Jerk Chicken Chili-Soup in the Crockpot

This chili-soup, (I added the -soup part because I didn't add any cornstarch to thicken it. I don't mind it being soupy at all) is surprisingly warming on these chilly November days, considering Jerk is a Caribbean flavoring. The husband and I started taking off our sweatshirts as we tucked into this soup, as the chili-like flavors heated up our cores. The rich smell of cinnamon will fill your kitchen throughout the day, as this soup simmers away in the crockpot.

The soup looks watery at first, but once the chicken is shredded, it definitely thickens up. Because the chicken cooked in the crockpot, it comes apart very easily with a squish of the ladle. You could also take the chicken out and shred with 2 forks but I found that the chicken was falling apart so much as I tried to pick the pieces out, that I just stopped trying. I used water instead of chicken broth and I found the soup to be well-flavored. I've had a few over-salting incidents recently, so I decided with this one, to leave the salt out completely, and just add as much or as little salt as we like at the table.

I made some changes to this recipe to fit what I had in the kitchen. One major change is that I put a raw chicken breast and thigh in the crockpot. I know some people are hesitant to do this, as the chicken will stay at a low temperature for a long period of time. I'm not one to worry too much about that, so this truly is your judgment call. The original recipe suggests using a rotisserie chicken, shredded of its meat but I kind of thought it was a waste to go out and buy a rotisserie chicken, just to rip meat off of it and put it in a soup. I would have rather used the seasoned chicken to make sandwiches or Vietnamese-style salad rolls.

I also used 3 fresh tomatoes instead of a can of diced ones. I had three ripe ones sitting on the counter so that was a no-brainer. For the beans, I just used what I had in the pantry. I've added my changes in parenthesis.

We found this soup to be quite mild. It could definitely be kicked up with cayenne or more jalapenos! It's the perfect winter dish, which will definitely be made again!!




Jerk Chicken Chili (Soup in the Crockpot)
4-6 servings
source: Pam Anderson, Perfect One-Dish Dinners

1 tbsp olive oil
1 large yellow onion, chopped
1 yellow bell pepper, chopped (I used green)
3 tbsp chili powder
1 1/2 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/2 tsp ground allspice
1 large rotisserie chicken, meat removed and shredded (about 6 cups) (I used 1 breast and 1 thigh)
4 cups chicken broth (I used water)
1 can (14 oz) diced tomatoes (I used 3 fresh medium-sized tomatoes)
1 can (15 oz) black beans, drained
1 can (15 oz) small white beans, drained (I used kidney beans)
2 tbsp chopped pickled jalapenos (I used 1/4 of a fresh one, some seeds included with a tbsp of vinegar)
3 large garlic cloves, minced
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 oz semisweet chocolate (I used dairy-free)
2 tbsp cornmeal or 3 tbsp cornstarch mixed with 2 tbsp water (optional for thickening) (I omitted)

Here are Pam Anderson's directions:

1. Heat oil in a large pot over medium-high heat.
2. Add onion and bell pepper and cook, stirring until softened, about 5 minutes.
3. Add chili powder, thyme, cinnamon, and allspice. Cook, stirring constantly, until fragrant, about 1 minute.
4. Add chicken and stir to coat with spices. Add broth, tomatoes, beans, and jalapenos, bring to a boil, cover partially, reduce heat, and simmer to blend flavors, about 20 minutes.
5. Stir in garlic, cilantro, chocolate, and either cornmeal or cornstarch/water slurry if desired. If you add the cornstarch slurry, bring the heat up to medium-high and allow the chili to thicken. Turn off the heat and let stand for 5 to 10 minutes before serving.

Here are my directions: 1. Add all ingredients except the chocolate and cilantro to the crockpot. Stir well and set to low and cook for 7 hours. 2. After 7 hours, add chocolate and stir to make sure it has all melted. 3. Ladle into bowls and garnish with cilantro.

Quebec City Restaurant: le Saint-Amour

Restaurant le Saint-Amour is a pretty fancy restaurant by night (Sir Paul McCartney dined there!), but for lunch simpletons like me and the husband can dine for about $20 each. The focus is on creative, innovative cuisine using fresh, local ingredients. Lucky for them (an those who dine there) Quebec is full of wonderful vegetable farms, animal farms, dairy farms and other local terroir. I would love to try the inspiration menu or the discovery menu sometime!

The lunch menu is a 3-course meal, with coffee or tea. I can't remember what the husband started with, but it was red quinoa, with some chopped vegetables. I remember it was a clean tasting dish, perfect to whet the appetite for the richness of the main course!


I started with the aspargus and cheese melt, with candied tomato, and parma ham. This starter was quite rich because of the cheese, but if you love cheese then this would be perfect for you! Even though it was cheesy richness, it felt good to be getting some veggies!


