Indoor Grilling

The day started off bright and clear, perfect for our grilling plans. The menu: Teriyaki Salmon, Filet Mignon, leftover Macaroni and Cheese, Rice, Salad, and Corn. Grilled Teriyaki Salmon is one of my all time favorite meals, so moist and hearty, yet still light and healthy. Add to that all those sides (not that Filet is a side, but in my world, Salmon trumps steak), and you’ve got yourself a party!

Unfortunately, the skies had another plan for us. Big angry clouds rolled in around five, and unleashed a torrent of sideways rain, flooding the streets and nearly drowning cars. Grillmaster Andrew was really looking forward to an evening of grillin’, and was convinced that the show could go on but luckily for our delicious food, we moved the party inside. It may have taken a bit longer, and didn’t get that flame-seared flavor, but we ended up with a pretty great plate of food.

The Great Teriyaki sauce debate continues: Soy Vey vs. Mr. Yoshida’s. Last night, Andrew claimed a momentary victory: Soy Vey was available and Mr. Yoshida’s was nowhere to be found. But Soy Vey can make a mean marinade, so all ended well. We filled our bellies so full of the savory; we could barely fit the sweet (the cookie dough pots, made by special request for our guests). A night with friends, good times, and great food- hard to beat! 

The Star of the Show

Marinade goodness

All wrapped up and ready to grill... or broil

Tender and Moist

Look at that bite- yum!

Shrimp Fresh Rolls

A whole weekend on my own, with no one’s palate to please but my own. I was a single girl this weekend, but since I was basically bedridden my adventures didn’t stray beyond my kitchen. So this weekend, I got to cook whatever I wanted- all the goodies that I love that my partner in culinary escapades won’t touch with a 10-foot pole. Which means: Shrimp.

My family loves shrimp. In any and every form- You can barbecue it, boil it, broil it, bake it, sauteé it (Forrest Gump, remember that movie? No? Rent it immediately). You name it, we love it. You can bet if there is a shrimp option on the menu, at least one of my family members will order it. So it was a given that I make a shrimp dish at some point, I just had to time it right.

The best restaurant on the Island of Maui is A Saigon Café, the best Vietnamese food you will ever encounter. Ask anyone who lives there. It is impossible to find if you don’t know exactly where it is, and it has no sign outside (My mom called it “Opén” for a long time, since the only visible sign was the open sign). To get there, you drive into the creepy area of town, past boarded up buildings and drugged out homeless people, and park on a dark street just under a bridge. But don’t despair, just lock your car and walk inside.

The smiling staff greets you by name, the bright interior sooths your unease. It is always packed- birthday parties, first dates, groups of people eating before they go to the ballet or theater, guaranteed you will run into at least one person you know. The waiters are old friends- trading stories of their families and asking how I am doing on the mainland.

And then there is the food. No matter what you order, you can’t go wrong. My mom and I order about 5 family style dishes, with the intention of taking leftovers home, but it’s just too good to wait. My favorite dish is the make your own fresh rolls, where they bring you the fillings and you roll it all up into a yummy spring roll. While I adore their chicken rolls, I decided to substitute shrimp instead. Though nowhere near as good as their inspiration, they hit the spot.

Shrimp Spring Rolls

For the Shrimp

8 jumbo shrimp, uncooked, peeled and tail off

1/2 tsp chili pepper

1 tsp chopped Sweet Basil

1/2 tbsp vegetable oil

1/2 tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar

salt and pepper

For the Sauce

2 Tbsp Sweet Chili sauce

1 Tbsp Rice Wine Vinegar

1/2 Tbsp granulated sugar

Rolls

Lettuce

Cucumbers

Cooked vermicelli noodles

Chopped peanuts

Carrots

Spring Roll Wrappers

Bowl of hot hot water to cook wrappers in

- Heat oil in a medium hot pan and add shrimp. Add chili pepper, basil, salt and pepper, and rice wine vinegar and cook until shrimp turn pink.

- Mix the sauce ingredients together, adjusting to your taste.

- Chop the ingredients for the filling and arrange on a plate.

- Dip one spring roll wrapper into hot water at a time, rotating until it softens and becomes transparent

- Lay out flat on a plate and arrange fillings in the middle of the wrapper. Fold edges of wrapper over and roll.

