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3/10/09

Seared Tuna with Bok Choy & Edamame

What's for dinner? I ask myself that question quite often, along with What's for breakfast and What's for lunch? Some days I have an easier time deciding than other days, and last Sunday was just such an occurrence.

After walking almost 5 miles in the morning, having pasta for lunch and taking a nap, I wanted something fresh and invigorating for dinner. Alas, that required a trip to the grocery store, but it was so worth it!

I knew I wanted seared tuna (and luckily it was on sale for $5.99/pound). My original idea was to have it along with an avocado & tomato salad, but that plan changed once I saw edamame on sale.

I present to you Seared Tuna with Bok Choy & Edamame. [Two things: 1) What do you think of my newly acquired collage skill?? 2) I took the photos at 8 pm at night: thus the poor quality]


Ingredients (my apologies for not providing the exact amounts this time: I seriously just put a few splashes of this and a few splashes of that: taste as you go!)

soy sauce
rice vinegar
sesame oil
vegetable oil
ginger, microplane'd
garlic, microplane'd
ground black pepper
tuna
sesame seeds
bok choy, quartered
shelled frozen edamame, defrosted


1. Combine the first 7 ingredients. Make sure the sauce tastes salty and gingery. Leave half of the sauce in a bowl, and put another half aside.
2. Marinade tuna in one half of the sauce.
3. Add a bit of vegetable oil to a hot pan, add bok choy and edamame and stir fry for about 5 minutes. Remove from a pan into a bowl and add the remaining sauce. (See, the same sauce is used as a marinade and as a dressing!)
4. Remove the tuna from the marinade and coat it in sesame seeds.
5. Heat a bit of oil in a pan (I used the same one that I used for the vegetables) and sear the tuna for about 3 minutes on each side, depending on how cooked you want it to be and how think your tuna is.
6. Slice tuna on a diagonal and serve on top of bok choy and edamame.


LOVED this meal.

What's your idea of a fresh, invigorating, quick and delicious meal?

3/9/09

Hunger Action: Cooking for the Homeless

Not sure if you remember, but a while ago I blogged about winning an awesome dinner/fundraiser for Share Our Strength.
In my winning essay I wrote about volunteering at the DC Jewish Community Center's Hunger Action program.

Writing that reminded me that it's actually been quite a while since I cooked food that was then donated to the DC Central Kitchen and distributed to those in need.
I felt ashamed. I needed to get active and volunteer once again!!

And so I did with the help of my old (as in how long I've known them) friends Jenn, Jason and Theresa and new friends John and Danni.


With the help of other volunteers we made enough food to feed hundreds of homeless men, women and children. The food looked and tasted amazing: I would definitely serve it to any of my friends.


We made eggplant/edamame/tomato salad and two kinds of bean salads. You should have seen the amount of dressing I had to mix for that quantity of food: definitely something I'm not accustomed to because I typically cook just for myself.


Below: Danni and me getting ready to mix one of the bean salads; Menu for the day (ended up not making rice & beans)
Below: Theresa shelling edamame, while I'm cutting Cherry tomatoes

Below: John is very excited about adding edamame to the salad; Jason is concentrating hard on mixing the bean salad


This was a great way to spend a Thursday night!

Time for Cheesecake

Jason had a wine party on Friday and instead of bringing a bottle of wine, I decided to bring dessert. Usually that means a boxed brownie mix spiked up with some fun ingredients.

This time, however, I decided to make a cheesecake: I based my recipe on the mini cheesecake recipe I tested for Robyn last month.



Ingredients
8 ounce package of cream cheese at room temperature
2/3 cups sugar
1 egg
1/2 teaspoon vanilla
1 bar Hershey chocolate, melted
1 Graham cracker crust

Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 350.
2. Using a hand mixer whip the cream cheese till smooth. Add sugar and beat again.
3. Add egg and vanilla and mix well.
4. Pour the mixture into a Graham Cracker crust.
5. Make lines of melted chocolate and then using a skewer or a knife make lines in opposite directions (this was the funnest part!). Or just make random swirls: it's up to you.
6. Bake the cheese cake for about 30 minutes in the oven.
7. Serve!