The husband's main meal was veal with a port wine sauce. I can't remember if it came with rice or potatoes... one or the other... The husband made sure to save some bread to mop up some of that beautiful port wine sauce!


For my main, I chose the omelette. It, like the aspargus, came with a layer of melted cheese on it (but it was a different cheese). The eggs were fluffy and light (not dense and overcooked like the ones I make), and had a creaminess to them. It balanced very nicely with the melted cheese.


Now for dessert! I ordered a chocolate cake (with raspberry and mango sauce), and the husband ordered a blueberry creme brulee. I don't think I need to tell you how these tasted. Just look at them!

Quebec City Restaurant: Le Lapin Saute

This review comes over a month late, but I remember this meal as if it were yesterday! We read about this place in our guidebook, and it sounded delicious. I had never really had a piece of rabbit meat before, so I didn't really know what to expect. For those of you who can't bring yourselves to eat cute fluffy animals, there are other items on the menu like burgers and such.

The restaurant itself is very charming. The lovely summer weather allowed us to sit outside where little birds flitted around from tree to tree, and curious squirrels would scurry up and down tree trunks. Even though it's in the middle of a major pedestrian street, with people staring at you while you eat, it does have a "country" feel.
The husband (savoury pie lover that he is) ordered the rabbit pie. It came with a fruit ketchup that he devoured! He doesn't usually like fruit with his meals (like chutneys, etc) but something about that fruit ketchup made the rabbit pie even better!


I ordered the cassoulet. It came with rabbit leg (confit), bacon, and rabbit sausage. The rabbit leg was tender and the meat came away from the bone with a gentle tug of the fork. It kind of tastes like chicken, but is much more flavourful (like dark meat). I could taste more of a gamey-ness in the sausage, but the seasonings made it so hard for me to stop eating it!


We had a pretty boring breakfast that day of fake croissants and costco muffins, so this rich, satisfying lunch was just what we needed! If we are ever lucky enough to return to Quebec City, this restaurant will definitely be our first stop.

Masala Salmon

I'm a sucker for a good deal. Especially when it comes to food. I will buy 10 avocados when I only need 2, if it saves me a few measly cents. When I saw a whole, wild caught salmon at Uwajimaya for $4.99/pound, I knew I had to get it the whole thing. $25 for a five-pound fish! I knew it would make at least four meals for us. Fortunately, the fish monger cut it up into four large fillets. One fillet is enough for the husband and I, plus a bit leftover for his lunch.

I'm also a sucker for freezing food. As soon as I got home, those fillets were tightly wrapped in plastic wrap and placed in the freezer. I've used three out of four fillets so far. The first one was poached in a green curry and coconut milk sauce, the second one was baked after being marinated in a soy, garlic, ginger mixture. Although both of those were quite good, the third time was the charm. I got the idea from Route 79. I only ended up using half of the spice mixture, and I added some garlic ginger paste I made and keep in the freezer.

When it comes to salmon, I'm usually hesitant to use anything more than salt, pepper and lemon because salmon already packs enough flavour on its own. I'm usually afraid that using too many spices will cover up the awesome richness of the fish. Fortunately, these spices didn't overpower the salmon at all. The outside had a nice fragrant flavour, but the inside was still salmon-y, even though I let it sit in the marinade for about 2 hours.


Paired with brown rice and roasted green beans and broccoli, this made a great dinner for us. Route 79 pan-fried the salmon, but I baked mine in the oven at 475 F for 12 minutes.

Masala Salmon
from Route 79 (serves 2)

Ingredients

1 salmon fillet (about 1/4 of the salmon), cut into 4 pieces
oil to coat fillet and baking sheet
1 tsp turmeric
1 tsp ground coriander
1 tsp cumin
1 tsp chili powder
2 tsp garam masala
salt for seasoning the fish

Pat fillet dry with a paper towel. Season with salt. Place in a shallow dish (like a pyrex) and drizzle with oil. Sprinkle spices evenly over the fish (I only ended up using about half of the spice mix), and using your hands, flip the fish over and move around the dish so that the spices and oil create a paste and coat the fish evenly.

Place the pieces skin-side up in the marinade, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat the oven to 475 F. Place the fish pieces skin-side down on a lightly greased baking sheet. Bake for 12 minutes. Remove fish from pan, and place on paper towels to absorb the oil.

Thai-inspired Eggplant Stirfry

There is a seasonal eggplant dish I absolutely love at Mae Nam in Vancouver. On their menu, it says that the eggplant is fried with fermented bean paste (I'm assuming with something like miso). Doing a quick internet search didn't turn up anything, so I decided to give it a try using one of many recipes without the bean paste.

I had globe eggplants on hand. Some websites said globe eggplants would be fine in this dish, other said the skin would be too thick, or that the texture wouldn't be very good. I found that using globe eggplants didn't affect the texture much, but the skin was noticeable. The skin wasn't too hard or tough, but it was just... there. I definitely think I'll use the skinny eggplants next time.