- Dip into sauce.

Fish Burgers

Food to me is about more than sustenance or nourishment. A good meal is like a good song, well balanced, filled with emotion and capable of changing your mood. A cupcake is a happy, upbeat tune that makes me feel like I’m cruising down a sunny strip of highway in a convertible, wind in my hair and not a care in the world. I like the soulful feel of a steak, a bottle of full-bodied cabernet, and Jonny Lang on low in the background. I like my music like I like my food; uninhibited with a note of soul.

Lat night’s tune is light, carefree and brings me back to the beach, more of a Jack Johnson than a Jimmy Buffet feel. I have been missing home a lot lately; the people, the beach, and of course the food. Even the air in Hawaii is different- it just feels healthy and happy. It may sound strange, but go there and see for yourself (don’t we all wish). Last night, we dined like happy islanders would: pan seared fish burgers on whole-wheat buns. I had a hankering for fish, but being thousands of miles away from any coast, sometimes we have to sacrifice quality. Tonight’s halibut from Whole Foods was perfect, moist with the perfect level of flakiness. And best of all, it was fresh, never frozen. Not quite sure what fresh, previously frozen means (yes, that is what many of the fish selections are labeled here), it seems like an oxymoron to me.

I like to play mad scientist when I make new sauces. Little of this, little of that, taste. Eww gross, dump that, start over. Lots of this, tiny bit of that, taste. Better. More experimenting, then yes! Perfect, Which is a great method when discovering new things, but bad for consistency when you want to recreate the winning sauce. The recipe below is my lazy take on an aioli like sauce (I didn’t write it down as I went, so well see how I do). Aioli is a mayonnaise-based sauce with LOTS of garlic. True aioli takes lots of time and either a food processor or a mortar and pestle, neither of which I own yet. I urge you to try this sauce as is below, and if you find that it is gross, well, become a mad scientist yourself and mix to your hearts content. Hey. I did tell you I had an issue with consistency.

Fish Burger Sauce

1/2 cup mayonnaise

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbsp lemon juice

1 tsp Worcestershire

1/2 tsp cayenne pepper

salt and pepper to taste

Mix ingredients with a fork, breaking up mayonnaise. Stir until creamy. Taste, add more of whatever you like to taste 

How Many Veggies...

As the weather gets warm, in theory at least, all sorts of things start to happen in the produce aisle. All these amazing colors start to spring up (no pun intended): sweet corn, peas still in their pods, the greenest of green beans, shiny red peppers- well, just too many beautiful veggies to count! The mission: get as many fresh vegetables as possible into one meal.

Stir-fry is one of my go-to dishes. It’s so easy, so healthy, and best of all, so tasty! I throw whatever I have on hand into it, so it always send up a little different, but each time, just as delicious. I searched high and low, but could not find my favorite teriyaki sauces anywhere, so I had to make do with an imposter brand. Andrew and I have a long-running debate on which is the best…Bad news Andrew, no one can beat Mr. Yoshida’s special blend. This strange brand wasn’t quite up to snuff, so I had to add some chili powder, a dash of Worcestershire, and garlic to improve it.

The trick in making stir-fry is to brown the meat before you add all the veggies. Since the meat takes much less time to cook than the veggies, throw the meat (I chose skirt steak for tonight’s dish) in a hot pan first to sear the it, then transfer the meat to a holding dish and set aside. Cook the vegetables in the same pan the meat was in, soaking up all the yummy flavors. Cover, stirring the mixture from time to time to keep it from sticking.  When the veggies get a little tender, add the meat back in, pour on a generous amount of sauce, and simmer until cooked through.

No Hawaiian girl worth her salt would serve this without a big pot of rice! I always add a dash of salt while the rice is cooking for flavor. This meal is complete for me, but Andrew, for some strange reason, believes that stir fry is served with tortillas. Never mind that they are from a completely different culture, on a completely different continent. It’s something he picked up from Mongolian Grill restaurants that serve their veggie/meat/sauce combos with warm flour tortillas. Now I have never been to Mongolia, I don’t think I have even met a Mongolian person, but I am reasonably sure that their national dishes do include stir-fry from a buffet line with tortillas on the side… But whatever culture it comes from, they may have a good idea there. Delicious teriyaki steak wraps!

