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September 4th, 2008
06:35 pm - Pasta with Portuguese Sardines
Ingredients:
Portuguese Sardines in olive oil - plump and mild
Tomato or pasta sauce
Pasta
Olive oil
Garlic (minced)
Onions (rough chop)
Directions:
1. Cook pasta in salted boiling water. Drain and set aside.
2. Under a little bit of running water, take sardines one at a time, slip off skin and any remaining scales. Half by hand and remove backbone. Tear sardines into big chunks.
2. Sautée garlic and onions in olive oil (or sardine oil). Add sardines After a few minutes, add the sauce and stir it in.
3. Add the pasta, stir and heat through.
Stir gently to avoid breaking up the sardines.
Top with parmesan or red pepper, big chunks of cerignola olives
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06:31 pm - Beet Greens with Red Onions and Feta
Ingredients:
Beet Greens
Red Onions
Feta
Olive oil
Directions:
1. Strip the big veins out of the beet greens. Roll up the remaining leafy parts and slice them into long or medium long strips. They'll shrink.
2. Chop red onions ...large dice, break it up
3. Put down some olive oil on medium heat, add red onions and beet greens all together. Stir frequently. Done when red onions are translucent. Leave them with a little spice and crunch.
4. Serve topped with lots of crumbled feta.
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06:23 pm - Feta & Kalamata Olive Quiche
Ingredients:
- Store bought crust (or use a food processor to form it from crumbles of 1 stick of butter + 1 cup of flour)
- Crumbled Feta
- Kalamata olives sliced in halves lengthwise
- Smoked ham, cut into cubes
- Eggs
- Heavy cream
- Pepper
- Parmesan cheese (optional, but pretty)
- Lousiana hot sauce (optional, but delicious)
Well, this is an easy once.
Directions:
1. Beat about...five eggs
2. Add cream so that it's ... 1 part cream to 2 parts eggs...eyeball it
3. Whip it up high if you like a really fluffy quiche, not so much if you like it denser
4. Put in as much ham, olives, and feta as you can stomach. You want some in every slice.
5. Top shelf at 350 for about 20 minutes.
6. Sprinkle parmesan over top, let it brown under the broiler another 5-10 minutes.
If you think the crust is going to burn before the eggs are done, cover with foil and keep baking.
It's done if when it's fully cooled a knife can go through and come out dry.
I think this one is best pre-made and eaten the next day after a little go in the toaster oven. I smother mine in hot sauce.
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06:10 pm - Braised Lamb Shoulder with Rosemary and Carrots
Ingredients:
Lamb Shoulder
Rosemary
Salt & Pepper
Carrots (peeled and sliced)
White wine
Garlic (peeled and roughly chopped)
Olive oil
Chicken Stock
Directions:
1. Rub lamb shoulder with salt and pepper, then sear on both sides until nice and brown in a hot pan.
2. Remove lamb from pan and set aside.
3. In a pot, cook some garlic in butter. Mmm. Add rosemary and white wine. Cook until wine is reduced by about half to concentrate the flavor.
4. Add lamb and carrots into the pot and just cover with chicken stock.
5. If ovenproof, stick this in the oven with a lid. If not, transfer to a casserole dish, cover and braise for 2-2.5 hours.
Halfway through, I like to put a bunch more rosemary all over the top of it.
Make sure to check at least once that your casserole hasn't run dry, and that you're not burning splashy bits onto the cover.
This lamb will be so delicious and tender, it will fall off the bone! Spoon it over a bunch of cous cous, but don't forget the sauce. If it seems a little thin, just concentrate it in a little sauce pot.
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May 28th, 2008
05:38 pm - Green Papaya Salad
The traditional method uses a mortar and pestle on the whole salad, but I don't because my kitchen supplies are at home in the U.S.!
Ingredients:
1 green papaya
hot red chilies
lime juice
cane sugar
green beans or mung bean sprouts
cherry tomatoes
garlic
olive oil
Recipe:
1. Mince 2-3 cloves of garlic
2. Squeeze the juice from 1-2 limes
3. Peel the papaya and rinse to remove any bitterness. Scoop out seeds and fibers with a hard spoon.
4. Grate the papaya with a large-holed cheese grater
5. Slice a few hot red chilies -- remove some seeds if they seem too hot for you to handle.
6. Melt a gram or two of cane sugar into warm or hot water (it is hard to dissolve in cold).
7. Boil green beans in water for a few minutes until desired crunchy/tender combination and rinse in cold water to keep from overcooking. Or, if you are using mung bean sprouts, just rinse well.
8. Wash & stem cherry tomatoes, slicing them in halves.
9. Put chilies in a little bowl or mortar and pour a little olive oil over to release the spiciness. Be careful -- this can release much more spiciness than you may be used to.
10. Add the garlic, lime juice, and cane syrup. Mash the daylights out of this. Taste and adjust if needed.
11. Mix the tomatoes, beans/bean sprouts and papaya, plus the chili/garlic/lime/cane syrup sauce. I've found the quickest way is with your hands.
12. Put into the fridge and cool for 1 hour.
Great for a hot summer day!
