Category: Meats and Poultry

One Pan Wonder: Roast Chicken with Veggies, Potatoes and Gravy

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Roast Chicken with Veggies, Potatoes and Gravy

Don't be scared by the list of ingredients, this is an easy, no-fuss dinner that spends most of it's time in the oven so you are free to do other things around the house!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 1 hour 20 minutes
Total Time 1 hour 30 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1-2 kg whole chicken (2-4.5 lbs)
  • 3-5 garlic cloves (peeled, cut in half)
  • 10 cm piece of fresh ginger (4", peeled, cut in large chunks)
  • 2 Tbsps dried makrut lime leaves (optional)
  • 1 small onion (peeled, cut in large slices)
  • 2 Tbsps butter (melted)
  • 1 Tbsp kosher salt
  • 1/2 cup dry white wine (plus more if needed)
  • 4 medium carrots (peeled, cut in large pieces)
  • 15 baby potatoes (halved, tossed in olive oil)
  • 1 fennel bulb (cored and cut in 8)
  • 1 + 1/2 cups asparagus pieces (tossed in olive oil)
  • 2 Tbsps flour
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425ºF/220ºC. Ensure bird's cavity is empty. Stuff cavity with garlic, ginger, and lime leaves. Place onion pieces on the bottom of the roasting pan.  Place chicken on top of onions. Brush chicken with melted butter. Sprinkle with kosher salt and pepper. Pour white wine into base of pan. Place in oven for 15 minutes.
  • Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF/175ºC and place carrots, fennel, and baby potatoes. Lightly sprinkle veggies with salt. Cook the vegetables and chicken until the chicken breast meat registers at 165ºF/75ºC, about 20 minutes/lb. If the liquid evaporates off, add a bit more white wine.
  • 10 minutes before the chicken is done, add the asparagus pieces.
  • Once done, removes chicken and veggies from the pan to a serving dish. Set the pan with the juices on the stovetop at medium-high heat (if minimal juices, top up slightly with more chicken broth). While waiting for the juices to start boiling, whisk together the flour and broth until smooth. Once the juices start to boil, slowly add the flour mixture, stirring continuously, until desired thickness for gravy is achieved. Remove from heat. Serve.
Keyword Chicken, Dinner, One Pan, Roasted, Vegetables

And now for the details…

Roasting a chicken was one of the first recipes I remember learning and being able to do on my own when I was younger. Roasted chicken is a surprisingly easy dinner to cook. And it displays nicely enough to look like it took a lot of effort to put together.

And you may ask, am I going to be a weirdo and name the bird like I did during Mo’s adventure? You know the answer. This little guy’s name is Fisher. He’s named after a recent song we did in RPM class, called “You Little Beauty”, and the artist’s name is Fisher. The moment I pulled the wee, three pound Fisher out of the fridge, I knew he was going to be a little beauty at the end, so the name only seemed right.

I am stuffing the chicken with some added flavour elements, but to be honest, you can do this recipe with nothing stuffed inside, and just some salt and pepper on the bird, and it turns out great! You may need to modify the cooking time a little bit, though, an unstuffed bird cooks in less time.

Let’s get to cooking, shall we?

Before we start prepping Fisher, preheat the oven to 425ºF/220ºC. We start at such a high heat to kinda sear Fisher’s outsides at the beginning to help lock in his juices.

Before stuffing, tie Fisher’s legs together so he can’t run away. Just kidding. Fisher is a dead chicken. He can’t run. But, we do want to tie his legs together to keep them in so they don’t splay out while he’s cooking and get all dried up. Unsure how to truss a chicken? This post provides a great step-by-step instruction to help you out!

Like I said earlier, you can get away with not stuffing Fisher, and just cooking him as is, with a little salt and pepper. But I like the added flavour Fisher will get from adding a few things into his cavity while he cooks. A lot of recipes will call for stuffing the bird with lemons or oranges… Citrus and chicken do go pretty well together. But to be honest, I’m not the hugest fan of the flavour of a roasted bird with lemon… Cooked lemon has a tendency to get bitter, and I don’t love the flavour it passes over to the poultry. I find it almost takes away some of the umami-ness of the meat. And so I’m going off-script with this one, and stuffing the bird with garlic, ginger, and lime leaves. No lime leaves? No worries. Omit them. I added them to play around and see what they added, and to be honest, the flavour addition was marginal…

Stuff Fisher with the chunks of ginger and garlic and leaves, alternating between them so they are spread out throughout the cavity. Before placing Fisher in the roasting pan, lay out the thick cut onion pieces on the bottom of the pan. We lay Fisher on top of the onions. These are going to lift Fisher up slightly so he doesn’t stick to the bottom of the pan, or sit in his own juices while he cooks. Next, brush Fisher with the melted butter, making sure to get any exposed bits and pieces of him nicely covered. Sprinkle Fisher with kosher salt and pepper, then pour the white wine in the base of the pan.

Place Fisher in the oven and cook him for 15 minutes. While he is doing his first stint in the oven, get the veggies ready to go. Cut the stalks off the fennel, then quarter and core it, then slice the quarters in half. Peel the carrots, and cut into large pieces. Cut the baby potatoes in half, and toss them with a little bit of olive oil.

Remove Fisher from the oven, and turn the oven down to 350ºF/175ºC. We’ve got the original “sear” on Fisher and now we reduce the heat to roast him all the way through. The lower temp is also going to allow us to cook the veggies in the pan with Fisher, without burning or drying them out too much. Add the fennel and carrots first, stirring them a bit to coat them with whatever juices have collected in the bottom of the pan. Then we add the potatoes to the pan. I like separating the carrots/fennel from the potatoes to give the taters some space to crisp up a bit more. Sprinkle all the veggies with a little bit of salt.

