Those leeks were sooooo good....!!

Every time I cook with leeks I wonder why I don't use it more. It is so flavorful, so delicious... I just wish it was a little less expensive though.
This recipe is ultra simple to put together and results in a very delicate and tasty dish. I got it from the book "Everyday Food: Great Food Fast", which I borrowed from the library and am seriously considering getting a copy for me, the recipes are easy to make and each of them comes with a nice picture, and I loooove cookbook with pictures!
This recipe turned out just as the picture, the only difference being I used Halibut instead of Cod (as the recipe asked for), as I just cannot stand cod in any form (fresh, salted, cured, etc).
The fish was moist and yummy, but the leeks were the very best part!! So good, next time I think will make just roasted leeks with tomatoes!! :o)
This dish was pretty to look at and had a "clean" taste, plus the leeks and tomatoes made a great combination with the white fish.
Feel free to sub your favorite fish in this recipe, I bet that for those who like it the cod would be good too.
Enjoy!
Ana

Halibut with Leeks and Tomatoes
(Adapted from Everyday Food: Great Food Fast - From The Kitchens of Martha Stewart Living)

2 leeks, thinly sliced, rinsed and patted dry
1 teaspoon grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon olive oil
3 sprigs fresh thyme, or 1 teaspoon dried
Salt and pepper
2 1/2 cups cherry tomatoes
4 halibut fillets

Preheat oven to 375F. In a baking dish mix together the leeks, lemon zest and juice, oil, thyme and salt and pepper to taste. Cover with foil and bake for about 8 to 10 minutes.
Remove dish from oven, add tomatoes and toss to combine. Season fish fillets with salt and pepper and place them on top of the vegetables. Cover the dish and bake for 15 to 20 minutes more.
Server 4.

Inspirations!

Lunch yesterday was inspired by two recipes I have seen and marked to try.
The first one was a vegetable couscous topped with zucchini ribbons that I once saw at my Cooking Light magazine! You can see the original recipe here.
I made couscous and used the ribbons idea, but nor I followed the recipe neither used the same ingredients. For my dish I used whole wheat couscous, chopped yellow bell peppers, tomatoes, and the pieces left from the zucchini when I could not manage to get more ribbons out of it (oh yes, no waste around my kitchen!). I sauteed the vegetables with olive oil, chopped onions and garlic, and added them to the couscous, which I simply mixed with boiling vegetable broth and let it sit covered for about 5 minutes before the broth was absorbed and I was able to fluff it up with a fork. To round the flavors up I added a tablespoon of butter and a few shakes grated Parmesan and incorporated it all.
This couscous was so delicious that it seemed we could not get enough of it. By the way, I think couscous is my new favorite, you can fix it up so many different ways, it tastes good, AND it takes about 5 minutes to make, you can't get much better than this!! I guess we will be turning into a couscous family around here!!! (Can't wait to try it in salad versions during summertime!)

The next dish I made was inspired by Fernanda's recipe for Halibut Supreme, that she posted here in Portugues, but that she actually got from this website, and it is in English version.
You will have to excuse my picture, as it was not as pretty as Fernanda's, but I have to say that the taste was delicious! We gobbled this up in no time and everyone enjoyed the flavor and yummy "meaty" texture of the Halibut.
For this one I omitted the bacon and used a layer of sliced onions on the bottom of the dish, which got very soft and created a delicious sauce underneath the fish, the Husband loved the sauce. And since I don't usually have sour cream in the house I used Greek yogurt in its place. I haven't tasted the sour cream version, but ours was good enough to be repeated this way!
Thanks Fernanda, for the yummy idea!










And finally, just to add a little more veggies into our plates and because I wanted to eat peas... I simply cooked some sweet green peas with mint for an extra flavor. I love the way mint compliments the pea flavor, it is so good! Next time I will chop up the leaves (I used them whole this time) so I can get more of a "minty" flavor to them. After cooking them in water I drained, added a tablespoon of butter and seasoned with salt. Simple but yummy!