The original recipe didn't call for ginger, but I added it in, and I think it gave the dish an extra something. I also added dried red chili flakes because I forgot to grab fresh chilies at the market earlier today.

I also added some fresh red bell pepper (it was starting to get a bit wrinkly) and some blanched green beans, too. The result was a fragrant dish that was slightly salty, zingy from the ginger, a little fiery from the chilies, and just overall tasty!

So here it is!

Eggplant Stirfry (Pud Makua Yow)
Adapted from http://www.thaitable.com/Thai/recipes/Basil_Eggplant.htm

1 tbsp vegetable oil
1 bunch thai basil
1 tbsp sugar
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 asian eggplants
2 chili peppers

I added:
3/4 inch piece of ginger, finely chopped
1/4 red bell pepper, sliced
1 handful blanched green beans

Slice the eggplants into irregular shapes for easy turning in the pan. When it's sliced into a small disk, it tends to stick to the bottom of the pan and makes it difficult to flip or turn.

Chop garlic (and ginger, if using) and slice chili peppers. Pick the leaves from the stem of the Thai basil.

Heat a pan or wok over high or medium high. Add oil, chili peppers and garlic. Stir until the garlic turns golden brown. Add eggplant and stir to coat. Add 3/4 cup of water and cover the pan or wok with a lid. Keep the lid close until the eggplant is cooked. It should take about 5-7 minutes before the eggplant is done. The eggplant turns from white to translucent when it is done. Almost all of the water should have been evaporated at this point. If the eggplant is still not cooked, add a little bit more water and keep lid closed until the eggplant is ready. Add fish sauce and sugar and stir. Add Thai basil and quickly stir to heat the basil, so that it retains it color. Turn off heat immediately.

Serve hot with rice.

Italian sausage, leek, and potato soup

This is one of those I-bought-more-veggies than-I-know-what-to-do-with meals. The one veggie I didn't know what to do with? Leeks. I'm not even sure which is the usable part. A lot of recipes say to chop off the dark green part, and then go on to tell you that they can be used for something else. Well, I ended up removing most of the green part. I chose to puree the soup with a hand blender, but if you chop the veggies smaller, it can be left unblended.

I think the sausage I used must've been pretty salty because I didn't need to season it much. Even though there is no milk or cream in this soup, it comes out very rich-tasting and creamy-feeling. I will definitely be making this again!

Ingredients:
Makes 4 large bowls of thick soup.

2 tbsp of olive oil
Leeks, 3, thoroughly rinsed and chopped
3 italian sausage links, removed from casing
1 large yukon gold potato, peeled, rinsed and chopped
1/4 head of cabbage, chopped
4 cups chicken stock

Heat the a large saucepan on medium-high heat. Heat up the olive oil, and add the sausages, crumbling with a wooden spoon as they cook. Once the sausages have cooked, remove with a slotted spoon and set aside.

Add the potatoes, leeks and cabbage and cook until all vegetables start to soften, about 5 minutes. Add the chicken stock. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for 30 minutes.

If you are using a hand blender, turn off the heat, and puree the soup until it reaches the desired consistency. I left mine just a little chunky. Add the cooked sausage bits from before and stir. If you would like a thinner soup, add more chicken stock or water, and reheat before serving.

Montreal Restaurant: Joe Beef

This famous restaurant was a suggestion from my sister-in-law. She and her new husband (woohoo! Congrats, guys!!) were meeting up with us for a few days in Montreal so we decided to meet for dinner on 2 of the nights. Joe Beef was on night numero un.

As the name states, steaks are the specialty here, but there were several other surf or turf items like lamb, duck, pork, scallops, trout, and lobster just to name a few. Their entire menu is actually written on one of the walls, so if the place is packed, you might feel a bit awkward standing at the board (where several tables are lined up) reading off of the wall. Alternatively, if you are seated at the wall, you might have a bunch of open-mouthed diners staring over your head. Oh, and the menu is in French, but our server didn't seem to mind translating each item to us.

Our table had crispy pig's ear salad, beer cheese dip, and stuffed squid to start. Mains were, trout topped with crab cake mixture, seared scallops topped with pulled pork, gnocci, ribs, and a raw choux pastry, baked with lobster meat. I had the baked choux pastry. It was really, really salty. Tasty, but I could barely finish half of it because of the saltiness.

My favourite part of the meal was this drink! It's a just Caesar but look at all the goodies it comes with! It's pretty much an appetizer in itself!


I don't think I'd go to Joe Beef again. I loved the Caesar and some of the appetizers were delicious, but the mains all seemed too salty. The ribs were apparently delicious but since we don't eat beef, that's doesn't help us much. If you are a steak lover though, I think this could be the place for you!

Also, I don't want to ruin the experience so I won't post a picture of "it" but promise me if you go here, that you'll visit the bathroom?