Seafood Meatballs and Spaghetti

Yeah that's right seafood meatballs and spaghetti. Let me guess when you clicked on the link you were expecting something simple, boring and slightly disgusting looking. It's okay, you were wrong, we all mistakes in life. You can redeem yourself by drooling over these fantastic photos that Katy took and by giving this recipe a shot at home. 

Seafood Meatballs

• 1/2 lbs cooked Salmon
• 1/4 lbs cooked Crab Meat
• 1/4 lbs cooked Clam Meat
• 1/2 cup Breadcrumbs (1/4 cup goes into the balls and 1/4 cup use to roll the meatballs in)
• 2 Eggs
• 2 Tablespoons Mayo
• Spicy Brown Mustard
• 1 Lemon zested and juiced
• 1 teaspoon Italian Seasoning
• Salt & Pepper to taste
• 1 Tablespoon Olive oil

1. Odds are that you'll be able to find cooked crab and clam meat at your local grocery store, but unable to find cooked salmon. To cook the salmon I just heated the oven to 375, cut the salmon fillet in half and coated it in olive oil, salt and lemon juice. I found these cool cedar wraps next to the seafood section of my grocery store that worked well to keep the fish moist while it cooked. Bake the salmon wrapped in the cedar for about 10 minutes or until fully cooked.
2. Add all the ingredients listed above into a large mixing bowl and mix with your hands. No you can't use a spoon. 
3. Form the mixture into a small balls about an inch in diameter. Once the meat is balled, roll the little spheres in the remaining breadcrumbs. Place the balls in casserole pan and bake at 375 until golden brown. Should be about 20 minutes, be sure to turn the balls halfway through cooking.
4. Plate the balls of seafood on top of cooked spaghetti (use the instructions on the box, but add way more salt to water than what they recommend) and drizzle on these sauces. 

Pesto

• 1/4 cup Pine Nuts
• 7 sprigs of Fresh Basil
• 2 Tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 lemon zested and juiced
• 3 Cloves Garlic
• 1 teaspoon Salt

1. Throw all the ingredients into a food processor and blend until smoothish. Should be about 45 seconds or so.

Sweet Onion Tomato Sauce

• 1 large Sweet Onion
• 6 Roma Tomatoes diced
• 2 cloves Garlic minced
• 2 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1/4 cup Wine (I recommend a full bodied red wine, and not a sweet wine)
• 1 Lemon (you'll never guess what you're going to do to the lemon) zested and juiced
• 1 teaspoon Molasses
• 1 teaspoon Poppy Seeds
• 1 teaspoon Cayenne Pepper
• 1 heaping teaspoon Italian Seasoning

1. Add the olive oil, onion, and garlic to a medium sized sauce pan. Cover and sweat the onions until tender while stirring occasionally. Stir in the tomatoes and cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add the rest of the ingredients cook for another 10 minutes and stir occasionally to avoid burning. 
3. Use a hand mixer to blend all the large pieces of tomatoes and onion together. Blend until all the large chunks are pretty much gone. Let the sauce simmer until the meatballs are done. Once everything is plated, I recommend squeezing a lemon on top of the dish.

Sure I could have just made regular meatballs and spaghetti, but that would have been boring. This blog is all about having fun with food and trying new things out. In the same vein of thinking, I could have just made one sauce to go on the meatballs, but the flavor contrast between the two couldn't be replaced with anything else. Enjoy!

I need to step up my writing and cooking skills a peg or four, because Katy Weaver keeps knocking it out of the park with all these photos.

Carne Asada Tacos & Sangria

Sometimes in life you have to strip down, whether it's going skinny dipping, refinishing hardwood furniture or simplifying a dish. Instead of doing an infusion or adding some interesting ingredient I decided simplicity would be the best route to take.

Even if it's slightly cold and cloudy, eat this meal outside the comfort of your dining room that's cooled with centralized air and set up the picnic table. Oh you live in an apartment? Open a window while you eat, it's summer, enjoy the nice weather while it's here.

