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Posts Tagged ‘Olive oil’

Heart Healthy! Lemon-Tarragon Salmon over Asparagus

Posted in Marthaspeak, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , on March 9, 2011| Leave a Comment »

Red onions, lemon, and tarragon come together as a tangy topping for salmon and asparagus.

20 asparagus spears, trimmed to 6″ and halved lengthwise

2 large radishes, very thinly sliced

4 boneless, skinless salmon fillets 5 oz each, 1″ thick

coarse salt and pepper

1 small red onion thinly sliced

1/4 cup plus 1 TBS thinly sliced lemon zest strips, plus 1 TBS  plus 1 tsp fresh lemon juice

3 TBS fresh tarragon

1 TBS plus 1 tsp olive oil

Preheat oven 400 degrees.  Cut out four 12″ by 17″ sheets of parchment paper, fold each in half crosswise to form a crease

Divide asparagus and radishes evenly among parchment pieces, arranging mixture on 1 side of each crease.  Lay 1 salmon fillet on top of each pile. Season with salt and pepper.

Toss together onion, zest and juice, tarragon, 2 tsp oil, and 1/2 tsp salt; divide among salmon, spooning over tops.  Fold parchment over ingredients; make overlapping pleats to seal.

Bake on 2 baking sheets for 11-12 minutes for medium-rare, or 13 minutes for medium.  Unwrap; drizzle with remaining 2 tsp oil.

I’ve often avoided cooking fish because I think it’s either going to smell in the house or it will come out dry.  WELL, neither happens with this delicious dish.  Heart Healthy!

heart healthy fish, salmon, tarragon, lemon zest, red onion

Salmon is Heart Healthy

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Chicken Cutlets with Caper Sauce

Posted in Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , on March 1, 2011| 1 Comment »

TASTY TIDBITS TUESDAY

Today’s recipe is tomorrow night’s dinner.

2 TBS olive oil, divided

2 chicken breast halves, pounded very thin, and then cut in half so you have 4 thin cutlets

1 lg shallot, minced, about 2 TBS

2 garlic cloves, minced

1/2 cup white wine or chicken stock

1/2 tsp red pepper flakes

1 TBS capers, drained

2-3 cups arugula, torn into bite size pieces

1/2 fennel bulb, shaved thin

16-24 paper thin shavings of Parmesan cheese

Heat 1 TBS olive oil in a non-stick saute pan over medium-high heat until almost smoking, about 1-2 minutes.  Sprinkle salt over the pounded chicken breasts and sear them for 2-3 minutes per side in the hot pan, working in batches so that you do not crowd the pan.  Remove the chicken breasts and cover with foil to keep them warm.

Add the other tablespoon of olive oil to the pan.  Add the shallots and cook 1 minute, stirring often.  Do not let them burn, and if they begin to brown rapidly, turn the heat down.  Add the garlic and cook another 45 seconds to 1 minute, stirring often.

Add the white wine and scrape an browned bits off the bottom of the pan with a wooden spoon.  Ad the capers and red pepper flakes and oil until the wine is almost gone, about 2-4 minutes.

To serve, mix the arugula and shaved fennel and put some on each plate . Arrange some shaved parmesan over them.  Lay a piece of chicken on each salad, then top with a little of the sauce. Serve hot.

Recipe from Simply Recipes courtesy of Gail

capers, chicken cutlets, Simply Recipes, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

Chicken Cutlets with Caper Sauce

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Linguine with Asparagus and Pine Nuts

Posted in Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , , on February 8, 2011| 1 Comment »

Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

Tonight I’m making a delicious, light and heart-healthy vegetarian meal.  We both love pasta and I especially am happy when I can make a pasta dish with veggies and is easy to toss together – it makes me feel so much more Italian 🙂  My grandfather who was born in Italy always used to say that having meat in your macaroni or spaghetti (there is a redundancy here but that’s how Americans speak) was a special occasion or a Sunday dinner.

