Oriental Style Salmon (aka Salmon-in-a-hurry)

Salmon is good for you, but it is even better if you do not need to toil in order to enjoy it. I love dishes that can be made up in a hurry, and even more if I can just stick it in the oven, turn on the rice cooker and have some minutes to spare until the timer on the oven goes off.

This salmon dish is welcomed with smiles in my household, and I do not mind serving it since it is relatively painless and easy, plus each mouthful is moist and flavorful. I took this recipe from Sally Fallon's Nourishing Traditions and made a few small tweaks. While it is suggested that you serve this with buckwheat, brown rice pasta or brown rice, I think it will also make an awesome salmon salad, even eaten cold on a summer's day. I also sometimes break it up and add it to my scrambled eggs for breakfast.

Oriental-style Salmon

Oriental style Salmon (aka Salmon-in-a-hurry)

Recipe adapted from Nourishing Traditions

Serves 6

• 2 pounds wild salmon filet
• 4 Tbsp sesame seeds (crush them a little in a mortar if you have time, it helps release the aroma much better)
• 1.5 Tbsp rice vinegar
• 3 Tbsp soy sauce
• 1 Tbsp fish sauce (optional, but recommended)
• 2 Tbsp toasted sesame oil
• 1 Tbsp grated ginger (I've been lazy before and simply chopped roughly!)
• 1 bunch finely chopped green onions (optional, but recommended)
• 3 cloves garlic, minced
• grated zest from one lemon

1. Pre-heat oven to 350F. Oil or butter a glass baking dish large enough to hold the salmon.
2. Place salmon filets skin side down in the dish. Combine all other ingredients and pour over the salmon. Use back of spoon to spread out the ingredients evenly over the salmon. 
3. Cover the dish with aluminum foil, and bake for 15 minutes. Remove foil and bake for another 3-5 minutes, until salmon is just cooked through. (I usually already turn off the oven after removing the foil.)
4. Slice salmon into servings, transfer to individual plates and spoon the sauce over each slice. Sprinkle with more thinly sliced green onions if you wish. Enjoy!

garlicky shrimps with asparagus & lemon

For some reason, I am coming across a lot of recipes with lemons in it, and I have been trying quite a few! I wouldn't call myself a big lemon fan but I must say some of these recipes are definitely keepers. This one I wanted to post while we can still enjoy asparagus. I found this recipe on Fine Cooking, where it was titled "Hot Garlicky Shrimp with Asparagus & Lemon" but it really is not that "hot" despite the use of crushed red pepper flakes, and I would say my pepper flakes are still pretty fresh. Well, I am not complaining as I can always sprinkle over some cayenne pepper if I wish to up the heat in my meal; I am only happy that I do not need to prepare a separate dish for the girls, so we can all enjoy this delicious dish! We find this one goes really well with rice, because the sauce is so drinkable-good, we pour them over the rice, dig in, and lick our plates squeaky clean.

(And honestly, I did not weigh the asparagus, I just used a bunch of what they sold me as a "bundle" at the stores, and then a few more because I felt like it. Some days it just drives me a bit bananas if I have to always measure and weigh... ...)

Green,orange and mellow yellow: so pleasing to the eyes!

Garlicky Shrimps with  Asparagus & Lemon
Recipe from Fine Cooking

• 1 lb shrimp (21 to 25 per lb.), peeled, deveined, rinsed, and patted dry  
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt; more as needed  
• Freshly ground black pepper  
• 1 lemon  
• 6 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil (I used expeller-pressed coconut oil) 
• 4 medium cloves garlic, thinly sliced (I minced them instead) 
• 3/4 lb asparagus, bottoms snapped off, halved lengthwise if thick, and cut into 2-inch lengths (2 cups) 
• 1/8 to 1/4 tsp crushed red pepper flakes (add more if you like it hot) 
• 2/3 cup low-salt chicken broth  
• 1/2 tsp cornstarch  

