Penang Scallops & Mango with WHAT??? Cheese Ravioli? No Joke

Sometimes odd things just go together right. And when you start breaking down the individual components and compare them it all becomes clear.  Penang red curry with scallops, got that.  Scallops with cheese ravioli, sure. Curry and mango, like the beach and ocean. Mango and ravioli, the sweet ricotta cheese plays friendly with the sweet champagne mango. Penang curry with ravioli a riffing off curried noodles. See the connections. Oh, by the way I also added black beans for good measure.  Now your lesson is to connect the dots between Mexican and Asian food.

Now how to make it. It's so easy. You ain't gonna learn technique with this post. However, if you don't know how to cube a Mango let us know and I will post that technique.

Ingredients:
1 1/2 Tablespoon of Penang curry paste (make your own or use store bought - Maesri is a good brand)
1 small shallot diced
1/2 lime
1 Thai chile pepper minced
1 cup diced fresh cilantro
1 half can of coconut milk about 7-9 oz.

1/2 red pepper sliced thin
1/3 cup if black beans (not rinsed but only strained. Because I used left overs from a Mexican dish the beans had a cumin based spice flavor)
1/4 smaller bay scallops
1 Champagne mango diced into small cubes
Store bought cheese ravioli (I used Pasta Prima brand)
Peanut oil


Da Sauce
Use a 1 qt sauce pan.  Coat with oil and bring to medium.  Saute the shallot and chile until the shallot is translucent. Add Penang curry paste and saute for 1 minute more.  Add the coconut milk and stir - then add the bell pepper.  Bring it up to a low boil - don't break the sauce. It can cook for 15 minutes or so, or until you are done frying the ravioli.  If it gets a little too thick add a bit more coconut milk or some water.

Scallops
Squeeze half the lime juice from the half of lime onto the scallops. Or the juice of 1/4 of a lime.  Which ever is easier for you to imagine. Do this anytime you have 30 seconds to think about it. 

Fried Ravioli
Boil the ravioli per the manufacturers instructions. I add about 1 tablespoon of salt and equivalent oil to the water too. While that is cooking heat a oiled large skillet to medium high.  Once the ravioli is cooked drain and pat them dry. Fry them on both sides until they are lightly golden. It takes about 2-3 minutes a side.

Back to da sauce
Just before you fry the ravioli, drop the mango and cilantro into the curry sauce. Stir. Bring up the heat a little bit to return it to a very low boil.

Back to the ravioli
Plate the ravioli once golden brown

Back to the sauce
Drop in the scallops and black beans.  Cook for 1-2 minutes more depending on the size of the scallops. Nickle sized scallops at room temperature take 1 minute to cook. Do Not Overcook The Scallops Unless You Like Eating Pencil Erasers.

Final plating
Once cooked through ladle the sauce onto the ravioli and squeeze on the remaining lime juice.

Eat and wonder how the hell this worked out so well.

Update!!

Just added reactions to the bottom of each post and finally got the "comments" working! Try it. Be interactive. It encourages us. I'll let you decide if encouraging us is something you want to do...

Caribbean Inspired Pork (or chicken, or fish...)

Doesn't that look good? I almost worry about ruining this post with too many words. Lately, my man's inspiration is fruit. In this case, kiwi were on sale at Byerly's. Two for one. 

This dish is made with boneless pork chops. But the pork isn't the important thing, it's the slaw and the sauce that makes this amazing. That's not to say the pork wasn't perfect. It was moist, perfectly cooked, delicious. That said, this could be made with chicken or fish and I think it would be just as fabulous. Can you tell I don't want to alienate my pork-less readers? It's true. I just want to spread the love of this dish with as many as possible. It was that good.

This dish consists of three parts, pork, a sweet potato slaw and a chili kiwi sauce. They all combine to create the divine image above. I have listed the ingredients below in the three parts, some overlap. Cooking instructions are listed in each section. I hope it makes it easy to follow. Pure unrefined coconut oil is something we're starting to experiment with. It's the only non-meat oil that dries solid. We found it easily at a local Indian grocery store, you can also find it in food coops, Whole Foods probably has it too. The Thai chili we used was from our garden last year (they freeze remarkably well). If you can't find one, almost any hot chili would work, you could probably also just use a cayenne or Serrano chile if you don't want a lot of heat, just don't use a jalapeno. 

