What I really wanted to take was a dim sum cooking class, but what I ended up doing was Thai-ing one on, since there was nary a Chinese cooking class to be found throughout Hong Kong during the month of February 2009. Oh well, you dim sum, you lose some. 

The class itself took place at Pantry Magic, a European-style upscale chain of retail kitchenware stores originating out of Kowloon. However, we were on the other side of Victoria Harbour at the company's Sheung Wan store, an area better known for dried fish stands and feral cats as opposed to fondue sets and pepper mills. Ironically, the word "incongruous" would be not out of place to describe the setting. 

Surrounded by Le Creuset terrines and berry colanders, it was even more surreal to be with 15 other gweilo, watching a little Thai woman demonstrate how to make a number of traditional dishes from her homeland. Although she and I were probably both thinking, "How in the hell did I get here?" we didn't get distracted from the cooking tasks at hand. Here's one of the recipes we made, and it's absolutely defishous. 

Thai Fish Cakes
200g of white fish meat* 
3 tbsp of Thai red curry paste
1 tbsp of cornstarch
100g of long green beans, thinly sliced
1 red chili pepper, thinly and diagonally sliced (remove seeds to reduce the heat) OR 1/2 tsp. dried chili pepper flakes
200ml peanut oil* (use as much/little as you want, depending on how “oily” you want the cakes)

Add the fish, curry paste, cornstarch into a blender. Pour the blended mixture into a bowl and add the beans and chili pepper; mix well. Take a spoonful of the mixture and form into flat round cookie shapes. Pre-heat the pan over medium heat for a minute and then add the peanut oil and bring to a high heat. Drop the fish cakes in the hot oil, and wait until the fish cakes float back to the surface—this signals that the fish cakes are thoroughly cooked. Remove the cakes from the oil and blot with paper towel to remove excess oil. Serves 2. 
*OPTION: To make this healthier, I would precook the fish or use something like canned tuna so the cakes could be pan-fried as opposed to deep-fried, therefore much less oil would be necessary.

Dipping sauce
30g English cucumber, thinly sliced and peeled
1 tbsp lime juice
½ tsp salt
10g toasted peanuts, chopped
3 tbsp sweet chili sauce

In a separate bowl, add the cucumber and mix it with the sweet chili sauce, lime juice and salt. Sprinkle the peanut pieces over the sauce. The sauce can be served as a side dish or you can pour it over the fish cakes. 

And speaking of the Super Bowl, yes, I did manage to see Madonna's halftime performance. And once again, no, I wasn't impressed. Of the stage show? Yes. Of Madonna? No. Lip synching and the execution of half-hearted dance moves do not a performance make.

Don't get me wrong: Madonna's a great imitator, can read trends like nobody's business, and is a master manipulator of the media. She's not a musical genius, but she is a marketing genius, and that's exactly what last night's performance was all about.

The entire spectacle was a huge homage to her Madgesty, complete with worshipping slaves and cheerleaders; hell, she literally walked all over the equipment and shoulders of the party boys from LMFAO. There were branded Ms everywhere, including on M.I.A.'s crotch-cloth. And I bet you Madonna even choreographed M.I.A.'s totally inappropriate middle finger gesture, so that the performance would be deemed "controversial" and have the Twitter-verse up in arms and fingers—which it did—without imbruing Madonna herself in the brouhaha, as Janet "Nipplegate" Jackson learned the hard way, since her career has never really recovered. Madonna comes out clean, and M.I.A. once again proves that she too is a media manipulator. 

But I digress. Because is this supposed to be about balls—be they super or meat—and the 120 of them that I made yesterday afternoon to take to a Super Bowl party last night. So while they were percolating in the slow cooker, I decided to lay down for a little sleepy-sleep, which was much needed after an epic night out with some visiting relatives. (You know it's a good time when my friend Tanya, owner of DaMaurizio's, one of the finest restaurants in Halifax, told me that the waitstaff were chatting about "Table 5" in the kitchen, and how entertaining we were. No wonder we had so many people pop by to check on us.)

