For those that are visual learners and have trouble putting together a recipe from a piece of paper, fear not! Drew Cooks! is now on youtube for your viewing pleasure:

Mediterranean Stuffed Chicken

Online Videos by Veoh.com

As promised, here is the full recipe and method that serves 4:

Stuffed Chicken Breasts

- 4 boneless skinless chicken breasts
- 1.5 cups crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 cup chopped sun dried tomatoes
- 3/4 cup chopped kalamata olives
- 1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped oregano
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme
- salt and pepper

Crumble the feta cheese in a mixing bowl, and add in the olive oil, oregano and thyme. Stir and let this mixture sit for about 30 mins to absorb flavour. Next add in the sun dried tomatoes, olives and salt and pepper and set mixture aside.

Cut a pocket in each of the chicken breasts, careful not to slice all the way through. Spoon the mixture into each chicken breast generously, then using butchers string, skewers or toothpicks, secure the chicken breasts closed to ensure filling does not leak out.

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F. Using a hot saute pan, sear the chicken breasts for 4-5 minutes on either side, until nicely browned. Transfer the pan (if oven-safe) into the hot oven and continue cooking for approx 10-12 minutes or until chicken is cooked through.

Roasted Balsamic Carrots

- 10-15 carrots, peeled
- 3/4 cup good quality balsamic vinegar
- salt and pepper
- few sprigs fresh thyme

Place the peeled carrots in a pot of boiling water for 5-6 minutes. Drain carrots and place in a baking dish or roasting pan. Season them with salt and pepper and then drizle the balsamic vinegar until carrots are completely coated. Top with the fresh springs of thyme and roast carrots in the oven for 2o-25 minutes until tender.

Roasted Garlic and Thyme Mashed Potatoes

- 2-3 lbs boiled potatoes (skins on or off depending on your preference)
- 2 heads roasted garlic (see video for instruction on how to do this)
- 1 tbsp fresh chopped thyme
- salt and pepper to taste
- 2 tbsp of butter (or to taste)
- 1/2 cup of milk (or to taste)

There you have it guys! Nothing to it!

Check out the video to see a plating example, or go nuts and do it however you want…it’s your meal

If you eat red meat, odds are you enjoy a steak as much as the next person. Some of you may have mastered the grill, or can rattle off stats about the fat content and flavor levels of various cuts, or have a shed in your backyard with hundreds of pounds of steer dry aging to obtain optimum flavor. Okay, maybe not that far.

But I’d be willing to bet most of you couldn’t tell me much about a hanger steak without rushing off to google.

Just so we’re clear, this is not an alternative name for another common cut, this is an often-overlooked cut of beef that very recently is starting to creep its way back onto some menus. Here are some fun facts:

- Perhaps my favorite fact, there is only one hanger steak per steer. That’s right, one cow, one hanger steak weighing about a pound.

- It is unbelievably flavorful. Cut from a section of the plate, between the  brisket and the flank, some believe its close proximity to the kidneys give it a unique and delicious flavor.

- It has a very unique texture. Almost stringy, but in a good way. It is almost a necessity to have this cut cooked rare or medium rare at most. Anything more and it can become a little tough.

Are you sold on trying one yet?

If you have a good butcher, odds are he can get you one, though they can be tough to find. Luckily, I’ve come across a great place that serves them in our beautiful city.

The Hamilton Street Grill serves a terrific grass-fed organic hanger steak. Go check it out and try something new.

Mark Twain once said, “Twas a brave man indeed, who first ate an oyster.”

True, maybe, but aren’t we all glad he (or she, I suppose) did? With most people, oysters are a love ‘em or hate ‘em type of food. The reasonings behind the latter I’ve heard over the years are nearly all to do with their texture, though my personal favorite was “Um, I don’t eat things out of their homes.” Touche.

Personally? I can’t get enough of them.

As a chef there is something so intriguing about an ingredient as “pure” as an oyster. You can gather them from the ocean, shuck them open and shoot them down and they taste fantastic and exactly as you would expect, ice cold, salty, and depending on your oyster of choice, varying levels of sweetness and other subtle flavours.

For inexperienced oyster shoppers, shuckers or tasters, I encourage you to visit your local seafood and fish monger and buy some fresh ones to experience the art (aka the frustration) of learning to shuck oysters. Here is a great youtube video with a demonstration:

Oysters are great on their own or with a simple squirt of lemon, but here are a couple nice mignonette recipes. A mignonette is a classic french accompaniment for oysters, but here are a couple of my favorite variations:

Blood Orange Mignonette

1/4 cup blood orange juice

1/4 cup champagne vinegar (white wine vinegar or even rice wine vinegar works as well)

1 tablespoon finely diced shallots

1 tsp finely chopped flat leaf parsley

Pinch of salt and pepper

Sweet Chili Mignonette

2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice

2 tablespoons white wine or champage vinegar

2 tablespoons Thai sweet chili sauce

1 tablespoon finely diced shallots

Pinch of salt and pepper

Simply shuck your oysters and top each with about 1 tsp of the mignonette. Shoot ‘em down like normal!

Yesterday I went to two of my favorite places ever. It all started with a hankering for cheese.

When you want great cheese in Vancouver, sure, you have some options, but many agree the best of the best is Les Amis du Fromage

With 300-400 cheeses from BC and around the world I could spend days in there trying cheeses before either passing out in a cheese-coma or being dragged away by the authorities. I can never resist trying the local cheese, so the owner Alice (with a borderline frightening amount of cheese knowledge) helped me pick out a nice chunk of Tomme D’or and Feta, both from farms in Salt Spring Island.

And since I was now only a couple blocks from Granville Island Market, how could I say no?

Browsing the usual stocks of amazing products, I overheard such things as a man giving a passionate presentation on corned beef. It was like on the Daily Show when Jon Stewart asked Barack Obama to “hope-up” some common everyday phrases like “Are you happy with your cell phone service?”

I also stumbled across some of this stuff :

Hickory Smoked Salt.

Now flavored salts are nothing new, they are easy to make and can add great flavor, but I was just amazed at the intense amount of smoke flavor these little babies had. I have actually tried to make my own smoked salt with semi-decent results, but this salt smelled and tasted like it had been living in the woods near a campfire for years like a wild man. You could seriously sprinkle this on a cucumber slice and it would smell and taste like Texas BBQ.

Go pick some up and see for yourself, and grab some cheese while you’re at it.