Salmon and dill soup

This soup is loosely based on a fish and dill soup I grew up with that used a fish paste that was formed into dumplings, as well as slices of fish cake, and included bamboo slices or matchsticks.  Since I rarely had fish paste or bamboo around, a while back I started making a much simpler soup with just a can of diced tomatoes, fish or sometimes shrimp, dill and some onions and garlic.  I'll have to make the original sometime and will post the recipe later.

This version uses salmon, which I got the idea of using after reading Andrea Nguyen's "Into the Vietnamese Kitchen" - she has a recipe for Salmon with Tomato, Dill and Garlic Soup, which is essentially what this soup is, but my method is very different and is much simpler (ps- this really is a super fantastic cookbook on Vietnamese food and I highly recommend it),

Salmon adds a lot of richness to the soup. You can use salmon filets or salmon steaks - steaks will add even more richness and body to the soup because they have bones and more skin and fat than filets.  However, filets are still great and will add plenty of flavor.  Add the fish with the skin on - it will peel off easily once the fish is cooked. This soup is delicious served over rice noodles or with rice as part of a meal with other dishes.

Spring rolls, summer rolls, with peanut hoisin dipping sauce

Spring rolls, or summer rolls as many restaurants call them to differentiate between fried spring rolls and unfried summer rolls, are probably the first thing I make when introducing friends to Vietnamese food.   I also tend to make them a few times every month when I'm craving something fresh and light.

Called goi cuon in Vietnamese, they're hard not to love - fresh, full of fragrant herbs and crunchy veggies, and you can alter the protein for your audience. Sometimes I make them with some boiled pork and shrimp, sometimes only shrimp, and sometimes I do a vegetarian version with slices of egg omelette and/or tofu.  Serve with a tasty peanut hoisin dipping sauce - click here for the recipe.

Rice paper wrappers are wrapped around layers of rice noodles, cucumbers, lettuce, cilantro, mint, thai basil, chives, lettuce and then the protein of your choice.  You can also include bean sprouts - I rarely buy them because they spoil so quickly and can be messy, but you can include them if you like.

You can find spring roll or rice paper wrappers and rice noodles or vermicelli  at any Asian grocery store, and I've started seeing them in major grocery stores. Rice paper wrappers come in a few sizes - large round, small round, or kind of wedge-shaped ones, used primarily for the kind of rolls you fry.  Outside of an Asian grocery store, you may be able to find these at stores that tend to carry more gourmet foods, or you can order them online.  You'll also be able to find hoisin sauce for the dipping sauce in the Asian grocery section of major grocery stores.

Initially, rolling the spring rolls nice and tight can be hard, but after a few you'll get the hang of it!  Keep them wrapped with plastic wrap until serving them as the rice paper will dry out. Serve whole or cut in half with peanut hoisin dipping sauce.

Roasted red snapper tacos

Buy the freshest fish you can, and if the idea of buying and cooking a whole fish is a little much for you, you can easily substitute with red snapper filets.

Serve with homemade corn tortillas -  click here for the recipe!  Store bought tortillas work great too.

Homemade corn tortillas

Homemade corn tortillas

When I lived in Chicago, I was able to go over to the latin/hispanic grocery store in my neighborhood and buy tortillas that were still hot in the package and they were fantastic.  I haven't been able to find any decent corn tortillas in New York so far and everything in the grocery store just seem too stale.

Flattened dough using the tortilla press

So, I decided to look for a tortilla press and make them at home. Besides having fresh tortillas, the other great thing about making them yourself is that you can add spices to them to give them a little extra flavor.  I typically season them with chile powder and cumin and sometimes a little Mexican oregano.  Have fun seasoning them up however you like.

If you're having trouble finding a tortilla press, you can order one online for less than $20 - cast iron 6.5" tortilla press or 7.5" tortilla press. If you don't have one you can roll them out as well.

Moroccan-spiced roasted vegetable salad

This colorful Moroccan-spiced salad combines roasted carrots, beets, chickpeas/garbanzos, with spinach or salad mix of your choice. I like leaving the carrots whole but you can cut them into smaller pieces.

