Here’s a quick recipe for some awesome spiced mixed nuts. This is an awesome Superbowl snack and beer is definitely the ideal pairing. Give this recipe a try and let me know what you think!

WARNING: These nuts are addictive. Seriously.

This salad isn't only crunchy - it gluten and dairy free.

I  recently had a request for a gluten and dairy free recipe. As most of you know by now, bread and cheese are two of my favourite things, but felt that I should expand my horizons and come up with a dish that would accommodate people that have allergies or aversions to these. So, with a few cookbooks in hand, I did some research and I came up with this fresh and simple dish that I haphazardly named “crunchy salad”.  Once you make it and try it out, you’ll understand why I’ve called it this. As always, this recipe is intended to be a guide for those of you at home. So take it and run with it! Who knows, yours may end up being a whole lot better than mine!

Crunchy Salad

• 1 english cucumber; diced
• 1 red pepper; julienned
• 4 carrots; julienne
• 1 pkg tofu; diced and fried
• ½ bunch cilantro; roughly chopped
• ½ C. basil; roughly chopped
• 1 C. cashews or peanuts; roughly chopped (optional)
• 4 scallions; julienne
• 2 Tbsp toasted sesame seeds
• ½ pineapple; large dice
• 12 x 16/20 shrimp, sauteed (optional)

Mix all the ingredients together with vinaigrette.

Vinaigrette

• ½ C. canola or grape seed oil
• ¼ C. sesame oil
• ½ C. tamari or soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp white sugar
• ½ inch ginger; peeled and minced
• 2 cloves garlic; minced
• ¼ C. chopped cilantro
• 2 Tbsp fish sauce
• 2 Tbsp rice wine vinegar
• 2 Tbsp mirin
• salt & pepper to taste
• 2 Tbsp sambal olek (optional)

Whisk together all the ingredients and pour over the salad.

Soba Noodle Salad

This past Sunday I woke up with what I refer to as a “food hangover”. Copious amounts of Serrano ham, “pan con tomate“, Manchego cheese and many other culinary delights, still swirled in my enormous 8½ month pregnant belly. The last thing that I even wanted to think about was food, but a persistent  1½ year old and a famished husband, kept nipping at my heals and begged for good ‘ol Momma to make them some food. The thought of anything rich brought me to tears, so I scrounged in the cupboards to uncover a package of Soba noodles. Aha, I thought, maybe a cold soba noodle salad would quench the hunger of these two demanding peeps and maybe a somewhat satisfying snack for myself. Deep into the fridge, I found some tofu, some pea shoots from the market, snow peas, avocado, peppers and to top it all off, buttery shiitake mushrooms. I banished the child and husband to the park for a half hour so that I could create.  Here is a recipe for a quick, simple and utterly scrumptious soba noodle salad that would satisfy any savage!

Cold Soba Noodle Salad

• 1 package Soba noodles; cooked off and rinsed in cold water
• 1 yellow pepper; julienned
• 3 scallions; julienned
• 1 avocado; roughly diced
• 1 C. sliced shiitake mushrooms; sauteed
• 1 good handful cilantro; chopped
• 1/2 pkg firm tofu; cubed and sauteed in sesame oil
• 1 C. snow peas; julienned
• 6 oz pea shoots

Dressing

• 1 2″ piece of ginger; minced
• 1 C. Mirin
• 1 C. Tamari
• 2 Tbsp sesame oil
• Salt & pepper

Directions

1. Mix the cold soba noodles with all the chopped vegetables (except the avocado) and tofu. Add the cilantro and dressing. Mix and season to taste. Finish by mixing in the avocado and pea shoots.

Blueberry muffin fresh out of the oven.

Nothing makes me happier than a freshly baked muffin, especially a blueberry one! I have the tendency to buy up tons of fresh, local blueberries during the summer so that I can freeze them and pull them out all winter long. On a recent sunny Sunday while feeling blue, I thought that the perfect pick me up would be to whip up a batch of my Momma’s famous blueberry muffins. Needless to say that the only thing “blue” after eating one of these was my tongue! Enjoy.

Ingredients

• 4 c flour
• 2tsp baking powder
• 1 1/2 c sugar
• 2c sour cream
• 4 eggs
• zest of 2 lemons
• 2/3 c canola oil
• 2 1/2 c blueberries

Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Mix dry ingredients and then add the wet. Fold in the blueberries at the very end as to not turn your batter blue. Fill half-way up muffin tins and bake for 12-15 minutes. This recipe makes 12 large muffins.

