Main Dishes

How To Make The Best Chili – A Blend and Extend Recipe

Everyones chili preferences are very personal; for example, hot and spicy, meaty, vegetarian – the sky is the limit. Chili maestros will always tell you that they make The Best Chili. Well, I am here to tell you that I make the ‘best chili’ and this is the recipe that will back up that claim! If you have been following my blog, you will know that I have been experimenting with recipes that are ‘Blenditarian’, (also known as ‘Blend-and-Extend’ in Canada). By definition, ground meat recipes are stretched with finely chopped mushrooms. For my version, I add finely chopped vegetables with the mushrooms to create an even more aromatic flavour. This represents a more sustainable and nutritious approach to healthy eating. This all ties in very well with the new Canada Food Guide recommendations of eating less meat and more vegetables. I have created a base called Savoury Meat, Mushroom and Vegetable Blend. This blend (or base) can be used in a wide variety of easy to make recipes.

How to Make the Best Chili | urbnspice.com

In this post, you will learn how to prepare this base blend to utilize it to make a fabulous chili – “The Best Chili”. I make the blend base ahead of time and freeze it in family size portions. Once you have the blend base made, dinner can be on the table in less than ten minutes. Enjoy!

This Meat, Mushroom and Vegetable base can be used to make many dishes such as: Spaghetti Sauce; Sloppy Joes; Taco Salad; Hamburger Soup; Beef, Cheese and Macaroni Casserole; and much more. (Refer to “What Else Can I Do With This Recipe?” Section below to learn more).

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How to Prepare Spatchcock Chicken

By Denise Pare-Watson

Urb’n’Spice Tips and Techniques Series

Chicken is one of the most versatile of all meats or poultry. It is prepared in a variety of ways in the Urb’n’Spice kitchen, such as Herb and Butter Sunday Roast Chicken, Pan Roasted Chicken with Creamy Asiago Sauce, or Grilled Chicken Breast with Roasted Strawberry Salsa. The opportunity to flavour chicken is limitless. In this post, I will teach you How to Prepare a Spatchcock Chicken, and also show you how to make a Quick Poultry Rub that will give any poultry dish a delicious flavour.

A Spatchcock Chicken is essentially a chicken that has had the backbone removed. This allows you to butterfly or flatten the chicken more easily for grilling or roasting. Removing the backbone can be done with a sharp pair of kitchen utility shears or a chef’s (French) knife – not a serrated knife. Alternatively, your butcher can easily remove the backbone for you. Once you have mastered the spatchcock technique, you will be able to create a delicious meal in the oven or on the grill in a much shorter time than roasting a whole chicken.

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Herb and Butter Sunday Roast Chicken

By Denise Pare-Watson

I have some great childhood food memories of Sunday dinners with my family around a large dining room table. The conversation was always lively and animated given our French Canadian heritage. The aromas drifting from the kitchen always made my stomach rumble in anticipation of the wholesome home cooking. Some of my favourite family dinners were Mom’s pot roast, roast leg of lamb or roast chicken, surrounded by potatoes and carrots from the garden which were always cooked in the same pot. All of these meals had one thing in common – they were prepared and placed into the oven with minimal fuss and roasted slowly. Fast-forward to today; a roast dinner is still my favourite meal on a lazy Sunday afternoon. I love planning the entire meal from the main dish to the dessert using the heat of the oven to cook several items at once. Our oven meal is often accompanied by local oven-roasted butternut squash, potatoes or Brussel sprouts. If you are the same as me, the big attraction is always the main course. There is no doubt you will enjoy this recipe for Herb and Butter Sunday Roast Chicken, which has been adapted from a popular recipe.

Plated Roasted Herb and Butter Sunday Chicken

This recipe demands no attention once it is placed in the oven – it is a self-basting roasting technique. The bonus sauce from the pan juices is wonderful. Once you try it, I can guarantee that you will add this recipe to your Sunday Roast dinner repertoire. It is that good!

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Pan Roasted Chicken with Creamy Asiago Sauce

By Denise Pare-Watson

This recipe for Pan Roasted Chicken Breast with Creamy Asiago Sauce has gone through a significant transformation over the years. It is interesting how favourite family recipes experience modifications as a result of ingredient costs, dietary restrictions or simply, a streamlining of the recipe.

