Tag Archives: Californian

Spicy Nectarine Salsa

Posted on by

I’m not sure how I came across this one, but I did a while back.  I was reminded of it because my friend Mee and her boyfriend had some mango papaya salad with fish the other day and nectarines are just beginning to start to come into season in the US.  Thanks for reminding me, guys!

Originally, I just kind of threw it together and it turned out to be even more amazing on my tastebuds in real life than in my head.  I remember eating this on the lofted patio of my cousin’s amazing mountain-y home last memorial day while sipping some sangria, then going off to soak in the hot tub.  The slight floweriness and tang of nectarines works so well with the bright cilantro and spicy habanero peppers.  It’s great on fish, as you’ll see below.

Kestrel’s Nectarine Salsa

Makes 3 servings as a topping for fish.  Feel free to double, triple, or even quadruple.

  • 1 nectarine, somewhat firm, just starting to ripen up and get soft (too firm will be too sour, too soft will be too mushy). Make sure it smells good!
  • 1 habanero pepper, minced (more if you’re a masochist, or substitute jalapenos or anaheims if you’re a wimp.  Here I used serranos because they were cheaper, but they weren’t as spicy as I’d like.)
  • 1/4 of a red onion, finely diced
  • 5 sprigs cilantro, minced
  • fresh juice of 1 lime

Combine all of the ingredients, prepared as listed above, in a bowl.  Let it sit for at least 10 minutes and stir so that the flavors have a chance to mingle.  For the best flavor, let it sit an hour or two, but make sure you use it within 2 days (keep refrigerated).

This is great to serve with a nice light white fish (cod, tilapia) in the summertime, or just to eat with chips while sitting outside.  Here I served it with a fresh fillet of cod that I just lightly coated with rice flour and a dusting of curry powder (mostly for color) and pan fried (I used butter, but you could use olive oil) for no more than 10 minutes total.  It’s a super quick recipe that seems quite fancy!  The key is getting quality ingredients and keeping it simple.


It’s quite healthy, but the flavors in this are so stunning that you won’t notice.

 

Naan grilled cheese

Posted on by

I bought some garlic naan at Trader Joe’s last week.  It’s certainly not authentic naan, but it’s nice and fluffy and has a very garlicky flavor.  Marco, who apparently wants to see my thighs turn into the Hindenburg, gave me some brie as a thank you for helping him in his job search.

What does this all mean?  Grilled cheeeese!

Ah, this sandwich was sexy. Fluffy garlicky bread, melty brie, fresh basil.  Adding anything besides a little sea salt and fresh ground pepper would make it harder to appreciate, I think.  For an extra crispy sandwich, grill it with a little melted butter or bacon fat spread on each side.  You can get all of the ingredients for this in Trader Joe’s, but I’m sure you could pick up stuff elsewhere over multiple locations and make the same sandwich.

Président now makes a brie log, bless their hearts.  So if you just want to gnaw on a stick of brie, you damn well can. Or, it’d probably be perfect size for slicing onto a baguette or crackers.  While Président may not have the most character of the bries out there, it’s still got that brie-y goodness and intense meltability.

I recommend you try this garlicky wonder someday.  Your socks may be knocked off.

Grapefruit Goat Chese Salad

Posted on by

This salad isn’t for sissies.  It’s pretty rich.  Ripened goat cheese, avocado, grapefruit, arugula, butter lettuce, and green onions in a white balsamic lemongrass vinagrette.  I’d use less avocado & cheese than I did, though, because it was a bit overwhelmingly rich.

The white balsamic vinegar lets the colors of the salad show through rather than dying it for you.  (White balsamic is a little more subdued in flavor than regular balsamic, so it works well in fruity vinagrettes. )

Featuring Cypress Grove Bermuda Triangle goat cheese.  It lacks the goaty funk that a lot of goat cheeses have and has a texture like brie and a zingy flavor a bit like blue cheese.   It pairs very, very well with fresh ruby red grapefruit.

I highly recommend you try out Cypress Grove’s cheeses– their goat milk comes from local dairies in Humboldt County, where the goats roam free and so do the hippies (though, not necessarily in the same pastures).  How do I know?  When I was a wee one, I grew up for a couple of years on a farm that raised goats whose milk contributed to their products, running in the pastures with them. I can assure you, they’re very happy.

Another great cheese they make is called Humboldt Fog.  They’re a little pricey, but I can assure you they’re worth the splurge; definitely perfect for a cheese platter for the holidays or a picnic or dinner party.