Sangria

Yields almost enough to forget your troubles

• 1 bottle Red Wine opened (I went with the cheapest merlot I could find)
• 2 liters of Ginger Ale
• 1 Orange sliced
• 1 Lemon sliced
• 2 Limes sliced
• 1 Apple sliced
• 1 Peach sliced
• 1 shot Triple Sec 
• 2 shots of White whiskey

1. Cut up the fruit and add everything to whatever samovar you have laying around.
2. Quick note: I used white whiskey, because it was laying around. Bourbon works just as well.
3. Stir it up a bit and serve.

Homemade Chips & Salsa

Chips

• 6 Corn Tortillas
• Olive Oil
• Salt

Salsa

• 4 Tomatoes diced
• 3/4 medium sized Onion diced
• 2 tablespoons of minced Garlic
• 2 Jalapeños diced  
• 1 Lime juiced
• 2 small sprigs of Fresh Parsley finely chopped
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon Caribbean Jerk Seasoning

1. Pour enough olive oil into a skillet to make a shallow pool, heat over medium. Cook the pieces of tortilla until golden brown on each side. Flip as necessary. This is a very fast process, so keep an eye on them. To drain, place the chips on a cooling rack over paper towels. 
2. Make the salsa by adding all the cut-up vegetables in a medium-sized bowl along with the spices, stir until well mixed.

Carne Asada Taco

Serves two very hungry people

• 1 lbs. Skirt Steak
• 1 teaspoon Olive Oil
• a pinch of Salt
• 2 Jalapeños
• 4 Green Onions
• 6 Corn Tortilla
• Hot sauce

1. Rev up your grill. 
2. To get the most out of your meat, pound it. Pounding your meat will make it flatter and therefor it will have more surface area, which will allow it cook faster, resulting in a more tender piece of steak. Lay some plastic wrap on the kitchen counter, enough to span the length of the steak strips. Lay another layer of wrap over top. You can use anything heavy to pound the meat, even a triple sec bottle.
3. Once the steak is flattened, but not pulverized, throw it in a mixing bowl and drizzle the olive oil over top and add the salt. Massage the oil and salt into the steak with your hands. Yes your hands, it won't kill you, unless your allergic to beef. And if you are allergic to beef, why the hell are you making these tacos?
4. Add the steak, onions and jalapeños to the grill. Flip the onions and the peppers as needed to make sure they don't burn. Only cook the steak a few minutes on each side, keep an eye on it so it doesn't burn.
5. Once the vegetables are grilled and the steak is done (and yes that means it's still a little pink on the inside), let the steak sit for 10 minutes. Cut into strips and place on warm corn tortillas with the salsa and hot sauce. Serve with chips & salsa, sour cream and sangria.

Summer is all about simplicity isn't it? It's the season of taking some time off and spending time in the wilderness away from everything that's complex and stressful. Food should be simple too, especially summer fare. Be sure to read next week's post, I'm making something crazy and elaborate.

All these wonderfully colorful photos by Katy Weaver

Cactus Stir Fry and White Whiskey Margaritas

What’s the first thing that comes to mind when you think about fresh Summer dishes? That’s right, Thai-Mexican fusion and white whiskey margaritas. Before you dismiss these soon-to-be summer classics, you should remind yourself that the blog you're reading once made carrot pie for a post. 

Sure we could have made separate posts for both the cocktail and the meal, but they played so nicely with each other we couldn't keep them apart. The stir fry and noodles are heavy enough to be filling, but still light enough for a summer dinner that doesn't strike an evening stroll around the neighborhood from the agenda. Meanwhile the margarita is so refreshing it could be drank like water, but as a medical novice I would advise you not to drink it like water, unless you want to reach a Snookie level of drunk.

White Whiskey Margarita

Yields 1 drink

• 1 1/2 limes juiced
• 1/2 shot Triple Sec
• 1 shot White Whiskey
• 1 cup Ice

For the rim:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• zest of 1 lime

1. Pour the lime juice, triple sec, whiskey into a pint glass. Add the ice to the glass. If you don’t have a shaker I recommend using a red Solo cup as a lid, and not just because it’s classy. This technique works so well I’m expecting my future offsprings to pass this down for many generations to come. Shake, don't stir.
2. Use the squeezed lime to rim the glass with the juice. On a small plate mix the zest and the sugar together with your fingers to infuse the grains of cane with the sent of lime. Dip the wet edged glass into the sugar mixture. 
3. Pour the contents of the drink into the sugar rimmed cup.
4. Drink and be surprised how refreshing this drink is on a sticky summer evening.