It was a colorful and healthy meal we all enjoyed, pretty good, huh?!!
Ana!

Fish Cakes

After a few days with some sort of stomach virus acompanied of lots of nausea and absolutely no desire to eat, I started to feel better and yesterday went to get some fish in order to make a yummy looking recipe from Fernanda's blog Chucrute com Salsicha. The recipe called for halibut, but unfortunately they did not have any fresh ones at the market and I ended up coming back home with a few tilapia fillets instead.
I did get some fish, but it sure was not the one I wanted, so I decided to make something else and save Fernanda's recipe to make with halibut as soon as I can get my hands on some fresh and good looking fillets. (After getting the fish it seemed I wasn't actually in the mood for it, has it happened to you before?)
Since fish is very perishable I needed to find some good recipe to make with my fillets before the went bad. So, I went for a search and easilly found a recipe that will most definitely be repeated at our house.
Matheus has been asking me to make crab cakes (he has never had it, and neither have I), so I decided to look for something similar in order to satisfy his cravings in some way, even though there were no signs of crab meat near my house.
I found a recipe for Fish Cakes and decided to make it for our dinner today. What a happy choice it was!
The recipe is super easy to make and the end result were very nice and fluffy cakes with a subtle fish taste and delicious creaminess from the potatoes used in the dough.
Matheus loved the cakes, as did the husband, yep, it was a success!
I did cook my tilapia fillets in order to make these, but I believe this is a wonderfull recipe to use when you have leftovers fish around. I can see this being made with most kinds of white fishes, and even with salmon - which would probably give these a nice pinkish hue.
I may even try making these using crab meat instead of the fish, as I was very fond of the potatoes and the texture it provided, plus it doesn't have any mayonaise in it, which I absolutely cannot stand.
All in all a great recipe, nice and simple with great flavor to boot!
We had ours with some steamed carrots and ranch dressing or as Matheus calls it: "dipping sauce", oh, and Matheus had the idea of having some ketchup with it too. I know it may sound odd, but it did tasted good! :o) (not really gourmet as some tartar sauce would be, but not bad either!)
I made half of the recipe and got 6 nice sized cakes; I used Tilapia and red skinned potatoes on mine (cooking both in salted water to impart more flavor - to the fish water I also added the juice of half lemon), everything else was done per the recipe. By the way, this great idea came from the wonderfull blog Simply Recipes. Thanks Elise for another delicious recipe!!
Enjoy!
Ana

Fish Cakes
(Adapted from Elise's recipe at "Simply Recipes" food blog)

1 lb of white fish fillets
2 medium-sized baking potatoes (or 4 red or yellow potatoes)
1 cup bread crumbs
1/4 cup chopped fresh parsley
2 Tbsp freshly grated Parmesan cheese
2 garlic cloves, finely chopped
1 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon pepper
2 eggs, lightly beaten
Grapeseed oil, or other high smoke point oil such as canola oil, for frying

Boil and mash the potatoes, set them aside.
Boil the fish until it flakes easkly. Drain and flake the fish with a fork.
Mix the flaked fish, the potatoes and the rest of the ingredients together well by hand. If the mixture is too crumbly, add another egg. If too sticky, add more bread crumbs.
Form the mixture into cakes and fry them on medium high heat in a skillet coated with oil.
Makes 12 fish cakes. Serves 4-6.

Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia

This will be just a quick post before I come back here a little later with some pictures and recipes of my Christmas baking adventure this year!
Yes, since we didn’t travel to Brazil this time I ended up having more fun in the kitchen and baking some goodies to share with friends. Not much, but it was enough to keep me busy, and right now I am in the “rising process” of some Christmas Bread.
But these are for another post. Right now I want to leave you all with a quick and easy recipe that although quite simple is an extremely flavorful fish dish!
I made it once and we liked it sooo much that I didn’t even had time to photograph it, the boys were crazy about the fish so of course I ended up making it again. It is one of those simple things that when you make it makes you think “Why didn’t I think about that myself?!!!”.
It is a Rachel Ray recipe, a TV personality around here that most love but some hate. I don’t have a particular opinion about her, and although I don’t watch her show I have bought her magazine, which sometimes do come with some good recipes in it, this being a perfect example of it!
I served ours this time with some roasted veggies and spinach fettuccine. Hope you all like it too, and this is a good opportunity to try some recipe and at the same time keep our meals on the lighter side in between all those Christmas parties and gathering some of us have the pleasure to attend!
And I promise I will come back soon with some good recipes to share!
Ana

