Recipe 33- Slow Poached Shrimp Cocktail

Recipe 33- Slow Poached Shrimp Cocktail 

I quite enjoyed whipping up these poached shrimp. It really is a nice take on the typical cold rubbery shrimp rings you can buy at the store. This recipe gives the shrimp so much FLAVOUR an making your own cocktail sauce will make you feel like a 'top notch' chef. 

I started by bringing my frozen uncooked shrimp from the freezer. I let it thaw but kept the shrimp chilly in the fridge until it came time to poach. 

The sauce was pretty simple to throw together. I had everything on hand except the Horseradish. 

I am glad that I now have some in the kitchen, I forgot how tasty it was. 

Into a mixing bowl I added some ketchup, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce ( you think its hard to say ?, try typing it haha) and the zest and juice of a lemon. 

Now we can all have a little laugh to ourselves on my account. I have always purchased store style seafood sauce when I have a shrimp ring. I seriously thought the white flecks in the sauce was actual seafood.... Guess I was wrong haha! 

I just had to add that, because I am hoping I am not the only one out there that thought that :) 

Next I moved over to my stove to start working on the shrimp. 

Into the pot went some water, sliced onions and garlic and a few bay leaves. 

My friend Craig that went to Chef School used the fancy name they use for this concoction: 

"Court- Bouillon"

You can use it to when you make this recipe, it will really impress friends when you serve it! 

Everything is brought to a simmer on med-high heat, the flavours really come together and they smell fantastic. 

Now it was time for the shrimp. They literally get tossed into the pot, given a quick stir and the lid is placed on top. The heat gets turned off and the shrimp are left to poach for 10 mins. 

In the picture below, the second the shrimp hit that hot liquid they already start to turn that lovely shade of pink

10 minutes later, I plucked my shrimp from the broth and let them cool before peeling.

Now I got fancy just like Chef Michael has in the book. I found a nice cocktail glass and dressed it up pretty for my regular monday night group of friends. 

I have to say, this is one of the fanciest treats we have had on a monday night 'friend' gathering.

The shrimp was perfectly cooked and I just loved the flavour from the poaching process.

And the cocktail sauce was beyond excellent. 

This sauce recipe made an entire mason jar full and this will be stored in my fridge for many more repeats on this recipe. 

This would be a great way to "wow" your guests at your next party or get together. 

Chef Michael also gives a few variations in the recipe, not only for the poaching liquid, but also for the cocktail sauce. It really opens the door to many new flavours you could bring to this recipe! 

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

Recipe 32- Hot And Sour Broth with Asian Noodles

Recipe 32- Hot And Sour Broth with Asian Noodles 

If you need a quick and easy throw together meal, then this is it!  

I was shocked when I looked at my clock after cooking and realized it only took maybe 20 mins to get this restaurant quality soup to the table. 

This is what I have been loving about cooking with Chef Michaels book. 

These recipes are not only delicious and healthy, but there are a ton that take minimal time. 

I am a busy mom of 3 little ones and when dinner time hits, its a mad dash to get everyone fed in a timely fashion. 

Now this recipe took some planning. My kitchen has become well equipped with ingredients since the beginning of January this year. But I did not have a lot of these ingredients on hand. 

To start off, I chopped some Shiitake mushrooms and grated one carrot. 

My mom was visiting that day, and was watching me prepare. She said " what is thattttt!?" when she saw the mushrooms. They are a little weird looking and this was the first time I had cooked with them. 

Into a large saucepan I tossed in the mushrooms, carrot, frozen edamame some chicken broth, soy sauce and sambal. 

As you can see in the pic above, I bought the biggest jar of sambal known to man, because that was all that was available. I need to find more recipes for this ingredient, its a spicy chilli paste. I wasn't sure what it would be like, so I did a taste test and wow... yep its hot!  The one teaspoon required gives this soup the perfect "heat" 

While the soup in simmering, I worked on the thickening agent part of the soup. 

I measured out some rice wine vinegar and then some cornstarch. Both are whisked together and then added to the soup. 

I added the cornstarch mixture to the soup and let it simmer a few minutes longer.

This nicely thickens the soup. 

