Meaty Lasagna with Jalapeno Tomato Sauce

Finally, the main dish of the evening, my friend has been dying to bake lasagna for us, especially for the tomato sauce with jalapeno peppers, it tasted soooo good. We are glad that he shared his "secret" recipe. This is one of the best homemade lasagna ever tasted. You do not have to follow exactly the recipe, be creative, especially the spices.

Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 2-3 hours (sauce) + 25 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

Jalapeno Tomato Sauce
2 celery stalks
2 carrots
2 green bell peppers
3 jalapeno peppers, seeded
1 medium onion
2-3 garlic cloves, minced
2 796mL can of whole italian tomatoes
4 156mL can of tomato paste
1 tbsp dried oregano
1 tbsp dried basil

Meat Lasagna
12 lasagna pasta (not instant)
Choice of meat (Hungarian salami, pepperoni)
Mozzarella cheese, grated

Procedure

1. For the sauce, dice celeries, carrots, bell peppers, jalapeno peppers and onion.

2. In a large pot, heat oil over medium-high and cook all the diced ingredients until softened. Add garlic and cook until fragrant, about 1 minute.

3. Add tomatoes, tomato paste, 2-3 tbsp olive oil and spices to the pot. Bring heat to a simmer and let it cook for 2-3 hours until thick and tomatoes lose its structure.

4. Cook lasagna pasta in boiling salted water according to package instructions.

5. Preheat oven to 375F.

6. On a 13'' x 9'' baking pan, spread a laddle of tomato sauce at the bottom of the pan. Layer with 3 sheets of lasagna pasta, pepperoni, salami and tomato sauce. Finish the layering with lasagna pasta.

7. Top with mozzarella cheese. Bake for 10 mins, or until the cheese melts to your likeness.

Basic Crêpes

My life as a masters student is ending soon and I will have to decide whether I am going continue for the PhD program or find a job in industry. Life is full of choices and hopefully I stick with the right choice. I haven't blog for a while struggling in writing my statement of purpose, proposed research, application letter and CV for PhD and industry application. I'm out-of-date from one month collective cooking, but I'm still alive and keep updating as much as possible. From the same day as the Piémontaise Salad and Avgolemono Soup, my computer science friend made crêpes for desserts. You can put any fillings on crêpes, so make it fun.

Makes 12 crêpes

Preparation Time : 5 mins + overnight refrigeration

Cooking Time : 2 mins per side per crêpe

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 1/2 cup milk

1 pinch salt

2 eggs

Procedure

1. In a medium bowl, mix all the ingredients except for the eggs.

2. Add egg one at a time and whisk until incorporated.

3. Refrigerate batter overnight.

4. Lightly oil a medium frying pan, heat over medium heat. Scoop 1/4 cup of batter onto pan. Swirl batter until it coats the surface evenly.

5. Cook crêpe until lightly brown, about 2 minutes. Loosen with a spatula and turn. Cook for 2 more minutes. Serve hot with your favorite fillings.

Piémontaise Salad

Last Saturday, we had a collective cooking with the most recent cooking group, this is now our third meet-up. The couple decided to take on the entrees. We have here another great blend of flavours of sweet, sour and freshness from this dish similar from their last dish with shrimp and grapefruit salad. Potato salad can be made in so many different ways and each country has its own style. Piémontaise Salad is an entree from France which consist of a mix of tomatoes, ham, pickles and hard-boiled eggs.

Serves 6

Preparation Time : 5 mins

Cooking Time : 20 mins

Cooling Time : 1 hour

Printable Recipe

Ingredients

3 tomatoes

4 medium potatoes, russet or red

3 eggs

6 large pickles in vinegar (not the sweet one)

ham to taste

1/3 cup mayonnaise (or to taste)

Procedure

1. In a large pot, cook potatoes with skin on for 20 minutes in boiled salted water or cut into pieces using a pressure cooker to keep its texture. Set aside, cool and peel.

2. To avoid cracking, put eggs in warm water and cook it for 10 minutes in boiling water.

3. Remove seeds from tomatoes and cut into small cubes. Dice ham and cut pickels into small pieces. Remove shell from eggs and cut into large pieces.

4. In a medium bowl, combine tomatoes, pickles, ham, eggs and potatoes.

5. Mix in the mayonnaise and season with salt and pepper. Refrigerate for an hour. Serve. Bon appétit!

Avgolemono Soup

Avgolemono is from Greek which translates to "egg-lemon". This combination is usually added before serving to give a creamy look to the soup or to thicken a cooking juice. The first time using orzo was a disaster, I added dried orzo with the broth and the rest of the ingredients, it ended to absorb most of the broth. This time, I cooked first the orzo with water and then added at the end to the soup, I was very satisfied.

Serves 6

Preparation Time : 10 mins

Cooking Time : 20 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

7 cups chicken broth

3 boneless chicken breasts, cut into medium pieces

1 cup orzo

1 medium onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery stalks, chopped

1 tsp oregano

Salt and pepper

2 eggs

3 tbsp lemon juice

Procedure

1. Cook orzo as directed in a large pot in boiling salted water until al dente. Drain and set aside.

2. In a soup pot, heat oil over medium-high heat. Cook chicken for 5 mins until all white. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.

3. In the same pot, add all the vegetables and cook until tender. Add the chicken broth, bring it to a boil and simmer for 10 mins. Add oregano and season with salt and pepper. Add cooked orzo and cooked chicken.

