A Flat Fish

Halibut comes from a dutch word "heilbot", a flat fish. This is what we had for dinner tonight; a very light and healthy one. We are really making an effort eat lighter meals at night at an earlier time.
First off, I prepared my own salad dressing. I juiced one lemon in small bowl, added a pinch of cumin, 2 tablespoons of honey and whisked in about 1/4 c. of olive oil. Seasonead with salt and pepper to taste.

And then, I seasoned the halibut filets in salt and pepper, then sauteed them in extra virgin olive oil using my iron cast skillet. It took about 4 mins to brown the fish on one side, and about 2-3 mins on the other side.

While waiting for the fish to be done, I got my veggies together. I just used a storebought mixed spring greens, 1 c. of sliced cherry tomatoes, 1/2 c. of fennel, 1/2 c. of chick peas. Tossed the veggie with the dressing.
You may eat the salad as shown in the photo. Another option would be to dice the fish when they're cool enough to handle, and toss the pieces in the salad, so they can also get coated with the dressing. I prefer to eat it this way.

Such a good meal. Even leaves you room for a cookie or two for dessert. :o)

Chocolate Ravioli-Wontons

I have yet to meet a person who doesn't like Nutella. And if I do, I would certainly tell that person that he/she is not normal! What's not to love about it? This gooey, creamy, rich hazelnut chocolate spread is just addicting.

But Nutella is more than just a spread for bread (hmmnn, good title). I've learned that you can use it in various ways for desserts. Such as this one I'm sharing with you today.

If you've read my previous posts, you'd know that we've got friends who are leaving for South Africa, the Logans. Well, our other friends, Marcy and Heredes, made dinner for them on Monday night. Marcy made a very tasty lasagana and salad (wish I had photos of her lasagna, sorry). And Marcy requested that I make this for dessert. How could I say NO?

And so we had this chocolate-filled ravioli-wontons for dessert. It's a perfect Asian-Italian fusion. Thanks again to my my fave Chef, Giada de Laurentiis for the recipe.

I'm telling you, if you've got a chocolate craving and you just don't want to eat Nutella out from the container, this would be a good substitute. Very easy, very simple. The crunchy wontons with the creamy chocolate that oozes out as you bite into it just hits the spot! The only thing is that when frying, this requires your full attention as the wontons get done ever so quickly!

The sugared mint leaves is just a garnish (as suggested in the recipe), but the wontons are perfectly fine eaten without the herb. Enjoy!

Fried Raviolis With Choco-Hazelnut Filling:
16 wonton wrappers
1 egg, beaten to blend
1 cup chocolate-hazelnut spread (recommended: Nutella)
Vegetable oil, for frying
16 fresh mint leaves
Nonstick vegetable oil spray
Granulated sugar, for dredging
Powdered sugar, for dusting

1. Brush the edges of the wonton wrapper lightly with egg. Cover the rest of your wontons in a damp towel to prevent them from drying out.
2. Spoon 1 tablespoon of chocolate-hazelnut spread into the center of the wrapper. Fold the wrapper diagonally in half over the filling and press the edges of the wrapper to seal. Repeat with the remaining wonton wrappers.
3. Add enough oil to a heavy large frying pan to reach a depth of 2 inches. Heat the oil over medium heat to 350 degrees F.
4. Working in batches, carefully add the ravioli to the hot oil and cook until they are golden brown, about 45 seconds per side.
5. Using a slotted spoon, transfer the ravioli to a plate lined with paper towels to drain. Then, transfer the cooked ravioli to another baking sheet and keep them warm in the 200 degrees F oven while frying the remaining ravioli.
6. Spray the top side of the mint leaves very lightly with nonstick spray. Working with 1 leaf at a time, dredge the coated side of the leaves in sugar to coat lightly.
7. Arrange 2 fried ravioli on each plate. Dust the ravioli with powdered sugar. Garnish with the sugared mint leaves and serve.

Note: The fried ravioli can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cool them completely, then cover and refrigerate. Before serving, place them on a baking sheet and rewarm in a preheated 375 degrees F oven just until they are heated through, about 7 minutes.

P.S. Photos courtesy of Holly. Great job, Holly!

Top O' The Mawnin' To Ya!

I like the T-Mobile TV commercial showing a guy who keeps making mistakes while leaving messages for his last night's date. There's one particular version where he says "top o' the mawnin' to ya" which never fails to make my husband and I chuckle everytime we see it on. So funny.

Well, what I have here for you today is something that I hope will give you the "top o' the mawnin'" feeling - one of my breakfast sandwiches. I've heard too many times that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. And I do agree with that, however, good breakfast in the morning has become a luxury, especially to those working guys & gals, like me, who are always pressed for time first thing in the morning. So, we have to be creative in making breakfasts-on-the-go. Well, today, I decided to make these croissant-egg omelette sandwhich for my hubby and I. Croissant is one of my favorite breads and it is my opinion that no matter what you pair it with, it's going to be delicious. But, this bread is not for those counting the calories, so be careful.

