California Rolls are one of JT’s favourite sushi, so when we invited Brian (our nephew) for dinner this Sunday, I made a bunch. Unfortunately, he canceled due to a cold, so we had sushi for appi’s, and lunch the next day!

California Rolls

• 4 sheets of Nori  (dried seaweed paper)
• 1 cup uncooked sushi rice
• 2 tbsp rice vinegar
• 6 sea legs
• 4 slices of cucumber
• enough Avocado for 4 sushi rolls
• 1/4 cup of white and black sesame seeds, toasted
• 2 tsp Wasabi (green mustard)

1. Cook rice as per directions and allow to cool. Add the rice vinegar and stir well.
2. Cut cucumber into 1/2″ thick slices the length of the sushi paper.
3. Cut sea legs in half lengthwise.
4. Peel avocado and slice into 1/2″ thick slices, dip into lime juice so it won’t brown.
5. Using a generous strip of plastic wrap, place one sushi paper on the wrap.
6. Rub a small amount of Wasabi along one edge of the Nori.
7. See making sushi video
8. Roll in Sesame Seeds, cut into 8 pieces.
9. Serve with Soy Sauce (low sodium).

Enjoy!

We’re having birthday month girl Pam and her new beau Don with Barb and Kevin for dinner tonight. I would have like to make a really supper fancy dinner, but work has been a bear this week (pulled a mid-nighter on Wednesday, which, I have to admit is not too bad – maybe one or two a year – but, I’m not 21 anymore! Really, I’m not. Oh, just stop it!!!!).
It’s exciting because tonight is Earth Hour between 8:30 and 9:30 where you make every effort to turn off ALL your lights. So we will be eating by candle light (thank goodness I have a gas stove!)
Here is the menu:

• Hors d’oeuvres: JT’s Artisan Pizza with Goats Cheese, Prosciutto and Baby Spinach
• Amuse Bouche: (my new favourite) Leek and Potato Cappuccino with Gruyere crème

• Salad: Boston Bib with Pears Poached in Spiced Balsamic Vinegar, Candied Spicy Walnuts and Crumbled Stilton with a Balsamic Raspberry Vinegrette

• Main: Mushroom and Chestnut Barley Risotto with Seared Giant Scallops and a Lemon Sage Butter Sauce
• Dessert: Birthday Normandy Apple Tart, complete with a candle.

Not sure if there will be new photos, but I will surely post new recipes shortly.

We’ve made this recipe many times, it’s one of our favourites! adapted from Epicurious.com we have, of course, modified it to our taste!

This is one of the tastiest salmon recipes I have done so far, and each time is a HUGE success! I generally buy a large salmon fillet and serve it family style, because it is so beautiful, but you can do individual portions or steaks. You will want to marinate the salmon in the brine overnight or at least 4 hours to get the full effect.

• 1 quart water
• 1/4 cup (packed) brown sugar splenda
• 1/4 cup maple syrup
• 1/4 cup sea salt
• 1 2lb salmon fillet
• 3 cups (or more) Cedar smoke chips, soaked in water 30 minutes

Preparation

1. Stir first 4 ingredients in large bowl until sugars dissolve. Add salmon (skin side up), to brine, pressing to submerge. Cover and refrigerate overnight. Remove salmon from brine; discard brine. Rinse salmon under cold water. Place salmon, skin side down, on rack. Let stand until top is dry to touch (do not pat dry), about 1 hour. Prepare barbecue (medium-low heat). Using 2 layers of foil, make 12 x 10-inch foil rectangle with 1-inch-high sides. Place 3 cups smoke chips on foil rectangle. Set atop coals 5 minutes before grilling salmon allow to begin smoking. Make sure the heat is turned OFF below the salmon, you want indirect heat from the smoke to cook it. Position barbecue rack at least 6 inches above heat. Position vents on barbecue so that chips smoke and heat burn but do not flame.
2. Smoke until salmon is firm to touch and glaze forms over salmon, adding more smoke chips to barbecue if necessary, 30 minutes to 1 hour, depending on heat of grill.
3. Transfer salmon to platter; serve warm or at room temperature. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover; chill. Bring to room temperature before serving.)
4. Serve with a Horseradish Aoili

