INSPIRED BY MARCELA

Posted in Appetizers, Side dishes, Vegetarian-friendly by

The FoodTV Network: Like a broken record, I might normally go on and on complaining about how great it was but no longer is…  I must say, though, that the more I watch “Mexican Made Easy”, the more I enjoy the show. Marcela Valladolid is knowledgeable, cooks great food, and is fun to watch.  Plus, she’s fit, which is not an easy task when you’re cooking and working with food 24 hours/day. Or close to that.  😉  Apparently she owes her great shape to yoga. On one segment about healthy Mexican recipes, they showed her serene composure during a tough variation of Warrior III, and in an advanced Twisted Pigeon pose.   Impressive, to say the least. ANYWAY,  back to cooking.  In another recent episode she shared a tempting recipe for Chicken Tostadas.  I didn’t make it yet, but I prepared one of its components, the tomatillo-avocado salsa.  It couldn’t be easier, and it couldn’t be tastier.   You absolutely HAVE to make and serve this alongside anything!  Ok, maybe not with that slice of chocolate cake… 😉

FRESH TOMATILLO-AVOCADO SALSA
(adapted from Marcela Villadolin)

6 ounces tomatillos, husked, rinsed and coarsely chopped
2 large yellow tomatoes, cored and seeded, coarsely chopped
1 avocado, halved, pitted and peeled
1/2 cup packed fresh cilantro leaves
1/2 Serrano chile, seeded, minced
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
salt and  black pepper

Combine the tomatillos, yellow tomatoes, avocado, cilantro, chile, and lemon juice in a blender and puree until smooth. Season the salsa with salt and pepper, to taste. Transfer to a serving bowl, cover and refrigerate for up to 2 hours or until ready to use.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

I intend to make her chicken tostadas soon, my problem is the tostada part, as we still don’t have a gas cooktop. But I might improvise and come up with an alternative.  Tomatillos are usually cooked before incorporation into salsas and sauces, but in this fresh preparation  the  trick is to mellow their sharpness down by adding the avocado and using lemon juice instead of lime juice, as most salsas would call for.  Simple. Brilliant.

My adaptation was adding some yellow tomatoes because they were looking at me and begging to be consumed. So I did.  Next time I might either process a little less, or save a few pieces of diced yellow tomatoes to add at the end and make it a bit more chunky.  We served it with grilled steel head trout and steamed rice.  Phil thought that a great idea for an appetizer would be a small piece of grilled salmon or trout over a blue tortilla chip, and a dab of tomatillo salsa on top.  No doubt in my mind I married a guy with great taste.  😉

On a slight tangent: as I was preparing this post, I got the feed notification of a new article by Kelly, over at Inspired Edibles.  She wrote a nice tribute to her yoga instructor, and I invite you to jump over there and read it, very inspring! As a bonus, you’ll also get a recipe for homemade energy bars…
I am all for energy bars these days! 😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Chocolate Intensity

TWO YEARS AGO: Shrimp in Moroccan-Style Tomato Sauce 

THREE YEARS AGO: Golden Zucchini: A Taste of Yellow

CELEBRATE WEDNESDAY WITH A SEAFOOD CURRY

Posted in Celebrate Wednesday, Seafood by

I honestly could not remember when was the last time I made a special midweek dinner for us. It seemed like ages, so I browsed the blog and there it was:  May 3rd.  Four  months ago.  Four hectic months.  Slowly we begin to adjust to a new routine, but there’s no doubt that my cooking suffered quite a bit.  Lack of energy, the feeling of being always short on time and exhausted, it all took a toll on me.  But, it’s about time to shake things up a little. This was simple enough to prepare after work, and delivered all that I expected to make that evening – a prisoner in the middle of a busy week – feel very special!

THAI SEAFOOD CURRY
(adapted from Bon Appetit Everyday Meals)

3 large limes
1 tablespoon grapeseed oil
1 shallot, finely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, cut in small dice
1 + 1/2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 teaspoons Thai green curry paste
1 can (about 14 oz) light unsweetened coconut milk
1 tablespoon fish sauce
10 ounces cod fillets, cut into 1 1/2-inch chunks
12 peeled large shrimp
1/3 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil

Finely grate enough peel from 2 limes to measure 1 + 1/2 teaspoons. Squeeze enough juice from 2 limes to measure 2 tablespoons. Cut third lime into wedges, and reserve for serving.

Heat vegetable oil in large saucepan over medium-high heat. Add the  shallots, bell pepper, and minced ginger; sauté until shallots and peppers soften up slightly, about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally.   Stir in curry paste, coconut milk, fish sauce,  lime peel, and 2 tablespoons lime juice. Simmer gently, for a few minutes. Sprinkle fish and shrimp with salt and pepper. Add fish and shrimp to curry sauce. Return to very gentle simmer and cook just until fish and shrimp are opaque in center, 5 to 6 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Add cilantro and basil; serve with lime wedges, over steamed white rice.  Prepare to receive high praise.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments:  The original recipe used halibut, but I substituted cod because our grocery store had gorgeous looking cod that day, whereas the halibut seemed a bit sad (or, to quote a favorite French expression of mine: pas fameux ;-)).  My other modification was to use green curry paste instead of red, because that’s what I had in my pantry.  As to coconut milk, I almost always use light because it works well for this type of recipe. It is slightly less dense, but feels rich and flavorful enough, with the added bonus of lower fat content.

