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Makes: enough for 12, but this recipe can easily be cut by half as well
Prep Time: 15 min.
Cook Time: 45-60 min.

Ingredients
5.5 lbs. peeled potatoes
1.8 lt. heavy cream
300 gr. fresh goat cheese
200 gr. fresh parmesan
10 gr. grated nutmeg
1 tsp. fresh chopped thyme
1 tsp. fresh chopped rosemary

1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. Lightly grease a deep baking pan, preferably 8”X12” or so
3. In a pot, combine the cream, goat cheese and parmesan
4. Place on the stove and heat gently, stirring to melt the cheese and create a homogenous mixture, be careful not to burn the mixture, or bring it to a boil, you simply want to melt the cheese
5. Place the mixture in a large bowl
6. Using a food processor with the thinnest blade you have, slice the potatoes thinly, directly into the bowl with the cream, you want to capture the starch from the potatoes in the bowl, as this will allow the cream to slightly thicken while cooking
7. Mix all of the potatoes with the cream until everything is evenly combined, seasoning with the nutmeg and salt and pepper as you go. Be sure to season sufficiently
8. Place the potato mixture in the baking pan, and gently press the potatoes down evenly to ensure they are all submerged in the cream mixture
9. At this point, take the time to wipe down the edges of the pan before it goes into the oven, trust me, your dishwasher will thank you!
10. Place in the centre of the oven and bake until the potatoes are fork tender and the top is nicely caramelized, about 45-60 min.

I recommend serving this with Roast Beef or some great steaks, but this dish holds up well with pretty much any meat! Enjoy!

4 pc. oranges, juice only
¼ cup white wine
1 tbsp. honey
¼ lb. raw butter, cubed, cold
1 tsp. sambal oelek

1. Preheat the oven to 375F
2. In a food processor, grind the macadamia nuts to a medium grind, adding the panko bread crumbs to prevent the nuts from clumping
3. Prepare the breading station by placing the flour in one bowl, followed by the eggs in the next bowl, and the macadamia nut-bread crumb mixture in a third, ensuring that each step of your breading station has been seasoned with salt and pepper
4. Bread the fish fillets one at a time, by gently placing the fish in the flour, then lightly patting the excess off, then placing it in the egg wash, and allowing to drip the excess off, then placing it in the macadamia nuts, and lightly pressing them onto the fish on all sides.
5. Refrigerate until it’s time to cook
6. For the salsa, combine the chopped pineapple, mango, peppers, and cilantro, toss with the rice vinegar and mirin, season accordingly, adjusting the sweetness or acidity to your liking, by increasing the rice vinegar or the mirin, you can also spice this up slightly by adding a dash of sambal oelek if you choose
7. For the beurre blanc, place the orange juice and white wine in a small sauce pan, and gently reduce until it reaches a light syrup
8. Using a whisk, and whisking vigorously, add the butter to the reduction, by stirring it in quickly over a medium-low heat. If you are making this well, it will form a rich velvety sauce that feels almost creamy, if you are not, you have greasy melted butter and have to start again. Watch the heat, because this sauce is very temperature sensitive and requires constant attention
9. Finish the sauce by adding in the honey, and the sambal oelek to your liking, but be careful to not go too crazy, as too much sambal can split a weakly made beurre blanc
10. Set aside in a warm area, and do not make this too early, this should be done right before you sear your fish, or if you are really comfortable at multitasking, while the fish is in the oven.
11. Heat a sauté pan to medium high heat. Depending on your comfort with cooking fish, I might suggest a non-stick pan
12. When the pan is nice and warm add your clarified butter, or cooking oil, and quickly add your fish, gently, sliding the pan back and forth to avoid sticking. Sear the fish on either side, flipping gently with a spatula
13. Remove from the frying pan and place on a baking sheet and bake in the oven another 8-10 minutes, until the fish is firm, and slightly flaky. This will depend on how long you seared it, and how thick your fish is, so watch it carefully, you want this fish cooked all the way through, but not cooked to the point that it’s dry
14. I served the fish on some tasty sticky rice, but feel free to choose the starch pairing of your liking, top with the beurre blanc, and the pineapple salsa. Enjoy the warm flavours of Hawaii without the large credit card bill!

