Recipe 18 & 19- Mouthwatering Ribs

Recipe 18 &19 - RIBS

I just wanted to start off this post by saying a HUGE thank you to everyone for their patience for my blog posts this week. I had an unfortunate event with my macbook, I lost my entire hard drive and had to have it replaced. I lost about 40% of my information during the crash, but thankfully the "Genius" bar at my local apple store was able to get everything up and running again. So here we are now and what better way to jump back into the blogging then talking about the 

MOST DELICIOUS RIBS I HAVE EVER HAD! 

This blog post will consist of the 2 Ribs recipes that Chef Michael has shared in his book. 

One is a dry rub and the other is a more of a sauce. 

Recipe 18 is the Slow Baked Honey Mustard Ribs

We were having a small gathering at our house this week with an old friend that has been watching my blog and seeing all the great recipes that I have prepared. I decided that EVERYONE loves a good rack of ribs and the recipe was easily doubled to feed a crowd. For this recipe I prepared 5 racks of ribs. 

To start off its a simple recipe of Honey, Yellow mustard some Thyme and salt. 

I suggest finding a nice strong flavoured Honey to really let the flavour come through on your ribs, and I love some of the local honey we have available here.

Before the sauce is laid over the ribs, you are told to remove the 'fell' from the back side of the ribs. 

I had no idea that this was even a 'thing'. Chef Michael says that you local butcher can do this for you. 

But for the sake of trying everything once along this journey, I decided to give it a try. 

Let me tell you, I am so glad that my friend Craig again saved the day here. He guided me through the process. In my opinion, its not as easy as it looks. You really need to use some elbow grease to remove this. I was able to get some really great pics of my friend Craig taking care of the first rack. 

After that, I got my hand in there and gave it a try. I am not going to lie, I may of screamed like a girl. It was kind of gross LOL. 

Craig made this look like a walk in the park! We used a nice sturdy large spoon and you work the backside under the fell. When you work at it a bit, the fell lifts off the meat and you are able to just pull it off. 5 racks later, a bit of laughing and screaming the ribs were ready for the sauce.

I used a large disposable tray for cooking, and made sure to tightly wrap with some heavy foil. 

Once the ribs were evenly coated on both sides. The foil went on and the into the oven went the ribs.

My oven was pre heated to 400' and when the ribs were put in, I lowered it to 300' for the next 2 hours. The ribs smelled delicious and my guests could not wait for the big reveal when they were done. 

After the ribs came out of the oven, we layered them onto a huge baking sheets and popped them under the broiler for about 10 minutes or so. The got a wonderful brown colour. Then you can use your leftover drippings in the pan as your sauce for the ribs. We served the racks of ribs up with some garlic mashed potatoes. They were deliciously tender and full of flavour, these were a HUGE hit with our guests! 

Recipe 19- Slow Chili Ribs 

This recipe was very simple and the ribs are to DIE for!  This recipe, like most Rib recipes is all about PATIENCE. The cook time for these was a little longer and they were totally worth the wait. 

I started off by mixing my ingredients into a bowl which consisted of brown sugar, chilli powder, cumin, oregano and cinnamon? ... Yes cinnamon. This threw me a little off, but hey.. gotta follow the recipe! I later found out the cinnamon really gives these ribs a slightly smoky taste when mixed with the chilli powder, delicious.

This recipe was not doubled, I used 2 rack of ribs and another disposable tin tray. 

Again, I had to remove the fell from the ribs, which was a task and a half. This time they did not come off as 'easy' as the last time. 

I made sure the ribs were evenly rubbed with the mixture, let me tell you.. they already looked and smelled amazing. 

Again these ribs were put into a previously preheated oven of 400' and the temp was dropped to 300'.

For 3 hours the smells seeping from my oven were drool worthy. My husband came home from work and said "what is that amazing smell? I hope thats dinner tonight" 

When the ribs came out they were literally falling off the bone. I was also surprised to see drippings in the pan. This was a completely dry recipe so I wasn't expecting any liquid. 

