Catching Up

As I downloaded some pictures from Saturday night's dinner I discovered some meals from weeks past that I forgot to post. So today I am playing catch up.

I'll start with Saturday night's dinner. Halibut, Saffron rice and Chinese long beans.The halibut came from Trader Joe's. I seasoned it with salt, pepper, cayenne, basil, oregano, garlic and thyme. After heating up the skillet with some grapeseed oil I dredged the fish fillets through the seasoning mix and cooked them 3-4 minutes on each side.

The Chinese long beans were washed, sliced into 2-3 inch segments and gently steamed for 4 minutes then drained. In the same saute pan they were steamed in, I added grapeseed oil, 4 smashed garlic cloves, 5 dried red chili peppers and some crushed Szechuan peppercorns. Once the oil was fragrant I added the beans and sauteed over high heat until they were cooked through, about 3 minutes.

Meanwhile the saffron rice was busily cooking away on a back burner. Biscuit Boy was in charge of the rice. He prepared it by soaking about a 1/2 tsp of saffron threads in warm water. Meanwhile he sauteed some thinly sliced shallots in a pot. Once they were soft, he added the saffron infused water, salt and rice. Dinner in less than 30 minutes.


Next up was Thai Fried Rice. We made this about 2 weeks ago. We picked up some nice looking shrimp from the market along with some cashews, and fresh basil leaves. Three key ingredients for our fried rice.

To prepare this dish, we used 1 cup of uncooked rice. Cook with 2 cups of water. While the rice is cooking, peel and devein the shrimp, season with some salt and pepper and sautee. Set them aside when done. Next set aside about 1/2 cup of cashews, tear up about 1/2 cup of the basil leaves, crush a few dried chilis, slice some mushrooms, finely sliced about 2 cloves of garlic and dice some onion. Set everything aside.
When the rice is done, place it in a large skillet coated with some cooking oil. Add the cashews, chilis, garlic, onion, mushroms, soy sauce and fish sauce. Toss around until everything is well incorporated. Add the basil leaves, give it all a few quick stirs and place it in a serving bowl.

Scoop the fried rice into individual bowls, add some of the cooked shrimp and enjoy.

Finally we come to Steamed Mussels in Green Curry broth. First rinse off the mussels and remove any remaining beards. Check for any chipped, broken or open shells. Discard these.

In a large sautee pan, add green curry and coconut milk (we used premade green curry that we buy in small cans from any of the local Asian markets in the area). Bring to a gentle boil and add the mussels. Place a lid on the sautee pan and let them cook for about 5 minutes or until the shells have opened. Stir in some fresh basil leaves then spoon the mussels into a large bowl and pour the broth over the top. Serve with some nice crusty bread (for sopping up the broth).

Virtual Recipe Club - Potato Edition

Alysha at The Savory Notebook started the Virtual Recipe Club (VRC) a while back and asked for a guest Host for this week's edition. I jumped at the chance. I love reading new recipes and the VRC is a great way to collect recipes that share a common theme.

When I told Alysha that I would gladly host this week's edition, she asked me to pick the topic. I mulled over several things and decided upon potatoes. The other items I toyed with were chocolate, cinnamon, or biscuits (Imagine that, Biscuit Girl choosing biscuits).

But in the end, potatoes won. Probably due to a discussion at work about what our March Staff Soup would be. I offered to bring in my potato leek soup recipe since soup day would be right around St. Patrick's Day and what's more Irish than potatoes.

So guess what potato recipe I'll be using for this week's VRC? I'd love to have your potato recipes too. You can submit them by e-mailing them to me at biscuitblog at earthlink dot net. If you post your recipe (with or without pictures), send me the permalink. I'll gather all the recipes up and post them here on Sunday evening.

Purple Cauliflower, Sea Bass, and Pizza

I know the heading for this post sounds strange but it is a compilation of foods from the past few weeks that we have cooked here at home.

It feels like ages since I've had the time or energy to put up a new food post. But I'm finally getting back into the swing of things again. What's been keeping me so busy? Let's see, work, sinus problems, work, an itchy dog, planning a vacation, helping Biscuit Boy photograph a friend's wedding and work.

Work had been incredibly busy and if one more person comes up to me and says how great it must be to work in a library because you get to ready all day, they will be shot on the spot. Well after I put down my Harlequin romance and box of Bon-Bons, of course. :)

Then there were the bloomin' ragweed which gave me a sinus infection and made Biscuit Pup itchy.

And two of our favorite people got married last weekend and our gift was to take their wedding photos. And may I just say that Biscuit Boy did an outstanding job.

Finally, to help see light at the end of the tunnel, Biscuit Boy and I are going on a 5 day cruise to the Pacific Northwest next month. I can't wait! It'll be my second cruise, his first. And as some of you know, cruises are known for their food. So there will be lots to report once we waddle back.

