Salmon & Chicken Tacos

Saturday night we had a wonderful evening with some good friends. We had Salmon Tacos with Mango Salsa and Chicken Tacos with Chunky Guacamole! These tacos are really healthy and so yummy! They made great leftovers too. On Sunday evening I used the salmon in a salad with pink lady apples, pecans and a balsamic vinaigrette. The chicken made a great BBQ sandwich (that I just ate for lunch) but would also be fabulous in a pasta or green salad.

Saturday evening's salad was cucumber and red pepper with an apple cider vinaigrette. Beforehand we had chips, salsa and queso. David Hernandez who worked at our store, The Big Chandelier, is opening a Mexican restaurant in Texas. This is his recipe for salsa:

Restaurant Style Salsa
1 can of whole tomatoes
2 pickled jalapeno peppers
finely diced white onion ~ 1/4 cup
chopped fresh cilantro ~ 1 Tbs
salt

Blend the tomatoes & peppers. Add the onion & cilantro. Taste for seasoning and add salt as needed. Made ahead of time so the flavors can come together.

Mango Salsa

1 mango - small dice

1/4 red onion - chopped

1/2 Tbs fresh cilantro

1/2 tsp cumin

juice of 1/2 lime

dash of salt & pepper

Mix together and let stand to allow the flavors to come together. Serve at room temperature.

Southwestern Grilled Chicken

Juice of 3/4 lime (someone had a gin & tonic the night before)

2 shots of tequila

1/2 Tbs ancho chili powder

1/2 tsp smoked paprika (hot)

1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/2 tsp dried coriander

1 tsp salt

1 Tbs chopped white onion

1/2 Tbs chopped cilantro

3 pieces split chicken breasts 

Mix together everything but the chicken. Pour over the chicken and marinate in the refrigerator for 4 - 6 hours. Cook on a 350 degree grill until done (approximately 32 minutes turning every 8 minutes). Let rest for 10 minutes covered with foil before removing skin, removing the chicken from the bone, and slicing. Serve in a warm tortilla with chunky guacamole and salsa.

Chunky Guacamole

(You can make this while the chicken is cooking)

1/2 jalapeno pepper fine dice

1/4 tsp salt

1 avocado diced

1/2 Tbs cilantro diced

juice of 1/2 lime

I like to crush the salt and jalapeno together in a mortar and pestal. Mix it in with the avocado and cilantro and squeeze 1/2 a lime over the top.

Grilled Salmon Tacos

1 lb salmon filets with skin on

salt & pepper 

Season the salmon with salt and pepper. Place on a 350 - 375 degree grill skin side down. Cook until the fat starts to rise to the top. Flip and cook another 3 minutes. Remove skin and break apart. Serve on warm tortilla topped with mango salsa. Enjoy!

Smoked Boston Butt (Shredded Pork BBQ)

I wonder why they call this a Boston Butt. I don't know what they do with it up there, but down here in Georgia I smoke mine low and slow! It is great for feeding a crowd and the smoked meat freezes well. I decided to do one so we would have lunch options for the next couple of months. First I made the dry rub (recipe below). If you don't want to make the rub you can buy dry rubs. Read the label carefully. I don't like sugar in mine. I grew up near Memphis and am a Rendevous fan. That dry rub does not have a lick of sugar in it and that's where my taste buds developed. I also like Butt Rub. I saw it recently at The Cook's Warehouse. I've seen it in the past at The Big Green Egg Store. It has a white label with a sassy pig walking around on two legs.

I trimmed off the outer layer of fat and then I coated the butts in salt, pepper, garlic and dry rub. Jack started the Big Green Egg (our smoker/grill) with a thick layer of charcoal, soaked wood chips and one fire starter in the very middle. When he had a red spot of coal in the center, he set the vents on low and stabilized the temperature to 200 degrees. We use a heat deflector under the wire grill so it doesn't get direct heat. We then smoked the meat for 20 hours. It took that long for the temperature to reach 170 internal. We usually cook it for 12 hours but you just never can tell. When it was cool Jack shredded the meat taking out the fat. Topped with a little of Daddy's BBQ sauce it made an awesome sandwich!

Ellen's Dry Rub
1 cup ancho chili powder
1 T smoked paprika
1 T granulated garlic
1 T ground cumin
1 T coriander
2 tsp dried mustard
2 tsp onion powder
2 tsp dried oregano
1/3 cup of Kosher salt
1 tsp pepper

Coming up!

This week I'm planning to smoke a pork butt for some good ole pulled pork bar-b-que! I'll provide recipes and techniques afterwards. This is not the most healthy of foods but I'm a southerner so I'm going to eat 'que. I might as well make it myself and pull out as much fat as possible! Plus it freezes great!!

