Barbecue jerk style chicken

On Saturday night all the boaters were coming to dinner at Pender harbour for a dinner ashore, and Nancy and I decided to make jerk chicken in honour of their sailing trip in the British Virgin Islands last spring.

The recipe I was following for the rub was from Foodnetwork and it called for the chicken marinating in the rub overnight.  Well since we made the rub the afternoon that we were cooking the chicken obviously this did not happen.  And even though the chicken only marinated for about 1/2 an hour before cooking it was still very flavourful.  I really have to try doing this again an marinating for the correct amount of time. We cooked one whole chicken on the spit roast as well as some chicken pieces cooked directly on the barbecue and both worked well.

Ingredients for the rub.


1 onion, chopped
1 1/2 teaspoons dried thyme
1 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
4 teaspoons white pepper
1/4 cup chopped green onion
2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
5 small jalapenos
2 tablespoons cooking oil (olive or vegetable)
Splash flavorful rum
Juice of one lime

Combine all these ingredients in a small food processor.

Ground lamb and Peas - Indian style

This is an old favourite and comes from Madhur Jaffrey my favourite Indian cook book author see Cook books. She says that this is a dish that many young Indian people arriving in London would cook to remind them of home. I was feeling like Indian food and I had 1/2 Kg of ground lamb in the freezer so I phoned my Father (if he saw me blogging Indian food and he had not been invited I would be in trouble)
All though in this case it was not a week night this is definitely week night dinner material.

2 cloves of garlic, 1/2 Jalapeno and 2" of fresh ginger all finely chopped (or see make ahead Indian base)
1 Onion finely chopped
1 teaspoon of ground cumin
1 teaspoon of ground coriander
1 teaspoon of turmeric
1/4 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
2 medium tomatoes chopped (or equivalent canned)
1 1/2 lb of ground lamb (or beef)
1 cup of water
1/2 cup of frozen peas

Aloo Gobi - Potato and cauliflower

This is my version of Aloo Gobi which is a very popular indian dish, I have used about 3 different recipes mushed them together and come up with this which works for me and tastes great.

• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of cumin seeds
• 1 cube of ginger, garlic and jalapeno see Rogon Josh recipe (or one garlic clove, 1" ginger and 1/2   jalapeno all finely chopped )
• 1 tablespoon turmeric
• 1 small head of cauliflower cut into flowerets
• equivalent amount of potatoes cut in to the same size as cauliflower and boil for about 5 minutes
• 3/4 cup of water.
• Handful of cilantro

Heat the oil in a large frying pan and add the cumin seeds and cook until they are popping and fragrent.

I wish this was a scratch and sniff screen

Easy green thai pork curry

One the hardest things for me in cooking is to figure out a menu with out a starting point, like starting a picture when all you have is a large white piece of paper.  So I like to have a vision to fulfill or at least one ingredient to use a jumping off point.  For the first dinner of 2011 Nancy produced a small jar of thai green curry paste from the fridge and said "I thought we could use this." She knows this about me.

We were still up at Whistler and so had limited ingredients, this little jar is a good alternative to making a curry paste from scratch and is one that I often use.

comfort food - Southwest braised short ribs

I was lucky enough to spend New Years up at Whistler this year at a friends place.  I do not ski anymore as I really do not enjoy it that much, certainly not enough to pay the big bucks.  On the other hand I have always enjoyed, and continue to enjoy apres ski. So while everyone else is on the slopes I create dinner for everyone and then we are all happy.

Last night was New Years eve and it was a beautiful sunny but cold day, comfort food was called for.  My son and I went shopping in the village (hunting and gathering) to see what looked good. We found some beautifully marbled boneless short ribs.

Nancy has a limited spice draw since everything personal has to be packed away in a small locker, but I knew she had chipotle chili powder, so I decided to make a "southwest" flavoured dish.