Anniversary Tartar Sauce

To accompany Fish n’ Chips

 

1. 1 small garlic dill pickle, minced
2. 1/4 cup mayo
3. 1/4 cup sour cream
4. 1 tsp mustard
5. lemon juice and black pepper to taste

mix

Spiced Olive Oil for dipping

I recently had this at a Middle-Eastern fusion restaurant as the bread-olive oil starter.  It’s addictive, fast, and cheap!

• 1-2 tsp each of sumac, sesame seeds, dried thyme
• 1/2 tsp each  red chili flakes
• 1-3 tbsp Olive Oil (if necessary, lighten with some vegetable oil)
• optional : dash of dried marjoram and ground black pepper

Mix everything together.  Eat with fresh bread, cheese, and cucumber 🙂

Juergen’s all-purpose side sauce

This goes really well on steak or a roast.  It also goes with bread as a snack.  Guaranteed, Juergen is eating this right now.

Ingredients:

• 1/2 red onion, finely chopped (optional)
• olive oil
• 1-2 avocados, chopped
• 1-2 thai /serrano /jalapeno/jabanero chiles, very finely chopped
• 2-3 tomatoes, chopped
• lemon juice
• salt

Method:

1. Combine the tomato, onion, chili, and avocado in a bowl.
2. Add a hefty drizzle of olive oil and mix.  Don’t mash up the avocado like guacamole.
3. Add lemon juice and salt to taste.

Food Explosion #1 {Food Notes}

Roasted chicken with coriander-caper-sauce, roasted red bell peppers, egggplant-pine nut couscous.

YUM

Chicken: lemons, butter, caper juice, olive juice, olives.  Sauce gravy with white wine, coriander, capers, rosemary.

Dinner Improv: Creamy Pesto

jar of pesto + roux = creamy pesto.  add linguini and green beans = yum 🙂

(bare-bones roux= butter + flour + milk)

Cole Slaw {food notes}

mayo?, white vinegar, white wine vinegar, olive oil?, sugar, salt, pepper, celery seed, green & red cabbage.

pulled pork, pickles

Red and White Sauce

I apologize for the roughness of this recipe.  But there’s no time like the present to shed your water-wings and swim in the deep end!

Put about a cup of plain yogurt, a clove or two of garlic, and some salt in a blender (or just finely mince the garlic and mix with yogurt and salt). Blend until smooth. You can adjust the amount of yogurt, garlic, and salt as you like. Stir in half a bunch of chopped fresh dill (optional).

In a small sauce pan add a few tbsp of canola oil.  Heat over medium heat for a few minutes.  Add 1-2 tbsp of crushed red pepper and paprika, fry for a minute or two.  You can also add some finely chopped flat leaf parsley and a tbsp of tomato paste if you like.  This time I made it without dill and with tomato paste–if you make it with dill, I suggest you omit the tomato paste.

Toss cooked penne pasta with the yogurt sauce.  Serve in serving bowls and drizzle the fried red pepper over it. (it’s much thicker and richer if you add tomato paste, I suggest you add some water)  Chopped red onion is also a nice garnish 🙂

Good Earth Thai Salad, Spicy Peanut Dressing

This recipe is one my favorite salads from Good Earth Cafe.  I wish I invented it, but I didn’t 🙂

• shredded red and green cabbage
• sliced strawberries
• sliced almonds
• red and green bell pepper, julienned
• sliced red onion
• fried wonton strips/chow mein noodles
• fresh mint & basil, chopped
• spicy asian peanut dressing*
• pesto grilled chicken (optional)
• garlic bread (optional)

Toss it up and devour 🙂

* you can make your own below, these days I get mine from Trader Joe’s

Nassy Spicy Peanut Dressing:

• 1/4 cup of peanuts or 1 – 2 tbsp peanut butter (start with a little bit and add more to taste)
• 1 bunch cilantro with stems  (why waste?)
• 1/2 of a jalapeno pepper
• a splash of rice vinegar
• 1 tsp of soy sauce
• 1/2 – 1 tsp of sesame oil
• a small wedge of iceberg lettuce (optional, it adds liquid and makes the pepper taste more mild)

Blend in a food processor until smooth.  I add the smallest amount of every ingredient (especially when using soy sauce and sesame oil), then add more to taste after it’s been blended.  My advice is to do the same and remember that patience is a virtue 🙂

 

Lolita’s Hot Sauce/Salsa

According to Brian, this is what makes California Burritos great: Lolita’s Hot Sauce.

