Avocado and Grapefruit Salad

When I grocery shop, I go to the store with a list--ingredients lined up for a week of meals.  Avocado wasn't on the list last week, but they were on sale for $1.00, so I brought one home.  And then forgot to put it in the salad I made that night.  I wanted to use it today before it got too mushy.  I also happened to have a grapefruit on hand, so I looked online for an avocado and grapefruit salad.  I mixed and matched from various recipes, added a bit of my own, and came up with the recipe below.  I really like the contrast of the smoothness of the avocado with the tartness of the grapefruit.

AVOCADO AND GRAPEFRUIT SALAD

serves 2

1 ripe avocado

1 grapefruit (I used red)

juice from half a lemon

1 shallot, minced

drizzle of olive oil

Peel and pit avocado; cut into slices about 1/4" thick.  Arrange in a shallow bowl.  Pour lemon juice over the slices--will keep them from turning brown.

Cut the rind off the grapefruit, and cut the sections of fruit out from between the membranes; set aside the membranes.  Lay the grapefruit sections on top of the avocado.  Squeeze the juice from the membranes over the salad.

Sprinkle on minced shallot.  Drizzle a little olive oil over the top.

N.B.  Since I take a statin medication for lowering cholesterol, I generally don't eat grapefruit, because of the warning against a drug interaction.  But a few times a year, I go ahead and have a half a grapefruit in the evening.  No adverse reaction so far.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

David made a huge Vietnamese feast for us last week, including Beef Pho and Vietnamese spring rolls.  I offered to make one of the dishes he had lined up, so he assigned me Gà Xé Phay, Shredded Chicken Salad.  It was great (as were his dishes).  Although we had it as a side dish, this could certainly stand on its own as a main course.  Easy, too. 

 Gà Xé Phay, Shredded Chicken Salad

serves 4 as a main dish

2 fresh hot chiles (The recipe called for red chiles, thai or serrano.  I could only get green, so I used one large jalapeno.)
3 cloves of garlic, minced
2 T. sugar
1 T. rice wine vinegar
3 T. fresh lime juice
3 T. fish sauce (The recipe called for Vietnamese sauce; I used Thai)
3 T. vegetable oil
1 onion, thinly sliced
2 cups shredded cooked chicken
4 cups shredded white cabbage
2 carrots, julienned
1/2 cup fresh mint, chopped
freshly ground black pepper
cilantro for garnish

Seed hot peppers, then mince and put in a large bowl.  Add garlic, sugar, vinegar, lime juice, fish sauce, oil, and onion.  Mix until sugar dissolves.  Add chicken, cabbage, carrots, and mint.  Season with black pepper, mix, and garnish with cilantro.

Adapted from: http://www.cooking.com/recipes-and-more/recipes/g-x-phay-shredded-chicken-salad-recipe-7946.aspx#axzz2GPZRNVCx  (And if you look at this web page, you'll see links to other Asian chicken salads--all of them look good!)

Salmon with a brown sugar & mustard glaze

At the end of the season of our share purchasing of Alaskan salmon, all the purchasers were invited to a very nice local restaurant, En Season, where the chef demonstrated a few different ways of cooking salmon and then we all got to eat it--a fun evening.  We also got a few recipes, one of which I tried  tonight and really liked.  I thought the sauce might overpower the taste of the salmon, but not at all.  Here's my slightly adapted version:

SALMON WITH BROWN SUGAR AND MUSTARD GLAZE

(scale the amount of sauce up or down for more or less fish)

1-1/2 lb. salmon fillets
1 T. brown sugar
1/2 T. honey
1 T. butter
2 T. Dijon mustard
1 T. soy sauce
1 T. olive oil
2 t. grated fresh ginger

Preheat oven to 375.  Melt the sugar, honey, and butter in a small sauté pan over medium heat.  Remove from the heat and whisk in the mustard, soy sauce, oil, and ginger.  Let cool a bit.  Put salmon on baking tray skin side down.  Spoon the glaze over the salmon and bake (skin side down) until done, between 10 and 20 minutes or so, depending on thickness of the fillet.  Salmon can also be grilled, if you prefer.

Oven-fried Fish & Chips

This is a simple and tasty recipe that I found when looking on the web for something to make with haddock.  (The recipe also suggests cod.)  I often make roasted potatoes, but I don't slice them this thin--was a nice change.  This is a "homey" dish, best suited for a family meal, or to share with good friends who are over for supper.

oven-fried fish & chips

adapted from http://www.eatingwell.com/recipes

4 servings

olive oil cooking spray

1-1/2 lbs. potatoes, washed, patted dry, and cut into 1/4" thick wedges

2 t. olive oil

1-1/2 t. Cajun or Creole seasoning, divided

2 c. cornflakes, crushed

1/4 cup flour

1/4 t. salt

2 large egg whites, beaten

1 lb. cod or haddock, cut into 4 portions

1.     Position oven racks in upper and lower third of oven.  Preheat oven to 425.

2.     Coat one large baking sheet with cooking spray (or cover with foil and spray the foil).

3.     Set a wire rack in a second baking sheet, and coat the rack well with olive oil spray.

4.     Put the potato wedges in a large bowl and toss with the 2 t. oil and half of the seasoning (3/4 t.)  Spread in one layer on the baking sheet without the rack.  Bake on the lower oven rack for 20 minutes, turning them half-way through (just toss around—no need to turn individual pieces).

