Category: Fast and Good

Ina’s Salmon

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It’s another fabulous Ina Garten recipe – and almost ridiculously easy. When I think how much cooking fish used to scare the heck out of me, I can hardly believe it.

3 lbs. salmon, cut into 2″ slices

2 Tbsp Dijon Mustard
3 Tbsp soy sauce
6 Tbsp Olive oil
1/2 tsp garlic powder

Mix mustard, soy sauce, olive oil and garlic powder in a bowl. Pour about half the marinade in a glass baking dish, and let salmon soak in it skin side up for 20-30 minutes. Flip fish back over.

To grill the fish, preheat the grill, and start the fish skin side down. Grill for five minutes. Then brush with more marinade, carefully flip fish over and grill five more minutes. Remove to a serving platter and drizzle on any remaining marinade.

Baking is even easier. Just flip salmon so it’s skin side down in the glass baking dish. Heat oven to 425 and bake the fish for 20 minutes. I like to brush the fish with more glaze about half way through. It’s done when it’s flaky. Yum.

Elote – Mexican Street Corn

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If you live in Omaha, you must go to the Farmer’s Market in Aksarben and pray that the sweet corn lady is there making Elote.  Kumy and I had gotten one, and quickly realized that there was no way we were willing to share.  (Okay, so there was no way I was willing to share, and I ran back to get another.)

There is nothing better than sweet corn that’s just been picked, quickly boiled and slathered with mayo, fresh lime, parmesan and Tajin Seasoning.  This is a version that I make at home.   Tajin seasoning is tart, salty, not super hot and easily available in Mexican markets and online.  You can make traditional Elote using ears of corn or  make a casserole using frozen sweet corn.  It’s delicious either way!

Ingredients

6 ears of corn, freshly shucked and washed (or 24 oz frozen sweet corn for a casserole)

Crema:

1/4 cup Mexican mayonnaise (or use regular mayonnaise with a good squeeze of lime in it.)
1/4 cup sour cream
1/2 cup Cotija cheese (or parmesan in a pinch)
1/2 tsp Tajin seasoning
1 clove garlic crushed, or 1/2 tsp garlic powder
1/4 cup Cilantro, chopped pretty fine
Juice of 1/2 lime

For traditional Elote corn on the cob:

Mix crema ingredients in a bowl.  

Cook corn by boiling in unsalted water or grilling. Slather the corn with the crema, and sprinkle with extra cotija and dust with tajin seasoning.

For Elote casserole:

Mix all ingredients except Cilantro in a bowl and pour out into a baking dish. Baked uncovered at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.

Garnish with chopped Cilantro and an extra sprinkle of Tajin seasoning.

Thai Coconut Chicken Casserole

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This is a great quick supper. It’s delicious and so colorful. Red Curry Paste is available at Asian Markets, and online. It may even be in some regular grocery stores.

1 Tbsp Olive Oil
4-5 boneless, skinless chicken thighs
salt and pepper
1 can light coconut milk
1 1/2 cups chicken broth, heated in a small pan or a microwave until just boiling.
1 – 2 tsp Thai Red Curry Paste. (I use Mae Ploy.)
1 cup jasmine rice (regular rice is fine, too.)
2 red bell peppers, chopped and sauteed
8 oz. green beans, trimmed and sauteed

Season chicken with salt and pepper. Add oil to a saute pan and saute chicken until browned on both sides. Cut into smaller pieces and place in an oven proof pot. Add all other ingredients except for peppers and beans. Cover and cook 25 minutes at low heat.

While chicken and rice are cooking, add more oil to the saute pan and cook veggies for a few minutes until soft, but not mushy.

Remove chicken and rice from oven, top with peppers and beans, and serve.

Jen’s French Toast Casserole

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My neighbor Jen made this unusual breakfast casserole for a potluck. There’s no added sugar, so it’s not overly sweet – but perfect served with a sprinkle of powdered sugar or a little drizzle of maple syrup.

I’ve made it tons of times since – and it’s a great brunch dish. I’ve never made it with regular bread, but you could easily add a tsp of cinnamon to the eggs if you did.

6 eggs
1 1/2 cup half n half
1 1/2 cup whole milk
1 tsp vanilla
1 loaf Pepperidge Farm cinnamon swirl bread
3/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
5 Tbsp butter, melted

Blend eggs, half n half, milk and vanilla.

Remove “heels” of the loaf of bread (the outer, all crust slices), dice them fairly finely and mix them with the nuts and butter.

