Mango & Tomato

12/8/09

Street Food in Puerto Rico

I've been back home for almost two weeks, but here's another post from Puerto Rico.

You know what I love when I travel? Street food! It tends to be more authentic, fresh, inexpensive and fun than a typical restaurant. While driving on one Saturday in Puerto Rico, we stopped by a street vendor to pick a few snacks:

Here are a few pictures of beef (above) and seafood (below to the left) that eventually gets stuffed into plantains and fried. The flat looking pancake "thing" on the right is made with fish. Delicious.

And this was just fun: the last day in Puerto Rico, we were driving and noticed a restaurant called "Donde Olga"--of course we had to stop there: that's my name!

Again: great fried food. I had seafood stuffed and fried in a plantain, chicken kabob and the best steamed and marinated shrimp I've had in quite a while.

12/6/09

Sauteed Beet Greens with Feta

I love beets. Beet salad, beet soup, but what about beet greens? Yes, you can (and should) use beet greens in your cooking.

Last week I roasted a few beets to make beet/garbanzo beans/boiled eggs and feta salad, and made the following dish from the beet greens.

The key to cooking with beet greens is to make sure you wash them really well because they tend to be full of sand and dirt: something you definitely not want in your dish.

Sauteed Beet Greens with Feta

Ingredients
olive oil
3 garlic cloves, sliced
beet greens from 3 beets, washed, cut into 1 inch pieces
a few pinches red pepper flakes, more or less depending on your heat tolerance
salt & pepper to taste
feta cheese

Directions
1. Heat olive oil. Add garlic slices and saute for a few minutes.
2. Add stalk parts of beet greens, red pepper flakes, salt and pepper and saute for about 5 minutes.
3. Add leaves from the beet greens and saute till tender.

4. Serve hot with feta on top.

These pictures were taken with the kitchen lights on, so I apologize.

I really do hope you'll try cooking with beet greens! You can do so many things with them:

* add them to soups
* saute them with garlic, raisins and pine nuts
* add them to pasta dishes
* juice them!

12/4/09

Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese & Spinach Pasta

Have I mentioned that I constantly think about food? It's sad, but true.

Last Sunday I bought ingredients to test my recipe for a potato cook-off (more on that later), and had some cream cheese and smoked salmon left over. I decided to use those two ingredients to make a super fast, colorful and delicious dinner a few nights ago.

This is not an exact recipe--it's simply a template/idea list for you to experiment with. You shall be the judge of how much of each ingredient to use.

Smoked Salmon, Cream Cheese & Spinach Pasta

Ingredients

spaghetti (I was out of spaghetti, so used Chinese noodles)--cooked, drained, a bit of liquid retained
cream cheese, at room temperature
spinach
smoked salmon, chopped
capers
dill, chopped
freshly ground black pepper

Directions

1. In a large bowl mix cream cheese, spinach, hot drained pasta and a bit of pasta water.

2. Add smoked salmon, capers and dill. Mix. Season with freshly ground pepper.

3. You can either serve this dish right away, reheat it, or even eat it cold the next day.

Variations: add fresh tomatoes, sauteed red peppers, and/or black olives!

12/3/09

Ceviche in Puerto Rico

Morning! This is the first of two write ups on the Puerto Rican food I had while visiting my friend Laura and her family for Thanksgiving in Puerto Rico.

On Saturday we all got in the car and drove around, seeing the beautiful beaches, pretty people, green palms, etc. Then it was time to eat! We spotted this Ceviche Hut, and decided to check it out.

I absolutely love seafood and have a soft spot for ceviche. I honestly don't remember the first time I tried it, but I really enjoy the taste of seafood "cooked" in citrus juice and vinegar, and was excited to see what this place had to offer.

For my entree I chose a combination of seafood: shrimp, squid, mini scallops and white fish. It was served over a bed of lettuce with (unfortunately canned variety) corn, a few slices of sweet potato and a ton of red onions.

I put the red onions aside and tried the seafood: fresh, slightly sweet, and with a wonderful marinated flavor: I was a happy girl!

Carlos, Laura's husband, and Jenny also ordered ceviche. Laura chose one of the rice dishes and the boys had chicken fingers and fries. We also ordered tostones (fried, smashed, then fried again plantains) and sweet fried plantains (my favorites!).

