The easiest meal ever; hot chicken sandwich

Wednesday, October 27, 2010 at 12:22AM

It's funny because this meal as nothing french canadian. It is really easy to make, it really only take 2 minutes. This is the perfect meal if you want to reuse your left over. I growed up on this but never thought much of it. Recently I was discussing french canadian meal with some fellow french canadian and here it was; so simple and yet I never thought of adding it. Here is what you need:

- Left over cooked chicken
- Sliced Bread
- 1 packed of gravy, St-hubert has some made just for hot chicken sandwhich but any other brown gravy will do.
- 1 can of small peas or frozen peas
- Fries or potatoes for a side

Recipe
- Put the chicken in between the bread, pour the warm gravy on the top and in between the slices and pour some green peas on the top of the bread and gravy. Serve with fries or potatoes.
That was it, it's seem maybe really weird but it's quite filling and taste good. Your family will love it.

Quebec recipes; the vegetarian way !

Thursday, October 14, 2010 at 11:18PM

I had a recent request from a friend from work named Lisa to introduce some vegetarian recipes to the site and I thought it was a great idea. It rather challenging since most Quebec's original recipe contain meat or are dessert. But I can remember a few that my mom made that was meatless and really great. Here is a few of them and I will be adding some more from time to time.

Beans and vegetables salad
Ingredients:
- 1 cucumber
- 1 red bell pepper
- 1 green bell pepper
- 1 tomatoes
- 1/2 cauliflower
- 1/2 broccoli
- 1 can of chick peas
- 1 tablespoon of cumin powder
- 2 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 tablespoon of vinegar
 - Parsley

Recipe:
- Cut the veggie in small cubes.
- Rinse the chick peas keeping the juice
- Mix the oil and vinegar
- Add the chick peas juice to the oil and vinegar
- Add the veggie and mix well
- Add the Parsley

Vegetarian version of the pork spread
Ingredients
- 2 + 1/3 cup of vegetable stock
- 3/4 cup of dry green lentils
- 1/2 cup of onion finely chopped
- 1 garlic clove finely chopped
- 1 tablespoon of olive oil
- 1 teaspoon nutritional yeast
- 1 teaspoon of allspice
- 1 teaspoon of tamarind
- 1 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1/2 teaspoon of nutmeg
- 1/4 teaspoon of ground clove

Recipe
1- Use a magic bullet or a food processor and grind the beans.
2- In a non stick pan, add the oil and on medium heat cook the onion, garlic, tamarind, and spices. Add the lentils. Cook for 3 minutes.
3- Add the vegetable stock to the previous pan, and whisk constantly. Keep cooking for less until the liquid is completely absorbed about 5-7 minutes.
4- Pour the mixture in a mold and refrigerate for 4-5 hours.
5- Will keep in the fridge for one week and a half.

Vegetable Chop Suey
Ingredient
- 2 teaspoon of olive oil
- 2 carotts cut in circle
- 1 green pepper
- 1 garlic clove
- 1/2 cup of brocoli
- 1/2 cup of celery
- 1 cup of snowpeas
- 1/2 pound of bean sprout
Stock
- 1/2 cup of vegetarian stock and keep 2 tablespoon of stock for later
- 2 tablespoon of soy sauce
- 1/2 teaspoon of cornstarch

Recipe
- Put the brocoli, and carrot in a wok with oil and cook for 5 minutes
- Add the vegetable stock with the soy sauce and cornstach.
- Add the garlic celeri, green bell pepper and peas and cook for another 5 -10 minutes until tender but not overcooked.

