The Ever Epic Turducken

A Turducken is a dish consisting of a partially de-boned turkey stuffed with a de-boned duck, which itself is stuffed with a small de-boned chicken. The name is a portmanteau of those ingredients: turkey, duck, and chicken. The cavity of the chicken and the rest of the gaps are filled with, at the very least, a highly seasoned breadcrumb mixture or sausage meat, although some versions have a different stuffing for each bird.
Courtesy of good ol' Wiki

My friends Aldous and Christina (incidentally in-laws) successfully cooked a turducken for a party of 15 last night. It was my first time eating one and the verdict is that it was delicious. Albeit, one serving is over 1000 calories, I believe it it well worth those extra sit ups. I proposed to make it a post-Christmas tradition amongst us, I think everyone except for the chefs agreed with me. =p

Here are some pictures of the delightful bird(s):


Error uploading, more to come. =)

Term of Endearment: Soupy?

I want a soup man. That's right, a man who will make me soup. :)
This is a picture of "The Original Soupman" made famous by Seinfield. I ate there as my last meal in NYC. For $12, I had a bowl of soup (crab bisque), apple, piece of chocolate, bottled water and a chicken panini. YUM-O!

I long for soup in the cold weather. Soup on a cold day really has the ability to hit the spot. It satisfies me to a tee! Today I made a soup that combines Eastern and Western soup "philosophies". Asian people prefer watery soups whereas Western soups are a lot thicker and stew-like. I made a soup today that uses Asian ingredients, but cooked Western style.

Alie's Winter Soup

Ingredients:
1/2 cup of chicken broth
1 cup of cold water
3 tsp of corn starch
2 cloves of garlic
1 giant king oyster mushroom, julienned
2 large shitake mushrooms, chopped into tiny bite size pieces
1/2 of a bar of fried fish cake (totally optional), sliced
7 large dried scallops (this is the money right here, baby!)
1/2 cup of squash, chopped into tiny bite size pieces
1 tsp of white cooking wine
1 bunch of vermacelli, cooked

Directions:

Additional prep work:
You need to cook the vermacelli noodles and dried scallops before putting it in the soup. In a pot of boiling water, put in vermacelli noodles and dried scallops. Cook for 10 minutes. Drain water into a strainer.

Let's get on with the soup!

Turn the stove to a med-high heat. In a pot, add a tsp of olive oil and when the oil heats up, add in chopped garlic. When the garlic is infused, add in shitake and king oyster mushrooms. Keep stirring. Add in fish cake slices, dried scallops and squash. Keep stirring. Add in white cooking wine. At this point, the ingredients are almost cooked. Add in chicken broth. Keep stirring. Add cold water mixed with corn starch into the pot. Keep stirring. Finally, add in vermacelli noodles. Keep stirring! Turn to a low-medium heat and keep it simmering for 10 minutes.

Soul Food: Love in a Pan

It has been snowing non-stop for the past twelve hours. Everything that I was supposed to do today has been cancelled. Thus, I spent the day cooking. =) Even when I was half awake and stirring in bed, I was dreaming up recipes of what to create today.




I wanted something warm, gooey and comforting.

Ingredients:
8 small Russet potatoes, sliced in 3
1/2 cup of corn
1/2 cup of shredded squash
salt and pepper to taste
2 tsp. of organic salted butter
1 pinch of herb de provence
3 tsp. of dill
1 sprig of parsley
a few slices of cheddar cheese
a dash of chicken broth
a dash of milk
2 cloves of garlic

Directions:
I basically put everything in a pan and baked it. haha. Ok, here goes:
First you put a tsp or so of olive oil onto the pan. Then you add in the chopped gloves of garlic. Then you slice the potatoes (3 to 1) a throw them into the pan. Add in the milk and chicken broth. Then you add in the squash, and season away! You top the pan with the corn, cheese and butter.
Bake in the oven at 400 C for 40 minutes.

Epic!

Are you a self-professed foodie?
Do you like to try out new restaurants?
Do you like to create your own gastronomical delights?

If this sounds like you, then you might be interested in joining a diner's club that I'm in the process of establishing. This group of diners will meet once a month to try out a restaurant. The restaurant doesn't have to be expensive/fancy but somtimes will be (because we all like to be high rollers now and then). We plan to kick this off in the new year.

Leave me a message if you're interested in joning. Spaces are limited.