So here’s my Tasty Tidbits Tuesday recipe:

12 oz (3/4 box) linguine

1/4 cup olive oil

1/4  cup pignoli (pine nuts)

4 cloves of garlic sliced

2 lb. asparagus trimmed and cut into 1″ pieces

1 cup (3 oz) shaved Parmesan cheese

Cook pasta, reserve a 1/2 cup pasta water, drain and return to pot.

Meanwhile, heat oil in medium skillet over MEDIUM HIGH heat.  Add pine nuts and garlic and cook, stirring frequently, until golden, 1-2 minutes.  Add the asparagus and cook, tossing occasionally, until just tender, 2-3 minutes.

Add the asparagus mixture to the pasta along with a 1 tsp. salt and 1/4 tsp pepper and toss to combine. *if pasta seems too dry, add a little pasta water to form thin sauce). Sprinkle with shaved Parmesan before serving.

Recipe from Real Simple magazine

Real Simple recipe, heart healthy, pasta with veggies, asparagus, Parmensan, linguine

Heart Healthy Linguine with Asparagus

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Harvest Whole Wheat Pasta with Escarole and Butternut Squash

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, We Called It Macaroni (Pasta recipes), tagged , , , , , , , , , on January 11, 2011| 3 Comments »

What was going to be our Sunday night supper turned into a tasty side dish when we were invited to dine at Susan and Jim’s house.  Susan made what I thought was salmon but in fact it was Ironhead Trout! Very interesting since it looks like salmon, smells like salmon and tastes like salmon and I understand it is not as expensive as salmon. The salmon aka Ironhead Trout was delicious.  My contribution is the Tasty Tidbits Tuesday recipe.

2 TBS Pine Nuts toasted

1/2 box of whole wheat Fusilli prepared per directions, keep warm

1 pkg of cleaned, peeled butternut squash (20 oz) cut into 3/4″ dice

1/2 red onion, peeled, 1/2″ dice (about 1+ 1/2 cups)

1 TBS basting oil (olive oil with herbs in it)

Salt and pepper

1 pkg chopped escarole (15 oz)

1 pkg or 4 oz of mini-cubes of pancetta

3 cloves of garlic minced

1/2 cup dry white wine

1 container or 13 oz of Alfredo sauce

2 TBS of shredded Parmigiano-Reggiano Cheese

Preheat oven to 450 degrees

Toss squash with onions in basting oil in large bowl, season to taste with salt and pepper.  Spread in a single layer on baking sheet.  Roast about 20 min, or until vegetables are well-caramelized and tender.

Blanch escarole 2-3 min in large pot of boiling salted water. Drain, and set aside.

Add pancetta to skillet on MEDIUM.  Cook, stirring, 3-5 min, until crisp and brown.  Remove from pan;drain on paper towels.  Return to pan. Add garlic. Cook, stirring 1-2 min, until tender

Add wine. Cook, stirring to loosen browned bits on bottom of pan.  Simmer about 4 min, until liquids are reduced by half.  Stir in alfredo sauce.

Bring to simmer; add escarole and black pepper to taste. Stir to blend.  Add pasta; toss until well-combined. Stir in squash and onions, then pine nuts.  Top with cheese.

Recipe from Wegman’s MENU magazine

What I learned: I couldn’t find any Alfredo sauce so I used something called Parmesan Cheese sauce and it was fine.  My first thoughts were that there were too many steps and too many bowls and pots.  There was a large pot to blanch the escarole and a large bowl of ice water to shock it.  Another large bowl for tossing the squash and onions.  A baking sheet to caramalize the veggies and a large skillet to saute the pancetta.  I had meant to “toast” the pine nuts in the same skillet but forgot and if I had had a toaster oven, I might have used that but I didn’t.  The array of utensils and containers made for a large wash-up before the meal.

Other than the prepping, the pasta was DELICIOUS as I had hoped and expected it would.  I don’t think I have ever gotten a bad recipe from the Wegman’s MENU magazine.

