From Perch Rolls to Lobster Rolls

You have to give these a try. A perfect meal for a warm summer night. Do not heat lobster. It should be cold. For best results only use the meat from claws and tails. Really good with a very cold white sparkling wine or if you are feeling rich a decent champagne. The fennel is a very interesting ingredient. Gives the rolls a nice crunch. Next time I make them I will post some pictures.

Lobster Rolls


1 tablespoon butter, softened

4 sub buns

4 lettuce leaves

1 1/2 pounds cooked and cubed lobster meat

½ cup mayonnaise

2 tbsp olive oil

*1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

1 dash hot pepper sauce

2 green onions, chopped

1 stalk celery, finely chopped

Salt and pepper to taste

1 pinch dried chives, parsley or tarragon ,chervil

½ cup chopped fennel

Instructions:

Remove lobster meat

Combine mayonnaise, mustard, green onions, celery, lime juice, hot sauce, parsley, chervil and chives. Stir in olive oil and season with salt and pepper.

Combine lobster meat and fennel and toss with enough mayonnaise to moisten.

Place lettuce leaves in the rolls and heap with lobster mixture.

How to make the perfect Perch Roll sauce

Perch rolls are famous in these parts. The best perch is from the St. Lawrence River. You can get St. Lawrence River Perch for The Yellow Perch Company in Cornwall, ON. Just watch the video for complete instructions.

The Arrogant Chef's Tomato Sauce

Well the sauce is made and it is wonderful. You will find the recipe below. It is quite a bit of work for about 2 large cans of tomato sauce. When I make this again I am going to at least triple the recipe and make a really large batch that I will freeze in smaller portions. I am looking forward to trying this for my pizza sauce on my homemade pizzas.

The Arrogant Chef’s Tomato Sauce


10 large ripe tomatoes

2 tablespoons olive oil

2 tablespoons butter

1 onion, chopped

1 green bell pepper, chopped

1 carrots, chopped

4 cloves garlic, minced

1/4 cup chopped fresh basil

1 tsp oregano

1 tsp of thyme

1 teaspoon of salt

1 teaspoon Italian seasoning

1/4 cup red wine

2 stalks celery chopped

5 tablespoons tomato paste



Directions:

1. Bring a pot of water to a boil. Have a large bowl of ice water ready. Plunge the tomatoes in boiling water until skin starts to peel. Remove and place in an ice bath. Let rest until cool enough to handle, and then remove the peel. Puree in a food processor and set aside.

2. In the food processor (or by hand if you wish) chop the onion, green pepper, cloves of garlic, celery, and carrot. In a large pot add 2 tablespoons of olive oil and two tablespoons of butter. Sauté the vegetables until the onions start to soften. Pour in pureed tomatoes and add basil, salt, oregano, thyme. Bring to a boil and simmer for approximately 2 hours.

3. After 2 hours stir in tomato paste and adjust seasonings to taste.



This sauce is a great as a gourmet pizza sauce, a sauce for ziti, or seafood fettuccini. It is also great included in our spaghetti meat sauce recipe.

Tomato Sauce

Well picked about 25 tomatoes from the garden this morning. They are huge. I will be making some tomato sauce later today. If it turns out I will post the recipe later.

The Arrogant Chef's Ultimate Spaghetti Sauce

This is one of the best spaghetti sauces you will ever make. Always better the day after.
Spaghetti Meat Sauce


Spaghetti Meat Sauce


4 tablespoons of salad oil

2 lbs of beef

2 large onions chopped

2 cloves of garlic minced

1 cup of celery chopped

1 large green pepper diced
1 tablespoon of salt

2  6oz. Cans of tomato paste

 ½ can of V8 juice (need to adjust to get the right sauce consistency just make sure the sauce is not to runny)

3 tsp chilli powder (or more to taste)

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper (or more to taste)

1/2tsp curry powder (or more to taste)

Brown beef in large pan; add onions garlic, celery, pepper and salt. Simmer 3-5 minutes. Combine tomato paste and juice chilli powder, cayenne, curry. Add to meat and vegetables. Simmer gently for 1-2 hours.

