Tilapia and Fresh Herbs

Since I made meatballs the other day, I have extra parsley on hand. And when I have extra parsley, I like to fry it crispy. That may sound like a strange thing to do, but I love cooking with it and my favorite bits have always been the slightly burned bits. I figure, I am the cook, why don't I make it all that way and have a big pile of crispy awesome?

So I do that. And It's great. I like to pair it with fish because the contrast in the textures is just great.

Today, I paired my crispy parsley with some tilapia and other greenery. Yum.

Tilapia with Fresh Herbs

4 tilapia fillets

1cup curly parsley, rough chopped

1 red onion, diced

1/4 cup mint leaves, chopped

4 tbsp Italian Herb Olive Oil

Salt 

Warm the olive oil in a large saute pan. Place in the tilapia fillets. Saute about 3 minutes on each side. Remove from the pan.

Keeping the heat on medium, add in the onions and the herbs. Keep everything moving so you don't over brown anything. Sprinkle on some salt to taste. Cook until the edges of the parsley start to crisp.

Spoon over fish.

Serve with whole wheat couscous or brown rice.

Easy Parmesan Meatballs

If you have a pound of ground meat in the fridge, some cheese, breadcrumbs and a little oil, we are in business to night!

Lets go with my husbands favorite: meatballs. Parmesan ones!

Easy Parmesan Meatballs

1 lb ground meat, I like turkey
1/4 cup Sun dried Tomato, Parmesan and Garlic Olive Oil
1/4 cup parmesan cheese
1/4 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh herbs

Start by preheating your oven to 350degrees.

Mix all your ingredients in a large bowl. Form into about 12 meatballs.

Arrange on a baking sheet. As these bake, the parmesan gets everywhere, don't worry about it, they still taste great. But use a pan with sides, not a cookie sheet.

Bake 25-30 minutes.

I used my slow sauce to turn these into a sandwich. Life is good when you have food in the fridge!

Slow Sauce

This is not the slowest sauce I've ever seen recipes for. This is just the slowest thing I'll probably ever make. Turkey doesn't count. That's turkey. And still, the 5 hours that turkey takes is just a minute when compared to this long, slow, 8 hour sauce.

You can while away the time doing just about anything you please. And if you have a good electrical system in your house, unlike mine, you can even leave and go to work. Or run errands, or get a massage. Hmm... It's after the holidays. I might be due for some 'me-time.' After all, I just spent 8 hours making sauce!

Slow Sauce

2 28oz cans of whole or diced tomatoes
2 cups fresh chopped tomatoes
1 medium onion, chopped
2 tbsp Basil Olive Oil
1 tbsp oregano
1 tsp smoked paprika
1 tsp turmeric
1 tbsp basil
1 tbsp Bottarga Pate
1/2 - 1 cup white wine
5 tbsp chopped garlic
2 chopped carrots
crushed red pepper flakes
salt
pepper
1 bay leaf

Heat the Basil Olive Oil in a saute pan to medium heat. Add the chopped onions, garlic, paprika and turmeric. Saute for about 5 minutes, stirring occasionally. The onions should be a little translucent and the spices should be nice and toasty.

Combine the onion/garlic mix with everything else in your slow cooker. Turn the heat to medium and cook, uncovered for 8 hours.

Remove the bay leaf.

This part is optional. I like to leave my sauce chunky and serve it right from the slow cooker. But you can process in batches in your blender until smooth, or use an immersion blender.

This freezes well. I like to freeze sauce in ice cube trays (best to have special ones just for sauce) so I can pop in a little tomato-y burst when I need it.

Warm Shrimp Salad

This is a per person recipe. I have made this for just me and I've made this for a group. It works as an appetizer or a main meal. It all depends on how much shrimp you put on!