1. Sprinkle the shrimp with a scant 1/4 tsp. salt and a few generous grinds of black pepper. Using a peeler, gently shave the zest in strips from the lemon, taking care not to get any of the bitter white pith. Squeeze the lemon to get 1 Tbs. juice.
2. Put a 12-inch skillet (not nonstick) over medium-high heat for 1-1/2 minutes. Add 2 Tbsp of the oil and once it’s shimmering hot, add the shrimp in a single layer. Cook undisturbed until the shrimp browns nicely, about 2 minutes. Flip the shrimp and brown the second side, about 1-1/2 minutes. (I find tongs work really well when doing this.) Transfer to a large plate. The shrimp should be a little undercooked.
3. Reduce the heat to medium, add the remaining 4 Tbsp oil and the garlic and cook, tossing, until the garlic starts to sizzle steadily, about 30 seconds. Add the asparagus, lemon zest, and red pepper flakes, sprinkle with 1/2 tsp salt and cook, tossing often, until the garlic is golden brown and the asparagus looks blistery in places, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the chicken broth, cover, with the lid ajar, and cook until the asparagus is just tender, 1 to 2 minutes.
4. In a small dish, whisk together the cornstarch with 1 Tbsp water, stir into the asparagus mixture, and bring to a boil. Stir in the shrimp, reduce the heat to low, and cook, tossing, until the shrimp is opaque throughout (cut one in half to check), 1 to 2 minutes. Stir in the 1 Tbsp lemon juice and then add salt, pepper, and additional lemon juice to taste. Serve immediately.

Gloriously garlicky chicken drumsticks

This past weekend was a crazy one, lots of baking, washing and cooking. I made two different types of brownies, mango cakes, gluten-free egg-free wacky cupcakes for my friend K's birthday tea, a gluten-free shortbread that did not turn out, another gluten-free egg-free cookie that was meh, and I also made the most gloriously garlicky oven-roasted chicken drumsticks.

Now I only have one photo for this recipe, but not because it looked ugly or anything. I just was pressed for time. I have also always wanted to take some adorable pictures of garlic to go with this post, but the mango cakes got in the way. However, please do not let the fact that only a single photo accompanies this post to deter you from trying this recipe. I highly recommend it, as it is make-ahead, and the garlicky gooey sauce you get after roasting the drumsticks is literally gold. You will scrap it up and use it for another recipe, your only regret being there weren't more of it.

So, to cut to the chase, this is a recipe that I adapted off of Melissa Clark's In the Kitchen with A Good Appetite. It is from a recipe called "Not-my-grandma's Chicken with Lemon, Garlic, and Oregano." Now, Clark is a consummate chef and food writer, and she has a really great story that comes with this recipe. She makes you laugh and she makes you want to cook and eat. In fact, she makes you want to invite yourself over to her kitchen and stuff yourself silly. I doubled her recipe (her original serves two), ramped up the garlic, and executed a make-over on the preparation so it can be more hands-off for crazy busy days.

Now, before we get to the recipe, a few things about garlic. As we all know, it gives you stinky breath but is so good for you. You can find a ton of recipes online where garlic is used to cure almost everything. I like this page best, especially with the long list of those bad, bad things that garlic can kill or inhibit. And don't miss the author's recipe for a connoisseur’s garlic cocktail, it sounds absolutely alluring. Now, I feel I also need to point out two very important things about garlic. First, always remove the green shoots. I have come across discussion threads wherein this was heavily debated: to remove or not to remove? Some claims it makes no difference at all and a waste of time, while others beg to differ. I am in the "remove" camp.I have not really made any bad experiences with it, but my instinct tells me they ought to be removed. In fact, when I have time (who am I kidding here?) I always remove the shoots, even if they are not green. Something just tells me they are not to be included. And apparently, folks over at Cook's Illustrated had made a test cooking with the green shoots included and reported a bitter metallic taste aftertaste. 

