Blame Canada!

But seriously, folks...

There is one ingredient that I knew I HAD to use in representing Canada...maple syrup! That, and salmon. This was a simple, yet delicious dish to make. I decided to make salmon with orange Zest. Here's how you do it...

Buy a big, beautiful filet of salmon. Any variety will do. I picked siverbrite, for two reasons. One, the cost. Sliverbrite is half the cost of other salmons. Two, silverbrite has less oil that other varieties. Not everyone can handle an oil rich fish. depending on where you live, this may be called chum slamon. The down side is that this salmon also has less flavor. For what we are going to do withy it, that is just fine. I bought a 2 and 1/4 pound filet. It fed two, with leftovers.

Preheat the oven to 350. Put rack in center of oven.

Wash and pat dry the fish. Lay on a cutting board, and cut into small enough pieces to fit on a baking sheet. Line a baking sheet with foil. Put a second layer of foil over the first, and create a boat, or bowl effect, leaving enough to spare to cover the fish. Lay the fish out on this, and sprinkle with kosher salt. Now, drizzle fish with maple syrup. Sprinkle on some ground coriander. Take an orange, wash it, and grate the zest onto the fish. Use the outer skin of the whole orange. The fruit can then be peeled, and served as an appetizer. Finally, pour a shot of Absolut Mandarin Vodka onto the fish.

Snap the tough ends off a bunch of asparagus. Lay this on top of the fish. Fold the foil over the fish, and pinch the edges, creating a closed pocket. Bake for 20 minutes.

There now...wasn't that delicious. You can Blame Canada!

Cameroon Chicken

Okay...it's been a while. One of the reasons is that there has been a major change in the Chicken Coop. My wife and I have moved toward a gluten free, low carb diet. This has meant some catching up with the learning curve. Below is an example of a dish made famous in Cameroon, with some tweaks to make it Paleo friendly. It is known as Poulet DG. Poulet is chicken; and DG stands for "Director General". This African dish was once reserved for dignitaries. Now, it is enjoyed by the rank and file.

I used 2 pounds of boneless, skinless chicken thighs. Traditionally, a whole chicken is used. From the produce department, I used 3 tomatoes, 3 ripe plantains...and I mean RIPE! They were were soft, yellow, with a few black spots. This is the major source of sweet goodness that goes oh so well with chicken. 1 small onion, three bell peppers. I used red, orange and yellow. I tend to stay away from green bell peppers. I chopped up a bunch of organic carrots, and some cilantro.

I cut the chicken into bite sized pieces, and browned it in some coconut oil. Then I added all the chopped veggies, and a couple of teaspoons of minced garlic. After a few minutes of softening the vegetables, I added a couple of cups of chicken broth. Add salt and pepper to taste, simmer for 20 minutes, and we had a dinner so good, it would make you want to slap your mamma, yes it would

Ingrediants: (serves 4; or, less, with left overs)

2 lbs Chicken
3 Tomatoes, chopped
3 ripe Plantains, sliced
1 small Onion,diced
3 Sweet Peppers, sliced
5 Carrots, sliced
2 teaspoons Minced garlic
chopped Cilantro
2 cups Chicken Stock
Black Pepper
Salt
Coconut Oil