Tag Archives: favourite recipes

the grilled lamb chops that wooed my husband to be

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grilled lamb chops à la provençale

grilled lamb chops with herbes de provence

Spring is here and the BBQ is starting to work overtime!  Here’s my favourite grilled lamb chop recipe, not only because it is super easy to prepare but most importantly because I wooed the man I would marry on the third date with these lamb chops!

They say you can win a man’s heart through his stomach.  I’m sure there’s more to that, but I agree that good food does help!  And serving lamb with mint jelly just doesn’t cut it, so if you want to make a lasting impression, whether for your date or for your guests, the best way to savour lamb chops is by grilling them on the BBQ with a herbes de provence marinade.

lamb chops with herbes de provence

lamb chops with herbes de provence

ingredients

  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 tablespoons Dijon mustard
  • 2 garlic cloves minced
  • 1 tablespoon dried herbes de provences
  • 2 teaspoons kosher salt
  • 1 teaspoon freshly ground pepper
  • 6 medium size lamb chops, trimmed of fat
  • squeeze of lemon

Serves 2

  1. Mix first 6 ingredients together in a small bowl.
  2. Rub marinade lightly on each of side of the chops, you don’t want the marinade to overpower the meat as the meat is so flavourful.
  3. Let chops sit at room temperature for a half an hour.  Or you can cover and refrigerate for up to 4 hours, just make sure to let the chops stand at room temperature at least 20 minutes before grilling.
  4. Heat grill at medium-high and grill each chop for 3-4 minutes each side depending on thickness (about 3 minutes if an inch thick and 4 minutes if thicker).  Ideally lamb chops should be served medium-rare to medium, often referred to as rosé.
  5. You can then let chops rest for 5 minutes before serving and then just squeeze a little lemon on top of each chop.

These lamb chops go well with a Greek salad.   That’s it, it’s that easy!

grilled lamb chops served rosé

grilled lamb chops served rosé

An asian take to the braised short ribs

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There’s still snow on the ground here in Montreal, so sadly it’s not BBQ weather just yet, which means that we’re still braising our meat!  So once again we’re taking out the Dutch oven.

This time, the short ribs are braised Asian-style.  It’s got a little spice and a little sweetness and that combination makes this one extremely popular amongst our friends who have sampled them.  And we know this because there’s never any leftovers as everyone has asked for seconds and the plates are wiped clean!

This is another great option for a dinner party, as with all braised meats, they are even better tasting prepared a day ahead.  It’s also an easy prep, only requires one pot, in this case, a Dutch oven. These can simply be served on a bed of rice and a bold red wine will go extraordinarily well.

asian braised short ribs

asian braised short ribs

Serves 4

  • 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 4 ½ lbs (2 kg) beef short ribs, cut Korean-style
  • ¼ cup canola oil
  • 4 cloves garlic, minced
  • 4 green onions, white and pale green parts, thinly sliced
  • 2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
  • 1 teaspoon red pepper flakes
  • 1 lemongrass stalk, cut into 4 pieces, halved lengthwise and crushed with a meat pounder
  • 1 cup beef broth
  • ½ cup soy sauce
  • ½ cup hoisin sauce
  • ½ cup rice vinegar
  • ½ cup firmly packed dark brown sugar
  • 2 teaspoons chile garlic sauce (Siracha), if you like it very spicy feel free to add more Siracha
  • green onion, finely chopped for garnish
asian short ribs with green onion rice

asian short ribs with green onion rice

  1. Preheat oven to 350oF (180oC).
  2. On a plate, stir together flour, 1 teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of pepper.  Dry the short ribs with a paper towel and coat them all with the seasoned flour, shaking off any excess.
  3. Heat the canola oil in the Dutch oven over medium-high heat.  Then cook the short ribs in the oil, turning occasionally, until browned for about 15 minutes.  Remove ribs from the Dutch oven and set aside.
  4. In the Dutch oven, add the garlic, green onions, ginger, red pepper flakes and lemongrass and sauté for about 1 minutes, until fragrant.
  5. Pour in beef broth to deglaze the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.  Then stir in the soy sauce, hoisin sauce, rice vinegar, brown sugar, and chile-garlic sauce.  Bring to a boil.
  6. Cover Dutch oven and transfer to oven and cook until the ribs are tender, between 2 hours and 2 ½ hours.
  7. When ribs are ready, place Dutch oven on stove and remove ribs and place aside. Then remove bones and lemongrass from pan and discard.  Separate fat from sauce, using a fat separator and return sauce and ribs to Dutch oven.  If you happen to only serve them the next day you can skip the fat separator and just refrigerate them and before reheating the short ribs just remove the congealed fat from surface of the short ribs.
  8. When ready to serve, just simply place a few ribs over white rice and spoon sauce over ribs and rice.  You can also add on top some finely chopped green onions for garnish.

