Fish Stew with Peppers, Almonds and Saffron

Fish Stew with Peppers, Almonds and Saffron

(recipe courtesy of Food & Wine May 2007, page 103)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1 onion, coarsely chopped
1 large red bell pepper, cut into thin strips
2 large garlic cloves, very thinly sliced
Salt & freshly ground black pepper
1 teaspoon finely chopped rosemary
1/2 teaspoon sweet Pimenton dela Vera (Spanish smoked paprika)
1 bay leaf
1 1/2 cups dry white whine
One 14 oz. can crushed Italian tomatoes
1 1/2 cups water (I used bottled clam juice- you could also use fish stock, but I'm too lazy to do that!)
1/4 teaspoon saffron threads crumbled into 2 tablespoons of hot water)
1/4 cup salted roasted almonds
1 dozen littleneck clams (I used Manila clams), thoroughly scrubbed
1 1/4 pounds monkfish, trimmed of silver skin, meat cut into 1-inch pieces

1. Heat the olive oil in large, heavy casserole. Add the onion, bell pepper srips and garlic and season with salt and black pepper. Cover and cover over moderatly high heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are just beginning to brown, about 5 minutes. Add the rosemary, paprika and bay leaf and cook for 1 minute. Add the white wine and bring to a boil. Simmer until the liquid is slightly reduced, about 5 minutes. Add the tomatoes, water (clam juice) and saffron water and bring to a boil. Cover the casserole tightly and cook over moderate heat for 5 minutes.

2. Finely grind the almonds in a food processor. Stir the almonds into the stew and simmer until slightly thickened, about 3 minutes. Add the clams, cover and cook until most of them open, 5 - 10 minutes. Add the fish and season with salt and pepper. Cover and simmer until the fish is cooked through, 2 - 3 minutes. Discard the bay leaf (I left mine in). Transfer to bowls and serve.

Serve with : Crusty bread (or rice. Wait, I don't mean crusty rice! Regular rice!)

Wine: A Spanish wine, perhaps an Albarino.

Mmm...for a first attempt, it came out pretty good. I was able to find the monkfish and clams at Nijiya. Next time, I need to really grind the almonds because some pieces were still kind of "nutty".

Marinated Shrimp Scampi

Marinated Shrimp Scampi

(recipe courtesy of Better Homes & Gardens special issue, "Appetizers", page 93) - alterations by me!

These shrimp, marinated in a combination of wine, garlic, and lemon, are served in aclassic scampi style.

Prep: 35 minutes
Marinate: 1 hour

Ingredients:
2 lbs fresh or frozen extra-jumbo shrimp in shells (I used fresh medium sized shrimp)
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup dry white wine
6 cloves garlic, minced (1 tablespoon - but I just used however many cloves I wanted!)
2 teaspoons finely shredded lemon peel
1/2 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons snipped fresh Italian (flat-leaf) parsley
Lemon wedges

1. Thaw shrimp, if frozen. Peel and devein shrimp, leaving tails intact. Rinse shrimp and pat dry with paper towels. Place shrimp in a large resealable plastic bag set in a shallow bowl.
2. In a small bowl, combine olive oil, wine, garlic, lemon peel, crushed red pepper, and salt. Pour over shrimp. Seal bag and toss gently to coat. Marinate in the refrigerator for 1 hour.

Steps 3 & 4 are from the magazine...
3. Remove shrimp from marinade reserving marinade. Arrange shrimp on unheated broiler pan. Broil 4 to 5 inches from heat 2 mintes. Turn shrimp over and brush with reserved marinade, broil 2 to 4 minutes more or until shrimp turn opaque.
4. To serve, mound shrimp on platter: sprinkle with parsley and serve with lemon wedges.

Here's how I did steps 3 & 4 because I was too damn lazy to broil...
3. Reserve some of the marinade from the plastic bag and dump shrimp into skillet and sautee until pink. Set aside the shrimp
4. Put in reserved marinade, add more wine, garlic, lemon juice as needed. Reduce the sauce. Pour over shrimp. Sprinkle with parsley. Serve with rice. Or in my case (in my second trial run), with linguine with extra sauce.

Makes 10 - 12 servings.

Make-Ahead Directions:
Prepare marinade up to 24 hours before using. Add shrimp and marinate as directed.

Pictured below: My second attempt a few days later. You can see I used WAAAAY too much shrimp, garlic and parsley. I also served the shrimp over linguine.

