I wanted to do something with parsnips today. I looked up recipes and found maybe ten different recipes that paired parsnips with sage and bacon…..So I thought of bonito flakes….Bonito flakes are shaved dried fermented and smoked tuna. They are almost like a mix of anchovy and bacon but more delicate. That makes bonito flakes more vegetable friendly than bacon. Bonito flakes are easy to find at your local Asian Market or you can buy them on-line. I didn’t measure this recipe exactly. The hardest part is peeling the Brussels sprouts. I had a one pound bag of Brussels sprouts and maybe peeled half of each sprout and cooked the centers latter for a separate dish.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
4 large parsnips – Peel and cut around the cores into small wedges something like French fry shaped.
3 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 sprigs sage leaves – pick off leaves
1/4 cup green olives – pits removed – rough chopped
2 cups brussels sprouts leaves
1/2 lemon – just the fresh squeezed juice
fresh crushed sea salt to taste
fresh ground black pepper to taste
4 good pinches of bonito flakes
Directions
Set your oven to 400 degrees F.
Put the parsnips on a baking sheet and spay or sprinkle the parsnips well with olive oil. Most them for 15 minutes. (they aren’t done yet). Add sage and olives and roast them 5-10 minutes more or until the parsnips are cooked. Toss in the sprout leaves. This goes back in the oven for only 2 minutes to wilt the leaves. Sprinkle with lemon juice add salt and pepper to taste. Finish with bonito flakes.
Here is a delicious Indian Style nut butter tomato sauce that I made for a roasted cauliflower. It’s a delicious, creamy, fragrant, sauce that gets creamy from grinding some nuts into it so you need a spice grinder. It’s trendy to roast a whole cauliflower head but I’m sorry that I did it that way because it takes much longer to roast it that way. I would suggest roasting the cauliflower in wedges or even florets. I had some leftover turmeric pickled onions that I added that I thought would be good here. The onions were a big onion sliced, zest from one orange, with juice of the orange, 2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1/4 teaspoon turmeric. Mix and let sit a 1/2 hour and then refrigerate. For the cauliflower you can use whatever kind you get. I do note that purple cauliflower are the most delicate and roast for less time in a slightly lower oven. I used an Italian green fancy cauliflower today. The other cauliflower that comes out the best is the orange cauliflower…but really any cauliflower will be fine. Serving size will differ. Every cauliflower is a different size and you might want a big portion or maybe only a small side order. I used 2 small cauliflowers and got 8 small servings.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
1 large or 2 small cauliflower – cut in serving size wedges
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil (this is what I guessed I used to spray down the two cauliflowers well.
sea salt – to taste
ground black pepper- to taste
3 onions – sliced thin
4 Tablespoons canola oil
pinch sugar
pinch salt
28 oz can Italian crushed or chopped tomatoes
2 garlic cloves – ground to paste
20 almonds – ground with a spice grinder
20 cashews – ground with a spice grinder
1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon ground turmeric
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
1 teaspoon ground coriander
1 teaspoon ground cumin
pinch cinnamon
garam masala – to taste for finishing
optional – 3 Tablespoons fresh cilantro
Directions
Set oven to 350 degrees F
Get out a baking sheet.
Spray the cauliflower well with the olive oil. Salt and pepper the cauliflower to your taste. Put the sheet of cauliflower on a middle rack of your oven. Roast till the cauliflower has brown edges. (timing may differ but this takes around 45 minutes…it could be more or less)
Chef Paxx Caraballo Moll was named a “Best New Chef” by Food & Wine Magazine. I thought his recipe for skirt steaks with carrot puree and braised cabbage sounded interesting. I didn’t do his skirt steaks because I just made an eye roast called FORKING GREAT Eye Roast with magical delicious rub (You can find on my blog in search) that I thought would go well with everything else from this recipe. I did only minor changes to his recipe….The recipe does have more steps than your average dinner but all the steps are very easy and most of them don’t really need directions. I wrote this as a dinner Idea because I think this same plate would be great with any grilled meat. You will want to do something similar over and over again. (For the photo I didn’t put much meat there because I wanted you to see everything else…The meat has it’s own recipe page.
FORKING GREAT Eye Roast with Magical Delicious RubFORKING GREAT Eye Roast with Magical Delicious Rub
Pickled Orange turmeric onions
1 large white onion – sliced thin
1 orange – the juice and zest
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Mix together in a small bowl. Let sit out 30 minutes. Refrigerate and use when ready.