Warm Shrimp Salad

5-7 Shrimp,cooked
1/2 tomatillo, diced
1/4 red onion, diced
1/2 red or orange pepper, diced
1 tsp minced garlic
Black Pepper
1 1/2 tbsp Meyer Lemon Olive Oil
3 cups spring mix
1 tbsp Zesty Lemon Balsamic

Warm the Meyer Lemon Olive Oil in a saute pan. Add in the garlic and saute 1-2 minutes. Place the shrimp in the pan and sprinkle with a generous amount of black pepper.

Saute for about 5 minutes, turning once.

Assemble the salad. Toss the spring mix with with onion, pepper and tomatillo. Lay the shrimp on top and drizzle with the Zesty Lemon Balsamic.

Chicken with Artichokes and Wine

This recipe is for my mother. She has recently discovered artichoke hearts. Years past, she would never eat them. She thought they looked funny.Then she had them on a salad and that was that. Artichoke love!


Chicken with Artichokes & Wine

4 chicken breasts
1 cup white wine
1 medium red onion, chopped
1 small can artichoke hearts
2 tbsp Italian Herb Olive Oil
1-2 tbsp brown or raw sugar
2 tbsp bottarga pate

Heat the Italian Herb Olive Oil in a pan to medium high. Add the chicken breast, bottarga pate and the onion. Saute until the chicken begins to brown. Preheat your oven to 375degrees.

Transfer to a casserole pan. Distribute the artichoke hearts around the chicken and pour in the wine. Sprinkle everything with the brown sugar.

Bake for 25-35 minutes.

Serve with Rice Pilaf.

Chili Rubbed Salmon

I love salmon. It is my favorite fish. I end up making more tilapia because my husband kind of likes it, and it is cheaper. But when I'm making fish just for me, salmon it is.

The measurements here are for one 5-6 inch filet. You can scale it up or down however you like it.

Chili Rubbed Salmon

1 piece of Salmon
1 tbsp Chipotle Olive Oil, + 1tsp
1- 2 tsp chili powder
1 tsp Chinese 5 spice powder

Set the oven to broil.

Rinse and pat your salmon dry. Take 1 tsp of the Chipotle oil and rub it on the skin side. This is to make sure it doesn't stick. Lay it on a baking pan.

Rub the 1 tbsp of oil on the top. Sprinkle the spices over and rub them in to coat every bit well.

Broil for about 10 minutes.

Voila! Fish!

Jalapeno Tilapia Pouches

I wish that one day I could walk into my kitchen and find everything I need. I don't have a large kitchen or much cabinet space, and as such I tuck things away into small spaces and find them months later. Hopefully, whatever it was hasn't gone bad by then.

Last night, I was walking around my whole apartment looking for my jar of sliced jalapenos.

Not something you expect to lose.

But I did have my bottle of Jalapeno Olive Oil. And that will do.

Jalapeno Tilapia Pouches

Parchment paper
4 Tilapia Fillets
1 tomatillo, diced
1 large red pepper, diced
Himalayan Pink Salt
4 tbsp Jalapeno Olive Oil
Sliced jalapenos, optional

Preheat your oven to 450degrees.

If you have any of these, that is awesome! If not, you get to make your own pouches. I rolled the sides up, put everything inside and then rolled the top down. It worked fine. But if you do a quick search on how to make them, many people have much better ways...that also won't get the tops of the parchment all brown and crispy.

Place the fish inside your pouch, toss the peppers and tomatillos inside as well. If you can find your jar of sliced jalapenos, toss a few of those in too.

Sprinkle 1 tbsp of the Jalapeno Olive Oil over each fillet. Roll your pouch closed and bake for 15 minutes.

I enjoyed this with some salad and white rice. Go Fish!

Zesty Asian Beef

Many asian dishes call for fish or oyster sauce. I thought this would be an ideal place to use the bottarga pate I mentioned last week.

I also have a lot of oranges left over to eat from the holidays. And nothing goes better with orange in my mind, like chili sauce.


Zesty Asian Beef 

1 lb beef strips
1 tsp bottarga pate
3 tbsp Tangerine Balsamic
4 tbsp sweet chili sauce
1 orange (or tangerine), sliced for garnish

Mix all the sauce together with the beef strips and place in a bowl to marinade at least 2 hours to as much as 24 hours.

