All posts filed under: Mains

Two Delicious Pizzas for National Pizza Day + Homemade Pizza Dough

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To me, nothing beats the taste of homemade pizza. Made with fresh toppings, cheese, and dough from scratch, you just can’t go wrong. And with a food this popular, you must celebrate it with it’s very own national food holiday! That’s right… it’s National Pizza Day! And I have two delicious pizza recipes to share with you: a Traditional Margherita Pizza and a fresh Spring Veggie Pizza. My Traditional Margherita Pizza – a true pizza classic! My pizza dough is much fluffier and thicker than what you may be accustomed to, but everyone always loves it! It’s more of a Roman style pizza dough that’s thicker and loaded with olive oil– kind of like a thin focaccia. It is really sturdy and holds up the toppings really well. Plus, Roman style pizza is rectangular shaped, and since those are the only pans I have, then that’s what I went for! Once you have the basic dough recipe down, you can add whatever toppings you like. For a Traditional Margherita Pizza, use some tomato sauce, mozzarella …

Soy Sauce Chicken

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Soy Sauce Chicken is a classic Chinese dish. A whole chicken is marinated and then poached in a pot full of soy sauce and various spices. Once cooked, it’s cut up into chunks and served warm or at room temperature. While this recipe is a bit challenging to make at home, it’s much cheaper than purchasing a Soy Sauce Chicken from the store– and you get to modify the spices to suit your taste! Winner, winner, chicken dinner! Am I right? Recipe Testing: 3 chickens and a jug of soy sauce later… I set out to make Soy Sauce Chicken mainly to see if I could actually make it at home. I love a culinary challenge! While I had eaten this dish numerous times (and loved it), I had never made it from scratch…so I did LOTS of research on how to make it. There are tons of variations for the preparation of this dish. Some recipes call for the chicken to be marinated for just a few hours to marinating it overnight. Some stuffed …

Herbed Turkey Breast with Roasted Apples

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The moment you have all been waiting for, it’s time to reveal the star of Thanksgiving dinner—my Herbed Turkey Breast with Roasted Apples. Honestly, does it get more autumnal than this? Turkey is a staple during Thanksgiving, and has always been a tradition to have this for Thanksgiving dinner probably for decades now. While cooking an entire turkey is fun and a bit of a culinary challenge, that is WAY too much for two people! So, for a smaller crowd, I opted to cook a turkey breast. I picked up this fantastic, locally-raised turkey breast from the butcher at Red Barn grocery store here in Victoria. I find that with basically all meats, buying local and free-range (if available) really has its benefits. Not only does the meat taste more flavourful (the way meat should taste) you also support your local farmers. A total win-win! I found this skin-on turkey breast to be incredibly rich and flavourful despite just being the turkey breast (i.e. white meat), and frankly, I didn’t miss the dark meat at …

Traditional Italian Meatballs

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I would love to say this these aren’t your Nonnas meatballs, but that is exactly what these are! Delicious ground beef and ground pork come together (with a few other key Italian ingredients) to make the perfect and most comforting meatball recipe you have ever had! I like to make these meatballs whenever I am missing home. I adore that homey feeling when there is a big pot of meatballs bubbling away on the stove all Sunday, with wafts of tomato and garlic and basil travelling though the home and warming your home and heart as it goes. I think that many people of Italian decent know what I’m talking about here… it’s all about family and tradition and COMFORT (perfect for the fall months)! Now each family recipe for meatballs is unique. Some family recipes use a combination of beef and pork, some use all beef, and some use beef, pork and veal. Others add Parmesan or basil or parsley or chili flakes to their meatballs. Some add milk to the meatballs instead of …

Oktoberfest Recipes: Spaetzle & Pork Schnitzel/Jägerschnitzel

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I am very happy that fall has finally arrived! By far, fall is definitely my favourite season of them all since it comes with warm drinks, cozy sweaters, and new delicious produce (think apples, cruciferous veggies, squash, pears) that make the perfect cozy and warming comfort foods. It also means that since it cooler and you are wearing warmer sweaters, there is a greater opportunity to make a bit of extra room for some tasty desserts! Haha 🙂 As I alluded to, fall is all about hearty, soul-filling comfort foods for me. Everyone has them—that special dish that makes you feel warm and fuzzy on the inside. For me, this includes hearty soups and stews, meatballs that have simmered all day in a big pot of tomato sauce, mac and cheese (and other carby casseroles), spiced cakes and sweet desserts. The list could literally go on and on….and trust me it does. The list is so long that I have enough recipes to share with you for the next 3-4 years, so it’s safe to …

