Seared Salmon with pea puree in lemon sauce

i have a love/hate relationship with giada.  but i like her recipes. this one was pretty darn easy and pretty darn good.

Lemon Sauce:

1 shallot diced

2 lemons, juiced

1 lemon, zested

2 cups chicken broth

few mint sprigs, chopped

Pea Puree:

2 cups peas, thawed out

1/4 cup fresh mint

1 garlic clove

salt & pepper to taste

1/2 cup olive oil

1/2 cup parmesan

Make the pea puree first.

In a food processor add the peas, garlic, mint, s&p and puree.  Then slowly add the olive oil while the food processor is on. Then mix in the parmesan.

Next s&p the salmon.

Then start on the lemon sauce.

Heat some olive oil and add the diced shallots.  Cook until soft and then add the lemon juice, lemon zest and chicken broth.  Bring to a simmer and keep warm.

While you’re working on the lemon sauce, start the salmon.  Add some olive oil to a pan and make sure the pan is hot.  Sear the salmon until it gets a nice golden crust. Maybe 4 minutes and then about 1 minute or 2 on the other side. Don’t overcook the salmon. bleck. overcooked salmon = no bueno.

Pour the lemon sauce onto the plate and add the pea puree in the middle and lay the salmon on top.

Paella – HELP!

I recently went to Europa and had quite possibly the most amazing paella ever in Barcelona.  The flavors were amazing, the rice was cooked perfectly, and the seafood was soooooo fresh and cooked perfectly.  There’s nothing like overcooked seafood…and the seafood in this paella was anything but overcooked. Oh man thinking about it makes my mouth water. It was THAT good.

Anyway, does anyone have an amazing ‘grandmother’ type paella recipe they could share so I could relive that moment in Barcelona since who knows when I’ll be there again? I’ll be forever thankful.

Anthony Bourdain/No Reservations

Do you watch this show? Watch it.

I recently just watched the episode where he visits Hong Kong. I had to turn it off because my mouth was watering so much. I’ve been to Hong Kong twice and the food is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! The best dim sum of my life. The best duck, pork buns, dumplings, egg rolls, noodles, rice, etc etc. Oh my gosh so delicious.

Anyway, download, search, youtube this episode and visit Hong Kong someday.

Warning: don’t watch on an empty stomach. you will have very bad hunger pains.

Tonkatsu

This is one of my favorite Japanese dishes.  I just love it and so easy to make. Tonkatsu is deep fried breaded pork cutlet served with rice, shredded cabbage and a special dipping sauce (buy the one in the picture. it’s the best one and makes a difference)

Use boneless pork, pork loin, pork fillet, etc and cut or pound into 1/2 inch thick fillets. Salt and pepper the meat.

Set up an assembly line of flour, egg, and panko (Japanese bread crumbs).

Salt and pepper the flour and egg too. Cover the pork in flour, then dip in the egg, and cover with panko and deep fry in hot oil until golden brown.

Serve with rice,  shredded cabbage and miso soup.

Gotta get rid of it before it goes bad…

i had raw chicken that really needed to be eaten and vegetables that needed to also be eaten otherwise that’s a lot of dollars down the drain and now is not the time to be wasteful.

so what do i do? chicken quesadillas and avocado salad. so quick and so easy.

Japanese Curry

Japanese curry – kare is one of the most popular dishes in Japan and in Korea.  We call it ka lei. It tastes very different than Thai curry or Indian curry but does originate from Indian curry.

If you haven’t had it, get on it. It’s so delicious and so easy to make. Perfect for a cold night when you’re feeling really lazy.

Buy this and buy this brand:

By the way, the ‘HOT’ is not really that spicy so try it.

Anyway, in a soup pot, add some oil and cook bite size pieces of meat. I like to use chicken breast, my mom likes to use beef tenderloin. It’s up to you.

Then add some diced carrots, potatoes and onion. Saute for about 4 minutes.

Then add about 4-5 cups of water and the curry mix.  It’s in a block and you break it into 4 pieces.  Make sure the curry mix gets broken up and mixed in well.

Bring it to a boil and then let it simmer for about 15 minutes.

I think there’s also directions on the back of the box too. In any case, super easy and takes less than 30 minutes. You can attempt to make the curry from scratch but I think the only people who really know how to do that well are like 80 year old Korean and Japanese grandmas, so just use the box.

Serve over white rice. yummmm.  You can put out some soy sauce for people to add if they want to it.

p.s. Trav–I’m so happy you liked this. You’re slowly turning Asian and I love it!

Oxtail Soup (Gori gom tang)

Oxtail soup is a traditional dish in many different cultures: Chinese, Korean, Italy, UK, Ireland, and US (South).  Apparently, Heinz makes a canned version.  Never knew that.

Oxtail is a bony and gelatinous meat.  When you put the soup in the fridge, it turns into jello. I always thought this was so weird growing up when my mom made this.  This dish originated as a peasant dish.  Oxtail is stewed for hours to extract all the fat, marrow and potassium.

This soup is so simple and so delicious.

3 ingredients:

Oxtail (about 12-14 or 4 lbs)

Onion

Garlic

In a big stock pot, add the oxtail and fill with cold water.  Bring to a boil and boil for about 10 minutes.  This process gets rid of all the blood and gross looking stuff.

Take out the oxtail and throw away the water and clean the stock pot. Return the oxtail to the pot and fill with cold water almost to the top. Bring to a boil and simmer partially covered for 3-4 hours.

After about 3-4 hours, add one whole onion, don’t even need to chop and add 2 head of garlic about 20 cloves whole and a big pinch of salt. Boil for another hour.

In the meantime, cook some rice and chop some green onions.

In about an hour, take out one oxtail and poke the bone, the liquid should be a milky color. Take out all the bones and take off all the meat.  Removing the fat, reserve the meat for the soup.

Serve the soup with some green onions and salt on the side for everyone to add as they desire.