Chicken Mirabilis

The inspiration for this dish came from a book that I was reading about Vesuvius' explosion and the fall of Pompeii. In it were many detailed dinners and feasts with Roman decadence and opulence being the main course. Chicken skewers are of course not your typical "fancy" fare; rather it is the ingredients used in the marinade that were the result of my inspiration. Honey, wine, lemon, herbs - all these ingredients, being simple alone, yet rather lavish together, bring my thoughts to the Mediterranean.

The name for this dish is inspired by the Piscina Mirabilis - the pool of miracles I believe is the translation - which is a large cistern that is the terminal outlet of the Serino aqueduct that was built during the Augustan age. I hope the flavours in this chicken are a miracle to your tongue as this feat of engineering was a miracle to the Romans!

Chicken Mirabilis

• 4 chicken breasts, skin removed and cubed
• 1/2 cup honey
• 1/2 cup white wine (try a pinot grigio, trebbiano or sauvignon blanc)
• juice of 2 lemons
• 1 cup mixed, chopped fresh herbs (I used oregano, rosemary, lavender and thyme), mint would also be nice
• salt and pepper

Place the chicken and all marinade ingredients in a large shallow dish so the chicken is well covered in the marinade. Cover and refrigerate for about 2 hours or longer if time permits.

Thread the chicken cubes onto skewers. Heat your grill to medium and grill chicken skewers until golden brown and cooked through, about 5-6 minutes per side.

Wine pairing: serve with the same wine that you used to marinate the chicken with. I suggested a pinot grigio, trebianno or a sauvignon blanc, but if you can get one try a Frascati. This "golden wine" has been drunk in and around Rome for almost 2 thousand years. It comes in either dry or sweet varieties, even as a spumante. Look for a young frascati as this type of wine is not made to age.

If you would rather drink a red you may - try a light red like a dolcetto or a pinot noir.

Enjoy!

Maple BBQ Wings

One of the easiest, most economical and tastiest snacks - wings. Everyone has their favourite; whether they be dripping with sweet sauce, rubbed in spices or served suicidally hot! Now, we all know that wings are not the most low fat food (someone once told me that one deep fried wing was equivalent to the fat content of one Mars bar - not sure if that's true!), but every once in awhile it's OK to indulge and your tastebuds will rejoice!

I've opted to pick a method of cooking the wings that would remove some of the fat, rather than adding to it. The BBQ is a good choice, especially in the summer heat, plus there is hardly any mess to clean up (just the chicken bones!).

Maple BBQ Wings

• 2 lbs wings/drummies
• 1 can tomato paste
• 2 tbsp cider vinegar
• 3 tbsp maple syrup (if you don't like the taste of maple you can replace this with agave nector for a healthy choice, or sugar).
• 2 cloves crushed garlic (either buy it crushed, or use a mortar and pestle, or the back of your knife, to crush).
• 2 tsp dry mustard
• salt and pepper

Sauce

1. Combine all ingredients, except for the wings and salt and pepper, in a saucpan over medium high heat. Bring to a boil, turn down the heat and let the sauce simmer for about 5 minutes.
2. Add salt and pepper to taste. At this point also taste to see if the balance of the ingredients tastes right - you might want more vinegar or more syrup. Let cool.
3. Store in a jar in the refridgerator for up to a week.

Wings

1. Heat your grill to medium-high heat. Season the wings with salt and pepper.
2. Grill wings, turning occasionally, until they are nicely browned and almost cooked through.
3. Place a piece of heavy duty aluminum foil on the grill and scrunch up the sides so it looks like a bowl (you want to keep the sauce from escaping!)
4. At this point you could either: a) put the wings in a metal or glass bowl (because they will still be hot do not use plastic, you do not want to ever heat plastic) , toss them with the sauce then pour it all into your foil bowl, or b) put the wings in the foil bowl, pour the sauce on and stir it around gently making sure to coat the wings well. If you use option B you can always slowly add the sauce, saving some for near the end to ensure they are really saucy!
5. Close the lid and let the wings cook for about 15-20 minutes, gently stirring/flipping the wings to ensure they are well coated and sticky.