Everything was delicious. And take a look at the tiny kitchen producing all this food! We were able to see pans being put on fire while the chef made the restaurant's other specialty: paella.

This was not a fancy restaurant, but the service was friendly and the food was right on point! I'd take a serving of those fried plantains any time!

12/1/09

Sausage, Chickpea & Carrot Stew

Hi, everyone!

Can you believe it's already December? Where did the fall go? As many of you are probably getting extra busy with the holidays around the corner, I thought I'd share this ridiculously easy and versatile "recipe" with you.

How did this recipe come about? A few weeks ago I wasn't in the best of moods, and did not feel like cooking. After contemplating going across the street and buying a Subway sandwich, I decided to be good and just cook with the ingredients I had in my refrigerator.

Sausage, Chickpea & Carrot Stew

Ingredients
1 pound Italian sausage, taken out of its casing
4 carrots, peeled and shredded
1 can chickpeas, rinsed
2 cans cubed tomatoes
salt & pepper to taste
dill for garnish

Directions
1. Heat a non-stick pan. Add sausage and brown.
2. Add carrots and cook for about 5 minutes.
3. Add chickpeas and tomatoes (with their juices) and cook till everything is hot. Season with salt and pepper.
4. Serve garnished with chopped dill.

And now for variations: you can serve this dish on its own, or on top of rice. I think it would even be good on top of a baked potato. You can also add other vegetables: green peppers, zucchini, etc.

This is great for leftovers. This dish gets much of its flavor from the Italian sausage, which means you don't have to add a ton of spices: saves you time and money!

Stay tuned for a few posts about the food I had during my week-long stay in Puerto Rico.

11/29/09

Roasted Carrot Soup

Here's another recipe I developed for Robyn's blog. Enjoy! I promise to post some new things in coming weeks :)

With this cold weather, it's a wonderful time to make soups. One of the least expensive vegetables around are carrots. Although inexpensive, carrots will win you over with their gorgeous orange color, natural sweetness and abundance of vitamin A, dietary fiber, antioxidants and minerals. Below is a recipe for Roasted Carrot Soup, which doesn't take much time to make, but will warm you on a cooler fall day. I bet even your kids will like it!

First, a note on roasting. Roasting is a wonderful technique of cooking at high temperatures. You can roast vegetables, poultry and even fruit. Roasting brings out the natural sweetness in your food and frees you to do other kitchen tasks while the food sits in the 450 degree oven. One of the keys in roasting is to make sure not to pile your food on top of each other. Roast your vegetables in one layer, and make sure that all pieces are of the same size: that way, it will all cook evenly.

Ingredients (makes about 5 cups)

7 large carrots, peeled, cut into 2" pieces

olive oil

salt & pepper to taste

1/4 teaspoon cayenne (less or more depending on your tolerance for heat)

2 1/2 cups chicken stock

1 cup milk

garnish: fresh thyme, cream (optional)

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 450.

2. In a bowl drizzle carrots with olive oil and season with salt & pepper, and cayenne. Mix well.

3. Transfer the carrots onto a parchment-lined cookie sheet and roast in the oven for about 30 minutes, until the carrots are tender. They will turn a nice golden-brown color.

4. Let the carrots cool a bit, then add them to a blender and puree with chicken stock and milk. [Note, to make this soup vegetarian, use vegetable stock or water instead of chicken stock.]

5. Pour the soup into a stockpot and reheat. To serve, garnish with fresh thyme and a bit of cream.

Variations: you can use this recipe with sweet potatoes, winter squash, red peppers, or combination of the above. Try drizzling a bit of olive oil or good balsamic vinegar instead of the cream if you are watching your calories.

11/27/09

Daring Bakers: Cannoli

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

Somehow September, October and November are flying by before my eyes. How is it that the Fall is almost over and the Winter is almost here? Maybe it's all the Christmas decorations in the Mall that are messing up with my perception of time?

The point is, I've been feeling a bit overwhelmed with everything going on (cooking, blogging, trying to keep my apartment clean, dancing, freelancing for Robyn, etc) and was considering skipping this month's challenge.

Then I found out that my friend Jenny was going to be in DC. When I told Jenny about the cannoli challenge, she said it sounded like fun and "pressured" me to make them! So I did.

If you want a recipe, let me know.

The dough came together really easy, and I used my pasta machine to roll it out. I also decided to buy the cannoli molds (metal tubes), instead of making my own.

