Beef and Pineapple

I really wish I had green onions for this...

So, I don't know. I like beef, I like pineapple. So does my girl. So, this was an easy sell. And, polls say, she thought it was delicious. I marinated the beef for quite a few days for this, I'm not really if it was entirely necessary. I used stewing beef and marinated it in chunks for the majority, and for the last few hours I sliced the beef thinly, then returned it to the marinade.

Before cooking the beef, I cooked the peppers and onions, then removed them from the pan, then coated the beef in rice flour, then cooked it in hot oil. The combined everything in the sauce, and added pineapple at the end. Overall, pretty good, although, I really wish I had a wok burner and a giant wok so that I could really drive the heat through my stir-frys with maximum performance and extreme prejudice.

Recipe to follow

Pressure Cooker Pot Roast, Creamed Spinach, Instamash, Roasted Grape Tomato and Bread

So, this was a cheat dinner for me as I really didn't put much effort into making it really. Still good, but not especially elaborate. I do really love oven roasting tomatoes, they are explosions of flavour! The ratio of ease to deliciousness is through the roof. Statistically, they should be included in every meal. It really does work best with grape tomatoes though. They perform well under pressure and maximum performance is essential in a cheat dinner. Also, I have three bottles of unfiltered Italian olive oil that I love finding excuses to use as a flavour additive. This meal kind of happened because my mother went to the washroom at Costco before taking me home, and I bought a few things while I was waiting. Normally you can't really but small portions of things but I found a small (small for Costco) piece of Inside Round, which is pretty damn perfect for Pot Roast, and they had a delicious spreadable cheese, flavoured with Garlic and Herb de Provence called Boursin on sale, so I bought that too, and the rest kind of fell into place.

Ingredients

Baguette or other Crusty Bread

30 Grape Tomatoes

Unfiltered Olive Oil (Or other nicely flavoured oil)

Dried Basil

Inside Round Roast

1 lbs Spinach (Washed and Trimmed)

Instamash (Plus ingredients for instamash preparation)

100 ml Milk

100g Boursin

30ml Worsterschire Sauce

15ml Balsamic Vinegar

Salt and Pepper

Olive Oil

Directions

Roast Tomatoes on Bread

1. Roast tomatoes under broiler element on a sheet pan until softened. Remove and allow to cool slightly then drizzle with olive oil and basil. Serve on bread.

Pressure Cooker Pot Roast, Creamed Spinach, Instamash

1. Sear inside round on all sides. 

2. Combine Balsamic Vinegar, Worsterschire Sauce, and Dijon Mustard and 300ml cold water in pressure cooker and turn on, to heat up. Add meat when pressure cooker has heated and pressure cook for 40 minutes at full pressure.

3. Wilt spinach in a dry saucepan on medium heat in batches. Squeeze spinach to remove excess liquid. Clean out saucepan then add milk and boursin, heat on medium heat and stir until combined. Add wilted spinach and  stir over heat for 3 minutes. Then remove from heat.

4. Using an immersion blender, pulse cut the spinach slightly to make for a medium smooth texture.

5. Prepare instamash according to package directions.

6. Slice roast and plate with spinach and mash, season to taste, serve with more dijon mustard.

Valentine's Day Ricotta Basil Tortellini in Tomato Broth and Beef Tenderloin Bearnaise and Wild Mushroom Risotto

Pretty, but too salty.

If you think dry Risotto isn't real Risotto, go f*ck yerself. 

So, Valentine's Day, a nice opportunity to justify a slightly nicer than normal meal, a good reason to spend a little more on ingredients for a single meal than one normally might.

Spicy Garlic Red Snapper with Peppers and Mushrooms. Bulgur Wheat.

So, not the most exciting combination of possible foods on the planet, but this meal was more about eating the Red Snapper that we had, and not having any rice, and taking a sudden interest in Bulgur Wheat after a wonderful takeout experience at a nearby Turkish restaurant. In general this meal was not entirely disgusting, it was just very purposeful, rather than lavish and decadent. I ended up eating this for lunch again, and since my girl had the day off today, she may have as well.