Anyhoo, a nap was in order before I tackled a Super Bowl party, which was a fine idea, if only I had remembered to set my alarm. I woke up just in time to see Madonna's performance, with 120 meatballs waiting for me patiently, if not a little bubbly. Thank goodness I love balls—Meatballs, that is, Christmas Super Meatballs—because I'm going to be eating them for quite some time. 

Superballs/Christmas Meatballs 
3 boxes of frozen meatballs (40/box; I use extra lean turkey meatballs, since much healthier option)
500g (16oz) jar of grape jelly/jam
455 ml jar of Heinz chili sauce
1/4 cup Frank's Red Hot Sauce  

Mix all of the above ingredients in a slow cooker and walk away (but stir occasionally...and try not to take a nap at some point during the slow-cookin' process). Two hours seems to be long enough for the sauce to really permeate, although 30 minutes at a medium-low temperature in a pot on the stove would also do the trick. You can use one or two boxes of meatballs if you want more sauce, say, to serve over a bed of rice to make this a meal as opposed to appetizers. 

And last but not least, yes, I'm completely aware that I should make my own meatballs, which I've done. But in the interest of time and effort which, let's face it, you want to have as little investment as possible, this is SO much easier! And you're really not losing much in the trade off, because it's the sauce, not the meat, that makes these balls so damn good. 

More soup for you!!! And this one is definitely a keeper, because hey, who doesn't love butternut squash soup? But here’s the deal. The absolute key to this recipe is the pecans. So you have two options:

Option One:
(courtesy of Rachel Ray)
You can bake your own butternut squash, which is going to take about an hour. If you are going to do that, then get:

2 butternut squash (about 4½ lbs.)
3 tbsp butter
2 large onions
2 cups chicken broth
2 cups milk (1% is fine)

Take the butternut squash and halve lengthwise. Place them cut-side up on a baking sheet, and brush with salt, pepper and 2 tbsp of butter. Bake until brown at the edges. Meanwhile in a large soup pot combine 1 tbsp of butter and 2 large onions (chopped). Cook over medium heat, until softened, 6-7 minutes. Once the squash is done, scoop out the flesh and add it into the soup pot. Add 2 cups chicken broth and 2 cups milk and bring to a simmer, stirring occasionally. Transfer in batches to a blender and puree.

OR

Option Two:
(courtesy of Gardennay)
Buy a couple of boxes of Campbell’s Gardennay Butternut Squash Soup.

Honestly, no one's judging you if you go the Option Two route. So don't feel guilty. Because whatever option you decide to go with, here is what's going to top this recipe. Literally.

Sweet and Spicy Pecan Topping
1 ½ cups of pecans, coarsely chopped
3 tbsp of butter
4 tbsp of brown sugar
1 tsp chili powder
½ tsp salt

In a small skillet, melt the butter, brown sugar, chili powder and salt over medium-low heat. Add the pecans and toast, stirring, for 5 minutes. Let cool. Then top the soup—whichever way you’ve prepared it—with the pecans.

Both these recipes come courtesy of Rachael Ray, who can be hit and miss both in cookbooks and on TV. I use her sparingly, since many of her recipes call for cups of cheese/cream/calories. But there's recipe gold in them there hills of fat—like with these two soups, which really are nutritious, delicious and easy-to-make dishes...not involving fishes or made by Sid Vicious, which might be suspicious, since he's no longer with us. Perhaps I'll shut up now, and go eat a bowl of soup, possibly two. 

Zucchini and Sweet Potato Soup
1 tbsp butter
2 onions, chopped
2 large sweet potatoes (about 1 lb), peeled and sliced ¼ inch thick
3 zucchini (about 1 lb), sliced ¼ inch thick (don’t need to peel!)
4 cups chicken or vegetable broth
Salt and pepper to taste
Pinch of nutmeg
¼ cup chopped fresh dill—this is key!!!
*Option: Two ¼ inch-thick slices pre-cooked ham (about 8 oz.), finely chopped; and obviously, this would be the non-vegetarian version.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter over medium heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring occasionally, until softened and lightly golden, about 8 minutes. Add the potatoes and zucchini and season with salt and pepper. Pour in the broth and bring to a boil; cover, lower the heat and simmer until the veggies are softened, about 20 minutes.

