Bruschetta

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This bruschetta always reminds me of that scene in the movie Julie & Julia. You know the one, at the beginning of the movie when she is thinking about starting a blog. Anyway, every time I see that scene my mouth waters and I have to make some. Even if it’s not tomato season.

It’s usually a summer kinda dish so when I crave in the cold seasons, I just warm up the tomato mixture slightly before serving it on the bread. Enjoy!

Serves 2          Difficulty Level: pretty easy and quick

  • 2 medium tomatoes, chopped
  • 2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 2 tablespoons chopped red onion
  • Sea salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • 1/2 cup chiffonade basil leaves – click here to watch a video on how to chiffonade
  • 4 1″-1.5″-thick slices of baguette or French bread
  • 3-4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

Since the tomatoes are the main attraction in this dish, choose ones that are juicy and flavorful, like heirloom, or vine-ripened ones. Cherry tomatoes also work.

In a small bowl, mix the chopped tomatoes, garlic, and onion. Add about 2 teaspoons of olive oil, season with salt and pepper and stir to combine. Stir in the basil. Taste and adjust seasoning if needed. It’s best to let it sit for at least 30 minutes and up to 1 day ahead, but most of the times I am not that patient. When I make this dish it’s because I have a craving and I need to have it ASAP!

Bruschetta

Heat about 2 tablespoons of the olive oil in a medium pan. Add the sliced bread and fry on both sides until lightly brown and crunchy.

Place two pieces on each plate. Divide the tomato mixture into four portions and place on top of the bread slices. Enjoy with a knife and fork or devour by picking it up with your hands. Guess which one is my favorite way to eat it?

Variations:

  • Make it lighter by toasting the bread with no oil instead of frying it.
  • Make it lighter by not adding any olive oil to the tomato mixture.
  • In a pinch, and if you are absolutely desperate, for example if you are stranded on a deserted island, you can use chopped canned tomatoes. Let the juice drain completely.
  • Serve it slightly warm – but not cooked – if it’s chilly outside.

Do Ahead:

  • The tomato mixture can be made up to 1 day ahead.
  • The baguette can be fried one day ahead and heated in the toaster when ready to serve. But only if you are serving this to company and don’t want to spend your time in the kitchen while they are there. It’s really at it’s best when it’s made fresh.

 

 

Roasted Kabocha Squash & Black Bean Tacos with Chili-Lime Crema

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If you’ve never had this underrated squash, I recommend you give it a try. Kabocha squash is available year-round, but is at its best in late Summer and early Fall. The flavor is slightly sweet and has the same texture as butternut squash. It’s rich with vitamin A that is good for immunity, eyes, skin, hair, and healthy white blood cells. It’s also is a good source of iron.

The hardest part about this recipe is cutting and peeling the Kobocha, also known as a Japanese pumpkin. But here is a trick. Cut it in half and microwave for about 2-3 minutes. This will help soften the skin, therefore easier to peel. All else fails, leave the skin on. It is actually edible.

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Serves 3-4    Difficulty level – easy peasy

  • ½ medium Kabocha – about 1-1.5 pounds
  • 2 tablespoons olive oil
  • sea salt and freshly ground pepper
  • 1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
  • 1 tablespoon ground cumin
  • ½ cup roughly chopped cilantro
  • 1/3 cup diced or thinly sliced red onion
  • 1 cup shredded Romaine lettuce
  • ½ cup crumbled feta cheese
  • 1 avocado sliced for topping
  • 1 lime cut into wedges

For the chili-lime crema

  • ½ cup sour cream
  • ½ teaspoon cayenne pepper (less if you don’t like it spicy, more if you do)
  • zest of 1 lime
  • 1 teaspoon lime juice
  • ¼ teaspoon salt

Preheat oven to 425°. Start by cutting the ends off. Then cut in half, seed, and peel.

Chop the Kabocha into small cube-ish pieces – about ½” x ½”. The shape doesn’t matter so much, as long as they are about the same size so they will cook evenly.

Toss with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, salt, and pepper. (Note: You can roast the whole squash and save half for snacks, to put in a salad, or soup.) Roast in the oven until soft and slightly brown about 20-25 minutes.

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In the meantime, mix the black beans, ground cumin, about ¾ of the red onion, and cilantro in a medium bowl. Once the squash is cooked, add to the bean mixture and toss to coat.

Warm the tortillas on a griddle pan and keep warm by wrapping in aluminum foil, kitchen towel, or tortilla warmer if you have one.

To make the chili-lime crema, mix all the ingredients together. Set aside.

Put the lettuce, extra chopped onion, feta, avocado, chili-lime crema, and lime wedges on a platter for self-serving. Serve the squash and bean mixture, along with the condiments and warm tortillas.

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Variations:

  • Make it lighter and use non-fat Greek yogurt instead of sour cream.
  • Make it low carb and add all the condiments to the squash mixture and turn it into a salad.
  • Use other winter squash or sweet potatoes instead of Kabocha.
  • Use other kinds of beans like pinto, white beans, or kidney beans.
  • Add some cooked rice to the squash and bean mixture.
  • Add black olives to the squash and bean mixture.
  • Make it a tostada by keeping the tortillas on the griddle until crisp.
  • Make it into enchiladas by adding some cheese, rolling them up, putting them in a baking dish, adding enchilada sauce on bottom and top, with some cheese, and baking them at 375° for 20 minutes.

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Do Ahead:

  • Kabocha squash can be roasted 5 days ahead. Keep refrigerated.
  • The mixture can be make 1 day ahead. Keep refrigerated and reheat in a pan on the stove or in microwave.

 

Crudité Platter Upgraded!

