Archive for September, 2010

Salmon Cakes

Wednesday, September 29th, 2010
Oops, I made a masterpiece

It is that time of year again. Claud and I are celebrating another year of marriage. Last year, we hosted a big party at our house in Minnesota. That was such a fun night with cocktails, music, dancing and fajitas. We loved sharing our special day with so many friends. This year, we are enjoying a nice quiet weekend in Los Angeles with my parents our children. This doesn’t sound very romantic, with the kids and the folks, but it really is a weekend filled with love. I remember flying home from London with Claud about thirteen years ago and introducing him to my parents for the first time. It feels like it was last week. I cannot believe how much time has passed since that day. This Sunday, we will have been married for twelve years and without a doubt, these have been the best twelve years of my life. I am so blessed to be married to my best friend. Being with my parents and the kids is an absolutely wonderful way to commemorate the best decision I ever made.

Of course, every celebration has to revolve around food. I gave a lot of thought to what would be a good meal to make. I wanted to come up with a new way to cook salmon. Everyone in my family loves salmon (except Jack). This is not a new idea; but, a way in which I had never before prepared salmon. So, this is new to me. I decided to make salmon cakes. I practiced these at home last week to make sure they would be delicious and they were. I wondered about the origin of the salmon cake. Who thought to throw  fish together with bread crumbs and fry it up? I looked into it and I couldn’t find the answer.

I think it was probably a way to work with leftovers. Someone had some extra fish and everyone in the family was sick of eating fish. This family lived in Alaska and had been eating salmon for thirty six days straight. So, whoever did all of the cooking for the family (I’m thinking it was the mom) came up with a way to change it up a bit and create a new dish. Thus, came the invention of salmon cakes. The Alaskan family were amazed and overjoyed at how delicious salmon could taste and they forgot they were sick of it. Then, the cook turned to the family and says, “oops, I made a masterpiece.” Well, this is how the story goes in my imagination.

A lot of very delicious dishes were conjured up as a way to reuse leftovers or to make something (like meat or fish) go a lot further to feed many people. Shepherd’s pie, bolognese, and fish pie, are a few examples of these types of dishes. Originally, these dishes were made by poorer families. Now, people make them or order them at restaurants as a delicious main course without a thought of getting more for your money or using leftover food. They have become culinary masterpieces.

I really wanted these salmon cakes to be flavorful. So, I included cornichons, capers, fresh dill, scallions, chili sauce, and more.

I was surprised to discover how quick and easy these are to make. Then, of course, I had to make a little sauce to go with them. Everything tastes better with a sauce. These salmon cakes would also make a great appetizer. You could make them smaller and place them on a platter surrounding a bowl of the sauce. It think this is how I will make them for our anniversary. Claud absolutely loved the salmon cakes and has no problem having them again. I am sure everyone will enjoy them at my parent’s house.

Salmon cakes:

Serves: 4
Time: 30 minutes

2 cups and 1 tablespoon olive oil
3 6oz. pieces of salmon
1 1/2 cups bread crumbs
2 large eggs
1/4 cup milk
2 teaspoons Old Bay seasoning
1 teaspoon Emmeril’s Essence
1 bell pepper (I used orange), chopped
3 tablespoons fresh dill, chopped
1/2 teaspoon Sirachi chili sauce
juice from one lemon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper
3 cornichons (or one half of a dill pickle), chopped
2 tablespoons capers

Pour 1 tablespoon of olive oil into a skillet on medium high heat. Add the salmon and cook for about four minutes each side (until the salmon turns into an opaque color). Set aside. In a large bowl, add the bread crumbs. In another smaller bowl, combine the eggs and milk. Beat well. Add this mixture to the bread crumbs. Place the cooked salmon into the large bowl. Break the salmon up with a fork and mix it into the bread crumbs mixture. Add Old Bay, Essence, bell peppers, dill, chili sauce, lemon juice, salt, pepper, cornichons, and capers. Mix this all together well. With your hands, form the mixture into four large patties. Heat the rest of the oil in the skillet on high heat. When it gets very hot, not smoking, gently place the patties into the oil. Cook for three minutes each side. Take them out and place on a paper towel until ready to plate. Serve them with a salad or vegetables and place a dolup of sauce on top of each salmon cake.

Sauce:
1 cup mayonnaise
1 cup sour cream
juice from 1/2 of a lemon
1/4 teaspoon Sirachi chili sauce
1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
1/4 teaspoon pepper

Combine all of the above ingredients and mix well.

