Stuck on you....Lobster and salmon

Happy Sunday afternoon my dears. I have high hopes that you are enjoying sun instead of an afternoon of stormy sea's and hailing winds like we are here in good ol' Nova Scotia. Perhaps if you are stuck inside, and even if you aren't you may be looking for a new recipe to try this Sunday Eve. 

In that case you have come to the right blog! I have a couple ideas, and tried them out at Clearwater yesterday. I must say my Saturday afternoons are always tremendous and inspired by great customers looking to learn a few new tricks about cooking seafood and how to pair it with delicious wine. This week Harvest Wines gave me two delightful wines to pair with.  Salmon and Lobster jumped out at me and into my recipes, and now onto this blog for you. 

Recipe 1: Lobster Risotto

½ Onion Chopped

2 Cloves Garlic Chopped

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 Stalk Lemon Grass

1 Package Clearwater Raw Lobster - Defrosted

1 Cup Arborio Rice

1 tbsp white wine

3 Cups Vegetable Stock or Water

½ Lemon

¼ Cup Fresh Parsley Chopped

1tbsp Butter

Salt and Pepper to Taste

Place a medium sized pot on stove and heat on medium. Add olive oil, garlic and onions. Cook these until they become translucent. Add in the lemon grass and cook for 1 minute. Add risotto and toast the rice for 2 minutes with the lemon grass, garlic and onions. Deglaze the pot (this will stop the rice from sticking to the bottom) with the white wine and let the wine almost fully evaporate before adding in 1 cup vegetable stock. The ingredients in the pot should be at a low boil. When it has reached this temperature add in your Raw Lobster. Add the second cup of liquid and stir together until all the liquid has almost evaporated. Slowly add the third cup of liquid tasting as you go. If the rice is cooked (has a soft chewy texture) than you may not need to use the whole third cup. To finish the risotto add 1 lemon zested, butter, parsley and salt/pepper to taste. Serve right away.

Paired with: Tribu Chardonnay, 2009 or Chenin Torrontes from Argentina. Either way you will be delighted with light fresh flavors dancing on your palate citrus notes and a simple finish. Both of these are easy drinking wines. 

Recipe 2: Seared Salmon with Crisp Pancetta, Leek and Artichoke Hearts

 

2 Salmon Fillets

150 Grams Pancetta sliced ¼ inch thick Chopped into 1 inch pieces

2 Leeks

1 Can Artichoke Hearts, drained and cut in half

1 tbsp Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

Heat sauté pan on medium with olive oil. Take the salmon fillets out of the refrigerator and pat dry. Salt and Pepper the fillets. Once the pan has come to temperature and oil has begun to sizzle place Salmon fillets bottom side up in the pan. Add in pancetta and leeks to the Pan. Cook on medium heat for 4 minutes and then flip the fish over. Add in artichoke hearts and let cook for another 6 minutes or until fillets have cooked through and the pancetta, leeks and artichoke hearts have formed a sauce around the fish.

Eat either on a salad, with rice, potatoes or on it’s own.

Pair with: Beso de Vino Seleccion 2009 - This wine made my heart and tastebuds very happy. Not only is the name cute as a button because it translates into "kiss of wine" but it is a lovely grenach/syrah blend with subtle hints of chocolate colored coffee and berry. For all you wino's who may be interested it also has perforated holes on the screw top to mirror the effects of a cork.

Ahhh for the love of food and wine. So here you are my friends, try them out, ask questions, play with flavours but most importantly cook with your heart and have some fun.

Eat, drink and enjoy!!

baby baby, sweet baby....Cocktail

This week started off with a bang!! I adventured into the creative, mesmerizing, palate tickling world of competition cocktails. A world I have to say before Monday I was not to familiar with, but after the adventure, I am hooked and interested in learning more.

Made With Love -  "Discovering what your city has to offer in terms of creative cocktails. The best bartenders in town showcase a creation and the public is the judge" How could I say no?  What a wonderful event (loved the name) and the idea of celebrating homemade cocktails created by local Nova Scotian talent. Made With Love

Not to mention the competition came with a great prize. The winner of Made With Love from Nova Scotia has the opportunity to travel to Toronto and compete nationally against the best cocktail shakers Canada has to offer.