ONE YEAR AGO:  Post-workout Breakfast

TWO YEARS AGO: Semolina Barbecue Buns

THREE YEARS AGO: Lavash Crackers

INTO THE LIGHT AGAIN

Posted in Appetizers by

In our department at KSU one of the secretaries organizes a lunch potluck to celebrate the birthdays of the month.  The email to announce the monthly event ends with “Remember, simpler is better”, but you may find a spread containing spaghetti with homemade meatballs,  very elaborate curries, and fantastic snickerdoodles made from scratch (that was the case last week, and I was unashamed of sitting by that platter and turning them into 80% of my meal).

For last week’s potluck, I made a slightly different version of  the Mediterranean Skewers  posted last year.  They are light, refreshing, fun to eat and won’t weigh you down before a substantial meal. Or a tantalizing spread of 10 different dishes offered at your next departmental party!  😉

MEDITERRANEAN SKEWERS WITH BALSAMIC DRESSING
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

30 skewers
mozzarella mini-balls (like these)
sharp Cheddar cheese, cut in cubes
pitted black kalamata olives
pitted large green olives
15 red grape tomatoes, halved
15 yellow grape tomatoes, halved

for the dressing:
2 Tbs olive oil
2 tsp lemon juice
1/4 tsp ground fennel
2 tsp balsamic vinegar (white, if available for you)
salt and pepper to taste

Line your ingredients, and have some fun:  form the skewers starting and ending with a cut tomato, with the cut side facing towards the center of the skewer. Alternate the cheeses types and olives, so that you end up with many variations in composition and colors.    Arrange the skewers on a serving platter.

Make the dressing by whisking all the ingredients in a small bowl, drizzle over the skewers half an hour before serving. White balsamic has a nicer color for this type of dish, but if you don’t mind the brownish hint given by the regular balsamic, you can definitely use it.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

The possibilities for this type of appetizer are pretty much endless… Mozzarella and tomatoes with a pesto drizzle on top would make a nice “Caprese on a Stick”,  a small bunch of Romaine lettuce squeezed between pieces of  sharp cheese and grilled chicken, and voila’:  Chicken Caesar on a Stick!    Just make sure they are user-friendly, because if the skewers are too big, they can be awkward to eat. These ones I made were right at the limit.  😉

ONE YEAR AGO: Five Grain Sourdough Bread

TWO YEARS AGO: The Nano-Kitchen

THREE YEARS AGO: Kaiser Rolls

BUSY TIMES

Posted in General by

After many days struggling with this….

Followed by evenings like this…

finally… our lab is starting to shape up!

I promise a more detailed post about our lab move soon… for now let’s say we see the light at the end of the tunnel, and hopefully in one more week we can resume our experiments… yeah!!!!  😉

RASPBERRY SORBET AT SUMMER’S END

Posted in Desserts, Sweets by

Last week a colleague from our new department in KSU stopped by my office and asked if I liked raspberries.  No need to think much about the answer! It turns out that he is an amazing gardener, and a very active member of the Manhattan Community Garden, a project that started in 1974 and never stopped growing. Small plots of land are rented to whoever wants to grow fruits or vegetables. The city provides the water, tools, and a lot of advice. You can read more about it here. Maybe one day Phil and I can join and become better gardeners… 😉

Back to berries. A few hours later, our colleague comes back with a big box of raspberries, still warm from the sun!  I know, I know, everyone should be so lucky!  I wanted to put them to good use, so I made a delicious raspberry sorbet. Phil and I bravely fought over the last spoonful a few evenings later.   😉

RASPBERRY SORBET
(from the Bewitching Kitchen)

4 to 5 cups raspberries
1 cup fresh blueberries (optional, see comments)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice

Make a simple syrup by heating the sugar with the water in a saucepan (or microwave) until the sugar is fully dissolved.  Allow it to cool, no need to refrigerate.

Place the raspberries  in the bowl of a food processor  and process until very smooth, stopping to scrape the sides of the bowl once or twice.  Pour the puree through a fine-mesh strainer and strain the mixture, pressing down  and scraping the inside of the strainer with a silicone spatula.  You will need a little more than 2 cups of smooth puree.  If you don’t have enough, you can use blueberries to bring the volume up.

Whisk the simple syrup and the lemon juice into the raspberry purée. Cover and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours.  Pour the mixture in your ice cream maker and process it according to the instructions of your machine.  Once the sorbet is ready, place it in a container and freeze for a few hours before serving.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments:  Making the puree of raspberries is very easy using a food processor, but I went through three sizes of strainers to find the one that allowed me to separate the seeds from the pulp without too much grievance. It is not a pleasant job, but it ensures a smooth sorbet, so Keep Calm and Carry On. I added a little bit of blueberries (simply processed, no need to strain them), to make a volume of puree that would work in my ice cream maker, but if you have enough raspberry pulp, you can get by without any other fruit.   Add 3/4 of the simple syrup to begin with, once you have the base all ready, taste it and decide if you need more.   Raspberries have different degrees of tartness, and if you add other berries (strawberries could work well too) you will need less sugar.  I cannot think of a better way to close the season…

ONE YEAR AGO: When three is better than two

TWO YEARS AGO: Grating Tomatoes (and loving it!)

THREE YEARS AGO: A Peachy Salad for a Sunny Day