Spaghetti Sauce with Corned Beef

I get nostalgic thinking about this recipe because it was the standard spaghetti sauce recipe that would be simmering away on the stove when I was a kid. It wasn't until I was older that I realized that everyone else wasn't on the same page as my family for their spaghetti nights.
This is actually one of the oldest recipes in my family passed down a few generations. It was born out of the post WWII era of affordable (canned) foods and is tastier than you would imagine.
It can be thrown together and heated in about 45min. I actually have an affinity for canned/processed meat and think they can actually be enjoyable (in moderation).

Ingredients:

• 2 cans tomato soup
• 1 can tomato paste
• 1 can corned beef (Hereford is my brand of choice)
• 1/2 cup Parmesan cheese
• 3 bay leaves
• 2 tbsp chili powder
• 1 tbsp garlic powder
• 1 tbsp onion powder
• 1 tsp red chili flakes
• basil or oregano (fresh or dry if you want)

Directions:

1. Mix everything in in a sauce pan and simmer on low until heated thoroughly. 
2. Remove bay leaves and serve hot topped with extra cheese. 

Stuffed Potatoes

There is something about the creaminess of the filling mixed with the crust of melted cheese and potato skin that makes me drool over stuffed potatoes. You can pretty much eat them as their own meal depending on what you put in them. This is a fairly standard recipe with cheese, bacon, onion and sour cream but you really don't need more than that for the potato to compete as the tastiest part of the meal. 

I try to make sure that the skin is seasoned well so that the whole thing can be eaten. There is nothing more disappointing than a hollowed out skin sitting on a plate after someone abandoned it for the garbage. 

I find that it is easier to make these over two days (one day to bake and the second to fill).

Ingredients:

• 2 Russet potatoes
• 1/2 a package of bacon
• 2 scallions, chopped
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• 2 cup shredded cheddar cheese
• Salt, pepper, and garlic salt

Directions:

1. Clean the potatoes then prick them all over with a fork (this will keep them from exploding in the oven).
2. Coat with olive oil, salt, pepper, and garlic salt.
3. Bake on a cookie sheet at 350 F for an hour to an hour and fifteen minutes.
4. When cool enough - slice each in half lengthwise and scoop the insides into a mixer.
5. Cook the bacon until crisp then soften the onion in the bacon grease (I dumped all the bacon grease in with the potato filling).
6. Chop the bacon in to small pieces.
7. Add the bacon, onions, sour cream and cheese to the mixer.
8. Mix thoroughly.
9. Re-fill the skins with the improved potato.
10. Sprinkle a little extra cheese on the tops.
11. Heat the potatoes at 350 F for about 30 min.
12. When they are starting to look bubbly turn the broiler on low until the tops are nicely browned.
13. Serve hot (not molten hot) with sour cream and fresh scallion.

 

Steakhouse Cheese Bread

 

A couple of weeks ago my friend took me for dinner at Caesar's Steakhouse & Lounge in downtown Calgary. I have been there a handful of times in the past and love the food and throwback atmosphere. The steak is always great but the thing I crave the most is their cheese and garlic bread. I have a feeling that they are so good mostly because they are doused in butter, garlic, and cheese. 
Jess and I went to Canmore this past weekend made a "steakhouse" dinner including Teriyaki steak and mushrooms, stuffed potatoes (recipe coming), and my version of Caesar's cheese bread. I don't think their recipe includes the cheese sauce that I used but it ended up being very tasty, easy to prepare, and different than the usual.

*** If you are at all concerned about calories, salt, fat, carbs or your general health I recommend avoiding this recipe at all costs... if you are a glutton like me continue on to your destiny.

Ingredients:

• 1 loaf of French bread
• 1 can cheese sauce/soup (I used Campbell’s Condensed Cheddar Cheese soup)
• Parmesan cheese (I used a 1/3 of a shaker of Kraft Parmesan Cheese)
• 1/2 cup melted butter

Directions:

1. Slice bread lengthwise. 
2. Coat both sides with the melted butter.
3. Turn your broiler on low.
4. Apply a thick layer of cheese sauce. 
5. Shake a thick layer of Parmesan over the cheese. 
6. Put in oven until the Parmesan browns and it looks like boiling lava. 
7. Serve hot.