5.     While potatoes are cooking, coarsely grind cornflakes in a food processor or crush in a plastic bag. 

6.     Mix up the flour with the rest of the seasoning (3/4 t.) and the salt

7.     Line up three flat dishes.  In the first one put the flour, in the next one the beaten egg whites, and in the third the crushed cornflakes

8.     Dredge the fish in the flour mixture, then dip in the egg white, and then coat all sides with the cornflakes.  Place on the oiled wire rack.  Spray top of fish with olive oil spray.

9.     Put the fish on the top oven rack (leaving potatoes in the oven) and cook for about 20 minutes—until fish is opaque in the center an the breading is golden brown and crisp.  (This gives the potatoes 40 minutes altogether in the oven.)

I halved the olive oil on the potatoes.  The nutrition info for the original recipe is:  325 calories, 5 g fat, 45 g Carbohydrates, 3 g fiber

Bulgur with Dried Cranberries

This recipe is similar to tabbouleh, but with cranberries instead of tomatoes.  Even though similar, it has a quite different taste, and much as I love tabbouleh, I think I prefer this--delicious!!  Really easy, too.  (By the way, I ended up making a huge batch of green enchilada sauce with the green tomatoes--enough to last all winter.  I still have a lot of tomatoes left, but they are ripening nicely, left in a brown paper grocery sack.  Let me know if you'd like me to post the sauce recipe.)

Bulgur with Dried Cranberries

adapted from Cooking Light, November 2009

about 6-7 servings

1 cup coarse-ground bulgur

half of an English cucumber, cut in 1/4" dice

1 c. dried cranberries or dried cherries

3 scallions, thinly sliced (about 1/3 cup)

1 cup finely chopped parsley

1 t. grated lemon rind

1/3 c. fresh lemon juice

ca. 3 T. olive oil [original recipe called for 1/3 c., but this amount was fine—I measured 1/3 cup of lemon juice into a glass measuring cup, and then filled to 1/2 c. with oil, which is a little less than 3 T. olive oil]

salt and pepper to taste

Put bulgur in a large bowl.  Cover with 2 cups boiling water.  Cover the bowl and let stand 30 minutes.  If not all liquid is absorbed, drain off any that's not.  Fluff with a fork.  Add remaining ingredients and toss to combine.

Stats for a 1 cup serving, if using 1/3 c. olive oil:

Calories: 197

Fat 9.6

Fiber 4.7 g

Calc 27 mg

Last tomatoes from the garden

I was away from home for a week, and when I got back this evening the forecast was for the temperature to go below freezing.  So, I took a flashlight out to the garden and picked all the Brandywine and Roma tomatoes I could see, and also picked cherry tomatoes that were ripe.  Now I have to look for some recipes for green tomatoes.  I have a recipe for enchilada sauce that's good, but maybe I'll find something else.  By the way, if you're looking for a good tomato for your own garden, I highly recommend Brandywine, an heirloom variety.  They taste great, and they are not prone to bugs or other damage.

And in another day or two, I'll post on StudioNotes about what I was doing during the week away. . .

Simple Salmon

One doesn't usually think of Galesburg, Illinois as a great place for seafood, but we're very lucky to be the home location for Sitka Salmon Shares.  David and I have been enjoying our first delivery of our share of sockeye salmon, which came with this simple and delicious recipe.  Our garden has an abundance of cherry tomatoes and basil at the moment, so this was perfect.

SALMON, CHERRY TOMATOES, AND BASIL IN FOIL

adapted from recipe from  Sitka Salmon Shares

1 lb. salmon fillet

12 or so cherry tomatoes, sliced in half

10 big basil leaves

2 T. olive oil

Preheat oven to 500 degrees.

Cut salmon fillet into 2 equal pieces.  Lay out two sheets of aluminum foil large enough to completely wrap around each fillet.  Brush each sheet of foil with olive oil and place fillets, skin side down, on the foil.  Sprinkle liberally with salt and pepper.  Layer salmon first with the sliced cherry tomatoes and then the basil leaves.  Drizzle remaining olive oil equally over each.  Close each foil package tightly, making sure all edges are crimped together tightly.

Place the foil packets in a metal baking dish or jelly roll pan.  Cook salmon for about 10 minutes (medium rare) or 13 minutes (well done).  Remove from oven, and let the package cool for a couple of minutes before opening.