½ pc. whole, fresh pineapple, peeled, medium diced
1 pc. fresh mango, peeled, medium diced
½ pc. red pepper, diced small
2 tbsp. rice vinegar
2 tbsp. mirin
2 tbsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

1 loaf sour dough (or your personal favourite bread)
Cranberry jelly (there’s always leftovers of that, right!)
Thinly sliced turkey meat (brown or white, your preference)
12 thin slices of brie or camembert
¼ cup fresh arugula
3 eggs
½ cup milk
Nutmeg
S+P

Cut two 1” thick slices of sourdough (you’re building this like a grilled cheese)
On the insides, spread the cranberry jelly
Mound the turkey on nicely
Top with 3-4 slices of brie, then the arugula
Place the top bread on
In a bowl, combine the eggs, milk, and seasoning, and whisk all together
Heat a frying pan to medium high heat
Dip your sandwich into the egg mixture, then straight into the frying pan
Cook until golden brown and flip, and brown again
Slice this tasty treat and serve it up!

The preparation of hollandaise starts with a few key steps, the first of which is to prepare clarified butter. Most people don’t realize that butter is so versatile and has so many uses in the savory kitchen. It can be melted, clarified, made into brown butter, black butter, rich butter sauces like beurre blanc and hollandaise, or blended with herbs and spices to prepare a compound butter. Each technique and preparation changes the flavor and end product.

There are two basic methods to prepare clarified butter. You can use either method, with the second one being a little riskier, but more thorough. The purpose of preparing clarified butter is to separate the butterfat (the good stuff!) from the milk solids (which tend to burn) and the water.

1 lb. butter

Method 1

• Melt the butter in a saucepot over moderate heat
• Skim the froth from the surface as it begins to simmer
• Carefully pour off the clear melted butter into another container, making sure to leave the milky liquid at the bottom of saucepot

This method works, but I find it a bit wasteful, especially when doing it in restaurant sized volumes of 10-20 lbs. at a time. You can even melt the butter in the microwave if you choose, just be careful to use a deep container to avoid it boiling over

Method 2

• Melt the butter in a saucepot over moderate heat
• Skim the froth from the surface
• Continue to leave the butter on the heat until the water boils and gradually evaporates out
• When the butter foams for a second time, begins to look clear and you see signs of the milk solids lightly browning on the sides, quickly strain it through a coffee filter sitting over a fine mesh strainer

This method is a little more work, but will yield more final product. Now that the butter is prepared, let’s put our hollandaise together. Before we do, let’s share a few key points about preparing hollandaise

• Cool the reduction before adding the yolks, or they will scramble
• Use the freshest eggs possible for the best emulsification ( pick up some at the Farmer’s Market)
• Use the double boiler to avoid overcooking of the yolks
• Use a round-bottomed stainless steel bowl
• Have the butter warm, but not too hot or it will overcook the eggs, if too cool it will solidify
• Don’t add the butter too quickly at first, or it will split
• Don’t add more butter than the yolks can hold, about 6 yolks per pound of butter
• Broken or curdled hollandaise can be rescued- try adding a teaspoon of cold water and whisking vigorously, if that doesn’t work, start over with a couple of yolks, once you have a stable hollandaise, incorporate the split hollandaise slowly while whisking

100 ml. white wine
2 tbsp. cold water
1 tbsp. vinegar
3-4 pc. peppercorns
1 pc. bay leaf
1 tbsp. minced shallots

• Place a small pot of water on the stove to use as a double boiler
• In a separate pot, combine the ingredients in a medium saucepot and simmer slowly to reduce to ¼ of the original volume
• Remove from the heat and strain through fine mesh strainer
• Allow to cool slightly
• Place the reduction in a metal bowl, add the following