One lucky pregnant woman got the leftovers ;)

3/8/09

Unusual Breakfast Salad

I haven't gone grocery shopping in a while: so it was a bit difficult to come up with breakfast ideas yesterday. What I ended up making was a Corn and Pepper Salad with Bacon.



Ingredients & Directions

1. Cut a few strips of bacon into bite size pieces and cook until crispy. Drain on a paper towel.
2. In a bowl combine bacon, corn (I used canned, but feel free to use fresh), cubed red roasted pepper, sliced red onions, cut up olives, fresh thyme, fresh ground pepper and olive oil.
3. Serve with bread.

3/6/09

Ooh Yeai


Woo Hoo!!! SeriousEats chose my Inidan Potato Soup as photo of the day. They know how to make a girl happy :)

3/5/09

Stuffed Chicken

Foodbuzz was having a competition to win tickets to an amazing event in Chicago. You had to use at least one of the following ingredients: cashews, macadamia nuts, chocolate, dried cherries, cranberries, almonds, etc.

Seeing the list of possible ingredients, I decided that most people would make a dessert. I, on the other hand, decided to go with a savory dish in order to stand out and hopefully win!

Special thank you to Anna for logistic help. If I win, I'm definitely taking her as my +1.

What I decided to make was Stuffed Chicken with Cashews. And the stuffing? Dried cherries, red onion, thyme and brie.






Ingredients:
2 teaspoons olive oil
1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
3 sprigs of thyme
1/4 cup dried cherries
2 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
1 teaspoon olive oil
2 chicken breasts (boneless, skinless)
2 slices Brie cheese
salt & pepper
2 teaspoons mustard
1/4 cup cashews, chopped

Directions
1) Preheat the oven to 400
2) Heat 2 teaspoons of oil in a pan, add onions and thyme, cook for 4 minutes, stirring occasionally
3) Add dried cherries and balsamic vinegar and cook for 2 minutes
4) Remove thyme sprigs and let the mixture cool
5) Make slits in each chicken breast
6) Stuff each chicken breast with a slice of brie and half of the cherry/onion mixture
7) Use toothpicks to close the openings in the chicken breasts
8) Heat 1 teaspoon of olive oil in a stainless steel pan. Sear chicken breasts 3 minutes on each side seasoning with salt and pepper
9) Smear mustard on top of each chicken breast, top with cashews and put in the oven for 15 minutes
10) Once out of the oven, make sure the juices run clear



11) Let the chicken stand for 5 minutes, remove the toothpicks (I had to use my jewelry pliers!!) and slice diagonally
12) Make sure not to touch the handle of the hot pan with your fingers: it hurts! A lot!
13) Enjoy.

Valentine Dinner Update

This post is slightly overdue. But I thought I'd finally update you on what happened after I gave Chris (my coworker) a written tutorial for a Valentine's Day dinner with his girlfriend, Melissa.

Actually, Chris was the one who reminded me that I still haven't posted anything about this :)

I love food. I enjoy cooking for people, and I also like when people cook for me (it's especially nice when guys do!). Some people don't feel as passionate about food. Chris, for example, was planning once to make Melissa a dinner with pre-marinated chicken, mashed potatoes from a box and canned green beans. I decided to come to Melissa's rescue with an easy to make, but delicious Valentine's day menu: chicken with garlic, capers and lemon juice, mashed potatoes from scratch, and roasted asparagus.

Pictures below are courtesy of Chris.

getting ready to cook

cubing peeled potatoes

searing chicken breasts

making the sauce

asparagus is ready to be roasted

the finished plate

look at the pretty setting!!!

And now comments from Chris: If I learned anything, it was that I probably can cook given a recipe. I'm probably not as bad as I think I am at cooking. It was a lot of fun, but it was hard trying to figure out how long things would take so I could time everything to get done about the same time. As it turned out, the potatoes were finished long before everything else was ready (but keeping them on the hot stove with the lid on kept them warm). I actually had some of the left overs last night and the potatoes were just as good. Melissa also really enjoyed the dinner and it was a perfect evening.

3/4/09

Radha's Indian Potato Soup

This post is a bit overdue, but better later than never, right?

Remember my friend Radha, who is from India? I was chatting with her a few weeks ago as she was asking me for ideas for dinner. I recommended my tilapia sandwich, and she loved it (and actually made it twice). In return, she gave me a recipe for her mom's Indian Potato Soup.