Using a blender, partially puree the soup, leaving some chunks. Stir in the ham* (or not), dill and nutmeg, and if desired, serve with bread (pumpernickel’s nice). And please note, the fresh dill is well worth the trip to the supermarket if you don't have any in the house. It really makes this dish, because when you think about it, zucchini and sweet potato don't have a lot of flavour on their own. So this soup is all about the seasoning, and now's the time to "use fresh." 

Chick Pea and Roasted Tomato Soup
2 tbsp olive oil
4 garlic cloves, chopped
15 oz. can of chick peas, rinsed and drained
Small onion, chopped
Tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. hot curry spice
1 cup chicken or vegetable stock
28 oz. can of fire-roasted diced tomatoes

Heat the olive oil over medium heat. Add the garlic and onions and cook until softened (about 6-7 minutes). In a bowl, mash the chick peas until desired consistency. Heck, you may even want to keep them “whole”, but I like to mash them to thicken the soup base. Add to the pot with the stock, then the tomatoes. Simmer for 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Spice-wise, it's always an experiment every time I make this dish, but I do like added heat, so I’ll throw in a lot of curry, cumin, even tabasco, and a little bit of tumeric and/or cardamom, if I have it. 

This recipe comes courtesy of the fine folks at Runners World. Now while I don’t know any of these folks personally, I’m assuming they’re all fine because presumably they’re runners. And I’ve never met a runner I didn’t like. Except for this guy I beat out in a sprint-to-the-finish 10K race last May. Wow, was he ever angry.

If only he had have fueled up on this healthy version of a comfort classic, he might have beaten me.

(Naahh, probably not.)

Creamy Cauliflower Mac
2 1/2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
2 bay leaves
1 cauliflower
8 ounces whole-wheat elbow macaroni
1/2 cup grated cheese (such as sharp cheddar, Gruyere, or Emmental, or a combination
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp dijon mustard
1/8 tsp nutmeg (1/8 tsp? Seriously? Why not say “a pinch” or better yet, “a dash.” This is a Runners World recipe after all.)
salt and black pepper
1/4 cup grated Parmesan cheese
1/2 cup whole-grain bread crumb

Heat oven to 400F. Boil a pot of salted water. In a saucepan, warm stock and bay leaves on medium-low heat for five minutes; turn off heat. Cook cauliflower in boiling water for 25 minutes. Put cauliflower in a food processor. Cook pasta in boiling water for five minutes. Drain and rinse to cool; put pasta in a greased, nine-inch square baking dish. Process cauliflower with stock (discard bay leaves), cheese, oil, mustard, nutmeg, salt, and pepper, working in batches. Pour sauce over pasta, toss, and spread evenly in dish. Top with Parmesan and bread crumbs. Bake 20 minutes. Makes 4 servings at 420 calories, 14.8g of fat and 56.7g of carbs/serving.

UPDATE: Due to the speed in which I was asked to post this recipe—(for the Microsoft Keynote address, I was asked to post a recipe for healthy mac & cheese, and I had all of 90 minutes to come up with one)—this recipe was recommended to me by a number of friends who had already taste-tested it. So I had to post it without having made it for myself...until last night. And in the interest of keeping 92% accurate in this blog, I gotta say: "Mheh." Kinda bland, but hey, that's probably a good thing if you're making it for kids. But if you like a little more oomph in your cooking, I'd suggest topping the mac mix with tomatoes, be they fresh, stewed or sundried. And if you're feeling meaty, you KNOW bacon or pancetta would be the perfect mix to the mac. No, not as healthy, but yes, pretty darn tasty.

