I was on the treadmill when I got a real intense craving for some salmon. And I have always seen fancy restaurants make salmon fancy by putting pistachios on it. So I thought, why not? And this is what happened:
It was wonderful!
Pistachio-crusted salmon
Servings: 2
2 salmon fillets, skin or no skin
1/4 cup crumbled pistachios
1/4 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
2 tsp lemon pepper
1/2 cup milk
2 tbsp butter
salt to taste
Preheat the oven to 350 F. Combine the milk and butter in a microwavable bowl. Heat in the microwave for 1-2 minutes, until the butter is melted. Add the lemon pepper and stir.
Coat the salmon fillets in the milk and butter mixture, then place them on a baking sheet lined with foil. Combine the breadcrumbs and pistachios in a bowl, then spread on top of each fillet, covering them completely.
Place the baking sheet in the oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and pour the remaining milk and butter on the fillets using a spoon. Spray the tops of the fillets liberally with cooking spray to get the breadcrumbs to turn golden.
Return to the oven for an additional 5 minutes. They are done with the meat is light pink and the crust is golden. Enjoy with rice and a fresh green salad!!
Let's start by saying the name of this dish 3 times fast... ready? GO! currycarrotcreamcurrycarrotcreamrycurrycarrotcream! Part of the fun of creating new recipes is naming them too, so I can't say the slur of c's and rr's in this title are not intentional :)
This dish is the result of having way too many carrots in the fridge. What do you do with carrots? Carrot pie of course. But since I am not nearly as adventurous baking as I am cooking, I decided to do a carrot soup.
I'm trying a new format of uploading recipes here, since it got to be a lot of work to measure ingredients and thus I stopped posting. So I am just going to list spices without quantities and use your judgment. I will list them in order from more to less, though. If you have any questions, feel free to leave me a comment :)
Curry carrot soup
Servings: 4-5
A WHOLE LOT OF CARROTS (12-16 carrots), peeled and in small chunks
1/2 white onion, chopped
1 tbsp vegetable oil
1/2 tsp ginger paste
yellow curry powder
cumin
paprika
8 cups of water
3 tbsp chicken bouillon powder
salt and white pepper
For serving:
sour cream
feta cheese
oregano
In a big pot, heat the oil to medium high. Add the onions and cook for about 3 minutes, then add the carrots. Stir for about 2 minutes and add the ginger, curry, cumin, and paprika. Stir everything well so all the spices blend together. Then, add the water and bring to a boil. When the water is boiling, add the chicken bouillon powder and stir well.
Boil until the carrots are soft. If you have an immersion blender, use it to puree the carrots in the pot. If not, carefully transfer to your blender in batches. Since this is hot liquid, take off the little plastic top on your blender lid and cover with a cloth. Start pulsing carefully, and then puree. Pour the pureed soup into a bowl. Once you finish all the batches, return the bowl contents to the pot. Bring the heat up to medium, and add white pepper and salt if necessary. Cook for an additional 10 minutes.
Serve with sour cream, feta cheese, and oregano. It's fantastic!
So, while watching Chopped, a cute little blurb came up on the TV that said "Now casting!". So, in my delusion, I went on the website to see how hard it would be to audition for the show. To my surprise, they have an open casting call for amateur chefs for next season. I've always dreamed of going to Chopped, but I know I can't compete with the chefs on the show. SO THIS WAS MY CHANCE. And so I applied, and they asked me to make a video. The dish in this post is the result of that video.
Behold my creation:
The concept behind it is that I chose 1 ingredient that best represented each of the 4 countries I have lived in.
Venezuela - Harina PAN
USA - Barbecue sauce
Mexico - Tomatillos
Germany - Weisswurst
So in true Chopped spirit, I tried to create something delicious out of their combination.
Weisswurst in barbecue verde sauce empanada
Servings: 2 (2 empanadas each)
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 15 min
Total time: 30 min
4 weisswurst sausages, peeled and crumbled
2 cups Harina PAN flour.
2 1/2 cups water
4 tomatillos, in chunks
1/2 Spanish onion, peeled and in two parts
2 garlic cloves, peeled
1/3 jalapeño pepper
2-3 sprigs cilantro
1/2 cup barbecue sauce
1 cup + 1 tbsp canola oil
1/2 tsp paprika
salt to taste
In a small pot, add the tomatillos, one part of the onion, one garlic clove, jalapeño, cilantro and fill with water. Bring to a boil and let cook until the tomatillos get soft. Let cool for 1-2 minutes, and transfer to a blender. Add the remaining onion, garlic and salt to taste. Blend until sauce consistency. Be careful! If you blend while it is too hot it will go all over the place!
