Pork chop with port and fig sauce and butternut squash with sage,walnut and sage

The inspiration for this dish came from the ravioli dish in enoteca, an Austin Italian bistro. It's homemade ravioli with butternut squash in a sage butter sauce garnished with candid walnuts and browned pancetta bits. I have made this same dish at home with my Italian pasta maker, but since we are not eating pasta now, I though why not change the form but still keep to flavor profile since they go so well together. It worked out great!

Butternut squash mash

1) I had to feed 6 people at dinner so I used 2 packets of the precut organic butternut squash from Costco. I really like this product because cutting butternut squash or any winter squash is not an easy task. If you must do it make sure you wear gloves because it can make your hands really sticky. I roasted two trays of butternut @ 400 degree convection for 30 - 45 minutes. Brush them with some olive oil and salt and pepper? I  think 1 pack is plenty for 4 people

2) the butternut squash is very watery so even after roasting if you mash all of it, it will be soggy. I recommend only mashing 1/2 of the butternut and let the other half be in its cube format. It will give the dish more texture.

3)in a dry pan at medium heat toast 1/2 cup of walnuts for 5 min. Shaking the pan occasionally and make sure it doesn't burm the walnuts. Take out the walnut and let it cool the, chop it.

3)  wash the sage leaves, and dry the, well between paper towels. Heat up about 3 tablespoons of butter at low heat in the same pan you toasted the walnuts. When the butter start bubbling carefully put in the sage. Flip them carefully so they are toasted but not burnt. Take out the sage and turned off the heat immediately. Make sure butter is not burned. Add the butter to the butternut and fold it in gentle and evenly.

4) to serve, add a cup of the butternut and garnish with 2 sage leaves, 1-2 tablespoons of walnut, a teaspoon or 1/2 teaspoon of maple syrup. This is a dynamite combination of flavor.

Pork chop with port and fig reduction

This recipe will yield about 2 and 1/4 cup of sauce. Obviously you don't need that much, you can freeze each 1/2 a cup or 3/4 cup  in plastic sandwich ziplock and defrost it next time you cook any kind of pork. I think it should go well with turkey as well.

1) put in a sauce pan 2&1/2 cup of port wine(a sweet desser wine) and 1&1/4 cup of low sodium organic chicken broth. Add to it, 8 dry figs roughly chopped, 2 springs of rosemary, 2 stick of cinnamon 1 tablespoon of honey. Bring to boil and keep in medium high heat for 30 minutes until it reduces by half. Take out the rosemary and cinnamon and blend it in the blender adding 2 tablespoon of butter to it.

Teriyaki chicken and salmon with sesame snap peas and miso soup

This is a very simple teriyaki recipe that you can use with steak, chicken or salmon. I love this kind of simple fast recipes for weekdays because you can put the rice in the rice cooker and by the time the rice is done, the meal is ready.

1) first make the sauce. For one pound of skinless, boneless chicken thighs, mix 1/4 cup of soy sauce, 1/4 cup of mirin (Japanese sweet cooking wine sold in any Asian grocery store) 1/2 cup of sake and 1 table spoon of honey. Put this sauce in the microwave and heat it for 1 minute. This will help the honey to dissolve. Set the sauce aside

2) wash the chicken and pat it dry. Make some diamond pattern cuts if you are using chicken thighs so it will lay in the pan more flat (like a filet) and absorb better the sauce. Heat the pan with some olive oil then place the chicken in the hot pan. Cook it undisturbed for 3 minutes. This will allow the chicken to brown. Then turn it to the other side and cook for another 2 minutes. Add the sauce into the pan slowly. Use a spoon and spoon some sauce over the chicken basting it. You can also flip it so the sauce adhere evenly. When the sauce thickens turn off the fire

Salmon with passion fruit sauce and kale salad with passion fruitdressing

Myrna read somewhere that passion fruit is good for reducing blood pressure, and since Jose is taking 3 medication to control his blood pressure we decided to see if this natural remedy would help.

I brought a bunch of passion fruit pulps from Fiesta. It is brand Goya and is from Colombia. Passion fruit is known as maracuya or parcha. I remember growing up in Ecuador, Maria used to prepare fresh fruit juice to go with lunch and sometimes she would make passion fruit juice. It has been a long time since i tasted passion fruit. I'm surprised the tartness of this fruit. it is so sour that i think it rivals vinegar. it does have a really intoxicating aroma though. I made way too much sauce so i used some in the kale salad instead of vinegar. It gives the salad a nice twist. I can see a little of this will go a long way ( just like lemon or lime). The flavor of passion fruit reminded me of another tropical fruit that we often consumed in Ecuador call naranjilla. This fruit is more sour then pineapple but less sour then maracuya. We use it to make juice or Quaker (a refreshing drink made of Quaker oatmeal and cinnamon it is like juice but thicker) or we also make a traditional dish call seco de chivo (goat meat stew). May be next time I will try to make seco de chivo with maracuya, I'm sure it will go well :)

