CHICKEN AND PARSNIP “FRIES” WITH SPICY VINEGAR

SERVES4

• ACTIVE TIME:10 MIN
• START TO FINISH:30 MIN

• 1 1/2 lb parsnips
• 3 tablespoons olive oil, divided
• 4 chicken breast halves with skin and bone (3 1/2 lb)
• 1/2 cup distilled white vinegar
• 1/4 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes

• Preheat oven to 450°F with rack in middle.
• Peel parsnips and quarter lengthwise. (If large, cut lengthwise into eighths and cut out cores.) Toss with 1 tablespoon oil in a large shallow baking pan and sprinkle with 1/2 teaspoon salt and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Roast, stirring occasionally, while preparing chicken (about 5 minutes).
• Pat chicken dry, then sprinkle with 1 1/2 teaspoons salt and 1/2 teaspoon pepper. Heat 1 tablespoon oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over high heat until it shimmers, then brown skin side of chicken, about 3 minutes.
• Transfer chicken, skin side up, to pan with parsnips, reserving skillet, and roast until chicken is cooked through and parsnips are tender and caramelized, about 20 minutes.
• While chicken roasts, reheat fat in skillet with remaining tablespoon oil, then add vinegar and red-pepper flakes and boil, stirring, 30 seconds. Pour into a cup and keep warm, covered.
• Serve chicken and fries drizzled with spicy vinegar.

Spicy Lime and Herbed Tofu Lettuce Wraps

What’s better than a recipe that involves NO cooking whatsoever? Um, nothing? We made these for the first time tonight, and they were quite refreshing. Due to some poor menu planning on my part, we were missing quite a few of the ingredients, and made quite a few substitutions. The recipe below is our version, which we liked, but you can view the original recipe onEpicurious.

This recipe would be amazing if allowed to marinate. If you’re the plan ahead type, make the dressing and add the chopped tofu and let it sit for a few hours (or overnight). Also, next time we won’t strain the dressing so as to let more flavor come through.

Spicy Lime and Herbed Tofu Lettuce Wraps

Makes 6 appetizer servings or 3-4 main course servings.

INGREDIENTS
Dressing
1/4 cup thinly sliced peeled fresh ginger
1/4 cup thinly sliced fresh lemongrass, cut from bottom 4 inches of 4 stalks with tough leaves removed
1/4 cup fresh lime juice
2 tablespoons oyster sauce
2 tablespoons water
3 tablespoons sriracha chili sauce
1 teaspoon sesame oil

Tofu
1/2 cup diced seeded peeled cucumber
1/4 cup chopped green onions
2 tablespoons chopped seeded serrano chile
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh cilantro
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint
1 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil (preferably Vietnamese or Thai)
1 14- to 16-ounce package firm tofu, drained, cut into 1/2-inch cubes, patted dry
6 large or 12 medium butter lettuce leaves

DIRECTIONS
For dressing:
Puree first 5 ingredients in blender. Let mixture stand at least 15 minutes and up to 1 hour. Strain mixture into small bowl, pressing on solids to release any liquid; discard solids. Stir in sweet chili sauce and sesame oil. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate.)

For tofu:
Combine first 7 ingredients in large bowl. Add tofu and dressing to bowl; toss to coat. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

Arrange 1 or 2 lettuce leaves on each of 6 plates. Divide tofu mixture among lettuce leaves and serve.

Spicy Vietnamese Shrimp Lettuce Rolls

These were so so. Edible, definitely, but we don’t know if we’d make them again. Taylor says too much lime, I say too hard to eat. Taylor suggests using a traditional Vietnamese fish sauce instead of the lime sauce, which could be good. Also be sure to get real butter lettuce – we used some other kind, and the leaves were not big enough to roll or strong enough to scoop. In other words, it was messy.

Spicy Vietnamese Shrimp Lettuce Rolls

Splenda? Seriously? I’ve never seen a recipe actually call for it before. We omitted it completely, a whole cup of any type of sugar/sweetener is way too much in my opinion. I used less sugar as well, maybe 1/3 cup total. Maybe that was why the lime was too strong.
Recipe from Epicurious. Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/2 lb medium shrimp, peeled and deveined
1 tbsp minced ginger
1/3 cup rice wine or sake
1 1/2 tsp toasted sesame oil
Juice from 6 limes (about 1 cup)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup Splenda Granulated
1/3 cup light soy sauce
1 1/2 tbsp minced fresh garlic
1 tsp red pepper flakes
2 heads Boston, or butterhead, lettuce
2 cups fresh basil leaves
3 medium carrots, peeled and finely grated (about 1 1/2 cups)
1/3 lb rice stick noodles, softened in boiling water and drained thoroughly
preparation
In a bowl, toss shrimp with ginger, wine, and oil. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate 20 minutes.

