Author Archives: Martine
Texas Steak Pot Roast
This is a recipe I found in a magazine over 20 years ago. Being the pack rat I am, I still have the little cutting, but of course I have adapted it over the years and the results is a crowd pleaser. I use this when I am short on time as it takes about 15 minutes to put everything together and throw it in the oven. It is also a very cheap recipe to make so university kids, take notice…and it also freezes well!!
It has become one of my go-to recipe for making meals for Mathew’s film set and everyone loves it, especially the gravy :)) It is a very easy recipe to double or triple for a crowd.
I love to use my big round creuset pot for this as it goes so well from stove top to oven 🙂
Ingredients: This is for 4 people, I usually make 3 times this.
- 1 tbsp of olive oil
- 1 1/4 lb of outside round roast or flank steak (you can use a cheaper cut as it cooks it the oven for a long time)
- 1 each of beef broth and bottle salsa (this is the key ingredient, I use medium)2 tbsp of lime juice
- 2 onions sliced
- 2 cloves of garlic
- 2 tsp cumin
- 1/4 tsp of hot pepper flakes ( or more if you like it hot!!)
- Salt and Pepper
Heat the oil in the dutch oven and brown the roast on all side. Sprinkle with salt and pepper. Remove it from the pot and set aside.
Stir in the stock and scrape up any bits from the bottom of the pot. Stir in the salsa, the lime juice,, onions, garlic, cumin and hot pepper. Bring to boil and return the meat to the mixture.
At this point, you will start having guests in the kitchen asking what this amazing smell is 🙂 Put the cover on and place it in a pre-heated oven at 325F for a good 2 to 2 1/2 hours or until the meat is very tender and pulls apart.
To serve it, slice the meat thinly and spoon the gravy on top.  I serve it with mash potatoes and it is a perfect combo but you can also serve it with pasta. You HAVE to have crusty bread on hand to soak up the gravy :))
Moroccan Couscous
I took this recipe from the VERY excellent cookbook we received free of charge when we purchased our great Broil King BBQ. We love both the BBQ and the cookbook :).
I have made this recipe lots of time and always to rave reviews, particularly to the spicy-lover guests (including my husband) we entertain!! Of course I have adapted it a bit to suit our taste better. For example, they add currants and ginger which I omit. As mentioned in a previous blog, this is what I served with the camel stew on New Year’s Eve 2015. I love to make couscous because it is SO quick to make and you can spice it up to your taste easily. It is also very inexpensive to make for the budget conscious crowd out there!!
Ingredients
- 2 tsp Canola Oil
- 1 onion diced
- 2 garlic cloves minced
- 3 cups of chicken stock
- 2 large carrots diced
- 1 tsp each black pepper, coriander, cumin, chili pepper flakes
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1 medium size zucchini
- 1 1/2 cups of medium grain couscous
- 1/2 cups fresh parsley (optional)
Heat oil in a medium size pot and saute for a few minutes, the onion first and then add garlic. Add the chicken broth, carrots and all the spices.
Cover and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 5-7 minutes. Add the zucchini and cook for 2-3 minutes longer. Turn the burner off and add the couscous.
Mix well, cover and let stand for 5 minutes. Fluff, taste and adjust seasonings. Garnish with the parsley if using.
Enjoy!!
New Year Eve’s Fancy Potluck dinner / Camel Stew recipe
My husband and I started a tradition for New Year’s Eve 4 years ago, once the boys were older and were not celebrating with us anymore, and it has been a lot of fun.
The Tradition
Each year, we invite a few neighbourhood friends to come share a meal with us on New Year’s Eve and they each bring one of the courses paired with a wine/beer/liquor. We use a different plate/bowl for each serving and each couple presents their course as well as describes their wine selection. Sometimes we have a theme such as the country of origin of one’s family and sometimes anything goes. I prepare a menu once everyone has chosen what they will prepare and I print a copy for everyone to have at the table. Everyone really buys into the idea and brings exceptional dishes. It is always a fantastic mix of aroma and taste!!!
This year, we also added a little something fun that I hope will become tradition as well. Our neighbour across the street suggested that our party and theirs come out before midnight to cheer the new year together. It was decided that we should have fireworks and that the guys would set up our fire pit in advance at the end of their driveway (with much conversation and a few beers). We ended up with roughly 20 of us ringing in the New Year together!! It was sooo much fun!!
