Lobster Cobb Salad

Lobster Cobb Salad

Want to make a fun twist on a classic Cobb Salad, instead of chicken, use lobster! As Mark McEwan would say, "A cobb salad is a meal in a bowl".

ingredients:

1-2 lobster tail and/or claws
4 bacon slices
1/2 tomatoes
1 avocado
1 egg
6 cucumber slices
handful of romaine lettuce
olive oil
vinegar
salt
pepper

directions:

1. Cook claws or tails from fresh, or frozen. If from frozen and it's already cooked (if it's red), than just let it thaw in the fridge and it will be ready to use for the salad. If you need to cook it, just boil it in hot water for maybe 5 minutes. If it's a tail, you'll know it's done when the tail is red and has curled. If you do cook it, make sure you let it cool off before you add it to your salad.

2. Hard boil some eggs. In a post, cover your eggs with water and bring to a boil with the lid on. Once the pot is boiling. Kill the heat. And let it sit for 20 minutes. This will help ensure you don't overcook the egg.

3. Fry some bacon in a pan, and once its done remove to a cutting board and chop into bit size pieces. Set aside and let it cool.

4. Chop tomatoes, avocado, cucumber, and lettuce all into bite sized salad pieces. Make a vinaigrette (3 parts oil, one part vinegar) with olive oil, white wine vinegar, salt and pepper. And maybe dijon mustard if you want to help it bind even further.

5. Take your vegetables for your salad and arrange them on a plate, along with the hard boiled egg. Then top with your chunks of lobster and bacon. Drizzle dressing over top. 

Tuscan Bread Salad

Tuscan Bread Salad

Bread? As a salad? Yes Yes and Yes! Who doesn't love croutons? Why not just skip over the whole green leafy part for a change and make the croutons the star of the show.

ingredients

baguette or crusty french or italian bread
grape or cherry tomatoes (or any kind of fresh tomato)
cucumbers
red onion
green onion
salt
pepper
garlic powder

dressing: olive oil, white wine vinegar or balasmic, salt, pepper, dijon mustard

directions

1. Slice bread into good size cubes, which will be the big juicy croutons of the salad.

2. Chop cucumber, tomato, red onion into bite size pieces to be mixed with bread.

3. Heat some oil in a pan, and once its hot, toast your bread cubes in it. Toss around the cubes to make sure they don't get burnt and that each side gets slightly brown.

4. While the croutons are still warm. Season with salt, pepper, and garlic powder.
5. Mix bread with diced up vegetables.

6. Add in your salad dressing made from oil, vinegar, salt, pepper, dijon mustard. Or whatever salad dressing you want but preferably oil and vinegar.

Butter Chicken with Cucumber, Mint and Pineapple Salad

Butter Chicken with Cucumber. Mint and Pineapple Salad

Butter chicken has to be the most famous Indian dishes outside of India. But from what I've heard it's not actually called Butter Chicken there... or at least parts of India, but either way it's a yummy dish and I don't care. Butter Chicken is probably best with boneless skinless chicken thighs, but you could also use chicken breast if you want to be healthier.

ingredients:

1 - 1/2 pound chicken thighs
1/4-1/2 cup cream
tomato paste or 1 can diced tomatoes

1 onion
1/2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp curry powder

1 tsp coriander
1 tsp cumin
pinch of salt
1/4-1/2 cup butter

1/4-1/2 cup yogurt

1 cucumber
handful of fresh mint
1/2 a pineapple

directions:

1. Mix yogurt with cayenne, cumin, salt, pepper. Cover this yogurt mixture on to the chicken thighs. Then bake chicken thighs in the oven at 400 degrees for 15-20 minutes.

2. Chop up onions, and sautee them in a frying pan until they start to get caramelized. Then toss in your cayenne, cumin, curry powder, coriander into the onions and cook for a few minutes to reinvigorate your spices. Toss in some tomato paste, or canned tomatoes, and cook down until tomatoes seem cook. Transfer mixture to a food processor, or blender, or use a hand blender, and blend til smooth.

3. Mix in some cream and butter until the mixture to help make it creamy and velvety. Then put in your cooked chicken thighs and let them cook out a little more in the sauce.

4. Serve butter chicken over rice. And a great salad to accompany it would be some chopped pineapple, cucumber and mint. Dress is with a little vinaigrette or keep it plain.

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Summer Rolls and Curried Noodles

Making fresh rolls, instead of spring rolls or egg rolls is incredibly easy as the rice paper cooks so quickly. The only hard part is wrapping them. But honestly, it is A LOT easier than making sushi or something like that. So it is worth a try making theses at home.

ingredients:

rice paper
shrimp
cucumber
carrot
vermicelli noodles
garlic

rice noodles
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tbsp white wine vinegar, or rice vinegar
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 tsp sugar
bean sprouts
onions

directions:

Fresh Rolls:

1. Slice cucumber and carrot into thin strips. Slightly sautee shrimps with garlic in butter in a frying pan until they are cooked through. Keep shrimps whole, or consider slicing them in half for your rolls.

2. Spread out your fillings in bowls to get ready to prepare the rolls. Make sure you have a flat surface like a large plate or cutting board that you can put your rice paper out on.

3. In some boiling water, submerge each rice paper one by one. Will only take 1 minute to cook. After the rice paper is cooked and malleable. Put it on a flat surface and spoon in some of the carrots, cucumber, vermicelli noodles, and shrimp. Fold sides and bottom in, and roll up.

4. Take rolls and dip them in your favourite plum sauce, or sweet chili sauce.

Curried Noodles:

1. Bowl some rice noodles in a pot until they are cooked through.

2. Mix curry powder, white wine vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar into a bowl or measuring cup and set aside.

3. Cut onion into small slices, and start frying them in a pan. While the onion is cooking, chop bean sprouts in about half or smaller pieces. When translucent, add in your noodles and bean sprouts. As they are cooking pour in your mixture of curry powder, vinegar, soy sauce, and sugar. Mix around until the noodles are all coated. Remove once the bean sprouts are cooked through.