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Easy Breezy Salad

5 Oct

Not all salads must include lettuce… especially during avocado season.

Growing up, a few slices of tomato or opening a can of corn were considered a salad side dish.  Nowadays, when I am running all over the place, and have little time to prepare a full-on meal, I usually go to my quickie salad fixes – very similar, but very different from what I used to do.

 This is a quickie and easy salad at its best…

 

EASY BREEZY SALAD

2-3 slices of avocado, chopped
½ a tomato, chopped
¼ cucumber, sliced and quartered
Extra-virgin olive oil
A sprinkle of Kosher salt

 

  1. Place all the avocado, tomato and cucumber pieces on the side of the plate.  Drizzle with a bit of the olive oil and sprinkle some salt over them.  Done!!!

 

It’s refreshing, crispy and delicious.  No need to bother with a dressing, but if you want, you can drizzle any vinaigrette you might have on hand.  It’s up to you…

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Curried Potatoes

15 Sep

You know I love potatoes…  and my mom bought a HUGE 20lbs bag of potatoes in COSTCO and she didn’t know what to do with so many potatoes.  She bought it to cook at the Yoga Center, but still they were a bit much.  So, I took home 4-5 potatoes even though I had bought red skinned potatoes the day before.  These were russet, so I had to do something with them…

I love curried potatoes, especially when my friend Millie makes them at the Yoga Center.  After a quick crash course on how she makes them, this is my version.  It’s a mild version of curry potatoes – milder than what you would find at any Indian restaurant.  But you get all the goodness from the potatoes, the color from the turmeric and the flavor from the curry.  Again, this is at your discretion, if you can handle a stronger curry taste –  go ahead and add more.  I won’t care, unless you invite me over.

This is simple and quick…

 

CURRIED POTATOES

2 large russet potatoes – peeled and cubed
1 large onion – sliced thin
1 clove of garlic – minced
2 tbs butter
1 tbs olive oil
1 tbs curry powder
1 tsp turmeric
1/4 cup of water – optional
A dash of white wine vinegar with tarragon
Kosher salt and pepper to taste

 

  1. Place the potatoes to boil in well salted water.  I salt the water as if I was making pasta – very generously.  This is the time to get flavor into the potatoes.  I usually do not cover the potatoes with water.  I find they cook faster if the water is ¾ of the way up the potatoes.
  2. Meanwhile in a separate saucepan under medium heat, add the butter, olive oil and onions.  After a few minutes, add the garlic. Sweat the onions and the garlic until they become soft.  Add the curry powder and the turmeric and stir well.  Add the vinegar and scrape off any stuck on bits in the bottom of the pan.  if the mix is too dry, add a bit of water.
  4. When the potatoes are cooked, but still hold their shape, drain them and return to the pot.  Add the curry/onion mixture and stir to combine.  Add a bit more vinegar if you need added moisture.
  5. Let it sit for 15-20 minutes or even 30 minutes to let the potatoes absorb the curry taste.

 

Serve as a side dish or even use them as a filling for tortillas… kind of like an Indian-flavored burrito.

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Chicharritas de Plátano

15 Aug

While I was in Miami, I got the opportunity to make a true Latin specialty – Chicharritas de Plátano.  This is the way I call them when I am in Miami, because in Puerto Rico these are called Platanutres.  They’re exactly the same, people just call them differently, the same way some people say elevator and others say lift… you get my drift.

But not only these are called differently by Cubans and Puerto Ricans, they’re eaten somewhat differently too.  Puerto Ricans eat platanutres mainly as a snack or maybe even as a side to sandwiches.  However, Cubans eat these little fried slices of plantain as an appetizer, a snack or sometimes even as a crispy side dish to accompany rice and black beans.  Also, they like to serve these with a drizzle of mojito criollo, just like the one I showed you to eat with your boiled yucca, without the onions – just olive oil, garlic , salt and lemon juice.  This is my favorite appetizer in any Cuban restaurant in Miami… and Cuban restaurants in Puerto Rico do not have them.  It’s a Miami thing and I LOOOOOOOOVE it!!

You can get chicharritas bagged, just like potato chips.  I have even talked to you about them in our posts on Junk Food, but the freshly made ones are special.   My aunt Gladys, being the “alcahueta” she is, made me some chicharritas before us leaving Miami.  I wanted to go to a restaurant, but she insisted and I took pictures. 

