Originated in Argentina, this sauce is versatile as marinade, sauce, dressing and/or condiment usually alongside grilled steak. Today, we see chimichurri used as marinade in this Chimichurri Tofu.
Use Chimichurri Tofu to up the protein in Scallop with Quinoa or they are also mighty enough to stand alone as meatless protein entree in plant-based protein bowls e.g. Five-Spice Tofu Protein Bowl and Yuba Veggies Bowl.
This is an updated Garlic Bread Toast recipe from the earlier Garlic-Herb Butter Crostini posted way back in 2009. Well, thanks to two huge loaves of French bread that I've been making (and eating) many garlic bread toasts!
It is most common in powder form but have you ever seen the fresh moringa plant? The Moringa plant is nutrient-packed - rich in vitamins with significant amounts of Vitamins A, C, and E; and minerals such as calcium and potassium. It also has anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidant properties.
Fresh moringa leaves is an easy and versatile ingredient to cook with. This Moringa Egg Omelet is easy to make and packs nutrition. It is a perfect breakfast entree paired with whole-grain toast and grilled vegetables, also completes a vegetarian lunch/light dinner when served with Peas, Bell Peppers, Zucchini Quinoa. Let's not forget to make nutrient-packed Moringa Egg Omelet sandwich.
Other than the regular grocery stores e.g. Sprouts Farmers Market, Trader Joes, and Whole Foods Market, there are also Korean, Japanese, Chinese grocery stores in the vicintiy. These stores are where I discover new ingredients - ingredients that typically don't show up in the regular stores.
Visiting the Korean supermarket reminded me of the Korean dishes I have made in the past e.g. Easy and Healthy Korean Bibimbap, Korean Spicy Tofu, Korean Spicy Chilled Tofu. I realized it has been some time since I prepared any Korean dishes! However, even with the perilla leaves from the Korean supermarket, sandwiches instead of Korean dishes came to mind. Where is that Korean spark? I wonder.
Popular in Korean cuisine, perilla leaves are commonly used as a wrap for rice, barbecued meats and vegetables, so I don't see any conflict by layering the leaves into this egg, apple and cucumber sandwich. With herb nuances of mint, basil and anise, the perilla leaves brought an ordinary egg sandwich to life.
With salmon in season, I have been making roasted salmon quite regularly. It is an easy and healthy meal to put together - roast the salmon and steam some vegetables.
I usually marinate the salmon with spices - curry powder, ground turmeric, ground coriander, cumin, and black pepper. But since there is homemade pesto available, why not use it as the marinade?
Today, we will have Pesto Salmon, packed with Omega-3s as found in the fish itself and the walnuts in the pesto. Such a fuss-free recipe is a perfect weekday savior, as 30 minutes or less is what it takes for this healthy and delicious dish. It is also a good way to give salmon a quick make-over when the regular grilled/oven-roasted salmon occasionally becomes boring.
Hasselback potato must be one of the fancier ways to serve potatoes. I seldom cook potatoes at home. They usually appear in vegetable potato curry (refer Spicy Cauliflower and Potato Curry) or chicken curry; or when occasionally, steamed/boiled potatoes or mashed potatoes is served alongside a Western-style meal with entree e.g. oven-roasted chicken or oven-roasted salmon; and vegetable-sides e.g. steamed broccoli, roasted carrots, roasted cauliflower (refer Roasted Cauliflower with Basil, Roasted Whole Cauliflower).
The urge of try hasselback potato came by when I made yogurt-pesto sauce some time ago and simply love that sauce-dressing. As the homemade pesto (Basil Walnut Pesto recipe) already has cheese in there, this yogurt-pesto sauce perfectly stands in for the cheese-bacon combo often seen in hasselback potatoes.
Of course, potatoes can be simply diced, then boiled or steamed or roasted (whichever way you prefer), then tossed with this yogurt-pesto sauce. But did I say hasselback potato just looks fancier? It even scored a WOW, or rather "what is that" (in amused and amazed tone) from the other half, as if the potato sliced this way has become something else and not a potato.
The yogurt-pesto sauce is easy to make by mixing homemade pesto into organic plain yogurt.