The bone was easily pulled from the meat on these ones.

Do I really need to say more.... ?

We served these ribs up with a cool creamy cucumber salad and yet again.. garlic mashed potatoes. 

I have to say the cucumber salad was an excellent addition to these ribs. The dry rub had a bit of spiciness to them, and biting into the cool salad was very refreshing. 

Upon first bite of these tender ribs a silence was taken oven in the room. They were so good that literally no one could talk while eating them. I actually said " how am I going to write about these, when I have no words" 

This recipe would be hit for a backyard summer BBQ.

They are a must try FOR SURE! 

As always my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Please check back for Recipe 20- Peanut butter brownies

we served these as dessert for the Honey Mustard Ribs.

Link to the Honey Mustard Rib Recipe:

http://www.foodnetwork.ca/recipe/slow-baked-honey-mustard-ribs/13303/

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Recipe 17-Beef Pot Roast with Aromatic Vegetable Gravy

Recipe 17- Beef Pot Roast with Aromatic Vegetable Gravy 

Recipe 17 started off with a quick stop at the grocery store. I need some baby potatoes, rosemary and a pot roast. Now I was standing at the meat counter looking slightly puzzled. What is the difference between a pot roast and an oven roast? 

Well I asked the butcher and he said, a pot roast is for extended cooking times as it had more fat on the meat, and the oven roast was more of a quick cook (less fat on the meat).

I got my ingredients and headed home to start the cooking process asap. 

On this day in particular, I would be serving 10 people this evening and this roast needed 4 hours of cook time. Not to mention I also was serving this with Recipe 16- Barley Asparagus risotto.

  

As usual I chopped my vegetables first. Some carrots, celery and onion. Shocking to me... NO garlic? 

hehe

Everything went into my large pot and for about 10mins so that everything could get warmed up and flavours could come together. Next into the pan went some red wine, bay leaves and some rosemary. 

The whole mixture was smelling terrific at this point. 

Now this recipe says to use a large dutch oven. I do not actually have one of these because I am saving up my nickels for a beautiful Le Creuset dutch oven. This has been on my 'want' list for a VERY LONG TIME! I made do with my pot, so if you don't have a dutch oven, a pot like mine or even everything moved from a pan to a roasting pan would work. 

After all of the ingredients have had some time to simmer in the pot, I literally just plopped in the pot roast. I also picked up a nice selection of baby potatoes which I added around the roast. 

My oven had been pre heating to 350' but just before placing a lid on my pot I was instructed in the recipe to turn my oven down to 300'. Into the oven went my roast and the long wait began. 

4 hours! Let me tell you how much torture it is to smell this roast cooking for that long! 

I swear you could smell every ingredient in the pot as it cooked.  

So what did I do for 4 hours other then drool? I made some cheddar & dill scones.

This recipe is actually not from Chef Michael's book, but they made a GREAT addition to the meal. 

http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/cheddar-dill-scones-recipe.html

This is the link to the recipe. I think we ate about half of these before dinner was served, they were VERY tasty! I used the Kerrygold Aged cheddar for these scones and it really made the cheese flavour pop. I would really go with a nice bold cheddar for these. 

So 4 hours later this is what I got when I opened the lid... 

Some beautiful tender pot roast with perfectly tender baby potatoes. The final step in the recipe before you dig in for the big bite, it taking all the potatoes out of the pot and your roast. You allow the roast to rest under a tent of aluminium foil. You then take the leftover juices and vegetables and blend them in the blender. This is the gravy. This gravy was so delicious that I could of eaten it like a soup. So full of flavour and it compliments the beef so well. After my roast had some time to rest, I cut into it and was pleasantly surprised at how tender the meat was.

I paired this roast with Recipe 16- Asparagus Risotto 

My guests throughly enjoyed this meal and were looking for seconds. I really hope you give this recipe a shot. It really breaks away from the tradition pot roast methods and gives you an excellent dish! 