Walk on the Wild Side

Every night, we play the game of “what sounds good for dinner?” I could plan our meals a week or two out, and in fact I have, but the truth is, you never know what kind of food-mood you’ll be in when dinnertime actually rolls around. We have also been very good about spending as little money as humanly possible while still eating healthy and delicious food- we tend to reuse ingredients time and again. Wait, not like that. We don’t actually rummage through the trash for scraps or anything. We have a bit more class that that. But our shopping trips usually start in our own Costco-stocked freezer before resorting to a grocery store trip. Meaning that we have lots of chicken. Bags of it. Frozen and awaiting transformation into some sort of meal.

Now, I love chicken, it’s possibly my favorite protein, just cause it’s so versatile! Andrew, however, has gotten quite tired of my 100-ways-to-cook-chicken routine. “Chicken again?” he remarked sorrowfully as I told him the plan for the night. This recipe, I assured him, would be different. Not your typical grilled chicken and salad dinner. The spicy kick of the paprika, chili powder, cayenne pepper, and cumin mix is tempered with the sweet and tangy honey/cider sauce, which is addicting enough to go back for seconds, and maybe even thirds!  I found that even with the recommended amount of honey, the chicken had too much heat for my taste, but with a few more generous spoonfuls, the balance was perfect. And added to the incredible taste of this dish, is the knowledge that it is just 321 calories per serving!!

We added some Garlic and Rosemary potatoes, a salad and some fresh bread to the meal. If I have ever cooked for you, you know about my love affair with rosemary. It is by far the best herb ever created, and I can’t think of a dish that wouldn’t be improved by a whole handful of fresh rosemary. Something about the smell, or is it the taste, just evokes an image of freshness.  I could devote a whole post to my love of Rosemary, and probably will in the near future, but for now, I will settle for simply saying that these garlic and rosemary potatoes were pretty delicious and made the perfect side dish to my new favorite chicken dish.

Spicy Honey Chicken

2 tsp garlic powder

2 tsp chili powder

1 tsp coarse salt

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp paprika

1 teaspoon ground red pepper

8 chicken thighs with skin removed

6 Tbsp honey

2 tsp apple cider vinegar

Preheat broiler.

Combine first 6 ingredients in a large bowl. Add chicken to bowl; toss to coat.

Place chicken on a broiler pan coated with cooking spray. Broil chicken 5 minutes on each side.

Combine honey and vinegar in a small bowl, stirring well.

Remove chicken from oven; brush 1/4 cup honey mixture on chicken. Broil 1 minute. Remove chicken from oven and turn over.

Brush chicken with remaining honey mixture. Broil 1 additional minute or until chicken is done.

Add honey mixture to taste.

Source: adapted from Cooking Light Magazine, March 2007

Garlic and Rosemary Potatoes

3 Roasting potatoes

1/4 cup fresh rosemary, removed from stems

1 clove garlic, minced

1 Tbsp Olive oil

salt and pepper to taste

Heat large frying pan to medium/high.

Chop potatoes into 1 inch pieces.

Pour oil into hot pan and wait for it to heat. Add garlic and rosemary and stir until becomes fragrant.

Add potatoes to spice mixture and stir frequently. Allow a light brown crust to form on potatoes, then reduce heat to medium-low and cover. Cook for 20 minutes or until potatoes are cooked through.

Source: My own head 

Lazy Sundays

After a much too gluttonous day at Costco, I am surprised that we were even able to move, let alone eat another meal. But as night began to fall, our tummies began to rumble, and we needed a quick, healthy fix. Luckily we had some frozen Salmon filets in the freezer-not quite as nice as walking down to Pike Market and picking up a pound of fresh wild Alaskan King Salmon, but it have will do here in the midwest. Add to that a generous pot of white rice, essential to any Hawaiian girl’s meal, and steamed broccoli with a light sprinkling of Wisconsin’s famous Cheese made 20 minutes away. I have to say, Wisconsin’s cows are the laziest I have ever seen- every farm you drive by, all they seem to do is lay around! Anyway, place a small pat of butter on top of each filet for rich flavor, spice with rock salt, garlic salt and black pepper and finish with a few slices of fresh lemon for a healthy yet hearty meal.  Mission complete!