If there was little to no juices in the bottom of the pan, add a little bit of white wine or chicken broth to the pan. Place the pan back in the oven. Now we simply wait. Fisher is going to cook for about 20 minutes/pound. The most important consideration is to make sure that the meat registers at 165ºF/75ºC when measured at the thickest part of the breast, not touching bone. If you do not have a meat thermometer, you can cut into a deep part of the thigh. If the juices run clear, then Fisher is done. If there is still some pink in the juices, Fisher needs a little more time in the oven.

Just before Fisher is done cooking, by about 10 minutes (when the meat is around 10ºF/5ºC under it’s final temperature), add the asparagus into the pan. Again, we are going to check the juices at the bottom. If they are low, top up with a bit of wine or broth.

Put the pan back in the oven and cook for the final 10 minutes, until the chicken reaches the correct temperature. Remove the pan from the oven when everything is done. Move the chicken and veggies from the pan onto a serving platter.

Place the pan, with the juices, onto the stovetop and set the burner to medium-high heat. You might need to tip the pan so the juices tilt to one end of the long pan. Let the juices heat up to start boiling. Yet again… if minimal juices, top up with a little bit of broth.

In a small bowl, place 1/4 cup of the broth, and whisk 2 tablespoons of bisquick (remember the leftover flour mixture we had from the Kraft box? Now’s the time to use some of it! Otherwise, plain flour works just fine) into the broth until smooth with no lumps are left. Once the meat juices start to boil, turn the temperate down to medium, and slowly add the flour liquid, a bit at a time, stirring continuously, until the gravy has thickened.

Remove the gravy to a gravy boat, and serve!

Happy eating.

And now… BONUS TIME!!!

My RPM members groan when I introduce a bonus, since it usually means a “surprise” extra 15-30 seconds of effort after everyone thought the heavy effort was over. Well… at least they used to groan when I was still teaching (waiting for COVID isolation to end so we can make it back to the gym!) Soon… *tapping fingers* soon…

In this case, the bonus is making chicken broth from the leftover carcass after you have devoured the meat of of Fisher’s body. I made the broth using my Instant Pot, but you can easily do this on a pot on the stove, you’ll just need to cook it for about double the time, topping up the liquid if it boils off.

After getting most of the meat off Fisher, remove the ginger, garlic, and lime leaves from inside his cavity. You can leave them there if you would like, but you will end up with a very gingery-flavoured broth. Place Fisher’s carcass into the pot, and fill it with water until the carcass is covered, or you’ve almost reached the “MAX” line on the Instant Pot. Add some onion, carrot, and celery to the pot.

Cover and seal the pot, cooking on the “soup/broth” setting for 1.5 hours. If you are cooking on the stove, heat the liquid up until it starts to simmer, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and cook for 3 hours. Once done, let the seal release if in the Instant Pot, then strain the solids out of the broth. I would suggest using a cheesecloth to getting the little uckies out of there and you’ll have a nice, clear broth. Place the broth into freezable containers and place in your freezer for future use! The broth should keep in your freezer for several months.

Browned Butter Ravioli with Blanched Broccoli

Browned Butter Ravioli with Broccoli

A complete and easy dinner that comes together quickly!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g ravioli
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and minced)
  • 1/4 cup butter
  • 1 dash tarragon
  • salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 1/4 cup chicken broth
  • 1/2 cup pasta water
  • 1/4 cup pecan pieces (toasted)
  • 2 Tbsps parmesan cheese (grated)
  • 3 cups broccoli florets

Instructions
 

  • Set a pot of heavily salted water to boiling. Cook the ravioli according to instructions.
  • At the same time, place the butter in a large pan. Allow to melt and heat until it starts to foam. Add the garlic and cook until butter and garlic has started to brown. Add the broth and allow to cook down. Just before the ravioli is done cooking, add 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the pan, allow to reduce.
  • Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ravioli from the water to the pan. Cook until the liquid is completely reduced and the ravioli just starts to brown in the pan.
  • While the ravioli is cooking, place the broccoli in the pasta water and blanch until just cooked. Remove everything from the stove, sprinkle the toasted pecans and the parmesan cheese over the ravioli. Serve.
Keyword Broccoli, Butter, Dinner, Pasta

And now for the details…

Here we are at day 11 of 14 of the daily post during my personal quarantine challenge. Today’s post is fairly simple, and will rely heavily on another’s production. In this case… I am relying on the fabulous production of Let’s Pasta. It seemed only appropriate that I go with an Alberta producer. We are probably going to be relying heavily on items produced closer to home in the next little while, so I used pasta obtained from a local company, and paired it with a beer that is also locally obtained, from the Establishment. In this case, the pairing I chose was with the Sky Rocket, version V. It was the perfect pairing with this brown butter sauced Lobster, Shrimp & Lemon ravioli from Let’s Pasta. The richness and potency of flavour of the pasta and sauce paired beautifully with the citrusy, fresh, and slightly bitter flavour of the NEIPA.

Let’s get to cooking, shall we? I may or may not strongly suggest the influence of the beer while you are cooking *raised eyebrows*

We start everything off by boiling a pot of water. This water is going to be for your pasta. While that pot is starting to boil, heat the butter in a large pan.

Heat the butter until it starts to foam. What does this mean exactly? Hopefully the next photo will help bring some clarity to what the butter looks like as it foams.

