Five-Spice Salmon with Leeks in Parchment and Sauteed Snow Peas

It's Monday night again and my turn to cook. I spent some time this past weekend going through old "Cooking Light" magazines searching for some new recipes. AC and I have been trying to incorporate more fish and vegetables into our diet so this recipe was perfect. I have never cooked food in parchment paper before and now I'm hooked. The parchment paper steams the fish very nicely while infusing the spices into the fish.

Here's the recipe:

http://food.cookinglight.com/cooking/recipefinder.dyn?action=displayRecipe&recipe_id=1134087

Halfway through preparing the meal, we realized that the recipe called for a new kitchen appliance - a spice grinder disguised as a coffee grinder. Granted, we probably could have gotten away with a plastic bag and a hammer or maybe our mortar and pestle but I always love an excuse to shop and in particular go to Target. One comment on the recipe...definitely make sure to use the leeks but make sure to slice them very thinly. I just used a regular chef's knife when I probably should have dragged out our mandoline to get the right thinness.

oh, apparently, I kept moaning and saying "yum" as I was cooking and checking on the fish...so clearly I liked it :)

Time to go to the grocery store to get the goods for tonight's dinner!

Ensalada de Nopalitos (Cactus Salad)

On Friday night, we were pretty wiped out from the week so we decided to make an old quick favorite: Ensalada de Nopalitos.

You might be wondering...cactus? I was a little hesitant when I first tried it. My my sister-in-law and her husband discovered this little tex-mex restaurant and passed on this gem to AC when he was interning in Virginia. We've gone there quite a few times despite it being about 25 miles away. Ever since my first visit, AC would order ensalada de nopalitos for appetizer. My dad grows cactus in his garden so I did realize that people actually eat it...but I never really thought I'd be the one voluntarily ordering it.

If you haven't had this dish, run out to your local tex-mex restaurant and get it...or try this recipe:

Ingredients:
1.5 pounds of cactus (fresh with needles removed) or jarred, diced
4 roma tomatoes, seeded and diced
1/2 small red onion, diced
1 - 2 medium serrano chiles, seeded and diced
2 bunches of cilantro, leaves only
1/2 cup of Cotija or Anejo cheese
1 avocado, diced
1 splash of olive oil
1 splash of red wine vinegar

Combine all the ingredients in a bowl except for the avocado and mix well. Garnish each serving with avocado. Serve with warm tortillas.

Ok, once again, we couldn't find the exact cheese we needed so we ended up using the leftover asadero cheese from last week's recipe. It ended up giving the salad a creamy texture. I need to find a good place that sells the usual mexican cheeses besides that Sargento bagged stuff - doesn't count. Although the recipe above does make a tasty dish, the cactus salad at Picante is untouchable. :)

Asian salad with golden shrimp

So I've been feeling guilty that I've been a.) going to the new Whole Foods for every possible meal imaginable and b.) not cooking this week. Whole Foods is a whole new addiction that seems to be hitting everyone here at work. We really aren't limited with choices for lunch around here but I guess having a high concentration of readily available and pseudo-healthy lunch food all under one roof is very attractive. So, in order that I didn't go to Whole Foods yet again for lunch, I made a simple Asian salad last night for my hubby's and my lunch. I marinated a 1/2 pound of medium-sized shrimp with a mixture of honey and ginger-infused soy sauce for about 1/2 hour, sautéed the shrimp in canola oil (I was too short to reach the bottle of sesame oil) and voilà. I put the shrimp in one little glad container, some chow mein noodles for some crunch in another container and a bagged salad mix in another container. Although the bag came with some salad dressing, the salad really didn't need it because the sauce on the shrimp made its own dressing. I assembled the whole salad at work in the larger container so all the ingredients remained fresh and didn't get soggy. Overall, it was pretty tasty to me and very simple (which apparently has been important the later half of this week). I'd make it again and maybe throw in some other crunchy bits depending on what's available in the cabinet and maybe a little cilantro.

So what does the hubby think about the salad?

Sorry, no picture this time. Just imagine a gladware container filled with green salad, crunchy noodles and golden-colored shrimp. :)

Anyone have any simple tasty lunch recipes for days you eat-in at work?

