Cuttlefish and Smoked Salmon Spicy Chowder

I know, it has been AGES since I have written a post. All with having a baby and all, I haven't really had the time to write. I have actually made some delish dishes a few times, but never got to blogging about it. This post is an afterthought (which is why these pictures show the pot minus the two bowls of soup we ate for lunch!). I made a very yummy meal today, while trying to clean out the fridge and get rid of stuff, because we are off to NYC for a month in just 2 days! I apologize in advance for the vagueness of this post, but I will say that many amazing plates come out of just throwing a bunch of good ingredients together! As I always say, it's all about having fun and experimenting in the kitchen. So here goes my first post this year...

So here is what you need:

-2 pieces of cuttlefish

-3 slices of smoked salmon

-2 fish heads or th

-2 onionse skeleton of a fish for the broth

-2 carrots

-1 big tomato

-6 potatoes

-1 small green pepper

-6 pieces of garlic

-a handful of fresh basil

-2 fresh jalapenos (you can substitute for any spicy pepper)

-1/2 stick of butter

-1 pint of heavy cream

-salt and pepper

For Rue:

-1/2 stick of butter

-3-4 tablespoons of flour

-1/4 cup of white wine

-1 cup of milk

First finely cut up the onions, garlic, pepper, tomato and peeled carrots. Next, peel the potato and cut it up in uniformed medium squares. Cut up the 2 cuttlefish in small squares. At the same time, put the fish heads/scales in a pot and boil in about 1 1/2 liter of water for 20 minutes on medium high. Make sure to scoop out any white foam that develops on the top, which leaves you with a nice clean broth. Saute the onions, carrots, garlic and peppers in a large pot with 1/2 stick of butter- which will be the pot that the cho

wder is made in. I used a nice big caste iron one that I LOVE (from IKEA). After about 5 minutes, add the tomatoes and continue sauteing for another 5-10 minutes. Add the potatoes and cuttlefish and pour the broth directly through a fine strainer into the pot with the vegetables. Cut up the spicy peppers in big pieces, throwing away the top slice, as the seeds are the spiciest part of the pepper. You can put the whole pepper in the soup if you like your food very spicy! Add about a tablespoon of salt and some pepper. Turn your pot down to a medium heat and cover halfway (I slant the top so that it's balanced on top but doesn't fully cover the pot) and cook, stirring occasionally for about 30 minutes.

In the meantime you're going to make a rue. Melt 1/2 stick of butter on low heat in a small pan, add the 3-4 spoons of flour and whisk until it thickens, add the milk in little by little, stopping once in a while to whisk the mixture and allow to thicken. Once the milk is mixed in, add in the wine and continue to whisk. Once the rue is nice and thick and smooth, remove it from the heat and set it to the side for when you need to incorporate it into the soup. You'll know that your soup is nearly done, when you take out a potato and try it and it's nice and soft- but not falling apart (you don't want mushy soup!). When the soup is at this point, stir in the pint of heavy c

ream and rue. Cook for another 5-8 minutes, then try and add salt and pepper to taste. Lastly, dice up the salmon and chop up the basil and throw it in the soup and cover the soup and let it sit for 5 minutes. Serve and enjoy!

Hopefully it won't take me as long as it took me to write this post to return with another great recipe!

Tofu Veggie Burgers

So I had a pack of tofu in the fridge which was about to expire, and I though, what to do? Hmm...tofu burgers! I grabbed some ingredients, threw them together in my wonderful food proccessor. Added eggs. Made the burgers, let them cool in the fridge, fried them and voila, DELICIOUS and healthy burgers!
Ingredients:

-a packet of tofu
-3 pieces of garlic
-1/2 onion
-1/2 green pepper
-2 carrots
-2 zucchini
-2 eggs
-hot paprika
-salt
-fresh parsley
-oil for frying.


If you have a food processor, then this is super easy. If you don't you will have to cut/grate where I used one. Throw the tofu, onion, garlic, pepper and parsley in the food processor and chop up ingredients. Remove the knife attachment and add the grating attachment. Grate the carrots and zucchini. Pour everything in a bowl and add the salt and paprika. Mix in 2 eggs. Form hamburgers and put them on an oiled tray and allow to cool in the fridge for at least 30 minutes. Put 1/4 inch of oil (I used olive but you can use vegetable or sunflower) in a pan and heat up. Fry the burgers on medium/low heat until brown on each side. Make sure to not fry the burgers too high or they will cook on the outside, and be raw in the middle.







Enjoy on a hamburger bun or your favourite toasted bread with lettuce, tomato, avocado, etc. and your favourite sauce like ketchup, spicy mustard and mayonnaise!

Coming Soon! Vegetarian Burgers with potato and sweet potato fries!

Just as soon as I can get this recipe out it'll be up. For now, you can look at the pic and drool! This is delish!!!!

VEGETARIAN BURGERS WITH DUAL COLORED FRIES

Lately I just haven't been a fan of fish, and some of you may not know, but I don't eat any other kind of meat. I was really craving a good ole American meal, so I decided that I needed to make vegetarian burgers. I've never made these before. So I researched online, seeing what different ingredients are used to make vegetarian burgers, and according to what I saw and what I had in my fridge, I came up with this delicious recipe! I can hardly wait to make these Veggie Burgers again!

