Japanese Chicken Summer Salad

With the Sushi meal that we created, I wanted to try something else to add to our sushi Buffet. This recipe was a little bit of my own thoughts ad some other dishes that I had tasted before. My mom and my girlfriend have their own recipes for an oriental salad with cabbage, ichiban noodles and a dark soy sauce on top. But I wanted a bit of my own originality in this one, so I experimented a bit. 

Not every meal needs to be mind blowing, although it would be something nice to have. This dish is more of a side dish that still tastes good but doesn't attempt to be the centerpiece. Its a great meal for the summer and almost needs to e eaten on the back porch. Serve this with some teriyaki chicken, maybe some pork, or even with a burger and it will fit in nicely.

This salad is a calm cool summer salad. It doesn't have an overpowering flavour, so it's good to serve with something. You may want to add more soy sauce if you like it a little stronger. This recipe was just me trying some stuff out, so if you have any tips let me know!

Salad Dressing

Soy Sauce - 1 cup

Honey - 2 tbsp

Sugar  - A dash

Sesame  Seeds - 3 tbsp

Sirachi Hot Sauce - dash

Cook the sesame seeds over the stove on medium high heat. Place in a jar with the other ingredients. Blend all five ingredients together. I used an immersion blender myself to get the sesame seeds to break down more. Refrigerate until ready to serve. 

Salad 

Chicken - 4 cutlets

Cucumber - 1 large one

Cabbage - 1/3 of a head

Bean Sprouts - 2 handfuls

Sesame Seeds - sprinkle

Cut the cucumber into bite size pieces, and salt. Leave for a half hour and then dry with paper towel. 

Cook the chicken on the stove until it is golden brown. Let it cool and then shred with a fork. Let cool before placing in salad. 

Tear the cabbage into bite size pieces and place in a large salad bowl with the cucumber and bean sprouts. Add the chicken and the dressing and give the salad a good toss. Sprinkle the sesame seeds on and serve! 

Mediterranian Tilapia

I dont get the opportunity to cook with fish much. Perhaps it is because I am a simple prairie boy, but fish has never been a main part of my diet. I rarely get it when I go out for dinner, and rarer still is how often I buy them from the grocery store. When it comes down to it, I'll almost always take steak or chicken over any type of fish. This doesn't mean that I don't like fish, it's just not a particular favourite of mine. I usually enjoy it in things, like chowders or pasta, but rarely as the centerpiece of the meal. 

There are of course exceptions where I have found fish to be amazingly good. And usually if the recipe is done correctly, it can be one of the best meals ever eaten. I remember smoked salmon, pecan crusted halibut, and tilapia in a pomegranate sauce. All of these dishes were excellent, but I have still always been hesitant of cooking fish. 

Well sometimes it's best to challenge the food that you cook, and to try something that you have shied away from in the past. My dad had a couple fillets of tilapia sitting in the freezer just waiting to be used, so I took a chance on it. Now there are easy and quick ways to cook fish, but where is the fun in that? I wanted to try something a little more challenging than normal!

So I dug through some of my cookbooks and in the book The Best of Chef At Home: Essential Recipes for Today's Kitchen, I came across Michael Smith's recipe for Whitefish Provençal. The ingredients in this recipe made me think more of Italian Mediterranean cooking than southern France, so I renamed it to something I believed suited it more. Luckily enough, we had all the ingredients we wanted, and with a few minor changes, created  a pretty darn good meal. The only major substitution from Smith's recipe was the omission of olives. He had 1/2 cup black and 1/2 cup green olives... feel free to add them with the other veggies if you wish!

Mediterranian Tilapia

Tilapia - 4 fillets

Olive Oil

S&P - pinch (I would use bare minimum or no salt at all. The capers add a lot of that themselves)

Tomatoes - 3 - diced

Onion - 1 - diced

Garlic - 3 cloves

Capers - 1/2cup

Balsamic Vinegar - 2 tbsps

Oregano - 1 tbsp

Pat the fish fillets dry with a paper towel and season with S&P, set aside. Heat a large frying pan on medium high heat and add olive oil. Add the fish and cook until lightly golden brown. Remove. It doesn't have to cook through, but it should be close. 

Add the Tomatoes, Onion, Garlic, Capers, Vinegar and Oregano (And the olives if you so choose) and bring to a simmer. Re-add the fish and cook together until the fish is cooked through. Serve. 

Simple and tasty! I would recommend serving with some rice and a salad. I would suggest sticking with the Mediterranean theme and going with a nice Greek Salad. The balsamic vinegar was a great addition and a real surprise. It brought a lot of flavour to the dish.  Its definitely a good addition to a cookbook, and a good reason for me to purchase fish in the future! Enjoy!

