Black Rice?? Yes – my new favorite thing!

I have recently discovered black rice. I saw it in a magazine and then found it in a local spice store. It is so tasty and made for a wonderful stir fry meal. I cooked the black rice like I would any rice – in my steamer. For the stir fry I made a new sauce:

1/4 cup rice vinegar

1 tbsp olive oil

juice of 2 limes

3 tbsp of soy sauce

3 tbsp of honey

2 tsp of sesame seeds

3 tbsp of Sriracha sauce

2 tbsp of peanut butter (you can omit this, but I was cooking for some sensitive pallets and the peanut butter cooled off the sauce a bit)

In a pan – stir fry broccoli until almost done – add shrimp and sauce when shrimp is done, toss in cooked black rice and heat  - serve immediately – it is WAY yummy.

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Tuna Steaks seared Himalayan Salt Block

 
I got a Himalayan salt block for my birthday so I decided to break it in on the person who gave it me by cooking their birthday dinner on the salt block.

This is not one of those things you can do on the spur of the moment. The block has to be heated up slowly starting at low heat and gradually increasing heat until it is hot enough to cook on – this took about 40 minutes for me. Once the block was hot it was just like cooking on anything else.

I marinated the tuna in honey, soy sauce, garlic and dijon mustard. Then I seared the tuna for about 4 minutes a side. The tuna tasted lightly salty, a nice accompaniment to the meatiness of the steaks.  Everyone was satisfied with the taste of the fish. I would do a couple of things differently next time, mainly adding a layer of aluminum foil under the stone. As you can see from the picture, the juices are just dripping off the side of the block. It made a pretty big mess on my stove, but I didn’t care – it was yummy!

 

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Pasta with roasted vegetables and shrimp

This is such an easy recipe and a real crowd-pleaser. Chop vegetables into bite sized pieces. I used zucchini, tomatoes, and onion. Preheat oven to 375 – and start a pot of water to boil for pasta. Put vegetables on a cookie sheet with garlic and olive oil. Roast vegetables for about twenty minutes. Add shrimp and feta or blue cheese and return to oven until the shrimp are done. Toss over pasta. I also added pesto to this and it was delicious.

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Shrimp and Fig Kebobs

This is probably the last of the fig fun for the season: what a short but glorious season it is. This was super simple. Skewer shrimp and figs on pre-soaked wooden skewers (so they don’t char) drizzle with honey and bleu cheese then bake at 350 until the shrimp are done. It really couldn’t be more simple. If you can get your hands on some fresh figs – do it!  It is an entirely different animal than the fig newton cookie (which I also love).

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Crab, Mango and Avacado Salad

Savannah summers can get pretty hot and steamy so this was a welcome alternative to having to cook and create heat in the kitchen.  I threw together this salad and it was delicious.

Mix together:

1 pound blue crab

3 avocados, cubed

1 mango, cubed

1 jalapeno

about 1/4 cup of lime juice

salt and pepper to taste.

 

 

 

 

 

 

I served this on a bed of fresh spinach with a bottle of pinot grigio. A tasty summer dinner!

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Catfish Tacos!

Despite the argument that catfish is inedible because they are bottom feeders and eat poo…I love it deep fried and in a taco. Soak catfish fillets in milk for about an hour – this will remove the “fishiness” and keep the fish moist. Cut the fillet into cubes. Coat in a mixture of flour, pepper, and old bay seasoning…deep fry. Serve with taco toppings. We had fresh avocado slices, greek yogurt, cheese, and salsa…Yummy!

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Blackened Mahi with Asparagus and Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes

This uses the same blackening spices and technique as the Tuna I posted about earlier. The aspargus is sauted with garlic, olive oil and balsamic vinegar. The potatoes are red potatoes – skin on – boiled until tender and then mashed with roasted garlic, milk, butter and cheese. Yum!

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Blackened Tuna with Red Quinoa

First let me apologize for being a bad blogger of late. It is not that I haven’t been cooking. My ever expanding waist line belies that theory. I have just been busy. We are all busy yes, but this busyness left me burned out for much of anything other than more busyness! That being said I will try to do better and catch up on some of the time I have missed.

This dinner was not that recent, but it is a favorite. Anytime I get a nice piece of fish it is a tough call as to how to prepare it. One of my favorite things to do with a meaty fish like tuna or mahi is to blacken it. I don’t have a standard blackening seasoning – I sort of wing it as I do with most of my cooking. In a bowl I mixed together about a tsp of salt; tbsp of black pepper; tsp of red pepper; 3 tbsp of old bay or similar seasoning; and about a tsp of paprika. Mix together well and then coat the outside of the fish with it. Put fish in a hot skillet (I would recommend turning on the exhaust fan as sometimes the blackening spices can catch you off guard).  Cook fish for about 4 minutes per side depending on thickness of the fillet.

I served mine along with steamed quinoa (cooked just rice) and fresh green beans also steamed and both lightly seasoned with sea salt.

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Mahi stir fry

Mahi stir fry

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

I had a bit of mahi left in my freezer and I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Once it was thawed I saw that the fillets were quite uneven so I decided it would cook more evenly if cubed than as a fillet. So in began this yummy stir fry. I marinated the fish in soy, honey, ginger and garlic. I then strung and chopped snow peas and tomatoes and then I set those aside – in the meantime I had my rice steaming away (2 cups cooked). I heated my stir fry pan, added a bit of olive oil and put in the vegetables. When they were about 2/3rds cooked, I added in the fish and the sauce. Cooked all until done. I went for presentation here so I packed the rice in a round bottom cup and put it in the center of the plate – normally I would just throw the rice into the stir fry, but I was feeling creative. All in all, this was delicious, though in my opinion the fish was a little salty – I think it could marinate for way less time as it absorbed the salt from the soy, but it still tasted delicious and I will definitely try it again. I seem to stir fry a lot more in the summer as it is a good way to use lots of vegetables together and it is super fast.

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Shrimp Curry stir fry

Shrimp Curry stir fry

Originally uploaded by lyricalmezzo

Okay – this is delicious and a very light, summery dish.

You’ll need one can of coconut milk (I used the low fat) and some red curry paste. Heat the coconut milk until it simmers and then add a tablespoon of red curry paste, a teaspoon of brown sugar and a couple of dashes of soy sauce. Let the sauce thicken a bit and then add your veggies. I used snow peas, shredded carrots, and broccoli. When the veggies are almost done, add in 1 pound of pealed shrimp and 2 cups of cooked rice. Simmer and stir in all ingredients until the shrimp is done. Top with chopped fresh basil.

The beauty of this meal is not only in the flavors, but you only need one pan to prepare the meal. This made three servings – so we had dinner and one left over for lunch.

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