Since there are three distinct parts, timing could be a slight issue. AC re-uses frying pans (cook the onions in the pan you use for the park) and has the sauce cooking simultaneously. It would probably be best to prep everything, get the pans ready, put the potatoes in the steamer, the sauce ingredients in the sauce pan and then start it all at once. It sounds like a lot of steps, but it all happens very quickly.  

You need to begin with a piece of pork that was marinated for 2 hours in a dark, sweet, Chinese soy sauce. AC swears it would have been sufficient to marinate for 30 minutes, if quick weeknight cooking is your desire. The whole working-from-home thing works in our favor for this one.

Pork Ingredients
1 Ziploc bag
2 boneless pork chops
Sweet Chinese soy sauce
Kanchai powder
Black pepper
Dried basil
Coconut oil

To prepare the pork:
Place the pork in the Ziploc bag and cover with the soy sauce, let it sit in your refrigerator for a minimum of 30 minutes, maximum 2 hours. Turn the bags over every so often. Make sure the pork has come to room temperature or out of the refrigerator for one hour before cooking.


Sweet Potato Slaw Ingredients
1 medium sweet potato (not a yam) sliced thin
1/2 medium red onion, sliced thin
Salt to taste
Coconut oil


Slaw Instructions:
In a stove top steamer, steam the sweet potato for about 5 minutes, until cooked. While they potatoes are steaming saute the red onion in coconut oil, add a pinch of salt, saute until slightly translucent. Combine with the sweet potatoes. Place on top of the completed potatoes that are still in the steamer and leave the lid on.  This will keep them warm until the pork and sauce are complete.

Chili Kiwi Sauce Ingredients
1/8 c white balsamic vinegar
1/4 c dry vermouth
1-2 tsp fresh lemon juice
1 tsp coconut oil
1 small kiwi without skin, finely chopped
1 Thai chili pepper, minced (use gloves!)
1/2 tsp dried rosemary
2 pinches salt

Pork and Sauce Instructions:

You will need to do the final prep of the pork and cook the sauce at the same time.

First begin with the sauce - add the balsamic, dry vermouth, minced chili, rosemary and salt to a small sauce pan. Bring to a medium boil and start to reduce it until its thick.  You want to try to time the sauce to be thick when the pork is complete.

Remove the pork from the bag, cover liberally, on all sides with kanchai powder, black pepper and dried
basil. Heat a frying pan (one with a cover) on medium high heat. Add about 1 tbsp of coconut oil to the pan. Place the pork in the frying pan, cook for 2 minutes, flip the pork, cook on the other side for another 1 1/2 minutes. Add about 2 tbsp of water to the pan, cover and cook for another minute.

When the sauce is reduced and the pork is complete, remove from heat. [Put the pork on the bed of mixed potato and slaw.] Add the lemon juice, and kiwi to the reduced sauce. Sort of cook the finely chopped kiwi for a 1 minute in the sauce and then pour it all on top of the pork and slaw.

Done. Just for motivation, I'll give you another look...

Glazed Salmon Steaks with Oranges and Leeks

So, the recipes have been slow coming. Yes, AC is still cooking most nights, but even he admits to feeling somewhat uninspired. I guess I've been feeling similarly, after taking so many pictures of his amazing creations, I'm getting pickier about what I post. I assume you're probably interested in variety, rather than hearing about every variation on chicken, beef, salmon we've come up with.

On this night, the energy in the kitchen was just different. AC was quieter, taking a bit longer and opening and closing cabinet doors throughout the kitchen- all signs of new ideas. When the plate was set in front of me, I frantically looked for my camera...the AC is back.

This recipe uses two salmon steaks, resulting in two servings, isn't that convenient? You'll make the sauce, then the salad and then broil both with the fish.

Glaze for Salmon:
1/2 c red wine
2 tbsp balsamic vinegar

1 tsp soy sauce
2 tbsp minced shallot
1/8 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp lavender
1/8 tsp orange oil
black and cayenne peppers to taste
2 tsp sugar
1 pat butter

Add the above ingredients (except butter) to a frying pan on med heat, and reduce until very thick. When reduced, add the butter, let thicken and then cool.

Leek and Orange Salad
1 leek, sliced very thin (for those who don't know, only use the white part)
1 summer squash (yellow zucchini) sliced thin
2 pinches of salt
Olive oil
Sections from one large honey orange (or other orange/tangerine of your choice)
2 oz diced brie cheese
1/4 c minced, flat leaf parsely
10 marcona salted almonds

Lightly coat the leeks and summer squash in olive oil, salt and pepper. You'll use the remaining ingredients later.

