Showing posts with label salad. Show all posts
Showing posts with label salad. Show all posts

fish tacos + cous cous salad

Guess what, you should know we're just like you. We don't like to eat out that often, and at the same time we don't always have meal ideas at the tips of our tongues. What we do know, is that the more we cook, the easier it gets to be inspired. Here is a simple and healthy meal that requires very little cooking and i'm sure everyone will love. You can bring it for lunch at work, and its hearty enough for dinner. Good for roughly 5-6 servings.

Fish Tacos
Israel Cous Cous Salad

We bought 2 fillets of cod (about $10) and did a light pan fry with a little butter and black pepper. The fish taco wraps consisted of chopped avocado, red peppers, arugula salad greens and topped with President's Choice salsa Verde. The red peppers and salsa verde are both regular suspects in our fridge. You could alternatively substitute ingredients like pineapple, spinach greens and red onion; or even rice paper wraps instead of tortilla. As a litle crunch treat, i asked the deli to slice a few slices of panchetta which i pan fried for a crispy topping (only about a dollar's worth)

The Cous Cous salad has a base of 1 cup israel cous cous, 1 cup of barley, 1 cup of frozen peas, 1 cob of corn, all boiled to a tender state and cooled. We chopped some red onion, peppers, and through in some leftover roasted sweet potato. The key again is the flexibility of ingredients. You could have also added/substituted with quinoa, chopped apples, carrots, fennel and it would still be tasty. Usually a good rule of thumb is to use a variety of colourful ingredients and you can't go wrong. And finally, just season with a little bit of olive oil, lemon juice, salt, pepper and you're good to go!

And that's it! a simple, flexible meal, that is for the most part healthy, easy to serve since it can be eaten cold, affordable, quick to make and hopefully tasty! Don't get too hung up with specific ingredients or quantities, just taste test, be brave and have fun =]

The One That Got Away

You gotto love the simple and playful name they chose. The overall feel of the place has subtle nautical theme to it, with minimal bar height seating and tables. Its clear they cater to the weekday King Street lunch crowd but we've only gone on the weekends and find its a very casual atmosphere. The One That Got Away is one of the newer fish and chips joint in the city.

the one that got away
A simple matrix menu, that gives you the different types of fish matched with the different plate options (wraps, sandwiches, grilled, fried)

the one that got away
Even though most people should be looking for their fish to be accompanied by fries, you have to know that the accompanying salad (or additional side salad $3.99) is huge and very good. It comes with a nice vinegrette and a mango salsa

the one that got away
and heres the fish! a nice and simple crispy batter, made to order. No heavy oil taste, and the perfect amount of batter

the one that got away

The verdict is simple too, we love this place! We are by no means fish and chips experts, but comparing to the fan favourite Chippy's, as well as Fresco's in Kensington market and Harbord fish and Chips, both May and I think The One That Got Away is the clear winner.

The prices are very reasonable, the presentation is clean and fresh, and even tho their take out serves most of the customers, the seating environment is decent. The owner greeted us the first time, asked us if we had been here before and then explained his menu. I tried the Artic Char (one of my favourites) and May had the Pickerel (which was buttery soft). There are a few fish items that are sustainable (ocean wise, i think) certified too. The owner even came to chat with us a bit, and I told him i thought the fish was a little under seasoned to my taste and he made note of it.

A worthy try, just make sure you go on the weekends if you want to avoid the crowd. And if anyone knows where in the city serves mushy peas as a side with their fish and chips (like they do in London) please let me know! Happy fishing!

salsa verde + apple tart

so, we promised a little post on one of the things we made with all those apples. we decided to cook dinner for my family and it all started with a giant pack of tilapia from costco. for an appetiser we made a salad of roasted yellow beets, goat cheese and arugula. It might be our all time favourite salad! $0.99lb yellow beets at Longo's!

goat cheese, arugula, roasted yellow beet salad
Its easy, just chop finely a challot, mix with some lemon juice olive oil and into the argula. roast yellow beets for about an hour in foil with some thyme. let it cool, chop into cubes and serve with the arugula and crumbled goat cheese.

pan frying the fish
here we did a simple flouring with seasoning on the fish fillet and pan friend each.


we sauteed some baby white potatoes with broccoli flowers with a little butter, salt pepper.

fish, salsa verde
and here it is all plated together with the salsa verde. this green salsa consisted of anchovie paste, lemon juice, and lots of choppped pickles, capers, parsley.

the making of the tart
apple cream cheese tart
for dessert may tackled a pie crust that we moulded into one of those spring forms, with a custardy cream cheese filling and sliced apples that were tossed with some sugar and cinnamon. I'll bet that the recipe was from Smitten Kitchen but i can't quite remember at this time.

everything was a success! the only fail was that i thought i picked up a package of red snapper, but instead it was tilapia. ah well, next time!