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Hispanic Heritage Month: Hatch Green Chili and more…

Wednesday, September 22nd, 2010

It is incredible how our world is so diversified. It seems as though with each year of my life, the planet is getting smaller. Well, it’s not really getting smaller; but, it’s easier to travel great distances. You hop on a plane and within hours, you can land in Spain, Brazil, or Paris.

My daughter left here a few weeks ago and before I knew it, she was calling us in England. Even as I drive across the United States, I always think about the pioneers who travelled the same distance in their covered wagons. It seems grueling to drive from Los Angeles to New Ulm in three days. I can’t even imagine how long this trek would have taken by wagon, not to mention the dangers.

The best part about the ease of travel is how people are becoming more acquainted with different cultures, traditions, and foods. I have always been fascinated by learning about different cultures. I love to sample new foods from far away places.

This month the United States celebrates Hispanic Heritage Month. Hispanic Heritage Month has been celebrated in this country since 1974 when President Ford extended Hispanic Heritage week to last an entire month. This celebration commenced on Sept. 15 and lasts until Oct. 15. Sept. 15 is the anniversary of independence for five Latin American countries: Costa Rica, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, and Nicaragua. Mexico gained independence on Sept.16 and Chile on Sept. 18.

Ahh…chile. Now, I am talking about the food, not the country. I am a huge fan of green chile.

Roasted Hatch green chili

To help celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month, I want to share with you the most delicious sauce I have ever tasted. My grandmother has been making this for as long as I can remember. I wasn’t able to eat it as a child because it was just too spicy. Now, I put it on everything: chips, sandwiches, cheeseburgers, tacos, burritos, fajitas, chicken, and eggs. My absolute favorite way to eat this is on eggs.

Last year, I grew my own Anaheim green chili, roasted them myself and made green chili sauce out of those. I had so many chilies that I made individual packages and froze them. I had chili all year long. It was amazing.

This year, I don’t have a garden. However, I am lucky enough to live near a Whole Foods market. Last weekend, as we walked into the market, a man stood out front roasting the Hatch green chili right there outside the store. I couldn’t believe it. Hatch green chili is the absolute best chili for this dish. It is grown in New Mexico. If your local market doesn’t sell this, you can order it and have it delivered to your door. Go to www.hatchnmgreenchile.com for more information. They send them fresh or already roasted.

Once you have the chili, from your garden or from the store, the green chili recipe is so easy. It takes about 20 minutes to prepare. You just skin the chilies and chop them up. I like to make a big batch and have it all week long to put on everything. I like to roast the tomatoes too. The flavor from the roasted chili and tomatoes is amazing. Then, you cut everything up into chunks, mix it together with chicken stock, garlic, onions, and pork or beef, and seasonings.

I leave out the meat because I like to use it as a topping for chicken or beef or eggs. So, my recipe doesn’t include the pork. If you add beef or pork, it is pretty much a meal in itself. Also, you can prepare these spicy or not because you can choose whatever green chili you desire. If you don’t want the spicy, but want the chili flavor, see what mild chili they sell at the grocery store.

If you just want to sample some Hispanic food and don’t feel like cooking, try some of the tasty snacks from Pepe’s El Original. These are in the Hispanic food section of your grocery store. My favorite is the Chicharrones. These are super spicy, crunchy and so good. My kids love the Churros De Canela. They taste just like the churros you get at the fair, but crunchier.

reen Chili

1 Tablespoon olive oil

1 onion, diced

3 cloves garlic, chopped

10 Hatch chilies, roasted, skinned, and chopped

5 red tomatoes, roasted and diced

1 cup chicken stock

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

1 teaspoon garlic salt

1 teaspoon corn starch

Heat the olive oil in a skillet. Add the diced onions and saut for five minutes. Add the garlic and continue to saut for five more minutes. Add the chili, tomatoes and stock. Let this simmer for about ten minutes. Add in the seasoning and mix well. Pour the cornstarch into a small glass of water and mix well. Slowly spoon the mixture into the green chili sauce. Let it simmer for a few minutes more to thicken it up.

