main courses recipes

Is a meat patty just a piece of ground meat ? Is a slice of blue cheese just cheese ? Is a condiment just a sauce ? Are dressings just extras ? Is a bun just bread ? Is a burger just a hot sandwich ? They all could be just that of course … unless you make a special effort for each separate element and assemble them creatively !  If...

A “USE EVERYTHING & WASTE NOTHING” hearty WINTER MEAL, resembling a lasagna (but there’s no pasta here), with winter vegetables and some chicken. All the ingredients are pre-roasted before assembling them, using only 1 mixing bowl, 1 roasting dish, 1 casserole and 1 baking sheet and nothing else (okay,...

This 50-ingredient holiday recipe is like singing that well-known and quite long “THE TWELVE DAYS OF CHRISTMAS” carolling song, once you begin, you simply have to go on until it’s all sung and you’ve reached the end … It’s never easy convincing anybody (and this includes friends & family) about preparing a...

I still remember the BOXES of MACARONI & CHEESE by KRAFT DINNER we had as kids growing up in Montreal ! You boiled the dry pasta in water then strained it, then you added the milk and butter and the packet of processed cheese powder, mixed and served. This was a treat for us. It’s actually considered a national dish and Canadians consume...

So you want to make a PIZZA ? I mean a real home-made pizza ? Are you going to make the PIZZA DOUGH from scratch ? Are you going to make the PIZZA SAUCE from scratch ? Will you prepare the TOPPINGS ? Yes, my friends, toppings also need to be prepared because you probably don’t have a professional commercial restaurant pizza-oven at home...

I’m exhausted. I had one week off and am now launching myself in 5 assignments during the next 5 weeks before my next one week off happens again. I obviously didn’t rest. I’m doing stuff around the house. Not regular everyday cleaning and tidying up but more electrical stuff. “LIGHTING” can be everything,...

The holidays were GREAT, the eating was FANTASTIC and the drinking was AWESOME. The PARTY’s over. Time to pull yourself together and detoxify (yeah, again) ! I can’t decide if it’s fashionable, (or not), to detoxify your system (and admit to it). Even though it isn’t not cool nor sexy (in my world), your body (and mine) are...

This weekend on SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 11th 2018 is the 100th Anniversary (the Centenary or Centennial) of the ARMISTICE or End of the First World War. Sixty heads of State and 120 dignitaries will be in Paris for an international ceremony to commemorate the event, to celebrate the peace and the end of that war, even though other wars,...

OK, I’m just playing with words ! . . . ALLIUM is the family of onions, garlics, shallots, chives and leeks & CAPSICUM is the family of sweet and hot peppers and CITRUS of course you already know. By the way, sea breams, also called gilt-head bream, are part of the SPARIDAE family and are marine fish (at least you learned something...

A re-adaptation of a recipe for BOLHINOS DE BACALHAU from Portugal (and perhaps similar versions in Spain and probably Brazil too). I’ve been jumping from country to country in my latest recipe posts. PORTUGAL is geographically not a MEDITERRANEAN country, physically facing the rougher Atlantic Ocean on one side and bordering Spain on the...

I had a craving for a greek dish called “SARMADES” or “LAHANODOLMADES” which is a northern greek version of cabbage leaf rolls, stuffed with a mixture of rice and minced meat, strongly-flavored with lemon and cumin, that are time-consuming in their assembly, each one roll and piled on top of one another,...

This "L-A-S-A-G-N-A" may be ultimately DECADENT & SHAMELESS in its creation, and perhaps INDECENT & SHAMEFUL in its consumption … but for me, the 2-week holiday period begins on December 24th until January 1st and ends on January 7th (my birthday and the Orthodox Christmas). I end the...

It’s super CHUNKY as you can see, from the filling to this incredible & thick 2-ingredient breadcrumb crust. It’s also adaptable & modifiable, but less painful than dealing with DST or Daylight Savings Time. It’s all about adding & subtracting. The 2 crust ingredients are dried breadcrumbs and mayonnaise....

Another TEMPURA-STORY . . . again ! Even though we talked about this about 6 weeks ago when we were focusing on stuffed & deep-fried zucchini flowers that I brought back from Marseille (see the recipe here) I’m still rather obsessed with this method, so here we go again. So JAPANESE, right ?! And yet so PORTUGUESE, right ?!...

You know when you think people 'know stuff' but they actually don’t ? Fool that I am, I often forget this ! Many people’s culinary backgrounds & experiences are most often quite different from your own. It was time for me to explain KEFTEDES more precisely even though I had already posted a recipe using keftedes/greek...