The hardest part of the challenge was removing fried cannoli from the forms. A few of them broke in the process.

For the filling, instead of using ricotta, I made home-made whipped cream and spiked it with a bit of rum, orange zest and confectionery sugar. The final result was tasty without being overwhelmingly sweet.

I made only 1/2 of the cannoli recipe and ended up frying 5 cannoli. The rest of the dough is sitting in my refrigerator and will most likely go unused. This wasn't a terribly complicated challenge, but it's also not something I'm planning on making again.

My original thought of adding some chocolate sauce to the shells and covering them with chopped almonds stayed just that: a thought.

Question: other than making more cannoli, is there anything else I can do with the metal cannoli tubes?

11/25/09

Warm Bulgur & Lentil Salad

While I'm on vacation, I thought I'd share with you a few recipes I have developed for Robyn's Blog. Here's one of them: Bulgur & Lentil Warm Salad.

Bulgur, for those that don’t know, is a form of wheat that has been parboiled and broken into smaller particles. Bulgur is popular in Turkish, Middle Eastern and Indian cuisines, and is rich in fiber, vitamins, and minerals. You cook bulgur in the same way as cous cous: put dry bulgur in a bowl, top with boiling water, cover, let stand for 5-10 minutes and fluff with a fork. In case there is extra water, drain bulgur in a fine mesh before fluffing it with a fork.

Ingredients for 2-4 servings
1 cup cooked bulgur
1 cup cooked lentils
1 carrot, finely diced and sauteed in oil
3 tablespoons finely chopped cilantro
olive oil
smoked sea salt
pepper

1. Combine everything in a salad bowl. Drizzle with olive oil and season with smoked sea salt and pepper.
2. This salad is best served warm. It can be a meal in itself or accompany grilled meat, roasted chicken or steamed fish.

Variations: you can always add red onions, roasted peppers and a few splashes of lemon juice to this salad. Use this recipe as a template and experiment with different flavors.

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends tomorrow!

11/24/09

Capital Food Fight

This is just a quick write up on DC Capital Food Fight I volunteered at a few weeks ago.

Why volunteer? That way you don't have to pay for the ticket and can still enjoy most of the event. My original "job" was to do security, but I nicely asked to be reassigned to do registration instead.

Basically, with the help of other volunteers I checked off the guests for the event and put those bands on their wrists that you get when you go clubbing.

The highlights were seeing all the outfits and having a quick chat with Mike Isabella's wife.

Wait, I should tell you a bit about the event itself (from the website):

The Capital Food Fight brings the food industry’s best talent together to support DC Central Kitchen’s unique brand of community empowerment. Dozens of hot restaurants serve signature dishes to guests while top chefs battle on-stage. Food critics and national celebrities are on hand to mingle with the crowd and add to the excitement.

This year's event featured guest celebrities and top chefs such as: José Andrés, Anthony Bourdain, Ted Allen, Eric Ripert, Carla Hall, Michael Mina, Barton Seaver, and Bobby Varua.

The event was held at the Reagan Building: here's a photo of before the activities started:

While doing registration, we were offered a delicious soup and kielbasa skewer courtesy of Jackson 20 and I also had a delicious watermelon/cucumber drink: that really helped to deal with some of the less pleasant and patient guests.

Here are a few photos of the scene once the party started!

Luckily, I was able to leave the registration desk long enough to sample some of the amazing food served by DC top restaurants. Miranda (who I originally met on Twitter and who happened to be volunteering at the same event) joined me.

Scallop ceviche by one of the Jose Andres restaurants; amazing lamb (don't remember the name of the restaurant)

layered desserts

The judges (LOVE Eric Ripert: actually when I first saw him at the event just walking by the registration desk, I squealed like a little girl!). Other judges included Ted Allen, Carla Hall and Jonathan Umbel.

The pantry provided by Wegmans and the graduating class from DC Central Kitchen:

The final battle was won by Michael Mina: congratulations.

This was a fabulous event! So much great food, such an important cause and one of the best experiences volunteering.

11/23/09

Please Vote

Hi, everyone!
Hope you are having a great Thanksgiving week. I just wanted to let you know that I entered a photo contest at Marx Foods. If you like a picture of my Challah French Toast, please vote here.

Thanks!

The voting will be open for a few days.

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