Now I jumped the gun just a little bit here; I added by garlic a little early. Wait until your butter starts to foam, then add your garlic. Next, cook the garlic and butter until they brown. Add the dash of tarragon. As soon as the butter and garlic brown, add the broth, and 1/2 cup of the pasta water, and allow this liquid to boil down to at least half.

Next, add the pasta to the pan. Use a wire strainer to pull the ravioli out of the water and drain before placing in the pan. Then, stir the pasta into the sauce until coated well, and cook down until almost no liquid remains and the ravioli starts to brown slightly.

Add he broccoli to the already simmering pasta water in order to blanch/steam the broccoli.

Sprinkle the chopped, toasted pecans over the pasta, as well as the shredded parmesan cheese.

Finally, plate the pasta and the broccoli, serve with the deliciously paired SRV 🙂

Happy eating.

Easy Dinner: Portobello Mushroom Stuffed with Merguez Lamb

Merguez Lamb Stuffed Portobello Caps

Print Recipe
Prep Time 15 minutes
Cook Time 20 minutes
Total Time 35 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 4 people

Ingredients
  

  • 500 g ground lamb (18 oz)
  • 1 tsp ground fennel
  • 2 Tbsps paprika
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander
  • 1 tsp ground cumin
  • 1/8 tsp cinnamon
  • 1 dash allspice
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1/2 tsp fresh ground pepper
  • 1 egg
  • 4 portobello mushrooms caps
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1 large bocconcini (or 24 mini; sliced)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425ºF/220ºC. Place parchment paper on a small cookie sheet. Mix together the spices until completely blended. Brush the outside of the mushroom caps with the olive oil. Mix the meat, spices and eggs together. Lay the pieces of cheese out onto the mushroom caps. Place the meat over the cheese. Cook the mushrooms caps for 18-20 minutes, or until the lamb is cooked to 165ºF/75ºC. Serve.
Keyword Cheese, Lamb, Meat, Mushrooms

And now for the details…

Double digits in the quarantine challenge! I am now at day 10 of 14 of the daily recipe challenge.

Today’s recipe was brought to you by the same friends who I cooked yesterday’s meal with. They added a few “mystery ingredients” to the groceries they delivered to the house. One of those ingredients were portobello mushrooms. I happened to have some ground lamb in the freezer, and I thought that a Merguez flavoured stuffing for portobello mushrooms would be an awfully delicious option!

Let’s get to cooking.

Start by preheating your oven to 425ºF/220ºC.

Next, we move on to mixing the spices. I had whole fennel seeds, so I needed to grind them down. I used a mortar and pestle, and ground them until they were almost a powder. Mix this powder with the rest of the spices, salt, and pepper, until they are mixed together thoroughly.

Next, we will get the mushroom caps ready to go. Wash the outsides of the caps, and remove the stem, if there is one. Brush to outside of the cap with olive oil. We do this to help prevent the mushroom from drying out too much when they are baking. Lay the mushroom caps onto a small baking sheet, lined with parchment paper.

Next, we prepare the filling. Sprinkle the spice mix over the ground lamb, and add the egg. Mix these all together very well. I find using my hands works best for this. Get right in there and squish everything all together.

Next, lay the pieces of bocconcini into the mushroom caps in a single layer. If you have larger bocconcini, feel free to use that. But again… quarantine.

Next, split the meat into four equal parts, and press the meat into the mushrooms caps. Once you have pressed the meat in, use the back end of a knife, and push a little cross into the meat. This helps to make the sections of meat smaller, which is going to help even out the cooking when it goes into the oven.

Place the tray into the oven and cook for 20 minutes, or until the meat registers at 165ºF or 75ºC.

Remove from the oven, serve immediately.

Happy eating.

Oven Fried Chicken and Tomato Pasta (AKA reinventing the Kraft Pizza Box)

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Oven Fried Chicken and Tomato Pasta

Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 50 minutes
Total Time 1 hour
Course Main Course

Ingredients
  

  • 1 Kraft Pizza Kit
  • 10 chicken drumsticks
  • 2 eggs
  • 2 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped)
  • 7 large mushrooms (chopped)
  • 1/4 cup butter (plus 2 Tbsps, melted)
  • 1 tsp garlic powder
  • 1/2 tsp salt
  • 1 Tbsp olive oil
  • 14 cherry tomatoes (cut in pieces)
  • 1/4 tsp dried oregano
  • 1 tsp basil
  • 2 Tbsps red wine
  • 150 g dried pasta (5.5oz)
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Preheat oven to 425ºF/220ºC. Place 1/4 cup of butter in large glass baking dish and place in the oven until its melted. Remove from oven. Remove items from kit. Remove 1.5 cups from pizza dough mix, place the rest of the mix in a bowl. Add herb packet and cheese packet,  garlic powder and salt, mixing well. In a separate bowl, beat the eggs, with 1 tablespoon of water. Dip the drumsticks one at a time, from the egg wash, to powder mix, back to eggs, back to powder, then place in the melted butter in the baking dish. Drizzle remaining 2 tablespoons butter over chicken in dish. Bake in oven for 35 minutes, then remove and turn carefully. Put back in the oven for 15 more minutes, or until internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165ºF/75ºC. Sauté garlic in a pan in the olive oil until fragrant. Add the mushrooms and cook. Add tomatoes, sauce from the can in the kit, oregano, basil and wine, and cook down. Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water and add to the sauce, allow it to cook down further. Drain pasta. Mix the pasta with the sauce. Serve.
Keyword Chicken, Dinner, Pasta, Sauce

And now for the details…

We are at day 7 of 14 in isolation, and I am at day 7 of my quarantine challenge to post a new recipe every day. In the last post, I had talked about the Kraft Pizza Kit I received as a gag gift from a friend of ours while we are in isolation. The kit is something we both remember eating when we were young, and I think he was basically implying that since I am in isolation, I must be desperate enough to use the kit. And so this… this post is for you Marcus. I have reimagined the Kraft pizza box into oven fried chicken and pasta.