While the tomatillos are cooking, add the water to a large bowl and season with salt. If you taste the water it should be salty. Add the paprika and slowly begin adding the Harina PAN flour with one hand while stirring with the other. (Yes, you are mixing with your hands). This mixture should feel watery, because after it rests it will harden a little bit. Let it rest while you continue.
In a heavy skillet, add 1 tbsp oil and heat to medium high. Toss in the crumbled sausage and cook for about 3 minutes. Next, add the barbecue sauce and stir well, until it is all coated. Then, add the blended tomatillos (salsa verde!). Stir everything well until all flavors are mixed. Reduce the heat to medium and cook for about 3-5 minutes. Remove from heat.
Now, making empanadas with Harina PAN is fun times. Prepare your station by cutting two plastic bags into large squares. Line a flat surface with one of them. You will need a flat cutting board or baking sheet, and a small or medium bowl.
Heat the cup of oil to medium high heat in a deep nonstick pan.
Grab an apricot-sized ball of dough and roll into a circle. Place it in the center of the plastic. Cover with the second plastic sheet, and use the cutting board to press down. A nice, awesome, even circle of dough should have appeared! Now, grab about 2 tbsp of the weisswurst filling and place in the center of the dough. Lift the half of the plastic underneath that is farthest from you, and fold it over. Make sure to match the outsides of the circle, it should look like a half moon. Grab the small bowl and press it upside down on the dough, making sure you are close to the edges. Press down firmly to cut the dough and seal the empanada. This sounds super complicated, but it isn't that bad! (Note: Watch toward the end of the video as a reference of how to do this.)
Carefully lift the empanada off the plastic and drop in the oil. Make sure the oil is hot. It should begin sizzling immediately. Fry on both sides for about 1 minute, until golden. Transfer to a paper lined plate to remove some of the excess oil. Wait before serving, they are extremely hot!
And that's it! Repeat these steps until you finish the dough or the filling :) We were very happily surprised with the results! I highly recommend that you mix salsa verde and barbecue sauce, they are miraculous :)
And if you're curious, here is the audition video:
When people think of good meat dishes, it usually involves some fancy beef cut. Or some fresh salmon. Me? Give me ground beef.
I adore ground beef, especially if it's a dish that you can eat with a spoon. So, just sauteeing ground beef with onion and garlic and eating it with rice has been one of my easy meals for a long time.
Today, however, I bring you a special Mexican recipe called picadillo. It's special because it has raisins. It's very common in Mexico, and can be eaten with rice, tortillas, tostadas, bread or on its own.
Mexican picadillo
Servings: 4
Prep time: 10 min
Cook time: 30 min
Total time: 50 min
1 lb ground beef (I always go lean)
1 tsp adobo (or all-purpose seasoning)
1/4 white onion, minced
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tbsp canola oil
2 bay leaves
2 cloves
2 tsp oregano
2 tomatoes on the vine, peeled and in chunks
1 potato, peeled
1/3 cup raisins
1 10 oz can of diced carrots and peas
1/2 10 oz can of sweet corn (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Boil the potato in a small pot, until it is almost tender. It helps to cut it up into small chunks so it can cook faster. It should not cook to complete tenderness, since it will continue to be cooked with the beef, so it should still be a little firm when you remove it from the water.
While the potato is cooking, mix the adobo with the ground beef. Really try to break up the beef with your fingers. Heat the oil in a heavy pan to medium high and add the onion and garlic. Cook together for about 1 minute, then add the ground beef. With a wooden spoon (or your favorite utensil), mix in the beef with the onion and garlic, and continue to break it up so there are no big chunks.
After the beef has cooked for about 5 minutes, add the bay leaves, cloves and oregano. Add the tomato chunks and squish them against the pan to release their juices. Mix everything together well. By now, the potato should be almost ready - drain and cut it up into small cubes (about half an inch). Add to the potato cubes to the pan along with the raisins. Stir well and cook for about 5 minutes.
Finally, add the can of carrots and peas and the corn. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Mix everything well and let cook on medium high for 5 minutes. Reduce the heat to medium low, cover and let cook for 15 additional minutes. If you see the mixture is getting dry, remove from the heat.
That's it! It's actually quite simple :) My favorite way to eat this is with the Mexican bread bolillo, but baguette is a good replacement. Or in today's rendition, we went for tostadas.
