sausage bread... a new classic!

*This entry is written by Manu aka, Man United! Manu is trying out this blog writing thing, and we figured he should try on mine... enjoy!

Me, my dad, and Lynne like to make bread so we decided to make sausage bread. this will be good trust us! we added cheese and Italian spices. We recommend this because we like to eat all of these ingredients, so we thought, let's put it in the bread! Aren't we smart?

We started off with my dad cooking the local, organic lamb merguez sausages... the kitchen smelled good!!!

Then we had to mix 2 teaspoons of active yeast (we only used active because we were out of live yeast) with 2 cups of warm milk and 1/2 a cup of warm water to get the bread started along with 2 tablespoons of sugar to feed the yeast, and a pinch of salt.

Then you need to cut the cooked sausages, my dad let me do that myself.

Then you need to mix the cheese (which was cut in cubes), the Italian spices and the sausages together.

We used our kitchenaid stand mixer to mix everything together with the flour... I had to be patient to slowly add the flour (I was very tempted to pour it all in at once).

Once it became the dough itself, we put it in a greased bowl, and wet a dish towel over the bowl and we put it in the microwave for 60 minutes. Do not turn on the microwave (you won't get any bread, you'll get a house on fire)! You just need a warm place to put it in so that the dough can rise.

After I patiently waited an hour for the dough to rise I took it out of the microwave and punched it down! I did it 5 times. Don't do it more than that - otherwise it will get as hard a rock.

Then we floured a surfaced and made little balls out of the big dough.

Then you mix egg and a little bit of milk together using a fork. You will use this to paint the bread with an eggwash. Then you take sesame seeds and coarse sea salt and garlic salt and you sprinkle all of that on top of the buns.

Now to preheat the oven at 420 F and let the buns rise again on cookie sheets for a good 20 to 30 minutes - they will re-rise.

My dad then cut crosses on the tops of the buns before he put them in the oven.

We let the buns bake in the oven for 25 minutes, or until they are golden brown and when you lift the buns and tap the bottom they sound hallow.

My dad thinks you should listen to the song "Golden Brown" by the Stranglers for inspiration.

I just took a bite of it and I think I'm going to marry it.... Seriously, this is the best bread EVER!!!!!!

the sweet smell of chipotle peppers

Ah the food network. I heart the food network. I heart it so much that I actually recreated a bbq pork recipe... and ate pork for the first time in almost 10 years. I got a 9 out of 10 for my efforts ;0)

The recipe is borrowed from Chuck's Day Off - Chuck's BBQ'd ribs... really really tasty. They aren't difficult, just set aside some time - it took me almost 2 hours from start to finish. But the actual work involved was maybe 30 minutes...

I couldn't find fresh racks of baby back pork ribs, so I replaced them with pork chops instead. The slow cooking made the chops really tender. The sauce is super flavourful - grab some bread to soak up the leftovers. I had about 2 cups of extra sauce left over - I'm thinking it'll add a nice punch to some rice and veggies... :0)


Lynne's BBQ'd slow roasted pork chops
ingredients:
3 x stalks of celery, roughly chopped
4 x onions, roughly chopped (cooking onions, so they aren't too large)
5 x carrots, roughly chopped
2 x heads of garlic, top chopped off, skins left on
3 x apples, quartered (leave the skin on and don't worry about the seeds)
2 x pork chops (bone in)
2 tbsp. vegetable oil
Salt and Pepper
flour for dredging the pork chops
bottle of red wine
1/2 c. water (or just enough to cover)
2 tbsp. corn starch

The Sauce
ingredients:
1 c. Worchestershire sauce
1 c. ketchup
1 c. soy sauce
1 c. cider vinegar
1 c. pure maple syrup
1 tin chipotle peppers, don't drain
handful of fresh rosemary, removed from the stems
handful of fresh thyme, removed from the stems

Preheat your oven to 300F. Pull out a saucepan that can also be used in the oven - my large pot's handles were plastic - so i just covered them in tinfoil before putting it in the oven.

Prep before you start cooking - so roughly chop up all your veggies and the apples. Set aside.

Take your pork chops, season with the salt and pepper. Now, coat each side of the chops with flour - have the flour on a large plate to make it easier to dredge them.

With your pot heating over high heat, add the oil. Allow the oil to get really hot. Place the chops into the pot and cook on each side about 3-4 minutes (sear them).

