Most of these ingredients they are probably best found in locations where Asian foods are sold, in Toronto you can get all of the ingredients from anyone of the many Chinese ‘supermarkets’ in China Town on Spadina Ave. Of note: Tom Kha Gai means soup of chicken and galangal, galangal looks similar to ginger but is very different.

Ingredients:
800 ml coconut milk
6-10 kaffir lime leaves
5-6 slices of galangal
2 tablespoons fish sauce
1 tablepoon lime juice
1 teaspoon palm sugar (be generous)
2 fresh Thai chilies, chopped (not bird’s nests)
1 stalk lemon grass, roughly chopped
200g straw mushrooms
200g chicken thigh fillets, thinly sliced
coriander (handful)
Thai basil (handful)

Bring coconut milk to a gentle boil in a large saucepan. Add lime leaves, lime juice, fish sauce, galangal, sugar, chilies, lemongrass. Cook 5 mins. Add chicken and mushrooms, cook another 10-15 mins until chicken is done. Take off the heat and chuck in a handful of Thai basil and corriander. Leave overnight. Re-heat, and add more Thai basil and coriander. You can garnish with crispy fried eschalotts if you could be bothered.

Ingredients:
1.5L Red wine
1 to 1.5 cups rum (dark is my favorite)
0.5 cup white sugar
2 to 3 pieces of fruit, sliced into small slices (lemons,limes,oranges are best)
1 to 1.5 cups orange juice

Preparation:
Pretty darn easy: get a large jug, think capacity of minimum 2L but I’d do 3L, pour in the sugar, cut up the fruit and squeeze the juice a bit out of them and throw into the jug, pour in rum, pour in wine, pour in orange juice, mix well, refrigerate for 2 hours.

Voila!

Ingredients:
2 – 1 lb pork tenderloins
5 – green onions
8oz gorgonzola (substitute Blue Cheese or Stilton if you desire)
fresh ground sea salt
fresh ground pepper
4 tablespoons good quality olive oil
twine/string

Instructions:

Pre-heat oven to 450 F (I use a convection oven so adjust accordingly). Fine chop all of the green onion except the trimmed edges. In a mixing bowl crumble all but 2 oz of the gorgonzola and mix in the onion till well blended. Butterfly both tenderloins then cover with suitable plastic/wax covering and with a mallet pound until flat. Remove the covering and lightly salt and pepper the inside of the pork, then evenly divide the cheese/onion mixture between the two tenderloins in the center. Leave about a half inch on the ends of each tenderloin (for tucking in once rolled to avoid too much seepage of the stuffing). Roll the tenderloins tucking in the ends, tie with sting to secure but not squeeze the pork. Place the tenderloins in a glass/porcelain baking dish that can “just” hold the two pieces. Drizzle with olive oil while turning them (the rolling process should leave no ‘insides’ visible so this should be easy), salt and pepper liberally. Place the dish into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes remove and test the temperature (meat thermometer, not fingers!) make sure it is above 160F internally. Place the remaining gorgonzola on top of the two pieces of pork, return to over and bake for 5 more minutes. Remove from the oven, slice up (remove the string) and drizzle the juice on top of it on the plates. Serve with side of choice and a nice Rhone or Burgundy. This meal will have a nice bold flavour and should not be paired with a soft wine. Avoid light whites or an overwhelming Bordeaux style as both extreme wines will take away from the flavour of the dish.

Enjoy!

-cwg

Ingredients (will keep things imperial on this):

2 tablespoons of olive oil
1/2 cup of butter (unsalted)
2 cloves of garlic (chopped fine)
3 shallots (chopped fine)
1 cup of white wine (chardonnay or sauvignon blanc)
5 cups of chicken stock
6-8 slices of thick bacon, cooked and shredded
4 oz of blue cheese (crumbled)
1/4 cup of walnuts (roasted and chopped)
1/2 cup of spinach leaves
1.5 cups of Carnaroli or Arborio rice
*optional* cherry tomatoes if in season, halved

Heat up the chicken stock and put aside. In a large saucepan combine butter and oil over medium heat. Once hot, add garlic and shallots and cook until the shallots are near translucent. Add the rice and mix well with shallots and oils, when mixed well add wine. At this point stirring consistently is a must, nice consistent stirs will even out the moisture distribution and make the risotto nice and creamy. As the liquid is absorbed start adding the hot stock about a half cup at a time, do this consistently until all but the last half cup of stock is absorbed. As you put in the last half a cup of chicken stock and it is half absorbed add in the spinach, blue cheese, bacon and walnuts (and cherry tomatoes if you have decided on adding them) mixing them in well. Serve immediately.

Blue Cheese Risotto near the serving point!

3 onions diced
2 green peppers diced
2 field red peppers diced
2 hot banana peppers diced
4 cloves of garlic minced
2 lbs of ground beef
2 tins of diced tomatoes (786ml)
3 tins of kidney beans (540ml)
3/4rds of a spice container of chili powder
1 tablespoon of crushed dried chili peppers

1.Sauté onions on high heat with olive oil, add in garlic then peppers. Sauté for a few minutes then add to pot,
2.Brown ground beef in same pan and lightly spice with chili powder, add beef to pot
3.Add kidney beans and tomatoes to the pot and stir
4.add chili powder and crushed chili’s to the pot, stir
5.put pot on low heat and simmer for 6 hours