Parmesan-Crusted Tilapia
(Adapted from Rachel Ray Magazine)

¾ cups grated Parmesan cheese
1 teaspoon paprika
1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley
4 tilapia fillets
Salt and pepper to taste
Olive oil for drizzling

Preheat oven to 400º. Combine cheese, paprika, parsley, salt and pepper to taste in a plate or bowl. Drizzle fish with olive oil, dredge in cheese mixture. Place on a baking sheet lined with foil or parchment paper and bake for 10 to 12 minutes or until fish is done. Serve with lemon slices/wedges!

Tilapia Baked in Couscous

I have been posting so many sweets and baked goods that it doesn’t even look like I cook anymore. It is definitely not it, since I do cook our meals everyday, but I have mostly been making easy and simple things, and haven’t had many new recipes or pretty pictures to post here.
Last weekend though I tried a savory recipe that was worth mentioning here. I will begin saying that I really liked the method of preparation here, since it was easy, simple, and quite practical, as you basically have only one dish to clean. But I have to say that the flavors can definitely be improved.
We liked the combo of tilapia and couscous, plus the cooking method kept the fish really moist, which we all enjoyed a lot.
You basically lay the fish fillets on a baking dish and scatter the seasoned couscous on top of them, add a bit of water to the dish, cover up with foil, bake for 20 minutes, and voila! A nice and easy meal for those busy days that we all have, quite often I might say.
As I said, the fish was very moist, and the couscous perfectly cooked, nice and fluffy! However, the fish here absorbs some of the flavors that are sitting on top of it, so I think that the couscous could have been better seasoned. Cumin and lemon do go together well, as do fish and lemon too, but I still don’t think it was the best combination for my palate on that day. In a certain way it did complemented each other, and the dish was tasty too, but I guess I would like something different for the couscous. I was thinking about something like a “parmesan-type” flavoring, but am not sure it would go well with the fish.
Actually the flavors I have in mind seems to go better with chicken than with fish, so I am considering trying this method with chicken breasts… it might work, don’t you think?
Also, I think that the flavors would have benefited by the use of vegetable broth (or fish broth, it does exist, doesn’t it?) instead of water in the bottom of the dish. It would have added some seasoning to both the fish and the couscous.
See, I did like the method and the idea of this dish, and will certainly try it with the variations I have in mind. Meanwhile I will leave here the recipe for those who would like to try, as it was a very easy to make dish!
Oh, I just wanted to say that I found the quantity of the couscous to be a lot more than necessary for 4 people. I adapted the recipe for 3 fish fillets and used about 6 ounces of couscous, which did increased in volume quite a bit and basically took up a lot of space in the dish. You can barely see the fish in the picture, as it was literally covered up with the couscous. We had quite a bit of it leftover (and wasted, as it had the fish smell/taste to it, both which I don’t care much when reheated…) so you may feel free to adjust the amounts to suit your tastes and appetite!
Another thing is, I forgot to add the parsley to my finished dish, and only realized that after we were already eating the fish… so, my picture looks a lot paler than the one in the magazine, which was so bright and vibrant-looking. I was a little disappointed with that, but the dish tasted good, so I decided to let it go. But in case you want to see the major inspiration for me trying this dish, there is a nice picture here, and the original recipe, as I did change a few things on mine... mostly reducing the fat)
I served ours with stuffed squash and some baby roasted potatoes (the potatoes were not necessary here, but I had it in the pantry for a while and needed to use them up….), all of which I baked while preheating the oven/baking the fish, definitely a happy meal to us all!
Enjoy!
Ana