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05:27 pm - Sole Poached in Coconut Milk
Ingredients:
Lime
Coconut milk
Sole
Garlic (2-3 cloves)
Two big handfuls of basil
Recipe:
1. Using 1 or 2 whole soles, remove skin and discard. Chop of the head, fins, and tail, and remove the bones -- keep these and the fillet separate.
2. Remove the big thick stems from the basil -- keep these and the leaves separate.
3. Mince the garlic and saute until lightly browned. Saute the fish extras (reserving the fillet for later) for a couple minutes.
4. Pour in coconut milk, basil stems, and salt, simmer for 1 hour. Add water or chicken stock if the mixture becomes too thick. This will become your sauce.
5. Strain your sauce, and transfer to a clean pan. Add lime juice to taste.
6. Bring the sauce to heat just under a boil, and add your fillet.
7. About 2 minutes in, add the basil leaves and stir.
8. The fish is done the flesh is completely opaque.
Serve each person one fillet over rice (maybe with toasted black & white sesame seeds). Pour sauce liberally over fillet & rice. I like to keep a bowl of sauce on the side so I can conveniently pour as much as I want!
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September 3rd, 2007
12:18 pm - Chicken Pot Pie
Ingredients:
- two boneless, skinless chicken breasts
- frozen petite peas
- two frozen prepared pie crusts
- one can of cream of celery soup
- two carrots
- mushrooms
- half a large onion
- 1 medium potato
Directions:
1. Take one pie crust and turn upside down over non-stick foil to thaw
2. Rinse frozen peas in cold water, set aside to drain in a colander
3. Peel and dice carrots, onions, mushrooms, potatoes, and chicken - keep separate
4. Boil in minimal water: potatoes first, until almost done (10-20 minutes)
5. Add carrots, onions, cream of celery and chicken
6. Add only enough water to keep the stock stir-able.
7. Stir occasionally until chicken is cooked through and tender (20 minutes)
8. Take off heat, allow stock to cool and thicken, then mix in peas
9. Preheat oven to 350
10. Pour stock into one crust and place the other crust on top, closing the edges with your fingers. Use a knife to cut slits in the top crust where steam can escape.
11. Bake at 350 until top is lightly browned.
* Look for whole wheat crusts at the grocery store if you like that kind of thing! (I do)
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August 31st, 2007
09:15 pm - Green beans with smoked bacon
Ingredients:
- Green Beans
- Smoked Bacon
- Salt
- Pepper
Directions:
1. Rinse green beans and cut off ends. Cut in half, or into the sizes that you would like to eat.
2. Bring a small amount water to a boil (just enough to cover beans) and cook the green beans for about 5 minutes, or until they are crisp but tender.
3. Rinse the green beans in cold water, or else they will continue to cook and may become mushy (not to mention a gray-brown color, instead of staying bright green.)
4. Cut bacon into small pieces and fry up in a pan.
5. When bacon is crispy, add green beans to heat through.
6. Add salt or pepper if desired.
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August 20th, 2007
05:33 pm - Crispy Baked Chicken
Tastes just like fried, but not as heart-stopping!
Ingredients:
Skinless, boneless chicken pieces, 1/4-1/3 inch thick
Cornflakes (crushed)
Salt
Milk
Black Pepper
Cayenne Pepper
Directions
1. Put cornflakes in a ziplock bag and crush by running a rolling pin over, until all are coarse crumbs.
2. Put crushed cornflakes in one bowl - Add salt, pepper, cayenne
3. Pour some milk into another bowl
4. Season chicken with salt, pepper, cayenne
5. Take one piece of chicken at a time and dip first in milk, then in bread crumbs, making sure it is completely covered.
6. Lay chicken down on foil baking sheet, each piece should have at least 1/2-1 inch space from other pieces
7. Bake at 400 for 40 minutes, until crispy brown outside and tender inside.
Ideas:
This goes great in a sandwich with lots of lettuce and thinly sliced carrots or bell peppers, maybe some herb mayo
Roast some veggies the last 15 minutes the chicken is cooking (carrots, onions, celery - bite size, tossed with olive oil, salt, pepper, thyme, a bit of balsamic vinegar) and serve as a side dish
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04:47 pm - Lamb & Tomato Pasta
Ingredients -- Serves 4
Lamb stew chunks (1/2 lb)
Tomatoes (2 medium or 1 large, chopped)
Onions (1/2-3/4, chopped)
Celery (2 stalks, chopped)
Carrots (1, chopped)
Banana Squash (3x5 inch, peeled, seeded piece)
Pasta Sauce (red) (1/2 jar)
Penne
Salt, Oregano
Directions:
1. Cut lamb and veggies into bite size pieces
2. Boil lamb in enough water to cover, at least 1-1.5 hrs if pieces have tough parts.
2. Add veggies and boil until just tender.
2. Put lamb/veggie stew in fridge overnight to allow flavors to blend, and to solidify extra fat
3. Next day take the fat off the top of the stew and discard. Freeze stew if you want to keep it as stock.
4. Take lamb and veggies and heat up in pasta sauce.
5. Boil penne pasta until desired tenderness.
6. Toss lamb/veggie/pasta sauce with drained pasta.
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