Grilled tuna with sweet corn salad and Eggplant Caviar –

Another fun recipe I learned while in the Cayman Islands. It’s a very simple, very summery dish. All the different flavors blend together amazingly. Fresh tuna can be quite expensive and therefore If you don’t have a big budget, I recommend switching with Tuna or any other thick fish you can find.

————–INGREDIENTS————-

-2 Tuna filets

-1can of sweet corn

-2 Tomatoes

-Fresh Parsley (to taste)

-1 Eggplant

-2 Jalapenos peppers

-Capres

-Salt & Pepper to taste

-2tsp Lemon juice

-4tsp Olive Oil

————–

-Preheat oven at 350 Degrees

-Dice the tomatoes, the eggplant and jalapenos (make sure the remove the seeds)

-Put the diced egglant on a baking sheet, add a pinch of salt and some olive oil. Put in the oven for approximately 30minutes. Or until dried and not bitter to the taste

-In a frying pan, sauter the corn and tomatoes for 1-2 minutes, just to wake the flavors and the smells up. Add salt, peppers and parsley and set aside

-On a BBQ (or frying pan) grill the tuna (make sure to season it before grilling to add taste)

-In a bowl, mix the eggplant, jalapenos, parsley, capres and lemon juice until it looks like some sort of a green salsa or caviar.

Three pepper and red wine Poutine –

Poutine is a a very simple dish that you can find almost anywhere in the province of Quebec. In the last couple of years alot of restaurants have gotten famous from doing high quality poutines by changing the sauce or adding things like ”canard confie” or ”foie gras” to the mix.

This week I am offering you my version of the Quebecer’s Classic. A half sweet potatoes half regular three pepper and red wine Poutine.

————–INGREDIENTS————-

-Three large sweet potatoes

-Three large potatoes

-1 bag of curd cheese (or whatever kind of cheese you have handy)

-1 serving poutine sauce (approximatly 3cups gravy)

-1half a cup of red wine

-1tsp red pepper

-1tsp peppercorn

-1tsp black pepper

-salt to taste

-Canola oil (or deep fryer)

————–

-Wash and cut the potatoes to desired length and shape

-Heat oil in stock pot (fill only about a quarter of the pot, this can be very dangerous)

-Fry the potatoes and leave on a scott towel to absorb the extra oil.

-In a medium sauce pan, make the gravy or poutine sauce, add red wine and corn, stir over medium heat until desired consistency

-Plate in this order, fries, cheese and top with sauce

Creme Caramel –

I love cooking dessert, to me it’s such a relaxing thing to do, not necessarily an easy one, but a fun one for sure! Eating is a necessity, and no matter if you like cooking or not, you have to feed yourself at least a couple of times a day but desserts? they are just a little extra that is fun to make and fun to eat!

For this creme caramel I tried something different that sadly did not come out the way I wanted it to, I tried going 1/4  with  maple syrup and water and sadly it came out more a syrup than a caramel but it is tasty nonetheless and keeps the treat smooth and tasty all the way through.

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-2cups whole milk

-2/3 cup sugar

-1/3 cup water

-4 egg

-1 egg yolk

-1tsp vanilla extract

-Salt (to taste)

————–

-Preheat oven at 350 Degrees F

-Put the water and sugar in a small sauce pan and cook over medium heat until the sugar is all dissolved, once done, turn heat up and cook the syrup until it turns to amber (light brown) in the pan,  poor it into ramekins.

-In a larger sauce pan, bring the two cups of milk to a simmer with the salt and vanilla extract, turn stove off and let sit for about 10minutes.

-While waiting, mix all the eggs and egg yolk in a mixing bowl, slowly poor the warm milk into the bowl while stirring.

-Add the egg/milk mixture to the ramekin

-Transfer ramekins to baking or roasting pan and add water so that it goes approximately half way up the ramekins.

-Bake in preheated oven until a toothpick comes out clean when inserted in the centers, about 25 to 30 minutes. Remove ramekins from pan  and

Let cool to room temperature

Roasted Vegan Chile Rellenos –

I can’t believe this is only my second vegetarian recipe on this blog, I have so many of them in my notes and I love vegetarian cooking, to see everything you can do and all the flavors you can give vegetables is simply mind blowing to me.