Caesar Salad Dressing

Living in one of the best beef producing areas of the world I grew up with an affinity for "Steakhouse Classics". Our family menu would usually consist of steak marinated in teriyaki sauce, fried mushrooms, stuffed potatoes, bread and Caesar salad. My Dad was the grill master, my mom would make the potatoes and my brother always made the salad dressing. I usually would just show up and stuff my face.
This dressing recipe is not for the faint of heart (excuse the idiom) because it includes two things that make some people squeamish and makes me salivate. Raw egg yolk and anchovies are two of the stars of this dressing and quietly make your taste buds explode without realizing you are devouring raw unborn chicken mixed with preserved oily fish.
I once watched a documentary on these old Spanish ladies hand stuffing tins of anchovies and was amazed at how methodical they were. The taste can be overpowering but if you find the right balance they can make a great addition to many meals.

Ingrediants:

• 2-3 cloves of garlic
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 Tbsp lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
• 6 Tbsp olive oil
• 2 Tbsp red wine vinegar
• 2-3 anchovy fillets
• 1 cup parmesan
• fresh ground pepper

Directions:

1. Place everything but the cheese in a food processor and puree.
2. Toss the salad with the cheese and dressing.

 

Potato, Jalapeno, and Cheddar Perogies

Perogies are one of my favourite foods. They make me nostalgic for when I was a kid and our family would make sausage and perogies in mass quantities. They are versatile because you can put anything you want in them.
One of my best friends had a garden on his patio this summer and he has been dropping of baggies of herbs and veggies periodically over the summer. He recently dropped off a bag of home grown jalapeno peppers. I was shocked that you could grow them in Calgary and am always amazed when someone can spend time growing something. I have no problem cooking all day because I know that I am going to stuff my face at the end of it but gardening is so delayed that I couldn't handle spending time waiting months to enjoy something.
These were so good we ended up making perogies again this week. I used the dough recipe from a previous post and made 2.5 dozen.

Ingredients:

• 2 russet potatos
• 3 jalapeno peppers (Seeds removed)
• 3 cups cheddar cheese
• 1/2 cup butter
• 2 cloves garlic
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Peel the potatos then cube and boil them until soft.
2. Melt the butter in the microwave.
3. In a food processor puree the jalapenos, butter and garlic.
4. In a stand mixer combine all the ingredients until mixed well.
5. Cool for 45 min in the fridge so that it hold together when filling the dough.

 

Hoisin Beef Short Ribs

This recipe is a mishmash of a bunch of different food inspirations and can generically be labelled as an "Asian" meat that will be tasty in almost anything. I decided to make beef short ribs because Jess and I were reminiscing about these steamed buns we used to get in New Zealand for a buck at this International Cafeteria near our apartment.
I don't have a steamer so I decided to bake the buns using the recipe for Chinese Cocktail Buns I used a while ago. I had extra meat while I was cooking and ended up making some Banh Mi subs that were amazing. After making the Banh Mi I had an even better idea and cut the buns in half and stuffed in the carrots, cilantro, cucumber, and other sandwich fixins to make mini Banh Mi subs. I didn't get a photo because we had company over but they were fun little snacks to fill up on.

Ingredients:

• 3 lb boneless beef short ribs 
• 1 medium onion
• 2 medium carrots
• 2 ribs celery
• 1 1/2 cup hoisin sauce
• 2 cup beef stock
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 3/4 cup orange juice
• 1/2 can tomato paste
• 2 tbsp vegetable oil
• 2 cups water
• Salt and pepper
   

Directions:

1. Heat 2 tbsp oil in a large, heavy pot over medium-high (I used the liner to our slow cooker). Sear the ribs 2-3 minutes per side.
2. Add  the onion, carrots, and celery until soft and a bit browned, 10 minutes.
3. Add the tomato paste and stir to coat. Cook for 2 minutes.
4. De-glaze the pan with the beef stock.
5. Add the hoisin, orange juice, brown sugar, and water. Bring to a simmer.
6. Cook in the slow cooker for 4 hours, stirring every hour.
7. Remove the ribs and chop to serve.

