I was making some salsas so I thought radish pico de gallo would go well with everything and it looks pretty too. I’m thinking that you won’t use much as a portion so I think it will make around 6 servings. I used 6 common red radishes…..but mine were on the large side so you might want to add one or two more if yours are small. You don’t have to cut the radish the way I did. I think shredded would work well. I didn’t cube the radish because I thought it would be harder to eat that way.
Ingredients for around 6 servings
6 common red radishes – sliced thin and quarter the slices.
1/2 lime – just the fresh squeezed juice
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon course sea salt
5 cilantro sprigs – chopped
1 pickled serrano pepper – minced (preferably home made)
3 Tablespoons red onion – fine chopped
1 Tablespoon scallions – sliced thin
Instructions
Just mix up all the ingredients in a small bowl and serve.
Radish Pico De Gallo on the right side of a NY Steak also with Morita salsa and pickled onions
Shu Han Lee is a very high end food blogger, food writer, and food stylist. She has worked with Jamie Oliver and has written for magazines. It wasn’t really my intention to change her recipe but I didn’t have the more flavorful Hatcho miso in my pantry that I need for her recipe. I used regular white miso instead and bumped up the miso by adding a splash of yuzu hot sauce. I also cooked it only slightly differently like the way I cook certain Mediterranean eggplant recipes. What I wound up with turned out FORKING SCRUMPTIOUS. Serving size is always difficult to judge. I used one regular medium sized eggplant. My guesstimate is that you would eat a quarter of the eggplant so I’m guessing 4 small side servings.
Ingredients for around 4 smaller side servings
1 eggplant – cut in half long ways – score tops in diamond shapes
1 heaping Tablespoon white miso paste
1 Tablespoon honey
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon (or to taste) yuzu hot sauce (I used Trader Joe’s Brand….it’s more yuzu tasting than hot)
5 Tablespoons hot water
non stick spray
1 Tablespoon sesame seeds (to finish)
1 (or 2) scallion – diagonal cuts (to finish)
Directions
In a small mixing bowl mix together the miso, honey, oil, yuzu hot sauce, and hot water. Place the halved and scored eggplants and the mixing bowl liquid in a gallon Ziplock bag. Make sure the eggplant is cut side down in the bag so it can absorb liquid. Leave it on the counter for at least 30 minutes.
Set oven to 400 degrees F
Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray.
Take the eggplants out of the ziplock bag but keep the unabsorbed liquid to the side.
Place thee eggplants cut side down on baking sheet and let them cook for 25 minutes.
After 25 minutes turn thee eggplants over (cut side up) and pour extra reserved liquid over and into the eggplant halves. Leave them in the oven till they look slightly caramelized. Top them with sesame seeds and scallions.
Miso and Honey Marinated Eggplant
Enjoy!
A Special THANKS!!!! To Shu Han Lee for sharing her amazing recipe so that I could come up with what I got here!
I had a bag of potatoes and also some cheeses that I needed to use so this is what I came up with for today. OMG YUM! did this come out delicious…..Somehow everything just turned into a delicious tomato-ee, cheesy, soupy sauce with lots of potatoes. Gratinated means buttered crumbs. There is a small amount of buttered fresh bread crumbs on the top. Dauphinoise potatoes are a fancy French term for potatoes baked in milk and or cream and cheese. Serving size is always difficult to judge because I don’t know if you want a tiny dish or a big bowl. I used 6 medium sized potatoes so I am guessing a half potato a person so I will guesstimate 12 portions.
Ingredients for around 12 servings
6 medium sized russet potatoes – peeled and sliced thin one a mandolin
1 onion – peeled cut in half and sliced thin on a mandolin
4 garlic cloves – ground to paste
2 teaspoons sea salt
2 Tablespoons fresh basil (chopped)
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 dried Calabrian pepper – crushed (or substitute a small pinch of crushed red pepper)
8 oz stracchino cheese thin slices (as best you can..this cheese is sort of soft)
5 oz taleggio cheese (sliced thin)
2 eggs – lightly beaten
10 oz. can cut tomatoes (whole can with liquid…..or you can use a large farm fresh ripe heirloom tomato that taste good)
6 oz tomato paste
8 oz heavy cream
1 Tablespoon of vegetable stock paste (soup paste)
2 oz parmesan cheese – shaved (I used a vegetable peeler)
non stick spray
small roll (almost 2 oz) – to grate for crumbs (topping)
Spray a large baking dish or half buffet pan with non stick spray.