Mango shrimps sleeping on an arugula bed

I went to the grocery store today and picked up some goodies including "President's Choice Blue Menu Mango Vinaigrette." I had the intention of using it as a meat marinade today but I had no meat...instead I found a dozen jumbo shrimps in the freezer. Thus, mango shrimps was born! I bought one bunch of arugula and had forgotten that if I don't get the organic baby arugula, it's SOOOOO bitter. However, the sweetness of the mango sauce evens it out.

Ingredients (serves 2):
12 jumbo shrimp, thawed
2 leaves of chopped fresh basil
sea salt, pepper, garlic power, paprika to taste
2 tsp. of soy sauce
3 tbsp. of mango vinaigrette
6 leaves of arugula
1 tsp. of lemon juice

Directions:
In a bowl, marinade shrimp with basil, sea salt, pepper,paprika, lemon juice and stir.
Heat sauce pan with olive oil at med-low heat, put shrimp in and cook for 2 minutes while continually stirring. Pour in mango vinaigrette and it's OK to be generous! Add soy sauce and keep stirring for 2 more minutes.

Wash and cut arugula leaves and plate it. Put shrimp on top. I added some strips of proscuitto on top as well to balance out the strong taste of arugula.

Veal Chop and Herbed Vegetables

I would have to say that I'm quite proud of this dish. The presentation is nothing fancy but it does it's job. On the other hand, the taste was spectacular. Again, this recipe is not difficult as I don't really believe in slaving away for a good meal. A good meal should be made with a few simple steps. I would have to say that this dish is restaurant worthy, again, maybe not in presentation but the taste...wow.

Ingredients:
For the Veal:
1 Veal Chop (It was on sale at the grocery store!)
A few sprigs of chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
1 clove of chopped garlic
1 tsp. of balsamic vinegar
1 tsp. of fig infused white vinegar (totally optional, I was just being fancy)
1 tsp. of dried rosemary

For the vegetables:
You can use whatever you like. In this dish, I used:
2 red potatoes, chopped into wedges
2 carrots, chopped into wedges
1/4 of a red onion, chopped into wedges
1/4 cup of chopped parsley
salt and pepper to taste
2 cloves of garlic, chopped
2 tsps. of paprika
1 tsp. of brown sugar
3 tsps. of flour (to coat the veggies)
2 tbsps. of olive oil

Directions:
For the veal:
Marinate veal in all the ingredients listed above for as long or as little as you'd like. The ingredients that I have chosen for the veal are pretty strong in flavour that they actually don't require much marinating time. However, if you have the time to let it sit, by all means because the meat will be extra flavourful.

Heat a pan, add 1 tsp. of olive oil, add a bit of chopped garlic to be infused in the oil (Chinese trick). When the pan is ready, pan fry the veal, give 2 minutes to each side for a medium rare.

For the vegetables:
In a mixing bowl, add veggies and all the ingredients listed above. Mix, mix and mix some more. Then in a baking pan, add olive oil to the pan. Put the vegetables in the pan and drizzle olive oil on top of the veggies.
Pre-heat oven to 350 C for 10 minutes, then bake the dish for 30 minutes at 350C.

*You can add some veggie/chicken broth to the vegetables if you want them to be more tender.

Chicken Breast Whatchamacallits

This was dinner a few nights ago. Again, I don't really like to plan in advance, because it is more interesting to create with what you have in the fridge. I don't have a name for this dish, or at least nothing creative, so this dish will remain nameless until I or anyone else can come up with something worthy to name it.

Ingredients:
1 large chicken breast sliced into thin sheets
Proscuitto slices
1/4 chopped red onion
1/4 cup of feta cheese cubes
salt and pepper to taste
1 cup of arugla, chopped
2 tsps. of soy sauce
1/2 cup of chopped parsley

Directions:
Marinate sliced chicken breast with your choice of herbs, soy sauce, salt and pepper. Let it sit for a bit while you make the topping.
For the topping:
In a bowl, mix together red onions, feta cheese, arugula, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste, you can add some garlic powder too, I did. =)
Place chicken breasts on a baking tray and add the topping on top of the chicken breasts.
Add a slice of proscuitto to top it off.
Pre-heat oven to 350 C for 10 minutes.
Bake chicken at 350 C for 25 minutes.

Enjoy!