Tuna Tartare

I know that when it comes to raw fish, the world divides into two distinct camps.  There is the "I love it SO much I could eat it every day" camp.  That is the one I live in.  Then there is the "Get away from me with that raw fish" camp, and that is the one that the teenager lives in.  And while it is possible every once in a blue moon to get someone to cross from the teenager's camp to mine (I did it with the southern husband but it was before we were married and for all I know it was one of his tricky dating techniques), I'm not even gonna try.  All you anti-sushi people out there?  I love you anyway, and I will be back in a couple of days with something that is completely cooked.

In the meantime, however, we must discuss the tuna tartare recipe from the fabulous STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES.  This is an amazingly quick, easy and (if you are pro-raw fish) spectacularly delicious little number.   You need to get sushi-grade tuna, which I promise is not hard...go to wherever you usually buy your fresh fish and ask.  You chop it up in tiny little pieces and mix it up with chopped tomato, scallions, some ginger and sesame oil and rice vinegar, and then scoop it out onto sliced cucumber rounds.  

It obviously makes a fabulous, dramatic appetizer, but the sushi-loving southern husband and I had it for a Friday Night Lights dinner and were deliriously happy.  Raw-fishing-eating people that we are.

Recipe below, and next post I will return you to your regularly scheduled cooked food.

Tuna Tartare, adapted from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

8 ounces sushi-grade tuna, cut into 1.2 inch cubes

2 sliced scallions, white and green parts

1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro leaves

1 tablespoon grated, peeled fresh ginger

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1 tablespoon Asian sesame oil

1 seedless cucumber, sliced diagonally into 1/4 inch thick rounds

1. Place the tuna, scallions, cilantro, ginger, soy sauce and sesame oil in a medium bowl and mix gently until well-blended.

2. Arrange the cucumber slices on a large serving tray and pile a generous tablespoon of the tuna mixture on each cucumber slice.  Serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad

I can't remember the first time I discovered soba noodles, but once I did I kinda felt like I had won the food lottery. Soba noodles are made of buckwheat, and addition to being really, really tasty, they are actually pretty good for you, as far as pasta goes. And when you pair them with a scrumptious sauce and nestle a delicious cucumber cashew salad next to them...well, it's a good day when you can say you are having a super-delicious dinner and being virtuously healthy all at the same time. Right?

This quick cold noodle salad is another one from my week-long celebration of one of my new favorite cookbooks, STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES, and if you haven't yet entered the giveaway for a signed copy of this fantastic book, click here. In the meantime, here's the scoop on this salad. The sauce is a speedy combo of garlic, ginger, scallions, tahini, chili paste, soy sauce and my personal favorite kitchen ingredient, peanut butter. You thin it down a little with some hot water from the cooking pasta, toss in some cilantro if you are a cilantro person, and that's it. The salad is a simple combo of chopped cucumber and cashews tossed with sesame oil and white vinegar with a little ground pepper.

All these exotic ingredients can usually be found in any decent supermarket. If you absolutely can't find soba noodles anywhere (and I promise you that Amazon will have them!), you can sub in linguine. You just won't get to feel as completely virtuous. All of this wonderfulness is fabulous on its own, and also the perfect accompaniment to grilled steak or chicken or fish.

Here's the delish recipe, and don't forget to enter the giveaway!

Sesame Noodles with Cucumber Cashew Salad, from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

# minced garlic cloves
3 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
4 scallions, thinly sliced
1/2 cup peanut butter
1/4 cup tahini
2 teaspoons chili paste
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/4 cup minced cilantro
1 eight ounce package soba noodles (or linguine)
Sesame seeds for garnish

1 seedless cucumber, chopped
3/5 cup coarsely chopped cashews
2 tablespoons sesame oil
2 tablespoons rice or white wine vinegar
Fresh ground pepper

1. Bring large pot of lightly salted water to a boil.

2. In a large bowl, mix garlic, ginger and scallions. Mix in peanut butter and tahini. Add chili paste and soy sauce and stir well. Add 1/2 cup hot water from the pot and stir into sauce. Add cilantro.

