fresh ideas

The other night, I made this new spectacular invention. Super easy and light and tasty. You'll love it, I promise.

Tilapia with arugula pasta
Serves 4
4 tilapia fillets, seasoned with salt and pepper on one side
2 T olive oil
1 can petite diced tomatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4~1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
finely grated pecorino romano cheese
3 C baby arugula
1 lb linguine or spaghetti
2 T extra virgin olive oil
juice of 1/2 lemon
salt and pepper to taste

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Season the water with salt and cook the pasta to al dente, about 8 minutes. Reserve some pasta water.
2. Meanwhile, in a deep skillet with a lid, heat olive oil over medium heat and cook crushed red pepper flakes and garlic until garlic is straw colored and slightly sticky. Add diced tomatoes and simmer until slightly reduced, about 10 minutes. Place tilapia fillets--seasoned side up--in the pan and poach until barely cooked through, about 5 minutes.
   
3. In a large bowl, toss the pasta with extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper, pecorino romano cheese, lemon juice, and baby arugula. Add a little pasta cooking liquid if it's a little sticky.
4. Serve pasta with a tilapia fillet on the side. Spoon over a little tomato sauce and serve with some more cheese.
   

Day 21

When I was a kid, I have a memory of our family often going to a special Italian restaurant in Tokyo, and my favorite dish there was salmon in cream sauce with fettuccine. I remember as a child always wishing I could find it on other menus, but I never did and I felt like I had lost something great.

A few years ago during the winter, I had made a white stew with salmon instead of chicken or pork, and I remembered my favorite pasta dish. And that was when I fell back in love with that cream and salmon combination. So tonight, even if it's a little heavy for Summer, I decided to reminisce a little. I used 1% milk because that's what we had in our fridge, but I recommend using whole milk. The lower the fat content in a white sauce, the gluey-er it will seem. Also, use good quality salmon or the whole sauce will taste a little fishy. If you can find really wide fettuccine (they come in little nests), use that. The normal long strands of fettuccine they sell in most grocery stores here isn't as wide as I think fettuccine should be. But I had to settle for the normal stuff tonight:(

Salmon cream sauce with fettuccine
serves 21 large fillet of salmon, cut into 1/2 inch pieces
2 T flour
2 T butter
2 C milk
2 cloves garlic, grated
1/4~1/2 C grated Pecorino Romano cheese
1/8 t nutmeg
salt and pepper to taste

1/2 lb pasta

1. Boil the pasta very al dente. You want to take them out of the water a couple of minutes before they're done cooking so they can continue to cook in the sauce for a couple of minutes.
2. In a sauté pan with high sides, cook the garlic and butter until garlic is fragrant and butter is completely melted. Add flour and stir well. Gradually add milk, about 1/4~1/2 C at a time, whisking to avoid lumps. Add salt, pepper, and nutmeg.
3. Add the pieces of uncooked salmon into the sauce and let simmer. The salmon will cook quickly. Add more milk if the sauce gets too thick.
4. Add the pasta to the sauce and toss to combine. Top with lots of cheese.
   

Day 6

So I've been noticing that though I think I've been making some decently healthy-ish meals, I've been portioning a little too big. So I decided to use veggies to fill up and use the pasta as a side kind of thing. And it turned out great! I was actually full with just a small amount of starch.

I made Aglio e Olio for the pasta and I made up my own Balsamic/garlicky Salmon and roasted broccoli. So here are the fish and broccoli recipes.


For the salmon:
1 large fillet of Salmon, cut into 2 equal portions
3 T white wine
1 large garlic clove, grated or minced fine
1/2 t crushed red pepper flakes
2 T olive oil
2 T balsamic vinegar
salt and pepper to taste

1. In a medium skillet, heat up the oil garlic, and red pepper flakes at medium-high heat. Meanwhile, season the salmon fillets on both sides with salt and pepper.
2. As soon as the garlic is cooked through but not browned, place the salmon on the pan and sear on both sides.
3. Pour white wine and balsamic vinegar until the alcohol is cooked out and the vinegar thickens. Flip the fish over to coat the other side.

For the broccoli:
1 large broccoli crown, cut into small pieces
olive oil
salt and pepper to taste

1. Turn broiler on.
2. On a small cookie sheet toss the salt, pepper, oil, and broccoli.
3. Place under the broiler for about 7 minutes, or until the broccoli tips are crispy and browned.
   

Day 1

As I promised Rebekah, I am accepting her challenge and attempting to do a month of recipes. So we started out August with a pretty typical Japanese dish. We finally got a membership at Sam's Club today (I miss Costco ... but they don't them here! grrr ...), and thankfully they had Salmon fillets.

My neighbor has a mini farm, as I mentioned previously, I think, and we picked some cucumbers so I made a simple cucumber salad with Japanese ginger dressing on the side. And of course it was all served with a bowl of rice and miso soup. (I know, the cucumbers look a little yellow. Don't ask me why. They tasted normal, though)

Japanese Salmon
serves 2
2 medium skinless, frozen Salmon fillets, thawed completely in cool water
3 T soy sauce
1 T sugar
2 T mirin
1/4 C dashi (Japanese fish & seaweed stock)
oil for cooking

1. In a small bowl, combine the dashi, soy sauce, mirin, and sugar, until sugar is dissolved.
   
2. In a small pan, heat the oil on medium-high heat. Place the Salmon on the pan and sear both sides, about 30 seconds on each side.
3. Pour the soy sauce mixture on top of the salmon and let simmer. Flip the salmon over to make sure it is getting coated on both sides. Cook until sauce thickens a little. Serve warm with rice, a light salad, and