Refreshing Cucumber Salad

Posted on June 13, 2014 by melsmosaic

Summer is finally here (temperature-wise) which means quick, refreshing salads are what the menu calls for. Found a great one in a recent edition of Cooking Light that was super simple and delicious!

It was Cucumber, (Black) Olive and Mint Salad. I put Black in parentheses because the recipe calls for Greek olives which are a totally different taste from black olives!

Ingredients:

2 cups thinly sliced English cucumber (I just used a regular cuke)
1/4 cup chopped pitted kalamata olives
3 tablespoons chopped fresh mint
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

The prep is real tough. Slice the cuke.

Then combine cucumber, olives, mint, lemon juice, olive oil, and pepper.

It tasted even better after it sat for a bit. It was served with pork tenderloin and quinoa. Would also be very nice for brunch paired with smoked salmon/lox.

Loster Tail!

Posted on February 11, 2014 by melsmosaic

The other day I was flipping through the grocery store ad and they had lobster tail in there. For some reason that just jumped out at me. Hadn’t had lobster for awhile and it sounded so good. Did some quick thinking and determined some good food to match with it and had a delicious basic dinner of lobster tail, asparagus and home fries.

Just picked up some red and sweet potatoes and tossed them with rosemary, S&P and garlic powder. Baked them at 425 for about 40 minutes.

For the asparagus, decided to just blanch it. So put it in boiling water for 2-3 minutes then rinsed with cold water (you can be really good and dunk it in ice water, but this can be just as effective for a quick method). For the lobster tail, I boiled them for about 5 minutes and it was perfect.

Come the end, paired this with a nice French white wine — Sancerre. Absolutely delicious dinner. Might just have to make it again.

Portuguese Green Soup

Posted on January 26, 2014 by melsmosaic

January, cold, soup weather. It was the perfect day to make something nice and hot for dinner, especially since I hadn’t made a one-pot wonder for awhile. I flipped through several cookbooks looking for a recipe I hadn’t made yet (because I wanted to try something new) and came across a Portuguese Green Soup in my Bon Appetit book. Basic ingredients, could make some changes to use what I had, and sounded delicious.

Ingredients

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 medium onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 bunch collard greens, center stems cut away, leaves thinly sliced — or sort of chopped/cut into pieces
1 pound fully cooked spicy sausage (such as linguiça, andouille, or hot links), cut into 1/2-inch-thick rounds — I used venison roast that I had and cubed it
5 3/4 cups low-salt chicken broth
1 3/4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled, diced — why peel them? There is great stuff in the skin!
1/2 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper

Preparation

Heat olive oil in large pot over medium-high heat. Add onion and garlic. Saute until onion is soft and golden , about 5 minutes. Note: my apartment smelled SO good.

Add collard greens and saute until wilted, about 4 minutes.

Add sausage (or venison in my case) and saute 5 minutes.

Add broth and potatoes. Simmer soup uncovered until potatoes are tender, about 20 minutes.

Transfer 2 cups soup (without sausage) to processor. Blend until smooth; return to pot of soup and bring to simmer. Mix in crushed red pepper. Season with salt and black pepper.

This is where immersion blenders are heaven!!! Now, it was hard to totally avoid the meat here but it made it kind of cool in the end. I made it not super smooth but not super chunky.

It was a very nice soup. As mentioned, the meat was sort of ‘smoothed’ out from the immersion blender. I had to add more salt — don’t know if it’s because sausage can often have more salt (and the recipe doesn’t call for any to begin with, they mention to add it at the end). I added some garlic salt to give it some more kick. But, I like this recipe. It says 4 dinner servings. Definitely! I have plenty of soup to go around.

Koper Pennie Wortel Slaai (Copper Penny Carrot Salad)

Posted on January 19, 2014 by melsmosaic

Last week I had my monthly supper club and the theme was Food From a Place You Want to Visit/Love to Visit. South Africa is on my (near future) itinerary so I did some searching for a dish from there. I finally decided on Koper Pennie Wortel Slaai (Copper Penny Carrot Salad). It’s fresh veggies and quite the ‘dressing’.