The Dinner
For our dinner, I usually prepare the main dish and try to make something unusual. This year I chose to make a camel stew, a recipe I adapted from 3 different ones I found online. I served it with a moroccan couscous (recipe in a future post). I was inspired by Mark, the owner of the local Black Angus Beef market store, who stocks all kinds of different meat and cuts including wild games and unusual animals, such as camel meat of course. He and I discussed the best way to cook this and he shared with me his favorite way to cook it. You should check out this store, it is worth your time!!!
Here is the menu for our happening to ring in the year 2015:Â Menu New Years Eve 2015
Camel Stew Recipe
Since I was making this for 10 adults and with the goal of having left over for my boys, I made this recipe with 3 pounds of cubed camel meat. As it turns out, I could have made half the recipe and we would have had enough.
Ingredients
Spice mix to marinate the meat for at least an hour:
- 4 tsp PC Black Label Harissa Spice Blend
- 4 tbsp brown sugar
- 4 tsp ground cumin
- 2 tsp paprika
- 1 tsp each cinnamon, ginger, salt and pepper
- 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
Ingredient for the stew
- 1 head of garlic, half of the cloves minced and the other half of the cloves cut in half only
- 5 very large carrots sliced
- 3 large spanish onions (or red ones)
- 1 whole bottle of red wine (I used a cabernet/merlot Ontario wine)
- 2 large cans of diced tomatoes
- 1/2 cup of balsamic vinegar
- 2 tsp herbes de provence
- 1 shallot studded with 5 cloves to simmer in the pot
- 4 ounces of pancetta / can be substituted with camel fat apparently but I did not have that on hand 🙂
Mix all the marinating spices together and sprinkle on the cubed camel meat. Mix it well and let it sit in the fridge for at least an hour.
Heat a few tsp of olive oil in a dutch oven ( i love my creuset pots for that!!) and brown the meat covered with the marinating spices.
Remove from the pot and drop in the pancetta chopped off to sizzle and render.
Add the onions and let them sweat for a few minutes ( I always like to let the onions caramelize first on their own in most recipes). Then add the garlic and carrots and let them cook for about 10 minutes. Add the canned tomatoes and bring to boil. Add the vinegar next and boil for 1 minute. Now it is time to add the meat back to the pot with the wine, the herbs and the studded with the cloves.
Cover the pot and let it simmer at very low heat for at least 2 hours or until the meat is fork tender and everyone who comes in the house can’t help but ask “what smells so good!!” If the liquid evaporates too much, add a bit of water to cover the meat during the simmering but I did not have that problem.
This pot will have wonderful aromas and a rich sauce. Make sure to have lots of bread on hand to soak up the wonderful gravy. As mentioned before, I served it with a moroccan couscous but it would do well over rice or mash potatoes as well in my opinion.
Cipaille de mon oncle Gilles avec conseils de maman Monique / Wild game Cipaille
My mom’s family, “Les Hurtubise”, congregate each new Year Day to my aunt Claire and uncle François’s house for as long as I can remember (so more than 50 years). Being a family of 14 children, there has always been a lot of people at this reunion. (I have 36 cousins on that side :)). Everyone would bring a dish to share with each other. My uncle Gilles who was a hunter, always brought his cipaille made with his kill from that year at the beginning and then from whatever he could find.
Pour ma famille les cousins et cousines Hurtubise, vous reconnaitrez ici la cipaille de mon oncle Gilles et j’espère que ça vous rappellera, comme à moi, d’excellents souvenirs de nos jours de l’An!!
This year, one of our good friend killed a moose and I decided that it was a perfect opportunity to try this recipe. I called my amazing 94 years old uncle, mon oncle Gilles in Quebec city and asked him for the recipe. It was so much fun listening to him telling me to put some of this and some of that!! Must have wapiti (what is that) and hare (can’t buy that) and pig skin at the bottom (can’t get that), some spices, you know spices, (okay but which one) etc…A call to my mom to the rescue!!
Last night my sister Anne-Marie came to make the pastry (her specialty) and my friend Alicia brought the moose and a grouse (what the heck, throw it in!!). I went to our local Angus Beef market who carries the best variety of wild game and bought some wild boar (instead of the hare), venison and elk. Mark (the fantastic owner) and I settled on wild boar bacon for the bottom of the pie to replace the pig skin.
So here it goes for the ingredients but as you can gather by now, anything goes!! We were making 2 very large roasting pans for our annual end of school dinner with friends and neighbours.
Ingredients (this is what I did on this particular day)
The meat should be cut in small cubes:
- 2 pounds of moose
- 2.5 pounds of wild boar
- 2 pounds of venison
- 2 pounds of elk
- 1 grouse (small bird and finicky to debone!!)
