NMF: Clam Spaghetti

Long before Fella and families, we used to have a standing dinner night at our friends' place. We would all bring a course and the hosts (usually the same couple) would handle the main course. The tradition actually started sometime after I went away to law school, so I didn't get to attend until I was home for a break at some point.

That first dinner I was on for dessert. My mom is an amateur baker (sometimes I fondly refer to her as Betty Crocker) and while it's not necessarily my forte, I know my way around a pan of brownies. A la mode, natch. Smothered in caramel sauce. Perfection.

We were kept if civilized for the first round that night, but the wine was going down easy (were shots, too?!) and by the time we went back for seconds, we had zero penchant for pleasantries, devouring what was left of it all straight out of the baking dish.

I haven't hosted a dinner party in awhile. I should rectify that.

It was a rarity that we could have fish or seafood at these dinners, but when we could my friend would throw this together and mangia! I had to watch him make it once or twice before I felt comfortable recreating it on my own. And now, thank goodness, it's memorialized here for posterity.

I chopped up the clams for the kids when I served it. Miss Thang held up a piece and asked "Dis for? Meat?" The Mayor, surprisingly, had no words. He must have been too busy slurping the spaghetti noodles one.by.one. I'll take that as a ringing endorsement.

Clam Spaghetti

3 T butter or ghee

1 T extra virgin olive oil

8 green onions, sliced (measured out to a heaping ½ cup)

3 cloves garlic, crushed

2-6.5oz cans clams, drained (reserving 1 cup of liquid)

Spaghetti or noodle substitute of choice

Heat butter and oil in skillet over medium heat; add green onions and sauté until slightly opaque. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add reserved liquid from the clams and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and let reduce while the noodles cook. Add clams and heat through for the last 5 minutes. Toss with noodles and serve.

There's No Need to Fear!

I love a good underdog. And although I like most sports, I'm not really into the March Madness thing, but it's kinda ground zero for underdog stories, no? Were any of the "bracket breakers" from this round among your picks?

I guess I've often considered myself a bit of an underdog. Whether it was academics, athletics, or the arts, no one ever considered me to be anything but middle of the pack. While it might not have been by leaps and bounds, I always seemed to exceed expectations if even just a little. Admittedly, it was kinda gratifying.

So, this week I had hoped to exceed my expectations and present you with an amazing Paleo fish taco recipe. What I ended up with was definitely more middle-of-the-pack. But maybe I have set my expectations too high; sometimes that happens trying to replicate foods (I never met an "oven fried" anything that could touch its deep fried predecessor).

Here it is anyway, because we totally ate it and didn't hate it (even the Mayor). It just wasn't "the same," KWIM?

Paleo Fish Tacos (based on Ancestral Chef's recipe found here)

1 lb cod, cut into ½ inch by 3-4 inch strips
1/3 cup coconut flour
1tsp taco seasoning
Salt & pepper

1 egg, beaten
Coconut oil* for frying

Add enough oil to a pan so that it is at least 1/2 inch up the sides and heat over high heat.

Mix together the coconut flour and seasonings in a shallow dish (I use a pie pan), the egg in a second shallow dish. Coat the fish in the egg, then dredge in the flour mixture. 

Carefully place in the fish in the hot oil and fry until golden brown (about 5 minutes). If the oil does not cover the fish, flip the pieces over to brown on the other side. Remove fish from the oil with a slotted spoon and place on a cooling rack lined with a paper towel.

Serve on lettuce or tortilla substitute of choice. Garnish with a lime wedge and your favorite toppings.

*I didn't have enough coconut oil to use when I made this, so I actually used ghee/clarified butter, so maybe that's how we got robbed this time around.

No need to fear! Underdog is here!

NMF: Salmon Cakes with Basil

We’re in full-blown party prep mode here. This is probably the last year that we can get away with a party that’s more about us than it is about Miss Thang. I mean, it’s totally about her, but there’s no character décor involved whatsoever. The Mayor has had a party theme every single year and in retrospect I wish I hadn’t done it that way so soon.

Most of my shopping is done for the party (surprisingly!) and I don’t think I’m going to have to go to Costco for anything, which is...odd. But I guess it’s because we are not, to the Mayor’s dismay, serving pizza at Miss Thang’s brunch party.

Speaking of, there aren’t many things in the prepared foods section at Costco that I will venture buying. Rotisserie chicken: yes. Spinach salad: maybe. Roll-up sandwiches: occasionally. But several years ago my MIL turned me on to the salmon with garlic basil butter. It’s heavenly. Except they use farmed Atlantic Salmon, which isn’t the best for you, so this, too, has been relegated to the “occasional” category.

So as I was looking around for Paleo fish cakes recipes, I came across Nom Nom Paleo’s Spicy Tuna Cakes. Regardless of the fact that I didn’t have the proper ingredients on hand to make this as-is, it has already been an uphill battle to get my kids the Mayor to eat seafood and fish with us, so I didn’t need to add in the spicy-factor to his arsenal.

So I wandered around my kitchen a bit, hoping for inspiration to strike. And holy mackerel did it ever! 

These are spectacular. The Mayor even gave a glowing endorsement (no morsel left behind!) And the cooking in a muffin pan, GENIUS!

Garlic Basil Salmon Cakes

3 x 6 oz cans salmon

1 cup mashed sweet potato

2 large eggs

3 T melted ghee/clarified butter, divided

¼ cup minced onion

2 cloves garlic, minced*

2 T basil, chopped*

Zest of small lemon

Salt & pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 350° and butter a 12-cup muffin pan with 1T of ghee.

Combine the ingredients in a mixing bowl, adding the eggs last (you can taste for seasoning this way).

Scoop a quarter cup into each muffin tin and gently press into the pan. Bake for 30 minutes. Transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Serve with a green salad and boom: dinner. Makes 12 cakes.  

*Do you know about those garlic and herb cubes in the freezer section at grocery stores? They are a godsend and worked flawlessly in this recipe. Get them. Use them. Love them. I regularly use the garlic, basil, and cilantro. I think I have ginger in my freezer, too, but have yet to try it.

NMF: Thai Pumpkin Curry with Prawns

I’m not exactly what you’d call an exotic eater. I grew up on the Standard American Diet with some strong Midwestern and Scandinavian influences. (I won’t get into the “I’ve-been-on-a-diet-longer-than-I-can-remember” influences, which are fodder for innumerable posts more). So a Lawry’s taco seasoning pouch and chop suey were about as exotic as it got for me growing up.

It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20's that I had sushi for the first time. An acquaintance bet that I would like it or he would buy me dinner. I didn’t hate it, but…he still paid for dinner. I wonder if he would cry foul if he knew how much sushi I have eaten since.

After the billionth time watching #TheBreakfastClub, I finally realized Claire eats Illinois sushi that's been un-refrigerated for 5 hours.
— Courtney Howard (@Lulamaybelle) February 16, 2015

I mean, I've had Kansas sushi and lived to tell!

And it was in Kansas (maybe actually Missouri, come to think) that I first had Thai food. A friend had an extra ticket to a Bob Dylan concert in Kansas City and I figured it was pretty much a bucket list kind of show to see, so I went. We met up with a friend of his at a Thai restaurant. They assured me, the should-have-been-laid-back California girl, that I was going to like it. I don’t remember what I had to eat (only that it was not Pad Thai) but I’ve since come to enjoy the cuisine, especially pumpkin curry. I often make this with chicken, but my latest obsession is prawns.

I adapted my recipe from a super simple one I found on Taste of Home. While I’m guessing purists might scoff, it does in a pinch. Made even easier using prepared stir fry vegetables from the produce section. Frozen will work, too, but they have a tendency to get overcooked quickly, so you will have to adjust a bit.

Thai Pumpkin Curry with Prawns

1lb prawns (large or 31/35)

Stir fry vegetables
4 tsp yellow curry powder
¼ tsp pepper
2 T olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
1 cup canned pumpkin
½ can coconut milk
¼ cup pumpkin or apple butter
Prepared rice (or substitute)

Heat olive oil in large skillet over medium-high heat. Saute vegetables to desired doneness and add prawns, cooking until pink and slightly opaque. Add garlic and cook until fragrant. Stir in the pumpkin, pumpkin/apple butter, curry powder, and coconut milk. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and simmer for about 5 minutes.

Serves 4

Oh, Hey Friday

I almost didn't see you there. It's movie night tonight, although we almost didn't make it. Fridays are probably my toughest of the week, but for very different reasons than they might have been after I grew accustomed to the mantra "Thursday starts the weekend" in college. The Mayor doesn't have school, so it's an extra challenge to keep both children off the streets and out of trouble occupied. So I use up all of my allotted babysitting time at the gym and sometimes, like today, I enlist the help of grandparents.

