Friday Night Challenge: Nutty Arugula Salad

First of all, a series of mea culpas for 2 gaps in this week's Friday Night Challenge--namely asparagus and seitan...unfortunately, fresh out of both. I figured I could go out scouting for asparagus, but I'm sort of like it as I am with morels--I enjoy them immensely when in season and when we freeze what comes from our yard and woods. Once they're gone, the patience kicks in and we wait until next spring with great anticipation. I checked the freezer and yep, the last of the asparagus was gone. However...I took liberties and replaced it with another vegetable that I picked from the garden fresh and it does begin with an "a". I used arugula or rocket, as some know it. I love this stuff...a green that tastes just like fresh pepper...fantastic! As I said in the beginning of the blog, no seitan to be found for many a mile; however, I am intrigued with it after figuring out its qualities. Next trip to Btown will probably yield some.
So, whatever was left of the ragged Challenge? Plenty! I had quinoa, lentils, and nuts. So, first things first--prepare the quinoa and lentils. Easy-breezy...pretty much a 2 to 1 ratio of water to grain/legume--a touch of salt in the water. Bring to a boil and then once the grain or legume is added, scale back to a simmer. Time is the big difference here. Quinoa needs about 20 minutes; lentils about 10...much longer and you'll have mush. So, cook both the items. In the meantime, take 3 or four small leaves of arugula and dice into ribbons. Next, take the walnuts (around 2 T.), place in a baggie and pound with a rolling pin. Keep one in tact for the finished product. Spoon the quinoa on a plate, add some lentils on top of the quinoa, scatter the arugula ribbons around, and then sprinkle on the walnuts. Add 1/2 walnut to the stack. That's it. Incredibly easy and tasty. No dressings, oils, or anything else needed. The combination of nutty/pepper tastes are great.

Enjoy!

Friday Night Challenge: Raspberry Thai Shrimp Pasta

Tonight's challenge just seemed to frame itself as the items appeared in the comments section:

fish (cook's choice)=shrimp    pasta     fruit (cook's choice)=red raspberries   peas    Greek yogurt

The fish, fruit, and other ingredients, just seemed to point to a Thai dish. Quite easy to do as follows:

Thaw shrimp (if needed)--be sure to use raw. Heat just a bit of vegetable oil in a skillet. Add the shrimp and cook. Add a bit of Thai chili sauce and cook for a bit.

While the shrimp is cooking, prepare some miniature pasta in boiling salted water. For the peas, I microwaved a bag of sugar snap pea pods and had them at the ready. Finally, I crushed some red raspberries into some Greek yogurt and cooked over low heat. I added a bit more Thai chili sauce to the yogurt  and let it warm.

Then, to assemble, pour off the oil and liquid from the shrimp, pour the water off the pasta--mix the two together. Add the raspberry -yogurt sauce and then the pea pods.

Enjoy!

Buttered Bluegill in Parchment with Summer Squash

What a fantastic time of year--fresh vegetables arriving in the kitchen daily, fresh fish being caught. The Friday Night Challenge ingredients:

fish--bacon--asparagus--butter--lemon--summer squash

started me thinking about a process I recently saw in a Julia Child cookbook that uses parchment paper and high heat to assure that the fish cooks through without drying--a major downfall of fish, especially more delicate whitefish-types.

What follows is a relatively simple process for the meal:

Cook about 3 ounces of bacon cut into small pieces. Once it is about half finished, add fresh asparagus and a pat of butter. Add some small diced pieces of summer squash and let everything cook slowly. Add just a bit of lemon juice (about 1/4 t.).

Set the oven to 425 degrees. Prepare a piece of parchment paper with butter and lay the fish on  it along with some of the summer squash that is peeled with a vegetable peeler. Give it a pinch of salt and a squirt of lemon juice. Wrap tightly in the parchment and put on a shallow baking pan. Cook for around 15 minutes and check. The squash won't be overly tender; it will have texture.

