Prawn Saganaki

Yes, Alberta is indeed landlocked, but other parts of the world are in full seafood swing and I can't help but want a piece of the action. I have been stocking up on fish and prawns, eating what I can fresh and freezing the rest. Chances are there will be a few other seafood posts to follow.

Might have been the bread that sold me on this dish, or perhaps the fact that I already had shrimp and tomato paste and this recipe calls for both. There's something very satisfying about being able to use an entire can of tomato paste vs. the tablespoon you need for one recipe. Either way, this turned out to be a good decision. The acidic tomato and wine base simmered together with sweet prawns made for a lovely light dinner. I opted to buy naan bread and heat it on a grill before serving it to sop up the tomato sauce. French bread or another loaf of your choosing would work just as well. If you're fearful of bread try serving it over potatoes or rice. Remember to drink the leftover white with it!















From:https://closeencountersofthecookingkind.com

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 T olive oil
• 1/2 yellow onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 T tomato paste
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1, 400ml can of diced tomatoes
• 1 t granulated sugar
• 1/2 red pepper flakes
• 350g raw shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 125g feta, crumbled
• handful of flat leaf parsley or cilantro to garnish

Method

Preheat the oven to 350F. In a cast iron pan, heat the olive oil. Add the onion stir, cooking for 3 minutes. Add the garlic and let simmer for 1 minute. Add the tomato paste and combine thoroughly with the garlic and onion. Pour in the wine and allow to simmer until the liquid has been reduced by half. Add the tomatoes, sugar and red pepper flakes and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the shrimp and sprinkle the feta over the pan. Place in the oven and let bake for 10 minutes. Remove and sprinkle the parsley/cilantro over top.

Serve with plenty of bread to sop up the tomato sauce.

Monkfish with Olive Paste & Lemon Mash

With Ruedi's return to YEG, we have quickly settled into a few habitual affairs; one of them being a Saturday visit to the City Market Downtown. Fresh fruit, eggs and pastry to tide us until lunch are the usual takeaways. This time we cruised by Ocean Odyssey Inland which sells wild seafood, including a wide array of fish from Iceland. We picked up a few small pieces of Monkfish for dinner; pricey little numbers, but they have a hearty texture I really enjoy. If Monkfish isn't an option for you, you can still pull this recipe off with other white fish. The original recipe courtesy of Jamie Oliver includes a rub of rosemary and lemon zest for the fish, but I ran out of time and figured the fish would be lovely either way. I used less fish than the recipe calls for and ended up with quite a bit of leftover olive paste. The extra I combined with a rice and lentil mix topped with cilantro, avocado and tomatoes for my lunches. Worked quite well, thank you.

If you live in Edmonton and haven't been to the City Market, I highly recommend a visit. We often go just to people watch since there's usually a good turnout in the summer. The market moves outdoors between the May and Thanksgiving long weekends on 104th Street between Jasper Ave and 103rd. Be sure to pick up a few gougeres at Dauphine to keep your strength up during your visit.

Adapted From: http://www.jamieoliver.com

Serves 4

The Fish

• sea salt
• 4, 200g Monkfish fillets
• olive oil

Olive Paste

• 2 handfuls of black, pitted olives loosely chopped (I chose Kalamata)
• 1 fresh red chili, minced (had orange Habaneros, but red chili would be best)
• handful of fresh herbs finely chopped (basil, cilantro, parsley)
• 1 heart of celery, minced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• juice of 1 lemon
• freshly ground pepper
• a few swigs of olive oil
• balsamic vinegar to taste

Lemon Mash

• 1 kg of russet potatoes, peeled and chopped
• sea salt
• butter
• ground pepper
• milk 
• juice of 1 lemon

Method

To prepare the fish, salt it in advance and let it sit for at least 30 minutes to allow the juices to release. Heat barbecue grill on high (400F). Place fillets on grill and cook for  2-4 minutes each side. Ours were about an inch thick and took 4 minutes each side, but you'll want to gauge your time carefully. The meaty texture can take a little more abuse than lighter fillets of fish, but over cooking fish is easy to do.

To make the olive paste combine all the ingredients and set aside. When ready to serve, taste the mix and add a little of the balsamic vinegar if a little extra kick is needed.

