Steelhead Trout with Mango Salsa

 I haven't cooked dinner in a very long time and today I whipped up a trout dish for the fam. I picked up a steel-head trout fillet at Costco and a box of mangoes along with some corn, bell peppers, and avocados.
In around one hour after getting home, I served up a dish full of delish; trout fillets cut into individual portions, lightly seasoned, grilled and glazed with a my favorite mesquite sauce (a raspberry chipotle mix). Served with a refreshing mango salsa and placed on top of red rice and corn and black bean medallions. Yummeh!

Mango Salsa

1 large tomato, pulped and diced
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1/2 small red onion, chopped
1 tbsp sugar
1 mango, diced
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 medium avocado, chopped (optional)
salt and pepper to taste
Cayenne powder to taste (optional)

Place tomatoes, peppers, red onion and sugar in a medium boil. Mix it up and let it sit for 5 minutes. Add remaining ingredients.

Corn and Black Bean Medallions

2 large russet potatoes, peeled, chunked, boiled and mashed
1/4 cup corn
1/4 cup black beans
1 large red bell pepper, chopped
handful of cilantro, chopped
1 jalapeno pepper, chopped
1/2 small red onion, chopped
Salt and pepper to taste
1/2 cup bread crumbs
1/2 cup shredded cheddar cheese (optional)

Sautee corn, beans, peppers, cilantro and onion until slightly browned. Season with salt and pepper to taste. Pour mixture into mashed potatoes and stir in bread crumbs and cheese. Form into little patties and pan fry until both sides are golden browned.

Mango Salsa without avocados because my brother does not like avocados

Mango Salsa with avocados for the rest of the family

Bread, Bread and More Bread!

I love bread. Hands down, I love baking fresh bread and go through all the waiting and anticipation in the preparations, proofing, kneading, shaping and baking. I love it.
I made Kobacha bread, made of kobacha squash which gave it a golden yellow color.
I made cheesy jalapeno bread, so fluffy and savoury that it's deliciousness should be a sin ahaha!
And...I made a sun-dried tomato foccacia....
And...plain potato bread in rustic loaf form.
Yum, yum, yum!

Yellow Sweet Potato Bead

It's been so long since I made bread...I've been stressed out with school and some financial mish-mash so I needed a stress reliever and kneading dough was it. There's just something so satisfying about it, punching out the air-bubbles and kneading that sucker with all my might...
Check out my other bread page!

Montreal Steak with Dirty Mash and Bleu Cheese Salad

Finally got around to cooking a decent meal for my brother and dad since I got back from Vietnam. I've been gone for two weeks for a family issue and my brother and dad stayed at home...from what I heard, they haven't been eating very good meals, which makes me sad!
So, after school (technically a midterm), I went grocery shopping for some ingredients. My dad lovesss steak, so that was what I planned to make. Everything took me an hour to prepare and cook. Hooraay for rush hour cooking! :)
So, some cuts of top sirloin steak, dry-rubbed with Montreal steak spice and pan-grilled to medium-rare perfection. I allowed the steaks to rest 10-15 minutes before serving, and used the au jus as a sauce for the dish. Served with dirty garlic mashed potatoes (dirty as in I left the peel on the potats) and a side of fresh and crisp romaine lettuce, cucumbers and grape tomatoes tossed in a tangy Bleu Cheese vinagrette with extra crumbled bleu cheese; the salad was served in a very cold bowl to keep it fresh.
Brother and dad enjoyed it very much...I've never seen Tommy eat that much meat before, especially beef; just goes to show how much he missed his sister's cooking hahaha!

 

BBQ Day 3

Day 3 of working the grill and I wanted to try something new. Courtesy of Kraft Mag (again), I wanted to try roasting a bird on a beer can. The whole idea is to have the bird sitting upright on a half-drunken can of beer and cook the bird on medium-low heat for about an hour until tender and juicy. The remaining beer in the can would gently steam the bird from the inside while the outer flames cooked the dry-rubbed skin. Instead of following the exact recipe from Kraft, I dry-rubbed mine with Asian five-spice, salt, pepper and paprika after rubbing the whole bird with fresh lemon. I chose to pair the poultry dish with some new potatoes, peeled and tossed in the good stuff: olive oil, salt, pepper, and some sliced sweet onion. Other sides included corn on the cob, unpeeled because I wanted to retain as much of the juices as I could; yellow sweet potatoes, mushrooms, and cassava. I also fired up the left over burgers from yesterday.
One big setback resulted from my stupidity as I forgot to turn off the heat directly below the bird, so bubbling alcohol and chicken fat engulfed the bird in flames. The skin was burnt to a black abyss but the meat remained really juicy and because I pierced small holes into the bird when I dry-rubbed it, the flavor wasn't lost when the skin burnt. Cooking time divided in half but that bird looked darn ugly and I was so flustered I forgot to take a pic of the bird before it was served. Oh well, I'll definitely learn from this mistake and I'll be less inattentive next time.

The good stuff

-ahem- This does not look wrong.

The newly weds!

Smokin'

Corn on the cob

Mussshhhhrooms!

Burgers.

Potatoes!

The only pic of the cooked chicken that I took.

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.

Bread Fananza!

From bottom, clockwise:
Saffron and Honey Potato Bread, Savory Potato Bread and Banana Bread

I went into a crazy baking spree today. I made three types of bread; Banana Bread, Savory Potato Bread and Saffron and Honey Potato Bread. I love baking bread over all other types of baking. There is nothing more certain and satisfying than being able to pent your anger onto a helpless ball of dough and know that it will pleasure all of your senses when it comes out of the oven-fresh and homemade. I love you Bread.
The recipe for the Banana Bread is from this website. 
The recipe for the Savory Potato Bread is from here (I used Herb Mashed Potatoes).
The recipe for the Saffron with Honey Bread is included below (it's a variation of the Savory Potato Bread).