In a large bowl mix together the cream, tomato paste, soup paste, and eggs. Mix Well.
Add the potatoes, onion, garlic, black pepper, salt, Calabrian pepper, stracchino cheese, taleggio cheese, 2 Tablespoons basil, and the contents of the can of tomatoes. Mix well. Put this mixture in you non stick sprayed dish or pan.
Top this with 2 oz parmesan.
Cover tight with foil.
This goes in the middle rack of your preheated 375 degree F oven for 90 minutes.
During this time grate around 2 oz of a good tasting roll ( I used a mini sourdough roll). The roll will be easier to grate if it is stale or partly frozen. Grate the butter into the crumbs and grate the cheese into this mixture and mix it up.
I spread this out on a baking sheet and threw it in the oven when the potatoes were at 80 minutes or ten minutes before the potatoes were done.The crumbs are super crunchy this way. Add the crumbs to the top of the potatoes when they are done.
Top with a little fresh basil.
Tomato and Cheese Gratinated Dauphinoise Potatoes Tomato and Cheese Gratinated Dauphinoise Potatoes
Okomomiyaki are Japanese cabbage pancakes. They usually are drizzled with mayonnaise and okonomiyaki sauce that usually is a combination of ketchup, Worcestershire sauce and soy sauce. I was about to fry up the pancakes and I could tell by looking at it that if I didn’t add more batter to them that they wouldn’t stick together and wouldn’t come out………So I figured I could bake them in a cupcake pan. AND THAT WORKED! Mayonnaise is very fatty and then I remembered mustard tofu sauce from a Michael Voltaggio recipe I followed for shishito peppers…that is creamy and healthier…But today I used Chinese mustard instead of dijon mustard and it was. even tastier. Instead of traditional Okonomiyaki sauce (ketchup, Worcestershire, soy, sometimes honey or sugar) I used a black garlic, ketchup, hoisin, Worcestershire and thought that was tastier. This recipe makes 8 small cabbage cakes so that will be around 4 side servings.
1/4 small cabbage – fine shred
3 scallions – sliced thin
1 teaspoon oil – canola or coconut
1 inch peeled ginger – grated
1 garlic clove – ground to paste
1 carrot – peeled – shredded
2 eggs – lightly beaten
1 Tablespoon Tamari (or substitute soy sauce)
2 Tablespoons sesame seeds (I did 1/2 white and 1/2 black seeds)
6 or 7 Tablespoons flour (your amount of cabbage might differ slightly…you might need slightly more or slightly less flour)
non stick spray
6 oz silken tofu
1 + 1/2 Tablespoons Chinese mustard (or to taste)
1 head black garlic – peeled
1 Tablespoon ketchup
1 Tablespoon hoisin
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire
2 big pinches bonito flakes for finishing
2 big pinches crumbled seaweed sheets for finishing
Directions
Preheat oven to 400 degrees F
Spray 8 parts of your cupcake pan for your 8 cabbage cakes.
On medium heat heat up a small pan with the oil garlic and ginger..just heat until you can smell it. Or microwave it in a dish for a minute. Set to the side to cool.
In a large mixing bowl combine the cabbage, scallions, carrot, eggs, tamari, sesame seeds, flour, and garlic and ginger (now that it is cooler) mix well.
Pack them tight into the non stick sprayed cup cake pan.
Put them in a middle rack for 25 minutes. While they are in the oven you can make the sauces.
For the tofu mustard just blend together the tofu and mustard.
For the black garlic sauce blend together the black garlic, ketchup, hoisin, and Worcestershire.
After 25 minutes the cabbage cakes should be done. They need to cool off a little before you can remove them from the pan. You might need to use a butter knife and loosen them from the sides.
Serve them with the sauces and sprinkles of bonito flakes and seaweed flakes.