Okay. You got out late from work, there’s just enough gas in the tank and within yourself to make it home, and you’re waaaay behind on everything—including neglecting to pick up groceries for tonight’s dinner. All you’ve got in the fridge is a package of ground something, an onion and a couple of random sauces which haven’t quite reached their expiry dates. What are you going to do? And, more importantly, what’s your family going to eat?

Have no fear, my frazzled friends! Instead, bedazzle loved ones with the easiest and healthiest alternative to the taco since tacos were invented, whenever that was. Behold, I give you the lettuce wrap!

Lettuce Wraps
1 tbsp of oil
400g (13 oz) ground chicken, beef, pork or tofu
1 can (1 cup) of water chestnuts*, drained and chopped finely
125g (4 oz) canned bamboo shoots*, drained and chopped finely
1 small onion, finely chopped
2-3 tbsp soy sauce
1/4 to 1/3 cup hoisin sauce
lettuce leaves (endive for appetizers, can also use iceberg or romaine for wraps)
Fresh mint* for serving

*Please note: Everything marked with an asterix* can be optional, because not too many people keep water chestnuts and bamboo shoots in the cupboard, let alone fresh mint in the fridge. But if you don’t use these ingredients, remember you won’t need to use as much soy/hoisin sauce.

Heat the oil in a pan or wok, sauté the chopped onions, then add in the protein, stirring over medium-high heat until brown all over (break up any lumps). Add the water chestnuts and bamboo shoots, toss well and cook for 1-2 minutes. Add the soy and hoisin sauce, toss well and cook for two minutes. Remove from heat.

To serve, put the protein mixture in each lettuce leaf (amount depends on size of leaf). Sprinkle with mint if desired, and then serve. This is great on its own but if you want to top the wraps with a sauce, try sweet chili, plum or even a little more hoisin. Just be sure to use sparingly as the lettuce adds even more moisture to an already juicy dish.

And that’s a wrap.

Okay. Those of you who have been reading the recipes from Tales of a Cook know that I don't bake. It requires measuring, and patience, and watching the oven occasionally—all things I try to avoid as much as possible. But even this recipe for Christmas shortbread is virtually foolproof, since even a non-measuring fool like me can do it. 

I first started making shortbread cookies when I was a child, under Mom's guidance, love and eagle eye, since I had a tendency to eat raw dough. Baking these cookies, together, was such a cherished tradition—it was certainly one of my favourite things. Aaaand, cue the music, because of course we'd bake them whenever that Christmas classic The Sound of Music was scheduled to be on TV. It usually meant a Sunday evening spent in the kitchen, with the TV on in the corner, and Mom and I decorating cookies while singing "Edelweiss" in two-part harmony...more or less. Once we got American cable, our bake time options expanded. (Still it almost seemed sacrilegious not to watch it on CBC or CTV.)

Even when I left home to teach English in Japan for two years, Mom sent me a Christmas care package. In it included a handwritten letter with her recipe for shortbread cookies and a VHS copy of The Sound of Music. Thank God and Mom it was the extended version of the movie, since I foolishly decided to make shortbread cookies for all my students that Christmas. When you have over 150 students, and your "full-size" Japanese oven can only fit 20 cookies at a time, it makes for a long night and early morning of baking.

Over the years, I've probably watched The Sound of Music over 30 times—Sing-a-long Sound of Music twice!—but I've kind of fallen behind on the baking, because there's a tendency to indulge since they're so darn good. But now that I have my own kitchen and baking sheets back after a couple of years on the road, I do believe there'll be some baking—and singing—happening in the kitchen once again. 

Christmas Shortbread
1 cup butter or margarine (room temperature)
1/2 cup white sugar
2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour

Cream the butter or margarine with a spatula and gradually add the sugar. Add the flour in 1/2 cup increments, using your hands to mix (because that's how Mom taught me, and how all mothers should teach their daughters, because it's okay to get dough on your fingers). Roll the dough into 1"-2'' balls. Now, go nuts. Literally!