For the vinagrette:

  • 2 parts olive oil
  • 7 parts white balsamic vinegar
  • 1 part ground or finely grated lemongrass
  • kosher salt
  • fresh ground black pepper

For a simpler version of this salad, substitute good ol’ domestic blue cheese for the cheese, and in the vinaigrette substitute lemon or lime zest and apple cider or rice vinegar.

Maple Miso-Glazed Sea Bass

Posted on by

My dad is here to visit! I wanted to cook him a nice dinner last night, so here’s what we had:

  • Browned butter garlic spinach fettucini
  • Bitter green salad (wilted dandelion greens) with homemade meyer lemon blue cheese dressing
  • Maple Miso Glazed Seabass

You’ll see miso glazed fish or chicken at a lot of fancy restaurants.  The fact of the matter is that this is very, very easy to make at home.  I threw in some maple syrup for a more unique flavor.

To make the glaze:

  • 4 tbsp white miso
  • 1/3 to 1/2 cup maple syrup
  • 1/4 cup mirin
  • 2 tsp fresh finely grated ginger
  • 1 1/2 cups of water

Blend miso paste with water.  Add to pot along with all the rest of the ingredients.  Bring to a boil then reduce the heat.  Stir frequently.  Let reduce until it becomes a somewhat thick gravy-like consistency.  It should probably take about 15 minutes.

Take your (fresh or well defrosted) fish, add a little butter or vegetable oil to a frying pan, sear it on both sides (lightly browned). Turn down the heat to medium. Baste one side with the miso maple glaze, flip that glazed side face down on the pan, then glaze the other side.  Let the fish cook 2-5 minutes on each side.  The miso glaze should not burn, just turn a darker brown.  When you push on the fish with a fork, it should push back and be firm.

Italian Confetti Sauce

Posted on by

I’ve been inspired lately to try cooking spaghetti squash.  It has so many more vitamins and minerals than regular ol’ spaghetti.  I’d say this is probably a pretty Californian concept– who in their right mind would want to substitute vegetables for carbs?  People who like fresh vegetables a lot…like Californians…and crazy people like me who like to experiment with things.  I’m not the biggest squash fiend, though, but I am a tomato addict.  As such, I figured I’d make a spaghetti sauce type thing to go on top of some spaghetti squash.

The produce this time of year is fabulous, so my sauce ended up more like a stew.  I threw in some asparagus, bell peppers, etc.  I’ve been known to add grated carrots to this sort of thing on occasion too, but I figured I’d be getting enough Vitamin A from the squash. I kind of like my sauce that way…nice and chunky with tons of mushrooms.  And by tons, read on to see exactly how much I mean.

The colors and all of the different vegetables inspired me to call it “Confetti Sauce”.  It could very well be a stew, too, though.

Kestrel’s Italian Confetti Sauce

(can be served on Spaghetti Squash or used as a sauce for other things)

Ingredients


Required Ingredients

  • 5 cloves garlic, chopped roughly
  • 1 onion, diced
  • 1 tbsp olive oil
  • salt & pepper to taste
  • 1 can diced tomatoes
  • 1/2 cup roughly chopped fresh basil (preferred), but at least 1 tsp dried basil if no fresh basil
  • 1 tsp dried oregano (or substitute fresh if you have it, about 1 tbsp minced)
  • 1 bell pepper (or 2 small ones)
  • mushrooms (at least 1/2 cup chopped)

Optional Ingredients

  • 1 smallish spaghetti squash
  • 2 hot chili peppers (cut up finely)
  • about 1/2 cup crumbled tempeh (seasoned with a bit of soy sauce)
  • 1 cup chopped fresh cherry tomatoes
  • 4 stems asparagus
  • 2 tbsp fresh chopped parsley (I didn’t have any here, but you’d add it in with the basil & other herbs)
  • whatever other vegetables you have lying around, diced

Microwaved & baked

Prepare the spaghetti squash if you’re going to use it.  My squash came with directions on the sticker!  Here’s roughly what it said:

Stab squash repeatedly all over
Preheat oven to 375 F
Microwave 2-3 minutes per pound, until skin is soft (I ended up doing about 12 minutes, which was more than was recommended, but it turned out fine)
When cool enough to handle, transfer to a baking dish
Bake whole at 375 F for an hour
Let cool, cut in half
Remove seeds
Use fork to pull the squash meat out in spaghetti-like threads
Serve as desired

Cut in half

Spaghetti strings!