Cactus Stir Fry w/ Curry Rice Noodles

Yields 3 servings (4 if you’re not that hungry)

• 2 Cactus paddles julienned
• 2 large Chicken Breasts cut into strips
• 1 Green Bell Pepper julienned
• 1 Jalapeño sliced
• 1/2 Red Onion julienned
• 1 Tablespoon Garlic minced
• Bean Sprouts
• Olive Oil
• Black Sesame seeds (optional)

Chicken Marinade

• Splash of triple sec
• 1 Lime juiced and zested
• 1/2 teaspoon Garlic salt
• 1 1/2 tablespoon Soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon Garlic minced

1. Find a medium sized mixing bowl, a tupperware bowl or even an empty Cool-Whip container and add the chicken and the marinade. Make sure everything is well mixed in the container. Allow the chicken to absorb the flavors of the infused concoction while the rest of the meal is prepared.
2. Get your medium sized skillet to sauté the cactus. If you need a tutorial on cutting cactus, Pati's Mexican Table has a fine how-to. Pour 1/2 tablespoon of the olive oil in the skillet and cook over medium heat. Do that thing with the skillet to flip them and add a pinch of salt. Cook until the gel oozing from the strips stops. Set aside and take off heat.
3. Saute the chicken and 1/4 of the onions over medium heat in a skillet until the chicken looks done, about 7 minutes or so. Take off heat. Find a saucier, put it over medium heat, add 1/2 teaspoon olive oil and all of your vegetables, except for the bean sprouts. Cook for 3 minutes then add the chicken and cactus. Stir and mix all the contents well. Drain any excess liquid and continue cooking for another 5 minutes. 

Curry Rice Noodles

• 1 can Coconut Milk opened
• 1 1/2 tablespoons Red Curry Paste
• 1/4 teaspoon Fish Sauce
• 1 Tablespoon Brown Sugar
• 4 oz. Thin Rice Noodles
• 1/4 cup Water

1. Add all the ingredients above except for the noodles in a sauce pan and heat over medium high until it reaches a boil. Add the noodels as best you can and cook in the sauce until they become soft and have all the characteristics of cooked noodles.
2. To plate the dish place the noodles in the bottom of a bowl or you can even use a plate with a nice bevel to it. Then top with the stir fried chicken, cactus and vegetables. If you're feeling fancy you can even add bean sprouts and black sesame seeds on top of the dish.

What are you waiting for? Go out to your local farmer's market and pick up anything that catches your eye, and make a stir fry out of it. Summer is for fun and adventurous, venture out into the world and see what it has to offer besides the status quo. Enjoy!

Once again Katy Weaver has outdone herself with these stunning photos.

Breakfast Poutine

Over Memorial Day weekend I went to Sasquatch! music festival up in Washington, and met a nice fella from Calgary, Alberta. We proceeded to discuss beer and food. He being from Canada, of course the unofficial Canadian national dish of poutine came up. For those of you who have never had poutine, it's a glorious dish of fries, gravy and cheese curds. Naturally I went with a breakfast version of this pile of cholesterol.

Before I really get into this post I want to make some mentions. As always Katy Weaver has outdone herself with these photos, I guess I'll keep her around. I really wanted channel my inner pretentious hipster though, and mention some of the great bands I saw at Sasquatch! My advice is that you should take a listen to Shovels & Rope, Deep Sea Diver, and Suuns. I also wanted to give a shout out to Terry from Calgary for giving me this recipe idea.

Breakfast Poutine

Yields three servings

• Fries from recipe below
• Hollandaise Sauce from recipe below
• 1 lbs Cheese Curds
• 1/4 cup chopped Chives
• 1 Avocado sliced

1. Plate the fries (recipe below) and top with hollandaise sauce (your guess is as good as mine when finding this recipe) and cheese curds. Garnish with chives and avocado, or just pile on the avocado, I'm not judging. 

