Tuna Happens
We have a great relationship with tuna. It happens when it happens. Living on the coast, you can often buy tuna. But sometimes when tuna is running, you can get a GREAT deal on a wonderful fish. We usually pay $12 to $16 a pound for any fish at our local fish market. Grocery store prices are always cheaper, but the fish isn’t quality and is often frozen. But on occasion the sushi-quality yellow fin tuna is in abundance and we can buy it at $8 or $9 a pound. Once on the west coast we bought a whole fish at $2.99 a pound (and they filleted for us at the same cost). When the high quality tuna shows up, we buy it. Ingredients: Zip lock bag, gallon or quart as needed Quality olive oil. California at a minimum, we like Tuscan Herb. Balsamic Vinegar. We like 18...
Bacon wrapped scallops
This is a very pedestrian, and VERY good recipe. We actually have never cooked it before because it seemed to be one of those things you order from an app menu. But one of our local boutique shops (Green Turtle ROCKS) had some HUGE scallops today, so we bought some in lue of our usual shrimp. So we also bought half a pound of their bacon. This recipe is for two. Ingredients Six BIG fresh sea scallops Bacon ( 3 strips). We buy half a pound and save the rest for breakfast. 2 tablespoons butter (we use Earth Balance margarine) Fresh ground pepper Tony’s Seasoning 1 tsp minced garlic 6 toothpicks Directions Melt the margarine. Add the Tony’s, garlic and pepper in a bowl. Add the scallops to coat. Cut 3 strips of bacon in half. On a cutting board or a...
Banana Bread
This was a favorite when the kids were growing up. We’d save slightly over-ripe bananas in the freezer and when we got 3, we’d make banana bread. Ingredients 3 ripe bananas, well mashed 2 eggs well-beaten 2 cups flour 3/4 cup sugar 1 t. salt 1 t. baking soda Splash of milk (about 2 T. – depends on how stiff the batter is) 1/2 c. coarsely chopped walnuts/pecans (optional) Instructions 350-degree oven Grease loaf pan Mix bananas and eggs in a large bowl. Stir in flour, sugar, salt, and baking soda. Add nuts if using. Combine ingredients. Put batter in pan and bake for 1 hour. Remove from pan to cooling...
Tuscan Herb Salt
Simple ingredients, great flavor We heard about this on NPR’s cooking show Splendid Table, so this really isn’t from us. But it is GREAT. While I’m typing, the roasted chicken with Tuscan Herb is cooking and the smell is memorable. The writer says this is a classic Northern Italian herb combinations. But this isn’t about the chicken, it’s about the salt. This isn’t about a singular meal, but something you can create and have ready to create any NUMBER of great meals. The chicken recipe (again, not ours) will follow. This is a classic flavored Italian salt preparation that can be used anywhere you need to add salt. Ingredients Kosher Salt Fresh rosemary Fresh sage Fresh garlic Directions Crush 2 cloves of garlic under a knife,...
Roma pasta
This is a classic Roman pasta dish. Back in the day before the New World, and tomatoes, were discovered, Italians ate their pasta without a heavy marinara. I read about this a while back, and filed it on my ‘things to try’ list. Cooking dinner tonight, I found my pork chops were bad (just bought them yesterday!) and had to come up with a quick plan B. My “plan B’s” usually involve calling Papa Vitos for a pizza, but I was hungry and didn’t want to wait 45 minutes to eat. Then I remembered the Roman Pasta story I read in the paper. I googled around for some recipes and then made my take on it. The recipe makes a meal for one, so increase as needed. Ingredients: Handful of dried pasta (I use about 1/5 a package of Barilla’s...
Larb
Thai Lettuce Wrap Use half the meat for serving of 4 Buy 1 fresh lime, 1 fresh lemon, fish sauce, brown sugar (or 2 packets from restaurant 🙂 , serano chile, crushed red pepper (available at Italian restaurants 🙂 ), vegetable oil, ground chicken breast, shallots/green onions or minced sweet onion, basil, cabbage, optional: carrot 2t. grated lime rind 1t. grated lemon rind 1/4C. fresh lime juice 1T. fresh lemon juice 1T. Fish Sauce 2t. brown sugar 1/2t. finely chopped serano chile 1/4t. crushed red pepper 1 t. vegetable oil 12 oz. ground chicken breast 1T. chopped shallots/sweet onion/green onion 1/2 C. coarsely chopped basil 1/2 head of cabbage, cored & halved Optional: grated or thinly slice carrots on the bias. Combine first 8 ingredients, stirring with a...