Fish Friday

My supermarket had swordfish steaks on special this week and so I decided to do Swordfish with Mango Salsa and Rice.

I started with the salsa by dicing the mango, and adding diced cucumber, diced red onion, minced jalapeno, fresh lime juice, chopped cilantro, a little olive oil and salt. I set the salsa in the refrigerator until serving time.

I drizzled the swordfish steaks with olive oil, seasoned with salt and pepper and sprinkled with lime zest and fresh lime juice before they went on the grill for about 3 minutes on each side.

I served the swordfish steaks topped with the salsa and some rice as our side dish.

Gerry and I agree

Steak and Panzanella

I was craving red meat tonight as well as some really fresh salad and so dinner became Steak and Panzanella.

While the grill was heating up, I sliced 1/4 of a baguette into 1/2-inch thick slices and brushed both sides with olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. They went on the grill to turn golden brown. Once they came back in I rubbed them with a cut clove of garlic.

While the bread was grilling I made a vinaigrette in a mini food processor of olive oil, crumbled blue cheese and white wine vinegar which I set aside.

A couple of strip steaks simply seasoned with salt and pepper went on the grill to cook to medium-rare.

I moved on to the Panzanella by combining some mache greens with halved grape tomatoes, seeded and sliced cucumber, thinly sliced red onion, kalamata olives, and capers. I cut the grilled pieces of baguette into croutons and tossed everything with the vinaigrette.

After the steaks got to rest for 5 minutes, I sliced them up, plated them and partially topped them with the Panzanella and garnished with a little more blue cheese.

From start to finish, dinner took no longer than 25 minutes and was absolutely fabulous.

Thanksgiving Mini-Feast in July

After several days of rather light meals, I was craving some comfort food and what is more comforting than Roast Turkey. I have been intrigued with Kelsey's Essentials after making her Cannelloni last week which was superb, so I explored the Cooking Channel website to see what else she has done. In the process, I discovered her very first show was the pasta episode and her second show was all about roasting.

From her second episode, I served Roasted Beet Salad and Roasted Turkey Breast with Stuffing and Carrots. I started with the turkey by combining unsalted butter with chopped rosemary, sage, minced garlic, dry mustard, grated orange zest, salt and pepper. Half of the compound butter was rubbed under the loosened turkey breast skin and the remainder was spread all over the outside of the breast. The breast then went in a roast pan on a bed of onions, carrots and celery and went in to a 325 degree oven for a couple of hours.

I scrubbed some beets and quartered them since they were large. I put them on a sheet of aluminum foil; covered with another sheet of foil and sealed completely before putting them in a 425 degree oven for an hour. While the beets were roasting, I made the vinaigrette by combining red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, salt and sugar and whisking in olive oil until completely emulsified. I toasted some sliced almonds in a dry skillet until golden brown and set aside. Once the beets were done roasting, I peeled them while warm and sliced them. I tossed them with half of the vinaigrette and tossed the remaining vinaigrette with Mache salad greens. The dressed greens went on the plate with some of the dressed, roasted beets, some sliced fresh pears, a little bit of crumbled goat cheese and toasted almonds. This salad would completely rival any beet salad found in top rated restaurants. I think I have a new favorite home salad (of course I am very partial to beets in general).

The turkey breast came out of the roasting pan and went on to a carving board tented with foil to rest for 20 minutes. During the resting time, I cooked some carrots and made some stuffing. I rarely use packaged convenience foods, but sometimes they just fill the need. I made a package of Stovetop turkey stuffing as one of our sides.

Overall a very delicious dinner but I would work on making a homemade stuffing next time. We are both looking forward to having me explore more of Kelsey's Essentials.

Italian Sausage and Peppers Subs

Since I had leftover Italian sausages left, I decided to make subs tonight. I cut the sausages into smaller pieces and sauteed them for about 5 minutes to brown on all sides. I then added some water with a splash of red wine, covered the pan and allowed them to simmer for a little over 10 minutes. Next went in a sliced Vidalia onion and a sliced red and green pepper and I allowed everything to cook until all the liquid was evaporated and the vegetables were tender.

I layered the sausage, onion and pepper mixture on some hoagie rolls; added some provolone cheese and popped the subs in the oven just long enough to warm the rolls and melt the cheese.

