Orange glazed salmon

This recipe is adapted from one of my best buddies, Sarah. This is her second appearance on the blog and there will be many more to come. This is what she told me to do . . .

This recipe is for 4 salmon portions. Zest one orange and combine it with about 1/4 c of sugar, and some salt and pepper.  Squeeze the orange over the salmon fillets and top each fillet with the sugar mixture. Grill or broil the fish sugar side up. 

Now that is what she told me to do, but this is what I did. First, instead of just squeezing the orange over the fish, I marinated the fish in it for about 30 minutes. To the orange juice I also added a couple tablespoons of soy sauce and about 2 tablespoons of fresh grated ginger.

 I was intending to grill the fish, but I was out of propane (must of left it on last time, dang!). I really hate to broil because the pan is always a pain to clean. So I pan fried it. I put the fish sugar side up and cooked it on medium heat, flipping it once. I seasoned the other side with fresh pepper and season salt after I flipped it. The reason I give my version is because I think the soy sauce and ginger totally changed the recipe. So I think it would be good either way.

I served it with egg rice and roasted asparagus. Stay tuned this week for those recipes!

how to marinade

 A pretty popular marinade in these "Mo" parts (aka Mormon community) is the classic bottle of Italian dressing.  You can't open a ward cook book without Italian dressing not being mentioned in two or three recipes. I am not knocking the Italian dressing marinade, it is a valid marinade, and I will tell you why. There are 3 things all marinades need.

1. oil. Oil enhances the flavor and bastes the meat.

2. an acid, (vinegar, citrus, wine, buttermilk, yogurt) acids act as the tenderizer

3. seasoning (salt, pepper, soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, spices, garlic, onion).

Italian dressing has all three things right? So it works. If you are using highly acidic things for your marinade, overnight marinading is too long. Keeping meats in marinade for too long will essentially be cooked by the acid. Things like buttermilk, yogurt, sour cream are good to marinade overnight in. Fish should only be marinade for 30 minutes to 1 hour. 

So for the London broil I marinated it in equal parts olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, 4 smashed garlic cloves, 2 or three tablespoons of Worcestershire sauce, couple teaspoons of salt and pepper, a couple teaspoons of steak seasoning (costco), 3-4 tablespoons of soy sauce, and 3-4 tablespoons of sugar ( I don't know why, I just thought it would be good). I mixed it all in a bag and added the London broil and kept it in the fridge for about 6 hours. Before I grilled it, I scraped everything off ( the garlic will burn) and it was delish!

So as far as marinating goes, you can play with just about anything, just remember the three key points. Or just stick to the Italian dressing, if you are lame!

Cashew Crusted Cod

When I hear cod, I think fish and chips. When Fairb was in graduate school, we lived in a tiny flat in central London. We had two babies in a tiny one bedroom place. While we were there, to my surprise, I got pregnant again. I was still nursing Alta, and the only way I knew I was pregnant was that I was starting my famous barfs. I can't go any where near a kitchen when I am pregnant sick (it makes me shutter just reliving it!), so down the street there was a very authentic fish and chips place, so the family at a lot of greasy fish and chips.  Oddly enough, I have warm memories of that greasy place. Usually pregnancy kills a restaurant in my heart (You couldn't pay me to eat at Cafe Rio) but I would still return to that fish and chips place if I ever returned to Bloomsbury (yes, like in peter pan).

Tonight I made cod for the first time, but instead of fish and chips style, I crusted it in cashews, pan fried it and served it with rice.

Cashew Crusted Cod

2 cod fillets

handful of roasted cashews

handful of butter crackers (ritz, town house)

2 eggs beaten

fresh ground pepper

fresh lemon 

3 T butter

3 T olive oil

Take the cashews and crackers and blend them together in the blender, till it resembles bread crumbs. Pour onto a plate. Pour beaten eggs onto a plate. Heat a large skillet on medium heat with a lid and add the oil and butter. Cut the cod into portions. Dip into the egg and season with fresh ground pepper (you don't need salt because the crackers and nuts have salt) then roll into the cracker nut crumbs. Add to the skillet. Once all the fillets are in the pan, cover, cook for about 3 min then flip. Cook until fish flakes with a fork, taking great caution to not over cook because cod will dry out quick! Finish the fish with a squeeze of fresh lemon.

