsp vanilla

Pre heat the oven to 350*f.  Grease and line a 9inch square cake pan with parchment paper.

Slice the loaf into 1 cm thick slices and layer into the cake pan. Scatter the raspberries and the chocolate over top and between the bread slices.

In a medium size bowl mix the milk, cream, sugar, and vanilla. Pour over the sliced bread, chocolate and raspberries, pressing the bread down to ensure the crusts get well saturated with the milk and cream mixture. Bake for 45 minutes.

For the the Crème Anglaise

• 1 egg yolk
• 1 cup evaporated milk
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1 tsp vanilla

Heat the evaporated milk over a medium heat until scalding.  Whisk the egg yolk and sugar together in a medium bowl, slowly drizzle in the hot milk whisking constantly. Return the milk and egg yolk mixture to the small pot over a low/medium heat and cook stirring constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened.

Serve the crème Anglaise with each slice of bread pudding, or pour over top the whole pan of bread pudding.

Herbbed Potato Chips

I love the idea of herbed potato chips. These “stained glass” herb potato chips will add a little “fancy gourmet” feel to any dish, and are versatile, and extremely easy to make. Today I used parsley but you can really use any herb you like, or even a variety of herbs, you can leave the potatoes unpeeled to add a little extra colour even, the possibilities are endless.

You need a pretty sharp food slicer or mandolin to slice the potatoes as thinly as possible.  Lay the parsley leaves between two thin potato slices.

To cook the chips, you can bake them in the oven however I fried these ones. To bake the chips, lay the potato slices on a parchment paper lined baking sheet in a single layer, and bake at 375*f until golden.

I would not recommend deep frying the chips because they are a bit delicate and might separate in the rolling, hot oil. Insead I heated a small amount of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, and fried the potato slices for about 2 minutes on each side until golden, and sprinkled with sea salt.

Massa de Malagueta / Portuguese Pepper Sauce

Massa de Malagueta is a fermented pepper paste used by the Portuguese as a condiment/marinade. This pepper paste can be found at large grocery stores, especially in neighborhoods abundantly populated with Portuguese folks. This paste, while  purchased conveniently at the grocery store, can also be made easily at home, and there really is a difference between store bought and homemade.  My parents used to make it when I was a kid and they stopped for whatever reason unknown to me, so  this year for the first time I’ve attempted to make it…..  and was successful 

There isn’t really a “recipe” for the malagueta, it’s just crushed or ground sweet red shepherd peppers that is salted with sea salt or kosher salt, covered, stirred twice a day and allowed to ferment. The massa de malagueta should taste quite salty. The fermentation process lasts about 7 days. During the fermentation, the ground pepper will separate and the ground pepper will sit on the top with the “water” just underneath it, and it will be sort of fizzy when stirred. Normally you will allow it to ferment in a cold room, if you don’t and your house is very warm the fermentation process will be never ending. Basically you know when the pepper paste is done when you go to stir it and it is no longer separated, doesn’t fizz, and it even smells different. At this point the malagueta is ready to be put into jars. The mason jars and lids should be sterilized, ( boiled in a large pot for about 10 minutes) and allowed to dried on a wire rack lid down. When filled the massa de malagueta can be topped off with a drizzle of olive oil.  AND THATS IT! totally easy and the homemade taste is definitely worth the little effort put in. Oh and the massa de malagueta should be refrigerated after being put in the jars.

I used the massa de malagueta for this very typical Azorean dish, Bifanas… Essentially pork cutlets marinated in massa de malagueta and garlic, and sometimes white wine, today I had no wine so I used only garlic and the malagueta and a touch of black pepper, again you don’t even need a recipe for this dish, you put as much sliced garlic as your heart desires and as much pepper paste as your taste buds can handle. I used pork tenderloin to make the “cutlets” just because I love how tender the pork tenderloin is. They are then fried in butter and that’s it. Simple and delicious, even better when you serve them in a paposeco or pao mafra spread with copious amounts of butter…..

Cream of Parsnip Soup

It has been a while since I had been wanting to make this creamy parsnip soup.

Parsnips are not a vegetable that I regularly make at home but every once in a while I will get a sort of craving for them. I absolutely love the smell of peeled parsnips, it is reminiscent of root beer in my opinion and very sweet smelling. This soup gets its creaminess from not only the pureed root vegetable but also thick cream. For added colour you can add a small carrot to the soup.

