mmmMMMmmmeatballs June 30, 2007

Every so often (ok…Tuesdays, Thursdays and when I’m working lates) I get to come home to Food Cooked by Someone Else(tm). Being the mastermind of kitchen manipulation that I am I’ve kind of instituted a He Cooks evening a couple of nights a week so the romantic interest’s cooking muscle doesn’t atrophy. I’m so good.

Tonight I came home to possibly the best meatball sub ever. It features delectable, from scratch meatballs & marinara sauce (which I’m a complete failure at making), provolone cheese and lovely whole wheat bunnage. So good.

Here it is in its saucy glory:

I’ll do my best to convince him to post recipes.

You don’t make friends with salad June 28, 2007

Those are remnants of the salad which was tonight’s supper. Summertime is great because there’s so much more fresh produce available at decent prices and I really don’t feel like eating high maintenance, heavy foods…so tossing a bunch of stuff in a bowl makes me very happy.

Salad
1/2 lb. baby spinach
2 cups bean sprouts
1 orange bell pepper, slivered
2 cups snow peas
1 ripe mango, slivered
3 grilled chicken breasts

I just layered all of the above in a glass bowl (because if you’re layering you’d might as well show off how pretty it looks) in the order in which they appear above.

Dressing

3/4 cup yoghurt
1/4 lime juice
3 cloves garlic
handful fresh cilantro

Whiz the cilantro and garlic in a food processor for about a minute until you’ve got a flakey sort of mulch. Add the yoghurt and lime juice and whiz for another minute.

Top your pretty salad with dressing and toasted almonds if you’re thinking you’ll make it through the whole lot. If not, then serve on individual plates and do the topping there.

I figure the dressing would be excellent with the addition of grated fresh ginger but I was seriously too lazy to pull out my rasp tonight.

C’est tout.

Pico di Gallo June 21, 2007

Pico di Gallo is the best thing since sliced bread. No. Scratch that. It’s much, much better than sliced bread but it’s most definitely the cat’s pyjamas. Technically a condiment used to garnish things like quesadillas and tortillas, at our house we tend to eat it like a salad – or a saladiment – though still on things like quesadillas and tortilla chips…or cornbread or steak or sandwiches or…well…anything you can imagine, really.

Once you’ve got a recipe down pat you can vary it for different purposes; substitute the tomatoes with mangoes and you’ve got the perfect accompaniment for grilled chicken. Substitute the jalepenos for chipotles or horseradish and you’ve got the best burger topping ever. Substitute the cilantro for parsley, the lime for lemon, add some stinky cheese and you’ve got an excellent pasta dish. If you don’t have limes, use rice wine vinegar. One way or the other, toss the leftovers with some baby spinach and you’ve got a killer salad in under a minute. mmmMMMmmm…saladiment.

Here’s the basic recipe I use:

2 large field tomatoes, or 5 roma tomatoes (still like their texture better)
1 large red onion (the trick is to have about 1 part onion to two part tomatoes)
2 (or 4, or 18 if you like) cloves crushed garlic
juice of 1 lime
1 cup chopped cilantro
1/2 tsp ground cumin
1 tbsp olive oil
1 jalepeno finely chopped
salt and pepper to taste (seriously to taste with the salt – salt will emphasise the garlic and that may not be what you’re looking for)

Mix all of the above together and serve with whatever your little heart desires.

Here it is with its good friends guacamole and grilled vegie quesadillas:

BBQ fishies June 5, 2007

It’s barbeque season and we’re on it full throttle. We’ve been through two and a half tanks since April and are seriously contemplating getting the hook ups required for gas service. We loves our barbeque.

The general rule in this household is that if one thing is going to be grilled, everything might as well be grilled. Really it’s as much a challenge as a rule and I’ve definitely bombed out on a few things, but I’m pretty bloody minded about exploiting our tools and experimenting so it’s all good.

Last night it was marinated tilapia, corn bread bruschetta and spinach salad. Yum.

I’ve never worked with tilapia before and the daughter is devoutly anti-fish so it was a little intimidating but it came out lovely.

Tilapia marinade:

1/4 c liquid honey
2 tbsp soya sauce (just a word to the wise; if you’re going to add anything to honey to make it salty it might as well be soya sauce, no matter what other flavours you’re working with)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp dried chili flakes
2 tbsp olive oil

Shake all of the above in a bottle or whiz it in a food processor then dump over the fish fillets.

I let our little tilapia fillets marinate in this for a few hours because I had a few hours, but it really only needs about 30 minutes of marinating time. If you don’t have time to let them soak then this recipe also makes an excellent finishing glaze.

I scored a lovely cornmeal bread from the A&P – it’s not a true cornbread as it was obviously leavened with yeasty beasties, but it had such an interesting texture which immediately made me think ‘bruschetta’, so that’s what it became. I imagine this marinade would work well with local fresh water fish as well – pickerel and lake trout come to mind as they’re a little less delicate than bass or pan fish.

Bruschetta topping:

2 roma tomatoes, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 small red onion (ok – I was lacking the red onion in last night’s batch, but I normally make it with red onion)
2 tsp dried or fresh oregano
1 handful chopped fresh parsley
1 tbsp olive oil
1/4 cup grated asiago cheese
cracked black pepper to taste

Mix all of that together and toss it on your favourite bread.

And here’s everything browning nicely on the grill:

Yes, again with the pizza stone. I tossed it on the grill as it heated up and basically used it like a frying pan for the fish. It doesn’t take away any of the grilled flavour but it prevents fish bits falling to the briquette gods and the need for a proper fish basket. The daughter loved it =)