Harvest whole wheat pasta with escarole and butternut squash,

Butternut Squash cubed


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Tasty Tidbits Tuesday – Reconciliation Soup

Posted in Smooth or Crunchy, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , , , on December 28, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Isabel Allende

Image via Wikipedia

Well Christmas dinner came and went and everything was delicious and we are still eating leftovers.  So there’s no more count-down to Christmas dinner, instead I have an interesting  recipe to share with you today.

Last night I had a pretty big argument with my husband and don’t worry we are all made up – at least on the surface for sure.  Perhaps the underlying issue is something we can’t work out completely.  So in that vein, I offer you the famed recipe for Reconciliation Soup.

RECONCILIATION SOUP

1/2 cup portabellla mushrooms (1/4 cup if dried)

1/2 cup porcini mushrooms (1/4 cup if dried)

1 cup of brown mushrooms

1 clove of garlic, minced

3 TBS olive oil

2 cups of beef, chicken or vegetable stock

1/4 cup Port wine

1 TBS truffled olive oil

Salt + Pepper

2 TBS sour cream

Saute garlic and mushrooms in oil, stirring vigorously for about 5 minutes

Add the stock, truffle oil and Port wine

Season with salt and pepper

Cook over low heat with the cover on until the mushrooms are soft

Process in the blender, soup should be thick

Serve in warm bowls, garnish with sour cream

Recipe made famous by Isabel Allende – who adds the following instructions:

If you can’t find fresh mushrooms and must use dried ones, soak them in 1/2 c. of good red wine until they spring up happily; in the meantime, while they’re soaking, I calmly drink the remainder of the wine.  Then I mince the garlic clove for the pure pleasure of smelling my fingers, because I could just as easily use it whole, and then saute it with all the mushrooms in the olive oil, stirring vigorously for a few minutes — I’ve never counted, but let’s say five.  I add the stock, the port, and the truffled olive oil — not quite all of it.  I leave a couple of drops to dab behind my ears; let’s not forget, it’s aphorodisiac.  I season with salt and pepper, and cook over low heat with the lid on until the mushrooms are soft and the house smells like heaven.  The last step:  process it in the blender; this is the least poetic part of the preparation, but it’s unavoidable.  The soup should end up with a slightly thick texture, like mud, and with a perfume that makes you salivate and awakens other secretions of body and soul.  I put on my best dress, paint my fingernails red, and serve the soup, in warmed bowls, garnished with a dollop of sour cream.

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Count-Down To Christmas Dinner – Fennel and Orange Salad

Posted in Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , on December 8, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Fenouil

Image via Wikipedia

Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

I‘m sure you heard the news around Thanksgiving that 94% of all Americans having Thanksgiving Dinner had turkey as the main course.  Not so with Christmas!  It seems that besides turkey (yes some people replicate their Thanksgiving Day dinner one month later), roast beef, crown roast of pork, baked ham (spiral, pineapple decorated etc) all vie for the center of the table.  Whatever you choose, I think you’ll like this simple flavorful salad.

It’s light, crisp, colorful, healthy and easy to make.  You can slice the oranges and fennel the day before (in between wrapping presents), refrigerate separately covered with plastic wrap.

1 TBS white-wine vinegar

2 TBS olive oil

Coarse salt and ground pepper

5 navel oranges

3-4 fennel bulbs (about 2 pounds total), ends trimmed, quartered lengthwise, cored and thinly sliced, crosswise, plus 1/4 cup roughly chopped fennel fronds (optional)

In a large bowl, whisk together vinegar and oil, season with salt and pepper.

Using a sharp knife, slice off both ends of each orange.  Following the curve of the fruit, cut away the peel and white pith. Halve orange from top to bottom; thinly slice crosswise.  Transfer oranges along with any juices that have accumulated on work surface. to bowl with dressing.  Add fennel and if desired, fronds. Toss to combine.

Recipe from Martha Stewart

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Count-Down to Thanksgiving Dinner-Green Bean Not Quite Casserole

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, tagged , , , , on November 20, 2010| 1 Comment »

Whole green beans in a carton

Image via Wikipedia

Every year I’ve made “the” green bean-mushroom soup-onion ring casserole; known in my house as “the white-trash casserole”.  My children are so descriptive… NOT this year!! What I’m making is a  sophisticated adult version à la Martha. I think it’s going to be great and it’s heart-healthy too.

Green Beans with Creamy Mushrooms and Shallots

1 3/4 lb green beans trimmed

1 TBS plus 1 1/2 tsp olive oil

2 large shallots, thinly-sliced (1/2 cup)

3/4 cup low sodium chicken broth

2 tsp cornstarch

8 oz cremini mushrooms, trimmed, sliced to 1/8″ thick

1/3 cup 2 percent Greek yogurt

Coarse salt and ground pepper

Bring large pot of water to boil.  Blanch beans until tender, about 6 minutes.  Drain.

Meanwhile, heat 1 1/2 tsp oil in a large non-stick skillet over MEDIUM heat.  Cook shallots, stirring occasionally, until tender and just starting to brown, 3 – 4 minutes.  Transfer shallots to a small bowl, and wipe skillet clean with  paper towel.

Whisk together stock and cornstarch.  Heat remaining tablespoon of oil in skillet over HIGH heat.  Cook mushrooms, stirring occasionally until golden brown, about 6 minutes.  Reduce heat to low, add shallots.  Whisk in stock mixture. Cook until thick, about 3 minutes more.  Remove from heat.  Stir in yogurt and 1/2 tsp salt; season with pepper.  Toss in beans.  Serve warm.


 

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Count Down to Thanksgiving-Great Salad Side

Posted in Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, tagged , , , , , on November 12, 2010| 1 Comment »

For years I struggled with trying to find an appropriate salad to serve on Thanksgiving Day.  Salad itself presents the problem of necessitating another plate on a crowded table.  However with so many carbs on the table, I like to have a light dish to balance out the meal. This is the salad I’m serving this year.

Escarole, Persimmons, Pomegranate Seeds w/Lemon-Shallot Dressing

3/4 cup freshly squeezed lemon juice (3-4 lemons)

1/4 cup minced shallots

2 TBS grainy mustard

2 TBS chopped fresh marjoram

1 cup extra virgin olive oil

1 tsp coarse salt

1/4 tsp freshly ground pepper

2 heads escarole, washed and torn into bite-size pieces

5 Fuyu persimmons, very thinly sliced

Seeds of 1 pomegranate

Combine the lemon juice, shallots mustard and marjoram in a medium bowl, and whisk to combine.  Slowly add olive oil, whisking constantly, until incorporated.  Season with salt and pepper.

Toss escarole with just enough vinaigrette to coat.  Arrange persimmon slices over greens and sprinkle with pomegranate seeds, if using.  Serve remaining vinaigrette on the side.

Thanksgiving salad, pomegranate seeds

Heart Healthy Too!

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Cooking Up a Storm

Posted in BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Marthaspeak, tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , on November 7, 2010| 2 Comments »

Linguine

Image via Wikipedia

Now there’s a crazy phrase! Let’s see how do you bake a tornado, or souffle a hurricane? Well look for this one sometime in the future in another blog.  Today is really about cooking;  what’s in the crock pot right now is Slow-Cooked Collard Greens with Smoked Turkey and it smells so good, the whole house is filled with the aroma.  I started on Saturday morning cooking;  Into the crock pot went the makings of Slow-Cooked Beef Minestrone see previous blog for recipe:

https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2010/09/29/slow-cooked-beef-minestrone/. And while that was simmering all day, I decided to make some Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash Soup also published in a previous blog: https://pbenjay.wordpress.com/2010/10/05/roasted-chicken-and-butternut-squash-soup. It wasn’t really that cold this weekend so I’m not sure where the urge to soup-things-up came from but nonetheless, I love soups and am glad I now have a few containers of Minestrone in the freezer.