• 7-8 larg e scallops (these were about 1 oz each!)
• 7-8 Prosciutto slices
• 3 cups Arugula
• 1 ripe tomato
• 10 cauliflower florets
• 1 tsp olive oil

1. Dry scallops well and wrap tightly with prosciutto and hold in place with a toothpick.
2. Preheat griddle to high, and place prosciutto wrapped scallops on. Cook until grill marks appear (about 1-2 minutes each side, depending on how large scallops are). Turn 45° to get the great grill marks shown in the photo! Note that wet scallops will not allow grill marks, scallops must be bone dry to get this to happen.
3. Plate 1 1/2 cups of arugula on each plate, arrange with sliced tomatoes, cauliflower florets, and 3-4 scallops.
4. Drizzle with Balsamic and olive oil.
5. Enjoy!

Serves 2

Check it out at Foodista!

JT’s sister and her son (nephew Brian) were over for dinner on Saturday night. This pork loin roast is a fantastic recipe that we originally saw on Martha Stewart, when she had her Mom as a guest on the show. I’ve adapted the recipe, of course, but will link to the original in the title.

The Menu

Cocktails: Spanakopita

Appetizer: Lemongrass soup with shrimp

Main course:
Roast Loin of Pork with Pan Fried Apples and Apple Cider Gravy
Braised Red Cabbage
Garlic Mashed Cauliflower Potatoes (trying to keep the carbs down, but I have two yukon golds left over in the fridge that I want to use up!)

Dessert: Apple Strudel with Caramel Sauce

Lemongrass Soup (spicey Tom Yum) adapted from this website (this really is not as complicated as the list of ingredients, but don’t miss one, you will know it!)
Serves 4

• 3 cups water or chicken stock
• 1 lemongrass stalk, cut into 4″ pieces and smashed
• 4-6 whole (double) torn kaffir lime leaves
• 3 slices galangal (about 1/2 teaspoon
• 3-20 small thai chilies, to taste
• 2 cups mixed mushrooms (straw mushrooms, enoki mushrooms, black mushrooms, oyster mushrooms, wood ear mushrooms, etc.)
• 1 tomato, cut into 8 pieces lengthwise
• 2 tablespoons white soy sauce
• 1 teaspoon white sugar (or to taste)
• 3 tablespoons lime juice
• 3 tablespoons fish sauce
• 1-2 stems coriander, cleaned and roughly chopped
• 1/4 cup cilantro leaves, chopped
• 4 shrimp, cooked skinned, cleaned and tail off

1. Add the water/stock to a sauce pan. Crush the lemongrass and cilantro root in a stone mortar & pestle or with the butt of a knife, then add them to the water. Tear the lime leaves to release flavor, and throw them in too along with the galangal.
2. Turn on your heat to medium high, and bring to a boil. Boil your herbs for about 5 minutes or so, to release the flavors. The color of the water should be a light green when you’re finished.
3. Add the mushrooms, and chilies and boil for 2-3 more minutes, until mushrooms are soft.
4. Add the sliced tomato, and cook until soft, probably less than a minute.
5. Turn off the heat. Add your soy sauce, sugar, and at the very end the lime juice. Taste to make sure the flavor is right… It should be very sour & spicy. You may need to add more lime juice depending on how sour your limes are.
6. Transfer to a bowl and garnish with one shrimp and cilantro leaves.