Once dry ingredients are mixed, start adding in your eggs, oil and sour cream.

The recipe calls for the zest of 2 lemons, but I always add extra! Experiment and add orange or lime zest as well.

In go my frozen blueberries that I pulled out from my secret summer stash!

Be careful not to over-mix once you’ve added your berries; you don’t want blue batter!

Into the muffin tins and off to my 350°F oven for 12-15 minutes. I use silicone muffin tins as I find it easier to get my muffins out and also easier to clean.

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A lovely lady named Jennifer Reynolds gave me a few bags of cleaned Sea Cucumber last Sunday when we were both finishing up at the Catch Seafood Festival.  Jennifer had spent some of the weekend cooking up this mysterious creature of the sea, and kindly offered me some to take home and experiment with.  My first thought was to treat it like conch and make a stew, but I opted to make a soup with the sea cucumber that incorporated some of my favorite pantry items; coriander, garlic, limes and chilies.

Doug and I sat down to our steaming bowls of sea cucumber soup and were pleasantly surprised by the taste and texture.  I hope that if anyone out there can get their grubby lil’ paws on any of this plankton eating creature, that they do so and experiment with it as I did today!  It has a sweet flavor similar to a clam, but without the saltiness and has the texture of one of my favorite foods, tripe (specifically honeycomb tripe). The following is the recipe that I came up with that stars the sea cucumber in the leading role.

Sea Cucumber Soup

• 1 onion chopped
• 3 cloves of garlic; sliced
• 1 scotch bonnet chili; minced (optional for heat lovers)
• 2 red peppers; diced
• 2 plum tomatoes; diced
• 1 cup chopped coriander – stems included
• 2 potatoes; diced
• 3 cups broth (chicken/fish/vegetable)
• 3 limes; zest and juice
• 2 cups cleaned sea cucumber
• salt & pepper to taste

Sweat the onion, garlic, chili and peppers in olive oil until translucent.  Add the sea cucumber and cook for 2 minutes.  Add the remainder of the ingredients and bring to a boil; reduce to a simmer and cook until the potatoes are tender.  Finish with a little more fresh coriander a squeeze of lime and some Matouk’s hot sauce (if you can handle it!)

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This is one of the salads from Catch.

I recently did some demonstrations at the Catch Seafood Festival on the Taste Of Nova Scotia Culinary Stage.  Here is an adaptation of that recipe witch includes golden, candy cane and bull’s blood beets.  Hope you “beet” it up!

Beet and Smoked Mackerel Salad

• 1 candy cane beet; peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1 golden beet; peeled and julienned
• 1 bull’s blood beet; peeled, quartered and thinly sliced
• 1/4 of a celery root; peeled and thinly sliced
• 1 Jonagold apple; julienned
• 6 radishes; thinly sliced
• 1/4 cup basil; roughly chopped
• 2 lemons; zest & juice
• 1/4 cup walnut oil
• Salt & pepper
• 1 cup micro-greens
• 3 fillets of smoked mackerel; flaked

Thinly slice your beets and radishes on a mandolin if possible; I use a “Benriner” which is a Japanese mandolin.  Mix all your ingredients together in a bowl and serve.

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In the kitchen at work on a busy Saturday night, I decided to make a vinaigrette with the barberries to pair with grilled Digby scallops and charred baby leeks.  The outcome of this vinaigrette stunned us all, and soon became a favorite in the kitchen, and eventually made it’s way onto one of my menus.  I have paired this vinaigrette not only with seafood and chicken, but works beautifully with lamb and is great for stuffing’s.

Here is a super easy recipe for the vinaigrette that I use on everything these days.  If you cannot find barberries, feel free to substitute with dried cranberries or cherries.  Cheers!

Barberry And Mint Vinaigrette

• 1 cup roughly chopped Barberries
• 1/2 cup chiffonade of mint
• 1/4 cup honey
• 2 cups extra virgin olive oil
• 3/4 cup white wine vinegar
• 1 tsp sumac (optional)
• 2 lemons zest and juice
• salt & pepper to taste.

Mix all the ingredients and taste.  Adjust seasoning if needed.  This keeps refrigerated for up to 3 weeks.