Poached Soy Salmon

Poached Soy-Ginger Salmon

I made this recipe, a while ago and improvised my way through it.  When I completed it, I looked for the recipe online.  I had never poached salmon before and wanted to be reassured, I was doing something acceptable.  The truth is, that at the point, it didn’t matter.  We had eaten the salmon and it was delicious.  It seems lighter when it is poached.  It picked up the soy flavor but lightly.  I think, I added a little honey, one teaspoon, but I am not positive.  I know, I would add it, if I made this again.  I like a little sweetness when I use soy.

2  salmon fillets

 ground black pepper

2 tablespoons soy sauce

1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar

1 tablespoon chopped onion
Season the top of salmon lightly with black pepper.

Fill a large saucepan with just enough water to cover the salmon fillets. Add the  onion, soy sauce and rice wine vinegar. Bring to a simmer over medium heat.

Place the salmon into the simmering broth and cook gently  10 minutes.

Remove the salmon from broth with a slotted spoon and serve.

Beets with Balsamic Glaze

This is from Simply Recipes.  Beets always look like gems to me.  The color and the shine say beauty.   I had a few, in the house, and I want

ed a simple recipe, very simple and Simply Recipes gave it to me.

Roasted Beets with Balsamic Glaze 

• 2 pounds red beets, medium sized, scrubbed clean, green tops removed
• Olive oil
• Salt
• 1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1 teaspoon grated orange zest
• Freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 400°F. Line a roasting pan with aluminum foil. Place the beets in the pan. Rub olive oil over the beets, and sprinkle with salt. Cover the beets with another sheet of aluminum foil.

Roast for 1 to 2 hours, depending on the size of the beets and how old they are. After 1 hour, test every fifteen minutes by poking a beet with the tines of a fork. Once the fork tines go in easily, the beets are tender and cooked. Remove from the oven.

While the beets are cooling, prepare the balsamic glaze. In a small, shallow sauté pan, add the balsamic vinegar and sugar. Heat on high until the vinegar has reduced to a syrup consistency. Remove from heat.

After the beets have cooled for several minutes, but are still warm to the touch, peel off the outer skins and discard. Cut the beets into quarters or more, bite-sized pieces.

Place beets in a serving bowl. Pour balsamic glaze over the beets. Stir in grated orange zest, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Garnish with a little orange zest to serve.

Potatoes and Onions

It was a moment of  pure desire for a potato.  I didn’t care if it was boiled, baked or fried.  I wanted potato.  I followed my inner guide, cooked this up and had my potato.

Potatoes and Onions

3 medium potatoes, sliced thin (almost as thin as for potato chips)

1 large onion, sliced thin

spray olive oil

chopped parsley

salt and pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.

Spray a baking pan with olive oil.

Layer potatoes and onions in baking pan.

Spray the top later with additional oil.

Bake at 400 degrees fro 20-30 minutes, until it is golden brown.

Sprinkle with salt and pepper to taste and chopped parsley.

 

Sweet Potato Balls-Better Than Meat

If I had a photo of these with spaghetti and sauce or without the sauce, you would have thought they were meat.  They don’t taste like meat although, they do look like meatballs.  They don’t taste like sweet potatoes either.  They have a tinge of sweetness from the potatoes but I don’t think that you would guess what they were made of.  I imagine the nuts are what dilutes the sweet potato taste.  Blending all the ingredients leaves a little heat but mostly just deliciousness.

Ingredients:

2 large sweet potatoes or yams, cubed

1 1/2 cups water

1 cup GF oats

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon cardamom

1 teaspoon smoked red paprika

1 teaspoon minced onion

1/2 cup toasted pecan pieces

Method

Preheat oven to 400 degrees .

Place sweet potato cubes in medium-large bowl and cover with the water.

Microwave for 12 minutes.  If you have a powerful microwave, cut the time a minute or two.  Start checking for doneness at 8 minutes.

While the sweet potatoes are cooking, combine the remaining  ingredients together.

Combine the sweet potatoes, nuts, spices and oats and put into food processor.  Run until well blended.

Remove the mixture and shape into balls.

Bake in 400 degree F. oven for 20 minutes.

