So what’s for dinner?

Salad, apparently…

Before I would’ve thought that eating rabbit food for dinner is sad. I mean, why eat that when you can have gooey, cheesy pasta; homey, comforting dumplings; sweet, tender scallops; spicy, piquant noodles?

I like salad. I like it for lunch, as a side, as a snack. Generally I don’t think much about salad, I just eat it. For my health. But it’s often too boring to think about.

I wouldn’t mind thinking about it though, if all salads came with a juicy, garlicky piece of chicken smothered in honey mustard dressing.

And served with a big hunk of homemade crusty bread slathered with butter.

I wouldn’t mind thinking about that at all. For my health, of course.

Steamed Fish

One of the simplest and purest way to cook fish is to steam it. It works best with the freshest fish you can find and with limited amount of time and perpetual laziness.

All you need is salt, ginger, green onions, and a splash of Chinese cooking wine.

I didn’t even have a steamer. I put a plate inside a very large cast iron pan filled with about half an inch of water but then it was a pain, literally, to remove the plate after the fish is done. I do not really recommend it, but if you have no choice, feel free to improvise with whatever pots and pans you have. Just make sure that the rim of the plate you use doesn’t block steam from rising with in the pot, or pan.

Step one, cut the ginger and green onion into strips.

Step two, salt the fish.

Step three, sprinkle the ginger and green onion strips onto fish.

Step four, splash some Chinese cooking wine on top. Not too much, you don’t want a drunken fish. Ha. Bad. Yes.

Step five, steam for about 10-15 minutes. I start counting time when the water begins to boil and steam begins to leak out of the side of the pot.

Step six, don’t burn yourself taking the plate out.

So hard right?

You can really taste the fish this way, and the aromatics are just right. Bon appetit!

Restaurant Review: La Cabane Grecque

I’m finally back on campus at MacDonald. Mac is one of two McGill campuses, and the one that no one knows about. It’s super small and shares its space with a college preparatory school here in Ste-Anne-de-Bellevue. The town’s name is so long that sometimes I have trouble typing and writing the entire name on forms! I’m very glad to be back and even looking forward to the up coming classes.

So yesterday, as a back-to-school-I-haven’t-seen-you-since-April get-together, a few friends and I went to downtown Montreal to have dinner. La Cabane Grecque is located on Prince Arthur, corner street to La Coloniale, in a very popular location in Montreal.

This time of the year, the streets are closed to autos and restaurants offer outdoor seating with various entertainment on the streets, from music to juggling to skateboarding. The maitre d’s from each restaurant come outside to lure the passerby. It’s quite something.

As for the restaurant, in short, the food was mediocre but the service was great. I had the steak a la Cabane Grecque, which was aged tenderloin strips with steamed veggies, homestyle potato, rice, and chef’s salad. The chef’s salad is actually a garden salad and was heavy on the oil. It was surprisingly filling, both two girls I was with were getting full after the salad. But that might have been because of the bread. They serve very good whole wheat bread with a very creamy butter. I would’ve been happy just with the bread basket.

I asked for the steak to be cooked to medium rare and it turned out to be almost medium well and in some areas, well done. The sides were nothing special. And this bugged me: the food tasted strongly of butter. I love butter, but I went there for Greek food. It didn’t seem authentic. But like I said, the service was excellent. The waitress we had was friendly and helpful and attentive. Our water glasses were refilled continuously and she came to check on us several times. Next time I want Greek food though, I would like to get Greek food.

Lady and the Tramp, Anyone?

I love Disney. Even with its subliminal messages and not so subliminal ones.

I love the simpleness of its romances. I cannot see spaghetti and meat balls without thinking of Lady and the Tramp. Of course, no real person, or dog, would slurp a strand of spaghetti without chewing through and breaking it. That makes the scene all more romantic. I like the film even though I honestly can’t remember anything else about it besides that scene, but I thought about it today while I thought, planned, and made dinner.

Simple spaghetti and meatballs.

Okay, maybe not that simple. I did use whole wheat spaghetti and ground flax after all. I know, I can’t leave anything well enough alone. But regardless of all my efforts at health-isizing this dish, it retained its heartiness. A true comfort food through and through.

