Sushi Bowl

This is a tasty, healthy, and very easy to put together lunch. You can buy pickled mackerel from Tokyo Fish, if you live in the East Bay, or any market that sells Japanese or sushi products. This is a great way to use leftover rice but it's great with fresh rice too.

You'll need (serves 1):

2/3c cooked brown rice

1/2 avocado

1/2 filet pickled mackerel

wakame seaweed (soaked in boiling water to reconstitute)

nori seaweed, cut into strips

small piece of ginger, minced

1T soy sauce

1t rice vinegar

1t mirin (sweet cooking wine)

1T Sriracha

1T hoisin sauce

Combine ginger, soy sauce, rice vinegar and mirin in a medium bowl. Add rice and stir to coat. Chop wakame seaweed and toss with rice. Top rice with sliced avocado (salted and peppered), sliced mackerel, nori sheets, and a squirt of Sriracha and hoisin.

Stuffed Zucchini

This is my grandmother's recipe, except she doesn't use recipes, so it's an approximation. If you don't like zucchini you can stuff bell peppers, tomatoes, Italian eggplants, or pretty much any receptacle-shaped vegetable. This is also a lot easier than it looks.

You'll need:

6 zucchini (you can use the normal long ones but I like the round ones, because you can put more stuffing inside, and obviously the stuffing's the best part)

1 onion

2-3 cloves garlic

a few tomatoes or a 1/2c or so of tomato sauce

juice from 1/2 lemon

mint for garnish

stuffing:

1/2lb ground beef or lamb

1/3c white rice

1 onion

2 cloves garlic

a few tablespoons tomato sauce

spices-- I used tomato flakes & baharat

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Start with the stuffing. Chop onion & garlic. Saute in olive oil with spices-- cumin-based flavors are good here-- until caramelized, about 10 minutes. Pour cooked onion into a large bowl. Add raw meat. Rinse rice until it runs clear. Add rice. Add some olive oil and tomato sauce to moisten, and generously season with salt and pepper. Mix well.

Chop the end of the zucchini (small end if you're using rounded ones) and remove the insides with a corer or a spoon. Discard insides. Don't cut all the way through to the other side. You should have zucchini shells now. Stuff them will the stuffing but don't fill all the way (the rice will expand).

Heat olive oil in a large skillet (the same you used for the onion is fine). Chop onion and garlic; saute until translucent. Add zucchinis to pan and oil if necessary; saute briefly on all sides. Add tomato sauce and a bit of water if sauce looks very thick. Add lemon juice.

If you have extra stuffing, make little meatballs and add them to the sauce too.

Cover pan and cook in oven until rice is done, about 45 minutes. You can reduce the sauce on the stovetop, uncovered, if necessary at the end.

Serve garnished with mint.

Morcilla-Stuffed Squid

Morcilla is Spanish-style blood sausage. It's meatier than boudin and has a coarser grind. The one we got (at The Spanish Table) was combined with rice, which makes a really nice, substantial stuffing mix. If this kind of thing scares you, you can easily make this recipe with normal bulk sausage.

You'll need (serves 2-3):

6 squid bodies, cleaned (remove inner cartiledge)

4 links morcilla or other sausage

1 onion, chopped

1/2T cumin

1t cayenne

1T paprika

1c red wine

for the sauce:

7 cloves garlic, crushed and sliced

1/2 onion, chopped

4 shallots, sliced

1T tomato paste

1 8oz can tomato sauce

1T paprika

In a large heavy skillet, heat some olive oil and saute the chopped onion until brown, about 8 minutes. Remove the sausage from its casing and add it to the skillet, crumbling it up with your fingers as you add it. Stir to combine; add spices to taste. Deglaze with red wine and let simmer until almost dry. Taste and adjust spices. Remove from pan and let cool.

When the stuffing is cool enough to handle, stuff squid bodies (but don't stuff them too much-- they'll shrink quite a bit when they cook). Secure opening with toothpicks.

