Big Beats Salad

I've spent a lot of time over the past few months trying to live well, eat well and generally build the best me. The more time I spend on it the more I realize that this is just the tip of the iceberg; but as with all research projects, if you never get the chance to present your findings, what was the point in doing the research in the first place.


The Good Stuff. 
Try adding the following items into your diet, they're jam packed with good stuff and make much better ingredients/snacks than the usual bag-o chips or chocolate bar.

Chia Seed: 
I love chia for a lot of reasons, it's a very versatile ingredient, has relatively no distinct taste and is loaded with things that are good for you. I add it to both fruit smoothies and salads, it's in my granola and pretty much anything else I can add it to. Here's the down and dirty on chia.

Quinoa:
I know I've gone on about quinoa in the past but it truly is one of the best alternatives to pasta and rice; quinoa doesn't come with all of the starchy regret and is loaded with protein. The recipe I've presented below includes many of my favorites in one place and is yet another quinoa recipe on this site.

Beets: 
Sure beets aren't new or unique but they're good for you and very easy to prepare. They're sweet, delicious, great hot or cold and can be purchased at any grocery store.

Pecans:
Not only do pecans taste delicious, they're also very good for you. Read up here (Pecan Nutrition).

Try putting all of the above, and more, together here.

Big Beats Salad: 

4 large beets
1 cup of quinoa, red, black, whatever... it doesn't matter.
3 green onions
1/4 cup chopped pecans
3 tablespoons chia seed
1/4 cup small swiss cheese cubes
1/4 cup dried cranberries


1/8 cup olive oil
1/8 cup apple cider / white wine vinegar, either works
good splash of white wine
1 tablespoon ground pepper

Boil your beets until they are thoroughly cooked through, cook times vary depending on size, if you can spear them on a fork and they EASILY slide off then they're done. I usually take the beets and cut them down into quarters to help them boil faster. No need to remove the skin before boiling, it's actually easier to do after they're cooked and after they've cooled. Skin your cooked beets, cut into small cubes.

Mix 1 cup of quinoa to 2 cups water, cook until the quinoa starts to become translucent, remove from heat once cooked, leave the lid on and let cool.

Let rest, refrigerate the warm beets and quinoa, if you add in the other ingredients when these two are hot your cheese will melt and string, dried fruits will plump, world as we know it will end. If that's what you want then giv'er, it's not always fun to follow the directions...

Chop up your onions, pecans, cube the cheese. Mix everything in a large bowl then add your wet dressing ingredients, if it needs more bitter add more vinegar, if it's to dry more olive oil and of course more pepper means more peppery spice. Super simple, super good for you, super easy.

Enjoy.

Ultimate Backyard Barbecue with Broil King Ben!

I may or may not have spent the month of August... and most of September enjoying rather than writing about enjoying the wonders of summer. Luckily I've been keeping notes with the hope of putting up some new and interesting recipes and findings here. 

I had the opportunity to be the chef for the Ultimate Backyard Barbecue event presented by Molson, Shoeless Joe's and oh yeah Broil King, that grill company I work for. A challenging and fun way to show off some of the things you can cook on the grill. Here's the menu and how you go about cooking these dishes. It may seem lengthy, it is, but it’s not as hard to cook as it seems. Try breaking it into pieces. 

Ultimate Rickard’s Backyard Barbecue Menu 

Appetizers 

Rickard’s Dark soy maple glazed cedar plank salmon 

A truly Canadian start, Jail Island Atlantic salmon lightly glazed with a mixture of Rickard’s Dark, Ontario maple syrup and soy, aromatically grilled on Canadian red cedar. Served with French bread crisps, cream cheese, and capers. 

Buy: 

Salmon, portions or a whole side, portions cook faster; don't buy cheap fish because it tastes like cheap fish. Discount stickers may indicate a deal on lamb or beef but you can't cut corners with fish. 