For the mash, heat a large pot of salted, boiling water. Add the potatoes and let cook for about 15 minutes, or until they can be pierced easily with a fork. Remove from heat and dump the water. Add a hearty nub of butter, about a half cup of milk and the lemon juice and blend with a hand mixer. Do not over mix the potatoes! They become starchy if blended for two long. Add more milk and butter to get your desired texture and salt and pepper to taste.

Liquor Cabinet One-Pot Chicken Bake

If you're wondering where the chicken is, it's under there in a booze-induced coma.

See! And because it's been soaking in liquor for 90 minutes, it falls apart like a Robert Hall suit.

I have renamed this gem, the Liquor Cabinet One-Pot Chicken Bake because as the chef, you may take liberties with your choice of alcohol. The chef I pilfered this recipe from opted for white wine, brandy and port. I went with red because I get to drink what I don't cook with and I prefer to drink red. I also don't have brandy on hand. I never have brandy on hand. Vermouth felt like a good trade off.

I went with skinless chicken thighs because they were available and frankly I could benefit from a little less fat. If you're interested in a richer flavour, then get yourself some good quality chicken meat and some with the skin on. I'm adding this to my 'Make Again' list.

From: http://www.supergoldenbakes.com/

Serves 4-5

Ingredients

• 10 skinless chicken thighs 
• 150 ml wine (I had red on hand)
• 2 T dry vermouth 
• 2 T port
• 1 T white wine vinegar
• 1 T dijon mustard
• 100 g prosciutto, sliced in strips
• 200 g cherry tomatoes, half
• 2 cloves of garlic, whole
• 5 shallots, peeled and sliced
• 1 pepper (yellow, orange or red), thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup of sun-dried tomatoes in oil, chopped
• 1 T oil from the sun-dried tomatoes
• coarse salt and ground pepper to taste
• bunch parsley, chopped
• 1 lemon, thinly sliced (use zest if preferred)

Method

Preheat the oven to 340F. Combine the wine, vinegar, port, vermouth and mustard and stir until blended. Place the chicken on the bottom of a large, lidded casserole dish. Add the prosciutto and all vegetables overtop. Season the surface with salt and pepper and add the sun-dried tomatoes. Cook covered for one hour. Remove the lid and cook another 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and top with parsley and lemon. Serve over pasta or rice.

Jamón Ibérico aka Iberian Ham

When Ruedi and I visited Spain last summer, we were introduced to jamón ibérico or Iberian ham, a Spanish and Portuguese delicacy that is a popular favorite among anyone who digs a good cut of meat. Both Ruedi and I had been to Spain in our single days and hadn't come across it, but we had much leaner travel budgets at the time. As far as I'm aware, acorn-fed jamón ibérico is as good as it gets in the Spanish ham community. Once weened, piglets are fed a diet of maize and barley and then released into fields where they graze on grass, acorns, roots and other available vegetation. Pigs that only feed on olives and acorns have a richer meat and become the chosen few. The pork is salted and air-dried for anywhere from twelve to forty-eight months before various parts are sold. A leg of jamón can retail from anywhere between one-hundred to one-thousand euros a pop. Bite on that meaty investment!

Ruedi's now living in Barcelona temporarily and his relocation presented an opportunity of sorts. Not one to pass up good eats, he was directed to El Charro a jamón retailer where he purchased the leg he's so proudly displayed to me on my arrival. He and his roommate and friend will be eating this for eons. 

  

Of course, one needs a carving stand and knife for their ham. Enter El Corte Inglés with a wide array of equipment selections that range in quality and price, depending on your requirements. 

When we've had it at restaurants it's been thinly sliced and served neat. Jamón ibérico has so many earthy, nutty dimensions, there isn't a need for any other ingredients, although wine is a fantastic idea!

La Tienda offers Spanish eats to North Americans, including Canadians! Yeah! Man, I get bummed when sites like these ship everywhere but my homeland. Of course, you pay a premium for an import like this, but I may succumb to the temptation in a year's time after a long jamón hiatus.

Post Script (March 15th) : Just found Lola & Miguel, an online retailer selling Spanish delicacies to Canadians. Bliss.