Ingredients
Assume all ingredients cut to relatively equal bite size pieces.

3 Small Fillets of Red Snapper
1/2 Each of Red, Orange, Yellow Pepper
1/2 Onion
1 Zucchini
1 Handful each of White Mushrooms and Oyster Mushrooms
4 Cloves of Garlic
Sriracha, Hoisin, Worstechire Sauces to taste
2 Tsp of Ground Ginger
Sesame Oil, Olive Oil

150g Bulgur Wheat
250g Hot Water

Directions


Stir-Fry


1. On medium heat. wok or large fry-pan on medium heat. Add a few splashes each of sesame and olive oil.


2. Stir-fry onions, peppers, and garlic for about a minute, add ground ginger. Continue cooking, add zucchini. Add sauces to taste, cook until ingredients are tender crisp. Then pour contents into bowl and reserve.


3. Clean wok or fry-pan, reheat on high heat, add a few tablespoons total oil, once smoking, add fish, allow to brown on both sides, season, return vegetables, add more sauce to taste, stir to coat. Add mushrooms.


Bulgur Wheat


1. In a heat proof bowl, add bulgur wheat and hot water, cover and allow to sit for 20 minutes.

Sweet and Sour Crispy Pork with Pineapple and Mushrooms

So, this is basically one of the best dishes I know how to make. I really love Chinese food, and ate so much Chinese food growing up, that when left to my own devices, I seem to want to make Chinese food. I think this style of cooking would be Cantonese, I think. I'm not really an expert though on such things. A couple of key things to keep in mind with this dish... after frying the battered pork, put the cooked pieces in a 320F oven until ready to serve, also keep the sauce separate from the battered pork until serving. It maintains the deliciousness of both components. Also, it's really important, if shallow frying, to fry in small batches, turn the meat often, and to spoon small amounts of additional batter onto the pork as its frying. Also, I think there is a wide margin for variance in the sauce as long as it has nice sweet and sour flavours.

Look at that saucy pile of delicious mushrooms and fresh pinapple.

Just look at all that meat. So smooth. So fine.

Ingredients

Meat

2 Pork Tenderloins (Medium Small Chunks)

2 Cups Corn Starch

2 Eggs

1 Tbsp Sesame Oil

1 Tsp White Pepper

2 Tsp Ground Ginger

1 Tbsp Granulated Garlic Powder

Salt and Pepper

Beef Stock

Sauce

1/2 Fresh Pinapple (Medium Dice)

2 Small Carrots (Finely Sliced)

1/2 Onion (Large Slices)

1 Portobello Mushroom (Large Chunks)

8 Medium White Mushrooms (Thickly Sliced)

Combine

250ml Cantonese Garlic Chili Chicken Sauce

30ml Oyster Sauce

80ml HP Sauce

30ml Rice Wine Vinegar

10ml Sesame Oil

Directions

1. Add the corn starch, spices and oil to a mixing bowl and beat the eggs into it, once it is well mixed, add the pork. The batter should be thick and coat the meat well. If it's too thick to stir, add small amounts of beef stock until it loosens enough to stir, but still thick enough to coat the meat. Cover and place in fridge to chill for at least 30 minutes before frying.

2. Heat frying oil to 375F, carefully spoon battered meat into hot oil, do not overcrowd. Turn meat often, spoon small amounts of additional batter onto meat as it frys, turn meat to quickly set extra batter. Cook until batter is nicely browned. Remove to plate, and repeat until meat is cooked. Slide the cooked battered pork on a baking sheet into a 320F oven for about 20 minutes before serving. Sprinkle lightly with salt and pepper after removing it from the oven.

3. While the meat is in the oven, prepare the sauce. Heat sesame oil in a work on high heat. Add the carrots and onions. Stir fry and cook for about a minute. Add the mushrooms, stir fry for about another minute. Add the combined liquid ingredients to the work. Cook for 30 seconds. Add the pineapple. Remove from heat, set aside until serving.