Roast Loin of Pork with Apple Cider Gravy

• 1 boneless pork loin (4 to 5 pounds), tied
• 8 cloves garlic, sliced
• 1 1/2 teaspoons coarse salt
• 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon ground marjoram
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 1 large mayan onion, finely chopped
• 2 jonagold apples sliced about 1/4 inch thick
• 4 tbsp unsalted butter

1. Make incisions in the pork every 2 to 3 inches, and insert garlic slices. In a small bowl, combine salt, pepper, sugar, and marjoram, and coat the pork evenly with the mixture. Cover with plastic wrap, and let stand at room temperature for 1 hour.
2. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Sprinkle flour over the pork to lightly coat. Shake to remove any excess flour. In a large skillet, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add pork, and brown on all sides. Transfer pork to a large roasting pan. Add the chopped onions over the pork. Add 1 1/2 cups water to roasting pan, and roast, covered, for 1 hour, basting occasionally.
3. Remove pork loin from roasting pan, and let rest for 10 minutes. Place roasting pan on stove, heat over medium-high heat, and cook pan juices until reduced and thickened enough to coat the back of a wooden spoon, set aside for the apple cider gravy (below).
   
4. In a frying pan, melt the butter, and pan fry the apple slices until slightly browned on both sides.
   
5. Slice pork, arrange on a serving platter with the apples, and serve with gravy (below).

Apple Cider Gravy (this is an adaption from President’s Choice first cookbook)

• 2 cups apple cider
• 1 tbsp dijon mustard
• 1 cup low fat evaporated milk (not condensed) or heavy cream
• Salt and Pepper to taste
  

1. In a saucepan, bring apple cider to a boil and reduce to about 1/2 cup (this does take some time).
2. Remove from heat and whisk in the dijon mustard and the cream.
3. Return to heat and simmer until reduced about 3/4.
   
4. Add the juices from the roasting pan. Mix well.
5. Season and keep warm until ready to serve.
   

Apple Cranberry Strudel

• 6 Jonagold apples, peeled cored and grated coarsely.
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 2 tsp lemon juice
  
• 1 tsp cinnamon
  
• 1 tsp nutmeg
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1 tsp grated lemon peel
• 1/2 cup ground walnuts or almonds
• 6 sheets of phyllo pastry
• 1/4 cup melt butter (unsalted)
• Sugar for dusting strudel top
  

1. Mix apples, brown sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon, nutmeg, cranberries and lemon peel together and set aside.
2. Take 3 sheets of phyllo pastry and drizzle with melted butter in between each sheet.
3. Sprinkle with ground nuts.
4. At one end, add enough apple filling to form a roll about 3″ in diameter, all the way across the pastry.
5. Fold in edges and roll up.
6. Repeat with second set of three pastries.
7. Brush with melted butter.
8. Bake at 350°F until phyllo is golden.
9. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream, drizzled with caramel sauce, and yogurt (to cut some of the sweetness).

Caramel Sauce (adapted from Epicurious Bon Appétit | April 2006

Makes about 3/4 cup

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/8 cup light corn syrup
• 1/2 cup carnation 2% evaporated milk (not condensed)

Last Saturday we had our good friends, Dave and Mi Mi over for dinner. The menu was:

Hors D’oeuvres: Home made chicken liver paté, korozot (hungarian goats cheese dip) and variety of olives.

Puréed Roasted Cauliflower Soup (recipe below), with slivered apples and gruyere cheese dallopped on the centre.

Paella with Rustic Home Baked Bread

Molten Chocolate Cake with berries and Vanilla Ice Cream

Puréed Roasted Cauliflower Soup (8, 1/2 cup servings)

check out the recipe on Foodista

1 large head of cauliflower, chopped into even chunks
1 head garlic + 2-3 tbsp olive oil + sea salt
1 small yellow onion
2-3 tbsp olive oil
sea salt to taste
3-4 cups stock of your choice (I like miso, but chicken works well too…I wouldn’t try beef!)
1 golden delicious on Jonagold apple julienned into thin slivers
4 tbsp julienned Gruyeres cheese