Tilapia Baked in Couscous
(Adapted from Rachel Ray Magazine)

10 ounces couscous
½ cup slivered almonds
¼ cup sun dried tomatoes, chopped
½ tablespoon ground cumin
Salt and pepper
3 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice
1 lemon thin sliced
4 (8oz) tilapia fillets
3 tablespoons chopped parsley

Preheat the oven to 375°. In a large bowl, combine the couscous, almonds, sun-dried tomatoes and cumin and season to taste with salt and pepper. Stir in the olive oil and the lemon juice.
Arrange the tilapia fillets in a single layer in a 9-by-13-inch baking dish, season with salt and pepper. Cover the fish with the couscous mixture and arrange the lemon slices on top. Pour 2 ½ cups water around the fish, cover with foil and bake until tender, about 25 minutes. Top with the parsley.

Grilled Salmon

Keeping with the grilling theme, our Sunday lunch was also prepared outside, or at least part of it. Besides being healthy, we all like fish here so I try to make it at least once a week. Usually I end up cooking white fish fillets (like tilapia, our favorite), but sometimes I do enjoy having salmon. We should probably have it more often though as it is such a healthy fish, but the husband is not very fond of it and unfortunately, and I don’t know why, my organism doesn’t seem to handle it very well. Every time I eat salmon it seems a little heavy on me and very hard to digest, but I do like salmon, so I keep trying.
Grilled Salmon with Mustard and Herbs is a great way to prepare salmon, we all loved it and I will definitely be using this cooking/grilling method more often, will definitely try with other fishes.
You simply put the fish on aluminum foil and slide it, foil and all, on top of the grill. Simple, no mess, easy clean up, and best of all: no fishy smell inside!! Yay! (I hate making salmon inside, the fish smell seems to penetrate all the pores in the house and I can smell it for days)
The herb/mustard mixture was delicious and did infuse the fish with its flavors; Matheus loved the fish and the husband said it was “herby and very good”, and I totally agreed with them!
I was afraid the mustard would overpower the flavors but it didn’t and its taste was very subtle, I might even increase the mustard amount a little next time I make it.
A very tasty dish, super healthy and good for you too!! Yum!
Ana

Grilled Salmon with Mustard & Herbs
2 lemons, thinly sliced, plus 1 lemon cut into wedges for garnish
20-30 sprigs mixed fresh herbs plus 2 tablespoons chopped, divided
1 clove garlic
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 pound center-cut salmon, skinned (see Tip)

Preheat grill to medium-high.
Lay two 9-inch pieces of heavy-duty foil on top of each other and place on a rimless baking sheet. Arrange lemon slices in two layers in the center of the foil. Spread herb sprigs over the lemons. With the side of a chef's knife, mash garlic with salt to form a paste. Transfer to a small dish and stir in mustard and the remaining 2 tablespoons chopped herbs. Spread the mixture over both sides of the salmon. Place the salmon on the herb sprigs.
Slide the foil and salmon off the baking sheet onto the grill without disturbing the salmon-lemon stack. Cover the grill; cook until the salmon is opaque in the center, 18 to 24 minutes. Wearing oven mitts, carefully transfer foil and salmon back onto the baking sheet. Cut the salmon into 4 portions and serve with lemon wedges (discard herb sprigs and lemon slices). Yields 4 servings.
Adapted from Eating Well magazine