Turn your attention to the salmon steaks. Pat both steaks dry with a paper towel and salt both sides of each steak. Brush the sauce on both sides of the steaks, saving just enough sauce to "refresh" one side on each of the salmon steaks when done cooking (I hope that makes sense).

Position a rack in your oven approximately 5" below your broiler.

Put the salmon steaks in the middle of a cookie sheet lined with foil. Divide the leek, summer squash, olive oil mix into two portions and place in a thin layer on either side of the salmon steaks.

Put the pan in the oven and broil on low heat for 4 minutes.

Remove the pan from the oven and flip the salmon. Brush the uncooked side of the salmon with the remaining sauce. Add the oranges, salt, brie, parsley and almonds to the leek salad (just spread around evenly).

Place the pan back under the low broiler for 3 minutes, then turn the broiler to high and cook for 1 additional
minute. 

The salmon steaks were perfect: buttery, moist, peppery and sweet.

The salad was fresh, citrusy, salty, creamy. I challenge you to find another dish that can be described with those adjectives, all in one meal.

Again, another simple, not very time consuming, flavor bomb to shock yourself and your family out of whatever rut you may be finding yourselves in. Go home and try it tonight.

Be'wiched Deli

If you haven't discovered Be'wiched yet, this post is for you. If you have, this is a reminder to go again. Now.

Be'wiched is a deli in the North Loop neighborhood of Minneapolis, in the same building as one of our other favorites, Bar la Grassa. The North Loop is an up and coming, primarily warehouse area that has been revitalized by a number of factors, multiple innovative restaurants, a ton of lofts and condos and, oh yeah, Target Field. That little thing.

Minneapolis really doesn't have much of a deli scene, in fact, for the most part, you might as well ship in lox and bagels from New York, they'd be better a few days old than anything we have here. I don't want to confuse you, Be'wiched is not a Jewish deli, we're still waiting for that. That said, it is a really great place to get a sandwich, brunch or happy hour. Everything is made from scratch, all their meats are smoked on-site and all bread is fresh. They use a mustard that actually has horseradish heat and make their own soups that are always well spiced. They have daytime hours and an early happy hour. They have a few tap beers and a nice wine list.

We started going on the weekend for lunch, in between running errands and going to the gym. The first time we went, we were very impressed. AC generally gets soup and half sandwich, while I usually get a sandwich. The combo- half sandwich and soup, or three salads with a soda is $9. Very affordable, and truly worth every cent. Whole sandwiches and brunch items are from $7-$14 depending on what you get. Also very affordable. So now you want to go, but what should you order? You're lucky you have me.

Sandwiches: For traditionalists, the pastrami, hands down. Even though I made the "this is not a Jewish deli" disclaimer, the pastrami begs to differ. Made in-house, it's a really good example of why Be'wiched is doing so well. Served on perfectly chewy, flavorful, soft rye bread with sour kraut and house-made pickles, it's really good.

Egg salad: It's traditional enough to flood your brain with happy childhood memories, but with that extra special something that clearly reminds you that you're eating it in a fabulous restaurant. Highly recommended for the day that you just want really tasty comfortable food.

Smoked ham: Sounds boring, but it's anything but. Served on a toasted, soft baguette (very easy to bite into) with brie (yum!), hot mustard and (the best part!) apple compote. The ham is far from your average deli ham, it's actually smoky and cut very thin. The brie is soft and melty, the mustard gives a kick of hot horseradish balanced by cinnamon-y, sweet apples.

Turkey: A safe choice, but at Be'wiched, there will always be a twist. In this case it's not unexpected, add bacon and a savory, tangy cranberry chutney.

Soups: The soups are fresh and always good, I promise, just last weekend we enjoyed a pork with yams and cinnamon soup, which was amazing and inspired both of us to dream up new ways to make French onion soup. What's better than food that inspires? Every time we've been in there's a new, innovative, inspiring soup, usually a cream based and broth based option, to make everyone happy. To the left you'll note the turkey sandwich and cup of chicken wild rice soup. You can get a bowl or a cup, the half sandwich, cup of soup combo, referenced above, is a great choice for those of us who like to have a little of this and a little of that. In general the portions are generous, but reasonable for a healthy person ie: they pack a lot of flavor into a reasonable size, so you can actually eat it all without being stuffed, just completely and totally satisfied. Another note, the sandwiches come with a couple tablespoons of their salads, just a taste for your amusement, its a nice bonus. Above is a beautiful chickpea salad. They also have an Israeli couscous salad with Moroccan spices that is fabulous. 