Set the spaghetti squash strings aside in a bowl.

In a big pot, add olive oil, garlic, onions, hot chilis (optional).  Bring heat up to medium-high.

Salt & pepper to taste.  Stir well and frequently until onions become translucent and begin to get just a little golden.  Do not burn them, though, because burnt garlic tastes awful.  This is the secret (along with fresh herbs and patience) to any great spaghetti sauce.

Add fresh cherry tomatoes and tempeh (optional).  I like the tempeh because it adds some protein to the dish.  The cherry tomatoes make it a little sweeter than with just acidic canned tomatoes.  Cook 5 minutes on medium heat, stirring frequently.

Add can of tomatoes, mix in well.

Add in whatever veggies you’ve got lying around (I used 4 asparagus stems & 2 small bell peppers).  Stir well.  Cook for 5 minutes on medium-low heat.

Add mushrooms (I used over 2 cups because I seriously love me some mushrooms).  Stir well, until thoroughly mixed.  Cook, uncovered, on medium-low heat, stirring occasionally for about 15 minutes or until the mushrooms are soft.

Serve over the spaghetti squash or use the sauce however you want.  If you want to make this non-vegan and with more fat but probably more awesome tasting, top with some freshly grated parmesan cheese.

Sunday Bento #3

Posted on by

Monday & Tuesday of this week!

Red bento: baked summer squash, tempeh and mushrooms over shirataki noodles, garden salad, onion stuffed olives.  Can you spot the sneaky smiley face? :)

Clear tupperware: Greek tofu (tofu cooked with caramelized onions, lemon juice, salt, pepper, oregano, garlic powder), baba ganoush, cucumber yogurt salad, tomatoes and spinach (with a pita, not pictured).

 

No Thyme for Jerks

Posted on by

Tomorrow's bento: jerk tempeh with wehani rice with fennel seeds, collard greens, and carrots.

I managed to get some allspice from the grocery store so I can start cooking from the Delicious Jamaica cookbook, but I forgot the thyme.  I loosely followed Sobers’ recipe for a wet jerk marinade, substituting a little oregano for the missing thyme and adding some garlic (not sure why on that one).  Overall it came out decently, but I think I need to follow the recipe more closely next time.

I cooked up some tempeh in the jerk marinade and it came out okay…while tempeh has a great texture and absorbs flavor readily, it also has a bit of a bitter flavor that’s best masked by sweeter or saltier sauces.  As a result, the jerk seasoning on tempeh didn’t quite work as well as I’d hoped; I’d recommend using tofu instead.  The most amusing part of this I suppose is the fact that tempeh is Indonesian,  jerk seasoning is Jamaican and the wehani rice with fennel seeds is vaguely Indian inspired.

The Low-Calorie Bún Experiment

Posted on by
Low-cal, Low-carb bún results

Low-cal, Low-carb bún results

 

Bún is a Vietnamese dish that makes use of rice vermicelli and, as far as I can tell, the kitchen sink– veggies, herbs, meat, egg, fish sauce, you name it.  It can come in soup, but the form I’m most familiar with is just the noodles in a bowl, topped with said kitchen sink.  It sounds really healthy, right?  Rice noodles and mostly veggies? Well, just 1 cup of rice noodles alone will set you back about 500 calories.  Top that off with meat roasted in sweet sauce, eggs, and daikon and carrots that were marinated in sugar and vinegar, and as you can imagine, those calories inevitably add up.

I happened to have some konnyaku noodles lying around.  Famous in Japan and China as “diet noodles”, they have very few calories and are full of fiber– filling you up without expanding your waistline.  You can usually find them at Asian groceries (particularly ones that target Chinese/Japanese folks), but I think I saw some tofu shirataki noodles (similar, but with tofu added and marginally more calories) at Safeway the other day.

These things sound amazing.  The problem is that when you first take them out of the package, they smell kinda funky.  To counter this, rinse them a lot and boil them.  Problem #2 is that the texture is pretty darn rubbery (sort of like eating soft rubber bands), so using them as a substitute for regular pasta isn’t really going to make you  very happy.

*Unless*…I thought to myself…you substitute them for rice vermicelli.  Rice vermicelli has a little bit of a rubbery texture– not quite as bad as konnyaku noodles, but some nonetheless.  What contains rice vermicelli? Bún bowl!