3. Make salad by mixing cucumber, cashews, sesame oil and vinegar in a separate small bowl. Set aside.

4. Add noodles to boiling water and cook until just tender. Drain and run under cold water until cool. Drain again and toss with sauce until well-coated. Sprinkle with sesame seeds. Serve with cucumber salad on the side.

Click here for printable recipe

Lobster Rolls and a Cookbook Contest!

Yes, that is a good old-fashioned lobster roll in front of you, and it come from one of my new favorite cookbooks, STONEWALL KITCHEN FAVORITES. If you've been reading my blog for a while, you know that I would basically like to move into the Stonewall Kitchen and live there for the rest of my life. Click here for just a few of the many, many, many reasons why. At any rate, the folks at Stonewall Kitchen heard about my adoration and were nice enough to send me a copy of their amazing cookbook. First of all, the food photography made me both deliriously happy AND think I better practice a little more with my own Nikon. It's just glorious. And the recipes...every bit as wonderful as I hoped they would be.

And happily, I have one more of these fabulous cookbooks to give away!



More info on how to enter for the giveaway at the bottom of this post...but first we must discuss the lobster roll, which (of course) came from this fabulous cookbook.

Among the many, many other talented things that the Southern husband does is keep an eye on all the various supermarkets in the area for when lobster goes on sale. We just LOVE lobster in this house (who doesn't?), but it does make me squirm a little when the price of cooking dinner starts rivaling the mortgage payment. So whenever he spots it on sale he makes sure to pick up a few of those babies, and to have have supermarket steam them up so they are cooked and ready for action. I have a few recipes that I go back to again and again that call for cooked lobster, but some days there is nothing like a good old-fashioned lobster roll.

Enter the Stonewall Kitchen Favorites, which has a lobster roll recipe that has now become my favorite lobster roll recipe of all time. It's light and creamy and classic and perfect. And EASY. You take a couple of lobsters-worth of lobster meat, tear it into bite-sized pieces, and mix it up with lime zest, lime juice, fresh ginger, chopped scallion and just the teeny-tiny-est bit of mayo.

Then lightly toast a few hot dog rolls. In an ideal world, you will have top-split hot dog rolls (which are sometimes called New England-style. Why? I have no idea.). Butter them lightly, and then spoon the lobster salad into the rolls.

You have now pretty much achieved Lobster Roll Nirvana. It just doesn't get any better than this.

Recipe is below, but first the giveaway: I have one glorious copy of Stonewall Kitchen Favorites to give away to a lucky winner, and get this: it is also signed by the authors. All those spectacular recipes, and signed by the authors as well...it's almost as good as that lobster roll! Just leave me a comment on this post telling me your favorite summer recipe, and next Sunday I will pick one lucky, lucky recipient of this amazing cookbook. My beloved email subscribers, you can enter by clicking the post title, which will take you to the website where you can comment.

But first...lobster roll!

Lobster Rolls, adapted from Stonewall Kitchen Favorites

1 1/2 cups cooked lobster meat

1 teaspoon grated lime zest

1 teaspoon fresh lime juice

1 teaspoon grated, peeled fresh ginger

1 tablespoon mayonnaise

1 scallion, white and green parts, chopped
Salt and freshly ground pepper
Two hit dog buns, toasted and buttered

1. Mix together the lobster, lime zest and juice, ginger, mayonnaise and scallion in a small bowl until well combined. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

2. Serve in a lightly toasted and buttered hot dog bun.

Click here for printable recipe

Spicy Coconut Noodles

Coconut! I am a devoted coconut lover. Coconut cake. Coconut cookies. Coconut ice cream. A few days ago I made individual chocolate coconut cream pies that will be appearing on this blog as soon as I sit down and write the post. I love 'em all. But coconut desserts are the easy part...what's really exciting is finding a recipe that lets you incorporate coconut into the main course...now we're talking!

I've run into a few of these over the years, and they have a special place in my crazy conglomerate of a recipe collection. Coconut shrimp risotto, for example. Coconut fusilli. I even have a recipe for a coconut soup. But for a coconut lover like me, you can never have too many coconut recipes, so when I spotted this one in the always wonderful Real Simple, I knew it had my name on it. The light sauce is a combo of sweet coconut milk with spicy chili sauce and tomato sauce, and the pasta gets tossed with this sauce, some scallions and bean sprouts and fresh basil and topped with...you guessed it, more coconut!

