No-Cook Delicious Meal

Posted on July 22, 2013 by melsmosaic

Well, it’s still nice and hot here in DC. That makes turning on anything in the kitchen unappealing. For the last week I’ve been craving gazpacho and finally got it done today. My favorite recipe is beyond simple. It barely requires a knife. Though it’s not from my favorite chef, I’ll give ’em dibs on the amazing recipe. It’s called Macho Gazpacho.

I add garlic to the recipe because that’s just essential to life and this kind of soup, and I cheat with Tabasco vs. jalapenos. I also didn’t use the entire amount of cayenne and used a regular vs. English cucumber (just cleaned out the middle/seeds).

You just cut some of the ingredients into smaller pieces, throw everything in the food processor, blend, eat. Before the actual eating part, I added some pre-cooked shrimp.

I served this with Stacy’s Pita Chips, olives from the olive bar at Wegman’s (ahhh, bliss…), some hummus and a new wine that the two sommeliers at Wegman’s recommended…a nice, crisp white from Spain, the Valminor Albarino.

Despite the heat, my friend and I sat outside to enjoy the meal and watched a thunderstorm roll in. It was a perfect meal and nice way to wrap up a weekend. Cheers until next time.

Hot Temps Mean Refreshing Dinners

Posted on July 16, 2013 by melsmosaic

Washington, DC (All Summer) — It’s mid-July, I’m in the DC-area. What does that mean? HOT temps. And, it’s only going to get worse. This Thursday is going to be high 90s without factoring in the humidity. So, easy-to-make, refreshing dinners are the best way to go.

My brother told me about an Alton Brown Grilled Mahi Ceviche recipe that was top-notch, and it sounded great. Since it’s grilled you don’t have to remember to throw the fish in the lemon and/or lime juice many, many hours ahead of time. Just two and then you throw it on the grill. Decided to pair that with some easy oil-based coleslaw, chips, salsa and guacamole.

For the Mahi, you just put some basic ingredients together and let them sit for a couple hours. I bought the Mahi chunks from Trader Joe’s because they were half the price of the steaks!

After a couple hours, pat the fish dry and throw it on the grill.

You keep the ‘marinade’ from the fish, heat in on the stove, and eventually use it again on the fish.

For the ‘slaw, I grabbed a great bag of broccoli slaw mix from Trader Joe’s — super easy! No cutting or chopping required for the base. I did chop some cilantro and garlic and for the dressing, just did a quick vinaigrette of:

-lemon juice

-lime juice

-cumin

-coriander

-olive oil

-hint of chili powder

-S&P

Next step was prepping the pre-made guacamole (because the avocado would have required electrical equipment to mash). I always add some spice to the packaged stuff:

Now, it’s dinner time!!!! Mahi, coleslaw, tortilla chips, salsa, guac, red wine. All to wrap up a great weekend.

As I enjoyed this dinner, I kept thinking the guac was off. Well, I was house sitting and used what appeared to be salt for the guac. Yes, I was right when it tasted sweet the first time and added some more of the fine crystals. It finally occurred to me to taste the stuff. Oh, I was adding sugar not salt. Note: Sweet guacamole IS NOT good.

Japan #4: Beer…a button away

Posted on July 12, 2013 by melsmosaic

It’s Friday, the weekend is only hours away. So what better to do than loop back to the Japan trip theme and talk about BEER??? T minus 4 hours until Happy Hour.

There are beers around the world and I was looking forward to having true Japanese beer while in the country of origin. But the best thing I found while there were beer machines. What is that you ask? You want a Coke, Sprite, Mountain Dew? You go find that machine and throw in a couple bills and voila. Over in Japan…OH, you can do the same thing for beer. HEAVEN! You can tell they aren’t as strict on the drinking (age) as we are.

Also want to highlight a couple of the beers I enjoyed, overall. There is the ‘normal’ Sapporo, which I only had once. I also only saw it on tap one time. Otherwise I looked for the ones we don’t get here or I haven’t tried. Pictures below (Asahi is the one also available in the machine).

Chocolat et moutarde

Posted on June 30, 2013 by melsmosaic

I’m in this French kick for some reason. I spoke the language all through elementary school and it has correlated to my posts, so it’s not totally out of left field.

Anyway, a couple friends were recently in Paris and brought me back some treats from the well-known city in France. They know me quite well and are fully aware of my lactose intolerance. They did some good, deep digging over there to find some non-dairy-containing chocolate (considering the dairy loving area), along with some mustard. The latter was not one I would expect.

