Clams with Sake

I had a housewarming several years ago and I had an Asian theme so everyone, and I mean everyone, brought me a bottle of sake. I am not actually a huge sake drinker (I prefer soju) so it's taken me a while to use these bottles up. I cook with wine often so I decided to cook with sake and I absolutely love it. I chose to steam clams with sake and the end result has a great flavor- it's even a bit sweet. The first time since I didn't know quite what I was doing a used frozen clams. Here are the ingredients:

-package of frozen clams

-sake (enough to fill bottom of pan and cover at least half of the clams)

-onions

-chopped scallions and togarashi spice for seasoning/topping 

I sautéed some chopped onions in butter until they were clear, added the frozen clams and sake and covered. I left them covered for about 15 minutes and my clams were defrosted and steamed. I usually like to mix the clams with the sauce one more and let simmer for another few minutes. There should still be plenty of "sauce" in the bottom of the pan.

This is a picture of what was left in the pan after taking a couple of bowls of clams out. The clams taste good enough to eat just like this but I like the clams with a little spicy to balance out the sweet so I too with sliced scallions and togarashi. And the finished product:

I'm sure this method would taste great with any kind of seafood. 

Brown Sugar Salmon & Pero's new Salad Cut Ups

The company/farm I work for recently came out with a new line - salad cut ups. They have all the mix-ins for salad - you just need to add the lettuce and salad dressing...and if you are like me and hate lettuce, these are perfect for you!

The first salad cut up I tried: Garden - I had chunks of cucumbers, whole grape tomatoes, julienned carrots, diced green peppers and chopped red onions. The first thing I noticed that I really liked was that all of the veggies are individually packaged - I think this is a great idea so everyone can take/use what they want. You also dont need to use the full amount all at once. The second thing I noticed was how fresh and crispy all of the vegetables were. They really all had great taste. I didn't even need to add any salad dressing because they were so flavorful. For me the best thing about this is that I know these veggies are super clean as they go through a series of vitamin baths at our facility and the area they are cut and packaged in is kept free of contaminates. I love this because I know I can just open the package and toss the veggies together - I dont have to worry about cleaning the product.

Like I said, these tasted so good I didn't need to add a salad dressing but I needed a main course. I wanted something a bit lighter with my salad so I decided on salmon.

Brown Sugar Salmon:

Ingredients:

-Salmon fillets

-1/4 cup of brown sugar

-panko bread crumbs to cover

-1/2 cup orange juice

Directions:

-place salmon fillets in a deep pan and make puncture holes several times with a fork

-pour orange juice over salmon filets

-sprinkle with brown sugar and rub into fish

-top with panko bread crumbs

Place in a preheated oven at 400 degrees and bake until salmon flakes with a fork.

Baked Halibut, spinach and paneer, and stuffed poblano peppers

So anyone who knows me knows I am not in shape at all. Most of my exercise of late has been walking my dogs...so I'm pretty excited to say that I started P90X - an extreme fitness system. Today is my 3rd day. I'm pretty excited about the workouts- I'm also pretty sore right now! I'm not loving the plyometrics at all and I'm really hating the ab ripper...so much pain! But I also need to diet a bit...eat a little heathier. Typically my favorite foods are anything fried or in a cream sauce. I am going by some of the food recommended in the diet plan but also innovating a bit. I really loved the meal I cooked tonight - I think I could eat it everyday! I had a poblano pepper sitting around and also some black beans that needed to be used up so I made a stuffed poblano pepper. The other thing to know about the diet is that it is high protien so the black beans work. I also bought a ton of spinach so that was an easy side...paneer is an Indian cheese that is basicallya block of cottage cheese. Its pretty yummy and stays pretty solid so it can even be subsituted for meat in lots of dishes. I tried eating regular cottage cheese this morning and I couldn't do it - nothing should be runny and chunky at the same time! So I thought paneer would be a great way to get some cottage cheese in me! The last in 6 0unces of Halibut that the program also recommends for dinner.