With the beautiful weather coming up this weekend, I'm sure I won't be able to resist making grilled salmon with mango salsa. Now this is a super healthy meal filled with Omega-3 fatty acids and anti-oxidants. Plus it tastes GREAT! Here's the salsa recipe so you can do the same.

Mango Salsa
1 mango - small dice
1/4 red onion - chopped
1/2 Tbs fresh cilantro
1/2 tsp cumin
juice of 1/2 lime
dash of salt & pepper

Lamb Chops & Polenta

And the Valentine's Day winner is... Lamb Chops and Polenta! I paired it with a salad with strawberries & walnuts. This was so good!!! Definitely a keeper for a special dinner. The polenta was just delicious. For those of you who haven't had it, it is basically Italian grits. I had a second helping. I had to do lamb chops because when I got to Sam's Club at 4:45 on Valentine's Day there were no racks to be had! I was mentally wed to lamb so I got the chops. This complicated the meal a little because I like to marinate the chops. Here's the recipe:

Lamb Chop Marinade
1 Tbs dijon mustard
1 Tbs low sodium soy sauce
1 Tbs red wine
fresh ground pepper
1 tsp chopped fresh rosemary
1 tsp chopped fresh thyme

It marinated for about 30 minutes at room temperature while I got the ingredients together for the rest of the meal. Prepping for this meal is very important because timing is a little tricky. Here I will admit that since I didn't get started until 6:00 I had to enlist Jack's help with getting the salad made. He's a good Valentine :-)! The recipe for the polenta is below. Get everything measured out before hand.

Polenta
2 cups of chicken broth
2 tsp butter
1/2 cup uncooked polenta (I used organic yellow corn grits from the Farmer's Market - such a bargain!)
salt if you are using low sodium broth
pepper
1/4 cup of cream
2 Tbs freshly grated parmesan cheese

Bring broth and butter to a boil. Stir in polenta and season with salt and pepper. Let simmer for 5 minutes until  thick and creamy. Stir in the cream & cheese. Taste for seasoning.

Sauce 
1/2 cup prepared veal stock from demi glace
1/2 cup red wine
pepper
2 Tbs cream
1 Tbs butter

Deglaze pan with red wine. Let simmer 3 minutes. Add veal stock. Let simmer 5 minutes. Stir in cream & butter.

Easy, peasy, right? The trick was getting the timing right. The lamb, polenta & sauce all needed to cook at the same time so that everything was hot at once. I'm probably overcomplicating things here but here is how I think thru a meal ahead of time. Like an athlete I envision the race:

Marinate the lamb.
Make salad dressing (raspberry vinaigrette).
Wash the greens and strawberries.
Toast the walnuts.
Measure out all your ingredients for your recipes.
Make salad but don't dress it.
Put a plate behind the eye you will cook the chops on so it will get warm.
Heat an ovenproof skillet (NOT non-stick) with 1 Tbs olive oil.
Turn on stock for polenta & water for demi glace.
Brown chops on both sides.
Put chops on plate and drain off oil from bottom of the pan.
Put chops back in the pan and place in oven.
Set timer for 4-5 minutes based on how well done you want your lamb.
Put polenta in stock and demi glace in water stirring both. Reduce heat on polenta to low when boiling.
Remove chops from the oven. Wrap a towel or place a hot pad on handle so you won't burn yourself. It's easy to forget it's hot when you have so much going on! Place the chops on the plate and cover loosely with foil.
Over medium high heat deglaze pan with red wine.
Stir polenta.
Add stock to sauce, season with pepper and continue to cook down.
Put your dinner plates in the warm oven.
Add cream & cheese to the polenta and taste for seasoning. Try not to swoon because it tastes so good!
Add cream, butter to sauce
Dress your salad.
Plate your meal - polenta, chops, then spoon on sauce.
Enjoy & refrain from licking your plate!

Meatballs for sale?

This afternoon we went to Gainesville for a swim meet. Nice meet as many friends were swimming. I enjoyed seeing all the moms! Last night in anticipation of a late arrival home I pulled out a jar of frozen meatballs and sauce. I made a salad, boiled some rigatoni and Jack and Caterina were in heaven. So easy! It made me start thinking, "What if I didn't have stuff to pull out of the freezer?". How much would people pay to have a good meal at their fingertips? What do you think? If I were to sell jars of Ellen's Kitchen Meatballs & Sauce, would you buy it? How much would you pay? If you don't have a google account and can't leave a comment, send me an email. lnprestia@gmail.com

Valentine's Dinner

Whatcha gonna cook?? Don't tell me this is your night to go out to dinner. Valentine's Day is on a Monday and who has time for a romantic night out on the town on Monday? I say it's time to cook something yummy and make your Honey do the dishes! Do your planning & shopping this weekend and enjoy a special beginning to the week! Here are some ideas I'm throwing around.