Remove from the heat and enjoy!

p.s. I leave for Ontario this Friday to visit my family. So there will be no posts next week, but definitely the week after.

Cooking al fresco - Pizza

We were so lucky this year to find the most beautiful
camping site on Kootenay Lake. The grounds were
crawling with flowers, herbs, vegetables, and dogs (the dogs have nothing to do with cooking, no worries, it was just
notable). The oregano pictured here was growing mere feet from our tent just begging to be put to good use.
What better than a twist on a classic - pesto - with oregano
instead of basil.

We decided to use the pesto as a base for our pizza, since
we love making it on the grill. See our ingredients
pictured on the right. Using good quality extra virgin olive oil was key in this dish. I used some olive oil to finish by drizzling it all over when the pizza was cooked.













Applying the pesto to the crust, yum.
We used oregano, olive oil, garlic, a little lime juice, salt and pepper.














And.....the finished product! Growing alongside the oregano were chives in blossom. We used these edible flowers to decorate the pizza, very pretty and very yummy.

Thank you to Percy for taking these great pictures!

You can check out these

sites to see more edible flowers:

http://www.ces.ncsu.edu/depts/hort/hil/hil-8513.html
http://whatscookingamerica.net/EdibleFlowers/EdibleFlowersMain.htm

I think pansies in a salad would be beautiful! I also saw on one of these links the idea to freeze flowers within ice cubes - what an elegant drink that would make.

Portobello Mushroom Burgers

Yum...Sweet Onions! Beginning in May, these fantastic onions from Georgia appear in grocery stores. I believe the usual season is from May to June but just yesterday I found some at Co-op and promptly loaded a bunch of them into my cart. If you haven't tried these onions, you really must, they are sweet, juicy and crunchy and just another great piece of produce to look forward to in the summer. My mom looks for these in her grocery store every summer - as a kid I didn't understand the excitement associated with this yellow, bulbous vegetable, but now I get it. I like using them in dishes that feature raw onions - try them in a favourite salsa or chutney recipe, you don't need to worry about them overpowering your dish. They're also good sliced up raw and piled onto a cheeseburger - yum!

Here's a recipe you could use them in, although they take a little heat in this one:

Portobello Mushroom Burgers
For 2
2 portobello mushrooms
3 tbsp olive oil (I always use cold-pressed extra virgin for everything (because I LOVE it), it's up to you)
1 tbsp diced garlic
3 tbsp red balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper

Toppings:
Thinly sliced Vidalia onions
Thinly sliced cheese, whatever you like, I always use something stinky

Marinate the mushrooms in the above ingredients for one hour.
On a hot grill place mushrooms gills down and grill for about 6 minutes. Flip the mushrooms and place some onions and cheese on the gills. Grill for another 6 minutes.

These make great burgers! They're nice and meaty, and very filling. Percy (my boyfriend) who always wants meat, was even happy and full after eating these. Serve on a toasted bun with your favourite condiments. I like mayo, avacado, BBQ sauce, even mustard and ketchup. If you want to be gourmet, you could make lemon aioli, or your own spiced up mayo creation.

To learn more about vidalia onions check out: http://www.vidaliaonion.org/

p.s. I do have some outdoor cooking pictures from camping, I meant to share these with you right after we got back from camping but I'm having a hard time getting those pictures to load up! Bear with me, we should be able to get them up yet!

From Camp Cookin' to Wine

Part 1

Tomorrow my boyfriend Percy and I are heading out to Kootenay lake to go camping!! I can't wait! Even on vacation I still love to cook and see tenting as no excuse to stick to hotdogs on sticks (even though they are soo good....drool, Homer Simpson-styles). We have a propane powered portable Coleman grill that we bring with us - it has a flat side and a grill side. With this you can do so much! I also bring along a pot to heat water for coffee (and dishes), using a coffee press, or French press - which, by the way, makes the best coffee! Beyond the barbequeing basics, such as burgers, steaks and other grilled meats, here is a list of things we've used the grill for in the past, that are well, tent-tantilizing!!