 

This is linked to Mop it up Mondays

Noodles and Cabbage

I hope, I have not already posted a noodles and cabbage recipe.  I love it and make it often.  I made it for the holiday.  I think, this is based on a Hungarian recipe.  I remember it, from my childhood.  My mother made this and it was one of her more festive dishes.  She was a plain cook, meat and potatoes and always a green vegetable.  When I was a child, we ate our green vegetables plain and Mom did not try to disguise them.  For some reason, we understood, we eat the food, put in front of us.  This was a special dish for us and I have fond memories of it.

Despite my love for this, I did add some broccoli slaw and added a new dimension to the dish.

Noodles and Cabbage

Ingredients

1 1/2 cup broccoli slaw (carrots included)

1 16 ounce bag shredded white or green cabbage

1 1/2 cups gluten-free brown rice spaghetti

1 large onion, diced

1 tablespoon black pepper

1/4 cup brown sugar

2 tablespoons olive oil

Directions:

Heat olive oil in pan over med high heat.

Saute onions till golden brown, 5-10 minutes.

Add cabbage and cook till soft, 10 minutes.  Stir occasionally.

Add broccoli slaw and cook for another 5 minutes.

Mix in noodles .

Season with black pepper and if you use salt, add to taste.

Cook 2 minutes or until heated through.

This is linked to Friday Food

Baked Potato Chip Chicken

I have been making up containers of different kinds of crumbs, potato chip crumbs, taco crumbs, corn chip crumbs and potato matzoh crumbs.  When I need breading or crumbs to top something, I select the one, I think will go best although, I doubt it matters.  They are all flavorful and work like panko.  For this recipe, I used some Passover potato chip crumbs from leftover potato chips.  I have no idea why but they worked better than the regular chips, I usually use.  I did mix it with some flour to give it more substance.  I also did not dip the chicken pieces in anything but water.  Whatever I did “right” produced a hearty chicken dinner.

Baked Potato Chip Chicken

Ingredients

3 chicken cutlet halves

1/2 cup potato chip crumbs

1/2 cup brown rice flour

1/4 teaspoon black pepper

1/2 teaspoon rosemary

Olive oil spray

Procedure

Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.

Put potato chip crumbs and flour in a shallow dish.

Put water in a shallow bowl and wet the chicken pieces before rolling in the crumb mixture.

Roll chicken in crumb mixture until well coated, then place on aluminum foil on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes .

This is linked to Homemaker Monday      Seeya in the Gumbo 29

Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs – Ina Garten

I received Ina’s book, Barefoot Contessa – how easy is that, a few months ago and found many recipes that said, “make me.”  I have made a few but the book got put away.  It is definitely time to get back to it.  I was glancing through the pages and got stopped, early in the book (page 40) when I spotted the deviled egg recipe.  Really, it was the smoked salmon blended into the egg yolks that did it.  I figured, it would give a nice tang to the eggs as well as some color.

It is easy to make since you use a mini food processor to blend it together.  Usually, I mash eggs with a fork but I wanted the lox to be in tiny pieces so I used the machine.  I cut this in half and left out the sour cream because I had none.  I added another tablespoon of mayo.

Smoked Salmon Deviled Eggs (adapted from Ina Garten)

Ingredients

• 5 extra-large eggs
• 2 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
• 3 tablespoons good mayonnaise
• 1 tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 tablespoons minced fresh chives
• 4 ounces good smoked salmon, minced
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Directions

Place the eggs in a pot large enough to hold them in a single layer. Cover the eggs with cold water and bring to a full boil over high heat. As soon as the water boils, turn off the heat, cover the pot, and let the eggs stand for 15 minutes. Drain the eggs and fill the pot with cold water. Set aside until the eggs are cool.

Peel the eggs and then slice them in half lengthwise. Remove the yolks carefully. Place the yolks in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and arrange the whites on a platter in a single layer with the cut sides up and sprinkle with salt.

To the egg yolks, add the sour cream, cream cheese, mayonnaise, lemon juice, chives, salmon, salt, and pepper. Beat on medium speed until fluffy. With a small spoon, fill the egg whites with the egg yolk mixture. Cover loosely with plastic wrap (and refrigerate for 30 minutes for the flavors to blend.