3 pc. egg yolks

• Using a whisk, place the bowl over the double boiler and whisk until thick and creamy, being careful to whisk constantly, so to not scramble the eggs
• Remove the bowl from the double boiler and get a friend to help you with the next part
• Using a ladle, very slowly and gradually beat in the warm clarified butter
• Start by adding it drop by drop, while whisking vigorously, and increase the speed at which you add the butter as the sauce gets thicker and thicker, if the sauce becomes too thick 9thicker than mayo) add just a few drops of warm water to help thin it out, but only a few.
• Finish the sauce by adding the following

1 tbsp. lemon juice
1 tsp. Tabasco
1 tsp. Worcestershire
TT salt

Congrats! You have made hollandaise! Now use this to make some tasty eggs benedict, or mix it up and make some west coast bennies, with smoked salmon and asparagus! Yum!

Total preparation time: 27 hours
Active prep time: 30 minutes
Actual cook time: 60-75 minutes

1 pc. whole chicken (although a little pricey, the Sunworks organic chickens are extremely flavourful and moist)

Brine
1 bottle Big Rock Traditional or Sleemans Honey Brown
750 ml water
¼ cup salt
3 tbsp. brown sugar

Dry rub
60 gr. Cajun spice
80 gr. salt
8 gr. fresh ground pepper
2 gr. dried oregano
8 gr. chili powder
30 gr. paprika
20 gr. onion powder
20 gr. garlic powder

• sorry to give you this in grams, but in order to get the flavour just right, it’s a good idea to be accurate with the measurements
• the recipe for the rub will likely be enough for 3-4 birds, but it won`t go bad and it goes great with chicken breasts, ribs, even grilled fish
• Combine all of the ingredients in the brine
• Remove the chicken from the wrapping, rinse carcass and pat dry
• Immerse the chicken into the brine, being sure that it is completely immersed
• Cover with saran wrap and place in the fridge to marinade for 24 hours
• Preheat the oven to 375F
• Remove chicken from the brine, drain water from the carcass and pat dry
• Combine all of the dry rub ingredients and mix until evenly combined
• Sprinkle the chicken with the rub, coating all surfaces, including placing some rub inside the carcass
• Work the rub into the skin
• Place the chicken on a wire rack, inside a roasting pan and place in the oven
• Roast the chicken until the internal temperature reaches 165F, about 60-75 minutes, depending on the size
• Remove from the oven and allow to rest for 5-10 minutes before carving and serving up

Serve this up with some roasted potatoes and gravy and enjoy. You’ll never want to pick up the grocery store stuff again when you see just how tasty this is.

Prep time: 45-60 minutes
Cook time: 20 minutes
Feeds: 4

Waffle batter (make 8 waffles!)
2 pc. eggs
2 cups all purpose flour
1+3/4 cups milk
½ cup canola oil
1 tbsp. white sugar
4 tsp. baking powder
¼ tsp. salt
½ tsp. vanilla bean paste

• Preheat the waffle iron
• Beat the eggs in a large bowl until light and fluffy
• Whisk in remaining ingredients, just until smooth
• Spray preheated waffle iron with non-stick spray
• Pour mix onto hot waffle iron, cook until golden brown
• Set aside until the rest of your prep is done

Okay, so that was the hardest part, well, pretty much the hardest part, but here’s the kicker, if you don’t have a waffle iron, or it’s Sunday morning and you’re feeling lazy, grab a few Eggos out of the freezer and proceed from here on out. I won’t think much less of you if you decide to cheat, but the real ones are much better!

Cinammon Cream Cheese Smear
2 cups cream cheese
½ cup icing sugar
½ cup half and half
1 tsp. cinnamon

• In a kitchenaid, or using a hand held mixer, cream together the cream cheese and sugar until soft
• Add the cream and cinnamon and mix until soft and smooth
• Set aside

Strawberries
1 pint fresh strawberries, sliced
4 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. fresh chopped mint
¼ tsp. fresh pepper
½ oz. vanilla vodka (feel free to omit this if you’re making it for the family!)