The results were pretty awesome.  I’d skip the salted duck egg, myself, because this brand shown in the picture isn’t that great.  I’d use a regular chicken egg and subtract about 30 calories.  Overall, with the duck egg, the dish came in just under 400 calories and has a lot of vitamin A, fiber, and decent amounts of other vitamins.  And it’s a *lot* of food.  The key to successful bún is to have the marinated shredded carrots and daikon, usually done with rice vinegar, water, sugar, and salt and let to sit at least overnight.  I substituted Splenda and didn’t notice much of a difference.  I roughly followed the recipe at Battle of the Bahn Mi, found here.

Low Calorie, Low Carb Bún

Makes 1 *large* low calorie serving

  • 140 g of konnyaku noodles (7 bunches, seems to be about 3/4 of a cup)
  • Marinated daikon/carrot mixture (see recipe link above)
  • 1 chicken sausage (I used Trader Joe’s Chicken Mango), cut into coins
  • 2 green onions, chopped finely
  • 1 serrano pepper, chopped into thin rings (substitute jalapeño for less spicy, or omit it entirely if you’re a wimp :P )
  • 1/3 cup fresh cilantro/coriander leaves
  • 1 hard boiled egg, chopped up
  • 1/4 lime worth of lime wedges
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce (nước mắm)

Rinse, then boil the konnyaku noodles for 5-10 minutes.  Simultaneously, brown the sausage. When the konnyaku is done (which can basically be whenever, it doesn’t need much cooking but can take as much as you throw at it), drain it and rinse it with cold water.  Let it dry.

When dry, put into a bowl and top with veggies, marinated carrot/daikon, cilantro, sausage, and chopped up egg.  Squeeze lime wedges over the top and pour a tablespoon or two of fish sauce.  Admire the pretty food, then eat it.

I couldn’t finish the whole bowl…

Chinese Leeks and Celery Root

Posted on by

Yesterday on the way home I stopped by my favorite local grocery store to pick up food for the week.  I grabbed a random assortment of vegetables that happened to look good that day: broccoli rabe, chinese celery, yard long beans, mizuna, chinese leeks, celery root, pioppini mushrooms, and of course onions and garlic.  For some reason, I was seeing green, I guess.

I’ve been a fan of celery root for about a year now.  I’m not a huge fan of celery, but for some reason the nutty, crunchy, somewhat herbacious flavor of celery root appeals to me– which is a good thing, because it’s pretty low calorie and has vitamins in it.  Baked, it retains its juiciness and crunch yet is a bit softer and sweeter, with a more mellow flavor.

Celery root sausage bake with hardboiled egg and blueberries in the bento for tomorrow's lunch!

Tonight I was inspired by the word “baked” on a random website, and thought that the celery root would be delicious baked with some spicy chicken andouille sausage (from Trader Joe’s).  Throw in some chinese leeks for color and flavor, garlic, and a potato with some olive oil and voila. Comfort food that isn’t terrible for you.  You can do this with most vegetables (and throw in whatever meat, just brown it first) and they usually come out sweet and tasty.  It’s a great way to get rid of whatever vegetables you happen to have lying around.  (For more caramelization, I think you can cook them on a slightly lower temperature for a longer period of time with more oil, but they come out great in 45 minutes this way.)

Celery Root Sausage Bake

(Makes 3 servings, ~420 calories per serving according to my rough caloriecount.com calculations)

Ingredients

Garlic, salt & pepper not pictured.

  • 2 Trader Joe’s (or equivalent) Smoked Andouille Chicken Sausages
  • 4 tbsp olive oil
  • 1 celery root, peeled well, rinsed, then diced in large cubes (~3 cups)
  • 5 stalks chinese chives (green onions or regular chives might work as substitutes, but use more.)
  • 1 yukon gold potato, diced in large cubes
  • 2 cloves garlic, minced
  • Salt & pepper to taste

Preheat oven to 375 F.  Get out a pan you can take from stovetop to oven (I used a le cruset braiser, you could use that or a cast iron pan.  You could use another type of pan if you brown the sausage on the stovetop in a pan, then scrape every last tiny bit into a baking pan.).

Prep veggies according to directions in ingredients.  Chop sausages into 1/2″ rounds.  Add olive oil to pan, heat up and then add sausages.  Stir sausages occasionally.

When they’re browned all over, turn off heat and add all the other ingredients.  Salt and pepper to taste.  Stir well.

Put in the oven and bake for at least 45 minutes, or until a fork goes easily through the potato.  Voila!  Very simple.  You can start this before your favorite TV show and when it’s done, your food should be too!

The veggies should have become slightly golden brown too.