Next in went the Udon noodles. These were completely new to me. I opened the package and gave it a smell. They don't smell weird but they did look like worms haha! 

My oldest daughter pointed that out as they went into the pot. 

To finish off the soup, I added in some sliced green onions and some sesame oil. 

Sesame oil was also new to me and wow, is this stuff ever potent. I tried a little on my finger before pouring it in, and the flavour lingers for a long time. Chef Michael says to freeze a piece of ginger prior to making this recipe. It makes for easier grating. I added some grated ginger and gave it all a stir. 

So as the soup was cooking, I took in all the smells and tasted it a few times. I am going to be honest, I was unsure my kids were going to like this one. It defiantly had a unique taste and I was unsure if it would be something I would even enjoy. While this was cooking I whipped up some pasta and sauce just incase. 

Well to my surprise, when it was all said and done and served up we were ALL pleasantly surprised.

I am not a huge fan of asian style cooking, and really haven't had a ton of dishes. 

My whole family was in love with the flavour of this soup.

Its a perfect balance and the noodles are delicious. They were one of my favourites in this dish. 

My mom said " yes, I could eat a lot of this and make is again at home"

Needless to say, all those extra ingredients will be coming in handy in the future, we will be making this many more times. You can't go wrong with this one, fast and super tasty! 

I really like being pushed to try new things and I love that my kids are getting the opportunity at a young age to branch out and try new things as well.

If this doesn't tell you how good it was, I am not sure what will! 

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

Recipe 31- Cottage Blog- Tomato Basil Quinoa Salad

Recipe 31- Cottage Blog- Tomato Basil Quinoa Salad

Here we are with Part 2 of "the cottage" blog! 

I served Recipe 30- Brazilian Grilled Steak with Salsa Criolla with this deliciously fresh salad.

I have to say that cooking up in the cottage was a great challenge and I can't wait to choose my next recipe to take up to Tobermory in the next few weeks. 

Like I had said in my last "Cottage Blog", the kitchen is very minimal when it comes to gadgets and even standard cooking supplies. I thought I had thought of EVERYTHING I could possibly need, until I read back over the recipe. 

The beginning of this recipe calls to well wash and drain your quinoa before boiling. 

At home this would be a simple feat... A mesh strainer does the trick! 

Guess what we didn't have at the cottage? 

A mesh strainer.

This is when I turned in Macgyver! 

So I had pre measured the quinoa and stored it in a mason jar for the travel to the cottage.

This came in very useful. I added some bottled water to the mason jar... Did I mention we didn't have running water either? I gave the jar a shake and this is when it got interesting. 

I took a coffee filter, put it into a drinking glass and poured my quinoa in and let it drain.

TADAAA! well washed and drained quinoa. Worked great, just took a little extra time. 

My next step with the quinoa was to give it a nice toasting before cooking.

A little oil went into the pot and then I let it toast for a few minutes. I have cooked quinoa before and never used this step, but thanks to Chef Michael, I learn something new every time I cook. 

Water is then added, some salt and pepper and the Quinoa is left to cook for about 15 minutes or until tender. I quite enjoy the nutty smell quinoa gives off while it cooks away. 

After 15 minutes or so the water has completely been absorbed and you are left with light and fluffy quinoa. Its left to cool down to room temp. This is when I started into the chopping and preparing of the rest of the salad. 

But not before I had a few spoonfuls of the cooked quinoa, its hard to resist. 

I chopped up ANOTHER 2 pints of cherry tomatoes, and thinly sliced some red onions. I also lightly chopped the basil leaves.

One thing I will be bringing for the next "cottage blog" will be some knives from home. 

Using a bread knife and a small paring knife that was dull, made cooking a whole lot more interesting :) 

Next I started working on the dressing. Into the mason jar went balsamic vinegar, olive oil, honey and dijon mustard. Let me just say, these ingredients all together make one DELICIOUS dressing that could be used on ANY salad. 

At this point, the dressing is added to the chopped tomatoes,onions and basil and given a good stir. 

I then added my cooled quinoa and gave it another good stir.