Big load of nothing

We've been pretty lazy this week so I don't have any new recipes to report. I don't want you all to think I've disappeared! To be honest, we've gotten take-out the past few days - I'm ashamed. I'm sure we'll concoct something yummy this weekend ... so stay tuned! :)

Creamy Red Pepper Soup

This week, my hubby and I both are starting up class again for our respective grad school programs. Last semester we both had class on Monday nights from 4:30 - 7:10 so we usually would end up at home by 8 and have to resort to eating something quick and probably rather artery-clogging. This semester we ended up having class on different days so our plan is that each of us take turns making something yummy while the other one is in class so a warm plate of food would be ready when the other gets home.

Monday night was my turn to cook. Apparently, he wasn't big on the idea of beans on toast and requested something warm and comforting like a thick soup. I did a search on the Food Network's website (one of my favorites for recipes) looking for a vegetable soup recipe preferably with minimal starchy vegetables. So that didn't happen but I found this recipe called "Creamy Red Pepper Soup" (as if you didn't already know the name):

http://www.foodnetwork.com/food/recipes/recipe/0,,FOOD_9936_30747,00.html

I decided to omit the mascarpone cheese, add in a few more carrots and top it with a dash of red chili pepper flakes. The recipe calls for pureeing the entire soup until smooth but I decided to puree only half so it had a nice mix of a creamy broth with some chunks of potatoes, carrots, onions and a few peppers. Next time, I think I'll up the chunkiness by adding a few more carrots and maybe another tater and then maybe only puree the red pepper portion of the soup. I highly recommend this to everyone. It's simple and tastes like a soup you'd find in a 5 star restaurant. Also, overall, it's just a visually appealing soup (although I'm not sure if the picture does it justice).

The recipe comes from a foodtv chef named Giada De Laurentiis who has a show called "Everyday Italian". I've never really been intrigued by many of her dishes but now I might tune in. I figured she was just eye-candy for the male watchers of foodtv but maybe she actually has a tiny bit (not giving her too much credit yet) of talent underneath that way too perfect facade. I guess I don't know if I should trust a skinny Italian chef - something just doesn't seem right.

Beans on Toast - a traditional English dish

Ok, the vote is in...

The pictures will stay up and keep on coming.

Although, if I make something icky like beans on toast, I'll just leave the picture taking to this guy instead.

http://harvey.nu/beans_on_toast/

We saw pictures of this way too many times in Spain on the menu at various local restaurants. In some strange universe, this might taste good but personally the thought of it turns my stomach.

Spaghetti Puttanesca

After having a busy day, we really did not feel like going to the store to buy ingredients for a recipe for dinner. So we decided to go with an old stand-by recipe which uses ingredients that we like to keep stocked in our pantry.

Here's the recipe:

1 lb of pasta
2 - 3 cloves of garlic
1/3 cup of capers
1/2 cup of black olives, pitted and halves
2 - 3 teaspoons of dried oregano
1 - 28 ounce can of plum tomatoes, chopped and not drained
2 tablespoons olive oil
a dash of hot pepper flakes, salt and ground black pepper

Cook pasta until al dente. Meanwhile, heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in a sauté pan. Add garlic, capers, olives, oregano and a dash of red pepper flakes and good on low heat for a few minutes. Add tomatoes with juice, bring to a simmer and cook for 4 - 10 minutes until it has a thick consistency. Remove from heat and add the cooked pasta.

This time we decided to get a little crazy and add sautéed shrimp. Honestly, it was not really a good idea. I like this sauce and I like shrimp but together they really didn't do anything for each other. Pretty fabulous overall but the sauce could have been a little thicker. But it's ok, we were hungry so it wasn't worth the wait this time and it was still tasty. I'm going to get a little nerdy for a second. Rotelle was not the best choice for this recipe. Rotelle is a decent shape but I've realized that it is best for sauces with a thick and sticky consistency like a pesto. Although the sauce is supposed to be thick, it really doesn't take advantage of the pasta shape. I'd go with shells next time. We made a whole recipe and had 2 hearty portions leftover for lunch tomorrow.