On to some other things about garlic. Garlic contains many valuable phytochemicals with therapeutic effects. However it has been found that the anticancer phytochemicals do not stand up to heat: one minute in the microwave or 45 minutes in the oven (temperature not specified) resulted in complete loss of anti-cancer activities (summary to this research is here). But what is interesting is, when crushed garlic is allowed to stand for 10 minutes prior to heat treatment, some of the anti-cancer activity was retained. I remember being told some years ago by a foodie friend that is is best to mince the garlic and let them stand for about 10 minutes before using to allow crucial compounds to develop, and I guess this was what she meant. And there is a whole body of (mind-boggling) literature out there about how best to attain all the valuable components of garlic, since some of these compounds are oil-soluble, and some water-soluble. In other words, bake it, steam it, use in stir-fry, use it in soup, use it raw, let it air out some, variety is the key.

And now, without further ado, the stinkin' good recipe. I have adapted it such that the garlic paste can be made in a small (5-cup) food processor. You can of course use your good ol' mortar and pestle. It may seem to be a lot of paste but like I mentioned before, you will feel you did not have enough of the cooked garlicky mess after the oven roasting. And if you sometimes buy the ready-peeled garlic cloves (as I do!), the approximately 20 cloves of garlic in this recipe weighs in at about 3 ounces (once I felt I just had to weigh them!).

Oven-roasted garlicky drumsticks

Gloriously garlicky chicken drumsticks

 with thanks to Melissa Clark for recipe inspiration

• 10 chicken drumsticks 
•  3 tsp sea-salt
• freshly ground black pepper
• rice bran oil
• 20 large cloves of garlic, about 3 oz
• freshly squeezed juice of 2 lemons
• 2 tsp dried oregano
• a handful of fresh thyme

1. Rinse chicken drumsticks and pat dry. Place drumsticks in large ziploc bag or a large bowl.
3. Transfer garlic paste to a small bowl, and stir in the dried oregano.
4. Scrap garlic mixture into ziploc bag (or bowl), throw in the sticks of fresh thyme (I do not bother to remove the leaves from the stems) and squeeze the juice of the two lemons right into ziploc bag (or bowl). Close the bag well and then massage the heavenly paste into the drumsticks, distributing the paste and wiping your drool. (If you prefer the bowl, just get in there with your clean hands and smear the paste all over the drumsticks, then cover bowl well and refrigerate.) Refrigerate the bag until ready to use. (If you do this in the morning, like I do, try to massage the drumsticks, or turn them around every time you open the fridge.)
5. Pre-heat oven to 450F. Remove drumsticks and place on a baking pan. Remember to scrap out all the garlic paste into the pan. Sprinkle with more black pepper if desired. Drizzle with a little rice bran oil (or if you have to use olive oil, I suggest mixing it with rice bran oil to raise the smoking point).
6. Roast for 15 minutes. Remove pan and with tongs flip the drumsticks over. I like to tilt up one end of the pan so the garlicky juice flows to one corner so I can dip the drumsticks in that golden goodness. Lower oven heat to 400F and continue to roast about another 15 minutes more, until browned and golden.
7. Enjoy, and after dinner scoop up that garlicky goodness at the bottom of the pan and keep it in a sealed glass container. You can use it for many things. You can toss it with rice noodles and serve with a crunchy salad. Once I stir-fried pea shoots with it and it was totally scrumptious. I am thinking you can steam spinach and then toss it with this garlicky oil. Oh, and once we even dipped our toasted sourdough bread in this garlicky mess, and boy, that was good too!

I am thinking this could work with a baked tofu recipe as well, but probably not with as much garlic! It may even work with potatoes, but I have a skillet-roasted potato recipes that is also pretty hands-off and involves garlic, but that would be another post for another day!

baking is an exercise

I have quite some lemons from our lemon tree, and I also saw some delicious looking blueberries the other day and bought them. I thought I'd make some blueberry muffins (which always seem to call for lemon zest). Though the best blueberry muffin recipe have been found (look here, it is from America's Test Kitchen), and we all enjoy it very much, I still had to look for a new recipe to try. It is a very bad habit of mine, this need to try something new. I also wanted to try to make it gluten-free. We do not need to eat gluten-free, but from what I've read, I do feel it'd make good sense to not rely on gluten-laden goods all the time. Plus, I have friends who eat gluten-free and want to be able to offer something from time to time.