Soy Sauce - Kikkoman 

Maple Syrup - The real stuff 

Rickard's Dark beer 

Sesame seeds 

Ground pepper 

1 cedar plank 

Soak the Cedar plank in water for up to 20 minutes, it's not an exact science, the goal is to create wet wood because wet wood doesn't burst into flames! Once your plank is soaked pat the outside dry with a towel and lightly coat one side in olive oil. Place your salmon portion(s) on the plank without letting them overhang, trim if necessary, most sides of salmon are larger than the available planks. Preheat your grill to 250°F - 300°F. Mix 1/4 cup maple syrup, 1/4 cup soy sauce, and 1/4 cup Rickard's Dark beer in a saucepan or pot and put it on high to bring it to a boil. Reduce the liquid until it thickens enough to stick to the salmon as you baste it on. Put your planked salmon on the grill and baste a little of the maple soy glaze atop. As the salmon cooks over the following 20 to 30 minutes baste it a few more times then sprinkle on some sesame seeds and give it a grind of fresh pepper. Good salmon is edible raw, if you don’t like it raw cook it until the white ribbons of fat start to melt and it flakes easily with a fork.

Cut a French bread stick into 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick slices, drizzle on a little olive oil and a grind of pepper. Toast them right on the grill around the salmon, the bread crisps will cook fast and nobody likes burnt toast so don’t leave them unattended. Serve it up with a side dish of capers and cream cheese.

Roasted brie cheese with Rickard’s White marmalade 

Creamy brie with an orange marmalade Rickard’s white reduction accompanied by whole roasted garlic cloves, French bread crisps and spicy salami. 

Take a wheel of Brie and scrape the waxy coating from the outside, don’t cut it off it wastes a lot of cheese unnecessarily. Place the brie in a brie baker or equivalent small baking dish, bake in the grill until the cheese is melted, not too much heat otherwise you’ll end up with greasy pools in your cheese. Take an entire bulb of garlic and cut the top off, you want to expose the tops of each bud, drizzle with a little olive oil and wrap in tin foil, toss it on the grill to bake, depending on the temperature this could take a while. The garlic is cooked when it’s soft to the squeeze. In a pot add a good portion of orange marmalade and a generous pour of Rickard’s White beer. Stir the combination until the marmalade completely dissolves then reduce for 15 minutes. Pour into a ramekin and let stand, it will go back to being a jelly very quickly. Toast more of the same bread crisps as above and serve with a spicy salami, perhaps some slices of parmesan cheese.

Ultimate Backyard barbecue - Mains

Rickard’s Perfect Steak 

Juicy 10 oz. Perfect Steak 28 day aged New York Strips marinated in The Perfect Steak marinade and Rickard’s Red topped with grilled button mushrooms. 

10 oz. New York Strips, or my favourite 6 oz. top sirloin 

Perfect Steak Marinade 

Rickard’s Red beer 

Button mushrooms 

Garlic 

Soy Sauce 

Olive Oil 

Black Pepper 

Toss the mushrooms in a roasting pan with a splash of soy sauce, olive oil, a couple minced garlic cloves, and Rickard’s red beer. Put the pan right on the main grill surface and cook the mushrooms down until they are soft. Separate the mushrooms and their liquids. Keeps the mushrooms in the roasting pan to brown them, put the liquid in a sauce pan and reduce it into a glaze for the steak and mushrooms, aka heat it until there is very little and it’s very rich and thick, season as necessary. Marinade the steaks, defrosted, for 30 minutes at room temperature in a mixture of Perfect Steak Marinade and Rickard’s Red, equal parts. Grill following the Perfect Steak Grilling Guide. Serve mushrooms atop steak, with a drizzle of the glaze reduction. Possibly with a blue cheese butter medallion instead of glaze. 

A what? Partially melt butter so that you can work with it, add blue cheese and mix them together. Spread it onto wax paper and roll into a tube, put it in the freezer for a few minutes then take it out and cut into medallions. Butter loves steak, so does blue cheese, mmmmm steak love. 

Rickard’s White lemon chicken 

Seasoned boneless chicken breasts grilled then braised in Rickard’s White accompanied by grilled lemons, arugula and cranberries. 

Boneless Chicken breasts 

Lemons 

Rickard’s White beer 

Arugula 

Cranberries 

Pecans 

Honey 

Apple cider vinegar 

Olive oil 

Garlic 

Course pepper 

Coriander 

Caraway 

Cumin 

Paprika 

Cayenne pepper 

Course salt 

Take a generous amount of salt and some caraway seeds and heat them in a pan essentially infusing the caraway taste into the salt. Add water, 8 parts water to 1 part salt, dissolve the salt into the water, let cool. This first part is the brine, you’ll want to do this several hours before or even the night before you cook this meal. Once the brine has cooled add it to a re-sealable container with your chicken breasts. It will tenderize and moisturize your chicken, that’s good! 