- 16 slices of wild boar bacon
Spices:
- bunch of parsley
- 2 tsp each of clove, cinnamon, salt, pepper, celery salt, fines herbs
- 3 tsp of paprika
- You also need some pie pastry and a lot of onions. Â On this day, we used 10 medium size sweet onions.
What to do:
- Mix all these ingredients together in a large bowl. Hands work best 🙂
- The principle here is to layer like a lasagna.
- Place the bacon at the bottom to cover the pan.
- Put a layer of sliced onions to cover the bacon.
- Spread a layer of the meat mixture to cover the onion.
- Spread a layer of pastry.
- Then start again with onions, meat and pastry until you end with pastry. We stopped there as that was the depth of our pan but you can go on if you can!!
The whole mess goes in the oven at 250F all night!!! Cover it with aluminium for the night. When you are ready to serve later on for dinner, put it back for 30 minutes to warm up without the aluminium to brown the pastry.
Best served, of course, with ma tante Lucille’s catsup which is like a sweet and sour chili sauce. This recipe will be posted at some point also 🙂
We will enjoy tonight but it smells wonderful right now!!!
Left over turkey (or chicken) in Bechamel sauce / La sauce blanche versatile
I love left over cooked bird meat because there are so many recipes you can make with them!!! My mom made this sauce often sometimes with salmon, sometimes with chicken, served over puff pastry. C’est une sauce très versatile et utile pour les restants dans le frigo!
This time I made a Bechamel sauce with turkey and veggies. This could easily be served over puffed pastry, pour in between pie crust or over pasta. The day after US thanksgivings we were not looking for a filling meal, so I served it on its own with homemade garlic bread.
This is one of those recipes were you can make a lot of variations based on the leftover you have in your fridge or freezer 🙂
Ingredients
Bechamel sauce:
- 5 tbsp flour
- 5 tbsp butter
- 2 cups of chicken broth and 2 cups of milk (or all milk)
- 1 tsp paprika, garlic salt, celery salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper and salt
Note: you can adjust this for a smaller recipe to 3 tbsp of butter and flour and 2 cups of liquid. You adjust the liquid versus roux based on the thickness you are looking for.
Filling: these ingredients are just suggestions, you can mix and match whatever you have or like. I usually like to freeze left over broccoli that will not be used by cutting it in florets and then it is ready to throw in a sauce like this one.
- 2 carrots diced
- 2 branches of celery diced
- 1 onion diced
- 1/2 cups of sliced mushrooms
- brocoli and/or cauliflower if you have some
- 1/2 cup each of frozen peas and corn (and green beans if you have some)
- 1 cup of cooked turkey/chicken or as much as you like
Note: when I fix up a celery or use florets from a broccoli, I freeze the ends and stems in a plastic bag  for future use in a broth. You can make your own veggie or chicken broth at no cost!
For the Bechamel, melt the butter first in a cast iron pot, add the flour and whisk for a minute or so until it is well combined and a bit brown. This is called making a “roux” and is the basis for thickening a sauce. Add all the spices and mix well. Pour the liquid slowly as you whisk, so it incorporates well only a bit at a time. Bring to a boil over medium heat and keep stirring until it becomes thick and creamy. Do not stop whisking as it will become lumpy.
In a separate pot, melt some butter, add the onions and stir until translucent. Add all the other vegetables and stir every now and again until they are soft. Add the turkey and pour the Bechamel sauce on top. Stir everything together and heat through.
This is a very easy and inexpensive recipe that can be served casually on a weekday or prettied up for entertaining in a bread bowl, in a pie for chicken pot pie or over puff pastry.
US thanksgivings and deep-fried turkey!
My husband is a big football fan and decided to invite a few friends for US thanksgivings to watch the games and have some turkey. Our neighbour brought his deep-fryer and I bough a 20 lbs turkey hoping it would fit!! Turns out we had to cut off the wings 🙂
We were also treated to the special chicken wings recipe cooked in the deep-fryer, which were yummy!
I made several (too many) sides in addition to the many (too many) hors d’oeuvres! Lesson learned for next year!!!
Here is a picture of the bird after frying it.
Sides:
- Mashed potatoes
- Mediterranean cauliflower salad (recipe in a previous post)
- Brussels sprouts and pancetta
- Gravy of course
- Our friend brought some steamed green beans with almonds
- Ceasar salad (recipe for homemade dressing to be posted on a later entry)
We had a GREAT time and were glad to have so many friends and all our boys and girl friend with us. This is definitely going to become an annual event and I will make sure to take more pictures of all the steps next time we deep fry and will post recipes for the brussels sprouts and the Ceasar salad dressing in upcoming entries! It had not occured to me to take pictures but I thought this would be a good reminder for next year!