1/4 c of yellow onion (sliced thinly)
1/4 c of red bell pepper (diced)
1/2 c of ham (diced)
1/2 c of egg-beaters (or more, just eyeball the amount)
2 handfuls of pre-shredded italian mix cheese
salt, pepper, dash of tabasco to taste

Dice your veggie and ham the night before inorder to save you time in the morning. Then saute the veggies, followed by the ham. When the veggies are soft and the ham are cooked, add your eggs, then season with S&P. Please make sure to set your heat to low since eggs, when cooked in high temperature, can really get stiff. Anyway, when you see that the eggs have dried up a bit and the edges have pulled away from the pan, then it's time to fold the omelette. I just fold it into half since it's going to be eaten as a sandwich anyway.

In the meantime, slice your croissants in half and put them in the toaster oven, just enough to warm them through. When you take out your croissant, add the cheese on both halves. The cheese will act as a glue to your egg. Then place your omelette on top of the cheese, add a dash of tabasco for a little heat, and that's it.

I did this omellete first thing when I got up from bed. When the sandwiches were done, I wrapped them in foil, set the oven toaster to 200 degrees and just let the sandwhiches hang out there until we were ready to leave. This way, we'd leave with warm sandwiches. Also, I made our coffee (decaf for me) and poured them onto our travelling mugs . There it is, our breakfast to go.

The Last Supper

Just a few days before they leave for their 3-year missions trip to South Africa, we had the pleasure of having our dearest friends, the Logans – Kevin, Holly, Emily & Katie – join us for dinner at our home last Saturday. As in the past times, it was a joy to have them, but this particular Saturday was somewhat a bittersweet time, at least for me, knowing that we’re going to be missing these people who we’ve come to consider not just as friends, but as family.
Before I go all mushy here……….Needless to say, I wanted a special dinner for them. Alas, it was not so hard to think of what to cook because I know that both Kevin and Holly are smitten (haha!) with my hubby’s steak – the “Joe-steak” as Holly has called it to be. (Actually, Holly DID request the Joe-steak..)

So off I went to the grocery on Saturday, carefully picking out the most beautiful pieces of rib-eye steaks that I could find. Then, I made it a point to season the steak hours before grilling them, to make sure that the meat has marinated well in the spices. The rub that I used was one that my hubby mixed together himself, inspired by Emeril’s Southwest seasoning. His twist was to add about 1/4 cup of dark brown sugar to the mixture.

What goes well with steak? I bet 90% of those who are asked with this question will say “potatoes”. Well , while at the grocery, I got attracted to a bag of fingerling potatoes. They’re finger-sized/shaped potatoes - hence the name - in different colors (some gold, some red, some purple). Fingerling potatoes to me, are tastier, sweeter – pricier, but definitely worth it. And so, I grabbed that.

And then to accompany the potatoes, I also got some pencil asparagus – to be roasted, as well.

Because the steak is already flavorful as it is, both the potatoes and the asparagus need not be complicated. So I decided to do another Emeril-inspired recipe – this one I saw him do during his tv show, The Essence of Emeril. It looked so good and was very easy to do so I remembered this particular recipe very well.

The potatoes are just seasoned with a mixture of fresh herbs - sage, rosemary and thyme - then blanched, sautéed and roasted. The roasting part was my twist to the recipe, as I thought the potatoes would come out better that way.

As for the asparagus, they were sautéed in walnut oil and then roasted and garnished with toasted walnuts, of course. Again, the roasting part was my twist. Can you imagine the smell of my house as I was roasting both the potatoes and asparagus? Hmmmnn… so good!

Then ,there's one more item to the menu –Insalata Caprese (Caprese salad). This is yet another simple but very good dish. The key to this is to use fresh mozzarella (not the processed kind) and use a good extra virgin olive oil. Also, I used a mixture of tomato for different shapes – vine-riped and cherry tomatoes. A little lemon juice, salt and pepper and a chiffonade of basil leaves and …. voila!! A real pretty and yummy appetizer!

For dessert, I did a simple one - some Hazelnut-Chocolate Chip cookies from Giada de Laurentiis’ recipe (I love her!). The cookies, I would say, wasn’t as attractive looking as I would have liked them to be – but do not be deceived! They sure tasted delicious. The only change I made to the recipe was by using ½ semi-sweet and ½ bittersweet Ghirardelli chocolate chips (because I thought I had enough semi-sweet chocolate in my pantry).

It was a joy preparing this meal for our friends. As the saying goes, “ the way to a man’s (i.e. friends’) heart is through their stomach”. So, I hope this meal was good enough to remember us by! :oD

Love you guys, God bless you and the Joe-steak will be waiting for you when you get back here in 3 years! PROMISE!

