tzatziki.salmon

Last week was 'strike week'. Most of France was on strike. Metro workers, bus drivers, airlines, the postal service, the energy company, teachers, students, doctors, where on strike, to name just a few.

The situation was surreal, especially since I was still expected to show up for work. ‘Eat-your-dinner’ was the fist one to suffer the consequences, and automatically went on strike, I don’t even remember what we ate, if we ate (did we?) last week.

The events that happened during the strike are all blurry in my mind. Due mostly to the fact that in order to avoid the crowds (herds) of people on the metro, we went on a ‘shifted schedule’ in a routine that went like this:

5:30 am - Wake up
6:00 am - Drag myself to the metro station
7:00 am – Work
4:00 pm - Go home
6:00 pm - Aimlessly surf the internet
9:00 pm - Collapse into bed
10:00 pm - Fall asleep

*Repeat as many days as necessary.

So today I celebrate freedom! By cooking! I had wanted to post a Greek plate for a long time; I actually made Moussaka, a couple of weeks ago but didn’t get around to write about it. I like to post recipes from all over the world, I think nowadays is so easy to find ethnic ingredients, that we can all experiment a lot more. The star of today’s recipe is tzatziki (just saying the word makes me happy).

Tzatziki is a greek dressing, or mese, that is made with plain yogurt and cucumbers. Tzatziki is one of those things that you can eat with anything: sandwiches, salads, meats, chips (!). Tzatziki is to Greeks what ranch dressing is to Texans! Speaking of Texans, it would be great with chicken wings. And the best part? It is really healthy, it is very low in saturated fat and in calories.

We had it on top of salmon with a side of wheat. The salmon was cooked for a couple of minutes, which kept it raw inside, like a tartar. And the wheat was dressed with a lemon and cilantro vinaigrette (with a twist).

R E C I P E S

Tzatziki

This recipe makes a little over two cups

1 small pot of plain sweetened yogurt (125gr), fat free is perfect.

1 1/2 cups of grated seedless cucumber (about one big cucumber)

1/4 teaspoon (or less) garlic (mashed into a paste)

1 teaspoon of salt

1/4 teaspoon of grated lemon zest

1/4 teaspoon of crushed black pepper

2 tablespoons of olive oil

* I changed the proportions of the ingredients, my recipe has a lot more cucumbers than yogurt, which makes it really thick. You can play with this, I knew Eduardo wouldn't like it if it tasted (too much) like yogurt, so this is why I made it like this.

Peel the cucumber. Grate it. And (in parts) squeeze with your (clean) hands the cucumbers, you can use a cheese cloth if you want to do it all at once. I don't normally have cheese cloth around, so my hands worked just fine. All you do is transfer from on bowl to another. Reserve the liquid, the color is a beautiful bright green and it is a great base for a salad dressing. (read wheat recipe).

For the plain yogurt, you know how when you open them, they tend to have a solid part and some liquid around? discart the liquid and use the solid part. In France they sell ready-made tzatziki, made with crème fraîche instead of yogurt, you can substitute the yogurt if you don't like the taste of it, sour cream works too, just keep in mind that it won't be as healthy.

Mix all the ingredients. Chill for at least one hour before serving.

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Semi-Tartar Salmon

2 salmon fillets (100gr each) at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon of garlic (paste, use what was left from the tzatziki)

1/4 teaspoon of grated lemon zest

salt and peper

1/2 tableepoon of olive oil

Season the salmon fillets with salt and pepper, and rub with the garlic and lemon zest.

Heat a pan until it is smoking, coat with the olive oil. Cook the salmon two minutes on each side. Make sure that the salmon is at room temperature, so it is not cold inside, remember we are going for a raw middle. Serve immediately. Top with Tzatziki (be generous, it's really really good).

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Cucumber-Lemon Wheat Grains

1 cup of dry wheat
*wheat grains are a great alternative to rice. They are high in dietary fiber and in phosphorus and manganese.

vinaigrette:

1 tablespoon olive oil

2 tablespoons of cucumber liquid (what you squeezed out of the shreded cucumbers)

1 tablespoon of lemon juice (same one)

1/4 teaspoon of dijon mustard

1 tablespoon of any herb you have (dill, cilantro, basil, or parsley work well)

Whisk together and set aside.

