Salmon with a Cheesy Spinach topping and Pea Puree

Straying away from the sweeter side of life and moving on to the savoury: 

Another hectic week has passed. This time it was back to the books. My entire week was spent prepping for my French elementary exam. (OK, I may have exaggerated a little) so lets say maybe half the week or 2/7 of the week? 

Anyway on a happier note- I cooked salmon for dinner. Fish is like the best thing to eat for an everyday meal. You see: it is rich in protein, high in Omega 3 fatty acids, good for complexion, healthy, good for the memory and brain and to top it all- I am 100% and 1 in love with it. So if you see me ordering fish ( like 99% of the time that sometimes my friends mistake me for not eating meat) instead of chicken, beef, pork etcc it's not that I don't like meat, it's just that I prefer fish. 

I've watched way too much top chef seasons that one day it just got hold of me and I somehow decided to make a pea puree with something. Something like what?? was the question. How about fish.....

So here's a Pan seared Salmon with Cheesy Spinach and a pea puree underneath all that fat, juicy abundant goodness. 

Ingredients: 

Salmon

One salmon fillet ( Bought one first to test)

pepper and salt( to taste)

1) Heat a pan with olive oil till hot

2) Season fillet with pepper and salt on both sides

3) Sear salmon 2 min on each sides ( mine wasn't too thick but if you're using thicker salmon, maybe can fry 1 min longer)

4) Baked at 160 until cooked ( took me about 10 mins) 

Pea Puree

1 cup peas

2-3 tbsp ( or more) chicken stock

1 clove garlic

1 tbsp oil

salt (to taste)

1) Boil peas till cooked.

2) Put drained peas, chicken stock, garlic, oil and salt into food processor and process until smooth paste

3) Taste and add more salt/ chicken stock if desired

4) I passed the entire mixture through a mesh to get a smoother texture. 

Cheesy Spinach Topping

This was honestly the best part because I just mix everything according to how happy I was at that particular time.... That's the advantage of cooking over baking. You get to add, mix and add, mix. Everything is practically trial and error. Baking on the other hand is precise. You don't try to reduce something because it can severely alter how your final product would turn out. (Ehs, they have a formulae for calculating the proportions of one ingredient to another. They call this the baker's percentage) If you're interested you can go read up more on it. Wayne Gisslen- Professional Baking is a pretty comprehensive book which I would recommend.

-One portion of spinach 

-2 slices cheese ( cheddar and pepperyjack )

Cayenne pepper ( Optional but I added a little of this to give that little spice to the dish- what was lacking in the ordinary cheese.. Alternatively, you could buy those cheese with a little pepper/ spice if you prefer or just ignore that all if you don't like it spicy) 

-1-2 tbsp chicken stock

- 1 tbsp oil

1) Fry spinach with oil. Add chicken stock and let simmer a little till soft. 

2) Add in cheese ( I realise the more cheese you add, the nicer the taste haha so it's really up to you ) 

Layering: 

Pea puree on the bottom, half of the spinach went on top of it, followed by the salmon and then garnished with more spinach. You could serve with mash potatoes or whatever sides you fancy but I was in a hurry that day, so it was a pretty simple dish. 

What I would have done differently the next time: 

Omit the pea puree. It was good but somehow it didn't complement the entire dish. I suspect it was because of the threesome thing. In addition, cheesey spinach took away all the goodness that I was unable to solely enjoy the goodness of the pea puree ;[ 

But nevertheless, the family enjoyed it. ;)) YAYS.

Aglio Olio with juicy Pork Balls

I woke up with skies overcast. Soon after a heavy downpour followed. What a great morning actually to sleep in and laze around in bed but the bf was coming over for lunch. We had this convo the night before. He said let's eat at the hawker near your house... easier. I, on the other hand had a better idea.. to whip up something special as a surprise. I probably did that countless times that it ain''t such a surprise after all. 

Anyway, I was rummaging through the freezer to look for my frozen yogurt for breakfast ( yes, I crave it to the extent that I resorted to putting our normal yogurt in a cup in the freezer so it'd become some sort of frozen dessert the very next day) when I saw minced pork and a packet of mixed veg. Ah hah. Makes me think of juicy meatballs with a thick teriyaki glaze. My only recollection of meatballs were those from Ikea accompanied by a measly slab of creamy sauce.. and everytime I would feel like punching the guy who said " 30c extra for more sauce". 

Making these porkballs were more of mixing everything up and trial and error. I had no clue what to put inside so I just went along with my feelings. Minced pork, mixed veg and then I saw prawns so I decided to food process the prawns along with the pork. Added in some teriyaki sauce as marinade.. Open the fridge to search for more stuff I could add to the amazing balls and hmm thought I'll add some sesame oil as well. and hmm how about some onions too,,... and oh yes oh yes breadcrumbs and an egg :)) Concocting stuff and playing around with my food is what describes me best. 