Add oil to skillet (same skillet-- don't clean it out) and brown stuffed squid lightly, about 5 min/side. Remove. Add sauce ingredients: onion, shallot, garlic. Let cook slowly over low heat until golden, about 10 minutes, stirring so garlic doesn't brown. Add tomato paste; let caramelize, then stir to combine. Add tomato sauce and paprika; return squid to pan. Add some chicken broth or water so that liquid comes halfway up squid. Let simmer about 45 minutes, until squid is tender (can be easily pierced with a fork).

leftovers, in the pan

cross-section of stuffed squid

Chicken with Creamy Mushroom Sauce

This entire dish comes together in thirty minutes but it's decadent and guest-worthy. It also features very few ingredients.

You'll need (serves 4):

4 boneless, skinless chicken breasts

5 shallots

8oz crimini mushrooms (about 2c)

1/2 vermouth

1c heavy whipping cream

2T olive oil

Preheat oven to its lowest possible temperature.

Mince shallots; set aside. Mince mushrooms (or chop coarsely, if you want a more prominent mushroom-ness to the dish) and set aside.

Slice each chicken breast in half to make 2 even-ish cutlets that are thinner than the original breast (so you'll be slicing them horizontally, if that makes sense). Place cutlets between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound so they're all of even thickness-- they should be about 1/2 inch thick at most. You can pound with a meat mallet or use the bottom of a heavy pan.

Heat olive oil in a heavy, wide skillet.  Salt and pepper the chicken cutlets and brown them in batches, being careful not to crowd the skillet. Once you lay the chicken down, don't move it or you won't achieve good browning. Flip chicken when one side is light golden and do the other side too. Place browned cutlets on a plate; when they're all cooked, put the plate in the oven to keep the chicken warm.

There should be a bit of oil left in the skillet; add the shallots and stir until the shallots turn golden. Add the mushrooms and cook until dark and liquid is released and evaporated, about 7 minutes. Add vermouth and reduce by half. Add cream and let boil over medium heat until reduced and thick. When it's as thick as you want it, put the chicken in the sauce and serve. We ate this with red-brown rice, and green beans which will be featured in a post soon.

Fennel and Corn Brown Rice Risotto

This makes a great vegetarian main dish or shellfish side (it'd be delicious with prawns, cooked separately, of course). Be sure to get the vegetables well caramelized; this makes the entire risotto deep brown and very flavorful.

You'll need (serves 3-4):

1c brown rice

4c chicken or vegetable broth

1 onion

1 large fennel bulb

1 ear of corn

8 mushrooms

1T olive oil

1T butter

1c vermouth

1/2c parmesan, grated

1/2c sharp cheddar, grated

Finely chop onion.

Melt butter and oil in large heavy skillet. Add onion.

While onion cooks, chop fennel bulb and add that too (reserve fronds). Remove corn from cob and add it as well, with some salt and pepper.

Clean mushrooms and chop them rougly. Once the veggies look golden brown, add mushrooms and cook 5 more minutes. 

Add rice (and more oil if necessary); stir and cook about 1 minute. 

Add vermouth slowly, scraping at the bottom of the pan (you should have a well-browned fond). Let cook until vermouth boils away.

Add broth slowly, stirring almost constantly, adding more when the mixture looks dry. Cook about 1 hour until rice is tender but not mushy.

Stir in cheese and fennel fronds and serve.

Spicy Shrimp Curry

This is very easy to throw together, and you can add any veggies you have around. You can, of course, adjust the spices. Be sure to only add the shrimp at the very end so it doesn't overcook, and if you reheat the leftovers, don't heat the shrimp (heat everything else and stir in the shrimp at the end; it'll warm through).

