We try to keep up with as many Canadian food bloggers as we can, and these are just a few of the mouth-watering posts we came across this month. Enjoy!
Indian Butter Chicken-Murgh Makhani [http://www.seasaltwithfood.com/2010/07/indian-butter-chicken-murgh-makhani.html]
Butter Chicken, though not exactly a diet dish, is one of our favourite chicken dishes. Over at Sea Salt with Food, Angie whips up a delicious-looking butter chicken recipe from leftover Tandoori Chicken. If only our leftovers looked this good.
Pan Roasted Cilantro-Mint Marinated Chicken Thighs [http://chowtimes.com/2010/07/25/pan-roasted-cilantro-mint-marinated-chicken-thighs/]
Chicken thighs are often overlooked at dinner, which is a shame, since they are economical and loaded with nutrients and flavour. Suanne at Chow Times has a great dish featuring chicken thighs with a middle-eastern flair.
Chicken with Curried Tomato Almond Sauce [http://duckandcake.blogspot.com/2010/07/daring-cooks-challenge-chicken-with.html]
This recipe from the oddly-named Roast Duck and a Big Gooey Cake has our mouths watering. Almond butter is one of our favourite things (from scratch, no less) and the mix of tomato and curry to this dish sound amazing. Eliz provides step-by-step photos as well, which is brilliant for a recipe you’ve never tried before.
If you have a Canadian food blog, or know of one that we should be reading, let us know about it in the comments!
Anyone can learn how to cook. Just ask Kevin Lynch of 
If you're looking for a great recipe using lean ground chicken, try out this unique, Italian-inspired dish that is sure to get people talking. At only 180 calories per serving, poleta, an Italian favorite, is a great low-carb option to traditional pasta. And once baked, it offers the perfect complement to the flavourful chicken topping. Simple to make, this recipe calls for ingredients that you probably already have in your pantry. Sure to be a go-to dish in your house, feel free to play around with the ingredients - why not try switch up the traditional mozzerella to Gruyere or change up the red wine for a different flavour each time?
Do you have a favorite Italian recipe that you've tweaked to perfection? Tell us about it in our comments section!
Camping is a great way to spend some quality time outdoors during the few Canadian summer months and if you can endure the bugs, there are a lot of activities, such as hiking and swimming, to keep everyone entertained and happy. But one thing to seriously consider before heading to your camp site is what type of food to bring with you and how you’ll be storing it.
Here are some handy tips to take some of the guess work out of it.
1. Prepare a menu for your trip.
If you’re planning an overnight camping trip, you’ll still need to be careful of what foods to pack but less concerned than if you’re camping out for the week. Planning a menu is a great way to make sure you have all the supplies you need.
2. Consider the following foods.
Keep all foods in tightly sealed containers and separate meats and drinks into their own coolers to prevent any cross contamination.
Frozen meats such as chicken, are suggested. Because they need time to thaw, they’ll stay cold for longer than fresh meat. Pack a separate cooler specifically for your meats to avoid cross-contamination. Consider marinating meat before freezing it; this way all you’ll have to do is thaw and cook it. Once thawed, meat should be consumed within two days, but most importantly, when cooking meat, make sure you have a food thermometer handy that way you’ll know when meat is properly cooked through. (You’ll find this information under “More Tips”)
Whole grain breads, such as bagels are great for breakfast. Bring them frozen and let them thaw. They’ll last longer this way.
Peanut butter is a great topper for bagels or other whole grain breads and is also a good source of protein.
Whole grain pastas can be boiled in a pot over an open fire with the proper camping cookware. Add in tomato sauce, herbs and seasonings for a very simple dish that will please the kids, or add sundried tomatoes, garlic, herbs, seasonings and a splash of olive oil for a simple yet flavorful meal.
Sweet potatoes can be baked in foil and have plenty of flavor just on their own. They are also packed with antioxidants!
Canned beans such as chick peas, red kidney beans and black beans can be heavier to carry but make great bean salads. Because they are high in fiber, they’ll fill you up and you’ll probably have some leftovers. Toss in a can of tuna, chicken or salmon for some extra protein!
Condiments such as oils, different types of vinegars, salt, pepper, dried herbs and spices are a great way to make marinades for your meats or a super tasty dressing for that bean salad! You may want to consider some lemons, limes or oranges too! Use the juice and zests to add some zing!
Granola and trail mix make a great snack!
PLENTY of water!!! Keep any drinks in a separate cooler. You’ll often be grabbing drinks from this cooler letting warm air into it, so avoid storing foods in the same cooler as your drinks.
Remember, you are camping and therefore sharing the great outdoors with Canadian wildlife, so if you’ll be away from your camp site for a while, find a safe place to hide your food. After all, you didn’t do all that meal planning to feed the raccoons and bears!
More tips: The Canadian Food Inspection Agency offers some great tips on preventing food borne illness while camping, including a list of internal cooking temperatures. Check out their handy tips here 
This is the first in our series of “Kitchen Zen” articles, aimed at making your cooking experience less stressful and more enjoyable.
Mise en place is a hotly contested topic among cooks. Essentially, the term can be defined as “putting stuff in its place,” but in practice, it refers to the pre-measuring, preparing and laying out of ingredients that are going to be used in a recipe or multiple recipes so that they are at hand when you need them. Some swear by this method of preparation, and others just look at it as great way to dirty more dishes.