Instructions

Preheat oven to 350F.
Prepare garlic to roast, remove loose skin.
Take a 10″ x 10″ piece of parchment and put garlic squarely in the middle. Drizzle with olive oil and sea salt.
Take a 10″ x 10″ piece of foil and place beneath parchment, now wrap the entire garlic up so that the olive oil does leak out. Set aside.
Quarter yellow onion.
Place onion and cauliflower on a 12″ x 17″ cookie sheet with 1-2″ sides, drizzle with olive oil and sea salt, coating evenly.
Place sheet in oven, place garlic package beside it and roast for about 40-45 minutes. You don’t want the cauliflower to brown, just roast nicely.
When cauliflower is soft, place into a glass blender. Remove garlic from package and drip the olive oil onto the cauliflower in the blender. Squeeze the garlic out into the blender…the whole thing.
Pour 2 cups of stock into the blender and blend to puré, adding additional stock to desired consistency.
Using a fine seive and the back of a laddle, press the puréed soup through so that all lumps are removed.
Reheat in microwave, garnish with cheese first then the apple on top, and enjoy.

Paella (serves 4 really hungry or 6 marginally hungry people)

This is a recipe I adapted a long time ago from Ken Kostik, but I can no longer find it on line!) I find this very easy because everything is cooked independantly and then assembled in the paella pan, and reheated for about 10-15 minutes.

• 4 chicken thighs cut into halves or thirds depending on how large they are (I like the dark meat for this recipe)
• 12 shelled and deveined shrimp
• 1 calamari tube, sliced in rings about 1 cm thick
• 12-16 mussels (this may be omitted), cleaned and checked that they are alive
• 1 Chorizo sausage sliced into 1 cm thick rounds then cut in half
• 5 oz white fish of your choice (we used cod because it stands up to cooking in the rice)
• 1 tsp saffron
• 1/2 cup white wine
• 1 cup long grain white rice
• 1 tbsp smoked paprika (I generally use spanish)
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 2 cloves garlic minced finely
• 1/2 sweet onion
• 4 skinned and seeded chopped tomatoes
• 1 red pepper
• 1/2 cup frozen peas
• 1 tbsp fresh basil chiffonade
• Lemon wedges to garnish
• 2 green onions finely sliced

Instructions

1. The day before marinate the chicken thighs in 2 tbsp olive oil, smoked paprika and salt and refrigerate.
2. 1 hour before cooking the rice, soak the saffron and garlic in the white wine for about 1 hour.
3. Prepare rice in a rice cooker, adding the saffron, garlic wine and about 1/2 of the cut Chorizo sausage and remaining water as per rice instructions.
4. Using a cast iron griddle, cook the chicken thighs thoroughly. Refrigerate.
5. In the paella pan, add 1 tbsp olive oil and sauté onions until translucent, add the remaining Chorizo sausage and brown the sausage. Set aside.
6. Preheat the oven to 350F.
7. Once the rice is cooked and you are about 10-15 minutes from serving, add the rice, fish, mussels, shrimp, calamari, tomatoes and chicken. Stir well (depending on how wet you like your paella, you may wish to add chicken stock to taste – I prefer a dryer version, don’t forget that the mussels will release some liquid as well). Bake in 350F oven for about 10 minutes until shrimp is pink, mussels have opened and calamari is done but no rubbery!
8. Add frozen peas and red pepper. Stir and bake an additional 2-5 minutes, until heated through. Garnish with green onions, lemon and basil.
9. Serve immediately with fresh home made bread, and lots of wine!

This recipe is a version from Food Network’s Tyler Florence (our’s is much healthier!)

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 4 6oz Salmon Steaks
• 1 (8 1/2-ounce) jar sun-dried tomatoes, julienned (1 cup)
• 2 tablespoons garlic, minced
• 1 pound angel hair pasta (we always use whole wheat or Catelli Smart)
• 1/4 cup fresh basil
• 1 (8 1/2-ounce) can artichoke hearts in water, quartered and drained
  (1 cup)
• 1/2 cup Kalamata olives, pitted (1/4 pound)
• 6 ounces sheep’s milk feta cheese, crumbled
• 1/4 cup Carnation evaporated milk (fat free version)
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• Salt and pepper, to taste