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Roasted Chicken

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010

School is back in session. Each morning the big yellow school buses crisscross town, kids are weighed down with their back packs, and before we know it, the fall leaves will blanket the ground. It amazes me how different things are once fall begins. It’s incredible how the temperature drops so suddenly. Yes, soon there will be snow. We won’t think about that just yet. It is nice to get back to a schedule. I have every minute accounted for from 5:30 a.m. until I crawl into bed at about 10 p.m. I will admit that it doesn’t always go exactly as planned; but, I am a list maker and I feel better pretending the whole week is scheduled. I just adjust the list as I go along.

Over the summer, we started a new business. It has been a huge adjustment for me to work full time while still trying to keep the house clean, take care of the kids, and feed everyone the way I like to. Not only is school and homework now in the mix, but so is hockey, dance and choir. I think 24 hours is not enough time in the day. I haven’t figured out a way to change this. I may petition for a 30-hour day. I wonder how that would go down? Due to all of the tasks I have to accomplish in one day, some nights it seems so much easier to order in food or to pick up something ready-made from the store. Sometimes, I give in and do this. I go and pick up dinner or have it delivered. There are times when I am just too tired to deal with cooking a whole meal and then clean the kitchen afterward. That’s fine. I don’t beat myself up over this.

At the same time, I don’t want to give up on our home-cooked dinners. I love cooking. I love sitting around the table all together as a family. I can’t give that up. Cooking and feeding my family is one of the passionate aspects of my life. I can’t give up on passion. No one would ever want to give up on love in order to get all of the things accomplished on a list. So, I will cook. I have decided to think of the cooking as the recess in my day. If my daily schedule was a school day, cooking would be the recess. It’s what I look forward to. It’s the break from the routine. Cooking is the pleasure or the reward for everything else that is a task. When I think of making dinner this way, I approach it with enthusiasm. I look forward to it. Making dinner for my family is a luxury not another to do item on a list.

This week I made a dish that is so easy. It’s almost cheating. The recipe is roasted chicken. There are several reasons why I love to roasted chicken. First, buying a whole chicken is a bit cheaper than buying chicken pieces. One could feed an entire family for less than $10 when the entre is roasted chicken. Second, it takes minutes to prepare the chicken and the oven does everything else, leaving you time to finish whatever you didn’t do on your list. It’s so easy. Third, after I cut the chicken up, I know I will be throwing the leftover bones into a huge pot with all of the cuts of vegetables I have saved in the freezer over the past couple of weeks to make the best chicken stock. I use the chicken stock in many more dishes after the chicken is long gone .  So, making a roasted chicken ends up lasting for many meals to come. Finally, roasted chicken tastes so darn good. The crispy, seasoned outer skin envelopes the moist and juicy inner meat. I like to coat the skin in herbs and spices. I place butter and lemon under the skin to give the meat a great citrus flavor. Set this next to some roasted potatoes and vegetables and you have a nutritious delicious meal to serve to the people you love. I was so pleased with this meal the other day that I hopped up after and did the dishes with glee.

Having food and the ability to create a great meal for my family is a luxury. I am not even going to put it on my list. Lists are for things you may forget to do. I would never forget to do this. No one puts smile at everyone you see on the list or love your husband and children. We just do it.

Roasted chicken

Serves: 5

Time: 1 hour

1 whole chicken

1/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon pepper

2 cloves garlic, chopped finely

1 teaspoon Emeril’s Essence

1/4 cup fresh Italian parsley, chopped finely

1 lemon, sliced

1 tablespoon butter

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Clean the chicken with warm water. Place the whole chicken in an oven safe dish, breasts up. Stick the lemon slices and pats of butter under the chicken’s skin, over the breasts. In a small bowl, combine the olive oil, salt, pepper, garlic, Essence, and parsley. Mix well. Coat the entire chicken with this mixture. Stick it in the oven and let it cook for about 45 minutes. Once the 45 minutes is finished. Cut into the chicken breast to see if it is cooked all the way through. If not, place it back into the oven for another ten minutes and check it again. The chicken meat should not be pink, it should be white. Once it is cooked all of the way through, cut the chicken meat into the sizes you prefer. Serve with potatoes or rice, vegetables or salad. Enjoy.

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Chicken satay with peanut sauce

Sunday, September 12th, 2010

It has become a tradition at my house that every Friday night a group of our friends gather around our table to eat whatever dish I am making for this article. It just evolved into this. It was never planned.

Every Thursday, I start getting the calls, “what are you doing tomorrow night?” I tell whoever is on the other end of the line that we are staying home and cooking my meal for the food column. Of course, I invite everyone I speak to over to eat with us. I feel truly blessed to have so many people to share all of this food with. My friends are so appreciative of every meal. At this point, they don’t even bother to ask what I am making. They are open to whatever I put in front of them.