For this recipe I am taking you guys way south, in Mexico! This is my (much healthier) version of this local dish that is usually deep fried and made with meat. It will never be in the same aisle as the tacos and burritos kits at your grocery store but it is definitely a taste of Mexico.

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-2 large green bell peppers (cut opened and emptied)

-1 large Eggplant

-2 cloves of garlic

-1 Onion

-1 cup of Grated cheese (Cheddar or Vegan cheese if you have same handy / can make some)

-1 red bell pepper

-1/4 cup red wine vinegar

-2tomatoes

-3tsp fresh parsley

-3tsp fresh basil

-3tsp olive oil

————-

-Pre heat the oven at 350 degrees c

-Dice the eggplant, chop the onion and crush the garlic

-on a baking sheet, put the eggplant and leave in the oven for 15minutes

-during that time, cut open and empty out the green bell peppers (they will later be used as pockets)

-Add the garlic and onion to the eggplant, salt, pepper and leave in the oven 10minutes (Eggplant can be very bitter if isn’t cooked enough)

-in a blender, put the diced red pepper, red wine vinegar, one clove of garlic, diced tomatoes and fresh basil and go until it resembles a sauce, add olive oil as needed until you have the right consistency.

-Add the eggplant mixture and parsley into the bell peppers and fille as much as possible, top with grated cheese and remaining fresh herbs

-Put in the oven for 15minutes (using the last 5minutes to give the cheese some color)

Apple and Wild Mushroom stuffed Pork Tenderloin –

Earlier this week I posted another Pork Tenderloin recipe and realized today they came in a pack of two and had to cook the other one soon if I didn’t want to go bad. This may not be as original as other of my recipes since I did something remotely similar a couple of days ago but I hope you enjoy nonetheless!

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-1 Tenderloin

-4 White Mushrooms

-2 Apples

-1 large red onion

-2tsp Butter

-2tsp Olive Oil

-1/2 cup breadcrumbs

-Thyme, Parsley and Sage to taste

-Salt&pepper to taste

————–

-Pre Heat your oven to 350 Degrees C

-Chop half of the onion, one apple and the mushrooms

-Melt the butter and 1tsp of the olive oil in medium high heat

-Sauter Onions until soft, add mushrooms and cook for 5minutes

-Add apples and the fresh herbs, cook for another 2minutes.

-In a bowl, mix the mushroom mixture with the breadcrumbs and salt&pepper

-Cut the tenderloin almost halfway through lengthwise and put the mixer in the middle

-Close the pork and string it shut

-Put in a roasting pan, slice the remaining apple and half of the onion and put around the Tenderloin

-Cook for approximately 30minutes and serve over risotto

Pear and Blue Cheese Chicken Parmentier –

This is a really fun and tasty casserole type dish. Really easy to make and surprisingly cheap as well! A perfect week day dish for the whole family to enjoy!

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-4 skinless boneless chicken breasts

-5 large potatoes

-80g of blue cheese (cheapest you can find)

-1/2 cup breadcrumbs

-2tsp olive oil

-1tsp honey

-1cup water

-1/4cup fresh parsly

-2 pears

-1cup milk (of 1/2 milk and 1/2 cream)

-1/2 onion chopped

-2cloves of  Crushed garlic

-Salt&Pepper to taste

————-

-Pre heat oven at 350 degrees C

– Wash and peal the potatoes, cook them in salty water for about 25minutes or until soft

-Dice the pears and chicken breasts

-Heat oil in frying pan over medium high heat and sauter onions until soft

-Add chicken and cook for about 5minutes

-Add 1cup of fresh water and let simmer for about 10minutes or once all the water is evaporated

-Add the pears and honey to the chicken breasts and cook for another 3-4minutes, put aside

-Strain the water from the potatoes and mash potatoes, add milk, garlic, parsley and salt pepper to taste.

