COD COCONUT CURRY

Posted in Seafood by sallybr

You can use any mild fish for this, or even go with shrimp, but in that case make sure they are as large as you can find. I started from the Brazilian moqueca concept but used Red Curry paste as the main spice. Delicious, and super simple to prepare. I highly recommend you give it a try.

COD COCONUT CURRY
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

3 large filets of cod
2 tablespoons grapeseed oil
1 shallot, minced
2 celery ribs, finely diced
2 tsp fresh ginger, grated
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon red curry paste (I used this one)
1 can coconut milk
plenty of fresh cilantro, minced
juice of half a lemon
1/3 cup coconut flakes, unsweetened

Start by toasting the coconut, placing the flakes on a non-stick skillet and toasting over medium-heat, watching the pan very very closely, it goes from toasted to burned in a second. Transfer to a bowl and reserve.

Heat the oil in a large pan and sauté the shallots and celery until soft and fragrant. Add the ginger, the red curry paste, season with salt and pepper, and sautéed briefly, then add the coconut milk. Gently simmer for 5 minutes in very low heat. Add the pieces of fish, season again with salt, cover the pan and simmer super gently until the fish is cooked through, 5 to 8 minutes more. Add the cilantro and lemon juice right before serving, and sprinkle with toasted coconut, adding more on your plate if you like.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: From start to finish, this will take less than 30 minutes, but it tastes so complex, it is hard to believe it is ready so fast. The best way to enjoy it is over rice (I made brown rice this time), but I had some spaghetti squash in the fridge and that’s the way I had mine. Totally non-traditional, I admit. But it worked great.

As to the red curry paste, you could add more if you like it really spicy, but for us one tablespoon was plenty. I suppose it will also vary with the brand you use, the one I listed is very potent.

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4Aug2020

CASHEW SHRIMP CURRY

Posted in Seafood by sallybr

If you need a super quick recipe for dinner, look no further. The preparation is a bit unusual in the sense that you mix white vinegar (which has pretty high acidity) with some ground cashews and spices, use that to marinate the shrimp for a short while, cook it and you are basically done. The shrimp turns out fresh, bright, and with perfect texture. This goes to our regular rotation for sure. Give it a try and let me know what you think.

CASHEW SHRIMP CURRY
(adapted from 660 Curries)

¼ cup distilled white vinegar
1 tablespoon coriander seeds, ground
1 teaspoon cumin seeds, ground
1/2 teaspoon cayenne pepper
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
1 teaspoon kosher salt
1/3 cup raw cashew nuts, ground to a powder
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons grape seed oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
water
finely chopped fresh cilantro leaves

Combine the vinegar, coriander, cumin, cayenne, salt, turmeric, and cashews in a small bowl, and stir to make a smooth paste. Pour this over the shrimp, toss well to coat the shellfish with the marinade. Refrigerate, covered, for about 15 minutes.

Heat the oil in a non-stick skillet over medium-high heat. Add the shrimp, arranging them in a single layer and reserving the residual marinade in the bowl. Sear the shrimp on each side, not more than 1 minute per side, so it does not get over-cooked. Pour in the residual marinade and stir once or twice. Lower the heat to medium add a bit of water, the lemon juice, and simmer until the sauce is reduced, about 5 minutes.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: I am usually not too fond of books that showcase hundreds of recipes, but 660 Curries is a beautiful exception. My friend Courtnie recommended and I can see why. It has no photos for the recipes, so it could be a drawback to many people, but the recipes are so varied, creative, that I truly don’t mind using my imagination.

You can definitely use peanuts or other nuts in place of cashews, and when I make it again (because I definitely will and very soon), I will add a few toasted cashews, whole, when serving.