Ingredients for Vegetarian Burgers:

-1 large can of white beans
-125g of mushrooms (a small package)
-1 red onion
-2 spring onions
-1/2 red pepper
-2 pieces of garlic
-1 whole grated carrot
-3 handfuls of fresh parsley
-bread crumbs
-1 egg
-2 tsp. paprika
-1 tsp. hot paprika
-1 tsp. cumin
-1/2 tsp. oregano
-a sprinkle of sesame seeds
-a pinch of ground ginger
-a pinch of cayenne
-a pinch of black pepper
-salt to taste
-olive oil


Ingredients for Fries:

-3 red potatoes
-1 large sweet potato
-vegetable oil (for frying)

First, wash all of the vegetables. Dice up the red onion and mushrooms and stick them in a pan with 2-3 tbsp. of olive oil,. Sprinkle with salt and saute on medium heat for about 5 minutes. Next, dice the red pepper and add and continue to saute the vegetables. Then slice up the spring onion and garlic. When the mushrooms, red onion and red pepper have reduced add the spring onion and garlic, sprinkle more salt and stir. When the juices in the vegetables have evaporated quite a bit in about 10 minutes, turn off and set to the side.

In a big bowl, mash up the rinsed white beans with a fork or potato masher. Add all of the spices. Rinse and dice up the fresh parsley and add to the beans. Peel the carrot, grate it and add that and the sauteed vegetables to the bean mixture. Break an egg into the beans and mix, sprinkle the seasame seeds in. Add three handfuls of bread crumbs, or the amount necessary to make the mixture stick together easily.

On a plate, drizzle some olive oil and rub around with a paper towel. This will prevent the veggie burgers from sticking. Next, scoop up a hand of the mixture and form into a burger. Place on the plate and repeat until all of the mixture is used. Put in the fridge and allow to chill for about an hour.

In the meantime, peel the potatoes, slice them into little sticks and set them aside in a bowl with water so that they won't turn brown and stay crisp. A little before the hour has passed, drain the potatoes well and begin frying the potatoes in abundant vegetable oil on medium heat. The sweet potato fries cook faster, so be careful to keep an eye on them. When the fries are light brown, place them on kitchen towel to soak up some of the oil when done, and cover to keep them warm. Don't worry if they get cold, you can stick them in the microwave for a few seconds to heat them up when it's time to eat. And don't forget to sprinkle them with some salt!

After chilled, remove the burgers from the fridge. Pour 3 tbsp. of olive oil into a pan and cook the burgers on medium heat, browning them well on each side.

Serve American style, on a toasted bun with ketchup and/or mayonnaise and a slice of spinach (or lettuce), tomato and red onion.

Even if you are a big meat eater, I encourage you to try out this recipe. It's guaranteed to please your palate!

Eat up! And keep on creating wonderful new inventions in the kitchen!

Atun Encebollado----------Tuna with Onions

This is a super easy typical Spanish recipe!

What you need:

-2 thick slices of raw red tuna steak
-2 medium sized onions
-2 laurel leaves
-20 black pepper corn seeds
-1/2 cup of white/rose wine
-salt
-3 tbsp. olive oil

Pour olive oil into saucer and allow to heat on low. Add the sliced onions and sautee for 5 minutes. Then add the 20 peppercorn seeds, 2 laurel leaves and sprinkle salt on top the onions. Cut the tuna up into cubes and place them in the pan, covering the tuna with the sauteed onions. Add the 1/2 cup of wine and cover and cook on low for 15-20 minutes.

Eat as is, or serve over rice or accompanied by a nice bread.

Keep on cooking!

Sweet Potato Pie

With Thanksgiving having just passed, and the Holidays right around the corner, I thought I'd blog my sweet potato pie recipe. The origin of this recipe is my mom. What's great about cooking is that you can take someone's recipe, tweak it and make it your own! But this is definitely my mother's Sweet Potato Pie recipe!

Ingredients:

-Pre-made or homemade pie dough
-Dried beans or chick peas
-4-5 eggs
-2 sweet potatoes
-molasses
-1/2 tbsp. ginger powder
-1/2 tsp. nutmeg
-1 tbsp. cinnamon
-1 tbsp. vanilla
-1 1/2 cans of evaporate milk or heavy cream

Stick the sweet potatoes in the microwave until done, you can test this by sticking a fork into the potato. If it goes in easily, it's done. If you haven't got a microwave, peel and boil the sweet potatoes until done. In a blender or food processor mix the eggs, add the evaporated milk/heavy cream, peeled sweet potatoes, 3-4 spoons of sugar which is optional depending on how sweet you want it and 4-6 tbsps. of molasses depending on how sweet you want it, you can try the batter and adjust accordingly (side note* my brother and I used to love the sweet potato pie mixture so much that we'd joke about just drinking it and sometimes my mother had to separate us from the batter to have the pie actually make it to the oven). While mixing these ingredients, you should put the bean filled pie crust in the pre-heated oven at 175 C/345 F for 10 minutes. Remove the beans when done and save them, they are still perfectly fine for later use! When the pie mixture is fully blended and tastes good, pour it into the pie crust and stick it in the oven for about 45 minutes, or until you can stick a toothpick in it and it comes out clean. Allow the pie to cool before putting it in the fridge. Cool it in the fridge for several hours before serving.

Serve with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream. It's delicious and nutritious and a family fav!

Enjoy and HAPPY HOLIDAYS!!!!

Coming Soon...

SWEET POTATO PIE!!!!!!





I hope that your preparations for Thanksgiving are going well. I wish you safe travels and regardless of if you are with people or not, a day of reflection on the greatness in your lives and this is what you should indeed be thankful for. I am thankful for your following!

Happy Thanksgiving!