Basic carrot puree
1- 2 lb carrots peeled and rough dice
1 tablespoon sea salt
1 small brown potato – peeled and rough dice
Place in sauce pot covered well with water. Bring to boil. Medium boil for 15 – 20 minutes. Drain but save carrot water. Blend with a small amount of butter and add a small amount of honey. Add reserved carrot water till a smooth consistency.
Basic gremolata (gremolata is usually just parsley lemon and garlic…..This one differed so I made it different too)
1/2 cup parsley leaves – chopped
1/2 cup cilantro (fine stems ok) – chopped
1 lemon zest
1 teaspoon sambal oelek
2 Tablespoons scallions – chopped
4 Tablespoons oil (I used cilantro oil that I made from a previous recipe)
Mix the above together in a small bowl.
Braised cabbage…..not sure but I think there was a misprint in the magazine because plain thin cabbage was to go in a dry fry pan for 4 minutes until soft.????????????.
1 small head purple cabbage sliced thin.
1/4 cup soy sauce
1 Tablespoon Worcestershire sauce
1/4 teaspoon sambal oelek
1/2 cup light brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon ground cumin
I would do this different next time……and just roast the cabbage with these flavors.
I started the cabbage in a pot and on high heat for around 5 minutes with the soy sauce. Then I added the rest and reduced to medium heat till liquid was absorbed.
Optional – I thought the cabbage was too soft so I crisped it up in a 400 degree F oven for around 20 minutes and I thought it was better.
Put it all together with whatever protein or grilled protein you made.
FORKING GREAT eye roast with braised cabbage, carrot puree, gremolata,and orange pickled turmeric onions
A Special THANKS!!!! To chef Paxx Caraballo Moll and Food & Wine Magizine so I could come up with what I got here.
I came across this recipe roasted carrots with yaji spice relish by Yewande Komolafe from The New York Times. Yewande Komolafe is a food writer and recipe developer for them. She grew up in Lagos and Nigeri so she knows that Yuji is a common spice in Northern Nigeria and West Africa. A spice blend of chile, ginger, pulverized peanuts gets mixed with scallions and lemon and works well to liven up the carrots. I cut the recipe in half because 4 pounds of carrots for me is way more than four servings. Some ingredients I rounded up or down slightly. I also cut the Yaji spice blend in half and have a bit extra left. In the end it did come out great. At first I thought the recipe was too sour for me but the carrots got so sweet that it worked out delicious. I think most people would enjoy it. For me this made around 4 side servings with extra yaji spice left.
Ingredients for around 4 servings
2 Tablespoons toasted peanuts (yaji spice)
1 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger (yaji spice)
1 teaspoon smoked paprika (yaji spice)
1 teaspoon onion powder (yaji spice)
1/2 teaspoon garlic powder (yaji spice)
1/2 teaspoon sea salt (yaji spice)
2 lb carrots – cut in 3-4 inch pieces thicker pieces halved
Pulse the peanuts, ginger, smoked paprika, onion powder, garlic powder, and salt to a fine powder. This is your yaji spice. Set it to the side.
Set oven to 400 degrees F.
Toss the carrots with canola oil and lightly season with salt. Spread the carrots out in a single layer on a baking sheet. Roast till the carrots are tender and sort of caramelized. (timing will vary….40 minutes till an hour) Rotate pans around halfway time.
Make relish. Grate the ginger into a large bowl and add the scallions. Add zest and juice of lemon. Stir and add peanut oil. Add yaji spice, paprika, and parsley. Taste and adjust.
When the carrots come out toss them in the relish and them place them on a platter. Scatter the crushed peanut and enjoy!
Roasted Carrots with Yaji Spice Relish
A special THANKS! To Yewande Komolafe and The New York Times for this amazing recipe.
I have a small bush of tarragon so I was looking up tarragon recipes. I came across salsa al dragoncello that translates to tarragon salsa. I didn’t make salsa al dragoncello but the basic ingredients in it reminded me of the way I usually make tuna salad. So I basically made my version of tuna salad a little different and with tarragon.
Ingredients for around two servings.
6 oz drained tuna (around)
1/4 cup (tight) tarragon leaves – chopped
1/2 cup marinated (jarred) artichokes – drained and chopped
1 teaspoon capers – chopped
1/4 cup red onion – fine chopped
1 lemon – supreme and chop
3 Tablespoons sherry vinegar
2 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 dried Calabrian dried pepper – crumbled (or use a little any pepper of your choice)
optional – either a cured egg or hard boiled yolk grated
Directions
Everything gets mixed together in a bowl. Serve with bread and or a salad. Grate egg over if using.