Banana Loaves

Saffron and Honey Potato Bread  

Saffron and Honey Bread

 

1 cup plain mashed potatoes

Juice of half an orange

1 tbsp honey

1 ½ cup milk

1 pinch of Spanish Saffron

2 tsp orange zest

1 tbsp honey

5 tsp active dry yeast

1 cup warm water

1 tsp sugar

5 cups flour plus extra for dusting

1 egg

4 tbsp milk

Heat milk, saffron, zest and honey in a small saucepan. DO NOT BOIL. Remove from heat and cool down to room temperature.

Place active dry yeast and sugar in a bowl. Add in warm water and whisk to dissolve. Set aside for 10 minutes.

In the mixer bowl, mix orange juice, honey and plain mash potatoes with a dough hook on low speed (or use a wooden spoon).  Add in the cooled milk mixture and activated yeast mixture. Mix on a low-medium speed with the dough hook until all ingredients is incorporated then gradually add in the flour, one cup at a time. Mix until a ball of rough dough forms. Stop mixer and turn dough onto a clean and flour dusted surface. Knead 5 times, shape into a ball and place in an oiled bowl. Let rest for 1 hour until doubled in size.

When doubled in size, turn onto a floured surface and gently knead 3-4 times.

Divide into two balls, and roll each ball out into a rope. Place ropes side by side and twist from center until you real the ends. Tuck ends to the bottom, transfer to a baking sheet, cover and let rest for 1 hour.

Uncover and brush with a mixture of milk and egg.

Bake at 350 degrees Celsius for 35-40 minutes.

Savory Potato Bread Dough

The ready-to-bake loaves

Savory Potato Bread

Savory Potato Bread sliced

FLUFFY!!

Great for a Ham and Cheese Sandwich!

New Years Eve Dinner

Today, I prepared a seafood dinner for my family for New Years Eve. I bought ready-to-cook stuffed salmon from Costco and baked them in the oven. I made Irish Champ (coarsely mashed potatoes with scallions) and Bacon wrapped Scallops. I served all with a little dollop of creamy dill sauce.
As for myself, I bought  butternut squash ravioli from Costco and made a creamy, Bechamel sauce to go with.

Have a Happy New Year!

Stuffed Salmon with Champ, scallops and creamy dill sauce

Butternut squash ravioli with bechamel sauce

Almond Crusted Rack of Pork with Apple-Currant Puree

Almond Crusted Rack of Pork with Apple-Currant Puree

So today, after getting our first heavy snowfall for the winter season, I decided try my hand at cooking pork. I usually never cook pork besides pre-cooked ham or bacon. My mom loves to buy stuff that are at a good price or is interesting but the problem is, half the time she does not know how to cook it. This time, she bought a fresh rack of pork with six sections (almost spelled 'sextions' lol). So, inspired by Gordon Ramsay and his 'Herb Crusted Rack of Lamb' preparation, I applied a similar method to the rack of pork in my fridge. Surfing the web for other inspirations, I came across a few crusting recipes, one of which was almonds. I tweaked the recipe to my own taste and decided to make a tart/sweet sauce to go with the pork. I chose apple as the fruit because from my knowledge, apples pair great with pork (plus it's a little something different for my house hold). Served with sweet potato mash and wine-spiked boiled broccoli.

Rack of Pork
1 rack of pork with six sections
2 tsp salt (or more to taste)
2 tsp pepper (or more to taste)
1 tbsp olive oil

Divide up the rack into three portions, each wielding two sections. Score fatty side (remove skin if any). On a plate, season with salt and pepper and evenly rub it in on all sides. Heat oil in a skillet or pan and brown all sides. Place on a greased baking sheet in oven and bake at 275 degree Celsius for 15-22 minutes.

Crust
1 cup almonds (blanched)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
2 tsp dry thyme

In a food processor or blender, pulse all ingredients together until well combined and almonds is coarsely blitzed (not into a paste but like course crumbs.) Pour on a shallow plate and set aside.

Sweet Potato Mash
3 medium sized sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 large russet potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
2 tsp salt
1 tbsp butter
5 tbsp cream

In a pot, bring water and salt to a boil and add in both potatoes. Boil until potatoes crumble when poked with a fork. Drain into a coriander and let cool. Mash with a whisk of potato masher. Whisk in butter and cream. Set aside.

Apple-Currant Puree
Instead of making my own apple puree, I bought unsweetened applesauce because I was tight for time.
1 1/2 cup unsweetened apple sauce (reserve 1/2 cup)
1/4 cup dried black currants
1/2 cup white wine**
5 tbsp real maple syrup
1 tsp salt

Hydrate currants in white wine for 10 minutes. In a sauce pan or skillet, heat 1 cup apple sauce on medium heat. Increase heat and add in currant and wine combo; simmer until alcohol burns off. Add in maple syrup and salt to taste.

Wine Blanched Broccoli
1 cup water
1 cup white wine**
3 tsp salt
1/2 cup broccoli

Bring water,salt and wine to simmer and add in broccoli. Simmer until broccoli is just tender. Take broccoli out of the hot water and emerge in cold ice water for 1 minute to stop cooking process. Drain and set aside.

Back to to the rack (of pork)
Remove from oven and let cool slightly. Bush portions with apple sauce and then coat with the almond mixture. Place onto a clean baking sheet and broil pork in oven at 300 degree Celsius until crust is browned, turning portions occasionally to evenly brown all sides. turn off heat and let rest for 5 minutes. Divide sections and serve. Makes three servings, two sections for each person.


Enjoy!!!


**I used Naked Grape White Wine