Soy Glazed Salmon

I hope all you in the cooking work like to invent food, nothing is more fun! I am good at inventing, but not so good at naming, and not so good at remembering what I did.  I guess I won't be writing a cook book any time soon. Tonight we had an Asian inspired salmon fillet, with fried rice. So here is what I did for the salmon. I used a fresh sockeye salmon fillet with the skin on, but any salmon would work I assume.  While the saute pan heated up, I rinsed the fish in cold water and patted it dry. Then I sprinkled it with kosher salt, then liberally sprinkled it with brown sugar.  Now normally I would put the fish skin side up, but with the sugar in play putting it skin side up would burn the sugar. So I put it skin side down.  Meanwhile, I combined about 1/4 c soy sauce and 2 T of rice vinegar, and 2 T rice wine.  Just as the fish started to go opaque  I flipped it over for about a minute to give the fleshy side a little sear, then I flipped it back over and poured the sauce over it.  By now, it should be about time to turn off the fish and let it rest with the lid on, you will have to be the judge on that one. Then I finished it off with a little lemon and sesame seeds. I served it over some fried rice (which you will have to tune in for the recipe later). All and all a tasty dish and a good way to cook salmon!

Partied Out!

It has been a great holiday. Non stop fun, constant playing. I have had a nice big dose of family and I am full, no dessert thank you! Last night we rang in the new year with the banging of pots, grandpa's fireworks show and cold duck. When we said it was time for the toast and we all just drank sparkling apple juice, my daughter Alta said, "I wanted toast!"  We skied all day yesterday.

Kayler, Porter, and Alta about to drop into Bishop's Bowl and Sundance Ski Resort, skiing the black diamonds!

On the way home we stopped costco for some party supplies (aka food). I made a beef stir fry  and I made this . . .

Don't know what this is? It is seared tuna. Give it to someone and they will love it, then tell them it is semi-raw fish and they will just die! (trust me, I did it to a few kids) If you love seared tuna, then you will love this!

Step one: buy fresh fresh ahi tuna (costco).

Step two: rinse it with cold cold water.

Step three: slice against the grain with a sharp sharp knife.

Step four: let it get to room temp before you cook it, say it twice.

Step five: mix 1/3 c soy sauce, 1/4 c rice vinegar, 1 teaspoon of chili paste and 2 T oil together.

Step six: get your cast iron or non-stick pan smoking smoking hot.

Step seven: drop a little oil in your smoking smoking hot pan.

Step eight: drop your sliced tuna into you marinade (step 5).

Step nine: drop your tuna into your smoking smoking hot pan.

Step ten: before you can even say, wow that pan is hot! slide your tuna off onto a plate and serve.  You literally want them on there for 30 seconds or less. You want it barely seared, mostly raw. Notice I repeated myself sometimes? That is because those things are so so important.  

Don't like raw tuna? Go to Happy Sumo order their Tuna Tataki, eat it, love it. Then try my quite different recipe, eat it, love it.

I know I never got around to blogging about Christmas, but I will leave you with a picture of a boy who really believes in Santa. He sat on his lap and talked his ear off, then he interrupted Santa mid sentence, "Santa I have a song for you!" Followed by a rousing rendition of, "Santa Clause Is Coming to Town."

Sweet and sour shrimp

I am always experimenting with Asian food. Love love love Asian inspired food. Tonight we had sweet and sour shrimp.

The best place to buy shrimp is Costco. They sell the nice big tiger shrimp and they are already deviened, which saves tons of time. Tonight I tried frying the shrimp, like they would do in a typical Chinese restaurant. In retrospect, I would have been better off pan frying them, saving all the effort of frying, (which is a pain in the rear) and saved the calories. So lets "pretend" I pan fried them and I guarantee it would have been just as good. First, lets get to the ultimate sweet and sour sauce. This was inspired by a cooking class I went to at Thanksgiving Point, I just added two ingredients. I love cooking classes, so if you ever need someone to go to a cooking class with, call me!