You could tell by these 2 shrimp recipes that I was on a shrimp bend that week. Plus, my younger daughter now knows how to shell shrimp and leave the tails on. Shrimp is good but in moderation...

Shrimp Pil Pil

Shrimp Pil Pil (Sizzling Shrimp)

(recipe courtesy of Everyday with Rachael Ray, "Hot on the Tail" page 82)

4 servings
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

Ingredients:
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
2 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper
1 teaspoon sweet smoked paprika
1 pound large shrimp, peeled and deveined (tails left on)
Salt
2 tablespoons chopped flat-leaf parsley
1 loaf crusty bread, sliced


1. In a large, heavy skillet, heat the olive oil over medium-high heat. Add the garlic, crushed red pepper and paprika and cook, stirring, for 20 seconds. Season the srhimp with salt, add to the skillet and cook until opaque, 1 - 2 minutes on each side. Remove from the heat and stir in the parsley.


2. Transfer the shrimp mixutre to a bowl and serve with the bread.

I made this recipe twice in one week. Yeah, bad for my husband's cholesterol levels. This is a classic Spanish tapa also known as gambas al ajillo (garlic shrimp). You can buy the smoked paprika at Pata Negra, the Spanish market next to Costa Brava (a Spanish restaurant) in Pacific Beach. When I bought it, it was on a lark but now I've been using it for other recipes like crazy. Well, try this recipe. It's pretty easy to do and it's very delicious!

THAI BEEF STIR-FRY

Source: Cooks Illustrated Magazine
Copyright: July 1, 2005

FOR THE BEEF AND MARINADE:
3/4 teaspoon ground coriander
1/8 teaspoon ground white pepper
1 teaspoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon fish sauce
2 pounds blade steak, flank steak or skirt steak, trimmed and cut into 1/4" thick strips

FOR THE STIR FRY:
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 tablespoons water
1 tablespoon light brown sugar
1 tablespoon Asian chili-garlic paste
3 medium cloves garlic, minced (about 1 tablespoon)
vegetable oil
3 jalapeño chiles, halved, seeds and ribs removed, diced
3 medium shallots, trimmed, quartered lengthwise, layers separated
1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, large leaves torn into bite-sized pieces
1/2 cup fresh cilantro leaves
1/3 cup chopped unsalted roasted peanuts
lime wedges for serving

1. FOR THE BEEF AND MARINADE: Combine coriander, white pepper, brown sugar, and fish sauce in large bowl. Add beef, toss well to combine; marinate at least 15 minutes.

2. FOR THE STIR-FRY: In small bowl, stir together fish sauce, vinegar, water, brown sugar, and chili-garlic paste until sugar dissolves; set aside. In another small bowl, mix garlic with 1 teaspoon oil; set aside.

3. Heat 2 teaspoons oil in 12-inch nonstick skillet over high heat until smoking; add one-third of beef to skillet in even layer. Cook, without stirring, until well browned, about 2 minutes, then stir and continue cooking until beef is browned around edges and no longer pink in the center, about 30 seconds. Transfer beef to medium bowl. Repeat with additional oil and remaining meat in 2 more batches.

4. Add another 2 teaspoons oil to now-empty skillet and swirl to coat. Add chiles and shallots and cook, stirring frequently, until beginning to soften, 3 to 4 minutes.

5. Push chile-shallot mixture to sides of skillet to clear center; add garlic to clearing and cook, mashing mixture with spoon, until fragrant, about 15 seconds. Stir to combine garlic with chile-shallot mixture.

6. Add fish sauce mixture to skillet; increase heat to high and cook until slightly reduced and thickened, about 30 seconds.

7. Return beef and any accumulated juices to skillet, toss well to combine and coat with sauce, stir in half of mint and cilantro.

8. Serve immediately over steamed rice, sprinkling individual servings with portion of peanuts and remaining herbs, and passing lime wedges separately.