Thanksgiving in Quebec, or should I say l'Action de Grace

Sunday, October 10, 2010 at 11:03PM

It's funny because when I moved to Vancouver, I couldn't understand the big hype the day before Thanksgiving. I would try to do groceries and the grocery store would be packed, people would fight over cranberries sauce. I really didn't get it at first. I was living with French Canadian, but my fellow coworkers would not stop talking about all the dinners they had to go to or how busy they would be all day. They all wanted to leave early and I was always the one staying late. Why ? Because we don't really celebrate Thanksgiving in Quebec. I think it's pretty incredible that a celebration is carry on by a language. The American are really big on Thanksgiving and their dinner and the meaning of the celebration. The hype of this day is event back up by the black Friday which is the biggest shopping day of the year. American Thanksgiving falls into the fourth Thursday of November, while our falls on the second Monday of October. It is still pretty big here in Vancouver, enough to make people leave early from work.
My first Thanksgiving dinner was here in Vancouver and it was outstanding. My mother in law havinTg years of cooking experience she made everything taste so perfect and look splendid. I did my first Thanksgiving dinner last year and it was pretty good.
What makes me love Thanksgiving now is the flavor in the food. The aroma of cinnamon, nutmeg, clove, all spice. The color of the pumpkin and cranberries, the taste of roasted chestnut and pecan, the smell of the turkey roasting all day in the oven. It's pretty calorie inducing and just the smell make me gain weight but it's all worth it. Glass of wine, good laugh, great people, you were right Thanksgiving is a great day to celebrate and to give !
This year me and friend both made dinner, we made the usual turkey, with triple baked sweet potatoes and candies almonds. We had honey wine glazed green beans and brussel sprouts. We made a portabello and leeks stuffing. We finalised it with a single but very tasty dessert; spicy pumpkin mousse with shortbread cookies.
So I hope you had a great thanksgiving with people you love and next time there is a french canadian holiday, ill introduce it so maybe we could take advantage of this too !
Annie

Sept-Iles, more than just a mining town!

Friday, September 24, 2010 at 11:36PM

I decided to do something just a little different than the usual recipe today. Because Quebec is not just about food but also about regional culture I decided to introduce you to my home town. I was born and raised in Sept-Iles, which means seven island. Yes, there is really 7 island around the town. The first one and the most popular one is the " Grosse boule" which means literally big ball. The second one is : "Petite boule" which means small ball. Then you have "La Grande Basque" and " La Petite Basque". Basque was actually a fisherman that visited these two island and were named after him. We have also "Ile Manowin", named from the Montagnais population of Sept-Iles. "Ile du Corossol" is also quite a popular island named after the ship that wrecked into this island back in 1693. Finally we have " Ile Dequen".
There was about 31 000 people living in Sept-Iles when I was growing up in the 1980 now the population is around 26 000. There was a great boom in the population in the 1990 due to the jobs opening at Aluminerie Alouette, which process and export aluminium. Sept-Iles had the secong biggest deep water port after Vancouver in matter of tonnage of transportation per year.
The temperature variate greatly during the year, anywhere from 15 degree C in July to -20 degree C in January. I have personally seen -40 degree, so cold your face burn and you can't breathe. Quite fortunately it is not cold like this all the time and it's actually nice and settled during summer because we don't suffer heat wave.
I growth up leaving the simple life. We were very family oriented so I was always surrounded by family members. We had a lot of dinners in family and a lot of cooking, which I believe is the reason why i am so passionate by the cooking and the entertaining. We spent our time going for walks around the squirrel run, which is a nice little hike in the forest that lead to some little house made for the kids to play. The reason why they call it the squirrel run is that there is now so many squirrel that come that they will literally walk to your feet to grab the peanut out of your hands.

If you like the outdoor, definitely Sept-Iles is the place to go. We like to go kayaking, canoeing, sailing, fishing, snow boarding, skiing. The gadgets, we have them all; snowmobile, 4 wheelers, 3 wheelers, motorcycle. Everyone learn to skate when they are babies and most guys play hockey growing up. The ice ring are not an issue and they is as many ice ring as they are Tim Hortons, about 5 ! Back in my days, we didn't even had to take our skate our to go to the outdoor ice ring, the street was iced already and we could just skate there! The snowmobiling is Sept-Iles is amazing, the trail are longs and well maintained. The best part of all these is the aftermath. The casual party at the cottage by the fireplace, or at the beach during summer. The summer beach party in Sept-Iles are the best, everyone bring their camping gears, their guitars, smokies and everyone sings and have fun. I remember one time, camping in a 2 persons tent and we ended up being 15 people in there and it was raining a bit. We started feeling something wet in there and so one by one we got out to realise that the tide went up all the way to the tent and that all the food, bags and everything else was in the ocean already !!!We have a lot of famous hockey players that are originally from Sept-iles. Take the name of Guy Carbonneau, Steve Duchesne, Luc Dufour, Karl Dkyhuis and Rob Zettler. With no doubt, we love our hockey and we take it very seriously!