Serve with jasmine rice.

Flank Steak with Baked Potato

So, normally I would have taken a slightly better better photo of the food, but we started eating. Really, this posting should be about how much I like the Grill Pan and Induction Cooktop combo that I got two weeks ago. I previously made some really nice Strip Steaks and Spanish Chorizo, but I didn't bother blogging about them, and then, last night, Flank Steak. And I must say, the Strip Steaks and the Flank Steaks were easily the best steaks I've ever made at home. Induction and Cast Iron really is the way to go. Also, not to worry, this plate of meat, potatoes, milk-fat, and sugar was preceded by a simple green salad.

Mushroom Risotto

So, I think I'm probably going to make lots and lots of risotto before I ever decide to make a recipe, also the internet is so saturated with risotto recipes, that one more doesn't really seem to be neccessary. However, this is a fairly standard mushroom risotto that I made using the leftover "asparagus broth" that I "made" a few nights back when I made asparagus to go with the crispy haddock. Also, I made this with white stuffer mushrooms that I roasted in the oven first, and real mushroom powders that I got from Pistol River Mushrooms a while back which I've been fairly liberal in using, and I'm sure you'll notice them sprinkled throughout previous blog posts, and until they're all gone, you'll probably continue to see them. There's really not much to say that hasn't already been said ad nauseam about Risotto, so with that in mind... the end.

Perogies or Pierogi or Perogys

So, one of the things that my girl recalls from her childhood, is her mother making her perogies, from scratch. And being the sentimental old fool that I am, and being half-Polish, and not really embracing my heritage in my cooking, I decided to make some perogies. A quick scan of the wikipedia article on the subject shows a great deal of cultural variance, and even a variety of names that they go by. I guess I don't really care if they are originally Polish in origin, they're pretty delicious in general, and I enjoy eating them, and now also enjoy making them too. Rather than provide a full recipe, I'm only going to provide the recipe that I used to make the dough. I'm not entirely happy with the fillings that I made, so I won't bother writing up a full recipe for them. I made two kinds though, one was a baked then mashed potato, mixed with fried onion and cheddar cheese, it was kind of rustic and delicious, but probably could have stood to be smoother. The other was a turkey sausage and sauerkraut and dill filling, not bad in general, but very in your face, and could have used something to bind it together better.

Gigantic.

Ingredients


250g Unbleached Bread Flour
120ML Sour Cream
40ML Melted Butter
1 Egg
1 Tsp Salt

Directions

1. Sift the dry ingredients.

2. Add the remaining ingredients, pull into dough, knead, cover and leave on counter 1 hour before using.

3. Cut into sections, roll to 4mm thickness, cut into squares, or circles, fill, fold over and press to seal.

Crispy Pan Fried Haddock with Jalapeno Mango Salsa, Asparagus, and Kaffir Lime Scented Jasmine Rice

That could've been plated a lot better Michael... fail.

So, I finally started buying food again, and I had a mango in the fridge, and frozen haddock in the freezer, and dry rice in the cupboard, so this happened. I did go to the grocery store and spend $3.16 on Jalapeno peppers and Asparagus to make the meal a little better. The meal was good, but still had some flaws, my girl said the rice smelled like Fruit Loops though, and frankly, she wasn't wrong. Also, I owe some credit to my older sister for this meal as I was discussing it with her earlier that evening and she suggested add the kaffir lime leaves to the rice. If she had a blog, you should read it.

Ingredients

4 Frozen Haddock Filets

1 Green Mango

1 Jalapeno Pepper

1 Tsp Ground Ginger

1 Cup Jasmine Rice

6 Kaffir Lime Leaves

1.25 Cups Water

30g Butter

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

40 ML Chinese Rose Wine

1 Bunch of Asparagus

1 Lemon

Salt and Pepper

Kaffir Lime Leaf Scented Jasmine Rice

1. Combine jasmine rice with water in rice cooker at ratio of 1.25 unit of water to 1 unit of rice. Add about 6 dried kaffir lime leaves for every cup of rice. Remove leaves before serving.