You'll need (serves 3-4):

1lb shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 can light coconut milk
1T tamarind paste
1 onion, thinly sliced
1 heaping tablespoon curry paste (I used panang)
1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and minced
5 large cloves garlic, peeled, crushed and sliced
2 serrano chilies, sliced lengthwise
1T lemongrass (chopped in a food processor)
1 head broccoli, cut into florets
2 carrots, sliced
1/2T cumin, 1T coriander, 1/2T turmeric
to garnish: chopped mint, chopped thai chilies, crushed peanuts, fish sauce


Saute onion until golden brown. Add curry paste and stir to coat onion; continue cooking about 5 minutes.

Add garlic, ginger, lemongrass and serrano chilies. Stir, being careful not to burn, until garlic is fragrant and chilies are soft.

Add cumin, coriander and turmeric. Add tamarind paste. Add coconut milk and bring to a boil. Lower to barely a simmer and let cook while you devein the shrimp.

If the shrimp are deveined, let the curry cook about 30 minutes, until thick and flavorful.

Add broccoli and carrots and cook about 5 minutes, covered if necessary, until broccoli is just done. Add shrimp, cook 1 minute until just opaque, and turn off heat. Stir and let sit 1 more minute; shrimp should then be perfectly cooked.

Add fish sauce to taste. Serve with more fish sauce, peanuts, mint and red chilies.

Sushi!

Katie and I made way too much sushi. Stay tuned for some leftovers posts.
Learn from our "mistake": if you want to make sushi,
invite some friends.

pickled mackerel nigiri
with avocado & tobiko
&
hamachi nigiri

closeup of the mackerel-- this was a delicious combo.
the avocado tempered the vinegary fish
and the tobiko added a nice crunch.

salmon nigiri with avocado on shiso leaves

shiso leaves have a strong woodsy citrus flavor
that kind of overwhelmed the delicate salmon

tuna & hamachi sashimi with a dollop of tobiko

salmon, scallop, and octopus sashimi

the octopus was cooked and sliced thin

scallop sashimi is my new favorite!

more pickled mackerel, with avocado,
tobiko, and daikon radish sprouts

tuna with avocado & tobiko,
garnished with daikon radish sprouts

sake, of course

Ginger Soy Salmon with Rice & Eggplant

This is incredibly easy and uses a minimal number of ingredients. The salmon and eggplant use the same marinade, which is then reduced into a thick and flavorful sauce. Katie & I make a great cooking team.

You'll need:

2 thick, center-cut fillets of salmon
1/2c soy sauce
1/4c minced ginger
5 cloves garlic, minced
2T chili sauce or sriracha (optional)

1 eggplant
1c jasmine rice

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Mix soy sauce with ginger, garlic, and sriracha.

Remove pin-bones from salmon using tweezers. Place salmon in ginger sauce.

Slice (unpeeled) eggplant into 1/4-1/2" rounds. Spoon some sauce onto every slice and place in a baking sheet (it's ok if they overlap a little). Put in hot oven.

Put rice on to cook.

When rice is almost ready, place a baking sheet in the oven. When it's hot, take it out and place the salmon on it, skin side down. Be sure to get most of the ginger pieces off the salmon so they don't burn.

Turn the oven down to 275 degrees. Put salmon in. If the eggplant isn't done cooking, you can cover the pan with aluminum foil to help it cook faster (we had to do this).

The salmon should be ready in about 10 minutes, depending on how you like yours cooked. We think it's best rare.

Grilled Garlic Rosemary Pork Tenderloin with Pomegranate Spice Gravy and Wild Rice Pilaf

Jesse attacked his plate before I could get a good picture in. There are a lot of recipes on this post, so bear with me. The Pomegranate Spice Gravy is a delicious, and potentially vegetarian, sauce that can be drizzled over anything-- fish, chicken, rice-- to add flavor and sticky goodness. This time I went for pomegranate juice instead of molasses to cut down on the sweetness a bit. But first: the pork tenderloin.