Cook the wheat like you would pasta: in boiling water for about ten minutes. Drain. Incorporate the vinaigrette and serve.

I hope you liked this, I don't generally post full menus like this, but because of the way the ingredients work together in all the plates, I thought it would be a nice change of pace. Don't forget to check out the nutritional facts for the whole meal. Bon Appétit!

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i.heart.curry

It was this summer that Gob, a Thai intern who worked in the office from June to September, created a curry madness in the office. Turns out Gob, this is not his real name, this is his nickname, I will refrain from mentioning his real name for he is so attached to Gob he actually introduces himself as so. Once, I dared calling him by his real name, and he made it clear to me that if I chose to refer to him as that, I would join the club of 'people Gob doesn't like', yes he refers to Gob on the third person. If you haven't figured it out already, Gob was quite a character, quite a cook as well, of everything Thai, exclusively Thai, and, (lucky for me) he could recite recipes on cue. That's how I learned to make curry. The Thursday before summer break, We had a little potluck at the office, and along with the curry tasting came the recipe. A following came too, and for a few of us, curry is still a weekly indulgence.

Now this is where I am going, curry is by all means an indulgence, sure it is spicy, sure it can squeeze a few tears out of you, but health wise it seems pretty innocent right? WRONG. Two words: COCONUT MILK. (Check out the new addition to the blog! Nutrition Facts!). Coconut Milk is the equivalent of tropical mayonnaise! It's PURE fat! And not the good, make-your-hair-shiny avocado-like-fat, the bad kind! the lard kind. The saturated kind! I was talking to Lisa, another curry groupie, about this today. She actually looked up the nutritional info of coconut milk and was appalled with what she saw. She also helped inspire, along with Eduardo, the new 'eat-your-dinner' nutrition facts label. Which means I'll be crunching numbers to bring you the nutritional information of the recipes we post.

After discussing the un-benefits of coconut milk, I thought I could come up with a version of curry that used the least amount of coconut milk, without compromising the flavor. I must admit it is pretty close, minus the guilt feelings. Before, I didn't usually use the BIG can of coconut milk the recipe called for, but I still used about 3/4 of a cup, which we now know what amounts too in terms of fat and calories.

I say, leave the full fat curry for special occasions, and try the heart happy version, for weeknights. Leave out the fish sauce for a heart happier version, the sodium content in fish sauce is sky high!

R E C I P E

1 tablespoon of olive oil

2 tablespoons of red or green curry paste (green is spicier than red)

1 boneless skinless chicken breast cubed

1 medium eggplant sliced

1 medium zucchini sliced

1/2 cup of water

2 tablespoons of fish sauce

1/4 cup of coconut milk

5 basil leaves (I like to use both cilantro and basil, but that's up to you)

1 lime

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1. Heat a wok or a big pot. Add the oil. When it starts to smoke, add the chicken and the curry paste. Keep moving it, you don't want it to stick.

2. Before the chicken starts to brown, add the water and stir to dilute the curry paste.

3. Add the sliced vegetables.

4. Cover. Let it sweat now. Move every now and then. Careful with the eggplant. You don't want to break it.

5. After a couple of minutes, add the fish sauce. Add more water if it looks like it's drying out. There should about a cup of liquid from the veggies.

6. When the vegetables are ready, add the coconut milk. Cover. Cook for about one minute, only to bring it up to temperature. This is the trick! The more you cook it, the more it looses its flavor. By just heating it you can get maximum taste with the least amount of milk.

7. Squeeze half the lime in the broth. Add the herbs. Serve over rice with a wedge of lime.

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balsamic.carrots

When I started cooking, I stuck with what I liked. I learned to make my mom's classic dishes, like lasagna better known as pasticcio at home, and basic things like rice and chicken. As I started venturing out on my own, and reading cookbooks, I made dishes I already knew I liked.

My sole objective was making whatever it was that I liked even better, mixing different recipes, substituting ingredients and adding a few unexpected ingredients to the mix, all this worked really well, but I needed a challenge.

That's how I started experimenting with things I didn't enjoy so much, like petit pois, or ginger, or carrots. I now like petit pois and ginger, especially ginger, very much. The only thing I still can't get around to eating are olives, and it is not because I don't give them a chance, I do, I really do, I try them at every chance I get, I even tried them in Morocco, I just don't like them. So, if you have any good recipes involving olives that you think I would like, you know how to reach me (clue: look for the bananas).