Mango and Jalapeno Salsa

1. Break down a green mango, and mince till smooth. Finely dice 1 jalapeno pepper and combine with the mango. Add 1 Tsp ground ginger, and 1/2 Tsp ea salt and pepper. Stir.

Crispy Pan Fried Haddock

1. Melt 20g butter and 1 Tbsp Olive oil in a frying pan over low heat. Add frozen haddock filets, skin side down. Cook until defrosted, turn flesh side down, season skin side. Cook until softened throughout.

2. Tip liquid from frying pan and reserve. Increase to high heat, add 1 Tsp olive oil. Cook haddock on both sides until crispy. Season on both sides. Remove fish and reserve.

3. Add reserved liquid to hot pan, add chinese rose wine, reduce for 1 minute. Spoon pan sauce over fish to serve.

Asparagus

1. Clean and trim asparagus, boil in salted water until tender crisp. Drain and reserve water, makes decent beginning of vegetable stock. Remove asparagus, add 10g butter and reduce to medium heat. Return 8 stalks to saucepan, and saute in butter for 1 minute. Enough for 2-3 servings. Add 1 tsp lemon juice to stalks to serve.

Pork Dumpling Soup, Green Pepper and Cabbage, Rice with Hot Honey Mustard

Frozen dumplings and tetra-pack broth.

So, I was kind of slack tonight, I mostly just really wanted to watch Masterchef Australia, also, I'm sort of low on certain ingredients. I did make the mustard from scratch... but my girl didn't actually eat it, she feels it to be too strong, and I don't blame her, it really is quite strong. I don't think there's really anything to discuss about this particular dinner. I added some of the stock, sesame oil, oyster sauce, sesame seeds, salt and pepper, and garlic into the vegetables, nothing really special here though, they did taste good though. At least my girl got to watch Kiss Kiss, Bang Bang Which is a movie she really seems to like, and perhaps the strangeness of the movie paired well with the strangeness of the meal.

Tasty, but she doesn't like cabbage anymore.

Vegetable Frittata and even simpler salad

So, on mother's day, I was at my mother's condominium building, and I found out that the building actually has an on site herb garden for the building residents. Seeing as how I used to live there, and that I never once took herbs from the garden, I took some fresh chives, just this once. There's also been alot of meat packed meals of late, so something "lighter" was desired. In this case though, something "lighter" ended up being something packed with cheese and eggs, but... oh well. There reallly isn't that much to making a frittata, I know this to be true, as I've never made a frittata before, and it turned out quite good. This particular baked puffy crustless quiche of an omelette was filled with freshly boiled potatoes, green pepper, onion, herbed havarti, and mozzarella cheese. Nothing really out of the ordinary here. The salad was the last of the mixed greens that I used in the steelhead trout meal from yesterday. I don't usually buy mixed greens in a box, but I did get four servings from it, and it was only $2.99, so I guess I shouldn't complain.


Ingredients

Frittata

7 Large Eggs
1 Russet Potato (Peeled and small diced)
1/2 Red Onion (Small diced)
1 Green Pepper (Small diced)
100g ea Herbed Havarti and Mozzarella Cheese (Finely Grated)
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper
Pinch of Dried Basil
1 Clove of Minced Garlic
1/2 Tbsp of Sherry Vinegar

Even Simpler Salad

1 Handful of Mixed Field Greens Per Person
1 Splash of Lemon Juice
1 Splash of Avocado Oil


Directions
I used the same 1.9L saucier to prepare the whole meal. The rounded sides of saucier gave the frittata a pleasing shape.


1. Place the diced potatoes in a small saucier of cold, salted water. Bring to boil, cook until tender. Drain water, reserve potatoes, clean and dry saucier.

2. Whisk eggs in large mixing bowl and add sherry vinegar. Whisk until lots of air bubbles are present and eggs and vinegar are well combined.