Credit goes to my dear friend Craig for the plating of this dish! 

Can you tell he's done this a few times? 

He is a very talented chef himself and has been guiding me through a few of these dishes.

I am so thankful to have his help! 

As always my compliments to the chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Can you believe we are already down 17 Recipes?  WOW! 

You can also find me here: 

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Recipe 16- Barley Asparagus Risotto

Recipe 16- Barley Asparagus Risotto

So my cooking days for the last few weeks have landed on Mondays. For the last year we host a 'friends get together" night every Monday, well this week was the ultimate hang out with recipes 16 &17!  These were recipes have to be the BEST yet! and that is hard to say, as ALL of the recipes have been terrific.
I have noticed our monday gatherings have been getting larger in people volume, word has spread about my Michael Smith journey and we have had a lot of company lol!

Like I have said before, some of the recipes have been 'intimidating' this is because I know I have never made them before and more often its because I have never eaten or used the ingredients.
But this recipe called to me, asparagus is one of my favourite vegetables!  I have to say I have been eyeing this recipe from day one and was really excited to make it!
Surprisingly this recipe wasn't too ingredient 'heavy'. I pretty much had everything on hand and only required a copious amount of chicken broth and some pearl barley.

Like many of Chef Michaels recipes, this started off with some chopped onions and garlic. I also pre chopped my asparagus. Into a pot went some oil, garlic and onions and then the pearl barley. Here the recipes says to really stir everything around so the barley gets a nice coating of oil. I let this all hang out in the pot until I smelled the nice warm aroma of the barley toasting up a little bit. 

Next I added in the white wine. The recipe says to choose your favourite kind and I just happened to have a nice bottle of my favourite white wine, Pelee Island Chardonnay. 

 After I added the wine, minutes later it was completely evaporated. On my stove the entire time, I had a separate pot filled to the brim... literally... of chicken broth that was at a slow simmer. My kitchen was kinda looking like an assembly line. 

Now insert some Rocky theme song music here :http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhlPAj38rHc

 and get your sweat bands and arms ready for 45 minutes of NON STOP STIRRING! The process here is to add one ladle of broth and stir until it has evaporated, then add another ladle and repeat the process until you have got that entire ^ pot of chicken broth into the other pot. 

My only slight complaint about the recipe instructions is that its not quite specific of when to add the broth. It says 'evaporated'... does that mean completely? kind of evaporated? when?

So what worked for me is, as soon at the barley was kind of peeking through after stirring in the ladle worth of broth, I added another one. You do need to keep in mind that you WILL have liquid in the pot, except it will be creamy and not 'brothy' .. I hope that makes sense. 

At about the half way point I noticed that my barley was starting to get nice and puffy, and near the end of the process, I had created a nice creamy bath that all my barley was soaking in. 

Now I have never made risotto or eaten it for that matter, but for some reason I was envisioning that the barley was going to taste like "mush"? ... Boy was I in for a surprise... ! 

As I had finished my last stir for the end of the broth, I added in my asparagus. It really didn't take long for this to cook. Maybe 5 or so minutes. I also use the 'poke' test with a fork. 

After that, your final step is adding in some freshly grated parmesan cheese. 

At this point, the cooking is complete and the heat is off. The risotto was hot enough to melt that beautiful cheese right into the mix. 

All that was left was getting the masterpiece to the plate. 

Now after a long hour and repeating my stirring mantra " just keep stirring, just keep stirring, stirring, stirring" ... here it WAS! First bite was like one of those "ahhhhhhhhhhh clouds parting moments" 

It was so creamy and delightful I can barely explain it. Everything was just perfect. The barley still had texture and defiantly was NOT mushy in the slightest, and the asparagus was perfectly tender. This was the star of the show when it came to dinner time. I paired this dish with Recipe 17- Pot roast with aromatic vegetable gravy ( IT WAS AMAZING).