We enjoyed it with sauteed broccoli and a simple rice with chickpeas. A very simple but super delicious meal…

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27Feb2019

BOUILLABAISSE FOR A CHILLY EVENING

Posted in Seafood, Soups by sallybr

Bouillabaisse is a classic Mediterranean dish. Not to brag or sound like a pain-in-the-butt snob, but I once enjoyed a bowl in a wonderful restaurant in Nice. One of those unforgettable meals in which the setting, the company, the food, all conspired together to make you feel on top of the world. Or close enough. Where we live we have access to the very best beef you can dream of, but seafood? Not so much. So I realize that calling my humble seafood concoction “Bouillabaisse” is a bit of a stretch. The fish was previously frozen, same goes for the shrimp. I know that nowadays the frozen stuff is processed almost immediately upon fishing, but still… Cooking seafood in the middle of the country always seems a bit strange. However, I must say we were very pleased by how tasty it turned out. Not the same as sitting down for a beautiful meal in Nice, but… being at home with the fire-place going, and the three pups all cozy near us has its charm also.

A SIMPLE BOUILLABAISSE
(adapted from several sources)

3 pounds of mild fish, cut into large pieces (I used cod and red snapper)
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and de-veined
1 pound clams
1/4 cup olive oil
1/2 cup thinly sliced onions (I omitted)
1 fennel bulb, very thinly sliced
1 can stewed tomatoes
1 bay leaf
1/2 tsp saffron threads
2 tsp salt or more to taste
1 cup shrimp stock (made with shrimp shells, lemon and onions)
1 cup clam juice (store-bought)
fresh thyme
orange zest and a bit of juice
parsley leaves, minced

Make the shrimp stock. In a sauce pan, add the shells, cover with water, juice of half a lemon and half an onion. Bring to a boil, then reduce heat and simmer for 30 minutes. Drain, reserve the liquid to use in the bouillabaisse. In a small bowl, mix a couple of tablespoons of the shrimp stock with the strands of saffron, rubbing them between your fingers to release the oils. Reserve.

Heat the olive oil in a large pot on medium high heat. When the oil is hot, add the onions and fennel. Stir to coat the vegetables with the olive oil. Cook on medium heat until softened and fragrant, about 10 minutes. Do not let it brown. Add the tomatoes, bay leaf, thyme, the saffron infused shrimp stock, salt, orange zest and juice. Simmer gently for 10 more minutes.

Add the pieces of fish, the shrimp, the reserved shrimp stock and the clam juice. Bring to a gentle boil, add parsley, simmer covered for 5 minutes. Add the clams, cook for 10 minutes or so until they open and are cooked through. Keep the heat at a very gentle level. Remove bay leaf before serving, adjust seasoning. Wonderful with a nice piece of sourdough bread.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: Traditionally, Bouillabaisse is served with a rouille on top. Think of a sauce made from hearty bread, olive oil, and other tasty suspects. I omitted, we had a slice of sourdough with it instead. I added a generous squirt of lemon juice to my bowl, it’s something I find myself doing so often, it always seem to make the food shine a bit brighter. If you want to simplify things even further, you can use just clam juice and water as the cooking liquid, but making shrimp stock is so simple, and it does intensify the seafood flavor in the soup. If you can find sea bass, definitely use it. It is the best fish, in my opinion, but as you can imagine, not easy to find in our neck of the woods. And when we do find it, we must be ready to shell some serious cash for it.

The smell as this soup-stew cooks is something! The main thing to pay attention to is not to overcook the delicate seafood, and keep the heat at a very gentle simmer, because shrimp in particular tends to toughen up easily. I had considered cooking the shrimp sous-vide separately and just add it to the soup when serving, but ended up going the more traditional route. If you have a sous-vide gadget, keep in mind that it makes absolutely perfect shrimp, with a texture you cannot get any other way.

The resident oyster-shucker made sure we have the perfect appetizer to open this meal…

Totally off-topic: today marks my first anniversary of….. braces!
One year down, one more to go (sigh)

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10Jan2018

SALMON A LA WELLINGTON, REVISITED

Posted in Seafood by sallybr

You know you’ve been blogging for a while when you got more than one recipe for Salmon Wellington… My previous take is pretty much our default method, because using phyllo dough considerably reduces the richness of the dish. We make it regularly. It is interesting how once you keep making a recipe that seems quite involved at first, it becomes so easy to prepare you act as if it’s just like grilling a steak. First weekend of the year (with Salmon Wellington in my mind), I asked Phil if he had any particular recipe he’d been craving. I could not believe my ears when he picked it, almost instantaneously. That’s when fate worked against us. We could no find phyllo dough at our store. Only phyllo cups. Drove to store number 2. No luck. Plenty of boxes of phyllo cups, empty shelf where the sheets would be. In despair, drove to Wal-Mart, a place I almost never visit. No cigar. Once you have a craving, you have a craving. Puff pastry it would be. And since we started messing up with our classic, I changed a few more things and here I am to share this new version with you. It turned out excellent, and it might take the default spot for a while… An extra session of aerobics and we’ll be fine.