Tarragon & Artichoke Tuna Salad with Chopped Lemon and Capers
I was paging threw Food Network Magazine and they had a recipe for Korean Chicken Stew. I’ve done similar recipes before. Then the idea popped in my head to do similar flavors on a butternut squash so I did. Serving size will differ because all squashes are a different size and all people don’t eat the same amount of food. I used a small squash that made 4 small side servings for me.
Ingredients for around 4 small side servings
1 small butternut squash, peeled, cut in half long ways, seeds and membranes removed (or use any size squash you want but timing and serving sizes will change)
2 Tablespoons gochujang (preferably a Korean brand purchased from an Asian Market)
2 Tablespoons sugar
4 Tablespoons soy sauce
2 Tablespoons rice wine vinegar
1 teaspoon sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon granulated ginger
1/4 teaspoon granulated garlic
non stick spray
Directions
Set oven to 425 F.
Spray a baking sheet with non stick spray
OPTIONAL DIRECTIONS If you want to hasselback the squash put in the the preheated 425 F oven for fifteen minutes and let cool to handle. OH BUT BEFORE YOU PUT THE SQUASH IN THE OVEN sprinkle with canola oil.
then
Make the hasselback if desired….This looks better on bigger fatter squash. I use chop sticks so I don’t accidentally cut all the way threw.
Mix up the sauce.
In a small mixing bowl mix up the gochugaru, gochujang, sugar, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, sesame oil, ginger, and garlic.
Spoon and rub it all over top surface of the squash. Place in oven 10 minutes. Take squash out of oven and spoon or brush on more sauce and put it back in for another 10 minutes. Mine was done at this point.
I made some cooked carrot flowers. I used something that looks like a pencil sharpener on a peeled carrot. Shaped the shavings into a flower. Put the carrot flowers in the oven with the squash for only three minutes.
I made some Mexican Style turkey chorizo (recipe not published as of yet) I read that someone else (chef Paul Welburn) combined chorizo with beets (honestly I don’t think that I would have ever thought about combining chorizo with beets) and fried them up into egg rolls. He served the egg rolls with raspberry ketchup and black garlic emulsion. I didn’t follow any of his recipes even though they are probably delicious. I also wanted to put a healthier spin on them. I didn’t follow his recipes but I was inspired by them. My recipe only makes around 4 small servings that are an appetizer or small side. I was very surprised on how delicious that it turned out. My husband also had his doubts and was also very surprised.
Ingredients for around 4 small servings
9 smaller peppers to stuff (I used baby bell peppers…..you might need more or use less peppers depending on their size) – (You slit pepper in a “T” shape across the top of the core and down the middle. Remove core)
8oz peeled beet – cut in half or quarters depending on size.
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup water
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
3oz chorizo – crumbled
1 egg – lightly beaten
8 oz cantaloupe – cut into chunks
1/4 cup sugar
1/2 cup apple cider vinegar
pinch sea salt
pinch ground white pepper
2 oz black garlic (already peeled)
1 Tablespoon dijon mustard (I used Amora Brand)
1 1/2 Tablespoons balsamic vinegar
1 Tablespoon canola oil
1 Tablespoon or more water to thin down…(I used one tablespoon but think I can thin down a little more)
Directions
Set your oven to 400 degrees F.
Put your beets in a covered dish with the sugar, water, apple cider vinegar and salt. The beets need to cook till tender. (usually around an hour plus fifteen minutes could be more or less) Then the beets need to cool and when you can handle them you shred them.
While the beets are cooking roast up the peppers. Leave them in the oven till they start to brown. (I forgot to time this…..think it was around 20-25 minutes)
Make the cantaloupe ketchup.
The sugar, apple cider vinegar, melon, salt, white pepper all get blended together. You need to reduce this mixture in a pan on medium high heat. Reduce mixture around by half. Then take off heat and set to the side.
Black garlic emulsion is really easy and quick to make. It will be easier with a stick blender. Just blend together the black garlic, dijon, balsamic, oil, and at least one tablespoon of water. Thin down to taste.
By now the beets are cool and should be shredded and the peppers should be cool enough to stuff.
Turn your oven on to 350 degrees F.
In a small bowl mix up the shredded beets with the egg and crumbled chorizo. Squeeze the mixture into a tight ball and stuff the peppers as best as you can.
These only need 15 minutes on your middle rack.
Serve with the cantaloupe ketchup and the black garlic emulsion.
Chorizo and Beet stuffed Peppers with Cantaloupe Ketchup and Black Garlic Emulsion
THESE are FORKING AMAZING! Beets go so darn well with the flavors of chorizo. I especially like the cantaloupe ketchup on them and the black garlic goes well here too.
Osso buco is usually a veal shank that is cross cut and braised in vegetables, white wine and stock. It is traditionally served with risotto or polenta and is topped with gremolata. This dish is usually expensive in restaurants.
This dish is pretty easy to make. It is hard to find shanks of any kind. Near where I live they sell beef shanks at my local Asiana Market. They sell mostly the smallest ones.
Anyways.
Just salt and pepper the shanks well.
Brown them on medium high heat on both sides (around 3 minutes a side). (It will come out tasting best if you saved beef fat from something you cooked……you can use oil.
Don’t clean the pan or pot.
Fry up a big onion, a few carrots, one hot pepper, a few celery till almost soft. Add a cup of white wine and let it cook down.
Add around half a can of tomato paste and try to fry it up at the bottom of the pan or pot.
Add around a 14 oz can of Italian tomatoes.
Add 2 bay leaves, Tablespoon thyme, Tablespoon oregano, 3 or 4 garlic cloves. I had seasoned beef jus from something else I made so I added that.
Then it all goes in a baking dish or pan….Or you can do this stove top if you prefer.
This gets covered tight.
It will take at least 3 hours at 375 F The last one I did was a little bigger and took 5 hours. You might need to check on it and add more liquid.
When it finally becomes tender remove the foil that covers the pan and let it go another half hour.
Suggested serving is risotto or polenta.
I had mashed potatoes and Brussel sprouts that I had to use up so that is what we had.
Top the meat with some of the contents of the pan…(some people blend this up Osso it’s smooth…but I didn’t)
beef osso buco
Top with gremolata. (parsley, orange & lemon zest, garlic (ground to paste), salt , pepper.
This recipe is an original that is a combination of reading about ramen tostadas from The Samurai Gourmet from Australia and from enjoying sushi tacos from the restaurant Headquarters Grill Bar Sushi in Peoria Arizona. Somehow I came up with something delicious. It was tasting all the seaweed in the sushi tacos that influenced how I made the toatadas. Then I started thing about ramen…..The tastiest part of a bowl of ramen can be the egg so that is what I did. I was thinking that sometimes you add that gochujang to enhance the ramen so I thought that kind of taste would be great on the vegetables I used (radish and pea sprouts). I don’t mean to brag but this came out really great.Serving size is difficult to judge. They do taste great but are small. I can see some people would eat only one while others would eat two or three. I’ll say six portions because they are small and two is one egg a person. You need to make the ramen eggs the day before so they have time to marinate and get all delicious.
Ingredients for around 6 portions
6 eggs
1/3 cup soy sauce
1/3 cup mirin
1/3 cup water
1 3oz package of ramen noodles (don’t use flavor packet for this recipe)
water to boil ramen noodles (reserve six tablespoons)
1 egg – lightly beaten
6 Tablespoons reserved water from boiling the ramen noodles
! Tablespoon + 1 teaspoon sweet butter – melted
4 Tablespoons flour
4 .18oz packages roasted seaweed – crumbled
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 teaspoon soy sauce
1 Tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1/2 teaspoon gochujang (or more or less each brand taste different. I recommend the tastier brands from the Asian Market)
2 teaspoons honey
Directions
Make the ramen eggs.
Bring a pot of water to a boil. Add eggs carefully. Turn down the heat till water is barely boiling and time them for 7 minutes. Add eggs to an ice bath. In a quart ziplock bag add the soy sauce, mirin, and water. Peel eggs and add them to zip lock bag. Squeeze out all the air that you can and refrigerate the eggs over night.
Make the ramen tostadas.
In either a pot or a microwaveable dish you need to boil water and cook the ramen noodles for three minutes. You can let it sit while you do other stuff.
In a small bowl combine the egg, reserved water, butter, flour, seaweed, sesame oil, and baking powder. Mix well. Drain the ramen noodles and add them in and mix well.
Set the oven to 325 F.
Prepare a couple sheet pans with parchment paper.
Get a small scooper or use a spoon and try to make 12 even balls of dough with a good amount of room around them.
Then flatten them out…
Put them in the oven on the middle and lower racks for 20 minutes. Then flip them over and do 20 minutes again. Keep repeating till they look like this. Mine took I think an hour 20 minutes.
While you are cooking up the ramen tostadas you have time to prepare the vegetables (Your…choice I did a few radishes that I shredded up, scallions and pea sprouts…but you can just use lettuce or cabbage or other greens) You also have time to make vinaigrette.
In a small dish mix up the soy sauce, rice wine vinegar, gochujang, and honey.
If you are serving all at once you can dress the vegetables. If not keep the vinaigrette on the side so it doesn’t get soggy. I sprinkled eggs with some togatashi.
Ramen Egg Ramen Tostadas with Gochujang Vinaigrette
Chef Davashankar Sharma is a multi award wining famous chef from England. He is also known for London’s best curry award and best Indian restaurant. He is also worked for several Michelin guild restaurants. When you find a recipe from him on the web it is worth doing. I have to say that this recipe is spicy and really delicious. It filled my house with aromatics that smelled amazing. I never tasted any dish like this one from any Indian restaurant that I’ve been to. This recipe Jodhpuri Tawa Chicken translates to frypan cooked chicken from (Jodhpuri now known as Rajasthan) India (North West India). I rounded the recipe some and placed the chicken over cabbage spiced like the potatoes that are suggested. The one thing about the recipe seemed like maybe a misprint to me……but I’m not sure……The amount of potatoes for four people only is about 8 ounces so that is only two ounces a person…..I don’t know if there is a minor misprint in the original recipe or not….I’m thinking that 8 ounces of potatoes is too little a serving for four people…….I used a whole small head of cabbage but I slow roasted it in the oven with the same spices in the recipe and this was a good amount of seasoning too…………for that so I am rounding up the amount of potatoes (or cabbage) to use because everyone wants more than two ounces of potatoes. This recipe makes around 4 servings. I do note that I doubled the amount of potatoes but didn’t double the amount of spices……I think it is plenty of spice use but you might disagree and want to bump up the spice for the potatoes.
1 1/2 lb chicken breast – (I cut mine into 4….and lightly pounded mine thin) do that or cut into 8 without pounding
4 Tablespoons sunflower oil (I substituted canola oil) (for chicken)
1 head of garlic – peeled – rough chopped (for chicken)
8 green chillies (I used serranos) – stems removed, rough chopped (for chicken)
1 Tablespoon oil (sunflower is suggested) (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon ginger – fine chopped (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon green chili – fine chopped (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon red chili powder (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (for tomato chutney)
1 Tablespoon sugar (for tomato chutney)
1 teaspoon Kasundi mustard sauce (I substituted my home made beer mustard) (for tomato chutney)
1 pinch sea salt (for tomato chutney)
1 pound potato peeled and diced (original recipe says to use 200g potato…I used a whole small cabbage (rough chop) that I roasted slow with the same exact seasoning) (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon turmeric powder (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon ginger – fine chop (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon green chili – fine chop (the vegetable)
1 dash sunflower oil (I substituted canola oil) (the vegetable)
1 teaspoon cumin seed (the vegetable)
2 Tablespoons unsalted butter (the vegetable)
1 Tablespoon fresh cilantro (leaves and fine stems) finely chopped (the vegetable)
sea salt to taste (the vegetable)
Directions
Put the garlic, chillies, cilantro, tamarind, and salt into a blender and blend till smooth. Rub the marinade all over the chicken and marinate for at least an hour.
Make tomato chutney. Bring a small pan of water to boil. Blanch tomatoes two minutes, then drain. Cool and rough chop.
Heat oil in a sauce pot on medium heat and add ginger and chilli. Cook one minute, then add red chili powder, turmeric and a pinch of salt and cook another minute. Add chopped tomatoes and turn down the heat to low and gently simmer for 6-8 minutes until the mixture thickens. Add sugar and mustard. Taste for seasonings and set to the side.
For the potato mash. Bring a medium pan of water to boil and add the turmeric and ginger and a big pinch of salt and boil the potatoes until soft (around 15 minutes).
Heat a small splash of oil on a small pan and add the cumin seeds till they sizzle and remove from heat.
Mash the potatoes with butter, cilantro, and fried cumin seeds until smooth and keep warm.
Heat up a fry pan on medium heat with a good splash of oil. Add the chicken when the oil is hot. Fry chicken around 3-4 minutes a side or until cooked threw.
Serve chicken topped with chutney over the potato mash (or cabbage if you made cabbage like me)
Jodhpuri Tawa Chicken with Tomato Chutney and Cumin Cabbage
A Special THANKS to Chef Davashankar Sharma for this FORKING Amazing recipe.
