Archive for category Side Dishes
Two incarnations of the same salmon
Posted by monicajane in Food, Main Course, Recipes, Side Dishes on August 26th, 2009
Paul brought home some wild salmon yesterday. I made a goopy paste to go on top of it before baking it. It contained:
Tamari
Mustard (the condiment–the one that is heavy on the seeds and spicy)
Ginger
Garlic powder
Dried Dill Weed
It turned out looking awful! Keep on moving through this post, the second life of this fish was attractive and yummy.
It didn’t actually taste all that good either. We ate only about 1/3 of it last night.
So today I made a salad with the leftover. It turned out much more delicious in it’s second life.
The salad contained:
Remainder of the baked salmon in shreds
Brown rice
Lots of fresh parsley from the garden
a heaping tbls of Capers
a quarter red onion sliced in halves
Balsamic Vinegar to taste
Tamari to taste
Olive oil to taste
Yummy and not bad to look at this time around:
Besan and Zucchini vegan frittata
Posted by monicajane in Food, Main Course, Side Dishes, Vegetables on August 21st, 2009
large carrot to illustrate the size of these babies
Ingredients:
Besan Flour 1 cup (I put two cups but it was way too heavy…though tasty)
3 medium Zucchini grated in a food processor (or one huge one that got forgotten in your garden)
1 medium red onion grated in a food processor
1 tsp cayenne
1 tsp red chili flakes
1 tsp dry mustard
1 tsp cumin
1 tbls coriander
3 tbls pesto
1 tsp garlic powder
Olive oil to cook the batter in
Salt to taste
The flour and the batter when it's ready for the pan
Mix all ingredients up. No liquid is necessary as the grated zucchini emit plenty to moisten the flour. I made the mistake of adding too much flour because there was so much water from the zucchini I thought it would need it, but the texture would have been much nicer with a lighter batter. This was an experiment so I had no idea how it would turn out.
In the pan
I cooked it on medium heat for 20 minutes on both sides. I think that if you use the lesser amount of the besan flour it will require less time to cook.
fully cooked and a wee bit mangled
The flavor was delightful, though the texture as stated above was a bit heavy.
Enjoy.
More spoils from the garden
Posted by monicajane in Side Dishes on August 15th, 2009
Not a whole lot of cooking happening around here. At least not of the variety I find inspiring to share.
I do think our tomatoes are quite inspiring though. Here is a picture of a tomato salad. Very simple ingredients to maximize the fresh tomato taste.
Tomato
Fresh basil
garlic
salt
olive oil
That’s it! I find tomatoes taste best without vinegar as they are already a bit acidic.
My husband made this one following my directions. I would personally cut up the basil a bit smaller…but this was mighty yummy.
Basil — from the garden to a bowl of fettucine
Posted by monicajane in Food, Pasta, Side Dishes on August 11th, 2009
In our garden
Huge colander full of fresh basil
Pile of fresh cleaned basil next to food processor ready with a bunch of olive oil
The garlic ready to be coarsely chopped and tossed in
Pine nuts a top of some of the processed basil
parmesan/romano a top the pine nuts
finished! and yes that is the WHOLE pile of basil
Fettucine al pesto
Asian cole slaw
Posted by monicajane in Food, Recipes, Side Dishes on August 10th, 2009
I did this on the fly as I do most of my cooking. I set out to simply make a cole slaw, but as I was tasting it I wasn’t liking it and ginger, tamari and sesame oil found their way into this otherwise quite traditionally American dish.
1/4 large green cabbage
1 large carrot
6 green onions
3 tbls mayonnaise
2 tbls olive oil
2 tbls mustard with seeds
2 tbls packed grated ginger
1 tbls sesame oil
3 tbls tamari
I put all the veggies through the shredder in a food processor and then mixed up the rest of the ingredients with the veggies. It’s quite nice. This is actually quite a large amount of salad. The bowl is rather large. When you shred a cabbage it turns into a much larger quantity than you might imagine.