I also post this in light of the controversy over Jessica Seinfeld's (Jerry Seinfelds's wife) book 'Deceptively Delicious', which is all about making children eat better by hiding things like spinach (eew) in brownies, which is not only deceptive, it's also sad. I am sure most kids would eat spinach in say, raviolis? There are better ways to nourrish your children, than fooling them into thinking they can eat whatever they want.

By putting spinach in the brownies, you are just ruining the brownies! How about... (just a thought here) the classic... "No, brownies, until you eat-your-dinner!" that seemed to work fine with my generation. Oh, and the controversy surrounding the book is not about the insane premise of this book, it is about plagiarism (!) , turns out someone else thought about this too, poor kids.

Anyway I got carried away with the spinach brownies back there (greenies?). Returning to my carrots, this was the dish that brought carrots back into my life. It also made me realize, that I didn't have a problem with carrots, I actually like them, what I dislike are boiled soggy carrots. I like to eat this as a snack over crackers, it also makes a good side dish.

R E C I P E

2 tablespoons olive oil
1 julienned onion
3 shredded carrots
2 bay leaves
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
1/2 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar

Once you have your onion and carrots ready, heat a large pan add the olive oil and sautee the onion until it becomes translucent. Add the carrots, bay leaves, salt and pepper, and cook mixing frequently for about 7 minutes until they are done. Aside from the heat, add the balsamic vinegar and toss well. Serve it warm or at room temperature.

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bánh.mì

The first time I mentioned vietnamese sandwiches was on one of my first posts, when i I wrote about pho noodle soup. Our friends Yu and Kurt were the ones to introduce us to these delicious and easy to make sandwiches that are called Bánh mì in vietnamese.

This is one of those things that people don't think of making at home, when we think of sandwiches we usually go with what we already know. But we love these, we don't use pickled carrots, and we have our own version of the spicy mayo, but they still make a great saturday lunch.

Today we made bánh mì gà, the chicken version. The nice thing with these is you can stuff them with whatever you have, whether it's chicken, pork or beef (or even tofu), we tried them with tuna one day and they were excellent (this is the americanized version! but who doesn't like a tuna sandwich?).

Basically what you need is: a fresh baguette (we prefer it on the softer side for this), thinly sliced carrots and cucumbers, cilantro and whatever meat you decide to use, leftover chicken is perfect, all you have to do is slice it. The secret ingredient is the mayo, what I do is mix some mayonnaise with sriracha sauce, a little bit of sesame oil and some black sesame seeds. All you really need is the mayonnaise and chili sauce, but the oil gives it a nice flavor and i just love the way black sesame look. I also like to keep the chili oil that comes with pizza, and just mix that with the mayo. Compose your sandwich with all the ingredients and eat away! I love them!

* For the tuna version we just mixed the tuna with the mayo before hand.

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blackberry.balsamic.dressing

I've never been one to like jellies or jams, but I tried this amazing dressing at a restaurant called 'La Verbena' a few years back, and I had to ask the waiter what the secret ingredient was, and I was completely taken by surprise by the answer: blackberry jam! and I don't even like jelly! but I love this dressing, and it is the only reason I keep a jar of jelly in my refrigerator, I've also tried it with other flavors and it's not as good. Back in my kitchen, I tried a couple of versions of it, and this is my favorite. You can make it sweeter by adding more jelly or more tart by increasing the amount the balsamic vinegar, you could even leave the olive oil out all together for a healthier alternative.

R E C I P E


1/4 cup of olive oil
1/4 cup of balsamic vinegar
1 tablespoon of blackberry jelly
1 teaspoon of dijon mustard (not the grainy type)
1/4 clove of garlic mashed (optional)
salt and pepper


* if you use garlic use very little


In a small bowl mix all ingredients! Isn't it great when that's all there is to it? a lot simpler than beans! :)

For an easy salad, toss a bag of baby greens (jeunes pousses) with the dressing, and top with quartered figs and goat cheese (or sliced green apples and blue cheese). Its great with nuts too! Bon appétit!

* You can make a variatian of this dressing by using one tablespoon of honey instead of the jelly, white balsamic vinegar instead of the regular balsamic, one tablespoon of sesame oil and a couple of tablespoons of sesame seeds! You can use rice wine vinegar too.










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