Salmon with Mediterranean Salsa

Now this is my kind of way to cook salmon!  Grilled salmon, tomatoes, kalamata olives, artichokes, capers, fresh basil and olive oil...scrumdidliumptious!  The original Grilled Salmon recipe came from my handy-dandy Earthbound Farm's Food to Live By cookbook, but I've included my version of it below.

Ingredients

• 1 large garlic clove, minced
• 1 handful fresh parsley, chopped
• 1 big handful of fresh basil, chopped
• Zest of 1 orange
• Zest of 1 lemon
• 2 plum/Italian tomatoes, chopped
• 1 handful sliced Kalamata olives
• 2 tbsp. capers
• 6-8 artichoke heart quarters (from the can...I like the marinated type)
• Couple grinds of pepper
• 1 glug of olive oil
• Salmon (enough to serve 3-4)

Place all of the ingredients, except for the salmon, in a bowl and mix gently to blend.  Grill the salmon to your liking.  At the same time, heat the Mediterranean salsa in a saucepan on the stove.  This is just to warm it, so it doesn't cool down the salmon.  You don't want to cook it until the point that it becomes a sauce.  Plate the salmon, scoop the Mediterranean salsa on top and enjoy! 

Note: I love this salsa, so I normally use this amount for 2 servings of salmon and then on top of 2 servings of green beans.  If you prefer less salsa, you could probably stretch this to work for 8 servings of salmon.

The Mediterranean salsa in its warming glory.

Dinner!  Grilled Salmon with Mediterranean Salsa, home-made pesto pasta and grilled veggies.

http://www.ebfarm.com/recipes/cookbook

@earthboundfarm

Cinco de Mayo

With the fabulous weather we've been having, I couldn't resist cooking up a feast in celebration of Cinco de Mayo for some of my favourite dinner guests.  It was a bit of a mish mash of my own creations and recipes from various cookbooks, but everyone seemed to enjoy it and it made for one heck of a fun evening.  I've included the recipes below for your tastebuds' pleasure.  Enjoy!
 
To Start - Chips and Homemade Salsa

• Tortilla chips care of Tostitos (restaurant style).  Oh how I love their salty goodness!
• Sour cream...absolute necessity
• Homemade salsa

I completely made up the salsa recipe and I wasn't sure if it was going to be a hit or a flop, but luckily it was a hit!  I added all of the following to a bowl and mixed gently to let the flavours combine:

• 5 roma tomatoes, diced small
• 2 cloves of garlic, crushed
• 1/4 of a jalapeno, minced (seeds removed)
• 2 thin slices of red onion, minced
• splash of olive oil
• 1 handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
• couple grinds of pepper
• couple dashes of salt
• juice from half a lime

Just what the doctor ordered!
 
Main - Pescado Blanco Fish Tacos with Corn and Black Bean Salad

I loved the plethora of colours on the table and couldn't resist taking a photo as I was prepping everything.

Corn and Black Bean Salad from Food to Live By.

 

I love this recipe and love this cookbook!  The recipes are homey, healthy and easy to make.  I'd definitely recommend picking up a copy if you don't have it already.  If you do have it, you'll find this recipe on page 237.  If you don't, I've included my version of it below:

 

Ingredients

• 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed well
• corn kernels from one cob of corn, uncooked
• 2-3 roma tomatoes, diced relatively small
• 1/2 large red onion, diced small
• handful of parsley leaves, chopped
• 2 cloves of garlic, minced
• 2 tbsp white wine vinegar
• 1 solid glug of olive oil
• 3-4 good dashes of chili powder
• 1-2 dashes of cumin
• couple dashes of salt
• 3-4 grinds of black pepper

Add all of the solid ingredients, excluding the garlic, in a bowl and mix gently.  Whisk all of the remaining ingredients together, pour over the salad and mix gently to coat.  Fabulous for picnics or BBQs.



Up next: Pescado Blanco Fish Tacos found on page 108 of the oh so fabulous Whitewater Cooks with Friends.  I've also included my version below, for your entertainment.  If you're a fan of fish tacos, I'd definitely recommend adding this version to your repertoire!

Topping #1 - 1/4 of a head of red cabbage, sliced thin.

Topping #2 - the most delicious citrusy guacamole ever!  This tasted great on the fish tacos, but I also plan on putting it out instead of plain guacamole in the future.

 

Ingredients

• 3 oranges, peeled and diced 
• 2 avocadoes, diced relatively small
• 1 solid handful of cilantro leaves, chopped
• 1/2 jalapeno, minced
• 2-3 slices of red onion, minced
• couple dashes of salt

Add all of the ingredients to a bowl and mix gently.

Cinco de Mayo dinner!  To complete the pescado blanco fish tacos, cut 1.5 pounds of red snapper (or any solid white fish) into small strips.  Heat olive oil in a pan, then add the fish and cook approximately 5-6 minutes until done.  To assemble the tacos place red cabbage on a warm tortilla, top with fish, citrusy guacamole and a smidge of sour cream.  Delicious...if I do say so myself!

 

The portions above make enough for approximately 12 tacos (6 people).

 

Note: in the official recipe they suggest placing the corn tortillas into tinfoil and then warming them in the oven for 15 minutes.  My apartment was scorching, so I didn't feel this was necessary.  I learned the hard way that cold corn tortillas disintegrate but warm tortillas stay true to form!  However, I quickly discovered that if you pop them in the microwave (uncovered) for 30-40 seconds it works just as well.