Despite my village playing a major role in my Fridays, by the end of the day I'm done. And tonight, after the Mayor had used up the last of my patience complaining about how awful dinner smelled, a family movie night was the last thing I wanted to do. Thank goodness it was Miss Thang's first time seeing Toy Story and she is absolutely giddy over it.

So my "Mikey Likes It" kid is no more. The Mayor used to eat just about anything. Now the mere smell of something fishy makes him something of a king crab. And it was especially bad today since I not only cooked for us at dinner, but this morning I made a batch of today's recipe to bring to friends, so it was an all day affair with the accompanying histrionics from the Mayor.

Which brings us to our No Meat Friday recipe this week: Crab Chowder! And it's almost Paleo and totally Whole30 compliant!

The impetus for this recipe is one that my mom tipped me off to a number of years ago from none other than Paula Deen. It was quick, easy, and damn delicious. But now that I've moved away from processed foods, I want a version that doesn't include canned condensed soups, which kinda creep me out when I really think about them. Besides that, this translation is actually just as easy as the original (and to make it easier, I use a pre-chopped Mirepoix from the grocery store).

My biggest concern was residual coconut flavor if one is not acclimated to it, but my guinea pigs friends report that the soup was "delicious!!" (Exclamation points original).

Crab Chowder

2 T ghee/clarified butter

3 carrots, chopped

3 celery stalks, chopped

1/2 onion, chopped

2 small potatoes (white or gold), diced

1 cup vegetable broth or stock

3 cloves garlic, minced

Hot sauce, to taste (I used about 6 dashes of Tobasco)

Salt & Pepper, to taste

16 oz high quality crab meat

2 cans coconut milk (full fat) or coconut cream

2 tsp dried parsley

Heat ghee in a 3-qt pot. Add carrots, celery, and onion; saute until slightly soft and onions are opaque; add garlic and season with salt & pepper and parsley; let saute until fragrant. 

Add potatoes and broth; bring to a boil and cook for about 10 minutes, until potatoes are just barely fork-tender. 

Add coconut milk and hot sauce. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, and let simmer for at least 10 minutes. Add crab meat and heat through, about 10 minutes.

Enjoy!

Valentine’s Day came and went without a lot of fanfare around here. Despite having to cancel a date night, we were able to have our family night out on Valentine’s Day, as planned. Which ultimately ended with a little snuggle with James Spader and the last two episodes in season 1 of The Blacklist. Thrill-seekers, I know.

So, earlier this week did you maybe try to wipe a black smudge off of one of your unsuspecting co-worker’s foreheads? And did you proceed to challenge them asking what they “gave up” for the next 40 days? So passé.

While not as catchy as Meatless Monday, no meat on Fridays during Lent can end up getting a little tedious. I’m not sure if it’s because it’s the mandate and I have a rebellious streak, (because I love fish and seafood) but I’m always so glad when I don’t have to make my weekly meal plans revolve around it.

Well, my obligation is your gain! Each Friday I’ll be sharing some of the things I’m making for my family. Some are old standards, like the recipe below, and others will be a shot in the dark. I hope we’ll all find something to like along the way, even if you don’t “have to.”

Spicy Shrimp and Lobster Linguini was the first meal I ever cooked for Fella when we were dating. It dons the cover for Weight Watchers: Simply Delicious, a cookbook I picked up sometime during law school.

If only my finished product could look half as good.

I’ve altered the recipe over time to suit our tastes a little better and usually forego the lobster entirely, sometimes substituting other seafood, like I did this week with langostino. And let’s face it, if I can get the Mayor to eat this at all, I’m probably not going to want to spend the lobster on him anyway (the kids had their own fancy spaghettios).

All nostalgia aside, this dish is really…simply delicious. (Ugh, I know!)

Langostino Spaghetti

2 T extra virgin olive oil

1 onion, chopped

3 garlic cloves, minced

1 (28 ounce) can diced tomatoes

½ cup dry red wine

2 tsp dried oregano

¼ tsp crushed red pepper

½ tsp salt

¼ tsp ground black pepper

1 lb langostino tails (or seafood of choice)

¼ lb spaghetti (His) and 2 zucchini, spiraled (Hers)

Heat oil in a large nonstick skillet, add the onion, and sauté until golden. Add garlic and sauté until fragrant. Add the wine, tomatoes, oregano, crushed pepper, salt and pepper; bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer, uncovered, until the sauce has slightly thickened.