Don't let the cold disappoint you from visiting Sept-Iles, you will enjoy walking along the quay listening to the music coming from the yellow tent with an ice cream, the beautiful beaches and the view of the ocean. If you like the seafood, you are served! It is readily available from the seafood plant and always fresh. A restaurant that is great to try for seafood is Chez Omer, if you want more details look at the previous article on this restaurant. What Sept-Iles is really famous for is the shrimp, the northen variety. They are really popular and exported all over Quebec. Often restaurant mentionned shrimp from Matane, but it is usually coming from the region of Sept-Iles. The second most famous dish in Sept-Iles is the " bacon rolled steak medallion" from Johnny Stea, who own the Alouette butcher shop. This delicacy is also called "Alouette" You can cook then on the barbecue in the summer and they come in different varieties. Fish is also really big in Sept-Iles and the most popular variety is the trout. We have a phenomenon called "The Capelin" that come right to the shore by millions every summer. To learn more about this phenomenon look at my previous article called capelin. Since fruit picking is very common in Sept-Iles and that you can freely pick raspberries, blueberries and small strawberries, pies and jams are really popular. A great pie shop in Sept-Iles is " J'lai fait moi meme !"


Last thing you might not know, in Quebec you can buy liquor, beer and wine in groceries store and corner store. A lot of  people don't know this and get pretty stoked when they see a 24 pack of beer for 20$ in a MAC ( similar to 7 eleven) store. Im not staying it's all entirely good but it is pretty convenient for a quick invite to a friend dinner.

The people of Sept-iles are friendly, outgoing and straight forward. The resident of Sept-Iles will help you with any little problem you may have, with your car, you boat, your skidoo etc... People in Sept-iles are very hand on, and they know about a lot of different things. Sept-Iles has probably the most amount of amazingly talented musicians or singers per household. Take a example of Yvan Pedneault which is a extremely talented and passionate singer and actor from Sept-Iles. We actually growth up together and we are all very proud of him. We also have a amazing musical production company name "La troupe du masque d'or" and if you have the chance to watch any of their show you will be astonish. And if you were a member of the l'Harm'Manik you had the chance to travel all over the province and even the world. Why? Because they were a symphony very commited to success and to perfection. They were playing in harmony, staying united and strong through the hard time.  You could tell they worked hard because their songs where a sign of it. I am sure they are still very sucessful.

So if your looking to discover a great piece of world, a place where you can just be yourself, have fun, unwind and enjoy nature, visit Sept-Iles and tell me what you thought of it. I am convince you won't regret it !
To finish this, if your born, raised or currently live in Sept-Iles, take out your scarf, your mittens, your snow suit and Cheers; because you have something to be proud of; to have or had the chance to experience the beauty of this city.

                                       
Rhubarb pudding

Monday, September 20, 2010 at 08:34PM

My mom sent to me this recipe last week and she said I had to try it, and it's so good I had to share it... It's originally coming from my great aunt on my grandpa side of the family. If you look at the ingredient you can tell its a very old recipe and that it's definitely a Quebec's old favorite.
It's not too sweet or sugary, just the perfect harmony !
Merci tante Jaqueline de Montmagny!!!




 Ingredients
- 1/2 cup of butter or vegetable shortening
- 1 1/2 cup of sugar
- 1 egg beaten
- 1 teaspoon of vanilla
- 2 cup of all purpose flour
- 1/4 teaspoon of cinnamon
- 1 pinch of salt
- 1 teaspoon of baking soda
- 1 cup of milk mixed with 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
- 2 1/2 cup of fresh finely chopped rhubarb
- 1 tablespoon of flour
- 1/4 cup of butter
- 1/2 cup of brown sugar
- 1/2 of coconut

Recipe
1- Mix in a bowl the shortening, sugar, egg and vanilla, mix well
2-  Alternating ingredients add 1/4 of the flour, cinnamon, soda and bit of milk.
3- Repeat the process until all have been used, reserve
4- Mix the rhubarb with the 1 tablespoon of flour and pour on the top of the previous mixture
5- Melt the 1/4 cup of butter with the brown sugar and add the coconut.
6- In a buttered 9 X 13 pyrex bowl add the layer of rhubarb on the bottom, then add the cake mix and finish with the coconut glaze.
7- Cook at 375 degree for 40-45 minutes.