I always feel completely satisfied by the wee hours of Friday night when people are leaving with full bellies and the sweetest compliments. I am so lucky to have such amazing friends who offer me instant feedback on my dishes. It would be sad to love food so much and to have no one to share it with. These Friday evenings get my weekend started on the right track.

This past year, a few of my friends, as well as my own family, have had a difficult year financially. A lot of people I know have struggled to get food on their tables. Somehow, we have managed to feed ourselves pretty well through all of it. I try to remember this every time I eat. I never let food cross my lips without feeling gratitude.

A while back, I thought about the people who have not been as fortunate as we have. Some people have not managed to get food on their tables each day. So, about a month ago, I applied to volunteer at a rescue mission. My absolute favorite thing to do is to cook food and to serve it to people. So, what better place for me to be than in a soup kitchen? I believe everyone should find something they love to do and help others while doing it. You won’t believe the joy it brings into your life.

I have met some amazing people working at the mission. They don’t have me cooking in the kitchen yet. I am the “salt and pepper lady” right now; but, I am hoping to work my way up soon and to get cooking for many more people.

For now, I will keep practicing the cooking at home with my friends. This week, the usual suspects gathered around my kitchen and I made chicken satay as an appetizer. I had never made these before. However, I love satays and we have ordered them several times in Thai restaurants. So, I figured I should give it a shot. Claud and I are huge fans of Thai cuisine. I especially love the really spicy dishes. The ones that make me sweat while I am eating them. It hurts so good.

Don’t worry, this dish is mild. I looked at several different recipes before combining the ingredients into what I thought would be the best. I marinated the chicken on Thursday night, which took only about five minutes to do. I decided to go with a yogurt marinade because I keep reading about recipes which marinade chicken in yogurt. It sounds weird to marinade chicken in yogurt. I had to try it. It turned out so moist and flavorful. It doesn’t taste like yogurt in the end.

I grilled the satays for about ten minutes and placed them in the oven while I whipped up the Thai peanut sauce. This is a very simple dish to prepare. However, your guests won’t know that because it looks very pretty and tastes even better.

I felt gratitude for having so much food to share with my friends and took a bite of the satay. It tasted amazing. Within minutes of setting them out for all to enjoy, there wasn’t a single skewer of chicken left.

Chicken Satay

Serves: 6

Time: 25 minutes

1 C. plain Greek yogurt (you can use regular yogurt if you can’t find Greek)

1 tsp. turmeric

1 tsp. ginger, grated

1 tsp. garlic, chopped

1 Tbsp. curry powder

1 lb. chicken thighs

12 skewers (soak the skewers in water for an hour ahead of time)

1 Tbsp. canola oil

1 head butter lettuce

In a shallow bowl, combine the yogurt, turmeric, ginger, garlic, and curry powder. Mix well. Cut the chicken thighs into strips. Mix the chicken strips into the yogurt marinade. Cover and place in the refrigerator for at least an hour. You can do this the day before and let it marinade over night. Take them out of the refrigerator about 20 minutes before you are ready to serve them. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Thread the chicken onto skewers. Coat the grill with canola oil. Heat the grill on high heat. When it is very hot, set the chicken on the grill. Cook about four minutes each side to get nice grill marks on the chicken. Set each skewer of chicken in an oven safe dish and cook in the oven for another ten minutes. Set them on a nice platter or plate on a bed of butter lettuce. Set the peanut sauce in the center (recipe follows)

Thai Peanut Sauce:

1 C. creamy peanut butter

C. soy sauce

2 tsp. Sriracha chili sauce (a tiny bit more to drizzle on top)

2 Tbsp. brown sugar

Juice of two lemons

1 C. hot water

1 tsp. fresh cilantro, chopped

In a food processor, combine peanut butter, soy sauce, Srircha, brown sugar, and lemon juice. Blend well. Slowly add in the hot water to thin it out to desired consistency. Scoop into a small bowl. Place into the center of the platter. Top with fresh cilantro and drizzle a little Srirachi sauce on top to make it pretty.

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Manicotti

Wednesday, September 1st, 2010

Summer is coming to an end. Luckily, it will be back before we know it. That’s the funny thing about seasonsthey keep coming back. As I get older, they seem to be rotating much quicker than I remember from my childhood. Businesses seem to want to push us into things even sooner than we are ready. I have already seen Halloween stuff displayed on store shelves. This was a couple of weeks ago. I wasn’t even ready to think of the end of summer yet.