And for dessert, I think I will have me one of these. Because you know they are in my freezer!

Spicy Coconut Noodles, adapted from Real Simple

• 8 ounces fettuccine
• 1 13.5-ounce can unsweetened coconut milk
• 3 tablespoons tomato paste
• 1 teaspoon chili powder
• 1 teaspoon kosher salt
• 1 tablespoon chili paste or sauce (optional)
• 3 scallions, thinly sliced
• 8 ounces bean sprouts
• 16 basil leaves, whole or torn
• 1/4 cup shredded coconut, toasted
  

1. Cook the pasta according to the package directions.
2. Meanwhile, in a large saucepan, over medium heat, combine the coconut milk, tomato paste, chili powder, salt, and chili paste or sauce (if using). Bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer for 2 to 3 minutes.
3. Stir in the drained noodles and toss. Divide the noodles among individual bowls. Top with the scallions, sprouts, basil, and coconut.

Pasta with Shrimp and Feta Cheese Sauce

This recipe is so quick and so easy and SO delicious, and it's all about one of my favorite appliances. The food processor. Yep, as long as you can boil water and push the on button, you are all set with this one, and that's my kind of dinner on a weeknight.

First the water-boiling part. Fill up a good sized pot with water and put it on to boil. While you are waiting for it to boil, cut up some tomatoes and toss them in a bowl. Any kind of tomato will do. I had some nice cherry tomatoes when I made this.

Ok, now comes the fun part. Toss the following into your food processor: scallions, fresh thyme, feta cheese, cottage cheese. Press the button until it is all nice and creamy, and then taste it to see if it needs any salt and pepper. Then scoop it into the bowl with the tomatoes.

Your water should be boiling by now. Drop your shrimp in and cook them for about 2 minutes, just until they are nice and pink. Without turning the water off, scoop them out with a slotted spoon, drop them into the bowl with the sauce and give it all a stir.

Drop some of this into the still-boiling water....



And when it is done, drain it, toss it with the sauce, and dinner is served. Grind a little fresh pepper on top, and nobody will ever know that this involved exactly one mixing bowl and a pot of boiling water. And your trusty food processor, of course!

Pasta with Shrimp and Feta Cheese Sauce

• 4 scallions
• 1 tablespoon fresh thyme or 1 teaspoon dried
• 6 ounces feta cheese
• 9 ounces cottage cheese
• 12 ounces raw shrimp, shelled
• 12 ounces tomatoes, chopped
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 9 ounces spaghetti

1. Boil water for pasta.
2. Chop scallions and thyme together in food processor.
3. Add feta and cottage cheese to processor and blend until creamy.
4. When pasta water boils, add shrimp, cook for 2 minutes or until done, and remove from water with slotted spoon, keeping water at a boil. Add shrimp to cheese sauce.
5. Cook pasta until al dente. Drain and add pasta to sauce, toss thoroughly and serve.

Click here for printable recipe

Andouille Sausage and Shrimp Scramble

This recipe is one of my long line of "I adore New Orleans" recipes, and yes, I will be cheering loudly for the Saints on Sunday. If you have never been to New Orleans...well, it is one of the best and most unique places on earth, and home to some of the best food you will ever taste. From the beignets at the Cafe du Monde (best eaten really, really late at night with your true love) to the barbeque shrimp at Pascale's Manale, to the pile of perfectly cooked spicy peel and eat crayfish at that place on Decatur Street that I can't remember the name of, to my friend Emeril's spectacular restaurants....New Orleans is Food Heaven.

There are certain ingredients that immediately conjure up New Orleans for me, and andouille sausage is one of them. Spicy, delicious...you can toss it into everything from gumbo to scrambled eggs and whatever it is will be kicked up several notches of deliciousness. My friend R says that andouille sausage is made by little Cajun angels, and I think he is right.