SALMON WELLINGTON
(from The Bewitching Kitchen)

3 pieces of salmon filet, about 6 ounces each)
salt and pepper to taste
1 tablespoon grapeseed or olive oil
1 large stalk celery, minced
1 shallot, minced
1/2 cup cooked crab meat, shredded (from 2 small crab legs)
Freshly squeezed lemon juice to taste
1/2 block cream cheese, at room temperature
minced fresh cilantro, to taste
1 sheet of puff pastry, defrosted in the fridge for several hours
flour to roll out the pastry
egg wash made with 1 egg, 1 tsp water and a pinch of salt

Heat oven to 375 F (see notes).

Prepare the topping by sauteing the celery and shallot pieces in olive oil over medium heat. Season with salt and pepper. When all soft and translucent, transfer to a small bowl to cool down slightly. Add the cream cheese, lemon juice, shredded crab meat and fresh cilantro, mix all gently but well and reserve. Adjust seasoning with salt and pepper.

Roll out the puff pastry over a counter top lightly dusted with flour. Try to get it really thin, ideally one sheet should be enough to wrap three small salmon filets. Place the salmon filet over it, make sure it is dry, blot it with paper towels if necessary. Season with salt and pepper. Place a good portion of cream cheese mixture on top. Wrap the filets with the dough. I actually found it easier to flip the pieces after the photo was taken, so that the filling is on top, and the edges of the pastry meet at the bottom of the parcel.

Cut a slit in the center of the packages. Brush with egg wash. Bake for about 22 minutes, until the pastry is golden. Let it cool slightly and serve.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

Comments: A few pointers for success. First, if your pieces of salmon are not uniform in thickness, simply fold the thinner part underneath the piece, to prevent it from getting over-cooked and dry. Second, roll the puff pastry as thin as you can without tearing it or making it too hard to wrap around the filets. One sheet of puff pastry (Pepperidge Farm in the brand I got) will be enough to wrap three small filets of fish. Third, do not bake for more than 25 minutes, so that your salmon will still be moist and flavorful. With the pastry rolled thin, it will be long enough to fully bake it. The fish will be perfect inside, protected by the nice layer of crab and cream cheese mixture.

We enjoyed two of these babies at dinner, and next day shared the third one for lunch. I am very picky about eating leftover salmon, rarely find it tasty. This time was an exception, we placed it in the microwave for 2 minutes, to jump-start heating from the center, then immediately transferred it to our small oven at 400F. Worked great, the meat was still perfectly cooked and moist.

This would be a perfect dish for entertaining, as you can assemble it all in advance. When it’s time to eat, place in the oven and get the side dishes ready. Your guests will be impressed, I am sure… And let’s not even forget that Valentine’s Day is coming up fast… Salmon Wellington followed by a little chocolate lava cake sounds like a dream come true. Although we all know that real dreams are made of macarons…

NOTE ADDED AFTER PUBLICATION: A reader made this recipe and found that cooking at 400F works better because the puff pastry will benefit from it. If you shorten the time to 21 minutes in the oven, you won’t have over-cooked salmon and the puff pastry will be gorgeous. So consider that change. Thanks blackbird for the feedback…

Dinner is served!
Salmon Wellington, buttered asparagus, fresh oysters, a little Caesar salad…

ONE YEAR AGO: The Unbearable Unfairness of Cake Baking

TWO YEARS AGO: Hermit Cookies

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13Aug2016

RIO OLYMPICS 2016: A GOLD MEDAL MENU

Posted in Appetizers, Brazilian cooking, Desserts, Desserts, Sweets, Seafood by sallybr

By Klaus with K – CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=1970179

Olympic games are going at full speed, these are two exciting weeks! So much to follow, we tend to stay up late trying to catch up with the events we enjoy the most: swimming, running, track and field, synchronized diving, gymnastics, volleyball, beach volleyball, soccer, and this time even golf is keeping us glued to the TV screen… Three words for you: Simone Biles rocks.