Salmon with passion fruit sauce

1) put the salmon skin up in a tray. Add about 1/3 cup of dry white wine and let it soak until the oven is heated 400 degree

2) dry each salmon filet well with paper tower. Brush a thin coat of olive oil and place it in baking sheet lined with parchment paper. Bake it at 400 for 10 minute. Poke w thickest part of the fish and if it flakes easily its done. It's easy to over cook salmon, try watching it carefully. Take the baking sheet and cover with foil

3) while the fish is baking you can make the sauce. Melt one tablespoon of butter and sauté 1 shallot and 1 clove of garlic for 3 min. Add 1 cup of passion fruit pulp and simmer for 10 minutes. Add 2 tablespoon of honey and remove it from the fire. Add some cilantro. (You can blend it in the blender at this point, it will give a nicer presentation but I omitted this step.)

Beet and grapefruit salad

There is nothing more refreshing then a fresh beet/grapefruit salad in the winter. Beets are plentiful in the winter so is e grapefruit. They go together very well, the sweetness in the beets is balanced with the tangyness of the grapefruit I got 3 kinds of beets (purple, golden and a white one with pretty red swirls pattern inside) and a bunch of radish from the local farmers market on Saturday. I was able to assemble the salad in 20 minutes because I had roasted them the day before. To roast them just wrap them in parchment paper and them wrap that in aluminum foil (don't wrap any food directly with aluminum foil because aluminum is linked to risk of Alzheimer's disease.) put it in a 400 degree oven. If the beets are small they should cook in 25 min. If its medium size it may take 40 minutes. Try not to over cook them, it should be soft with slight bite to it and not mushy. Remove the skin after the beets are cooked and cooled. Then store. You can roasted all of the beets and you will have them for salad through out the week. Beet salad looks really pretty with rainbow colors and can be great serve to guests. I think it could be an elegant first course for Sunday brunch

1) put some spinach or spring mix in the plates ( this will make 5-6 servings)

2) slice about 6 small beets 1/4 inch thickness of different colors (today I only had purple and white left because we ate all the golden ones yesterday) evenly distribute it to the plates

3) slice one avocado and evenly distribute to all the plates

4) slice 4 or 5 radishes and distribute to all the plates

5)peel the 2 grapefruit and cut out the flesh and distribute the, to the plates. Squeeze all the remaining juice out of the grapefruit for the dressing. You should end up with about 1/3 cup of juice

6) add to the grapefruit juice 2 table of olive oil, 1 teaspoon of mustard and 1 tablespoon of shallots, salt and pepper. Spoon 1 tablespoon of dressing in each plate.

This recipe will serve 6 people for appetizer size salad. It has 128 calories, 12 g of carbs, 9 g of fat, 2 g of protein, 8 g of sugar.

Shrimp chile relleno with zucchini and mushrooms

Today dinner I made beet salad (recipe in separate post) and shrimp chile relleno with mushroom and zucchini. This dish does that some time to prepare but if you like Mexican food, this is a lighter version that you can make at home without deep frying.

Here are the steps:
1) preheat oven at broiler setting. Put the rack at 6 inches away from the top of the oven. While the oven heats up we can prepare the filling

2) tup 1 tablespoon of butter and 1 tablespoon of olive oil in a big pan. Add 1/2 diced onion and 4 cloves sliced garlic to the pan and cook for a few minute until translucent. Add 1 lb of the cleaned sliced mushroom and a pinch of salt and cook for a few minutes until mushroom browns and some water comes out, add 2 cups of chopped zucchini to the pan . Cook at high heat so the liquid in the pan reduces without burning.



3) at this time the oven should reached the broiler 550 degrees. Use a long tongs and mittens to protect your arm from the heat carefully place the 10 poblano peppers on the rack. Cook it in disturbed for 4 minutes then flip them and cook another 4 minutes. The skin should blister and blacken. Then them out after 8 minutes and put them in a pan. Cover it will foil or plastic wrap. Leave in ere for 5-10 min until it cools down a bit so you can handle them without burning your hand

4) add the shrimp into the pan and stir it for one minute. Turn off the heat. It's ok if shrimp is still half raw because it will cook some more in the oven. Do not over cook now or your shrimp will shrink so much you will need magnify glasses to find them in the end product.

5) pour 2 cup of any kind of tomato sauce in a conning ware that will fit all the peppers snugly. when the peppers have cooled down remove the skim, make a lengthwise incision and remove the seed. Then grab a handful of filling and stuff the peppers and put it in the conning ware.

6) sprinkle and cover the dish with cheese. I use quest fresco, but it didn't melt well, I think next time I will use Monterey Jack cheese. You need about 8 oz to cover the whole dish

7) bake at 350 covered with foil for about 40 minutes. The sauce should bubble and the cheese should be melted

At this time you can cook some rice to go with it, if you want. I use 1 and 1/2 cup jasmine rice with 2 tablespoons of homemade sofrito (i will post this recipe another time) and 2 tablespoon of the tomato sauce, a dash of olive oil, salt and about 1 cup of water and cook it in the rice cooker. This way when your shrimp relleno is ready,the rice will be ready too.

