Peace Love and Pass the Shrimp

I love seafood, which is weird since both of my siblings don't particularly enjoy seafood. Oh well, more for me!

This dish was inspired by a dish that my boyfriend and I used to make in college. It is a ketchup-sweet-soy saucey thick sauce that goes on top of shrimp, roasted asparagus and white or brown rice. I like to be somewhat healthy so we always use brown rice.

Ingredients:
1 tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil
1 tablespoon of fresh ginger
1/4 cup of ketchup
1/4 cup of oyster sauce
1 tablespoon of white sugar
1 tablespoon of honey
3/4 tablespoon of lemon
1 tablespoon of water
1 tablespoon of soy sauce
1/4 teaspoon of red chili pepper flakes (I viewed them as optional)
Shrimp
Green Beans
Brown rice



First, put the rice cooker on. My rice cooker takes over an hour to make brown rice.

Next, I started by cutting the ends off the green beans. I usually dress them with some garlic and olive oil and throw them in the oven for about 10 minutes on 475 degrees.

Then, in a small bowl, I made the sauce. Add everything on the list EXCEPT: ginger, honey, water, and sugar.



After making the sauce, I put the ginger in the pan with some olive oil to brown slightly. Keep the heat on medium or low or else the ginger will get too hot and spray everywhere. I just browned the ginger for about 3-5 minutes.




Once the ginger is browned or fragrant, turn the heat to low and add the sauce mixture. After a few minutes, incorporate the honey, sugar and water to the pan. As the sauce is on the heat, you will notice that the sauce will start to thicken.
















In a separate pan, saute the shrimp in a pan with olive oil and some garlic. Cook the shrimp until they turn pink, which should take about 5 minutes. If you over cook shrimp, it will get chewy.  (ALTERNATIVELY: put the shrimp on skewers and throw them on the grill).















 To assemble the plate, start by placing the rice on the bottom. Then add the asparagus and put the shrimp atop both of them. I then drizzled the sauce on top of the shrimp.



This dish is a lot of effort but honestly worth it.

For the Love of Pork

LOVE THIS DISH!!

Pork loin's are a great protein that can be cooked easily and even more easily be thrown in the freezer for a later day.

I have made this marinade multiple times and overtime I want to drink the sauce. I should bottle this sauce or something. It's so tasty.

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of olive oil
1/3 cup of soy sauce
1/3 cup of balsamic
1/4 cup of brown sugar
2 tablespoons of thyme
2 springs or tablespoons of rosemary
Pork Loin

I start by creating the marinade and then put in a bag with the pork to marinade it for a few hours (a day is ideal). I like to rose sprigs of rosemary. In the past, I have used rosemary "leaves"and it makes it a little messy as you don't want to eat a "leaf" of rosemary. So when I have use the "leaves" I make sure to strain the sauce first.

To cook the pork, I start by browning it in a pan on the stove for just a few minutes.

This just puts a little color on the pork before placing it to finish in the oven for about 20 minutes on 400 degrees.

Putting it in the oven makes the pork really tender and juicy and delicious. Grab and fork and dig in!

Artichoke Garlic Bread

This is sure to be a show stopper. I have friends who won't come over for dinner unless I am making my artichoke garlic bread. 

Ingredients: 
Bread loaf/roll
Jar of grilled artichokes
1 stick of melted butter 
1 tablespoon of garlic
Mozzarella cheese
Parmesan cheese


I typically use some kind of soft dinner roll. You can really use any bread you want though. 

Start by pre-heating the oven to 375. 

I start by finely chopping up artichokes . The finer the better in my opinion. I usually just eye ball how much I want to use since it depends how much you want.

After chopping up the artichokes, I put it in a bowl with some garlic and butter. If the butter isn't melted, then I put it in the microwave. Once the butter has been melted, I pour the butter and artichoke mixture over the bread. 

Then I put mozzarella cheese on top of the bread (depends on how much you want) and then sprinkle some parmesan on top of that and put it in the oven. 

It usually takes around 10 minutes for the cheese to melt. 

I finish it off by dipping the bread in balsamic as I eat it. 

I promise you that this bread is BOMB! 

Pan Seared Salmon with Parmasean Farro and Carrots

Whenever Chris is around we always end up making something what most people my age would consider to be "fancy."

This dish was inspired by mom who loves farro. Farro is grain similar to rice rich in fiber and considered a complex carb so it's healthier than rice. It is not very well known or commonly used and I am not quite sure why because it is delicious. And I love salmon so why not combine the two.

NOTE: the farro recipe was derived from a recipe I found in the New York Times but I made a few tweaks

Ingredients:
Salmon
4 cups of water
1 1/2 cups of farro
1 teaspoon of garlic powder
Salt and pepper
1 teaspoon of Paprika
2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar
1/4 cup of Olive oil
3/4 cup of Parmesan
3 or 4 sprigs of Parsley

Cooking Instructions:
Farro: To start, boil 4 cups of water on the stove. I also add no more than 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar to the water. This eliminates the very earthy/intense flavor that farro can have. Once water is boiling, add 1 1/2 cups of farro to the water. Cook the farro on low heat for 30 minutes until there is no more liquid in the pan.