Ingredients
1-2 large potatoes, peeled and cubed (not too small)
1/2 red onion, thinly sliced
1-2 green chili peppers, slit down the middle (somehow I came home and the green chili I bought wasn't in my bag! So I used a red one I already had at home)
1 inch ginger, peeled and made into a paste (I just microplane-d mine)
coconut milk to taste
1 cup frozen peas (optional)

Directions
1. Put potatoes in a pot and cover with water. Season with salt and cook until potatoes are half-way tender.
2. Add ginger, onions and chili pepper(s). If you are using frozen peas, add those after another 5 minutes.
3. Once the potatoes are completely cooked through (some might even fall apart), add coconut milk one tablespoon at a time until you reach the creaminess you like. Make sure to check for saltiness: the salt really brings out the flavors!




Radha recommends eating this soup with white bread or dosas (Indian bread), but I ate it as is because had finished my French baguette a day before :)

This was a very simple recipe to make, yet very comforting. This was definitely quite spicy, so I see how the bread would have helped.

What's your favorite potato based soup?

3/3/09

I Need Your Help

In the last few years I have volunteered for various breast cancer walks and have finally decided to actually walk in one!

What finally made me sign up was reading a story about a woman who was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 32 and is now a 22 year breast cancer survivor. The story almost made me cry.

Hopefully with your help I can raise $1,800 that will go to research to prevent any more such stories!

I have two months to raise the money and to train for the two day Avon Walk for Breast Cancer in DC (May 2-3). If you would like to donate, you can do so directly on my Avon page.

Big THANK YOU to those who have already donated:

Lina, Era's sister, Nathan, Jenny, Sydney, Leslie, Pam, Stacey's mom, Susan, Amber, Annie, Alyssa, Chris, Fiona, Aaron, Wendy St., Paz

3/2/09

Herb-y Stuffed Peppers

This meal was inspired by two awesome male bloggers: Peter M and Stephane.

Last week I was looking at Peter M's blog and saw an awesome recipe for stuffed peppers. I decided I should use ground beef I won from Stephane to make stuffed peppers this weekend.

I've made a few recipes for stuffed peppers in the past (last year I made a basic version of stuffed peppers and in the spring I made Quinoa Stuffed Peppers., followed by lazy stuffed peppers), and in fact I get a bunch of hits from people who Google stuffed peppers.

What's different about this recipe, is that instead of cooking rice and ground beef before stuffing the peppers, the beef and rice is used raw (well, almost). In fact, that's how my parents make stuffed peppers all the time: so also special Thank you to my mom, for telling me what to do with the rice.

And now, I present you Herb-y Stuffed Peppers


Ingredients

1 tablespoon olive oil
1/2 large onion, chopped
1 carrot, peeled, sliced
4 springs thyme
salt & pepper
10 ounce can tomato puree
1/2 cup long grained white rice
2 cups ground beef
10 basil leaves, chopped
1 small bunch cilantro, chopped
2 celery stalks, finely diced
3 large peppers (I used 2 red and 1 green: seriously, the red ones were on sale for $2.50/each: you call that sale???)
sour cream



Directions
1. Preheat the oven to 375
2. Heat oil in a skillet, add onions, carrots and thyme. Season with salt and pepper and saute for about 10 minutes.
3. Add tomato puree to the vegetables and simmer for about 5 minutes.



4. Meanwhile, cook rice for about 5 minutes, drain and rinse in cold water.
5. Combine rice, ground beef, herbs and celery. Season with salt and pepper, and add a few tablespoons of water (this was my mom's suggestion to keep the mixture moist).
6. Pour the vegetable/tomato sauce into a baking dish.



7. Remove the tops off the peppers, take out the seeds and the membranes. Stuff the peppers with the rice/beef mixture and set into the baking dish. Cover with the pepper tops.

8. Bake lightly covered in aluminum foil for 1 hour. Remove the foil and bake additional 30 minutes.

Serve the peppers with fresh basil and a dollop of sour cream.

Thoughts: My apartment smelled amazing after I made these peppers. I don't think I'll ever go back to my old way of precooking rice and ground beef. I liked that the sauce was sweet from the carrots. This was a great meal: can't wait to have leftovers for lunch.

P.S. do you like my new green napkin?