P.F. Chang's Bistro Home Style Edition


I am more than a little bit of a cookbook collector... maybe more along the lines of a compulsive addict really. I cannot go into a Costco without racing to the book section to see what new finds they have for me.

Well last summer we travelled to Alberta to attend the husband's cousins wedding in Lethbridge, and going the typical way an event with the cousins go, I found myself and cousin-in-law heading out to pick up snacks and beverages and low and behold what did they have a Costco!!! And may I mention a liquor barn Costco but that is another story. Well I politely pushed the cousin-in-law out of my way and raced to find my goodies. But what did I find?? That I had all the cookbooks already!! Well except for baking ones, and I suck at baking and don't like treats so don't have much use for them. Honestly I was a little confused, how could I go to Costco and not get a cookbook! It was unheard of for me. Then I noticed a lady to the left slowly put down a beautiful ( and not recognizable so I knew I did not own it already ) soft cover cookbook! "More of America's Most Wanted Recipes". Let me say I do not own the first edition of this book, but my best friend "A" does. She has spoke over the many years about the book, so I figured that justified me buying the new version. I quickly snapped it up from above mentioned women, whom I pretty sure only set it down for a second with full intentions of picking it back up again, but cookbook shopping is serious business and she should have been more on her game like I was. Success!!

Anyway I read the cookbook cover to cover on the drive back home with husband and found many recipes to try. I noticed that they had a lot of Chinese restaurants and seeing as one of my daughters (Marissa) requests "Asian inspired food" (her words) on a very regular basis, I figured the cookbook was a keeper. Being from Canada and the book being American I didn't know all the restaurants in the book, like P.F. Chang's Bistro. I figured it was just like Panda Express (also in the book) and Wok Box. Boy was I wrong. As I mentioned before Husband and I went to Portland Oregon for a weekend trip over Christmas. As we were wandering the streets trying to find the brew pub, husband was drooling to get to, we walked past a dimly lit classy looking restaurant! It was P.F. Chang's Bistro. We had no idea it wasn't a fast food restaurant. We headed to the brew pub, but my mind stayed on my cookbook. Couldn't wait to get home and choose which recipes "B" and I were going to try.

Well it took close to a month for us to make our own "P.F.Chang's Bistro Home Style Edition", but we did it and boy it was good!

Our menu consisted of Spicy Stir-fried Eggplant, Mongolian Beef and Garlic noodles. Unfortunatley Marissa did not get to try the eggplant or beef, but did try the noodles which she approved of, along with a promise from me to make the rest of the meal for her in the very near future!

Spicy Stir-fried Eggplant. B was in charge of this one and boy was it good!



Mongolian Beef. My job and turned out excellent as well if I do say so myself!



Garlic Noodles. We doubled the recipe so we had leftovers for lunch and even had extra for the Kids dinner the next day.

CHAI ICE CREAM

For my birthday last year, my in laws (Brian, Kim and Trey) gave me the ice cream maker attachment for my Kitchen Aid 600 Professional Stand Mixer, along with an awesome recipe book. "Iced 180 very cool concoctions" by Jane Lawson. I am not a dessert person at all, but I do like ice cream and I love my stand mixer, so this gift was absolutely perfect!

We decided to try this one to complement our Indian Gordon Ramsay night, and let me tell you it did not disappoint!

Again couldn't find recipes on line, so let me know if you are interested and I will email the recipe out.


First added all the ingredients to the creams.



Let simmer for a while, but made sure not to boil! Must keep watchful eye.

Strain all the solids through the cheese cloth and let cool. I made it the night before to make sure all chilled well.

Add chilled mixture to frozen ice cream attachment and let it do its thing. We did this step as soon as we plated dinner.

20 minutes later and voila! Homemade Chai Ice Cream!!
We popped this into the freezer while dinner settled and it firmed up a bit more.

It was so flavourful and creamy! What an easy way to wow your guests for an after dinner treat!

MONKFISH MOILEE & NAAN

Tonight was all about Gordon Ramsay! Mr. Ramsay himself is responsible for B and I getting together weekly to try new recipes and watch reality TV, one of our favourites being Hell's Kitchen! We haven't missed an episode yet. In the past we have made many of his other recipes as I already had 2 of his cookbooks. One purchased for myself "Family Fare" and the other being "Healthy Appetite" which my son Jeff bought me for Christmas last year. Both have excellent recipes in them if your looking for a new book. Well this past Christmas I was in Portland Oregon and went to Powell's City of books. http://www.powells.com/ Amazing place if you ever get to Portland. I found Gordon Ramsay's new book "100 of my favourite Indian Recipes Gordon Ramsay's Great Escape". I wanted it so bad, but being right before Christmas I felt I shouldn't buy myself something so I did the logical thing and bought if as part of B's Christmas gift! Hey, if I couldn't own it the next best thing was B having it, or so I thought. I was wrong!! The next best thing was receiving it as a gift from my daughter Brooke for Christmas!!! Now B and I both have it! Thanks Brooke!