In this post I share a full menu with Brazilian goodies published in previous years, but first I offer a new take on Shrimp Moqueca, adapted in honor of the games.

SALLY’S GOLDEN SHRIMP MOQUECA
(from Bewitching Kitchen)

1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined
2 tablespoons coconut oil (or dendê oil, if available)
1 onion, diced
1 clove garlic, minced
1 Serrano pepper, minced
salt and pepper
roasted bell pepper, cut in large squares (preferably yellow)
2 cans (15 ounce) yellow tomatoes, drained, briefly processed in blender
a lot of cilantro (a lot)
about 1/2 cup coconut milk (full fat, please)
lemon juice to taste
hot sauce to taste

Squirt a little lemon juice all over the shrimp and reserve.

Heat the coconut oil in a large saute pan with a lid. Add the onions and cook until golden and fragrant. Add the Serrano pepper and roasted bell pepper, cook for a couple of minutes, stirring often. Add the garlic, cook for about 30 seconds, seasoning lightly with salt and pepper. Now pour the processed yellow tomatoes, season with salt, pepper, a dash or two of the hot sauce of your choice. Cover the pan and let it all simmer for about 10 minutes in very low heat.

Add the shrimp, simmer until cooked, just for a few minutes, then add coconut milk and cilantro to the pan, stirring until warm. Adjust seasoning with salt, pepper, and more hot sauce to taste. If you’d like, sprinkle fresh lemon juice right before serving. Perfect over white rice.

ENJOY!

to print the recipe, click here

If you don’t have canned yellow tomatoes, use red. I like to process them to have a smoother sauce. Yellow bell peppers would reinforce the golden color of the dish, but our store did not have any this time.

A BRAZILIAN MENU TO CELEBRATE THE OLYMPIC GAMES

Let’s get a trio of appetizers going, starting with Pão de Queijo (Brazilian Cheese Bread). This is a very easy recipe using a blender and a few minutes of your time. If you’ve never had Pão de Queijo, don’t blink. Make them right now! They were born gluten-free, which is an added bonus to many.

For the recipe, click follow this link.

Another great, traditional option, Pastéis (a bit like empanadas, but fried).

for the recipe, follow this link.

And perhaps my favorite, the one that gets the Golden Medal of Appetizers,
Mandioca Frita (Fried Yucca Root)

For the recipe, follow this link.

To serve with the Golden Moqueca I recommend basic white rice and a nice helping of Brazilian Farofa, to help soak up the flavorful tomato-coconut sauce.

For the recipe, follow this link.

You definitely need the Brazilian national drink to get into the Olympic spirit!

recipe for Caipirinhas can be found here.

Finally, for dessert, let’s share a triple round of goodies, starting with Brigadeiros,
because how could you not have brigadeiros during a Brazilian feast?

For the recipe, click here.

But it’s hard to beat the level of deliciousness of Cocada de Forno (Baked Coconut)

to get the recipe for Cocada de Forno, jump here.

And perhaps my favorite of all, as Brazilian as Brazilian gets, Mangas Flambadas, served comme il faut, with vanilla ice cream (but if you use Dulce de Leche it won’t hurt my feelings at all).

For the recipe, click here.

Top the meal with what my Dad used to call um cafezinho esperto (a smart coffee), and dream with Gold, Silver, and Bronze medals around the neck of your favorite athletes.
Let’s keep in mind that medals are great but the effort each athlete puts into being there to compete, that’s what impresses me the most. Imagine the personal ordeals they go through to finally be part of the Olympic team. Commitment, hard work, mental and physical struggles most of us could never face.

Quoting a great phrase from an advertisement for Under Armour:

Watch the video in full here. It is moving, truly mesmerizing.