8) after 40 min take it out, let it rest covered for 5 minutes before serving. Fernando and I each ate 2 peppers without the rice, but everyone else had the rice and liked it.

This recipe serves 5 people. (2 chiles per person) and the nutritional value are as follows: 380 calories, 19 g of carb, 20 g of fat, 34 g of protein, 5 g of sugar.

Kale salad with figs and goat cheese and steak with Gorgonzola

Today lunch I made kale salad with dry figs and goat cheese. Some people like to use cranberry for this salad, I personally don't like cranberry because inevitably they are always sweetened to balance it's natural tartness. However if you don't have figs you can replace it with cranberry, raisin, or dry cherry.

You can also add an chopped apple or pear to the salad, i think it will taste good. This an easy salad that takes 10-20 minutes to prepare.

Kale salad

1) remove the hard steam of the kale and discard. Measure 4 cups tightly packed (8oz) Wash the kale carefully and dry. Add a small pinch of salt and massage the kale until it wilt a bit. The color will darken just a bit. Set aside

2) chop about 50 grams of figs (1/2 cup) toast 1/2 cult of walnut in oven at 350 or low heat on the stove. After it cool, chop it. Chop the apple. Thinly sliced a few radish if you have them. Add all ingredients to the kale.



3) make the dressing. Mix 3 tablespoon of olive oil, 1 tablespoon of apple cider vinegar or any kind of vinegar, 1 teaspoon of Dijon mustard, 1 &1/2 teaspoon of raw honey, black pepper

4) mix the dressing with the salad and add 2 oz of goat cheese. Serves 4-5

When serving 5 people, each serving has the following nutritional value: 242 calories, 16 g of carb, 19 g of fat, 6 g of protein 7 g of sugar.

Gorgonzola sauce for steak

1) sauté one shallot in a tablespoon of butter

2) add 1 cup of heavy cream and let it boil and reduce by 1/3 or even half. After the cream is reduced and 1/4 lb of Gorgonzola or blue cheese and let it melt. Serving size is 1 tablespoon. If you have leftover keep it covered in the refrigerator and when you need for your veggies like broccoli or steak take out the amount you need and heat it in the microwave for 30 sec at 80% power. It is delicious.

Lamb kafta with cucumber salad, hummus wrapped in lettuce

Tonight I was really craving for Sarah's Mediterranean grill. There is one dish there that I always get and that is kafta beef. I go there so often that the owner sees me coming in, automatically put the kabob on the grill before I even order. Fernando and Jose also love this dish.

Like I said, I was craving the kafta beef, but Fernando says he is particularly busy today with testing and can't take time out to go to the restaurant. So after I finish my running (I run around Costco and whole food south) I stop by whole foods and brought 1 and half lb of ground lamb and a cucumber and try to reproduce it. I must say it came out even better then what I expect. Jose says is better than the one sold in Sarah's. Jose served with rice but Fernando and I just wrapped in lettuce paired with hummus and cucumber yogurt salad.

Kafta lamb
This recipe needs a lot of spices luckily we have pretty well stocked pantry, having the right tools, like mini food processor and kitchen aid mixer also makes cooking so much easier and enjoyable. I can't imagine without them. This recipe makes 6 portions. 1/4 lb kabob each.
1) blend one small onion and 3-4 cloves of garlic in the food processor.
2) put 1&1/2 lb of ground lamb in the mixer bowl then add the garlic, onion mix. To it add 1 and 1/2 teaspoon of salt,1&1/2 tablespoon of coriander, 2 teaspoon of cumin, 1&1/2 teaspoon of cinnamon, 1 teaspoon of all spice, 1/2 teaspoon of ginger and 1/2 teaspoon of black pepper. Add a big bunch of chopped parsley
3) mix it with mixer for 3 minutes or so at medium speed.
4) separate the content into 6 equal size balls and use our hands to form a long patty along the metal skewer.
5) cook them in the hot grill for 4 min each side

Israel rice:
This rice was inspired by an Israel man who I met in a hostel in bariloche, Argentina. Mom and I met him and another Australian doctor at the hostel and really enjoyed each others company so we decided to rented a car to tour the many lake around the area. He (can't remember his name now) showed me how he made this rice with limited ingredients
1) wash basmati or jasmin rice I use 1&1/2 cup
2) add some butter to a heavy pot like le cuset. Add 1/2 onion and a garlic to brown. Add dry dill, oregano, dry chive, and fresh mint (he only use oregano, but I had lots of other spice so I decided to go for it, I think dill in particular adds a nice flavor, but oregano would do if that is all u have) add a handful of raisins and sliced almond.
3) add the rice and stir it until its coated with oil. Add 1&1/2 cup of boiling water. Cover and simmer for 20 min.

Cucumber yogurt salad
1) dice 1 cucumber (I think skin has a lot of nutrients so I just wash organic cucumber well and dice it with the skin on )
2) add cucumber to 1 cup of yogurt. Add some fresh mint if you have it. Add a pinch of salt



Ninja pantry items used: