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. 

Kale Walnut Pesto with Watermelon, Feta, Mint Salad

Kale Walnut Pesto with Watermelon, Feta, Mint Salad

ingredients

bowtie pasta (or your pasta of choice)
bunch of kale
1/3 cup walnuts
1 lemon (juice and zest)
3 cloves garlic
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup parmigiano-reggiano
salt to taste
pepper to taste

watermelon
mint
feta

directions

1. Cook or steam chopped kale slightly for 30-60 seconds just so its tender

2. Combined kale, garlic, walnuts, parmigiano-reggiano cheese, lemon zest in a food processor

3. Blend ingredients while adding olive oil, or just add the full amount and blend

4. Store in jar, or freeze in ice cube trays to make pesto cubes for later use

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.

Pear, Blue Cheese, Caramelized Onions, Prosciutto, Walnuts, Mozzarella Cheese Pizza with Arugula Salad

Pear, Blue Cheese, Caramelized Onions, Prosciutto, Walnuts, Mozzarella Cheese Pizza 
with Arugula Salad

This is possibly the best pizza I have ever had. Pear is one of the most underrated fruits, and tastes amazing on pizza. If you have never tried it before, you should! And this pizza recipe is your chance.

ingredients:

dough
blue cheese
caramelized onion
prosciutto
walnuts
mozzarella
pear
olive oil
pepper
cornmeal
arugula

directions:

pizza dough:

1. Fill a mixing bowl with 1-1 and 1/4 cups of warm water in a bowl.

2. Add 1 tbsp of active dry yeast. Add 1 tbsp of brown sugar, or white sugar if you feel the yeast is old. It will help activate the yeast and give it something to "eat". Let stand for about 10 minutes until white frothy bubbles are on top. Add in 1 tbsp of oil (though probably optional) and 1/2-1 tsp of salt.

3. Mix in 3 cups of flour. You can add more flour if its too sticky. Kneed dough on a flat surface covered with flour. Add more flour to the surface as needed. Maybe kneed for at least 10-15 minutes. Until the dough no longer sticks together on your hand.

4. Form the dough into a ball and coat with olive oil. Put in a covered container in a warm place. Warm is key. I sometimes run the oven for a little while, and then turn the oven off and put it in a pot. Let it sit for at least one hour. Two hours works too. The Longer the better. The dough should double in size.

5. Punch the dough, and cut in half. This pizza recipe will make two pizzas.

6. Oil a pizza pan with butter or margarine. And dust it with cornmeal. The cornmeal will adhere to the grease. And then spread out the dough on the pan.

7. Top pizza with olive oil, pepper, mozzarella cheese, sliced pear, prosciutto, walnuts, caramelized onions, and crumbled blue cheese. Cook in an oven at 400 F for about 30 minutes. Or until the top gets golden brown.

8. Eat with a arugula salad, or top the pizza with arugula after it comes out of the oven.

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.

Chickpea and Carrot Salad with Kalamata Olives

Chickpea and Carrot Salad with Kalamata Olives

Ingredients:

1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
2/3 cup kalamata olives, pitted and chopped (I have bought pitted ones at Loblaws)
2 carrots, peeled and shredded
1/2 cup chopped fresh cilantro
2 green onion/scallions, finely chopped

Vinaigrette:
1 medium garlic clove, minced/crushed
Zest of ½ lemon and juice of the whole lemon
1 tbs. ground cumin
2 tsp. paprika
pinch cayenne pepper
1 tsp. salt
black pepper, to taste
3 tbs. extra virgin olive oil

Instructions:

In a large bowl, combine the chickpeas, olives, carrots, cilantro and scallions. To make the vinaigrette, combine all the ingredients in a jar with a tight fitting lid and shake until emulsified. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.

Grapefruit, Avocado and Spinach Salad

Grapefruit, Avocado and Spinach Salad

Ingredients:

1 Grapefruit
1 Avocado
1 bag of Spinach (baby is better if you have it)
Olive Oil
White Vinegar
Sugar
Salt
Pepper (A lemon pepper works well too)

Instructions:

1. Scoop out avocado and cut into segments. Salt slightly.
2. Cut grapefruit into segments, BUT save excess juice. Squeeze extra juice from the grapefruit carcass into a bowl with the excess juice.
3. Take excess grapefruit juice, and make it into a grapefruit vinegarette. Add a little white vinegar if you don't think you have enough grapefruit. The grapefruit is meant to serve as the acid (vinegar) of the vinegarette. Add 3 times the amount of olive oil. Ratio (3 to 1, oil to vinegar). Add a little sugar to taste, maybe a spoonful. Then a little salt and pepper to taste. I think I've used lemon pepper before and that worked pretty good.
4. Dress spinach or baby spinach with the dressing. Place chunk of avocado and grapefruit on top.