Take a whole almond and push onto the top of the dough, so that the dough flattens out, then bake. OR, poke your thumb into the ball so that you'll have a little indentation, bake, and then when the cookies come out, you can fill the indentations with strawberry jam or frosting, or whatever! OR get those cookie cutters that have been rusting away in your cupboard. Remove the rust spots, roll out the dough and start cutting favourite Christmas shapes like stars and trees and bells. You can decorate with candies and sprinkles and gumdrops, or wait until they come out of the oven and start icing.

The beauty of shortbread cookies is you can do anything with them. The only thing you need to know is to set the oven for low at 250F and bake for 20-25 minutes until the cookies are done. And how do you know they're done? The bottom of the cookie should be a nice light golden brown. At least that's what Mom always taught me. 

First of all, thank you.

Thank you, cheers, domo arigato, xièxiè, grazie, spasiba and danke to all the Canadians, Americans, British, Australians, New Zealanders, Japanese, Chinese, Hong Kongers, Italians, Russians and Germans who read my blog. (And the aforementioned international contingent was just from the past seven days alone. It makes me think what might happen if I actively promoted this. More on that later this month.)

Some of you I know, and many of you are virtual strangers. But whoever you are and wherever you may be, I'm completely blown away that you're reading my weekly ramblings, and dare I say it, liking them—or at the very least, not writing me to tell me how much you hate them.

Even more incredible? You're actually making the recipes in Tales From A Cook. So far as I can tell, "Grandma Marie's Corn Chowder" has been made on at least three continents. All from a few ingredients thrown together in a small kitchen in an even smaller town in Cape Breton.  

Now theoretically, this week's recipe should be one that I learned in cooking class at the Auckland Seafood School, since I mentioned the experience in Thursday's blog entry, "North by Southwest." And it should probably be the salmon entrée because it was so darn defishious. But in class we made sesame-crusted salmon, and it was only a few scant weeks ago that I posted a recipe for sesame-crusted tuna. 

So rather than open sesame again, here's the dessert we made—also equally delicious, relatively nutritious and super easy to do. And isn't that what you're looking for in a recipe in the first place?

Rum and Palm Sugar-Glazed Pineapple with Toasted Coconut and Lemon-Zest Sorbet
4 fresh pineapple rounds
150g palm sugar (generally found in Asian supermarkets; can use brown sugar as a substitute)
100ml dark rum 
150ml water
2 star anise
1 vanilla pod
2 tbsp toasted coconut* 
4 scoops of lemon zest sorbet or your favourite ice cream

Add the palm sugar, rum, water, star anise and vanilla to a saucepan and gently reduce on medium-low heat until it thickens. Remove from heat and brush the pineapple slices on both sides with the glaze. Gently grill pineapple on the barbeque until warmed through, but still a little firm. Place pineapple onto dessert plates and place sorbet in centre. Drizzle with remaining syrup and sprinkle with toasted coconut.

*For the toasted coconut, preheat the oven to 325F. Lay coconut flat on a cookie sheet and bake in the oven for about 5-10 minutes until they turn a rich brown colour. OR just cook the coconut in a skillet on the stove top using medium heat. Stir frequently until golden brown. Either way, keep an eye on it since it can burn easily. 

Over the years, I've eaten a lot of raw things. You'd think that veggies are a given, and they are—except in Japan, where raw carrot sticks and cucumber slices are considered oddities. Yet in Japan, there are some foods which Westerners would never consider eating raw. But I still managed to gnaw my way through some pretty weird stuff during the two years I lived there, and it was all done in the name of internationalization and trying to be a good little gaijin.

So during those 24 months—be it freshly caught, killed or hatched—you name it, I tried it: raw fish, eggs, beef, horse, sheep intestines...Hell, I even ate some type of fish that had been skinned alive, with its outer layer of flesh cut into bite-size morsels. To watch a fish molt as it lies dying on a table, gasping in slow breaths, with one big eye looking at you, while your Japanese school superiors (and by extension, you) pick at its living carcass is definitely a once-in-a-lifetime-and-don't-want-to-repeat experience. 