In a 9 x 13 baking dish pour a little egg mixture. Lay the first two slices of bread at one end, in the corner. Pour a little egg mixture over them, and layer the next slice halfway down and add a little more egg mixture. Repeat until all the slices have been used up. You should end up with two rows of bread slices fanned out. Pour all the egg mixture on and gently lift the slices of bread to be sure the egg is really soaked in. At this point, you can let it soak for 20 minutes or as long as overnight in the fridge. Before baking, sprinkle the top with the nut, crumb and butter mixture. Bake at 375 for 45- 50 minutes.

Serve with powdered sugar or maple syrup.

Baby Kale & Carrot Salad with Citrus Dressing

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baby kale and carrot saladThis one hasn’t made it into the book yet, but I’m skipping that since it was so good. Le Quartier Bakery in Omaha sells sandwiches and a side salad with Kale and carrots in a citrus dressing. I’ve been hungry for that salad for days, and bought some baby kale, and a bottle of fresh orange juice to concoct something similar.

I was thinking of making it for supper tonight. And I started to pull it together, when the usual happened. Someone drank the orange juice and I can’t really remember what else was in the salad. No matter, I googled Citrus Salad Dressing and found Ree Drummond’s recipe. I punted and made something similar and it was amazing!!!  We have had this three nights in a row, since we had lots of leftover dressing.

1 box baby kale
1 carrot, grated

Salad Dressing:

In a mason jar, add

1/8 cup water
1 1/2 Tbsp marmalade (I used Orange-Apricot Marmalade)
1/8 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp kosher salt
1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper
1 clove of garlic, grated
Splash of white wine vinegar. (Cider vinegar would be fine, too.)
2 Tbsp sour cream.

Close with a lid and shake well (violently, according to Ree.) 🙂

Dump baby kale into a nice bowl, add the grated carrot on top, and add some of the salad dressing. It was actually amazing. We practically licked the bowl!

Quick & Yummy Pasta Bake

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Tammy made a version of this for us the first time in Niobrara and for Kumy it was love at first bite. It’s perfect for cooking at a cabin, because it literally only takes one pot.  For a vegetarian version, just leave out the sausage.  (You may want to add a pinch of red pepper flakes if you leave out the sausage.)

1 1/4 lb. spicy bulk Italian sausage
1 24 oz. jar good spaghetti sauce
hot water

1 package rotini
1/2 cup parmesan
2 cups mozzarella

Brown meat in a dutch oven or large pot.

Add spaghetti sauce. Fill the spaghetti sauce jar with hot water, and add to the pot, along with the rotini and parmesan. Stir well, cover and bake at 400 for 30 minutes.

Remove from oven, sprinkle Mozzarella on top, and return to oven for 10 more minutes without a cover.

Easy Fajitas

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1 lb boneless skinless chicken breasts and thighs, cut thin

1 1/2 tsp kosher salt
2 tsp cumin
1 tsp onion powder
1 tsp garlic powder
1/2 tsp chipotle pepper powder (can use more if you like it spicier)
1 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup water
2 Tbsp olive oil

4 red, yellow or green peppers, thinly sliced
1 yellow onion, cut into thin strips
1 red onion, cut into thin strips

Tortillas
Sour Cream
Salsa
Fresh Limes
Guacamole

Mix all spices, cornstarch and water in a medium bowl. Add in chicken, peppers and onions and stir to coat thoroughly. (You can use any kind of pepper or onion – it’s just fun to use different colors.)

Heat more olive oil in a large frying pan. Add everything and saute on pretty high heat for several minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the peppers and onions are soft and starting to brown a bit. You can grill it – which is more traditional, but the chipotle pepper lends a nice smokey flavor even if you just pan fry it.

Serve it with warm tortillas, with fresh lime juice squeezed over it. Top with sour cream, salsa, and guacamole.

Kumy’s Hindu Aloo (Potatoes)

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This is a wonderful, tangy, spicy golden potato dish with fresh cilantro and jalapenos. Really quick and amazingly good – one of Kumy’s specialties.

Kumy’s auntie, Shirin Auntie was an especially good cook, and such a lovely person. So was her husband, Chotu Uncle, and I miss them. (Story about them below.)  She taught Kumy how to make this dish.

When I asked him about the name, he said Shirin Auntie grew up in Bombay and learned this vegan dish from  a Hindu neighbor.  Aloo means potato, and anyone who has had these potatoes says they are “Kamal!”  (Amazing!)