DIRECTIONS
For dressing:
Mix lime juice, sugar, Splenda, soy sauce, garlic, and pepper flakes in a bowl; set aside. Core lettuce and separate leaves; rinse and dry them. Cook shrimp with its marinade in a medium pan or wok over medium-high heat, turning shrimp until opaque, 2 or 3 minutes.

To make wraps:
Place 3 shrimp inside each lettuce leaf along with 2 or 3 basil leaves, 1 tbsp carrots and a small handful of noodles and roll up. Divide dressing among 4 small dishes for dipping.

Spicy Salsa Turkey Burgers

A twist on the typical burger, and with all the ground beef madness going on right now (yikes!), ground turkey is the way to go. In fact, I prefer turkey burgers to beef ones. As long as you treat them right, you can have turkey burgers that are juicy and flavorful. One of the keys is making sure you have a nice set of buns. We used some ciabatta bread rolls that were crusty and delicious.

Next time we’ll get more creative with the toppings. We ran out of salsa (oops), so ended up topping them with a slice of tomato, cucumber, and some cilantro. Add some avocado/guacamole, crisp lettuce, and red onion in there and it’d be hard to top this burger.

Spicy Salsa Turkey Burgers

Makes 4 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.

INGREDIENTS
1 1/4 pounds lean ground turkey
1 cup mild salsa, divided
1/2 cup finely chopped shallots
1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro
4 tablespoons vegetable oil, divided
1 tablespoon chipotle-flavored hot sauce
1 teaspoon ground cumin
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon ground black pepper
4 crusty rolls, halved horizontally, toasted if desired
4 lettuce leaves
Other toppings (tomato, avocado, red onion, etc.)

DIRECTIONS
Mix ground turkey, 1/2 cup salsa, shallots, cilantro, 3 tablespoons oil, hot sauce, cumin, salt, and pepper in large bowl. Shape turkey mixture into four 3 1/2- to 4-inch-diameter patties.

Heat 1 tablespoon oil in large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat. Add burgers; cook until brown, about 3 minutes per side. Reduce heat to low. Sauté until burgers are cooked through, about 4 minutes, turning occasionally.

Arrange roll bottoms on 4 plates. Place lettuce, then burgers on roll bottoms. Top each burger with 2 tablespoons of remaining salsa, then roll tops.

Spicy Lime Fish Tacos

Fish tacos are one of those hit or miss type of meals. We’ve tried them in the past but have never been completely satisfied with the outcome. This time, however, we scored big time. I don’t think I’ve had a better fish taco… ever.

Bear with me with this recipe. It was one of those a little off this and a little of that… we actually made this twice because we forgot what we did the first time around. Whoops. So feel free to adjust the quantities and spices in the recipe, it’s very rough to begin with! Just think of the whole thing as “to taste!”

Next time we might actually try adding some cornmeal to the flour mixture, just to lighten it up a bit. But the coating definitely gives the fish a pretty golden brown crust that makes for delicious tacos!

Spicy Lime Fish Tacos

Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
For Sauce:
1 cup plain yogurt
1 lime, juiced
1/2 teaspoon cumin
1/4 teaspoon chili powder
1/2 cup cilantro, chopped
1 teaspoon honey

For Fish:
1 lime, juiced
3 tablespoons honey
1 teaspoon cumin
1/2 teaspoon chili powder
salt and pepper, to taste
1 cup flour
2 4-6oz. mahi mahi fillets, sliced into 1/2 thick pieces
vegetable oil

1 cup cabbage, any color, shredded
Small flour tortillas
Chopped cilantro, lime wedges, and sliced green onions for garnish.

DIRECTIONS
Combine all sauce ingredients in a small bowl and set aside.

In a shallow dish, stir together lime juice, honey, and spices. Add fish slices and toss to coat. Let marinate for 10-15 minutes.

You can season your flour with more spice if you’d like, though I couldn’t say if it actually added any more flavor to the fish itself.

Take fish out of marinade and lightly toss in flour. Shake off excess.

Heat a few tablespoons oil in a large skillet. Add coated fish pieces and cook until golden and cooked through, about 2-3 minutes per side (will vary depending on how you sliced your fish).

Heat tortillas in a small pan until warm and bubbly. Keep in a warm oven until ready to serve. Top with fish, cabbage, cilantro, green onion, and yogurt sauce. Enjoy!