Let’s get right into it.

Start by preheating the oven to 425ºF/200ºC.

Let’s take a look at the contents of our pizza box: the dough mix, the herb packet, the cheese packet, and the sauce can.

Start by removing 1.5 cups out of the dough mix from the package and set it aside. Aside for what? No idea. From what I can see from the ingredients, the dough mix is pretty much Bisquick. So I guess use it as a replacement for that? Or………? *blank stare* The rest of the package goes into a bowl, along with the herb packet, the cheese packet, garlic powder, and salt. Mix these together well with a fork or whisk until they are mixed fully.

In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs with one tablespoon of water to make an egg wash for the chicken.

Before moving on, melt 1/4 cup of the butter in a large glass baking dish in the oven. Once melted, take it out, and set it to the side to start placing the chicken in.

We will be double dipping the chicken to get a nice crust for the oven fry. Dip one of the drumsticks in the egg wash, coating completely. Then place it in in the powder mix, turning to coat. Place it back in the egg wash, coat, and then back again into the powder mix, coat. Place the drumstick in the baking dish. Repeat this procedure with all the chicken pieces until they have all been coated.

Once all the drumsticks have been coated and placed in the dish, melt another 2 tablespoons of butter in a small dish, and drizzle it over the drumsticks. Place the drumsticks in the oven for 35 minutes.

After 35 minutes, remove the chicken from the oven, and carefully turn the drumsticks over, trying to gingerly make the flip without tearing the skin or crust on the chicken. I didn’t have success with all the pieces, but 80% is still a passing grade, right?

Place back in the oven and cook for another 15 minutes, or until the inside of the chicken registers at 165ºF/75ºC, making sure to not touch the bone with the thermometer.

In the last 15 minutes, we will cook our pasta and sauce. Sauté the garlic in the olive oil in a large pan until the garlic is fragrant, then add the mushrooms. Usually this is where I would suggest adding salt to help the mushrooms release their liquid, but the sauce in the kit is plenty salty, so we will not be adding any additional salt. If the pan gets too dry before the mushrooms start releasing liquid, add a splash of broth or water to keep the mushrooms and garlic from burning. Once the mushrooms are cooked, add the tomatoes, and stir.

Finally, add the sauce from the can, the oregano and basil, and red wine, using your spoon to stir up any caramelization that formed in the bottom of the pan to absorb back into the sauce.

While the sauce is cooking, cook the pasta in salted water until al dente. Just before removing the pasta from the stove, add 1/2 cup of the pasta water to the sauce, mixing it in. Then, drain the pasta, and add it to the pan with the sauce, stirring well. Let the pasta and sauce cook for a short while more until thick.

When the chicken is done, remove it from the oven. Plate your chicken and pasta. I also cooked some broccoli in a separate dish while my chicken was cooking for some added greenery (just for you Mark, I knew you’d like that).

Serve and enjoy.

Happy eating.

Pasta with Ragù (Meat Sauce)

Pasta with Ragù (Meat Sauce)

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 40 minutes
Course Main Course

Ingredients
  

  • 5 garlic cloves (peeled and chopped)
  • 1 small onion (peeled and chopped)
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 900 g ground meat (beef, pork, elk, bison, turkey or chicken)
  • 1/2 cup red wine
  • 150 ml tomato paste (5.5 oz)
  • 800 ml canned tomatoes (27 oz)
  • 1/2 cup beef broth
  • 1/2 cup whole milk
  • 1 cup grated parmesan cheese
  • 1 dash ground nutmeg
  • 1 dash dried oregano
  • 4 cups dried pasta
  • 1/2 cup reserved pasta water
  • salt and white pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Add the olive oil to a large heavy-bottomed pot and heat on medium high. Add onion and garlic, sautéing until onions have softened and garlic is fragrant. Add the meat to the pot, and sauté, breaking the meat apart as it cooks. Add wine, cook until the liquid is gone. Add tomato paste and stir, mixing completely. Add the dash of oregano and nutmeg. Add beef broth, milk, and tomatoes and stir well. Turn the heat down to medium and cook for about 30 minutes, or until the sauce has thickened. Add the parmesan cheese, stirring in until fully melted. Cook pasta in a pot of boiling water. Reserve 1/2 cup of the pasta water and add to the sauce, allow it to cook down further. Drain pasta. Mix the pasta with the sauce. Serve.
Keyword Beef, Meat, Pasta, Sauce, Tomatoes

And now for the details…

Hi-yo folks! Here we are in day 6 of 14; almost halfway through quarantine and still making use of our generous friend’s grocery drop-off from last Monday, as well as our, thankfully, well-stocked freezer and pantry. We are starting to run low on fresh produce, though, now that almost a week has gone by. Luckily for us, another couple friends of ours have already stepped up and offered to go out tomorrow to top us up for the rest of our isolation period! We are feeling incredibly blessed by the support team we have at home, whether it’s in surprise gift drop-offs on our doorstep (we got fresh bread and cheese dropped by a friend this weekend, and a gag gift from other friends of a Kraft pizza kit), the full-on grocery deliveries, or the regular check-ins via phone or social media (or even on this blog! Lookin’ at you auntie ;D), we have been so lucky to have such a kickass group of family and friends. Now for a small ask: if you know of someone who is lacking this support network and needs some help during these times, reach out (but don’t touch!) to see if you can help in any way. Maybe it’s picking up a few extra groceries when you are buying your own, providing a social connection (while maintaining physical distance!), or running an errand that they cannot do themselves. We’re all on Team People, let’s take care of each other.