This recipe was supposed to be made with crayfish, but sadly, crayfish are hard to come by in northern New Jersey. If you ever want to bring me a present, crayfish would be just fine. But since no crayfish were available I substituted chopped shrimp, and that was almost as good. This dish is pretty much as easy as it gets to make -- you saute the sausage and seafood and scallions in a little bit of butter, add in the beaten eggs, gently stir the whole thing around until the eggs are set and voila! Spicy, creamy, wonderful.

Which is all I have to say for now, except....

Geaux Saints!

ANDOUILLE SAUSAGE AND SHRIMP SCRAMBLE, adapted from Bubby's Brunch Cookbook

3 large eggs
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 ounces andouille sausage, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 tablespoon butter
2 ounces chopped shrimp (or crayfish, if you've got any!)
2 tablespoons sliced scallions
Salt and pepper to taste

1. Beat eggs until frothy

2. Heat olive oil in skillet over medium heat and saute sausage for 1-2 minutes. Add butter, shrimp and scallion and stir until shrimp are just cooked through, about 2-3 minutes.

3. Add eggs and cook, stirring continuously until they are set. Salt and pepper to taste and serve immediately.

Click here for printable recipe

Sesame Noodles and a Cookbook Contest!

First of all, for those of you eager to get to the contest, you might as well scroll right down to the middle of this post and look at the cover of the gorgeous new cookbook by Ree Drummond, aka The Pioneer Woman.

But before I get into the contest details, I would like to submit this post as Exhibit A in my ongoing quest to do absolutely everything that the Pioneer Woman tells me to do. For those of you who don't know who she is, the Pioneer Woman writes the blog that all of us cooks/photographers/foodbloggers/dog-lovers aspire to. If you haven't visited her website yet, you are missing OUT. Not that she needs any help from me -- you will probably go from here to there and then never come back again. But if you PROMISE to return, take a look at http://www.thepioneerwoman.com/. It is a sight to see.

Anyway, a little while back she put up a recipe for sesame noodles, and told us (and I quote), "Make them this weekend!"

And since I am her devoted slave, I did. Amazingly, I had everything in the house except for the hot chili oil, and so I called 1-800-MYMOTHER, who always has everything somewhere in her pantry. Of course she had chili oil, so my lunchtime that same day the Southern husband and I were sitting down to the Pioneer Woman's sesame noodles. Which were outstanding, as usual. We had them plain, but they would be terrific with some shredded chicken, and/or cucumber, carrots, shrimp, etc etc etc.

And if I haven't been enough of a Pioneer Woman groupie for one day, I also need to tell you about this new cookbook she has.

And you can read more about it at the link below...

The Pioneer Woman Cooks

And guess what??? I have not one, not two, but THREE copies to give away! The rules are simple: leave a comment on this post that gives me a suggestion for a recipe you would like me to make and photograph. In one week I will pick 3 incredibly lucky commenters at random to get a copy of THE PIONEER WOMAN COOKS. Which I already know will be one of my favorite cookbooks of all time. (For my peeps who subscribe on email -- click on the recipe title up top and it will take you to the web page where you can comment. I love you guys!!)

So back to the sesame noodles for a second...for all of you who have already seen this one on her site, I have road-tested it for you and it's perfect. Of course. And for the rest of you...just don't forget about me once you have seen her site. And last but not least, make sure you check the Pioneer Woman website for her book tour dates to see if she is coming to your town...if she does and you get to meet her, ask her for me how she manages to photograph Every Single Step of Every Single Recipe, and still have it come out perfectly Every Single Time?

Okay then...ready, set...comment!!

SESAME NOODLES, from www.thepioneerwoman.com

12 ounces linguine, cooked and drained
1/4 cup soy sauce
2 tablespoons sugar
3 to 4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tablespoons rice vinegar
2 to 3 tablespoons sesame oil
1/2 teaspoon hot chile oil
4 to 5 tablespoons canola oil
2 tablespoons hot water
3 to 4 green onions, sliced thin

1. Whisk all ingredients (except noodles and green onions) together in a bowl. Taste and adjust ingredients as needed.

2. Pour sauce over warm noodles and toss to coat.

3. Sprinkle with green onions and toss.

Click here for Printable Recipe