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Whether you are hosting a party or are invited to bring a dish to a gathering, it’s so easy to go the same old stuff you know or can pick up at a store. But aren’t you tired of the same old unimaginative stuff you see at all parties? Well, here is an idea! Put down that package of Knorr Vegetable Soup Mix and take something ordinary – like a crudité platter – and make it into something extraordinary that will WOW everyone. Here are some tips:

Crudite Cucumber Cups

When I make a vegetable platter, I try not to use the same old carrots, cauliflower, celery, blah, blah, blah, boring. Or if I use common vegetables, I cut them in a different shape or use individual containers to make it look more interesting. For example, instead of just slicing cucumbers into rounds, I cut them lengthwise into quarters. (This works best with smaller cucumbers like the Persian variety.)

crudite

Some of the vegetables I like to use are jicama, blanched asparagus or green beans, endives, lettuce leaves, radishes, different colored bell peppers, and sliced fennel. If I use carrots, I get the multi-colored variety and cut them lengthwise. It’s all about the ingredients you use and how it’s presented.

endives with Dip

I hope you get inspired by these photos and make your own amazingly fabulous crudité platter. And please take pictures of your creation and share them with me in the comment section below. I would love to see them.

Crudite in a cup

Now go get your creative juices flowing!

Note: For the individual cucumber crudité in the second picture, I hollowed the cucumber and put the dip on the bottom.

Variations:

The possibilities are endless. go wild!

Do Ahead:

Most vegetables can be cut/sliced one day ahead.

Summer Orzo Salad & Grilled Shrimp

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A light and refreshing meal for those warm Summer nights

Outdoor movie night by the beach calls for this kind of picnic! And the best part? They were showing Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. IMG_0154

Summer Orzo Salad

Serves 4-6          Difficulty Level: easy peasy

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Ingredients:

  • 8 oz orzo pasta, about 2 ¼ cups
  • ½ cup Kalamata olives, sliced in quarters, lengthwise
  • 1/3 cup chopped red onions, about ½ of a small onion
  • ¼ cup chopped, fresh herbs, I used tarragon and basil
  • 1 cup chopped tomatoes
  • ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
  • ¾ cup olive oil
  • ¼ cup red wine vinegar
  • ½ teaspoon sea salt
  • ¼ teaspoon freshly ground pepper

Instructions:

Cook the orzo in salted, boiling water until soft. When cooking pasta for a salad, I like to cook it a little longer than al dente, for a more delicate texture. Drain and set aside to cool. Click here for a video on how to properly cook pasta

Once cool, toss with the olives, red onions, fresh herbs, tomatoes, and feta.

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For the dressing, whisk all ingredients together. The dressing makes about 1 cup. You won’t need it all, but it’s always nice to have home-made dressing in the fridge. Dress the pasta salad so it is flavorful and glistening, but not pooling at the bottom of the bowl.

Serve at room temperature or cold.

Variations:

  • Add some shredded roasted chicken to make it a heartier meal
  • Add herbs like thyme, parsley, chives, dill, oregano, lemon thyme, or mint. Almost any herb you like, but I don’t recommend rosemary. The leaves are too tough and the flavor too overpowering for this dish.
  • Make it a roasted vegetable pasta salad!
  • Add cucumbers for a little extra crunch. Or how about some nuts?
  • Add some arugula or other lettuce

Do Ahead:

  • The dressing can be made up to 2 weeks ahead of time and kept in the refrigerator.
  • The pasta can be cooked, drained, and tossed with a little olive oil about 2 days ahead and kept refrigerated.
  • The finished salad can be refrigerated up to 4 days. It will even taste better as it sits.
  • Everything but the herbs that need to be chopped, can be chopped one day ahead and kept in separate containers or sealed bags.
  • Anybody know why you shouldn’t chop herbs ahead of time?

 

Grilled Shrimp

Serves  4-6          Difficulty level: easy-medium

Appetizers

Ingredients:

  • 1 pound large shrimp
  • 1-2 cloves of garlic, minced
  • 1/2 teaspoon ground, cayenne pepper
  • 1/4 teaspoon paprika
  • 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
  • 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
  • 2 tablespoons lime juice
  • 2-3 tablespoons olive oil
  • 1-2 limes and/or a few sprigs of cilantro for garnish (optional)

Instructions:

Take the shells off the shrimp, leaving the tail on.

Toss the shrimp with the rest of the ingredients until well coated. Let it sit for 1/2 hour to 1 hour at room temperature. Letting it sit in the marinade longer than one hour will start to break apart the proteins in the shrimp and will make it mushy. Not a fun texture to eat!

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While waiting for the shrimp to soak up all the great flavors of the marinade, turn on your grill to medium-high.

When ready, place the shrimp on the grill and cook for about 1-2 minutes on each side, depending on the size of the shrimp, or as soon as it turns pink. You will notice in the picture I have below that some are still a little gray. If I left it on the heat until that whole side of shrimp was pink before I flipped it, it would have been overcooked. I relied on the residual heat while cooking the flip side to cook them through.

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Take the shrimp off the grill and place on a plate. Cover loosely with aluminum foil and let sit for about 3-5 minutes. This is called “resting”.

Garnish with lime wedges. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Variations:

  • Add different spices like cumin
  • Make a seafood mixture with shrimp and scallops or lobster
  • Serve them on skewers

Do Ahead:

  • Hmmmm…sorry, no luck guys here for this recipe. It can sit at room temperature for 1-1.5 hours after it’s grilled.

 

For the picnic, I put the salad and shrimp in Chinese Takeout boxes for easy transportation and eating. And it looked pretty cool too.

And if you can enjoy this meal while on the beach, sipping some wine, and watching this movie, then all the better! I recommend it.