Quinoa Griddle Cakes with Lobster Tails

Tried a new recipe out today for quinoa, a healthy, power grain.  The recipe was reccomended to me by a co-worker (manager, actually) and so I wanted to try it out. I made it lacto-ovo vegetarian friendly, and used egg whites instead of the entire egg. I also added black beans to the mixture instead of making a separate salsa.
And I love it! Oh, and I cooked the patties in grape seed oil, instead of vegetable or olive.
I served the cakes with some diced tomatoes and lobster tails broiled in butter for the fam. Definitely going to make these cakes again!
Recipe for the cakes can be found here.
Happy eating!

Steamed Tilapia with Black Bean Sauce

I absolutely love cooking with fish and seafood because it is very fast and easy to prepare. As bonus, this Tilapia came gutted and scaled so preparation was even easier (I made sure to rinse it in cold water and removed the coagulated  blood along bones inside the fish to remove the fishy stench, as well as the fins and part of the tail). The sauce was very easy to do, just a  few tablespoons of sweet fermented black beans, soy sauce, brown sugar, and sesame oil-all to your taste really. Before pouring the sauce on the fish, I stabbed the poor thing a couple times on each side with a small pointed knife then sparingly rubbed the fish with salt and pepper, outside and inside. I added sliced green onions and ginger into it's gill cover and it's stomach to further remove the strong fishy odor, and the remaining I placed on top. Spoon the sauce over and inside the Tilapia, shake on some ground pepper and steam over high heat for 20-22 minutes. And Voila, serve with hot rice and you are set!!

Stuffed Squid

Something new! Stuffed squid is one of the luxury dishes in Vietnamese cuisine and the basic stuffing mixture is made of pork ground, clear vermicelli and wood ear mushrooms, green onions and seasonings. My version of the stuffing included lean pork ground, cooked quinoa, green onions and seasonings. I stuffed all that goodness into two large tubular squids, which I have gutted and cleaned earlier. the traditional method would have been to use baby squid, but that is just too time consuming for me.
Before deep-frying the stuffed squids, I closed the squid opening with small bamboo skewers and emerged the squids into boiling water for around 2 minutes to blanch and precook the squid in order to lock in moisture and flavor. I had a wok filled with canola oil and I fried those two suckers until golden brown and when the center of the tube was firm but bouncy (indicating that the filling is also cooked).
I served the squid with a creamy coconut curry sauce with steamed rice and sauteed white asparagus. Family loved it, so this is a definite repeat dish!

 

Cranberry and Yogurt Chip Oatmeal Cookies

 

Tried something new today. Dried cranberries, pure yogurt chips, and quick oats. Yummeh!!

Salmon on Gold

Basically just baked salmon steaks served with warm bacon and potato salad, pan fried golden beets and creamy Philly caper sauce. It was a simple preparation for a Friday family dinner.

Italian Wedding Soup

Also known as marriage soup, this soup is named after the harmony of flavors in the soup; the meatball's compatibly with the greens, bonded together by the sharpness of Parmesan and herbs like parsley, garlic and onions. It is also symbolic at weddings and you can guess why hehe.
My version here is made from turkey stock and turkey/pork meatballs. I used curly endives as my greens, and followed a recipe that added egg to the soup. The result was very aromatic, and my family loves it! ^-^

Naan

I made this a week ago and completely had no time to post it. This is my first time trying to make Naan at home and the simple instructions by Auntie Manjula is very straight forward, however, I need to figure out how to roll the dough evenly lol. Naan is a very popular Indian flatbread, eaten with curries, as wraps, with dips or on its own. This recipe gave me an excuse to try out my new baking stone, which I really, really love!
I brushed my Naan bread with melted butter and served with Mattar Paneer.