An unctuous Mexican Beef Stew with a touch of heat made with a Mole-style sauce and tender beef cubes served with tortilla chips, corn and parsley. I was browsing the Web last week and saw lots of stews and Mexican food around… it made me want them both badly… so I’ve decided to merge them into one nice stew meal; a Mexican Stew. The two are comforting and fabulous dishes for winter times, but this stew version is double the comfort; it’s a “French” way stew with the usual; carrot, potato, beef, and mini french onions merged into a spicy Mole-style sauce for a Mexican flair; adding Chipotle peppers in Adobo, tomato puree, chocolate, corn and some cinnamon, cumin and coriander powder. Result: A fantastic Mexican Beef Stew! Chipotle Peppers The mole sauce is a thick spicy Mexican sauce made with chocolate and hot peppers. Since my maximal tolerance toward “spicy” is medium-hot, I’ve aimed at medium-hot for…
Bouilli or pot au feu québécois is a traditional beef stew from Québec, Canada inspired by the famous dish ‘pot au feu’ from France. A simple stew made of root vegetables, beef and pork belly cooked slowly until tender. As a kid, I used to visit my grandparents once or twice a year. They were living in a small and remote village far away in the forest called Lac-des-Aigles (Eagles lake). We would always arrive in the late afternoon and the cast iron pot would already be doing its magic on the stove for hours… leaving behind this fantastic homey, comforting stew smell. In the pot was a succulent and traditional meat stew called Bouilli in Quebec. A winter dish to warm up the bones This recipe is a flashback to those nice visits to my grandparent’s place. My grandma would make this recipe starting from when the root veggies would be fully grown in September…
Guinness beef pot pie with a thick rustic crust to celebrate St.Patrick’s day this year? A pie filled with tender meat, carrots, onions and green peas. A perfect pairing to a cold Guinness! If you cannot resist a good Guinness on St.Patrick’s day, this Guinness Beef Pot Pie is the perfect meal to accompany it. This black beer isn’t just great; it’s also one of the highest-quality broths. It gives any stew or meat pie a deep, rich colour and caramelized flavour. Also, Guinness pairs perfectly with one of my favourite sauce thickeners; chocolate. A single piece of dark chocolate at the end of cooking will thicken the broth just enough and give the meat filling this richer hue. A Half Pie This recipe could easily be a stew! If you add 200 ml of broth to the whole recipe and skip the crust part, you’ll have a fantastic stew. Although since I’ve…
Enoki mushrooms enveloped in thinly cut (carpaccio style) beef slices with a dash of Tamari and black sesame seeds for a simple and fun bite at your next dinner party. A Savory Bite These Enoki Beef Rolls savoury appetizers originate from Japon, a tender meat rolled around crunchy Enoki mushrooms, a drop of Tamari and a sprinkle of black sesame. Sometimes, simple is the answer to your guest’s stomach… My Cantonese sister-in-law made those mini rolls for my family once, slightly differently (in the wok instead of the oven). When you receive guests, it’s always a tricky thing to satisfy everyone, this one appetizer is a carnivore pleaser guaranteed, plus it’s so simple to make. You can prepare them in advance and put them in the oven when your guests arrive 10 minutes later; you drizzle a tad of Tamari, pepper and black sesame seeds, insert a toothpick in each of them, and…
Stir fried beef and mushroom in chinese wine with udon noodles is so tasty, this rice wine is a bold, tasty compliment to any chinese dish. It smells way more powerful than normal grape wine and its taste is way bolder too, it’s closer to a fortified wine in taste. Without saying you need to be careful not to put too much of it. Yesterday, I went to my favorite asian market because I needed a refill of this, hard to find, vietnamese fish sauce. I can not recommend it enough, the vietnamese one is made with only fish and taste different than the thai fish sauce they sell in most stores. Once in there, I love to pick up something new, so this time, I’ve decided to experiment with this rice wine called Chen nian hua tiao Chiew. Let me say… after my first dish with it, this is going…
A Sous-Vide cooked Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Sauce brings the sun of Andalusia into your plate! A elegant yet powerful dish made with Cherry and Sherry! The magic in this Pork Tenderloin with Cherry Sauce dish is the sauce, a pure delight for the tastebuds. Sherry and cherry sounds similar but they are far from being similar in taste, the sherry is dry and the cherry sweet. Mixing those two together and you’ll get a divine combination. This is a recipe from the South of Spain, Andalusia, where the famous sherry is from. Andalusia Andalusia is a strong, bold and passionate place, just like it’s fortified wines and gastronomy. There are 4 main types of sherry, 2 mild ones; the Manzanilla and the Fino and 2 darker ones, richer and nuttier; the Amontillado and the Oloroso. The last one, Oloroso, is the richest of them all, and the one used in this…
Beef bourguignon is French people’s favourite beef stew made from a lot of red wine, bacon bits, mushrooms, carrots, onions and aromatics. This version comes with a twist; it is Served on pasta instead of potatoes, Because why not? Beef Bourguignon pasta or spaghetti is a “mashup” dish between France’s beloved ‘Boeuf Bourguignon,’ served with potatoes and Italian Ragu pasta. I like potatoes… but my husband does not so much… so he always asks me to make his boeuf bourguignon on pasta. I agree with him; pasta and a little extra parmesan give the dish a new dimension. The pasta soaks up all the goodness from the stew better than potatoes. Boeuf Bourguignon on pasta But either way, the base of the recipe stays the same; braised beef cubes in a dutch oven simmered in a red wine sauce. So you decide which pasta or potatoes makes you salivate more.…
A traditional family dinner that is part of every French Canadian table is the famous ‘paté chinois.’ A three-layered pie of ground meat followed by corn and topped with mashed potatoes. This version has a Spanish flair with extra paprika, garlic, and thyme. Paté Chinois / French Canadian Shepherd’s pie is a typically French Canadian meal… Created by British railroad workers, in the 19th century, as an imitation of the famous “cottage pie” (beef, lamb and mashed potatoes). The dish was an imminent “hit,” at least, for the “on-site” railroad workers, including many French Canadians and Chinese workers. The French brought it back home and called it: Chinese paté… which has nothing to do with China… The “paté chinois” differs from the cottage pie or shepherd’s pie mainly because the corn layer in the middle was a cheap and easy ingredient. For the majority, this is the meal every household does…