Meanwhile, bring a pot of water to boil. Salt the water and cook the zucchini until slightly tender (this is really quick; I stir it around a few times then scoop it out with a slotted spoon). Add the spaghetti to the water and cook per package directions.

Add langostino to the sauce and simmer, uncovered until the seafood is fully cooked, but still a bit opaque. (Don’t judge: mine was pre-cooked, but still frozen and probably took about the same amount of time to cook).

If you’re like me and don’t want another dirty dish to clean, spoon the sauce over the noodles/zoodles of your choice. If you want to be fancy and do like they do in the book, toss it all together in a large serving bowl (separate bowls—is the next step separate beds?—if you’re like us).

Which reminds me…has anyone done the dishes yet?

I may have outdone myself.*

Last we met, I mentioned I picked up some more Rainier cherries from a roadside stand near my office.  I expected that I would be making another batch of the refreshing sorbet with them, but got severely delayed and decided to get wild and try something new.

I guess I’d like to call this “Cherry Bomb,” because that's the earworm that I found popped into my head as I pitted more cherries, but that might be exaggerating the cherry flavor actually in this. But it’s good. Real good.

2 cups pitted Rainier cherries
2 Tbsp local raw honey
1 tsp vanilla
1 can coconut milk (the full fat variety)

Place all ingredients in a blender (or food processor). Blend.  Ready your ice cream maker.  Pour the mixture into your maker and process according to manufacturer’s directions for ice cream (at least that’s essentially what I did*).  Place in freezer to set up. 

Makes 1 quart plus a half pint.

Now, I’m a novice at the making of the homemade ice creams (this being only my second foray with my Kitchen Aid attachment), but I noticed that most ice cream recipes call for the ice cream base to be well chilled before processing. My mixture was basically room temperature when I churned it, so it could have taken longer for that fact alone. But I just kept an eye on it until it looked about right. Maybe it would work faster with a chilled mixture, but I can neither wait that long, nor plan that far ahead.

So I’m not really sure how to classify this. It’s not as creamy as ice cream, but it is creamier than sorbet (although I’ve never tried a commercial coconut sorbet in order to compare). But it’s relatively icy and delicious.  Fella far preferred this to the previous sorbet, although I like them equally.

No pretty pictures to share this time. We (and by that I mean mostly I) have been eating it straight from the container I froze it in. Keepin' it real, yo.

I’m looking forward to making this again with strawberries and now that the scent from my afternoon snack is wafting up at me from my desk, peaches!

*I thought about revising this statement after writing it, but when I sat down at the computer to eat and post this, I could not deny that I had.

Cherry, Cherry

Two weeks ago I got adventurous at the Farmer’s Market: I bought fresh Rainier cherries. I’ve always been a fan of Bing cherries, and grew up with Montmorency cherries in the Midwest (these make THE best cherry pies).  And last winter, I started buying dried Rainiers.

Despite this, I was still a little leery of the fresh Rainier cherry. I just couldn’t fathom that these blushing yellow cherries could be anything but sour. Oh how I was wrong, and I’m not sure which is worse: that I finally discovered how amazing they are or, that I didn’t find out sooner!

So this week I bought twice as many cherries as last. And I had plans to use half of them to copy a friend's idea from last week and make cherry sorbet.  After perusing the interwebs a bit, I felt fairly confident that I could throw together something to do these beauties justice and here’s just that:

Rainier Cherry Vanilla Sorbet

2 cups pitted Rainier cherries

2 Tbsp local raw honey

1 tsp vanilla extract

1 lemon, juiced (mine are Meyer, in case you were wondering)

¼ cup water

Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor.  Puree until liquefied. (Mine had small cherry bits still, so expect it to be pulpy). Prepare in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s directions for sorbet.

This was also the maiden voyage for the ice cream making attachment that I got as a birthday present last year for my stand mixer. Another thing I’m unsure of: the discovery that using it is so easy or, that I waited more than a year to find this out.

We couldn’t wait the 2 hours that my ice cream maker suggested for the sorbet to set up in the freezer, so it was a little melty when we dug in. 

It was gorgeous. Thank You, Mother Nature!

It makes 1 pint, which basically means I need more cherries!

EDIT:

I spent my lunch break securing more cherries. Which means there's more cherry sorbet in my future!