Now....on to the food portion of our program. Biscuit Boy fixed pizza tonight ....damn good pizza. We forgot to take pics of it before we dug in but still managed to get a picture of half of one. We get the raw dough from Trader Joe's and cook it on pizza stones in our oven. And Biscuit Boy has it down to a fine art. And I know my pizza......I was raised in New York until my teens and if it's one thing New Yorkers are passionate about it's pizza. The ones we fix here at home are right up there.

Tonight's pizza was topped with pepperoni and artichoke hearts.














Then there was the purple cauliflower. A friend of ours had a bicycle accident and injured her right elbow. And being right-handed found herself unable to do simple things, including fixing dinner. So we fixed it for her one night. I went shopping for the fixin's....steak, broccoli and potatoes. Well once I walked into the produce department and saw purple cauliflower, I said phooey to broccoli....I want to eat this instead. Here is a lovely shot of Biscuit and his purple cauliflower corsage.
After reading up on this strange new veggie, I learned that as long as you don't over cook it, the color will remain purple. Cook it too long and it turns green.

And can I say that not only does it make a stunning corsage, but a damn fine side dish as well. This veggie knows how to multi-task.

Finally we have our seabass. I picked up a Charlie Trotter Seafood Cookbook at our library's booksale. Incredible pictures of seafood that will make you drool. And seeing as we found a nice fresh seabass at the market, we decided to test drive the cookbook.
Our choice was a broth with soba noodles on which the tasty seabass was placed. A light, refreshing meal that Biscuit Boy said tasted even better the next day for lunch.

So that's been the excitement around here for the past few weeks. I think I need a nap.

A quiet dinner at home (and childhood memories)

Sorry for not having any new posts until now. We've been playing host to visiting family for the past 2 weeks and I'm a bit pooped. No, I take that back, I'm exhausted!

Last Sunday, with my mom being our current house guest, we fixed a nice quiet dinner at home for the three of us (four if you include Biscuit Pup). We fixed Vietnamese Five Spiced Quail as an appetizer and Pork with Rice Cakes and Zucchini. For dessert, we had fresh strawberries with vanilla ice cream.

Five Spiced Quail

I found the recipe for the quail online after we ate a similar version at a Vietnamese restaurant here in the area called Huong Que (or The Four Sisters). It's served with a small dish with about 1/2 tsp. each of salt and pepper and a lime wedge. You have to squeeze the lime juice into the salt and pepper and mix it together. Then dip little pieces of the quail into it and eat. The version at Huong Que is spectacular. It comes out hot and crispy with a slightly sticky coating. The aroma of five spice powder wafts up to your nose as you inhale deeply.

The recipe I found is slightly different but still very good. Since we can't cook outside (stupid condo rules......) , I've found that baking them in a slow oven (325 degrees) works pretty well. For the main course, Biscuit Boy first sliced the zucchini and salted them to help draw out some of the water. He let them sit for about 30 minutes and drained them. Next he sliced some nice lean boneless porkloin into thin strips. He sauteed some garlic in a little oil then added the pork. While the pork was cooking, he boiled the rice cakes for a few minutes and drained them. Turning back to the pork, he added the zucchini, tossing everything around for a minute or two then finally adding the rice cakes. He stirred it all together with a little soy sauce and scooped it into a large serving bowl.

Pork with Rice Cakes and Zucchini

To add to the meal, we served a nice bottle of Chateau Grande Cassagne Rose. Two glasses later, mom was a little light headed. What can I say, mom's a lightweight these days. But back when I was a kid, we (my brother, sister and I) would be playing in the pool while mom and dad kicked back with a big pitcher of Harvey Wallbangers. Being kids, seeing them laughing and giggling, we just thought they were soooooo happy to see us having fun. Little did we know.......they were plastered, blotto, snockered, polluted and completely bombed out of their minds. Ah.......the memories........(at least we kids remember them).

Pea Shoots with Velvet Shrimp

We bought some snow pea shoots this weekend. Finding a recipe proved to be a challenge. After searching my cookbook collection, I looked in the Internet and found this recipe at FoodTV.com "Pea Shoots with Velvet Shrimp." It looked pretty simple so I gave it a shot.

The only thing I would change next time I make it would be to cut the pea shoots into smaller lengths. I left them 'as is' but found them to be hard to mix in with the shrimp. Otherwise it was quite a tasty meal. Very mellow flavor, the seasonings all melded together nicely so that no one in particular jumped out at you. The flavor of the pea shoots and the shrimp shined through.

Szechuan Sunday Dinner

Last night we were torn between going out to eat or staying in, we opted to stay in. It was cold and dreary out all day and neither one of us wanted to venture out. Neither one of us had any idea what to fix for dinner either. Maybe something simple? But what did we have on hand? Looking through the fridge and freezer, we found some frozen chicken breasts and some nice zucchini. Ok, good start but now what to do with it.