So the following is the result of our of our new book. It was absolutely delicious. Neither Becky nor I had cooked with monk fish before so it really was a blind try for us. B took to cutting (dissecting) the monk fish tails while I got started on the naan. We had made naan before, but not this recipe. Turned out really good and definitely a do again! Hope you enjoy the photos as much as B, Husband, Brooke and I enjoyed eating it!

On a side note, our first entry "Chicken Biryani and Cauliflower Tandoori" are from this cookbook as well. Those were amazing too, so as far as I am concerned 4 recipes tried, 4 recipes loved, Cookbook success! Couldn't find the recipes on line to post, so if you would like the recipes just let me know and I can email them to you.

PS we made Chai Ice Cream for dessert. Check back later for that entry!

Cottage Pie and Irish Peas & Cabbage

I'm thinking about changing the password and maybe shortening the name to just B, as B&T is feeling unnecessarily lengthy these days. While I was not fortunate enough to actually enjoy this meal with them, I will be posting this amazing looking meal anyway on their behalf because I am such a nice and understanding person.

After watching him cook and speak at a local kitchen/foodie-type store, T has been a huge fan of Anthony Sedlak, and with good reason (the reason is that he is really hot). Last weekend she made Cottage Pie and  Irish Peas & Cabbage Anthony Sedlak style. Maybe if they ever feel like contributing to "our" blog, they can tell us what it tastes like. In the mean time, it looks fantastic:

Appropriate yet predictable beer pairing

 

Slàinte,

-B (on behalf of T)

 

Jerky

Well, I gave T a chance to post the two meals she has pictures for so I wouldn't embarrass her by posting twice in a row.. but I give up on waiting for those slackers to get their act together. I want to show you my meat!

One of the things my parents gave us for Christmas was a food dehydrator. Last week we made beef and turkey jerky strips and.. tubes?  For now we're just using the seasoning that came with the jerky "gun", but I'm pretty excited to experiment with our own spices in the future. Boyfriend, who likes things a little spicier than me, did add some chipotle chili pepper and cayenne spices to his seasoning, but apparently not enough for us to notice a lot of difference in heat between the two batches.

Anyway, here's the pictures:

Beef on racks

Turkey on racks

We did 2 lbs of ground beef and 1 lb (ish) of ground turkey, minus our snacking.. of which there was quite a lot prior to this picture. The beef took the bigger hit, as you can tell, because we did beef the first night and turkey the second.

Looking forward to more jerky in the future, but also other fun stuff like banana chips and apple rings and any other fruit or food that we can suck the moisture out of and still enjoy. I would also like to try and just do up some cuts of steak rather than ground beef.

Hopefully next time I post, there will be a post or two by T down there in between ...

Ukyaykusun!
-B

Calamari and Basil Aioli with Greek Rice

Being the fantastic friend that she is, T gave me a deep-fryer for Christmas. I was eager to give it a try, and figured I should start off with something basic just to get a feel for it. At the same time I wanted to do something more challenging than the basic french fries, which was my first thought. We ended up on calamari. I bought the squid whole (but not so whole that it came with all the gross bits I'd have to clean out, I'm not ready to take that step), and cut the rings myself. Here's the delicious results:

Fresh out of the oil!

  Served with a fresh and garlicy basil aioli sauce for dipping instead of the regular tzaziki.

It came out light and crispy and the aioli was a perfect match. Also served as a side was a helping of my Greek rice that is pretty much the base for all of my Greek meals.

Recipes for Calamari batter and Basil Aioli came from Canadian Living website (click on them for links).

Greek Rice:

• 1.5 cups rice
• 3 cups chicken broth or water
• Butter
• 2 ribs of celery, finely chopped
• 1 onion, finely chopped
• 3 garlic cloves, minced
• Fresh mint, finely chopped
• Fresh parsley, finely chopped
• Lemon juice
• Salt & Pepper 

1. In a large pan (that has a lid), melt butter
2. Add rice, coat in butter, and brown for 2-3 minutes
3. Add lemon juice and chicken broth
4. Boil and then bring down to a simmer, let rice cook for ~20 minutes until ready. Put to low heat.
5. Add in the celery, onion, garlic, parsley, mint, and salt & pepper. Stir in and let cook for a few minutes more.

Next time I post will probably be food-porn pictures our adventures with the new dehydrator we also got for Christmas. Beef jerky smells are filling the room as I type this.

Opa!
-B

Biryani and cauliflower tandoori

Chicken biryani and cauliflower tandoori.

Yum, with a tall glass of Anarhcist Amber Ale to wash it all down. The star anise provided a nice subtle flavour burst and a little dollop of sour cream helped off set the mild heat of this dish. Topped off with some fresh cilantro and all you can eat crunchy pappadums, this was indeed a successful meal.

All we needed was a good new Bollywood movie to bring the whole meal together.