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When I read the original recipe provided by the meat department of a major grocery chain a number of years ago, I recall thinking that it would be a rich and indulgent dish for company only. I also noted the recipe used two large frying pans, and since my kitchen equipment was rather meagre at the time, I simplified the recipe so that it could be prepared in one pan.

The original recipe was named “Chicken Breasts with Blue Cheese Sauce”, which called for 550 g of Blue Cheese – that is a lot of Blue Cheese! Since our family was not really a huge fan of Blue Cheese, I modified the recipe to use Asiago Cheese. Asiago Cheese is similar in taste to Parmesan and can be easily melted. A small amount of flavourful Asiago cheese goes a long way. I created a delicious sauce with 120 g (2 cups grated) of Asiago cheese, which is a significant departure from the amount of cheese used and cost associated with the original recipe. Save this dish for company or share it with someone you love – just give it a try – you will not be disappointed!

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Savoury Meat, Mushroom and Vegetable Blend

By Denise Pare-Watson

The Blenditarian Challenge Series

I have taken the Blenditarian pledge and for some time now have been experimenting in the Urb’n’Spice kitchen on how to develop a money-saving recipe that incorporates a Blenditarian approach to everyday cooking. As a bonus, the blended base that I have developed is gluten free, preservative free, and dairy free. Just to clarify for my readers, a Blenditarian is “one who believes the mighty, meaty mushroom makes meals more delicious, nutritious and sustainable.” This approach stretches ground meat with finely chopped mushrooms to create a flavourful and more nutritious dish. I have taken this meat blend process one step further by adding aromatic vegetables to the mushrooms and ground meat to create a nutrient dense Savoury Meat, Mushroom and Vegetable Blend.

This blend (or base) can be used in a number of different recipes. In this post, you will learn how to prepare this base and how to utilize it. This Meat, Mushroom and Vegetable base can be used to make dishes such as: Spaghetti Sauce; Sloppy Joes; Chili; Taco Salad; Hamburger Soup; Beef, Cheese and Macaroni Casserole; or Australian Meat Pies, and much more. (Refer to “What Can I Do With This Recipe?” section below to learn more). I will be constantly adding to this Blenditarian Challenge Series. Blenditarian.Com has initiated a monthly challenge for anyone to incorporate their Blenditarian approach into interesting and fun themed dishes. The theme in January was “Healthy Classics”. This month’s Blenditarian Challenge is “Date Night Done Right!” For this post, I have chosen to make a Date Night Spaghetti Sauce using Savoury Meat, Mushroom and Vegetable Blend. Look for more Urb’n’Spice recipes in this Blenditarian Challenge Series.

Skip to Savoury Meat, Mushroom and Vegetable Blend

Skip to Date Night Spaghetti Sauce Recipe

Date Night Spaghetti Sauce | urbnspice.com

Date Night Spaghetti Sauce ready to enjoy with a salad and a glass of red wine

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Potlatch Salmon

By Denise Pare-Watson

CHC Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge

Prelude: I am definitely a proud Canadian so when the Culinary Historians of Canada invited food bloggers to participate in a Canada 150 Food Blog Challenge – well, that is something I just have to do! What a great way to celebrate Canada’s 150th birthday by honouring our country with a different Canadian dish every month. The first topic is fish and seafood, so I am sharing my recipe for Potlatch Salmon with you, plus a wee bit of background about the history of potlatch.

Potlatch Salmon – have you heard of it? Potlatch Salmon is one of our family’s favourite ways to serve fish. It has turned many folks from being fish dislikers to fish lovers – it is all about the glaze. First, though, we should take a look at the term Potlatch and understand the source. Potlatch is a term derived from Canada’s Northwest Coast aboriginal groups that symbolized an abundant feast, typically held in winter often using indigenous food that had been dried and preserved throughout the year. The feast was held for life events such as weddings, funerals or births. Roughly translated, it means a feast of ‘giving’. Tables at the Potlatch feast overflowed with food, generally far more than could be consumed with the idea that it would be shared amongst the guests to take home.