What do you see in this dish?
A side-component to a Western-style dinner paired with a roast chicken entree?
How about Burger King's Swiss Mushrooms Burger? That was my favorite burger in Burger King when I was much younger.
Steamed Whole Trout in Parchment En Papillote is a quick and easy recipe that yields extraordinary results. With beautiful whole trouts and fresh herbs ready in my kitchen, such a cooking method is typically reserved for hassle-free-cooking.
Previously, I have used a smaller whole trout and stuffed the cavity with green onions, garlic, and ginger.
Today, the recipe uses fresh thyme and rosemary. If you grow these herbs in your garden or kitchen, it is a good time to incorporate them in this recipe. The reasonably big-sized (and long) trout is also perfect to accommodate a generous mix of garden herbs, then baked en papillote which technically steams the fish in the oven.
In order not to overpower the delicateness of the fish, the strong-scented rosemary usage was kept to a minimal ~1-2 sprigs per fish; in comparison to mild lemon-scented thyme that was used quite generously for each fish.
My goal in the kitchen has always been consistent - to simplify cooking as much as possible, yet the kind of quick and easy cooking that yields the best possible flavors.
This year, our small-space garden has transformed from a previously "vegetable-centric" garden to one predominant with herbs and chili. Basil, thyme and rosemary are three herbs that has grown quite well in our garden space. In addition, basil is very easy to propagate by "cuttings", so naturally we had more than enough basil to spare for what my cooking (or rather, my pesto) can accommodate.
As the essential oils e.g. eugenol in basil are highly volatile, it is best to add the herbs near the end of the cooking process, so it will retain its maximum essence and flavor.
Okay, to step out of the pesto-zone, I am going to try something else today, with basil.
These organic rainbow carrots are so attractive and I was instantly drawn to them. Though carrots are available all-year round, fall/autumn is supposedly, or officially, carrots season.
Before roasting
Other than the regular orange carrot
we all know, there are also purple and yellow carrots in this organic rainbow bag (available in my local Sprouts Farmer's Market @$1.99/2-lbs bag). Rainbow carrots is a breed of heirloom carrots naturally created from heirloom yellow and purple carrot seeds, and known to be sweeter than regular orange carrots.
Roasting, with a light drizzle of olive oil, came to mind when it came to meal preparation. Not only it is a quick and easy way to make available the fat-soluble beta-carotene and polyphenols in carrots, the roasting process also concentrates the sugars and brings out the natural
sweetness.
I was too quick in making such comments. Now I think these pesto cucumber bites are the easiest hors d’oeuvres to make. Alright, I maintained my stand on these pesto pita bites being delectable, relatively more delicious than these cucumber bites; but effort-level, give it to these cucumber bites!
Well, they are different. One is warm and toasty while this is cool and crisp.
Without question, I prefer a warm toasty cheesy bite anytime. However, when there is no real need to crank up the oven, these fresh pesto cucumber bites will be the next alternative.
Food historian, Waverley Root, once wrote that a cucumber is “about as close to neutrality as a vegetable can get without ceasing to exist”. In addition, cucumbers are not much of a nutrition powerhouse.
However I sometimes buy
them as they can be a super quick "vegetable" addition to sandwiches. Though not a powerhouse on its own, it can be made a powerhouse
snack-bite with basil walnut pesto.
Finger-friendly snack bites that will definitely please a crowd and
even better, make a crowd envious of this homemade pesto. These pesto pita bites are one of the easiest hors d’oeuvres to make, and they are delectable.
This Italian oil-and-herb sauce with basil's flavonoids and volatile oils - eugenol and rosmarinic acid, boost brain production of dopamine and serotonin therefore lifting up your mood. Basil is also a good source of vitamin K and manganese.
The other healthy ingredient in this pesto is walnuts. This pesto sauce is packed with Omega-3 good fats. Walnuts is a terrific source of protein, but it may not be easy to unlock the energy from the nuts as they are covered in phytates. Phytates is an indigestible plant compound that inhibits our enzymes from fully digesting nuts. By soaking the nuts in purified water overnight, you will rinse away phytates and make the nuts, including the key energy-booster nutrients, more digestible.