3. Heat the saucier over medium heat, add olive oil, then add green peppers and onions to rippling oil. Saute, season, add garlic. When peppers and onions are tender crisp and garlic is not burnt but aromatic, add the potatoes. Combine, and turn off heat.

4. Add dried basil and 3/4 of each of the cheeses to the mixture. Stir to combine then place in a 300F oven until puffy and firm.

5.  Once puffy and firm, add remaining cheese to the top of the frittata and place under broiler until browned.

6. Remove, allow to cool slightly, and carefully slip the frittata out, and onto a cutting board. Slice, top with fresh chives, serve warm.

Salad

1. Plate greens on plate beside frittata, drizzle small amount of lemon juice and small amount of avocado oil onto greens.

Steelhead Trout and Fresh Fries & A Simple Salad

So, for some reason, we both really wanted fish, (probably because of all the beef of late) and for some reason I wanted to buy a big filet, and cook it whole. And for some reason, I decided, I really want to make Steelhead Trout. Had I portioned the filet before cooking, it probably would have been enough, had I pre-heated the oil a bit in the bakeware I used, it would have been enough, had I been more delicate and expert, it would have been enough. But all these things were not in place last night, and so, I made something that makes me want to try again to do better, rather than being happy about serving. I'll probably put together a recipe when I'm happy with the results.

A simple salad to begin.

This looks tastier than it really was.

Fresh Burger Fresh Fries Fresh Bun

So, a little while back, I got it into my head that it was really easy to make fresh cut fries, and that they would be good. I figured, clean a potato, or peel it, cut it into strips that looked like fries, shallow fry the "fries" in hot oil, then season them, and they'd be like fries. This was probably, coming up on three years ago now that I first did this. I don't really know why I started doing that, but I haven't bought frozen fries ever since. I don't shallow fry, or deep fry them anymore as it's not really necessary for a delicious finish unless using Heston Blumenthal's triple cooked method, which are extremely delicious. I now clean or peel the potato, usually Russet, cut it into fries, put them into a bowl with a bit of oil and spices and seasoning, toss them, then put them onto a baking sheet, and slide them into a 425F oven. It's alot easier, they still get really crispy, and I'd like to believe that they are also a great deal healthier than shallow or deep frying them in hot oil. For burger-ing, I only recently starting making burgers at home that my girl and I started to find attractive. Making burgers is pretty standard, it's about the same as making meatloaf or meatballs, but the spices can be different, and the shape is different as well. Or at least, that's the case for oven baking, pan frying, or grilling would be slightly different. One day, I decided to pour a tiny amount of molasses into the burger mix, and I felt that it really worked, it was delicious, helped bind the meat, and sort of helped retain more moisture. If anything though, burgers, like meatballs and meatloaf are wide open though in preparation style, and ingredients, and in the case of burgers above all, toppings are widely subjective and should be chosen to personal taste. I've embedded the fairly annoying video below because it really got me thinking about burgers when I first saw it a while back. If you take anything from the video, just take that you can put just about anything you want into a burger mix in terms of flavoring, and it will probably taste good. Also, watch as Hubert Keller magically turns a piece of chuck into mince, then makes a burger out of it.



Shaauurrt reeebs was a mystery to me for the longest time.




And lastly, fresh hamburger buns, that I'm still working on, I used a fairly simple bread dough recipe, but added some milk and sugar to it for more of a burger bun feel and taste. Next time I'm making buns though, I have to remember that buns, because they have a great deal less thermal mass requiring far less cooking time than a loaf of bread from the same ingredients, so as to say, the buns were severely over-baked, but otherwise, so I'm told by my girl, that it was a pretty tasty meal, but the bun was nearly inedible.

Buns

This yield about 4 buns of appropriate size.

200g Unbleached Bread Flour

4g Instant Yeast

75g Water

25g Milk

15g Sugar

2g Salt

1. Mix all ingredients and form into dough. Cover with bag and rest for 90 minutes.

2. Turn onto board, knead for 3 minutes, rest for two minutes. Repeat six times.

3. Form into balls 1/3 size of desired finished bun, rest for 30 minutes.

4. Bake at 425F in a lidded roasting pan for (probably) 8 minutes, then remove lid and continue baking for 7 minutes at 450F.