The winner who took home gold and the glamorous opportunity to compete in Toronto is a locally known favorite from our very own Halifax operated restaurant The Bicycle Thief Jeff Van Horne. Jeff hails from Dartmouth but has worked at The Bicycle Thief from opening in 2011. I agreed with the judges and for these reasons. His cocktail had a perfect balance between sweet, savory and spicy. His drink also had a local component to it as he used Nova Scotia grown and handpicked apples. I am currently on the hunt for his recipe and details of his cocktail and inspiration for the drink. Please hold your breath in anticipation, I promise to further detail it soon.

I always find it amazing to see people who love what they do and decide to share their talent and passion with an audience. 

The cocktails at Made With Love were nothing but impressive. With competitors showcasing their savvy and creative minds we were tasting drinks infused with heather, edible flowers, flamed orange, muddled fruit, chillies and even dry ice. 

It would be great to see more events such as this pop up in Halifax. I suggest all you haligonians join in on the next one. 

Eat drink and enjoy!

Get happy.... Lobster

Who's ready for another fun to try seafood recipe? I am, especially after spending another great day at Clearwater For all you lovely readers that checked out last Saturdays post I am thinking about making this a Saturday or Sunday special. I get to share with you a few new recipes  to send you into each week with.  I have come to love Saturday afternoons after the last two weeks. I couldn't be more pleased with the opportunity to put together my own recipes, demo for the public, pair with phenomenal wines from Harvest Wines and most importantly meet people looking for new cooking adventures. 

Ahhh life is swell. 

This week I worked with Lobster. Now there are many different ways you can buy lobster. Sometimes you buy and cook it fresh, or you can buy it pre-cooked, you can buy it uncooked and de-shelled or cooked and then canned. Whatever way you choose to buy lobster you it is a very fun crustacean to work with. For those of you who are a little timid and don't think you want to start off cooking lobster fresh I would suggest going for the canned meat. I used cook with, canned lobster claws and knuckles.  This week that is what I did and was delighted with the results. It was kind of cool because the claws stay intact but the knuckles are shredded. This way no matter what you are using it for you can use the knuckles to build a foundation for your dish, and the claws can work as a great presentation piece. 

Recipe 1 :  Lobster Dumplings  

¼ Chopped Onion

1 Clove Garlic Finely Chopped

1tsp Ginger

2 Stalks Celery Finely Chopped

2 Medium Sized Potatoes Boiled and Mashed

¼ Zested and Juiced Lemon

1 Cup Thawed ClearWater Frozen Lobster Meat (Claw and Knuckle)

1 Egg yolk

Salt and Pepper

1 Package Wonton Wraps

Finely chop your onion, garlic and ginger. Mix into a bowl with boiled mashed potatoes, celery, and juiced lemon. Take your Thawed Clearwater Frozen Lobster Meat and drain any excess liquid out of the can. Put into bowl with potatoes and the rest of the ingredients. Add egg yolk to combine add salt and pepper to taste.

Take your wonton wrappers out of the package. Place a paper towel over them. Take one at a time, place the wonton wrapper on a diagonal so that it looks like a triangle and fill with 1tbsp of filling. Take a small bit of water on your finger and rub along the edge of the wrapper. Fold over and press to make sure that the wrapper is sealed. Heat a pan with 1tsp vegetable oil. Lightly fry wonton wrappers until golden brown.

Paired with: Blackstone Santa Lucia Pinot Noir -I LOVE THIS WINE! It is from California and is the most beautiful Pinot Noir I have tasted to date. It is velvety, with delicious plum, raspberry and vanilla. The finish lingers and keeps you dreaming of the next sip.

 

Recipe 2: Fettuccini with Lobster Cream Sauce

1 Can ClearWater Frozen Lobster Meat

8 Scallops

½ Small Onion Finely Chopped

2 Cloves Garlic Finely Chopped

1 Tsp Butter

1 tsp Chilli Flakes

1tbsp White Wine

1 Cup Cream

Chopped Fresh Chives

Chopped Fresh Dill

Squeeze of Fresh Lemon Juice

Salt and Pepper

1 Cup Fettuccini Noodles Boiled

Heat sauté pan on medium. Add in butter, onion and garlic. After 2 minutes add Scallops and Clearwater Frozen Lobster Meat that has been thawed and drained.  After 2 minutes add white wine and let the wine cook down until the pan is almost dry. Then add cream, chives, dill and lemon juice.  Let the sauce thicken and cook together for 5 minutes. Then place on top of cooked fettuccini noodles to finish.  