The flavor is distinctly Asian.
Sweet potato and cilantro salad
Posted by monicajane in Side Dishes, Vegetables on August 9th, 2009
I get very few to no responses on my veggie dishes. It sort of bums me out. I’m an enthusiastic meat eater but I love wholesome food in general and veggies of all kind play a key role. All the veggie dishes I’ve posted are really awesome. If you’re not accustomed to eating them I hope you might consider trying.
I also have a besan (garbanzo bean flour) and zucchini pancake I wanted to make but I’m wondering if I should bother posting it?? It’s essentially a main course in the same vein as a frittata, except it’s vegan. Let me know. I do have one other veggie side dish already written up for tomorrow in any case.
Anyway, this post is a nice alternative for sweet potatoes which are often served in very heavy fashion with lots of butter and sugar, etc. If you like sweet potatoes as much as I do then tasting their natural flavor in their simplicity becomes key.
This salad has a dressing that is distinct but remains light.
Ingredients:
2 large sweet potatoes cut into large bite size cubes. (I left the skins on as they are very high in nutrients. You can, of course, peel them if you prefer)
1/2 a bunch of cilantro
4 green onions, whites and greens chopped up
3 tbls of olive oil
1 lime (all the juice)
1 tsp chili powder (I actually used a mixture called Mapuche Spice, inspired by the people of the Arauncania region of Chile. I have no idea how easy it is to find this mixture. I picked it up in a fun shop near my home. It’s nice on all sorts of things and isn’t too hot. The actual ingredients are: cacho de cabra chile, coriander seeds, and cumin)
1/2 tsp cumin
Salt to taste
I cut up the potatoes and cooked them for 5 – 7 minutes in boiling water. You want to make sure not to overcook the potatoes or they will become mushy and not at all suitable for this salad. Soft and firm is what you’d like to go for.
While the potatoes are cooking mix the olive oil, juice of one lime, and the spices in a little jar or glass.
Drain the potatoes and let them cool. You could alternately make this salad warm if you prefer.
I coarsely cut up the cilantro and sliced the green onions and once the potatoes were cool I put them on the potatoes and tossed with the dressing as well.
Yum.
French lentil coconut curry
Posted by monicajane in Indian, Main Course, Side Dishes on August 5th, 2009
This was inspired by Van’s using coconut in a chicken curry the other day. I was at a market and picked up 3 cans of coconut milk and had to do something with it. The rest of the ingredients were on hand and so the below was created.
- Little black lentils…yes these are french lentils
The ingredients:
2 cups french lentils
3 cups water
Bring water to a full boil. Boil lentils for 20 – 30 minutes until tender but not mushy.
2 tbls coconut oil
1 14 oz can coconut milk
1 14 oz can diced tomatoes
2 tbls fresh ginger root minced
2 tbls coriander
2 tbls dried mustard
2 tsp cayenne
1 tsp cardamom
1 tsp black ground pepper
1 small green cabbage diced
1 large onion diced
4 large garlic cloves diced
1/4 cup tamari
In the coconut oil saute the onions and garlic for few minutes, followed by the cabbage. It’s nice to let the veggies brown a bit but not necessary. Then you can add everything else pretty much in whatever order you like. All measurements are estimates as I cook to taste. So I encourage you to do the same. Use my measurements only as vague guidelines since they are not precise in any case. I did use 2 cups of lentils though and 3 cups of water and the cans of tomatoes and coconut milk are precise sizes as well. Cook the veggies and spices, tomato and coconut milk until it’s all nice and soft.
When the veggie mixture and the lentils both are done combine the two and cook for a few minutes so the flavors will blend.
Serve the hot lentils topped with plain yogurt if you eat dairy. It’s quite delightful.
Simple yellow squash
Posted by monicajane in Food, Side Dishes, Vegetables on August 4th, 2009
Ingredients are minimal in this tasty and easy dish.