Admittedly I balked at eating raw whale for moral reasons, and said, "No thanks," to raw chicken, because of the umpteen "Make sure the chicken's cooked, you don't want to get food poisoning!" warnings Mom would reiterate on a surprisingly regular basis. 

Mom actually came to visit me in Japan for three memorable weeks, a time when she and I both discovered that chicken wasn't the only raw paranoia-inducing ingredient for her. She couldn't wrap her head (or her mouth) around sushi, even though she used to eat raw clams right out of the shell back in Cape Breton. Given her propensity for uncooked molluscs, I never understood her aversion to sushi. Until now. Because when it came to clams, Mom always dipped them in vinegar, and the vinegar's acidity "cooked" them, so they weren't truly raw after all. Just like in the preparation of Ika Mata, the South Pacific version of ceviche, with lemon or lime juice—or vinegar—acting as the cooking agent. 

I learned how to make Ika Mata my very first day in the Cook Islands. The cooking class was taught by Tiki, the activities director at the Edgewater Resort. Awesome guy. Very dry and sarcastic, and a wealth of knowledge—including being able to make Ika Mata, a favourite staple in the Polynesian diet. 

Initially, I wasn't too sure about the recipe and its seemingly random ingredients, because Tiki (the guy in the blue shirt and hat in the pic below) took great delight in giving us newbie tourists a lot of islands tips, and clearly, half of them were patently false. Like talking about how you can take the clockwise bus or the anticlockwise bus, depending on which way you want to go around Rarotonga island. Then I saw the bus...and I tried Ika Mata...and I realized: Tiki was a man I could trust, both on the road and in the kitchen.

Ika Mata

800 g firm white fish
1 medium-sized onion
1 green pepper
1 tomato
1/2 bunch of spring onions
1/2 cucumber
1/2 tin of coconut cream
Salt, pepper and garlic
Freshly squeezed lemon, lime juice or vinegar
*Optional: Sweet chili sauce and mayo to taste 

Slice the fish in cubes and soak in lemon or lime juice or vinegar. Sprinkle with salt and garlic and ensure that the marinating juice is above the fish mixture during marinating process, so that the fish "cooks" in the acidity of the citrus or vinegar. Cover the bowl and marinate for 2-3 hours. (The finer the fish is sliced, the quicker it will cook in the juices.) Prepare rest of ingredients, by chopping into small pieces. Drain and squeeze excess marinating juice from the meat and place in a bowl. Add coconut cream and the rest of the ingredients and mix gently.
*Optional: Add sweet chili and mayo to taste (I know, sounds weird, but surprisingly tasty). Refrigerate for 10 minutes before serving on a bed of lettuce. Serves 4-6.

In my blog entry “The Whole truth,” which was posted a couple of days ago, I mentioned going to Whole Foods to buy chicken, cilantro, mushrooms and peppers for a reason. Namely, I went to Whole Foods to buy chicken, cilantro, mushrooms and peppers as the ingredients for “The Last Supper” with Janelle before I left Seattle and headed out across the Pacific. I had asked Janelle to choose her favourite meal for me to prepare, and this Chipotle Chicken dish was the winner, although the Prosciutto, Artichoke and Blue Cheese Pizza was a close second.

The original recipe for this came from the cookbook Rachael Ray 365: No Repeats, which was given to me for Christmas in 2005 by my wonderful Aunt Barbara—Dad’s sister and one of the kindest, funniest women I know. For someone who looks the least Italian out of every Italian on the face of the earth, Aunt Barbara definitely has some inherent traits: emotional, not shy, a love of good food and an undying hope that her niece will settle down with a nice man. (Keep the faith, Aunt Barbara! I’m trying, I’m trying!)

I don’t know why she chose to give me this particular recipe book for Christmas, because honestly up until 2005, I wasn’t really following any recipe books at all. I was just cooking based on what Mom and Grandma had taught me, and picking things up along the way. The concept of trying recipes from a book never even crossed my mind; they seemed too complicated, too measure-y, and more a recipe for failure than for culinary success. That is, until I stumbled upon the cookbooks of Donna Hay.