Next day, remove your chicken breasts from the brine and pat dry. Lightly coat them with olive oil then season with the following spice mix: 

2 tablespoons cumin 

2 tablespoons paprika 

1 tablespoon coriander 

1 teaspoon cayenne pepper 

1 teaspoon caraway 

1 teaspoon pepper 

1 teaspoon salt 

2 cloves of minced garlic 

Rub the chicken thoroughly and generously with this spice mix. Grill the chicken breasts so that you have the perfect sear marks on them then like braising in the oven add the chicken breasts to a roasting pan in your grill with a little Rickard’s White that you’ve already pre heated. 

Take your pecans and coat them in honey then a little of the same spice as above, toast them in a pan, set aside, or not, I just like seasoned nuts. Cut your lemons in half and grill them for ten minutes face down. 

Finish cooking the chicken breasts in beer, total cook time between grilling and braising should be at max 30 minutes, use a thermometer if you are unsure. Take the braising liquid and reduce it in a pan to a thick glaze. If you’re pressed for time the chicken can spend some time on the warming rack while you prepare the glaze. Make the following vinaigrette: 

2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar 

2 tablespoons of olive oil 

A squeeze of honey 

Grind of pepper 

Toss the arugula, cranberries, and pecans in the vinaigrette and place it as the base for your chicken. Slice the chicken breasts and serve a few slices atop the arugula with a drizzle of the glaze on the chicken, serve a grilled lemon half on the side. Give the lemon a squeeze over everything above. Enjoy. 

Ultimate Backyard Barbecue - Sides

Roasted rustic red potatoes with fresh Rosemary and thyme. 

Course pepper 

Course salt 

Fresh Rosemary 

Fresh Thyme 

Simply cut the potatoes into bite sized pieces, toss them in a roasting pan, coat them with a generous drizzle of olive oil, diced fresh rosemary, thyme, lots of course pepper and some course salt. Cover over with aluminum foil and roast them on the warming rack for up to an hour, taste test for doneness. Don’t be afraid of salt or rosemary in this recipe. 

Prosciutto wrapped asparagus spears with a creamy Rickard’s White sauce. 

Prosciutto 

Asparagus 

Mayonnaise 

1 Orange 

Rickard’s White 

Paprika 

Wrap the asparagus, bundles of 3 or 4 in prosciutto, grill the asparagus, if it starts to wrinkle and wilt you’ve grilled it too long. The sauce whisk ¼ cup of mayonnaise, orange zest, 2 tablespoons of Rickard’s White, 1 tablespoon of juice from the orange, 1 tablespoon of paprika, it should be slightly bitter but accompanies the asparagus well, serve atop like a glaze in other words sparingly. 

Ultimate Backyard Barbecue - Dessert

Grilled pineapple with white wine soaked raisins atop vanilla ice cream rolled in toasted coconut served with a special ingredient. 

EASY ALERT: Take raisins, soak them in white wine overnight in the fridge in a re-sealable container, don’t go crazy on the wine you just want to saturate them. The next day take some unsweetened coconut and toast it in a pan, let cool in the fridge. Cut a pineapple into spears and grill them with a little maple syrup and paprika until they are soft. Cut them into pieces but present them beside the ice cream like a spear. Take your very cold super creamy vanilla ice cream from the freezer, using a good ice cream scoop form it into balls and roll them in your coconut. Sprinkle on some wine soaked raisins… Oh yeah and pour in some Rickard’s Dark beer, like a float, of beer, a beer float. It’s crazy but people do like it because it’s great.

Titles change the destiny of your posts

July 21, 2011:

Well that post has been sitting on my PlayBook for a while, it would be nice if I could blog from the PlayBook but it’s yet another thing it can’t do, like allow me to copy text from an e-mail I've received, or create more than one playlist at a time…

Happy Thursday sports-fans! What a week, found some cool things!!!

Little City Farm – CHECK IT OUT, really want to check out what they do first hand-ish!