Okonomiyaki Style Baked Cabbage Cakes with Tofu Mustard and Black Garlic Sauce
This is a pretty easy delicious recipe but it’s best if you make the pickled onions the day before. I originally made up this recipe for cauliflower and it did taste delicious but I accidentally made the cauliflower soggy so I never published that recipe. This chipotle lime butter works out better for green beans and I think it actually taste better on green beans. I used my chipotle flakes this time (instead of chipotle powder that I normally use) and it did come out slightly different than with the easier to find chipotle powders out there. I think the chipotle flakes seem spicier to me so if you use chipotle powder instead you might have to add more pepper seasoning. It’s difficult to judge serving size. Some people like a small side and other people want a whole plate. You will have extra pickled onions left over that you can use on a sandwich or a taco.
Ingredients for around 6 servings.
1 red onion sliced extra thin
1 cup white vinegar
1 Tablespoon kosher salt
2 Tablespoons sugar
1 bay leaf
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/2 teaspoon yellow mustard seeds
2 sprigs thyme
1 lb green beans
15.5 oz can black beans (rinsed 3 times and drained….preferably reduced sodium)
2 Tablespoons chipotle flakes
2 teaspoons dried oregano
2 teaspoons Old Bay Seasoning
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon granulated onion
1 teaspoon granulated garlic
2 limes – juice and zest
2 tablespoons honey
4 oz sweet butter – melted
3/4 teaspoon sea salt (or to taste)
1/2 cup cilantro – chopped
optional – 4 oz queso fresco – crumbled to finish
Directions
The day before you make the green beans make the pickled onions
Heat up the vinegar, salt, sugar, bay leaf, black pepper, yellow mustard seeds, and thyme till sugar is dissolved. (you can do this stove top or microwave) Then add the red onion slices. Let sit on counter till room temp and refrigerate over night.
Put a pot of water on to boil. Then boil the trimmed green beans 2-3 minutes and drain.
In a large mixing bowl add the chipotle flakes, oregano, Old Bay, black pepper, cumin, onion, garlic, lime juice, lime zest, honey, melted butter, cilantro, and salt. Mix well. Then add the green beans. Top with some pickled onions. Finish with queso fresco if desired.
Chipotle Lime Butter Green Beans with Black Beans and Pickled Reed Onions
This is actually an eggplant timbale…….but most people never heard of a timbale so I am calling this eggplant wrapped baked ziti because it is closest to that. A timbale might be layers of food or a combination of pasta, and or custard, rice, potatoes, eggs, cheese, meat, or vegetables held together with egg and usually baked and is traditionally covered with bread crumbs. A timbale is usually molded but also can be covered in pastry. Serving size is always difficult to judge because some people want a tiny slice and other people want a great big wedge. This made 9 (what I consider large) portions. I’ll post 8 portions.
Ingredients for around 8 portions
8oz of a tube shaped pasta – cooked in salty water, drained and set to the side
2 eggplants -peeled – sliced thin (I sliced most longways but slicing across is easier….it doesn’t really matter)
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (I had to guesstimate this…I used an oil squirt bottle to oil eggplants lightly)
1 cup Localtelli cheese – shredded ( you can substitute any hard Italian cheese)
16 oz ricotta cheese (preferably home made and drained…if not a good quality one drained)
8 oz provalone cheese – I used slices and grated around half the cheese reserved (1/2 the provolone mixed with the other cheeses and the slices I used near the bottom (just under the eggplant.
2 eggs – lightly beaten
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
1/4 teaspoon fresh grated nutmeg
Optional 1/2 cup green beans (mine were cooked and chopped up) (can substitute peas, a different vegetable like drained spinach, or a cooked meat)
2 Tablespoons fresh basil chopped
1 cup tomato sauce (preferably home made plus extra for serving)
non stick spray
Salt and pepper to taste
Directions
Either set oven to broil or heat up your grill but NOTE*****on an outdoor grill you will not be able to get your eggplant slices as thin…..so things will be slightly off. If you are broiling your eggplant slices you need to sprinkle them with oil and the smallest amount of salt and pepper (you hardly need any here because it condenses) Take the eggplant out when they look slightly charred and golden and set to the side.