5. Allow to cool before serving. 

Burger

This recipe actually yielded enough to make two burgers, and a bunch of meatballs which I used for an unpublished sweet and sour meatball meal. Though the spices in the mix weren't quite right for the dish, but this would probably make about 4 burgers.

Feta (hiding under the sliding burger), tomato, pickle, and tartar sauce, as requested.

900g Lean Ground Beef
3 Eggs
1 Tbsp Molasses
1 Packet Onion Soup Powder (Ground Finely with Mortal and Pestle)
1 Tbsp ea Granulated Garlic Powder, Paprika.
1/2 Tbsp ea Dried Oregano, Salt, Pepper

1. Mix all ingredients then chill in fridge for 34 mins.
2. Pre-heat oven to 425F and form a lidless double layered box from aluminum foil.
3. Remove from fridge and form into patties, place into aluminum box, slide into oven.
4. If also making fries, give the fries a 7 min head start. Remove when burger looks good to you, flipping occasionally to brown evenly, remove any coagulated fat before serving.

Fries

The ingredients in this recipe are estimates only, I kind of make these different every time I make them.

1 Russet Potato per person (Washed or Peeled)

2 Tsp Ea, Granulated Garlic Powder, Paprika

1 Tsp Ea Dried Oregano, Salt, Pepper

2 Tbsp Olive Oil

1. Cut potatoes into fries.

2. Toss all ingredients in a mixing bowl until potatoes are evenly coated.

3. Pour potatoes and coating onto baking sheet and bake in a 425F oven until crispy, turning occasionally. 

Update: I made more buns, using the recipe above, and they came out more or less fine. I think I'll need to write them up again though, and actually measure everything instead of dumping stuff into a bowl and estimating what I think I used. But the reduced baking time is critical for buns.

May 7 Update bun with test burger version 1.1.

Beef Stroganoff

This was actually quite delicious.

My girl, being from western Canada enjoys various food brands that are found in, western Canada. For some reason, she wanted me to make her some Beef Stroganoff, and by coincidence, she happened to find her favourite brand of sour cream at our local Wal-mart. This was my first time making Beef Stroganoff, so the recipe was a bit thrown together, but here it is none the less. The flavours in this recipe are quite delicious, I think in large part to the unique characteristics of the particular sour cream. I used Avocado oil in this recipe because I happened to have it on hand, and it has a very high
smoke point which makes it great for searing.


Ingredients

3 Tbsp Avocado Oil
1kg Beef Inside Round (Cut into Batons)
1 Medium Red Onion (Diced)
300ML Beef Stock
50ML Shao Shing Wine
2 Tbsp Paprika
1 Tbsp Granulated Garlic
1 Tbsp Dried Hammer Milled Shitake Mushrooms
1 Tsp Dried Ground Porcini Mushroom Powder
30g Salted Butter (Cubed)
Salt and Pepper to Taste
Broad Whole Wheat Egg Noodles

To Garnish

Dried Fine Herbs (Tarragon, Chives, Chervil)
Paprika
Dairyland Sour Cream


Directions

Beef Stroganoff

1. Pre-heat stainless french skillet on medium high, pour in oil, once oil is rippling, add beef.
2. Cook beef until caramelized on all sides then reserve beef and drain pan juices.
3. Clean pan, reduce to medium heat, add onions, cook until soft and fond forms on the skillet.
4. Deglaze with wine, then add beef stock, spices, and mushrooms.
5. Add beef, and half the reserved pan juices.
6. Reduce heat to low and simmer for 1 hour. Stirring occasionally.
7. Add half of the butter cubes, stirring to incorporate.


Noodles


1. Heat salted water on high heat until boiling.
2. Add noodles, stirring moderately until cooked.
3. Drain water, return noodles to pot.
4. Add salt, pepper, and remaining butter cubes, stirring to incorporate.