Let’s get to cooking.

We start by chopping the onion and garlic. Heat a large pot to medium-high, and add the olive oil, then add the onion and garlic and cook, stirring regularly, until the onion is soft and the garlic is fragrant.

Next, you will add the meat to the pot. For this recipe, I had both ground beef and ground elk in the freezer. But you could use any mix and match of ground meat for your recipe, depending on your taste preferences, or what you have available. As the meat cooks, break it apart with a wooden spoon, so you end up with small pieces of meat. Once the meat has mostly cooked, add the red wine, and allow it to cook down until the liquid is almost completely gone.

Add the tomato paste, and just a dash of nutmeg and oregano (a small pinch of each). Stir to mix completely, cooking for about five minutes, allowing any liquid to be cooked off. Add the beef broth and tomatoes, and stir together. Then add the milk and stir completely.

Reduce the heat down medium, and allow the sauce to cook down, stirring occasionally to prevent any stickage (that’s a word, right?) to the bottom of the pot. Cook the sauce for around 20-30 minutes, or until the sauce has become very thick.

Cook the pasta in heavily salted water until al dente. For the batch that I made, I used Mafalda Corta, which is kinda like smaller lasagna noodles that have been cut into pieces. Feel free to use whatever pasta you have available. Fusilli, rigatoni, farfalle, pappardelle, you choose! The biggest thing to remember: save about 1/2 cup of the pasta water after it is done cooking, and add it to the sauce before you drain the pasta. This addition of starch from the water will help to thicken the sauce further as you cook it down, and will allow the sauce to better stick to your noodles.

Fun fact that has worked well for me since I discovered it: keep a wooden spoon in the pasta and water as it cooks to help prevent the water from boiling over.

Reduce the pasta sauce back down after the addition of pasta water and add the parmesan cheese. Salt and pepper the sauce to your taste. Avoid adding salt before this, as both the pasta water and the parmesan will add a certain amount of saltiness, and you may not want to add any more.

Finally, once everything has cooked and the pasta is drained, mixed the pasta and sauce together, and serve, maybe with a bit of additional parmesan on top.

Happy eating.

Sweet and Sticky Soy Pork Bites

3 Comments

Sweet and Sticky Soy Pork Bites

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Course Appetizer, Main Course

Ingredients
  

  • 1 pork tenderloin (cut into 1" pieces)
  • 2 Tbsps olive oil
  • 1 tsp fresh ginger (peeled and shredded)
  • 2 garlic cloves (shredded)
  • 1/4 cup honey
  • 2 Tbsps soy sauce
  • 1 tsp sesame oil
  • 1 tsp chilli oil
  • 1 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Heat the olive oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Salt and pepper the pork tenderloin pieces, and sauté until they have been browned. Set aside.
  • Whisk together the rest of the ingredients and add to the pan. Cook for approximately 4 minutes, allowing the sauce to reduce.
  • Add the pork back to the pan, and stir, allowing the sauce to reduce further and stick to the pork pieces. Cook for another 3-4 minutes, then remove from heat and serve.
Keyword Honey, Pork, Soy Sauce

And now for the details…

Into day four of my 14 day quarantine challenge. And pretty much all the ingredients for this recipe came from my fridge/freezer and pantry, except the green onions I used on top for garnish.

Something I have come to be very grateful about during this quarantine is that I had built up a decent stock of supplies in my pantry, fridge, and freezer, and have been able to make use these of during this time.

As far was what are “necessities” and what to have readily available, it will depend so much on what you like to cook normally, how often you cook (i.e. how quickly the different items will be used up), and how much space you have available. There are plenty of articles out there the will give you plenty of ideas and inspiration on the essentials; I would say read through some of these and find what works for you. Keep track of what you tend to use over and over again, and make sure you stock up on those items!

Let’s get to cooking..

We start with cooking the pork tenderloin pieces. Dry them on some paper towels, and season with salt and pepper. Heat the oil in a large pan on medium-high heat.

Cook the pork pieces until they have just browned . They will be slightly undercooked, and that’s a-ok, since we will be adding them back to the heat in a little while. For now, remove them to a plate or dish and set aside.

Whisk together the other ingredients, and add them to the already hot pan. Allow the sauce to come to a boil and continue cooking for another four minutes or so, it will reduce and thicken.

Next, add the pork pieces back into the sauce and stir so the pieces are fully coated with the sauce, continue to stir and cook for another 3-4 minutes, until the pork pieces are fully cooked and the sauce has reduced and is sticking to all pieces of pork.

Transfer the meat and sauce to a serving dish. Sprinkle with some sesame seeds and green onions for garnish. Serve and enjoy!

Happy eating.