Don’t be afraid to get your hands dirty and dig into the meat with your fingers. This helps to distribute the spices without overworking the meat and produces the most tender meatballs. Be sure to give the meatballs a deep golden brown, this contributes greatly to flavour.

The ground flax is not really noticeable in the meatballs, but you’ll that it’s there to give your meal fibre and Omega 3 fatty acids. I also used prepared pasta sauce to speed up the process, and also because I didn’t have any tomatoes. Feel free to substitute your favorite recipe for tomato sauce.

Cat’s Spaghetti and Meatballs (Be comforted in knowing that this comfort food is somewhat good for you)
makes 4-6 servings

3/4 lb. lean ground beef
1/2 lb. ground pork
salt
1/2 c. dried bread crumbs
a few dashes Worchestershire sauce
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 Tbsp. dried parsley
scant 1/2 tsp. freshly ground pepper
3/4 tsp. garlic powder
1/3 c. minced onion
2 Tbsp. ground flax, optional
1 tsp. olive oil
1 24-oz jar of prepared pasta sauce (I used garden vegetable)
1 lb. spaghetti, whole wheat

1. Place the ground meat, Worcestershire, herbs, pepper, onion, garlic powder, flax seed, and bread crumbs in a large bowl. Salt generously.
2. Plunge all ten fingers into the meat and mix thoroughly. Shape into 24 meatballs. Wash your hands well afterwards.
3. Heat the oil in a large sauce pan and brown the meatballs in batches, until well browned.
4. Pour the pasta sauce into the pan and scrape up the browned bits on the bottom. Cover, lower the heat, and simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Cook pasta in boiling water until al dente. Toss with the sauce. Serve piping hot and twirl away.

Happy Birthday Franklin!

Today is my brother’s birthday. We celebrated on Sunday with his church friends and a much-loved soccer ball cake. My mom and I cooked a lot of food for dinner today. It was a feast, as I’m sure my stomach will happily tell you. Here are some pictures, enjoy!

This is This is Braised Smoked Pork Shank. We purchased the pork shanks partially cooked and smoked, and braised it in soy sauce, sugar, garlic, ginger, and green onions. The soy sauce is probably why it turned out so dark, but looks notwithstanding, the meat was tender and wonderfully smoke infused.

This is Tofu with Fish Sauce. The tofu is panfried until crisp and then briefly cooked in the sauce. The sauce has nothing to do with fish. It’s simply a version of a sweet and sour sauce with Sichuan peppercorns.

I’ve never seen vegetable Asian noodles before, but today at the supermarket Franklin requested them so we bought it. It’s flavoured with spinach and reminds me of spinach pasta. This is Stir-Fried Vegetable Noodles with ground pork, mushrooms, and zucchini. The Chinese traditionally eat noodles on birthdays because the noodle’s length symbolizes a long life.

Mom’s specialty. Simply stir-fried shrimp. See it also here.

Baby bok choy with dried salted shrimp. It’s refreshing to have a simple vegetable dish in a multi-course meal.

This is a cold dish and makes a great appetizer. It’s blanched long beans tossed with soy sauce, black vinegar, and smashed garlic. Very addictive.

Chinese chives with squid. Both main ingredients are fresh-tasting and complement each other. The squid is tender;  the chives are vibrant. I realized that I may possibly like squid more than shrimp, perhaps because there is no shell to peel. Lazy me. 😉

The last dish is just peanuts roasted in the wok. This dish usually accompanies potent Chinese liquor such as Maotai. We didn’t drink with our dinner but included this dish because mom wanted to make eight dishes. Eight is an auspicious number in the chinese language because when pronounced, the word sounds somewhat like the word “to become rich.” So it wouldn’t do to have only seven dishes. Gotta have eight for my brother. The peanuts are wonderfully salty and nutty because of the low heat and long toasting time. Use high heat the peanuts will be burned. My mom rushed making this dish because we all wanted to start eating already.

What do you say? Isn’t Franklin a lucky boy?