Lets Do The Salsa!

I'm not talking about "Salsa" the dance, though I wish that my hubby and I can do the Salsa like the sexy dance that it is! LOL....

"Salsa" is also the spanish word for sauce, or it could also mean a mix of ingredients, usually involving tomato. I've decided to make a little salsa to accompany our tequila-lime flavored chicken wings. So, lime would be the common ingredient in our dinner tonight. For my version of salsa, here is what I did:

I juiced 1/2 of a lime and whisked in about 3-4 tablespoons of olive oil (more or less, I just eye-balled it), salt and pepper to taste. I let the vinaigrette sit for a few minutes. In a separate bowl, I seeded and diced 2 med. sized vine-riped tomatoes, diced 1/2 softball sized red-onion, seeded and diced 1 piece jalapeño pepper, chopped 2 tablespoons cilantro. Then I tossed the the tomato mixture with the vinaigrette. Adjusted the seasoning.The salsa was a breeze to make, yet it made a perfect pair to our chicken wings. The cilantro really gives this dish a fresh taste, and the crispy but a little spicy jalapeño was a good combination. The salsa served as our salad, but I can imagine that this would be good with some tortilla chips as well.

Note: Jalapeño pepper is very hot, and its heat lies in the seeds and membranes. If you want a more spicy salsa, then you can leave them whole and just dice the whole thing up. Be sure not to touch your eyes while working with the pepper. And don't forget to wash your hands afterwards!

Bubba's Shrimps

Our dinner tonight is all about Bubba's shrimps. Remember the movie Forrest Gump and his friend Bubba? How could you forget a movie that, in my opinion, is still one of the best that's ever made?

Anyway, back to our dinner - I made Shrimp Scampi which I adapted from Emeril Lagasse's recipe. Emeril knows a lot about food and his recipes are great but they usually require so many ingredients. This recipe is, perhaps, one of his easiest that I've ever come across.

Shrimp Scampi
2 pounds shrimp, peeled and deveined-tails left on
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
Olive oil
1 small onion, sliced thinly
2 tablespoons chopped garlic
1 lemon, juiced
1/2 cup white wine
1/2 cup shrimp stock
2 tablespoons cold butter
2 tablespoons chopped parsley leaves
Lemon slices, for garnish
Rice, as accompaniment

1. Season the shrimp thoroughly with salt and pepper.
2. Heat a large saute pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add enough oil to lightly coat the pan. Add the shrimp and quickly saute until just starting to turn pink, but not cooked through. Remove from the pan and set aside.
3. Add the onions and saute just until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes. Add the garlic and cook another 30 seconds. Add the lemon juice, white wine, and stock, and reduce by 2/3, about 5 minutes.
4. Add the shrimp back to the pan and swirl in the butter.
5. Finish with the parsley and check for seasoning.
Here's what I did different to the recipe: 1)I added Emeril's Essence, pinch of red pepper flakes, salt and pepper to the shrimp and let them marinate in the seasoning for about 10 minutes before I sauteed them 2)I used chicken stock instead of shrimp stock since it is what I have on hand.

Seasoning the shrimps apparently was a good call judging from my husband's reaction. He actually said "this is so good" four times when he was eating his dinner! Doesn't that give you the warm fuzzies????

I served the shrimp with freshly steamed white rice and garlic bread. I toasted some slices of sourdough bread, and then rubbed fresh garlic on the bread when I took them right out of the oven. The garlic melts from the heat which makes the bread so garlicky.... so good, so perfect for dipping in the scampi's sauce.

As for the white wine, I used part Pinot Grigio and part Chablis. I had a little amount of Pinot Grigio left which I didn't want to go to waste - hence, the mix.

Finger Lickin' Good

I love it when my husband and I “flow” together - when there’s meeting of minds - it’s incredible.

The hubs was scheduled to work today, Saturday. While I was out for my grocery shopping, I thought that I’d prepare baby back ribs for dinner. It would be a good treat for him after a long hard day of work. So I bought some ribs. As if on cue, I received his text asking me if I wanted to have some ribs for tonight. Hmmnn..… I know my husband!

After cleaning the ribs (took those white membranes off), I placed the ribs in a big pot with water enought to cover it. In the water I also added some garlic cloves, one onion quartered, salt and whole black peppers. I just let the pot simmer until the pork got tender and the flesh are almost coming off from the ribs.
When the ribs were ready, I turned off the heat and just let them cool down for a few minutes. Since my hubby is the master griller, then he grilled the ribs up.

In the meantime, I prepared my own barbecue sauce, which is from Ina Garten of Barefoot Contessa’s recipe. The only thing different I did to the recipe is by adding 3 pcs. of bay leaf.

The recipe makes a lot of barbecue sauce, so if you’re not making a whole batch of meat, then I recommend cutting the recipe into half.