Out came the Land of Plenty Cookbook by Fucshia Dunlop. I flipped it open to the index and found one recipe for Zucchini Slivers with Garlic (chao nan gua si). A fairly simple recipe. Slice and sliver the zucchini, salt it to draw out some of the water, then stir fry some garlic in a little oil, toss in the zucchini. Voila! You're done. Biscuit Boy added a shake or two of hot pepper flakes to add a little kick to it.

The chicken proved to be a little more challenging. Not to cook...rather which recipe to try. After reading several aloud to Biscuit Boy, we settled on this one: Chicken Slices in Sichuan Pepper and Sesame Oil Sauce (jiao ma ji pian). This one takes cooked, cooled chicken sliced that is covered with a sauce. The sauce is sichuan pepper corns soaked in hot water and drained. They are mixed with sliced green onion and a little salt then processed into a paste. Mix that with a little soy sauce and some sesame oil and pour over the chicken. Yum!

Add a little rice and we had ourselves dinner in less than 30 minutes. Biscuit pup (a.k.a. carbo-hound) got a little rice but really wanted some of the chicken. Sorry little dog, too spicy for ya. (next time I'll put some aside before I add the peppers just for you).

Chive Blossoms

Couldn't decide whether to go out for dinner or just stay in. We opted to stay in and fixed a stir fry with chive blossoms, beef, garlic and rice cakes. Biscuit Boy did the cooking and I helped a bit with the prep work. It was scrumptious. Even Biscuit Pup gave it two paws up.

For those of you who don't know what chive blossoms are, think chives with a little bitty bud at the tip. You can usually find them at Asian grocery stores or some specialty markets. You use them much like you would chives or green onions. We usually chop them into 1-2 inch pieces and throw them in a stir fry or just saute them and serve them as a side dish. A very yummy side dish. The rice cakes are found in Asian groceries as well. They are little oval disks about 1" x 1/2" and are usually found fresh in vacuum sealed packages in the refrigerated case. They can be frozen once you get home so they last longer. Just cook them a little bit longer than you would fresh ones.

Biscuit Boy created tonight's meal by tossing some oil in the skillet with some garlic (sliced thin). He also put the rice cakes in a pot of boiling water for a few minutes until they were just past al dente then drained them. Once the garlic had infused the oil, he added thinly sliced beef, turned up the heat and cooked it until done. He removed the beef from the skillet and added the chive blossoms with some soy sauce and cooked them for just a few minutes. Then he added the beef and the rice cakes and stir fried them all together until everything was coated with the good bits from the skillet. As a final touch he tossed in a teaspoon of sesame seeds and served. There was nothing left. Gone... all of it. *burp* And it was good.

Brussel Sprouts

Biscuit Boy and I have been together for almost 8 years now and not once was I able to convince him to eat brussel sprouts. His memory of them was boiled within an inch of their lives and served with vinegar, yuck! That's the way his mom made them when he was young. No wonder he shivered when ever I uttered their name. Of course my mom boiled them too which is pretty bland. But we can't blame our moms for that travesty of justice. The brussel sprout is actually quite a versatile little guy.

About 2 weeks ago I finally wore Biscuit Boy down and bought a bunch of brussel sprouts. We were in one of the three Korean grocery stores in the area that we like to shop in for fresh, inexpensive veggies. They looked soooooo good. I promised him that I would make them taste good. I'm not so sure he was convinced.

I didn't realize the pressure I put myself under until I got home. I had to make these taste better than he ever would have thought. Hmmm.......time to think of a new recipe. After looking through my trusty cookbooks and a few web recipes, I concocted my version of tasty brussel sprouts.

Sorry I didn't get a picture of them, we ate them before I remembered to get the camera. So I'll have to give you a written description. Close your eyes and picture this (Wait, you better read this before you close your eyes or you'll just be sitting here in the dark) I cut off the ends, sliced them in half and steamed them for about 5 minutes. While they were steaming, I sliced some garlic paper thin and sauteed them in a pan with some olive oil then tossed in the steamed brussel sprouts. After everything was mixed together, I turned the brussel sprouts so the cut side was face down in the pan and added a little soy sauce. I let they cook for a few minutes until the cuts sides caramelized. Then served them to Biscuit Boy.

He smelled them, tentatively pierced one with his fork and brought it to his mouth. Another quick sniff then *Chomp* it was gone and he smiled. SUCCESS! He not only ate all the sprouts I put on his plate, we actually fought over the ones left in the pan. Am I good or what? In fact he like them so much he actually bought some on his own this past weekend and cooked them for me last night. They were good.

To both our moms, no disrespect, but the days of boiled brussel sprouts are gone (thank goodness).