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Tuesday, December 29, 2009

Peanut Putter Marinade for Swordfish

2 pounds swordfish, cut 1 inch thick

Peanut Butter Marinade
6 tablespoons creamy peanut butter
6 tablespoons warm water
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
1/4 cut sesame oil
1 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
1 tablespoon honey
opt. 1/3 cup soy sauce
opt. 1 tablespoon toasted sesame seeds

Place swordfish in shallow glass dish. Combine peanut butter and water to make thin paste, then whisk in all but last marinade ingredient. Pour over swordfish and refrigerate 1 hour.

Grill fish 5 minutes per side, turning once. Baste with marinade and serve garnished with toasted sesame seeds

Sunday, November 15, 2009

Spicy Quick Dill Pickles

3 tablespoons kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar
1 1/4 cups distilled white vinegar (5 percent acidity)
2 tablespoons coriander seeds
6 large garlic cloves, halved
4 to 6 long red or green hot chilies, halved lengthwise
16 dill sprigs


Pack vegetables into 2 clean 1-quart glass jars. In another jar, combine the salt, sugar, vinegar, coriander and garlic. Shake until the salt and sugar dissolve. Add 2 cups of water and pour the brine over the vegetables. Tuck the chiles and dill between the vegetables. Add enough water to keep the vegetables submerged. Close the jars and refrigerate overnight or for up to 1 month.


And the Final Product - Ready to Gift

Seriously Sinful Sandwiches Cookie


1 box Ritz crackers (or generic substitute for buttery round crackers)
1 jar peanut butter (smooth works the best)
1 large bag of dark chocolate chips (but your favorite type of chocolate will work too)

Scoop peanut butter and spread onto cracker, place second cracker on top to make sandwich
Do this until you have the number of cookies that you would like - be reminded that these are not 'light' and you will not need as many as you might think for your number of guests.

Melt chocolate chips either in a microwave safe, covered container according to melting directions on bag (likely 2 min intervals, stirring in between) OR in a double-boiler on the stove, stirring constantly.

Dip each sandwich in the chocolate and spread to cover each one evenly.

Place on wax paper covered baking sheet and put into the fridge to cool.

Optional: Decorative icing.

1 tbsp. milk (plus more if needed)
1/4 tsp. vanilla
1 c. sifted powdered sugar
Food coloring

Mix together, put into plastic bad, with hole in corner, seal bag and pipe out icing in desired fashion.

Killer Bluecheese Walnut Greenbean Dish

2 bags Trader Joe's Frozen French Green Beans
1 wedge of Trader Joe's Gorgonzola - sweet blue cheese
1 bag of Trader Joe's halved or pieces and halves Walnuts.
Olive-oil
optional. hot sesame oil

You can either thaw them overnight or:

Place beans in a large heavy skillet with olive oil
Constantly stir the beans from the bottom to the top (to avoid burning them)
Once softened and almost wilted, crumble the Gorgonzola on top and let it
partially melt.

Separately, toast the walnuts in a skillet with a little oil on LOW heat to make them golden brown. Another way to do this is to put them on a oven sheet and toast on a low temp 300 for increments of 5 min, flipping them and watching them to avoid burning. I prefer using the stove-top as it's more controlled.

**My first version of this recipe also called for hot sesame oil. If you choose to do this, you can add a few tbs. of the hot oil to the beans after thawing and before adding the cheese. It adds a very exciting and contrasting flavor to the dish.

Add the walnuts to the bean/cheese mixture, cool and serve.

Lastly, you can serve this hot or room temp - it's enjoyable either way.

Oh, and make enough because you'll want to eat this when you're finished with it, in addition to the guests who will want it for leftovers.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

My Red-Apple Yellow-Curry Chicken-Salad Sandwich

My Red-Apple Yellow-Curry Chicken-Salad Sandwich is God.

Soooo Simple.

1 Fresh red apple, of your preference.
Freshly baked chicken (I suppose you can use canned if you like that)
Light mayonnaise, about 2-3 tbs.
2 tsp. Indian yellow curry powder
Your favorite bread.

Chop chicken and apple finely into tiny pieces and mix with mayo and curry and put onto sandwich.

I think this goes well with spicy pickles. Recipe for spicy pickles coming next.

Monday, June 29, 2009

(Puttin' on the) Ritz Cracker Baked Flounder


(Before)

This is my buttery Ritz cracker baked flounder / sole dish.

First soak 6-8 small thawed fillet's of sole or flounder in fresh lemon juice for 20min. While these are soaking, crush 25-35 Ritz (or other similar buttery crackers) in a bowl.

Mix into crackers 3tbs. melted butter. Add finely chopped and cooked onion and 2tbs finely chopped scallions.

Heat 3lbs butter (or I prefer SmartBalance) and coat the bottom of a Pyrex dish. Place 1/2 the number of fillets on the bottom of pan. Drizzle the butter/margarine mix over the fish and spoon the cracker/onion mix ontop of fish.
Then add the second layer of fish and repeat (covering the second layer of fish with mixture).
Finally bake between 350-400 degrees depending on the thickness of the fillets.

Serve with a small salad or slaw.



(after)

Badass Brocolli Quiche & Other Variations



This is a broccoli, kalamata olive, swiss & pepper jack cheese quiche. It's quick and easy, heavenly right out of the oven and even great cold for lunch the next 2 days.

Take 1 frozen pie crust and defrost/brown for 15-20 min in oven on 350.
Mix 3 eggs, 1c. milk in a bowl.
Pour into the baked crust. Crumble broccoli over the top with the olives and on top add the shredded cheeses. Sprinkle salt, pepper and nutmeg on top of mixture.
Bake at 375° for about 30 minutes, or until quiche filling is set and top is lightly browned.

VARIATION 1:

Follow same steps but instead of previous ingredients use boiled and squeezed baby spinach, thinly chopped boar's head ham, munster cheese, and pan cooked onions.

VARIATION 2:
Follow same steps but instead of previous ingredients use apples, Finlandia sliced swiss and diced ham.