Specials: Every day there are brunch specials, written on a blackboard below the standard menu. The specials are always a bit unusual and hit-or-miss. They are for the adventurous, which we are, and will either end with a monsterous pay-out or disappointment. They always look beautiful though. AC is a fan of the pastrami hash, you have the pastrami again, the can-do-no-wrong pastrami, with a wealth of vegetables, potatoes and eggs. Very hearty, very solid. Then you have the beautiful pork hash, to your left. The first bite was unbelievable. Truly. Very, very flavorful. Then a bomb goes off, it's the rosemary. Way, way too much rosemary. Damn. Very disappointing. It's possible someone just dumped a little too much, but part of me thinks they just thought very highly of the rosemary/pork combo and got carried way. I can see how it can happen, it's all about the editing.

The other special I tried was a crab cake eggs benedict, to the left. Also amazingly beautiful. Maybe I don't eat enough poached eggs, or benedicts for that matter, but the perfect whipped eggs and beautiful yolk had me smitten. I am also a huge fan of crab cakes, so I thought this was a no-brainer. It was good, but again, not as perfect as it looked. The crab cakes were a little dry, I was really expecting a light, moist crab barely held together with a batter. No matter, the eggs were perfect, the house-made English muffin was well done and the spicy, tangy hollandaise was rich and so flavorful (I had it on the side, so it's not pictured).

Finally, I have a little bit of a preoccupation with the women's bathroom, rather the picture on the wall in the women's bathroom. I may be strange, but every time I see it I am transported to Mexico or Europe, you choose. It's just a picture of a store front from a place that is definitely not here. The kind of place you might not notice if you were walking by, but brings memories back when you see it later- long after you've returned home. So yes, I brought my camera into the bathroom and took this picture.

Steak with Mushroom Sauce and New Potatoes

Everybody likes a good steak. AlphaChef has stumbled upon the following technique that renders a perfect, medium-rare, crispy on the outside, sirloin. We served it with rosemary new potatoes, a rare treat in our house. For some reason we never have white potatoes. I'm not complaining, AC just thinks they're boring. In this case, they were perfect. Salty, savory, crispy on the outside, soft inside.

The cooking technique is an adaptation of the now tried and true, sear-then-bake method. It will work with any cut of beef, bones may complicate the matter, so go boneless.

Steak

• Pre-heat your oven to 400 degrees and heat a frying pan on your stove top over high heat. The pan has to be HOT, so wait until you think it might be too hot before touching the meat to the surface. To test- splash a drop of water on it's surface and watch it sizzle before disappearing. 
• When the pan is undeniably, super, duper, hot, drop the meat in the pan using cooking tongs. It will kick-up some smoke, so make sure your exhaust fan is ready. After 30 seconds, flip the meat and sear the other side, then, using the tongs to hold up the steak, sear the ends and sides (if they aren't already brown). 
• Place the seared steak(s) on a cooking sheet with a wire rack, put it in the oven. Bake for 5 minutes, flip the steak(s) and bake for an additional 4 minutes. 
• As usual, let sit for about five minutes prior to serving. 

Mushroom Sauce

•  Handful (or two) of crimini, also known as baby portobella, mushrooms. Slice into quarters. 
• 1/2 cup Chinese cooking wine.
• Salt and black pepper. 
• 4-5 ground allspice cloves.
• 1 diced habenero pepper.
• Small amount of flour (about a tsp or so).

Put the above ingredients into a frying pan on your stove top. Bring the sauce to a low boil and let it reduce to approximately 1/4 of its volume. Then, sprinkle in flour to thicken, start with a very small amount and increase as desired.

Rosemary New Potatoes

• Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. Same as the steak, so you can throw these in the oven right before you start the steak process. 
• Approximately 8, medium sized, new potatoes. 
• Slice the potatoes into quarters. 
• In a bowl large enough to toss the potatoes, add a tbsp of olive oil and two cloves of minced garlic. 
• Place the potatoes in the bowl and toss.
• Place the potatoes on a sheet pan.
• Mince fresh rosemary and sprinkle over the potatoes, add salt and black pepper as desired. 
• Bake potatoes for 25 minutes. 