Pan Fried Halibut with Grilled Halloumi & Vegetable Salad

Hats off to Chatelaine magazine for their ongoing efforts to bring simple and delicious recipes to their readers consistently. I get a little giddy at the thought of each month's issue and try as many recipes as I can with solid results. I recently tried a grilled vegetable and halloumi salad from the magazine's June issue.  I've seen halloumi, a Mediterranean, semi-hard, unripened and brined cheese at a few grocers and figured it was time to try cooking with it. This recipe allowed the opportunity to do just that and offered another take on salad that is refreshing and loaded with ingredients that give you a full meal out of your salad. I paired the original serving with halibut fillets and used the leftover salad for lunches.

We are fortunate enough to have access to some decent not-so-domestic fish in Alberta, thanks to the miracles of modern-day logistics and market demands. Miracles are expensive however, so when buying fillets of fresh fish from your neighbourhood market, make it count!

Grilled Halloumi and Vegetable Salad

Adapted From: http://www.chatelaine.com

Ingredients

• 4 small zucchinis cut diagonally into 1/2" pieces
• 250g package of halloumi cut into 1/2" pieces
• 2 T lemon juice
• 2 T olive oil
• 540 ml can of chick peas, drained and rinsed
• 2 T chopped flat leaf parsley
• 2 T chopped dill
• Salt and pepper to taste

Method

If using a barbecue, preheat the barbecue to medium. If your barbecue is out of commission for the season like mine, get yourself a grill plate and make good use out of it. Just make sure to place one of your oven racks on the top level of your oven and preheat it to 500-550F. Brush the surface of the plate/barbecue with olive oil. Whisk 2 tablespoons each of olive oil and lemon juice in a bowl and set aside. Place the zucchini pieces on the grill for 3 minutes each side. Remove the zucchini and add the halloumi pieces, grilling for one minute on each side. I recommend testing your halloumi grilling time by grilling one piece first for a minute each side and then sampling it. If overdone, it will be very rubbery and will require less time.  Place a few of the zucchini and halloumi pieces on to a plate and add the chick peas, herbs and toss with the oil and lemon, salt and pepper.

Halibut with White Wine and Shallot Sauce

From: http://www.canadianliving.com

Ingredients

• 350 g (two fillets) of skinless halibut
• 1 t butter
• 1 t extra virgin olive oil
• 1 shallot, minced
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1/2 t kosher flaked salt

Method

Heat the butter and oil in a large frying pan on medium heat. Fry the halibut in the pan, turning once until the fish flakes easily when tested; about 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate and keep warm by tenting the halibut with aluminum foil. Add the wine and minced shallot to the pan on medium-high heat and allow to until the sauce is reduced to about 2 tablespoons; about 2 minutes. Place each of the halibut fillets on plates and drizzle the reduction over top.

Cioppini (Seafood Soup)

This is one of those delectable meals that must include soaking your crusty French bread in the seafood and wine-rich broth before eating it. I ended up buying smoked oysters too while looking for the right seafood to add to this soup. I chose instead to eat them as a starter with wedges of Cambezola and crackers. Soooo rich! 

If you are a seafood lover, this simple combination of flavours is a classic and adored by many. I chose the recipe because it filled my need for mussels, soup and a very brief set of instructions for its preparation. 

Adapted from: http://pixfiz.blogspot.ca

Serves 8

Ingredients

• 3 T salted butter
• 2 onions, diced
• 2 cloves garlic, minced
• 1, 28 oz tin chopped stewed tomatoes
• 4 cups water
• 3 T chicken bouillon powder
• 1 bunch fresh parsley, chopped
• 2 bay leaves
• 1 T dried basil
• 1/2 t thyme
• 1/2 t oregano
• 1 cup clam juice
• 1 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 1/2 lbs shrimp, peeled and deveined
• 1 1/2 lbs cod fillets, cubed
• 18 mussels cleaned and debearded
• 1 1/2 crab meat

*Clams, scallops and other seafood can be added or swapped for what I included above.



Method

Melt the butter in a large saucepan and add the onions and garlic, coating them well and letting them cook on medium heat until transparent. Add all the remaining ingredients to the saucepan except the seafood. Cover and simmer for about 30 minutes.

Increase the heat and add the seafood, bringing the soup to a boil, before reducing it again and simmering for 5-7 minutes.

Serve with a crusty loaf of French bread and a green salad of your choosing.

Balsamic Roast Chicken with Tomatoes & Mushrooms

I didn't realize it was already time for my annual thumb grating culinary fiasco, but here we are again. While cooking this morning, I attempted to pull off the guard on my new microplane and ended up shredding my right thumb in the process. Last year was the left with a mandolin. It appears my thumbs are taking turns sacrificing themselves in order to give each other a break.