bbq craving

its very simple. we both had a craving and had to do something about it. we walked to sobey's and bought a box of frozen prime rib burgers (compliments brand) on sale for $7.99. Along with buns, avacados for salad, we were ready. i love the fact that may is not the kind of girl that only eats salad, wraps and soups. she often craves along with me, big yummy meaty things like ribs and burgers. she's small and sweet, but don't let that fool you, she can eat like one of the guys too.

prime rib burger lunch
of course, charbroiled is the only way to go, and a nice grill mark on the bun is always neccessary.

prime rib burger lunch
we made a simple lettuce salad, with red peppers, avacados and poppy seed dressing

prime rib burger lunch
you see that giant soup cup? you think its soup, but its ice cold coca cola baby!

a perfect quick bbq lunch =]

our friend spencer

actually we dont know who spencer is.. but we went to the restaurant by this name out in Burlington's waterfront. My mom first heard about it from her cousin so the li brothers treated mom to a birthday brunch.

oyster bar with a view
yes, that's right.. king crab and an oyster bar. yes, that's a bottle of vodka and i definately had it with most of my oysters. did i mention it was all i could eat? and yes we did.

some salads
not a great photo.. but there was a great selection of gourmet salads too. i think i liked the pesto shrimp salad the most which i didn't get a photo of. you'll see it on my plate later.

eggs benny of course
eggs benny, back bacon, vegetables tagine, smoke salmon, chocolate croissants, grilled zuccini salad, olives were on my first plate

12 oysters for brunch
crab legs as mentioned previously.. lots of seafood.. pesto shrimp, clams, mussels and of course fresh oysters! i had 12 of them! there was other food too but i was too busy eating to photograph it all.. roast beef, tenderloin, potato leek soup, a delicate cheese ravioli and much more.

burlington's waterfront + spencer's
and here's the view, the restaurant is right on the waterfront integrated with the city. this wading pool turns into a skating rink in the winters.

check out spencer's. it was a good deal, we went earlier at 10:15am and it was only $39 a person. definately worth it.. especially if you like fresh oysters!

while moving..



Gabe helped me move back to Cambridge for school just last weekend. While moving and unpacking, we came up with a quick lunch, salad! The salad had mixed greens, cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, canned salmon and was topped with a yogurt dill dressing.

I think yogurt dressing is going to be my favourite thing this summer.

my lady is so good to me

so.. i've been busy working lately.. and without a doubt stressed out. it isn't going to end soon and could get worst.. and i am so lucky to have a lady that not only takes care of me, but does a pretty darn fantastic job. i'm pretty simple because all i need is a yummy meal and a loving heart, and i have that unconditionally.

tomato ricotta pasta
we've been eating salad more frequently, and may had the idea to make a ricotta tomato pasta sauce.

tomato ricotta pasta
of course we topped it with some shredded proscuitto, parma and basil!

Gabe's improvised Chicken Fricassee






ceaser

Hello friends! How have you been? We've been pretty busy spending time with families and friends celebrating Chinese new year and birthdays, but now we're getting back into our normal routines again.

Last week, we made chicken. When Gabe, Will and I met up with Celine and Jin for dinner at the Drake Cafe a couple of weeks ago, I had this Chicken Fricassee that's really tasty, so Gabe brought up the idea of making it on our own. Coincidentally, chicken thighs were on sale in Foody Mart that week for $1.69/lb, how perfect!

For the Chicken Fricassee, Gabe didn't follow a particular recipe. He often doesn't. I think it's pretty cool that he can improvise on almost every dish. It's not something i can do, unless I'm cooking simple Chinese food.

We put in celery, mushroom and carrots in the pot to cook up with the chicken, you need a bit of white wine for the liquid and flavour, we chose to use some fresh oregano too.

On the side, we had baked potatoes, and Caesar salad. Gabe made the Caesar dressing from scratch.



We're going to make chili tomorrow. I'm excited!


What do you have cooking up?

popeye's

i spoke to may today! i decided to just call her, and she picked up! apparently she's eating well.. and went to the places that bill and I recommended to her. wuhoo! stay tuned for her posts.. she'll be back in 2 days.

popeye's lunch

so.. my leftover popeye's lunch. the day before, my mom bought popeye's to eat with congee. so, the next day for lunch i ate the leftovers of that, plus a steamed bun and a ridiculous monster salad cuz i felt guilty for eating popeye's 2 days in a row. I was extremely full after this meal.. what was i thinking?

green onion

my grandmother's caregiver taught my mom how to make "chung yeo bang" - which translates to green onion bun/pastry in cantonese. these are one of my favourites, and they were so damn good, i'll definately have to learn how to make them myself for the future.

pumpkin pie

pumpkin pie from southbrook farms! the velvety soft sweet texture is amazing.