This quick and easy dish goes really well with cooked brown or red rice and your favourite green vegetable. If local asparagus is available, try steaming it; if not, go with steamed broccoli.
1 medium onion
3 Tbsp (45 mL) Dijon mustard
2 Tbsp (30 mL) pure maple syrup
1 tsp (5 mL) paprika
2 Tbsp (30 mL) low-sodium chicken broth
8 organic skinless, boneless
chicken thighs (approximately 1 1/2 lbs/ 700 g)
1 - 398 mL (14 oz) can peach
halves in light syrup, water, or fruit juice, drained
Dice the onion and set aside.
Mix together Dijon mustard, maple syrup, and paprika in small bowl until smooth, using a fork. Stir in chicken broth and set aside.
Heat large skillet over medium heat. Brown chicken on both sides. Remove from pan and place in clean dish. Add onion to pan and sauté for 2 minutes. Add chicken back to pan. Add peaches and pour mustard mixture over top. Place tight-fitting lid over top, reduce heat to simmer, and cook for 20 minutes. Turn chicken over halfway through the cooking time. Cook until chicken is cooked and has reached an internal temperature of 165 F (74 C). Remove chicken and place on clean plate, cover.
Turn heat up to medium and bring sauce to a boil; gently boil for 3 to 5 minutes or until it thickens. Serve each person 2 chicken thighs. Evenly spoon on the peaches and sauce.
Serves 4.
Each serving contains:
390 calories; 40 g protein; 14 g total fat (4 g sat. fat, 0 g trans fat); 27 g carbohydrates; 2 g fibre; 417 mg sodium
source: "Mother's Day Meal", alive #343, May 2011
Tourtière is, for me, the dish that best represents Québec. It can be traced back to the 1600s, and there’s no master recipe; every family has their own twist. Originally, it was made with game birds or game meat, like rabbit, pheasant, or moose; that’s one of the reasons why I prefer it with venison instead of beef or pork. Variation: If you prefer to make single servings, follow our lead at the restaurant, where we make individual tourtières in the form of a dome (pithivier) and fill them with 5 ounces (160 g) of the ground venison mixture. Variation: You can also use a food processor to make the dough. Place the flour, salt, and butter in the food processor and pulse about ten times, until the butter is incorporated—don’t overmix. It should look like wet sand, and a few little pieces of butter here and there is okay. With the motor running, through the feed tube, slowly add ice water until the dough forms a ball—again don’t overmix. Wrap, chill, and roll out as directed above.
My love of artichokes continues with this classic recipe, one of the best ways to eat this interesting, underrated, and strange vegetable. Frozen artichoke hearts are a time-saving substitute, though the flavour and texture of fresh artichokes are, by far, much superior and definitely preferred.
Cervelle de canut is basically the Boursin of France, an herbed fresh farmer’s cheese spread that’s a speciality of Lyon. The name is kind of weird, as it literally means “silk worker’s brain,” named after nineteenth-century Lyonnaise silk workers, who were called canuts. Sadly, the name reflects the low opinion of the people towards these workers. Happily for us, though, it’s delicious—creamy, fragrant, and fresh at the same time. Cervelle de canut is one of my family’s favourite dishes. It’s a great make-ahead appetizer that you can pop out of the fridge once your guests arrive. Use a full-fat cream cheese for the dish, or it will be too runny and less delicious.