The Arrogant Chef’s Watercress Salad with Maple Balsamic Dressing, Straw Potatoes, and Feta

This is a work in progress. I have tried about 4 variations on the salad dressing. This one is very close to the way I would like it to taste. If I change anything I will re-post it.

Dressing:

1/3 cup virgin olive oil plus 2 tablespoons
1 small shallot finely diced
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
½ teaspoon of salt
¼ cup balsamic vinegar
2 teaspoons of Dijon mustard
¼ cup or more of Pure Maple Syrup or more to taste (I add a little more because I like a little more sweetness to the dressing.

Salad:

Straw potatoes (finely julienned potatoes deep fried for about 2-3 minutes at 375F)
Watercress
Pecans (lightly roasted)
Crumbled Feta

Directions:

In a bowl, combine the dry dressing ingredients.  Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while you whisk to emulsify the dressing.  Then add the maple syrup to taste and adjust the seasonings.

Finely julienne the potato and soak in cold water for 30 minutes. Dry the julienned potato on paper towels and deep fry for 2-3 minutes or until golden brown and crispy.

Lightly toast the pecans.

To assemble the salad clean the watercress, put the straw potatoes on the plate followed by the watercress, and pecans and drizzle the dressing over the salad. Finish by sprinkling crumbled feta onto the salad.

Haddock with Fennel, Red Pepper, Egg Plant and Tomato.

This is a very healthy, relatively low carb, delicious meal. I am not quite sure where I got this recipe. I came across it while looking for the health benefits of fennel.

This recipe makes more than enough for two people:

extra-virgin olive oil
2  fennel bulbs, sliced thinly
1 small red pepper, chopped
small eggplant, chopped
6 cloves garlic, peeled and left whole (more if you like!)
1/3 cup white wine
1 can chopped tomatoes in juice (410g/14.5oz)
handful or two of black olives, left whole
1-2 teaspoons dried or 1-2 tablespoons fresh chopped oregano
salt and pepper
1-2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
2 filets of haddock or any other mild white fish
fennel fronds (if you have them from the fennel bulbs) and fresh basil for garnish

Heat 3 tablespoons of olive oil in a pan oven over medium heat. Add the sliced fennel and sauté until it starts to brown and soften, about 10 minutes. Remove the fennel, then sauté the pepper until it starts to soften (again, about 10 minutes). Remove the pepper and sauté the eggplant until it starts to soften (yes, about 10 minutes), then remove the eggplant as well.

Add more olive oil to the pot in between each batch of vegetables if you need to. Cooking each vegetable separately ensures that they do not stew in their own juices and that they are nicely sauteed.
Add another tablespoon of olive oil to the pan, then add the garlic and sauté 2-3 minutes, until fragrant. Pour in the wine and simmer until it’s slightly reduced, about 2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, olives, oregano and salt and pepper to taste and simmer, covered, about 15-20 minutes, in order to soften the garlic and let the flavors meld. Then add all the vegetables and balsamic vinegar and heat through.

While the sauce is cooking on the stove, preheat the oven to 200C (390F). When the oven’s ready, season the fish filets with salt and pepper and a drizzle of olive oil and put the vegetables in a casserole dish and lay the fillets on top.Cover with tin foil and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until fish is cooked through.

Remove from the oven and plate with garnish of fennel frond.

The Arrogant Chef's Chicken Stir Fry

Most of my stir fry recipes have noodles in the recipe. Now because I am low carb, noodles are out of the question. I looked at several recipes for chicken stir fries and combined about 4 of them into this recipe. This is really a first attempt and I may have lost track of all the steps as I made it. Basically this would be fairly low carb according to my calculation. I try to stay under about 75grams of carb per day. Anyhow I will take pictures next time and will adjust the recipe if needed. I thought the taste was great. My wife felt there may have been a little to much salt. Not sure about that. I loved it and had a couple of glasses of wine to go with this. Quite yummy!!!!

The Arrogant Chef’s Chicken Stir Fry

Ingredients:

4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
4 tbsp of olive oil
2 carrots thinly sliced
2 cups thinly sliced mushrooms
3 green onions thinly sliced
1 onion cut into wedges
3 cups of snow peas halved
2 cups of broccoli florets
4 tablespoons of cornstarch
4 tablespoons of soy sauce
½ teaspoon of ground ginger
½ teaspoon of garlic powder
½ teaspoon of hot sauce
3 tsp of sesame oil
Bean sprouts

Preparation 1

Cut chicken across the grain into thin strips and place in a resealable plastic bag. Add the 2 tablespoons of cornstarch and toss to coat. Combine 2 tablespoons of soy sauce, ½ teaspoon of ground ginger, ½ teaspoon of garlic powder, add to bag and shake well. Refrigerate for 30-45 minutes.