Cut up some parsley (just a few sprigs of it) while the farro is cooking.

After all the liquid is gone, spread the farro out on a sheet tray. Drizzle olive oil, parmasean cheese, parsley, and salt and pepper over the farro.

Salmon: Before cooking the salmon, we put garlic powder, salt, and paprika on it. Then once the pan is hot, we put the salmon in the pan skin side down. Cook the salmon with the skin side down for about 7 minutes then flip it over for about 2 minutes. Put in the oven on 350 degrees for about 5 minutes skin side down. At this point, it really depends how you like your salmon cooked. I like mine slightly raw in the middle so it's pink in the middle.

Also, I made my sinful carrots (from my previous blog post) to accompany this dish.

I made this dish for my parents and my boyfriend and they loved it. The farro provided texture to accompany the salmon and the carrots were sweet and delicious.

Sinful Carrots

I really do not want to study for my microeconomics exam tomorrow so I decided to do a short post about one of my favorite dishes since I was a child.

It's a very "naughty" dish - brown sugar glazed carrots. Sugary deliciousness - that's hard not to love. But since it is a little bit on the unhealthy side, I rarely make it.

When I was a kid, my mom used to make them all the time. I think back then, putting carrots in sugar might have been one of the only ways to make us eat our vegetables. Well I obviously loved the dish back then and now even have a greater appreciation for its' deliciousness since I rarely eat this dish.

Ingredients:
Brown sugar
Butter
Carrots

To start, I cut up the carrots into somewhat small pieces. I like to use the pre-peeled baby carrots.

After the carrots are cut, I put them in a pan with some water to steam for about 5 minutes (cutting the carrots into smaller pieces cuts down on the time it takes to steam them.



After they are steamed, I put a little olive oil in the pan to brown them a little bit.

Then I add brown sugar and butter at same time. The quantity of brown sugar and butter is up to you but I like it to be kinda thick so I add some butter and lots of brown sugar.

This dish is so yummy - my mouth is watering as I write this and honestly if it wasn't already 11 PM at night already I might have made a bowl for myself.

The carrots could also be substituted for sweet potatoes but I would cook the sweet potatoes in the oven instead of a pan. This is what my family makes on thanksgiving with marshmallows - a holiday requirement in my house.

NOTE*** when making this dish I ALWAYS underestimate how many carrots I actually need so go big!

Panko Crusted Chicken

I don't know about you guys but I am huge fan of the Food Network. Iron Chef America, Chopped, Beat Bobby Flay, Cutthroat Kitchen - I love them all!

Sometimes when it comes time to cook dinner I feel like I find myself in my own episode of Chopped. Trying to figure out what I have in my kitchen that I can use to make something that I would actually like to eat.


These days I have been so lazy and can barely make it to the grocery store once a week but I looked into my depressingly empty and pantry and refrigerator to see that I had some frozen chicken  in the freezer and panko bread crumbs in the pantry. This led me to the idea of crusting the chicken.

Ingredients:
Chicken
Panko bread crumbs
Italian seasoning (to go into the panko bread crumbs)
Flour
Garlic powder (to go into the flour)
Paprika (to go into the flour)

I started out by trimming the chicken and cutting into slices.



After cutting the chicken, I created a breading station with flour (I also added paprika and garlic powder), egg, and panko bread crumbs with italian herbs mixed in as well. So I dipped the chicken in flour first, then egg, and then panko.



After breading the chicken, I preheated the oven and put a pan on the stove. I started out by searing the chicken in a pan on medium heat. This makes gives the chicken a nice crunchy crust by crisping up the crust.



After I brown the chicken, I put into the oven. The chicken comes out being moist and crispy and delicious.




** Sorry the picture quality isn't great

Spinach and Ricotta Cheese Stuffed Chicken

Chicken can sometimes be so bland. I am always trying to find ways to make chicken more "interesting." Which this definitely is! I made it for my roommate and her boyfriend and they really enjoyed it.

To be honest, I was craving some kind of lasagna/manicotti dish but I decided to make a somewhat healthier version. So I decided to stuff chicken with ricotta cheese and spinach. 

First, I flattened out the chicken. I didn't have a meat tenderizer so I just put the chicken in between two pieces of plastic wrap and beat the chicken with a pan. 

Next, I washed some spinach and cut it up into small pieces. I just kind of eye-balled how much spinach I thought I would need and then mixed it with some ricotta cheese. 

Then I put the spinach-ricotta cheese mixture inside the chicken and rolled it up. 

After the chicken was rolled up, I dusted the chicken in a flour mixture with garlic powder and paprika before putting the chicken in an egg wash and panko bread crumbs. 

I started cooking the chicken in a pan on high heat just to get some color on the chicken and then I finished it in the oven. 

I made this dish for my roommate and her boyfriend. It was my first time making this dish as well as my first time cooking for them but this dish was a hit! The crust was crunchy and the cheese on the inside kept the chicken moist.  My only regret was not adding more spinach!!!

Recipe (depends on how many you are making for but I made 3 chicken breasts):

Filling: 

Spinach (a few handfuls)

Ricotta cheese  (about 1 cup)

Crust: 

Flour with paprika and garlic powder 

1 egg 

Panic bread crumbs  (1 1/2 cups)