As always my compliments to the Chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

* I sincerely apologize for the delay in posting, 2 of my children celebrated birthdays this week and I was busy making Cakes! 

You can also find me here: 

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Recipe 15- Lentil Chia Burger

Recipe 15- Lentil Chia Burger

 

I have to start off this recipe by saying I was VERY intimitdated by this recipe, but excited to try something new. A few of the ingredients were new to me and I have never cooked a lentil. 

Chef Michael Smith has recently been touring the globe as the 'lentil hunter'.

I have been following his journey through social media and was intrigued to try lentils. Lucky enough for me there was a recipe in the cookbook that I could use. 

For the majority of these recipes I haven't had much trouble finding ingredients, but for this recipe, it took me 3 days and 4 different stores to find one item.  I will get to that later. 

So to start off the recipe it says to cook your green lentils first. Into the pot went the water and green lentils. After about 15-20 minutes they were tender and soft. They had a nice aroma and the taste was slightly peppery, to me at least.  

Next was sauteing my mushrooms, garlic and onions. The smell of these three are just the best! 

I went a little out there with my mushroom choice. Unfortunately I don't know the names of the ones that came in the pre-packed mix I picked up. Maybe you guys can help me out, if you recognize any of these, leave me a comment!

The recipe says to let these hang out in the pan for a long time. They go from dry to wet and then back to a drier state after being in the pan. After this they go into the food processor or in my case.. the blender. I really need to get a food processor, as I learned YET again... the blender is not the best for processing food.... p.s- no wooden spoons were harmed in this recipe. 

 

I gave my mushrooms a quick spin around because the next ingredients were going to make the mixture thicken up and I wanted to make sure the mushrooms were well .... blended -_- 

Into the blender went the flavors that really tie this burger together! 

 

Into the blender goes soy sauce, peanut butter or any other nut butter you choose, chia seeds, thyme, bread crumbs and soy bean paste. Now here is the sneaky ingredient that I could not find for the life of me!

-Sort of off topic moment here-

I went to 4 different grocery stores and sent out a plea via Facebook looking for help. It was suggested that I could find the soybean paste in an Asian food market. Saturday morning bright and early I headed towards the closest one to us. On the way I thought maybe the "Superstore" which is a chain of Loblaws would have it, they have a large international food section. Sure enough... after days literally of searching, there it WAS! Hallelujah! 

So if I didn't have enough trouble finding this bean paste, I get to the checkout and my debit card doesn't work! My chip card needed replacing! Of ALL the times it could of happened,

  it HAD TO BE NOW!

 Don't worry... I just grabbed it and bolted out of the store... 

JUST KIDDING!!!!! I had cash on me and paid AND STILL left with a huge smile on my face knowing I could complete this recipe :) 

-the end of the off  topic moment-

Anyways..... So I blended my ingredients and then put the paste like mixture into a mixing bowl.

 

Next to be mixed in is the lentils that have already been cooked.

Now I can imagine that YOU are thinking the exact thing I was thinking when I looked into my mixing bowl.... ummm that looks like...... ?

Yes I know, but after the grated sweet potato gets mixed in, it looks a lot less.... brown?

At this point the whole mix is left to sit and rest for 15 minutes. The chia seeds that I added earlier draw the water from the mixture let it dry out slightly. I was really impressed by this. When I mixed the sweet potato in by hand the whole mixture was stuck to my hands. But after 15 minutes of resting the mixture was slightly tacky, but I was able to form patties quite nicely.

15 minutes of rest time will give you lots of time to tidy up the kitchen. I wish I would of taken a picture to document how messy my kitchen got LOL! 

I formed 9 patties from the mixture. The recipe says 10 so I figured I was doing alright on eyeballing the size of the patties. 

I decided to use the pan frying method to cook the burgers. Chef Michael suggests pan fry, oven baked or grilled on the BBQ.

