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Archives for May 2014

Creamy Noodles with Salmon

May 28, 2014 by Dan 1 Comment

Creamy Noodles with Salmon by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Creamy Noodles with Salmon

 

1 medium shallot
4-6 fresh basil leaves
1 cup white wine (use a wine you’d serve to guests)
1 cup grated Parmesan or Pecarino cheese (fresh is definitely best)
1 egg, beaten
8 oz. fettuccine (note:  reserve one cup of the water used to boil the pasta too)
salt and pepper to taste
8 to 12 oz. salmon, cooked
a few slivered almonds or a few pine nuts

This dish goes together very rapidly. The single longest part is cooking the noodles.

Cook your salmon however you prefer. It can be poached, broiled, grilled, etc. This can be done ahead of time and this is a good dish to make if you have left over salmon from a previous dinner.  Canned salmon would also work.

Start the water for your noodles. Be sure to salt the water and add a little oil so the noodles don’t stick together.

Chop your shallot and the basil.

Heat a skillet over medium heat. Add a little olive oil. When the oil is hot, add the shallots and sauté until translucent. Add 1 cup of white wine and the basil, reduce the heat to low and simmer until the wine is reduced by half.

While the wine is simmering, cook your noodles. You want them chewable but firm, not mushy.

Put your almond slivers or pine nuts in a small skillet over medium heat and toast, carefully. They can burn if you don’t keep an eye on them. Remove pan from the heat once the nuts are toasted.

When the noodles are done, do not rinse, just add them to the wine sauce. (Also, don’t forget to keep ~ one cup of the pasta water!) Toss noodles lightly in the sauce. Now, add your cheese and half a cup to a cup of the water you reserved from cooking the pasta. Stir in the cheese (it will melt into the sauce.) Add your beaten egg and immediately stir and toss with the noodles so it doesn’t turn into scrambled egg. Continue to stir for a couple of minutes. The egg will thicken the sauce, giving you a nice creamy consistency. If the sauce gets too thick, add a little more pasta water. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve by placing the noodles on a plate and top with chunks of salmon. Top that with a bit of grated cheese and toasted almond slivers or pine nuts and a little fresh chopped basil.

If you want less meat, don’t like fish or want a side dish, you can top the noodles with vegetables instead of the salmon.

Enjoy!

 

Filed Under: Photo, Recipe Tagged With: bassil, creamy noodles, Dinner, noodles, parmessan cheese, pecarino cheese, salmon

Blueberry Crisp

May 21, 2014 by Ginger 1 Comment

Blueberry Crisp by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Blueberry Crisp

 

Sashay through you local grocery store’s veggie section and you’ll no doubt encounter some luscious blueberries calling out your name.  Seriously, listen close – they want to go home with you!  This simple little Crisp recipe will not only provide a wonderful dessert for your next dinner party but can easily be used as a topping for your morning yogurt (if you choose not to share it with family and friends).   Depending on the ingredients you use, this versatile dish can be both vegan and gluten free, or neither.  The choice is yours.  Let’s get cooking!

Crisp filling:
~4 Cups fresh blueberries
1 meyer lemon, zested AND juiced (a “regular” lemon would work too, Meyers are just sweeter)
2 Tablespoons maple syrup

Crisp topping:
1.5 Cups of Quaker quick oats (Bob’s Red Mill sells gluten free oats if you want a substitution)
1/3 Cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 Cup unsweetened shredded coconut
1/4 Cup coconut flour
1/4 cup coconut butter slightly melted in the microwave (you can substitute regular butter)
3 Tablespoons maple syrup
1 teaspoon real vanilla
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
dash of ground cloves

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F.  Mix all the filling in one bowl; mix all the topping in a different bowl.  Pour the filling into an 8×8 oven safe pan, it does not have to be “prepared” (so no oiled sides).  With clean hands, carefully crumble the topping over the filling doing your best to cover up all the blueberries.  When the oven is ready, place the pan in the oven for about 40-45 mins.  The oats will brown a bit.  If you want lighter oats, take them out sooner, if you want a crunchier top, leave it in a little longer.