Now, if you’re just heating up some leftovers or making something simple, there’s no need to be quite as fastidious about your preparation, but if you’re building a meal from scratch, or even just cooking a recipes with more than a few ingredients, an effective mise en place can save a lot of headaches. Sure, you’re going to have to wash a couple of pinch bowls when you’re done, but the inconvenience it prevents is well worth the extra couple of seconds when it comes to clean-up.
First, it forces you to be prepared. Prepping the ingredients beforehand prevents any fun surprises, like realizing halfway through you don’t have enough of a particular ingredient, or accidentally burning something on the stove because you had to mince a shallot before you could do anything else. Having everything chopped, measured and most importantly, handy, when you need it means that you won’t lose focus on what you’re doing and make a mistake. As an added bonus, it forces you to read a recipe in depth before you start cooking, which means not having to refer back to the page quite as often.
Second, it actually makes cleanup easier. Think about it – how many times have you completed a recipe with a lot of ingredients and been left with a counter full of bottles, cans and spice jars? When you prep in advance, you don’t have to give up your valuable counter space to containers and food waste.
Finally, and this is a more personal point than the others, but I find that mise en place just makes cooking more enjoyable. Once I have everything prepped and in front of me, all that’s left to do is concentrate on cooking, and that’s what it’s really about. If you can make something delicious and healthy and have fun doing it, there’s no reason not to do it all the time.
The best part? All it takes to make your cooking that much easier is a few bowls. I have a few small ones that I use for spices, some medium ones I use most often for things like chopped vegetables, and a couple of larger bowls just in case. You can spend a fortune on these at cooking stores, but they don’t need to be fancy – as long as they can hold a diced onion, they’re good enough.
It may take a bit of time for you to figure out your own personal mise, but once you have a system that works for you, I doubt you’ll ever go back. Give it a try, and see if mise en place makes your cooking experience smoother and more enjoyable.
Do you have a kitchen hack that helps you cook better? Tell us about it, and we may include it in a future “Kitchen Zen” post.
Who needs takeout when you have a recipe like this? Simple, light and fresh - these salad rolls are a definite winner when it comes to making this Asian favorite. The marinade is key in this recipe, combing traditional Asian flavours such as grated ginger, soy sauce, lime juice, sesame oil and oyster sauce. Marinade your chicken in the fridge overnight to make sure all those flavours have married perfectly. All of these ingredients can be in found in your local grocery store - just have a peak in the Asian section for anything you can't find right away. Using bib lettuce is a favorite in this recipe as the large leaves are perfect for wrapping. Feel free to use you favourite fresh lettuce for a customized crunch.
Do you have a great recipe for an Asian take-out favorite? Share your recipes with us in our comments section!
During the week, the name of the game is getting food on the table in between work and soccer practice, but every once in a while, when the day has granted you an hour or two to yourself, the mood strikes to break out your monocle and top hat, and make something a little bit fancy. Whether it’s for family, friends, or just for yourself – everyone needs to treat themselves to a high-class fare now and again.
But fancy doesn’t have to mean buying a $40 piece of meat and dousing it in truffle oil – chicken does high-falootin’ just as well as it does down home, and for a lot less. It’s all in how you prepare it.
Chicken roulade is an excellent way to fancy up chicken. All it takes is pounding the chicken thin – between sheets of thick plastic wrap is the easiest way – and wrapping ingredients inside. Prosciutto or cheese with asparagus is particularly enjoyable. To cook, fasten the roll with toothpicks, sear it on the outside starting at the seam, and finish it in the oven.
Along the same lines, stuffed chicken dishes such as Chicken Kiev are made in a similar fashion. Chicken Kiev itself is made by wrapping a flattened chicken breast around a cold roll of compound butter (usually made with tarragon and parsley) and then dredged in flour and breaded. It is then seared in a pan to brown the outside, and finished in the oven. The trick to this dish is sealing it completely so that the butter flows out when you cut into the cooked chicken, and not when it’s in the oven.
So, you can see that getting fancy in the kitchen doesn’t have to take an entire day or paycheque to accomplish. With a little creativity and fresh ingredients, it’s easy to make a meal seem like it’s come out of a 5-star kitchen.
Holy Mole! Try out this recipe for a delicious chicken smothered in our Mexican-style mole (Mow-lay). Known for thick consistencies and deep, complex flavours, moles often have fifteen ingredients or more! But you don't have to spend hours over the stove for our version, as we employ a classic Mexican thickening technique by adding ground nuts and squash seeds. Toasting the pumpkin and cumin seeds help to release their flavours, so just listen them to pop while in your pan and you'll know they're ready to go. Pair this dish with some Mexican rice and some grilled corn on the cob to capture the Mexican authenticity.
Do you have a favorite mole that you've mastered? Leave a comment in our comments section and tell us all about it!
As we 
We’ll be back next week because today we’ll be celebrating Canada Day at Major’s Hill Park for our 18th annual Great Canadian Chicken Barbecue where we’ll be serving up a tasty Preston Street Sandwich!
If you can’t join us for this fun-filled event, then you’ll want to read all about it next week on our blog!
Stay tuned and here’s wishing you all a Happy Canada Day!
