WORTH SHARING A MILLION TIMES: MISO AND MAPLE SYRUP GLAZE

I think of this blog pretty much every day but I’m a terrible friend to it. I neglect it and don’t really take care of it. But today is a day I decide to make an effort to make it happy… to make it smile!

Be prepared, this terribly simple recipe is super delectable and your entire family will love it, including kids and babies… I’ve tried it and it works. You want a nice fast and healthy dinner? This is the best recipe you’ll have tried in months!! I made mine with nice jasmine rice and garlic spinach. The fish took 12 minutes to make (4 to prepare, 8 to cook), which is less than the rice, which took 20! Try to beat that Jamie Oliver with your 30 minutes meal!!!

Picture taken for Ricardo's website... I didn't have time to take a picture myself!

MISO AND MAPLE SYRUP GLAZE

Makes 2 large fillets or 4 fish steaks

(Good for salmon, trout, pork and chicken)

INGREDIENTS

¼ cup maple syrup

2 tbsp miso paste

2 tbsp grapeseed oil (or olive oil)

2 green onions or 1 shallot, finely chopped

1 tbsp sambal olek (or an asian hot sauce)

1 tsp curry powder

½ tsp Sichuan peppercorns, crushed

PREPARATION

Sauce

Blend together all of the ingredients.

Cooking the fish

Place 4 fish steaks or 2 large fillets of your choice on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper (the sauce will caramelized once cooked) and generously brush with the miso and maple syrup glaze. Bake in the center of the oven, under the broiler, for 5 to 10 minutes, depending on the type of fish, or until cooked (be careful not to overcook your fish). Serve hot with rice and a nice green vegetable!!

Red Snapper For An Easy Weeknight

I find that I always eat the same kind of fish… and it gets me bored. I absolutely love salmon in all its forms (except when it’s overcooked) but I need a change once in a while. So the other day I was at Adonis, an amazing supermarket here in Montreal (we don’t have Whole Foods yet but we have Adonis!) and was looking at the fish they had… and they had this great looking Red Snapper that got me going! I found a nice looking recipe on the web and modified it a little. It was fantastic! If you try it with my previous quinoa recipe I promise you a great meal!

CREOLE RED SNAPPER FILLETS

Makes 2 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 red snapper fillets (or 1 entire fish if you know how to make your own fillets!)

4 tbsp butter, cut in small dices

1 garlic clove, minced

6 drops of Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp Creole or Cajun seasoning (with salt)

Pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven at 400˚F.

In a small bowl, melt the butter. Add the garlic, Worcestershire, Creole seasoning and pepper. Mix well.

Place your fillets in an ovenproof dish. Evenly spread the butter mixture on top. Cook in the oven for about 10 minutes. 

Rough Night... Nice And Tasty Side: Quinoa

Rough night!! Last night I made food for 125 people. You read that right! Not 12 but 125 hungry, eager eaters. It was absolutely A-M-A-Z-I-N-G (in my own opinion!). Making food for such a great number of people is an obvious challenge, not such in terms of food itself but it terms of planning. Preparing food is not just about putting good ingredients together; it’s also about planning each and every step of the way as well as attaining a perfect timing. Food needs to be fresh and tasty; hot and striking. This kind of an experience is also an incredible rush, a true flood or adrenaline… And one could get hooked to it. I must say I loooove a good challenge and this one, which was given to me by trustful people (thank you, you know who you are!), was one I took on like a bull and ended like a swan (I know, that sounds weird but I felt it ended in such a graceful way that it made me feel like a swan!!).

Anyways, when you go through such a rush of adrenaline, you need a really good break. The glass of wine at the end of the night was absolutely well deserved and the chatting and mingling with the people who devoured the food was a breeze, a relaxing and unwinding moment. Today, I might need more than my usual single cup of coffee and a take out dinner tonight might be what we end up eating. Because spending such great time in your kitchen means hours of pleasure, you still need to get away from it once in a while. It’s like great love: you need a little bit of space here and there to remember how big your love is when you get back to it!

On this note, enjoy some easy quinoa today (or tomorrow!) and enjoy a beautiful day!

