I actually made this dish during Mardi Gras week but am only just now getting around to blog about it. It was Cajun inspired and thrown together at the last minute for a quick meal. This has some sliced chicken sausuage, red kidney beans, carrots, onions and garlic. I flavored it with some Old Bay seasoning and red chili powder. Some tomato paste and chicken broth helped create a wonderfully flavorful sauce to cook everything in.
Chicken sausage and beans
March 12, 2009 by 3 Comments
Tofu and eggplant stir fry
March 11, 2009 by 2 Comments
If I may say so, this stir fry was absolutely fantastic! I love the slender Asian eggplant and it was perfect paired with tofu.
Here you can see my pan cubed tofu. I first threw in chopped garlic and ginger into the pan. That was followed by the tofu which I seasoned with a little soy sauce and some of that wonderful chili flakes in oil. You can see what half a teaspoon of it does to color this dish.
I stir fried the tofu on high heat until it was browned on all sides. This was removed from the pan and set aside.
Into the pan, still with the flavored oil from frying the tofu, I added more chopped garlic and ginger, onions and that delicious Asian eggplant.
The eggplant was fried until it began to get tender. The tofu was added back to the dish and it was seasoned with some sesame oil and soy sauce. One last thing I added was a teaspoon of Szechuan black bean and garlic paste. Oh, what a flavor! I was pleased with how the sauce clung to the food and not the pan! I definitely have to make this again.
Chicken and vegetable stir fry
March 10, 2009 by 2 Comments
Another stir fry with chicken breast this time. I flavored it with garlic chili paste and used carrots, bean sprouts and napa cabbage. Perfect over a bowl of sticky Korean rice!
Quick vegetable stir fry
March 9, 2009 by 1 Comment
Hang on to your hats because I’m going to be posting some stir fries over the next couple of days. The are so easy to prepare and with just a few simple ingredients you have a quick and delicious meal. Let’s start off with a simple vegetarian stir fry.
I used bok choy, carrots, celery, onions and bean sprouts for this dish. Many times I flavor my stir fries with some red chili flakes in oil from the Asian market. I like the brands from Szechuan. I start with a hot pan and add some oil. I drop in a bit of the chili in oil or sometimes a garlic chili paste along with some chopped garlic and chopped ginger. These vegetables all cook pretty much the same so I tossed them all in together.
I can even toss them! When the vegetables were just starting to wilt I splashed in some soy sauce and rice vinegar for seasoning and that’s all! Simple and tasty.
Salmon with red miso
March 8, 2009 by 1 Comment
On the island of Hokkaido, in Japan, they make a simple and tasty salmon dish by flavoring it with miso paste and mirin and cooking it in foil with cabbage and onions. At least I knew a student from Hokkaido who prepared it that way, and it was delicious! My dish is nothing like the tasty original I had before but it does bring back my memories of that succulent fish.
I didn’t have any cabbage on hand but I did have plenty of onions. I sliced one up into good sized rings and layed it out on a sheet of heavy foil. I seasoned them with salt and pepper.
I took a whole salmon filet and marinated it with a mixture of red miso paste, mirin (a sweet Japanese cooking wine), a tiny bit of soy sauce and a splash of sesame oil. More onions were placed on top.
The salmon and onions were wrapped up tight in foil and cooked simply on a hot griddle. I cooked it from start to finish in about 20 minutes – until I saw steam coming out of the foil at a good rate and it felt hot all the way around.
Here’s what it looked like when I opened it up. I wish it had the same dark color that it had before I cooked it but it was tasty never the less.