Pair with: Dilemma Chenin/Chard - A lovely ripe juicy dry white with refreshing flavors of citrus! Will cut through the richness of this dish nicely :)

I hope these recipes bring you into a tasty week, and ignite the cooking fire inside of you.

Eat, drink and enjoy!!

 

In my life...

Good Saturday Morrow to you! 

Last night I had a fam jam. I love getting together with my family, making food, eating, drinking wine and talking about politics, current events, interests, old family memories and you name it any other topic that may pop up. This is always special to me because our family events revolve around great food! Last night it was homemade pizza. My aunt and uncle had an amazing adventure to Italy this year and since then have become quite the pizza connoisseurs refusing to eat anything but homemade. In my aunts words "I just want to know where my food comes from" A che bello! 

I wanted to share with you some of the lovely photo's of our evening. Everything about it reminded me of Italy... The aroma's from the kitchen, wine that was flowing, and how we sat for hours surrounded by great food and eachother enjoying what I like to think of life's simplest pleasures. La Famiglia

Eat, drink and enjoy!

Sugar, sugar... Cookies

It's Tuesday evening, and the last two days have been filled with many a treats. Tonight is a very special blog post as the culinary creations that I am going to share with you were made with a person I love very much. My middle sister. 

Now in order to celebrate her visit I decided to do something culinary wise that I knew she would love to participate in. This my dears is the fun task of baking and decorating cookies. 

Now I suggest if you are going to make this a day of fun you find yourself some pretty cool decorations and cookie cutters. For me it is usually what inspires the ability to decorate. 

Yesterday my kitchen was filled with fun Autumn colored candy sugar, Reeces Pieces, Royal Icing, A beautiful cinnamon sugar shaker that only but inspires the sweetest treats and the cutest pumpkin shaped cookie cutters.

Hand Decorated Sugar Cookies

780 Grams All-Purpose Flour

18 G Baking Bowder

6 Grams Salt

(Sift these ingredients together)

In a separate bowl cream together:

454 Grams Butter

400 Grams Superfine or Bakers Sugar

then beat in one at a time

100 grams (2 medium-large) Eggs

 

Then add dry ingredients and beat slowly until they just come together. From there shape the dough into a flat square and wrap in plastic. Refrigerate for 1 hour. 

Once the dough has rested roll it out and cut in any shapes you want! Tis' October and the season of pumpkins so this is what I used =) 

 

While cutting out the dough preheat your oven to 320F and bake for 8 minutes - (Check them after 6 just to be safe!) 

Or until the border of the cookie has begun to turn a golden brown.

Let the cookies cool, and while they do so make up an icing of 3 cups icing sugar, 2 egg yolks and 1 tsp cream of tartar. 

Then your ready to decorate! Put on some jazzy cookie decorating tunes and have fun.

Eat, drink and enjoy!!

Finger poppin' time... Haddock and hake

It's is Saturday and a beautiful day. I hope you are all in the middle of enjoying a weekend full of farm fresh food, and sunshine. I had a wonderful opportunity today and did what I truly love to do. I spent the day talking about food, cooking food, tasting wine, and teaching recipes to lovely people shopping at Clearwater. Clearwater for all of you who don't know is Nova Scotia's premier seafood store, providing patrons with the best bounty our sea has to offer.  I have great respect for this company and love that it is homegrown and dedicated to sustainable seafood excellence. So when I was asked if I wanted to do demo fun to try seafood recipes with paired wine from Harvest Wines  there was no hesitation. I said Yes! 

 Here are the recipes and wines we paired at the shop. Take a look, try them out and let me know how you like both the wine and food! 

The first wine is the lovely : Trivento Tribu Tempranillo - from Argentina. This is a vibrant red with violet tones. Lovely arroma's of forrest fruit, black pepper and coffee. I really enjoy Tempranillo and find that you can pick up a hint of spice, even in this young wine. I paired it with:

Pasta Alla Puttanesca with Fresh Haddock.