Directions

1. Boil water for pasta in a pasta pot, fitted with a strainer.
2. Heat oil in a skillet over medium heat. Cook Salmon.
3. Add sun-dried tomatoes and garlic to skillet. Saute for 2 minutes.
4. In the meantime, add the fresh pasta to boiling water, cook until al dente, about 5 minutes.
5. Now add the basil, artichoke hearts, olives to the skillet. Saute one minute then stir in the milk.
6. Strain the pasta and transfer to a large pasta bowl.
7. Cut salmon into bite-sized chunks and add to the pasta and toss.
8. Add the crumbled feta, toss again.
9. Season with oregano, salt and pepper before serving.

As I mentioned in a previous post, this diet I am on is extremely strict; there are forbidden foods (such as beets, kale, carrots, peas, yellow beans, corn, etc – mostly because they are high in sugar!). But I am allowed red cabbage – a fantastic fall vegetable. I have taken an old recipe and turned it healthy, but really really yummy!

• 1/2 purple cabbage, finely sliced
• 3/4 Vidalia onion, finely sliced
• 1 Golden Delicious (or Jonagold) apple, grated
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 1-4 drops of liquid smoke (this is to give the impression of bacon (I cannot have bacon now!)
• about 1 cup water or low sodium chicken stock
• salt and pepper to taste
• 14″ square parchment paper

1. Preheat oven to 500F.
2. In a hot, heavy cast iron dutch oven, spray a couple of squirts of Pam into bottom (or if your not being good, then render about 5 slices of Pancetta finely chopped and once crisp, remove). Add onions and sauté until soft (4-5 minutes). If the pan is getting dry, add a bit of water (not too much, you don’t want the onions steaming, just so they don’t burn).
3. Add apples and sauté about a minute longer. If dry, add water (or low sodium chicken stock).
4. Add purple cabbage and sauté for another couple of minutes – stirring well. If dry, add water (or low sodium chicken stock). If you’re being bad, add the pancetta back to the pan and stir well.
5. Take the parchment paper and fold into quarters, and again. Cut 1/2 the diameter of the pot in a circular form. Cut about 1/2″ out of the centre. Now when you open the parchment, it should be a circle with a hole in the centre!
   
6. Take the cabbage off the heat. Put the parchment circle into the pan directly on top of the cabbage so that it is covered (with the exception of the hole in the centre). Put the pan into the oven and braise for about 1 hour. Stir every 15-20 minutes. You may need to add a bit of water throughout, so keep an eye on it, particularly near the end.

Cider Vinegar Dressing

• 1/4 cup finely chopped Vidalia onion
• 2 tsp cider vinegar
• about 1 cup low sodium chicken stock
• Salt and Pepper to taste
• 1-2 drops of smoke (to simulate the flavour of bacon!)

1. In a small 2 cup saucepan, begin sauté-ing the onion in a couple of squirts of Pam.
2. Use small amounts of chicken stock to help the caramelization of the onions (remember, you don’t want to steam them).
3. Add the cider vinegar and about 1/4 cup of the chicken stock.
4. Reduce until there is virtually no liquid remaining.
5. Remove from heat and add about 1/2 cup of the chicken stock. The caramelization process should have made the onions a golden caramel colour.
6. Set aside.

Seared Scallops

• 5-6 oz of scallops per person. Our’s were about 2oz each!!)

1. When the cabbage has about 15 minutes left to braise, remove scallops from fridge and dry thoroughly (very important to be able to get that beautiful “sear” on them!)
2. Remove the tough mussel on the side (this is that little bit on the side that looks like it’s added on – should come off very easily, discard).
3. Heat cast iron skillet until very hot.
4. Spray a couple of squirts of Pam.
5. Add very dry scallops and sear about 2 minutes per side.

Serving

1. Place a generous amount of braised cabbage onto the centre of the plate (I prefer white).
2. Add 2-3 seared scallops into the centre of each cabbage mound.
3. Drizzle with the warm cider vinegar dressing.

Enjoy!