Summer Tomato Salad and Elderflower Blossom Cocktail (Sweet Nothing)

Summer Tomato Salad and Elderflower Blossom Cocktail (Sweet Nothing)

I'm obsessed with the fresh tastes of summer / spring - this Tomato Salad brings sunshine back to the Bay. We've been hit with rain week after week, and I thought something fresh would put me in the mood for warm weather.


Lime photo from: Fantasy Stock

Makes 2 servings:


1 3/4 cup Sliced tomato
1/2 cup Chopped roasted pork or chicken
1/4 cup Cliantro
5 Basil leaves sliced thinly
1/2 cup White Beans
3 Tbs Grapefruit-White Balsamic vinegar from Sigona's
Juice from 1/2 lime ( to taste )
1/2 Tsp Salt

Mix and serve! Fresh, delicious, and perfect cold.



The Sweet Nothing

6 oz. St. Germaine Liquor
2 oz. Lime
Splash of tonic water

Shake with ice, pour in a martini glass

Garnish with a thin slice of lime sprinkled with kosher sea salt

It may not be summer... yet, but this will put you right next to the beach, drink cocktails with friends, and BBQ'ing the night away!

ANZAC Biscuits ( Cookies )

I made these beauties for my Fiance's grandma - a cute 92 year old 4'8'' lady with a huge appetite for sweets. Everyone calls her "Nana" and no matter what, you get a nickname in her cute accent. She made these cookies when she was growing up, and I thought it would be a good way to bring back some happy memories. 

Who doesn't have good memories of their favorite baked good? I know mine are the snicker-doodles that I used to make with my grandma every holiday season. We always had to make extra batches because my grandfather would eat them all. 

Just a little background - ANZAC stands for Australian New Zealand Army Corps. 

These biscuit like cookies were great for mailing to troops - they keep for a long time and have a wonderful crunch to them. 

I've adapted my recipe from Martha Stewart - and for those who can not find golden syrup. Golden syrup is a reduction of sugar cane, a plentiful crop in parts of  New Zealand and Australia.  I ended up trying to make these cookies two ways - both with honey cream and with golden syrup. I looked everywhere and found golden syrup at Whole foods, but found that you could use honey cream which I found at my local Safeway, and believe it or not - Target! 

Combine flour, sugar, rolled oats, and coconut in a bowl.  Set aside. 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees and prep the baking sheet with a piece of parchment. 

 Add butter and syrup ( or honey cream ) to a sauce pan over low heat.  Dissolve the baking soda in boiling water and add to the butter mixture. It will fizz up a little, so make sure that the pan has some depth to it.

Add the liquid mixture  to the dry ingredients and combine. I don't mind getting my hands dirty so I scoop and combine with my hands until everything is mixed together. I then make golf ball sized balls and place them 2-3 inches apart on the parchment covered cookie sheet. This will make it much easier to take the cookies off when they're done.

Martha says to flatten them, but I thought that it turned out better when I left them as balls. They do spread out so give them some room.

Bake for 15-20 minutes until the edges are crispy and cookies are golden brown. You can either let the cookies cool this way, or you can place them in small dishes and they will hold that form. Perfect for holding ice cream! Any Aussie or New Zealander will tell you these lovelies taste like home. 

Hopefully Nana likes them!  

Ingredients

• 2 cups all purpose flour 
• 2 cups rolled oats 
• 2 cups sugar 
• 1 1/4 cups dry coconut 
• 2 sticks of unsalted butter 
• 3 tbs golden syrup ( or 3.5 tbs honey creme ) 
• 3/4 tsp baking soda 
• 1/4-1/3 cup boiling water ( until the ingredients hold the shape of a slightly squashed golfball ) 

Easy Earthy Red Snapper en Papillotte

Look at this beauty! 

I couldn't resist this gorgeous fish when I was browsing around Costco's improved fish section. ( I also scored some mussels ( for popovers and delicious steamed goodness ) 

Now, lets talk about one of my favorite fishes.

 There's a lot that snapper can handle...

 You can put it in ceviche as a nice base fish - it ends up with a firm texture and light flavor. You can grill it and top it with a nice poblano and tomatillo creamy salsa - fresh, light, and a bit of heat.  A standard that we had in San Diego was tacos - with traditional cabbage and white sauce on a fresh homemade tortilla. 

I enjoy snapper steamed in a citrus sauce and indian inspired herbs - plus who doesn't love opening a beautifully wrapped "present" at the dinner table? This recipe also makes it really hard to overcook your fish because it locks all the flavor ( and liquid ) inside the parchment. 

First, take the fish and make sure it's cleaned. 