Ingredients:

Salad

1 kg Carrots
3 Onions (I used white)
3 Green Chillies or if you prefer Green Pepper (I did that — nice green bell peppers)

Sauce/Dressing (note — I did some major amount adjustments to these)

250ml water
1 packet of tomato cream soup (I used a can of tomato soup because of lactose intolerance, so eliminated the aforementioned water)
200 ml Vinegar – used about 2 tbsp white vinegar
250 ml Sugar — used about 2-3 tsp
125 ml Oil — used about 1/4 cup olive oil
10 ml Worcester Sauce — used about 1 tsp
7 ml Mustard — used about 1 tsp

To make:

Cut carrots and onions into rings. Boil carrots 15 minutes with a little salt. During the last 6 minutes, add the onions.

Dice green peppers or chillies. Add carrots, onions and chillies or green peppers in a low bowl. (Remember not to use stainless steel bowl, as it will cause a reaction due to acidity).

For the sauce/dressing, combine all ingredients and bring to boil for about 5 minutes.

Pour hot sauce over the vegetables. Refrigerate for at least one day. Enjoy!

For the balance of the meal, some food came from Italy with a Tuscan Bean soup, the Southwest with some great spicy beans, Northern Africa with some Moroccan Chicken. Delicious all around!

From Spanish to Asian

Posted on January 10, 2014 by melsmosaic

There was a stat a few years ago that Bethesda has the most restaurants per capita in the country. Not surprising. And, as mentioned on a recent post, new places are opening all the time. What can also be great about living right here is that these new restaurants send you coupons for FREE food. Ahh, that lovely, rarely heard word. Love it. So, recently, another new place that opened its doors is Shophouse. Ever heard of a place called Chipotle? Yeah, thought so. Owned by the same people, Shophouse just took inspiration from another continent. So, the Asian flair is coming into play now and it’s pretty cool. You (only) get a bowl (as in no burritos, my friends), pick your rice, meats, veggies, sauces, toppings, check out, eat. They also note that the entire menu is dairy free and gluten free.

To start, you get brown or jasmine rice, noodles or salad.

Then you pick meat — grilled chicken satay, grilled steak laab, chicken & pork meatballs or tofu.

Next veggies — broccoli, charred corn, eggplant and thai basil or green beans.

Then sauces — tamarind vinaigrette, green curry, spicy red curry.

To be followed by garnishes — green papaya slaw, pickles, herb salad.

And rounded out by toppings — toasted rice, crispy garlic, crushed peanuts, thai chilis.

You can get samples of everything so it’s a great way to get a taste of things. They have fires/flames next to options that indicate levels of heat. As in the green beans, hello! You can also divide ingredients, as in get half/half. So, say get corn and broccoli. But, you can’t go three ways without paying extra.

I opted for a brown rice and lettuce with grilled chicken satay. Then topped it with broccoli, corn and eggplant (yes, went extra), papaya slaw and herb salad and peanuts. Then handed them my nice FREE coupon so the price was great (got the 3rd veggie for free because it was my first time there, so nice!). The regular cost for the chicken bowl was about $6.80, and it was huge. I easily got 2 meals out of it. So, another place to check out if you want to add to your list.

Spanish Food, Good Taste, Nice Price

Posted on January 10, 2014 by melsmosaic

There always seem to be new places opening in this area and it’s fun to actually check them out. There is this new one in Bethesda, MD (part of a franchise) who’s name is tough to figure out based on the font but after discussion, wine, food, more wine and deep thoughts, we find out the official name is 100 Montaditos. And what is this place? Deep research tells you “100 Montaditos was founded in 2000, near the Spanish southern city of Huelva. Recreating the atmosphere of a traditional 19th century Spanish tavern, the restaurant specialized in montaditos, crunchy Spanish rolls baked to order and jam-packed with traditional ingredients as Serrano ham, Spanish tortilla, chorizo sausage and Manchego cheese.”

They have a huge menu of bite size food (basically little sandwiches) with great meats and cheeses. They are all about $1-$3! They also have some options for salad and meat plates. My friend and I split a Spanish Gourmet platter of Serrano, Chorizo, Salami, Manchego, arugula and great bread. It was $9 for more than enough goods.

For wines, she had some nice white for $4/glass. I started with sangria — there are several options of basically wine and soda. They are $3! After that I opted for (straight) red wine for a whopping $4/glass. Very nice house selections.

We sat at the bar so had service right there. Otherwise you walk in, order at the counter, get a number, then they deliver your food to your table. But a waiter continues to come to your table to see if you need anything. Nice casual place. Affordable, tasty, can be quick, or you can stay awhile.

Christmas Dinner

Posted on December 26, 2013 by melsmosaic

Last night we enjoyed quite a nice dinner of surf and turf, and of course some of great sides. The menu included salt-cake rib roast, salt-cake snapper, grilled Brussels Sprouts, popovers and Pinot Noir.