SOUTHWESTERN GRILLED BEEF SALAD WITH CORN SALSA AND CHIPOTLE DRESSING

Dressing
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon chopped canned chipotle chilies in adobo sauce
2 large garlic cloves, pressed
1 cup olive oil

Salsa
2 ears fresh corn, husked
4 plum tomatoes, seeded, chopped
1 cup chopped peeled jicama
1/2 cup chopped red onion
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

Steak
1 1/2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1 tablespoon ground cumin
1 tablespoon chili powder
3 large garlic cloves, pressed
2 pounds beef tenderloin steaks (1 inch thick)

Assembly
1 avocado, halved, peeled, pitted, diced
10 cups mixed baby greens
2 small mangoes, peeled, pitted, thinly sliced

Whisk first 4 ingredients in medium bowl in blend. Gradually whisk in oil. Season with salt and pepper. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. For Salsa:
Blanch corn in large pot of boiling salted water 2 minutes. Drain. Cool. Cut corn from cob. Transfer corn kernels to large bowl. Add tomatoes, jicama, onion and cilantro and mix. (Can be prepared 6 hours ahead. Cover and chill.)

For steak:
Combine first 4 ingredients in small bowl. Spread spice paste over both sides of steaks. Cover and refrigerate at least 2 hours or up to 6 hours.

For Assembly:
Prepare barbecue (medium-high heat). Grill steaks to desired doneness, about 5 minutes per side for medium-rare. Transfer steaks to cutting board and let stand 5 minutes.

Meanwhile, add avocado and 2 tablespoons dressing to salsa and mix. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Place greens in large bowl and toss with enough dressing to coat. Divide greens equally among 6 plates. Fan some mango slices on 1 side of each salad. Top each salad with 1/2 cup salsa.

Thinly steaks crosswise. Arrange atop greens. Serve, passing remaining dressing separately.

Bon Appétit, August 1994

Notes from Lotus:

If you don't have any jicama on hand, leave it out. It's still good.

If sweet or Vidalia onions are available, they are great in the salsa.

If you're feeling lazy, skip the avocado, mangoes, and/or steak.

Sardine & Tomato Noodle Soup

My mom used to make this soup when I was a kid. I haven't had it in a long time, but when I saw this recipe in my new cookbook (see previous post on 'Adobo Flavored Pecans'), I had to make it. This first time try was somewhat of a success although it was missing one of the key ingredients, the tomato (singular because only one is used in this recipe). Sometimes my mom would make miswa soup with meatballs, also one of my favorites. Misua (sometimes spelled as miswa) noodles are superfine wheat noodles with a silky mouthfeel. They cook really fast and if you put too much in, you will have a soggy mess. Since I didn't have the tomato, I thought I could put in another can of sardines in tomato sauce. The result was still okay, but too salty. I will have to make this again with tomatoes next time.

Sardine & Tomato Noodle Soup (Misua)

Ingredients:

1 tbsp olive oil

2 cloves of garlic, minced (although I just smashed mine)

1 green onion, chopped, white bulb & green stalk separated (I didn't use the white parts but a regular small onion instead)

1 small tomato (missing in the photos)

2 (5 1/2 oz) cans sardines in tomato sauce

3 cups Chicken Stock (I was lazy and used low sodium Chicken Broth)

2 oz misua noodles

2 tsp fish sauce (patis)

Heat the olive oil in a medium pot over medium heat. Add the garlic, the white part of the green onion and the tomato (M.I.A. obviously). Cook and stir for 2 - 3 minutes until the tomato begins to soften. Add the canned sardines with the tomato sauce and chicken stock.

Add the miswa noodles, fish sauce, and pepper. Simmer another 5 minutes until the noodles soften and the soup thickens. See the nice sardine?

Ladle the soup into bowls and garnish with the chopped green spring onion. Serve immediately.

I love these noodles. I should cook miswa more often. It would taste good with meatballs....that's for another post in the future!

Roasted Asparagus

Roasted Asparagus

Ingredients:

Asparagus

Olive Oil

Sea Salt

Black pepper

*optional - grated lemon rind

Preheat oven to 400 F.

Snap the asparagus stems. It will snap at the most tender point. Discard the broken ends.

If you want to be anal like me, slice the ends at an angle so they look uniform.

Place the asparagus in a roasting dish.

Drizzle a little bit of olive oil and roll the aspargus spears around to coat.

Sprinkle the sea salt and freshly cracked black pepper over the asparagus. Add the grated lemon rind if you wish.

Roast for 15-20 minutes (less if your stalks are thin).

Watch the tips to prevent burning.

You can eat this as is, or drizzle with a light vinaigrette.

In this case, I made a balsamic vinegar and soy sauce reduction.