My pan frying gave the burgers some great color, but...... this was my slight dissapointment..

the inside was still slightly mushy. Now after the fact, I determined that maybe cooking them in the oven or grill may of been a better choice, to get the dry even heat.

I was able to freeze 5 of the burgers and will try them on my BBQ once the snow melts! 

Now I don't want anyone to be discouraged by this recipe. The flavor of these burgers were OUTSTANDING considering they are completely veggie burgers. I think the error in this one may of been more on my end then the recipes. 

Please let me know if you have made these burgers or plan on making them! 

I hope to give these another try with my frozen leftover burgers. 

I had my burger with Recipe 14- Mediterranean Chickpea, tomato & cucumber salad.

 

As always my compliments to the chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Please be sure to follow Chef Michael's lentil traveling journeys across the globe, hes been posting beautiful pictures and information along the way!

 http://chefmichaelsmith.com/lentils/love-your-lentils/

https://www.facebook.com/chef.michael.smith

You can also find me here: 

 

https://twitter.com/Leslie1669

https://www.facebook.com/100recipesin52

http://instagram.com/100recipes52weeks

 

See you all again this week with Recipes 16 & 17

Beef Pot Roast with Aromatic Vegetable gravy & Barley Asparagus Risotto 

 

 

Recipe 14- Mediterranean Chickpea,Tomato & Cucumber Salad

Recipe 14- Mediterranean Chickpea, Tomato & Cucumber Salad 

 

This week I decided to go the vegetarian route with my recipe choices. Chef Michael has included some great recipes that cater to the vegetarian lifestyle as well as some recipes for gluten free diets. 

I have neither lifestyles, but these recipes are appealing to anyone really. 

This is such a simple recipe, the flavor is fresh and reminded me of summer. 

I have been desperately hoping for spring to show its face. Even if the weather outside is grey and gloomy where you are, this salad will give you the pleasant reminder of what is to come weather wise.

First off, I began by making the dressing. From the past salads, Chef Michael has been spot on with his dressing creations. He chooses such nice combinations that really compliment everything in the salad. This one was no exception!

Into the blender went the sun dried tomatoes (which I secretly think look like ears lol ;) vinegar, oregano, mustard and salt. 

 After letting this blend for a few seconds I opened the blender to this beautiful bright orange red dressing. I couldn't resist the finger test on this one. Delicious! 

 

Next was just a matter of chopping my veggies and rinsing the chickpeas. 

 If this mix doesn't scream summer, I don't know what does. The smell of the fresh English cucumber and the chopped cherry tomatoes were just amazing! I could not wait to see how all these flavors worked together in this salad. 

After that it was simply tossing everything together in a large bowl. 

Once again the dressing proportions were exactly enough to give this salad a nice coating, but not dripping in dressing. You would think that Chef Michael knows what he's doing or something ;) 

I whipped this salad up in 10 minutes max. My family and I had this for lunch and it was terrific all on its own. However, this did make enough for leftovers and I plan on having it with Recipe 15- Lentil Chia burgers which are whats on tap for dinner tonight! 

In a previous blog post I said that I wasn't a "salad person" but I think Chef Michael is converting me with these amazing salad recipes. 

I think this salad would make a great addition to any meal really, or it is great on its own. This would be perfect to send for school or work lunches through the week.

I hope that you are inspired to make this one as well!

 

As always my compliments to the chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

Recipe 15 will be posted this Sunday- Lentil Chia Burgers 

 

Recipe 13- Pan Rushed Chicken- Southwestern Flavours

Recipe 13- Pan Rushed Chicken- Southwester Flavours 

I think anyone who eats chicken breasts throughout their week will really enjoy this recipe. If you are like me, you probably always cook your chicken breasts the same way. In my case, I either bake them in the oven, or use my crock pot. This method of cooking a chicken breast in a pan on the stove top is a new technique for me. 

Now I got a taste of "pan rushing" with my salmon dish for recipe 4, and if you follow along with the blog you know that I had an "incident" lol. Now going into another pan rush recipe, I was slightly intimidated that I would smoke out my kitchen again. 

