As much as I try to like bok choy, I just don’t really like the flavor. However, I received two baby bok choy in my CSA so here’s my attempt to hide the cabbage-y taste using a Bon Appetit recipe as a base that includes a Thai Red Curry sauce.
Ingredients: (this only makes 1 serving)
2 baby bok choy
1 teaspoon vegetable oil
1/4 teaspoon Thai red curry paste
1/2 can coconut milk
the zest of 1 lemon
the juice of 1 lime
2 teaspoons fish sauce
1 6-ounce salmon fillet
Chopped scallions, for garnish
Salt and pepper, to taste
Preheat your broiler.
Roughly chop the baby bok choy and place on one side of a cookie sheet.
Place the salmon on the other side of the cookie sheet and season with salt and pepper.
Broil for 5 minutes. Stir the bok choy and broil for another 4 minutes, until the salmon is cooked through and the bok choy has crisped a bit.
While the salmon and bok choy are cooking, heat the oil in a saute pan and add the red curry paste.
Cook for 30 seconds and add coconut milk and lemon zest. Boil until the mixture thickens slightly, about 5 minutes. Stir in lime juice and fish sauce.
To serve, add baby bok choy to a plate and top with salmon. Drizzle curry sauce over the entire plate. Top with chopped scallions if desired.
The curry sauce did a fantastic job of making the baby bok choy palatable. I still did get a hint of the taste of the baby bok choy, but it was much more subtle than just a steamed bok choy recipe. I wish the sauce had a bit more spice to it, so next time I’d probably increase the amount of the red curry paste.
I was apparently quite hungry and started eating this before I topped the salmon with scallions. Oops. But after having a few bites without the scallions and a few bites with, I strongly suggest adding them, they really work great with this dish.
How I love August. Not for the heat or the never ending rain (not-so-fun fact: August is already the wettest August ever recorded in Philadelphia, what joy) but because it is tomato season! Fresh tomatoes are one of my favorite ingredients and I wait all year to enjoy about 6 weeks of perfectly ripe tomatoes. I realized I hadn’t posted a recipe using salmon recently so I went in search of a recipe that would combine both salmon and tomatoes (I honestly wasn’t even sure if that was a possibility). Naturally, Cooking Light once again saved the day with their recipe for Broiled Salmon with Roasted Tomato Sauce.
Ingredients (serves 2):
4 plum tomatoes, quartered
1 small onion, peeled and quartered
2 garlic cloves, peeled
Cooking spray
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 cup chicken broth
2 tablespoons water
1 teaspoon cornstarch
2 (6-ounce) salmon fillets, skinned
Salt and pepper, to taste
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh basil
Preheat your broiler. Prepare your tomatoes, onion and garlic and spread on a cookie sheet coated with cooking spray.
Sprinkle with 1/4 teaspoon salt and pepper. Broil for 8 minutes.
Stir gently and broil for another 5 minutes, or until vegetables begin to blacken.
Remove from the broiler, but keep the broiler on. Add tomatoes, onions, garlic, and tomato paste in a blender and process until smooth.
Place the mixture in a saute pan over medium heat. Stir in the broth. The original recipe had vegetable broth, but I only had chicken broth on hand. Bring to a simmer and cook for 10 minutes, stirring frequently. While the mixture is simmering, combine 2 tablespoons water and 1 teaspoon corn starch in a small bowl. Stir cornstarch mixture into the tomato mixture after it has simmered for 10 minutes. Bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minute, stirring constantly.
Remove from heat and strain to remove any solids.
Place salmon on a cookie sheet lightly coated with cooking spray. Season with salt and pepper and broil for 5 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork.
To serve, add 1/2 of the tomato mixture to each plate and top with a salmon fillet. Top with 1 tablespoon basil each.
I am happy to say that salmon and tomato do work well together. However, I think the recipe was missing something… maybe a bit of red pepper flakes to add some heat? Even without the unknown missing ingredient, I really liked this recipe. Definitely worth a try!
I am a huge Top Chef fan. So much that my parents bought me the Top Chef cookbook a few years back. However, when I moved, I stored it away and completely forgot about it. I recently found the cookbook again and came across Ilan’s dish: Fideos with Clams and Saffron. My CSA share this week came with broccoli, cauliflower and onion so I thought this would be a perfect way to use these ingredients. Note: I switched up the way this recipe was cooked, used less cream, and added onions and Parmesan. Otherwise, the recipe is pretty close to the original printed version.
I love garlic bread. It’s really easy to make and is the perfect accompaniment to spaghetti or soup. Here is a quick recipe to make garlic bread.
Ingredients:
1 loaf of French Bread
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
5 cloves of garlic, minced
1 tablespoon parsley
1 tablespoon oregano
1 tablespoon grated Parmesan cheese
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix the butter, garlic, parsley, oregano, and Parmesan cheese. Slice the bread, but not all the way through.
Divide the butter mixture evenly between each piece.
Wrap the bread in aluminum foil and cook for 15 minutes.
Serve right out of the oven. You can either slice the bread all the way through, or just serve it as is and tear off a piece as needed. This recipe makes a softer garlic bread. If you prefer a toasty garlic bread, broil the bread for 2 to 3 minutes instead.
I honestly have no idea why some fresh dates caught my eye while I was shopping recently. Somehow, they ended up in my basket along with my usual ingredients: lemons, garlic, onions and peppers. I opened my fridge yesterday and realized my poor little dates were still sitting in there, so I decided today was the day to use them for a delicious appetizer I found on Brown Eyed Baker‘s site.
Ingredients:
An equal number of fresh dates, Fontina cheese, cut to fit inside the dates, and 4 inch pieces of Bacon
I made 6, using about 2 pieces of bacon
Preheat your broiler. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
Cut the dates half open, making sure not to cut the date fully in half.