Seriously, guys, if you find cooking a daunting or time-consuming process, or you’re afraid of what might end up on the plate, worry no longer: It’s Donna Hay to the rescue. With relatively minimal ingredients, her recipes are usually quite simple and healthy, and each has an accompanying picture, which is always helpful. In particular, I love Donna Hay’s Instant Entertaining. It's broken up into sections like “Weeknights” when you don’t have a lot of time to prepare or “Sunday Lunch” which is all about spending a leisurely afternoon with friends and family.

Then each section is broken down even further, with a starter, main, side and dessert for every category like “Asian Fusion,” “Winter Favourites,” “Greek Inspired,” “Bistro Basics” and “Last-Minute Dinner.” It takes all the pondering out of pairing, so you’ll know that a dessert of coconut plum crumbles will go great with a starter of goat’s cheese tarts and a main of crispy peppered salmon with fennel and celery root slaw. (All right, so I didn’t make the coconut plum crumbles. But the salmon was fantastic!)

Regardless, once Aunt Barbara discovered how much I was enjoying experimenting in the kitchen, she immediately started buying me any and everything possible that was somehow kitchen-related. I think in her mind it solved two problems: what to get me for birthday/Christmas/special occasions, and how it might help me find a man.

So over the years, I’ve received measuring cups, zesters, knitted dish cloths, Tupperware, egg separators, pots, pans, an indoor grill, a knife block with two sets of knives, a wine decanter, wooden spoons, and last night—as an early Christmas present—she gave me a slow cooker, the book Fit-It and Forget It Lightly – Healthy, Low-Fat Recipes for Your Slow Cooker (who makes up these titles?) AND a 1.5 litre bottle of “gourmet cooking wine.” I guess if the slow cooker recipe doesn’t work out, I can always fall back on a huge dinner of wine made in Truro, Nova Scotia.

In addition to love, kindness and unconditional support (and all the kitchen gadgets), Aunt Barbara has also given me a lot of cookbooks, with Rachael Ray being a particular favourite. And I have to say, “Rachael’s got game.” Mind you some of the recipes are heavy on the cream and cheese, so I avoid those, but that still leaves thousands to choose from out of the four-Rachael-cookbooks-and-counting I have courtesy of my aunt.

Now in Rachael’s 365 cookbook, the original recipe is called “Park City Cashew Chicken” and it’s definitely sweeter than the recipe you see below—which has been modified and renamed Chipotle Chicken, because I’ve focused more on the heat, less on the sweet. If spice is not your thing, well, that’s a shame…but still, all you need to do is take out the red pepper chili flakes and Tabasco, and you should be fantastic. Just like Aunt Barbara.

Chipotle Chicken

2 large chicken breasts, cut into 2-inch pieces
2 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp seasoning (Club House La Grille Spicy Pepper Medley, or salt and pepper)
4 garlic cloves, chopped
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 small red and 1 small yellow bell pepper, cored, seeded and thinly sliced
4 chipotle peppers, chopped finely; and include 4 tbsp of sauce from can
100g mushrooms, sliced
1 tbsp ground cumin
3 tbsp honey
1/3 cup real maple syrup
2-3 tbsp chopped fresh cilantro
1 cup raw unsalted cashews
Optional: red pepper chili flakes and Tabasco to taste!
Rice as accompanying side

Heat a large skillet over high heat and add 1 tbsp olive oil, then the chicken. Season the chicken, and lightly brown it on both sides, then remove from pan. Put the remaining oil in the pan and add onions and garlic, sautéing for a couple of minutes. Then add bell peppers, chipotles with sauce, mushrooms and cumin. Put the chicken back in the pan, and toss to coat. Glaze the mixture with honey and maple syrup; and of course “add the heat” with red pepper chili flakes and Tabasco to taste. Add the chopped cilantro at the end and mix together. Serve with small bed of rice (I like to use brown or whole grain), and top chipotle chicken with cashews for a nice final presentation. Makes 4 servings.