Although, not as good as previous times, the recipe overall gets a 9/10.

Oh, if anyone is grossed out by the food photos, please let me know. The last thing I want to do is have a website that resembles a menu from IHOP or Waffle House with pictures of greasy and unappetizing sausage and eggs.

Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas with Spinach and Mushrooms from "Mexican Everyday" by Rick Bayless

Ok, let's back up a day. On Saturday, the hubby and I decided to go to the new Whole Foods in the area. I am in LOVE. It's actually been my third visit to the fine establishment since its opening last week. I don't always go for the high-end grocery stores because many local (and cheaper) stores such as Shopper's Food Warehouse have much better aisles of ethnic goodies. However, one big advantage of going to a place like Whole Foods is consistently fresh products. I absolutely detest going to a grocery store with a recipe in hand and having to weed through a whole bin of moldy onions to find a single one suitable for human consumption. We decided to take advantage of all the incredible-looking produce to make the Tomatillo-Sauced Enchiladas. Although Rick Bayless suggested that canned tomatillos could be substituted for the fresh ones, we decided to pick up the fresh ones. Actually, we decided not to skimp on any of the ingredients and go totally fresh. The recipe calls for 1 cup of crumbled Mexican queso fresco to use as a garnish. I figured the Whole Foods would naturally have this cheese because their cheese section is about the size of our family room. The snobby cheese lady rather rudely informed me that they don't sell that type of cheese implying that it was cheap and almost dirty. I wouldn't mind getting a nicer and classier cheese by their standards but I really didn't want a cheese that would overwhelm the dish. I ended up buying asadero cheese which more of a melty cheese than the recipe called for but it did add a nice creamy texture to the enchiladas. We also decided to add sliced avocados as a garnish as well. It was probably the best avocado I've had in awhile. The recipe was pretty easy to follow and only took a total of about an hour to whip up. The best thing about the recipe (besides eating the food) is that it actually does not require assembling the enchiladas in a pan and baking for a period of time. Instead, it only requires baking the tortillas until warm, then dipping the tortillas in the tomatillo sauce and assembling the enchiladas right on the plate. Overall, I'd give the recipe a 8/10. I think the sauce had more going for it rather than the filling. The filling was spinach heavy which took away from the mushrooms. Next time, I would cut down on the spinach, use a mix of mushrooms like button and an exotic mushroom type and maybe add a little crab meat. Ok, here's my dilemma...I'd like to post the recipe but it clearly has been copyrighted. I know, it's probably not a big deal. But combined with my laziness and the fact I do work in the intellectual property field, I think I'll just let you contact me if you want more details. :)

Oh, this is the recipe which prompted me to want to start up this blog. I always love sharing my cooking experiences with friends and I figured this would be a good outlet to reach more people.

Why have I joined in on blog mania?

It seems like nowadays everyone has a blog. Some will post about their daily adventures (or more like mundane details of their lives) and others post about the passions of their lives. I really would rather not post boring drivel day after day and instead mainly focus on one topic that I'm really passionate about – cooking. I think the first dish that made me realize my budding love for cooking was a lasagna made in the kitchen of my dorm in college. My roomie and I were tired of eating cake and ice cream for dinner with an occasional waffle in-between so we decided to pool our resources and make a real dinner. I realized that cooking can be fun and rewarding and it is very possible to make something that is multiple times more tasty than something you can get a local restaurant. I must admit I've gotten a lot snobbier about cooking since then so you probably won't see too many lasagna recipes on this site. I personally love cooking all sorts of cuisine but I mainly focus on dishes from Central and South America. I am always searching for a new twist on a traditional recipe and I'm not afraid to try a new, exotic ingredient. I tend to follow recipes but I'm trying to work on my cooking creativity. So that's where this blog comes into play. I want to discuss what I'm cooking, talk about my personal variations on recipes and my experiences related to cooking. What I'm asking from you is feedback and lots of it. So if anyone has a cool new recipe to share or tell me that posted recipe could benefit from more or less fill-in-the-blank, post a comment or email me. I want to use this blog as a learning tool but also as a means to share recipes and cooking experiences among friends.