Grilled Garlic Rosemary Pork Tenderloin

This is so quick and easy, and uses minimal ingredients. You'll need:

1 pork tenderloin, silverskin & any fat removed with a sharp knife
1T chopped fresh rosemary
3 garlic cloves, cut lengthwise into slivers
1t good olive oil

Rub the tenderloin with salt, pepper, and olive oil. Make little slits with a sharp knife and insert garlic slivers (make sure they're fully inserted or they'll fall out while cooking). Now, if you happen to have an electric grill with an aroma diffuser (hey, I do), put your rosemary in the diffuser with 1/2c water. If not, rub the rosemary all over the pork. Put the pork on a very hot grill or barbecue and cook 8-10 min/side, until a thermometer reads 140 degrees. Remove from heat and let sit as long as you can stand (ideally 10 minutes) before slicing, against the grain, into 1/4-1/2 inch slices.

Wild Rice Pilaf

This is Jesse's mom's recipe, and it's delicious. We used a wild rice combo (it's cheaper and more colorful!). And, by the way, wild rice is not rice, but aquatic grass.

You'll need:

1c wild rice
2c beef broth (or chicken or veggie broth)
1 large shallot, minced
6 cremini mushrooms, minced
1 medium red onion, minced
2 stalks celery, minced
2T butter

Melt butter in a saucepan over medium-high heat. Saute all veggies together for about 7 minutes, until mushrooms give off their liquid. Add rice and saute to coat grains; add broth, bring to a boil, cover, and simmer until tender and liquid is absorbed, about 1 hour. Remove from heat and let sit, covered, 10 minutes. Fluff and serve.

Pomegranate Spice Gravy

topped with marrow-- see below

The word "gravy" here might be a bit misleading-- this sauce is more syrupy in consistency. It's based on this recipe.

You'll need:

4 veal bones, optional
1 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, chopped
1 rib celery, chopped
6 garlic cloves, smashed & roughly chopped
1 3-inch piece ginger, peeled and cut into disks
2 star anise
1 stick cinnamon
2t black peppercorns
2c red wine
2c unsweetened pomegranate juice
1/2c *low sodium* soy sauce
2t fish sauce
2t hoisin sauce
1T dark brown sugar
1T Wondra flour (or 1t cornstarch dissolved in 1t warm water)

First step, optional: Wash, dry, and salt the bones. Brown them in a dutch oven in very hot grapeseed oil. Remove & set aside. Lower heat to medium.

In the same oil, add onion, carrot, celery, garlic, and a pinch of salt. Saute 15-20 minutes. Add ginger, star anise, cinnamon and peppercorns. Return bones to pot if using. Add all liquids (wine, pomegranate juice, soy sauce, fish sauce and hoisin). Bring to a boil. Cover and simmer 30 minutes. Check for sweetness; add 1T brown sugar if necessary. Keep cooking, covered, as long as you want.

this is what you take out
notice the tasty marrow in the bones...

About 15 minutes before serving, remove bones, anise and cinnamon. Run mixture through a food mill (or just strain through a fine mesh strainer) and return to pot. Sprinkle in Wondra flour, stirring to combine. Bring to a boil and cook until it's as thick as you want it, probably about 3 minutes.

Roasted Brocccoli

to interested parties:
we drank a delicious 2004 Poppy Pinot

This is the easiest, and tastiest, way to cook broccoli. You can also do this with cauliflower. Just cut into florets, toss with olive oil and coarse salt, and roast at 400 degrees for 15 minutes. We made this the other day and had to make another batch because we ate it before sitting down to dinner-- it's that good.