I looked and looked and finally settled on this recipe I found at dinner with Julie. I used Bob's Red Mill all-purpose gluten-free mix, and sour cream instead of yogurt. I found it curious that the recipe stated that you should not beat the mixture in an electric mixer or the muffins will not rise, but then almost all muffin recipes I have made were mixed by hand. However, this one calls for butter and not oil. When I had the ingredients in the mixing bowl, I had no idea how I could "cream" them with a spatula. But then I remembered my Home Economics cooking classes from two decades ago! Oh, what memories! Paired by two's, our class of girls learned to bake and cook in a kitchen supervised by a very prim and proper teacher, whose dress is always starched, her hair each and every strand ever in place, and she would maintain a smile on her face even when she was angry at us. While we cooked she would walk around, chiding us for not wiping down the counter-tops right away, and muttering about the sinks being dirty. I was not her star student then, nope. But I remember this creaming method that she talked about. Using a wooden spoon or spatula, we scrapped (or smeared) the butter against the side of the bowl, scrap it up again, and continued with the smear and scrap movement.

This smear-and-scrap movement seemed to be what that creaming is about. It takes arm strength. Every time I have to make a recipe like this (or whip up a small amount of egg whites or heavy cream in a bowl), I think of women in the pre-electricity day and their buffed arms -- that keeps me going as I try to hold back the tears. At least I exercised my arms while baking! Now that arm exercise does not stop with the creaming part. As you add the flour the batter gets really stiff and you will be kicking up your arm exercise a notch (no whining allowed). I was a bit alarmed at how the batter looked by the time it was almost done, as it very much resembled a bread dough and I was afraid the muffins will turn out tough. They turned out fluffy and had a nice chewiness to it. The girls enjoyed it very much and told me they could really taste the lemon in it too.

Other things I will improve upon next time: smooth out the batter after placing them in the muffin cups. I didn't and though I don't mind a tousled look in my baked goods, this caused some of the parts to get overly brown.I will also watch it a bit closer, and check the muffins before 25 minutes. Because of the sugar topping, it can get burned and we had a few burned spots. Other than that, this is a yummy gluten-free recipe.

 

Gluten-free Lemon Blueberry Muffins

Adapted from dinner with Julie who adapted from Gluten Free Girl

Ingredients: 

• 10 Tbsp. butter, softened
• 1 cup sugar
• grated zest of a lemon
• 2 large eggs
• 3 cups Bob's Red Mill All-purpose gluten-free mix
• 1 ½ tsp. baking powder
• ½ tsp. baking soda
• ½ tsp. salt
• 1 ½ cups sour cream
• 1 cup fresh blueberries (you can use frozen ones too, without thawing)
• sugar for sprinkling
  

Directions:

1. Preheat the oven to 375F.
2. In a large bowl, cream the butter, sugar and lemon zest together with a spatula. (smear the butter against the side of the bowl, scrap it up, and smear again, until everything is well-mixed and looks creamy. The sugar should have worked well into the butter.)
3. Add the eggs one at a time, mixing after each.
4. Add a cup of the flour along with the baking powder, soda and salt, and mix well. Add half the sour cream and stir until combined, then another third of the flour, the rest of the sour cream and the rest of the flour.Batter will be rather stiff!
5. Fold in the blueberries.
6. Divide the batter among muffin tins that have been lined with paper liners or sprayed with nonstick spray, filling them, and smoothing the tops, somehow. (You’ll get about 16-18 muffins.) Sprinkle the tops with sugar and bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden and springy to the touch.