Set your oven to broil. Bring strips to room temperature. Discard the marinade. Spread them in a single layer on an oiled baking sheet. I suggest the Zesty Onion Olive Oil for this, it adds a little pop.

Broil for about 6 minutes, be careful to check on them halfway to make sure they aren't burning.

Serve with white rice and give everything a drizzle with the Tangerine Balsamic.

Walnut Zucchini Bread

I love zucchini. I love all it's forms. You can grill it, bake it, saute it, eat it raw and when you thought you were finished, you can bake it. It can disappear in a dish or it can stand out.

This is a place for zucchini to disappear. It's what I made for my niece's birthday this week. I didn't want to make it too sweet, just something for fun. And something my sister-in-law wouldn't feel bad about appropriating entirely for her own breakfasts.

This recipe makes two loaves, so I took one to them and kept the other to myself!

This is great served toasted, use a toaster oven or standard oven, not the toaster! I like a little butter on top, but its pretty awesome with whipped cream or just by itself.

Walnut Zucchini Bread

1 cup walnuts, chopped
3 cups flour, sifted
1 tsp salt
1 tsp baking powder
1tsp baking soda
3 tsp ground cinnamon
3 eggs
1 cup Butter Olive Oil
2 1/4 cups white sugar
3 tsp vanilla extract
2 cups grated zucchini (about 2 or 3)

Preheat the oven to 375degrees. Lightly grease and flour 2 loaf pans. Use the 8x4 size.

Mix the oil, eggs, vanilla and sugar together in a large bowl.

Sift all the dry ingredients together in another bowl. Mix in the zucchini and nuts. Stir in the dry ingredients slowly.  When everything is well combined, pour into the prepared pans.

Bake about 50 minutes. Mine took more like 55. A testing stick should come out clean.

Cool slightly before removing it from the pan.

Please note that this poor zucchini loaf has been squashed in plastic wrap 

and dropped. I am sorry poor little zucchini loaf!

*Additions: 1/2 cup chocolate chips
1 cup grated zucchini, 1 cup grated carrot or apple
Sub in Vanilla Olive Oil, and don't use vanilla extract
Use Blood Orange Olive Oil and 1/2cup candied orange peel

Turkey Curry

I had a bunch of leftover carrots from Christmas, so I shredded them up. I also put some of our red pepper paste to good use. You can use all kinds of leftover veggies for this and with chicken if you have that.

Turkey Curry

2 cups cooked turkey, cut up or shredded
1 tsp red pepper paste
1 tbsp curry powder
1 tsp nutmeg
3 carrots, cut into matchsticks
4 cups cooked white rice
1 cup frozen peas
1 tbsp Blood Orange Olive Oil
2 tbsp - 1/4 cup coconut milk or heavy cream
Spicy Curry Sea Salt


Heat the Olive Oil over medium heat in a large pan. Add in the carrots, peas and any other veggies you decide to use. Stir in the red pepper paste and spices and let simmer 5 minutes. Stir occasionally.

Add in the turkey and coconut milk. If you want your sauce to be thicker, add less, thinner add more. Stir to coat everything evenly and simmer 5-10 minutes or until the turkey is heated all the way through.

Serve over rice and garnish with the Spicy Curry Sea Salt.

Bottarga Pate

We got a bunch of pates and spreads for the holiday all imported from Italy. Some of them, like this one seemed to be on the odder side and no one knows what to do with them.

This intrigued me. I brought it home for Christmas dinner and opened it to use with crackers. When I tried it, the anchovy taste really zaps you! But sweeter and more complex than just plain anchovy paste.

I enjoyed a few crackers and didn't think of it again until later. While I was putting it away, I started thinking of all the things that anchovy paste is good for and all the dishes that need a little salty something.

And I'm thinking that this might just become one of my kitchen staples.

Ingredients: Tuna, Anchovies, Eggs of Tuna, Vegetable Oil, Extra Virgin Olive Oil, Herbs, Salt