• 3 Shallots, peeled and sliced
• 1 leek,sliced (the bottom white part of the onion only)
• 2 tbsp butter
• 2 lbs parsnips, peeled and diced
• 1 celery stalk, sliced
• 3 garlic cloves, sliced
• 2 1/2 l chicken or vegetable stock
• 1 small can of thick cream
• salt and pepper
• chopped parsley for presentation (optional)

In a large pot, melt the butter over a medium-low heat, add the shallots and leeks to the pot and cook for about 5-7 minutes until softened but not browned.

Add the parsnips, garlic and garlic cloves to the pot and cook for 2 more minutes, stirring.

Add the chicken stock to the pot, increase the heat and bring the soup to a boil, reduce the heat and simmer partially covered for 20-25 minutes until the parsnips are tender.

Add the thick cream to the soup and puree  using a hand held blender or in a food processor, until smooth. Season with salt and pepper and serve.

Sourdough Flapjacks Recipe out of The Texas Cowboy Kitchen Cook Book by Grady Spears with June Naylor

I love, love, LOVE western novels, particularly  the ones written by Larry McMurtry. I guess you can say I am in love with the American frontier, or the Old West, and so when I saw this cook book, The Texas Cowboy Kitchen Cookbook, there was no way I was leaving the book store without it.. There are so many great recipes in here; Lone Star Beer and Molasses Baked Beans, Green Chile – Cheese Grits, Buttermilk Ice Cream, and Cheddar and Black Pepper Biscuits just to name a few. Not only are there yummy recipes in this book, but the book comes with beautiful archival Old West photos.

One of the recipes that I was dying to try was the Sourdough Flapjacks with Cowboy Blueberry Butter.  I made half of the sourdough starter recipe to use for the flapjacks, and still have extra sourdough starter that I can keep in my fridge and “feed”  and also use for future flapjacks, or Chicken Fried Steak.

Unfortunately I am without blueberries today, frozen or fresh, I do have frozen raspberries but thought that the blueberry butter sounded better than “raspberry butter” so I simply made a raspberry sauce by simmering down, 1 1/2 cups of frozen raspberries with 1/4 cup of water and 1 cup of sugar for 15 minutes. The folks behind the Texas Cowboy Cookbook, test kitchen, sure know what they were doing. I am really looking forward to trying more recipes from this book, and of course will post pictures and commentary. I think the Lone Star and Molasses Baked Beans will be next.

Super Bock BBQ Sauce

It is no secret that I enjoy a beer on most days that end in -day, my go to beer is Rickard’s White with a slice of orange, although I will change it up and have a Stella Artois or  Guinness depending on my mood. There is, however another beer that I will pick over any other if it is available, and sadly for me it isn’t always available at the bar, Super Bock. Super Bock is a Portuguese Beer, and a very good one, Super Bock is the only beer to have won 26 consecutive gold medals in the “Monde Selection de la Qualite”.

I picked up some Super Bock at the LCBO the other and thought I would try making a Super Bock BBQ sauce for some chicken wings that I had defrosting on the kitchen counter.  When the sauce was finished and I tested it for salt there was something, not off, but missing. Turns out what was missing from the sauce was some acidity, a splash of red wine vinegar really rounded the flavors off and combined everything, it was perfect.

For the Sauce

• 1 bottle of Super Bock Beer
• 1/4 c +1 tbsp tomato paste
• 3 tbsp malagueta
• 1 garlic clove minced
• 1 shallot, peeled and sliced
• 1 tbsp fancy molasses
• 1/4 c brown sugar, lightly packed
• 2 bay leaves
• 6 allspice berries
• 1/8 tsp black pepper, or to taste
• sea sat to taste
• 1/2 tsp red wine vinegar

This is a very easy sauce to make, simply place all the ingredients MINUS the  salt and red wine vinegar in a small sauce pot and simmer over a medium heat for 20-25 minutes, stirring occasionally until thickened.  Pour the sauce through a sieve and into a small bowl, discard the bits that are left behind. Stir in the red wine vinegar and season to taste with the sea salt.

For the Wings

• 3 lbs chicken wings
• 1 c vegetable oil
• 1 tsp paprika
• 2 tsp garlic granules ( not garlic salt or garlic powder)
• black pepper to taste

Pre heat the oven to 400*f, Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

Place the chicken wings in a large bowl and add the remaining ingredients. Using your hands, rub the oil and seasoning into the wings until coated evenly. (If you wanted to and had the time you can let the wings marinade in this seasoning oil in the fridge overnight).

Place the wings on the baking sheet in an even single layer along with any remaining oil/seasoning. Bake the wings for 20 minutes. Remove the tray from the oven, turn the wings and bake another 15 minutes minutes until crisp.

Place the cooked chicken wings in a large bowl and toss in the BBQ sauce, ensuring the wings are evenly coated.