Remove the chops from heat and set-aside. If there is excess oil, discard it, but make sure that all the meaty parts are left in the pot (instant flavour). Add the veggies and apples to the pot. Let them caramelize - about 10 minutes (don't toss them around too much).

While the veggies are caramelizing, dump all the sauce ingredients into a large bowl (including the herbs). Combine well.

Return the chops to the pot, add the sauce to the pot and dump the entire bottle of red wine to the mix. Add some water - you want the chops to just barely be covered. Bring everything to a boil.

Cover the pot with tinfoil and place in the preheated oven. I roasted these for about 75 minutes... next time I'll take them out after 60 minutes... but they were still super tender and not dry.

Remove the chops from the pot. Set aside - keep covered with the tinfoil that you used to cover the pot for roasting.

Strain the solids out of the liquid. Remember - DON'T drain the liquid over your drain... strain over a large bowl.

Return the strained liquid to the large pot and return to heat. You want to bring the sauce up to a boil and then simmer to reduce in half (about 15 minutes). Once it's reduced - take about 1/2 c. and mix that with the corn starch. Mix well. By tempering the corn starch before adding it to the sauce you prevent it from clumping up and ruining the silky smooth consistency you're aiming for.

Add the corn starch mix back to the pot, whisking everything together. Toss the chops back into the sauce - ensuring that they're warm when you serve them.

I really hope that you give this recipe a try - if you like some heat in your cooking and want your home to smell awesome - this is the bbq recipe for you!

untraditional meat loaf

I wasn't raised on meat loaf... not really a very French Canadian meal :0) A couple of years ago I found a recipe in Canadian Living for their healthy version, and thought it was worth a shot. Their version, Garden-Style Turkey Loaf became a favourite - leftovers in a sandwich was always a good brown bagged lunch (delish)...

I thought it was time to pull this recipe out. I decided to use ground bison instead of turkey (I'd had enough poultry in the last couple of weeks) - and I also changed up the spices and added a couple dashes of hot sauce! Easy to make - seriously 10 minutes to prep, 60 minutes to bake, done.

Bison & Veggie Loaf
ingredients:
1 1/2 lb ground bison
10 oz frozen spinach, thawed and drained (1 frozen package)
1 c. oats, uncooked
1 onion, finely chopped
1 zucchini, shredded
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1 egg, lightly beaten
1/3 c. milk
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 tsp spanish pepper
a couple dashes hot sauce
2 red hot peppers, finely diced

Preheat the oven to 350F.
In a large bowl, mix everything together. Combine. Shape it into a loaf pan.
Bake for 60 minutes.

That's it. Super simple and easy.

Chilli con... bison?

So as many of you know, I decided to give eating meat a shot in 2009... it all started with that ostrich at the Black Tomato and has actually ended up with me finding... a butcher :0) So rather than making a chilli with some ground turkey or chicken meat, I decided to give Bison a try. I wasn't disappointed. And I hope that you aren't either...

Ingredients:
Bison (of course)
lg. tin, stewed tomatoes, chopped
Red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
White kidney beans, drained and rinsed
lg. onion, chopped and diced
3 x cloves of garlic, minced
2 x portobello mushrooms caps, sliced
1/2 a green pepper, sliced and chopped
1 entire sweet red pepper, sliced and chopped
2 x carrots, peeled and thinly chopped
3 x celery stalks, thinly chopped
2 x red chili peppers, chopped (if you like it hot, don't seed the peppers)
2 tbsp. tomato paste
1 tsp. brown sugar

Spices:
1 tbsp. cumin
1 tbsp. chili powder
salt and pepper
cajun spices

In a large pot, add the chopped onion and garlic to some hot olive oil. Once the onions have sweated a bit, add the bison. brown it (until no longer pink)... I turned down the heat closer to medium heat, so that I wouldn't dry out the meat.

Once you've browned the meat, add the sliced, diced, chopped (etc.) veggies - mushrooms, peppers, carrots, celery, hot peppers. Let those cook down a bit, adding the spices. Stir that pot.

Add the tomatoes (the entire can, liquid and all), the drained kidney beans, the tomato paste and brown sugar and turn up the heat! Let the chilli really simmer - once it's reached that point, lower the heat, cover the pot and allow the magic to happen - everything will blend together and create this spicy, hearty, lovely meal.

My adventure in eating and cooking red meat has started... I'm already thinking of buying some Wild Boar... oh, what a difference a year can make!