Pasta with Spicy Anchovy Sauce and Thyme Bread Crumbs

Perciatelli. A kind of pasta I never even knew existed. It’s almost like if macaroni and spaghetti had a kid…. it’d be perciatelli. A hallow, thick spaghetti, basically. We were about to substitute spaghetti, but one last look in the pasta aisle and I found it! Really! At our often times scarce when it comes to gourmet/specialty/ethnic foods grocery store! I know… I almost couldn’t believe it either.

This recipe, however, didn’t quite live up to the excitement of finding the fancy pasta. It had a good flavor, but felt lacking. I can’t even pinpoint what about it was off or how we could improve upon it. Maybe it was because we ran out of Parmesan. Or maybe the dill really makes the dish (the original recipe calls for dill breadcrumbs – but both Taylor and I have a strong hatred of dill. Ok, hatred might be too harsh a word… but we both really don’t like it. So we used thyme instead.)

The name of the recipe is deceiving. I don’t know if Taylor maybe forgot to add the red pepper flakes (doubtful – he’s too diligent) but “spicy” is the last word I’d use to describe it. Even if you’re not a fan of spice, double, ok ok triple the red pepper flakes.

I don’t know. Sometimes I don’t even feel like posting recipes that I don’t simply rave about. But it’s a pretty picture, and maybe you all can learn from something. Learn what NOT to do? I don’t know. This made a lot too – more than our usual dinner for two plus lunch the next day serving size, and we couldn’t eat it again.

Oh well. Win some, lose some, right?

I’ll share it anyway. Just in case someone here really likes anchovies.

Pasta with Spicy Anchovy Sauce and Thyme Bread Crumbs

Makes 6 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.

INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil, divided
2 cups fresh bread crumbs (preferably from a baguette)
1/4 cup chopped dill or thyme
1 pound red onions, thinly sliced (3 cups)
1 (2-ounce) can flat anchovy fillets, drained and chopped
1 pound bucatini or perciatelli pasta (long tubular strands)
1/2 teaspoon dried hot red-pepper flakes

DIRECTIONS
Heat 1/4 cup oil in a 12-inch heavy skillet over medium heat until it shimmers, then cook bread crumbs, stirring constantly, until deep golden and crisp, 6 to 8 minutes.

Transfer bread crumbs to a bowl and toss with dill and 1/4 teaspoon each of salt and black pepper.

Wipe out skillet, then cook onions with 1/4 teaspoon salt in remaining 1/2 cup oil over medium heat, stirring frequently, until very soft, 12 to 15 minutes. Add anchovies and cook, mashing anchovies into onions, until dissolved.

Meanwhile, cook bucatini in a pasta pot of boiling salted water (2 tablespoons salt for 5 quarts water) until al dente. Reserve 1/2 cup cooking water, then drain pasta.

Stir red-pepper flakes and reserved water into anchovy sauce, then add pasta and toss to combine. Add about half of bread crumbs and toss to coat. Serve sprinkled with remaining bread crumbs.

Spicy Thai Tofu with Red Bell Peppers and Peanuts

Sometimes I’m at a loss for words. Maybe that’s why all my other attempts at blogging quickly fall into a pattern (or lack thereof) of a post a month. This blog, however, is immune from writers block – as we have to eat every night, and even if it wasn’t very good or I don’t have any quip or anecdote to say about that particular meal, as long as I’ve got a picture and a recipe, I’ve got a post.

So hear you go. A picture and a recipe. And actually something worth trying, it was pretty good and a quick meal. Surprisingly (since we rarely repeat things), we’ll probably make this one again.

We don’t have a wok, and actually baked this tofu rather than frying it, which we’ve recently discovered gives it a very nice color without the need for oil. Simply drain your tofu, marinate it in some soy sauce, sesame oil, lime juice, and hot sauce (the longer the better), then pop it in the oven for about 20-30 minutes, or until it’s nice and golden.

Hey look, my lack of words has suddenly turned into 3 surprisingly thoughtful paragraphs!

Spicy Thai Tofu with Red Bell Peppers and Peanuts

Recipe from Bon Appetit. Makes 4 servings.

INGREDIENTS
1/3 cup olive oil
2 large red bell peppers, seeded, thinly sliced
3 tablespoons minced peeled fresh ginger
3 large garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 14-to 16-ounce package extra-firm tofu, drained well, cut into 1-inch cubes
3 green onions, thinly sliced on diagonal
3 tablespoons soy sauce
2 tablespoons fresh lime juice
1/2 to 3/4 teaspoon dried crushed red pepper
1 6-ounce bag baby spinach leaves
1/3 cup chopped fresh basil
1/3 cup lightly salted roasted peanuts

DIRECTIONS
Heat oil in wok over high heat. Add bell peppers, ginger, and garlic; sauté until peppers just begin to soften, about 2 minutes. Add tofu and green onions; toss 2 minutes. Add next 3 ingredients. Toss to blend, about 1 minute. Add spinach in 3 additions, tossing until beginning to wilt, about 1 minute for each addition. Mix in basil. Season with salt and pepper. Sprinkle peanuts over.