Oven Baked Fries

Yields three servings

• 5 medium sized Golden Potatoes batonneted
• 2.5 table spoons Olive Oil
• 1/4 teaspoon of each Salt and Pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon of Garlic Salt
• 1/4 teaspoon Paprika

1. Use a mandolin (this kind, not this kind, but if you do use the musical instrument let me know how it works) to cut the potatoes into slices, then use a knife to batonnet them.
2. Once cut let the potatoes soak in a bowl of water for 5-10 minutes, this process removes some of the starch from the potatoes and makes them crispier once cooked. Preheat the oven to 375.
3. Drain the water from the bowl, then toss the potatoes in olive oil. Place the fries on a cooking sheet and season. 
4. Cook for 10 minutes then use a spatula to flip the tubers. Cook for another 10 minutes or until golden brown. 

Hollandaise Sauce

Devotees of this blog, all three of you, and yes that includes my mom, will remember that I have made several hollandaise sauces, this one, and this one with avocado. For this particular dish I went with the basic one with a little extra cayenne pepper, just for that extra kick!

If you're wondering if it tastes as good as it looks the answer is yes. A warning to the elderly, the pregnant or anyone with heart or back problems, this is a very rich dish and should be consumed at your own caution. On that note, enjoy!

All photos copyright Katy Weaver Photography

Beer Steamed Clams

Because the last post was such a hit, we're keeping in the theme of cancelled TV shows that have been brought back. This week's inspiration is Firefly. Just kidding, Internet, you're never going to get that show back on the air.

Summer is creepily hiding around the corner wearing cut-offs and espadrilles while holding a super-soaker. All personifications aside, Summer in my mind means fresh seafood. Sure you can get seafood literally anytime of the year, but every summer seaside trip has cemented the idea center in my mind that seafood is Summer fare.

Clams are essentially meat-filled rocks. When it comes to cooking these little meaty rocks most use water or wine to steam theirs, but I decided to go down a different path with this recipe.

Beer Steamed clams

2 Servings

• 1 lbs Clams
• 1 bottle of Beer (I suggest a blonde ale)
• 1/4 cups chopped Onion
• 2 tablespoons Olive Oil
• 1 tablespoon minced Garlic
• 2 tablespoons Butter
• juice and zest from half a lemon

1. Pour the olive oil in a sauce pan, be sure it has a lid. Heat the oil over medium, add the onions and garlic; cook until slightly caramelized. 
2. Pour in the beer and turn the heat up to high and cook until boiling. Once the beer reaches a boil add the lemon juice and zest. Oh and the clams.
3. Cover with lid. Once the clams have opened their shells then they're cooked.
4. Scoop out the clams with a slotted spoon and place in the bowls you're serving them in. Add the butter to the liquid that's in the pot and stir until the butter is melted. Once melted pour the briny mixture over the clams in each bowl. Serve and garnish with, uh lets say parsley. 

I'm not adding to my already embiggened ego when I say this is the best kale recipe I've ever came up with.

Whiskey Cooked Kale

2 servings

• 1 bunch of Purple kale chopped
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/4 cup sliced Onion
• 1 tablespoon minced Garlic
• 1 shot of Whiskey
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic salt
• a pinch Salt
• a pinch of Pepper
• juice from 1/2 Lemon

1. Heat the olive oil in a large skillet or wok over medium heat and add the onions and garlic; cook until slightly caramelized.
2. Add the kale to the pan, stir a few times to coat the kale with the oil, then add the lemon and whiskey.
3. Cook until the leaves are wilted.

Garlic Parmesan Bread

2 servings (but if you're not as hungry as we were then I guess this could yield 4 servings) 

• 1 loaf sliced French bread
• 6 tablespoons soft butter
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons of minced fresh parsley (About 2 sprigs)
• 2 tablespoons of minced garlic
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon pepper
• 1/4 teaspoon garlic salt
• 1/3 cup parmesan cheese grated

1. Pre-heat oven to 375. Mix the butter, olive oil, parsley, garlic, and the spices in a bowl. Use pastry brush to apply the garlic butter to the bread. Top with parmesan cheese.
2. Place in oven until cheese is melted. 

All three elements of this meal work well together. Both the texture and taste vary between each piece, but support one another as if they were a part of a three-piece band. If you're looking for a simple-to-make dish for a quiet summer evening to eat out on the porch then I would recommend making every component of this meal and letting it meld together in your stomach. Enjoy!

As always this blog wouldn't be half of what it is without the fantastic Katy Weaver and her ability to take amazingly beautiful photos.