Nicoise Salad

Chef. Luis Felipe Lavieri

Ingredients:

- Seared sockeye salmon
- Yellow grape tomato
- Russet potato
- Beans (you can use purple)
- Hard boiled egg
- Mandarin orange segments
- Mediterranean organic pitted black olives



Mandarin Vinaigrette

- Zest of 1 mandarin
- Juice of 1 mandarin
- 3 leafs of mint
- 1/2 cup of olive oil
- 1 tea spoon of Dijon Mustard
- 2 cloves of garlic, minced


Directions

Seared sockeye salmon - Portion, Salt, and pepper. On a hot pan, add 1 tbsp of Olive oil, quickly cook each side of the salmon. Each side should be cooked for less than 1 minute, only long enough to get a little colour and for all the pores to be sealed.

Hard boiled egg - Put egg(s) in a pot with cold water, bring to a boil. Once the water begins to boil, set a timer for 8 minutes. When the timer goes off, strain the egg(s) and run under cold water. Peel and cut in half longwise

Purple beans - Bring a small pot of water to boil, put in the cleaned purple beans for 30 seconds, strain the water and place the beans into an ice water bath to stop cooking process.

Russet Potato - peel and cut into cubes about 1-2 inches wide, put into a small pot of cold water, bring to a boil. Once boiling, bring the heat down to a medium heat. Check the potatoes every 3-5 minutes for done-ness. Usually takes less than 10 minutes for potato cubes to be fully cooked from the moment the water begins to boil. Do Not Overcook, otherwise you will end up with mash.

Yellow grape Tomatoes - cut in half

Mandarin orange segments - Peel mandarin. divide mandarin into segments. Remove any of the rind still attached to the segments and any seeds.

Mandarin Vinagrette 

Combine and emulsify all ingredients except for the mint. Chop mint finely and combine with the dressing.


Finishing the salad

In a hot pan at medium heat, pan fry Potatoes, beans, olives, grape tomatoes, and 2 tbsp of the vinagrete. Take off heat, add 1 tbsp of vinagrette and toss, Salt and Pepper to taste. Plate as the base. Add Hard boiled egg halves on top. Add Pan seared Salmon on top. Spoon 1 tbsp of vinaigrette on top of the salmon.

Mandarin vinagrette works really well also with Arugula

Baked Pear

Chef. Luis Felipe Lavieri

Ingredients:

1 Pear
2 tbsp of sugar (per pair)
2 tbsp of cottage cheese
A little bit of lemon juice


Directions

1. Cut the Pear in Half, core the Pear and place on a baking tray.

2.  Add lemon and sprinkle sugar

3. Place in the oven at 350 degrees for about half an hour.

4. Serve with cottage cheese

This recipe is great for breakfast. To spice it up add nuts!

Glory Bowl

Ingredients:

1 Cup Brown Rice
1/2 Cup Beets
1/2 Cup Carrots
1/2 Cup Sunflower Seeds
1/2 Cup Spinach
1/4 Cup Alfalfa
1 Avocado
1/2 Cup Tofu or Chicken
1/4 Cup Cilantro

Dressing:
1/4 Cup Miso
1 Lime
1/8 Cup Apple Cider Vinegar
1/2 Cup Water
1 Clove Garlic
1 Cup Vegetable Oil
1/3 Cup Tahini
1 Tablespoon Soy Sauce

Directions

1. In small pot, start cooking the brown rice with 2 Cups water and 1 Cup of brown rice.

2.  While Rice is cooking, Grate the raw beets and carrots
3. Finely shred the spinach and dice the avocado.

4. In a blender, blend together the miso, lime juice, vinegar, 1/2 cup of water, garlic, soy sauce and tahini.  Slowly drizzle in the Vegetable oil as it can get too thick.

5. Once your rice is done cooking, layer the ingredients as follows:  Rice, a little of your dressing, Beets, Carrots, Spinach, Avocado, Alfalfa, Chopped Cilantro, Sunflower Seeds, and the rest of your dressing. 

