Shrimp and Chicken Pad Thai

Calling all cooks--if you haven't cooked with rice noodles, immediately get in your car, go to the store and buy some.  You'll thank me later.  Basically no cooking involved, these little delights are super-fun and a great way for kids to get involved in cooking!

I'm also partial to thai food, so decided to try may hand at making some homemade pad-thai with shrimp and chicken to satisfy both the hubbs and I desire for different meals tonight.  Result: pass. With flying colors.

To get this dish right, I suggest you make the sauce first, then move to the meal itself.

Pad Thai Sauce

Ingredients:

1/2 cup hot water
1 1/2 tbs. tamarind
5 tbs fish sauce
1 fresh chili, minced
5 tbs brown sugar

Directions:
In small bowl of hot water, add tamarind, whisk.  Add the rest of the ingredients, whisk.  Taste--the sauce should be tangy.  If its not, you can add 1 more tbs of sugar--but remember that it'll be mixed with noodles and other ingredients, so it'll taste different.

Pad Thai

Ingredients:
1 chicken breast sliced
6 fresh shrimp, deveined, peeled and de-tailed
1/4 cup scallions, finely chopped
4 tbs vegetable oil
1 lime, sliced
1/2 package of rice noodles, cooked as directed
1/2 cup bean or vegetable sprouts
1 egg, beaten

Directions:
In wok or large skillet, bring 2 tbs of vegetable oil to simmer, stir in egg, cook for about 30 seconds.  Add in shrimp and chicken.  Cook until done.  Add additional vegetable oil and noodles.  Cook for about 7 minutes, or until noodles are al dente--firm, but tender.  Add scallions and sauce, cook for about 1 minute.  Add sprouts and simmer for another 30 seconds.

Serve with lime wedges and soy sauce.

Alaskan Cod En Papillote

One of my favorite memories from a child was girl scouts.  I LOVED girl scouts.  We did so many fun things---but one of the best was the campouts.  I remember one year, I think 4th grade, we had a camp out with our moms.  Girls + Moms = fun times!

That night we cooked over an open flame, burgers.  But we cooked them in foil packets--a meal called hobo dinners.  Fun, right?!

Fast forward 20-something years.  Did you know that cooking "hobo" is actually called En Papillote?

Well, sort of.  Actually, cooking En Papillote is french--and means cooking in parchment.  (although, you can use foil/etc.)

It's one of my favorite ways to cook because it's fool proof and time friendly.  The assembly is really all that needs to be done, add some sauce and the packet really does the rest of the cooking--steaming itself. There's really no way to over-cook in papillote either.

Tonight's dinner is a spruced up hobo meal.

Ingredients:

1 Alaskan Cod Filet (about 1/2 lb, cut in 2 breasts)
1/2 red pepper
1/2 bell pepper
1 cup bean or veggie sprouts
olive oil
2 tbs Dijon mustard
2 tbs soy sauce
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 ginger clove, finely chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
parchment paper

Directions:

Cut 2 pieces of parchment paper, fold each and half, set aside.

Chop thin slices of peppers, mix.  Set aside.  In small bowl, whisk dijon mustard, soy sauce, lemon juice, ginger together.  Add salt and pepper to taste.   Open one piece of parchment paper, along middle line, layer peppers, 1/2 cup of sprouts and cod on top.  Drizzle with sauce.  Carefully fold parchment into packet, making sure that there are no openings along sides.  Set pouch on baking sheet.  Brush completely with olive oil.  Repeat with second packet.

Place in 350 degree oven for approx. 25 minutes.  Parchment will start to brown when done.  Remove from oven, and carefully slice each packet open to release steam.  Serve!

Picadillo Americana

Today I found this amazing vacation deal to an all-inclusive resort...in cuba.  It looks amazing-and restful. Thanks to Mr. Castro though, the US still has travel restrictions, so my guess is that my husband won't let us take that trip anytime soon.  Such a stickler for safety that man.

Since I'm not going to get any authentic cuban food, I decided to let my vacation wanderlust take me away tonight while cooking dinner.  Since I hadn't really planned my meals this week, I just picked up all sorts of yummy looking food at the grocery and decided to let my imagination run wild--I had to use what was in my cabinets.

If you haven't ever tried cuban food, you should.  It's delish.  Along the same vein of mexican--it's spicy and filling--but a bit more savory I think.  It's roots have a flair of chinese and french as well.  Given it's well-rounded history, I thought it wouldn't mind if I "americanized" the traditional dish of Picadillo.  Picadillo is actually a hash-like dish, you can serve it in tacos, alone, you name it.  Tonight, it got paired with jasmine rice and corn bread.