All the filling gets mixed together in a big bowl….cheeses, eggs, black pepper, nutmeg, green beans, basil…(maybe a small amount of the tomato sauce….(I used a small amount so my pasta wouldn’t stick)
Spray springform pan with non stick spray. Line your pan with eggplant in a thin layer and have ends of eggplant hanging off the ends.
Then you put a thin layer of provolone above the eggplant. Next a thin layer of tomato sauce.
Filling goes in next.
Top the filling with a layer of provolone and a thing layer of tomato sauce. Top that with remaining eggplant.
Fold up the ends of the eggplant.
Springform pans usually leak so put a lined sheet pan under to collect to mess.
Spray some aluminum foil with non stick spray……Cover the dish spray side down so it doesn’t stick.
This goes on the middle rack of a 350 degree preheated oven for 90 minutes.
This needs to set up over night.
Cut serving size and reheat and serve with more sauce and extra grated cheese and maybe some crumbled tarallini crackers for some crumbs.
A while back Fry’s had a sale on Avocados. I got a bag of 4 avocados that were small like eggs and stayed hard like rocks for about a month now. I figured I’d try to do something with them. These avocados were difficult to open up and I feared inedible but I made them tasty. I did a basic seasoned flour on them and then dipped them into egg and I had a cup of leftover take out rice so I sprinkled the rice on them. Baked them till crispy and whipped up a sauce. They came out tasty. I don’t know if this recipe will work as well on softer avocados. Mine came out almost like potatoes. If you find yourself with some hard avocados you might want to give this recipe a try. Ingredients for 2-4 avocado. Mine were unusually small avocados. My guess is that this recipe will make 4-8 servings depending on how much avocado that you want to eat. I think most people will eat a half avocado if they use very small avocado. I think most people would only eat a quarter of a larger avocado. This recipe worked well with small hard avocados so that is what I would suggest.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
4 small hard avocados – cut in half long ways, pit removed and scooped out of skin
3 Tablespoons flour
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
2 eggs
1 cup of leftover take out rice
non stick spray
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil (guesstimated…I just sprayed them with oil from my squirt bottle
3 Tablespoons tahini
1 Tablespoon white miso
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1 Tablespoon sriracha (I used Shark Brand that is very sweet and mellow)
1 Tablespoon Sambal (or to taste)
1/3 cup yuzu juice (I had this leftover but you can substitute a combination of fresh squeezed orange and lime juice)
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
Directions
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.
Spray baking sheet with non stick spray and set it to the side.
In a gallon zip lock bag add the flour, chili powder, salt, black pepper. Shake it to mix and add avocados. Shake gently to coat avocados.
Take out the avocados and pour leftover seasoned flour into small mixing bowl. Add the eggs to the mixing bowl and mix well. Coat each piece of avocado with the egg mixture. Then sprinkle the rice on both sides of each avocado and place on sprayed baking sheet.
These go in the preheated 350 degree F oven till crispy and slightly brown. (around 30 minutes)
Make sauce while the avocado are baking.
In a small mixing bowl combine the tahini, miso, vinegar, oil, sriracha, Sambel (to taste) citrus juice. Add black pepper to taste. I didn’t think mine needed salt but you might want a little more salt.
When the avocados get lightly browned and crispy take them out and serve with the sauce you’ve just whipped up.
Baked Avocado with Crunchy Takeout Rice Coating and Spicy Tahini Miso Sauce
This recipe is a variation of Frances Atkins’s Elderflower Jelly and Relish Recipe. In 2003 Frances Atkins was the first female British chef to win a Michelin Star. I found her recipe when I was searching recipes for beets (the relish here is made with beets). I didn’t change her beet relish much or change. her tuile recipe. Instead of making elderflower jelly I just used half a packaged small fig and instead of using goat cheese I made QUICK ricotta cheese that was done in five minutes. The combination of these flavors are FORKING AMAZING. For me this recipe made 12 small tuile with extra beet relish.
Make the cheese. In a large microwaveable tub add the milk and lemon juice. Microwave for 5 minutes. Use a mesh strainer and fish out all the curds and shake out the extra whey. Refrigerate.