4 yellow squash
Fresh garlic diced — to taste–I always use a lot
can of whole or diced tomatoes — if you use whole tomatoes as I did here I smashed them one at a time with my hand as I put them into the dish (yeah, I like to get dirty in the kitchen.) I didn’t want there to be lots of extra water/juices in this dish and since the squash lets off lots of water too while cooking, I only put in the tomatoes and not the juices. I saved the juices in the refrigerator to use in something else. Waste not want not.
Salt to taste
Red chili flakes
Olive oil
Fresh basil
Browned garlic in olive oil, tossed in sliced squash and turned the heat up high. Tossed the squash around on the high heat until it started looking a bit wilted. Crushed the tomatoes one by one into the squash. Kept heat high in order keep the liquids coming out of the veggies evaporating.
Toss in salt and red chili flakes to taste as well as the basil. This dish was made before my basil was proliferating in my garden as it is now, so I used my frozen pesto from last year which I use in all things that call for basil off season.
Roasted Beet Salad
Posted by monicajane in Food, Side Dishes, Vegetables on August 2nd, 2009
This is a very easy and tasty salad.
I used two very large beets, but as you can see it’s still a relatively small salad. Good for two to four servings depending on size. I don’t generally feel inclined to pig out on beets even though I love them.
I cut off the tops and the bottom and placed them in a baking dish bottoms down.
I roasted the beets at 450 for about an hour and a half. Roasting time will vary according to the size of the beet. They are done when the skin is wrinkly and starts to come apart from the flesh of the beet at the top. The bottom of the beet the skin generally remains attached.
Let the beets cool for a while and then peel and cut them in large bite size pieces and place in a bowl.
I added:
red onion sliced in half-circles.
Whole mint leaves.
Olive oil
Balsamic Vinegar
Salt and pepper
All those ingredients can really be used to your taste. I didn’t measure anything, I simply tossed them in until it looked and tasted good.
Below is a before picture of the beets. As you can see they are very large. They did not come with greens which is a great shame as beet greens are delicious too, though, in general, you eat them separately.
Parce que vous achetez les croutons
Posted by JT in Recipes, Side Dishes on April 9th, 2009
When asked why they hated Americans the French responded “parce que vous achetez les croutons.” (because you buy croutons)
I don’t know who to attribute that quote to, but I’ve always liked it as a statement on French vs American cooking. I usually make bread once a week, a boule or a loaf, but I don’t eat that much bread and it can go stale quickly. In trying to figure out what to do with a ½ a loaf of white bread I thought I would try to make some stuffing as a side dish with dinner. My wife loves stuffing and I have tried making stuffing (unsuccessfully) in the past. It always just tasted like wet bread. So to appease my wife I would buy and happily eat Stovetop stuffing from a box. Finally being ashamed enough that I couldn’t prepare what seemed to be a rather simple dish, and happening to have what I figured were the right ingredients on hand I tried again. This time successfully.
Homemade Stovetop Stuffing
2 cups of croutons
¾ cup chicken stock
Salt if your stock does not already contain it
Pat of butter
1 stalk celery diced
1 leek cut into rounds and separated
1 tablespoon garlic (or to taste)
1 tablespoon of sage
1. Make your croutons. For me all I had to do was cut ½ a loaf of white bread into the right shape and leave it out overnight, you may need to place yours in a low oven tossing regularly depending on how wet your bread it or how quickly you need your croutons.
2. In a sauce pot combine butter, leeks, garlic, celery and ½ the sage. Sautee until the celery and leeks get soft and aromatic.
3. Add your chicken stock and bring to a boil.
4. Add in your croutons
5. Add in the rest of the sage
6. Stir, mixing thoroughly, cover and let sit for a few minutes
7. Serve along side roasted anything
Sage is the secret that I had been missing and caused my previous incarnations to taste like wet bread (no matter how flavorful the stock.) I am now convinced I could add croutons, salt, water and sage to a pot and come out with acceptable stuffing.
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