BSTH Sandwich (Bacon, Spinach, Tomato and Honey)

2 Comments

BSTH Sandwich

Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Total Time 15 minutes
Course Main Course
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 4 slices bread
  • 8 slices bacon
  • 2 small tomatoes (or 8 cherry tomatoes)
  • 2 Tbsps mayonnaise
  • 8-12 leaves spinach
  • 2 Tbsps liquid honey
  • salt and pepper (to taste)

Instructions
 

  • Cook bacon in a large pan to desired level of doneness. Set aside and drain most bacon fat.
  • Keep some fat in pan and toast the bread in the pan.
  • Put mayo on two of the slices. Place bacon, spinach and tomatoes. Drizzle with honey. Add salt and pepper to taste. Top with other slice of bread. Serve.
Keyword Bacon, Honey, Sandwich, Spinach, Tomatoes

And now for the details…

Okay, so yes, this a pretty simple recipe. But… well… it was delicious. And… I have limited resources to work with 😛

We’re into day four of quarantine, and day three of recipe challenge. Today’s recipe is nice and easy. Rather than a BLT, because… well… I had no lettuce… I decided instead to go off-script and go for a BST, since I did have spinach. And then I thought… can I do something even more different? And realized I had some liquid honey in the pantry that would be a great complement the tartness of the tomatoes and the saltiness of the bacon.

And so, the BSTH was born!

I don’t know that I would recommend urban dictionary-ing BSTH… it is not the “theme” I am going for here… *eep*

Let’s get to cooking.

To start out, we will be cooking out bacon. Cook in a large pan on medium-high heat, and transfer the bacon to a paper towel-lined plate.

Drain most of the bacon fat from the pan, but leave some. This is what we are going to use to toast our bread. On medium high heat, smear the the bread pieces into the bacon fat so they soak up some of it up, then let them toast on both sides to a nice golden brown.

Remove the bread pieces to plates. Spread the mayo on one piece of the bread. We will use the mayo as glue to stick the spinach in place. Place several of the leaves of spinach on the bread.

Add the bacon, and then place the tomato pieces on top. I did not have regular tomatoes here. Again, quarantine mystery box was my source, and there were only cherry tomatoes available to me. There were a few bigger ones that I sliced to be able to fit the sandwich, and they worked really well, actually, but small to medium tomatoes would probably fit a little better.

To finish this sandwich off, drizzle the liquid honey over your ingredients, and then top with the other slice of bread.

I served this sandwich with some delicious chips that I’d procured from Urban Grub a few weeks ago, before we were travelling, that were delicious with this meal. The flavour I had purchased was “Mmmm, tastes like roast chicken” and they were indeed pretty “Mmmm”-worthy.

Serve your sandwich with your side of choice, or on its own, and enjoy.

Happy eating.

Rice Bowl with Fried Eggs, Bacon, and Kimchi Mayo

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Rice Bowl with Eggs, Bacon and Kimchi Mayo

A quick, easy and delicious dinner or breakfast!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 5 minutes
Cook Time 15 minutes
Total Time 20 minutes
Course Breakfast, Main Course
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 3/4 cups uncooked jasmine rice
  • water (to cook rice)
  • 4 eggs
  • 6 pieces bacon
  • 1/4 cup kimchi
  • 1/4 cup mayo
  • 2 cups fresh spinach (chopped)
  • 2 green onions (chopped)

Instructions
 

  • Cook rice (don't forget to rinse the rice first!)
  • Blend together kimchi and mayo in blender or small food processor until mostly smooth.
  • In a large pan, cook bacon. Set aside, and drain any excess fat.
  • Cook eggs in remaining bacon fat until preferred level of doneness.
  • Add some of the kimchi mayo to the bottom of two bowls. Split rice between bowls, add eggs, bacon and spinach. Top with green onion and remainder of kimchi mayo. Serve.
Keyword Bacon, Breakfast, Egg, Kimchi, Rice

And now for the details…

We just got back into Canada yesterday from Spain and are self-isolating for at least the next two weeks. It was pretty stressful getting home, as we tried to push our travel forward by a week and a half, with many of the flights getting booked up before we had a chance to secure our way back. We finally managed to book the flights, and we are super lucky to have an amazing support network here. A friend of ours dropped off groceries for us at the house before we got home so we are well stocked while we stay at home to eliminate any exposure to others. What to do while in quarantine for two weeks? Why not a 14 day challenge of one post every day using what we have in the freezer/pantry, plus the fresh veggies and fruits provided by our amazing friend!

This is the meal we had yesterday evening when we got home. Jet lagged and trying to come down from the stress of essentially fleeing for home, we wanted something fairly simple and quick, but also comforting. we happened to have bacon in the freezer, kimchi in the fridge, and rice in the pantry. Along with the fresh veg and eggs our friend brought us, this seemed like a pretty quick and easy meal to throw together while chilling with some TV and a glass of red wine to take off the edge.

Rice bowls seem to be trending right now, but my husband remembers eggs and rice being served to him for a quick meal frequently as a kid. So with what we had available to us, this recipe was born. After I made this dish, it was requested that this dish become our go-to for a quick meal going forward! In its creation, I may have been inspired by Empire Provision and would highly recommend you try out their “My Bowl’s Got Seoul” if you make it there for brunch.

Okay, let’s start cooking.

We start everything out, of course, with cooking the rice. I didn’t specify what kind of white rice here, but my personal preference is for jasmine rice. Completely up to you to take this extra step, but it has been ingrained into me by my husband: wash the rice!!! This means rinsing the rice in cold water until the water runs clear. This will avoid clumpy, gummy rice, and if you are a textural eater, it will enhance your eating experience 😉

While the rice is cooking, put the kimchi and mayo into a blender or small food processor and blend until mostly smooth. If you are willing to put in the extra time and get it super smooth, all the power you. I was tired and hangry and just wanted to eat, so mine was still a little lumpy, more the texture of a pesto than a mayo.