Regardless of my slight failure on recipe 4 pan rushing, I jumped right in on this one and remembered not to over heat my pan. It is important to have a hot pan for the searing process, but I guess I missed the part about turning the pan DOWN last time BEFORE you add your extra ingredients. 

Searing meat is really an art and I am slowly learning. 

So to start off, I added my oil to the pan and got everything nice and hot... not too hot ;) 

In went my chicken breasts. Now Chef Michael says to "listen to your pan". You don't want everything going crazy in there, just a nice steady sizzle. 

My pan sounded great through out the whole process, I don't think this is a 'text book' sear on my chicken, but I don't think it was terrible either. They did get a nice brown colour to them, but it was quite a task to flip them.. you know how chicken breasts can be when they get stuck on your pan or grill. 

Next the chicken comes out of the pan and set to rest. Chef Michael suggests elevating your seared meat to keep the juices inside. This REALLY does work. I used a cooling rack on top of a plate and it worked great. On Chef Michaels " Chef at home" tv episode he places chop sticks across a plate and it works the same way. Really the whole point on this, is that the chicken isn't directly on a flat surface.

Get creative in your kitchen and give this method a try. 

Now is the fun part! Making the southwest flavour for the chicken. In the book, chef Michael gives you a few varieties, which all sound great! I went with the southwest option as I thought the idea of beans and tomatoes piled high on a chicken breast sounded mouthwatering.

 Into my slightly turned down pan ;) .. I added my onion, garlic and red pepper, cautiously. I was seriously awaiting a grey plume of smoke, but it worked out! 

Now I was suppose to add my chilli pepper at this point, but forgot. 

I actually added it in after my tomatoes and beans made their appearance.

oops... 

 10 points for me having a beautiful colour in my pan this time, instead of a black burned mess haha! 

While my flavours were coming together in the pan, I rinsed my black beans.

At this point I added my beans, tomatoes and forgotten chilli powder. 

How nice does this pan look? I bet you can imagine how fanatic the whole works smelled too! 

I let this all come together for a few minutes and brought everything back to a simmer. 

Next the chicken breast gets put back into the pan to complete the cooking process.

Now make sure that your pan has a nice fitting lid. You really want to keep that heat in. 

You will not believe that this process is as fast as it is. 

During the cooking process, I opened the lid once to give the chicken a flip so that it was cooked evenly. Easy as pie! 

Is it dinner yet?, it smelled sooooo good! 

 So after about 10 minutes my chicken was cooked. If you haven't invested in a kitchen thermometer, get yourself one. I have yet to overcook a cut of meat since I purchased one.

Its the fail proof way of knowing when things are done. 

Now I laid my chicken breast on a bed of brown rice as suggested in the recipe. I also topped my chicken breast with all the tomatoes and beans I could pile on. As the final touch, some Cilantro leaves and lime are added to the plate as well. 

Time for the first bite! I made sure to get a little bit of everything on my fork to get the whole flavour experience. WOW! Such a moist piece of chicken, with SO MUCH FLAVOUR! 

Now my kids and mom were not into the cilantro topping, I guess its an acquired taste, however I think its at least worth a try. It makes the dish taste really fresh, I really enjoyed the extra taste it gave.

My dining room fell silent as everyone devoured their meal.

All in all I think this a great way to expand your chicken breast cooking habits. In about 20 minutes you have a wonderful dish on your table. I know that I will be working this into our weekly meal plans. Chef Michael gives so many options to change this recipe for your desired flavour. 

I paired this dish with recipe 12- Green Apple Salad. It was a fantastic combination. 

http://100recipesin52weeks.blogspot.ca/2014/02/recipe-12-green-apple-salad.html

As always my compliments to the chef and cheers to you, my friends! 

If you would like to keep up to date on my kitchen adventures you can follow me on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram! 

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