My husband like it so much, he's considering the cuba trip.

Picadillo Americana

Ingredients:
1 1/2 lb ground beef (95/5)
1 yellow onion, chopped
1 cup beef broth
1 can diced tomatoes with juices
2 tbs. tomato paste
2 tbs. EVOO
1/4 cup raisins
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbs. chili powder
1/2 tbs. all spice
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tbs garlic salt
1 tbs. season salt

Directions:

In large skillet, bring EVOO to heat, toss in onion and cook until translucent.  Add ground beef and cook until browned.  Drain and return back to pan.  Add garlic, chili powder, all spice, cinnamon, garlic salt and season salt.  Stirring frequently, simmer for about 2 minutes.  Add diced tomatoes, paste and beef broth,  bring to simmer.  Add raisins.  Let simmer until thicker-stew like consistency.  (uncovered)

Serve with jasmine rice (prepared as directed) and corn bread!

Mexican-American Esquites

On one particularly memorable spring break, my girlfriends and I took a quick hop-skip-and-jump to a little place called Tijuana Mexico.  Why?  Why not.  We were close, it sounded fun and in those days, I was notorious for deciding to do things like jump in a car and drive to Oklahoma at midnight or finding our way to New Orleans.

More often than not, boredom got the best of us in college and we did a lot of random things.

I digress.  Tijuana was great.  Although we only spent a few short hours there, we did have time for a drink and some food.  I remember eating this snack on from a road-side stand of fresh corn.  Perhaps it was because I was starving and seriously hungover (maybe still drunk?) but that corn was freaking amazing.

Years later, I learned that this traditional treat was called Esquites.  Yum-o.  I've made it over the years in the traditional fashion, but recently had a craving for it and decided to spice it up.  The outcome-WAY more delish than the traditional version.  Traditional esquites calls for mexican queso, but since I rarely have that on hand, I use a mild feta cheese.

I eat this as lunch or a snack--but you can serve this as a side disk as well.  I promise, it'll save you a trip to Tijuana and will leave you feeling just as satisfied.

Ingredients:

2 ears frozen corn ears.
4 cups water
2 tbs sea salt
1 tbs miracle whip
1 tbs butter
1/4 cup mild feta cheese
1/4 tsp garlic salt
1/4 tsp paprika

Directions:

In a large pot, bring water and sea salt to boil.  Toss in corn ears and boil  until cooked--about 10 minutes.

Remove corn from water, pat dry and slice nibblets off with large knife.  Add to bowl, discard ears.

Add butter, miracle whip, feta cheese, garlic salt and paprika. Stir well.  Before serving, sprinkle paprika over top for color.

Enjoy!

Pork Avagolemono

Giving the deuces to the midwest was hands down, the best thing I ever did for myself.  Education, life experiences, adventure aside, moving opened my eyes to an entire new world of culinary goodness that, had I stayed in the small town of Hutchinson, I'd probably not have experienced.

That would have been one of the biggest tragedies!

Cruising around NYC, I found myself some great friends, from all over the world.  Jamaican, Greek, Nigerian, Indian, Jewish, you name it--our group looks much like the United Nations when we get together.  It's been amazing to learn about other cultures and eat all the fun food that is unique to their homelands.  One of my favorite activities now is playing with the basics from different cultures and making them my own.

Tonight's dinner is a reflection of the Greek portion of my possee.

Avagolemono is a traditional  egg-lemon sauce that so many of my friends would make in leftover world--because it goes with ANYTHING.  You can make it for beef, chicken, pork, fish--anything really.  Aside from being light and delish, it's a great way to spice up those leftovers and make them a totally different meal.

Rather than doing a standard Avagolemono sauce, I decided to kick it up a bit since I was using it with leftover egg noodles.  The outcome was great--a certain do-again in our house.

Ingredients:
2 center cut pork chops, bone removed.
1 cup panko bread crumbs
2 cups egg noodles, prepared al dente according to directions
4 tbs olive oil
4 eggs
2 lemons-juiced
1 bay leaf (fresh)
2 cups chicken broth (or beef, vegetable)
1 Parmesan reggiono cheese rind
1 tbs minced garlic
1/2 cup flour

Directions for the Avagolemono sauce:

Bring chicken broth to a boil, reduce heat and add bay leaf, cheese rind, garlic and simmer over medium-low heat for about 20 minutes.  Remove from heat.  Remove rind and bay leaf (discard).