Sweet as...

Vector Crunch French Toast

I am sorry for being absent on the blog but I've been busy since our little baby Jack was born. To get back in the swing of things I figured I would start out with something simple with ingredients that most people would have in their kitchen. I crusted French toast with cereal and it was the perfect way to take a fairly pedestrian breakfast and make it a memorable one.

Ingredients:

• some form of sliced bread
• 3 eggs
• splash of milk
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 2 cups crushed cereal (I used Vector)
• syrup and jam to top it

Directions:

1. I only had two cups of cereal so I just took the bag out of the box and smashed it up on the counter.
2. In a bowl mix up the eggs, milk, vanilla, and cinnamon.
3. Dunk the bread in the wet mix then coat it in the cereal crumbs.
4. Brown the bread in a buttered skillet then top with syrup and jam.

 

Beer Mignonette

Drinks and seafood are something that most people have together, but not necessarily mixed into one thing. One of my favourite drinks is a Caesar (a tomato and clam juice, Clamato, mixed with vodka and spices). While traveling internationally people would cringe at the idea of a mussel and a refreshing drink together.  I think that beer and various seafood's were made for each other and it makes sense to have the salty fresh taste from the sea and the cool refreshing flavours of a good beer combined. In the last couple years I have taken my addiction of bivalve molluscs to another level starting with a beer and oyster combo in New Zealand (see below).

After a long afternoon of Stand Up Paddle Boarding the pairing of a a couple beers and a couple oysters was exactly what I needed to recover. If you can throw an oyster in your beer you might as well put some beer in your oysters.
This beer based mignonette is the perfect way to ensure that you still taste the natural greatness of the oyster while tempering some of the flavours so that no single flavour is overwhelming.
My friend hosted an amazing dinner party where different beers were used to enhance every dish from the appetizers to dessert. I swung by early to help and ended up shucking the oysters that we covered with the mignonette. I have a new appreciation for oyster shucking because I felt like I was going to lose my hand at any moment. These were some of the better ones that I miraculously did not mangle. Try to keep the beer intake to a minimum when shucking or you probably will lose a finger or two (safety first).

Ingredients:

• 1 shallot
• 3 tbsp red wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
• 1 beer (We used Creemore Springs - Premium Lager)
• salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Open the beer and let stand for 20 min so that it loses some of the carbonation.
2. Mince the shallot.
3. Mix the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper.
4. Let sit for 30 min to 1 hr to let the shallots absorb some of the beer and lose some of there potency.
5. Spoon over fresh oysters and top with a squeeze of lemon.

Salsa

The bruschetta was so successful I decided to see what else I could whip up with minimal effort and pretty much the same ingredients. Salsa is a mostly tomato dish that has a totally different flavour profile than bruschetta. To take it to the next level I grilled most of the ingredients first to char them and infuse a bit of a smokey flavour.

Ingredients:

• 4 cups tomato
• 1/2 medium white onion
• 1 jalapeno
• juice of 1 lime
• 4 garlic cloves
• 1 handful of cilantro

Directions:

1. Cut the tomatoes, onion, and jalapeno in half.
2. Peel the garlic.
3. Grill 5 - 10 min or until the skin on the tomatoes and jalapeno is starting to char.
4. Put everything in a food processor and chop until fine.
5. If required drain some of the liquid of in a mesh strainer.
6. Add some salt and pepper.

Bruschetta

If there is bruschetta out I usually can't stop myself from devouring it. It is something you can whip together in 10 minutes and you can't beat the fresh burst of flavours. If you can let it mingle for a couple hours in the fridge it is perfection.
You can buy French/Italian loaf or make some yourself  or find another recipe here (I made a half recipe of the sub buns).


Ingredients:

• 4 cups tomatoes
• 3 cloves garlic
• 2 tbsp extra olive oil
• 2 tsp balsamic vinegar
• 6-8 basil leaves
• salt, to taste
• 1/2 tsp  black pepper
• 1 tbsp white onion (optional)

Directions:

1. Chop in a food processor.
2. Enjoy!