Preparation 2

Add 2 tablespoons of oil to a deep skillet or wok and stir fry marinated chicken until no longer pink and set aside on a plate.

Add remaining oil to the skillet and add carrots, green onions, sliced mushrooms, broccoli, snow peas, and add ¼ water cover and steam until vegetables are tender-crisp.

Meanwhile in a bowl combine:

2 tbsp soy sauce
½ cup chicken stock
1 tbsp rice wine vinegar
2 tsp cornstarch
2 tsp sesame oil
½ teaspoon hot sauce

Pour this into the middle of the wok or skillet and stir until thickened. Return chicken to the pan and stir fry until sauce is thickened. Serve by itself or on a bed of bean sprouts and sprinkle with green onions.

The Arrogant Chef's Super Marinade

This is so simple but gives steak a great flavour and certainly makes cheaper cuts quite tender.

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of garlic powder

Mix ingredients. Poke steaks with fork, pour in marinade, cover and refrigerate for 8 hours.

Kabobs and Endive Lobster Salad

Well as summer quickly comes to an end, we need to take advantage of perfect BBQ days. Today was such a day. Sunny and about 21 celsius, I just had to BBQ. Decided to make kabobs. Thick sirloin steak marinated in The Arrogant Chef's Super Marinade. (recipe to follow). Also served with endive and lobster salad. The meal was great.

The Arrogant Chef's Super Marinade


This is so simple but gives steak a great flavour and certainly makes cheaper cuts quite tender.

2 tablespoons of vegetable oil
2 tablespoons of soy sauce
2 tablespoons of red wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon of garlic powder

Mix ingredients. Poke steaks with fork, pour in marinade, cover and refrigerate for 8 hours.

End of Summer

Well today marked the end of my summer holidays. Back to work and back to my primal diet. But Fridays are cheat days. During the week I try to maintain my carb intake to under 100 grams a day. Not too hard to do and I have vegetables and fruits and protein: steak, chicken, pork, fish. On Friday however I eat what I want. This is my chance for pasta, sandwiches, pizza, wraps, and my favourite toast with my sunny side up eggs. Fridays are kind of a glimpse of what I expect heaven to be. Basically I usually go off my diet for the month of August, Christmas Holidays, my birthday of course and also my anniversary. Since I have been on my diet I have lost 30 pounds bringing me down to a respectable 170. I did gain 4 pounds in August but that should be gone in no time now that I am back to  work. For those of you on a restricted carb diet, I will try to post some of my daily menus. They are far from perfect yet, but I am working on it.

The Arrogant Chef's Amazing Ribs

I know that everyone has their favourite rib recipe. This is mine. It consists of a two step process, a special rub, and a special BBQ sauce. The ribs are fall off the bone tender and the rub and sauce give the ribs a very distinctive flavour. You can experiment using different types of beer. I have tried larger, light beer, Guiness, and other dark beers. They all give a somewhat different taste to the ribs. If you try these out give me a shout and let me know what you think. And just a note, be sure to remove the silverskin from the underside of the ribs. This really allows the beer and spices to permeate the meat and makes the ribs much more tender.

THE ARROGANT CHEF’S AMAZING RIBS

4 pounds pork back ribs
2 bottles of STEAM WHISTLE beer or the beer of your choice. (Try a dark beer for a different taste.)

Sauce

2 cups barbecue sauce (Diane’s Regular Sauce)
½ cup of water
2 tablespoons packed golden brown sugar
4 teaspoons of instant coffee granules

Rub

2 tablespoons chili powder
1 tablespoon paprika
1 tablespoon cumin
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon of pepper

Directions:

Rub: Combine chilli powder, paprika, cumin, salt and pepper. Spread rub over both sides of ribs. Place ribs in roasting pan. Let stand for 15 minutes. Pour beer around ribs. Pre-heat oven to 250F. Cover pan and cook ribs in the oven for about 3 hours. Check the ribs for tenderness. It should be almost falling off the bone.

Sauce: Combine barbecue sauce, water, brown sugar and coffee in a saucepan. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until sauce is slightly thickened, about 10 minutes. Reserve half of sauce to serve with ribs; use remainder to baste ribs

Remove ribs from pan; discard beer. Place ribs directly on grill. Grill ribs over low heat turning occasionally and basting with sauce for about 20 minutes or until ribs are richly glazed. Serve with dipping sauce left over.