Next, take a large pan, and cook your bacon over medium-high heat. The flexibility of this dish is huge; the amounts and measurements in the recipe are completely guidelines and easy to modify. If you want more bacon, cook more bacon! If you want more eggs, cook more eggs! Feeding four people instead of two? Double the recipe!

Once the bacon is done, set it aside in a dish lined with paper towels. Drain most of the bacon grease out of the pan (why not drain it into a container and use it as a cooking fat alternative for future meals?), and add your eggs. We did ours sunny-side up with soft yolks (a runny, bright orange yolk over the rice? YASSSSSSS), but this is totally up to your preferences. Do I need to learn how to cook my eggs so they look prettier and not floating all over the pan? Maybe. But again: hangry.

While the bacon and eggs are cooking, loosely chop the spinach, and chop the green onions.

We plate this meal by placing some of the kimchi mayo on the bottom of our bowls. Next, add your rice (still hot!), and spread it out to become the base of your bowl. Spreading the rice out is so that everything goes on top and the rice becomes the delicious vehicle that everything else soaks into. Top the rice with the spinach, then add the eggs and bacon on top. Finish it off with a large dollop of the kimchi mayo, and a sprinkling of green onions, and dig in immediately!

Happy eating.

Tom Yum Kai Soup (Thai Chicken Spicy and Sour Soup)

Tom Yum Kai Soup

An easy-to-make, spicy, lemongrass flavoured chicken soup, great for a chilly day or when recovering from a cold!
Print Recipe
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 10 minutes
Course Soup
Servings 2 people

Ingredients
  

  • 1 chicken breast (boneless, skinless, cut into 5mm or 1/4" thick slices)
  • 4 cups chicken broth
  • 4 cups water
  • 2.5 cm piece of ginger or galangal (1" piece, peeled and sliced into thick pieces)
  • 2 stalks lemongrass (cut into 2cm or 3/4" pieces)
  • 2 makrut lime leaves (optional)
  • 1 garlic cloves (minced)
  • 1-2 Tbsps fish sauce
  • 2 Tbsps sambal olek
  • 1/2 Tbsp sugar (optional)
  • 8 button mushrooms (quartered)
  • 1 medium tomato (cut into wedges, or 10 cherry tomatoes, halved)
  • 1/2 lime (cut into wedges)

Instructions
 

  • Place the stock and water in a heavy bottomed pot. Heat until it starts to simmer. Add ginger/galangal, lemongrass, and lime leaves, cooking for about 5 minutes. Add fish sauce, sambal olek, and sugar. Cook for 2-3 minutes. Add chicken and mushrooms. Cook for 3 minutes. Add tomatoes. Cook until chicken is cooked through. Serve immediately with lime wedges.
Keyword Chicken, Ginger, Lemongrass, Spicy

And now for the details…

When I’m feeling under the weather, or feeling chilled and want something to stoke that internal fire to feel warmed up, this soup is immediately what I crave. It’s got the warm comfort of a chicken soup, with the spicy bite from the sambal olek and ginger, and a tart or sour note thanks to the lime juice, lemongrass and tomatoes.

I have a few ingredients in here that I have noted as optional, as they do add to the flavour of the soup, but are not critical. Especially the makrut lime leaves, which can often be a challenge to find in some western markets. While the additional of the lime leaves adds a certain floral note and emphasizes the citrus notes, it is not hypercritical if you have a hard time tracking them down.

Let’s get to cooking.

Before we go anywhere, get all the ingredients ready to go. Wash, slice, cut and mince everything and have it next to you at the stove, because the time between additions to the soup are relatively short, which is great because it means we get to eating that much faster!

A tip for the lemongrass: tap it up and down its length with the dull side of your knife. This will help to release some of the oils to make your soup that much more fragrant.

A tip for the chicken: if cutting it thinly is a challenge, try placing the piece of chicken breast in the freezer for 5-10 minutes. It will not freeze completely, but will chill up enough that it is easier to handle while you are cutting. Because we are cutting it so thin, this extra chill to the chicken will not result in any extended cook time.

We start everything off by adding the broth and water into a pot and setting them to medium-high heat on the stove. Heat until the liquid starts to simmer, then reduce to just above medium heat.

Next, add the lemongrass, ginger and lime leaves. Before adding the lime leaves, give them a light squish between your hands; this will help release the oils and allow them to impart more flavour.

Cover the pot and let this simmer for about 5 minutes. Add the fish sauce, sambal olek and sugar (if you are using the sugar). And allow everything to simmer for another 2-3 minutes.

Next, we add the chicken and mushrooms. Yes, I know that the dishwasher will likely sanitize the cutting board and I do not need to be so anal retentive about using multiple boards, but I am just too cautious when it comes to cross contamination.

Let the soup come back up to a simmer, and then cover and cook for about 3 minutes.

Our final addition are the tomatoes. Whether you use a large tomatoes and cut it into wedges, or simply slice up some baby tomatoes, it is really about preference and what you have on hand. Add the tomatoes and stir them in, then simmer everything for another 2-3 minutes, or until the chicken is fully cooked and the tomatoes have softened slightly.

Serve immediately with chopped cilantro and green onions and enjoy that heart-warming deliciousness!

Happy eating.