Separate the egg yolk and whites--reserve both in bowls.  In a medium bowl, beat the whites until foamy.  Slowly add in the egg yolks, beating in one at a time.  Add the juice of lemons.  Add in ladles full of broth, whisking continuously. A great tool to do this is an handheld immersion blender--works wonders!

Add the sauce to the egg noodles that you've prepared/drained.  Continue to warm over low heat for 5-10 minutes.

Directions for pan-fried pork chops:

In three different bowls, lay out the flour, panko bread crumbs and eggs.  Pat the pork chops dry, cover in flour, then dredge through the eggs and into the bread crumbs to coat.

In a fry pan, over medium heat, bring olive oil to heat and add chops.  Cook until gold-brown on each side until pork chops are cooked.  About 7-8 minutes per side.

Remove from pan, drain excess oil off.  Slice and serve over noodles.

Easy, Breezy, Lazy Thursday

It's Thursday again and despite a sick day and snow day this week, I still feel as if I've earned my "lazy Thursday" cooking.

If I haven't already mentioned it, I heart my crock-pot.

Today's recipe was totally inspired by my, um, creative side?  Or maybe a lack anything solid planned. With that said, it was great and I now have leftovers for some yummy later-in-the-weekend creation.

I also paired my unique meat with something that has been a long-standing love in my life--Jasmine Rice.

Don't wince: Pot Roast with Tomato Coffee and Jasmine Rice

Ingredients:

1 medium pot roast (or brisket) browned on each side
1 onion, quartered
4 carrots, chopped
6 new potatoes, rinsed and whole
1 6oz can of tomato paste
3 Tbs. Worcestershire sauce
2 Tbs. freshly chopped parsley
1 cup coffee, brewed

Jasmine Rice, prepared.

Directions:

Place onion, carrots and potatoes in the crock pot, set browned meat on top.  In a medium bowl, whisk tomato paste, Worcestershire sauce and coffee.  Pour over meat/vegetables.  Sprinkle parsley on top.  Set crock-pot to low and simmer 6-8 hours.

Something Fishy: Cod and Red Quinoa

Before I started dating my husband, I couldn't have told you the last time I'd eaten fish of any kind.

Why?  Ok, admittedly, the reasoning is a bit wacky.  Ok, REALLY wacky.  I had fish growing up, or at least my dad did.   For whatever reason, I had this thing about not eating things you keep as pets.  It just seemed odd to me that we'd have fish in our home, but it'd be ok to eat them as well.  Seemed like a slippery slope to me as a kid, what was next, our dog Lady?

We never ate Lady (or any dog for that matter) but I never enjoyed fish and at some point, I stopped eating it entirely.

Enter my husband and his love for fish.

For the longest time, I flat-out refused to cook it, but somewhere along the road, I gave tilapia a try and it wasn't so bad, so I'm on the baby-step-track back to fish eating.  Stepping away from the only fish I've ever cooked, I decided this week to give cod a try since my fishmonger told me it'd be the next step and I'd probably like it since it had a "buttery" taste.

So, with a new fish in hand, I decided to mix it up with something else new: red quinoa.

If you've never had quinoa, you should try it.  It's, um, interesting.  When I first tried it, I was thrown off--I expected it to be more like couscous (not sure why) but what I got was something like a bean sprout/chia seed combination.  Like I said, interesting.

The hubbs has never had quinoa though, so I figured I'd see what I came up with.  The turnout: a super-quick meal that was healthy and really pretty.  I now get to add cod to the list of fish I eat.

However, we will NEVER have fish as pets in our house.

Cod and Quinoa
serves approx. 4 people

Ingredients:

1 cup red quinoa
1 lb cod, sliced into 4 equal filet's
3 tablespoons olive oil
1/2 onion, sliced and diced
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. garlic salt
1 1/2 cups water            

Directions:

In a medium sauce pan, add 1 Tbs olive oil to the pan  and heat over medium-high.  Add onions and cook until tender-almost brown.  Add water and quinoa.  Bring to boil and reduce heat, cover and simmer until all water is absorbed.

Meanwhile, in a medium frying pan, bring the remaining 2 Tbs. olive oil to heat.  Season each side of the code filets with salt, pepper, garlic salt and paprika.  Add to pan.  Grill on first side for approx. 4 minutes, or until the sides begin to turn.  Flip and cook for an additional 3-4 minutes on other side.  (Only turn fish once, otherwise they flake too much and you lose the presentation.)