Granola bars
As we all try to eat less processed foods with ingredients we can not pronounce, I thought I would share an easy and yummy recipe to make homemade granola bars. They are great for a quick breakfast or a snack during the day, between classes or after a workout. Enjoy!  🙂
Ingredients
- 2 cups (500ml) of rolled oats
- 1 cup (250ml) whole wheat flour
- 1/2 cup (125ml) ground flaxseed
- 1/3 (75ml) cup packed brown sugar
- 1 tsp (5ml) ground cinnamon
- 1 cup (250ml) raisins, chocolate chips or your favorite unsweetened dried fruits. Mix it up and find your favorite combination!
- 1/2 cup (125 ml) sunflower seeds
- 1/2 tsp (2ml) salt
- 1/3 cup (75 ml) honey
- 1 egg beaten
- 1/4 cup (60ml) canola oil
- 1/4 cup (60ml applesauce
- 2 tsp (10ml) vanilla extract
Preheat oven to 350F (180C) and oil a baking pan about 9 x 13 inch
Mix together all the first 8 dry ingredients and make a well in the centre.
Combine all the other 5 wet ingredients and add them to the well in the dry bowl and mix it up. Pat the mixture with a spatula in the baking pan so that it is nice and flat.
Bake for 20 to 25 minutes until the bars turn golden. Cool 5 minutes then cut in bars while still warm. Do not wait or they will be too hard to but!
Should make you 24 bars pieces and each will contain about 50 calories, 6g fat, 55 mg sodium, 22g of carbs, 3 g fibre and 3 grams of protein.
Green Soup / Crème Verte
This is a recipe that is based on the teaching of my aunt Raymonde. When I first moved into our house, she and my parents drove down from Montreal for weekend visits. We would go to the farmer’s market, which was quite fun with aunt Raymonde and my mom, and always came back with some sort of leafy greens (Swiss chard was her favourite). She taught us how to make a cream of vegetable with pretty much any leafy greens, although she often would only use Swiss chard leaves. My baby food purees for my boys when they were little were largely based on this recipe adapted with less spices. I have modified it over the years to what has become known in our house as the “green soup”. You can substitute pretty much any green vegetable in this recipe. Really whatever you have on hand including broccoli and their stems, asparagus etc…This is really a base for any cream of vegetable.
Cette recette est basée sur mes souvenirs de la cuisine avec Tante Raymonde. Lorsque nous avons déménagé dans notre première maison, mes parents et tante Raymonde venaient en visite de Montréal pour une fin de semaine de temps à autre. Nous allions souvent au marché des fermiers et revenions à tout coup avec des légumes verts tel que de la bette à carde (drôle de traduction!). C’était sa préférée et souvent le seul légume vert de sa recette. Mes cubes de nourriture en purée pour mes garçons lorsqu’ils étaient petits étaient en grande partie basée sur cette recette. J’ai adapté et ajouté à sa recette au fil des années pour créer ce qui est devenu dans notre maison comme étant la “soupe verte”. Vous pouvez remplacer à peu près n’importe quel légumes verts dans cette recette. C’est vraiment une recette de base pour faire une crème de légumes.
Ingredients:
- 1 bunch each rapini, swiss chards leaves, kale, spinach and coriander.
- 2 zucchini sliced (I often add leftover broccoli or asparagus).
- 5 potatoes (to thicken the soup, I often freeze leftover mash potatoes or cooked rice to use in this soup)
- 3 garlic cloves
- 1 large onions
- 3 tbsp of vegetable broth concentrate (powder or liquid). I have discovered the Better than Bouillon brand and it has become my favorite.
- 1tbsp of garlic salt and celery salt
- 1 tsp of pepper
In a large dutch oven or stock pot, place the coarsely chopped rapini and cover with water. Bring to boil and cook for 15 minutes. In a separate pan, fry the chopped onions and the minced garlic in oil for 3-4 minutes or until onion is browned. Add the zucchini and sweat for a couple of minutes. Add the onion mix to the pot with the rapini. Chop all the other greens and add to the pot as well. (If you are not using rapini, you would fry the onions in the stock pot and add everything in there). Add the potatoes cut into small cubes, 3 tbsp of vegetable broth concentrate and the spices. Add enough water to cover the greens completely. Again if you are not using rapini and do not have any liquid yet, you would add 6-8 cups of water or homemade broth.