-put the chicken at the bottom of a roasting pan and add the mashed potatoes on top

-put little bits of blue cheese over the mashed potatoes and some bread crumbs on top of everything

-put in the oven for approximately 25minutes (after 20minutes spread the melted blue cheese over mashed potatoes to make sure it covers everything)

————

Mushroom Stuffed Honey Roasted Pork Tenderloin –

There is so many ways of cooking pork tenderloins and so many things you can stuff it with, there is no way better than the other but I have to say this has to be in my top 5. It is fairly easy to make and quick enough to make it a “fine” weekday dinner.

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-1 pork tenderloin

-2tsp Virgin Olive Oil

-1 1/2 cup finely cut mushrooms

-1 red bell pepper finely diced

-1 small red onion finely chopped

-1/4 cup breadcrumbs

-4tsp Dijon mustard

-1/3cup Honey

-2tsp brown sugar

-2tsp soya sauce

-2tsp sage

-2tsp balsamic vinegar

-1tsp sesame oil

-Salt & pepper to taste

————–STUFFING————–

-In frying pan, heat oil and saute mushrooms, pepper and onions until tender, add sage, salt and pepper and mix.

-In bowl add dijon mustard and breadcrumbs to the mixture

-Cut tenderloin almost in half lengthwise, add the mixture and roll the tenderloin closed.

-String the tenderloin to make sure it is well closed and put in a roasting pan.

————–HONEY SAUCE / METHOD————–

-Pre-heat oven at 450F

-In a bowl, mix all ingredients and put aside

-Put tenderloin in over for 10-15minutes and take out.

-Add the Honey mixture onto the pork, lower the oven to 350 and put in for about 30minutes.

Serve over rice or salad.

Truth Of A Liar –

Hey guys, I promised myself I would keep this a cooking blog only but since it has something to do with this I figured I would still post it.

Today we had the honor of being featured on one of my favorite websites http://www.truthofaliar.com

All of you should definitely check it out if you are into .. anything really! they cover pretty much everything from food, fashion, art.

Sushi –

A couple of days ago, I asked the good people of Twitter and Facebook if they had any requests for the blog and that is when the guys in California’s Orange County Rockers in BURNHALO (www.myspace.com/bunrhalo) asked me to make some sushi!

Now sushi is an all around favorite and another recipe that once you make it once and kind of figure out how it works, you can make with tons of different ingredients.

IE:While preparing for this blog I tried a fruit sushi … which was not a success (hence why it isn’t in this blog)

————–INGREDIENTS————–

-1pck of seaweed sheets

-1 1/2 cups of rice (the stickier the better)

-1filet of fresh salmon (or crab, or tuna, or shrimp, or vegetarian!)

-1 avocado, sliced

-1/2 a cucumber in  julienne

-1 sushi mat

you can add a lot of different meats and vegetables to make it your own. It’s what makes making sushi so fun, especially between friends. You can prepare alot of different stuff before hand and then everyone can just make their own little roll!

————–

-In a sauce pan, bring the rice and 2cups of fresh water to a boil and let simmer for 25minutes.

-Cut all vegetables and leave on a plate

-Once rice is cooked, place your sushi mat near all your vegetables and fish

-Place one seaweed sheet on the mat and apply a little water (or sushi vinegar) on it.

-add rice to the sheet and cover, leave 1inch clear at both ends to help stick

-Roll the sheet with the mat and cut in the desired size.

————–

The technique to make sushi isn’t an easy one to learn and it may take a couple of times before you find the right ratio of water/rice and stuff to put in to have a good and solid roll.

It’s also important to make sure you have a well sharpened knife handy!

Jay .T’s Sweet Jams –

There is so much going on these days that I could post an entry every 20minutes with updates, but here is one thing that I’m really excited about and figured you guys would be as well!

If you are like me, you love the taste of home made Jams but do not necessarily have the time to spend hours making them at home, thankfully for you, soon you will be able to purchase Jay T’s Sweet Jams online (for Canada) or from me personally if you are from the Montreal area.

There will be different sizes and flavors, which will change every couple of weeks!

I will have more details in the upcoming days/weeks, but until then I will leave you with a little eye candy.