¼ Chopped Onion

2 Cloves Garlic finely chopped

1 tbsp Olive Oil

1 Cup Cherry Tomatoes halved

1 tsp Capers chopped

2 Anchovy Fillets chopped

6 Pitted Morrocan Olives diced

Chili Flakes to Taste

1/4  Cup Chopped Parsley

Pepper

2 Fillet Haddock

1 Box Farfalle Pasta

Heat sauté pan and add olive oil, garlic, and onions and cook on medium heat for 3 minutes. Then add Cherry tomatoes, capers, anchovies, Moroccan olives, and chili flakes. Cook together for 5 minutes continuing on medium heat.

While the sauce is cooking season Haddock with a little pepper  (the anchovies, and capers will provide natural salt into to the sauce) Add to sauce and cook on either side for 3-5 minutes and until cooked.

Add sauce on top of cooked pasta and then place Haddock on the sauce. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley

Heat sauté pan and add olive oil, garlic, and onions and cook on medium heat for 3 minutes. Then add Cherry tomatoes, capers, anchovies, Moroccan olives, and chili flakes. Cook together for 5 minutes continuing on medium heat.

While the sauce is cooking season Haddock with a little pepper  (the anchovies, and capers will provide natural salt into to the sauce) Add to sauce and cook on either side for 3-5 minutes and until cooked.

Add sauce on top of cooked pasta and then place Haddock on the sauce. Garnish with fresh chopped parsley

The second wine from Harvest Wines that we paired today is also from Argentina. La Grupa Chenin/Torrontes This white is pale yellow with a pleasant aroma of apricot, rose petal and quince. The wine is fresh, lively and drunk beautifully with fish. Particularly the fish I served with it today called Hake. For all of you who are unsure of what kind of Fish Hake is. It is a white fish with a very similar texture to Monk fish. Quite a meaty white fish and just melts in your mouth when cooked. This fish is traditionally used in dishes from Argentina which helps to make it a lovely pairing with this wine. 

Hake Pan Fried with Lemon Herb Oil

4 Fillets Hake

1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Zest 1 Lemon

1/4 Lemon Juiced

Chopped Chives

Chopped Parsley

Heat sauté pan on medium. Season Hake with salt, pepper, or any kind of simple seasoning or coating of sorts. Once the pan has come to temperature zest in a 1/2 of a lemon into the pan. This is going to infuse your oil with lemon so that the lemon oils will flavor the fish as it cooks. While the Hake is cooking, in a bowl whisk lemon juice, the rest of the lemon zest, chives, parsley and olive oil

When Hake is cooked take out of pan and plate. Drizzle the lemon, chive , parsley oil overtop and serve with rice or potatoes.

Well my dear friends, tomorrow head to the market and pick up some food loving ingredients and try out something new. These recipes are easy, not time consuming and will create mouthwatering flavors and tummy pleasing plates for you and whoever you decide to share your meal with. 

Today was a great Saturday and as I drove home I just couldn't wait to share it with you. 

Eat, drink and enjoy!!

Take it easy... baby.. The Americano

It is Wednesday eve and I really can't tell you where this week has gone. This weekend I had a tummy filling, heart happy time with friends and family. I hope you all enjoyed the lovely scents of a full kitchen and thanksgiving feast as well. If not let me know and I'll be sure to send some Turkey, Cranberry Sauce, Stuffing, Mashed Potatoes, Yams, Roasted Squash, Brussels Sprouts, Gravy, Apple and Pumpkin pie your way! I don't want any of you lovely readers to go hungry on my account.

Now after a long weekend there is always much catch up to do, and leftovers to eat. After this particular long weekend I was a little fatigued and have come down with a little cold. When I do get sick I try to make something that brings out a big ol' smile on my face. In this case I'm  going to share with you my favorite drink recipe in hopes to bring a smile onto your face as the weekend approaches. This will hopefully inspire some soon to be weekend fun aperitifs for you and will hopefully cure my cold (haha)

The Americano (Sbagliato) 

1 Ounce Campari

1 Ounce Dry Vermouth Rosso

2 Ice Cubs

Prosseco 

Garnish: Slice Orange

Cerignola Olive when available. This is a Italian large green light tasting olive with the pit in

Directions: Add ice cubes to glass then Campari, and Vermouth. Fill the glass with Prosecco to finish (Should be around 2.5 Ounces) 

Slice Orange

Drink when feeling under the weather, when in need of a middle of the week pick me up, with friends on a casual Thursday evening (tomorrow) While eating Pizza, getting ready to go out, instead of your regular cocktail, or to take yourself away to the beautiful flavors of Italy. 

Eat, drink and enjoy!