The Friday Night Challenge--Welcome Summer!

Tonight's challenge put me in a tropical/summertime frame of mind with a super-easy main dish. Here are the ingredients:

salmon---cucumber---mango--broccoli--kiwi

On my way to the grocery, it occurred to me that I had some left-over Major Grey's Chutney in the fridge. That was the link that would bring everything together.

Here's the recipe:  Take the salmon and divide into serving sizes (I used frozen and it worked great). I sprayed a heavy piece of aluminum foil with olive oil cooking spray and let the salmon cook on this on the grill for around 10 minutes or just light pink. Don't cook too long or it will dry out quickly...ick.

While the salmon was cooking, I diced up a cucumber (be sure to remove the seeds); cut a mango into tiny slices (yep, used canned and it worked fine--be sure to save the juice from the can); cut the fresh broccoli into tiny bite-sized pieces (this will need to be fresh to hold its texture), and peeled and cut the kiwi into a rough dice.

I took a bit of the Major Grey's chutney and mixed it with the mango syrup (find mangoes in light syrup--it works better) to make a dressing for the dish.

Take the salmon from the grill, assemble all the ingredients on a plate, put some chutney directly on the salmon and let it glaze, and then pour the dressing lightly over everything. 

I added a glass of sav blanc and it was fantastic.

Happy summer with a very light, pretty, and enjoyable Friday Night Challenge.

Enjoy!

Friday Night Challenge: Smoky Hunan Chicken

I finally got the chance to go to the store and pick up the needed supplies for last week's Challenge. As a review, the ingredients were:
chicken---pecans---water chestnuts---sweet potatoes---bourbon

I decided to give the ingredients a spicy Hunan taste since we like that flavor (and I had a jar of smoky hunan sauce I was interested in trying). To make the dish (easy to do!):
--cut up two sweet potatoes into very small cubes
--cook on fairly high heat in some canola oil until they start to get soft and carmelize
Turn down the heat and add the following:
--hunan sauce (I used Hunan Smokehut Spicy Grill Sauce)
--can of sliced water chestnuts
--2 oz. pecan pieces
--chicken pieces (can use a couple of chicken breasts if you'd like--I had left-over fried chicken that I pulled apart and used)

Let these ingredients cook on low heat until everything is heated through; then after turning off the heat, pour in 2T. of American Honey bourbon. Stir for even coverage.

This is incredibly easy, quick, and is quite economical. It makes a pretty dish and tastes great!

Friday Night Challenge: Balsamic-Seared Tuna Steaks

After a cool-down period of over a week, I was ready to get the Friday Night Challenge up and running once again. It is summertime, after all and that means grill weather! (The calendar doesn't show it yet, but the temperatures in the 90's do!) 
Here are the ingredients that came my way for this week:
tuna, artichoke, lettuce, strawberries, feta cheese, mushrooms


Here is the finished product:

And here's the recipe:


Take one jar of artichoke hearts, one jar of shiitake mushrooms, 1/2 dozen sliced button mushrooms. Toss all these together and place in a foil packet with some salt, a sprinkle of olive oil, and a dash of balsamic vinegar. Place on the grill on low heat and let cook for around 15 minutes.


Take tuna steaks and slice to about 1/2-3/4" thickness. Add a bit of salt, a sprinkle of olive oil, and balsamic vinegar. Drop on the grill--that's it. Watch them until they just start to lose their pinkness. Don't cook any longer or they'll dry out.


For the salad (another very easy to fix item): take lettuce (any kind you prefer). Slice some strawberries thinly.   (Earlier I fixed some strawberries the regular way, i.e. sliced and sugared a bit--needed the syrup for the dressing, and besides--dessert, anyone?) Pull the lettuce into bite-sized pieces, place the strawberry slices on the lettuce bed, sprinkle some crumbled Feta cheese over the salad, and then add the simple dressing of the strawberry syrup, a bit of balsamic vinegar, and olive oil. Yep, that's it!


If you need something quick yet substantial for a meal, this is an easy fix and it tastes great with the addition of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, a bit of salt. 


Enjoy!