In the above photos we have served the asian short ribs with green onion rice, which goes particularly well with the ribs.  This is a super easy rice which can be prepared in the microwave oven, yep, the microwave oven!   The recipe for the green onion rice will be posted following this post.

Enjoy and let me know what you think!

easy weeknight fish recipe – cod in coconut curry broth

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cod in coconut curry broth

cod in coconut curry broth

Even though both my husband and I are avid meat eaters, we do, of course, enjoy cooking and eating fish as well.  In most situations fish is best when it is cooked with few ingredients, so as not to overpower the delicate taste of the fish.  However there are always exceptions and this recipe, cod served with a coconut green curry broth, is one of those favoured recipes.

We not only love the combination of flavours but it is a favourite because it is a quick and easy weeknight recipe which requires only one pan.  Yes, one pan, now that makes for easy clean up on a weeknight!

cod in coconut curry broth 

ingredients: 

  • 1 tablespoon canola oil
  • 1 teaspoon green curry paste
  • 1 tablespoon finely grated ginger
  • 1 can (398 ml/13.4 fl oz) coconut milk
  • 1 cup low-sodium chicken stock
  • 2 tablespoons fish sauce
  • 1 teaspoon sugar
  • 3 tablespoons lime juice
  • 1/2 lb cod or halibut, cut into 2-inch chunks
  • ¼ cup carrots, cut into matchsticks
  • 8 cherry tomatoes, halved
  • 1 tablespoon fresh basil, chopped finely
  • 1 tablespoon fresh coriander, chopped finely
  • 1 cup cooked jasmine rice, as per packaging instructions

serves 2

cod in coconut curry broth

cod in coconut curry broth

  1. Heat oil in a large high saucepan over medium-high heat.  Stir curry paste and ginger in hot oil for about 1 minute.
  2. Pour coconut milk and stir to boil and reduce by half for about 10 minutes.  If you wish to lower the fat content, feel free to use light coconut milk but allocate a little more time to reduce the liquid by half.
  3. In the meantime, cook rice in a separate saucepan as per instructions on packaging.
  4. Once coconut milk broth is reduced by half, add chicken stock, fish sauce, sugar and lime juice to pan.  Reduce heat to a simmer and add chunks of cod to broth and poach fish for 3 to 4 minutes.
  5. Carefully remove cod pieces from saucepan and divide equally into 2 low soup bowls and keep fish warm in oven at about 200oF.
  6. While fish stays warm, bring broth to boil and reduce for 5 minutes.  Add carrots to broth and cook for another 3 minutes.  Then add cherry tomatoes and basil and cook another 2 minutes.
  7. Taste, and if desired, add salt, pepper or more lime as needed.  Remove soup bowls from oven and plate cooked rice with fish and pour broth over rice and fish. Garnish plate with coriander and serve.

Perhaps this might become a weeknight favourite for you as it is for us!

Welcome to sur notre table!

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After many great evenings entertaining in our home and always being asked about our recipes I have decided to start a blog with the purpose of sharing some of our favourite recipes with our family and friends.

My husband and I not only love food, wine and everything in between but most importantly we love to cook together and entertain.  However we like to make it easy for ourselves when it comes to hosting our family and friends. Even though we love to spend time in our kitchen tinkering away, we don’t want to do all this work while hosting our guests.  We are therefore all about the prep!  We concoct seasonal menus that can be prepared well in advance, so our time can be focused on our guests.  This makes entertaining a lot more enjoyable and stress free.

So “sur notre table”, brings you from our table to yours, some of our favourite recipes, menus and tips to help you entertain.

C&C