• Combine the ingredients in a bowl and set aside

French toast batter
4 pc. eggs
1 cup half and half
4 tbsp. sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon

• Crack the eggs in a bowl and whisk until fluffy
• Add remaining ingredients and whisk until evenly combined

Alright, so we have got all of the prep out of the way, now it’s time to put the tastiest French toast you have ever had together.

• Smear 3 tbsp. of the cream cheese spread on one side of each of the waffles, get it in all of the cracks and crevices, it will taste that much better later!
• Preheat two non-stick pans, add a splash of butter or cooking oil
• Place the French toast batter in a relatively flat pan, with lipped sides
• Dip the non-cream cheese side of the waffles into the French toast batter, then place it cream cheese side up in the pan, cooking two at a time
• Top one of the waffles with 2-3 generous tbsp. of strawberries
• Slide the waffle with strawberries (aka, the bottom waffle) onto a plate
• Flip the other waffle onto the top of the bottom waffle
• Top with another dollop of the cream cheese mixture and a couple more spoonfuls of strawberries
• Drown the whole mess of tastiness with some top quality Quebec maple syrup and repeat

Feeds: 4-6 people
Prep time: 20 minutes
Cooking time: 10-12 minutes

2 lbs. snapper

Feel free to use your favourite fish instead. I have prepared this with halibut, sole, cod, haddock, pretty much any white fish you can get your hands on.

4 cups flour
4 pc. eggs, whisked
1 bottle Stella Artois
400 ml. milk
1 tbsp. garlic powder
1 tbsp. baking powder
1 tbsp. seasoning salt
½ tbsp. salt

1 cup seasoned flour, for dredging the fish in

• Cut the fish into manageable sized pieces, 3-4 oz. preferably
• Preheat the deep fryer to 335F
• In a bowl, combine the dry ingredients and stir to combine using a whisk
• In a separate bowl, combine the whisked eggs, beer, and milk
• Now combine the two bowls and whisk until evenly combined
• Don’t make the batter too early, as it makes a much crispier batter when fresh and quite cold, ensure that you start with cold beer, eggs and milk, the colder the batter, the better the crisp!
• Drop your fryer basket into the oil, to minimize the risk of the fish batter sticking to the basket
• One at a time, place the fish into the flour, coating each side evenly, but shaking off the excess
• Then, immediately dip it into the batter and gently, very carefully, place the fish into the hot oil, shaking the basket to ensure that the fish isn’t sticking to the bottom
• Fry for 2-3 minutes, gently roll the fish over, using a pair of metal tongs, so that it cooks evenly on both sides
• Cook another 3-4 minutes, to ensure that the batter is crispy and the fish is cooked through

Enjoy the fish immediately with some fresh cut fries (or frozen if you really have to) and some tasty tartar sauce. Here’s another tasty trick. Chop some onion rings, soak them in milk for an hour then dredge them with flour and dump them in your batter. Fry them off and you have some tasty onion rings. So tasty!

Before we get into this, I want to remind you that this recipe is not for the faint of heart and will require some skill, special equipment and ingredients, and a lot of patience. You may not get it right the first time either, but when you do, you’ll be glad you tried it!

Special equipment
Smoker- it doesn’t need to be big, a Bradley Smoker will do, but it is a big commitment

Scale- I try to keep most recipes to cups and tablespoons etc, but this recipe requires accurate measurements

Large plastic tub- you’ll something to submerge the brisket in

Special ingredients
Curing salt #1 – you can usually find this at a good butcher shop, or try Butchers and Packers-12225 Fort Rd, Edmonton, (780) 455-4128

Dextrose – you can track this down at a health food store, wine maker’s store, or even your local pharmacy

Maple wood chips- you can find these at most hardware stores, or at BBQ Country, you can even try a different chip, like applewood, but keep it fairly mild in flavour

Brisket- this shouldn’t be too hard to find, try your butcher, but remember you’ll need the whole thing and fat is GOOD!