My sous-chef did much of the preparation on this recipe due to my wound. Handling raw chicken with an open cut isn't sanitary for the chicken or the cook, so I needed a spare set of hands. I was grateful for the help and he was grateful this recipe was easy. 

My take on this dish is as follows:
While the dressing seasons the chicken quite nicely, the selling point of this recipe is the vegetable combination. It is bright and light as a side to the chicken. It was also welcome on Edmonton's first snow day of the season. If you've got a piece of fish you'd like to use, I would expect good results swapping out the chicken for your fish.

Adapted From: http://www.domesticate-me.com

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1, 3lb chicken or chicken parts (I used 4 chicken breasts & modified the instructions to suit)
• 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
• 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
• 1 T salt
• 1 t pepper
• 4 garlic cloves, 2 minced and 2 sliced
• 1 lemon sliced
• 4 large basil leaves
• 1 large red onion, cut into wedges
• 2 cups crimini mushrooms, quartered
• 1 pint cherry tomatoes
• fresh arugula or spinach leaves for serving

Preheat the oven to 375F. Whisk the vinegar, oil, minced garlic, salt and pepper in a bowl. 

In another bowl, combine the onion, mushrooms and tomatoes. Pour a third of the dressing over the vegetables and toss to coat.

Rinse the chicken with cold water and pat dry. Pour a third of the dressing under the skin of each of the breasts. Place a lemon slice, a few slices of garlic and a basil leaf under each of the breasts (if you are using a whole chicken, visit the website for prep instructions.

Pour the remaining third of the dressing over the breasts. Rub the dressing all over the meat to coat it well. Place the breasts in an uncovered casserole dish and bake for 15 minutes. Flip the breasts, baste them with the juices lurking in the bottom of the dish and cook on their other side for 15 minutes. Remove from the oven and add the vegetables around the chicken, tenting the dish with foil before returning it to the oven for another 15 minutes. Remove from the oven again (last time!) and place the vegetables and juices in a pan, simmering until the juices thicken. Once thickened, serve the vegetables and chicken on a bed of fresh spinach or arugula.

Spring Panzanella & Lemon Pork Tenderloin

I forget that pork chops and tenderloin typically need a juicy marinade or a sauce to serve with it. Might be me overcooking the meat or a poor quality pork at work, but I can't recall ever having pork of this kind without an accompaniment. Luckily a little kitchen fairy sent us a crabapple rosehip jelly and we pulled it out of our emergency jelly stash for this occasion. Dinner was saved. 

Truthfully, the pork was an afterthought. I was looking for something to accompany this bread salad and pork seemed like the right thing to do. Yes, the panzanella stole the show. It's really a crouton salad and if you like garlic-riddled bread, you'll dig panzanella. While my version looks like a K-Mart variety of Heidi Swanson's, I don't believe it tasted like one (check out her pic via the 101 cookbooks link below). 

Spring Panzanella

From: http://www.101cookbooks.com

Serves 6-8

Ingredients

• 1 lb loaf of day-old whole wheat bread, cut up into 1 inch chunks
• 1 shallot diced
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 T thyme leaves, pulled from stem
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1 bunch of asparagus, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• 2 cup of peas, fresh or frozen
• 4 handfuls of spinach
• 1/4 cup small basil leaves
• Salt as required

Method

Preheat your oven to 350F. In a large bowl, toss the bread chunks well with the shallot, garlic, thyme leaves, oil and salt. Spread the mixture evenly over a baking sheet and bake for about 15 minutes. When ready, the bread crumbs should be browned and crunchy.

In a cold skillet, add a splash of olive oil and a splash of water and a few pinches of salt. Turn the burner  on high heat. Once the water starts to bubble, add the asparagus and cover for 30 seconds. Add the peas and cover for another 30 seconds. Finally, add the spinach and cover for a few seconds until the spinach starts to wilt.

Put the breadcrumbs in a bowl and toss in the asparagus mixture including the juices. Add the basil leaves and mix well.

Lemon Pork Tenderloin

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 lb pork tenderloin
• 1 T rosemary leaves, chopped
• 1 T thyme leaves, chopped
• 1 T lemon zest
• 1 T lemon juice
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 t salt
• 1 t pepper

Method

Combine all ingredients with the exception of the pork into a bag and mix well. Add the pork and ensure it gets completely coated with the marinade. Refrigerate for at least an hour, but overnight is best. Barbecue on medium-high heat for 15 minutes. Remove from heat and tent the loin for 10 minutes. Serve with a citrus chutney or other sauce/jelly.