Chicken Desarsa

Chicken Desarsa

(recipe courtesy of my friend's mother)

Ingredients:

1 chicken or 3 lbs of chicken pieces

1 onion

3 medium tomatoes

Garlic

3 potatoes

Raisins

Red bell pepper

1/2 lb of frozen peas

Salt & pepper to taste

Instructions:

Chop together onions and tomatoes in blender/chopper

Sautee garlic in olive oil in pot, place chicken in pot & cook for 5 minutes

Add chopped onions & tomatoes to pot

Add salt & pepper

Cook for 40 minutes in medium heat & stir occasionally

Add cut up potatoes, cook for 15 minutes

Add peas, raisins & sliced red pepper, cook for 5 minutes

Serve over rice...

Adobo-Flavored Pecans

This has got to be one of the nicest cookbooks I own on Flipino food. The author is Jennifer M. Aranas, a Filipina American and a former restaurateur from Chicago:

This recipe is one page 33, from the "Appetizers and Small Bites" chapter.

Adobo-Flavored Pecans (in this case, I also used walnuts & almonds as well
Ingredients:

2 cups of nuts
3 tbsp brown sugar
4 tsp soy sauce
2 tsp vinegar
1 tsp calamansi juice (substitute lime juice ---- I used key limes since I couldn't find any calamansi in the Filipino stores)
1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp freshly ground black pepper

Preheat the oven to 325 F.

Combine all the ingredients in a large bowl and mixt until the nuts are well coated.
Pour the nuts onto a parchment-lined baking sheet, separating the nuts as much as possible into a single layer.
Bake for 15 minutes until the nuts are golden brown.
Cool the nuts before handling, 10 - 15 minutes. They will be crispy with a brown shiny glaze.

This was my first batch of pecans only:
The second batch of almonds & walnuts:

Grinding the black pepper onto the nut mixture:

Fresh out of the oven:

TC helped mix the nuts. They came out pretty good, considering it was my first attempt (my 2nd attempt was just as good). This would be a good bar snack, but I don't drink beer. I don't think these nuts will last long in our house.

Red Pepper Hummus

Roasted Red Pepper Hummus

Ingredients:

1 15 oz can of garbanzo beans
tahini (sesame paste)
roasted red peppers
roasted garlic cloves
extra virgin olive oil
lemon juice
black pepper
salt

The tahini looks like pale peanut butter. I only bought it for making hummus or adding to homemade white bean spread

My lemon is still wrapped up; it was from our back yard. Our lone lemon from our nearly barren tree. I had extra lemons in case I didn't get enough juice form this. It was pretty big.

These are "pepitas" (pumpkin seeds) that I got from Henry's. I bought red pepper hummus before from Whole Foods and noticed they had pepitas in the ingredients. This ingredient is optional.

Here are some roasted garlic cloves. No, I didn't use the whole container. I just put in 6 cloves. You can also use RAW garlic, but your breath will be pretty strong afterwards and the next day too! And if you fart...watch out!

These were the roasted red peppers. The jar I bought had whole peppers. I just cut one up. You can buy jars of roasted peppers already cut into strips. I'd recommend that to save you some time.

Directions:

Dump the garbanzos into your blender. Save a little of the liquid

Pour in a tiny bit of the olive oil (1/8th cup? I don't really measure) - depends

Add maybe 1 tbsp or more of tahini

Squeeze your lemons (ha ha) - it's up to you how much you want to put in

Add the roasted red pepper strips

Add your garlic cloves (# TBD by you)

*optional - a small handful of pepitas

Puree mixture until smooth

Add salt and pepper to taste and puree again.

Here's how it looks before pureeing.

Here's how it should look like once you're done.

I just made this on Saturday and it's almost gone. We've eaten it with fresh vegetables, like carrot and celery sticks, sugar snap peas, rice crackers (Hazelnut crackers by Blue Diamond nut company), even pieces of romain lettuce hearts. I'm sure you can also eat this with toasted pita wedges or other types of vegetable crudites.

Oh yeah, you can also double the recipe but the mixture might be too thick for your blender. That was my downfall the first few times I made this. Now I just do one batch at a time.

Enjoy!

Sweet Potato fries

Sweet Potato Fries

ingredients:

2 bags ofTrader Joe's Sweet Potato spears ($2.49 each)
extra virgin olive oil
sea salt
fresh ground black pepper

Dump the pre-peeled and pre-cut sweet potato spears into a baking dish. Try to make it single layer, but what the hell, I didn't.

Drizzle or lightly brush the olive oil over the spears.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper

Bake at 400 F for 20-25 minutes.

Another close up...