Fish

I could keep posting ice cream recipes here for the rest of the week (believe me, I have tested many other recipes lately, gotta love ice cream!), but decided to post today a savory recipe to change the setting here a little. It is looking like I only make desserts!
With the hot weather I haven’t baked or cooked much, mostly we have been having cool salads, sandwiches and wraps, and pasta salads, after all, Matheus loves pasta, which makes it easy for me to cook for him!
And although I am big on salads, during the weekend we end up making some heartier food, as the husband is more of substantial eater and always have the need for some meat and rice as well.
One of the dishes we made recently and liked a lot was called Oven Poached Halibut Provencale. Sort of a fancy name, but easy to make and the end result was very tasty!
I used tilapia for the fish, but just because the halibut was not looking very good at the market and its price not a bit inspiring (more than double the price of the tilapia). With the fish exchange the recipe took a little less time to cook, which ended up being a good thing, making this a nice option for weekday meals.
The fish came out very moist and tender and the sauce was nice and good too. However, we could taste a very pronounced wine flavor; so feel free to reduce the amount of wine to suit your tastes. Oh, and next time I might add some capers to either the sauce or the breadcrumb mixture, as I think it would complement nicely the overall flavor of the dish.
Ana

Oven Poached “Tilapia” Provencale (adapted from Cooking Light)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 garlic clove, minced
3/4 cups chopped onion
2 cups diced tomato
2 tablespoons chopped fresh basil
2 tablespoons chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley
3 tilapia fillets (or white fish of choice)
½ cup white wine
3 tablespoons dry breadcrumbs
1 tablespoon chopped pitted kalamata olives
1/2 teaspoon dried herbes de Provence
1/2 teaspoon olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste
Fresh flat-leaf parsley sprigs (optional)

Preheat oven to 450°.
Sautee the garlic with olive oil in a skillet; add onion and sauté until lightly browned. Add diced tomato and salt and pepper to taste; cook 2 minutes. Remove from heat; stir in basil and parsley.
Spoon half of tomato mixture into a square baking dish; place fillets over tomato mixture. Pour wine into dish; sprinkle fillets with salt and pepper. Spoon remaining tomato mixture over fillets. Bake at 450° for 8 to 10 minutes or until fish flakes easily when tested with a fork or until desired degree of doneness.
Preheat broiler.
Combine the breadcrumbs, olives, herbes de Provence, 1/2 teaspoon oil, ¼ teaspoon pepper, and 1/4 teaspoon salt in a small bowl. Sprinkle breadcrumb mixture over fillets. Broil 2 to 3 minutes or until lightly browned. Serve immediately. Garnish with parsley sprigs, if desired.
3 servings

Yummy Fish!!

Although I haven’t been making new recipes lately, I should still come here and post more often. I really enjoy reading the other food blogs, learning new recipes and techniques and seeing their pictures, it is so much fun!
I took a few pictures last week but never got the time to sit down and post it. But I am back now!
Today I made a pretty nice meal for our lunch. I baked some Fish en Papillote, not a real recipe, and it turned out delicious!!
I seasoned two tilapia fillets with salt, pepper and olive oil. Put on top of a big piece of parchment paper, added some sliced tomatoes, onions, a few parsley sprigs (I love basil on this, but did not have any fresh today), seasoned with a little more salt, a sprinkle of paprika and garlic powder. Added about ¼ cup chicken broth to the packet (I like to use white wine here, but did not want to open a big bottle for this little amount), closed the parchment, and popped into the oven (425) for 20 minutes.
It could not have been any simpler and the flavors were just so good! I served with Balsamic Roasted Asparagus, which was extremely delicious and also super easy to make! The asparagus and the fish cooked at the same time (the asparagus went in the oven after the fish had been cooking for 10 minutes), and we had a tasty lunch, all rounded up with brown rice and some leftover beans (rice & beans, Brazilian style!).
Not only easy and tasty, but also very healthy! I should get into the habit of cooking fish more often!
Come back later, as I will post some pictures and recipes from what I cooked last week!

Ana

Balsamic Roasted Asparagus
1 pound asparagus
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon bottled minced garlic
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

Preheat oven to 425°.
Snap off tough ends of asparagus. Place in a jelly-roll pan. Drizzle with olive oil and vinegar; sprinkle with salt, garlic, and pepper, tossing to coat. Bake at 425° for 10 minutes, turning once.
Yield: 4 servings
Cooking Light, January 2006