Miso Salmon, Broccoli+Leeks, Coconut Rice

This was a pretty good meal. Asian foods in general are not my strength, but it's fun to play around with the flavors sometimes. There were a lot of processes involved, but none of them were too complicated! First, I made the marinade/glaze for the salmon. This included a large spoonful of red miso, some lime juice, maple syrup, sesame oil, soy sauce, fish sauce and this really great sweet chili sauce that they sell at whole foods. I added in a bit of chopped garlic and ginger and let that sit for a minute before spreading it onto the fish. Next I sautéed some finely diced up serrano chili and ginger in a bit of oil for the rice. After about 2-3 minutes, I added in about a cup of rice, along with a cup each of vegetable broth and coconut milk. In another pan, I sautéed about half of a leek and a clove of garlic in some butter and sesame oil. I heated the oven to 400 degrees and popped in the salmon. This cooked for about 10 minutes (of course the length of time depends on how much fish you have). In the meantime, I threw the broccoli in with the leeks and poured in about 1/4 cup of vegetable broth. This only took a few minutes to cook. Finally, I took the fish out of the oven, chopped up some cilantro, basil and mint, and plated everything together with a final squeeze of lime over the top. yum yum yum!

Cannelloni Stuffed with Spinach and Ricotta

I like to make cannelloni with fresh pasta sheets from the supermarket because its so much easier than trying to spoon the filling into dried pasta tubes (I don't have a piping bag), but since I have my lovely pasta rolling machine, I figured it would be a lot cheaper to just make it myself! I filled the pasta with a classic mixture of spinach, ricotta, nutmeg, pepper, salt and an egg. I covered the little rolls of stuffed pasta with tomato sauce and baked the whole thing in the oven for about an hour (much easier to bake it for longer than it is to par-boil all the pasta). I had a ton of dough left over so I ended up cutting it into pappardelle and freezing it... turned out that I could have just refrigerated it because Lucas and I ate it with pesto two days later!

The Best Snack

Macaroni and Cheese with Fresh Thyme

Burrrriiitos

Since there are NO good burritos in New York (as far as I know), I decided to make some of my own tonight. Originally they were just going to be bean and cheese burritos but something made me want to add some spanish rice to the mix. First, I soaked the black beans overnight. When I was ready to cook them, I chopped up an onion, added a ton of bay leaves, tomato paste, a tiny bit of olive oil, dried oregano, some dried smoked chilis and then covered the beans with a combination of vegetable broth and water. I let that simmer for about two hours until the beans juuust started to fall apart. For the rice, I sauteed half of a small onion in olive oil and then added about a cup or white rice to toast up. After a few minutes, I added about half of a large can of tomatoes and some water. I also attempted to make some spicy pickled carrots but opted not to cook them first. I chopped a serrano chili, about three carrots, and then added in salt and pepper, a few splashes of vinegar and a bit of olive oil. Finally, I chopped up a ton of lettuce and cilantro and served the burritos with grated cheddar cheese and sour cream. Cholula is my hot sauce of choice. I wish I had an avocado!

Minestrone Soup

It has gotten soooo cold in New York, so I'm starting to make a lot of soup. Since its been getting pretty cold in New York lately, I've been thinking about soup a lot. On Friday I made Split Pea Soup and Corn Bread again (by the way, I didn't have any sour cream or plain yogurt so I used ricotta. It works great too!!).

Tonight's minestrone was pretty easy to make and it tasted gooooooood. I soaked about a cup and a half of cannellini beans during the day and then quick boiled them with a few bay leaves and half an onion. I sauteed an onion, about 4 celery ribs, 5 carrots and a few garlic cloves in oil. I use dried chili flakes in almost everything so at about this time I added in a pinch or two. In the meantime I boiled some water and poured it over a few whole dried porcini mushrooms and some sundried tomatoes. After about ten or fifteen minutes of soaking, I gave those a rough chop and threw them into the pot. I poured in about half a cup of white wine (red would have been fine if you have that) and let that cook of for about two minutes. I poured in a can of tomatoes and some vegetable broth, then threw in a parmesan rind, a ton of fresh parsley, thyme and a pinch of dried rosemary. I let that simmer for about an hour. When the soup started tasting good, I added in the beans and some roughly torn up cavolo nero (kale). At about this time I started cooking the pasta (any kind of small-ish pasta works, I used a half empty box of orechiette). When the pasta was done cooking, I spooned a nice big helping of soup into a bowl and topped that off with some pasta and a ton of parmesan.

Spinach Spaghetti with Cream, Dried Porcini, Fresh Portabellos and Lots of Parsley

Over the holidays I procured over a pound of dried porcini mushrooms - possibly my favorite cooking secret. I came back to New York this week, excited to make one of my favorite pasta dishes! I had some spinach spaghetti on hand so decided to try it out. The sauce was super simple to make.
First I sauteed some onion in butter and olive oil, then added in the sliced mushrooms. After cooking the mushrooms super briefly I took them out of the pan. Put the pan back on the heat, poured in some cream, a little bit of vegetable broth and a few spoonfuls of my porcini powder. When the pasta was ready, I mixed the mushrooms back in and threw in a toooonnnn of parsley. On the side, (sadly no pictures) I made a super sour salad with sherry vinegar, dijon and olive oil. It was a nice hearty meal.

The last picture looks kind of weird, but I thought I should include it anyways.

P.S. Sorry about the ugly lighting in these pictures. Unfortunately my kitchen does not get nearly as much light as it does in Topanga.

Florida Food

I went to Florida with my dad last week to visit my grandparents... here are a few of the meals we ate.. some of which I did not make. I also got a chance to make tamales again - they turned out just as well as the first time I made them a few weeks ago!

Whole Roasted Pompano:



Roasted Acorn Squash:


These are my favorite plates ever. They belonged to my great grandmother!


Chocolate Pudding with Whipped Cream:


I'll admit that this isn't the best picture, but the pasta was delicious! I made cappellini with a slow cooked red wine/rosemary/carrot/zucchini/celery tomato sauce.


And finally, my very favorite raspberry torte/ cake:


I'm finally back in New York, so expect more posts soon!

Frittata

With potato, onion, garlic, a jalepeno and cherry tomatoes. Plus lots of butter and olive oil.

I love making frittatas for breakfast - they're so quick and easy to prepare and you can literally throw anything you have lying around in the fridge in them.

Fried Rice with a Fried Egg and Cilantro

Finals are over and I'm back home with the fam in Topanga so here come a lot of posts!!!

I wanted to use use the week old white rice that was in the fridge so I decided to make quick fried rice for breakfast! For some reason I've never really liked the egg mixed in with the rice so I fried it separately and put it on top instead! turned out really well - here's what I did... It ended up sort of indian style....

cooked some shallot, ginger and chillies (could have added garlic) in butter and sesame oil, then I put in some turmeric, coriander, cumin aaaand chili powder I think but I can't remember exactly. I added the rice, mixed it up and flattened it out so the bottom could get a little crispy. Did that a few times, then fried a couple of eggs and chopped some fresh cilantro! It was super delish and the cilantro really made the whole dish.





Making split pea soup with cornbread tonight so I'll be posting pics of that soon!