Anyway, ultimately they turned out pretty well I must say. I was satisfied with the outcome and I'm gonna bookmark this in my recipe book. 

PORK MEAT BALLS

Ingredients:

-minced pork ( all I could find. But using minced  beef should taste nicer) 

- about 6-7 prawns deveined

-1 onion

-mixed veg ( I used carrots and peas)

-2-3 tbsp of teriyaki sauce ( or even more)

-2 tbsp sesame oil

-sugar

-salt (to taste)

-pepper

- 1/2 cup breadcrumbs

-1 egg

-cornstarch

Blend prawns, minced pork, onion in a food processor to form a paste. Add teriyaki sauce, sugar, salt , pepper, sesame oil and blend 

Add pepper, breadcrumbs and cornstarch and mix well. Leave to marinade for awhile. Lightly beat an egg.

Heat some oil in a frying pan. Roll meatballs into balls and dip into egg and pan fry till brown. 

For the glaze ontop:

- teriyaki sauce

-cornstach dissolved in a little water

Heat teriyaki sauce. Add cornstarch mixture and heat until sauce thickens. Pour over meatballs =]]] and ENJOY. 

We had some Aglio Olio to go along with the porkballs as well. Simple, cheap, easy to do yet satisfying. Many a times I prefer plain pasta cooked with olive oil to those heavy cream laden ones. This is a simple dish to whip up at home. All it takes is for the pasta to be cooked al dente and you have it going your way. 

Ingredients

-speghetti

-dried chilli 

-garlic slices

-salt/pepper ( to taste)

- olive oil

Boil a pot of water in a saucepan. Add salt. When water boils, add pasta and cook till al dente. 

In the meantime, fry garlic slices, chilli in olive oil till garlic slightly browns. Set aside. Toss pasta into oil when cooked. Add pepper and salt and season till desired. 

Tacos

It's taco day!! Taco brings me many months back where I was still on my so awesome exchange. I still can't believe it's over. Anyway, besides burgers and fries which I got so sick off after my first few weeks, I got to indulge in Mexican food.. The difference was I never got bored of it. Tacos, tortillas,chilli, nachos, chipotle, quesadillas, corn, cheese, salsa, beans omg beansssss.. Being such a huge fan of beans (red bean, green bean), I thought I wouldn't be able to survive those 5 months but boy was I wrong. It was a land of beans. Kidney beans, chickpeas, black beans, chill. Don't see much Mexican restaurants here in Singapore which is pretty saddening but anyway going to Holland V Cha Cha Cha for a meal now and then isn't sucha bad idea after all.

Soo on the menu today we have: 

My all time favourite appetizer- deep fried mushrooms

I remember I was doing alot of things at once while frying the mushrooms that I forgot to lower the heat and flip it and honestly, it was a SERIOUS disaster. The first batch of mushrooms turned out like a huge blob of charcoal. Thank goodness for helpers that came to assist at the right time. I tried deep frying portobello and white button mushrooms but as much as I really like the taste of portobello, they just didn't work. The latter was much juicier. Just the way I like. Juicy on the inside and cripsy on the outside.

1/2 cup flour

1/2 cup water

1 egg 

whatever spices you like [ I put oregano, some garlic and herb salt, pepper, cayenne pepper ] 

breadcrumbs 

Mix the top four ingredients together. Dip mushrooms in it to coat and roll them in a generous amount of breadcrumbs and deep fry to see magic.  

Filling for Tacos:


Anything yummy goes with tacos. Can be beef, chicken, fish.. It's really up to your own discretion :).


About 350g lean mince beef
1 can black beans, drained
1 large red onion chopped finely
about 1 cup water
garlic
taco seasoning


The taco shells were store bought. I used the Old El Paso brand. Works out to be particularly crispy when baked in the oven. Nice! Plus it comes with taco seasoning and salsa sauce.

Tacos with lettuce, tomatoes and salsa sauce ;)) and ooh we made this tangy grapefruit and lychee ice blended drink to go with it but didn't manage to get a shot of it.

Tacos are not at all filling so we had 2 rounds of pasta to go alongside the tacos. Made a creamy based pasta as well as a pesto based one. Here are 2 ingredients I look for whenever I order pasta at a restaurant: Zucchini and eggplant! HAHAA. told you I was simple ;) 

This pesto based linguine is rather simple to do. Infact, pasta is the easiest to whip up when in a hurry. 