4. Meanwhile, whisk eggs in a small bowl until frothy. Whisk in the lemon juice.

5. Temper egg mix with warm, whisking constantly.

6. Take pot off the heat and add avgolemono sauce to soup pot, stir well until soup thickened.

Hot Pot - Chinese Fondue

A few weeks ago, my Taiwanese friend thought of organizing a hot pot, a great economical idea. The idea here is that everyone bring whatever leftover they have in their fridge and share it with others. The concept of hot pot is very simple. A pot of simmering water or broth is found at the middle of the table. Basically, you place a few uncooked ingredients in a wired or slotted spoon and cook in the pot. Any ingredients can be put in a hot pot as long they do not take too long (more than 5 mins) to cook.

That day, we brought 3 new students to our cooking gather up. Two exchange students and my neighbour lab physicist. We were in total 10 people for the hot pot, it is probably the largest group we ever had since the first organization of the collective cooking since last October... hmmm...I just realize while writing this post that it has been now a year of collective cooking organization. Wow, what an accomplishment!

Okay, back to the fondue, the cooked ingredients are usually eaten with a dipping sauce. There are two popular dipping sauce that my family uses everytime we have a hot pot : ginger sauce and oyster-soy sauce.
For the oyster-soy sauce, mix 1:1 oyster sauce : soy sauce. Serve on ramekin or dipping bowls for each person.

Anyone can organize a hot pot at their home, all you need is an electrical pot or portable stove. Add water with herbs or broth in the pot, boil and then bring it to a simmer. The liquid can start spicy, peppery, salty, barbecuey or any combination of flavour, so get your guests entertain.

As you can in all the pictures here, there were lots and lots of food and we did not managed to finish them all. Here is a list of what food people brought :

- Cuttlefish, fish, prawn, squid, vegetable, beef balls

- Fried and unfried Tofu

- Thin slices of pork, beef and lamb

- Lots of vegetable : nappa, lettuce, broccoli

- Precooked dumplings

- Shrimps, scallops and clams

- Rice noodle

The special part of the event is at the end when everyone is full. The liquid becomes a soup, you can taste all the food that were dipped since the beginning of the evening. All in all, we had a great time. I hope this post will help you readers to organize chinese fondue night.

Roasted Chicken

When I came back home from work around 7pm, the first thing that my brother said : "I'm so hungry!". There was an unfrozen whole chicken at the sink, neither me nor my bro knew how to cook a whole chicken, probably it was the fear to overcook or dry the chicken. However, both of us can easily cook chicken wings and chicken breast. I said to myself, I have to cook a whole chicken at least once in my life and I manage to do. It was the juiciest chicken I had ever tasted. The simplest cooking method is by roasting. I also made a gravy out of it too since we had some chicken stock left in our fridge from the risotto I made last week. So, there is nothing to fear about cooking chicken, if you cook it correctly, it should be all fine.

Serves 4-6
Preparation Time : 15 mins
Cooking Time : 1 hour 5 mins
Printable Recipe

Ingredients

1 whole chicken, wishbone removed
2-3 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp butter or margarine
1/2 cup water
Salt and pepper

Procedure

1. Preheat oven to 425F.

2. In a roasting pan, drizzle chicken with oil, then rub on the butter. Season with salt and pepper inside and outside of the chicken.

3. Place chicken, breast facing up. Pour in the water, and put the roasting pan into the middle of the oven. Roast for 15 mins, then reduce heat to 375F. Roast for 25 mins longer.

4. Remove from oven and baste chicken with the juices in the pan. Turn over onto its breast. Baste the chicken again, then continue roasting for 25 mins.

5. Turn the chicken onto its back and test for doneness. Insert a toothpick or skewer to parts that are less likely to be cooked through such as the thigh or thick end of the breast. If there are traces of blood, continue cooking after 10 mins and test again.

6. Carve chicken.

 Quick chicken gravy

Ingredients

Chicken drippings from roasted chicken
2 tbsp cornstarch
1 1/4 cup chicken stock or water

Procedure

1. Using a large spoon, skim off the fat from the pan juices. Put roasting pan on the stove over low heat. Mix 2 tbsp of cornstarch with 1 tbsp chicken fat. Whisk it with the remaining pan juices.

2. Add chicken stock or water, increase heat and bring to a boil, whisking constantly.

3. Strain gravy into a clean bowl. Serve with roasted chicken.

EnRoute Magazine : Canada's Best New Restaurant 2009

For those who will be using Air Canada in the month of November, you will see the enRoute Magazine's Food Issue in the airplane seat's pocket. The food issue is written once a year in the month of November. In this issue, you will find the Top 10 new restaurants across Canada selected by a panel of chefs, food writers and critics. You will also find inside this issue a directory of  fine restaurants recommanded by EnRoute since 2002. The Canada's Best New Restaurant 2009 will be revealed on October 28th on Canada AM at 9:00AM. Don't miss it and spread the words!

If you're interested in taking a peek of the past issues, below you will see the cover of the 2007 and 2008 November issue.

Luckily, Montreal restaurants were part of the Top 10 in both years. Can Montreal be in the Top 10 again?

2007

4th place - Bistro Bienville, 4650 rue Mentana

2008

2nd place - Le Local, 740, rue William

9th place - Liverpool House, 2501, rue Notre-Dame O.

Update October 29,2009 : For Canada's Best New Restaurant 2009, two Montreal restaurants have made the Top 10.

6th place - Au Pied du Cochon, 11382, rang de La Fresnière, Saint-Benoît de Mirabel
10th place - La Salle à Manger, 1302, av. du Mont-Royal E.