Recipe

Brine
1 pc. brisket (3-5 lbs.)
4 lt. water
180 gr. kosher salt
60 gr. curing salt #1
60 gr. dextrose
75 gr. pickling spice
30 gr. Montreal steak spice

Rub for smoking
45 gr. pickling spice
30 gr. Montreal steak spice

1 pack maple chips or your favourite

For putting it all together
Fresh rye bread (the more it smells like coriander the better!)
Mustard-yellow, Dijon, hot, use your favourite

• Combine the water and spices, stir to combine
• Rinse brisket off to remove any and all blood
• Place brisket in brine, fat side down (if cooking more than one brisket, go meat against meat and fat against fat)
• Pour the brine over the brisket and ensure it is fully submerged
• Cover with saran wrap and place in fridge, originally I did about 42 hours, I would recommend closer to 60 hours, but 48 should suffice
• Once brined, remove from liquid, pat dry
• Fire up the smoker and get a good smoke going
• Place the meat in the smoker and smoke for 2 hours, feeding the chips as necessary
• Remove from the smoker and place in a pan with 2 cups of water
• Cover with aluminum foil and place in a 250F oven for 3 hours
• Remove from the oven, allow to rest 5 minutes, slice, pile high on rye bread and enjoy!

Feeds: 8-12 people
Prep Time: 30 hours
Active Cooking Time: 2 hours
Require: probe thermometer (they are about $10 at the grocery store)

For the Pork
1 pc. boneless pork shoulder (about 3 kg)
3 tbsp. Spanish paprika
2 tbsp. garlic powder
2 tbsp. brown sugar
2 tbsp. dry mustard
6 tbsp. coarse sea salt
1 tbsp. cayenne pepper

2 cups BBQ sauce (use your favourite, but I recommend a sweeter style BBQ sauce, we prepare a Apple Jack sauce that is top secret!)

1 cup water

• Combine all of the dry ingredients
• Pat the pork shoulder dry with a paper towel
• Work all of the rub into the pork shoulder, rubbing it in nicely
• Place in a pan, saran wrap and place in the fridge overnight
• Preheat an oven to 300F
• Place the pork should in a roasting pan on a rack
• Cover with aluminum foil and place in the oven
• Bake 4-6 hours, until the internal temperature reaches 170F
• Allow to rest until cool enough to touch
• Remove from pan, strain any juices and preserve for reheating
• Carefully remove any portions of excess fat using a knife
• Using two forks, begin to shred the meat, by pulling it apart, hence “pulled pork!”
• Set aside until ready to assemble tacos

Pickled Red Onions
1 pc. red onion
125 ml. white vinegar
2 tbsp. white sugar
¼ tsp. red pepper flakes
½ tbsp. salt

• Using a slicer, mandolin, or very thinly slicing, cut red onion into thin rings
• Combine all ingredients in bowl with red onions
• Allow to rest at least 2 hours, but overnight is better

Remaining ingredients
½ hd. iceberg lettuce, shredded
1 cup salsa (you can buy this, but we prepare fresh!)
24 pc. cilantro leaves
24 pc. corn tortillas ( I enjoy the fresh tortillas at Argyll Foods!)

For assembly:

• Preheat oven to 300F
• In a bowl combine BBQ sauce, 1 cup juices from pork, and shredded pork
• The consistency should be loose and moist
• Place in a pan and cover with aluminum foil
• Place in the oven to warm through 10-12 minutes
• Warm the tortillas in the microwave, or for better results, lightly toast them in a frying pan individually
• Double up the tortillas so they don’t get too messy
• Cover the center of the tortillas with shredded lettuce
• Top with 2 oz. pulled pork
• Follow that with 2 tbsp. salsa
• Follow that with a generous tbsp. pickled onions
• Finish each tortilla off with two leaves cilantro

Enjoy these tasty treats with a cold cerveza and a squeeze of lime!