Cracklin' Rosie.....Mushrooms!

Hello hello and happy Sunday evening to you. I wonder what kind of flavour filled feast you have on the menu for tonight. I myself am marinating a lovely Venison steak in some red wine, garlic, thyme, rosemary and amore. This will be eaten with some local valley boiled potatoes, parsnip, carrots and sauteed mushrooms. I love an evening when I can look down and see that everything on my plate has been locally grown. 

 The other day I was contacted by a representative of Select Nova Scotia who are currently working on their Winter Fresh Campaign. They are showing people different and fun ways to enjoy local food in the winter. They asked if I would like to take part in the campaign by coming up with a fun and tasty mushroom recipe using beautiful pesticide free locally grown Valley Mushrooms

 My answer... YES please. 

Inspiration stems from many different places. After a quick talk about the different varieties of mushrooms produced by Valley Mushrooms I set my sights on a winter hors d'oeuvres creation using as many local products as possible. 

Here we are my friends a recipe made with much love to our local producers.

 

Recipe:  Red Wine Herb Roasted Mushroom with Local Dragons Breath Cheese and Nova Scotia Honey Drizzle

½ lb each Portobello, Button and Crimini Valley Mushrooms

½  Red onion

2 cloves Garlic

2 Sprigs Thyme

2 Sprigs Rosemary

1 Tbsp Butter

¼ Cup Red Wine Jost Winery, Marechal Foch

1 tbsp Cosman and Whidden Pure Nova Scotia Honey

That Dutchman’s Farm Dragons Breath Cheese

1 Loaf Baguette Lavendeenne Bakery

Thinly slice your mushrooms and red onion and finely chop your garlic. Melt butter into a medium sized sauté pan on medium heat and add in your garlic, thyme, rosemary, onions and mushrooms. Cook for 12 minutes allowing the mushrooms time to shrink in size and begin to brown. Once the mushrooms have begun to brown add your red wine and simmer the liquid for 5 minutes or until it has almost fully reduced.  Salt and pepper to taste

Slice your baguette and lay the slices out on a plate. Spoon your hot mushrooms onto the slice of baguette. Top with a crumbling of ThatDutchman’s Farm Dragons Breath Cheese and a drizzle of Cosman and Whidden PureNova Scotia Honey. 

Treat yourself to a few of these. I am sure as the flavours play on the tip of your tongue you will truly be thankful for all the wonderful local producers we have here in Good ol' Nova Scotia.  If you are not from N.S., but another wonderful province or part of the world I dare you to go out and do the same as I did. Replace my local with your local!! Yum yum yum... 

Eat, drink and enjoy

 

A tisket, A tasket... Argentine Scallops with Smoked Bacon and Corn

Ahhhh Sunday evenings, one of my favorite parts of the week. Sunday's continuously remind me of family dinners, relaxing evenings and they is a day where I can find time to cook and try out a new recipe. Tonight as I write to you I am sitting in my kitchen surrounded by scents of roast chicken, curried Squash and apple sauce. Not a bad day culinary wise at all. In fact this whole weekend was full of fun new recipes. 

When writing recipes for Harvest Wines and Clearwater I know for a fact that if I decide to add bacon into my recipe it is surely going to be a hit among staff and clients. This week with beautiful paired wines from Greece and South Africa I thought that a smoked bacon, paired with sweet corn would work beautifully with the gorgeous Argentine scallops presented to me. 

A great success and I am truly excited to share this recipe with you, as for all of you love birds looking for something special to share with your honey on Valentines Day, this recipe may just be it. If you want you can always sub in shrimp for scallops, or use both. 

Recipe: Sweet Bacon and Corn Argentine Scallops

1 lb Argentine Scallops

2 Slices smoked bacon – Diced

½ Green or Red Chili – De-seeded and chopped fine

1 Cup Sweet Corn – Canned or Fresh

2 Red Pepper Finely Chopped

¼ Red Onion Finely Chopped

1 Garlic Clove

Handful Cilantro

1 Lime Zested and Juiced

1 Tbsp butter

Salt and Pepper to taste

  Put the bacon into a large frying pan over medium heat and cook for 2 minutes. Then add corn, red pepper, red onion and chili, and sauté together for 4 minutes. Add the chopped cilantro, lime juice and zest, and butter.