The chocolate was super dark and had sesame seeds. Wow — what a finishing taste. For the mustard(s) — I received a pack of four Dijons, all with different flavors. Talk about potency (in a good way)! Absolutely amazing. It’s great when people you know go away and bring edible souvenirs.

Kale Mary!

Posted on June 26, 2013 by melsmosaic

Summer is here, temps are high, so cooking extreme meals isn’t really the most appealing thing to do. I love kale chips but right now don’t feel like turning on the oven so was looking for something else to do with that health-benefit-bearing kale. Though I don’t really enjoy it raw when it’s in large pieces, I learned a couple years ago to take it to the food processor!

Was trying to clear out some stuff from my kitchen and came up with the following combo based on my mood:

-kale
-frozen mangoes (chunks — love the ones from Trader Joe’s)
-peanuts
-basic seasoning of garlic, onion powder, lemon juice, S&P, olive oil

So, I just put the kale (stems removed) in the food processor bit by bit to get it to the texture I like. Then I threw the frozen mango chunk in there and just pulsed a couple times and it got them into smaller, yet still good size pieces. Threw the spices in and perfect. Removed it from the food processor and stirred the peanuts in. Then tossed in some canned tuna. So good, very filling and healthy.

What’s great about this quick recipe is that there are so many options. You just need the base of kale and can change the rest around:

-Any fruit, fresh or dried (have used apricots and cherries before)
-Any nuts (almonds, walnuts, etc)
-So many spices!
-So many meats, if you even want them. How about a nice grilled chicken breast or seared tuna steak to serve on the side?

Grown-Up Kids’ Food

Posted on June 25, 2013 by melsmosaic

I had my monthly supper club the other night and was excited as usual! How can you not be excited about getting together with a bunch of people who love to cook with a changing theme every month? This month’s theme — grown-up versions of kids’ food (based on foods you loved — at least that was my addition to it).

It took me awhile to decide what to make because a lot of kids’ foods that I think of have dairy (aka cheese) and I have to nix those because of the darn lactose intolerance. So I did some personal outreach and mental recap of what I liked as a kid (and what others would eat since I grew up eating almost everything). So what did I come up with — Caesar Salad. Ahh, Caesar Salad. Come on, how could that not be a kid food. Ok, ok, I’ll stop now.

The recipe I use is from The Washington Post in the ’80s. It’s scribbled down though now I have it pretty much memorized. Simple basic ingredients, combine, shake, taste, dress romaine. And, in the interim, toast some bread for croutons to throw in there.

Once at dinner, there was a great combo of other treats —

Chicken ‘lollipops’

PB, Banana & J

Spaghetti & Meatballs (a view of the sauce)

There were also Chicken Fingers, Brownies and Wine (grape juice, right?). It was Charles Krug Cab — DANG!

The plated look(a bit dark, I know):

As usual, the food and company were spectacular. Look forward to meeting again.

Crab Feast!

Posted on June 24, 2013 by melsmosaic

Maryland, summer, hot temps, that means it’s time for crabs!! Had the pleasure of wandering down the street to one of the local crab restaurants for a 2-hour feast of all-you-can-eat crabs the other night. And, go Groupon (and the restaurant) — they had a special a week or so ago for 2 for $40. Can’t beat that. Let the fun begin.

All the essentials are brought to the table — mallets, knifes, paper towels, buckets, beer. Why can’t that last one be included?

(note: this is not Bud, but good stuff, Fat Tire)

Next, the sides of coleslaw, corn and fries. That corn was good! This is all tempting us before the essentials arrive!

Finally…ahh…here they are. Heaven. Sometimes I think you actually burn more calories than you take in when eating crabs because of how hard you work to get the meat but it’s well worth it. Though these were small-medium size, the meat was good! Couldn’t ask for much more on a Saturday night.

Voulez-vous dîner avec moi ce soir?

Posted on June 23, 2013 by melsmosaic

Etes-vous intéressé? Il y a un nouveau restaurant français à DC.

And now to English we go. Was getting together with some long-lost friends the other day and they did the searching for where to meet. There was rumor of a new French place that just opened its doors a few months back in the 14th street/Logan Circle area of DC so we wanted to check it out. The name, Le Diplomate.