Hunkar Begendi (Sultan's Delight) Turkish Lamb Stew with Creamy Eggplant Sauce

This is Claudia Roden's recipe; it's a basic lamb stew, with onion, garlic, and tomatoes, served over butter-toasted rice and surrounded by an eggplant bechamel. The sauce is so good that you can serve it with any stew. It's rich, creamy, and mild-flavored, so it won't interfere with the main dish. It would probably be good over pasta with some more pepper and cheese. Here's the sauce recipe (we changed it, just a little, from Roden's):

You'll need:

3lbs eggplants
juice of 1/2 lemon
4T butter
3T flour
2c milk
salt, pepper
1/4t freshly grated nutmeg
1/2c grated kasseri or asiago cheese

Prick the eggplants all over with a sharp pointed knife so they don't explode all over your oven. Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a baking sheet with foil. Place the eggplants on the foil and bake until very soft, turning halfway through, about 30 minutes. Remove and carefully lift off the skin. It should come off very easily (if it doesn't, the eggplants aren't done). Put the flesh in a bowl of water and lemon to preserve the color while you work. Then put the eggplant in a strainer and press out as much liquid as possible. Set aside.

Melt the butter in a medium saucepan. Add the flour and whisk constantly, 2 minutes. Add the milk in a stream, whisking. Bring to a boil; the mixture should be thick. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg. Add eggplant and puree with a hand blender if you have one (this isn't necessary, but makes for a much smoother sauce). Add the cheese and stir to melt. Taste; add salt and pepper as necessary.

Ben's Vegetarian Dinner

This is for (and was enjoyed with) my friend Ben, who has been a vegetarian 13 years and counting. Also Aaron & Colin, new vegetarians. I could never be one, but I think it's great that you are.

Zucchini Frittata

This is unlike any frittata you've ever had-- it bears no resemblance to an omelet, and you can hardly tell it has any eggs (it only has 2).

You'll need:

a bunch of zucchinis, grated-- I used about 6 small roundish ones with pale green skin. Don't peel them.
a bunch of cheese
2 eggs
about 1/4c breadcrumbs
1t cayenne pepper
salt & pepper to taste

Lila inspecting the frittata mixture

Squeeze water out of zucchini. Mix all ingredients together and season to taste. Spread onto greased gratin dish and bake at 350 degrees until set and golden brown on top, about 30-45 minutes.

Parsnip & Carrot Puree

This is really a parsnip dish; we added the carrots for color. Parsnips are a delicious, underappreciated vegetable. They're easy to cook, taste great, and are probably good for you (they are, after all, a vegetable). Steam them to retain the best flavor & vitamins.

You'll need:

a bunch of parsnips, peeled and cut into pieces (If they're more than an inch wide, remove the core)
1 carrot
1/4c cream (optional)
s & p

Steam the vegetables about 15 minutes; you should be able to stick a small sharp knife through the pieces once they're done. Puree with 1/4-1/2c of the cooking water and some cream. Season to taste.

Brown Rice Revitalized--or,
what to do with leftover rice

You'll need:

leftover rice (cooked)
1T olive oil
1 large shallot, slice thinly
4 cloves garlic, minced
1/4c slivered almonds
1/4c Madeira wine

Heat oil; saute shallot and garlic until translucent, being careful not to burn the garlic. Add almonds and cook, stirring occasionally, to toast. Deglaze saucepan with wine; add cooked rice and stir to coat. Add a little water (I actually added some leftover roasted red pepper-feta-walnut dip mixed with some water) and cover. Cook over low heat until warmed through.

Ben's Almond Pralines

You'll need:

1c slivered almonds
1/4c maple syrup

Bring syrup to a boil in a small saucepan. Boil 1 minute. Add almonds and cook, stirring constantly, until syrup is totally absorbed and pot is dry, at least 5 minutes. Toss onto wax paper. Eat. They're really, really good.

Maple-coated almonds on wax paper

Cajun Chicken Stew with Coconut Rice, Black Beans and Fried Plantains

This was a communal effort, and I was really only responsible for the stew, but I'll detail it all here. Thank you Sasha!

The chicken was based on this recipe.