QUINOA SIDEDISH

Makes about 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 cup quinoa

2 cups chicken broth

1 dried chipotle

1 tbsp olive oil

½ onion, finely diced

½ red bell pepper, finely diced

1 garlic clove, minced

PREPARATION

In a small pot, put your quinoa, chicken broth and chipotle. Bring the broth to a boil. Bring the heat down and cook for about 20 minutes.

In a small pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the onions and the peppers and cook for a few minutes. Add the garlic and cook for another minute or two. Take off the heat.

When the quinoa is ready, add in the cooked onions and peppers. Mix well and serve immediately.

Roasted Chicken Never Goes Out Of Style

If I had to pick one ingredient to bring on a deserted island and if I had to eat day after day, I think it would be chicken. I just never get bored of it and you can prepare it in so many different ways. The possibilities with chicken are endless. There simply are not rules as to how to prepare it. On top of it, if you like the brown part better (which is the case for me!), it’s a pretty cheap meat to buy and won’t make a whole in your pocket!

I was having a hard time this summer cooking some nice warm meals. I’m more of a fish and salad kind of person during the summer but now that the fall is almost over and that winter is knocking at our doors, I’m back in the mood of cooking some heartwarming dishes. This is a super easy one perfect for nice family dinners.

SIMPLE ROASTED CHICKEN

Makes 4 to 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 big chicken (ideally free –range or organic)

½ cup butter, in cubes

1 tbsp olive oil

1 lemon

½ onion, chopped

½ cup Vermouth

½ cup chicken broth

1 cup mushrooms (optional)

Kosher salt and pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven at 475˚F.

Put the onions and the mushrooms at the bottom of an ovenproof deep dish. Poor the Vermouth and chicken broth on top. Season with salt & pepper.

On a cutting board, take the chicken and delicately lift the skin off. Put some butter cubes under the skin all around the chicken. Once you’re done, place it breast side up on top of the onions and mushrooms. Drizzle the olive oil on top of the chicken. Season with salt and pepper.

Take the lemon and carefully prick it all over, using the tip of a sharp knife and stuff it in the “bottom” of the chicken (in its cavity!).

Put the ovenproof dish in the oven and immediately bring the heat down to 400˚F. Cook the chicken for 1 hour and 20 minutes.

When ready, place your chicken on a cutting board and let it rest for 10 to 15 minutes. Carve out the chicken and serve immediately.

Note: Putting a lemon inside the chicken will tenderize the meat.

If you’d like to make a full dish out of this, you can add some potatoes. The best way is to add them in about half an hour after you’ve put the chicken in (about 50 minutes left). 

Learning To Multitask With A Simple Macaroni And Cheese

I said it yesterday, I’m really busy these days… and aren’t we all? That’s why once in a while a good old frozen dinner comes in handy. But I ain’t no gal to accept supermarket frozen dinners. Nope. I have to say it, that’s just something I refuse to buy (no offense to those who do!). So once in a while I’ve got to make my own frozen stuff. I make it and then it’s there, cold as hell, waiting to be picked and warmed up to feed our family.

So what can you easily make and freeze? Sure, there’s the classic Sheppard’s pie, spaghetti sauce or even chili con carne. But another classic, which is always nice to have handy: macaroni and cheese. Try any version, it’s quite easy to make, and then freeze it… keep it for the good occasions; the days when you just don’t have the time to cook a good meal for your loved ones.

MACARONI AND CHEESE

Make about 6 servings

INGREDIENTS

1 shallot, finely diced

6 garlic cloves, minced

3 tbsp butter

2 tbsp flour

3 cups milk

2 cups of cheese mix (my choice: Emmenthal, Gruyère and parmesan)

1 cup of you favorite ham, in tiny dices

Salt

White pepper

2 cups baby spinach (optinal)

450g macaroni pasta

Chives (for decoration)

PREPARATION

In a saucepan, heat the butter over medium heat. Add the shallot and garlic and cook for a minute or two.

 

Over low heat, add the flour and make a paste. Cook for a minute. Slowly add in the milk and make a béchamel sauce. Never stop mixing.

