Salmon Smokehouse PizzSalad

The PizzSalad was created by Cory Medd (http://www.twoguyspizza.ca), president of Two Guys and a Pizza Place and annual World Pizza Expo Competitor. Cory is known for his innovative recipes, last year he won Best Pizza in Canada as decided by Canadian Pizza Magazine: (http://www.citytv.com/calgary/yourcity_55327.aspx). So, credit for this one has to be paid to Medd. This is my take on the PizzSalad, which is essentially a pizza on a base of two fajita shells. Super easy and quick, newbie prep time is low, about 20 minutes. Throw this puppy in the oven at 300 degrees for about 15 minutes or until cheese is melted.

The Goods...(a la two)

• 4 Tortilla Shells - Or Wraps
• Medium Salsa
• Two Salmon Steaks (The frozen variety is okay. http://www.highliner.com/site/eng/prod_det.asp?product_id_pass=pro0063)
• Red Pepper
• Green Pepper
• Green Onion (Spring Onion)
• Red Onion
• Old Chedder
• Cajun Spice Mix
• Liquid Smoke (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_smoke)
• Franks Red Hot Sauce
• Thousand Islands Dressing
• Romaine Lettuce
• Ranch Dressing

Method...

First thing you gotta do is set your oven, preheat the old food furnace 350°. Toss those frozen salmon fillets on a lightly greased baking dish. They should only take about 20 minutes, recommended internal temperature should not go past 145°, unless you want your salmon to taste like a week old burger that has been sitting in the fridge that you ate after drinking 14 pilsner (2 nights ago). While the salmon is getting happy, cut up your peppers and onion. Get the tortillas ready, spread some salsa on one side, using the salsa as a "glue" press the orther tortilla together, making a formidable base for your PizzSalad.

Now your salmon should be pretty close to being donezo. Take these guys out of the oven and drop the temperature about 50 degrees. The salmon should be somewhat flaky, remove it from the pan and place in a bowl of decent size. Add a teeny bit of liquid smoke, this stuff is potent, so handle with care. Dice your salmon up with a knife, so that it's not mush, but chunks. That liquid smoke should hit your right in the nose, delish.

Take the tortilla base, spread about two tbsps of Thousand Islands dressing as your PizzSalads sauce. Sprinkle on some peppers, onion and finally your smoked out salmon. Shred some of that old chedda and cover the "pies" generously. Hit em with as much of the Cajun spice as you want. Pop these fellas in the oven for about 15 minutes... Watch em, you just want the cheese to melt and crust to harden a bit.

While the PizzSalads spend some time roasting, rip up some of your Romaine, wash it. Place in a bowl with a bit of Ranch and mix well. Once this is all done, your PizzSalad's should be looking tasty. Yank em. Lightly cover with the Rachified Romaine. EAT.

3rd Dish, Any Ideas?

Hey gang,

Any ideas on my thrid dish? Search around, gimme some ideas. Also, anyone who wants to come and enjoy some "fine dining", gimme a comment. I can only afford to feed two of you, so let me know...

Keep em comming...

Authentic German Rouladin on Sourdough

Rouladen is a traditional German meal, typically consisting of bacon, onions, mustard and pickles wrapped in thinly sliced beef and then cooked. Once again, this one is pretty easy if you don't shy away from touching raw meat and getting your hands dirty. Realistic newbie for this dish is about 25 minutes prep. This bad boy requires some time actually cooking though; you're looking at 1 and 1/2 hours of love in the oven at 375 degrees.

The Goods...(Pour Deux)
1 Loaf of SanFran Sourdough
1 Package of Rouladen (This usually is 2-3 strips, it costs about 7$ and you'll have to ask your butcher about it.)
Jalapenos (seeds in)
One Full Onion.
Dijon mustard.
Horseradish.
Pickles. (Does'nt matter if they are garlic or not, you're choice homies.)
3 packages of Beef Stock.
Toothpicks (again...)