You'll need:

chicken thighs (2 per person, the quantities below are for 8-12 thighs)-- remove the skin and cut off as much fat as possible with a small sharp knife
1/2c + 1/2c flour
3c chicken broth
2 onions, diced
2 stalks celery, diced
2 green bell peppers, diced
1 serrano chili, diced
3T + 1/4c veggie oil
1T cayenne pepper


Salt and pepper the thighs and dust them with flour. Heat 3T oil in a heavy large pan (like a dutch oven) and brown the thighs well on both sides. Do it in batches if necessary; don't crowd the pan or the thighs won't brown. Remove them and set aside.

You should have about 1-2T oil left with brown bits floating around. If there are any black bits, remove them. Add more oil to have a total of 1/4c; add flour and scrape to combine with a wooden spatula. Cook over low heat, scraping, about 10 minutes until the roux is the color of milk chocolate.

Add the onions, celery and peppers and cook, stirring occasionally, about 10 minutes. Add the chicken broth and stir to combine. Let mixture boil (it should be very thick), then lower heat and return chicken to pot. Stir to combine. Cook about 30 minutes, partially covered. Stir in cayenne pepper and serve.


Coconut Rice-- cook rice as you normally would, but with 2/3 coconut milk, 1/3 water. We stirred it a lot and ended up with a creamy, risotto-like texture.

Beans-- Combine canned black beans with chicken broth (1 can to 1/2c broth), 1 bay leaf, and spices (we used a lot of chili-like spices). Cook until broth evaporates. Remove bay leaf and serve.

Plantains-- Slice and saute in hot butter until golden brown and crispy.

Pomegranate Salmon with Walnut Pilaf and Pea Shoots

we ate this too fast-- these were the leftovers

I owe this delicious salmon recipe entirely to Paul Hamburg, Judaica librarian at UC Berkeley (and cook, and pianist). I was staunchly opposed to salmon (my parents always barbecued it, making it taste very fishy and charcoaly, which I understand is a good thing for some people) until I tasted this recipe. It's very easy to make and uses pretty basic ingredients, except the pomegranate juice (and who doesn't want an excuse to go out and buy a bottle of POM?).

Pomegranate Salmon

You'll need (for 4 servings):

1 2lb center-cut filet of salmon, skin, dark flesh, and bones removed (it's easy to remove the bones using tweezers)
** I use Loch Duart, which I buy at Tokyo Fish in Berkeley.

For the basting sauce:

1T dark sesame oil
1T pomegranate juice
1T soy sauce (I use reduced sodium)
1 3-inch piece fresh ginger, peeled and finely grated (use a Microplane if you can)
1t Chinese 5-spice powder
1/2 cayenne (more if you want)
black pepper to taste

Also:

1T dark sesame oil
1/4c pomegranate juice
zest from 1 orange
sesame seeds (optional)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Combine all basting ingredients and set aside.

Rub salmon with dark sesame oil and place in a shallow bath of pomegranate juice in a jelly roll pan (a baking dish with sides, or a gratin dish). You might not need the entire 1/4 cup.

Brush the top of the salmon with the basting sauce to cover it. Sprinkle the orange zest on top and sesame seeds too, if you want (they'll look pretty).

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until just opaque in center.

Walnut Pilaf

You'll need:

1 1/2 c brown rice, or really any grain you want
3c chicken stock
1T butter
2T olive oil
1/2c walnuts, roughly chopped
5 sprigs thyme, de-stemmed
1 large shallot, minced
4 cloves garlic, minced

Heat butter and oil; saute shallot and garlic, 5 minutes. Add walnuts; saute 2 minutes. Add rice; stir and cook until each grain is coated and translucent. Add stock. Bring to a boil. Cover and cook over low heat 45 minutes, or until tender. Stir in salt, pepper, and thyme to taste. Fluff and serve.

Jesse's Pea Shoots

You'll need:

pea shoots-- a LOT. These really cook down.
2T sesame oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

Heat sesame oil. Add pea shoots and garlic. Cook, stirring, until wilted. Pea shoots should be tender when cooked.