Last night’s dinner was the Roasted Chicken and Butternut Squash soup and when asked by you know who,“what’s for dinner”? and I told him, I got a less than enthusiastic reply.  I was informed that soup didn’t sound like much of a meal.  First of all I had to remind him that he has had it before and has remarked that “its a meal all by itself” because this soup is chunky, thick and full of chicken too.  So I thought about it and had recently seen a pasta recipe that I considered light- so why not make that as well.  Linguine with Lemon Cream Sauce was delightful, I loved it and I never really told you know who that it had cream in it.

Linguine with Lemon Cream Sauce

Coarse salt and ground pepper

1# Linguine

1 tsp. Olive Oil

2 Shallots, minced

1 cup of Heavy Cream

1 TBSP Lemon Zest (1 lemon)

2 TBSP Lemon juice

Cook pasta and reserve 2 cups of  pasta water.  Drain and return to pot.  Cook shallots in oil in small pot over MEDIUM heat till tender (4 min).  Add cream and lemon zest and bring to boil and cook until slightly thickened ( I stirred almost constantly) about 8 minutes.  Add lemon juice, salt, pepper.  I added some pasta water at that point, judging the consistency as I like it.  I also sprinkled some grated cheese over the top also.

Recipe from Martha Stewart’s Every Day Food


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Countdown to Thanksgiving Dinner

Posted in BY THE WAY, Everyday Food, Tasty Tidbits Tuesday, tagged , , , , , , , , on November 2, 2010| Leave a Comment »

Snickers

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Tasty Tidbits Tuesday

Now that I have OD’d on Reese’s peanut butter cups, malted milk balls and eaten more than my share of snack-size Snickers, I figure it’s time to start planning the Thanksgiving Day meal.   I came from a family who served the same side dishes year after year (TRA-DISH- UN)!  During the years my kids were growing up and Thanksgiving was a meal shared with the extended family, TRA-DISH-UN again ruled and certain sides were absolutely mandatory.  Now you may be thinking I’m talking about Candied Sweet Potatoes or Giblet gravy or well you know…but what I mean is stuffed artichokes, stuffed mushrooms and a certain bread stuffing. That was how the first 40 Thanksgivings went down.  I’m not criticizing those meals because I loved some of the family traditions we had;  Like sitting at the table from 1pm till 9pm.  After the main course, we would put a big bowl of grapes, apples and tangerines on the table and a bowl of mixed nuts (in the shells of course).  Then the coffee was brewed and the pies came out.  And once those dishes were cleared off the table, we played games.  It could be anything from Monopoly, Family Feud or Trivial Pursuit ( you can see the chronological progression in the choice of games).

Fast forward and for the last 20 years or so, I have let my autonomy and creativity take hold.  It’ has resulted in a file folder chock full of assorted recipes for a Thanksgiving dinner.  Stuffing has evolved through sausage, chestnut, cornbread and herb.  Depending on who’s at the table, the sides might include an old favorite such as string bean casserole known in my house as White  Trash Casserole (my kids term, not mine) or even (yuk) canned cranberry sauce.

All of this distertation is not really digression but rather a lead in to my idea of posting several dishes from Thanksgivings past and present over the next couple of weeks.  Maybe it’s a warning to those of you who don’t cook or who don’t like to vicariously cook through reading recipes.  So you have been forewarned and let the recipes begin!!!!

ROASTED PARSNIPS with ORANGE ZEST

2 lbs. parsnips, peeled and cut into large match sticks

1 Tbsp olive oil

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp fresh ground black pepper

Grated zest of one orange

Heat oven to 500 degrees.  Place parsnips in a large bowl; drizzle with olive oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper. Toss to coat.  Turn parsnips into large roasting pan and roast, shaking pan occasionally, until golden, 10 -15 minutes.

Remove from oven, add juices and zest, and toss to coat.  Return to oven and roast until parsnips have caramelized, 5 – 10 minutes.  Transfer to warm bowl and serve.

Serves: 6-8     Time: 15-20 minutes



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