Wedge a piece of cheese within each date.
Wrap the bacon around the date, overlapping the ends and placing them on the bottom to keep closed.
Broil for about 5 minutes. Be sure to keep an eye on them, broilers go from toasted to scorched in a matter of seconds.
That’s it! How easy. Not to mention, super tasty. The mix of salty bacon, sweet dates, and earthy cheese gives an almost buttery flavor to this appetizer. If serving this at a party, I’d suggest adding toothpicks so that guests can eat them a bit easier.
This weekend I was given quite the culinary challenge: make a meal for ten people without breaking the bank. I would be feeding everyone at the beach, so my mind immediately went to Shish Kabobs with Rice (I want summer and barbecues to be here so badly!). This is a great option for vegetarians as well, always a plus.
Living in the city does not mean you can’t enjoy this recipe. If you have a little indoor grill, that will work just fine. Due to the poor weather we had this weekend, we actually ended up broiling the shish kabobs in the oven, which worked just fine.
Ingredients (serves 10):
3 pints cherry tomatoes
1 bag of pearl onions, peeled (quick tip below)
2 green bell peppers
1 yellow pepper
1 red pepper
1 orange pepper
2 8 oz packages of whole mushrooms (I used cremini)
1 large zucchini
2 large summer squash
5 lbs top sirloin steak, cut into cubes
10 cups chicken stock (ideally, use vegetable stock to keep veggies truly vegetarian)
5 cups rice
Ingredients for marinade:
1 tablespoon salt
5 cloves garlic, minced
1 1/4 teaspoon pepper
1 heaping tablespoon of the following dried spices: thyme, basil, oregano, marjoram
2/3 cup Worcestershire sauce
3/4 cup oil
3/4 cup red wine vinegar
1 2/3 cup red wine (an inexpensive table wine is fine)
There were a couple of parts to this recipe that made me nervous to try it out: working with fresh ginger and using the broiler. The latter ended up being the more difficult part, but that was due to my all-encompassing fear of burning the beef tenderloin steaks. Overall though, this dish was a lot easier than I made it out to be. I followed this recipe almost exactly, but the original is linked here.
Ingredients:
1 1/2 tablespoons hoisin sauce
1 1/2 teaspoons grated peeled fresh ginger
1 1/2 teaspoons honey
1 1/2 teaspoons lower-sodium soy sauce (or coconut aminos to make gluten free
1/4 teaspoon chili garlic sauce (such as Lee Kum Kee or Huey Fong)
3 (4-ounce) beef tenderloin steaks, trimmed (1 inch thick)
Cooking spray
1/8 teaspoon salt
Hoisin sauce and the chili garlic sauce can be found in the Asian section of your grocery store. Getting to a supermarket for me is kind of a pain but I was able to find the sauce in my corner store.
Before doing anything, preheat your broiler to high. If you’re like me and have zero clue what the broiler even is, chances are it’s within your oven and you just need to press the “broil” setting. Be sure to remove everything from the oven before turning it on.
Broiling is basically the opposite of grilling—the heat source is coming from above instead of below. Because the heat is so high, really keep an eye on anything you are broiling; it can burn very very quickly. Also be sure to have an oven mitt that can withstand high temperatures. The broiler may cause some smoke so be sure to turn your exhaust fan on during cooking. Ok, time to actually start cooking…
Ginger root is much easier to work with than I imagined. It looks so intimidating but I’m glad to have this ingredient on hand—it can be used to treat nausea and is also known to have anti-inflammatory properties. The root can be wrapped in plastic and refrigerated or frozen for long term use.
Boo! …See? Very intimidating
To work with ginger root, use a peeler to peel off the bark-like outer layer for the area you’ll be using. You will begin to smell ginger almost immediately. Yum.
Cut the peeled area off. You can either mince the ginger root with a knife or use a grater. As a warning, the root has a lot of juice to it and can get a bit slippery so be careful of your fingers. I may or may not have lost a piece of ginger when it slipped out of my hands and few across my kitchen. Whoops.
Fresh Grated Ginger
To prepare the hoisin glaze, combine the hoisin sauce, ginger, honey, soy sauce and chili garlic sauce in a small bowl using a whisk to combine. Set this aside.
Hoisin Glaze
The original recipe suggested putting the steaks on a foil-lined broiler pan. I somehow ran out of foil, so I just put them on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray but for cleaning purposes, I’d suggest using the foil. Sprinkle the steaks with salt.
Place the pan into the oven 5 inches from the heat (so 5 inches from the top of the oven… probably around the middle rack). Cook for 2 minutes and turn over. Broil for another 2 minutes and turn steaks over again.
Not that appetizing yet. Just wait…
Brush steaks with half of the glaze and broil for one minute.
Looking better…
Turn the steaks over and brush with the remaining glaze and broil for 2 minutes or until desired degree of doneness.
So, I ended up putting mine in for a good 5ish more minutes, turning the steaks half way through. They came out a bit too rare for me with the original time suggested, but I think this is really up to the person cooking it. I was so fearful that it was going to burn that every 2 minutes I was checking on the steaks, which probably wasn’t helping the whole cooking process.
When it was finally cooked to my liking though, this was one tasty dinner. When making the glaze, I was afraid it might be a bit on the spicy side but it actually ended up having an almost caramelized taste to it, which was a pleasant surprise.
The hoisin glaze would be great on a number of different proteins: chicken, salmon, perhaps even scallops. Using the broiler still makes me a bit nervous though, so I may consider whipping up a batch of this glaze for use on the grill, if it ever warms up in Philadelphia (today is March 28—almost April—and the high is 45. Super.) I hope you enjoy this meal with less stress about broiling than me!