It will be hard to wait it out, but give the blueberries and juices time to cool and firm up a bit.  What your first bite will tell you is, “Hey!  This isn’t super sweet, OMG I love this – it’s the perfect bite!” So go ahead and have another serving, because you’re good enough, and smart enough and doggone it – you deserve it berry much!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Photo, Recipe Tagged With: blueberry, Blueberry Crisp, crisp, dessert, recipe

Char Siu Bao

May 14, 2014 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Cha Siu Bao by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Cha Siu Bao

Realtors like to remind potential homebuyers in the area “You’re only 4 hours away from San Francisco!”, which might be awesome if you want to smell some sea air every now and again, but if you’re a Dim Sum aficionado, 4 hours is WAAYY too long to wait to eat your way thru Chinatown during Dim Sum serving hours.

So today is our little ode to those pillowy buns of goodness and the succulent Char Siu hidden within.  I’m salivating already, let’s get cooking!

Tip:  The “easy” route for these buns is to forego cooking the Char Siu part yourself and just buy some cooked slabs ‘o char siu at your local grocery store.  Many now have in-house Chinese takeaways that sell fairly good char siu.  If you want to make it yourself, that recipe is at the end.  Part 1: The dough  Part 2: Filling Recipe w/ Store-bought Char Siu  Part 3: Filling Recipe w/Homemade Char Siu

Part 1: The dough:

Prepare a large bowl with a tiny bit of vegetable oil swirled around the inside.  Set aside for the dough to rise in later.

Place 1 cup of whole milk in microwave for ~25 seconds and have a thermometer standing by.  The milk CANNOT get hotter than 95 deg F. If your temperature is under 95 F stir in (1) tsp sugar and (1) tsp of Active Dry Yeast (I use Fleischmann’s -This is not the whole packet, it’s only 1 tsp).

Place the cup of milk back into the microwave (where it’s warm) and let it sit for about 15 mins or until it gets nice and bubbly.

While the yeast is having its way with the sugar, into a large mixing bowl sift:

2 cups all purpose flour
3 tsp sugar

When the yeast mixture is bubbly add this to the flour mixture AND 2 tsp vegetable oil (canola works too).  Mix ’til combined then pour out onto a floured flat surface.
Knead for about 5-8 mins.  It shouldn’t be super sticky, add a little more flour as you knead if it is.

Once the dough ball is holding a round plump form, place into the oiled bowl to rise.  Take a clean dishtowl, wet with water and then tightly wring out all the water (use your elbow grease – I mean ALL the water).  Place this directly on top of the dough, covering it all around, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap.  If your microwave is still warm  you can place this bowl in it OR you can place the bowl in your oven with the light on (but do not turn on the heat).  You just want to keep the yeast warm  but not hot.

The dough needs to rise for about an hour, but if it doubles a little earlier, or a little later, it’s all good.  You just want a nice rise to the dough indicating that some yummy fermentation has taken place – this will give the cooked bao that signature tart smell.

Place the dough back onto a clean and lightly floured board and with a rolling pin, gently roll out the dough then fold into thirds.  Roll this back into a ball, then roll out gently one last time, folding into thirds.  Cut into 8 (or 9) even pieces and recover with your dishtowel or plastic wrap.  You’re now ready to add the Char Siu.

Part 2: Filling Recipe
Make sure your pot of water is heating on the stove and your steamers are ready to go!

Into a bowl mix:
2 Cups of evenly cubed strips of Char siu (these are less than bite sized, they’re small)
3/4 tsp Honey
1 tsp Sesame Oil
1 Tablespoon Hoisin
1 Tablespoon Thick Soy Sauce (I’ve only ever seen it in an Asian Market, looks like molasses)

Mix well.  Depending on the moisture of your char siu, if this looks too dry, add a bit more hoisin.