 

 

CHICHARRITAS DE PLÁTANO

2 green plantains
Kosher salt
Canola oil to fry them in

 

  1. Start by peeling the plantain.  Remember to peel them carefully using an oiled knife to avoid staining your knife.
  3. Slice the plantain very thinly using a slicer or a mandoline.  My aunt uses this nifty slicer.  You can slice it in small rounds, which is the traditional way and the way we did them this time around.  In restaurants you usually see the chips sliced the long side of the plantain.  The choice is yours.
  5. Separate and salt the plantain slices.  I always thought the salt was added after frying, but in fact, I like the taste when they’re salted beforehand.
  7. Bring about an inch of oil to frying temperature in a medium sized pot – about 350° F.  To tell you the truth, I never take the oil’s temperature.  Use the wooden spoon method if you want to be sure.
  8. Drop the plantain slices in small batches and try to separate them as much as possible.  Slices will want to stick together. So try to keep the separate.  Fry them until they’re golden.  Keep an eye on them because they go from perfect to burn easily.
  10. Take them out with a slotted spoon and drain in a paper towel.

 

Enjoy alone, with mojito criollo or as a side dish – I ate them with black beans and rice and slices of avocado on the side.  I love my aunt’s cooking!!!!!

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Mushroom-Stuffed Mushrooms

2 Aug

This is a variation on Stuffed Mushrooms… to me it was a no-brainer that you can use the stems of the mushrooms and used them as your filling.  But people were sooooooo amused by this that it let to the name – mushroom-stuffed mushrooms.  This is basically using up all your produce and minimizing waste.

I made these as hot appetizers for our Francophone get-together, but you can serve them as a side dish too.  My friends teased me on the concept, but they all took home the left-overs.  And still, 5 days later they were still bragging about them.  Not bad, huh?

 

MUSHROOM-STUFFED MUSHROOMS

1 packet of button mushrooms
2oz cream cheese
2 handfuls of grated cheese – Italian-blend
1 tbs of fresh flat-leaf parsley, chopped finely
2 tbs of butter
Salt and pepper
Herbamare seasoning
2 tbs of whole-wheat bread crumbs (optional)

 

  1. Clean out all the mushrooms and remove their stems.  Set mushrooms caps aside.
  2. In a large skillet over medium heat, place butter and let it brown a bit, about 4-5 minutes.   Meanwhile, chop all the mushrooms stems as finely as possible.  Add the chopped mushrooms to the butter and sauté until the mushroom stems are golden brown.  When they’re almost done… add salt, pepper and Herbamare seasoning.
  3. Pre-heat oven to 400° F.
  4. Transfer the cooked mushrooms to a bowl and add the cream cheese, shredded cheese, parsley and breadcrumbs, if adding.
  5. Stuff each mushroom cap with the filling, allowing the filling to kind-of-overflow.
  6. Bake in oven for about 20 minutes.
  7. Remove them immediately from the oven so they do not sit on the juice they released.   Transfer them to a platter and serve immediately.

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Potatoes à la Angie

22 Jul

My friend Angie does not cook a whole lot… but what she does cook, she does very well.

Every time she invites me over for dinner she prepares her specialty – Potatoes with Butter, Onions and Bacon.  Well, I decided to immortalize her recipe making it a vegetarian version.  These are a super easy way to make a potato side dish or even as a simple, quick lunch with a side salad.  That’s what I had for lunch today…

 

POTATOES À LA ANGIE

3 medium red skinned potatoes, washed and sliced thin using a mandoline
½ onion, sliced thin
2 tbs butter
1-2 slices of veggie bacon, cut into small pieces (optional)
2 tsp adobo

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 400° F.
  2. I used a mandolin to thinly slice the potatoes…  you can do it with a sharp knife, but I find the mandoline to be extremely consistent and easy to use.  BE CAREFUL, the mandoline’s blade is super sharp and I have been known to almost loose a finger tip to a mandolin (long story that shall not be told while talking about food, but it’s important how sharp these things are…)
  4. We’ll be making a layered potato dish,  so…
  5. In a small buttered casserole dish, place a layer of potatoes.  Sprinkle lightly with adobo.  Dot each potato slice with a bit of butter.  Place a light layer of onions. Repeat the layering process until you’ve finished with all the potato slices.  It yielded me for about 3-4 layers of potatoes. 
  6. When you place the last of the potatoes, sprinkle with the last of the adobo.  Dot again with butter and sprinkle the pieces of veggie bacon on top.
  8. Roast in oven for about 30-40 minutes until potatoes are done.  Check them at about the 30 minute mark, if you feel it needs more time but the top is too crispy, cover it with a piece of foil paper, tying for the paper not to touch the potatoes… to avoid over browning.

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