Linguine ( or you can use other kinds of pasta as well) 

parmesan cheese

sundried tomatoes ( totally love them as well) 

zucchini

eggplant

olive oil

salt and pepper ( to taste) 

I know you must be wondering what happened to the pine nuts?? I didn't add them in as I had none on hand but they sure go well with pesto based pasta. Arhh at least that's why I eat them for. 

Many of them preferred this creamy based one. I'm not a sucker for creamy pasta but I must say this is pretty darn good.. considering the massive amount of cheese I added to it out of experiment. hahaa

This serves 6-8 people:

Linguine ( or other)

18 raw prawns, deshelled and de-veined

2 tbsp butter

olive oil

Portobello/whitebutton mushrooms ( as much as you wish)

Bacon (Fried and cut into small pieces)

Oregano flakes

1 cup cream ( I only had 150ml on hand so I substituted the rest for milk) 

Peppery Jack Cheese ( Well, I added a handful.) 

and there you have it. Homemade Mexican food and pasta ;)) Stay tune for more random cooking and baking. I have alot ( and I mean a whole lot) of backlog. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu with Mushroom Onion Gravy

What's life without cheese? It's like the basic ingredient in every western meal. Well almost :) Few days ago I whipped up a dish I couldn't possibly forget. The juiciness of the chicken, smoothh melted cheese, ham and thick creamy mushroom gravy just lingered in my mouth.  Everything just felt so right. SO what's for dinner tonight?? If you guessed Chicken Cordon Bleu. You're absolutely spot on.. 

Chicken Cordon Bleu is basically a french inspired dish consisting of chicken, ham and cheese all rolled up in a bundle of goodness, drenched in breadcrumbs and then deep fried. 

Recipe adapted from Blake Royer, posted in serious eats. This particular recipe called for sauerkraut to be incorporated together with the 3 main components however I couldnt find sauerkraut anywhere so just had to do w/o. ;[. I can only imagine how good that dish would have tasted if I had some on hand and how it adds a little tangy-ness to the flavor!!

Ingredients: 

6 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets (about 1 1/4 pounds total)
Kosher salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 egg whites
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1 tablespoon chopped parsley
2 teaspoons minced garlic
Dijon mustard, as needed
1 1/2 ounces provolone cheese (1 1/2 thin slices)
1 1/2 ounces ham (1 1/2 thin slices)
3 tablespoons sauerkraut, packed ( left this out)
3/8 teaspoon caraway seeds ( left this out)
2 cups plain bread crumbs
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil, for frying.

Procedure

1. If the chicken cutlets are not of uniform thickness, place them between two sheets of plastic wrap and pound gently, aiming to make 3 pairs of approximately the same shape. Season with salt and pepper and set aside.

2. In a bowl, whisk the egg whites, cornstarch, parsley, and garlic, until the egg whites begin to turn foamy.

Foamy egg white mixture with parsley (  DIE! I think of you clar everytime I see parsley ) .. 

3. Paint one side of each chicken cutlet with mustard, then layer the ham and cheese on three of the cutlets. Spread a tablespoon of sauerkraut on top of the ham and cheese, then lay the second half of each pair, mustard side in, to make a sandwich. Seal the edges as best you can. ( I follow the traditional way of using toothpicks to secure the edges. works perfect but just it gets a little tedious to remove them after frying.But anyway it's better to secure rather than have cheese oozing out into the hot oil)

4. Dip the cutlet sandwiches in the egg white mixture, then dredge in the bread crumbs. If needed, they can be refrigerated for several hours at this point.

5. Heat the oil in a skillet with plenty of room for all the chicken (if not, cook them in batches) over medium-high heat until a breadcrumb tossed into the pan sizzles vigorously. Fry until dark golden brown, 2-3 minutes/side. Drain on paper towels momentarily, then serve immediately, with more sauerkraut, if desired, or a tart salad.

I made a corn salad to go with it. 

Ingredients:

2 corn on the cob

lemon

salt and pepper to taste

butter

italian dressing

cherry tomatoes

portobello mushrooms

Steps:

1) Heat butter in pan and saute corn and mushrooms

2) add salt and pepper to taste

3) Remove from pan add in tomatoes for color and sprinkle some lemon for the zesty taste and italian dressing 

and a Mushroom onion gravy to accompany the chicken. 

Ingredients:

Onions ( one) sliced not too finely

portobello mushrooms ( as much as you like)

mushroom cream sauce ( I bought the prego can)

corn oil/olive oil

Steps:

1) Heat oil in pan and fry onions till fragrant and caramelized. 

2) add mushrooms

3) Add in canned mushroom sauce 

4) Add a little water if gravy is too thick to the consistency you desire. 

5) Pour generous amount over chicken and serve hot. 

Bon appetit!