38 Power Foods, Week 36 -- Rainbow Trout -- Pan-Fried Trout Brunch with Red Pepper-Zucchini Potatoes and Fried Eggs

 

Skip the quiche this Easter and fry up a tasty rainbow trout to go with your eggs and a big platter of potatoes with peppers and zucchini. While this is a lovely and not too time-consuming brunch (no do-aheads), it necessitates planning and ... well ...and doing things in approximately the order (see below), as fish waits for no one.  

Servings:   One fish will serve two people generously.  There's plenty of Avocado-Basil Mayonnaise and potatoes for four. If you do have four, you'll need to buy two trout and cook one, putting it in the warming oven while you cook the second.   Alternately, each of the four of you could have a small serving of the single trout.  With the eggs, it's a filling meal.

       

38 Power Foods, Week 3 -- Avocado-- Chicken-Guacamole Salad

                                                        Chicken-Guacamole Salad with a Big Squeeze of Fresh Lime... 

If you live in the part of world where it's summer, this is your dinner.  Because it's just too hot to cook nearly anything.  Grill up a few chicken breasts at a time and you'll have plenty for this meal and tomorrow's, too.  (Chicken tacos?  Chicken salad sandwiches?)  This guacamole couldn't be better or easier:  chop up a simple pico de gallo and stir it into avocados.  Some cut-up or sliced chicken, greens, some lime?  You're already eating.   Buy your avocados a couple of days ahead and let them ripen on the counter or in a paper bag if your grocery doesn't carry ripe avocados.   Try this:

 
chicken-guacamole salad                             3-4 servings

• 1/2 c fresh cilantro, chopped roughly, divided
• 1/2 c fresh green pepper, chopped in 1/2" pieces
• 1/4 c red sweet pepper, chopped in 1/2 " pieces
• 1/2 jalapeño, minus seeds and veins, very finely minced (for more heat, use the whole pepper)
• 1/4 c red onion, minced
• 1 c tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 2 ripe avocados,  peeled, seeded, and roughly chopped
• 1 c cooked rice seasoned with a light sprinkle of salt and pepper
• Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
• 1 Lime, cut in half  (Cut one of the halves into slices)
• 2 chicken breasts, grilled and chopped
• 2 c baby spinach leaves
• 1/2c sharp cheddar grated

Mix cilantro through tomatoes in a large bowl, reserving 2 T cilantro.  Stir in avocados.   Mix the reserved 2 T cilantro into the cooked rice and add the rice to the guacamole salad. Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning. Squeeze half of the lime over the salad. Add chopped chicken breasts and spinach and stir gently. Sprinkle with cheese. Serve mounded, with a piece of lime on each plate to use at table.

Cook's Notes: Don't even have the energy to chop, stir, or cook?  Buy a roasted deli chicken and pre-made guac for an even easier meal.  Many shops now sell freshly-made pico de gallo or salsa.  The packages of microwave rice would work well for this dinner and would cut both time and kitchen heat.

Wine?  Not.  It's time for a margarita or a beer.  (Ok,  Sangria,  Riesling or an Oregon Pinot Blanc if you have to have wine.) 

Dessert?  Lemon sorbet. 

Fried Cheese-Snake Squash Salad or I'm Sure This Has a Better Name

 Last Friday night was a use-what's-on-hand night:

• The first of the Minnesota corn (very tiny kernels, but yummy)
• One of the pork tenderloins I'd gotten on sale at Kowalski's (froze 4 of them in April)
• Salad makings that wouldn't be good the next day. I sautéed the greens with garlic and lots of fresh herbs:

My own garden herbs:  marjoram, sage, chives, tarragon, basil, and thyme.

I added raisins and chopped cashews to the sautéed greens.

The first of our tomatoes went in at the end.

 Despite heat and humidity that all Minnesota is ready to get rid of, we ate outdoors under our big maple tree that reaches toward the house and garage, creating a canopy to cover the patio.  That soft, shady spot is often the coolest place anywhere and you can bet I've looked.  Along with everyone else on Wheeler Street.

Next night, a quick look-see in the frig assured me I had enough to throw together some sort of salad as I had a snake squash (can't find right name) from my victory garden neighbor:

Tastes like a cross between a mild zucchini and yellow (summer) squash.

Some asparagus (now out of season, but still my favorite) was sagging in there and a little bit of the pork tenderloin called me.  What really appealed was the rest of my fresh cheese (blogged at Dinner Place), which I knew would fry.   Could there be anything bad about fried cheese?
 