For the rib roast, cooking time was a few hours so that was planned well in advance. The ‘cake’ surrounds the roast and then it sits on the grill to cook to perfection. When done, you get to crack, break, peel it off.

The fish was one I’ve made several times the past couple months and that shared the oven with the popovers. We think it might have affected the popping of the popovers because they were pretty much just mounds of bread-like things.

For the Brussels Sprouts, we used an Alton Brown recipe. You microwave the sprouts for about 3 minutes then toss them in dry mustard, paprika, garlic, salt and olive oil.

You skewer them then put them on the grill for 10 minutes, turning once.

Final product of everything —

We enjoyed Pinots from Chile and (Sonoma County) CA with dinner, as well. The Chilean wine was Apaltagua and the CA one was Banshee. Both very nice pairings to match the surf and turf.

Stove-Top Smoked Salmon

Posted on December 22, 2013 by melsmosaic

Last night I got to enjoy a wonderful dinner of smoked salmon…done on the stove via stove-top smoker. It was amazing. All I had to do was provide wine. Easy!

For the main dish, you just need put some smoking chips in the bottom of the smoker then cover them with foil.

Season the fish with spices of choice (tarragon, S&P were used), then close the smoker.

You cook/smoke the salmon for about 25 minutes (this was 1/2lb+) — you start it at medium-high heat to get the chips smoking, leaving the back end of the smoker open, then keep it going at medium heat until cooked through.

Carefully remove the lid (hot pads!) and heaven has arrived!

We also prepared some pan-seared asparagus seasoned with rosemary and garlic salt.

The final product was the fish, asparagus, dolmas, olives, marinated mushrooms and wonderful Penner-Ash Pinot Noir. Not a bad dinner at all.

Wrap-up Dinner

Posted on December 2, 2013 by melsmosaic

The long weekend is over. Time to get back to ‘normal’ life. I wanted to make a healthy meal that both used some of the leftover turkey and would give me some lunch for the week. I remembered a recipe a friend passed along a few years ago and it was perfect for this time of year. It doesn’t actual call for turkey, but throwing the meat in at the end was a great addition. I used Ellie Krieger‘s Lemony Lentil Soup with Greens (from her So Easy, Luscious Healthy Recipes for Every Meal of the Week cookbook, 2009). It’s basic, nutritious and pretty quick. I made HALF (of all the noted quantities) and have tons. You could also easily make this a vegetarian dish by using veggie vs. chicken broth.

Ingredients

2 tsp canola oil — used olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
1 large carrot, peeled and chopped
2 stalks celery, chopped
2 cloves garlic, minced
16 oz. green lentils
12 cups low-sodium chicken broth, plus more as needed
1 tsp dried basil
1 tsp dried thyme
1 tsp salt
6 cups chopped kale leaves (about 6 oz)
3 tbsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp finely grated lemon zest

Directions

Heat the oil in a soup pot over medium-high heat. Add the onion and cook, stirring until softened and translucent, 3 to 5 minutes.

Add the carrots, celery, garlic and cook, covered, stirring occasionally, until the carrots are softened, about 5 minutes.

Add 12 cups of the broth, the lentils, basil, thyme, and salt and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to low, add the kale, and cook until the lentils are tender, 30-35 min, adding more broth as necessary.

Stir in the lemon juice and zest, and serve. At this point I also threw in leftover turkey and let it heat through.

Nice and hearty! I plan to eat this for the next couple days at lunch (and likely dinner based on how much I have, even with half the recipe).

Salt Cake Red Snapper…oh my!

Posted on November 18, 2013 by melsmosaic

I have been on a mission lately to make a salt cake fish and finally got it done. I did some research and various recipes came up with different takes on the concept. Type of fish varied, what to stuff the fish with, how to make the salt cake, cooking temp & time. So, between the research and the guy at the fish shop, I went at it. I opted for a nice red snapper and for 2 people the fish shop suggested about 2 lb. fish (jumping ahead, there was a good amount left).

For stuffing it, I opted for peppercorns, bay leaves and grapefruit.

Next, the caking! For this one, I took a recipe suggestion and put salt (only) on the baking sheet, then the fish on top of that, then caked the fish in salt.

Threw it in the oven at 450 degrees for about 20 minutes (roughly 9 minutes/pound per some recipes). When it was done…nicely browned salt around the edges.