Now this salad was served with the Brazillan grilled steak with salsa criolla.
It was a delicious pair together, however the ingredients are somewhat similar, so it may be better to pair with another dish. Either way this salad was a huge HIT!
It was fresh and delicious, perfect ending to a hot day at the cottage.
 I think this is a great recipe to try out quinoa if you have never had it before.
The quinoa in this salad made it very unique and very healthy.
This recipe makes a very large amount, but it is great for leftovers the next day!

I hope you all have enjoyed this addition to the blog postings. I anticipate a few more "Cottage blogs" over the summer. I love being able to share the recipes, but also my experiences along the way no matter what the circumstances... even under equipped kitchens ;) 

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

Recipe 30- Cottage Blog- Brazillian Grilled Steak with Salsa Criolla

Recipe 30- Cottage Blog- Brazilian Grilled Steak with Salsa Criolla 

Welcome to Recipe 30 and my first "cottage" blog.

Whats a cottage blog you ask?

Well I have selected a few recipes from the book that I will be making up at our family cottage in Tobermory, Ontario. 

This cottage is small and not meant for cooking elaborate recipes. There is very minimal kitchen supplies and gadgets and I wanted to test myself and see if I could pull off these recipes without the comforts of my well stocked kitchen at home. 

It was such a nice getaway for me and the family after being so ill. Fresh air and the outdoors are the best medicine. We drove to the cottage on Friday and it takes approx.3 hours from our home. We went into town and had dinner that night at the "Crows Nest Pub" 

If you ever have a chance to visit Tobermory, this is the place to eat. They have excellent food and you can't visit Tobermory without having the local Whitefish Dinner.

The following day, we headed back into town for some needed ingredients. Now I had planned ahead and packed pretty much everything I needed, but somehow misread my recipe.

 It called for "Red Wine Vinegar" and I brought " Rice Wine Vinegar" Luckily the ONLY grocery store in town that has just the basics, had some. I also needed parsley. 

Guess what?.... none to be found!! 

On our drive back to the cottage there was a road side sign that said 

" Hay, Rhubarb and Parsley" 

HA! Awesome! 

After a long windy dirt road and pulling up to a small shack, there was a man that had a very large well tended garden. He let me snip some fresh parsley and charged me $1.00

I have to say, this parsley was better then what I have seen in store. 

Saturday afternoon after I had collected my last 2 needed ingredients I got to work on the Salsa.

Chef Michael suggests that you make this ahead, even days before use, but you can make it fresh as well and use it the same day. I figured a few hours before dinner time would give it some time for all the flavours to come together. 

So to start, you add garlic, jalapeño pepper, red wine vinegar and some olive oil, salt and Oregano into a food processor.                            Now like I said before, we have minimal kitchen tools at the cottage, that includes a food processor.       My mom sells Tupperware they have a GENIUS food chopper that works like a dream! She brought this up for me to use.                                           I am telling you, skip buying a bulky food processor and get one of these. It works so well, that I may have to buy one myself.                               Its called a Quick Chef Pro System.   Next I gave this chopper a couple of quick spins until the mixture is smooth. The blades in the food processor are so sharp it takes minimal effort.    

Next I added in my chopped green bell pepper and gave everything a couple more spins.                               When you open the lid you are left with PERFECT consistently salsa.
Now as you can see, there is some liquid around the salsa, this is why you want to make it a little ahead of time. This liquid will absorb into your other ingredients and perfectly marinate them.

Next I chopped my cherry tomatoes, this recipe calls for 2 pints.. this is a lot of slicing! Each one gets halved. I also thinly sliced some red onion. This whole chopping part was quite a task, I had one flimsy paring knife and a serrated bread knife available in the kitchen. I am lucky I have all my fingers. :) 

Everything is put into a large bowl and your blended salsa mixture is added. 

I then chopped my fresh parsley and gave everything a good stir. 

Before this was tightly wrapped with plastic wrap and left to marinate in the fridge, it took and outdoor tour of the cottage to give everyone a good sniff of this concoction! 

Needless to say, no one could wait for dinner.

A few hours later, I brought out the steak and let it come to room temp. This does wonders for cooking a juicy steak, give it a try. 

I made the spice rub for the steaks. This included some cumin, garlic powder, onion powder, dry mustard and ground oregano. Once again I did not have ground Oregano and could not find it, so I used the leaf version, it worked just fine. 