Method...
Preheat you're oven to 375.
Impress your beer drinking buddies or girlfriend for that matter with this german delight. First things first, spread the rouladen on a cutting board and cut it accordingly. You want you're meat to be about 5 by 5 inches. Slice your onion (no crying), pickles (halfed, then split into french fry form), and jalapenoes (thinly, seeds in if you want that spice.) With your meat still spread on that cutting board, just waiting for your chefs touch add a dob of dijon mustard, be as liberal as you want, once it cooks it looses a bit of it's zing and actually transforms into something a little more subtle. Make sure not to spread the tard with the same spoon that you are going to re-enter the can with, no one likes raw meat on their deli sandwich the next morning (maybe dracula). Do the same with the horseradish. Spread this mustard + radish with a fork. Add your onion, pickles and jalapenoes. Wrap it like a fajita, once again get happy with those toothpicks.

Now these suckers need some time in a fry pan, at medium. Flip em, spin em.. just make sure they are nice and brown and the meat is cooked through. Place them in a caserole dish along with the three packages of beef stock and 3 cups of water. Toss this biatch in the oven, for 90 minutes.

Once these guys have spent their time in the hot tub, pull em out. Cut two slices of bread and drench them in the sauce and drippings in your caserole dish. (this lets everything soak into the bread when your cutting the meat open.. you won't "miss a bite."

Eat up.

SideLined...
Roasted red and yellow bell peppers.
Rice Vermicilli.

The Expedition Recordings

Click here to see the full expedition.

Spinach Stuffed Chicken Breast with Brie

First timer here (when it comes to stuffing chicken). Personally, I hate it when cook books give you the estimated time required for preperation. It always seems to take me at least double the time listed and even though I'm never really in a rush, I feel like I am working against the clock somehow. Honestly though, this recipe was actually pretty easy and realistically you should be able to whip this bad boy up in about 20 minutes, make to bake.

The Goods...

1/2 (10 ounce) package fresh spinach leaves
1/4 cup sour cream
1/4 cup very thinly sliced brie
2 cloves garlic, minced
2 skinless, boneless chicken breast halves - pounded to 1/2 inch thickness
1/2 pinch ground black pepper
4 slices bacon

Toothpicks (you're gonna need em.)

Method...

Preheat your oven to 375.

As I mentioned before, this was my first time stuffing a chicken breast. First thing I had to learn was of course was how to pound out the chicken breast to it's appropriate thickness. The internet taught me that, all you need is a good butchers block, a heavy saucepan and some saran wrap. Sandwich the chicken breast between the saran wrap, place the breast on the butchers block and "giv'er". No need to be perfect here, you just need to squeeze some length out of that meat.

The filling is next. Try to have all of your filling ingredients ready to roll. The spinach gets zapped in the microwave for 3 mikes. Make sure to mix those greens every minute or so, you don't want that spinach getting too wilted. Once the spinach is done "spinnin", dice in all of your other filling necessaries brie first (brie, garlic, pepper,s-cream). You wanna let that brie max out with the spinach first, so it melts and is easier to work with. Mix em all up nicely, you should end up with something that looks a little like spinach dip.

Those breasts that you just recently pulverized get some sweet love now. The recipe is a little generous and I found that I had a bit of filling left over. Each breast can hold about 3 tbsp of filling. Get in there with your hands and construct a kind of "pita" of the raw meat variety. This is messy and the end result looks shitty. The toothpicks save the day though, use lots. I pinned each breast three times (horizontally) and once on each end to clost things up, so 6 in total. Take your raw bacon (2 slices per breast), and wrap your chicken. Now we're going somewhere, they actually look tasty.

Pop em in the oven for 35 minutes. Then swith on the broiler (high) for 5.5 minutes to give the bacon that breakfast look we all love so much.

Eat em..

SideLined

-Asparagus, Mushrooms, Onions. Sauted in butter, half a lemon, 1 clove garlic, cracked pepper.

-Rice, seasoned with cilantro.

The Expedition Recordings

Check out the full expedition...