The first time I made Grilled Steaks with Stilton Sauce was for Valentine's Dinner a bajillion years ago. Caterina was a baby. It is one of Jack's favorites; Sara Moulton was right. It's a Gourmet Magazine recipe she had on her now defunct show Cooking Live.  It is made for all sorts of special occasions at my house. Measure everything out for your sauce ahead of time and you can make it pretty quickly.

http://www.astray.com/recipes/?show=Rib-eye%20steak%20with%20stilton%20sauce

Lamb chops are another favorite around here. John Robinson, friend and executive chef at Manchester Arms in College Park, showed me how to make a perfect rack of lamb BC (before Caterina). It's a classic dish that never goes out of fashion. I usually get the lamb at Sam's and it has always been delicious. You can get a much more impressive bone on a rack from a good butcher, but I'm cheap! Demi glace gold is veal stock paste. It comes in a little jar or small tub. I have gotten it at Your Dekalb Farmer's Market (although I didn't notice it there on Sunday) and The Cook's Warehouse. A good gourmet store should have it. If you are stuck in Clarksdale and can't make it to Memphis, try substituting beef stock. This is so delicious that our former neighbor would come around and beg left-overs whenever I was serving it!

Perfectly Roasted Rack of Lamb
2 lamb racks
salt & pepper
4 sprigs of rosemary
8 sprigs of thyme
demi glace gold
1/2 cup of red wine

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Rinse & pat dry the lamb racks and season with salt & pepper. In a large oven-proof skillet (NOT non-stick) brown the lamb, meat side down, over medium-high heat until you get a nice crust on it. Turn off the heat and flip the rack over so the meaty side is facing up. (At this point you can let the pan cool and stick it in the fridge for a few hours then bring it back to room temperature for show time! Very useful for a dinner party!) Top the lamb with the thyme & rosemary. Just put the whole sprigs on top, no chopping. Roast for 15 minutes for rare or 20 minutes for medium-rare. While it's cooking dissolve your demi glace paste in water in the proportions on the package so that you have 1/2 cup of veal stock. Remove lamb to a cutting board (toss the herbs) and loosely cover with foil while you make the sauce. Place your skillet on the stove over medium heat and deglaze the pan with the red wine scraping up those yummy brown bits. Add the stock and let simmer. Cut the lamb (it should have rested at least 10 minutes) & drizzle with sauce. So good!

But if you want to be a little healthier, how about a fish dish? I've seen some nice looking tuna around town and this is super fast and super easy!

Grilled Sesame Tuna
1/4 cup sesame oil
1/4 cup soy sauce
cracked pepper
sesame seeds

Light your grill and get it to medium-high temperature. Let the fish come to room temperature. Combine the oil & soy sauce and dip the tuna in the mixture. If you have a steak, sprinkle one side with the cracked pepper & sesame seeds. If you have a tenderloin (my favorite but harder to find) roll it in the pepper & sesame seeds. Grill 3 minutes per side. Slice and serve with a cucumber salad.

I'll let you know what I pick on Tuesday!

I'm not a short order cook!

Really I'm not! When Caterina was a just beginning to eat real food, as opposed to mush, her pediatrician gave me wonderful advice. "Feed her what you are eating. You are not a short order cook." Last night I got home late after running the swimming shuttle with no plan for dinner. Since I didn't want to go to Kroger, I searched for something to throw together. I made the standard Italian Chicken Soup but without the chicken so it needed something to go with it. As I had been to the Farmer's Market (I don't know why I don't do that every week since they have the freshest produce and spices at the best prices in town!!) so I had wonderful bread and salad fixings. I decided to make salad and grilled cheese to go with it. Since it was supper, I used the wonderful Multi-grain Artesian Loaf for mine. Caterina doesn't like this bread because it has a hint of honey in it and Jack doesn't like anything healthy. I used San Francisco Sourdough for theirs. Now, that's not short-order because we are all having grilled cheese. Mine is just a little better. I then made a salad. I like avocado and it is super healthy but I'm the only one who does. I'm not wasting it by putting it on the plate of those undeserving pallets. Jack and I like cucumber. We all like carrots and celery but it didn't go with my salad so I ate one as I was prepping. Caterina likes her veggies whole and on the side and really that's no extra work for me. I chopped up some pecans for Jack and me but, you guessed it, Caterina likes hers whole and on the side. I really take pride in the fact that we will all eat the same salad dressing.

Balsamic Vinaigrette
1/2 tsp dijon
1 1/2 Tbs balsamic vinegar
1/2 Tbs Champagne wine vinegar
salt & pepper
~ whisk all this together then slowly add
6 Tbs olive oil
~ let rest then taste for seasoning

And so I take the above picture and do you know what my husband says?!? "Short order cook." No, I mean we are all eating the same meal, they just look a little different. Then Caterina says. "I like my grilled cheese on regular bread. Can I have some Ranch?"  Sigh...