Combine the beet, shallots. juniper berries, vinegar and sugar and cook gently till soft. Stove top will be quicker than oven but either is fine.
Set oven to 400 degrees F.
Mix the potato with the egg whites. Pour on a silicone mat. Sprinkle with caraway seeds and parmesan.
Place on bottom rack of oven for 5-10 minutes or until it looks sort of baked.
Cut into pieces.
Fry with vegetable on medium heat till the tuile get crisp.
Assemble
Spread some beet relish and top with fresh ricotta and some fig.
I accidentally created something FORKING AMAZING and FORKING DELICIOUS today. Gochujang Brown Butter Green Beans. The secret just might be the brand of gochujang that I used. You won’t get good gochujang from the regular supermarkets. Gochujang is always better from an Asian market. I used Chung Jung One brand. Most of the box is printed in Korean. It comes in three tubes that are around 60g each or weigh on my kitchen scale 2.5 ounces each in the tube. All I did was fry up green beans till they started to wrinkle (put to side) and then in same pan I browned the butter and as soon as it browned I squirted in a whole tube of gochujang (around 2 oz) poured it over the green beans and added lemon zest and GOSH it was FORKING BOMB DELICIOUS!
Ingredients for around two servings
1 lb washed and trimmed green beans
2 Tablespoons canola oil
4 oz sweet butter
60g or around 2 oz gochujang (preferably Chung Jung One)
1 lemon (just the zest)
Directions
Heat up thee canola oil on medium high heat. Fry up the green beans on medium high heat till wrinkly or starting to wrinkle (my green beans seemed a little dried out so I only took mine to starting to wrinkle. Fresher firmer green beans can wrinkle more) When done add to a bowl and set to the side.
In thee same pan lower the heat to just under medium and add the butter and cook it till it is amber sort of brown. Next mix in the gochujang and pour over green beans. Add lemon zest and enjoy!
Gochjang Brown Butter Green Beans Chung Jung One
The tubes are also very handy. I don’t cook Korean so often so most brands in tubs dry out and don’t last long for me.
I had milk, cheese, corn, and corn pasta to use up so this is what I came up with for today. It’s easy to prepare and comes out delicious! Serving size is always hard to judge. For me this made 10 servings. I’ll suggest 8 servings because some people will like bigger servings than me.
Ingredients for around 8 servings
1 lb roasted corn kernels
15oz pasta (I used a 12oz package of corn/rice fusilli + 3oz package of instant ramen noodles (don’t use the seasoning mix here).
2 Anaheim roasted chilis – peeled, core, stems, seeds removed and chopped fine
1/4 cup scallions – sliced thin
1 + 1/2 cups milk
optional – 1/4 cup salsa (preferably home made scooped up with a strainer to pick up mostly solids)
3 eggs – lightly beaten
1 teaspoon ground black pepper
6 oz fontina cheese – grated
6 oz sharp white cheddar cheese – grated
1 cup parmesan cheese – grated
1 lemon zest (just the grated zest)
around 3 Tablespoons butter (room temperature) to grease springform pan
Directions preheat the oven to 425 degrees F
Put a salted pot of water on to boil. Cook pasta till it’s a still a little hard…(my pasta said 14 minutes and I cooked it 9 or 10 minutes and threw in the unseasoned ramen noodles one minute before) Take off the heat and drain.
In a medium bowl blend together the milk, corn, chili, black pepper, and eggs. Set to the side.
In a large bowl add all the cheeses (parm, fontina, cheddar. Mix well and remove around 3/4 cup for reserving to top the pasta cake. Add (if using salsa), pasta(s), blended egg mixture, and mix well.
Grease up your springform pan. Get a lined sheet pan to place under the springform pan because they usually leak.
Place in middle rack area for around 35 minutes. (around at 30 minutes I lightly covered with foil to brown less).
It needs to cool off for at least an hour or two and then you can open it up. I used a rubber thin spatula to make sure that it didn’t stick to the pan when I opened it up.
Cheesy Corn Pasta Corn Pasta Pie
I was able to cut mine luke warm. Would be easiest to let cool over night in the refrigerator and re-heat.
