Fresh off the success of our parchment baked fish with fennel, I thought I'd toss a similar recipe your way so that you could totally master your parchment baking technique. Inspired by my friend Amelia's comment on our fish post, I thought an Asian spin on this shrimp would be fun. Given that most of us here at Oui, Chef like foods that bite back, I decided to spice this dish up by adding some sliced jalapeños and a touch of sambal oelek (Asian chili paste).
Entrees
Seared Fish with Green Gazpacho Sauce
As winter beats a hasty retreat here in the Northeast, my thoughts are turning to vibrant, fresh and lighter spring dishes. While this gazpacho sauce is certainly something that you could make year round, it's bright-green hue just screams spring, don't you think?
I first saw this recipe in Bon Appétit a few years back, and the sauce looked so beautiful that I knew I'd have to try it one day. Be careful not to over-process the sauce as the crunch from the cukes adds a welcome texture to the finished dish, but by all means play with the other ingredients to make this plate your own. Feel like adding basil, tarragon, thyme, or dill to the sauce? Go ahead….I'll never tell.
Maple-Bourbon Pork and Beans
Here's a little something for those of you tiring from our recent meatless and low-sodium posts. It's still Winter here in the Northeast, and while I haven't gotten around to cooking a cassoulet yet this season, today we're eating the next best thing, pork and beans.
As much as I love cassoulet, coming up with all of the traditional ingredients can be tricky, and a bit pricey what with all the duck and specialty sausages required. If you are hankering for a traditional French cassoulet, I highly recommend D'artagnan's cassoulet kit, if not, stick with me here for a pork laden, Americanised version of the classic French dish.
Love Your Heart and Cook These Herb Stuffed Pork Chops with Blueberry Gastrique
My how time flies. It hardly seems a year since Jess @ Sodium Girl invited me to participate in her 2011 "Love Your Heart Recipe Rally", and I contributed this low salt re-work of a Ming Tsai pork dish. Well, it’s that time again. Time to head back into the kitchen and take a dish that I normally make without regard to sodium content, and re-invent it as a dish that I’d be happy to serve to Jess herself if she were ever to grace our table with her presence....you're always welcome, you know.
Halibut with Tomatoes and Oil-Cured Olives, A Mediterranean Escape
It's not often that we find halibut here on the east coast, so when I do come across a beautiful piece it's cause for celebration and a little star treatment. Like cod, which we've got coming out our ears around here, halibut is a mild fish but a bit denser and meatier. The flavor is so delicate that I hesitate to coat it with anything but a little salt and pepper, preferring instead to cook it atop some aromatics that will perfume rather than overwhelm the fish.
Meatless Monday: Butternut, Carrots and Fennel…..Oh My!
Here's another great meatless recipe that includes some of our favorite veggies and fruits. We love making soups and stews of all sorts this time of year as they are great to have in the freezer for a quick weeknight meal when you just don't have time for anything else. Heat a pot full of soup, toss together a quick salad, warm a loaf of crusty bread, and all is good with the world.
Meatless Monday – Baked Eggs with Spinach, Artichokes and Leeks
I'm a huge Paul McCartney fan, in fact I'm a Beatles freak. While I'm a touch too young to have seen the Beatles perform live, I've been fortunate enough to see Paul a few times over the years and I am so grateful to have had the chance. As I sat the other day thinking of performers I REALLY want my kids to see before they retire (don't ask me why I was thinking this, but I was), Paul McCartney topped the list. I mean, can you think of anyone (still alive) that has influenced the music we all listen to today in such a profound way? Yeah….me neither. I could go on for days about what it is about his songwriting and singing that moves me, but much of it you've probably heard before, or even feel yourself.
An Impromptu Chili
The pork shoulder roast used to make this chili was originally scheduled for a little "low and slow" oven love before being served up to the gang as a Sunday roast. However, mid-way through prepping it for this purpose I had a change of heart, prompted by my need to get our fridge and pantry inventory below the level that would feed a small country (you think I'm kidding?). Turns out this lovely chili allowed me to use up not only the shoulder roast, but also a box of baby spinach, all the carrots, onions, shallots, celery and cilantro left in the fridge, a can of crushed tomatoes and a bag of flageolet beans from the pantry, and a cooked bag of bacon shards in the freezer.
How's that for a kitchen sink recipe!
Parchment Baked Fish with Fennel
Baking fish in parchment is a fabulous technique that I'd read about for years but didn't try myself until just the other day, inspired by having seen my chef-friend Jody Adams cook some this way in a recent cooking class I attended. Jody, who along with her husband Ken write and shoot the fabulous home-cooking blog, The Garum Factory, prepared a similar dish in her class, and from the first bite I was hooked.
Pomegranate Pork with Gingered Kale
This recipe was inspired by one I found in a Whole Foods magazine recently. I was excited to play with it last week not only because of its lovely green and red holiday appearance (the greens look a bit like a Christmas tree, don't you think?), but because kale and pork are always welcome guests at our table. I love recipes that offer a simple sauce to accompany pork because let's face it, plain pork tenderloin is a yawn. As for the kale, it is so versatile and SO GOOD for you, it is something I'm trying to incorporate into our diet more and more. So much so that I'm thinking about a kale based new year's resolution.