Pork & Sambal Green Beans

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It has been a scorcher here in southern BC for the past few weeks and with a west-facing apartment, temperatures inside our cozy home have easily reached 100 degrees in the evening. Rather than avoiding turning on my stove and sticking to no-cook recipes like salads and sandwiches, I fired up the stove to make a hot dinner; hot in the sense that heat was used to cook the food, and hot in the sense of spice. I was drawn to make some spicy food during this heat wave to test the theory that eating spicy food when it’s hot outside actually helps to cool you down. I never really tested this theory before as I have lived in a cool Canadian climate my whole life (or have had air conditioning to compensate those few hot days we get up here); but I heard that this theory actually works and has worked for people who live in perpetually hot climates for hundreds of years. So since we were stuck in this heatwave and sans air …

Asian Heritage Rice Bowl

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If you are looking for a new healthy meal recipe that packs a ton of nutrition and is also delicious, look no further than my Asian Heritage Rice Bowl. Rice bowls (and their vegetarian equivalent, Buddha bowls) have been popping up everywhere lately and I can understand why. They are a fantastic way to get a variety of colourful vegetables, fruits, proteins and grains into your diet. Essentially, the bowl starts off with a base (often rice or salad) and you simply add handfuls of each ingredient to the bowl to make up a full meal. These Asian Heritage Rice Bowls were originally inspired by the chicken rice bowl at Heritage Asian Eatery in downtown Vancouver. As I am now living in Victoria, I miss these bowls SO MUCH and there isn’t anything here that is quite like it (or is of good enough quality). So, when I find myself getting a Heritage Asian Eatery craving, I make this bowl.  While Heritage’s bowl uses a whole chicken leg, I opt for using a chicken breast …

Maltese Stuffed Artichokes

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Of all the delicious spring vegetables that are in season right now, the gorgeous globe artichoke is one of my favourites. Not only do they taste amazing when cooked, I love the springy, flower-like look of them in general. When uncooked, the tightly packed, overlapping leaves on the artichoke looks like a budding flower, and then when it’s all cooked, the leaves open up and it looks like it has magically bloomed. So cute! If you have ever heard the saying “With every rose comes its thorns”, this definitely applies to the artichoke…almost literally. The most prized part of the artichoke is the heart. When cooked, it is soft, creamy and meaty and is definitely the reward of the vegetable. But in order to get to the heart, you have to get passed the prickly leaves and spiny thistle inside of it. At the center of the artichoke, there is a thistle called the “choke”. My grandma (who is Maltese) always used to say that if you ate the “choke” you would choke. I was …

Poblano Peppers Stuffed with Chicken & Cheese

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Cinco de Mayo is just a few days away and to celebrate, I have come up with a fantastic recipe that is perfect for the occasion: Poblano Peppers Stuffed with Chicken and Cheese. This recipe is my take on Chiles Rellenos, a classic Mexican dish made with cheese-stuffed Poblano peppers that are breaded, deep fried and topped with a luxurious red salsa. While I absolutely love Chiles Rellenos (and order them from restaurants every time they are on the menu), they are quite a bit of work to make at home with all the breading and deep frying. This recipe lightens up the classic Chiles Rellenos recipe by avoiding the breading and deep frying, so it’s much healthier for you and is a great keto meal! If you have never had Poblano peppers before, you are missing out! These large, dark green peppers are very common in Mexican dishes and are mildly spicy. They are much less spicy than a jalapeno, but are a bit spicier than a regular sweet bell pepper. They are also …

Homemade Ricotta Cheese

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I love taking on new projects in my kitchen and challenging myself to make something that I have never made before. It keeps it interesting and helps me learn about new ingredients, what things pair well together, and lets me practice my cooking techniques. While the results may not always turn out as expected, it’s always a great learning opportunity and keeps me motivated to continually improve and learn new things. This past weekend, I took on a fun (and successful!) project in my kitchen: making homemade cheese! While I thought making cheese is very labor intensive, highly technical, and time consuming, I made a batch of fresh Homemade Ricotta Cheese in under 30 minutes and with only three ingredients. Read on below to see how I made it. Ricotta is an Italian cheese that can be made with cow, water buffalo, goat or sheep milk. Traditionally, it is made from the whey that is left over from other cheese making processes and is simply “recooked” to coagulate any remaining proteins in the whey. This …