Alyce's 2-1 cheese

 What about a salad of greens, sautéed squash and asparagus, with avocado, blueberries, and thinly sliced pork tenderloin topped with fried cheese?  With a perky, ramped up orange vinaigrette?  I was sold.  Moral of story:  make up your salad as you go along.

I cooked the squash and asparagus in a bit of oil, salt and pepper, and set that aside.

Sliced up my avocado.  Creamy and fatty, it would be a good foil for my spicy greens.

Blueberries for color, texture, contrast of taste, and sweetness.

About 3-4 oz cooked pork tenderloin--or how much of whatever meat you have.

My homemade cheese fried in olive oil and black pepper.  Dave was so excited.

Et voila--

 Fried Cheese Snake Squash Salad with Orange Vinaigrette

MAKE YOUR VINAIGRETTE FIRST:

Place the following ingredients in a small jam jar, close tightly with lid, and shake well until emulsified. I like to do this to "America" from West Side Story:  Shake to this rhythm..123,123, 1--2--3--. (Thanks, Leonard Bernstein.) Set aside while you make the salad.

• 1T fresh orange juice
• 1/4t kosher salt
• 1/8 t freshly ground pepper
• pinch crushed red pepper
• 1/2 t honey
• 1/2-1 t minced shallot (or garlic)
• 2T extra virgin olive oil.

MAKE THE SALAD:

•  2 T olive oil, divided
• 1 cup each:  sliced zucchini (or snake or summer squash) and  chopped asparagus (or green beans)
• Kernels from 1 ear of fresh cooked corn (you can cook it in unshucked in the microwave.)
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted, and sliced
• 6-8 cups baby greens, your choice
• 1/4 cup fresh herbs of your choice, optional
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/4 cup toasted walnuts chopped
• 2-4 ounces sliced, cooked pork tenderloin, steak or chicken
• 2T fresh lemon juice
• Kosher salt and Freshly ground pepper
• 6-8 small pieces fresh cheese
• Orange vinaigrette (above)

1. In a large skillet, sauté squash and asparagus in oil over medium heat for five minutes.  Dust with salt and pepper.
2. Remove veggies from pan and place in a large bowl.  (Keep pan out; you'll use it for the cheese)
3. To the squash and asparagus, add the corn, chopped avocado, blueberries, walnuts and pork, keeping the ingredients at the center of the bowl.
4. Around the pile of veggies and meat, place the salad greens and fresh herbs.
5. Set aside or in refrigerator.
6. In the skillet, pour another tablespoon of olive oil and heat over medium heat once more. Grind some black pepper into the oil as the pan heats.  Place the cheese slices in the pan and cook a few minutes or until nicely browned.  Turn carefully with a spatula and let the other side brown.
7. Take the salad and drizzle with the lemon juice.  Dust the whole thing with some salt and pepper.  
8. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and top with the browned cheese. 
9. Eat immediately.  Won't keep.
10. Take downstairs and watch movies.   

Wine:  The Wine Thief  (2 doors west of me on St. Clair)  has a lovely, palepalepale rosé called "Whispering Angel.  Drink it.

  

Two-Dog Kitchen and Around the 'Hood

Fern garden.

On the wall ladies' room in restaurant The Angry Trout

In our south garden

Heavy, heavy hydrangeas after rain-- next to drive

As my mom would say, "Morning, Glory."

This incredible flower showed up in my corner garden yesterday.
My pharmacist's assistant tells me this is a perennial hibiscus.

I've been making blueberry jam, actually blueberry-orange conserve.

Miss Gab

Tucky-Bucky

Hot and muggy.  Lots of storms and rain.  Tomatoes are coming. The first ones weren't so good.  Wonder if it's like pancakes--throw out the first ones?

Sing a new song; enjoy August,
Alyce

Help, It's September or Make These Two Great Grilled Chicken Salads

Greek Grilled Chicken Salad.  Sweet, indeed, with a little Beaujolais.  Ok, Ok, get Greek wine if you must.

I hate hot weather.  I can't say it any other way.  I'm  a 56 year-old post-menopausal woman who starts dreading summer and reading the morning temperatures in March every year.   By April, I'm beginning to tear up.  Soon,  the air conditioning is on as low and for as long as I can afford the bill.  I don't care if I have to put on covers at night.  This is my life, for goodness' sake.  And I cannot bake in the summer.  My oven stays off for three months (except for Dave's birthday, when I get up at 5 to bake a NY cheesecake.)  Who made summer? I AM A BAKER.