 

Dessert!  Snickerdoodle care of my fabulous dinner guests.  Greatest name ever for a cookie!

 

But the best part of dinner?  My favourite dinner guest EVER!!!  This handsome fellow will always have a big part of my heart...partially due to his boyish good looks, but mainly due to the fact that he is absolutely hilarious!  You may noticed that the photos are blurry...this is partially due to the fact that he never sits still (no wonder toddlers need naps!) and partially due to the fact that I was generally laughing so hard at him that I couldn't keep my hands still!  Happy Cinco de Mayo everyone!

http://www.whitewatercooks.com/

 

http://www.ebfarm.com/recipes/cookbook/food-live 

Carrot Ginger Soup...One of My All-Time Favourite Soups

This is most definitely my go-to soup in the winter.  It has tonnes of flavour, is quick and easy to make and most definitely warms you from the inside out.  The recipe stems from The Earthbound Farm Organic Food to Live By Cookbook, but here's my version of it:
 
Ingredients

• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 big piece of ginger (about three inches long and twice the width of your thumb), peeled and chopped
• 4-5 large carrots, peeled and sliced
• Juice of two oranges
• 4 cups vegetable stock (I use one tetrapak of Kitchen Basics, no salt added, vegetable stock)
• 2 dashes salt
• 10 grinds of pepper
• 3 dashes of nutmeg

Heat the olive oil in a large pot.  Add the onion and ginger and cook until the onions are soft.  Add the carrots and stir.  Add the juice of two oranges and stir.  Add the vegetable stock and bring to a boil.  Reduce the heat and let simmer until the carrots are tender (about 30-45 minutes).  Blend the soup with a hand immersion blender (or a regular blender).  Add the salt, pepper and nutmeg and stir.  Makes 4-5 servings and freezes well.

 

http://www.ebfarm.com/recipes/cookbook

Sweet Corn Chowder - The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook

Last night I tried another new recipe from The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook: Food To Live By.  You're probably thinking, two soups in one week?  What can I say, I was in a soup kind of mood when I went to the grocery store this weekend!

I quite enjoyed this soup.  Not as flavourful as the Tuscan White Bean Stew, but it is hearty and the crisp corn almost makes it refreshing.  It could also be that it was lacking a bit of flavour because I used dried Thyme instead of fresh, and I forgot to season with salt and pepper at the end.  Regardless, if you're in a corn chowder mood, I'd recommend trying this recipe.

The recipe I used is very similar to this one: http://www.ebfarm.com/recipes/sweet-and-spicy-corn-chowder.  However, trade a sprig of fresh thyme for the dried thyme, exclude the chili pepper, swap the cream for 1.5 cups of half and half, and add a bay leaf.  In terms of directions, when you add the stock, also add the thyme and bay leaf.  After the soup has simmered, turn the heat off and let the flavours of the soup mellow until it's stopped simmering.  Remove the bay leaf and thyme sprig and add the bacon, corn kernels and half and half.  Warm the chowder over low heat until it's your desired temperature.  Lastly, season with salt and pepper, if desired.

Something interesting I learned while making this soup is that it's a lot easier to cut the corn kernels off the cob if you put the corn on a 45 degree angle with one end of the corn in the bottom of a mixing bowl.  Instead of the kernels popping all over the counter, they fall right into your bowl.  I'd also highly recomment the Kitchen Basics stock.  It's one of the first sodium-free stocks I've found with really good flavour.

Enjoy!

Tuscan White Bean Stew with Rosemary

Dinner tonight was Tuscan White Bean Stew with Rosemary, whole grain sourdough bread, baked buttercup squash (from my sister's garden!) with butter, brown sugar and cinnamon, and a glass of the Howe Sound Pumpkin Ale.  Now that's what I call a Fall meal!

It was my first time trying the Tuscan Stew recipe from The Earthbound Farm Organic Cookbook "Food to Live By" and it was darn good, if I do say so myself.  The stew had olive oil, yellow onion, carrot, celery, bacon (bizarre but amazing!), roma tomatoes, cannellini beans, rosemary, chicken stock, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper.  It was hearty and oh so flavourful!  Definitely warmed me from the inside out.  I would post the recipe but I'm not sure of the ins and outs of whether that's okay, since it came from a published cookbook. What I will say, is that it starts like pretty much every other soup recipe, you chop everything in 1/4 inch dice, the beans are dried so it simmers for 2-3 hours, and you just add a dash of balsamic vinegar at the end for flavour.  However, if you're looking for more specifics, I'd highly recommend this cookbook.  It's one of my favourites and I haven't tried a bad recipe from it yet!

The buttercup squash was easy.  Baked it for about 30-40 minutes and added a bit of butter and sprinkled brown sugar and cinnamon over the top in the last five minutes.

Normally when I cook squash, I ignore the seeds.  Tonight I wondered if I roasted them if they'd taste like pumpkin seeds...they sure do!  These will definitely be a nice treat or addition to salads over the next couple of days.

 

http://www.chapters.indigo.ca/books/Food-Live-Earthbound-Farm-Organic-Holland-McKinstry-Goodman/9780761138990-item.html?ikwid=earthbound+farm&ikwsec=Home