While Potlatch feasts are not as common today, traditional dishes that were once served at these events, of course, are still enjoyed by one and all. One of our favourites is Potlatch Salmon. What is Potlatch Salmon, exactly? Typically, it is an entire filet of salmon (skin on), spread with a simple, yet unique dry rub and cooked over an open flame or barbecue. The dry rub turns magically into a luscious sauce which can also be used as a glaze. For the purposes of this post, I will explain the method and technique of making Potlatch Salmon three different ways using slightly altered techniques that you can enjoy as an appetizer, lunch, dinner or at your own family feast. Try it with bannock, another traditional dish. I show you how to make bannock in this post.

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TWEAKING; A STUDY IN FLAVOUR AMENDMENT

By Denise Pare-Watson

The Confident Kitchen Series

Are you familiar with the word tweaking? The term “tweaking” is sometimes used in technological communication, but chefs have used the expression as part of their kitchen terminology for years to describe the path they take to perfect flavours. This is called a Tweaking: A Study in Flavour Amendment.

Roasted Strawberry Salsa on Grilled Chicken Breast

During a recent cooking class, one of the students asked the question, “What do I do to flavour my food if it needs a little ‘something-something’? I don’t know where to start to fix it and what would I use to fix it?” The other students joined the conversation by asking, “what do I do if my dish is too salty, too sweet, or ends up being too bland?”

The focus of this article is to address these questions in a number of practical ways; for example, the proper use of seasonings such as salt and pepper and more sophisticated ones such as smoked paprika or reductions. I will discuss how to “tweak” a dish until it is pleasing to your taste.

The three most important steps in developing flavours are:

“taste,
taste and then,
taste again”.

This process is often ignored until the dish is finished and on the table. In professional kitchens, the tasting ritual is encouraged by having containers of fresh spoons available for the cooks and executive chef for continual tastings while food is being prepared. It is an important element in cooking and one that is stressed in good kitchens.

My husband is the tweaker in our family. He has the refined palate of a ‘saucier’ – one of the most important and coveted roles in a professional kitchen. When tasting, they can readily identify what the dish needs in order to balance the flavours. They understand what sour, sweet, or acidic addition would correct, enhance or brighten the flavour of a dish. If the balances of sour, sweet and acid in the dish are not in harmony, it is difficult to bring the flavours of the dish together….

Orange Glazed Roasted Salmon with Orange Fennel Salad

By Denise Pare-Watson

The Confident Kitchen Series

DOUBLE DUTY RECIPES

This post will focus on a double duty recipe called Orange Glazed Roasted Salmon with Orange Fennel Salad that is quick to prepare, flavourful and refreshing. Fennel and citrus pair very well with fish.The recipes feature oranges beautifully. As an additional bonus, these recipes are gluten free, grain free, dairy free and refined sugar-free.

Orange Glazed Roasted Salmon

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Classic Cobb Salad

By Denise Pare-Watson

You don’t know what you are missing if you have never had a Classic Cobb Salad – it is a classic salad with a great story behind it. The original salad was invented at the Brown Derby Restaurant in Hollywood by the owner – Mr. Cobb, of course.

The story reports that Mr. Cobb worked non-stop in the busy restaurant until midnight. He was starving! He frenziedly mixed together this amazing salad with the things that he pulled together from the salad bar and tossed it with the house vinaigrette and the rest, as they say, is history!

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POTATO CRUSTED QUICHE

By Denise Pare-Watson

The Inspiration of Urbnspice

I have had so much fun in the past few weeks developing recipes for The Little Potato Company who have been working with Food Bloggers of Canada (FBC) to sponsor an opportunity for its FBC members to develop original recipes utilizing their unique potatoes. These little nugget potatoes were the inspiration for my Potato Crusted Quiche.

In developing these recipes, I had several favourites and this one in particular: Potato Crusted Quiche is just too good not to share with you. It is well worth trying. In addition, this recipe is a gluten-free option. It is also for those of you who avoid making quiche (or pies and tarts, for that matter) because of the ‘dreaded pie crust dilemma’. This Potato Crusted Quiche recipe is for you!

Potato Crusted Quiche

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