Tough to get reservations so we took the risk of walking in and got there early enough to not have to wait too long. Two of us got there before the other tw0 and grabbed a drink at the bar. My friend had a glass of wine and I had a house cocktail that can be served either straight up or on the rocks. The Romarin – Absolut, St. Germain, rosemary, and grapefruit. Very nice and refreshing!

Once we were seated, there were many options on the menu, traditional for French fare. I will say, while looking it over, I had a great time talking to the waiter in French. When I can, I’ll do it. Have to practice. While looking over the menu, they bring you AMAZING bread. Baguette, wheat, cranberry-walnut stuff…waiter…another basket. Dang, so so so good! Two of my friends opted for raw oysters for appetizers and another for some (french) fries. I waited for the main course.

Main course-wise, two at the table went for Steak Frites, another went for Lamb Shanks. For me, because so much french food has dairy, not having had it for so long, and the lack of ingredients in it, had to go for Steak Tartare. Also ordered some grilled asparagus.

Overall recap of the evening. Great place, highly recommend trying it. I would also recommend aiming for a reservation or getting there early. It was packed 20 minutes after we arrived (6:15pm). Also give yourself tons of time. It took us 15 minutes to get a bottle of wine and water. Raw oysters took 30 minutes. Raw… Main courses took awhile too. We were so busy talking we didn’t really notice. On the wine note, we had the Kim Crawford Pinot Noir. We opted for a well priced option.

But, after dinner we were meeting some others and went across the street. That’s where we found some wine I’d never tried or heard of. It’s the Prima from Spain. Check out their site — I can’t decide the exact name of the bottler/vintner because the names change a bit on the site so I don’t want to say the wrong one. I just know this is where to visit — bodegasanroman.com.

U.S. Open the Wine

Posted on June 19, 2013 by melsmosaic

The title just makes me think of Jeopardy! with the great ‘Before and After’ category. I can never get those right. But in this case, the scenario was nailed right on the head!

Last Sunday, golf! Annual U.S. Open on Father’s Day. If you can’t be at the event watching or playing (hit the course for 9 holes on Saturday), what better to do than watch at home while enjoying some good wine and food? Got together with my vino-loving friends to spend countless hours watching those little white balls fly through the air, go into the water, hit the high grass or sink into that hole.

The beverage menu for the day started with some nice Prosecco. After that, we opened my contribution to the day. It was from a winery I visited while in Sonoma last year. Small little place with huge flavor in what they produce — Scribe. We enjoyed the 2008 Syrah. And these guy put some tough-to-remove wax on the top of the bottles (1/4″ thick or so) — darn that was tough to open, but made the wine taste even better.

To pair with my wine I opted to bring non-normal snacks…not just some quick dips, etc. I was craving some asparagus so opted for Roasted Prosciutto-Wrapped Asparagus. Just lightly coat the asparagus with olive oil, wrap each piece with prosciutto then place under the broiler for about 3 minutes, remove quickly, turn, then continue roasting until crisp. Voila, delicious! Can serve hot or cold. Ok, remembered to take a picture when there was one left.

Then also made some Sauteed Mushrooms with Asian Flair and Persian Cucumbers. Just cut some mini Portobellos into cubes and tossed them with soy sauce, fish sauce and sesame oil. Put them in a pan on the stove and sauteed them for a bit and the sauce got a thick. Put some sesame seeds in there for flair. Good!!! Then took some of those little Persian Cukes and cut them into decent thickness slices and tossed with lemon juice and salt and served on the side.

And back to wine we go. Next one my friends pulled out was an amazing Pinot Noir from OR — Ken Wright Cellars. A great way to finish the wine.

Now end of the Open-wise, my favorite didn’t win, but there is always next year. Cheers, par, or whatever suits you best.

Japan #3: Korean BBQ

Posted on June 13, 2013 by melsmosaic

As we progressed through Japan we had to expand our cuisine beyond just local fare. One night we opted to go for Korean BBQ. My uncle asked his colleagues for recommendations and they gave him ‘the best place to go.’ So, off we went. It was of course one of those hard-to-find, hole-in-wall restaurants – perfect!

So at the Korean BBQ, you have a grill in front of you, order raw food and grill to your liking. So much fun. We ordered basic food that we were used to — chicken, shrimp, pork, veggies, versus some options on the menu that we were either unfamiliar with or had heard of but didn’t want to take the risk of eating, especially on vacation.

The marinade and seasoning on the meat were delicious and the mushrooms were just – WOW! It was a meal that you take slowly and you can just kick back and relax.