The recipe then calls to add everything to a spice jar and give the steaks a sprinkle of the seasoning and massage it into the meat. I used about a tsp worth of seasoning per side.

Next I headed outdoors and fired up the mini BBQ. 

Once it was hot the steaks went on and were cooked about 5min per side and were done perfectly. 

I let them sit for about 5 or so minutes before topping with the salsa. 

These steaks once assembled are a thing of beauty! 

The colours and flavours are so vibrant and fresh. This is a perfect way to dress up those summertime BBQ steaks.

Upon first bite, I was in utter shock. Between the salsa and the seasoning on each steak it was just truly amazing. I could not believe I pulled this all off in one tiny cottage kitchen with minimal tools.

This recipe is steak house quality hands down. If you are having a summer dinner party and thinking about steak, wow your guests or family with THIS recipe! 

This recipe also makes a ton of salsa! You could easily add another 3 or more steaks and have more then enough salsa for each. Or you could use the leftovers for some killer nachos! 

Get out there this summer and fire up those grills, this is defiantly NOT a recipe to pass up! 

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

Keep and eye out for Recipe 31 which is also a Cottage Blog.

Tomato & Basil Quinoa Salad

This was served along side the steaks. 

Recipe 29- Lentil Tacos

Recipe 29- Lentil Tacos 

I have been eyeing this recipe in the book for quite sometime. If your family is anything like mine, then you probably make tacos at least once a month. My kids have been huge lovers of taco night and really look forward to it. I thought this recipe would be an interesting take on the traditional ground beef style taco. I was also wondering how it would go over with my kids. 

This recipe is also a fairly easy one, it just takes a little thinking ahead. Lentils take some time to cook and become tender. In this case it took about 35-40 mins. But don't be discouraged by time with this one. I was pleasantly surprised at how delicious the lentils are when dressed up with the taco seasonings. 

I sliced up some onions and garlic, shed plenty of tears in the process. My husband said " are you about to burst out crying?" ... Well yes, yes I am... stupid onions! :) 

Everything went into my large skillet and were left to soften. I then added in my seasoning. 

Now in the picture below is my spice drawer. I built this myself a few months ago when my spice collection was rapidly growing making all of these recipes. 

I dug into the drawer and pulled out the chilli pepper and cumin. Now the recipe called for ground cumin and all I had was cumin seeds. 

HOW DO I NOT HAVE GROUND CUMIN IN ALL OF THESE OPTIONS!? 

Stupid me decided to be crafty and try and smash the seeds with my marble rolling pin and a baggie filled with seeds. This DOES NOT WORK. 

I gave up and tossed the seeds in and hoped for the best. PS, they worked out just fine! 

After the spices have had a few minutes to warm up in the pan, next came the lentils. I measured out my lentils and water and in they went. They are left to cook in the pan with a tight fitting lid until they are soft and tender.

While the lentils were cooking away, I started to prepare my toppings for he tacos. 

Now the assembly of these tacos is quite genius in my opinion. 

First you lay down a soft tortilla, then add a leaf of lettuce. A hard shelled taco is added next. 

This method hold those inevitably broken hard taco shells together while you dig in, but it also adds the the greatest texture of soft and crunchy in one bite! To be honest, from here on out, this is how tacos will be made in our house. 

Our selection of toppings were some tex mex cheese, corn & bean salsa and some cilantro. 

About 40 minutes later, my lentils were done cooking and the lovely aroma of the spices were hovering in my kitchen. I also had many tiny visitors coming to check in on the progress of the beloved tacos. 

The kids were ready to eat! 

I spooned in the lentil filling and then topped it off with cheese, salsa and cilantro. I could not wait to dig in and compare how this held up to our monthly taco night.

I was shocked! 

These were DELICIOUS!

I can't tell you how many times I said "wow" as I ate these, it was a lot! 

The kids also really enjoyed these tacos and even my apprehensive husband agreed that they were great. He wasn't too sure about the lentils, but I think this changed his mind. 

The tacos were gobbled down in no time and we had plenty of leftovers for the next day.

I will quote myself here " If I closed my eyes and bit into this taco, I would not know it wasn't meat" 

The spice seasoning in these is so well done, that it would be very hard to tell between meat and lentils.