On the other hand.  I adore summer fruit, salads, grilling, putting up jam (with the AC on ohdarklowly), eating outdoors (which we do every night unless it's storming).  I lovingly plant, fertilize, water, water, water, water (for 90 days unless it snows first) my tomatoes.  I stand outside and curse the squirrels who chew the ripe ones before I can run out and rescue them. (the tomatoes, not the squirrels)  My herb garden is touched daily, and I now have one permanent bedded garden as well as my portable winter herb garden that makes its way to the front porch to blossom and grow in the sun all summer.  When I travel, the potted herbs are all moved to where the sprinkler system can water them.  Baseball?  Hot dogs?  These are my things, too.   (Actually they're Daves, but, hey, I'm a CUBS fan.)   Making ice cream?  Of course.  Porch wine with the neighbors.  Natch.  (Strawberry margaritas tomorrow night in honor of the waning light..)  The hot tub on cool summer nights overlooking the city? 

Of course, I'm blessed.  But, by God, I can't stand the heat and that's why I should and do get out of the kitchen.  I'm a slave to chopping vegetables, spinning up vinaigrette, finding new summer dry roses or whites, and asking Dave what he wants to grill.  Eating after 7pm OUTSIDE in the breeze.  To that end, I sometimes am not as creative as I long to be in summer.  So I decided to fix that.  Witness these two scrumpt salads.  Hard?  No?  Truly original?  As far as I know, they are.  But, in food, as in life, nothing is original under the sun. 

My goal was simple:  Make a few 2DI4 salads using grilled, boneless chicken breasts and not too many other ingredients to create meals that could be put together during the week after making a big batch of the breasts over the weekend.  Did they fill the bill?  You decide.  I'm making them and eating them forever.  Hey, you can also just pull meat from rotisserie chicken from the store.  Or make whole breasts with skin in the oven.  (Brush with olive oil and thoroughly dust with salt and pepper.  Bake at 350 F for 45 min.)

Here  are a couple out of the ones I tried:  Greek Grilled Chicken Salad and Chicken Guac Salad

Greek Grilled Chicken  after waiting for its closeup...topped with fresh basil from my garden.

Chicken Guac Salad with a Big Squeeze of Fresh Lime...  Kinda like a margarita to eat.

The recipes:

Greek Grilled Chicken Salad 4 servings
1 English cucumber, chopped into 1/2" chunks

1/2 large green sweet pepper, same drill

2 large tomatoes, ditto

6-8 oz bulk feta cheese, drained well, cut into 1/2" chunks

2 grilled chicken breasts, cut into 1/2" chunks

1/2 c pitted kalamata olives

1/4 c red onion, sliced as thinly as you can slice it

1 c shredded lettuce or greens

2T chiffonade basil (fresh basil very thinly sliced or julienne)

2T dried oregano

Kosher salt and pepper

1/4 t crushed red pepper, optional

1 lemon, cut in half

Dressing (In a jar, shake well 3T olive oil with 1T red wine vinegar and a pinch each of salt and pepper)

Mix cucumber through lettuce in your big bowl, but be kind and just barely toss it together. You don't want things to mush up. Top with dried oregano, and a dusting of kosher salt and maybe 1/2 t freshly ground pepper. Add the crushed red pepper if desired. Toss gently. Squeeze fresh lemon over all and toss again.  Drizzle dressing over all and toss a bit more. Garnish with fresh basil. (Note: be careful with all salt additions to this salad; the feta and the olives are already salty.)

Chicken Guac Salad  3-4 servings

1/2 c fresh cilantro, chopped roughly, divided
1/2 c fresh green pepper, chopped in 1/3-1/2" pieces
1/4 c red sweet pepper, chopped in 1/3-1/2 " pieces
1-2 t jalapeno, very finely minced (to taste)
1/4 c red onion, minced
 1 c tomatoes, roughly chopped
2 ripe avocados, roughly chopped
1 c cooked rice
Kosher salt, freshly ground pepper
1 Lime, cut in half,  and the other half cut in half again
2 chicken breasts, grilled and chopped
2 c baby spinach leaves
1/2c sharp cheddar grated

Mix cilantro through tomatoes, reserving 2 T cilantro.  Mix that reserved 2 T cilantro into the cooked rice and add to the salad.  Season with salt and pepper. Taste and adjust seasoning.  Squeeze half of the lime over the salad.  Add chopped chicken breasts and spinach and stir gently.  Sprinkle with cheese.  Serve mounded, with a piece of lime on each plate to use at table.

Two-Dog (and cat) Kitchen and Around the Hood and Life

Emily--at home to rest! between semesters.

                            Gabby:  Are you gonna eat that?

                               Skippy grows up a little.

Mom snaps a quick pic while we go to Briarhurst Manor for a Murder Mystery Dinner....

Getting closer...

Blog to come:  Minute Marinara.  Looks good, huh?

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In Memoriam... My friend Max...