This fish was in perfect condition - see how the eye is clear and the flesh looks vibrant. You also want to make sure there is no "fishy" smell when you buy fish. This is usually a good indication its going bad. 

Run the snapper under cool water and hold it by the tail. Move a scaler ( or butter knife ) in the opposite direction of the scales until they are completely removed. Take care not to poke yourself on the spine they have near their dorsal fin. Sometimes the fish monger does not remove it completely and it can stick you. Run the cool water in the body cavity - thoroughly rinsing any blood that might be left from the butchering process. 

Make two slits large enough to put 1/4 inch lime slices about 70-80 percent of the way. I also make large garlic slices and put them in the same slit. Usually 2-3 pieces of garlic per slit. 

Lightly season on both sides with- 

Turmeric - for a bit of color and earthy flavor, it also adds a little bitterness that balances out the brightness of the citrus used in this dish. 2.5 Tbs. 

Thyme - Brightens the subtle fish flavor inherent in the snapper. 2.5 Tbs.

Celery Salt - Use sparingly - this is salty and can overpower the delicate flavor of the fish. .5-1 tsp. It also balances the citrus well. 

Cayenne pepper - Adds a kick to any dish! 1tsp

Coriander - has a nutty, citrusy taste perfect with turmeric. 1 Tbs

Now that my fish is dressed and ready to go, it needs a date to the party. How about some onions? Everyone loves onions. 

There, much better. Slice 1/2 white onion, 1 orange ( juice half over the fish ), 1 lime ( juice half ) and equally distribute over the fish. 

Your fish is about ready to go into the oven. Sprinkle a little olive oil ( a couple glugs - yes that is a scientific measurement - probably about 2 Tbs ) over the top of the onions and oranges. 

There are plenty of places on the internet that you can find ways to wrap the fish in a pretty way- I just make sure to fold over the edges and tuck them in to keep all the juices in the parchment. 

Stick it in the oven ( preheated to 350 degrees ) 30-40 minutes

The fish will be delicate, flaky and moist due to the humidity in the parchment. 

Ooh!  A present for me? Let's unwrap and see what we've got!

Now, take a fork and smush the oranges and limes over the fish as you remove them ( taking care to leave the fish intact ) Getting pulp on the fish is okay - even better to add more citrusy goodness. ) 

Gorgeous! 

Spoon off the fish and serve with a fresh wedge of orange. 

Take care as snapper has a lot of little pin bones. 

Sprinkle with kosher salt. 

Perfect with a fennel slaw, arugula salad, or some angel hair pasta tossed in olive oil and fresh basil. 

Tangy Goats Milk Banana Creme Pie

So I'm a cheater... I prefer to get the pre-made crusts for this kind of thing. Alternatively, you can make your own if you want with graham crackers and butter in a food processor. This is a no fail delicious way to make a tangy, out of the ordinary dessert with many pre-made ingredients to save time. The goats milk and peanut butter bring out the nutty and creamyness that I find delicious in bananas.

Prep time: 10-20 min
Total Time 1.5-2 hours

What you'll need

• Pre-made Graham Cracker crust
• 5-6 Medium bananas ( 2 very ripe, 3-4 just ripe ) 
• 1 package banana creme pudding 
• 1 package vanilla pudding 
• 2 tablespoons vanilla extract 
• Here's the tang - substitute cow's milk for goat's milk! YUM! 
• 1 tsp creamy peanut butter 
• 10 cocoa puffs ( or just 1 tsp of dark cocoa powder ) 
• Juice from 1 lemon 

•  Layer the bottom with sliced bananas

•  Mix the banana and vanilla puddings to pie specifications on the package - for Jello puddings, this is 2 3/4 cup goats milk for both packages ( not each! ).

• In a separate bowl, mash the 2 very ripe bananas with the peanut butter and vanilla extract. 

• Fold in the mashed banana mixture into the pudding mixture 

• Cover the bottom layer of bananas with the crushed cocoa puffs or dark chocolate powder 
• WARNING: Don't put whole cocoa puffs instead of crushed because they will turn into gummy balls of doom. NOT TASTY! 

• Cover the cocoa puff layer with the prepared mixture of mashed bananas, peanut butter, vanilla, and pudding until it reaches slightly below the top part of the crust. Keep enough pudding for a second layer.
• Cover the pudding layer with chopped up bananas -(save enough to create another layer on top)

• Layer the remaining banana slices on top of the pudding and brush with diluted lemon juice - this will stop the bananas from turning brown. 

• Cover in cling wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours

• Cut and enjoy!