Season scallops with salt and pepper and sear in a pan that has been heated for 2 minutes on medium high heat. When scallops have nicely browned add to the sweet corn mixture and let cook together for 2 minutes.

Eat with Rice, Quinoa, on a salad or as an appetizer with toasted baguette

Many wishes of full full stomachs and romantic kitchen adventures to you this week. I hope this recipe ignites your fire and the song leads you to some toe tapping good fun.

Eat Drink and enjoy!

Shake 'Em On Down'...

Good evening lovely culinary adventurers. How was your Thursday? Hopefully it is slowly coming to an end with you pleasantly tucking into a fine flavoured feast. 

This week I had a birthday. It was lovely... I drank vino, ate cake, great food, enjoyed time with people I love by spending much time in the kitchen cooking with them.  While thinking of what to write about tonight I though I may share with you a few of my fun food favorites and why. Hoping that this may inspire you to leap into your kitchen over the weekend, into a new dish and shared favorite. 

  1) I love tomatoes, and I love garlic. At this time of year I particularly enjoy how they roast so beautifully in the oven to create a delicious soup.

Next time you are hungry, cold and have an hour, grab 6 tomatoes, 2 cloves of garlic, a sprig of rosemary, thyme, salt/pepper and 2 tbsp olive oil. Cut your tomatoes however you feel toss them in all that love and then roast them at 325F for a good 45minutes. Then Blend with 1tbsp sugar, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar. Blend together and then add either 1/4 cup of ricotta cheese or goat cheese (two more ingredients I love) until smooth and then enjoy =)

 I love farmers markets, and the bountiful flavourful goods that they offer.  Mmmmm Carrots, potatoes, onions, green peppers, beans broccoli. All good! Can be eaten raw, cooked steamed... tossed in butter with lemon, in pesto, pickled, roasted, grilled with a drizzling of herbs and olive oil.

On my right and left here are two super huge favorites. Beer braised sausages. Easy as pie... literally just cook  your sausages in beer. Let the beer cook down and form a tasty sauce around them.  I also love eggs. Poached egg on toast, arugula, proscuitto and arugula.

Fresh Pasta ...... tossed in sage brown butter.

                                                   

Fresh foccacia with olives, rock salt and rosemary dipped in olive oil, balsamic and chilies. 

I hope to hear of some of your favorites. Don't be shy to share as a little culinary inspiration goes a long way!

Eat, drink and enjoy... 

Cheek to Cheek.....Ginger Sesame Shrimp

Oh my it is Monday evening and the weekend flew by far to quickly. Do you feel the same way? Hopefully you have discovered a way to slow it down a bit. This weekend we had a lot of fun at Clearwater and Harvest Wines. My good friend Lester the Lobster made another guest appearance and stole the show with his culinary skills. This week I was hoping that this recipe would work some heat into a cold chilly Saturday and you betcha did it ever!!

 

Recipe: Ginger, Sesame Marinated Shrimp

1 lb raw shrimp peeled and deveined

2 Clove Garlic

1 Tbsp Ginger

1 Red Chilli

1 Scallion

2 tsp Soya Sauce

1 Tbsp Sesame Oil

1 Stalk Lemon Grass

1 Tbsp Brown Sugar

¼ Cup Tahini

1 Tbsp Vegetable Oil

In a blender combine ginger, garlic, scallion, soya sauce, sesame oil, lemon grass, brown sugar and tahini. Add water as needed if the marinade is too thick to blend. Then marinate your shrimp in the mixture for at least half an hour. Keep in mind the more time you give the shrimp time to marinate the more flavourful they will become.

Heat your pan on medium and add vegetable oil. When the pan has heated (approximately 2 minutes) add the shrimp one by one. You want to make sure that your pan is not overcrowded. There should be at least ½ inch between each shrimp. This will help the shrimp cook evenly. After two minutes turn the shrimp and cook until they have turned a nice colour pink/red and have shrunk a bit in size. They should cook for at least 2 minutes on either side.

This recipe was paired with a lovely Adobe Gerwurztraminer or Sauvingnon Blanc from Chile. The sweetness was very pleasant to play off of the spice from the shrimp.

Well my dears this recipe should kick start your week,  your tastebuds and blow any Mondays blues away.  Just think tomorrow is Tuesday, and you've got a fun to try shrimp dish on the menu. 

Eat, drink and enjoy!!