Halibut:
6 0unce of Halibut filet
lemon juice - sprinkle
garlic salt - sprinkle
dried basil - spinkle
All I did for the Halibut was take it out of the freezer and sprinkle with lemon juice, a little garlic salt and a decent amount of dried basil. I then put it in the oven and baked it at 450 degrees for about 10 minutes. I never had halibut before today, so I added a little sauce. I was expecting it to be fishy. Wow was I wrong, no sauce needed, just amazing taste and all it really needed was the ingredients above. I think if I could eat halibut every day for dinner I would be happy!
Stuffed Poblano Pepper:
one poblano pepper top cut off and de-seeded
a quarter of an ounce of 75% reduced fat cheddar cheese
black beans and a dash of garlic
I just stuffed the cheese and beans in the pepper and put in the oven with the fish at 450 - these were ready to come out when the skin on the pepper started to shrivel - they were ready a few minutes before the fish.
Spinach and Paneer:
a couple of handfuls of fresh spinach
a couple of dashes of dry white wine
a clove of garlic
a quarter of a block of paneer cut into cubes
So I would typically fry the paneer in oil to cook it - this is where the wine came in. I heated a frying pan on medium high heat and and added a dash of white wine and the minced clove of garlic. I let the wine boil down and added the paneer and heated until browned. When the paneer started to brown I lowered the heat and added the fresh spinach. I then added another splash of wine and cooked the wine down. The paneer was much sweeter than usual due to the wine.
This meal is going to be a repeat for sure over the next 90 days of this diet!

Some yummy things to do with avacado

The secret to making a good meal with avacados is using the right kind of avacado...always use Hass avacados when available. Hass avacados should be black on the outside when ripe and just a little soft. If you are using the avacado right away it doesn't need to be refrigerated but if you want it to keep for a few days refrigerating will slow down the ripening process. The two followong recipes use Hass avacados:

Tropical Scallop Salad

Ingredients:
-1 Hass avacado
-1/4 a yellow or red onion
-2 cups whole sea scallops
-1 cup orange juice
-1/4 cup lime juice
-salt and pepper to taste


Directions:


1. boil a pot of lightly salted water and add scallops, cook scallops for no more than 3 minutes


2. take scallops out of water and chop into bite size pieces


3. in a bowl mix scallops, orange juice, lime juice, salt and pepper

4. mince onion and add to bowl, mix all ingredients together

5. refridgerate for an hour



This is what mixture should look like when refrigerated



6. after the hour is up take mixture out of fridge and add *chopped avacado and more salt and pepper to taste....mix and serve

*To chop an avacado: Start with a ripe avocado and cut it lengthwise around the seed. Rotate the halves in different directions to separate. Take a spoon and scoop the seed out. You can either then scoop out the rest of the avacado with a spoon or use a knife and cut the avacado into bite size pieces and peel from skin.

Tropical scallop salad on the left and guacamole on the right - guac made with yellow tomatoes

Guacamole

Ingredients:

-1 Hass avacado

-garlic powder

-1/2 lime

-1 tomato

-salt and pepper

Directions:

1. Cut up avacado and totmato into small chunks, mash avacado with a spoon or in a mortar and pestle....i still leave it a little chunky.

2. mix in tomatoes and season with garlic powder, salt and pepper

3. squeeze 1/2 lime over mixture and mix thoroughly...serve with tortialla chips!

Crab Cakes

I had bought some canned jumbo lumped crab and didnt know what to do with it for some time. Finally I decided to make some crab cakes with it. I suggest using fresh crab though because I found the canned crab too fishy tasting.

Ingredients:

-1 lb fresh lump crab

-2 teaspoons mayo

-3 tablespoons flour

-1 teaspoon seafood seasoning like old bay

-salt and pepper to taste

-lemon

-panko (japanese breadcrumbs)

-1 egg

-oil to fry

To make:

1. make sure to pick over crab for peices of shell, mix crab, seasoning, salt and pepper, and flour in a bowl.

2.heat some oil in a frying pan

3.dip cakes in egg and coat in panko

4. place cakes in frying pan and fry until brown on both sides

5. plate with some tartar sauce or cocktail sauce and some lemon slices

6. sprinkle some lemon juice over cakes

When finished they should look something like this:

Stuffed Flounder

My mother bought two flounder filets but didn't know how to cook them - I offered to cook them for her. I decided to stuff the flounder with some ingredients I had around the house.

Ingredients:
-oive oil - to sprinkle in baking dish
-2 teaspoons of lemon juice
-1/2 teaspoon of paprika
-2 filets of flounder
-half a bad of fresh spinach
-l clove of garlic chopped
-2 teaspoons of feta cheese

Directions:
-preheat oven to 400 degrees
-saute spinach with some olive oil and one 1 teaspoon of lemon juice
-as spinach starts to cook add chopped garlic
-when spinach is sauteed remove from pan and divide between the two filets
-top with feta cheese
-roll up filets and secure with toothpicks
-drizzle oil oil and lemon juice in baking pan and place flounder in pan
-sprinkle with paprika and a little more lemon juice
-bake for 20 minutes or until fish flakes easily with a fork