Tri-Tip in Fajitas

It worked, to my great surprise. Tri-tip (1.5lb), serioulsy seared on both sides for about 3 mins each. 2yellow peppers and huge white onion for 10mins (the initial oil was peanut, switched to oilve for veggies). 1 cup of home made beef stock reduced to nothing, 3canned chipotle in adobo, seeded and chopped added. Meat [...]

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Shrimps in Pumpkin Seed Sauce

Kennedy’s blue book. Used creme fraiche. In my previous version in roasted shells and heads for the stock – bad idea in this case, the sauce should be delicate.
Served with jicama/carrots/tomato/arugula salad with marjoram pesto. Not sure what went wrong but marjoram flavor was non existent, though it’s a pretty strong herb.

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Brown Rice Paella With King Oyster Mushroom Duxelles

I was thinking about using a brown rice in paella for a long time. Couple of days ago i took a plunge.
Mushrooms are always a great companion to brown rice and i had some nice king oyster ones. And chorizo (in reality it was some sort of portuguese lomo instead of chorizo in a fridge).
King [...]

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Trout Baked in Foil with Mushrooms

Didn’t know what i want for dinner so after looking at all the fish available i ended up with a piece of fluke. But then while leaving the counter i spotted a trout and changed my mind again – and left the store with deboned trout, oyster mushrooms and scallions.
The plan was to bake the [...]

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Miso-rathon Goes on!

Man was i missing all these miso possibilities…
Well now it’s time to catch up!
Tonight is a quick miso dinner of mussels, with the rest of ingredients right from the japanese pantry: sake, ginger, scallions, garlic and watercress. Ok, there were olive oil and butter involved too. Oh and some grilled triple olive ciabatta. A modern [...]

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Sardinian Turkish Fregola with Squid and Mussels

Fish department at Wegmans does really a great job. Their fresh mussels and squid (not the frozen one – avoid this) are excellent. I used it for some crazy fusion of two recipes – turkish for pilaf and sardinian for fregola paella. Strangely (or maybe not) both recipes have a lot in common so it [...]

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Aromatic Braise of Spinach, Lima Beans and Merquez

From an excellent Boulud’s book Braise comes this dish. He calls for white beans but i used gigantic lima beans from Rancho Gordo instead.

Pretty much followed the recipe, just cut it in half. Enormous amount of spinach (2lbs). And it’s a great idea to braise (cook) beans along with vegetables: i always prefer oven treatment [...]

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Oven Blasted Okra

Excellent stuff – and very simple. A bit of good peanut oil, some spices (used green chile powder). About 10-15 mins in 500F oven. Shake couple of times.

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Squid Artichoke Soup

This soup from Marcella Hazan sounded very nice and simple – a lot of olive oil, garlic, parsley and white wine. I love squid from Wegmans, and they had good baby artichokes.
Marcella suggested to cut tubes into thin rings – 1/4″ which sounded not a typical 1/2″ treatment but i trusted her and was curious. [...]

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Fagioli al Fiasco – Best Way with Beans

I cook a lot of dired beans, and always look for best cooking method so they stay intact and evenly done.
One of the best and easiest way that also produces a very flavorful pot liquor is the old italian techique called fagioli al fiasco. Reinterpreted to the modern kitchen this method boils down to the [...]

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