Category Archives: film set / large crowd
Vegan chili
I am on a journey to transition at my own pace, to a mostly plant-based diet and chili is a favourite at our house so I began experimenting to create a version that we would love as much as the original one. I think I am pretty close!!
Cancer-fighting: This combination of white kidney beans that rich in antioxidants, fibers and B9 (or folic acid) with known cancer fighting ingredients such as shiitake mushrooms (high in vitamin D) and the lycopene released from cooking tomatoes make this dish a powerful cancer-fighting comfort food in addition to the benefits of black beans which are known to support heart health!
Enjoy!
1st batch of ingredients
- 1/2 large Spanish onions diced
- 4 cloves of garlic minced
- 12 large cremini mushroom sliced
- 9 mixed sizes shiitake mushrooms chopped
- 3 celery stalks diced.
- 1 each red and green bell peppers diced
- 1 large jalapeño peppers diced (optional, according to the level of heat you are looking for)
- 2 large carrots diced
2nd batch of ingredients
- 2 tbsp of Dijon mustard
- 1 can tomato paste
- 1tbsp lemon juice
- 3 tbsp of Chili powder
- 2 tbsp of garlic powder/salt
- 1 tbsp of onion powder
- 1 tbsp of black pepper
- 1 tsp of cumin
- ½ tsp turmeric
- 1 tbsp dried oregano
- 1 tbsp fresh thyme or 1 tsp dried
3rd batch of ingredients
- 1 – 19 oz can of black bean
- 1 – 19 oz can of red kidney beans
- 1 – 19 oz can of white kidney beans
- 2 – 28 oz can of diced San Marzano tomatoes
- 1 cup of vegetable broth (I rinse the tomato cans to get all the good stuff and throw it in the pot so I simply add concentrated bouillon after)
- I can of pitted black olives
- 2 tbsp each of chopped fresh parsley and cilantro
In a large pot, place 2 tbsp of grapeseed oil and heat at medium heat. Add the onions and caramelize (until golden brown). Add the rest of the 1st batch of ingredients one by one, stirring to coat and to sautée all the vegetables.
Add the 2nd batch of ingredients and mix well to coat all vegetables, cook for 30 seconds.
Add the 3rd batch of ingredients, mix well, cover and let simmer for about an hour at very low heat.
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 :))
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. 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!!!
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