Mediterranean Chicken Milanese

For Ruedi's birthday last weekend, his siblings gifted him thirty-five tubes of Pringles. That's right: 35. We have everything from Extreme Dill to Ranch and Barbeque sitting on our kitchen table. Guess I should be looking up recipes that include chips, but the connection here is that it did get me thinking of breaded meats and well, here we are.

This particular meal also got me thinking of my varying preferences with respect to quality. My weekend coffee is an espresso we buy at the Italian market, but I'll line up at Timmy Ho's (aka TIm Horton's) for their bitumen-style piss coffee during the week. Street meat, the most suspicious of all meats is among my favorite summer day meals. Junk food of course, makes the top of the list too. Well, the chicken in this recipe was brought to you by your run of the mill grocery store. Now, this isn't unusual for me, but my exposure to locally and ethically grown meats has raised the question: am I going to permanently make the switch? The local food movement is intriguing. I love following other blogs that experiment with growing their own ingredients and sourcing through local producers. In the case of most meals, I notice a difference, but for the sake of convenience I'll pick up a package of water-soaked meat in order to make dinner happen.  I don't have an answer to my question yet, but I suspect that over time, I will buy locally as a rule.

From: http://karmacucina.com

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 large egg
• Salt
• Pepper
• 1/2 cup Italian seasoned bread crumbs (or whole wheat)
• 2 boneless skinless chicken breasts, sliced in half horizontally and pounded into thin cutlets
• 3/4 cup extra light olive oil

For the topping

• 1 whole roasted red pepper, roughly chopped
• 1/3 cup pitted kalamata olives, halved long ways
• 2 cups packed arugula leaves
• A couple of slices of red onion
• 2 T pine nuts
• 8 – 10 shavings of Pecorino Romano or Asiago cheese

For the dressing

• 2 T extra virgin olive oil
• 2 t balsamic vinegar
• Pinch of salt
• Fresh ground pepper

Tuscan White Beans with Spinach, Shrimp & Feta

Heavy meal, light meal, heavy meal, light meal. I don't post everything I cook, so the cycle may not be as obvious on this blog, but I have a tendency to make a heavy meal and follow it with a light meal. This isn't any astounding observation, just a little build-up to my dinner menu for this evening. Ta-da!!

From: http://www.skinnytaste.com

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 2 tsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 lb large shrimp, peeled and deveined (weight after peeled)
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 2 tsp chopped fresh sage
• 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
• 1/2 cup low sodium, fat-free chicken broth
• 15 oz can cannellini beans rinsed and drained 
• 5 cups baby spinach
• 1 1/2 oz crumbled reduced-fat feta cheese

Method

Heat 1 teaspoon oil in a large non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Cook shrimp until just opaque, about 2 to 3 minutes. Transfer to a plate.

Heat remaining oil in the same skillet over medium-high heat and add onion, garlic and sage; cook 4 minutes stirring occasionally until golden. Stir in vinegar and cook 30 seconds.

Remove from heat and stir in shrimp. Top with feta cheese and divide in 4 bowls.

Halibut in a White Wine & Tomato Mix

Here's the other piece of my Billingsgate purchase: delicious halibut. I have made a version of this recipe before, although I'm not sure where the recipe came from. This was an attempt to recreate it from memory. The italian parsley was a nice touch, but spinach would be a great substitute. 


Halibut Tomato Melange

Serves 2

Ingredients

• 1 T olive oil
• 1 clove of garlic, chopped
• 1/2 medium onion, diced
• white wine...alot of it
• 2 portions of halibut
• 1, 540 ml can of diced tomatoes
• bunch of italian parsley, stems removed and loosely chopped
• 1, 540 ml can of pitted italian olives (I'd use half of the can next time)

Method

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan. Add the garlic and onion and saute for 3 minutes. Add about a half cup of white wine and place the fish into the pan. Let the fish cook for about 4 minutes on each side. I added more wine as needed to act as a poaching base of sorts for the fish. Add the tomatoes and parsley and toss well with the onions and wine. Mix in the olives and remove the pan from the heat. Serve immediately.