Indonesian-style Grilled Eggplant with Spicy Peanut Sauce

We had a bit of an eggplant fiasco a few weeks ago. Tried a new recipe that seemed promising, and it was the first time (ever?) that we’ve cooked something so bad that neither of us could eat it. Usually, when something isn’t great it’s just that, not great. But still edible at least. This, however, was not edible.

So the following week we decided that we needed some eggplant redemption. We needed to show that eggplant could be delicious (which we know it can) so we wouldn’t have that last bad taste to remember it by. And then we found this recipe.

While I do have to say that Taylor makes the best peanut sauce this side of Thailand, this sauce is a tough contender. I think it’s the fresh ground peanuts – instead of peanut butter – that put it over the top.

And don’t think you can save yourself some time by skipping the first step. Salting the eggplant is CRITICAL is it draws out the moisture aka bitterness in it. I think that is where the eggplant mess began, as that recipe didn’t seem to care that eggplant can be bitter as heck. So please, salt your eggplant, and let it hang out for a bit. You won’t regret it later.

Indonesian-style Grilled Eggplant with Spicy Peanut Sauce

Makes 4 servings. Recipe from Epicurious.

INGREDIENTS
1 eggplant (about 1 1/4 pounds), cut into 1/2-inch-thick slices
1 garlic clove, minced
1 shallot, minced
a 2-inch-long fresh hot red chili, chopped fine (wear rubber gloves), or 1/4 teaspoon crushed red pepper flakes
2 teaspoons Oriental sesame oil
1/4 cup ground roasted peanuts
2 teaspoons soy sauce
1 teaspoon sugar
2 teaspoons fresh lemon juice, or to taste
vegetable oil for brushing the eggplant

DIRECTIONS
Sprinkle the eggplant lightly with salt, let it drain in a colander for 30 minutes to 1 hour, then pat it dry.

In a small saucepan cook the garlic, the shallot, and the chili in the sesame oil over moderately low heat, stirring occasionally, until the vegetables are softened, add the peanuts, and cook the mixture, stirring, for 1 minute. Add the soy sauce, the sugar, the lemon juice, and 1 cup water, boil the mixture, stirring occasionally, until it is thickened slightly, and add salt and pepper to taste.

Brush the eggplant, patted dry, with the vegetable oil and grill it on an oiled rack set 5 to 6 inches over glowing coals, turning it, for 7 to 8 minutes, or until it is just cooked. Transfer the eggplant to a serving plate and spoon the peanut sauce over it. Serve with some fresh homemade pita, and enjoy.

Pan-Seared Flat Iron Steak with Spicy Cilantro Sauce

I’ve never had flat iron steak before. But our freezer now has a box of them (thanks Mom!) so we thought we’d seek out the best way to cook them. I guess it is similar to a flank steak (if you can’t find flat iron), but honestly it might be my favorite cut. It was incredibly tender, not chewy like some beef can be. Definitely not something you want to overcook, so watch it carefully.

The cilantro sauce was refreshing. Tangy. Slightly spicy. Delicious.

We served this with some roasted veggies, potatoes and brussels sprouts, which were also delicious when drizzled with the cilantro sauce.

A keeper for sure!

Pan-Seared Flat Iron Steak with Spicy Cilantro Sauce

Recipe from Whole Foods.

INGREDIENTS
1 cup roughly chopped cilantro
2 cloves garlic, roughly chopped
1/2 cup plus 2 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
3 tablespoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
1/2 teaspoon ground chili powder
Salt and pepper to taste
2 (10– to 12-ounce) flat iron steaks

DIRECTIONS
Combine the cilantro, garlic, 1/2 cup of the oil, lemon juice, cumin, chili powder and salt in a blender or food processor and purée until smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning. Set sauce aside.

Sprinkle steaks on both sides with salt and pepper. Heat remaining 2 teaspoons oil in a large skillet over medium-high heat. Add steaks and cook to desired doneness, about 3 minutes per side for medium-rare or 4 to 5 minutes for medium.

Transfer steaks to a cutting board, tent with foil and let rest for 5 minutes before thinly slicing. Serve with sauce on the side.