This is linked to Foodie Friday     Friday Food    Frugal Food Thursday       Savory Sunday

Smoked Salmon Potato Salad

I buy lox (smoked salmon) in the local grocery store and my husband picks it up at Costco.  We usually are organized and only one of us brings it home.  Perfection is not always in play and one week, we both brought home rather large packages.  Being a lox lover, I was thrilled and started on a search for recipes other than bagels and lox, scrambled eggs with lox or stuffed wontons with lox.  I found some with noodles and others with potatoes and there were a big variety of salads.

I found recipes on several sites and there is one particular site that particularly held my interest and where I got this recipe, Just Smoked Salmon.  Knowing me, you know I adjusted some of the ingredients but all in all, I kept to their recipe.  They used canned Sockeye Smoked Salmon and I used fresh smoked salmon.

Summer Salmon potato salad 

1 large slice smoked salmon
3 large potatoes, boiled and cut into chunks
1 cup grape tomatoes, sliced in half
1 cucumber, cut into bite sized chunks
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
1 Tablespoon coarse grained mustard
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon fresh dill chopped

Combine salmon, potatoes, tomatoes and cucumber in a bowl.
Sprinkle with pepper.
Combine remaining ingredients and mix well.  I used a small Rubbermaid container and shook it with the lid on, of course.
Toss with salad ingredients.

Serves 6-8.

The  lox makes all the difference in the potato salad.  It brings the salty flavor to pop throughout the salad.  The

cukes felt just right, in this salad, although, I have never used cucumbers in potato salad, before.

This is linked to

See Ya in the Gumbo             Mangia Mondays

My Meatless Mondays           Savory Sundays 

Tuesday’s Tasty Tidbits                Slightly Indulgent Tuesdays

Real Food Wednesdays             Ultimate Recipe Swap

Have Leftovers – Make Soup

I had my meal plan in place, for tonight, until I looked into the refrigerator to find quite a few vegetables and fruit which would survive for a short time, if I didn’t use them, very soon.  The sweet potatoes, in particular were ready to get up and walk away.  Usually, I keep four sweet potatoes, in the house, and have plans for them.  This morning, there were six potatoes and I had no idea what to do with them.

I also found lots of leftovers sharing space with the sweet potatoes.  I decided quickly, leftovers would become the fare for, this evening and I would make a soup to go with the meal.

Emptying the refrigerator –  4 sweet potatoes, 1 apple,  container with some apple sauce, leftover vegetable soup.  Can you picture and taste my soup?

Apple Cinnamon-Sweet Potato Soup  (made in a crockpot)

4 medium sweet potatoes

1 cups water

2 cups vegetable broth

1 cup applesauce

1 apple, peeled and sliced

1 teaspoon sugar

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1/4 teaspoon black pepper or to taste

Procedure

Put liquids in slow cooker.  Add sweet potatoes and applesauce.  Cover and cook on low for three hours.

Add apple, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg plus black pepper.  Cook on high for another hour.

Using an immersion blender, blend until the consistency you want.  Mine was smooth and creamy.

If I had cranberry pecan goat cheese, I would have crumbled it on top of the soup.

This soup had a distinct apple flavor to it and it was delicious.

This is not my photo.

 Pennywise Platter Thursdays      Sunday Night Soup      Show Your Stuff

Easy Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash

Image via Wikipedia

 Butternut squash is truly a gift to the cook.  It can be made 1-2-3 by adding different spices or sweeteners.  At this point, I have made it differently, at least two dozen times.  I serve it in cubes with other vegetables, add it to a stew or a chili, use it in place of pumpkin or sweet potatoes and serve it, as below.

Sweet and Spicy Butternut Squash

Ingredients:

1 medium butternut squash (about 2-3 pounds)
1/4 cup margarine, cubed
3 tablespoons  Rice Dream
2 tablespoons honey
1/8 teaspoon dried thyme
1/8 teaspoon coarsely ground pepper

Method:

Place squash in a 350 degree oven.  Bake for 40 minutes.  If you microwave it first for 4 minutes, it will cut down the oven baking time. 

Scoop squash out of shell.  Mash squash with the remaining ingredients. 

   Easy to Make – Yummy to the Taste