Sweet and Sour Sauce

1/2 C of each following, white vinegar, water, catchup, pineapple juice

1 c sugar

2 T soy sauce

1/4 t ground chili paste (see picture)

Combine all ingredients in a sauce pan and bring to a boil, turn to a simmer and thicken with a corn starch mixture ( 2 T corn starch 2 T water). Add slowly till you have the desired consistency. The chili paste is optional if you are afraid of anything spicy, but trust me, it is good! Keep sauce warm if you are going to use it for the following recipe.

Prepping the shrimp:

Remove shells and tails of the shrimp (about 15 big shrimp) and marinade in 1 egg white 3 T rice wine vinegar, 3 T soy sauce. for about 30 minutes.

Meanwhile cut up half an onion, half a red pepper, a handful of carrots. You also need pineapple, about a cup fresh or canned.

Heat about 3 T oil in your wok and get it really hot. Coat the shrimp lightly in corn starch and drop into the wok. Cook shrimp till they become pink (2-3 min) and remove from the pan and set aside.

Add another T of oil and add the veggies and stir fry till tender crisp ( 4 min, make sure your wok is hot!) Add pineapple and give it another minute or so.

Return shrimp to the pan and pour the warm sweet and sour sauce over the shrimp.

Serve over rice. This will feed 4 adults.

I also served it with some stir fried cabbage, and it was so yummy! But that will have to be for another day . . . .

Clam chowder

Tonight I went to 'Enrichment Night' and the church, (and I took my mother, a miracle I know). I signed up to bring a soup. So I fed my family with it first and rushed it down to the chapel. This is a soup my mother taught me to make.

Looking at the list of ingredients, one can conclude that soup is not good for you., but is dang good. Its better that Market Street Grill's clam chowder. Alright, I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty sure it is Market Street Grill's recipe.

1 c diced potatoes

1 c diced leeks

1 c diced green pepper

1 c diced onions

1 c celery diced

2 cans clams in clam juice

1 T ground pepper

2 1/2 t thyme

4 t salt

1 t Tabasco

6 bay leaves

3/4 c white wine, or sherry wine

2 c water

1 1/2 stick melted butter

1 c flour

2 quarts half and half

Combine the flour and butter in a oven proof dish to make a roux, bake in the oven for about 20 minutes to cook the raw flavor out of the flour. Start to simmer the potatoes in the water with the salt. Now the next step I added after going to Certified Executive Chef Kent Anderson cooking class. He taught us you should always saute and aromatic vegetables before they get put in a recipe. He said they need to release their oils, otherwise even though they are cooked, they will still taste raw. So instead of throwing all the other vegetables in the pot to boil, I sauteed the leeks, onions, peppers, and celery in a tiny bit of oil. To this I added the pepper, and thyme.

Just after they became fragrant, I added to the saute pan the wine and poured it into the stock pot with the potatoes. Next I added the clams and their juice, and the Tabasco sauce. I simmered everything until the veggies were way cooked down. Then I added the roux. This should turn it to almost cookie dough consistency.

Then you add the half and half. Then you have to heat it all up again until it thickens up. Do not boil it. Just a simmer.

Serve with a yummy crusty bread and a big salad!

The salmon staple

So children are asking me why I am always taking pictures of my food (and never them!). I am getting in the habit of it, but I only remembered halfway through dinner last night. We ate another family staple, salmon. Salmon is good for you, its easy to like and easy to cook, I do not vary from this method very often, and I would say it is perfect. First, get you dark sunglasses and trench coat because you are heading to the liquor store. I always use white wine when I cook salmon. At the liquor store you can buy what are called splits (thanks next door neighbor for introducing me to my first split, what a bad influence :) ) Which are half bottles, they also have some with replaceable lids (see pic).

I always get my salmon from Costco (as you will discover, costco is my world). Always rinse the fish is cold, cold water and pat dry. Heat up you skillet hot with olive oil coating the pan. Season your salmon with season salt, and pepper (a lemon pepper is best). If the fish has skin, but skin side up in the pan, if not, do seasoned side down. The fish should sizzle majorly. Season the other side the same way and cover. As soon as the fish turns opaque, flip it. It should be nice a browned. Pour like a 1/4c to 1/3 c wine on top and cover again. If the fish is thinner, turn off immediately, if it is a little thicker, give it 30 sec to a minute then turn off. Leave the lid on till you are ready to serve. Squeeze on a little lemon.

I served the salmon with some baked mac and cheese, asparagus, green salad and fruit.