• skewer/kabobs - including meat, poultry, veggies.
• eggs and bacon, sausages
• toast
• fish - straight on the grill, or in a foil packet
• corn on the cob
• put a pot on the flat side of the grill, and make anything you can boil or cook in a pot
• garlic bread
• foil packages of potatoes, carrots, onions, etc
• asparagus - straight on the grill
• fried mushroom and onions
• quesadillas
• and my favourite, Pizza:

• buy pre-made pizza crusts, or use pitas
• buy pre-shredded cheese (unless you are super organized and brought a shredder, shred your own!)
• buy pizza sauce from a can or jar
• go to a deli and get shaved dried salami, ham, pepperoni, whatever you like
• any veggies you like
• set the grill as low as it can go
• assemble your pizza and place it on the grill
• tent some foil over top to help warm up the toppings quicker and to melt the cheese - you don't want to burn the bottom of your pizza
• Enjoy!

And I had to share this recipe I found on thecampingsource.com, it's so rad:

Heat a flat rock in the fire, fry 2 slices of bacon on the rock to grease up the rock, then dip a slice of bread in egg and lay it across the crispy bacon ( the bacon should bake onto that side). Brown both sides of the toast. Once toasty lay the bacon side back down on the hot rock, using your knife cut out a small hole in the middle of the toasted bread to form a well. Try not to slice through the bacon, in this well break an egg into it and fry the egg till you like it done, butter the top and add salt n pepper. Serve with warm maple syrup eat it right off the rock no messy plates to clean up. Enjoy adding your own variations.

Isn't that cool? There must be a Brownie badge for that one! I also like the idea of wrapping potatoes in foil and cooking them in the embers of your camp fire.

Please share your favourite camping recipes or ideas. I'll be back on July 8th - till then!

Part 2

Ah, the Okanagan. For any of you who have not had the fabulous opportunity to go visit wineries in the Okanagan, let me tell you - it is great! When we camp on Kootenay we always take one day to go and buy some wine. Everyone there is so incredibly friendly and at almost every turn off there is another winery: http://www.discoverwines.com/wine-map.php - just look at that map!

The Okanagan is nice and hot in the summer, with great swimming, nice people, tonnes of fresh (and cheap!) local fruits and veggies, and of course copious amounts of wine! (My friend Keelin tells me there's a great Perogie place in Kelowna called Cecil's - who doesn't like pedahe?? We also visited a fantastic Greek restaurant in Penticton once called Theo's).

I want to share with you our favourite wineries (so far at least):

• Hester Creek - Trebbiano -- a really special wine. Last year we went to the winery and they were sold out! I swear I almost started crying. However, we went to this really good Indian restaurant in Oliver and they had the Trebbiano on the menu. I asked if they had any bottles left, and they said yes, we have a few. I then asked if it would be possible, please, to buy a bottle from them to take home - they then proceeded to call the winery to see if that was ok and they said yes!! Thank you, thank you, that is kindness for you! (Sure made my year!) Visit their site to see their description: http://www.hestercreek.com/our_wines/wine.php?id=1004. Personally I think the finish exudes a touch of butterscotch, just enough to make you want to drink 6 bottles in a row!
• Dirty Laundry - Riesling -- this is one of the most beautiful wineries I have ever seen! Summerland is a great place to spend some time. This riesling is nice and crisp and perfect chilled on a hot day. Check it out for yourself: http://www.dirtylaundry.ca/wine/riesling.php
• Blasted Church - Pinot Gris -- you can get this one in Calgary!! Now, THAT is exciting! This unique winery is on the banks of gorgeous Skaha lake, and it makes me want to quit my dayjob, make and sell handycrafts for wine, and play tambourine in the sunset - seriously! http://www.blastedchurch.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=2&Itemid=10 I know they sell this wine at Centre Street North liquor store, Altadore liquor store and I'm sure many others. It's about $27 dollars and worth every last cent - just make sure you get your own bottle!

Happy sipping, slamming, chugging, or whatever it is you do!