When the sauce is nice and thick, incorporate the ham and cheeses (keep about ½ cup on the side for later). Blend well. Add salt and pepper to taste. Cut the heat.

Cook your pasta very al dente in salt water. Add the pasta to the béchamel sauce and delicately blend. If you want to add vegetables to your dish, lay the baby spinach at the bottom of a baking pan. Pour the cheese noodles on top. Spread the leftover cheese on top.

When ready to serve, unfreeze (or cook right away) and cook in the oven for about 30 minutes at 450˚F or until the cheese is nice, golden and crispy.

Chop some chives and sprinkle on top of your serving plates.

Our Family Classic Mushroom Chicken

This recipe you should love. On a rainy day like this one it will save your life and bring a little bit of sunshine in your house. It’s a classic in our family. Can you believe my mom used to make it on camping trips when she was on her honeymoon (yep, my parents spent their honeymoon camping!)? It’s THAT easy! You could make it on a small burner on a deserted island in the middle of the woods. If you can’t pull this one off, then no one can.

It’s a very simple chicken recipe. You could bring it to it’s simplest version by just using the canned soup but hey, if you’re at home you can jazz it up by adding only a few ingredients which will even make this recipe look fancy. You don’t have any time on your hands? The rain is totally depressing you? You just don’t know what to prepare for dinner? Try this and thank me later!

OUR FAMILY CLASSIC MUSHROOM CHICKEN

Makes 4 servings

 

INGREDIENTS

4 chicken thighs or breasts

1 big can (or 2 small cans) of cream of mushroom
1 onion, finely chopped

1 ½ cups fresh mushrooms, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

Salt & pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven at 375˚F.

In a large ovenproof dish, lay your chicken. Cover with salt & pepper, onions, garlic, mushrooms and the soup. Put in the oven for 1 hour (for thighs, about40 minutes for breasts or until the meat is thoroughly cooked).

Note: If you want to make this dish full without having to fuss with side veggies, try adding diced potatoes to the whole things and voilà, you've got a meal in a dish!! 

Super Easy Weekday Fish Night

I don’t know what it is with fish these days but I’m totally digging it on weeknights. I’m terribly sorry for those who don’t like fish but I just can’t resist a good sea beast! My husband would love for me to cook meat everyday… a meal isn’t’ complete without the meat, he says… but I still manage to include loads of fish in our diet by making a variety of tasty recipes.

The other day my fridge was close to empty so I had to figure out a different way to cook my Cod. Have you ever done that? Open the fridge and see what’s inside? Really look closely. If you’re one of those who buys nothing but the strict essential, then your fridge is probably empty. But if you’re one like me who stacks up on loads of different little non-perishable products, then you probably have something in there that could be mixed with something else, and then something else! The addition of all the ingredients will end up either making a magical meal… or a disgusting one (that happens sometimes when you take a risk!). Opening the fridge and working this way is my method of choice during the week. I rarely have a planned recipe. I just love going with the flow and improvising on a weeknight.

This fish was one of my successes!! Super simple, all you need are a few ingredients. Then you pop the goody in the oven and you wait! Make a nice vegetable on the side and no one at the table should be complaining!

Oh yeah and please forgive me, I was going so fast (that happens sometimes when you have 2 babies!!) I didn’t have time to take a lot of pictures… I hope you still get a good idea of what it looks like and how to make it.

FREESTYLE BLACK OLIVE WHITE FISH

Makes about 2 servings

INGREDIENTS

2 Cod fillets (or other white flesh fish)

1 cup mayonnaise

4 garlic cloves, finely chopped

1 cup mushrooms, sliced

½ cup black olives, pitiless

1 tbsp fresh thyme

1 tbsp fresh chives

Salt & pepper

PREPARATION

Preheat your oven at 425˚F.

In a small bowl, mix the mayo, garlic, salt and pepper.

Put you fillets in an ovenproof dish. Spread the mayo on top of the fillets. Cover them with the mushrooms, olives, thyme and chives.

Put in the oven and cook for 10-12 minutes or until the flesh is tender and flaky.