Salt Your Weeds! Don’t Spray… I told this to my neighbour the other day and then realized that I’m a history geek, salting the earth isn’t new to me but if you haven’t read about it then it’s new to you. Believe me it’s effective… The best way to kill weeds (and grasses, basically everything green) on a walkway or driveway.

BIXI is coming to Waterloo region… or so I’ve read from the Record, something about RIM already having a few operational stands. Don't know what it is? Check out BIXI here.

I made garlic scape pesto the other day, it was okay but it needs tweaking, and more lemon.  

Anyway, more video for our growing library of grilling video’s around barbecue headquarters. GrillPro and Broil King. We were shooting footage to illustrate the wonderful grilling lifestyle Wednesday and I was charged with the menu but also an acting role. I love skewered foods for quickly feeding a lot of people without plates. I read recently that the more time a meal takes to consume the less you’ll actually eat, the better and more full you’ll feel. In other words if you scarf a dinner in 20 minutes you’re going to crash soon thereafter and you’ve probably ploughed back more than you would have say if you paced yourself / had small portions over a couple hours. Try these stick foods at your next get together, cook a few at a time, make your guest talk rather than inject food into their traps:

Chicken Satays:

Cut 4 large chicken breasts into long thin strips

Cut up ¼ of a bag of frozen mangos into small cubes

Julienne 4 green onions also into long thin strips

Zig zag the chicken, onions, and mangos up a wooden bamboo skewer so that each item, apart from the little mango cubes is skewered several times along its length. Should look like a chicken snake on the skewer. That’s right, CHICKEN SLITHERING SNAKE. Put these into a dish that they can marinade in…

Marinade:

2 tablespoons fresh ginger minced

2 shallots diced

2 cloves of garlic minced

2 minced red chili peppers or 1 tablespoon dried or chili flake

2 tablespoons peanut oil

2 tablespoons soya sauce

Drizzle of honey

Mix the marinade up and pour over the chicken, let stand for 20 minutes at room temperature.

Grill, they cook quickly but they are chicken so don’t rush!

Heat up a nice satay sauce and serve away.

Grilled Parmesan Corn

Simple, get two aluminum foil trays... Put melted butter in one and Parmesan cheese in the other, lightly pepper your cheese. Shuck your corn cobs and cut they in half so that you have two small cobs. Skewer them completely through if you can and roll them first in the butter, then in the parm. To the grill! Grill your corn like steak, you want nice golden sear marks in more than one place and their going to take between ten and fifteen minutes to cook.

Enjoy!

Mmmmmm Pic-in-ic Basket

Picnic baskets are outstanding, you can build up a simple collage of your favorite things and mix and match your flavours. I love cured meats, cheeses, olives, and crackers; try some of these next time your want something savory.

Raincoast Crisps – I haven’t found a flavour that I don’t like, they’re the best.

Almond, blue cheese, or jalapeno stuffed olives – all so good and a great way to accent a martini too!

Cured meats, salami, supressata, shinker mager, etc.

Applewood smoked cheddar – My favorite cheddar, I’m going to make some soon

La Sauvagine – eat your heart out brie cheese

Blue Haze – so blue so good

Fresh cherries – thanks fruitland!

Enjoy

…the Jazz Festival far exceeded my expectations and involved an act-of-too-nice-edness story. We were new, never been to one of these before but excited nonetheless. We got lawn seats, nobody told us that you would need to get there super early and sit inches from another listener sprawled out with lawn chairs and coolers of? So when we showed up late without chairs the abbreviated letters S.O.L. were the only thing that came to mind. I explained it as clearly as that to one person working there, then their boss, then her boss and then I was shown to my new seats, in the Trius Red lounge where we’d have our own chair, a waitress, and an umbrella, now we’re talkin’. They mentioned it would be on the house and I was touched. The jazz was amazing and wine complimented it well. FUN AND 1/2, highly recommended and I shall return!

Still waiting for some member of the flight crew to arrive so that we can fly to Minneapolis (ps. Travelling to Minneapolis really helped me type Minneapolis much more quickly, practice makes perfect.). Tangent over… time to fly!

Ever in Eau Claire??? Eat at the Green Mill, better yet stay at the Holiday Inn next door too because the food is soo good and soo cheap! Some of the better pizzas I’ve had.

CHeers!