This can be made a day before, or can be frozen for an extra cool treat. If frozen, take out of the freezer for 1-2 hours prior to serving and put in the refrigerator. This is a nice way to get a creamy cool treat that isn't completely frozen. Not to mention: Pretty! 

Butternut Squash Breakfast Burritos

I was looking for a healthy alternative to grabbing breakfast at Starbucks before I went to work in the morning, so I put all the flavors that I love into one convenient, easy to heat, and easy to eat package. 

I just started working at a fast-paced start-up, here in the Bay Area, and I wanted something that would fill me up through long experiments and provide a good balance of carbs and protein. 

1) I threw some potatoes roughly cubed into a non-stick pan with shredded carrots and about a tablespoon of olive oil.

 2) On medium heat I browned the 1 large russet potatoe and warmed the 1/4 shredded carrots from the Trader Joes salad section. I prefer the carrot strings because they're versatile and add a nice color!

 

3) Who doesn't love chopped green onion?? 1 to 2 bunches does the trick - this is kind of up to you, a sweet yellow onion or caramelized white onion would also work well here. 

4) I like to switch things up when I'm in the kitchen: aka - I look what is around and kinda throw it in if I think it'll taste good - here come the  1/2 cup mushrooms ( 6-9 medium sized baby bellas )! 

5) The best "mistake" of all was adding the butternut squash which I had frozen down a week before after making a lovely roasted side dish. These were the cubes that were not previously cooked - they store well in a ziploc in the freezer for when you need some butternut squash ASAP.

6) After browning the potatoes and cooking down the onions a little, I added 2 cups of water with one chicken bullion cube from Knox to the mix, and cooked everything until the moisture was cooked off and the bullion was absorbed into the veggies. To this mix I also added a couple dashes of cayenne pepper, fresh cracked black pepper, a bay leaf, and 2 chopped cloves of garlic.


7) this is what it looks when things are still a bit raw- You want to take care not to overcook your veggies because if you're like me, you will be warming these things in the microwave - leaving a little bite to them will make them perfect when you heat them up.



 8) You have two options here, you can whip the 6 extra large eggs with a splash of milk and add them to the mixture, or you can cook the eggs separately and then mix everything together before putting the filling in the burrito. I prefer to add the eggs to a hot pan and cook them separately - it makes for the fluffiest eggs.











9) Scramble the eggs up until they are *just* about cooked- ie. mostly fluffy and cooked with just a little wetness to the eggs. Turn off and remove from heat. Sprinkle the eggs with your favorite cheese. I prefer some aged cheddar or a little bit of parmesan.

10) Mix in the veggies and fill a medium sized flour tortilla. Wrap the burrito in parchment paper and keep in the fridge or freezer. When you heat up the burrito ( about 2 min the the microwave ) keep it in the parchment paper. Your burrito will come out perfectly cooked, and the tortilla will be soft and delicious! The parchment works perfectly to seal in the vapors and keep the eggs moist - it also makes it easier to grab and go in the morning!

Ta da! What do you like to put in your breakfast burritos? 

Banh xeo

So this isn't as much of a recipe as more of documenting my first attempt at a Vietnamese dish other than Pho. ( Which I'm totally obsessed with ) I will provide a list of ingredients that you can find at an Asian grocery store... but in the process of making these puppies, things got a bit wild - read - Blackberry liquor and Lychee cocktails!

 We picked up some sweets from Ranch 99 - who doesn't love Panda cookies and YanYan?


Banh Xeo was described as a sweet/savory Vietnamese crepe by my friend, Kevin Tran.

" A bit sweet, a bit crunchy, savory, with delicious shrimps and doused in homemade fish sauce... mmmm... makes me think of home!"

I was sold. Darnit, I HAD to have these crepes. So we ventured to Ranch 99 to pick up various supplies and necessities.

1) Banh Xeo Mix- adapted from a a recipe I found @KitchenChick

• 1 cup rice flour ( only Rice flour will give it that nice texture!)

• 1/2 tsp sugar ( I use brown sugar)

• 1/2 tsp salt

• 1/2 tsp turmeric ( I like to be generous with this - gives it the nice yellow color!)

• 2 cups canned coconut milk ( I prefer the Chokoh brand ) Make sure it's the creamy kind - not the water. 

• 1 medium egg, room temp

• 1/4 cup lime juice 

2) Soaked Mung Beans -

• Rinse mung beans thoroughly and put in a glass bowl
• Cover in an inch of water and then microwave for 30 seconds to 1 minute - Kevin said that they could be eaten softer or with a little crunch. I tried it both ways and preferred the texture that the crunchy ones added. It also gives a nice, sweet, earthy taste. 
• These are added after the batter is poured into the pan so they end up in the middle of the crepe. 