Now take one of your little dough balls and gently roll out a little larger than palm sized.  It needs to be large enough to hold ~2 Tablespoons of Char Siu mixture AND have enough clean dough on the edges to seal.  Gently pinch around the edges (think accordion or dress pleats) until the bao has been sealed around the mixture.  Give one final little twist and squeeze together your final pleat placing seam-side down on a piece of cut parchment.  In Frisco we used to have edible paper, but cooking parchment works well here, if you don’t have parchment lightly grease your steamer with a tiny bit of vegetable oil and place sealed bao, seam-side down directly into the steamer.

Make sure to leave enough room inside the steamer for the bao to expand.  Steam for 8 – 10  mins  (at our altitude, probably 5 – 8 at sea level.)

Don’t they look delicious!

Cha Siu Bao by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Cha Siu Bao

 

Part 3: Homemade Char Siu

Good homemade char siu will take about 24 hours and a bbq is best to get the crispy edges, but an oven broiler will do in a pinch.

So the day before you actually want to eat your Char Siu Bao get yourself some pork loin (we buy ours at Costco, this will produce a leaner product) or pork butt (if you don’t mind the fat).  About a 1.5lbs will get you enough for this recipe but if you want some char siu leftovers for fried rice, etc, just adjust the marinade by a little bit as appropriate and add more meat.  The pork should be cut into strips so you get that nice char around all the edges, the width of your first and second finger is a good guesstimate of the diameter they should be.  Place the strips into a zip lock baggie then add this mixture, coating well:

2 Tablespoons Sesame Oil
2 Tablespoons Brown Sugar
3 Tablespoons Honey
3 Tablespoons Hoisin
3 Tablespoons Thick Soy Sauce
1/2 teaspoon Chinese Five Spice Powder (you can buy this in your regular grocery store, spice aisle)
1/2 teaspoon Garlic Powder

After a few hours rotate the meat around in the marinade.  Do this a couple times prior to the time you are actually going to bbq it, which hopefully is at least a day later.

Barbecue the pork as you normally would until done, then let cool.  We’re ready to mix the filling and fill the bao.

Filed Under: Photo, Recipe Tagged With: bar-b-que pork, Char Siu Bao, chinese, Pork

Easy Cherry Cobbler

May 7, 2014 by Ginger Leave a Comment

Cherry Cobler by D Fenwick, http://dfenwickphotography.com

Cherry Cobler

This recipe truly can’t get any easier.  So whether you forgot you’re attending a party in two hours, or you just want to curl up on the couch with some comfort food all to yourself – this cobbler is a snap to make and utterly sinful to eat.

Ingredients:
2 cans Oregon Fruit Products Dark Sweet Cherries (do not drain, you will use the juice)
1 box plain white or yellow cake mix (vanilla flavored is okay)
1 stick butter

Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees F.  You’ll be cooking to the boxed cake’s specifications which is *normally* 350 degrees for 30 mins.  In the photo above, we cooked our cobbler in a deep pie dish, but a 9×13 pan is far better, either will do with a teensy adjustment.  We’ll get there in a minute.

For the 9×13 Pan: Pour in both cans of cherries and juice.  Sprinkle entire cake packet over the top evenly.  Cut the stick of butter into even “pats” and then lay across the top of the cake mixture (space them out, they will melt together to make the crust).  Now bake!

For the Pie Dish: Three changes to the above directions – retain 1/4 cup of the juice (or more if you are using a smaller pie pan);  sprinkle ~ 1/2 the cake mix on the top, or just enough to cover evenly so you don’t see the cherry liquid below it; use only 1/2-3/4 of the butter stick to cut into pats and place on the cake mixture.  Now bake!

And that’s really it, well, that and making sure you’ve got some ice cold milk, or hot coffee to go with this yummy indulgence.  It’s sooo good warm.  🙂

Should you want to make this for a romantic evening or even an intimate dinner party, here’s another idea how to bake – adjust ingredients accordingly:

Mini Blueberry Cobler

Mini Blueberry Cobler

Mini Cherry Cobler

Mini Cherry Cobler

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Photo, Recipe Tagged With: cake mix, Cherry, Cobbler, dessert

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