While everything else is cooking and baking, peel and cut a cucumber into small bite-sized pieces. Give it a bit of salt and about 1/4t. dried dill. Let it set for a bit. Once the asparagus has cooked to doneness, remove it and the squash as well as about 1/2 of the bacon. Put the remainder of the bacon with the cucumber. Take the remaining bacon fat, add a touch of olive oil, a shake of salt, and a squirt of lemon juice and heat through. Pour over the cucumbers and coat.

Enjoy!

Olive-Egg Wraps Mediterranean Style

On one of my sojourns to my beloved gourmet Amish grocery in the area, I happened upon some Mediterranean grilling oil. Its combination of garlic, paprika, rosemary, lemon oil, and capsicun makes it a light oil with full-bodied flavors. So, as I was looking at the ingredients for the Friday Night Challenge

fried eggs---spinach---sun-dried tomatoes---olives---bacon

the salt aspect struck me as something that would work very well with the oil. And it did.

Cut the bacon slices into quarters so it can be crumbled it into big crumbles. Once it is fried crisp, put it in a strainer to dry it out. Pour off most of the bacon fat, give it a good blend of the Mediterranean grilling oil, and then add 6 lightly beaten eggs. Before the eggs set, add thinly sliced stuffed olives and let the egg set up to a texture that it can be used it as a wrap. Once finished, cut it in half and remove each half to a separate plate, having flipped it olive-side down. Add a bit of the bacon fat/grill oil back to the pan and saute 1/2 bag of baby spinach, allowing it to wilt to a rich green color.

While all this is going on, "sun dry" paper-thin slices of fresh tomatoes under a high-heat broiler with a touch of the grilling oil and a very generous amount of pepper. 

Once everything is finished, put a layer of bacon crumbled, a layer of spinach, and a layer of sun-dried tomatoes in each wrap and then turn it seam side under. Add the remaining sun-dried tomatoes to the top with the remaining bacon crumbles.

This will work for any meal, be it brunch, lunch, or supper. It has a great combination of flavors.

Enjoy!

Oriental Grilled Chicken Pasta with Fresh Vegetables

Two elements played strong roles in this Friday Night's Challenge: hot weather and fresh vegetables. Both tended to serve the Challenge well. 


The hot weather sent me out the kitchen and onto the deck to the grill. This meant some pre-seasoning of the good things for tonight's menu. I decided to go oriental since a sesame taste was beckoning me.


I mixed up a marinade of canola oil, chili sesame oil, sesame oil, soy sauce, and a generous portion of ginger sesame spice.


Using some heavy-duty foil, I made a pocket and coated it with canola oil. Then I added in a layer of the first ingredient, chicken, that was coarsely chopped. I poured a bit of the marinade over this. For the next layer, I broke into 3 inch pieces whole wheat pasta, and poured a bit more of the marinade. I then added coarsely chopped zucchini, red bell pepper, tomatoes, and off the cob corn. 


Everything was put together on the grill. I wasn't too sure about grilling pasta, but with the natural juices from the veggies and the moisture of the chicken, it did just fine. It also nicely soaked up the mild sesame flavor.


Easy to do; easy to fix. Gotta love this time of year with all the freshness of our food...be sure to enjoy!

Spam Time! for the Friday Night Challenge

It seems the lines are clearly drawn when it comes to Spam--people either really like it or detest it. There's just not much area in between. I happened to be married to a nice guy that really likes Spam. Plain Spam, Spicy Spam, you name it--it's all good. So when it was time for a Friday Night Challenge, he asked if he could play along and name Spam for one of the ingredients. Well, of course! And so he did. The other four ingredients were:

Velveeta cheese, pineapple, water chestnuts, and avocado

It was way too hot to heat much up in the kitchen and what's nicer to have than a grill in the summer? So, with little hesitation, I coarsely chopped the avocado, the water chestnuts, and the Spam into bite-sized pieces. I kept the pineapple in slices--pineapple and a grill just really get along well, so why mess with what works? Once the avocado was tender and the rest of everything else warmed through and a bit caramelized, it was time to remove it from the grill and add some thin slices of pepper jack Velveeta and let it do some serious melting. 

My Spam man agreed it was pretty darned good!

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!