The lentils had a mild flavouring and when its amongst all the other flavours, its just as good or even better then the meat option. 

These are a MUST try! I think this would be a great way to introduce lentils into your cooking, I think you will be pleasantly surprised by how great they are, and hey maybe you can convert your family or kids as well. :) 

I can't wait to make these again! 

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

Also if you are interested in lentils and some great recipes, Check out Chef Michael Smith and his journey as the "lentil hunter". He has recently released a web series about his travels and cooking with lentils. He also has some great recipes available as well. 

His videos are just jaw dropping, and gave me a huge urge to travel! 

Check them out! 

 http://www.lentils.ca/lentilhunter/

Recipe 28- Spaghetti with Homemade Tomato Sauce

Recipe 28- Spaghetti with Homemade Tomato Sauce 

After a long 2+ weeks of recovering from Pneumonia, I have finally retuned to my kitchen and Blog.

Man it feels good! 

As you may of read in my last post,  I have been struggling with non stop ear infections. On May 17th I thought I had been hit yet again with another terrible infection. Turns out I had a very severe case of Pneumonia and was admitted to the hospital for 4 days. When I finally had come around to eating, I had to snap some pictures of the terrible hospital food to add them to my blog.

 All I could think about was how delicious a 'Michael Smith" dish would be. Unfortunately, I had to wait another  LONG week after being discharged to finally have enough of an appetite to get back in my kitchen and cook. 

I really appreciate your patience for waiting for me to get back on my feet and getting back to my blog.

Now we can all let out a HUGE "ewwwww" at how nasty hospital food is....

How do people get well eating this stuff!?!? 

As you can see from above, it was some horrible meals (I didn't eat much of them). When I was finally able to cook, I was really craving some true comfort food. Whats better then traditional Spaghetti & Sauce!? 

I started off with the sauce, which was a really easy thing to throw together.

I chopped my onions and garlic and got my pot of water on the stove for the pasta. 

One thing that Chef Michael says in the recipe, is to well salt your pasta water. 

He says the saltiness of the water should remind you of a " fresh day at the beach".

I feel like this is a very important tip, I have used it lots of times since watching his show and reading this book. It really helps the flavouring of the bland pasta. 

Next up, I pulled out my favourite skillet to start working on the sauce. 

A little olive oil and the onion are garlic are added to the pan. They are sautéed for a few minutes and then the tomatoes are added. I used whole San Marzano tomatoes and just crushed them by hand. These have become my new favourite canned tomatoes because the freshness is just amazing. 

  The sauce mixture is seasoned with some salt, pepper and traditional Oregano or Thyme. I used Oregano since that is what I had on hand. 

While my sauce was simmering away, my pot was ready to have the spaghetti tossed in. 

I also whipped up some homemade garlic butter for breadsticks. 

1/2c.cows creamery butter

4 minced cloves of garlic

small bundle of fresh cut chives, chopped small.

I whipped it all together in a bowl and spread the butter on some leftover hot dog buns split in half. 

I later on put these under the broiler for a few minutes and they made an excellent addition to this meal. 

I made sure that my pasta was just cooked to al dente, I really hate overcooked pasta. 

I made sure to test my noodles often, I wanted to make sure they did not become overcooked.. and not to mention the smells of my kitchen were making me starving, so slightly crunchy spaghetti noodles would have to do haha! Anyone else do this? 

All in, I think this recipe took me about 20 mins to prepare and get to my table. 

The sauce is an excellent vessel to either add meat (ground beef, chicken) or even meatballs. Chef Michael also has an excellent meatball recipe available online that I think EVERYONE should try, they are to DIE for! 

This recipe was absolutely delicious on its own with no added meat. It was also so quick and easy that it would make a great week day meal for anyone. 

I also added freshly grated parmesan cheese to the top. YUM! 

My kids and husband were very quiet while enjoying dinner and the plates were empty in no time. I think everyone was secretly craving Chef Michaels recipes as much as I was! 

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

Keep an eye out this week for a new blog post EVERYDAY! 

I have been busy catching up on cooking, so this week will be 

"Michael Smithpalooza" 

Lots of cooking and lots of blog posts!