A Great Side Dish

This is truly an outstanding side dish. It is a little labour intensive but trust me the time is worth it. Not sure where I got this recipe but it is wonderful especially at this time of the year when we have fresh local corn.

Corn Saute with Canadian Bacon Potatoes and Peppers


2 Tbs. Unsalted butter

2 tbs. Extra virgin olive oil

½ cup small diced bacon

1 cup small diced red onion

1 cup small-diced red potato (from about a 5-oz. potato)

½ cup small diced green pepper

1 tsp of kosher salt

2 slightly heaping cups fresh corn kernels from about 4 medium ears

2 tsp. Minced garlic

2 Tbs chopped fresh flat leaf parsley

2 Tbs sliced fresh chives

½ tsp green Tabasco

Fresh ground black pepper

One-half lemon

Melt 1 TBS of the butter and TBS of the olive oil in a 10 inch straight sided sauté pan, add the bacon and cook until the bacon is brown around the edges, about 4 minutes. Transfer to a plate lined with paper towels. Add the remaining Tbs butter and 1 Tbs olive oil to the pan. Add the onion, potato, bell pepper and ½ tsp of the salt. Reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook stirring frequently, until the onions and peppers are well softened and the potatoes are barely tender 5-7 minutes.

Uncover, increase the heat to medium, add the corn, garlic, and the remaining 1 tsp of salt. Saute stirring frequently and scraping the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon, until the corn is tender but still toothy to bite.

Remove the pan from the heat, add the parsley, chives, Tabasco, a few generous grinds of pepper and a small squeeze of lemon. Stir, let sit 2 minutes and stir again scraping up brown bits from the bottom of the pan. Fold the bacon into the dish season to taste with salt, pepper, and lemon juice.

Poutine Pizza

Well, I gave the poutine pizza a try. I love poutine. I love pizza. But the two just do not go good together. I think it may be the combination of fries with pizza crust that just do not blend well together. The sauce is wonderful and the curds well what can I say. But the flavour combination just does not mix well together. Oh well back to the drawing board.

More Pizza Fun

I have been reading a lot about pizzas with different sauce toppings. So tonight I am trying a couple of quite different pizza recipes. These will be made on the BBQ. The first is the Chicken and Bacon BBQ pizza. I guess you could say it is the pizza version of the ever famous club sandwhich. I will let you know how it turns out. Here is the recipe for now.

Chicken and Bacon BBQ Pizza


6 to 8 slices  bacon, fried

2 skinless, boneless chicken breasts or chicken tenders fried

1 cup (250 mL) thick ranch salad dressing

3 cheese blend (mozzarella, provolone, cheddar) shredded cheese

Grape tomatoes or whole tomato sliced

¼ cup (50 mL) coarsely chopped fresh parsley

A sprinkle of Italian seasoning.

salt and pepper to taste

Method:

Make the dough. I use Peter Reinhart’s recipe for BBQ dough which can be found here on the site. Follow the BBQ instructions.

Cook the bacon, remove from pan and then cook the chicken in the bacon grease.

Put the dough on direct heat as per instructions. Once it is nicely grilled you flip the dough on the BBQ and put the dough on indirect heat, and top with ranch dressing, the cooked bacon, the cheese and then the chicken and tomatoes. Close the lid until the cheese is melted and the crust is golden brown.

The second pizza I will be making is my Montreal Poutine Pizza. Stay tuned for the recipe and the results.

Summer Pasta Revisited

Here are a few changes to a recipe I posted in 2008.  Changes are in bold. Here is my supper pasta supper revisited. I used four zucchini, three tomatoes, (I had to cheat a little here and added just a little clamato juice to add a little more liquid probably about 1/2 cup, about 12 fresh basil leaves chopped, I guess about 2 tablespoons, about a tablespoon and a half of fresh thyme, one onion finely chopped and 3 cloves of garlic minced and one tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. About 7 large mushrooms sliced. I started by sautéing the onions and garlic and zucchini and sliced mushrooms and then added the tomatoes and spices. While I was doing this I boiled the linguini.  I then added the sauce to the linguini and served. Overall I would rate the meal a 9/10. The best part was taking this outside to the backyard and enjoying the meal with a well chilled bottle of white wine!