3) Shrimp / Pork / Beef

• The awesome thing about Banh Xeo is that you can pretty much put any meat in there. We chose shrimp, but thinly sliced pork or pre-cooked beef will work nicely. 

4) Homemade Fish Sauce- (Kind of) 

• Mrs. Tran, Kevin's mum recommended that we choose a stock sauce from the asian market and then add fresh ingredients.
• We added a bunch of fresh ginger, sugar, green onions, and vinegar to Nuc Mam ( Fish sauce ) stock from ranch 99. We have since perfected the recipe and I will be posting the whole thing soon! 

Prepping the Fish Sauce!

Here is the batter, prepared with onions and garlic added. Just mix all the ingredients listed above in a bowl until it looks to have a thin consistency. I used a ladle to spoon in to a hot non-stick pan. It's important to use a non stick pan for all crepes because they are thin and easy to break. You'll get better results adding the batter to a hot pan and then sliding the crepe onto a plate. There is some elasticity due to the rice flour and eggs.

As you can see- we tried putting batter into one of my all-clad pans - this was a terrible idea. The non-stick on the left was perfect and made a HUGE crepe. I liked that there was a bit of a curve to the non-stick pan because the crepe is substantial and my smaller crepe pan would have not have cradled the delicious toppings we put inside.

Here you can see we added chopped white and green onions, shrimp ( pre-cooked ), soaked mung beans, and whatever else you might want to put in there!

• Similar to French crepes, wait until the batter starts to bubble and gets opaque ( instead of transparent ). 

• Take a plastic spatula and loosen the sides- using a spatula and a big spoon, fold the crepe over on itself. 
• Turn up the heat so that you get a nice golden crust on both sides of the crepe. 
• Slide out of the pan and drench with fresh fish sauce 
• Sprinkle with green onions 

Enjoy! 

Super Easy Salted Goat Milk Caramels

I decided to make these beauties because my boyfriend was trying to get through his law school finals and needed a boost of sugar to get him through the long nights of studying. Making some cute, wrapped, homemade goodies really brightened his day! You can also make them and put them into cute boxes as gifts for friends and family, or even wedding favors!

Candy isn't the easiest thing to make, so I wanted to make a recipe that anyone could follow. Here are my "Super Easy Salted Goat Milk Caramels". For those than can't find goats milk, or would prefer to cows milk, the recipe will turn out just fine. I haven't tried almond or soy milk, but I think that would be an interesting chemistry experiment to see if they behave in the same way.

My inspiration to use goat milk happened when I noticed that Trader Joe's carries goats milk - once I had that tangy, clover infused, milky gold - I HAD to put it into a caramel. I prefer a bit of crunch so I roll course grain salt into the inner section of the caramel to get that oh-so-divine salty/sweet combination.

What you'll need

• 2 cups Brown sugar
• 1 cup White sugar 
• 1 cup corn syrup
• 1.5 cup goats milk ( or milk of your choice ) 
• 1.5 cups heavy cream 
• 1.5 tbs vanilla
• 1/2 tbs salt ( fine grain) 
• Coarse grain salt to finish ( I ended up using Himalayan pink rock salt from Trader Joes )
• 1 cup butter
• 1 Vanilla bean ( optional - cut lengthwise and scrape out the insides!) 

1) Prep a pot on the stove, and a baking dish for for pouring the caramel. I like to line my  baking dish with parchment ( much easier than trying to butter the dish, faster cleanup! )

2) Combine the sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, goat's milk, heavy cream, and butter in the pot on the stove. Mixing this mixture and heating it evenly is important to make the candy work.You'll notice that the mixture goes from looking like a frothy delicious caramel sponge to a slightly darker, with less bubbles mixture ( I use this as a guide to know that the temp is starting to get close )

3) Watch the temperature of the mixture with a candy thermometer while stirring. When the thermometer reaches 247 degrees remove the pot from the heat. Add the vanilla and stir.
 
WARNING! Do not let the temperature exceed 250 degrees F. ( 120 C) This is ceiling for the "firm ball" stage when cooking sugar. If the candy goes over this temp you could have problems with forming your caramels.  Please be careful when working with hot sugar. It might not look hot, but it is!


3) Pour the mixture from your pot into the lined or buttered baking pan ( 12X15 works best ) 


4) I let the mixture cool for about 5-7 min and then cut the caramel into 1in X 1in pieces. The caramel will still be warm to the touch and slightly gooey. I sprinkle pieces of coarse grain salt on the pieces and then roll them into balls and wrap in parchment to keep them from sticking together. 


5) Unwrap and enjoy!!