Finishing

1. Spoon seasoned buttered noodles into bowl.
2. Spoon Beef Stroganoff onto noodles.
3. Add a generous spoonful of sour cream, a pinch each of paprika and fine herbs.

Pizza

Pizza is honestly also amongst my top five favourite foods and I love all styles of pizza as long as they perfect all of the criterium of their style. I define pizza as normal thickness and high quality, which for me doesn't get any better than Dante's Italian Restaurant in Thornhill. Another category in my mind would be cheap style but still using good ingredients, and for me the best example is Bellisimos in downtown Toronto, east of Yonge st. Thin and perfect, well I still haven't found the best.

So, I happened to have a surplus of mozzarella cheese and tomatoes (a situation I really don't mind being in) and since I always have bread flour on hand and it having been a while since my girl had any pizza, pizza happened. I made two pizzas but only photographed the first one as the second one got crumpled (sadfacedboy). I'm having difficulty right now with a system for getting the pizza into the oven onto something pre-heated and baking with the broiling element. I think if I baked from the bottom on a decent round pan and stopped being an idiot about sliding onto a preheated pan then things would work out fine. With regards to buying pizza dough from the store, don't, it doesn't taste anywhere near as good as this dough.

Wow, pre-packaged pizza toppings really look like pre-packaged pizza toppings.

Sliced tomato, mozzarella, feta, black olives, black forest ham. Delicious.

I actually made another pizza tonight using up the remaining dough, and this time, I lightly oiled a non-stick baking pan, and covered it lightly with semolina, baked it from the bottom, then finished it from the top, and it's fine. Actually it's more than fine, it's delicious.



Ingredients
This is probably enough for about four thin 14" pizzas.

Dough

454g Unbleached Bread Flour
30g Honey
30g Olive Oil
5g Instant Fast Acting Yeast
325g Cold Water

1. Combine all ingredients, stir. After dough comes together, turn out onto floured board.
2. Flour hands, knead for 4 minutes. Rest for 2 minutes. Repeat six times.
3. Place dough in a lightly oiled bowl covered with a plastic bag for 3 hours.
4. Roll out to desired thickness (baked thickness increases exponentially based on rolled thickness, thinest possible before tearing will be about 1.25 times thicker when baked, 1 inches thick unbaked will be about 2.5-3 inches thick after baking).
5. Thinly spread your tomato sauce, most of the cheese, toppings, then a bit more cheese.
6. Bake until desired done-ness at 425F on the bottom rack, then 500F using the broiling element until the desired done ness on the top is reached. This will vary by how soft you like your pizza, and how thick or thin you roll your dough.

Tomato Sauce

5 Ripe Vine Tomatoes (Blanched, Peeled, Crushed, Heart Removed)
1 Tbsp ea Dried Basil, Milled Dried Shitake Mushroom
1/2 Tbsp Granulated Garlic Powder
1 Tsp Fine Ground Porcini Mushroom Powder
2 Tsp Squid Sauce
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

1. Heat sauce pan over medium heat.
2. Add oil, wait for oil to ripple.
3. Add tomatoes, cook for 90 seconds, stirring.
4. Add other ingredients, cook for 3 minutes, stirring.
5. Allow to cook before using on pizza.

Green Thai Curry with Beef

The recipe for this curry is actually also John Mitzewich's, and if you read my blog regularly, most of the stuff on here, for the last little while is his as well. He really is a very, very talented chef. I've yet to actually buy any lemon grass to make this though, as I kind of gave up on using lemon grass when I read that lemon zest is a fairly good substitute. Someday though, I'll find a place that has lemon grass and all the other fresh ingredients needed to put this curry together. I usually vary how I make this curry, by simply varying the non-paste ingredients, I do really love large bias cut pieces of carrot though. Also, if my girl allowed me to use zucchini, aka courgettes, I probably would, and the same goes for eggplant. I imagine I will be posting this several times more before I die, as it is one of my top 5 favourite dinners to make as it truly is an extremely delicious dish so I'll probably write out a better recipe later, plus, watch John's video below as he really, really knows what he's doing.