I have decided that I am going to savor every minute remaining of this summer. I will take each hot day and soak it all in. I have less than a week with my daughter Ella before she flies home to England and I will probably have to wait another season or two before I can see her again. I have to keep reminding myself about the quickly passing time and how it won’t be long until we are together again. She isn’t even gone yet. I don’t want to be sad about her going while I still have her under my roof. I don’t want even a minute to go by without enjoying her time with us.

One way I know to show how much I love someone is to make them something special to eat. Everyone has their own way of showing love. Mine usually involves food. Ella is a very picky eater. She loves rice and pasta. She is a vegetarian but doesn’t like salads, or tofu, or beans. She loves cucumber and mangos. It’s difficult to make a meal out of cucumbers, mangos, rice and pasta. Although, I am sure it can be done. One time I bought this tiny rice shaped pasta and Ella was over the moon. It was a combination of her two favorite things: rice and pasta.

So, when I asked her what her favorite meal was, she didn’t have an answer. She doesn’t have a favorite meal. I don’t either; but, that is because I love almost everything. How can I choose one to be a favorite? Ella and I started talking about food and I described a few things I thought she might enjoy. I think she would love shrimp scampi served over rice. She didn’t even know she loved shrimp until we went to a Teppanyaki restaurant the other day and the chef tossed a shrimp into her mouth. She knows she likes white fish. She adored the zucchini and squash fritters I made last week. She absolutely loves fries; but, who doesn’t?

My mom made Ella and Daphne the most delicious vegetarian lasagna last weekend which she really liked. My mom is so clever. She knows that Ella doesn’t like many vegetables, so she stuck mushrooms, tomatoes, onions, and some other vegetables into the food processor, blended them all up and incorporate this into the sauce. Ella didn’t know what was in there and thought it tasted delicious. I didn’t want to make her lasagna again so soon. However, the lasagna did get me thinking about other baked pasta dishes. We discussed baked ziti, stuffed shells, and then decided on manicotti. My mom always made manicotti when I was growing up. It is so good.

I made the manicotti like I remembered my mom made it. I added in spinach because that is one of the few vegetables Ella enjoys eating. How could she not get pleasure from this dish? It has cheese, pasta, and pasta sauce. She loves all of those ingredients. The meal turned out perfectly and I was right, Ella loved it. There wasn’t a speck of anything left on her plate. Maybe now she has a favorite meal.

Manicotti

Serves: 6

Time: 1 hour 15 minutes

(although you can do a lot of the prep work ahead of time)

16 oz. Manicotti noodles

1 Tbsp. olive oil

1 onion, diced

1 clove garlic, chopped

1 C. cooked spinach

1 pint ricotta cheese

1 1/2 C. mozzarella cheese, shredded

1 1/2 C. parmesan cheese, shredded

2 eggs

1 tsp. salt

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. garlic salt

1tsp. Emeril’s Essence

3 15 oz. cans of pasta sauce

Pour yourself a glass of good Italian Chianti. Sip this throughout the cooking processslowly because this will take about an hour and 15 minutes to make. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.

Bring a large pot of water to boil. Add the manicotti noodles and boil for ten minutes (or per the instructions on the package). Drain, rinse with cool water, drizzle with a bit of olive oil and set aside.

In a skillet, heat olive oil on medium high heat. Add the onions. Saut the onions for about five minutes. Add the garlic and saut another five minutes. Add the spinach and let it wilt for another three minutes. Set aside and let cool.

Mix together the ricotta cheese, 1 cup of the mozzarella cheese, and one cup of the parmesan cheese. Whisk together the two eggs and mix that into the cheese mixture. Mix in the spinach, onion and garlic to the cheese mixture. Sprinkle in some salt and pepper and mix well.

Carefully stuff this cheese mixture into the manicotti pasta noodles. Pour about 1/2-inch of the sauce into the bottom of an oven safe dish. Stack the noodles on top of each other if necessary. Pour the remaining sauce over the stuffed noodles. Sprinkle in the salt, pepper, and Essence on the sauce. Sprinkle over the rest of the parmesan and mozzarella cheeses on top of the sauce.

At this point, you can cover this and put it in the refrigerator until you are ready to bake it for dinner or cook it straight away. Bake in the oven for 45 minutes.

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