4 medium potatoes, scrubbed and cubed in 1″ cubes (we like Yukon Gold)
2 Tbsp olive oil
4 cloves of garlic, thinly sliced
fresh ginger, peeled with a spoon and sliced very thinly (about 1.5 tsp)
3/4 tsp mustard seed
1/2 tsp cumin seed
1 jalapeno, sliced in half, seeds removed
1/2 tsp turmeric
1 tsp salt
2 lemons, juiced
4 jalapenos, held by stem, and cut twice from bottom
1 1/2 cup cilantro, chopped

Boil potatoes in salted water until they are soft. Drain and squeeze lemon juice over them. Heat oil in a frying pan, and add garlic, ginger and mustard seed, frying for 2 minutes. Add cumin seed, 1 sliced jalapeno, turmeric and salt and saute for just a few moments. Add the boiled potatoes and lemon juice and stir gently. You want to blend everything nicely without crushing the potatoes. Take the 4 jalapenos which have been partially cut and gently push them into the potatoes. Garnish with the cilantro. Serve with extra lemon juice.

Chotu Uncle and Shirin Auntie lived in a house with a beautiful garden – filled with beautiful plants in enormous sizes, and they loved cats and kept one as a pet, which was quite unusual. I always loved visiting them and seeing their garden.  

Later, they moved into a very nice apartment in the Royal Apartments.  One of my favorite memories was when they’d left the laundry room window open one day, and a mother bird began to build her nest just inside the window.  

They were so enchanted that they let her build the nest and raise her babies there – watching the progress with bated breathed, and tip-toeing in and out so as not to disturb them.  How could you not love someone like that?

Rachael Ray’s Spaghetti

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This is a great recipe for spaghetti, with sausage and lots of peppers and onions  You cook the sausage in the oven, which adds its own great flavor and pan juices.  This is also a good party dish – I’ve made it for our office holiday party at home.  If you really love bell peppers and onions, you can double them. (I always do.)

You’ll be doing three separate parts to this recipe – but you can pretty much do them all at the same time. Preheat oven to 425, start a large pot of water boiling, and heat 3 Tbsp olive oil in a large frying pan.

Step 1:

2 1/2 lbs. hot Italian Sausage
1 Tbsp Olive Oil

Put sausages on a baking sheet, drizzle with olive oil and roast at 425 for 15-20 minutes.

Step 2:

3 cloves garlic, thinly sliced
1 or 2 red peppers cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1 or 2 green peppers, cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1 or 2 onions, cut into 1/2″ thick slices
1/4 cup spaghetti sauce
1 tsp salt
1/4 – 1/2 tsp black pepper

Add garlic, peppers and onions to hot frying pan with olive oil, and saute for five minutes. Add spaghetti sauce, salt and black pepper.

Step 3:

1 lb. spaghetti, linguine or fettuccine
2 Tbsp butter
1 cup good Parmesan cheese (plus a little extra for garnishing)
2 cups good spaghetti sauce
1/2 cup water saved from the boiled spaghetti
Pan drippings from sausage when the sausage is done.

Cook pasta in salted water, saving 1/2 cup water when you drain it. Add back the saved 1/2 cup water and everything else to the pan and blend gently.

2 Tbsp fresh parsley, chopped
extra parmesan

Put spaghetti mix on a large platter. Next layer on the onion/pepper mix, and finally lay the sausages on top. Garnish with fresh parsley and extra parmesan. Yum-oh!

Spanish-Style Garlic Shrimp

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Made this for Christmas 2009 and it was quick and surprisingly good.

2 Tbsp olive oil
1 onion, finely diced
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
1/2 tsp hot paprika
1 lb. raw, good-sized shrimp, washed and patted dry (I like the easy peel ones.)
1/2 tsp salt
1/4 tsp black pepper
1 lemon, juiced
handful of fresh parsley, chopped

Heat oil in a large frying pan. Saute onion for 5-7 minutes until translucent. Add garlic and paprika and saute another minute or two, until the garlic smells cooked. (One of my favorite instructions in a Pakistani recipe was “to cook until a cooked aroma evolves.” No guesswork in that one, no sir!)

Sprinkle salt and pepper over the shrimp, tossing to coat.

Saute shrimp for a couple of minutes, until it turns nice and pink. Add Parsley and lemon juice.  Check seasonings and serve.  This is heaven with smashed potatoes, or serve it with crusty bread to soak it all up.