You can also add chunks of avocado, which adds a nice creaminess and goes with the flavors well.  I didn't have any this particular day but it's a nice addition.  Serve with a nice crusty bread, or serve as a side with roasted meat or other Moroccan-influenced dishes.

Radishes, butter and sea salt

Just another snack idea to share.  My first time trying radishes with a little butter and salt was probably 5 or 6 years ago when I first started traveling to New York for work from Chicago. I had my first experience with these at Prune I think, and I didn't think about them again until my husband and I were in Paris about two years ago. A restaurant served them to nibble on at the beginning of the meal -  I had forgotten what a simple, great combination it was.

Trim, quarter or halve whatever radishes look good to you,  a combination can be fun, and serve with good quality butter and fleur de sel, grey sea salt/sel gris,  a fine grind sea salt or whatever fancy salt you have.  Serve with a few different sea salts for some variety.

Cumin chile sweet potato hash

Weekends are great for hearty breakfasts and using up some leftovers or veggies in the fridge.  This weekend, we had a 1/2 cup of leftover pinto beans,  and a few sweet potatoes, so I just went with a simple sweet potato, red onion and garlic hash seasoned up with cumin and ancho chile powder, and threw the beans in. If you have leftover chicken or beef or shredded pork, it'd be easy to add that as well.

I served it with a fried egg, a little shredded cheese, salsa verde, a dollop of green goddess dressing, cilantro, and a few corn tortillas - click here to make homemade corn tortillas.

Curry with squash, sweet potatoes, carrots and braised gluten (or protein of choice)

This was a total mash-up of things that I had at home tonight.  I had a few sweet potatoes, a chunk of squash, and a few carrots. It'd be great with fried tofu cubes or chicken, but I didn't have any so decided to add a can of braised gluten.

I grew up going to the Buddhist temple in the Twin Cities area in Minnesota.  We weren't particularly Buddhist but it was more about being having a sense of and being part of Vietnamese community.  At temple, volunteers make a vegetarian lunch every Sunday and it's always great.  Often, braised gluten is used and I always loved the dishes that included it.  I will say, Rick is not a huge fan of the gluten, but that's okay.  It may not be for everyone but if you're looking to increase your vegetarian cooking, give it a try.

Bean and cheese tortas

This is definitely my go-to breakfast or lunch on the weekends.

Now that we are living without a car, with a small kitchen, smaller fridge and much less storage space, we have to do some form of grocery shopping once a week.  So typically on Saturdays, we head to our little neighborhood grocery store and pick up a few staples, and then stop through the farmers' market across the street from our apartment on the way home.

Homemade ricotta

Homemade ricotta is super easy - the only thing to be careful of is that you don't let it drain too long, especially if you are making smaller batches.  If you let it drain too long, it turns into something similar to the latin/mexican queso fresco product you can buy in the store - would be fine to crumble over beans or tacos!

There are two ways to go about it - whole milk plus acid, either lemon juice or vinegar, or you can combine whole milk with buttermilk.  It takes a fair amount of milk to make a small amount of ricotta so if you make use a quart, you will really only get about 1 cup, a gallon will give you about 4.

Fresh ricotta is great with a little honey on top and some fruit, or you can use it with pastas, lasagnas, or as I did last night, that Italian American classic of stuffed shells - click here for the recipe.  You can also use for a variety of crostini toppings - it's great with a little lemon zest, served with a little arugula tossed in olive oil and lemon, and maybe served with a slice of prosciutto or other italian charcuterie on top.

Quick marinara

An easy and quick marinara sauce to use for your stuffed shells or other pasta recipes!

Stuffed shells with homemade ricotta

An easy way to use that fresh homemade ricotta!

Fried shallots and onions

This is a topping for a variety of Vietnamese dishes, including banh bot loc and xoi bap, sticky rice with hominy and mung beans topped with toasted sesame seeds, sugar and fried shallots.

• 1 small or medium onion cut into quarters and then thinly sliced
• 4 shallots, thinly sliced
• 1 cup canola or vegetable oil

On a plate lined with a paper towel, lay out the sliced onions and shallots. Cook on high in the microwave for 3 minutes to dry them out a bit.  While they are cooking, heat up the oil in a small sauce pan over medium high heat.  Add the onions and shallots and turn the heat down to medium.  Fry until they are golden brown.  Remove and lay out on a few layers of paper towels to drain.  

Use the oil for cooking or to drizzle over things to add some great onion flavor, and then use the fried shallots and onions as a topping.

Cooking mung beans

Cooking mung beans is pretty easy - you should steam them in a steamer, but you can also boil them on the stovetop.  For me, I don't really have a steamer right now so I just cook them in a medium saucepan.

Once they're cooked, you can either roughly mash them up, or transfer to a food processor to make a smooth paste.

Add one bag of split mung beans to a medium saucepan and just barely cover with water.  Cook over medium high heat until it comes to a boil, and then reduce heat and let it simmer, stirring occasionally.  Cook until beans are tender - it should take about 30 minutes or so.  Mung beans can be used for Vietnamese dumplings, banh it tran, or with xoi, or sticky rice. They are also often used in Vietnamese desserts.

Fried chicken gizzards with green goddess yogurt dressing

While at the store, Rick spotted a package of chicken gizzards and they sounded like a fun culinary adventure for the day!  I realize gizzards are not for everyone but we dig 'em - give it a try if you're feeling adventurous.  And if not, you can use the recipe and method for other chicken pieces, or cut up pieces for your own chicken nuggets.

I had bought buttermilk earlier in the week for biscuits, so we soaked them in buttermilk.  I'm recommending that you soak them for at least 12 - up to 24 hours. The buttermilk helps tenderize them.  I've read that you can go up to two days if you like as well.

Green goddess yogurt dressing

This green goddess dressing is super easy and can be as low fat or full fat as the dairy products you choose to use! Use any combination of herbs and in whatever quantities you like and have on hand.

Whole wheat cream scones with chocolate chips

Rick's phone was beeping early Friday morning with some daily twitter feed he gets and it ended up waking me up.  After laying there a while, I decided to just get up and bake some scones to bring to work, and maybe some biscuits to make egg sandwiches for breakfast.

Earlier in the week, I had thought about making biscuits so had stopped at Dean and Deluca on the way home and picked up some cream and buttermilk.  I decided to go with making cream scones and biscuits, especially since the biscuits don't require cutting butter into flour, though the scones did.  I usually cook with white whole wheat flour, which isn't quite white, but you can substitute unbleached all-purpose white flour if you prefer.  Both recipes are totally open to whatever flavoring and seasoning you want to add.

Of course my scones and biscuits ended up getting a little too dark on the bottom (I carefully cut off the bottoms before bringing them into the office!), but they should turn out fine for most of you out there.

Headed to Chinatown to start the year a little healthier

Last weekend, Rick and I went to Chinatown to pick up some pantry staples, fresh seafood and lots of veggies to do some major cooking, with an eye to increasing the veggies and decreasing the meat.

We ate a lot of meat over the course of the week we were in the Midwest for the holidays and so, here's to a healthier 2010!

My favorite drag of Chinatown is Grand Street, east of Little Italy, down just past Bowery - it's the non-touristy part of Chinatown and extends south and east.

Whole wheat cheddar dill cream biscuits

Whole Wheat Cheddar Dill Cream Biscuits

Makes about a dozen

These are not the buttery flaky biscuits that may initially come to mind when you think of biscuits, as these don't even have butter, but they're delicious - a little breadier maybe.  You can also make plenty of variations to the biscuits - different herbs, different cheese, or plain biscuits by eliminating the herbs and cheese.

Cumin lime honey dressing

This is one of my favorite light and fresh salad dressings!

Cookbooks I Still Need to Check Out

This is my list of cookbooks I've been meaning to check out.  Click on any of the covers to see more information or to purchase for yourself!