The Breakfast Pepper

Ah days off, finally a chance to put my cooking creativity to the test once again! But what was there that I could cook? There have been so many recipes that have been brewing in my mind that when I finally got the chance... I had no idea what to cook.

This is an actual College Guy original! There were a couple recipes that gave me some ideas, but the overall concept and the ingredients used were my own! What a good feeling to know that I can combine various foodstuffs and develop a tasty dish! The various chores that go into creating a meal can actually be fun in itself!

The Planning Stage - The thinking of the various ingredients that you could use. When would the best time to eat it be? How long would it take to cook? What can I do to make this taste better? Sometimes I dont plan at all, I simply make the dish as Im cooking, and it can turn out to be tasty. But planning can go a long way from making a good dish, to a delicious one. 

The Collecting Stage - The assembling of the ingredients! Checking over in your mind (Or on paper!) the things that you absolutely need to make this recipe successful. A trip to the grocery store can reveal some more interesting ingredients that you may have never considered... It may also tell you that the ingredients you have chosen will simply NOT go together and maybe another alternative is needed. You may also need to buy a pack of hotdogs during this stage just in case of disaster

The Pre-Cook - Assembling everything on the counter and congratulation yourself on getting everything from the store! This can also result in a return trip if something was missed. This stage also involves getting tools out like a favourite knife, cutting board or frying pan!

The Cooking Stage - From the prepping of vegetables to stirring a simmering pot, this stage lets you know if your recipe will be successful or not! Smells, colours and tastes all start to emerge and a new dish is created! 

Feasting Stage - This involves the eating of the creation, but also the critiquing and reviewing of the food. This is what it all comes down to in the end! 

All of these experiences can help create a special dish. It may take 10 minutes or 10 hours to create, sometimes the best part of the food is simply the journey!

This dish I created for my dad and myself. I got the idea from the Eggs Benedict that I had tasted in Montreal, and the idea of stuffing a tomato. I wanted to combine them both, but with my own innovations! So here it is... 

The Breakfast Pepper

Peppers (Red) - 2

Ham Steak - 1 - cubed

Olive Oil - 1 tbsp

Onion - 1/2 - diced

Mushrooms - Crimini - 5 diced

Goat Cheese - crumbled, about a handful.

Eggs - 2

Salt and Pepper

On medium heat in a medium sized frying pan, heat the olive oil up and saute the onions and mushrooms. Add the ham and cook until almost finished. 

Cut off the top of the peppers and hollow out. Put in a large helping of the frying pan's mixture, but do not fill completely. Then place in a few pieces of the crumbled goat's cheese. I used Pepper crusted cheese for some added oomph, but choose what you'd like. Blue Cheese may also be a good option!

Put in another layer of the mushroom mixture and another layer of the cheese. Leaving enough room on the top, crack an egg on the top of each pepper. Transport to the BBQ, which was pre-heated on high. 

Cook until the pepper is just starting to brown, about 10 minutes. The egg should be cooked through on the top. Sprinkle with some S&P and your good to go!

There are so many variations to this recipe, I may have to try it again and again! Anything you can put in an omelet you should be able to put into a pepper! It stays pretty hot and its a good filling meal! Served with some fruit on the side and you have a pretty good breakfast to start the day! I hope you like it!

Summer Salad!

I apologize for not writing more this summer. Unfortunately my work hours spawn the evening hours now and I get home in time for bed. This has a negative influence as I am usually getting home just in time to go to bed!

Now you may be thinking that, as a food blogger, I should find some way to write a blog! But it's difficult when your favourite time to cook is missing!

Some may also question why I dont just cook more breakfasts... which I should. But breakfast has never been my favourite meal of the day, and often I am fairly boring at that time in the morning. My culinary explorations dont normally kick in until later in the day. 

I have been wanting to cook for weeks, collecting recipes online and in a few cookbooks available to me. Today I had the first opportunity to cook, and while it seems a fairly boring recipe, there are summer flavours locked inside! There are many opportunities to make several different varieties of salad throughout the summer, and this is probably one of the easiest. 

The key to this recipe is the simplicity in the flavours. It isn't complicated at all, and is just a simple salad, but it's still delicious. 

Summer Salad

Lettuce

Mild Blue Cheese - in chunks, about a handful

Fresh Blueberries - handful

Almonds - handful

Combine the ingredients and you have it! I just put on a raspberry vinaigrette (Not homemade, im not that fancy tonight)  

Obviously not a challenging recipe, but it still tasted delicate to me! It's also a good meal when short on time or the urge to create a large meal just hasn't happened. I am quite sure that anyone reading would just laugh at how easy this was made, but sometimes these easy recipes are the best! Dont forget to try them for yourself!