Ingredients:

• 3-4 serrano peppers
• 2-3 tbsp tomato paste
• 1 tbsp maple syrup
• salt
• water

Method:

1. Boil the serrano peppers until they’re a bit swollen, soft, and darker green.  Reserve the water
2. In a food processor, process peppers, tomato paste, salt (to taste), maple syrup and water (add the water in stages until you reach your desired consistency).

Serve with California Burritos.  What’s a California Burrito?  A burrito with carne asada, french fries, cheese, hot sauce/salsa, and sour cream.

Dinner Improv, Garlic-Lemon-Butter Sauce

Chicken with garlic-lemon butter sauce, green beans, and bulgur.

Sauce Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp butter
• juice of one lemon
• 1-2 cloves minced garlic
• 1 tbsp cornstarch
• 1 tbsp water
• 1/3 cup milk
• salt

Method:

1. In a small saucepan over medium-low heat, melt butter and mix in garlic and lemon juice.
2. In a small bowl, mix cornstarch with water until smooth.  Add to the saucepan and stir.
3. Slowly add the milk to the saucepan, stirring constantly until smooth.
4. Add salt to taste.
5. Serve over baked chicken and green beans.

Green Relish makes the Omlette

I just made an amazingly good omelette with left over mashed potatoes, spicy green relish, and cheddar cheese (and eggs of course).  Eggs are one of the greatest and cheapest forms of protein in my fridge ( tofu doesn’t last and beans take too long).   I heated up some mashed potatoes in a skillet, added some green relish, cracked 4 eggs over the whole thing and added salt and pepper. After the egg looked 90% cooked, I added grated cheddar cheese and mixed it all up into a mash, then let it sit so that it crisped up on the bottom.  I had wanted to add some left-over chicken too, but I forgot it was in the fridge 😦 Voila! Dinner.

Here’s the green relish recipe, a la Nassy:

Ingredients:

• 1 bunch cilantro
• 1 jalapeno
• 1 tbsp fresh ginger
• 1 clove garlic
• 1 tbsp peanut butter
• 3-4 tbsp mayo or plain yogurt
• juice of one lemon
• salt to taste

Method:

1. Put it all in a blender or food processor and blend until smooth.

What can I do with this Relish?

Since this is essentially an Indian food recipe it will go well with Indian Food.  I used it in grilled cheese Panini (mozzarella, sourdough, and relish) and I’m sure it’ll be great as a spread in other types of sandwiches.  It was a great flavor for the mashed potatoes in the above omelette.  I’d really like to try it as a sauce for grilled shrimp or seared scallops.  If you add it to sour cream it’ll be a great dip for crudite and chips.

Lomo Saltado & Green Sauce

I love this recipe!  but it’s so intense to make—and then again SO worth it!  I’m going to have to put it back into rotation.  I always use frozen french fries and bake them in the oven while I chop the vegetables.  I made homemade fries once, but it was too much effort and I didn’t like how they turned out for Lomo Saltado.  Crispy fries are the best because when they soak up the meat sauce they don’t get soggy.

Ingredients:

• beef steak
• 1 white onion sliced
• 4-5 medium tomatoes quartered or sliced depending on the size
• 1/2 bunch cilantro chopped
• 2 jalapenos thinly sliced long on the diagonal
• 2 cloves garlic minced
• 1/2 tsp ground cumin
• 2 tbsp white vinegar
• 2 dashes of soy sauce
• vegetable oil
• prepared french fries frozen or homemade
• steamed white rice

Sauce:

• 1/4-1/3 cup mayo
• 2-3 jalapeno peppers
  
• 1 head of iceberg lettuce
• 1/2 bunch cilantro
• 3-4 green onions
• one lime juiced
• salt and pepper

Method:

Green Sauce:

1. Put everything in a blender and blend until smooth.

Lomo Saltado:

1. Brown the meat over medium-high heat in a large skillet with a bit of oil. Remove the meat from the pan, let rest for 5 minutes, thinly slice.
2. Saute onion, jalapeno,  and tomato.
3. Add garlic, cumin, vinegar, and soy sauce.
4. Add the meat back to the pan and turn off the fire.
5. Toss with chopped cilantro and french fries.
6. Serve over white rice with the green sauce on the side.

Yogurt Sauce

This sauce goes well with falafel, it’s also very good on rice, with Indian food, and alone as a chilled soup.  If you like a smooth consistency you can process it in a blender and forgo the addition of water.

Ingredients: 

• 1 cup plain yogurt
• 1-2 persian cucumbers diced
• 1 clove garlic minced
• 1 tsp dried mint (or fresh)
• 2 tbsp onion minced (optional)
• salt
• water

Method:
1. Mix the yogurt, cucumber, garlic, and mint in a bowl.  If you are using onion add it as well.
2. Dilute with water until it’s your desired runny-ness.
3. Add salt to taste.