Smoking a Rainbow

I probably have fish at least once a week. Typically pan fried, sometimes with a dusting of flour and sometimes with out. It is an easy and fast week day meal. Grilling fish can sometimes be a bit of a pain depending on the type, particularly with it falling apart when it is flipped. That is okay as long as you are having fish tacos or you don't care about the presentation. You can't beat planked salmon when it comes to grilling fish. It doesn't have to be flipped, generally fast and easy with little need to tend to it while it cooks. But I have been buying Rainbow Trout a lot more and I don't want to pay 3 bucks for a cedar plank every time I want a good piece of grilled and smoked flavored fish. So I think I'll start experimenting. The other night I put together a glaze containing honey, lemon juice, Dill, EVOO, shallot, garlic and a BBQ rub and rubed it on a piece of trout. I then set up the performer for indirect cooking at 250 with some apple wood chips and smoked the trout for 40 minutes or so. It tasted great, I didn't have to baby sit the bbq while it was smoking so I could do other things while waiting for dinner like tiring out my hyper dog. I think I have to be careful with a delicate meat such as fish with the smoke concentration for future smoking because I am sure it could get overwhelmed with smoke if you aren't careful. Apple wood works good and the fish turned out great but I think I will get my hands on some Alder chips for next time and give that a go, as it provides a lighter smoke flavour.

Eat Me....I am a Perogie!

Probably my one of my favourite things to eat are perogies. I have it occasionally as a meal in it self with fried onions, bacon, green onion, sour cream and cheddar cheese on top. It is also my go to meal to bring to festivus with the boys. However I always buy them and have never made them. Jenn found a perogie recipe in Canadian living so we decided to make them while she was visiting me in scenic Windsor Ontario. We made two fillings, a sweet potato and a cheddar potato. The dough was just basically flour, oil, salt and egg, pretty simple and turned out great.

A standard pint water glass makes the perfect sized circle for perogies.

Lady fingers fold better perogies than stumpy man fingers, I had the dough all over the outside when trying to roll them up. PS gotta love living in a student apartment with lots of counter space.

They turned out great, the cheddar potato were probably the favourite.  The dough recipe was

• 3 cups all purpose flour
• 3/4 cup water
• 1 egg
• 2 tsp salt
• 2 tbs canola oil

Super Sunday

The great thing about football is it gives you an excuse to drink on sundays.......especially if it is Super Sunday. I spent this Super Sunday watching the game by myself(isn't that sad), working till 2:30 then running home to get some ribs on the grill so they would be ready for kickoff. I followed an APL(Adam Perry Lang) recipe and put a little cinnamon in the rub. I don't know if I noticed the cinnamon but the ribs were dynamite. I wrapped the ribs after they smoked for 2 hours. This is something I don't typically do but I think I might have to start because they turned out tender and moist. I had some coleslaw and baked beans with them as well. Beans were an APL recipe as well. They were delish but I think I might have to watch the sugar ingredients for next time because sometimes I find his recipes a little sweet for my taste buds.

Food rolled up

The first time I had Sushi was only 3 years ago. Now I love it and could eat it every week, except going out for it means spending at least $60 or more depending if it is all you can eat, and I typically leave still hungry. Hopefully once Jenn graduates from Physiotherapy school and I become Mr. Mom we will be able to go out for it more often. Until then occasionally I become Masaharu Morimoto and make it .
My parents got me a sushi cook book for christmas and it gives a good description on how to make proper sushi rice. It essentially requires you to boil equal parts of water and rice for about 10 minutes then letting it sit for an additional 20 minute. Then you take the rice out of the pot and place it in a big bowl and pour a mixture of rice vinegar, sugar and salt over the rice while fanning it so the mixture coats the rice but doesn't make it too mushy. This is a very important step because unseasoned rice means the sushi will taste pretty bland.

We made some California rolls (avacado, cucumber, crab) and philly rolls (cream cheese, green onion, smoked salmon) the first time. We also made what I call a dragon roll (California with avocado on the outside) and salmon sushi. Nori is the paper like black sheets that wrap up the ingredients allowing the sushi to be rolled up. Putting the Nori on the outside allowed us to make the sushi pretty easily. Mise en place is very important once you are ready to start rolling.

I think the output turned out pretty good. It all tasted great but their is still lots of room for improvement. For comparison is a photo of Jen and mines favourite sushi place large boat sushi platter.

Yeah their is tones of room for improvement looking at this picture.

Apple Smoked Mac and Cheese

I like mac and cheese but I am not one to rave about it. After I made this recipe I think I will be making mac and cheese more often. I watch the Food Network more than the average person, so I often pick up ideas from some of the shows. Road Grill is a pretty good show but I find Matt Dunigan annoying at times when he is describing ingredients......."oooooooohhhh look at this chili powder" he is just way to over the top at the dumbest ingredients. However after trying his smoked mac and cheese I now like him both for his football and food knowledge. It is basically cooked macaroni, layered with tomato, bacon, onion and cheddar cheese, smoked with apple wood for about 1 hr. Could be done on weekdays for a meal or on the weekend for a side.

Mussels are at Costco, WE WIN!

Costco started to carry PEI mussels at our location. Jenn and I have bought them a few times now. Because they only come in a 3 kg container, we usually have them for dinner and not just as an app. Last time I was in Costco getting mussels some one saw me with the mussels and was like wow how do you cook those. I thought it was kind of funny because they are literally one of the easiest thinks to cook. I typically like to fry a clove of minced garlic and shallot in some olive oil with a diced up chili. Then after 3 or 4 minutes add a cup of dry white wine and a splash of rice vinegar. Then through in about a pound and a half of mussels in the pot then crank the heat up and let them steam for 5 minutes until they open. Sprinkle some fresh parsley on top for garnish.
Bobby Flay had a "Moules Frites"(mussel and fries) throw down recently and he lost. The guy he lost to did a bacon and blue cheese mussel recipe. I thought it was quite a weird combo so Jenn and I thought we better try it out. Well this guy knows what he is doing because they were amazing.

Gyro Time

Jen and I have found a really good Gyro and Sovlaki place in Windsor called the Greek Grill. I have made home made gyros a few times at home but have often used the left overs from a leg of lamb. After my first attempt at making some lamb sausage(which is what is usually used for gyros) I don't think I'll ever make them other way. I used a recipe by Alton Brown. I found out about this recipe from an old quater-back of mine who I saw in the grocery store one day. I think this recipe can compete with the Greek Grills Gyro.

I used half ground beef and half lamb as the meat. Being a student I am always looking to cut a price in a recipe with out sacrificing the output. I rolled it into a log and wrapped it tight with saran wrap. I then grilled it at medium heat for just under an hour. Served with some rosemary and garlic roasted potatoes and a greek salad makes one of may favourite take out meals now a fun make at home meal. I had quite a bit of gyro meat left over so I froze the rest for a easy and fast gyro dinner for another night.