I was told I needed to take better photos. I hope this works.

My girl also enjoyed beef cold rolls with savoy cabbage, julienne carrot and celeriac, but they got eaten before a photo opportunity presented itself.

Hand minced beef tomato sauce

I kind of really enjoy hand minced beef instead of machine ground beef. And I also don't mind mincing the beef myself either. The meat is a great deal softer and not at all chewy like ground beef can sometimes be. The sauce used in this recipe is also interesting in that it tastes good in spite of being made from very unlikely ingredients that most people would turn their noses up at. Its actually my girl's family's recipe that I've been making for a few years. All I can say is it tastes delicious, and don't knock it tell you've tried it. This isn't the original recipe anymore, but its a very forgiving sauce.

Ingredients

454g Slice of Sirloin Tip Roast (Finely Minced)
2 Cans of Campbell's Tomato Soup
1 Can of Tomato Paste
1 Medium Sized Onion (Diced)
1 Cup Banana Peppers (Diced)
2 Cloves of Garlic (Minced)
2 Tbsp Dried Milled Shitake Mushroom
2 Tsp ea Paprika, Thyme, Cinnamon, Sage
1 Tsp Cayenne Pepper
Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper

Directions

1. Brown meat in a hot, oiled, french skillet. Add onions, garlic, spices and peppers. Cook for 2 minutes.

2. Add soup, paste, and mushrooms. Reduce heat and simmer for 1 hour. Stirring every 10 minutes or so.

Dinner - Pulled Pork "Souvlaki" with Slow Braised Potatoes, Caramelized Parsnips with Onion, and Fresh Tzatsiki

So for some reason, my local grocery store had Pork Sirloin on sale for $1.49/lb so I bought a large-ish piece for about $5, though I really should have bought more. Because this was not actually done on skewers, or grilled, so it's not really Souvlaki, but it tastes sort of like what pork Souvlaki tastes like; but is also pulled pork, so it's double delicious. I also like finding excuses to make yogurt based sauces (or cheese for that matter) so that's kind of how this happened. I also had some Ontario parsnips on hand, so I made a side of caramelized onions and julienne parsnips.

Pulled Pork "Souvlaki"

1.5kg Pork Sirloin

3 Tbsp Olive Oil

2 Tbsp White Vinegar

1 Tbsp Lemon Juice

2 Tsp Ea Dried Dill, Granulated Garlic Powder, Oregano, Thyme

3/4 Cup Cold water

1. Cut pork into 6cm cubes, marinate in bag with other ingredients for 2 hours.

2. Pour into covered oven proof dish and bake for 4 hours at 375F.
3. Remove pork and break into strands.

Slow Braised Potatoes

6 Small Russet Potatoes, Peeled, Halved

1 Litre Organic Chicken Stock

1/2 Tbsp Dried Dill

1 1/2 Tbsp Lemon Juice

1/2 Tbsp Ea Dried Dill and Granulated Garlic

1 Tsp ea Salt and Pepper

1. Place all ingredients in a medium saucepan and leave on the low heat for about 2 hours or until semi-soft. Leave in hot liquid until cooled.

2. Drain and reserve liquid. Refrigerate.

3. Pan fry potatoes in olive oil and lemon until lightly caramelized on at least 1 flat side.

Caramelized Parsnip and Onions

1. Slice onions thinly. Peel and Julienne Parsnips.
2. Place in frying pan over low heat. Salt lightly and cover with lid.
3. Cook until onions and parsnips are caramelized.

Tzatsiki

300g Balkan Style Plain Yogurt (6% M.F.)

1/2 Tbsp Dried Dill

1 Tbsp Ea Lemon Juice and Olive Oil

70g Cucumber, Pre-weight, Peeled, finely grated, salted, squeezed, and drained.

1/4 Cup Green Onion

1 Clove Garlic, Minced

1/2 Tbsp Honey

1 Pinch of Cayenne Pepper

1. Mix all ingredients well and refrigerate for at least 6 hours before serving.