A really simple meal making use of a protein I had on hand.

Meatless Monday Indian Style

I was still craving Indian spices after Saturday's menu and so I decided to go that route tonight. I used recipes from Bal Arneson's Spice Goddess show on the Cooking Channel.

We had Grilled Vegetables with Tofu and Indian Potato Salad. I started with the marinade for the vegetables and tofu by crushing lots of garlic and combining it with ground cumin, ground coriander, grapeseed oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Some large chunks of red bell pepper, spears of asparagus, portobello mushrooms, and slices of extra-firm tofu got dipped in the marinade before going on the grill to cook.

I also made Indian potato salad, which is not really a potato salad as we know it, since it is served hot. I started it by sauteeing chopped onions and garlic in some grapeseed oil for a few minutes. I then added the spice mixture of cumin seeds, brown mustard seeds, turmeric, cardamom seeds, dried curry leaves and a pinch of salt which was stirred and cooked for another minute. I added quartered baby red potatoes, sour cream, chopped tomatoes and water and allowed this mixture to cook until the potatoes were tender and the sauce was cooked down to just coat the potatoes.

Gerry and I give this meal

Sunday - Quiche Lorraine

Sunday afternoon I really did not feel like going to the market, so I raided the refrigerator to see what I could pull together. I had a package of bacon, 4 oz. of Swiss cheese, some heavy cream and plenty of eggs. I also had an onion on hand and so Quiche Lorraine became dinner.

I pulled together a pie crust, sauteed the bacon and crumbled it into the bottom of the crust. I added the shredded Swiss cheese and some chopped onions. I whipped together the eggs, heavy cream, salt, pepper and a little cayenne pepper; poured it over the ingredients in the pie crust and popped it in a 425 degree oven for 15 minutes. I reduced the oven temp to 300 and baked it for another 30 minutes. After resting for 10 minutes it was ready and dinner was done.

Steph's Birthday Celebration

Stephanie and David came into town on Friday night so we could celebrate Steph's birthday on Saturday. We started our day with fresh bagels from Einstein's with an assortment of cream cheese and a fruit platter of freshly sliced mango, pineapple and strawberries. A lovely and easy way to start the day.

Steph chose curried chicken salad (a Barefoot Contessa recipe) that we have had before. You start with skin-on, bone-in chicken breast halves that get rubbed with olive oil, sprinkled generously with salt and pepper and roasted in the oven for 40 minutes. When it cooled enough to handle, I removed the skin and bones and cut the meat into chunks. The dressing was made with mayo, white wine, Major Grey's chutney, and curry powder. I added chopped celery, scallions and a handful of raisins. I mixed it well and refrigerated it until serving time. I actually made the chicken salad on Friday, so it made lunch time a breeze. We had it in pita breads with an assortment of chips. She chose Rice pudding for dessert which was interesting. For the record, I am not a rice pudding fan. I have tried it once or twice and it just doesn't work for me. I got on the food network site and found a rather simple recipe that had 5 stars and decided to make that one. The recipe served 4 people and since there were 11 of us, I tripled the recipe. I followed the recipe to a tee except for the last step of cooking until slightly thickened and silky. I did not take into account the fact that it would further thicken as it cooled in the refrigerator. We ended up with a huge bowl of really thick rice. It was flavorful and I did try to thin it out with more milk but overall I don't think anyone will be requesting this one again.

Dinner was Samosas stuffed with the traditional spicy potato and pea filling and fried until golden brown served with two different chutneys. They were yummy! I finally have the dough for the samosas mastered (YEAH). The entree was Chicken Tikka Masala and I tinkered with that recipe which was not as successful as I hoped it would be. I have used crushed tomatoes in the past and found that it came out a little too heavy on tomatoes, so this time I decided to use a container of strained tomatoes and I kept adding water to try to get the right consistency. It turned out a little too thin so I will need to tinker with the recipe again. My plan is to tinker with it for just me and Gerry instead of a table of 10. I served it with Cumin-Scented Rice and Naan bread that I found at an Indian market. We ended the day's food choices with the classic Canadian Brown Sugar Pie.

My lesson for the day was not to tinker too much with recipes when cooking for a crowd. Most of the food was really good and it was a great day celebrating Stephanie.