Put it all together for an amazingly delicious meal!

Catching up...

Yes, the blog still exists!! I fell into a trap and can't get out! Lots of posts and then none. Overall, I do suffer from a lack of balance in my entertainment choices. When I got my Kindle, all I did was read. A new season of my favorite shows, I'll watch Hulu. The next season of True Blood in the mail, I'm glued to it, until I've seen every show. If you notice, our first month of this blog had 18 posts, clearly it was a new toy. I stayed steady at a reasonable five posts per month, dropped off the face of the earth all summer, got back in October and died again. This time I'm not even going to resolve to change this. Either I will or I won't. In the meantime I am still recording and photographing meals, although lately that's stopped, since the backlog can only get so big. We did make a book out of the blog postings, let me know if you'd like to buy a copy, it's gotten great reviews so far. That was my shutterfly phase.

What have we been doing all pseudo winter? Eating. Drinking. Hosting parties. Oh, yeah, trying to limit work to 50 hours a week and get to the gym. So, nothing really. I love to host parties. AC loves people, so it works out. Last summer we added a fire pit to our backyard. It replaced a large patch of grass at the bottom of a very uneven hill that was hell to mow. We filled the hill with mulch and rock, put in a fire pit and called it a day. If you're into low maintenance landscaping, I highly recommend it. You don't actually have to use the fire pit, there is no maintenance required if you do, and none if you don't.

So I'll start with our 2nd annual fall fire bonanza. The highlights: three fire pits, a ton of beer and a fabulous s'mores tray. The s'mores tray was born last year. We Christened our fire pit with our niece and nephew who suggested we make s'mores out of Lu's cookies, aka Petit Ecolair aka little schoolboy cookies. You know, the shortbread topped with chocolate stamped with a little schoolboy. It was a pretty awesome discovery. So the party presented the perfect opportunity to go all out. You'll notice the traditional hersheys the aforementioned cookies, ghiradelli filled wafers, graham crackers, chocolate cupcakes, brownies and amaretto wafer cookies. It was a hit.

Thanksgiving. I offer three dishes, food porn if you will. We were asked to bring vegetables and a dessert, AC discovered two recipes we will use again, yes, AC actually uses recipes. All things are possible.

The first was Roasted Red Onions with Tomatoes and Red Wine  courtesy of Lynne Rosetto Casper, one of our favorite sources of inspiration. These onions were awesome. First, they were beautiful and VERY photogenic. Second, they truly captured the very best a red onion could be. Soft, meaty, sweet but savory, absolute success.  Third, the recipe was easy, but required just enough care to feel like we were making a contribution to the laborious process thanksgiving meals can be. Note: the cooking time listed on the recipe is grossly inaccurate. It will take a couple hours. Also, we needed to add more liquid towards the end of the roasting, we used more red wine.


The second dish was equally delicious. Leeks Simmered in Olive Oil another Lynne recipe. This was reminiscent of a Greek lemon soup. Tangy, light, sweet, the rice adding the perfect texture. The leeks were soft and buttery, the parsley giving it a bit of a tabbouleh-ness. All very Mediterranean. Also very easy and very satisfying. It's good to mix it up a bit.





Finally, the dessert. I was overly ambitious and decided to make a pumpkin cheesecake, using my springform pan for the first time (I think I've had it for five years). I have never used the pan and have never made a cheesecake. Furthermore, I decided to significantly change the recipe from cream cheese to chevre. This was a mistake, yielding a beautiful result with a taste I didn't enjoy. The adults at the table, all foodies, liked it because it wasn't "too sweet". I could barely choke it down and my 14-year-old nephew, read, teenage boy, didn't eat more than a bite. Yes, a teenage boy. That says it all. The chevre was a good idea, next time I'll go half chevre and half cream cheese. It was just missing a familiar creaminess, tang and flavor. In my opinion. We were able to finish the leftovers thanks to the AC's whipping up a caramel sauce that would make anything taste amazing.

Oh well, live and learn. It looked pretty though. Oh! One great trick with the pan, hit it with a hair dryer before attempting to remove the sides, worked like a charm.

So, there you go, the highlights of fall. I leave you with two more submissions, just to kick off the first post of the new year.

Oatmeal. Ordinary recipe, extraordinary toppings. Be inspired.

Oatmeal, pears marinated in St. Germaine and topped with brown sugar.

Oatmeal, apples, lavender, nutella. Yes, nutella.