At almost the same time August last year, there was a variety of tomato plants and vegetables e.g. kale and Swiss chard growing in our backyard. After a year, some minor changes have taken place and this is the current garden update.
Due to the lack of full sun for long duration especially at the raised bed location, we have cut down on the growing of leafy green vegetables this year, and shifted our growing efforts to container gardening: fruits such as blueberries and pomegranates, vegetable/fruits e.g. watercress, different types of chili, and herbs such as basil, rosemary and thyme.
Herbs - basil, rosemary, thyme
These basil, rosemary, thyme are not grown from seeds, but bought as potted herbs from the nursery. They have survived and flourished. Herbs such as basil and rosemary have also been propagated successfully via stem cuttings.
For all of our chili plants, we have caged them as what you would do to a tomato plant, and have netted around the cage to prevent birds from eating the chili. The use of a reflective pinwheel also works to minimize pests and to prevent birds from eating the chili.
Thai Dragon Chili - bought as a plant from the nursery without fruits. It is now fruiting nicely and some chili have turned red with time.
Dragon Chili
These two ingredients actually landed unexpectedly in my kitchen. 5lb carrots and thyme.
5lb of organic carrots because it was on-sale for just $2.99 and thyme because it was growing (...and growing) in the garden.
Initially, I had some reservations about the quantity of carrots I bought. However after looking it up that carrots store well in the refrigerator (can be up to 3 months! Yay!) and they actually produce more Vitamin A as they store, those worries were gone.
Roasted Carrots with Thyme 百里香红萝卜
Slice the carrots thinly, drizzle and coat with olive oil, toss with finely chopped thyme, season with salt and ground black pepper, then roast in oven (375F for about 30-40mins) till they are cooked.
If you prefer a more robust flavor, you can toss in some finely minced garlic once the carrots are removed from the oven. The heat from the carrots will soften and mellow the garlic.
The sweetness of the carrots is being accentuated in the roasting process (which gets rid of the moisture at the same time) - a perfect side dish anytime, especially for the holidays.
Sharing this with Hearth and Soul.
Tag: carrots, thyme, roasted carrots
I spotted yellow-flesh watermelon in the Asian grocery store last week and could not resist as I have not had yellow-flesh watermelon for a long time. Also known as Yellow Crimson, yellow-flesh watermelon is also popularly known as 小玉西瓜 in Taiwan.
Ok. Great. Now I have two watermelons at home (before buying the yellow-flesh watermelon, there is already another watermelon at home!) - maybe I can do something different?
The other ingredient that I have in excess right now is fresh basil (in a pot) which I bought from Whole Foods Market, a couple of weeks back.
In my mind, I wanted to combine watermelon and basil in a salad and as I searched the Internet, the recipe from Chef Marcus Samuelsson stood out - just what I was looking for in terms of availability of ingredients and ease of execution.
Watermelon, fresh basil, extra-virgin olive oil, salt and ground black pepper were called for. I left out the olive oil and the salad was still as refreshing and bright.
Watermelon Basil Salad - 西瓜九层塔沙拉 - this is really a super simple salad combining the taste of sweet (watermelon), spice (black pepper), freshness (basil), balanced with just a little salt.
I look for simple (really simple) ideas when I go "blog-visiting". The Spanish -Style Baked Shrimps was one such example. Minimal is the key. Basic (minimal) ingredients, minimal prep. and minimal supervision during cooking. Plus, that "it-looks-darn-delicious-and-I-know-it-is" appeal. Also Steamed Singua - my vegetarian adaptation of another meat dish; and learning easy new techniques such as pulverizing the winter melon. Thanks, my blogger friends out there.
Often, these simple ideas serve as reminders too. When I saw this Rosemary Thyme Garlic Roast Chicken at Pig Pigs Corner, it kinda reminded me to make roast chicken...again. I have made roast chicken before, but not this way, not with this combination of herbs and aromatics.
So I got myself some organic chicken drumsticks, make a few slits on the thickest part of the chicken, prepare the dressing of herbs, aromatics, olive oil and honey. As I have a few varieties of honey at home - it's drizzle of clover honey with some Organic Wild Forest Raw Honey
How many chicken drumsticks (of such size) can you eat as a serving?
I can definitely do more than one. :D
Tag: roast chicken, herbs
Tomatoes two-way ...or more appropriately, tomatoes - cooked two ways.
First, a Raw Tomato Salad - dressed in a little sesame oil, brown sugar, soy sauce and cilantro
Refreshing with raw ripe tomatoes - so rich in Vitamin C! Raw = more Vitamin C!
But the phytonutrients (lycopene) in tomatoes become more concentrated when they are cooked (with a little oil and heat) into a sauce or paste; and become more bio-available when eaten with a little oil.
So here's another easy Roasted Rosemary Tomatoes - cherry tomatoes, rosemary, ground black pepper and pinch of sea salt. Roast at ~350F for about 10 minutes till tomatoes softened, sweetness accentuated!
I don't eat potatoes very often since I'm more a "rice" person. The only time potatoes get sneaked into my food is when I have chicken curry. Sometimes...just sometimes, potatoes can be alluring, especially when it is "Western menu" for dinner. Baked/roasted fish with vegetables and roasted warm potato salad. This meal is complete.
With this, I'm geared up for the potato challenge hosted by Tinned Tomatoes for this round's No Croutons Required.
Rosemary Roasted Potato Salad
Ingredients: potatoes, boiled (70-80% cooked), drained, cubed; salt and freshly ground black pepper, dried rosemary herbs, butter, thinly sliced shallots
Directions:
1. Butter the pan and fry the shallots till slightly caramelized
2. Rub some butter on baking foil, place the cubed potatoes on the foil, seasoned with salt and black pepper and rosemary. Place the caramelized shallots on top of potatoes. Mix thoroughly to ensure the potatoes are well-seasoned/"coated"
3. Wrap the potatoes and roast them in a pre-heated oven (to finish cooking) at ~180degC for about ~10mins
Enjoy.
Tag: potatoes, roasted potatoes, rosemary
I do not blog about herbs as often as plants and vegetables in WHB. This time, I'm going for
herbs in Weekend Herb Blogging (WHB) is at #107 at Kalyn's Kitchen. A common herb , fresh or dried, found in our kitchens - BASIL. There is already an abundance of knowledge and facts shared about basil, so how about some myths and folklore?
There are some ancient herbalists claimed that basil damaged the internal organs and the eyes while others argued that basil was good both as a condiment and for a variety of medical purposes. including relieving flatulence. These are just two opposing school of thoughts argued in herbal medicine through the years. Oh...most of us love basil, isn't it? We aren't going to believe anything with no scientific hardcore evidence. We will continue to like basil and use them appropriately in our dishes.
In folklore as in medicine, basil also has a reputation for both evil and good. Evil as in associated with the legendary reptile known as basilisk, whose breath and glance could kill. Good, as a symbol of love, cherished as a protection against witchcraft.
Black Pepper Basil Beef
Ingredients:
-Beef sirloin (slice and fillet against the grain)
-Handful of fresh basil
-Black pepper
Marinate:
-2tsp oyster sauce
-1tsp dark soy
-1tsp sesame oil
-1tbsp black pepper
-cornflour
-egg
Directions:
1. Marinate beef slices for at least 2hrs in the fridge.
2. Heat pan with oil at low-medium heat. Add in marinated beef and stir fry beef slices over medium-high heat till athey start to turn color
3. Add basil leaves to beef and complete cooking about 2mins
4. Dish up and serve immediately
In cooked recipes it is generally added at the last moment, as cooking quickly destroys the meal. In other food cultures such as in Taiwan, fresh basil leaves are added into thick soups (羹湯, pronounced geng tang). They also eat fried chicken with deep-fried basil leaves.
The Thais also use basil in stir-fries eg. in a dish like Kai Pad Bai Kaprow- Thai Basil chicken.
What are the basil flavors in this? Lemony...peppery...vanilla
Good basil flavor and fragrance, well-balanced with the black pepper marinated beef.
It's so yummy! You must try this. You don't have to get your ingredients from any specialty store.
Tag: basil beef, basil, beef