Pork Kimchi Stew (Kimchi Jjigae)

Kimchi Jjigae

A Korean stew made using Kimchi, pork belly and tofu
Print Recipe
Cook Time 30 minutes
Total Time 30 minutes
Course Main Course, Soup

Ingredients
  

  • 700 g pork belly (1.5 lbs, cut in small slices)
  • 300 g kimchi (2/3 lbs, chopped loosely)
  • 1 garlic clove
  • 2 Tbsps soy sauce (dark)
  • 1 Tbsp mirin
  • 2 Tbsps gochujang
  • 3 cups chicken or pork broth
  • 2 cups water
  • 1 bunch green onions (cut into 1" pieces)
  • 1 package shimeji mushrooms (trimmed)
  • 1/2 package medium tofu (~170g, sliced)
  • 2 tsp butter

Instructions
 

  • Sauté the pork on medium-high heat until browned. Add the chopped kimchi, reserving the kimchi liquid, and stir regularly until kimchi is heated fully. Add the water and broth. Add the soy sauce, mirin,  gochujang, and kimchi liquid. Stir and cook until the stew starts to simmer. Stir in the shredded garlic. Add the mushroom and the green onions, stirring to mix. Lay the tofu across the top of the stew, spooning some of the stew over the tofu to coat. Cover the soup and cook for 5-10 minutes or until the mushrooms and tofu are cooked through. Spoon the stew into bowls and drop about 1 tsp of butter on the top of each bowl. Serve with a side bowl of cooked white rice.
Keyword Kimchi, Pork, Stew, Tofu

And now for the details…

I know what you must be thinking… ummm… Emily, I didn’t realize you were Korean…? No, no I am not. And what do I know about authentic Korean cooking? Not much at all, except that what Korean food I have eaten is delicious and I will do what I can to recreate it. Particularly this stew. This stew was love at first bite when I tried it at Ogam Chicken. It has all the things you could hope for in a stew. The flavour is a mouth-watering combination of salty, umami-rich, spicy, and tangy. With the little chunks of pork, kimchi, and tofu, this stew is also quite hearty. Pair it with a bowl of white rice and it is pure magic.

Eating kimchi jjigae in restaurants, you often get it served in a hot stone bowl called a dolsot. I do have a dolsot that I received as a gift. But alas, I still have not used it, as it does not work so well (i.e. at all) on an induction stove. I will need to get myself a hot plate to resolve this issue! Until then, a heavy bottomed pot will need to do the job.

Cooking with new ingredients is always both scary and exciting. There were a number of ingredients in this recipe that I had never used for cooking until I made this stew the first time.

Gochujang, which is a chilli paste, was a brand new ingredient for me the first time I made jjigae. I find it more earthy than spicy, although it definitely does provide some heat. It’s a deep, rich red and has an almost smoky yet sweet quality to it that really deepens the flavour of the dish.

Kimchi itself was something I had eaten on a number occasions, but had never cooked with at home. My favourite is baechu kimchi, which is made from the whole Napa cabbage. Luckily, it is usually the easiest to find in stores as well. Kimchi can be quite different brand-to-brand, and the store I get my ingredients from also does some fresh house-made kimchi as well. They will vary in the level of tartness, saltiness, and spiciness, which will change the way the stew ultimately tastes. Play around with the different kinds to find one you enjoy.

Let’s get to cooking.

Start by preparing your ingredients. Cut the green onions into 1″ pieces and set them aside. Take the kimchi out of its liquid, allowing most of the liquid to drain back into its container (set the liquid aside, we will be using that!), and chop the kimchi roughly to get some bite-sized pieced. Set the kimchi aside. Trim the mushrooms and set them aside. I use shimeji mushrooms because I enjoy them so much, but if you prefer white or brown button mushrooms, simply cut them into quarters or halves, depending on the size of the mushrooms (cut them into 1/8th’s if they are really big). Slice the tofu into 5-6mm (~1/4″) slices and set aside. Lastly, cut the pork belly into small, bite-sized slices.

We start by cooking the pork belly. Many recipes will call to add the pork belly to the broth once it is prepared, but I like cooking the pork first, getting a nice build up of the pork fat as it renders, and caramelizing the meat slightly. Add the pork belly to your pot with the heat set at medium-high. Sauté until the meat has cooked through almost completely and has started to brown. Stir this regularly, as I find the pork belly will try to stick to the bottom of the pot. If there is an large amount of fat pooling in the bottom of the pot, drain some, but keep the majority of the fat in the pot.

Once the pork belly is cooked through, add the kimchi to the pot, stirring regularly until any liquid that remained with the kimchi has cooked off and the kimchi is heated all the way through.

Next we start to add our liquid. Add the broth and the water, stirring while paying particular attention to the bottom of the pot to help stir in any of the caramelized pork that may have stuck to the bottom of the pot. Then, add the soy sauce, mirin and gochujang. Add a tablespoon or two of the kimchi liquid into the pot and allow everything to heat up until the stew starts to simmer.

Taste test the broth at this point to see if it is meeting your taste preference. Add more kimchi liquid if you want to increase the spiciness, saltiness and tartness of the broth. Now is also the point when you will add the shredded garlic to the stew. Lower the temperature to about medium or medium-low.

Next, add your mushrooms and green onions, and stir them into the broth. Then lay the tofu across the top, and spoon some of the broth over the tofu to coat it. I forgot to buy tofu the first time I made this for photos, so please excuse the, er, temporary costume (i.e. pot) change in this next photo.

Cover the pot an allow the stew to… well… stew… for about 8-10 minutes. You’ll know it’s done when the tofu is heated through completely and everything is a nice, bubbly container of deliciousness.

Finally, we eat. Spoon the stew out into bowls, top with about 1 tsp of butter per bowl, and serve on its own or with a small bowl of cooked white rice.

Happy eating.