Cover and simmer for 30-45 minutes or until the potatoes are tender. Remove from heat and using a hand blender (or a blender), puree the mixture.
Serve with crackers for a boost of antioxidants and vitamins!
Crème de citrouille de maman / Pumpkin soup from my mom
I added a category for recipes from my childhood where I will share recipes from my family, my heritage in the kitchen.
J’ai créé une nouvelle catégorie pour les recettes de mon enfance où je partagerai les recettes de ma mère et de tante Lucille, Claire etc..enfin mon héritage dans la cuisine.
As long as I can remember, my mom pureed the pumpkin after halloween and made a soup. Years ago when I asked her for the recipe, it was something like “well you should put 1/3 of tomato for the pumpkin you have and the 1/4 of milk of whatever tomato you put etc….”. Soooo, I experimented over the years and these are my proportions and my twist to it. Basically the more you like the pumpkin taste, the less tomato you put. My sister tells my mom is now putting NO tomatoes and just a bit of milk so basically anything goes 🙂
Mine here is more red because I felt like it. When I make some after halloween, I will upload a more orange picture so you can see the variety!
Depuis que je suis toute petite, je me rappelle ma mère et tante Lucille qui préparaient une crème de citrouille. Lorsque je lui ait demandé la recette, il y a plusieurs années, la réponse fût: “Ben tu mets 1/3 de tomate pour la quantité de citrouille que tu as et puis à peu près 1/4 de lait pour ce que tu as mis de tomates etc…” Donc, au fils des années, j’ai expérimenté et adapté les proportions selon mon goût. En fait, plus vous aimez le goût de la citrouille, moins vous mettez de tomates. Ma soeur me dit que ma mère cette année, en a fait en mélangeant simplement sa purée avec un peu de lait….donc à peu près n’importe quoi!
La mienne est plus rouge ici car j’avais un goût de tomate mais je mettrai une photo de ma prochaine recette après l’halloween qui sera plus orange pour bien démontrer les possibilités de variations!
Ingredients
- 6 cups of pumpkin puree (which I will show how to make in a future post. Do not buy cans!) / 6 tasses de citrouille en purée (sera démontré prochainement, n’achetez pas les conserves!)
- 1 1/4 cups of crushed tomatoes or tomato sauce. I put my homemade tomato sauce because I prefer the tomato taste so my soup is more red 🙂 / 1 1/4 tasse de tomates écrasées ou sauce tomate maison. Je mets ma sauce tomato car je préfère le goût des tomates 🙂
- 3 cups of milk / 3 tasses de lait
- 4 cups of chicken broth (which I often omit) / 4 tasses de bouillon de poulet (que j’omets souvent)
- Nutmeg, salt, pepper, fine herbs to taste (I put a few teaspoon each) / muscade, sel, poivre et fines herbes au goût (j’en mets quelques cuillers à thé)
- 2 onions / 2 oignons
- 3 garlic cloves / 3 gousses d’ail
Add a little oil in your pot and fry diced onions and minced garlic. Add the rest and heat through.
Faite revenir les oignons hachés avec l’ail émincé dans un peu d’huile. Ajouter le reste et réchauffer jusqu’à ce que les goûts soient bien mélangés.
I add either a dollop of plain yogourt to the bowl or grated parmesan. Eat with Ace cheese crackers…Yum!
Je rajoute une cuiller de yogourt nature au plat de service ou du fromage parmesan râpé au goût. Déguster avec les craquelins Ace au fromage….délicieux!
Tomato Avocado salad with anchovy dressing
Here is an easy and excellent salad that can be prepared with very few ingredients and served at a fancy dinner as well as a casual night with a few friends….or just for you 🙂
Ingredients
- 2 tomatoes ripe
- 1 avocado
dressing
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 4 tsp anchovy paste
- 2 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 small clove garlic minced
- pinch salt and pepper
- 1/3 cup extra-virgin olive oil
Cut the tomatoes in thick slices starting with the bottom of the tomatoes. Discard the stem. Then cut each slices in 2 and arrange on  a rectangular platter.
Cut the avocado in 2 from top to bottom and remove the pit. Thinly slice the avocado lengthwise without breaking the skin. With your fingers, slide the peel away and pop the wedges out. Arrange on the platter on top of the tomatoes.
In bowl, whisk together all ingredients except the oil, then add the oil slowly as you whisk until thickened and well mixed.
Sprinkle on the tomato-avocado mixture and you are done!
Martine's food and places 