Turkey? What Turkey? – A Brief Culinary History of Thanksgiving Dinner

Movies, TV Shows, books, and other illustrative media the world over laude the first Thanksgiving in all its glory; with pilgrims and natives sitting side by side enjoying a huge roasted Turkey, roasted corn, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, pumpkin pie and many other delightful treats that we enjoy today. Truthfully, if we could hop into a time machine and join them at this feast, it is likely that we wouldn't recognize anything from our traditional thanksgiving meal at all.

Turkeys, while abundant in the wild, had not yet been domesticated and were very difficult to catch. It would have been much easier for the English settlers to hunt waterfowl, such as ducks and geese, since those were familiar to what they would hunt and eat back home in England. The birds themselves, whatever the species, would have been stuffed with herbs, onions, or whole oats if they were stuffed at all. From various sources, the first New England settlers tended towards easily caught bounty, such as lobster, eels, oysters, and fish.

The Wampanoag mainly used corn for making bread during the harvest season and were familiar with squash like pumpkins, so corn bread and baked squash would have made it on to the menu, though perhaps not in the same forms we recognize today. Cranberries were likely not so lucky. If they were included in the meal at all, it was only to be used sparingly as an added sour or tangy flavour. When they fled England, the Pilgrims only brought with them what they could carry on their backs, so expensive spices like sugar were not high priority. Historical records show that it wasn’t until at least 50 years after the first Thanksgiving that sugar would be both available and inexpensive enough in New England to be used in making sweets.

Like sugar, potatoes also hadn't quite made it to New England yet. Originally from South America, the tuber was exported to England, but considered a rare luxury item and one that the Pilgrims would not have been able to bring with them. Sweet potatoes, originally from the Caribbean, found themselves in a similar situation, but with the added stigma of being considered a potent aphrodisiac. Definitely not something the very religious Puritans would want to bring to the new world with them.

So, when did all these “traditions” come about? Not until about 200 years later, as the settlers learned about their new homeland and began experimenting with the food they had available. The earliest we see a menu resembling what we expect a Thanksgiving meal to contain isn't until 1779 and was described in a letter. “Haunch of Venison, Roast Chine of Pork, Roast Turkey, Pigeon Pasties, Roast Goose, Onions in Cream, Cauliflower, Squash, Potatoes, Raw Celery, Mincemeat Pie, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Indian Pudding, Plum Pudding, Cider” * Yum!

Cranberry sauce still didn't appear on the menu until the mid-1800s. Around that same time, the well-known bread based stuffing also began appearing on the menu. In fact, if you were to travel through time and eat at every thanksgiving dinner from the first until now, the most common food served during a Thanksgiving meal, was any dish featuring oysters. Can you just imagine watching the United States President pardoning an Oyster?

Quinoa Salad

Ingredients

1 Cup Quinoa
2 Cups Water

Salad:
1 Apple
1 Green Bell Pepper
1 Tomato
2 Stalks of Celery
1/2 Red Onion
1/2 Cucumber
6 Sprigs Cilantro
1/4 Cup Walnuts


Dressing:
8 Tbspn Olive Oil
6 Tbspn Balsamic Vinegar
3 Tbspn Lemon Juice
2 Sprigs Cilantro
1/2 Tspn Salt
1/2 Tspn Pepper


Directions 

1. In small pot, bring to boil 1 Cup Quinoa and 2 Cups of water.  
Turn down to simmer for 15 minutes, until water all absorbed in the quinoa.
Once Quinoa is done, put in the fridge/freezer to cool off (Do not freeze) so it is cold when added to salad.

Chop up Apple, Green Pepper, Tomato, Celery, Red Onion, Cilantro into small chopped pieces.  Put aside.

In a small blender, blend together Olive Oil, Balsamic Vinegar, Lemon Juice, Cilantro, Salt and Pepper.
Everyone is different, so try the dressing and add what you think will make it better for you! Be creative! 

In a large bowl, add the cooled down Quinoa to the chopped fruit and Vegetables.  Add your dressing and mix thoroughly.  

Sprinkle some crushed walnuts on top and voila!  A healthy salad that is absolutely delicious!